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INTRODUCTION TO CHARLOCK'S WORKS.

I. HIS LIFE.

The memorials of the life of Charnock are much scantier than those who have profited by his writings, or who are interested in the history of the time, could wish. We have some notices of him in the sermon preached at his funeral by his ' bosom friend' Mr Johnson; a vague general account of him in an epistle ' To the Keader,' prefixed by Mr Adams and Mr Veal, the editors, to his ' Discourse of Divine Providence,' published shortly after his death; a brief life of him by Calamy in his 1 Account of the Ejected and Silenced ;' his collegiate positions detailed by Wood in his Athena Oxonienses and Fasti; and this is all the original matter that we have been able to discover regarding the author of the great work ' On the Attributes.' Mr Johnson says, ■ he heard a narrative of his life would be drawn up by an able hand;' and Calamy mentions that Memoirs of Mr Steph. Charnock were written by Mr John Gunter, his ' chamber-fellow' at Oxford ; but of these we have not been able to find any trace. We have made researches in London, in Cambridge, and in Dublin, without being rewarded by the discovery of many new facts, not given by the original authorities. All that we have aimed at in the following Memoir is to combine the scattered accounts of him, to allot the incidents the proper place in his life and in the general history of the times, and thus to furnish, if not a full, yet a faithful, picture of the man and his work.*

Stephen Charnock was born in the parish of Saint Catherine Cree (or Creechurch), London, in the year 1628. He was the son of Mr Eichard Charnock, a solicitor, who was descended from an ancient Lancashire family, the Charnocks of Charnock. We have no account of his childish or boyish years, or of his training in the family. But we know what was the spirit that reigned around him among the great body of the middle classes

* The writer is under deep obligations to the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart, Kinross ; the Eev. Dr Halley, New College, London; Joshua Wilson, Esq., Tunbridge Wells; and Charles Henry Cooper, Esq., author of the Annals of Cambridge, for directing him in his researches.

in the best parts of the metropolis. An awe sat upon their minds in consequence of the great national collisions w T hich were impending or had commenced ; public sports were discouraged, as agreeing not with 'public calamities,' and the Lord's day-was observed with great strictness. The churches were crowded with earnest hearers, and ' religious exercises were set up in private families, as reading the Scriptures, family prayer, repeating sermons, and singing psalms, which were so universal in the city of London, that you might walk the streets on the evening of the Lord's day without seeing an idle person, or hearing anything but the voice of prayer or praise from churches or private houses.'*

In those times students entered college at a much earlier age than they now do, and had their university career over in sufficient time to enable them to enter when yet young on their several professional employments, Stephen was matriculated as a sizar at Cambridge July 8, 1642. Whether by the design of his father, or by the leadings of providential circumstances, we have no means of knowing, but young Charnock was sent to Emmanuel, the ' Puritan College,' so called, it is said, from a conversation between Queen Elizabeth and its founder, Sir Walter Mildmay. ' Sir Walter,' said the Queen, ' I hear you have erected a puritan foundation at Cambridge.' ' Madam,' said Sir Walter, ' far be it from me to countenance anything contrary to your Majesty's established law r s ; but I have set an acorn which, when it becomes an oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof.' In 1641, it had 204 students attending, standing next to St John's and Trinity in respect of numbers ;t and occupying a still higher place in respect of the eminence of its pupils. ' Sure I am,' says Fuller, ' it has overwhelmed all the university, more than a moiety of the present masters of colleges having been bred therein. 1

Charnock entering in 1642, is proceeding B.A. in 1645-6, and commencing M.A. in 1649. We have no difficulty in apprehending the spirit which reigned in Cambridge when lie began his college life. The J Reformation struggle was over, and earnest men saw that the Reformed Cliureh, with its worldly, often immoral and ill-educated, clergy, and its ignorant people, was yet very far from coming up to the pattern which Christ

was supposed to have shewn to his apostles. Two manner of

spirits had sprung up and were contending with each other. Bach had an id* a,l, and was labouring to bring the church into aeeordaiH-e with it. The one looked to the written word, and was seeking to draw forth, syslemat i/,e, and exhibit its truths; the other looked more to the chun di, and was striving to display its visible unity before the world, that men's looks and hearts might be attracted towards it. The one was internal, personal,

puritan, anxious to keep up the connection between the church

and its Head, and between the members of the church in and

• N< aJ'« History of tlir /'urituiis, I64& f Oooptr'l Annals of Cambridge, 1011.

through Christ; the other was external, ecclesiastical, priestly, seeking to retain the connection of the Church of England with the church of the past and the church universal, and to organize it into a powerful hody, which might put down all error and all schism, and mould the whole institutions and sentiments of the country.

Every public event of interest, and every collegiate influence, must have tended to press religious questions upon the attention of the student at the time when his character was being formed. The Thirty Years' War, which had begun in 1618, was dragging its weary length along, and was essentially a religious conflict which the continental nations were seeking to settle by arms and by policy. The colonies of Plymouth and Massachussets, Connecticut and Newhaven, had been founded in the far west, and Herbert had sung, in a sense of his own,

" Eeligion stands a tiptoe in our land, Heady to pass to the American strand."

In 1641, the three kingdoms had been moved by the reports of the popish massacres in Ireland, in which it was said two hundred thousand protestants were put to death. In 1642, Charles had made his attempt to seize the ' five members/ and soon after the civil war began, and the king had rather the worst of it at the battle of Edge Hill. By the autumn it was ordained that the prelatic form of government should be abolished from and after November 5. 1643 ; and it was farther resolved that an assembly of divines should be called to settle the intended reformation, which assembly actually met at Westminster in July 1643, and continued its sittings for five years and a half.

In Cambridge, the feeling has risen to a white heat, and is ready to burst into a consuming flame. For years past there had been a contest between those who were for modelling the colleges after the ecclesiastical, and those who wished to fashion them after the puritan type. In a paper drawn up in the university in 1636, and endorsed by Laud as ' Certain disorders in Cambridge to be considered in my visitation,' there is a complaint that the order as to vestments is not attended to; that the undergraduates wear new-fashioned gowns of any colour whatsoever, and that their other garments are light and gay; that upon Fridays and all fasting days, the victualling houses prepare flesh for all scholars and others that will come and send to them, and that many prefer their own invented and unapproved prayers before all the liturgy of the church. When the report comes to Emmanuel, it says, ' Their Chappel is not consecrate. At surplice prayers they sing nothing but certain riming psalms of their own appointment, instead of Hymnes between the Lessons. And Lessons they read not after the order appointed in the Cal-lendar, but after another continued course of their own,' &c. But by 1643 the complaint takes an entirely different turn; and an ordinance of both houses of parliament is made, directing

that in all churches and chapels, all altars and tables of stone shall be taken away and demolished ; that all communion tables shall be removed from the east end of the churches; that all crucifixes, crosses, images, and pictures of any one or more persons of the Trinity, or of the Virgin Mary, and all other images and pictures of saints or superstitious inscriptions in churches or chapels shall be taken away or defaced.' One William Downing puts this order in execution, and at Queen's he beats down one hundred superstitious pictures; but when he comes to Emmanuel, ' there is nothing to be done.' These scenes must have fallen under the notice of the boy Charnock during the first year of his collegiate life. More startling sounds still must have reached the ears of the young student. Oliver Cromwell, who had been elected one of the burgesses of the town in 1640, has a close and intimate connection with the inhabitants; and in 1642 he is sending down arms to the county; the Parliament has committed the care of the town to him, the mayor, and three aldermen, who raise and exercise trained bands and volunteers ; and he seizes a portion of the plate which the colleges are sending to the king. By the beginning of the following year, Cromwell has taken the magazine in the castle, the town is fortified, and a large body of armed men are in the place; the colleges are being beset and broken open, and guards thrust into them, sometimes at midnight, w T hilst the scholars are asleep in their beds, and multitudes of soldiers are quartered in them. By this time Holdsworth, the Master of Emmanuel, is in custody, and Dr Beale, Master of St John's, Dr Martin, President of Queen's College, and Dr Sterne, Master of Jesus, are sent up to parliament as prisoners.* In 1644, the royalists are ejected, and their places supplied by friends of the parliament.

At the time young Charnock entered, the sentiment of the members of the university was very much divided. Even in Emmanuel the opinion was not altogether puritan. The tutor from whom Charnock received his chief instruction was Mr W. Sancroft (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury), who was attached to the royalist cause, and had joined in the congratulatory addresses to the king OH his return from Scotland in 1641. I>r Holdsworth, who was Master of Emmanuel when Charnock entered, was appointed by the Lords, and approved by the Commons, afl One of the divines to sit at Westminster; but he never attended, and in 1648 he was imprisoned, and in the

following year ejected. The spirit of Emmanuel had been all along reforming and parliamentary, and after the ejectments all ill.- colleges became so. Dr Anthony Tnokney, who succeeded Holdsworth in the Mastership of Kmmanuel, was an active member Of the Westminster Assembly, and 'had a. considerable band/ Bays Calamy, 'in the preparation of the Confession and Catechisms.' I»r Arrowsmith, made Master o\' St * ThotC facts are- gathered out of Cooper's AmiaU of Ciimbruljc, vol. iii. ID t'J-4.

John's, and Dr Hill, appointed Master of Trinity, were of the same puritan spirit. Cudworth, Culverwel, and Whichcote, who had all been connected with Emmanuel, and held places in the university after the ejection, could scarcely be described as of the puritan type, but they were opposed to the policy which the king had been pursuing, and the ecclesiastical system which Laud intended to set up. In the university and the town, the popular preaching was decidedly evangelical and Calvinistic. In particular, Dr Samuel Hammond preached in St Giles 'with such pious zeal, liveliness, and Christian experience, that his ministry was attended by persons from all parts of the town and the most distant colleges; and it was crowned with the conversion of some scores (Mr Stancliff says some hundreds) of scholars. It was generally allowed that there was not a more successful minister in Cambridge since the time of Perkins.'*

This state of things, the conflicts of the time, the talk of the tutors and students, the earnest preaching in the churches, the spiritual struggles in many a bosom, and the necessity for understanding the questions at issue, and coming to a decision with its life consequences, all these must have tended to press religion on the personal attention of so earnest a youth as Charnock was. Without any living faith when he came to Cambridge, he was there led to search and pray; he was for a time in darkness, and beset with fears and temptations, but he got light and direction from above, and he devoted himself to God for life. He subsequently wrote out a paper explaining the way by which he was led, and declaring his dedication, but it perished in the great fire of London. Mr Johnson met him in 1644; and in the sermon which he delivered at his funeral, represents him * as venerable and grave, like an aged person from his youth,' and gives the following account of his conversion and his Cambridge life:— * The deed of gift, or rather copy of it, which shewed his title to heaven, I believe perished with his books in London's flames, and I have forgot the particular places of Scripture by which he was most wrought upon, and which were there inserted.' ' He would deeply search into and prove all things, and allow only what he found pure and excellent.' ' In this I had him in my heart at my first acquaintanceship with him in Cambridge thirty-six years since. I found him one that, Jonah-like, had turned to the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might, and none like him; which did more endear him to me. How had he hid the word of God in a fertile soil, "in a good and honest heart," which made him "flee youthful lusts," and antidoted him against the infection of youthful vanities. His study was his recreation; the law of God was his delight. Had he it not, think ye, engraven in his heart? He was as choice, circumspect, and prudent in his election of society, as of books, to converse with ; all his delight being in such as excelled in the divine art of directing, furthering, and quickening him in the * Calamy's ' Account of Ejected,' Art. Samuel Hammond.

way to heaven, the love of Christ and souls. Most choice he was of the ministers that he w T ould hear; what he learned from books, converse, or sermons, that which affected and wrought most upon him he prayed over till he was delivered into the form of it, and had Christ, grace, and the Spirit formed in him. True, he had been in darkness, and then he said full of doubt-ings, fears, and grievously pestered with temptations. How oft have we found him (as if he had lately been with Paul caught up into the third heavens, and heard unspeakable w r ords) magnifying and adoring the mercy, love, and goodness of God.'

We know from general sources what was the course of secular instruction imparted in the colleges at this time. Aristotle still ruled, though no longer with an undisputed sway, in the lessons of the tutors. There is an account left by a pupil, Sir Simonds D' Ewes, of the books prescribed by Dr Holdsworth in 1618-19, when he was a tutor in St John's, and probably there was not much difference in Emmanuel when he became master: 'We went over all Seton's Logic exactly, and part of Keckerman and Molinaeus. Of ethics or moral philosophy, he read to me Gelius and part of Pickolomineus ; of physics, part of Magirus ; and of history, part of Fionas.' ' I spent the next month (April 1619) very laboriously in the perusal of Aristotle's physics, ethics, and politics ; and I read logic out of several authors.' * But for an ago or two there had been a strong reaction against Aristotle on the part of the more promising pupils. Bacon had left Trinity College in the previous century with a profound dissatisfaction with the scholastic studies, and already cogitating those grand views which he gave to the world in his Nor urn Organum (1620), as to the importance of looking to things instead of notions and words. Milton, in his College Exercises (1625 to 1682), had in his own grandiose style, and by help of mythological fable, given expression to his discontent with the narrow technical method followed, and to his breathings after some undefined improvement.! Tin 1 predominant philosophic spirit in Cambridge prior to the Great Rebellion was Platonic rather than Aristotelian. This was exhibited by a number of learned and profound writers who rose about this time, and who

continue to be known by the name of the ' Cambridge Moralists.' In Emmanuel College, before thi ejectment, there were Which-cote, author of Moral and Religious Aphorisms, and o[' Letter* to Tuckney (1651); Nathanael Culvexwel, author of the masterly work Of the Light of Nature \ (1661) j and Ralph Cndworth, who produced the great work on Thi 'True Intellectual System of ihr Universe, all promoted to important offices in Cambridge under the Commonwealth. There were also in Cambridge Henry More, author of the Enchiridion Mttaphyriciun, and John

* Mi on' i / "'-• "/' Milton, p. 229.

f Familiar l.rttnx in Mu.iiun's RlfltOf), j> 240.

X Boe tin! vuhkiMo edition l>y John Brown. D.D., with n oritionl onnj by John

Cuirn.i, D.D.

HIS LIFE. Xlll

Smith, author of the Select Discourses. All of those great men had caught, and were cherishing, a lofty Platonic spirit. While they implicitly received and devoutly revered the Bible as the inspired book of God, they entertained at the same time a high idea of the office of reason, and delighted in the contemplation of the eternal verities which they believed it to sanction, and sought to unite them with the living and practical truths of Christianity. Nor is it to be forgotten that John Howe, who entered Christ College in 1647, imbibed from Cudworth, More, and Smith his ' Platonic tincture,' which however was more thoroughly subordinated in him to the letter of Scripture. But in those times there was probably a still greater number of students whose college predilections would be those of Hey-wood : ' My time and thoughts were more employed in practical divinity, and experimental truths were more vital and vivifical to my soul. I preferred Perkins, Bolton, Preston, Sibbes, far above Aristotle, Plato, Magirus, and Wendeton, though I despise no laborious authors in these subservient studies.' *

Charnock was all his life a laborious student. We can infer what must have been his favourite reading, begun at college and continued to his death. While not ignorant of the physical science of his time, there is no reason to believe that he entered deeply into it. However, we are expressly told by Adams and Veal that he had arrived at a considerable knowledge of medicine, and that he was prevented from giving himself farther to it only by his dedication to a higher work. There are no traces of his having fallen under the bewitching spirit of Platonism, which so prevailed among the profounder students of Cambridge ; but he characterises Plato as ' the divine philosopher/ he quotes More and Culverwel, and his own philosophy is of a wide and catholic character. It is quite clear from his systematic method, that he had received lessons from the Aristotelian logic, as modified by the schoolmen; but he never allowed it to bind and shackle him. He shews a considerable acquaintance with the ancient Greek philosophy, including the mystics of the Neoplatonist school. He is familiar with the writings of many of the fathers, and quotes from them in a way which shews that he understood them. He does not disdain to take instruction from Aquinas and the schoolmen when it serves his purpose. Among contemporary philosophic writers, he quotes from Gassendi and Voetius. His favourite uninspired writers were evidently the reformers, and those who defended and systematised their theology. Amyraut, and Suarez, and Daille were evidently favourites; and he was familiar with Tur-retine, Ames, Zanchius, Cocceius, Crellius, Cameron, Grotius, and many others ; nay, he is not so bigoted as to overlook the high church Anglican divines of his own age. But we venture to say that, deeply read as he was in the works of uninspired men, he devoted more time to the study of the word

* Hunter's Life of Oliver Heywood, p. 46.

of God than to all other writings whatsoever. As to his linguistic accomplishments Mr Johnson, himself a scholar, says, * I never knew any man who had attained near unto that skill which he had in both their originals [that is, of the Scriptures], except Mr Thomas Cawton;' and Mr Cawton, it seems, knew Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, French, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish.

Thus furnished by divine gift and acquired scholarship, he set out on the work to which he had devoted himself. ' Not long after he had received light himself,' says Johnson, 'when the Lord by his blessing on his endeavours had qualified him for it, such was his love, he gave forth light unto others, inviting them, and saying, " Come and see Jesus." In Southwark, where seven or eight, in that little time Providence continued him there, owed their conversion under God to his ministry; then in the university of Oxford and adjacent parts; after in Dublin, where it might be said of his as it w T as of the Lord's preaching in the land of Zebulon, "the people which sat in darkness saw a great light." '

On leaving college, he is represented by Adams and Veal as spending some time in a private family, but whether as a tutor or a chaplain does not appear. He seems to have commenced his ministry in Southwark, where he knew of seven or eight persons who owned him as the instrument of their conversion; and we may hope there were others profited, at a time when the mercantile and middle classes generally so crow T ded to the house of God, and the preaching of the word was so honoured. In 1649 or thereabouts, says Wood, he retired to Oxford, purposely to obtain a fellowship'from the visitors appointed by the parliament when ' they ejected scholars by whole shoals ;' and in 1650, lie obtained a fellowship in New College. November 19. 1652, he is incorporated Master of Arts in Oxford, as he had stood in Cambridge. April 5.1654 (not 1652, as Calamy says), he and Thomas Cracroft of Magdalene College are appointed Proctors of the university. Cliarnock, greatly respected for his gifts, his learning, and his piety, was frequently put upon ' public works.' In particular, he seems to have been often employed in preaching in Oxford and the adjacent parts. Here he had as his chamber-fellow, Mr John Gunter, who purposed to write, or did write, a life of him ; {Hid here he gained or renewed a friendship with Richard Adams,

formerly, like himself, of Cambridge, and now of lirazennose,

and Edward Veal of Christ's Church, and afterwards with him in Dublin, the two who joined, many yean after, in publishing his bhumous works. Here be connected himself with ' a ohuroh gathered among the scholars by Dr Goodwin,'a society which had the honour to bave enrolled among its members Thankful Owen, Francis Howel, Theophilua Gale, and John Howe/

who must, no doubt have enjoyed much sweet fellowship

together, and belped to edify one another. Oliver Cromwell, * Sm Life of Q Iwtn, in folio edition of Worke, Vol v.; end Gelemy'e Account

of Ejrrtrd, J oil 11 HuWO.

Lord Protector, was chancellor of the university, and Dr Owen, vice-chancellor; and an energetic attempt was made to produce and foster a high, though perhaps a somewhat narrow, scholarship, and to exercise a discipline of a moral and religious character, such as Christian fathers set up in their families. Notwithstanding all that has been said against it, it was by no means of an uncheerful character, and young men of virtue and piety delighted in it; but others, we fear, felt it irksome, because of the constant supervision, and the restraints meeting them on every hand, and the number of religious services imposed on them, and which could have been enjoyed only by converted persons. Lord Clarendon thinks that such a state of things might have been expected to extirpate all ' learning, religion, and loyalty,' and to be ' fruitful only in ignorance, profaneness, atheism, and rebellion ;' but is obliged to admit that, ' by God's wonderful providence, that fruitful soil could not be made barren,' and that it yielded an harvest of extraordinary good knowledge in all parts of learning.' It could easily be shewn that the fruit was what might have been expected to spring from the labour bestowed and the seed sown. It is a matter of fact, as Neal remarks, that all the great philosophers and divines of the Church of England, who flourished in the reigns of Charles II. and William III., such as Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Patrick, South, Cave, Sprat, Kidder, Whitby, Bull, Boyle, Newton, Locke, and others, were trained under teachers appointed by parliament and Cromwell.*

The scene of Charnock's labours and usefulness was now shifted. Cromwell had subdued Ireland to the Commonwealth, and he and others longed to have the protestants in that country supplied with a pure and fervent gospel ministry. Dr John Owen had been in Ireland a year and a half, overseeing the affairs of Dublin College and preaching the gospel. He dates a work from * Dublin Castle, December 20. 1649,' and speaks of himself as ' burdened with manifold employments, with constant preaching to a numerous multitude of as thirsty people after the gospel as ever I conversed withal.' In the January following he returns to England, and has to preach before the Commons. Eeferring to Cromwell's victories, he says :—' How is it that Jesus Christ is, in Ireland, only as a lion staining all his garments with the blood of his enemies, and none to hold him forth as a lamb sprinkled with his own blood for his friends ? Is it the sovereignty and interest of England that is alone to be thus transacted ? For my part, I see no farther into the mystery of these things, but that I would heartily rejoice that innocent blood being expiated, the Irish might enjoy Ireland so long as the moon endureth, so that Jesus might possess the Irish.' ' I would there were, for the present, one gospel preacher for every walled town in the English possession in Ireland.' * They are sensible of their wants, and cry out for supply. The tears and cries of the inha-

* The History of the Puritans, 1647.

bitants of Dublin are ever in my view.' In the course of the year, grants of land are made for the better support of Dublin University, and the Commissioners brought with them several Christian ministers. Among them was Samuel Winter, who afterwards became Provost of Trinity College, and who preached every Lord's day in Christ Church Cathedral before Deputy Fleetwood and the Commissioners, his services being reserved specially for the afternoons, when was the * greatest auditory.' By 1654, Mr Veal, who had been in Oxford with Charnock, is a fellow of Dublin College, and some years after, is often exercising his ministry in and about the city of Dublin. Nor should we omit Mr John Murcot, who came from Lancashire in 1653, and preached with great fervour and acceptance to large numbers in Dublin and the south-west of Ireland, till the close of the following year, when he was cut off suddenly at the early age of twenty-nine, to the great grief of the Protestant inhabitants,—the Lord Deputy, and the Mayor, with a large body of citizens, following the body to the grave.*

Cromwell finding it necessary to restrain the republican Commissioners in Ireland, sent over his ablest son Henry to watch their proceedings, and to succeed them in the government. "When he came to Ireland in August 1655, he brought with him gome eminent ministers of religion, among whom was Samuel Mather, who, ' with Dr Harrison, Dr Winter, and Mr Charnock,' attended on Lord Harry Cromwell, t Mather was one of a famous nonconformist family, well known on both sides of the Atlantic. A native of England, he received his education in Harvard College, but returned to his native country, and having spent some time at Oxford and Cambridge, and in Scotland, he now came to Dublin, where he was appointed a fellow of the University, and chosen colleague to Dr Winter, and had to preach every Lord's day at the church of St Nicholas, besides taking his turn every five or six weeks before the Lord Deputy and Council. Dr Thomas Harrison was born at Kingston-upon-Hull, but, like Mather, was brought up in America, and had returned to England, where he was chosen to succeed Dr Goodwin in London ; and now in Dublin he ie chaplain to Henry Cromwell, with a salary of ^°300 a year, and preaches in St WVrhur^h's.

It was in such company that Stephen ( namoek acted as one

of the chaplains of the chief governor of Ireland, living with

much respect in his family, we may suppose whether be resided at the Castle or in Phcetni Park, and enjoying a, stipend of £200 a year, worth ten times the same nonnmil sum in the present day-t When in Dublin, he wai also officially minister of St

* y ■.,/ Work* of Mr John Murcot. It. in n y l'<> nuMit iuiinl here that there is

trainable sketch of the itate of religion In Dublin at that time, in a lectors,

Jndrprnilrnci/ in Puhlin in I In' Oldrn Tunc, 1>V William l^rwiek, D.D.

f Galamy'i N»n<-on Mem, by Palmar, Art. Bamoal Mather. ! See Extract! from *The Civil Establishment of the Commonwealth fur Ireland, for the •• ' hi Appendii to vol. ii. of flalcft 'History of the Presbyt

Church iu lroluud.'

Werburgh's, and lecturer at Christ Church. St Werburgh's Church, in its foundation going back to near the time of the Norman settlement, was in the time of Cromwell, and is still, close by the very walls of Dublin Castle ; and the Lord-Depute must have attended there or at Christ Church, at one or both. In 1607, the famous Usher had been appointed to this church, and was succeeded by William Chappel, who had been John Milton's tutor at Cambridge, and who, according to Symmonds, was the reputed author of ' The Whole Duty of Man.' ' The church is described in 1630 as "in good repair and decency," worth sixty pounds per annum, there being two hundred and thirty-nine householders in the parish, all Protestants,, with the exception of twenty-eight Koman Catholics. " St Warburr's," says a writer in 1635, " is a kind of cathedral, wherein preacheth the judicious Mr Hoile about ten in the morning and three in the afternoon,—a most zealous preacher, and general scholar in all manner of learning, a mere cynic." Mr Hoyle, the friend of Usher, and "the tutor and chamber-fellow" of Sir James Ware, was elected professor of divinity in, and fellow of, Trinity College, Dublin; he sat in the Assembly of Divines, witnessed against Laud, and in 1648 was appointed Master of University College, Oxford.'* In this famous church, where the gospel had been proclaimed with such purity and power by Usher and by Hoyle, Charnock officiated, down, we may suppose, to the ^Restoration. But his most conspicuous field of usefulness seems to have been on the afternoons of the Lord's day, when the great audiences of the citizens of Dublin assembled, and to them he lectured —that is, delivered an elaborate discourse, discussing fully the subject treated of—we may suppose either at St Werburgh's or Christ Church. Calamy says, ' he exercised his ministry on the Lord's day afternoons to the admiration of the most judicious Christians, having persons of the greatest distinction in the city of Dublin for his auditors, and being applauded by such as were of very different sentiments from himself. Many commended his learning and abilities who had no regard for his piety.' God was now giving his servant, who had been so thoroughly prepared for his work by a long course of training, a wide sphere to labour in. In future years, when he was partially silenced, he must have looked to his Dublin opportunities with feelings of lively interest. Though a counsellor, and a wise counsellor, to Henry Cromwell, and at times employed on public duty, in which his good sense, his moderation, and his truly catholic spirit gained him universal confidence, yet preaching was his peculiar gift, and to this he devoted all his talents. His preaching powers had now reached their full maturity. At a later period his memory somewhat failed him, and he had to read in a disadvantageous way with a glass. But at this time he used no notes, and he poured forth the riches of his original endowments and of his acquired treasures to the great delight of

* The History of the City of Dublin by J. T. Gilbert, vol. i. p 29.

b

his audience. His solid judgment, his weighty thoughts, his extensive learning, and his cultivated imagination, were all engaged in the work of recommending the gospel of Jesus Christ to the principal inhabitants of the capital of Ireland. Most careful in husbanding time, on which he ever set great value, spending most of it in his study, in reading and writing, meditation and prayer, accustomed to muse on profound topics in his restless hours in the night, and when walking in the streets during the day, constantly jotting down (as many of the puritans did) the thoughts that occurred to him on these occasions, and employing them as materials for his projected discourses,* he made it appear on the Lord's day how well he had been employed. We know what the discourses which he preached were from those given to the world after his death, and which were printed from his manuscripts as he left them. Characterised as those of most of the preachers of the time were by method, Charnock's were specially eminent for solidity of thought, for clear enunciation of important truth, for orderly evolution of all the parts of a complicated subject, for strength and conclusiveness of argument, coming forth with a great flow of expression, recommended by noble sentiment and enlivened by brilliant fancy,—with the weight he ever had the lustre of the metal.t Except in the discourses of Usher, there never had been before, and it is doubtful whether there ever has been since, such able and weighty evangelical preaching in the metropolis of Ireland; and *we do not wonder that the thinking and the 'judicious* should have waited eagerly on his ministry, specially on his 4 lectures,' seeking not so much excitement as instruction, presented in a clear and pleasant manner. Doing much good during the brief period allowed him, we are convinced that he helped to raise up a body of intelligent Christian men and wjomen among the English settlers, who within the Established Church, or beyond it as Presbyterians or Independents, handed down the truth to the generations following, and that the lively protestant religion of Dublin in the present day owes not a little to the seed which was then scattered, and which in due time, spite of many blights, grew into a forest.

But his days of* usefulness in Ireland speedily came to a closed When Oliver Cromwell died, lie left no one who could

wield his sceptre. Henry was certainly fitted of his kindred

for the work of government; hut he had one disqualification (for such it is in our crooked world), he was too upright and

# A<!;uns and Vim] nu'iitiuii tlirnr lniMt.i.

f Colt..11 Mallnr, in Jim IIis/, >,-,/<>/ X ,-„■ Enql.uul, netting of NiithsiiiiU'l Mathor,

woo mooeeded hit toother Samuel r In Dublin, says :~* It we* oommonlj

r. marked thai Mr Charnock'i Invention, I >i IIan tpression, and Mi" Mather's

logio, would bate made lac perfecte rl pri achei In Hi.' world.'

i file edltori make Oharnooi B.D. w I conceives that he was Made eo l>y

Dublin Uniti r.ity. Mr Ann irons, and l»r s. mi. .11 Raid make bin a fellow of Trinity College. There is do regisl r ol thi in the oollege booka; but tin 1 records both of Tiiinty College and of Dublin Castle are Terj defective as to tlio < lonnnonweslth period*

honourable to descend to the base means necessary to keep the various conflicting parties in subjection. His soul was expressed in one of his letters: 'I will rather submit to any sufferings with a good name, than be the greatest man on earth without it.'* He had to complain during his whole rule in Ireland of the selfishness of the English settlers, of the extravagancies of the sectaries, and of the jealousy of the army of the Commonwealth. He seems, however, to have been efficiently supported in his wise and impartial rule by such men as Winter f and Charnock. Nearly all parties in Ireland, Church of England, Presbyterians, and Koman Catholics, were opposed to the Commonwealth and his father's rule; but all respected and loved Henry Cromwell. He got his brother Eichard proclaimed in Ireland; but the incapable parliament, out of jealousy, summoned him to England, and the royalists, at the .Eestoration, expelled him, without his offering any resistance.

Charnock had now to sink for a time into obscurity, with rare and limited opportunities compared with those which he had enjoyed for four or five years in the court of the lord deputy, and in St Werburgh's and Christ Church Cathedral. It was necessary to shew that he could not only act, but suffer, for Christ's name. Adams and Veal say, that 'about the year 1660, being discharged from the public exercise of his ministry, he returned back into England, and in and about London spent the greatest part of fifteen years, without any call to his old work in a settled way.' Wood and Calamy make statements to the same effect, and we must believe the account to be correct. But there is some reason to think, that though for the most part in London, he had not altogether abandoned Dublin for some time after 1660. At the close of the year 1661 (Dec. 31), he signs a certificate in favour of his friend Mr Veal, dated at Dublin.J It is stated that he and Mr Veal ministered in Dublin after the Eestoration [; and it is certain that at that time the meetings of nonconformists were winked at in Ireland, and that the Presbyterian and Independent ministers there took and were allowed an amount of liberty denied, to their brethren in England and Scotland. It is stated that both Charnock and Veal preached in a Presbyterian churchdn Wood Street (afterwards Strand Street), which continued for many years to have a flourishing congregation, with such pastors as the Eev. Samuel Marsden, one of the ejected fellows of Dublin College, the Eev.

* Letter in Thurloe Papers.

t There is a work, Life and Death of Winter, 1677 ; also Sermons by him against the Anabaptists, preached before the lord deputy.

% The certificate is given by - Calamy, in Continuation, p. 83. It is ' Dated at Dublin, Dec. 31. 1661,' and is signed ' Steph. Charnock, formerly Minister at Warbouroughs, and late Lecturer at Christ Church, Dublin; Edward Baines, late Minister of St John's Parish, Dublin; Nath. Hoyle, late Minister at Donobrock, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin ; Kobert Chambres, late Minister of St Patrick's Church, Dublin; Samuel Coxe, late Minister at Katherine's, Dublin ; William Leclew, late Minister of Dunborn; Josiah Marsden, late Fellow of the aboye said Trin. College, Dublin.'

Dr Daniel "Williams, who founded the Dissenters' Library in Red Cross Street, London; Dr Gilbert Rule, afterwards principal of the university of Edinburgh; and the Rev. Joseph Boyse, an able defender of the doctrine of the Trinity, and of Protestant nonconformists. On the supposition that this is correct, we find Charnock's ministry in Ireland after the Restoration followed by a train of important consequences, reaching forward into coming ages.*

This is the proper place for referring to and examining a scandalous story about Charnock given by Bishop Parker in the 'History of his own Times.' He tells us that, Jan. 6. 1662-3, one Philip Alden voluntarily discovered to Vernon, one of the king's officers, a conspiracy to subvert the government in all the three kingdoms. This Alden had been an old rebel, and one who dealt in proscriptions and forfeited estates; but Vernon had so much obliged him by begging his life of the lord lieutenant, that he promised to discover the designs of the rebels. The principal leaders being chosen in March, determined on May 11. to open the war with the siege of Dublin: but many forces were in readiness, and they were dispersed. Lackey, a Presbyterian teacher, was hanged; but it is said he had seven accomplices, among whom was Charnock. * This Charnock had been chaplain of Henry Cromwell, advanced to that dignity by John Owen. He was sent by the conspirators as their ambassador to London, and promised them great assistance, as Gibbs, Carr, and others had done in Scotland and Holland. But the conspiracy being now discovered, he fled again into England, and changed his name from Charnock to Clarke. He was a man of great authority among the fanatics, and for a long time was at the 'head of a great assembly, and did not die till twenty years after, anno .1683, and his corpse was carried through the city with the pomp of almost a royal funeral.'t This statement lays itself open to obvious criticism. First, Bishop Parker, so inconsistent in his life and so hasty in his charges, is by no menus a safe authority in any question of fact. Next, the original informer ■is described as an old rebel, and a dealer in proscriptions and forfeited estates, and by no means to be trusted in the charges which he brings. Then our author makes Charnock live till 1683, whereafl we have documentary evidence flint lie died in 1680. These considerations might Mem sufficient to justify us in dismissing the statement as a fabrication, 01 an entire mistake.

But we knew from better authorities that there was a general

discontent, in the spring of n*><>;*, among the protestanta of ire-land, indeed among the nonconformists all over the three kingdoms, and that thero was a conspiracy formed to seize Dublin

* See Sermon, &<\, Kit Uio ordination of Kcv. Jtmei Martiuoau, with an appendix rontuiniiitf a Summary History of thu rxvsbytrriim Cliurchea in the City, by tho Jtov. JamcH Armstrong, IHiJ'J.

(" Tlio Htatiiui'ijt of tljo Lfttifl sdKiofl in ' ncijuo rnim ante vitvnniuin obiit anno, 1683 cujus oxequiua pono rogali funoria pomp! yer urbcm oxtulerant.'

Castle. In Ireland, the dissatisfaction was very keen among the English settlers, because they thought their interests neglected ; among the soldiers of the Commonwealth, who were now stripped of their importance ; but especially among zealous protestants, who were bitterly disappointed, because they saw the work of reformation thrown back. The leader seems to have been the notorious Blood, who involved in it his brother-in-law, the Eev. W. Lecky, formerly a fellow of Trinity College, who seems to have become maddened in the course of the trial. Leland says that 1 some lawyers, several Presbyterian ministers, Blood, who was afterwards so distinguished in London, some members of the Irish Commons, and several republican officers, embarked in this design.' ' On the eve of the day appointed for seizing the Castle of Dublin and publishing their declaration, about five-and-twenty conspirators were seized, and a reward published for the apprehension of those who escaped.'* It appears, farther, that some intimation had been sent to London which raised the suspicion of the Government there against Charnock, for there is issued, ' 1663, June 19., warrant to Joel Hardy to apprehend Stephen Charnock,' and, ' June 20., an examination of Bob. Littlebury. Knows Mr Charnock, who visits at his house, and told him he had an overture to go beyond seas. Has had no letter from Ireland for him these six weeks ;' and under the same year, ' Note of address of Bobt. Littlebury at the Unicorn, Little Britain, London, with note not to miss him.' The country is evidently in a very moved state, in consequence of the ejection of the two thousand ministers, and the refusal to allow the nonconformists to meet for the worship of God. Thus William Kingsley to Secretary Bennet, June 20.1663 :—' There are daily great conventicles in these parts ; on Whitsunday, 300 persons met at Hobday's house, Waltham parish, &c.' The news from Carlisle give indications of an understanding among the discontented. Thus Sir Phil. Musgrave reports to Williamson, June 22., Carlisle :—' There is much talk of the more than ordinary meeting of the sectaries, and the passing of soldiers between Ireland and Scotland before the public discovery of the horrid plot.'t The conclusion which we draw from these trustworthy statements is, that there was deep discontent over all the three kingdoms, among those who had been labouring to purify the church, and who were now claiming liberty of worship ; that there was a correspondence carried on among the aggrieved; that there was a disposition among some to resist the Government, the anticipation and precursor of the covenanting struggle in Scotland, and the revolution of 1688 ; and that there was an ill-contrived conspiracy in Dublin, which was detected and put down. But there is no evidence whatever to shew that Charnock was identified in any way with the projected rising in Dublin. His name does not appear in the proclamation from Dublin Castle, 23d May

* History of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 434.

t Calendar State Papers, edited by Mrs Green, vol. iii.

1663. That the government should have proceeded against him, is no presumption of his guilt, though it may have been quite sufficient to lead Bishop Parker to propagate the story. We know that ' the generality of the ministers of the north (Ulster) were at this time either banished, imprisoned, or driven into corners, upon occasion of a plot of which they knew nothing,'* these Presbyterians having in fact stood throughout by the family of Stuart, and given evidence of loyalty in very trying times. We can readily believe that Charnock should deeply sympathise with the grievances of his old friends in Dublin; but his sober judgment, his peaceable disposition, his retiring and studious habits, all make it very unlikely that he should have taken any active part in so ill-conceived and foolish a conspiracy, t

From whatever cause, Charnock disappears very much from public view for tw T elve or fifteen years. We must be satisfied with such a general statement as that of Wood, who says that, returning to England about 1660, ' in and about London he did spend the greater part of fifteen years without any call to his own w T ork, whereby he took advantage to go now and then either into France or Holland.' In France he would see a lordly church, enjoying full privileges under Louis XIV., and meet with many protestants deprived of political and military power, but having a precarious liberty under the Edict of Nantes not yet revoked. In Holland were already gathering those refugees who in due time were to bring over with them William of Orange to rescue England from oppression. Calamy represents him as ' following his studies without any stated preaching.' Yes, it was now a necessity of his nature to study. Adams and Veal say, ' Even when providence denied him opportunities, he was still laying in more stock, and preparing for work against he might be called to it.' During these years when he w T as in some measure out of sight, he was probably revolving those thoughts which were afterwards embodied in his great work on

* Adair MSS., quoted in Rcid's History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, vol. ii. p. 284.

t In reference to Parker's charge, Bliss, tho editor, in Notes io "Wood's Athena,

says:—' Qusere—if Stephen Charnock? Grey. Probably it was the same, the bishop having mistaken the time of his .hath.' Mi- t. F.Gilbert, the famous antiquarian, writes us:—' Among the names of those committed on account ^ the alleged conspiracy, is that of " Kduard Balnea, a fanatic preacher, formerly Harry Cromwell's chaplain." Could I'.ishop l'arl<er have confounded the two men? Maims was reotof

"' St John's Church, close to Werburgh'a, during the Commonwealth, and subsequently founded t ; Btreei congregation in Dublin. 1 It is proper to explain, this alleged ' fanatic preacher and t Be < ition in Cooke street Hirst Wine Tavern Street),thai Mr Bi i 'a clergyman of Learning ami gooa sen

rational piety and zeal for the truth, and of great integrity and simplicity of spirit;'

and th it in the co] [on there were many pei ons of rank ami fortune, particu-

larly Sir John < ''otuorthy. afterward Lord Mas an fi\>\ I.ady Chichester, afterwards Cou nf ess of hone. 'al, and laidy Cole of the |\nin ski lien family. I>r Harrison hecamo

co-pastor with Mr Baincs in this congregation, and John Howe often officiated

there when Lord \ no, to whom Howe w as chaplain, happened to reside in

the capital* In all this we have another example of the eontinuanoi of the puritan Influence In Dublin. Bee Armstrong's ■ History of the Presbyterian Churches,' in Appendix to JSermun.

the 'Attributes.' Now, as at all times, he lived much in his library, which, say Adams and Veal, was his 'workshop,' furnished, ' though not with a numerous, yet a curious, collection of books ;' and we can conceive that one so dependent on his reading, and who had it in view to prepare deep theological works, must have felt it to be a great trial when his books were burnt in the great fire of London.

About 1675, he seems to be in a position to receive a call to minister to a fixed congregation. It appears that a portion of the congregation were anxious to secure him as joint pastor with Dr Thomas Jacomb, and successor to Dr Lazarus Seaman, who died Sept. 9. 1675. John Howe, however, was settled in this office;* and Charnock was appointed joint pastor to the Kev. Thomas Watson in Crosby Hall. The congregation worshipping there had been collected soon after the Bestoration by Mr Watson, formerly rector of the parish of St Stephen's, Waibrook, whose little work, Heaven taken by Storm, was the means, under God, of Colonel Gardiner's conversion. Upon the indulgence in 1674 he licensed the hall in Crosby House, on the east side of Bishops-gate Street, which had been built in the fifteenth century by Sir John Crosby, had at a later date been the residence of Kichard Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Eichard III., and was now the property of Sir John Langham, who patronised the nonconformists, and devoted its very beautiful Gothic hall to the preaching of the word. Charnock was settled there in 1675, and officiated there to the time of his death, and there a numerous and wealthy congregation, presbyterian or independent, continued to worship for some ages.t Charnock could not be described at this part of his life as specially a popular preacher. On account of his memory failing, he had to read his sermons; and on account of his weak eyesight he had to read them with a glass, and his delivery was without the flow and impressiveness which it had in his younger years. Besides, his compositions were too full of matter, and were far too elaborate to be relished by the unthinking multitude, who complained of his discourses as being " but morality or metaphysics," their only fault being that they were too thoughtful. Adams and Veal say, 'Yet it may withal be said that if he were sometimes deep, he was never abstruse; he handled the great mysteries of the gospel with much clearness and perspicuity, so that in his preaching, if he were above most, it was only because most were below it.' Those who were educated up to him, as many of the middle classes were in that age, when the word of God and theological treatises were so studied, and when the public events of the times compelled men to think on profound topics, waited upon his ministry with great eagerness, and drank in greedily the

* Roger's Life of Howe, p. 144.

t Wilson's History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches, vol. i. pp. 331, et seq., where is a history of Crosby Hall and an account of its ministers. Crosby Hall is now a merchant's wareroom, but retains traces of its beauty in its timber roof and splendid bow window.

instruction which he communicated from sabbath to sabbath. Mr Johnson tells us that ' many able ministers loved to sit at his feet, for they received by one sermon of his those instructions which they could not get by many books or sermons of others/

We can readily picture him at this time from the scattered notices left of him. We have two portraits of him; one a painting in Williams' Library, the other a plate in the folio edition of his works. Both exhibit him with marked and bony features, and a deep expressive eye. The painting makes him appear more heavy looking and sunken, as if he often retreated into himself to commune with his own thoughts. The plate is more lively, as if he could be drawn out by those who understood and reciprocated him. Adams and Veal say he ' was somew r hat reserved when he was not very well acquainted, otherwise very affable and communicative where he understood and liked his company.' We now extract from his funeral sermon. Those who did not know him cast upon him ' foul and false aspersions' ' as if he was melancholy, reserved, unsociable to all, while his acquaintances will give a character of him diametrically opposite. How cheerful, free, loving, sweet-dispositioned was he in all companies where he could take delight; he was their love, their delight.' By this time • our Timothy was somewhat obscured by manifold infirmities, a crazy body, weak eyes, one dark, the other dim, a hand that would shake, sometimes an infirm stomach, an aching head, a fugitive memory, which, after it had failed him sometimes, he would never trust again, but verbatim penned and read all his notes, whereas till of late years he never looked within them.' From such a temperament we might expect a little ' passion or choler,' which is acknowledged by his friend, but which, he assures us, 'through grace he turned into the right channel.' 'He was careful to watch over his heart and against spiritual pride.' Five days each week, and twelve hours each day, he spent in his study, ' I will not say, as some, to make one sermon; I know he had other work there.' When some one told him if he studied too much it would cost him his life, he replied, ' Why, it cost Christ his life to redeem and save me.' When he went out from his hooks and meditations, it was to visit ami relieve his patients, he having had all along a taste for medicine, and having given much time to the study of it. His bodily infirmities, his trials and spiritual conflicts, gave him a peculiar fitness for guiding

the anxious and comforting the afflicted. ' Be had bowels of

compassion for sinners to snatch thcin out of the flames, and

for saints to direct them unto the love of Christ. 1 M need not speak unto yon of his preaching j how oft went he to children of

light Walking in darkness, to cheer and revive them with cordials

wherewith the Lord had usually refreshed him.' 'Yourteacher was,' said the preacher in the lace of the congregation, 'though

not a perfect man, a perfect minister, thoroughly accomplished by the Spirit and the word of truth.'

The ambition of able and thinking ministers in those times

was to draw out a system of theology. Watson/his colleague, has left us a 'Body of Divinity ,' which long continued to train the common people in the puritan theology, and may still he found, as we can testify, in the cottages of the Scottish peasantry. Charnock * intended to have given forth a complete body of divinity' to the congregation which met in Crosby Hall, the result, we doubt not, of long reading and much thought. He began with treating of the being, and went on to the attributes of God ; but * his sun set before he had gone over half of his transcendent excellencies and perfections. The last subject he treated on and finished was the patience of God. He was looking what to say next of the mercy, grace, and goodness of God, which he is gone to see and admire, for he found that which he most looked and longed for, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, in heaven whence he shines now. Indeed, all the while he was upon the attributes of God, he moved with that extraordinary strength and celerity, 'twas an argument of his near approach unto his centre and everlasting rest; and if it be true, as some say, that the soul doth prominere in morte, his words were too true predictions, and from his soul when he said, that concerning divine patience would be his last sermon.' ' It was his longing desire, and his hopes were, that he should shortly be in that sinless state where there is the acme, the perfection of grace and holiness.'

He died July 27. 1680, at the comparatively early age of fifty-two, in the house of Eichard Tymms, a glazier in the parish of Whitechapel. On July 30th, his body was conveyed to Crosby Hall, and thence accompanied by great numbers of his brethren to St Michael's Church, in Cornhill, where * his bosom friend Mr Johnson, gained at Emmanuel, adhering to him at New College, preached his funeral sermon from Mat. xiii. 43, ' Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.'! His remains were buried 'over Mr Sykes, under the steeple' of St Michael's, where the worshippers have ever since passed over them in going in to the church.

He published himself nothing but a sermon ' On the Sinfulness and cure of Evil Thoughts,' Gen. vi. 5, which appeared in the supplement to the Morning Exercises at Cripplegate; and it is an indication of his disposition to keep his name from public

* We might have doubted whether a nonconformist minister could have been permitted to preach the funeral sermon of a nonconformist minister in a parish church, but the statement is made by Wood. The entry in the register of St Michael's is, ' July 30. was buryed Stephen Charnock, minister, under the steeple.' f « EKAAMTI2 TON AIKAKIN. On the shining of the righteous, a sermon preached partly on the Death of that Eeverend and Excellent Divine, Mr Stephen Charnock, and in part at the funeral of a godly friend, by John Johnson, M.A.' 1680. In explanation, he states that the body of the discourse had been prepared on the occasion of the death of another friend ; but, as being called suddenly to preach at Mr Charnock's funeral, he had used the same sermon, but accommodated to the different person. The discourse is somewhat rambling. We have embodied most of what relates to Charnock in this memoir. We have used the copy in the Williams' Library.

view, that in the title there is nothing more than the initials S. C, whereas in every other sermon in the collection there appears the name of the preacher. His posthumous works were given to the world by Mr Richard Adams and Mr Edward Veal, both Oxford friends, the latter also a Dublin friend, the one then a nonconformist minister in Southwark, and the other in Trapping. They first published ' A Discourse on Divine Providence,' 1680, and announce that ' this comes out first as a prodromus to several works designed to be made public as soon as they can be with conveniency transcribed,' declaring that 'the piece now published is a specimen of the strain and spirit of this holy man, this being his familiar and ordinary way of preaching.' The same year there appeared ' A Sermon on Reconciliation to God in Christ.' His discourses ' On the Existence and Attributes of God,' appeared in a large folio in 1681-82, and were followed by another folio in 1683, containing discourses on regeneration, reconciliation, the Lord's supper, and other important subjects. A second edition of his works, in two volumes folio, appeared in 1684, and a third in 1702. In 1699, were published with ' An Advertisement to the Reader,' by Edward Veal, two discourses, one on Man's Enmity to God, the other on Mercy for the Chief of Sinners.

His great work is that on the ' Attributes.' Prior to his time the subject had been treated of near the opening of systems of theology, but never in the particular and minute way in w r hich it is done in Charnock's discourses. There had been two works on the special topic published in the English tongue in the early part of the century. The one was A Treatise containing the Original of Unbelief Misbelief or Mispersuasion concerning the Veritie, Unitie, and Attributes of the Deity, by Thomas Jackson, Doctor in Divinity, Vicar of St NicJiolas Church, Newcastle-upon* Tyne, and late Fellow of Corpus Chrisli College, Oxford, 1625. The work is a philosophico-religious one, treating profoundly, if not clearly, of the origin of ideas as discussed by Plato and Aristotle, and of belief in God; but not unfolding, as Charnock does, the nature of the several attributes. A work more nearly t tnbling that of our author, and very probably suggesting it, was written by Dr Preston, one of the ablest i)\' the Cambridge

divines, and who bad been master of Emmanuel some years before Charnock's time, and left a neat name behind him. It is Life Eterncd t ota Treatise of the Knowledge of the Divine Essence and Attributes, by the late John Preston. It reached a fourth edition in 1684. In the eighteen sermons of whiohthe work is

Composed, the author first proves tin 1 existence and unity of

God, and then dwells on eight of his perfections.* The whole is

* Thftft iff (1) Mi ■' ' Dttrfari : (-.) Mutt ho is without, all causes, having

his being uii'l beginning from himself; (3.) that !n> is sternal; (4.) that lu> is simple and s)>irifu;ii ; (. r >.) Immutable; (6\) Infinite (beyond all we can oono Including goodness j (7. ) omnipresent; (8.) omnipotent. The arrangement is wry imperfect*

under 400 pages, of by no means close printing. The analysis and distribution of the attributes are by no means the same with those followed by Charnock, whose method is much more logical and judicious, while his illustration is much more full and ample. Charnock's work is at this day the most elaborate that has appeared on the subject.

Borne in our day object to the separation of the divine attributes, such as we have in Charnock's work, and in systems of theology, that it is a division of the divine unity; that it is fitted to leave the impression that the perfections are so many different entities ; and that it exhibits the divine being in dry and abstract forms, which do not engage and win the affections of the heart. Now, it should be admitted at once, that a theological treatise on the attributes, or on any other subject, cannot serve every good purpose. No treatise of divinity can accomplish the high ends secured by the Word of God, with its vivid narratives, its typical events and ordinances, its instructive parables, and its attractive exhibition of God as living, acting, and loving—all suited to the heart and imagination of man as well as his understanding. A theological system when compared with the word of God, is at best like a hortus siccus, when compared with the growing plants in nature, or a skeleton in reference to the living frame, clothed with flesh and skin. The most useful and effective preaching must follow the Word of God as a model rather than bodies of divinity, and present God and his love in the concrete and not in the abstract form. Still, systematic theology has important purposes to secure, not only in testing and guarding purity of doctrine in a church, but in combining the scattered truths of God's Word, so that we may clearly apprehend them : in exhibiting the unity of the faith; and in facing the misapprehensions, mistakes, and errors which may arise. In particular, great good may be effected by a full display, and a reflective contemplation of the divine character; and in order to this, there must be some order, plan, and division, and the more logical these are the better for every purpose, speculative or practical. Care must be taken always, in drawing such a portraiture, to shew that the attributes are not distinct parts of the divine essence, but simply different aspects of the one God, viewed separately because of the infirmity of our minds, and the narrowness of our vision, which prevent us from taking in the whole object at once, and constrain us to survey it part after part. As it is not the abstract quality, but the concrete being that calls forth feeling and affection, we must ever contemplate his perfections, as combined in the unity of his living person. It is to be said, in behalf of Charnock, that he never leaves the impression that the attributes are separate existences; they are simply different manifestations presented to us, and views taken by us of the one God, who is at once Great and Good, Holy and Gracious.

II. THE PURITAN PREACHING AND THE PURITAN

LECTURE.

1 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these ? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this,' Eccles. vii. 10. There are some ever telling us that the theology of former times is much superior to that of our day. Some prefer the theology of the so-called fathers of the church, some that of the middle ages, some that of the Reformation, some that of the puritans. Now we believe that it may be good for us to look to the way in which great and good men have conceived, expressed, and enforced the truth in divers ages, were it only to widen the narrowness of our views, and recall attention to catholic verities which particular ages or sects have allowed to sink out of sight. Let us by all means rise from time to time above the contracted valleys in which we dwell, and ascend a height whence we may observe the whole broad and diversified territory which God has given us as an inheritance, and the relation of the varied parts which branch out from Christ as the centre, as do the hills and valleys of our country from some great mountain, the axis of its range. There is, we should acknowledge, an attractive simplicity in the expositions of divine truth by the early fathers; and we are under deep obligations to the divines of the fourth century for establishing on Scripture evidence the doctrine of the Trinity. Those who look into it with a desire to discover what is good, will find not a few excellencies even in the mediaeval divinity, notwithstanding the restraints laid on it by crutches and bandages. It is not to be forgotten that Thomas a Kempis lived in what are called the dark ages; and that we owe to a philosophic divine of that time, not certainly the doctrine of the atonement, which had been in the revealed religion of God since Adam and Abel offered lambs in sacrifice, but a very masterly and comprehensive exposition of that cardinal truth. Free grace, which had been so limited and hindered in the priestly and ecclesiastical ages, breathes from every page of the Reformers as fragrance does from the flower. The puritan preaching is unsurpassed for clear enunciation of divine truth, accompanied with close, searching, and fervent appeal, which now shakes the whole soul, as the earthquake did the prison at Philippi, and anon relieves it by the command and promise, ' Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt bo saved. 1

But we Bhould pat implicit trust in no human, or hereditary, or tradil iona] theology, in do i heology except what comes direct trom the Bible, interpreted according to the letter, but received after the

spirit. How often does if happen that you will know what sect a

man belong! to by the favourite passages which ho quotes in his

s. rmons, and in his wry prayers, shewing how apt we are to take our very Scriptures from the traditions of our churches. We act as if the well were shut up from us, and as if we were obliged to

go to the streams, which may have caught earthliness in their course, and which at the best cannot be so fresh as the fountain. That is the theology best suited to the age which is put forth by living men of the age, drinking of the living word for themselves by the power of the living Spirit.

The peculiarities of the puritan preaching arose from the circumstances in which they were placed, combined always with their deep piety. Most of them were highly educated men, trained in classics, logics, and ethics at the old universities. In their colleges, and in the Established Church, they had acquired habits of careful study and preparation for the pulpit, which they retained all their lives, whether they remained in or removed from the communion of the Church of England. Meanwhile, in the prosecution of their high aims, they were thrown into the midst of most exciting scenes, which moved society from its base to its summit. They had to make up their minds on most momentous questions, and to come to a public decision, and take their side,— it may be at an immense sacrifice of worldly wealth and status. With a great love for the national Church, and a desire to keep the unity of the faith, they declined, in obedience to what they believed to be the commands of God in his word, to conform to practices which the government, political and ecclesiastical, was imposing on them. In taking their part in the movements of these times, they had to mingle with men of all classes, to write papers of defence and explanation, and at times of controversy, and to transact a multifarious business, with bearings on statesmen on the one hand, and the mass of the people on the other. Out of this state of things arose a style of exposition different from that of the retired scholar on the one hand, and from that of the man of bustle on the other; equally removed from the manner of the independent churchman and of the ever stirring dissenter. The discourses are by men of thought and erudition, who must draw their support from the great body of the people, and address in one and the same sermon both men and women belonging to all ranks and classes. We see those characteristics in every treatise of Owen and Baxter, and they come out in the discourses of Charnock.

The works of Charnock, and of the puritans generally, labour under two alleged imperfections. With the exception of Howe's 'Living Temple,' and one or two other treatises, they are without that subdued and quiet reflection which gives such a charm to books which have come out of retired parsonages or the cloisters of colleges. In most of the writings of the puritans, there is a movement, and in many of them a restlessness, which shew that they were composed for hearers or readers who were no doubt to be instructed, but whose attention required also to be kept alive. Their profound discussions and their erudite disquisitions, having reference commonly to expected, indeed immediate action, are ever mixed with practical lessons and applications which interrupt the argument, and at times give a

strain and bias to the interpretation of a passage. In this respect their discourses, written with the picture of a mixed auditory before them, are very different from the essays or dissertations, philosophic or critical, of certain of the Anglican or German divines, who, themselves mere scholars or thinkers, write only for the learned; but possess an interest to them such as cannot attach to spoken addresses in which the popular and the scientific are mixed in every page.

Because of this attempted combination, the puritans labour under another alleged disadvantage. Most of their writings contain too much thought, too much erudition, and above all too many logical distinctions, to admit of their being appreciated by vulgar readers. With the living voice and the earnest manner to set them off, the sermons may have been listened to with profound interest by large mixed audiences ; but in the yellow pages of the old volume they scare those who do not w T ish to be troubled with active or earnest thought. In this respect they are inferior—some would rather say immeasurably superior—to the popular works produced in our day by evangelical writers both within and beyond the established churches of England and Scotland. They are not characterised by that entire absence, in some cases studious abnegation, of reflective thought and convincing argument, which is a characteristic of some of our modern preachers, who cast away their manhood and pule like infants; nor do they indulge in those stories and anecdotes by which some of our most successful ministers of the word attract and profit large audiences in our times. The puritans had learning, and they gave the results of it to their congregations. They thought profoundly themselves, and they wished to stimulate and gratify thought in their hearers and readers.

The consequence of all this is, that there is a class who reckon themselves above, and there is a class certainly below, the puritan. There are contemplatists who are disturbed by their feverishm and scholars who complain of the intrusion of unasked practical lessons. But if these persons would only exercise a little of that patience on which they sot so high a value, they would find imbedded in the rich conglomerate of the puritans profound reflections and wise maxims, which could have come only from deep thinkers and scholars, who spent long hours in their studies

ling, meditating, and, we may add, praying over the deepest questions which the mind of man can ponder. It is also truo

that th» re ;ire men and women of .ill ranks and conditions w In) an h.low the puritans, such as the devourers of novels in our

circulating libraries, ow men of pleasure and of mere business

and agriculture, who have never heen led to entertain a thought

above their amusements, or their shops and their warehouses;

their crops and their cattle; and such are the masses in our it cities, and in our scattered rural districts too, who have

heen allowed to spring up in utter ignorance, but who would not

have been left in such utter degradation it* the puritans had heen

allowed to carry out their system of inspection, catechising, and careful Bible instruction. We allow that persons so untrained to thinking would speedily fall asleep if made to read a puritan treatise, with its deep thoughts and its logical distinctions. The puritan preachers no doubt required a prepared audience ; but they had succeeded so far in training intelligent audiences in their own day, and they had a discipline which, if they had been allowed to carry it out, might have prepared the great body of the people for listening to the systematic exposition of the divine word. Nor is it to be forgotten that there are passages in the writings of the best puritans more fitted than any composed by uninspired men to awaken the unthinking and arouse the careless, and compel them to think of the things which belong to their everlasting peace. These passages continue to be regularly quoted to this day, and often constitute the very best parts of the articles in our popular religious literature. Charnock's discourses, in particular, have been a mine in which many have dug, and found there gold wherewithal to enrich themselves, without exhausting the numberless veins. The preachers who have caught the spirit of the puritans, but have avoided their technicality and mannerism, have commonly been the most successful in rousing the sunken and the dead from their apathy, and in stirring them to anxiety and prayer.

Some of the critical commentaries furnished by the puritans, such as those of Owen, are among the ablest, and altogether the best, that have ever been published. It is all true that modern German industry has dug up and collected materials unknown in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the more recent contests with the rationalists and infidels, while producing it may be much immediate mischief, have in the end led to a larger and more minute acquaintance with ancient thought and history, and with eastern languages and customs. But the puritans have been left behind merely by the onward march of knowledge; and the time may come when even the most advanced German critics may in this sense become antiquated. It is true that the puritans, keeping before them a living audience, ever mingled practical reflections and applications with their most erudite criticism, in a way which is now avoided by learned commentators. But over against this we have to place the counterbalancing circumstance, that the Scriptures were written for practical purposes, and will ever be better interpreted by practical men, who have felt the truth themselves, and who have had enlarged and familiar intercourse with men, women, and children in the actual world, than by the mere book scholar, who is ever tempted to attribute motives to historical actors such as real human beings were never swayed by, and to discard passages because they contain improbabilities such as one who mingles with mankind is meeting with every day. _ We have sometimes thought, in comparing the puritan with the modern German criticism, that

XrXll INTRODUCTION TO CHARNOCK S WORKS.

the one of these circumstances is quite fitted to outweigh the other; of course, the one should be used to counteract the other, and a perfect commentary should seek to embrace both advantages.

The multiplied divisions, and ramified subdivisions, employed in their discourses, furnish matter of very common complaint against them. The habit arose from the training in a narrow scholastic logic in the universities, and is to be found in the ethical, the juridical, the legal, and the parliamentary quite as much as in the theological writings of the age, and in the high Anglican as well as in the puritan theology. We are not prepared to vindicate the peculiar manner of the times. The excess in one direction led in the immediately succeeding age to an excess in the other direction. The new method, or want of method, was introduced from France, and came in with a very light and superficial literature. It was espoused by such writers as Lord Shaftesbury in his ' Characteristics of Men, and Manners, and Times;' and appeared in a very graceful dress in the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian. Shaftesbury tells us that the miscellaneous manner was in the highest esteem in his day, that the old plan of dividing into firsts and seconds had grown out of fashion, and that ' the elegant court divine exhorts in miscellany, and is ashamed to bring his twos and threes before a fashionable assembly.' ' Eagouts and fricassees are the reigning dishes; so authors, in order to become fashionable, have run into the more savoury way of learned ragout and medley.* In adopting the style of the times, the preachers no doubt supposed that they could thereby recommend religion to the world, especially to the gay and fashionable classes, who had been repelled by the old manner, and might be won, it was alleged, by the new. The comment of the clerical satirist Witherspoon, in his * Characteristics,'' is very pertinent. After stating the allegation that the old system had driven most of the fashionable gentry from the churches, he says : ' Now the only way to regain them to the church, is to accommodate the worship as much as may be to their taste;' and then remarks slily, ' I confess there has sometimes been an ugly object ion thrown up against this part of my argument, viz., that this desertion of public worship by those in high life seems in fact to be contemporary with, and to increase in a pretty exact proportion to, the attempts that have been made, and are made, to suit it to their

taste.' Not that we have any right to condemn the preachers. of the eighteenth century because they did not ehoose to follow

the formalism of the seventeenth. A much grayer charge can

be broughl against them ; that of sinking out of sight, or

diluting, BOme of the convincing and saving truths of Christianity. The mini iter of (lod'l Word, if he is not to make himself ridiculous, must Weal the dress and accommodate himself to the innocent manners of his age; hut he is never to for that ho is a minister of the word, prepared to declare the whole

counsel of God, and he is not to imagine that he can deliver himself from the offence of the cross. The polite, the gay, and the refined admired the preaching of the eighteenth century, but never thought of allowing themselves to fall under the power of the religion recommended. The puritan preachers are still read and have power, 'being dead they yet speak unto us;' but who remembers the names of the admired pulpit orators of last century? Who, except the lovers of belles lettres, ever think of looking into the polished sermons of Hugh Blair and his school ?

It may be allowed that the puritan preachers, like all the didactic writers of their time, carried their subdivisions too far. They sought by abstraction to bring out into distinct view all the attributes of the concrete object; and by mental analysis to distribute a complex subject into its parts. As correct thinkers, their judgment would have been offended if a single one of the parts which go to make up the whole had been left out. But comprehensive minds now see that it is beyond the capacity of man to find out all the elements of any one existing object ' in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth.' In the subject, for example, discussed by Charnock, the nature of God, no one should profess, (certainly Charnock does not) to be able to discover or to unfold all the perfections of Jehovah ; and it would be simple pretension to make the propositions we utter assume the appearance of completeness of knowledge and explanation. The mind feels burdened when a speaker or writer would lay the whole weight of a comprehensive subject upon it. Charles II. was offering a just criticism on the whole preaching of the age when he charged Isaac Barrow with being an unjust preacher, inasmuch as he left nothing for any other man to say. All people weary of an enumeration which would count all gifts bestowed in minute coins; independent thinkers feel offended when any one would dogmatically settle everything for them; and enlarged minds would rather have a wide margin left for them to write on, and prefer suggestive to exhaustive writers.

But on the other hand, definition and division are important logical instruments; and when they are kept in their proper place as means, they serve important purposes. The puritan preachers all aimed at vastly more than mere tickling, rousing, and interesting their hearers; they aimed at instructing them. For this purpose it was needful first of all to give their hearers clear notions; and how could that be done except by the speakers themselves acquiring distinct and adequate ideas, and then uttering a clear expression of them? They were quite aware that speculative notions and linked ratiocinations were not fitted to raise feeling, and that there could be no religion without affection; and hence they ever mingled appeals to the conscience, and addresses to the feelings, and even pictures for the fancy, with their methodical arrangements and reasoning processes.

But they knew at the same time that mere feeling, unsustained by the understanding, would die out like an unfed flame, and hence they ever sought to convey clear apprehensions, and to convince the judgment. Then they wished their audience to retain what they heard in their memories for future rumination. But the memory, at least of the intelligent, proceeds in its reminiscences by correlation; it cannot bring up the unconnected, the dismembered; it needs hooks on which to hang the thoughts, compartments in which to arrange them, that we may know where to find them, and to be able to bring them out for use when we need them. All skilful teachers of youth know that if their pupils would make progress they must employ method, and have division and enumeration in the lessons on which they examine. And it is certain that the puritans aimed at nothing less than thoroughly teaching their flocks; and many of their hearers, male and female, took notes of the sermons and afterwards expanded them. Such a process would be quite impossible in regard to much of the preaching of our times, satisfying itself with a loose general view of a subject, which may produce a transient impression for good, but which does not give a distinct apprehension at the time, and which could not possibly be recalled afterwards, much less expressed, by any but the original speaker. Depend upon it, two centuries hence these writers will be far less read than the puritans are at this present time.

An objection has frequently been taken to the too graphic illustrations and quaintnesses of the puritans. An excuse can easily be pled for it by those who may not be prepared to recommend it for general adoption. It was the habit of the time, and was adopted in ;ill departments of literature, poetical and prose, and by the adherents of the Anglican establishment as well as the nonconformists. The puritan preachers felt as if they were necessitated to employ some such means of keeping alive the attention of hearers to the weighty instruction they were in the habit of importing to their large mixed audiences. It is a curious circumstance that the present age has come back to

the same practice under a somewhat different form, and with •use for it in the solidity of its thinking J and it cannot with any consistency objeci to 1 he fashion of thi good old puritans as LoJOg as it calls for and favours so many tenaation means of BIJUnmoning the attention, in>t only in motels, hut in every species Of writing, including OUT religious literature, which is advertised by Catch titles and read for the sake of excitement. It is to he Baid in behalf of the puritans, that though there may he at times

an overstrained ingenuity in their illustrations, yet these always bear directly and pointedly upon the doctrinal truth which they aif expounding, and khe practical lesson; which they enforce. The puritans i eer sought to enlighten the intellect; hut their

aim was also to gain the heart, and in order to both one and

the other, to awaken the conscience in the addresses to which

they heave not been surpassed, perhaps not equalled, by any class of teachers in ancient or in modern times.

The best puritan preaching ever tended to take the form of what they called the ' lecture.' We often meet with this phrase in reading the history of the times. There were lectures delivered weekly in certain churches in London, and in some of the principal towns throughout the three kingdoms; Laud, we know, endeavoured to put down the puritan lecture. Charnock describes himself as officially lecturer at Christ Church, where the lecture was delivered at three o'clock on the afternoons of the Lord's day. We are not to suppose that the puritans always preached in this elaborate style, but the ablest of them did so when they could get fit audience; and the sermons which they thought worthy of publication were commonly of this elaborately-expository type. In particular, Charnock always discourses to us as if he were lecturing in a college chapel at Oxford, or in Christ Church, Dublin.

While it is not desirable that all preaching, or even ordinary preaching, should be of this stamp, it would surely be for the benefit of the church of Christ to have a few lecturers or doctors, fitted for such work, in all our great cities ; or to secure the same end by systematic lectures delivered by a judicious combination of competent men, not merely on attractive and popular, but on profound theological, subjects. To accomplish the purpose in our day, it is not needful that this elaborate exposition should proceed in the manner of the puritans ; in particular, it should avoid the minute dissection of texts in which they so delighted, but in which the living truth was apt to be killed in the process. In order to be profitable, the lectures must be addressed to the age, by men who sympathise with the age ; and it is only thus that they can accomplish in this century, what the puritan lecture effected two hundred years ago. Ever founded on the word of God, they should endeavour to bring out its broad and simple meaning, rather than exercise their ingenuity in drawing out significations which were never seen by the writers of the Scriptures. Thus may the church of God expect to raise up a body of intelligent people, to maintain and defend the truth in our day, by better weapons than were employed even by the soldiers of Cromwell in the seventeenth century.

III. PHILOSOPHICAL PEINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE PUKITAN THEOLOGY.

The author of this Introduction feels that, on being asked to write about the divine who discussed the profound subject of the 'Attributes of God,' it will be expected of him, from the character

of his favourite studies, that he should say something of the philosophy of the puritans, or rather of the philosophic principles involved in the puritan theology. For in truth the puritans were not, really nor professedly, philosophers, but theologians and preachers. Not that their religious views discouraged the study of philosophy. It could be shewn that some of the greatest thinkers that England has produced, owed not a little to puritan influence. Francis Bacon had certainly none of the self-sacrificing spirit of the puritans, but he owed much to a puritan mother. The puritans generally were too much engrossed w T ith practical questions, to write calm philosophic treatises. But it is not to be forgotten that Culverwel and Cudworth, about the most learned and profound thinkers of their age, took the reforming side in Cambridge ; and Howe, who wrote his ' Living Temple' (at least the first part of it) in his calm retirement in the family of Lord Massarene at Antrim, was altogether a puritan. Locke (like Milton) did not keep by the deep religious faith of those among whom he was brought up, but he cherished their reverence for the Bible and liberty of thought.

The phrase ' puritan divines' is understood to apply to those who sought to construct a biblical theology. But Christian theology, which is a co-ordination of the scattered truths of God's word, cannot be constructed without philosophic principles, more or fewer, being involved explicitly, or more frequently implicitly. If we try to connect truths w T hich in the Bible are left unconnected ; if we generalise wha^ in the Scriptures is particular ; if we infer from what is revealed; if we argue from the analogy of the faith, or from any other principle ; above all, if we would arrange the truth into a system, we must, whether we avow it or not, whether we know it or not, proceed on some principle of reason. We often find that those who affect to be the most determined to avoid all scholastic forms, are all the while, in their statements and reasonings, proceeding on principles which are really metaphysical, the metaphysics being very confused and ill-founded. It would be very curious and very instructive withal, to have a full and clear enunciation of the philosophic principles involved in thf theologies of all different ages and creeds. It is only by

having such a Statement spread out articulately, that we can find what L8 human and what is divine in systems of divinity. In this

article we are to endeavour to bring out to view the philosophy implied in the construction of the puritan theology.

bible theologians, as such, should always avoid identifying their ■;. item i with, or founding them upon, any peculiar metaphysical Bystem. But let us not be misunderstood. We do not mean to affirm thai no attempt should he made to wed religion ;md philosophy. We hold that all philosophy should bethought out in a religious spirit, and that much good may he effected by

philosophic works on religious topics, BUCh as those of Pascal, and

Culverwel, and Cudworth in the seventeenth century. But in

all such casoa the philosophy and the Scriptural theology should

be kept separate, not, it may be, in separate chapters, but first in the mind of the writer, and second in the composition of his work; so separate, that the reader may discern the difference, and that the certainties of God may not be confounded by the dullest apprehension with the speculations of men.

The puritans professed to be students of the Bible, and not philosophers, and to avoid all mere speculative questions. And we are prepared to affirm that neither before nor since, has there been a body of profound divines assuming fewer doubtful metaphysical principles. But the very puritans did proceed, in the construction of their systems, on certain logical or metaphysical maxims. We allow that, like all dogmatic theologians, they carried their method of technical formulae too far ; that they did at times squeeze a text, written in an eastern language, to suit it to a western article; and that they professed to reach a completeness of system such as is altogether beyond the limited capacities of man, in dealing with the boundless truths of God's Word. But we maintain that in their theology they ground on no peculiar philosophy ; that the maxims involved in their construction and inferences are found in the very nature of the human mind, and of the reason with which man is endowed, are such as man must ever take with him, if he is not to abnegate his rational nature, are such as have had a place allotted them in all profound philosophies, whether in ancient, in mediaeval, or in modern times ; in short, the puritans proceed on the principles of a catholic philosophy, which is the expression of the laws of man's intellectual constitution.

It may be allowed indeed that they employed at times the forms and expressions of authors, and of systems that were favourites with them. In particular, they used the distinctions and the phrases of Aristotle, of Augustine, and of the scholastic logicians. But then it is to be remembered that Aristotle and Augustine were about the most comprehensive thinkers that ever lived ; and it is a fact that the schoolmen, all narrow and technical as they were in their spirit, were the main instruments of giving definiteness to the expressions used in the western world in our modern literature,—in fact, in our very speeches, sermons, and common conversation. The puritans in their learned treatises had to employ the phraseology of the learning of their times, just as they had to use the language of their country. The inspired writers themselves had their nationalities and their individualities—the speech of the disciples still ' be-wrayeth' them. They had to speak of the sun rising, and the earth standing, according to the ideas of their time ; and in regard to man's nature they had to use the phrases, ' reins/ ' bowels,' ' heart/ and employ the distinction of ' body,' ' soul,' and ' spirit/ because they were accepted in their times. The puritans must use the language they found ready for them, and the distinctions understood by their readers ; but just as the writers of Scripture did not mean authoritatively to sanction any theories of the world or of the mind, so the puritans did not intend to adopt any peculiar philoso-

XXXV111 INTRODUCTION TO CHARNOCK S WORKS.

phic system, Platonic or Aristotelian, Greek or Latin, ancient or modern, but to proceed on the universal principles of reason.

In establishing' the divine existence, Charnock had to make references to the aiaterial universe, as furnishing evidence of order, design, and beneficence. In doing so, he has to make his statements according to the views of the time. The Copernican theory of the universe had been adopted for some ages by men of science, but had not yet been brought down to the common belief of the people. Bacon had rejected it, and Milton in his great poem forms his pictures on the idea of the earth being reckoned the stable centre, with the stars moving round it in cycles and epicycles. When Charnock was in Dublin, the Royal Society was formed in Oxford ; and while Charnock was meditating his discourses on the Attributes, Newton was cogitating the law of universal gravitation. But the preacher feels that it was not for him to go in advance of the popular apprehension. He usually supposes, as all men in fact still do, that the sun moves round the earth, but he states in a note, ' whether it be the sun or the earth that moves, it is all one,' that is for his purpose, which is to shew that ' the things in the world declare the existence of a God in their production, harmony, preservation, and answering their several ends.' 'Every plant, every atom, as well as every star, at the first meeting, whispers this in our ears, " I have a Creator, I am witness to a Deity." Who ever saw statues or pictures, but presently thinks of a statuary and limner?' 'The spider, as if it understood the art of weaving, fits its web both for its own habitation, and a net to catch its prey. The bee builds its cell, which serves for chambers to reside in, and a repository for its provision/ ' The whole model of the body is grounded upon reason. Every member hath its exact proportion, distinct office, regular motion.' ' The mouth takes in the meat, the teeth grind it for the stomach, the stomach prepares it.' 'Every member hath a signature and mark of God, mid of his wisdom.'* It is the office of ii.m nr.il theology to unfold the order and the adaptation which everywhere fall under our notice in the works of God, but in doing so it should never profess bo expound the ultimate constitution of things : l No man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to I he end.' In order to the conclusiveness of the

argumenl for the divine existence, it is not necessary that we should

know the final Composition and laws of the suhstanccs in which the

order and design are exhibited We may Bee at once that there are plan and purpose in the dispositions of an army in march,

though wo know not meanwhile whence it has come or whither it Oing. In liko manner we are sure that there are skill and contrivance in t ho inoveinonts of the hftfUof »»at 'ire, though wo cannot

till their ultimate properties. CharnooJc lived in an age of transition in physical science, and some of his representations are antiquated; hut Ins arguments are s iill conclusive, and his illustrations

need only bO l»o expressed in a new form to hecome apposite. We should DO* forget that we, tOO, live in an agC ^^ transit ion, and

when the grand discoveries of our day in regard to the conservation of energy and the correlation of all the physical forces, and in regard to the unity of all organic forms, are wrought out to their full consequences, we suspect that the most advanced works in our century, that the Natural Theology of Paley, and the Bridge water and Burnet Treatises, will he found as antiquated in the twentieth century as the works of the seventeenth century are to us.

But the divines of the seventeenth century had to deal much more with mental philosophy than with physical science. It may serve some good ends to exhibit the exact historical position in respect of philosophy of the puritans, and more especially of Char-nock. The puritan divines generally were well acquainted with the philosophy of Aristotle, with his logic, his psyche, his ethics, and metaphysics. They were also conversant with the theology of Augustine, of the middle ages, and of the reformers. The exclusive reverence for the scholastic system had passed away among advanced thinkers, but the scholastic training still lingered in the colleges, and the new and experiential method had not yet been expounded. Charnock was born four years before Locke, and the ■ Discourses on the Attributes' appeared ten years before the ' Essay on the Human Understanding,' the work which founded modern English philosophy. Charnock died fifty-nine years before David Hume published the sceptical work on Human Nature, which compelled thinkers to review all old philosophic principles, even those involved in theology; eighty years before Thomas Keid began the work of reconstruction on observational principles ; and a century before Emmanuel Kant made his attack on rational theology, and appealed to man's moral nature as furnishing the only argument for the divine existence. This was no doubt one reason why the puritan theology was not appreciated except by earnest Christians in the eighteenth century ; it did not speak to those who had been trained in the new philosophy. But we have now arrived at a time in which neither the philosophy of Locke, nor that of Kant, can be allowed to reign supremely. We are at a sufficient distance to regard them, not as suns in our sky, but as stars, with Plato and Aristotle and Augustine, and many others, their equals in light and splendour. In particular, those who most admire Locke and his fresh observational spirit, now see his great defects in deriving all our ideas from sensation and reflection, and setting aside the constitutional principles of the mind. The superficial theology which grounded itself on the philosophy of Locke has died an unlamented death, and no one wishes to see it raised from the grave to which it has been consigned. We shall certainly never return to the phraseology employed by the puritans, nor bind ourselves to follow them in their favourite distinctions. Let us copy them only in this, that in our arguments we proceed on the principles which, in some modification or other, have appeared in all deep philosophies, and have done so because they are in the very structure of our minds, and in the nature of human reason, as reflecting the divine reason.

L Let us glance at the Puritan Psychology.

The Faculties of the Mind. —These come out only incidentally. The following is Charnock's summary, ' The essential faculties of the rational soul—the mind, the repository of principles, the faculty whereby we should judge of things honest or dishonest ; the understanding, the discursive faculty, and the reducer of those principles into practical dictates; that part whereby we reason and collect one thing from another, framing conclusions from the principles in the mind ; the heart, i. e., the will, conscience, affections, which were to apply those principles, draw out those reasonings upon the stage of the life.'* Though not a perfect, this is not a bad, distribution of the mental powers. The account of our intellectual capacities is certainly superior to that given by Locke, who denied innate ideas, and allowed an inadequate place to intuition. Charnock mentions first 'the mind, the repository of principles.' What is this but Plato's "koyog and Aristotle's vot$ described by both, each, however, with a different explanation, as ™cro; iidoiv (see Aris. Psyche, iii. c. 4 s. 4) ? What but Locke's intuition — not properly unfolded by him? What but Reid's principles of common sense, Kant's forms, and Sir William Hamilton's regulative faculty ? Then in regard to the other, or motive, department of the mind, we may mark how English thinkers had not yet come to the miserably defective psychology of the last century and beginning of this, in which man's powers are represented as consisting simply in the understanding and feelings. Man's heart is spoken of as having three essential elements, the will, the conscience, and the affections, each with a province, each serving a purpose, and all to be dedicated to God. There was no such narrow and confused controversy such as that which has been started in our day as to whether religion be an affair of the head or of the heart. In their ' repository of principles,' as distinguished from the discursive faculty and reasoning, they had all that is good and true in the modern Germano-Colerid^ean distinction between the reason and the understanding ; and they had it in a better form; and they never proposed, as some in our day have done, to make reason the sole discerner and judge of religion. With the puritan, religion was an affair of the whole man, including head and heart, arid the heart having not only emotive sensibility and attachment, but a conscience to discern good and evil, and a will to choose.

Knowledge* —As opposing themselves io scepticism, both in

natural and revealed religion, they held that man could reach

knowledge, positive and correct. They represented some know-

ledge as being intuitive, and other knowledge as obtained by a process, both the One and the other being real. They held t hat

man could rise to a true knowledge of God, to some knowledge by

means of his works within and without us, but to a still closer and more satisfactory knowledge by the revelation he has given in his Word, very specially by the manifestation hfi has made of himself * Sermon on The Knonled.jr <»/' (lod, \\ vi.

PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES IN THE PURITAN THEOLOGY.

Xli

in the face of his Son. The divines of that century did not countenance the doctrine advocated by Archbishop King and Bishop Peter Brown in the beginning of the next, and revived in our day, as to man being incapacitated by his very nature from knowing God as he is, a doctrine supposed to be favourable to religion, but which may quite as readily serve the purposes of a philosophy which affirms that man can know nothing, and terminate in scepticism. Charnock declares, as to this knowledge, first, that it is not immediate or intuitive, such as we have of a man when we see him face to face, but through ' his excellent works of creation, providence, redemption, and the revelation of invisible mysteries in the Word.' He says, secondly, it is not comprehensive. ' To know comprehensively is to contain, and the thing contained must be less than that which contains, and therefore, if a creature could comprehend the essence of God, he would be greater than God/ He says that we cannot comprehend the nature of the creatures that are near us, and that not even in heaven shall God be comprehensively known. But still we are represented as knowing God. We know God as we know the sea ; we behold the vastness of its waters, but we cannot measure the depths and abysses of it. Yet we may be said truly to see it, as we may touch a mountain with our hands, but not grasp it in our arms/

Knowledge and faith. —The puritans do not enter into any minute inquiries as to the natural exercises of knowledge and faith. The precise nature and relation of knowledge and faith as psychological acts cannot be said to be yet settled by the professors of mental science. We here come to a desideratum, which we venture to think might be supplied by inductive investigation. There is a constant reference in the present day to knowledge and faith as different, and each with a province, but we are furnished with no definition of terms, or explanation of the precise difference of the exercises. The puritans confined themselves, as the schoolmen of the age of Anselm and Abelard did, to their own province, the relation of the two as religious acts. Their views, especially those of Charnock, are clear and distinctly announced, and they seem to us to be sound and judicious. Charnock declares unequivocally that knowledge is necessary in order to faith : ' It is impossible an act can be without an object; nothing is grace but as it is conversant about God, or hath a respect to God. There can be no act about an unknown object.' ' Faith cannot be without the knowledge of God and Christ.' ' Knowledge is antecedent to faith in the order of nature. I know whom I have believed, 2 Tim. i. 12. That ye may know and believe that I am he, Is. xliii. 10/ The divines of that century have not started the question whether faith belongs to the understanding or the feelings. Their view seems to us to be sounder both psychologically and theologically. 'This grace (faith), therefore, is set in a double seat by divines, in the understanding and will: it is properly a consent of the will, which cannot be without an assent in the mind.' ' Faith is in the understanding in regard of disposition, but in the will in regard of the

Xlli INTRODUCTION TO CHARNOCK's WORKS.

fiducial apprehension; for faith is not one simple virtue, but compounded of two, knowledge and trust/*

The conscience. —In respect of the place they give to the conscience, the puritans have passed far beyond Aristotle, whom they so far follow in their psychology. Aristotle, in his Ethics, does allot to ' right reason' (ugio/ievm \6yw x.ai ug civ 6 <pg6vi>j,og eg/ircm, see Ethics ii. c. 6, § 15), a function in the determination of virtue; but he does not mention the conscience. The puritans, founding on the passage in Paul (Rom. ii. 15), make constant references to the conscience ; no preachers before their time, and few since, have made such direct and powerful appeals to this mental faculty. ' Conscience,' says Charnock, ' is natural to man, and an active faculty.' They attempt no psychological analysis of the power; they do not inquire whether it is an exercise of the reason on the one hand, or a sense, sentiment, or feeling on the other. This was a question started in the next age by Samuel Clarke on the one side, and Shaftesbury and Francis Hutcheson on the other. Charnock, we have seen, makes the heart embrace 'the conscience, will, affections.' In the ' mind, the repository of principles,' he places the faculty 'whereby we should judge of things honest or dishonest;' and the office of conscience seems to be that of following this up by ' accusing, or else excusing.' He argues resolutely that the conscience testifieth in behalf of the existence of God. 'Man witnesseth to God in the operations and reflections of conscience.' ' There is a law in the minds of men which is a rule of good and evil. There is a notion of good and evil in the consciences of men, which is evident by those laws which are common to all countries.' ' Man, in the first instant of the use of reason, finds natural principles within himself; directing and choosing them, he finds a distinction between good and evil; how could this be if there werenol some rule to him bo try and distinguish good and evil.' 'Common reason supposeth that there is some hand which hath fixed this distinction in man; how could it cist) be universally impressed 1 No law can be without a lawgiver.' 'As there is a rule in us, there must be a judge.' 'From this a man may rationally be instructed that there is a Cod; fcf he may thus argue: 1 find myself naturally obliged to do this thing and avoid that, 1 have therefore a superior that doth oblige

me.'-f- Has Emmanuel Kant,, with his 'practical reason' and 'categorical imperative/ said anything more direct and convincing than this Y

The affections and the will. These two were never resolved into h other by the puritans. They asserted that all knowledge

should load on to a ffect n .n, and that all genuine faith does produce

* Tin aba cti from the sermon on Thi Kncwltdfnof Ood,

t Aitriimt'X, Diao. I. The puritans generally appeeled to firsl principle*, intellectual end moral. Than Baxter ■eye, Rttuoni qfUu Christum Religion, P. 1, -Ami if I could n"i en iwei ■• loeptio, who denied the certainty of my judgment by Bonee-tion and reflexive intuition (how Dear t<> Looke), yel nature would nut suffer mo to

doubt ' ' By my aotiom I know that 1 em; uiul that 1 am a HtMitiout, intelligent,

thinking, willing, end operative being. 1 'it ii true thai there ii in the natui I man's soul a certain aptitude to understand oertain truths as soon as the] art rtvealed ; thut is, pj soon ■ thi rery tutfura Pimm li observed. Ami it ii true that

affection. But they ever insisted that above the affections there is a more important power, the power of will. It is thus that Char-nock puts the relation of these attributes :—' The choice of the will in all true knowledge treads upon the heel of the act of understanding, and men naturally desire the knowledge of that which is true, in order to the enjoyment of that which is good in it. The end of all the acts of the understanding is to cause a motion in the will and affections suitable to the apprehension.' ' Knowledge is but as a cloud that intercepts the beams of the sun, and doth not advantage the earth, unless melted into drops, and falling down into the bosom of it. Let the knowledge of the word of the truth drop down in a kindly shower upon your hearts, let it be a knowledge of the word heated with love.'*

II. Philosophic Principles. —We have seen that among the mental attributes he places 'the repository of principles/ The puritan divines do not attempt to expound the nature of these principles, and the accounts given by metaphysicians since that time, as well as prior

this disposition is brought to actual knowledge as soon as the mind comes to actual consideration of the things. But it is not true that there is any actual knowledge of any principles born in man.' It is wrong to * make it consist in certain axioms (as some say) born in us, or written in our hearts from our birth (as others say), dispositively there.' These distinctions do not exhaust the subject, but they contain important truth; and if Locke had attended to them, he would have been saved from extravagant statements. Owen, in his Dissertation on Divine Justice, appeals, in proving the existence of justice, (1.) to the ' common opinion' and innate conceptions of all; (2.) to the consciences of all mankind; (3.) to the public consent of all nations.

* Sermons on Knowledge of God and Regeneration. David Clarkson, in his account of the ' New Creature/ speaks of the following mental acts as involved in the religious exercises of the soul:—I. The Mind ok Undekstanding. And under this (1.) apprehensions, view, or notion; (2.) judgment and assent arising from apprehensions; (3.) valuations proceeding from the estimative power of the mind; (4.) designs or contrivances of ends; (5.) inventions, whereby finds means towards ends ; (6.) reasonings, or discursive power ; (7.) thoughts, or cogitations; (8.) consultations, the advising power which philosophers call BovXsvT/xrj, which shews by what means the good end may be secured. II. The Will, under which we have (1.) new inclinations,—Aristotle calls the act BovXyjtJtg, and the schoolmen, simplex volitio, in it the mind has a new object; (2.) new intentions, aiming at something new, intending God and aiming at him ; (3.) fruitions, in which the mind rests and is contented ; (4.) new elections in choice of means for promoting ends, Aristotle's crgoa/gsff/; rcov ftgbg rb riXog ; (5.) new consents, in particular the soul consenting to enter into covenant with God ; (6.) new applications, whereby the will applies the faculties to prosecute what it has pitched on ; (7.) new purposes, determinations, resolves, these being fixed and permanent. This analysis, taken with modifications from Aristotle and the scholastic divines, is too minute, but it shews how expanded a view the puritans took of the higher attributes of the mind as engaged in spiritual acts. In his sermon ' Of Faith,' he says—Faith implies (l.J knowledge ; (2 ) assent; (3) dependence or procumbence. ' To rely upon Christ alone for salvation is saving faith.' See Sermons and Discourses on Several Divine Subjects, by the late Reverend and learned David Clarkson, B.D., and sometime Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, 1696. In these sermons, the scholastic phrases, objective, subjective, effective, formaliler, interpretive, habitualiter, cast up in all profound discussion. The account of the mental faculties is the most extended we have seen in the puritan writings. That of Charnock is more succinct and judicious. But all the puritans proceed substantially on the same views. The view of faith is the Bame with that of Charnock, and it could easily be shewn that it is that held by the puritan divines generally.

xllV INTRODUCTION TO CHARNOCK's WORKS.

to it, have been sufficiently confused. So far as Charnock incidentally sketchestheir nature, his views are both just andprofound. He speaks of them as connatural* a phrase the praise of which has been ascribed to Shaftesbury; but Culverwel, with whose writings Shaftesbury was well acquainted, uses connate, and Whichcote (see Aphorisms) uses connatural; and connate and connatural were probably familiar phrases among the Platonic thinkers in Emmanuel College. Charnock is fond of characterising these principles as ' common reason/ 1 nature within man ;' he speaks of ' the common principles in the conscience/ and in this form they are ' a law of nature writ upon the hearts of men, which will direct them to commendable actions if they will attend to the writings in the conscience.'

In establishing the existence of God in the opening of his most elaborate work, Charnock ever appeals to these principles of reason. 1 What is the general dictate of nature is a certain truth/ and with Cicero he appeals to common consent; ' a general consent of all nations is to be esteemed as a law of nature/ He shews in regard to the conviction of the divine existence; (1) that it hath been universal, no nation being without it; (2) that it hath been consistent and uninterrupted in all kinds and conditions of men; and (3) natural and innate. ' Every man is born with a restless instinct to be of some kind of religion or other, which implies some object of religion. The impression of a Deity is as common as reason, and of the same age with reason. It is a relic of knowledge after the fall of man, like fire under ashes, which sparkles as soon as ever the heap of ashes is opened. A notion is sealed up in the soul of every man : how could these people, who were unknown to one another, separate by seas and mountains, differing in various customs and manner of living, had no mutual intelligence one with another, light upon this as a common sentiment, if they had not been guided by one uniform reason in all their minds, by one nature common to them all?" While he represents the belief in God as thus a dictate of nature, he does not allege that it is formed independent of the observation of objects, or without the exercise of discursive thought. ' The notion of a God seems to be twisted with the nature of man, and is the first natural branch of common reason, or upon either the first inspection of a man into himself and his own state and constitution, or upon the first sight of any external visible

object .'-)*

Be has occasion to make use of important metaphysical principles, hut In- dors not, discuss them as a metaphysician. He incidentally refers to our ideas of Time and Eternity. I le accords wit h those divines who hold that God m.iv stand in a different relation to time from that in which man docs; hut he does not give any

countenance to the statements of those schoolmen, who, founding upon certain mystic expressions of Augustine, spoke of time as having no existence, no reality in the view of God. His view is characterised by his usual judgment 'Since God knows time, he

knows all things as they were in time ; he doth not know all thing! * Sermon on Itryrncndion, D, 111. f Attributes, Discourse I.

to be at once, though he knows at once what is, has been, and will be. All things are past, present, and to come, in regard to their existence ; but there is not past, present, and to come, in regard to God's knowledge of them, because he sees and knows not by any other but by himself; he is his own light by which he sees, his own glass wherein he sees ; beholding himself, he beholds all things.'*

David Hume had not yet risen to compel philosophers to discuss the precise nature of causation. Charnock proceeds as Bacon had done, and as all thinkers of his time still did, upon the Aristotelian distinction of causes into material, efficient, formal, and final, a distinction, we may remark, founded on the nature of things, and having a deep but somewhat confused meaning. In regard to efficient cause he assumes that every occurrence has a cause, and with Aristotle, that there cannot be an infinite series of causey and reckons this a principle of reason, though not formed independent of the observation of things.

But the metaphysical topic which fell more especially under the notice of the puritan theologians was that of the freedom of the will, which they had to consider and discuss as against the rising Arminianism. Keally and professedly they followed Augustine and Calvin, whose doctrines however have often been misunderstood. These profound thinkers were most sensitively anxious to have their doctrine of predestination distinguished from the fatalism of the Stoics.t They held that man had an essential freedom given him by his Maker, a freedom which made him a responsible being, and of which he could never be deprived. At the same time, they maintained that this freedom had been much impaired by sin, which has injured man first morally and then physically, so that the will is now enslaved. This is the doctrine resolutely defended by Augustine (see De Libero Arbitrio), and by Calvin (see his De Servitute et Liberatione Humani Arbitrii in reply to Pighius). They were followed by the puritans generally. Thus Owen in his ' Display of Arminianism' :—' We grant man in the substance of all his actions as much power, liberty, and freedom, as a mere created nature is capable of. We grant him to be free in his choice from all outward exaction or inward natural necessity to work according to election and deliberation, spontaneously embracing what seemeth good unto him.'J The puritans clung to the Scrip-

* Attributes, Discourse on Eternity.

f It is a circumstance worthy of being noted, that in modern times, we have reversed the meaning of the phrases used by the ancient philosophers, and thus produced some confusion. The Stoics resolutely denied Necessitas, but held by Fatum (see Cicero De Fato), by which they meant what was spoken or decreed by God, whom they represented as an intellectual fire, developing all things in cycles, according to a fixed and eternal order. The arguments advanced by them in favour of fatalism are substantially the same with those urged in modern times in behalf of Philosophical Necessity.

J In the same treatise, Owen speaks of that ■ effectual working of his, according to his eternal purpose, whereby though some agents as the wills of men are causes free and indefinite or unlimited, lords of their own actions, in respect of their internal principle of operations (that is, their own nature), they are yet all, in respect of his decree, and by his powerful working, determined to this and that

ture doctrine of predestination, but they did not identify it with the philosophic doctrine of Necessity as Jonathan Edwards did in the next century. They drew their doctrine from the Word of God, and founded it upon the perfection of God's Knowledge looking into the future as well as the past and present, and upon his Sovereignty doing all things, but all things wisely, justly, and beneficently. Some Calvinistic divines we acknowledge have drawn distinctions to save the freedom of the will which have rather wrecked it, and have used expressions which make our moral nature shudder. Charnock is wonderfully clear of all such extremes :— 1 God's foreknowledge of man's voluntary actions doth not necessitate the will of man.' ' It is certain all necessity doth not take away liberty ; indeed, a compulsive necessity takes away liberty, but a necessity of immutability removes not liberty from God. Why should then a necessity of infallibility in God remove liberty from the creature t ' God did not only know that we should do such actions, but that we should do them freely ; he foresaw that the will would freely determine itself to this or that.' ' God did not foreknow the actions of men as necessary but as free ; so that liberty is rather established by this foreknowledge than removed.' ' That God doth foreknow every thing, and yet that there is liberty in the rational creature, are both certain; but how fully to reconcile them, may surmount the understanding of man.' As to his sovereignty and election, he declares, what the experience of every Christian responds to, ' It could not be any merit in the creature that might determine God to choose him. If the decree of election falls not under the merit of Christ's passion, as the procuring cause, it cannot fall under the merit of any part of the corrupted mass.' But he ever falls back upon the goodness and justice of God as regulating his sovereignty, 'As it is impossible for liim not to be sovereign, it is impossible for him to deny his deity and his purity. It is lawful to God to do what he will, but his will being ordered by the righteousness of his nature,

effect, in particular; not that they are compelled to do this, or hindered from doin^ that, but aro inclined and dijfoied to do this or that according to their proper manner of working, that i^ most freely.' 'We grant as large a freedom and dominion to onr wills over their own ;i<-t s as a creature Bubjecl to the supremo rulo of God's providence Is capable of. Endned we arc with Mien a liberty of will as is free from all outward compulsion and inward necessity, having an elective faculty

of applj in:' i! 'If unto that which seems good unto it, in which it has a free ehoice,

notwithstanding it is subservient to the decree of GodV 'The acts of will being

i re entities,' 'cannot have their e lenos and existence solely from the will itself,

and eannot l" 1 thus, a-jr'ii ov, a lirst and supremo cause endued with an undcrived

.- ■ He distinguishes between «ill ■ as it. was at Brsl by (lod created,' and • will >w by sin corrupted;' yet being considered in ts ■ also, they ascribe

more unto it than it was ever capahlo of.' ' 'l'h ere is hoth an iuipotenry and an

enmity in corrupted nature to anything ipiritually good.' ■ Even in spiritual things we deny that our wills are at all debarred or deprived of their proper liberty, but I,,.,-,. adeed, that we are qo| properly free until the Sou makes as free.' in

3 mil's /'rr.srrrntnrr, he says, 'The impoteney that is in Dl to do good is not Iermed rlliin -phyaiea, hoi h natural and moral.' These extra the views

sntertained hy the puritans generally, who meant simply to socmen the do ctiin es

written on the vn\ lace of Scripture, hut sometimes did si) hy douhtful metu-

iC l\ dj llle-ll

PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES IN THE PURITAN THEOLOGY. xlvi'i

as infinite as his will, he cannot do any thing but what is good.'*

The inspired writers as little profess to give a system of the faculties of the mind as of the material world. In mentioning the sun, moon, and stars, and the earth with its rocks, plants, and animals, they proceed upon the ideas of their time; and in the same manner they refer to the attributes of the soul in language understood by those whom they addressed—very often, we may add, imparting to the phrases and the notions embodied in them; a comprehensiveness and an elevation which they never could have had but for their association with spiritual verities. In the Old Testament, constant allusions' are made to the special senses of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling; to remembrances, imaginations, and knowledge; to thoughts, understanding, and comprehending ; to belief, trust, and confidence; to devices, counsels, purposes, and intents; to fear and hope, grief and joy, pity and compassion, anger and mercy, hatred and love. Among the Hebrews, as indeed in most nations, particular faculties were connected with particular parts of the body ; and we read of ' bowels/ the seat of sympathy; of the ' reins/ the seat of deep and anxious thought; and of the ' heart/ the seat of all inward reflection. And here we think it of some importance to call attention to the circumstance that the Scriptures do not distinguish, as we do, the heart from the head; and do not make the heart signify mere emotion, but use it to include all that passes through the mind prior to action; and we read of the 'imaginations' and of the 'thoughts' of man's heart,—hence the absurdity of arguing that faith consists in feeling, from the fact that we are said to believe with the heart. In the New Testament, we have a more advanced view; and we read of the 'mind' and 'conscience/ the 'soul' and 'spirit,' and 'will' has a higher place allotted to it. The preacher and divine must, like the inspired waiters, proceed so far upon the distribution of the mental powers understood by their hearers and readers; but it will be found that when they take a limited view of the human mind and its capacities, both their preaching and their theology will be very much narrowed. It could easily be shewn that the inspired writers have something suited to every essential quality of man's complex nature, providing symbols for the senses, images for the fancy, types for the imagination, aiding the memory by interesting correlations of time and number, presenting arguments to the understanding, rousing appeals to the conscience, a lovely object to draw forth the affections, and motives to persuade the will. The broad and comprehensive views of the faculties taken by the puritan preachers led them to address all the parts of man's complex nature.

As the Bible is not a book of science, mental or material, so it is not a book of philosophy. Nor should preaching, nor should theology, affect to be metaphysics. If any thinker is discontented with * Attributes, Discourses on God's Knowledge and Dominion.

past speculative philosophy, he is at liberty to attempt to amend it. But let him do so in a professedly philosophic work, written always in a religious spirit, but without identifying religion with his theories. Still it will be difficult for the theologian, difficult even for the preacher, to avoid proceeding on an implied philosophy. If we do nothing more than exhort persons to beware of satisfying themselves, with a speculative without a practical knowledge, we are proceeding, whether we know it or not, on an Aristotelian distinction. A profound philosophy has in all ages sought to ally itself with theology. Religion may be inconsistent with a superficial or a one-sided, but not with a deep or a catholic philosophy. A shallow philosophy will always tend to produce a shallow theology. Suppose, for instance, we adopt the principle of Hobbes and the sensational school of France, and hold that all our ideas are got from the senses, it will be difficult to establish any of the higher truths of religion; or suppose we assert that virtue is mere utility, it will be difficult to vindicate the justice of God in the awful punishment of the sinner. Philosophic principles should certainly not obtrude themselves in the disquisitions of the divine; but philosophic conceptions may underlie his whole mode of thought and discussion, and impart a coherency and consistency to the system constructed by him. The profound views of human reason, in its strength and in its weakness, taken by the puritan divines, enabled them to construct a theology in some measure corresponding to the profundity of Scripture, and defective only in this, that at times it proposed to settle what should have been left free, and to embrace all revealed truths, which, in their entireness, will always refuse to be compressed within human systems.

A TREATISE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

VOL. I.

TO THE EEADER.

Reader, —Thou art here presented with a little piece of a great man ; great, indeed, if great piety, great parts, great learning, and great wisdom, may be admitted to claim that title; and we verily believe that none well acquainted with him will deny him his right, however malevolent persons may grudge him the honour. It hath been expected and desired by many that some account of his life might be given to the world; but we are not willing to offer violence to his ashes by making him so public now he is dead, who so much affected privacy while he lived. Thou art therefore desired to rest satisfied with this brief account of him : That being very young he went to Cambridge, where, in Immanuel College, he was brought up under the tuition of the present Archbishop of Canterbury. What gracious workings and evidences of the new birth appeared in him while there, hath already been spoken of by* one who was at that time his fellow-collegiate and intimate. Some time he afterward spent in a private family, and a little more in the exercise of his ministry in Southwark, then removed to New College inOxon, where he was fellow, and spent several years ; being then taken notice of for his singular gifts, and had in reputation by the most learned and godly in that university, and upon that account the more frequently put upon public work. Being thence (the year after he had been proctor) called over into Ireland to a constant public employment, he exercised his ministry for about four or five years, not with the approbation only, but to the admiration of the most wise and judicious Christians, and with the concurrent applause of such as were of very different sentiments from him in the things of religion. Nay, even those that never loved his piety, yet would commend his learning and gifts, as being beyond exception, if not above compare. About the year 1660, being discharged from the public exercise of his ministry, he returned back into England, and in and about London spent the greatest part of fifteen years, without any call to his old work in a settled way, but for about these five years last past hath been more known by his constant preaching, of which we need not speak, but let them that heard him speak for him ; or, if they should be silent, his works will do it.

He was a person of excellent parts, strong reason, great judgment, and (which do not often go together) curious fancy, of high improvements, and general learning, as having been all his days a most diligent and methodical student, and a great redeemer of time, rescuing not only his restless hours in the night, but his very walking time in the streets, from those imperti-nencies and fruitless vanities which do so customarily fill up men's minds, and steal away their hearts from those better and more noble objects, which do so justly challenge their greatest regards. This he did by not only carefully watching (as every good Christian should do), but constantly writing down his thoughts, whereby he both governed them better, and furnished * Mr Johnson, in his Sermon on occasion of Mr Charnock's death.

TO THE READER.

himself with many materials for his most elaborate discourses. His chief talent was his preaching-gift, in which, to speak modestly, he had few equals. To this, therefore, as that for which his Lord and Master had best fitted him (neglecting the practice of physic, in which he had arrived at a considerable measure of knowledge), he did especially addict himself, and direct his studies; and even when providence denied him opportunities, yet he was still laying in more stock, and preparing for work against he might be called to it. When he was in employment, none that heard him could justly blame his retiredness, he being, even when most private, continually at work for the public ; and had he been less in his study, he would have been less liked in the pulpit. His library, furnished, though not with a numerous, yet a curious collection of books, was his workhouse, in which he laboured hard all the week, and on the Lord's day made it appear he had not been idle; and that though he consulted his privacy, yet he did not indulge his sloth. He was somewhat reserved where he was not well acquainted, otherwise very free, affable, and communicative, where he understood and liked his company. He affected not much acquaintance, because he would escape visitants, well knowing how much the ordinary sort of friends were apt to take up of his time, which he could ill spare from his beloved studies, meeting w T ith few that could give him better entertainment with their company than he could give himself alone. They had need be very good, and very learned, by whose converse he could gain more than by his own thoughts and books. He was a true son of the Church of England, in that sound doctrine laid down in the articles of religion, and taught by our most famous ancient divines and reformers; and a real follower of their piety, as well as a strenuous main-tainer of the truth they professed. His preaching was mostly practical, yet rational and argumentative, to his hearers' understandings as well as affections ; and where controversies came in his way, he shewed great acuteness and judgment in discussing and determining them, and no less skill in applying them to practice : so that he was indeed ' a workman that needed not to be ashamed,' being able * by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince gainsayers.' Some have thought his preaching too high for vulgar hearers ; and it cannot be denied but his gifts were suited to the more intelligent sort of Christians ; yet it must withal be said, that if he were sometimes deep, he was never abstruse ; he handled the great mysteries of the gospel with much clearness and perspicuity ; so that if in his preaching he were above most, it was only because most were below him. Several considerable treatises on some of tho most important points of religion ho finished in his ordinary course, which he hath left behind him, in the same form he usually wrote them for tho pulpit. This comes out first, as a prodromui to several others igned to bo made public, as soon as they can bo with convenioncy transcribed, which (if tho Lord will, and sparo life) shall bo attested with our hands ; and whatever any elso shall publish, can bo but imperfect notos (his own copies being under our revisal at tho request of his friends) takon from him in tho pulpit; in which, what mistakes do often happen, every one knows, and we havo found by oxperienco in tho caso of this very author more thin once. This was thought fit to bo said to seeure the reputation of tho dead, and provent tho abuse of tho living. These sermons might havo come out with tho solemn ceremony oflargo rocommeudat ions, the author's worth being 80 woll known to, and his preaching so highly esteemed by, the most eminent ministors about this city; but it was judged needless, his own works being sufficient to praiso him.

Ono thing more is to be added: that mob as he is here, such ho is in his othor piocos. So that thou hast here, reador, a specimen of tho strain and

spirit of this holy man, this being his familiar and ordinary way of preaching, and these sermons coming out first, not as if they were the nonsuch of what he left behind him, but because they could soonest be despatched, and to obviate the injuries might else be done by spurious treatises both to him and thee; and likewise by this little taste to gratify the appetites of such who, having been his auditors, did long even with greediness to feast themselves again upon those excellent truths which in the delivery were so sweet to them. Perhaps too it may quicken their appetites who never heard him, it may be never yet heard of him. If thou like this cluster, fear not but the vintage will be answerable; if this little earnest be good metal, the whole sum will be no less current. That a blessing from heaven may be upon this work, and upon thee in reading and studying the nature, and beauty, and ends of divine providence, and that the Lord of the harvest (especially when so many are daily called home) would send forth more and more such labourers into the harvest, is the hearty prayer of

Thine in the Lord,

Richard Adams. Edward Veal.

A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him. — 2 Chbon. XVI. 9.

In the beginning of the chapter you find Baasha king of Israel raising walls about, and fortifying Rarnah, a place about twelve miles from Jerusalem, the metropolis of Judah, intending by that means to block Asa up, because Rainah lay just upon the road between Jerusalem and Samaria, the seats of the two kings, ver. 1.

Baasha was probably afraid of the revolt of Israel to Judah, upon that reformation of religion wrought by Asa, and therefore would fortify that place, to be a hindrance, and to intercept any that should pass upon that account; and to this purpose makes great preparation, as appears ver. 6, for with the provision Baasha had made for the fortification of Ramah, Asa, after the seizing of the materials, builds two towns, Geba and Mispah.

Asa seeing Baasha so busy about this design, and fearing the consequence of it, hath recourse to carnal policy rather than to God; and therefore enters into leaguo with Benhadad, a neighbour, though an idolatrous prince, and purchaseth his assistance with the sacrilegious price of the treasure of the temple, ver. 2, 3; and hereby engageth him to invade the king of Israel's territories, that ho might thereby find work for Baasha in another part, and so divert him from that design upon which ho was so bent: ver. 8, ' Go, break thy league with Baasha, that ho may depart from mo.'

Benhadad is easily persuaded by the quantity of gold, &c., to break his league, and mako an inroad, and proves victorious, and takes many cities where tho magazines and stores wore laid op, ver. 4.

B i:isha now, to savo his country, and make head against his enemies, is forced to leave leunah; whereupon Asa, who watched his opportunity, Heizeth the materials he had left for the fortifying of leimah, and puts thom to another use, ver. 5, (>.

Hanani the seer ll presently sent by God with a threatening of war, becauso he applies himself to a heathen prince rather than to the Lord of

hosts, ver. 7; his sin is aggravated hv God's former kindness to him, and oxperienco ho had given him of his miraculous providonco in his succoss against that vast army of the Ethiopians and Luhims, or Lybians, and that upon his rccourso to or rolianco on Ctod ; and that ho should afterwards

have recourse to the arm of flesh was a disparagement to God's providential kindness, ver. 8. He further aggravates his sin by the consideration of God's general providential care of his creatures, and the particular end of it, and of all his providences, viz., the good of his church and people, ver. 9, 1 For the eyes of the Lord,' &c.

Eyes of the Lord, in Scripture, signify,

1. His knowledge : Job. xxxiv. 21, ' For his eyes are upon all the ways of man, and he sees all his goings.' Heb. iv. 13, ' All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.'*

2. His providence.

(1.) For good, so it notes his grace and good will; so his eyes and his heart are joined together : 1 Kings vi. 3, ' Mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually,' viz., in his temple, the place which he had hallowed to put his name there for ever. Ps. xxxii. 8, ■ I will guide him with mine eye ;' that is, I will counsel him, and direct him in a gracious and a favourable way. Therefore, to be cut off from the eye of the Lord, is to be deprived of his favour, Ps. xxxi. 22, for none can be cut off from a simple knowledge of God; so Zech. iii. 9, ■ seven eyes upon one stone,' that is, the providence of God was in an especial manner with Christ in the midst of his passion.

(2.) For evil, so it notes his anger and vindictive justice. Isa. iii. 8, 1 Their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.' Kindness and anger appear first in the eye, one by its pleasantness, the other by its redness.

1 Run,' that notes diligence and care, an industrious inspection into all things. Ps. cxix. 32, ■ I will run the ways of thy commandments,' noting speed and diligence.

In the verse we have, I I. A description of God's providence. I II. The end of it.

I. The description of God's providence.

1. The immediateness of it; '■ his eyes,' his own eyes, not another's. Not like princes, who see by their servants' eyes more than by their own, what is done in their kingdoms; his care is immediate. Though angels are ministers of his providence, the guardians and watchers of the world, yet God is their captain, and is always himself upon the watch.

2. Quickness and speed of providence ; ' run.' His eyes do not only walk, but run the round ; they are not slumbering eyes, nor drowsy eyelids ; their motion is quick and nimble.

3. Extent of providence ; ' the whole earth ;' all things in the earth, all the hairs on the heads of these men: the meanest worm as well as the mightiest prince; the lowest shrub as well as the tallest cedar; every cranny, corner, or chink of the earth.

4. Diligence of providence ; t to and fro.' His care is repeated, he looks this way and that way, again and again; his eyes are not confined to one place, fixed on one object, but are always rolling about from one place to another.

5. The efficacy of his providence ; his care doth engage his strength ; he doth not only discover dangers, but prevent them; he hath eyes to see, and power to order all things according to his pleasure; wise to see, and strong to save.

II. The end of providence ; « to shew himself strong,' &c.

rgctxyfi-og significat spinam dorsi, et in mactatis animalibus per spinam omnia apparent interiora, ita ut nihil latere potest. —Glassius, vol. iii. 1, 106.

1. Finis cujus, * to shew himself strong.' Heb. to * make himself strong,' but best translated, to ■ shew himself strong.' It is not an addition of strength, but an exercise of strength that is here meant.

2. Finis cui, or the persons for whom, ' those that are perfect in heart.' Doctrines.

1. There is a providence exercised by God in the world.

2. All God's providences in the world are in order to the good of his people.

3. Sincerity in God's way gives a man an interest in all God's providences, and the good of them.

1. For the first, there is a providential inspection and government of all things in the world by God. It is not a bare sight of things that is here meant by God's eye, but a sight and knowledge in order to the governing and disposing of them. View this doctrine at your leisure, preached by God himself, with an inconceivable elegancy, and three whole chapters spent in the sermon, Job xxxviii., xxxix., xl., and by the psalmist, Ps. cxlvii. cxlviii.

Some observe that the society of angels and heavenly creatures is represented, Ezek. i., by a quaternarian number, because the world is divided into four dimensions, east, west, north, and south, as intimating the extension of God's providence over all parts.*

Things are not ordered in the world cceco impetu, not by blind fortune, but an all-seeing Deity, who hath the management of all sublunary affairs. Tig (AsydXri dbvuplg Trig wgovotccg ; t wavrcc iin uglorou vov yivsrou, was the theological maxim of the Stoics.

Before I come particularly to explain the providence of God, I shall lay down some propositions as the foundations of this doctrine.

1. God hath an indisputable and peculiar right to the government of the world. None ever questioned God's right, no, nor his act, but those that were swelled with an unreasonable ambition, such as Nebuchadnezzar, who for this cause underwent the punishment of a seven years' banishment from the society of men, Dan. iv. 17.

None indeed that acknowledge a God, did or can question God's right, though they may question his will and actual exercise of his right. He is the creator, and therefore is the sovereign Lord and Ruler. The world is his family, and, as a master, he hath an undoubted right to govern his own family: he gave all creatures their beings, and therefore hath a right to enact their laws, appoint their stations, and fix their ends. It is as much his property and prerogative to rule, as it is to create. Creation is so peculiarly proper to God, that it is not communicable to any creature, no, not to angels, though of a vast capacity in other things, and that because they are creatures themselves. It is as impossible for one creature, or all, to govern the world, and manage all tho boisterous passions of mon to just and glorious onds, as to croato thorn. It is true, God usoth instruments in the oxocutive part of his providenco; but ho doth not design the government of tho world only by instruments. Ho usoth thorn not for necessity, but ornament. Ho created tho world without thorn, and therefore can govorn the world without thorn.

I irtus creativa est fund amen t um provulnitur, et ari/utnenhun ad provi-dentiam. This right is foundod upon that of croation, as he is the efficient causo of it. This right is also foundod upon tho oxcolloncy of his boing ; that which is excellent having a right to rule, in tho way of that oxcolloncy, that which is inferior. Every man hath a natural right to rule another in

* Hvdaon'i Divine Bight of Uovonnnout, chap. vi. p. 3. t Clomoua ad (Joriuth, [>. 84.

his own art and skill wherein he excels him. If it be the right of a chief magistrate to manage the concerns of his kingdom, with what reason can we deny that right to God ?

2. God only is qualified for the universal government of the world. All creatures, as they were unable to create themselves, so are unable to manage themselves without the direction of a superior power, much more unable to manage the vast body of the world. God is only fit in regard of,

(1.) Power. Conservation is continuata creatio ; that power which is fit to create, is only fit to preserve. A continued creation belongs as much to omnipotency as the first creation.

The government of it requires no less power, both in regard of the numer-ousness of the objects, and the strange contrariety of passions in rational creatures, and qualities in irrational; conservation is but one continued act with creation, following on from an instant to duration, as a line from its mathematical point.*

(2.) Holiness and righteousness. If he that hates right is not fit to govern, Job xxxiv. 17, then he that is infinitely righteous, and hath an infinite love to righteousness, is the fittest to undertake that task; without righteousness there would be nothing but confusion in the whole creation. Disorder is the effect of unrighteousness, as order is the effect of justice. The justest man is fittest for subordinate government among men, and the infinite just God is fittest for the universal government of the world.

(3.) Knowledge. An infinite knowledge to decry all the contrivances and various labyrinths of the hearts of men, their secret intentions and aims, is necessary. The government of the world consists more in ordering the inward faculties of men, touching the hearts, and tuning them to play what note he pleases, than in external things. No creature hath the skill or power to work immediately upon the will of man ; neither angels nor devils can do it immediately, but by proposing objects, and working upon the fancy, which is not always successful. He that created the heart, knows all the wards of it, and hath only the skill to turn it and incline it as he pleases ; he must needs know all the inclinations of the creatures and their proper activities, since he alone conferred all those several principles and qualities upon them. * Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world,' Acts xv. 8, viz., the particular natures, inclinations, inward motions, which no creature fully understands ; he needs no deputy to inform him of what is done, he is everywhere, and sees all things. Worldly governors cannot be everywhere essentially present.

God is so perfect in his knowledge of all things, that he cannot be imposed upon by the evil suggestions and flatteries of men or angels.

In nature it is so : the eye guides the body, because that is the chief organ of sensitive knowledge; the mind, which is the seat of wisdom, guides the whole.

(4.) Patience. Infinite patience is requisite to the preservation and government of the world, in the circumstances wherein it hath stood ever since the fall. What angel, though the meekest, or can all the angels in heaven, be masters of so much patience as is needful for this work of governing the world, though for the space of one day ? Could they bear with all those evils which are committed in the world in the space of twenty-four hours ? Might we not reasonably conceive, that they would be so tired with the obliquities, disorders, deformities which they would see in the acts of men (besides all the evil which is in the hearts of men, which He without the verge of their

* Taylor's Exemplar, preface.

knowledge), that they would rather call for fire from heaven to burn the world to ashes.

Averroes* thought that because of God's slowness to anger, he meddled not with sublunary concerns. This rather fits him for it, because he can bear with the injuries of wicked men, otherwise the world would not continue a moment.

Angels, though powerful, holy, wise and patient creatures, yet being creatures, they want the infiniteness of all these qualifications which are necessary to this government. Though they are knowing, yet they know not men's hearts ; though they are wise, yet they may be charged with a folly uncapable of this ; though holy, yet not able in this respect to manage it to the ends and designs of an infinite holiness; though nimble, yet cannot be in all parts of the world at every turn : but the providence of God is infallible, because of his infinite wisdom ; indefatigable, because of his omnipotency; and righteous, because of his goodness.

3. There can be no reason rendered why God should not actually govern the world, since he only hath a right and fitness. If God doth not actually govern it, it is either because he cannot, or because he will not.

(1.) Not because he cannot. This inability must be either for want of knowledge, or want of power. The one, if asserted, would deny his omnipotence, the other his omniscience ; the one would make him a weak God, the other an ignorant God, and consequently no God.

(2.) Not because he will not; if he can and will not, it is, say some, a testimony of envy, that he maligns the good of his creatures ; but not to insist upon this ; this must be either because of the,

[l.J Difficulty. This cannot be. What difficulty can there be in a single word, or one act of his will, which can be done by God without any molestation, were there millions of worlds as well as this ? For still they would be finite, and so governable by an infinite superior. May we not more reasonably think the forming such a mass would require more pains than the government of it ? The right stringing an instrument is more trouble to a skilful musician, than the tripping over the strings afterwards to make an harmony. What difficulty can it be to Omnipotence ? Is it a greater labour to preserve and govern, than it was to create ? Doth not the soul order every part of the body, and all its functions, without any pain to it ? and shall not the God that made that soul so indefatigable, much more manage the concernments of the world without labour to himself ? Is it not as easy with God to guide all these things by one single act of his will, as for me, by an act of my soul, to do many tilings without a distinct act of cogitation or consideration before ? Can it be more laborious to him to govern tho world, than it is to know all things in tho world? Ho sees all things in an instant by one act of his understanding, and he orders all creatures in a moment by one act of his will. Can oik; act of his will he more painful than one act o( his understanding? Can ho with a word make this gltal ball? and can he not with M much ease Order all to conform to the law of his own righteous will? Can a cont inual eruption of goodness be a difficulty to an infinite being, which we find natural to the sun, to the fountains, to the sea, to many works

of that omnipotent goodneet ? Or,

[2.) Disparagement. Denial of Cod's providence over the lesser things of the world did arise from the consideration of the state of monarehs, who thought it an abridgment of their felicity and dignity, to stoop to inch low

considerations as the miniituht of their estates might exact from them, but left them to their vice gerents. I»111 they consider not that the felicity of

* Trap on Bzod. xxxiv.

God as it respects the creature, is to communicate his goodness to as many subjects as he had made capable of his care. If it were his glory to create the world, can it be his dishonour to govern it ? The glorifying his wisdom is as honourable to him as the magnifying his power; though both are eminent in creation and providence, yet his wisdom is more signal in the governing, as his power was in framing of the world.

Why was it not as much a disparagement to God to create things contemptible in our eyes, as since he hath created them to take care of them, and marshal them for his glorious ends ? The sun in the heavens is a shadow of God, which doth not disdain to communicate its natural goodness, and emit its beams to the meanest creatures, and let the little flies sport themselves in them, as well as the greatest princes, and transmits an influence upon things obscure and at a distance from it, whereby it manifests an universal regard to all. And would it not be a disparagement to an infinite goodness to be outstripped by a creature, which he hath set up for a natural communication of goodness to the rest of the world ? The very consideration of the sun, and the nature of it, gives us as much an account of God as any inanimate being whatsoever. It is as much the sun's honour to produce a small insect, as the growth of the greatest plant.

Have not all creatures, a natural affection in them to preserve and provide for their own ? * hath not God much more, who endued all creatures with that disposition ? Whatsoever is a natural perfection in creatures, is eminently an infinite perfection in God. If it be therefore a praise to you to preserve your own, can it be a disgrace to God ? You may as well say it is as much a dishonour to him to be good, as to have a tender regard to his creatures. Censure him as well you may for creating them for your delight, as preserving and governing them for the same end. They are all good, for he pronounced them so ; and being so, a God of goodness will not account them unworthy of his care. Are they now the products of his omnipotent wisdom ? and shall not they be the objects of his directing wisdom ? If they are not unworthy of God to create, how can they be unworthy of God to govern them ? It would be as much below him to make them, as to rule them when they were made.

4. Therefore, God doth actually preserve and govern the world; though angels are in ministry in some particular works of his providence, yet God is the steersman who gives out his particular orders to them.

Jacob's ladder had the top in heaven, where God stood to keep it firm, its foot on earth, and the angels going up and down upon several errands at their master's beck.

As God made all things for himself, so he orders the ends of all things made by him for his own glory. For being the most excellent and intelligent agent, he doth reduce all the motions of his creatures to that end for which he made them.

This actual government of the world by God brancheth itself out in three things.

1. Nothing is acted in the world without God's knowledge. The vision of the wheels inEzekiel presents us with an excellent portraiture of providence, there are eyes round about the wheels: Ezek. i. 18, ' Their wings were full of eyes,' &c.

The eye of God is upon the whole circle of the creatures' motion. In all the revolutions in the world, there is the eye of God's omniscience to see them, and the arm of his omnipotence to guide them. Not the most retired corner, or the darkest cell, not the deepest cavern, or most inward projecc-nor the most secret wickedness, not the closest goodness, but the eye of * Mornae. de Verit. Kelig. Christian, chap. xi.

the Lord beholds it: Prov. xv. 3, * The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.' He hears the words, sees the actions, knows the thoughts, registers the gracious discourses, bottles up the penitent tears, and considers all the ways of men; not a whispered oath, not an atheistical thought, though but only peeping upon the heart, and sinking down again in that mass of corruption, not a disorderly word, but he knows and marks it. The soul hath a particular knowledge of every act, because it is the spring of every act in any member, and nothing is done in this little world, but the soul knows it. Surely, then, there is not an act done in the world, nor the motion of any creature, but as God doth concur to it, he must needs know what he doth concur to. The knowledge and ordaining every thing is far less to the infinite being of God, than the knowledge and ordaining every motion of the body is to a finite soul.

Or, suppose a soul clothed with a body of as big a proportion as the matter of the whole creation, it would actuate this body, though of a greater bulk, and know every motion of it; how much more God, who hath infinity and excellency and strength of all angels and souls, must need actuate this world, and know every motion of it! There is nothing done in the world but some creature or other knows it; he that acts it doth at least know it. If God did not know it, the creatures then in that particular knowledge would be superior to God, and know something more than God knows ; can this be possible ?

2. Nothing is acted in the world without the will of God. His will either commands it, or permits it: Eph. i. 11, 'He works all things after the counsel of his own will,' Ps. cxxxv. 6, ' Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth.'

Even the sins of the world his will permits them, his power assists in the act, and his wisdom orders the sinfulness of the act for holy ends. The four chariots in Zech. vi. 2-5, by which some understand angels, are sent upon commission into the several parts of the world, and compared to chariots, both for their strength, their swiftness, their employment in a military way to secure the church. These are said to come out of the two mountains of brass, ver. 1, which signify the irreversible decrees of God, which the angels are to execute.* He alarms up the winds, when he would have Jonah arrested in his flight. He sounds a retreat to them, and locks them up in their chambers, Ps. cvii. 25-29. Bread hath a natural virtue in it to nourish, but it must be accompanied with his secret blessing, Mat. iv. 4.

Virtuto primi actus, agunt agentia omnia quicquid agunt.

8. Nothing doth subsist without God's caro and power. His eyes running to and fro, implies not only knowledge, but caro. Ho doth not carelessly behold what is done in the world, but, liko a skilful pilot, ho sits at tho helm, and steers tho world in what course it should Bail. Our being we owe to his power, our well-being to his cure, our motion and exerting of every faculty to his mereii'ul providence and oononrrence ; ' in him wo livo, and move, and havo our being,' Acts xvii. 2H. He (Values OUT being, preserves our life, concurs with our motion. This is an idea that bean date in the minds of mon witli the very notion of a Godt Why else did tho heathen in all their straits fly to their altars, and till their temples with eries and sacrifices? To what, purpose was this, if they had not acknowledged God's suporinton-deiiev, his taking notice of their cause, hearing their prayers, considering their cries? Why should they do this, if they thought that God did not regard human all'airs, but stood untouched with a souse of their miseries ?

* Reynolds.

If all things were done by chance, there could be no predictions of future things, which we frequently find in Scripture, and by what ways accomplished. Impossible it is that anything can be continued without his care. If God should in the least moment withhold the influence of his providence, we should melt into nothing, as the impression of a seal upon the water vanishes* as soon as the seal is removed ; or as the reflection of the face in the glass disappears upon the first instant of our removal from it. The light in the air is by participation of the light of the sun ; the light in the air withdraws upon the departure of the sun. The physical and moral goodness [ofJ the creature would vanish upon the removal of God from it, who is the fountain of both.

What an artificer doth work, may continue, though the workman dies, because what he doth is materially, as to the matter of it, ready to his hands ; he creates not the matter, but only sets materials together, and disposeth them into such a form and figure. But God gives a being to the matter and form of all things, and therefore the continuance of that being depends upon his preserving influence.* God upholds the world, and causes all those laws which he hath impressed upon every creature, to be put in execution : not as a man that makes a watch, and winds it up, and then suffers it to go of itself; or that turns a river into another channel, and lets it alone to run in the graff he hath made for it; but there is a continual concurrence of God to this goodly frame. For they do not only live, but move in him, or by him ; his living and omnipotent power runs through every vein of the creation, giving it life and motion, and ordering the acts of every part of this great body. All the motions of second causes are ultimately resolved into the providence of God, who holds the first link of them in his hands, Hosea ii. 21, 22. More particularly, the nature of providence may be explained by two propositions.

Prop. 1. The universality of it. His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth.

1. It is over all creatures, (1.) the highest, (2.) the lowest.

(1.) The highest and most magnificent pieces of the creation.

[1.] Over Jesus Christ, the first-born of every creature. God's providence was in an especial manner conversant about him, and fixed upon him. It was by the determinate counsel of God, that he was delivered up, Acts ii. 23. His providence was diligently exercised about him in his whole course. Christ answers his mother's solicitousness with the care his Father took of him : Luke ii. 49, ' Wist you not that I must be about my Father's business ?' Do you not know that I am about those things my Father takes care of ? This exposition best agrees with his reproof, who blames them for creating so much trouble to themselves upon their missing him in the town. It is not, Why do you interrupt me in my dispute with the Jewish doctors ? But ' How is it that you sought me ? Do you think I am not under the care of my Father ?'f It was particularly exercised on him'in the midst of his passion, Zech. iii. 9. Seven eyes were upon the stone ; seven, a number of perfection, a perfect and peculiar care of God attended him.

[2.] Over angels and men. The soul of the least animal, and the smallest plant, is formed and preserved by God, but the breath of mankind is more particularly in his hand : Job xii. 10, 'In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.'

First, Over good angels and men. He charges his angels with folly and w eakness. They cannot direct themselves without his wisdom, nor preserve * Stillingfleet, Orig. sacraj. lib. iii. cap. 3, sect. 3. t h roTg rou Kargbg. Hammond in loc.

themselves without his power. God hath a book of providence, wherein he writes down who shall be preserved, and this book Moses understands : Exod. xxxii. 33, ' Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book;' not the book of election,—no names written there are blotted out,—but out of the book of providence. As it is understood, Isa. iv. 3, ' Every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem,' i. e. every one whom God designs to preservation and deliverance.* That God, surely, that hath a care of the mean animals, will not be careless of his affectionate worshippers. He that feeds the ravens will not starve his doves. He that satisfies the ravening wolf, will not famish his gentle lambs and harmless sheep. He shelters Jacob from Laban's fury, Gen. xxxi., and tutors him how he should carry himself towards the good man. He brought Haman out of favour, and set Mordecai in his place for the deliverance of the Jews which were designed for slaughter.

Secondly, Over evil angels and men. God's power preserves them, his patience suffers them, his wisdom orders them, and their evil purposes and performances, to his own glory. The devil cannot arrest Job, nor touch a lamb of his flock, nor a hair of his head, without a commission from God. He cannot enter into one filthy swine in the Gaderenes' herd, without asking our Saviour leave. Whatever he doth, he hath a grant or permission from heaven for it. God's special providence is over his people, but his general providence over all kingdoms and countries.

He takes care of Syria, as well as of Judea; and sends Elisha to anoint Hazael king of Syria, as well as Jehu king of Israel, 1 Kings xix. 15. Though Ishmael had mocks for Isaac, yet the God of Isaac provided for the wants of Ishmael; Gen. xxv. 16-18, ' He causeth his sun to shine upon the unjust,' as well as ' the just,' to produce fruits and plants for their preservation.

(2.) Over the meanest creatures. As the sun's light, so God's providence disdains not the meanest worms. It is observed, that in the enumeration of the works of creation, Gen. i. 21, only the great whales and small creeping things are mentioned, and not the intermediate creatures, to shew that the least as well as the greatest are under his care. It is one of his titles to be the preserver of beasts as well as men, Neh. ix. G. He is the great caterer for all creatures; Ps. civ. 21, ' The young lions seek their meat from God.' They attend him for their daily portion, and what they gather and meet with in their pursuit, is God's gift to them, ver. 27, 28. He listens to the cries of the young ravens, though they are birds of prey. ■ He givei to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry,' Ps. cxlvii. 9. In Ps. civ. David throughout the whole reads a particular lecturo of this doctrine, wherein you may take a prospect of God's providence all over the world. He acts them by a commandment and imprinted law upon their natures, and makes them Observe exactly those statutes he enacts for the guidance o( them in their proper operations. Ps. exhii. 15, ' He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth, and his word runs very swiftly,' viz., his word of providence. God keeps them is the observation of their first ordinance. Ps, <-\ix. 91, ' They continue this day according to thine ordinances, for all are

thy servants,' i.e. tho earth and what is upon it. They observe their stations, the law God hath set them, as if they had a rational knowledge of their duty in their particular motions ; Ps. civ. 19, ' the sun knoweth his going down.' BometimSi he makes them instruments of his ministry to us,

lojnetis wtioners of oil judgments. Lies and frogs arm themselves

;i t, his command to punish Egypt. lie makes a whale to attend Jonas dropping into tho sea, to DC an instrument hoth to punish and preserve him. * Ilorton'a Serin. PS. Ixxxvii. p. 6G.

Yea, and which is more wonderful, the multitude of the very cattle is brought among others as a reason'of a people's preservation from destruction, Jonah iv. 11; the multitude of the cattle are joined with the multitude of the infants, as an argument to spare Nineveh. He remembers Noah's cattle as well as his sons ; Gen viii. 1, ' God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all t the cattle that were with him in the ark.' He numbers the very hairs of our heads, that not ono falls without his will. Not only the immortal soul, but the decaying body ; not only the vital parts of that body, but the inconsiderable hairs of the head, are under his care.

Obs. 1. This is no dishonour to God, to take care of the meanest creatures. It is as honourable for his power to preserve them, and his wisdom to govern them, as for both to create them. It is one part of a man's righteousness to be merciful to his beasts, which he never made ; and is it not a part of God's righteousness, as the rector of the world, to take care of those creatures, which he did not disdain to give a being to ?

Obs. 2. It rather condueeth to his honour.

(1.) The honour of his goodness. It shews the comprehensiveness of his goodness, which embraceth in the arms of his providence the lowest worm as well as the highest angel. Shall infinite goodness frame a thing, and make no provision for its subsistence ? At the first creation he acknowledged whatever he had created good in his kind, good in themselves, good { n order to the end for which he created them ; it is therefore an honourable thing for his goodness to conduct them to that end which in their creation he designed them for ; and not leave them wild disorders, unsuitable to the end of that goodness which first called them into being. If he grow out of love with the operations of his hands, he would seem to grow out of love with his own goodness that formed them.

(2.) The honour of his power and wisdom. The power of God is as much seen in making an insect full of life and spirit in all the parts of it, to perform all the actions suitable to its life and nature, as in making creatures of a greater bulk ; and is it not for the honour of his power to preserve them, and the honour of his wisdom to direct these little animals to the end he intended in their creation ? For as little as they seem to be, an end they have, and glorious too, for natura nihil facit frustra. It seems not to consist with his wisdom to neglect that which he hath vouchsafed to create. And though the apostle seems to deny God's care of brutes,—1 Cor. ix. 9, ' Doth God take care for oxen ?'—it is true God did not in that law only take care of oxen, i. e. with a legislative care, as making a law only for them, though with a providential care he doth ; but the apostle there doth not deny God's care for oxen, but makes an argument a minore ad majus.

2. Providence extends to all the actions and motions of the creature. Every second cause implies a dependence upon a first cause in its operation. If God did not extend his providence over the actions of creatures, he would not every where, and in all things and beings, be the first cause.

(1.) To natural actions. What an orderly motion is there in the natural actions of creatures, which evidenceth a guidance by an higher reason, since they have none of their own ! How do fish serve several coasts at several seasons, as if sent upon a particular message by God ? This cannot be by any other faculty than the instinct their Maker hath put into them. Plants that grow between a barren and fruitful soil, shoot all their roots towards the moist and fruitful ground, by what other cause than a secret direction of providential wisdom ?* There is a law impressed upon them and their motions, that are so orderly, as if they were acted according to a covenant * Andrew's Catechistical Doctrine, p. 60.

and agreement between them and their Creator, and therefore called ■ the covenant of the day and night,' Jer. xxxiii. 20. What avails the toil and labour of man in ploughing, trading, watching, unless God influence, unless he bless, unless he keep the city ! The proceed of all things depends upon his goodness in blessing, and his power in preserving. God signified this, when he gave the law from mount Sinai, promising the people, that if they kept his commandments, he would give them rain in due season, and that the earth should bring forth her fruit: Lev. xxvi. 3, 4, ' Then will I give you rain, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit;' evidencing thereby, that those natural causes can produce nothing without his blessing ; that though they have natural principles to produce such fruits according to their natures, yet he can put a stop to their operations, and make all their fruits abortive. He weighs the waters, how much shall be poured out in showers of rain upon the parched earth. He makes a decree for the rain, and gives the clouds commission to dissolve themselves so much and no more, Job xxviii. 23-26. Yea, he doth order the conduct of them by counsel, as employing his wisdom about these things which are of concern to the world. Job xxxvii. 11, 12, 'He scattereth his bright cloud, and it is turned round about by his counsels, that they may do whatsoever he commands them upon the face of the world in the earth.'

(2.) To civil actions. Counsels of men are ordered by him to other ends than what they aim at, and which their wisdom cannot discover. God stirred up Sennacherib to be the executioner of his justice upon the Jews, and afterwards upon the Egyptians, when that great king designed only the satisfaction of his ambition in the enlarging his kingdom, and supporting his greatness. Isa. x. 6, 7, ' I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath. Howbeit he means not so, neither doth h?s heart think so,'—he designs not to be an instrument of my justice,— 1 but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.' His thoughts and aims were far different from God's thoughts. The hearts of kings are in his hands, as wax in the hands of a man, which he can work into what form and shape he pleases. He hath the sovereignty over, and the ordering the hearts of magistrates ; Ps. xlvii. 9, ' The shields of the earth belong unto God.' Counsels of men for the good of his people are his act. The princes advised Jeremiah and Baruch, Jer. xxxvi. 19, to hide themselves, which they did, yet, verse 26, it is said the Lord hid them. Though they followed the advice of their court-friends, yet they could not have been secured, had not God stepped in by his providential care, and covered them with his hand. It was the courtiers' counsel, but God challenges the honour of the success.

Military actions aro ordered by him. Martial employments are ordered by his providence. He is the great general of armies. It is observed that in the two prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, God is called the Lord of Hosts no less than i hundred and thirty tunes.*

(!}.) To preternatural actions. God doth command creatures to do those

things which UTS DO WSV suitable to their inclinations, and gives them sometimes fbf his own service a writ of case from the performance of the natural

liiw lie li;ith impressed anon then* A devonring raven is made by the pro-

viilence of God the prophets 1 caterer in time of famine, I Kings xvii. 1. God instructs a ravenous hn.l in a lesson of abstinence for Elijah's safety, and

makes if both :i Book il,l( ' :L ■srving man to the prophet. Tho whale, that

delights to play about the deepest pait Of khS ocean, approaches to the shore,

and attends upon Jonal to transport him to the dry land, Jonah ii. 10, * Arrowdinitli, ' Cluu-u of rrinoiplos,' Exorcit. i. sect 1.

The fire was slacked by God, that it should not singe the least hair of the three children's heads, but was let loose to consume the officers of the court, Dan. iii. The mouths of the ravenous lions, which had been kept with an empty stomach, were muzzled by God, that they should not prey upon Daniel in a whole night's space. God taught them an heroical temperance with so dainty a dish at their mouths, and yet they tore the accusers in a trice.

(4.) To all supernatural and miraculous actions of the creatures, which are as so many new creations. As when the sun went backward in Hezekiah's time, when it stood still in the valley of Ajalon, that Joshua might complete his victory on the Canaanitcs. The boisterous waves stood on a heap like walls to secure the Israelites' passage ; but, returning to their natural motion, were the Egyptians' sepulchre. When creatures have stepped out of their natural course, it could not be the act of the creature, it being so much against and above their natures, but it must be by the order of some superior power.

(5.) To all fortuitous actions. What is casual to us is ordained by God ; as effects stand related to the second cause, they are many times contingent, but as they stand related to the first cause, they are acts of his counsel, and directed by his wisdom. God never left second causes to straggle and operate in a vagabond way ; though the effect seem to us to be a loose act of the creature, yet it is directed by a superior cause to a higher end than we can presently imagine. The whole disposing of the lot which is cast into the lap, is from the Lord, Prov. xvi. 33. A soldier shoots an arrow at random, and God guides it to be the executioner of Ahab for his sin, 1 Kings xxii. 34, which death was foretold by Micaiah, ver. 17, 28. God gives us a certain rule to judge of such contingencies, Exod. xxi. 13, ' And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand.' A man accidentally kills another, but it is done by a secret commission from God. God delivered him into his hands. Providence is the great clock, keeping time and order, not only hourly, but instantly, to its own honour.*

(6.) To all voluntary actions.

[1.] To good actions. Not by compelling, but sweetly inclining, determining the will, so that it doth that willingly, which, by an unknown and unseen necessity, cannot be omitted. It constrains not a man to good against his will, but powerfully moves the will to do that by consent, which God hath determined shall be done : ' The way of man is not in himself,' the motion is man's, the action is man's, but the direction of his steps is from God. Jer. x. 23, ' It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.'

[2.] To evil actions.

I First, In permitting them to be done. Idolatries and follies of the heathen were permitted by God. He checked them not in their course, but laid the reins upon their necks, and suffered them to run what race they i pleased : Acts xiv. 16, ' Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.' Not the most execrable villany that ever was committed in the world could have been done without his permission. Sin is not amabile propter se, and therefore the permission of it is not desirable in itself, but the permission of it is only desirable, and honestatur ex Jive. God is good, and wise, and righteous in all his acts, so likewise in this act of permitting sin; and therefore he wills it out of some good and righteous end, which belongs to the manifestation of his glory, which is that he intends in all the acts of his will, of which this is one. Wicked men are said to be a staff in God's hand ; as a man manages a staff which is in his own power, so * Fuller, Eccles. Hist. Cent. 6, book ii. p. 51. VOL. I. B

doth God manage wicked men for bis own holy purposes, and they can go no further than God gives them license.

Secondly, In ordering them. God governs them by his own unsearchable wisdom and goodness, and directs them to the best and holiest ends, contrary to the natures of the sins, and the intentions of the sinner. Joseph's brothers sold him to gratify their revenge, and God ordered it for their preservation in a time of famine. Pharaoh's hardness is ordered by God for his own glory and that king's destruction. God decrees the delivering up Christ to death; and Herod, Pilate, the Pharisees, and common rout of people, in satisfying their own passion, do but execute what God had before ordained : Acts iv. 28, ' For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.' Judas his covetousness, and the devil's malice, are ordered by God to execute his decree for the redemption of the world. Titus the emperor, his ambition led him to Jerusalem, but God's end is the fulfilling of his threatenings, and the taking revenge upon the Jews for their murdering of Christ. The aim of the physician is the patient's health, when the intent of the leeches is only to suck the blood. God hath holy ends in permitting sin, while man hath unworthy ends in committing it. The rain, which makes the earth fruitful, is exhaled out of the salt waters, which would of themselves spoil the ground and make it unfruitful. • The deceiver and the deceived are his,' Job xii. 1G. Both the action of the devil the seducer, and of wicked men the seduced, are restrained by God within due bounds, in subserviency to his righteous will. For ' with him is strength and wisdom.'

J'rop. 2. As providence is universal, so it is mysterious. Who can trace the motions of God's eyes in their race ? 'He makes the clouds his chariot,' Ps. civ. 3, in his motions about the earth, and his throne is in the dark. He walks upon the wings of the wind, his providential speed makes it too quick for our understanding. His ways are mysterious, and put the reason and wisdom of men to a stand. The clearest-sighted servants of God do not -the bottom of his works, the motion of God's eyes is too quick for ours.

John Baptist is so astonished at the strange condescension of his Saviour to be baptized of him, that he forbids it, Mat. iii. 14 ; man is a weak creature, and cannot trace or set out the wisdom of God.

But this mystcriousness and darkness of providence adds a lustre to it, as stones set in ebony, though the grounds be dark, make the beauty and sparkling the clearer.

1. His way* arc above; human methods. Dark providences are often tlie groundwork of some excellent piece lie is about to discover to the world. His methoda an: like a plaited picture, which on the one aide represents a

negro, on the other a beauty. He lets Sarah's womb be dead, and then brings out the root of a numerous progeny, lie makes Jacob a cripple, and then a prince b> prevail with God ; be gives him a wound and then a bl( ing. lie Bendfl QOt the gospel till reason was oonplussed, and that the world, in that highest wisdom it had at that time attained unto, was not able to arrive to the knowledge of God. l Oor. i. 21, 'After that the world by wisdom Knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching,

them that believe.'

•J. J lis endfl are Of a higher strain than the aims of men. Who would have thought thai the forces Cyrus raised against Babylon, to satisfy his own ambition, should be a means to deliver the Israelites, and restore the worship of God in the temple ? Cod had this end, which Isaiah prophesied of, and

hi-, never dreamt, of: I -a. xliv. 28, ' That saith of Cyrus. Thou art my shepherd, and lhalt perform all my pleasure, even saying that Jerusalem

shall bo built,' &c.; and this a long time before Cyrus was born, Isa, xlv. 1. Pharaoh sent Israel away in the very night, at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, the time prefixed by God. He could not keep them longer because of God's promise, he would not because of God's plagues. God aims at the glorifying his truth, in keeping touch with his word. Pharaoh designs not the accomplishing God's will, but his deliverance from God's judgments.

There is an observable consideration to this purpose, how God's ends are far different from man's, Luke ii. 1, 4, in the taxing the whole world by Augustus. Augustus, out of pride, to see what a numerous people he was prince of, would tax the whole world. Some tell us he had appointed the enrolling the whole empire twenty-seven years before the birth of our Saviour, and had proclaimed it at Tarracon, in Spain. But soon after this proclamation, Augustus found a breaking out of some stirs, and thereupon deferred his resolution to some other fit time, which was the very time of the birth of Christ. See now God's wise disposal of things, in changing Augustus's resolution, and deferring it till the forty-fourth year of his reign, when Christ was ready to come into the world! And this by giving occasion, yea, necessitating Mary to come from Nazareth, where Joseph and Mary dwelt, who perhaps being big with child, without this necessity laid upon her by the emperor's edict, would not have ventured upon the journey to Bethlehem. There she falls in travail, that so Christ, the seed of David, being conceived in Nazareth, should be born at Bethlehem, where Jesse lived, and David was born. How wisely doth God order the ambition and pride of men to fulfil his own predictions, and to publish the truth of Christ's birth of the seed of David, for the names of Joseph and Mary were found in the records of Rome in Tertullian's time.

3. God hath several ends in the same action. Jacob is oppressed with famine, Pharaoh enriched with plenty, but Joseph's imprisonment is in order to his father's relief, and Pharaoh's wealth; his s mistress's anger flings him into a prison. Joseph is wronged, and hath captivity for a reward of his chastity. God makes it a step to his advancement, and by this way brings him from a captive to be a favourite. What is God's end ? Not only to preserve the Egyptian nation, but old Jacob and his family. Was this all that God aimed at? No; he had a further design, and lays the foundation of something to be acted in the future age. By this means Jacob is brought into Egypt, leaves his posterity there, makes way for that glory in the working of the future miracles for their deliverance, such an action that the world should continually ring of, and which should be a type of the spiritual deliverance by Christ.

4. God has more remote ends than short-sighted souls are able to espy. God doth not eye the present advantage of himself and his creature, but hath an eye to his own glory in all, yea, in the very last ages of the world. In small things there are often great designs laid by God, and mysteries in the least of his acts. Isaac was delivered from his father's sword, when he was intentionally dead, to set forth to the world a type of Christ's resurrection, and a ram is conducted thither by God, and entangled in the thickets, and appointed to sacrifice, whereby God sets forth a type of Christ's death.* He useth the captivities of the people, to enlarge the bounds of the gospel.

The wise men were guided by a star to Christ as King of the Jews, and come to pay homage to him in his infancy. When was the foundation of this remarkable event laid? Probably in Balaam's prophecy, Num. xxiv. 17. 1 1 shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh. There

* Hall's Contemp. p. 796.

shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel,' &c. transmitted by tradition to those wise men, and perhaps renewed by Sibilla Chaldcea, and confirmed in their minds by the Jews, whilst in the Babylonish captivity they conversed with them. Thus God many ages before in this prophecy had an end in promoting the readier entertainment of Christ among this people, when he should be born ; what the wise men's end was, the Scripture doth not acquaint us; but, however, their gifts were a means to preserve our Saviour, Joseph, and Mary, from the rage of a tyrant, and affording them wherewithal to support them in Egypt, whither they were ordered by God to fly for security. So God, 2 Kings vii. 1, 2, 17, threatens by the prophet the nobleman for his scoffing unbelief, that though he should see the plenty, that he should not taste of it. See how God doth order second causes, naturally to bring about his own decree ! The king gives this person charge of the gate ; whilst the people crowd for provision to satisfy their hunger, they accomplish the threatening, which they had no intentions to do, and trod him to death. Now I come to shew that there is a providence.

Obs. 1. The wisdom of God would not be so perspicuous, were there not a providence in the world. It is eminent in the creation, but more illustrious in the government of the creatures. A musician discovers more skill in the touching an instrument, and ordering the strings, to sound what notes he pleaseth, than he doth in the first framing and making of it. Isa. xxviii. 29, ' This also comes from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.' All God's providences are but his touch of the strings of this great instrument of the world. And all his works are excellent, because they are the fruit of his wonderful counsel, and unsearchable wisdom, which is most seen in his providence, as in reading the verses before. His power is glorified in creating and upholding this fabric. How shall his wisdom be glorified but in his government of it? Surely God will be no less intent upon the honour of his wisdom than upon that of his power. For if any attribute may be said to excel another, it is his wisdom and holiness, because those are perfections which God hath stamped upon the nobler part of his creation. Inferior creatures have more power and strength than man, but wisdom is the perfection of a rational creature. Now it is God's wisdom to direct all things to their proper end, as well as to appoint them their ends, which direction must be by a particular providence, especially in those things which know not their end, and have no reason to guide them. We know in the world it is not a part of wisdom to leave things to chance, but to state our ends, and lay a platform of those means which direct to an attaining of them. And wisdom is most Been in drawing all things together, and making them subservient to the end lie hath fixed to him-,ell'; ;ind, therefore, ono of the great things that shall he admired at last,, next, to the great work of redemption, will he the harmony and consent of those things which seemed contrary, how they did all conspire for tho bringing about, that, end which (iod aimed ai.

Obi. 2. The means wherehy (Iod acts discover a providence. lie acts, 1. By small means. The considerable actions in the world have usually very small beginnings. As of a tew letters how many thousand words aro made! often figures, how many thousand niimhers ! And a point is tho

beginning of all geometry. A little stone (rang into a pond makes a little

circle, then a greater, till it, enlargeth itself to both the sides. So from

small beginnings, God doth cause an efflns through the whole world. (I.) lie u-eth small meazui in his ordinary works. The common works

of nature spring from small beginnings. (1 resit plants are formed from small

seeds. The clouds which water the great garden of the world are but a collection of vapours. The noblest operations of the soul are wrought in an organ, viz. the brain, composed of .coagulated phlegm. Who would imagine that Saul, in seeking his father's asses, should find a kingdom ?

(2.) In his extraordinary works he useth small means. Elisha, that waited upon Elijah, and poured water upon his hands, shall do greater miracles than his master. And the apostles shall do greater works than Christ, John xiv. 12, that the world may know that God is not tied to any means that men count excellent; that all creatures are his, and act not of themselves, but by his spirit and power.

In his extraordinary works of justice. He makes a rod in the hands of Moses to confound the skill of the Egyptian magicians. He commissioned frogs and flies to countercheck a powerful and mighty people. When Benhadad was so proud as to say, the dust of Samaria should not suffice for handfuls for his army, God scattered his army by the lacqueys of the princes,—1 Kings xx. 14, ' The young men of the princes of the provinces,'—about two hundred thirty-two, ver. 15. The little sling in the hand of David a youth, guided by God's eye and hand, is a match fit enough for a blasphemous giant, and defeats the strength of a weaver's beam.

In his extraordinary works of mercy.

[1.] In the deliverance of a people or person. A dream was the occasion of Joseph's greatness and Joseph's preservation. He used the cacklings of geese to save the Koman Capitol from a surprise by the Gauls. He picks out Gideon to be a general, who was least in his father's esteem, Judges vi. 15 ; and what did his army consist of, but few, and those fearful, Judges vii. 6, 7; those that took water with their hands (which, as Josephus saith, is a natural sign of fear) did God choose out to overthrow the Midianites, who had overspread the land as grasshoppers, to shew that he can make the most fearful men to be sufficient instruments against the greatest powers, when the concernments of his church and people lie at stake.

God so delights in thus baffiing the pride of men, that Asa uses it as an argument to move God to deliver him in the strait he was in, when Zerah the Ethiopian came against him with a great multitude, when he was but a small point and centre in the midst of a wide circumference: 2 Chron. xiv. 11, * Lord, it is nothing with thee to help with many or with few.' Hereby God sets off his own power, and evidenceth his superintendent care of his people. It was more signally the arm of God for Moses to confound Pharaoh with his lice and frogs, than if he had beaten him in a plain field with his six hundred thousand Israelites.

[2.] In the salvation of the soul. Our Saviour himself, though God, the great redeemer of the world, was so mean in the eyes.of the world, that he calls himself ' a worm, and no man,' Ps. xxii. 6. He picks out many times the most unlikely persons to accomplish the greatest purposes for men's souls. He lodgeth the treasures of wisdom in vessels of earth ; he chose not the cedars of Lebanon, but the shrubs of the valley; not the learned Pharisees of Jerusalem, but the poor men of Galilee : ' Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, he ordains praise to himself.'

The apostles' breeding was not capable of ennobling their minds, and fitting them for such great actions as Christ employed them in. But after he had new moulded and inflamed their spirits, he made them of fishermen, greater conquerors of the world, than the most magnified grandees could pretend to.

Thus salvation is wrought by a crucified Christ: and that God who made the world by wisdom, would save it by the foolishness of preaching. And

make Paul, the least of the apostles as he terms himself, more successful than those who had been instructed at the feet of Christ, 1 Cor. xv. 9, 10.

2. By contrary means. God by his,providence makes contrary things contribute to his glory, as contrary colours in a picture do to the beauty of the piece. Nature is God's instrument to do whatsoever he pleases; and therefore nothing so contrary but he may bring to his own ends; as in some engines you shall see wheels have contrary motions, and yet all in order to one and the same end. God cured those by a brazen serpent, which were stung by the fiery ones; whereas brass is naturally hurtful to those that are bit by serpents.*

(1.) Afflictions. Joseph is sold for a slave, and God sends him as a harbinger ; his brothers sold him to destroy him, and God sends him to save them. Paul's bonds, in the opinion of some, might have stifled the gospel; but he tells us that they had fallen out to the furtherance of the gospel, Phil. i. 12.

(2.) Sins.f God doth often effect his just will by our weakness ; neither there by justifying our infirmities, nor blemishing his own action. Jacob gets the blessing by unlawful means, telling no less than two lies to attain it,—I am Esau, and this is venison,—but hereby God brings about the performance of his promise, which Isaac's natural affection to Esau would have hindered Jacob of.

The breach of the first covenant was an occasion of introducing a better. Man's sinning away his first stock, was an occasion to_ God to enrich him with a surer. The loss of his original righteousness made way for a clearer and more durable. The folly of man made way for the evidence of God's wisdom, and the sin of man for the manifestation of his grace ; and by the wise disposal of God, opens a way for the honour of those attributes which would not else have been experimentally known by the sons of men.

3. Casual means. The viper which leapt upon Paul's hand out of the bundle of sticks was a casual act, but designed by the providence of God for the propagation of the gospel. Pharaoh's daughter comes casually to wash herself in the river, but, indeed, conducted by the secret influence of God upon her, to rescue Moses, exposed to a forlorn condition, and breed him up in the Egyptian learning, that he might be the titter to be his kindred's deliverer. Saul had been hunting David, and at last had lodged him in a placo whence he could not well escape, and being ready to seize upon him in that very instant of time, a post comes to Saul, and brings the news that the Philistines had invaded tho land, which cut out other work tor him, ami David for that time escapes, 1 Sam. xxiii. 2ti, fc 27, 28.

Prop, 8. Reason. Bach actions and events <>t' things are in the world,

which cannot rationally he ascrihed to any other cause than a supreme providence. It is so in common things. Men have the same parts, the Bams

outward advantages, the same industry, and \ef prosper not alike. One lahours much, and L'ets little ; another uses not altogether such endeavours, and hath rich.s flowing in upon him. Men lay their projects deep, and question n«'l the accomplishment of them, ami are disappointed by some strange and Unforeseen accident. An.I sometimes men attain what they desire in a different way, and many times contrary to the method they had projected.

This is evidenced,

1. By the restraints upon t he pa' ions of men. The waves of the sea, and the tumults of the people art; much of the same impetuous natures, and

are quelled l>y the same power: IN. lw. 7, 'Which stilleth the noise of

* Ornlin-i, Num. \\i. 0. ./.'.t rutfnralit, r lmrrl roft OyNo/^xrO/;.

f Hall, Oontemp. boos hi. p. mm;, 807,

the sea, and tumult of the people.' Tumults of the people could no more be stilled by the force of a man, than the waves of the sea by a puff of breath. How strangely did God qualify the hearts of the Egyptians willingly to submit to the sale of their land, when they might have risen in a tumult, broke open the granaries, and supplied their wants, Gen. xlvii. 19, 21. Indeed, if the world were left to the conduct of chance and fortune, what work would the savage lusts and passions of men make among us ! How is it possible that any but an almighty power can temper so many jarring principles, and rank so many quarrelsome and turbulent spirits in a due order ! If those brutish passions which boil in the hearts of men were let loose by that infinite power that bridles them, how soon would the world be run headlong into inconceivable confusions, and be rent in pieces by its own disorders ?

2. By the sudden changes which are made upon the spirits of men for the preservation of others. God takes off the spirit of some as he did the wheels from the Egyptian chariots, in the very act of their rage. Paul was struck down and changed while he was yet breathing out threatenings, &c. God sees all the workings of men's hearts, all those cruel intentions in Esau against his brother Jacob, but God on a sudden turns away that torrent of hatred, and disposeth Esau for a friendly meeting, Gen. xxxiii. 4. And he who had before an exasperated malice by reason of the loss of his birthright and blessing, was in a moment a changed man. Thus was Saul's heart changed towards David, and from a persecutor turns a justifier of him, confesseth David's innocence and his own guilt: 1 Sam. xxiv. 17,18, ' Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil,' &c. What reason can be rendered for so sudden a change in Saul's revengeful spirit, which had all the force of interest to support it, and considered by him at that very time ? For, ver. 24, he takes special notice that his family should be disinherited, and David be his successor in the throne. How suddenly did God turn the edge of the sword and the heart of an enemy from Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xviii. 31. Jeho-shaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him, and God moved them to depart from him. The Holy Ghost emphatically ascribes it to God's motion of their wills, by twice expressing it. But stranger is the preservation of the Jews from Hainan's bloody designs, after the decree was gone out against them. Mordecai the Jew is made Ahasuerus's favourite by a strange wheeling of providence. First, the king's eyes are held waking, Esther vi. 1, 2, and he is inclined to pass away the solitariness of the night with a book, rather than a game, or some other court pastime ; no book did he fix on but the records of that empire, no place in that voluminous book but the chronicle of Mordecai's service in the discovery of a treason against the king's life ; he doth not carelessly pass it over, but inquires what recompence had been bestowed on Mordecai for so considerable a service, and this just before Mordecai should have been destroyed. Had Ahasuerus slept, Mordecai and all his countrymen had been sacrificed, notwithstanding all his loyalty. Could this be a cast of blind chance, which had such a concatenation of evidences in it for a superior power ?

3. In causing enemies to do things for others which are contrary to all rules of policy. It is wonderful that the Jews, a people known to be of a stubborn nature, and tenacious of their laws, wherein they differed from all the nations, should in the worst of their captivities be so often befriended by their conquerors, not only to rebuild their city, and re-edify their temple, but at the charge of their conquerors too. The very enemies that had captived the. Jews, though they knew them to be a people apt to rebel: that the people

whose temple they had helped to build would keep up a distinct worship and difference in religion, which is usually attended with the greatest animosities ; and when they knew it to be so strong in situation as to be a fort as well as a place of worship; that for this their enemies should furnish them with materials, when they were not in a condition to procure any for themselves, and give them money out of the public exchequer, and timber out of the king's forest, as we read, Ezra i. 1, 2, 4, 7; iv. 12, 15, 19; vi. 4, 5, 8, 9, 11; Neh. ii. 8. And all this they looked upon as the hand of God : Ezra, vi. 22, ' The Lord hath turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God.' And the heathen Artaxerxes takes notice of it. Cicero tells us, that in his time gold was carried out of Italy for the ornament of the temple. They had their rites in religion preserved entire under the Koman government, though more different from the Roman customs than any nation subdued by them. Dion and Seneca, and others, observe, that wherever they were transplanted they prospered and gave laws to the victors. And this was so generally acknowledged, that Haman's cabinet counsel (who were surely none of the meanest statesmen) gave him no hopes of success, when he appeared against Mordecai, because he was of the race of the Jews, Esth. vi. 18, so much did God own them by his gracious providence. They were also so entire in all their captivities before their crucifying of our Lord and Saviour, that they count their genealogies.

4. In infatuating the counsels of men. God sets a stamp of folly upon the wisdom of men, Isa. xliv. 25, ' that turns the wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolishness, and makes their counsels as chaff and stubble.' Isa. xxxiii. 11, 'Ye shall conceive chaff, and bring forth stubble.' Herod was a crafty person, insomuch that Christ calls him fox.* How foolish was he in managing his project of destroying Christ, his supposed competitor in the kingdom ! "When the wise men came to Jerusalem, and brought the news of the birth of a king of the Jews, he calls a synod of the ablest men among the Jews! The result of it is to manifest the truth of God's prediction in the place of our Saviour's birth, and to direct the Wise men in their way to him. Herod had no resolutions but bloody concerning Christ, Mat. ii. 3-8. God blinds his mind in the midst of all his craft, that ho sees not those rational ways which he might make use of for the destruction of that which he feared: he sends those wise men, mere strangers to him, and entrusts them with so great a concern; he goes not himself, nor sends any of his guard with them to cut him off immediately

upon the discovery, but leaves the whole conduct of the business to those he

had no acquaintance with, and of v, hose faithfulness he could have no assurance. God crosses the intentions of men. Joab slew Amasa because he thought

him his rival in David's favour, and then imagined he had rid his hands of all that could stand in his way; yet God raised up IVnaiah, who drew Joab from the homi of the altar, and cut him in pieces at Solomon's command. God doth so order it, many times, that when the most rational counsel is oiven to men, they h;ive not hearts to follow it. Ahithophel gave as suit -

able counsel for Absalom's d< the best statesman in the world could

give, 2 Sam. JXU, 1, 2, to surprise l>a\id while he was amusedf at his son's rebellion, and dejected with grief at 10 Unnatural an action, and whilst his

farces had Dot.yet made their rendesYons, and those that were with him \

• This ia i lingular Inadvertence on the pari of the author, It was not the Herod who slew the babes Ht Bethlehi m whom our Lord bo designated.— I'M.

I Tlit! i:, lii , atti nt ion was occupied, or perhaps it may he a misprinl for 'amazed ' —K,l.

tired in their march. Speed was best in attempts of this nature. David in all probability had been cut off, and the hearts of the people would have melted at the fall of their sovereign. But Absalom inclines rather to Hushai's counsel, which was not so proper for the business he had engaged in, ver. 7-14. Now this was from God. ' For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom.' So foolish were the Egyptians against reason, in entering into the Red Sea after the Israelites ; for could they possibly think that that God, who had by a strong hand and an army of prodigies brought Israel out of their captivity, and conducted them thus far, and now by a miracle opened the Red Sea and gave them passage through the bowels of it, should give their enemies the same security in pursuing them, and unravel all that web he had been so long a working ?

5. In making the counsels of men subservient to the very ends they design against. God brings a cloud upon men's understandings, and makes them the contrivers of their own ruin, wherein they intend their own safety, and gains honour to himself by outwitting the creature. The Babel projectors, fearing to be scattered abroad, would erect a power to prevent; and this proved the occasion of dispersing them over the world in such a confusion that they could not understand one another, Gen. xi. 4, 8. God ordered Pharaoh's policies to accomplish the end against which they were directed. He is afraid Israel should grow too mighty, and so wrest the kingdom out of his hands, and therefore he would oppress them to hinder their increase, which made them both stronger and more numerous. Exercise strengthens men, and luxury softens the spirit. The Jews fear if they suffered Christ to make a farther progress in his doctrine and miracles, they should lose Cassar's favour, and expose their country as a prey to a Roman army: this caused their destruction by those enemies they thought by this means to prevent; God ordering it so, that a Roman army was poured in upon them which swept them into all corners of the earth. Priests and Pharisees sit close together in counsel how to hinder men's believing in Christ, and the result of their consultation was to put him to death, and no man then would believe in a dead person, not capable of working any miracles, John xi. 47—50, for the amusing of the people ; and by this means there were a greater number of believers on him than in the time of his life, according to his own prediction, John xii. 32, * And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.'

6. In making the fancies of men subservient to their own ruin. God brings about strange events by the mere imaginations and conceits of men, which are contrary to common and natural observation, and the ordinary course of rational consequences, 2 Kings iii. 22, 23. The army of the Moabites which had invaded Israel thought the two kings of Judah and Israel had turned their swords against one another, because the rising sun had coloured those unexpected waters and made them look red, which they took for the blood of their enemies, and so disorderly run without examination of the truth of their conceit; but instead of dividing the spoil, they left their lives upon the points of the Israelites' swords. So the Syrian army are scared with a panic fear, and scatter themselves upon an empty sound, 2 Kings vii. 6. Thus a dream struck a terror into the Midianites, and the noise of the broken potsherds made them fear some treason in their camp, and caused them to turn their swords into one another's bowels: Judges vii. 19-22, ' The Lord set every man's sword against his fellow.'

Quest. First, If God's providence orders all things in world, and concurs to every thing, how will you free God from being the author of sin ? Answer, in several propositions.

1. It is certain God hath a hand about all the sinful actions in the world. The selling Joseph to thelshmaelites was the act of his brethren ; the sending him into Egypt was the act of God : Ps. cv. 17, ' He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant;' Gen. xlv. 8, : It was not you that sent me hither, but God,' where Joseph ascribes it more to God than to them. Their wicked intention was to be rid of him, that he might tell no more tales of them to his father. God's gracious intention was to advance him for his honour and their good; and to bring about this gracious purpose, he makes use of their sinful practice. God's end was righteous, when theirs was wicked. It is said God moved David to number the people : 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, ■ The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go number Israel and Judah.' Yet Satan is said to provoke David to number the people : 1 Chron. xxi. 1, 'And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.' Here are two agents; but the text mentions God's hand in it out of justice to punish Israel; Satan's end, no question, was out of malice to destroy. Satan wills it as a sin, God as a punishment: God, say some, permissive, Satan efficaciter. In the most villanous and unrighteous action that ever was done, God is said to have an influence on it. God is said to deliver up Christ: Acts ii. 23, ' Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain :' Acts iv. 28, ' For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.' Not barely as an act of his presence, but his counsel, and that determinate, i. e. stable and irreversible. He makes a distinction between these two acts. In God it was an act of counsel, in them an act of wickedness, ' by wicked hands;' there was God's counsel about it, an actual tradition: Bom. viii. 32, ' He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.' All the agents had several ends. God in that act aimed at the redemption of the world, Satan at the preventing it, Judas to satisfy his covetousness, the Jews to preserve themselves from the Roman invasion, and out of malice to him for so sharply reproving them. God had a gracious principle of love to mankind, and acted for the salvation of the world in it; the instruments had base principles and ends, and moved freely in obedience to them. So in the aflliction of Job, both God and Satan had an hand in it: Job. i. 12, 'The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power;' ver. 11, • Touch all that he hath, and ho will curse theo to thy face;' their ends were different: the one righteous, for trial; the other malicious, against God, that ho might bo cursed ; against Job that ho might bo damned. God's end was tho brightening of his grace, and the devil's end was the ruin of his integrity, and despoiling him of God's favour.

2. In all God's actfl abont sin there is no stain to God's holiness.* In second OAnies, one and tho same net ion, proceeding from divers causes, in

respect of one cause, may lie sinful ; in respect of the other, righteous. As

when twojndgefl condemn a guilty person, one condemns him out of lovo to justice, beoanse he is guilty ; the other condemns him out of a private hatred

and spleen : one respects him as a malefactor only, the other as a private

•Demy chiefly. Sere is the same action with two concurring causes, one

being tricked in it, the other righteous. Ifnoh more may we conceive it in the concurrence of the Creator with the action of tho creature, (l.) God moves every thing in his ordinary providence according to their

particular natures. God moves every thing ordinarily according to tho nature he finds it in. Had we stood in innoceney, wo had been moved * Sen pier. Bfetaph. lib. ii. cap. 1">. sect. 6.

according to that originally righteous nature; but since our fall we are moved according to that nature introduced by us with the expulsion of the other. Our first corruption was our own act, not God's work ; we owe our creation to God, our corruption to ourselves. Now, since God will govern his creature, I do not see how it can be otherwise, than according to the present nature of the creature, unless God be pleased to alter that nature. God forces no man against his nature ; he doth not force the will in conver-sion, but graciously and powerfully inclines it. He doth never force nor incline the will to sin, but leaves it to the corrupt habits it hath settled in itself: Ps. Ixxxi. 12, ' So I gave them up to their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsels ;■ counsels of their own framing, not of God's. He moves the will, which is sponte mala, according to its own nature and counsels. As a man flings several things out of his hand, which are of several figures, some spherical, tetragons, cylinders, conies, some round and some square, though the motion be from the agent, yet the variety of their motions is from their own figure and frame ; and if any will hold his hand upon a ball in its motion, regularly it will move according to his nature and figure; and a man by casting a bowl out of his hand, is the cause of the motion, but the bad bias is the cause of its irregular motion. The power of action is from God, but the viciousness of that action from our own nature. As when a clock or watch hath some fault in any of the wheels, the man that winds it up, or putting his hand upon the wheels moves them, he is the cause of the motion, but it is the flaw in it, or deficiency of something, is the cause of its erroneous motion ; that error was not from the person that made it, or the person that winds it up, and sets it on going, but from some other cause ; yet till it be mended it will not go otherwise, so long as it is set upon motion. Our motion is from God,—Acts xvii. 28, 'In him we move',—but not the disorder of [that motion. It is the foulness of a man's stomach at sea is the cause of his sickness, and not the pilot's government of the ship.

(2). God doth not infuse the lust, or excite it, though he doth present the object about which the lust is exercised. God delivered up Christ to the Jews, he presented him to them, but never commanded them to crucify him, nor infused that malice into them, nor quickened it; but he, seeing such a frame, withdrew his restraining grace, and left them to the conduct of their own vitiated wills. All the corruption in the world ariseth from lust in us, not from the object which God in his providence presents to us: 2 Peter i. 4, ' The corruption that is in the world through lust.' The creature is from God, but the abuse of it from corruption. God created the grape, and filled the vine with a sprightliness, but he doth never infuse a drunken frame into a man, or excite it. Providence presents us with the wine, but the precept is to use it soberly. Can God be blamed if that which is good in itself be turned into poison by others ? No more than the flower can be called a criminal, because the spider's nature turns that into venom which is sweet in itself. Man hath such a nature, not from creation, wherein God is positive, but from corruption, wherein God is permissive. Providence brings a man into such a condition of poverty, but it doth not encourage his stubbornness and impatience. There is no necessity upon thee from God to exercise thy sin under affliction, when others under the same exercise their graces. The rod makes the child smart, but it is its own stubbornness makes it curse. In short, though it be by God's permission that we can do evil, yet it is not by his inspiration that we will to do evil; that is wholly from ourselves.

(3.) God supports the faculties wherewith a man sinneth, and supports a

man in that act wherein he sinneth, but concurs not to the sinfulness of that act. No sin doth properly consist in the act itself, as an act, but in the deficiency of that act from the rule. No action wherein there is sin but may be done as an action, though not as an irregular action. Killing a man is not in itself unlawful, for then no magistrate should execute a malefactor for murdering another, and justice would cease in the world ; man also musl divest himself of all thoughts of preserving his life against an invader ; but to kill a man without just cause, without authority, without rule, contrary to rule, out of revenge, is unlawful. So that it is not the act, as an act, is the sin, but the swerving of that act from the rule, makes it a sinful act. So speaking, as speaking, is not a sin, for it is a power and act God hath endued us with, but speaking irreverently and dishonourably of God, or falsely and slanderously of man, or any otherwise irregularly, therein the sin lies ; so that it is easy to conceive that an act and the viciousness of it are separable. That act which is the same in kind with another, may be laudable, and the other base and vile in respect of its circumstances. The mind wherewith a man doth this or that act, and the irregularity of it, makes a man a criminal. There is a concurrence of God to the act wherein we sin, but the sinfulness of that act is purely from the inherent corruption of the creature ; as the power and act of seeing is communicated to the eye by the soul, but the seeing doubly or dimly is from the viciousness of the organ, the eye. God hath no manner of immediate efficiency in producing sin ; as the sun is not the efficient cause of darkness, though the darkness immediately succeeds the setting of the sun, but it is the deficient cause. So God withdraws his grace, and leaves us to that lust which is in our wills : Acts xiv. 16, ■ Who in times past suffered all nations to w T alk in their own ways.' He bestowed no grace upon them, but left them to themselves. As a man who lets a glass fall out of his hand is not the efficient cause that the glass breaks, but its own brittle nature ; yet he is the deficient cause, because he withdraws his support from it. God is not obliged to give us grace, because we have a total forfeiture of it. He is not a debtor to any man, by way of merit, of anything but punishment. He is indeed in some senso a debtor to those that are in Christ, upon the account of Christ's purchase and his own promise, but not by any merits of theirs.

(4.) God's providence is conversant about sin as a punishment, yet in a very righteous manner. God did not will the first sin of Adam as a punishment, because thero was no punishment duo to him before he sinned, but he willed the continuance of it as a punishment to the nature tub rations l><>ni. This being a judicial act of God, is therefore righteously willed by him. Punishment is a moral good. It is also a righteous thing to suit the punishment to the nature of the offence ; ;md what can be more righteous than to punish a man by that wherein lie offends? Benee God is said to give up men to sin,— Rom. i. -t5, 27, ' For thif cause God gave thein up unto vile affections,'—and to send 'strong delusions that khej may believe a lie.' And the reason is rendeivo 1 ,

2 These, ii. L2, ■ that they all might he damned who believed not the truth,

but had pleaSUTC in unrighteousness.' What more righteOUB than to make vile affections and that unrighteousness their punishment which

they make their pleasure f and to leave them to pursue their own sinful

inclinations, and make them (asjthe psalmist speaks) Pi. v. 10, 'fall by their own counsels' '.' A drunkard's beastliness is his punishment as well as his sin. Thus God delivers Up some U) their own lusts, as a punishment both to th.ni ,i.l others, sj Q6 hardened Pharaoh's heart tor tho de-

struction botli of himself and his people.

(5.) God by his providence draws glory to himself and good out of sin. It is the highest excellency to draw good out of evil, and it is God's right to manifest his excellency when he pleases, and to direct that to his honour which is acted against his law. The holiness of God could never intend sin as sin. But the wisdom of God foreseeing it, and decreeing to permit it, intended the making it subservient to his own honour. He would not permit it but for some good, because he is infinitely good, and could not by reason of that goodness suffer that which is purely evil, if by his wisdom he could not raise good out of it. It is purely evil, as it is contrary to law ; it is good rat ione finis, as God orders it by his providence ; yet that goodness iiows not from the nature of sin, but from the wise disposal of God.

As God at the creation framed a beautiful world out of a chaos, out of matter without form, and void, so by his infinite wisdom he extracts honour to himself out of the sins of men. As sin had dishonoured him at its entrance, in defacing his works and depraving his creature, so he would make use of the sins of men in repairing his honour and restoring the creature.

It is not conceivable by us what way there could be more congruous to the wisdom and holiness of God, as the state of the world then stood, to bring about the death of Christ, which in his decree was necessary to the satisfaction of his justice, without ordering the evil of some men's hearts to serve his gracious purpose. If we could suppose that Christ could commit some capital crime, for which he should deserve death, which was impossible by reason of the hypostatical union, the whole design of God for redemption had sunk to the ground. Therefore God doth restrain or let out the fury of men's passions and the corrupt habits of their wills to such a degree as should answer directly to the full point of his most gracious will, and no further. He lets out their malice so far as was conducing to the grand design of his death, and restrains it from everything that might impair the truth of any prediction, as in the parting his garments, or breaking his bones. If God had put him to death by some thunder or otherwise, and after raised him, how could the voluntariness of Christ appear, which was necessary to make him a perfect oblation ? How would his innocency have appeared ? The strangeness of the judgment would have made all men believe him some great and notorious sinner. How then could the gospel have been propagated ? Who would have entertained the doctrine of one whose innocency could not be cleared ? If it be said, God might raise him again, what evidences would have been had that he had been really dead ? But as the case was, his enemies confess him dead really, and many witnesses there were of his resurrection.

[1.] God orders the sins of men to the glory of his grace. As a foil serves to make the lustre of a diamond more conspicuous, so doth God make use of the deformities of men to make his own grace more illustrious, and convey it with a more pleasing relish to them. Never doth grace appear more amiable, never is God entertained with so high admirations, as by those who, of the worst of sinners, are made the choicest of saints. Paul often takes occasion, from the greatness of his sin, to admire the unsearchable riches of that grace which pardoned him.

[2.] God orders them to bring forth temporal mercies. In providence there are two things considerable. First, Man's will. Secondly, God's purpose. What man's will intends as a harm in sin, God in his secret purpose orders to some eminent advantage. In the selling of Joseph, his brothers intend the execution of their revenge ; and God orders it for the advancement of himself, and the preservation of his unrighteous enemies,

who might otherwise have starved. His brothers sent him to frustrate his dream, and God to fulfil it. Our reformation and return from under the yoke of antichrist was, by the wise disposal of God, occasioned by the three great idols of the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life ; lust, covetousness, and ambition, three vices notoriously eminent in Henry the Eighth, the first instrument in that work. What he did for the satisfaction of his lust is ordered by God for the glory of his mercy to us. And though the papists".upon that account reflect upon our Reformation, they may as well reflect upon the glorious work of redemption, because it was in the wisdom of God brought about by Judas his covetousness, and the Jews' malice.

[3.] God orders them for the glory of his justice upon others. Nathan had threatened David that one in his house should lie with his wives in the sight of the sun, 2 Sam. xii. 11. Ahithophel adviseth Absalom to do so, not with any design to fulfil God's threatening, but secure his own stake, by making the quarrel between the father and the son irreconcilable, because he might well fear that upon a peace between David and Absalom he might be offered up as a sacrifice to David's justice. God orders Ahithophel's counsel and Absalom's sin to the glory of his justice in David's punishment.

The ambition of Vespasian and Titus was only to reduce Judea to the Roman province after the revolt of it. But God orders hereby the execution of his righteous will in the punishment of the Jews for their rejecting Christ, and the accomplishment of Christ's prediction. Luke xix. 43, ' For the days shall come, that thy enemy shall cast a trench about thee,' &c. To conclude ; if we deny God the government of sin in the course of his providence, we must necessarily deny him the government of the world, because there is not an ac'ion of any man's in the world, which is under the government of God, but is either a sinful action or an action mixed with sin.

God therefore in his government doth advance his power in the weakness, his wisdom in the follies, his holiness in the sins, his mercy in the unkind-ness, and his justice in the unrighteousness of men; * yet God is not defiled with the impurities of men, but rather draws forth a glory to himself, as a rose doth a greater beauty and sweetness from the strong smell of the garlic Bet near it.f

Quest. 2. If there bo a providence, how comes those unequal distributions to happen in the world ? How is it so bad with good men, as if they were the greatest enemies to God, and so well with tho wicked, as if they well tin; most affectionate friends ? Doth not virtue languish away in obscurity, whiles wickedness struts about the world? What is the reason that splendid virtue is oppressed by injustice, and notorious vices triumph in prosperity? It would make m.n believe that tin; world was governed rather by a blind Blld unrighteous, than by a wise, good, and just governor, when they see things in sueh disorder, as if the devil had, as he pretends, the whole power of tlie world delivered to him, Lnke iv. (>, and (iod had left all care of it to his will.

Ant, This consideration has heightened the minds of many against a

providence. It was the notion of many heathens,] when thev saw many who had acted with much gallantry for their countries afflicted, they que*

tioned whether there were a superintendent power over the world. This

hath also been the stumbling-block of many taught in a higher school than * Vid. Orid Amor. lib. hi. Eleg. iii. v. 1, and v. 27.

t Boetiu i de I Ion ■<>. lib. i.

\ ft on in Juckbon. Vol i. 8, cluip. iv. sect. 5,

that of nature, the Jews : Mai. ii. 17, ' Ye say, every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them ; and where is the God of judgment?' Yea, and the observation of the outward felicities of vice, and the oppression of goodness, have caused fretting commotions in the hearts of God's people ; the Psalm lxxiii. is wholly designed to answer this case. Jeremiah, though fixed in the acknowledgment of God's righteousness, would debate the reason of it with God: Jer. xii. 1, ' Righteous art thou, 0 Lord, yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: "Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper ? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously ? Thou hast planted them ; yea, they have taken root: they grow ; yea, they bring forth fruit.' He perceiving it a universal case,—' Wherefore are all they happy,' Sec. —did not know how to reconcile it with the righteousness of God, nor Habakkuk with the holiness of God: Hab. i. 13, ' Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity : wherefore boldest thou thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he ?' In point of God's goodness, too, Job expostulates the case with God : Job x. 3, 'Is it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppress? that thou shouldst despise the work of thy hands ? and shine upon the counsel of the wicked ?' You see upon the account of holiness, righteousness, goodness, the three great attributes of God, it hath been questioned by good men, and upon the account of his wisdom by the wicked Jews.

Ans. 1. Answer in general, Is it not a high presumption for ignorance to judge God's proceedings ? In the course of providence such things are done that men could not imagine could be done without injustice; yet when the whole connection of their end is unravelled, they appear highly beautiful, and discover a glorious wisdom and righteousness. If it had entered into the heart of man to think that God should send his Son in a very low estate to die for sinners, would it not have been judged an unjust and unreasonable act, to deliver up his Son for rebels, the innocent for the criminals, to spare the offender and punish the observer of his law ? Yet when the design is revealed and acted, what an admirable connection is there of justice, wisdom, mercy, and holiness, which men could not conceive of! It will be known to be so at last in God's dealing with all his members. "We are incompetent judges of the righteousness and wisdom of God, unless we were infinitely righteous and wise ourselves ; we must be gods, or in another state, before we can understand the reason of all God's actions. We judge according to the law of sense and self, which are inferior to the rules whereby God works. ' Judge nothing then before the time,' 1 Cor. iv. 5. It is not a time for us to pass a judgment upon things. A false judgment is easily made, when neither the counsels of men's hearts, nor the particular laws of God's actions, are known to us. In general it is certain, God doth righteously order his providences ; he may see some inward corruptions in good men to be demolished by afflictions, and some good moral affections, some useful designs, or some services he employs wicked men in, to be rewarded in this life.

Ans. 2. God is sovereign of the world. He is sui juris : ' The earth is his, and the fulness thereof,' may he not c do what he will with his own' ? Mat. xx. 15. Who shall take upon them to control God, and prescribe laws to him how to deal with his creatures ? Why should a finite understanding prescribe measures and methods to an infinite majesty ?

Ans. 3. God is wise and just, and knows how to distribute. If we question his providence, we question his wisdom. Is it fit for us, who are but of yesterday, and know nothing, to say to an infinite wisdom, What dost thou ? and to direct the onlj wise God to a method of his actions ? His own

wisdom will best direct him to the time when to punish the insolence of the wicked, and relieve the miseries of his people. We see the present dispensations, but are we able to understand the internal motives ? May there not be some sins of righteous men's parents that he will visit upon their children ? some virtues of their ancestors, that he will reward even in their wicked posterity ? He may use wicked men as instruments in some service. It is part of his distributive justice to reward them. They aim at these things in th^ir service, and he gratifies them according to their desires. Let not, then, his righteousness be an argument against his providence ; it is righteous with God not to be in arrears with them. Sometimes God gives them not to them as rewards of any moral virtue, but puts power into their hands, that they may be instruments of his justice upon some offenders against him: Isa. x. 5, the staff in the Assyrian's hand was God's indignation.

Ans. 4. There is a necessity for some seeming inequality, at least, in order to the good government of the world. Can all in any community of men be of an equal height? A house hath not beams and rafters of an equal bigness, some are greater and some less. The world is God's family. It is here as in a family; all cannot have the same office, but they are divided according to the capacities of some persons, and the necessity of others. Providence would not be so apparent in the beauty of the world, if all men were alike in their stations. Where would the beauty of the body be, if all the members had one office, and one immediate end ? Man would cease to be man, if every member had not some distinct work, and a universal agreement in the common profit of the body. All mankind is but one great body, constituted of several members, which have distinct offices, but all ordered to the good of the whole ; the apostle argues this excellently in a parallel case of the diversities of gifts in the church : 1 Cor. xii. 19, 'If all were one member, where were the body ?' ver, 23, ' Those members of the body which we think to be less honourable, upon those we bestow more abundant honour;' ver. 24, ' God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.' What harmony could there be, if all the voices and sounds were exactly the same in a concert ? Who can be delighted with a picture that hath no shadows ? The afflictions of good men are a foil to set off tho beauty of God's providence in the world.

Ans. 5. Unequal dispensations do not argue carelessness. A father may givo one child a gayer coat than he gives another, yet he extends his fatherly care and tenderness over all. According to tho several employments he puts bil children upon, ho is at greater expense, and yet lovos one as well as another, and makes provision for all. As the soul takes care of the lowest member, and communicates spirits to every part for their motions; so though God place lome in a higher, somo in a lower condition, yet ho takes can <>f all: God 'divides to every man as ho will,' 1 Cor. xii. 11. I'iVeiV mftO hath a several share, according to God's pleasure, of a goodiu in the world, as well as of gifts in the church.

,i//v. c». Yet upon <ine consideration the inequality will not appear so

great as the complaint of it. If the wants of one, ami tho enjoyment o(

another, were weighed in the balance, the scales might not appear so

uneven ; WC see such a man's wealth, hut do you understand his cares ? A

running son may lie under a purple robe. Health, the salt of blessing, one calla it, ii beitowod upon a labourer, when many that wallow in abundance have those torturing diseases which embitter their pleasures, if some

want those worldly ornaments which others have, may they not have more

wisdom than those that enjoy them (the noblest perfection of a rational creature) ? Prov. iii. 13, 14, ' The merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold:' Prov. xv. 16, * Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.' As some are stripped of wealth and power, so they are stripped of their incumbrances they bring with them. One hath that serenity aud tranquillity of mind, which the cares and fears of others will not suffer them to enjoy, and a grain of contentment is better than many pounds of wealth. It is not a desirable thing to be a great prince, attended with as many cares and fears as he hath subjects in his empire. He made a true estimate of his greatness, that said he would not stoop to take up a crown if it lay at his feet. But more particularly to the parts of the case. 1. It is not well with bad men here.

(1.) Is it well with them who are tortured by their own lusts ? What peace can worldly things bestow upon a soul filled with impurity ? In 2 Cor. vii. 1, sin is called filthiness: Can it be well with them that have nasty souls ? Is it well with them who are racked by pride, stung with cares, gnawn with envy, distracted by insatiable desires, and torn in pieces by their own fears ? Can it be well with such who have a multitude of vipers in their breasts, sticking all their stings into them, though the sun shine, and the shadows drop upon them ? You are spectators of their felicity, but do you understand their inward gripes ? Prov. xiv. 13, * Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful.' Can silken curtains or purple clothes confer a happiness upon those who have a mortal plague-sore poisoning their bodies, and are ready to expire ? Sin is their plague, whatever is their happiness. 1 Kings viii. 38, sin is called the plague of the heart. Their insolent lusts are a far greater misery than the possession of all the kingdoms in the world can be a happiness.

(2.) Is it well with them who have so great an account to make, and know not how to make it ? Those that enjoy much are more in God's debt, and therefore more accountable. The account of wicked men is the greater, because of their abundance ; and their unfitness to make that account is the greater, because of their abuse. Would any reckon themselves happy to be called upon to give an account of their stewardship for talents, and know not how to give a good account of one farthing ? Luke xvi. 2, ' Give an account of thy stewardship.'

(3.) Is it well with them who are the worse for what they have ? Is it a happiness to command others, and be more slaves to the worst of creatures than any can be to them ? The wicked man's well-spread table sometimes proves his snare, Ps. lxix. 22, and his destruction is bound up in his very prosperity: Prov. i. 32, « And the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.' Prosperity falling upon an unregenerate heart, like the sun and rain upon bad ground, draws forth nothing but weeds and vermin. Would you think it your happiness to be masters of their concerns, and slaves to their pride ? Is a stubbornness against God so desirable a thing, which is strengthened by those things in the hands of the wicked ?

(4.) Is it well with them who in the midst of their prosperity are reserved for justice ? Can that traitor be accounted happy, that is fed in prison by the prince with better dishes than many a loyal subject hath at his table, but only to keep him alive for his trial, and a public example of justice ? God raises some for greater falls. Miserable was the felicity of Pharaoh, to be raised up by God for a subject to shew in him the power of his wrath, Exod. ix. 16. It is but a little time before they shall be ' cut down as grass, and wither as the green herb,' Ps. xxxvii. 2. None would value the con-vol. i. o

dition of that soldier, who, leaping into a river to save a king's crown, and putting it upon his own head, that he might be enabled to swim out with it, was rewarded for saving it, and executed for wearing it. God rewards wicked men for their service, and punishes them for their insolence. 2. Neither is it bad here with good men, if all be well considered. Other men's judgment of a good man is frivolous, they cannot rightly judge of his state and concerns, but he can make a judgment of theirs: 1 Cor. ii. 15, ' A spiritual man judgeth all things, but he himself is judged of no man.' No man can make a sound judgment and estimate of a righteous man's state in any condition, unless he hath had experience of the like in all the circumstances, the inward comforts as well as the outward crosses. For,

(1.) Adversity cannot be called absolutely an evil, as prosperity cannot be called absolutely a good. They are rather indifferent things, because they may be used either for the honour or dishonour of God. As they are used for his honour, they are good, and as used for [his dishonour, they are evil. The only absolutely bad thing in the world is sin, which cannot be, in its own nature, but a dishonour to God. The only absolutely good thing in the world is holiness, and a likeness to God, which cannot be, in its own nature, but for his glory. As for all other things, I know no true satisfaction can be in them, but as they are subservient to God's honour, and give us an advantage for imitating some one or other of his perfections. Crosses in the Scripture are not excluded from those things we have a right to by Christ, when they may conduce to our good : 1 Cor. iii. 22, ' Life and death, things present, and things to come, are yours, and you are Christ's.' Since the revelation of the gospel, I do not remember that any such complaint against the providence of God fell from any holy man in the New Testament; for our Saviour had given them another prospect of those things. The holy men in the Old Testament comforted themselves against this objection by the end of the wicked which should happen, and the rod cease, Ps. lxxiii. In the New Testament we are more comforted by the certain operation of crosses to our good and spiritual advantage, Rom. viii. Our Saviour did not promise wealth and honour to his followers, nor did he think it worth his pains of coming and dying, to bestow such gifts upon his children. He made heaven their happiness, and the earth their hell; the cross was their badge here, and the crown their reward hereafter ; they

mod not to be a purchase congruous to so great a price of blood. "\\ (lod's providence to Christ the more to bo questioned because he was poor ? Had he the less love to him becauso he was ' a man of sorrows,' even while he was a (iod of glory ? Such groundless conceits should never enter into Christians, who oan never seriously take up Christ's yoke without a proviso of afflictions, who can never be God's sons without expecting his corrections.

(2.) (iod Dover leaves good men so bare, but he provides for their neoes* itv : Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, ' The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing

will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.' If any thing be good, an

upright man may expeet it from (lod's providence; it" it be not good, ho

should not desire it : Howsoever grace, which is necessary lor preparing thee for happin6S8 and glorj, which is necessary for fixing thee in it, he will he sure to givs | WS ha\e I >a\ id's experience for it in tin! whole course o( his life, Ps. xxxvii. , r >.

i The little good men have is heifer than the highest enjoyments ox

wicked men: Pl a xxxvii. L6| 'A little that a righteous man hath is better than Hit; riches of many wicked;' not better than many riches of the wid

but better than the riches of many wicked, better than all the treasures of the whole mass of the wicked world. Others have them in a providential way, good men in a gracious way: Prov. xvi. 8, 'Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right,' without a covenant right. Wicked prosperity is like a shadow that glides away in a moment, whereas a righteous man's little is a part of Christ's purchase, and part of that inheritance which shall endure for ever: Ps. xxxvii. 18, ' Their inheritance shall be for ever,' i. e., God regards the state of the righteous, whether good or evil, all that befalls them. God doth all with a respect to his everlasting inheritance. No man hath worldly things without their wings. And though the righteous have worldly things with their wings, yet that love whereby they have them hath no wings ever to fly away from them. How can those things be good to a man that can never taste them, nor God in them ?

(4.) No righteous man would in his sober wits be willing to make an exchange of his smartest afflictions for a wicked man's prosperity, with all the circumstances attending it. It cannot therefore be bad with the righteous in the worst condition. Would any man be ambitious of snares that knows the deceit of them ? Can any but a madman exchange medicines for poison ? Is it not more desirable to be upon a dunghill with an intimate converse with God, than upon a throne without it ? They gain a world in prosperity, a righteous man gains his soul by afflictions, and possesses it in patience. Is the exchange of a valuable consideration ? God strips good men of the enjoyment of the world, that he may wean them from the love of it; keeps them from idolatry, by removing the fuel of it; sends afflictions that he may not lose them, nor they their souls. Would any man exchange a great goodness ' laid up for him that fears God,' Ps. xxxi. 19, for a lesser goodness laid out upon them that are enemies to him ?

Who would exchange a few outward comforts with God's promise, inward comforts with assurance of heaven, godliness with contentment, a sweet and spiritual life, sovereignty over himself and lusts, though attended with sufferings, for the government of the whole world ?

(5.) It is not ill with the righteous in afflictions, because they have high advantages by them. That cannot be absolutely evil which conduceth to a greater good; as,

First, Sensible experiments of the tender providence of God over them. If the righteous had not afflictions in this life, God would lose the glory of his providence, and they the sweetness in a gracious deliverance from them, in ways which makes the affliction the sweeter as well as the mercy; they would lose the comfort of them, in not having such sensible evidences of God's gracious care.

The sweetness of the promises made for times of trouble would never be tasted : Ps. xxxvii. 19, ' They shall not be ashamed in the evil time ;' that is, they shall be mightily encouraged and supported. God's people do best understand God's strength when they feel the smart of men's malice : 2 Tim. iv. 17, ' The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.' He had never felt so much of God's strength if he had not tasted much of man's wickedness in forsaking him. Ps. xxxvii. 39, ' He is their strength,' when in times of trouble they experiment more of his care in preserving them, and his strength in supporting them, than at other times. Abundance of consolations are manifested in abundance of sufferings, 2 Cor. i. 5, 1 Peter iv. 13, 14. A greater sense of joy and glory lights upon them in a storm of persecutions. Men see the sufferings of the godly, but they do not behold that inward peace which composeth and delights their souls, worth the whole mass of the world's goodness, and pleasures of the unrighteous.

Secondly, Inward improvements, opportunities to manifest more love to God, more dependence on him, the perfection of the soul: 1 Tim. v. 5, 'Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.' There is a ground of more exercise of trust in God and supplication to him. The poor and desolate have an advantage for the actual exercise of those graces, which a prosperous condition wants. God changeth the metal by it; what was lead and iron he makes come forth as gold : Job xxiii. 10, ' When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.' Crosses and sufferings, which fit good men for special service here, and eternal happiness hereafter, can no more be said to be evil, than the fire which refines the gold, and prepares it for a prince's use. If there were not such evils, what ground could you have to exercise patience ? what heroic acts of faith could you put forth without difficulties ? how could you believe against hope, if you had not sometimes something to contradict your hopes ? And if a good man should have a confluence of that which the ignorant and pedantical world calls happiness, he might undervalue the pleasures of a better life, deface the beauty of his own soul, and withdraw his love from the most gratifying as well as the most glorious object, unto that which is not worth the least grain of his affection.

Thirdly, Future glory. The great inquiry at the day of Christ's appearing will be, how good men bare their sufferings, what improvements they had; and the greater their purity by them, the greater will be their praise and honour: 1 Peter i. 7, ' That the trial of your faith,' viz., by manifold temptations, ' may be found to praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' For a good improvement by them, they will have a public praise from God's mouth, and a crown of honour set upon their heads. Providence sends even light afflictions as so many artificers, to make the crown more massy and more bright: 2 Cor. iv. 17, • Works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' They are at work about a good man's crown while they make him smart. They prepare him for heaven, and make it more grateful to him when he comes to possess it. A Christian carriage in them prepares for greater degrees of glory. Every stroke doth but more beautify the crown.

Fourthly, Sufferings of good men for the truth highly glorifies the providence of God. This is a matter of glory and honour : 1 Peter iv. 10, ' If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.' They thereby bear a testimony to the highest act of providence that God ever exercised, even the redemption of the world by the blood of his Son. And the church, which is the highest object of his providence in the world, takes tin; deeper root, and BpringS up the higher; the foondfttion of it was laid in the blood of Christ, and the growth of it is furthered by the blood of martyrs. The carriage of the righteous in them makes the truth they profess more valued. It eiihanceth the excellency <A' religion, and manifests it to bo moro amiable for its beauty than for its dowry, since they §M it desirable by the sufferers, not only without WOrldlj enjoyments, hut with the sharpest miseries. This consideration

hath wrought upon many to embraoe the religion o\' the sutlerers. If it chef as far us death, they are but despatched to their Father's house,

and the day of their death is the day of their coronation; and what evil is

there in all thi

Fifthly, To conclude; this argument is stronger (upon the infallible righteousness of (iod's nature) for a day of reckoning after this life, than against providence. It is a more rational conclusion that God will have a time to

justify the righteousness and wisdom of his providential government, and repair the honour of the righteous, oppressed by the injustice of the wicked. And indeed, unless there be a retribution in another world, the question is unanswerable, and all the reason in the world knows not how to salve the holiness and righteousness of God in his providential dispensations in this life, since we see here goodness unrewarded and debased to the dunghill, vice glorying in impunity, and ranting to the firmament. We cannot see how it can consist with the nature of God's wisdom, righteousness, and holiness, if there were not another life, wherein God will manifest his righteousness in the punishing sin and rewarding goodness; for it is impossible that a God of infinite justice should leave sin unpunished, and grace unrewarded, here or hereafter. The Scripture gives us so full an account of a future state, that may satisfy all Christians in this business.

The wicked rich man is in his purple, and Lazarus in his rags; yet Abraham's bosom is prepared for the one, and an endless hell for the other. Jeremiah resolves the case in his dispute with God about it: Jer. xii. 3, 1 Pull them out like sheep to the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.' They are but fattening for the knife of justice; and the day will come when they shall be consumed like the fat of lambs in the sacrifice, which shall wholly evaporate into smoke; so the psalmist resolves it in Ps. xxxvii. 20, a psalm written for the present case. God laughs at their security in a way of mockery: Ps. xxxvii. 13, 'The Lord shall laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming,'—God's day for the justification of his proceedings in the world, and the wicked man's day for his own destruction, wherein they shall all be destroyed together, Ps. xxxvii. 38; the whole mass of them in one bundle. Who then will charge God with unequal distributions at that day, which is appointed for the clearing up of his righteousness, which is here masked in the world ? Who can be fond of the state of the wicked'? Who would be fond of a dead man's condition, because he lies in state, whose soul may be condemned, whilst his body, with a pompous solemnity, is carried to the grave, and both body and soul, joined together at the resurrection, adjudged to eternal misery ?

Quest. 2. What hath been said in this will also answer another question, Why God doth not immediately punish notorious offenders, since the best governments in the world are such as call the violators of the law to a speedy account, to keep up the honour of justice ? Thus the Epicures charge God with neglects of providence, because if he doth punish wicked men, it is later than is fit and just: ' Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil,' Eccles. viii. 11. Delay of justice is an encouragement to sin.

Ans. 1. This is an argument for God's patience, none against his providence. Should he make such quick work, what would become of the world ? Could it have held out to this day ? If God had instantly taken revenge upon those that thus disparage his providence, the frame of such an objection had not been alive. No man is so perfectly good but he might fall under the revenging stroke of his sword, if he pleased to draw it. Suffer God to evidence his patience here, since after the winding up of the world he will have no time to manifest it. God doth indeed sometimes send the sharp arrow of some judgment upon a notorious offender, to let him understand that he hath not forgotten how to govern; but he doth not always do so, that his patience may be glorified in bearing with his rebellious creature.

Ans. 2. God is just in that wherein the question supposeth him unjust;

he suffers wicked men to continue to be the plagues of the places where they live, and the executioners of his justice upon offenders against hhn, Ps. xvii. 13. The wicked are God's sword, Jer. xlvii. 6. Those that God would stir up against the Philistines are called the sword of the Lord, Isa. x. 5. Asshur is said to be the rod of his anger; would it consist with his wisdom to drop the instruments out of his hand as soon as he begins to use them ? to cast his rods out of his hand as soon as he takes them up ? The rules of justice are as much unknown to us as the communications of his goodness to his people are unknown to the world.

Am. 3. Let me ask such a one whether he never injured another man, and whether he would not think it very severe, if not unjust, that the offended person should presently take revenge of him? If every man should do the like, how soon would mankind be despatched, and the world become a shambles, men running furiously to one another's destructions for the injuries they have mutually received! Do we praise the lenity of parents to their children, and dispraise the mercy of God, because he doth not presently use his right ? Is, then, forbearance of revenge accounted a virtue in a man, and shall it be an imperfection in God ? With what reason can we thus blame the eminent patience of God, which we have reason to adore, and which every one of us are monuments of ? The use is,—

Use 1. Of information.

How unworthy and absurd a thing is it to deny providence ! Some of the heathens fancied that God walked his circuit in heaven, or sat with folded arms there, taking no cognizance of what was done in the world. Some indeed, upon some great emergencies, have acknowledged the mercies and justice of God, which are the two arms of his providence. The barbarians his justice, when they saw a viper leap upon Paul's hand, Acts xxviii. 4, they say among themselves, ' No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffers not to live.' The mariners in Jonah implored his mercy in their distress at sea; yet they generally attributed affairs to blind chance, and worshipped fortune as a deity. For this vain conceit the psalmist calls the atheist fool: Ps. xiv. 1, 'The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' Potiphar acknowledged it, he saw that the Lord was with Joseph, and favoured his designs: Gen. xxxix. 3, «And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all tilings that he did to prosper in his hand.'

It will not bo amiss to consider this, for the root of denial of providence is in tho hearts of the best men, especially under affliction. Asaph was a holy man, Pi. hxiii. 18, saitli he, ' Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.' He had taken much pains with his heart, and had been onderxnnoh affliction: ver. 14, k All the day long hare I been plagned, and chastened every morning. 1 And the consideration

of this, that, be should have so much affliction with so much holiness, so

strangely puzzled him, that he utters that dreadfhl speech, as if he had a

""lid to east oil' ji.ll cares ahout the worship of God, ami sanctifying his

heart, and repent of all that he had done in thai business, as much as to ■ Had I been as very a villain as such or such a man, I might have

prospered as well us they, bat I was a fool to have any fear of Gh Therefore we will consider, 1. The evil of denying providence.

'2. The .'rounds of the denial of it by the heathen, which we shall find in

our own hearts.

:!. The VarioUfl Wayi Wherein men practically deny providence. 1 . The evil Of denying it.

(1.) It gives a liberty to all sin. It give an occasion for an unbounded licentiousness, for what may not be done where there is no government ? The Jews tell us* that the dispute between Cain and Abel was this: Cain said, because his sacrifice was not accepted, that there was no judge, no reward of good works, or punishment of bad, which when Abel opposed, Cain slew him. They ground it upon the discourse of God with Cain, Gen. iv. 7, 8, which had been about his providence and acceptation of men, if they did well, and punishment of men if they did ill; whence they gather the discourse, ver. 8, Cain had with his brother was about the same subject, for Cain talked with Abel, and upon that discourse rose up against him, and slew him. And his discourse afterwards with God, ver. 9, seems to favour it, ' Am I my brother's keeper ?' Thou dost say thou art the Governor of the world, it is not my concern to look after him. Their conjecture is not improbable. If it were so, we see how early this opinion began in the world, and what was the horrid effect of it, the first sin, the first murder that we read of after the sin of Adam. And what confusion would grow upon the entertainment of such a notion.

Indeed, the Scripture everywhere places sin upon this root: Ps. x. 11, 'God hath forgotten: he hides his face; he will never see it.' He hath turned his back upon the world. This was the ground of the oppression of the poor by the wicked which he mentions, ver. 9, 10. So Isa. xxvi. 10, 1 The wicked will not learn righteousness, he will deal unjustly.' The reason is, ' he will not behold the majesty of the Lord; he will not regard God's government of the world, ' though his hand be lifted up to strike.' There is no sin but receives both its birth and nourishment from this bitter root. Let the notion of providence be once thrown out, or the belief of it faint, how will ambition, covetousness, neglect of God, distrust, impatience, and all other bitter gourds, grow up in a night! It is from this topic all iniquity will draw arguments to encourage itself; for nothing doth so much discountenance those rising corruptions, and put them out of heart, as an actuated belief that God takes care of human affairs. Upon the want of this actuated knowledge God charges all the sin of Ephraim: Hosea vii. 2, 1 They consider f not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness ;' as if God were blind and did not see, or stupid and did not concern himself, or of a very frail memory soon to forget.

(2.) It destroys all religion. The first foundation of all religion is, first, the being, secondly, the goodness, of God in the government of the world: Heb. xi. 6, ' He that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' He is the object of religion as he is the governor of the world. This denial would shut up Bibles and temples, and bring irreligious disorder into all societies.

[1.] All worship. He that hath not design to govern, is supposed to expect no homage; if he regards not his creatures, he cares for no worship from them. How is it possible to persuade men to regard him for God, who takes no care of them ? Who will adore him who regards no adoration ?

[2.J Prayer. To what purpose should they beg his directions, implore his assistance in their calamities, if he had no regard at all to his creatures ? What favour can we expect from him who is regardless of dispensing any ?

[3.] Praise. Who would make acknowledgments to one from whom they never received any favour, and hath no mind to receive any acknowledgments

* Targum Hierosolymit, Mercer in Gen. iv. 7. f Heb., ' They speak not to their hearts.'

from them, because Tie takes no care of them ? If the Deity have no relation to us, how can we have relation to him ? To what purpose will it be either to call upon him, or praise him, which are the prime pieces of religion, if he concern not himself with us ?

[4.] Dependence, trust, and hope. What reason have we to commit our concerns to him, and to depend upon him for relief? Hence the apostle saith, Eph. ii. 12, the Gentiles were ' without hope, and without God in the world.' The reason they were without hope was because they were without God. They denied a settled providence, and acknowledged a blind chance, and therefore could have no sound hope; so some understand it of denial of God's government. It might well give occasion to people to utter Pharaoh's speech: Exod. v. 2, 'Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice, to let Israel go ? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.' What is God that I should serve him ? I have no such notion of a God that governs the world. The regardlessness of his creature disobligeth the creature from any service to him.

(3.) It is a high disparagement of God. To believe an impotent, ignorant, negligent God, without care of his works, is as bad or worse than to believe no God at all. The denial of his providence is made equal with the denial of God : Ps. xiv. 1, < The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' He denied God, Elohim, which word denotes God's providence; not, there is no Jehovah, which notes his essence, he denied not God quoad essentia))}, but quoad providentiam, whereupon the psalmist dubs the atheist fool. It strips God of his judicial power. How shall he judge his creatures, if he know not what they think, and regards not what they do ? How easy will it be for him to be imposed upon by the fair pretences and lying excuses of men ! It is diabolical. The devil denies not God's right to govern, but he denies God's actual government; for he saith, Luke iv. 6, ' The power and glory of the world is delivered' unto him, ' and to whomsoever,' saith he, ■ I will, I give it.' God had cast off all care of all things, and made the devil his deputy. He that denies providence denies most of God's attributes, he denies at least the exercise of them. He denies his omniscience, which is the eye of providence; mercy and justice, which are the arms of it; power, which is the life and motion of providence; wisdom, which is the rudder of providence, whereby it is steered; and holiness, which is the compass and rule of the motion of providence.

i 1.) It is clearly against natural light. Socrates an heathen could say, Whosoever denied providence did Auiiaoviuv, was possessed with a devil.* Should (iod create a man anew with a sound judgment, and bring him into the world, when he should sec the harmony, multitudes, virtues, and operations of all creatures, the stated times and .seasons, must lie not Deeds confess that lome invisible, inconceivable wisdom did both frame, and doth govern all the motions of it? And it is a greater crime in any of us to deny providence, either in opinion or practice, than it was or could h been in heathens; because we have not only that natural reason which they

had, sufficient to convince as, but supernatural revelation in the Scripture, wherein God hath declared those methods of his providence which reason

could not arrive to ; ai to deny his creation of the world is a greater crime in a man that Knows (he Scripture than in a, heathen, because that hath put

it out, of doubt. And the asserting of this being the end of all God's judg-menl i in the world Job \i\. 29,' Wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

that you may know there is a judgment,' i. *., providence—the denial of it is ■ sin against all past or present judgments, which Clod hath or doth

* Meat i : Balden, p. 626,

exercise, the Scripture frequently declaring the meaning of such and such judgments to be, that men may know that the Lord is God.

2. The second thing is, the grounds of the denial of providence. This atheism has been founded,

(1.) Upon an overweening conceit of men's own worths. When men saw themselves frustrated of the rewards they expected, and saw others that were instruments of tyranny and lust graced with the favours they thought due to their own virtue, they ran into a conceit that God did not mind the actions of men below. So that it was pride, interest, self-conceit, and opinion of merit, rather than any well-grounded reason, introduced this part of atheism into the world; for upon any cross this opinion of merit swelled up into blasphemous speeches against God. When we have any thoughts (as we are apt to have) by our religious acts to merit at God's hand, we act against the absoluteness of his providence, as though God could be obliged to us by any other than his own promise. Methinks Job hath some spice of this in speaking so often of his own integrity, as though God dealt injuriously with him in afflicting him. God seems to charge him with it: Job xl. 8, ' Wilt thou also disannul my judgment ? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous ?' As though in speaking so much of his own integrity, and in complaining expressions, he would accuse God of injustice, and condemn him as an unrighteous governor; and in Job's answer you find no syllable or word of his integrity to God, but a self-abhorrency: Job xlii. 16, 'Wherefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes.' I doubt that from this secret root arise those speeches which we ordinarily have among men, What have I done that God should so afflict me ? though in a serious way it is a useful question, tending to an inquiry into the sin that is the cause of it; but I doubt ordinarily there is too much of a reflection upon God, as though they had deserved other dealing at his hands. Take heed therefore of pride and conceits of our own worth, we shall else be led by it to disparaging conceits of God, which indeed are the roots of all actions contradictory to God's will.

(2.) It is founded upon pedantical and sensual notions of God. As though it might detract from his pleasures and delight to look down upon this world, or as though it were a molestation of an infinite power to busy himself about the cares of sublunary things. They thought it unsuitable to the felicity of God, that it should interrupt his pleasure, and make a breach upon his blessedness. As though it were the felicity of a prince not to take care of the government of his kingdom, nor so much as provide for the well-being of his children. I doubt that from such or as bad conceptions of God may spring ordinarily our distrust of God upon any distress. Take heed therefore of entertaining any conceptions of God but what the Scripture doth furnish you with.

(3.) Or else, this sort of atheism was ushered in by a flattering conceit of the majesty of God. They thought it unbecoming the excellency of the divine majesty to descend to a regard of the petty things of the world. This seems to be the fancy of them, Ps. lxxiii. 11, ' How doth God know ? is there knowledge in the Most High ?' They think him too high to know, too high to consider. How unreasonable is it to think God most high in place, and not in perfection ; and if in perfection, not in knowledge and discerning? They imagined of him as of a great prince, taking his pleasure upon the battlements of his palace, not beholding the worms upon the ground ; muffled w T ith clouds, as Job xxii. 13, 14, ' How doth God know ? Can he judge through the dark clouds ? thick clouds are a covering to him, that he sees not, and he walks in the circuit of heaven. We cannot indeed have

too high apprehensions of God's majesty and excellency ; but must take heed of entertaining superstitious conceits of God, and such as are dishonourable to him, or make the grandeur and ambition of men the measure of the greatness and majesty of God. Upon this root sprung superstition and idolatry, and the worship of demons, who, according to the heathens' fancy, were mediators between God and men. And I doubt such a conceit might be the first step to the introducing the popish saint-worship into the Christian world ; and this lies at the root of all our omissions of duty, or neglects of seeking God. Let us therefore have raised thoughts of God's majesty, and admiring thoughts of his condescension, who, notwithstanding his greatness, humbles himself to behold what is done upon the earth. The psalmist sets a pattern for both, Ps cxiii. 5, 6.

(4.) From their wishes upon any gripes of conscience. They found guilt staring them in the face, and were willing to comfort themselves with the embraces of this doctrine, wherein they might find a security and ease to their prostituted consciences, and unbounded liberty in the ways of sin. Those in Zephaniah were first settled upon their lees, and then, to drive away all fears of punishment, deny God's government: Zeph. i. 12, ' The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.' A brave liberty, for a city to be without a magistrate, a house without a governor, a ship without a pilot, exposed to the mercy of winds and waves ; a man to be without reason, that passion and lust should act their pleasure ; a liberty that beasts themselves would not have, to be without a shepherd, and one to take care of them ! Such wishes certainly there are in men upon a sense of guilt; they wish, for their own security, there were no providential eye to inspect them. Take heed therefore of guilt, which will draw you to wish God deprived of the government of the world, and all those attributes which qualify him for it. The readiness to entertain the motions of Satan, rather than the motions of the Spirit, implies a willingness in them that Satan might be the god of the world, who favours them in sin, rather than the Creator who forbids it. But indeed the fears of conscience evidence a secret belief in men of a just providence, whatever means they use to stifle it; else why is man, upon the commission of some notorious sinful act, afraid of some evil hap to betide him ? Why is he restless in himself ? There is no sinner, unless extremely hardened, but hath some secret touch of conscience upon notorious enormities ; while the work of the law is written in their heart, their conscience will bear witness and accuso them, Rom. ii. 15. In the most flagitious courses which the apostle reckons up, Rom. i. k 2 ( .)-o"2, they cannot put off the knowledge of 'the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death,' that is, worthy of death by the

judgment of God, which judgment is discovered in the law of nature.

15. The third thing IS, the various ways wherein men practically deny providence, or abnse it, or contemn it.

(1.) When we will walk on in a way contrary to checks of providence! when we will run against the will of (iod manifested in his providence, do deny his government, and refuse subjection to him ; when we will bo

peremptory in our resolves against the declaration of God's will by his die of providence, we contend with him about the government o( us and our

actions. Such a dispute had Pharaoh with God, notwithstanding all the checks by the plagUCS poured out upon him, he would march against Israel

to take them out, of God's hand into his own service again, Exod. w. ;>,

• The enemy said, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil ; my lust shall

tisfled upon them ; ! will draw my sword, mv hand shall destroy them.' Here is the will of man vaunting against the govornor of the world, resolved

to dispute God's royalty with him in spite of all the blastings of his designs, and the smart blows he had had from that powerful arm, which cost him and his subjects their lives ; they would not understand the taking off their wheels, but would run headlong into the Red Sea. A remarkable example of this is in a good man not so peremptory in words, but against the revelations of God's mind both by the prophet and his providence ; Jehoshaphat had made a league with Ahab, 2 Chron. xviii. 1-3, and God had ordered Micaiah to acquaint him with the ill success of the affair they went about, vcr. 16, 3 9, which Jehoshaphat found true, for his own life was in danger, he was hardly beset by the enemy upon a mistake, vcr. 31, 32, he had an eminent answer of prayer, for upon his cry he had a quick return ; God engaged his providence over his enemies' hearts for him: ver. 31, ' The Lord helped him, and God moved them to depart from him.' And for this conjunction and continuance in it against Micaiah's prophecy, God sends a prophet to reprove him, 2 Chron xix. 2, ' Should thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord ? therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord;' he reproves him sharply for this confederacy, yet Jehoshaphat after had a signal providence in delivering him from another army, chap. xx. 24. Yet after this he goes on in this way, chap. xx. 35, ' after this,' i. e., after a reproof by a prophet, after ill success in his league, after eminent care^ of God in his deliverance, after a signal freeing him from a dangerous invasion in a miraculous way, he enters into a league with Ahab's son, as wicked as his father, ver. 36*; he joined himself with him to make ships to goto Tarshish, and after that a third prophet is sent to reprove him, and the ships were broken, ver. 37. Here is a remarkable opposition to checks of providence, and manifest declarations of God's will, as if he would be the commander of the world instead of God. Abner's action is much of the same kind, who would make the house of Saul strong against David, though he knew and was satisfied that God had promised the kingdom to David.

(2.) In omissions of prayer. One reason to prove the fools' denying God's government of the world is, that they call not upon the Lord, Ps. xiv. 2, ' The Lord looked down from heaven, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.' 'Tis certainly either a denying of God's sufficiency to help us, when we rather beg of every creature, than ask of God ; or a charging him with a want of providence, as though he had thrown off all care of worldly matters: 2 Kings i. 3, ' Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that you go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron ?' Seeking of anything else with a neglect of God, is denying the care of God over his creature. Do we not in this case make ourselves our own governors and lords, as though we could subsist without him, or manage our own affairs without his assistance ? If we did really believe there w T as a watchful providence, and an infinite powerful goodness to help us, he would hear from us oftener than he doth. Certainly those who never call upon him disown his government of the world, and do not care whether he regards the earth or no. They think they can do what they please, without any care of God over them. The restraining prayer is a casting off the fear of God: Job xv. 4, 1 Thou castest oft' fear,' why ? ' and restrainest prayer before God.' The neglect of prayer ariseth from a conceit of the unprofitableness of it. Job xxi. 15, ' What profit should we have if we prayed unto him ?' Which conceit must be grounded upon a secret notion of God's carelessness of the world ; such fruit could not arise but from that bitter root. But the prophet Malachi plainly expresses it: Malachi iii. 14, ' Ye have said it is in vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance ?' Whence did this arise, but from a denial of providence upon the observation of the

outward happiness of the wicked? ver. 15, 'And now we call the proud happy ; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.' Sometimes it ariseth from an apprehension that God in the way of his providence dealeth unjustly with us. A good prophet utters such a sinful speech in his passion, 2 Kings vi. 33, ' Behold, this evil is of the Lord, what should I wait for the Lord any longer ?'

(3.) When men will turn every stone to gain the favourable assistance of men in theirjdesigns, and never address to God for his direction or blessing. When they never desire God to move the hearts of those whose favour they court, as though providence were an unuseful and unnecessary thing in the world. It was the case of those Elihu speaks of: Job xxxv. 9, 10, ' They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. But none saith, Where is God my maker, who gives songs in the night?' &c. None in the midst of their oppressions and cries under them, did consider either the power of God in the creation, as he was their maker, nor his providence in the government of the world, as he raised up men from low estates, and gave matter of cheerfulness even in a time of darkness. This was the charge God by his prophet brought against Asa: 2 Chron. xvi. 7 (before the text, ver. 9), ' Thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God ;' herein thou hast done foolishly,' where he sets a reliance on the creature, and a reliance on God, in direct opposition. In several cases men do thus deny and put a contempt on God as the governor of the world, when we will cast about to find out some creature-refuge, rather than have recourse to God for any supply of our necessities. Doth not he slight his father's care, that will not seek to him in his distress ? This was Asa's sin : 2 Chron. xvi. 12, ' In his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.' The Jews think, that one reason why Joseph continued two years in prison, was his confiding too much upon the butler's remembrance of him, and interest for his deliverance, which they ground upon the request he makes to him : Gen. xl. 14, ' But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness to me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.' I must confess the expressions are very urgent, being so often repeated, and seems to carry a greater confidence at present in the arm of flesh than in God. We do not read that Joseph prayed so earnestly to God, though no doubt but being a good man he did. Methinks the setting down his request with that repetition in the Scripture, seems to intimate a probability of the .lews' conceit; or also when we do seek to him, but it is out of a general belief of his providence and sufficiency, not out of an actuated consideration ; or whin we seek to him with colder affections than we seek to

ereatnres, as if we did half despair of his ability or will to help us; as when

a man thinks to get learning by the sagacity of his own wit, his indefatigable

industry, and never desirei With any ardent affection the blessing of Clod upon 1 ivuurs. When we lean to our own wisdom, we distrust the

providence of God : PrOY, iii. 6, ' Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean DOt to thine own understanding.' Trust in God, and leaning to our

own wisdom, are opposed to one another as inconsistent; or when a man

hath some great Concern, suppose a suit at law, to think to carry his cause by tin- favour of friends the help of he; money, the eloquence of his advocate, and Dover interest God in Ins business: this is not bo acknowledge God in thy ways, which is the command i ?er. ('», ' In all thy ways acknowledge

him ;' as though our works were not ' in the hand of God,' BccleS. ix. 1. This is to take them out of ( toil's hand, and put them into the hands of men. trOSt in our wealth, it is to make God a dead and a stupid God, and disown hifl providence in the bestowing it upon us. The apostle seems to iuti-

mate this in the opposition which he makes between ' uncertain riches,' and ■ the living God,' 1 Tim. vi. 17. These, and many more actions suitable to them, are virtual denials of God's snpcrintendency, as though God had left off the government of the world to the wits, or rather follies of men. These are to magnify the things we seek to, above God, as the chief authors of all our good. It is to imagine him less careful than man, more insufficient than man. It is a departure from a full fountain to a shallow stream; not to desire God's assistance, is either from some check of conscience that our business is sinful, that we dare not interest him in it, or a disowning God's care, as if we could hide our counsels from him (Isa. xxix. 15, ' Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and they say, Who seeth us, and who knoweth us ?'), and bring our business to pass before he shall know of it; at least it is a slighting God's government, since we will not engage God by prayer in the exercise of it on our behalf, and disdain to acquaint him with our concerns. It is a reflection upon God's wisdom to do so, which the prophet mentions with a woe : Isa. xxxi. 1,2,' Woe unto them that go down to Egypt for help : but they look not to the Holy One of Israel! Yet he also is wise.' It is a disparagement to God's providential wisdom, not to look to him in our concerns, yea, and of his righteousness too ; ■ they look not to the Holy One of Israel.' In this they neither regard his holiness nor his wisdom. When we consult not with him upon emergent occasions, we trust more to our own wisdom, counsel, and sufficiency, than to God's ; and set up ourselves as our own lords, and independent upon him, as though we could manage things according to our pleasure.

(4.) When upon the receiving any good, they make more grateful acknowledgment to the instruments, than to God the principal author of it; as if God had no hand in bestowing those blessings upon them, as if the instruments had dispossessed God of his governing providence, and engrossed it in their own hands. This men are guilty of when they ascribe their wealth to their own wit and fortune, their health to their own care, or the physician's skill; their learning to their own industry, their prosperity to their friends or merits. When men thus return their thank-offering to second causes, and ascribe to them what is due to God, they give the glory of his providence to a miserable creature. Thus was the foolish boasting of the Assyrian: Isa. x. 13, 14, ■ By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom: for I am prudent: for I have removed the bounds of the people,' &c. Belshazzar's offence also, Dan. v. 23, ' Thou hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven : and praised the gods of silver,' as though they were the authors of all thy greatness ; so Hab. i. 16, ' They sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag, because by them their portion is fat,' alluding to those that then worshipped their warlike weapons, and the tools whereby they had got their wealth, in the place of God, as the heathen used to do.* How base a usage is this of God, to rifle him of all his glory, , and bestow it upon the unworthiest instruments, inanimate creatures ! It is ; as high idolatry as that of the heathens, inasmuch as it is a stripping God of the glory of his providential care, though the object to which we direct our acknowledgments is not so mean as theirs, which was a stock or stone. But is it not the same injury to a person to rifle him of his goods, to bestow it upon a beggar, as to give it to a prince ? It is a depriving a man of his i right.f Yet, is not this ordinary ! Do not men ascribe more to the physician, that saves an eye in danger of being lost by a defluxion, than to God, who hath given them both, with the enjoyment of the light of the sun ; yea, more to the medicine than to that God who hath a witness of his deity i n * Dougkt Analect. Sacr. Excurs. 182. t Amirant sur les religions.

every drug ? It is as if the kindness a prince shews to his subjects should be attributed to a scullion in his kitchen rather than to himself. This is to ' belie God, and say it is not he,' Jer. v. 12. It is applicable to the case of mercies as well as afflictions and judgments, of which it is properly meant. And this contempt is the greater, by how much the greater mercy we have received in a way of providence : Hos. ii. 8, ' She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal;' she that had most reason to know, because she had enjoyed so much ; she that had experience how by a strong and mighty hand I brought her out of Egypt into the laud now possessed by her : she would not know that I gave her those good things she prepared for Baal. It would be a natural consequence from this Scripture, that those that employ the good things they enjoy upon their lusts, do deny the providential goodness of God in their possession and enjoyment of them, because they prepare God's goodness for their sinful pleasures, as though their own lusts had been the authors of them ; and also their instruments, that receive too high and nattering thanks of this nature, are much like Herod, that tickled himself with the people's applause, that his voice was the voice of God, and not of man. (5.) When we use indirect courses, and dishonest ways to gain wealth or honour. This is to leave God, to seek relief at hell's gates, and adore the devil's providence above God's : when God doth not answer us, like Saul, we will go to the witch of Endor, and have our ends by hell when heaven refuseth us. It is a covenanting with the devil, and striking up a bargain and agreement with hell, and acknowledging Satan to be the god of the world. No man will doubt but in express covenants with the devil, as witches and conjurors are reported to make, that the devil shall give them such knowledge, such wealth, or bring them to such honour; it is no doubt, I say, but such do acknowledge the devil the god of the world, because they agree by articles to have those things conferred upon them by Satan, which are only in the power of God absolutely to promise or bestow. So when a man will commit sin to gain the ends of his ambition or covetousness, does he not implicitly covenant with the devil, who is the head of sinners, and set up his sin in the place of God, because he hopes to attain those things by sinful means, which are only in the hand of God, and on whom he only can have a dependence? This is the devil's design out of an enmity to providence. He tempted Christ to be his own carver, thereby to put him upon ;i distrust of his Father's care of him]: Mat. iv. 3, ' Command that these Btones be made bread/ as though God would not provide for him;

which design of tin- devil is manifest by our Saviour's answer. This is to

prostitute providence to our own lusis, and to pull it down from the government of the world, lo be a lacquey to our sinful pleasure; to use means which God doth prohibit, is to set up hell to govern us, since God will not em our afiairs in answer to our greedy desires. It is to endeavour that by God's eurse which we should only expeot by God's blessing ; for when God hath forbid sinful n rarely threatened them, perhaps cursed them in

examples before our eves, what is it hut to say, that we will rather believe God'fl eurse will further OS than his blessing? It is to disparage' his blessing and prefer bis cm te, to slight his wisdom and adore our folly. When

0 out. of (iod's way, we go out of God's protection, we have no charted for III, blessing Of providence without that condition : Ts. xwvii. B, ' Trust in the Lord, and do gOOd I so Shalt thou dweU in the land, and verily thou

■bait he fed.' To do evil, then, is not to trust in (lod, or have any regard to

his providential care.

(Ii.) When wo distrust God when there is no visiblo means. A distrust

of God renders * him impotent, or false and mutable, or cruel and regardless, and what not. We detract from his power, as if it depended upon creatures, or that he were like an artificer, that could not act without his tools ; as if God were tied to means, and were beholding to creatures for his operating power; as if that God who created the world without instruments could not providentially apply himself to our particular exigencies without the help of some of his creatures. If he cannot work without this or that means you did expect your mercy by, it supposeth that God hath made the creature greater than himself, and more necessary to thy well-being than himself is; or else we conceit him false or foolish, as if he had undertaken a task of government too hard for him; as if he were grown weary of his labour, and must have some time to recruit his strength; or as if he were unfaithful, not walking by rules of unerring goodness; or if we acknowledge him wise, and able, and faithful, yet it must then be a denial of his gracious tenderness, which is as great as his power and wisdom, and a perfection equal with any of the rest. If his caring for us be a principal argument to move us to cast our care upon him,—as it is 1 Peter v. 7, ' Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you;' then if we cast not our care upon him, it is a denial of his gracious care of us,—this is to imagine him a tenderer governor of beasts than men, as though our Saviour had spoke a palpable untruth, when he told us, not an hair of our heads doth fall without his leave ; as if he regarded sparrows only, and not his children ; or else it implies that God cannot mind us in a crowd of business, in such multitudes in the world, which he hath to take care of. But certainly as the multitude of things doth not hinder his knowledge of them, so neither do they hinder his care. The arms of his goodness are as large to embrace all creatures, as the eyes of his omniscience are to behold them. From this root do all our fears of the power of men grow : Isa. li. 12, 13, ' Who art thou, that art afraid of a man that shall die, &c, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens?' &c. Our forgetfulness at least, if not a secret denial of God's power in the works of creation and providence, ushers in distrust of him, and that introduceth a fear of man. If they that know his name, will put their trust in him : Ps. ix. 10, ' For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee;' then a distrust of him discovers an ignorance and inconsideration of his name and his ways of working, and implies his forsaking of his creatures. He that trusts in anything else besides God, denies all the powerful operations of God, and conceives him not a strength sufficient for him, Ps. Hi. 7; that man doth not 'make God his strength, who trusts in the abundance of his riches.' How gross is it not to trust God under the very sense of his powerful goodness, but question whether he can or will do this or that for us. When w r e will have jealousies of him, when he doth compass us round about with mercy, and encircle us with his beams, it is to question whether the summer sun will warm me, though it shine directly upon me, and I feel the vigour of its beams upon my body; much more base is this, then to distrust him when we have no means. What doth this imply, but that he cares not what becomes of his children, that no advantage can be expected from him, that his intentions towards us are not gracious even whiles we feel him !

(7.) Stoutness under God's afflicting or merciful hand, is a denial or contempt of providence. This was the aggravation of Belshazzar's sin: Dan. v. 23, ' And the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.' He glorified not God in the way of his providence, but was playing the epicure, and was sacrilegiously quaffing in the * That is, interprets, or represents.— Ed.

vessels of the temple when the city was besieged; he seemed to dare the providence of God upon a presumption that the city was impregnable, by reason of Euphrates, and the provision they had within their walls, which Xenophon saith was enough for twenty years, yet was taken that night when the hand-writing was. And by how much God's judgments have been more visible to us, and upon some well known by us, or related to us, so much the greater is the contempt of his providential government, as ver. 22, ' And thou his son, Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knewest all this,' &c. He had known God's judgments upon his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, a domestic example of God's vindicating his government of the world, and yet went in the same steps ; so Jer. v. 3, 4. ' Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction : they have made their faces harder than a rock. What is the reason ? The prophet renders it, ver. 4, ' They are foolish : for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God.' Correction calls for submission ; but those, like a rock under God's hand, were correction-proof, they would not consider the ways of God's providence, and the manner of them; it is as if by our peevishness we would make God weary of afflicting us, which is the worst case can happen. This is God's complaint of the ten tribes, Hos. vii. 9, ' gray hairs are upon them, and they know it not; strangers have devoured his strength,' &c. There was a consumption of their strength; the Assyrians and Egyptians, to whom they gave gifts, had drained their treasure; but they would not consider God as the author, or acknowledge whence their misery came ; they would not ' seek God for all this, ver. 10. It is like a man's picking a pocket, or cutting a throat under the gallows in contempt of justice;* whereas good men are both afflicted with, and remember God's judgments. Eber called his son Peleg, division, because in his days the earth was divided, that in the daily sight of the sunf he might remember that sharp providence in scattering of the Babel builders. Judgments affect us when they are before our eyes, as the thunder and plagues did Pharaoh; but when they are removed, men return to their beloved ways, as though God had shot away all his arrows, and was departed to mind them no more. Take heed of this, it is a sin highly provoking; God is so tender that his providence should be minded and improved, that a sin of this nature he follows with his displeasure, in this life at least: Isa. xxii. 12, 13, ' And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning; and behold joy and gladness, eating flesh and drinking wine : let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.' When God in any judgment shews himself to bo the Lord God of hosts, and calls us to weeping, and we behave ourselves jollily in spite of his government, it is a sin be will remember, and bind the guilt upon us, ver 14, 'And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not bo purged from you till yo die.'

(8.) Envy also if a denial of providence To bo sad at tho temporal good, or tho gifts of another, as counting him unworthy of them, it is a reflection upon the author of those gifts; an accusing providence of an unjust or unwise distribution.J Since; God may do what ho will with his own, if our eye be evil, because God ii good, we intrench upon his liberty, and

deny him the disposal of bis own goods, M it' God were but our steward, and

we bis lonls. it, is :i temper we are all subject to: Ps. xxwii. 1, ' EVet not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against the workers

of iniquity.' It is peculiarly tho product Of self-love, which atl'ects tho

principality in the world, and particularly affects the conduct of God iu

* jenkin. t ( A U - ' h'.s sou'? — Ed. J Cajotan Summa, p. 4, 28.

distributing his goods, that he must not give but to whom they please. It ariseth indeed from a sense of our wants ; but the language of it is, God is unjust in his providence to me, because he bestows not upon me that good which he gives to another. It is such a sin that it seems to be a companion of our first parents' pride, which was the cause of their fall. They envied God a felicity by himself, for they would be like him, they would be as gods. Hence, perhaps, the Jews say Cain denied the providence of God, as envying his brother, because God accepted Abel's sacrifice and not his. Jonah's passion arose from this pride, for fear he should be accounted a false prophet; whereupon he envies God the glory of his mercy, and the poor Ninevites the advantage of it; he would have God conform the way of his providence to his pleasure and reputation. Indeed, it is to envy God the honour of his providence in those gifts or good things another possesses, whereby he is instrumental to glorify God and advantage others. Thus, we would direct God what instruments he should employ; when no artificer in his own art would endure to be directed by any ignorant person what tools he should use in his work.

(9.) Impatience under cross providence is a denial and contempt of God's government. Men quarrel with God's revealed will, and therefore no wonder that they quarrel with his providential will; whereby we deny him his right of governing, and slight his actual exercise of his right. As if God were accountable to us for his dispensations, and must have only a respect to us or our humour in his government: Job xviii. 4, ' He tears himself in his anger; shall the earth be forsaken for thee ? and shall the rock be removed out of his place ?' Must God alter the scene of his affairs according to our model and platform ? And because he doth not observe our rules and methods, must we tear ourselves in anger ? This is a secret cursing of God and flying in his face, when we see providence so cross, that there seems to be no help at any time either in heaven or earth: Isa. viii. 21, 22, ' They shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upwards. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness.' Take heed of fretting at God's management of things in the world, or thy own particular concerns; this may lead to a cursing of God, and is indeed an initial secret swelling against him, and cursing of him. Man is ambitious to become a god. Adam's posterity have in one sort or other imitated him. This,

[1.] Is a wrong to the sovereignty of providence. It was a good admonition of Luther's to Melancthon, when he was troubled much about the affairs of the church, Monendus est Philippics at desinat esse rector mundi. By this temper we usurp God's place, and set ourselves in his throne; we invade his supremacy, by desiring everything to be at our beck, and are displeased with him, because he doth not put the reins of the world's government into our hands ; as if we would command his will and become his sovereigns. It is a striving with our Maker for the superintendency, when we will sit judge upon him, or censure his acts, and presume to direct him: Isa. xlv. 9, ' Woe to him that strives with his Maker. Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, What makest thou ? or thy work, He hath no hands.' How do men summon God to the bar of their interest, and expostulate with him about his works, why he did not order them thus and thus; and if he doth so, to tell him he hath no hand, no hand of providence in the world! The design of that place is to stop such peevishness and invasions of God's right; I will not have my sovereign will disputed, as if I were but the creature's servant. I am content you should ' ask of me things to come,' ver. 11, and pray to me, but notwithstanding yet to submit to my

VOL. I. D

pleasure, without a peevish endeavouring to wrest the sovereignty out of my hand, and pull the crown from my head.

[2.] It is a wrong to the goodness and righteousness of providence. It is a charging God with ill management, and an implicit language, that if we were the commanders of providence, things should be managed more justly and righteously; as it was Absalom's pretence in wishing to be the king of Israel in David's stead, 2 Sam. xv. 4. If patience be a giving God the honour of his righteousness in his judgments—Ps. cxix. 75, 'I know, 0 Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me ;'—impatience must be a charge against God for unrighteousness in his judicial proceedings, and a saying, ' the way of the Lord is not equal,' Ezek. xviii. 25. It is implied in that complaint, Isa. lviii. 2, 3, * They ask of me the ordinances of justice, &c. Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not ? wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou takest no knowledge ?' We demand justice of thee, since thou dost not seem to do that which is fit and righteous, in not regarding us in our suits, and not bestowing that which we have fasted for. God governs the world according to his will, our murmuring implies that God's will is not the rule of righteousness. We affront the care of God towards his creatures, as if the products of our shallow reasons were more beautiful and just than God's contrivances for us, who hath higher and more glorious ends in everything, both for ourselves and the world, of which we are members, and for his own glory, to which we ought to subject ourselves, when perhaps our projects tend immediately to gratify some sensual or spiritual lust in us. It is the commendation the Holy Ghost gives of Job, chap. i. 22, ■ In all this Job sinned not, neither charged God foolishly,' as a character peculiar to him, implying that most men in the world do, upon any emergency, charge God with their crosses, as dealing unjustly with them, in inflicting punishment when they think they have deserved rewards. Jeremiah is not innocent in this case: Jer. xx. 7, ' 0 Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived,' in the ill success of his prophecy, as though an immense goodness would, and a sovereign power needed to deal in a fraudulent way with his creatures to bring his ends about.

[3.] It is a wrong to the wisdom of providence. We would degrade his omniscience and wisdom, and sway him b} T oiu* foolish and purblind dictates ; it is as if wo would instruct him better in the management of the world, and direct him to a reformation of his methods : Job xl. 2, ' Shall ho that contends with the Almighty instruct him ? Ho that reproves God let him wet it.' It is a reproving God, and reproofs imply a greater authority, or righteousness, or wisdom, in the person reproving. We reprovo I I, as if God should have consulted with us, and asked cur advice; it is to t..ike upon us to be God's counsellors, and to conclude the only wise God by our imperfect reason : Rom. \i. 84, ' Who hath been his counsellor'.' '

It la a secret boasting of some excellency in ourselves, as it" God did not govern well, or we could govern better. Shall a silly passenger, that ander-standi nol the use of the c . !>.• angry that the skilful pilot will not steer the vr sel according to his pleasure ? Mast we give out our orders to God, as though He' counsels of infinite wisdom must roll about according to the conceits of our fancy? Is not, the language of our hearts in our tits oi' impatit nee a i pro I proud against God's providence as the Bpeech of that monster v. the creation, who said if he had keen by God at the i of the world, h^ eoul I hive dir< ol id him to a better platform ? All this, ami muoh more, is virtually in this sin of impatience. (10.) Jm oh and mi by them \\[)on providonc

this we contemn it. Some think Cain doth so: Gen iv. 9, ' Am I my brother's keeper ? ' Thou art the keeper and governor of the world, why-didst thou not hinder me from killing my brother ? It is certain the first man did so: Gen. iii. 12, ' The woman thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree ; ' thy gift is the cause of my sin and ruin. It is as certain David laid the sin of Uriah's murder at the door of providence : 2 Sam. xi. 25, when he heard that Uriah was dead, ' The sword,' saith he, ' devours one as well as another.' Man conjures up trouble to himself when by his folly he brings himself into sin, and from thence to misery, and then his heart frets against the Lord, and lays the blame both of his sin and following mischiefs upon him : Prov. xix. 3, ' The foolishness of man perverts his way, and his heart frets against the Lord.' There are many other ways wherein we deny or slight providence.

[1.] When we do things with a respect to the pleasure of men more than of God, as though God were careless both of himself and his own honour, and regarded not the principles and ends of our actions.

[2.] In vain boasting and vaunting of ourselves. As Benhadad would have such a multitude of men in his army as that there should not be dust enough in Samaria to afford every man a handful, 1 Kings xx. 10, wherein he swaggers with God, and vaunts as if he were the governor of the world; yet this man, with his numerous host, was routed by a troop of lacqueys, ver. 15, 20; they are called 'the young men of the princes.' Such is the folly of men against the orders of God, when they boast in their hearts that their house shall continue for ever, Ps. xlix. 11.

[3.] Oppression. ' They slay the fatherless, and say, The God of Jacob shall not regard it,' Ps. xciv. 6, 7. Their denial of providence was the cause of their oppression of the poor, and where this is found in any, it is an argument it ariseth principally from a like cause. This is also made the cause why they eat up God's people as they eat bread, Ps. xiv. 1, 4.

[4.] Misinterpretations of providence.

Such cursed jealousies had the Jews of God: Num. xiv. 3, ' And wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword ? were it not better for us to return into Egypt ? ' As though God in that mighty deliverance had cheated them with a design to destroy them in the wilderness, when one of those plagues poured out upon Pharaoh being turned upon their heads, had destroyed them in Egypt. So foolish are they to think that God would ruin them upon dry land who might have drowned them as well as their enemies in the Red Sea; so unreasonable is man in his disputes against God.

[5.J In limiting providence. In bounding it to time, manner, and other circumstances, as they did : Ps. lxxviii. 41, ' They limited the holy one of Israel, for they remembered not his hand.' As though God must manage everything according to the will of a simple creature. It was a forgetfulness of providence, at least, that was the cause of it.

Use 2. The second use is of comfort. As the justice and righteousness of God is the highest comfort to a good man since the evangelical dispensation, in that he hath to deal with a righteous God, who can as soon deny himself as his righteousness, so it is none of the meanest comforts that we acknowledge and worship that God, who exerciseth himself in a constant government of the world, and leaves not anything to the capricionsness of that which we call fortune and chance. What satisfaction can any man in his sober wits have, to live in a world cast off from all care of the Creator of it ? Wisdom without providence would make any man mad, and the greatest advantage would be to be a stupid and senseless fool. Can there be

any worse news told to men than this, that let them be as religious as they will, there is no eye above takes notice of it ? What can be bitterer to a rational man than that God should be careless of the world ? * What a door would be opened by it for all sin in the wicked, and despair in the godly ! It is as great a matter of joy to the godly that God reigns as it is of terror to the wicked : Ps. xcvii. 1, ' The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; Ps. xcix. 1, * The Lord reigns, let the people tremble.' It is a comfort that,

1. Man is a special object of providence. God provides for all creatures, even those that are the works of his hands, much more for man, who is more peculiarly the work of his head, in whose creation he took counsel: Gen. i. 26, \ Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.' iThe work of his heart, in being made according to his image, and intended as a subordinate end of his whole creation, next to the principal, that of God's glory. He is the preserver of man and beast; of man principally, of beasts in subserviency to man's good and preservation.

2. Holy men a more special object of it. God preserves and provides for all things, and all persons. But his eye is more peculiarly fixed upon those that fear him: Ps. xxxiii. 18, ■ Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy,' so fixed as if he had no regard to anything else. If God hath a care of man created after his own image, though his image be depraved, much more of those wherein his image is restored. If God loves himself, he loves his image and his works. A man loves the works which he hath made of some external matter ; much more doth a father love his son, much more doth God love his own, and therefore will work their good, and dispose of them well. God exerciseth a special providence over the actions of a good man, as well as his person, Ps. xxxvii. 23, ■ The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his ways ;' it is a special, because a delightful providence, he delights in his way. How highly may it cheer a man to be in covenant with that God which rules the world, and hath all things at his beck, to be under not only the care of his wisdom, but of his goodness. The governor of the world, being such an only friend, will do him no hurt, being such an only father, will order all things to his good out of a fatherly affection ; ho is the world's sovereign, but a good man's father; he rules the heavens and the earth, but ho loves his holy ones. Other things are tho objects of his providence, and a good man is the end of it. For ' His

9 nm to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong for him whose heart ifl perfect towards him,' 2 Ohron. xvi. 3.

8. Hence it will follow that the spirits of good men have sutlicient grounds to bear tip in their innocent Bufferings ami storms in the world. Innocent Bufferings. There is a righteous governor who orders all, and will reward

them lot their jiiiins SB well as their service : lleh. vi. 10, ' For God is not

unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love ;' there is one that presides in the world, Who BOeS nil their Calamities, and cannot he mistaken in their oause, Who bath as much power ami wisdom as will to help them. It would I),' ;m affliction indeed if there were no sovereign power to whom tiny

might make Heir moan in their distress, to whom they might ease their oon-

, it there were do governor towhom they might oiler ap their petitions

in the storms they meet with in the world. How doth the presence of a

skilful pilot in a weather-beaten ship cheer the hearts of the fearful passen-

* It w.i.! an ezoellent ■peeob "f a Stoic, •&* 'tarl £fi> iv r£ x6a/xtfj xtvfi Ctuv xu)

gers ! What a dread would it be to them to have the vessel wherein their lives and all are concerned left to the fury of winds and waves, without an able hand to manage it ? God hath a bridle to check the passions of men, to marshal them according to his pleasure ; they are all but his instruments in the government, not the lords of it. God can lay a plot with more wisdom for a good man's safety than the enemy can for his destruction ; he can countermine their plots with more power than they can execute them; he can out-wit their craft, overpower their strength, and turn their designed cruelty against them, as a knife into their own breasts.

4. Hence follows a certain security against a good man's want. If God take care of the hairs, the ornamental superfluities, why should we doubt his care of our necessary supply ? If he be the guardian of our hairs, which fall off without our sense of their departure, shall he be careless of us when we are at a pinch for our all ? Will God reach out his care to beasts, and deny it to his children ? What would you judge of that father who should feed his servants and starve his sons'? He supplies his enemies, and hath he no bowels for his friends ? The very unjust as well as the just are enlightened by his sun, and refreshed by his rain; and shall he not have a providence for those that have a special interest in that Mediator, whose interposition kept up those standing mercies after our forfeiture of them by sin ? If he bless with those blessings those who are the objects of his curse, will he not bless those that are in his special favour with them, so far as they may prove blessings to them ? Ps. xxxiv. 10, ' The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing,' ver. 9, ' for there is no want to them that fear him.' A good man shall have what he needs, not always what he thinks he needs. Providence intends the supply of our necessities, not of our desires; he will satisfy our wants, but not our wantonness. When a thing is not needful, a man cannot properly be said to want it; when it is needful, a good man shall not be without it. What is not bestowed upon us may not be so beautiful at that time wherein we desire it, for everything is beautiful in its season, Eccles. iii. 11. He that did not want God's kindness to renew him, shall never want God's kindness to supply him ; his hand shall not be wanting to give, where his heart has been so large in working. Others live that have an interest only in common providence, but good men have providence cabineted in a promise, and assured to them by a deed of covenant conveyance ; he was a provider before, he hath made himself now your debtor. You might pray for his providential care before with a common faith, now with a more special expostulation, for in his promise he hath given a good man the key of the chest of his providence, because it is ' the promise of this life, and that which is to come,' 1 Tim. iv.; of this life, not to our desires, but necessities ; of the life to come to both, wherein they shall have whatsoever they can want and whatsoever they can desire.

Again consider, God doth exercise a more special providence over men, as clothed with miserable circumstances, and therefore among his other titles this is one, to be 'a helper of the fatherless,' Ps. x. 14. It is the argument the church used to express her return to God : Hosea xiv. 3, ' For in thee the fatherless find mercy.' Now what greater comfort is there than this, that there is one presides in the world who is so wise he cannot be mistaken, so faithful he cannot deceive, so pitiful he cannot neglect his people, and so powerful that he can make stones even to be turned into bread if he please !

Further, take this for a comfortable consideration ;

God doth not govern the world only by his will as an absolute monarch, but

by his wisdom and goodness as a tender father. It is not his greatest pleasure to shew his sovereign power, or his unconceivable wisdom, but his immense goodness, to which he makes the other attributes subservient. What was God's end in creating is his end in governing, which was the communication and diffusion of his goodness ; we may be sure from hence that God will do nothing but for the best, his wisdom appointing it with the highest reason, and his goodness ordering it to the most gracious end; and because he is the highest good, he doth not only will good, but the best good in everything he acts.

What greater comfort can there be than that we are under the care of an infallible, unwearied, and righteous governor ! infallible because of his infinite wisdom, unwearied because of his incomprehensible omnipotency, and righteous because of his unbounded goodness and holiness.

Use 3. Of exhortation.

The duties arising from hence will run as a thread through the web of our whole lives, and all the motions of them. This doctrine hath an influence upon our whole course; there is nothing we meet with but is an act of providence, and there is no act of providence but calls for some particular duty. Is there any good we want? We must seek it at his hands, we must depend upon him for it; we must prescribe no methods to him, but leave the conduct of it to his own wisdom. Is it a cross providence, and contrary to our desires and expectations ? Murmur not at it. Is it afflictive and troublesome ? . Submit to it. Is it either good or bad, and present ? We must study to understand it. Is it a good and present ? Give God the glory of it.

1. Seek everything you need at the hands of God. It is not only the skilfulness of the pilot, but a favourable gale from heaven, which must conduct the ship to the intended port. As his providence is the foundation, so it is the encouragement of all prayer. The end of the Lord's prayer is, * For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.' The providential kingdom belongs to God. Power he hath to manage it, and his glory is the end of all. Seek to him therefore for the exercise of his power in thy concerns, and for his directing them to his glory in his providential administrations. Every one of our days, and both the mercy and the misery of them, depe id unon him: Prov. xxvii. 1, 'Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth,' but God foresees all events; have recourse therefore to his caro lor every day's success. What arc onr contrivances without the leave and blessing of providence ? Like the bubbles blown up from a nut-shell, easily broken by the next puff. Our labour will be as fruitless as Peter's, with all his toil, and catch nothing till God speaks the word, and sends the lish into our net, Luke v. 5. The way of man is not in himself: Jer. x. 28, ' 0 Lord, 1 know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walks lo direct his steps.' Dangers are not within the reach of our eye to foresee, nor within the compass of our power io prevent. Human prudence may lay the platform, and God's power blast the execution when it seems to

l>e grown up Dearest to maturity. Besekiah was liappy in his affairs, be«

cause he Was assisted by God J Ahax unhappy, because he is deserted by God. If we would have a dock ,L r o well, we must look chiefly to the motion

of tho chief wheel; a failure is that makes an error in all the rest. Nothing can terminate its motion to onr benefit without providence. Coloured glass can reflect do beams without the sun's light, nor fruits be ripened without its influence. Our dependence on God is greater than theirs on the

sun. God lets men play With their own wit and strength, and come to tho brink of execution of their designs, and then blows upon them, that they

may know there is a God in the earth. Pythagoras could say it was ytXoTov, a ridiculous thing to seek that which is brave and virtuous anywhere else than of God.* Cyrus is a brave pattern, who is mentioned in Scripture, and represented by Xenophon calling upon God when he was first chosen general; f and in his speech to his captains to encourage them to hope for a good success of the expedition, tells them they might expect it, because I have begun with God, which you know, saith he, is my custom, not only when I attempt great matters, but also ra //,/;tga,the things of lesser concernment. The seeking of God should be the prologue to all our affairs. We are enjoined first to pray, and then to determine : Job xxii. 27, ' Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee.' The interesting providence in our concerns is the highway to success. The reason we miscarry, is because we consult not God, but determine without him; and then we have no reason to complain of him for not prospering our way, when we never commended our affairs to his conduct. It hath been the practice of holy men. Nehemiah first petitioned God before he would use his interest in the king's favour: Neh. ii. 4, ' Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request ? So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said unto the king,' &c. So Abraham's steward put up his request to God, before he would put the business he came upon in execution, Gen. xxiv. 12. David frequently in particular cases, 1. Sam. xxiii. 9,2 Sam. ii. 1, 2 Sam. xvi. 12. God only doth what he pleases in heaven and in earth. He only can bless us, he only can blast us. Shall we be careless in any undertaking, whether we have his favour or no ? It is a ridiculous madness to resolve to do anything without God, without whose assisting and preserving of us we had not been able to make that resolution.

2. Trust providence. To trust God when our warehouses and bags are full, and our tables spread, is no hard thing; but to trust him when our purses are empty, but a handful of meal and a cruse of oil left, and all ways of relief stopped, herein lies the wisdom of a Christian's grace. Yet none are exempted from this duty, all are bound to acknowledge their trust in him by the daily prayer for daily bread, even those that have it in their cupboards as well as those that want it, the greatest prince as well as the meanest beggar. Whatever your wants are, want not faith, and you cannot want supplies. It is the want of this binds up his hand from doing great works for his creatures ; the more we trust him the more he concerns himself in our affairs. The more we trust ourselves, the more he delights to cross us ; for he hath denounced such an one cursed that maketh flesh his arm, Jer. xvii. 5, though it be the best flesh in the world, because it is a departing from the Lord. No wonder then that God departs from us, and carries away his blessing with him ; while we trust ourselves, we do but trouble ourselves, and know not how to reconcile our various reasons for hopes and fears, but the committing our way to the Lord renders our minds calm and composed : Prov. xvi. 3, ' Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.' Thou shalt have no more of those quarrelling disturbing thoughts what the success shall be.

(1.) Trust providence in the greatest extremities. He brings us into straits, that he may see the exercise of our faith : Zeph. iii. 12, ' I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.' When we are most desolate, we have most need of this exercise, and have the fittest season to practise it; he is always our refuge and our strength, but in time of trouble a present help, Ps. xlvi. 1. Daniel's new advancement by Belshazzar but a day before the city was taken by the

* Jarablich. Vita. Pythag , lib, i. cap. 18. | Xenophon ffgs/ Kvgov IIa/5. lib. i.

enemy, Dan. v. 29, the king slain, and (no doubt) many of his nobility, and those that were nearest in authority with him, it being the interest of the enemy to despatch them, was a danger, yet God by ways not expressed preserved Daniel, and gave him favour with the conqueror. God sometimes leads his people into great dangers, that they may see and acknowledge his hand in their preservation. Daniel had not had so signal an experience of God's care of him, had he been in the lower condition he was in before his new preferment. God's eye is always upon them that fear him, not to keep distress from them, but to quicken them in it, and give them as it were a new life from the dead : Ps. xxxiii. 18, 19, ' To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.' God brings us into straits, that we may have more lively experiments of his tenderness in his seasonable relief. If he be angry, he will repent himself for his servants, when he sees their power is gone, because then the glory of his providence is appropriated to himself: Deut. xxxii. 36, 39, ' See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me : I kill, and I make alive.' No creature can have any pretence to share in it; he delights thereby to blow up both our affections to him and admirations of him, and store up in us a treasure of experiments to encourage our trusting in him in the like straits. We should therefore repose ourselves in God in a desert as well as in the cities ; with as much faith among savage beasts as in the best company of the most sociable men;- and answer the greatest strait with Abraham's speech to Isaac, ' God will provide.' For we have to do with a God who is bound up to no means, is at no expense in miraculous succours, who delights to perfect his strength in the creature's weakness. We have to do with a God who only knows what may further our good, and accordingly orders it; what may hinder it, and therefore prevents it. He can set all causes in such a posture as shall conspire together as one link to bring about success, and make even contrary motions meet in one gracious end; as the rivers which run from north and south, the contrary quarters of the world, agree in the surges of one sea. Though providences may seem to cross one another, they shall never cross his w T ord and promise, which he hath magnified above all his names. And his providence is but a servant to his truth.

(2.) Trust it in the way of means. Though we are sure God hath decreed the certain event of such a thing, yet we must not encourage our idleness, but our diligence. Though Moses was assured of the victory when Amalek came armed against him, yet he commands Joshua to draw up the valiant men int') a body, himself goes to the mount to pray, and is as diligent in the of ;ill means as it' he had been ignorant of God's purpose, and had rather mi jpected lie rout of liis own than his enemies' forces. Neither doth Joshua afterwards, though secured by promise in his conquest of Caiman, omit any part of the duty of a wise; and watchful general; lie semis spies, disciplines bis forces, besiegeth cities, and contrives Btratagems. Providence directs ai by means, not to use them is \^ tempt our guardian; where it in-t' ii I any great thing \'<<v our good, it opens a door, and puts such circumstances into our bands as we may use without, the breach of any command,

or tie' neglect of our own duty. (i< »<l OOuld have secured Christ from 1 lerod's fury by ;i miraculous stroke from heaven Upon his enemy, hut lie orders

eph and Mary's Bight into Egypi as i m.tans of his preservation. God rebukes Mo es for praying, and not using the means in continuing the people's marob : Exod. riv, l 5, ' Wherefore eriest thou unto me ? Speak unto

the Children Of Israel, that they go forwards.' To QSe means without respect to (iod, is proudly to contemn him ; to depend upon Cod without the use of

* Durant de Tentat. i». ids.

means, is irreligiously to tempt him ; in both we abuse his providence. In the one we disobey him in not using the means he hath appointed; in the other presumptuously impose upon him for the encouragement of our laziness. Diligence on our part, and the blessing on God's, Solomon joins together, Prov. x. 4, ' The hand of the diligent makeslrich,' but, ver. 22, ' The blessing of the Lord maketh rich.' So Eccles. ix. 1, « Our works are in the hand of God;' our works, but God's blessing; God's blessing, but not without our works. It was the practice of good men. Jacob wrestles with God to divert his brother's fury, yet sends a present to his brother to appease him, Gen. xxxii. 9, 13. David trusts in the name of the Lord his God in his duel with Goliah, but not without his sling ; our labour should rather be more vigorous than more faint, when we are assured of the blessing of providence by the infallibility of the promise.

(3.) Trust providence in the way of precept. Let not any reliance upon an ordinary providence induce you into any way contrary to the command. Daniel had many inducements from an appearance of providence to eat the king's meat: his necessity of compliance in his captivity, probability of preferment by learning the wisdom of the country, whereby he might both have advanced himself and assisted his countrymen, the greatness of the consideration for a captive to be fed from the king's table, the ingratitude he might be accused of for despising so kind a treatment; but none of these things moved him against a command; because the law of God forbade it, he would not eat of the king's meat, Dan. i. 8-10, &c. < But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat.' Daniel might have argued, I may wind myself into the king's favour, do the church of God a great service by my interest in him, which may be dashed in pieces by my refusal of this kindness ; but none of these things wrought upon him. No providences wherein we have seeming circumstances of glorifying God, must lead us out of the way of duty; this is to rob God one way to pay him another. God brought Daniel's ends about: he finds favour with the governor, his request is granted, the success is answerable, and all those ends attained which he might in a sinful way, by an ill construction of providence, have proposed to himself, all which he might have missed of had he run on in a carnal manner. This, this is the way to success: Ps. xxxvii. 5, ' Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.' Commit thy way to the guidance of his providence, with an obedience to his precept and reliance on his promise, and refer all success in it to God. If wo set up our golden calves made of our own ear-rings, our wit, and strength, and carnal prudence, because God seems to neglect us, our fate may be the same with theirs, and the very dust of our demolished calf may be a bitter spice in our drink, as it was in theirs.

(4.) Trust him solely, without prescribing any methods to him ; leave him to his wise choice, wait upon him because he is a God of judgment, Isa. xxx. 18, who goes judiciously to work, and can best time the executions of his will. The wise God observes particular periods of time for doing his great works,—John ii. 4, ' My hour is not yet come ; woman, what have I to do with thee?'—which man is no competent judge of: I will do this miracle, but the season is not yet come wherein it will be most beautiful. God hath as much wisdom to pitch the time of performance of his promise, as he hath mercy at first to make it. How presumptuous would it be for the shallow world, a thing worse than nothing, and vanity, to prescribe rules to the Creator! much more for a single person, a little atom of dust, infinitely worre than nothing, and vanity, to do it. Since we had no hand in creating tl e world or ourselves, let us not presume to direct God in the

government of it: Job xxxviii. 4, ' Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth ? declare, if thou hast understanding.' Would it not be a disparagement to God to stoop to thy foolish desires ? yea, would you not yourselves have a lower conceit of him, if he should degrade his wisdom to the wrong bias of your blind reason ?

3. Submit to providence. It is God's right to govern the world, and dispose of his creature ; it is his glory in heaven to do what he will: Ps. cxv. 3, ' But our God is in the heaven : he hath done whatsoever he pleased.' Let us not, by our unsubmissive carriage, deprive him of the same glory on earth ; he brings to pass his will by ways the creature cannot understand. It is the wisest speech in the medley of fooleries, the Turkish Alcoran.- We must walk by the rule of reason which God hath placed in us for our guide ; yet if providence brings to pass any other event contrary to our rational expectations, because it is a clear evidence of his will, we must acquiesce. As when a traveller hath two ways to come to his journey's end, the one safe and the other dangerous, reason persuades him to choose the safest way, wherein he falls among thieves; now having used his reason, which in that case was to be his director, he must acquiesce; God's providence bringeth forth an event, which he could not without violence to his reason avoid. And therefore it is a great vanity, when a man hath resolved the most probable way in a business, and fails in it, to torment himself; because though our consultations depend upon ourselves, yet the issues of them are solely in the hand of God. It concerns us therefore to submit to God's disposal of us and our affairs, since nothing can come to pass but by the will of God effecting it, or permitting it. If the fall of a sparrow is not without his will, Mat. x. 29, much less can the greater events which befall men, the nobler creatures, be without the same concurrence of God's pleasure ; therefore submit: for,

(1.) Whatsoever God doth, he doth wisely. His acts are not sudden and rash, but acts of counsel; not taken up upon the present posture of things, but the resolves of eternity. As his is the highest wisdom, so all his acts relish of it, and he guides his will by counsel: Eph. i. 11, ' Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.' If God took counsel in creating the world, much more in laying a platform of government, much more in the act of government; for men can frame models of government that c;in Dover reduce them into practice. Now God being infinitely wise, and his will infinitely good, it must needs be that goodness and wisdom are the rules whereby he directs himself in his actions in the world. And what greater motive can there ho to persuade our submission, than wisdom and goodness transacting all things? God's counsel being the tirmest, as well as the wisest, it is a lolly both ways to resist it.

(•J.; God discovers his mind to us by providences. Every work of God 1 nit, of his counsel, when we see it actually brought forth into

the world, what else doth it discover to us but that counsel and will of his? providence hftth a language wherein God's mind is signified,

much mors :i train and contexture of them : Luke vii, 22, * Tell John what things yon have seen and heard: how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are clean ■ I, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, to the poor the gospel is preached.' Our Saviour informs John's disoiples from

Of providence, I I them no other answer, hut turns him over to

interpret and construe bis works in the ease. Providence therefore must

not I d, when God'fl mind in it, is discovered. It is disingenuous

;ainst bil pleasure and manifest mind; it is the devil's sin. Aaron, * Dcus triumpluU m mui MMtO, •[<-.

when he lost his two sons in so judicial manner by fire from heaven, yet held his peace, Lev. x. 1-3 ; because God had declared his mind positively, 1 1 will be glorified.' It is dangerous to resist the mind of God, for the word of his providence shall prosper in spite of men and devils : Isa. lv. 11, 1 My word that goes forth of my mouth, shall not return unto me void; it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it;' and therefore a resisting of it is termed Qeopa^sTv, a fighting against God, by Gamaliel, no great friend to the church, Acts v. 38, 39.

4. Murmur not at providence. Though we do not clearly resist it, if there be a repining submission, it is a partial opposition to the will of God. We might as well murmur at God's creation as at his providence, for that is as arbitrary as this; he is under no law but his own righteous will: wo should therefore leave the government of the world to God's wisdom, as we acknowledge the frame of it to be an act of his power. If God should manage his ways according to our prescriptions, what satisfaction would God have ? what satisfaction would the world have ? He might be unjust to himself, and unjust to others. Your own complaints would not be stilled, when you should feel the smart of your own counsels ; yet if they were, what satisfaction could there be to the complaints of others, whose interests and therefore judgments and desires lie cross to yours ? Man is a cross creature. The Israelites exclaimed to God against Pharaoh, and when the scene was changed, they did no less murmur'against Moses in the wilderness. They were as troublesome when they w T ere delivered, as when they were afflicted. In Egypt they would have their liberty, and in the wilderness their stomachs turn, and they long for the onions and garlic, though attended with their former slavery. Let God govern the world according to his own wisdom and will, till all mankind can agree in one method to offer to him, and that I think will never be, though the world should last for ever. Murmur not, therefore; whatsoever is done in the world is the work of a wise agent, who acts for the perfection of the whole universe ; and why should I murmur at that which promotes the common happiness and perfection, that being better and more desirable than the perfection of any one particular person ? Must a lutenist break all his strings because one is out of tune ? And must God change his course because things are out of order with one man, though in regard of divine providence things are not out of order in themselves, or without any care, for God is a God of order ? This temper will hinder our prayers ; with what face can we pray to that God whose wisdom we thus repine at ? If God doth exercise a providence in the world, why do we murmur ? If he doth not take care of those things, why do we pray to him ? It is a contradiction. It also hinders us from giving God the glory, and ourselves the comfortable sight of his providence. God may have taken something from us, which is the matter of our sorrow, and give another thing to us, which might be the matter of our joy. Jacob lost a joint, and got a blessing, Gen. xxxii. 29, 31. What advantage can it be to murmur ? Can all your cries stop the motions of the heavens, when a storm reaches you ? Can your clamours make the clouds move the faster, or persuade the showers from drenching us ? Murmuring at any afflictive providence, is the way to make the rod smarter in itself, and sharper to us.

5. Study providence. It is a part of atheism not to think the acts of God in the world worth our serious thoughts. And if you would know the meaning of his administrations, grow up in the fear of God : Ps. xxv. 14, ' The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.' God is highly angry with those that mind him not: Ps. xxviii. 5, * Because they regard not the ope-

ration of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.' He shall utterly root them out.

(1.) Study providence universally. The darkest: God brings order out of the world's confusion, even as he framed a beautiful heaven and earth out of a rude mass. The terriblest: these offer something worth our observation ; the dreadful providence of God makes Sodom an example to after ages: Jude 7, they are • set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,' &c. The smallest: God is a wise agent, and so the least of his actions are significant. There is nothing superfluous in those acts we account the meanest; for to act vainly and lightly argues imperfection, which cannot be attributed to God. The wisdom of God may be much seen in those providences the blind world counts small; as a little picture is oft-times of more value, and hath more of the workman's skill than a larger, which an ignorant person might prize at a higher rate ; the lilies, flowers, sparrows, our Saviour raises excellent observations from.

(2.) Regularly. By the word: compare providence and the promise together; God's manner of administrations, and the meaning of them, is understood by the word : Ps. lxxvii. 13, ' Thy way, 0 God, is in the sanctuary.' By faith : we many times correct our sense by reason; when we look through a blue or green glass, and see all things blue or green, though our sense represents them so, yet our reason discovers the mistake. Why should we not correct reason by faith ? Indeed, our purblind reason stands in as much need of a regulation by faith, as our deceitful sense doth of a regulation by reason. We may often observe in the gospel, that the Holy Ghost taking notice of the particular circumstances in the bringing Christ into the world, and in the course of his life, often hath those expressions, 1 as it is written; that the Scriptures might be fulfilled,' There is not a providence happens in the world, but there are some general rules in the word whereby we may apprehend the meaning of it. From God's former work discovered in his word, we may trace his present footsteps. Observe the timings of providence wherein the beauty of it appears, since ' God hath made every thing beautiful in its time.'

(3.) Entirely. View them in their connection. A harsh touch single would not be pleasing, but may rarely affect the concert. The providences of God bear a just proportion to one another, and are beautiful in theft entire scheme ; but when regarded apart, we shall come far short of a delightful understanding of them. As in a piece of arras folded up, and afterwards particularly opened, we Bee the hand or foot of a man, the branch of a tree; or if we look on the outside, we sec nothing but knots and threads, and

uncouth shapes that we know not what to make of; but when it is fully

opened, and we have the whole weh before as, we see what histories and

ing characters are interwoven in it. View them in their end ; there is

no true judgment to be made of i thing in motion, unless we have a right

Of the end tO which it tends. Many things which may seem terrible

in their motion, may be excellent in their end. Providence is crowned by the end of it. Asaph was much troubled about the prosperity of the wicked,

and affliction Of the godly, but he was well satisfied when be understood

their end, which was the end of providence too : l\s. Ixxiii. It'), 17, ' When I lit- to Lie. a ilii , it u M too painful for me, until I went, into the sanctuary, then Understood I their end.' Motes his rod was a serpent in its motion upon the ground; but when taken up, it was a rod again to work

miracles. God set, us u pattern for this in the creation. He views the creatures as thej cone into being, and pronounced them good; be takes a

review of them afterward in their whole frame, ami the subordination of

them to one another, and the ends he had destined them to, and then pro-nounceth them very good. The merciful providences of God, if singly looked upon, will appear good, but if reviewed in the whole web, and the end of them, will commence very good in our apprehensions.

(4.) Calmly. Take heed of passion in this study, that is a mist before the eye of the mind ; several pleasures also disturb and stifle the nobler operation of the intellective part, and all improving thoughts of God's providence : Isa. v. 12, ' And the harp, and the viol, and wine, are in their feasts, but they regard not the work of the Lord, nor consider the operations of his hands.' All thoughts of them are choked by the pleasures of sense. Passions and sensual pleasures are like flying clouds in the night, interposing themselves between the stars and our eyes, that we cannot observe the motions of them. Turbulent passions, or swinish pleasures prevailing, obscure the providence of God. Our own humour and interest we often make the measures of our judgment of providence. Shimei, when Absalom rebels against his father, looks no further than his own interest, and therefore interprets it as a judgment of God in revenging the house of Saul: 2 Sam. xvi. 7, 8, ' The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned.' Therefore the Spirit of God takes particular notice that he was of the house of Saul, ver. 5, when indeed this judgment was quite another thing, for David's sin in the matter of Uriah was written in the forehead of it.

(5.) Seriously. It is not an easy work ; for the causes of things are hid, as the seminal virtues in plants, not visible till they manifest themselves. Providence is God's lantern in many affairs ; if we do not follow it close, we may be left in the dark, and lose our way. With much prayer, for we cannot of ourselves find out the reason of them; being shallow creatures, we cannot find out those infinite wise methods God observes in the managing of them; but if we seriously set to work, and seek God in it, God may inform us, and make them intelligible to us. Though a man may not be able of himself to find out the frame and motions of an engine, yet when the artificer hath explained the work, discovered the intent of the fabric, it may be easily understood: if it be dark, whilst you seriously muse on it, God may send forth a light into you, and give you an understanding of it: Mat. i. 20, Joseph thought of those things, and whilst he thought on them, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream ; God made them known to him. The Israelites saw God's acts in the bulk of them, but Moses saw his way, and the manner how he wrought them ; Ps. ciii. 7, ' He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.' Moses had more converse with God than they, and therefore was admitted into his secrets.

(6.) Holily ; with a design to conform to that duty providence calls for. Our motions should be according to the providence of God, when we understand the intent of them. There is a call of providence : Isa. xxii. 12, 'In that day the Lord called to weeping and mourning,' sometimes to sorrow, sometimes to joy. If it be a providence to discover our sin, let us comply 1 with it by humiliation ; if it be to further our grace, suit it by lively and fresh actings. As the sap in plants descends with the sun's declination, and ascends at the return of the sun from the tropic, there are several graces to be exercised upon several acts of providence, either public to the church and nation, or particular to our own persons—sometimes faith, sometimes joy, sometimes patience, sometimes sorrow for sin. There are spiritual lessons in every providence, for it doth not only offer something to be understood, but some things to be practised. Mark x. 15, a child is brought to

Christ, and Christ from thence teaches them a lesson of humility. Luke xiii. 1-3. When Christ discourses of that sad providence of the blood of the Galileans, and the tower of Siloam, he puts v them upon the exercise of repentance. The ruler inquired the time when his son began to recover. that his faith in Christ might be confirmed, for upon that circumstance it did much hang ; and in doubtful cases, after a serious study of it, and thou knowest not which w r ay to determine, consider what makes most for God's glory and thy spiritual good, for that is the end of all. Let us therefore study providence, not as children do histories, to know what men were in the world, or to please their fancy only, but as wise men, to understand the motions of states, and the intrigues of councils, to enrich them with a knowledge whereby they might be serviceable to their country. So let us inquire into the providence of God, to understand the mind of God, the interest of the church, the wisdom and kindness of God, and our own duty in conformity thereunto.

6. Ascribe the glory of every providence to God. Abraham's steward petitioned God at the beginning of his business, Gen. xxiv. 12 ; and he blesses God at the success of it, ver. 26, 27. We must not thank the tools which are used in the making an engine, and ascribe unto them what we owe to the workman's skill. Man is but the instrument, God's wisdom is the artist. Let us therefore return the glory of all where it is most rightly placed. We may see the difference between Rachel and Leah in this respect; when Rachel had a son by her maid Bilhah, she ascribes it to God's care, and calls his name Dan, which signifies judging —Gen. xxx. 6, * God hath judged me, and heard my voice'—that the very name might put her in remembrance of the kindness of God in answering her prayer; and the next, Naphthali, she esteems as the fruit of prayer, ver. 8; whereas Leah takes no notice of God, but vaunts of the multitude of her children: ver. 11, ' Behold, a troop comes.' She imposeth the name of Gad upon them, which also signifies fortune or good luck; and the next, Asher, ver. 13, which is fortunate or blessed. And we find Leah of the same mind afterward, ver. 17. It is said God hearkened unto her, so that her son Issachar was an answer of prayer; but she ascribes it to a lower cause which had moved God, because she had given her maid to her husband, ver. 18. 'Not unto us, not unto us, 0 Lord, but to thy name be tho glory.'

Doet. 2. All tho motions of providence in the world are ultimately for the good of the church, of those whose; heart is perfect towards him. Providence follows the rule of Scripture. Whatsoever was written, was written for tho church's comfort, I torn, xv. 4 ; whatsoever is acted in order to anything written, ii acted for tho church's good. All the providences of God in the world are conformable to his declarations in his word. All former providences were ultimately in order to the bringing a mediator into the world, and for the glory of him; then sorely all the providences of God shall be in order to the perfecting the glory of Christ in that mystical body whereof Christ is

head, and wherein his affection and his glory are so much concerned. E

the proof of this by a scripture or two* I's. av. LO, ' All the paths of the

Lord are mnvv and truth unto BQch ai keep his covenant and his testi-

monie .' Not. one path, bat all the works and motions; not one particular act or p of providence, bnt the whole tract of his proceedings; not

only those which are m >re smooth an 1 pleasant, bat those which are more ragged and hitler. All mercy and truth Buitable to that affection he hears in his heart to them, and suitable to the declaration of that affection ho

hath made in his promise. There is a contexture and a friendly connection of kindness and faithfulness in every one of them. They both kiss and embrace each other in every motion of God towards them. As mercy made the covenant, so truth shall perform it. And there shall be as much mercy as truth in all God's actings towards those that keep it: Rom. viii. 28, ' We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.' We know, we do not conjecture or guess so, but we have an infallible assurance of it; all things, even the most frightful, and so those that have, in respect of sense, nothing but gall and wormwood in them; work tor/ether, they all conspire with an admirable harmony and unanimous consent for a Christian's good. One particular act may seem to work to the harm of the church, as one particular act may work to the good of wicked men; but the whole series and frame of things combine together for the good of those that are affectionate to him. Both the lance that makes us bleed, and the plaster which refresheth the wounds, both the griping purges and the warming cordials, combine together for the patient's cure. To them who are called according to Ids jwpose. Here the apostle renders a reason of this position, because they are called not only in the general amongst the rest of the world, to whom the gospel comes, but they are such that were in God's purpose and counsel from eternity to save, and therefore resolved to incline their will to faith in Christ; therefore all his other counsels about the affairs of the world shall be for their good. Another reason of this the apostle intimates, verse 27, ' The Spirit makes intercession for the saints, according to the will of God.' The intercessions of the Spirit, which are also according to God's will and purpose, will not be fruitless in the main end, which both the intercessions of the Spirit and purpose of God, and the will and desire of the saints, do aim at, which is their good. Indeed, where any is the object of this grand purpose of Gocl, he is the object of God's infinite and innumerable thoughts: Ps. xl. 5, ' Many, 0 Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can he numbered.' The psalmist seems to intimate that, in all the wonderful works which God hath done, his thoughts are towards his people. He thinks of them in all his actions; and those thoughts are infinite, and cannot be numbered and reckoned up by any creature. He seems to restrain the thoughts of God towards his people in all those works of wonder which he doth in the world, and which others are the subjects of; but his thoughts or purposes and intentions in all (for the word signifies purposes too) are chiefly, next to his own glory, directed towards his people, those that trust in him, which, verse 4, he has pronounced blessed. They run in his mind, as if his heart was set upon them, and none but them.

Here I shall premise two things as the groundwork of what follows : 1. God certainly in all his actions has some end; that is without question, because he is a wise agent; to act vainly and lightly is an evidence of imperfection, which cannot be ascribed to the only wise God. The wheels of providence are full of eyes, Ezek. i. 18; there is motion, and a knowledge of the end of that motion. And Jesus Christ, who is God's deputy in the providential government, hath seven eyes as well as seven horns, Rev. v. 6 ; a perfect strength, and a perfect knowledge how to use that strength, and to what end to use it, seven being the number of perfection in Scripture. . 2. That certainly is God's end which his heart is most set upon, and that

which is last in execution. What doth God do at the folding up of the world but perfect his people, and welcome them into glory ? Therefore God principally next to himself loves his church. The whole earth is his, but the church is his treasure: Exod. xix. 5, 'If you will keep my covenant, then shall you be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine,' sef/ullah; such a treasure, that a man, a king, will entrust in no hands but his own. ' All the earth is mine' is not a reason why the church was his treasure, but an incentive of thankfulness; that when the whole earth was his, and lay before him, and there were many people that he might have chosen and loved before them, yet he pitched upon them to make them his choicest treasure. And when the blessed God hath pitched upon a people, and made them his treasure, what he doth for them is with his whole heart and with his whole soul. Jer. xxxii. 41, 42, speaking of making an everlasting covenant, he adds, ' Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good,' &c, ' assuredly with my whole heart, and with my whole soul.' As though God minded nothing else but those people he had made an everlasting covenant with, which is the highest security, and most pregnant expression of his affection that can be given to any; not to give them a parcel or moiety of his heart, but the whole, infinite, entire piece, and to engage it all with the greatest delight in doing good to them. That infinite heart of God, and all the contrivances and workings of it, centre in the church's welfare. The world is a wilderness, but the church is a garden. If he water the wilderness, will he not much more dress his garden ? If the flights of birds be observed by him, shall not also the particular concernments of the church ? He hath a repository for them and all that belong to them; he hath a book of life for their names, Luke x. 20, a book of record for their members, Ps. cxxxix. 16; a note-book for their speeches, Mai. iii. 16, 'A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord;' and a book of providence for their preservation, Exod. xxxii. 32. In the prosecution of this I shall shew,

1. That it is so de facto, and hath been so.

2. That according to the state of things, and God's economy, it must be so.

3. The improvement of it, by way of use.

1. That all providenco is for the good of the church de facto, and has been so.

It will appear by an enumeration of things.

(1.) First, All good things.

(2.) Secondly, All bad things are for their good.

(1.) First, AH good things. I. The world. •_!. (.lis mid common graces of men in the world.

[8.! An

|1.| The world. The whole world was made and ordained for the good of the ohnrch, next to the glory of God. Thia will appear in three things:

/'V/.s/, The continuance of the world is for their sakes. God would havl

oyed the world because of the ignorance and wickedness of it. before

this time, but he overlooked it, all, and had respect to the times of Christ,

and the publishing faith in aim, and repentance: Acta ivii. 80, ' Ami the

i oiks of this ignoranoe God winked at/ *<<>d overlooked, 4 lie looked not so

Upon thrin, ;i| to he provoked to destroy the world, hut his eves were 1 fixed on the times of Christianity, therefore would not take notioe, in the extremity

of hit justice, of the wickedness of those foregoing ages. Believers are the

in

salt of the earth, Mat. v. 13, which makes the world savoury to God, and keeps it from corrupting. It is meant not only of the apostles, but of Christ's disciples, of all Christians, for to them was that sermon made, ! ver. 1. 'If the salt have lost his savour,' if the salt be corrupted, and Christianity overthrown in the world, wherewith shall the world be salted ? How can it be kept from corruption ? If they that persecuted the prophets before you in Judea (which is sometimes called the earth in Scripture), cannot relish you, and find nothing grateful to their palates in your doctrine and conversation, wherewith shall they be salted ? How shall they be preserved from corruption ? The land will be good for nothing but to be given as a prey to the Romans, to be trodden under their feet, as being cast out of God's protection. They are the foundation of the world : Prov. x. 25, 'The righteous are an everlasting foundation.' Maimonides understands it thus, that the world stands for the righteous' sakes. When God had Noah and his family lodged in the ark, he cares not what deluge and I destruction he brings upon the rest of the world. When he had conducted Lot out of Sodom, he brings down that dreadful storm of fire.* He cares , for no place, no, nor for the whole world, any longer than whilst his people are I there, or he hath some to bring in, in time. For the meanest believer is of ; more worth than a world ; therefore when God hath gathered all together, I he will set fire upon this frame of the creation; for what was the end of Christ's coming and dying, but to gather all things together in one? Eph. i. 10, ' That in the dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ.' When Christ hath summed up all together, he hath attained his end. And to what purpose, then, can we | imagine God should continue the world any longer ? for his delight is not simply in the world, but in the saints there : Ps. xvi. 3, ' But to the saints that are in the earth, in whom is all my delight;' not in the earth, but in the saints there, which are the only excellent things in it, which Christ speaks (of whom that psalm is meant) who knew well what was the object of his Father's pleasure. The sweet savour God smelt in Noah's sacrifice, was the occasion of God's declaration for the world's standing: Gen. viii. 21, ' And the Lord said in his heart, I will not curse the ground any more for man's sake,' that he would no more smite it with a totally destroying judgment. It was his respect to Christ represented in that sacrifice, and to the faith and grace of Noah the sacrificer. What savour could an infinitely pure spirit smell in the blood and flames of beasts ?

Secondly, The course of natural things is for the good of the church, or particular members of it. God makes articles of agreement with the beasts and fowls, whose nature is raging and ravenous, and binds them in sure bonds for the performance of those articles: Hoseaii. 18, ' And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground, and will make them to lie down safely.' As upon our sin God can arm them against us, so upon our obedience he can make them serviceable even against their natures, as if he had made a covenant with them; and they had both the reason and virtue to observe it. I do not remember any instance in Scripture, that God went out of the usual tract of his providence, and acted in an extraordinary manner, but where his people were one way or other concerned. It was for Joshua's and the Israelites' sake that the sun was arrested to stand still in the valley of Ajalon, that they might have light enough to defeat their enemies, and pursue their victory, Josh. x. 12, 13. The sea shall, against its natural course, stand in heaps like walls of brass

* Grotius on the place.

VOL. I. E

to assist the Israelites' escape, Exod. xiv. 22. The fire is restrained in the operation of its nature, even whilst it retains its burning quality, when the lives of the three valiant believing children are in danger, Dan. iii. 25. The mouths of lions are muzzled when the safety of his beloved Daniel is concerned, Dan. vi. 22. And the shadow goes back upon the dial for Hezekiah's sake, 2 Kings xx. 11. When God would at any time deliver his people, he can muster up lightnings and thunders for their assistance; 1 Sam. vii. 10 ; he can draw all the regiments of heaven into battle array, and arm the stars to fight against Sisera, when Israel's condition needs it; and make even the lowest creatures to list themselves as auxiliaries in the service. God hath not a displeasure with senseless creatures, neither is transported with strains of fury against such objects, when he alters their natural course. Hab. iii. 8, ' Was the Lord displeased against the rivers ? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thy horses and chariots of salvation ?' No ; but he made those creatures the horses and chariots, to speed assistance and salvation to his people, which the psalmist elegantly describes, Ps. cxiv. All creatures are his host; and that God that created them hath still the sovereign command over them, and can embody them in an army to serve his purpose for the deliverance of his people, as he did against Pharaoh.

Thirdly, The interest of nations is ordered as is most for the church's good. He orders both the course of natural things, and of civil affairs for their interest. He alters the state of things, and changeth governors and governments for the sake of his people. For these causes God sent Elisha to crown Jehu king : 2 Kings ix. 6, 7, ' I have anointed thee king over the people of the Lord, &c, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel.' For the sakes of the godly in that nation, and the revenging the blood of the prophets which had been shed, was he raised up by the Lord. He sent such judgments upon Egypt, that it was as much the interest of that nation to let Israel go, as it was before to keep them their vassals. God orders the interest and affairs of nations for those ends; and according to this disposition of affairs, Christ times his intercession for his church. The angels had been sent out to view the state of the world, and found it in peace : Zcch. i. 11, ' Behold, all the earth sits still, and is at rest;' there had been wars in Artaxerxes and Xerxes his time, but in the time of Darius that part of the world had an universal peace, which was the fittest time for the restoration of the Jews, and building the temple, because it could not be built but by the king's cost, whose treasure in the time of war was expended another way; nor would it consist with their policy to restore the Jews to their government at such a time when they had wars with tho neighbour parts Of Egypt. See how Gt>d orders the state oi' the world in BUbservieney to his gracioUfl intentions towards his church. The time of tho .Jewish captivity was now out, according io tin 1 promise of God, and (led that part of the world a general peace, that the restoration of the J

and the rebuilding of the temple, might be facilitated, and the truth of Ids promise in their deliverance accomplished. Upon the news of this genera

peace in that part Of the World, Christ, expostulates with (iod tor the resto

ration of Jerusalem : ?er, 12, ' !!<>w long, 0 Lord, wilt thou not have

in. rev on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast

had indignation these threescore and ten years? 1 The time of the capti vitj

mined by God was new expired. The first Reformation in German!

i by reasons of state as it was then altered, it being the interest

Of many princes of that Country to countenance Luther's doctrine, for tho

putting a stop to the growing greatness of Charles the Fifth, who had evident designs to enslave them. I might mention many more; only by the way let me advise those that have an inclination to read histories of former transactions, to which men naturally are addicted, to make this your end, to observe the strange providences of God in the world, and how admirably he hath made them subservient to the interest of the church, which will be the most profitable way of reading them, whereby they will not only satisfy your curiosity, but establish your Christianity. Calvin understands that place : Deut. xxxii. 8, ' He sets the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel,' that in the whole ordering of the state of the world, God proposeth this as his end, to consult for the good of his people, and his care extends to the rest only in order to them ; and though they are but a small number, yet he orders his whole government of the world's affairs as may best tend to their salvation. Therefore God sets the people bounds, or enlargeth them according as they may be serviceable one way or other to this end. And the reason is rendered, ver. 9,' For the Lord's portion is his people, and Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.' Therefore God orders all the rest of the world in subserviency to the maintaining and improving his portion and inheritance.

[2.] As the world, so the gifts and common graces of men in the world, are for the good of the church, which is a great argument for providence in general; since there is nothing so considerable in government as the disposing of places to men according to their particular endowments and abilities for them. And the bestowing such gifts upon men is none of the meanest arguments for God's providential government of the world. As,

First, The gifts of good men. The gifts conferred upon Paul were deposited in him, not only to be possessed by him, but usad and laid out for the good of the church : Col. i. 25, ' Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you ;' ' The manifestation of the Spirit to any man is given to profit withal,' 1 Cor. xii. 7. And this is the great end for which men should seek to excel, viz., for the edifying of the church: 1 Cor. xiv. 12, 'Forasmuch as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church.'

Secondly, The gifts and common graces of bad men. There is something that is amiable in men. though.they have not grace. As in stones, plants, and flowers, though they have not sense, there is something grateful in them, as colour and smell, &c. And all those things that are lovely in men are for the church's good; the best life, and the worst death, things present, let who will be the possessor, all things between life and death, are for the good of believers, because they are Christ's : 1 Cor. iii. 22, ' Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world,'— i.e., whether the gifts of the prime lights in the church, or the common gifts of the world,—' are all yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' God is the dispenser of them, Christ is the governor of them, and all for your sakes. As the medicinal qualities of waters are not for the good of themselves, but the accommodation of the indigencies of men. By the common works of the Spirit God doth keep men from the evil of the world. For it cannot be supposed that the Spirit, whose mission is principally for the church, should give such gifts out of love to men which hate him, and are not the objects of his eternal purpose ; but he hath some other ends in doing it, which is the advantage of his church and people; and this God causes by the preaching of the gospel, which when it works gracious works in some, produceth common works in others for the good of those gracious ones. As a seed of

corn hath straw, husks, and chaff come up with it, which are shelters to that little seed which lies in the midst, so in the preaching of the gospel there are some husks come up among natural men, which God makes to be shelters to the church, as those common works, and restraining men through the knowledge of Christ. God gives gifts to them, not out of love to them, but love to his church. As nurses of great men's children are fed with better meat than the other servants, not out of any particular personal respect to them, but to their office, that the milk whereby the child is nourished may be the sweeter and wholesomer; were it not for that relation, she must be content with the diet allowed to the rest of the servants. Some stinking plants may have medicinal virtues, which the'physician extracts for the cure of a disease, and flings the rest upon the dunghill. God bestows such qualities upon men otherwise unsavoury to him, which he draws forth upon several occasions for the good of those that are more peculiarly under his care, and then casts them away. These gifts are indeed the ruin of bad men, because of their pride, but the church's advantage in regard of their excellency, and are often as profitable to others as dangerous to themselves. As all that good which is in plants and animals is for the good of man, so all the gifts of natural men are for the church's good ; for they are for that end as the principal, next the glory of God, because every inferior thing is ordained to something superior as its end. Plants are ordained for the nourishment of beasts, and both plants and beasts for men; the inferior men for the service of higher; and all for the community: yet still there is a higher end beyond those, viz., the glory of God, to which they are ultimately ordained, which is so connected with the church's good, that what serves one serves the other.

[3.] Angels, the top creatures in the creation, are ordered for the good of the church. If the stars are not cyphers in the world only to be gazed upon, but have their influences both upon plants and animals; as the sun in impregnating the earth, and enlivening the plants, and assisting the growth of fruits for the good of mankind; if the stars have those natural influences upon the sensible world, the angels, which are the morning stars, have no less interest as instruments in the government of it. The heathens had such a notion of demons working those things which were done in the world, but according to the will and order of the supreme God. The angels are called watchers: Dan. iv. 13, * A watcher, and an holy one;' ver. 17, 1 This is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones;' they watch for God's orders, and watch for God's honour, and the church's good. Thcro are orders of state among them, for wo read of their decrco ; it is called their decrco ministerially, as they execute it; approbativi, as they subscribe to the equity and goodness of it. As the saints are said to judge the world, not authoritative, as in commission with Christ, but as they approve of Christ's sentence. They seem to request those things of God which may mako for his glory, and they decree among themselves what is lit to be presented to God in order to his glory. Thev cannot endure that ruon should trample upon God's authority, despoil him of his right, and

id down his inheritance, and therefore thev send such requests to God to act so as men may acknowledge him and his government, 'to the

intent that, tin; living may kllOW that, the most high rules in the kingdoms of men.' Their SAM therefore must he for the church, since God rules all tilings in order to that, and since that is God's portion and inheritance, BO Unit as they have a care of God'l glory, thev must also have a care of God's

portion, and his peculiar treasure. The inward part of tho temple was to

DC adorned with cheruhims, to uoto the special attendance of tho holy angels-

in the assemblies of the saints.* As evil angels plot against the church, so good angels project for it. Though in the Scripture we find angels sometimes employed in affairs of common providence, and doing good to them that are not of the church ; as one is sent to comfort Hagar, and relieve Ishmael upon his cry, though he had scoffed at Isaac the heir of the covenant when he was in Abraham's family, Gen. xxi. 17; yet for the most part they were employed in the concerns of some of his special servants. Angels thrust Lot out of Sodom, Gen. xix. 25, 26. An angel stopped the lions' mouths when Daniel was in the den : Dan. vi. 22, ' My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths.' God employs angels in the preserving and ruining of empires, which is clear in the prophecy of Daniel, and some understand Isa. x. 34, ' And Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one,' of an angel. As the soul sends forth a multitude of spirits swiftly into the nerves for the supply of the lowest member, which runs thither upon the least motion, so do the angels, which are God's ministers, run at the appointment of God, and are employed in all the wheels of providence. The spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels of providence, Ezek. i. 20.

First, The highest orders among them are not exempted from being officers for the church. Though they are called God's angels in respect of their immediate attendance on God, yet they are called man's angels in respect of the service they do for them, Mat. xviii. 10, 'Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.' They are not the ordinary sort of angels which attend upon those little ones, upon young convert^ humble souls, those little ones dn the kingdom of heaven; but they are the highest courtiers there, such as see the face of God, and stand before him. A king hath many servants, but not every servant, only the chief of the nobility stand before him; so they are not angels of the meanest order and rank in heaven, that are ordered to attend the lowest Christian. The apostles make no doubt of this : Heb. i. 14, * Are they not all ministering spirits'—there is no question but they are— 4 sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ?' He asserts confidently that not one of them is blotted out of the list for this employment. ' Are they not all ?' None are exempted from the service of God, so none are exempted from the end of that service, which is the good of believers. They are God's servants, but for the church's good, for them which shall be heirs. Are they not all ? It is irrational to deny it. And they are sent forth, every one of them hath his commission signed by God for this purpose, and not only for the church in general, but for every member in particular; ' for the heirs of salvation.' And not only for them which are already called and enrolled, but for them who shall be called, whose names are written in the book of God's election ; ' who shall be heirs.' And they are not only faintly sent, as if they might go if they will, but they have a strict charge to look after them well, not in one or two of their works, or ways, but in all: Ps. xci. 11, ' He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; to bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.' They are to use all their strength to this purpose, to bear them up in their hands ; as the elder children are appointed by parents to have a care of the younger in their works and motions, and to use both their widsom and strength for them. The angels are a guard to secure them here, and at" last to convey them to their Father's house, Luke xvi. 22. When a man is in favour with a prince, all the courtiers will be observant of him.

* Trap on Numb. p. 58.

Secondly, Armies of tlieui are employed upon this occasion. There are great multitudes of them, as Bildad speaks, Job xxv. 3, ' Is there any number of his armies ? ' that is, of his angels. When Joel speaks of the heathens gathering together, ' Thither,' saith he, ' Lord, cause thy mighty ones to come down,' chap. hi. 11. A whole squadron of them shall attend upon a gracious man, according to the circumstances he is involved in. Gen. xxxiii. 1, 2, ' And Jacob went on his way, and the'angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host.' Regiments of angels, enough to make up an army (for so Jacob terms them) met him upon the way, to secure his brother Esau, and to encourage him in his journey. So some interpret 2 Sam. v. 24, ' The sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees,' the sign of the marching of the brigade of angels, with the Lord at the head of them, for the discomfiture of David's enemies ; ' then shall the Lord go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.' And this they do not of their own heads, but by the pleasure of God; not only by a bare will, but a delight: Ps. ciii. 21, ' Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.' "WISH his choicest pleasure, he delights to see this his militia upon action.

Thirdly, Christ hath the government of them to this end for his church. Angels are all put in subjection to him : Heb. ii. 7, 8, ' In that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him.' He is 1 exalted above all principality and power.' ' God hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,' Eph. i. 21, 22; all things, even principalities and powers, are put under his feet, to be commissioned and influenced by him for the good of his church: Ezek. i. 12, ' Whither the Spirit was to go, they went.' They are ordered by the Spirit of Christ to this purpose : Zech. i. 10, ' Those are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.' They are his faithful messengers, despatched into the world by him, as scouts and spies, to take notice of the state of the world, and to give him intelligence, and an exact account of affairs, and, ver. 11, they gave an account to Christ. Christ is the head and general of them, Col. ii. 10. They are his host, always in a warlike posture, with Christ in the head of them, Zech. i. 8, upon their horses, which notes readiness to move and speed in motion : and M an host they are said to pitch their tents round about them that fear him, and are in a continual conilict with the evil angels to prevent their designs, in the behalf of Christ, whom tiny acknowledge as their head by their worship of him, Heb. i. 6. Christ orders them to take care to seal his servants in the foreheads, that they may be preserved in the storms which shall happen in the world at the time of the ruin of the Romish papacy, lev. vli. ii, :;. An angel Domes that had the seal of the living God (commission of God), saving, ■ Unit Dot the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we b led the servants of our (iod in the foreheads.'

Fourthly, The great actions which have been done in the world, or shall

bo done for the church, ;ire performed by them. Angels were Bent as

v (lod with bis great decrees concerning the revolutions of times,

Dan. vii. Ill; viii. 16, 'And 1 heaid a man's voice, which called, and

said, Gabriel, make this mtO to understand the vision.' An angel was sent

to Daniel with the m< of ;i Redeemer, and the clearest prophecy o(

Christ, which the J le to answer to this day, which they most

startle at, Dan. ix, 21. Part of the discovery of the revelation to John,

which 11 :i standing almanac to the church, was made us by an angel,

Kev. x. h, <); nil. 8, 9. And when hv the con^e of time those turnings aro to happen in tie; world, the angels must have their share of service m

them. The trumpets are sounded by angels, and the vials which are filled with the causes of such alterations, are poured out by the hands of angels. Some indeed, by the angels there mentioned, understand the visible instruments of reformation, not excluding the angels, who are the invisible ministers in the affairs of the world.*

Fifthly, They engage in this work for the church with delight; they act as God's ministers in his providence with a unanimous consent: Ezek, i. 9, 1 Their wings were joined one to another;' so that they perform their office with the same swiftness, and with the same affection, without emulation to go one before another, which makes many actions succeed ill among men ; but they go hand in hand. They do it with affection, both in respect of the kind disposition of their natures, and as they are fellow-members of the same body, for they are parts of the church and of the heavenly Jerusalem : Heb. .xii. 22, ' Ye are come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the firstborn ;' and therefore act out of affection to that which is a part of their body, as well as out of obedience to their head. They do it in respect of their own improvement too, and increase of their knowledge (which is the desire of all intellectual creatures); for they complete their understandings by the sight of the methods of infinite wisdom in the perfecting his gracious designs. And it is God's intent that they should grow in the knowledge of his great mystery by their employment: Eph. iii. 10, ' To the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,' i. e., By the gracious works of God towards the church, and in the behalf of it, for the security and growth of the church, and in the executions of those decrees which as instruments they are employed in; for I do not understand how it can be meant of the knowledge of Christ, for that they know more than the church below can acquaint them with : for without question they have a clear insight into the offices of Christ, who is the head, and whom they are ordered to worship. They understand the aim of his death and resurrection, and can better explain the dark predictions of Scripture, than purblind man can. But by observing the methods which God uses in the accomplishment of them, they become more intelligent, and commence masters of knowledge in a higher degree, which it is probable is one reason of their joy, when they see God's infinite wisdom and grace in the conversion of a sinner ; without affection to them, and their employment about them, they could not rejoice so much. And their rejoicing in their first bringing in to God, argues their joy in all their employments which concerns their welfare.

(2.) As all good things, so all bad things are ordered by providence for the good of the church. That which in its own nature is an injury, by God's ordering puts on the nature of a mercy ; and what is poison in itself, by the almighty art becomes a sovereign medicine. Are God's dispensations in their own nature destructive ? That wise physician knows how to make poisons work the effect of purges. Are they sharp ? It is to humble and purge the church. As shadows serve to set out the pictures, so the darkest passages of providence are made by God to commend the beauty of those glorious things he works for his church. We may see this in,

[l.J Bad persons. As,

First, The devil. God manageth him for his own glory, and the strengthening of believers. Mat. viii. 31, 32, the devils desired to enter into the herd of swine, with an intent, probably, not only to destroy the swine, but to incense the Gadarenes against him, out of whom they had been cast, to do * Lightfoot, Temple, chap. 38, p. 253, 256.

him some considerable mischief. But what is the issue ? As they discover their malice, so they enhance the value of Christ's kindness to the distressed man, whom he had freed from this tyranny. Hereby also was the law of God justified in commanding the Jews to abstain from swine's flesh, which the Gadarenes, being apostate Jews, had broken ; he magnified his own power in the routing such a number of unclean spirits, which had not been so conspicuous in the turning them out of one man, had not this regiment discovered themselves among the swine, and brought such a loss upon the Gadarenes, whereby as they shewed their own strength and malice, so they discovered occasionally the greatness of Christ's charity, and his power over them; so that in granting the malicious petition of this exasperated legion, the law of God is justified, our Saviour's love glorified, his power manifested, and a foundation laid for the gaining proselytes in that country, to which purpose he left the man he had cured, Luke viii. 39, and to strengthen the faith of those poor believers which then followed him. God makes use of the devils by the sovereignty of providence, to bring about ends unknown to themselves, for all their wisdom. The malice of the devil against Job hath rendered him a standing miracle of patience for ever. They are the * rulers of the darkness of this world,' Eph. vi. 12, not of the light of the world; they are the rulers of the wicked, and the scullions of the saints, to scour and cleanse them. They are the rulers of the world, but subordinate to serve the providence of God, wherein God declares his wisdom by serving himself of the worst of his enemies. The devil thought he had brought a total destruction upon mankind when he persuaded our first parents to eat of the forbidden fruit, but the only wise God ordered it to bring about a. greater glory to himself, and a more firm stability to his people, in introducing an everlasting covenant which could not be broken, and establishing their happiness upon surer terms than it was settled in paradise; and afterwards in filling the heart of Judas to betray Christ, and the hearts of the Jews to crucify him. Even by that way whereby he thought to hinder the good of mankind, he occasionally promotes their perpetual redemption ; and I do not much question but thoso very principles which the devil had distilled into tho Gentile world, of shedding human blood in sacrifices for expiation of guilt, and tho gods conversing with men in human ways, and the imagination of the intercessions of demons for them,—the first out of m^o against mankind, and both that and tho other to induce them to idolatry,—might facilitate the entertainment of Christ as tho groat expiatory sacrifice, and tho receiving of him as tho Son of God, though in an human shape, and tho belief of his intercession. God overreaches the devil, and makes him instrumental for good where he designs hurt and mischief.

Secondly, Wicked men. All tho wicked in the midst of the church are for the good of if, either for the exercise of their grace, or security of their persons, or interest: Prov. xvi. 7, ' When a man's ways phase tho Lord, ho will make bis enemies to be at pr;ice with him.' Sometimes he will incline their heari S intentionally to favour, or order even their actions against them to procure their p ace, contrary to their intentions. Sometimes God makes them his sword to cut, his people, sometimes physic to purge them,

sometimes tire to melt and Mflne them, sometimes hedges to preserve them,

sometime,; b ransom to redeem them, lY<>v. x\i. IS. A traveller makes use

of the mettle of a headstrong horse t«> earrj him to his journey's end. That

wind which would overturn a little boat, the skilful pilot makes uso of \o drive bis ship into the lenh.nir, and the hushandman to cleanse his corn

from the chaff. Tl gh the ends of the workers, viz., God and wicked

men, are different, \et the i -ml of the work is hut one, which is ordered by

God's sovereign pleasure. It was promised in the promise of the gospel to the Gentiles: Gen. ix. 27, ' God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.' God shall allure Japhet, the Gentiles of Europe, to dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan the head of the cursed posterity, shall be servants to the church beside their will, and sometimes against it, by an overruling hand. And Christ hath bought them to be his servants: 2 Peter ii. 1, * Denying the Lord that bought them,' and therefore hath the disposing of them, whether they voluntarily give up themselves to him or no. He is a Lord by purchase over them, who own him not as a Saviour. The hatred of the church s enemies sometimes conduceth more to her good than the affections of all her worldly friends. Now this appears, .

• First, In furthering the gospel. The Jews, who speak not of Christ among themselves, but with opprobrious terms,* have been the exact preservers of the Old Testament, even to the very number of the letters, wherein Christians have sufficient to confirm them in the belief of Christ s being the Messiah, and unanswerable arguments against their adversaries ; whereupon St Austin terms them capsarios ecclesia, such that carry the books of the children of great men after them to school. When the authority of the Kevelation was anciently questioned, the Church of Eome was instrumental to keep it in the number of the canonical books, not thinking they should find their own church so plainly deciphered in it to be the mother ot abominations. To this we may refer the action of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, in causing the Scripture to be translated about three hundred years before the coming of Christ, through which the nationsf might better 'discern (as it were through a prospective glass) the new star of Jacob which was shortly to arise. No doubt but many of the Gentiles, by comparing the old Scripture prophecies, which they could read in the Greek language, might be more easily induced to an embracing the gospel, and acknowledging Christ to be the Messiah, when it came to be divulged among them. Herod is the cause of the consultation about the place of Christ s birth, not for any goodwill he had to him whom he intended to murder, but God makes use of this to clear up the truth of the prophecy concerning Bethlehem, the place of his birth: Mat. ii. 6, « Out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel.' And they certainly were not very good who preached Christ out of envy, and propagated the gospel, wherein Paul rejoiced ; not in their sin, but in the providential fruit of it: | Philip, i. 15,18, ' Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife. What then ? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or truth, Christ is preached ; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.'

Secondly, In furthering the temporal good of the church.

(1.) In its preservation. Wicked men are often serviceable to the church, as the filthy raven was to holy Elijah, or as the lion which would have devoured Samson is a storehouse to provide him food ; for in his hunger he finds a table spread in the belly of his enemy. Pharaoh's design was to destroy Israel, and the daughter of that irreconcilable enemy is directed to preserve Moses, who was to be the ruin of her family, the destruction of the Egyptian glory, and the deliverer of the church. She saves him out of charity", and God out of a wise design; she, by his education in the Egyptian learning, fits him for the court, and God for the deliverance of his church. Egypt had corn to relieve, first Abraham, Gen. xii. 10, afterward Jacob in a time of famine, the family wherein the church of God was only then bound up. Herod lies in wait for Christ's destruction, and Egypt, * Helvicus contra Judseos. t Jackson, vol. i. fol. f, p. 62.

the most idolatrous country in the world, and an ancient enemy to God's church, affords him shelter, God makes ' Moab to hide his outcasts and be their covert from the face of the spoiler,' Isa. xvi. 3, 4. Some think God's design in sending Jonah to Nineveh to work so remarkable a change by repentance, was to soften some of their hearts, and the hearts of their posterity, to deal more tenderly with those gracious Israelites, who, in the captivity of the ten tribes some years after, should be their guests, God making thereby provision for his own people in that common judgment which should come upon the nation. This God doth sometimes by reviving the law of nature and the common sentiments of religion in the hearts of natural men, whereby their own consciences, bearing witness to the innocency and excellency of the church of God, put them upon thoughts for its security. Sometimes it is above their own sphere and besides their own intentions. The whale which swallowed Jonah intended him as a morsel to quell his hunger, but proves his security, and disgorgeth him upon the shore; they understand their own aim, but not the design of God. The leech that sucks the patient's blood knows not thechirurgeon's design, who useth it for the cure of a disease. Sometimes their rage proves their own ruin, and the church's safety; as the leech bursts itself sometimes, and saves the patient. The very earth, whereby is meant the carnal world, is said to help the woman, the church, by swallowing up the flood which the dragon casts out of his mouth against her, Rev. xii. 16, just as the old rags were the instruments whereby Jeremiah was drawn out of the dungeon.

(2.) In the advancement of the church or persons eminent. Abner had a plot for bringing Israel to David's sceptre, which concurred both with God's purpose and promises, but sprung from an ill cause, a disdain to be checked by Ishbosheth, though his king, for an unjustifiable act, for having too much familiarity with one of Saul's concubines, 2 Sam. iii. 0-10. And from this animosity he contrives the deposing of Ishbosheth, and the exaltation of David ; yet dissembles the ground, and pretends the promise of God to David, ver. 18, 'For the Lord hath spoken of David, By the hand of my Servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.' He is the first engine that moves in this business, and by him and his correspondents after his death, ver. 17, the business is brought about by God's overruling band, wherein God's promise is accomplished, and David a type of Christ, and the great champion for the church against its enemies round abont is advanced. Very remarkable is the advancement of Mordccai, in order to the advancing of the dews as well as preserving them, when the Decks of all the visible Church God had ill the world were upon

the block. Haman ignorantly is the cause of this preferment ofMordecai

ami at that lime too when he came to petition for his death : Ksther vi. 1, 1 He was come to speak to tin: king to hang Mordccai upon the gallows

which be had prepared lor him.' The lung asks him what should he done to the man whom the king delights to honour, ver. L6. He imagineth that

the king's question did respeot himself, lavs out a scheme of what honour In; was ambitious of, wr. S, '.), which was by the king designed for Mordccai, and Hainan made the herald to proclaim him. Here Hainan, not only a wicked man in himself, hut, tin it enemy Mordccai and the whole

church of God bad, ii made nnwittingly an instrument to exalt Mordccai,

and in him the whole church of I iod.

(8. | In enriching the ehuroh, or some persons in it, whereby it may become more serviceable to God. How wondorful was it, that when the tsi were abominated by the Egyptians, God should bo order their hearts thai the i ptians should lend tinm gold and jewels, Ezod. xii. 85, ;><>, and dismiss

them with wealth as well as safety, and not so much as one person molest them till they arrived at the Red Sea ! The very gain and honour of the enemies is sometimes consecrated to the Lord of the whole earth : Micah iv. 13, < Arise and thresh, 0 daughter of Zion ; I will make thy horn iron, and thou shall beat in pieces many people : and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.' This was when many nations were gathered against Sion, ver. 11 ; ' the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just,' Prov. xiii. 22. And God sometimes makes the wicked, unwittingly to themselves, in their carking, be the factors for good men, into whose lap providence pours the fruit of their labour. God gave Cyrus the spoils of Babylon and the treasures of Croesus, to enable him to furnish the Jews with materials for building the temple : Isa. xlv. 3, 4, ' And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden treasures of secret places (speaking of Cyrus), that thou mayest know that I the Lord which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel, for Jacob my servant's sake,' &c. That he might acknowledge him the God of Israel, and lay his wealth out in the service of God, and the service of Jacob his servant.

Thirdly, As bad persons, so bad things are ordered to the good of the church, whether they be sinful evils or afflictive.

1. Sin.

(1.) A man's own sin. Onesimus runs from his master, and finds a spiritual father ; his being a runagate is the occasion of his being a convert. By flying from his master he becomes a brother in the Lord, Philem. 10, 12, 16. What Joseph's brethren sinfully intended for revenge against their brother, and security from their father's checks (who acquainted Jacob with their miscarriages), God ordered for the preservation of them who were the only visible church in the world. Their sin against their brother, contrary both to their intentions and expectations, became the means of their safety. God makes the remainder of sin in a good man an occasion to exercise his grace, discover his strength, and shew his loyalty to God.

(2.) Other men's sins. That might be in Sarah but a heady passion, for hearing her son mocked by Ishmael, that made her so desirous to have the bond-woman and her first son thrust out, Gen. xxi. 10 ; but God makes use of it to make a separation between Isaac, the heir of the covenant, and Ishmael, that he might not be corrupted hy an evil example from him; God orders Abraham to hearken to her voice, because in Isaac his seed should be called, ver. 12. And the revengeful threatening of Esau was the occasion of Jacob's flight, whereby he was hindered from marrying with any of the people of the land, by whom he might have been induced to idolatry, Gen. xxvii. 43, 46. Why should we mistrust that God that can make use of the lusts of men to bring about his own gracious purposes ?

2. Commotions in the world. There is the eye of God, that eye which runs to and fro throughout the whole earth in the wheels of worldly motions, even in the most dreadful providences in the world that stare upon men with a grim countenance : Ezek. i. 18, ' Their wings were dreadful, and their wings were full of eyes.' All the overturnings in the world are subservient to the church's interest, though they are not visibly so, unless diligently attended.- God orders the confusions of the world, and is in the midst of the tumults of the people: Ps. xxix. 10, 11, ' The Lord sits upon the flood; yea, the Lord sits King for ever. The Lord will give strength to his people ; the Lord will bless his people with peace.' He sits upon the flood as a charioteer in his chariot, guiding it with holy and merciful intentions to his people, to give them both strength and peace in the midst of them, and

* Broughton on Eg v. xiii. sect. 177.

as the issue of them. By water and floods is frequently meant tumults and confusions in the world. -If it were not so, why should our Saviour encourage his disciples, andfall their successors in the same profession, to lift up their heads when they hear of wars, if their redemption were not designed by God in them? Luke xxi. 25-28; they are all testimonies of the nearer approaches of Christ in power and glory to judge the earth, and glorify his people. God's great end in the shaking of nations is the performing those gracious promises to his church which yet remained unaccomplished. These earthquakes in the world will bring heaven to the church. The great revolutions in the eastern part of the world, the ruin of the Babylonian empire, the erecting the Persian, and all the means whereby it was brought about, God ordered, God foretold, God directed, for Jacob's service. Cyrus, led by ambition, levies an army against Babylon ; yet though he was a ravenous bird he was to execute the counsel of God : Isa. xlvi. 11, ' Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel,' to be an instrument for the delivery of the captived Jews, and the restorer of the ruined temple. He had called him out by name to make a great revolution of the world. He foretold by his prophet Isaiah many years before, the means he should use in the siege of Babylon to attain the victory, the very dividing Euphrates, which was the great confidence of the Babylonian : Isa. xliv. 27, < That say to the deep, Be dry; and I will dry up the rivers;' whereby it was as it were dried up for them to pass over the very opening of the gates: Isa. xlv. 1, < And the gates shall not be shut;' the Babylonians in a presumptuous security had left them open, thinking it impossible the city could be taken, because of £he river Euphrates: ' I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight;' and what was the end of that great revolution and motion in that part of the world ? See Isa. xlv. 4, 1 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name.' This prophecy was when Jerusalem and the temple were standing. God casts about long before his people needs, for their wel- j faro in the great revolutions and changes of the world. In Isa. xliv. 28, ' That saith of Cyrus, Ho is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure; oven saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall bo laid.' Cyrus had no knowledge of this end of God, j 1 though thou hast not known me,' Isa. xlv. 4, 5, twico repeated. Cyrus did not know God, neither did ho know God's end; ho acts his own purposes, and is acted by God to higher purposes than ho understood. In all lifting! of nations, and sifting the church among tho nations, as corn is sifted in a sieve, God design! not tho destruction of his people, but tho cleansing them, the separating tho flour from tho bran.

8. Destroying judgments, yea, and tho very curses sometimes are turned into blessings.

Destroying judgments. The desolation of the Jews was not only in order to khe fulfilling Cod's truth in hi! threatening!, bnt useful for the gospel design ; the fall of the Jewi was the calling of the (lentil Xl - lli |2, 'Through their fall salvation is eome unto the Gentiles. 1 km their fall and dispersion among the Gentiles was prophesied of as the ion of their return to God: Ezek. ix. 86, .".7, * Like as I pleaded will your fathen in the wilderness, so will I plead with yon ; and eanse you to trader the rod, and bring yon into the bond of the covenant;' whel ttwy : "•" in the wilderneei of captivity, then (\o,\ ihall plead with them, and make them to pai i under the rod ,»f propriety, and bring them into covenant. The like also ii prophesied of thai captivity of the ten tribea to this day, not known where they are : Ho rn ii. 11, the time of God'a speaking kindly toi

her should be in the wilderness, and then ■ I will give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope.' No question but God hath performed his promise, and brought many of the posterity of the ten tribes into the church among the mass of the Gentiles, among whom they were dispersed.

Curses sometimes, as God orders them, prove blessings. The curse of inspired Jacob upon Levi,—Gen. xlix. 7, ' Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce ; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel,'—was the advantage both of Levi and the Israelites ; that they were dispersed among the several tribes without any universal cohabitation as the rest, was a curse ; but that the}- should be the instructors of the people in the matters of the law, was an honour God put upon the head of that tribe, and a public blessing to the people.

4. Divisions in the church. One would think this of all other things should shake the foundation of it; yet God orders even these to the good of the church. Paul and Barnabas, two great apostles, fell out, Acts xv. 3G-39, &c.; the contention comes to be very sharp, a thing naturally of very ill consequence in two of the prime guides of Christianity, and at the laying the first foundation of it; but the gospel gains ground, one sails to Cyprus, and the other travels into Syria. Perhaps had not this quarrel been between them, and they thus disjointed from one another, some of those poor souls had never, or at least not so soon, have heard of the gospel mercy.

5. Persecutions. These naturally tend to the dissolution and utter extirpation of it, but God orders them otherwise. God doth often lay the scene of his amazing providences in very dismal afflictions ; as the limner first puts on the dusky colours on which he intends to draw the portraiture of some illustrious beauty. The oppression of Israel immediately before their deliverance was the dusky colour whereupon God drew those gracious lines of their salvation from Egypt, the pattern of all the after deliverances of the church in all ages, and a type of our spiritual redemption by Christ. The humiliation, persecution, and death of the Son of God, was the duskv colour upon which God drew that amazing piece of divine love and wisdom in man's salvation, which the eyes of saints and angels will be fixed on with ravishing admirations to all eternity. All afflictions in the world, which God doth exercise the church with, are parts of his providence, and like mournful notes in music, which make the melody of the tune more pleasant, and set off those sweeter airs which follow upon them. Afflictions here cause the joys of heaven to appear more glorious in the eyes of glorified saints. The persecutions of the martyrs did but heighten their graces, send them to the place of rest, and enlarge their robes of glory. God many times saves his people by sufferings, and brings them to the shore upon the planks of a broken ship, and makes that which was the occasion of their loss to be a means of their safety ; they sometimes evidence that which they would destroy. Herod's murdering the children, to destroy him that was born king of the Jews, made his birth more conspicuous in the world; snuffing the candle makes it burn the clearer.

They sometimes make,

1. To the improvement of the church. One of the sorest judgments God brought upon the Jewish church is expressly asserted by God to be for their good : Jer. xxiv. 5, speaking of the captived Jews, ' Whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.' The Chaldeans had overrun their land, carried them captives, made them slaves, destroyed the temple ; yet God tells them this was for their good, when there was no present appearance of any good in it. It should be good in respect of God's favour towards them, which retired to return with the greater force: ver. 6,

1 1 will set mine eyes upon them for good ; I will build them, and not pull them down.' God will give them a more durable settlement. In respect also of that frame of heart they should have toward God, their knowledge of him and cleaving to him, ver. 7, ' I will give them a heart to know me ; and they shall return to me with their whole heart.' God had but a moiety of their hearts before, but then he should have the whole. And indeed it was remarkably for their good ; for they who before were addicted to idolatry were never guilty of the same sin after ; and God kept them from being drawn away to it by the example and solicitation of those among whom they were. The church grows by tears and withers by smiles. God's vine thrives the better for pruning. God makes our persecutions fit us for that for which we are persecuted ; as Saul by his persecution of David for the title God had given him to the kingdom, made him fitter to succeed him in the throne, and manage the government. God uses persecutors as lances, which, whiles they wound us, let out the purulent and oppressive matter ; and makes them instruments of his providence to work out his people's happiness, and thus makes the very wrath of man to be an occasion of his people's praise : Ps. lxxvi. 10, ' The wrath of man shall praise thee.' God doth in this as a father deals with his son, sends him to a sharp school, that he may be trained up in learning.

2. In the increase of the church. The Jews crucified our Saviour to diminish the multitude of his followers, and by this means the number is increased. The w T hole world runs after him by that means they used to stop their course, which Christ foretold, that when he was lifted up he should draw all men after him; and that a grain of corn brings not forth more seed unless it be cast into the ground and die.

1. In the increase of it within its own bounds. When the Israelites were most oppressed in Egypt, the more they multiplied, Exod. i. 20. When the dragon's fury did most swell against the woman, she brought forth a man child, Rev. xii. 1, 3, 4. When the Roman empire was at the highest, and was most inflamed with anger against the Christians ; when the learning of the philosophers, the witchcrafts of heretics, the power of the emperors, and the strength of the whole world was set against them, the Christians grew more flourishing and numerous by those very means which were used to destroy them. Not only a new succession of saints sprung up from the martyrs' ashes, but their flames were the occasion of warming some so much with a heavenly fire, that some persecutors have become preachers. Their very bonds for the truth have sometimes a seminal virtue in them to beget men to faith in Christ: Philip, i. 12, ' The things which have happened unto me, have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel.'

2. In the increase of it in other parts. Paul's prison made his preaching famous in lintnc, and was an occasion of bringing Christianity into Nero's court, thai monster of mankind, Philip, i. 18, iv. 22 ; one might have looked for saints in hell as soon; his bonds were as great a confirmation of tho [liitli of his doctrine as his eloquence. When Saul made havoc of the

church, and by that storm dispersed the Christians, they, like so many grains of corn Scattered in several parts of a greater field, produced the greater

harvest: Acts Tin. 8,4, 'Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.' As clouds scattered by the winds, they rained down the gospel in several quarters* The Jews when scattered ia their several flights did scatter among the heathen the notions of the trni

ion. Winn they sliall go down to Egypt to secure themselves from

Bennacherih's invasion, they shall be a means to make many converts amend

that idolatrous nation: Isa. xix. L8, 'In that day' (the day of the Jews'

trouble) ' shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts ;' so one expounds it, but I rather think it meant of the times of the gospel. The flight of the Israelites shall be the occasion of some Egyptians' conversion. A poor slave in Naaman's family was an occasion both of the cure of his body and of that of his soul, 2 Kings v. 2, 3, 17. So much for the first reason, drawn from an enumeration of things.

Reason 2. To prove that all providence is for the good of the church, is, because God hath sometimes preferred mercy to the church, and care of it, above his own concernments of justice. He values his mercy to them above his justice upon his enemies. He consults their safety before he brings ruin upon the wicked whose sins are full. He first prepared the ark for Noah, and sees him lodged in it before he begins to shower down destruction upon the world. He hath sometimes punished a nation more for their offences against his people, than their sins against himself. Amalek was guilty of many idolatries and other sins against God, but God chargeth none of them upon them but their malicious hindering the Israelites in their march to Canaan : 1 Sam. xv. 2, ' Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.' He shews his love to them, and how much he values them, that when he is acting justice and pouring out his wrath, when he is (as it were) cutting and slashing on all sides, and is in fury with wicked men, he hath nothing but sweetness and tenderness towards his own. Amos ix. 9, 10, in the sifting of Israel and the nations ' Not the least grain shall fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword.' While he thunders out his fury upon wicked men, he hath his eyes upon the least grain of the true Israel. What would it be for God, when he is raising the glory of his justice upon the people that have provoked him, not to regard the concernments of this or that, or many sincere souls, but put no stop to his fury ? Yet he doth, not a grain shall perish. He is more desirous to hear of the preservation and welfare of a few righteous, than of the just punishment of the wicked wherein his justice is gloriously interested. The man clothed with linen, that was to mark the mourners, returned to God and gave an account that he had done according to his command, Ezek. ix. 11 ; the other five, which were to kill, returned not to give any account of their severe and sharp proceedings. The angels that held the four winds of the earth, Rev. vii. 1, which some understand of wars and commotions in the world for the overthrow of the Romish power, were ordered not to let the winds go till the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads.

Reason 3. God takes particular notice of the meanest of his people, and mightily condescends to them, much more of the church. It is strange to consider that the Scripture mentions none of those great potentates among the heathen, but either as they were instruments of his people's good, or executioners of his justice upon them, or subjects of his people's triumph. Cyrus and Darius are mentioned as their friends ; Nebuchadnezzar, and Sennacherib, and others, as God's instruments in scourging them; Checlor-laomer and the other kings with him, as they were the subjects of Abraham's valour and triumph, Gen. xiv. 9, 10. He takes no notice of the names of any in his word but upon such accounts ; Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar had done no doubt many actions before, but none taken notice of but those; but he takes notice of the meanest wherein was grace, and the meanest of their concerns and actions.* He mentions in his word Jacob's flocks, &c, things of no great moment, the actions, speeches, gestures of his people, to shew

* Revet in Gen. exercit, 129.

how his providence wrought for them, and how much he is concerned in the least of their affairs; but the great empires of the world, their original and progress, and the magnified founders of them, he speaks not of but as they have some relation or other to his people. As we love to use the names of our friends, so doth God love the relish of the names of his servants. The name of Noah is repeated several times, as the Jews observe, Gen. vii., viii. The Spirit of God loves the very mention of their names, he delights to dwell upon the catalogue of their names. The Scripture uses to reckon the genealogies of wicked men in short characters. Cain's generation is numbered in haste, as if God had no care at all of them, Gen. iv. 17, 18; he puts them off with a kind of &c. But he insists much upon the generation of the godly. Seth's posterity are written in a large scroll and more legible hand, Gen. v., with the number of the years which they lived, which in Cain's posterity there is no notice taken of. His whole respect, his heart, his eye, his all is fixed upon them. And Christ himself stands more astonished and wondering at the faith of the centurion, the importunity of the Canaanitish woman, condescends to them to grant them what they would have. You never find him taking notice of the learning of the rabbis, the magnificence of Herod, or the glorious building of the temple. See how condescending God is, to work a miracle for the support and strengthening of a weak faith, and the peevish distrust of his people. Gideon's faith was weak, yet how compassionate is God towards him (Judges vi. 86, &c, he would have one time the fleece dry, another time wet; God condescends to them in all), in ordering his providence as Gideon would have it, without upbraiding him, just as a tender mother cherishes a weak child! And this miracle was in order to the church's deliverance from a present oppressive enemy. Certainly when we find God taking care and ordering even the very pins, snuffers, and basins of the temple, the place of his worship, as well as the more stately ornaments of it, we may say, Doth his care extend to the meanest utensils in his temple, and not much more to the worshippers in it ? Doth he give order for the candlesticks, and will he not have much more care of the lights in them ? His cure to the least implies his care of the greatest too. In a building, the little stones must be well laid as well as the greatest. Every believer is a stone in the spiritual building.

Rtason 4. God reveals often to his people what he will do in the world, as if he seemed to ask their advice; and therefore surely all his providences shall work for their good. God would not surely acquaint thorn, and advise with them what he should do, did he intend to do anything to their hurt. Thero is not anything in the heart of Christ wherein the church is concerned but he doth reveal it to thcni: .John xv. 15, 'I have called you

friends; tor nil things I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.' Be discovered all to them, the ends of his coming, his Father's love,

his death, and resurrection, what he would do after his ascension, the progress of his affairs, and tin; glory of heaven, and the end of all. John must

I,, tii,: penman of the Revelation which oonoerned the future state of the

church in all ages. Joseph must know the interpretation of dreams in (niler to the church's preservation. Moses must be acquainted with (iod's methods in the Israelites' deli veiauce, with the Egyptians' ruin. Daniel must know the future! state of the eastern parts of tho world; In 1 must know the

turnings of the times, and the end of the world, Dan. z. 11, L9, 20. It is j

t,, No,ih, and none else, that be immediately discovers his intended

destruction of the world. And all those revelations ended in his peoplo'a advantage; nay, ho doth not only reveal, but as it were consult with him

in his affairs. God doth as it were unbosom himself to Abraham, as one friend to another; as it were adviseth with him concerning his intention on Sodom: Gen. xviii. 17, 'And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do ?' i. e. I will by no means do it, it will not consist with my love and friendship to him to hide anything from him. And see the reason of it: ver. 18, ' Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.' It was, first, his great affection to him, because he had advanced him, and promised that a mighty nation should spring out of his loins. And he had not withheld from him the secret of giving the Messias, which was a universal blessing, and so many ages were to run out before it was to be accomplished; he had discovered to him his acts of mercy, and therefore would not hide from him his acts of justice, he would know his mind in it and what he thought of it. And you know the story, how God regulated himself by Abraham's prayer, and denied him nothing, till Abraham left off suing any more. It would make one conjecture, that if Abraham had proceeded farther, he had quite diverted the judgment from Sodom. And when the Israelites had provoked God by a golden calf, he would not do anything against them till he had consulted Moses, and therefore lays the whole case before him, and seeks to take him off from pleading with the Lord, and promising to make of him a great nation (Exod. xxxii. 9, 10, * And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people: now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them'), and in such terms that one would wonder at: 'Now therefore let me alone;' as if God did fear Moses's interposition would prevent him and dissuade him from it. Do not you stand in the way; my wrath will cool if you interpose yourself; as much as to say, God could not do it unless Moses gave his consent; Moses would not be quiet, but pleads the providences of God, which had been all for him, the promise of God made to Abraham concerning them. And he would not leave till God repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people, ver. 14. If angels, as Calvin saith, are God's counsellor in heaven, believers are (as it were) his counsellors on earth.

5. God has given the choicest things he hath to his people; he hath given his law. The church is the sphere wherein the light of the gospel is fixed, and wherein it shines, from whence its beams do dart out to others: Isa. ii. 3, ' Out of Sion shall go forth the law.' The oracles of God, the great things of the law, as it is phrased, Hosea viii. 12, his covenant, and the counsel of his will, are entrusted with the church. Now, this being a mercy which exceeds all other things in the world, is therefore comprehensive of all other, as the greater comprehends the lesser. And the psalmist considers it as the top-stone of all blessings; for after summing up the providences of God, he shews how God had distinguished Jacob by more eminent marks of his favour: Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20, 'He shews his word to Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation;' he hath not left so rich a legacy to any, or given any so much of his heart. Others are ordered by the word of his power (for that is meant by word in the foregoing verse), but Jacob hath the word of his grace too. And this being the choicest piece of affection which God hath shewed to the church, implies the making all lesser providences subservient to it. The church, wherein God hath laid up his gospel, and those souls which are as the ark wherein God hath deposited his law, shall be shadowed with the wings of his merciful providence, in a perpetual succession of all true blessings. All the providences of God are to preserve his law in the

VOL. I. F

world; his severest judgments are to quicken up the law of nature in men that know no other, and the law of his gospel in men that sit under it. And he hath given Christ to his church, and thereby hath given an earnest that still their good shall be promoted. It is not to be thought that God will spare anything else, when he hath given them his Son.

The second thing. It must needs be that all providences is for the good of the church.

1. All the providence of God is for the glorifying his grace in Christ. The whole economy or dispensation of the fulness of time, to the latter ages of the world, is for the gathering of all things together in him: Eph. i. 10, * That in the dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are in earth, even in him;' in him as their head. This was the design in all his dispensations, both before his coming and since, ever since the promise made to Adam, though it be more manifest in the latter age. This the apostle represents as the main purpose of God, ver. 9. This was the mystery of his will, which accordingly to his good pleasure he had purposed in himself, that is, purposed in himself as a thing he was mightily pleased with; and, ver. 11, saith he, he works all things after, or xara, 'according to the counsel of his own will,' or of that purpose which he had purposed in himself, to gather all things in one in Christ. All the things that God acts are referred to this as their end, and ordered by this counsel as their rule. As it was the design of God's providence to make way for Christ's entrance into the world, and all the prophecies in the Old Testament tended to the discovery of it, so since the coming of Christ the end of all is to advance him in respect of his headship: Eph. i. 22, 23, ' And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that fills all in all.' God would advance Christ to the highest pitch, ver. 21, far above all principality and power, both in this world and in the world to come; and there is still a fulness wanting to Christ to complete him,—not any personal fulness, but a fulness belonging to him as head, which is the advancement God designs him. He is already advanced above all principality and power; he is already given as a head to the church, but the completeness of it is not till all his members be perfected, to which all his providences in the world doth ultimately tend. Therefore if the design of God be to honour Christ, and if the spiritual happiness of the church be part of that glory and fulness of Christ, it must nerds be carried on by God, else he will want part of his completeness as a head. But this shall not be wanting, since, as all things i arc squared according to that counsel of glorifying Christ as head, so all ;

things an; acted for believers by that power whereby he raised Christ from

the grave to bfl their head, which power is the copy according to which all

nets which respect the church are framed: ver. 19, 'And what is the exceeding greatness of Ids power to ns-ward who believe, according to the

Working of his mighty power, Which lie wrought in Christ, when he raised hint up from the dead.' (led intended the good of the church in this very act

of glorifying Christ, for he is made the ' bead over all things to the church;' as if God then bad prescribed him that order, that the glory be gave him

should he also managed for the church's interest. Christ is Lord of the rest, of the world, hut bead of the church. All things are under his feet, but are not his uiemhers; be M bead overall things to the church, and

therefore to every member of the church, the least as well as the greatesu

and to the Whole church, e\.n that part of if which is on earth, as well as that part which is in heaven, who are completed. This church is the l'ul-

ness of Christ, he would be bodiless without it; therefore since Christ will be a head without a body if the church be not preserved, in order to the preservation of it, all things must necessarily concur by the wise disposal of affairs. Therefore since they are travelling to be where their head is, he having the government of the world, will make all things contribute assistance to them in their journey. That Christ may have that completeness of glory which God intends him, he expressly tells his Father that he is glorified in his people: John xvii. 10, 'And I am glorified in them.' And at the sound of the seventh trumpet, ' the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever,' Rev. xi. 15. Now, since all the motions in the world are that the kingdoms of the world may become the kingdoms of his Christ, peculiarly his, as being anointed King by him, it must needs be that all things must be subservient one time or other to this end, wherein the good of his people doth consist; otherwise they would not bless God so highly for it as they do: ver. 17, 'We give thee thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.' And where there is a resistance of this glory of Christ, it is a natural effect of that decree whereby Christ is constituted King, that the resisters should be broken in pieces, and dashed like a potter's vessel, Ps. ii. 6, 9; and the issue of all is the blessedness of those that put their trust in him, ver. 12. The care that God hath of Christ and the church in the types of them, seems to be equal. The ark, which was a type of Christ, and the table of shew-bread, a figure of the church, had three coverings, whereas all the rest of the vessels,. &c, belonging to the ceremonial part, had but two, Num. iv. 5-8. On the ark there was the veil, and covering of badgers' skins, and a covering of blue; on the table of shew-bread there was a cloth of blue, a cloth of sclarlet, and a covering of badgers' skins. God orders as much for' the security of the church as for the security of Christ, therefore the same things that tend to the glorifying of Christ shall tend to the advantage of the church.

2. God hath given the power of the providential administration of things to Christ, to this very end, for the good of the church. If God had constituted him head over all things to the church, can there be any doubt but that he will manage the government for that which is the principal end of his government, which he hath shed his blood for, and which is chiefly intended by God who appointed him ?

(1.) All power of government is given to Christ : Mat. xi. 27, ' All things are delivered to me of my Father.' And, John v. 22, ' The Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son,' that is, the whole government and administration of affairs. It is not to be understood of the last judgment, for then it would be a limitation of that word all; not that the Father lays aside all care of things, but as the Father discovers himself only in him, so he governs things only by him. All this power was committed to him upon his interposition after the fall of man. He was made Lord and Christ, that is, anointed by God to the government of the world; for, upon the fall, God as a rector, had overturned all. Man could not with any comfort have treated with the Father, had not Christ stepped in and pleaded for the creation, whereupon God commits all judgment to the Son, that he might temper it. It was by Christ as a covenanting mediator, that the earth was established, Isa. xlix. 8. He had this government anciently, and it was confirmed to him upon his death: Heb. i. 3, ' Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power.' Calvin understands the

first word not only of the deity of Christ, but of the discovery the Father made of himself in and through him as a mediator. The latter words some understand both of his providential and mediatory'kingdom : ' by the word of his power:' this, say some, is referred to the Father, whose image Christ is, as acting by a delegated authority and commission from his Father; others, to Christ, as, that Christ upholds or bears up all things by his own powerful word. Calvin thinks both may be taken, but embraceth the second as being more generally received.

I may offer, whether it may not be meant also of the powerful interposition of Christ as mediator, whose interest in God was so great, that he kept up the world by his powerful intercession, when all was forfeited; and God put it, upon that interposition, into his hands, as ' heir of all things' (who having a hand with him in creation, understood both the rights of God and the duty of the creature), upon the condition of ' purging sin' by his death, which he did, and thereupon went to heaven to take possession of the government, at the right hand of God ; ' sat down,' took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as due to him by covenant and articles agreed on between them. I know nothing at present against such an interpretation of the words ; but I will not contend about it. All this honour was confirmed unto him upon his death. For having performed the condition requisite on his part, God deputes him, and entrusts him with the government of things, that he might order all things so as to see the full travail of his soul.

(2.) All this power was intended by God for this end, the good of the church. As God appointed Christ a priest for his church to sacrifice for them, a prophet to teach them, so the other office of king is conferred upon him for the same end, the advantage of the church. God acquaints us of this end, aimed at him, in the promise of the government to him: Jer. xxxiii. 15, 16, * In those days, and at that time, will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up to David ; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.' What is the end ? ■ In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely.' He should execute judgment, that is, administer the government for the salvation of Judah, and security of Jerusalem. It was his office both to build the temple, and to bear the glory, and to rule upon his throne; to be a priest upon his throne, to rule as king and priest: Zech. vi. 12, 13, 'He shall build the temple of the Lord, even he shall build the temple of the Lord.' The erecting a church is the sole work of Christ by God's appointment; and he was to bear up the glory of it. He should rule to this end, ■ for the counsol of peace shall be between them both.' If by both be meant, the Lord, and the man whose name is the Branch, it then chiefly aims ut our reconciliation, as wroughl by covenant between them. If by hoik bo meant the two offices of king and priest, and that the counsel of peace D6 between them, it will extend to all the Meetings of the church, to the good and glory of the ohnreh, which is the fruit of oil kingly, us well as the lirst reconciliation was the Emit of his priestly, office. By peace, in Scripture, is meant the confluence of all bless Inge; so that the intent, of God m bestowing those offices upon Christ, and so great i rale, was far the Rood and advantage of that church or

temple, which he appointed him only to build. And in Isa. xi. !>, where the

prophecy of the government of Christ is, the end is expressed to be, that

'nono should hurt Or destroy iii all his holy mountain.' And certainly, sinco Cod set, him at his right hand, and confirmed this power unto him,, after lie had purged our sins, it was certainly out of the high value Cod had for him, and therefore must bo the intent of Cod, that ho should govern all

things in reference to the design of that death, and for the good of those whose sins he had by himself purged. For the possessing this government was the very end why Christ died and rose again: Rom. xiv. 9, ' For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of dead and living.' If this were Christ's end in dying and rising, it was his Father's end too, who appointed him to death, and raised him by his mighty power. And since he was ' delivered for our offences, and rose again for our justification,' Rom. iv. 25, the government he is invested with, being Lord of the dead and of the living, must be for the sakes of those for whom he was delivered, and for whom he rose. His regal power, which was one end of his death, cannot cross the other main end, the constituting a church, and carrying on the good of them that believe. The government, being in the hands not of God as creator, but in and through the hands of a mediator, and that mediator which both died and rose again peculiarly for them, therefore it cannot in the least be for their hurt, but advantage. The whole management of Christ's kingly office in relation to the church, is prescribed unto Christ by God. God reveals to him what shall be done in the world, what acts he shall perform for the church, and gives him a history of all that was to be done upon the stage, together with an order to communicate it unto his servants: Rev. i. 1, ' The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants' (to be communicated to the whole church), < things that must shortly come to pass.' Whether this revelation was made to the human nature of Christ at his incarnation, as Tirinus thinks, or rather upon his ascension, is not material. The whole scheme of what was to be done in the world is revealed here by God to Christ; and you find all the motions in the world relating to the church, and the end of all is the good of the heavenly Jerusalem.

(3.) All power thus given, and intended for this end, is actually administered by Christ for this end. Christ, as the head of the church, doth like a natural head. It never sees, nor hears, nor exerciseth any act of sense only for itself, but for the good of the whole body. The eye watches for the body, the tongue speaks for it, the understanding contrives for it; every part of the head is active for the whole body. Now Christ as head is more bound to act for the church militant than for the church triumphant, because the greatest part of his work for the church triumphant, viz., the bringing them to heaven, is already performed. And they are above the reach of all things in the world, and all the actions and motions in the world cannot touch or disorder them. But the command of God concerning the other part behind is not yet performed, and even they are the members of Christ as well as those in heaven. The apostle, Col. i. 16-18, seems to refer both Christ's creation, and the preservation of things, to this title of headship: « All things were created by him, and for him, and by him all things consist, and he is the head of the body the church;' and therefore the conservation and government of all things shall be subservient to the church, which is the body of this governing head. The chief seat of Christ's sovereignty is the church: Ps. ii. 6, * Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Sion;' and he stands upon mount Sion, Rev. xiv. 1. The church is the proper seat and metropolis of his empire, the royal chamber of this great king. All the conquests of princes redound to the advantage of that place where they fix their residence. He is king of the world, but for the sake of Sion. Christ did manage this charge anciently for his people ; when Joshua had passed over Jordan, and first entered upon the conquest of Canaan, he sees a man over against him with a sword drawn in his hand: Josh. v. 13, 14, « And Joshua said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our

adversaries ? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the hosts of the Lord am I now come..' This was Christ, that came armed for his people, according to his charge, as their captain and general. It was not an angel, because Joshua worshipped him, ver. 14. An angel did not use to receive any worship from men; and he accepts the worship, and commands him to loose his shoe from his foot, for the place whereon he stood was holy, ver. 15. And the same person, Josh. vi. 2, is called Jehovah; and there he gives him orders how he should manage his war. Christ came here to direct his people in their concerns; he employs his wisdom for his church, as well as his other excellencies. He is called a Counsellor, Isa. ix. 5 : it is one of the great letters in his name; and this, as the rest there mentioned, hath a relation to the church. < For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.' And the first use he makes of his power, after the confirmation of it to us, upon his resurrection, is for the church : Mat. xxviii. 18, ' All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth; all authoritative power over angels, and the affairs of the world; ■ Go you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them,' &c.; ■ and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.' He commands the apostles to gather a church among all nations ; and doth, by virtue of this authority committed to him, promise his presence with them, in all such services they should do to this end, even to the end of the world. He promises his Spirit, and his providential presence; as his power should endure to the end of the world, so the exercise of it for this end should run parallel with the continuance of it. There should be no alteration or change in this great end of his, as long as the world lasts. How can Christ be with them, and that to the end of the world, if all the parts of his providential government were not ordered to serve this end, the good of the church ? For the church is ' the fulness of him that fills all in all,' Eph. i. 23, that fills all in all places, all in all actions and motions, for the good of his church, which is his body.

3. Thirdly, God in the church discovers the glory of all his attributes. It is in a man's house where his riches and state is seen : it is in the church God makes himself known in his excellency, more than in all the world besides: Ps. Ixxvi. 1, ' In Judah is God known; his name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Sion.' It is in his church ho doth manifest his power. It is called, therefore, ' a glorious high throne : Jer. xvii. 12, ' A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.' Kings use to display all their glory and majesty Upon their thrones; in this sense heaven is called God'S throne, Isa. Ix. 1, because the prospect of the heavens affords us discoveries of the wisdom and power of God, more than in any other visible thing, both in their essence, magnitude, and motion: so is thero a greater discovery of God's attributes in the church (which is also styled heaven in Scripture)

than in the whole world besides; there it is that the angels look to learn

mors '»t* the wisdom of God than they understood before, Eph. iii. 10. It

is there the day of his power dawns, Ps. CX. '•>. It is there his saints see

his pouer and his glory, P». Ixiii. '-!; the sanctuary is called the firmament of bis power, I's. <d. 1. The glory of God's attributes is centred in Christ in i high r manner than in the creation ; and in that work did excel themselves in what they h;id done in tin* framing of the world ; and the church being the glory of Christ, all those attribute!, which are glorified in Christ,

do in and through him shine forth mure (dearly upon the ehnieh, than upon any Other put, of the world. He styles himself their Creator, as much as the Creator of the whole frame of heaven and earth : Isa. xliii. 15, 'I am tho Lord, your Holy Ono, the Creator of Israel, your King.' As though all

the attributes of God, his power in creation, his holiness in redemption, were designed for none else but them : and indeed by virtue of the covenant they were to be so; for if God be their God, then all of God is theirs. What wisdom, power, sufficiency, grace, and kindness he hath, is principally for them. If God be their God, it is in their concerns he will glorify himself as a God in the manifestation of his perfections. This cannot be without the ordering all providences for their advantage.

4. Fourthly, There is a peculiar relation of God and Christ to the church ; upon which account this doctrine must needs be true. God is set out in all relations to manifest his great care of his people. He is a Father to provide for them, Isa. lxiv. 8 ; a mother to suckle them, Isa. xlix. 15. Christ is a husband to love and protect them, Eph. v. 29; a brother to counsel them, John xx. 17. And when all these relations meet in one and the same person, the result of it must be very strong. Any one relation where there is affection is a great security; but here all the relations are twisted together with the highest affections of them in God to the church. A father will order all for the good of his child, a mother for her infant, a husband for his wife, and one kind brother for another; so doth God for his people; and whatsoever those relations bind men to on earth, in respect of care, love, and faithfulness, that is God to his church. The church hath the relation to God which none in the world have besides. They are his jewels, therefore he will keep them; they are his children, therefore he will spare them, Mai. iii. 17. They shall have protection from him as they are his jewels, and compassion from him as they are his sons. The church is Christ's flesh, as dear to him as our flesh is to us ; as much his, as our flesh is ours: Eph. v. 29, * No man hates his own flesh, but nourisheth it, as Christ doth his church.' No man ean have a higher value for his own flesh than Christ hath for his church. The church, as Tertullian speaks, is nothing else but Christus explicatus ;* and as considered in union with Christ, is called Christ, 1 Cor. xii. 12. It is i the apple of his eye,' Zech. ii. 8, a tender and beloved part. The church is Christ's spouse; the contract is made, the espousals shall be at the last day. The members are picked out one by one to be presented to the Lamb at last as a glorious bride for him, Rev. xxi. 2.

And all God^s dealings with them in the world are but preparations of them for that state. Upon the making of the match God promises a communion of goods : Hosea ii. 20, ' I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness,' which is a fruit of marriage, the wife being invested in her husband's estate. When God hath given the blood of his Son for the church, he will not deny her the service of the creatures, but jointure her in that as one part of her dowry. ' In that day will I hear the heavens,' &c, ver. 21. In what day ? In the day of betrothing, in the day of the evangelical administration, when the contract shall be made between me and my church. Heavens, earth, corn, wine, and oil, the voice and motions of all creatures, are for Jezreel, which signifies the seed of God. This great prince he hath a care of all his subjects, so more peculiarly of his spouse and princess, which is his seed too, and all creatures shall be her servants. This fatherly relation and affection is strong and pure, not as the love which acts an ambitious man to ambition, or a covetous man to wealth ; which respects nothing but the grasping and possessing the objects they doat upon, and have nothing of love for the objects themselves, therefore deserves not the name of love. But it is the love of a father, whose love is pure towards his children; he seeks their good as his own.

* Christ unfolded.

Consider these two things.

1. God hath a peculiar love to this very relation, and often mentions it with delight, as if he loved to hear the sound of it in his own lips : Cant, viii. 12, ' My vineyard which is mine, is before me.' Me, my, mine. The church is always under his eye, seated in his affection, and God is pleased with his propriety in them. God never calls the world my world, though he created it; sometimes he saith, the earth is mine, but it is either to check the presumptions of men, who ascribe that to themselves which is due to the first cause ; or to encourage his people in the expectation of deliverance, because all things in the earth are at his beck; or to shew his own sufficiency, without the services of his people; as when he saith, the earth is mine, and the fulness thereof; but it is never mentioned in such a way, as to discover any pleasure he hath in the relation between him and it, simply considered; but my vineyard, my people, my children, my jewels, my sanctuary, very often. So much doth God esteem his propriety in them.

2. This relation is prevalent with God in the highest emergencies and distresses of his people. The very consideration that they are his people, kindles his affection, and enlivens his strength for them : Isa. lxiii. 8, 1 And he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.' God is brought in, as one that had heard the cries of his church, and had not been moved ; but when he recollects himself, and considers that they were his people, and that he was in a special manner related to them, he became their Saviour; he could no longer bear it, but stirs up himself to relieve them. Nay, it hath so strong an influence upon him, that if this note be often sounded in his ears, it doth as it were change his voice, and when he seems to have a mind to cast them off he cannot. When Israel had offended by erecting and worshipping a golden calf, he calls them no more his people, but Moses's people: Exod. xxxii. 7, * And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.' As though God had not been concerned in this miraculous conduct out of Egypt; and ver. 9, ' this people,' as if he had had no interest in them, but particularises them with disdain. God had here discarded them, and turned them over upon Moses's hands, as if he would have no longer anything to do with them; but Moses in prayer turns them upon God again, and would not own them as his, but pleads that they were God's proper goods : ver. 11, « Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt?' And ver. 12, again, ' thy people;' and God at last resumes his former notes, ver. 14, ' And thoLord repented him of the evil he thought to do unto km people.' Now they are God's people again ; the repetition of this relation is a powerful rhetoric to persuade him to own them again, which he had cashiered and turned off.

5. Fifthly, The whole interest of God in the world lies in his church and people. He leei little of himself in any pari of the corrupted world, hut only in them. It is in the church Qfl hath put his oame ; it is there he soes his Image, and therefore places hit Lore there; ami shall all this signify nothing? Shall the GoTernor of the world let things go contrary to his own interest ?

They are like to him in that which is one of his greatest perfections, viz.,

his h o li nes s , which gives him a greater interest in them. It is his interest

that, is opposed hv an opposition to the church. All the hatred any bear it grOWi from the inward root of enmity against God himself: Ps. xliv. 22, ' KM, for thy sake an We killed all the day long.' God surely will concern himself in the church's interest, since it is his own. His interest lies,

2 CHRON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

89

(1.) In the persons of his people. It is his inheritance, Isa. xix. 25. It is his' portion : Deut. xxxii. 9, ' The Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.' Every part of an inheritance and a portion doth as particularly belong to the owner as the whole. Every part of the ground which belongs to the inheritance is the heir's, as well as the whole field. He will not suffer the world, which is but the work of his hands, to lay waste his church, which is his proper inheritance. It is his treasure, and where a man's treasure is, there is his heart; and where God's treasure is, there is God's heart.

(2.) In the services and actions of the church. If the church should be destroyed, whom hath God to love and imitate him, and to shew forth his glory ? If the candlestick is broken, what is fit to hold out the light to the world ? He hath none in the world besides, that do intentionally mind his honour, that take pleasure in glorifying his name, and writing after his copy, and observing his works. And will it stand with his interest to govern things contrary to theirs, which is really his own ?

When God had made the world, and pronounced it good, what would it have signified if he had not brought in man as his rent-gatherer, and the collector of his tribute, to return it to him ! And what would man signify, since the corrupted world embezzles that which is God's right, and turns it to its own use, if God had not some honest stewards, who faithfully act for him, and give him the glory of his works ! And God will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him. God hath no voluntary service in the world but from them, therefore he is more interested in their good than in the good of the world besides. The services of the church are all the delight God hath in the world : Hosea ix. 10, ' I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness ; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her first time.' They are as the refreshing wine and grapes, as the delicious fruit of the first ripe figs, wherewith a weary traveller recruits his spirits after a long and trying journey. And God hath a greater delight in the fruit he receives from the church, than in it simply as it is his inheritance ; for no inheritance is valued but for the fruit and revenue it yields; and therefore God orders all his blackest providences in the world, like dark clouds, to be the watering-pots of this his garden, that the fruit and flowers of it may be brought to maturity, which yield him so much pleasure and honour. God only is acknowledged by them and in them, as the Jews were bound to acknowledge God the author of their mercies, by presenting the first fruits of their increase to God. And believers are called so: Rev. xiv. 4, ' These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits to God and the Lamb.' It is by and in them that God hath the acknowledgment of all his mercies and blessings to the world.

6. It cannot be but all the providences of God shall work to the good of his church, if we consider the affections of God.

(1.) His love. What hath God in the world as an object to bestow his affections upon, and communicate the rays of his love unto, since he created it, but his church ? The men of the world hate him; he can see nothing amiable in them ; for what was first lovely they have defaced and blotted out, but the church hath God's comeliness put upon her : Ezek. xvi. 14, 4 It was perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God;' and he did not lay those glorious colours upon her, to manage his government, or any part of it against her, to deface her. Besides their loveliness, which is conferred upon them by God, they have a love to God, and no man will act against those whom he thinks to be his friend. God being purus actus, there being nothing but purity and activity in God, his

love must be the purest and highest love, the most vigorous and glowing ; as fire, which sets all other bodies, so this all other powers in the world in motion for them. God cannot love them, but he must wish all good to them, and do all good for them ; for his love is not a lazy love, but hath its raptures and tenderness, and his affection is twisted with his almighty power to work that good for them, which in their present condition in the world they are capable of. Now it is certain God loves his church ; for,

[1.] He carries them in his hand, Deut xxxiii. 3; and that not in a loose manner to be cast out, but they are engraven upon the palms of his hands, Isa. xlix. 16, that he cannot open his hand to bestow a blessing upon any person but the picture of his church doth dart in his eye. God alludes to the rings wherein men engrave the image of those that are dear to them. And the Jews did in their captivity engrave the effigies of their city Jerusalem upon their rings, that they might not forget it.* If his eye be alway upon the church, his thoughts can never be off' it in all his works.

[2.] He loves the very gates and outworks: Ps. lxxxvii. 2, 'The Lord loveth t.ie gates of Sion;' he loves a cottage where a church is more than the stately palates of princes. The gates were the places where they consulted together, and gave judgment upon affairs. God loved the assemblies of his saints because of the truths revealed, the ordinances administered, the worship presented to him.

[3.] Nay, one saint is more valued by him than the whole world of the wicked. God is the God of all creatures, but peculiarly the God of Abraham and of his seed. One Abraham is more deeply rooted in his heart than all the world, and he doth more entitle himself the God of Abraham than the God of the whole world; for in that style he speaks to Isaac: Gen. xxvi. 24, ' I am the God of Abraham thy father,' much more the God of Israel, the God of the whole church, of which Abraham was but a member, though the father of the faithful, and a feoffee of the covenant. God hath a greater value for one sincere soul than for a whole city. He saves a Lot, and burns a Sodom; yea, than for a whole world, he drowns a world and reserves a Noah; he secures his jewels, whilst he flings away the pebbles.

[4.] He loves them so, that he overlooks their crabbed and perverse misconstructions of his providence. When the Israelites had jealous thoughts of liim, and of Moses his instrument, when they saw that mighty Egyptian army just at their heels, and themselves cooped up between mountains, forts, and waters, God doth not upon this provoking murmuring draw up his cloudy pillar to heaven, but puts it in the rear of them, when before it

I marched in the van, Eixod. xiv. 15), and wedgeth himself in botween them ;oi<l Pharaoh's enraged host, to shew that they should as soon sheath

their BWOrdl in his heart as in their bowels; and if they could strike them,

it should be through his own deity, which was the highest expression of his affection. And though they often murmured against his providence after they were landed on the shore, vet he left them not to shift for themsel hut, bore them ;dl the way in his arms, as a father doth his child, Deut* i. Blj and bars them Like an eagle upon his wings, Dout. xxxii. 11. And God lovei tle'in magnificently and royally: Hosea siv. I, ' L will love them

freely,'i without any doubting, without any reluctance. 1 will love thee

without any repugnancy in my heart to draw me back u*om thee; 'for

mine anger is tinned away,' as the streams of a river, quito another way.

Now, ;dl this considered, can the Governor of the world, the King if saints, • Banctiu i In Isa. xlix. l*». \ Eoseaarii LnifO; Sept., o/AoXdyw;.

act anything against his own affections ? Yea, will he not make all things subservient to them whom he loves ?

(2.) His delight. See what an inundation of sweetening joy there was in him, for which he had not terms of expression to suit the narrow apprehensions of men: Zeph. iii. 17, 'The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing.' He seems in his expression to know no measure of his delight in the church, and no end of it: 'I will rejoice over thee with joy.' Joy sparkles up fresh after joy; it is his rest, where the soul and all that is within him centres itself with infinite contentment. ' Joy over thee with singing:' a joy that blossoms into triumph. or had any such charming transports in the company of any he most affected as God hath in his church; he doth so delight in the graces of his people, that he delights to mention them. He twice mentions Enoch's walking with him, Gen. v. 22, 24. And certainly God cannot but delight in it more than in the world, because it is a fruit of greater pains than the creation of the world. The world was created in the space of six days by a word, the erecting a church hath cost God more pains and time. Before the church of the Jews could be settled, he hath both a contest with the peevishness of his people and the malice of their enemies. And his own Son must bleed and die before the church of the Gentiles could be fixed. Men delight in that which hath cost them much pains and a great price. God hath been at too much pains, and Christ at too great price, to have small delight in the church; will he then let wild beasts break the hedges, and tread down the fruit of it ? Shall not all things be ordered to the good of that which is the object of his greatest delight in the world ?

7. Seventhly, The presence of God in his church will make all providences tend to the good of it.

It would be an idle, useless presence if it were not operative for their good. ' The Lord is there' is the very name of the gospel church, Ezek. xlviii. 35; what would it signify if it were a useless presence ? Christ stands upon mount Sion, his throne is in the church, when the great things in the world shall be acted for the ruin of antichrist, Rev. xiv. 1. God's presence in his church is the glory and defence of it, as the presence of the king is the glory of the court: Zech. ii. 5, 'For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.' His presence is a covenant presence: Isa. xli. 10, ' Fear not, I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God;' whence follows strength, help, and support: 'I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness;' that is, with my righteous power, with my power engaged to thee in a righteous covenant. His presence and providence in the world is in a way of absolute dominion, but in his church in a way of federal relation. He is the God of Israel, ind God to Israel, or for Israel, 1 Chron. xvii. 24, yea, and a God in the nidst of Israel,—every one of them sufficient engagements to protect tsrael, and provide for Israel, and govern everything for Israel's good. Grod is under an oath to do good to Israel; will he violate his oath, tear his seal, break his covenant, who never broke his league with any of his people yet ?

8. Eighthly, The prayers of the church have a mighty force with God to his end. God is entitled a God hearing prayer; and what prayers should iod hear, if not the prayers of his church, which aim at God's glory in their jwn good ? Though the prayers of the church may in some particulars fail, ■et in general they do not; because they submit their desires to the will of iod, which always works what is best for them.

When God would do any mighty work in the world, he stirs up his people to pray for it; and their prayers by his own appointment have a mighty influence upon the government of the world, for when they come before him in behalf of the church in general, he doth indulge them a greater liberty and boldness, and as it were a kind of authority over him, than upon other occasions of their own: Isa. xlv. 11, ■ Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask of me things to come concerning my sons; and concerning the work of mine hands command you me.' God would be more positively, confidently, and familiarly dealt with about the concerns of his sons, though they were things to come to pass in after ages. And indeed the prayers of the church have a powerful and invisible efficacy on the great actions and overturnings which are in the world. The being of the world is maintained by them from sinking; according to the Jews' saying, sine stationibus non subsisteret mimdus (standing in prayer was their usual prayer gesture). And that they have actually such a force is evident: Kev. viii. 3, 4, an angel hath a golden censer with incense, to offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the altar which was before the throne. And, verse 5, the censer wherein their prayers were offered was filled with the fire of the altar, and cast into the earth; and there were voices, thun-derings, lightnings, and earthquakes. When the prayer of the saints were offered to God, and ascended up before him, that is, were very pleasing to him, the issue is, the angel fills the censer with fire of the altar, and thereby causes great commotions and alterations in the world, signifying that the great changes of the world are an answer unto those prayers which are offered unto God; for fire is taken from that altar upon which they were offered, and flung into the world. And it must needs be that the prayers of the church should have an influence on the government of the world.

(1.) Because God hath a mighty delight in the prayers of his people. 'The prayer of the upright is his delight;' and he loves to hear the church's voice: Cant. ii. 14, 4 0 my dove, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice' (Chaldes, ' Thy voice is sweet in prayer'). In the times of the gospel, God promises that the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem should be pleasant to him, Mai. iii. 4. When Christ shall sit as a refiner, ver. 3, what is the issue of those prayers ? ver. 5, ■ 1 will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,' &c. Prayer awakes providence to judge the enemies of the church. A parent delights not in the bare crying, or the voice of his child simply considered in itself, but in the significations and effects of it. He delights in the matter of their prayers, it being [ BO agreeable to his own heart and will, and in the sense they have of the | Bufferings of the whole body.

(2.) Beeansc prayer is nothing else but a pleading of God's promises. Unto 1 this the; are directed by that Spirit which knows thoniindof God, and mar-shall their petitions according to bis will. Now as God turns his own decrees and purposes concerning his church into promises to them, so the

Church turns I Ids.- promises into prayers for them; SO that promise's being for the good of the church, and there being an exact harmony between t! promises and the church's prayers, all those providences which are the issue of those promisee, ami the answer of the church's prayers, must needs u tor the church's good. (:'».) Because there are united supplications and pleadings both in he

and earth. All the hands of the whole family iu heaven and earth are con tied in their petitions. [l.J Christ intercedes for the church, who always desires mercy and deliver

ance for them in the appointed time: Zech. i. 12; ' How long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem ?' and the issue is always gracious; for, ver. 13, God answers him with 'good and comfortable words;' and thereupon carpenters are raised to ■ cut off the horns which had scattered Judah,' ver. 20.

[2.J Angels in all probability plead for the church, as we have already heard; it is likely they offer and present that to God which makes for his glory, and that is the good of the church. Angels surely desire that which their head doth, which is described as one of their own order, and called an angel, Zech. i. 12. Do they rejoice at the repentance of a sinner, and do they not likewise triumph at the happiness of the church, which is part of that family they are of? And we know that the greatness of our joy is suited to the mercies of our desires ; where our joy is most triumphant, it implies that our desires before were most vehement.

[3.] Glorified saints are not surely behind. The rich man in the parable desired his friends on earth might not come into that place of torment, Luke xvi. 28. If | there be so much charity in hell, can there be less in heaven ? If he desired it, that by the presence of his companions in sin, his own torments might not be increased, do not the saints in heaven desire the presence of the whole church, that their happiness in that of the whole body may be completed ? If the head Christ be not complete without the body, the members of the body cannot be complete without one another. The souls of them that were slain for the word of God cry under the altar for vengeance on them that dwell on the earth; as Kev. vi. 9, 10, 'How long, 0 Lord holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? ' Will not their kindness to their fellow-members be as strong as their justice, and their love for the good of their friends draw out their prayers as well as their desire of vengeance on their enemies ? Why may they not as well pray for us as we praise God for them ? Had they not some likeness to their great Master whilst they were on earth, and shall they not be more like to him now they are in heaven, and behold his face, and feel all the stirrings of his heart ? And if they have no sense at all of the church's sufferings, how shall they be like to him who hath ? As their bodies shall be like the glorious body of Christ at the resurrection, are not their souls now like his glorious soul, merciful, and compassionate, and sympathising in all the afflictions of the church ? And can this be without some breathings for a full completing of the church's freedom ? Are such desires and pleas any hindrance to their present happiness ? It is so far from that, that it doth rather further their glory, which cannot be complete, as the glory of Christ, as head, is not mounted to the highest pitch of glory, till his mystical body be all gathered in and lodged with him. If it be thus, will God do anything prejudicial to the church, and contrary to the combined desires of all those that are so near him ? If God doth sometimes stir up himself upon the supplication of one man, and grant an order upon his petition according to his mind; and if the prayers of one faithful Moses, or Elias, or Samuel have such a kind of almighty power in them, much more is the joint force of so many prayers twisted together.

Use 1. For information. Is it so that all providence is for the good of the church ? Then,

1. God will always have a church in the world, he will have some to serve

him. The whole course of his providence being designed for it, as long as

the world, which is the object of his providence, doth endure, he will have a

church. God would otherwise lose the end of the motion of his eyes,* the

L * As in the text, 2 Chron. xvi. 9.

operation of his providence, since it is to shew himself strong for the church and every member of it. As long as the candle and light of the gospel burns and shines, God will have a candlestick to set the candle in.* His great design in making a world was not to have sun, moon, and stars, but a church, a company of men that might bear his mark, and honour him, to whom he might speak, and extend his grace abroad, which he was so full of within. As a limner who would draw an excellent draught, draws his design in the midst of the cloth, and fills the void places with clouds, and landscapes, and other fancies at his pleasure, which communicate some beauty and lustre to the work, but that was not the principal design of the workman. That Redeemer which bears the church upon his heart, will create a stability for it; it is a part of his priestly office to have a care of the lamps; it is one of his titles to be he that walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, Rev. ii. 1. Priests under the law were to look to the great candlestick in the temple, supply the lamps with oil, and make them clean, Lev. xxiv. 3, 4. The church indeed may be eclipsed, but not extinguished; if it be not conspicuous on the mountain, yet it shall be hid in the wilderness. There shall be sprinklings of professors among all people. God will leaven the places where they are into Christianity, and cause them to fructify and grow up in purity and glory : Micah v. 7, ' And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.' It tarries not for man. It attends not the power of man, the precepts of man, or inventions of man; but whose descent is from heaven, and is carried on not by human power, but by the divine Spirit and providence ; it shall be firmer than all worldly power, and the strongest kings : Isa. ii. 2, ' And the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established upon the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills.' Above mountains and hills, to which sometimes the powers of the world are compared, Zech. iv. 7. That providence which gave the church at first a footing in the world upon a weak foundation to outward appearance, in spite of men and devils will preserve it, and not suffer it to be blown up ; he will shadow the church with his win^s in a perpetual succession of the choicest mercies.

2. God will in the greatest exigencies find out means for the protection of his church. This will be till his providence be at an end. When God hath removed one instrument of his church's protection, he hath his choice of others, whom lie can raise and spirit for his work. When those upon whom the church's hopes hang are taken oil*, he can raise things that are unlikely to supply the place. As the lutenist accidentally had a grasshopper leapt upon his instrument, to supply by its noise the place of a string which 1i;mI Dewlj cracked, win Toby his music was continued without interrupt i God MD spirit men against their own natural fears. It is very improbal that NicodemUB, our of I fearful disposition, who came to our Saviour by

night for tear of the Jews, should have the courage to assert his oause in

l| )r (ace of B whole council of pliarisees, contriving his death, and at p] .;

blunt the edge of their malioe, though we read of none at that time in the council to second bim, John rii. 50, 51. The Holy Ghost takes particul notice that it was be that came to Jesus l»y night.

|,ii i,!' ,\i iniathca, whose name we meet, not with in the catalog! j UlV of our disciples,i till the time of his death, and then he appears boldly 1,, |, body of JeBUS of Pilate. God will never want instruments for

the preserving that church, which he owns as his. It is observed by Some, * Cham. vei it. liv. 8 ohap i. p. 16.

-J Qn. ' iu an)' ul tie: c.it.i OUT J Oftl'l di-ciplc-s ' ?—Ed.

that God so ordered it, that the same day that Pelagius, the great poisoner of the Christian doctrine, was born in Britain, Austin, the most famous defender of the truth, was born in Africa ; that the horn which pushed the truth should no sooner appear, but the carpenter to cut it off' should be provided too. As it is observed where poisons grow, antidotes grow near them by the indulgent provision of the God of nature.

As there is the wisdom of the serpent against the church, so there is the wisdom of God for it. God's goodness upon his church in former ages is not all laid out, he hath his stores still, neither is his wisdom nonplussed, nor his power weakened ; neither is he, nor can he be weary of his care.

3. The church shall in the end prove victorious against all its adversaries, or providence must miss of its aim. The church is compared to an olive tree, Hosea xiv. 6, in respect of beauty, ' his beauty shall be as the olive tree.' It is so also in respect of victory. Olive branches were used in triumph. God is on the church's side, and he is stronger than the strongest, and wiser than the wisest, and higher than the highest. Jesus Christ is the church's head and general; Christ the head watcheth for the good of the church, the body. He must be destroyed before the church can. There is a mighty arm, which, though it may for a time seem withered, will in the end be stretched out, and get itself the victory. Whilst Christ is in the ship, it may be tossed, but it shall not be sunk. It may be beaten down, but like a ball to rebound the higher. The young tree that is shaken by the wind may lose some leaves, and some fruit too, but the root gets greater strength and strikes itself deeper into the earth, and makes the branches more capable of a rich return of fruit the following year. The church's stature is compared to a palm tree, Cant. vii. 7, which cannot be depressed by the weights which hang upon it, but riseth the higher. God uses the same method in the church's, as in Christ's advancement. Our Saviour's death was necessary to his glory, Luke xxiv. 26, and the church's affliction sometimes to its exaltation. A nation may lose some battles, and yet be victorious ; the church may have many a cross, but in the end will surmount all difficulties. Though judgments and apostasies may be great in a nation, yet God will have a care of his own plants, Isa. vi. 12, 13; ' There shall be a tenth ; it shall return, the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.' As a tree in winter, which seems dead, but its juice shall revive into rich and generous blossoms. The ark shall float above the waters. Babylon shall fall, the Lamb shall stand upon mount Zion. Men may as well stop the rising of the sun in its mounting to the meridian, bridle in the tide of the ocean, as hinder the current of an almighty providence.

4. The interest of nations is to bear a respect to the church, and countenance the worship of God in it. This is to concur with God's main end, and imitate him in his providential administrations. God's people, whatever their enemies suggest to the contrary, are a blessing in the midst of a land, Isa. xix. 24; their interest is greater than the interest of all the world besides; though they be but a handful, their fruit shall shake like Lebanon, Ps. lxxii. 16. The neglect of religion is the ruin of nations. It

i is observed that Cyrus was slain in the war in Scythia, a little after he neglected the building of the temple of Jerusalem which he had begun.* Those Persian kings reigned the longest that favoured the Jews in that and their other just requests. God honoured or disgraced them as they were kind or cruel to his people. And when they act for the good of his people,

. they shall not be without their reward. When Cyrus should let the Jewish captives go free without ransom, he should be no loser by it. God would

* Broughton on Dan. x. 10.

give him the labour of Egypt, the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the strength of the Sabeans into his hand for the price of his people's delivery, Isa. xlv. 13, 14. Those nations which should favour them in the times of their persecutions and flights, and give them shelter in their countries, should thrive and prosper by the blessing of God upon them. If Moab give entertainment to the flying Israelites in the time of the invasion of Shalmanezer, God will preserve their land that the spoiler shall not enter into the confines of it, and they shall have kings and judges under the protection of the house of David, i. e. under the kings of Israel, as some understand it, Isa. xvi. 4, 5. Saints are the guardians of the places where they live, their prayers have a greater influence than the wisest counsels, or the mightiest force, 2 Kings ii. 12 : ' And Elisha cried, My father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.' The Chaldee paraphraseth thus : * Thou art better to Israel by thy prayers than chariots and horsemen.' This is the elogy of one single prophet; what influence then hath the whole church of God in a place ? The whole world is the better for the church of God. The Chaldee paraphrase hath a notion upon that, Ps. xxii. 3 : ' But thou art holy, 0 thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel;' thou that estab-lishest the world for the praises of Israel. God hath nothing to do in the world but the saving of his people. When that is once done, he will put an end to this frame of things. When he hath gathered his wheat into his garner, he will burn up the chaff. His people are the spirit and quintessence of the world. When this is extracted, the rest are flung upon the dunghill, as a caput mortuum.

5. We may see hence the ground of most of the judgments in the world. Men by their rage against the church, will not acknowledge God's government of the world for the church's good ; therefore the psalmist, Ps. lix. 13, ' Consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be, and let them know that God rules in Jacob unto the ends of the earth.' The church is the seat of his government, and from thence he extends it to the uttermost parts of the earth. In Jacob he rules, and for the sake of Jacob he orders his government to the ends of the earth ; the not acknowledging this brings wrathful consumptions upon men ; and it is also the end of his judgments to make men know it. It is likely enough the four kings, Gen. xiv. 9, might have gone clear away with all their booty, had not they laid their fingers upon Lot ; but when they would pack him up among the rest, they did but solicit their own ruin, and arm the almighty God against them. God did not think any of the people worth the mention, verse 11; only Lot a righteoni penon, verse 12, he is named, as having God's eye only upon him. And when Abraham returns from the victory, ver. 10, the rest of the delivered captives are mentioned in tho bulk, Lot only in particular, as though all that had been done had been done by God only for Lot's sake. They might have preserved the whole prey to themselves, had it not been for this

jewel, loo precious in God's account for their custody. And the tearful curse

that God pronounced against the Ammonite and Moabite, that they should not some into the congregation for ten generations, though any of then turned proselytes, was because they came not out with so much as bread and water to meet the [sraelites, and because they hired Balaam to cui them, Dent, nriii. 8, i. The utter wasting of nations and kingdoms, is t because tliev will Dot serve the interest of God in his people: Isa. 1\. 1 * For the nation and kingdom thai will not serve thee shall perish ; 3 those nations shall be utterly wasted.' God will bring an utter consumption upon those people Hint refuse to love them, much more upon those that hate I

them*

6. What esteem, then, should there be of the godly in the world ? The providence of God, being chiefly for the good of his people, cannot well fall upon them, but some drops will fall upon those involved with them in a common interest. When the corn, and wine, and oil hear Jezreel (the seed of God), and the earth hears the corn, and the heavens hear the earth, and God hears the heavens, Hosea ii. 21, 22 ; when their supplications come up to the great superintendent of the world, many of the wicked will fare the better for that providence which is given only in answer to Jezreel's prayer ; God causes his sun to shine upon the unjust, upon them, not for their sakes. When Nebuchadnezzar issued out that unjust order for the slaying the Chaldeans for not performing an impossible command in telling him the dream he had forgotten, Dan. ii. 12, Daniel was sought out to undergo the same fate; yet by his wisdom God bends the heart of Arioch, the executioner of this decree, to stay his hand. Daniel goes to the king, God stays Nebuchadnezzar's fury, and moves his heart to give them time. The providence is chiefly intended for the preservation of Daniel and his godly companions, but the rest of the wise men have the benefit of it. As the water with which a man waters his choicest plants and flowers in his garden is intended only for them, yet some falling off from those flowers refresheth the weeds that grow under them. If God had not had such flowers as Daniel and his companions, the weeds in Chaldea had been plucked up. Yet the ungrateful world takes no notice of the benefits they receive from this salt of the earth, which preserves them, and to whom they are all so much beholding. Lot had been the occasion of restoring Zoar from captivity, as I mentioned before, for the inhabitants of that city were engaged with those of Sodom in the fight against the four kings (' And the king of Bela, the same is Zoar,' Gen. xiv. 8); and perhaps were carried captives with the rest of their neighbours ; and it had been saved from the flames which fell upon Sodom merely by Lot's prayer: Gen. xix. 21, ' See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing, that I will not overthrow this city for the which thou hast spoken;' yet he found them a surly people, and was requited with a rude reception, notwithstanding his kindness : ver. 13,' He went up out of Zoar, for he feared to dwell in Zoar.' It was not likely he was so distrustful of God, that he should overthrow it, when he had absolutely promised him the contrary ; therefore most likely for some churlish threatenings from them. Nay, Sodom itself was beholden to him for a small respite of the judgment intended against them. For God tells him he could do nothing till he were come thither, Gen. xix. 22. And it was so, for Lot was entered into Zoar before a drop of brimstone and fire was rained down upon Sodom: ver. 23, 24, ( Then the Lord rained upon Sodom ;' when ? When Lot was entered into Zoar. This good the wicked world get by God's people is so evident, that sometimes wicked men cannot but take notice of it. Laban, a selfish idolater, was sensible of it: Gen. xxx. 27, ' I have found by experience that the Lord hath blessed me lor thy sake.' It was a lesson so legible that he might have learned it sooner than in fourteen years. The church is the chief object of preservation, wicked men are preserved for their sakes ; as dung is preserved, not 'or its own sake, but for the manuring a fruitful field, and thorns in the hedge are preserved for the garden's sake.

7. It is then a very foolish thing for any to contend against the welfare of God's people. It is to strive against an almighty and unwearied providence. Men may indeed sometimes be suffered by God for holy ends to aave their wills, in some measure, upon the church, but not altogether; :hey must first depose him from his throne, blind his eyes, or hold his arm.

VOL. I. G

It is as foolish as if a worm should design to dig down a mountain, or chaff to martial itself in battle array against the wind, or for a poor fly to stop the motion of a millstone.

(1.) It is foolish, because it is exceeding sinful. What is done against the church is rather done against God than against it; since all her constitution, worship, observances, are directed to God as their ultimate end ; so that to endeavour to destroy the church is to deny God a worship, deprive him of his sanctuary, break open his house, ravish his spouse, cut off Christ's body, rob him of his jewels, and will be so interpreted by God at the last, upon the scanning of things. If the church be God's house, the enemies shall answer for every invasion, every forcible entry, for the breaking down the gates and bars of it, God will sue them at last for dilapidations.

(2.) Very unsuccessful. Shall God be afraid of the multitudes and power of men ? No more than ' a lion, or a young lion roaring after his prey, when a multitude of shepherds are called forth against them, shall he be afraid of their voice, or abase himself for their noise,' Isa. xxxi. 4. Noise and clamour is all they can do, and that not long; the fierceness of the lion quickly scatters them. The associations, and men's girding themselves against the church, is but a preparation to their own ruin : Isa. viii. 9, 1 Associate yourselves together, 0 ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces,' three times repeated. Your counsels, saith he, shall not stand against that presence of God that is with us, ' for God is with us.'

(3.) It is very destructive too. God will not alway be still and refrain himself; he seems to do so for a while, but when he doth arise he will destroy and devour at once, Isa. xlii. 14, he will make but ^one morsel of them. When God is angry with his people, and gives them into the hands of men to execute his justice upon them, and punish them, he will even punish those enemies for their cruelty, and going beyond their commission, in satisfying their own immoderate passions upon them. Upon this account God threatens Babylon: Isa. xlvii. 6, ' I was wroth with my people; I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thy hand : thou didst shew them no mercy;' whereupon God threatens them afterwards, &c.; so Zech. i. 15, God was sore displeased with the heathen, for when he was ' but a little displeased' with his people, ' they helped forward the affliction.'

Use 2. Is for comfort.

If Jill the providence of God be for tho good of the church, if his eyes run to and fro to shew himself strong for them, it affords matter of great comfort. His providence is continual for them, Zech. iv. 2. He hath seven pipes to convey kindness to them, as well as seven lamps whereby to discern their si nuts. His providence is as vast as his omniscience. The Dumber of pipes belonging to the candlestick of the church is exact according to the number of lamps. The church's misery cannot bo hid from God's eye, let it, he in what part of the earth soever, for his eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, and his sight excites his strength. Upon tho light of their distressed condition he watchos only for the fittest opportunity to shew himself strong for them. And when that opportunity comes he is speedy in the deliverance of them : I's. wiii. 10, ' lie rode upon a cherub,

and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of tho wind.' Ho doth not only ride upon a cherub, hut fly. His wings are nothing hut wind, which hath the quickest and strongest motion, which moves the greatest bodi

and turns down all before it. What is tor the good of the whole hath an iulluencu upon every member of tho body.

1. It is comfort in duties and special services. Nothing shall be wanting for encouragement to duty, and success in it when God calls any to it, since all his providence is for the good of the church. Let there be but sincerity on our parts, in our attempts of service upon God's call, and we need not fear a want of providence on God's part. God never calls any to serve his church in any station, but he doth both spirit and encourage them. God hath in his common providence suited the nature of every creature to that place in which he hath set it in the world; and will he not much more in his special providence suit every one to that place he calls them to, for the service of his church ? He did not forsake Christ in redeeming his church, neither will he forsake any in assisting his church. When Joseph of Arimathea would boldly demand the body of our Saviour, providence made the way plain before him; he meets with no check, neither from Pilate nor the priests, Mat. xxvii. 58, Mark xv. 43.

2. In meanness and lowness. It is one and the same God that rules the affairs of the whole world, of the church and of every particular member of it. As it is the same soul that informs the whole body, the meanest member as well as that which is most excellent. Not the meanest sincere Christian but is under God's eye for good. The Spirit acts and animates every member in the church, the weakest as well as the most towering Christian. Baruch was but the prophet Jeremiah's amanuensis or scribe, and servant to Jeremiah (who was no great man in the world himself), yet God takes notice so of his service, that he would particularly provide for him, and commands Jeremiah in a way of prophecy to tell him as much: Jer. xlv. 5, ' I will bring evil upon all flesh, but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey, whithersoever thou goest.'

3. In the greatest judgments upon others. In an epidemical judgment upon the whole nation of the Jews, God would have a special care of Baruch. If he should cast his people far off among the heathen, and scatter them among the countries, yet even there he would be a little sanctuary unto them. His own presence should supply the want of a temple, so he is pleased to express himself, Ezek. xi. 16. But how is it possible the great God can be but a little sanctuary ? His eye is upon them to see their danger, and his hand upon them to secure them from it. His promise shall shield them, and his wings shall cover them, Ps. xci. 4. While he hath indignation, he hath a secret chamber for their security, Isa. xxvi. 20, an almighty shadow under which they abide, Ps. xci. 1. In times of the most devouring danger he hath a seal to set upon their foreheads as a mark of his special protection. We never have so much experience of God's care and strength as in times of trouble: Ps. xxxvii. 39, ' He is their strength in time of trouble.' He is a friend who is as able as willing, and as willing as able to help them, whose watchfulness over them is as much above their apprehension as it is above their merits.

4. In the greatest extremities wherein his people may be, there are promises of comfort, Isa. xliii. 2. Both in overflowing waters and scorching fires he will be with them; his providence shall attend his promise, and his truth shall be their shield and buckler, Ps. xci. 4. That surely is a sufficient support; Christ thought it so, when he only said to his disciples, ' It is I, be not afraid,' John vi. 17, 18. What though there* be a storm, a darkness, and trouble, * It is I am he.' The darkness of the night troubles not the pilot whilst he hath his compass to steer by. If all his providences be for the good of them that fear him, he can never want means to bring them out of trouble, because he is always actually exercised in governing that which is for their good, and till he sees it fit to deliver them, he will be

with them. Great mercies succeed the sharpest afflictions, Jer. xxx. 5, 6, 7, &c. When there should be a voice of trembling, and men with their hands upon their loins, as women in travail, and paleness in their faces from the excess of their fears, in that day God would break the yoke from them, and they should serve the Lord their God, and David their king. Though the night be never so dark, yet it is certain the sun will rise and disperse its light next morning, and one time or other shew itself in its brightness. We have no reason to despond in great extremities, since he can think us into safety,—Ps. xl. 17, ' Lord, think on me,'—much more look us into it; his thoughts and his eyes move together.

5. In fear of wants. The power of the government of the world cannot be doubted. His love, as little as it seems, since it hath moved him to prepare heaven to entertain his people at the end of their journey, it will not be wanting to provide accommodation for them upon the way, since all things, both good and bad, are at his beck, and under the government of his gracious wisdom. His eyes run to and fro through the whole earth, not only to defend them in dangers, but supply them in wants, for his strength is shewed both ways. Doth he providentially regard them that have no respect for him, and will he not employ his power for, and extend his care to them that adore and love him, and keep up his honour in the world? He will not surely be regardless of the afflictions of his creatures. His people are not only his creatures, but his new creatures ; their bodies are not only created by him, but redeemed by his Son. The purchase of the Redeemer is joined to the providence of the Creator. If he take care of you when he might have damned you for your sins, will he not much more since you are believers in Christ? And he cannot damn you believing, unless he renounce his Son's mediation and his own promise. A natural man provides for his own, much more a righteous man: Pro. xiii. 22, ' A good man leaves an inheritance to his children,' much more the God of righteousness, a God who hath his eye always upon them. His eye will affect his heart, and his heart spirit the hand of his power to relieve them. He hath ' prepared of his goodness for the poor,' Ps. lxviii. 10.

6. It is comfort in the low estate of the church at any time. God's eye is upon his church even whilst he seems to have forsaken them. If he seem to be departed, it is but in some other part of the earth, to shew himself strong for them; wherever his eye is fixed in any part of the world, his church hath his heart, and his church's relief is his end. Though the church may sometimes lie among the pots in a dirty condition, yet there is a time of resurrection, when God will restore it to its true glory, and make it as white as a dovo with its silver wings, Ps. lxviii. 13. The sun is not ahvay obscured by a thick cloud, but will bo freed from tho darkness of it. 'Godwill judge his people, and repent himself concerning his servants,' Ps. exxxv. 14.* It is a comfort to God to deliver his people, and ho will do it in such a season when it shall be most comfortable to his glory and their hearts. Tho very name Jerusalem some derive from Jireh S<tl<-»i, •God will provide in Salem.' The new Jerusalem is the title given to God's church, IJ.-'V. xxi., and is still the object of his providence, and he will provide

fox it at a pinch : Gen. xxii. 1 I, 'dehovah Jireh,' God will raise up tho honour and beauty of his church ; groat mon shall bo servants to it, and employ their strength for it when God shall have mercy on it, Tsa. lx. 10, 12; yea, tho learning and knowledge of the world shall contribute to the building

of it; vor. 13, 'The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-troe, the pino-trco, and tho box together, to beautify tho placo of my sanctuary.

* OrU/V, comfort himself.

It shall be called the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel, that she may know that the Lord is her Saviour, and her Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob.' As Christ rose in his natural, so he will in his spiritual body. If Christ when dead could not be kept from rising, Christ now living shall not be hindered from rising and helping his church. His own glory is linked with his people's security, and though he may not be moved for anything in them because of their sinfulness, he will for his own name, because of its excellency: Ezek. xxxvi. 22, ' I do not this for your sakes, 0 house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake.' As sorrows increased upon the Israelites, the nearer their deliverance approached.

Because this method of God is the greatest startling even to good men, let us consider this a little, that God doth, and why God doth, leave his church to extremities before he doth deliver it.

Take the resolution of this in some propositions.

1. It is indeed God's usual method to leave the church to extremity before he doth command help. You never heard of any eminent deliverance of the church but was ushered in by some amazing distress. The Israelites were not saved till they were put in between sea, hills, and forts, that their destruction was inevitable, unless heaven relieved them. Pharaoh resolves to have his will, and God resolves to have his; but he lets him come with his whole force and open mouth at the Israelites' backs, and then makes the waters his sepulchre. Constantine, the man-child in the Revelation, was preceded by Diocletian, the sharpest persecutor. When his people are at a loss, it is his usual time to do his greatest works for them; God had promised Christ many ages, and yet no appearance of him; still promise after promise, and no performance, Ps. xl. 8. It was then, ' Lo, I come,' yet many hundred years rolled away, and no sight of him yet. Captivity and affliction, and no Redeemer ; but when the world was overrun with idolatry, the Jews oppressed by the Romans, the sceptre departed from Judah, Herod an Edomite and stranger-king, and scarce any faith left, then, then he comes. The world will be in much the like case at his next coming: Luke xviii. 8, * When the Son of man comes, shall he find faith in the earth ? ' There shall be faintings, despondency, unbelief of his promise, as though he had cast off all care of his church's concerns. It is not meant of a justifying faith, but a faith in that particular promise of his coming. The faith of the Israelites must needs begin to flag when they saw their males murdered by the Egyptians ; could they believe the propagation of the seed of Abraham, when murder took off the infants, and labour and age would in time the old ones? Whilst their children were preserved, the promise might easily be believed. But consider, this was but just before their deliverance ; like a violent crisis before recovery. He doth then 'judge his people, andrepent himself for his servants, when he sees their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left,' Deut. xxxii. 36. He doth so for the wicked many times. When the amiction of idolatrous Israel was bitter, when there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel, then he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, 2 Kings xiv. 26, 27. He doth so with private persons; Peter might have been delivered by God's power out of prison when he was first sent thither, but God thought it fittest for him to lie in chains, and free him but the night before his intended execution, Acts xii. 6, 7. Lot had his goods rifled and carried away captive before God stirred up Abraham to rescue him. When the hand of the wicked lies heaviest upon the heads of the righteous, and wrings the most mournful sighs from them; when they are needy, and the wicked securely puffing at them, as though they had brought them to so low a condition as to blow them away with a blast; ' Now,' saith

God, 'will I arise:' Ps. xii. 5, ' For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him at safety from him that puffeth at him.' Now, this is the time I watched for as fittest for my own glory and their safety. Then God disappoints them, when they seem to have got to the goal, with the ball at their foot.

Secondly, God hereby doth glorify himself. He then discovers that there is nothing too high for his power to check, nothing too subtle for his wisdom to disappoint, nothing too low for his love to embrace. That is the season wherein his mercy will be most prized, his power most admired, his wisdom most adored, and his justice most cleared. God lets the concerns of his church go backward, that he may bring them on with more glory to himself and satisfaction to his creature. God will divide the benefit and the honour between himself and the creature; he will have the whole glory, and his creature shall have the sensible advantage. They shall enjoy salvation, there is their benefit, but ' not by sword or bow, but by the Lord their God,' Hosea i. 7. Saved they should be, but in such a way wherein the honour of God might most appear, without any mixture of the creature.

1. God glorifies his power. His eyes run to and fro to shew himself strong. He will then pitch upon such a season when his strength may appear most illustrious, and none else have any pretence to claim an equal strength with him. A time of extremity is the fittest opportunity for this, when his power cannot be clouded by any interpositions of the creature for challenging a share in it. The greater the malice against the church, the weaker the church's ability to help itself, the more glorious is the power of God magnified in deliverance; little dangers are not so suitable for the triumph of an infinite strength. As God let Christ lie three days in the grave, that his resurrection might be known to be the fruit of a divine power, for the same end he lets his mystical body lie in the same condition. Had God brought Israel out of Egypt in the time of the kings that were friends to them from a kindly remembrance of Joseph, there had been no character of a divine power, though there had been of a divine truth apparent in the case ; but he set apart that time for their deliverance, when he was to contest with the mightiest opposition from the whole body of the Egyptian nation, who had forgot Joseph their great benefactor. Had not the disciples been in a great storm, ready to be cast away, and Christ asleep till they were in extremity, they had not seen such visible marks of the extensiveness of their Master's power, Isa. xxxiii. 7, 8, &o. When the hearts of the strong men fainted, when the Assyrians would not hear the ambassadors of

'<', when they had broke their former covenant, resolved to invade the land, when their calamity and despair had arrested all their hopes, 'Now,' when all things are in such a deplorable state, ' will I rise, saith the Lord, now will I he exalted ; now will I lift up myself.' God was not asleep or

unconcerned, hut he sat still watching for such a season ; nowia three times

repeated. The Psalmist gives us a reeord of this in his particular case. When the waten of his affliction were many, the enemy strong, and too strong for him, their strength edged with an intense hatred,' then God appears to be his stay, ami prevents them in the dav of his calamity, Ps, xviu. 16-18. God lets his enemies be too strong for him, that he might appear his only stay, without any mixture of David's strength in the case. When the Jewi thrift Chrisl OUi of Na/ureth, led him to the hrow oi' the hill, and were ready to oast him down, then, and not till then, he frees hini-•elfotlt of their hands, and disappoints the ell'ects of their rage, Luke iv. 29.

As Christ dealt thus for himself, so he deals for his ehurch in all ages.

2. God glorifies his wisdom. 'His oyes rim to and fro throughout the

whole earth, to shew himself strong.' It is not a bare strength that God would shew, or such a power which we call in man a brutish valour, without wit or skill, but to shew his strength with his wisdom, when all his other attributes may be glorified with that of his power. When all worldly helps are departed, we can as little ascribe our security to our own wisdom and industry as to our own strength and power. The physician's skill is best evidenced in mastering a desperate disease. He will bring the counsels of the heathen to nought, Ps. xxxiii. 10. He will let them counsel, he will let them devise and carry on their counsels near to execution, that he may shew that, as the strength of hell is no match for his power, so the craft of Satan is no mate for his wisdom. But he raises the trophies of his wisdom upon the subtle devices of his enemies.

3. God glorifies his care and compassion. "When his people are nearest crushing, God is nearest preserving. God's mercy is greatest when his saints' misery is deepest; when Zion is as an outcast, it shall be taken into God's protection : Jer. xxx. 16, 17, ' I will heal thee of thy wounds, because they called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion whom no man seeks after.' When none stood up to plead for her, when her lovers she depended on, had forgotten and forsaken her, when they thought her cast out of the care of any creature, the Creator would take her up. When the ruin was inevitable as to man, their preservation was most regarded by God. Had God stopped Pharaoh at his first march, by raising some mutiny in his army, his mercy to his people, as well as his power against his enemies, had not been so conspicuous. The more desperate things are, the fitter subject for the advancement of God's kindness. Had God conducted the Israelites through a rich and fruitful country, it would have obscured the glory of his care of them, which was more signal in directing them through a barren desert, crowded with fiery serpents, without bread to nourish them, or water to cool them, wherein he manifested himself to be both their caterer and physician. Moses was never more peculiarly under God's protection, no, not when he had the whole guard of Israel about him in the wilderness, than when his mother had exposed him to the river forlorn, in a pitched ark, and forsaken by his sister, who stood aloof off to see how providence would conduct him. When Laban was possessed with fury against Jacob, God countermands it, and issues out his own order to him, how he should behave himself towards his son, Gen. xxxi. 24, 29. God times his kindness, so that it may appear to be nothing else but grace, grace with a witness, that his people may be able to understand the very particularities of it: Isa. xxx. 18, ' Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you.' He leaves them therefore for a while to the will of their enemies : verse 17, ' At the rebuke of five shall you flee, till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a hill.' Never is salvation sweeter, and mercy better relished, than when it snatcheth us out of the teeth of danger. God would have his mercy valued, and it is fit it should. And when is a calm more grateful than after the bitterest storm, attended with the highest despair? God's mercy in sparing Isaac after the knife was at his throat, was more welcome and more delicious both to father and son, than if God had revealed his intent to Abraham in the three days' journey to the mount Moriah. But God suspending his soul in bitterness all that time, prepared his heart for the valuation of that mercy. When human help forsaketh us, God most embraceth us : Ps. xxvii. 10, * When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.'

4. God glorifies his righteousness and justice. There is a measure of wickedness God stays for, which will be an object of his justice without

exception. When the measure of a people's covetousness is come, 'then their end is come, and God will fill them with men as with caterpillars, and they shall lift up a shout against them,' Jer. li. 13,14. Hereby God clears the justice of his proceedings, that he exercised patience so long, that things were come to that pass, that either his people or his enemies must be destroyed. As the case was with the Israelites, had not God marvellously appeared, every man of them had been cut off or reduced to slavery. The die was cast, either the Egyptians or Israelites must be defeated ; either God must appear for his church, or none would be left in the world to profess him. In such a case the justice of God is more unexceptionable. No man has any semblance for complaining of him ; for he struck not till the safety of his adversaries was inconsistent with his own honour and interest of the world. When men come to such a height, as to slight and resolve to break the laws of God, then is the time for the honour of his righteousness in his own institutions, to vex them in his sore displeasure : Ps. ii. 3, 5, * Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and vex them,' &c. When ? When they resolve to ' cast away his bands and cords from them,' ver. 2. He is forced to rise then, when men make void his law, and tread down the honour of it; when they would not have God to have a standing law in the world, or a people to profess him : Ps. cxix. 126, ' It is time for the Lord to work, for they have made void thy law.' When the grapes of wickedness are thus fully ripe, then is God's time for the honour of his justice to cast them into the wine-press of his wrath, Rev. xiv. 19, 20. This is God's set time, when he may glorify, without any exception, his justice in punishing his enemies' sins, his wisdom in defeating his enemies' plots, his power in destroying his enemies' strength, and his mercy in relieving his people's wants.

Thirdly, Such extremities and deliverance in them, are most advantageous for his people.

1. It being a season to improve and know their interest. Men do not usually seek to God, or at least so earnestly, as when they are in distress ; the time of the tempest was the time of the disciples' praying to Christ. The Israelites, you scarce find them calling upon God but in times of danger and distress ; hereby God doth encourage and give an argument for prayer. The Psalmist useth the extremity of the church often as an argument to move God to pity : Ps. cxxiii. 3, ' Have mercy upon us, 0 Lord, have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.' We are glutted with contempt, as low as low can be : so Ps. xliv. 23, 24, ' Awake, why sleepest thou, 0 Lord ? arise, cast us not off for ever ; our soul is bowed to the dust.' That is the most successful time for prayer, which is the time of the stirring of God's bowels. He hath been a ' strength to the poor, a strength to tho needy in bis distress, a refuge from tho storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm Against the wall,' Isa. xxv. 4. They in such a time find how considerable their interest is with (iod, when upon their prayer they shall find relief suitable to every kind of danger they

aro in. The spirit of prayer upon the church is but the presage oi' their adversaries' ruin. When God seeks to destroy the nations that come against Jerusalem, he will pour upon the inhabitants of it a spirit of grace and of ■application I Zech. xii. !), 'And in that day I will seek to destroy all tho nations that come against .Jerusalem, and I will pour upon the houso of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication.' This time of extremity, When all their hands fail, should ed^o the

church's prayers. Our great intercessor seems in this ease to set us a

pattern : Zech. i. 12, '0 Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not havo mercy

ipon Jerusalem !' (iTFlN single by itself, not in an affix.) When all the jarth sits still and is at rest, unconcerned in the affairs of thy church, if hou wilt not have mercy on them in this strait, who shall relieve them ? ione else have any mind to it; then issue out comfortable words to the ingel from the mouth of God. This is an advantage of extremity; it sets Christ a pleading, and the church on praying.

2. As a season for acting faith at present, and an encouragement of re-.iance upon him in future straits. As a season for acting faith at present. 3ur Saviour lets Lazarus die and stink in the grave, before he raised him, -hat he might both confirm faith in his disciples' hearts, and settle it in the learts of some of the Jews. John xi. 15, 45, ' I am glad for your sakes ihat I was not there, to the intent that ye may believe.' What, let Lazarus lie, one that he loved, one so strongly pleaded for by two sisters that he oved too, and solicited upon his friendship to relieve him ! ver. 3, ' Behold, le whom thou lovest is sick,' and our Saviour glad he was not there to pre-/ent it! yes, not glad of Lazarus his extremity, nor of the church's, but of .he opportunity to give them greater ground of faith and encouragement to -rust him. The church's faith is God's glory. He that hath many things -o trust to, is in suspense which he should take hold of; but when there is )ut one left, with what greediness will he clasp about that! God cuts down vorldly props, that we might make him our stay. How will the church in extremity recollect all the deliverances of it in former ages, and put them up n pleas to God, for a renewal of his wonted kindness and new successions )f deliverance, whereby God gets the glory of his former work, and his church ,he present comfort in renewing fiducial acts upon him ! How doth Jehosha-ohat put God in mind of his gracious assistance acted some ages before, vhen he was in a strait, by the invasion of a powerful army : 2 Chron. ix. 7, ' Art not thou our God that didst drive out the inhabitants of this and before thy people Israel ?' ver. 12, ' We know not what to do, but our yes are upon thee.' Never are the church's eyes so fixed upon God, never jod's eyes so fixed upon the church, as in times of their distress. Then -here is a sweet communion with, and recounting of all their former friend-ihips. The church then throws itself wholly upon God; its prosperity is )ut like a troubled sea, its distress is the time of its rest. So Asa, when .ssaulted by a million of men under Zerah the Ethiopian, how doth he throw limself and the whole weight of his concerns upon the hands of God, and makes lis cause God's ! 2 Chron. xiv. 11, « Help us, 0 Lord our God, for we rest >n thee ; 0 Lord, thou art our God, let not man prevail against thee.'

And there is an encouragement also in the deliverance for future faith. It ;ives a ground for future faith from the riches of the present experience ; in uch distresses there is the highest experience of God, and hope is the fruit of ixperience. How apt are we to believe God in other straits, when we have lad assistance (like they that dreamed) come unexpectedly upon us. God >verthrew Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea, when they were upon the heels of he affrighted Israelites and ready to crush them, but God gave them ' to be neat to the people inhabiting the wilderness,' Ps. lxxiv. 14, as a standing xcellent dish to feed their hopes for all future deliverances upon their trust a God. And indeed that deliverance was an earnest of their perpetual ecurity, by special providence in any succeeding trouble. And God often ;ives them a particular charge to remember that deliverance, with a practical emembrance to still their fear and support their faith : Beut. vii. 18, ' Thou halt not be afraid of them, but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God id unto Pharaoh, and to all the Egyptians.' He would have them remem-er it as a covenant-mercy, ' what the Lord thy God did,' thy God in cove-

nant, not what the Lord did barely by an arm of power, but what he did by a vastness of affection, and as a God of truth and firmness in his covenant.

3. In fitting them by the extremity for a holy reception of the mercy intended.

God keeps up the distress of his church to expel self-confidence. Trust in earthly things are the great checks of God's kindness. We hardly forsake this temper till we are forsaken by all those things we confide in. Times of extremity make us more humble; and humility, like the plough, fits us for the seed of mercy. The gardener's digging up the clods is but t: prepare the earth for the receiving and nourishing some excellent plants he intends to put into its womb. There is a certain set time for God's great actions. He lets the powers of darkness have their hour, and God will take his hour: Ps. cii. 13, * Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon S;on : for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.' He hath a Bet time for the discovery of his mercy, and he will not stay a jot beyond it. What is this time ? ver. 9, &c. When they ' eat ashes like bread, and mingle their drink with weeping ;' when they are most humble, and when the servants of God have more affection to the church ; when their humble and ardent affections are strong, even to the ruin and rubbish of it; when they have a mighty desire and longing for the reparation of it, as the Jews in captivity had for the very dust of the temple : ver. 14, ■ For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.' For there notes it to be a reason why the set time was judged by them to be come. That is God's set time when the church is most believing, most humble, most affectionate to God's interest in it, and most sincere. Without faith we are not lit to desire mercy, without humility we are not fit to receive it, without aiFection we are not fit to value it, without sincerity we are not fit to improve it. Times of extremity contribute to the growth and exercise of those qualifications.

4. In securing them against future straits. For God's disappointing enemies when they think themselves sure of all, is the highest discouragement to them, and those of the like temper, to renew the like attempt; but if th<v do, it is an evidence they shall meet with the like success ; it is the highest vexation to sec their projects diverted, when they have lighted their mateh, and are ready to give tire. Men may better take notice how God lovea his people, when he apprehends their adversaries in the very pinnacle of their pride, and flings them down from the mount of their hopes. It doth !i> t only (lush the present designs, but dishearten future attempts. The

ptians, after their overthrow at the lied Sea, never attempted to disturb them in their journey in the wilderness. It was a bridle to all their enemies

ipt Annlek, upon whose country they travelled in the wilderness, when it WAS the interest of state in all those nations to rout that swarm of peoplo that, must, have some seat to dwell in ; and every nation might justly fear to he dispossessed by tie in ; yet we read of no league among those nations bordering upon the wilderness, such a tenor did God strike into them by that relet' he gave his people in their extremity at the Lied Sea, whereby he provided for their future security in their whole journey. It was this

id the heartl of the (iiheonites, one of the nations of Canaan, and. brought them to a lubmisBlOl) to Joshua, as the sentiment of all their neighbours: Josh. ix. '•>, ' We are come, because of the mime of the Lord thy

God ; for We have board the fame of him, and all that he did in I And for this and other reason! it may he, that the times before the church's hist deliverance Shall he sharper than any before, which our Saviour intimates, Mat. xxiv. 21, ' For then there shall be great tribulation, such as

;vas not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be.' In dis-soursing his disciples of the troubles at the destruction of Jerusalem, which was a type of the trouble preceding the end of the world, he adds a discourse ■ what shall be at the end of the world, in the last attempt of the enemies jf the church ; for, ver. 29, he saith, ' immediately after the tribulation of ihose days,' he speaks of his coming in the clouds of heaven with great power xnd glory. And also in the Revelation : Rev. xvi. 18, ' And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty m earthquake, and so great.' This, perhaps, at the pouring out of the seventh vial, may concern the Christian church as well as the antichristian party. But the reason why it may be sharper just before that last deliverance, ihan it was in former ages, may be because it is the last effort the enemy pall make; the last demonstration of God's power and wisdom for, and ;are of his church, and justice upon his enemies in such cases ; the last season for their multiplying their cries, and acting their faith for such a :oncern.

Use 3. Of exhortation.

If it be so, that the providence of God is chiefly designed for the good of he church,—

First, Fear not the enemies of the church. It is a wrong to God. Fear }f man is always attended with a forgetfulness of God : Isa. li. 12, 13, ' £, 3ven I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that art afraid of a man ;hat shalt die, and of the son of man that shalt be made as grass: and for-gettest the Lord thy Maker, who hath stretched forth the heavens,' &c. It is to value the power of grass above the power of the Creator, as though .hat had more ability to hurt than God to help. As if men were as strong is mountains, and God as weak as a bulrush. It is a wrong to his truth; lath he not comforted you in his promise ? What creature should then leject you ? It is a wrong to his mercy. Is he not the Lord thy Maker ? Calvin refers this to regeneration, and not creation. Hath he not renewed f ou by his Spirit ? and will he not protect you by his strength ? and that you may not question his power, look up to the heavens which he hath stretched out, and the foundation: of the earth which he hath laid. And is :hat arm which hath done such mighty works, too weak to defend that work, which is choicer in his eye than either the extended heaven or the jstablished earth ? We vilify God, and defile his glory, when our fear of man's ■power stifles our faith in God: Isa. viii. 12,13, ' Neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid : sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear.' Let the wicked fear the Assyrians, and engage in confederacies against them ; but let your eyes be lifted up to me and my providence. God will either '/urn away the mouth of the cannon from the church, or arm it against the shot; either preserve it from a danger, protect it in it, or sanctify it to the jhurch ; and who need fear a sword in a father's hand ?

1. Will you fear man, who have a God to secure you? The church

'Debugs to God, not to man as a just propriety: Isa. xliii. 1, ' Fear not:

i'or I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by my name : thou art mine.

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee,' &c. ' Thou art

nine,'' not man's. Thou art mine, I am thine. I will be with thee as

bine, I will secure thee as mine. Is my creating, is my forming, is my

'adeeming thee to no purpose ? I will not secure you from trouble ; but

mrely my redemption of you, the propriety I have in you, should secure you

rom fears in those troubles. None shall hurt you whilst I have power to

defend you. God with us, if well considered and believed, is sufficient to still

hose fears which have the greatest outward objects for their encouragement:

Ps. xxvii. 1, ■ The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid ?' If God be our strength to support us, why should the weakness of dust and ashes scare us ? Alliance to great men, and protection of princes, prop up men's hearts against the fear of others ; and shall alliance to God be of a weaker efficacy ? A heathen- could so argue, that knew nothing of redemption. Let the counsels of enemies be crafty, Ps. lxxxiii. 3; yet they consult against God's hidden ones, hidden by God, whilst plotted against by men : who would fear the stratagems of men, whilst protected in an impregnable tower ? God hides, when men are ready to seize the prey. How did the angel protect a sincere trembling Lot against the invasion of a whole city, and secured his person whilst he blinded his enemies' eyes that they could not find the door. Instruments cannot design more maliciously, than Christ watches over them affectionately. Christ hath his eye to see your works and danger where Satan hath his throne, Rev. ii. 13.

2. Will you fear men, who have a God to watch over their motions ? What counsels can prevail where God intends to overrule their resolves ? There is no place so close as to keep private resolutions from his knowledge. This was the thought of those statesmen against whom the prophet Isaiah thunders, Isa. xxix. 15, 16 : ' Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark; surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay.' Their counsels were as well known to him as the potter's clay is to the potter, which he can either frame into a vessel, or fling away into the mass from whence he took it. God hath not despoiled himself of his government; nor will devolve his right upon any men to dispose of his concerns. When men think to act so secretly, as though they framed themselves, as though God's eye were not upon them, he will watch and trace all their motions, and make them insignificant to their purposes. Satan himself, the slyest and subtilest agent, is too open to God to hide his counsels from him. Never fear man till the whole combined policies of hell can control the resolves of heaven, till God wants omniscience to dive into their secrets, skill to defeat their counsels, and an arm to abate their power.

8. Will you fear men or devils, who have a God to restrain them ? The great dragon and general of the serpent's seed is under a binding power, who can bind him not only a thousand years, Rev. xx. 2, but a thousand ages. Have his seed more force to resist almightiness than their Captain? The prophet, speaking of the Assyrians threatening Jerusalem, and the confusion in some cities tor fear of them, yet, saith he, ' ho shall remain at Nob,' a city of the Levites, not far from Jerusalem, where he might have a lull prospect of the city, lie shall but 'shake his hand,' he shall not, gripe it in his talons : he shall shew his teeth, but not bite, snarl but not worry, Isa. x. 32. God will let out so much of the enemies' wrath as may answer big gracious ends to the church in purging of them, but 'the! remainder of wrath, 1 which remains in their hearts tor the church's destruc lion,'he will restrain,' Ps. Ixxvi. 9, 10; as the physician weighs on-much as may curb tin 1 'ii »ease, not, kill the patient. The chain of provideno< controls the power of Salan, when it doth not change his desires. The.

I vptian's will against the Israelites was strong, but his power was weak

Might and power is only in the hand of God, who reigns over all, 1 Chron xxix. 12. And God will exert so much of power to bridle the inclination: Of nature in the wicked lor the good of his people. He will give them Bel much line as may serve his holy purposes, but not so much as shall prejudia the church's standing. A staff is not capablo of giving a smart blow with

* Anion, in ESpist. lib. i. c. U.

at the force of the hand that holds it. Wicked men are no more than a staff i God's hand: Isa. x. 5, ' The rod of my anger, the staff in their hand is my idignation :' he can either strike with it, or break it in pieces. The staff is iill in the hand of God, and can do no more than what his merciful arm moves to ; as he can restrain it, so he can divert it. What should we fear those hose hearts are in God's hands, whose enmity is under God's restraint, ho can change their fury into favour, or at least bridle it as he doth the aves of the sea ? No enemy's shot can exceed God's commission. God ften laughs when men plot, and disappoints when they begin to act. Some-mes he makes them act contrary to their intentions. Balaam comes to arse the people, and God turns his tongue to bless them, which, if guided y his own heart, would have poured out execrations upon them, Num. xxiii. , 8. God puts the words into his mouth, but not in his heart, ver. 5, and lakes him bless that which his heart hates.

4. Will you fear them who have a God to ruin them ? Though the beast i the Revelations hath seven heads, a reaching wisdom, and ten horns, a lighty power, Rev. xvii. 3 (both the numbers of seven and ten being num-ers of perfection in Scripture), yet, with all his wisdom and strength, he shall imble down to destruction; they can no more resist God's power than lustering winds or raging waves can cross his will. When the enemies of ae church are in combination, like thorns full of prickles ' folded together,' ben shall they ' be consumed like stubble that is dry,' Nahum i. 10. God jves to defeat pride : Exod. xviii. 11, 'In the thing wherein they dealt iroudly, he was above them.' God waits but the time of their swelling to aake them burst. Absalom kills his brother, withdraws the people from heir obedience to the king, stirs them up to revolt, enters Jerusalem in his ither's absence, pollutes his concubines, engages his designs against his life, aiseth an army against him ; who would not say David was in extremity, .nd Absalom alone prospering in his designs ? But when Absalom comes o open force, God arises, an oak catches him, his mule forsakes him, and oab despatches him. Sennacherib had prospered in his conquest of Judea, aken many strong towns, laid siege to Jerusalem, solicits the people to evolt, blasphemes the God of heaven, and then an angel comes and makes dreadful slaughter in a night, and he, returning to his own country, is '.illed by his own sons, 2 Kings xix. 7, 35, 36, 37. God's arrows shall ever miss their mark, and he hath more than one to strike into the hearts f his enemies : Ps. xviii. 14, ' He sent out his arrows and scattered them.' Vhat reason then to fear even multitudes, who can never be too strong for aat God who gave them that little strength they have ! : Secondly, The second duty to which we are exhorted. If all God's pro-idences tend to the good of his church and people,

2. Then censure not God in his dark providences. As we are often too

^asty in our desires for mercy, and are not content to stay God's time, so

'e are too hasty in making constructions of providence, and will not stay

rod's leisure of informing us. When God seems at the beginning of every

rovidence to speak the same language as Christ did to Peter in washing

is feet, John xiii. 7, ' What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt

now hereafter,' the instruments are visible, the action sensible, but the

rward meaning still lies obscured from our view. We are too short-sighted

) apprehend and judge of God's works; man cannot understand his own

ay, Prov. xx. 24, much less the ways of an infinite God. God's judgments

re a great deep, Ps. xxxvi. 6 ; we may sooner fathom the deepest part in

lie sea, understand all the turnings of those subterranean passages, lave

'at the ocean with a spoon, or suck in, into our bellies, that great mass of

HO A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 ChRON. XVI. 9.

waters, than understand the ways of God with our shallow brains. Ha makes darkness his pavilion; he is sometimes very obscure in his ways. Neither the greatness of his means, nor the wisdom of his workings, can be fully apprehended by men. We have sense to feel the effects, but not heads to understand the reasons and methods of the divine government. Eccles. iii. 11, 'No man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.' Though a man may see the beginning of God's works, yet is he able to walk understandingly along with divine wisdom in every step it takes ? will he not lose the track often before it comes to an end ? It is not the face, but the back parts of providence which we behold; why then should we usurp an authority beyond our ability, and make ourselves God's judges, as if infinite wisdom and power were bounded within the narrow compass of our purblind reasons ? His ways are beyond our tracing, and his counsels too high for our short measures. Since therefore God satisfies the righteousness of his own will, let us submit our curiosity to his wisdom, and forbear our censures of that exact righteousness and superlative wisdom which we cannot comprehend.

1. Therefore, first fix this in your minds, that God is righteous, wise, and good in everything. Good, therefore nothing can be hurtful to his people ; righteous, therefore nothing unjust; wise, therefore nothing in vain; our injurious thoughts of him make us so uncharitable towards him, and greater censurers of his righteous ways than we are of men's wicked actions. Clouds and darkness are about him ; our eye cannot pierce through his darkness, or see the frame of his counsels ; yet let these principles be kept as the centre, that ' righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne,' Ps. lxxxix. 14. He is righteous in his darkness, wise in his "cloudiness ; though his judgments are unsearchable to us, and his ways past finding out by our most industrious inquisitions, and a depth of knowledge and wisdom there is in them too deep for us to measure, Bom. xi. 33. God was always righteous, wise, and good ; he is the same still. Though the motions' of the planets be contrary, yet the sphere where they are fixed, the natures wherewith they are created, are the same still. Though the providences of God have various motions, yet the spring of his counsel, the rule of his goodness, the eye of his wisdom, the arm of his power, are not altered. He acts by the same rule, disposeth by the same wisdom, orders according tc the same righteousness; ho is unchangeable in the midst of the changeahk effects of providence. The sun is the same body, which admits of no inwafO alteration, keeps exactly its own motion, though its appearances are some-times ruddy, Bometimes clear; its heat sometimes more faint, at anothti time more scorching; its distance sometimes nearer, sometimes farther off-II,' must be very ignorant that thinks the objects upon which we look througl :i prism or trigonal glass change their colours as often as they are represent* so in the various turnings of tint glass. You see the undulations anC Wavingl of a chain which hangs perpendicularly, one part moves this and another that way, hut the hand that holds it, or the beam to which it i fastened, is firm :md steady.

4 2. Distinguish between preparations to the main work and tho perfei of the work, between the motions of God's eves and the discovery of In strength; his eve; move before his power. The neglect of this was th cause of the Israelites' uncharitable censures of the kindness of God; the interpret God's reducing them into the straits near the lied Sea a d }•,,,• tin ir destruction, which was hut the preparation for their complel

deliverance, is i way mosl glorious to God, ami most comfortable an'

advantageous to tlcmst■!

He that knows not the use of the grape, would foolishly censure a man rho should fling them into a wine-press, and squeeze them into mash, rhich is but a preparation of them to afford that generous liquor which was be end of their growth.* God treads his grapes in a wine-press to draw rom thence a delicate wine, and preserve the juice for his own use, which yould else wither upon the stalk, and dry up to nothing. We judge tot the husbandman angry with his ground for tearing it with his plough, tor censure an artificer for hewing his stones or beating his iron, but xpect patiently the issue of the design. Why should we not pay the same espect to God which we do to men in their arts, since we are less capable >f being judges of his incomprehensible wisdom than of the skill of our ellow-creatures ? God in his cross providence prepares the church for ruitfulness whilst he ploughs it. He may seem to be digging up the >owels of the church, while he is only preparing to lay the foundation in 5ion for the raising a noble structure; and in what shape soever he appears n his preparations, he will in his perfection of it appear in glory: Ps. cii. l6, 'When the Lord shall build up Sion, he shall appear in glory;' and ividence that he was restoring whilst we thought him destroying, and heal-ng whilst we thought him wounding. As God hath settled a gradual progress in his works of creation, so by degrees he brings his everlasting sounsels to perfection. The seasons of the year are not jumbled together, )ut orderly succeed one another; and the coldness of the winter is but a ^reparation for a seasonable spring and a summer harvest. We do not inrighteously accuse God of disorder in his common works, why should we lo it in his special works of providence ? Do we disparage the musician's ;kill for the jarring and intelligible touches in the tuning the instrument, )ut rather wait for the lesson he intends to play ? If we stay for God's uller touches of this great instrument of the world in the way of his providence, it will, like David's harp, chase away that evil spirit from us which s now too apt to censure him.

3. Fix not your eye only upon the sensible operations of providence, but he ultimate end. As in a watch the various wheels have different motions, ret all subservient to one end, to tell the true hour of the day and the mo-ion of the sun, so are all the providences of God. Should any have been preserved in the deluge upon some high mountain who had not known the iesign of the ark, and had seen it floatiDg upon such a mass of waters, he ■vould have judged the people in it in a deplorable condition, and have con-;luded that it would have broke against the mountain, or been overturned oy the waves; yet that was Noah's preservative. Had any of us been with Christ, and acknowledged him the Saviour of the world, and yet seen him irucified in such a manner by men, and judged only by that, what wise and vhat just constructions should we have made of that providence ? Much ..he same as some of his disciples did: Luke xxiv. 21, ' We trusted that it lad been he which should have redeemed Israel;' but the whole design is spoiled, we are fools, and he an impostor. Yet this, which seemed to be he ruin of redemption, was the necessary highway to it by God's constitu-ion. No other way was it to be procured: ver. 26, ' Ought not Christ to lave suffered these things, and to have entered into his glory?' His entrance into glory to perfect our salvation was the end of the sensible •suffering wherein he laid the foundation. As they charge Christ with imposture, not considering the end, so do we God with unrighteousness when we j consider not his aim. The end both beautifies and crowns the work; the

emarks of God's glory in the creation are better drawn from the ends of * Morn, de verit. Eel. Christian, cap. xii. p. 210, 211.

the creatures, and their joint subserviency to them, than from any one single piece of the creation. We must not only consider the present end, but the remote end, because God in his providence towards his church hath his end for after times. God acts for ends at a great distance from us, which may not be completed till we are dead and rotten. How can we judge of that which respects a thing so remote from us, unless we view it in that relation ? God's aims in former providences were things to come, his aims in present providences are things to come. As the matter of the church's prayers, so the objects of God's providences are things to come: Isa. xlv. 11, ■ Ask me of things to come, concerning my sons.' * The matter of their prayers then were, that God would order all things for the coming of the Messiah. The matter of the church's prayer now is, that God would order all things for the perfecting the Messiah in his mystical body. The whole frame of providence is for one entire design; it is one entire book with seven seals, Rev. v. 1. The beginning of a book, as well as the middle, hath relation to the end. The design of God's book of providence is but one in all the seven seals and periods of time.

4. Consider not only one single act of providence, but the whole scheme, to make a conclusion. The motions of his eyes are various, but all ends in discoveries of his strength. Men do not argue from one single proposition, but draw the conclusion from several propositions knit together. It is by such a spiritual logic we are to make our conclusions from the way of providence ; as in the reading Scripture, if we take not the whole period, we may make not only nonsense, but blasphemy;* as in that of the psalmist, 1 Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in unrighteousness.' If a man , should read only, Thou art not a God, and make a full stop there, it would be blasphemy; but reading the whole verse, it is an excellent sense, and an honourable declaration of God's holiness. Such errors will be committed in reading the books of providence, if we fix our eyes only in one place, and , make a full stop where God hath not made any. We judge not of a picture by the first draught, but the last lines; not by one shadow or colour, but by the whole composure. The wisdom of God is best judged of by the view of the harmony of providence. The single threads of providence may : seem very weak or knotty and uneven, and seem to administer just occasion of censure; but will it not as much raise the admiration to see them all . woven into a curious piece of branched work ? Consider therefore God's whys of working, but fully judge nothing till the conclusion, for that is to judge before the time. Judge not then of providcnco at the first appearance ; God may so lose the glory of his work, and you the comfort.

Thirdly. Tho third duty. Inquire into providence, and interpret all public providences by this rule. We must, search into it, though we are not able to find out all the reasons of it. What can bo a braver study than that which is the object, of God's eternal counsel ? Wo aro conformed to God in our wills, when we have the same ends in our motions ; and we are conformed to God in our understandings, when we have the same object of our thoughts. Some providences have their interpretation written in their foreheads, we m;iv run and read : such as his signal judgments in the world, which oxpr the wry sin for which they are inflicted ; others are wrapped up in a harder shell and more covers, and therefore more labour to reach the kernel ; some ;ir.' too high tor our knowledge, none for our inquiry. It is our duty to si after (iod, though we can never arrivo to a perfect knowlodgo of him : dob xi. 7, ' Canst thou by searching find out God ? canst thou find out tho Almighty unto perfection?' He prohibits not tho searching, though he • Parget! of Justification, part ii. Bonn. 2, p. 12.

asserts the impossibility of finding him out to perfection. What hath God given us faculties for, but to search after him ? And we must not do it to satisfy our curiosity, but to increase our knowledge, and consequently our admiration of his wise and powerful care. Diligence must be used too. Our first thoughts about things of concernment are usually confused; so are our first sights of providence. Providence is a great deep ; deep things are not seen without stooping down. We must cragaxu-vpa/, as the angels do when they search into the things of the gospel, 1 Pet. i. 12. Bat let this aim of God at the good of his church be the rule of your interpretation. Without this compass to steer our judgments by, we may both lose and rack ourselves in the wilderness of providence, and fortify our natural atheism and ignorance instead of our faith. I must confess the study of providence is in some respect more difficult than in the former ages of the world, because God seems to manage things in the church more by his wisdom than power, which is not so intelligible by man as the sensible effects of his strength. That attribute he manifested most in miraculous ways and the visible ministry of angels, as we read in Scripture stories ; now he employs his wisdom more in ordering second causes, in ordinary ways, to his own high, merciful, and just ends. Yet since the discovering of Christ, God hath given us a rule whereby we may discern much of his wisdom in the knowledge of his end, as the knowledge of Christ removes the veil from the Scripture in our reading of it: 2 Cor. iii. 14-16, * The same veil remains in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ' (which veil is still upon the Jews), and makes us understand those parts of the Old Testament which otherwise would be utterly obscure ; so in the reading the books of providence, the knowledge of this end of God in them, will help us to understand the meaning of that which otherwise would non-plus the reason of man. He that knows the end of one that is making a watch, will not wonder at his framing small wheels and filing little pins ; but he that understands nothing of the design, would count it ridiculous for a man so to trifle away his time. Without the knowledge of this end, we shall expose ourselves to miserable mistakes ; as Plutarch mistook the cause of the ceasing of oracles, ascribing it to the change of the nature of the soil, not affording those exhalations as formerly, or the death of the demons which gave those oracles. He had 'judged otherwise, had he known or believed the rising of a higher power, the 1 Sun of righteousness in the world, w T ho imposed silence upon those angels of 'darkness, the most famous oracles in the world ceasing about the time of Christ. To imagine to interpret the motions of providence, without a knowledge of Christ and the design of God for his church, is as vain as to imagine -we can paint a sound, or understand a colour by our smell. Correct sense by reason in this work, and reason by faith. To what end hath God prescribed faith to succour us in the weakness of reason, if it had been capable to understand his ways without it, and if we make no use of it upon such -occasions ?

Fourthly. A fourth duty. Consider the former providences God hath wrought for the church in the past ages. Let him not lose the present glory of his past works : Ps. cii. 18, ' This shall be written for the generation to come, and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord,' even for that work of his which is written to be done in former ages. God loves to have his former works read and pleaded. It is a keeping a standing praise . of him in the world. We have had the benefit of them ; it is fit God should have the glory of them from us, as well as from those who immediately enjoyed them. Our good was bound up in every former preservation of the church. If the candlestick had been broken, where had the candle been ?

VOL. I. H

Had the church been destroyed, how could the gospel have been transmitted to us ? Let the duty we owe to God's glory engage us to a consideration of them, and the benefit we have had by them also incite us. We usually forget not things that are strange, nor things that are profitable ; his works of old have been works of wonder in themselves, and profitable to us. To what end are the praises of God discovered to the generations to come, but that they should reflect those praises to heaven again, and convey them down to the generations following ? Ps. lxxviii. 4, ' Shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord.'

1. This will help us in our inquiries in present providences.

There is a beautiful connection between former and latter providences ; they are but several links of one chain. The principle and end is the same; that God from whence they come, that Christ to which they tend, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. What God doth now, is but a copy of what he portrayed in his word as done in former ages ; there are the same goodness, the same design in both. The births of providence are all of a like temper and disposition. We cannot miss of the understanding of them, if we compare them with the ancient copies ; for God is in the generation of the righteous, the same God still. God is the same, his ends are the same, the events will be the same.

2. It will support our faith. The reason of our diffidence of God in the cause of the church, is the forgetfulness of his former appearances for her. Oh if we did remember his former goodness, we should not be so ready to doubt of his future care. This was the psalmist's care in his despondencies, and in his overwhelming troubles of spirit: Ps. lxxvii. 9, 'Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ?' but, ver. 10, he concludes it his infirmity, and resolves upon a review of the records of God's ancient works for his people, ' and the years of the right hand of the Most High,' these times wherein he declared his power and his glory, and so proceeds to the top of all their deliverances, viz., that out of Egypt. Doth God's wisdom decay, or his power grow feeble? Is not his interest the same ? Is he not a God still like himself ? Is not his glory as dear to him as before ? Hath he cast off his affection to his own name ? Why should not he then do the same works, since he hath tho same concern ? God himself, to encourage us, calls them to our remembrance : Isa. 1. 2. ' Is my hand shortened, that I cannot redeem ? or havo I no power to deliver ? Behold, at my rebuko I do dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness,' &c. Am not I tho same God that dried up tho sea, that wrought those ancient wonders which amazed the world ? What doth your distrust signify but tho impair of my power ? llouso up yourselves to a consideration of them, : l 11«1 thence gather fresh supplies to strengthen you in your present dependence upon me ! lit- puts us in mind of them, because we are apt to forget them. Gen. it. 6, when it is said Abraham ■ believed in the Lord,

and it was accounted to him for righteousness,' God answered him, vor. 7, 1 1 am tho Lord that brought thee out of l'r of the Chaldees.' Keep up thy faith ; and to that end, remember what 1 did for thee before in calling th (last thy eye upon that place whence I delivered thee, either from the idolatries of tho place, or the persecution he was in for the true worship of God* And as God puts him in mind of his mercy he had shewn to him before, for tho encouragement of his faith, so the people of God have made use of them to this end. Goliah's sword was counted by David the fittest for his dofei in his flight, because it had been a monument of God's formor dolivoranc< him, 1 Sam. xxi. 1). When he asks for a sword or spear, Aluinelech said, ' Tho svrord of Goliah, whom thou slowest, is hero ;' and David said, ' There

is none like that: give it me.' How hasty ho catches at it! There is none like that sword, that hath so signal a mercy writ upon it. That very sword will not only defend me against my enemies, but guard my faith against those temptations that would invade it. This encouragement of faith and hope is the end of God in his transmission of the records of his former providences to us : Ps. lxxviii. G, 7, ' That the generation to come might know them, and declare them to their children' from one posterity to another, ' that they might set their hope in God.'

3. It will enliven our prayer.

It is a mighty plea in prayer. How often doth David urge it! Thou hast been my help, thou hast delivered my soul from death, wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling ? But in the church's concerns too : 1 Chron. xvi. 11, 12, ' Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually. Remember the marvellous works that he hath done.' A reflection upon what God hath done should be enjoined* with our desires of what we would have God to do for us. When Moses was praying upon the top, while Israel was fighting with Amalek at the foot of the hill, he had the rod of God in his hand, Exod. xvii. 9; that miraculous rod which had amazed Pharaoh, whose motion summoned all the plagues upon them ; that rod which had split the sea for their passage, broached the rock for their thirst, and had been instrumental in many miracles : certainly Moses shewed this rod to God, and pleaded all those wonderful deliverances God had wrought instrumentally by it. No doubt but he carried it with him to shew to God for a plea, as well as to the Israelites, to spirit their resolutions against their enemies.

4. It will prevent much sin.

A forgetfulness of his former works is one cause of our present provocations. It was so in the case of the Israelites' sin : Ps. cvi. 7, ' They remembered not the multitude of his mercies; but provoked thee at the sea, even at the Red Sea;' they had lost the memory of so many miracles in Egypt, and which aggravated their sin, ' they provoked him at the sea, at the Red Sea ;' they provoked him under a present indigency, as well as against former mercy; they provoked him in that place of straits where all the powers on earth could not have relieved them had heaven neglected them. The provocation you may see, Exod. xiv. 11, 12, which sprang from a forgetfulness of his kindness so lately shewed to them. How apt are we to forget old mercies, when we are so naturally apt to blot out of our memories mercies newly received! If this were well considered by men, it would prevent their enterprises against the church, and consequently their shame and ruin. Are there records of any who have hardened themselves against God and prospered ? Job ix. 4. How might in that reflection be seen the frustrations of counsels, disgracing of attempts, showers of fury and vengeance from heaven upon the heads of such ! The reason why the wonderful works of God were to be made known to posterity, was ' that they might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation of men,' Ps. lxxviii. 6, 8. If they did consider those transactions of God in and for his church, they could no more think to stop the breath of perpetual powerful providence, than to bridle in a storm, or stop the motion of the sun. To conclude this : God's providential judgments are to be remembered; though they are for the punishment of the age that feel them, they are also for the instruction of the age which succeeds them ; tell, mQ, number, be as exact as in your accounts, wherein you take notice of I every number, minute, and cypher. The works of providence as well as the * That is, 'joined in,' or incorporated.— Ed.

doctrine of God are parts of a child's catechism, they are to keep up the consideration of them in themselves, and hand them in instruction to their children.

F.ithly, The fifth duty. Act faith on God's providence.

Times of trouble should be times of confidence ; fixedness of heart on God would prevent fears of heart: Ps. cxii. 7, ' He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed.' How? ' Trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, they shall not be moved.' Otherwise without it we shall be as light as a cock* moved with every blast of evil tidings, our hopes will swim or sink according to the news we hear. Providence would seem to sleep, unless faith and prayer awakened it. The disciples had but little faith in their Master's account, yet that little faith awakened him in a storm, and he relieved them. Unbelief doth only discourage God from shewing his power in taking our parts. ' Every one will walk in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever,' Micah iv. 5. Heathens will trust in their idols, and shall not we in that God that lives for ever ? Have we any reason to have a less esteem of our confidence in God than heathens had of and in their idols ? We should do our duty, which is faith and hope, and leave God to do his work, which is mercy and kindness. By unbelief we deny his providence, disparage his wisdom, and strip him of his power; we have none else to trust; no creature can order anything for the church's good without God's commission and direction. What should we trust him for ? For that wherein his glory is concerned, which is more worth to him than all the world besides. Trust him most when instruments fail. God takes them off some time, to shew that he needs not any, and to have our confidence rightly placed on him, which staggered before between him and the creature.

1. All the godly formerly did act faith on a less foundation. The godly patriarchs who lived eight or nine hundred years, depended upon providence that long time, and shall not we for seventy years, the usual term of man's life ! They had promises to support them, we have not only the same promises, but the performances of them too. They had providences, we have the same and more, all upon record in Scripture, all since the canon of Scripture was closed, whatsoever God hath remarkably done for his people in all ages. Adam had hut one promise, and hut little experience of God's providence, yet no doubt trusted in him. We have a multitude of promises, not only pronounced, hut sealed, confirmed by many repetitions, which are fresh obligations laid by God upon himself, the experience of all the providences of God towards his church for above live thousand years, and shall our faith Btagger when upon us arc come the (Mids of the world? Doth it become us to have our obligations to faith so strong, and our exercise of it 80 weak ? The promise of Christ, Isa. vii. 11, that a virgin should bring

forth ;i Bon, was thought by (lod a sufficient security \o support their confidence in him against the fury of their enemies ; it being a greater wonder that a. virgin without, loss of her virginity should bring forth a son, than the routing of an host of enemies. Is not then the performance oi' this, God's actual sending his Son to us through the womb of a virgin, a higher ground of confidence tor the church's success in every thing' else, than barely tho promise could |,<> ? All creatures in danger have a natural confidence

in God : ' Me is the Confidence of ;il| the ends of the earth ;' hut the church's OOnfidenoe may he more firmly placed in him, because he is particularly tho God of their salvation : Ps. lxv. 5, ■ By terriblo things in

• That in, a wrathcr-cock or vnnrv— I'm.

righteousness wilt thou answer us, 0 God of our salvation ; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth.'

2. It is your only way to have mercy for tho church, and for ourselves.

If he ' take pleasure in them that hope in his mercy,' as it is in Ps. cxlvii. 11, he will take pleasure to relieve them, ho will * strengthen the bars of their gates,' ver. IB. If he take pleasure in them that hope in his mercy, then the stronger and more lively their hope is, the more intense is God's pleasure in them. If they do not hope in his mercy, he hath no pleasure in them, and no delight to them. He hath a goodness laid up for them that fear him, and he will lay it out too for them that trust in him: Ps. xxxi. 19, 1 Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men !' It is laid up for all that fear him, but it is wrought for them that trust in him. It is manifested upon special acts of trust and reliance, and wrought before the sons of men. Those that own God publicly in a way of reliance, God will own them publicly in a way of kindness. Faith is tho key that unlocks the cabinet of special providence. Those eyes which movo about all the world are fixed upon those that trust in him : Ps. xxxiii. 18, 1 The eye of the Lord is upon them that hope in his mercy.'

The sixth duty. Wait upon God in the way of his providence. Wait upon him as he is ■ a faithful Creator,' 1 Pet. iv. 19 ; much more since the title of being our Redeemer is added to that of our Creator, which strengthens his relation to us. Not to wait disparageth his care, bounds his power, or reflects upon his wisdom, as if he had stripped himself of his immense goodness, and forgot both his promise and his people ; as if he had cancelled the covenant, and given up his whole interest to the lusts of men. Wait in the saddest appearances. The hour of Christ's death was dismal in the world, and darkness upon the earth ; a miraculous eclipse of the sun taken notice of by the very heathens ; yet were we never nearer to happiness, than in that dreadful time when our Saviour was most dyed in his own blood. The sanguine complexion of the evening sky is a presage of a fair succeeding morning ; so many times is the red vesture of the church.

1. Wait upon him obedientially.

Commit your souls to God, but in ' well-doing,' 1 Pet. iv. 19. Use no indirect means ; a contempt of the precept cannot consist with faith in either promise or providence. The obeying part is ours, the governing part is God's : Prov. xxiii. 17, 18, ' Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long; for surely there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.' God will govern all the day, but we must fear him all the day. When fear on our part attends government on God's part, there will be an end of our carnal fears, and a good issue of our hopes. The greatest deliverances of his church have been when his people has stood still, Exod. xiv. 13. As that deliverance was a type of all future and a ground of faith, so the carriage God enjoined was a rule to his people in all future straits. It is against the laws of God's government for those listed in his service to stir without order. The law is our standing rule of duty. Providence cannot be a standing visible rule, because of the variety and seeming crossness of it sometimes to our apprehensions. Do not presume to lead God, but be led by him. It is our safety to follow him ; it is our sin and danger to presume to be his directors. We may lose ourselves when we are our own blind guides, and fall into a ditch ; but when we follow God, he hath wisdom to foresee the precipices we may stumble into, and goodness to divert us from them. By interposing carnal devices, men may perhaps have their ends, but with little comfort, perhaps much bitterness to themselves. Jacob

by his hasty using his own and his mother's sinful project for the blessing, got it indeed, but a cross too, for he was a man of sorrows all his days. By waiting in God's way, we shall have our ends with more sweetness, because purely a fruit of God's care and goodness.

2. Wait patiently. How often are our spirits troubled about future events, and are afraid of the evil which threatens us, as if we were in pain for God, and in doubt of his wise conduct! Think not God's time too long. He waits as much for a fit opportunity to shew his mercy, as you can wait for the enjoyment of it: Isa. xxx. 18, « Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you ; blessed are all they that wait for him.' It is a part of our blessedness to wait for God, since it is a part of God's kindness to wait for a fit season to be gracious to us. It is not for us to prescribe rules to God, but follow the rules he prescribes to us. He hath freely made his promise ; let him be master of his own time to make it good. He will shew as much wisdom in accomplishing, as he did mercy in declaring it. God can do things in a moment, but it is his wisdom to take time, that his people may have time to exercise their trust, their hope, and their patience. He will take time in the ways of his providence, as well as he did in the works of creation. He allotted six days to that which he could have framed in a minute. He is judge of what is needful for us, and when it is needful for us. If God should give us that which is a mercy in its own nature, many times when we desire it, it might not be a mercy. If we will trust the skill of his wisdom for the best season, it cannot but be a mercy, for he will give it us with his own glory and grace wrapped up in it, which will make it sweeter to himself when his wisdom is honoured, and sweeter to us when our good is promoted. God's methods appear in the end both wiser and better than our frames. Infinite goodness aims more at our welfare than our shallow self-love ; and infinite wisdom can conduct things to our welfare, better than our short-sighted skill. He that knows all the moments of time, knows best how to time his actions. As God stayed for a fulness of time to bring the great redemption by Christ into the world, so he stays for a fulness of time to bring all the great consequences and appendices of it unto his church. 1 Everything is beautiful in his time,' Eccles. iii. 11 ; in its own time ; in God's time, not in ours, &c.

0. Wait constantly. Though the wheels of providence seem sometimes to stand still, Ezek. i. 21, and God seems to put a period to the care of his church, yet let not us neglect our duty. Wait a while, and the wheels will be put upon their former rolling. Some particular passages of providence may trouble us for a while ; but in the issue, God may answer our desires above our expectations, and thereby confute our fears. His providences are sometimes like rivers that run under ground, out of sight, but will rise again with a delightful stream, with some new medicinal quality, contracted from the earth by tho way. Joseph a prisoner waits upon God for his liberty, and God gives him freedom with preferment. God can bring about his people's safety by Unexpected ways. Who would have imagined before, that his own dre«m should make him a captive, ami Pharaoh's dream make him a favourite ? 'I lie chief hutler remembers him not till he was in an exigency, and the divining skill of the wise men of Egypt confounded. Joseph lost nothing by waiting upon (in. I, \sho made so many circumstances concur to promote his honour. \V;iit. therefore upon hint in the sorest atllictions. The church is only atllirted in mercy, hut the enemies of it are pulled up by tho roofn : Jer. xxx. 11, 'I am with thee to save thee; though I make a full end of the nations whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a full end of thee, hut I will correct thee in measure.' God deals with his people

as a father, who corrects to reform, not to destroy; but with his enemies he deals as a judge. God's providence, like Moses his rod, may seem sometimes a devouring serpent, but it is to convince the Egyptians, and deliver the Israelites.

4. Wait in the use of lawful means for preservation. Not to use means, is to slight his providence, not to trust it. It seems not to consist with the wisdom of God to order things always so, as to be necessitated to put forth an extraordinary power in things which his creatures, by a common providence, can naturally accomplish. God saves by natural means ; when they will not serve the turn, he will save by supernatural. God chose an ark to preserve Noah in. He did not want supernatural means for his preservation. He might have catched him up in a cloud, and continued him there till the drying of the waters. Noah doth not dispute the business with God, but prepares an ark according to his order; and he was righteous in his obedience, as well as in his trust. God would not preserve our Saviour by a miracle, when ordinary means would serve the turn. He commands Joseph, by his angel, to flee into Egypt with the child, Mat. ii. 13. Joseph desires not God to preserve him by an extraordinary power, to save his pains of travelling ; he submits to God's order, and God quickly clears the way for his return. Indeed, sometimes the wheels of providence are lifted up from the earth, and do not go in the ordinary tracts, Ezek. i. 19 ; but miracles must be left to God's pleasure. For us to desire them, is to tempt our great governor.

The seventh duty. Pray for the church.

It is an encouragement that our suit in this case will not be denied. The desire of welfare is conformable to his counsel, which shall stand, Prov. xix. 21, notwithstanding the devices of men. His counsel in particular concerns of men shall stand ; much more is the stability of his counsel for the church. He is a God hearing prayer in a way of common providence, and a God hearing prayer in a way of special attention : Ps. lxi. 1, * Hear my cry, 0 God, attend unto my prayer.' David desires that God would hear him, as more particularly concerned in his case. He is so in the concerns of his ehureh. Will he hear an Ishmael crying for himself, and young lions roaring for their prey, and stop his ears to the voice of his own Spirit in his people, pleading for the church, dearer to him than the whole mass of nature ? We have greater arguments to use than in any other case. The relation the church hath to God; the affection God hath to the church. ' Lazarus whom thou lovest is sick,' was Martha's argument to Christ. What greater encouragement to our petitions than God's affection, than God's relation ? God loves to have our affection comply with his ; God loves others the better for soliciting its welfare. Moses had the greatest manifestation of God's love after he had prayed for the Israelites, Exod. xxxii. 32, though in a case of sinj and presently after, in Exod. xxxiii. 11, God ' speaks with him face to face, as a man speaks to his friend ;' and in the same chapter, and the beginning of Exod. xxxiv., God shews him his glory as much as he was capable to bear. Daniel was a great petitioner for the church, Dan. ix. 3, 21. He was God's great favourite upon that account, x. 2, 5, and had the clearest and highest revelations made to him of the course of providence in the world.

The eighth duty. When you receive any mercy for the church in answer of prayer, give God the glory of it.

The variety of his providences gives us matter for new songs and compositions, Ps. cxlix. 1. What volleys of joyful shouts, what hallelujahs to God do we find upon the ruin of antichrist; Rev. xix. 1-3, God calls for praise out of the throne, ver. 5, and the church returns it, ver. 6, 7. It is God rides upon the cherub, it is God that sits upon the wings of the wind,

it is God who is in all instruments to quicken their motions and direct them to their scope, Ps. xviii. 10.

The ninth duty. Imitate God in his affection to the church.

Christ did what he did for the good of his church, God doth what he doth for the advantage of the church. Let the same mind be in us that was in Christ, let the same end be ours which is the end of God. Thus we shall be like our Creator, thus we shall be like our Governor, thus we shall be like our Redeemer. Men take it kindly from others that love those they have a respect for. God loves all that love his people, and blesses them that bless them: Gen. xii. 3, ' I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee.'

The tenth duty. Look after sincerity before God.

It is for the security of such that God shews himself strong. No man that fully believes and understands this doctrine but should be glad to be of that happy society, that assembly of the first-born, who are under the care of a watchful eye, and the mighty power of the God of the whole earth. When God chose Israel, the very strangers should for their own interest join with them, Isa. xiv. 1. And to such as 'take hold of his covenant' he promises to ' give a name in his house that shall not be cut off,' Isa. lvi. 4, 5 ; yea, even * to the sons of the strangers that shall join themselves to the Lord,' ver. 6. Let this encourage us to Christianity. God never encouraged men to be Christians by promises of worldly greatness, but by promises of a constant care of them for their happiness, by promises of making all things work together for their good. If God will shew himself strong for those that are perfect in heart towards him, then he hath no strength for those that are unsound and false in heart towards him. No man hath an interest in his special providence without faith. The power, knowledge, wisdom of God, are all set against him. Though the whole world be in commotions, the earth be removed, and the mountains cast into the depths of the sea, there is no ground of fear to faith ; but what buckler against them hath unbelief and hypocrisy ? What security against wrath can riches give you ? What defence against his power can your potsherd strength afford you ? It was not for Job s wealth that God made his boasts of him, but for his sincerity : Job i. 8, ' Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man ?' And for the want of this he loathes a world. Labour therefore for sincerity towards God, beg it of God ; get the evidence of it and preserve it.

DISCOURSE ON THE EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

TO THE HEADER.

This long since promised and greatly expected volume of the reverend author upon the divine attributes, being transcribed out of his own manuscripts by the unwearied diligence of those worthy persons that undertook it,* is now at last come to thy hands. Doubt not but thy reading will pay for thy waiting, and thy satisfaction make full compensation for thy patience. In the epistle before his Treatise of Providence, it was intimated that his following discourses would not be inferior to that, and we are persuaded that ere thou hast perused one half of this, thou wilt acknowledge that it w r as modestly spoken. Enough, assure thyself, thou wilt find here for thy entertainment and delight, as well as profit. The sublimeness, variety, and rareness of the truths here handled, together with the elegancy of the composure, neatness of the style, and whatever is wont to make any book desirable, will all concur in the recommendation of this. What so high and noble a subject, what so fit for his meditations or thine, as the highest and noblest being, and those transcendently glorious perfections wherewith he is clothed ! A mere contemplation of the divine excellencies may afford much pleasure to any man that loves to exercise his reason, and is addicted to speculation ; but what incomparable sweetness will holy souls find in viewing and considering those perfections now, which they are more fully to behold hereafter, and seeing what manner of God, how wise and powerful, how great, and good, and Sioly is he in whom the covenant interests them, and in the enjoyment of *vhom their happiness consists ! If rich men delight to sum up their vast revenues, to read over their rentals, look upon their hoards; if they bless .hemselves in their great wealth, or, to use the prophet's words, Jer. ix. 23, glory in their riches,' well may believers rejoice and glory in their ' know-ng the Lord,' ver. 24, # and please themselves in seeing how rich they are in laving an immensely full and all-sufficient God for their inheritance. Alas, iow little do most men know of that Deity they profess to serve, and own, lot as their sovereign only, but their portion ! To such this author might say, as Paul to the Athenians, Acts xvii. 23, ' Whom you ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.' These treatises, reader, will inform thee who le is whom thou callest thine, present thee with a view of thy chief good, md make thee value thyself a thousand times more upon thy interest in God, han upon all external accomplishments and worldly possessions. Who but ielights to hear well of one whom he loves ? God is thy love, if thou be a >eliever, and then it cannot but fill thee with delight and ravishment to hear ;o much spoken in his praise. David desired to 'dwell in the house of the jord,' that he might there ' behold his beauty ;' how much of that beauty if thou art but capable of seeing it) mayest thou behold in this volume, which ?as our author's main business for about three years before he died, to dismay before his hearers ! True, indeed, the Lord's glory, as shining forth •efore his heavenly courtiers above, is unapproachable by mortal men; but smat of it is visible in his works, creation, providence, redemption, falls .nder the cognisance of his inferior subjects here ; and this is in a great aeasure presented to view in these discourses, and so much, we may well ay, as may, by the help of grace, be effectual to raise thy admiration, * Mr J. Wichens and Mr Ashton.

TO THE READER.

attract thy love, provoke thy desires, and enable thee to make some guess at what is yet unseen; and why not likewise to clear thy eyes and prepare them for future sight, as well as turn them away from the contemptible vanities of this present life ? Whatever is glorious in this world, yet (as the apostle in another case, 2 Cor. iii. 10) ' hath no glory by reason of the glory that excels.' This excellent glory is the subject of this book, to which-all created beauty is but mere shadow and duskiness. If thy eyes be well fixed on this, they will not be easily drawn to wander after other objects ; if thy heart be taken with God, it will be mortified to everything that is not God.

But thou hast in this book, not only an excellent subject in the general, but great variety of matter, for the employment of thy understanding, as well as enlivening thy affections, and that too such as thou wilt not readily find elsewhere ; many excellent things which are out of the road of ordinary preachers and writers, and which may be grateful to the curious, no less than satisfactory to the wise and judicious. It is not therefore a book to be played with, or slept over, but read with the most intent and serious mind; for though it afford much pleasure for the fancy, yet much more work for the heart, and hath indeed enough in it to busy all the faculties. The dress is complete and decent, yet not garish or theatrical; the rhetoric masculine and vigorous, such as became a pulpit, and was never borrowed from the stage ; the expressions full, clear, apt, and such as are best suited to the weightiness and spirituality of the truths here delivered. It is plain he was no empty preacher, but was more for sense than sound, filled up his words with matter, and chose rather to inform his hearers' mind than to claw any itching ears. Yet we will not say but some little things, a word or a phrase now and then he may have, which no doubt had he lived to transcribe his own sermons, he would have altered. If in some lesser matters he differ from thee, it is but in such as godly and learned men do frequently, and may without breach of charity differ in among themselves ; in some things he may differ from us too, and it may be we from each other, and where are there any two persons who have in all, especially the , more disputable points of religion, exactly the sanfe sentiments, at least express themselves altogether in the same terms ? But this we must say, that though he treat of many of tho most abstruse and mysterious doctrines of Christianity, which are the subjects of great debates and controversies in the world, yet wo find no one material thing in which he may justly be called heterodox (unless old heresies bo of late grown orthodox, and his differing from them must make him faulty), but generally delivers (as in his former pieces*) what is most consonant to tho faith of this, and other the best reformed churches, llo was not indeed for that modern divinity which is so mueh in vogue with somo, who would bo counted tho only sound divines ; having ■ tasted the old,' he did not ' desiro tho new,' but said ■ the old is better.' Somo errors, especially tho Socinion, ho sots himself industriously against, and cuts tho vory sinews of them, yet sometimes almost without naming tliem.

In the doctrinal part of several of his discourses thou wilt find tho depth of polemical divinity, and in his inferences from thenco tho sweetness of practical ; some things which may exercise the profoundest scholar, am! Other! which may instruct and edify the weakest Christian ; nothing b more nervous than his reasonings, and nothing more affecting than hil applications. Though he make great uso of schoolmen, yet they uri

* Trtatiie of Proyidenoe and of Thoughts. [Tho former of which precedes thia

an<l the luttor will ho given in u raboequent volume,—En.]

certainly more beholden to him than he to them ; he adopts their notions, but he refines them too, and improves them, and reforms them from the barbarousness in which they were expressed, and drcsseth them up in his own language (so far as the nature of the matter will permit, and more clear terms are to be found), and so makes them intelligible to vulgar capacities, which in their original rudeness were obscure and strange, even to learned heads.

In a word, he handles the great truths of the gospel with that perspicuity, gravity, and majesty which best becomes the oracles of God ; and we have reason to believe, that no judicious and unbiassed reader but will acknowledge this to be incomparably the best practical treatise the world ever saw in English upon this subject. What Dr Jackson did (to whom our author gave all due respect) was more brief, and in another way. Dr Preston did worthily upon the attributes in his day, but his discourses likewise are more succinct, when this author's are more fall and large. But whatever were the mind of God in it, it was not his will that either of these two should live to finish what he had begun, both being taken away when preaching upon this subject. Happy souls, whose last breath was spent in so noble a work, ' praising God while they had any being,' Ps. cxlvi. 2.

His method is much the same in most of these discourses, both in the doctrinal and practical part, which will make the whole more plain and facile to ordinary readers. He rarely makes objections, and yet frequently answers them, by implying them in those propositions he lays down for the clearing up the truths he asserts. His dexterity is admirable in the appli-:atory work, where he not only brings down the highest doctrines to the lowest capacities, but collects great variety of proper, pertinent, useful, and yet (many times) unthought of inferences, and that from those truths, which however they afford much matter for inquisition and speculation, yet might ■seem (unless to the most intelligent and judicious Christians) to have a more remote influence upon practices. He is not like some school writers, who attenuate and rarefy the matter they discourse of to a degree bordering Upon annihilation ; at least beat it so thin, that a puff of breath may blow it 'away ; spin their thread so fine, that the cloth, when made up, proves useless; solidity dwindles into niceties, and what we thought we had got by their assertions we lose by their distinctions. But if our author have : 3ome subtilties and superfine notions in his argumentations, yet he con-ienseth them again, and consolidates them into substantial and profitable sorollaries in his applications. And in them his main business is, as to discipline a profane world for its neglect of God and contempt of him in his 'most adorable and shining perfections, so likewise to shew how the divine attributes are not only infinitely excellent in themselves, but a grand foundation for all true divine worship, and should be the great motives to provoke men to the exercise of faith, and love, and fear, and humility, and all that holy obedience they are called to by the gospel; and this without per-idventure is the great end of all those rich discoveries God hath in his word nade of himself to us, Ps. cix. 1. And, reader, if these elaborate discourses of this holy man, through the Lord's blessing, become a means of aromoting holiness in thee, and stir thee up to love, and live to the God of ais praise, we are well assured that his end in preaching them is answered, iind so is ours in publishing them.

Thine in the Lord,

j Edw. Veel.

III. Adams.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt; they have done abominable works; there is none that doth good. —Ps. XIY. 1.

This psalm is a description of the deplorable corruption by nature of every son of Adam, since the withering of that common root. Some restrain it to the gentiles, as a wilderness full of briars and thorns, as not concerning the Jews, the garden of God, planted by his grace and watered by the dew of heaven. But the apostle, the best interpreter, rectifies this in extending it by name to Jews as well as Gentiles: Rom. iii. 9, ' We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are^ all under sin ;' and ver. 10, 11, 12, cites part of this psalm and other passages of Scripture for the further evidence of it; concluding both Jews and Gentiles, every person in the world, naturally in this state of corruption.

The psalmist first declares the corruption of the faculties of the soul: ' The fool hath said in his heart.' Secondly, The streams issuing from thence, 1 they are corrupt,' &c. ; the first in atheistical principles, the other in unworthy practices ; and lays all the evil, tyranny, lust, and persecutions by men, as if the world were only for their sake, upon the neglects of God, and the atheism cherished in their hearts.

1 The fool,' a term in Scripture signifying a wicked man, used also by the heathen philosophers to signify a vicious person, ^33 as coming from ^33

T T

signifies the extinction of lifo in men, animals, and plants; so the word 'vjj

T

is taken,—Isa. xl. 7, V)% ^3 ' the flower fade th,' Isa. xxviii. 1,—a plant that hath lost all that juice that made it lovely and useful. So a fool is one that hath lost his wisdom and right notion of God and divine things, which v Communicated to man by creation ; ono (load in sin, yet one not so much void of rational faculties) as of grace iu those faculties ; not 0m 4 that wants ret mii, but abuses his reason. In Scripture the word signifies foolish.* 1 Said in bis heart;' that is, he thinks, or he doubts, or he wishes. The

thought! of the heart are in the nature of words to (iod, though not to men.

It ii used in the like ease of the atheistical person : Ps. x. 11, 18, ' He hath

I in his heart, God hath forgotten,' ' he hath said in his heart thou wilt

not, requiro it.' He doth not form a syllogism, as Calvin speaks, that there

is no (iod ; he dares not, openly publish it, though he dares secretly think

* Muia 733 and QJJ7 Is? put together, Prut, xxxii. G, 'O foolish people aad

it; he cannot rase out the thoughts of a deity, though he endeavours to blot those characters of God in his soul; he hath some doubts whether there be a God or no: he wishes there were not any, and sometimes hopes there is none at all; he could not so ascertain himself by convincing arguments to produce to the world, but he tampered with his own heart to bring it to that persuasion, and smothered in himself those notices of a deity, which is bo plain against the light of nature that such a man may well be called a fool for it.

1 There is no God.' * NJD7W JT7 non potestas Domini (Chaldee). It is

not Jehovah, which name signifies the essence of God as the prime and supreme being, but Eloahim, which name signifies the providence of God, God as a rector and judge. Not that he denies the existence of a supreme being that created the world, but his regarding the creatures, his government of the world, and consequently his reward of the righteous or punishments of the wicked.

There is a threefold denial of God.f 1. Quoad existentiam, this is absolute atheism. 2. Quoad providentiam, or his inspection into, or care of the things of the world, bounding him in the heavens. 3. Quoad naturam, in regard of one or other of the perfections due to his nature.

Of the denial of the providence of God most understand this, J not excluding the absolute atheist, as Diagoras is reported to be, nor the sceptical atheist, as Protagoras, who doubted whether there were a God. Those that deny the providence of God, do in effect deny the being of a God; for they strip him of that wisdom, goodness, tenderness, mercy, justice, righteousness, which are the glory of the Deity. And that principle of a greedy desire to be uncontrolled in their lusts, which induceth men to a denial of providence, that thereby they might stifle those seeds of fear which infect and embitter their sinful pleasures, may as well lead them to deny that there is any such being as a God. That at one blow their fears may be dashed all in pieces, and dissolved by the removal of the foundation ; as men who desire liberty to commit works of darkness would not have the lights in the house dimmed but extinguished. What men say against providence, because they would have no check in their lusts, they may say in their hearts against the existence of God upon the same account; little difference between the dissenting from the one, and disowning the other.

' They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doth good.'

He speaks of the atheist in the singular, the fool; of the corruption .issuing in the life, in the plural; intimating that some few may choke in their hearts the sentiments of God and his providence, and positively deny them, yet there is something of a secret atheism in all, which is the fountain of the evil practices in their lives, not an utter disowning of the being of a God, but a denial or doubting of some of the rights of his nature.§ When men deny the God of purity, they must needs be polluted in soul and body, and grow brutish in their actions ; when the sense of religion is shaken off, all kinds of wickedness is eagerly rushed into, whereby they become as loathsome to God as putrefied carcases are to men.|| Not one or

* D*r6j* TK No God.— Muit. f Cocceius.

\ Not owning him as the Egyptians called, Qzov syxbd/MOV Eugubin. in loc.

I Atheism absolute is not in all men's judgments, but practical is in all men'3 actions.

| The apostle in the Eomans, applying the later part of it to all mankind, but not the former, as the word translated corrupt signifies.

128 charnock's works. [Ps. XIV. 1.

two evil actions is the product of such a principle, but the whole scene of a man's life is corrupted, and becomes execrable.

No man is exempted from some spice of atheism by the deprivation of his nature, which the Psalmist intimates, ' there is none that cloth good.' Though there are indelible convictions of the being of a God, that they cannot absolutely deny it, yet there are some atheistical bubblings in the hearts of men which evidence themselves in their actions; as the apostle, Titus i. 16, ' They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him.' Evil works are a dust stirred up by an atheistical breath. He that habituates himself in some sordid lust can scarcely be said seriously and firmly to believe that there is a God in being; and the apostle doth not say that they know God, but they ' profess to know him.' True knowledge and profession of knowledge are distinct. It intimates also to us the unreasonableness of atheism in the consequences ; when men shut their eyes against the beams of so clear a sun, God revengeth himself upon them for their impiety by leaving them to their own wills, lets them fall into the deepest sink and dregs of iniquity ; and since they doubt of him in their hearts, suffers them above others to deny him in their works; this the apostle discourseth at large, Ptom. i. 24.

The text, then, is a description of man's corruption.

1. Of his mind. ' The fool hath said in his heart.' No better title than that of a fool is afforded to the atheist.

2. Of the other faculties. 1. In sins of commission, expressed by the loathsomeness, ' corrupt,' ■ abominable.' 2. In sins of omission, ' there is none that doth good;' he lays down the corruption of the mind as the cause, the corruption of the other faculties as the effect.

L It is a great folly to deny or doubt of the existence or being of God; or, an atheist is a great fool.

II. Practical atheism is natural to man in his corrupt state. It is against nature as constituted by God, but natural as nature is depraved by man. The absolute disowning of the being of a God is not natural to men, but the contrary is natural; but an inconsideration of God, or misrepresentation of his nature, is natural to man as corrupt.

III. A secret atheism, or a partial atheism, is the spring of all the wicked practices in the world; the disorders of the life spring from the ill dispositions of the heart.

I. For the first, every atheist is a grand fool. If he were not a fool, he would not imagine a thing so contrary to the stream of the universal reason in the world, contrary to the rational dictates of his own soul, and contrary to the testimony of every creature and link in the chain of creation. If he won; not a fool, he would not strip himself of humanity, and degrade him-sclf lower than the most despicable brute.

It is a folly; for though God ho so inaccessible that we cannot know him perfectly, yet he is so much in the light, that we cannot bo totally ignorant of him ; :is ho Cannot ho comprehended in his ossomv, he cannot he unknown

in his existence ; it is as easy hy reason to understand that ho is, as it is difficult, to know what ho is.

The demonstration d furnisheth us with for the existenco of i

will be evidence! of the atheist's folly. One would think there wore little need of Spending time in evidencing this truth, since in the principle of it, it seems to ho so universally owned, and at the first proposal and domand gains the assent of most men.

But, 1, doth the growth of atheism among us render this necessary? Msj it not justly bo suspected that the Rwarms of atheists aro moro numerous in

our times than history records to have been in any age, when men will not only say it in their hearts, but publish it with their lips, and boast that they have shaken off those shackles which bind other men's consciences ? Doth not the barefaced debauchery of men evidence such a settled sentiment, or at least a careless belief of the truth, which lies at the root, and sprouts up in such venomous branches in the world ? Can men's hearts be free from that principle wherewith their practices are so openly depraved ? It is true the light of nature shines too vigorously for the power of man totally to put it out, yet loathsome actions impair and weaken the actual thoughts and considerations of a deity, and are like mists, that darken the light of the sun though they cannot extinguish it; their consciences, as a candlestick, must hold it, though their unrighteousness obscure it: Rom. i. 18, ' Who hold the truth in unrighteousness.' The engraved characters of the law of nature remain, though they daub them with their muddy lusts to make them illegible, so that since the inconsideration of a deity is the cause of all the wickedness and extravagancies of men; and, as Austin saith, the proposition is always true, ' The fool hath said in his heart,' &c, and more evidently true in this age than any; it will not be unnecessary to discourse of the demonstrations of this first principle.

The apostles spent little time in urging this truth, it was taken for granted all over the world, and they were generally devout in the worship of those idols they thought to be gods; that age ran from one God to many, and our age is running from one God to none at all.

2. The existence of God is the foundation of all religion. The whole building totters if the foundation be out of course; if we have not deliberate and right notions of it, we shall perform no worship, no service, yield no affection to him. If there be not a God, it is impossible there can be one; for eternity is essential to the notion of a God; so all religion would be vain and unreasonable, to pay homage to that which is not in being, nor can ever be. We must first believe that he is, and that he is what he declares himself to be, before we can seek him, adore him, and devote our affections to him, Heb. xi. 6. We cannot pay God a due and regular homage unless we understand him in his perfections, ivhat he is; and we can pay him no homage at all, unless we believe that he is.

3. It is fit we should know why we believe, that our belief of a God may appear to be upon undeniable evidence, and that we may give a better reason for his existence than that we have heard our parents and teachers tell us so, and our acquaintance think so. It is as much as to say there is no God, when we know not why we believe there is, and would not consider the arguments for his existence.

4. It is necessary to depress that secret atheism which is in the heart of every man by nature. Though every visible object which offers itself to our sense presents a deity to our minds, and exhorts us to subscribe to the truth of it, yet there is a root of atheism springing up sometimes in wavering thoughts and foolish imaginations, inordinate actions and secret wishes.

[ Certain it is that every man that doth not love God denies God ; now can he that disaffects him, and hath a slavish fear of him, wish his existence, and say to his own heart with any cheerfulness, there is a God, and make it his chief care to persuade himself of it ? He would persuade himself there is no God, and stifle the seeds of it in his reason and conscience, that he might have the greatest liberty to entertain the allurements of the flesh.

It is necessary to excite men to daily and actual considerations of God and his nature, which would be a bar to much of that wickedness which overflows in the lives of men.

VOL. I. I

5. Nor is it unuseful to those that effectually believe and love him ;* for those who have had a converse with God, and felt his powerful influences in the secrets of their hearts, to take a prospect of those satisfactory accounts w T hich reason gives of that God they adore and love, to see every creature justify them in their owning of him, and affections to him; indeed, the evidences of a God striking upon the eonscience of those who resolve to cleave to sin as their chiefest darling, will dash their pleasures with unwelcome mixtures.

I shall further premise this,

That the folly of atheism is evidenced by the light of reason. Men that will not listen to Scripture, as having no counterpart of it in their souls, cannot easily deny natural reason, which riseth up on all sides for the justification of this truth. There is a natural as well as a revealed knowledge, and the book of the creatures is legible in declaring the being of a God, as well as the Scriptures are in declaring the nature of a God; there are outward objects in the world, and common principles in the conscience; whence it may be inferred.

For (1.) God, in regard of his existence, is not only the discovery of faith, but of reason. God hath revealed not only his being, but some sparks of his eternal power and Godhead in his works as well as in his word. Rom. i. 19, 20, ' God hath shewed it unto them.' How?f In his works, by the things that are made; it is a discovery to our reason as shining in the creatures, and an object of our faith as breaking out upon us in the Scriptures; it is an article of our faith, and an article of our reason. Faith supposeth natural knowledge, as grace supposeth nature. Faith indeed is properly of things above reason, purely depending upon revelation. What can be demonstrated by natural light is not so properly the object of faith, though in regard of the addition of a certainty by revelation it is so.

The belief that God is, which the apostle speaks of, Heb. xi. 6, is not so much of the bare existence of God, as what God is in relation to them that seek to him, viz., • a re warder.' The apostle speaks of the faith of Abel, the faith of Enoch, such a faith that pleases God; but the faith of Abel testified in his sacrifice, and the faith of Enoch testified in his walking with God, was not simply a faith of the existence of God. Cain, in the time of Abel, other men in the world in the time of Enoch, believed this as well as they ; but it was a faith joined with the worship of God, and desirous to pleaso him in the way of his own appointment; so that they believed that God was such as he had declared himself to be in his promise to Adam, such an one as would be as good as his word, and bruise the serpent's head; he that socks to (iod according to the mind of (iod, must believe that h Hindi a (iod that will pardon sin and justify a seeker of him ; that he is a (ii>d of that ability and will to justify a Binner in that way he hath appointed tor the cleaning the holiness of his nature, and vindicating the honour of his law violated hy man.

No man can leek (Iod, or love (iod, unless ho believe him to be thus, anl ho cannot leak (iod without a discovery of lus own mind how ho would be sought; lor it is not a seeking (iod in any way of man's invention that renden him capable of this desired fruit of a reward : he that behoves Go a reward.•)-, must believe the promiso of (iod concerning the Mosi IMeii, under the conscience of sin, cannot tell, without, a divine di whether (iod will rewind, or bow he will reward, the seekers of him, and

therefore cannot act towards him as an object of faith. Would any man

■k (iod merely because be 18, or love him because he is, if he did not

* CoOOOi Sum. Tie nl, c 8, § 1. t A41UU.

know that he should be acceptable to him ? The bare existence of a thing is not the ground of affection to it, but those qualities of it, and our interest in it which render it amiable and delightful. How can men whose consciences fly in their faces seek God or love him, without this knowledge that he is a rewarder ? Nature doth not shew any way to a sinner how to reconcile God's provoked justice with his tenderness. The faith the apostle speaks of here is a faith that eyes the reward as an encouragement, and the will of God as the rule of its acting, he doth not speak simply of the existence of God.

I have spoken the more of this place, because the Socinians* use this to decry any natural knowledge of God, and that the existence of God is only to be known by revelation, so that by that reason any one that lived without the Scripture hath no ground to believe the being of a God.

The Scripture ascribes a knowledge of God to all nations in the world, Rom. i. 19; not only a faculty of knowing, if they had arguments and demonstrations, as an ignorant man in any art hath a faculty to know, but it ascribes an actual knowledge: ver. 19, 'manifest in them;' ver. 21, * they knew God,'—not they might know him, they knew him when they did not care for knowing him. The notices of God are as intelligible to us by reason as any object in the world is visible; he is written in every letter.

(2.) We are often in the Scripture sent to take a prospect of the creatures for a discovery of God. The apostles drew arguments from the topics of nature when they discoursed with those that owned the Scripture, Rom. i. 19, as well as when they treated with those that were ignorant of it, as Acts xiv. 15, 16; and among the philosophers of Athens, Acts xvii. 27, 29. Such arguments the Holy Ghost in the apostles thought sufficient to convince men of the existence, unity, spirituality, and patience of God.f Such arguments had not been used by them and the prophets from the visible things in the world to silence the Gentiles with whom they dealt, had not this truth, and much more about God, been demonstrated by natural reason; they knew well enough that probable arguments would not satisfy piercing and inquisitive minds.

In Paul's account the testimony of the creatures was without contradiction. God himself justifies this way of proceeding by his own example, and remits Job to the consideration of the creatures, to spell out something of his divine perfections, Job xxxviii. xxxix. xl. &c. It is but one truth in philosophy and divinity, that what is false in one cannot be true in another. Truth,, in what appearance soever, doth never contradict itself.. And this is so convincing an argument of the existence of God, that God never vouchsafed any miracle, or put forth any act of omnipotency, besides what was evident in the creatures, for satisfaction of the curiosity of any atheist, or the evincing of his being,! as he hath done for the evidencing those truths which were not written in the book of nature, or for the restoring a decayed worship, or the protection or deliverance of his people. Those miracles in publishing the gospel indeed did demonstrate the existence of some supreme power; but they were not seals designedly affixed for that, but for the confirmation of that truth which was above the ken of purblind reason, and purely the birth of divine revelation. Yet what proves the truth of any spiritual doctrine, proves also in that act the existence of the divine Author of it. The revelation always implies a revealer; and that which manifests it to be a revelation, manifests also the supreme revealer of it. By the

* Voet. Theol. natural, cap. iii. § 1, p. 22. f Ibid.

\ Lord Bacon has almost the same words in his sixteenth essay.— Ed.

same light the sun manifests other things to us it also manifests itself. But what miracles could rationally be supposed to work upon an atheist, who is not drawn to a sense of the truth proclaimed aloud by so many wonders of the creation ?

Let us now proceed to the demonstration of the atheist's folly.

It is folly to deny or doubt of a sovereign being, incomprehensible in his nature, infinite in his essence and perfections, independent in his operations, who hath given being to the whole frame of sensible and intelligible creatures, and governs them according to their several natures, by an unconceivable wisdom, who fills the heavens with the glory of his majesty, and the earth with the influences of his goodness.

It is a folly inexcusable to renounce in this case all appeal to universal consent, and the joint assurances of the creatures.

Reason 1. It is a folly to deny or doubt of that which has been the acknowledged sentiment of all nations, in all places and ages. There is no nation but hath owned some kind of religion, and therefore no nation but hath consented in the notion of a supreme Creator and Governor.

1. This hath been universal.

2. It hath been constant and uninterrupted.

3. Natural and innate.

1. It hath been universally assented to by the judgments and practices of all nations in the world.

(1.) No nation hath been exempt from it. All histories of former and later ages have not produced any one nation but fell under the force of this truth. Though they have differed in their religions, they have agreed in this truth; here both heathen, Turk, Jew, and Christian centre without any contention. No quarrel was ever commenced on this score, though about other opinions wars have been sharp and enmities irreconcilable. The notion of the existence of a deity was the same in all, Indians as well as Britons, Americans as well as Jews.

It hath not been an opinion peculiar to this or that people, to this or that sect of philosophers, but hath been as universal as the reason whereby men are differenced from other creatures; so that some have rather defined man by animal relifjiosum than animal rationale. It is so twisted with reason, that a man cannot be accounted rational unless ho own an object of religion ; therefore he that understands not this renounces his humanity when he renounceth a divinity.

No instanco can be given of any one peoplo in the world that disclaimed it. It hath been owned by the wise and ignorant, by the learned and stupid, by thoso who had no other guide but the dimmest light of nature, as well as by thoso whoso candles were snuffed by a more polite education; and that without any solemn debute and contention. Though some philosophers havo boon known to change their opinions in the concerns of nature, yet none era be proved <o have absolutely changed their opinion ooBeerning the being of a God. One died for asserting one God, none in the termer agei upon record bath died for asserting no God. Go to the utmost bounds of America: you may find people without some broken pi<

of the law of nature, hut not without (his Bignature and stamp upon them,

though they wanted commerce with other nations, except as Bavage as them-

selves, in whom the light of nature was as it were sunk into the socket, who were hut one remove from brutes, who clothe not their bodies, cover not their hIuuuo, yet were tiny as soon known to own a God as they v known to he a people. They were possessed with the notion o( a supremo being, tho author of tho world, had an object of religious adoratiou, put up

prayers to the deity they owned for the good things they wanted and the diverting the evils they feared. No people so untamed, where absolute, perfect atheism had gained a footing.

Not one nation of tho world known in the time of the Romans that were without their ceremonies, whereby they signified their devotion to a deity. They had their places of worship, where they made their vows, presented their prayers, offered their sacrifices, and implored the assistance of what they thought to be a god, and in their distresses ran immediately, without any deliberation, to their gods; so that the notion of a deity was as inward and settled in them as their own souls, and indeed runs in the blood of mankind. The distempers of the understanding cannot utterly deface it; you shall scarce find the most distracted bedlam in his raving fits to deny a God, though he may blaspheme and fancy himself one.

(2.) Nor doth the idolatry and multiplicity of gods in the world weaken, but confirm this universal consent. Whatsoever unworthy conceits men have had of God in all nations, or whatsoever degrading representations they have made of him, yet they all concur in this, that there is a supreme power to be adored. Though one people worshipped the sun, others the fire ; and the Egyptians, gods out of their rivers, gardens, and fields ; yet the notion of a deity existent, who created and governed the world, and conferred daily benefits upon them, was maintained by all, though applied to the stars, and in part to those sordid creatures. All the Dagons of the world establish this truth, and fall down before it. Had not the nations owned the being of a God, they had never offered incense to an idol; had there not been a deep impression of the existence of a deity, they had never exalted creatures below themselves to the honour of altars: men could not so easily have been deceived by forged deities, if they had not had a notion of a real one. Their fondness to set up others in the place of God, evidenced a natural knowledge that there was one who had a right to be worshipped. If there were not this sentiment of a deity, no man would ever have made an image of a piece of wood, worshipped it, prayed to it, and said, ' Deliver me, for thou art my god,' Isa. xliv. 17. They applied a general notion to a particular image. The difference is in the manner and immediate object of worship, not in the formal ground of worship. The worship sprung from a true principle, though it was not applied to a right object: while they were rational creatures they could not deface the notion; yet while they were corrupt creatures it was not difficult to apply themselves to a wrong object from a true principle. A blind man knows he hath a way to go as well as one of the clearest sight, but because of his blindness he may miss the way and stumble into a ditch. No man would be imposed upon to take a Bristol stone instead of a diamond, if he did not know that there were such things as diamonds in the world ; nor any man spread forth his hands to an idol, if he were altogether without the sense of a deity. Whether it be a false or a true God men apply to, yet in both, the natural sentiment of a God is evidenced ; all their mistakes were grafts inserted in this stock, since they would multiply gods rather than deny a deity.

How should such a general submission be entered into by the world, so as to adore things of base alloy, if the force of religion were not such, that in any fashion a man would seek the satisfaction of his natural instinct to some object of worship.* This great diversity confirms this consent to be a good argument, for it evidenceth it not to be a cheat, combination, or conspiracy to deceive, or a mutual intelligence, but every one finds it in his climate, yea, in himself. People would never have given the title of a god to men • Charron de la Sagesse, livr. i. chap. 7.

or brntes, had there not been a pre-existing and unquestioned persuasion, that there was such a being.* How else should the notion of a God come into their minds ? The notion that there is a God must be more ancient.

(3.) Whatsoever disputes there have been in the world, this of the existence of God was never the subject of contention. All other things have been questioned. What jarrings were there among philosophers about natural things, into how many parties were they split, with what animosities did they maintain their several judgments ? But we hear of no solemn controversies about the existence of a Supreme Being. This never met with any considerable contradiction. No nation, that had put other things to question, would ever suffer this to be disparaged, so much as by a public doubt.f We find among the heathen contentions about the nature of God, and the number of gods. Some asserted an innumerable multitude of gods ; some affirmed him to be subject to birth and death ; some affirmed the entire world was God; others fancied him to be a circle of a bright fire; others, that he was a spirit diffused through the whole world : yet they unanimously concurred in this, as the judgment of universal reason, that there was such a sovereign being. And those that were sceptical in every thing else, and asserted that the greatest certainty was that there was nothing certain, professed a certainty in this. The question was not whether there was a first cause, but what it was. \ It is much the same thing as the disputes about the nature and matter of the heavens, the sun and planets; though there be a great diversity of judgments, yet all agree that there are heavens, sun, planets. So all the contentions among men about the nature of God, weaken not, but rather confirm, that there is a God, since there was never a public formal debate about his existence. Those that have been ready to pull out one another's eyes for their dissent from their judgments, sharply censured one another's sentiments, envied the births of one another's wits, always shook hands with an unanimous consent in this: never censured one another for being of this persuasion, never called it into question. As what was never controverted among men professing Christianity, but acknowledged by all, though contending about other things, has reason to be judged a certain truth belonging to the Christian religion; so what was never subjected to any controversy, but acknowledged by the whole world, hath reason to be embraced as a truth without any doubt.

(4.) This universal consent is not prejudiced by some few dissenters. History doth not reckon twenty professed atheists in all ages in the compass of tho wholo world ; § and we have not the name of any ono absolute atheist upon record in Scripture : yet it is questioned, whether any of them, noted in history with that infamous name, wero downright deniers of the existence ot God, but rather becauso they disparaged the deities commonly worshipped by tho nations where they lived, as being of a clearer reason to discern that those qualities, vulgarly attributed to their gods, as lust and luxury, wantonness and quarrels, wero unworthy of the nafuro of a God. But suppose they were really what they :uv termed to be, what are they to tho multitude of nun tint, have sprung out of the loins of Adam? Not so much ns ono

nt of ashes is to all that were rwr tinned into that form by any tires in your chiinnevs. And many BOOM were not sullieient to weigh down the contrary consent of tho whole world, and hear down an universal impression. Should the laws of a country, Agreed universally to by the whole body o^L tho people, he accounted vain, bee. ins. | a hundred men of those millions disapprove of them, when not their reason, but their folly and base inter.

# Gtefend, Phyi. ? 1. lii>. 1. oep. 2, X Gktttend. Pnyi. ? 1. lib. 4. cap. 2. t Amyrant de Religion, (>:■ •■• .»o. § Qieiend. Phyt. | 1. lib. 4. cap. 7.

persuades them to dislike them, and dispute against them ? * What if some men be blind, shall any conclude from thence that eyes are not natural to men ? Shall we say that the notion of the existence of God is not natural to men, because a very small number have been of a contrary opinion ? Shall a man in a dungeon, that never saw the sun, deny that there is a sun, because one or two blind men tell him there is none, when thousands assure him there is ? Why should then the exceptions of a few, not one to millions, discredit that which is voted certainly true by the joint consent of the world ? Add this too, that if those that are reported to be atheists had had any considerable reason to step aside from the common persuasion of the whole world, it is a wonder it met not with entertainment by great numbers of those, who, by reason of their notorious wickedness and inward disquiets, might reasonably be thought to wish in their hearts that there were no God. It is strange, if there were any reason on their side, that in so long a space of time as hath run out from the creation of the world, there could not be engaged a considerable number to frame a society for the profession of it. It hath died with the person that started it, and vanished as soon as it appeared.

To conclude this, is it not folly for any man to deny or doubt of the being of a God, to dissent from all mankind, and stand in contradiction to human nature ? What is the general dictate of nature is a certain truth. It is impossible that nature can naturally and universally lie ; and therefore those that ascribe all to nature, and set it in the place of God, contradict themselves, if they give not credit to it in that which it universally affirms. A general consent of all nations is to be esteemed as a law of nature.f Nature cannot plant in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity, for then the laws of nature would be destructive to the reason and the minds of men. How T is it possible that a falsity should be a persuasion spread through all nations, engraven upon the minds of all men, men of the most towering and men of the most creeping understanding; that they should consent to it in all places, and in those places where the nations have not had any known commerce with the rest of the known world ? A consent not settled by any law of man to constrain people to a belief of it; and indeed it is impossible that any law of man can constrain the belief of the mind. Would not he deservedly be accounted a fool, that should deny that to be gold which had been tried and examined by a great number of knowing goldsmiths, and hath passed the test of all their touchstones ? What excess of folly would it be for him to deny it to be true gold, if it had been tried by all that had skill in that metal in all nations in the world!

2. It hath been a constant and uninterrupted consent. It hath been as ancient as the first age of the world ; no man is able to mention any time from the beginning of the world, wherein this notion hath not been universally owned ; it is as old as mankind, and hath run along with the course of the sun, nor can the date be fixed lower than that.

(1.) In all the changes of the world this hath been maintained. In the overturnings of the government of states, the alteration of modes of worship, this hath stood unshaken. The reasons upon which it was founded were in all revolutions of time accounted satisfactory and convincing, nor could absolute atheism, in the changes of any laws, ever gain the favour of any one body of people to be established by a law. When the honour of the heathen idols was laid in the dust, this suffered no impair. The being of one God was more vigorously owned when the unreasonableness of multiplicity of gods was manifest, and grew taller by the detection of counterfeits. * Gassend. Phys. § 1. lib. 4. cap. 2. t Cicero.

When other parts of the law of nature have been violated by some nations, this hath maintained its standing. The long series of ages hath been so far from blotting it out, that it hath more strongly confirmed it, and maketh further progress in the confirmation of it. Time, which hath eaten out the strength of other things, and blasted mere inventions, hath not been able to consume this. The discovery of all other impostures never made this by any society of men to be suspected as one. It will not be easy to name any imposture that hath walked perpetually in the world without being discovered and whipped out by some nation or other. Falsities have never been so universally and constantly owned without public control and question. And since the world hath detected many errors of the former age, and learning been increased, this hath been so far from being dimmed, that it hath shone out clearer with the increase of natural knowledge, and received fresh anc more vigorous confirmations.

(2.) The fears and anxieties in the consciencies of men have given men sufficient occasion to root it out, had it been possible for them to do it. If the notion of the existence of God had been possible to have been dashed out of the minds of men, they would have done it rather than have suffered so many troubles in their souls upon the commission of sin; since they did [not] want wickedness and wit in so many corrupt ages to have attempted it and prospered in it, had it been possible. How comes it therefore to pass that such a multitude of profligate persons, that have been in the world since the fall of man, should not have rooted out this principle, and dispossessed the minds of men of that which gave birth to their tormenting fears ? How is it possible that all should agree together in a thing which created fear, and an obligation against the interest of the flesh, if it had been free for men to discharge themselves of it ? No man, as far as corrupt nature bears sway in him, is willing to live controlled.

The first man would rather be a god himself than under one, Gen. iii. 5. Why should men continue this notion in them, which shackled them in their vile inclinations, if it had been in their power utterly to deface it ? If it were an imposture, how comes it to pass that all the wicked ages of the world could never discover that to be a cheat, which kept them in continual alarms ? Men wanted not will to shake off such apprehensions ; as Adam, so all his posterity are desirous to hido themselves from God upon the commission of sin, ver. 9, and by the same reason they would hide God from their souls. What is tho reason they could never attain their will aud their wish by all their endeavours ? Could thoy possibly have satisfied themselves that there wero no God, thoy had discarded their fears, the disturbers of tho repose of their lives, and boon unbridled in their pleasures. Tho wickodnoss of tho world would never have preserved that which was a perpetual molestation to it, had it been possible to bo razed out.

Bat sinco mon, under tho turmoils and lashes of their own consciences, could never bring their hearts to a sottlcd dissent from this truth, it ovidenceth, that as it took its birth at the beginning of tho world, it cannot expire, no, not in tho ashes of it, nor in anything, hut tho reduction of tho soul to that nothing from trhenoe it ■prong. This concoption is so perpetual, that Qm nature of tho soul must ho dissolvod boforo it bo rooted out, nor can it ho extinct whilst tho soul endures.

(:*.) Let it bo considered also by us that own tho Scripturo, that tho devil deemi it impossible to root out this sentiment. It seems to bo so porpotually fixod, that the devil did not think fit to tempt man to tho denial of tho existenco of a doity, but Denuded him to beliovo, ho might ascend to that dignity, and become a god himself: Gen. iii. 1, 'Hath God said?' and

he there owns him, ver. 5, ' Ye shall become as gods.' He owns God in the question he asks the woman, and persuades our first parents to be gods themselves. And in all stories, both ancient and modern, the devil was never able to tincture men's minds with a professed denial of the deity, which would have opened a door to a world of more wickedness than hath been acted, and took away the bar to the breaking out of that evil, which is naturally in the hearts of men, to the greater prejudice of human societies. He wanted not malice to raze out all the notions of God, but power ; he knew it was impossible to effect it, and therefore in vain to attempt it. He set up himself in several places of the ignorant world as a god, but never was able to overthrow the opinion of the being of a God. The impressions of a deity were so strong as not to be struck out by the malice and power of hell.

What a folly is it then in any to contradict or doubt of this truth, which all the periods of time have not been able to wear out; which all the wars and quarrels of men with their own consciences have not been able to destroy; which ignorance,and debauchery, its two greatest enemies, cannot weaken ; which all the falsehoods and errors which have reigned in one or other part of the world, have not been able to banish; which lives in the consents of men in spite of all their wishes to the contrary, and hath grown stronger and shone clearer by the improvements of natural reason !

3. Natural and innate, which pleads strongly for the perpetuity of it. It is natural, though some think it not a principal writ in the heart of man ; * it is so natural that every man is born with a restless instinct to be of some kind of religion or other, which implies some object of religion. The impression of a deity is as common as reason, and of the same age with reason.t It is a relic of knowledge after the fall of Adam, like fire under ashes, which sparkles as soon as ever the heap of ashes is open ; a notion sealed up in the soul of every man ;$ else how could those people, who were unknown to one another, separate by seas and mounts, differing in various customs and manner of living, had no mutual intelligence one with mother, light upon this as a common sentiment, if they had not been guided by one uniform reason in all their minds, by one nature common to ;hem all; though their climates be different, their tempers and constitutions various, their imaginations in some things as distant from one another as leaven is from earth, the ceremonies of their religion not all of the same lind, yet wherever you find human nature, you find this settled persuasion. 3o that the notion of a God seems to be twisted with the nature of man, md is the first natural branch of common reason, or upon either the first nspection of a man into himself and his own state and constitution, or upon he first sight of any external visible object. Nature within man, and nature vithout man, agree upon the first meeting together to form this sentiment, hat there is a God. It is as natural as anything we call a common principle. One thing which is called a common principle and natural is, that he whole is greater than the parts. If this be not born with us, yet the exercise of reason, essential to man, settles it as a certain maxim; upon the lividing anything into several parts, he finds every part less than when they fere all together. By the same exercise of reason, we cannot cast our eyes pon anything in the world, or exercise our understandings upon ourselves, ut we must presently imagine there was some cause of those things, some ause of myself and my own being, so that this truth is as natural to man as .nything he can call most natural or a common principle.

• Pink. Eph. vi. p. 10, 11. % Amyrant des Keligions, p. 6-9.

t King on Jonah, p. 16.

It must be confessed by all, that there is a law of nature writ upon the hearts of men, which will direct them to commendable actions, if they will attend to the writing in their own consciences. This law cannot be considered without the notice of a lawgiver. For it is but a natural and obvious conclusion, that some superior hand engrafted those principles in man, since he finds something in him twitching him upon the pursuit of uncomely actions, though his heart be mightily inclined to them ; man knows he never planted this principle of reluctancy in his own soul; he can never be the cause of that which he cannot be friends with. If he were the cause of it, why doth he not rid himself of it ? No man would endure a thing that doth frequently molest and disquiet him, if he could cashier it. It is therefore sown in man by some hand more powerful than man, which riseth so high and is rooted so strong, that all the force that man can use cannot pull it up. If therefore this principle be natural in man, and the law of nature be natural, the notion of a lawgiver must be as natural as the notion of a printer, or that there is a printer is obvious upon the sight of a stamp impressed ; after this the multitude of effects in the world step in to strengthen this beam of natural light, and fche direct conclusion from thence is, that that power which made those outward objects, implanted this inward principle; this is sown in us, born with us, and sprouts up with our growth ; or as one saith,* it is like letters carved upon the bark of a young plant, which grows up together with us, and the longer it grows the letters are more legible.

This is the ground of this universal consent, and why it may well be termed natural.

This will more evidently appear to be natural, because, [1.] This consent could not be by mere tradition.

[2.] Nor by any mutual intelligence of governors to keep people in, awe, which are two things the atheist pleads. The first hath no strong, foundation, and that other is as absurd and foolish as it is wicked and abominable.

[3.] Nor was it fear first introduced it. I

[1.] It could not be by mere tradition. Many things indeed are entertained by posterity, which their ancestors delivered to them, and that out oi a common reverence to their forefathers, and an opinion that they had a better prospect of things than the increaso of the corruption of succeeding ages would permit them to have.

Bill if this bo a tradition handed from our ancestors, they also must re-r ceive it from theirs ; wo must then ascend to the first man, we cannot els<; Bftpe a confounding ourselves with running into infinite. Was it then thi only tradition ha left to them ? Is it not probablo he acquainted them witllj other things in conjunction with this, the nature of God, tho way to worshijj him, tl aer of the world's existence, his own stato ? Wo may reason

ably suppose him to have a good stock of knowledge ; what is bocomo of it J It cannot be supposed, that the first man should acquaint his posterity wit an object of worship, and leave them ignorant of a mode of worship, and c\ the end of worship. We find in Scripture his immediate posterity did th I first, in sum tires, and without, doubt they were not ignorant of tho otheJ I low come men to be so uncertain in all other things, and so confident* this, if it were only a tradition P Bow did debates and irreconcilable que: fcumi start Dp Concerning Other things, and this remain untouched, hut by

small number ? Whatsoever tradition the first man left besides this, is losi and DO way recoverable, but by the revelation God hath made in his word

* Charleton.

'S. XIV. 1.] THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

139

How comes it to pass, this of a God is longer lived than all the rest, which 'e may suppose man left to his immediate descendants ? How come men ) retain the one and forget the other ? What was the reason this survived ae ruin of the rest, and surmounted the uncertainties into which the other ink ? Was it likely it should be handed down alone without other attend-nts on it at first ? Why did it not expire among the Americans, who have >st the account of their own descent, and the stock from whence they sprung, ad cannot reckon above eight hundred or a thousand years at most ? Why as not the manner of the worship of a God transmitted, as well as that of is existence ? How came men to dissent in their opinions concerning his ature, whether he was corporeal or incorporeal, finite or infinite, omnipre-3nt or limited ? Why were not men as negligent to transmit this of his dstence as that of his nature ? No reason can be rendered for the security f this above the other, but that there is so clear a tincture of a Deity upon le minds of men, such traces and shadows of him in the creatures, such idelible instincts within, and invincible arguments without to keep up this aiversal consent. The characters are so deep that they cannot possibly be ized out, which would have been one time or other, in one nation or other, ad it depended only upon tradition, since one age shakes off frequently the mtiments of the former.

I cannot think of above one which may be called a tradition, which indeed

as kept up among all nations, viz., sacrifices, which could not be natural

i at instituted. What ground could they have in nature, to imagine that the

ilood of beasts could expiate and wash off the guilt and stains of a rational

mature ? Yet they had in all places (but among the Jews, and some of

lem only) lost the knowledge of the reason and end of the institution, which

ie Scripture acquaints us was to typify and signify the redemption by the

romised seed. This tradition hath been superannuated and laid aside in

'iost parts of the world, while this notion of the existence of a God hath

•ood firm.

Eut suppose it were a tradition, was it likely to be a mere intention* and gment of the first man ? Had there been no reason for it, his posterity ould soon have found out the weakness of its foundation. What advantage ad it been to him to transmit so great a falsehood, to kindle the fears or ! iise the hopes of his posterity, if there were no God ? It cannot be sup-: osed he should be so void of that natural affection men in all ages bear to teir descendants, as so grossly to deceive them, and be so contrary to the mplicity and plainness which appears in all things nearest their original.

[2.] Neither was it by any mutual intelligence of governors among them-Wves, to keep people in subjection to them. If it were a political design at rst, it seems it met with the general nature of mankind very ready to give

entertainment.

1 First, It is unaccountable how this should come to pass. It must be ther by a joint assembly of them, or a mutual correspondence. If by any jsembly, who were the persons ? Let the name of any one be mentioned. '/Tien was the time ? Where was the place of this appearance ? By what ithority did they meet together ? Who made the first motion, and first arted this great principle of policy ? By what means could they as-mble from such distant parts of the world ? Human histories are utterly lent in it, and the Scripture, the ancientest history, gives an account of ;e attempt of Babel, but not a word of any design of this nature. ' What mutual correspondence could such have, whose interests are for the ost part different, and their designs contrary to one another ? How could

* Qu. ' invention' ?—En.

they, who were divided by such vast seas, have this mutual converse ? How could those, who were different in their customs and manners, agree so unanimously together in one thing to gull the people ? If there had been such a correspondence between the governors of all nations, what is the reason some nations should be unknown to the world till of late times ? How could the business be so secretly managed, as not to take vent, and issue in a discovery to the world ? Can reason suppose so many in a joint conspiracy, and no man's conscience in this life under sharp afflictions, or on his deathbed, when conscience is most awakened, constrain him to reveal openly the cheat that beguiled the world ? How came they to be so unanimous in this notion, and to differ in their rites almost in every country ? Why could they not agree in one mode of worship throughout all the world, as well as in this universal notion ? If there were not a mutual intelligence, it cannot be conceived how in every nation such a state engineer should rist< up with the same trick to keep people in awe. What is the reason we cannot find any law in any one nation, to constrain men to the belief of the' existence of a God, since politic stratagems have been often fortified by laws V Besides, such men make use of principles received to effect their contrivances 1 and are not so impolitic as to build designs upon principles that have nc 1 foundation in nature. Some heathen law-givers have pretended a converse with their gods to make their laws be received by the people with a greate: veneration, and fix with stronger obligation the observance and perpetuity o. 1 them; but this was not the introducing of a new principle, but the supposi' tion of an old received notion, that there was a God, and an application o that principle to their present design. The pretence had been vain had no the notion of a God been ingrafted. Politicians are so little possessed witl a reverence of God, that the first mighty one in the Scripture (which ma* reasonably gain with the atheist the credit of the ancientest history in tin' word), is represented without any fear of God. Gen. x. 9, ' Nimrod was I mighty hunter before the Lord.' An invader and oppressor of his neigh' hours, and reputed the introducer of a new worship, and being the first tha built cities after the ilood (as Cain was the first builder of them before th» flood), built also idolatry with them, and erected a new worship, and wa so far from strengthening that notion the people had of God, that he en deavoured to corrupt it; the first idolatry in common histories being notei to proceed from that part of tho world, the ancientest idol being at Baby lor and supposed to be first invented by this person. Whenco by the way pel haps Koine is in tho Kevelations called Babylon, with respect to that simili tude of their saint-worship, to the idolatry first set up in that place.* It i evident politicians have often changed the worship of a nation, but it is nc upon record, that the first thoughts of an object of worship over entered int tin: mindfl of people by any trick of theirs.

I Jut to return to tho present argument ; tho being of a God is owned b BOme nations that havo scarce any form of policy among thorn. It is a wonderful how any wit should hit upon such an invention, as it is absurd t Ascribe it to any human device, if there were not prevailing arguments t constrain the eonsent. Besides, how is it possible they should deceive then Selves ? \\ hat is the reason the greatest politicians havo their tears of deity upon their unjust practices, as well as other men, they intended i befool '■' How many of them have had forlorn consciences upon a deathluu upon tho consideration of a God to answer an account to in another world

* Or if we Qndei it&nd it, .1I 10016 think, that he defended Ins invasions undei text of the pre srving reli fion, it ■. that thoro was a notion of an ol

religion before, since p m oan be without an object of worship*

.8 it credible they should be frighted by that wherewith they knew they )eguiled others ? No man satisfying his pleasures would impose such a leceit upon himself, or render and make himself more miserable than the ,reatures he hath dominion over.

Secondly, It is unaccountable how it should endure so long a time ; that his policy should be so fortunate as to gain ground in the consciences of nen, and exercise an empire over them, and meet with such an universal iiuccess. If the notion of a God were a state-engine, and introduced by some politic grandees for the ease of government, and preserving people with more elicity in order, how comes it to pass the first broachers of it were never ipon record ? There is scarce a false opinion vented in the world, but may ,s a stream be traced to the first head and fountain. The inventors of par-icular forms of worship are known, and the reasons why they prescribed hem known ; but what grandee was the author of this ? who can pitch a ime and person that sprung up this notion ? If any be so insolent as to mpose a cheat, he can hardly be supposed to be so successful as to deceive he whole world for many ages. Impostures pass not free through the whole rorld without examination and discovery. Falsities have not been univer-ally and constantly owned without control and question. If a cheat imposeth ,pon some towns and countries, he will be found out by the more piercing iquiries of other places ; and it is not easy to name any imposture that hath /alked so long in its disguise in the world, without being unmasked and fhipped out by some nation or other. If this had been a mere trick, there |/ould have been as much craft in some to discern it as there was in others ip contrive it. No man can be imagined so wise in a kingdom, but others pay be found as wise as himself; and it is not conceivable that so many ilear-sighted men in all ages should be ignorant of it, and not endeavour to [fee the world from so great a falsity.* It cannot be found that a trick of .bate should a 1 ways beguile men of the most piercing insights, as well as the lost credulous. That a few crafty men should befool all the wise men in pie world, and the world lie in a belief of it, and never like to be freed from i. What is the reason the succeeding politicians never knew this stratagem, ince their maxims are usually handed to their successors ? f

This persuasion of the existence of God, owes not itself to any imposture

r subtlety of men. If it had not been agreeable to common nature and

-pason, it could not so long have borne sway. The imposed yoke would

,ave been cast off by multitudes. Men would not have charged themselves

ith that which was attended with consequences displeasing to the flesh, and

indered them from a full swing of their rebellious passions ; such a shackle

ould have mouldered of itself, or been broke by the extravagances human

tature is inclined unto. The wickedness of men, without question, hath

rompted them to endeavour to unmask it, if it were a cozenage, but could

ever yet be so successful as to free the world from a persuasion, or their

,vra consciences from the tincture, of the existence of a deity. It must be,

lerefore, of an ancienter date than the craft of statesmen, and descend into

le world with the first appearance of human nature. Time, which hath

ictified many errors, improves this notion, makes it shock down its roots

eeper, and spread its branches larger.

It must be a natural truth that shines clear by the detection of those errors lat have befooled the world, and the wit of man is never able to name any uman author that first insinuated it into the beliefs of men. [3.] Nor was it fear first introduced it. Fear is the consequent of wicked-

* Fotherby, A theomastrix, p. 64.

t ' And there is not a Kichelieu, but leaves his axioms to a Mazarin.'

ness. As man was not created with any inherent sin, so he was not create< with any terrifying fears ; the one had been against the holiness of the Crea tor, the other against his goodness. Fear did not make this opinion, bn the opinion of the being of a deity was the cause of this fear, after his sens' of angering the deity by his wickedness. The object of fear is before th act of fear ; there could not be an act of fear exercised about the deity, ti] it was believed to be existent, and not only so, but offended. For God, a existent only, is not the object of fear or love : it is not the existence of thing that excites any of those affections, but the relation a thing bears to u in particular. God is good, and so the object of love, as well as just, an thereby the object of fear. He was as much called love (E^w;) and mens, c mind, in regard of his goodness and understanding, by the heathens, as muc as by any other name. Neither of those names were proper to insinuat fear, neither was fear the first principle that made the heathens worship god. They offered sacrifices out of gratitude to some, as well as to othei out of fear; the fear of evils in the world, and the hopes of belief and assis ance from their gods, and not a terrifying fear of God, was the principal spriD of their worship. When calamities from the hands of men, or judgments b the influences of heaven, were upon them, they implored that which the thought a deity. It was not their fear of him, but a hope in his goodnes and persuasion of remedy from him, for the averting those evils, that renden them adorers of a god. If they had not had pre-existent notions of his beir and goodness, they would never have made addresses to him, or so frequent 1 sought to that they only apprehended as a terrifying object.* When yc< hear men calling upon God in a time of affrighting thunder, you cann imagine that the fear of thunder did first introduce the notion of a God, h implies that it was before apprehended by them, or stamped upon ther though their fear doth at present actuate that belief, and engage them in< present exercise of piety ; and whereas the Scripture saith, * the fear of G< is the beginning of wisdom,' Prov. ix. 10, Ps. cxi. 10, or of all religion, it not understood of a distracted and terrifying fear, but a reverential fear him, because of his holiness, or a worship of him, a submission to him, ai sincere seeking of him.

Well then, is it not a folly for an atheist to deny that which is the reas< and common sentiment of the whole world, to strip himself of humanity, n counter to his own consience, prefer a private before a universal judgmei mve the lie to his own nature and reason, assert things impossible to proved, nay, impossible to be acted, forge irrationalities for the support' liis fancy against the common persuasion of tho world, and against hiinscj ami so much of God as is manifest in him and every man ? Rom. i. 19.

Beaton 2. It is a folly to deny that which all creatures, or all things in fcl world manifest. y Let us viow this in Scripture since we acknowledge it, ai

after consider tin.' arguments from natural reason.

The apottle resolves it: Rom. i. 19, 20, 'The invisiblo things of him the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are with<

They Know, 0I might know, by tho things that were made,

eternity and power of iti"\ ; their sense might take circuit about every obj< and their minds collect the being, and something of the perfections oi' deity. The first discourse of the mind npon the sight of a delicate i workmanship, is the conclusion of the being of an artificer, and the adi

lion of his skill and industry. The apostle doth not say, the invisihlc tlii:

• Qatatnd. i k. l, L I. a B, p. 2W, 292.

t Jupitei eat quodouoqus vales, &o.

of God are believed, or they have an opinion of them, but they are seen, and clearly seen. They are like crystal glasses, which give a clear representation of the existence of a deity, like that mirror reported to bo in a temple in Arcadia, which represented to the spectator, not his own face, but the image of that deity which he worshipped.

The whole world is like a looking-glass, which whole and entire represents the image of God, and every broken piece of it, every little shred of a creature, doth the like ; not only the great ones, elephants and the leviathan, but ants, flies, worms, whose bodies rather than names we know ; the great cattle and the creeping things, Gen. i. 24. Not naming there any intermediate creature, to direct us to view him in the smaller letters, as well as the greater characters of the world. His name is glorious, and his attributes are excellent ' in all the earth,' Ps. viii. 1, in every creature, as the glory of the sun is in every beam and smaller flash ; he is seen in every insect, in every spire of grass. The voice of the Creator is in the most contemptible loreature.* The apostle adds that they are so clearly seen, that men are inexcusable if they have not some knowledge of God by them ; if they might not certainly know them, they might have some excuse. So that his existence is not only probably, but demonstratively, proved from the things of the i world.

Especially the heavens declare him, which God ' stretches out like a curtain,' Ps. civ. 2, or as some render the word, ' a skin,' whereby is signified, that heaven is as an open book, which was anciently made of the skins of beasts, that by the knowledge of them we may be taught the knowledge of God. Where the Scripture was not revealed, the world served for a witness jof a God; whatever arguments the Scripture uses to prove it are drawn (from nature (though indeed it doth not so much prove as suppose the existence of a God), but what arguments it uses are from the creatures, and particularly the heavens, which are the public preachers of this doctrine. The breath of God sounds to all the world through those organ pipes. His being is visible in their existence, his wisdom in their frame, his power in their motion, his goodness in their usefulness; for 'their voice goeth to the end of the earth,' Ps. xix. 1, 2. They have a voice, and their voice is as intelligible as any common language. And those are so plain heralds of a fdeity, that the heathen mistook them for deities, and gave them a particular adoration which was due to that god they declared. The first idolatry seems to be of those heavenly bodies, which began probably in the time of ; Nimrod. In Job's time it is certain they admired the glory of the sun and the brightness of the moon, not without kissing their hand, a sign of adoration, Job xxxi. 25, 27. It is evident a man may as well doubt whether there be a sun, when he sees his beams gilding the earth, as doubt whether there be a God, when he sees his works spread in the world. The things in the world declare the existence of a God. 1, In their production; 2, harmony; 3, preservation; 4, answering their several ends.

1. In their production. The declaration of the existence of God was the chief end for which they were created, that the notion of a supreme and independent eternal being might easier incur into the active understanding of man from the objects of sense dispersed in every corner of the world, that he might pay a homage and devotion to the Lord of all: Isa. xl. 12,

fl3, 18, 19, &c, ' Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth, it is he that sits upon the circle of the heaven,' &c. How could this great heap be brought into being unless a God had framed it ? Every * Banes in Aquin., Par. 2, Qu. 2, Artie. 2, p. 78, col. 2.

plant, every atom, as well as every star, at the first meeting whispers thi in our ears, I have a Creator, I am witness to a deity. Who ever sa statues or pictures, but presently thinks of a statuary and limner ? W beholds garments, ships, or houses, but understands there was a weaver, carpenter, an architect ?* Who can cast his eyes about the world, but mu think of that power that formed it, and that the goodness which appears the formation of it hath a perfect residence in some being ? ' Those things that are good must flow from something perfectly good; that which is chief in any kind is the cause of all of that kind. Fire, which is most hot, is the cause of all things which are hot. There is some being therefore which is the cause of all that perfection which is in the creature, and this is God' (Aquin. i. qu. 2, art. 3). All things that are demonstrate something from whence they are. All things have a contracted perfection, and what they have is communicated to them. Perfections are parcelled out among several creatures. Anything that is imperfect cannot exist of itself. We are led therefore by them to consider a fountain which bubbles up in all perfection, a hand which distributes those several degrees of being and perfection to what we see. We see that which is imperfect, our minds conclude something perfect to exist before it; our eye sees the streams, but our under standing riseth to the head; as the eye sees the shadow, but the under standing informs us whether it be the shadow of a man or of a beast.

God hath given us sense to behold the objects in the world, and understanding to reason his existence from them; the understanding cannot i conceive a thing to have made itself, that is against all reason, Rom. i. 20. K As they are made, they speak out a maker, and cannot be a trick of chance, since they are made with such an immense wisdom, that is too big for the -grasp of all human understanding. Those that doubt whether the existence j of God be an implanted principle, yet agree that the effects in the world , lead to a supreme and universal cause; and that if we have not the knowledge of it rooted in our natures, yet we have it by discourse, since by all masters of reason a processus in infinitum must be accounted impossible in ' subordinate causes.

This will appear in several things.

(1.) The world and every creature had a beginning. The Scripture ascertains this to us, Gen. i. David, who was not the first man, gives the praise to God of his being 'curiously wrought,' &c, Ps. cxxxix. 14, 15. God gave being to men, and plants, and beasts, before they being to one,t : , another. He gives being to them now as the fountain of all being, thou the several modes of being are from the several natures of second causes.

It is true indeed we are ascertained that they were made by the true God, that they were made by his word (' By faith we understand that the worlds. . were framed by the word of God,' &c, Heb. xi. 8), that thoy wero made o( nothing, and not only this lower world wherein we live, but according to i the Jewish division, the world of men, tho world of stars, and the world of spirits and souls. Wo do not waver in it, or doubt of it, as tho heathen did in their disputes; we know they aro the workmanship of the truo God M of that God wo ftdore, not of false gods. 'By his word:' without any instrument Or engine as in earthly structures; 'of things which do not, appear:' without au\ pro-existent matter, as all artificial works of men are framed.

Vet, the proof of the beginning of the world is affirmed with gooA and if it, had a beginning, it bad also somo higher cause than itself; effect bath a cause.

* Philo, ex lVtav. Tlicol. 1 »<';:. kom. L lih. 1, cap. 1, p. 4, somewhat clou:

The world was not eternal or from eternity.* The matter of the world cannot be eternal; matter cannot subsist without form, nor put on any form without the action of some cause ; this cause must be in being before it acted; that which is not cannot act. The cause of the world must necessarily exist before any matter was endued with any form; that therefore cannot be eternal before which another did subsist. If it were from eternity, it would not be subject to mutation ; if the whole was from eternity, why not also the parts ? What makes the changes so visible, ,hen, if eternity would exempt it from mutability ?

. [1.] Time cannot be infinite, and therefore the world not eternal;! all motion hath its beginning; if it were otherwise, we must say the number of leavenly revolutions of days and nights, which are past to this instant, is actually infinite, which cannot be in nature. If it were so, it must needs De granted that a part is equal to the whole; because infinite being equal to nfinite, the number of days past in all ages to the beginning of one year aeing infinite (as they would be, supposing the world had no beginning), jvould by consequence be equal to the number of days which shall pass to ;he end of the next; whereas the number of days past is indeed but a part, ind so a part would be equal to the whole.

[2.] Generations of men, animals, and plants could not be from eternity. J It any man say the world was from eternity, then there must be propagations of living creatures in the same manner as are at this day, for without ;his the world could not consist. What we see now done must have been perpetually done, if it be done by a necessity of nature; but we see nothing iow that doth arise but by a mutual propagation from another. If the vorld were eternal, therefore, it must be so in all eternit}'. Take any par-icular species, suppose a man, if men were from eternity, then there were nerpetual generations, some were born into the world and some died. Now he natural condition of generation is, that a man doth not generate a man, lor a sheep a lamb, as soon as ever itself is brought into the world, but ; ;$ets strength and vigour by degrees, and must arrive to a certain stated age >efore they can produce the like; for whilst anything is little and below the lue age, it cannot increase its kind. Men therefore and other creatures did tropagate their kind by the same law, not as soon as ever they were born, ;»ut in the interval of some time, and children grew up by degrees in the bother's womb till they were fit to be brought forth. If this be so, then rhere could not be an eternal succession of propagating; for there is no ternal continuation of time. Time is always to be conceived as having ne part before another; but that perpetuity of nativities is always after ; ome time, wherein it could not be for the weakness of age. If no man, ! ien, can conceive a propagation from eternity, there must be then a eginning of generation in time, and consequently the creatures were made l time.

To express it in the words of one of our own : ' If the world were eternal, : j must have been in the same posture as it is now, in a state of generation nd corruption ; and so corruption must have been as eternal as generation, nd then things that do generate and corrupt must have eternally been, and ternally not have been: there must be some first way to set generation on r ork.' § We must lose ourselves in our conceptions ; we cannot conceive father before a child, as well as we cannot conceive a child before a father; nd reason is quite bewildered, and cannot return into a right way of con-

* Daille, 20 Serm. Psa. cii. p. 13, 14.

t Daille ut supra. J Petav. Theo. Dogmat. torn. i. lib. 1, cap. 2, p. 15.

§ Wolseley of Atheism, page 47.

VOL. I. K

ception till it conceive one first of every kind: one first man, one first animal, one first plant, from whence others do proceed. The argument is unanswerable, and the wisest atheist (if any atheist can be called wise) cannot unloose the knot. We must come to something that is first in every kind, and this first must have a cause, not of the same kind, but infinite and independent; otherwise men run into inconceivable labyrinths and contradictions.

Man, the noblest creature upon earth, hath a beginning. No man in the world but was some 3 r ears ago no man. If every man we see had beginning, then the first man had also a beginning, then the world had beginning; for the earth, which was made for the use of man, had wanted that end for which it was made. ' We must pitch upon some one man that was unborn ;'* that first man must either be eternal,—that cannot be, for he that hath no beginning hath no end,—or must spring out of the earth, as plants and trees do,—that cannot be. Why should not the earth produce men to this day, as it doth plants and trees ? He was therefore made ; and whatsoever is made hath some cause that made it, which is God. If the world were uncreated, f it were then immutable, but every creature upon [the earth is in a continual flux, always changing. If things be mutable, they were created; if created, they were made by some author; whatsoever hath a beginning must have a maker ; if the world hath a beginning, there was then a time when it was not: it must have some cause to produce it. That which makes is before that which is made, and this is God ; which will appear further in this

Prop. No creature can make itself: the world could not make itself.

If every man had a beginning, every man then was once nothing ; he could not then make himself, because nothing cannot be the cause of something : Ps. c. 3, ' The Lord he is God: he hath made us, and not we ourselves.' Whatsoever begun in time, was not; and when it was nothing, it had nothing, and could do nothing: and therefore could never give to itself nor to any other to be, or to be able to do ; for then it gave what it had not, and did what it could not. J Since reason must acknowledge * first of every kind, a first man, &c, it must acknowledge him created and made, not by himself. Why have not other men since risen up by themselves ? Not by chance ; why hath not chance produced the like in that long time the world hath stood ? If we never knew any thing give being to itself, how can we imagine any thing ever could ? If the chiefest part of this lower world cannot, nor any pari of it hath been known to give being to itself, then the whole cannot be supposed to give any being to itself. Man did not form himself:. bifl body is not from himself; it would then have the power of moving itself, but that is not able to live or act without the presence of the soul. Whilst the soul is present, tho body moves; when that is absent, the body lies as a sii] log, not having the least action or motion. His soul

could DOt form itself; can ihat which cannot form the least mote, the least grain of dust, form itself a nobler BllbBtance limn any upon the earth?

Thil will he evident to every man's reason, if we consider,

1. Nothing can aot before it be. The first man was not, and then could Dot make himself to be : for any thing to produce itself is to act; if it acted before it was, it was then something and nothing at the same time;l it had then a being boforo it had a being; it acted when it brought it

into being. How oould it aot without a being, without it was? So that ill it were the cause of itself, it must be before itself as well as after itself: i

* lviav. ;// supra, page 10. | Dumuaon.

X Petav. Thooa. Dog. torn. i. lib. i. cap. 8, page 14.

Id

was before it was ; it was as a cause before it was as an effect. Action always supposes a principle from whence it flows; as nothing hath no existence, so it hath no operation; there must be therefore something of real existence to give a being to those things that are, and every cause must be an effect of some other before it be a cause. To be and not be at the same time, is a manifest contradiction, which would be if any thing made itself. That which makes is always before that which is made. Who will say the house is before tho carpenter, or the picture before the limner ? The world as a creator must be before itself as a creature.

2. That which doth not understand itself, and order itself, could not make itself. If the first man fully understood his own nature, the excellency of his own soul, the manner of its operations, why was not that understanding conveyed to his posterity ? Are not many of them found, w r ho understand their own nature almost as little as a beast understands itself, or a rose understands its own sweetness, or a tulip its own colours ? The Scripture indeed gives us an account how this came about, viz., by the deplorable rebellion of man, whereby death was brought upon them, a spiritual death, which includes ignorance as well as an inability to spiritual action, Gen. ii. 17, Ps. xlix. 8. Thus he fell from his honour, and became like the beasts that perish, and not retaining God in his knowledge, retained not himself in his own knowledge.

But what reply can an atheist make to it, who acknowledges no higher cause than nature ? J£ the soul made itself, how comes it to be so muddy, so wanting in its knowledge of itself and of other things ? If the soul made its own understanding, whence did the defect arise ? If some first principle was settled by the first man in himself, where was the stop, that he did not implant all in his own mind, and consequently in the minds of all his descendants ? Our souls know little of themselves, little of the world, are every day upon new inquiries, have little satisfaction in themselves, meet with many an invincible rub in their way; and when they seem to come ^to some resolution in some cases, stagger again, and like a stone rolled up to the top of the hill, quickly find themselves again at the foot. How come they to be so purblind in truth ? so short of that which they judge true goodness ? How comes it to pass they cannot order their own rebellious affections, and suffer the reins they have to hold over their affections to be taken out of their hands by the unruly fancy and flesh ?

Thus no man that denies the being of a God, and the revelation in Scripture, can give an account of. Blessed be God that we have the Scripture, which gives us an account of those things, that all the wit of men could never inform us of; and that when they are discovered and known by revelation, they appear not contrary to reason.

3. If the first man made himself, how came he to limit himself? If he gave himself being, why did he not give himself all the perfections and ornaments of being ? Nothing that made itself could sit down contented with a little, but would have had as much power to give itself that which is less, as to give itself being when it was nothing. The excellencies it wanted had not been more difficult to gain than the other which it possessed, as belonging to its nature. If the first man had been independent upon another, and had his perfection from himself, he might have acquired that perfection he wanted, as well as have bestowed upon himself that perfection he had ; and then there would have been no bounds set to him. He would have been omniscient and immutable. He might have given himself what he would ; if he had had the setting his own bounds, he would have set none at all; for what should restrain him ? No man now wants ambition to be what he is

not; and if the first man had not been determined by another, but had given himself being, he would not have remained in that determinate being, no more than a toad would remain a toad, if it had power to make itself a man, and that power it would have had, if it had given itself a being. "Whatsoever gives itself being, would give itself all degrees of being, and so would have no imperfection, because every imperfection is a want of some degree of being.* He that could give himself matter and life, might give himself every thing. The giving of life is an act of omnipotence, and what is omnipotent in one thing, may be in all. Besides, if the first man had made himself, he would have conveyed himself to all his posterity in the same manner ; every man would have had all the perfections of the first man, as every creature hath the perfections of the same kind; from whence it naturally issues, all are desirous to communicate what they can to their posterity. Communicative goodness belongs to every nature. Every plant propagates its kind in the same perfection it hath itself; and the nearer anything comes to a rational nature, the greater affection it hath to that which descends from it; therefore this affection belongs to a rational nature much more. The first man, therefore, if he had had power to give himself being, and consequently all perfection, he would have had as much power to convey it down to his posterity; no impediment could have stopped his way: then all souls proceeding from that first man would have been equally intellectual. What should hinder them from inheriting the same perfections ? whence should they have diverse qualifications and difference* in their understandings ? No man then would have been subject to those weaknesses, doubt-ings, and unsatisfied desires of knowledge and perfection. But being all souls are not alike, it is certain they depend upon some other cause for the communication of that excellency they have. If the perfections of men be so contracted and kept within certain bounds, it is certain that they were not in his own power, and so were not from himself. Whatsoever hath a determinate being must be limited by some superior cause. There is therefore some superior power, that hath thus determined the creature by set bounds and distinct measures, and hath assigned to every one its proper nature, that it should not be greater or less than it is ; who hath said of every one, as of the waves of the sea, Job xxxviii. 11, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;' and this is God. Man could not have reserved any perfection from his posterity; for since he doth propagate not by choice but nature, he could no more have kept back any perfection from them than he could, as ho pleased, have given any perfection belonging to his nature to them.

4. That which hath power to givo itself being, cannot want power to pro-servo that being. J'reservation is not moro difficult than creation. If the first man made himself, why did ho not preservo himself? Ho is not now among the living in the world. How came ho to bo so feeblo as to sink into the grave ? Why did he not inspire himself with now heat and moisture, and fill his languishing limbs and declining body with new strength? Why did ho Dot chase away discuses and death at the first approach ? What en turo can tin<l I ho dust of the first man ? All his posterity traverse tho st ;md rutin again ; in a short ipaec again their ' age departs, and is removed from thnii at a shepherd's tent, and is cut off with pining sickness, 1 1 xxxviii. 12. The life of nan il as a wind, and like a cloud that is consumed and vanishes away. 'Tho eye that soos him shall Bee him no more. Ho returns not to his house, neither doth his place know him any moro,' * Thcrcforo the beatheni called God rh 6V, the only being. Other things wore

not being*, because they hud not nil deglSSI of being.

Job vii. 8, 10. The Scripture gives us the reason of this, and lays it upon the score of sin against his Creator, which no man without revelation can give any satisfactory account of.

Had the first man made himself, he had been sufficient for himself, able to support himself without the assistance of any creature. He would not have needed animals and plants, and other helps to nourish and refresh him, nor medicines to cure him. He could not be beholding to other things for his support, which he is certain he never made for himself. His own nature would have continued that vigour which once he had conferred upon himself. He would not have needed the heat and light of the sun ; he would have wanted nothing sufficient for himself in himself; he needed not have sought without himself for his own preservation and comfort. What depends upon another is not of itself, and what depends upon things inferior to itself is less of itself. Since nothing can subsist of itself, since we see those things upon which man depends for his nourishment and subsistence growing and decaying, starting into the world and retiring from it, as well as man himself, some preserving cause must be concluded upon which all depends.

5. If the first man did produce himself, why did he not produce himself before ?

It hath been already proved that he had a beginning, and could not be from eternity. Why then did he not make himself before ? Not because he would not. For having no being, he could have no will; he could neither be willing nor not willing. If he could not then, how could he afterwards ? If it were in his own power he could have done it, he would have done it; if it were not in his own power, then it was in the power of some other cause, and that is God. How came he by that power to produce himself? If the power of producing himself were communicated by another, then man could not be the cause of himself. That is the cause of it which communicated that power to it. But if the power of being was in and from himself, and in no other, nor communicated to him, man would always have been in act, and always have existed, no hindrance can be conceived. For that which had the power of being in itself was invincible by anything that should stand in the way of its own being.

We may conclude from hence the excellency of the Scripture, that it is a word not to be refused credit. It gives us the most rational account of things in the 1st and 2d of Genesis, which nothing in the world else is able to do.

Prop. 2. No creature could make the world. No creature can create another. If it creates of nothing, it is then omnipotent, and so not a creature. If it makes something of matter unfit for that which is produced out of it, then the inquiry will be, Who was the cause of the matter ? and so we must arrive to some uncreated being, the cause of all. Whatsoever gives being to any other must be the highest being, and must possess all the perfections of that which it gives being to. What visible creature is there which possesses the perfections of the whole world ? If, therefore, an invisible creature made the world, the same inquiries will return, whence that creature had its being ? For he could not make himself. If any creature did create the world, he must do it by the strength and virtue of another, which first gave him being; and this is God. For whatsoever hath its existence and virtue of acting from another is not God. If it hath its virtue from another, it is then a second cause, and so supposeth a first cause. It must have some cause of itself, or be eternally existent. If eternally existent, it is not a second cause, but God; if not eternally existent, we must come to

something at length which was the cause of it, or else be bewildered without being able to give an account of anything. We must come at last to an infinite, eternal, independent being that was the first cause of this structure and fabric wherein we and all creatures dwell. The Scripture proclaims this aloud: Isa. xlv. 6, 7, Dent. iv. 35, ' I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and I create darkness.' Man, the noblest creature, cannot of himself make a man, the chiefest part of the world. If our parents only, without a superior power, made our bodies or souls, they would know the frame of them ; as he that makes a lock knows the wards of it; he that makes any curious piece of arras knows how he sets the various colours together, and how many threads went to each division in the web; he that makes a watch, having the idea of the whole work in his mind, knows the motions of it, and the reason of those motions. But both parents and children are equally ignorant of the nature of their souls and bodies, and of the reason of their motions. God only, that had the supreme hand in informing us, ' in whose book all our members are written, which in continuance were fashioned,' Ps. cxxxix, 16, knows what we all are ignorant of. If man hath, in an ordinary course of generation, his being chiefly from an higher cause than his parents, the world then certainly had its being from some infinitely wise intelligent being, which is God. If it were, as some fancy, made by an assembly of atoms, there must be some infinite intelligent cause that made them, some cause that separated them, some cause that mingled them together for the piling up so comely a structure as the world. It is the most absurd thing to think they should meet together by hazard, and rank themselves in that order we see without a higher and a wise agent.

DO

bo that no creature could make the world. For supposing any creature was formed before this visible world, and might have a hand in disposing things, yet he must have a cause of himself, and must act by the virtue and strength of another, and this is God.

Prop. 3. From hence it follows, that there is a'first cause of things, which we call God. There must be something supreme in the order of nature, something which is greater than all, which hath nothing beyond it or above it, otherwise we must run in infinitum. We see not a river but we conclude a fountain; a watch, but we conclude an artificer. As all number begins from unity, so all the multitude of things in the world begins from some unity, oneness, as the principle of it. It is natural to arise from a view of those things to the conception of a nature more perfect than any. As from heat mixed with cold, and light mixed with darkness, men conceive and ariso in their understanding to an intense heat and a pure light, and from a corporeal or bodily substance joined with an incorporeal (as man is an earthly body and a spirit nal soul), wo ascend to a conception of a substance purely incorporeal and spiritual, so from a multitude of things in the world, reason leads us to one choice being abovo all. And since, in all natures in the world, we still find a superior nature, the nature of ono beast abovo tho nature of another, the nature of man above the naturo of beasts, and sonio invisible nature, the worker of strange effects in tho air and earth, which cannot be ascribed to any visible cause, we must supposo somo nature abovo all those, of inconceivable perfection.

Every sceptic, one that doubts whether thero bo anything real or no in tho world, that counts everything an appearance, must necessarily own a

first cause.* They oannot reasonably doubt but that there is some first

cause, which makes the thingl appear so to them. They cannot be tho

causo of their own appearance. For as nothing can have a being from

* Coccci. Sum. Thcol. cap. 8, sec. 33.

itself, so nothing can appear by itself and its own force. Nothing can be and not be at the same time. But that which is not, and yet seems to be, if it be the cause why it seems to be what it is not, it may be said to be and not to be. But certainly such persons must think themselves to exist. If they do not, they cannot think; and if they do exist, they must have some cause of that existence. So that, which way soever we turn ourselves, we must in reason own a first cause in the world.

Well, then, might the psalmist term an atheist a fool, that disowns a God against his own reason. Without owning a God as the first cause of the world, no man can give any tolerable or satisfactory account of the world to his own reason.

And this first cause,

I. Must necessarily exist. It is necessary that he by whom all things are should be before all things, and nothing before him.* And if nothing be before him, he comes not from any other; and then he always was, and without beginning. He is from himself; not that he once was not, but because he hath not his existence from another, and therefore of necessity he did exist from all eternity. Nothing can make itself or bring itself into being ; therefore there must be some being which hath no cause, that depends upon no other, never was produced by any other, but was what he is from eternity, and cannot be otherwise, and is not what he is by will, but nature, necessarily existing, and always existing without any capacity or possibility

• ever not to be. 2. Must be infinitely perfect. Since man knows he is an imperfect being, I he must suppose the perfections he wants are seated in some other being, f which hath limited him, and upon which he depends. Whatsover we con-i ceive of excellency or perfection must be in God; for we can conceive no perfection but what God hath given us a power to conceive. And he that gave us power to conceive a transcendent perfection above whatsoever we v saw or heard of, hath much more in himself, or else he could not give us such a conception.

II. As the production of the world, so the harmony of all the parts of it declare the being and wisdom of a God. Without the acknowledging God, the atheist can give no account of those things. The multitude, elegancy,

j variety, and beauty of all things are steps whereby to ascend to one fountain and original of them.

Is it not a folly to deny the being of a wise agent, who sparkles in the beauty and motions of the heavens, rides upon the wings of the wind, and is writ upon the flowers and fruits of plants ? As the cause is known by the effects, so the wisdom of the cause is known by the elegancy of the work, the proportion of the parts to one another. Who can imagine the world could be rashly made, and without consultation, which in every part of it is so artificially framed ?f No work of art?springs up of its own accord. The world is framed by an excellent art, and therefore made by some skilful artist. As we hear not a melodious instrument but we conclude there is a musician that touches it, as well as some skilful hand that framed and disposed it for those lessons,—and no man that hears the pleasant sound of a lute but will fix his thoughts, not upon the instrument itself, but upon the skill of the artist that made it, and the art of the musician that strikes it, though he should not see the first when he saw the lute, nor see the other when he hears the harmony,—so a rational creature confines not his thoughts to his sense when he sees the sun in its glory and the moon walking in its

* Petav. Theol. Dog. torn. i. lib. i. cap. 2, page 10, 11.

t Pkilo. Judae. Petav. Theol. Dogmat. torn. i. lib. i. cap. 1, page 9.

brightness, but riseth up in a contemplation and admiration of that infinite spirit that composed and filled them with such sweetness. This appears,

1. In the linking contrary qualities together. All things are compounded of the elements. Those are endued with contrary qualities, dryness and moisture, heat) and cold ; these would always be contending with and infesting one another's rights, till the contest ended in the destruction of one or both. Where fire is predominant, it would suck up the water; where water is prevalent, it would quench the fire : the heat would wholly expel the cold, or the cold overpower the heat. Yet we see them chained and linke one within another in every body upon the earth, and rendering mutu offices for the benefit of that body wherein they are seated, and all conspirin together in their particular quarrels for the public interest of the body. Ho could those contraries, that of themselves observed no order, that are always preying upon one another, jointly accord together of themselves for one common end, if they were not linked in a common band, and reduced to that order by some incomprehensible wisdom and power, which keeps a hand upon them, orders their motions, and directs their events, and makes them friendly pass into one another's natures ? Confusion had been the result of the discord and diversity of their natures ; no composition could have been of those conflicting qualities for the frame of any body, nor any harmony arose from so many jarring strings, if they had not been reduced into concord by one that is supreme Lord over them, and knows how to dispose their varieties and enmities for the public good.* If a man should see a large city or country, consisting of great multitudes of men of different tempers, full of frauds, and factions, and animosities in their natures against one another, yet living together in good order and peace, without oppressing and invading one another, and joining together for the public good, he would . presently conclude there were some excellent governor, who tempered them by his wisdom and preserved the public peace, though he had never yet beheld hirn with his eye. It is as necessary to conclude a God, who moderates the contraries in the world, as to conclude a wise prince, who over- | rules the contrary dispositions in a state, making every one to keep his own bounds and confines. Things that are contrary to one another subsist in an i admirable order.

2. In the subserviency of one thing to another. All the members of living creatures are curiously fitted for the service of one another, destined to a particular end, and endued with a virtue to attain that end, and so distinctly placed, that one is no hindrance to the other in its operations.f Is not this more admirablo than to bo the work of chance, which is incapable to settle such an order, and fix particular and general ends, causing an exact correspondency of all parts with one another, and every part to conspire together lor one common end ? One thing is fitted for another. The eye is fitted for the sun, ;md the sun fitted fur the eye. Soveral sorts of food aro fitted for several creatures, and those creatures fitted with organs for the partaking of that food.

(1.) Subserviency of heavenly bodies. The sun, the heart of the world, is not for itself hut for the good of the world, |. as the heart of man is for the good of the body. How conveniently is the sun placed, at a distance from tho earth and the upper hea\cns, to enlighten the stars above and enliven tho earth below ! [( it wore either higher 01 lower, one part would want its iniluences. It is not. in the higher parts of the heavens ; tho earth tlan, * Athani tin i, Petev. Tbeol., Dog. bom. i. Mb, i. cup. l, j>. 1, « r >.

f Gasaond. i'hyaie, seel. i. lib. iv. cup. 2, page i)15. J Loaaius.

which lives and fructifies by its influence, would have been exposed to a perpetual winter and chillness, unable to have produced anything for the sustenance of man or beast; if seated lower, the earth had been parched up, tho world made uninhabitable, and long since had been consumed to ashes by the strength of its heat. Consider the motion, as well as the situation, of the sun. Had it stood still, one part of the world had been cherished by its beams, and tho other left in a desolate widowhood, in a disconsolate darkness. Besides, the earth would have had no shelter from its perpendicular beams striking perpetually and without any remission upon it. The same incommodities would have followed upon its fixedness as upon its too great nearness. By a constant day the beauty of the stars had been obscured, the knowledge of their motions been prevented, and a considerable part of the glorious wisdom of the Creator in those choice ' works of his fingers,' Ps. viii. 3, had been veiled from our eyes. It moves in a fixed line, visits all parts of the earth, scatters in the day its refreshing blessings in every creek of the earth, and removes the mask from the other beauties of heaven in the night, which sparkle out to the glory of the Creator. It spreads its light, warms the earth, cherisheth the seeds, excites the spirit in the earth, and brings fruit to maturity. View also the air, the vast extent between heaven and earth, which serves for a watercourse, a cistern for water to bedew the face of the sunburnt earth, to satisfy the desolate ground, and to cause the ? bud of the tender herb to spring forth,' Job xxxviii. 25, 27. Could chance appoint the clouds of the air to interpose as fans before the scorching heat of the sun and the faint bodies of the creatures ? Can that be the ' father of the rain,' or ' beget the drops of dew ' ? ver. 28. Could anything so blind settle those ordinances of heaven for the preservation of creatures on the earth ? Can this either bring or stay the bottles of heaven, when ' the dust grows into hardness and the clods cleave fast together ' ? ver. 37, 38.

(2.) Subserviency of the lower world, the earth and sea, which was created to be inhabited, Isa. xlv. 18. The sea affords .water to the rivers ; the rivers, like so many veins, are spread through the whole body of the earth to refresh and enable it to bring forth fruit for the sustenance of man and beast: Ps. civ. 10, 11, ' He sends the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field : the wild asses quench their thirst. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and the herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth,' ver. 14. The trees are provided for shades against the extremity of heat, a refuge for the panting beasts, ' an habitation for birds' wherein to make their nests, ver. 17, and a basket for their provision. How are the valleys and mountains of the earth disposed for the pleasure and profit of oaan ! Every year are the fields covered with harvests, for the nourishing ihe creatures; no part is barren, but beneficial to man. The mountains that are not clothed with grass for his food are set with stones to make him an habitation; they have their peculiar services of metals and minerals, for ■he conveniency, and comfort, and benefit of man. Things which are not .it for his food are medicines for his cure under some painful sickness. Where the earth brings not forth corn, it brings forth roots for the service of other creatures. Wood abounds more in those countries where the cold :s stronger than in others. Can this be the result of chance, or not rather »f an infinite wisdom ?

Consider the usefulness of the sea for the supply of rivers to refresh the :arth, ' which go up by the mountains and down by the valleys into the dace God hath founded for them,' Ps. civ. 8: a storehouse for fish for the

nourishment of other creatures, a shop of medicines for cure, and pearls for ornament; the band that ties remote nations together, by giving opportunity of passage to, and commerce -with one another. How should that natural inclination of the sea to cover the earth submit to this subserviency to the creatures ? Who hath pounded in this fluid mass of water in certain limits, and confined it to its own channel for the accommodation of such creatures, who by its common law can only be upon the earth ? Naturally tb earth was covered with the deep as with a garment, the waters stood abov< the mountains: ■ Who set a bound that they might not pass over, that the; return not again to cover the earth ?' Ps. civ. 6, 9. Was it blind chance or an infinite power, that ' shut up the sea with doors, and made thic darkness a swaddling band for it, and said, Hitherto shall thou come, and n further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed'? Job xxxviii. 8, 9, 11.

All things are so ordered that they are not propter se, but propter aliucl. What advantage accrues to the sun by its unwearied rolling about the world? Doth it increase the perfection of its nature by all its circuits ? No, but it serves the inferior world, it impregnates things by its heat. Not the most abject thing, but hath its end and use. There is a straight connection : the earth could not bring forth fruit without the heavens, the heavens could not water the earth without vapours from it.

(3.) All this subserviency of creatures centres in man. Other creatures are served by those things as well as ourselves, and they are provided for their nourishment and refreshment as well as ours ; * yet both they and all creatures meet in man, as lines in their centres. Things that have no life or sense are made for those that have both life and sense, and those that have life and sense are made for those that are endued with reason. When the psalmist admiringly considers the heavens, moon, and stars, he intimates man to be the end for which they were created: Ps. viii. 3, 4, ■ What is man that thou art mindful of him ?' He expresseth more particularly the dominion that man hath over ' the beasts of the fields, the fowl of the air and whatsoever passes through the paths of the sea,' ver. 6-8, and con eludes from thence the ' excellency of God's name in all the earth.' All things in the world, one way or other, centre in an usefulness for man : some to feed him, some to clothe him, some to delight him, others to instruct him, some to exercise his wit, and others his strength. Since man did not make them, he did not also order them for his own use. If they conspire to serve him who never made them, they direct man to acknowledge another, who is the joint Creator both of the lord and the servants under his dominion. An 1 therefore, as the inferior natures are ordered by an invisible hand for tin: good of man, so the nature of man is by the same hand ordered to acknowledge the cxistenco and the glory of the Creator of him. This visible order man knows lie did not constitute, ho did not settle thoso creatures in subserviency to himself; they wcro placed in that order before he bad any acquaintance with them, or existence of himself, which is a question (iod puts to .lob, to consider of: Job xxxviii. 1, ' Where wast thou when ] laid tbc foundation of the earth ? Declare if thou hast understanding.* All is ordered for man's use, the heavene answer to the earth as a roof to a lloor, both composing a delightful habitation for man ; ' vapours ascend from tho earth,' and the bea?eni concocts them, and returns them back in welcome •howen for the supplying of the earth, Jer. x. 18. Tim light o( the sun

descends to beautify the earth, and employs its beat to midwife its fruits, and thil for tbo good of the community, whereof man is the head; and though all creatines bavv distinct natures, and must act for particular i • AmyralA.de Trinitate, p. 18 and p. 18.

3

» t

according to the law of their creation, yet there is a joint combination for ihe good of the whole as the common end ; just as all the rivers in the world, from what part soever they come, whether north or south, fall into the sea, for the supply of that mass of waters ; which loudly proclaims some infinitely wise nature who made those things in so exact an harmony. ' As in a clock, the hammer which strikes the bell leads us to the next wheel, <hat to another, the little wheel to a greater, whence it derives its motion, his at last to the spring, which acquaints us that there was some artist hat framed them in this subordination to one another for this orderly notion.'*

(4.) This .order or subserviency is regular and uniform. Everything is ietermined to its peculiar nature.f The sun and moon make day and light, months and years, determine the seasons, never are defective in oming back to their station and place, they wander not from their roads, mock not against one another, nor hinder one another in the functions issigned them. From a small grain or seed a tree springs, with body, root, oark, leaves, fruit of the same shape, figure, smell, taste ; that there should >e as many parts in one as in all of the same kind, and no more, and that n the womb of a sensitive creature should be formed one of the same kind, pith all the due members and no more, and the creature that produceth it mows not how it is formed or how it is perfected. If we say this is iature, this nature is an intelligent being ; if not, how can it direct all auses to such uniform ends ? If it be intelligent, this nature must be the ame we call God, who ordered every herb to yield seed, and every fruit-fee to yield fruit after its kind, and also every beast and every creeping ling after its kind, Gen. i. 11, 12, 24.

And everything is determined to its particular season. The sap riseth "om the root at its appointed time, enlivening and clothing the branches ith a new garment at such a time of the sun's returning, not wholly indered by any accidental coldness of the weather, it being often colder at s return than it was at the sun's departure. All things have their seasons flourishing, budding, blossoming, bringing forth fruit; they ripen in their msons, cast their leaves at the same time, throw off their old clothes, and the spring appear with new garments, but still in the same fashion. The winds and the rain have their seasons,!, and seem to be administered r laws for the profit of man. No satisfactory cause of those things can be cribed to the earth, the sea, to the air or stars. ' Can any understand e spreading of his clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle ?' Job xxxvi. 29. tie natural reason of those things cannot be demonstrated without recourse an infinite and intelligent being. Nothing can be rendered capable of the •ection of those things but a God.

This regularity in plants and animals is in all nations. The heavens have

e same motion in all parts of the world ; all men have the same law o f

,ture in their mind ; all creatures are stamped with the same law o f

eation. In all parts the same creatures serve for the same use; and thoug h

':9re be different creatures in India and Europe, yet they have the same

;bordination, the same subserviency to one another, and ultimately to

n, which shews that there is a God, and but one God, who tunes all

se different strings to the same notes in all places. It is nature merely

ducts these natural causes in due measures to their proper effects, with-

interfering with one another! Can mere nature be the cause of those

sical proportions of time ? You may as well conceive a lute to sound its

* Morn, dc Verit. cap. i. p. 7. t Amyrant.

X Coccei. Sum. Theol. cap. viii. sec. 77.

own strings without the hand of an artist, a city well governed without a governor, an army keep its stations without a general, as imagine so exact an order without an orderer. Would any man, when he hears a clock strike, by fit intervals, the hour of the day, imagine this regularity in it, without the direction of one that had understanding to manage it? He would not only regard the motion of the clock, but commend the diligence of the clock-keeper.

(5.) This order and subserviency is constant. Children change the customs and manners of their fathers, magistrates change the laws they have received from their ancestors, and enact new ones in their room; but in the world all things consist as they were created at the beginning; the law of nature in the creatures hath met with no change.* Who can behold the sun rising in the morning, the moon shining in the night, increasing and decreasing in its due spaces, the stars in their regular motions night after night, for all ages, and yet deny a president over them ? And this motion of the heavenly bodies, being contrary to the nature of other creatures, who move in order to rest, must be from some higher cause. But those, ever since the settling in their places, have been perpetually rounding the world.—Whether it be the sun or the earth that moves, it is all one ; whence have either of them this constant and uniform motion ?—What nature, but one powerful and intelligent, could give that perpetual motion to the sun, which being bigger than the earth a hundred sixty-six times, runs many thousand miles with a mighty swiftness in the space of an hour, with an unwearied diligence performing its daily task, and as a strong man, rejoicing to run its race for above five thousand years together, without intermission but in the time of Joshua ? Josh. x. 13. It is not nature's sun, but God's sun, which ho 'makes to rise upon the just and unjust,' Mat. v. 45.

So a plant receives its nourishment from the earth, sends forth its juice to every branch, forms a bud which spreads it into a blossom and flower; the leaves of this drop off, and leave a fruit of the same colour and taste, every year, which being ripened by the sun, leaves seed behind it for the propagation of its like, which contains in the nature of it the same kind of buds, blossoms, fruit, which were before ; and, being nourished in the womb of the earth, and quickened by the power of the sun, discovers itself at length in all the progresses and motions which its predecessor did. Thus, in all ages, in all places, every year it performs the same task, spins out fruit of tin; same colour, taste, virtue, to refresh the several creature for which they are provided.

This settled stato of things comes from that God who laid tho foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for over, Ps. civ. 5, and set ordinances lor them to act by a stated law, Job xxxviii. 33, according to] which ih. y move as if they understood themselves to have mado a covenan with their Creator, Jer. xxxiii. 20.

3. Add to this union of contrary qualities, and tho subsorvioncy of on thing to another, the admirable variety and diversity of things in tho WOI What variety of in.tals, living creatures, plants! What variety and dis tinction in the shape of their leaves, flowers, smell resulting from the Who can nimiher up tho several BOrtS of heasts on tho earth, birds in air, fish in the How various are their motions I Some creep, SO

go, some fly, some swim ; ami in all this variety each creature hath i or members fitted for their peculiar motion. If you consider the multitu of stars, which shine liko jewels in the heavens, their different magnitude

or the variety of colours in the flowers and tapestry of tho earth, you cou.| + l'ctav. ex AtluimiH. Tlicol., !><>;;• torn, i. lib. i. sec. 4.

10 more conclude they made themselves, or were made by chance, than you ;an imagine a piece of arras, with a diversity of figures and colours, either vove itself or were knit together by hazard.

How delicious is the sap of the vine, when turned into wine, above that )fa crab? Both have the same womb of earth to conceive them, both igree in the nature of wood and twigs as channels to convey it into fruit. ■Vhat is that which makes the one so sweet, tho other so sour, or makes hat sweet which was a few weeks before unpleasantly sharp ? Is it the arth ? ■ | No ; they both have the same soil; the branches may touch each ther, the strings of their roots may under ground entwine about one another, s it the sun ? Both have the same beams ; why is not the taste and colour f the one as gratifying as the other ? Is it the root ? The taste of that is ar different from that of the fruit it bears. Why do they not, when they ave the same soil, the same sun, and stand near one another, borrow some-ling from one another's natures ? No reason can be rendered, but that lere is a God of infinite wisdom hath determined this variety, and bound p the nature of each creature within itself. ' Everything follows the law f its creation, and it is worthy observation that the Creator of them hath ot given that power to animals, which arise from different species, to pro-agate the like to themselves ; as mules, that arise from different species. o reason can be rendered of this but the fixed determination of the Creator aat those species which were created by him should not be lost in those fixtures, which are contrary to the law of the creation.'* This cannot ossibly be ascribed to that which is commonly called nature, but unto the od of nature, who will not have his creatures exceed their bounds or como ort of them.

Now, since among those varieties there are some things better than other,

t all are good in their kind, Gen. i. 31, and partake of goodness, there

ust be something better and more excellent than all those, from whom

ey derive that goodness, which inheres in their nature and is communi-

ted by them to others. And this excellent being must inherit in an

inent way in his own nature, the goodness of all those varieties, since

ey made not themselves, but were made by another. All that goodness

ich is scattered in those varieties must be infinitely concentrated in that

ture, which distributed those various perfections to them: Ps. xciv. 9,

e that planted the ear, shall not he hear ? he that formed the eye, shall

t he see ? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ?' The

eator is greater than the creature, and whatsoever is in his effects is but

impression of some excellency in himself; there is therefore some chief

untain of goodness, whence all those various goodnesses in the world do

w.

From all this it follows, if there be an order and harmony, there must be

orderer, one that * made the earth by his power, established the world

his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his discretion,' Jer. x. 12.

der being the effect, cannot be the cause of itself. Order is the disposi-

n of things to an end, and is not intelligent, but implies an intelligent

erer; and therefore it is as certain that there is a God as it is certain

re is order in the world. Order is an effect of reason and counsel; this

on and counsel must have its residence in some being before this order

s fixed. The things ordered are always distinct from that reason and

unsel whereby they are ordered; and also after it, as the effect is after

cause. No man begins a piece of work but he hath the model of it in

own mind; no man builds a house or makes a watch but he hath the

* Amyrald. de Trinitate, page 21.

idea or copy of it in his own head. This beautiful world bespeaks an idea of it or a model, since there is such a magnificent wisdom in the make of each creature, and the proportion of one creature to another; this model must be before the world, as the pattern is always before the thing that is wrought by it. This therefore must be in some intelligent and wise agent, and this is God. Since the reason of those things exceed the reason and all the art of man, who can ascribe them to any inferior cause ? Chance it could not be; the motions of chance are not constant, and at seasons, as the motions of creatures are. That which is by chance is contingent, this is necessary; uniformity can never be the birth of chance. Who can imagine that all the parts of a watch can meet together, and put themselves in order and motion, by chance ? ' Nor can it be nature only, which indeed is a disposition of second causes. If nature hath not an understanding, it cannot work such effects. If nature therefore uses counsel to begin a thin^, reason to dispose it, art to effect it, virtue to complete it, and power to govern it, why should it be called nature rather than God ?' * Nothing so sure as that that which hath an end to which it tends hath a cause by which it is ordered to that end. Since therefore all things are ordered in subserviency to the good of man, they are so ordered by him that made both man and them. And man must acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of his Creator, and act in subserviency to his glory, as other creatures act in subserviency to his good. Sensible objects were not made only to gratify the sense of man, but to hand something to his mind as he is a rational creature, to discover God to him as an object of love and desire to be enjoyed.f If this be not the effect of it, the order of the creature, as to such an one, is in vain, and falls short of its true end.

To conclude this ; as when a man comes into a palace, built according to I" the exactest rule of art, and with an unexceptionable conveniency for the inhabitants, he would acknowledge both the being and skill of the builder, so whosoever shall observe the disposition of all the parts of the world,—their connection, comeliness, the variety of seasons, the swarms of different en tures, and the mutual offices they render to one another,—cannot conch; less than that it was contrived by an infinite skill, effected by infinite power,-: and governed by infinite wisdom. None can imagine a ship to be orderly conducted without a pilot, nor the parts of the world to perform their several functions without a wise guide, considering the members of the body cannoijx perform theirs without the activo presence of the soul. The atheist then is I: a fool, to deny that which every creature in his constitution assorts, and 1 *:: thereby renders himself unable to give a satisfactory account of that constant1:; uniformity in the motions of the creatures.

Prop, 1. As Hit! production and harmony, so particular creatures, pursuing and attaining their cutis, manifest that there is a God. All particulai creatures have natural instincts, which move; them for somo end. Tho in! tending of an end is a property of a rational creature ; since the lowei creature! cannot challenge that title, they must act by the understanding and direction of another. And since man cannot challenge the honoui of inspiring the creatures with such instincts, it must be ascribed U Home nature infinitely above any creature in understanding. No ereatur* doth determine! itself. Why doth the fruits and grain of the earth nouris us, when the earth, which instrumontally gives them that fitness, canno nourish us, but because their several ends are determined by one highs than the world ?

1. Several creatures have several natures. How soon will all creal * Laotant. t Ooooei. Bum. Theol. cap. 8, see. 03, 04.

even as soon as they see the light, move to that whereby they must live,

and make use of the natural arms God hath given their kind for their

defence, before they are grown to any maturity to afford them that defence.

: The Scripture makes the appetite of infants to their milk a foundation of

t the divine glory: Ps. viii. 3, l Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings

I hast thou ordained strength;' that is, matter of praise and acknowledgment

i of God, in the natural appetite they have to their milk, and their relish of

it. All creatures have a natural affection to their young ones, all young

(ones by a natural instinct move to and receive the nourishment that is

proper for them. Some are their own physicians as well as their own

| caterers, and naturally discern what preserves them in life, and what restores

j them when sick. The swallow flies to its celandine, and the toad hastens to

Jits plantain.

I Can we behold the spider's nets or silkworm's web, the bee's closets or the ant's granaries, without acknowledging a higher being than a creature, ■who hath planted that genius in them ? The consideration of the nature of ■several creatures God commended to Job (chap, xxxix., where he discourseth Lo Job of the natural instincts of the goat, the ostrich, horse, and eagle, J-fcc), to persuade him to the acknowledgment and admiration of God, and mmiliation of himself.

The spider, as if it understood the art of weaving, fits its web both for its iwn habitation and a net to catch its prey. The bee builds a cell which erves for chambers to reside in and a repository for its provision. Birds ,re observed to build their nests with a clammy matter without, for the drmer duration of it, and with a soft moss and down within, for the con-leniency and warmth of their young: ' The stork knows his appointed time,' Jer. viii. 7; 'and the swallows observe the time of their coming;' hey go and return according to the seasons of the year. This they gain lot by consideration, it descends to them with their nature; they neither kain nor increase it by rational deductions. It is not in vain to speak of hese. How little do we improve by meditation those objects, which daily , >ffer themselves to our view, full of instruction for us ? And our Saviour i-sends his disciples to spell God in the lilies, Mat. vi. 28. It is observed plso that the creatures offensive to man go single; if they went by roops, they would bring destruction upon man and beast. This is the lature of them for the preservation of others.

2. They know not their end. They have a law in their natures, but have io rational understanding, either of the end to which they are appointed, >r the means fit to attain it. They naturally do what they do, and move >y no counsel of their own, but by a law impressed by some higher hand ipon their natures.

What plant knows why it strikes its root into the earth ? Doth it uncler-tand what storms it is to contest with, or why it shoots up its branches owards heaven ? Doth it know it needs the droppings of the clouds to preserve itself, and make it fruitful ? These are acts of understanding: the ,oot is downward to preserve its own standing, the branches upward to pre-{ erve other creatures. This understanding is not in the creature itself, but ■ riginally in another. Thunders and tempests know not why they are sent, et by the direction of a mighty hand they are instruments of justice upon a /icked world.

Rational creatures that act for some end, and know the end they aim at, et know not the manner of the natural motion of the members to it.* When i r e intend to look upon a thing, we take no counsel about the natural motion * Coccei. Sum. Theolog. cap. 8. sec. G7, &c.

of our eyes, we know not all the principles of their operations ; or how that dull matter whereof our bodies are composed, is subject to the order of our minds. We are not of counsel with our stomachs about the concoction of our meat, or the distribution of the nourishing juice to the several parts of the body.* Neither the mother nor the foetus sit in council how the formation should be made in the womb. We know no more than a plant knows what stature it is of, and what medicinal virtue its fruit hath for the good of man ; yet all those natural operations are perfectly directed 'to their proper end, by an higher wisdom than any human understanding is able to conceive, since they exceed the ability of an inanimate or fleshly nature, yea, and the wisdom of a man. Do we not often see reasonable creatures acting for one end, and perfecting a higher than what they aimed at, or could suspect ? When Joseph's brethren sold him for a slave, their end was to be rid of an informer, Gen. xxxvii. 12; but the action issued in preparing him to be the preserver of them and their families. Cyrus his end was to be a conqueror, but the action ended in being the Jews' deliverer: Prov. xvi. 9, * A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directs his steps.'

3. Therefore there is some superior understanding and nature which so acts them. That which acts for an end unknown to itself, depends upon some overruling wisdom that knows that end. Who should direct them in all those ends, but he that bestowed a being upon them for those ends,f who knows what is convenient for their life, security, and propagation of their natures ? An exact knowledge is necessary, both of what is agreeable to them, and the means whereby they must attain it; which, since it is not inherent in them, j: is in that wise God, who puts those instincts into them, and governs them I. in the exercise of them to such ends. Any man that sees a dart flung, j i knows it cannot hit the mark without the skill and strength of an archer; ! or he that sees the hand of a dial pointing to the hours successively, knows that the dial is ignorant of its own end, and is disposed and directed in that motion by another. All creatures ignorant of their own natures could not i: universally in the whole kind, and in every climate and country, without any difference in the whole world, tend to a certain end, if some over-ruling wis- I dom did not preside over tho world and guide them; and if the creatures i$ have a conductor, they have a creator. All things are ' turned round about by his counsel, that they may do whatsoever he commands them upon the face of the world in the earth,' Job xxxvii. 12.

So that in this respect tho folly of atheism appears. Without the owning J^ a God no account can bo given of those actions of creatures, that are an J; imitation of reason. To say the bees, &c, are rational, is to equal them to{$ man ; nay, mako them his superiors, since they do more by nature than the wisest man can do by art. It is their own counsel whereby they act, or another's: if it be their own, they are reasonable creatures ; if by another's, ' it is not mero nature that is necessary; then other creatures would not be j without the same skill : there would be no difference among them. If nature In; restrained by another, it hath a superior; if not, it is a froo agent: it an understanding being that directs them. And then it is something supe-flty rior to all ereatores in the world ; and by this, therefore, wo may ascond to the acknowledgment of the necessity of a (rod.

}')■(>}>. 5. Add to thi! production and order of the world, and tho crcaturetfl:|ji actin" for their en I, the preservation of them. Nothing can depend upo

itself in its preservation, no more than it could in its heitw. If the ordei of tho world was not fixed by itself, the preservation of that order cannot beBv continued by itself. * Pearson on the Greed, page 3G. f Lcssius de providen. lib. i. pago G.">

Though the matter of tho world after creation cannot return to that nothing whence it was fetched, without the power of God that made it (because the same power is as requisite to reduce a thing to nothing as to raise a thing from nothing), yet without the actual exerting of a power that made the creatures they would fall into confusion. Those contesting qualities which arc in every part of it could not have preserved, but would have consumed and extinguished one another, and reduced the world to that confused chaos wherein it was before the Spirit moved upon the waters. As contrary parts could not have met together in one form, unless there had been one that had conjoined them, so they could not have kept together after their conjunction unless the same hand had preserved them. Natural contrarieties cannot be reconciled. It is as great power to keep discords knit, as at first to link them. Who would doubt, but that an army made up of several nations and humours, would fall into a civil war, and sheathe their swords in one another's bowels, if they were not under the management of some wise general, or a ship dash against the rocks without the skill of a pilot ?* As the body hath neither life nor motion, without the active presence of the soul, which distributes to every part the virtue of acting, sets every one in the exercise of its proper function, and resides in every part, so there is some powerful cause which doth the like in the world, that rules and tempers it. There is need of the same power and action to preserve a thing, as there was at first to make it. When we consider that we are preserved, and know that we could not preserve ourselves, we must necessarily run to some first cause which doth preserve us. All works of art depend upon nature, and are preserved while they are kept by the force of nature. As a statue depends upon the matter whereof it is made, whether stone or brass, this nature therefore must have some superior by whose influx it is preserved. Since therefore we see a stable order in the things f the world, that they conspire together for the good and beauty of the niverse, that they depend upon one another, there must be some principle pon which they depend, something to which the first link of the chain is astened, which himself depends upon no superior, but wholly rests in his own ssence and being. It is the title of God to be the ' preserver of man and east,' Ps. xxxvi. 6. The psalmist elegantly describeth it: Ps. civ. 24, &c, The earth is full of his riches ; all wait upon him, that he may give them heir meat in due season; when he opens his hand, he fills them with good; hen he hides his face, they are troubled: if he take away their breath, they ie and return to dust; he sends forth his Spirit, and they are created, and enews the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever, d the Lord shall rejoice in his works.' Upon the consideration of all hich the psalmist, ver. 34, takes a pleasure in the meditation of God, as e cause and manager of all those things, which issues into a joy in God nd a praising of him. And why should not the consideration of the power nd wisdom of God in the creatures produce the same effect in the hearts f us, if he be our God ? Or as some render it, ' my meditation shall be weet,' or acceptable f to him,' whereby I find matter of praise in the things f the world, and offer it to the Creator of it. Reason 3. It is a folly to deny that which a man's own nature witnesseth him. The whole frame of bodies and souls bears the impress of the finite power and wisdom of the Creator. A body framed with an admir-ble architecture, a soul endowed with understanding, will, judgment, emory, imagination. Man is the epitome of the world, contains in himself ■he substance of all natures, and the fulness of the whole universe, not only * Gassend. Phys., Beet. 6, lib. 4, cap. 2, p. 101. VOL. i. l

in regard of theuniversalness of his knowledge, whereby he comprehends the reasons of many things, but as all the perfections of the several natures of the world are gathered and united in man for the perfection of his own, in a smaller volume. In his soul he partakes of heaven, in his body of the earth. There is the life of plants, the sense of beasts, and the intellectual nature of angels. Gen. ii. 7, * The Lord breathed into his nostril the breath of life, and man,' &c, D^VT, of lives. Not one sort of life, but several, not only an animal, but a rational life, a soul of a nobler extract and nature than what was given to other creatures.

So that we need not step out of doors, or cast our eyes any further than ourselves to behold a God. He shines in the capacity of our sxmls and the vigour of our members. We must flee from ourselves and be stripped of our own humanity before we can put off the notion of a deity. He that is ignorant of the existence of God must be possessed with so much folly as to be ignorant of his own make and frame.

1. In the parts whereof he doth consist, body and soul.

First, Take a prospect of the body. The psalmist counts it a matter of praise and admiration : Ps. cxxxix. 14, 15, ' I will praise thee ; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. When I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, in thy book all my members were written.' The scheme of man and every member was drawn in his book ; all the sinews, veins, arteries, bones, like a piece of embroidery or tapestry, were wrought by God, as it were, with deliberation, like an artificer that draws out the model of what he is to do in writing, and sets it before him when he begins his work.

And indeed the fabric of man's body, as well as his soul, is an argument for a divinity. The artificial structure of it, the elegancy of every part, the proper situation of them, their proportion one to another, the fitness for their several functions, drew from Galen* (a heathen, and one that had no raised sentiments of a deity) a confession of the admirable wisdom and power of the Creator, and that none but God could frame it.

(1.) In the order, fitness, and usefulness of every part. The whole model of the body is grounded upon reason. Every member hath its exact proportion, distinct office, regular motion. Every part hath a particular comeliness and convenient temperament bestowed upon it according to its place in the body. The heart is hot to enliven the whole ; the eye clear to take in objects to present them to the soul. Every member is fitted for its peculiar service and action. Some are for sense, some for motion, some for preparing, and others for dispensing nourishment to the several parts; they mutually depend upon and serve one another. What small strings fasten the particular members together, as ' the earth that hangs upon nothing,' Job xxvi. 7. Take but one part away, and you either destroy the whole, or stamp upon it some mark of deformity. All are knit together by an admirable symmetry; all orderly perform their functions, as acting by a settled law, none swerving from their rule but in case of some predominant humour; and none of those in so great a multitude of parts stifled in so little a room, or jostling against ono another to hinder their mutual actions, none can be better disposed. And the greatest wisdom of a man could not imagine it, till his eyes present them with the sight and connection of one part and member with another.

[1.] Tho heart, f How strongly it is guarded with ribs like a wall, that it might not bo easily hurt! It draws blood from the liver through a

* Lib. 3, do usu portfam. PetftT. Thcol. Dog., torn. 1, lib. 1, cap. 1, p. G. t Theod. do provideutiu, Orat. 3.

Channel made for tin' purj i BikM it fit to pass thro ;

.

tua) mo! it out ig

ii mi>:: i| upon ilf but i

natural,

mouth t, the I j Il( j it i •

. I mints it . i tho di

win. the whole body, running thro;

nv channi I , \. i.il i I of a tlito i kin for tl.

1 Lhrough for the supplying of th. with . . ; the thi

motion,

U :

h membrane or skin to hinder any oppression by the skull, tl of

. that which coins the animal spirits, sing tl:

which are sent to it, and seems Like a euri ce of m

I. The ear, framed with windings and turnings, to I ring to offend the brain; so disp led a Imit sounds with I

and deli ht, Ecci . sdi. 1 : filled with an air within. I tion whereof the sound is transmitted to the brain, as sounds are mi in the air by diffosing them yon sec cir< de in the water

flinging in a stone* Tliis is the the I men for [t is by 1

mind, and the mind of another man framed in our nnderstandin .

5. V\ hip is that of the eye, which i.s in the 1

the sun in the world; set in the head as in a watch-tower, baring tho

ring the greater multitude of spirits necessary for the act of vision ! How is it provided with defence, by the variety of co :d accommodate the little humour and part whereby the vision le I Made of a round figure, and convex, as most commodious to receivo the ct" objects ; shaded by the eyebrows and eyelids, secured by tho

ids, which are its ornament and safety, which refresh it when it is too much dried by heat, hinder too much light from insinuating itself into it to nd it, cleanse it from impurities, by their quick motion preserve it from invasion, and by contraction confer to the more evident discerning of thi:

1 in the hollow of the bone for security, yet standing out that things may Ik: perceived more easily on both sides. And this little ID behold tho earth, and in a moment view things as high as .

The tongue* for speech framed like a musical instrument; the teeth

■f sounds ; the lungs serving for bellows to blow the organs,

as it \\ heart : by a continual motion transmitting a pure air

;, expelling that which was smoky and supertluous. I the

that communication of truth hath a i among men ; i

the sense id' ti. would be no converse and commerce without

it. : ons hath an elegancy and attractive force, masl

I

.1; of other parts, or of the multitude of spirits that act < part, tho quick tlight of them where there is a necessity of their prest : Solomon, Eeeles* xii., mal .escription of them in his speech of

* Coooei. Sum. Theolog., ca;

old age ; and Job speaks of this formation of the body, Job x. 9-11, &c. Not the least part of the body is made in Tain. The hairs of the head have their use, as well as are an ornament. The whole symmetry of the body is a ravishing object. Every member hath a signature and mark of God and his wisdom ; he is visible in the formation of the members, the beauty of the parts, and the vigour of the body. This structure could not be from the body : that only hath a passive power, and cannot act in the absence of the soul; nor can it be from the soul. How comes it then to be so ignorant of the manner of its formation ? The soul knows not the internal parts of its own body, but by information from others, or inspection into other bodies. It knows less of the inward frame of the body than it doth of itself. But he that makes the clock can tell the number and motions of the wheels within, as well as what figures are without.

This short discourse is useful to raise our admirations of the wisdom of God, as well as to demonstrate that there is an infinite, wise Creator. And the consideration of ourselves every day, and the wisdom of God in our frame, would maintain religion much in the world, since all are so framed that no man can tell any error in the constitution of him. If thus the body of man is fitted for the service of his soul by an infinite God, the body ought to be ordered for the service of this God, and in obedience to him.

(2.) In the admirable difference of the features of men, which is a great argument that the world was made by a wise Being. This could not be wrought by chance, or be the work of mere nature, since we find never, or very rarely, two persons exactly alike. This distinction is a part of infinite wisdom ; otherwise, what confusion would be introduced into the world ! Without this, parents could not know their children, nor children their parents, nor a brother his sister, nor a subject his magistrate. Without it there had been no comfort of relations, no government, no commerce. Debtors would not have been known from strangers, nor good men from bad; propriety could not have been preserved, nor justice executed ; the innocent might have been apprehended for the nocent; wickedness could not have been stopped by any law.

The faces of men are the same for parts, not for features. A dissimiltude in a likeness ; man, like to all the rest in the world, yet unlike to any, and differenced by some mark from all, which is not to be observed in any other species of creatures. This speaks some wise agent which framed man ; since for the preservation of human society and order in the world, this distinction was necessary.

Secondly, As man's own nature witnesseth a God to him in the structure of his body, so also in the nature of his soul.* We know that we have an understanding in us : a substance we cannot see, but we know it by its operations, as thinking, reasoning, willing, remembering, and as operating about things that are invisible and remote from sense. This must needs be distinct from the body, for that, being but dust and earth in its original, hath not the power of reasoning and thinking, for then it would have that power when the soul were absent, as well as when it is present. Besides, if it had that power of thinking, it could think only of those things which are sensible and made up of matter, as itself is. This soul hath a greater excellency. It can know itself, rejoico in itself, which other creatures in this world are not capable of. Tho soul is tho greatest glory of this lower world ; and as ono saith,f there seems to bo no more difference between the soul and an angel, than between a sword in tho scabbard and when it is out of the scabbard.

* Coccei. Sum. Theolog., cap. 8, soc. 60, 61. t Moro.

i. I its caj.iifiiv. The undi rstandi

the whole world, and paint in itself the b i of all things* It

•pable of approhondiog and d oatura, "it. ii loi to .-ill ool

all sound II : tomory to rcl

MB aeroini: tb< r thingl to it -'If. It invi

. Ul, p|.

the bowels of naturo, ai i in reasoning from

of troth ; :' I

i notions of things higher than the world* *J. The quiokiMSs of ite motions* 'Nothing is mora quies in the whole sun rnns throngh the world in ■ day i this ean do it in a moment* 11 oan 9 with one flight of fancy, asoi od to the I

rhf in isti of the air, thai binder the sight of the eye, cannot bin

>ul; it c m p i m in i moment iVoui one i ad of tb i

kher, and think of this It ean thin!

mean thin | in the world, and presently, by one east, in the twin]

of an rye, mount ap as high as beav< d. As ii I by

ma] objects, so neither arc the motions of it n I by them* It will

break forth with the gi ir, and conceive things infinitelyabove it;

though it be in the body, it acts as if it wore aahamed to be cloistered in it.

This could not be the result of any material cause. Who v mcro

ttex onderstand, think, will? And v.hat it hath not, it cannot give. That

which is destitute Of reason and will, could never Confer reason and will. It

is not the effect of the body, for the body is fitted with members to be subject to it. | It is in part ruled by the activity of the soul, and in part by tho msel of the soul. It is Used by the soul, and knows not how it is used. ;ld it be from the parents, since the souls of the children often tran-..d those of the parents in vivacity, acutcness, and comprehensiveness. man is stupid, aud begets a son with a capacious understanding ; one is debauched and beastly in morals, and begets a son who from his infancy ie virtuous inclinations, which sprout forth in delightful fruit with the ripeness of his age. § Whence should this difference arise, a fool h> the wise man, and a debauched the virtuous man ? The wisdom of the one could not descend from tho foolish soul of the other, nor tho virtues of tho from the deformed and polluted soul of the parent. It lies not in tho ms of the body ; for if the folly of the parent proceeded not from their but the ill disposition of the organs of their bodies, how comes it to - that the bodies of the children are better organised beyond the goodness of their immediate cause ? We must recur to some invisible hand, that makes the difference, who bestows upon one at his pleasure richer qualities than upon another. You can see nothing in the world endowed with some uality, but you must imagine some bountiful hand did enrich it with that dowry. None can be so foolish as to think that a vessel ever with that sprightly liquor wherewith it is rilled ; or that any-m the soul should endow it with that knowledge and activity whJ in it. Nature could not produce it. That nature is in:

it, or not ; if it be not, then it produceth an effect more excellent than an understanding being surmounts a being that hath no understanding. If the supreme cause of the soul be intelligent, why do

* Cul. t Tin X Oooeei. Sum. Tl ,61, 68.

§ 1 I or Suppose

of i' .hose moro excellent qualities wars DOfl

.It of til.

not call it God as well as nature ? We must arise from hence to the notion of a God. A spiritual nature cannot proceed but from a spirit higher than itself, and of a transcendent perfection above itself. If we believe we have souls, and understand the state of our own faculties, we must be assured that there was some invisible hand which bestowed those faculties and the riches of them upon us. A man must be ignorant of himself before he can be ignorant of the existence of God. By considering the nature of our souls, we may as well be assured that there is a God, as that there is a sun by the shining of the beams in at our windows. And indeed the soul is a statue and representation of God, as the landscape of a country or map represents all the parts of it, but in a far less proportion than the country itself is. The soul fills the body, and God the world ; the soul sustains the body, and God the world ; the soul sees, but is not seen ; God sees all things, but is himself invisible. How base are they then that prostitute their souls, an image of God, to base things unexpressibly below their own nature !

3. I might add the union of soul and body. Man is a kind of compound of angel and beast, of soul and body ; if he were only a soul, he were a kind of angel; if only a body, he were another kind of brute. Now, that a body as vile and dull as earth, and a soul that can mount up to heaven and rove about the world with so quick a motion, should be linked in so strait an acquaintance; that so noble a being as the soul should be an inhabitant in such a tabernacle of clay, must be owned to some infinite power that hath so chained it.

4. Man witnesseth to a God in the operations and reflections of conscience : Kom. ii. 15, ' Their thoughts are accusing or excusing.' An inward comfort attends good actions, and an inward torment follows bad ones ; for there is in every man's conscience fear of punishment and hope of reward. There is therefore a sense of some superior judge, which hath the power both of rewarding and punishing. If man w T ere his supreme rule, what need he fear punishment, since no man would inflict any evil or torment on himself; nor can any man be said to reward himself, for all rewards refer to another, to whom the action is pleasing, and is a conferring some good a man had not before. If an action be done by a subject or servant, with hopes of reward, it cannot be imagined that he expects a reward from himself, but from the prince or person whom he eyes in that action, and for whose sake ho doth it.

1. There is a law in the minds of men which is a rule of good and evil. There is a notion of good and evil in the consciences of men, which is evident by those laws which are common in all countries, for the preserving human societies, the encouragement of virtue and discouragement of vice ; what standard should they have for those laws but a common reason ? The design of those laws was to keep men within the bounds of goodness, for mutual commerce ; whence the apostle calls the heathen magistrate ' a minister of God for good,' Rom. xiii. 4 ; and the Gentiles ' do by nature tho tilings contained in the law,' Horn. ii. 14.

Man in the first instant of tho use of reason finds natural principles within himself, directing and choosing them ; ho finds a distinction between good and evil; how could this bo if there were not some rule in him to try and distinguish good and evil ? If thero wore not such a law and rule in man, lie could not sin ; for whero there is no law, there is no transgression. If man were a law to himself, and his own will his law, there could be no such thing as evil ; whatsoever ho willed would bo good and agreeable to tho law, and no action could bo accounted sinful ; the worst act would bo as commendable as tho best. Every thing at man's appointment would bo good or

evil. I Uy inclii

of that '"""l which they pr i man bat Inwardly think i well of that which

while hi . :iinl thinks ill of that whioh i bile be commits it.

Those tint are ticioa ■ d i | Those thai I I, and tho e thai

will reb 1 in others. 'I

and evil ; whenoc doth . met ran thisi bul

principl ' and tl mi in one man a ; in another, t ;

i another; they arc born with man, and inseparable ft

. 19, • A - in v. to face, so the b

of man to d Common inppo eth thai there is some band wl

in man. I[ow could it el dly un«

No law can be without :i law-giver; no sparks bnt d kindled by some other. Whence ihonld this law than derive its origin from man ; he would fain blol it out, and cannot alter it when he i

leration never Intended it ; it is settled therefore I her

hand, which, as it imprinl i it maintains it. b

men, who, were it not for this law, would make the world, mors than ii

Aceldama and field of bl I; for, h ad fcher i supreme good,

the measnre of all other goodness in tl old not have had inch

a thing as good. The Scripture gives us an account that this good • Lingnished from evil 1> fore man fell, they were objscta $abilia

I and evil prohibited, and did not depend upon man. Prom

■ man may rationally DC instructed that there IS a Qcd ; for bo may thus argue : I find myself naturally obliged to do this thing and avoid that, I

tperior that doth oblige mo ; I find something within mo

that directs me to BUCh actions, contrary to my sensitive appetite, thero mUSi mething above mo therefore that put this principle into m.

nature. If there were no superior, I should ho the supreme judge- of good and evil. "Were I the lord of that law which doth oblige me, I should find no contradiction within my ween reason and appetite.

'2. Prom tho t. i of this law of nature fears do arise in tho

of men. Have wc not known or hoard of men struck by so deep

irt that could not be drawn out by the strength of men, or appeased by

tho pleasure of the world, and men crying out with horror upon a death-

: of their past lite, when 'their fear hath come as a desolation, and

ruction as a whirlwind' ? Prov. i. '27. And often in some sharp affliction

the dust hath been blown oil' from men's consciences, which for a while hath

1 tho writing of the law. If men stand in awe of punishment, there

ior to whom they are accountable. If there were no God,

ther no punishment to fear. What reason of any fear, upon the

between the soul and body, if there were not a God punish, and the soul remained not in being to be punished '.' 1! :11 v will conscience work upon the appearance of an affliction,

rouse its* If fro like an armed man, and fly in a man'- face b I

it? It will 'surprise the hy] I xxxiii. 11. It will

bril mitted I .1 set them in order before tho

his authority and Omni As (

hath D ' 'it a wii -iv. 1 i .

he bath not left himself wit! in e man's own

1. '1 ration I No hath

been any m :i it than from ; not a man but hath one

time or other more or less smarted under the sting of it. All over the world conscience hath shot its darts. It hath torn the hearts of princes in the midst of their pleasures; it hath not flattered them -whom most men flatter, nor feared to disturb their rest whom no man dares to provoke. Judges have trembled on a tribunal, when innocents have rejoiced in their condemnation; the iron bars upon Pharaoh's conscience were at last broke up, and he acknowledged the justice of God in all that he did : Exod. ix. 27, 1 1 have sinned, the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.' Had they been like childish frights at the apprehension of bug-bears, why hath not reason shaken them off? But, on the contrary, the stronger reason grows, the smarter those lashes are ; groundless fears had been short-lived, age and judgment would have worn them off, but they grow sharper with the growth of persons. The Scripture informs us they have been of as ancient a date as the revolt of the first man: Gen. iii. 10, ' I was afraid,' saith Adam, ' because I was naked,' which was an expectation of the judgment of God. All his posterity inherit his fears, when God expresseth himself in any tokens of his majesty and providence in the world. Every man's conscience testifies that he is unlike what he ought to be according to that law engraven upon his heart. In some, indeed, conscience may be seared or dimmer ; or, suppose some men may be devoid of conscience, shall it be denied to be a thing belonging to the nature of man ? Some men have not their eyes, yet the power of seeing the light is natural to man, and belongs to the integrity of the body; who would argue, that because some men are mad, and have lost their reason by a distemper of the brain, that therefore reason hath no reality, but is an imaginary thing ? But I think it is a standing truth, that every man hath been under the scourge of it, one time or other, in a less or greater degree; for, since every man is an offender, it cannot be imagined conscience, which is natural to man and an active faculty, should always lie idle, without doing this part of its office ? The apostle tells us of the thoughts, accusing or excusing one another, or by turns, according as the actions were. Nor is this truth weakened by the corruptions in the world, whereby many have thought themselves bound in conscience to adhere to a false and superstitious worship and idolatry, as much as any have thought themselves bound to adhere to a worship commanded by God. This very thing infers that all men have a reflecting principle in them ; it is no argument against the being of conscience, but only infers that it may err in the application of what it naturally owns. We can no more say, that because some men walk by a false rule, there is no such thing as conscience, than we can say that because men have errors in their minds, therefore they have no such faculty as an understanding; or, because men will that which is evil, they have no such faculty as a will in them.

2. These operations of conscience are when the wickedness is most secret. These tormenting fears of vengeance have been frequent in men who have had no reason to fear man, since, their wickedness being unknown to any but themselves, they could have no accuser but themselves. They have been in many acts which their companions have justified them in ; persons above the stroke of human laws, yea, such as the people have honoured as gods, have been haunted by them. Conscience hath not been frighted by the power of princes, or bribed by tho pleasures of courts. David was pursued by his horrors, when ho was by reason of his dignity above the punishment of the law, or at least was not reached by the law; since, though the murder of Uriah was intended by him, it was not acted by him. Such examples are frequent in human records. When tho crime hath been above any punishment by man, they have had an accuser, judge, and executioner in

their own bn I . Can this be originally from a man' If? He who L and eheriahei him elf wonld Hy from anything that him. It. i

n< 1 moji m whom men oann I . that holds

him in tho \, bould aiToct th< tor that wh

ne?er bring them shame or punishment in thi i world, if there supreme judge to whom they were I i ant, who e instrnment

Doth it do thi . hathil L an authority from

the men himsi If to im ? [I

niir wills.

peratioo onot 1"' to! man*

It' there be no Godi why do uot men silence the clamours of their eon-

ban that disturb their rest and pi ' I

inquisitive are men after some linsl those convulsion '

would render the char I, and Bing b

i they 'walk in the wickedness of their o rts/ D

. L9. Sow often do men attempt to drown it by sen perhaps overpower it for a time; but it revives, rewforeeth Uself, and . i revenge for its former Btop« It holds sin to a man's view, and fixes his

i upon it, whether he will or no: ' The wicked arc like ■ troubl and cannot rest, 1 I a. lvii. 20. They would wallow in sin without control, but this inward principle will not suffer it; nothing can shelter men fie those Mows. What is the reason it could never he cried down ? Man is an enemy to his own disquiet; what man would continue upon the rack, if it were in his power to deliver himself? Why have all human rcmeil:-without success, and not able to extinguish all those operations, thongh all the wickedness of the heart hath been ready to assisi and second the attempt? It hath pursued nan notwithstanding all the violence used against it, an I renewed its BCOUrgea with more severity, as men deal with their resisting slaves. 3I.m can as little silence those thunders in his soul, as he can the thunders in the heavens. He must strip himself of his humanity hefore ho can be stripped of an accusing and affrighting conscience : it sticks as ciose to him as his nature. Since man cannot throw out the process it makes against him, it is an evidence that some higher power secures its throne and standing. Who should put this scourge into the hand of conscience, which no man in the world is able to wrest out ?

!. We may add, the comfortable reflections of conscience. There are excusing as well as accusing reflections of conscience, when things are done as works of the law of nature, Rom. ii. 15. As it doth not forbear to acenso and torture, when a wickedness, though unknown to others, is committed, so when I man hath done well, though he be attacked with all the calumnies the wit ol* man can forge, yet his conscience justifies the action, and fills him with a singular contentment. As there is torture in sinning, so there is p< ice and Joy in well-doing. Neither of those it could do, if it did not Understand a sovereign judge, who punishes the rebels and rewards the welldoer. Conscience is the foundation of all religion ; and the two pillars upon which it is built, are the being of God, and the bounty of God to those that diligently seek him, lleb. xi. 6.

This proves the exif i God. If there were no God, conscience were

< rations of it would have no foundation, if there were not

to take notice, and a hand to punish or reward the action. The accusations of conscience evidence the omniscience and the holiness of the terrors of con . the justice of God; the approbations i

science, the goodness oi All the order in the world ov .:', next

to the providence of Oo.\, to conscience: without it the world would DC I

Golgotha. As the creatures witness there was a first cause that produced them, so this principle in man evidenceth itself to be set by the same hand for the good of that which it had so framed. There could be no conscience if there were no God, and man could not be a rational creature if there were no conscience. As there is a rule in us, there must be a judge, whether our actions be according to the rule ; and since conscience in our corrupted state is in some particular misled, there must be a power superior to conscience to judge how it hath behaved itself in its deputed office: we must come to some supreme judge, who can judge conscience itself. As a man can have no^ surer evidence that he is a being, than because he thinks, he is a thinking being, so there is no surer evidence in nature that there is a God, than that every man hath a natural principle in him, which continually cites him before God, and puts him in mind of him, and makes him one way or other fear him, and reflects upon him whether he will or no. A man hath less power over his conscience than over any other faculty. He may choose whether he will exercise his understanding about, or move his will to, such an object, but he hath no such authority over his conscience; he cannot limit it, or cause it to cease from acting and reflecting; and therefore both that, and the law about which it acts, are settled by some supreme authority in the mind of man, and this is God.

Prop. 4. The evidence of a God results from the vastness of the desires in man, and the real dissatisfaction he hath in every thing below himself. Man hath a boundless appetite after some sovereign good. As his understanding is more capacious than any thing below, so is his appetite larger. This affection of desire exceeds all other affections. Love is determined to something known : fear to something apprehended; but desires approach nearer to infiniteness, and pursue, not only what we know, or what we have a glimpse of, but what we find wanting in what we already enjoy. That which the desire of man is most naturally carried after, is bonum; some fully satisfying good. We desire knowledge by the sole impulse of reason; but we desire good before the excitement of reason, and the desire is always after good, but not always after knowledge.

Now the soul of man finds an imperfection in every thing here, and cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity. In the highest fruitions of worldly things, it is still pursuing something else, which speaks a defect in what it already hath. The world may afford a felicity for our dust, the body, but not for the inhabitant in it; it is too mean for that. Is there any one soul among the sons of men, that can upon due inquiry say, it was at rest and wanted no more, that hath not sometimes had desires after an immaterial good|? The soul < follows hard' after such a thing, and hath frequent looks after it, Ps. lxiii. 8. Man desires a stable good, but no sublunary thing is so; and he that doth not desire such a good, wants the rational nature of a man. This is as natural as understanding, will, and conscience. Whence should the soal of man have those desires ? How came it to understand that something is still wanting to make its nature more perfect, if there were not in it some notion of a more perfect being, which can give it rest ?

Can such a capacity bo supposed to be in it without something in being able to satisfy it ? If so, the noblest creature in the world is miserablest, and in a worse condition than any other: other creatures obtain their ultimate desires, ' thoy are fillod with good,' Ps. civ. 28; and shall man only have a vast desire without any possibility of enjoyment? Nothing in man is in vain : ho hath objects for his affections, as well as affections for objects. Every member of his body hath its end, and doth attain it. Every affection of his soul hath an object, and that in this world; and shall there be none

for lii i de ire, which o k to Infinite i i planted in

him'.' Tin i boundlc I original from man him

iM ifii. l. r i' the boundi ofthii world

implanted those di ir< i ail I nd ma le him r<

thin v dco the d only n i in that which ii infinite, tl

mething infinite for it to m t In. Sine- nothing in the world, though a man had the v.hole, can give il '' in " :i '

the world only capable to do it, otherwi I be alt

and be more in vain than any other ereatnre.

There la therefore Borne infinite being that can only content]

to the soul, and thii ii God, And that goodness which implanted inch

in tho bouI wonld not do it to no pnrpo a, and mock it. in givm an infini otion, without intending it the pi b

in. nt, if it doth not by ita own folly deprive of it. The felicitr

human nature mnsl ne< aed thai which i 'It" other creaturi .

i U it is a folly to deny that which all nations in the

world have con enl .1 to, which the frame of the world evideneeth, which man in his body, soul, operation! of conscience, witnes , so it i

lolly to deny the being of < ;«» I, which is witnessed onto by extraordinary occurrences in the world.

1. In extraordinary judgments. When a just revenge follows abominable erimi . cially when the judgment is suited to the sin, by a strange concatenation and succession of providences, mi 1 to bring such a particular punishment; when the sin of a nation or p< pble in the inflict .1 judgment, which testifies tint it cannot be a casual thin '. The Scripture givea as an account of the necessity of such judgments, to keep up the reverential thoughts of God in the world: Ts. ix. 1(5, • The Lord kn >wn by the judgment which ho executes, the wicked is snared in the work of his own hand.' And jealousy is the name of God: Exod. xxxiv. 1 I. 1 Whose name is Jealous.' He is distinguished from false gods by the judg-3 which he sends, as men arc by their names. Extraordinary prodigies in many nations have been the heralds of extraordinary judgments, and presages of tho particular judgments which afterwards they have felt, of which tho lloman histories and others are full. That there are such things is undeniable, and that the events have been .Table to tho threatening, unless we will throw away all human testimonies, and count all the histories of the world forgeries. Such things are evidences of some invisible power which orders those affairs. And if there be invisible powers, there is also an cllicacious cause which moves them ; a government certainly there is among them as well as in the world, and then no to some Bupreme governor which presides over them. Judgments upon notorious offenders have been evident in all ages, the 3 many instances. I shall only mention that of Herod Agrippa, which Josephus* mentions. Ho receives the flattering applause

lit himself a god ; but by tho sudden stroke upon him

by his torture to confess another. Acts xii. 21-23. I am God,

Bsith he, in your account, but a higher calls me away ; the will of tho

eiily Deity is to bo endured. The angel ^i tho Lord smote him. The

:nent here was suit< d to the sin ; he that would be a god is eaten up of

Tully il , a Roman king, who com.'

it the most unroyal thing to be religious, or own any other God but sword, v. nned himself and his who) by lightning from I

Many things are unaccountable Unless we have recourse : I The

* I I :\.

strange revelations of murderers, that have most secretly committed thei crimes ; the making good some dreadful imprecations, which some wretche: have used to confirm a lie, and immediately have been struck with that judgment they wished; the raising often unexpected persons to be instruments of vengeance on a sinful and perfidious nation ; the overturning the deepest and surest counsels of men, when they have had a successful progress, and came to the very point of execution ; the whole design of men's preservation hath been beaten in pieces by some unforeseen circumstances, so that judgments have broken in upon them without control, and all their subtilties been outwitted; the strange crossing of some in their estates, though the most wise, industrious, and frugal persons, and that by strange and unexpected ways; and it is observable how often everything contributes to carry on a judgment intended, as if they rationally designed it. All those loudly proclaim a God in the world ; if there were no God, there would be no sin; if no sin, there would be no punishment.

2. In miracles. The course of nature is uniform, and when it is put out of its course it must be by some superior power invisible to the world, and by whatsoever invisible instruments they are wrought, the efficacy of them must depend upon some first cause above nature. Ps. lxxii. 18, ' Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only doth wondrous things,' by himself and his sole power.

That which cannot be the result of a natural cause, must be the result of something supernatural; what is beyond the reach of nature is the effect of a power superior to nature. For it is quite against the order of nature, and is the elevation of something to such a pitch, which all nature could not advance it to. Nature cannot go beyond its own limits; if it be determined by another, as hath been formerly proved, it cannot lift itself above itself without that power that so determined it. Natural agents act necessarily. The sun doth necessarily shine, fire doth necessarily burn. That cannot be the result of nature which is above the ability of nature. That cannot be the work of nature which is against the order of nature. Nature cannot do anything against itself, or invert its own course.

We must own that such things have been, or we must accuse all the records of former ages to be a pack of lies, which whosoever doth destroys the greatest and best part of human knowledge. The miracles mentioned ' in the Scripture, wrought by our Saviour, are acknowledged by the heathen, by the Jews at this day, though his greatest enemies. There is no dispute whether such things were wrought, the dead raised, the blind restored to sight. The heathens have acknowledged the miraculous eclipse of the sun at the passion of Christ, quite against the rule of nature, the moon being then in opposition to the sun ; the propagation of Christianity contrary to the methods whereby other religions have been propagated, that in a few years the nations of the world should be sprinkled with this doctrine, and give in a greater catalogue of martyrs courting the devouring flames than all the religions of the world.

To this might be added the strange hand that was over the Jews, the only people in the world professing the true God, that should so often be befriended by their conquerors, so as to rebuild their temple, though they were looked upon as a people apt to rebel. Dion and Seneca observe, that wherever they were transplanted they prospered and gave laws to the victors ; so that this proves also the authority of the Scripture, the truth of Christian religion, as well as the being of a God, and a superior power over the world.

To this might bo added the bridling the tumultuous passions of men for the preservation of human societies, which else would run the world into

unconceivable eonfi .. 7, 4 Which itilleth the d<

anil the tomolti of the i" ople ;' m al o th f a

or nation, Winn Dpon the very brink of ruin ; the «u r of

prayer when God bath boon bou bl to, and the turning away a judgment,

w Inch in r< iM in»t be expected 1 ml;

people from :i ruin which s. ■ imd movil

impliahmenl . Those things which are purely i

ut, and cam. n by Datura] 'I in tin up . as

pees and ch □ nations, which may b

oft] i of tho times, such things that fall not within this com]

they be foretold and c »loly froi higher hand, and

ire, Thi. in Scripture the trc l a. di, 'l'.), ' Shew the thing i thai

thai we may know that you an God;' ai I I l ■-1 % i. l<», i I am God, doclaru aing, and from ancient times, the thi

that arc no! ye1 done, Baying, My eounsel shall stand, and I will do all I prophecy was ated to by all the philosopher

i divine illumination. That power which < i, which

all the foresight of men cannot ken and eonj oture, is above nature. And to fori tell them so certainly as if they did aln ady exist, or had exist '1 1

>, must he the result of a mind infinitely intelligent; because it, is the

lies! way of knowing, and a higher cannot be imagined; and he that knows things future in Mich a manner must needs know things present and

•. Cyrus was prophesied of by Isaiah, chap. xliv. 28 and xlv., long bef lie was hem; his victories, spoils, all that should happen in Babylon, bis bounty to th . came to pass, according to thatpropheey; and the Bight

of that prophecy which the Jews shewed him, as other historians report, \ that which moved him to be favourable to the Jen ■

Ah Bander's sight of Daniel's prophecy concerning his victories moved him to spare Jerusalem. And are not the four monarchies plainly deciphered in that book, before tho fourth rose up in tho world ? That power which foretells things beyond tho reach of tho wit of man, and orders all Causes to bring about those predictions, must be an infinite power, the same that made tho world, sustains it and governs all things in it according to his pleasure, and to bring about his own ends ; and this being is God.

1. If atheism bo a folly, it is then pernicious to the world, and to the atheist himself. Wisdom is the band of human societies, the glory of man. Folly is the disturber of families, cities, nations, the disgrace of human nature.

1. It is pernicious to the world.

(1.) It would root out the foundations of government. It demolisheth all order in nations. The being of a God is the guard of the world. The sense of a God is the foundation of civil order ; without this there is no tie upon the consciences of men. What force would there bo in oaths for tho decisions of controversies, what right could there be in appeals made to one that had no being ? A city of atheists would bo a heap of confusion; there could be no ground of any commerce when all tho sacred bands of it in tho consciences of men were snapped a-under, which are torn to pieces and utterly destroy, 1 by denying the existence of God. What magistral

-eeure in his standing, what private person could bo secure in hisriirht?*

that then bo a truth that is destructive of all public good f If tho

atheist's sentiment, that there were no God, were a truth, and the contrary,

that there were a God, were a falsity, it would then follow that falsity made men

* Lcssiua do Provid., p CG5.

good and serviceable to one another; that error were the foundation of all the beauty, and order, and outward felicity of the world, the fountain of all good to man. If there were no God, to believe there is one would be an error, and to believe there is none would be the greatest wisdom, because it would be the"*greatest truth. And then as it is the greatest wisdom to fear God upon the apprehension of his existence, Ps. cxi. 10, so it would be the greatest error to fear him, if there were none. It would unquestionably follow, that error is the support of the world, the spring of all human advantages, and that every part of the world were obliged to a falsity for being a quiet habitation, which is the most absurd thing to imagine. It is a thing impossible to be tolerated by any prince, without laying an axe to the root of the government.

(2.) It would introduce all evil into the world. If you take away God, you take away conscience, and thereby all measures and rules of good and evil. And how could any laws be made when the measure and standard of them were removed ? All good laws are founded upon the dictates of conscience and reason, upon common sentiments in human nature, which spring from a sense of God; so that if the foundation be demolished, the whole superstructure must tumble down. A man might be a thief, a murderer, an adulterer, and could not in a strict sense be an offender. The worst of actions could not be evil if a man were a god to himself, a law to himself. Nothing but evil deserves a censure, and nothing would be evil if there were no God, the rector of the world, against whom evil is properly committed. No man can make that morally evil that is not so in itself. As where there is a faint sense of God, the heart is more strongly inclined to wickedness, so where there is no sense of God, the bars are removed, the flood-gates set open for all wickedness to rush in upon mankind. Religion pinions men from abominable practices, and restrains them from being slaves to their own passions; an atheist's arms would be loose to do anything.* Nothing so villanous and unjust but would be acted, if the natural fear of a deity were extinguished. The first consequence issuing from the apprehension of the existence of God, is his government of the world. If there be no God, then the natural consequence is that there is no supreme government of the world. Such a notion would cashier all sentiments of good, and be like a Trojan horse, whence all impurity, tyranny, and all sorts of mischiefs would break out upon mankind. Corruption and abominable works in the text are the fruit of the fool's persuasion that there is no God. The perverting of the ways of men, oppression, and extortion, owe their rise to a forgetfulness of God: Jer. iii. 21, ' They have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God;' Ezek. xxii. 12, ' Thou hast greedily gained by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord.' The whole earth would be filled with violence, all flesh would corrupt their way as it was before the deluge, when probably atheism did abound more than idolatry; and if not a disowning the being, yet denying the providence of God by the posterity of Cain, those of the family of Seth only calling upon the name of the Lord, Gen. vi. 11, 12 compared with Gen. iv. 2G.

The greatest sense of a deity in any hath been attended with the greatest innocence of life and usefulness to others, and a weaker sense hath been attended with a baser impurity.f If there were no God, blasphemy would be praiseworthy; as tho reproach of idols is praiseworthy, because we testify that there is no divinity in them. What can be more contemptible than that which hath no being ? Sin would bo only a false opinion of a * Lcssius do Frovid., p. GG4. f Lcssius de Provid., p. G65.

violated Law and an offended d I achapprehen ions prevail, whi

wide door is opened to the worsl of rill It there be do God, no

la 'liic to liim; all tho religion in the world ii ■ trifle and and

thus the pillars of all human . and that which hath made common-

[the tn flourish, are blows away.

Secondly, 2, It is pernicious tn the atheist himself. It' lie bar no future punishment, be can q< rd ; -'ill I'i i bo]

confined to a Bwini th and despicable manner of lit' 1 , without an of so much as a dram of i I happin . Be i ndition

than thr sillie t animal, which hath something t" pi i • it in il whereas an atbeisi can bays uothing here I bim a full content, no

more than any other man in the WOrldj and Can haTe actioE h

after, il.' deposetb the ooble end of his own being, which we God and haves satisfaction in bim, to seek a God ami In: rewarded by him; ami he that departs from this end, recedes from a nature. All tin:

content any creature finds is in performing its end, moving according to its

natural instinct; as it is a joy to tin; sun to run i; ■ race, Ps. xix. 5, in

the same manner it is a satisfaction t< ev< ry other creature, and its deb' to observe the law of its creation. What content can any man have that runs from his end, opposeth his own nature, denies a God by whom ami for whom he was created, whose image lie bears, which is the glory of his nature, ami sinks into the very dregs of brutishness? How elegantly is it described by Bildad: Jobxviii. 7, 8, &c, to the end, 'His own com shall east him down, terrors shall make him afraid on every side; destruction shall be ready at his side, the first-born of death shall devour his Btrength, His confidence shall be rooted out, and it shall bring him to tin; king of terrors: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. They that Conn afi< r him shall be astonished at his day, as they that went before were affrighted. And this is the place of hirn that knows not God.' If there be a future reckoning (as his own conscience cannot but sometimes inform him of), his condition is desperate, and his misery dreadful and unavoidable. It is not righteous a hell should entertain any else if it refuse him.

2. How lamentable is it that in our times this folly of atheism should be so rife ! that there should be found such monsters in human nature, in the midst of the improvements of reason and shinings of the gospel, who not only make the Scripture the matter of their jeers, but scoff at the judgments and providences of God in the world, and envy their Creator a being, without whose goodness they had had none themselves; who contradict in their carriage what they assert to be their sentiment, when they dreadfully imprecate damnation to themselves ! Whence should come that damnation they so rashly wish be poured forth upon them, if there were not a revenging God ? Formerly atheism was as rare as prodigious, scarce two or three known in an age. And those that are reported to be so in former ages, are rather thought to be counted so for mocking at the senseless deities the common people adored, and laying open their impurities. A mere natural Btrength would easily discover that those they adored for gods could not deserve that title, since their original was known, their uncleanncss rnani-

• ami acknowledged by their worshippers. And probably it was so, since the Christians w< re tinned ul-mi, as Justin informs us, because they acknowledged not their vain idols.

1 question whether there em r was or can be in the world an uninterru] and internal denial of the being of God, or that men (unless we c conscience utterly dead) can arrive to such a degree of impiety. For before

they can stifle such sentiments in them (whatsoever they may assert), they must be utter strangers to the common conceptions of reason, and despoil themselves of their own humanity. He that dares to deny a God with his lips, yet sets up something or other as a god in his heart. Is it not lamentable that this sacred truth, consented to by all nations, which is the band of civil societies, the source of all order in the world, should be denied with a bare face and disputed against in companies, and the glory of a wise Creator ascribed to an unintelligent nature, to blind chance ? Are not such worse than heathens ? They worshipped many gods, these none; they preserved a notion of God in the world under a disguise of images, these would banish him both from earth and heaven, and demolish the statues of him in their own consciences; they degraded him, these would destroy him; they coupled creatures with him—Rom. i. 25, 'Who worshipped the creature with the Creator,' as it may most properly be rendered. And these would make him worse than a creature, a mere nothing. Earth is hereby become worse than hell. Atheism is a persuasion, which finds no footing anywhere else. Hell, that receives such persons, in this point reforms them; they can never deny or doubt of his being while they feel his strokes. The devil, that rejoices at their wickedness, knows them to be in an error; for he 'believes, and trembles' at the belief, James ii. 19. This is a forerunner of judgment; boldness in sin is a presage of vengeance, especially when the honour of God is more particularly concerned therein. It tends to the overturning human society, taking off the bridle from the wicked inclinations of men. And God appears not in such visible judgments against sin immediately committed against himself, as in the case of those sins that are destructive to human society. Besides, God as governor of the world will uphold that, without which all his ordinances in the world would be useless. Atheism is point blank against all the glory of God in creation, and against all the glory of God in redemption, and pro-nounceth at one breath both the Creator and all acts of religion and divine institutions useless and insignificant.

Since most have had, one time or other, some risings of doubt, whether there be a God, though few do in expressions deny his being, it may not be unnecessary to propose some things for the further impressing this truth, and guarding themselves against such temptations.

1. It is utterly impossible to demonstrate there is no God. He can choose no medium, but will fall in as a proof for his existence, and a manifestation of his excellency rather than against it. The pretences of the atheist are so ridiculous, that they are not worth the mentioning.

They never saw God, and therefore know not how to believe such a being; they cannot comprehend him. He would not be God if he could fall within the narrow model of an human understanding; he would not be infinite if he were comprehensible, or to be terminated by our sight. How small a thing must that bo which is seen by a bodily eye, or grasped by a weak mind! If God were visible or comprehensible, he would be limited. Shall it bo a sufficient demonstration from a blind man that there is no fire in the room, because he sees it not, though ho feel the warmth of it ? The knowledge of the effect is sufficient to conclude the existence of the cause. Who ever saw his own life ? Is it sufficient to deny a man lives, because ho beholds not his life, and only knows it by his motion ? He never saw his own soul, but knows he hath one by his thinking power. The air renders itself sensible to men in its operations, yet was never seen by the eye.

If God should render himself visible, they might question as well as now

whether that which was so risible wen Ood of ome delusion. Lfhe should appear glorious, wo can an little bohold him in hi !'<• glory as an owl

can behold the too is its brightneee; we should still baft hoc him in his

effeot8, us WO do thi) Sim by hi; 1.rains'. It he should shew ;i in ,v miracle, hotild still sen him hill by hi see him in hit cnatuiv .

everj OOe Of Which WOUld I" I :i miracle can !»<• wroii-dit t i

one that, bed the ftrtl pro peel of them. To require to I, is to

require that which i. impossible: 1 Tun. \i. H'>, 'lb- dwells in the light which no man can approach unto; whom DO man li.it 11 1000, DOT SSI

It is vi ahle that in- 11, for'*he eoveri himself with Light as with ■ gsisesmV r . civ. '^; it : ible what he is, for 'he makes derki

place, 1 P . \.;n. ll. Nothing more dear to the eye than light, end nothing more diffionlt to the onderstanding than the nature of it; as I is tin 1 first objeel ohvious to the sye, so is dod the first object obvious to the understandings The srgnmenti mom nature <lo with si trengtb

evince Ins existence, than sny pretenees can manifest there u no Qod. No

man c.m SMOTC hims.lt' by any "ood reason there is nono; for M tor the 4 likeness of events to him that is righteous and him that is wicked, to him that sacriticeth and to him that sacriticet h not,' Kc-1.-. i\ 2, it is an argument for ;i reserve of judgment in another state, which every man's conscience dictates tO him, when the justice of God shall he glorified in another

world as much as his patience is in this.

'J. Whosoever doubts of it makes himself a mark, against which all the creatures fight. '

All the stars Foughi against Ksers for Israel; all the stars in heaven, and the dust OB earth, tight tor God against the atheist. He hath as many arguments againei him as there are creatures in the whole compass of heaven and earth. Be is most unreasonable that denies or doubts of that whose image and shadow lie sees round about him ; he raay sooner deny the sun that warms him. the moon that in the night walks in her brightness, deny the fruits he enjoys from earth, yea, and deny that he doth exist. He must t. ar his own conscience, fly from his own thoughts, be changed into the nature of a stone, which hath neither reason nor sense, before he can disengage himself from those arguments which evince the being of a God. He that would make the natural religion professed in the world a mere romance, must give the lie to the common sense of mankind ; he must be at an irreconcilable enmity with his own reason, resolve to hear nothing that it speaks, if he will not hear what it speaks in this case with a greater evidence than it can ascertain anything else. God hath so settled himself in the reason of man. that he must vilify the noblest faculty God hath given him, and put off nature itself, before he can blot out the notion of a God.

B. No ■'-, stion but those that have been so bold as to deny that there was a God have sometimes been much afraid they have been in an error, and ha ~t suspected there was a God, when some sudden prodigy

hath pn - nt. d itself to them and roused their fears. And whatsoever sentiments they might have in their blinding prosperity, they have had other kind of motions in them in their stormy atllictions, and, like Jonah's marii. have been ready to cry to him for help, whom they disdained to own so much ns in being while they swam in their pleasures. The thoughts of a d cannot be so extinguished but they will revive and rush upon a man. at under some sharp affliction. Amazing judgments will make them q

ir own appn ends somo DM I the

apprehension of him as a judge, while men resolve not to own i him as a governor. A man cunnut but keep a scent of what rn with

VOL. I. M

him; as a vessel that hath been seasoned first with a strong juice will preserve the scent of it, whatsoever liquors are afterwards put into it.

4. What is it for which such men rack their wits, to form notions that there is no God ? Is it not that they would indulge some vicious habit, which hath gained the possession of their soul, which they know cannot be favoured by that holy God, whose notion they would raze out? Ps. xciv. 6, 7. Is it not for some brutish affection, as degenerative of human nature, as derogatory to the glory of God ; a lust as unmanly as sinful ?

The terrors of God are the effects of guilt; and therefore men would wear out the apprehensions of a deity, that they might be brutish without control. They would fain believe there were no God, that they might not be men, but beasts. How great & folly is it to take so much pains in vain for a slavery and torment i to cast off that which they call a yoke for that whieh really is one ! There is more pains and toughness of soul requisite to shake off the apprehensions of God than to believe that he is, and cleave constantly to him. What a madness is it in any to take so much pains to be less than a man, by razing out the apprehensions of God, when with less pains he may be more than an earthly man, by cherishing the notions of God, and walking answerably thereunto.

5. How unreasonable is it for any man to hazard himself at this rate in the denial of a God ! The atheist saith he knows not that there is a God ; but may he not reasonably think there may be one for aught he knows ? And if there be, what a desperate confusion will he be in, when all his bravadoes shall prove false ! What can they gain by such an opinion ? A freedom, say they, from the burdensome yoke of conscience, a liberty to do what they list, that doth not subject them to divine laws. It is a hard matter to persuade any that they can gain this. They can gain but a sordid pleasure, unworthy the nature of man. But it were well that such would argue thus :—If there be a God, and I fear and obey him, I gain a happy eternity; but if there be no God, I lose nothing but my sordid lusts by firmly believing there is one. If I be deceived at last, and find a God, can I think to be rewarded by him for disowning him ? Do not I run a desperate hazard to lose his favour, his kingdom, and endless felieity, for an endless torment ? By confessing a God, I venture no loss ; but by denying him, I run the most desperate hazard if there be one.

He is not a reasonable creature that will not put himself upon such a reasonable arguing.

What a doleful meeting will there be between the God who is denied and the atheist that denies him, who shall meet with reproaches on God's part, and terrors of his own! All that he gains is a liberty to defile himself here, and a certainty to be despised hereafter, if he be in an error, as undoubtedly he is.

6. Can any such person say he hath done all that ho can to inform himself of the being of God, or of other things which he denies ? Or rather, they would fain imagine there is none, that they may sleep securely in their lusts, and be free (if they could) from the thunder-claps of conscience? Can such say they havo used their utmost endeavours to instruct themselves in this, and can meet with no satisfaction? Were it an abstruse truth, it might not bo wondered at; but not to meet with satisfaction in this which everything minds us of and hclpcth, is the fruit of an extreme negligence, stupidity, and a willingness to be unsatisfied, and a judicial process of God against them. It is strange any man should be so dark in that upon which depends the conduct of his life, and the expectation of happiness hereafter.

I do not know what some of you may think, but I believe these things

m do! bo be propo ed for on to an vex temptations. We

know not wliut wid ptation in b ;i '••, meeting

with i corrupt heart] n apt men to, and though thi any

etheisl here pri I lentally

Diet with suoh who opejUy denied And if the ion happen,

ons tatn n>»t b to apply to tl Bat

1 n. inee those that live in thi iment d<> not jn

themselves worthy of their own oare, they are aoi worthy of I • of

othen; and a uum must have all the oharity of th< l bioh

th« ■• o, not to confc tnn them, and i m to th

we are to pitj madmen, who sink onder an unavoidable distem] as much to abominats them who will fully bug thi

if it be the atheisVs tolly to deny or doubt of the i» ing G "1, it • Irmly settled in this truth, that God is. We should never be without our arms is an age wherein a

with.>ut :i <1

; may meel with tiona to it; though the devil formerly nj

attempted to demolish this notion in the world, but was willing to keep it up, st) the worship due to God might run in his own channel; and

i to preserve it, without which he could not erected that

idolatry which was his gri m in opposition to Godj y/et since the

foundations of that are torn up, and never Like to be rebuilt, lie i lea-

vour, us his last refuge, to banish the notion of God oul of the world, thai lie may reign as absolutely without it, as he did before by the mistakffs about the divine nature* But we must not lay all upon Satan ; the corruption of

our own hearts ministers matter to such sparks. Jt is not. Bald, Satan hath

> tin' fool, hut ' The fool hath said in hit heart, There is no God* 1

let them come from what principle soever, silence them quickly, givo

them their dismiss, oppose the whole scheme of nature to fight against

them, as tlif Btars did against Sisera. Stir up sentiments of conscience to opp timents of corruption. Resolve sooner to believe that yourselves

are not than that trod is not. And if you suppose they at any time como from Sat m, object to him that you know ho believes the contrary to what he BUggests. Settle this principle firmly in you, let us behold him that is invisible, as Moses did, Heb. xi. 27. Let us have the sentiments follow. upon the notion of a God, to be restrained by a fear of him, excited by S love to him, not to violate his laws and offend his goodness. He is not a God careless of our actions, negligent to inflict punishment and bestow rewards: ' He forgets not the labour of our love,' Heb. vi. 10, nor the in-ity of our ways. He were not a God if he were not a governor; and punishments and rewards are as essential to government as a foundation to a buil ii;.;. Ills being and his government in rewarding, Heb. xi. 6, which imp.it - punishment (for the neglects of him are linked together), are not* to be separated in our thoughts of him.

1. Without this truth filed in us, we can never give him the worship due to his name. When the knowledge of any thing is fluctuating and uncertain, our about it ai. 18. We r. gard not that which we think <;

Dot much COnc< HI OS. [fwt do Dot firmly believe there is a (rod, we shall i

him no Bteady worship ; and if we believe not tin ocy of his naJ

-h til oiler him i ; Mai. L 18, 14. 1

kiio f God, tl u and pillar oi

• Qu. which implies punishment for

•t of him, we linkc-1 together, and urt t Maimon. Fun

whole frame of religion is dissolved without this apprehension, and totters if this apprehension be wavering. Keligion in the heart is as water in a weather glass, which rises or falls according to the strength or weakness of this belief. How can any man worship that which he believes not to be, or doubts of ? Could any man omit the paying an homage to one whom he did believe to be an omnipotent, wise being, possessing (infinitely above our conceptions) the perfections of all creatures ? He must either think there is no such being, or that he is an easy, drowsy, inobservant God, and not such a one as our natural notions of him, if. listened to, as well as the Scripture, represent him to be.

2. Without being rooted in this, we cannot order our lives. All our baseness, stupidity, dulness, wanderings, vanity, spring from a wavering and un-settledness in this principle. This gives ground to brutish pleasures, not only to solicit but conquer us. Abraham expected violence in any place where God was not owned: Gen. xx. 11, ' Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake.' The natural knowledge of God firmly impressed, would choke that which would stifle our reason and deface our souls. The belief that God is, and what he is, would have a mighty influence to persuade us to a real religion, and serious consideration, and casting about how to be like to him and united with him.

3. Without it we cannot have any comfort of our lives. Who would willingly live in a stormy world, void of a God ? If we waver in this principle, to whom should we make our complaints in our afflictions ? Where should we meet with supports ? How could we satisfy ourselves with the hopes of a future happiness ? There is a sweetness in the meditation of his existence, and that he is a creator, Ps. civ. 24. Thoughts of other things have a bitterness mixed with them: houses, lands, children now are, shortly they will not be ; but God is, that made the world; his faithfulness as he is a creator, is a ground to deposit our souls and concerns in our innocent sufferings, 1 Peter iv. 19. So far as we are weak in the acknowledgment of God, we deprive ourselves of our content in the view of his infinite perfections.

4. Without the rooting of this principle, we cannot have a firm belief of Scripture. The Scripture will be a slight thing to one that hath weak sentiments of God. The belief of a God must necessarily precede the belief of any revelation ; the latter cannot take place without the former as the foundation. We must firmly believe the being of a God, wherein our happiness doth consist, before we can believe any means which conduct us to him. Moses begins with the author of creation, before he treats of the promise of redemption. Paul preached God as a creator to a university, before he preached Christ as mediator, Acts xvii. 24. What influence can the testimony of God have in his revelation upon one that doth not firmly assent to the truth of his being ? All would be in vain that is so often repeated, Thus saith the Lord, if we do not believe there is a Lord that speaks it. There could be no awe from his sovereignty in his commands, nor any comfortable taste of his goodness in his promises. The more we are strengthened in this principle, the more credit we shall be able to give to divine revelation, to rest in his promise, and to reverence his precept; the authority of all depends upon the being of the revealer.

To this purpose, since we have handled this discourse by natural arguments,

1. Study God in tho creatures as well as in the Scriptures. The primary use of the creatures, is to acknowledge God in them ; they were made to be witnesses of himself and his goodness, and heralds of his glory, which

glory of God as creator ' shall endure I Pi« (, ' v Bl« r J" 11:11 whole

psalm is ft l.riuiv of creation and providence. The woiidif asftoredtemple, man is [ntrodaeed to contemplate it, and behold with praise the glory of God in the pieeei of his art A - grace doth oof d itroy naive, to the book of redemption blol i not oat thai of creation. I [ad be not ihewn bimaehTin hie tares, h,. oonld never have shewn himself in his Ohri L The order of things required it. God must, be read wherever be ielegible; ilai tnrei are one book, wherein he bath wrii a pari of the 'excellency of bii name, 1 I's. viii. 9, as many artiste do in their works and watches. Q glory, Like the tilin Id, is too precious to be lost wherever it. dro]

nothing 10 vile and base in the world, bnt carries in it at instruction for man, and drives in further the notion of ft God. As he said of bis c

enter lure, sunt hir rtium />/"/, God disdains not this place, so the I

ereature speaks to man, every shrub in khe field, eyery Hy in the air, ev< limb in a body i Consider me, God disdains not to appear in me ; he batb

covered in DM his being and a part of his skill, as well ftS in the high*

The creatures manifest the being of God and part of his pi rfections. We

have indeed ft more excellent way, a revelation Betting him forth in a more excellent manner, a firmer object of dependence, ft brighter object of love, raising our hearts from self-confidence to a confidence m him. Though the

appearance of God in tho one bo clearer than in the other, yet neither is to be neglected. The Scripture directs us to nature to view God; it had been in vain else for the apostle to make use of natural arguments. Nature is not contrary to Scripture, nor Scripture to nature, unless wo should think God contrary to himself, who is the author of both.

'2. View God in your own experiences of him. There is a taste and sighi of his goodness, though no sight of his essence, Ps. xxxiv. 38. By the taste of his goodness you may know the reality of the fountain, whence it springs and from whence it Hows. This surpasseth the greatest capacity of a m natural' understanding. Experience of the sweetness of the ways of Chris-tianity is ft mighty preservative against atheism. Many a man knows not how to prove honey to be sweet by his reason, but by his sense ; and if all the reason in the world be brought against it, he will not be reasoned out of what he tastes.

Have not many found the delightful illapses of God into their souls, often sprinkled with his inward blessings upon their seeking of him ; had secret warnings in their approaches to him ; and gentle rebukes in their consciences upon their swervings from him ? Have not many found sometimes an invisible hand raising them up when they were dejected, some unexpected providence stepping in for their relief, and easily perceived that it could not be a work of chance, nor many times the intention of the instruments he hath used in it ? You have often found that he is, by finding that he is a rewarder, and can set to your seals that he is what he hath declared himself to be in bis word: Isa. xliii. 12, 'I have declared, and have saved, therefor.' you are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.' The secret touches of God upon the heart, and inward converses with him, are a greater evidence of the existence of a supremo and infinitely good being, than all nature.

/ L Is it a folly to deny or doubt of the being of God ? It is a folly also not to worship God, when we acknowledge his existence. It is our wisdom then to worship him. As it is not indifferent whether we believe tl: God or no, so it is not indifferent whether we will give honour to that I or no. A worship is his righl as he is the author of our h 1 toun-

sain of our happiness. By this only we acknowledge his deity. Though

profess his being, yet we deny that profession in neglects of worship. To deny him a worship is as great a folly as to deny his being. He that renounceth all homage to his Creator, envies him the being which he cannot deprive him of. The natural inclination to worship is as universal as the notion of a God; idolatry else had never gained footing in the world. The existence of God was never owned in any nation, but a worship of him was appointed; and many people who have turned their backs upon some other parts of the law of nature, have paid a continual homage to some superior and invisible being. The Jews gave a reason why man was created in the evening of the Sabbath, because he should begin his being with the worship of his Maker. As soon as ever he found himself to be a creature, his first solemn act should be a particular respect to his Creator. ' To fear God and keep his commandment, is the whole of man,' Eccles. xii. 13, oris 1 whole man' {Hebrew); he is not a man but a beast, without observance of God. Religion is as requisite as reason to complete a man. He were not reasonable if he were not religious; because by neglecting religion, he neglects the chiefest dictate of reason. Either God framed the world with so much order, elegancy, and variety, to no purpose, or this was his end at least, that reasonable creatures should admire him in it, and honour him for it. The notion of God was not stamped upon men, the shadows of God did not appear in the creatures to be the subject of an idle contemplation, but the motive of a due homage to God. He created the world for his glory, a people for himself, that he might have the honour of his works ; that since we live and move in him and by him, we should live and move to him and for him. It was the condemnation of the heathen world, that when they knew there was a God, they did not give him the glory due to him, Rom. i. 21. He that denies his being is an atheist to his essence: he that denies his worship is an atheist to his honour.

5. If it be a folly to deny the being of God, it will be our wisdom then, since we acknowledge his being, often to think of him. Thoughts are the first issue of a creature as reasonable, Prov. iv. 23. He that hath given us the faculty whereby we are able to think, should be the principal object about which the power of it should be exercised. It is a justice to God the author of our understandings, a justice to the nature of our understandings, that the noblest faculty should be employed about the most excellent object. Our minds are a beam from God; and therefore, as the beams of the sun, when they touch the earth, should reflect back upon God. As we seem to deny the being of God, not to think of him, we seem also to unsoul our souls, in misemploying the activity of them any other way: like flies, to be oftener on- dunghills than flowers.

It is made the black mark of an ungodly man or an atheist, that ' God is not in all his thoughts,' Ps. x. 4. What comfort can be had in the being of God without thinking of him with reverence and delight! A God forgotten is as good as no God to us.

PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

TV fool li'i'li Utid ni kU heart, There is jtn (,'nil. — I's. XIV. 1.

Doct* B, Practical atheism is natural to man in his depraved state, and vary frequent in the hearts and lives of men*

I The tool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' He regardi him as Little as if he had no being. Be said in his heart, not with his tongue, nor

in hifl head ; he never firmly thought it, nor openly asserted it; shame put I bar to the first, and natural reason to the second. Yet perhaps he had sometimes some doubts whether there were a God or no ; he wished there were noi any, and sometimes hoped there were none at all. He could not ra/.e out the notion of a deity in his mind, hut he neglected the fixing the Sense of God in his heart, and made it too much his business to deface and blot out those characters of God in his soul which had been left under the ruins of original nature.

Men may have atheistical hearts without atheistical heads. Their reasons may defend the notion of a deity, while their hearts are empty of atfection to the Deity ; Job's children may 'curse God in their hearts,' Job i. 5, though not with their lips.

' There is no God.' Most understand it of a denial of the providence of God, as I have said in opening the former doctrine.

II denies some essential attribute of God, or the exercise of that attribute in the world.*

Be that denies any essential attribute may be said to deny the being of God. Whosoever denies angels or men to have reason and will, denies the human and angelical nature, because understanding and will are essential to both those natures ; there could neither be angel nor man without them. No nature can subsist without the perfections essential to that nature, nor God be conceived of without his. The apostle tells us, Eph. ii. 12, that she Gentiles were 'without God in the world.' So in some sense all unbeliever! may be termed atheists; for rejecting the mediator appointed by God, they reject that God who appointed him.

But this is beyond the intended scope, natural atheism being the only subject ; yet this is deduoible from it, that the title of clCioi doth not only belong to those who denied th nco of God, or to those who contemn

all sense of ■ deity, and would root the conscience and reverence of God out of tin ir souls, but it bclongl also to these who give not that worship to ti i which IS due to him; who worship many gods, or who worship one

* Bo tli M3P/W Av 1 ! uea jtatmiat, denying the authority el

in the world.

God in a false and superstitious manner; when they have not right conceptions of God, nor intend an adoration of him according to the excellency of his nature. All those that are unconcerned for any particular religion fall under this character; though they own a God in general, yet are willing to acknowledge any god that shall be coined by the powers under whom they live. The Gentiles were without God in the world ; without the true notion of God, not without a god of their own framing.

This general or practical atheism is natural to men.

1. Not natural by created, but by corrupted, nature. It is against nature, as nature came out of the hand of God; but universally natural, as nature hath been sophisticated and infected by the serpent's breath. Inconsidera-tion of God, or misrepresentations of his nature, are as agreeable to corrupt nature as the disowning the being of a God is contrary to common reason. God is not denied naturd sed vitiis.*

2. It is universally natural: ' The wicked are estranged from the womb,' Ps. lviii. 2, ■ They go astray as soon as they be born, their poison is like the poison of a serpent.' The wicked ; and who by his birth hath a better title ? They go astray from the dictates of God and the rule of their creation as soon as ever they be born ; their poison is like the poison of a serpent, which is radically the same in all of the same species. It is semi-nally and fundamentally in all men, though there may be a stronger restraint by a divine hand upon some men than upon others. This principle runs through the whole stream of nature. The natural bent of every man's heart is distant from God; when we attempt anything pleasing to God, it is like the climbing up a hill against nature ; when anything is displeasing to him, it is like a current running down the channel in its natural course; when we attempt anything that is an acknowledgment of the holiness of God, we are fain to rush with arms in our hands through a multitude of natural passions, and fight the way through the oppositions of our own sensitive appetite. How softly do we naturally sink down into that which sets us at a greater distance from God ! There is no active, potent, efficacious sense of a God by nature. ' The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil,' Eccl. viii. 11; the heart in the singular number, as if there were but one common heart beat in all mankind, and bent, as with one pulse, with a joint consent and force to wickedness, without a sense of the authority of God in the earth; as if one heart acted every man in the world.

The great apostle cites the text to verify the charge he brought against all mankind, Rom. iii. 9-12. In his interpretation, the Jews, who owned one God, and were dignified with special privileges, as well as the Gentiles, that maintained many gods, are within the compass of this character. The apostle leaves out the first part of the text, ' The fool hath said in his heart,' but takes in the latter part, and the verses following. He charges all, because all, every man of them, was under sin : ' There is none that seeks God ;' and, ver. 19, he adds, * What the law saith, it speaks to those that are under the law,' that none should imagine he included only the Gentiles, and exempted the Jews from this description. The leprosy of atheism had infected the whole mass of human nature. No man among Jews or Gentiles did naturally seek God, and therefore all were void of any spark of the practical sense of the deity. The eil'ects of this atheism are not in all externally of an equal size ; yet, in tho fundamentals and radicals of it, there is not a hair's difference between tho best and the worst men that ever traversed the world. The distinction is laid either in the common grace, bounding and suppressing it; or in special grace, killing and crucifying it.

* Auguatin. do Civil. Dei.

ll il in e\.ry one cither triumphant. OT militant, man is any mom horn witl hie acknowledgments of God thun b<

bom with ;i clear know • i all the

plants upon Din earth. ' N. -n. r (rod.' NonS Seeks God aH

rule, a. hi i-ii. I. :i hi happiness, whirh is a • I• -1 • t tin rivalurv Dat

God ; be d Minion with God ; be places nil bappii

in anything inferior to <i<"l; he prefers everything before him, glorifies sverything above him; In-hath no delight t" Know him; he regardf not the w bieh I' ad to him ; be low

holiness; his actions air tinctured and dyed with lelf, and i of that

a Inch is due from him to ( «od.

noblest faculty of man, his understanding, wherein the remain-of tho image <>f <'<"! are risible, the highest open th.it faculty, which is wisdom, ii in the judgmenl of the Bpirit of i

rilish,' whiles it is * earthly and sensual,' James iii. L5« And the don of the besl man is uo better by nature; b legion of inrj

.•ss it; devilish as the devil, who though he belieVC then i- sG

as if there wen none, and wishes be bad m> superior to pi him a law, and inflict that punishment upon him which nil erinu merited. Hence the poison of man by nature is said to be like ' the poi of a serpent,' alluding to thai terpentine temptation which first infected man-kin.I, and changed the nature of man into 'he lifcynen of thai of the devil, T-. i\ in. I. Bo thai notwithstanding the harmony of the world, thai |

men not only with the notice of the being of ■ God, hut darts into

min.ls some remarks of h's power and eternity, thoughts and

of man an so corrupt, as may well be called diabolical, and as contrary to the perfection of God and the original law of their oal the

actings Of the devil are ; for since every natural man is a child of th

and l- act* d by the diabolical spirit, bo must n< i ds have- that nature which

his father hath, ami the infusion of that venom which the spirit that

- him is possessed with, though the full discovery of it may be restrai by various circumstances, Bph. ii. 2. To conclude: though no man, or at 1. ast Fi ry few, arrive to a round and positive conclusion in their hearts that there is no God, yet there is no man that naturally hath in his heart any reverence of God*

In general, before I come to a particular proof, take some propositions.

Prop. 1. Actions are a greater discovery of a principle than words. The

ay of works is louder and clearer than that of words, and the frame

of men's hearts must he measured rather by what they do than by what they

There may he a mighty distance between the tongue and the heart,

but • of actions is as little guilty of lying as interest is, according

our i i saying. All outward impieties are the branches of an atheism

at the root of our nature, as all pestilential son I an ex p r essions of the con-

>n in the blood. Sin is therefore frequently called ungodliness in our

lish dialect. .Men's practices are the best indexes of their prineij

The current of a man's life is the counterpart of the frame of his heart : who

can deny an error in the Spring or wheels, when he ] ■< rceives an error in

the hand of the dial? Who can deny atheism in the heart, when so much

risible in the life? The taste of the water discovers what mineral it

:ied through. A practical denial of God is worse than a verbal, because

\ e usually : -ion than words ; words may he thefruit

a. but a vil actions are the fruit and evidence of apT lomu

evil principle in the heart. All slighting words of a princi habitual treason, but a succession of overt b

settled treasonable disposition in the mind. Those, therefore, are more deservedly termed atheists, who acknowledge a God and walk as if there were none, than those (if there can be any such) that deny a God, and walk as if there were one.

A sense of God in the heart would burst out in the life. Where there is no reverence of God in the life, it is easily concluded there is less in the heart. What doth not influence a man when it hath the addition of the eyes and censures of outward spectators, and the care of a reputation (so much the god of the world), to strengthen it and restrain the action, must certainly have less power over the heart when it is single, without any other concurrence. The flames breaking out of a house discover the fire to be much stronger and fiercer within. The apostle judgeth those of the circumcision, who gave heed to Jewish fables, to be deniers of God, though he doth not tax them with any notorious profaneness: Tit. i. 10, ' They profess that they know God, but-in works they deny him ;' he gives them epithets contrary to what they arrogated to themselves.- They boasted themselves to be holy, the apostle calls them abominable. They bragged that they fulfilled the law, and observed the traditions of their fathers ; the apostle calls them disobedient, or unpersuadable. They boasted that they only had the rule of righteousness, and a sound judgment concerning it; the apostle said they had a reprobate sense, and unfit for any good work; and judges against all their vain-glorious brags, that they had not a reverence of God in their hearts; there was more of the denial of God in their works, than there was acknowledgment of God in their words. Those that have neither God in their thoughts, nor in their tongues, nor in their works, cannot properly be said to acknowledge him. Where the honour of God is not practically owned in the lives of men, the being of God is not sensibly acknowledged in the hearts of men. The principle must be of the same kind with the actions ; if the actions be atheistical, the principle of them can be no better.

Prop. 2. All sin is founded in a secret atheism. Atheism is the spirit of every sin; all the flood of impieties in the world break in at the gate of a secret atheism ; and though several sins may disagree with one another, yet like^Herod and Pilate against Christ, they join hand in hand against the interest of God. Though lusts and pleasures be divers, yet they are united in disobedience to him, Tit. iii. 3. All the wicked inclinations in the heart, and struggling motions, secret repinings, self-applauding confidences in our own wisdom, strength, &c, envy, ambition, revenge, are sparks from this latent fire ; the language of every one of these is, I would be a lord to myself, and would not have a God superior to me.

The variety of sins against the first and second table, the neglects of God, and violences against man, are derived from this in the text, first, ' The fool hath said in his heart,' and then follows a legion of devils. As all virtuous actions spring from an acknowledgment of God, so all vicious actions rise from a lurking denial of him. All licentiousness goes glib down where there is no sense of God. Abraham judged himself not secure from murder, nor his wife from defilement in Gerar, if there were no fear of God there, Gen. xx. 11. He that makes no conscience of sin has no regard to the honour, and consequently none to the being, of God. ' By the fear of God men depart from evil,' Prov. xvi. G. By the non-regarding of God men rush into evil. Pharaoh oppressed Israel because he knew not the Lord. If he did not deny the being of a deity, yet he had such an unworthy notion of God as was inconsistent with the nature of a deity; he, a poor creature, thought himself a mate for tho Creator.

# Illyric.

Tn rim <>f omission we own not God, in neglecting to perform what he

enjoins. In sins <>f commission we set up BOmS lust in tin- place Oi God,

and pay to thai lh< e which is due to our Maker, [n bothwedie-

own liim ; in the 0X16 1 | v. hat bfl OOmiDind , ill the other b

wli.it In' forbids,

w «• deny hi tj whan ws riolate I !|1S n "' : ~

ness when we oaei our filth before bii faa wiedoni w]

we eel tiji mother role si the guide of our aetioni than thai I bath

light liis sull'ici. ncy win n we DTI ■!'. r I 'ion in I in IN fare I

happiness in bun alone, and bis goodness, when w< enough to attract us to him. Every sir invades the i and

strips him of one or other of bis perfections, it is each s vilifying of I sj if he were not ( i< «1; ss if he were not the inpreme er< ator and benefactor of the world ; ai it" we bad not our being from him ; ai it' the air i bed

in. the food we lived by, WON our own by right of lUpl'« macy, not of dOUV

tion : for s subject to slight bis sovereign is to slight his royalty; or s \unt i master, is to deny his superiority.

Prop. B. Sin implies that (iod is unworthy of I being. Kvery sin ia a

kind ofenrsing God in the heart, Job i. 5; an aim at the destruction of the

being of (iod. not actually, hut virtually; not in the intention of l very sin-

. 1 ut in the nature of every sin. That affection which excites s man to break his law, would excite him to annihilate his being if it were in his

power, A man in cvtry sin aims to set up his own will as Ids rule, and his own glory as the end of his actions, against the will and glory of God ; and could a sinner attain his end, (led would be destroyed : God cannot out-live bis will and his glory; God cannot have another rule hut his own will, nor

another end hut his own honour, sin is sailed a ' turning the hack' upon

I, .1, r. \wii. 88; a ' kicking against him,' Deut. xxxii. 16 ; as if he were

a Blighter person than the meanest beggar. What greater contempt can be

shewed to the meanest, vilest person, than to turn the lack, lift up the heel, and thrust away with indignation? All which actions, though they signify that such a one hath a being, yet they testify also that he is unworthy of a being, that he is an unuseful being in the world, and that it were well the world were rid of him.

All sin against knowledge is called a reproach of God, Num. xv. 10, k. xx. 27. Keproach is a vilifying a man as unworthy to he admitted into company. We naturally judge (iod unlit to be conversed with. God is the term turned from by a sinner; sin is the term turned to; which implies a greater excellency in the nature of sin than in the nature of God. And as we naturally judge it more worthy to have a being in our affections, so consequently more worthy to have a being in the world, than that infinite nature from whom we derive our beings, and our all, and upon whom with a kind of disdain we turn our backs. Whosoever thinks the notion of a deity Unfit to be cherished in his mind by warm meditation, implies that he c not whether he hath a being in the world or no. Now though the light of a deity shines so clearly in man, and the stings of conscience are so smart, that he cannot absolutelv denv the being of a God, vet most men endeavour to smother this knowledge, and make the notion of a God a BUpleSfl and thing: Rom. i. 28, ' They like not to retain God in their knowled

I C ut out from the presence of the Lord. Gh U. iv. L6 ;

that is. from the worship I Our refusing or abhorring the presence

i man impli - whether he continue? in the world or no, it

is a using loin as if he had BO : lt -

Hence all men in Adam, under th m of the prodigal, I to go

into a far country. Not in respect of place, because of God's omnipresence, but in respect of acknowledgment and affection; they mind and love anything but God. And the descriptions of the nations of the world, lying in the ruins of Adam's fall, and the dregs of that revolt, is that they know not God; they forget God, as if there were no such being above them; and indeed, he that doth the works of the devil, owns the devil to be more worthy of observance, and consequently of a being, than God, whose nature he forgets, and whose presence he abhors.

Prop. 4. Every sin in its own nature would render God a foolish and impure being. Many transgressors esteem their acts, which are contrary to the law of God, both wise and good; if so, the law against which they are committed must be both foolish and impure. What a reflection is there then upon the law-giver! The moral law is not properly a mere act of God's will considered in itself, or a tyrannical edict, like those of whom it may well be said, stat pro ratione voluntas, but it commands those things which are good in their own nature, and prohibits those things which are in their own nature evil, and therefore is an act of his wisdom and righteousness, the result of his wise counsel, and an extract of his pure nature; as all the laws of just lawgivers are not only the acts of their will, but of a will governed by reason and justice, and for the good of the public, whereof they are conservators. If the moral commands of God were only acts of his will, and had not an intrinsic necessity, reason, and goodness, God might have commanded the quite contrary, and made a contrary law, whereby that which we now call vice might have been canonised for virtue; he naight then have forbid any worship of him, love to him, fear of his name; he might then have commanded murders, thefts, adulteries. In the first, he would have united the link of duty from the creature, and dissolved the obligations of creatures to him, which is impossible to be conceived ; for from the relation of a creature to God, obligations to God, and duties upon those obligations, do necessarily result. It had been against the rule of goodness and justice to have commanded the creature not to love him, and fear and obey him; this had been a command against righteousness, goodness, and intrinsic obligations to gratitude. And should murder, adulteries, rapines have been commanded instead of the contrary, God would have destroyed his own creation; he would have acted against the rule of goodness and order; he had been an unjust tyrannical governor of the world; public society would have been cracked in pieces, and the world become a shambles, a brothel house, a place below the common sentiments of a mere man. All sin therefore being against the law of God, the wisdom and holy rectitude of God's nature is denied in every act of disobedience. And what is the consequence of this, but that God is both foolish and unrighteous in commanding that which was neither an act of wisdom as a governor, nor an act of goodness as a benefactor to his creature ?

As was said before, presumptuous sins are called reproaches of God: Num. xv. 30, ' The soul that doth aught presumptuously reproacheth the Lord.' Reproaches of men are either for natural, moral, or intellectual defects. All reproaches of God must imply a charge either of unrighteousness or ignorance ; if of unrighteousness, it is a denial of his holiness ; if of ignorance, it is a blemishing his wisdom. If God's laws were not wise and holy, God would not enjoin them ; and if they are so, we deny infinite wisdom and holiness in (iod by not complying with them. As when a man believes not God when he promises, he ' makes him a liar,' 1 John v. 10, so he that obeys not a wise and holy God commanding, makes him guilty either of folly or unrighteousness.

Now, HtippoBo vim l.n. m to ibfoloi6 atheist, who denied tl. • of a

' hud a life IV. ■<■ tVnin any DOtOI t <.r d. f i 1 • -111«-111, would JTOO in

on counl him ho bad as tlu< otln r tl God in being, y< I I

his coiirsi' i»t' action, such a hlack imputation of folly au«l impiinl v Dpon the

God he prof* otli to own, an imputation which

toable oreature '■' Prop. 6* Bin in itH own naturo endeavour to render Gi It] r-

able being. It is nothing bul an opposition to the will of God. 'J'tn: i of do croaturo is so much contradict d at the will'of God I

men; and there is nothing ander the heavens thai the aflfections of bun nature tend more point blank again t, than againsl God. 'i slight of him in all the faculties of man; onr onJ anwillit

him m onr wills an i to follow him: Bom. Tiii. 7,' The earnal mind

■liiist God ; it is not subject tn the law of Godj dot oan be iub-jeet. 1 It is true (!. ..rs will caiuii'! be hindered ofil . for then God

would not be supremely blessed, hot unhappy and miserable ; all mi ariseth from a want of thai which a nature would have and o i hi to ha

. it' anything could era I I id's will, it would be sup. rior to him ;

i would not be omnipotent, and so would lose the perfection of the deity, and consequently the deity itself; for thai which did wholly defeat God's will would be more powerful than he. r.ut sin is a contradiction to the will of God's revelation j to the will of his precept, and therein doth naturally tend to a superiority over God, and would usurp his omnipotence, and deprive him of his blessodnoos. Poi if God had not an infinite power to turn the designs <>i' it to his own glory, bfri tho will of sin could prevail,

I would be totally deprived of his blessedness. Doth riot sin endeavour

to subject God to the extravagant and contrary wills of men, and make him more I slaw than any creature can be ? For the will of no creature, not the meanest and moat despicable creature, is so much crossed as the will of I

is bj sin : Isa. xliii. 24, ' Thou hast made me to SCTVC with thy sins ; ' thou hast end.avour.d to make a mere slave of me by sin. Sin endeavours to subject the blessed (iod to the humour and lust of every person in the world. Prop. •'». Men BOOM times in some circumstances do wish the not beil

1. This some think to be tho meaning of the text, * The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God ; ' that is, he wishes there were no God. Many tamper with their own hearts to bring them to a persuasion that there is DO God, and when they cannot do that, they conjure up wishes that tl. were none. Men naturally have some conscience of sin, and some notices of justice : Horn. i. 82, ' They know the judgment of God,' and they know the demerit of sin ; they know the judgment of God, and ' that they which do such things are worthy of death.' What is tho consequent of this but

r of punishment ? and what is the issue of that fear but a wishing the judge either unwilling or unable to vindicate the honour of his violated lav. 0

W: an G Lis the object of such a wish, it is a virtual undeifying of him. N tto 1 able to punish, is to be impotent : not to be will;-to be unjust: imperfections inconsistent with the deity. God eannoi sui rithoot an infinite power to act, and an infinite righteousness ns

the rule of acting. Fear of God is natural to all men; not isg him, but a bar of being punished by him. The wishing the i rtinotion of God has its degree in men, aoo owKii g to the degree of their fears of his knee ; and though such a wish be not in its m< ri lian 1 at in

•uned in hell, yet it hath its starts and D

:i the earth. ok ofv '.hat there were no

I, or that God were destroyed, do fall,—

1. Terrified consciences, that are mayor missahib* see nothing but matter

of fear round about. As they have lived without the bounds of the law, they

are afraid to fall under the stroke of his justice ; fear wishes the destruction

of that which it apprehends hurtful. It considers him as a God to whom

'vengeance belongs,' as the 'judge of all the earth,' Ps. xciv. 1, 2. The

less hopes such a one hath of his pardon, the more joy he would have to

hear that his judge should be stripped of his life ; he would entertain with

delight any reasons that might support him in the conceit that there were

no God; in his present state, such a doctrine would be his security from an

account; he would as much rejoice if there were no God to inflame a hell

for him, as any guilty malefactor would if there were no judge to order a

gibbet for him. Shame may bridle men's words, but the heart will be

casting about for some arguments this way to secure itself. Such as are

at any time in Spira's case, would be willing to cease to be creatures, that

God might cease to be judge. ' The fool hath said in his heart, there is

no Elohim,' no judge, fancying God without any exercise of his judicial

authority. And there is not any wicked man under anguish of spirit, but,

were it within the reach of his power, would take away the life of God, and

rid himself of his fears by destroying his avenger.

2. Debauched persons are not without such wishes sometimes. An obstinate servant wishes his master's death, from whom he expects correction for his debaucheries. As man stands in his corrupt nature, it is impossible but one time or other most debauched persons, at least have some kind of velleities, or imperfect wishes. It is as natural to men to abhor those things which are unsuitable and troublesome, as it is to please themselves in things agreeable to their minds and humours. And since man is so deeply in love with sin, as to count it the most estimable good, he cannot but wish the abolition of that law which checks it, and consequently the change of the lawgiver which enacted it; and in wishing a change in the holy nature of God, he wishes a destruction of God, who could not be God, if he ceased to be immutably holy. They do as certainly wish, that God had not a holy will to command them, as despairing souls wish, that God had not a righteous will to punish them ; and to wish conscience extinct for the molestations they receive from it, is to wish the power conscience represents out of the world also.

Since the state of sinners is a state of distance from God, and the language of sinners to God is, ' Depart from us,' Job xxi. 14, they desire as little the continuance of his being as they desire the knowledge of his ways. The same reason which moves them to desire God's distance from them, would move them to desire God's not being. Since the greatest distance would be most agreeable to them, the destruction of God must be so too; because there is no greater distance from us, than in not being. Men would rather have God not to be, than themselves under control, that sensuality might range at pleasure. He is like a ' heifer sliding from the yoke,' Hosea iv. 16. The cursing of God in the heart, feared by Job of his children, intimates a wishing God despoiled of his authority, that their pleasure might not be damped by his law ; besides, is there any natural man that sins against actuated knowledge, but either thinks or wishes that God might not see him, that God might not, know his actions ? And is not this to wish the destruction of God, who could not bo God unless he were immense and omniscient?

8. Under this rank fall those who perform external duties only out of a principle of slavish fear. Many men perform those duties that the law enjoins, with the same sentiments thai slaves perform their drudgery, and are * That is, nUDtt "to, J or. xx. 3.— Ed.

Bonttrained la their datiei bj do other bat thote of the whip

Hid the cudgel. Sinco, tin r. fore, they do it with reloei ad leeretlj

murmur wli >. mi t I -m-

mands 'ailed, uml tli. : commands them wcm in ano:

world. The spirit of i ther, s

Spirit of I "ii ia■'■• i nl) > yes him as u ju. I■'■•. 'I : •. :

■operiors m tyrannical, will do! be Diooh concerned in th<

DUO would ho more i^lad to have Lheii I, than \>t<. umli r p< rpetual

| II | ! tli. in.

Many men regard not the infinite goodness in lln ir of hirn, hut

!■ him H emeli tj rannioal, injnriooj to their liberty. Adam's po '«rity !iir ■ from the sentiments of their common lath

You know what conceit was the hammer whereby the belli D Jftel

struck the nail into our first parents, which cnv.;.. I d(

the same imagination to all their posterity: Gen. in. 5, • C thai

in the day yon eat thereof, tout eyei shall be opened, and yon shall ho aa

la, knowing good and eril* 1 Alas, poor souls! (io.l knew what he did

when lie forbade yon that frail ; he wai jealona yon ihoold be too happy ; it

■ eroelty in him to deprive you a food so pleasant and delicious. I

apprehension of the severity of God's commands rieeth np no Leas in

that then were DO ( k)d "V. r us, than Adam's appfehenaJOM of < nvv in d 1,

for the restraint of one tree moved him to attempt to he equal with God ;

fear is as powerful to prodoos the one in his posterity, as pride was to produce the other in the common root Wh.n we apprehend i thing hurtful

to us, we di I much evil to it, as may render it uncapable of d

the hurt we f. ar. As we uim the preservation of what we love or hope tor, ■0 we are naturally apt to wish the not being of that whence wo feai hurt or trouble. We moat not nnderstand this as if any man did formally Wish the de-truetion of Gtod, SS God. God in liimself is an infinite mirror of goodness and ravishing loveliness. Ho is infinitely good, and so universally pood, and nothing bat good, and is therefore so agreeable to a creature, I creature, that it is impossihle that the creature, while it bears itself to God as a creature, should he guilty of this, but thirst after him and cherish

iv motion to him. As no man wishes the destruction of any creature. a creature, but as it may conduce to something which ho counts may be al to himself, so no man doth, nor perhaps can wish the cessation of the Icing of God, as God ; for then he must wish his own being to ceaso also; but as ho considers him clothed with some perfection-, which he appr. I:■ injurious to him ; as his holiness in forbidding sin, his joel

in punishing sin. And God being judged in those perfections contrary to what the revolted creature thinks convenient and good for liimself, he may h God I of those perfections, that thereby he may be free from all

• of trouble and grief from him in his fallen state. In wishing God deprived of thi Be, he w od deprived of his being, because God cannot without a love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity ; and he could 1 v his love to the one, or his loathing of the other, without 0688, and witnessing his anger against iniquity.

l. • foes, i nd examine our own eonaeienei &, Di I

we nev. r ] sometimes in the thoughts, how happy we sh

bo, how free in our vain pleasures, if there were no G

trol, subject to no law 1 at oar own, nnd be guided by no will I flesh? Did w< ■

< . ■ 'I >m i

will to comma I his righteous will to punis.h, &

Thus much for the general.

For the proof of this, many considerations will bring in evidence ; most may be reduced to these two generals.

Man would set himself up, first, as his own rule ; secondly, as his own end and happiness.

I. Man would set himself up as his own rule instead of God. This will be evidenced in this method.

1. Man naturally disowns the rule God sets him.

2. He owns any other rule rather than that of God's prescribing.

3. These he doth in order to the setting himself up as his own rule.

4. He makes himself not only his own rule, but would make himself the rule of God, and give laws to his creator.

1. Man naturally disowns the rule God sets him. It is all one to deny his royalty and to deny his being. When we disown his authority, we disown his Godhead. It is the right of God to be the sovereign of his Creatures ; and it must be a very loose and trivial assent that such men have to God's superiority over them (and consequently to the excellency of his beinc, upon which that authority is founded), who are scarce at ease in themselves, but when they are invading his rights, breaking his bands, casting away his cords, and contradicting his will.

Every man naturally is a son of Belial, would be without a yoke, and leap over God's enclosures ; and in breaking oat against his sovereignty, we disown his being as God. For to be God and sovereign are inseparable ; he could not be God, if he were not supreme; nor could he be a creator without being a lawgiver. To be God, and yet inferior to another, is a contradiction. To make rational creatures without prescribing them a law, is to make them without holiness, wisdom, and goodness.

(1.) There is in man naturally an unwillingness to have any acquaintance with the rule God sets him : Ps. xiv. 2, ' None that did understand and seek God.' The ' refusing instruction,' and ' casting his word behind the back,' is a part of atheism, Ps. 1. 17. We are heavy in hearing the instructions either of law or gospel, Heb. v. 11, 12, and slow in the apprehension of what we hear. The people that God had hedged in from the wilderness of the world for his own garden were foolish, and did not know God; were sottish, and had no understanding of him, Jer. iv. 22. The law of God is accounted a strange thing, Hos. viii. 12, a thing of a different climate and a far country from the heart of man, wherewith the mind of man had no natural acquaintance, and had no desire to have any, or they regarded it as a sordid thing. What God accounts great and valuable, they account mean and despicable. Men may shew a civility to a stranger, but scarce contract an intimacy; there can be no amicable agreement between the holy will of God and the heart of a depraved creature : one is holy, the other unholy; one is universally good, the other stark naught. The purity of the divine rule renders it nauseous to the impurity of a carnal heart. Water and fire may as well friendly kiss each other and live together without quarrelling and hissing, as the holy will of God and the unregenerate heart of a fallen creature.

The nauseating a holy rule is an evidence of atheism in the heart, as the nauseating wholesome food is of putrified phlegm in the stomach. It is found more or less in every Christian, in the remainders, though not in a full empire. As there is a law in his mind whereby he delights in the law of God, so there is a law in his members whereby he wars against the law of God, Kom. vii. 22, 23, 25. How predominant is this loathing of the law of God, when corrupt nature is in its full strength, without any principle to

control it! Than is in the mind of sue)) i orif s darkness whereby U ignorant <»r it, and in the will i d ep r a vodnesi whereby it is repu i it.

If man wen naturally willii [end able to in intimate atanee

with, and delighl in the It■■ fG I, I ; l not bi J favourfbr

i to promise t<> write the law in the b< irt. a man d • r engi

the chronicle of a whole nation, ot all the God in the Seriptore,

npon the harde I marble with nil bare finger, than wi ijllable of the

law of God in i ipiritnal manner npon hie heart* For,

1. Mi ii :n nt m ii in" the ni« 'in i for the 1 i G will. All natural men are (bole, who know not, bow to use the ' pric God pntfl into their hands,' Prov. ivii. ic>; theyptd not i dne < timate a] opportnnitiefl and meani of grace, and aoeonnt thai law folly which ii the birth of an infinite and holy wisdom. The knowledge of God whiefa they may glean from oreatnree, and ii more pleasant to the natural

is not improved to the glory of < J<ni , if we will believe the indietmenl the itle brings againsi the Gentfles, Rom. i. 21. And most of those that have dived into the depths of nature, have been more studious of the qualities of the creatures than of the excellency of the nature, or the d y of the mind of God in them; who regard only the rising and motions of tho star, bul follow not with the wise nun, its conduct to the king of the Jews* How often do we see men filled with an eager thirst for all other kind of knowledge, thai eannol acquiesce in a twilight discovery, but are inquisitive into the and reasons of effects, yet are contented with a weak and [uishing knowledge of God and his law, and are easily tired with tho proposals (^' them.

Hi' now that nauseates the means whereby ho may come to know and obey God, has no intention to make the law of (rod his rule. There is no man that intends seriously an end, hut he intends means in order to that end ; as when a man intends the preservation or recovery of his health, he will intend means in order to those ends, otherwise he cannot be said to intend his health. So he that is not diligent in using means to know the mind of (rod, has no sound intention to make the will and law of God his rule. Is not the inquiry after the will of God made a work by the by, and fain to laoquey after other concerns of an inferior nature, if it hath any place at all in the soul? which is a despising the being of God. The notion of the sovereignty of God bears the same date with the notion of hi I i:

and by the same way that he reveals himself, he reveals his authority over DS), whether it be by creatures without, or conscience within. All authority Over rational creatures consists in commanding and directing; the duty of rational creatures, in compliance with that authority, consists in obeying. Where there is therefore a careless neglect of those means which convey the knew!. a will and our duty, there is an utter disowning of God as

our 'i and our rule.

2. When any part of the mind and will of God breaks in upon men, they endeavour to shake it off; as a man would a sergeant that comes to arrest him : ■ They like not to retain God in their knowledg •.' 11 »m. i. 28. 1 A natural msj ie things of the Spirit of God ;' that is, into his affection : I th them back as men do troublesome and imp >rtunate

They have no kindness to bestow upon it. They thrust \\ shoulders:! the truth .hen it ; i in upon them; and

dash as mnch i ' upon it as the Pharisees did upon the doctrine

iour di their oovetonsneee. As men naturally

without God in the WOT I to be without any

God in their thoughts. Since the spiritual palate of man

VOL. I. I

truth is unsavoury and ungrateful to us, till our taste and relish is restored by grace. Hence men damp and quench the motions of the Spirit to obedience and compliance with the dictates of God ; strip them of their life and vigour, and kill them in the womb. How unable are our memories to retain the substance of spiritual truth, but like sand in a glass, put in at one part and runs out at the other! Have not many a secret wish that the Scripture had never mentioned some truths, or that they were blotted out of the Bible, because they face their consciences, and discourage those boiling lusts they would with eagerness and delight pursue ? Methinks that interruption John gives our Saviour, when he was upon the reproof of their pride, looks little better than a design to divert him from a discourse so much against the grain, by telling him a story of their prohibiting one to cast out devils, because he followed not them, Mark ix. 33, 38. How glad are men when they can raise a battery against a command of God, and raise some smart objection, whereby they may shelter themselves from the strictness of it!

[3.] When men cannot shake off the notices of the will and mind of God, they have no pleasure in the consideration of them; which could not possibly be, if there were a real and fixed design to own the mind and law of God as our rule. Subjects or servants that love to obey their prince and master, will delight to read and execute their orders. The devils understand the law of God in their minds, but they loathe the impressions of it upon their wills. Those miserable spirits are bound in chains of darkness, evil habits in their wills, that they have not a thought of obeying that law they know. It was an unclean beast under the law that did not chew the cud ; it is a corrupt heart that doth not chew truth by meditation. A natural man is said not to know God, or the things of God; he may know them notion ally, but he knows them not affectionately. A sensual soul can have no delight in a spiritual law. To be sensual and not to have the Spirit are inseparable, Jude 19.

Natural men may indeed meditate upon the law and truth of God, but without delight in it; if they take any pleasure in it, it is only as it is knowledge, not as it is a rule ; for we delight in nothing that we desire, but upon the same account that we desire it. Natural men desire to know God and some part of his will and law, not out of a sense of their practical excellency, but a natural thirst after knowledge ; and if they have a delight, it is in the act of knowing, not in the object known, not in the duties that stream from that knowledge ; they design the furnishing their understandings, not the quickening their affections; like idle boys that strike fire, not to warm themselves by the heat, but sport themselves with the sparks; whereas a gracious soul accounts not only his meditation, or the operations of his soul about God and his will to be sweet, but he hath a joy in the object of that meditation, Ps. civ. 34. Many have the knowledge of God, who have no delight in him or his will. Owls have eyes to perceive that there is a sun, but by reason of the weakness of their sight have no pleasure to look upon a beam of it; so neither can a man by nature love or delight in the will of God, because of his natural corruption. That law that riseth up in men for conviction and instruction, they keep down under the power of corruption, making their souls not the sanctuary, but prison of truth, Rom. i. 18. They will keep it down in their hearts, if they cannot keep it out of their heads, and will not endeavour to know and taste the spirit of it.

[4.J There is further a rising and swelling of the heart against the will of God. (1.) Internal. God's law cast against a hard heart is like a ball thrown against a stone wall, by reason of the resistance rebounding the further from it. Tho meeting of a divine truth and the heart of man, is

. I \ . 1 . I'HACTICAL AIJN.lHM.

like the meeting of two tidee, tin weaker swells lad foams, i o

natural anti|i:itliy i u di\ine mi.-, ami Liu when [til olapp 1

i our 001 against it,

option breaki ont mort strongly ; m on lime

lire by an antipen . and the mote . the eqom

farioualy it bnrni ; or ipon i dunghill makes tbi

ma the thicker and the itefioh the i er, noil poeil

moke hi the lime, or the atench in the dunghill, bat lent the i eruption : Bom. rii. 8, * 11

by the eommendment, wrought in me all manner of c tor

without the law nn lead.' Bin waa in ■ langniahii fit

on in a city, till upon an alarm from the

ad reii■■ ; -'ill the nn in tin; b

r its force to maintain ;-1111• r , like the rapoura of the

it, which unite themselv< i more olo i ly to ing

■on. Deep conviction often provokes neros opposition; aometiinea diapui

is! a divino rulo end in blasphemiei! Aets liii. 46, ' Contra and

blaspheming* are ooopli her. Men naturally de ire thing that are

forbidden, and reject things commanded, from the oorrnption of natare f whieh affects an unbounded liberty, and is impatient of returning under thai yoke it hath shaken off, and there! ii b! the ban of the law, ai

tlic waves roar against the restraint of a bank. When the nndei dark and tho mind ignorant, sin lies aa dead : ' A man icaree knowa he hath Bueh motions of conenpiaoenee in him, be finda not the least breath of wind, but a full calm in his soul; but when be ia awakened by the law, ti the viciouaness of nature being sensible of an invasion ofita empire, arms ?ine law, and the more the command is urged, the more \ rously it bends tie strength, and more insolently lifts Up itself against it.'* He pereeivea more and more atheistical lusts than before; ' all manner of concupiscence,' more leprous and contagious than before. "When there are any motions to turn to God, a reluctancy is presently perceived ; athe-al thoughts bluster in the mind like the wind, they know not whence they eome nor whither they go, so unapt is the heart to any acknowledgment of Gud as bis ruler, and any reunion with him. Hence men are said to 4 resist the Holy Ghost,' Acts vii. 51, to fall against it, a3 the word signifies, i stone or any ponderous body falls against that which lies in its way ; they would da^h to pieces or grind to powder that very motion which is made for their instruction, and tho Spirit too which makes it, and that not from a lit of passion, but an habitual repugnance. ■ Ye alw

al, it is a fruit of atheism, in tho fourth verso of this Psalm : 1 Who < it up my people as they eat bread. 1 How do the revelations of the mind of God meet with opposition! And the carnal world like dogs bark the shining of the moon! So mueh men hate the light, that they spurn at tl rna that bear it; and because they cannot endure tho

-ure, often tlingthc earthen vessels against the ground wherein it is held. [ftheentl I truth render the market worse for Diana's shrines, tho

whole city will be in an uproar, Acts xix. 2 1, 28, 29. When Socrates upon

oral pri: athen idolatry, and asserted the unit]

G I, the who! as, a learned university, ia it him.

I i the pul lie received religion, though with an undoul

truth, he must end his 1 .How hath every earner ot the

world steamed with the blood i ;t would maintain the authori;

* Thea Bahamr. D Bj Irita Benitutb, That 19.

God in the world! The devil's children will follow the steps of their father, and endeavour to bruise the heel of divine truth, that would endeavour to break the head of corrupt lust.

[5.] Men often seem desirous to be acquainted with the will of God, not out of any respect to his will and to make it their rule, but upon some other consideration. Truth is scarce received as truth. There is more of hypocrisy than sincerity in the pale of the church, and attendance on the mind of God. The outward dowry of a religious profession makes it often more desirable than the beauty. Judas was a follower of Christ for the bag, not out of any affection to the divine revelation. Men sometimes pretend a desire to be acquainted with the will of God, to satisfy their own passions, rather than to conform to God's will. The religion of such is not the judgment of the man, but the passion of the brute. Many entertain a doctrine for the person's sake, rather than a person for the doctrine's sake, and believe a thing because it comes from a man they esteem, as if his lips were more canonical than Scripture.

The apostle implies in the commendation he gives the Thessalonians, 1 Thes. ii. 13, that some receive the word for human interest, not ' as it is in truth the word and will of God,' to command and govern their consciences by its sovereign authority; or else they 'have the truth of God' (as St James speaks of the faith of Christ) ' with respect of persons,' James ii. 1, and receive it not for the sake of the fountain, but of the channel; so that many times the same truth delivered by another is disregarded, which when dropping from the fancy and mouth of a man's own idol, is cried up as an oracle. This is to make not God, but man, the rule ; for though we entertain that which materially is the truth of God, yet not formally as his truth, but as conveyed by one we affect; and that we receive a truth and not an error, we owe the obligation to the honesty of the instrument, and not to the strength and clearness of our own judgment. Wrong considerations may give admittance to an unclean as well as a clean beast into the ark of the soul; that which is contrary to the mind of God may be entertained as well as that which is agreeable. It is all one to such, that have no respect to God, what they have ; as it is all one to a spunge to suck up the foulest water or the sweetest w T ine, when either is applied to it.

[6.J Many that entertain the notions of the will and mind of God admit them with unsettled and wavering affections. There is a great levity in the heart of man. The Jews that one day applaud our Saviour w T ith Hosannahs as their king, vote his crucifixion the next, and use him as a murderer. We begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh. Our hearts, like lute-strings, are changed with every change of weather, with every appearance of a temptation; scarce one motion of God in a thousand prevails with us for a settled abode. It is a hard task to make a signature of those truths upon our affections, which will with ease pass current with our understandings; our affections will as soon loose them as our understandings embrace them. The heart of man is unstable as water, Gen. xlix. 4, James i. 8. Some were willing to rejoice in John's light, which reflected a lustre on their minds, but not in his heat, which would have conveyed a warmth to their hearts; and the light was pleasing to them but for a season, John v. 35, while their corruptions lay as if they were dead, not when they were awakened. Truth may be admitted one day, and the next day rejected. As Austin saith of a wicked man, he loves the truth shining, hut ho hates the truth reproving. This is not to make God, but our own humour, our rule and measure.

[7.] Many desire an acquaintance with the law and truth of God, with a design to improve somo lust by it, to turn the word of God to bo a pander

to the breach of hii law. This ii so hi from making God's will our rule, thai we make oui own \ ill law, I [ow manj

interpn to the lusts of

in. ii, .111,1 tin- divine rule (broad I and be Mjuai loo e and

oarnal approhonaionaI It. h i pari of the instability the

hoart to ' w re! the Scrij ' i their o ili. 1''.

wliidi they oonld Doi dO| If they did ool Ii I wring thorn to countenance some deb table error or filthy crime, (npai the first interpretation

made of the Aral law of God wai point blank against the mind of the I

I venomous to the whole raoe of mankind. Pan! him • that

some ini [hi put bis doetrii o ill ansa, and

lelter their preeomption: Elom. \i. 1, 10, 'Shall ■•■ oontinae in sin, that grace may abound?' Poiaonom 001

a drawn from tl I troths; aewhen God's pa t ie n ceiamad 1

t ipio whenee to irgne Against his providence, Ps. id?. I, or an enoonri in. nt to oommil evil more gre< cLily s u thongb b cause be ha 1 not presently 1 revengin [ ban 1. be had not an all-seeing eye ; or when tin: doctrine of justification by (kith ia made ose of to depress a holy lift ; or God's rsadi-to receive returning sinners an an ement to defer rep till

a death bed. A liar will hunt for shelter in the reward 1 the

midwives that lied to Pharaoh for the pn ion of the males of [srael,

and Rahab's Baring the spies by false intelligence. God knows how to

inguish between grace and eorroption, that they may lio close together, or I 1 something of moral goodness and moral evil which may bo

mixed. We find their fidelity rewarded, which was a mora] go id ; but not their lie approved, which was ■ mora] evil. Nor will Christ's conversing with sinners be S plea fin any to thrust themselves into evil company. Christ conversed with sinners as s physician with diseased persons, to cure them, not approve them ; others with profligate persons to receive infec-lVoia them, not to communicate holiness to them. Satan's children have Bto lied their father's art, who wanted not perverted Scripture to second his temptations against our Saviour, Mat IV. 4, G. How often do carnal hearts turn divine revelation to carnal ends, as the sea fresh water into salt ! As men subject the precepts of God to carnal interests, so they subject the truths of God to carnal fancies. When men will allegorise the word, and make a humorous and crazy fancy the interpreter of divine oracles, and not the Spirit speaking in the word, this is to enthrone our own imaginations as the rule of God's law, and depose his law from being the rule of our reason ; this is to ritle truth of its true mind and intent. It is more to rob a man of his reason, the essential constitutive part of man, than of hi This is to refuse an intimate acquaintance with his will. Wo

tell what is the matter of a precept, or the matter of a promise, if\\. N a sense upon it contiary to the plain meaning of it ; thereby

\\.' shall make the law of God to have a distinct senso according to the farii ty of men's imaginations, and so make every man's fancy a law to him

, that this unwillingness to have a spiritual acquaintance with divine truth is I disowning God as our rule, and a setting up self in his stead, is evi.l' tins unwillingness respects truth,

ritual and holy. A fleshly mind is most cor.

i spiritual law, and particularly as it is a searching and disco that would dethrone ill other rules in the soul. As men love to be without a holy God in the world, so tluy love to be without a holy law, t:. ript

and image of God's holiness, in their hearts, and without holy men, tho lights

kindled by the Father of lights. As the holiness of God, so the holiness of the law most offends a carnal heart: Isa. xxx. 11, « Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us ; prophesy [not] to us right things.' They could not endure God as a holy one. Herein God places their rebellion, rejecting him as their rule : ver. 9, ■ Rebellious children, that will not hear the law of the Lord.' The more pure and precious any discovery of God is, the more it is disrelished by the world. As spiritual sins are sweetest to a carnal heart, so spiritual truths are most distasteful. The more of the brightness of the sun any beam conveys, the more offensive it is to a distempered eye.

Secondly, As it doth most relate to, or lead to God. The devil directs his fiercest batteries against those doctrines in the word, and those graces in the heart, which most exalt God, debase man, and bring men to the lowest subjection to their Creator. Such is the doctrine and grace of justifying faith. That men hate not knowledge as knowledge, but as it directs them to choose the fear of the Lord, was the determination of the Holy Ghost long ago : Prov. i. 29, ' For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.' Whatsoever respects God, clears up guilt, witnesses man's revolt to him, rouseth up conscience, and moves to a return to God, a man naturally runs from, as Adam did from God, and seeks a shelter in some weak bushes of error, rather than appear before it. Not that men are unwilling to inquire into and contemplate some divine truths which lie furthest from the heart, and concern not themselves immediately with the rectifying the soul. They may view them with such a pleasure as some might take in beholding the miracles of our Saviour, who could not endure his searching doctrine. The light of speculation may be pleasant, but the light of conviction is grievous, that which galls their conciences, and would affect them with a sense of their duty to God.

Is it not easy to perceive that when a man begins to be serious in the concerns of the honour of God and the duty of his soul, he feels a reluctancy within him, even against the pleas of conscience, which evidenceth that some unworthy principle has got footing in the hearts of men, which fights against the declarations of God without and the impressions of the law of God within, at the same time when a man's own conscience takes part with it, which is the substance of the apostle's discourse, Rom. vii. 15, 16, &c.

Close discourses of the honour of God and our duty to him are irksome, when men are upon a merry pin. They are like a damp in a mine, that takes away their breath ; they shuffle them out as soon as they can, and are as unwilling to retain the speech of them in their mouths, as the knowledge of them in their hearts. Gracious speeches, instead of bettering many men, distemper them, as sometimes sweet perfumes affect a weak head with aches.

Thirdly, As it is most contrary to self. Men are unwilling to acquaint themselves with any truth that leads to God, because it leads from self. Every part of the will of God is more or les3 displeasing, as it sounds harsh against some carnal interest men would set above God, or as a mate with him. Man cannot desire any intimacy with that law which he regards as a bird of prey, to pick out his right eye or gnaw off his right hand, his lust, clearer than himself. The reason we havo such hard thoughts of God's will, is because we have such high thoughts of ourselves. It is a hard matter to believe or will that which hath no affinity with some principlo in the understanding, and no interest in our will and passions. Our unwillingness to be acquainted with tho will of God, ariseth from the disproportion between that and our corrupt hearts ; wo are ■ alienated from the life of God in our minds,' Eph. iv. IB, 19. As wo live not like God, so we neither think or will as God.

Ps. XIV. 1 . I'UACTKM. \

There [i an antipathy in the hear! of man 1| on ' th d doctrine which I

i i,,. under i sr; but whataoennw ftanui

the ambition, lasts, and pi f man ia ai nable. Many ara

fond of I lienoea winch m ; i their not

npoo ill rable dexterity in find

ma, mathematical demo • i

turns apoD the i f history, h time an 1 m

and ane its in the itudy of them. In thoae they ha

immediately to 11 ■ i . I I I. it

. without th had thoae sciem - !•.■■ n :•' im I lelf, ai mneh aa the I will ol 11

they had lot I the world. Why did the you

turn his back npon the law of Ohi ' ? Becac • of hie worldly sent w

ili.l th I'll .!■; - I'M mnrk :it tin doctrine of our S ivioiir, ai. I

ma sett Why did the Jen ili ,; 1 th of onr Bavionr, and pat him to death, after the reading 10 many ere lentiala of Ins being sent from heaves ? Bi canse of ambitiona aelf, that the Romana

come and take away their kingdom. It' the law of 11 tn tlic humours of self, it wonld be readily and cordially observed by all d Belf is the n of a world of seeming rel gions actions ; while i

to be tin 1 obj( ft an I his law the motive, self is the rale and and : Zeeh. rii 5,

• Did yon feel unto me f' fto.

•_'. aj men discover their diaowning the will of Grod as a rale by unwillingness to I tinted with it, so they diacorer it by the e >t of it, mnot avoid the notions and some impressions of it. The rule of God ia I nr inner ; he flies from it as from a frightful bugbear and nnpleaaani yoke. Bin against the knowledge of the law i I call, i - ag back from the commandment of God's lips,' Job xxiii. 12; a 'easti i word behind them,' Ps. L 17. aa a contemptible thing, fitter I i be trod len in the dirt than lodged in the heart. Nay, it is a casting it off as an abominable thing, for so the word n^l signifies : Hos. viii. 3, 'Israel hath 0 id off the thing that is good ;' an utter refusal of God : Jer. xliv. 16,

* Aj for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken.' In the slight of his precepts, his essential perfections are Blighted. In disowning his will as a rule, we disown all those attrib:; which flow from his will, as goodness, righteousness, and truth. As an act of the divine understanding is supposed to precede the act of the divine will, so we slight the infinite reason of God. Every law, though it proceeds from the wiil of the lawgiver, and doth formally consist in an act of the will, vet it doth presuppose an act of the understanding. If ' the commandment be holy, jnst, and good,' as it is (Rom. vii. 12), if it be the image of God's holt of of his righteousness and the etllux of his goodness, then in STery breach of it, dirt is cast upon those attributes which shine in it, and

• of all the regards he hath to his own honour, and all the provisions he • : >r his creature. This atheism or contempt of God, is more ts

OS of bj khan the matter of the sin itself; as a respect to God, in a

weak and u ace, u more than the matter of the obedience ii

iknowledgment of God, so a contempt of God, in an act of ■ re than the matter of diaobedienee. The creature stain such an let, not only in a posture of distance from God, but defiance of him. It •.. t of mnrder and adultery which Nathan char

nponD -1 principle which spirited those evil The

1 (b • the L >rd' was the v. •nom of them, '2 Sam.

pretend to believe there is a God, and that this is the law of God, it shews a contempt of his majesty. Men naturally account God's laws too strict, his yoke too heavy, and his limits too strait; and he that liveth in a contempt of this law, curseth God in his life. How can they believe there is a God, who despise him as a ruler ? How can they believe him to be a guide, that disdain to follow him ? To think we firmly believe a God, without living conformable to his law, is an idle and vain imagination. The true and sensible motion* of a God cannot subsist with disorder and an affected unrighteousness.

This contempt is seen,

[1.] In any presumptuous breach of any part of his law. Such sins are frequently called in Scripture rebellions, which are a denial of the allegiance we owe to him. By a wilful refusal of his right in one part, we root up the foundation of that rule he doth justly challenge over us. His right is as extensive to command us in one thing as in another. And if it be disowned in one thing, it is virtually disowned in all, and the whole statute-book of God is contemned: James ii. 10, 11, 'Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all.' A willing breaking one part, though there be a willing observance of all the other points of it, is a breach of the whole, because the authority of God, which gives sanction to the whole, is slighted. The obedience to the rest is dissembled; for the love which is the root of all obedience is wanting, for ' love is the fulfilling the whole law,' Kom. xiii. 10. The rest are obeyed because they cross not carnal desire so much as the other, and so it is an observance of himself, not of God. Besides, the authority of God, which is not prevalent to restrain us from the breach of one point, would be of as little force with us to restrain us from the breach of all the rest, did the allurements of the flesh give us as strong a diversion from the one as from the other. And though the command that is transgressed be the least in the whole law, yet the authority which enjoins it is the same with that which enacts the greatest. And it is not so much the matter of the command, as the authority commanding, which lays the obligation.

[2.] In the natural averseness to the declarations of God's will and mind, which way soever they tend. Since man affected to be as God, he desires to be boundless; he would not have fetters, though they be golden ones, and conduce to his happiness; though the law of God be a strength to them, yet they will not: Isa. xxx. 15, 'In returning shall be your strength; and you would not.' They would not have a bridle to restrain them from running into the pit, nor be hedged in by the law, though for their security, as if they thought it too slavish and low-spirited a thing to be guided by the will of another. Hence man is compared to a wild ass, that loves to ' snuff up the wind in the wilderness at her pleasure,' rather than come under the guidance of God, Jer. ii. 24. From whatsoever quarter of the heavens you pursue her, she will run to the other.

The Israelites could not endure what was commanded, Heb. xii. 20, though in regard of the moral part, agreeablo to what they found written in their own nature, and to the observance whereof they had the highest obligations of any people under heaven, since God had by many prodigies delivered them from a cruel slavery, the memory of which prefaced the Decalogue: Exod. xx. 2, ' I am tho Lord thy God, which have brought theo out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.' They could not think of the rule of their duty but they must reflect upon the grand incentive of it in their redemption from Egyptian thraldom; yet this peoplo were

* Qu. ' notion ' ?— Ed.

• - t<i (iml, whiofa way soever hi I. When they pi ti in th I

Kilns, th.v cried for deliverance; when lb Ion di and garlic In Num. i

dehwrancr from l."-|'t, and talk of 1 • t u I 11111 •' 0

.Is in tlu« hands of tluir run tin D nit" the in-ns win :

word of the promi • of God for giving them ft fruitful land. But wl Ho them (tod'i order, tl should turn I

the B i & ft, i .

ihoold I.iml nt' Canaan,

. :iini in ■:> i.l 1*1 march. 1 I ■■ R

b( .1 foi . tli v will go u). to '

threat.! i . ' \V< will go to the phu*o '.much tin Lord hath promi 10, w bieh c die a ' Iran I

il. The j would preeume to go lip, notwithstandii bibition, and arc smitten by the Amalekites. Winn G them a

precept, with n promi o up to Osnaan, they long for Egypt; wl

G immandi then to return to the Bed Bea, which place they longed for, they will shift lidee and go op to Canaan, Num. xxi. A, 5, fl .;' ftnd when they found they were to b tin 4 deoerti they took pel b God, end instead of thanking him tor tin:

late .list the Canaanitee, they reproach him for hie conduct from

I p:, and the manna wherewith he nourished them in the wilden They would not go to Canaan the way God had ohi ten, nor | solves by the meani God had ordained. They would not I dis-

implain of the badness of the way and the Lightness of manna, empty of any neoesaary juice to sustain then- nature. Theymurmurij soli. will and power of God to change all that order which ho I

i in his coiii, gel, and take another, conformable to their vain, foolish

.i< - !■ . And they signified thereby that they would invade his conduct,

and that he should act according to their fancy, which the psalmist cah ' tempting of God, and bruiting the Holy One of Israel,' Ps. ixxviii. 41.

To what point soever the <hdurations of God stand, the will of man turns the quite contrary way. Is not the carriage of this nation, the best then in the world, a discovery of tho depth of our natural corruption, how cross man is I .' And that charge God brings ftgainet them may be brought

all men by nature, that they * despise his judgment,' and have ft

1 . ftbhorrency of his statutes in their soul, Lev. xxvi. 48. N<> sooner

cov er ed from one rebellion, but they revolted to another; so

difficult a tiling it is for man's nature to be rendered capable of conforming

il] o( God. The carriage of his people is but a copy of the nature Of mankind, and is 'written lor our admonition,' 1 Cor. x. 11. From this said to ■ make void the law of God,' l's. cxix. 126 ; to make it of no < m, an antiquated and moth-eaten record. And the Phsrisi

by setting up their traditions against the will of God, are said to make law 'of n DC eflect,' to strip it of all its authority, as tho word siguil.

-light of that will of God which is mod

honour and nil | tSUre. It is the nature of man, ever til -ni,

to do io: Hosss i . ,; . 7. 'God deaired mercy, and not n

ledge of himself more than burnt-offi ring. But they, like men," as Adam,

'have transgressed the eoveosnV OH • l*S rights, and not 1st h.m be

Lord of one b

* Daillc, Serm. 1 Cor. x. Serin. 9.

We are more curious observers of the fringes of the law than of the greater concerns of it. The Jews were diligent in sacrifices and offerings, which God did not urge upon them as principals, but as types of other things, but negligent of the faith which was to be established by him; holiness, mercy, pity, which concerned the honour of God as governor of the world, and were imitations of the holiness and goodness of God, they were strangers to. This is God's complaint, Isa. i. 11, 12, and 16, 17.

We shall find our hearts most averse to the observation of those laws which are eternal and essential to righteousness; such that he could not but command, as he is a righteous governor; in the observation of which we come nearest to him, and express his image more clearly, as those laws for an inward and spiritual worship, a supreme affection to him. God, in regard of his righteousness and holiness of his nature, and the excellency of his being, could not command the contrary to these; but this part of his will our hearts most swell against, our corruption doth most snarl at, whereas those laws which are only positive, and have no intrinsic righteousness in them, but depend purely upon the will of the lawgiver, and may be changed at his pleasure (which the other, that have an intrinsic righteousness in them, cannot), we better comply with than that part of his will that doth express more of the righteousness of his nature, Ps. 1. 6, 17, 19, such as the ceremonial part of worship, and the ceremonial law among the Jews. We are more willing to observe order in some outward attendances and glavering devotions, than discard secret affections to evil, crucify inward lusts and delightful thoughts. A 'hanging down the head like a bulrush' is not difficult, but the breaking the heart like a potter's vessel to shreds and dust (a sacrifice God delights in, whereby the excellency of God and the vileness of the creature is owned), goes against the grain. To cut off an outward branch is not so hard as to hack at the root. What God most loathes, as most contrary to his will, we most love. No sin did God so severely hate, and no sin were the Jews more inclined unto, than that of idolatry. The heathen had not ' changed their God' as the Jews had 'changed their glory,' Jer. ii. 11; and all men are naturally tainted with this sin, which is so contrary to the holy and excellent nature of God. By how much the more defect there is of purity in our respects to God, by so much the more respect there is to some idol within or without us, to humour, custom, and interest, &c.

Never did any law of God meet with so much opposition as Christianity, which was the design of God from the first promise to the exhibiting the Rodeemer, and from thenco to the end of the world. All people drew swords at first against it. The Romans prepared yokes for their neighbours, but provided temples for the idols those people worshipped. But Christianity, the choicest design and most delightful part of the will of God, never met with a kind entertainment at first in any place. Rome, that entertained all -others, persecuted this with fire and sword, though sealed by greater testimonies from heaven than their own records could report in favour of their idols.

[4.] In running the greatest hazards, and exposing ourselves to more trouble to cross the will of God, than is necessary to the observance of it. It is a vain charge men bring against the divine precepts, that they aro rigorous, severe, difficult, when, besides the contradiction to our Saviour, who tells us his yoke is easy and his burden light, they thwart their own calm reason and judgment. Is there not more difficulty to be vicious, covetous, violent, cruel, than to bo virtuous, charitable, kind? Doth the will of God enjoin that that is not conformable to right reason and secretly

\'IY. 1. fftAOTN kL mm

deligfatfal in t! '

ii and Ui«« world - n II of m :1 :i " l l;

I • uv.t ill: I 0 .tintllilh.

:i light, end commence a i" •

im:irilv do wli» n w | in tin- l il»

m. 8, 7. 9, would be ii the « (pen i of ' U ' '

f nil,' |f tin v mulil "», WOOld itrip th(

t luir Datura! a" ' I their DTil botfl lO ezpUl d,'

rather than | " . lo?C ni.iw. Mid a. ilk lniinl.lv with G

Ddueibli bouour . the welfare of thi world, tl

of thi ir i ooJi, and of i nww notion than th I

for.

Doi tinea then dieown Gk)d, whan they will watt u with

thorni, wh< rein th< I frith the erroi turn ifl

their . I ih la down to in ererl isting punishm* at, i d

intolerable to oontradid the will of God '.' When they will |

Btion, with i eombattion in their their reasons, gnawing earei ind m iry I iTelf, before the honour ol God, tin- dignity of their naturec, the bappinesi of pi iee ind bealt] i rved at a cheaper rate than they ire il troy them?

5, In the unwilln ind awkwardneaa of the heart, when it

Q : ee, Ifi nil with both hand fly* 1 afieah vii. :{, bnt

1 with one hand faintly; do life in the bearl nor iny dili I. What slight and khougfata of God doth this nnwill

imply! It is a wi h\< providence, u though >tunderhia

t, and I a wrong to hi-

ther.! were no amiableness in him to make hie bottom

an injury to his goodnees and power, as if 1 not ahle or willir

reward the en take notice of it. i

ign we n little satisfaction in him, and that there is a great unauit-

ablenesa 1" twei a him and us.

Ftrt/, There is a kind of constraint in the first ci "it. We are

rather | to it than enter ourselvee v. lunteers. What we eall

God, is done, naturally, much against our wills; it is not a delightful 1, hut a bitter potion ; we are rather haled than run to it. There is a otradiction of sin within us against our service, as there was a eontra tion of sinners without our Saviour against his doing the will of God.

unwieldy to any spiritual Berricc of God ; v. fi * with them sometimes. Hezekiah, it is said, 'walked

1 rd with a perfect heart,' 2 hangs ex. 8 ; he walked, he made himself to

v. Ik. Man naturally cares not for a walk with God ; if he hath any communion with him, it is with such a dulness and heavin. . as if ho font of his company. Man's nature, I Bontrary to holi-ith an B to any act of homage to God, hecause holiness must at I led ; in every duty wherein we have a communion with

liaite ; now, as men are against the- truth of holi 1 raitable to them, so they are not ; ities

ch require it. and I toe divert them from the thoughts of their

ike, prayer a d ence a Wt are like fish, that 'drink up iniquity lik<

.i -lk without the f an angle j no

r e willing to do aan '. fiah is of itself to do ser

man. [( is a I il°.

conscience, like a task-master, did not scourge them to duty, they would never perform it.

Let us appeal to ourselves whether we are not more unwilling to secret, closet, hearty duty to God, than to join with others in some external service ; as if those inward services were a going to the rack, and rather our penance than privilege. How much service hath God in the world from the same principle that vagrants perform their task in Bridewell! How glad are many of evasions to back them in the neglect of the commands of God, of corrupt reasonings from the flesh to waylay an act of obedience, and a multitude of excuses to blunt the edge of the precept! The very service of God shall be a pretence to deprive him of the obedience due to him. Saul will not be ruled by God's will in the destroying the cattle of the Amalekites, but by his own; and will impose upon the will and wisdom of God, judging God mistaken in his command, and that the cattle God thought fittest to be meat, to the fowls were fitter to be sacrifices on the altar, 1 Sam. xv. 3, 9, 15, 21.

If we do perform any part of his will, is it not for our own ends, to have some deliverance from trouble? Isa. xxvi. 16, 'In trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer, when thy chastening was upon them.' In affliction, he shall find them kneeling in homage and devotion ; in prosperity, he shall feel them kicking with contempt; they can pour out a prayer in distress, and scarce drop one when they are delivered.

Secondly, There is a slightness in our service of God. We are loath to come into his presence, and when w r e do come, we are loath to continue with him. We pay not an homage to him heartily, as to our lord and governor; we regard him not as our master, whose work we ought to do, and whose honour we ought to aim at.

First, In regard of the matter of service. When the torn, the lame, and the sick is offered to God, Mai. i. 13, 14, so thin and lean a sacrifice that you might have thrown it to the ground with a puff, so some understand the meaning of ' you have snuffed at it.' Men have naturally such slight thoughts of the majesty and law of God that they think any service is good enough for him, and conformable to his law. The dullest and deadest times we think fittest to pay God a service in ; when sleep is ready to close our eyes, and we are unfit to serve ourselves, we think it a fit time to open our hearts to God. How tew morning sacrifices hath God from many persons and families ! Men leap out of their beds to their carnal pleasures or worldly employments, without any thought of their Creator and Preserver, or any reflection upon his will as the rule of our daily obedience ; and as many reserve the dregs of their lives, their old age, to offer up their souls to God, so they reserve the dregs of the day, their sleeping time, for the offering up their service to him. How many grudge to spend their best time in the serving the will of God, and reserve for him the sickly and rheumatic part of their lives; the remainder of that which the devil and their own lusts have fed upon !

Would not any prince or governor judge a present half eaten up by wild beasts, or that which died in a ditch, a contempt of his royalty ? A corrupt thing is too base and vile for so great a king as God is, whose name is dreadful, Mai. i. 14. When by age men are weary of their own bodies, they would present them to God, yet grudgingly, as if a tired body were too good for him, Bnuffing at the command for service. God calls for our best, and we give him the worst.

Secondly, In respect of frame. We think any frame will serve God's turn ; which speuks our slight of God as a ruler. Man naturally performs duty with an unholy heart, whoreby it becomes an abomination to God:

Prov. xwiii. !>, ' He that turns awav bll ear from ; his

|HM\rr shall bo as Abomination to God. 1 I i rices which bo commas bi bates for their aril (ram i or corrupt r, Bl,'] hate, I

your feast-d ,1 will not imoll in aaaomblios.' <i I

KeqoJ ciou.s srrvii-i s, and \'. d . • ■

np oar boaii . D I oalled upon i, ad harp , Pa, Ivii. h. Our boarta are not given to him, we pot him off with bodili

heart ii imt i<v to what it doth do( affeot. There is oot tl • mr

in tl 11 1 which we bate in worldly bo i When wa bo©

h liveliness in men in other things, change thi into B D til D I

I addenly doth their vigour shrink, and their beai

slu • I Many I I langni aa if v

a should accept as, and pray aa coldly aa if onwilling he

ild bear us. and take away that lust by which

h conac to pray against : aa if we w< re afraid 11 old

set up his own throne and government in ourhearta. I [ow fleeting an vein

divine meditation, how sleepy in BpilituaJ hut in other exercises

active! The soul doth not i ita< It. and excite those animal and vital

spirits which it will in bodily recreationa and sports, much leas the i of the soul; whereby it is evident we prefer the latter before any aai God, Smc<> there is ■ fulness of animal spirits, why might they not

ted in holy duties as well as in other operations, hut that there is ■ relmotaney in the soul to sx< redse its supremacy in this case, and perform anything becoming s creature in subjection to God as ■ rn

It is evident also in the d: in bis service. How i

I fixedly one hour, nay, a part of an hour, notwithatand-

all the thou'his of his majesty, and the eternity of glory re, our

I What man is there since the fall of Adam that I 1 one hour

without many wanderings and unsuitable thoughts unfit for that servi

II iw ready are OUT hearts to start out and unite themselves with any worldly objects that please us!

Wearing 38 in it evideneeth it. To be weary of our dulneas signifies a

desire : to be weary of Berviee signifies a discontent to be ruled by God.

How tired are we in the performance of spiritual duties, when in the vain

triflings of time we have a perpetual motion. How will many willingly revel

whole nights, when their hearts will flag at the threshold of a religious ser-

; like Dagon, 1 Sam. v. 1, lose both our heads to think, and hands

t, when the ark of God is present. Some in the prophet wished the

00 and the Sabbath over, that they might sell their corn, and be

igain in their worldly affairs, Amos viii. 5. A slight and weariness

of tin* Sabbath was a slight of the Lord of the Sabbath, and of that freedom

from the yoke and rule of sin which was signified by it. Tie | of the

DOW moon was to signify a rest from the tyranny of sin, and

on to the spiritual service of God. Servants that are quicklv

v of their work are weary of the authority of their masfc r that enjoins

it. If <»ur hearts had a value for God, it would be with OS as with

lie to tl . thi re would be upon bis beck s speedy motion to

him. an 1 a fixed onion with him. When the judgments and afl the sail ts Bh .. I e fully refined in glory, they shall be willing

rvernment to eternity, without ■ ari-

ls have own, d Go 1 as th :r B IV< r

thousand years without I running on hi

Bh cl( -> oa, there will - of anwillii

his injunctions, and weariness in perform;: a ; though i. use

those things by extrinsic causes, yet God's unerring judgment calls it a weariness of himself: Isa. xliii. 22, ' Thou hast not called upon me, 0 Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me, 0 Israel.' Of this he taxeth his own people, when he tells them he would have ' the beasts of the field, the dragons, and the owls;' the Gentiles, that the Jews counted no better than such, to honour him, and acknowlege him their rule in a way of duty, ver.

20, 21.

[6.J This contempt is seen in a deserting the rule of God, when our expectations are not answered upon our service. When services are performed from carnal principles, they are soon cast off when carnal ends meet not with desired satisfaction. But when we own ourselves God's servants, and God our master, ' our eyes will wait upon him till he have mercy on us,' Ps. cxxiii. 2. It is one part of the duty we owe to God as our master in heaven to ' continue in prayer,' Col. iv. 1, 2. And by the same reason in all other service, and to ' watch in the same with thanksgiving;' to watch for occasions of praise, to watch with cheerfulness for further manifestations of his will, strength to perform it, success in the performance, that we may from all draw matter of praise. As we are in a posture of obedience to his precepts, so we should be in a posture of waiting for the blessing of it.

But naturally we reject the duty we owe to God if he do not speed the blessing we expect from him. How many do secretly mutter the same as they in Job xxi. 15, 'What is the Almighty that we should serve him, and what profit shall we have if we pray to him ?' They serve not God out of conscience to his commands, but for some carnal profit; and if God make them to wait for it, they will not stay his leisure, but cease soliciting him any longer. Two things are expressed ; that God was not worthy of any homage from them,—' What is the Almighty that we should serve him ? '— and that the service of him would not bring in a good revenue or an advantage of that kind they expected. Interest drives many men on to some kind of service, and when they do not find an advance of that, they will acknowledge God no more; but like some beggars, if you give them not upon their asking and calling you good master, from blessing they will turn

to cursing.

How often do men do that secretly, practically if not plainly, which Job's wife advised him to, curse God, and cast off that disguise of integrity they had assumed! Job ii. 9, 'Dost thou still retain thy integrity? Curse God.' What a stir, and pulling, and crying is here! Cast off all thoughts of religious service, and be at daggers drawing with that God, who for all thy service of him has made thee so wretched a spectacle to men, and a banquet for worms. The like temper is deciphered in the Jews: Mai. iii. 14, 'It is in vain to serve God ; and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, that we have walked mournfully before the Lord ?' What profit is it that we have regarded his statutes, and carried ourselves in a way of subjection to God as our sovereign, when we inherit nothing but sorrow, and tho idolatrous neighbours swim in all kind of pleasures ? As if it were the most miserable thing to acknowledge God. If men have not the benefits they expect, they think God unrighteous in himself, and injurious to them, in not conferring tho favour they imagine they have merited ; and if they have not that recompence, they will deny God that subjection they owe to him as creatures. Grace moves to God upon a sense of duty, corrupt nature upon a sense of interest; sincerity is encouraged by gracious returns, but is not melted away by God's delay or refusal. Corrupt nature would have God at its beck, and steers a course of duty by hope of somo carnal profits, not by a sense of the sovereignty of God.

i7.) Thii contempt ii seen in breaking promises wit! i One while

th« eoneeienee of i man d obedieo i binds

li i in st-! r with iiKinv :m oeih ; l-iit t) LikeJonah'i gourd, withering the

■ day nft«]• their birth. This was Pharaoh's temper) under ■ it rn be would inbmit to God f end let I reel go, out when the itorm ii ended, will not be nndei God's eontroli end I reel \x ed.

Tlic real of dn as wr.ith mul a Kinnor turn I bace: npon hii

sin, and the loi tnel main i bim turn bin baeli open bii trne

Lordi This is from the prevaleney of tin, thai dispute iwith God for the sovereignty.*

When < "• 1 bath sent i sharp di

ml make an interruption of their sinful | foil of promises of a new life, in hope to escape the jnsl ran God.

of bell, which strikes strongly upon them, makes them foil of soeh pretendi i n lolntions when they howl upon their beds. Bnt if God be pleased in nil patience to giTe them s respite, to take off the ehaini wh< with he sc( med to be binding them for destruction, and recruit their el they are more earnest in their sins than they were in their promisee of a reformation, as if they had got the mastery of God, and had outwitted him. How often doth God charge them of not returning to bim after a succession of judgments! Amos iv. 6-11. So bard it is, not only to allure, but to men to an acknowledgment of God as their ruler. Consider, then.

Are we not naturally inclined to disobey the known will of God ? Can we say, Lord, for thy sake we refrain the thing to which our hearts inclii

Do we D.c4 allow OUrseWefl to bo licentious, earthly, vain, proud, revengeful,

though we know it will offend bim '.' Have we not been peevishly cross to

Lis d I will ? Run counter to him and those laws which i IpreSS most

of the glory of his holiness ? Is not this to disown him as our rule ? Did

we never wish there were no law to bind us, no precept to check our idols ?

What is this, hut to wish that God would depose himself from being our

governor, and leave us to our own conduct? or else to wish that he were as

unholy as ourselves, as careless of his own laws as we are ; that is, tha;

were no more a God than we, a God as sinful and unrighteous as ourselves ?

Ho whose heart riseth against the law of God to unlaw it, riseth against the

author of that law to undeify him. He that casts contempt upon the dearest

thing God hath in the world, that which is the image of his holiness, the

delight of his soul ; that which he hath given a special charge to maintain,

that because it is holy, just, and good ; would not stick to rejoice at the

of God himself. If God's holiness and righteousness in the

ised, much more will an immense goodness and holiness in the

fountain i e reject* d '. ; He that wisheth a beam far from his eyes, because it

offei i sooreheth him, can be no friend to the sun from whence that

ii doth How unworthy a creature is man, since he only, a rational

the solo being that withdraws itself from the rule of God in I th ? And bow miserable a creature is he also, since, departing from tho

Is into tiie order of his justice ; and while b dod to le the rule of his life, he cannot avoid him being the ju Of his punishment. It is this is the original of all sin, and the fountai: all our misery.

This is the first thing man disowns, the rule which God sets him. B. turally owns any Othcf rule rather than that of G, -rih-

ing. The law of Go 1 orders one thing, the heart of man d * 1. t Qu. 'stream'?— En.

There is not the basest thing in the world, but man would sooner submit to be guided by it, rather than by the holiness of God ; and when anything that God commands crosses our own wills, we value it no more, than we would the advice of a poor despicable beggar.

How many are ' lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God !' 2 Tim. iii. 4. To make something which contributes to the perfection of nature, as learning, wisdom, moral virtues, our rule, would be more tolerable. But to pay that homage to a swinish pleasure, which is the right of God, is an inexcusable contempt of him. The greatest excellency in the world is infinitely below God; much more a bestial delight, which is both disgraceful and below the nature of man. If we made the vilest creature on earth our idol, it is more excusable than to be the slave of a brutish pleasure. The viler the thing is that doth possess the throne in our heart, the greater contempt it is of him who can only claim a right to it and is worthy of it. Sin is the first object of man's election, as soon as the faculty whereby he chooses comes to exercise its power; and it is so dear to man, that it is, in the estimate of our Saviour, counted as the right hand and the right eye, dear, precious, and useful members.

(1.) The rule of Satan is owned before the rule of God. The natural man would rather be under the guidance of Satan than the yoke of his Creator. Adam chose him to be his governor in paradise. No sooner had Satan spoke of God in a way of derision—Gen. iii. 1, 5, 'Yea, hath God said?'—but man follows his counsel and approves of the scoff; and the greatest part of his posterity have not been wiser by his fall, but would rather ramble in the devil's wilderness than to stay in God's fold. It is by the sin of man that the devil is become the god of the world, as if men were the electors of him to the government. Sin is an election of him for a lord, and a putting the soul under his government. Those that live according to the course of the world, and are loath to displease it, are under the government of the prince of it. The greatest part of the works done in the world is to enlarge the kingdom of Satan. For how many ages were the laws whereby the greatest part of the world was governed in the affairs of religion, the fruits of his usurpation and policy ! When temples were erected to him, priests consecrated to his service, the rites used in most of the worship of the world were either of his own coining, or the misapplying the rites God had ordained to himself under the notion of a god; whence the apostle calls all idolatrous feasts ' the table of devils,' ' the cup of devils,' ' sacrifice to devils,' 'fellowship with devils,' 1 Cor. x. 20, 21. Devils being the real object of the pagan worship, though not formally intended by the worshipper, though in some parts of the Indies the direct and peculiar worship is to the devil, that he might not hurt them; and though the intention of others was to offer to God and not the devil, yet since the action was contrary to the will of God, he regards it as a sacrifice to devils. It was not the intention of Jeroboam to establish priests to the devil when he consecrated them to the service of his calves, for Jehu afterwards calls them ■ the servants of tho Lord : ' 2 Kings x. 23, ' See if there be here none of the servants of tho Lord,' to distinguish them from the servants of Baal, signifying that the true God was worshipped under those images, and not Baal, nor any of the gods of tho heathens ; yet Scripture couples the calves and devils together, and ascribes the worship given to one to be given to tho other. 2 Chron. xi. 15, ' He ordained him priests for the high places, and for tho devils, and for tho calves which he had made;' so that they were sacrifices to devils, notwithstanding tho intention of Jeroboam and his subjects that had set them up and worshipped them, because they were contrary

\[ Y. 1. PI \t.

| ) tin' mind of G >d, iblo t i the do itrine though

the object of tii intention w< I the devil, but

■ deified m m or I i nt. The i

1 action j if ko, wlini uumi Kill tin I I ifh :t <lc <_'n to

io God service, onr forctolls, John xvi. 2, the anion would not

be i it othi r

of li <>f tli • worship of tho world, which mi

Incline th. ml different from the rarefied will

il is a practical acknowlod [in ackn 'i •' which 1

divine revelation up ere minted by Satan to I thehon

of ( ;...! in ; 1. It .loth oonoern men U food he I, thai in

then p they have :i divine rale, otherwi

devil as th no medium. Whatsoever ii not from <

from S:i!:m.

' this closer to a . an I ib is m

among are in 1 natural condition, and wed led to th ir l

are onder 1 ernment of Satan: John viii. II. ' Ye are of your

Gather the devil, and the huts of your Gather you will do. 1 I into ipiritual and earn tl, which division comprehends all, the devil's authority is owned in both i in spiritual, we conform t<> his example, because tl commits ; in carnal, we obey his »■///, because those ho di the one, and sets us e copy .• he tempts to the other, an 1 giv< kind of

a pnoept. Tims man by nature being b willin

md in the levil's iron chains than in God's sil ds.

What greater atheism can there be than to use G >d as if he were inferior to the devil I to take the pert of his •■', who drew all others

into the t'arti. ■ nai him I to pleasure Satan by offending G d, and

gratify our 1 iry with the injury of our Creator! For a subject to take

arms against his prince with the deadliest enemy both himself and prince hath in the whole word, adds a greater blackness to the rebellion.

The more visible rule preferred before God in the world is man.

■ opinion of the world is more our rule than the precept of God, and

many men's abstinence from sin is not from a sense of the divine will, no,

nor from a principle of reason, but from an affection to some man on whom

they depend, or tear of punishment from a superior; the same principle with

that in a ravenous beast, who abstains from what he desires for fear onl;

tick or club. Men will walk with the herds, go in fashion with the most,

ik and act as the most do. While we ' conform to the world,' we cannot

perform a ' reasonsMe service' to God, nor prove, nor approve practically,

4 wh good and acceptable will of God is.' The apostle puts them in

' > one anotb 1. xii. 1, 2.

Th

1. In complying more with the dictates of men than the will of God.

Men draw encouragement from God's forbearance, to sin more freely against

him, but tl >f punishment for breaking the will of man lays a restraint

in them ; the fear of man is a more powerful curb t n men in tl

duty t:. God. So WS may please a friend, a master, a gov* rnor,

[aidless whether we pi sG 1 or no; men-pleaders are

Man is more advanc ■ rule than God, when wo

mil t<» hum

a prince think nil ithority, if any of fa

: of his s .

will not God make the I -oant of us wfa our

obedience for fear of one of his creatures ? In the fear of man we as little acknowledge God for our sovereign as we do for our comforter : Isa. li. 12, 13, 'I, even I, am he that comforteth you : who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, &c, and forgettest the Lord thy maker,' &c. We put a slight upon God, as if he were not able to bear us out in our duty to him, and uncapable to balance the strength of an arm of flesh.

[2.] In observing that which is materially the will of God, not because it is his will, but the injunctions of men. As the word of God may be received, yet not as his word, so the will of God may be performed, yet not as his will. It is materially done, but not formally obeyed. An action, and obedience in that action, are two things; as when man commands the ceasing from all works of the ordinary calling on the Sabbath, it is the same that God eDJoins ; the cessation or attendance of his servants on the hearing the word are conformable in the matter of it to the will of God, but it is only conformable in the obediential part of the acts to the will of man, when it is done only with respect to a human precept. As God hath a right to enact his laws without consulting his creature in the way of his government, so man is bound to obey those laws without consulting whether they be agreeable to men's laws or no. If we act the will of God, because the will of our superiors concurs with it, we obey not God in that, but man; a human will being the rule of our obedience, and not the divine, this is to vilify God, and make him inferior to man in our esteem, and a valuing the rule of man above that of our Creator.

Since God is the highest perfection, and infinitely good, whatsoever rule he gives the creature must be good, else it cannot proceed from God. A base thing cannot be the product of an infinite excellency, and an unreasonable thing cannot be the product of an infinite wisdom and goodness; therefore as the respecting God's will before the will of man is excellent and worthy of a creature, and is an acknowledging the excellency, goodness, and wisdom of God, so the eyeing the will of man before and above the will of God, is, on the contrary, a denial of all those in a lump, and a preferring the wisdom, goodness, and power of man in his law above all those perfections of God in his. Whatsoever men do that looks like moral virtue or abstinence from vices, not out of obedience to the rule God hath set, but because of custom, necessity, example, r or imitation, they may in the doing of it be rather said to be apes than Christians.

[3.J In obeying the will of man when it is contrary to the will of God. As the Israelites willingly ' walked after the commandment,' Hosea v. 11, not of God, but of Jeroboam in the case of the calves, and * made the king's heart glad with their lies,' Hosea vii. 3. They cheered him with their ready obedience to his command for idolatry (which was a lie in itself, and a lie in them) against the commandment of God and the warnings of the prophets, rather than cheer the heart of God with their obedience to his worship instituted by him ; nay, and when God offered them to cure them their wound, their iniquity breaks out afresh ; they would neither have him as a Lord to rule them, nor a physician to cure them: Hosea vii. 1, ■ When I would havo healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered.' The wholo Persian nation shrunk at once from a duty duo by tho light of nature to tho Deity, upon a decree that neither God or man should be petitioned to for thirty days, but only their king, Dan. vi. One only, Daniel, excepted against it, who preferred his homage to God above obedience to his prince. An adulterous generation is many times made the rule of men's professions, as is implied in thoso words of our Saviour, Mark

viii. 88, ' Wii.i KM••.. f lull

mil |i] I I 111 in am

I said ; G i. 1 6,

when tli. v at to ml n ratb( t than

the win I of God be d< en

I

•ii. in ii itur iilv , the ii; i leia hi role than tl.

8.) H il . I ■ in i elf up i :i wills, and not God's,

,. own wills ; and as much i If is

1 ; the hi.. 11 a our o i

• the will of ( '"'1; account nol him, th

We a. •.miiii: of I

a wills. No prince I upon 1.

invaded, bis d rided, if a subject should r< to him-

self in o] to hi- known will, Trn

God. To . our chiefesl love, i

tin of godliness, th< r in the alphal

in the alphabet of practical and antigod in the world, thai led God;' kin of ib ■ ' Tim. iii. 2. I'

in the temp and would

denying th l of godliness, which is the rith denying the rui:

\ thr List; Q bending to th will

I . that it would have I nal will oi 11

humour and unrighteous will of a ; and this is I in 1 of I

cation I Spirit in the heart of a renewed man ;

flesh wars for the godhl -If, and Spirit fights fol theG>

one would Bettle the throne of the Cr< ator, and the other . .1 a law

. ambition, envy, lust, in the Btead of God. this will appear in these propositions. . 1. This is natural to man as ho is corrupted. What was the the sin of A.lam, is naturally derived with his nature to all posterity. 1 forbidding apple, or th de, that Ad nn aim . r was the chief i ; hut to live inde-• ir, and he a god to himself: Gen. iii. 5, ' Y.>u shall That which was the matter of the devil's temptation, was the :' man's rebellion. A likeness to God he aspired to in th 1 himself, an infallible interpreter of man's thoughts: ■ B< hold, man one of us, to kn< I • >ii,' in regard of self-suffi-. rule to himself. The Jews understand the ambition of ma:; farther thin an equality with vlieal nature; but

i here n ads it in another sense. << od had ordered man

this prohibition not to eat the fruit of thr tree ^( knowledge of g0< d

evil -d and evil of himself, but to v.

God J his own eoun><

wholly upon him € tion and guidance. C

i off his hand from so small a thing as an apple, when be had of the Broil i i tl ■ garden, v. ded himself anj

D that pri: him.

dd not have stuck at a If with the

pleasing of God, when for so small a thing he would incur the anger of his Creator.

Thus would he deify his own understanding against the wisdom of God, and his own appetite against the will of God. This desire of equality with God, a learned man* thinks the apostle intimates : Phil. ii. 6, ' Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.' The Son's being in the form of God, and thinking it not robbery to be equal with God, implies that the robbery of sacrilege committed by our first parents, for which the Son of God humbled himself to the death of the cross, was an attempt to be equal with God, and depend no more upon God's directions, but his own conduct, which could be no less than an invasion of the throne of God, and endeavour to put himself into a posture to be his mate. Other sins, adultery and theft, &c, could not be committed by him at that time, but he immediately puts forth his hand to usurp the power of his Maker. This treason is the old Adam in every man. The first Adam contradicted the will of God to set up himself: the second Adam humbled himself, and did nothing but by the command and will of his Father. This principle, wherein the venom of the old Adam lies, must be crucified to make way for the throne of the humble and obedient principle of the new Adam, or quickening Spirit. Indeed, sin in its own nature is nothing else but a willing according to self, and contrary to the will of God. Lusts are therefore called the wills of the flesh and of the mind, Eph. ii. 3. As the precepts of God are God's will, so the violations of these precepts is man's will; and thus man usurps a godhead to himself, by giving that honour to his own will which belongs to God; appropriating the right of rule to himself, and denying it to his Creator. That servant that acts according to his own will with a neglect of his master's, refuseth the duty of a servant, and invades the right of his master. This self-love, and desire of independency on God, has been the root of all sin in the world. The great controversy between God and man hath been, whether he or they shall be God; whether his reason or theirs, his will or theirs, shall be the guiding principle. As grace is the union of the will of God and the will of the creature, so sin is the opposition of the will of self to the will of God. ' Leaning to our own understanding' is opposed as a natural evil to ' trusting in the Lord,' a supernatural grace, Prov. iii. 5. Men commonly love what is their own, their own inventions, their own fancies; therefore the ways of a wicked man are called ' the ways of his own heart,' Eccles. xi. 9 ; and the ways of a superstitious man his own devices : Jer. xviii. 12, ' We will walk after our own devices;' we will be a law to ourselves. And what the psalmist says of the tongue,—' our tongues are our own, who shall control us?'— is as truly the language of men's hearts, our wills are our own, who shall check us ?

Prop. 2. This is evident in the dissatisfaction of men with their own consciences, when they contradict tho desires of self. Conscience is nothing but an actuated or reflex knowledge of a superior power and an equitable law ; a law impressed, and a power above it impressing it. Conscience is not tho law-giver, but tho remembrancer to mind us of that law of nature imprinted upon our souls, and actuate tho considerations of the duty and penalty, to apply the rulo to our acts, and pass judgment upon matter of fact. It is to give the charges, urgo the rule, enjoin the practice of those notions of right, as part of our duty and obedience.

But man is much displeased with tho directions of conscience, as he is out of love with the accusations and condemning sentenco of this ollicer of

* Dr Jackson.

1 i. \\. cannot h.uiii.i! . and lively practici

of (iod and his will, aud di for putt in mind

of it j they therefore 'like no! to rotaiu God in their know] thai is, II i in th< ii'1 blow i' out us [j

be Lord in them I i I m, aud tie

are th< I bo practice of pies. 'I b< y would

;in of li I would i iparkL

divine knowli I • I » flutfc r in their minds, in ord\ up anotbi r diri

in;,' rule Bui dv appetite ; and when they caunot stop the li

d cannot endure to al in its paths, Job xxiv. 18. Hes] > which had the Loi

ins, but only u natural light or traditional handed from Adam. Hi all the endi to ^ti 11 it when it begins I one

earnal pleasure . tuTs evil apirit with :t lit of music] or bribe it with some fits of s glavering devotion when it holds the law of God in its commanding authority before the mind; they would wipe out ail the imp* sions oi il when it presses tie; advances of God above self, and enter! it with no better compliment than Ahabdid Ehjah, * 11.ist thou found mi , 0 di my ?' [f we are Like I ; God in anything of our Datura] fabric, it is in the superior and more spiritual part of our souls. The resistance of that which is most like to God, and instead of God in us, is s disowning of the sovereign n proa ated by that officer. lit; that would be without consoii ace, would be without God, whose vicegerent it is, and make the sensitive part, whioh icienoe opposes, his lawgiver. Thus s man out of respect to sinful self, quarrels with his natural Belf, and cannot comport himself in a friendly behaviour to his interna] implanted principles. J lu hates to come under the ikes of them, as much as Adam hated to come into the presence of God, rhe turned traitor against him. The bad entertainment God's deputy hath in 08, : upon that God whose cause it pleads. It is upon no other

account that men loathe the upright language of their own reasons in those matters, and wish the eternal silence of their own consciences, but as they maintain the rights of God, and would hinder the idol of self from usurping his Godhead and prerogative. Though this power he part of a man's self, rooted in his nature, as essential to him, and inseparable from him, as tho best part of his being ; yet he quarrels with it as it is God's deputy, and kling for the honour of God in his soul, and quarrelling with that sinful self he would cherish above God. We are not displeased with this faculty barely as it exeroiseth a self-reflection, but as it is God's vi at, and

ark of his authority in it. In some cases this self-rellecting act d entertainment, when it acts not in contradiction to self, but suit Datura] affections : as suppose a man hath in his passion struck

d thereby som mischief to him, the reflection of

conscience will not be unwelcome to him, will work some tenderness in him, | i;t of self and of natural affection; but in the more will be rated as a busy body. • >. Many, if not most actions, materially good in the world, are douo more able to self, than as they are hon

.. As the word of God may be heard not 01 his word, 1 Theft, ii. 18,

but . -■ pleasing notions in it, «<r discourses against an opinion

or party we difftffHti, so the will. may be performed, not ••ill,

but ish consideration, when we will pleas, i

• ftSS OUI IB i M i ve him as our PJ

command i i to our humour; when W< lei not who

it is that commands, but how short it comes of displeasing that sin which rules in our heart, pick and choose what is least burdensome to the flesh and distasteful to our lusts.

He that doth the will of God, not out of conscience of that will, but because it is agreeable to himself, casts down the will of God, and sets his own will in the place of it, takes the crown from the head of God, and places it upon the head of self. If things are done, not because they are commanded by God, but desirable to us, it is a disobedient obedience; a conformity to God's will in regard of the matter, a conformity to our own will in regard of the motive; either as the things done are agreeable to natural and moral self, or sinful self.

1. As they are agreeable to natural or moral self. When men will practise some points of religion, and walk in the track of some divine precepts, not because they are divine, but because they are agreeable to their humour or constitution of nature ; from the sway of a natural bravery, the bias of a secular interest, not from an ingenuous sense of God's authority, or a voluntary submission to his will; as when a mar* will avoid excess in drinking, not because it is dishonourable to God, but as it is a blemish to his own reputation, or an impair of the health of his body, doth this deserve the name of an observance of the divine injunction, or rather an obedience to ourselves ? Or when a man will be liberal in the distribution of his charity, not with an eye to God's precept, but in compliance with his own natural compassion, or to pleasure the generosity of his nature. The one is obedience to a man's own preservation, the other an obedience to the interest or impulse of a moral virtue. It is not respect to the rule ot God, but the authority of self, and, at the best, is but the performance of the material part of the divine rule, without any concurrence of a spiritual motive or a spiritual manner. That only is a maintaining the rights of God, when we pay an observance to his rule, without examining the agreeableness of it to our secular interest, or consulting with the humour of flesh and blood; when we will not decline his service, though we find it cross, and hath no affinity with the pleasure of our own nature ; such an obedience as Abraham manifested in his readiness to sacrifice his son ; such an obedience as our Saviour demands in cutting off the right hand. When we observe anything of divine order upon the account of its suitableness to our natural sentiments, we shall readily divide from him, when the interest of nature turns its point against the interest of God's honour; w r e shall fall off from him according to the change we find in our own humours : and can that be valued as a setting up the rule of God, which must be deposed upon the mutable interest of an inconstant mind ? Esau had no regard to God in delaying the execution of his resolution to shorten his brother's days, though he was awed by the reverence of his father to delay it; he considered, perhaps, how justly he might lie under the imputation of hastening crazy Isaac's death, by depriving him of a beloved son. But had the old man's head been laid, neither the contrary command of God, nor the nearness of a fraternal relation, could Lave bound his hands from the act, no more than they did his heart from the resolution : Gen. xxvii. 41, ' Esau hated Jacob, because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him : and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand ; then will I slay my brother.'

So many children, that expect at the death of their parents great inheritances or portions, may he observant of them, not in regard of the rule fixed by God, but to their own hopes, which they would not frustrate by a dis-ohligement. Whence is it that many men abstain from gross sins, but in love to their reputation ? Wickedness may be acted privately, which a man's

puta i b if to tli '"• Tl ■

11iin firoi ng into i brothel-h i which he bath

ai i Him I before, I ' lon

ed with the Israelit( i is men with their blemishing toot

ofa ni ofprr - nt jii-l 'in ' turo

. < »i: ■ iurity, then, no io 111«- pleu f 11

renewed m< n, i h i have the lav tl n in : habitual d □ t«> an agreemeni with the law

: ; when wh I inclination, with-

the divine precept, which is appointed nil . This

i I i ind

thai law of hie io b I, which ooghi to be the role of oar Thus

when men ohooee i moral life, i much o

the law of < tod, bni tool lonatitntione. There is more of self io this, than tion

of God; lor if it were the latter, the revealed If God would o]

i well as hi natural law. From thie principl aalf, morality cornea by some to be adi mec I ab • ■ >lical die

•J. as they are i peeable to sinful self. Not thai the commands of G I rait l to bolster op the corruptions of men, do more than the I

t i excite or revive sin, linn. vii. 8, 9. Bui it ifl Like ■ leandai taken, not given; an occasion taken by the tomultuon of our depri

ire. The Pharisees w | prayers, no! firom i • use of

duty or i ears of God'i honour, bni to satisfy their ambition, and rake

r fuel for their oovetousnesa (Mat. sxiii. 14, »Yoo devour • booses, and for a pretence make long prayers'), that th the

•in and richer offerings, to free by their prayera the sonla of ma firom purgatory; an opinion that some think the J Bynagogne had then entertained,* since some of their doctors have defer such a notion. Men may observe some precepts of God to have a better renieney to break others. Jehu was ordered to cut off the house of Ahab; the service he undertook was in itself acceptable, but corrupt nature misaoted that which holiness and righteousness commanded. God appoint, t i magnify his justice, and check the idolatry that had been supported by that family. Jehu acted it to satisfy his revenge and ambition; he did it Fulfil his lust, not the will of God who enjoined him. Jehu applauds it il. an 1 (I ■ 1 abhors it as murder, and therefore would ' avenge the blood • 1 on the house of Jehu,' Hosea i. 4. Such kind of services are not paid for his own sake, but to ourselves for our lust's sake.

4. Tbia is evident in neglecting to take God's direction upon eme 1 '

occ I if followa the text, • None did seek God.' When we consult

Dot with him, but trust more to our own will and counsel, we make our-

•ur own govern or s) and lords, independent upon him; as though we

;!d he oi counsellors, and manage our concerns without his 1

and asf though our works were in our own hands, and not in tie 1

. il. 1, that we can by our own strength and -direct then nl end without him. If we must • acquaint onr-

. "i Q 4 1 before we decree a thing, J >b rxii, 28, then to deer thing with ting God with it, ia t r our purblind

: no of ( ■ without eonsultiii

i. i and deify m own wit and atrength. Wo would rather,

like I. •. illowourowil humour SJ in Bodom, than observe the an |

order to go out of it.

• G( rrax 1 in

5. As we account the actions of others to be good or evil, as they suit with or spurn against our fancies and humours. Virtue is a crime, and vice a virtue, as it is contrary or concurrent with our humours. Little reason have many men to blame the actions of others, but because they are not agreeable to what they affect and desire. We would have all men take directions from us, and move according to our beck; hence that common speech in the world, Such an one is an honest friend. Why ? Because he is of their humour, and lacqueys according to their wills. Thus we make self the measure and square of good and evil in the rest of mankind, and judge of it by our own fancies, and not by the will of God, the proper rule of judgment.

Well, then, let us consider,

Is not this very common, are we not naturally more willing to displease God than displease ourselves, when it comes to a point that we must do one or other ? Is not our own counsel of more value with us than conformity to the will of the Creator ? Do not our judgments often run counter to the judgment of God ? Have his laws a greater respect from us than our own humours ? Do we scruple the staining his honour when it comes in competition with our own ? Are not the lives of most men a pleasing themselves, without a repentance that ever they displeased God ? Is not this to undeify God, to deify ourselves, and disown the propriety he hath in us by the right of creation and beneficence ? We order our own ways by our own humours, as though we were the authors of our own being, and had given ourselves life and understanding. This is to destroy the order that God hath placed between our wills and his own, and a lifting up of the foot above the head; it is the deformity of the creature. The honour of every rational creature consists in the service of the First Cause of his being; as the welfare of every creature consists in the orders and proportionable motion of its members, according to the law of its creation.

He that moves and acts according to a law of his own, offers a manifest wrong to God, the highest wisdom and chiefest good, disturbs the order of the world, nulls the design of the righteousness and holiness of God. The law of God is the rule of that order he would have observed in the world. He that makes another law his rule, thrusts out the order of the Creator, and establishes the disorder of the creature.

But this will yet be more evident in the fourth thing.

(4.) Man would make himself the rule of God, and give laws to his Creator. We are willing God should be our benefactor, but not our ruler; we are content to admire his excellency and pay him a worship, provided he will walk by our rule. ' This commits a riot upon his nature ; to think him to be what we ourselves would have him and wish him to be, Ps. 1. 21. We would amplify his mercy and contract his justice, we would have his power enlarged to supply our wants, and straitened when it goes about to revenge our crimes; we would have him wise to defeat our enemies, but not to disappoint our unworthy projects; we would have him all eye to regard our indigence, and blind, not to discern our guilt; we would have him true to his promises, regardless of his precepts, and false to his threatenings; we would new mint the nature of God according to our models, and shape a God according to our fancies, as ho made us at first according to his own image.'* Instead of obeying him, we would have him obey us; instead of owning and admiring his perfections, we would have him strip himself of his infinite excellency, and clotho himself with a nature agreeable to our own.

* Decay of Christian piety, p. 169, somewhat changed.

Tin, is QOJ Only to St up self || tin law | l.nt to I

imaginations the model of the Datura of God.

1 i pleaeuj pest the

We would Dot hate him eotoonvi Lure, but act what d

from what d Mao d but when

be i impeaehing <>w or othi r p< rfi i lion . and undermining

ln> u«l indict .1 ;it the bar of our pni -

blind r. :i an. Thi i weed ihool inpin .Peter inteo

of onx Savio of humility, bnl I

understands it to be ■ pr< loribing s tan to himself, a c< i John

\in. B, '■». Tin

i. i be nti i\ in ' oil law* I tow many nn a imply I

Uvea thai they would have God deposed from his government, and some nnrighteona being step into his throne; as if God had or should chs laws of holiness into laws of lioentios i if he should i

oal precepts and enaei oontrary ones in their itead. What is the lan-fsneh praotioes, bnt that they would be God's lawgivers and not subjects; thai he should deal with them according to their own wills, and not according to his righteousness; that they could make a more holy* wise, and righteous Law than the law of God; that their imaginations, and not God's righteousness, should be the rule of his doing good to them? Jer. ix. 18, 'They have fonmsftn my law, and walked after the imaginations of their own heart.'

When an ad is known to bo a sin, and the law that forbids it ackm to be tiic law of God, and after this we persist in that which is contrary to it, we tax his wisdom as if he did not understand what was convenient for us; we would 'teach God knowledge,'Job xxi. 22; it is an implicit wish that God had laid aside the holiness of his nature, and framed a law to pleasure our lusts. When God calls for weeping, and mourning, and gird-ing with sackcloth upon approaching judgments, then the corrupt heart is for joy and gladness, eating of flesh and drinking of wine, because to-morrow they Bhonld die, Isa. xxii. 12, 18; as if God had mistaken himself when he ordered them so much sorrow when their lives were so near an end, and had Lost his understanding when he ordered such a precept. Disobedience is therefore called contention—Rom. ii. 8, 'Contentious, and obey not the truth' —contention against God, whose truth it is that they disobey; a dispute with him, which hath more of wisdom in itself and oonveniency for them, his truth or their imaginations. The more the love, goodness, and holini SB of God appears iu any command, the more are we naturally averse from it, and cast an imputation on him, as if he were foolish, unjust, cruel, and that we could have advised and directed him better. The goodness of ..ciit to US in appointing a day for his own worship, wherein we

bt converse with him and he with us, and our souls be refreshed with spiritual communications from him; and we rather use it for the ease of our I than the advancement of our souls, as it" God were mistaken I

inju: tare when he urged the spiritual part of duty. Every d

• the law is an implicit giving law to him, and a ehai nst

him that he might have provided better for his creature.

1'provii, God's government of the world. If

the oounsels of heaven roll not about according to their Bchen I of

unsearehable depths of his judgments, they call him to th

him, b ■ I > their narro.v . if a

nut-shell could contain an ocean. As corrupt reason OS the high

truths foolishness, so it counts the most righteous ways unequal. Thus we commence a suit against God, as though he had not acted righteously and wisely, but must give an account of his proceedings at our tribunal. This is to make ourselves God's superiors, and presume to instruct him better in the government of the world ; as though God hindered himself and the world in not making us of his privy council, and not ordering his affairs according to the contrivances of our dim understandings.

Is not this manifest in our immoderate complaints of God's dealings with his church, as though there were a coldness in God's affections to his church, and a glowing heat towards it only in us ? Hence are those importunate desires for things which are not established by any promise, as though we would overrule and over-persuade God to comply with our humour. We have an ambition to be God's tutors, and direct him in his counsels ; ' Who hath been his counsellor,' saith the apostle ? Rom. xi. 34. Who ought not to be his counsellor, saith corrupt nature ? Men will find fault with God in what he suffers to be done according to their own minds, when they feel the bitter fruit of it. When Cain had killed his brother, and his conscience racked him, how saucily and discontentedly doth he answer God : Gen. iv. 9, ' Am I my brother's keeper ?' Since thou dost own thyself the rector of the world, thou shouldst have preserved his person from my fury ; since thou dost accept his sacrifice before my offering, preservation was due as well as acceptance. If this temper be found on earth, no wonder it is lodged in hell. That deplorable person, under the sensible stroke of God's sovereign justice, would oppose his nay to God's will: Luke xvi. 30, ' And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent.' He would presume to prescribe more effectual means than Moses and the prophets to inform men of the danger they incurred by their sensuality. ' David was displeased,' it is said, 2 Sam. vi. 8, ' when the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah;' not with Uzzah, who was the object of his pity, but w 7 ith God, who was the inflicter of that punishment.

When any of our friends have been struck with a rod against our sentiments and wishes, have not our hearts been apt to swell in complaints against God, as though he disregarded the goodness of such a person, did not see with our eyes, and measure him by our esteem of him ? As if he should have asked our counsel before he had resolved, and managed himself according to our will rather than his own. If he be patient to the wicked, we are apt to tax his holiness, and accuse him as an enemy to his own law. If he inflict severity upon the righteous, we are ready to suspect his goodness, and charge him to be an enemy to his affectionate creature. If he spare the Nimrods of the world, we are ready to ask, ' Where is the God of judgment?' Mai. ii. 17. If he afflict the pillars of the earth, we are ready to question, Where is the God of mercy ? It is impossible, since the depraved nature of man, and the various interests and passions in the world, that infinite power and wisdom can act righteously for the good of the universe, but he will shake some corrupt interest or other upon the earth ; so various are the inclinations of men, and such a weather-cock judgment hath every man in himself, that the divine method he applauds this day, upon a change of his interest, he will cavil at the next. It is impossible for the just orders of God to plcaso the same person many weeks, scarce many minutes together. God must ceaso to be God, or to be holy, if he should manago tho concerns of the world according to the fancies of men.

How unreasonable is it thus to impose laws upon God ? Must God revoke his own orders ? govern according to tho dictates of his creature ? Must God, who hath only power and wisdom to sway the sceptre, become

tin- ol edienl i abj< in'i humour, i

re the design of a simple creature ? Thii ii not to 1 Q I, bat to the civ.ttmv in hit throne. Thoogfa thii be do! formally done, . * it

is interpi Tactically done

[n impationoe in our particular concert . [I ii ordinary with man to ohai ( ' I in his complaint! in the time of affliction, the commendation the Holy 01 lo Job: Job I in all ' !

thai is, in t ; .it rolled over him, ' he did not 3od

li!\ ; ' he nor thought ai by of the i

and righteousness of God, 5 '"1 him wai

oamea the affliction to be God's oppression of him, and i

: Job \. B, • I "1 for thee that thou shonldst oppr< B •

11 i with injustice for punishing him when ) wicked) for which he appeals to God, ' Thou knowi -t thai I am not v, . and thai c; * *»l acted no1 like a (Ireator, v< r. h. [four projects are disappointed, whal fretfulm menl are our hearts racked with I How do uncomely »ubble up in

in, interpretatively at least, wishing thai the arms of his power had b bound, and the eye of his omniscience been hoodwinked, thai

i left to our own liberty and d< sign ; and this oftentimes when have more reason to Mess him than repine a1 him. The Israelites murmured more against (tod in the wilderness, with manna in their mouths, than they did at Pharaoh in the brick kilns, with their garlic and onions betwi tluir teeth. Though we repine :it instruments in our affliction 11 I

count-. m upon himself. The Israelites speak rinst M<

l's interpretation a rebellion against himself, Num. wi. 11 e pared with ivii. 10. A rebellion is always a d< imposin r laws and eon-

ditions upon thi ast whom the rebellion is raised. The sotti-h dealt

of the vine-dressers in Franconia with the statue of St Urban, the protector of the fines, upon his own day, is an emblem of our dealing with God. If it be a char day, and portend a prosperous vintage, they honour the statue, and drink healths to it; if it be a rainy day, and presage a scantiness, they daub it with dirt in indignation. We cast out our mire and dirt against I when he acts cross to our wishes, and tlatter him when the wind of his ridence joins itself to the tide of our interest.

M< n Bel a high price upon themselves, and are angry God values them at the same rate, as if their judgment concerning themselves were more piercing than his. This is to 'disannul God's judgment,' and 'condemn him,' and 'count ourselves righteous,' as it is Job xl. 8. This is the epidemical disease of human nature ; they think they deserve caret of rods, and upon crosses are more ready to tear out the heart of God than

humbly upon their own hearts. When we accuse God, we app' OUn and make ourselves his superiors, intimating that we have acted

•y to him than he to us, which is the highest manner of im-pon him, as thai emperor accused the justice of God for snatching him out of the world too soon.* What an high piece of practical : is this, to desire that that infinite wisdom should be guided by our folly, and insness of God rather than blemish our own. Insl

of silently submitting to his will and adoring his wisdom, we d( cl dm against him a-> an unwise and unji rnor. We would invert his order, d

him th( 1 ourselves the propriet and hat

deny on our mercies to be forfeit

(1.) It is i • 1 in envying the

• Coelum . ; iens vitam, &c. \ 10.

hath a deep tincture of practical atheism, and is a cause of atheism.* We are unwilling to leave God to be the proprietor, and do what he will with his own, and as a Creator to do what he pleases with his creatures ; we assume a liberty to direct God what portions, when and how he should bestow upon his creatures ; we would not let him choose his own favourites, and pitch upon his own instruments for his glory. As if God should have asked counsel of us how he should dispose of his benefits. We are unwilling to leave to his wisdom the management of his own judgments to the wicked, and the dispensation of his own love to ourselves. This temper is natural; it is as ancient as the first age of the world. Adam envied God a felicity by himself, and w T ould not spare a tree that he had reserved as a mark of his sovereignty. The passion that God had given Cain to employ against his sin he turns against his Creator; he was wroth with God, Gen. iv. 5, and with Abel; but envy was at the root, because his brother's sacrifice was accepted and his refused. How could he envy his accepted person without reflecting upon the acceptor of his offering! Good men have not been free from it. Job questions the goodness of God, that he should 1 shine upon the counsel of the wicked,' Job x. 3. Jonah had too much of self in fearing to be counted a false prophet, when he came with absolute denunciations of wrath, Jonah iv. 2. And when he could not bring a volley of destroying judgments upon the Ninevites, he would shoot his fury against his master, envying those poor people the benefit, and God the honour of his mercy; and this after he had been sent into the whale's belly to learn humiliation, which, though he exercised there, yet those two great branches of self-pride and envy were not lopped oft* from him in the belly of hell. And God was fain to take pains with him, and by a gourd scarce makes him ashamed of his peevishness. Envy is not like to cease, till all atheism be cashiered, and that is in heaven.

This sin is an imitation of the devil, whose first sin upon earth was envy, as his first sin in heaven was pride. It is a wishing that to ourselves which the devil asserted as his right, to give the kingdoms of the world to whom he pleased, Luke iv. 6. It is an anger with God because he hath not given us a patent for government. It utters the same language in disparagement of God as Absalom did in reflection on his father : If I were king in Israel, justice should be better managed ; if I were Lord of the world, there should be more wisdom to discern the merits of men, and more righteousness in distributing to them their several portions. Thus we impose laws upon God, and would have the righteousness of his will submit to the corruptions of ours, and have him lower himself to gratify our minds rather than fulfil his own. We charge the author of those gifts with injustice, that he hath not dealt equally, or with ignorance, that he hath mistook his mark. In the same breath that we censure him by our peevishness, we would guide him by our wills.

This is an unreasonable part of atheism. If all were in the same state and condition, the order of the world would be impaired. Is God bound to have a care of thee, and neglect all the world besides ? ' Shall the earth be forsaken for theo ? Job xviii. 4. Joseph had reason to be displeased with his brothers, if they had muttered, because he gave Benjamin a double portion, and the rest a singlo. It was unfit that they, who had deserved no gift at all, should prescribe him rules how to dispense his own doles. Much moro unworthy is it to deal so with God ; yet this is too rife.

(5.) It is evidenced in corrupt matters or ends of prayer and praise. When we are importunate for those things that we know not whether the * Because wickod incu flourish in the world; Sollicitornullos esseputare Dcos.

P . \'I V. I . ■!.

[rant, 1

<h ic >\< ire I liis uill la any promise to then imp

such condition i on 11 11 which be i ■ : j I !. 'to gf int, "■ ; : □

. for thii much to to be the i o I of

j'f.i' indeed, by the

petitioning, that ti. i I, bnt ire would nave bim an-God bim elf to

be at i d ■■ ; ■ . and dobs o himielf to r our torn i. V.

■ binge whir' epn pant lot' | ,th

mi nl of the world ; when by lome i □] think we have g lined indul to bo the tho

more fr P >. vii. II. 'I hi I bave paid my vows:' I bave made my peace with God, and I men! for thee. Or when men desire God to bl in thee

V-; when Balak and Balaam ofl they mi

in the enrsing of the 1 . Num. •..-.. I,

' >r :i man to pray I i I to re bim, while h

salvation appointed by Gtodj or to renew him when h • the word, the

only instrument to that purpose, this is to impose Is i God o mtrary

to the declared will and wisdom of (I "1. and to d Bire him to slight 1 institutions. When we eom i into the presence of ( '< >d with ii < in

and leap from sin to duty, we would impose the law of our <• ruption on the holiness of God. While we pray the will of God may done, self-love wishes its own will m iv be performed, as though Q >uld

or humours when we will not obey his precepts. And when s • any affliction, what is it often but a secret contrivance to 1 and v ■'• v him to our conditions! We will serve him if ho will restore os : we think thereby to compound tho 1 i with him, .and bring him

down to our terms.

(6.) It is evidenced in positive and bold interpretations of the judgments of God in the wmld. To interpct the judgments of God to the disadvantage of the sufferer, unless it be an unusual judgment, and have a remarkable hand of God in it, and the sin be rendered plainly legible in the affliction, IB a presumption of this nature. When men will judge the Galileans, wh

■ 1 Pilate mingled with the sacrifices, greater sinners than others, themselves righteous, because no drops of it were dashed apon ti I ; or when Bhimei, being of the house of Saul, shall judge according to his < interest, and desires David's flight upon Absalom's rebellion to be a punish-

■ t for invading the rights of Saul's family, and depriving him of the suction in the kingdom, 2 Sam. xvi. 5, as if he had been of God's privy

council when he decreed such acts of justice in the world.

Thus we would fasten our own wills as a law or motive upon God, and rpret hie tooording to the motions of self. Is it not too ordinary,

Is an affliction upon those that bear ill will to us, to judge it to htingofour fruit of Go I tern for us in i ring

our WTO if we had heard th< f G : . Eli] ' • - '•':.

tan ran, Job xv. 8. This is a judgment according

livine rale, and imposeth laws upon I . implyin

• ish that ould tai <>nly of them, make our eoi

tin ways of ki: nd justice, but : Qg toOUI

this d in the profane world, in those oursee they lily spit

npon any affront; i bound to draw bis arrowsand em

• all their ft an 1 pleasure.

1, in mixir. those

which have been ordered by him. Since men are most prone to live by sense, it is no wonder that a sensible worship, which affects their outward sense with some kind of amazement, is dear to them, and spiritual worship most loathsome.

Pompous rites have been the great engine wherewith the devil hath deceived the souls of men, and wrought them to a nauseating the simplicity of divine worship, as unworthy the majesty and excellency of God, 2 Cor. xi. 3. Thus the Jews would not understand the glory of the second temple in the presence of the Messiah, because it had not the pompous grandeur of that of Solomon's erecting.

Hence in all ages men have been forward to disfigure God's models, and dress up a brat of their own ; as though God had been defective in providing for his own honour in his institutions without the assistance of his creature. This hath always been in the world: the old world had their imaginations, and the new world hath continued them. The Israelites, in the midst of miracles, and under the memory of a famous deliverance, would erect a calf. The Pharisees, that sat in Moses's chair, would coin new traditions, and enjoin them to be as current as the law of God, Mat. xxiii. 6. Papists will be blending the Christian appointments with pagan ceremonies, to please the carnal fancies of the common people. Altars have been multiplied, under the knowledge of the law of God, Hos. viii. 12. Interest is made the balance of the conveniency of God's injunctions. Jeroboam fitted a worship to politic ends, and posted up calves to prevent his subjects revolting from his sceptre, which might be occasioned by their resort to Jerusalem, and converse with the body of the people from whom they were separated, 1 Kings xii. 27. Men will be putting their own dictates with God's laws, and are unwilling he should be the sole governor of the world without their counsel: they will not suffer him to be the Lord of that which is purely and solely his concern. How often hath the practice of the primitive church, the custom wherein we are bred, the sentiments of our ancestors, been owned as a more authentic rule in matters of worship, than the mind of God delivered in his word ! It is natural by creation to worship God ; and it is as natural by corruption for man to worship him in a human way, and not in a divine. Is not this to impose laws upon God ? to esteem ourselves wiser than he ? to think him negligent of his own service, and that our feeble brains can find out ways to accommodate his honour better than himself hath done ? Thus do men for the most part equal their own imaginations to God's oracles : as Solomon built a high place to Moloch and Chemosh, upon the mount of Olives, to face on the east part Jerusalem and the temple, 1 Kings xi. 7. This is not only to impose laws on God, but also to make self the standard of them.

(8.) It is evidenced, in fitting interpretations of Scripture to their own minds and humours. Like the Lacedajmonians, that dressed the images of their gods according to the fashion of their own country, we would wring Scripture to serve our own designs, and judge the law of God by the law of sin, and make the serpentine seed in us to be the interpreter of divine oracles. This is like Belshazzar; to drink healths out of the sacred vessels. As God is the author of his law and word, so he is the best interpreter of it; the Scripture having an impress of divine wisdom, holiness, and goodness, must be regarded according to that impress, with a submission and meekness of spirit and reverence of God in it. But when in our inquiries into the word, wo inquire not of God, but consult flesh and blood, the temper of the times wherein wo live, or the satisfaction of a party we side withal, and impose glosses upon it according to our own fancies, it is to

pat Ian i upon God, and m I the role of bim. Be that inl

law up BOLD uppoti! will of tii

ascribe i to him8( If d . as In thai 1 it.

I □ falliu [ off 1 oplianoc i, when hii will

toth Upon US an ; i . will u.

pleaseth tin in, :n11 le ivc bim apoo the 1 though < I . .

rve th iir hamoari more than th. j hi i will. a . from proph • ind could not b< ai b

l<>. a •., and li i ti' 1 ' r unworthy pi i

The in in eami direciioni from oar Savioar, I

expected a confirmation of hie own rules, rath r than an imp 17. 22. il.« rather o tr< - I >r oomme i than is

up.>n the disappointment turn ick : ■ h I

nol sutler him to be rich and a Christian I r, and leaves bim i

Miami was aot suitable to the law of I B >mi

that are at a further distance from o ; but when

us to smart under others, if God will iUg,

rill with Herod be a law to ourselves, Mark vi. 20, —7. More ii: might be oh erv< 1.

I latitude is a Betting up self, and an imposing d. I: .

much as to Bay God did no more than I i to do; as if

mercies we have were an ad of duty iii God, and not ofbouuty, Iii

\ dih : hence are tip . : . • \\\. wi.;

a a city, and buy and sell,' &C., ' I

commai I, and God most lacaa r their wills. When our h<

not contented with any BUpplyofoUT wants, hut are craving an over;

for oar last; when we are unsatisfied in the midst of plenty, and still, liko the grave, cry, Give, give.

Incorrigible n< as under affliction, &o.

II. The second main thing. As man would bo a law to himself, so he would he his own end and happiness in opposition to God. 11. re four things shall he discoursed on :

1. Man would make himself bis own end and happiness.

2. Ho would make any thing his end and happiness rather than God. :'.. II.' would make himself the end of all creatures.

I. II.' would make himself the end of Go 1.

1. Man would make himself his own end and happiness. As God o to ho r the first cause, in point of our dependence on bim, so

ought to be our last end, in point of our enjoyment of him. When wo th. . fuse him as the first cause ; and wh< o

act f.»r s, and expect a blessedness from ourselves, w< him as

aid last end, which is an undeniable piece of at! .re of a higher rank than others in the world, an 1 was not . plants, and other works of the divine power, materially to glorify (inl; hut a rational creature, intentionally to honour God by obedience t.» his rule, dependence on his goodness, and zeal for his glory. 1 therefore as moch a slighting of God, for man, a creature, to set himself up as his own rd himself as his own law.

that there is a threefold self-Io (1.) Natural, which is common to us by the law .,f nature with I

inanimate as well as anim 1 so closely twisted with the

nature of every O that it cannot d but with th.

lotion of nature itself. It aot with the wisdom an - of

God to create an unnatural nature, or to command any thing un:.

nor doth he; for when he commands us to sacrifice ourselves, and dearest lives for himself, it is not without a promise of a more noble state and being in exchange for what we lose. This self-love is not only commendable, but necessary, as a rule to measure that duty we owe to our neighbour, whom we cannot love as ourselves, if we do not first love ourselves: God having planted this self-love in our nature, makes this natural principle the measure of our affection to all mankind of the same blood with ourselves.

(2.) Carnal self-love; when a man loves himself above God, in opposition to God, with a contempt of God; when our thoughts, affections, designs, centre only in our own fleshly interest, and rifle God of his honour, to make a present of it to ourselves. Thus the natural self-love, in itself good, becomes criminal by the excess, when it would be superior and not subordinate to God.

(3.) A gracious self-love. When we love ourselves for higher ends than the nature of a creature, as a creature dictates, viz., in subserviency to the glory of God, this is a reduction of the revolted creature to his true and happy order. A Christian is therefore said to be ' created in Christ to good works,' Eph. ii. 10. As all creatures were created, not only for themselves, but for the honour of God, so the grace of the new creation carries a man to answer this end, and to order all his operations to the honour of God and his well-pleasing.

The first is from nature, the second from sin, the third from grace. The first is implanted by creation, the second the fruit of corruption, the third is by the powerful operation of grace.

This carnal self-love is set up in the stead of God as our last end; like the sea, which all the little and great streams of our actions run to, and rest in. And this is,

1. Natural. It sticks as close to us as our souls ; it is as natural as sin, the foundation of all the evil in the world. As self-abhorrency is the first stone that is laid in conversion, so an inordinate self-love was the first inlet to all iniquity. As grace is a rising from self to centre in God, so is sin a shrinking from God into the mire of a carnal selfishness. Since every creature is nearest to itself, and, next, to God, it cannot fall from God, but must immediately sink into self; * and therefore all sins are well said to be branches or modifications of this fundamental passion. What is wrath but a defence and strengthening self against the attempts of some real or imaginary evil ? Whence springs envy, but from a self-love, grieved at its own wants in the midst of another's enjoyment, able to supply it ? What is impatience, but a regret that self is not provided for at the rate of our wish, and that it hath met with a shock against supposed merit ? What is pride, but a sense of self-worth, a desire to have self of a higher elevation than others ? What is drunkenness, but a seeking a satisfaction for sensual self in the spoils of reason ? No sin is committed as sin, but as it pretends a self-satisfaction. Sin indeed may well be termed a man's self, because it is, sinco the loss of original righteousness, the form that overspreads every part of our souls. The understanding assents to nothing false, but under the notion of true, and the will embraceth nothing evil, but under the notion of good; but the rule whereby we measure the truth and goodness of proposed objects is not the unerring word, but the inclinations of self, the gratifying of which is the aim of our whole lives.

Sin and self are all one. What is called a ' living to sin' in one place, Rom. vi., is called a living to self in another: 2 Cor. v. 15, ' That they that live should not live unto themselves.' And upon this account it is

* Moro, Dial. ii. sect. 17, page 274.

thai both the Bebn I NI3H, :».t 1 * I tl • ird dfia r&t /., used in

Scripture to express sin, propurl) minify to mi tip- mark, and from

th:ii n/'//v to which all oar should 1 , viz., the glory of G

When we fell t" loving . we fell from I" God ; and therefore,

when iln' pHulni . i' '. are none I 11od, viz.,

as tli.' lit and, be pn ently adds, * tl ill gone aside,' riz., i

their true m l then fore I aeome filthy.

8, Binoe il if natural, it il. The not seeking God

universal i tnoc of him. No man in i itate of nature but I

it predominanl ; do r< i tan on tkii tide heaven but hath it partially:

one hath it flourishing, the other hath it. Bti

,• (if (Juil as tin' chief end, and not to live to OUT lv< . be I

mark of .• i«•!i of the divine image) 2 Cor. r. L6, and I conformity

to Christ, who glorified not himself, 11 . . 5, bnl the Father, John Kvii. 1. then < \. ry man wallowing in the mire of sorrnpi nature | selt', as a renewed man is biassed by tin honour of God.

ELoly Ghosl excepts none from this crime: PhiHp.ii.2Tj, 'All their own.' It is rare for them to look ahove or beyond then soevec may be the immediate Bubject of their thoughts and inqoiri the utm is their profit, honour, or pleasure. \ er it

ba, that immediately possesses the mind and will, oueen, and

Bwayi the Beeptre, and orders things at that rate, that God is excluded, and can find no room in all his thoughti i Pa. x. 1, ' The wicked through the pride of hi- countenance will ak after God; God is not in all his

thoughts. 1 The whole little world of man is so overflowed with a deluge self, that the dove, the glory el the Creator, can find no place when

its foot ; and if ever it gain the favour of admittance, it is to., and DO

a vassal to some c:irnal prOJOCi ; as the glory of Go I was a masl^for the murdering his servants.

I: is from the power of this principle that the difficulty of conversion ariseth. A- there is no t pleasure to a believing son! than the ■ iving

itself up to God, and no stronger desire in him than to havo a fixed and unchangeable will to serve the designs of his honour, so there is no greater torment to a wicked man than to part with his carnal ends, and lay down the Dagon of self at the feet of the ark. Self-love and self-opinion in the Pharisees, waylaid all the entertainment of truth : John v. 44, ' r i ight

honour one of another, and net the honour which comes from God.' It is an extent, and so insinuating nature, that it winds itself into the of moral virtues, mixeth with our charity, .Mat. vi. 2, and finds nourishment in the ashes of martyrdom, 1 Cor. xiii. 3.

This making ourselves our end will appear in a few things.

(1.) In frequent Belf-applauses, and inward overweening rejections. Nothin 5 more ordinary in the natures of men, than a dotage on their own perfects acquisitions, on in the world. Most ' think of themselves above what

they ought to think,' Rom. xii. B, 4. i'ew think of themselves so meanly as ti. ;t to think : this sticks as close to us as our skin ; and as humi-

lity i-> the beau! . tin te the filthi >t soil of nature. Our thou-

run mi r btfully upon the track of our own perfections than the excel-

lency of God ; and when We find any thing of a seeming worth, that : make us glitter in I - of the world, how cheerfully do

When tl • ar profai lof men ban

I the floods of them dammed op, the head of.

they -. will swell the higher within, in .^elf-applauding specula!

r own reformation, without acknowledgments of their own v.

VOL. I. P

and desires of divine assistance to make a further progress. ' I thank God I am not like this publican,' Luke xviii. 11. A self-reflection, with a contempt rather than compassion to his neighbour, is frequent in every Pharisee. The vapours of self-affections in our clouded understandings, like those in the air in misty mornings, alter the appearance of things, and make them look bigger than they are. This is thought by some to be the sin of the fallen angels, who, reflecting upon their own natural excellency, superior to other creatures, would find a blessedness in their own nature, as God did in his, and make themselves the last end of their actions. It is from this principle we are naturally so ready to compare ourselves, rather with those that are below us, than with those that are above us ; and often think those that are above us inferior to us, and secretly glory that we are become none of the meanest and lowest in natural or moral excellencies.

How far were the gracious penmen of the Scripture from this, who when possessed and directed by the Spirit of God, and filled with a sense of him, instead of applauding themselves, publish upon record their own faults to all the eyes of the world! And if Peter, as some think, dictated the Gospel, which Mark wrote as his amanuensis, it is observable that his crime in denying his Master, is aggravated in that gospel in some circumstances, and less spoken of his repentance than in the other evangelists : ' When he thought thereon, he wept,' Mark xiv. 72.; but in the other, ■ he went out, and wept bitterly,' Luke\xxii. 62.

This is one part of atheism and self-idolatry, to magnify ourselves, with the forgetfulness and to the injury of our Creator.

(2.) In ascribing the glory of what we do or have to ourselves, to our own wisdom, power, virtue, &c. How flaunting is Nebuchadnezzar at the prospect of Babylon, which he had exalted to be the head of so great an empire : Dan. iv. 30$ ■ Is not this great Babylon that I have built ? For,' &c. He struts upon the battlements of his palace, as if there were no God but himself in the world, while his eye could not but see the heavens above him to be none of his own framing; attributing his acquisitions to his own arm, and referring them to his own honour, for his own delight; not for the honour of God, as a creature ought; nor for the advantage of his subjects, as the duty of a prince. He regards Babylon as his heaven, and himself as his idol, as if he were all, and God nothing. An example of this we have in the present age ; but it is often observed that God vindicates his own honour, brings the most heroical men to contempt and unfortunate ends, as a punishment of their pride, as he did here: Dan. iv. 31, 'When the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven,' &c* This was Herod's crime, to suffer others to do it. He had discovered his eloquence actively, and made himself his own end passively, in approving the flatteries of the people, and offered not with one hand to God the glory he received from his people with the other, Acts xii. 22, 23. Samosatenus is reported to put down the hymns which were sung for the glory of God and Christ, and caused songs to be sung in the temple for his own honour.

When anything succeeds well, we are ready to attribute it to our own prudence and industry. If we meet with a cross, we fret against the stars and fortune and second causes, and sometimes against God, as they curse God as well as their king, Isa. viii. 21, not acknowledging any defect in themselves. The psalmist, by his repetition of ' Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy namo give glory,' Ps. cxv. 1, implies the naturality of this temper, and the difficulty to cleanse our hearts from those self-reflections. If it be angelical to refuse an undue glory stolen from God's throne, Rev.

* Sanderson*! Sermons.

xxii. B, '•' ■• »pi md ineri h it. 'To Nil n glory

ifOOigUN . 1 .'11. It in vile, and tlio dishonour of a ere dure,

who, |,y tli. l.iw of i. inothor ond. So mush as we

■in- <»\wi err.ht, to the <• oi the Mgaoiij of

our wit, w. bom < i

i in .i. irei to luivD self-pleasingdoctrin< , not endn

: i u- anything th • i ■• Dion tells us, ' It is

i bear the n the wioe than the ion . I

It il.iiiiini tli.' ii-i.vu kii • "ii the L »rd, nil pas-

! sh:ill i t tli.' jmiplirt, iirnl :ur. t him

. in. h Micaiah declare to Ahab the evil that shall befall him,

mot ihoil receive orden to slop him np in a d I

doth ii"' upon eombnstible matter than firry will be 1, if

bebntpinched, This interest of It I barred th iiaH

the entertainment of the truth, end sa in ed h

hands in the blood of the Baptist, to make bim t isorince to that im I

idol, Mark m. M, l:i, g&

(4.) in being highly ooncerned for injuries done to our . lv. i, and little it ail oonoemed for injnriei done to God. How will the blood riae in u>, when our honour ami reputation is invaded, and fearee reflect opon the diahononr God innen in our ughl and bearing, violeni paaaioni will farant-fonn us into Boanergoioi in the 01 nnooooernedneee render ni

Geilioein the other. We shall extenuate that which t ( l, and

that which concerns onnehroa. Nothing bnt the death of Jonathan, i firstborn and a generoni son, will satisfy il, when

the authority of his edict was broken hy his tenting of honey, though In: had

me, committed in ignorance, by the pnrehaee of a gallant

victory. l'.ut when the authority of God was violated in Saving the A:.

-ainst the command of a greater sovereign than himself, he can daub the business, and axouae it with a design of sacrificing, He was not so earneei in hindering the people from the breach of Gfod's command, as ho in vindicating the honour of his own, 1 Sam. xv. 21. He could hardly admit of an excuse to salve his own honour; hut in the concerns of God's honour pretends piety, to cloak his avarice.

And it is often sun, when the violation of God's authority an 1 the stain of our own reputation are coupled together, we are more troubled for what OS us than for what dishonours God. When Saul had thus trans-ised, he is desirous that Samuel would turn again to preserve his own honour before the elders, rather than grieved that he had broken the comma: . 30.

In trusting in ourselves ; wlnn we consult with our own wit and . more than inquire of God, and ask have of him. As the A i . \. 18, ' By the llienejll of my hands I have done it, and by wisdom, for I am prudent.' When we attempt things in the Strength of our own

. snd trust in our own industry, without application to I

for direction, blessing, and ■n oc oo e , wo affeet the privilege of the Deity, and

- of 00 ; tho same language in reality with Ajax in

hers think to overcome with the | ce of th • but

I h tin honour without them.' Dependence and trust IS an

from th L Hi I the crime ot the

I • The Egyptians ai snd not

in our deft etion from Go I, ■'<

when we 00] .: 1 froU ml upon OU1

an arm of fl< sb, we choose the arm of ilesh for our god;

confidence we ought to place in him, and that adoration which is due to him, and build it upon another foundation. Not that we are to neglect the reason and parts God hath given us, or spend more time in prayer than in consulting about our own affairs, but to mix our own intentions in business, with ejaculations to heaven, and take God along with us in every motion ; but certainly it is an idolising of self when we are more diligent in our attendance on our own wit then fervent in our recourses to God.

(6.) The power of sinful self, above the efficacy of the notion of God, is evident in our workings for carnal self against the light of our own consciences. When men of sublime reason, and clear natural wisdom, are voluntary slaves to their own lusts, row against the stream of their own consciences, serve carnal self with a disgraceful and disturbing drudgery, making it their god, sacrificing natural self, all sentiments of virtue, and the quiet of their lives to the pleasure, honour, and satisfaction of carnal self,—this is a prostituting God in his deputy conscience to carnal affections, when their eyes are shut against the enlightnings of it, and their ears deaf to its voice, but open to the least breath and whisper of self; a debt that the creature owes supremely to God.

Much more might be said, but let us see what Atheism lurks in this, and how it intrencheth upon God.

1. It is a usurping God's prerogative. It is God's prerogative to be his own end, and act for his own glory, because there is nothing superior to him in excellency and goodness to act for. He had not his being from anything without himself, whereby he should be obliged to act for anything but himself. To make ourselves, then, our last end, is to co-rival God in his being, the supreme good and blessedness to himself, as if we were our own principle, the author of our own being, and were not obliged to a higher power than ourselves for what we are and have. To direct the lines of all our motions to ourselves is to imply that they first issued only from ourselves. When we are rivals to God in his chief end, we own or desire to be rivals to him in the principle of his being. This is to set ourselves in the place of God. All things have something without them, and above them as their end. All inferior creatures act for some superior order in the rank of creation ; the lesser animals are designed for the greater, and all for man. Man therefore for something nobler than himself. To make ourselves, therefore, our own end, is to deny any superior, to whom we are to direct our actions. God alone, being the supreme being, can be his own ultimate end. For if there were anything higher and better than God, the purity and righteousness of his own nature would cause him to act for and toward that as his chiefest mark. This is the highest sacrilege, to alienate the proper good and rights of God, and employ them for our own use ; to steal from him his own honour, and put it into our own cabinets, like those birds that ravished the sacrifice from the altar and carried it to their own nests.* When we love only ourselves, and act for no other end but ourselves, we invest ourselves with the dominion which is the right of God, and take the crown from his head; for as the crown belongs to the king, so to love his own will, to will by his own will and for himself is the property of God, because he hath no other will, no other end above him to be the rulo and scope of his actions.

When therefore wo are by self-love transformed wholly into ourselves, we make ourselves our own foundation, without God and against God; when we mind our own glory and praise, wo would have a royal state equal with God, who ■ created all things for himself,' Prov. xvi. 4. What can man do more for God than he naturally doth for himself, since ho doth all those things

* Sabundo tit. 14G.

for him If which ha bould do

entimei ide i" bun.

•'. I ilifying W l" i " and; l! ' ! ,,;iin

up bappine is. \\ •• po kpoi ( I to < it* be were no! ad obje< I i Uen1 and tit for oar Id

it is irrational to make thai our • ad which ii not • I I, and not the fthi<

I ■ , .l.ii\ him t » |.,« |i. :|. r th .'i •.•..■, t'* make liim ii-

i as ..in :'.: to I"' our chii I

b not ill urli acknowledgment at our h behath

(lone for us. \V. rlvi In 4 i uperioi ich kind oi

though we are infinitely more inferior to God than any creature ean be to

M.m eannoi dishonour God more than by referring thai ; " bi which G le for his own praise, anon at whereof be only hath i

iry and praise, and none else. Be thus • ehangeth the gloi the incorruptible God unto i corruptible image/ Bom. L 28

• and reputation, which extends but little beyond the limits of l habitation, or, it' it doth, suxrifi i bul ■ few yean, and |

the :i;.'i' win ivin he lived.

I: is as much as in us lies i destroying of God. By i troy thai God thai made as, I troy his intention and his

lion. Mir. God eannoi outlive his will and bis glory, 1 be cam

any other rule hut his own will, or any other « nd I at his own honour.

ing op self as our end puts a nullity Upon the trim Deity J by

ourselves t ; and honour which is due to God, we mi

God ii do God. Whosoi rermakes himself s king of his prince's rights

territories, mai n intent to throw him out of his government. To

(die l «>ur end is to undeifv God, since to be the lasl end of a

rational creature is a right inseparable from the nature of the Deity, and there-: hut self always before US, IS to acknowledge no h • ourstdv. s to be God.

II. '! iond thing; man would make anything his end and happiness

rather than God. An end is so necessary in all our actions, that he deserves not the name of a rational creature thai proposcth not one to himself. This is the distinction between rational creatures and others ; they act with a formal intention, whereas other creatures are directed to their end by a natural instinct, and moved by nature to what the others should be m< by reason. When a man therefore acts for that end, which was not intended him by the law of his creation, nor is suited to the noble faculties of his Boul, contrary to God, overturns his order, and merits no better a title than that o\ an atheist.

A man may be said two ways to make a thing his last end and chief good. 1. Formally. .When he actually judges this or that thing to be his chi . nd orders all things to it. So man doth not formally jr.

sin I any object which is the incentive of sin to bo his last end.

t be while he bath the exercise of his rational faculties. •J. Virtually and implicitly. When he loves anytb linst the

Mid prates in the stream of his actions the enjoyment of the fruition of God, and lays out more strength and I more time in the gaining that than answering the true end of]

When I sthing 1 I tow God could make him happy wit]

i. or that God could ool him happy without the

thin ton make of his dainties, the ambitious

OUrs, the U at man oi his lust, and tie

of 1. 1th, and i

most noble end to which he directs his thoughts; thus he vilifies and lessens the true God, which can make him happy, in a multitude of false gods, that can only render him miserable. He that loves pleasure more than God, says in his heart there is no god but his pleasure. He that loves his belly more than God, says in his heart there is no god but his belly. Their happiness is not accounted to lie in that God that made the world, but in the pleasure or profit they make their god.

In this, though a created object be the immediate and subordinate term to which we turn, yet principally and ultimately the affection to it terminates in self; nothing is naturally entertained by us, but as it affects our sense or mingles with some promise of advantage to us.

This is seen,

1. In the fewer thoughts we have of God than of anything else. Did we apprehend God to be our chiefest good and highest end, should we grudge him the pains of a few days' thoughts upon him ? Men in their travels are frequently thinking upon their intended stage; but our thoughts run upon new acquisitions to increase our wealth, rear up our families, revenge our injuries, and support our reputation. Trifles possess us, but * God is not in all our thoughts,' Ps. x. 4, seldom the sole object of them. We have durable thoughts of transitory things, and flitting thoughts of a durable and eternal good. The covenant of grace engageth the whole heart to God, and bars anything else from engrossing it; but what strangers are God and the souls of most men ! Though we have the knowledge of him by creation, yet he is for the most part an unknown God in the relations wherein he stands to us, because a God undelighted in. Hence it is, as one observes,* that because we observe not the ways of God's wisdom, conceive not of him in his vast perfections, nor are stricken with an admiration of his goodness, that we have fewer good sacred poems than of any other kind. The wits of men hang the wing when they come to exercise their reasons and fancies about God. Parts and strength are given us, as well as corn and w T ine to the Israelites, for the service of God, but those are consecrated to some cursed Baal, Hosea ii. 8. Like Venus in the poet, we forsake heaven to follow some Adonis.

2. In the greedy pursuit of the world.f When we pursue worldly wealth or worldly reputation with more vehemency than the riches of grace or the favour of God. When we have a foolish imagination that our happiness consists in them, we prefer earth before heaven, broken cisterns which can hold no water before an ever springing fountain of glory and bliss, and, as though there were a defect in God, cannot be content with him as our portion without an addition of something inferior to him; when we make it our hopes to say to the wedge, Thou art my confidence, and rejoice more because it is great and because our hand hath gotten much, than in the privilege of communion with God and the promise of an everlasting fruition of him, Job xxxi. 24, 25, this is so gross, that Job joins it with the idolatry of the sun and moon, which he purgeth himself of, ver. 26. And the apostle, when he mentions covetousness or covetous men, passes it not over without the title of idolatry to tho vice, and idolater to the person, Col. iii. 5, Eph. v. 5, in that it is a preferring clay and dirt as an end more desirable than the original of all goodness, in regard of affection and dependence.

8. In a strong addictetlness to sensual pleasures, Philip, iii. 19. Who make their belly their God, subjecting the truths of God to the maintenance of their luxury. In debasing tho higher faculties to project for the satis-

* Jackson, book i. cap, 14, p. 48.

t Quod quisquo prsc cicteris petit, summum judicat bonum.— Boet. lib. 3, p. 24.

(action of the sensitive Lheir ohief bap] whereby many

rontlor then it (if Hitl)lirn:iti I anion

mil groM ut ln-j When men's thoughts run also upon inventing

method tinfy their bestial app.hi leasureH irhi I

arc to 11■ In 1 i irhieh are the deli els, for tl tion

of i i"'ii and unquestionable rs/nasl oi

when out real 11 hi ii.. in, ;i. if tin the chief priori, and not G I.

I. In paying a service upon an\ success in the world inn nts m

than to God tl :u author. When • thi

born inomfi to their dra \ II d>. i. 16. Nol thai tin \ isyrian did offer a sacrifice to his arm . I to them what was

appropriated the riol >ry to hi and arm • She prophet

hipped their warlike instrassani . whereby they bad i great fietories, and thoM artifioera who irorahipped t by win

had pnrnhiatd gn tth in the si &od, | \ them ai

■ • ii" happine God who gOfenil thi WOfld.

nd are nol our a licet ions, upon the receiving of good til ireeloai

i to the instruments of conveyance than to the ohief benefactor from whose eofiers they are taken '.' Do ire not more delight in them, and hug

them with :i greater ciidearedni is, a it' all OQT happinesa dep.

and God were no more than a hare sp. '.' .Just as if when a man v.

warnM l by a beam he ihooid adore that, and not admire the pan thai darts

it out upon him.

5. In paying a H ipOCt to man more than God. When in a public attendance on bii at rvioe, ira will not laugh or be garish, • nasn

hut our hearts shall he in a ridiculous posture, playing with feathers an 1

trifling fancies, though ( ins; as though our bappinf ;sted in

the | ' of nun, and our misery in ■ respect to God. There is no fool

:ii in his heart there is no God, but ho sets up something in his heart i. Thi

1. A debasing of God. (1.) In setting up a creature. It speaks God ISSS amiable than the creature, short of those perfections which some silly lid tiling which hath engrossed their atl'ections is possessed with : as if the oanse of all being could be transcended by his creature, and a vile lust mil, yea, BUrmoont the loveliness of God ; it is to say to God as rich to the poor, James ii. 8, ' Stand thou there, or sit here under my tstool ;' it is to sink him below the mire of the world, to order him to come down from his glorious throne, and take his place below a contemptible nich in regard of its infinite distance is not to be compared with him. It Strips God of the love that is clue to him by the right of his nature and the greatness of his dignity, and of the trust that is due to him as the first and the elm test good, as though he were too feeble and mean to

be our I. This is intolerable, to make that which is God's foot-

stool, the earth, to climb up into his throne ; to set that in our heart which i hath i ..n below OUrSelves, and put under our feet; to make

ITS trample upon to dispose of the right God hath to our hearts;*

it is irons than if a aueen should fall in love with the little image of tho

prince in i. tnd slight the beauty of bis person, and >>plo

should adore t: od ■ king in the dirt, and turn their pon

bis presence.

I sin, a lust, a car: as our i .. honour due to God, and appropi

* Nor p. oO.

it to that which is no work of his hands, to that which is loathsome in his sight, hath disturbed his rest, and wrung out his just breath to kindle a hell for its eternal lodging, a God-dishonouring and a soul-murdering lust, is worse than to prefer Barabbas before Christ. The baser the thing, the worse is the injury to him with whom we would associate it. If it were some generous principle, a thing useful to the world, that we place in an equality with, or a superiority above him, though it were a vile usage, yet it were not altogether so criminal; but to gratify some unworthy appetite, with the displeasure of the Creator, something below the rational nature of man, much more infinitely below the excellent majesty of God, is a more unworthy usage of him. To advance one of the most virtuous nobles in a kingdom as a mark of our service and subjection, is not so dishonourable to a despised prince, as to take a scabby beggar, or a rotten carcass to place in his throne. Creeping things, abominable beasts, the Egyptian idols, cats and crocodiles, were greater abominations, and a greater despite done to God, than the image of jealousy at the gate of the altar, Ezek. viii. 5, 6, 10.

And let not any excuse themselves, that it is but one lust or one creature which is preferred as the end. Is not he an idolater that worships the sun or moon, one idol, as well as he that worships the whole host of heaven ?

The inordinancy of the heart to one lust may imply a stronger contempt of him, than if a legion of lusts did possess the heart. It argues a greater disesteem when he shall be slighted for a single vanity. The depth of Esau's profaneness in contemning his birthright, and God in it, is aggravated by his selling it for ' one morsel of meat,' Heb. xii. 16, and that none of the daintiest, none of the costliest, ' a mess of pottage,' implying, had he parted with it at a greater rate, it had been more tolerable, and his profaneness more excusable. And it is reckoned as a high aggravation of the corruption of the Israelite judges, Amos ii. 6, that ' they sold the poor for a pair of shoes;' that is, that they would betray the cause of the poor for a bribe of no greater value than might purchase them a pair of shoes. To place any one thing as our chief end, though never so light, doth not excuse. He that will not stick to break with God for a trifle, a small pleasure, will leap the hedge upon a greater temptation.

Nay, and if wealth, riches, friends, and the best thing in the world, our own lives, be preferred before God, as our chief happiness and end but one moment, it is an infinite wrong, because the infinite goodness and excellency of God is denied. As though the creature or lust we love, or our own life which we prefer in that short moment before him, had a goodness in itself, superior to, and more desirable than the blessedness in God. And though it should be but one minute, and a man in all the periods of his days both before and after that failure, should actually and intentionally prefer God before all other things, yet he doth him an infinite wrong, because God in every moment is infinitely good, and absolutely desirable, and can never cease to be good, and cannot have the least shadow or change in him and his perfections.

2. It is a denying of God. Job. xxxi. 26-28, ' If I beheld the sun when it shined, and the moon walking in its brightness ; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were iniquity to be punished by the judge: fori should have denied the Lord above.' This denial of God is not only the act of an open idolater, but the consequent of a secret confidence, and immoderate joy in worldly goods ; this denial of God is to be referred to, ver. 24, 25. When a man saith to gold, ■ Thou art my confidence,' and rejoices because his wealth is great, he denies that God which is superior to all those, and the proper object of

tru lh IdoUtl ipled h( wealth,

and th:it which hath t! And

thou per gnil

d.i i | ft seven r punishment, and falli nnder th

«.|' ii,, )u : ml ,,f u || tli. •' ; it«i

. ' this fcl

i ii, moa ' darnel

and oil., i• ■ I i. i hi I'

im inward heart]! confidence, and an nate trn t. It thi of

i be, much moi

r a brutiHh plonHiirr, ih n donisl G I, and a 1 an abjui

of him, Minv the supreme affection of the tool if nndoobl

: of ill. . and ii-' '"'"" '■

the out\\ard rehire may in a uay of civil n -peel. Nothil

diar to God, eaa I tore, withoot s plain i

oing the rectitude **««

nsitiir. . [fQod should command i creature tneh ■ love, and such a confidence in anything inferior to him, he would deny himself bi «y, he

Id deny bimself to be the i oeUenl being. Can the Bomai

from this, when they call thr C m tlHtCOSt, and • the M'

In (, dotnin < I toneventure,

ivus.mtheivton havrworld liiiL'sandsensuali ofhnmodci

fondness to anything in the world, to reflect upon themseh

own the being of a God, the;. .ilty of ;, > him,

tha: i from the title of an onwortlj

that are renewed by the may b< and of a daily

humiliation lor the frequent and too oommon exeur \ their i

ufidenees and affections, whereby thev fall under thr el an act of practical atheism, though they may be free from an habit of it.

111. The third thing is, man would make himself the < nd of all 61

Man would sit in the SCCi of God, and * set his heart as the he ">d,'

Lord saith of Tyrus, Bzek. xxviii. 2. What is the com

med the chief good and end of other <• ?—a thing

that the heart of God Cannot hut he set upon, it 1 arable right

of the Deity, who must deny himself, if he deny this affection of the heart.

6 ii i- the nature of man derived from this root, to di with God, it follows that he <i 0 en-attire should he equal with him,

bu1 snl to his ends and his glory. II" thai would make himself G

Id haw the honour proper t.> God; he that thinks himself worthy of his own supreme affection, thinks bimself worthy to he the obj< d of the supn

; whosoever counts himself the eh;. I and last end,

one place in the thoughts of others. Nothi khan a desire to have his own judgment the rule i • nt and opinions of the rest of mankind Hetl himself in the ]>iace of the prince, doth by that act challenge all thi

md dues belonging to the prince : and apprehending himself fit be a : also worthy of the hoi

II that loves himself chiefly, and all other tl

dil make himself the end of all creatures. It hath i only in Id, that BOOM vain prii

■•es the title . ■ ; divine ons to l»'

For their honour. What hath been natur. Uy in all. W< Wi • ■ \ •;•' an

This is evident;—

1. In pride. When we entertain an high opinion of ourselves, and act for our own reputes, we dispossess God from our own hearts ; and while we would have our fame to be in every man's mouth, and be admired in the hearts of men, we would chase God out of the hearts of others, and deny his glory a residence anywhere else ; that our glory should reside more in their minds than the glory of God ; that their thoughts should be filled with our achievements, more than the works and excellency of God, with our image and not with the divine. Pride would paramount God in the affections of others, and justle God out of their souls ; and by the same reason that man doth thus in the place where he lives, he would do so in the whole world, and press the whole creation from the service of their true Lord, to his own service. Every proud man would be counted by others as he counts himself, the highest, chiefest piece of goodness, and be adored by others, as much as he adores and admires himself. No proud man in his self-love, and self-admiration, thinks himself in an error ; and if he be worthy of his own admiration, he thinks himself worthy of the highest esteem of others; that they should value him above themselves, and value themselves only for him. What did Nebuchadnezzar intend, by setting up a golden image, and commanding all his subjects to worship it, upon the highest penalty he could inflict, but that all should aim only at the pleasing his humour ?

2. In using the creatures contrary to the end God has appointed. God created the world and all things in it, as steps whereby men might ascend to a prospect of him, and the acknowledgment of his glory; and we would use them to dishonour God, and gratify ourselves. He appointed them to supply our necessities, and support our rational delights ; and we use them to cherish our sinful lusts. We wring groans from the creature in diverting them from their true scope, to one of our own fixing, when we use them not in his service, but purely for our own, and turn those things he created for himself to be instruments of rebellion against him to serve our turns ; and hereby endeavour to defeat the ends of God in them, to establish our own ends by them. This is a high dishonour to God, a sacrilegious undermining of his glory,* to reduce what God hath made to serve our own glory, and our own pleasure ; it perverts the whole order of the world, and directs it to another end than what God hath constituted, to another intention contrary to the intention of God ; and thus man makes himself a god by his own authority. As all things were made by God, so they are for God; but while we aspire to the end of the creation, we deny and envy God the honour of being creator. We cannot make ourselves the chief end of the creatures against God's order, but we imply thereby that we were their first principle ; for if we lived under a sense of the Creator of them while we enjoy them for our use, we should return the glory to the right owner.

3. This is diabolical; though the devil, for his first affecting an authority in heaven, has been hurled down from the state of an angel of light, into that of darkness, vileness, and misery, to be the most accursed creature living, yet he still aspires to mate God, contrary to the knowledge of the impossibility of success in it. Neither the terrors he feels, nor the future torments he doth expect, do a jot abate his ambition to be competitor with his Creator. How often hath he, since his first sin, arrogated to himself the honour of a God from tho blind world, and attempted to make the Son of God, by a particular worship, count him as the chiefest good and benefactor of tho world ! Mat. iv. 1). Sinco all men by nature are the devil's children, the serpent's seed, they havo something of this venom in their natures, as

* Sabuudo Tit. 200, p. 352.

well m others of his qualities. Wo ace thai then a prodi-

gious athoi m lurking ander the b< lief of 'l be & ril

I God, but act . like to athei t, and o do bii children.

I\. M:m WOQld mtJce h the end ol (id. 'I'hi v follows

upon Hi," former. \\\ ■ mm

in tht> place of I tod, would n I I I ' in makii the

Mi. lie thai steps into the throne of ■ prino be prinee al bii

loo! ■ tool, and w lulc lie a ' i B, di mand I a sub-

Lion from bim. The order of the creation I by the

entrance of sin** God implanted an affection in man with a double ■ | tin- one to pitch apoa God, the other to n p oi onnelTee ; but with this proyiao, thai our affection to Qod should be infinite in regard of the oh, and centre in him, aa the ehiefesl happine i and b tions to ourselves should be linite, and refer ultimately to God

final of our being. But sin hath turned man's afl wholly to b

sell". Whereas he should low God first, and himself in Order to God, be lOfOI himself first, and God in Order to himself. Lore to God II

and lore to self hath usurped the throne, Aa God by creation ' put all things under the feet' of man, Ps. viii. 6, reserving the heart for him man by corruption hath diapoaM • l ( -od of his heart, and put bim un

his own feet. We often intend OUTS* Ives #hen we pretend the honour

God, and make God and religion a stale to some d- igns weha?cin band, our Creator s tool for our own ends*

This is i'vi«f nt,

1. In our taring God because of some self-pleasing benefits distributed

by him. There is in men a kind of natural love to God; but it is hut a

mdary one, because God gives them the pood things of th a world,

I their table, fills their CUp, stuffs ih lir . and doth them somo

pood turns by unexpected providences. This is not an affection to God for the unbounded excellency of his own nature, but for his beneficence, as ho opens his hand for them; an affection to themselves, and those creatures, their gold, their honour, which their hearts are most fixed upon, without a

ing spiritual inclination that God should be glorified by them in the of those mercies. It is rather a disowning of God than any love to him, 1 accuse it postpones God to those things they love him for. This would appear to be no love, if God should cease to be their benefactor, and deal with them as a judge ; if he should change his outward smiles into afflicting frowns, and not only shut his hand, but strip them of what he sent them, motive of their love being expired, the affection raised by it must cease, for want of fuel to feed it; so that God is beholden to sordid c I of

no value (but as they are his creatures) for most of the love the sons of men pretend to him. The devil spake truth of most men, though not of Job, when he said, Job i. 10, they ' love not God for nought ;' but while ho ma 1 . about them and their families, whilst he blesseth the works

of their hands, and increasetli their honour in the land. It is like Peter's sharp reproof of his Master, when he spake of the ill usage, even to death, he ' with at Jerusalem, ' This shall not be unto

as much out of love to himsj If as zeal for his Master's ini rest, knowing his B in such a storm without some drops lighting upon himself. All the of nun in the world are wil They

D whilst they may have a prosperous profession, but will not hear one chip of the cross for the interest of God. They would part

!, but not endure the prick of a lance for him, as the - the

* Pascal, Tens. sec. 30. p. 2'J4.

miracles of our Saviour, and shrunk at his sufferings. A time of trial discovers these mercenary souls to be more lovers of themselves than their Maker. This is a pretended love of friendship to God, but a real love to a lust, only to gain by God. A good man's temper is contrary. Quench hell, burn heaven, said a holy man, I will love and fear my God.

2. It is evident, in abstinence from some sins, not because they offend God, but because they are against the interest of some other beloved corruption, or a bar to something men hunt after in the world. When temperance is cherished, not to honour God, but preserve a crazy carcass; prodigality forsaken, out of a humour of avarice; uncleanness forsaken, not out of a hatred of lust, but love to their money; declining a denial of the interest and truth of God, not out of affection to them, but an ambitious zeal for their own reputation. There is a kind of conversion from sin, when God is not made the term of it: Jer. iv. 1, «If thou wilt return, 0 Israel, return unto me, saith the Lord.'* When we forbear sin as dogs do the meat they love; they forbear not out of a hatred of the carrion, but fear of the cudgel. These are as wicked in their abstaining from sin as others are in their furious committing it. Nothing of the honour of God and the end of his appointments is indeed in all this, but the conveniences self gathers from them. Again, many of the motives the generality of the world uses to their friends and relations to draw them from vices are drawn from self, and used to prop up natural or sinful self in them. Come, reform yourself, take other courses, you will smut your reputation, and be despicable ; you will destroy your estate, and commence a beggar; your family will be undone, and you may rot in a prison; not laying close to them the duty they owe to God, the dishonour which accrues to him by their unworthy courses, and the ingratitude to the God of their mercies. Not that the other motives are to be laid aside and slighted. Mint and cummin may be tithed, but the weightier concerns are not to be omitted. But this shews that self is the bias not only of men in their own course, but in their dealings with others. What should be subordinate to the honour of God, and the duty we owe to him, is made superior.

3. It is evident, in performing duties merely for a selfish interest; making ourselves the end of religious actions; paying a homage to that, while we pretend to render it to God: Zech. vii. 5, ' Did you at all fast unto me, even unto me ?' Things ordained by God may fall in with carnal ends affected by ourselves, and then religion is not kept up by any interest of God in the conscience, but the interest of self in the heart. We then sanctify not the name of God in the duty, but gratify ourselves. God may be the object, self is the end, and a heavenly object is made subservient to a carnal design. Hypocrisy passes a compliment on God, and is called flattery: Ps. lxxviii. 30, ' They did flatter him with their lips,' &c. They gave him a parcel of good words for their own preservation. Flattery, in the old notion among the heathens, is a vice more peculiar to serve our own turn, and purvey for the belly. They knew they could not subsist without God, and therefore gave him a parcel of good words, that he might spare them, and make provision for them: ' Israel is an empty vine,' Hos. x. 1 ; a vine, say some, with large branches and few clusters, but ' brings forth fruit to himself',' while they professed love to God with their lips. It was that God should promote their covetous designs, and preserve their wealth and grandeur, Ezek. xxxiii. 31; in which respect an hypocrite may bo well termed a religious atheist, an atheist masked with religion. The chief arguments which prevail with many men to perform some duties, and appear

* Trap, on Gon. p. 148.

religions, are th that Ban Shechem Died to th< of

their «• ii\ to submit t<> oircumcision, riz., tb< ' of more wealth:

(ii n. | | QV. 2 I . 22, ' If i \< iy male am- .i

oircumoised, ihall not I and th< . and < of

theirs, be our

Th BD,

i l.i lii unweildiness to religionsduties win r. not cone* rue 1. With

what lively thoughts will many approach to God when • be

broughl in to Bnpporl their own end .' Bat when th oly

an in it, t h«> duty is n<>) the delight bul Lhe clog ; i aeb t that

warm do! the soul, unlets there be something of self to

them, Jonah was sick of his work, and ran from << thonghl he Bhonid get no honour by his m< i . mercy will

propheoy, Jonah iv. 2. Though! i of di adva sin. nrioe. You iii. i tade a merohanl I all his

be upon the inconstant waves, without ho] vail with ■

natural man to 1"' serious in duly, without expectation of BOmS warm advantage. ' What profit should we hays if we pray to him? 1 is the natural question, Job w ; . L5. ' Wliai profit shall I have if I be c d from my

sin *.'' Job \\\v. Bi r shall have mon by my sin than by my

It is d that I dance before the ark, saitfa David, therefore ' 1 will be

more vile,' •! Sum. vi. 22. It is for sell' that I pray, Saitfa B natural man,

therefore I will b< i more warm and quick. Ordinances of God are ol

only as a point of interest, and prayer i> often m when it is L

godly, and most selfish; carnal ends and aileetions will pour out 1;\ expr -. If there he no delight in the means that lead I

no delight in God himself, because love is appetitua union/-, a desire of

union; and where the object is desirable, the means that brings us to it would he delightful

In calling upon God only in a time of necessity. How officious will men he in affliction to that God whom they neglect in their prosper: ! 1 When he Blew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired after God ; and they remembered thai God was their rock,' Ps. lxxviii. 84. They remembered him under the scourge, and forgat him under his smiles. They vi throne of grace, knock loud at heaven's gates, and give God

no rest for their early and importunate devotions when under distress; but wh< n tlu ir desires are answered, and the rod removed, they stand aloof from him, and rest upon their own bottom ; as Jer. ii. 81, ' We are lord-, we will e no more unto thee.' When we have need of him, he shall find us clients at his gate ; and when we have served our turn, he hears no more of US : like Noah's dove sent out of the ark, that returned to him when found i the ( EUrth, but came not back when she found a footing i

win re. How often do men apply themselves to God when they have some • i dn f.r them I And then, too, they are loath to put it solely into his hand, to manage it for his own honour; but they presun be his directors, that ho may manage it for their glory. Self spur- men to the throne ol : they desire to be furnished with some mer

want, or to have the clouds of some judgments which they f ar bio

Thi i 1, bul to ourselves ; as the B tmans worship;

quartans ague as . and Tit ' Pollen , fear and ]

as g it of any affection they had to the disease or the pas-ion, but

for fear to r any hurt by them.

Again, when w : , how ].■

our souls with the consideration of that God that gave it, or lay out the

mercy in his service ! We are importunate to have him our friend in our necessities, and are ungratefully careless of him, and his injuries he suffers by us or others. When he hath discharged us from the rock where we stuck, we leave him, as having no more need of him, and able to do well enough without him, as if we were petty gods ourselves, and only wanted a lift from him at first. This is not to glorify God as God, but as our servant; not an honouring of God, but a self-seeking. He would hardly beg at God's door if he could pleasure himself without him.

(3.) In begging his assistance to our own projects. When we lay the plot of our own affairs, and then come to God, not for counsel but blessing, self only shall give us counsel how to act; but because we believe there is a God that governs the world, we will desire him to contribute success. God is not consulted with till the counsel of self be fixed ; then God must be the executor of our will. Self must be the principal, and God the instrument to hatch what we have contrived. It is worse when we beg of God to favour some sinful aim ; the psalmist implies this, Ps. lxvi. 18, ' If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.' Iniquity regarded as the aim in prayer renders the prayer successless, and the suppliant an atheist in debasing God to back his lust by his holy providence.

The disciples had determined revenge, and because they could not act it without their master, they would have him be their second in their vindictive passion: Luke ix. 55, ' Call for fire from heaven.'

We scarce seek God till we have modelled the whole contrivance in our own brains, and resolved upon the methods of performance, as though there were not a fulness of wisdom in God to guide us in resolves, as well as power to breathe success upon them.

(4.) In impatience upon the refusal of our desires. How often do men's spirits rise against God, when he steps not in with the assistance they want! If the glory of God swayed more with them than their private interest, they would let God be judge of his own glory, and rather magnify his wisdom than complain of his want of goodness. Selfish hearts will charge God with neglect of them, if he be not as quick in their supplies as they are in their desires, like those in Isa. lviii. 3, ' Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not ? wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou takest no knowledge ? ' When we aim at God's glory in our importunities, we shall fall down in humble submissions when he denies us ; whereas self riseth up in bold expostulations, as if God were our servant, and had neglected the service he owed us, not to come at our call. We over-value the satisfactions of self above the honour of God. Besides, if what we desire be a sin, our impatience at a refusal is more intolerable. It is an anger, that God will not lay aside his holiness to serve our corruption.

5. In the actual aims men have in their duties. In prayer for temporal things, when we desire health for our own ease, wealth for our own sensuality, strength for our revenge, children for the increase of our family, gifts for our applause, as Simon Magus did the Holy Ghost, or when some of those ends are aimed at, this is to desire God not to serve himself of us, but to be a servant to our worldly interest, our vain glory, the greatening of our names, &c. In spiritual mercies begged for, when pardon of sin is desired only for our own security from eternal vengeance; sanctification desired only to make us fit for everlasting blessedness ; peace of conscience only that we may lead our lives more comfortably in the world; when we have not actual intentions for the glory of God, or when our thoughts of God's honour aro overtopped by tho aims of self-advantage. Not but that as God hath pressed us to those things by motives drawn from the blessedness

\ i v. i. nuonoAL h mm. w.)

derived to oorselrei by them, m we may them with i | ■> ourselves ; Imt this respect must bi eon! n I within the due banks, in subordination to the glory of (io.l, not uh.ivr it, dot in nn equal balance with it. Thai which ie Dourishii) | or medicinal in the first or m o >u I d< gree, i i In the fourth or fifth degree more d< trnoti?e poison.

Let us consider it loriontfy ; though ■ duty \» oearenly, doth not some and smut 01 in it f

|1.) Bow ia it with our confessions of in? are they not more to procure oar pardon than to pJwbi oureelvi i befon <> I, at to be (rood i the ahaini that hinder ni from bringing him the glory for which we e

cii .it.-.| ; i.r more to partake of his benefits th:iu to hoin.ur liim in ;.

the rights of his justice? I><> ire not bewail em ai it hath mh I us, qo1 ai it oppoaed the bolineei of God? J>o we not shuffle with G and eonfe8s ourf sin, while we ro oerre another, as if we would allnre God, by deolaringonr dislike of one, to gire as liberty to commit wantonm another J oof to abbot ourselves, bat to daab with God }

'1. Is it any baiter in our private and family worship? Are not men

aSjaemblieS frequented by soiiH!, when some upon whom they have | dep.n-

denoe may eye them, and hare a better opinion of them and affection to them , . ) If God were the sole end of our hearts, would they not he as </i Kng under the sole oyo of God as our tongues or carriages arc seemingly

008 under the eye of man'? Arc not family duties performed by some that their voices may be heard, and their reputation supported among golJv neighbours ?

[8.] Is not the charity of many men tainted with this end, self? Mat. vi. 1. as the Pharisees were while they set the miserable object before them, but not the Lord, bestowing alms, not so much upon the necessities of tho people, as tho friendship wo owe them for some particular respects; or casting our bread upon those waters which stream down in the sight of tho world, that our doles may be visible to them and commended by them ; or when we think to oblige God to pardon our transgressions, as if we merited it and heaven too at his hands, by bestowing a few pence upon indigent persons. And,

[4.] Is it not the same with the reproofs of men ? Is not heat and anger carried out with full sail when our worldly interest is prejudiced, and becalmed in tho concerns of God ? Do not masters reprove their servants with more vehemency, for the neglect of their trade and business, than tho neglect of divine duties, and that upon religious arguments, pretending the honour of God, that they may mind their own interest? But when they are negligent in what they owe to God no noise is made, they I without rebuke. Is not this to make God and religion a stale to their own ends ? It is a part of atheism, not to regard the injuries done to i, as Tiberius. \ Let God's wrongs be looked to, or cared for by himself.

5. 1- it not thus in our seeming zeal for religion ? As Demetrius and

the craftemen at Epheras cried up aloud the greatness of Diana of the

Bpheeiana, not out of any true zeal they had for her, but their gain, which

d by the confluence of her worshippers, and the sale of her own

shr: fcs xix. '2 1. 28L

[6.] In ma of the namo of God to countenanco our sin. When

ap an opinion th.it is a friend to our lusts, and then dig deep into tho

Beriptore to and crutches to support it, and authoriso our pi ; when

* I • perl hi. p. 337. % Dei injuria Deo curso.

men will thank God for what they have got by unlawful means, fathering the fruit of their cheating craft, and the simplicity of their chapmen upon God; crediting their cozenage by his name, as men do brass money, with a thin plate of silver and the stamp and image of the prince. The Jews urge the law of God for the crucifying his Son : John xix. 7, * We have a law, and by that law he is to die;' and would make him a party in their private revenge.* Thus often when we have faltered in some actions we wipe our mouths, as if we sought God more than our own interest, prostituting the sacred name and honour of God, either to hatch or defend some unworthy lust against his word.

Is not all this a high degree of atheism ?

1. It is a vilifying God, an abuse of the highest good. Other sins subject the creature and outward things to them; but acting in religious services for self subjects not only the highest concernments of men's souls, but the Creator himself to the creature, nay, to make God contribute to that which is the pleasure of the devil; a greater slight than to cast the gifts of a prince to a herd of nasty swine. It were more excusable to serve ourselves of God upon the higher accounts, such that materially conduced to his glory, but it is an intolerable wrong to make him and his ordinances caterers for our own bellies, as they did, Hosea viii. 13.t They sacrificed the Q*OrQn of which the offerer might eat, not of out of any reference to God, but love to their gluttony; not please him, but feast themselves. The belly was truly made the god, when God was served only in order to the belly : as though the blessed God had his being, and his ordinances were enjoined to pleasure their foolish and wanton appetites ; as though the work of God were only to patronise unrighteous ends, and be as bad as themselves, and become a pander to their corrupt affections.

2. Because it is a vilifying of God, it is an undeifying or dethroning God. It is an acting as if we were the lords, and God our vassal; a setting up those secular ends in the place of God, who ought to be our ultimate end in every action ; to whom a glory is as due as his mercy to us is utterly unmerited by us. He that thinks to cheat and put the fool upon God by his pretences, doth not heartily believe there is such a being. He could not have the notion of a God without that of omniscience and justice ; an eye to see the cheat, and an arm to punish it. The notion of the one would direct him in the manner of his services* and the sense of the other would scare him from the cherishing his unworthy ends. He that serves God with a sole respect to himself is prepared for any idolatry ; his religion shall warp with the times and his interest; he shall deny the true God for an idol, when his worldly interest shall advise him to it, and pay the same reverence to the basest image which he pretends now to pay to God; as the Israelites were as real for idolatry under their basest princes as they were pretenders to the true religion under those that were pious.

Before I come to the use of this, give me leave to evince this practical atheism by two other considerations.

1. Unworthy imaginations of God.

• The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God ;' that is, he is not such a God as you report him to be ; this is meant by their being corrupt, in the second verse corrupt being taken for playing the idolaters, Exod. xxxii. 7. We cannot comprehend God ; if we could, wo should cease to be finite ; and because we cannot comprehend him, we erect strange images of him in our fancies and affections. And since guilt came upon us, because we cannot root out tho notions of God, we would debase the majesty and * Sanderson's Sermons, part ii. p. 158. f Vid. Cocc. in locum.

nature of God, thai we may Imvc boom eaee in our adliedi

w lth Bome oomforl in ti. ■! kindlj

- is universal io men b ' I • I i no! in ill bii th

I' . \. I. \. : in any thoughl < of his

nature, And gre ttn< of 1 ty. A the be ithon did i

neither do they eon i I ' J

with BOID4 or other ill opinion of him, thinking him not bo holy,

. Ttul, j I ai 1"' i s . :i11« 1 as tin 1 natural forer of a human undir-

itandin arrive to. \\ e join I i Grod in our vain I

and repn nl him not aa he ia, bul would have him to !"•, At I

own u . lit.-1 to our own plea lire. We ael thai i of

im:i . on work, and then o df), whom a not ion

him into so narrow a mould 08 to think that him-elf, who had

newlj Bpronted an by his almighty power, was fit to be b >l in kn

nd had vain hop [rasp aa mneh as infiniteneea. It' he in

tirsl declining began l" have Buch a conceit, it ia no doubt hut ■ bad under a maaa of corruption. Winn holy Agar speaks of God, !. out thai he had not 'the understanding of a man, nor the knowledge of the holy,' Prov. lxx. 2, 8. He did not think rationally of God as man might by ogth at bis firei creation. There are as many carved imagea of G i as there are minda of men, and aa monatroua ahapea as those corruptions into which they would transform him. 11 nee aprang,

1. [dolatry. Vain ima OB first set afloat'and kept up this in tho

world. Vam imaginations of I G L' whose glory they changed into the im:i rruptible man,' Rom. i. 21, -'■'>. They had set up vain images

of him in their fancy, before they set up idolatrous representations of him in their temples ; the likening him to those idols of wood and stone, and various metal8, were the fruit of an'idea erected in their own minds. This ia a mighty debasing the divine nature, and rendering him no better than that baaa and stupid matter they make the visible object of their adoration, ailing him with those base creatures they think worthy to be the represent of him. Yet how far did this crime spread itself in all corners of the world, not only among the more barbarous and ignorant, but the more polished and civilized nations I Judea only, where God had placed the ark of b nee, being free from it in some intervals of time only, after some ping judgment. And though they vomited up their idols under some sharp b . they licked them up again after the heavens were cleared r their heads. The whole book of Judges makes mention of it. And igh an evangelical Light hath chased that idolatry away from a great part the principle remaining, coins more spiritual idols in the heart, which arc brought before God in acts of worship.

•J. Sen .ill superstition received its rise and growth. Winn we mint a ur own complexion, like to us in mutable and various angry and soon appeased, it is no wonder that we invent ways sing him after we have offended him, and think to expiate the sin of our souls by Bome melancholy devotions and self-chastisements. Bupen lion '■ lut an nnacriptural and nnrevealed dread of G

&t<fi6aifiMia. When they imagine him a rigorous, and severe master, tl • about for wa him whom they thought so hard I

•y mean thought of him, as if a slight and pompoua d sily bribe and flatter him out of his rig or ba -ud quiet little children, and what.- ever

I . i. y

pleased us could please a God infinitely above us. Such narrow conceits had the Philistines, when they thought to still the anger of the God of Israel, whom they thought they possessed in the ark, with the present of a few golden mice, 1 Sam. vi. 3, 4. All the superstition this day living in the world is built upon this foundation; so natural it is to man to pull God down to his own imaginations, rather than raise up his imaginations up to God. Hence doth arise also the diffidence of his mercy, though they repent, measuring God by the contracted models of their own spirits, as though his nature were as difficult to pardon their offences against him, as they are to remit wrongs done to themselves.

3. Hence springs all presumption, the common disease of the world. All the wickedness in the world, which is nothing else but presuming upon God, rises from the ill interpretations of the goodness of God, breaking out upon them in the works of creation and providence. The corruption of man's nature engendered by those notions of goodness a monstrous birth of vain imaginations, not of themselves primarily, but of God ; whence arose all that folly and darkness in their minds and conversations : Rom. i. 20, 21, • They glorified him not as God,' but according to themselves imagined him good that themselves might be bad, fancied him so indulgent as to neglect his honour for their sensuality. How doth the unclean person represent him to his own thoughts but as a goat, the murderer as a tiger, the sensual person as a swine, while they fancy a god indulgent to their crimes without their repentance ! As the image on the seal is stamped upon the wax, so the thoughts of the heart are printed upon the actions. God's patience is apprehended to be an approbation of their vices, and from the consideration of his forbearance they fashion a god that they believe will smile upon their crimes ; they imagine a god that plays with them, and though he threatens, doth it only to scare, but means not as he speaks ; a god they fancy like themselves, that would do as they would do, not be angry for what they count a light offence : Ps. 1. 21, ■ Thou thoughtest I was such a one as thyself;' that God and they were exactly alike, as two tallies. ■ Our wilful misapprehensions of God are the cause of our misbehaviour in all his worship ; our slovenly and lazy services tell him to his face what slight thoughts and appprehensions we have of him.'* . Compare these two together.

Superstition ariseth from terrifying misapprehensions of God; presumption from self-pleasing thoughts. One represents him only rigorous, and the other careless ; one makes us over-officious in serving him by our own rules, and the other over-bold in offending him according to our humours. The want of a true notion of God's justice makes some men slight him ; and the want of a true apprehension of his goodness makes others too servile in their approaches to him. One makes us careless of duties, and the other makes us look on them rather as physic than food ; an unsupportable penance than a desirable privilege. In this case hell is the principle of duty performed to heaven. The superstitious man believes God hath scarce mercy to pardon ; the presumptuous man believes he hath no such perfection as justice to punish. The one makes him insignificant to what ho desires, kindness and goodness ; the other renders him insignificant to what ho fears, his vindictive justice. What between the idolater, the superstitious, tho presumptuous person, God should look like no God in the world.

These unworthy imaginations of God are likewise,

A vilifying of him, debasing tho Creator to be a crcaturo of their own * Gurnal, part ii. p. 245, 246.

Ganoies, patting their o bim not sec

to that beautiful image be im] I apoa them bj >n, bat the

defaced image they inhi fall, and which i i, the im

the devil which ipi volt tod ap

it poe lible to bi e b p ol ire i I » the (ancie i of mi d, it

would be the mi il mos krou sen bti

We honour <i"d when we have wortl of bim Buitabie to hi<

nature ; when we oonoeive of bim ae a b anboan and

i m. \\ il from bim when w ich qaal

lid be d bonible d to a wise and | i""1 man, ae inj

imparity. Thai men debt i I when they invert hi : 11 < 1

ite bim according to their im be first created tie m ae

)u< own : and think bim not worthy to Go i. onli i he (ally the

moald they would cist, him into, and be what ia unworthy of I

i do nnt conceive of God ai he would have them, but bo must bo what they would have him, one of their own ahaping.

(1.) This ia worse than idolatry. The groeseet idolater oommite not a crime bo heinous, by changing hie glory into the image of creeping things and Ben creatures, as ilio imearning God to be as one of our sinful

. and likening him to those filthy images wo erect in our fancies; ono makes him an earthly God, like an earthly creature; tho other (ancles him an Unjasl and impure God, like a wicked creature: ono sets up an in him in the earth, which is his footstool; the other sets up an image of him in the heart, which ought to be bis throne.

It is worse than absolute at Ik ism or a denial of God. Diffniut

imut now ess*, quodoungus non Ua/uerU t ut sbm <i<l»!<it, was the opinion of Tertollian.* It is more commendable to think bim not to be, than to think him such a ono as is inconsistent with his nature. Letter to deny his CS than to deny his perfection. No wise man but would rather have his memory rot than bo accounted infamous, and would bo more obliged to him thai should deny that ever he had a baing in the world, than to say he <ii 1 indeed live, but ho was a sot, a debauched person, and a man not to be trusted. When wo apprehend God deceitful in his promises, unrighteous in his threatenings, unwilling to pardon upon repentance, or resolved to pardon notwithstanding impenitency, these are things either unworthy of the nature of God, or contrary to that revelation he hath given of himself. Bet! c tor a man never to have been born than be for ever miserable ; so better to be thought no God than represented impotent or negligent, unjust itful, which are more contrary to the nature of God than hell can bo to the ' t criminal. In this sense perhaps the apostle affirms tho

atiles, Kph. ii. 12, to be such as are ' without God in the world,' as being more atheists in adoring God uuder such notions as they commonly did, than if they had acknowledged no God at all."

•J. Thifl ifl evident by our natural desire to bo distant from him, and Unwillii " » have any acquaintance with him. Sin set us first at a dis-

tan I ; and every new act of gross sin estrangeth us more from him,

and ind .. us more for him : it makes us both afraid and ashamed bo

bim. Bensoal men were of this frame that Job discourscth of: Job xxi. 7 9, an ill. L5. Where grace reigns, the nearer to God, the moro

irons the motion ; the nearer anything approaches to us that is the object of our de&ires, the more eagerly do Wi press forward to it; but our blood

th at the approaches of anything to which we have an aversion. We * 'JYrtul. coat. Marcion, lib. i. cap. 'J.

have naturally a loathing of God's coming to us, or our return to him ; we seek not after him as our happiness; and when he offers himself, we like it not, but put a disgrace upon him in choosing other things before him. God and we are naturally at as great a distance as light and darkness, life and death, heaven and hell. The stronger impression of God anything hath, the more we fry from it. The glory of God in reflection upon Moses his face scared the Israelites; they who desired God to speak to them by Moses, when they saw a signal impression of God upon his countenance, were afraid to come near him, as they were before unwilling to come near to God, Exod. xxxiv. 30. Not that the blessed God is in his own nature a frightful object, but our own guilt renders him so to us, and ourselves indisposed to converse with him ; as the light of the sun is as irksome to a distempered eye as it is in its own nature desirable to a sound one. The saints themselves have had so much frailty, that they have cried out that they were undone, if they had any more than ordinary discoveries of a God made unto them; as if they wished him more remote from them. Vileness cannot endure the splendour of majesty, nor guilt the glory of a judge.

We have naturally, (1.) No desire of remembrance of him ; (2.) or converse with him; (3.) or thorough return to him ; (4.) or close imitation of him : as if there were not such being as God in the world ; or as if we wished there were none at all; so feeble and spiritless are our thoughts of the hems' of a God.

O

(1.) No desire for the remembrance of him. How delightful are other things in our minds ! How burdensome the memorials of God, from whom we have our being! With what pleasure do we contemplate the nature of creatures, even of flies and toads ; while our minds tire in the search of him who hath bestowed upon us our knowing and meditating faculties! Though God shews himself to us in every creature, in the meanest weed as well as in the highest heavens, and is more apparent in them to our reasons than themselves can be to our sense, yet though we see them, we will not behold God in them. We will view them to please our sense, to improve our reason in their natural perfections ; but pass by the consideration of God's perfections so visibly beaming from them. Thus we play the beasts and atheists in the very exercise of reason, and neglect our Creator to gratify our sense; as though the pleasure of that were more desirable than the knowledge of God. The desire of our souls is not ' towards his name and the remembrance of him,' Isa. xxvi. 8, when we set not ourselves in a posture to feast our souls with deep and serious meditations of him; have a thought of him only by the by and away, as if we were afraid of too intimate acquaintance with him.

Are not the thoughts of God rather our invaders than our guests, seldom invited to reside and take up their home in our hearts ? Have we not, when they have broken in upon us, bid them ■ depart from us,' Job xxii. 17, and warned them to come no more upon our ground ; sent them packing as soon as we could, and were glad when they were gone ? And when they have departed, have we not often been afraid they should return again upon us, and therefore looked about for other inmates, things not good; or if good, infinitely below God, to possess the room of our hearts before any thoughts of him should appear again ? Have wo not- often been glad of excuses to shake off present thoughts of him ; and when we have wanted real ones, found out pretences to keep God and our hearts at a distance? Is not this a part of atheism, to be so unwilling to employ our faculties about the giver of them, to refuse to exercise them in a way of grateful remembrance of him, as though they wcro none of his gift, but our own acquisition;

■ IV. l.J HUl ||. M. AUIl.ISM.

though the God that tmlv gave them I -hi to tin n, and he that

think* (tn as i :i u w;iv oi ' worthy

tho

Do no! ', lii itM '">". :i "' 1 abhor tJlis natural

ess, And that when they wonld thinl i many th mpt

them and turn them to thii Do th( d their up]

■joo l»I«-, their noli I the im| I ! iral atheism I over ho re.

with linn. 'I I

mand for I. oly the Babbaih day, inolnding all the dut

and the cho >ur Datarai unwillin m, an 1

f them. God | thii command with

man hath do heart fox spiritual dntii ■ ■piritoa] duty, which aeti hi immediately face to bee with God, bat in

: it we find naturally i tt iitance from some powerful pie;

inbseribe to th oh of the apostle, that ' when

wpnld do good, svil ii present with ns. 1 No reason of this oan I & red l'ii; the natural temper of onr souls and an ai rom

i under any coo on; for though onr guilt first made the breach,

thii aversion to a converse with him itepi ap without any actual i upon our guilt, which may render God terrible to oi i jud not also, in our attendance upon him, more pi I riththo

model of worship which gratify our fancy, than to have cur souls in Mod with the object of worship himself?

a part of our natural atheism. 'I inch dutiee off

. or m part, by affecting i coldness in them, is to east off the fear of th • Lord, Job sv. i. Not to call upon God, and not to know him, are ono and the same thing, Jer. x. 25. Either we think there is no such being in the world, or ti i slight I one, that he deserves not the respect ho

calls for impotent and poor, that he cannot supply what our necessi-

ties require.

No desire of a thorough return to him. The first man fled from him fection, though he had do refuge to fly to but the grace of his Creator. Cain went from his prea nee, would bo a fugitive from God, ra' than a supplicant to him ; when by faith in, and application of the promised B l< mi r, he might have escaped the wrath to come for his brother's blood, I mitigate 1 the sorrows he was justly sentenced to bear in the world. thing will separate prodigal man from COmmoniDg with swine, and make him return to his Esther, but an empty trough ; have we but husks to feed on, we shall never think of a father's presence. It were well if our sores and in i rould drive us to him; but when our ' strength is devoured.

wih urn to the Lord our God, nor seek him for all this,' Hosea vii. 10.

N G I of judgment, nor his mighty power as a Lord,

nor u arms ns the Lord their God, could move them t > turn their eyes

and their 1. rardshim. The more he invites us to partake of nil

run from him to provoke his wrath : the louder '

them by hi closer they stuck to their Baal, 11 \m i n. -.

turn teki when he itretchee out his hand, stop our can when he litts

up : we fly from him when he courts us and shelter l

any bush h Eul hand, that would lay hold upon us ; nor

him, till I up with thorns.' and

iiit any by-way, Sosea i:. *'». 7. NN

• the pain of ' ; he is

brought to a spiritual lubjection to God, nor persuaded to a hurreuder

at a summons, but sweetly overpowered by storm, and victoriously drawn into the arms of God. God stands ready, but the heart stands off: grace is full of entreaties, and the soul full of excuses; divine love offers, and carnal self-love rejects. Nothing so pleases us, as when we are furthest from him ; as if anything were more amiable, anything more desirable than himself.

(4.) No desire of any close imitation of him. When our Saviour was to come as a refiner's fire to purify the sons of Levi, the cry is, ' Who shall abide the day of his coming ?' Mai. iii. 2, 3. Since we are alienated from the life of God, we desire no more naturally to live the life of God, than a toad or any other animal desires to live the life of a man. No heart that knows God but hath a holy ambition to imitate him ; no soul that refuseth him for a copy, but is ignorant of his excellency ; of this temper is all mankind naturally. Man in corruption is as loath to be like God in holiness, as Adam after his creation was desirous to be like God in knowledge; his posterity are like their father, who soon turned his back upon his original copy.

What can be worse than this ? Can the denial of his being be a greater injury than this contempt of him; as if he had not goodness to deserve our remembrance, nor amiableness fit for our converse ; as if he were not a Lord fit for our subjection, nor had a holiness that deserved our imitation ?

IV. For the use of this. It serves,

1. For information.

(1.) It gives us occasion to admire the wonderful patience and mercy of God. How many millions of practical atheists breathe every day in his air, and live upon his bounty, who deserve to be inhabitants in hell, rather than possessors of the earth ! An infinite holiness is offended, an infinite justice is provoked; yet an infinite patience forbears the punishment, and an infinite goodness relieves our wants. The more we had merited his justice and forfeited his favour, the more is his affection enhanced, which makes his hand so liberal to us.

At the first invasion of his rights, he mitigates the terror of the threatening, which was set to defend his law, with the grace of a promise to relieve and recover his rebellious creature, Gen. iii. 15. Who would have looked for anything but tearing thunders, sweeping judgments, to rase up the foundations of the apostate world ? But oh, how great are his bowels to his aspiring competitors! Have we not experimented his contrivances for our good, though we have refused him for our happiness ? Has he not opened his arms, when we spurned with our feet; held out his alluring mercy, when we have brandished against him a rebellious sword ? Has he not entreated us while we have invaded him, as if he were unwilling to lose us, who are ambitious to destroy ourselves ? Has he yet denied us the care of his providence, while we have denied him the rights of his honour, and would appropriate them to ourselves ? Has the sun forborne shining upon us, though we have shot our arrows against him ? Have not our beings been supported by his goodness, while we have endeavoured to climb up to his throne; and his mercies continued to charm us, while we have used them as weapons to injure him ? Our own necessities might excite us to own him as our happiness, but ho adds his invitations to the voice of our wants. Has he not promised a kingdom to those that would strip him of his crown, and proclaimed pardon, upon repentance, to those that would take away his glory ? and hath so twisted together his own end, which is his honour, and man's true end, which is his salvation, that a man cannot truly mind himself and his own salvation, but ho must mind God's glory; and cannot be intent upon God's honour but by the samo act ho promotes himself and

hie own happim G I I <• any j of dissatisf

turn to I boOOOT himself. All thoM won bii

bun enhanced by the beinousnei n, a multitude of

.1 him abort the Dnliiindi mpta from

evL 7. \\ Lheir prinoe, aiming el hie

in him, e ell tl lily

afforded them, without whioh they would I without whieh th

I be anable to i thoir al •■ I from (1 IV

I i i i not God had' i I , I and

infinite ri -1. the dc pite the world bad done bim in re: ■ :n - ■

their rule, happ . ironld have emptie I him 1 R >m. ii. i.

i tific it i.'ii of the ezereiee of hie jnetiee. us

: loudly .it also stops our moat] ie>

nice. \Yh it. ciiii I i:irp a i

th.< deepieing and diegraoing so great a being? ] apt

anger, an I when we will not own inn f >r oar happim i il we should feel the misery of separation from him. It' he thai guilty of treason d< to] »se ins life, what punishment can be thought

t enough for him thai to prefer himself before ■

Infinitely good, and so foolish ae to intade the rights of one infinitely powerful ? It is mi injustice t ire to bo for ever left to himself, to

he can make <>f that self he was so busily employed to set op in the place of his I r. The soul of man an infinite

punishment for despising an infinite good. And is it not unequitable that that si If. which man makes bis rule an<l happiness above God, should me his torment and mieery by the righteov of that God whom he

• 1.

h a necessity of a new state and frame of soul, to alter an

We forget God, think of him with reluctaney, have no

in our c I acts. This cannot be our original state.

i being infin I, never let man come out of his hands with this

actual unwilling i acknowledge and servo him. He never intended to

dethrone himself for the work of his hands, or that the creature should have

any other end than that of his Creator. As the apostle saith in the case of

the Galatians' error, Gal. v. 8, ' This persuasion came not of him that called

you,' so this frame comes not from him that created you. How much,

ther lo we need a restoring principle in as I Instead of ordering our-

selves according to the will of God, we are desirous to ' fulfil the wills of

. Bph. ii. 8. There is a necessity of some other principle in us to

Ice us fulfil the will of God, since we were created for God, not for the

ih.

\\V can no more bo voluntarily serviceable to God while our serpentine nature and devilish habits remain in us, than we can suppose the devil em rilling to glorify God while the nature ho contracted by his fall abides illy in him. Our nature and will must be changed, that our actions ma 1, that we may delightfully meditate on him, and

draw t: of our ol • from him. Since this atheism is seal

in natn most be in OUT nature. Since our first aspii

the the fruits of the serpent's breath, whieh tainted our

Bate t DO a r. moval of this taint, whereby our natures may be

on the si le of God aga Id .'an, as they were before on th •

ii ':. apernatoral principle 1

;tural Ii! I, since we are naturally all from the

lite of ii ;.' aatores from God is I g as our

inclinations to evil; we are disgusted with one, and pressed with the other; we have no will, no heart to come to God in any service. This nature must be broken in pieces, and new moulded, before we can make God our rule and our end. While men's deeds are evil, they cannot comply with God, John iii. 19, 20, much less while their natures are evil. Till this be done, all the service a man performs riseth from some evil imagination of the heart, which is evil, only evil, and that continually, Gen. vi. 5, from wrong notions of God, wrong notions of duty, or corrupt motives. All the pretences of devotion to God are but the adoration of some golden image. Prayers to God for the ends of self, are like those of the devil to our Saviour, when he asked leave to go into the herd of swine. The object was right, Christ; the end was the destruction of the swine, and the satisfaction of their malice to the owners. There is a necessity, then, that depraved ends should be removed, that that which was God's end in our framing may be our end in our acting, viz., his glory, which cannot be without a change of nature. We can never honour him supremely whom we do not supremely love. Till this be, we cannot glorify God as God, though we do things by his command and order, no more than when God employed the devil in afflicting Job, chap. i. His performance cannot be said to be good, because his end was not the same with God's. He acted out of malice what God commanded out of sovereignty, and for gracious designs. Had God employed an holy angel in his design upon Job, the action had been good in the affliction, because his nature was holy, and therefore his ends holy; but bad in the devil, because his ends were base and unworthy.

(4.) We may gather from hence the difficulty of conversion, and mortification to follow thereupon. W T hat is the reason men receive no more impression from the voice of God and the light of his truth, than a dead man in the grave doth from the roaring thunder, or a blind mole from the light of the sun ? It is because our atheism is as great as the deadness of the one or the blindness of the other. The principle in the heart is strong to shut the door both of the thoughts and affections against God. If a friend oblige us, we shall act for him as for ourselves. We are won by entreaties ; soft words overcome us; but our hearts are as deaf as the hardest rock at the call of God. Neither the joys of heaven proposed by him can allure us, nor the flashed terrors of hell affright us to him ; as if we conceived God unable to bestow the one or execute the other. The true reason is, God and self contest for the deity. The law of sin is, God must be at the foot-stool; the law of God is, sin must be utterly deposed. Now it is difficult to leave a law beloved for a law long ago discarded. The mind of man will hunt after anything, the will of man embrace anything; upon the proposal of mean objects, the spirit of man spreads its wings, flies to catch them, becomes one with them ; but attempt to bring it under the power of God, the wings flag, the creature looks lifeless, as though there were no spring of motion in it. It is as much crucified to God as the holy apostle was to the world. The sin of the heart discovers its strength the more God discovers the holiness of his will, Horn. vii. 9-12. The love of sin hath been predominant in our nature, has quashed a love to God, if not extinguished it.

Hence also is the difficulty of mortification. This is a work tending to the honour of God, the abasing of that inordinately aspiring humour in ourselves. If the nature of man bo inclined to sin, as it is, it must needs be bent against anything that opposes it. It is impossible to strike any true blow at any lust, till the true sense of God bo re-entertained in the soil where it ought to grow. Who can bo naturally willing to crucify what is incorporated with him, his flesh; what is dearest to him, himself? Is it an

for man, the competitor a i . I i tu n bi ai I bim-

•elf, ill it -.'it' should oferihro i d empire, I | " ns

ko .i! I i ih.-.Hi . i membei i tnd subdue

own affection! ? II I • aatan i b ; m nil

■in, Job rxxi. B8, 'l: l cover my trai . \ lam,*

troy it, and aa unwillii , rl with bis carnal affec n ol

devils were with the man I An i • l»< " h<

>ii I fired from our, be will endeavour to i

I to i aeei iwine, win d ti. from ti.

i of that man.

Here v, thereaeonof nnbelief. Thatwbioh bathm< i d

it meete with most aversion from ds; that which bath ieaet of G r inolinationi in us. What is the > that ti

of man ii more nnwilling to embrace the gospel than acknowledge the i quity of the Ian '.' Beoanse there ii more of God's nature and p< rfeetion in i pel than in the law; besides, there is more reliance on G

distance from self commanded in the gospel. Tin: law pnta e man upon bis own strength, the gospel takes him off from bia own bottom. 'J he acknowledges bim to bays i power in himself, and to aet for his own reward; the gospel strips him of all his prond and towering thi 2 0 r.

brings him to his due place, the foot of God, orders him to deny tali

his Own rule, right IS, and end, and henceforth not to live to him

8 Cor. \. L6. This is the true reason why men are mon

than against the law, because it doth more deify God and debase man.

Hence it is easier to reduce men to some moral virtue than to faith; to

make men blnah at their outward vices, hut not at the inward impurity of

their natures. Sei ee it is observed that those thai assert that all happiness did arise from something in a man'a sell', as the Stoics and Epicureans did,

and that a wise man was equal with God, wi re greater enemies to the truths of the gOSjM 1 than others, Acts xvii. IB, because it lays the axe to the root of their principal opinion ; takes the one from their self-sufficiency, and the other from their Si It-gratification. It opposeth the brutish principle of the one, which placed happiness in the pleasures of the body, and the more noblo principle of the other, which placed happiness in the virtue of the mind. The one was for B sensual, the other for a moral self, both disowned by tho doctrine of the gospel.

(6. | It informs us, consequently, who can be the author of grace and con-

I every other good work. No practical atheist ever yet turned

to God but was turned by God ; and not to acknowledge it to God ii I

part of this atheism, since it is a robbing God of the honour of one of his

BUOSi glorious works. If this practical atheism be natural to man ever since

taint of nature in paradise, what can be expected from it but a

sting of the work of God, and setting up all the forces of nature against the operations of grace, till a day of power dawn and clear up upon the soui B. Not ail the angels in heaven, or men upon earth, can be

Imagini d to be able to persuade a man to fall out with himself; nothing e m turn the ti . :. | >wer above nature. God took away the

itifying Spirit from man, as a penalty for the first sin ; who can regain it but by his will and pleasure ? Who can [ it but he that removed it?

Since every man hath the same fundamental atheism in him by D it"'

Id be a rule to himself, ai so Gar from

himself that all Dgth of Ids corrupt ;re is alarmed up t

to their arms, upon any attempt Gol ma'.. -ain the fort. 'I DC will is

dust God, that it is like many wills twisted together: Eph. i

1 wills of the flesh,' we translate it the ' desires of the flesh.' Like many threads twisted in a cable, never to be snapped asunder by a human arm, a power and will above ours can only untwist so many wills in a knot. Man cannot rise to an acknowledgment of God without God. Hell may as well become heaven, the devil be changed into an angel of light. The devil cannot but desire happiness, he knows the misery into which he is fallen ; he cannot be desirous of that punishment he knows is reserved for him. Why doth he not sanctify God and glorify his Creator, wherein there is abundantly more pleasure than in his malicious course ? Why doth he not petition to recover his ancient standing ? He will not, there are chains of darkness upon his faculties; he will not be otherwise than he is. His desire to be god of the world sways him against his own interest, and out of love to his malice he will not sin at a less rate to make a diminution of his punishment. Man, if God utterly refuseth to work upon him, is no better, and to maintain his atheism would venture a hell. How is it possible for a man to turn himself to that God, against whom he hath a quarrel in his nature, the most rooted and settled habit in him being to set himself in the place of God ? An atheist by nature can no more alter his own temper, and engrave in himself the divine nature, than a rock can carve itself into the statue of a man, or a serpent, that is an enemy to man, could or would raise itself to the nobility of the human nature. That soul that by nature would strip God of his rights, cannot, without a divine power, be made conformable to him, and acknowledge sincerely and cordially the rights and glory of God.

(7.) We may here see the reason why there can be no justification by the best and strongest works of nature. Can that which hath atheism at the root justify either the action or person ? What strength can those works have which have neither God's law for their rule, nor his glory for their end, that are not wrought by any spiritual strength for him, nor tend with any spiritual affection to him ? Can these be a foundation for the most holy God to pronounce a creature righteous ? They will justify his justice in condemning, but cannot sway his justice to an absolution. Every natural man in his works picks and chooses ; he owns the will of God no further than he can wring it to suit the law of his members, and minds not the honour of God, but as it justles not with his own glory and secular ends. Can he be righteous that prefers his own will and his own honour before the will and honour of the Creator? However men's actions may be beneficial to others, what reason hath God to esteem them, wherein there is no respect to him but themselves, whereby they dethrone him in their thoughts, while they seem to own him in their religious works ? Every day reproves us with something different from the rule, thousands of wanderings offer themselves to our eyes. Can justification be expected from that which in itself is matter of despair ?

(8.) See here the cause of all the apostasy in the world. Practical atheism was never conquered in such, they are still * alienated from the life of God,' and will not live to God, as he lives to himself and his own honour, Eph. iv. 17, 18. 'ihey loathe his rule and distaste his glory; are loath to step out of themselves to promote the ends of another ; find not the satisfaction in him as they do in themselves. They will be judges of what is good for them and righteous in itself, rather than admit of God to judge for them. When men draw back from truth to error, it is to such opinions which may serve more to foment and cherish their ambition, covetousness, or some beloved lust that disputes with God for precedency, and is designed to be served before him : John xii. 42, 43, ' They love the praise of men more

• the pnJM of GooV A pn G rring man I I • I > ■ ! ,n tn '. v

would not 001 I ( bri i, and <rod in him. i'.i. i This shews dj tli" excellency of lb tod Ohrisi ■ ]

man in hi and M1S

nature n qc res. It 11] m in in the d i I i »m I en, and

i that throne where be on [hf I i hM

annihili i It"; the go pel gl >rifl

man. In our I »it wo would be like him in knowledge; in the meani

he h .■'". provided for onr n The g i8pel she an object of humiliation,

for onr imitation. Th i tore tell

the | i us a more magnifioent report of him. The light ol ual

i atheism, and th it of th nans an I

spiritual atheism in the hearts of men. / '2. Of exhortation.

i : us labour to I e « m ible of this athi ism in our nat humbled for it Bow should we lie in the dust, and go bowing under the humbling thoughts of it all our days! Bhall we nol be sensible of that whereby we spill the blood of our a stab tot) t ot our

own salvation? Bhall we be worse than any creature, uot to bewail that whieh tends to our destruction ? li a that doth noi lane nt it cannot ehal-e the character of a Christian, hath nothing of the divine li:'': and I

ted in his SOUl. Not ■ man hut shall one day I ible, when the

eternal God shall call him out to examination, and charge his conscience to

discover .rime, which will then own the authority whereby it acted;

when the hear! shall be torn open, and the secrets of it brought to public

view, and the world and man himself Bhall sec what a viperous brood of

lp( principles and ends nested in his heart Let us, therefore, bo

truly sensible of it, till the consideration draws tears from our eyes and sor-

from our souls. Let US urge the thoughts of it upon our hearts, till the

o( that pride be eaten out, and our stubbornness changed into humili

till our heads become waters, and our eyes fountains of tears, and be a spring

of prayer to God, to change the heart and mortify the atheism in it, and con-

r what a sad thing it is to be a practical atheist; and who is not so by

natu

Let us be sensible of it in ourselves. Have any of our hearts been a soil

the fear and reverence of God hath naturally grown? Have we a

to know him, or a will to embrace him? Do wo delight in his will,

and love the remembrance of his name? Are our respects to him as God

:1 to the speculative knowledge we have of his nature? Is the heart,

wherein he hath stamped his image, reserved for his residence? Is not the

I than the Creator of the world, as though that could con-

tril •; • r happiness than the author of it ? Have not creatures

as much of OUTloVe, fear, trust, nay, more than God, that framed both them

not too often relied upon our own , and made

a calf of our own wisdom, and said of God as the Israelites of MoSCS, 'As for this M wot not what is become of him.' El d. xxxii. 1 ; I

to our drag and our : our industry, than to the wisdom and blessii. I ? AM

from th of atheism ? * It is as in.:

one time in on. I I lmve I me in full p

gdom. Have there not been frequent

. ilept when fa

* i. | • it

charnock's wobxs. [Ps. XIY. 1.

in our ears, as if there had been no such being as a God in the world; how many stragglings have been against our approaches to him ? Hath not folly often been committed with vain imaginations starting up in the time of religious service, which we would scarce vouchsafe a look to at another time, and in another business, but would have thrust them away with indignation ? Had they stepped in to interrupt our worldly affairs, they would have been troublesome intruders, but while we are with God they are acceptable guests. How unwilling have our hearts been to fortify themselves with strong and influencing considerations of God before we addressed to him ? Is it not too often that our lifelessness in prayer proceeds from this atheism, a neglect of seeing what arguments and pleas may be drawn from the divine'perfections, to second our suit in hand, and quicken our hearts in the service ? Whence are those indispositions to any spiritual duty, but because we have not due thoughts of the majesty, holiness, goodness, and excellency of God ? Is there any duty which leads to a more particular inquiry after him, or a more clear vision of him, but our hearts have been ready to rise up and call it cursed rather than blessed ? Are not our minds bemisted with an ignorance of him, our wills drawn by aversion from him, our affections rising in distaste of him ? More willing to know anything than his nature, and more industrious to do anything than his will ? Do we not all fall under some one or other of these considerations ? Is it not fit then that we should have a sense of them ? It is to be bewailed by us that so little of God is in our hearts, when so many evidences of the love of God are in the creatures, that God should be so little our end who hath been so much our benefactor, that he should be so little in our thoughts who sparkles in everything which presents itself to our e} r es.

(2.) Let us be sensible of it in others. We ought to have a just execration of the too open iniquity in the midst of us, and imitate holy David, whose tears plentifully gushed out, < because men kept not God's law,' Ps. cxix. 136. And is it not a time to exercise this pious lamentation? Hath the wicked atheism of any age been, greater, or can you find worse in hell than we may hear of, and behold on earth ? How is the excellent majesty of God adored by the angels in heaven, despised and reproached by men on earth, as if his name were published to be matter of their sport! What a gasping thing is a natural sense of God among men in the world ! Is not the law of God, accompanied with such dreadful threatenings and curses, made light of, as if men would place their honour in being above or beyond any sense of that glorious majesty ? How many wallow in pleasures, as if they had been made men only to turn brutes, and their souls given them only for salt to keep their bodies from putrefying ? It is as well a part of atheism not to be sensible of the abuses of God's name and laws by others, as to violate them ourselves. What is the language of a stupid senselessness of them, but that there is no God in the world, whose glory is worth a vindication, and deserves our regards ?

That we may be sensible of the unworthiness of neglecting God as our rule and end, consider,

1. The unreasonableness of it as it concerns God.

(1.) First, It is a high contempt of God. It is an inverting the order of things, a making God the highest to become the lowest, and self the lowest to become the highest; to bo guided by every base companion, some idle vanity, some carnal interest, is to acknowledge an excellency abounding in them which is wanting in God ; an equity in their orders and none in God's precepts ; a goodness in their promises and a falsity in God's, as if infinite excellency were a mere vanity, and to act for God were the debasement of

our i : to id for *<\{, or the

glory aii'l advancement of it. To ] the honour of

if our being and i upport. Do i to th it i tie f do i i their m

of it in their il to th<

to a holy soul P I >■• any obey the comi more readini than they do the orders of their affection ' l» leap more r< a lily into the many ini

of hell to meet their Delilahs? Bow cheerfdlly did the I their ornai a of an idol f who would nol

for the honour of their deliverer! E »d. B, ' All the people brake off

h' to in ike 11 11 onr and is in

ire, then to make ourselves or anythin i >nr end i- ti

in the rank of evils.

adly, [t is a contempt of God ae the mott amiable object. 'i ! is infinitely excellent and desirable: Zech. i\. 17, ' How great i

, and li"' gr< it is his beauty I' There is nothing in him but what i ravish our affections; none thai know-; him but I'm: keep

them with him; he hath nothing in him which can he a proper ol contempt, no defects or shadow of evil j there is infinil us, ami infinite goodness to allure dj ; the author of ne-

ir of onr lives ; why then should man, which is his image, b

to alight the beautiful original which stamped it on him I II • . th most lovely object, therefore to be studied, therefore to he honoured, therefore to bo followed. In regard of his perfection, he hath the highest right to onr thoughts. All other beio eminently contained in ) nee, and

were produced by his infinite power. The creature hath nothing but what it hath from God. And is it not unworthy to prefer the c fore tho

original, to fall in love with a picture instead of the beauty it represents? The creature, which we advance to be our rule and end, can no more report to us the true amiahlcness of God, than a few colours mixed and suited r upon a piece of cloth can the moral and intellectual loveliness of tho soul of man. To contemn God one moment is more base than if all creatures were contemned by us for ever; because the excellency of creatures is to God like that of a drop to the sea, or a spark to the glory of unconceivable millions of suns. As much as the excellency of God is ah >ve our conceptions, so much doth the debasing of him admit of unexpressiblo

[ravatioi

2. Coupler the ingratitude in it. That we should resist that God with our . who made us the work of his hands, and count him as nothing

from whom we derive all tho good that we are or have, there is no contempt of man bat steps in here to aggravate our slighth cause t no relation one man can stand in to another wherein God doth

not more highly appear to man. If we abhor the unworthy carriage of a child to a I rvant to an indulgent master, a man to

obligi; ; . why do ni' I that toward^ God which they cannot

ik of without abhorreney if act. d by another against man"? I> ('. nl a beim: I led than man, and more worthy oi mpt thai .

crcatur .' I would 1 tctor should live in the -

in I • with us, and • Kohacge a WOtd with him ;

this is OUT 0 180, who have the work I 1 in our

in our 1 in our daily : I think of him,

converse so little with him, serve everything before him, and |

thin» above him.'* Whence have we our mercies but from his hand? Who, besides him, maintains our breath this moment ? Would he call for our spirits this moment, they must depart from us to attend his command. There is not a moment wherein our unworthy carriage is not aggravated, because there is not a moment wherein he is not a guardian, and gives us not tastes of a fresh bounty. And it is no light aggravation of our crime that we injure him, without whose bounty in giving us our being, we had not been capable of casting contempt upon him ; that he that hath the greatest stamp of his image, man, should deserve the character of the worst of his rebels ; that he who hath only reason by the gift of God to judge of the equity of the laws of God, should swell against them as grievous, and the government of the lawgiver as burdensome. Can it lessen the crime, to use the principle wherein we excel the beasts, to the disadvantage of God, who endowed us with that principle above the beasts.

(1.) It is a debasing of God beyond what the devil doth at present. He is more excusable in his present state of acting than man is in his present refusing God for his rule and end. He strives against a God that exerciseth upon him a vindictive justice; we debase a God that loads us with his daily mercies. The despairing devils are excluded from any mercy or divine patience, but we are not only under the long-suffering of his patience, but the large expressions of his bounty. He would not be governed by him when he was only his bountiful Creator. W T e refuse to be guided by him after he hath given us the blessing of creation from his own hand, and the more obliging blessings of redemption by the hand and blood of his Son.

It cannot be imagined that the devils and the damned should ever make God their end, since he hath assured them he will not be their happiness, and shut up all his perfections from their experimental notice, but those of his power to preserve them, and his justice to punish them. They have no grant from God of ever having a heart to comply with his will, or ever having the honour to be actively employed for his glory. They have some plea for their present contempt of God; not in regard of his nature, for he is infinitely amiable, excellent, and lovely, but in regard of his administration towards them. But what plea can man have for his practical atheism, who lives by his power, is sustained by his bounty, and solicited by his Spirit ? What an ungrateful thing is it to put off the nature of man for that of devils, and dishonour God under mercy, as the devils do under his wrathful anger!

(2.) It is an ungrateful contempt of God, who cannot be injurious to us. He cannot do us wrong, because he cannot be unjust: Gen. xviii. 25, 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?' His nature doth as much abhor unrighteousness as love a communicative goodness. He never commanded anything but what was highly conducible to the happiness of man. Infinite goodness can no more injure man than it can dishonour itself. It lays out itself in additions of kindness, and whiles we debase him, he continues to benefit us. And is it not an unparalleled ingratitude to turn our backs upon an object so lovely, an object so loving, in the midst of varieties of allurements from him ? God did create intellectual creatures, angels and men, that he might communicate more of himself, and his own goodness and holiness to man, than creatures of a lower rank were capable of. What do we do by rejecting him as a rule and end, but cross, as much as in us lies, God's end in our creation, and shut our souls against the communications of those perfections ho was so willing to bestow ? We use him as if he intended us the greatest wrong, when it is impossible for him to do any to any of his creatures.

8. Consider tho misery which will attend such a temper if it continue

* Reynolds.

predominant. Tho •• that tin their hap]

ol do other bul to be thin I bj him 11 to toy relief and com]

lion. A di ■ from < tod I nothing bnl a i

from < J <>.i b( . When the deiil, a onld

knee himielf above < i ommit the

'cursed above all c i , iii. l I. When wo will not aeknowl

bim a God of all glory, we shall be pi tted from hi] Q 1 of all com-

fori : 'All they thai are alar off ihall peri b, 1 P . 27. Thii ii the

of all woe. Whai the prodigal Buffered ws onld I

father and live of himself. \\ i ;• ii ambitioni to I

heaven, will at last find oil soul to become I hell. As it loved all

.1 l be grieved with all things for itself. A ii .. mid nst the right of God, it shall thru be iti own torou i by the jnstios of Go I.

*j. Doty. Watch against th : s atheism, and be daily employed in tho mortification of it. En every action we should make the inquiry, Whai the role I observe? l^ it God's will or my own? Whether do my ini tioni tcml to set op God or self? Ai mncfa 11 we d< itroy this, we the power of sin. ] wo things are the head of the serpent in as, which

we must be bruising by the power of the or . S a uothing else 1 turning from God and centring in self, and most in the inferior part of self. [f we bend our force against those two, si 1 f- will and self-ends, we shall ini sept atheism at the Bpring-head, take away that which doth constitute and animate all sin. The 1 sparks must vanish, if the lire he quenched which affords them fuel. Tiny are but two short this k in every under-

taking: Is God my rule in re [ard of his will '.' [fl Q i my end in regard of his glory ? All sin lies iu the neglect of these, all grace lies in the practice of them.

Without some degree of the mortification of these, we cannot make profitable and comfortable approaches to God. "When we come with idols in our is, we shall be answered according to the multitude and the baseness of them too, Ezek. xiv. 1. What expectation of a good look from him can WS hive, when we come before him with undeifying thoughts of him, a I bition in our mouths, and a sword in our hearts to stab his honour! To this purpose,

n in the views of the excellencies of God. "When we have no intercourse with God by delightful meditations, we begin to be estranged from him, and prepare ourselves to live without God in the world. Strange-Lhe mother and nurse of disaffection. We alight men sometimes iuso we know them not. The very beasts delight in the company of men, when being trained and familiar, they become acquainted with their disposition. A daily converse with God would discover so much of loveliness in oainre, so much of sweetness in his ways, that our injurious thoughts of i would wear off, and we should count it our honour to contemn ourselves and magnify him. By this means, a slavish fear, which is both a God and a torment to the soul, 1 John iv. 18, and the root of atheism, will be cast out, and an ingenious* fear of him wrought in the -ed thoughts on him would issue out in affections to him, which would engage our hearts to make him both our rule and our end. This course would stifle any temptations to gross atheism wherewith good

imetimes haunted, by confirming us more in the belief of and di8COUragl any • » a deliberate practical atheism. We are not

like to espouse any principlo which is confuted by the delightful converse we

* That is 'ingenuous.'— Ed.

daily have with him. The more we thus enter into the presence chamber of God, the more we cling about him with our affections ; the more vigorous and lively will the true notion of God grow up in us, and be able to prevent anything which may dishonour him and debase our souls.

Let us therefore consider him as the only happiness, set up the true God in our understandings, possess our hearts with a deep sense of his desirable excellency above all other things. This is the main thing we are to do in order to our great business. All the directions in the world, with the neglect of this, will be insignificant ciphers. The neglect of this is common, and is the basis of all the mischiefs which happen to the souls of men.

(2.) To this purpose, prize and study the Scripture. We can have no delight in meditation on him unless we know him,*and we cannot know him but by the means of his own revelation. When the revelation is despised, the revealer will be of little esteem. Men do not throw off God from being their rule, till they throw off Scripture from being their guide ; and God must needs be cast off from being an end, when the Scripture is rejected from being a rule. Those that do not care to know his will, that love to be ignorant of his nature, can never be affected to his honour. Let, therefore, the subtilties of reason veil to the doctrine of faith, and the humour of the will to the command of the word.

(3.) Take heed of sensual pleasures, and be very watchful and cautious in the use of those comforts God allows us. Job was afraid, when his sons feasted, that they should ' curse God in their hearts,' Job i. 4, 5. It was not without cause that the apostle Peter joined sobriety with watchfulness and prayer : 1 Pet. iv. 7, ' The end of all things is at hand ; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.' A moderate use of worldly comforts. Prayer is the great acknowledgment of God, and too much sensuality is a hindrance of this, and a step to atheism. Belshazzar's lifting himself up against the Lord, and not glorifying of God, is charged upon his sensuality, Dan. v. 23. Nothing is more apt to quench the notions of God, and root out the conscience of him, than an addictedness to sensual pleasures. Therefore take heed of that snare.

(4.) Take heed of sins against knowledge. The more sins against knowledge are committed, the more careless we are, and the more careless we shall be of God and his honour. We shall more fear his judicial power, and the more we fear that, the more we shall disaffect that God in whose hand vengeance is, and to whom it doth belong. Atheism in conversation proceeds to atheism in affection, and that will endeavour to sink into atheism in opinion and judgment.

The sum of the whole.

And now consider, in the whole, what has been spoken.

1. Man would set himself up as his own rule. He disowns the rule of God, is unwilling to have any acquaintance with the rule God sets him, ne^li^ent in using the means for the knowledge of his will, and endeavours to shake it off when any notices of it breaks in upon him. When he cannot expel it, he hath no pleasure in the consideration of it, and the heart swells against it. When the notions of the will of God are entertained, it is on some other consideration, or with wavering and unsettled affections. Many times men design to improve some lust by his truth. This unwillingness respects truth, as it is most spiritual and holy, as it most relates and leads to God, as it is most contrary to self. He is guilty of contempt of the will of God, which is seen in every presumptuous breach of his law ; in the natural aversions to tho declaration of his will and mind, which way soever he turns ; in slighting that part of his will which is most for his honour;

In the awkwardness of the 1 Bod ft ferries); aconstraint

in the fir.-,! cum '.in. lit ; slightffl I ii. th- ■ I* |lfd of fix- matter j

in regard of the frame, without i [oarj many di tractions, much

wearinc m j In d< arti i peetationi ere not

. ned opon our j In ore ikii irith God.

m in naturally o ber role, rather than thai ofOod'i preaeri

The rulo of Satan, the will of man ; in complying mow with the dictates of men than the will of God ; In ob erring that which ii materially ho, not it is bii will, bnl the injnnetioni of men ; in ol the will of man,

wh< n it is contrary to the will of ( ted. This man doth, In order to thi ting np himself. Thii ia natural to man, i b Men are d

I with their own consciences, when they contradict the de ire of i eht M | sotioni in the world ere done, mom because the} an -if,

than u they are hononrable to God ; as they an able to natnral ai I

moral self, or sinful self, ft ii evident in neglects of taking God's directions upon emergent occasions; in counting the actions of others to be good or

I, as they suit with, or spurn against, our fancies an«1 hnmonrs. Man would make himself the rule of God, and give laws to bis Creator, in striving ■gainst his law, disapproving of his methods of government in the world, in impatience In our particular oonoerns, envying the gifts and prosperity of others, corrupt matter or cuds of prayer or praise, hold Interpretations of the judgment! of God In tl> ,v world, mixing rales in the worship of God with rhieh have hem ordained by him, suiting Interpretations of Scripture with our own minds and humours, felling 0IV from God after some fair compliances, when his will grates upon us and crosseth ours.

2. Man would be his own end. This is natural and universal. This is seen in frequent self-applausefl and inward overweening reflections ; in ascribing the glory of what we do or have to ourselves ; in desire of self-pleasing doctrines ; in being highly concerned in injuries done to ourselves, and little or not at all concerned for injuries done to God ; in trusting in Ourselves ; in working for carnal self, against the light of our own consciences. This is a usurping God's prerogative, vilifying God, destroying God. Man would make anything bis end or happiness rather than God. This appears in the fewer thoughts we have of him than of anything else : in the greedy pursuit of the world ; in the strong addictedness to sensual pleasures ; in paving a service, upon any success in the world, to instruments more than to God. This is a debasing God, in setting up a creature ; but more in Betting up a base lust : it is a denying of God. Man would make himself the end of all creatures : in pride, using the creatures contrary to the end God hath appointed ; this is to dishonour God, and it is diabolical. Man would make himself the end of God : in loving God, because of some self-pleasing benefits distributed by bim ; in abstinence from some sins, because they are against the interest of some other beloved corruption ; in performing duties merely for a selfish interest, which is evident in unwieldincss in n iigions duties where self is not concerned ; in calling upon God only in a

G of necessity ; in 5 his assistance to our own projects, after wo

have by our own craft laid the p^ > m impatience upon a refusal of our res ; in selfish aims we have in our duties. This is a vilifying God, a dethroning him. In unworthy imaginations of God, universal in man by nature. B QCC sprin :ition, presumption, the common

disease of the world. This is a vilifying God, worse than idolatry, w

•1 absolute atheism. Natural d ' 1 be distant from him ; no desires

for the rememl f him ; no desires of c with him ; no desires

of a thorough return to bim ; no desire of any close imitation of him.

vol. 1. a

A DISCOURSE UPON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and

in truth. — John IV. 24.

The words are part of the dialogue between our Saviour and the Samaritan woman. Christ, intending to return from Judea to Galilee, passed through the country of Samaria, a place inhabited not by Jews, but a mixed company of several nations,* and some remainders of the posterity of Israel, who escaped the captivity and were returned from Assyria, and being weary with his journey, arrived about the sixth hour, or noon (according to the Jews' reckoning the time of the day), at a w T ell that Jacob had digged, which was of great account among the inhabitants for the antiquity of it, as well as the usefulness of it, in supplying their necessities. He being thirsty, and having none to furnish him wherewith to draw water, at last comes a woman from the city, whom he desires to give him some water to drink. The woman, perceiving him by his language or habit to be a Jew, wonders at the question, since the hatred the Jews bore the Samaritans was so great, that they would not vouchsafe to have any commerce with them, not only in religious but civil affairs, and common offices belonging to mankind. Hence our Saviour takes occasion to publish to her the doctrine of the gospel, and excuseth her rude answer by her ignorance of him; and tells her, that if she had asked him a greater matter, even that which concerned her eternal salvation, he would readily have granted it, notwithstanding the rooted hatred between the Jews and Samaritans, and bestowed a water of a greater virtue, the ' water of life,' ver. 10, or ' living water.' The woman is no less astonished at his reply than she was at his first demand. It was strange to hear a man speak of giving living water to one of whom he had begged the water of that spring, and had no vessel to draw any to quench his own thirst. She therefore demands whence he could have this water that ho speaks of, ver. 11, since she conceived him not greater than Jacob, who had digged that well and drunk of it. Our Saviour, desirous to make a progress in that work he had begun, extols the water he spake of abovo this of the well, from its particular virtue, fully to refresh thoso that drank of it, and be as a cooling and comforting fountain within them, of moro efficacy than that without, ver. 13, 14. The woman, conceiving a good opinion of onr Saviour, desires to partake of this

* Ainiraut, Paraph, sur Jean.

• ' ' tho

spirituality of I ( rist finding her to take

Hon m bif Hin

I >iv he <h'l communicate tin of bin grace, I>i

to th.' oily and bring li< r husband with h< , ?er« L6

■ • he unclean I i much t

•i" thii w:it< r ia much I by ).. r. 0

of 17. .nil the propbi I

t««lN ber that the bad bad five hu

rhom she was divoroi 1; and ti t with • her

ful lnisl an I, and in living with bun the fiolal

11 upon ber i I . ]

affected with this disc wing him to 1" ill old

those things l»ut in an extraordinary •«

;i prophet, ver. L9 upon this opinion slio

ems him able to decide a question which had been cat ed batwi d them and the 1 oai the plana of worship, v< r, 'i<», tii, \r t •

shipping in thai mountain, and the Jaws affirmio J of worship, she pleads the antiquity of the worship in this place* Abral having built an altar there, Gen. xii. 7, and Jacob ap a fa Syria. And Burely, had the place been capahl

as they, and so wall acquainted with the will of God, would not have pitched upon that pi i • borate their worship.

quity hath too, too often bewitched the minis of men, and d them from the i 1 will ol lien arc more willing to imitate tho

i of their famous ancestors, than conform th tho

1 will of th.ir Creator. The Samaritans would imitate the patriarchs

in the place of worship, hut not in the faith of the worshippers.

Christ answers her. that this question would quickly he resolved by a new

state of the church which was near at hand, and neither J< . which

t* the prec . nor that mountain, should be of any i luo

in that concern than any other place in tho world, ver. 21. .to

make her sensible of her sin and that of her country hat

>■ worship in that mountain was not according to tho will of God, ho having, Ion altars built in this place, fixed Jerusalem as the placo

of s les, they had not the knowledge of that God which ought

to be worshipped by them, but the dews had the true object of worship and the true manner of worship, according to I deration God had made of

• them, ver. 22. But all thai service snail vanish, the veil of tho

pie shall bo rent in twain, and that carnal Worship give place to ono more Spiritual; shadows shall fly before substance, and truth advance i'

. and the worship oi I with the i of tho

B 3 ich a worship, and such worshi] k:

. 'For God Spirit: and these that worship him m -hip

. in spirit and in truth. of OUT Saviour

I nal worship invi I I by men, r com-

manded by hin | and that upon this

. infinil I is not I

I n which is ft p] yrthly imagiriati

':d;. S lie,' S (

but it is m Old and

• Qa.T.-u t Vulgar Lat. lllvr.

260 . charnock's works. [John IV. 24.

the predicate before the subject; as Ps. v. 9, ' Their throat is an open sepulchre,' in the Hebrew, * A sepulchre open their throat;' so Ps. cxi. 3, 'His work is honourable and glorious;' Hebr., 'Honour and glory his work.' And there wants not one example in the same evangelist: John i. 1, 'And the Word was God;' Greek, 'And God was the Word.' In all the predicate, or what is ascribed, is put before the subject to which it is ascribed.

One tells us, and he an head of a party that hath made a disturbance in the church of God,* that this place is not aptly brought to prove God to be a Spirit. And the reason of Christ runs not thus, God is of a spiritual essence, and therefore must be worshipped with a spiritual worship; for the essence of God is not the foundation of his worship, but his will; for then we were not to worship him with a corporeal worship, because he is not a body, but with an invisible and eternal worship, because he is invisible and eternal.

But the nature of God is the foundation of worship, the will of God is the rule of worship; the matter and manner is to be performed according to the will of God. But is the nature of the object of worship to be excluded ? No; as the object is, so ought our devotion to be, spiritual as he is spiritual. God in his commands for worship respected the discovery of his own nature; in the law, he respected the discovery of his mercy and justice, and therefore commanded a worship by sacrifices. A spiritual worship without those institutions would not have declared those attributes, which was God's end to display to the world in Christ. And though the nature of God is to be respected in worship, yet the obligations of the creature are to be considered. God is a Spirit, therefore must have a spiritual worship. The creature hath a body as well as a soul, and both from God; and therefore ought to worship God with the one as well as the other, since one as well as the other is freely bestow r ed upon him.

The spirituality of God was the foundation of the change from the Judaical carnal worship to a more spiritual and evangelical.

' God is a Spirit.' That is, he hath nothing corporeal, no mixture of matter; not a visible substance, a bodily form.f He is a Spirit, not a bare spiritual substance, but an understanding, willing Spirit; holy, wise, good, and just. Before Christ spake of the Father, ver. 23, the first person in the Trinity, now he speaks of God essentially. The word Father is personal, the word God essential. So that our Saviour would render a reason, not from any one person in the blessed Trinity, but from the divine nature, why we should worship in spirit; and therefore makes use of the word God, the being a spirit being common to the other persons with the Father.

This is the reason of the proposition, ver. 23, of a spiritual worship. Every nature delights in that which is like it, and distastes that which is most different from it. If God were corporeal, he might be pleased with the victims of beasts, and the beautiful magnificence of temples, and the noise of music; but being a Spirit, ho cannot be gratified with carnal things. He demands something better and greater than all those, that soul which he made, that soul which ho hath endowed, a spirit of a frame suitable to his nature. He indeod appointed sacrifices and a temple, as shadows of those things which were to bo most acceptable to him in tho Messiah, but they were imposed only ' till tho time of reformation,' Heb. ix. 10.

' Must worship him.' Not thoy may, or it would be moro agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship, but thoy must. It is not exclusive * Episcop. Institut. lib. iv. cap. 3. t Mclancthon.

of bodily worship, for thii wen to exclude ill public i whk : med without r. iroi of Hi

hip im 1 d< ritual I

i scarcely v. with oar spirits without i

the ool n i in in. r.ut fag < 'ing

Dpon .in ii wee * of Mm

r the J

used the ontwai if lign hut M if tl

diil of tin i ii-li r t

him, witho OC of Ul '1 man. | It il uh if I

on moil i parate youi from all can i to wbieh tho

God Bed, an 1 n q& r i woi bip chief] i

. an i ii I the

oondition of the object, who ii i Spirit. * In ipirit ind truth.' The evangel now n the

ad\autag| of thfl former, that WM a UiedoW Mid fl/mv, thii the I

truth. J Spirit, say s me, il heft Oppo I I to the ! , truth

to hypocritical <; or rather broth ii op] in

of worth in tin outward action. It is principally oppo* 1 to

ouf Saviour saitli, ret. 28, 'The honx oometf and

Hal it been oppoeed to hypocrisy, Ohriei now

tliii required truth in the inward | 1 all true i

shippers had served him with a sincere i The

old patriarchs did worship God in Spirit and truth, as taken for sincerity.

i a worship was always and is perpetually dm: to (ind, I ho

are LemaUywill ho a Spirit. ■ And il i, ' The Father

worship him;' not tkdU seek, he always sought it, it always

; to him by ono or other in the world. And the prophets

rebnked them for reeting upon their outward solemnities, Isa.

lviii. 7 and Micah vi. 8. But a worship without legal rites was proper to

an evangelical state and the times of the gospel, God having then exhibited Christ, and brought into the world the substance of those shadows and tho tations; there was no more need to continue them when the true reason of them was ceased. All laws do naturally expire when the fame reason npon which they weii first framed is changed.

Or by spirit may be meant such a worship as is kindled in the heart by

tth of the Holy Ghost. Since we are dead in sin, a spiritual light

and flame in the heart, suitable to the nature of the object of our worship,

1 in M without tho operation of a supernatural grace. And

the fathers could not worship God without the Spirit, yet in tho

being a fuller effusion of the Spirit, the c 'ate

is 0 . I • the I iministration of the Spirit,' and the 'newness of the Spirit,'

in i I the legal economy, entitle 1 the ' oldness of the letter/

I Oor. iii. 8, \\ m. vii. G. The evangelical state is more suited to the

Date than any other. Such a worship God must have, whereby

he is ackn< 1 to be the true sanetiner and quickener of the soul. Tho

i. i I tho more full his man as ate*

: ritual is tho worship WS return to God. Tho gospel pSSJOf oiF

tho ragged l avis of the taw, an 1 .11 remove what is material in

the . and change tho ordinances of worship into that of a spiritual

pra: .

In the is,

* X Amyrald in Ice. I Chomnit.

t Amy raid in loc. $ MujcuI. 5 Muacul.

1. A proposition: ' God is a Spirit,' the foundation of all religion.

2. An inference: ' they that worship him,' &c.

As God, a worship belongs to him; as a Spirit, a spiritual worship is due to him. In the inference we have,

1. The manner of worship: ' in spirit and in truth.'

2. The necessity of such a worship: 'must.'

The proposition declares the nature of God; the inference, the duty of man.

The observations lie plain.

Obs. 1. God is a pure spiritual being; he is a Spirit.

2. The worship due from the creature to God must be agreeable to the nature of God, and purely spiritual.

3. The evangelical state is suited to the nature of God. For the first,

Doct. God is a pure spiritual being.

It is the observation of one,* that the plain assertion of God's being a Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible, and that is in this place; which may well be wondered at, because God is so often described with hands, feet, eyes, and ears, in the form and figure of a man. The spiritual nature of God is deducible from many places; but not anywhere, as I remember, asserted tot idem, verbis but in this text. Some allege that place, 2 Cor. iii. 17, ' The Lord is that Spirit,' for the proof of it, but that seems to have a different sense. In the text, the nature of God is described; in that place, the operations of God in the gospel. ■ It is not the ministry of Moses, or that old covenant, which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of; but it is the Lord Jesus, and the doctrine of the gospel delivered by him, whereby this Spirit and liberty is dispensed to you. He opposes here the liberty of the gospel to the servitude of the law.' f It is from Christ that a divine virtue diffuseth itself by the gospel; it is by him, not by the law, that we partake of that Spirit.

The spirituality of God is as evident as his being.! If we grant that God is, we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal, because a body is of an imperfect nature. It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first being and creator of all things, that he should be a massy, heavy body, and have eyes and ears, feet and hands, as we have.

For the explication of it.

1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture. It signifies sometimes an aerial substance, as Ps. xi. 6, 'A horrible tempest;' Heb., 'A spirit of tempest;' sometimes the breath, which is a thin substance: Gen. vi. 17, 'All flesh wherein is the breath of life;' Heb., 'Spirit of life.' A thin substance, though it be material and corporeal, is called spirit; and in the bodies of living creatures, that which is the principle of their actions is called spirits, the animal and vital spirits ; and the finer parts extracted from plants and minerals wo call spirits, those volatile parts separated from that gross matter wherein they were immersed, because they come nearest to the naturo of an incorporeal substance. And from this notion of the word, it is translated to signify those substances that are purely immaterial, as angels and the souls of men. Angels are called spirits, Ps. civ. 4 ; ' Who makes his angels spirits,' Heb. i. 14. And not only good angels are so called, but evil angels, M;irk i. 27. Souls of men are called spirits, Eccles. xii., and the soul of Christ is called so, John xix. 30, whence God is called ' the God of the spirits of all flesh, 1 Numb. xvi. 22: and spirit is opposed to flesh:

* Episcop. Institut. 1. iv. c. 3. % Suarcz. dc Deo, vol. i. p. 9, col. 2.

t Aiiiyruhl in loc.

I ' mh ■ are 0«tb, and not b j»iri t.* An 1 our

HUP givei us IK,- DOllOn Of ■ Hpirit. to 1 of

a bodji Lnl k baring flttfa - loads

1 taken for those tiling wlii I

■., I i

■pint,' Numb. \iv. 2 Tlio

, ;i .!, 11 ■ . ! in th.it thai

i LI, * A 1 I uttes ill oil mind,' 4 :ill bii not

i tin the r< bemont i mind, a of

it is ii fine immaterial sub t tnc

f :i:i 1 other tliil A :..• re i If, :is tl.

ithont the aonl, no mo* i ibip mo mow .about

wind and wa

die I ■ spirit, i - noi a body, not having tb

.holly i from an

We find • principle within ni nobler than that of our

the natora of <«" I according to that winch ie moM worthy in oil and no( according to that which is the fik of our

Qod il :i mOSl BpiritnaJ spirit, more; spiritual than all angelf, all

eoola i Tjj r)-t ;NkS '"' a " '" , '"' oatuw of being, io he

the nature! of spirit. Ee bath nothing gro material

in his i 1. When we say <*.. 1 ia i Spirit, it ii to be nndentood by way of d

ti Q, There arc two ways of knowiu Vir-

ion, affirming that of him in a way ofeminency which is i ii in the

i whan we say Qod ia a , good. The ol I ion,

when we remove from God in our coneep ahat is tainted with imper-

fection in tl to him whatsoever : nt,

the otfa from him whatexx v.r ia imperfect. The first is like a

limning, which adda one c i another to make a comely picture; the

other is like a carving, which pins and cuts away whatsoever is superfluous, to make a complete statue. This way of negation is more easy; we better onderatan 1 wh It not, than what he i$ t and most of our knowledge of

G i is by this way. As when we s iy God is infinite, immense, immutable, they an ; he hath no limits, is confined to no place, admits of no

change.§ When we remove from him what is inconsistent with his be

da more strongly assert his being, and know more of him wheD we

elevate him above all, and above our own capacity. And when we say God

is a Spirit, it is a negation ; he is not a bo Iy ; he consists not of various

.ulcd one without and beyond another. lie is not a spirit so as

our BOnll arc, to be the form of any holy ; a spirit, not as angels ai. 1 souls

are, but infinitely higher. We call him so because, in regard of our weak-

not any other term of excellency to express or conceive of

him by. We transfer it to (rod in honour, because spirit is the highest

excellency in our nature. Yet we must apprehend God above any spirit,

since his nature is so great, that he cannot be declared by human speech,

pea >y human sense, or conceived by human understanding.

The sec aid thing, i a Spirit.

Some among the heathens imagined God to have a holy; some thought him to ha Iy of air, some a heavenly body, some a human

* This ll not said of the Egyptians, but of their horses.—En.

t Gerhard. X G*n> I in. i q 8, e I*

$ Cooaaf Sum. TheoL, cap. 8. | Thea Bedaau, part i£ p. 1000.

body;* and many of them ascribed bodies to their gods, but bodies without blood, without corruption; bodies made up of the finest and thinnest atoms; such bodies, which, if compared with ours, were as no bodies. The Sadducees also, who denied all spirits, and yet acknowledged a God, must conclude him to be a body, and no spirit. Some among Christians have been of that opinion. Tertullian is charged by some, and excused by others ; and some monks of Egypt were so fierce for this error, that they attempted to kill one Theophilus, a bishop, for not being of that judgment.

But the wiser heathens f were of another mind, and esteemed it an unholy thing (bvx. osiov) to have such imaginations of God. And some Christians have thought God only to be free from anything of body; because he is omnipresent, immutable, he is only incorporeal and spiritual: all things else, even the angels, are clothed with bodies, though of a neater matter, and a more active frame than ours; a pure spiritual nature they allowed to no being but God. Scripture and reason meet together to assert the spirituality of God. Had God had the lineaments of a body, the Gentiles had not fallen under that accusation of ' changing his glory into that of a corruptible man,' Eom. i. 23.

This is signified by the name God gives himself: Exod. iii. 14, ' I am that I am,' a simple, pure, uncompounded being, without any created mixture; as infinitely above the being of creatures as above the conceptions of creatures : Job xxxvii. 23, ' Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.' He is so much a Spirit that he is the ' Father of spirits,' Heb. xii. 9. The Almighty Father is not of a nature inferior to his children. The soul is a spirit; it could not else exert actions without the assistance of the body, as the act of understanding itself and its own nature, the act of willing, and willing things against the incitements and interest of the body. It could not else conceive of God, angels, and immaterial substances. It could not else be so active as with one glance to fetch a compass from earth to heaven, and by a sudden motion to elevate the understanding from an earthly thought to the thinking of things as high as the highest heavens. If we have this opinion of our souls, which in the nobleness of their acts surmount the body, without which the body is but a dull inactive piece of clay, we must needs have a higher conception of God than to clog him with any matter, though of a finer temper than ours. We must conceive of him by the perfections of our souls, without the vileness of our bodies. If God made man according to his image, we must raise our thoughts of God according to the noblest part of that image, and imagine the exemplar or copy not to come short, but to exceed the thing copied by it. God were not the most excellent substance if he were not a Spirit. Spiritual substances are more excellent than bodily, the soul of man more excellent than other animals, angels more excellent than men. They contain in their own nature whatsoever dignity there is in the inferior creatures. God must have, therefore, an excellency above all those, and therefore is entirely remote from the conditions of a body.

It is a gross conceit, therefore, to think that God is such a spirit as the air is; \ for that is to be a body as the air is, though it be a thin one; and if God were no more a spirit than that, or than angels, he would not be the most simple being. Yet some§ think that the spiritual Deity was represented by the air in the ark of the testament. It was unlawful to represent him by any imago that God had prohibited. Everything about the ark had

• Vossius Idolol., lib. ii. cap. i. Forbes, Instrument, 1. i. c. 86.

f Plutarch, incorporalis ratio; divinus spiritus, Seneca.

t Calov. Socin. Troflig., p. 129, 130. \ Amyrald sup., Heb. ix. p. 146, &c.

I partiou] ii signification, to about it ngnj

Of Christ, but -Hunt tho natun: of Gol. A

tli Dg pur< ly invisible, an 1 filing under DOthifl

bin mind of nan. n • the fitto it; it r< | •■ l

iu\isil.ility of Qod, uir being in ; Air • :.

H If through ill | rid, it glidei tbi into

nil C the spaoe i ^< '« and »arth ; there in no plaeo

\\ 1.. r- in ( iod i esclit.

To this; —

i. i Spirit, 1m oonld not b 0 lor. All multitude

1 I to, h mul; it11<I«: then

anil ii mi ft! not

sonosire number without conceiving I of it in that wh

number, vis., i unit. You eftnnot eoneeifi any mixture bat yon must • tuple thing to be I innJ and bnaii of if. 'I. ■ --rkH

done I . bavs their foundation in

spiritual. Every srtifioer, watchmaker, carpenter, bath i model in I

rthe iron Ins designs to frame. The material and outward fabri ting to ko inward and ipiritnftl idea. A spiritual i a ipiritnal faculty as the subject of it. God oonld not nave an idea of I Dumber of creatures be brought into being if he bad not s ipiritnal The wisdom whereby the world wa d ecu! I m tho

fruit of a eorporeal nature; such natures arc not eapable of un img

nnd eomprehending the things which arc within the ex much less i f producing them ; and then fore 11 ists, which have only cor-poreal faculties, more to objects by the force of their sense, and hays no knowledge of things as thej are comprehended by the understanding of man. All a i111 lligent and spiritual agent. The effects of

lom, goodness, power, are so great and admirable, that they bespeak him a more perfect and eminent bring than can possibly be beheld under ft bodily shape. Can a corporeal substance ' put wisdom in the inward parts, an i give understanding to the heart'? Job xxxviii. 8G.

-. [fGod were not B pure Spirit, he could not be one. If God had a osisting of distinct members, as ours, or all of one nature, as tho water an 1 air are, yet he were then capable of division, and therefore could not be entirely one. Either those parts would be finite or infinite: if finite, they are not parts of God, for to be God and finite is a contradiction; if infinite, then there are as many infinites as distinct members, an 1 there-many deities. Suppose this body had all parts of the same nature, as air and water hath, every little part of air is as much air as the greatest, and every little part of water is as much water as tho ocean ; so every littlo pari God would be as much God as the whole, as many particular deities to i 11 1 as little atoms to compose a body. What can be more

absurd? 1 tad a body like a human body, and were compounded of

bod; ul, of substance and quality, ho could not bo the most perfect

unity ; i I be made up of distinct parts, and those of a distinct nature,

fts the i fa human body are. Where there is the

the greatest simplicity ; but God is one. As he is free from any change, so he is void of any multitude: Deiit. vi. -1, 'The Lord our Lord. 1 8. 1 I a body ftl we have, be would not be invisible, livery

material thing is not visible : tho air is a body, yet invisible, but it is sensil cooling quality of it is felt by us at every breath, and we know it by our * Amvral. moral, torn. i. p. H

chaknock's works. [John IV. 24.

touch, which is the most material sense. Every body, that hath members like to bodies, is visible; but God is invisible.* The apostle reckons it amongst his other perfections : 1 Tim. i. 17, ' Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible.' He is invisible to our sense, which beholds nothing but material and coloured things ; and incomprehensible to our understanding, that conceives nothing but what is finite. God is therefore a Spirit incapable of being seen, and infinitely incapable of being understood. If he be invisible, he is also spiritual. If he had a body, and hid it from our eyes, he might be said not to be seen, but could not be said to be invisible. When we say a thing is visible, we understand that it hath such qualities which are the object of sense, though we may never see that which in its own nature is to be seen. God hath no such qualities as fall under the perception of our sense. His works are visible to us, but not his Godhead, Rom. i. 20. The nature of a human body is to be seen and handled ; Christ gives us such a description of it: Luke xxiv. 39, ' Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have;' but man hath been so far from seeing God, that it is impossible he can see him, 1 Tim. vi. 16. There is such a disproportion between an infinite object and a finite sense and understanding, that it is utterly impossible either to behold or comprehend him ; but if God had a body more luminous and glorious than that of the sun, he would be as well visible to us as the sun, though the immensity of that light would dazzle our eyes, and forbid any close inspection into him by the virtue of our sense. We have seen the shape and figure of the sun, but no man hath ever seen the shape of God, John v. 37. If God had a body he were visible, though he might not perfectly and fully be seen by us;f as we see the heavens, though we see not the extension, latitude, and greatness of them. Though God hath manifested himself in a bodily shape, Gen. xviii. 1, and elsewhere Jehovah appeared to Abraham, yet the substance of God was not seen, no more than the substance of angels was seen in their apparitions to men. A body was formed to be made visible by them, and such actions done in that body, that spake the person that did them to be of a higher eminency than a bare corporeal creature. Sometimes a representation is made to the inward sense and imagination, as to Micaiah, 1 Kings xx. 19, and to Isaiah, chap. vi. 1; but they saw not the essence of God, but some images and figures of him proportioned to their sense or imagination. The essence of God no man ever saw, nor can see, John i. 18.

Nor doth it follow that God hath a body, | because Jacob is said to ' see God face to face,' Gen. xxxii. 30; and Moses had the like privilege, Deut. xxxiv. 10. This only signifies a fuller and clearer manifestation of God, by some representations offered to the bodily sense, or rather to the inward spirit; for God tells Moses he could not see his face, Exod. xxxiii. 20; and that none ever saw the similitude of God, Deut. iv. 15. Were God a corporeal substance, he might in some measure be seen by corporeal eyes.

4. If God were not a Spirit, ho could not be infinite. All bodies are of a finite nature: every body is material, and every material thing is terminated. The sun, a vast body, hath a bounded greatness : the heavens, of a mighty bulk, yet have their limits. If God had a body, he must consist of parts; those parts would be bounded and limited, and whatsoever is limited is of a finite virtue, and therefore below an infinite nature. Reason therefore tells us, that the most excellent nature, as God is, cannot bo of a corporeal condition, becauso of the limitation and other actions which belong

* Daillo in Tim. J Goulart. do Dieu. p. 95, 96.

| Goulart. do Dieu, p. 94.

It, Q i, for • the 1

him, 1 2 < Ihron. ii. •'.. Th i those ira

to bim, ii i sth >nd tba

MH.

If God In Lhon he can bi in bio ; it be bad, th<

A

▼ossi-1 i pound ■■ f Jin (<mi

I • hov oannol to the .1 tint : 'i.ui the whole bulk

th. in th

i is .

than ;i i 10 thai if God WCW in/' I

I

doI i Bpiril. '

of in.ur. ids eitfa illy

i lii.iii depends upon the c

I union i soul end body ; win n I

I, the « of h man eeaaeth, and the tion of a man d

upon every m< | io that if one 1"; wanl tion

\ if ■ man bath lost a limb, ; I bim not ■

man, i i upon which hi an

re man, did d< p n 1. It' (hod, th< i had a a of

the Deity would depend noon every part of that body; ai urti

! •'. the mo ncy would be molti] lie i

the number of I ; for that which i >nmlcd

lependent than that which is c rer.

oq] i be a <i» pendent being if be h I

ogj lor the eomponnding pari ''ire

that which is compounded by them, as the soul and body are before

the man which results from the union of them. K G< I had part U 1

ily men: we h;iw, or any composition, the I 1

urtsj, an 1 those parts be sup' ose I to be 1" i 1 : for

that which is a part is before that whoso part it is. As in artificial things

it, all the parts of a watch or clock arc in time b- ' that watch, which is made by setting those pari D t. In natural thin ,

the members of a body framed before 11 it a

I that the parts of this body are before that which is COO I by

them. We can conceive no other of God, if he were not a pure, eni

1 Spirit : if he had distil, et parts, he would depend upon them ; thoso old 1 e I- fore bim : his essence would be the effect ol distinct

raid not be absolutely and entirely the first beincf. I i . ■'•. ' I am the first, and I am the last.' II I is the fix

nothing 19 ; :m : whereas, if lie had bodily parts, and these finite, it

up of those parts which are not I d that

which i Q 1. is :•: order of nature before that which is God. So that

E :it, he could not be ind< t.

5. I not a Spirit, 1 not immutable and unchangeable.

II ibility depends upon his simplicity, lb' is nnchai feable in his

an 1 unmixed spirito d I r is

divided into t I r i I into

the nature. V\

impoun ible in its own nature, though i" " bo

changed. Adam, who was constituted of bo ly and soul, had fa i in

innocence, had not died; there had been no separation made between his soul and body whereof he was constituted, and his body had not resolved into those principles of dust from whence it was extracted ; yet in his own nature he was dissoluble into those distinct parts whereof he was compounded. And so the glorified saints in heaven, after the resurrection, and the happy meeting of their souls and bodies in a new marriage knot, shall never be dissolved ; yet in their own nature they are mutable and dissoluble, and cannot be otherwise, because they are made up of such distinct parts that may be separated in their own nature, unless sustained by the grace of God. They are immutable by will, the will of God, not by nature. God is immutable by nature as well as will; as he hath a necessary existence, so he hath a necessary unchangeableness ; Mai. iii. 6, ■ I the Lord change not.' He is as unchangeable in his essence, as in his veracity and faithfulnes. They are perfections belonging to his nature; but if he were not a pure Spirit, he could not be immutable by nature.

7. If God were not a pure Spirit, he could not be omnipresent. He is ' in heaven above, and the earth below,' Deut. iv. 39. He ' fills heaven and earth,' Jer. xxiii. 24. The divine essence is at once in heaven and earth; but it is impossible a body can be in two places at one and the same time. Since God is everywhere, he must be spiritual. Had he a body, he could not penetrate all things ; he would be circumscribed in place. He could not be everywhere but in parts, not in the whole; one member in one place, and another in another; for to be confined to a particular place is the property of the body, but since he is diffused through the whole world, ' higher than heaven, deeper than hell, longer than the earth, broader than the sea,' Job xi. 8, he hath not any corporeal matter. If he had a body wherewith to fill heaven and earth, there could be no body besides his own. It is the nature of bodies to bound one another, and hinder the extending of one another. Two bodies cannot be in the same place, in the same point of earth : one excludes the other; and it will follow hence that we are nothing, no substances, mere illusions; there could be no place for any body else.* If his body were as big as the world, as it must be, if with that he filled heaven and earth, there would not be room for him to move a hand or a foot, or extend a finger; for there would be no place remaining for the motion.

8. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be the most perfect being. The more perfect anything is in the rank of creatures, the more spiritual and simple it is, as gold is the more pure and perfect, that hath least mixture of other metals. If God were not a Spirit, there would be creatures of a more excellent nature than God, as angels and souls, which the Scripture calls spirits, in opposition to bodies. There is more of perfection in the first notion of a spirit, than in the notion of a body. God cannot be less perfect than his creatures, and contribute an excellency of being to them which he wants himself. If angels and souls possess such an excellency, and God want that excellency, he would be less than his creatures, and excellency of the effect would exceed the excellency of the cause; but every creature, even the highest creature, is infinitely short of the perfection of God ; for whatsoever excellency they have is finite and limited: it is but a spark from the sun, a drop from the ocean; but God is unboundedly perfect in the highest manner, without any limitation ; and therefore above spirits, angels, the highest creatures that were made by him. An infinite sublimity, a pure act, to which nothing can be added, from which nothing can be taken. ' In him there is light and no darkness,' 1 John i. 5 ; spirituality without any matter, perfection without any shadow or taint of imperfection; light piercoth

* Gamackeua Thool. torn. i. quost. 3, cap. 1.

Into iH thing!, I n purity, i' | of no BUxtllM (.[ any-

thlDg rise with it.

it. may be said, if Ood l <• :i B] eta bi

:i S|ui it, how c< ' 't• n t<i ; bell a*

in <»ur i ribed t«» bim soul, but partienlar bodilj

it t! it in plain in tbil text by

B ar ?

. It ii trad many parti of tba body and natnral affeol

God i I '.'in \ !..

i ; mi pie of t!. month, Ac. ; cur a£

r, A ■. I lilt it 1 . Thai lliis is- in eoml I irOTU

If known to ni:iu, whom l

own nature to roefa raj n n ntaii the

Baton. B ■ '• by the oondition of our nature nothing of itself in our ondentanding, but ai it ii conducted in

rve.l bimielf Of ttlOM thil ah arc most i i to

our mdMi most obvious to our understand b bis own natnre, and those things which i

of | of. As our BOnls are bilked with our ,,ur

is linked with onr sense, thai we run scarce is thing at

Aral l •;' rporeal form and figure, till

the obj ake, by the help of separation of the spiritna] rub-

rporeal fancy, and consid< r it in its own natnre. We arc

.;'.<• a spirit without some kind of n semblance to tiling

>w it. nor nnderstand the actions of a spirit without e ing tho

Imman holy in rem! members. A ries of an-

other life are signified to us by the pi of this, go the nature of God,

by a gr nsion to onr capacities, is signified to as by a likei

l r familiar the things are to us which God uses to this

porpoee, the more proper they are to teach us what ho intends by them.

Ans. 2. All such representation are to signify the acts of God, as they

me likeness to those which wo perform by those members he ascribes

to him B i that those members ascribed to him rather note his visible

operations to us. than his visible nature, and signify that God doth some

>ks like to those which men do by the assistance of those organs of their

I So lorn of God is called his eye, because ho knows that

i Lis mind which we see with our eyes. The efheiem tod i g called

his li ■ ma, because, as we act with our hands, so doth God with his

power. Tho divine cflicacios arc signified. By his eyes and

stand his omniscience; by his face, the manifestation of his favour ; by his

mouth, the revelation of his will; by his nostrils, the acceptation of onr

. tho tenderness of his compassion ; by his heart, the stions ; by his hand, the strength of his power; by his • quity o! And in this he intends instruction and com-

fort : by 1. his watchfulness over us; by his cars, his

the cries of the oppressed, Pg, xxxiv. 16 ; by his arm -an arm to (i mies, and an arm to his

I . . '.'; all those attributed t> God to signify divine actions, which ho doth without 1 is we do with tl

Ans. 8. Consider also that only thoso members which are the instruments

• loquitur lex secundum linrniam filiorum bominum. f Amy nil. do Triu. p. 218; life

of the noblest actions, and under that consideration, are used by him to represent a notion of him to our minds. Whatsoever is perfect and excellent is ascribed to him, but nothing that savours of imperfection.* The heart is ascribed to him, it being the principle of vital actions, to signify the life that he hath in himself. Watchful and discerniDg eyes, not sleepy and lazy ones ; a mouth to reveal his will, not to take in food. To eat and sleep are never ascribed to him, nor those parts that belong to the preparing or transmitting nourishment to the several parts of the body, as stomach, liver, reins, nor bowels under that consideration, but as they are significant of compassion ; but only those parts are ascribed to him whereby we acquire knowledge, as eyes and ears, the organs of learning and wisdom ; or to communicate it to others, as the mouth, lips, tongue, as they are instruments of speaking, not of tasting. Or those parts which signify strength and power, or whereby we perform the actions of charity for the relief of others. Taste and touch, senses that extend no further than to corporeal things, and are the grossest of all the senses, are never ascribed to him.

It were worth consideration,! whether this describing God by the members of an human body were so much figuratively to be understood, as with respect to the incarnation of our Saviour, who was to assume the human nature and all the members of a human body.

Asaph, speaking in the person of God: Ps. lxxviii. 2, ' I will open my mouth in parables.' In regard of God it is to be understood figuratively, but in regard of Christ literally, to whom it is applied, Mat. xiii. 34, 35. And that apparition, Isa. vi., which was the appearance of Jehovah, is applied to Christ, John xii. 40, 41.

After the report of the creation, and the forming of man, we read of God's speaking to him, but not of God's appearing to him in any visible shape.$ A voice might be formed in the air to give man notice of his duty ; some way of information he must have what positive laws he was to observe, besides that law which was engraven in his nature, which we call the law of nature; and without a voice the knowledge of the divine will could not be so conveniently communicated to man. Though God was heard in a voice, he was not seen in a shape; but after the fall we several times read of his appearing in such a form. Though we read of his speaking before man's committing of sin, yet not of his walking, which is more corporeal, till afterwards, Gen. iii. 8. Though God would not have man believe him to be corporeal, yet he judged it expedient to give some pre-notices of that divine incarnation which he had promised.§

5. Therefore we must not conceive of the visible Deity, according to the letter of such expressions, but the true intent of them. Though the Scripture speaks of his eyes and arms, yet it denies them to be arms of flesh, Job x. 4, 2 Chron. xxxii. 8. We must not conceive of God according to the letter, but the design of the metaphor. When we hear things described by metaphorical expressions, for the clearing them up to our fancy, we conceive not of them under that garb, but remove the veil by an act of our reason. When Christ is called a sun, a vine, bread, is any so stupid as to conceive him to bo a vine with material branches and clusters, or be of the samo nature with a loaf? But the things designed by such metaphors are obvious to the conception of a mean understanding. If we would conceive God to have a body like a man, because he describes himself so, we may conceit him to bo like a bird, because he is mentioned with wings, Ps. xxxvi. 7, or like

* Epiecop. Institu. 1. -1, Beet. W, cap. 3.

t It is Zanohy'B observation, torn. '2, do natura Dei, lib. i. cap. 4, tkes. 9.

I Aniyrald. Mural, torn. i. p. 208, 294. '$ Amyrald.

a lion or la >pard, 1 bimielf to than) in the iota of hit 11

and for , I I • i . . Y. \ I I | horn, lirv, t

strength ami wrath. I God to 1 . such,

they would make him oot only a man, I a monater.

• • .. . • Chald par iphra t, apon pai * ; o

. when li'- lui-r.U

with an] . he Ira

nl of tin m, as whan G I, 11 . which imp!

ii loc li d ol on, aii ■• on one pi another, he I and

• .•.' w. honld c< aa

of tl ■• Whan i aid com ni-

: of his hand, his power; of h , hia immutability;

l of him aa rannoonting nol on] of

i butthe apiritual exc< lleney of the moat dignified on , aometh

, great, spit itnali as nothing ••an be conceived big CI kith <m.',j is truly Daw Hguratu$ t and for hii ia it moro

ly permitted to the .lews to think of God In the ah m.

/ , If G "I be a pure spiritual being, then,

1. Ifan is i i. ac soi i i and

The f God in man consisted not in whal an, but in

win! ia i >; not in the conformation of the members, bnt rather in the

spiritual I of the soul, or, moat of all, in the holy endowments of

: Eph. it. 24, 'Tint ye put on the i in, which, ai

I I in right id true holiness,'Col. iii. 10. 'I

which is v by redeeming grace, was the image of God by o 1

nature. Tin' ii 1 cannot be in thai part which ia c I i as

with . but rather in that wherein we i toe! all livin . in

landing, and an immortal spirit. God expressly saith, tli.it

non a similitude' of him, Dent. iv. 15, 16, which had not been truo

if man in n iv had been the image and similitude of God, for

then a figui ' 11 had been seen every day, aa often as we saw a man or

Id on: : nor would the apostle's argument stand good: Acts

xvii. 29, that ' the ( \odhi ad is not like to stone graven by art' if we were not

the oftaprii nd bore the stamp of his nature in our spirits rather

than our bodies.) It was a fancy of Eugubinus that, when God set upon

isJ creation of man, he took a bodily form for an exemplar of that

which he would express in his work, and, therefore, that the words of Moses,

. i. 26, are to be understood of the body of man, because there waa in

man such a shape which God had tin I :ed. To let alone God's form-

for thai w.uk as a groundless fancy, man can in no a 1 v of God in regard of the substance of his body, but

• «11 bo b e ma le in the image of God, whose bodies havo

the B ime meml the body of man for the most part, and excel men in

land swiftness of their motion, ability of 1 th, and in some kind of ingenuities also wi

and beholden to their skill. The soul c. ing a spiritual substance, yet, con 1

singly in r« gard of its spiritual substance, cannot well be i rid to be tl. of < ty, may as well be calk

of a man, for tl * aunilitn man and a brute in 1

of I n be D( | the hi in the rank

of [fit doth not consist in tho in

fliore'i 127,

X l \, i. hh. It oap, i. p. In J.

it in any similitude of the body. This image consisted partly in the state of man as he had dominion over the creatures, partly in the nature of man as he was an intelligent being, and thereby was capable of having a grant of that dominion, but principally in the conformity of the soul with God in the frame of his spirit and the holiness of his actions ; not at all in the figure and form of his body physically, though morally there might be, as there was a rectitude in the body, as an instrument to conform to the holy motions of the soul, as the holiness of the soul sparkled in the actions and members of the body. If man were like God because he hath a body, whatsoever hath a body hath some resemblance to God, and may be said to be in part his image; but the truth is, the essence of all creatures cannot be an image of the immense essence of God.

2. If God be a pure Spirit, it is unreasonable to frame any image or picture of God.* Some heathens have been wiser in this than some Christians. Pythagoras forbade his scholars to engrave any shape of him upon a ring, because he was not to be comprehended by sense, but conceived only in our minds ; our hands are as unable to fashion him as our own eyes to see him.t The ancient Romans worshipped their gods one hundred and seventy years before any material representations of them,| and the ancient idolatrous Germans thought it a wicked thing to represent God in a human shape; yet some, and those no Romanists, labour to defend the making images of God in the resemblance of man; because he is so represented in Scripture, he may be,§ saith one, conceived so in our minds and figured so to our sense. If this were a good reason, why may he not be pictured as a lion, horn, eagle, rock, since he is under such metaphors shadowed to us ? The same ground there is for the one as for the other. What though man be a nobler creature, God hath no more the body of a man than that of an eagle, and some perfections in other creatures represent some excellencies in his nature and actions which cannot be figured by a human shape, as strength by the lion, swiftness and readiness by the wings of the bird. But God hath absolutely prohibited the making any image whatsoever of him, and that with terrible threatenings: Exod. xx. 5, ' I the Lord am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon their children,' and Deut. v. 8, 9. After God had given the Israelites the commandment wherein he forbade them to have any God before him, he forbids all figuring of him by the hand of man ; not only images, but any likeness of him either by things in heaven, in the earth, or in the water. How often doth he discover his indignation by the prophets, against them that offer to mould him in a creature form ! This law was not to serve a particular dispensation, or to endure a particular time, but it was a declaration of his will, invariable in all places and all times, being founded upon the immutable nature of his being, and therefore agreeable to the law of nature; otherwise, not chargeable upon the heathens. And, therefore, when God had declared his nature and his works in a stately and majestic eloquence, he demands of them, to whom they would liken him, or what likeness they would compare unto him, Isa. xl. 18 ; where they could find anything that would be a lively image and resemblance of his infinite excellency ? Founding it upon the infiniteness of his nature, which necessarily implies the spirituality of it. God is infinitely abovo any statue, and those that think to draw God by a stroke of a pencil, or form him by the engravings of art, aro more stupid than the statues themselves. To shew the unreasonableness of it, consider,

* Jamblyc. protrcpt, cap. 21, symb. 24.

t Austin de Civitat. Dei. lib. iv. cap. 81, out of Varro. J Tacitus.

\ Gerhard Loc. Comrauu. vol. iv.; Exegesis do natura Dei, cap. 8, sect. 1.

1 •• image of I : L If our nu oious

BOUlfl rumol iimot fraiii ; it

bend bim in our mind i, than to fauna

liim in an inn" • t.. OUT I !•• inli it

impossible for the i ;• o of 1 bio for I of man

to ] knows bun bat

himself, iiiui. • en desri ihe 1 i i 111 bill ' I m v.v .1: ;i!,- Qjf

• i\ part of I

God ? I tend thi l odilj figure, and dii ide it.

II 'h tl riginaJ copy, whence tl

soii! infinitely more piritual than d

\ i i • Lance; thai

lion in natore between them; I impla f infinite, imn . i

invisible, incorruptible ' ituc ii a compound, finite, limil

temporal, i ruptible body. God spirit,; but a

, not hears, nor ] k i <•• i%.■ - anything. But Buppo 11 G l ile to mould an image of it in the true of thai bo ly. G d the statue of an excellent monarch repreaent the d and air of his eountenanoe, though made by the skilfullest workman in the world ? It" God had b bo ly in b< ime on aaure suited to his excellency, v. ii poa ibl • for man to make an exaol image of him, who cannot picture tho light, heat, motion, magnitude, and dazzling property of t ; . ; Tho

I any oorporaa] nature of the laasi creature, the tamper, instinct, artifice, are beyond the power of a caning tool, much more is G 1.

X ■ ■ Ice any corporeal representation of God ; -s unworthy of God, It

ifl a • to his nature. V rnal corruptible im

to be tit for a representation of God, renders CuA no better than a ear ami corporeal being. It is a kind of debasing an angel, who is a spiritual nature, | .' him in a bodily shape, who is as far removed from any

fleshlin< bb as heaven from earth ; much more to degrade the glory of the

divine nature to the lineaments of a man. Tho whole stock of images is

but a lie of God : J. r. L, 8, 14, * A doctrine of vanities and falsehood.' It

rep' him in a false garb to the world, and sinks his glory into that of

•rruptible creature, Rom. i. 23, 25* It impairs tho reverence of God

in the minds of men, and by degrees may debase men's apprehensions of

I, and be a means to make them believe he is such a one as themselves,

and that not being free from the figure, he is not also free from the imper-

of their bodies. Corporeal images of God were the fruits of base

imaginations of him; and as they sprung from them, so they contribute to a

ter corruption of the notions of the divine nature. The heathens began

their fir ns of him by the imago of a corruptible man, then of

birds, till tl 1, not only to four-footed beasts, but creeping thi]

as the apostle seems to intimate in his enumeration, Rom. L28. 1' honourable to have continued in human representation

of him, than have sunk80low a tents, the baser images, though

the first 1: i infinitely unworthy of him, he being more above a man,

though the nol tare, than man is above a worm, a toad, or tho most

ping thing upon the earth. To think we can make an im :' marble, or an ingot of gold, ifl a greater debasing of I I it would be of a gri at prince, if you should represent him in the statuo V. | by a calf, it is said, ' T:

.' l. 1. nxii. Bl. And the sin of Jeroboam, i :ion of God by the at Dan and 1-

" i his, Sura. Thcol.. 17 •

▼OL, I. s

called more emphatically, Hosea x. 15, D3J"|jn D^l, ' the wickedness of your wickedness,' the very scum and dregs of wickedness. As men debased God by this, so God debased men for this; he degraded the Israelites into captivity under the worst of their enemies, and punished the heathens with spiritual judgments, as uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, Kom. i. 24, which is repeated again in other expressions, ver. 26, 27, as a meet recompence for their disgracing the spiritual nature of God. Had God been like to man, they had not offended in it; but I mention this to shew a probable reason of those base lusts which are in the midst of us, that have scarce been exceeded by any nation, viz., the unworthy and unspiritual conceits of God, which are as much a debasing of him as material images were when they were more rife in the world, and may be as well the cause of those spiritual judgments upon men as the worshipping molten and carved images were the cause of the same upon the heathen.

(3.) Yet this is natural to man. Wherein we may see the contrariety of man to God. Though God be a Spirit, yet there is nothing man is more prone to than to represent him under a corporeal form. The most famous guides of the heathen world have fashioned him, not only according to the more honourable images of men, but bestialised him in the form of a brute. The Egyptians, whose country was the school of learning to Greece, were notoriously guilty of this brutishness, in worshipping an ox for an image of their god; and the Philistines their Dagon, in a figure composed of the image of a woman and a fish.* Such representations were ancient in the oriental parts. The gods of Laban, that he accuseth Jacob of stealing from him, are supposed to be little figures of men, Gen. xxxi. 30, 34. Such was the Israelites' golden calf; their worship was not terminated on the image, but they worshipped the true God under that representation. They could not be so brutish to call a calf their deliverer, and give to him a great title, —' These be thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,' Exod. xxxii. 4,—or that which they knew belonged to the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They knew the calf to be formed of their earrings, but they had consecrated it to God as a representation of him. Though they chose the form of the Egyptian idol, yet they knew that Apis, Osiris, and Isis, the gods the Egyptians adored in that figure, had not wrought their redemption from bondage, but would have used their force, had they been possessed of any, to have kept them under the yoke, rather than have freed them from it. The feast also which they celebrated before that image is called by Aaron the feast of the Lord: ver. 5, ' A feast to Jehovah,' the incommunicable name of the Creator of the world. It is therefore evident, that both the priest and the people pretended to serve the true God, not any false divinity of Egypt; that God who had rescued them from Egypt with a mighty hand, divided the Red Sea before them, destroyed their enemies, conducted them, fed them by miracle, spoken to them from mount Sinai, and amazed them by his thunderings and lightnings when he instructed them by his law, a God they could not so soon forget. And with this representing God by that image, they are charged by the psalmist: Ps. cvi. 19, 20, * They made a calf in Horeb, and changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eatcth grass.' They changed their glory ; that is, God the glory of Israel; so that they took this figure for the image of the true God of Israel, their own God, not the God of any other nation in the world. Jeroboam intended no other by his calves, but symbols of the presence of tho truo God, instead of tho ark and the propitiatory which remained among tho Jews. Wo sco tho inclinations of our natures in the

* Daille, super, Cor. i. 10, Scr. 3.

of the I mu lib . bole world to tx or up

l'a Dame, and p and in Hint the inn

loon set op in the ( church, and I the picture of God in

in old niiin . a iminiftf. it is

prone to the nature of moo.

To repn i ai I . and to worihip him in

that ini i ■ i

■ : G . nor intended a worship to unv of the i n d<-itieH by it,

but worshipped tlmt (tod in it who bad o lai ly and miracnl I

thi in iv.'in ■ cni. 1 servitude, and oonld Dot b natural rea on jo I i

be oloihed with I bodily lhapo, much loss to ho like an «•

:them than thai of idoial i (' •■. -,. 7. Be colli ih« in Idolaters, who before thai oalfl Job i :.■"». Suppose we oonld make inch an in

1 aa might perfectly represenl him, jot linee God bath prohibited it, lhall wo be wiser than God? Be bath sufficiently mai fin

kswithoul in j b< in the creatoroe, more particularly in

the heavens, which declare hie glory. Bii w< more eieelleni repre-

sentation! of him, aa being the works of bii own bands, than anything that in the product of the art of man. Bis j ory sparkles in the h< . moon,

and \ magnified f his wisdom and | yet the

ling the hand to the sun or the heavens, us n sel-

keney and majesty of God, is idolatry in Scripture aeeonnt, and a denial of G i. Jobxxxi. 28 28,i prostituting the glory of God to a creature. EH1 the worship is terminated on the image itself,* and then it is coi all to be idolatry, I hip to a creature which

the God; or not terminated in tho imago, hot in the ohj<

ropi ■ by it ; it is then l foolish thing; we may as well terminate our

worship on the true object, without as with an imago. An erected statue is no nor symbol ofGod'a special presence, as the ark, tabernacle, temple were. It is no part of divine institution, has no authority of a command to sup-. no cordial of a promise to encourage it; and the image being infinitely ' mt from, and below the majesty and spirituality of God, cannot constitute one object of worship with him. To put a religious character upon any imi the corrupt imagination of man, as a representation of

the invisible and spiritual Deity, is to think the Godhead to be like silver and I, or stone graven by art and man's device, Acts xvii. 29.

I doctrine will direct us in our conceptions of God as a pure, bet spirit, than which nothing can be imagined more perfect, more pure, more spiritual.

i l.i VTc cannot have an adequate or suitable conception of God. He

Us in B ible light; inaccessible to the acuteness of our fancy, as

well as the weakness of our sense. If we could have thoughts of him as

h and excellent as his nature, our conceptions must be as infinite

as fa All our imaginations of him cannot represent him, beeat

- Unite ; it cannot, therefore, represent to us a full and substantial notion of an infinite being. We cannot speak or think worthily

Qgh of him who . r than our words, faster than our understand::

"\Yi. ik or think of God M hands 1 first to'us by the notice wo

nd explains to us some particular rather than the fulness of his essence. No creature, : all creatures togetlnr, can furnish us with such a magnificent notion of God I . give 01 a clear :" him. Yet God in his word is pleased to

• Lawioa, body of Divin., p. 1G1.

step below his own excellency, and point us to those excellencies in his works, whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellencies which are in his nature. But the creatures, whence we draw our lessons, being finite, and our understandings being finite, it is utterly impossible to have a notion of God commensurate to the immensity and spirituality of his being. 1 God is not like to visible creatures, nor is there any proportion between him and the most spiritual.'* We cannot have a full notion of a spiritual nature, much less can we have of God, who is a Spirit above spirits. No spirit can clearly represent him. The angels, that are great spirits, are bounded in their extent, finite in their being, and of a mutable nature.

Yet though we cannot have a suitable conception of God, we must not content ourselves without any conception of him. It is our sin not to endeavour after a true notion of him ; it is our sin to rest in a mean and low notion of him, when our reason tells us we are capable of having higher; but if we ascend as high as we can, though we shall then come short of a suitable notion of him, this is not our sin, but our weakness. God is infinitely superior to the choicest conceptions, not only of a sinner, but of a creature. If all conceptions of God below the true nature of God were sin, there is not a holy angel in heaven free from sin, because though they are the most capacious creatures, yet they cannot have such a notion of an infinite being as is fully suitable to his nature, unless they were infinite as he himself is.

(2.) But, however, we must by no means conceive of God under a human or corporeal shape. Since we cannot have conceptions honourable enough for his nature, we must take heed we entertain not any which may debase his nature. Though we cannot comprehend him as he is, we must be careful not to fancy him to be what he is not. It is a vain thing to conceive him with human lineaments. We must think higher of him than to ascribe to him so mean a shape. We deny his spirituality when we fancy him under such a form. He is spiritual, and between that which is spiritual and that which is corporeal there is no resemblance.f Indeed, Daniel saw God in a human form : Dan. vii. 9, ' The Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hairs of his head like pure wool:' he is described as coming to judgment. It is not meant of Christ probably ; because Christ, ver. 13, is called the Son of man coming near to the Ancient of days. This is not the proper shape of God, for no man hath seen his shape. It was a vision wherein such representations were made, as were accommodated to the inward sense of Daniel. Daniel saw him in a rapture or ecstasy, wherein outward senses are of no use. God is described, not as ho is in himself, of a human form, but in regard of his fitness to judge. White denotes the purity and simplicity of the divine nature ; Ancient of days, in regard of his eternity; white hair, in regard of his prudence and wisdom, which is more eminent in age than youth, and more fit to discern causes and to distinguish between right and wrong. Visions are riddles, and must not be understood in a literal sense. We are to watch against such determinate conceptions of God. Vain imaginations do easily infest us ; tinder will not sooner take fire, than our natures kindle into wrong notions of the divine majesty. We are very apt to fashion a god like ourselves. We must therefore look upon such representations of God as accommodated to our weakness, and no more think them to be literal descriptions of God, as ho is in himself, than we will think tlio imago of tho sun in the water to be the true sun in the heavens. Wo may indeed conceive of Christ as man, who hath in heaven the vestment of our nature, and is Dcusfirjuratus, though we cannot conceive tho Godhead under a human shape.

* Amyrald, Moral., torn. i. p. 289. f Episc. Institut., lib. iv. sec 2, c. 17.

[1.] To liivr i nob • bo I ' . \ e ffp

fancy ol G ridioalo I as injuriou God, m a wooden

nation b •' lI »

tin- image i which an ti i I ' < d's

cssciicti by our lino, In . m to i

though! I y the w< and unworthim ]

» limit :m intim!. « c.ss.-1 1.-« ■, an I pull him down to 001

and render that whioh ii one ibly ado i [oal with os. [I

impossible e Ood after the manner of a body, bat v.

bring him down to the proporti in of • body, which i to diminish

and stoop him below the dignity of his nature. God is a pore Spirit; he

hath nothing of the natore and tincture of a body. Wi.

eonceivea of him as having a bodily form, thoogh be fancy the mo ifbJ

and eomely body, instead of owning his dignity, detracl the sup

emii lellenoy of his natore and ble i. When men fane i

themselves in their oorporeal oatore, they will Boon make s pi and i i him their oorropt oatore ; and while they clothe him with

their bodies, invest him also in the infirmities of them. Qod isajeal

, very Bensible of any disgrace, and will be as much u inward idolatry, as an outward. That command, Bxod. xx. ■!, which fort eorpor al urn i ps, would not indulge carnal imaginations, since the nature of God is ss mooh wi by unworthy images erected in the fancy, as by

statues carv< d out of stone or metals. (me, as well as the other, is a desv ing of our true spouse and committing adultery, one with a material ims and the other with a carnal notion of <i<m1. since God humbles Inn our apprehensions, we should not debase him in thinking him to be that iu bis nature, which he maki s only I resemblance of himself to us.

[2.] To have such fancies of God, will obstruct and pollute our worship of him. How is it possible to give him a right worship, of whom we have bo debasing a notion ? VYe shall never think a corporeal deity worthy of a dedication of our spirits. The hating instruction, and casting God's word behind the back, is charged upon the imagination they had, that God •. 1 such a one as themselves,' Ps. 1. 17, 21. Many of the wiser heathens not judge their statues to be their gods, or their gods to be like their statues, but suited them to their politic designs, and judged them a good invention to keep people within the bounds of obedience and devotion by such visible figures of them, which might imprint a reverence and fear of those gods upon them. J nit these were false measures. A despised and undervalued god is not an object of petition or affection. Who would address seriously to a god he i Apprehensions of? The more raised thoughts WS have of him,

the vil we shall have of ourselves. They would make us humble

and self-abhorrent in our supplications to him : Job xlii. 0, ' Wherefore I abhor myself}' fce.

Though we must not conceive of God, as of a human or corporeal shape, cannot think of God without some reflection upon our own

being. Ws cannot conceive him to be an intelligent being, but we must make some OOD D between him and our own understanding natun .

come to a know : him. Since we SIS ( oclosed in bodies, we appreln 0 1

nothing but what conns in by sens . and what we in some sort measure by sensible ol•/• ots. And in the consideration of those things which we di to abstract from sense, we are fain to make use of the assistances of B( and visible things. And therefore, when WS frame the highest notion, ti will be some similitude of somo corporeal thing in our fancy ; and though we would spiritualise our thoughts, and aim at a more abstracted and raised

understanding, yet'there will be some dregs of matter sticking to our conceptions ; yet we still judge, by argument and reasoning, what the thing is we think of under those material images. A corporeal image will follow us, as the shadow doth the body.- While we are in the body and surrounded with fleshly matter, we cannot think of things without some help from corporeal representations. Something of sense will interpose itself in our purest conceptions of spiritual things, for the faculties which serve for contemplation are either corporeal, as the sense and fancy, or so allied to them, that nothing passes into them but by the organs of the body, f so that there is a natural inclination to figure nothing but under a corporeal notion, till by an attentive application of the mind and reason to the object thought upon, we separate that which is bodily from that which is spiritual, and by degrees ascend to that true notion of that we think upon, and would have a due conception of in our mind. Therefore God tempers the declaration of himself to our weakness, and the condition of our natures. He condescends to our littleness and narrowness, when he declares himself by the similitude of bodily members ; as the light of the sun is tempered, and diffuseth itself to our sense through the air and vapours, that our weak eyes may not be too much dazzled with it. Without it we could not know or judge of the sun, because we could have no use of our sense, which we must have before we can judge of it in our understanding; so we are not able to conceive of spiritual beings in the purity of their own nature, without such a temperament, and such shadows to usher them into our minds. And therefore we find the Spirit of God accommodates himself to our contracted and tethered capacities, and uses such expressions of God as are suited to us, in this state of flesh wherein we are ; and therefore, because we cannot apprehend God in the simplicity of his own being and his undivided essence, he draws the representations of himself from several creatures, and several actions of those creatures : as sometimes he is said to be angry, to walk, to sit, to fly. Not that we should rest in such conceptions of him, but take our rise from this foundation, and such perfections in the creatures, to mount up to a knowledge of God's nature by those several steps, and conceive of him by those divided excellencies, because we cannot conceive of him in the purity of his own essence. J We cannot possibly think or speak of God, unless we transfer the names of created perfections to him; yet we are to conceive of them in a higher manner when we apply them to the divine nature, than when we consider them in the several creatures formally, exceeding those perfections and excellencies which are in the creature, and in a more excellent manner. As one§ saith: ' Though we cannot comprehend God without the help of such resemblances, yet we may, without making an image of him ; so that inability of ours excuseth those apprehensions of him from any way offending against his divine nature.' These are not notions so much suited to the nature of God as the weakness of man. They are helps to our meditations, but ought not to be formal conceptions of him. We may assist ourselves in our apprehensions of him, by consideriug the subtilty and spirituality of air, and considering the members of a body, without thinking him to be air or to have any corporeal member. Our reason tells us that whatsoever is a body is limited and bounded, and the notion of infiniteness and bodiliness cannot agree and consist together; and therefore, what is offered by our fancy should be purified by our reason.

(4.) Thereforo wo are to elevate and refine all our notions of God, and spiritualise our conceptions of him. Every man is to have a conception of

* Nazianzen. J Lessius.

t Amyrald, Moral, torn. i. p. 180, &c. $ Towerson on tho Commandments, p 112.

God, therefore he on 'lit. t" have mm "f tli" lii [heel deration. Bi cannot bays H full i >f him, we should endeavour to make it (

as pan us u." cum. Thoughwi cannot oonooiYOof < i-..I, bat pome c o rporeal repre entations or images Ed our mindi will kx d with d

iu thfl lii wh< D We Loot Dp00 Ihi hcSN inception rid must

hi"li.-r. As whi'ii wu Mfl thi dl 'li in I

globe, or a kingdom in a map, if helps our conoepiione, but doth noil

ruinate them ; -civo thom to 1"' of U -' bort

oripiion of 11 nm ; .<>111.i endeavour to reft ition

«'t God, to i ber and bigher, and bavs our appro! itill m

purified; separating tho perfect from tin imperfect, and ih" oth< r; oouoeive bim to in a spirit diifu ed through all,

oontaining all, peroeii ingall. All the perfections of God are infinib ■• I

above th" i roellencii i of the creatures, above wi i can b

by the oleareei and most piercing understanding. The uatun G spirit, is infinitely superior to whatsoever we can conceive perfect in the

notion i>( a Created spirit. Whatsoever God If, be li infinitely BO. B

infinite wisdom, infinite goodness, infinite knowledge! infinite power, infinite spirit, infinitely distant from the weakness of creatures, infinitely mom aboTS th«> excellencies of creatures. As easy to bo known that he is, as im-dble to be comprehended what, he is*

Conceive of him as excellent, without any imperfection. A Spirit without parts : great without quantity ; perfect without quality ; everywhere without place ; powerful without members ; understanding without ignorance ; wise without reasoning; light without darkness; infinitely moro [ling the beauty of all creatures, than the light in the sun pure and un-yiolate I lendour of the sun dispersed and divided through a

cloudy and misty air. And when you have risen to the highest, conceive him yet infinitely above all you can conceive of spirit, and acknowledge the infirmity of your own minds. And whatsoever conception comes into your minds, say, This is not God, God is more than this. If I could conceive him, he were not God, for God is incomprehensibly above whatsoever I can say, whatsoever I can think and conceive of him.

I. If God be a Spirit, no corporeal thing can defile him. Some bring an argument against the omnipresence of God, that it is a disparagement to the divine essence to be everywhere, in nasty cottages as well as beautiful palaces and garnished temples. "What placo can defile a spirit? Is light, which approaches to the nature of spirit, polluted by shining upon a dunghill, or a sunbeam tainted by darting upon a quagmire ? Doth an angel contract any soil, by stepping into a nasty prison to deliver Peter ? "What can steam from the most noisome body, to pollute the spiritual nature of God? As he is 'of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,' Hab. i. 13, so he is of a moro spiritual substanco than to contract any physical pollution from the places where ho doth diffuse himself. Did our Saviour, who had a true body, derive any taint from the lepers he touched, the diseases ho cured, or the devils ho expelled ? God is a puro Spirit, plungeth himself into no filth, is dashed with no spot by being present with all bodies. 1' li I only receive defilement from bodies.

Ittfermet 5. If God bo a Spirit, ho is active and communicative. Ho is not d ' ' i with heavy and sluggish matter, which is cause of dulness and inactivity. The moro subtle, thin, and approaching nearer the nature of a spirit anything is, the moro ditfusivo it is. Air is a gliding substance, spreads itself through all religions,* pierccth into all bodies; it fills the

* Qu. 'regions'?— Ed.

chaenock's works. [John IV. 24.

space between heaven and earth, there is nothing but partakes of the virtue of it. Light, which is an emblem of spirit, insinuates itself into all places, refresheth all things. As spirits are fuller, so they are more overflowing, more piercing, more operative than bodies. Thej Egyptians' horses were weak things, because they were flesh and not spirit, Isa. xxxi. 3. The soul being a spirit, conveys more to the body than the body can to it. What cannot so great a Spirit do for us! What cannot so great a Spirit work in us ! God being a Spirit above all spirits, can pierce into the centre of all spirits ; make his way into the most secret recesses ; stamp w r hat he pleases. It is no more to him to turn our spirits, than to make a wilderness become waters, and speak a chaos into a beautiful frame of heaven and earth. He can act our souls with infinite more ease than our souls can act our bodies ; he can fix in us what motions, frames, inclinations he pleases; he can come and settle in our hearts with all his treasures. It is an encouragement to confide in him, when we petition him for spiritual blessings. As he is a Spirit, he is possessed with spiritual blessings, Eph. i. 3. A spirit delights to bestow things suitable to its nature, as bodies do to communicate what is agreeable to theirs. As he is a Father of spirits, w r e may go to him for the welfare of our spirits ; he being a Spirit, is as able to repair our spirits, as he was to create them.

As he is a Spirit, he is indefatigable in acting. The members of the body tire and flag; but who ever heard of a soul w r earied with being active ! Who ever heard of a weary angel! In the purest simplicity, there is the greatest power, the most efficacious goodness, the most reaching justice to affect the spirit, that can insinuate itself everywhere to punish wickedness without weariness, as well as to comfort goodness. God is active, because he is Spirit; and if we be like to God, the more spiritual we are, the more active we shall be.

Inference 6. God being a Spirit, is immortal. His being immortal and being invisible are joined together, 1 Tim. i. 17. Spirits are in their nature incorruptible ; they can only perish by that hand that framed them. Every compounded thing is subject to mutation; but God being a pure and simple Spirit, is without corruption, without any shadow of change, James i. 17. Where there is composition, there is some kind of repugnancy of one part against the other ; and where there is repugnancy, there is a capability of dissolution. God, in regard of his infinite spirituality, hath nothing in his own nature contrary to it; can have nothing in himself which is not himself. The world perishes, friends change and are dissolved, bodies moulder, because they are mutable. God is a Spirit in the highest excellency and glory of spirits ; nothing is beyond him, nothing above him, no contrariety within him. This is our comfort, if we devote ourselves to him ; this God is our God; this Spirit is our Spirit; this is our all, our immutable, our incorruptible support; a Spirit that cannot die and leave us.

Inference 7. If God be a Spirit, we see how we can only converse with him; by our spirits. Bodies and spirits are not suitable to one another; we can only see, know, embraco a spirit with our spirits. He judges not of us by our corporeal actions, nor our external devotions, by our masks and disguises, he fixes his eye upon the framo of the heart, bends his ear to the groans of our spirits. Ho is not pleased with outward pomp, he is not a body; thereforo tho beauty of temples, delicacy of sacrifices, fumes of incense, aro not grateful to him; by thoso or any external action we have no communion with him. A spirit, when broken, is his delightful sacrifice, Ps. li. 17; we must thereforo have our spirits fitted for him, be 'renewed in tho spirit of our mind,' Eph. iv. 23, that we may bo in a posture to live

With liim, an I I 8 With him. \ I to

l I.ut in our i pii its; 1

BON Spiritual an\th.: ur hath the

olotatt onion, i ther soonor than that when the \

di\idc 1 by the int. rpo ition ol

i 8. [f i inn Spirit can only be fill I frith ■ spirit. I ' flows from

Ilk. m * an. I suitablei U 1 «'f

tii.' spiiitu.il nature of otu soul, in biiiL

.in no iiiMi.. I .c nall\ i with that which is corpoi

1 ' .in .1. light in tho oompai .1 a In; iril than pui

th. t Spirit, can only roach oat a fail content to oar spirits. .Man hi

i ..t' tii.' creation; nothing below liim can be tit tor It. bing

ova bin . ffi rs its* If to but ( We hate no i

enoe with angels. The influence they have opon as, the i afford Di| eorel ind nndiscerned; bat God, the b Spirit, ol

himself to as in his Eton, in his ordins risible in i creature,

ts liim.-t If to ns in r\. ; to him We m , in liim

we mn I '1 had no rest from t: ion till he had made man,

, man can hare I in the creation till ho rests in Q G only

1 our dwelling-place, 1 P . to. 1; our souls should only long for him, P .

lxiii. 1 ; our souls should only wait opon him. The spirit of man 1

:h to its original ^I<»i\\-, till it be carried up on the wings of faith and to its original The face of th.' sou] looks m itiful wl

turn. .1 ;<» the i < tod, tli,. l';ith, r of spirits ; win □ I • < d spirit is

fixed upon the original Spirit, drawing from it life and glory. Spirit is only spirit. I Spirit is our principle, we must therefore

upon him. G Spirit hath some resemblance to us as his in.

must therefore only satisfy ourselves in him.

/ 9. If God be a Spirit, we should take most care of that

wherein we ire like to God. Spirit is nobler than body, we must therefore value our spirits above our bodies; the soul as spirit partakes more of the divine nature, and deserves more of our choicest cares. If we have any to this Spirit, wo should have a real affection to our own spirit, as ring a stamp of the spiritual divinity, the chief, st of all the works of God; as it is said of I '•• i.< moth, Job xl. 1 ( J. That which is most the in. of this immense Spirit should be our darling; so David calls his soul, 1 I. .. 17. Shall we take care of that wherein we partake not of God, and not delight in the jewel which hath his own signature upon it? God-, not only the framer of spirits, end the end of spirits, but the copy and :' spirits. God partakes of no corporiety, he is pure Spirit. ■ We act, as if we were only matter and body ! We have but little kindness for this great Spirit as well as our own, if we take no care of his imi Sspring, since he is not only Spirit, but the Father of spirits,

. •...:. 9.

In) 10. If G lb I Spirit, 1.1 us take heed of those sins which are

spiritual. Paul distinguisheth between the filth of the flesh and that of the spirit, '2 C'or. vii. 1 ; by the ono we defile the body, by the other we defile tho spirit, which in regard of its nature is of kin to the Creator. To wit ono who is near of kin t" a prince is WOTSC than to injure an inferior sub-lake our spirits, which ar 1 in their

nature, and framed according to hil , a stage to act vain in. ns,

wicked desires, and unclean affections, we wrong God iu the excellency of

his work, and reflect upon the nobleness of the pattern; we wrong him in that part where he hath stamped the most signal character of his own spiritual nature, we defile that whereby we have only converse w r ith him as a Spirit, which he hath ordered more immediately to represent him in this nature, than all corporeal things in the world can, and make that Spirit with whom we desire to be joined unfit for such a knot. God's spirituality is the root of his other perfections. We have already heard he could not be infinite, omnipresent, immutable without it. Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us; as grace in our spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God, so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded devil, Eph. ii. 2, 3. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes, and spiritual sins divest us of the image of God for the image of Satan. We should by no means make our spirits a dunghill, which bear upon them the character of the spiritual nature of God, and were made for his residence. Let us therefore behave ourselves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature of God requires us.

\ Disciii i;si; ri'iiN 8PIRIT0 LL WORSHIP.

I ni. <inl (Key that itonhip lii>» mu i worthip him in 7 irii and in

l.ulh.— John IV. li 1.

ELwdig tlms despatched the first proposition, 'God ifl i Spirit,' it will not be amiss to handle ths inference onr Saviour makss from that proposition, which is ths sooonfl obsi (ration propounded.

'. That ths worship dos from HI to God ought to be spiritual, and spiritually perform*' 1.

Spirit and truth SXS DIMlerstood variously. Either we arc to worship 1

l. N : by l< - il ceremonies j the evangelical administration I sailed

spirit in opposition to ths legal ordinances as carnal, and truth in opposi-to them SS typical. As ths whole Judaical service is called flesh, fo the whole evangelical service is called spirit. Or spirit may be opposed to the worship at .Jerusalem, as it was carnal; troth, to the worship on the mount Qerizim, because it was false. They had not the true object of worship, nor the true medium of worship as those at Jerusalem had. Their worship should cease, because it was false, and the Jewish worship should cease, ■ it was carnal.

There is no need of a candle when the sun spreads its beams in the air; no need of those ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared ; they only served for a candle to instruct and direct men till the time of his coming. The shadows are chased away by the displaying the substance, so that they can be of no more use in the worship of God, since the end for which they were instituted is expired, and that is discovered to us in the

pel, which the Jews sought for in vain among the baggage and stuff of their ceremonies.

2. With I spiritual and sincere frame. 'In spirit, i.-\ with spirit; with the inward operations of all the faculties of our souls, and the cream and flower of them ; and the reason is, be ought to be a worship

suitable to the nature of O d. And as the worship was to bo spiritual, so the exercise of that [p ought to be in a spiritual manmr. ■ It shall

be a worship in truth, because the true (rod shall h I without those

vain imaginations, and fantastic resemblances of him, which were common among the blind Gentiles, and contrary to the glorious nature of God, and unworthy i. Il shall be a worship in spirit,

without those carnal rites U ! Jewi rested on. Bosh ■ posture

of soul, which is the life and ornament of every service, God looks for at your hands. There must be some proportion between the object adored, and the manner in which we adore it. It must not be a mere corporeal worship, because God is not a body; but it must rise from the centre of our soul, because God is a Spirit. If he were a body, a bodily worship might suit him, images might be fit to represent him ; but being a Spirit, our bodily services enter us not into communion with him. Being a Spirit, we must banish from our minds all carnal imaginations of him, and separate from our wills all cold and dissembled affections to him. We must not only have a loud voice, but an elevated soul; not only a bended knee, but a broken heart; not only a supplicating tone, but a groaning spirit; not only a ready ear for the word, but a receiving heart; and this shall be of greater value with him than the most costly outward services offered at Gerizim or Jerusalem.

Our Saviour certainly meant not, by worshipping in spirit, only the matter of the evangelical service as opposed to the legal administration, without the manner wherein it was to be performed. It is true, God always sought a worship in spirit; he expected the heart of the worshipper should join with his instituted rights of adoration in every exercise of them; but he expects such a carriage more under the gospel administration, because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it, and the greater assistances conveyed by it.

I shall therefore,

I. Lay dow r n some general propositions.

II. Shew what this spiritual worship is.

III. Why we must offer to God a spiritual service.

IV. The use.

? I. Some general propositions.

Prop. 1. First, The right exercise of worship is founded upon and riseth from the spirituality of God.* The first ground of the worship we render to God is the infinite excellency of his nature, which is not only one attribute, but results from all; for God as God is the object of worship, and the notion of God consists not in thinking him wise, good, just, but all those infinitely beyond any conception. And hence it follows that God is an object infinitely to be loved and honoured. His goodness is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage: Ps. cxxx. 4, ' There is forgiveness with thee that thou may est be feared.' Fear, in the Scripture dialect, signifies the whole worship of God : Acts x. 35, ' But in every nation he that fears him is accepted of him;' so 2 Kings xvii. 32, 33. If God should act towards men according to the rigours of his justice due to them for the least of their crimes, there could be no exercise of any affection but that of despair, which could not engender a worship of God, which ought to be joined with love, not with hatred. The beneficence and patience of God, and his readiness to pardon men, is the reason of the honour they return to him. And this is so evident a motive, that generally the idolatrous world ranked those creatures in the number of their gods, which they perceived useful and beneficial to mankind, as the sun and moon, the Egyptians the ox, &c. And tho more beneficial anything appeared to mankind, the higher station men gave it in the rank of their deities, and bestowed a more peculiar and solemn worship upon it. Men worshipped God to procure or continue his favour, which would not have been acted by them, had they not conceived it a pleasing thing to him to be merciful and gracious. * Ames Mcdul. lib. ii. cap. 4, sec. 20.

:rtil!l.'S lllS I'd t() !!

earning firo ;' which inoladoi bie bolino i, wh< ■ . m w< -II

as i doUi pun \\ ho but rod totally

brul ' could

behold the effect i of i i

as ft consuming firo, and d< I im, and rather ,n-

aideration to blasphemy and despair, than to seek all

li tho infinite po 11 1,1 inoom-

prehi d ible go >dn< . the hoi i nature, the vigilance of nil on

• in« bounty of hia hand si jnify to man ll hould love and honour him, and are the i bip, yel the piritnality of hie oatari tin' rale of worship, rod direct! ni to render onr duty to him with all the

.■I" ooi soul. As hi i goodm oui npon d .

justice to him ; rod as he ifl the moil ezeellent naton . him in the highest manner with the ohoicesl affectii

s - that indeed the spirituality of <'"<l eomefl chiefly into con □ in

matter of worship. All hi ctions are grounded upon this. Ee could

not be infinite, immutable, omniscient, it' he w< re a corporeal bein u* We cannot give him ■ worship unless we judge him worthy, ezeellent, and deserving a worship at our hands ; ami we cannot judge him Worthy of a worship unless we hi a apprehensions rod admirations of bis infinite virtues; and we cannot apprehend and admire those perl . but as

i shining in their effects. When wo sec, th< frame of the world to be the work of bis power, the order of tl I

be tin' fruit o[ his wisdom, and the usefulness of tho world to be the pro-duet of his goodness, we find the motive of worship; and

[hing that this power, wil I, infinitely transcend any cor-

poreal nature, we find s rule of worship, that it ought to bo offered by us

in a manner suitahle to such 1 nature as is infinitely above any bodily bein^. His being a Spirit declares what ho is, his other perfections declare what kind of Spirit he is. All God's perfections suppose him a Spirit; all centre in this. His wisdom doth not suppose him merciful, or his mercy suppose him omniscient. There may bo distinct notions of those, but all suppose him to he of a spiritual nature. How cold and frozen will our devotions bo if we consider not his omniscience, whereby he discerns our heart- !' How carnal will our services be if we consider him not as a pure spirit! In our oilers to, and transactions with men, we deal not with them as mere animals, but as rational creatures; and we debase their natures if we treat them other , And if we have not raised apprehensions of God's apiril nature in our treating with him, but allow him only such frames as we think tit enough for men, wo debase his spirituality to tho littleness of our own being. We must therefore possess our souls with this, we shall else render him no then ■ fleshly service. We do not much concern ourselves in

those thinga of which wo aro either utterly ignorant, or have but slight appn 1: of.

That is the first proposition; tho right exercise of worship is grounded upon the spiritual! d.

.'. 'I nil Bpilitual worship of God is manifest by the light of naturo i him. In reference to tli i~. ler,

1. The outward means or matter of that worship which would liable to Go I t known by the light of natur . hip, and for a spiritual worship by the ties of our souls, was natural, and

• Amyi . 1'. .crt. G, i;;.. . 1, ; . r_\ t Amirant :

part of the law of creation, though the determination of the particular acts whereby God would have this homage testified was of positive institution, and depended not upon the law of creation. Though Adam in innocence knew God was to be worshipped, yet by nature he did not know by what outward acts he was to pay this respect, or at what time he was more solemnly to be exercised in it than at another. This depended upon the directions God, as the sovereign governor and lawgiver, should prescribe. You therefore find the positive institutions of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the determination of the time of worship, Gen. ii. 3, 17. Had there been any such notion in Adam naturally, as strong as that other, that a worship was due to God, there would have been found some relics of these modes universally consented to by mankind, as well as of the other. But though all nations have by an universal consent concurred in the acknowledgment of the being of God, and his right to adoration, and the obligation of the creature to it, and that there ought to be some public rule and polity in matters of religion (for no nation hath been in the world without a worship, and without external acts and certain ceremonies to signify that worship), yet their modes and rites have been as various as their climates, unless in that common notion of sacrifices, not descending to them by nature, but tradition, from Adam ; and the various ways of worship have been more provoking than pleasing. Every nation suited the kind of worship to their particular ends and polities they designed to rule by. How God was to be worshipped is more difficult to be discerned by nature with its eyes out than with its eyes clear. The pillars upon which the worship of God stands cannot be discerned without revelation,* no more than blind Samson could tell where the pillars of the Philistines' theatre stood, without one to conduct him. What Adam could not see with his sound eyes, we cannot with our dim eyes; he must be told from heaven what worship was fit for the God of heaven. It is not by nature that we can have such a full prospect of God as may content and quiet us. This is the noble effect of divine revelation, he only knows himself, and can only make himself known to us. It could not be supposed that an infinite God should have no perfections but what "were visible in the works of his hands, and that these perfections should not be infinitely greater than as they were sensible in their present effects. This had been to apprehend God a limited being, meaner than he is. Now it is impossible to honour God as we ought, unless we know him as he is; and we could not know him as he is without divine revelation from himself; for none but God can acquaint us with his own nature. And therefore the nations void of this conduct heap up modes of worship from their own imaginations, unworthy of the majesty of God, and below the nature of man. A rational man would scarce have owned such for si^ns of honour, as the Scripture mentions in the services of Baal and Dagon, much less an infinitely wise and glorious God. And when God had signified his mind to his own people, how unwilling were they to rest satisfied with God's determination, but would be warping to their own inventions, and make gods, and ways of worship to themselves, Amos v. 26, as in the matter of the golden calf, as was lately spoken of.

2. Though the outward manner of worship acceptable to God could not be known without revelation, and thoso revelations might be various, yet the inward manner of worship with our spirits was manifest by nature. And not only manifest by nature to Adam in innocence, but after his fall, and the scales he had brought upon his understanding by that fall. When God gave him his positive institutions before the fall, or whatsoever additions God should

* King on Jonah, p. G3.

n*lo lmd In i I in that 11 d be appointed him ai

:.i.i to tc tifj bi acknowledge him by I no

com main! to him i aowledgments I itward n

pr. .in with tin- intention and prim i

ire would instruct bim inwithoul i .1 t] ibly

ha\ inl'l.ui. lliiuk th.it

pn !' til' iliilc.i) e of Hi. : |i an I

' him, vsnH in

without de?otii age <»f 1. <

M eoold doI bul di corn l j r n il< otioa opon I

Wtii ui.i.l.' : as well as I ; for it if a natma' principl

the i; :...;•'..• I : of him, tad through him,

aro nil thiii'' ,' a.-., that the whole when as dot I G

and that hii bodjy, the dreggy and do I , is oatm . do! fit to

God, without that nobler principle which h. bad

ition linked with it. Nothing in the whole law of nature, ai it ii informed of religion, waa clearer, next to the 1" G I, than th;.-, mm

irorahippiDg God with the mind and spirit. And sj the G.niii.

sunk M low into the mud of idolatry M to think the U W0f hi]

wen really thai . but the representaj of theu

10 they n. v. r -h Sk ri '1 this principle in thr notion of it, th.it (i.,,1 wi

oared with the beat they i id the best they had, As th.

(h nied thr h. ing of ■ God in the notion, though th< y did in the practice, so th. cted this principle in ootion, though t

a do, in the inward < ti.mofit. I [them that

. animus, mimi ami spirit, and the n

with the mind and spirit. That religion did not consist in ;

of thr body, but the work of the soul : wi ,<occh of one of them,*

■Is not bo much clothed with purple garments as a pure .;.' And of another, f 'Go<i n garde not the multitude of the sacrifi. . but the disposition of the sacrifice!-.' It is not fit we should deny God the .in and flower, and give him the slotten part and the stalks. And with whal and intention of mind they thought their worship WSJ to 1 ,

p. rform.il is evident by the priests' crying out often, hoc ays, mind this, let your spirits he intent upon it. This could not but result,

(1.) From the knowledge of ourselves. It is a natural principle, 'God hath made us, and not we ourselves,' Ps. c. 1, 2. Man knows hiin-. \i to

rational creature. As a creature, he was to serve his Creator; ai rational creature, with the best part of that rational nature he d. from

him. By the same act of reason that he knows himself to be a creature, he knows himself to have a Creator. That t: I .tor is more excellent than himself, and that an honour is due from him t i ; I ator for framing of bim ; and therefore this honour was to be offered to him by the most excel-rt which was framed by him. Man cannot consider himself as a thinking, understanding being, but ho must know that he must gire God the

honour of his thoughts, and worship him with t : .eulties whereby he

think.-, wills, and acta. !!• mu.-t know his faculties were given him to I and to act for the glory of that God wl him his soul and the facm:

of it ; and he could not in reason think they must be onlv active in his own

, and the service of the mature, and idle and unprofitable in the a vice of his Creator. With the same powers of our soul whereby wo con-

* y J, M . 18. f Iamblich.

X Amyi 110.

template God, we must also worship God. We cannot think of him but with our minds, nor love him but with our will; and we cannot worship him without the acts of thinking and loving, and therefore cannot worship him without the exercise of our inward faculties. How is it possible, then, for any man that knows his own nature, to think that extended hands, bended knees, and lifted up eyes, were sufficient acts of worship, without a quickened and active spirit!

(2.) From the knowledge of God. As there was a knowledge of God by nature, so the same nature did dictate to man that God was to be glorified as God. The apostle implies the inference in the charge he brings against them for neglecting it, Rom. i. 21. ' We should speak of God as he is,' said one ; * and the same reason would inform them that they were to act towards God as he is. The excellency of the object required a worship according to the dignity of his nature, which could not be answered but by the most serious inward affection as well as outward decency; and a want of this cannot but be judged to be unbecoming the majesty of the Creator of the world, and the excellency of religion. No nation, no person did ever assert that the vilest part of man was enough for the most excellent being, as God is; that a bodily service could be a sufficient acknowledgment of the greatness of God, or a sufficient return for the bounty of God.f Man could not but know that he was to act in religion conformably to the object of religion, and to the excellency of his own soul. The notion of a God was sufficient to fill the mind of man with admiration and reverence, and the first conclusion from it would be to honour God, and that he have all the affection placed on him that so infinite and spiritual a being did deserve. The progress then would be, that this excellent being was to be honoured with the motions of the understanding and will, with the purest and most spiritual powers in the nature of man, because he was a spiritual being, and had nothing of matter mingled with him. Such a brutish imagination to suppose that blood and fumes, beasts and incense, could please a Deity, without a spiritual frame, cannot be supposed to befall any but those that had lost their reason in the rubbish of sense. Mere rational nature could never conclude that so excellent a spirit would be put off with a mere animal service, and attendance of matter and body without spirit, when they themselves, of an inferior nature, would be loath to sit down contented with an outside service from those that belong to them; so that this instruction of our Saviour, that God is to be worshipped in spirit and truth, is conformable to the sentiments of nature, and drawn from the most undeniable principles of it. The excellency of God's nature, and the excellent constitution of human faculties, concur naturally to support this persuasion. This was as natural to be known by men, as the necessity of justice and temperance for the support of human societies and bodies. It is to be feared that if there be not among us such brutish apprehensions, there are such brutish dealings with God in our services against the light of nature, when we place all our worship of God in outward attendances and drooping countenances, with unbelieving frames and formal devotions; when prayer is muttered over in private slightly, as a parrot learns lessons by rote, not understanding what it speaks, or to what end it speaks it; not glorifying God in thought and spirit, with understanding and will.

(3.) Spiritual worship, thoreforo, was always required by God, and always

offered to him by one or other. Man had a perpetual obligation upon him

to such a worship, from tho naturo of God; and what is founded upon the

nature of God is unvariable. This and that particular modo of worship

* Bias. t Amyrald, ib.

may ' wai old I ■ '•'

as the expression is of the h II. h. i. I I, rj, hul fof

His spirituality fails not, th ; ii]» of him in Spirit DQ

inn throe [h all ways en '

re any Borvice but tint which is spiritual can be b mud. '1

■ nt' ii.it111.■ is the Ii -lit G I ; th. [] dit «-t' !. what was dictated bj tli.it was always, sad will sJ IbyO

Ths worshippin God 1>< ing perpetually das from the or-

ship I I is as perpetually Jim right, though tl I

expri -ins honour were different, one waj in i hip

was then due, since ssolemn time for that worship was sppo under the law v another under the gospel. The :>■ God in

! t'.ill down before his throne; yet though they differ ii tlii*v agree in tins nece^ary in 'ir ii. Mit, all rites, though of a diffei must 1"' offered to him d it animated with th

•il. AI-. I'a sacrifice had not been so excellent in G . without those gracious habits and afi working in his soul,

ii •. \i. i. Faith works by lore; his heart was on fire as well as his

[flee. Cain reel 1 upon his present, perhaps thought he had obii I .. ll.' depended upon the outward ceremony, but sough! not for tho inward purity. It. was an offering brought to the l< ffd, CK n. iv. had

right obj( ot, hut not tho right manner : ver. 7, ' If thou d 11, shall

thou not be accepted '.'' And in the oommand sJ to Abrah

1 Walk before me, and be thou perfect, 1 was the direction in all our religions and walkings with God. A sincere act of the mind and will, looking >nd all symbols, extending the soul to s pitch for abore tho body, and seeing the day of Christ through the veil of tho ceremonies, •

dred by God. And though Moses, by God'a order, had instituted s

multitude of carnal ordin inoes, sacrifices, washings, ohlations of sensible

things, and recommended to the people the diligent observation of those

tutes by the allurements of promises and denouncing of threatening 0 , as

it' tin re w.re nothing else to be regarded, and the true workings of grace

were to be buried under s heap of ceremonies, yet sometimes he doth point

them to the inward worship, and, by the command of God, requires of them

the ' circumcision of the heart,' Deut. x. 16, the 'turning to God with all

their heart and all their soul,' Deut. xxx. 10, whereby they might recollect

that it was the engagement of the heart and the worship of the spirit that

most I lo to God, and that he took not any pleasure in their

rvae.ee of ceremonies, without true piety within, and the true purity of

tin ir thong]

(4.) It is therefore as much every man's duty to worship God in spirit, as-it is their duty to worship him. Worship is so due to him I G I, as that he thai ty. And spiritual worship is so due, that

he that pirituality. It i- a .hit of justice we owe to

I worship him, and it is as much a debt of .! I worship him

to his nature. Worship is nothing else hut a rendering to God honour th . to him, and tl. the right p tstnre I : irits

in it is as i. r more due than the material worship in the modes of his

own pi . . i both upon his nature and upon his com-

i y upon : ; that is perpetually due, f the

ml whi p mnS I up, and t":

diverted another way; such I the mind thh

God, has I with affectii a mocking God with a feather. A i.:;ional

VOL. I. T

nature must worship God with that wherein the glory of God doth most sparkle in him. God is most visible in the frame of the soul; it is there his image glitters. He hath given us a jewel as well as a case, and the jewel as well as the case we must return to him. The spirit is God's gift, and must return to him, Eccles. xii. 7. It must return to him in every service morally, as well as it must return to him at last physically. It is not fit we should serve our Maker only with that which is the brute in us, and withhold from him that which doth constitute us reasonable creatures. We must give him our bodies, but ■ a living sacrifice,' Eom. xii. 1. If the spirit be absent from God when the body is before him, we present a dead sacrifice. It is morally dead in the duty, though it be naturally alive in the posture and action. It is not an indifferent thing whether we shall worship God or no, nor is it an indifferent thing whether we shall worship him with our spirits or no. As the excellency of man's knowledge consists in knowing things as they are in truth, so the excellency of the will in willing things as they are in goodness. As it is the excellency of man to know God as God, so it is no less his excellency, as well as his duty, to honour God as God. As the obligation we have to the power of God for our being binds us to a worship of him, so the obligation we have to his bounty, for fashioning us according to his own image, binds us to an exercise of that part wherein his image doth consist. God hath 'made all things for himself,' Prov. xvi. 4 ; that is, for the evidence of his own goodness and wisdom. We are therefore to render him a glory according to the excellency of his nature, discovered in the frame of our own. It is as much our sin not to glorify God as God, as not to attempt the glorifying of him at all. It is our sin not to worship God as God, as well as to omit the testifying any respect at all to him. As the divine nature is the object of worship, so the divine perfections are to be honoured in worship. We do not honour God, if we honour him not as he is; we honour him not as a spirit, if we think him not worthy of the ardours and ravishing admirations of our spirits. If we think the devotions of the body are sufficient for him, we contract him into the condition of our own being, and not only deny him to be a spiritual nature, but dash out all those perfections which he could not be possessed of were he not a spirit.

5. The ceremonial law was abolished to promote the spirituality of divine worship. That service was gross, carnal, calculated for an infant and sensitive church. It consisted in rudiments, the circumcision of the flesh, the blood and smoke of sacrifices, the streams of incense, observation of days, distinction of meats, corporal purifications ; every leaf of the law is clogged with some rite to be particularly observed by them. The spirituality of worship lay veiled under a thick cloud, that the people could not behold the glory of the gospel, which lay covered under those shadows: 2 Cor. iii. 13, * They could not stedfastly look to the end of that which was abolished !' They understood not the glory and spiritual intent of the law, and therefore came short of that spiritual frame in the worship of God, which was their duty; and therefore, in opposition to this administration, the worship of God under the gospel is called by our Saviour in the text, a worship in spirit; more spiritual for the matter, more spiritual for the motives, and more spiritual for the manner and frames of worship.

(1.) This legal service is called flesh in Scripture, in opposition to tho gospel, which is called spirit. The ordinances of the law, though of divine institution, aro dignified by tho apostle with no better a title than carnal ordinances, Heb. ix. 10, and a carnal command, Heb. vii. 16; but the gospel is called tho ministration of tho spirit, as being attended with a special

and spirit 11:11 efficacy on the minds of men, 8 iiL 8. An] the

• • l of j of Um gospel,

tamed about to drink of the thiol thi law, tl

tln-m that i'i iM in the pii 'in ide perfect in the

,' ( i;i!. iii. fl ; tin v \\ ml II • '' :<• -. - of fiit.li for-

ks. The moral la* tare spirita d, l: «n.

vii. 11, in n I if the abn le of il in of juMtil the oat*

i of it, if called fle ih. Much m >r<

on, which was never intend) 1 I i ran parallel with the moral, nor had miv fonndation in nature, as the other bad.

That wh ' I in sen which only

tonohed the fleefa ; it il oah\ '1 ' the I nd the ' oldxu i of the letfc r,'

R :i. vii. <*>; :i^ letters, which are but empty tonndi in then . bnt j*uf

?1.1 formed into wor aify something to t' i of the

r. An old letter, :i thing of no efficacy upon the spirit, bnt i i law written npon paper. The I hath an efficacious spirit attending it,

ngly working npon the mind and will, and monldin \ the son] int i ■ spiritual frame for God j according to the doctrine of U ■ 1, the one

is old and d< the other is now, and increa eth daily.

And as the law itself is called flesh, so the in

it are called ■ Israel after the flesh, 1 1 Cor. x. 18; and the evangelical worshipper is called s *s Jew after the spirit," Rom. ii. 29. They were Is after the flesh as born of Jacob, nol I 1 after the spirit as born of God; and therefor.' the apostle calls them I r 1 and nol Ears I, Rom. ix. 0 ; l rnal birth, not [srael after a spiritual ; [srael in tho circum-

h, not [srael by a regeneration of the heart. \) The legal ei remonies were not a fit means to bring the heart into a itual frame. They h id B spiritual intent; the rock and manna prefigured the salvation and spiritual nourishment by the Redeemer, 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. The sacrifices were to point them to the justice of God in the punishment in, and the merev of God in substituting them in their steads, as types of th ■ B leemer and the ransom by his blood. The circumcision of the h was to instruct them in the circumcision of the heart. They were llcsh in regard of their matter, weakness, and cloudiness ; spiritual in regard of their intent and signification ; they did instruct, but not efficaciously work spiritual aff ctions in the soul of the worshipper. They were ' weak an I v elements,' Gal. iv. 9, had neither wealth to enrich nor strei:

to nourish the soul. They could not perfect tho comers to them, or put them into a frame agreeable to the nature of God, Heb. x. 1, ix. 9, nor 1 purge the conscience from those dead ' and dull dispositions which were by nature in them, ver. 11; being carnal, they could not have an efficacy to purify the conscience of the offerer, and work spiritual effects. Had U rithout the exhibition of Christ, they could never have wrov. any change in us, or purchased any favour for us.* At the best tin

id came un<•xpressibly short of the efficacy of that person and stat T I a man is too weak to |

i what the man hi SB do, it wants the life, spirit, and

activity of the "• whole pomp and scene was suit' 1 more to

tho se: than the intellectual r. . like pietur pleased the

fancy of chill: than improved their reason. The J

i a state of chilli. v. 2, an 1 that administration a

If. 24. The law was a r, fitted for their weak and child

acity, and could no more spiritualise the heart than the teachings in a

* Burgos, VinJ p. 25G.

primer school can enable the mind, and make it fit for affairs of state ; and, because they could not better the spirit, they were instituted only for a time, as elements delivered to an infant age, which naturally lives a life of sense rather than a life of reason. It was also a servile state, which doth rather debase than elevate tbe mind, rather carnalise than spiritualise the heart; besides, it is a sense of mercy that both melts and elevates the heart into a spiritual frame : Ps. cxxx. 4, • There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared.' And they had in that state but some glimmerings of mercy in the daily bloody intimations of justice. There was no sacrifice for some sins, but a cutting off without the least hints of pardon ; and in the yearly remembrance of sin there was as much to shiver them with fear as to possess them with hopes, and such a state which always held them under the conscience of sin could not produce a free spirit, which was necessary for a worship of God according to his nature.

(3.) In their use they rather hindered than furthered a spiritual worship. In their own nature they did not tend to the obstructing a spiritual worship, for then they had been contrary to the nature of religion and the end of God who appointed them. Nor did God cover the evangelical doctrine under the clouds of the legal administration, to hinder the people of Israel from perceiving it, but because they were not yet capable to bear the splendour of it had it been clearly set before them. The shining of the face of Moses was too dazzling for their weak eyes, and therefore there was a necessity of a veil, not for the things themselves, but the weakness of their eyes, 2 Cor. iii. 13, 14. The carnal affections of that people sunk down into the things themselves, stuck in the outward pomp, and pierced not through the veil to the spiritual intent of them; and by the use of them, without rational conceptions, they besotted their minds, and became senseless of those spiritual motions required of them. Hence came all their expectations of a carnal Messiah ; the veil of ceremonies was so thick, and the film upon their eyes so condensed, that they could not look through the veil to the Spirit of Christ. They beheld not the heavenly Canaan for the beautj r of the earthly, nor minded the regeneration of the spirit while they rested upon the purifications of the flesh. The prevalency of sense and sensitive affections diverted their minds from inquiring into the intent of them. Sense and matter are often clogs to the mind, and sensible objects are the same often to spiritual motions. Our souls are never more raised than when they are abstracted from the entanglements of them. A pompous worship, made up of many sensible objects, weakens the spirituality of religion. Those that are most zealous for outward are usually most cold and indifferent in inward observances, and those that overdo in carnal modes usually underdo in spiritual affections.

This was the Jewish state.* The nature of the ceremonies being pompous and earthly, by their show and beauty meeting with their weakness and childish affections, filled their eyes with an outward lustre, allured their minds, and detained them from seeking things higher and more spiritual. The kernel of those rites lay concealed in a thick shell, the spiritual glory was little seen, and the spiritual sweetness little tasted. Unless the Scripture be diligently searchod, it seems to transfer the worship of God from true faith and the spiritual motions of the heart, and stake it down to outward observances and the oput operatum ; besides, the voice of the law did only declare sacrifices, and invited tho worshipper to them with a promise of the atonement of sin, turning away the wrath of God. It never plainly acquainted them that thoso things were types and shadows of something future, that * Illyric. <I»! vclam. Mosis, p. 221, &c.

they uviv only outward purifici D

at the time 01 appointing them that those sacrifice! Boold not abolish nog

ami n eoneile them to (toil. I their death

an i ion iii thai I tlo to I rewi khan can 1 i I in

the ti'. o 1 i ■ ■ eamal. 11 f»■, arid

tli« r< trip; he designs th< and

would li its i religion o( th(> same nature* M i | mi i mind to b

th.'ir reason above the thii illy unwilling to raise

ih.'in up to thi i which are allied to tl

therefore tin more Rpiritaal anv ordinance i-, the mon averse ih the beerl man to it. Tin ' simplicity of the go> pel,' bich OUT Diodl Hi

■ 1 by things th.it plea uiv the . I

onri i i lie liqnonshnc i of h. r pelat I I I

this principle hath iprnng :ill the idolatry in the world. The •'• they bad i <i l who had delivered them, bat they would have a sensible them, ! \ii. 1 ; and the papacy at thii day is a

witness of the truth of this natural corruption.

(4.) Upon tl oonntSi then , G I lined himself f

pleased with that kind of worship. Be was not displeased with them, ss they were h i own institution, and ordained for the r< presenting (though in so obsenre manner) tl : >s thingi of the gosp< I; nor wsj he offende I with

those peopl f them, for since he bad command* , it was

then- duty to perform them, and their sin to oegled them ; hut he was d pleased with them as they were | I by them, with souls dly

d in the practices, SJ the ceremonies were lly earnal in tl

stance. It wai not their disohedienoe to oh them; but it wt

disobedience, and ■ contempt of the end of the institution, to rest upon them, to bi warm in them and eold in morals. They fed upon the- bone, and neglected the marrow ; pleased themselves with the shell, and sought not

for the kernel. They joined not with them the internal worship of God, fear of him, with faith in the promised seed, which lay veiled un 1. r those OOVOf-

: Sob. \i. 6, * I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of re than burnt-offerings.' And therefore he seems sometime-of his own institutions, and calls them not his own, but thrir sacrifices, their h sets, I-1. i. 11,Tl. They were aii by appointment, th in by abuse. The institution was from his goodness and con*; ion, therefore his; the cor-

ruption of them was from the vice of their nature, therefore th . He often blamed them for tin lir carnality in them, shewed bis dislike of placing all their religion in them, gives the sacrificers, upon that account, no better a title than that of the ' princes of Sodom and Gomorrah,' Isa. i. 10 ; and compares the sacrifices themselves to the ' cutting off a dog's neck,' ' swine's blood,' and th- ' murder of a man,' Isa. lxvi. B. And indeed God never tabled them, or expressed any delight in them. II- fleBPISOd the feasts of the Wicked, ¥. 21, and had no esteem for the material offerings of the

y : I 1 -. 1. 18, ' Will 1 eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats ? ' which i s to his saints ami people, 1. fan he comes to reprove tho

wicked, which he I r. 16, ' l'.ut to the wicked, God said,' &c. So

.!;. 1. . that 1 | to disown them to be any part of

his command, when he brought his people out of the land of Egypt: Jer« vii. 22, ' 1 not to your fathers, nur commanded them concerning

burnt-offer:: i ; i. r p g ird them, in c

parison of that inward frame which he had required by the moral law ; that

Dg giten before the law of ceremonies, obliged them, in the first plao an observance of those precepts. They seemed to be below the nature of

God, and could not of themselves please hirn. None could in reason persuade themselves that the death of a beast was a proportionable offering for the sin of a man, or ever was intended for the expiation of transgression. In the same rank are all our bodily services under the gospel. A loud voice without spirit, bended bulrushes without inward affections, are no more delightful to God than the sacrifices of animals. It is but a change of one brute for another of a higher species ; a mere brute, for that part of man which hath an agreement with brutes. Such a service is a mere animal service, and not spiritual.

(5.)' And therefore God never intended that sort of worship to be durable, and had often mentioned the change of it for one more spiritual. It was not good or evil in itself; whatsoever goodness it had was solely derived to it by institution, and therefore it was mutable. It had no conformity with the spiritual nature of God, who was to be worshipped, nor with the rational nature of man, who was to worship. And therefore he often speaks of taking away the new moons, and feasts, and sacrifices, and all the ceremonial worship, as things he took no pleasure in, to have a worship more suited to his excellent nature. But he never speaks of removing the gospel administration, and the worship prescribed there, as being more agreeable to the nature and perfections of God, and displaying them more illustriously to the world.

The apostle tells us it was to be disannulled because of its weakness, Heb. vii. 18. A determinate time was fixed for its duration, till the accomplishment of the truth figured under that pedagogy, Gal. iv. 2. Some of the modes of that worship being only typical, must naturally expire and be insignificant in their use, upon the finishing of that by the Eedeemer, which they did prefigure ; and other parts of it, though God suffered them so long because of the weakness of the worshipper, yet because it became not God to be always worshipped in that manner, he would reject them, and introduce another more spiritual and elevated. ' Incense and a pure offering' should be offered everywhere unto his name, Mai. i. 11.

He often told them he would make a new covenant by the Messiah, and the old should be rejected ;* that the ' former things should not be remembered, and the things of old no more considered,' when he should do ' a new thing in the earth,' Isa. xliii. 18, 19. Even the ark of the covenant, the symbol of his presence and the glory of the Lord in that nation, should not any more be remembered and visited, Jer. iii. 16 ; that the temple and sacrifices should be rejected, and others established ; that the order of the Aaronical priesthood should be abolished, and that of Melchisedec set up in the stead of it in the person of the Messiah, to endure for ever, Ps. ex.; that Jerusalem should be changed, a new heaven and earth created, a worship more conformable to heaven, more advantageous to earth. God had proceeded in the removal of some part of it, before the time of taking down the whole furniture of this house. The pot of manna was lost, Urim and Thummim ceased, the glory of the temple was diminished, and the ignorant people wept at the sight of tho one, without raising their faith and hope in the consideration of tho other, which was promised to be filled with a spiritual glory. And as soon as ever the gospel was spread in the world, God thundered out his judgments upon that place in which he had fixed all those legal observances ; so that tho Jews, in the letter and flesh, could never practise tho main part of their worship, sinco they were expelled from that place whero it was only to be celebrated. It is one thousand six hundred years sinco they have been deprived of their altar, which was the foundation of all

* Pascal. Pen., 142.

tin- i red in 1 11 ' without i ...

I pi. .:i flpho i phim,' Uo8. iii. i.

God fully pot iO I command bfl gave to thfl a]

i in tliriu to u i, iii the i li«'.ir bil S

Ma irbich i

, in whom 1 am well pldtltd : li« Ml DJ

1 n to til.it whol .a thfl rail of thfl t<• r111»I«•.

. which wits carnal, B f thu

on of inn!), \\ial..ii ■ .1, is iiuil. I, ami a ipirituaJ Wi

tfl world, tliat wfl mi in a nxoi

ami with more spiritual (ran

/ 8. i ..■ irrio an I woi hip thfl if ipiril I thfl

aanofl of it. mote spiritual. Bpiritnaiil

■ arnahty WM of thfl IftH | thfl gOSpfll Lfl tfa ■ it. Wfl

[rom thfl emploj mentfl of iflnafl, and brought m an i to a b arenly Jewi had p row I upon them ; wa fa

l rviefl preaeribed to ai j the praiaea of God, communion with G I in spirit, through bis Son Jesus Christ, and itronger foundations for apiritnal afl It i a lei onablfl sendee, Bom. xii. 1. It ia suited to a

ire, thoogh it finds no d u ndahip from the corruption of reason. It i

sen, asonai.lt: faculti. I of thfl BOUl, an i a iI iACflth

them while it employe them. Thfl word muonabU may be I I I

atmo*, 1 as well as tble service ; an evangelical service, in oppoeition

to a law service. All evangelical servico is reasonable, and all truly . [elicaL of the WOrahip is spiritual. It consists in love of God, faith in < I > liis goodness, meditation on him, and communion with

him. It la] amonial, apiritaaliaeth the moral. Ihecommanda

that our duty to God, as well as those that concerned our duty to

our neighbour, wen n duced by Christ to the spiritual intention.

The HOtivet are Bpiritual. It is a state of more grace, Bfl well as of more

truth, .John i. 17, Bupported by ipiritual promises, beaming out in spiritual

privileges. 11 >mes down in it to earth, to spiritualise earth for

real.

The mamur of worship is more spiritual. Higher flights of the soul,

nger ardours of atl'ections, sincerer aims at his glory ; mists are removed

from our minds, clogs from the soul; more of love than fear ; faith in Christ

kin:. tnetions, and works by them.

The to spiritual worship are greater. The Spirit doth not

drop, but is plentifully poured out. It doth not light sometimes upon, but

dwells in, the heart Christ suited the gospel to a spiritual heart, and the

. it ehangeth a carnal heart to make it lit for a spiritual gospel. He blows

rdeii, and causes thfl spieefl to flow forth ; and often makes the

hip like the - of Amminadab in a quick and nimble motion.

bleaied L rd . iotir by his death discovered to us the nature of

1, and after his n sent 1 l it to fit us for the worship of God,

ith him.

ring breath is more delightful to God than mil; up of the richest pearls, and smoking with the c

.use it is spiritual ; and a mite of spirit is of D rth

than tfa :.e holy angel is more excellent than a

whole world of mere bodies.

* V. Hammond, in loc.

Prop. 7. Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to be rejected upon the account that God requires a spiritual worship. Though we must perform the weightier duties of the law, yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter precepts ; since both the magnolia and minutula legis, the greater and the lesser duties of the law, have the stamp of divine authority upon them.

As God, under the ceremonial law, did not command the worship of the body, and the observation of outward rites, without the engagement of the spirit, so neither doth he command that of the spirit without the peculiar attendance of the body.

The Schwelkfendians denied bodily worship; and the indecent postures of many in public attendance intimate no great care either of composing their bodies or spirits. A morally discomposed body intimates a tainted heart.

Our bodies as well as our spirits are to be presented to God, Rom. xii. 1. Our bodies in lieu of the sacrifices of beasts, as in the Judaical institutions : body for the whole man; a living sacrifice, not to be slain, as the beasts were, but living a new life, in a holy posture, with crucified affections. This is the inference the apostle makes of the privileges of justification, adoption, co-heirship with Christ, which he had before discoursed of; privileges conferred upon the person, and: not upon a part of man.

1. Bodily worship is due to God. He hath a right to an adoration by our bodies as they are his by creation; his right is not diminished but increased by the blessing of redemption : 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' For you are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your bodies and your spirits, which are God's.' The body as well as the spirit is redeemed, since our Saviour suffered crucifixion in his body, as well as agonies in his soul. Body is not taken here for the whole man, as it may be in Rom. xii.; but for the material part of our nature, it being distinguished from the spirit. If we are to render to God an obedience with our bodies, we are to render him such acts of worship with our bodies as they are capable of. As God is ' the Father of spirits,' so he is ' the God of all flesh ;' therefore the flesh he hath framed of the earth, as well as the noble portion he hath breathed into us, cannot be denied him without a palpable injustice. The service of the body we must not deny to God, unless we will deny him to be the author of it, and the exercise of his providential care about it. The mercies of God are renewed every day upon our bodies as well as our souls, and therefore they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty every day. ■ Both are from God, both should be for God. Man consists of body and soul; the service of man is the service of both. The body is to be sanctified as well as the soul, and therefore to be offered to God as well as the soul. Both are to be glorified, both are to glorify. As our Saviour's divinity was manifested in his body, so should our spirituality in ours. To give God the service of the body, and not of the soul, is hypocrisy; to give God the service of the spirit, and not of the body, is sacrilege ; to give him neither, atheism.'* If the only part of man that is visible were exempted from the service of God, thero could be no visible testimonies of piety given upon any occasion : since not a moiety of man, but the whole, is God's creature, he ought to pay a homage with the whole, and not only with a moiety of himself.

2. Worship in societies is due to God, but this cannot be without some bodily expressions. The law of nature doth as much direct men to combine together in public societies for tho acknowledgment of God, as in civil communities for self-preservation and ordor ; and the notice of a society for religion is moro ancient than tho mention of civil associations for politic

* Sherman's Groek in tho Temple, p. 61, G2.

Hoi upon I 1

i . ,,, the time of B m bnt Adam u I

■ kind in thor in com]

11 | || -hi thai ii ' I

-1 l; hour by

i ,1ml. i, !: ,: 1 hot I

rati : i ('in-. • i lt i

pping God in (

ill saints in ■ i |

■hip, G .it Hi.- . d l of the da] .' at

public worship among the 1 toted

r, whence calli '1 ' t ; God, P • Info H - ' 3*b-

l • tuti >1 to acknowli Ig God a common I P iblic

ap the niemoriali of God in ■ world Pjone to i

■ .. i in ■ heart prone to forgi tfulu m. Ti ■'' °° m *

pany, not singly, at the birth of Christ, Lukeii. 18, and praii only with s simple elevation of their spiritual natore, bnt andibl rm«

in the air. All'. rt ions atv inoiv liv.lv. spiritl mOW raised in

public than private; God will credit his own ordinance. I by layii sds in one place; • rotion inflai

union of manyhearts, and by a join! | : nor can the approach of the

day of judgment, or particular judgments upon ' l nation. writ of

from inch i II. d.. x. 26, ' Not forsaking the i | our-

seh • ther, hut so much the m Urn toy approach]

^Y! lay of judgment, <>r the day of I

traction and the Christian | sootion, I | itleusesil asanai

:i them to the ol srrvan.v. not to I QCOUTagC them to a r

Since, therefore, natural light informs us, and divine institution commands publicly to acknowledge curs. Ives the servants of God, it implies the the body. Booh scknowledgmenti cannot bo without visible t.

monies, and outward i I of devotion, as well as inward affi

Ibis promotes G( l'i 1 oour, checks others' profaneness, allures men to the same expressions of duty. And though there may be hypocrisy, and an outward garb without an'inward frame, yet better ■ moiety of worship

than n< US at all; I,:; r acknowledge God's right in one than disown it in both.

J< lUS Christ, the most spiritual worshipper, WOTsl with his

1 ly. Be prayed orally, and kneeled, ' Father, if it be thy will, 1 A •.. Luke

Xxii, 11. L2. He I with his mouth, 'Father, I thank thee,' M '.

si. 26. Ss i::':< 1 up hi , as well as elevated his spirit, when he j n I

for mercy received, or 1 I for the blessings bis disciples

Want i. J on D. 11 ; xvii. 1. The it Of the spirit must have vent

attl The holy men of God have empl

bf OS of worship ; Abraham in Calling face, Paul

in kneelii -. [ their np their hands. '1

.! i-rid, yet I worahip God without some dei

ression .t is in one place leaning upon bia staff, B

xi. 21 ; in \ hims.lf upon hi land. ( ien. xlvii. :U. I

i n the ! rd, which without vowels i

be Matte*, i staff; fa

monyofad by ■ r. m swnt ■paters of the body. Indeed, in and

* Stillingflect's Ircnicum. cap. i. sect. 1. p.

separated souls, a worship is performed purely by the spirit; but whiles the soul is in conjunction with the body, it can hardly perform a serious act of worship without some tincture upon the outward man, and reverential composure of the body. Fire cannot be in the clothes, but it will be felt by the members ; nor flames be pent up in the soul without bursting out in the body. The heart can no more restrain itself from breaking out, than Joseph could inclose his affections, without expressing them in tears to his brethren, Gen. xlv. 1, 2. ' We believe, and therefore speak,' 2 Cor. iv. 13.

To conclude ; God hath appointed some parts of worship which cannot be performed without the body, as sacraments ; we have need of them because we are not wholly spiritual and incorporeal creatures.

The religion which, consists^ in externals only, is not for an intellectual nature. A worship purely intellectual is too sublime for a nature allied to sense and depending much upon it. The Christian mode of worship is proportioned to both ; it makes the sense to assist the mind, and elevates the spirit above the sense. Bodily worship helps the spiritual. The members of the body reflect back upon the heart, the voice bars distractions, the tongue sets the heart on fire in good as well as in evil. It is as much against the light of nature to serve God without external significations, as to serve him only with them without the intention of the mind. As the invisible God declares himself to men by visible works and signs, so should we declare our invisible frames by visible expressions. God hath given us a soul and body in conjunction, and we are to serve him in the same manner he hath framed us.

II. The second thing I am to shew is, what spiritual worship is. In general, the whole spirit is to be employed. The name of God is not sanctified but by the engagement of our souls.

Worship is an act of the understanding, apptying itself to the knowledge of the excellency of God, and actual thoughts of his majesty, recognising him as the supreme Lord and governor of the world, which is natural knowledge ; beholding the glory of his attributes in the Redeemer, which is evangelical knowledge; this is the sole act of the spirit of man. The same reason is for all our worship as for our thanksgiving. This must be done with understanding : Ps. xlvii. 7, ' Sing ye praise with understanding,' with a knowledge and sense of his greatness, goodness, and wisdom. It is also an act of the will, whereby the soul adores and reverenceth his majesty, is ravished with his amiableness, embraccth his goodness, enters itself into an intimate communion with this most lovely object, and pitcheth all his affections upon him.

We must worship God understanding^ ; it is not else a reasonable service. The nature of God and the law of God abhor a blind offering ; we must worship him heartily, else we offer him a dead sacrifice. A reasonable service is that wherein the mind doth truly act something with God. All spiritual acts must be acts of reason, otherwise they are not human acts, because they want that principle which is constitutive of man, and doth difference him from other creatures. Acts done only by sense are the acts of a brute ; acts done by reason are tho acts of a man ; that which is only an act of sense cannot be an act of religion. The sense without the conduct of reason is not the subject of religious acts, for then beasts were capable of religion as well as men. There cannot be religion where there is not reason ; and there cannot be the exercise of religion, where there is not an exercise of tho rational faculties. Nothing can bo a Christian act, that is not a human act. Besides, all worship must be for some end ; the worship of God must be for

13 the i ! (aculii

is I

i'.n tieularly,

I. Spirituc .. pi

Lai,

i : tho

.1 it can | . a woi ■ " I" 1.

living in pan. I • Il l'« but AxUlE

is of bifl i

|>iiituul lilt: mi: ' I

: ituaJ worship. As do work oan I •

till I Eph. n. LO, ' ('In • ■ I-

oan I. ) 11 formed without life in tl

.'. act without Clin t m the SOUl. OUT I

ritual act, afl tie DDiOD of OW I Oft] with

■ s.s;iry to natural action. Nothing can e.\c< « d the lil

then it should i fin acting, and do that which it bain no p

do. A !>( .ist cannot act like a man, without partaking of tie

i man ; nor i man act like an angel, without partaking of ti ire. H ' ■• oan w« perform spiritual acts without a spiritual Wha r worabip pi from the corrupted oatore, cannot

spiritual worship, i it springs not from a spiritual habit If

the are evil cannot ipeak good things, those thai i snot

. piritoal service. Poison is the fruit of a viper's nature: ltat.xii.84,

1 »I can you, being evil, Bp for

the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.' As the root is,

IS tl .If the soul be habitually carnal, the worship cannot be actually

ritual. DS en intention of spirit, but there is no spiritual

} a root of thai intention. A heart may he seii.-,ihly united with

a duty, when it is not Spiritually united with Christ in it. Carnal mot'

\ the mind in an act of worship, as the sense of some 5 affliction may enlarge a man's mind in prayer. Whatsoever is Is to the nature of God, must have a stamp of Christ upon it ; a in performance, as well as of his m< ditation* in the acc« istle lived not, but ' Christ lived in him,' Gal. ii. 2U ; tho soul worships not, but Christ in him. Not that Christ ] I of

tables ns spiritually to worship, after he enables us spiritually to livi . A- (iod counts not any soul living but in Christ, so be counts not piritual worshipper but in Christ. The goodness and fat : tho

frur from the fatness of the olive wherein we are engrafted. W

I find healing in Christ's wings, before God can find spirituality in our Ail worship issuing from a dead nature, i.-; but a dead service. A i-not be performed without being knit to a living root. 'J. (Spiritual worship is done by the influence and with the assistance of d. A heart may be spiritual, when a particular act of wor-shij .ritual. The Spirit may dwell in the heart, when he D

co on the act I ' bip is then spiritual, when I

that ki: , as that lire upon the a.

wherewith the sacrifices were co: Ciod • in no

sen. i dressed H] .tor, and hath tho

air of his own Spirit in it: th. I natural acts without a sopen

assistance . Without Sn actual i we cannot act from spiritual

motives, nor for spiritual ends, nor in a spiritual manner. Wl c.mnot

* Qu. ' mediation"?—En.

mortify a lust without the Spirit, Rom. viii. 13, nor quicken a service without the Spirit. Whatsoever corruption is killed, is slain by his power; whatsoever duty is spiritualised, is refined by his breath. He ' quickens our dead bodies' in our resurrection, ver. 11 ; he renews our dead souls in our regeneration; he quickens our carnal services in our adorations ; the choicest acts of worship are but infirmities, without his auxiliary help, ver. 26. We are logs, unable to move ourselves, till he raise our faculties to a pitch agreeable to God, puts his hand to the duty, and lifts that up, and us with it. Never any great act was performed by the apostles to God, or for God, but they are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Christ could not have been conceived immaculate as ' that holy thing,' without the Spirit's overshadowing the virgin ; nor any spiritual act conceived in our heart, without the Spirit's moving upon us, to bring forth a living religion from us. The acts of worship are said to be in the Spirit, ' supplication in the Spirit,' Eph. vi. 18 ; not only with the strength and affection of our own spirits, but with the mighty operation of the Holy Ghost, if Jude may be the interpreter, ver. 20, —the Holy Ghost exciting us, impelling us, and firing our souls by his divine flame, raising up the affections, and making the soul cry, with a holy importunity, 'Abba, Father.' To render our worship spiritual, we should, before every engagement in it, implore the actual presence of the Spirit, without which we are not able to send forth one spiritual breath or groan, but be wind-bound, like a ship without a gale, and our worship be no better than carnal. How doth the spouse solicit the Spirit with an ' Awake, 0 north wind; and come, thou south wind,' &c, Cant. iv. 16. 3. Spiritual worship is done with sincerity. When the heart stands right to God, and the soul performs what it pretends to perform ; when we serve God with our spirits, as the apostle, Bom. i. 9, ' God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son;' this is not meant of the Holy Ghost, for the apostle would never have called the Spirit of God his own spirit; but with my sjririt, that is, a sincere frame of heart. A carnal worship, whether under the law or gospel, is when we are busied about external rites, without an inward compliance of soul. God demands the heart: Prov. xxiii. 26, ■ My son, give me thy heart;' not give me thy tongue, or thy lips, or thy hands ; these may be given without the heart, but the heart can never be bestowed without these as its attendants. A heap of services can be no more welcome to God, without our spirits, than all Jacob's sons could be to Joseph without the Benjamin he desired to see. God is not taken with the cabinet, but the jewel; he first respected Abel's faith and sincerity, and then his sacrifice; he disrespected Cain's infidelity and hypocrisy, and then his offering. * For this cause he rejected the offerings of the Jews, the prayers of the Pharisees, and the alms of Ananias and Sapphira, because their hearts and their duties were at a distance from one another. In all spiritual sacrifices our spirits are God's portion. Under the law the reins were to be consumed by the fire on the altar, because the secret intentions of the heart were signified by them: Ps. vii. 9, " The Lord trieth the heart and the reins." It was an ill omen among the heathen if a victim wanted a heart. The widow's mites, with her heart in them, were more esteemed than tho richer offerings without it.'* Not the quantity of service, but the will in it, is of account with this infinite Spirit. All that was to bo brought for the framing of the tabernacle was to be offered ' willingly with the heart,' Exod. xxv. 7. The more of will, the more of spirituality and acceptablcness to God : Ps. cxix. 108, ' Accept the free-will-offering of my lips.' Sincority is tho salt which seasons every sacrifice. Tho heart is * Moulin. Sermons, Decad. 4, Ser. 4, p. 80.

' like 1" lh( heart in • ,,f

(ill \it:il actions, iili.l | | .pit ;! ;ial | QUI : fall spiritual I

II' r can wo im n God ;i ,,y

more than \s< can d< 1 ;ht io M with l carcass I

bout the hi irt it ii do ■• icticg i

.

l ' OD Of the WOl I Htage pl \\

believe with bi . . i only with 1 I

i rodiont in worship, md it ii ' nhiIi the I

i .1 10, We I • 11nly laid to woi

1 on, but we cannot be ei hip him if sincerity, A

l i tombi with eyes and hands lifted up, , • t ; it wanta only a i and p

san a mockery, it. re]

it i But to worahip without our ipu

with a picture, an echo, •■ . ml nothing ,.♦, i i

1 , a • eompaeaing him about with lies/ II ea u, L2. Withou tlir : , and the greatest teal, dissembling with him, ,

the ipiril i bich can o< vex naturally die ; to pn n nt him

only the body, u to present him thai which is «\< ry day crumbling to d end will al Leal lie rotting in the grave. To offer him ■ few t .'.%■ torn,

in for a sacrifice, i thing unworthy the m i

I | hands, with a irthly soul, are pitiful things for

an i I and glorious Spirit; nay, it is io tar from I tual,

iasphemy; to pretend to be ■ Jew outwardly, wit inwardly, is in the judgment of Christ t b< me, B v. . . :<.

much reason to those that pretend ■

hip and perform m a spiritual worshipper, but

a blaspheming devil in Samuel's mantle.

I. Spiritual worahip ii i with an unitednete of heart. The

1 dy now and thou with God, but ' nnil 1 to fear' or worship

4 his name, 1 PS. lxxxvi. 11. A spiritual duty must have the engagement of

Spirit, and the thoughts tied up to the spiritual object. The union all the i the h. art together with the body is the life of the body, |

moral union of our hearts is the life of any duty. A heart quickly flitting from God makes not God his treasure ; he Blights the Worship, and* therein affronts the object of worship. All our thoughts ought to be lavished with ( nnd np in him as in a bundle of lite. But whi n m him

her, and run ai: q a fa]] Jui ,i

ath ucy, and a satisfying en sin him. When our thoughts

run from God, it is a tei re no spiritual God.

d would stake down the thoughts to the object affected. It is bul l I the prophet pi.: : ! .. xxxiii. Bl, ' Bul their fa

j go after thi I vetous I ; ;pe, and the heart dan

' ; off to | multitude of

! Oth< The heart and the Serriee stayed a while I

till found his 1

mz. l B ; stall with God in i I is seldom with | in or out of S I: God ihouid knock at the h. art in . v, it

• i not a' i. Oox

Of the In a: | all int: . .

that would be apt to haunt us. Worldly affections are to be laid aside, if we would have our worship spiritual. This was meant by the Jewish custom of wiping or washing off the dust of their feet before their entrance into the temple,°and of not bringing money in their girdles. To be spiritual in worship is to have our souls gathered and bound up wholly in themselves, and offered to God. Our loins must be girt, as the fashion was in the eastern countries, where they wore long garments, that they might not waver with the wind, and be blown between their legs, to obstruct them in their travel. Our faculties must not hang loose about us. He is a carnal worshipper that gives God but a piece of his heart, as well as he that denies him the whole of it; that hath some thoughts pitched upon God in worship, and as many willingly upon the world. David sought God, not with a moiety of his heart, but ■ with his whole heart,' with his entire frame, Ps. cxix. 10. He brought not half his heart, and left the other in the possession of another master. It was a good lesson Pythagoras gave his scholars,* not to make the observance of God a work by the by. If those guests be invited, or entertained kindly, or if they come unexpected, the spirituality of that worship is lost; the soul kicks down what is wrought before. But if they be brow-beaten by us, and our grief rather than our pleasure, they divert our spiritual intention from the work in hand, but hinder not God's acceptance of it as spiritual, because they are not the acts of our will, but offences to our wills.

5. Spiritual worship is performed with a spiritual activity and sensible-ness of God, with an active understanding to meditate on his excellency, and an active will to embrace him when he drops upon the soul. If we understand the amiableness of God, our affections will be ravished ; if we understand the immensity of his goodness, our spirits will be enlarged. We are to act with the highest intention, suitable to the greatness of that God with whom we have to do: Ps. cl. 2, ' Praise him according to his excellent greatness.' Not that we can worship him equally, but in some proportion the frame of the heart is to be suited to the excellency of the object; our spiritual strength is to be put out to the utmost, as creatures that act naturally do. The sun shines, and the fire burns, to the utmost of their natural power. This is so necessary that David, a spiritual worshipper, prays for it before he sets upon acts of adoration: Ps. lxxx. 18, ' Quicken us that we may call upon thy name.' As he was loath to have a drowsy faculty, he was loath to have a drowsy instrument, and would willingly have them as lively as himself: Ps. lvii. 8, ■ Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp : I myself will awake early.' How would this divine soul screw himself up to God, and be turned into nothing but a holy flame ! Our souls must be boiling hot when we serve the Lord (^sovrsg), Rom. xii. 11. The heart doth no less burn when it spiritually comes to God, than when God doth spiritually approach to it, Luke xxiv. 32. A Nabal's heart, one as cold as a stone, cannot offer up a spiritual service.

Whatsoever is enjoined us as our duty, ought to be performed with the greatest intcnseness of our spirit. As it is our duty to pray, so it is our duty to pray with the most fervent importunity. It is our duty to love God, but with the purest and most sublime affections. Every command of God requires the whole strength of the creature to be employed in it. That love to God, wherein all our duty to God is summed up, is to be with all our strength, with all our might, &c.f Though in the covenant of grace he hath °miti"atcd the severity of tho law, and requires not from us such an * 'Ou ydo rraozeyov hit Koiz7a0ai rov <difo. —Iarablich, 1. i. c. 518, p. 87. t Lady Falkland's Life, p. 130.

.1 ■-. [ V. 9 1 . IfUUTUAl

ttion of our affections as ■ I if ii i the utmost moral in to a

pitol Wli i' h of

jiil' cl ' urolly 1: ai much i

limn iijxiu i tli A :!.. ;•. was

mi activity of • ml io wot hip, an 1 I qa

don 1 tho t<n:| '1, iIm r

an inactivity to sin and an ardonr in dnty. The more the bouI

I: mi. vi. l I. ■ I • i in

nil ih i( coi God and Ins honour. I

adds 1 to our natural, determine - the affi cl to i

rp, the I erything thai d tho dominion of it ii mor

hip ma) koned as the chief

oemy. When the Spirit is in the iou], Use thi

the belly, the soul hath the activity of a rivi 1 to be swallowed np in God, at the Btreami of th< Christ ma] pie * kii ad priesl I i Rev. i. 6. I

. then pri per of heart, thai

Off r spiritual sacrilin IS as and priests to ' ' with B

irit in all their m< I I im. We cannot be spiritual

l till we be spiritual kings. The Spirit a] I in the

fire, ai d wh< n munieates, like fire, purity and activity.

Puli linst the light of nature. I do not rememl * tho

1 la nail to any of their t it to

r ipus their unclean idol; hut the P ma aacrifieed to the ran a I Swift 1 ture. God provide! against those in the law,

eommandin firstling, the offspring of a b! i bo

m 1. or his neck broke, bui by no means to be offered to him, Exod. xiii. 18. God is B Spirit infinitely active, and therefore frozen and 1 I i •': ••• are unsuitable to him: ' He rides upon a cherub, and

mes ' upon the wings of the wind,' he rides upon 'a swift cloud,' 1 .. 1. and therefore demands of us not a dull reason, but an active

spirit. God is a living God, therefore must have a lively service, is life, an 1 slothful adorations are not fit to be offered up in the name of worship of God is called wrestling in Scripture, and Paul was a • er in the service of his Master : Col. i. 29, ' in an agony' ("•; Aj Is worship God spiritually with their wings on; and when I mauds them to worship Christ, the next scripture quoted is that he makes m ' flames of fire,' Hob. i. 7.

If it be the may wo charge ourselves? What Paul said of the

sei . 1 Tim. v. 6, that she is Shad while she lives,' we may

often of or. d while we worship. Our 1

m tfa • •' are in deliveraneee, 'as those in a dream,' Ps. ezzvi. 1: by

1 shewed the greatness of! and m» r

men in a dream, whereby ' ver our

folly. This activity doth not consist in outward acts. Tl. hot and tl art may be faint, hut in an inward stirring, meltil

In ...... i)S ^ jmengible. Strong spiritual atVec-

tioi 1 from out.-

,; . ^piritUi.l performed with acting spiritual habits. When all

;:. tains of tl . the soul and all that is within it, all the spiritual impresses of God upon it, erect themselves to bJ holy name. Pi, ciii. 1.

This is necessary to make a worship spiritual. As natural agents are determined to act suitable to their proper nature, so rational agents are to act conformable to a rational being. When there is a conformity between the act and the nature whence it flows, it is a good act in its kind; if it be rational, it is a good rational act, because suitable to its principle. As a man endowed with reason must act suitable to that endowment, and exercise his reason in his acting, so a Christian endued with grace must act suitable to that nature, and exercise his grace in his acting. Acts done by a natural inclination are no more human acts than the natural acts of a beast may be said to be human. Though they are the acts of a man as he is the efficient cause of them, yet they are not human acts, because they arise not from that principle of reason which denominates him a man. So acts of worship performed by a bare exercise of reason, are not Christian and spiritual acts, because they come not from the principle which constitutes him a Christian. Reason is not the principle, for then all rational creatures would be Christians. They ought therefore to be acts of a higher principle, exercises of that grace whereby Christians are what they are not but that rational acts in worship are due to God, for worship is due from us as men, and we are settled in that rank of being by our reason. Grace doth not exclude reason, but ennobles it, and calls it up to another form; but we must not rest in a bare rational worship, but exert that principle whereby we are Christians. To worship God with our reason, is to worship him as men; to worship God with our grace, is to worship him as Christians, and so spiritually; but to worship him only with our bodies, is no better than brutes.

Our desires of the word are to issue from the regenerate principle: 1 Peter ii. 2, ' As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word.' It seems to be not a comparison, but a restriction. All worship must have the same spring, and be the exercise of that principle, otherwise we can have no communion with God. Friends that have the same habitual dispositions have a fundamental fitness for an agreeable converse with one another 1 but if the temper wherein their likeness consists be languishing, and the string out of tune, there is not an actual fitness, and the present indisposition breaks the converse, and renders the company troublesome. Though we may have the habitual graces which compose in us a resemblance to God, yet for want of acting those suitable dispositions, we render ourselves unfit for his converse, and make the worship, which is fundamentally spiritual, to become actually carnal. As the will cannot naturally act to any object' but by the exercise of its affections, so the heart cannot spiritually act towards God but by the exercise of graces. This is God's music: Eph. v. 19, 'singing and making melody to God in your hearts.' Singing and all other acts of worship are outward, but the spiritual melody is 'by grace in the heart,' Col. iii. 16. This renders it a spiritual worship, for it is an effect of the fulness of the Spirit in the soul; as ver. 19, 'But be filled with the Spirit.' The overflowing of the Spirit in the heart, setting the soul of a believer thus on work to make a spiritual melody to God, shews that something higher than bare reason is put in tune in the heart. Then is the fruit of the gulden pleasant to Christ, when the Holy Spirit 'the north and south wind, blow upon the spices,' Cant. iv. 1G, and strike out the fragrancy of them. Since God is the author of graces, and bestows them to have a glory from them, they are best employed about him and his service. It is lit ho should have the cream of his own gifts. Without the exercise of grace;, we perform but a work of nature, and offer him a few dry bones without marrow.

The w ; '«• > iim !. 1 l« I : eny

treble be want • berc will b si in tip- music It'

any Ollfl spiritual itril I ill, tho i harm hip will

spoiled.

l. i '.i t, Fa I be acted in worship; a confidence in G

n:itur.il woi I without in the

1. \\ i r oomes to him • I him ■ i

im.l i faithful Creator, E • p eannol be p<

without an I confidence in him ae a graciou H .To

think him a tyrant, medital il; to i .mas a

full of tender bowi spirits th iiinw of «tod il th.- prop i" object <>!' trust: Ps. .. I . • 1 the

i them thai fear him, upon them thai in Iim marc

worship of (ted in the < ttd Testament i i mo I

nut bj faith. Fear, or the worship of God, and hope in his mercy, are linked to '< th< r. When they go hand in hand, th<

Of God is upon us; when WO do not trust, we do not, worship. TJ

Judah had the temple worship among them, i peeially in Josiah's time,

Zeph. iii. 2, the tinio of that j.ropln Minted DO WOTShip,

no trust in tip- worshippers. Interest in God cannot DC impTO without an SXeroisS of faith. Thi 1 worsliip is prophesied of to 1

confidence in God, us in a husband more than in a lord: 11 ■ - i ii. 16, 'Thou shall call me Isbi, sad shalt call me no more BaalL' 'Thou shalt call me; 1 that i-, thou Bhall worship m<\ worship being often oomprehen under invocation. More confidence is to 1 I in s husband or father

than in a lord or master.

If a man have not frith, he is without Christ ; and though a man bo in I risi by the habit of taith, he performs a duty out of Christ without an act of faith. Without tln> habit of faith, our persons arc out of Christ; and without the . x :v • of faith, tho duties arc out of Christ. As the want of faith in a person is tho death of the soul, so the want of faith in a service is the death of the offering. Though a man were at the cost of an ox, yet to kill it without bringing it to the door of tho tabernacle was not a sacrifice but a murder, Lev. rvii. 8, 1. The tabernacle was a type of Christ, and a look to him is necessary in every spiritual sacrifice. As there must be faith to make any act an act of obedience, so there must be faith to make any act of worsliip spiritual. That service is not spiritual that is not vital, and it cannot be vital without the exercise of a vital principle ; all spiritual life is 4 hid in Christ,' and drawn from him by faith. Gal. ii. "J". Faith, as it hath relation to Christ, makes every act of worship a living act, and consequently a spiritual act. Habitual unbelief cuts us off from the body of Christ : Kom. xi. 20, ' B of unbelief they were broken off; 1 and a want of actu .

belief breaks OS off from a present communion with Christ in spirit. As unbelief in us hinders Christ from doing any mighty work, so unbelief in us ■inders us from doing any mighty spiritual duty.

■ of faith, and a confi U DC4 in God, is necess.iry to I dnt

irship spiritual. Though clod com-

: love Ul the ( >! : the law I

more of fear than lote. The dispensation of tho law was with lu ler,

.. proper to raise horror numb the spirit, which effect it had 0

u they uo more t

nius of tho gospel, proper I the affection of .

. i. 0

law was given ' by the disposition of angels,' with signs to amaze ; the gospel was ushered in with the songs of angels, composed of peace and good will, calculated to ravish the soul. Instead of the terrible voice of the law, Do this and live; the comfortable voice of the gospel is, Grace, grace. Upon this account, the principle of the Old Testament was fear, and the worship often expressed by the fear of God; the principle of the New Testament is love. 1 The mount Sinai gendereth to bondage,' Gal. iv. 24; mount Zion, from whence the gospel or evangelical law goes forth, gendereth to liberty; and, therefore, the Spirit of bondage unto fear, as the property of the law, is opposed to the state of adoption, the principle of love, as the property of the gospel, Rom. viii. 15 ; and therefore the worship of God, under the gospel or New Testament, is oftener expressed by love than fear, as proceeding from higher principles, and acting nobler passions. In this state we are to * serve him without fear,' Luke i. 74 ; without a bondage-fear, not without a fear of unworthy treating him, with a fear of his goodness, as it is prophesied of, Hosea iii. 5. Goodness is not the object of terror, but reverence. God, in the law, had more the garb of a judge ; in the gospel, of a father ; the name of a father is sweeter, and bespeaks more of affection. As their services were with a feeling of the thunders of the law in their consciences, so is our worship to be with a sense of gospel grace in our spirits. Spiritual worship is that, therefore, which is exercised with a spiritual and heavenly affection proper to the gospel. The heart should be enlarged, according to the liberty the gospel gives of drawing near to God as a father; as he gives us the nobler relation of children, we are to act the nobler qualities of children. Love should act according to its nature, which is desire of union, desire of a moral union by affections, as well as a mystical union by faith, as flame aspires to reach flame and become one with it. In every act of worship we should endeavour to be united to God, and become one spirit with him. This grace doth spiritualise worship. In that one word love, God hath wrapt up all the devotion he requires of us. It is the total sum of the first table, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God;' it is to be acted in everything we do ; but in worship our hearts should more solemnly,'rise up and acknowledge him amiable and lovely, since the law is stripped of its cursing power, and made sweet in the blood of the Redeemer. Love is a thing acceptable of itself, but nothing acceptable without it. The gifts of one man to another are spiritualised by it. We would not value a present without the affection of the donor. Every man would lay claim to the love of others, though he would not to their possessions. Love is God's right in every service, and the noblest thing we can bestow upon him in our adorations of him. God's gifts to us are not so estimable without his love/nor our services valuable by him without the exercise of a choice affection. Hezekiah regarded not his deliverance without the love of the deliverer: ' In love to my soul thou hast delivered me,' Isa. xxxviii. 17; so doth God say, In love to my honour thou hast worshipped me.

So that love must be acted, to render our worship spiritual.

8. A spiritual sensibleness of our own weakness is necessary to make our worship spiritual. Affections to God cannot be without relentings in ourselves. When tho eye is spiritually fixed upon a spiritual God, the heart will mourn that tho worship is no moro spiritually suitable. The more we act love upon God, as amiablo and gracious, the moro wo should exercise grief in ourselves, as wo are vilo and offending. Spiritual worship is a molting worship as well as an elevating worship; it exalts God, and debaseth tho creature Tho publican was more spiritual in his humble address to God, when the Pkarisco was wholly carnal with his swelling language. A

Spiritual love in worship will male Dig

and en:;'. iiim no more, it Is ■ pari of spiritual duty to bewail i

carnality mixed with it. s spiritually when SJS

th. in with u MBM Of < i. j. I'm goodnofl a:. M , in tho Sfl

manner wo rend< r n piritual worship.

J. Bpirii i ii -I. Q I D 1«T kbl | '.vlu-n !

• fitllows hiir.l :it't.r liim,' I'm. l\in. G I of infinite

goodnes i| with I ■■•• A ipinl

inst'.'nn«,l into linii/.r iiii. 1 thirst, And ling

A oarnal worshipper is taken with t!

of the temple, i spiritual worshipper d< • the gj G in lbs

., p . Ixiii. 8. B sit r God. a hip, to

and Ii op ind for God, Lit! >atfa to i it without

G l. 'the hvi G 1/ Pa. xlii. ii. Hi would i Brim and the

Thummim, the unusual sparkling of tl. upon tho high ptiest'fl

plat . boI the title) of spiritual worship, when the soul dm

no longing inqniru i! I 8ni yon kun whom say soul loresf A ipiritaa] worship is, when onr di sre ebiefly for God in the worship; as Dai I desires I » • dwell in the honee of the Lord ;' bni his di lire ii not termini there, bnt 'to behold the beauty of the Lord/ ''-• xxvii - *\ }Unl ta ^ r tllQ ittfiahin \ sweetneai of bis presenee. No doubt but Elijah's desires foe tho enjoyment of God, while hs was mounting to kesnren, were as fiery ss tho chariot wherein he was carried. Unutterable groans acted in worship aro

the fruit of the Spirit, and certainly render it a spiritual service, Horn. viii.

26, Strong appetites are Is to (sod, and prepare ns so cat the fruit

of worship. A spiritual Paul pressoth forward to know Christ, and tho I < : urrection ; and a spiritual worshipper actually aspires in every

duty to ka . and the power of his grace. To desire worship as an

end, is carnal; to desire it as a means, and act desires in it for communion with God in it, is spiritual, and the fruit of a spiritual life.

:>. Thankfulness and admiration are to be exercised in spiritual services. This is a worship of spirits. Praise is the adoration of the blessed angels, 1 dan vi. o. and of glorified spirits : ltcv. iv. 11, 'Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power.' And Rev. v. 13, 11, they worship him, ascribing ■ blessing, honour, glory, and power to him that sits upon tho throne, and to tho Lamb for ever and ever.' Other acts of worship are

lined to this life, and leave us as soon as wo have set our foot in heaven. TheSS no notes but this of praise aro warbled out. Tho power, wisdom, love, and grace in the dispensation of the gospel seat themselves in tho thoughts and tongues of blessed souls. Can a worship on earth bo spiritual, that hath no mixture of an eternal heavenly duty with it? Tho worship of

I in innocence had been chiefly an admiration of him in the works of

and should not our evangelical worship be an admiration of him

in the work of redemption, which is a restoration to a better state '? After

tho petitioning for pardoning grace, Hos. xiv. 2, there is a rendering tho

calves or heifers of our lips, alluding to tho heifers used in eucharistical

The praise of Qrod is the choicest sacrifice and worship, under a

n of redeeming grace. This is the prime and eternal part of

worship under tho gOfl I ihsnst, Ps. cxlix. and cl., speaking of

gospel times, spurs on to this kind of worship: ' Sing to the Lord a Ml let the children of Zion bo joyful in their King; let the saints

bo joyful in glory, and sing aloud upon their beds; let tho high praises of God bo in their mouths.' lie begins and ends both psalms with /' sis Lord. That cannot bo a spiritual and evangelical worship that hath

nothing of the praise of God in the heart. The consideration of God's adorable perfections discovered in the gospel will make us come to him with more seriousness, beg blessings of him with more confidence, fly to him with a winged faith and love, and more spiritually glorify him in our attendances upon him.

6. Spiritual worship is performed with delight. The evangelical worship is prophetically signified by keeping the feast of tabernacles : ■ They shall go up from year to year, to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles,' Zech. xiv. 16. Why that feast, when there were other feasts observed by the Jews ? That was a feast celebrated with the greatest joy, typical of the gladness which was to be under the exhibition of the Messiah, and a thankful commemoration of the redemption wrought by him. It was to be celebrated five days after the solemn day of atonement, Lev. xxiii. 34, compared with ver. 27, wherein there was one of the solemnest types of the sacrifice of the death of Christ. In this feast they commemorated their exchange of Egypt for Canaan, the manna wherewith they were fed, the water out of the rock wherewith they were refreshed. In remembrance of this, they poured water on the ground, pronouncing those words in Isaiah, ' they shall draw waters out of the wells of salvation,' which our Saviour refers to himself,' John vii. 37, inviting them to him to drink 'upon the last day, the great day of the Feast' of Tabernacles, wherein this solemn ceremony was observed. Since we are freed by the death of the Redeemer from the curses of the law, God requires- of us a joy in spiritual privileges. A sad frame in worship gives the lie to all gospel liberty, to the purchase of the Redeemer's death, the triumphs of his resurrection. It is a carriage as if we were under the influences of the legal fire and lightning, and an entering a protest against the freedom of the gospel. The evangelical worship is a spiritual worship, and praise, joy, and delight are prophesied of as great ingredients in attendance on gospel ordinances, Isa. xii. 3-5. What was occasion of terror in the worship of God under the law, is the occasion of delight in the worship of God under the gospel. The justice and holiness of God, so terrible in the law, becomes comfortable under the gospel, since they have feasted themselves on the active and passive obedience of the Redeemer. The approach is to God as gracious, not to God as unpacified; as a son to a father, not as a criminal to a judge. Under the law, God was represented as a judge, remembering their sin in their sacrifices, and representing the punishment they had merited; in the gospel as a father, accepting the atonement, and publishing the reconciliation wrought by the Redeemer. Delight in God is a gospel frame, therefore the more joyful, the more spiritual. The Sabbath is to be a delight, not only in regard of the day, but in regard of the duties of it, Isaiah lviii. 13 ; in regard of the marvellous work he wrought on it, raising up our blessed Redeemer on that day, whereby a foundation was laid for the rendering our persons and services acceptable to God : Ps. cxviii. 24, * This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will be glad and rejoice in it.' A lumpish frame becomes not a day and a duty that hath so noble and spiritual a mark upon it.

The angels, in tho first act of worship after the creation, were highly joyful: Job xxxviii. 7, They ' shouted for joy,' &0.

The saints have particularly acted this in their worship. David would not content himself with an approach to tho altar, without going to God as his ' exceeding joy,' Ps. xliii. 4, my triumphant joy. When he danced before tho ark, he seems to be transformed into delight and pleasure, 2 Sam. vi. 14, 16. Ho had as much delight in worship as others had in their

JOHJ I V. 'J I. ii;iii\i, WUMH11P. BOO

harvest :i t 11 vinl \ i • thai illy the ipoiling of tl

; joyfully attend upon the oommuni i I. ^ n

there is n flllnoKN of tho Spirit, tin re is ;i ' mal. Ul tho

ln-art,' Bph, \. L8, r.»; ind winn there is an U1

all spiritual :■.,• pfODtl fail of it IS J0y f 111 ■ DOS* appro.i<-i:

object of the soul's affection. L appttitiu uniom . The more 1"

thi more delight in the approaehiii i tod to the iouI, or th the soul to God, As the object of woi axniabli i i

means tendi mmunion with thia object arc delightful in the

I. lighl in :i duty, tli-

oftheduty. The more of grace, the more of ] In tho i

the more of nature there ii in any natural agent, the more oi pleasure in thi i the more heavenly the warship, the more spiritual.

Deli the frame and temper of glory. A bear! filled op to tl

with • tilled up to the brim with the spirit. .Joy is the fruit

of the Boly Ghost, (HI. v. 22. fl.) \: the joy of God's dispensation, flowing from God, bni <is

>y streaming to God. There is a joy when the comforts of G are dropped into the soul, as oil upon the wheel, which indeed makes the

(acuities mow with more speed and activity in his service, like tho char.

of Amminadab ; and i soul may serve < k>d in the strength of thi

lelight terminated in the sensible comfort. This is not the joy I mean,

but such a joy that hath God for its object, delighting in him as the term,

in worship as the way to him. The first II I tfon, the other

is our duty. The finl is an act of God's favour to as, 1 weond a sprout

of I ice in OS. The comforts we have from God may elevate our

duties, but the grace WC have within doth spiritualise cur duties.

Nor is every delight an argument of a spiritual service. All the • worship must he talon in. A man may invent a worship, and :ht in it, as Mieah in the adoration of his idol, when ho was glad he ha 1 pot both an ephod and a Levite, Judges xvii. As a man may have a continent in sin, so he may have a contentment in worship; not because it IS I worship of God, but tho worship of his own invention, agreeable to his own humour and design, as Isaiah lviii. 2, it is said, they ' delighted in approaching to God,' but it was for carnal ends. Novelty engenders complacency ; but it must be a worship wherein God will delight, and that must B worship according to his own rule and infinite wisdom, and not our shallow fancies.

[uires a cheerfulness in his service, especially under the gospel,

v he sits upon a throne of grace, discovers himself in his amiableness,

and acts the covenant of grace and the sweet relation of a Father. The

of old were not to sully themselves with any sorrow when they

ie of their functions. God put a bar to the natural a:

tions of Aaron and his sons when Nadab and Abihu had been cut off by a

severe bar. . x. ('». Every true Christian, in a higher order

of priestbi i person dedicated to joy and peace, offering himself a

lively sacrifice of | ad thanksgiving J and there is no Christian duty

but toff and oed with cheerfulness; He that loves a cheerful

giver in eh irity, re [uires no less a cheerful spirit in acts of worship.

lient in worship, so it is the means to m t spirits

at in worship. When the heart triumphs in the consideration oi divine

and goodness, it will 1 J at anything that offers to jog and

kurb it.

7. Spiritual worship is to bo performed, though with a delight in God,

yet with a deep reverence of God. The gospel, in advancing the spirituality of worship, takes off the terror, but not the reverence of God, which is nothing else in its own nature but a due and high esteem of the excellency of a thing according to the nature of it. And therefore the gospel, presenting us with more illustrious notices of the glorious nature of God, is so far from indulging any disesteem of him, that it requires of us a greater reverence, suitable to the height of its discovery, above what could be spelled in the book of creation. The gospel worship is therefore expressed by trembling : Hos. xi. 10, ' They shall walk after the Lord; he shall roar like a lion; when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.' When the Lion of the tribe of Judah shall lift up his powerful voice in the gospel, the western Gentiles shall run trembling to walk after the Lord. God bath alway attended his greatest manifestations with remarkable characters of majesty, to create a reverence in his creature. He caused the wind to march before him, to cut the mountain, when he manifested himself to Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 11; a wind and a cloud of fire before that magnificent vision to Ezekiel, Ezek. i. 4, 5; thunders and lightnings before the giving the law, Exod. xix. 18; and a mighty wind before the giving the Spirit, Acts ii. God requires of us an awe of him in the very act of performance. The angels are pure, and cannot fear him as sinners, but in reverence they cover their faces when they stand before him, Isaiah vi. 2. His power should make us reverence him, as we are creatures; his justice, as we are sinners; his goodness, as we are restored creatures. ' God is clothed with unspeakable majesty ; the glory of his face shines brighter than the lights of heaven in their beauty. Before him the angels tremble, and the heavens melt; we ought not, therefore, to come before him with the sacrifice of fools, nor tender a duty to him without falling low upon our faces, and bowing the knees of our hearts in token of reverence.'* Not a slavish fear, like that of devils, but a godly fear, like that of saints, Heb. xii. 28, joined with a sense of an unmoveable kingdom, becometh us. And this the apostle calls a grace necessary to make our service acceptable; and therefore the grace necessary to make it spiritual, since nothing finds admission to God but what is of a spiritual nature. The consideration of his glorious nature should imprint an awful respect upon our souls to him. His goodness should make his majesty more adorable to us, as his majesty makes his goodness more admirable in his condescensions to us. As God is a Spirit, our worship must be spiritual; and being he is the supreme Spirit, our worship must be reverential. We must observe the state he takes upon him in his ordinances; ' he is in heaven, we upon the earth;' we must not therefore be ' hasty to utter anything before God,' Eccles. v. 7. Consider him a Spirit in the highest heavens, and ourselves spirits dwelling in a dreggy earth. . Loose and garish frames debase him to our own quality; slight postures of spirit intimate him to be a slight and mean being; our being in covenant with him must not lower our awful apprehensions of him. As he is ' the Lord thy God,' it is a ■ glorious and fearful name,' or wonderful, Deut. xxviii. 58. Though he lay by his justice to believers, he doth not lay by his majesty. When wo have a confidence in him, because he is the Lord our God, we must have awful thoughts of his majesty, because his name is glorious. God is terrible from his holy places, in regard of the great things he doth for his Israel, Ps. lxviii. 85. We should behave ourselves with that inward honour and respect of him as if he were present to our bodily eyes. The higher apprehensions wo havo of his majesty, the greater awe will be upon our hearts in his presence, and the greater spirituality in our acts.

* Daillc, Sur. 3. Jean, p. HO.

>>'•■ should manage our hearts to i bad i vi i of God la bii heavenly

">■■

h. Spiritual worahip ii to 1"' performed mifa humility in our Hpiritn. Thia ia to follow upon tl: ; «• I. A. ■■■>■ are t > ha-.e 1,

thou Q I. thai •., may noi debaee him, we m i low tti

mt before bim. When we 1»«. of the

divine maji shall bi ea worma ia our own thoughts, and c

worms into his \\'. 000 D( i" bim in his glory, hut

hi'. pportnnitv t > r< fleel a] on oui elv< , and con id< r bow ba

revolted from him, and h ly W« lie I him. Ah I

goepel affor reaterdi G nature* and 10 ana

f aim, so it help i us to a fuller under

vileness and weakness, and therefore is propi r to cng< ndei humility.

mora apiiitnal and evangelical therefore any • humble it

That is a spiritual lervioe thai doth moat manifeat the glory of God,

and this cannot, he manifested by DJ without manife8ting our OWD < inpti-and nothingness. The heathens I ible of th .t.y of humility

by the light of nature; 4 after the nam' of G i mined by r B< u I on

the temple ai Delphos, followed I mw, wh aa inainnatedi that

when we have to do with (lod, who is the only En$, we should behave ourselves witfa I of our own infirmity and infinite distance from him. a person, so a duty, leavened with pride, hath nothing of sincerity, and there-nothing of spirituality in it : Hah. ii. I, • Hil BOfll, which is lifted up, II not upright in him.' The elders that were crowned by God to he ki ami prieata, to otter spiritual sacrifices, uncrown themselves in their worship of him, and cast down their ornaments at his feet, llcv. iv. 10 compared with y. The Greek word to worship, ft, lignifiei to creep like a dog upon his belly before his master, to lie low. How deep should our sense bl o{ the privilege of God's admitting us to his worship, and affording us such a mercy under our deserts of wrath ! How mean should bo our thoughts, both of our persons and performances ! How* patiently should we wait upon God for the success of worship ! How did Abraham, the father of the faithful, equal himself to the earth when he supplicated the God of heaven, and devoted himself to him under the title of very dust and

es ! Gen. xviii. 27. Isaiah did but behold an evangelical apparition of God and the angels worshipping him, and presently reflects upon his own uncleanncss, Isa. vi. 5. God's presence both requires and causes humility. How lowly is David in his own opinion, after a magnificent duty performed by him.-'if and his people : 1 Chron. xxix. 14, ' Who am I ? and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly ? ' The more spiritual the soul is m its carriage to God, the more humble it is ; and the more gracious God is in his communications to the soul, the lower it lies.

God commanded not the fiercer creatures to be offered to him in sacrifices, but lambs and kids, meek and lowly creatures ; none that had stings in IBM ir tails or venom in their tongues. f The meek lamb was tho daily sacrifice: the dovea wan to be offered by pairs ; God would not have hi mixed with any sacrifice, Lev. ii. 11. That bi\ adl choler, and choler pride ; but oil ho commanded to be QBad, that sir, :.d mollifies the parts.

Swelling \ ride and boiling passions render our services carnal ; they cannot bo spiritual without an humble I -s and an innocent sincerity ; ono

grain of this tr || the most costly sacrifices. A contrite heart pal

gloss upon worship, Ps. Ii. 16, 17. The departure of men and angels from

* Plutarch, afoctl p. M4.

t Camlam acnleatam Tel linguam Digram Alexaud. ab Alex. 1. 3, c. 12,

God began in pride ; our approaches and return to him must begin in humility ; and therefore all those graces which are bottomed on humility must be acted in worship, as faith, and a sense of our own indigence. Our blessed Saviour, the most spiritual worshipper, prostrated himself in the garden with the greatest lowliness, and offered himself upon the cross a sacrifice with the greatest humility. Melted souls in worship have the most spiritual conformity to the person of Christ in the state of humiliation, and his design in that state ; as worship without it is not suitable to God, so neither is it advantageous for us. A time of worship is a time of God's communication. The vessel must be melted to receive the mould it is designed for; softened wax is fittest to receive a stamp, and a spiritually melted soul fittest to receive a spiritual impression. We cannot perform duty in an evangelical and spiritual strain without the meltingness and meanness in ourselves which the gospel requires.

9. Spiritual worship is to be performed with holiness. God is a holy Spirit; a likeness to God must attend the worshipping of God, as he is ; holiness is alway in season, ' it becomes his house for ever,' Ps. xciii. 5. We can never ' serve the living God' till we have ' consciences purged from dead works,' Heb. ix. 14. Dead works in our consciences are unsuitable to God, an eternal living Spirit. The more mortified the heart, the more quickened the service. Nothing can please an infinite purity but that which is pure; since God is in his glory in his ordinances, we must not be in our filthiness. The holiness of his Spirit doth sparkle in his ordinances ; the holiness of our spirits ought also to sparkle in our observance- of them. The holiness of God is most celebrated in the worship of angels, Isa. vi. 3, Rev. iv. 8. Spiritual worship ought to be like angelical; that cannot be with souls totally impure. As there must be perfect holiness to make a worship perfectly spiritual, so there must be some degree of holiness to make it in any measure spiritual. God would have all the utensils of the sanctuary employed about his service to be holy ; the inwards of the sacrifice were to be rinsed thrice.* The crop and feathers of sacrificed doves was to be hungf eastward towards the entrance of the temple, at a distance from the holy of holies, where the presence of God was most eminent, Lev. i. 16. When Aaron was to go into the holy of holies, he was to sanctify himself in an extraordinary manner, Lev. xvi. 4. The priests were to be barefooted in the temple in the exercise of their office ; shoes alway were to be put off upon holy ground : ' Look to thy foot when thou goest to the house of God/ saith the wise man, Eccles. v. 1. Strip the affections, the feet of the soul, of all the dirt contracted ; discard all earthly and base thoughts from the heart. A beast was not to touch the mount Sinai without losing his life ; nor can we come near the throne with brutish affections without losing the life and fruit of the worship. An unholy soul degrades himself from a spirit to a brute, and the worship from spiritual to brutish. If any unmortified sin be found in the life, as it was in the comers to the temple, it taints and pollutes the worship, Isa. i. 15, Jer. vii. 9, 10. All worship is an acknowledgment of the excellency of God as he is holy ; hence it is called a ' sanctifying God's name.' How can any person sanctify God's name that hath not a holy resemblance to his nature ? If ho be not holy as he is holy, he cannot worship him according to his excellency in spirit and in truth ; no worship is spiritual wherein wo have not a communion with God. But what intercourse can there bo between a holy God and an impure creature, between light and darkness '? We have no fellowship with him in any service, unless wo ' walk in tho light,' in service and out of service, as he is * As the Jewish doctors obscrvo on Lev. i. 9. -f Qu. ' flung"?— Ed.

•. 1 John i. 7. 'I God without washing their hands, when b\ Lh their hi do ide th< l

fy in.thin' ; tli. frame ol

mboli: I' . . 6, •] will wash i . bo

will 1 .-..uii, ass thine alt ;. I» l. B the app<

monies, but not without oli : ^ t:i :

t upon out rai I hip ; bn( toil i

be i are in the | . i !

in worship onghl to be our <'oniimi.il oare. It service, wherein we would b tmunion with God, it must be in bolini

mid walk with Christ, it moil be in whrl ail. i. rIIu

the white " urm< nl i the | on when they went I

A - u ithOQl tin- we '•■•inn ■ « • ;

the beauty of (iod in his <>wn ordis

10. Bpiritnal worship is performed with spiritual en Is, with rai '"1 ain the glory ft' < iod. No duty oan be Bpiritnal thai hath a carnal aim. Wl

: to be the prineipaJ « d I. In all our he is to be I, as he is the principle of our being ; much more in

i he is th«> object of our worship. The worship of (iod in Scriptuz by the - seeking of him,' II.ib. ri. ,'. Htm, not our-

selves ; all is to be r< ferrt d I. Aj wi t. to live to ourselTes, I

;m il itate, worship fox

Rom. \iv. 7. 8. As all actions hit ■!. nomina' I from t: veil

• teir obj upon the sum.' account they are denomii iritual.

The end spiritualiseth our natural actions, much more 3

ilttes deyoted to him when the-, in him. If the intenti

i vil, there is nothing hut darkness in the whole service, Luke xi. B4.

first institution of the Sahhath, the solemn day for worship, was to contemplate the glorv of (iod in his stupendous works of creation, and rei. him a homage for them : Rev, iv. 11, ■ Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive honour, glory, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy rare tiny are and w< re created. 1 No worship can he re t urned withont a glorifying of (iod ; and we cannot actually glorify him without direct a: at the promoting his honour. As we have immediately to do with << W6 are immediately to mind the praise of (iod. As we are not to content ourselves with habitual grace, but be rich in the exercise of it in worship, 80 t to acquit Be in habitual aims at the glory of God, without the actual overflowing! of our hearts in those aims.

It is natural for man to worship God for m If. S df-rightcousness is the

rooted aim of man in his worship revolt from (iod; and being

ihle it is not to lie found in his natural actions, b s for it in .

d and religious, gj the- first pride we Hung G I off from being our

sov. mom being our and ; Bince a pharisaica] spirit struts it in

do things to be set U, hut to be admired I

1 . Iviii. :i, ■ Wherefore 1. and thou takest no know!

<> nip them instead of being worshipped by them.

I carriage, after his eacrif .1 in his warship;

. sovereign, and God tl.. and when his design is not an-

iv not pratifit ;. DO ire a rebd to (ml. and a murderer of

his brothi r. Sach baa I will rise up in OUT worship from I

death, which cleav. . and mix tl. ritfa OUT

with the fish in the net. David t: . after 1.. le bad offered will-

ingly to the temple, begs of God that their ' hearts might be prepared to him,' 1 Chron. xxix. 18; that their hearts might stand right to God, without any squinting to self-ends.

Some present themselves to God, as poor men offer a present to a great person, not to honour them, but to gain for themselves a reward richer than their gift. ' What profit is it that we have kept his ordinances?' &c, Mai. iii. 14. Some worship him, intending thereby to make him amends for the wrong they have done him, wipe off their scores, and satisfy their debts; as though a spiritual wrong could be recompensed with a bodily service, and an infinite Spirit be outwitted and appeased by a carnal flattery. Self is the spirit of carnality. To pretend a homage to God, and intend only the advantage of self,|is rather to mock him than worship him. When we believe that we ought to be satisfied rather than God glorified; we set God below ourselves, imagine that he should submit his own honour to our advantage. We make ourselves more glorious than God, as though we were not made for him, but he hath a being only for us; this is to have a very low esteem of the majesty of God. Whatsoever any man aims at in worship above the glory of God, that he forms as an idol to himself instead of God, and sets up a golden image. God counts not this as a worship. The offerings made in the wilderness for forty years together, God esteemed as not offered to him: Amos v. 25, ' Have you offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, 0 house of Israel ? ' They did it not to God, but to themselves; for their own security, and the attainment of the possession of the promised land. A spiritual worshipper performs not worship for some hopes of carnal advantage ; he uses ordinances as means to bring God and his soul together, to be more fitted to honour God in the world in his particular place. When he hath been inflamed and humble in any address or duty, he gives God the glory; his heart suits the doxology at the end of the Lord's prayer, ascribes the kingdom, power, and glory to God alone ; and if any viper of pride starts out upon him, he endeavours presently to shake it off. That which was the first end of our framing ought to be the chief end of our acting towards God. But when men have the same ends in worship as brutes, the satisfaction of a sensitive part, the service is no more than brutish. The acting for a sensitive end is unworthy of the majesty of God to whom we address, and unbecoming a rational creature. The acting for a sensitive end is not rational, much less can it be a spiritual service; though the acting may be good in itself, yet not good in the agent, because he wants a due end. We are then spiritual, when we have the same end in our redeemed services as God had in his redeeming love, viz., his own glory.

11. Spiritual service is offered to God in the name of Christ. Those are only ' spiritual sacrifices' that are ■ offered up to God by Jesus Christ,' 1 Peter ii. 5; that are the fruits of the sanctification of the Spirit, and offered in the mediation of the Son. As the altar sanctifies the gift, so doth Christ spiritualise our services for God's acceptation; as the fire upon the altar separated the airy and finer parts of the sacrifice from the terrene and earthly. This is the golden altar upon which the prayers of the saints are offered up before the throne, ltcv. viii. 3. As all that we have from God streams through his blood, so all that we give to God ascends by virtue of his merits. All the blessings God gave to the Israelites camo out of Zion,— Ps. exxxiv. 3, ■ Tho Lord bless thee out of Zion,'—that is, from the gospel hid under the law; all tho duties wo present to God, are to be presented in Zion, in an evangelical manner. All our worship must be bottomed on Christ. God hath intended that wo should ' honour tho Son as wo honour

JoHX I V. fl1. UUUTUAK BJUMUFi ^ 1 •"'

th< Father.' As we b( i: :ir the Father 1 • y off r'.: nlj t . )

BO we :iro ti) honour the Boo bj offering it only in his name. I . I is w. 11 jil.ns. 1, POCHm in liim alone be finds our services spin:

worthy of acceptation. We must then fore take I of bin f

iptritti and tin la !.r ... hold him, ti spiritual i. p. To

do anything in th.- DJU I ', is not t<> i i li< ffl :.. ..p shall

BCC< . hut to have on! ad HOOD ( ;

of it, .i tpon the work done* as oan il 11 pi an i ■ to do.

'Mi. nt their acknowledgments to God by man, ai on

only present his liy C'hri t. Lt WM nth rlv unlawful, :. hinldin

temple, to sacrifice anywh< . The t< mple boii ■' a I i it in

utterly unlawful for u.s to preeeot our

i is the way to l'«' spiritual. It 1 out of CI

. bare do other notions hut those of I behold

him a Spirit, hut environed with justice and wrath tor lim I ; huf. tic C Blderation of him in Christ veils liis justice, draws forth Ins DK

•s him more b Father than a Judge. In Chri it, the aspect of jt

i, and by that the t• r11 j>• i" of tip eiva':;iv; BO that in and by '

liator we can have a spiritual 'boldness, and acoi God with sonfi-

denc . i ph. iii. 12, whereby tho spirit is kept from benumb I

distraction, and our souls quickened and refined. The thou

Christ, in a duty of worship, quickly elevates the soul, and spiritnalizetb

whole service. Sin makes our services hlack, and the blood of Christ m

b our j k ud services white.

To c include th

11 1 is a Spirit infinitely happy, therefore wo must approach to him with cheerfulness ; be is a Spirit of infinite majesty, therefore we must come ire him with r. \> renee ; he is a Spirit infinitely high, therefore •• r up our sacrifices with the deepest humility; he is a Spirit infinitely holy, therefore wo must address with purity; he is a Spirit infinitely glorious, wo must therefore acknowledge his excellency in all that we do, I in our measures contribute to his glory, by having tho highest aims in his worship ; he is a Spirit infinitely provoked by us, therefore we must oiler up our worship iu the name of a pacifying mediator and intercessor.

III. The third general is, "Why a spiritual worship is due to G< d, and to be offered to him. Wo must consider the object of worship, and the subject of worship; tho worshipper and the worshipped. God is a spiritual being, man is a reasonable creature. The nature of God informs us what Lb fit to he presented to him; our own nature informs us what is fit to bo

I llted by US.

<>)i 1. The best we have is to be presented to God in worship. I'< r, 1. B '1 is tho most excellent being, he is to be served by DS with

tho most excellent thing wo have, and with tho choicest veneration. (.

[lent, that we cannot render him what he deseil We must render him what we are able to other: the best of our ate I the flower of our strength, tho cream and top of our spirits. By tho samo reason that hound to give to h, l the 1 - s1 worship, we must oiler it

to him in th We cannot give to God anything too ■:

bo 1 rvices become not

his : . Mai. i. 1:5, li. [f is imbecoming the majesty of Q . and tho

reason of a en ature, to pive him a trivial thing. It is unworthy ow

th<- best of our Btrength on our hist, an 1 the wont and weakest in tho

An infinite Spirit should have affections as near to infinite

as we can. As he is a Spirit without bounds, so he should have a service without limits : when we have given him all, we ' cannot serve him' according to the excellency of his nature, Joshua xxiv. 19; and shall we give him less than all ? His infinite excellency, and our dependence on him as creatures, demands the choicest adoration. Our spirits being the noblest part of our nature, are as due to him as the service of our bodies, which are the vilest. To serve him with the worst only is to diminish his honour.

2. Under the law God commanded the best to be offered him. He would have the males, the best of the kind; the fat, the best of the creature, Exod. xxix. 13, the inward fat, not the offals. He commanded them to offer him the firstlings of the flock; not the firstlings of the womb, but the firstlings of the year, the Jewish cattle having two breeding times, in the beginning of the spring and the beginning of September ; the latter breed was the weaker, which Jacob knew, Gen. xxx., when he laid the rods before the cattle when they were strong in the spring, and withheld them when they were feeble in the autumn. One reason, as the Jews say, why God accepted not the offerings of Cain was, because he brought the meanest, not the best of the fruit; and therefore it is said only that he brought of the fruit of the ground, Gen. iv. 3, not the first of the fruit, or the best of the fruit, as Abel, who brought the firstling of his flock, and the fat thereof, ver. 4.

3. And this the heathen practised by the light of nature. They for the most part offered males, as being more worthy; and burnt the male, not the female, frankincense, as it is divided into those two kinds. They offered the best when they offered their children to Moloch. Nothing more excellent than man, and nothing dearer to parents than their children, which are parts of themselves. When the Israelites would have a golden calf for a representation of God, they would dedicate their jewels, and strip their wives and children of their richest ornaments, to shew their devotion. Shall men serve their dumb idols with the best of their substance, and the strength of their souls; and shall the living God have a duller service from us than idols had from them ? God requires no such hard but delightful worship from us, our spirits.

4. All creatures serve man, by the providential order of God, with the best they have. As we, by God's appointment, receive from creatures the best they can give, ought w r e not with a free will render to God the best we can offer ? The beasts give us their best fat, the trees their best fruit, the sun its best light, the fountains their best streams: shall God order us the best from creatures, and we put him off with the worst from ourselves ?

5. God hath given us the choicest thing he had: a Redeemer that was 1 the power of God, and the wisdom of God;' the best he had in heaven, his own Son, and in himself a sacrifice for us, that we might be enabled to present ourselves a sacrifice to him. And Christ offered himself for us, the best he had, and that with the strength of the Deity ' through the eternal Spirit;' and shall we grudge God the best part of ourselves ? As God would have a worship from his creature, so it must be with the best part of his creature. If we havo ' given ourselves to the Lord,' 2 Cor. viii. 5, we can worship with no less than ourselves. What is the man without his spirit ? If we are to worship God with all that we havo received from him, we must worship him with the best part we havo received from him. It is but a small glory wo can givo him with tho best, and shall we deprive him of his right by | I giving him tho worst ? As what wo are is from God, so what we are ought to bo for God. Creation is tho foundation of worship : Ps. c. 2, 8, 1 Servo tho Lord with gladness : know yo that the Lord he is God; it is he

that made us.' Ilf hath onnoblod di with spiritual affections; when ii it litttst for as to employ them, bo! upon him? and at what time, but when

ilemnlj to oonTersc with him ? Is bonoor of his beel ' • to ni than ai

thing ni tin' world. < Itbcr tbi • d, that thi

from us, but our spirits are the mosl durable gift. B itional facull mot

I mo\ ed v, ithoul q dissolution of nature.

Weill then ;' ;i 1tod, be i to be bonotu . all the

and ardour that the Infiuit m-l

the incomparable* obligations be hath laid upon as in th pur ban I . In all our worship, therefore, our minds on (hi to b i.' 'I with the admiration, love, and revereui rify

r not our end, and honour him not| onl< choicest we have.

2. We cannot else act towards God accordn be natn

rational en atures. Spiritual worship is due to ( rod, bi can ■■• of bis natn and due from as, because of our nature* As we are to ad G arc to adore him as men, The nature of a rational creature mas impression upon him: heoannoi view his own nature without haying this duty striking upon his mind. As be knows by inspection into himself, that there was a God that made him, so that be is made to be in subjection to I, subjection to him in his spirit as well as bis body, and ought morally to testify this natural dependence on him* His constitution informs him

that he hath a capacity to convene with (Jod J that he cannot CO] ith

him hut by those inward faculties. If it could bo managed by 1. without his spirit, beasts might as well converse with God as men. Jt never be s ' reasonable service' as it ought to be, Horn, xii. 1, unless tbo unable faculties be employed in the management of it. It must be a worship prodigiously lame, without the concurrence of the chiefeet part of man with it. As we are to act conformably to the naturo of the object, so also to the nature of our own faculties. Our faculties in the very gift of them to us were destined to he exercised ; about what ? What ? All other things but the author of them ? It is a conceit cannot enter into the heart of a rational creature, that he should act as such a creature in other thii and as a -tone in things relating to the donor of them ; as a man with his mind about him in the allairs of tbo world, as a beast without reason in his acts towards God. If a man did not employ his reason in other things, he would be an unprofitable creature in the world. If he do not employ his spiritual faculties in worship, he denies them the proper end and use for which they l an him ; it is a practical denial that God hath given him a soul,

and that God hath any right to the exercise of it. It' there were no worship appointed by God in the world, the natural inclination of man to some kind of religion would be in vain ; and if our inward faculties not emp!

in the duties ^( religion, they would be in vain. The true end of God in the endowment of us with them would be defeated by us, as much as lies in us, if we did not serve him with that which we have from him solely at his own cost. As no man can with reason conclude that the rest commanded on the Sabbath, and the sanctitication of it, was only a rest of the .—that had In en performed by the beasts as well as men; but some higher end was aimed at for the rational civature,—so no man can think that the n.mmand for worship terminated only in t: BOS of the I

that God should give tho command to man as a reasonable creature, and expect no other servico from him than that of a br

* Amy: it p. 311.

God did not require a worship from man for any want he had, or any-essential honour that could accrue to him, but that men might testify their gratitude to him, and dependence on him. It is the most horrid ingratitude not to have lively and deep sentiments of gratitude after such obligations, and not to make those due acknowledgments that are proper for a rational creature. Religion is the highest and choicest act of a reasonable creature. No creature under heaven is capable of it that wants reason. As it is a violation of reason not to worship God, so it is no less a violation of reason not to w r orship him with the heart and spirit. It is a high dishonour to God, and defeats him not only of the service due to him from man, but that which is due to him from all the creatures. Every creature, as it is an effect of God's power and wisdom, doth passively worship God; that is, it doth afford matter of adoration to man, that hath reason to collect it and return it where it is due. Without the exercise of the soul, we can no more hand it to God, than without such an exercise we can gather it from the creature; so that by this neglect the creatures are restrained from answering their chief end ; they cannot pay any service to God without man ; nor can man without the employment of his rational faculties render a homage to God, any more than beasts can. This engagement of our inward power stands firm and unviolable, let the modes of worship be what they will, or the changes of them by the sovereign authority of God never so frequent, this could not expire or be changed as long as the nature of man endured. As man had not been capable of a command for worship, unless he had been endued with spiritual faculties, so he is not active in a true practice of worship, unless they be employed by him in it. The constitution of man makes this manner of worship perpetually obligatory, and the obligation can never cease till man cease to be a creature furnished with such faculties. In our worship, therefore, if we would act like rational creatures, we should extend all the powers of our souls to the utmost pitch, and essay to have apprehensions of God equal to the excellency of his nature, which though we may attempt, we can never attain.

t Reason 3. Without this engagement of our spirits, no act is an act of worship. True worship being an acknowledgment of God and the perfections of his nature, results only from the soul, that being only capable of knowing God, and those perfections, which are the object and motive of worship. The posture of the body is but to testify the inward temper and affection of the mind. If therefore it testifies what it is not, it is a lie and no worship. The cringes a beast may be taught to make to an altar may as well be called worship, since a man thinks as little of that God he pretends to honour, as the beast doth of the altar to which he bows. Worship is a reverent remembrance of God, and giving some honour to him with the intention of the soul. It cannot justly have the name of worship that wants the essential part of it. It is an ascribing to God the glory of his nature, an owning subjection and obedience to him as our sovereign Lord. This is as impossible to be performed without the spirit as that there can be life and motion in a body without a soul. It is a drawing near to God, not in regard of his essential presence,—so all things are near to God,—but in acknowledgment of his excellency, which is an act of the spirit; without this, the worst of men in a place of worship are as near to God as the best. The necessity of the conjunction of our soul ariseth from the nature of worship, which being the most serious thing we can be employed in, the highest converse with tho highest object requires the choicest temper of spirit in the performance. That cannot be an act of worship which is not an act of piety and virtue, but thero is no act of virtue done by the members of the

.• wltiiout ths ooncnmnoi of I may m trail

call tho presence of a dead carcass in a pi. ice of \\oi\ship an net of religion,

as tin | | of a 111 iv without an intent spirit.

Of (In lOOl from 0D1 il natural, tin; oil; !; tliat ,<\y

lift less, bat this renders tin-act loathsome I the

soul gives lift; to the 1 Um 0] the

actions. As lie cai form of ■ n. to, I | si .

soul, 10 that cannot bu hip that want an e., antial pai t, the act of |

spirit. (k>d i ill ool fooob ilia an; without I

lisite qnalifi : M ■ ■ i v. 8, 'Tiny shall go with i.

tlwir herds to Mokthi Lord,' Ac A multitude of lamb and bolloci for ■aerinee to epp< i G A'l sag . God would not give it tb

ship, though instituted by himself, when it wand 1 the QUalitii of loh I

. iv. The spirit of whoredom was in the midst of them, fi r« i. [ot

judgment of our Saviour it is a vain worship, WOOD tin; traditions of I

are taught for the doctrines of God, Mat. xv. ( J ; and DO I \ OS DO I t it

1m, when the bodies of men are presented to supplj the plase of their spirits.

IB Omission of duty is a contempt of (ioi reign authority, so I

omission of the manner of it is a contempt of it, an 1 of Oil smisbL I lency ; and that which is a contempt and mockery can lay no jut claim to the title o( worship.

R •' ■■ 1. There is in worship an approach of God to man. It instituted U) this purpose, that God might give out his blessings to DO And Ought not our spirits to he prepftiod an 1 fl aly to receive his communications '.' We are in such acts more- peculiarly in his presence. In the Israelites 1 hearing the law, it said God was to ' come among them,' Exod. xix. It), 11, Then, men aro said to stand before the Lord: Deut. x. 9, 1 G I I ire whom 1 stand;' that is, whom I worship. And therefore wlnn Cain forsook the worship of God, settled in his father's family, ho is

I to 'go out from the presence of the Lord,' Gen. iv. 1G. God is essentially present in the world, graciously present in his church. The name of the evangelical city is Jehovah Shammak: Ezck. xlviii. 35, 'The Lord is there.' God is more graciously present in the evangelical institutions than in the legal; he 'loves the gates of Zion, more than all tho dwellings of Jacob,' Ps. lxxxvii. 2. His evangelical law and worship which was to go forth from Zion, as tho other did from Sinai, Micah iv. 2. God delights to approach to men, and converse with them in the worship instituted in the gospel, more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graciously present, ought not we to bo spiritually present ? A lifeless earcass service becomes not so high and delectable a presence as this ; it is to thrust him from us, not invite him to us ; it is to practise in tho ordinances what tho prophet predicts concerning men's usage of our Saviour:

. liii. 2,' There is no form, no comeliness, nor beauty that we should desiro him.' A slightnesi in worship reflects upon the excellency of the object of worship. God and his worship are so linked together, that whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care, esteems the other not worth his inw . affection. How unworthy a slight is it of God, who proffers the opening his treasure, the n-impres.-ing his imago, conferring his K> us

into his pn when he hath no need for us, wdio hath millions of angels

1 him in his court, and celebrate his praise ! He that worships uot God with his spirit, regards not God's e in his ordinane

slights the groat end of God in them, and that perfection he may attain by them. We can only expect what God hath promised to giv. . wo

render to him what ho hath commanded us to present. If we put oil' God

with a shell, he will put us off with a husk. How can we expect his heart, when we do not not give him ours ? or hope for the blessing needful for us, when we render not the glory due to him ? It cannot be an advantageous worship without spiritual graces ; for those are uniting, and union is the ground of all communion.

Beasoji 5. To have a spiritual worship is God's end in the restoration of the creature, both in redemption by his Son, and sanctification by his Spirit. A fitness for spiritual offerings was the end of the coming of Christ, Mai. iii. 3. He should purge them, as gold and silver by fire, a spirit burning up their dross, melting them into a holy compliance with, and submission to, God. To what purpose ? That they may ' offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness,' a pure offering from a purified spirit. He came to * bring us to God,' 1 Peter iii. 18, in such a garb as that we might be fit to converse with him. Can w r e be thus without a fixedness of our spirits on him ?

The ' offering of spiritual sacrifices' is the end of making any ■ a spiritual habitation, and a holy priesthood,' 1 Peter ii. 5. We can no more be worshippers of God, without a worshipper's nature, than a man be a man without human nature. As man was at first created for the honour and worship of God, so the design of restoring that image, which was defaced by sin, tends to the same end. We are not brought to God by Christ, nor are our services presented to him, if they be without our spirits. Would any man, that undertakes to bring another to a prince, introduce him in a slovenly and sordid habit, such a garb that he knows hateful to him ? or bring the clothes or skin of a man stuffed with straw, instead of the person ? To come with our skins before God, without our spirits, is contrary to the design of God in redemption and regeneration.

If a carnal worship would have pleased God, a carnal heart would have served his turn, without the expense of his Spirit in sanctification. He bestows upon man a spiritual nature, that he may return to him a spiritual service. He enlightens the understanding, that he may have a rational service, and new moulds the will, that he may have a voluntary service. As it is the milk of the word wherewith he feeds us, so it is the service of the word wherewith we must glorify him. So much as there is of confusedness in our understanding, so much of starting and levity in our wills, so much of slipperiness and skipping in our affections, so much is abated of the due qualities of the worship of God, and so much we fall short of the end of redemption and sanctification.

Reason 6. A spiritual worship is to be offered to God, because no worship but that can J)e acceptable. We can never be secured of acceptance without it. He being a Spirit, nothing but the worship in spirit can be suitable to him. What is unsuitable cannot be acceptable. There must be something in us, to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for an actual acceptation. No service is ■ acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,' but as it is a ' spiritual sacrifice,' and offered by a spiritual heart, 1 Pet. ii. 5. The sacrifice is first spiritual, before it be acceptable to God by Christ. When it is ' an offering in righteousness,' it is then, and only then, pleasant to the Lord, Mai. iii. 8, 4. No prince would accept a gift that is unsuitable to his majesty, and bolow the condition of the person that presents it. Would he bo pleased with a bottlo of water for drink, from one that hath his cellar full of wine ? How unacceptable must that be that is unsuitable to the divine majesty ! And what can bo moro unsuitable, than a withdrawing the operations of our souls from him, in the oblation of our bodies ? We as little ' glorify God as God' when wo givo him only a corporeal worship, as the

1: then did when the] nted him In a eorpofoal ibape, Bom. L SI ;

one m well us ili«« other denies his ipiritotl nature. Thii ii iron •, for bad it been lawful I God to the eye, it oool bot

by ■ bodily B pre raited I i >!•• ; bnt sines it is ooeoonary to worship

him, it cannot I..- hv I bottt 11 j 'ion of the

spirit A ipiritaal frame "'">'

adornments, tlmn tl and the ii ;h< -t prophetical illaminati

The glory of lli^ I tnnpli I

A <i l accounts the ipiritaal glory ofordinencei mo I for oj, so

our ipiritaal ettendanos upon ordiaaoc bim. II" that

often the great I riees without it, offers bat fle b: n ■ . riii. 18, ' 1 ifloe Booh In the saerifioee of my offerings, hut the Lord u

not.' Spiritual fr.mi. - IN the soul m religious services ; fill other carriages

without them, areeontemptible to thii spirit. Weeao neroi larelam tli it promiee of God, nun,- ihall ' leek my bee in fain. 1 Wt inset a nun of bim, when we want a doe temper of spirit fox him ; end rain spirits shall ban rain returns. It is more contrary to the natm G d'l

holiness to hare eommnnion with such, than it is contrary to tho nature of

light to hare oommnnion with darkness.

1 Y. To make OM of this : / 1. First, it serves for information.

1. If spiritual worship bo required by God, how sad is it for thorn that are so far from giving God a ipiritaal worship, that they render him no

worship at all ! 1 speak not of tho neglect of puhlic, but of private ; when men present not a devotion to God from one year's end to the other. Tho speech of our Saviour, that we must worship God in spirit and in truth, implies that a worship is duo to him from every one. That is the common impression upon the eonselenoei of all men in tho world, if they hare not, by some constant course in grosi sins, hardened their souls, and stifled those natural sentiments. There was never a nation in the world without some kind of religion, and no religion was ever without some modes to testify a devotion. The heathens had their sacrifices and purifications ; and the Jews, by God's order, had their rites whereby they were to express their allegiance to God.

Consider,

(1.) Worship is a duty incumbent upon all men. It is a homage mankind owes to God, under the relation wherein he stands obliged to him. It is a prime and immutable justice to own our allegiance to him. It is as unchangeable a truth that God is to be worshipped, as that God is. He is to be worshipped as God, as Creator, and therefore by all, since he is the Creator of all, the Lord of all, and all are his creatures, and all are his subjects. Worship is founded upon creation, Ps. c. 2, 3. It is due to God for himself and

Ueoey, and therefore due from all. It is due upon the account of man's nature. The human rational nature is the same in all. "Whatsoever is due to God upon tho account of man's nature, and the natural obligations he hath laid upon man, is duo from all men, because they all enjoy tho benefits which ere proper to their nature.

D in no state Wl | h d, not Ban 1 I exempt d from it. In par

had his Sabbath meats. Man tin r. fore dissolves the obligation

of a r by neglecting the worship of God.

B in the first pUc I. As soon ae Noah eame out of

the ark, he contrived not a habitation for himself, but an altar for the Lord, .-knowledge him the author of his preservation from the doing I

VOL. I. X

viii. 20 ; and wheresoever Abraham came, his first business was to erect an altar, and pay his arrears of gratitude to God, before he ran upon the score for new mercies, Gen. xii. 7, xiii. 4, 18. He left a testimony of worship wherever he came.

(2.) Wholly therefore to neglect it, is a high degree of atheism. He that * calls not upon God,' * saith in his heart, There is no God,' and seems to have the sentiments of natural conscience as to God stifled in him, Ps. xiv. 1, 4. It must arise from a conceit that there is no God, or that we are equal to him (adoration not being due from persons of an equal state), or that God is unable or unwilling to take notice of the adoring acts of his creatures. What is any of these but an undeifying the supreme Majesty ? When we lay aside all thoughts of paying any homage to him, we are in a fair way opinionatively to deny him, as much as we practically disown him. Where there is no knowledge of God, that is, no acknowledgment of God, a gap is opened to all licentiousness, Hos. iv. 1, 2 ; and that by degrees brawns the conscience, and razeth out the sense of God. Those forsake God that ' forget his holy mountain,' Isa. lxv. 11. They do not practically own him as the Creator of their souls or bodies. It is the sin of Cain, who, turning his back upon worship, is said to ■ go out from the presence of the Lord,' Gen. iv. 16. Not to worship him with our spirits, is against his law of creation ; not to worship him at all, is against his act of creation ; not to worship him in truth is hypocrisy ; not to worship him at all is atheism, whereby we render ourselves worse than the worms in the earth, or a toad in a ditch.

(3.) To perform a worship to a false God, or to the true God in a false manner, seems to be less a sin than to live in perpetual neglect of it. Though it be directed to a false object instead of God, yet it is under the notion of a God, and so is an acknowledgment of such a being as God in the world ; whereas the total neglect of any worship is a practical denying of the existence of any supreme Majesty.

Whosoever constantly omits a public and private worship, transgresses against an universally-received dictate, for all nations have agreed in the common notion of worshipping God, though they have disagreed in the several modes and rites whereby they would testify that adoration. By a worship of God, though superstitious, a veneration and reverence of such a being is maintained in the world ; whereas by a total neglect of worship, he is virtually disowned and discarded, if not from his existence, yet from his providence and government of the world. All the mercies we breathe in are denied to flow from him. A foolish worship owns religion, though it bespatters it. As if a stranger coming into a country mistakes a subject for the prince, and pays that reverence to the subject which is due to the prince, though he mistakes the object, yet he owns an authority ; or if he pays any respect to the true prince of that country after the mode of his own, though appearing ridiculous in the place where he is, he owns the authority of the prince ; whereas the omission of all respect would be a contempt of majesty. And therefore, the judgments of God have been more signal upon the sacrilegious contemners of worship among the heathens, than upon those that were diligent and devout in their false worship ; and they generally owned the blessings received, to tho preservation of a sense and worship of a deity among them. Though such a worship bo not acceptable to God, and every man is bound to offer to God a devotion agreeable to his own mind, yet it is commendable, not as worship, but as it speaks an acknowledgment of such a being as God, in his power in creation, and his beneficence in his providence.

Well, then, omissions of worship aro to be avoided. Lot no man execute

tli ii op '•! him •• If, which God will

fend bid God d no him, who will at 11 ' ir God bid bin

dep I liim. '1 h man liatli ' to be

wor \ in ' an h" t, or

it him in a ' !i dit in mil -r. 11 •

if attention npon the fourth command, ' Ii member I p holy

tin 1 S ibbath 'I i < ' ' I

111 ' in it. 'I mmund thoroforo, which cona i

\v i 11

lei au\ • I cannot find

in it. 'I'll. farther from God, the moro carnal mull w N'n man

from the sunl G I commanded ;> circumcised heari in the J< I I"'

ttward tost of religion Ii" bad then

appointed; In* rding to his command* thai th

tli<> sacrifices, and practise the legal purifications he had commandi would have them diligently (h he had di that he imp • I

them only for a tin: . II Saviour <>:•! PC 1 tin' practice of I

tiw rights as long as the law remained anrepealed, as in the ease of I

r, Mark \iv. I. It is an injustice t ) refuse tin- ofterin

to the manner lie hath in his wisdom prescribed rain 1.

I • piritn il worship I ■ l. then

2. It informs ns, tint diligence in ontward worship is not to 1 ; in.

t* may attend all their days on worshipi with a j i heart and on-

quickened frame, and think to compensate the neglect of the manner, with abundance of the matter of service. ( I

and liv nol the itself. As th. th of sin lies in

the inward frame of the h. art, so tl tgth of worship in the inward com-

plezion and temper oi the sonl. Whai do a thousar: 1 'vail, with-

out Cutting the throat ofoOT carnal aff I What are loud praveTS, hut

ounding brass and tinkling cymbals, without divine charity I A Pharisaical dilig< nee in outward form-, without inward spirit, had no better a title-by <mr Saviour, than that of hypocritical. God d -'res not Lfices, nor delights in burnt offerings. Shadows arc not to be offered of substance. God required the heart of man for itself; but commanded ontward ceremonies, as subservient to inward worship, and spurs unto it. Th never appointed as the substance of religion,

auxiliaries to it. "What value had the offering of the human nature of Chri ; of, if he had OOt had a divine nature to qualify him the

pri " I And what is the oblation of our bodies, without a prie8tly act of t in the ,'ation of it! Could th I lites have called them-

mhippers «>f God according to his order, if they had brought a that had died in a ditch, or been killed at borne ? They Mr, the I at the foot of it. A

ithout, had no* luable as one brought

alive to tin Iter than a thousand

rott' ire iii tl .vithout

relai th.- antitype, so fa H the ontward i

hip, without faith in the Red I !-r a holy with a sapless

of the same nature with that of the Israel n they

A I spiritual worship is dead whiles he

h by hi Is of it, bo may, like the

angel of the ehorefa a name to live,' Kev. iii. 1. What

• Daille, . ii.

security can we expect from a multitude of dead services ! "What weak shields are they against the holy eye and revenging wrath of God ! What man, but one out of his wits, would solicit a dead man to be his advocate or champion ? Diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in.

Use 2. Shall be for examination. Let us try ourselves concerning the manner of our worship. We are now in the end of the world, and the dregs of time ; wherein the apostle predicts, there may be much of a ■ form, and little of the power of godliness,' 2 Tim. iii. 1, 5. And therefore it stands us in hand to search into ourselves, whether it be not thus with us ; whether there be as much reverence in our spirits, as there may be devotion in our countenances and outward carriages.

1. How therefore are our hearts prepared to worship? Is our diligence greater to put our hearts in an adoring posture, than our bodies in a decent garb ? Or are we content to have a muddy heart, so we may have a dressed carcass ? To have a spirit a cage of unclean birds, while we wipe the filth from the outside of the platter, is no better than a pharisaical devotion, and deserves no better a name than that of a whited sepulchre.

Do we take opportunities to excite and quicken our spirits to the performance, and cry aloud with David, ' Awake, awake, my glory '? Are not our hearts asleep when Christ knocks ? When we hear the voice of God, ' Seek my face,' do we answer him with warm resolutions, ' Thy face, Lord, we will seek'? Ps. xxvii, 8. Do we comply with spiritual motions, and strike whiles the iron is hot ? Is there not more of reluctancy than readiness ? Is there a quick rising of the soul in reverenee to the motion, as Eglon to Ehud, or a sullen hanging the head at the first approach of it ? Or if our hearts seem to be engaged and on fire, what are the motives that quicken that fire ? Is it only the blast of a natural conscience, fear of hell, desires of heaven as abstracted from God ? Or is it an affection to God, an obedient will to please him, longings to enjoy him, as a holy and sanctifying God in his ordinances, as well as a blessed and glorified God in heaven ?

What do we expect in our approaches from him? That which may make divine impressions upon us, and more exactly conform us to the divine nature ? Or do we design nothing but an empty formality, a rolling eye, and a filling the air with a few words, without any openings of heart to receive the incomes, which according to the nature of the duty might be conveyed to us ? Can this be a spiritual worship ? The soul then ' closely waits' upon him, when its ' expectation is only from him,' Ps. lxii. 6. Are our hearts seasoned with a sense of sin, a sight of our spiritual wants, raised notions of God, glowing affections to him, strong appetite after a spiritual fulness ? Do we rouse up our sleepy spirits, and make a covenant with all that is within us to attend upon him ? So much as we want of this, so much we come short of a spiritual worship. In Ps. lvii. 7, ' My heart is fixed, 0 God, my heart is fixed.' David would fix his heart, before he would engage in a praising act of worship. He appeals to God about it, and that with doubling the expression, as being certain of an inward preparedness. Can we make tho same appeals in a fixation of spirit ?

2. How are our hearts fixed upon him, how do they cleave to him in the duty ? Do wo resign our spirits to God, and make them an entire holocaust, a whole burnt-offering in his worship ? Oh, do we not willingly admit carnal thoughts to mix themselves with spiritual duties, and fasten our minds to tho creature, under pretences of directing them to the Creator ? Do we not pass a mere compliment on God, by some superficial act of devotion, while somo covetous, envious, ambitious, voluptuous imagination may possess our minds ? Do we not invert God's order, and worship a lust instead of God

With our spirit, that should DOl baffll the I • sHbet from our souls

Of I", lief, lut widi :i ipiritual disdain I" serineed to the just indignation of God? ii »w <>H. n do ' ii al, mi tar ;'

instaad of eruoif su thoa L rdofouruTafj ow

outward aai I ooi inward stark naught! Do wo not often

regard iniquity mora than God In ooi baarta, in i ' wot nip, roll

soma filthy imi i aa a sweet morsel under our * i,rn

than in <i "!'.' Do not. our ipiriti imeU rani of tartta whil ; r to li ' l b n full of thick el ' !i(, ' r

' bandi ware fill of blood' '•' I a. L L5. Whan W6 narifl 4 wrap

op our lonli in <• tmmunion with some sordid fancy, whan we mould sntwme our ipiriti about an amiabl G I '•' While we hi d him, i

lore to somethii bin f Thi i i to >, or

iwaar by the Lord, end by tfalenam, Zeph. i. r>. n d doth an a]

fancy ren ier e service inwardly ridiculous, under outward postuMi

skipping to the shop, wareho mting-house, in the spaeeof ■ short

prayer] And we are before God as i Babel, a confusion of internal Ian-■ I this in those parts of worship which are in the right use moat agreeable to God, profitable for ourselYes, ruinous to the kingdom of sin

ami Sat in, and me HIS to bring US into a closer communion with tl o divine

majesty. Can this be i spiritual worship?

'A. Bowdoi in worship? Though the instrument he strung,

if tIn* Btrings be not wound up, what melody ean be the issue? All readi-

1 alacrity discover a strength of nature, and a read Hi CSS in spirituals

irituality in the heart. As nnsifecting th of God are

not spiritual thoughts, so unanTeeting addresses to God are not spiritual add' Well then, what awakenings and elevations of faith and love-

have we? what strong outflowing of our souls to him? what indignation

inet sin? what admirations of redeeming grace? How low have we brought our corruptions to the footstool of Christ, to be mado his conquered enemies ? how straitly have wo clasped our faith about the cross and the throne of < to become his intimate spouse? Do we in hearing

hang upon the lips of Christ; in prayer, take hold of God and will not let him go ; in confession, rend the caul of our hearts, and indict out souls before him with a deep humility ? Do we act more by a soaring love than a drooping fear ? So far as our spirits are servile, so far they are legal and carnal ; so much as they aro free and spontaneous, so much they are evangelical and spiritual. As men under the law are subject to the constraint of . Heb. ii. 15, ' all their lifetime,' in all their worship, so under the

ipel they are under a constraint of love, 2 Cor. v. 11. How then are believing affections exercised, which are always accompanied with holy I a f. ar of his goodness that admits us into his presence, and a fear to offend him in our act of worship ? So much as we have of forced or feeble affection, so much we have of carnality.

1. li v do We find our harts after worship? By our after-carriage wo may judge ^i the spirituality of it.

(1.) How ai I to inward strength ? When a worship is spiritually

M is more strengthened, corruption more mortified. The soul, like Samson after his awakening, goes out with a renewed strength. As tho inward man is renewed day by day, that is, every day, so it is renewed in every worship. Every shower makes tho grass and fruit grow in g •■ rand where the root I, and the weeds where the ground is

naught. The more prepared the heart is to obedience in other duties after worship, tho more evidence there is that it hath been spiritual in the eicr-

cise of it. It is the end of God in every dispensation, as in that of John Baptist, to • make ready a people prepared for the Lord,' Luke i. 17 ; when the heart is by worship prepared for fresh acts of obedience, and hath a more exact watchfulness against the encroachments of sin. As carnal men, after worship, sprout up in spiritual wickedness, so do spiritual worshippers in spiritual graces. Spiritual fruits are a sign of a spiritual frame. When men are more prone to sin after duty, it is a sign there was but little communion with God in it, and a greater strength of sin, because such an act is contrary to the end of worship, which is the subduing of sin. It is a sign the physic hath wrought well, w r hen the stomach hath a better appetite to its appointed food; and worship hath been well performed when we have a stronger inclination to other acts well pleasirig to God, and a more sensible distaste of those temptations we too much relished before. It is a sign of a good concoction, when there is a greater strength in the vitals of religion, a more eager desire to know God. When Moses had been praying to God, and prevailed with him, he puts up a higher request, to behold his glory, Exod. xxxiii. 13, 18. When the appetite stands strong to fuller discoveries of God, it is a sign there hath been a spiritual converse with him.

(2.) How is it especially as to humility. The Pharisees' worship was, without dispute, carnal; and we find them not more humble after all their devotions, but over-grown with more weeds of spiritual pride; they performed them as their righteousness. What men dare plead before God in his day, they plead before them in their hearts in their day; but this men will do at the day of judgment, 'we have prophesied in thy name,' &c, Mat. vii. 11. They shew what tincture their services left upon their spirits. That which excludes them from any acceptation at the last day, excludes them from any estimation of being spiritual in this day. The carnal worshippers charge God with injustice in not rewarding them, and claim an acceptation as a compensation due to them: Isa. lviii. 3, ' Wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou takest no knowledge?' A spiritual worshipper looks upon his duties with shame, as well as he doth upon his sins with confusion, and implores the mercy of God for the one as well as the other. In Psalm cxliii. 2, the prophet David, after his supplications, begs of God not to enter into judgment with him, and acknowledges any answer that God should give him, as a fruit of his faithfulness to his promise, and not the merit of his worship. * In thy faithfulness answer me,' &c. Whatsoever springs from a gracious principle, and is the breath of the Spirit, leaves a man more humble; whereas that which proceeds from a stock of nature, hath the true blood of nature running in the veins of it, viz., that pride which is naturally derived from Adam. The breathing of the divine Spirit is in everything to conform us to our Kedeemer; that being the main work of his office is his work in every particular Christian act influenced by him. Now Jesus Christ in all his actions was an exact pattern of humility. After the institution and celebration of the Supper, a special act of worship in the church, though he had a sense of all the authority his Father had given him, yet he humbles himself to wash his disciples' feet, John xiii. 2-4. And after his sublime prayer, John xvii., he humbles himself to the death, and oners himself to his murderers, because of his Father's pleasure: John xviii. 1, ' When he had spoken those words, he went over the brook KedroiT into the garden. What is the end of God in appointing worship is the end of a spiritual heart in offering it, not his own exaltation, but God's glory. Glorifying tho namo of God is the fruit of that evangelical worship the Gontiles were in timo to give to God: Ps. lxxxvi. 9, ■ All nations which thou hast mado shall come and worship before thee, 0 Lord; and shall

JoliN IV. 'J I. Sl'IKIHAl. W.Kiill'. B27

glorify thy name.' I.. 1 U examine, Hi, n, wi BDg ourselves tie r

in of Mm- own vil.nr. s tnd glorioiu i Spirit.

SrliMrni.il ii tin heart <«f all go I. [olicol spiritual worahip

mi »t be without the at of the main

\\ ii.it u, 1. ■■ ' V, • | and what ig

tin" oojecl of that ] i amunioo b td with Godi i

ilii.-n.-\ in i I it something which bath touched on ,,r

tickled our fane ' \ th th of Bin \a known by th 'f<d

tlic : it aftor tln« oomii the

object of our delightful romombrance after the perxonnani , [I was a David ritual in the worship of God in the tabernacl I 1

it. I ed for the spiritual part of it when he was exiled from it.

II :ily for liberl the tab rnacle, bul

* power and glory of <tod is the I' •

buii. 2. His d for it oonld not have been ao ardent, if hi

upon what had paaaad had not been delightful; dot could oil aoul be i I out in him for the want of Buch opportumtiefi if the remembrance c wu-

• he had had with < tod had noi bean accompanied with i delightful reli r . alii. I. Let ui examine what delight we find in ourspiril nip.

I's? :i is of comfort. An<l it is \. rv aomfortabla I i ler that toe

leal worahip with tin 1 bear! and spirit, flowing from a principle ofgn .

is more acceptable than the moat pompom vent ration, yea, if the oblal

were aa preoioua aa the whole circuit of heaven and earth, without it. That

eup of cold wai □ to any as nil disciple, will value

rvioe above s costly Bacrince. God hath his eye upon them that

honour his nature. II.- would not 'seek such to Worship him' if he did not intend tO aceepi Mich a worship from them. "When wc therefor.: invoko him, and prai8e]him, which are the prime parti of religion, he will receivo it I ..our from us, and 0V< rlook intirmities mixed with the graces.

The great [natter of discomfort, and that which makes us question tho spirituality of worship, is the many starts of our spirits and roving! to other thin

r to which,

1. It is to be confessed that these starts arc natural to us. Who is free from them'? We bear in our own bosom a nest of turbulent thoughts, which, like busy gnats, will be buzzing about us while we are in our most inward and spiritual converses. Many wild beasts lurk in a man's heart, as in a close and covert wood, and scarce' discover themselves but at our solemn worship.

Xo duty BO holy, no worship so spiritual, that can wholly privilege us from them. They will jog us in our most weighty employments, that, as I said to Cain, sin lies at the door, and enters in, and makes a riot in our souls. As it is said of wicked men, they cannot sleep for multitudo of thoughts, Eccles. v. 12, so it may be of many a good man, he cannot worship for multitudo of thoughts. There will bo starts, and more in our religious than natural employments; it is natural to man. Some therefore think thel tied to Aaron'fl garments between the pomegrana: to

warn the people, and recall their fugitive mindl to the present service, wl they heard the sound of them, upon the least motion of the high pri The Bacrifice of Abraham, the father of the faithful, was not t from

the f..wis picking at it, Gen. xv. 11. Zeehariah himself was drowsy in the

midst of his vision, which being more ai causo a heavenly

intentneaa: Zech. iv. l. pel that talked with me came again, and

awaked me, as a man out of sleep." He had |>een roueed up

before, but he was ready to drop down again; his heart was gone t.ll the

angel jogged him. We may complain of such imaginations, as Jeremiah doth of the enemies of the Jews : Lam. iv. 19, ' Our persecutors are swifter than eagles;' they light upon us with as much speed as eagles upon a carcass ; they pursue us upon the mountain of divine institution, and they lay wait for us in the wilderness, in our retired addresses to God.

And this will be so while,

(1.) There is natural corruption in us. There are in'a godly man two contrary principles, flesh and spirit, which endeavour to hinder one another's acts,,and are always stirring upon the offensive or defensive part, Gal. v. 17. There is a body of death continually exhaling its noisome vapours. It is a body of death in our worship as well as in our natures; it snaps our resolutions asunder, Rom. vii. 19; it hinders us in the doing good, and contradicts our wills in the stirring up evil. This corruption being seated in all the faculties, and a constant domestic in them, has the greater opportunity to trouble us, since it is by those faculties that we spiritually transact with God; and it stirs more in the time of religious exercises, though it be in part mortified; as a wounded beast, though tired, will rage and strive to its utmost, when the enemy is about to fetch a blow at it. All duties of worship tend to the wounding of corruption; and it is no wonder to feel the striving of sin to defend itself and offend us, when we have our arms in our hands to mortify it, that the blow may be diverted which is directed against it.

The apostles had aspiring thoughts, and being persuaded of an earthly kingdom, expected a grandeur in it. And though we find some appearance of it at other times,—as when they were casting out devils, and gave an account of it to their Master, he gives them a kind of a check, Luke x. 20, intimating that there was some kind of evil in their rejoicing upon that account,—yet this never swelled so high as to break out into a quarrel who should be greatest, until they had the most solemn ordinance, the Lord's supper, to quell it, Luke xxii. 24. Our corruption is like lime, which discovers not its fire by any smoke or heat till you cast water, the enemy of fire, upon it; neither doth our natural corruption rage so much as when we are using means to quench and destroy it.

(2.) While there is a devil, and we in his precinct. As he accuseth us to God, so he disturbs us in ourselves ; he is a bold spirit, and loves to intrude himself when we are conversing with God. We read that when the angels presented themselves before God, Satan comes among them, Job i. 6. Motions from Satan will thrust themselves in with our most raised and angelical frames. He loves to take off the edge of our spirits from God; he acts but after the old rate; he from the first envied God an obedience from man, and envied man the felicity of communion with God; he is unwilling God should have the honour of worship, and that we should have the fruit of it; he hath himself lost it, and therefore is unwilling we should enjoy it; and being subtle, he knows how to make impressions upon us suitable to our inbred corruptions, and assaults us in the weakest part; he knows all the avenues to get within us (as he did in the temptation of Eve), and being a spirit, ho wants not a power to dart them immediately upon our fancy; and being a spirit, and therefore active and nimble, he can shoot thoso darts faster than our weakness can beat them off. He is diligent also, and watcheth for his prey, and seeks to devour our services as well as our souls, and snatch our best morsels from us. We know he mixed himself with our Saviour's retirements in the wilderness, and endeavoured to fly-blow his holy converse with his Father in the preparation to his mediatory work.

.1 EX l\'. 14.] spikiii \i. WCH

i i Q i'; np^, rui'l imitates the Spirit in

braneer. Ah the Spirit bri I ' and dlTUM DTO - mind,

to quicken our iroi liip, s<i ti.. • i.--, l i.r.n >h evil t ! i dud I, an I 11 lee>

foun to Easten th.m in our loul i to di tnrb as. And though all th<

o liavo in woi hip am nut pun he claps his hands, ami I them «>n I.I.. vico in ■

An I both thoM di which ari is from our \

, in wor ihip wh< □ |

affliction. This 860D1S t . 1. • I > r. Wli.ri, |] II,

he prays God to ' unite his heart to bar and ame/ hi

■ under some affliction, or f< ar of hi i 0 me from ti

tioos of spirit, and those p which arise in i ii upon t

■ the d( f my en< m es s and

ji'1'1 i thee and attendance on thru. Job also in his afflictio

plains, Job xvii. 11, that his purpOSM WOTe broken off« EL COUld not

make an eren thn thoughts and resolutions; the; guentry

mapped ter, like rotten yam when one is winding op.

1 tin n and spiritual worshippers have lain onder this trouble. r I'l. they are a sign of weaknj . or some ol itruetions in tl 5 of

•■•, yel they are no! alway evidences of s wan1 of graeOi What ariseth from our own corruption, is to be matter of humiliation and resist-

aiii'i' ; what ariseth from Satan, should edge OUT minds to S Doble OOnqj

of them* If the apostle did comfort himself with liis disapproving of what

1 • from the natural Spring of sin within him, with his law

from his Inst, ami charges it not upon him- If, but upon the sin that dwelt in him, with whieh he had broken off the for). ic, and

was resolved never to enter into amity with it, by the same reason wo may comfort ourselves, if such thoughts arc undelighte 1 in, and alienate not our hearts from the worship of God by all their busy intrusions to interrupt us.

1?. These distractions (not allowed) may be occasions, by an holy improvement, to make our hearts moro spiritual after worship, though they disturb us in it, by answering those ends for which we may suppose God permits them to invade us. And that is,

(1.) When they arc occasions to bumble us.

[1.] For our carriage in the particular worship. There is nothing so

us as spiritual pride; it deprived devils and men of the presence of

1 1, and will binder us of the influence of God. If we had had raised and

uninterrupted motions in worship, we should bo apt to be lifted up; and

the devil stands ready to tempt us to self-confidence. You know how it

with Paul, k 2 Cor. xii. 1-7, his bufietingS were occasions to render him

more spiritual than his raptures, because more humble. God sutlers those

. starts, and distractions to prevent our spiritual pride, which is

as a worm at the root of spiritual worship, and minds us of the dusty frame

ir spirits, how easily they are blown away, afl he sends sickness to put

us in mind of the shortness of our breath ami the ca to lose it. God

lid make US ashamed of ourselves in bis p . that we may

what is good in any duty is merely from his grace and Spirit, and not

from ; that with Paul W6 may cry out, ' By hat wo

are,' and by gr do what wa do. We may be hereby ma bio

' God can alway find something in OUT 1 of

yiug us the successful fruit If we cannot stand upon our dnl

for salvation, what can wo bottom upon in ourselves? If, the: they

are occasions to make us out of love with any righteousness of our own, to make us break our hearts for them because we cannot keep them out, if we mourn for them as our sins, and count them our great afflictions, we have attained that brokenness which is a choice ingredient in a spiritual sacrifice. Though we have been disturbed by them, yet we are not robbed of the success ; we may behold an answer of our worship in our humiliation in spite of all of them.

_ [2.] For the baseness of our nature. These unsteady motions help us to discern that heap of vermin that breeds in our nature. Would any man think he had such an averseness to his Creator and benefactor, such an unsuitableness to him, such an estrangedness from him, were it not for his inspection into his distracted frames ? God suffers this to hang over us as a rod of correction, to discover and fetch out the folly of our hearts. Could we imagine our natures so highly contrary to that God who is so infinitely amiable, so desirable an object, or that there should be so much folly and madness in the heart, as to draw back from God in those services which God hath appointed as pipes through which to communicate his grace, to convey himself, his love, and goodness to the creature ? If, therefore, we have a deep sense of, and strong reflections upon, our base nature, and bewail that mass of averseness which lies there, and that fulness of irreverence towards the God of our mercies, the object of our worship, it is a blessed improvement of our wanderings and diversions. Certainly if any Israelite had brought a lame and rotten lamb to be sacrificed to God, and afterward had bewailed it, and laid open his heart to God in a sensible and humble confession of it, that repentance had been a better sacrifice, and more acceptable in the sight of God, than if he had brought a sound and a living offering.

(2.) When they are occasions to make us prize duties of worship. When we argue, as rationally we may, that they are of singular use, since our corrupt hearts and a malicious devil doth chiefly endeavour to hinder us from them, and that we find we have not those gadding thoughts when we are upon worldly business, or upon any sinful design which may dishonour God and wound our souls, this is a sign sin and Satan dislike worship, for he is too subtile a spirit to oppose that which would further his kingdom. As it is an argument the Scripture is the word of God, because the wickedness of the world doth so much oppose it, so it is a ground to believe the profitableness and excellency of worship because Satan and our own unruly hearts do so much interrupt us in it. If, therefore, we make this use of our cross-steps in worship, to have a greater value for such duties, more affections to them and desires to be frequent in them, our hearts are growing spiritual, under the weights that would depress them to carnality.

(3.) When we take a rise from hence, to have heavenly admirations of the graciousness of God; that he should pity and pardon so many slight addresses to him, and give any gracious returns to us. Though men have foolish ranging every day, and in every duty, yet free grace is so tender as not to punish them: Gen. viii. 21, ■ And the Lord smelt a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not curse the ground for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.' It is observable that this was just after a sacrifice which Noah offered to God, ver. 20 ; but probably not without infirmities common to human nature, which may be grounded upon the reason God gives, that though ho had destroyed the earth before, because of tho evil of man's imaginations, Gen. vi. 5, he still found evil imaginations ; he doth not say in the heart of Shem, or others of Noah's family, but in man's heart, including Noah also, who had both the judgments

of I tod ujii.il the format irorl I, tod th '' ,m

before Ins tv. ; ; \. i\v evil imp

fend thou [fa It wi i I i: ': •

finding our hea ml in wot bip, al frames of thank

that (hod li t:h height o< I in our adi

soy fruil of such i di trad from

them to frame, which < bumble

ftoki of < IcmI. \\ In u I»..

tuuiul: i rhieh had lutll-d his mind, and p < .vsed h.

nnl i notions of < tod in the j

b doth bis bouI mount in astonishment and thankful] merej, rer, 12, Notwithstanding bisdisl God did gracioo his promise, and answer bis desire; then it is, * What shall I i tho

I i.'' Bis bear! was more affected for it, because it, bad b

•::tt.> in former distrusts. It is indeed i ground of wond< patience of the Spirit of < k> 1, thai he should guide out hearts ■-•.;..

• ill OUt ; as it. is tin patience of I BIS V I to gtli li

scholar, while he mixes his writing with many blot . it- is not on infirmities the spirit helps us in, and helps over, but many, Bom. viii. I Bign of a spiritual heart when lie can take ■ rise to bl I

the renewing and blowing op his affections, In the midai

08 from Satan to th ry, and tin: lcadinc.-s of 1.

to comply with them.

When we take occasion from thence to priae the mediation of Christ. The more distractions jog us, the more ne< d we should n ing out to a

B now by faith. One part of cur Saviour's office is to stand between us and the infirmities of our worship. Ashe is an advocate, he presents our

Services, and pleads for th.iii and us, 1 John ii. 1 ; for the sins of our duti ,

ell SS for our other BUIS. Jesus Christ is an high priest, S] I by

God to take away the iniquities Of our holy things, which \ I by

ite upon his mitre, Exod. ixviii. 86, :'> s . Were th. re no im]

Li >i;s, wire there- no creeping up of those frogs into our minds, we would think our worship would merit acceptance with God upon its own account ; if we behold our own weakness, that not a tear, a groan, a sigh is so pure, but must have Christ to make it entertainable ; that there is no worship without those blemishes; aud upon this, throw all our services into the I of Christ for acceptance, and solicit him to put his merits in the front to make our ciphers app. ar valuable : it is a spiritual act, th-in the gospel being to advance the honour and mediation of his Son. That ■ a spiritual and evangelical act, which answers the evangelical design. The f Satan and our own corruption is defeated, when those interruption as run swifter, and take faster hold on the high priest, who is to our worship to God, and our own souls rei by. Christ had temptations offered to him by I rfl in his wilderness

that from an imental knowled ight be able more com]

sioi. succour us, lleh. ii. 18: w< . raoh assaults in our

cially, that wo may he able more highly to value him and his saed

8. Let us not therefore I by those interruptions ..

of our 1. (1.) If we find in oureeh .nee of them. The flesh will

be lusting: that cannot be hindered ; yet if we do not fulfil I I it,

up at it.- command and go about it , we may 1 6

rit: Gal. v. 16, 17, alk in the Spirit,' if we ' iuliii not the lusts of

the flesh,' though there be a lusting of the flesh against the spirit. So we worship in the Spirit, though there be carnal thoughts arising, if we do not fulfil them; though the stirring of them discovers some contrariety in us to God, yet the resistance manifests that there is a principle of contrariety in us to them ; that as there is something of flesh that lusts against the spirit, so there is something of spirit in worship which lusts against the flesh. We must take heed of omitting worship, because of such inroads, and lying down in the mire of a total neglect. If our spirits are made more lively and vigorous against them; if those cold vapours which have risen from our hearts, make us like a spring in the midst of the cold earth more warm, there is in this case more reason for us to bless God than to be discouraged. God looks upon it as the disease, not the wilfulness of our nature; as the weakness of the flesh, not the wilfulness of the spirit. If we would shut the door upon them, it seems they are unwelcome company; men do not use to lock their doors upon those they love : if they break in and disturb us with their impertinencies, we need not be discomforted, unless we give them a share in our affections, and turn our back upon God to entertain them. If their presence makes us sad, their flight would make us joyful.

(2.) If we find ourselves excited to a stricter watch over our hearts against them; as travellers will be careful when they come to places where they have been robbed before, that they be not so easily surprised again. We should not only lament when we have had such foolish imaginations in worship breaking in upon us, but also bless God that we have had no more, since we have hearts so fruitful of weeds. We should give God the glory when we find our hearts preserved from these intruders, and not boast of ourselves, but return him our praise for the watch and guard he kept over us to preserve us from such thieves.

Let us not be discomforted; for as the greatness of our sins upon our turning to God is no hindrance to our justification, because it doth not depend upon our conversion as the meritorious cause, but upon the infinite value of our Saviour's satisfaction, which reaches the greatest sins as well as the least, so the multitude of our bewailed distractions in worship are not a hindrance to our acceptation, because of the uncontrollable power of Christ's intercession.

Use 4 is for exhortation. Since spiritual worship is due to God, and the Father seeks such to worship him, how much should we endeavour to satisfy the desire and order of God, and act conformable to the law of our creation and the love of redemption ! Our end must be the same in worship which was God's end in creation and redemption : to glorify his name, set forth his perfections, and be rendered fit, as creatures and redeemed ones, to partake of that grace which is the fruit of worship. An evangelical dispensation requires a spiritual homage; to neglect, therefore, either the matter or manner of gospel duties, is to put a slight upon gospel privileges. The manner of duty is ever of more value than the matter; the scarlet dye is more precious than the cloth tinctured with it. God respects more the disposition of the sacrificer than the multitude of the sacrifices.* The solemn feasts appointed by God were but dung, as managed by the Jews, Mai. ii. 3. The heart is often welcome without the body, but the body never grateful without the heart. Tho inward acts of the Spirit require nothing from without to constitute them good in themselves ; but the outward acts of devotion require inward acts to render them savoury to God. As the goodness of outward acts consists not in tho acts themselves, so tho acceptableness of them

* MaXXov rh dou.uovioj xpo; rh tuv (pvovrwv r\Qog % ruv QuofAtvwv TXqOog. — Porphyr. de Abstincntia.

John IV. 21.] himuihai. v..#i. mi-, ;;;;:;

i ifa not from the aeta them i thi Inward fri

and quickening tho . m blood iad ipiriti running throe i of

1 duty tO make it u li. . flOfl in ■ : < \i I. In,), • in

WOnthip hinder not God's a ,rt spirit. -I lr. /rare b.,

then to ir. 'J'n :i of borning fle h tod fill

the I •!. render tl i the outward sonsos, but

i imelt 1 SWcct S!l\ulir ill tlielU us tl.. J I. I

heart unci spirit are oilcred up to < i- •«1. it may be a aav<.;;j v <lu' v, too attend, d with unsavoury imp. rfection . ; bnt a thousand

stamp of ia.th, a thooaaod ipiritoal datiei with an bahitual oarnalitj,

•icli with <kxL i pnrs i, as well as the temple wi mr, of

tlm thie\is that would rob (lod of In. due iromnip. Antiquity bad at

, wharein it was a erime to bring any gold; th I thai

irorahip laid their gold aside h. fore they wen! into th.- tempi .

should lay aside our worldly and trading thou ,n we B

ship: l-;t. xwi. '.), ' With my spirit within me will I toak lb I.

our mindi ha gadding abroad, and exiled from God and than It

will be thus whan * the deaire of our soul ii to oil nam.-, and the ran* 1 ranee of him,' far. 8. When ha hath given ao gn at and admirable a gift,

bat Of his Son, in whom an all things necessary to salvation, ness, peace, and pardon of sin, we should manage the r. in.ml.r nil

name in worship with the oloaaai nnitodneoi of heart, and the most spiritual aflaotiona. The motion of the spirit ii the brat act in religion ; to thi

in i v.-1-y act. The dan! requires the spirit of his votaries: should

bare I loH dedication than tho devil? Bfiol l bank this exhortation :

1. Not to give God our spirit is a groat sin. It is a mockery of God, not

Worship ; contempt, not adoration, whatever our outward fervencv or pro-

itioni may be.* Every alienation of our hearts from him is a real scorn

put upon him. The acts of the soul are real, and more tho acts of the man

than the acts of the body, because thej are the acts of the choicest part of

man, and of that which is the first spring of all bodily motions ; it is tho

}.6yo; iibiadiro;, tho internal speech, whereby we must speak with God. To

give him, therefore, only an external form of worship, without the life of it,

is a taking his name in vain. We mock him, when we mind not what wo

are -pi aking to him, or what he is speaking to us ; when the motions of our

hearts are contrary to the motions of our tongues ; when we do anything

before him slovenly, impudently, or rashly. As in a lutinist it is absurd to

sing one tune and play another, so it is a foul thing to tell God one tl

With our lips, and think another thing with our hearts. It is a sin like that

the apostle chargeth the heathens with: Rom. i. 28, ' They like not to retain

I in their know ledge ;' their stomachs are sick while thej are upon any

duty, and never leave working, till they have thrown up all the spiritual part

of worship, and rid th. I of the thoughts of God, which are as unwel-

:id troublesome guests to them. Whan nun behave tin 1 in

1 tod as if God. were not God, they do not only defame him, but

. him, and violate the unchangeable p, s of the divine nature.

(1.) It IS against the majesty of God, when we have not awful thoughts of

tha ; when our souls cleave not to him

wL. d him in prayer, or whan i. - out Disorders in bis word.

It is a conti mpt of the majesty of a prince, if, whiles he is speaking to

we listen not to him ei. nee and attention, but turn our backs on

• Son laUl irolcstalio contra factum, ia a rule in tho civil law.

him to play with one of his hounds or talk with a beggar, or while we speak to him to rake in a dunghill. Solomon adviseth us to ' keep our foot when we go to the house of God,' Eccles. v. 1. Our affections should be steady, and not slip away again ; why ? ver. 2. Because ' God is in heaven,' &c. He is a God of majesty, earthly dirty frames are unsuitable to the God of heaven, low spirits are unsuitable to the Most High. We would not bring our mean servants or dirty dogs in a prince's presence chamber ; yet we bring not only our worldly but our profane affections into God's presence. We give in this case those services to God which our governor would think unworthy of him, Mai. i. 8. The more excellent and glorious God is, the greater contempt of him it is to suffer such foolish affections to be competitors with him for our hearts. It is a scorn put upon him to converse with a creature while we are dealing with him ; but a greater to converse in our thoughts and fancies with some sordid lust which is most hateful to him. And the more aggravation it attracts, in that we are to apprehend him, the most glorious object, sitting upon his throne in time of worship, and ourselves standing as vile creatures before him, supplicating for our lives, and the conveyances of grace and mercy to our souls. As if a grand mutineer, instead of humble begging the pardon of his offending prince, should present his petition not only scribbled and blotted, but besmeared with some loathsome excrement. It is unbecoming the majesty both of God and the worship itself, to present him with a picture instead of substance, and bring a world of nasty affections in our hearts, and ridiculous toys in our heads before him, and worship with indisposed and heedless souls. Mai. i. 14, He is a great king, therefore address to him with fear and reverence.

(2.) It is against the life of God. Is a dead worship proportioned to a living God ? The separation of heavenly affections from our souls before God, makes them as much a carcass in his sight as the divorce of the soul makes the body a carcass. When the affections are separated, worship is no longer worship but a dead offering, a lifeless bulk ; for the essence and spirit of worship is departed. Though the soul be present with the body in a way of information, yet it is not present in a way of affection, and this is the w r orst; for it is not the separation of the soul from informing that doth separate a man from God, but the removal of our affections from him. If a man pretend an application to God, and sleep and snore all the time, without question such a one did not worship. In a careless worship the heart is morally dead while the eyes are open. The heart of the spouse awaked whiles her eyes slept, Cant. v. 2, and our hearts on the contrary sleep while our eyes awake.

Our blessed Saviour hath died to ' purge our consciences from dead works' and frames, that we may ' serve the living God,' Heb. ix. 14; to serve God as a God of life. David's soul cried and fainted for God under this consideration, Ps. xlii. 2. But to present our bodies without our spirits is such a usage of God that implies he is a dead image, not worthy of any but a dead and heartless service, like one of those idols the psalmist speaks of, Ps. cxv. 5, that ' have eyes and see not, ears and hear not,' no life in it. Though it be not an objective idolatry, because the worship is directed to the true God, yet I may call it a subjective idolatry, in regard of the frame, lit only to be presented to some senseless stock. We intimate God to be no better than an idol, and to have no more knowledge of us and insight into us than an idol can have. If wo did believe him to be the living God, vre durst not como beforo him with services so unsuitable to him, and reproaches of him.

(3.) It is against tho infinitoness of God. We should worship God with

those boundlc 1 affection! which bear upon them a shadow or image of hia inilniteness, such a, the d< J, which know no limits, but start

out bajondwhal the heart nfnian p<> r

tare was to he offered to God in icrifioe, but inch run

fly, For ' dm before God with a light creeping (ram lo wor hip him with the Iowa ' finite affoctioi

1 mean or torn, mighl sat infinite being; bj though a 1

lhallow creature could give enough to 1 him the heart,

l we eannoi give bim r wor hip proportionable to hi 1 infinit did our a in our • p him u

of our dutii .

! pinst the spirituality of God. God b Ing a Spirii for a

lii|) in spirit : to withhold this from him, impliea him t 1 be corporeal matter. A a a Spirit, he looka for the 1 | iti

prayer, a treml irl in the word] I 1. Ixvi. k 2. To brii but

the body when we come to a spiritual God to I"": apiritual b

for spiritual communications, which can only be di

tner, ia unsuitable to the apiritnal nature of God. A mere earn

implicitly denies his spirituality, which r. <piir« | el US highi

than mere corporeal ones*

Worship ahonld he rational, not an imaginative service, wh i

the activity of our noblest faculties; and our fancy ought tohai in it. hut in Bubaerviency to the more spiritual part of our soul.

(5.) Et is against the supremacy of God. As God i one, th only

ts Bhould be one, el iving wholly to him, and uu l

from him. In pretending to deal with him, we aekrj hisD 1

sovereignty; but in withholding our choices! faculties and affections ft

him, and the Btarting of OUT minds to vain objects, we intimate th lity

with God, and their right as well as his to our heart- and affections. It

is as if a prinoeas should commit adultery with some base scullion while sho is 1 r husband, which would be a plain denial of his sole right to her.

It intimates that other things arc superior to God ; they are true sovereigns thai ! our hearts. If a man were addressing himself to a princ I

should in an instant turn his back upon him upon a beck or nod from some inconsiderable person, is it not an evidence that that person that invited him away hath a greater BOV< P i.rnty over him than that prince I he

applying himself? And do we not discard God's absolute dominion Over us. when, at the least heck of a corrupt inclination, we can dispose of our ; > it. and alienate them from God? As they in BzeSL. xxxiii. .".-J,

the service of God for the service of their covctousness, which evide* that they owned the authority of sin more than the authority of God. This ia not to serve God as our Lord and absolute master, but to make God serve our turn, and submit his sovereignty to the supremacy of some unworthy affection* The creature is preferred before the Creator, when the heart mi: upon it in time of religious worship, and our own carnal ini

swallows up the affi otiona that are duo to God : it ia ' an idol set up in the '.;. xiv. 1, in his solemn presence, and attracts that devotion to If which we only " uv to 01ir aovereign Lord : and the more ba- I ,-on-ptible that is to which the spirit is devoi ■ 1, the more contempt there is of G inion. Judas his loss, with a Hail, Blast r, was no act of

• an owning his M Bthoiity, but a designing *

of his cove! 1 in the betraying of him.

(6.1 It is against the wisdom of God God, as a God of or' -put

earthly things in subordination to heavenly, and we by this unworthy

carriage invert this order, and put heavenly things in subordination to earthly, in placing mean and low things in our hearts, and bringing them so placed into God's presence, which his wisdom at the creation put under our feet. A service without spiritual affections is a ■ sacrifice of fools,' Eccles. v. 1, which have lost their brains and understandings; a foolish spirit is very unsuitable to an infinitely wise God. Well may God say of such a one, as Achish of David, who seemed mad, ■ Why have you brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence ? shall this fellow come into my house ?' 1 Sam. xxi. 15.

(7.) It is against the omnisciency of God. To carry it fair without and impertinently within, is as though God had not an all-seeing eye that could pierce into the heart, and understand every motion of the inward faculties; as though God were easily cheated with an outward fawning service, like an apothecary's box with a gilded title, that may be full of cobwebs within. What is such a carriage, but a design to deceive God, when with Herod ■we pretend to worship Christ, and intend to murder all the motions of Christ in our souls I A heedless spirit, an estrangement of our souls, a giving the reins to them to run out from the presence of God to see every reed shaken with the wind, is to deny him to be searcher of hearts, and the discerner of secret thoughts ; as though he could not look through us to the darkness and remoteness of our minds, but were an ignorant God, who might be put off with the worst as well as the best in our flock. If we did really believe there were a God of infinite knowledge, who saw our frames, and whether we came dressed with wedding-garments suitable to the duties we are about to perform, should we be so garish, and put him off with such trivial stuff, without any reverence of his majesty ?

(8.) It is against the holiness of God. To alienate our spirits is to offend him while we pretend to worship him ; though we may be mighty officious in the external part, yet our base and carnal affections make all our worship but as a heap of dung; and who would not look upon it as an affront to lay dung before a prince's throne ? Prov. xxi. 27, * The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination: how much more when he brings it with a wicked mind ?' A putrified carcass under the law had not been so great an affront to the holiness of God as a frothy, unmelted heart, and a wanton fancy in a time of worship. God is so holy, that if we could offer the worship of angels, and the quintessence of our souls in his service, it would be beneath his infinite purity. How unworthy then are they of him, when they are presented not only without the sense of our uncleanness, but sullied with the fumes and exhalations of our corrupt affections, which are so many plague-spots upon our duties, contrary to the unspotted purity of the divine nature ! Is not this an unworthy conceit of God, and injurious to his infinite holiness ?

(9.) It is against the love and kindness of God. It is a condescension in God to admit a piece of earth to offer up a duty to him, when he hath myriads of angels to attend him in his court and celebrate his praise; to admit man to be an attendant on him, and a partner with angels, is a high favour. It is not a single mercy, but a heap of mercies to be admitted into the presence of God: Va. v. 7, ' I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies.' When the blessed God is so kind as to give us access to his majesty, do we not undervalue his kindness when we deal uncivilly with him, and deny him the choicest part of ourselves ? It is a contempt of his sovereignty, as our spirits are duo to him by nature ; a contempt of his goodness, as our spirits are due to him by gratitude ! How abusive a carriage is it to mako use of his mercy to encourage our impudence, that should excite our fear and reverence ! How unworthy would it be for an

John IV. 24.] IfUITUAX WOMBft

tadigmt debtor to bring to his indulgent croditor an empty purso I of

mentl \Vh«n God fa it his I"J i to rnroura;'e our

approaches to bim, stand re ni the pardon of no and full

felicity, the best thingi be bath, is it ■ tit requital of Imh kindness to g

bin i formal onl : lo only, ■■. to have the heart overswayed

with other thoughts and affections, us if nil oil |

temptible as to bt at our hands ? It is i contempt of tho

love and kindne ;s i.t' (In I.

1 1<».) It is the niffieieney md f< U Winn wo pivo

< I I our bodiei and the creators our spirits, it intinates ■ eoneeit that tl. is in ire content to be bad is the creature than in (rod blessed r, thai

kho waters in tl I r thm those in the fountain* Is not this

l pre • i,i the Lie, end denying those promises srherein he I

(I. •! Li-. Ml :o. to tho spirit, is the God of tho

f all flesh ?

If we did imagine the excellency md loveliness of God wen worthy to be the oltimate object of our affections, the heart would attend mora < upon him, md be terminated in him; <h<l we believe (« r >d to be all-sufficient, lull of grace md goodnc s, i tender Father, not willing to fo is own,

willing as well as able to supply their want-, the heart wouM not ho lamely

ad opon him, and would not upon every impertinenoy be diverted from him. There is much of a wrong notion of God, m 1 :i predominancy of tho world above bin in the heart, when we can more savonrly relish the thoughts of low inferior things than heavenly, md lei our spirits upon every trifling d be fa [itives from him. It is i testimony that we make not Go 1 our ohii d. If apprehensions of his excellency did possess: onr souls,

they would be I ' 1 "ii bin, clued to him ; wc should not listen to that rabble of foolish thoughts that steal our hearts so often from him. "Wero our breathings after God as strong as the pantings of the hart after tho

water brooks, we should be like that creature, not diverted in our course by v puddle. Were I lod the predominant satisfactory object in our eye, he would carry our whole soul along with him.

When our spirits readily retreat from God in worship upon even' giddy motion, it is a kind of repentance that ever we did como near him, and implies that there is a fuller satisfaction, and more attractive excellency, in that which doth so easily divert us, than in that God to whose worship we did pretend to address ourselves ; it is as if, when we were petitioning a prince, WS should immediately turn about, and make request to one of his guard, though so mean a person wero more ablo to give us the boon wc want, than the sovereign is.

'J. Consideration by way of motive. To have our spirits off from God

in worship is a bad sign. It was not so in innocence. The heart of Adam

I 1 deal 1 : the law of God was engraven upon him ; he could

apply himself to tho fulfilling of it without any twinkling; there was no

folly and vanity in his mind, no independency in his thoughts, no duty WSJ

was in him a pronencss to, and delight in, all tho duties of worship. It is the fall hath distempered us, and the more un-thero is in our spirits, the more carnal our alVections are in hip, the more evidence there is of I Dgth of that revolt* I

(1.) It argues much corruption in the heart. As by the eructations of the the wi] and foulness of it, so by the

inordinate motions of our minds and hearts we may judge of tho weaki of its coiim A ■•: n is evidenced by the eruptions and

ebullitions of it in worship, when they are more sudden, numerous, and ... i. I

vigorous than the motions of grace. When the heart is apt like tinder to catch fire from Satan, it is a sign of much combustible matter suitable to his temptation. Were not corruption strong, the soul could not turn so easily from God when it is in his presence, and hath advantageous opportunity to create a fear and awe of God in it; such base fruit could not sprout up so suddenly were there not much sap and juice in the root of sin.

What communion with a living root can be evidenced without exercises of an inward life ! That Spirit, which is a well of living waters in a gracious heart, will be especially springing up when it is before God.

(2,) It shews much affection to earthly things, and little to heavenly. There must needs be an inordinate affection to earthly things, when upon every slight solicitation we can part with God, and turn the back upon a service glorious for him, and advantageous for ourselves, to wed our hearts to some idle fancy that signifies nothing. How can we be said to entertain God in our affections, when we give him not the precedency in our understandings, but let every trifle jostle the sense of God out of our minds ? Were our hearts fully determined to spiritual things, such vanities could not seat themselves in our understandings, and divide our spirits from God. Were our hearts balanced with a love to God, the world could never steal our hearts so much from his worship, but his worship would draw our hearts to it.

It shews a base neutrality in the greatest concernments, a halting between God and Baal, a contrariety between affection and conscience, when natural conscience presses a man to duties of worship, and his other affections pull him back, draw him to carnal objects, and make him slight that whereby he may honour God. God argues the profaneness of the Jews' hearts from the wickedness they brought into his house and acted there : Jer. xxiii., * Yea, in my house,' that is, my worship, ' I found their wickedness,' saith the Lord, Carnality in worship is a kind of an idolatrous frame; when the heart is renewed, idols are cast to the moles and the bats, Isa. ii. 20.

(3.) It shews much hypocrisy to have our spirits off from God. The mouth speaks, and the carriage pretends, what the heart doth not think; there is a dissent of the heart from the pretence of the body.

Instability is a sure sign of hypocrisy. Double thoughts argue a double heart. The wicked are compared to chaff, Ps. i. 4, for the uncertain and various motions of their minds by the least wind of fancy. The least motion of a carnal object diverts the spirit from God, as the scent of carrion doth the raven from the flight it was set upon.

The people of God are called God's spouse, and God calls himself their husband; whereby is noted the most intimate union of the soul with God, and that there ought to be the highest love and affection to him, and faithfulness in his worship ; but when the heart doth start from him in worship, it is a sign of the unstedfastness of it with God, and a disrelish of any communion with him. It is as God complains of the Israelites, a going a-whoring after our own imaginations.

As grace respects God as the object of worship, so it looks most upon God in approaching to him. Where there is a likeness and love, there is a desire of converse and intimacy; if there be no spiritual entwining about God in our worship, it is a sign there is no likeness to him, no true sense of him, no renewed image of God in us. Every living image will move strongly to join itself with its original copy, and be glad, with Jacob, to sit steadily in those chariots that shall convey him to his beloved Joseph.

Motive 8. Consider tho danger of a carnal worship.

(1.) We lose the comfort of worship. Tho soul is a great gainer when it offers a spiritual worship, and as great a loser when it is unfaithful with God.

lehery and psrfidiot binder oommeres among men, so doth bypo-

. in its own nal mmunion with God. God never promised any-

thing to the esre*^ btf to the spirit of i G I bath no obi

upon lnin by ;m\ word of bl . to ruward us with himself, when >rm

il not tO bimsell. Whl ids Worship, wr hive only the oiit-

of an ordinance. \V< ]"•<•: no kernel, when Wl G «ly

las shell Hs that only licks the out.si<le of th \wA

with the rich oordisJ snolosed within. A sold and lazy i ■ will make

G i to withdrew the light <»i" bii eonntenenoe, delightful oommanii upon oa ; bnt if ws come before bin

a livsliness itions, end Bteedinesi <>f heart, be will drew the veil, sad

or? to display itself before ne. en bumble praying Oh and a warm iifloctionets Christian in worship, will so,»n find a God who Ki I with Bucb frames, and oannoJ long withhold himself from the sooL When our beerti era inflamed with lore to him in worship, it ii i pn para-tiou tor some sel of love on his part, whereby hs mi uihei to gratify

us. When John was ' in the Spirit on the Lord's day/—4 in spiril

smployment, and meditation, end other duties,—be had ti tion

of whal should happen to the ehuroh in all a - . It .. i. 1". His b tlic sp:nt, intimates his ordinary course on that day, and not anj nary act m linn, though it was followed with an extraordinary d God to him. When be wsj thui L, hs ' beard ■ \ bind him.'

i doth not require of ns spirituality in worship to advantage him that ws might be prepared bo be advantaged by him. It' ws hare ■ elear and well dispoi • it is not s benefit to the sun, hut fin us I i rec

benefit! bom bii beams. Worship is an act that perfects our own souls;

they SIS then most widened by spiritual frames, to receive the infill divine b as eye most opened reserves the fruit of the sun's light

letter than the eye that is shut. The communications of God are more or . seeording II oar Bpiritua] frames are more or less in OUT worship. God

will not give his blessings to unsuitable hearts. What a nasty vessel is a earnal heart for a spiritual communication! The chief end of every duty enjoined by Ciod is to have communion with him; and therefore it is called a drawing near to God. It is impossible, therefore, that the outward part of any duty can answer the end of God in his institution. It is not a bodily appearance or gesture whereby men can have communion with Grod, but by the impressions of the heart and reilections of the heart upon God. Without this, all the rich streams of grace will run beside us, and the growth of the Boul be hindered and impaired. * A diligent hand makes rich,' saith the wise man ; a diligent heart in spiritual worship brings in rich incomes to the humble and spiritual soul.

It renders the worship not only unacceptable, but abominable to God.

It makes our gold to become dross, it soils our duties, and beepote our souls.

A carnal and unsteady frame shews an tndinerency of spirit at beet; and

InkewarmneSS is as ungrateful to God as heavy and nauseous meat is to the

aaeh ; he ' spues them out of his mouth,' liev. iii. 16, As our grac

i d 4h overlook infirmities where intentions are good, and eir:

.:. 1 Strong, so he loathes the services where the fram. - I

{hi : l's. iwi. is, ■ if I regard uriqmty in my heart, the Lord v.;.,

-.r my prayer.' Lukewarm and inditler. stink in tie

(. 1. The i.' art ssems to bathe Qod, when it starts from him upc

U, when it IS unwilling to employ itself about and stick el .ru;

and sen G Lbs pleased with such a frame? The more of th and

spirit is iu any service, th< real goodness there is in it, and the more

savoury it is to God ; the less of the heart and spirit, the less of goodness, and the more nauseous to God, who loves righteousness and ■ truth in the inward parts,' Ps. li. 9. And therefore infinite goodness and holiness cannot but hate worship presented to him with deceitful, carnal, and flitting affections. They must be more nauseous to God than a putrified carcass can be to man ; they are the profanings of that which should be the habitation of the spirit; they make the spirit, the seat of duty, a filthy dunghill, and are as loathsome to God as money-changers in the temple were to our Saviour.

We see the evil of carnal frames, and the necessity and benefit of spiritual frames. For further help in this last, let us practise these folding directions:

Direct. 1. Keep up spiritual frames out of worship. To avoid low affections, we must keep our hearts as much as we can in a settled elevation. If we admit unworthy dispositions at one time, we shall not easily be rid of them at another. * As he that would not be bitten with gnats in the night, must keep his windows shut in the day: when they are once entered, it is not easy to expel them; in which respect, one adviseth, to be such out of worship as we would be in worship. If we mix spiritual affections with our worldly employments, worldly affections will not mingle themselves so easily with our heavenly engagements. If our hearts be spiritual in our outward calling, they will scarce be carnal in our religious service. If we 1 walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh,' Gal. v. 16. A spiritual walk in the day will hinder carnal lustings in worship. The fire was to be kept alive upon the altar when sacrifices were not offered, from morning till night, from night till morning, as well as in the very time of sacrifice. A spiritual life and vigour out of worship, would render it at its season sweet and easy, and preserve a spontaneity and preparedness to it, and make it both natural and pleasant to us.

Anything that doth unhinge and discompose our spirits, is inconsistent with religious services, which are to be performed with the greatest sedate-ness and gravity. All irregular passions disturb the serenity of the spirit, and open the door for Satan. Saith the apostle, ' Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil,' Eph. iv. 26, 27. Where wrath breaks, the lock, the devil will quickly be over the threshold; and though they be allayed, yet they leave the heart some time after, like the sea, rolling and swelling after the storm is ceased.

Mixture with ill company leaves a tincture upon us in worship. Ephraim's allying himself with the Gentiles, bred an indifferency in religion : Hosea vii. 8, Ephraim ' hath mixed with the people;' • Ephraim is a cake not turned.' It will make our hearts, and consequently our services, half dough, as well as half baked. These and the like make the Holy Spirit withdraw himself, and then the soul lies like a wind-bound vessel, and can make no way. When the sun departs from us, it carries its beams away with it; then doth ■ darkness spread itself over the earth, and the beasts of the forests creep out,' Ps. civ. 20. When the Spirit withdraws a while from a good man, it carries away (though not habitual, yet) much of the exciting and assisting grace; and then carnal dispositions perk up themselves from the bosom of natural corruption. To bo spiritual in worship, we must bar tho door at other times against that which is contrary to it. As ho that would not be infected with a contngious disease, carries some preservative about with him, and inures himself to good scents.

To this end, be much in secret ejaculations to God; these are the purest * Fitzherbcrt, Pol. in lielig., part ii. cap. 19, sect. 12.

hts of Hid sonl, that bai of ferronr and !■

H' Mr | liv.llIir-S ill the Hpi.it, IlM'l UV.lY.r it 111' I

r free1 a an i eetiYil jr. A < would

make Mm- whole lii :i,;ri

lien habits of gi Direct, 2. ]

on him.

i i commanding affection, :i anil ee ; it <

oul to one centre. The ion] I ' bath to do

i him, is houiul to tho beloved objed ! it ean mind noih ring

ineh impreasiona. When the affection is set to tl • ry-

tliii: th i to d D] ob 11; a Di I

Mm • i I m. xxix. :;. Carnal iV.un. , like tk • fo rla, mil be light-

apon the laerinee, bat not when uned. Though U I oi

the Been mute them, yel the heal of the fire drive* tip ■ to their di I inee. A il;i:nin g lofe will singe the flies thai endeavour to interrupt and disturb D . The happineai of heaven consists in i full attraction of the eon] to God, by hii gloriooa influence apon it. There will be inch a diffusion of hii

Ineei throughout the aoula of the b . ai will unite the affection! |

teetly to him. Theee affections, which arc scattered here, will be thcro gathered Into one Same, noting to him, and eentering in him. There-

the more of a heevenlj | we onr affection! hen, the more

led and uniform will onr hearte be in all their motions to God, and 0]

rations about him.

■ dependence on him : Prov. svi. B, ' Commit thy works to tho 1 . M thy thoughts shall bo eetabliahed.' Let us go out in G

I, nnd not in onr own ; vain is the help of man in anything, and vain lie help of the heart. It is throe I I only wo can do valiantly in

itoal COD H well as temporal; the want of this makes but slight

impressions apon the spirit.

Nourish right conceptions of tho majesty of God in your minds.

Let DM consider, thai we are drawing to God, tho most amiable object, tho

Of beings, worthy of infinite honour, and highly meriting the highest

affections we oao give ; a God that made the world by a word ; that upholds

the great frame of heaven and earth ; a majesty abovo the conceptions of

; who uses not his power to strike us to our deserved punishment,

but his love an 1 bounty to allure us; a Gt)d that gave all the creatures to

serve us and can in a trice make them as much our enemies as he hath now

le them our servants. L. i t us view him in his greatness, and in his

loess, that onr hearts may have a true value of the worship of so great

a majesty, and count it the most worthy employment with all diligence to

i him. When we have a fear of God, it will make our worship

serious ; when we have a joy in God, it will make our worship durable. Our

affections will be raised, when we represent God in the most reverential,

and obliging circumstances. We honour the majesty of God,

:i duo reverence, according to the greatness and

; and in this reverence of his majesty doth worship

1 I of God will make low frames in us before

him. It" ■ I an infinite glorious Spirit, how would our heart!

r than our knees in his pres en ce 1 How humbly, how b-b.evingly

tlmist, when he eOQSidi n <i 1 to be without comparison

i'.i the ' whom none <>t" the sons of tho mighty can be hke:

when ti. ^ none like to him in strength or faithfuhnss round about,

. lxxxix. (3-3. Wo should have also deep impressions of the omniscience

of God ; and remember we have to deal with a God that searcheth the heart and trieth the reins ; to whom the most secret temper is as visible as the loudest words are audible ; that though man judges by outward expressions, God judges by inward affections. As the law of God regulates the inward frames of the heart, so the eye of God pitches upon the inward intentions of the soul. If God were visibly present with us, should we not approach to him with strong affections, summon our spirits to attend upon him, behave ourselves modestly before him ? Let us consider, he is as really present with us, as if he were visible to us ; let us therefore preserve a strong sense of the presence of God. No man but one out of his wits, when he were in the presence of a prince, and? making a speech to him, would break off at every period, and run after the catching of butterflies. Kemember in all worship you are before the Lord, to whom all things are open and naked.

Direct. 4. Let us take heed of inordinate desires after the world. As the world steals away a man's heart from the word, so it doth from all other worship ; ■ it chokes the word,' Mat. xiii. 27 ; it stifles all the spiritual breathings after God in every duty. The edge of the soul is blunted by it, and made too dull for such sublime exercises. The apostle's rule in prayer, 1 Peter iv. 7, when he joins ' sobriety' with ■ watching unto prayer,' is of concern in all worship, sobriety in the pursuit and use of all worldly things. A man drunk with worldly fumes cannot watch, cannot be heavenly, affectionate, spiritual in service. There is a magnetic force in the earth, to hinder our flights to heaven. Birds, when they take their first flights from the earth, have more flutterings of their wings, than when they are mounted further in the air, and got more without the sphere of the earth's attractiveness ; the motion of their wings is more steady, that you can scarce perceive them stir; they move like a ship with a full gale. The world is a clog upon the soul, and a bar to spiritual frames. It is as hard to elevate the heart to God in the midst of a hurry of worldly affairs, as it is difficult to meditate when we are near a great noise of waters falling from a precipice, or in the midst of a volley of muskets. Their clayey affections bemire the heart, and make it unfit for such high flights it is to take in worship. Therefore get your hearts clear from worldly thoughts and desires, if you would be more spiritual in worship.

Direct. 5. Let us be deeply sensible of our present wants, and the supplies we may meet with in worship. Cold affections to the things we would have, will grow cooler. Weakness of desire for the communications in worship, will freeze our hearts at the time of worship, and make way for vain and foolish diversions. A beggar that is ready to perish, and knows he is next door to ruin, will not slightly and dully beg an alms, and will not be diverted from his importunity by every slight call, or the moving of an atom in the air. Is it pardon we would have ? Let us apprehend the blackness of 6in, with the aggravations of it as it respects God ; let us be deeply sensible of the want of pardon and worth of mercy, and get our affections into such a frame as a condemned man would do. Let us consider, that as we are now at the throne of God's grace, we shall shortly be at the bar of God's justice; and if tho soul should bo forlorn there, how fixedly and earnestly would it plead for mercy ! Let us endeavour to stir up the same aflections now, which wo havo seen somo dying men have, and which we suppose despairing souls would have dono at God's tribunal.* We must be sensible that the life or death of our souls depends upon worship. Would we not be ashamed to be ridiculous in our carriage while wo are eating ? and shall * Guliol. Paris, Rhetor. Divin. cap. xxvi. p. 350, col. i.

John IV. 24.] MUTUAL worship. Ml

wo not bfl ashamed to 1m cold or gari h befbn G !. when Um salvation of

our souls, ;is well as the honour < -no -rin 1 J If Iff did SSfl the

liciips ot" sins, thfl otornity of punishment due to than; if wc <li'l i, e :m

angry and otl'en hd ; i I •,. ; if wn did nee the rich , of merry, the ;'lorioiiH out 'oil! ' - "I' < i • I iii || ' urirv, t h« 1 .1 - . ■ 1 do|. «s out to linn

when they .spiritually attend upon him: hoth tin; one :ind the other would make us perform our duties liuiiihly, sincen !; , :uid affectionately,

■ad wait upon him with our wind.) loulf, to fa

I. Let our ■■< use of this bfl • IUOOU raged |»y thfl consideration of our

Siv:our presontin i whal aflection doth bfl pntflofthifl

DMfitfli his blood Bhod upon thfl OrOM now in heaven! And Hindi ■ hearl ild and fro/on, llitt !y, when his affections m

inu.di (Minvi•?!.• 1 '.' Ohriflt doib not present :mv man's ca-e and duties without | ol his waii's, ;md shall Wfl have none of our o

I ( thlfl J ft us affect our hearts with a if what, lUppliflfl

\\v ha\e met with in former worship. The delightful reiuembrai hat

converse* wo have had with 3od iu former worship, would ipiritOflJiflfl 001 bflfljrtfl for the present worship. Had I'eter a vi< I Ihriflt I glory in thfl

mount fresh in his thoughts, bfl would not so easily have tOTDfld his hark upon his master. Nor would the Israelites haw been at leisure for their

idolatry, bfl 1 they preserved the sense of tho majesty of God dj i in

his late thunders from mount Sinai.

/> '. 6, If anything intrudes that, may choke the worship, east it speedily out. We cannot hinder Satan and our OWD Corruption from |

len to us, hut we may hindor thfl BnCflflflfl Of them. We cannot hinder the gnats from hu/./'ng about us when we art; in our husiness, hut may prevent them from settling apon us. A man that ifl running on a considerable errand, will shun all Q] l iry discourse that may make him t or loiter in his husiness. What though there may he something offered that is good in itself; yet if it hath a tendency to despoil God of his honour, and oursei\es of the spiritual intentness in worship, send it away. Those thai weed a field of corn, examine not the nature and particular virtues of the weeds hut consider only how they choke tho corn, to which the native juice of tho soil is designed. Consider what you are about ; and if anything interpose that may divert you, or cool your affections in your ut worship, east it out.

Direct. 7. As to private worship, let us lay hold of tho most melting opportunities and frames. When we find our hearts in a more than ordinary spiritual frame, let us look upon it as a call from God to attend him. Such impressions and motions are God's voice, inviting us into communion with him in some particular act of worship, and promising us some succ ss in it. When the psalmist had a secret motioi k God's face, and com-

plied with it, Pa. xxvii. 8, thfl issue is the encouragement of his heart, whieh breaks out into an exhortation to others to be of good courage, and wait on the Lord, ver. 18, 11, ' Wait on the Lord, bo of good courage, and he ihall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.'

One blow will do more on thfl iron when it is hot, than a hundred when it is sold. United met ill ma] mp 1 with any impression ; but onco

hardened, will with difficulty bfl brought into thfl figure we intend.*

D L 8. Lfll us examine ourselves at the end of every act of worship, and ehi I for any carnality Wfl perceive in theni. L

SW of them, and examine the Why art thou so low ual,

0 my soul? as 1 >:ivid did of hifl Iness : Ps. xlii. 5, ■ Why art

* Koyuold8.

thou cast down, 0 my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me ?' If any unworthy frames have surprised us in worship, let us seek them out after worship ; call them to the bar; make an exact scrutiny into the causes of them, that we may prevent their incursions another time ; let our pulses beat quick, by way of anger and indignation, against them. This would be a repairing what hath been amiss ; otherwise they may grow, and clog an after worship more than they did a former. Daily examination is an antidote against the temptations of the following day, and constant examination of ourselves after duty is a preservative against vain encroachments in following duties; and upon the finding them out, let us apply the blood of Christ by faith for our cure, and draw strength from the death of Christ for the conquest of them, and let us also be humbled for them. God lifts up the humble. When we are humbled for our carnal frames in one duty, we shall find ourselves by the grace of God more elevated in the next.

the mountains u ilit fmiJi, or cm tlmu hadtt formed (<

ami the worl& % even from §vtrlasting (■■> tverUutbig, thou an (i>><L —

1 M.M XC. 2.

Tin. Utl« of this psalm is a prayer; the author, Mo-... Some think not

only this, but the ten following psalms ware i ed by him. The title

wherewith he is dignified is 'tin; man of God,' as also in Dent, mm. 1: one inspired by him, to bo his interpreter, and deliver hie oracles; one particularly directed by him ; one who, as a m rant, ditl diligently employ

himself in his Blaster's bnsinesSi and acted lor the glory of God.* Ho was the minister of the old Testament, and the prophet of the Nuw.t re are two parts of this psalm.

1. A complaint iA' the frailty of man's life in general, vcr. 3-0 ; and then a particular complaint of tho condition of the church, ver. 8—10.J

2. A prayer, ?er, 12.

But he speaks of the shortness of human life, he fortifies them by

the consideration of the refuge they had and should find in God: ver. 1, ' Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.'

We have had no settled abode in the earth since the time of Abraham's 1 called out from Ur of the Chaldees. We have had Canaan in a promi . we have it not yet in possession ; we have been exposed to the > n lties of an Oppressing enemy, and the incommodities of a desert wild< ; wo

have wanted the fruits of the earth, but not the dews of heaven. * Thoa hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.' Abraham was under thy conduct, Isaac and Jacob under thy care. Their posterity were multiplied by thee, and that under their oppressions. Thou hast been our shield against dangers our security in the times of trouble. When we wars pursued to the Ell i sea, it was not a creature delivered us; and when we feared tho pinching of our bowels in the del it, it was not a creature rained mauna upon us. Thou hast been our dwelling-place ; thou hast kept open house fori;-, sheltered ni it storms, and preserved us from mischief, as a

house doth an inhabitant from wind alu-r, and that not in one or

two, but in all ..lions. Some think an allusion is here mile to tho

ark, to which they were to have n in all emergencies. Our

and have not been from created things; not from the ark, but from

tho God of the ark.

* Coccci in loc. t Austin tn loc % Taroui m loc.

Observe,

1. God is a perpetual refuge and security to his people. His providence is not confined to one generation; it is not one age only that tastes of his bounty and compassion. His eye never yet slept, nor hath he suffered the little ship of his church to be swallowed up, though it hath been tossed upon the waves. He hath always been an haven to preserve us, a house to secure us. He hath always had compassions to pity us, and power to protect us. He hath had a face to shine, when the world hath had an angry countenance to frown.* He brought Enoch home by an extraordinary translation from a brutish world; and when he was resolved to reckon with men for their brutish lives, he lodged Noah, the Phoenix of the world, in an ark, and kept him alive as a spark in the midst of many waters, whereby to rekindle a church in the world. In all generations he is a dwelling-place, to secure his people here, or entertain them above.

His providence is not wearied, nor his care fainting. He never wanted will to relieve us, for ' he hath been our refuge;' nor ever can want power to support us, for he is a God ■ from everlasting to everlasting.' The church never wanted a pilot to steer her, and a rock to shelter her, and dash in pieces the waves which threaten her.

2. How worthy is it to remember former benefits, when we come to beg for new! Never were the records of God's mercies so exactly revised as when his people have stood in need of new editions of his power. How necessary are our wants to stir us up to pay the rent of thankfulness in arrear! He renders himself doubly unworthy of the mercies he wants, that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he hath received. God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites, and they in their distress scarce prayed for any deliverance, but that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides: by God to encourage them, and by them to acknowledge their confidence in him. The greater our dangers, the more we should call to mind God's former kindness. We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our persons, or in our age, but those of former times. Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.

Moses was not living in the former generations, yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age. Mercies as well as generations proceed out of the loins of those that have gone before. All mankind are but one Adam, the whole church but one bod}\

In the second verse he backs his former consideration.

1. By the greatness of his power in forming the world.

2. By the boundlessness of his duration; ' from everlasting to everlasting.' As thou hast been our dwelling-place, and expended upon us the strength of thy power and riches of thy love, so we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part, if we be not wanting on our parts; for the vast mountains and fruitful earth are the works of thy hands, and there is less power requisite for our relief than there was for their creation ; and though so much strength hath been upon various occasions manifested, yet thy arm is not weakened; for ' from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.'f

Thou hast always been God, and no time can be assigned as the beginning of thy being.J The mountains are not of so long a standing as thyself ; they are the effects of thy power, and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration. Since they are effects, they suppose a precedency of their cause. If wo would look back, wo can reach no further than the beginning of the creation, and account tho years from the first foundation of the world; but after that we must lose ourselves in tho abyss of eternity. We have no * Thcodorct in loc. f ?N, strong. % Amyrald. in loc.

clue to snide our thoushts; wi nnds in 111•-• 1 1 irnity; but as

for until, he tniMT. . :li tin- \v».rl-l ft !'- I ■!-;.•■. Mid by thy order, pronoiii I

eonoeraing ill men, returns to the dust, Mid moulders into tie

B mountains ioom understand i . as beii ' :i i"" r0

derated nature; bj earth thoy undorHtand human nature, the earth b< the habitation of men. Then ii no net I to din rl in tl letter to such i , • ,-. Tl ' If :iI "l amounts

bo this : be neither began with the beginning of time, nor will < eith

the end of it." II- did doI begin when m

father-, but liifl bein ' did precede tlio creation of the world, I Created being was forniod, and any time lettled.

the monntaine were brought forth, tore they e I n

or born, the word being need in those n i in Scripture; 1 tood

op higher than the reel of the earthly me i God bad create L it -• • m that monntaine were not eaenalry oast np by the foree of the d | the

ground, and driving ssreral pareels of it together, to ip into s m

body, as the sea doth the sand in sereral places, but they wen; at first formed by (tod.

eternity of Go 1 is here described.

1. In his priority ' before the world.'

'J. In the extension of his duration: ' From everlasting to everlasting thou art (i..d.' Be was before the world, yet ho neither began nor i ads. B not a temporary, but an eternal God. It takes in both parts of eternity, what was before the creation of the world, and what is after. Though the

, be one permanent state without succ e ss ion , yet the Spir I God, suiting himself to the weakness of our conception, divides it into two parts, one past before the foundation of the world, another to com- after the destruction of the world; as be did exist before all ages, and SS lie will . ifter all ag< .

Many truths lie COUChcd in the verse.

1. The world had a beginning of being. It was not from eternity; it was once nothing. Had it been of a very long duration, some records would have remained of somo memorable actions done of a longer date than any extant.

'J. The world owes its being to the creating power of God. ' Thou 1 formed it' out of nothing ink/being. Thou, that is, God. It could not spring into being of itself: it was nothing; it must have a former.

B. God was in being before the world. The cause must be before the t; that Word which gives being must be before Uiat which rece;

bei:

4. This Being was from eternity: ' from everlasting.' f>. This Being shall endure to eternity: ' to ererlaeti

C. There is but one God, one Eternal : ' From everlasting to everlasting thou arl None else but one hath the | ■ of eternity; the g

of tho heathen cannot lay claim to it.

/' L G fan siernal duration. The eternity of God is the foui

tion of the stability of the covenant, the great rl ofs Christian. The

God in Scripture is to set forth his dealing with men in the way

int. The priority of God before all thh [ins the Bible:

•In the beginning God ereafc I,' (Jen. i. 1. Hie covenant can have no foundation but in his duration before and after the world.f And Moses

e mentions his eternity, not only with respect to the > but to his federal provident a is the dwelling-place of Ins p a all

* a»a;^o; xa/' SJf SI loc. \ Calv. in loc

generations. The duration of God for ever is more spoken of in Scripture than his eternity a parte ante, though that is the foundation of all the com-iort we can take from his immortality. If he had a beginning, he might have an end, and so all our happiness, hope, and being would expire with him; but the Scripture sometimes takes notice of his being without beginning as well as without end: ' Thou art from everlasting,' Ps. xciii. 2; * Blessed be God from everlasting to everlasting,' Ps. xli. 13 ; ' I was set up from everlasting,' Prov. viii. 23. If his wisdom were from everlasting, himself was from everlasting. Whether we understand it of Christ the Son of God, or of the essential wisdom of God, it is all one to the present purpose. The wisdom of God supposeth the essence of God, as habits in creatures suppose the being of some power or faculty as their subject. The wisdom of God supposeth mind and understanding, essence and substance.

The notion of eternity is difficult, as Austin said of time:* If no man will ask me the question what time is, I know well enough what it is; but if any ask me what it is, I know not how to explain it. So may I say of eternity; it is easy in the word pronounced, but hardly understood, and more hardly expressed; it is better expressed by negative than positive words.

Though we cannot comprehend eternity, yet we may comprehend that there is an eternity; as though we cannot comprehend the essence of God, what he is, yet we may comprehend that he is; we may understand the notion of his existence, though we cannot understand the infiniteness of his nature. Yet we may better understand eternity than infiniteness; we can better conceive a time with the addition of numberless days and years, than imagine a being without bounds ; whence the apostle joins his eternity with his power: ' His eternal power and Godhead,' Rom. i. 20; because, next to the power of God apprehended in the creature, we come necessarily, by reasoning, to acknowledge the eternity of God. He that hath an incomprehensible power, must needs have an eternity of nature. His power is most sensible in the creatures to the eye of man, and his eternity easily from thence deducible by the reason of man.

_ 1. Eternity is a perpetual duration, which hath neither beginning nor end. Time hath both. Those things we say are in time, that have beginning, grow up by degrees, have succession of parts. Eternity is contrary to time, and is therefore a permanent and immutable state, a perfect possession of life without any variation. It comprehends in itself all years, all ages, all periods of ages. It never begins ! It endures after every duration of time, and never ceaseth. It doth as much outrun time as it went before the beginning of it. Time supposeth something before it, but there can be nothing before eternity; it were not then eternity. Time hath a continual succession ; the former time passeth away, and another succeeds; the last year is not this year, nor this year the next. We must conceive of eternity contrary to the notion of time. As the nature of time consists in the succession of parts, so the nature of eternity in an infinite immutable duration.f Eternity and time differ as the sea and rivers; the sea never changes place, and is always one water, but the rivers glide along, and are swallowed up in the sea; so is time by eternity.

A thing is said to be eternal, or everlasting rather, in Scripture,

2. When it is of a long duration, though it will have an end; when it hath no measures of time determined to it. So circumcision is said to be in the flesh ' for an everlasting covenant,' Gen. xvii. 14 ; not purely everlasting, but so long as that administration of the covenant should endure.

And so when a servant would not leave his master, but would have his * Consul, lib. ii. Confus. 15. f Moulin. Cor. i., Scr. 2, p. 52.

SO. 2.] Tin

iut ' fur < n r,' I). ut. \v. 17; /. < .,

(ill the jubilee, whieh ws r. So the

er is said to . L«v. \i. liO. <

.in for all • I ; I an, which ;

natii us, Indeed, oircumc

t In i waH ii M"ii, viz., " God of

lirli. ■ n lures I'nr ever; and that envim . | whi'-hwas

m of the fl< ib, i h ill rem tin f

.1 ' of the thin •

The 1 it; :.:

peremptory in it, thai i '..-In i. I him if fi om a participation of i I . •■ I ■ ■ irere to be perpetnal i

by them, viz., the death of Christ, whieb to endnre in the

of it. Aiul the ' i '•'■ foi i. 24, in

nption signified by it, which was to 1"' of i < to !"• an everlastin [lory of bee

I, to bi for ever oonferred opon the spirit f Abraham.

:'.. When s thing bath do end, thou -h it hath a

lis are everlasting; though their b ball never o

was i time when their 'I nothin

they shall never be nothing Bgain, but shall live in i h - happin ry.

Bnti • rnal that hath neither beginnii 1; nn<l thus

lity is a pr ipertyofGod. In this dootrine I shall shew,

I.I! tQ mal, Of in what \g Lis property.

II. Tb t !. si, end must d so.

III. Thai eternity is only proper to God, and not common to him with any creature.

IV.

T. Bovf GK J is eternal, or in what respects he is so. Eternity is a negative attribute, and is a denying of God any measures of time, as immensity him any bounds of place; as immensity is the diffhffl >n of his rnity is the duration of his essence; and when we say

iude from him all possibility of beginning and ending,

all ilux and change. As th. te of God cannot be bounded by any

place, BO it is not to be limited by any time; as it is his imm. to be

• it is his eternity to be always. .\ ted things are said

to 1 re in regard of place, and to be present, past, or future in

rd of time, so the Creator in regard of place is ev. 1

of i mper* His duration is a • is boundless;

1 always will be, and will no more have an end than he

■ : and this is an excellency 1 g to the Supremo

! them, and his ots all places, SO his eternity comprehends all times, all ml inth. them.}

1. (i.> 1 is without beginnii

•In the begins eg 0 it the world,' Gen. i. 1. Q then

hat point can be set wherein God be.

if ! • ated ti.

I. : : . though all other things had time and beginnu I him.

• Qesi t Crallres, Jo Dee, oep. evOL p. ti. :.J, torn. .

unity is before all numbers, so is God before all his creatures. Abraham called upon the name of the ■ everlasting God,' Q^y ^ Gen. xxi. 33, the eternal God. It is opposed to heathen gods, which were but of yesterday, new coined, and so new; but the eternal God was before the world was made. In that sense it is to be understood: Rom. xvi. 26, 'The mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the command of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.' The gospel is not preached by the command of a new and temporary God, but of that God that was before all ages. Though the manifestation of it be in time, yet the purpose and resolve of it was from eternity.

If there were decrees before the foundation of the world, there was a decreer before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world he loved Christ as a mediator, John xvii. 24; a foreordination of him was before the foundation of the world, Eph. i. 4. A choice of men, and therefore a chooser before the foundation of the world; a ■ grace given in Christ before the world began,' 2 Tim. i. 9, and therefore a donor of that grace. From those places, saith Crellius, it appears that God was before the foundation of the world; but they do not assert an absolute eternity. But to be before all creatures, is equivalent to his being from eternity.* Time began with the foundation of the world, but God being before time, could have no beginning in time; before the beginning of the creation and the beginning of time, there could be nothing but eternity, nothing but what was uncreated, that is, nothing but what was without beginning. To be in time, is to have a beginning; to be before all time, is never to have a beginning, but always to be; for as between the Creator and creatures there is no medium, so between time and eternity there is no medium. It is as easily deduced that he that was before all creatures is eternal, as he that made all creatures is God; if he had a beginning, he must have it from another, or from himself. If from another, that from whom he received his bein» would be better than he, so more a God than he. He cannot be God that is not supreme, he cannot be supreme that owes his being to the power of another. He would not be said ' only to have immortality' as he is, 1 Tim. vi. 16, if he had it dependent upon another; nor could he have a beginning from himself. If he had given beginning to himself, then he was once nothing, there was a time when he was not; if he was not, how could he be the cause of himself? It is impossible for any to give a beginning and being to itself; if it acts, it must exist, and so exist before it existed. A thin« would exist as a cause before it existed as an effect. He that is not cannot be the cause that he is. If therefore God doth exist, and hath not his being from another, he must exist from eternity. Therefore when we say God is of and from himself, we mean not that God gave being to himself; but it is negatively to be understood, that he hath no cause of existence without himself.

Whatsoever number of millions of millions of years we can imagine before the creation of the world, yet God was infinitely before those; he is therefore called ' the Ancient of days,' Dan. vii. 9, as being before all days and time, and eminently containing in himself all times and ages. Though indeed God cannot properly be called ancient, that will testify that he is decaying, and shortly will not be; no more than he can be called young, which would signify that ho was not long before. All created things are new and fresh, but no creaturo can find out any beginning of God. It is impossible there should be any beginning of him.

* Coccei, Sum. Thool. p. 48 ; Gerhard, Exegcs. cap. lxxxvi. 4, p. 266.

'2. God is without ond. Ho alwnyi \\a-, ilwajl If, Hid alwayi will

what lie is. lb r. in. iin - :i!v..i;. une in being; ho far from any char

th;it iii) shadow of it cm touch him, .lam. -si. 17. He will continue in I • as long hh ho hatli already enjoyed it ; and if we c..uld add . | many

millions of years together, we are still iih far from an end as from I I inning, for ' the I i i hall enduri | it is imp

sible he should not be, I- .ii" from all et« mity, ho it is impossible that ho

should not be to all eternity. The Scripture i i in testi-

Bioniai "l this eternity of Qo&, & part* i '• oi Lion of

world. Be ii said to 'li\e (or ever, 1 i; 9, 10. The i trth shall

j»' riah, but God shall endure for erer, and bi hall bate no end,

cii. 27. l'lanN and :niimals grow Dp fi"in .-mall h. ginning!, am., to their full growth and decline again, and ha\e alwajl K marl.aide all in

their nature; hut there is DO declination in God by all the rOTOlotioE time. II. iic.' Mime think the incorruptibility of the I 1 • the Shittun or c. dar wood, whereof tin: ark Wll made, it being Of an ii. ruptible nature, Bxod. \w. I<>.

That which had no beginning of duration can never have as end, or anj

interruptions in it. Since God never depended Upon any, what should

make lum case to bo what eternally he hath been, or put • stop to the

continuance of his perfections'.' Jle cannot will his own d< m ; that

DJt universal nature in all things to cease from being, if tie v cm preserve themselves. lit! cannot desert his own being, because he cannot but love himself as the best and chi. : id. The reason that anything

decays, is either its own native weakness, or superior power of Something eonti.u, to it.* Thero is no weakness in the nature of God that cm jn1 tluce any corruption, because ho is infinitely simple, without anv mixture. Nor can he be overpowered by anything else ; a Weaker cannot hurt hirn, and a Stronger than he there cannot be. Nor can he be outwitted or circumvented, because of his infinite wisdom. As he received his being from none, so he cannot bo deprived of it by any. As he doth necessarily 63 so lie doth me. BSSjrily always exist. This indeed is the property of God ; nothing so proper to him as always to be. Whatsoever perfection any being bath, if it bo not eternal it is not divine. God only is immortal,! 1 Tim. vi. 10; he only is so by a necessity of nature. Angels, souks, , bodies too, after the resurrection, shall be immortal; not by nature but grant; they are subject to return to nothing, if that word that raised them from nothing should speak them into nothing again. It is as easy with God to strip them of it as to invest them with it; nay, it is impossible but that they should perish, if God should withdraw his power from preserving them, which he exerted in creating them. But God is immovably fixed in his own being, that as none gave him his life, so none can deprive him of his life, or the least particle of it. Not a jot of the happiness and life which ( I infinitely possesses can be lost; it will be as durable to everlasting as it hath been possessed from everlasting.

3. There is no succession in God. God is without succession or change; it is a part of eternity: 'From everlasting to everlasting he is God,' tin God doth not only always n main in being, but he always remains

the same in that being: 'Thou art the same,' l's. cii. 27. The being of

S, the being of God is permanent, and remain with all its perfections, unchanged in an infinite duration. Indeed, the : notion of et. mity is to be with. Dl 1 I .'inning and end, which notes to us the duration of a being in regard of its I BJ but to have no succession,

Crelliud, de Deu, cap. xviii. p, 11. f Daillo in loc.

nothing first or last, notes rather the perfection of a being in regard of its essence.

The creatures are in a perpetual flux; something is acquired, or something lost, every day. A man is the same in regard of existence when he is a man as he was when he was a child, but there is a new succession of quantities and qualities in him. Every day he acquires something till he comes to his maturity, every day he loseth something till he comes to his period. A man is not the same at night that he was in the morning, something is expired and something is added; every day there is a change in his age, a change in his substance, a change in his accidents; but God hath his whole being in one and the same point or moment of eternity. He receives nothing as an addition to what he was before, he loseth nothing of what he was before ; he is always the same excellency and perfection in the same infiniteness as ever. His 'years do not fail,' Heb. i. 12; his 3 7 ears do not come and go as others do, there is not this day, to-morrow, or yesterday with him. As nothing is past or future with him in regard of knowledge, but all things are present, so nothing is past or future in regard of his essence. He is not in his essence this day what he was not before, or will be the next day and year what he is not now.* All his perfections are most perfect in him every moment, before all ages, after all ages. As he hath his whole essence undivided in every place, as well as in immense space, so he hath all his being in one moment of time, as well as in infinite intervals of time.f Some illustrate the difference between eternity and time by the similitude of a tree or a rock standing upon the side of a river or shore of the sea; the tree stands, always the same and unmoved, while the waters of the river glide along at the foot. The flux is in the river, but the tree acquires nothing but a diverse respect and relation of presence to the various parts of the river as they flow. The waters of the river press on, and push forward one another, and what the river hath this minute it hath not the same the next; so are all sublunary things in a continual flux. And though the angels have no substantial change, yet they have an accidental, for the actions of the angels this day are not the same individual actions which they performed yesterday; but in God there is no change, he always remains the same.

Of a creature it may be said, he was, or he is, or he shall be. J Of God it cannot be said but only he is; he is what he always was, and he is what he always will be; whereas a creature is what he was not, and will be what he is not now. As it may be said of the flame of a candle, it is flame, but it is not the same individual flame as was before, nor is it the same that will be presently after ; there is a continual dissolution of it into air, and a continual supply for the generation of more ; while it continues it may be said there is a flame, yet not entirely one, but in a succession of parts: so of a man it may be said, he is in a succession of parts ; but he is not the same that he was, and will not be the same that he is. But God is the same without any succession of parts, and of time ; of him it may be said, ho is ; he is no more now than he was, and he shall be no more hereafter than he is. God possesses a firm and absolute being, always constant to himself; § ho sees all things sliding under him in a continual variation ; he beholds the revolutions in the world without any change of his most glorious and immoveable nature. All other things pass from one state to

* Lossius, do perfect, divin. lib. iv. cap. 1.

t Gamacheus in Aquin. part i. qu. 10, eap. 1.

j Gtissend, torn. i.; Physic, sec. i. 1. 2, c. 7, p. 223.

\ Daille, Melange do iSennons, p. 252.

I' . \< I, B WD*

!ht, from their original to their eclipse and di traction; bni Q I p , being in one indi point, having noithcr b nd,

He.

! .) Then I ■ :' ( I L 'I •' • '• ! - '" of

in the divine mind, for nil tin him from «-t rnitv in i I

of hii knowledge, though they are not actually ] rorld in i I

of their exi bonoe. II" doth not know one thing now and »n,

SOS all thingl at ' Known unto I I all thiogl from tin- )>(•■

of the worl .18, bnt in their true r.rdi-r . fifl

they lie in the el >nn»el of God, to be brought forth in time. Tli" :

:t siiiv. ••! md order of thii they are wro I I if

>n in God i l of bia knon led p of them. I

thinga that shall be wrought, and the order of them in their ben (W

upon the ita;'" of the wurM ; y. t imtli tin things and the order by one act. Though all thingi be present with God, yet they | in

him in the order of their appearance in the world, and noi ao pn lent with him as if they ahould be wrought at ones. The death of Christ was to pre-orrection in order of time; there ia i d in this; I

sxe known hv God, y, t the act of his knowl I

shout Christ ai dying and risuig at the same time, bo that there

i in thingi when there is no succession in God'i knowledge of Uk Sin. knows time, he knows all thingi ss they an in time; l

not know nil thingi to DS at 01100, though he knows at OUCC what is, lias

l a, an.l will be. All thingi are ent, and to come in regard of

; but there is noi past, present, and to come in regard of

l*i knowledge of them, 1 because h< nd knows not by any other hut

by him* If; hi il nil own light by which ho sees, his own glass wherein he

- ; beholding himself, he behotdi all things.

Th< re is no lucceeaion in the decrees of God. He dcth not decreo tliis now which lie decreed not before, for as his works were known from the beginning of the world, so his works were decreed from the boginnii: the world ; as they are known at once, so they are decreed at once ; tl is a succession in the execution of them, first grace, then glory ; but tho purpose of God for the bestowing of both was in one and the same moment of eternity : Eph. i. 4, 'He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy;' the choice of Christ, and the choice of some in him to be holy, and to be happy, were before the foundation of the

rid. It is by the eternal counsel of God all thingi app ar in time ; they

appear in tluir order, according to the counsel and will of God, from eternity.

The redemption of tho world is after the creation of the world, but the

reby the world was created, and whereby it was redeemed, was

from eternity.

(3.) God is his own eternity. He tfl not eternal by grant, and the disposal of any other, but by nature and essence. The eternity of God i| not: ;t the duration of God, and the duration of God is not!

else but his e luring, exittentia durans* If eternity wore any-

thing distinct from God, and not of the SI of God, then thero would

metbing which was not God ay to period God. Ai immortalU

the 0 of a rational ereatir V rnitv is the ah

:i of God, y< loss and lustre of all others. Every perfection woold

imperfect if it ' elwsyi I | n.

: is essentially whatsoever he is, and thero is nothing in God but his * Parisicn t Calov. Socinian.

VOL. I. Z

essence. Duration or continuance in being in creatures differs from their being, for they might exist but for one instant, in which case they may be said to have being, but not duration, because all duration includes prius et posterius. All creatures may cease from being, if it be the pleasure of God; they are not therefore durable by their essence, and therefore are not their own duration, no more than they are their own existence ; and though some creatures, as angels and souls, may be called everlasting, as a perpetual life is communicated to them by God, yet they can never be called their own eternity, because such a duration is not simply necessary nor essential to them, but accidental, depending upon the pleasure of another; there is nothing in their nature that can hinder them from losing it, if God, from whom they received it, should design to take it away; but as God is his own necessity of existing, so he is in his own duration in existing.* As he doth necessarily exist by himself, so he will always necessarily exist by himself.

(4.) Hence all the perfections of God are eternal. In regard of the divine eternity, all things in God are eternal: his power, mercy, wisdom, justice, knowledge. God himself were not eternal if any of his perfections, w r hich are essential to him, were not eternal also; he had not else been a perfect God from all eternity, and so his whole self had not been eternal. If anything belonging to the nature of a thing be wanting, it cannot be said to be that thing which it ought to be ; if anything requisite to the nature of God had been wanting one moment, he could not have been said to be an eternal God.

II. The second thing, God is eternal. The Spirit of God in Scripture condescends to our capacities in signifying the eternity of God by days and years, which are terms belonging to time, whereby we measure it, Ps. cii. 27; but we must no more conceive that God is bounded or measured by time, and hath succession of days because of those expressions, than we can conclude him to have a body because members are ascribed to him in Scripture, to help our conceptions of his glorious nature and operations.

Though years are ascribed to him, yet they are such as cannot be numbered, cannot be finished, since there is no proportion between the duration of God and the years of men: ■ The number of his years cannot be searched out, for he makes small the drops of water, they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof,' Job xxxvi. 26, 27. The numbers of the drops of rain which have fallen in all parts of the earth since the creation of the world, if subtracted from the number of the years of God, would be found a small quantity, a mere nothing to the years of God. As all the nations in the world compared with God are but as the ' drop of a bucket, worse than nothing, than vanity,' Isa. xl. 15, so all the ages of the world, if compared with God, amount not to" so much as the one hundred thousandth part of a minute. The minutes from the creation may be numbered, but the years of the duration of God, being infinite, are without measure.

As one day is to the life of man, so are a thousand years to the life of God, Ps. xc. 4. The Holy Ghost expresseth himself to the capacity of man, to give us some notion of an infinite duration, by a resemblance suited to the capacity of man.t If a thousand years bo but as a day to the life of God, then as a year is to the life of man, so are three hundred sixty-five thousand years to the life of God; and as seventy years are to the life of man, so are twenty-five millions four J hundred and fifty thousand years to the life of God. Yet still, sinco there is no proportion between time and eternity, we * Gassond. ♦ Amyrald, Trin. p. 44. $ ' five.'— Ed.

inn.-.t dart our thou ;hta beyond all those, 1 fur yean ind dayi measure only Um duration of . Bnd ol I bit thai an material and i

poreal, mbjod to tin motion of tl nrnieh maki

rnity is i v parta, a« looking bs and

forward, by the difl wbiofa i

and ii| an ] bo h tbii might I ■ n of i j in

being, though but for an hour, it was tin last minutr, it and it %*•• ii 1

• minute, yel tl" B Ij Qhoet would dealan to

G I, as inolnding all parts of time; be always wi ysshaU

. it mighl al i of bim he was, and it may I of

him he Will be. There is mi time when lio began, no timu when lie shall

[| eannol be said of a sreatnre be alwayi wa . be alwaj i what be was, and he always will be wh itGodal is what ho was, and

alwayi will be what be Is, so thai it is i ?sry ugnificent i . of Um

eternity of God, as can 1 e suit, d to our estpaoH

l. M eten tj i evident, by the name God gives himself: Bx Liii. 14, • \ i G | said Onto Moses, I am thai I am; thus r shalt thou say to the ehildren of brai 1, 1 an hath lenl me unto von.' Thii is thi name wh< n he is distinguished bom all creatures. I am is his proper name. Ibis

nription being in the pies nl ten s, shews that his esse n ce knows no p I nor future. It'it were as was t it would intimate he were not now what he if it were he will be, it would intimate he were not yet what ho will be; hut / am; 1 am the only being, the root of all beings; he is thi

the greatest distance from not being, and that is sternal; so that v signifies nil eternity, as well as his perfection and immutability. As / am

iks the want of 00 iks the want of no duration;

and therefore the French, wherever they find this word Jehovah in - ip-ture, which we translate Lore*, and Lord eternal, render it the Eternal t —

i always and immutably the same. The eternity of God is opposed to the volubility of time, which is extended into past, present, and to come. Our time is but a small drop, as sand to all the atoms and small particles of which the world is made : but God is an unbounded sea of being,—' I am that I am,' i.r. am infinite life. I have not that now which I had not formerly ; I shall not afterwards have that which I have not now. I am that

rery moment which I was, and will he in all moments of time. Nothing can be added to me, nothing can be detracted from me. There is noth. Superior to him which can detract from him, nothing desirable that can be added to him. Now if thero were any beginning and end of God, any succession in him, he coul 1 not be / am ; j for in regard of what was past he would not be, in regard of what was to come he is not yet. And upon this account a heathen § argues well, of all creatures it may be said they were, or they will be, but of God it cannot be said anything else but E$t t God it,

lass he fills an eternal duration. A creature cannot be said to be if it 4 yet, nor if it be not now, but hath been. || God only can be Balled / am ; all creatures have more of not being than y creature was nothing from eternity, before it was m : and if it bo corruptible in its whole nature, it will bo nothing to eternity after it hath been something in time ; and if it be not corruptible in its nature, as th . or in every part of its nature, as man

in regard of nil soul, yet it hah not properly a being, because it is den

" Di 8 di. 27, p. 21.

t K this argument. <!■ D p. 18, p. 49

.;.l 16. '1 i. ,. 11. § riutarch, d T K/ i. p. i

a Exod. . Jt. 13.

dent upon the pleasure of God to continue it, or deprive it of it; and while it is, it is mutable, and all mutability is a mixture of not being. If God, therefore, be properly I am, i. e. being, it follows that he'always was ; for if he were not always, he must, as was argued before, be produced by some other, or by himself. By another he could not, then he had not been God, but a creature; nor by himself, for then, as producing, he must be before himself, as produced ; he had been before he was. And he always will be, for being I am, having all being in himself, and the fountain of all being to everything else, how can he ever have his name changed to I am not?

2. God hath life in himself: John v. 26, ■ The Father hath life in himself.' He is the 'living God,' therefore ' stedfast'for ever,' Dan. vi. 26. He hath life by his essence, not by participation. He is a sun to give light and life to all creatures, but receives not light or life from anything, and therefore he hath an unlimited life ; not a drop of life, but a fountain ; not a spark of a limited life, but a life transcending all bounds. He hath life in himself; all creatures have their life in him, and from him. He that hath life in himself doth necessarily exist, and could never be made to exist, for then he had not life in himself, but in that which made him to exist, and gave him life. What doth necessarily exist, therefore, exists from eternity; what hath being of itself could never be produced in time, could not want being one moment, because it hath being from its essence, without influence of any efficient cause. When God pronounced his name, I am that lam, angels and men were in being; the world had been created above two thousand four hundred years.* Moses, to whom he then speaks, was in being; yet God only is, because he only hath the fountain of being in himself, but all that they were was a rivulet from him. He hath from nothing else that he doth subsist; everything else hath its subsistence from him as their root, as the beam from the sun, as the rivers and fountains from the sea. All life is seated in God, as in its proper throne, in its most perfect purity. God is life; it is in him originally, radically, therefore eternally. He is a pure act, nothing but vigour and act. He hath by his nature that life which others have by his grant; whence the apostle saith, 1 Tim. vi. 16, not only that he is immortal, but he 'hath immortality' in a full possession, fee-simple, not depending upon the will of another, but containing all things within himself. He that hath life in himself, and is from himself, cannot but be. He always was, because he received his being from no other, and none can take away that being which was not given by another.f If there were any space before he did exist, then there were something which made him to exist; life would not then be in him, but in that which produced him into being. He could not then be God, but that other which gave him being would be God. And to say God sprung into being by chance, when we see nothing in the world that is brought forth by chance, but hath some cause of its existence, would be vain; for since God is a being, chance, which is nothing, could not bring forth something: and by the same reason that ho sprung up by chance, he might totally vanish by chance. What a strange notion of a God would this be, such a God that had no life in himself, but from chance.

Sinco ho had life in himself, and that there was no cause of his existence, ho can have no cause of his limitation, and can no more be determined to a time than he can to a place. What hath life in itself hath life without bounds, and can never desert it, nor be deprived of it; so that he lives necessarily, and it is absolutely impossible that he should not live; whereas

* Fetav. Thool. Dogm., torn. i. lib. i. c. G, sec. 6, 7. t Amyrald, do Triuit., p. 48.

«

nil 0th«r thin:'; ' li\. , :i:,l DO 1 have their being in him,' -\<-l I xvii.

88; m . ' ' nothing it bii m

i ■' 11 not immutable In hii nature. It is

iinmuta! ho without eterni' vhatso-

, is chan '<■ I. in • ' ■ •'

t | 1 .■ M Dll it WM : t,. th to I I I !■ H 1 H -a--. D HB-

not, th< to 1 G .'t' then i ith< r 1 •

• II in it : M il. ni. ('», ' I nni tin I ' ;' Job DO

. • Touching tin AJmight oannot Bud bin onl

I n, from hii and to naturi J< ■ . to bii immutability

in hii | II.il lio ii"' 1" '"M eternal, th< hern the greatest

, from Hot!. Something. A chair'. of •

than a cli.in'■• of purpoee. Cod ii . guttering ilwayi in the hhimh

glory; no | ' up in youth, no | on to :i /••. It" 1. not

without • unlink in ono point of eternity, I fOUld bf I

from peet to present, from present to future. The eternity ofG I

i ;i shield against all kind of mutability. If injthillg sprang Bf in tho

essence of God that was not then before, Km could not be said to m either

IH i ternal or an Dnohinged substance.

i. God could not be an infinitely perfect being, if he were not eternal. A finite duration is inoonaiitent with infinite pe r fection. Whatsoever is contracted within the limits of time, cannot swallow Dp all perfection! in itself.

I hath an unsearchable perfection : ' Canst thou by searching find out

God *.' eenai thon find out the Almighty unto perfection ?' Job xi. 7. Ho cannot he found out, he is infinite, because he ii incomprehi neible. Incomprehensibility iriieth from in infinite perfection, which cannot be fathomed he short lims of man's understanding. His essence, in regard of its diffusion and in regard of its duration, is incomprehensible, as well as his action. If God, therefore, had beginning) he could not be infinite ; if not infinite, lie did not possess the highest perfection, because a perfection might bee 1 beyond it. If his being could fail, he were not perfect. Can

that deserve the name of the highest perfection, which is capable of corruption and dissolution ? To be finite and limited is the greatest imperfection, for it consists in a denial of being, lie could not be the most blessed being if he were not always so, and should not for ever remain to be so ; and whatsoever perfections he had, would be soured by the thoughtl that in time they would md so could not be pure perfections, because not perma-

nent ; but he is ' blessed from everlasting to everlasting,' Ps. xli. 13. Had he l 1" ginning, he could not have all perfection without limitation ; he would have been limited by that which gave him beginning ; that which gave him Ig would bfl God and not himself, and so more perfect than he. But since God is the most sovereign perfection, than which nothing can be imagined p- rfecter by the moei capacious understanding, he is certainly eternal; being infinite, nothing can be iddf 1 I » him, nothing detracted from him.

5. I dd not be omnipotent, almighty, if he were not eternal. The

title of Almighi - not with ■ nature that had a beginning ; whatsoever

hath a beginnii I nothing, and when it was nothing, could act no-

thing. Wl > being, 1 II no power; neither doth the title

of Almighty agree with | p<nilhing nature. He can do nothing to purp that cannot lumselfl the outward force and violence of enc-

iinst the inward causes of corruption and dissolution. No account

• I be made of man. ' *h is in his nostr: ii. 22.

i Grady if hi were of the like n ?

II • could not properly be almighty t that were not always mvjhty. If ho be

omnipotent, nothing can impair him ; he that hath all power can have no hurt.* If he doth whatsoever he pleaseth, nothing can make him miserable, since misery consists in those things which happen against our will. The almightiness and eternity of God are linked together : 'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which was, and which is, and which is to come, the Almighty,' Rev. i. 8. Almighty because eternal, and eternal because almighty.

6. God would not be the first cause of all, if he were not eternal. But he is ' the first and the last,' Rev. i. 8 ; the first cause of all things, the last end of all things, f That which is the first cannot begin to be : it were not then the first. It cannot cease to be : whatsoever is dissolved, is dissolved into that whereof it doth consist, which was before it, and then it was not the first.| The world might not have been ; it was once nothing : it must have some cause to call it out of nothing. Nothing hath no power to make itself something; there is a superior cause, by whose will and power it comes into being, and so gives all the creatures their distinct forms.

This power cannot but be eternal, it must be before the world; the founder must be before the foundation, § and his existence must be from eternity, or we must say nothing did exist from eternity. And if there were no being from eternity, there could not now be any being in time. What we see, and w r hat we are, must arise from itself or some other. It cannot from itself. If anything made itself, it had a power to make itself; it then had an active power before it had a being. It was something in regard of power, and was nothing in regard of existence, at the same time. Suppose it had a power to produce itself, this power must be conferred upon it by another ; and so the power of producing itself was not from itself, but from another. But if the power of being was from itself, why did it not produce itself before ? Why was it one moment out of being ? If there be any existence of things, it is necessary that that which was the first cause should exist from eternity. || Whatsoever was the immediate cause of the world, yet the first and chief cause, wherein we must rest, must have nothing before it; if it had anything before it, it were not the first. He therefore that is the first cause must be without beginning, nothing must be before him. If he had a beginning from some other, he could not be the first principle and author of all things. If he be the first cause of all things, he must give himself a beginning, or to be from eternity. He could not give himself a beginning : whatsoever begins in time was nothing before, and when it was nothing, it could do nothing; it could not give itself anything, for then it gave what it had not, and did what it could not. If he made himself in time, why did he not make himself before ? What hindered him ? It was either because he could not, or because he would not. If he could not, he always wanted power, and always would, unless it were bestowed upon him, and then he could not be said to be from himself. If he would not make himself before, then he might have made himself when he would : how had he the power of willing and nilling without a being ? Nothing cannot will or nill; nothing hath no faculties. So that it is necessary to grant some eternal being, or run into inextricable labyrinths and mazes. If we deny some eternal being, we must deny all being : our own being, the being of everything about us ; unconceivable absurditios will arise.

So then, if God were tho causo of all things, ho did exist before all things, and that from eternity.

* Voot. Natural. Theol., p. 310. g Crellius de Deo, cap. 18, p. 43.

t Firfn.de Immort., lib. il. cap. 5. || retav.Theol.Dogmat.,tora.i. 1.i.e. 10,11.

J Coccci Sum. Theol.

. Of .;<>]..

ill. The third thii only pi I God, and not communi-

cable. I'

■ the Lord of the on ifta f eterail | prop* I that

when the apoetle would prove the i rhieisniiMi-

11%• an.I i i art tin MOM,

III thai] DOt fill,' Hilt, i. 1 <» 1 ' if eternity belongi I ■ any but '

1 only to dats immorl ii'y.' l Tim. H. L6. All oifa being from linn, and • deprived of their I • him. All thii

[ on him, ho <»t" n Ml r tliii are like clothes, which would

l i i>.I | : thrill not. Iinlm

□dent immortality. Angela and

by donatlOD from God, not by tlnir own • upon tl

I . doI necessary in thrir own nature. ( rod mi [ht bare annihilate I tl

r he had oreated thi i that thrir duration cannot, pro]

■;.ty, it b oeal to them, and depending nponfhe will of th

I . by whom they may be extinguished. It. is riot an abaolnte and

^sary, hut a pi , imniort i! tv. Wi: :, ifl tern;

rary ; whataoever ii rtcrnil, ii GkxL

It i| a contradiction to sav a nvalurr | i trrnal : M DOthic

is creati I, so nothing en ' I is eternal. What i tore

of do I cannot be <•< rnal, eternity being the God. ]

tare, in the notion of i e, speaks s dependence on

therefore oann I rnaL As it is repngnant to tfa I not to

at to t ; .'' nature of a creature to be eternal; for ■ would i e i | ; I I • thi ' . and ths Creator, or the cause,

'. |

It would he all OH ait many gods, SS in my eternals ; and all one

I I can be I, as to say s creature can be uncreated, which is

II be i kernel.

1. Creation is a producing something from nothing. What was once nothing, cannot therefore bo eternal : its not being was eternal ; there! its : iuld not be eternal, for it should be then before it was, and would

be something when it was nothing. It is the nature of a creature to be nothing before it was created ; what was nothing before it was, cannot equal with God in an eternity of duration.

St, There is no creaturo but is mutable, therefore not eternal. As it had a change from nothing to something, so it may be changed from being to not

It' the creature were not mutable, it would be most perfect, would not be a creature, but God, for God only is most i t is as

much the essence of a creature to he mutable, as it is the essence of Go I Lo. Mutability and eternity are utterly inconsistent.

8. N i is infinite, therefore not eternal. To be intinite in dura-

tion, is all one as to be intinite in essence. It is as ible to conceive

a creature immense, tilling all places el rnal, extended to all ages;

beel •;.< r can DS without intiniteness, which is the property of the

I» ity, | A creature ma U be without bounds of place, as limitations of

■

1. N i • :':" t of an intellectual pent, can be equal in duration I

cause. The prodc natural agente s anient oftenaathemseh

sun prodnoeth B beam as old in time as itself; but who , piece of wise workmanship as old as the wise artificer? G Creature, QOt necessarily and naturally, as the sun dotfa a beam, but freely, * ]' t ' le Perfect* lib. rr. cap. & ♦ Ibid.

as an intelligent agent. The sun was not necessary ; it might be or not be, according to the pleasure of God. A free act of the will is necessary to precede in order of time, as the cause of such effects as are purely voluntary.* Those causes that act as soon as they exist, act naturally, necessarily, not freely, and cannot cease from acting.

But suppose a creature might have existed by the will of God from eternity : yet, as some think, it could not be said, absolutely and in its own nature, to be eternal, because eternity was not of the essence of it. The creature could not be its own duration ; for though it were from eternity, it might not have been from eternity, because its existence depended upon the free will of God, who might have chose whether he would have created it or no.

God only is eternal, ' the first and the last, the beginning and the end,' who, as he subsisted before any creature had a being, so he will eternally subsist, if all creatures were reduced to nothing.

IV. Use. 1. Information.

(1.) If God be of an eternal duration, then Christ is God. Eternity is the property of God, but it is ascribed to Christ: ' He is before all things,' Col. i. 17, i.e. all created things. He is therefore no creature ; and if no creature, eternal. 'All things were created by him,' both in heaven and in earth, angels as well as men, ■ whether they be thrones or dominions,' Col. i. 16. If all things were his creatures, then he is no creature; if he were, all things were not created by him, or he must create himself.

He hath no difference of time, for he is ' the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,' Heb. xiii. 8; Rev. i. 8, ■ He which is, and which was, and which is to come :' the same with the name of God, I am, which signifies his eternity. He is no more to-day than he was yesterday, nor will be any other to-morrow than he is to-day; and therefore Melchisedec, whose descent, birth and death, father and mother, beginning and end of days, are not upon record, was a type of the existence of Christ, without difference of time : ■ Having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God,' Heb. vii. 3. The suppression of his birth and death was intended by the Holy Ghost as a type of the excellency of Christ's person in regard of his eternity, and the duration of his charge in regard of his priesthood. As there was an appearance of an eternity in the suppression of the race of Melchisedec, so there is a true eternity in the Son of God. How could the eternity of the Son of God be expressed by any resemblance so well, as by such a suppression of the beginning and end of this great person, different from the custom of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, who often records the generations and ends of holy men ; and why might not this, which was a kind of a shadow of eternity, be a representation of the true eternity of Christ, as well as the restoration of Isaac to his father without death, is said to be a figure of the resurrection of Christ after a real death.f Melchisedec is only mentioned once (without any record of his extraction), in his appearance to Abraham after his victory, as if he came from heaven only for that action, and instantly disappeared again, as if he had been an eternal person.

And Christ himself hints his own eternity : ' I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave tho world, and go to the Father,' John xvi. 28. Ho goes to tho Father as he came from the Father; he goes to the Father for everlasting, so he came from the Father from everlasting; there is the same duration in coming forth from the Father as in returning to the Father. But more plainly, John xvii. 5, ho speaks of a glory that he ' had with the Father before the world was,' when there was no creature * Crellius de Deo, cap. 18, p. 43. t Mestrsozat. in loc.

in 1 :•.: i IB actual f.'l<>ry, and Dot only in .!■ BR•• ■; foi

bad, and whv D

tther, glorifj ilk thai glorj which I bad with tie >rld

was,' it' it wart <>ni :• In:in »

lio was before the world was, bee ■'• ( '!

omathing peculiar to bim, tl poe» *M

wis ; glorify ma, ambraea, honour dm aa thy Bon, wh< rat l m the eyeo of to* worid handled d folly aa a ear h only

in decree, why is not the like Beripi

as of Chris) 1 Whv did be nol oaa the tame •• thai

ware th< d with him, who had i riory In d< I

li.ui. 1 in the Old Testament ; ' Tin- I me in tl

lus way, before bii works of old, 1 Pro?, mi. 82. If be ware U

ited before bimaelf if I God; it

> properly meant of the essential wiadom of God, sine ti ; . nms in the name of a peraoo, and several pai ■■ '■ • arawhieh be) not s.» mneh to the essential wi dom of God f as far. L8, 'ami the (toward month do I bate ;' which belong! rather to the ho] < 1 than to tln« essential wisdom of God ; 11 ride », H is disti ngui sh '1 from Jehovah, as poaaeaaed by him and rejoicing before him. 5fe1 plainer, lucah v. •_>, "Out of thee,' i.e. Bethlehem, 'shall he corns forth to be ruler in l tel, whose goings forth be; i from of old, from ting/ 'DfO

JCtnt* ' llom tlu> ways* of eternity.' There ire two goings forth of Christ described, one from Bethlehem in the days of his incarnation, and another

from eternity. The Holy (ihost adds after his prediction of his incarnation,

going ont from STerlaating, that none should donbt of his deity. It this going out from everlasting were only in the purpose of God, it might

David and of every creature. And in Isa. ix. he is particularly called the Everlasting, or eternal Father ; not the Father in the Trinity, but a father to us ; yet eternal, the Father of eternity. As he is ' the mighty God,' so he is ' the everlasting Father.' Can such a title be ascribed :iy whoso being depends upon the will of another, and may be dashed out at the pleasure of a superior ?

As the eternity of God is the ground of all religion, so the eternity of Ohlisl is the ground of the Christian religion. Could our sins be perfectly expiated had he not an eternal divinity to answer for the offences committed inst an eternal God? Temporary Bufferings had been of little validity, without an intiniteness and eternity in his person to add weight to his passion. i be eternal, he knows all things as present. 1 Ail things are present to him in his eternity ; for this is the notion of eternity, to be without succession. If eternity DC one indivisible point, and is not diffused into nd succeeding parts, then that which is known in it or by it is pere ithout any succession, for knowledge is as the substance of the

person knowing ; if that hath various actions and distinct from itself, t. it Dl Is tilings in ditVerences of time as time presents them to view ;

but ' iod's being depends not upon the revolutions of time, so neither

doth* his knowledge ; it exceeds all motions of years and days, comprehends infinite • and future. God Considers all things in his <

in one simple knowledge, as if they were now acted before him : Acts ST. 18, • Known unto (I from the beginning of the world ;' dV

'cux tculo, from eternity, (iod's knowled :nal with him.

If he knows that in time which he did not know from eternif. . dd not

icily perfect, since ki ion of an intelligi .re.

♦ Qu. 'days/ t 1'

(3.) How bold and foolish is it for a mortal creature to censure the counsels and actions of an eternal God, or be too curious in his inquisitions ? It is by the consideration of the unsearchable number of the years of God that Elihu checks too bold inquiries : ' Who hath enjoined him his way, or who can say thou hast wrought iniquity ? Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out,' Job xxxvi. 26 compared with ver. 23. Eternity sets God above our inquiries and censures. Infants of a day old are not able to understand the acts of wise and grey heads. Shall we, that are of so short a being and understanding as yesterday, presume to measure the motions of eternity by our scanty intellects ? we that cannot foresee an unexpected accident which falls in to blast a well laid design, and run a ship many leagues back from the intended harbour ? We cannot understand the reason of things we see done in time, the motions of the sea, the generation of rain, the nature of light, the sympathies and antipathies of the creatures ; and shall we dare to censure the actions of an eternal God, so infinitely beyond our reach ? The counsels of a boundless being are not to be scanned by the brain of a silly worm, that hath breathed but a few minutes in the world. Since eternity' cannot be comprehended in time, it is not to be judged by a creature of time. 1 Let us remember to magnify his works which we behold,' because he is eternal, which is the exhortation of Elihu backed by this doctrine of God's eternity, Job xxxvi. 24, and not accuse any work of him who is the ancient of days, or presume to direct him of whose eternity we come infinitely short. Whenever therefore any unworthy notion of the counsels and works of God is suggested to us by Satan or our own corrupt hearts, let us look backward to God's eternal and our own short duration, and silence ourselves with the same question wherewith God put a stop to the reasoning of Job, chap, xxxviii. 4, ' Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ?' and reprove ourselves for our curiosity, since we are of so short a standing, and were nothing when the eternal God laid the first stone of the world.

(4.) What a folly and boldness is there in sin, since an eternal God is offended thereby! All sin is aggravated by God's eternity. The blackness of the heathen idolatry was in changing ' the glory of the incorruptible God,' Rom. i. 23, erecting resemblances of him contrary to his immortal nature; as if the eternal God, whose life is as unlimited as eternity, were like those creatures whose beings are measured by the short ell of time, which are of a corruptible nature, and daily passing on to corruption. They could not really deprive God of his glory and immortality, but they did in estimation. There is in the nature of every sin a tendency to reduce God to a not being. He that thinks unworthily of God, or acts unworthily towards him, doth (as much as in him lies) sully and destroy these two perfections of his, immutability and eternity. It is a carriage as if he were as contemptible as a creature that were but of yesterday, and shall not remain in being to-morrow. He that would put an end to God's glory by darkening it, would put an end to God's life by destroying it. He that should love a beast with as great an affection as he loves a man, contemns a rational creature, and he that loves a perishing thing with the same affection he should love an everlasting God, contemns his eternity ; he debaseth the duration of God below that of the world ; the low valuation of God speaks him, in his esteem, no better than withering grass, or a gourd, which lasts for a night; and the creature, which possesses his affection, to bo a good that lasts for ever. How foolish then is every sin, that tends to destroy a being that cannot destroy or desert himself; a being, without whose eternity the sinner himself could not have had the capacity of a being, to affront him! How base is that which would

DOJ lei the woi r« miiiii in tl ' '■ uch

inun: |i;im< in nol <!. larii ' the fountain and thai raid

no! oniv put ao end to the beauty of the world, but tfa

I 5, i I [ow <in ml fill is it to lie und< r tl i ' I '• I

rnity is ai great :i terror to him thai hatei bim, m it i afort to him

thai lov< i him, I ha ' livifl ngking, the i

ahail doI I" ■ abide b nation,' Jor. x. 1«». Though God be 1

in their thou ;ht«, mi 1 is mad of in tb of

G eternity, when he oomei to judge the world, shall • of him tremble. That the judge and punishor liv< grievanc oul in i I addi an unconceivable w<

what the infinitencs<t <. r could do without thai

tion ; Ins eternity makei the puniahment more dreadful than b ;

liis power mak< i p, but ins eternity renderi it perpetual; i ••» r to •

the en i of every lash.

And how ted ii it to think thai God lej ] si to pawn for the

puniahment of obeiinate sinners, and th it. by an oath, thai he will

* whel his glittering sword,' thai nil ' hand shall take hold of judgment,' thai

will ■ render vengeance to his enemiee, and ■ reward to them thai I him,'a reward proportioned to the of their , andthegl

of an eternal God I Deut, xzzii. 10, 11,'] lift np my hand to hi 1

. I live for ever ;' i.r. as Surely as I live for ever, I will v. Ii lit-

tering sword, As none can com-.' 1 with b perpetuity, ao none can

I with such a laetingm God. It ii i great loi

ship richly fraught in the bottom of the sea, never to I ;pon the shore;

but how muoh greater ii it to lose el i God,* which we were

capable of eti rnally enjoying, an 1 undergo nn evil as durable as that God I, and wire m ,i possibility of avoiding? The miseries of men r this life are not eased, but sharpened by the life* and eternity of God. / '2. The second Has is of comfort. What foundation of comfort can wo have in any of God's attributes, were it not for his iniinitcness and eternity, though he be merciful, good, wise, faithful. "What support could there be if they were p< rfections belonging to a corruptible God '? What hopes of a i to happiness can we have, or of the duration of it, if that I that promised it were not immortal to continue it, as well as powerful to effect it ? His power were not almighty, if his duration were not nal. 1. If God be eternal, his covenant will bo so. It is founded upon the rnity of God; the oath whereby he confirms it, is by his life. B there is none great* r than himself, he swears by himself, Ikb. vi. 13, or by 1 a own life, which he th, together with his eternity, for the full per-

form . BO that if he lives for ever, the covenant shall not be disannulled,

it is an immutable counsel, 7CS\ 16, 17. The immutability of his counsel >.vs the immutability of his nature. Immutability and eternity go hand in 1. ther. The promise of eternal lift is as ancient as God him

in it gard of the purpose of the promise, or in regard of the promise made to Christ : Titus i. 'J, ' Sternal lift . which God promised before the

Afl it hath an ante-eternity, BO it hath a DO0t-4 trinity ; tlnre-

jpel, which is the d< nant published, is termed '

lasting gospel, 1 B ; , which can no more be altered and perish than

d vanish into nothing. He can as little morally d •ruth as he can naturally desert hi Tho covei. re-

sented in a green colour, to note its petpt I luxe. ' The rami ■'•. the

* Qn. 'good'?— 11).

emblem of the covenant ■ about the throne, was like to an emerald,' a stone of a green colour, Rev. iv. 3; whereas the natural rainbow hath many colours, but this but one, to signify its eternity.

2. If God be eternal, he being our God in covenant, is an eternal good and possession. ' This God is our God for ever and ever,' Ps. xlviii. 14 ; he is a ' dwelling place in all generations.' We shall traverse the world a while, and then arrive at the blessings Jacob wished for Joseph : ' The blessings of the everlasting hills,' Gen. xlix. 26. If an estate of a thousand pound per annum render a man's life comfortable for a short time, how much more may the soul be swallowed up with joy in the enjoyment of the Creator, whose years never fail, who lives for ever to be enjoyed, and can keep us in life for ever to enjoy him! Death indeed will seize upon us by God's irreversible order, but the immortal Creator will make him disgorge his morsel, and land us in a glorious immortality, our souls at their dissolution, and our bodies at the resurrection ; after which they shall remain for ever, and employ the extent of that boundless eternity in the fruition of the sovereign and eternal God; for it is impossible that the believer, who is united to the immortal God, that is from everlasting to everlasting, can ever perish ; for being in conjunction with him who is an ever flowing fountain of life, he cannot suffer him to remain in the jaws of death. While God is eternal, and always the same, it is not possible that those that partake of his spiritual life should not also partake of his eternal; it is from the consideration of the endlessness of the years of God that the church comforts herself, that her ' children shall continue,' and ' their seed be established for ever,' Ps. cii. 27, 28. And from the eternity of God, Habakkuk, chap. i. ver. 12, concludes the eternity of believers, * Art thou not from everlasting, 0 Lord my God, my Holy One ? we shall not die, 0 Lord.' After they are retired from this world, they shall live for ever with God, without any change by the multitude of those imaginable years and ages that shall run for ever. It is that God that hath neither beginning nor end, that is our God, who hath not only immortality in himself, but immortality to give out to others. As he hath abundance of Spirit to quicken them, Mai. ii. 15, so he hath abundance of immortality to continue them. It is only in the consideration of this a man can with wisdom say, ' Soul, take thy ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years ;' to say it of any other possession, is the greatest folly in the judgment of our Saviour, Luke xii. 19, 20. Mortality shall be swallowed up of immortality ; rivers of pleasure shall be for evermore. Death is a word never spoken there by any, never heard by any in that possession of eternity ; it is for ever put out, as one of Christ's conquered enemies.

The happiness depends upon the presence of God, with whom believers shall be for ever present. Happiness cannot perish as long as God lives : he is the first and the last; the first of all delights, nothing before him; the last of all pleasures, nothing beyond him: a paradise of delights in every point, without a flaming sword.

3. The enjoyment of God will be as fresh and glorious after many ages as it was at first. God is eternal, and eternity knows no change ; there will then be the fullest possession, without any decay in the object enjoyed. There can be nothing past, nothing future ; time neither adds to it, nor detracts from it; that infinite fulness of perfection which flourisheth in him now, will flourish eternally, without any discolouring of it in the least by those innumerable ages that shall run to eternity, much less any despoiling him of them. He is the same in his endless duration, Ps. cii. 27. As God is, so will the eternity of him be, without succession, without division.

'I OfjOJ will ; fttj without • • , !„• KbODgbi of with

el for i without future to be i rpeeted with tora

When we i bim in bii eternity without

n ; n of all ithont the pai that

may be wiahed to return, or expectation of future joys which n I

!i. Time is fluid, ble ; an

will be as savoury and sal n bat tl. •

onr has When the ,; I. | | ■ , .

ujM.il yon, r mil] |

rcil, us numerous :is t ; , il, ( . Sim, in the li

of i nntenancc ton ihali live, ihaU be b - bri -lit a i al *

anee. Be will be 10 far from flow, thai he will fl

fall as at t oommnnicatioD of himself in glory to ii

itting Qpon liis tin ,l .•,,:.:

his at, is like a jasper itone, which is of a Jour, i

alwayi delightful, Re?, iv. :;; beer; .■ God \g all h_

. i pure act of life, sparkling now and fresh rajs of life and light to the tore, flourishing with a perpetual spring, an I content capacious desire; forming yonr interest, pleasure, and satisfaction with infinite variety,without any ehange or ineeession. JIo will hav< . to

increase delights, and eternity to perpetuate them ; this will be the fruit of the enjoyment of an infinite, an eternal God. He is not h cistern, but a

fountain, wherein water is al\v;i\s Living, and m v, r putrifies.

I. If God be eternal, here is a si ( ground of comfort against all the distresses of the church, and the threats of the church's enemi* . God's abiding for ever is the plea Jeremiah makes for his return to his forsaken church: Lament v. 19, ■ Thou, 0 Lord, i\ it for ever; thy throne from

generation to generation. 1 The church is weak ; created things are easily

cut oft. What prop is there hut that (iod that lives for ever? What though Jerusalem lost its bulwarks, tho templo were defaced, the land

ted, yet the God of Jerusalem sits upon an eternal throne, and from everlasting to everlasting there is no diminution of his power. The prophet intimates in this complaint that it is not agreeable to God's eternity to forget his people, to whom he hath from eternity bore good will. In the greatest confusions, tho church's eyes are to be fixed upon the eternity of God's throne, where he sits as governor of the world. No creature can take any comfort in this perfection but the church; other creatures depend upon God, but the church is united to him.

The first discovery of the name I am, which signifies the divine eternity

as well as immutability, was for tho comfort of the oppressed Israelites in

I. iii. 14, 15; it was then published from the secret place of

the Almighty, as the only strong cordial to refresh them. It hath not vet,

it shall not ever lose its virtue in any of tho miseries that have or shall suc-

ively befall the church ; it is a comfort as durable as the God whose nan Be is still I am, and the same to the church as he was then to

his Israel. His spiritual Israel ha 'it to the glories of it than

the carnal Israel could have. No oppression can be greater than theirs* what was a comfort suited to that distress hath the same suitableness to every other oppression. It was not a temporary name, but a name for ever, his ' memorial to all gencrati r. Iff, and reaeheth to the ehux

of the Gentiles, with whom he I - the God of Abraham, ratiryu

covenant by the Messiah, which he made with Abraham the father of tho faithful.

The church's enemies are not to be feared ; they may • spring as tho

grass,' but soon after do wither by their own inward principles of decay, or ar< cut down by the hand of God, Ps. xcii. 7-9. Thay may be instruments of the an^er of God, but they shall be scattered as the workers of iniquity, by the hand of the Lord ' that is high for evermore,' ver. 8, and is engaged by his promise to preserve a church in the world. They may threaten, but their breath may vanish as soon as their threatenings are pronounced, for they carry their breath in no surer a place than their own nostrils, upon which the eternal God can put his hand, and sink them with all their rage. \Do the prophets ' and the instructors of the church ' live for ever ? ' Zech. i. 15. No. Shall, then, the adversaries and disturbers of the church live for ever ? They shall vanish as a shadow ; their being depends upon the eternal God of the faithful, and the everlasting judge of the wicked. He that inhabits eternity is above them that inhabit mortality, and must, whether they will or no, ' say to corruption, Thou art my father; and to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister,' Job. xvii. 14. When they will act with a confidence as if they were living gods, he will not be mated, but evidence himself to be a living God above them. Why then should mortal men be feared in their frowns, when an immortal God hath'promised protection in his word, and lives for ever to perform it ?

5. Hence follows another comfort; since God is eternal, he hath as much power as will to be as good as his word. His promises are established upon his eternity, and this perfection is a main ground of trust: Isa. xxvi. 4, ' Trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength,' D^oVu? "T)2f HIPP »TQ* H-is name is doubled, that name Jah and Jehovah, which was always the strength of his people, and not a single one, but the strength or rock of eternities ; not a failing, but an eternal truth and power; that as his strength is eternal, so our trust in him should imitate his eternity in its perpetuity ; and therefore in the despondency of his people, as if God had forgot his promises and made no account of them, or his word, and were weary of doing good, he calls them to reflect on what they had heard of his eternity, which is attended with immutability, who hath an infiniteness of power to perform his will, and an infiniteness of understanding to judge of the right seasons of it, Isa. xl. 27, 28; his wisdom, will, truth, have always been, and will to eternity be, the same. He wants not life any more than love for ever to help us ; since his word is past, he will never fail us ; since his life continues, he can never be out of a capacity to relieve us ; and therefore, whenever we foolishly charge him by our distrustful thoughts, we forget his love, which made the promise, and his eternal life, which can accomplish it. As his word is the bottom of our trust, and his truth is the assurance of his sincerity, so his eternity is the assurance, of his ability to perform. His ' word stands for ever,' Isa. xl. 8. A man may be my friend this day, and be in another world to-morrow; and though he be never so sincere in his word, yet death snaps his life asunder, and forbids the execution. But as God cannot die, so he cannot lie, because he is the eternity of Israel: 1 Sam. xv. 29, ' The strength of Israel will not lie nor repent,' n¥3> perpetuity or eternity of Israel. Eternity implies immutability; we could have no ground for our hopes if we knew him not to be longer lived than ourselves. The psalmist beats off our hands from trust in men, because ' their breath goes forth, they return to their earth, and in that day their thoughts perish,' Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4. And if the God of Jacob were like them, what happiness could wo have in making him our help? As his sovereignty in giving precepts had not been a strong ground of obedience, without considering him as an eternal lawgiver, who could maintain his rights; so his kindness in making the promises had not been a strong ground

\C. 2.J 'in:

of confidence, without considering him m ai ;hta

ind whose Life can never ' And thin may 1 i.-ason why the

Holy Ghoct mention! bo ofl( □ thi | ids

ento-eternitj ; I '«-st foundation bfa ind

.•, which respects ohieflj that whicli in future, ami not that which if •. yet, ind< ed, do essurana I if bii sj

nity be doI o< rtein. li he h id a I" "iunin ', h i\r on end ; end if

he bed a chan ;e h ture, ho might have in bi c >un oil ; I all

tin i as hiiii Dal, ami all th< i

lie the fruil bo chan ■• •!. 11 old

ehen p them for tl . ho would nol I

. >t ; it' f.»r tin- worse, lie had QOt bet D I ■»<-m.tie

Men mej break their promieee, becei] •• they an without ht;

hut Qo 1. thai inhabits eternity, foreknows all things that shall I <• don fthi v had been thru acting before him ; and nothing can inl or work a change in bis resold . the least oireumstana

nally foreseen by him. Though there may in rariationi and ens our sight, the winds may tack about, and every hour new and i happen, yei the eternal Qod, who is eternally true to his word, sits at tho

:i. and the winds and tin waves obey him. And thou bonld d<

his promise a thousand years, y< I he is ' noi slack, 1 ii l'« tor iii. B, '■•. I r he defers it but s day to his eternity; end who would not with comfort il.i\ in expectation of a considerable edvant is Pot exhortation* 1. To something which concerns us in ourseli *J. To something which concerns us with respect to God. 1. To something which concerns qj in ourseli

(1.) Let us be deeply affected with our sins long since committed. Though theyari ith us, they are in regard of God's eternity pn Bent with bii

th( n IS no succession in eternity as there is in time. All things are be: 11 1 at once ; our sins are before him, as if committed this moment, though

long ago. As he is what ho is in regard of duration, so lie kn what he knows in regard of knowledge ; as be is not more than he was, nor shall not be any more than he is, so bo always knew what ho knows, and shall i. to know what he now knows ; as himself, so bis knowh I

is one indivisible point of eternity. Ho knows nothing but what lie did know from eternity ; he shall know no more for the future than be now knows. Our sins being present with him in bis eternity, should ho present with us in regard of our remembrance of them, and sorrow for them. What though many years are lapsed, much time run out, and our iniquities almost blotted out of our memory ! yet since a thou ITS are in God's sight,

and in regard of bis eternity, but as a day,—Ps. xc. 4, ' A thousand Tears in thy sight aro but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in tho :it,'—they are before him ; for, suppose a man were as old as the rid, above live thousand six hundred years, tho sins committed five thousand years ago are, according to that rule, but as if they were committed live da; so that sixty-two wars are but as an hour and a-half, and the

sins committed for; re as if ti. committed but this

hour. But if wo will go further, and consider them but as a W

about three hours (for the night, consisting of twelve hours, was divided into Set watches), then a thousand y. | j n

the sight of God, and then sins committed sixty y , are but as if :

were committed within tin

* Crcllius do Doo. cap. 18, p, N.

Let none of us set light by the iniquities committed many years ago, and imagine that length of time can wipe out their guilt. No ; let us consider them in relation to God's eternity, and excite an inward remorse, as if they had been but the birth of this moment.

(2.) Let the consideration of God's eternity abate our pride. This is the design of the verses following the text, the eternity of God being so sufficient to make us understand our own nothingness, which ought to be one great end of man, especially as fallen. The eternity of God should make us as much disesteem ourselves, as the excellency of God made Job abhor himself, Job xlii. 5, 6. His excellency should humble us under a sense of our vanity, and his eternity under a sense of the shortness of our duration. If man compares himself with other creatures, he may be too sensible of his greatness ; but if he compares himself with God, he cannot but be sensible of his baseness.

[1.] In regard of our impotence to comprehend this eternity of God. How little do we know, how little can we know, of God's eternity! We cannot fully conceive it, much less express it: we have a brutish understanding in all those things, as Agur said of himself, Prov. xxx. 7.

What is infinite and eternal cannot be comprehended by finite and temporary creatures. If it could, it would not be infinite and eternal; for to know a thing, is to know the extent and cause of it. It is repugnant to eternity to be known, because it hath no limits, no causes ; the most soaring understanding cannot have a proportionable understanding of it.* What disproportion is there between a drop of water and the sea, in their greatness and motion ! Yet by a drop we may arrive to a knowledge of the nature of the sea, which is a mass of drops joined together; but the longest duration of times cannot make us know what eternity is, because there is no proportion between time and eternity. The years of God are as numberless as his thoughts, Ps. xl. 5, and our minds as far from reckoning the one as the other. If our understandings are too gross to comprehend the majesty of his infinite works, they are much more too short to comprehend the infiniteness of his eternity.

[2.] In regard of the vast disproportion of our duration to this duration of God.

First, We have more of not being than being. We were nothing from an unbegun eternity, and we might have been nothing to an endless eternity, had not God cailed us unto being; and if he please, we may be nothing by a short annihilating word, as we were something by a creating word. As it is the prerogative of God to be ' I am that I am,' so it is the property of a creature to be I am not what I am; I am not by myself what I am, but by the indulgence of another. I was nothing formerly, I may be nothing a^ain, unless he that is I am make me to subsist what I now am. Nothing is as much the title of the creature, as being is the title of God. Nothing is so holy as God, because nothing hath being as God : 1 Sam. ii. 2, ■ There is none holy as the Lord ; for there is none besides thee.' Man's life is an ima^e, a dream, which are next to nothing; and if compared with God, worse than nothing, a nullity as well as a vanity; because * with God only is the fountain of life,' Ps. xxxvi. 9. The creature is but a drop of life from him, dependent on him. A drop of water is a nothing, if compared with the vast conflux of waters, and numberless drops in the

ocean.

How unworthy is it for dust and ashes, kneaded together in time, to strut against the Father of eternity! Much more unworthy for that which is * Charron. Vent. liv. i. chap. 6, p. 17, &c.

nothing, worso than nothing, U) quarrel with that which is only being, Hid

•qua] bin -If with him that inhabits eternity.

rully, \\ 'i:np. After an unaccount-

able eternity v.;n run nut, in |hl nry dr<-"s ..f tim- . a few yearn ago w0 uii 1, :i:i 1 id -fie ..f th' l«:i >■ A and viloit cine s of the world, tho

|Um€ an.I t!:. earth J ma It Of th:it u I bird build th»-jr

f that whioh creeping th their habitai ista

trample upon. II a creaturo, to ii 4 -jjir<', m

if li ! ■ ty, and as i t.-rnal M God, : l r j * 1 ho his 0

eternity !

Thirdly, \\ ' ut of a short, duration in regard of our

life in this world. Ouv I flux : -in not

game fin entire day; youth quickly succeeds childhood, : afl

speedily treadi upon the heeli «>f youth; then Ki a eontmnsJ dffhrnon of

minutes, as there is of sands in a "his-;. He is M a watch wound up at the »f his life, and from thai tine 1 i-i rum. n till 1. to

the bottom: lOmc part of our lives is cut Off every day, every minute. I. is hut a moment, what i pit cannot hi recalled ; what is future cannot he insured. If we enjoy this inommt, we hive lost, that whieh is past, and shall pret e ntly loOC this by the next that is to come.

The short duration of men is s. t out in Scripture hy such creatur*

■•ear : a worm, Joh x\v. ('., that can scare*- tin a winter; that withers by the summer sun. Life is a flower BOOH withering, Job xiv. 8 ; a vapour POOH vanish: IM iv. If : a smoke soon disap-

pear: n '. Ps. cii. 8. The strongest man is hut Compacted du-t. tlie fahric must moulder, the highest mountain falls and comes to nought, lime "ives rnity ; we live now, and die to-morrow. Not a man, since the world began, ever liv. 1 a day in Qod'l sight; for no man ever lived a thousand years. The longest day of any man's lifo never amounted to twenty-four hours in the account of divine eternity. A life of so many hundred y t an, with the addition ' he died,' makes up tho greatest part of the history of the patriarchs, Gen. v. ; and since the life of man hnth been curtailed, if any he in the world eighty years, he scarce properly lives sixty of them, since tho fourth part of time is at least consumed in sleep.

\ peeler difference there is between tho duration of God and that of a creature, than between tho lifo of one for a minute, nnd the life of one that should live as many years as the whole crlobe of heaven and earth, if changed i papers, could contain figures. And this life, thongfa hut of short duration according to tho period God hath determined, is easily cut off; the treasure of life is deposited in a brittle vessel. A small stone hitting against uchadnezzar's statue will tumble it down into a poor and nasty grave ; rape-Stone, the bono of a fish, a small fly in the throat, a moist damp, are enough to destroy an earthly eternity, and reduce it to nothing.

What a nothing then is our shortness, if compared with God's eternity ! our frailty, with God's duration ! How humble then should perishing fore an eternal God, witli whom ' our days are as a hat. 1th, and our ag ■'..' ' I PS. xxxix. f>. The angels, that have been

of as long a duration as heaven and earth, tremble before him. the heavens melt at his presence ; and shall we, that are but of yesterday, approach a divine eternity with unhumbled souls, and oflSI th..- calves of our lips with the :" devils, and stand upon our terms with him, without falli:

our faces, with ro but dust and sshes, and creatures of

time ? How easilv it is to reason out man's humility, but how hard is it to reason man into it!

vol. i. at

(3.) Let the consideration of God's eternity take off our love and confidence from the world, and the things thereof. The .eternity of God reproaches a pursuit of the world, as preferring a momentary pleasure before an everlasting God; as though a temporal world could be a better supply than a God whose years never fail. Alas, what is this earth men are so greedy of, and will get, though by blood and sweat ! What is this whole earth, if we had the entire possession of it, if compared with the vast .heavens, the seat of angels and blessed spirits ! It is but as an atom to the greatest mountain, or a drop of dew to the immense ocean. How foolish is it to prefer a drop before the sea, or an atom before the world ! The earth is but a point to the sun, the sun with its whole orb but a little part of the heavens, compared with the whole fabric. If a man had the possession of all those, there could be no comparison between those that have had a beginning, and shall have an end, and God, w r ho is without either of them. Yet how many are there that make nothing of the divine eternity, and imagine an eternity of nothing!

[1.] The world hath been but of a short standing. It is not yet six thousand years since the foundations of it were laid, and therefore it cannot have a boundless excellency, as that God, who hath been from everlasting, doth possess. If Adam had lived to this day, and been as absolute lord of his posterity as he w r as of the other creatures, had it been a competent object to take up his heart, had he not been a madman to have preferred this little created pleasure before an everlasting, uncreated God; a thing that had a dependent beginning, before that which had an independent eternity!

[2.] The beauties of the world are transitory and perishing. The whole world is nothing else but a fluid thing, the fashion of it is a pageantry 'passing away,' 1 Cor. vii. 31. Though the glories of it might be conceived greater than they are, yet they are not consistent, but transient. There cannot be an entire enjoyment of them, because they grow up and expire every moment, and slip away between our fiugers while we are using them. Have we not heard of God's dispersing the greatest empires like ' chaff before a whirlwind, or as smoke out of a chimney,' Hosea xiii. 3, which, though it appears as a compacted cloud, as if it would choke the sun, is quickly scattered into several parts of the air, and becomes invisible ? Nettles have often been heirs to stately palaces, as God threatens Israel, Hosea ix. G. We cannot promise ourselves over night anything the next day. A kingdom with the glory of a throne may be cut off in a morning, Hosea x. 15. The new wine may be taken from the mouth when the vintage is ripe, the devouring locust may snatch away both the hopes of that and the harvest, Joel i. 15 ; they are therefore things which are not, and nothing cannot be a fit object for confidence or affection : Prov. xxiii. 5, ' Wilt thou set thy eyes upon that which is not ? for riches certainly make themselves wings.' They are not properly beings, because they are not stable, but flitting. They are not, because they may not be the next moment to us what they are this ; they are but cisterns, not springs; and ' broken cisterns,' not sound and stable; no solidity in their substance, nor stability in their duration. What a foolish thing is it then to prefer a transient felicity, a mere nullity, before an eternal God ! What a senseless thing would it bo in a man to prefer the map of a kingdom, which the hand of a child can tear in pieces, before the kingdom shadowed by it! How much more inexcusable is it to value tilings that are so far from being eternal, that they aro not so much as dusky resemblances of an eternity ! Were the things of tho world moro glorious than they are, yet they aro but as a

tin in :i olofl I, which 0 >m< < short of the trtio Rtin in the 1i avena .• and dural cam th. i ibly

1 bubble in Ifa i dm i . world

will cml in ;i MinlV. wh<

the • an, that thine

lit for ■ soul which

an in! ire, was

, without iUCD .

i

Id, dot 'ill while in tb ]

are said to be ( . when tl

with tb G I in anotbex Life, EL b. rii 28. ]

ennobled bj m irith the

i them; they cannot .1 nature ihonld

supply it with what it war'

.! hath a resemblance to God in a ]

ndishmenla of earthly thin:'-, to d iblishmont, and lacqney after I ly, which ii hut. a ibadoi

soul, and was made to follow it and serve it! Bnt while it bnsieth i

icr in tl c hing body, and a in

tbinge that glid<

nature, reproacheth that God who hath imprinted npon it an i. rnity, and loseth the comfort of the <

II a shall the whole world, if our , ;rablo as that, be an ha]

OS, who have souls that shall survive all the d< I

.• in those flames that shall fire the wholo frame of nature at tho world ■' 2 Peter iii. L0« i. i provide for an happy interest in the cterni

le for an eternal stai . I he soul hath such a ,iou

in its nature, that it is lit for < U rnity, and cannot display all its operations but in eternity; to an eternity it must go, and live as I God himself

lives. Things of a short duration arc not proportioned to a soul made for an eternal continuance; to see that it be a comfortable eternity, is worm all our care. Man is a i n casting civature, considers not only the present, but the ful . in his provisions for his family J and shall he disgrace

Ore in e ff all consideration of a future eternity? (i. t possession

therefore of the eternal God, A ' portion in this life' is the lot of those who

U be for ever miserable, PS. xvii. 11; but God, an 'ever! ■ ortion,'

;' them that ar< d for happu ! ' God is my portion for

. Ps. lxxiii. 26.

Tune is short, 1 Cor. vii. 20. The whole time for which God designed

this building of the world is of a little compass ; it is a stage erected for

rational cr upon for . the

:' which time is run out, an i then shall time like a rivulet

fali rnity, from whence it sprung. As tin . slip

.:ty, so it will end in eternity. Our ad'... in the |

rra, and oannol : . by all our ; what is ft;; not promise OUT

we . i.. •/ minute thai

ining till thi ath ; an I

further child I orn

In all I but a

bet. 1 death,' si David eaid of hinioLi:', 1 Sam. xx. D. The littlo

time that remains for the devil till the day of judgment, envenoms his wrath; he rageth, because 'his time is short,' Rev. xii. 12. The little time that remains between this moment and our death, should quicken our diligence to inherit the endless and unchangeable eternity of God.

[5.] Often meditate on the eternity of God. The holiness, power, and eternity of God are the fundamental articles of all religion, upon which the whole body of it leans: his holiness for conformity to him, his power and eternity for the support of faith and hope. The strong and incessant cries of the four beasts, representing that Christian church, are ' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come,' Rev. iv. 8. Though his power is intimated, yet the chiefest are his holiness, three times expressed; and his eternity, which is repeated, ver. 9, 'who lives for ever and ever.' This ought to be the constant practice in the church of the Gentiles, which this book chiefly respects. The meditation of his converting grace manifested to Paul ravished the apostle's heart, but not without the triumphant consideration of his immortality and eternity, which are the principal parts of the doxology: 1 Tim. i. 15-17, 'Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever/' It could be no great transport to the spirit to consider him glorious, without considering him immortal; the unconfinedness of his perfections in regard of time presents the soul with matter of the greatest complacency. The happiness of our souls depends upon his other attributes, but the perpetuity of it upon his eternity. Is it a comfort to view his immense wisdom, his overflowing goodness, his tender mercy, his unerring truth ? What comfort were there in any of those, if it were a wisdom that could be baffled, a goodness that could be damped, a mercy that can expire, and a truth that can perish with the subject of it! Without eternity, what were all his other perfections but as glorious yet withering flowers, a great but a decaying beauty! By a frequent meditation of God's eternity, we should become more sensible of our own vanity and the world's triflingness. How nothing should ourselves, how nothing would all other things appear in our eyes! how coldly should we desire them ! how feebly should we place any trust in them ! Should we not think ourselves worthy of contempt to doat upon a perishing glory, to expect support from an arm of flesh, when there is an eternal beauty to ravish us, an eternal arm to protect us ? Asaph, when he considered God a ' portion for ever,' thought nothing of the glories of the earth, or the beauties of the created heavens worth his appetite or complacency, but God, Ps. lxxiii. 25, 26. Besides, an elevating frame of heart at the consideration of God's eternity, would batter down the strongholds and engines of any temptation. A slight temptation will not know where to find and catch hold of a soul high and hid in a meditation of it; and if he doth, there will not be wanting from hence preservatives to resist and conquer it. What transitory pleasures will not the thoughts of God's eternity stifle! When this work busieth a soul, it is too great to suffer it to descend, to listen to a sleeveless errand from hell or the world. The wanton allurements of the flesh will be put off with indignation. The proffers of the world will be ridiculous when they are cast into the balance with the eternity of God, which sticking in our thoughts, we shall not be so easy a prey for the fowler's gin.

Let us therefore often meditato upon this, but not in a bare speculation, without engaging our affections, and making every notion of the divine eternity end in a suitable impression upon our hearts. This would be much like the disciples gazing upon tho heavens at tho ascension of their Master, while they forgat tho practice of his orders, Acts i. 11. We may else find

niton of < i 11, and Iom ' ,;it

to rlcrnity.

8, And benee the ess • of tli.'

foil.' w il!i ;i i

i 1.1 [/God be c< n :. i. >w worth "f our i

tnmunioD with I. . ' I ■• I

i.lin ; to tin I I then should w. love him,

who ii doI "iiiy lorely in his nature, but sternallj | I

1 • | ,1 in him* -if, which Appear u

be l >r< It, i-y how much the mon i, who ii the ohii f g od, how mneh mon infinitely 1"

suj . . rnally 10 I N I I

, or millions , oot of the •

time, 1 ut of (trinity ; ai 16, uneonreivably imm<

The bring him infinitely, perpetually, is in aet of bom him for

l. sternal< Eoelleney. \\ him the one, :rn -

Diortal, though ire cannot the other, became they an finite. B loeetfa in himself all the azoelleneiee of hearen and earth I

BhouKl have an aili-ction, not only of time in this world, bnt of eternity in tin' future ; and if we did oot owe him e lore for what we an by him, owe him ■ lore for what he is in himeelf; ami mon for what he is, than for

whit he i- to us. Hi is mon worthy of OUT B I becauso ho is tho

l. than because he ii our Creator; beca u se he Ki mon ex cell ent

in his n.ituiv than in his trai, :ions. The beams of his g ' I

us. an t i direct our thoughts and affections to him; but his own etei llenoy ought to be the ground and foundation of our affections to him.

And truly, but < Dal, nothing bnt God is worth tho

bring ; and we do but a just right to our love, to pitch it upon that which

can all us ami be | sd by us, upon an object that cannot

ire our affection, and put it out of countenance by a dissolution.

And if our happuu H C nsists in being like to God, we should imitate him

in loving him as he loves himself, and as long as he loves himself. God

cannot do more to himself than love himself; he can make no addition to

hi> essence, nor diminution from it. What should we do less to an eternal

being, than to bestow affections upon him, like his own to himself, sinco

an find nothing so durable as himself, for which we should love it!

(2.) He only is worthy of our best service. Tho ' Ancient of days' is to

1 before all that are younger than himself; our best obedienco is

due to him as a God of unconfined excellency. Every thing that is excellent

rres S feneration suitable to its excellency. As God is infinite, he hath

right to a boundless service ; as he is eternal, ho hath right to a perpetual

serriee. As service is a debt of justice upon tho account of tho excellency

of his nature, so a perpetual service is as much a debt of justico upon tho

unt of his eternity. If God be infinite and eternal, ho merits an honour

and comportment from his creatures suited to the unlimited perfection of his

. the duration of his being. How worthy is the psalm: lu-

• I will sing unto tho Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my

God whik I have any bring,' Pa. civ. 33. It is the use he makes of the

Hess duration of the glory of Gtod, and will extend to all other service as

as praise. To m rrs other things, or to serve onrselresi is to waste a

Dpon that which is nothing. In devoting ourselves to God, we servo

him that is ; that was, so as that he never began ; is to come, so as that

1.' | shall s&d ; by whom all things are what they are ; who hath both

ual knowledge to remember our service,and eternal goodness to reward it.

A DISCOURSE UPON THE IMMUTABILITY

OF GOD.

They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old as a garment: as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. —Ps. CII. 26, 27.

This psalm contains a complaint of a people pressed with a great calamity; some think of the Jewish church in Babylon, others think the psalmist doth here personate mankind lying under a state of corruption, because he wishes for the coming of the Messiah, to accomplish that redemption promised by God, and needed by them. Indeed, the title of the psalm is ' A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the Lord :' whether afflicted with the sense of corruption, or with the sense of oppression. And the redemption by the Messiah, which the ancient church looked upon as the fountain of their deliverance from a sinful or a servile bondage, is in this psalm spoken of: a set time appointed for the discovery of his mercy to Sion, ver. 13 ; an appearance in glory to build up Sion, ver. 16; the loosening of the prisoner by redemption, and them that are appointed to death, ver. 20; the calling of the Gentiles, ver. 22; and the latter part of the psalm, wherein are the verses I have read, are applied to Christ, Heb. i. Whatsoever the design of the psalm might be, many things are intermingled that concern the kingdom of the Messiah, and redemption by Christ.

Some make three parts of the psalm.

1. A petition plainly delivered : ver. 1,2,' Hear my prayer, 0 Lord, and let my cry come unto thee,' &c.

2. The petition strongly and argumentativcly enforced and pleaded, ver. 3, from the misery of the petitioner in himself, and his reproach from his enemies.

3. An acting of faith, in the expectation of an answer in the general redemption promised: ver. 12, 13, 'But thou, 0 Lord, shalt enduro for ever; thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion: the heathen shall fear thy name.'

The first part is the petition pleaded, the second part is the petition answered in an assuranco that there should in time bo a full deliverance.*

* Parcus.

Pi. OE '7.j -iiii ;; < : '

The de ignofth bureh in the truth of the dii

pron igh the foundations of tbt world I be ripped up, i

the ' : tbric of thorn be unpinned and

to i of i* d ' •' should eon-

tint] not up 'M tli • change ibloness of crea

tan the immal I the lw b is an

little subject

them* aj he hid ribed

• leeril i to God her.- th Both i . end of ih<: world

here ascertained. Tb< odeed from the ; appeanu

i Id. '1 firm ; the motioni of the heavenly b re the same, their.

i ; individu rapt, bnl the and Idndi

the D«t the sin of

i the ch moe of the world acce ss a r y to

tnplish I of God for the glory of his elect Th do

irally ] ime fancied an old age of the world, wherein it

inn-' urilydi I of sjiimeis do f or thai the parts of the

. arc broken off by their robbing one against another in then

motion, and falling to the earth, are the seeds of those things that grow op

among o

II • names here the most stalilo part* of the

world, and the most beantifoJ of the creation, those that are fin

from eorru] to Hi ireby the immutability of

i. that though the heavens ai have a pr tire of uxedneos

above other parts of the world, ereatnros that reside below, the

main the same as they a L, and the centre of the

earth rel Iness, and are 1 lantifnl and fresh in their ag'

they were in their youth m :p t notwithstanding the change of the

elen ften turned into air, so that there D

remain hut little of that air which was first created by reason of the continual transmutation ; yet this firmness of the earth and heavens is not to I 1 in comparison of the unmovcablencs and fixedness of the being of God. As city comes short of the glory of his being, so doth

their brmni SB come short of his stability.

OS and earth understand tho creatures which reside in the hose which are in the air, which is called hea D in Scrip-

ture ; but the ruin and fall of these being seen every day, had been no lit illustration of the unchancroablencss of (!<• i. 1 They shall perish, they shall be changed. 1

1. They Pa IS perish, say some ; they have it not from themselves that they do not perish, but from thee, who didst endue them with an incor-

1 perish if thon speakest the word; thou canst with as much istroy them as thon canst create them. Pmt the

• (if their possibility, but the eertsinty of their perishing. '2. '{'::■ v I ill perish in their qualities and motion, not in their substance, Fay othi rs. 'I'h y shall from that motion which is designed pro}'

for the generati of things in the earth, but in regard of

their substance ty they shall remain. A- when the - or

wheels of a clock or watch are taken otT. the material parts remain, though

the time of the d H th.T

To ; airy alw tiling into nothing, an arm ., by

* l'lin. Uiat. lib. 2, cap. 3. f Coccei. in loc.

which both the matter and the form are destroyed, but a ceasing of the present appearance of them; a ceasing to be what they now are, as a man is said to perish when he dies, whereas the better part of man doth not cease to be. The figure of the body moulders away, and the matter of it returns to dust; but the soul, being immortal, ceaseth not to act, when the body, by reason of the absence of the soul, is incapable of acting. So the heavens shall perish. The appearance they now have shall vanish, and a more glorious and incorruptible frame be erected by the power and goodness of God. The dissolution of heaven and earth is meant by the word perish; the raising a new frame is signified by the word changed; as if the Spirit of God would prevent any wrong meaning of the word perish by alleviating the sense of that by another which signifies only a mutation and change ; as when we change a habit and garment, we quit the old to receive the new.

1 As a garment, as a vesture.' Thou shalt change them ;—Septuagint, sX/ge/s, ■ Thou shalt fold them up.' The heavens are compared to a curtain, Ps. civ. 2, and shall in due time be folded up as cloths and curtains are. As a garment encompasseth the whole body, so do the heavens encircle the earth.* Some say, as a garment is folded up to be laid aside, that when there is need it may be taken again for use, so shalt thou fold up the heavens like a garment, that when they are repaired, thou mayest again stretch them out about the earth; thou shalt fold them up, so that what did appear shall not now appear. It may be illustrated by the metaphor of a scroll or book, which the Spirit of God useth, Isa. xxxiv. 4, Rev. vi. 14, ' The heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together.' When a book is rolled up or shut, nothing can be read in it till it be opened again; so the face of the heavens, wherein the stars are as letters declaring the glory of God, shall be shut or rolled together, so that nothing shall appear till by its renovation it be opened again. As a garment it shall be changed, not to be used in the same fashion and for the same use again. It seems indeed to be for the worse ; an old garment is not changed but into rags, to be put to other uses, and afterwards thrown upon the dunghill. But similitudes are not to be pressed too far; and this will not agree with the new heavens and new earth, physically so as well as metaphorically so. It is not likely the heavens will be put to a worse use than God designed them for in creation. However, a change as a garment speaks not a total corruption, but an alteration of qualities, as a garment, not to be used in the same fashion as before. We may observe,

1. That it is probable the world shall not be annihilated, but refined. It shall lose its present form and fashion, but not its foundation. Indeed, as God raised it from nothing, so he can reduce it into nothing; yet it doth not appear that God will annihilate it, and utterly destroy both the matter and form of it; part shall be consumed, and part purified: 2 Peter iii. 12, 13, 1 The heavens shall be on fire, and dissolved. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth.' They shall be melted down, as gold by the artificer, to be refined from its dross, and wrought into a more beautiful fashion, that they may serve the design of God for those that shall resido therein; a new world, wherein righteousness shall dwell, the apostle opposing it thereby to the old world, wherein wickedness did reside. The heavens are to be purged, as the vessels that held the sin-offering wore to be purified by the fire of the sanctuary.

God indeed will take down this scaffold, which he hath built to publish his glory. As every individual hath a certain term of its duration, so an

* Estius in Ueb. i.

ippOIDted fof kbi univ.r.-al nature of hea\. n and cart.li : I.-.a. h. 6, ' The I. shall vain h I. v. i.i.-h irfl. A H

i .lwd ami at:, una:. 1 Into air, DOt aninhiiav I, ho hhall the world assumo

a new faoe, and have a greater elearneeo and iplendour. Ah th.

man diaoota d into dost ihall bftfi more glori At lh< ii

tion ; ua ft vob; i <l"-.\ii to remove tl I

i i moro i I ••! of tli<' ifoikm

(1.) , rid was D04 ■ I bj tlf d it was rati.

r than 00OMIIIM -1 ; h<> it shall I r r. lined by the It • ho

un.l.-r an in. eovcrablo ruin.

It is Dot lik.lv God would lik< u the i i M of fa

and th. litj 01 Ins spiritual [fttftftl, to th.' d

be h.a\. h.' doth m .i ■. B >, B61 if tin j

from before Dim. Though thai place may only tend to an a> iiianoe of a church in th.- world while tin world < ndu; tl would !,.• hi.:, email com-

fort if the hftpp f belieren ohooid i■ 11• 1111 • -• no longer thftii the I

tunl earth, it' tiny wov to have ■ totftl p< ri.»d.

(8.) 1 '■< ndee, the bodiei of the saints mnat have plaee tor their rapport to

8 in, and glorious objeotl fitted to thote glori ■ i • nail ho

Ored tO them. Not hi any carnal way, which our Saviour rejeetftf w]

he saith there is- do eftting, or drinking, or mftrrying, .v.-., in th

Id, hut whereby th. J DD ifj God J thODgh how Of in what :

i shall be not d iron] I be rftftDDi H to di termiDe ; onlj bing

crx-viry tor tho eor p oreal itate of men, that there may be an -iee as trail fti their souls, i i.i again, li m aonld the ereatnre, the world, or anj part of it, be .said liven i from the bondi -■ of oorrnption into I nous libert]

the loni of God, if the whole frame of heaven and earth wcro to be annihilate d '.' B 'in. viii. 21. The apoatle also saith that ' t :uro waits with an aarpaal axpeetatiOD for this manifestation of tho sons of (iod,' TOT. 19, which would havu DO foundation if the whole frame should be reduced to nothing. What joyful expectation can there be in any of a total ruin '? IIo\v should the creature he capahle of partaking in this glorious liberty of tho of God '.' • As the world, for tho sin of man, lost its first dignity, and was earned after the fall, and the beauty bestowed upon it by creation de-faeed, so it shall recover that ancient glOTJ, when he shall be fully i by the resurrection to that dignity he lost by his first sin. As man shall

i from his corruptibility, to receive that glory which is prepared for him, so shall I B freed from that imperfection or corruptibility, th

I upon the face of them, to receive a new glory suited to lh< ir nature, and answerable to the design of God, when the glorioni liberty of the naintfl shall bo accomplish, i.; As, when a prince's nuptials are sol. m-niei d, the whole country echoes with joy, so the inaninia' ireft, when

the time of the marriage of the Lamb is come, shall have a delight and from that renovation. The apostle letfl forth tho wholo world as a poaning, and the Beriptore is frequent in such eaetaphora, ai w\ lid to wait upon (iod, and to be troubled, Pa, civ. 87, S 1 to leap, and the mountains to rejoice. T tare is

•aid m, as the h. awns are aaid to di elare the glory oi God,

naturally, Dot rationally. It is not likely angels are h. IDt, the

they cannot hut desire it: 1 with the dishonour .

r.-pi ith in tho world, they cannot but long for th

his honour, in the restoration of tho creature to its tl And indeed

* Bjper. iu Hebi L t ai I sur IK.

the angels are employed to serve man in this sinful state, and cannot but in holiness wish the creature freed from his corruption. Nor is it meant of the new creatures, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, those he brings in afterwards, ver. 23, ' groaning,' and ' waiting for the adoption,' where he distinguished the rational creature from the creature he had spoken of before. If he had meant the believing creature, by that creature that desired the liberty of the sons of God, what need had there been of that additional distinction, ' and not only they, but we also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves'? whereby it seems he means some creatures below rational creatures, since neither angels nor blessed souls can be said to travail in pain with that distress as a woman in travail hath, as the word signifies, who perform the work joyfully which God sets them upon.* If the creatures be subject to vanity by the sin of man, they shall also partake of a happiness by the restoration of man. The earth hath both thorns and thistles and venomous beasts, the air hath had its tempests and infectious qualities, the water hath caused its floods and deluges. The creature hath been abused to luxury and intemperance, and been tyrannised over by man, contrary to the end of its creation. It is convenient that some time should be allotted for the creature's attaining its true end, and that it may partake of the peace of man, as it hath done of the fruits of his sin ; otherwise it would seem that sin had prevailed more than grace, and would have had more power to deface, than grace to restore things into their due order.

(5.) Again, upon what account should the psalmist exhort the heavens to rejoice and the earth to be glad, when God comes to judge the world with righteousness, Ps. xcvi. 11-13, if they should be annihilated, and sunk for ever into nothing ? It would seem, saith Daille, to be an impertinent figure if the Judge of the world brought them to a total destruction. An entire ruin could not be matter of triumph to creatures, who naturally have that instinct or inclination put into them by their Creator to preserve themselves, and to effect their own preservation.

(6.) Again, the Lord is to rejoice in his works, Ps. civ. 31: ' The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever; the Lord shall rejoice in his works;' not hath, but shall rejoice in his works ; in the works of creation, which the psalmist had enumerated, and which is the whole scope of the psalm. And he intimates that it is part of the glory of the Lord which endures for ever; that is, his manifestative glory, to rejoice in his works. The glory of the Lord must be understood with reference to the creation he had spoken of before. How short was that joy God had in his works, after he had sent them beautified out of his hand ! How soon did he ' repent' not only ■ that he had made man,' but ' was grieved at the heart' also that he made the other creatures which man's sin had disordered ! Gen. vi. 7. What joy can God have in them, since the curse upon the entrance of sin into the world remains upon them ? If they are to be annihilated upon the full restoration of his holiness, what time will God have to rejoice in the other works of creation ? It is the joy of God to see all his works in their due order, every one pointing to their true end, marching together in their excellency, according to his first intendment in their creation. Did God create the world to perform its end only for one day ? Scarce so much, if Adam fell the very first day of his creation. What would have been their end if Adam had been confirmed in a state of happiness as the angels were, it is likely will be answered and performed upon the complete restoration of man to that happy state from whence he fell. What artificer compiles a work by his skill but to rejoice in it ? and shall God havo no joy from the works of his hands ?

* Mestrtczat but. Ileb. i.

Pi. en 7.]

• i tin-in which < .

, initl which :u lllH

'I

/ '. 1. v.

1 rld'i ch

Km L7; so ■ » L

'I ; that i:

opofl it ^ l

bath . and U

the holy an

p into tli. I • • rorld, tfa

!. • in with

grief in

. and the nmi of the frond.

" II •.. f< li ii i thing is it ; I '■

•h, and be do more wh I 3

: the en ation, shall not they mi h and ondi E

thei p the en ation, the lit! walkii

about the world, that are perishing and d; them clothed with life i ■p Ued . and are snch frail I

■pirite and . i . . meat of the h< .

glory oi i I, yet i • nor th(

mony, order, 1 and glory of them, shall preserve

:i and melting at tl of the Lord,

they have i I in the same p -tare from the creation till this day,

• antiqo down to a cha fore the

will an I their Creator; and shall we rest upon that which shall

Vanish like Bhall wo take any creature for our support, i

that will crack on l< r onr f. 11, and most by the order of thi ir L

tor deceive our hopes? Perishing things ran he no support to tin: soul ; if we WOOid have rest, we moat run I I rest in Qod. II >w

honld that be to as, wh ■ fashion shall pass away, which shall long in its present form and appearance ; contempti!

as the work of God ; I ptible a I, not con-

tcni] as to attain our end. If these must be cl how

tin to be the centre of our souls, that change in our

far and al de away in oni -t of them.

I b ith all [] >f his

nature, are pronounced the same, without any

• doth not only assert the eternal d 'iod,

I in thai

] • • D shaft ( immutability in thi . '

To i :. Inn .

and ad what is I doth

RV1 Pintt, . it. He c aid not be

id be ahai ■ I lhan wh Ibo

Imist tl. rac »

. thou art I . no same God, the same

• K. tiua in llcb. i.

in essence and nature, the same in will and purpose, thou dost change all other things as thou pleasest; but thou art immutable in every respect, and receivest no shadow of change, though never so light and small. The psalmist here alludes to the name Jehovah, 1 am* and doth not only ascribe immutability to God, but exclude everything else from partaking in that perfection. All things else are tottering ; God sees all other things in continual motion under his feet, like water passing away and no more seen, while he remains fixed and immoveable. His wisdom and power, his knowledge and will, are always the same. His essence can receive no alteration, neither by itself nor by any external cause ; whereas other things either naturally decline to destruction, pass from one term to another till they come to their period ; or shall at the last day be wrapped up, after God hath completed his will in them and by them ; as a man doth a garment he intends to repair and transform to another use.

So that in the text God, as immutable, is opposed to all creatures, as perishing and changeable.

Doct.^ God is unchangeable in his essence, nature, and perfections. Immutability and eternity are linked together ; and indeed true eternity is true immutability^ whence eternity is defined the possession of an immutable life. Yet immutability differs from eternity in our conception. Immutability respects the essence or existence of a thing, eternity respects the duration of a being in that state; or rather, immutability is the state itself,! eternity is the measure of that state. A thing is said to be changed, when it is otherwise now in regard of nature, state, will, or any quality than it was before; when either something is added to it or taken from it; when it either loses or acquires. But now it is the essential property of God, not to have any accession to, or diminution of, his essence or attributes, but to remain entirely the same. He wants nothing, he loses nothing, but doth uniformly exist by himself, without any new nature, new thought, new will, new purpose, or new place.

This unchangeableness of God was anciently represented by the figure of a cube,j a piece of metal or wood framed four square ; when every side is exactly of the same equality, cast it which way you will, it will always be in the same posture, because it is equal to itself in all its dimensions. He was therefore said to be the centre of all things, and other things the circumference ; the centre is never moved while the circumference is ; it remains immoveable in the midst of the circle. ■ There is no variableness nor shadow of turning with him,' James i. 17. The moon hath her spots, so hath the sun ; there is a mixture of light and darkness ; it hath its changes ; sometimes it is in the increase, sometimes in the wane ; it is always either gaining or losing, and by the turnings and motions, either of the heavenly bodies or of the earth, it is in its eclipse, by the interposition of the earth between that and the sun. The sun also hath its diurnal and annual motion; it riseth and sets, and puts on a different face. It doth notalway shine with a noonday light; it is sometimes vailed with clouds and vapours ; it is always going from ono tropic to another, whereby it makes various shadows on the earth, and produceth the various seasons of the year ; it is not always in our hemisphere, nor doth it always shine with an equal force and brightness in it. Such shadows and variations have no placo in the eternal Father of lights ; he hath not the least spot or diminution of brightness ; nothing can cloud him or eclipse him. For tho better understanding this perfection of God,

* AXXo/wffswj xg'urruv, above all change, Theodor.

t Gamachous. J Amyrant sur Ucb. ix. p. 153.

[ hall premise three thinga.

1. The immutability of God if a perfection, [xnmutabilij itself, without relation to othi r things, ii d

ry and imperfection of the < , thattb Ic in malice

tG 1. Bnt as G infinite . nfinitelj wise, boljj

BO it is a p> rfection ii' ' Uuil ho ihooid 06 immutably

nil ' excellency, !'■". In. ■■,,-, w i iloni, immutably all til ith>

out (hi old loan imporfoct being. Arc not the angels in 1

who ire oonfira i i in i holy and hap] . more i than wh<

B in ;i poi libilitj i f committing c\ il and Ai not

khi Baintl in heaven, wl ;raco do unalterably '""1 and

' than if till v v.uv a ; Ad mi in j . . ■■ of

their felicity as well as juts. r\ r We count, a rocl., m r< "ard of

lity, more i icollent than the dust, of the grotm 1, or ■ bather th I

tOS8rd about with every wind. Is it. not. also the p. ofthe I

bavo a constant tenor of health, and the glOTJ of B man not to warp a from what is ju^t and light, by the |iersuasions of any temptations?

'J. Immutability is a glory belonging to all the attributes of Bod. It is nol i single perfection "( the divine nature, nor is it limited to particular

Objects thus and thns disposed. M' ivy and justice have their distinct

Objects and distinct acts ; mercy is conversant about a penitent, justice 0OH«

mt about an obstinate, sinner. In onr notion and oon of the

divine perfections, his perfections ars different; the wisdom of Qod is not

bis power, nor his power his holiness, but immutability is the centre they all unite. Share is not one p- rfection but may I to be, and trulv

immutable; none of them will app without this beam, th •

Sim of immutability, which renders them highly excellent without the least shadow of imperfection. How cloudy would his blessedness bo if it were changeable; how dim his wisdom if it might be obscured ; how feeble his

power if it were capable to be sickly and languish : how would mercy Ioso much of its lustre if it could change into wrath, and justice much of its dr> 1 if it could be turned into mercy, while the object of justice remains unfit for mercy, and one that hath need of mercy continues only fit for the divine fury } Bnt unchangeableness is a thread that runs through the whole web, it is the enamel of all the rest; none of them without it could look with a triumphant aspect. His power is unchangeable : Isi. xxvi. 1, 'In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength ;' his mercy and his holiness endure forever; he never could, nor ever can, look upon iniquity, Hab. i. 18 : he is a rock in the right -s of his ways, the truth of his word, the holiness of his

proc nd the rectitude of his nature. All are expressed: Dent.

xwii. 1. 'Haifa rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment ; a Qod of truth and without iniquity, just and right he is.' All that we con-r in God is unchangeable, for his essence and his properties are the same, ami therefore what is i rily belonging to the essence of God belt:

also to every perfection of the nature of God ; none of them can receive any i or diminution. From the unohangeableneefl of his nature the . chap. i. 17, infers the unchangeableness of his holiness, and himself in Mai. iii. ♦'>, the unchangeableness of his counsel.

8. Unchan I cessarily pertain to the nature of God. It

v with the rectitude of his nature ; he can no more be

chat than he can be unrighteous in his actions. God

• BSSrj I .vssarily what he is, and th. I

ably what he is. Mutability 'ingency ; if any perfection of

his nature could be l i from him, he would cease to be God ; uhat

did not possess the whole nature of God could not have the essence of God ; it is reciprocated with the nature of God. Whatsoever is immutable by nature, is God; whatsoever is God, is immutable by nature. Some creatures are immutable by his grace and power ;* God is holy, happy, wise, good by his essence ; angels and men are made holy, wise, happy, strong, and good by qualities and graces. The holiness, happiness, and wisdom of saints and angels, as they had a beginning, so they are capable of increase and diminution, and of an end also; for their standing is not from themselves, or from the nature of created strength, holiness, or wisdom, which in themselves are apt to fail and finally to decay, but from the stability and confirmation they have by the gift and grace of God. The heaven and earth shall be changed, and after that renewal and reparation they shall not be changed. Our bodies after the resurrection shall not be changed, but for ever be 'made conformable to the glorious body of Christ,' Philip, iii. 21 ; but this is by the powerful grace of God : so that, indeed, those things may be said afterwards rather to be unchanged than unchangeable, because they are not so by nature, but by sovereign dispensation; as creatures have not necessary beings, so they have not necessary immutability. Necessity of being, and, therefore, immutability of being, belongs by nature to God; otherwise, if there were any change in God, he would be sometimes what he w r as not, and would cease to be what he was, which is against the nature, and, indeed, against the natural notion of a Deit}\ Let us see then,

I. In what regards God is immutable.

II. Prove that God is immutable.

III. That this is proper to God and incommunicable to any creature.

IV. Some propositions to clear the unchangeableness of God from anything that seems contrary to it.

V. The use.

I. First, In what respects God is unchangeable.

1. God is unchangeable in his essence. He is unalterably fixed in his being, that not a particle of it can be lost from it, nor a mite added to it. If a man continue in being as long as Methuselah, nine hundred and sixty-nine years, yet there is not a day, nay, an hour, wherein there is not some alteration in his substance ; though no substantial part is wanting, yet there is an addition to him by his food, a diminution of something by his labour; he is always making some acquisition or suffering some loss; but in God there can be no alteration by the accession of anything to make his substance greater or better, or by diminution to make it less or worse ; he who hath no being from another cannot but be always what he is. God is tho first being, an independent being ; he was not produced of himself, or of any other, but by nature always hath been, and therefore cannot by himself, or by any other, be changed from what he is in his own nature: that which is not may as well assume to itself a being, as he, who hath and is all being, have the least change from what he is. Again, because he is a Spirit, he is not subject to those mutations which are found in corporeal and bodily natures ; because he is an absolutely simple Spirit, not having the least particle of composition, he is not capable of those changes which may be in created spirits.

(1.) If his essence were mutable, God would not truly be. It could not be truly said by himself, / am thai I am, Exod. iii. 14, if he were such a tiling or being at this time, and a different being at another time. Whatsoever is changed properly is not, because it doth not remain to be what it

* Archbold. Scrm.

r . Oil. 26, 27.] nm :; •:;

; Hi it which changed ill ho Borao-

thii it may

bo said such a . bing iH d

was in its first I it it tu, it i hut

:i it it will 1

from what it was b I

Dot be him thai

if ho woro < , it might bo said

1 . bat hs will : bat he ii; or b bat be is, bat 11

nco in so 0 ild H"

/ .//i th it t / am ; foi thoagh 1.

. >■• fa DO what be w

tin, If i. ild not b•• j

ie in In; I: be eh inge I for tfa

an in:'.. iii what be was befoi r JO t

infinitely b I, and the | of tfa it ild nol

. ox a< I. ipprehensioi] of a bapj . it;

it" 1. i I for the wo] - be oonld do! ba?e a j in it i

the diminution of bit case

of b iare. 11 i - pleosnre d >i 1"' infinite befoi

eh. i ; it coul 1 not DC in:' 1

for the worse. If he changed fox the better, b< had an

infinite ; and nol haying an infinii

. be would have a finite m of !>•

I tween finite and infinite. Then though the change were forth

■ ithing would be still wanting to make him infinitely i ; because being finite, he could not change to that wh

is in£ r iinito and infinite 01 distant, that they i

her; that is, that that which is finite should becomo in£ i.ieh is infinite should become unite ; so that suppo

him mutable, his essence in no stato of change could furnish him with infinite | ind blessedness.

. if God's essence bo changed, ho either increascth or dimi-Whatsoovcr is changed dotli either gain by receiving someti. larger and than it had in itself before, or gains nothing by 1

changed. It'the former, then it receives more than itself, more had

in i fore. The divine nature cannot be inci . for whg

i ything than what it had in itself before, must necessarily ret

it i: ther, b nothing can give to itself that which it hath not;

innot receive from another what he hath not a) wl. ier thing n is derived from him, and therefore cantai

in him, as the fountain contains the virtue in itself which it convevs to the

mot gain anything. If a thing that is cfa D 1 tehai , it loseth c »mething of what it had before in ist be by itself or some other. God cannot receive iiing in himself; he cannot will his own diminution; I is . ire. Ham vj as well will his own

action; but i: is impossible semblan . for ho

.' 1 Tim. vi. 16, ' 1 in any particle of his . by a:., [finite simplicity admi:

• B .jriu. in Totavio.

nothing distinct from himself, or contrary to himself. All decreases come, from something contrary to the nature of that thing which doth decrease. Whatsoever is made less than itself was not truly unum, one and simple, because that which divides itself in separation was not the same in conjunction. Nor can he be diminished by any other without himself, because nothing is superior to God, nothing stronger than God which can oppress him ; but whatsoever is changed, is weaker than that which changeth it, and sinks under a power it cannot successfully resist; weakness belongs not to the Deity.* Nor, lastly, can God change from a state wherein he is to another state equal to the former, as men in some cases may do ; for in passing from one state to another equal to it, something must be parted with which he had before, that some other thing may accrue to him as a recom-pence for that loss, to make him equal to what he was. This recompence then he had not before, though he had something equal to it; and in this case it could not be said by God, I am that I am, but I am equal to what I was ; for in this case there would be a diminution and increase which (as was shewed) cannot be in God.

(4.) Again, God is of himself, from no other.f Natures, which are made by God, may increase, because they began to be ; they may decrease, because they were made of nothing, and so tend to nothing ; the condition of their originals leads them to defect, and the power of their Creator brings them to increase. But God hath no original, he hath no defect, because he was not made of nothing; he hath no increase, because he had no beginning ; he was before all things, and therefore depends upon no other thing which by its own change can bring any change upon him.J That which is from itself cannot be changed, because it hath nothing before it, nothing more excellent than itself; but that which is from another, as its first cause and chief good, may be changed by that which was its efficient cause and last end.

2. God is immutable in regard of knowledge. God hath known from all eternity all that which he can know, so that nothing is hid from him ; he knows not at present any more than he hath known from eternity, and that which he knows now, he always knows: ' All things are open and naked before him,' Heb. iv. 13. A man is said to be changed in regard of knowledge, when he knows that now which he did not know before, or knows that to be false now which he thought true before, or hath something for the object of his understanding now, which he had not before ; but

(1.) This would be repugnant to the wisdom and omniscience which belongs to the notion of a Deity. That cannot be God that is not infinitely wise ; that cannot be infinitely wise that is either ignorant of or mistaken in his apprehension of any one thing. If God be changed in knowledge, it must be for want of wisdom: all change of this nature in creatures implies this defect preceding or accompanying it. Such a thought of God would have been unworthy of him that is ' only wise,' that hath no mate for wisdom, 1 Tim. i. 17, none wise besides himself. If he knew that thing this day which he knew not before, he would not be an only wise being, for a being that did know everything at once might be conceived, and so a wiser being be apprehended by the mind of man. If God understood a thing at one time which ho did not at another, ho would be changed from ignorance to knowledge ; as, if he could not do that this day which he could do tomorrow, ho would bo changed from impotence to power. He could not be always omniscient, becauso there might be yet something still to come which

* Victorimis in Petavio. \ Petav. torn. i. p. 817.

t Austin. Fulgen in Petavio.

I' . Oil. "'''. ''7. • l:I!.IIV

rt not, though he may 1 it arn pa t. What way

■ It' In- I >•• cli:m"r.l in I: under-

'. be

r it. hangeable in li im unfit

to be an object of I II ild want

the due I linmont if his 11 . for

th.it mi •' ' l • i ' bich in ' | and

that m whiol ind to '

ID uii!'' I :ui ill '

■ i • | tl.l,. | n

in knowledge, and might promise thai now which he wo I

ta nnfil to !"• promii e I, and then I fit to I

old make him an incompetent object of dread in regard of r he might threaten thai now which he might knon • ot tit or jnsl to be inflict I. \ ch mind and under-

onot make i dv i 'lit judgment of thing I

thingi to be avoided. Nowise man would judg trust i

m ' and flittii m.

G l must oeede be unchangeable in his knowledge : but, as the sel t as the sun always shin.-, bo ( k)d alwa never eeaseth to ihinei I I never ceaseth to fa from the fast compass of his understanding, no more than anythii • shelter itself without the verge of bis p m r. This hither appears in th I. I.) God knows by his own essence. II" doth not know as we do, by habitSi qualiti< 9, s, whereby be mistaken at one time and r

tilled at another. He hath not an understanding distinct from hi

: but 1' ing the most simple being, his understanding in his

essence: an m the infiniteness of nil oonclude the infinite-

anderstandj from the unchangeablenees of his > we

•lv conclude the unehangeabl a as of his knowledge. Since, there-

1 is without all composition^ and his understanding is not distinct

from hi-; 8SS6H06, what he knows he knows by his essence ; and there can

then be no moro mutability in his knowledge than there can be in his

: and if there were any in that, he could not be God, because he

would have the properly of a creature. If his understanding then be his

essence, his kn is as necessary, ns unchangeable, as his as. As

eminently contains all perfections in itself, ' aiding

comprehends all things past, present, and future in itself. If his under-

' and nil ere not one and the same, ho were not simple,

but COmponnde 1; if compounded, he would Consist of }< lite : if he consisted

of parts, an independent being, and so would not be God.

I all thl' us intuitive Ict. AS there is no BOOsest

in 1. that he now and another thing hereafter, i i

ther 'e^sion in his knowledge. lie knows things that are -

and BS t of intuit:

!'■ . all things future ai nt to him in r. -;rd of

•iity and omnipres. t though t ; and fSJ

in the thin | of them and tl rsJ changes in

ire is invariable and unalterable. As i ' that could see

with hie syo at le eomj

ild

see the whole I ■ uniformly; this part now in the ca

west, without any change in his eye ; for he sees every part and every motion together; and though that great body varies and whirls about, and is in continual agitation, his eye remains stedfast, suffers no change, beholds all their motions at once, and by one glance.* God knows all things from eternity, and therefore perpetually knows them ; the reason is, because the divine knowledge is infinite : Ps. cxlvii. 5, ' His understanding is infinite ;' and therefore comprehends all knowable truths at once. An eternal knowledge comprehends in itself all time, and beholds past and present in the same manner, and therefore his knowledge is immutable. By one simple knowledge he considers the infinite spaces of past and future.

(3.) God's knowledge and will is the cause of all things and their successions. There can be no pretence of any changeableness of knowledge in God, but in this case, before things come to pass, he knows that they will come to pass ; after they are come to pass, he knows that they are past and slid away.f This would be something, if the succession of things were the cause of the divine knowledge, as it is of our knowledge ; but on the contrary, the divine knowledge and will is the cause of the succession of them. God doth not know creatures because they are, but they are because he knows them : ' All his works were known to him from the beginning of the world,' Acts xv. 18. All his works were not known to him, if the events of all those works were not also known to him. If they were not known to him, how should he make them ? He could not do anything ignorantly. He made them then after he knew them, and did not know them after he made them. His knowledge of them made a change in them ; their existence made no change in his knowledge. He knew them when they were to be created, in the same manner that he knew them after they were created; before they were brought into act, as well as after they were brought into act; before they were made, they were, and were not; they were in the knowledge of God when they were not in their own nature. God did not receive his knowledge from their existence, but his knowledge and will acted upon them to bring them into being.

(4.) Therefore the distinction of past and future makes no change in the knowledge of God. When a thing is past, God hath no more distinct knowledge of it after it is past than he had when it was to come; all things were all in their circumstances of past, present, and to come, seen by his understanding as they were determined by his will; J besides, to know a day to be past or future is only to know the state of that day in itself, and to know its relation to that which follows and that which went before. This day wherein we are, if we consider it in the state wherein it was yesterday, it was to come, it was future ; but, if we consider it in that state wherein it will be to-morrow, we understand it as past. This in man cannot be said to be a different knowledge of the thing itself, but only of the circumstance attending a thing, and the different relation of it; as I see the sun this day, I know it was up yesterday, I know it will be up to-morrow, my knowledge of the sun is the same; if there be any change, it is in the sun, not in my knowledge, only I apply my knowledge to such particular circumstances. How much more must tho knowledge of those things in God be unchangeable, who knows all those states, conditions, and circumstances most perfectly from eternity, wherein there is no succession, no past or future, and therefore will know them for ever ! He always beholds the same thing; he sees, indeed, succession in things, and he sees a thing to bo past which before was futuro; as from eternity ho saw Adam as existing

* Suarcz. vol. i. p. I'M. f Austin, liradwardine.

J Gamach. in Aquiii. Qu. 9, cap. i. p. 73.

•icli u tin).! ; in ul i be, in 11. mg

time bfl I i •• tl i ho know from I

1.: sw in tbi dot ; tli *as a variation in A

was of him in all l»i

was do! pn lent to hn was i"

eternity.

« f it,

:l|>ivh. :.

thou ' ■

\\e must cuic. : .

.ill imp. "VO

thai God; the knowledge of 11

• 11 , i Infinite, P .

| .. , imuiln i m no niorc bfl Calcul ited 04

unt by Qfl, than infi , winch I

\\. can do mow an

of the manner of bii K; ; di-

rv of b : wfl may ai well comprehend one ae 1

This Wfl must OOnclodfl, tli I I [n 'A

with and another thing with mu pre do; but being a Spirit, he

I and knows only with mind, and his mind ifl b ablfl as himself; and t] ia Dot now another thing than what

bfl • bfl kno aything now in another manner than ai Km 1.

it from eternity. II • -, | all tfa D [8 in the \ M th

doth not var . ither doth his vision.

::. G : : of his will and purpose. A change in

pnrpofl • it, when a man determines to do that now which before he d

to do, « r to do the contrary ; when a man I that thing which he

loved, or begins to love thai which be before hated. When tho will is i. a m hi h will that which he willed not before, and cea-

ill that which bfl wilhl before. But whatsoever God hath decreed, immutable; wl God hath promised, shall he accomplished : 'The

1 tint g i mouth shall not return to him void, but it shall

that which he pleascth,' Isa. lv. 11 ; whatsoever 'he poi will do,' Isa. xlvi. 11. Num. xxiii. 19. His decrees are ti died

1 mourn i. vi. 1: brass, as having substance as

I . ing immoveable, not only by any creature, but by himi they stand upon the 1 SSis I f infallible wisdom, and are .supported Prom this immutability of his will published to man, there could be no release from the severity of the law, without satistac-by the death of a mediator, since it was the unalterable will of i that death should be the wages of Bin ; and from this immutable will it fch of time from tli". first promise of tl. r to his

. and the daily pTOP cations of men, altered not his purposo for the t of it in the fulness of that time he had resolved upon ; nor did the wicl hinder the addition of several promise

bur

X i Da .'. this out, consid.

I I m.1 is the same with his essence. If God ha 1 a essence, he would not be the most simple beiiiL,'. I m himsi If. As his ni

, God understanding, so h:s will is I

it D*w being thei the essence i

though it is cc: i according to our weakness as a faculty, it is as h:s

understanding and wisdom, eternal and immutable, and can no more be changed than his essence. The immutability of the divine counsel depends upon that of his essence. He is the Lord Jehovah, therefore he is true to his word: Mai. iii. 6, Isa. xliii. 13, ' Yea, before the day was, I am he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.' He is the same, immutable in his essence, therefore irresistible in his power.

(2.) There is a concurrence of God's will and understanding in everything. As his knowledge is eternal, so is his purpose. Things created had not been known to be, had not God resolved them to be [by] the act of his will. The existence of anything supposeth an act of his will. Again, as God knows all things by one simple vision of his understanding, so he wills all things by one act of volition; therefore the purpose of God in the Scripture is not expressed by counsels, in the plural number, but counsel, shewing that all the purposes of God are not various, but as one will, branching itself out into many acts towards the creature, but all knit in one root,- all links of one chain. Whatsoever is eternal is immutable. As his knowledge is eternal, and therefore immutable, so is his will. He wills or nills nothing to be in time, but what he willed and nilled from eternity. If he willed in time that to be that he willed not from eternity, then he would know that in time which he knew not from eternity; for God knows nothing future but as his will orders it to be future, and in time to be brought into being.

(3.) There can be no reason for any change in the will of God. When men change in their minds, it must be for want of foresight, because they could not foresee all the rubs and bars which might suddenly offer themselves ; which, if they had foreseen, they w r ould not have taken such measures. Hence men often will that which they afterwards wish they had not willed, when they come to understand it clearer, and see that to be injurious to them w T hich they thought to be good for them; or else the change proceeds from a natural instability without any just cause, and an easiness to be drawn into that which is unrighteous; or else it proceeds from a want of power, when men take new counsels, because they are invincibly hindered from executing the old. But none of those can be in God.

[1.] It cannot be for want of foresight. What can be wanting to an infinite understanding ? How can any unknown event defeat his purpose, since nothing happens in the world but what he wills to effect, or wills to permit, and therefore all future events are present with him ? Besides, it doth not consist with God's wisdom to resolve anything but upon the highest reason; and what is the highest and infinite reason cannot but be unalterable in itself, for there can be no reason and wisdom higher than the highest. All God's purposes are not bare acts of will, but acts of counsel: Eph. i. 11, ■ He works all things according to the counsel of his own will;' and he doth not say so much that his will as that his ' counsel shall stand,' Isa. xlvi. 10. It stands because it is counsel. And the immutability of a promise is called the ■ immutability of his counsel,' Heb. vi. 17, as being introduced and settled by the most perfect wisdom, and therefore to be carried on to a full and complete execution. His purpose then cannot be changed for want of foresight, for this would be a charge of weakness.

[2.] Nor can it proceed from a natural instability of his will, or an easiness to be drawn to that which is unrighteous. If his will should not adhere to his counsel, it is becauso it is not fit to be followed, or because it will not follow it. If not fit to be followed, it is a reflection upon his wisdom; if it be established, and ho will not follow it, there is a contrariety in God, as there is in a fallen creature, will against wisdom. That cannot

* Qu. 'knot'?— Ed.

*

r . ciI. 80, 27.] hi; m.ii.n '. (ji (ion. B89

bi in God which be hat. , in a creators, r of faculties, and

b.in ( out of thi place. 'I'll. I f God is like •

mountain, r 'i le of bi m immovable in

all tho groat mounl in the world (are th of man:

'II. ! DOt S8 a man that he should i '■ '. ■ ho

II u i

■ ••', or w : i |., rfoim. II.. ti-rnal j

r unrightoou -; if ri and b me unholy

Lhe change; ii not right in.lv, then be wm unri

the change; whiob ii tails, it would reilucl upon

I . which if a blaephemOU nation. ' i : I

I'm i . i.. r fox the then Uk I ( I I i

a, then he was not v. ise an

can it. be for want • Who h;ith DO

all the combined d< md < nd< nu d can make the i

. \i\. 21,' There arc d heartj

nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that ihall stand;' that, end that oj

■hall stall.1. .Man hath a D0W6T U) devise an.l im IgjnS, l.iit. DO |

I and execute of himself. God wan:.-, no more pow< ct what ho

will, than he wante nnderstanding to know what, ii lit.

\Y. li, tin ii. MM.'.' Co.I wanted not wisdom to frame hie decrees, nor holi-olate th.ni, nor power to effect them, wi old make liim

change them, since there can be no reason Buperior to hie, no event an-i by him, no holiness comparable to hie, no anrighi

in him, DO power equal to his to put a ruh in his way?

(4.) Though the will of (lod be immutable, yet it is not to be nnd< rstood the thingB themselves so willed are immutable. Nor will the immutability of the things willed by him follow upon the Dnchangeableneee of

his will in willing them; though Cod be firm in willing them, yet he doth not will that they should alway be. God did not perpetually will the things which he one d to be done. He decreed that

Christ should sutler, but he did not decree that Christ should alway sutler; so he willed the Moeaical rites for a time, but he did not will that they should alway continue; he willed that they should endure only for a time, and when the time came for their ceasing, God had been mutable if lie had Dot put an end to them, because his will had fixed such a period. So that the fth^ngmg ,,f those things which he had once appointed to be practised, is so far from charging Cod with changeableness, that God would le mutable if he did not take them away, since ho decreed as well their abolition at such a time as their continuance till such a time, so that the removal of them was pursuant to his unchangeable will and decree. If God had

should alway continue, and afterwards changed that decree, and resolved the abrogation of them, then inde. 1 God had 1 mutable; he had I I one decree by another, he had then seen an

error in . end there must be some weakness in the reason

and wisdom whereon it was grounded.] But it was not so here, for the change of ti tWI is SO far from Blurring God with any mutability, that

m is no other than the issue of I Cor fron in himself to change this or that di

the . to bring such ■ dispensation into the world. Tho

f was eternal and immutable, but the thing porary an 1 mutabi . .'. eternity doth not make tl

loth the immutability of th Tjr.diss.iiL tQsu'wUltl ual doing"?— I

the thing so decreed to be immutable. As, for example, God decreed from all eternity to create the world, the eternity of this decree did not make the world to be in being and actually created from eternity; so God decreed immutably that the world so created should continue for such a time; the decree is immutable if the world perish at that time, and would not be immutable if the world did endure beyond that time that God hath fixed for the duration of it. As when a prince orders a man's remaining in prison for so many days, if he be prevailed with to give him a delivery before those days, or to continue him in custody for the same crime after those days, his order is changed; but if he orders the delivery of him just at that time till which he had before decreed that he should continue in prison, the purpose and order of the prince remains firm, and the change in the state of the prisoner is the fruit of that firm and fixed resolution; so that we must distinguish between the person decreeing, the decree itself, and the thing decreed. The person decreeing, viz., God, is in himself immutable, and the decree is immutable, but the thing decreed may be mutable; and if it were not changed according to the first purpose, it would argue the decree itself to be changed; for whiles a man wills that this may be done now and another thing done afterwards, the same will remains, and though there be a change in the effect, there is no change in the will.

(5.) The immutability of God's will doth not infringe the liberty of it. The liberty of God's will consists with the necessity of continuing his purpose. God is necessarily good, immutably good; yet he is freely so, and would not be otherwise than what he is. God was free in his first purpose; and purposing this or that by an infallible and unerring wisdom, it would be a weakness to change the purpose. But indeed the liberty- of God's will doth not seem so much to consist in an indifferency to this or that, as in an independency on anything without himself. His will was free, because it did not depend upon the objects about which his will was conversant. To be immutably good, is no point of imperfection, but the height of perfection.

4. As God is unchangeable in regard of essence, knowledge, purpose, so he is unchangeable in regard of place. He cannot be changed in time, because he is eternity; so he cannot be changed in place, because he hath ubiquity. He is eternal, therefore cannot be changed in time; he is omnipresent, therefore cannot be changed in place; he doth not begin to be in one place wherein he was not before, or cease to be in a place wherein he was before. He that fills every place in heaven and earth, cannot change place; he cannot leave one to possess another, that is equally in regard of his essence in all: 'He fills heaven and earth,' Jer. xxiii. 24. The heavens, that are not subject to those changes to which sublunary bodies are subject, that are not diminished in quantity or quality, yet they are alway changing place in regard of their motion ; no part of them doth alway continue in the same point. But God hath no chnnge of' his nature, because he is most inward in everything. He is substantially in all space, real and imaginary; there is no part of the world which he doth not fill; no place can be imagined wherein he doth not exist. Suppose a million of worlds above and about this, encircling one another, his essence would be in every part and point of those worlds, because it is indivisible, it cannot be divided; nor can it be contained within those created limits of millions of worlds, when the most soaring and best coining fancy hath run through all creatures, to the highest sphere of the heavens, and imagined one world after another, till it can fancy no more. None of these, nor all of these, can contain God; for 'the heaven of heavens cannot contain him,' 1 Kings viii. 27. He is ' higher than heaven, deeper than hell,' Job xi. 8, and

h Infinite imaginary n 1 created limits, lie v.ho hath do fiu ■<• of l' in '. c Ami though I

hi bag in to be in the ic world

hot wm in the lamo in si eiwey in

elf 1'V In i "w n • iet.

v near to him/ J jf lot 'I do(

but by ip oi J and ial infln neei f 1 1 anpp »rtin^ grs

As • -.-, the into the I ] "*

in i' and order in the h«:i\ < the beami • the

hton the ro >m, to whan < lod ia eaid I lown <>r

11 . . 5, i I. ;i eh togs of p

ahai tward acta, elf in ways of I

or n mont8, in the efflaxei of nil love oi the names of nil wrath.

Whei i men fool flu' warm beami of his grace i ■ Of

I tin 1 hot eoali of hie an pi scorching them. I Dear to ni ii not 10 mnch nil eoming I i as, bnt b I i him,;

•i watermen pull i rope thai ii in one end fastened to the and the

r end to the vessel, the shore is immoveable, yet it.

> them, but they really move to the ihore. God is an immoveable

r>>ck, we are ii mating and nnoertau ; while ho eeemi to approaeh

i doth really make as to approach to him. He comes n by

any ehange of place himself, bnl di to him by i change of mind, will,

and affection! in us.

II. The second thing propounded is the reaeom to prove God immutable. aeknowled I to be so; Plato and the Pythagoreana

called Gtod, oi 1 principle, &vrk t idem; the evil principle

ther thing, changeable; one thing one time and another thing an-Daniel vi. 26, * II" is the living God, and Btedfast for e , L The 1 cifies this attribute : Exod. iii. 14, 'lam that

I am ; 1 am hath i to yon. 1 It signifies his immutability as well as

:iity. / am B - eternity; thai or the fame thai I oat, his

immutability. As it respects the essence of God, it signifies his unchangeable being from eternity to eternity ;• as it respects the creature, it sanities his constancy in his counsels and promises, which spring from no other cause but the unchangeableness of his nature. The : why men M ind

not to their covenant, is because they are not always the same. / OSI, that I am the same, before the creation of the world, and since the creation of the world ; before the entrance of sin, and since the entrance of sin; re their going into Egypt, and whiles they remain in Egypt. The very name Jth . according to the grammatical order, a mark of God's

nuchar * It never hath anything added to it, nor anything taken

from it; it hath no plural number, no affixes, a custom peculiar to the eastern r changes its letters as other words do. That only is a true being, which hath not only an eternal existence, but stability in it : that H not truly a being that never remains in tho same state.ff All th.

* Qmmtchent, ut supra.

f The an it by thie similitude.

I I ..• l<J/av 'at/ iyj.tj.'v.Gv, lib. j.

lib. iii. [ 'I np. J Amyrald. do Trinitat. p. 433.

•* Spanhcii 8jnl . p 89.

tt G, sect. G, 7, 8.

that are changed cease to be what they were, and begin to be what they were not, and therefore cannot have the title truly applied to them they are; they are indeed, but like a river in a continual flux, that no man ever sees the same; let his eye be fixed upon one place of it, the water he sees slides away, and that which he saw not succeeds in its place ; let him take his eye off but for the least moment, and fix it there again, and he sees not the same that he saw before. All sensible things are in a perpetual stream; that which is sometimes this and sometimes that, is not, because it is not always the same ; whatsoever is changed, is something now which it was not alway ; but of God it is said I am, which could not be if he were changeable ; for it may be said of him he is not, as well as he is, because he is not what he was. If we say not of him he was, nor he will be, but only he is, whence should any change arrive ? He must invincibly remain the same, of whose nature, perfections, knowledge, and will, it cannot be said it was, as if it were not now in him; or it shall be, as if it were not yet in him ; but he is, because he doth not only exist, but doth alway exist the same. I am, that is, I receive from no other what I am in myself. He depends upon no other in his essence, knowledge, purposes, and therefore hath no changing power over him.

2. If God were changeable, he could not be the most perfect being. God is the most perfect being, and possesses in himself infinite and essential goodness : Mat. v. 48, ' Your heavenly Father is perfect.' If he could change from that perfection, he were not the highest exemplar and copy for us to write after. If God doth change, it must be either to a greater perfection than he had before, or to a less, mutatio perfectiva vel amissiva; if he changes to acquire a perfection he had not, then he was not before the most excellent being necessarily; he was not what he might be ; there was a defect in him, and a privation of that which is better than what he had and was, and then he was not alway the best, and so was not alway God ; and being not alway God, could never be God; for to begin to be God is against the notion of God. Not to a less perfection than he had ; that were to change to imperfection, and to lose a perfection which he possessed before, and cease to be the best being; for he would lose some good which he had, and acquire some evil which he was free from before. So that the sovereign perfection of God is an invincible bar to any change in him; for which way soever you cast it for a change, his supreme excellency is impaired and nulled by it; for in all change there is something from which a thing is changed, and something to which it is changed: so that on the one part there is a loss of what it had, and on the other part there is an acquisition of what it had not. If to the better, he was not perfect, and so was not God; if to the worse, he will not be perfect, and so be no longer God after that change.

If God be changed, his change must be voluntary or necessary; if voluntary, he then intends the change for the better, and chose it to acquire a perfection by it. The will must be carried out to anything under the notion of some goodness in that which it desires. Since good is the object of the desire and will of the creature, evil cannot be the object of the desire and will of the Creator. And if ho should be changed for the worse when he did really intend the better, it would speak a defect of wisdom, and a mistake of that for good which was evil and imperfect in itself; and if it be for the better, it must be a motion or change for something without himself; that which ho desireth is not possessed by himself but by some other. There is then some good without him and above him, which is the end in this change; for nothing acts but for some end, and that end is within itself or without itself. If the end for which God changes be without himself, then thcro is

Pi. On. 26, 17. na mum uuun

something better than himself. D I f" r

the i be doI 11 I t want ol . he

beet good. In had the imj I wisdom, 1.

happiness ; if In- had I I power to effect it, it i.

prill, I [| tin ii wanl which ii Qeoeseaiy is the supreme I".:.;'. Volui raid uoi

ebangod for the worse, he could ool be soeh so enem; ihere ii nothing bol would hinder its own im] d end becoming

N. oeeaejrilj he eouJ

i tli.ii the difficulties epokon of before will i ox it dm

i i em uoi be I another, I"

good bat what it hath received from thi that

toul loss to himself: dox made worse. \ made him . it

ii. but th it cannot touch hi the end nature of the sin . 6, 7, ■ If th .

whai Must him? or if thy tran I, what

: thoo unto him ? [f thou be righteous, what thou him ' ox what

i?ef he a( thy hand?' Be hath no addition by the ...an, no

more than the sun hath of light by s multitude of toxel lied on I

h ; nox any more impaix by the sins of nu a, than the light of the sun hath by men's shooting arxows against it.

were not the most simple being if he wexeiiot immutable.* Thexe ii in everything that is mutable s composition, eitb i ■ utial or ace. and in all changes something of the thing ehangi d remains, and soi of it oeaseth and is done awayj i . unple, in sn ac

a white wall be made black, it loses Ue white colour; but the wall itself, which was the subject of that colour, remains, and loses nothing of its sub-1. k< wii . in i Bubstantial change, as when wood is burnt, the sub-:ial part of wood is lost, the earthly part is change 1 into ashes, the airy par: Is in smoke, the watery part is changed into air by the fire.

There is not an annihilation of it, but S resolution of it into those pa whereof it was compounded ; and this change doth evidence that it was com-pounded of several parts distinct from one another. If there were any change in God, it is by separating something from him, or adding something to him : if by separating something from him, then he was compounded of something distinct from himself; for if it were not distinct from himself, it could uoi be s< parated from him without loss of bis being ; if

ling anything to him, then it is a compounding of him, either substantially or accidentally.

Mutability is absolutely inconsistent with simplicity, whether the chat., come from an internal or external principle. If a change be wrought by

without, it BUppoeeth either contrary or various parte in the th bo changed, whereof it don. it; if it be wrought by anything within, it

SUppoeeth that the thing so changed doth consist of one part that doth chai

it, and another pert that is changed, and bo it would not be a simple be!: .

v anything within himself, all in (iod would I bo God ; bis CUOIIOC would depend uj if some would

l pail wexe able to change ox d

which doth change WOUl 1 . that which is cha:. be

I; so Qod la oon-deity, and i

ad upon d aid be

iud« I . part immutabi ; that muLibil

* *. tan th in Prim. I .. .\ rain. . cap. 1. ;

is against the notion of God's independency as well as his simplicity.* God is the most simple being; for that which is first in nature, having nothing beyond it, cannot by any means be thought to be compounded; for whatsoever is so depends upon the parts whereof it is compounded, and so is not the first being. Now God being infinitely simple, hath nothing in himself which is not himself, and therefore cannot will any change in himself, he being his own essence and existence.

4. God were not eternal if he were mutable. In all change there is something that perishes, either substantially or accidentally. All change is a kind of death, or imitation of death; that which was, dies, and begins to be what it was not. The soul of man, though it ceaseth not to be and exist, yet when it ceaseth to be in quality what it was, it is said to die. Adam died when he changed from integrity to corruption, though both his soul and body were in being, Gen. ii. 17 ; and the soul of a regenerate man is said to 'die to sin,' Rom. vi. 11, when it is changed from sin to grace. In all change there is a resemblance of death : so the notion of mutability is against the eternity of God. If anything be acquired by a change, then that which is acquired was not from eternity, and so he was not wholly eternal; if anything be lost which was from eternity, he is not wholly everlasting ; if he did decrease by the change, something in him which had no beginning would have an end; if he did increase by that change, something in him would have a beginning that might have no end.f What is changed doth not remain, and what doth not remain is not eternal. Though God alway remains in regard of existence, he would be immortal and live alway ; yet if he should suffer any change he could not properly be eternal, because he would not alway be the same, and would not in every part be eternal; for all change is finished in time, one moment preceding, another moment following, but that which is before time cannot be changed by time. God cannot be eternally what he was; that is, he cannot have a true eternity, if he had a new knowledge, new purpose, a new essence ; if he were sometimes this and sometimes that, sometimes know this and sometimes know that, sometimes purpose this and afterwards hath a new purpose, he would be partly temporary and partly eternal, not truly and universally eternal. He that hath anything of newness, hath not properly and truly an entire eternit} r . Again, by the same reason that God could in the least cease to be what he was, he might also cease wholly to be, and no reason can be rendered why God might not cease wholly to be, as well as cease to be entirely and uniformly what he was. All changeableness implies a corruptibility.

5. If God were changeable, he were not infinite and almighty. All change ends in addition or diminution ; if anything be added, he was not infinite before; if anything be diminished, he is not infinite after. All change implies bounds and limits to that which is changed; but God is infinite, 'his greatness is unsearchable,' Ps. cxlv. 3, Ipn ]*N, no end, no term. We can add number to number without any end, and can conceive an infinite number, yet the greatness of God is beyond all our conceptions. But if there could be any chango in his greatness for the better, it would not be unsearchable before that change; if for the worse, it would not be unsearchable after that change. Whatsoever hath limits and is changeable, is conceivable and Bearchable ; but God is not only not known, but impossible in his own nature to be known and searched out, and therefore impossible to have any

Picinaa Zacliar. Mifylen. in Peta., torn. i. p. 1G9. ■f Austin in Pet., torn. i. p. 201.

P OH, '.''>. 27.] tin

diminuti m in bis nature. All that wl

, or oeaseth in it was l

I I i -•;.'.: :

for to bi I. If ho I

to him.

I proceed from hii

it' from himself, il

in r, he would b and which changoH him, < ithor in . or

will ; in 1 otfa :m ioftb lity ; an inability in • an

inability in him I her.

• : ■• 1 Dttl

l immutable. Princi]

than things which proceed from those principli i, and this i

Principles in cod icience, u b< reby mi q ai i ain firmly ei n in their minds. The root lies firml; th,

wbi baken with the wind. The I

m, are more firm and stable than those things which are • their influence. All things in the world ai

virtue which is and unless it v. . aid be ( 1 in

motion, n i m ition eonld be He c i i full

tion to the infin I ouls of his | Nothi

trulj il i>( man hut rest, that

which ii ot, and immntably | i it would l«' subject I i

th<> . and variation which the h< ing

The principle of all thin be immutable,* which is descri

the principle of number, wherein there ii s reaemblance of God's

A unit is not variable, it continues in il naturo

immutably an unit; it never varies from itself, it cannot he ch inged from

- it wen ininotcnt towards others, that it changes all

numbei 11 any number, it is the beginnii g of that number, but

the unit is not inereai 1 by it j a new number ariseth from that addition, the unit still remains the same, and adds a value to other l . hut

I none from them.

III. The third thing to speak to i .

That immutability is proper to God, and incommunicable to any creature.

J to every creature as a creature, and immutability is tho

sols ' h d. He only is infinite wisdom, able to foreknow future

infinitely powerful, able to call forth all mean ."t;

lt'.u r wisdom to contrive, nor strength to • .ho

inseL None being above him, nothing in him C

to him, and -tivc in no bi and perfection, he cannot vary

in 1 ; nature. Hail not immutability as well as eternity been

a pi | ertaining to the divine nature, as well as

and eternal do s argument to prove Christ to be Cod

rpetuaJ 1 come short of any convincing strength.

nlies to Christ : lleb. i. 10-12, ' They :-hall

art the i had been no strength in tho

: , if immut ire did belong to any creature.

Th ndent.

1.0 t to sense. All plants and animals,

as they have their duration bounded in certain limits, sowhil

* I aeomost: I; Gerhard, loc. com.

they proceed from their rise to their fall; they pass through many sensible alterations, from one degree of growth to another, from buds to blossoms, from blossoms to flowers and fruits ; they come to their pitch that nature hath set them, and return back to the state from whence they sprung; there is not a day but they make some acquisition, or suffer some loss ; they die and spring up every day ; nothing in them more certain than their inconstancy : ' The creature is subject to vanity,' Bom. viii. 20. The heavenly bodies are changing their place; the sun every day is running his race, and stays not in the same point; and though they are not changed in their essence, yet they are in their place; some indeed say there is a continual generation of light in the sun, as there is a loss of light by the casting out its beams, as in a fountain there ;is a flowing out of the streams, and a continual generation of supply. And though these heavenly bodies have kept their standing and motion from the time of their creation, yet both the sun's standing still in Joshua's time, and its going back in Hezekiah's time, shew that they are changeable at the pleasure of God.

But in man the change is perpetually visible; every day there is a change from ignorance to knowledge, from one will to another, from passion to passion, sometimes sad, and sometimes cheerful, sometimes craving this and presently nauseating it. His body changes from health to sickness, or from weakness to strength; some alteration there is either in body or mind. Man, who is the noblest creature, the subordinate end of the creation of other things, cannot assure himself of a consistency and fixedness in anything the short space of a day, no, not of a minute; all his months are * months of vanity,' Job vii. 3; whence the psalmist calls man, ' at the best estate, altogether vanity,' Ps. xxxix. 5, a mere heap of vanity. As he contains in his nature the nature of all creatures, so he inherits in his nature the vanity of all creatures. A little world, the centre of the world, and of the vanity of the world ; j'ea, ' lighter than vanity,' Ps. lxii. 9 ; more moveable than a feather; tossed between passion and passion; daily changing his end, and changing the means; an image of nothing.

2. Spiritual natures, as angels. They change not in their being, but that is from the indulgence of God; they change not in their goodness, but that is not from their nature, but divine grace in their confirmation; but they change in their knowledge, they know more by Christ than they did by creation, 1 Tim. iii. 16. They have an addition of knowledge every day, by the providential dispensations of God to his church, Eph. iii. 10, and the increase of their astonishment and love is according to the increase of their knowledge and insight. They cannot have a new discovery without new admirations of what is discovered to them. There is a change in their joy when there is a change in a sinner, Luke xv. 10. They were changed in their essence when they were made such glorious spirits of nothing. Some of them were changed in their will, when of holy they became impure. The good angels were changed in their understandings when the glories of God in Christ were presented to their view; and all can be changed in their essence again ; and as they were made of nothing, so, by the power of God, may be reduced to nothing again. So glorified souls shall have an unchanged operation about God, for they shall behold his face without any grief or fear of loss, without vagrant thoughts; but they can never be unchangeable in their nature, because they can never pass from finite to infinite.

No creature can bo unchangeable in its nature.

(1.) Because every creature rose from nothing. As they rose from nothing, so they tend to nothing, unless they are preserved by God. The

I' . ill. 26, 27. re i v < i t r 11 of sod.

on <>f* :i ere tturi , boean ic, to 1

l ■ >mething of nothing, and thi of noth

Tin' hoii begins from ch

tli.- i ssoncG of :i ereatnre in hu i uncreated, I

therefore and It' be were made, If oonld immutable, for

the wry makio | i111»> I- n '. Ail

. ai they wnv 111. fruit

Is I'" mutable, 1 they were the i i 't' nothi

B c ; ipon Hi' v.iil ..f God. ''

; nol npon them I' . bni apon another for their I" being from the word ofhii month and the arm si> by ill' 1 tame word they can be cancelled info noth ; turn into as

little significaney as when they were nothing. II" thai them l

I. .mm by a word destroy them, l' , riv. 29. [f God their breath, they die, and return into their do '.' I i the po

I tor thai things might b I ttoally w

power of the Creator thai things, after they are, nurj 'hey

are, and thev are in their own nature as reducible to nothing as tb Incible by the power of God from nothing; for there needs no moi an act .>f <b>d"s will fo null them, as there needed only an art ()'' ' will

lake them. Creatures are all subject to :i high r Th< • are all

. nothing. II.- 'loth according to his will in the armies of b aiul among tin* inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say onto him what does! thou''.' Dan. iv. 85. Bni God is unchangeable, be-^ he i- the highest good; none ahovo him, all below him; all dependent

on him, himself upon none.

iture is al solntely perfect. \.> ereatnre o > perfect, or

'be, bni 'him: by the infinite power of God may he a Ided to it;

for whatsoever is finite may receiv. r additions, ami therefore a change.

iture you can imagine, hut in your thoughts you may fancy him

ible of greater perfections than you know he hath, or than rcallv he

hath. The perfections of all creatures arc searchable, the perfection of God

is only unsearchable, Job xi. 6, and therefore ho only immutable.

I only is always the same. Time makes no addition to him, nor diminisheth anything of him. His nature and essence, his wisdom and will, have always been the same from eternity, and shall be the same to eternity, without any variation.

IV. The fourth thing propounded, is some propositions to clear this nn-changeableness of God from anything that seems contrary to it.

1. T n WSjI no change in God when he began t I create the world in time. ition was a real change, but the change was not subjectively

in God,but in the creature; the creature 1>. gan to be what it was not before. I ition i- con as active or passive;* active creation is the will I 1

of God \ : this is from eternity, because God willed from

eternity v in time. Thi-; never had beginning, for God never

in time to understand anything, to will anything, or to be able to do a

thi alway undi alway willed, those things which ho

from eternity to produce in time. The decree of God may

:i for t!. '. that i> eternal and th the ob

decreed, that is in time ; so that there may bo a change in the i not in the will whereby the object doth BXISt, (1.) There « I I 11 by the act

• Qemach. in \ art i. Aquin. . 7_\

was no new will in him. There was no new act of his will which was not before. The creation begun in time, but the will of creating was from eternity. The work w r as new, but the decree whence that new work sprung was as ancient as the Ancient of days. When the time of creating came, God was not made ex nolente volens, as we are ; for whatsoever God willed to bo now done, he willed from eternity to be done; but he willed also that it should not be done till such an instant of time, and that it should not exist before such a time. If God had willed the creation of the world only at that time when the world was produced, and not before, then, indeed, God had been changeable. But though God spake that word which he had not spoke before, whereby the world was brought into act, yet he did not will that will he willed not before. God did not create by a new counsel or new will, but by that which was from eternity, Eph. i. 9. All things are wrought according to that ' purpose in himself,' and ' according to the counsel of his will/ ver. 11; and as the holiness of the elect is the fruit of his eternal will ' before the foundation of the world,' ver. 4, so likewise is the existence of things, and of those persons whom he did elect. As when an artificer frames a house or a temple according to that model he had in his mind some years before, there is no change in the model in his mind, the artificer is the same, though the work is produced by him some time after he had framed that copy of it in his own mind; but there is a change of the thing produced by him according to that model. Or when a rich man intends, four or five years hence, if he lives, to build an hospital, is there any change in his will when, after the expiration of that time, he builds and endows it ? Though it be after his will, yet it is the fruit of his precedent will; so God from all eternity did will and command that the creatures should exist in such a part of time ; and by this eternal will all things, whether past, present, or to come, did, do, and shall exist at that point of time which that will did appoint for them. Not as though God had a new will when things stood up in being, but only that which was prepared in his immutable counsel and will from eternity doth then appear. There can be no instant fixed from eternity wherein it can be said God did not will the creation of the world; for had the will of God for the shortest moment been undetermined to the creation of the world, and afterwards resolved upon it, there had been a moral change in God from not willing to willing; but this there was not, for God executes nothing in time which he had not ordained from eternity, and appointed all the means and circumstances whereby it should be brought about; as the determination of our Saviour to suffer was not a new will, but an eternal counsel, and wrought no change in God, Acts ii. 23.

(2.) There is no change in God by the act of creation, because there was no new power in God. Had God had a will at the time of the creation, which he had not before, there had been a moral change in him; so had there been in him a power only to create then and not before; there had been a physical change in him from weakness to ability. There can be no more new power in God than there can be a new will in God; for his will is his power, and what he willeth to effect that he doth effect. As he was unchangeably holy, so he was unchangeably almighty, ' which was, and is, and is to come,' llev. iv. 8; which was almighty, and is almighty, and ever will be almighty. The work, therefore, makes no change in God, but there is a change in tho thing wrought by that power of God. Suppose you had a seal engraven upon some metal a hundred years old, or as old as tho creation, and you should this day, so many ages after the engraving of it, mako an impression of that seal upon wax, would you say tho engravement upon tho seal wero changed becauso it produced that stamp upon tho wax now

. '.27. j

which it diil not before? N i in the wax, wh

rm \>y tho i: n ; not in Iho seal, t:.

ble of imprinting the same I God th

nrhen be npoa th

no moi i Lhom into several forms,

tlum the boose i.-. enl mi. or that wh.ei,

l | .1 «l. ;: ill the DOU I out

i bi a' oi in lit- tin!:;; culigub ii. i or warmed by that I 1 ] ins

in, whioh • ispable i tho

it that instantwhea itworki tlum. author of a new work, he is not ehangedi beeaoee I it by an

.ml will and an eternal pos

there any new relation aeqnij . i. Tin ! was .i now relation acquired by the CI :i a

man sins, he hath another relation ti> God tlum lie bad before; i

I as a criminal to a j . 'nut there is no cha:. nut

in the mali The l" io ; of men makes no more change in i than

tin- sins of men, As a fan • on our light hand, ;. - ur tin

at it is on our left hand, sometimes in; . BOmetil

irding to our motion near it or ahout it, and the turning of th

There is no change in the tree, which remains linn and

bnl the change is wholly in the posture of tho body, whereby the ti

1 e said t<> be before us or behind ua, or on the right hand or •

ban I. Gtod gained no new relation of Lord or Creator by the creation ;

though he had created nothing to role over, yet lie had the power to en

nigh he did not create and rule. Afl a man maybe called a skilful writer though 1. not write, beeause be is able to do it w

t a man skilful in physic is called a physician though he doth not that skill, or discover his art in the distribution of medicines, because he may do it when he p] . it depends upon bis own will to shew

art when be bas a mind to it, so the name Creator and Lord be! »■ M : nit v, because be could create and rule though he did not

.ml rule. But howsoever, if there were any such change of relation, that God may bo called Creator and Lord after the creation and. not before, it is not a change in essence, nor in knowledge, nor in will; God gains no per-:on nor diminution by it, his knowledge is not increased by it; he is no more by it than he was and will bo if all those things ceased ; an Austin illustrates it by this similitude : as a piece of money, when it is given as the price of a thing, or deposited only as a pledge for the security of a thing borrowed, the coin is the same and is not changed, though the .lion it had as a pledge and as a price be different from one another, so that suppose any new relation be added, yet there is nothing happens to tho are of God which may infer any change.

'2. The s< oond proposition. There was no change in tho divine nature of tho Son when ho assumed human nature. There D union of -

it no change of the I'■ ity into the humanity, or of the humanity

into th . both pros erred their peculiar properties. The humanity

aha a communication of excellent gifts from the divine not

by 'ht into an equality with it; for that was impossible that a

B should hecomo equal to the Creator. He ' took the form of a

.1,' but bo lost not the form of God, he despoiled not himself of tho I

* 1 bed. Dojraat., torn. i. lib.

fections of the Deity; he was indeed ' emptied, and became of no reputation,' Philip, ii. 7, but he did not cease to be God, though he was reputed to be only a man, and a very mean one too. The glory of his divinity was not extinguished nor diminished, though it .was obscured and darkened under the veil of our infirmities; but there was no more change in the hiding of it than there is in the body of the sun when it is shadowed by the interposition of a cloud. His blood, while it was pouring out from his veins, was the blood of God, Acts xx. 28; and therefore, when he was bowing the head of his humanity upon the cross, he had the nature and perfections of God; for had he ceased to be God, he had been a mere creature, and his sufferings would have been of as little value and satisfaction as the sufferings of a creature.

He could not have been a sufficient mediator had he ceased to be God; and he had ceased to be God had he lost any one perfection proper to the divine nature ; and losing none, he lost not this of unchangeableness, which is none of the meanest belonging to the Deity. Why, by his union with the human nature, should he lose this any more than he lost his omniscience, which he discovered by his knowledge of the thoughts of men ; or his mercy, which he manifested to the height in the time of his suffering ? That is truly a change, when a thing ceaseth to be what it was before. This was not in Christ. He assumed our nature without laying aside his own.* When the soul is united to the body, doth it lose any of those perfections that are proper to its nature ? Is there any change either in the substance or qualities of it ? No ; but it makes a change in the body ; and of a dull lump it makes it a living mass, conveys vigour and strength to it, and by its power quickens it to sense and motion. So did the divine nature and human remain entire, there was no change of the one into the other, as Christ by a miracle changed water into wine, or men by art change sand or ashes into glass. And when he prays for ' the glory he had with God before the world w r as,' John xvii. 5, he prays that a glory he had in his Deity might shine forth in his person as Mediator, and be evinced in that height and splendour suitable to his dignity, which had been so lately darkened by his abasement; that as he had appeared to be the Son of man in the infirmity of the flesh, he might appear to be the Son of God in the glory of his person, that he might appear to be the Son of God and the Son of man in one person.

Again, there could be no change in this unionf ; for in a real change something is acquired which was not possessed before, neither formally nor eminently; but the divinity had from eternity before the incarnation, all the perfections of the human nature eminently in a nobler manner than they are in themselves, and therefore could not be changed by a real union.

3. The third proposition. Repentance and other affections ascribed to God in Scripture argue no change in God. We often read of God's repenting, repenting of the good he promised, Jer. xviii. 10, and of the evil he threatened, Exod. xxxii. 14, or of the work he hath wrought, Gen. vi. 6. We must observe therefore that

(1.) Repentance is not properly in God. He is a pure Spirit, and is not capable of those passions which are signs of weakness and impotency, or subject to those regrets we are subject to. Where there is a proper repentance, there is a want of foresight, an ignorance of what would succeed, or a defect in the examination of the occurrences which might fall within consideration. All repentanco of a fact is grounded upon a mistake in the

* Zanch. do Immutab. Dei. Goulart Imrautab. do Dieu. t Gamach. in part. 1, Aquin. qu. 9, cap. 1.

aft which eras not foreseen, or npon an after kn of tho evil of tho

thing which v. 1 by th . • ■. Bat God is ho wi

be 0AQXlOt err, • • holy lm cannot . . I c rl |

ox i si bin m dust as ' ■ ■

:irt baft apon clear and infallil i change npon p

is accounts I by all bo " it a v i so

unworthy :i t God, \\ b ■■ b

alio laid to . now do proper God. As

Hi tnee ii ino m I at with infallible f , so ii gi ineon-

with un■ 11• 11 : ' I I I

an 1 th< refore noth a befall him that cm Unit hi hia

io88 wouM I" 1 impaired and interrupted, while be

■■ :fv ih it which I • mind, and who cm turn him? what Ida soul desires,that ha doth/ Job axiii, i

•j. But G I accommodatec himielf in tin* Scripture to out God hath no more of i proper repentance than be hath of :i real b< though he, in accommodation to our w< , ascribes to him

memben of our bo left out to our onderstandirj • I of his

perfections, we must not ocnolude him s body like as; so, bee I is said to have anger an 1 repenl inc ■, we must not conclude him to ha hi. mis like ii-. When we cannot fully comprehend him i , he elol

himaelfwith our nature in his expressions, that ■ apprehend 1j: u

we arc able, end, by an inspection into a i, learn something of tho

nature of ( kid ; yet those human ways of speaking ought to be and maimer ag ree able to tlu> infinite excellency and majesty of (rod, and arc only

ignad to mark oul sonv thing in God which hath a resemblance with something in Da. A Dnot speak to God . but as men, so we cannot Understand him speaking to us as a God, unless ho condescends to speak to US liki a man. God therefore frames his language to our dulness, not to his own state, and informs us, by our own phrases, what he would havo us

n of his nature, as nurses talk broken language to young children. In all such expressions, therefore, we must ascribe the perfection wo couccivo in them to God, and lay tho imperfection at the door of the creature.

B. IP1 • : ire repentance in God is only a change of his outward conduct, according to his infallible foresight and immutable will. lie changes tho bis providential proceeding according to the carriage of the creature, without changing' his will, which is the rule of his providence. When God speaks of his repenting that he had made man, Gen. vi. G, it is only his changing his conduct from a way of kindness to a way of severity, and is a !

1 to our capacities, to signify his detestation of sin and his resolution

punish it, after man had made himself quite another thing than God had made him. ' It r. pents me,' that is, I am purp # I to d- .-troy the world, as ho tha" his work throws it away; - as if a potter cast away tho

\ bad framed, it wer imony that lie repented t: r ho

nt it ; so the destruction of them seems to be a repentance in God that ever he made them, it is a change of I B in us i f for a former fact, and a changing o\' OUI

in it. C i I in G l.f but his repentance is ■ willing ■ thin

Dot bo as it was, which will was fixed from eternity; for, I man would fill, ai mil it, he c •:.

in I what he did n at from eternity; and,

, there i | but

* u ■ io<. t Peer *t

VOL. I. OS

God is said to repent when he changes the disposition of affairs without himself; as men when they repent alter the course of their actions, so God alters things extra se, or without himself, but changes nothing of his own purpose within himself; it rather notes the action he is about to do than anything in his own nature, or any change in his eternal purpose. God's repenting of his kindness is nothing but an inflicting of punishment, which the creature, by the change of his carriage, hath merited; as his repenting of the evil threatened is the withholding the punishment denounced, when the creature hath humbly submitted to his authority and acknowledged his crime.

Or else we may understand those expressions of joy, and grief, and repentance to signify thus much,* that the things declared to be the objects of joy, and grief, and repentance are of that nature that if God were capable of our passions he would discover himself in such cases as we do; as when the prophets mention the joys and applaudings of heaven, earth, and the sea, they only signify that the things they speak of are so good, that, if the heavens and the sea had natures capable of joy, they would express it upon that occasion in such a manner as we do; so would God have joy at the obedience of men, and grief at the unworthy carriage of men, and repent of his kindness when men abuse it, and repent of his punishment when men reform under his rod, were the majesty of his nature capable of such affections.

Prop. 4. The not fulfilling of some predictions in Scripture, which seem to imply a changeableness of the divine will, do not argue any change in it. As when he reprieved Hezekiah from death, after a message sent by the prophet Isaiah that he should die, 2 Kings xx. 1, 5, Isa. xxxviii. 1, 5, and when he made an arrest of that judgment he had threatened by Jonah against Nineveh, Jonah iii. 4, 10.

There is not, indeed, the same reason of promises and threatenings altogether, for in promising the obligation lies upon God, and the right to demand is in the party that performs the condition of the promise; but in threatenings the obligation lies upon the sinner, and God's right to punish is declared thereby ; so that, though God doth not punish, his will is not changed, because his will was to declare the demerit of sin, and his right to punish upon the commission of it, though he may not punish, according to the strict letter of the threatening, the person sinning, but relax his own law for the honour of his attributes, and transfer the punishment from the offender to a person substituted in his room; this was the case in the first threatening against man, and the substituting a surety in the place of the malefactor.

But the answer to these cases is this,f that where we find predictions in Scripture declared and yet not executed, we must consider them not as absolute, but conditional, or, as the civil law calls it, an interlocutory sentence. God declared what would follow by natural causes, or by the demerit of man, not what ho would absolutely himself do; and in many of those predictions, though the condition be not expressed, yet it is to be understood; so the promises of God are to be understood with the condition of perseveranco in well-doing, and threatenings with a clause of revocation annexed to them, provided that men repent. And this God lays down as a general case, alway to bo remembered as a rule for the interpreting his threatenings against a nation, and the samo reason will hold in threatenings against a particular person: Jer. xviii. 7-10, ' At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, * Daillc, in Sermon on 2 Peter iii. 9, p. GO. t Rivet in Genes, exercita. 51, p. 213.

I pull .! t ; if that ! ' M pro-

DOOnced Uuro from tie ir «•■. I. I will repent of tin ovil that I thought to do onto tli f plantin • i i ttion, if they do « i l

• i'l ivp.iit -■!!'• I* [f ii iiur,.: d rule bj Wlliofa ftil J >nrL :''111 ;tr

CMes of this n.ttii'. to'l r. p- ritnrici arrives,

q| ftriu in 1. J to himself, aifl it is not

that the inf• I n of thi

God it of pnniiibing

was • 'V if mi: it. '''•' ■ -

p turned to their <lu'' .1 20, 21. *\ I

entertaining the me Ii itor, for the oo?enan1 <»f works dleeoti

irh th • ",'., ml mil

the interpreter* <>t" purl i tint pre lir.tion i i

. if men retoro to eril; not predic t ion! of evil, if n i to .1 repentance of their erim< . So Nineveh thai] be destroyed, thai ie, according to thi I rule, 01

the inhabitant repent, which they did; they manifest) I a I- ief ol threaten I i ( I ■ i ; iphet; i

they bad e notion of this rule Grod lays down in the other pi for

they had an apprehi that, opon their humbling I . they might

ateape the threatened v top the shooting those arrows th

It in the bow.* Though Jonah proclaimed di trncti n without declar any hopes of an arrest of judgment, yet their natnral notions of Grod aflbr I I

f, if they did their doty, and spume.l not the prophet' : and therefore, s:iith one, Grod did i

lition, 1 n rule r I in

.1 the natural notion all men h

is upon their repenl it not absolutely neoesi declare

it; and, ng ii san do hut little

will rep DOT, 1'iit rather presume upon

their hopes of 11 rbearanoe, an 1 linger out their repentance till it bo

i work men to repentance, whom he hath pur; I spare,

ilens them with terrible judgments, which, by how mnch the more

kble and peremptory they are, are likely to be more effectual for the I

in his purpose designs them, vi/.. to humble them under ■ a i ie of

their demerit, ami an acknowledgment of his righteous justioe, end tb<

though tiny ilutely denounced, yet they are to be eonditionally in-

1. with i of repentance. As for thai answer which one

glTCS, that hy forty days was not meant forty natural days, hut forty pro-

ean, a day for year : and that the city was destroyed • r by t: the expression of God's re] g upon

r humiliation puts a bar to that interpretation. God repented, thai

ishment npon them according to those days the ■ had ex] . and therefore forty days are I > be understood ; h I

if it were □ [ forty years, and they were destroyed at the end of that

I • pent, since, according to that, the pmuah-• the time fixed, bn oght upon tl. \nd

iter will not lie easily evinced, if J nd, king of Est

xiv. 25; an 1 Nineveh was

1 di I not fulfil what he had kened,

because I what tl i eommitted. When the tl

was ma : re a fit object f hut when I

* Sanderson's S ii. 167, 168.

were a fit object for a merciful respite. To threaten when sins are high, is a part of God's justice ; not to execute when sins are revoked by repentance, is a part of God's goodness. And in the case of Hezekiah, 2 Kings xx. 1, 5, Isa. xxxviii. 1, 5, Isaiah comes with a message from God, that he should

* set his house in order, for he shall die ;' that is, the disease was mortal, and no outward applications could in their own nature resist the distemper.

* Behold I will add to thy days fifteen years ; I will heal thee.' It seems to me to be one entire message, because the latter part of it was so suddenly after the other committed to Isaiah, to be delivered to Hezekiah; for he was not gone out of the king's house before he was ordered to return with the news of his health, by an extraordinary indulgence of God against the power of nature and force of the disease : ' Behold, I will add to thy life,' noting it an extraordinary thing. He was in the second court of the king's house when this word came to him, 2 Kings xx. 4 ; the king's house having three courts, so that he was not gone above half-way out the palace. God might send this message of death, to prevent the pride Hezekiah might swell with for his deliverance from Sennacherib : as Paul had a messenger of Satan to buffet him, to prevent his lifting up, 2 Cor. xii. 7 ; and this good man was subject to this sin, as we find afterwards in the case of the Babylonish ambassadors; and God delayed this other part of the message to humble him, and draw out his prayer; and, as soon as ever he found Hezekiah in this temper, he sent Isaiah w T ith a comfortable message of recovery, so that the will of God was to signify to him the mortality of his distemper, and afterwards to relieve him by a message of an extraordinary recovery.

Prop. 5. God is not changed, when of loving to any creatures he becomes angry with them, or of angry he becomes appeased. The change in these cases is in the creature; according to the alteration in the creature, it stands in a various relation to God; an innocent creature is the object of his kindness, an offending creature is the object of his anger; there is a change in the dispensation of God, as there is a change in the creature, making himself capable of such dispensations. God always acts according to the immutable nature of his holiness, and can no more change in his affections to good and evil, than he can in his essence. When the devils now fallen stood as glorious angels, they were the objects of God's love, because holy. When they fell, they were the objects of God's hatred, because impure ; the same reason which made him love them while they were pure, made him hate them when they were criminal. The reason of his various dispensations to them was the same in both, as considered in God, his immutable holiness, but as respecting the creature different; the nature of the creature was changed, but the divine holy nature of God remained the same. ' With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure, and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward,' Ps. xviii. 26. He is a refreshing light to those that obey him, and a consuming fire to those that resist him. Though the same angels were not always loved, yet the same reason that moved him to love them, moved him to hate them. It had argued a change in God, if he had loved them alway, in whatsoever posture they were towards him. It could not be counted love, but a weakness and impotent fondness ; the change is in the object, not in the affection of God. For the object loved before is not beloved now, becauso that which was the motive of love, is not now in it. So that tho creature having a different state from what it had, falls under a difforcnt affection or dispensation.

It had been a mutable affection in God, to love that which was not worthy of love, with the same love wherewith he loved that which had the greatest

resemblance to ' Had the fall ' : thsl itatc and

for i!m' If, hecau r In !..fl loved t h.tt which was

OOBtrurv t . himself and the im i■'■■ of n holiness, which made then

appear I I in bin light The will of God ii unchangeably set to

love right I h it. iniquity, and from this ha*. 1 1 tO puni D it.

' 11 - •.»i m i ttfal ureatare

h ith the communie j ' v ee.

Is the Him <-li ii i one t i another, accord-

of the i i ral ml i the hum i fragrant, and

effect ii it in tl • . i'Ut in Ihfl Ittty

the • one, and pro lueeUi I ime quality

of h< it. s.i it" an unholy soul approach to God, God pon

him ; if ■ holy aooJ oome before him, t : mutable p< d in

God out nil Idndne him. A ome think, the ann would

than aeoreh us, if Liee were of the lei I ire and

puhstance v. ith that luminary.

the will of God for creating the world wae no new, bnl an efernil will, though it manifested itself in time, so the will of God for the pon ntent of sin, or the reconciliation of the sinner, w w will, the

Ins wrath in time break out in tl: it upon siim. re, Hid his !

Hows out in the "i penitents. Chriit by nil d< ath reconciling

God to man. did not alter the will of God, but did what was consonant to

his eternal will. Be same not to change his will, but to execute his will:

• Lo 1 e :. i thy will, o God,' H l). x. 7. And the grace of God in

Ohr a new grace, but an old grade in i new appearance ; ' tho

I hath appe ire l.' Titus ii. 11. /■ . 6. A change of laws by God argnea no ehange in God, when G I

abn laws which he hi 1 lettled in the church, and enacts oth

1 i] ■ '. of this something the last day j I shall only add thie, God co mmand ed

■ i the J( I B, "-h- n the church was in an infant state, and rcmov 1 those laws when the church came to growth. The elements of the world were mm 1 to the state of children, Gal. iv. 3. A mother feeds not the infant with the same diet as she doth when it is grown up. Our Saviour not his disciplei with some thingi at one time which he did at ano* • they were not ahlo to bear them. Where was the change,

in Chriit*! will, or in their growth from a state of weakness to that of

Ugth ? A physician prescribes not the same thing to a person in health, as he doth to one conflicting with a distemper; nor tho same thing in the

nning, as he doth in the state or declination of the disease. Tho pin will and skill are the same, but the capacity and necessity

of the patient for this or that medicine or method of proceeding are not] the

Win banged the ceremonial law, thero was no change in the divino

will, hut an m of his will. For when God commanded the observance]

of tl 1 not the perpetuity of it; nay, in the prophet he

I cessation of it; he decreed to command it, but he 1 to

maud it only for men a time ; so that the abrogation of it was no lees

nn execution of h> .hlishment of it for a seas

Ug of it was pursuant to his decree for the I it,

and the nulling of it was pursuant to his decree of continuing it i lh a son S | that in all this there was no change in the v^ill of G

re j what char fSf there are in tho

world, are not in God or his will, but in tho events of things, and the d;f-

ferent relations of things to God ; it is in the creature, not in the Creator. The sun alway remains of the same hue, and is not discoloured in itself, because it shines green through a green glass, and blue through a blue glass ; the different colours come from the glass, not from the sun. The change is alway in the disposition of the creature, not in the nature of God or his will.

V. Use 1. For information.

1. If God be unchangeable in his nature, and immutability be a property of God, then Christ hath a divine nature. This in the psalm is applied to Christ in the Hebrews, Heb. i. 11, where he joins the citation out of this psalm with that out of Ps. xlv. 6, 7, ' Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever : thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity : therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows ; and thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth,' &c. As the first must necessarily be meant of Christ the mediator,—and therein he is distinguished from God, as one anointed by him,—so the other must be meant of Christ, whereby he is made one with God in regard of the creation and dissolution of the world, in regard of eternity and immutability. Both the testimonies are linked together by the copulative and: ' And thou Lord,' declaring thereby that they are both to be understood of the same person, the Son of God. The design of the chapter is to prove Christ to be God ; and such things are spoken of him as could not belong to any creature, no, not to the most excellent of angels. The same person that is said to be anointed above his fellows, and is said to lay the foundation of the earth and heavens, is said to be ' the same,' that is, the same in himself. The prerogative of sameness belongs to that person, as well as creation of heaven and earth.

The Socinians say it is spoken of God, and that God shall destroy the heavens by Christ; if so, Christ is not a mere creature, not created when he was incarnate; for the same person that shall change the world, did create the world. If God shall change the world by him, God also created the world by him. He was then before the world was; for how could God create the world by one that was not ? that was not in being till after the creation of the world ? The heavens shall be changed, but the person who is to change the heavens is said to be the same, or unchangeable, in the creation as well as the dissolution of the world. This sameness refers to the whole sentence.

The psalm wherein the text is,* and whence this in the Hebrews is cited, is properly meant of Christ, and redemption by him, and the completing of it at the last day, and not of the Babylonish captivity. That captivity was not so deplorable as the state the psalmist describes. Daniel and his companions flourished in that captivity. It could not reasonably be said of them, * that their days were consumed like smoke,' their ' heart withered like grass ;' that they ' forgot to eat their bread,' as it is, ver. 3, 4 ; besides, he complains of shortness of life, ver. 11. But none had any more reason to complain of that in the time of the captivity, than before and after it, than at any other time. Their deliverance would contribute nothing to the natural length of their lives; besides, when Sion should be built, the ' heathen should fear the name of the Lord' (that is, worship God), ■ and all the kings of the earth his glory,' ver. 15. Tho rearing tho second temple after the doliveranco did not proselyto tho nations ; nor did tho kings of the earth worship tho glory of God ; nor did God appear in such glory at the erecting tho

* Placeus do Doitato Christi.

ill temple. Thi I .vftg loss glorious than the fir.t, for it

wanted boom of the oraamtnta trb of the flwt. Bat it is

I of tins itate, that * win ii tin Lord hhoulti l>nil<l u|» Bion, bi should

appear in bii gloi .1 0, bi | , in I i

ill appear in gl<>ry :iI "l l>tai 1 d up 8ion. Son of

:, the Redeemer of the world; ha builds up the ehnrob, be oaoacc Ibi

DttiODI to f( if tin I.' I, .u.-l thi IdngB of the earth I ry. II-: broko

down th-' jKirtitioii wall, and Opened a door lor tl.

II-' attack tho ehaini from off the pri , and 4 1 I those tl.

:.» death' l»y tlit* etirse of tho l.iw, \. r. 20* An i to tl D is

ribed the creation of tb<' world; and In amccd to remain tim

e in thr ini-1 A 4 an infinite number of cb

• likely the pealmiai ra not onli the be [innin r of redempl

til.' completing of if at the Beoond < uug of Cnriet; for he complain of

tho whitdi sh;tll bo remoTcd by his lecond coming, viz., the ihort]

of life, pereeoutiona, and reproaohee, wherewith the ehnrob ii afflicted in

this world ; and OOmfbrtfl DOt himself with thOM attributes which arc directlj

oppoted to the mercy of God, the covenant of God, but with th

th.it are opposed to mortality and calamity , the unchangeal I and

God; and from thence infers a perpetnaJ eetabliahment of

• Tho children of thy servants shall continue, and th< u I ball itabliahed before thee,' ver. 28 ; ao thai the paalm ii

in the whole diaconrae at Ohriat, and aaaerta hia divinity, which the apoetle, in interpreter, doth rally evidence; applying it to him, and man

his deity by his immutability as well as etermty. While all other thi] their forms, and DOM through multitudes of variations, he Dtly

reanaina the same, and shall be the same, when all the empires of the w

ahall slide away, and a period be put to the present motions of the creation.* A:, i | ili- re was 00 change made in his being by the creation of things, so neither shall there be by the final alteration of things; ho shall sec them finish, as be saw them rise up into being, and be the same after their reign fore their original ; he is ' the first and the last,' lev. i. 17. 8, Here ia ground and encouragement for worship. An atheist will make inothcc use of this. If God be immutable, why should we worship him, why should we pray to him? Good will come if he wills it, evil C not be averted by all our supplications, if he hath ordered it to fall upon us. Bnt certainly, since unchangeobleneaa in knowing, and willing goodness is a perfection, an adoration and admiration is due to God, upon tho account of this excellence. If he be God, ho is to be reverenced, and the more highly n verenoed, because he cannot but bo God.

. n, what comfort could it bo to pray to a god, that, like the chameleon,

changed colours every day, every moment ? What encouragement could there

bo to lift up our eyes to ono that were of one mind this day, and of another

mind to-morrow f Who would put up a petition to an earthly prince that

W< re so mutable as to grant a petition one day, and deny it another, and

Ige hia f I Jut if a prince promise this or that thing upon such

or loch a condition, and you know hia promise to be as unchangeable as tho

laws of the M- ;- | an 1 Peniana, WOnld any man reason thus ;— because it is

HlJflhangpaMfl. we will not seek to him, we will not perform the eondii

D which the fruit of the proclamation is to be enjoyed?—Who would not

at such an inference ridiculous? What blessings hath not »i I pro-

1 upon the condition of seeking him ? Were he of an unrighteous

nat. .Me in his mind, this would be a bar to our .-coking him,

* Daille, Ifelang. daa Sermons, part ii. sect. i. p. 8-10, kc.

and frustrate our hopes. But since it is otherwise, is not this excellency of his nature the highest encouragement to ask of him the blessings he hath promised, and a beam from heaven to fire our zeal in asking? If you desire things against his will, which he hath declared he will not grant, prayer then would be an act of disobedience, an injury to him, as well as an act of folly in itself; his unchangeableness then might stifle such desires. But if we ask according to his will, and according to our reasonable wants, what ground have we to make such a ridiculous argument ? He hath willed everything that may be for our good, if we perform the condition he hath required; and hath put it upon record, that we may know it and regulate our desires and supplications according to it. If we will not seek him, his immutability cannot be a bar, but our own folly is the cause; and by our neglect we despoil him of this perfection as to us, and either imply that ho is not sincere, and means not as he speaks; or that he is as changeable as the wind, sometimes this thing, sometimes that, and not at all to be confided in. If we ask according to his revealed will, the unchangeableness of his nature will assure us of the grant; and what a presumption would it be in a creature dependent upon his sovereign, to ask that which he knows he has declared his will against, since there is no good we can want but he hath promised to give, upon our sincere and ardent desire for it.

God hath decreed to give this or that to man, but conditionally, and by the means of inquiring after him, and asking for it: Ezek. xxxvi. 37, Mat. vii. 7, ' Ask, and you shall receive ;' as much as to say, You shall not receive unless you ask. When the highest promises are made, God expects they shall be put in suit. Our Saviour joins the promise and the petition together, the promise to encourage the petition, and the petition to enjoy the promise. He doth not say, perhaps it shall be given, but it shall, that is, it certainly shall; your heavenly Father is unchangeably willing to give you those things. We must depend upon his immutability for the thing, and submit to his wisdom for the time. Prayer is an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God, which dependence could have no firm foundation without unchangeableness. Prayer doth not desire any change in God, but is offered to God that he would confer those things which he hath immutably willed to communicate; but he willed them not without prayer as the means of bestowing them. The light of the sun is ordered for our comfort, for the discovery of visible things, for the ripening the fruits of the earth; but withal^it is required that we use our faculty of seeing, that we employ our industry in sowing and planting, and expose our fruits to the view of the sun, that they may receive the influence of it. If a man shuts his eyes, and complains that the sun has changed into darkness, it would be ridiculous; the sun is not changed, but we alter ourselves. Nor is God changed in not giving us the blessings he hath promised, because ho hath promised in the way of a due address to him, and opening our souls to receive his influence ; and to this, his immutability is the greatest encouragement.

8. This shews how contrary man is to God, in regard of his inconstancy. What an infinite distanco is there between the immutable God and mutable man, and how should we bewail this flittingness in our nature !

There is a mutability in us as creatures, and a creaturo cannot but be mutable by nature, otherwise it were not a creature, but God. The establishment of any creaturo is from grace and gift. Naturally we tend to nothing, as we come from nothing. This creature-mutability is not our sin, yet it should cause us to lio down under a sense of our own nothingness in the presence of the Creator. The angels, as creatures, though not corrupt, cover their faces beforo him. And the arguments God uses to humble Job,

thOQgh I fallen er.-aluri-, arc QOt fmiii I BptlOD,

i.mi with tliat, but firom the i bis m I

•I* ll.ncv of hil imlwiv declared in bil works,

fore men that haw mi . n .• <>f < i i humilit; i t that

they ture-8, a« Well as MMTQ]

II ii th. .1 •

Maury in ••■ .. 1, wi it n itlirul t

iff otioni \ alar, and by th<

the obj( ol of knowlod^o uinl love. \\1 !, ' r "

'. will, and afl. rt:.>n an A'l:iin lia I in innocence J DUl

s.unr light, the same bin, and the easae b ill tst

hii I • ; tin irons 1 in his head made him anatal le ii to,

and thai in ins heart oj I in Ins affections. EL ol

Hi • ini.. : v of (in 1 t.. that of the <1. vil, from in:

from an ability to be itedfeift to i perpetual ineo H

i, and liis wine was mixed with vvati r,* I i. i. 22. 11 '•

(1.) To inconstancy in truth, oppo ed to the Immutability of knowl< in «k>d. 11 oni minds Boatin ' i iid I aowl<

Truth in ns is like thoM tphsmcra, oreatnrei of a day's eontinnanee, ipn

In the morning and expiree at nij It. Sow toon doth that fly away in rn hi which we have bad, not only tome weak :' of, not which wi

learned and had boom relieh of I The devil' stood ootinth< troth,'J vii. -t i, and then fore managi i his en • I i make us us nmtable eel£ (hir mi di reel, and eorrnpl reasonu nij 1

we nek np water, and a light eompreeaion d aki - oi ipont it out Trutbj are ool engraven upon our bearta, but writ ai in d • by the

bTof wind: 'carried about with every wind too,' Bph. iv. I 1,

like B ship without a pilot and sails, at t of tlio next storm J Of

like clouds, that are tenants to the wind and sun, moved by the wind, : ted by the sun. The Qalatiazi c lied into the grace of

I, but they \ moved from it. Gal. i. C. Some have been reported

to have memstruamjidem, kept an opinion for a month, and many are like him thai believed the soul's immortality no longer than he had Plato's 1 of that subject in his hand.* One likens such to children ; they play with truths as children do with babies, one while embrace them, and a little after throw them into the dirt. How soon do we forget what the truth is .« n d to us, and what it represented ns to be ! James i. 23, 24. Is it a thing to le bewailed, that man should be BUch a weather-cork, tun ritfa every breath of wind, and shifting aspects as the wind shifts |

rtaney in will and affections, opposed to the immutability of will in God. V' i- between God and Baal; and while we are not only

bit upon motion a little way, look back with a hankering a Bodom lines lifted np with heavenly intentions, and presently i

D with earthly cans ; like a ship that by an advancing wave si ems to ind the next fall of the wave makes it sink down to the depths. We change purposes oftenerthan fashions, and our resolutions arc like letters in \ of no mark n mains. We will be as John to-

I t, Slid as Judas tomorrow to 1 stray him. nnd by an BUWOli

of God; resolved to be SI holy as !s in the morning, when the evening beholds m •"■«

? often do v what before w< loved, and shun what before we loi

I And cur resolutions are like 1 fcal, which break at the

♦ Bedf risfs Oswnoel, p. MO,

first knock, are dashed in pieces by the next temptation. Saul resolved not to persecute David any more, but you soon find him upon his old game. Pharaoh more than once promised, and probably resolved, to let Israel go; but at the end of the storm his purposes vanish, Exod. viii. 27, 32. When an affliction pmcheth men, they intend to change their course, and the next news of ease changes their intentions; like a bow, not fully bent in their inclinations, they cannot reach the mark, but live many years between resolutions of obedience and affections to rebellion, Ps. lxxviii. 17; and what promises men make to God are often the fruit of their passion, their fear, not of their will. The Israelites were startled at the terrors wherewith the law was delivered, and promised obedience, Exod. xx. 19; but a month after forgat them, and made a golden calf, and in the sight of Sinai call for and dance before their gods, Exod. xxxii. Never people more inconstant. Peter, who vowed an allegiance to his Master, and a courage to stick to him, forswears him almost with the same breath. Those that cry out with a zeal, ' The Lord he is God,' shortly after return to the service of their idols, 1 Kings xviii. 39. That which seems to be our pleasure this day, is our vexation to-morrow. A fear of a judgment puts us into a religious pang, and a love to our lusts reduceth us to a rebellious inclination; as soon as the danger is over, the saint is forgotten. Salvation and damnation present themselves to us, touch us, and engender some weak wishes, which are dissolved by the next allurements of a carnal interest. No hold can be taken of our promises, no credit is to be given to our resolutions.

(3.) Inconstancy in practice. How much beginning in the Spirit and ending in the flesh ; one day in the sanctuary, another in the stews ; clear in the morning as the sun, and clouded before noon ; in heaven by an excellency of gifts, in hell by a course of profaneness! Like a flower, which some mention, that changes its colour three times a day, one part white, then purple, then yellow. The spirit lusts against the iiesh, and the flesh quickly triumphs over the spirit. In a good man, how often is there a spiritual lethargy! Though he doth not openly defame God, yet he doth not always glorify him; he doth not forsake the truth, but he doth not always make the attainment of it, and settlement in it, his business. This levity discovers itself in religious duties: ' When I would do good, evil is present with me,' Rom. vii. 21. Never more present than when we have a mind to do good, and never more present than when we have a mind to do the best and greatest good. How hard is it to make our thoughts and affections keep their stand ! Place them upon a good object, and they will be frisking from it, as a bird from one bough, one fruit to another. We vary postures according to the various objects we meet with. The course of the world is a very airy thing, suited to the uncertain motions of that prince of the power of the air which works in it, Eph. ii. 2.

This ought to be bewailed by us. Though we may stand fast in the truth, though we may spin our resolutions into a firm web, though the spirit may triumph over the flesh in our practice, yet we ought to bewail it, because inconstancy is our nature, and what fixedness we have in good is from grace. What wc find practised by most men, is natural to all.* ' As face answers to face in a glass, so doth heart to heart,' Prov. xxvii. 19 ; a face in the glass is not more like a natural face, whoso imago it is, than one man's heart is naturally like another.

First, It is natural to those out of the church. Nebuchadnezzar is so affected with Daniel's prophetic spirit, that he would have none accounted the true God, but tho God of Daniel, Dan. ii. 47. How soon doth this

* Lawrence of Faith, p. 2G2.

notion Blip from him, Hid 111 image BB I I "p ( '" r :i " to

pain of a most cruel, painful death I Daniel' G li '

miraculous delivi ranee of the tin. ■ ■ obildn □ for not woi b | makes lnm « ttle i ii. it. m to Mean the bi f G *eb °»

l ,1 ».m. in. 8 ittmg in

1 palace, us if there were do God but himself.

tnuihi, it is natural to those in the church. Th I ; tbc

only church God bad in khs irorld, and • notable exam] 1c of moos

r tin- miracloa of I'.'; pt, they murium, -d I traoh marching %\ 1111 an army at their beels. XI

the miiiiKi tli.-v were hefore food i>f. \\ hi "I

I ometimes worshipped God, and sometimes idols, not only the

idols of one oation, hut of all their neighbours, [n which rogard God calls

Ins heril peckled bird, Jer. sii< 9, ft peacock, saith J , ineon-

op of \ai i> ties of idolatrous oolonrs and o

levity of spirit is the root of all n our thoughts in

the service of God; it is ti of all revolts and aposi >mhim; it

makes ni unfit t •< ivc the communications of God ; whal

is like words wril in sand, raffled oat by the next gale ; wh r is pat

into as is like precious liquour in i palsy hand, soon spilt. It bra

G i; when we have an uncertain judgment of him, i like

to confide in him. An ancertein judgment wiO be followed with s d ful heart. In fine, where ft is prevalent, it is s certain sign of ongodlini ; to be driven with the wind Uke chair, and to be nngodly, is all on< judgment of the Holy Ghost: l's. L l, ' The ungodly . chaff wh

wind drives away,' which signifies uot their destruction, bnt their dis] sition, f>r th.ir destruction is inferred from it, tor. o, ' Therefore the ungodly shall not itand in judgment. 1

Bow contrary is this to the unchangeable God, who is always tho same,

and would have UB the same, in OUT religions promises and resolutions for good !

1. If God lie immutable, it is sad news to those that are resolved in

wickedness, or careless of returning to that duty he requires. Sinn- is

must DOt I ipect that God will alter his will, make a breach upon his nature,

and violate his own word, to gratify their lusts. No ; it is not reasonable

I should dishonour himself to secure them, and cease to be God, that

they may continue to be wicked, by changing his own nature, that they :

be unchanged in their vanity. God is the same; goodness is as amiable in

Bight, and sin as abominable in his eyes now, as it was at the beginning

the world. Being the same God, he is tho same enemy to the wicked, as

tin friend to the righteous ; he is the same in knowledge, and canuot

forget sinful acts; lie is the same in will, and cannot approve of unrighteous

goodness cannot but be alway the object of his love, and wicked-

nnot but be alway the object of his hatred ; and S8 his aversion to

sin is alway the same, so as he hath been in his judgments upon sinners,

the same he will be still; for the same perfection of immutability belong

his jusl the punishment of sin, as to his holiness for his disaffection to

Though ' :.t of works was changeable by the crime of man

. }•{ it was unchangeable in regard of God's justice Vindl

- it, winch is inflexible in the punishment of the breaches of his

law had a preceptive part, and a minatory part ; when man

changed the ol n of the precept, the righteous natnn d could

• Dull the execution of the threatening; he could not upon th< at of

Ibii | tioD neglect his just word, and oountem e uurighi

transgression. Though there were no more rational creatines in being but

Adam and Eve, yet God subjected them to that death he had assured them of; and from this immutability of his will ariseth the necessity of the suffering of the Son of God for the relief of the apostate creature. His will in the second covenant is as unchangeable as that in the first, only repentance is settled as the condition of the second, which was not indulged in the first; and without repentance the sinner must irrevocably perish, or God must change his nature. There must be a change in man, there can be none in God: ' His bow is bent, his arrows are ready, if the wicked do not turn,' Ps. vii. 12. There is not an atheist, an hypocrite, a profane person, that ever was upon the earth, but God's soul abhorred him as such, and the like he will abhor for ever. While any therefore continue so, they may sooner expect the heavens should roll as they please, the sun stand still at their order, the stars change their course at their beck, than that God should change his nature, which is opposite to profaneness and vanity: ■ Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered ?' Job ix. 4.

Use 2. Of comfort.

The immutability of a good God is a strong ground of consolation. Subjects wish a good prince to live for ever, as being loath to change him, but care not how soon they are rid of an oppressor. This unchangeableness of God's will shews him as ready to accept any that come to him as ever he was, so that we may with confidence make our addresses to him, since he cannot change his affections to goodness. The fear of change in a friend hinders a full reliance upon him ; an assurance of stability encourages hope and confidence. This attribute is the strongest prop for faith in all our addresses; it is not a single perfection, but the glory of all those that belong to his nature ; for he is ' unchangeable in his love,' Jer. xxxi. 3 ; * in his truth,' Ps. cxvii. 2. The more solemn revelation of himself in this name Jehovah, which signifies chiefly his eternity and immutability, was to support the Israelites' faith, in expectation of a deliverance from Egypt, that he had not retracted his purpose, and his promise made to Abraham for giving Canaan to his posterity. Exod. iii. 14-17. Herein is the basis and strength of all his promises ; therefore saith the psalmist, ' Those that know thy name will put their trust in thee,' Ps. ix. 10 ; those that are spiritually acquainted with thy name Jehovah, and have a true sense of it upon their hearts, will put their trust in thee. His goodness could not be distrusted, if his unchangeableness were well apprehended and considered. All distrust would fly before it as darkness before the sun ; it only gets advantage of us when we are not well grounded in his name; and if ever we trusted God, we have the same reason to trust him for ever : Isa. xxvi. 4, ' Trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength,' or as it is in the Hebrew, ' a rock of ages ;' that is, perpetually unchangeable. We find the traces of God's immutability in the creatures; he has by his peremptory decree set bounds to the sea : ■ Hitherto shalt thou come, but no furthor; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed,' Job xxxviii. 11. Do we fear the sea overflowing us in this island ? No, because of his fixed decree. And is not his promise in his word as unchangeable as his word concerning inanimate things, as good a ground to rest upon ?

1. The covenant stands unchangeable. Mutable creatures break their leagues and covenants, and snap them asunder like Samson's cords, when they are not accommodated to their interests. But an unchangeable God keeps his: ' The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, nor shall the covenant of my peace be removed,' Isa. liv. 10. The heaven and earth shall sooner fall asunder, and the strongest and firmest parts of the creation crumble to dust,

Pa. CII. 86, B7«] tiii: DOT i ai;ii.i i | Of <;<>n.

cr than ond iota of inv c >vcnant shall fail. It. depends DpOfl thi onchaugonblcnoHH of Lis will, mil the in ddenesH of his irord, ind

therefore ii called * tin immutability of in i counsel, 1 Hob. \i. l~. I'

frllit Of the r\ril:i tin ' |'!i: d, whence tic . .-urposcj

an.I grace together, 2 Tun. i. '.). A oo?enant wit!

able, i • ' may not be built upon tl to put

l. (ear in the heart, but with reepeet to the creetui Tl

i-li.is.- Jerusalem in tin* place wherein ii" would dw< I »'or, !'■•

..i. ii. v. t be threaten! to depart from them, when tl" Hunt with him, ami * the glory of the Lord went up from the midet <<t

the oity to tho mountain on th .. , I.. ■ I., \i. 221. I I Dent of

B dotfa not. run, ' 1 will lie your God, '/you will be niv p bnt ' '

will lio their (.J oil, and they sli.ill DC my people. 1 II •• • w. L9, -■••., 4 I will

oth tbee t<> me for ever; I will lay, Thou art my people; and they ahall lay, Ihon art my God.' Bit 4 rerlaeting pnrpoee is to wi in the in aits of the elect. Be pnti i condition to bit covenant ol the condition of faith, and he resolves to work thai condition in the hi of the elect; and therefore believers bare two immutable pillars for tl support, stronger than thoee erected by Solomon at the porch of the temple, 1 Kings vii. 21, called Jaehin and Boas, to note khe|firmni - - of that building dedicated to God: these are dsction^ or the standing counsel of G 1, and the covenant ofgraet. Be will not revoke the covenant, and blot

the nemOS Ol his elect OUt of tho hook of lii«'.

& 1\ rseveranoe ii ascertained. Jt consists not with the majesty of God •to call s person effectually to himself to-day, to make him lit foi rnal

love, to give him faith, and take away that faith to-morrow ; his effectual

call is the fruit of his eternal election, and that counsel hath no other foundation hut his constant and unchangeable will ; a foundation that stands sure, and therefore called the foundation of (rod, and not of tho creature ; 4 the foundation of God stands sure, the Lord knows who are his,' 2 Tim. ii. I'd. It is not founded upon our own natural strength, it may be then subject to change, as all the products of nature arc ; the fallen angels had Created grace in their innocency, but lost it by their fall.* Were this the foundation of the creature, it might soon be shaken, since man after his

It can ascribe nothing constant to himself but his own inconstancy ; but the foundation is not in the infirmity of nature, but the strength of grace, and of the grace of God who is immutable, who wants not virtue to be able, HOI kindness to be willing, to preserve his own foundation. To what purpose doth our Saviour tell his disciples their ' names were written in heaven,' Luke x. 20, but to mark the infallible certainty of their salvation by an tion to those things which perish and have their names written in the

!i, -ler. xvii. 13, or upon the sand, where they may be defaced ? And why should Christ order his disciples to rejoice that their names were written in 1. . it' God were changeable to blot them out again ? Or why should

the spot ITS SSI that though God had rejected the greatest part of tho

id not therefore rejected bis people elected according to his pur-I 1 immutablo counsel, because there are none of tl of God but

will come to salvation ; for, saith he, ' tho election hath obtained it,' Kom. xi. 7 ; that is, all those that are of the election have obtained it, and I others are hardened. Where tho seal of sanetitication is stamped it .

■n, and that foundation shall stand true. ' Tho foundation of tho Lor Is sure, having this seal, the Lord SHOWS who

are Lis ; that is, tho foundation, the ' naming the name of Christ,' or be!

incr in Christ and ' departing from iniquity,' is the seal.* As it is impossible when God calls those things that are not, but that they should spring up into being and appear before him, so it is impossible but that the seed of God by his eternal purpose should be brought to a spiritual life ; and that calling cannot be retracted, for that ' gift and calling is without repentance,' Rom. xi. 29. And when repentance is removed from God in regard of some works, the immutability of those works is declared; and the reason of that immutability is their pure dependence on the eternal favour and unchangeable grace of God, ' purposed in himself,' Eph. i. 9, 11, and not upon the mutability of the creature. Hence their happiness is not as patents among men, quamdiu bene se gesserint, so long as they behave themselves well, but they have a promise, that they shall behave themselves so as never wholly to depart from God : Jer. xxxii. 40, ' I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.' God will not turn from them, to do them good, and promiseth that they shall not turn from him for ever or forsake him. And the bottom of it is the everlasting covenant, and therefore believing and sealing, for security, are linked together, Eph. i. 13. And when God doth inwardly teach us his law, he puts in a will not to depart from it: Ps. cxix. 102, ' I have not departed from thy judgments.' What is the reason ? « For thou hast taught me.'

3. By this, eternal happiness is ensured. This is the inference made from the eternity and unchangeableness of God in the verse following the text: ver. 28, ' The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.' This is the sole conclusion drawn from those perfections of God solemnly asserted before. The children which the prophets and apostles have begotten to thee, shall be totally delivered from the relics of their apostasy and the punishment due to them, and rendered partakers of immortality with thee, as sons to dwell in their Father's house for ever. The Spirit begins a spiritual life here, to fit for an immutable life in glory hereafter, where believers shall be placed upon a throne that cannot be shaken, and possess a crown that shall not be taken off their heads for ever.

Use 3. Of exhortation.

1. Let a sense of the changeableness and uncertainty of all other things beside God be upon us. There are as many changes as there are figures in the world. The whole fashion of the world is a transient thing; every man may say as Job, ' Changes and war are against me,' Job x. 17. Lot chose the plain of Sodom, because it was the richer soil; he was but a little time there before he was taken prisoner, and his substance made the spoil of his enenry. That is again restored; but a while after, fire from heaven devours his wealth, though his person was secured from the judgment by a special providence. We burn with a desire to settle ourselves, but mistake the way, and build castles in the air, which vanish like bubbles of soap in water.

And therefore,

(1.) Let not our thoughts dwell much upon them. Do but consider those souls that are in the possession of an unchangeable God, that behold his ncvcr-fadin" glory. Would it not be a kind of hell to them, to have their thoughts starting out to these things, or find any desire in themselves to the changeable trifles of the earth ? Nay, have we not reason to think that they cover their faces with shame, that ever they should have such a weakness of spirit when they were here below, as to spend more thoughts upon them than

* Cocceius.

wen for this] Life, much more Hint they should, i ma,

value and eonri them above an unchangeable good? Do they no!

themielve8, Hint HieV nhould e\er debase tlir immutable perfections of (I

as to have nogli cting thi oghl i f him al any Lime, tot tl ment of

siicli u mean and inc J '.'

Much leai ihonld we kraal in them or rejoice in them. The things are mntnblo, and things of such a nature are not fit objects of confidence. 'I'm t not in riches; they have their wanes s They rise Bomeiimei like a torrent, and flow in upon men; but resemble

•it in ai sudden s fall and departnro, and I behind them. Trust not in honour j all the honour and applau e in the worl I ii no batter than an inht ritanoe of wind, which the pilot of, hut shifts from one corner to another, and bU lally in

same point of the heavens. How in s few sgi i did the boose of 11

if monarch, and a man after G< m heart, l to s mean condi-

tion, and nil the glory of that house shut up in the stock of a carp nl David*! sheep-hook was turned into ■ sceptre, and the Bceptre, by U hand of providence, turned into s hatehel in Job ph his di scendi

R not immodi rately in wisdom ; thai and learning languish with

A wound in the head may impair that which is the glory of a man. [fan

in be out of frame, folly may succeed, and all a man's prudence 1 c wound up in an irrecoverable dotage. Nebuchadnezzar was no fool, yel by a sudden hand of God he became, not only s fool oi i madman, hut s kind of brute. I; ice not in Btrangth ; that decays, and s mighty man may liv< I his

strong arm withered, and a ' graashoppi r to become i burden,' Bed i. zii. 5. 4 Tl | men shall how themselves, and the grinders shall o<.

they arc few,' far. 8. Nor rejoice in children ; they are like birds upon a tree, thai make s little chirping music, and presently fall into the fowl r*s Little did Job expect such Bad news as the loss of all his progeny si a blow, when the d at bis gate. And such changes happen

when our expectations of comfort, and a contentment in them, arc at the highest. How often doth a string crack when the musician hath

ind it up to a just height for a tune, and all his pains and delight mar in a moment! Nay, all these things change while we are using them, like ice that melts hetween our fingers, and ilowers that wither uhile we are smelling to them. The apostle gave them a good title, when he called them 1 uncertain riches,' and thought it a strong argument to dissuade them from trusting in them, 1 Tim. vi. 17. The wealth of the merchant depends upon nd waves, and the revenue of the husbandman upon the clouds ; and since they depend upon those things which arc used to express the most ehangeableness, they can he no fit object for trust. Besides, God sometimes 1 kindles s fire under all a man's glory,' Isa. x. 10, which doth insensibly consume it; and while we have them, the fear of losing them renders us not v.ry happy in the fruition of them. We can scarce tell whether they are contentments or no, because sorrow follows them so close at the heels. It is not an unnecessary exhortation for good men ; the host men have been apt to place too much trust in them. David thought himself immutable in his ity ; and such thoughts could not be without some immnd. rate

out i to them, and confidences in them. And Job pi 1

himself to 'die in his nest,' and ' multiply his days as the sand,' without interruption, dob xxix. 1*. 19, to. : but he was mistaken and di

Let I this : trust not in men, who are as inc. is anyti

and often i "icirmost ardent affections into impl

though the;. ons may not be changed, their power to lulp you may.

Hainan's friends, that depended on him one day, were crest-fallen the next, when their patron was to exchange his chariot of state for an ignominious gallows.

(3.) Prefer an immutable God before mutable creatures. Is it not a horrible thing to see what we are, and what we possess, daily crumbling to dust, and in a continual flux from us, and not seek out something that is permanent, and always abides the same, for our portion ? In God, or Wisdom, which is Christ, there is substance, Prov. viii. 21, in which respect he is opposed to all the things in the world, that are but shadows, that are shorter or longer, according to the motion of the sun ; mutable also, by every little body that intervenes. God is subject to no decay within, to no force without; nothing in his own nature can change him from what he is, and there is no power above can hinder him from being what he will to the soul. He is an ocean of all perfection. He w r ants nothing without himself to render him blessed, which may allure him to a change. His creatures can want nothing out of him to make them happy, whereby they may be enticed to prefer anything before him. If we enjoy other things, it is by God's donation, who can as well withdraw them as bestow them; and it is but a reasonable as well as a necessary thing to endeavour the enjoyment of the immutable Benefactor rather than his revocable gifts.

If the creatures had a sufficient virtue in themselves to ravish our thoughts and engross our souls, yet when we take a prospect of a fixed and unchangeable being, what beauty, what strength have any of those things to vie with him ? How can they bear up and maintain their interest against a lively thought and sense of God ? All the glory of them would fly before him like that of the stars before the sun. They were once nothing, they may be nothing again. As their own nature brought them not out of nothing, so their nature secures them not from being reduced to nothing. What an un-happiness is it to have our affections set upon that which retains something of its non esse with its esse, its not being with its being; that lives indeed, but in a continual flux, and may lose that pleasureableness to-morrow which charms us to-day!

2. This doctrine will teach us patience under such providences as declare his unchangeable will. The rectitude of our wills consists in conformity to the divine, as discovered in his words and manifested in his providence, which are the effluxes of his immutable will. The time of trial is appointed by his immutable will, Dan. xi. 35 ; it is not in the power of the sufferer's will to shorten it, nor in the power of the enemy's will to lengthen it. Whatsoever doth happen hath been decreed by God: Eccles. vi. 10, ' That which hath been is named already;' therefore to murmur, or be discontented, is to contend with God, who is mightier than we to maintain his own purposes. God doth act all things conveniently for that immutable end intended by himself, and according to the reason of his own divine will, in the true point of time most proper for it and for us, not too soon or too slow, because he is unchangeable in knowledge and wisdom. God doth not act anything barely by an immutable will, but by an immutable wisdom and an unchangeable rule of goodness; and therefore we should not only acquiesce in what he works, but havo a complacency in it; and by having our wills thus knitting themselves with the immutable will of God, we attain some degree of likeness to him in his own unchangeableness. When, therefore, God hath manifested his will in opening his decree to the world by his work of providence, wo must ceaso all disputes against it, and with Aaron hold our peace, though the affliction be very smart, Lev. x. 8: 'All flesh must be silent beforo God,' Zech. ii. 13 ; for whatsoovor is his counsol shall stand,

•. i i [ike a brittl I slmt u r, then

who can Inn l> r him ?' Job • 10. v - >tl mini .if ho lined to * rare

ii . Tl 'I hath ovidoncod thin or I t to ho his will, tho

Phfti oh'i sin was the in

! i much tii- mor< i h id been demon tra-

loliver them. Let i • ■ I r fa

to him, bnl lei I give glory to b i I

of jud ;mont which ho hath appoint I . B

with tho unchangeable will of b pt, the more be the immutable

will nee. We musl d »t think <lod mi

hiH pro I >etter tho c\

i 1)0 impaired in any of hia perfections, [f God changed his purpose, he would o Pat Qce it i 1 " way to perform the immutable

will of God, and a means \ t a gracious immutability for o \>y

iving the promise: B b. l 86, ' Y. !• I of patience, that after

done the will of God, ye might receive the promi B. T is ! •trine will teach us to imitate God in th

imov table in goodni is. God d \ck from himself; he finds

notb ter than himself for which he should ohai And

anythin • I' tt r than I • up hearts to i change from him ? The

from the ecliptic line, nor should we from tl holii ! t obedience is encoura '• I by an unchangeable I

ird it: 1 Cor. w. 58, 'Be ' liaei and immoveable, alv nwflmg

in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour shall not ho in vain in i 1.' CJnsI is the note of an hypocrite, Ps. Ixxviii. 8

in th it which ifl 4 IS the mark of I saint ; it is the cl

righl i per ra to' keep the truth/Isa. xxvi. 2; and it is as positj

• he that abides not in tho doctrine of Chris! hath not God,' •J J ihn 9; bnl he thai doth, 'hath both tho Father and the Son.' - i much of uncertainty, so much of nature ; so much of firmness in dutv, so much of grace. We can never honour (rod unless we finish h ; s work. Christ did not glorif I nl in ' finishing the work God gave him to do,'

John xvii. 1. Tho nearer the world to an end, the moi

immutability seen in his promises and predictions, and the more must our nnchangeableness be Been in onr ohedience: Heb. x. k J:5, 25, ' L t us 1

the profession of our faith without wavering, and so much the i you see the day approaching. 1 The Christian Jews were to be the more tenacious of their faith the nearer they saw the day approaching, the day of Jerusalem's destruction prophesied of by I . 26; which accom-

plishment : jeat argument to establish the Christian Jews in the

pre: of Chris! to be the Messiah, because the destruction of the citv

was not to | itting off the Messiah. Let us bo therefore con-

' in our ion and and not sutler ourselves to be

driven from him by the ill usage, or flatt* r< 1 from him by the c

world.

D is '■• ksonable. If G '1 be unchangeable in doin 1. it is

hould be unchangeable in doing him service. If he

that he is (Mir God, onr I am. he would also that we should be his people.

Sis I: dare bin t in his promises, he i

should I in our obedii N bould be unchangeably

faithful to him ; as subjects, have an unchangeable allegiance

to him as our prince. He would not 1. faithful to him hour or

• i. D d

a day, but to the death, Rev. ii. 10. And it is reason we should be his; and if we be his children, imitate him in his constancy of his holy purposes.

(2.) It is our glory and interest. To be a reed shaken with every wind is no commendation among men, and it is less a ground of praise with God. It was Job's glory that he held fast in his integrity : ■ In all this Job sinned not,' Job i. 22,—in all this, which whole cities and kingdoms would have thought ground enough of high exclamations against God. And also against the temptation of his wife he retained his integrity: chap. ii. 9, ' Dost thou still retain thy integrity?' The devil, who, by God's permission, stripped him of his goods and health, yet could not strip him of his grace; as a traveller, when the wind and snow beats in his face, wraps his cloak more closely about him, to preserve that and himself. Better we had never made profession, than afterwards to abandon it; such a withering profession serves for no other use than to aggravate the crime, if any of us fly like a coward or revolt like a traitor. What profit will it be to a soldier if he hath withstood many assaults, and turn his back at last ? If we would have God crown us with an immutable glory, we must crown our beginnings with a happy perseverance: Rev. ii. 10, 'Be faithful to the death, and I will give thee a crown of life.' Not as though this were the cause to merit it, but a necessary condition to possess it. Constancy in good is accompanied with an immutability of glory.

(3.) By an unchangeable disposition to good we should begin the happiness of heaven upon earth. This is the perfection of blessed spirits, those that are nearest to God, as angels and glorified souls, they are immutable; not, indeed, by nature, but by grace ; yet not only by a necessity of grace, but a liberty of will. Grace will not let them change, and that grace doth animate their wills, that they would not change ; an immutable God fills their understandings and affections, and gives satisfaction to their desires. The saints, when they were below, tried other things and found them deficient ; but now they are so fully satisfied with the beatific vision, that, if Satan should have entrance among the angels and sons of God, it is not likely he .should have any influence upon them, he could not present to their understandings anything that could, either at the first glance or upon a deliberate view, be preferable to what they enjoy and are fixed in.

Well then, let us be immoveable in the knowledge and love of God. It is the delight of God to see his creatures resemble him in what they are able. Let not our affections to him be as Jonah's gourd, growing up in one night and withering the next. Let us not only fight a good fight, but do so till we have finished our course, and imitate God in an unchangeable-ness of holy purposes; and to that purpose examine ourselves daily what fixedness we have arrived unto ; and, to prevent any temptation to a revolt, let us often possess our minds with thoughts of the immutability of God's nature and will, which, like fire under water, will keep a good matter boiling up in us, and make it both retain and increase its heat.

4. Let this doctrine teach us to have recourse to God, and aim at a near conjunction with him. When our spirits begin to flag, and a cold aguish temper is drawing upon us, let us go to him who can only fix our hearts, and furnish us with a ballast to render them stedfast; as he is only immutable in his nature, so ho is the only principle of immutability as well as being in the creaturo. Without his grace wo shall be as changeable in our appearances as a chameleon, and in our turnings as the wind. When Peter trusted in himself, he changed to tho worse ; it was his master's recourse to God for him that preserved in him a reducing principle, which changed him again for tho better and fixed him in it, Luko xxii. 82.

It win be «"ir i: !i bin that i ibont

with the li nor li toned bi tl >i cat tiro, nor chai

in the world, bul , moving all 1

:1 arm, according to nil Infinite skill hove bin for our

v.- nil immutability, aa well as anj other perfection of 1

• > him, the mora stabilit a in om ther from bim, I ro liable to cliai ■■ . r J

line thai t to the pi mm si ha ait subject

lion ; tit. farther il m it, the wesJu r it. li, and mora Bible

to 1 Let i which ar<

thia 'M : the right of Christ, that shall no^ root;

tin of the Spirit, that ihallnc?er born out, Bythi

ii infinitely by natnra, wi shall oomi to be finitely, immi mnch as toe capacity of s craai in.

A DISCOURSE UPON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him ? saith the Lord: do not I Jill heaven and earth ? saith the Lord. — Jer. XXIII. 24.

The occasion of this discourse begins, ver. 16, where God admonisheth the people not to hearken to the words of the false prophets, which spake a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They made the people vain by their insinuations of peace, when God had proclaimed war and calamity ; and uttered the dreams of their fancies, and not the visions of the Lord; and so turned the people from the expectation of the evil day which God had threatened: ver. 17, ■ They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.' And they invalidate the prophecies of those whom God had sent: ver. 18, ' Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word ? who hath marked his word and heard it ?' ' Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord ?' Are they acquainted with the secrets of God more than we ? Who have the word of the Lord, if we have not ? Or it may be a continuation of God's admonition. Believe not those prophets ; for who of them have been acquainted with the secrets of God ? or by what means should they learn his counsel ? No ; assure yourselves, ' a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind : it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked,' ver. 19. A whirlwind shall come from Babylon ; it is just at the door, and shall not be blown over ; it shall fall with a witness upon the wicked people, and the deceiving prophets, and sweep them together into captivity. For, ver. 20, ' the anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart.' My fury shall not be a childish fury, that quickly languisheth, but shall accomplish whatsoever I threaten, and burn so hot, as not to be cool till I have satisfied my vengeance ; ■ in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly,' ver. 20, when the storm shall beat upon you ; you shall then know, that the calamities shall answer the words you have heard. When the conqueror shall waste your grounds, demolish your houses, and manacle your hands, then shall you consider it, and have the wishes of fools, that you had had your eyes in your heads before ; you shall then know the falseness of your guides, and the truth of my prophets, and discern who stood in the counsel of tho Lord, and subscribe to tho messages I havo sent you.

16 under tan I tl onlj <>f th. I

the time of (Ihi in oppo-

Bition to tli i i I, understanding th

tlir.latenin' of wrath, which il in in advai ball

in the I l.r i about a legal ri

<, and s<> make it :i prorai •• ; the] ihall then know the intent of Beriptnre, as I in the latl • nrld, wb<

he rolling op, U II n flecl open then I hall

i opon liiiu whom t and till th< hail

. and believe oothii lical trul

• 1 denieth thai ho Bonl those prop 11, ' I ban nol

rophete, yel they ran ; I have nol »ho

lied. 1 Tli' intruded thi i without a commi ion from m

ill. n- brags are. ] to pro

• 1 in nay counsel, 1 if they hi l \»-> d ini trnete I and inspin 1 by mi I in;, people to hear my words;' they would themselves aocording to my word, 'ami havi I from their

way ;' i. >-., endeaTonred to shake down their false eonfid< make them sensible of their false notions of me and m those false prophets eonld not be bo impudent as to boast, that they pro] i in the name of God, when they had not commission from him, unJ they had some i otiment that they and their intern

the knowledge and eye of God, he adds, ver. 28, ' A m I iG I : an i God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall

n.it see him? 1 Have I not the power of seeing and knowing what tl what tl. mi, what they think? Whyshould I nol have snch s

• I till h< aven and earth' by my essence '.' ' Am I a God at h tnd, not a < i I afar off'.'" He exclude s lure the doctrine of those th il i icl the providence of Qod from extending Itself to the inferior things of the

earth ; which error was ancient, ;. ut as the time of Job, as app

by their cpinion, that) clod's eyes w. re hood-winked and muffled thickness of the clou,is, and could not pierce through their dark and d

body : ' Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not,' Job xxii. 1 J.

B r it to time. Do you imagine me a God new framed like your

3, beginning a little time ago, and not existing before th< I ition of

the world, yea, from eternity? 'a God afar off,' further than your acut understandings can reach? I am of a longer standing, and you oug) •

v my majesty. But it rather refers to place than time. Do you think I do not behold everything in the earth as well as in heaven. Am I loc up within the walls of my palace, and cannot peep out to behold the th: done in the world ? or that I am so linked to pleasure in the place of my glor urthly kings are in their courts, that I have no mind or leisure to

take of the e b of men upon earth? God doth not say he

alar off, but only gives an account of the inward thoughts of their minds, or :' the language expressed by their actions.

The ini :i carries in it a strong atlirmation, and ass:; more

of God's care, and the folly of men in not considering it: ' Am I a Gol at hand, and not a G "tl? Can any hide himself in -

., -in hiddenness,'in the deepest cells. What! are yon 1

I, that you think me a God careless, ignorant, blind, that I can see nothing hut as a purblind man what is very near my • yon so out of your wits, ti. imagine you can de I all

your behaviours speak such a sentiment to lie secret in your heart, thou * Man .blus, Caatalio, (Ecolamp.

not formed into a full conception, yet testified by your actions ? No, you are much mistaken; it is impossible but that I should see and know all things, since I am present with all things, and am not at a greater distance from the things on earth than from the things in heaven, for I fill all that vast fabric which is divided into those two parts of heaven and earth; and he that hath such an infinite essence cannot be distant, cannot be ignorant; nothing can be far from his eyes, since everything is so near to his essence.

So that it is an elegant expression of the omniscience of God, and a strong argument for it. He asserts, first, the universality of his knowledge; but lest they should mistake, and confine his presence only to heaven, he adds, that he * fills heaven and earth.' I do not see things so, as if I were in one place and the things seen in another, as it is with man; but whatsoever I see, I see not without myself, because every corner of heaven and earth is filled by me. He that fills all must needs see and know all.

^ And indeed men that question the knowledge of God would be more convinced by the doctrine of his immediate presence with them. And this seems to be the design and manner of arguing in this place. Nothing is remote from my knowledge, because nothing is distant from my presence.

• I fill heaven and earth.' He doth not say, I am in heaven and earth, but I fill heaven and earth; i. e., say some,* with my knowledge, others with my authority or my power. But,

1. The word, filling cannot properly be referred to the act of understanding and will. A presence by knowledge is to be granted, but to say such a presence fills a place, is an improper speech. Knowledge is not enough to constitute a presence.

A man at London knows there is such a city as Paris, and knows many things in it; can he be concluded therefore to be present in Paris, or fill any place there, or be present with the things he knows there ? If I know anything to be distant from me, how can it be present with me ? for by knowing it to be distant I know it not to be present. Besides, filling heaven and earth is distinguished here from knowing or seeing. His presence is rendered as an argument to prove his knowledge. Now, a proposition, and the proof of that proposition, are distinct, and not the same.

It cannot be imagined that God should prove idem per idem, as we say; for what would be the import of the speech then, I know all things, I see all things, because I know and see all things?! The Holy Ghost here accommodates himself to the capacity of men, because we know that a man sees and knows that which is done where he is corporally present; so he proves that God knows all things that are done in the most secret caverns of the heart, because he is everywhere in heaven and earth, as light is everywhere in the air, and air everywhere in the world. Hence the schools use the term repletive for the presence of God.

2. Nor by filling of heaven and earth is meant his authority and power. It would be improperly said of a king, that in regard of the government of his kingdom, is everywhere by his authority, that he fills all the cities and countries of his dominions. 'I, do not I fill ?' % That I notes the essence of God, as distinguished according to our capacity, from the perfections pertaining to his essence, and is in reason better referred to the substance of God than to those things wo conceive as attributes in him. Besides, were it meant only of his authority or power, the argument would not run well. I soe all things, because my authority and power fills heaven and earth. Power doth not always rightly infer knowledge, no, not in a rational

* Turn porspicacia, turn efficacia.— Grot. J Amyrald, do Trinitate, p. 37.

t Suarez.

at. M my thingi in ft 1 thority of the Irii

thai di '•< t arrive to the knowlu i >c of tho king; many thingi un d 1 y the power ofoui irhiofa yet w< not a d I in

<»ur andersl in Ik | . 'I h< re arc many m be Kml

informing U thai we bare no! » mnefa : in

Kiii.. jhtly inforre I 0 ""

. Bj filling] rth is meant therefore a fillii Lhhise

I of tin pi

when the Scripture anywhere of the |

)i< :c. ill. [el hi r. 11 • : . thai tin

him. We do not say ii : oiv

• i (Mit of heaven nor h pi rth, but the whole I

the whole earth, al one and the lame time, [f I only m -

in ■■.{■. part of e urth, nayi if then any pai I

pari of earth roid of him, he could not be laid to fill them. I fill and earth; noi ■ part of me filli one place and anotl of me Alia an-

.1 I, <i id, fill heaven and earth, I am whole God filling the hem iiiid whole God filling the earth. I fill heaven, and yet till earth ; I fill

ii and yei fill brawn, and till heaven and earth at. one and I God tills his own WOrkl, I heathen philosopher saith.*

II- re ia then i description of God'a pn sence.

1. By power: Am 1 not a God alar oil "".' a God in the «"' of his

arm.

2. By knowledge: shall 1 not see them?

B. !•' i undeniable ground for inferring the two former, I

lill heaven th.

lentially everywhere present in heaven and earth.

[f God be, he mnsi ; that which is nowhere is nothk -.

I in the world ; not in ono part of it, for then lie were eirenmserihed by it. If in the world, and only there, though it be

• , he were also limited. Somef therefore said, God was cwrywle ; nowhere. Nowhere J I.e. not bounded by any place, nor receiving 0 any place anything for his preservation or snstainnient. He is everywhere, became no creature, either body or spirit, can exclude the presence of b nee'; for lie is not only near, but in everything: Acts xvii. 28,

'In him we live, and move, and have our being.' Not absent from anything, bnl so present with them, that they live and move in him, and move more in God than in the air or earth wherein they are; nearer to us than our lb lh to our bones, than the air to our breath. Be cannot be far from

i that live and have every motion in him. The apostle doth not -l»j him, but in am, to shew the inwardness of his presence.

hi sfa rnity is the perfection whereby he hath neither beginning nor end, immutability is the perfection whereby he hath neither increase nor diminution, so immensity or omnipresence is that whereby he hath neither bounds nor lim tat As he is in all time, yet so as to be above time, so is he in

all pin. as to be above limitation by any place. It f

reesion of B heathen to illustrate this, that God is a sphere or ci: wis rywhere and circumference nowhere. Qia dm awing

that thl : G I was indivisible, i.>. could not be divided. It can-

not .. here and there the lines Of it terminate; it is like a line drawn

out in infinite . that DO point can be conceived where its Leu

breadth aaa is a vaai of waters, yni to that it

* Si:.- oa, d . lib. iv. o ; . 8, /; *• ; ut suum impUt. t C'liryeostom.

' Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further.' But it cannot be said of God's> essence, Hitherto it reaches, and no further; here it is, and there it is not. It is plain that God is thus immense, because he is infinite; we have reason and Scripture to assent to it, though we cannot conceive it. We know that God is eternal, though eternity is too great to be measured by the short line of a created understanding. "We cannot conceive the vast-ness and glory of the heavens, much less that which is so great as to fill heaven and earth; yea, 'not to be contained in the heaven of heavens,' 1 Kings viii. 27.

Things are said to be present, or in a place.

1. Circumscriptive, as circumscribed. This belongs to things that have quantity, as bodies that are encompassed by that place wherein they are; and a body fills but one particular space wherein it is, and the space is commensurate to every part of it, and every member hath a distinct place. The hand is not in the same particular space that the foot or head is.

2. Definitive, which belongs to angels and spirits, which are said to be in a point, yet so as that they cannot be said to be in another at the same time.

3. Repletive, filling all places; this belongs only to God. As he is not measured by time, so he is not limited by place. A body or spirit, because finite, fills but one space; God, because infinite, fills ail, yet so as not to be contained in them, as wine and water is in a vessel. He is from the height of the heaven to the bottom of the deeps, in every point of the world, and in the whole circle of it, yet not limited by it, but beyond it.

Now this hath been acknowledged by the wisest in the world.

Some indeed had other notions of God. The more ignorant sort of the Jews confined him to the temple.* And God intimates that they had such a thought, when he asserts his presence in heaven and earth, in opposition to the temple they built as his house and ' the place of his rest.'f And the idolaters among them thought their gods might be at a distance from them, which Elias intimates in the scoff he puts upon them : 1 Kings xviii. 27, ' Cry aloud, for he is a god,' meaning Baal; ■ either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey ;' and they follow his advice, and cried * louder,' ver. 28, whereby it is evident they looked not on it as a mock, but as a truth. And the Syrians called the God of Israel the god of the hills, as though his presence were fixed there, and not in the valleys, 1 Kings xx. 23 ; and their own gods in the valleys, and not in the mountains. They fancied every god to have a particular dominion and presence in one place, and not in another, and bounded the territories of their gods as they did those of their princes. J And some thought him tied to, and shut up in, their temples and groves wherein they worshipped him. § Some of them thought God to be confined to heaven, and therefore sacrificed upon the highest mountains, that the steam might ascend nearer heaven, and their praises be heard better in those places which were nearest to the habitation of God. But the wiser Jews acknowledged it, and therefore called God place, [| whereby they denoted his immensity ; he was not contained in any place ; every part of the world subsists by him. He was a place to himself, greater than anything made by him. And the wiser heathens acknowledged it also.

One ^f calls God a mind passing through the universal nature of things ; another, that ho was an infinite and immense air ;** another, that it is as

* Jerome on Isa. lxvi. 1. J Med. Diatrib., vol. i. p. 71, 72.

t Hammond on Mat. vi. 7. \ Dought Analec. excurs. 61. 113.

II OlpD- Grot, upon Mutt. v. 1G. Mares, contra Yolk. lib. i. cap. 27, p. 494. Tf Vido Miuut. FeL p. 20. * * Plotin. Encad vi. lib. v. cap. 4.

natural to thin!. G , Hence tbej

eall( : of the world ; thai

body I. qaiekeo it, so i ( I I rorld to su]

emblanc no ci ature

ean fully resemble < hod in any 01 it wool I

tare, but 0 i. Bat iir and : it.

- ■ I tb< of t li«> world, in th< ■ of all 1"

;u the lo

and tlir In ;i\iIB

air; and light diffu 1 tb i( 1 If through the whole air, in , trulv In-lit, it of tin

mil oth< r, \< t tin v are distinct things, and do!

v ol <i'"l in the whole world, 1 ith any creature, bnl remi roan the 1

bei Now when this oath !.• en own< d by men the school 01 nature, it i is ■ n at. r shame lo any acquainted with the Scnp-to deny it. For the understanding of thi . U I

ds premised In general.

.1. This is negatively to be understood. Our know] f God 11

. withdrawing from him, or denying to him, in our conception, 1 or in.]" rfectionj in the creatun . A 1 the infii a denial of limitation of being, so immensity, or omnipn sence, 1 a d< nial of

limitation of place. Ami wli.n we Bay < i - "1 is /<-/ place, \

understand it thus, that he is not everywhere by i bodiei air

and light are. Ee ii everywhere, i.e. his nature hath no bounds; 1. tied to any place as the creature is, who, when he is | n Bent in one plaa

i another. As no place can bo without God, i can

- and contain him.

J'r i. '2. There ifl an influential omnipresence of God.

Universal, with all creatures. He ifl i resent with all things by his authority, because all things arc rabject to him ; by • all

things arc sustain* d by him ; by his knowledge, because all things an

re him. JI< is present in the world, as a king is in all j arte of his kingdom regally present; providentially present with all, since his care extends t • the meant.-; of his creatures, llis power reacheth all, and his knowledge oeth all. As « v t rything in the world was created by God, so everything in the world is pi I by God; and since preservation is not wholly distinct from crea-

tion, it is necessary God should be pr< sent with everything while he pn it, as well i at with it when he created it: ' Thou pre* rv< Bt man and

\\\i. c»; he 'upholds all things by the word of his power, 1 Heb. i. B. There is a virtue sustaining every creature, that it may not fall back ■ that nothing from whence it was elevated by the power of God. All those natural virtues we call the principles of operation, are fountains springing from bis goodness and power, all things are a 1 by him,

I by him ; and in t ; ie God is present with all c:

torse, for whatsoever acts another is at with that which it acl nd-

ing forth some virtue and influence whereby it acts. If free only ' 1 it * move in him,' and by him, Acts xvii. 28, much more aro

tin | r natural B • a virtue communicated to them, and

upheld in them in the time of their acting. This virtual present

to our Benae, t in

our This influential i b eompared to thai ~un,

which, though Si I distance from the earth, ifl present in the air and

earth by its light, and within the earth by its influence in concocting those metals which are in the bowels of it, without being substantially either of them. God is thus so intimate with every creature, that there is not the least particle of any creature, but the marks of his power and goodness are seen in it, and his goodness doth attend them, and is more swift in its effluxes than the breaking out of light from the sun, which yet are more swift than can be declared ; but to say he is in the world only by his virtue, is to acknowledge only the effects of his power and wisdom in the world, that his eye sees all, his arm supports all, his goodness nourisheth all, but himself and his essence at a distance from them.* And so the soul of man, according to its measure, would have in some kind a more excellent manner of presence in the body than God, according to the infiniteness of his being with his creatures ; for that doth not only communicate life to the body, but is actually present with it, and spreads its whole essence through the body and every member of it. All grant that God is efficaciously in every creek of the world, but some say he is only substantially in heaven.

(2.) Limited to such subjects that are capacitated for this or that kind of presence. Yet it is an omnipresence, because it is a presence in all the subjects capacitated for it: thus there is a special providential presence of God with some, in assisting them when he sets them on work as his instruments for some special service in the world. As with Cyrus: Isa. xlv. 2, 1 1 will go before thee ;' and wdth Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander, whom he protected and directed to execute his counsels in the world*; such a presence Judas and others, that shall not enjoy his glorious presence, had in the working of miracles in the world : Mat. vii. 22, ' In thy name we have done many wonderful works.' Besides, as there is an effective presence of God with all creatures, because he produced them, and preserves them, so there is an objective presence of God with rational creatures, because he offers himself to them, to be known and loved by them.f He is 'near to wicked men in the offers of grace : Isa. lv. 6, ' Call ye upon him while he is near;' besides, there is a gracious presence of God with his people in whom he dwells, and makes his abode, as in a temple consecrated to him by the graces of the Spirit. ■ We will come,' i. e. the Father and the Son, ' and make our abode with him,' John xiv. 23. He is present with all by the presence of his divinity, but only in his saints by the presence of a gracious efficacy; he walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and hath dignified the congregation of his people with the title of Jehovah Shammah, * the Lord is there,' Ezek. xlviii. 35 ; 'In Salem is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Sion,' Ps. lxxvi. 2. As he filled the tabernacle, so he doth the church, with the signs of his presence ; this is not the presence wherewith he fills heaven and earth. His Spirit is not bestowed upon all, to reside in their hearts, enlighten their minds, and bedew them with refreshing comforts. When the apostle speaks of God's being ■ above all, and through all,' Eph. iv. G,—above all in his majesty, through all in his providence,—he doth not appropriate that, as he doth what follows, and ' in you all;' in you all by a special grace ; as God was specially present with Christ by the grace of union, so he is specially present with his people by the grace of regeneration. So thero are several manifestations of his presence : he hath a presence of glory in heaven, whereby ho comforts the saints; a presence of wrath in hell, whereby ho torments the damned ; in heaven he is a God spreading his beam of light; in hell, a God distributing his strokes of justice ; by the one he fills heaven, by the other he fills hell; by his providence and essence he fills both heaven and earth.

* Zanch. t Cajetan in Aquin. part i. qu. 8, artic. 3.

/'/ p, 8. Tin !■ ' '

apholding t loin

understanding Hum, but by his «* •• m-e «•, .nt.L-:.ii.■» them, j

Qtially present anywhere, il bath (i I much

mon

i i! i essentially I in all ploc< [I n isonable to think

sssono< ■ • I ■ ; nam'

i t. i 'I i nil

tun . •■ as well reach through all | I

ill • il,

: if tin As all times a it a moment t<> his el .1 plaCCI are. M

to 1; ' ■ r than all t than all pi

the world arc to him '

a btl the 11. it: .-mall dd I. I . . 1

f God may well be thou lit i" be pn at < th that

which ii n.) more than to him, and in all tho , which,

if pat together, are 'a very little thing' in nil band. Th th ft

U . It' a man w, | . be would DO(

rer to tl i od than if he were in the centra of the earth. V.

may not the presence of God in the world that of I -1 in

the body, which is illy granted to ; Qtially in

y of man, which is but a little world ; ai 1 ftl '■

oee, though it i it the same opi ration b

The world i the Cn ator than the body to the bouI, and i

G 1 than the body net la the presence of tl . 'That

glorious in visits (V, ry part of the habitable earth in twenty-

four hours by its beams; which r troughs of the

sell as the pinnacles of the highest mountaii : i in the Creator of this sun an infinite greater proportion of pi ' Is it

no! • with the essenc I the whole bod; wen

and earth, as it is for the sun to pierce and diffusi through the whole

ail I it and the earth, and send up its light also as far to the regions

above? Do we not so thing like it in sounds and voices? fa not

the OUnd of a trump t, or any other musical instrument, at tho first

iking out of a Mast, in several places within such a compass at the same time ? Doth not every ear that hears it receive alike the whole sound of

t odours scented in several places at the same time, in the same . prop r for Bin filling talus in the Bame in every | within the compass of it. How far is the noise of thunder heard alike to i \. rv ear, in places something distant from one another'.' An 1 do we daily find BUch a manner of presence in those things of so low a concern, and not imagine a kind of presence of Go : r than all ' I- the

sound of thunder, the voice of God, as it is called, everywhere in such a cam ball not the essence of an infinite I much more every-

where? Those that would confine the essence of God only to heaven, and exclude it from the earth, run into great inc I. ft i

her he be in one part ^( the I i, or in the wh

them '.' It" in one part of them, his essence is bounded ; if he mo. from that part, he is mutal le, for h> i \ a place wherein he was, for

another wherein he WSJ not. If ho bo alv. 1 in on part

oh a notion would render him little better than a Uvil

* F I Fi-'in.

t Muimonid. eck, Bonn, part i. p. :

If he be in the whole heaven, why cannot his essence possess a greater space than the whole heavens, which are so vast ? How comes he to be confined within the compass of that, since the whole heaven compasseth the earth ? If he be in the whole heaven, he is in places farther distant one from another, than any part of the earth can be from the heavens ; since the earth is like a centre in the midst of a circle, it must be nearer to every part of the circle than some parts of the circle can be to one another. If, therefore, his essence possesses the whole heavens, no reason can be rendered why he doth not also possess the earth, since also the earth is but a little point in comparison of the vastness of the heavens. If, therefore, he be in every part of the heavens, why not in every part of the earth ?

The Scripture is plain: Ps. cxxxix. 7-9, < Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I fly from thy presence ? If I ascend up to heaven, thou art there : if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall uphold me.' If he be in heaven, earth, hell, sea, he fills all places with his presence : his presence is here asserted in places the most distant from one another; all the places, then, between heaven and earth are possessed by his presence. It is not meant of his knowledge, for that the psalmist had spoken of before: ver. 2, 3, 'Thou understandeth my thoughts afar off: thou art acquainted with all my ways.' Besides, ' thou art there,' not thy wisdom or knowledge; but thou, thy essence, not only thy virtue. For having before spoken of his omniscience, he proves that such knowledge could not be in God, unless he were present in his essence in all places, so as to be excluded from none. He fills the depths of hell, the extension of the earth, and the heights of the heavens. When the Scripture mentions the power of God only, it expresseth it by hand or arm ; but when it mentions the Spirit of God, and doth not intend the third person in the Trinity, it signifies the nature and essence of God; and so here, when he saith, 1 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ?' he adds exegetically, ' whither shall I fly from thy presence,' or Heb. ' face ?' and the face of God in Scripture signifies the essence of God: Exod. xxxiii. 20, 23, ' Thou canst not see my face,' and ■ my face shall not be seen;' the effects'of his power, wisdom, providence, are seen, which are his back-parts, but not his face. The effects of his power and wisdom are seen in the world, but his essence is invisible, and this the psalmist elegantly expresseth. Had I wings endued with as much quickness as the first dawnings of the morning light, or the first darts of any sunbeam that spreads itself through the hemisphere, and passes many miles in as short a space as I can think a thought, I should find thy presence in all places before me, and could not fly out of the infinite compass of thy essence.

(2.) He is essentially present with all creatures. If he be in all places, it follows that he is with all creatures in those places ; as he is in heaven, so he is with all angels; as ho is in hell, so is he with all devils ; as he is in the earth and sea, he is with all creatures inhabiting those elements. As his essential presence was the ground of the first being of things by creation, so it is the ground of the continued being of things by conservation. As his essential presence was tho original, so it is the support of the existence of all tho creatures. What are all those magnificent expressions of his creative virtue, but testimonies of his essential presence at the laying the foundation of tho world ? ' When he measured tho waters in the hollow of his hand, motcd out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills

in :i !■ .! I'm-. ,' I i. '■.!. I ' forth the God in

tin of tliii . ; •

ith thriii. The waten thai ■ worn no morn than :i < 1 r«• j» in tin palm <•: I, which U

touch. .1 by bii band. An.I tbti sent with •

• llovill, 114 Well us tin hi i tin- ! OH

W6U M with tli.< most. B| ' sun. Ho is (

mod nml tin- hi. i I, us i r is mi infinite I

equally the Athi Qiao -. as weU I

essence, hut no! in regard of the br< ithii apon t!

• take then like himself: a , ~7, * 11

of i in him we life* and move, and have our being.' 'i

ides all; he tells them they should ook the Lord; the I

t | ; essentially ens .1. r. I. \\

tic t glitter in 1 to the end tl; •

■ tin* si'i-kiii ' It" in hi-; own nature and i oce.*

ire what fol . ' in him we I i be onder I bii

power and goodness, perfections of his oatore, di tingoi oar manner of coneeption from hit of 1

I with 1 ires, [f he bad m •.' it of his efficacy in

it had ' d any proofofhis nearness to as. Who would go about

to prove the body or substance of the sun to be near o . warm and enlighten us. when i oceth the di

liv<> in the sun, bul

which is so far distant from us. T to be mi

tioal than to intend any leas than his < live in

him not only as the efficient cause of our hie, hut as the foundation, tail . as if lie were like air. diffused round about

us. .\ move in him, tin Baith, as a sponge in the sea, not

taining him, hut being contained by him. Be compass.■ tli all, is ana

■ ; he tills all. is comprehended by none. The Creator contains the world, th i contains not the Creator; as tin- hollow of the I contains the water, the water in the hollow of the hand contains not the hand, and thereto: hive chose to ther, that the world is in God, it lives and mows in him, than that God is in the world. If all tilings thus live and move in him, then ho is present with evcrytl that hath life and motion ; and as long as the devils and damned h and motion, and being, so long is he with them, for wl inov | and moves in him.

Bui now this essentia] presence is,

I.) Without any mixture. ■ I till heaven and earth,' not, I am mi I with h and earth; his essence is not mixed with tho C -. it

ins the nature of a spoi. . I Qgh 1 by tl ring in it, ami the sea still r

simple, refore it is not mixed with any-

thing. The i the sun is present with the air, hut not mixed with it,

it remains light, and the air remains air; the light of the sun is difl'u- 1

through all th re, it piereeth all transparent 1

mil with all things, yet remains unmixed and nndivi

r mains light, arid the air remains air ; the air is not light t : : m ;h it en! I. Or, 1 similita I a many I up

in a room, the light is altogether, yet not mixed with one

• Am; Trinit.

candle hath a particular light belonging to it, which may be separated in a moment by removing one candle from another; but if they were mixed they could not be separated, at least so easily. God is not formally one with the world, or with any creature in the world by his presence in it; nor can any creature in the world, no, not the soul of man or an angel, come to be essentially one with God, though God be essentially present with it.

(2.) The essential presence is without any division of himself. ■ I fill heaven and earth,' not part in heaven, and part in earth ; I fill one as well as the other. One part of his essence is not in one place, and another part of his essence in another place; he would then be changeable; for that part of his essence which were now in this place, he might alter it to another, and place that part of his essence which were in another place to this; but he is undivided everywhere. As his eternity is one indivisible point, though in our conception we divide it into past, present, and to come, so the whole world is as a point to him in regard of place, as before was said ; it is as a small dust, and grain of dust; it is impossible that one part of his essence can be separated from another, for he is not a body, to have one part separable from another. The light of the sun cannot be cut into parts, it cannot be shut into any place and kept there, it is entire in every place. Shall not God, who gives the light that power, be much more present himself? Whatsoever hath parts is finite, but God is infinite, therefore hath no parts of his essence. Besides, if there were such a division of his being, he would not be the most simple and uncompounded being, but would be made up of various parts ; he would not be a Spirit; for parts are evidences of composition, and it could not be said that God is here or there, but only a part of God here, and a part- of God there. But he fills heaven and earth, he is as much a God 'in the earth beneath' as ' in heaven above,' Deut. iv. 39 ; entirely in all places, not by scraps and fragments of his essence.

(3.) This essential presence is not by multiplication. For that which is infinite cannot multiply itself, or make itself more or greater than it was.

(4.) This essential presence is not by extension or diffusion ; as a piece of gold may be beaten out to cover a large compass of ground. No ; if God should create millions of w r orlds, he w r ould be in them all, not by stretching out his being, but by the infiniteness of his being; not by a new growth of his being, but by the same essence he had from eternity; upon the same reasons mentioned before, his simplicity and indivisibility.

(5.) But, totally; there is no space, not the least, wherein God is not wholly according to his essence, and wherein his whole substance doth not exist; not a part of heaven can be designed wherein the Creator is not wholly; as he is in one part of heaven, he is in every part of heaven. Some kind of resemblance we may have from the water of the sea, which fills the great space of the world, and is diffused through all; yet the essence of water is in every drop of water in the sea, as much as the whole, and the same quality of water, though it comes short in quantity ; and why shall we not allow God a nobler way of presence, without diffusion, as is in that ? Or take this resemblance, since God likens himself to the light in the Scripture : ' He covereth himself with light,' Ps. civ. 2 ; 1 John i. 5, * God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.' A crystal globe hung up in the air hath light all about it, all within it, every part is pierced by it; wherever you see the crystal, you see the light; the light in one part of tho crystal cannot bo distinguished from the light in the other part, and the whole essence of light is in every part; and shall not God be as much pre-

it with 1 irith another ? 4 I

ywhers by I . simple

ir if within and places, though plac At bi was before and

ond all time, so be if above and boyond all plac< I time, be mm t al ithont ai ireU

ipaee ; If God were onlj oonfii in I ice than the world ia in quantity ; ai i m iment earn

rnity, wherein <k>d vrai not i ■ p ux c mi |

eonoeived in the mind of man u h< r< in God tained in the world dot in the hi iven : I Kings viii. 21 indi • II «>n ili" earth ? Behold, th<

thee. 1 Bolomon wonders that God should appoint a temp] t > him upon the earth', when be is not contained in the

raitened in the limits of an . he

is i ined in the heavens, i.t, in the manner that be is there ; but

is there in his s, and therefore cannot I t ntained there in

[f it slum]. I be meant only of his power and provident old

eonelnde i i : if bi i p m r and providenc

his essenoe mn i, for the infinil and

of the inflniteness of bis power, it can m v. r enter into any thongnt that ■ flb can have an infinite power, and that an infl

be without an infin see; it cannot be meant of bis providenc .

m should say, the heaven of heaven cannot contain thy providence, for, naming the D of h< . that which encircles and dous

other parts of the world, he could not suppose a providence I where there was no object I it about, as no creature is montio;

to be beyond the uttermost heaven, which ho calls hero the heaven of rens; l . to understand it of his providence doth not <• sith

Solomon's admiration. He wonders that God, that hath so immense an . should dwall in a temple made with hands ; ho could not so much wonder at his providence in those things that immediately concern his worship. Solomon plainly asserts this of God, that ho was so far from being bounded within the rich wall of the temple, which, with so much cost, he had framed for the glory of his name, that tho richer palace of the hea of heavens could not contain him. It is true, it could not contain his pa and wisdom, because his wisdom could contrive other kind of worlds, and his p mi r erect them. Bnt doth tho meaning of that wise king reach no farther than this f Will the power and wisdom of God reside on the earth ? II was too wise to ask such s question, since every object that hi met

with in the world r I him that tho wisdom and power of God dwelt

arth, and flittered in everything he had created ; and reason would assure him that the power that had framed this world was able to frame many more. But Solomon, considering the immensity of God's cssi PS that (iod should order a house to bo built for him, as if

he wanted roofs, and coverii. . 1 habitation, as bodily creatures do. WB1 God, indeed, dwell in a t< mple, who hath an essence so imm< I not to be contained in the heaven of heavens ? It is not the heav, n of heavens that can I Him, his substance. Sere he I

immensity of his essence and his presence, not only in the 1:■ . . but beyond the heav. as ; he that is not contained in the 1 a man is in

. is without, an I . a:: 1 beyond the heavens ; it is not I

they do not contain him, but it is impossible they should contain him, ti

• Bernard.

1 cannot contain him.' It is impossible then but that he should be above them; he that is without the compass of the world is not bounded by the limits of the world. As his power is not limited by the things he hath made, but can create innumerable worlds, so can his essence be in innumerable spaces ; for as he hath power enough to make more worlds, so he hath essence enough to fill them, and therefore cannot be confined to what he hath already created. Innumerable worlds cannot be a sufficient place to contain God ; he can only be a sufficient place to himself;* he that was before the world, and place, and all things, was to himself a world, a place, and everything.f He is really out of the w T orld in himself, as he w T as in himself before the creation of the world; as, because God was before the foundation of the world, we conclude his eternity, so, because he is without the bounds of the world, we conclude his immensity, and from thence his omnipresence. The world cannot be said to contain him, since it was created by him ; it cannot contain him now T , who was contained by nothing before the world was. As there was no place to contain him before the world was, there can be no place to contain him since the world was.

God micrht create more worlds circular and round as this, and those could not be so contiguous, but some spaces would be left between ; as, take three round balls, lay them as close as you can to one another, there will be some spaces between, none w T ould say but God would be in these spaces, as well as in the world he had created, though there were nothing real and positive in those spaces. Why should we then exclude God from those imaginary spaces without the world ? God might also create many worlds, and separate them by distances, that they might not touch one another, but be at a great distance from one another, and would not God fill them as well as he doth this ? If so, he must also fill the spaces between them, for if he were in all those worlds, and not in the spaces between those worlds, his essence would be divided ; there would be gaps in it, his essence would be cut into parts, and the distance between every part of his essence would be as great as the space between each world. The essence of God may be conceived then well enough to be in all those infinite spaces where he can erect new worlds.

I shall give one place more to prove both these propositions, viz. that God is essentially in every part of the world, and essentially above ours without the world : Isa. lxvi. 1, ' The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.' He is essentially in every part of the world; he is in heaven and earth at the same time, as a man is upon his throne and his footstool. God describes himself in a human shape, accommodated to our capacity, as if he had his head in heaven and his feet on earth; doth not his essence then fill all intermediate spaces between heaven and earth ? As when the head of a man is in the upper part of a room, and his feet upon the floor, his body fills up the space between the head and his feet, this is meant of the essence of God ; it is a similitude drawn from kings sitting upon the throne, and not their power and authority, but the feet of their persons, are supported by the footstool; so here it is not meant only of the perfections of God, but the essence of God. Besides, God seems to tax them with an erroneous conceit they had, as though his essence were in the temple, and not in any part of the world, therefore God makes an opposition between heaven, and earth, and tho temple: ' Where is the house that you built unto mo ? and where is tho place of my rest ?' Had he understood it only of his providence, it had not been anything against their mistake, for they granted his providence to be not only in the temple, but in all parts of the * Petav. t Maccor. loc. comraun. cap. xix. p. 153.

world. ' win-- ibuild tome?' to mk, not torn;

or provi lenee, bat I ilk '•

A - mi, it th Gfod to i") above the b , if th<> h u hi*

throne ; he lil i apon t h ■ m, | bam 11 - the

thrones on which they tit; eoitoennol bo meant of fa no i-ir iiin i.) heavens, I | of the

power an.I the pro Gfrod vieibL nothing for

him to employ bii providence ibont; for providence lupposoth a creature in actual be og ; it moil be th the world] end in the world.

I i the like proof yon may tee, Job u. 7, B, ' It i wli.it oenal thoa do? deeper then belli wh I thou ]. ■

thereof is longer than the earth, end broader then be bv

ten. Is tln» unsearchableness of (bid's wisdom, but prOVCt it by the inibi

. of bie eatenoe; H$b, ' tie ii the height of the heavens, 1 he it the top U the beeyeni; to that when you nave began et the lo .1 him through ell the ereetaree, you will and bJtettence filling ell tho ' be at the top of tho world, end infinitely beyond it. /';•"/'. .">. Tins is the property of Gfod, meommunieeble to any creature. do creature tea be eternal and immutable, so do creature ran be unman , beeaute it cannot be infinite; nothing can be of en infinite nature, end therefore nothing of en immense pretence but (tod. It cannot be oommnni* 1 to the human nature of Chriet, though in union with the divine. 4 Borne indeed argue that Christ, in regard of hit human nature, is en

where, b. cause be sits at tho rie;ht hand of (fod, and the light hand of ( I 1

ii everywhere. His sitting at the right hand of God signifies bit exaltation,

and cannot with any reason bo extended to such a kind of arguing. ' Tho

heerti of kinga are in the hand of God:' are the bearta of kings everywhere,

Vb hand is everywhere ? The souls of the righteous are in tho

hand of Gfod; is tho soul therefore of every righteous man everywhere in tho world ? The right hand of God is from eternity; is the humanity of Christ

therefore from eternity, because it sits at the right hand of God ? The right

hand of Gfod made the world; did the humanity of Christ therefore make heaven and earth ? Tho humanity of Christ must then be confounded with his divinity, he tho same with it, not united to it. All creatures are distinct from their Creator, and cannot inherit tho properti ..lial to his nature, as eternity, immensity, immutability, omnipresence, omniscience. No angel, no soul, no creature can be in all places at once ; before they can be SO, they must he immense, and so must cease to be creatures, and commoner Gfod. This is impossible.

H. Reasons to prove God's essential presence.

11. ison 1. I iu 1 is infinite. As he is infinite, he is everywhere ; as

he is simple, bis whole essence is everywhere; for in regard of his infinite-

i, he hath no bounds; in regard of his simplicity, he hath no parte; and therefore those that deny God's omnipresence, though U I to

own him infinite, muet really conceive him linite.

1. Cod is infinite in hit perfections. None can set bounds to tern.

■ ■Honey of Gfod: 'his g - is unsearchable,' Pa.

cxlv. B : B |»t., sua :, there is no end, no limitation. What hath no

end is infin Vet it infinite: Job v. 9, ' Which doth .'. things

and unseaxchal • end of those thin is able to do. 1.

infinite, Pa. exlvii. 5 ; he understands all things, peat, preeent,end U

* Rivet, l'i. ex. p. 301, ool ~. VOL. I. E 0

■what is already made, what is possible to be made ; his duration infinite : Job xxxvi. 26, ' The number of his years cannot be searched out,' u-havrog. To make a finite thing of nothing is an argument of an infinite virtue. Infinite power can only extract something out of the barren womb of nothing, but all things were drawn forth by the word of God, the heavens and all the host of them. The sun, moon, stars, the rich embellishments of the world, appeared in being ' at the breath of his mouth,' Ps. xxxiii. G. The author therefore must be infinite. And since nothing is the cause of God, or of any perfection in him, since he derives not his being, or the least spark of his glorious nature, from anything without him, he cannot be limited in any part of his nature by anything without him; and indeed the infiniteness of his power and his other perfections is asserted by the prophet, when he tells us that ■ the nations are as a drop of a bucket, or the dust of the balance, and less than nothing, and vanity,' Isa. xl. 15, 17. They are all so in regard of his power, wisdom, &c. Conceive what a little thing a grain of dust or sand is to all the dust that may be made by the rubbish of a house; what a little thing the heap of the rubbish of a house is to the vast heap of the rubbish of a whole city, such a one as London; how little that also would be to the dust of a whole empire; how inconsiderable that also to the dust of one quarter of the world, Europe or Asia; how much less that still to the dust of the whole world. The whole world is composed of an unconceivable number of atoms, and the sea of an unconceivable number of drops; now what a little grain of dust is in comparison of the dust of the whole world, a drop of water from the sea to all the drops remaining in the sea, that is the whole world to God. Conceive it still less, a mere nothing, yet is it all less than this in comparison of God. There can be nothing more magnificently expressive of the infiniteness of God to a human conception than this expression of God himself in the prophet.

In the perfection of a creature, something still may be thought greater to be added to it, but God containing all perfections in himself formally, if they be mere perfections, and eminently, if they be but perfections in the creature mixed with imperfection, nothing can be thought greater, and therefore every one of them is infinite.

2. If his perfections be infinite, his essence must be so. How God can have infinite perfections and a finite essence is unconceivable by a human or angelical understanding. An infinite power, an infinite wisdom, an infinite duration, must needs speak an infinite essence, since the infiniteness of his attributes is grounded upon the infiniteness of his essence. To own infinite perfections in a finite subject is contradictor}'. The manner of acting by his power, and knowing by his wisdom, cannot exceed the manner of being by his essence. His perfections flow from his essence, and the principle must be of the same rank with what flows from it; and if we conceive his essence to be the cause of his perfections, it is utterly impossible that an infinite effect should arise from a finite cause; but indeed his perfections are his essence ; for though wo conceive the essence of God as the subject, and the attributes of God as faculties and qualities in that subject, according to our weak model, who cannot conceive of an infinite God without some manner of likeness to ourselves; who find understanding, and will, and power in us distinct from our substance, yet truly and really there is no distinction between his cssenco and attributes; one is inseparable from the other. His power and wisdom are his essence; and therefore to maintain God infinite in the one and iinito in tho other, is to make a monstrous God, and have an unreasonable notion of tho Deity; for thero would be the greatest disproportion in his nature, since there is no greater disproportion

r;m nos;il,lv 1., r than there is between finite

and infinite, (i ■ I m mIv then b i'-'l, luxt have parte of

the • | ;• <; . i I, • in - : h • most

nmplc being, without the 1 I *ition, both mnii be equally infln

It", th 'ii, ' • In not infinite, hie i oiDDot be tafia

which i ; li »'!:

\ - in, how ; hu'il 1 In, < ; rn-,. |.,« I'm i his perfeetione bo in!

• no! bing onl of hii I bom, eithot the one i r the

n. nithor t!i<< eisenee e in be infinil

most be tome of thai impossibility. Thai out

liini, li.iMimo nothing without him ceo be erful an himself, moofa left

erful for him. Nothing within liiru ran he an enemy to

,• what ho is, h* 1 musl bo neoetttrilj Ihi

rfeol being, and therefore n< ily infinite; §in

infinitely is ition then to be lomeihing fin U be i

1 infinite, he is infinite, otherwise be oould be than bo

more blessed and more perfect than he is, which is impossible ; for b(

the • .to whom nothing can be added, be mist needs

infinite.

If. ther an infinite essence, ho hath an infinite pres

An infinite eannol be eontained in ■ finite plane ; as Ihoae th •

whieh are fii ite hive ■ bounded space wherein they arc, to that which is infinite bath an unbounded space; for as finiteneos speaks limii infii unboun Le Inoaa. An 1 if wo grant I God an infinite

D, there is no difficulty in acknowledging an infinite < In-

finitene k>d is a property belonging to him in rcgasd of

time and plane; he ii hounded by no plaee, and limited te no ti-: .

in, infinite essence may II weM be everywhere, as infinite ])ower reach everything; it may as well be present with every being, as infinite po

in its working may be prei n( with nothing to bring it into being. Whore

G I irkfl by his power, he is present in his essence, because his per

i his essence cannot he 1, an 1 therefore his power, wisdom, good-

ness, cannot be anywhere where his essence is not. His essence cannot bo severed from his power, nor his power from his essence ; for the power of < i 1 is nothing but Gfod acting, and the wisdom of God nothing but I -knowing. As the power of God is always, so is his i ; the po

of God is everywhere, so is his essence. Whatsoever God is, he is alway, and everywhere. To confine him to a place is to measure his i , as

nmne his actions is to limit his power. His essence being no less in-tan his power and his wisdom, can bo no more bounded than his ;om : but they are not separable from bis essence, yea, they essence. If God did not fill the whole world, he would be deter-miu plane, and excluded from others, and so his substance would

h r. 1 limits, and then something might be co:: \-r than

I that :i creature may be male by Go 1 oi to fill the w] rid ; for the power of God is able to m

a b ly that should take up the whole Bpaee between heaven an 1 earth,

corner of it. But nothing can bo conceived by any creature

than God; hi If all things, and is exceeded by none. G 1

• include! ii heaven, nor included in the earth; cannot

ther of them; for if wo should imagine them vaster than

they ai Knits; anil if his essonee were conta::. 1

t D;ui eat actus purus tl nullum ha' nm passivom.

in them, it could be no more infinite than the world which contains it, as water is not of a larger compass than the vessel which contains it. If the essence of God were limited either in the heavens or earth, it must needs be finite, as the heavens and earth are ; but there is no proportion between finite and infinite; God therefore cannot be contained in them. If there were an infinite body, that must be everywhere; certainly, then, an infinite spirit must be everywhere. Unless we will account him finite, we can render no reason w r hy he should not be in one creature as well as in another. If he be in heaven, which is his creature, why can he not be in the earth, which is as well his creature as the heavens?

Reason 2. Because of the continual operation of God in the world. This was one reason made the heathen believe that there was an infinite spirit in the vast body of the world, acting in everything, and producing those admirable motions which we see everywhere in nature. The cause which acts in the most perfect manner, is also in the most perfect manner present with its effects.

God preserves all, and therefore is in all. The apostle thought it a good induction, ' He is not far from us: for in him we live,' Acts xvii. 27. For being as much as because, shews that from his operation he concluded his real presence with all. It is not his virtue is not far from every one of us, but he, his substance, himself; for none that acknowledge a God will deny the absence of the virtue of God from any part of the world. He works in everything, everything works and lives in him ; therefore he is present with all,* or rather, if things live, they are in God, who gives them life. If things live, God is in them, and gives them life ; if things move, God is in them, and gives them motion ; if things have any being, God is in them, and gives them being; if-God withdraws himself, they presently lose their being; and therefore some have compared the creature to the impression of a seal upon the wafer,f that cannot be preserved but by the presence of the seal. As his presence was actual with what he created, so his presence is actual with what he preserves, since creation and preservation do so little differ; if God creates things by his essential presence, by the same he supports them. If his substance cannot be disjoined from his preserving power, his power and wisdom cannot be separated from his essence; where there are the marks of the one, there is the presence of the other; for it is by his essence that he is powerful and wise; no man can distinguish the one from the other in a simple being. God doth not preserve and act things by a virtue diffused from him.

It may be demanded whether that virtue be distinct from God ? If it be not, it is then the essence of God ; if it be distinct, it is a creature, and then it may be asked how that virtue which preserves other things is preserved itself? It must be ultimately resolved into the essence of God, or else there must be a running in infinitum; or else,| is that virtue of God a substance or not ? Is it endued with understanding or not ? If it hath understanding, how cloth it differ from God ? If it wants understanding, can any imagine that the support of the world, the guidance of all creatures, the wonders of nature, can be wrought, preserved, managed, by a virtue that hath nothing of understanding in it ? If it be not a substance, it can much less be able to produce such excellent operations as the preserving all the kinds of things in the world, and ordering them to perform such excellent ends ; this virtue is therefore God himself, the infinite power and wisdom of God; and therefore wheresoever the effects of these are seen in the world, God is essentially present. Some creatures, indeed, act at a distance by a * Pont. | Qu. ' water'?— Ed. I Amyrald de Trinitat., p. 10G, 107.

virtue diffused ; but rack i manner of acting cornea from a limitedness of

nature, that such .1 nature cannot. }■< I h. Oft present, ami I its

sobetanei t" ill parte. To eat bj i the rabicet Anita, end it

i pari of indigence. K rt in their kin"-l«»ins by mini I mee«

, because they cannot ad otherwise; bnl God, being infinitely perl

1 \\.uU all thill .'num. i I 5. Illumination, hanrtili-

oation, "''"'«'. Ac., air the immediate wori G l in •' :i "'' "nmc-

«1 i :i t. . are pi ill what they .Id ; it il an : I the gTI

perf( r to know things immediately whieh are dona i;> ateta!

places, than t<> knoa them at the seeond bend by im brumt ai u It 11 no I

a perfection to I >vhere, rather than to he tied to one pi "'• '•'

id in other places I• v instruim

diatelj itself. God indeed acta by mean acond t

dential d itions in the world, hut this is not out of any defect ol

t i work all immediately himself; hut lie thereby ac

acting to the Dators of the ereatnre, and the order of things which I

...i in the world. And whan be works by means, he acts with ti.

us, in thoee means, sustain! their I and virtues in them, concurs

with them by his power, so that Gtod's acting by means doth rather stren g then

- sstMitial presence than weaken it, since there is a oeeeaaary dependence

of (he creatures upon the Ctva'or in their being and SCtO i what t:

are. the\ are by the DOWCT of God | what th.v act, tl -ey act in t':. r of

i eonenrring with them. They have their motion in hirn as well as t:

being; ami where the power of God is. his ess • be can ae they arc

inaeparable; ami so this omnipresenc sth from the simplicity of the

nature The inmv vast anything is, the lesi confined. All that

will acknowledge God so great as to he able to work all things by his will without an oseontisl presence, cannot imagine him apon the same rea

so little as to he eon!aim<l in and bounded hv any place.

/.'• / on B. Becanae of his supreme perfection.

No perfection is wanting to God ; bat an unbounded eaaanaa is a perfection, a limited one is an imperfection. Thongh it be a perfection in a man to !-• wise, yet it is tin imperfection that his wisdom cannot rule all the thingl that concern him ; though it be a perfection to be present in a place where his affairs lie, vet is it liis imperfection that he cannot be pn everywhere in the midst of all his concerns. If any man could be so, it would he universally owned as a prime perfection in him above others. Is that which would be a perfection in man to be denied to God ? * As that which hath life is more perfect than that which hath not life, and that which haih is more perfect than that which hath only life, as the plants have,

and what hath rOQilon is more perfect than that which hath only life and - the beasts have, so what is everywhere is more perfect than that which is bounded in some narrow confines. If a power of motion be more ileiit than to 1 e 1 i d-rid. and swiftness in a creature be a more excellent endows n to he slow and snail-like, then to be everywhere without

motion is uneoncrivablv a greater excellency than to be everywhere suc-ceasivelv by motion. I ts forth his readiness to help 1. pie and

punish his enemies ; or his omnipresence, by swiftness, or ' flying apon the wingi <»f the win.!.' Ts. xvui. 10. The wind is in every part of the air where it blows; it cannot I that it is in this or that point of the air whore yon

feel it, so as to exclude it from another part of the air where you are not; it seems to pi '.\ at once.

1; the divine essence hid any bounds (^ place, it would be irapcrfe< * Ainyra'.d do Trinitat., p. 74, 76.

well as if it had bounds of time; where anything hath limitation, it hath some defect in being; and therefore, if God wera confined or concluded, he would be as good as nothing in regard of infiniteness. Whence should this restraint arise ? There is no power above him to restrain him to a certain space; if so, then he would not be God, but that power which restrained him would be God. Not from his own nature, for the being everywhere implies no contradiction to his nature ; if his own nature determined him to a certain place, then if he removed from that place, he would act against his nature. To conceive any such thing of God is highly absurd. It cannot be thought God should voluntarily impose any such restraint or confinement upon himself; this would be to deny himself a perfection he might have. If God have not this perfection, it is either because it is inconsistent with his nature, or because he cannot have it, or because he will not. The former cannot be ; for if he hath impressed upon air and light a resemblance of his excellency to a diffuse themselves and fill so vast a space, is such an excellency inconsistent with the Creator more than the creature ? Whatsoever perfection the creature hath is eminently in God. Ps. xciv. 8, 9, * Understand, 0 ye brutish among the people : and ye fools, when will you be wise ? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? he that formed the eye, shall he not see ? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?' By the same reason he that hath given such a power to those creatures, air and light, shall not he be much more filling all spaces of the world ? It is so clear a rule, that the psalmist fixes a folly and brutishness upon those that deny it. It is not therefore inconsistent with his nature ; it were not then a perfection, but an imperfection ; but whatsoever is an excellency in creatures, cannot in a way of eminency be an imperfection in God. If it be then a perfection, and God want it, it is because he cannot have it. Where, then, is his power ? How can he be then the fountain of his own being ? If he will not, where is his love to his own nature and glory? since no creature would deny that to itself which it can have and is an excellency to it. God therefore hath not only a power or fitness to be everywhere, but he is actually everywhere.

Reason 4. Because of his immutability.

If God did not fill all the spaces of heaven and earth, but only possess one, yet it must be acknowledged that God hath a power to move himself to another. It were absurd to fix God in a part of the heavens, like a star in an orb, without a power of motion to another place. If he be, therefore, essentially in heaven, may he not bo upon the earth if he please, and transfer his substance from one place to another ? To say he cannot is to deny him a perfection, which he hath bestowed upon his creatures ; the angels, his messengers, are sometimes in heaven, sometimes on earth ; the eagles, meaner creatures, are sometimes in the air out of sight, sometimes upon the earth. If he doth move, therefore, and recede from one place and settle in another, doth he not declare himself mutable by changing places, by being where ho was not before, and in not being where he was before ? Ho would not fill heaven and earth at once, but successively ; no man can bo said to fill a room that moves from one part of a room to another ; if, therefore, any in their imaginations stake God to the heavens, they render him less than his creatures ; if they allow him a power of motion from one place to another, they conceive him changeable ; and, in either of them, they own him no greater than a finite and limited beirg ; limited to heaven, il they fix him there; limited to that space, to which they imagine him to move.

Ura.son 5. Because of his omnipotency.

The Almightiness of God is a notion settled in the minds of all, that God

can <I.i v. he :rlly of

bii Data I doth not imp

>■ million • of worl l^ greater t. Billions of be iron i

than t ; , . than in obm tblt

. I, i..i i

I and bin n >( :<» be tfa mght of a i : hu

essence; be eannol <i tboai «*■

power iso; if ho, it that 1 J0

•boa! 1 fill this . md thor I M oil t .

c' of ih s worl I, that i> not i d infinite ipaeei bej leu

: li li I'h i po Lb a p • ret to act

in the world, everywhere out of tli«; world; be ia t:. i

world, everywhere out of the world* B this world

b< i:i i i power to make it in to '<•

Waal • no] then unlimitodly where orld n<> ■ Id r*>

oeived i | rfnJ word? vYby should ho not then be in every

part of the world now? Can it, be thought that God, who wai immense

ire, ehool 1. after li'' li i i I the worl I, eontraet bimaelf to the limil h of

one of in. ereatures, and tic himself to a p irtioular plac • of hi > o •

and l «• leas after nil creation than ho wae before ?

Tin's might also be | ited bj an argument from hia eternity. What

■<■rn.il In .ii is immense in eeaenee; theeami d which rend i

him eternal rend, rs him immense! ; that which prows him to he always will prove him to i i .vlierc.

III. The third tiling is. propositions for the further clearing this doctrine from :my < qs.

1. This troth is not weakened by the expressions in Scripture, where God is said to dwell in heaven, and in the temple.

(1.) He is, indeed, sail to 'sit in heaven,' Ps. ii. -t, and to 'dwell on [iii. ■> ; hut he is nowhere said to dwell only in the heavens, as Confined to them. It is the court of his mnjestical presence, hut not tho prison of his essence ; for when we are told that the ' heaven is his throne,' 1 u lxvi. 1, wo arc told with the same breath that the 'earth is his foot* 1. lie dwells on biflh in regard of the excellency of his nature, bat ho is in all places in regard of the diiVusiou of his presence. The soul is ntiallv in all parts of the body, hut it doth not exert the same operations in all; the more nohle discoveries of it are in the head and he irt: in the In a 1, where it exerciseth the chiefest senses for the enriching the under-ading; in the heart, where it vitally resides, and communicates Life and motion io the rest of the body. It doth not understand with the foot or . though it be iii all parts of the hody it forms. And so Qod may bo said to dwell in heaven, in regard of the more excellent and majestic representation of himself, both to the creatures that inhabit the place, as an

and i and also in those marka of his greatness which ho hath

planted there, those spiritual natures which have a nobler stamp ofGo 1 upon them, and tho I bodies, as sun and f-tars, which as BO m my tapers

light 0S :o I ehol i hia glory, Ps. xix. 1, and astonish the mii.dsof men when apoa them. 1: is bis court, where he hath tho UK ' BM wor-

ship from his creatures, all his courtiers attending there with a puro lovo

and glowing seaL lb there in a epeeial manner, arithoat any oppo-

sition to b eminent; it is therefore called his ' holy dwelling

RC I n. iii. 1*7. The earth bath eoi that title, since si-.

ruining curso upon it ; the earih is not his throue, because his g ivornment

is opposed; but heaven is none of Satan's precinct, and the rule of God is uncontradicted by the inhabitants of it. It is from thence also he hath given the greatest discoveries of himself; thence he sends the angels his messengers, his Son upon redemption, his Spirit for sanctification. From heaven his gifts drop down upon our heads, and his grace upon our hearts, James iii. 17 ; from thence the chiefest blessings of earth descend. The motions of the heavens fatten the earth, and the heavenly bodies are but stewards to the earthly comforts for man by their influence. Heaven is the richest, vastest, most stedfast and majestic part of the visible creation. It is there where he will at last manifest himself to his people in a full conjunction of grace and glory, and be for ever open to his people in uninterrupted expressions of goodness, and discoveries of his presence, as a reward of their labour and service ; and, in these respects, it may peculiarly be called his throne. And this doth no more hinder his essential presence in all parts of the earth, than it doth his gracious presence in all the hearts of his people. God is in heaven, in regard of the manifestation of his glory; in hell, by the expression of his justice ; in the earth, by the discoveries of his wisdom, power, patience, and compassion ; in his people, by the monuments of his grace ; and in all, in regard of his substance.

(2.) He is said also to dwell in the ark and temple. It is called, Ps. xxvi. 8, ' the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour dwells;' and to dwell in Jerusalem, as in his holy mountain, 'the mountain of the Lord of hosts,' Zech. viii. 3 ; in regard of publishing his oracles, answering their prayers, manifesting more of his goodness to the Israelites than to any other nation in the world ; erecting his true worship among them, which was not settled in any part of the world besides; and his worship is principally intended in that psalm. The ark is the place where his honour dwells ; the worship of God is called the glory of God : ' They changed the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible men,' Rom. i. 23, i. e. they changed the worship of God into idolatry; and to that also doth the place in Zechariah refer.

Now, because he is said to dwell in heaven, is he essentially only there ? Is he not as essentially in the temple and ark as he is in heaven, since there are as high expressions of his habitation there, as of his dwelling in heaven ? If he dwell only in heaven, how came he to dwell in the temple ? Both are asserted in Scripture, one as much as the other. If his dwelling in heaven did not hinder his dwelling in the ark, it could as little hinder the presence of his essence on the earth. To dwell in heaven and in one part of the earth at the same time, is all one as to dwell in all parts of heaven and all parts of earth. If he were in heaven, and in the ark and temple, it was the same essence in both, though not the same kind of manifestation of himself. If by his dwelling in heaven he meant his whole essence, why is it not also to be meant by his dwelling in the ark ? It was not sure part of his essence that was in heaven, and part of his essence that was on earth ; his essence would then be divided; and can it be imagined that he would be in heaven and the ark at the same time, and not in the spaces between ? Could his essence be split into fragments, and a gap made in it, that two distinct spaces should be filled by him, and all between be empty of him ? So that God's being, said to dwell in heaven, and in the temple, is so far from impairing the truth of his doctrine, that it more confirms and evidences it.

2. Nor do the expressions of God's coming to us, or departing from us, impair this doctrine of his omnipresence.

God is said to 'hide his face' from his people, Ps. x. 1, to be 'far from the wicked,' Prov. xv. 29 ; and the Gentiles are said to be ' afar off,' viz.,

from God, Bph. ii. 17, end upon the manifestation of Christ, 'made dnt. 1

'J'li. I of air of In es- .nrc,

for th.it. i.s equally oeai t- nil p«n , bat of

way and manifestation of i I Mid U) I

by lore, i ti. > ere in l.iin: 1 John i\. 15, 'Ho thai

hi God, and God mi aim.' Be that lorn in in the thing beloved; end

when two lote "ii«' Another, th< y are in on 11

nan bj tnd far from the ird of

works; end < tod ii laid t«> be hi i place by a special mat • ben

he w;is iii tli«' boeh, ESxod. iii., or ma apon mount Bmai:

i I. . 16, • The glory of the Lord abode npon monnt Sinai. 1 God ie

bide oil lace when he withdraws his comforting pr< tlic repoee of on hearte, flasheth terror into our cod pute

nun under the smart of the i thou (fa he bad ord<

utterly to depart from them, or when he 'loth withdraw bii special a providence from us in our eftaire. So 1m departed from Saul, whei withdrew his direction and protection from him in the i hie

forernment: 1 Sam. wi. l 1, •The Bpiril of the Lord d loV

f. . the spirit of government. God may he far from Dl in I I

us in another; far from us in regard of comfort, in

regard of rapport, when his essential preeence continues tl e. Thie

is a Qeceeeary consequent upon the inuniteneea of God, the i en eet

of the will i>[ Qod; so ho was s.tid to forsake Christ in regard of his taring his glory from his human nature and inflicting his wrath, though he was near to him in n gard of nil grace, and presero il him from

any spot in his Bufferings. We do DOl say the sun is departed out of the

(us when it is bemisted; it remain! in the same part of tin: i

j let on its course, though its beams do not reach us by reason ot the 1 ar

• eeii us aid it. The soul is in every part of the body in regard of its BUti and constantly in it, though it doth not act so iprightly

vigorously at one time as at another in one end the same member, and dis-

r itself so sensibly in its operations; so all tlie various effects of God towards the sons of men are but diverse operations of one and the same

nee. He is far from us or near to us, as he is a judge or e benefactor. When he comes to punish, it notes, not the approach of his essence, but the stroke of his justice; when he comes to benefit, it is not by a new

ss of his essence, but an efflux of his grace. He departs from us when he lca\< s us to the frowns of his justice, he comes to us when he encirch s us in the arms of his mercy; but he was equally present with us in both at ions in regard of his essence. And likewise God is said to come down — Gen. xi. 5, 'And the Lord came down : he city'—when

he dotfa some signal and wonderful works which attract the minds of men to the acknowledgment of a supreme power and providence in the world, who judgi absent and careless before.

;!. Nor is the essential presence of God with all creatures any disparagement to him. Since it was no disparagement to create the heaven and the

ii, it is no disparagement to him to till them. If he v. .ntially

pteeent with them when he created them, it is no dishonour to him to be

ntially present With them to lUpport them. If it were his glory to

.to them by his essence when they wire nothing, can it he Ids d

to 1 y his 6* DJ1CC tiny are son.( thing, and somethii

ami iii his ey< Gen. i. Bl, 'Qod saw ereryt] d it

was very good/ or 'mighty good;' all ordered to odness,

wibdom, jower, and to make him adorable to man, and therefore t<_ek am-

placency in them. There is a harmony in all things, a combination in them for those glorious ends for which God created them; and is it a disgrace for God to be present with his own harmonious composition ? Is it not a musician's glory to touch with his fingers the treble, the least and tenderest string, as well as the strongest and greatest bass ? Hath not everything some stamp of God's own being upon it, since he eminently contains in himself the perfections of all his works ? Whatsoever hath being hath a footstep of God upon it, who is all being. Everything in the earth is his footstool, having a mark of his foot upon it. All declare the being of God, because they had their being from God; and will God account it any disparagement to him to be present with that which confirms his being, and the glorious perfections of his nature to his intelligent creatures ? The meanest things are not without their virtues, which may boast God's being the Creator of them, and rank them in the midst of his works of wisdom as well as power. Doth God debase himself to be present by his essence with the things he hath made, more than he doth to know them bv his essence ? Is not the least thing known by him ? How ? Not by a faculty or act distinct from his essence, but by his essence itself. How is anything disgraceful to the essential presence of God, that is not disgraceful to his knowledge by his essence ? Besides, would God make anything that should be an invincible reason to him to part with his own infiniteness, by a contraction of his own essence into a less compass than before ? It was immense before, it had no bounds; and would God make a world that he would be ashamed to be present with, and continue it to the diminution and lessening of himself, rather than annihilate it to avoid the disparagement ? This were to impeach the wisdom of God, and cast a blemish upon his infinite understanding, that he knows not the consequences of his work, or is well contented to be impaired in the immensity of his own essence by it. No man thinks it a dishonour to light, a most excellent creature, to be present with a toad or serpent; and though there be an infinite disproportion between light, a creature, and the Father of lights, the Creator, yet* God, being a Spirit, knows how to be with bodies as if they were not bodies. And being jealous of his own honour, would not, could not, do anything that might impair it.

4. Nor will it follow, that because God is essentially everywhere, that everything is God. God is not everywhere by any conjunction, composition, or mixture with anything on earth. When light is in every part of a crystal globe, and encircles it close on every side, do they become one ? No; the crystal remains what it is, and the light retains its own nature. God is not in us as a part of us, but as an efficient and preserving cause. It is not by his essential presence, but his efficacious presence, that he brings any person into a likeness to his own nature. God is so in his essence with things as to be distinct from them, as a cause from the effect, as a Creator different from the creature, preserving their nature, not communicating his own. His essence touches all, is in conjunction with none. Finite and infinite cannot be joined. He is not far from us, therefore near to us; so near, that we ' live and move in him,' Acts xvii. 28. Nothing is God because it moves in him, any more than a fish in the sea is the sea, or a part of the sea, because it moves in it.f Doth a man that holds a thing in the hollow of his hand transform it by that action, and make it like his hand ? The soul and body are more straitly united than the essence of God is by his presence with any creature. The soul is in the body as a form in matter, and from their union doth ariso a man; yet in this near conjunc-* Gaascnd. t Amyrald do Trinit., p. 99, 100.

tion both body and soul remain c) Thi not tin: body,

thi bodj thi soul; they loth l. :M oaeenoee. ]

bo changed into ;i too), DOff tl

, Of ti QtO&i >» 1"

iron, ID Memi I DOt

fai and iri 11 tha ' Bul ach :i kind of arguing

Omoipn lhal if (JcmI with r.s .nili ill\ I be

G i, would exolude biflu from heaven m well i earth. B '"io

"ii, sine.' they lu-Liiiiwl, i seiitiallj in linui-n, ibO hia\eii wh

hi :- bonld i • ■•! into thi nature of God; and by -nst

Lb upon thii ground, thej ran each an i that

they mu d i in to bi oowhere, in 1 that which i rthingl

ll the eillth lit eoine God 1. realise ( rod ii till) 1.. . I 1 by all to I Dt ?

ii, it" where God ii i atially, that mnal I I, thi d il tl i

(i.) i in a point of thi heavene, Dot only that point moat bo ( '^lio

world, I if that ]>oint be God, bocaoai God ii thi re, then thi point

thed by thai point mnal bi God, md . q lenUy nxa

nnv pointi touched by oni another. We Uvi and mo?i in God, live

and novi in the air ; wi art do more God by that than wi ^ir,

athe in it, end it enters into all th< of oor body ; nay,

where there was I ttraitai union of the di\ine nature to the human in our Saviuiir, yet tlie DaiOTi of both was distinct, and the liuinaniiy was HOI

ahanged into thi divinity, nor the divinity into thi humanity.

Hot doth it follow, that heraiise God is everywhero, therefore a

.v be worshipped without idolatry. Some of thi heathene, who

acknowli dgi d God's i mni] • I it to the eonntenanoing idolatry;

G< t i lent in everything, they thonght everything might be

worshipped, and soma have Died it as en argomant against thai doctrine;

the I iption ho drawn out into u: . bio

and pernicions conclusions. Have you not mat with any, that from tho doctrine of God'i trie mercy, and oor Saviour's satisfactory death, havo drawn poison to feed their lusts, and consume their souls ; a pi LSI D O posed by their own corruption, and not offered by those truths f Tho apostle intimates to us, that some did, or at least were ready to he moro

lavish in tinning, because God was abundant in grace : Bom. vi. 1, 2,

all we continue in sin, tli.it grace may abound ?' ver. 1, ' Shall we sin, becaoss Wi are not under the law but under grace ?' when he | I an

objection that he thought might bo made by some ; but as to this case, since, though God be present in everything, yet everythj nature, distinct from the nature of God, therefore it is not to have a « due I I I liency of (iod. Ai longai anything remains a creature, it is

only to haw- tin rea p ect from us which is due to it in the rank of creatu.

When a prince is present with his guard, ox if he should go arm in arm

with a | . is then fore the veneration and honour due to the nrir.ee to

bo paid to I ant, ox an^ of his guard? Woald the presence oi the

pxin it, <>r would it not rather aggravate it? Hi acluiowled snob i person equal to me, by giving him my righte, evwa in mj

Though dwelt in the temple, would not the Isxaelitai be bean

aeoounted | I idolatry had they worshipped the id

bims, or the ark, or tl ts of worship, which were exacted

only as II is then: not as n.r.iii reMOB to think

God was as e« k in the temple ae in heaven, •

Died of thi ind thi other? r lhc i j ii ca

the ' glorious high throne,' Jer. xvii. 12 ; and he is said to * dwell between the cherubims,' Ps. lxxx. 1, i. e. the two cherubims that were at the two ends of the mercy-seat, appointed by God as the two sides of his throne in the sanctuary, Exod. xxv. 18, where he was to ' dwell,' ver. 8, and meet and | commune with his people,' ver. 22. Could this excuse Manasseh's idolatry in bringing in a carved image into the house of God ? 2 Chron. xxxiii. 7. Had it been a good answer to the charge, God is present here, and therefore everything may be worshipped as God. If he be only essentially in heaven, would it not be idolatry to direct a worship to the heavens, o • any part of it as a due object, because of the presence of God there ? Though we look up to the heavens, where we pray and worship God, yet heaven is not the object of worship, the soul abstracts God from the creature. 6. Nor is God denied by being present with those creatures which seem filthy to us. Nothing is filthy in the eye of God as his creature ; he could never else have pronounced all good; whatsoever is filthy to us, yet as it is a creature, it owes itself to the power of God. His essence is no more defiled by being present with it, than his power by producing it. No creature is foul in itself, though it may seem so to us. Doth not an infant lie in a womb of filthiness and rottenness ? Yet is not the power of God present with it, in ' working it curiously in the lower parts of the earth ?' Are his eyes defiled by 'seeing the substance when it is yet imperfect' ? Or his hand defiled by ' writing every member in his book' ? Ps. cxxxix. 15, 16, Have not the vilest and most noisome things excellent medicinal virtues ? How are they endued with them ? How are those qualities preserved in them ? By anything without God or no ? Every artificer looks with pleasure upon the work he hath wrought with art and skill; can his essence be defiled by being present with them, any more than it was in giving them such virtues, and preserving them in them ? God measures the heaven and the earth with his hand; is his hand defiled by the evil iufluences of the planets, or the corporeal impurities of the earth? Nothing cm be filthy in the eye of God but sin, since everything else owes its being to him. What may appear deformed and unworthy to us, is not so to the Creator; he sees beauty where we see deformity ; finds goodness where we behold what is nauseous to us. All creatures, being the effects of his power, may be the objects of his presence ; can any place be more foul than hell, if you take it either for the hell of the damned, or for the grave, where there is rottenness ? yet there he is, Ps. cxxxix. 8. When Satan appeared before God, and spake with him, Job i. 7, could God contract any impurity by being present where that filthy spirit was, more impure than any corporeal, noisome, and defiling thing can be ? No ; God is purity to himself in the midst of noisomeness ; a heaven to himself in the midst of hell. Who ever heard of a sunbeam stained by shining upon a quagmire, any more than sweetened by breaking into a perfumed room !* Though the light shines upon pure and impure things, yet it mixes not itself with either of them ; so, though God be present with devils and wicked men, yet without any mixture, he is present with their essence to sustain and support it, not in their defection, wherein lies their defilement, and which is not a physical but a moral evil; bodily filth can never touch an incorporeal substance. Spirits are not present with us in the same manner that one body is present with another; bodies can, by a touch only, defile bodies. Is the glory of an nngel stained by being in a coal mine ? or could the angel that came into the lions' den, to deliver Daniel, chap. vi. 22, be any more disturbed by the stench of the place, than he could be scratched by the paws or torn by * Shelford of the Attributes, p. 170.

(be teeth of the beasts? Tbeif spiritual them eg

ti.)ii, when tli. v are ' minis! I'll,! , t.h. -ir n

. 7. The ioaJ ii strsitly united with the bo ly, b ititii white or bleok by the whiteneee or blackness of its h ibitation; is it i bj the oorporeeJ imparities of the rhile it continually d is see

of filthy |).)iliitnui ? If tin! ho.ly l>o raft into i o icwer, ii the soul

ili'tili'. 1 h\ it '.' Cm u . to the spirit thftt

animei I it not often tbi

infected by nature. Elozekiah's spirit was tit with

11■ ■ i» the s.iiv, uinrh some think to I lore, wa

him, l>.t. ixxTiii, '■'>. Sow can any o or po r eeJ filth imps of the

divine es nice '.' 1: in iv um well h»i u-l, thai Gk>d is riot j>r«- i-u t in

end fights for bis people, Joanna uiii. LO, b would not I

turned by the aoiee of eannoni and elaahing of swords, as that he . ; i not i sriii. in tin world, beoanae of the ill ecente, Let ns there for e eonela le I with the expression of a learned man of our own i * ■ To deny the omnii sanoc of God, beeanae of ill seented places, is to meaanre G id rather by tho pioety of sense than by the sagacity of reason.'

IV. 1

1. Of information*

(1.) Christ hath s divine nature. As eternity "and immutability, two

incommunicable properties of the divine nature, are aeerihed to Christ, so

also is tins of omnipreeenee or immensity. John iii. 18, 'No man hath

nded np to heaven, but he that came down from he i m the

Son of man which is in heaven.' Not which i/w.s-, but which if; be 000

from heaven by incarnation, and remains in heaven by his divinity. Be was, while he spake to rlioodemns, locally on earth, in regard of his hnmanHy,

but in heaven according to his deity, as well as upon earth in the union of his divine and human nature. He descended upon earth, hut he left not heaven; he was in the world before ho came in the flesh. John i. 10, ■ Be was in tin- world, and the world was made by him.' He was in the world, as the ' light that enlightens every man that comes into the world ;' in the world as God, before he was in the world as man. He was then in tho world as a man, while be discoursed with Nicodemus, yet so that he • also in heaven as God. No creature but is bounded in place, either circumscribed as holy or determined as spirit to be in one space, so as not to bo in another at the same time ; to leave a place where they were, and possess a place where they were not. But Christ is so on earth, that at tho same bnae he is in heaven ; he is therefore infinite. To be in heaven and earth at the same moment of time, is a property solely belonging to tho 1' ity, wherein no creature can be a partner with hiin. »Hc was in the ire he came to the world, ' and the world was made by him,' John i. 1<>. Sis coming was not as the coming of angels, that leave heaven and begin to !><• on earth, where they were not before, but such a presence as can be seeribed only to God, who fills heaven and earth. Again, if all things were made by him, then he was present with all things which v, made, for where there is a presence of power, there is of

essence, and tfa ho is still present; for tho right and power of con-

servation follows the power of creation. And according to this divino nature In- prouiis.th his presence with his church: 'There am I in tho midst of them,' .Mat. xviii. SO. And ' I am with you ahv.iv, even to tho end of the world,' chap, xxviii. 20, i. e. by his divinity ; for ho had before

♦ Dr More.

told them that they were not to have him alway with them, chap. xxvi. 11, i. <?., according to his humanity; but in his divine nature he is present with, and ' walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks.' If we understand it of a presence by his Spirit in the midst of the church, doth it invalidate his essential presence ? No ; he is no less than the Spirit whom he sends, and therefore as little confined as the Spirit is, who dwells in every believer; and this may also be inferred from John x. 30, ' My Father and I are one;' not one by consent, though that be included, but one in power; for he speaks not of their consent, but of their joint power in keeping his people. Where there is a unity of essence there is a unity of presence.

(2.) Here is a confirmation of the spiritual nature of God. If he were an infinite body, he could not fill heaven and earth, but with the exclusion of all creatures. Two bodies cannot be in the same space ; they may be near one another, but not in any of the same points together. A body bounded he hath not, for that would destroy his immensity; he could not then fill heaven and earth, because a body cannot be at one and the same time in two different spaces; but God doth not fill heaven at one time, and the earth at another, but both at the same time. Besides, a limited body cannot be said to fill the whole earth, but one particular space in the earth at a time. A body may fill the earth with its virtue, as the sun, but not with its substance. Nothing can be everywhere with a corporeal weight and mass ;\but God being infinite, is not tied to any part of the world, but penetrates all, and equally acts by his infinite power in all.

(3.) Here is an argument for providence. His presence is mentioned in the text, in order to his government of the affairs of the world. Is he everywhere, to be unconcerned with every thing ? Before the world had a being, God was present with himself; since the world hath a being, he is present with his creatures, to exercise his wisdom in the ordering, as he did his power in the production of them. As the knowledge of God is not a bare contemplation of a thing, so his presence is not a bare inspection into a thing. Were it an idle, careless, presence, it were a presence to no purpose, which cannot be imagined of God. Infinite power, goodness, and wisdom, beinc everywhere present with his essence, are never without their exercise. He never manifests any of his perfections, but the manifestation is full of some indulgence and benefit to his creatures. It cannot be supposed God should neglect those things, wherewith he is constantly present in a way of efficiency and operation.* He is not everywhere without acting everywhere. Wherever his essence is, there is a power and virtue worthy of God everywhere dispensed. He governs by his presence what he made by his power, and is present as an agent with all his works. His power and essence are together, to preserve them while he pleases, as his power and his essence are together to create thorn when he saw good to do it. Every creature hath a stamp of God, and his presence is necessary to keep the impression stand-in<* upon the creature. As all things are his works, they are the objects of his care ; and the wisdom he employed in framing them, will not suffer him to be careless of them. His presence with them, engageth him in honour not to be a negligent governor. His immensity fits him for government; and where there is a fitness, there is an exorcise of government, where there are objects for the exercise of it. Ho is worthy to have the universal rule of the world, ho can bo present in all places of his empire, there is nothing can be dono by any of his subjects, but in his sight. As his eternity renders him king alway, so his immensity renders him king everywhere. If he were only present in heaven, it might occasion a suspicion that he minded only

* Cyril.

Um thin ' - of b w a, in I hid no 8 i for Ihii

but [| !. bore, h *:i i i to 1

of those thingi with which be i \v • an ill En him tho

sou; an 1 hi bears oil in I md tha

limn i.f hi ;•!. It .

ii- from be d ' i to be with t!.

add pecial cordial, as, 'I will be with thee, an<l !>!'•-.-> tin

xxx. B, -l " '. • I i I 'I

help thee, I will uphold thi ■.' I u sli. LO, 14. I

counl

i i ■ I Tl • [f God 1

everywhere, be Mr; bow whal ii doos [j \ for this

imself a < ted filling rth, in the

any bide himself in secret places that ] the L

] li I w hal the prophi I , If 1

fill ! i «• nth, the moat secret thi

An ent being cannol be everywhe . and d

rything, than it can be in itself; but he rwhat i

what is thought within. Nothing can be obscure bo him, who is in ei part of the world, in even- pari of bis creatures. Not a thou rhl np bul in his sight, who is present in the souls and mind Sow ( ■ il with him, to wh s < sue th irld is but i . •

and observe everything d ins in this world, as any of ns san I: • point of place wh< ? If light

. it would behold and know everything don . • itdiffa

i is light (as light in a crystal . il within it, all without

and vant of what is done within and without; no ign c o

apon him wh i hath an nnivers d j II nee by the way we may take notice of the wonderful patience of I who bears with so many provocations, not from a principle of ignorance, for he bears with sins that are committed near him, in his sight, sins that ho Bees, and cannot hut see.

maybe inferred the incomprehensibility of Gol. II) that fins 1 earth, cannot be contained in anything ; ho fills the an I

standings of men, the ondersi indings of angels, but is comprehended bv thai; it is s rashness to think to find out any boundVof (1

ing of an infinite being; if it were to be measured, it were not infinite ; B it is infinite, it is not to be measured. God sits above the rubims, E/.ek. x. 1, above the fulness, above the brightness, not onlv of a human, but a create 1 understanding. Nothing is more present than (I

- more hid'; he is light, and yet Obscurity •• his perfections are ihable ; we know there is an infinite God, bat il ^eth

thee four minds j we know there is no number so ther

I to it; but no man can put it in pracf | i m -

self in a mass of . What is the reason we eomprel | many,

nay, most things in the world? Tartly from the 11 tyoftheobj

an 1 partly from tli : >n of our understanding. II -lien

comprehend <i 1. wh i U, and is exceeded by non all,

an 1 is contained bj re our onderstandin -

Ben > 1 in himself, infinite ; as con

our im tho

. length, an 1 depth of the ana, and at one cast vi

of the heavens ! God and 4 we cannot know him,' Job xxxvi.

* K^^iorr,;, Dl called (.J 1.

he fills the understanding as he fills heaven and earth : yet is above the understanding as he is above heaven and earth. He is known by faith, enjoyed by love, but comprehended by no mind. God is not contained in that one syllable, God; by it we apprehend an excellent and unlimited nature ; himself only understands himself, and can unveil himself.

(6.) How wonderful is God, and how nothing are creatures ! * Ascribe the greatness to our God,' Deut. xxxii. 3. He is admirable in the consideration of his power, in the extent of his understanding, and no less wonderful in the immensity of his essence ; that as Austin saith, he is in the world, yet not confined to it; he is out of the world, yet not debarred from it; he is above the world, yet not elevated by it; he is below the world, yet not depressed by it; he is above all, equalled by none; he is in all, not because he needs them, but they stand in need of him ; this, as well as eternity, makes a vast disproportion between God and the creature. The creature is bounded by a little space, and no space is so great as to bound the Creator. By this we may take a prospect of our own nothingness ; as in the consideration of God's holiness we are minded of our own impurity ; and in the thoughts of his wisdom have a view of our own folly; and in the meditation of his power, have a sense of our weakness ; so his immensity should make us, according to our own nature, appear little in our own eyes. What little, little, little things are we to God! Less than an atom in the beams of the sun; poor drops to a God that fills heaven and earth ; and yet dare we to strut against him, and dash ourselves against a rock. If the consideration of ourselves, in comparison with others, be apt to puff us up, the consideration of ourselves, in comparison with God, will be sufficient to pull us down. If we consider him in the greatness of his essence, there is but little more proportion between him and us, than between being and not being, than between a drop and the ocean. How should we never think of God without a holy admiration of his greatness, and a deep sense of our own littleness! and as the angels cover their faces before him, with what awe should creep-inf* worms come into his sight! and since God fills heaven and earth with his presence, we should fill heaven and earth with his glory ; for this end he created angels to praise him in heaven, and men to worship him on earth, that the places he fills with his presence may be filled with his praise. We should be swallowed up in admiration of the immensity of God, as men are at the first sight of the sea, when they behold a mass of waters, without beholding the bounds, and immense depth of it.

(7.) How much is this attribute of God forgotten or contemned! We pretend to believe him to be present everywhere, and yet many live as if he were present nowhere.

[1.] It is commonly forgotten, or not believed. All the extravagancies of men may be traced to the forgetfulness of this attribute as their spring. The first speech Adam spake in paradise after his fall, testified his unbelief of this : Gen. iii. 10, ' I heard thy voice in the garden, and I hid myself;' his car understood the voico of God, but his mind did not conclude the presence of God; he thought the trees could shelter him from him, whose eye was present in the minutest parts of the earth ; he that thought after his sin, that he could hide himself from the presence of his justice, thought before that he could hide himself from the presence of his knowledge ; and being deceived in the one, he would try what would be the fruit of the other. In both he forgets, if not denies, this attribute ; cither corrupt notions of God, or a Blight belief of what in general men assent unto, gives birth to every sin. In all transgressions thcro is something of atheism : either denying the being of God, or a dash upon somo perfection of God ; a not believing his holi-

i to hats it, hii truth that t).' bis

it. I'll'»-1 < i : ■ r oil' in

r off in the appi ii' ii prill f in

■I I s him, < i

:i him ; hii lust proaaoth him | ■ ■ pleasuro. lie will lis reason, hod prove n horotic, that he may be

an n Qor; : l 11• l iim doubly both in the •

in Job, oil

\\n. II.' ilh thick cl i I not able to piei

worl I ; its if his |uv .-nee :m i confini il (hii

the earth •■ >i his oi

lit. Il 1 moo, wlini th to • much I

' il.ir .Ml. . • I ' '!;>\ 1 >l" 1 Hill Willi t!: .1 l. xllll. 6

I i to i a 'ainsl !• ir, tin u I

our i ir '• tf iln< i of it.

omoipr ■ p u ■ c

tanned. When men will nftsainft that in the pn which th<-v

i or ashame I to d i before the eyo of man. M<n do not pi ity before • ■ I. ro men. lie thai

t m <\ I ir of in ill not restrain either 1.

nt" fear What ii the 1 of this, bnft th I 11

with ns. or hii presence ought to be of 1 i with us, and

influence upon ns, than that of a creature '•' Ask the thief why i ' >

I? Will he not answer, N *s him/ A^k the

ps himself of his <•' . and invades the rights of Will be

.• r, N i • ' Job x\iv. l.">. |(. disguiseth himself to be

•n bj mm, but Blights the all-seeing eye of G If only a man

know tlimi. they are in terror of the shadow of death, Jobxxrr. 17; they

truck, hut stand unshaken at the | L Is not t

to account <i 11 as limited as man, as ignorant, as absenting, as i

than those things which restrain us? It is a d. below S v. If we can forbear sin from any awe of til ■•• of

man, to whom we are equal in regard of nature; or from (he presence very m.an man, to whom we are superior in regard of condition ; and forbear it because wo aro within the ken of God, we r bhn not only

our inferior, but inferior to the meanest man or child of his en ation, in whose would not commit the like action. It i- t r

as! i; as though anythi nt be conceal I

I him, I lioni the least fibres of the heart ar.

II b. iv. 18, who sees as plainly midnight as noonday sins. Now this i-high aggravation of sin. To break a king's laws in his Bight is more 1 than to fiolats them behind his back ; as it was Hainan's otl'ence when ho lay upon 1. . to force the queen before the king's face. The 1

In i qu i ty l a high tincture from this; and no rin can be little that is

an affront in the fico of Qod, and tasting the filth of the creature *he

aeos,—as if a « mid commit adultery before her fa

dishonour his : . and disobey his oonunands in

his ; And hath it not often been thus with US? II

been dis 1 in his sight, before hi -. that t

. iniquity without anger and grief? I-a. l\v. 1"J. • v.- did

:i this home upon David: 8 Bam. ii

* I 1 •. lib. ii. cap. 1U. J Drex . Kl '. lib. ii.

t Qu. • be uotV'— Ll».

VOL. I. I f

* Thou hast despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight.' And David, in his repentance, reflects upon himself for it: Ps. li. 4, ' Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.' I observed not thy presence; I neglected thee while thy eye was upon me. And this consideration should sting our hearts in all our confessions of our crimes. Men will be afraid of the presence of others, whatsoever they think in their heart. How unworthily do we deal with God, in not giving him so much as an eye-service, which we do man ?

(8.) How terrible should the thoughts of this attribute be to sinners! How foolish is it to imagine any hiding-place from the incomprehensible God, who fills and contains all things, and is present in every point of the world.* When men have shut the door, and made all darkness within, to meditate or commit a crime, they cannot in the most intricate recesses be sheltered from the presence of God. If they could separate themselves from their own shadows, they could not avoid his company, or be obscured from his sight: Ps. cxxxix. 12, ■ The darkness and light are both alike to him.' Hypocrites cannot disguise their sentiments from him; he is in the most secret nook of their hearts. No thought is hid, no lust is secret, but the eye of God beholds this, and that, and the other. He is present with our heart when we imagine, with our hands when we act. We may exclude the sun from peeping into our solitudes, but not the eyes of God from beholding our actions. ' The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and good,' Prov. xv. 3. He lies in the depths of our souls, and sees afar off our designs before we have conceived them. He is in the greatest darkness, as well as the clearest light; in the closest thought of the mind, as well as the openest expressions. Nothing can be hid from him; no, not in the darkest cells or thickest walls. ' He compasseth our path' wherever we are, and ' is acquainted with all our ways,' Ps. cxxxix. 3. He is as much present with wicked men to observe their sins, as he is to detest them. Where he is present in his essence, he is present in his attributes: his holiness to hate, and his justice to punish, if he please to speak the word. It is strange men should not be mindful of this, when their very sins themselves might put them in mind of his presence. Whence hast thou the power to act ? Who preserves thy being, whereby thou art capable of committing that evil ? Is it not his essential presence that sustains us, and his arm that supports us ? And where can any man fly from his presence ? Not the vast regions of heaven could shelter a sinning angel from his eye. How was Adam ferreted out of his hiding-places in paradise ? Nor can we find the depths of the sea a sufficient covering to us. If we were with Jonah, closeted up in the belly of a whale ; if we had the wings of the morning, as quick a motion as the light at the dawning of the day, that doth in an instant surprise and overpower the regions of darkness, and could pass to the utmost parts of the earth or hell, there we should find him ; there his eye would be upon us, there would his hand lay hold of us, and lead us as a conqueror triumphing over a captive, Ps. cxxxix. 8-10. Nay, if we could leap out of the compass of heaven and earth, we should find as little reserves from him. He is without the world in those infinite spaces which the mind of man can imagine. In regard of his immensity, nothing in being can be distant from him, wheresoever it is. Use 2 is for comfort. That God is present everywhere, is as much a comfort to a good man as it is a terror to a wicked one. He is everywhere for his people, not only by a necessary perfection of his nature, but an immense diffusion of his goodness. He is in all creatures as their preserver,

* Quo fugis, Enceladc ? Quascunque accesscris oras, Sub Jovo semper eris.

in thfl diimiii '1 as tin ir terror, in hn people I t.rot.-rtor. I f«- fill hell

with his severity, linivrn with liin vith his ^'race. II

trith bin people i >ii ut -itf i in it I'.-inli-n, as manna fan

the iirk. God i mi tii. uuii i ring of | ition, in the church as

cabinet, a Hprin^ «>:' a..-. ■ •> i « n. A man ii present some

imi.s in hii field, but iii htfully in i.i garden. A fin at it

hath more of <•■ I. an moti i watchful \ tier:

i 'I ili.- Lad ili) k»T|) ir. ins vineyard ; ' I trill water it

• j moment ay bnrl it, I will keep it. nighl

I pratenoe of < • • nee, which is natural, -'» tin i hich

i oee by covi ii.int, ' I will not leave thee, I thi i Iter depends upon the former, I ri i the immeu

of God, and ?oo leave no fonndatioo Cor Ins univei .ith

his people m all their emerg< ncies, in all their heart ; and, then fore, wl he "t in hii i DDoi be absent in b from them that

bar him, it ii from hie filling heaven and earth he proves his kn ■•• of the

designs of the false prophets ; and from the same topic may as well inferred the employment of his power and grace for his people.

l. The omnipresence of God is comfort in all violent temptations]. Mo fiery dart can be so present with as, as God is pre enl both with that the marksman. The mosl j devils cannot be so near c to

as and them. Be is pr< sent with his people, to relieve Uu n ; with the devil, to manage him to his own holy purposes. So he was -Job, defeating his enemies, and bringing him triumphantly ont of tl

ising trials. This presence is such s terror that, whatsoever the devil can tl< spoil ns of, he most leave this nntouohed. He might scratch I

itle with a thorn, 2 l ii. 7, '.», but he conld not rifle him of the ;

I divine which God promised him. He must pn vail so far as

to make Qod cease to be God, before he can make him to be distant from

US : and. while this cannot be, the dt-vils and 111.11 can no more hinder the of God to the soul, than a child can cut off the rays of the sun from embellishing the earth ; it is no moan support for a good man, at any buffeted by s messenger of Satan, to think G ir him, and

hcholds how ill he is u-t d. It would bo a satisfaction to a king's favour' in the midst of the violence some enemies might use to him upon a 1, to

Understand that the king who loves him, stands behind a curtain, and thro ■ Ind,- si,- the injuries he sutlers; and wore the devil as considering as he is malicious, he could not but l>o in groat fear at God'.- being in I

of the righteous, as his serpentine seed is: V>. xiv. 5, 'There wi ,r fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous. 1 -. The omnipn « DOS of < k)d is a comfort in sharp atllictions. G

comfort in this pie-, nee in their nasty prisons, oppressing tribunal.-; in the overflow or scorching flames, he is still with them, 1

xliii. 2 ; and many times, by his presence, keeps the bush from eonsumh .

(US to be ail in a flame. In atllictions, God shews him-, if D

when friends are most absent: 'When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord shall take me up.' Ps. xxvii. 10; then G p and gather me into his protection ; H<i>. 'shall gather me, 1 alio I

ling Up the rear in the I (oh, t->

re that I ad, and exposed to famine or wild beasts,

by reason of some disease that disenabled them to keep paos with their brethren, lie that is the sanctuary of his people in all calami: with tl: mpport them, than their adv. :

with them, to afflict them: Ps* ilvi, ii, *A present help in the time of

trouble.' He is present with all things for this end ; though his presence be a necessary presence, in regard of the immensity of his nature, yet the end of this presence, in regard that it is for the good of his people, is a voluntary presence. It is for the good of man he is present in the lower world, and principally for the good of his people, for whose sake he keeps up the world: 2 Chron. xvi. 9, ' His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him.' If he doth not deliver good men from afflictions, he will be so present as to manage them in them, as that his glory shall issue from them, and their grace be brightened by them.*

What a man was Paul, when he was lodged in a prison, or dragged to the courts of judicature ; when he was torn with rods, or laden with chains ! Then did he shew the greatest miracles, made the judge tremble upon the bench, and break the heart, though not the prison, of the jailor,—so powerful is the presence of God in the pressures of his people. This presence outweighs all other comforts, and is more valuable to a Christian than barns of corn or cellars of wine can be to a covetous man, Ps. iv. 7. It was this presence was David's cordial in the mutinying of his soldiers, 1 Sam. xxx. 6. What a comfort is this in exile, or a forced desertion of our habitations ! Good men may be banished from their country, but never from the presence of their protector; ye cannot say of any corner of the earth, or of any dungeon in a prison, God is not here. If you were cast out of your country a thousand miles off, you are not out of God's precinct, his arm is there to . cherish the good, as well as to drag out the wicked; it is the same God, the same presence in every country, as well as the same sun, moon, and stars; and were not God everywhere, yet he could not be meaner than his creature, the sun in the firmament, which visits every part of the habitable world in twenty-four hours.

3. The omnipotence f of God is a comfort in all duties of worship. He is present to observe, and present to accept our petitions, and answer our suits. Good men have not only the essential presence, which is common to all, but his gracious presence ; not only the presence that flows from his nature, but that which flows from his promise ; his essential presence makes no difference between this and that man in regard of spirituals, without this in conjunction with it; his nature is the cause of the presence of his essence; his will, engaged by his truth, is the cause of the presence of his grace. He promised to meet the Israelites in the place where he should set his name, and in all places where he doth record it: Exod. xx. 24, ' In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee;' in every place where I shall manifest the special presence of my divinity. In all places hands maybe lifted up, without doubting of his ability to hear; he dwells in the ' contrite hearts,' Isa. Ivii. 15, wherever it is most in- the exercise of contrition, which is usually in times of special worship ; and that to revive and refresh them. Habitation notes a special presence ; though he dwell in the highest heavens, in the sparklings of his glory, he dwells also in the lowest hearts in the beams of his grace ; as none can expel him from his dwelling in heaven, so none can reject him from his residence in the heart. The tabernacle had his peculiar presence fixed to it, Levit. xxvi. 11 ; his soul should not abhor them as they are washed by Christ, though they are loathsome by sin. In a greater dispensation there cannot be a less presence, since tho church, under the New Testament, is called the temple of tho Lord, wherein lie will both dwell and walk: 2 Cor. vi. 16, or, ' I will indwell them ;' as if ho should say, I will dwell in and in them; * Cbrysostom. -f- Qu.'oinnipreseuce ?'— Ed.

Will. '21.

1 uill dwell in them by bm them I

will be more intimate with then Iota Ihoif i ltn

i :is the livii . i.f. as a God thai bath life in 1 to

OODVi y lii tin-in in tin Mr <• h lnm ; nn I hIi piritual gl

iinmiij; til. Ill in 'imt WIS

.in, I ti.. I church, the mystical I

Ins Son. 11 is j.r, not I- I in tin* l. was in 1

shadow ; tl. li i, in his ordinal iiurrh,

IIS tin jUesenee <>t' u IvlMiJ is tin L, too, SS a

Will ,.! li. ii. .'», ulimlin" t.i tin lire travrll-rs in a vrildernefl

to tii [hi .11 be ists. It ii oof the i ice of i

sxclode him ; the looond temple wm not las tin- t. '.

. an 1 ill, .1. , : , .III til ill I",-, I

..•nn.I, as they had in the Ant, because they thonghl it ->od for the entertainment of him that inhabil bntG rta

them ineett again and again: Hag. ii. 8,4, ' B<

beBtrnii'. i on with you; 1 khemeanneei of the place ahall not hinder I

lent of iii\ ■ . No matt i it I the p

chamber of the King, wherein hewillmvoui our suit ^ 1 it it* into <>ur Bonle with s perpetnal sweel sbero, ai I

so intimate with every one thai ban him. li" we should »G I • irth in his amiableneai, as Moses did, should we noi he eneoa I by his pteei one, I i pn « at onr n qu< iti to him, to echo oral our pi I him "

: have wi no I now tq do it. iinee he 'Tit

with »is, as if he wen viail .' Se is in ti: • room with

near to us as our BOnli to our hodies ; not a WOfd but he bean, DOl ■ motion

but he tees, noi ■ breath but he perceiTei; he ii through all, ho is in all. i. The omni] I i ii ■ comfort in all speeial aerfiei Qod

'its any upon a hanl task, hut ho makes promises to. i] • thorn

P the promise ie that of hie pretence.

ho tli.l | the prophetl of Old When he sot them difficult tasks; and

strengthened M oust the face of Pharaoh, by assnring him he would

i his month, 1 Bxod. iv. L2; and when Christ pot his ape ^on

a cont.-st with the whole world, to preach a gospel that would be fo olishne ss to the On ska, and a itumbling-bloek to the Jews, he gives them a cordial only composed of his presence : list, xxviii. '20, ' I will be with you.' It i« this • Iters, by its Light, the darkness of our spirits; it is U

that is | a Of what is dune for his glory in the world: it is this I

iniii If with all that is done for his honour; it is this from whence

springs all the uoe of his en marked out mi -es.

■ >. i nil I o ii not without th 1 his attrih

When • is, his perfections an, because they an one with his

they aro his essence, though they have their several decrees i^\ : in the Covenant, he makes over himself as our <>

ill of himself, but his whole deity ; so, in promising of his preeei

he • fit, hut the whole, the presence of all the exoellen

of his na'ure to DC manifested for our good. It is not a ]>ieoe of < I

and another, panel then, but God in bis who md perl ; in

r to iteet and m] ■ ort us. 1.

pit; . r,^, and his e;oodi He is

irkle nut in this Off that pel

>wn honour ; so that \<-a us in any I I »Ueney of his natnn . IB quickly have recourse to

him npon any em er g en cy; if we an mil

his goodness ; if we want direction, we have the presence of his wisdom; if we are weak, we have the presence of his power; and should we not rejoice in it, as a man doth in the presence of a powerful, wealthy, and compassionate friend ?

Use 3. Of exhortation.

1. Let us be much in the actual thoughts of his truth. How should we enrich our understandings with the knowledge of the excellency of God, whereof this is none of the least; nor hath less of honey in its bowels, though it be more terrible to the wicked than the presence of a lion! It is this that makes all other excellencies of the divine nature sweet. What would grace, wisdom, power, signify at a distance from us ? Let us frame in our minds a strong idea of it; it is this makes so great a difference between the actions of one man and another; one maintains actual thoughts of it, another doth not, though all believe it as a perfection pertaining to the infiniteness of his essence. David, or rather a greater than David, had God ' always before him;' there was no time, no occasion, wherein he did not stir up some lively thoughts of him, Ps. xvi. 8. Let us have right notions of it: imagine not God as a great king, sitting only in his majesty in heaven, acting all by his servants and ministers. This, saith one,* is a childish and unworthy conceit of God, and may in time bring such a con-ceiver by degrees to deny his providence. The denial of this perfection is an axe at the root of religion; if it be not deeply imprinted in the mind, personal religion grows faint and feeble. Who would fear that God that is not imagined to be a witness of his actions ? Who would worship a God at a distance both from the worship and worshipper ? f Let us believe this truth, but not with an idle faith, as if we did not believe it. Let us know that as wheresoever the fish moves, it is in the water; wheresoever the bird moves, it is in the air; so wheresoever we move, we are in God. As there is not a moment but we are under his mercy, so there is not a moment that we are out of his presence. Let us therefore look upon nothing without thinking who stands by, without reflecting upon him in whom it lives, moves, and hath its being. When you view a man, you fix your eyes upon his body, but your mind upon that invisible part that acts every member by life and motion, and makes them fit for your converse. Let us not bound our thoughts to the creatures we see, but pierce through the creature to that boundless God we do not see. We have continual remembrancers of his presence; the light whereby we see, and the air whereby we live, give us perpetual notices of it, and some weak resemblance. Why should we forget it ? Yea, what a shame is our unmindfulness of it, when every cast of our eye, every motion of our lungs, jogs us to remember it. Light is in every part of the air, in every part of the world, yet not mixed with any; both remain entire in their own substance. Let us not be worse than some of the heathens, who pressed this notion upon themselves for the spiriting their actions with virtue, that all places were full of God. J This was the means Basil used to prescribe. Upon a question was asked him, How shall we do to be serious ? Mind God's presence. How shall we avoid distractions in service ? Think of God's presence. How shall we resist temptations ? Oppose to them the presence of God.

(1.) This will be a shield against all temptations. God is present, is enough to blunt the weapons of hell; this will secure us from a ready compliance with any baso and vile attractives, and curb that head-strong principle in our nature that would join hands with them. The thoughts of this would, like the powerful presonce of God with the Israelites, take off the wheels from the chariots of our sensitive appetites, and make them perhaps * Musculus. | Drexel. X Omnia Diis plena.

move slower :it l.:ist t ft temptation. How did Peter fl. the

temptation whieh had wonted bimf Upon •<*■ look from Ohrist. The ae-boated faith ol thi i would stifle thi darti i . and lire 01 with an an

• > I i i -11.11 M the fire that inflamei the darti. Bfo

Ins eight of ' liiin that was invisible' itrengthened him against the costly pleasures and luxurios of a prinee'scooj ,H 27i •• ft utt.-rh

of i Deity if W6 an do! mofod with this turn from om t God

irsmt. Had our til aetoally considered the nearneei of 0 I

|0 them when they were tempted to cut of tin forbidden fruit, tin v had not

probably so easily Iiimmi overcome hv tin t<mptation. \\ >ldier woold

i. i) li;is,. ;is to revolt under tin* v) ■ tender and ol oeral ? 01

what man so negligent of himself as to rob a honse ifl the light of :i jod I der thai <tod ii 11 Dear to I to aolioit

y, i, ; i rer, The devil rtandi by us, bnl G VYe may have >•

thonghl the devil knows ?i<>t, but not ■ thooghi bnt God ii actually pre*

With, as our souls arc with the thoughts they think j DOT ean || attract our heart, it' our minds WON fixed on tint iir.i-ihi thai

to ili:ii excellency, and sustains it, and OOllSJciorod that DO creatine could he so present with us as the Cr, ;,t. r i .

ffl.) It will be a spur to holy actions. What man would do an unworthy

m, or Bpeak an onhandionie word in the preienee of his prinee 1 The aye of the general intlamcs the spirit of a loldier. Why did David 'keep God's teetimoniei 9 ' Beoanae he oonaidered that * nil Ins wi him, 1 Pi. exix. L68 : beeaoae he was peranaded bii • nt with

God, God's preoepti should be present with him. The same was tin of Job'i integrity ; * doth he not see my ways?' Job xxxi. 4 ; to ha in our eye is the way to he sincere, ' walk before me,' as in my light, ' and be thou perfect,' (Jen. xvii. 1. Communion with God eoniieta chiefly in an ordering our ways as in the pre* nee of him that is invisible. This would make us spiritual, raised and watchful in all our passions, if we considered that (iod is present with us in our shops, in our chambers, in our walks, and in our meetings, as present with us as with the angels in heaven; who thongh they have a presence of glory above us, yet have not a great* r meaanre of his essential presence than we have. What an awe had Jai upon him when he considered God was present in Bethel, Gen. xxviu. 16, 17. It' God should appear visibly to us when we were alone, should we not bo reverent and serious before him ? God is everywhere about us, he doth MimrmpanB us with his presence; should not God's seeing have the same inllueiice upon us as our seeing God ? He is not more essentially present if he should so manifest himself to us, than when he doth not ; who would appear Iwmneinul in the presence of a great person f or not be, ashamed to

'inid in his chamber in a nasty posture, by some visitant '.' Would not a man blush to be catehed about some mean action, though it were not an immoral crime '.' It' this truth were impressed upon our spirits, we should more blush to have our souls daubed with some loathsome lust, swarms of sin, hk. I :i lie and bogs, creeping about our heart in bis sight. If

the mosi . il man be ashamed to do a dishonest action in the Bight of

a grave and holy man, one of gnat reputation lor wisdom ami integrity, bow much more should we lift up ourselves in the ways of God, WD

infinite and immense, is everywhere, and infinitely superior t<> m

mote to be regarded I We could not seriously think of his presence, bat

ronld pass some intoi somas between us; we should be potting np

some ] station upon the sense of our indigence, or sending np onr \ •

him upon the sense of his bounty. The actual thoughts of the presence of

God is the life and spirit of all religion ; we could not have sluggish spirits and a careless watch if we considered that his eye is upon us all the day.

(3.) It will quell distractions in worship. The actual thoughts of this would establish our thoughts, and pull them back when they begin to rove ; the mind could not boldly give God the slip if it had lively thoughts of it; the consideration of this would blow off all the froth that lies on the top of our spirits. An eye taken up with the presence of one object is not at leisure to be filled with another; he that looks intently upon the sun shall have nothing for a while but the sun in his eye. Oppose to every intruding thought the idea of the divine omnipresence, and put it to silence by the awe of his majesty. When the master is present, scholars mind their books, keep their places, and run not over the forms to play with one another ; the master's eye keeps an idle servant to his work, that otherwise would be gazing at every straw, and prating to every passenger. How soon would the remembrance of this dash all extravagant fancies out of countenance, just as the news of the approach of a prince would make the courtiers bustle up themselves, huddle up their vain sports, and prepare themselves for a reverent behaviour in his sight. We should not dare to give God a piece of our heart, w ? hen we apprehend him present with the whole ; we should not dare to mock one that we knew w r ere more inwards with us than we are with ourselves, and that beheld every motion of our mind as well as action of our body.

Let us endeavour for the more special and influential presence of God. Let the essential presence of God be the ground of our awe, and his gracious influential presence the object of our desire. The heathen thought themselves secure if they had their little petty household gods with them in their journeys ; such seem to be the images Rachel stole from her father, Gen. xxxi. 19, to accompany her travel with their blessings ; she might not at that time have cast off all respect to those idols, in the acknowledgment of which she had been educated from her infancy ; and they seem to be kept by her till God called Jacob to Bethel, after the rape of Dinah, Gen. xxxv. 4, when Jacob called for the strange gods, and hid them under the oak. The gracious presence of God we should look after in our actions, as travellers ihat have a charge of money or jewels, desire to keep themselves in company that may protect them from highwaymen that would rifle them. Since we have the concerns of the eternal happiness of our souls upon our hands, we should endeavour to have God's merciful and powerful presence with us in all our ways : Prov. iii. 6, ' In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths ;' acknowledge him before any action by imploring ; acknowledge him after, by rendering him the glory ; acknowledge his presence before worship, in worship, after worship. It is this presence makes a kind of heaven upon earth, causeth affliction to put off the nature of misery. How much will the presence of the sun outshine the stars of lesser comforts, and fully answer the want of them ! The ark of God going before us can only make all things successful. It was this led the Israelites over Jordan, and settled them in Canaan. Without this, we signify nothing; though we live without this, we cannot be distinguished for ever from devils ; his essential presence they have, and if we have no more, wo shall be no better. It is the enlivening, fructifying presence of the sun that revives the languishing earth, and this only can repair our ruined soul. Let it be therefore our desire, that as he fills heaven and earth by his essence, he may fill our understandings and wills by his grace; that we may have another kind of presence with us than animals have in their brutish state, or devils in their chains ; his essential presence maintains our beings, but his gracious presence confers and continues a happiness.

•it it <>ur Jjordy nihl of great potter: hit understanding it infinite. —

!' •.: i CXIA II. :,.

T r is iiTuvrf iin who wu tin- author of this psalm, and i ':■ d it was pem Bom6 think after the return from the Babylonish captivity. I -aim of

praise, ami is made up of matter of praise from the beginning to the end: God's benefits to the church, his providence oyer In. c

( icellencj o( liis nature.

The pealmist donblei his i tiou to prai : ver. l. ']

the Lord) sing praise to our God:' to praise him from his dominion / i••/; from liis graee and m< i; from thi

duty itself, 'it is good, it is comely.' Some read it <<nnehj, some J

desirable, from the various derivation of the word.

aing doth so much delight a gracious soul, as an opportunity of oelebrai-

the perfections and goodness of the Creator.

The higheel duties a creature can render to the Creafa pleasanl and

ditful in themselves, 'it is comely.' Praise is a duty that the

whole soul.

The praise of God is a decent thing, the excellency of G iture

it, and the benefits of God 1 requires it.

It is comely when done as it ought to be, with the heart as well as with the voice ; a sinner sings ill though his voice be good, the soul in it i be el rated above earthly things.

The first matter of praise is God's erecting and preserving his church : v,r. l\ • Ti. !. I doth buildup Jerusalem; he gathers together the ont-EsraeL 1 The walls of demolished Jerusalem are now re-edified; I I hath brought back the captivity of Jacob, and reduced his p r Babylonish exile; and those that were di

1 to their habitations. Or it may be prophetic of th< oft! I . and the gathering the outcasts of the Bpiritual Israel, I

ire* as without God in 'hi. and strangers to the «

promise. I I be praised, but especially for building op his ahurefa

and gathering the Gentili . counted as outcasts, 1-.:. xL 1-:

gSihi El them in this world to the faith, and henat:< I I ' . 1. Kroni the two tirst \« 1. Ail i Opk are under lied's ;icular regard fa

church. This is the signet on his hand, as a bracelet upon his arm; this is his garden, which he delights to dress; if he prunes it, it is to purge it; if he digs about his vine and wounds the branches, it is to make it more beautiful with new clusters, and restore it to a fruitful vigour.

2. All great deliverances are to be ascribed to God, as the principal author, whosoever are the instruments. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, he gathers together the outcasts of Israel. This great deliverance from Babylon is not to be ascribed to Cyrus or Darius, or the rest of our favourers ; it is the Lord that doth it, we had his promise for it, we have now his performance. Let us not ascribe that which is the effect of his truth, only to the good-will of men ; it is God's act, ' not by might, nor by power,' nor by weapons of war, or strength of horses, ' but by the Spirit of the Lord.' He sent prophets to comfort us while we were exiles, and now he hath stretched out his own arm to work our deliverance according to his word ; blind man looks so much upon instruments, that he hardly takes notice of God, either in afflictions or mercies ; and this is the cause that robs God of so much prayer and praise in the world.

Verse 3, ' He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.' He hath now restored those who had no hope but in his word ; he hath dealt with them as a tender and skilful chirurgeon, he hath applied his curing plasters, and dropped in his sovereign balsams; he hath now furnished our fainting hearts with refreshing cordials, and comforted our wounds with strengthening ligatures.

How gracious is God, that restores liberty to the captives, and righteousness to the penitent! Man's misery is the fittest opportunity for God to make his mercy illustrious in itself, and most welcome to the patient.

He proceeds, verse 4. Wonder not that God calls together the outcasts, and singles them out from every corner for a return; why can he not do this, as well as ' tell the number of the stars, and call them all by their names' ?

There are none of his people so despicable in the eye of man, but they are known and regarded by God. Though they are clouded in the world, yet they are the stars of the world; and shall God number the inanimate stars in the heavens, and make no account of his living stars on the earth ? No ; wherever they are dispersed, he will not forget them; however they are afflicted, he will not despise them. The stars are so numerous that they are innumerable by man; some are visible and known by men, others lie more hid and undiscovered in a confused light, as those in the milky way; man cannot see one of them distinctly.

God knows all his people. As he can do what is above the power of man to perform, so he understands what is above the skill of man to discover. Shall man measure God by his scantiness ? Proud man must not equal himself to God, nor cut God as short as his own line.

1 He tells the number of the stars; and calls them all by their names.' He hath them all in his list, as generals the names of their soldiers in their muster-roll, for they are his host, which he marshals in the heavens, as Isa. xl. 2G, where you have the like expression; he knows them more distinctly than man can know anything, and so distinctly as to ' call them all by their names.' He knows their names, that is, their natural offices, influences, the different degrees of heat and light, their order and motion ; and all of them, the least glimmering star as well as the most glaring planet, this man cannot do : ' Tell the stars if thou be able to number them,' Gen. xv. 5, saith God to Abraham (whom Josephus represents as a great astronomer); yea, they cannot be numbered, Jer. xxxiii. 22, and the uncertainty of the opinions of men evidenceth their ignorance of their number, some reckoning 1022,

P . CXLYII. 5.] MD'l knoui.i i

nth. i h »•.».-,. ,,•!,, ,■ inns, ,,11,,-r t.iimi.i,, that, by reason of their

mixtui. of In-lit with ••iif another, ramiol ned, and otl

p< rluiji it lni'li a , nut tu In i. .nil. .1 |i\ i i.l iiiiiu. Tu iiiiji".-. nan

on things, iin.l n.unoH according to their Dal

power and dominion, and of wisdom and m from the im]

ol ii. mi. upon the creatures b Adam ii generally

ooneludud, and it wan ul n u fruil of thai dominion liod allowed bin o

tin- cnutun . Now In (lint iiumh. is :iml nam. tin . that M<m t« <

Oonfusi .| union mother, Si v%«-11 a- 11 *«• appear l<» u.i in un un-

olonded night, ma) well be mippo >.l accurate il-. i. know pie, the

1 ni k iii-' in in. I I.ii

their deliverance ; tin- on. . to him us thr other, and the Dumber

of the odo h^ distinctly known by him u~ the mnltitnde <»t thi

our lii.nl, :iii<l ol "great power : 1 • ■

infinite. 1 Ele wants Dot knowledge to know the ohjeel , d< effect his will c(>noerning them. Of great power, ro 2D. .Muni pit i it. ous in power; to the word 3"i ii rendered, Ps. lxxxri. 6. L6, HDn 2").

A multitude of power, us well us u multitude of DM n • ; ■ | that ex-

ceeds ull created power und understanding.

' lh> ondentanding is infinite.' You may do! ■» wft (p f> « how he ••un eal] all the itan by Dame, the mnltitnde ol visible being and the

multitude of the inviaible being greater j but you must knon thai I Lie almighty, bo he is omniscient ; und at tin re if do end of hi • do

• unit can exactly be given of bit Dnderstanding: • hia Dnderstandm infinite,'^I)DDPR No number ox account ofitj and so the Bam ire rendered, Joel i. 6, * A nation strong, and without number.' of bifl Dnderstanding j Syrtae, no meaeore, no hounds. II i in-

finite, and so ae hk power und Dnderstanding; and vast ifl bifl knowled

thai Wfl can DO luoiv comprehend it. than Wfl ran in. a-i. - that STS

without limits, or t«-11 the inuiut.-s or bonxfl ol eternity. A o then futhoiu thai whereof there ifl do Dumber, hut which exm i ds all, so that tl. is do loarnhing of it out ? He knows aniyersals, he knows particulars. We must not take Dnderstanding, nj13n, here, as Doting a faculty, but the of the Dnderstanding in the knowledge of things, und the judgment in the

eon-id. -ration of them, and so it is often Dfled. In the verse there is a description of God.

1. In his essence: 'great is our Lord.'

"2. In his power: 'of great power. 1

8. In his knowledge: 'his Dnderstanding ifl infinite;' his understand-ing hi bis eye, and his power is his arm. Of his infinite understanding I am to discos

/'■<'. God hath an infinite knowledge and understanding; allknowl Omnipn . which before we Bpake "f, respecta bifl essence; oiniuscienoe

r. -j.. otfl bifl ondentanding, aooording to our manner oi conception.

Thia is clear in Scripture; hence God is culled ■ God of knowled l Bam. ii. B, ' The Lord is a God of knowledge; 1 Bee, 'knowledges,' in the phxral Dumber, of all kind of knowledge. It is spoken there to aueU man's pride in his own reason und parte. Whal is the knowledge of man bul i rk to the whole element of fire, ■ grain of dust, and worse than Dotbii . in oompariflon of the knowledge of God, as bifl osaonoa is in comparison of

the essence of (iod '.' All kind of knowledge. He SHOWS what angeld ki. Whal man knows, und iiitimterv more ; he knOWfl himself, his own all hlfl cnatuies, the notions und thoughts of tluin ; he ifl anderstai above Dndexstanding, niind above mind, the mind of minds, the light of

lights ; this the Greek word &dg signifies in the etymology of it, of 0£/<fta/* to see, to contemplate ; and dal/xuv of haica sclo. The names of God signify a nature viewing and piercing all things ; and the attribution of our senses to God in Scripture, as hearing and seeing, which are the senses whereby knowledge enters into us, signifies God's knowledge.

1. The notion of God's knowledge of all things lies above the ruins of nature : it was not obliterated by the fall of man. It was necessary offending man was to know that he had a Creator whom he had injured, that he had a Judge to try and punish him; since God thought fit to keep up the world, it had been kept up to no purpose, had not this notion been continued alive in the minds of men; there would not have been any practice of his laws, no bar to the worst of crimes. If men had thought they had to deal with an ignorant Deity, there could be no practice of religion. Who would lift up his eyes, or spread his hand towards heaven, if he imagined his devotion were directed to a God as blind as the heathens imagined fortune ? To what boot would it be for them to make heaven and earth resound with their cries, if they had not thought God had an eye to see them and an ear to hear them ? And indeed the very notion of a God at the first blush speaks him a being endued with understanding ; no man can imagine a Creator void of one of the noblest perfections belonging to those creatures that are the flower and cream of his works.

2. Therefore all nations acknowledge this, as well as the existence and being of God. No nation but had their temples, particular ceremonies of worship, and presented their sacrifices, which they could not have been so vain as to do, without an acknowledgement of this attribute. This notion of God's knowledge owed not its rise to tradition, but to natural implantation ; it was born and grew up with every rational creature. Though the several nations and men of the world agreed not in one kind of Deity, or in their sentiments of his nature or other perfections, some judging him clothed with a fine and pure body, others judging him an uncompounded spirit, some fixing him to a seat in the heavens, others owning his universal presence in all parts of the world, yet they all agreed in the universality of his knowledge ; and their own consciences reflecting their crimes, unknown to any but themselves, would keep this notion in some vigour whether they would or no. Now this being implanted in the minds of all men by nature, cannot be false, for nature imprints not in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity. Nature w r ould not pervert the reason and minds of men. Universal notions of God are from original, not lapsed nature, and preserved in mankind in order to a restoration from a lapsed state. The heathens did acknowledge this ; in all the solemn covenants, solemnised with oaths and the invocation of the name of God, this attribute was supposed.f They confessed knowledge to be peculiar to the Deity; Scientia Deorum vita, saith Cicero. Some called him Noug, mens, mind, pure understanding, without any mote ; 'EToVr?jr, the inspector of all. As they called him Life, because he was the author of life, so they called him Intellectns, because he was the author of all knowledge and understanding in his creatures. And one being asked, Whether any man could be hid from God ? No, saith he, not so much as thinking. Some call him the Eye of the world,! an ^ ^ ne

*Qu 'SiStfJa/'?—ED.

t Agamemnon (Homer II. 3. v. 277), making a covenant with Priam, invocates the sun:—

'lUXioc y o£ iruvr epogug x.ui navr eVaxoiis/;. X Gamach in 1 Pa. Aquin. q. 14. cap. i. p. 119.

I by n eye on the lop oft seeptre, beeaftje God

if all eye, and oan be ignorant of aothing.*

Ami the iiiir nation mad tin; rm II.nt m<

eonaeorating tbem to <<"d, and banging Lbem ap in the mid I of kl temples, in igninoation of i ind hearing all thing ; hence I

call.d (i,xl ii ■■in. as w.ll us the Sci iplm «•, h. ran .• all thin ltim.

For the better understanding of this, we will inqc

I. \\ bal kind of knowledge 01 audi c tandio I.

II. \\ bal ( '"'I knows.

III. How ( nnl knows thin

I \. The proof thai Ck>d knows all thii

\ . i of all to 0:1

I. \\ hat kind of onderstanding or knowledge there is in God.

The knowledge of God in Scripture hath various nan. , the

furious relationi or objoeti of it. [nn ipeet of pretmt things, il called knowledge orsighi ; in reaped of things post, remembn things I'litm, i, or to oome, it is ealled foreknowledge or | |

i. il. In regard of the aniveraalitj of the ohjeoi . U i ealled omni in regard of the simple onderstanding of things, it is ealled knowledge ; in

ird of acting and modelling the ways of actii . prudence, Eph, i. 8, Be most bave knowledge, otherwise he could no! wise; wisdom is the flower of knowledge, and knowled wisdom.

As to what this knowledge is, if we know what knowledge is in man, we may apprehend whaj it is in God, removing all imperfection iron:

ibing to him the most eminent way of onderstanding ; because we ean-eomprehend God, but as he is pleased to condescend to as in bis own ways of discovery,—thai is, under some way of similitude to hi- j creatun 9, -therefore we have a notion of God by his onderstanding and will : understanding, whereby he conceives and apprehends things ; will, s 1.. 1 tt ads himself in acting, according to his wisdom, and whereby i approve or disapprove. Yet, we must not measure his understanding by our own. or think it to be of so gross a temper as a created mind; ti hath 'eyes of A sh,' or ' sees or knows as man Bees, 1 Job \. I. \\V can no more meaton his knowledge by ours, than we can measure bis ■ by

our essence. As be hath an incomprehensibli essence, to which ours is but (i of a bucket, so he hath an incomprehensible knowledgi, to which

- is but :■ rin of dust, or mere darkm as. ' His thoughts

our thoughts, as the heavens are above the earth.'

e knowledge of God is variously divided by the schools, and acknowledged by all divin. .

1. A knowledge vision** ttnmpHcii bttelUgentia ; the one we mav call s sight, the othi r an understanding ; the one refers to sense, the other to the mind. (1). k knowledge of vision or sight Thus God knows himself and all

tilings that really W . or shall be in time: all those things which

i to be, though they an not yet actually sprang up in

but lie couchant in their cai;

[•2*. A knowledge of mteltigenee, or simple understandi]

tliis is not things that are in b that shall by any d , r

bo SI in the world, but such things a>are possible to be wrought bv tiio

* Clem. Alezand. Strom, lib. vi.

power of God, though they shall never in the least peep up into being, but lie for ever wrapt up in darkness and nothing.* This also is a necessary knowledge to be allowed to God, because the object of this knowledge is necessary. The possibility of more creatures than ever were or shall be, is a conclusion that hath a necessary truth in it, as it is necessary that the power of God can produce more creatures, though it be not necessary that it should produce more creatures; so it is necessary that whatsoever the power of God can work, is possible to be. And as God knows this possibility, so he knows all the objects that are thus possible ; and herein doth much consist the infiniteness of his knowledge, as shall be shewn presently.

These two kinds of knowledge differ. That of vision is of things which God hath decreed to be, though, they are not yet. That of intelligence is of things which never shall be, yet they may be, or are possible to be, if God please to will and order their being ; one respects things that shall be, the other, things that may be, and are not repugnant to the nature of God to be. The knowledge of vision follows the act of God's will, and supposeth an act of God's will before, decreeing things to be. (If we could suppose any first or second in God's decree, we might say God knew them as possible before he decreed them; he knew them as future because he decreed them.) For without the will of God decreeing a thing to come to pass, God cannot know that it will infallibly come to pass. But the knowledge of intelligence stands without any act of his will, in order to the being of those things he knows. He knows possible things only in his power; he knows other things both in his power, as able to effect them, and in his will, as determining the being of them. Such knowledge we must grant to be in God, for there is such a kind of knowledge in man; for man doth not only know and see what is before his eyes in this world, but he may have a conception of many more worlds, and many more creatures, which he knows are possible to the power of God.

2. Secondly, There is a speculative and practical knowledge in God.

(1). A speculative knowledge is, when the truth of a thing is known without a respect to any working or practical operation. The knowledge of things possible is in God only speculative,f and some say God's knowledge of himself is only speculative, because there is nothing for God to work in himself. And, though he knows himself, yet this knowledge of himself doth not terminate there, but flowers into a love of himself, and delight in himself ; vet this love of himself, and delight in himself, is not enough to make it a practical knowledge, because it is natural, and naturally and necessarily flows from the knowledge of himself and his own goodness. He cannot but love himself, and delight in himself, upon the knowledge of himself. But that which is properly practice is where there is a dominion over the action, and it is wrought, not naturally and necessarily, but in a way of freedom and counsel. As when we see a beautiful flower or other thing, there ariseth a delight in the mind ; this no man will call practice, because it is a natural affection of the will, arising from the virtue of the object, without any consideration of the understanding in a practical manner, by counselling, commanding, &c.

(2.) A practical knowledge, which tends to operation and practice, and is the principle of working about things that are known, as the knowledge an artificer hath in an art or mystery. This knowledge is in God. The knowledge he hath of the things he hath decreed, is such a kind of knowledge, for it terminates in the act of creation, which is not a natural and necessary-act, as the loving himself and delighting in himself is, but wholly free ; for * Suarez de Deo, lib. iii. cap. iv. p. 230. t Ibid. p. 138.

!' . ('XLVI I. NOWZJU

it whs ut his liberty whether he would create them or no. Thii ii sailed tretion: Jor. z. 12, ' He bath tretehed out tb heavens by his «.'

Such also is his knowledge of the things be bath bicfa are in

being, for it terminates In the go?< rnmenl of them foe Ins own glorion [| \ by this knowledge * the depth ken up, and th. drop do

their de*, Prov, iii. 20. Th i i kno qaalil id prop i wh.it he oreafa i, ai

ry, and the o immon ■' the world over which be p n that

iiilativo know led G 11 and th

knowledge if hii kno* itures and tl rnable;

m • . .it, this practical knowledgo is nol only of things thai hut i ible, which 1 ■ • • • J might ma

us he knows tlmt tn.\ can be I, bo be knows how the

civ it: i, and bou to be governed, thoogh be never will creal Thie

is ■ practical knowledge | far it is not requisite to eon Litnteakno practioal, actually to act, hut that the knowledge in itself I

action.

::. Thi re is i knowledge of approbation, as well as apprehension* This

the Scripture often mentions. Words of understanding are signify

the a ki of affection. This knowledge adds to the simple aol of the underling, the complacency and pleasure of the will, and is improperly know-e, because it belongs to the will, and not to the onderstanding ; only it is radically in the onderstanding, b cause affection implies knowled '•■ : men cannot approve of that which they are Ignorant of. Thus knowledge is tain

Amos iii. '2, ' You only have I known of all the families of the earth ;' and 2 Tun. ii. 19, 'The Lord knows who are his,' that is, he loves them: he

doth not only know them, hut acknowledge them for Ins own. It notes only an exact onderstanding, hut a special ears of them ; ai I that to

n. i. 81, ■ Gh d saw everything that he had made,

behold it was very good :' that is, lie saw it with an eye of approbation, as well as apprehension. This is grounded upon God's knowledge'of vision, his sight of liis creatures ; for God doth not love or delight in anything what is actually in being, or what hi; hath decreed to bring into being. On contrary also, when God doth not approve, ho is said not to know : M •. xxv. 12, 'I know you not;' and Mat. \ ii. 23, ' 1 never knew you.' He doth not approve of their works. It is not an ignorance of understanding, hut an ■ ranee of will ; for whiles he saith he never knew them, he testifies that lid know them, in rendering the reason of his disapproving them, beca he knows all their works. So he knows them, ami doth not know them, in a different manner ; he knows them so as to understand them, but he doth not know them i love them.

We must then ascrihe an universal knowledge to God. If we deny him a knowledge, or knowledge of intelligence, we destroy his d .e him ignorant of his own power. If we deny him practical kno deny OUrseffeS to he his creatures ; for as his creatures, we are the f: of this his • 'Vert d in creation. If we deny his know

deny his governing dominion. How can he < and uneontrollahle dominion, that is ignorant of tho nature and qualities of

the things he i If he bad not knowledge, he could mafc

; he that knows not, cannot dictate : we could then have no B T> deny (iol knowledge, is to dash out the Scripture

ilish the Deity.

God is described in Zech. ii. 0, wit!: hew hi-

knowledge of all things, all occurrences in the world; and the cherubims, or whatsoever is meant by the wings, are described to be ' full of eyes both before and behind,' Ezek. i. 18, round about them ; much more is God all eye, all ear, all understanding. The sun is a natural image of God. If the sun had an eye, it would see ; if it had an understanding, it would know all visible things ; it would see what it shines upon, and understand what it influenceth in the most obscure bowels of the earth. Doth God excel his creature the sun in excellency and beauty, and not in light and understanding ? Certainly more than the sun excels an atom or grain of dust.

We may yet make some representation of this knowledge of God by a lower thing, a picture, which seems to look upon every one, though there be never so great a multitude in the room where it hangs. No man can cast his eye upon it, but it seems to behold him in particular, and so exactly, as if there were none but him upon whom the eye of it were fixed ; and every man finds the same cast of it. Shall art frame a thing of that nature, and shall not the God of art and all knowledge be much more in reality than that is in imagination ? Shall not God have a far greater capacity to behold everything in the world, which is infinitely less to him than a wide room to a picture ?

II. The second thing, What God knows ; how far his understanding

reaches.

1. God knows himself, and only knows himself. This is the first and original knowledge wherein he excels all creatures. No man doth exactly know himself, much less doth he understand the full nature of a spirit, much less still the nature and perfections of God ; for what proportion can there be between a finite faculty and an infinite object ? Herein consists the in-finiteness of God's knowledge, that he knows his own essence, that he knows that which is unknowable to any else. It doth not so much consist in knowing the creature which he hath made, as in knowing himself who was never made. It is not so much infinite, because he knows all things which are in the world, or that shall be, or things that he can make, because the number of them is finite ; but because he hath a perfect and comprehensive knowledge of his own infinite perfections.* Though it be said that' angels see his face,' Mat. xviii. 10, that sight notes rather their immediate attendance than their exact knowledge. They see some signs of his presence and majesty, more illustrious and express than ever appeared to man in this life ; but the essence of God is invisible to them, hid from them in the secret place of eternity. None knows God but himself: 1 Cor. ii. 11, ' What man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man ? so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God ; the Spirit of God searches the deep things of God.' Searcheth, that is, exactly knows, thoroughly understands, as those who have their eyes in every chink and crevice, to see what lies hid there. The word starch notes not an inquiry, but an exact knowledge, such as men have of things upon a diligent scrutiny; as when God is said to search the heart and the reins, it doth not signify a precedent ignorance, but an exact knowledge of the most intimate corners of the hearts of men. As the conceptions of men are unknown to any but themselves, so the depths of the divine essence, perfections, and decrees are unknown to any but to God himself; he only knows what he is, and what he knows, what he can do, and what he hath decreed to do.

(1.) For, first, if God did not know himself, he would not be perfect. It is the perfection of a creature to know itself, much more a perfection belong-in^ to God. If God did not comprehend himself, he would want an infinite

* Moulin.

pg, OXLVTI. ■>.

perfection, i oul I c I ctivn in that which

intellectual ere iturc • in hdhh' i

bein I' h<

I himself, ho would be nndor the mid

be ignorant of tho 1 Q of

the andori! ml I on than

without. I G "'till Iraow all things without him

ami Qol know In in si It", ho would no! Imw t!

he would d knowled f 11 ■. - I hjects.

Without the If ho could no! be I

have any compl in itnolfwithout the kn

manner enjoy itself without audi rstandn i . : - 11.»t in tin knowled '■• of anythin

but in the knowledge of himself and I icllency prineipli

all thin p. It". th« . he did oof perfectly know bio I

he could not enjoy a happiness; for to bCj sod no! to knot ii sj it' a thing were not. He is 'God bl ed for < sr, .5,

and therefon i knowledge of himself.

Without the knowled '<• of himself he could create Dethiii \, For be would be ignorant of his own power md his own ability; and he that <lotli not know how far his power extendi could not act. It' he did not b himself, he could know nothing; and he that knows nothii lie colli 1 not know an effeet to be possible to him m power :

Without the kno of himself he con': Be

couM not without the knov >f his own holiness' and right

to men, nor without a knowledge of his own natuc himself

a manner of i it.

All worship must be congruous to the dignity anil nature of the ol

>ped : lio must therefore know his own authority, whereby worship

was to ' • Uency, to which worship was to be Buil

his own glory, to which worship was to he directed. If ho did not. k:

himself, he did not know what to punish, • he could not know what

krary to himself. Not knowing himself, ho would not know what

attempt of him, and what an adoration of him : what was worth;

1. and what was unworthy of him. In tine, ho could not know o*

thingB unless he knew himself. Unless he knew his own power, he could not know h en at 1 things ; unless he knew nil own wisdom, he c

know the beauty of bis works; unless he knew his own glory, b

know the end ofhil Works ; unless he knew his own holiness, he could not know what was evil ; and unleil he b - own jn fl q] I

know how to ponish the crimes of his ollend'' And tie

1. (tod knows himself, because h : ^ knowled v with his will is the can all other things that can fall under his cognizance. He knows himself r

M know an thing, that is, first accord:

for ind< himself and all other things at once, 11

the first truth, and re II the first object of his own un I

Th r cellent than himself, and ther

known to him than himself. Ai he ii all knowledge, hath in bim

if know!. . To ' lv to k-

io intelligible to God as God immediately joined with his under \ as hi;.

If.

2. 11 ■ kn »wi bin Ik kn ■■■• b not f and

. i.

his own power by the effect, because he knows himself from eternity, before there was a world, or any effect of his power extant. It is not a knowledge by the cause, for God hath no cause, nor a knowledge of himself by any species or anything from without. If it were anything from without himself, that must be created or uncreated: if uncreated, it would be God, and so we must either own many gods, or own it to be his essence, and so not distinct from himself; if created, then his knowledge of himself would depend upon a creature. He could not then know himself from eternity, but in time, because nothing can be created from eternity but in time. God knows not himself by any faculty, for there is no composition in God, he is not made up of parts, but is a simple being. Some therefore have called God, not intellectus, understanding, because that savours of a faculty, but intellectio, intellection. God is all act in the knowledge of himself, and his knowledge of other things.

[3.J God therefore knows himself perfectly, comprehensively. Nothing in his own nature is concealed from him, he reflects upon everything that he is.* There is a positive comprehension, so God doth not comprehend himself; for what is comprehended hath bounds, and what is comprehended by itself is finite to itself. And there is a negative comprehension, God so comprehends himself; nothing in his own nature is obscure to him, unknown by him. For there is as great a perfection in the understanding of God to know, as there is in the divine nature to be known. The understanding of God and the nature of God are both infinite, and so equal to one another. His understanding is equal to himself; he knows himself so well, that nothing can be known by him more perfectly than himself is known to himself. He knows himself in the highest manner, because nothing is so proportioned to the understanding of God as himself. He knows his own essence, goodness, power, all his perfections, decrees, intentions, acts, the infinite capacity of his own understanding, so that nothing of himself is in the dark to himself. And in this respect, some use this expression, that the infiniteness of God is in a manner finite to himself, because it is comprehended by himself.

Thus God transcends all creatures. Thus his understanding is truly infinite, because nothing but himself is an infinite object for it. What angels may understand of themselves perfectly I know not, but no creature in the world understands himself. Man understands not fully the excellency and parts of his own nature ; upon God's knowledge of himself depends the comfort of his people and the terror of the wicked. This is also a clear argument for his knowledge of all other things without himself; he that knows himself must needs know all other things less than himself, and which were made by himself. When the knowledge of his own immensity and infiniteness is not an object too difficult for him, the knowledge of a finite and limited creature in all his actions, thoughts, circumstances, cannot be too hard for him. Since he knows himself who is infinite, he cannot but know whatsoever is finite. This is the foundation of all his other knowledge. The knowledge of everything present, past, and to come is far less than the knowledge of himself. He is more incomprehensible in his own nature than all things created, or that can bo created, put together can be. If he then have a perfect comprehensive knowledge of his own nature, any knowledge of all other things is less than the knowledge of himself. This ought to be well considered by us, as the fountain whence all his other knowledge flows. 2. Therefore God knows all other things, whether they be possible, past, present, or future.

* Ma<ralanous.

Whether they be thingi thai fa • t m do, l irl they I e thii ; things 1 '"

uv Dot Jim in the WOmb of tin ir

proper un I in 8 infinite, 1:

things what I 1

lid have bou I e i' ■ i' ml of unv on • • , thai mud to him, it

with an exception, a bui G all things but this, a bai

th, i. If tie anythii un«

ico in the v. :i, or Qoo creation, and possil by

Inn:. unknown to him, h

; qoI i> • aim one thing that implied not ■ i

to Ins nature did transcend Ins poi

,11 thin | ble. N ' w what ho

be hath i . whai be won! I not - as

well us wh.it he resolved to ; 1"' knew that he would n

will, i it 'I'm- i- tin' Deri thing which deela infinii

; not is infinite, ami can c I tble

knowledge infinite, in knowing innnmerable thii: i i ins power. Possibles are infinil is, tibu r

of whai Crod can y\i\ and therefore no end of what God doth 1.:

iiis power would he more infinite than his kn . It' 1.

only what is ereated, there would be an end of his onderBtandi all c . iv be nnmbered, hut possible this I op

DJ Snj creature. There w the SSAK D of this in i t< -mil y. When

- many nnmbafS of jeaiS are run out, there is still

there st.ll w a end ; and when millions of worldi are created, then

more an end of (iod's power than of eternity. Thus there is no end of

. his knowledge is not terminated by anyth

;ure givi • account of. Clod knowi thingi that

are not. for ■ he calls thingi thai are not as if thoy were,' Bom. iv. 17. Jl

J thingi that are not as if they were in being; what he calls is not unknown to him. If he knows things that are not, ho knows things that i

hi knows thingi that shall be because he wills them, so ho knows thing! that might be, because ho is ablo to cll'ect them. He k:

the inhabitants of Keilah would betray David to Saul if he remained in that plaei . 1 Bam. xxiii. 11 ; he knew what they would do upon that occa-

i it was never done. As he knew what was in their | in their wills, so he must needs know what is within the compass of his own

can permit more than lie doth permit, so he knows whai can permit, and what upon that permission would be done by his creah;. so Ciod knew the possibility of the Tynans' repentance, if they had the i the same truths, and beheld the same miracles which - and presented to the eyes of the Jews, Mat. xi. 21. This i: ', because,

1. lian knows things that are possible to him, though lie will i.

knows a house in the model he hath of it in his :• build a house according to that model. A wateh-ma .mo of I I in his mind, which be will : »rk

with 1. Man what lie could do, though ho n-

intends to do it.f As the no ling of man hath a virtue.

>ees one man it may imagine thousands of men of tl.

Hi par' us, sprightly, intelligent than

* PetaT, Th* L DogQL, lib. ix. 207. t Ficin. dc innuort, lib. ii. cap 10.

the man he sees, because it is possible such a number may be ; shall not the understanding of God much more know what he is able to effect, since the understanding of man can know what he is never able to produce, yet may be produced by God, viz. that he who produced this man which I see, can produce a thousand exactly like him ? If the divine understanding did not know infinite things, but were confined to a certain number, it may be demanded whether God can understand anything further than that number, or whether he cannot ? If he can, then he doth actually understand all those things which he hath a power to understand, otherwise there would be an increase of God's knowledge, if it were actually now and not before, and so he would be more perfect than he was before. If he cannot understand them, then he cannot understand what a human mind can understand; for our understandings can multiply numbers in infinitum, and there is no number so great but a man can still add to it. We must suppose the divine understanding more excellent in knowledge. God knows all that a man can imagine, though it never were nor never shall be. He must needs know whatsoever is in the power of man to imagine or think, because God concurs to the support of the faculty in that imagination; and though it may be replied, an atheist may imagine that there is no God, a man may imagine that God can lie, or that he can be destroyed, doth God know therefore that he is not, or that he can lie, or cease to be ? No, he knows he cannot; his knowledge extends to things possible, not to things impossible to himself. He knows it as imaginable by man, not as possible in itself, because it is utterly impossible* and repugnant to the nature of God, since he eminently contains in himself all things possible, past, present, and to come. He cannot know himself without knowing them.

[2.J God knowing his own power, knows whatsoever is in his power to effect. If he knows not all things possible, he could not know the extent of his own power, and so would not know himself as a cause sufficient for more things than he hath created. How can he comprehend himself, who comprehends not all effluxes of things possible that may come from him, and be wrought by him ? How can he know himself as a cause, if he know not the objects and works which he is able to produce ? f Since the power of God extends to numberless things, his knowledge also extends to numberless objects ; as if a unit could see the numbers it could produce, it would see infinite numbers, for a unit is as it were all number. God, knowing the fruitfulness of his own virtue, knows a numberless multitude of things which he can do more than have been done or shall be done by him; he therefore knows innumerable worlds, innumerable angels, with higher perfections than any of them which he hath created have. So that if the world should last many millions of years, God knows that he can every day create another world more capacious than this : and having created an inconceivable number, he knows he could still create more. So that he beholds infinite worlds, infinite numbers of men and other creatures in himself, infinite kinds of things, infinite species and individuals under those kinds, even as many as he can create, if his will did order and determine it; for not being ignorant of his own power, he cannot be ignorant of the effects wherein it may display and discover itself. A comprehensive knowledge of his own power doth necessarily include the objects of that power; so he knows whatsoever he could effect, and whatsoever ho could permit, if he

pleased to do it.

If God could not understand moro than he hath created, he could not creato more than ho hath created ; for it cannot bo conceived how he can * Gamach. t Ficin. do immort, lib. ii. cap. x.

I' . c\l.\ II. 5.

■ tli.it I q| of; wh.i'

'I" ; be inn ! I. ii,,.'. ft] o t) l,irt oi I

thing is eapabl i much I

the knowli

[| that God knows all ] •• he

Lhoso things which 1 tli« •;. 11 in a po ibilit . [f God

hi kne* tii. in wh, ii tl l I to imagine thai Ins audi

an.I draw knov rom them after thi .11 urd to

. It be know thoae t Inn th<

v all thioga which he can cr. ato, and Lb

lade thi r thai this knoi

than his knowledgo of things thai as possible, Dol as thingi thai hall be. It' I

or future, and they ahall never be, ti. there would be a deceit in it, which cannot be. II • kno in themseli they are not, uor in tl. hall

i be ; he knowi them in his own power, ool in bis will ; he d them as able to produce them, not as willing to effect them. Thii Bible he knows only in his power, things fatun th i'» hi

his will, ai he is both able and determined in hie own good |

• - them. Thoae that shall in-wr COB lily

in himself, as a Bufficien! cause ; the e things th ■■ shall i knows in himself as thi , and also in their im

i

• > spend OUT thoughts in the admiration of the cx-

and the divine knowledge ; his understanding is infill . knows all thing 1 [ument used by God bim-

tellency above all the commonly adored ili. 22, 'Let them shew the former things, what they be, thai we may ™n-

r them, and know the latter end of them. 1 He knows them as if I

•it, and : ; for indeed in his eternil ing

future to his knowledge. This is call. mbran

rhen God remembered Rachel's prayer for a child, Gen. xxx. 22 ; ai 1 lie dd to )■' into his bottle, and write them into nil f accoui

which signifies the exact and unerring knowledge in G the minute cir-

cum pasl in the world ; and this know! i ■ hook of

. iii. 1 6, rpetual presence of thi:

re him. 'I ignifying the certai

of sins past : Job xiv. 17, ' My tr i uj) in . ind thou sewest up my iniquity 1' a

from men, that i>ut op in a bag the money they would charily 1.

v uj) th< . and bind it hard that nothing may fall out ; or a

[U0rs, and daub it with pitch and glutinous stutl", that nothinu may leak out, but be safely kept till tl Of

•..ink, from the I irry with them full of writ:-

o they arc to manage a e a person. Thi

calling to men's minds their past actions, opbraidii

with ti.

1 hing of

infinity in it, Ugh the sins of all men that I D in t:

. 1 of number, yet when the sins of one man in thoiiL-

words, and deeds, are numberless in his own account, and perhaps in the account of any creature, the sins of all the vast numbers of men that have been, or shall be, are much more numberless, it cannot be less than infinite knowledge that can make a collection of them, and take a survey of them all at once.

If past things had not been known by God, how could Moses have been acquainted with the original of things ? How could he have declared the former transactions, wherein all histories are silent but the Scripture ? How could he know the cause of man's present misery so many ages after, wherewith all philosophy was unacquainted ? How could he have writ the order of the creation, the particulars of the sin of Adam, the circumstances of Cain's murder, the private speech of Lamech to his wives, if God had not revealed them ? And how could a revelation be made, if things past were forgotten by him ? Do we not remember many things done among men, as well as by ourselves, and reserve the forms of divers things in our minds, which rise as occasions are presented to draw them forth ? And shall not God much more, who hath no cloud of darkness upon his understanding ? A man that makes a curious picture, hath the form of it in his mind before he made it; and if the fire burn it, the form of it in his mind is not destroyed by the fire, but retained in it. God's memory is no less perfect than his understanding. If he did not know things past, he could not be a righteous governor, or exercise any judicial act in a righteous manner ; he could not dispense rewards and punishments according to his promises and threatenings, if things that were past could be forgotten by him ; he could not require that which is past, Eccles. iii. 15, if he did not remember that which is past.

And though God be said to forget in Scripture, and not to know his people, and his people pray to him to remember them, as if he had forgotten them, Ps. cxix. 49, this is improperly; ascribed to God.* As God is said to repent, when he changes things according to his counsel beyond the expectation of men, so he is said to forget, when he defers the making good his promise to the godly, or his threatenrngs to the wicked. This is not a defect of memory belonging to his mind, but an act of his will. When he is said to remember his covenant, it is to will grace according to his covenant; when he is said to forget his covenant, it is to intercept the influences of it, whereby to punish the sin of his people ; and when he is said not to know his people, it is not an absolute forgetfulness of them, but withdrawing from them the testimonies of his kindness, and clouding the signs of his favour ; so God in pardoning is said to forget sin, not that he ceaseth to know it, but ceaseth to punish it. It is not to be meant of a simple forgetfulness, or a lapse of his memory, but of a judicial forgetfulness; so when his people in Scripture pray, * Lord, remember thy word unto thy servant,' no more is to bo understood, but, Lord, fulfil thy word and promise to thy servant.

(3.) He knows things present. Heb. iv. 13, ' All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.' This is grounded upon the knowledge of himself; it is not so difficult to know all creatures exactly, as to know himself, because they are finite, but himself is infinite ; he knows his own power, and therefore everything through which his omnipotence is diffused, all the acts and objects of it; not the least thing that is tho birth of his power can bo concealed from him ; he knows his own goodness, and therefore every object upon which the warm beams of his goodness strike ; ho therefore knows distinctly the properties of every creature, because every property in them is a ray of his goodness ; he is not only the

* Bradward.

I' . I \l.\ I I. 5.J I.I.Jh.i;. -171

.-•lit, hut tli • fill that hi ■

t'i built, ■ tli. model in be

built it. ' II" lool ed upon nil thin • he b 11

iimum•■I thei Q I ; roll <>f » I ' ' '• I

i uitli ; ho did not itlj pronounce th(

uli •

. them .'ill ill tl I ' ': : " n j on )i< ! l -•

sroi Id, or thai anything thai

in liiin lis :i It

know things pr< t in their | known by man, yea, bj . which the infii te God

! if he did no! know all thii b, it is ] for

the mot t l.'. 1 God to be dec rived and be i I

the understanding. 11 to bis ct

unlets he knew their natnr . to which th<

natural ordinances to the sun, moon, and 1 ' . I inanii:

8 Knew the vi jour and virtue in tru

re the i • ia i'" , "•

with tlie wisdom of goven now how far th<

v, whether the laws were Bnited to their ral onaJ

. whether the pnnishmei I re \ n

■ i the trai f i I ;rc.

1. First, Be knows all e .from tli" the lot

well as the \ II • ki owe the r n I their ;■

Job xxxviii. 1 1 ; tli" drops of rain and dew which he hath DCgOtt . 29,

v bird in the air, as m any man doth what lie hath in a i

: P§. I. 11. 'I know all the fowls in the mount Wild

in the field,' which some read e numbered in his wisdom. Job rxxviii. 87, worm in the earth, ei

drop of rain that falls upon the ground, the Hakes of snow, and the knotl

bail, t! opon the sea shore, the hairs opon th< i o more

nrd to imagine that God knows them, than that God made them ; t

its of his power, as well as the stars, which he rails by their nan. well as the most glorious angel and blessed spirit; he kn

the II aa if there were none hut them in particular for him to know ;

re framed by his art as well as tl thin as well aa the greatest; he knoi

wn goodness, and therefore all the stamps and impressions of all his e i; he knows the immediate c fthe I-

eta of those causes. Since his kn< is infi' .••

it 1! (a which are at tl. listance from him,

which approach near, st to not being ; since he did not want po

rente, he cannot want un Kenl inding to know everything he hath c

. qualiti. B, and virtoee of the minutest creature.

of God imbaaed, and sufiers a diminution by • vilesi I • t inconai lerable things. Is il nc4 nature of anything ? and [a the un

: of an impurer alloy by know! attire *^ the ranke

mall insect, or by c ringthe deformity of a

•

^o of tl: • of them ? Was Bolomon, wh i km w all from the

cedar to the hyssop, debased by so rich a present of wisdom from his Creator ? Is any glass defiled by presenting a deformed image ? Is there anything more vile than the imagination, ' which are only evil, and continually' ? Doth not the mind of man descend to the mud of the earth, play the adulterer or idolater with mean objects, suck in the most unclean things ? Yet God knows these in all their circumstances, in every appearance, inside and outside. Is there anything viler than some thoughts of men, than some actions of men, their unclean beds, and gluttonous vomiting, and Luciferian pride ? Yet do not these fall under the eye of God in all their nakedness !

The second person's taking human nature, though it obscured, yet it did not disparage the Deity, or bring any disgrace to it. Is gold the worse for being formed into the image of a fly ? Doth it not still retain the nobleness of the metal ? "When men are despised for descending to the knowledge of mean and vile things, it is because they neglect the knowledge of the greater, and sin in their inquiries after lesser things, with a neglect of that which concerns more the honour of God and the happiness of themselves ; to be ambitious of such a knowledge, and careless of that of more concern, is criminal and contemptible. But God knows the greatest as well as the least; mean things are not known by him to exclude the knowledge of the greater, nor are vile things governed by him to exclude the order of the better. The deformity of objects known by God doth not deform him, nor defile him ; he doth not view them without himself, but within .himself, wherein all things in their ideas are beautiful and comely. Our knowledge of a deformed thing is not a deforming of our understanding, but is beautiful in the knowledge, though it be not in the object; nor is there any fear that the understanding of God should become material by knowing material things, any more than our understandings lose their spirituality by knowing the nature of bodies ; it is to be observed therefore that only those senses of men, as seeing, hearing, smelling, which have those qualities for their objects that come nearest the nature of spiritual things, as light, sounds, fragrant odours, are ascribed to God in Scripture; not touching or tasting, which are senses that are not exercised without a more immediate commerce with gross matter; and the reason maybe, because we should have no gross thoughts of God, as if he were a body, and made of matter like the things he knows.

[2.] As he knows all creatures, so God knows all the actions of creatures. He counts in particular all the ways of men : ' Doth he not see all my ways, and count all my steps?' Job xxxi. 4. He ' tells their wanderings,' as if one by one, Ps. Ivi. 8 ; ' His eyes are upon all the ways of man, and he sees all his goings,' Job xxxiv. 21, a metaphor taken from men when they look wistly, with fixed eyes upon a thing, to view it in every circumstance, whence it comes, whither it goes, to observe every little motion of it. God's eye is not a wandering, but a fixed eye, and the ways of man are not only 1 before his eyes,' but he doth exactly ' ponder' them, Prov. v. 21; as one that will not be ignorant of the least mite in them, but weigh and examine them by tho standard of his law ; he may as well know the motions of our members as the hairs of our heads ; the smallest actions before they be, whether civil, natural, or religious, fall under his cognisance. "What meaner than a man carrying a pitcher ? yet our Saviour foretells it, Luke xxii. 10. God knows not only what men do, but what they would have done had he not restrained them ; what Abimelech would have done to Sarah had not God put a bar in his way, Gen. xx. 6 ; what a man that is taken away in his youth would have done, had he lived to a riper age ; yea, he knows the most secret words as well as actions ; the words spoken by the king of

!' . < \1.YI1. B 1 ifl bil I

tm.

world, which are fa i khan

!i an ant lull or DM faivs can 1 the 'llir thou

l.u: ths

■ 1 contrive] i impem

Dioofa an

i.l.' It) him as llies ami : <>' ;i '

I Ins man naturally allow | I I i. M.IE

ill, if minds as I hich ,1 "'. v WMl1 '

naturally implanted in them, motions. The Scripture U plain and positive in thi :'li rein .' r . ri .9, tea by the ase of I parts of metals. The secret intentions and s mostls

, in the reins, he Knows that which no man, do angel is able to an which a man himself knowi not, oor makes any partienlar n flection upon ; pint,' Pro?. x\i. 2, hs all the

.tions of men, as men do i of coin th

i>. li. rnsthe thoughts and intents of the heart/ Heb. iv. L2, all

thai is in the mind, all that is in the i d l ,ur l

one though! can h< i withheld from him, Job alii. ' hell

and destruction an kx • re him, much more then the I children of

mi: .11. He works all things in the bowels of the « arth, and bri

forth aUthingBontof thai treasure, ae; but more naturally, God an

of the d< ad, all the re* ptacles and all the bodies of men consumed by the earth, or devoured by livin -things thai oal of all being; he knows the thoughts of the devils

and damned creatures, whom he hath cast out of bis care for ever into arms of his justice, nevermore to east s delightful glance towards them ; d

in any soul in hell (which he hath no need to know, 1 nail

hem by any of the thoughts they now have, sine.; they were e punishment) is bid from him, much more is he acquainted with thoughts of living men, the counsels of wh rts are ini-

to tin ir trial and censure; yea, he knows them I

ap into actual being: Ps, czxxix. 2, ' Thou understandeei myth ;' my thoughts, thai is, thought, though innumerable tia

:i a day, ami that in the source and fountain when il

somb, before it is our thought. If he knows th re their

bey can be 1 OUTS, much more doth hek:.

them when they actually Bpring up in us ; he knows the tendency ol th

wh( I ird will light when it is in flight ; he knows them exactly, fa

the: tiled a 'dixvrmr' 01 critic!>. r ' pf the heart, 1 Heb. iv. 12.

11, he is mon ban

soul with our i lies, and hath more the | i m ot as than we fa

mows them by sa inspect] m into I

v tin looks or its of on r.

F*irtf, God Of the mind and will. 'J

his ov.:

Jeroboam to have * some good thing in him towards the Lord God of Israel,' 1 Kings xiv. 13, and the integrity of David and Hezekiah, the freest motions of the will and affections to him. ' Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,' saith Peter, John xxi. 17. Love can be no more restrained than the will itself can. A man may make another to grieve and desire, but none can force another to love.

Secondly, God discerns all the evil motions of the mind and will; every imagination of the heart,' Gen. vi. 5 ; the vanity of men's thoughts, Ps. xciv. 11 ; their inward darkness and deceitful disguises. No wonder that God, who fashioned the heart, should understand the motions of it: Ps. xxxiii. 13, 15, ' He looks from heaven, and beholds all the children of men : he fashioneth their hearts alike, and considers all their works.' Doth any man make a watch, and yet be ignorant of its motion ? Did God fling away the key to this secret cabinet, when he framed it, and put off the power of unlocking it when he pleased ? He did not surely frame it in such a posture as that anything in it should be hid from his eye ; he did not fashion it to be privileged from his government; which would follow if he were ignorant of what was minted and coined in it.

He could not be a judge to punish men, if the inward frames and principles of men's actions were concealed from him ; an outward action may glitter to an outward eye, yet the secret spring be a desire of applause, and not the fear and love of God. If the inward frames of the heart did lie covered from him in the secret recesses of the heart, those plausible acts, which in regard of their principles would merit a punishment, would meet with a reward, and God should bestow happiness where he had denounced misery. As without the knowledge of what is just, he would not be a wise Lawgiver, so without the knowledge of what is inwardly committed, he could not be a righteous judge ; acts that are rotten in the spring, might be judged good by the fair colour and appearance.

This is the glory of God at the last day, to ' manifest the secrets of all hearts,' 1 Cor. iv. 5 ; and the prophet Jeremiah links the power of judging, and the prerogative of trying the hearts together : Jer. xi. 20, ' But thou, 0 Lord of Hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart;' and chap. xvii. 10, ' I the Lord search the heart; I try the reins;' To what end ? Even ' to give every man according to his way, and according to the fruit of his doings.' And indeed his binding up the whole law with that command of not coveting, evidenceth that he will judge men by the inward affections and frames of their hearts. Again, God sustains the mind of man in every act of thinking. In him we have not only the principle of life, but every motion, the motion of our minds as well as of our members. ' In him we live and move,' &c, Acts xvii. 28. Since he supports the vigour of the faculty in every act, can he be ignorant of those acts which spring from the faculty, to which he doth at that instant communicate power and ability ?

Now this knowledge of the thoughts of men is,

First, An incommunicable property, belonging only to the divine understanding. Creatures indeed may know the thoughts of others by divine revelation, but not by themselves; no creature hath a key immediately to open the minds of men, and Bee all that loilgeth there ; no creature can fathom the heart by the lino of created knowledge.* Devils may have a conjectural knowledge, And] may guess at them, by the acquaintance they have with the disposition and constitution of men, and the images they behold in their fancies ; and by some marks which an inward imagination

* Daflle, 8erm, part i. p. 230.

I' .. ( \ I.VI I. I

may stamp upon the brain, !•!

the tl.mi [hi • by it,

i of ln^. I > ity ai niu.li us 9, 10,

1 The heart of

■ I bo! one ; ' I the Lord I

looks od il ntward n , but the 1

, 7, where God I by th

l.iniw by revelation, i I a did, wl I i /.'\'h

20; bat God to more th

himi If, Whit penon opon earth undei tho win md turn

h. art, whal il will have, wh

i (>• >.l 1.H..A i . lastly. . God acquire* no new kno* the of tin-in in tl me. 11

bis creature ; no man or ai I may th

the knowledge of them. God were then exolnded from an absolute d r the )• • k of hii 1" ition; he • onl I

irior in this b I i ; If, npon whose will I

1. Ige of their inward intention! should depend ; and, th( i I to i upeh the heart, we must not understand i f i •re, :m.l n to make an crntiny and inquiry,

what he desired to know ; but 11 icity in I

own knowl d oifyin r that hia know]

any man's knowledge can be, of the designs ol them bj * and thon

their intentions; thai he knows them aa bad put tl

upon the rack, and forced them to ri plottn

Nor must we understand that in Gen. xxii. 12, wl

i had itn I :h< d out his ban ifiee bis i i>.'N if I know that 1

b God was ignorant of Abraham 'ion

to him. Did Abraham's drawing his knife furnish God with s new know-No; Grod knew Abraham's pious inclinatd< n.xviii. 19, 1 I know him that lie will command his ehildn

imetimes taken for approbation ; then the , Now 1 approve

istimony of thy bar of me; since thy affection 11 t\ bed by the mor fol flam v of aflfi » my will and com-

. i : i ceept thee, and count the* t

: or now 1 know, that is, I have made known and man

m to himself and to the world. Thus Paul uses tl word

v: 1 C-r. ii. *J, 'I havo determined to know nothing;' that is, to

oh nothing, to make known nothing ' but Christ crucified :'

• I know, that is, I have an evidenc riment in this nohlc

. that thou fearest me. Q lescends to our

of him& the manner of men, as it' ho had (as men do) known the

ird at!'.. - by their outward actions.

[4.] (iotl knows all the eviU a d sil

! all sin. This follows upon th If h.^ knows all

and thong] I knows also all the sinfulness in

Thia Zophar infers fin shing mea

ri. 11. ' For he knows vain man; 1.

knows every man, an.I s. .s tho wick. .': ry man. ' He l>"ks down

.' an 1 beholds i y the filthy ■ v in

them, I . all nations in tho world, and • n;

none of their iniquity is hid from his eyes. ' He searches Jerusalem with candles,' Zeph. i. 22. God follows sinners step by step with his eye, and will not leave searching out till he hath taken them ; a metaphor taken from one that searches all chinks with a candle, that nothing can be hid from him. He knows it distinctly in all the parts of it, how an adulterer rises out of his bed to commit uncleanness ; what contrivances he had, what steps he took, every circumstance in the w r hole progress ; not only evil in the bulk, but every one of the blacker spots upon it, which may most aggravate it. If he did not know evil, how could he permit it, order it, punish it, or pardon it ? Doth he permit he knows not what ? order [to his own holy ends what he is ignorant of ? punish or pardon that which lie is uncertain whether it be a crime or no ? ' Cleanse me,' saith David, * from my secret faults,' Ps. xix. 12, secret in regard of others, secret in regard of himself; how could God cleanse him from that whereof he was ignorant ? He knows sins before they are committed, much more when they are in act; he foreknew the idolatry and apostasy of the Jews ; what gods they would serve, in what measure they would provoke him, and violate his covenant, Deut. xxxi. 20, 21; he knew Judas his sin long before Judas his actual existence, foretelling it in the Psalms ; and Christ predicts it before he acted it. He sees sins future in his own permitting will; he sees sins present in his own supporting act. As he knows things possible to himself, because he knows his own power; so he knows things practicable by the creature, because he knows the power and principles of the creature.* This sentiment of God is naturally writ in the fear of sinners, upon lightning, thunder, or some prodigious operation of God in the w 7 orld; what is the language of them, but that he sees their deeds, hears their words, knows the inward sinfulness of their hearts ; that he doth not only behold them as a mere spectator, but considers them as a just judge ? And the poets say, that the sins of men leaped into heaven, and were writ in parchments of Jupiter, scelus in terra geritur, in ccelo scribi-tur, sin is acted on earth, and recorded in heaven. God, indeed, doth not behold evil with the approving eye ; he knows it not with a practical knowledge to be the author of it, but with a speculative knowledge, so as to understand the fulness of it; or a knowledge simplicis intelligentm, of simple intelligence, as he permits them, not positively wills them ;',-he knows them not with a knowledge of assent to them, but dissent from them. Evil pertains to a dissenting act of the mind, and an aversive act of the will; and what though evil formally taken hath no distinct conception, because it is a privation, a defect hath no being, and all knowledge is by the apprehension of some being, would not this lie as strongly against our own knowledge of sin ? Sin is the privation of the rectitude due to an act; and who doubts man's knowledge of sin ? By his knowing the act, he knows the deficiency of the act; the subject of evil hath a being, and so hath a conception in the mind ; that which hath no being cannot be known by itself, or in itself, but will it follow that it cannot be known by its contrary ? as we know darkness to be a privation of light, and folly to be a privation of wisdom. God knows all good by himself, because he is the sovereign good. Is it strange, then, that he should know all evil, since all evil is in some natural good ?

Secondly, The manner of God's knowing evil is not so easily known ; and, indeed, as we cannot comprehend the essence of God, though it is easily intelligible that there is such a being, so we can as little comprehend the manner of God's knowledge, though we cannot but conclude him to be an intelligent being, a pure understanding, knowing all things. As God hath a higher manner of being than his creatures, so he hath another and higher

* Fotherby, Alkeouia, p. 132.

'• i ! -177

ttle < •

Do! not fl <>w it law'.' an I

'ii ...in, horl of Ins rule ? I !•■ cann I

all the it. Hi d holiness, and shall be

see bow any action ■.- » of I, 11 .,•;.

• in true, and ii it not irue I

evii hull ( \od h

H th i

Mit by kno*ing h , own imn

n, it' no croatnn i would !

In- knows his own hoi

appointed to b I create them, and that I

i by them. I in him

andation in bin i^ opposite to tint bolinei I. Ai if Ii 'lit p understand i i only 1

If, it would know what is contrary to itself. God knows all ci iiis-i which ho hath planted in the creature; be knovi x>m

this goodness, irh an sol

that goodness, and thai is evil. As we know Biel harmony, blindness by sight, I privation

knows one contrary knows the other. God ki

i which he hath of right on and i of th

tude and goodness which onghl to be in it ; 1 the Is.* A painter an

ad it* any one dashes any I lour apon it, shall i ilso

know tint ? God by his hand painted all creatures, in I apon man

the mp and colour of his own u . the devil defiles it, man daubs

it. I> )th QO( God, that knows his own work, know how this |

some di£Eeren1 from his work? I>oth not God, thai ki

hieh himself was the fountain of, know the change ofthi

:. ho know I . that the devil won: I - where I

m wheat; and. therefore, thai oontr ie in tho echo

whether God knew evil by its opposition to ereai d or oner is needless. Y>

t lio knows it radically by his own good] mse he km

• hath eommuni I » the creature by his own

in himself. To conclude this head :

of sin doth not 'liness of God's nal

bare know] a crime d >th no1 infect the mind of man with the

tilth and polluti thai crime, for then every man thai knowi ■• of

mm -in r. would, l.y that hare knowl,

with hii . and a judge that condemns b r, may as well

If, if ti The anowled I the

understanding that knows them, hut only the will that appr

is i: vil, in order to pa aenfl UT

•

■:ows all future things, all thin p to come. 1 time of all th

abo-. nred by bos

not kn himself, or in th

• i' . in, p.

selves, because they are things to come. Not in himself: if it did, it must arise from some impotency in his own nature, and so we render him weak; or from an unwillingness to know, and so we render him lazy, and an enemy to his own perfection ; for, simply considered, the knowledge of more things is a greater perfection than the knowledge of a few ; and if the knowledge of a thing includes something of perfection, the ignorance of a thing includes something of imperfection. The knowledge of future things is a greater perfection than not to know them, and is accounted among men a great part of wisdom, which they call foresight; it is then surely a greater perfection in God to know future things, than to be ignorant of them. And would God rather have something of imperfection than be possessor of all perfection ? Nor doth the hindrance lie in the things themselves, because their futurition depends upon his will; for as nothing can actually be without his will, giving it existence, so nothing can be future without his will, designing the futurity of it. Certainly, if God knows all things possible, which he will not do, he must know all things future, which he is not only able, but resolved to do, or resolved to permit. God's perfect knowledge of himself, that is, of his own infinite power and concluding will, necessarily includes a foreknowledge of what he is able to do, and what he will do.

A^ain, if God doth not know future things, there was a time when God was ignorant of most things in the world, for, before the deluge, he was more ignorant than after; the more things were done in the world, the more knowledge did accrue to God, and so the more perfection; then, the understanding of God was not perfect from eternity, but in time; nay, is not perfect yet, if he be ignorant of those things which are still to come to pass ; he must tarry for a perfection he w r ants, till those futurities come to be in act, till those things which are to come cease to be future, and begin to be present. Either God knows them, or desires to know them ; if he desires to know them and doth not, there is something wanting to him ; all desire speaks an absence of the object desired, and a sentiment of want in the person desiring. If he doth not desire to know them, nay, if he doth not actually know them, it destroys all providence, all his government of affairs, for his providence hath a concatenation of means with a prospect of something that is future; as in Joseph's case, who was put into the pit, and sold to the Egyptians, in order to his future advancement, and the preservation both of his father and his envious brethren. If God did not know all the future inclinations and actions of men, something might have been done by the will of Potiphar, or by the free will of Pharaoh, whereby Joseph might have been cut short of his advancement, and so God have been interrupted in the track and method of his designed providences. He that hath decreed to govern man for that end he hath designed him, knows all the means before whereby he will govern him, and therefore hath a distinct and certain knowledge of all things, for a confused knowledge is an imperfection in government; it is in this the infiniteness of his understanding is more seen than in knowing things past or present; ' his eyes are as a flame of fire,' liev. i. 14, in regard of the penetrating virtue of them into things impenetrable by any else.

To make it further appear that God knows all things future, consider, 1. First, everything which is the object of God's knowledge without himself was once only future. There was a moment when nothing was in being but himself; ho knew nothing actually past, because nothing was past; nothing actually present, because nothing had any existence but himself; therefore only what was future, and why not everything that is future now, as well as only what was future and to come to pass just at the beginning of

Hi'- i • present, but the thii

them

wm ooee ful

future is

what would hiin [h created 1 I m '.' * l

aid

now tie till be I luoed them, Ibexn in lx I

. I ■ . then will tfa

whal he willed ; th . thoy woro mndo,

o tin in, uinl he did in>t make them to tern. 11

knew v. I i honld b< before I

■ til !"• I nil thi

oot really in their own nature, but in him i rth and

heai re in liini, m a model in the mind of a workman, which ii in

e it be brought 8. The predietions of future thii] , I not a pro

inything to eome bni ii

be truth of I rtiou in the punctual aceomplishmenl of it. Thii is

■ thing challenged by G diar, wherein he larmounti all

idols tlmt man's in goded in tin; world: I >xli. 21, 2

them bring forth' (speaking of th<

ire us ti. •: shew tli-' thin sre to c

may know that you in Snob s I

16 is here sseril q of him from

all i. . Buofa ■ knowled I . if any could pi I they*

as well as him that

ws may know that you are gods. 1 11 | its bis i stand or fall upon

. .-.A this should be the point which should decide the y whether he or the heathen idols wore the true God. The e is

managed by this medium: he that knows things to come is God ; I k things ' 1 am God: the idols know not things to some, to

fore the] an not gods. God submits the being of i ty to ti

. know things to come no more than the heathen idols, which \

r nun, hs would be, in his own account, D than

; no more i God than the pagan idols i this

I : laathcn idols were to be stripped of their deity I t of

this foreknowledge of things to come, would not the fans mom

the Uency if he wen ore in knowledge? He would, in bis

more di Lhfi title and character of a God than i.

11 I he reproach them for that, if it were wanting in himself? It

of future things in their senses, wnen the < . ces-

tn such causes, as light from the sun and heat from the htanj I ; more of them, angels and devils kn.

not a higher and farther knowled_■ this, he would not

N than angels and d. vils. wl leesary i in their I .. did predict >

thinu's in the lieali. . but God is dit; . the

- knowledge, in able to ; that

the] UOt, or thin- in t . . i on the

* Pctaviua changed. + Bfl h . lib. iii. cap. 14.

liberty of man's will, which the devils could lay no claim to a certain knowledge of. Were it only a conjectural knowledge that is here meant, the devils mi<mt answer they can conjecture, and so their deity were as good as God's; for though God might know more things, and conjecture nearer to what would be, yet still it would be but conjectural, and therefore not a higher kind of knowledge than what the devils might challenge. How much, then, is God beholden to the Socinians for denying the knowledge of all future things to him, upon which here he puts the trial of his deity ? God asserts his knowledge of things to come as a manifest evidence of his Godhead ; those that deny, therefore, the argument that proves it, deny the conclusion too; for this will necessarily follow, that if he be God because he knows future things, then he that doth not know future things is not God ; and if God knows not future things but only by conjecture, then there is no God, because a certain knowledge, so as infallibly to predict things to come, is an inseparable perfection of the Deity. It was therefore well said of Austin, that it was as high a madness to deny God to be as* to deny him the foreknowledge of things to come.

The whole prophetic part of Scripture declares this perfection of God. Every prophet's candle was lighted at this torch; they could not have this foreknowledge of themselves. Why might not many other men have the same insight, if it were by nature ? f It must be from some superior agent; and all nations owned prophecy as a beam from God, a fruit of divine illumination. Prophecy must be totally expunged if this be denied, for the subjects of prophecy are things future, and no man is properly a prophet but in prediction. Now prediction is nothing but foretelling, and things foretold are not yet come ; and the foretelling of them supposeth them not to be yet, but that they shall be in time. Several such predictions we have in Scripture, the event whereof hath been certain. The years of famine in E^ypt foretold that he would order second causes for bringing that judgment upon them ; the captivity of his people in Babylon; the calling of the Gentiles ; the rejection of the Jew r s. Daniel's revelation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, that prince refers to God as the revealer of secrets, Dan. ii. 47. By the same reason that he knows one thing future by himself, and by the infiniteness of his knowledge, before any causes of them appear, he doth know all things future.

3. Some future things are known by men, and we must allow God a greater knowledge than any creature. Future things in their causes may be known by angels and men, as I said before; whosoever knows necessary causes, and the efficacy of them, may foretell the effects ; and when he sees the meeting and concurrence of several causes together, he may presage what the consequent effect will be of such a concurrence. So physicians foretell the progress of a disease, the increase or diminution of it by natural si^ns; and astronomers foretell eclipses by their observation of the motion of°heavenly bodies many years before they happen. J Can they be hid from God, with whom are the reasons of all things ?§ An expert gardener, by knowing the root in the depth of winter, can tell what flowers and what fruit it will bear, and tho month when they will peep out their heads ; and shall not God much more, that knows tho principles of all his creatures, and is exactly privy to all their natures and qualities, know what they will be, and what operations shall be from those principles? Now if God did know things only in their causes, his knowledge would not be more excellent than

* Qu. 'no higher . . . than*?— Ed.

f Pacuvina said, Siqui qua eventura sunt providmt, crquiparcnt.

% ptisanus. I Fuller'! Pisgah, 1. ii. p. 281.

til'

the tin: ' will COI

cum iic ; than his creature,

h<> i llenl in I of bii I the manner of

II, tli. mi, shall a

nu i ctural know j men, ai

ii dl ' lliblc know :

in do b< i of futon

.1. as a perfi cl inl

I. God i and will, and then

ill fata I

• from itself, then it would be in Ii pen l< nt Inte. [f il bath its futurity from a God

future in n ;now, because he willed them to be c therefore knows thi be knows what he willed. Th

• I ono( arise from the things themseli

Jd bare withonl him ; and knowledge, which i I |

ion, would i • rred upon him by his creator* But i Sod thin i ible in the i his < | sol things future in I

his own will : in his effecting will, if he hath decree I to pro I n ;

m bis permitting will, as he hath decreed to roller them and dispo m.

lui of 11»i 11 «_r -i m< |

things futon . I I wiil hath ]

I om the innniteness of his own nature, simply i . that

;■> be future ; fur as thi G 1 is

infinite (for khan ail possible things should be ratu known to be future onlj becaase God is infinite, hut I dea : bia declaration of things to some is (bonded upon bis appoint-

ment of thi sne.f In Ua. xliv. 7, it is said, 'And who, ai I. .ill

call, and declare it, since I appointed the ancient p that

are coming?'! Nothing ia created and ordered in the world hut wl. dec: nd ordered. God knows his own dec re-

all thin:- winch he hath decreed to exist in time, not the minut. of the world, could have existed without his will, nol an I without his will. As life, the principle, so motion, the fruit of that and from Clod. As he decreed life to this or that thing, so he deer

the sfiect of Life, and decreed to exert his power in i ring

with tie producing effects natural from such can r without such

a c.' could not have acted anything, or produced anyth

And for natural things, which we call I God

fore iiem all particularly in his own decree I

which i. irily tlow from them, hecause such cau-.s cannot hut

are famished with all things necessary for action, lie knows his eessarily knows what he hath d< we most say things come to pass whether God will or no ; or, that he wills heknoi shat. But this cannot be; for' known not all his

i. i." Acts xv. L8. N' ssarily

flows from that principle first laid down, th

nothing is future without I rill. If God did not know future thin .

ho would not know his own will; for as thin hie could not

* Ghee t 0

.;h iu Aquin., DSfft i. L2t\

VOL. I. U h

known by him unless he knew the fulness of his own power, so things future could not be known by his understanding unless he knew the resolves of his own will.

Thus the knowledge of God differs from the knowledge of men. God's knowledge of his w T orks precedes his works,* man's knowledge of God's w r orks follows his works. Just as an artificer's knowledge of a watch, instrument, or engine which he w T ould make, is before his making of it; he knows the motions of it, and the reasons of those motions before it is made, because he knows what he hath determined to work; he knows not those motions from the consideration of them after they were made, as the spectator doth, who by viewing the instrument after it is made, gains a knowledge from the sight and consideration of it, till he understands the reason of the whole; so we know things from the consideration of them after we see them in being, and therefore we know not future things. But God's knowledge doth not arise from things because they are, but because he wills them to be; and therefore he knows everything that shall be, because it cannot be without his will, as the creator and maintainer of all things ; knowing his own substance, he knows all his works.

5. If God did not know all future things, he would be mutable in his knowledge.

If he did not know all things that ever were or are to be, there w r ould be upon the appearance of every new object an addition of light to his understanding, and therefore such a change in him as every new knowledge causes in the mind of a man, or as the sun works in the world upon its rising every morning, scattering the darkness that was upon the face of the earth. If he did not know them before they came, he would gain a knowledge by them when they came to pass, which he had not before they were effected; his knowledge would be new according to the newness of the objects, and multiplied according to the multitude of the objects. If God did not know things to come as perfectly as he knew things present and past, but knew those certainly, and the others doubtfully and conjecturally, he would suffer some change, and acquire some perfection in his knowledge, when those future things should cease to be future, and become present; for he would know it more perfectly when it were present than he did when it was future, and so there would be a change from imperfection to a perfection ; but God is every way immutable.

Besides, that perfection would not arise from the nature of God, but from the existence and presence of the thing. But who will affirm that God acquires any perfection of knowledge from his creatures, any more than he doth of being ? He would not then have had that knowledge, and consequently that perfection from eternity, as he had when he created the world, and will not have a full perfection of the knowledge of his creature till the end of the world, nor of immortal souls, which will certainly act as well as live to eternity. And so God never w r as, nor ever will be perfect in knowledge ; for when you have conceived millions of years, wherein angels and souls live and act, there is still more coming than you can conceive, wherein they will act. And if God be always changing to eternity from ignorance to knowledge, as those acts come to be exerted by his creatures, he will not be perfect in knowledge, no, not to eternity, but will always be changing from one degree of knowledge to another; a very unworthy conceit to entertain of the most blessed, perfect, and infinite God.

Hence then it follows, that,

(1.) God foreknows all his creatures ; all kinds w T hich ho determined to * Maimonid. Moro Novoch., part iii. cap. 21, p. 393, 394.

p. oxLvn. ■>.

make, all particulars thai should ipring out i f the tin

they should come forth of the womb, the ' I" thy book all

1111• 1111..; mitten, 1 P i i. 16. M •' in the Hebn .

Wh< I all tin- p

of them which} E tha numl itb

all their p urti; they irera written in the ; the

duration of them, how long they anal) remain in I" I aei oponthe

In- know- their Lh, tlio ! with another, and

whal will follow in all their oirena . and tb i unbination

- with tl

Tha daroti f - rerj thin \ i i foreknow a, bi c in e ' ; I

\i\. ained, the nnmbex of 1

thee; thon haet appointed hie bonnda thai he eannol p B

i, boyond which none shall reach ; he ind moi I

y day, month, year, boor of a man'i life.

Ail the acta of his oreatorea are foreknown by him. All •

rase he knows their causes; volant I ball peak of ai

Thie foreknowledge * in. For H is an unworthy notion of

G I to ascribe to him a conjectural knowledge; if there were only a con-

iral knowledge, he could but conjecturally foretell anythu : then it

is possible the events of things migbl ry to bis predictions. It

would appear then thai God were deceived and mistaken, and then t'.

1 be no rule of trying things whether they were from Gtod or no; for the rule Gtod seta down to discern his words from the word dse

prophets is tl and certain accomplishment of what is predict* I.

t. wiii. 21, to that question, ■ How shall we know whether Gtod fa

ken or i s, thai ' U the thing doth not eon

1 hath not spoken. 1 If his knowledge of future things were not certs there were no stability in this rule, it would fall to the ground. We a

1 deceived in any prediction; but the event did answer hi revelation ; his foreknowledge therefore is certain and infallible. "W not make (iod uncertain in his knowledge, but we must conceive him fluctuating and wavering in his will; but if his will be not 'yea and nay,' but ' yea.' his knowledge is certain, because he doth certainly will

!ve.

(1.) This foreknowledge waa from eternity. Seeing lie knows things possible in his power, and things future in his will, if his power and resolves were from eternity, his knowledge must be so too, or else we must make him ignorant of his own power, and ignorant of his own will from eternity, and [Uently not from eternity blessed and perfect. His knowledge of

rible things must run parallel with his power, and his knowledge of future things run parallel with his will. If he willed from eternity, he knew from

rnity what he willed ; but that he did will from eternity we must grant, on!' would render him changeable, and c i c ive him t i be

time of not willing, willing. The knowledge (rod hath in time v.; one and the hie onderstanding is his prop

. a&d of an immutable nature.

A'. 1 I: [< i I the acta J OS of a thing is not simply necessary I

>wn.* We may see a thing that i When it doth not actually m 1 a carpenter may know the hou

oil 11' 1-1 of it in Irs own mind : much I

we maycc: decrees^ fore the foundation

rt i. ij xiv. c. iii. p. 124,

of tho world, Eph. i. 5, and in other places ; and to be before time was, and to be from eternity, hath no difference. As God in his being exceeds all beginning of time, so doth his knowledge all motions of time.

(5.) God foreknows all things, as present with him from eternity.* As he knows mutable things with an immutable and firm knowledge, so he knows future things with a present knowledge. Not that the things which are produced in time were actually and really present with him in their own beings from eternity, for then they could not be produced in time ; had they a real existence, then they would not be creatures, but God ; and had they actual being, then they could not be future, for future speaks a thing to come that is not yet; if things had been actually present with him, and yet future, they had been made before they were made, and had a being before they had a being; but they were all present to his knowledge, as if they were in actual being, because the reason of all things that were to be made was present with him.

The reason of the will of God that they shall be, was equally eternal with him,f w 7 herein he saw what, and when, and how he would create things, how he would govern them, to what ends he would direct them. Thus all things are present to God's knowledge, though in their own nature they may be past or future, not in esse reali, but in esse intelUgibili, objectively, not actually present; X for as the unchangeableness and infiniteness of God's knowledge of changeable and finite things doth not make the things he knows immutable and infinite, so neither doth the eternity of his knowledge make them actually present with him from eternity, but all things are present to his understanding, because he hath at once a view of all successions of times, and his knowledge of future things is as perfect as of present things, or what is past. It is not a certain knowledge of present things, and an uncertain knowledge of future ; but his knowledge of one is as certain and unerring as his knowledge of the other. § As a man that beholds a circle with several lines from the centre, beholds the lines as they are joined in the centre, beholds them also as they are distant and severed from one another, beholds them in their extent and in their point all at once, though they may have a great distance from one another. He saw from the beginning of time to the last minute of it, all things coming out of their causes, marching in their order according to his own appointment, as a man may see a multitude of ants, some creeping one way, some another, employed in several businesses for their winter provision. The eye of God at once runs through the whole circle of time, as the eye of man upon a tower sees all the passengers at once, though some be past, some under the tower, some coming at a farther distance. God, saith Job, ' looks to the end of the earth, and sees under the whole heaven,' Job xxviii. 24. The knowledge of God is expressed by sight in Scripture, and futurity to God is the same thing as distance to us. We can, with a perspective glass, make things that are afar off appear as if they were near, and the sun, so many thousand miles distant from us, to appear as if it were at the end of the glass. Why should then future things be at so great a distance from God's knowledge, when things so far from us may bo made to approach so near to us ?

God considers all things, in his own simple knowledge, as if they were now acted ; and therefore some have chosen to call the knowledge of things to come not prescienco or foreknowledge, but knowledge, because God sees all things in one instant, scimtid nunqucm deficient** insiantia\\\ Upon this

* Gerhard Exeges, ch. viii., do Deo, sect. xiii. p. 303.

t Bradward, 1. iii. c. 14. § Pngio Fidci, part i. ch. 19.

I Ilornbeck. . |J Boot. Consolat., lib. v. prof. 6.

Pi. OXLVII. 5,

QOt thing! that nro t<> &d

I i. :\. 6, ' I lild ' ■ though i

bora : tin lafferic f < ... i, .•.<■., * II" hath our

wound* >

l •. I 1 ' . i . . them,'

• if thingn won ro lulu.

.1 inoommui thing

raft-to* in beii thing! .simp

\\ itii an ,: . . 'In. v 111:i;. i!

tlui; me, lu: nlv conjectural, and of i d

• ..• li< :i t Inn. and in his pi upon bis pi c ilamitiea, Job i. 11. B • :.

h.i\ 1 ' i i knowled imething fatori

i he w^' b thi m of hi.-. •

. :is in th( b, when be I i h trij> 1

of b . when hi the

delivi ranee of bis p< ople.

J.) 1 boa li tin in. that God for<

the manner of hia knowing all thi] ily

u-d. \\ «■ must Dot, I

understand not the manner how he bath the knowledge of all I It

thy for qb m no more ive

cf bim ; we should then own no more of him than that he d '

thoo, • b, • by searching find out God? thou find out the

Almighty ui d ?' Job n. 7. Do * 'to

• known to i ehend the nature of a man, nor what we <• bem wh<

i them, oor do we know what they fancy of a i they look \\i

I know, we andersl tittle the manner of th

imaginations aa they do of ours ; and shall we ascribe a darkness in God as to fntnre things, e we are ignorant of then . iow

should know them '. " Shall we doubt whether God doth certainly know t - which we only conjecture '.' A- our power is not tl ire

rof G ,ao neithi r ia our kn<. the jndg

onal on our Do w< ctly know the manner how we know? shah

:iy that we know anything? Vfe know wv haw goch a all understanding, bat doth any man certainly know what it

th not, shall li. that which is plain and I to

him .' B i • tain oars*

i inner how n I we th. li ny that which our wince a

1 this will be a preparation to the last thing.

knows all future couth ; that is, God fa

: app a, or, . and he knows all

ills that ahall DC to thi world.

• all tbii bim,' II b. iv. L8, th. d all a

f,.r : in the imiulur of thii (

those thin

things which are unknown to man, are known to God, because of the infinite fulness and perfection of the divine understanding.

Let us see what a contingent is.

That is contingent which we commonly call accidental, as when a tile falls suddenly upon a man's head as he is walking in the street, or when one letting off a musket at random shoots another he did not intend to hit; such was that arrow whereby Ahab was killed, shot by a soldier at a venture, 1 Kings xxii. 34. This some call a mixed contingent, made up partly of necessity, and partly of accident; it is necessary the bullet, when sent out of the gun, or arrow out of the bow, should fly and light somewhere, but it is an accident that it hits this or that man, that was never intended by the archer. Other things, as voluntary actions, are purely contingents, and have nothing of necessity in them; all free actions that depend upon the will of man, whether to do or not to do, are of this nature, because they depend not upon a necessary cause, as burning doth upon the fire, moistening upon water, or as descent or falling down is necessary to a heavy body, for those cannot in their own nature do otherwise; but the other actions depend upon a free agent, able to turn to this or that point, and determine himself as he pleases.

Now we must know that what is accidental in regard of the creature, is not so in regard of God. The manner of Ahab's death was accidental in regard of the hand by which he was slain, but not in regard of God, who foretold his death, and foreknew the shot, and directed the arrow. God was not uncertain before of the manner of his fall, nor hovered over the battle to watch for an opportunity to accomplish his own prediction ; what may be or not be in regard of us, is certain in regard of God. To imagine that what is accidental to us is so to God, is to measure God by our short line. How many events, following upon the results of princes in their counsels, seem to persons ignorant of those counsels to be a hap-hazard, yet were not contingencies to the prince and his assistants, but foreseen by him as certainly to issue so as they do, which they knew before would be the fruit of such causes and instruments they would knit together ! That may be necessary in regard of God's foreknowledge, which is merely accidental in regard of the natural disposition of the immediate causes which do actually produce it; contingent in its own nature and in regard of us, but fixed in the knowledge of God. One illustrates it by this similitude : * A master sends two servants to one and the same place, two several ways, unknown to one another; they meet at the place which their master had appointed them; their meeting is accidental to them, one knows not of the other, but it w T as foreseen by the master that they should so meet, and that in regard of them it would seem a mere accident till they came to explain the business to one another; both the necessity of their meeting in regard of their master's order, and the accidentalness of it in regard of themselves, were in both their circumstances foreknown by the master that employed them.

For the clearing of this, take it in this method.

(1.) It is an unworthy conceit of God, in any, to exclude him from the knowledge of these things.

[1.] It will be a strange contracting of him, to allow him no greater a knowledge than we have ourselves. Contingencies are known to us when they come into act, and pass from futurity do reality; and when they are present to us, we can order our affairs accordingly; shall we allow God no greater a measure of knowledge than we have, and make him as blind as ourselves, not to see things of that nature; before they come to pass ? Shall

* Zanch.

r . cxi.vii. , r ).]

:li. in do mora; God 1 baa

m kno\ . .iii.l thai bo doth, like us, land nritfa admiration at i

:i conjoctun • ■■ same unci rtalnl

Citxl, did ha.

appear to the ... .' i i loth m I • ha

i bul conjecture them ; bat a i iral km

I. I, for thai if aol kno deity bj making him Btibj< i

i an iini-

ally acknowledged perfocti fomni cience. A i

unworthy of < ii ani-

!. . r in mini hath :i lib* i

ilk to tin « or thai ijiiai I

or thai thing oi do! to do il ; which waj a man frill <•• rtainl; liin unknown I"

aelf, for he ma) be in all wo imagine thi

miii.iiu >n of hn • 'I from ItocL The e thai

knowledge in such cases, must < '""I hath an opinion tl,

man will resolve rather this way than thai ;—bnl thru if a man by his hi

rmine himself contrary to the opinion of God, G

and what rational creature can own him I God that can D€ I in

anythii e they nni-t saj thai God is a! iiu.-. rtaintj, an

his opinion without detennining it an ; then In- carmoi

ti.l they arc done, he would then <1< p« nd upon the creature lor nia infbri

tion, lus knowledge would be every instant in u<<t

►re came into act; ami since there are every minute an innumerable multitude ^( various imaginations in the minds of men, there would i minute an . in of new kno... i God, which he had i ;

h. sidi -. this knowledge would be mutable, according to the waverii

tk resolutions of m while Btanding to this point, anol

while to that, it' he depended upon the creatures 1 determination I

iwledge.

2. If the ; of men wen- unknown before to God, no man can seo

. an he any government of the world by him. Such couth.

may happen, and Mich resolves of men's free wills unknown toG

affairs, and pul him upon new counsels and methods I du-

ing those ends which tied at the firsl creation of things; if thi

happen which God b not of before, this must be thi where there is no foresight, there is no providence ; things may happ d sudden, if God he ignorant of them, that they ma] a cluck to Lis

int. nti-»ns and scheme of government, and put him upon eh tho

: it. Sow often doth a small intervening cireun man. .lash in | a long meditated and well*formed d. Bign.

rssary . . -un and re natural

tl in themselv* magined ; hut i . tho

world, thai many men of free will, ahle t-> determine them-

iat, and which have no constancy in th< : - the

gun a: I ined, DJ B will allow in God as

: foreknowledge of i. m their .God I his

ry hour, every minute, according to th<

. .'. hioh a ud changeable in the whol.

world in thi

* S

of men will be, before he could settle his own methods of government ; and so must govern the world according to their mutability, and not according to any certainty in himself. But his ' counsel is stable' in the midst of multitudes of free 'devices' in the heart of man, Prov. xix. 21, and knowing them all before, orders them to be subservient to his own stable counsel. If he cannot know what to-morrow will bring forth in the mind of a man, how can he certainly settle his own determination of governing him; his degrees and resolves must be temporal, and arise pro re tiatd, and he must alway be in counsel what he should do upon every change of men's minds. This is an unworthy conceit of the infinite majesty of heaven, to make his government depend upon the resolves of men, rather than their resolves upon the design of God.

(2.) It is therefore certain that God doth foreknow the free and voluntary acts of man. How could he else order his people to ask of him ' things to come,' in order to their deliverance, such things as depend upon the will of man, if he foreknew not the motions of their will, Isa. xlv. 11.

[1.] Actions good or indifferent depending upon the liberty of man's will as much as any whatsoever. Several of these he hath foretold ; not only a person to build up Jerusalem was predicted by him, but the name of that person, Cyrus, Isa. xliv. 28. What is more contingent, or is more the effect of the liberty of man's will, than the names uf their children ? Was not the destruction of the Babylonish empire foretold, which Cyrus undertook, not by any compulsion, but by a free inclination and resolve of his own will ? And was not the dismission of the Jews into their own country a voluntary act in that conquerer ? If you consider the liberty of man's will, might not Cyrus as well have continued their yoke as have struck off their chains, and kept them captive as well as dismissed them ? Had it not been for his own interest rather to have strengthened the fetters of so turbulent a people, who, being tenacious of their religion and laws, different from that professed by the whole world, were like to make disturbances more when they were linked in a body in their own country, than when they were transplanted and scattered into the several parts of his empire ? It was in the power of Cyrus (take him as a man) to choose one or the other. His interest invited him to continue their captivity rather than grant their deliverance, yet God knew that he would willingly do this rather than the other ; he knew this which depended upon the will of Cyrus ; and why may not an infinite God foreknow the free acts of all men, as well as of one ? If the liberty of Cyrus's will was no hindrance to God's certain and infallible foreknowledge of it, how can the contingency of any other thing be a hindrance to him ? for there is the same reason of one and all; and his government extends to every village, every family, every person, as well as to kingdoms and nations.

So God foretold by his prophet, not only the destruction of Jeroboam's altar, but the name of the person that should be the instrument of it, 1 Kings xiii. 2, and this about three hundred years before Josiah's birth. It is a wonder that none of the pious kings of Judah, in detestation of idolatry, and hopes to recover again the kingdom of Israel, had in all that space named one of their sous by that name of Josiah, in hopes that that prophecy should Ik; accomplished by him; that Manasseh only should do tliis, who was the greatest imitator of Jeroboam's idolatry among all the Jewish kings, and indeed went beyond them, and had no mind to destroy in another kingdom what he propagated in his own. What is freer than the imposition of a, name? Yet I his be foreknew, and this Josiah was J\Ia-nasseh's son, 2 Kings xxi. 20. Was there anything more voluntary than for

r . < \ i. \ 11. b .

Pharaoh t i honour the butl r I him to hia pla

baker bj l bim on a gibh I ? 5

i were nol nil tin rohml . whichw< re tip

incemout, t ( ■", which «

and be aimed at l.\ tho I op-

Can all ill-' amount the innnit vim:

inn i, If i Qe voluntary action in i Iin-

aumber of «»»1 j ■ • I 'lu-

ll us and in. lit, why Bhould be not know ti.

:nt.» all thai tho Ii ill be I as

thai Ii->a in the midti of manj • one kn

be Scrip tun an aeeonnl of conl I

n .•. rtainly prove that anything ia onfon I onable to think I

.-• thai Ii-' as much hid from the -.• difficulty to an infinite understanding to know all, th Indeed, if we den] i luntary

mu8l Btrike our >flf from th< of Scripture predii

remain onaceompliahed, and will be broughl aboul by the voluntary* Hunt- of men, aa the ruin of antichrist, Ac. It' God fori ■us of man's will, how can he foretell tin in ? [f perfection ofpr< science, why should we believe s woi

en .lit of tl I of God ia torn Qp by thi

were uncertain of such events, bow can i

bia truth, and hia demanding our belief of them to hi Were ii good and righteous in God to urge aa to the belief of thai he w< uncertain of himself? How could he be true in predicting things he v

in requiring credit it which might

ia would necessarily follow, if God did nol foreknow tho men's wills, whereby many of hia predictions some remain yet to be accomplished.

•_'. I ireknows the voluntary sinful motions of i]

. i: I hath for several of them. Were not all the minute sinful

omatancea about the death of cur 1 Redeemer, aa the piercing b

giving him gall to drin] , ' Id, as well aa the not breaking bin

ing his garments ? \\ hat were those but the an a, w]

1 willingly, without any constraint ? And I :<>ld by David,

ar prophets, above a thousand, f othnn-

they came to punctually answered the prophc oi< b. M u y an :. which

1 upon tlieir free will, have 1 i told : the Egyptians' volunl

. 18 : Pharaoh's hardening hi , 19; 1 t ] ih'a me* uld be in vain

. vi. 19; that the Israelites would be rebellious after M turn idolai -. IN at. xxxi. 16 ; Judas hi voluntary action, John vi. 71 : he n

kind of repentance for it; and not * ■ hut

. fails under rep< i

truth hath depended upon this foresight.

• The i

. him, d of tl ith bim.—J

that in Gen. xv. 16, but ' the fourth generation, they shall come hither again;' that is, the posterity of Abraham shall come into Canaan ; ' for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.'* God makes a promise to Abraham of giving his posterity the land of Canaan, not presently, but in the fourth generation. If the truth of God be infallible in the performance of his promise, his understanding is as infallible in the foresight of the Amorites' sin : the fulness of their iniquity was to precede the Israelites' possession. Did the truth of God depend upon an uncertainty ? Did he make the promise hand over head, as we say? How could he with any wisdom and truth assure Israel of the possession of the land in the fourth generation, if he had not been sure that the Amorites would fill up the measure of their iniquities by that time ? If Abraham had been a Socinian, to deny God's knowledge of the free acts of men, had he not had a fine excuse for unbelief ? What would his reply have been to God ? Alas, Lord, this is not a promise to be relied upon; the Amorites' iniquity depends upon the acts of their free will, and such thou canst have no knowledge of. Thou canst see no more than a likelihood of their iniquity being full, and therefore there is but a likelihood of thy performing thy promise, and not a certainty. Would not this be judged not only a saucy, but a blasphemous answer? And upon these principles the truth of the most faithful God had been dashed to uncertainty and a peradventure.

Thirdly, God provided a remedy for man's sin, and therefore foresaw the entrance of it into the world by the fall of Adam. He had a decree before the foundation of the world, to manifest his wisdom in the gospel by Jesus Christ, an ' eternal purpose in Jesus Christ,' Eph. iii. 11. And a decree of election passed before the foundation of the world, a separation of some to redemption and forgiveness of sin in the blood of Christ, in whom they were from eternity chosen, as well as in time accepted in Christ, Eph. i. 4, 6, 7, which is called a ' purpose in himself,' ver. 9. Had not sin entered, there had been no occasion for the death of the Son of God, it being everywhere in Scripture laid upon that score. A decree for the shedding of blood supposed a decree for the permission of sin, and a certain foreknowledge of God, that it would be committed by man. An uncertainty of foreknowledge, and a fixedness of purpose, are not consistent in a wise man, much less in the only wise God. God's purpose to manifest his wisdom to men and angels in this way might have been defeated, had God had only a conjectural foreknowledge of the fall of man; and all those solemn purposes of displaying his perfections in those methods had been to no purpose.f The provision of a remedy supposed a certainty of the disease. If a sparrow fall not to ground without the will of God, how much less could such a deplorable ruin fall upon mankind, without God's will permitting it, and his knowledge foreseeing it!

It is not hard to" conceive how God might foreknow it4 He indeed decreed to create man in an excellent state. The goodness of God could not but furnish him with a power to stand. Yet in his wisdom he might foresee that the devil would be envious to man's happiness, and would, out of envy, attempt his subversion. As God knew of what temper the faculties were he had endued man with, and how far they were able to endure the assaults of a temptation, so he also foreknew the grand subtilty of Satan, how he would lay his .mine, and to what point he would drive his temptation ; how he Would propose and manage it, and direct his battery against the sensitive appetite, and assault the weakest part of tho fort; might, he not foresee that

, * Vid. Riret. in loc. exorci. 8G, p, 329. t Mares, cont. VolkeL lib. i. oap, 24, p. 343. J AmyralcL do Pradestin. cap. G.

Hi.' effleaoj of the temptaiioD wou of the n

i 11 i.u- the malice of S ii.ui would extend ; Ii"

would, accordit dd ehai

tioil without Ins |..>\\. i lul r. 'strain! . us Well IIH till i

ihol boo will make ;i bn ach in a I

I. r will l.l..w 111* ;i i'..ih. -.. uhn in l.uilt th.- ..in- dot founded the

other? Won nclude God could not be de< n the jn

oft I event, oe be I.u a boa far in would I-

in- be would p. runt man • ice In d

ire "i all things, be fo b an a:

;. ohadad might oatui but

ho fi i thai Adam would Bink under tin allun of tin tem]

tion, as be I that II. im. I would nut 1.1 l'.< uhadad H

Bince th." whole race of mankind Lies in corruption, an I the power of the devil, 1 John v. 19, maj no! God, thai ti.Mi in every man's nature, ami the fora ol every] l*:tt,

y partioular nature will ineline him to upon Buch o l to

him, and what the of the temptation will l>.\ know also the

[i there any difficulty in God's foreknowing this, since man, 1

re of one he is well acquainted with, can conclude wl will have, and how he will behave himself, upon presenting this oz that object to him ?

man that understands the disposition of his child or >re what he will do upon Buch an o m, may not God much m who knows the inclination of all his creatures, and from eternity run with hi*. ■ 1 the works h<' intended? Our wills are in the nun

. and Bince <i'"l kno as causes, r than we do our-

why should In- 1"- ignorant of the effect 11 d determines to giv< achaman; nut to give it to anol

l»nt leave him to himself, and Buffer Buch I ions to assault him. N

i, knowing the corruption of man in tin-whole mass, and in every pa

it, 18 it not easy for him to foreknow what the future actions of the will will

when the tinder and fire meet together, and how such a man will d< mine himself, both as to the substance and manner of the action ? [s it . for him to know how a corrupted temper ami a temptation w2

■:ly privy to all the gall in the hearts of men. ami wh.-.t princi they will have before they have a being. He ' knows their thoughts afar 1'-. oxzziz. -. as for off as eternity, a qriain the words, and tl

voluntary as anything; he knows the | ad inclinations of men

in the order of Becond causes; he understands the corruption of i

. as the poison of dragons ami the venom of asps. I ' laid up in

e with him. and sealed among his treasun it. xxxii. 88, :'<i;

rag the treasuree of his foreknowledge, say Borne. What was the cruelty of Hazael hut a tree act ? x . knew the frame

of hi-- heart, and what acts of murder ami oppression would Bpring from I bitter fountain, before Saaael had conceived them in hi

12, A- man that SHOWS the mineral through which waters paS8 may k

.t relish they will have before they appear above the earth, bo out a knew hi would deny him ; he knew what quantity of

•h a Lattery, in what measure ho w.uiM i

would leave 1 Petei ads, ami then I might

ly he known ; : man, God know-, in his OWH will

what measure i will give to determine the will I I. and what

ill withdraw from such a person, or bim,

and consequently, how far such a person will fall or not. God knows the inclinations of the creature ; he knows his own permissions, what degrees of grace he will either allow him or keep from him, according to which will be the degree of his sin. This may in some measure help our conceptions in this, though, as was said before, the manner of God's foreknowledge is not so easily explicable.

(3). God's foreknowledge of man's voluntary actions doth not necessitate the will of man. The foreknowledge of God is not deceived, nor the liberty of man's will diminished. I shall not trouble you with any school distinctions, but be as plain as I can, laying down several propositions in this case.

Prop. 1. It is certain all necessity doth not take away liberty. Indeed, a compulsive necessity takes away liberty, but a necessity of immutability removes not liberty from God ; why should then a necessity of infallibility in God remove liberty from the creature ? God did not necessarily create the world, because he decreed it; yet freely, because his will from eternity stood to it: he freely decreed it, and freely created it. As the apostle saith, in regard of God's decrees, ' Who hath been his counsellor ?' Rom. xi. 34, so, in regard of his actions, I may say, Who hath been his compeller ? He freely decreed, and he freely created. Jesus Christ necessarily took our flesh, because he had covenanted with God so to do, yet he acted freely and voluntar[iljy according to that covenant, otherwise his death had not been efficacious for us. A good man doth naturally necessarily love his children, yet voluntary. It is part of the happiness of the blessed to love God unchangeably, yet freely, for it would not be their happiness if it were done by compulsion. What is done by force cannot be called felicity, because there is no delight or complacency in it; and though the blessed love God freely, yet, if there were a possibility of change, it would not be their happiness ; their blessedness would be damped by their fear of falling from this love, and consequently from their nearness to God, in whom their happiness consists. God foreknows that they will love him for ever, but are they therefore compelled for ever to love him ? If there were such a kind of constraint, heaven would be rendered burdensome to them, and so no heaven.

Again, God's foreknowledge of what he will do doth not necessitate him to do; he foreknew that he would create a w r orld, yet he freely created a world. God's foreknowledge doth not necessitate himself, why should it necessitate us more than himself ? We may instance in ourselves: when we will a thing, we necessar[iljy use our faculty of will; and when we freely will anything, it is necessary that w T e freely will; but this necessity doth not exclude but include liberty ; or more plainly, when a man writes or speaks, whilst he writes or speaks, those actions are necessary, because to speak and be silent, to write and not to write, at the same time, are impossible ; yet our writing or speaking doth not take away the power not to write or to be silent at that time, if a man would be so, for he might have chose whether he would have spoke or writ. So there is a necessity of such actions of man which God foresees ; that is, a necessity of infallibility, because God cannot be deceived, but not a coactive necessity, as if they were compelled by God to act thus or thus.

Prop. 2. No iiutn can say in any of his voluntary actions that he ever found any force; upon him. When any of us have done anything according to our wills, can we say we could not have done the contrary to it? Were we determined to it in our own intrinsic nature, or did we not determine ourselves ? Did we not act either according to our reason, or according to outward allurements ; did we find anything without us or within us that

Ps. OXLVII. 6,

did win' th ' v. ,i if

do it b< '.-'ii judge it fi{ -...n m I

What though G 1<3 I that you mid do thi i

or that, did yon feel w 11 I you d

nature ' i h a tim

find an} thing thai move • j ou to eat 1 yonr om n r< i on and will" [f pi

mid wo not probabl oe kindofp it in the mouth

of Adam? II ■

God, ii ; he could noi in ini

ran* I I -| thai knew nothing ol future things; he could

rant of I i action but he mn i\ ha npon I

though! God |

him, he would not have omitted the p] ly when

: to i •■ the pr i. in the gifl of I

to him, to be the can-.' of his cr me, Gen. iii. L2. Hon came fa

i" nut ( \o I, which their father Adam nevi r thou rho had more knowledge than all of them? He o old find i rin bu1 the liberty ofhia own will. He charges it nol npon any n< l the devil, or any i ■ . from God; nor doth ho all fthe

woman iry cause of his sin, bul

fruit to him. Judas knew thai our Saviour did foreknow hi . for

he had told him of it in the hearing of bis disciples, John xiii. 21, ! he never ch his crime upon the forekn<

[f Judas had not done it freely, he had had no his repentance justifies Christ from imp upon him

knowled . No man acts anything but he can give an account of iii<>' : he cannot father it upon a blind nec< will

cannot be compelled, for then it would I > be will, i :j, I)0 t r

np the foundations of natu order of it, and make men un-

like men, that is. as free agents. God foreknows the s of

irrational creatures; tins concludes no violence npon their nature, for find their actions to be according to their nature, and apontaneou

foreknowledge ia not, Bimply considered, the c f any-

thing. It puts nothing into things, but only beholds them as pr» Bent,

ring from their proper causes. The knowledge of God is noi the principle of things, or the cause of their existence, but directive of the because God knows it. but because God wills it. either p< -d8sively. God knows all things possible; y • G

• not broughl into actual exisi ti remain still only

thi: | ible. Knowledge only apprehends a thing, hut acts nothing; it

is the rule of acting, but not the cause of acting : the will is the im:

principle, and the power the immediate cause. To know a thing is no-do a thing; for then we may he said to e thing that we know. 1'

ry man knows those things which he never did, nor never will En If is an apprehension of a thing, and is not I

i thing is not the cause of that thing which he sees; of it as he beholds it. \\ , man writ,

he will wri teh a time; but this foreknowledge i-

Cause of his writing. W. - e a man walk ; hut our vision of him le

him ; he w ;,, walk. | to walk. 1 We

know that death will seize upon all in seasons

of; ■ will sue • e another; yet is not our ton-!

of this succession of spring after winter, or of the death of all men, or any man. "We see one man fighting with another ; our sight is not the cause of that contest, but some quarrel among themselves exciting their own passions. As the knowledge of present things imposeth no necessity upon them while they are acting and present, so the knowledge of future things imposeth no necessity upon them while they are coming. "We are certain there will be men in the world to-morrow, and that the sea will ebb and flow; but is this knowledge of ours the cause that those things will be so ? I know that the sun will rise to-morrow; it is true that he shall rise ; but it is not true that my foreknowledge makes it to rise. If a physician prognosticates, upon seeing the intemperances and debaucheries of men, that they will fall into such a distemper, is his prognostication any cause of their disease, or of the sharpness of any symptoms attending it ? The prophet foretold the cruelty of Hazael before he committed it; but who will say that the prophet was the cause of his commission of that evil ? And thus the foreknowledge of God takes not away the liberty of man's will, no more than a foreknowledge that we have of any man's actions takes away his liberty. "We may, upon our knowledge of the temper of a man, certainly foreknow that if he falls into such company, and get among his cups, he will be drunk ; but is this foreknowledge the" cause that he is drunk ? No ; the cause is the liberty of his own will, and not resisting the temptation. God purposes to leave such a man to himself and his own ways; and man being so left, God foreknows what will be done by him according to that corrupt nature which is in him. Though the decree of God, of leaving a man to the liberty of his own will, be certain, yet the liberty of man's will, as thus left, is the cause of all the extravagancies he doth commit. Suppose Adam had stood; would not God certainly have foreseen that he would have stood ? Yet it would have been concluded that Adam had stood, not by any necessity of God's foreknowledge, but by the liberty of his own will. WTiy should, then, the foreknowledge of God add more necessity to his falling than to his standing ? * And though it be said sometimes in Scripture that such a thing was done, * that the Scripture might be fulfilled,' as John xii. 38, ' that the saying of Esaias might be fulfilled, Lord, who hath believed our report?' the word that doth not infer that the prediction of the prophet was the cause of the Jews' unbelief; but infers this, that the prediction was manifested to be true by their unbelief, and the event answered the prediction. This prediction was not the cause of their sin; but their foreseen sin was the cause of this prediction. And so the particle that is taken, Ps. li. 4, ' Against thee, thee only have I sinned, that thou mightest be justified,' &c. The justifying God was not the end and intent of the sin, but the event of it upon his acknowledgment.

Prop. 4. God foreknows things because they will come to pass ; but things are not future because God knows them. Foreknowledge presupposeth the ol nect which is foreknown. A thing that is to come to pass is the object of the divine knowledge, but not the cause of the act of divine knowledge; and though the foreknowledge of God doth in eternity precede the actual presence of a thing which is foreseen as future, yet the future thing, in regard of its futurity, is as eternal as the foreknowledge of God. As the voice is uttered before it be heard, and a thing is visible before it be seen, and a thin" knowablo before it be known; but how comes it to be knowable to God ? It must be answered, either in the power of God as a thing possible, or in the will of God as a thing future. He first willed, and then knew what ho willed ; he knew what hi", willed to effect, and he knew what he willed to

* Rivet in Isa. liii. 1, p. 10.

I' . I ' '. I ;

trilled the death of < I

willed the pormi ion of I

their □ ttnre to tfa il end, \ -\ cnu-

tare, !ui«l t i i him h (! to hind

creature from ti

binder would come t<> |-i i. Mm <lnl I

him : but «I him to

other men would have actod otherwise, <

I Well, (iiul I'm ,'lM

b the motion of our I '. which ho would permit,

which li«' would concur with, which he would n

ends for tl»o manifestation of tho perfection ol It' I

■ men lie in a Kink, no i I

in that filthy place ; but th oessity him |

• I ; e him in thai condition if I paei I

that way. /' . i. God did ooi only fon the mam* r of

actions; thai is, he did uoi only know thai we would do such a but

we would do them freely. Ee for iw thai the will would rmine itself to this or thai The knowledge of God I the

ire of things. Though God kno* ble thin main in

tli.' nature of possibility; and though God knows c at thii

they remain in the nature of contingencies; and though <<

main in the nature of libert; . God actions of man lary, bu! as free; bo thai liberty is rather establi

by this foreknowledge than removed. God did not foreloaow thai Adam

not a pOW( ad, OT that any man hath imt B !i ;i

sinful action, bul thai he would uol omii it. Man hath a todooti

wise than that which c»«».I foreknows he will do. Adam

any inward necessity to tall, nor any man by any inwa ty to

commit this or that particular sin ; bui God foresaw that he would tail, and tall freely; for he saw the whole circle of means and <• ich actions ahould be produced, and can be no mi

motions of OUT wills, and the manner of them, than an artificer I

ignoranl of the motions of his watch, and how for the spring will L the string in the f an hour. Hi all causes leadi

its in their whole order, and how the free-will of man will comply with this, or refuse that; he changes not the manner of the creature 'ion,

wh •

. 6. But what if the foreknowledge of God, and tho liberty of tho

will, cannot bo fully reconciled by man ? Shall wo tl v a perfec-

. in God, 10 Support a liberty in our. elv s '.' Shall we rather fasten i

and accuse him of blindness, to maintain our liberty '? Th reknow everything, and yet that there is liberty in

rational creature. . i certain: but how fully to reconcile them, -

surmount the und og of man. Some truths tho discrpL

able of bearing in the days of Christ ; and several truths our a

teh as long as the world doth I t in the mean tin:

must on the one hand take heed of conceiving God ignorant, an 1 on tho other hand of imagining ti no will

inn . and the other will stem to render him unjust, in put Man

for that sin which he could not avoid, but wai at into I d neces-

sity. God own proceedings, and i

up all at the day of judgment ; it M a part of man's curi the fall,

to be prying into God's secrets, things too high for him, whereby he singes his own wings, and confounds his own understanding. It is a cursed affectation that runs in the blood of Adam's posterity, to know as God, though our first father smarted and ruined his posterity in that attempt; the ways and knowledge of God are as much ■ above our thoughts' and conceptions, as ' the heavens are above the earth,' Isa. lv. 9, and so sublime, that we cannot comprehend them in their true and just greatness ;* his designs are so mysterious, and the ways of his conduct so profound, that it is not possible to dive into them. The force of our understandings is below his infinite wisdom, and therefore we should adore him with an humble astonishment, and cry out with the apostle; Rom. xi. 33, ' Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!' Whenever we meet with depths that we cannot fathom, let us remember that he is God, and we his creatures ; and not be guilty of so great extravagance, as to think that a subject can pierce into all the secrets of a prince, or a work understand all the operations of the artificer. Let us only resolve not to fasten any thing on God that is unworthy of the perfection of his nature, and dishonourable to the glory of his majesty ; nor imagine that we can ever step out of the rank of creatures to the glory of the Deity, to understand fully everything in his nature. So much for the second general, what God knows.

III. The third is, How God knows all things ? As it is necessary we should conceive God to be an understanding being, else he could not be God, so we must conceive his understanding to be infinitely more pure and perfect than ours in the act of it, else we liken him to ourselves, and debase him as low as his footstool. As among creatures there are degrees of being and perfection ; plants above earth and sand, because they have a power of growth ; beasts above plants, because to their power of growth, there is an addition of excellency of sense ; rational creatures above beasts, because to sense there is added the dignity of reason ; the understanding of man is more noble than all the vegetative power of plants, or the sensitive power of beasts : God therefore must be infinitely more excellent in his understand-in^, and therefore in the manner of it.f As man differs from a beast in regard of his knowledge, so doth God also from man in regard of his knowledge. As God therefore is, in being and perfection, infinitely more above a man than a man is above a beast, the manner of his knowledge must be infinitely more above a man's knowledge, than the knowledge of a man is above that of a beast; our understandings can clasp an object in a moment, that is at a great distance from our sense ; our eye by one elevated motion can view the heavens ; the manner of God's understanding must be unconceivably above our glimmerings ; as the manner of his being is infinitely more perfect than all beings, so must the manner of his understanding be infinitely more perfect than all created understandings. Indeed, the manner of God's knowledge can no more be known by us, than his essence can be known by us; and the same incapacity in man, which renders him unable to comprehend the being of God, renders him as unable to comprehend the manner of God's understanding.J As there is a vast distance between the essence of God, and our beings, so there is between the thoughts of God and our thoughts. The heavens are not so much higher than the earth, as the thoughts of God are above the thoughts of men, yea, and of the highest

* Daillo, Mclanf*. part i. p. 712, 725. f Maxim. Tyrius Dissert, i. p, 9, 10. X Maimonidea More Nevockim. part iii. c. xx. p. C91-393.

;tnvl, !

we know thai be <\. the infinil of ( '•<> 1,

ire know that 1 11 i bim«

• w!i:it he is ; il

the manner Q 11

Lh imperfections our ki oncamberod with.

I 'i-n.-i :i!, God il«it li iii ilv know all things ; lie ily omni-

iMit, I" c nine of the imin. i be ii Deeeeaai

omniscienti bee thu i nli nit <-iii-<< <tf 11i m nn<l<i.^t:i•!■ 1:11 •. I

at the libertj of bii will, whether he will know all things, than

will be abl all things; it is no a I the liberty of his will,

whether he will be omniscient, than whether be will I" i as

»rant, a m be impure ; be I I

will kno l, bat b attal to theoL

In particular.

/'/ . l. God knoi i by bis < of

things in the ideas of his own mind, and t ; i in the decr<

of his own uill ; he knows them not by riewing the things, bnl I himself; his own i :e is the mirror and book, wherein he beholds all things that be doth ordain, dispose, and exeonl i be knows aU thi

in the firsl and original can-*', which is no Other than hi .. ill-

. and his own essenoe executing what he wills : be knowi them m his power as the physical principle, in his will as the moral principle of this . sak. Ee borrows not the kno 1 of creatures from th< , norde]

upon them for means of understanding, as we poor worms do, who i holden to the objects abroad to assist us with im things, and to our

seni nvcv them into our minds : God would then acquire a perfecfl

which are below himself and an excellency from those things that are vile ; his knowdedgo would not precede the being of the it the creatures would he before the act of his knowledge. Ir' he understood by images drawn from the creatures, as we do, there would be something in God which is not God, viz., the images of things drawn from outward objects. God would then depend upon ercatur-which is more noble than a bare being ; for to be understanding, is more dent than barely to be. Besides, if God's knowledge of bis ;res

rived from the creatures by the impression of anything upon him. there is upon us, he could not know from eternity, because from eternity > actual existence of anything but himself; anl therefore there could not bo any images shot out from any thing, because there was not anything in being but (rod ; as there is no principle of being to anything but by his essence, so there is no principle of the knowdedge of anything by himself but his . If the knowledge of God were distinct from his

. his knowledge were not eternal, because th re is nothing eternal but . Hi- no lerstai] Dot a faculty in him as it is in us, but the same with his

of the simplicity of his nature ; God is not neide ii}) of var: parts, one; distinct from another, as we are, and therefore doth UOtund

• by himself; so that to be i ad to understan I 6 with God; bis essence il the power whereby ho

ond< Qother; he would then be eompoui 1 not be the i.

him; ]

• an 1 uol le the way and manner of knowing is, tfa

and noble is the know'. .1. :-ou

. i. i i

the excellency of the medium whereby we know. As a knowledge by reason is a more noble way of knowing than knowledge by sense, so it is more excellent for God to know by his essence, than by anything without him, anything mixed with him ; the first would render him dependent, and the other would demolish his simplicity.

Again, the natures of all things are contained in God,—not formally, for then the nature of the creatures would be God ;*■—but eminently, ' he that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see ?' Ps. xciv. 9. He hath in himself eminently the beauty, perfection, life and vigour of all creatures ; he created nothing contrary to himself, but everything with some footsteps of himself in them ; he could not have pronounced them good, as he did, had there been anything in them contrary to his own goodness ; and therefore as his essence primarily represents itself, so it represents the creatures, and makes them known to him. As the essence of God is eminently all things, so by understanding his essence, he eminently understands all things. And therefore he hath not one knowledge of himself, and another knowledge of the creatures ; but by knowing himself, as the original and exemplary cause of all things, he cannot be ignorant of any creature which he is the cause of; so that he knows all things, not by an understanding of them, but by an understanding of himself; by understanding his own power as the efficient of them, his own will as the orderf of them, his own goodness as the adorner and beautifier of them, his own wisdom as the disposer of them, and his own holiness, to which many of their actions are contrary.

As he sees all things possible in his own power,! because he is able to produce them, so he sees all things future in his own will; decreeing to effect them, if they be good ; or decreeing to permit them, if they be evil. In this glass he sees what he will give being to, and what he will suffer to fall into a deficiency, without looking out of himself, or borrowing knowledge from his creatures; he knows all things in himself. And thus his know T -ledge is more noble, and of a higher elevation than ours, or the knowledge of any creature can be; he knows all things by one comprehension of the causes in himself.

Trop. 2. God know T s all things by one act of intuition. This the schools call an intuitive knowledge. This follows upon the other; for if he know by his own essence, he knows all things by one act; there would be otherwise a division in his essence, a first and a last, a nearness and a distance. As what he made, he made by one word, so what he sees, he pierceth into by one glance from eternity to eternity; as he wills all things by one act of his will, so he knows all things by one act of his understanding. He knows not some things discursively from other things, nor knows one thing successively after another. As by one act he imparts essence to things, so by one act he knows the nature of things.

1. Ho doth not know by discourse as we do ; that is, b} T deducing one thing from another, and from common notions drawing out other rational conclusions, and arguing one thing from another, and springing up various consequences from some principle assented to; but God stands in no need of reasonings : the making inferences and abstracting things would be stains in the infinite perfection of God. Here would be a mixture of knowledge :md ignorance; while he knew the principle, he would not know the con-Beqnence and conclusion till ho had actually deduced it; one thing would be known after another, and so he would have an ignorance and then a knowledge, and there would be different conceptions in God, and knowledge

■ Dionys. 1 Qu.' orderer' ?— Ed. J Kendal against Goodwin of Foreknowledge.

I • . ( . I. \ I. would be multi]

II ii. i

the woi Id." Ho I th< m all i I

11M- kno anothei. oth in tin u i\ ..!' hun

i bath d Hi \ irtuoll) i

himself ho i I i the kn< crcal

< i oar bend< d i

■

of the Know d ne in the world. God in

aimple act Knows and tfc i . bat wh< □ tfa

line-, if i ii iv< '1 i to the

understand it to 1" distinct from tl:

the Bame act upon dii rms or i

understanding and coin. . no! in God's.

Nor doth he km do; thai

thin follows from the forme:. ; aU th i

withoal disoom knowledge withoal sac r J

ore anothi i. Lher. In n gard of th< yeai one gene]

In the creatru I

U be Buch a sin ; bat there ach order u I

knowledge, tor he knows all those si; any

succession of knowledge in hime

. in his view of thi\ only

He cannot Bee all the contents of a Letter at once; ami though Lis all the lines in the f a book at i . ::d a whole com

in a map, yet to Know what is contained in them, he mast turn his ej€ f i to word, and line to line, and so -pin out one th:;

1 motion-. We behold a great part of the sea at one- . Epiphanius, hut not all the dimensions of it; for to know the length of '

way ; to ith of i -. n < ox i

depth of it, we hath anoth D of tfa

And when we cast oar eyes op to heaven, we Beem I .o in a:

t of the bemisphf hut one object

can attentively p t :h up< a, an I we cannot distinctly view what we in a lump with motions <A' our eyes, which is not done with

tainly the m is 1 om

ore of their beings, so that it c i a quantity of i i distinct application of th<

by one. Bui I all anderstandi]

in his kno'. ling/ in the nature and in ti

inti: illy all

500 chaenock's works. [Ps. CXLYII. 5.

things by one act, without any motion, much less various motions. The various changes of things in their substance, qualities, places, and relations, withdraw not anything from his eye, nor bring any new thing to his knowledge. He doth not, upon consideration of present things, turn his mind from past, or when he beholds future things, turn his mind from present; but he sees them not one after another, but all at once and altogether, the whole circle of his own counsels, and all the various lines drawn forth from the centre of his will to the circumference of his creatures. Just as if a man were able in one moment to read a whole library; or as if you should imagine a transparent crystal globe, hung up in the midst of a room, and so framed as to take in the images of all things in the room, the fretwork in the ceiling, the inlaid parts of the floor, and the particular parts of the tapestry about it, the eye of a man would behold all the beauty of the room at once in it. As the sun by one light and heat frames sensible things, so God by one simple act knows all things. As he knows mutable things by an immutable knowledge, bodily things by a spiritual knowledge, so he knows many things by one knowledge: Heb. iv. 13, 'All things are open and naked to him,' more than any one thing can be to us, and therefore he views all things at once as well as we can behold and contemplate one thing alone. As he is the * Father of lights,' a God of infinite understanding, there is 'no variableness' in his mind, 'nor any shadow of turning' of his eye as there is of ours, to behold various things, James i. 17. His knowledge being eternal, includes all times; there is nothing past or future with him, and therefore he beholds all things by one and the same manner of knowledge, and comprehends all knowable things by one act, and in one moment.

This must needs be so,

(1.) Because of the eminency of God. God is above all, and therefore cannot but see the motions of all. He that sits in a theatre, or at the top of a place, sees all things, all persons; by one aspect he comprehends the whole circle of the place; whereas he that sits below, when he looks before, he cannot see things behind. God being above all, about all, in all, sees at once the motions of all. The whole world in the eye of God is less than a point that divides one sentence from another in a book; as a cipher, ■ a grain of dust,' Isa. xl. 15. So little a thing can be seen by man at once, and all things being as little in the eye of God, are seen at once by him. As all time is but a moment to his eternity, so all things are but as a point to the immensity of his knowledge, which he can behold with more ease than we can move or turn our eye.

(2.) Because all the perfections of knowing are united in God. As particular senses are divided in man,*—by one he sees, by another he hears, by another he smells, yet all those are united in one common sense, and this common sense apprehends all,—so the various and distinct ways of knowledge in the creatures, are all eminently united in God. A man, when he sees a grain of wheat, understands at once all things that can in time proceed from that seed; so God, by beholding his own virtue and power, beholds all things which shall in time be unfolded by him. We have a shadow of this way of knowledge in our own understanding : the sense only perceives a thing present, and one object only proper and suitable to it; as the eye sees colour, the ear hears sounds, we see this and that man, one time this, another minute that; but the understanding abstracts a notion of the common nature of man, and frames a conception of that nature wherein all men agree, and so in a manner beholds and understands all men at on'ce,

* Cusan. p. C4C.

non Datun d, which ii a di

I. .1 p abOTl the I • may tIn n 0OU4 I iniinit

pci f! ction in the nnd< rstandii simplj

know b by dirid

ami to have :>11 ii d"r, to I" 1 like a bud

alway doscanding into the well and fetching v. I [1

mans weakness ti ' •

i on that he can behold all

than upon anotl

/'/ . ::. < | : | indepeli 1- -lit I;. . I

infinite nnderatandin •. He

withoni him, he hath do tutor to instruct him, or book t<> inform him;

* \\ ho luith hem liis counsellor V saith the prophet, I . . 18. i

do need of the counseli of others, nor of the Instrnctions ol Thia

follows upon the first and second propositions; if he knows thi

essence, then as hi , ice is independent from ti

knowledge; he borrows not any images from the creature, l

oi piotnn b of things in his onderstand ; no I t>m the

:ure strike upon him to enlighten him, bui beams from him upon I world ; the earth Bends noi lighl to the sun, but the son I > th

Onr knowledge indeed depends upon the object, hut all en ited ol depend apon God's knowledge and will. We could not know en unless they were, bul creatures could notbeunl G 1 knew them. As

bing that he wills is the cause of his will, so nothing that he kn the can-. 1 of his knowledge; he did noi make things to know them, bul knows them to make them. Who will ima [iae that the mark of the fool the dust is the cause that to I tends in this ox that particular plac

Ifliis knowledge did depend npon the things, then th oce ofth

did precede i knowledge of them; to say thai thej are the ea

. s knowledge is to say, that God was not the cause of their being if he did create them, it I i by a blind and ignorant power, he

he knew not what till ho had produced it. If he be behol his know], I e creatures he hath made, he had then do knowledge of

them before he made them. If his knowledge were dependent upon tin it could not be eternal, bul most have a beginning when the crea:

. ;iud be of no longer a date than since the nature of things was in : il i rjstenee ; for whatsoever is a cause of knowledge doth \ kno . ither in order of time or order of nature; temp

thin nnot be tlio cause of that knowledge which is efc raal.

His works could not bo foreknown to him, Acts xv. IS, if his kn commenced with the • ce of his works; if ho knew them before bo

made them, he could not derive a knowledge from them after they wi made. He made all things in wisdom, PS. civ. 21. How can this bo imagined, if the things known were the cause of his know'. fore

I therefore before his action?* God would not then be

the first in the order of knowing sgents, because he would not act by kn

•.'. hut he knew, and know after he ha I

fare which he mad ( > would be before the act of his understand. whi ie.

Again, sine knowlcd'_'<' is a perfection, if God's know] Mires

ipon th i, he would derrre an from tl.

would lency from any i /<•/ in the divine DUD 1; he would

* I '.lib i. r.i\>. 1").

not be infinitely perfect in himself. If his perfection in knowledge were gained from anything without himself and below himself, he would not be sufficient of himself, but be under an indigence which wanted a supply from the things he had made, and could not be eternally perfect till he had created, and seen the effects of his own power, goodness, and wisdom to render him more wise and knowing in time than he was from eternity. "Who Ciin fancy such a God as this, without destroying the Deity he pretends to adore? For if his understanding be perfected by something without him, why may not his essence be perfected by something without him ? that as he was made knowing by something without him, he might be made God by something without him ?

How could his understanding be infinite, if it depended upon a finite object, as upon a cause ? Is the majesty of God to be debased to a mendicant condition, to seek for a supply from things inferior to himself ? Is it to be imagined that a fool, a toad, a fly should be assistant to the knowledge of God ? that the most noble being should be perfected by things so vile, that the supreme cause of all things should receive any addition of knowledge, and be determined in his understanding by the notion of things so mean? To conclude this particular; all things depend upon his knowledge, his knowledge depends upon nothing, but is as independent as himself, and his own essence.

Prop. 4. God knows all things distinctly. His understanding is infinite in regard of clearness : ' God is light, and in him is no darkness at all,' 1 John i. 5. He sees not through a mist or cloud; there is no blemish in his understanding, no mote or beam in his eye to render anything obscure to him. Man discerns the surface and outside of things, little or nothing of the essence of things ; we see the noblest things, but ' as in a glass darkly,' 1 Cor. xiii. 12. The too great nearness, as well as the too great distance of a thing, hinders our sight; the smallness of a mote escapes our eye, and so our knowledge; also the weakness of our understanding is troubled with the multitude of things, and cannot know many things but confusedly. But God knows the forms and essence of things, every circumstance; nothing is so deep but he sees to the bottom; he sees the mass, and sees the motes of beings. His understanding being infinite, is not offended w r ith a multitude of things, or distracted with the variety of them ; he discerns everything infinitely more clearly and perfectly than Adam or Solomon could any one thing in the circle of their knowledge. What knowledge they had was from him ; he hath therefore infinitely a more perfect knowledge than they were capable in their natures to receive a communication of. ' All things are open to him,' Heb. iv. 13. The least fibre in its nakedness and distinct frame is transparent to him; as by the help of glasses, the mouth, feet, hands of a small insect are visible to a man, which seem to the eye, without that assistance, one entire piece, not diversified into parts. All the causes, qualities, natures, properties of things are open to him : ' He brings out the host of heaven by number, and calleth them by names,' Isa. xl. 20. He numbers the hairs of our heads ; what more distinct than number ? Tims God beholds things in every unity, which makes up the heap. He knows, and none else can, everything in its true and intimate causes, in its original and intermediate causes; in himself as the cause of every particular of their being, every property in their being.

Knowledge by the causes is the most noble and perfect knowledge, and most suited to the infinite excellency of the divine being ; he created all things, and ordered them to a universal and particular end ; ho therefore knows the essential properties of everything, every activity of their nature.

all their

which I : os.tli •

in. Fie ki

th( i

I

will, win thor it !><• i will. know toil

nworthy of the n : for if < lod I

in t:

•in to : ■ ir which be hath appointed th

intends an end without a knowledge of tl an i of anything in the world, which fai

i divine nothing in the world bnt d

be inconsistent with the perfection to him ■ blind

in the world. A - th< be nothing imj

imperfect in hie and rstandii kno 1 know!

• I >arki i • ai d li ;hl arc both alike to him, 1 P -. . 1 -. II

tinctly into the im.

1 I things infallibly. Bis nndi i

in rcRurd of certainty. K • aa far from fail]

. Mat. v. 1 B. And I rinty of oi - ell aa the ol if his know ledge lil le that I

knowledge of the lea8t thing in the world, ken in his own i ; for, knowing himself co

he must kr infallibly. Since 1:

rror in his nnderstanding, than d in

his i ansela arc aa nnerring as his eas< nee is |

knowledge as infallible as 1 is free from

.1 knows all things with a knowledge of vision, wills them, his knowledge must be aa infallible

6 will certainly he effected : ' What he hath thought shall

iih pm . -1 : ' li hall

ill do all his . dvi. 1Q« 1

ruj'' the foundations of it may be out of com- >, but tl

qo bar upon the author ol nature. Ee hath an in£

own will, he can effect what 1 rb n G

be I 'ht.' ar: ;u tlarl.' . v ^ • given

why God knows a thing he infallibly wi

A r ain, tie 'his diff< the knowledge oi tl

j, that ■

I an in

■

chaenock's works. [Ps. CXLVII. 5.

not much more be a stain upon the blessedness of that God, that is blessed for ever, to be subject to deceit ? His knowledge, therefore, is not an opinion, for an opinion is uncertain ; a man knows not what to think, but leans to one part of the question proposed, rather than to the other. If things did not come to pass, therefore, as God knows them, his knowledge would be imperfect; and since he knows by his essence, his essence also would be imperfect, if God were exposed to any deceit in his knowledge. He knows by himself, who is the highest truth ; and therefore it is impossible he should err in his understanding.

Projj. 6. God know T s immutably. His understanding else could not be infinite. Every thing and every act that is mutable is finite, it hath its bounds ; for there is a term from which it changeth, and a term to which it changes. There is a change in the understanding, w T hen we gain the knowledge of a thing which was unknown to us before, or when we actually consider a thing which we did not know before, though we had the principles of the knowledge of it, or when we know that distinctly which we before knew confusedly.* None of these can be ascribed to God, without a manifest disparagement of his infiniteness. Our knowledge, indeed, is alway arriving to us or flowing from us ; we pass from one degree to another, from worse to better, or from better to worse ; but God loses nothing by the ages that are run, nor will gain anything by the ages that are to come. If there were a variation in the knowledge of God, by the daily and hourly changes in the world, he would grow wiser than he was ; he was not then perfectly wise before. A change in the objects known, infers not any change in the understanding exercised about them. The wheel moves round : the spokes that are lowest are presently highest, and presently return to be low again ; but the eye that beholds them changes not with the motion of the wheels. God's knowledge admits no more of increase or decrease than his essence doth. Since God knows by his essence, and the essence of God is God himself, his knowledge must be void of any change. The knowledge of possible things, arising from the knowledge of his own power, cannot be changed unless his power be changed, and God become weak and impotent. The knowledge of future things cannot be changed, because that knowledge ariseth from his will, which is irreversible : ■ The counsel of the Lord, that shall stand,' Prov. xix. 21. So that if God can never decay into weakness, and never turn to inconstancy, there can be no variation of his knowledge. He knows what he can do, and he knows what he will do, and both these being immutable, his knowledge must consequently be so too. It was not necessary that this or that creature should be, and therefore it was not necessary that God should know this or that creature with a knowledge of vision ; but after the will of God had determined the existence of this or that creature, his knowledge being then determined to this or that object, did necessarily continue unchangeable. God therefore knows no more now than he did before; and at the end of the world, he shall know no more than he doth now ; and from eternity he knows no less than he doth now, and shall do to eternity. Though things pass into being and out of being, the knowledge of God doth not vary with them, for he knows them as well before they were as when they are, and knows them as well when they are past, as when they are present.

Prop, 7. God knows all things perpetually, i.e. in act. Since he knows

by his essence, he always knows, because his essence never ceaseth, but is

a pure act; so that he doth not know only in habit, but in act. Men that

have the knowledge of some art or science, have it always in habit, though,

* Tileni Syntagma, part. i. disp. xiii. theft, 13.

P . CXI. VI I. V

, I nt doth not so lutK'li us tin: 0 his Senses Dp.

r slumb

ire] of I. ' hIuiuI" anl of

liis knowled li

: tin* worl I, Q tlif net of kl»o\vl( .' . 1 ; : l 11* 1 lh(

ft will fa God, 1 of knowledge. Altraj \ k essence,

i p bat bath I.. and coas oil from I

I

. fire, he still Knows it.

io, therefore, in regard of this perpetual acl eali nut nit, ll, < tus, hut ' th< ition of inl

proper English word to the understandi

rnaJ with him, 10 hii kno ; all tii

! in the b tiom of hii i 1 all thii

in their seasons, that oothing nen i feo him, nothing old j

him.f What is done in a thousand actually pre ent with

knowledge, as what is • . or in i ch in th with

-1 thou I do in"]"' than a i in

ht' is to as, Pfe. ze. 4. God ia ii th( refore in the

iiki-• . God hath all acl

il and habitual, km

IV. The fourth

/,'<</. l. God must know what any creature than any

rare knowa. Tl og done in the world, bul

other; every action ia al least known by the re known by the Gr< ator, who cannot be exc I by anj . rallofthei I every creature is known by hi .

ore is made by him. And as God works all ti power, so he knows all things by an infinite understanding.)

Lion of God requires this.§ All that tnolud

ntial defect art- formally in God; Int knowledge includi

it is in (Jo 1. KnowL • an 1

an excellency j ignorance ia et. It is impossible that the ain

found in the most perfect being. Since t

knowledge for I it. A

d no more he wise without knowl< Ige, than 1 without th. Nov. (i B . wi. 27, ami th -nly

ring in ' <> of knowledge, incom] I all

. ritual anything is, the mor The

dull la notliii 9, but •

sated in tl. . which ia of a ipiriraal nature, which kn

things that in ra things that

iritual nature, :

* Plato, ti' rd.

in. qu. xi , p. 118, 119.

eminent manner in the supreme Spirit of the world; that is, in the highest degree of spirituality, and most remote from any matter.

Again, nothing can enjoy other things but by some kind of understanding them. God hath the highest enjoyment of himself, of all things he hath created, of all the glory that accrues to him by them; nothing of perfection and blessedness can be wanting to him. Felicity doth not consist with ignorance, and all imperfect knowledge is a degree of ignorance. God therefore doth perfectly know himself, and all things from whence he designs any glory to himself. The most noble manner of acting must be ascribed to God, as being the most noble and excellent being. To act by knowledge is the most excellent manner of acting; God hath therefore not only knowledge, but the most excellent manner of knowledge ; for as it is better to know than to be ignorant, so it is better to know in the most excellent manner than to have a mean and low kind of knowledge. His knowledge, therefore, must be every way as perfect as his essence, infinite as well as that. An infinite nature must have an infinite knowledge. A God ignorant of anything cannot be counted infinite, for he is not infinite to whom any degree of perfection is wanting.

2. All the knowledge in any creature is from God; and 3 T ou must allow God a greater and more perfect knowledge than any creature hath, yea, than all creatures have. All the drops of knowledge any creature hath come irom God, and all the knowledge in every creature that ever was, is, or shall be in the whole mass, was derived from him. If all those several drops in particular creatures were collected into one spirit, into one creature, it would be an unconceivable knowledge, yet still lower than what the author of all that knowledge hath ; for God cannot give more knowledge than he hath himself, nor is the creature capable of receiving so much knowledge as God hath. As the creature is uncapable of receiving so much power as God hath, for then it would be almighty, so it is uncapable of receiving so much knowledge as God hath, for then it would be God. Nothing can be made by God equal to him in anything; if anything could be made as knowing as God, it would be eternal as God, it would be the cause of all things as God. The knowledge that we poor worms have is an argument God uses for the asserting the greatness of his own knowledge: Ps. xciv. 10, 'He that teaches man knowledge, shall not he know ?' Man hath here knowledge ascribed to him ; the author of this knowledge is God; he furnished him with it, and therefore doth in a higher manner possess it, and much more than can fall under the comprehension of any creature; as the sun enlightens all things, but hath more light in itself than it darts upon the earth or the heavens ; and shall not God eminently contain all that knowledge he imparts to the creatures, and infinitely more exact and comprehensive ?

3. The accusations of conscience evidence God's knowledge of all actions of all his creatures. Doth not conscience check for the most secret sins, to winch none arc privy but a man's self, the whole world beside being ignorant of his crime ? Do not the fears of another judge "all the heart ? If a judff-menu above him bo feared, an understanding above him discerning their secrets is confessed by those fears. Whence can those horrors arise, if there be not a Superior th.it, understands and records the crime? What perfection of the divine Being can this relate unto but omniscience? What other attribute is to be feared, if God were defective in this?

The condemnation of us by our own hearts, when none in the world can condemn as, renders it legible that there is one 'greater than our hearts ' in respect of knowledge, who ' knows all things,' Uohn iii. 20. Conscience would be a vain principle, and stintless without this. It would be an easy

P . I MA II. :,.] mat!

i

1

■

him tbl

culty of will is not in any ci

. i 1 :i:1i lotl liis memory in U I of them. An artifi not be ignoranl of i k. If '

himself, he knows him

he know tl li«> is tl

.

-id in tl me of ' 1 implies an effect. I '

bimtelf in all iw all bis aete, what his wfr . what 1.

i what liis ] l. The I I is to b<

I rmination of himsi It': and thai kno* the I all tli«.' eirctu it. How can liis will tv

luce anythi] wae not fit I n in his understanding? 1

this the prophet argnes the m ling of God, and the

caose 1 •' tor of the ends of the earth,'Isa. xl. 28;

ivid gives i f (tod's knowh d . and thai ...•_'. 1 •".

16. As tl • • making of things only bel< the

of things. It is absi think that I

th given being to j thai he shonld not know all I ad their . the plants and their i

- that art' formed by him in wri the mar' . ami shall I

tatioo of his own virtu :». Without this kno*' more be tl n he

conhl be t tor of the world. Knowledge is th

rnment i cannot be i tl know'., .

• it, and which it niinn-

. fulls nmh r ' hing falls DJ

. A i hold th

• Brad*

direct them in right paths. Since the providence of God is about particulars, his knowledge must be about particulars; he could not else govern them in particular, nor could all things be said to depend upon him in their being and operations. Providence depends upon the knowledge of God, and the exercise of it upon the goodness of God; it cannot be without understanding and will: understanding to know what is convenient, and will to perform it. When our Saviour therefore speaks of providence, he intimates these two, in a special manner, ' Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things,' Mat. vi. 32, and goodness, in Luke xi. 13. The reason of providence is so joined with omniscience that they cannot be separated. What a kind of God would he be that were ignorant of those things that were governed by him! The ascribing this perfection to him asserts his providence, for it is as easy for one that knows all things to look over the whole world, if writ with monosyllables in every little particular of it, as it is with a man to take a view of one letter in an alphabet.

Again,* if God were not omniscient, how could he reward the good, and punish the evil ? The works of men are either rewardable or punishable, not only according to their outward circumstances, but inward principles and ends, and the degrees of venom lurking in the heart. The exact discerning of these, without a possibility to be deceived, is necessary to pass a right and infallible judgment upon them, and proportion the censure and punishment to the crime. Without such a knowledge and discerning men would not have their due ; nay, a judgment, just for the matter, would be unjust in the manner, because unjustly past, without an understanding of the merit of the cause. It is necessary therefore that the supreme Judge of the world should not be thought to be blindfold when he distributes his rewards and punishments, and muffle his face when he passes his sentence. It is necessary to ascribe to him the knowledge of men's thoughts and intentions, the secret wills and aims, the hidden works of darkness in every man's conscience, because every man's work is to be measured by the will and inward frame. It is necessary that he should perpetually retain all those things in the indelible and plain records of his memory, that there may not be any w T ork without a just proportion of what is due to it. This is the glory of God, to discover the secrets of all hearts at last; as, 1 Cor. iv. 5, ' The Lord shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of all hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God.' This knowledge fits him to be a judge ; the reason w r hy ' the ungodly shall not stand in judgment' is because God knows their ways, which is implied in his ' knowing the way of the righteous,' Ps. i. 5, 6.

V. I now proceed to the use.

Use 1. is of information or instruction. If God hath all knowledge, then, 1. Jesus Christ is not a mere creature. The two titles of * wonderful Counsellor ' and ' mighty God ' are given him in conjunction, Isa. ix. 6 ; not only the ' angel of the covenant,' as he is called, Mai. iii. 1, or the executor of his counsels, but a counsellor, in conjunction with him in counsel, as well as power. This title is superior to any title given to any of the prophets in regard of their predictions, and therefore I should take it rather as the note of his perfect understanding than of his perfect teaching and discovering, as Calvin doth. He is not only the revealer of what he knows,—so were the prophets according to their measures,—but the counsellor of what he re-\ ruled, having a perfect understanding of all tho counsels of God, as being interested in them as tho mighty God. Ho calls himself by the peculiar

* Sabiind, tit. 84, much changed.

title of God, mi I (!.

• i

bo v. Inch Hoard ' hidd< n

tin- ii. i! locked ap t ■ nil the world l

And this was D for the MUDC |" I

tlOB I

thoti ' i

win. I quid

the church. I > Lb, by his kno into all • th

■ the closest particle «•! iron

>; and called a roe f ii"!:i *

1:1 the BWifllKSS of lil-i lnotii Ii.

ill Be bath a i < i f( <'t knowledge of the Fath< r nam ■ Father i I I

■ Miliar manner knows the I atl er: * No i 11 ber, neither knows any man the Fal

- that I I from any other; he doth 11

band him, whieh is beyond the reach of any ereatnre, with the ad< aU the divine virtue; not i of any incapacity in God f bni

pacity of the ereatnre to receive. I (incapable of 1

re incapable of comprehending infinite, so tli I I

d. to compreh( nd God, for tin □ i be would become infinite, which is a < ■ <

Mae he ' n arc! - the deep tl I I ( r. ii. 10, tl

prebends tin m ; B as the spirit of ;i man doth the thh gi of i man • man understands what it thinks, and whal it wi] i ondertiandi whal is in the understanding of God, and what ii in the will of God. Be hath an absolute knowh dge ascribed to him, and could n ed to anything hut a divinity. Now, if the Spirit kn<

I, and takes from Ohritj whal he Bhewi of him,

John xvi. l.), he cannot be ignorant of those things himself, he mn

depths of God that aff thai Spirit, thai is n< t igi

the < fthel other's will; since he comprehends the Fail the

Lher him, he is in himself infinite, for God, whose essence is infinit . infinitely knowable, hut no created understan □ infinitely kno I

The infinitenees of the object hinders it from

that is not infinite Though a creature should understand all :.

cannot he therefore said to understand G< ugh

I may un.i I all the volitions and m< yet it doth not

follow that • l ond< ratand the whole nal

.1 ; or, if a man under 1 the effects of the sun, that tin re for, •

und Is fully the nature of the sun. But Christ knows tin !' I

lay 'in the DOeOtn of the Father.' w is in the g] • with him,

John i. 18, and, from this intimacy with him, he Baw him I m ;

much as ho is kn nwable, and thi

- himself by a conn

knowledge of (. . in i to\ ■ rly the infinrl

..: u aj I i ox B ! which mai

SUCh a man:

: 'ather hath of 1. I tores* That

all created things I ; it is a knowh

* 1". lav. T

that sinks to the depths of his will, and therefore extends to all the acts of his will in creation and providence. By knowing the Father, he knows all things that are contained in the virtue, power, and will of God; ' whatsoever the Father doth, that the Son doth,' John v. 19. As the Father therefore knows all things he is the cause of, so doth the Son know all things he is the worker of; as the perfect making of all things belongs to both, so doth the perfect knowledge of all things belong to both; where the action is the same, the knowledge is the same. Now, the Father did not create one thing, and Christ another, but ' all things were created by him, and for him,'—all things, ' both in heaven and earth,' Col. i. 16. As he knows himself, the cause of all things, and the end of all things, he cannot be ignorant of all things that were effected by him, and are referred to him. He knows all creatures in God, as he knows the essence of God; and knows all creatures in themselves, as he knows his own acts and the fruits of his power. Those things must be in his knowledge that were in his power ; ' all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge ' of God are ' hid in him,' Col. ii. 3. Now it is not the wisdom of God to know in part, and be in part ignorant. He cannot be ignorant of anything, since there is nothing but what was made by him, John i. 3, and since it is less to know than create ; for we know many things which we cannot make. If he be the creator, he cannot but be the discerner of what he made ; this is a part of wisdom belon<?incr to an artificer, to know the nature and quality of what he makes.* Since he cannot be ignorant of what he furnished with being, and with various endowments, he must know them not only universally, but particularly.

(3.) Christ knows the hearts and affections of men. Peter scruples not to ascribe to him this knowledge among the knowledge of all other things : John xxi. 17, 'Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.' From Christ's knowledge of all things, he concludes his knowledge of the inward frames and dispositions of men. To search the heart is the sole prerogative of God : 1 Kings viii. 39, ' For thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men.' Shall we take only here with a limitation, as some that are no friends to the deity of Christ would, and say, God only knows the hearts of men from himself and by his own infinite virtue ? Why may we not take only in other places with a limitation, and make nonsense of it, as Ps. lxxxvi. 10, ' thou art God alone'? Is it to be understood that God is God alone from himself, but other gods may be made by him, and so there may be numberless infinities ? As God is God alone, so that none can be God but himself, so he alone knows all the hearts of all the children of men, and none but he can know them ; this knowledge is from his nature. \ The reason why God knows the hearts of men is rendered in the Scripture double, because he created them, and because he is present everywhere, Ps. xxxiii. 13, 15. These two are by the confession of Christians and pagans universally received as the proper characters of divinity, whereby the Deity is distinguished from all creatures. Now when Christ ascribes this to himself, and that with such an emphasis, that nothing greater than that could be urged, as he doth Rev. ii. 23, we must conclude that he is of the same essence with God, one with him in his nature, as well as one with him in his attributes. God only knows the hearts of the children of men: there is Hie unity of God; Christ searches the hearts and reins ; there is a distinction of persons in an oneness of essence. He knows the hearts of all men, not only of those that were with him in tho time of the flesh, that have been and shall be since his ascension, but of those that * Petav. Thcol. Dogmat., torn. i. p. 4G7. t rkeeus de deitate Christi.

b to bin as t jud which 1

olf with

i

. I ihoul I I

our Bavioui

i i" him, doth not Bay the Fatln i

. to bound hi

i >ii of him, :

f in in from rim plainer than thi himself to them, thongh tl. . oame because of I

.it prophi t, and . vor. 28. I [e had a foreknowledge of I

inclinatii tuaJ being in th<

I, John vi. 64, ' But th< knew from the beginning who I should betray him.* V, i from the know]

. • me of th< m

top their am I

. thai 'he knew from the beginni e, hut a fori

he B lly now and then what was in tin .

from the beginning of any one's giving up tin ir nai him ; lie ko

whether it were a pretence or sine w who Bhould betray hi .

as no man's inward affection hut \. i by him.

. whether we understand it from tl.. wor] Christ Baith concerning dii . m the h<

not bo ;' thai is, from the beginning of the world, from the h> law of nature; or from the beginning of their attending him ;

... ad a certain pr< the inward itions of

and their succeeding sentiment-. Ed foreknew tl fan of Judas in the midst of his splendid pi in tlu' r Ught in tin

. how it would s}-rim, f up before it did Bpring up, irmal a d of it I

denial i wn to I

ion spake i; in I him ; he foreknew what lit of tb 'ii which lurked h - □ itiu

1 anvil

mtrary ;

1 into oowardj

. 11 the trea-

wisdom and knowledge, who knew the inward motions of men's hearts by his own virtue, and had not only a present knowledge, but a prescience of

them.

2. The second instruction from this position, that God hath an infinite knowledge and understanding. Then there is a providence exercised by God in the world, and that about everything. As providence infers omniscience as the guide of it, so omniscience infers providence as the end of it. What exercise would there be of this attribute but in the government of the world ? To this infinite perfection [he] refers, Jer. xvii. 10, ' I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.' He searches the heart to reward, he rewards every man according to the rewardableness of his actions. His government therefore extends to every man in the world ; there is no heart but he searches, therefore no heart but he governs. To what purpose else would be this knowledge of all his creatures ? For a mere contemplation of them ? No. What pleasure can that be to God, who knows himself, who is infinitely more excellent than all his creatures ? Doth he know them to neglect all care of them ? This must be either out of sloth, but how incompatible is laziness to a pure and infinite activity! or out of majesty, but it is no less for the glory of his majesty to conduct them than it was for the glory of his pow r er to erect them into being. He that counts nothing unworthy of his arms to make, nothing unworthy of his understanding to know, why should he count anything unworthy of his wisdom to govern ? If he knows them to neglect them, it must be because he hath no will to it, or no goodness for it. Either of these would be a stain upon God ; to want goodness is to be evil, and to want will is to be negligent and scornful, which are inconsistent with an infinite active goodness. Doth a father neglect providing for the wants of the family wdiich he knows ? or a physician the cure of that disease he understands ? God is omniscient, he therefore sees all things ; he is good, he doth not therefore neglect anything, but conducts it to the end he appointed it. There is nothing so little that can escape his knowledge, and therefore nothing so little but falls under his providence; nothing so sublime as to be above his understanding and therefore nothing can be without the compass of his conduct; nothing can escape his eye, and therefore nothing can escape his care; nothing is known by him in vain, as nothing was made by him in vain; there must be acknowledged therefore some end of this knowledge of all his creatures. *

3. Hence, then, will follow the certainty of a day of judgment. To what purpose can we imagine this attribute of omniscience, so often declared and urged in Scripture to our consideration, but in order to a government of our practice, and a future trial ? Every perfection of the divine nature hath sent out brighter rays in the world than this of his infinite knowledge ; his power hath been seen in the being of *he world, and his wisdom in the order and harmony of the creatures; his grace and mercy hath been plentifully poured out in the mission of a Redeemer; and his justice hath been elevated by the dying groans of the Son of God upon the cross. But hath his omniscience yet met with a glory proportionable to that of his other perfections ? All the attributes of God that have appeared in some beautiful glimmerings in the world, wait for a more full manifestation in glory, as the creatures do for ' tho manifestation of the sons of God,' Horn. viii. 19; but (specially this, sinco it hath been less evidenced than others, and as much or more abused than any ; it expects, therefore, a public righting in the eyo of tho world. There have beta indeed some few sparks of this perfection sensibly struck out now and then in the world, in some horrors of con-

. which hnvi mm l«-<-.m. th.ir own accn f nnkn<

orimi . hi i mit hidden wic iblic ri

i ..•••it tin

. :. r . er, and

l,\ thy wrath w< troubled. Thou Mir iniquities before tl. .

and oai M tl"' • 12w"?V

oifies youth, us wall as secret, i.#. • and tl.

hiitli iiiaiiifi-strd tli not hid I:

i 'h inward b i roi - and i baan 1 1

rorry m< d into a I ns of man would still

kocp imii. m in their mind 'God bath I

hid. from ii and will i their in P .

\. I I. 'ii,, iv must therefore 1'" a time of trial for the public den of this exoeUeucy, thai il may receive il due honour by a full teal

oan b ■ i shelter from it. . which i in

.. r\ one his due, conld not he gloril'n ,1, im!i an a.-.'.Mint fox their actions, bo neither would his omnisoit ace apj i ar it Qlual . without such a mi tion of the

men'i hearts, and of rillanies done under loch and key, whan conscious to them but the committers of them. Now the I the time appointed for the opening of the . Dan. vii. l". I. I *ok

Is, and conscience the counterpart, ware never fully i and read before, only now and than some | urnad to in particular jn

; and out of those l ks shall man be 'judgi

work.-,' K. v. w. L2. Than shall the dad brought with all U

oircumstau rery man's memory; the counsels of

r from their present remembrance; all the habitual knowledg of their own actions, shall by God's knowledge of them an

tal review; and their works not only made manifest to then ■ but

•rious to all the world. All the words, thong] brought forth into the light of their own minds, by the infinite light of (< understanding reflecting on them. His knowledge renders him an urn n witness, as well as his .justice a ' swift witness.' .Mai. i.i. 5 ; B swift witm

he shall without any circuit, or length of speech, convince th.ir con by an inward illumination of them, to take notice of the bis

I and deformity of their hearts and works. In all jud « > i is

somewhat known to he the searcher of b< arts : the time of . time of his remembrance : Eoses viii. 18, 'Now will he remember tl iniquity, and visit their sins ;' hut the great instant, of the lull glori-

fying it. is the grand day of account. This attribute must have s I

; and no time can he lit for it hut a time of a

koning. Jut nnot be exercised without omn r as justice

is a giving -no his due, so there must he know!,

what is • man; the searching the heart is in order to the

ran the work ,

1. This tion in God giv#s ns ground to believe a resurrection. Who

think this too hard for ins power, since not the least atom of tl of our bodies can escape his knowledge? An infinite understand!] rery mite of ad ted is; this will nol appear in

irrational to any, upon a serious consideration of this ex> The body is perished, the matter of it hath been -

for: t Of it hath Ken made th.

urned to the dust thai hath baan Mown away by the wind ; pari ^i it hath been con. . ush, ravenous

Vol.. I. K k

spirits have evaporated into air, part of the blood melted into water ; what then, is the matter of the body annihilated ? Is that wholly perished ? No ; the foundation remains, though it hath put on variety of forms; the body of Abel, the first man that died, nor the body of Adam, are not to this day reduced to nothing. Indeed, the quantity and the quality of those bodies have been lost by various changes they have passed through since their dissolution ; but the matter or substance of them remains entire, and is not capable to be destroyed by all those transforming alterations, in so long a revolution of time.

The body of a man in his infancy and his old age, if it were Methuselah's, is the same iu the foundation in those multitude of years ; though the quantity of it be altered, the quality different, though the colour and other things be changed in it, the matter of this body remains the same among all the alterations after death. And can it be so mixed with other natures and creatures, as that it is past finding out by an infinite understanding ? Can any particle of this matter escape the eye of him that makes and beholds all those various alterations, and where every mite of the substance of those bodies is particularly lodged, so as that he cannot compact it together again for a habitation of that soul, that many a year before fled from it ? Since the knowledge of God is infinite, and his providence extensive over the least as well as the greatest parts of the world, he must needs know the least as well as the greatest of his creatures in their beginning, progress, and dissolution ; all the forms through w-hich the bodies of all creatures roll, the particular instants of time, and the particular place when and where those changes are made, they are all present with him ; and therefore when the revolution of time allotted by him for the reunion of souls and deceased bodies is come, it cannot be doubted but out of the treasures of his knowledge he can call forth every part of the matter of the bodies of men, from the first to the last man that expired, and strip it of all those forms and figures which it shall then have, to compact it to be a lodging for that soul which before it entertained ; and though the bodies of men have been devoured by wild beasts in the earth, and fish in the sea, and been lodged in the stomachs of barbarous men-eaters, the matter is not lost.* There is but little of the food we take that is turned into the substance of our own bodies ; that which is not proper for nourishment, which is the greatest part, is separated and concocted, and rejected ; whatsoever objections are made, are answered by this attribute. Nothing hinders a God of infinite knowledge from discerning every particle of the matter, wheresoever it is disposed ; and since he hath an eye to discern, and a hand to re-collect and unite, what difficulty is there in believing this article of the Christian faith ? He that questions this revealed truth of the resurrection of the body, must question God's omniscience, as well as his omnipotence and pow r er.

5. What semblance of reason is there to expect a justification in the sight of God by anything in ourselves ? Is there any action done by any of us, but upon a scrutiny we may find flaw r s and deficiency in it ? What then ? Shall not this perfection of God discern them ? The motes that escape our eyes cannot escape his : 1 John iii. 20, ' God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things ;' so that it is in vain for any man to flatter himself with the rectitude of any work, or enter into any debate with him who can bring a thousand articles against us, out of his own infinite records, unknown to us, and unanswerable by as. If conscience, a representative or counterpart of God's omniscience in our own bosoms, find nothing done by us but in a copy short of the original, and beholds, if not Murs, yet imperfections in

* Daillc, Sera. xv. p. 21-1:4.

!' . <' \l.YII. B

the | ■ . < I much i

•i bouu tl. witnesses, Urn 1 ■ . il

holineei ho low In i

lllll.'i

hco, fin well flfl nn holinef n nnbril ; be wi

o mi loreUuidii

n of Lfa - :i'h i

ill appear wh< □ U impnrif j i niotal be i

ill the : ' il in th(

G I. man th b >ul l '

himself, think not himself thereforo justified;'

d infinite and* r , 1 Cor. iv. I

,:i. -J, in bis sight, ' Dnkm

and (rami b. II wt 11 ai

■ : I itll

be, with all my strength to observe tb ands oi I

. l ■ whether my works are

in one manner, i in another manner. Let 1

as join with Job in 1. lotion :

i\. 21. • I 'ill 1 w.

1 Would 1: Let

ns therefore look after anol teas, wherein tl.

di\ ire, can discern no stain or crook'

. What honour I adoring thong]

this perfection 1 Do we nol honour a man thai ifl ahlo to predict? do wo n.it think ii ■ part oi ; .' II ire not all natio h a

;lty as I a mark of divinity *? There is tomething more

iahing in the knowledge of future things, both that kn

d that hears tin m, than there Ifl ii 1 of

ts have been accounted in I . and men have thought it a way to <_'!<>ry to divine and predict.

Hence il wm thai the m oracles gained so much credit; upon

this foundation Were tl led, and the 01 emiefl of man..

I • from t: liction of future things, thongfa their

unbiguoufl, many timet Y. r :':

I many ingenious m the charg

§j , i | • • I

God I for ever, for 1 inoommnnicable

11 i. s above tl. - Of the wind, the u:.

Ihonghta, and u rotkfl

of d from the beginnii heee

r otV in the an< know and know the

thoughts and works of three or four men, of a whole village or neighbourhood ! It is greater still to know the imaginations and actions of such a multitude of men as are contained in London, Paris, or Constantinople; how much greater still to know the intentions and practices, the clandestine contrivances of so many millions, that have, do, or shall swarm in all quarters of the world, every person of them having millions of thoughts, desires, designs, affections, and actions !

Let this attribute, then, make the blessed God honourable in our eyes and adorable in all our affections, specially since it is an excellency which hath so lately discovered itself, in bringing to light the hidden things of darkness, in opening and in part confounding the wicked devices of bloody men. Especially let us adore God for it, and admire it in God, since it is so necessary a perfection, that, without it, the goodness of God had been impotent, and could not have relieved us; for what help can a distressed person expect from a man of the sweetest disposition and the strongest arm, if the eyes which should discover the danger, and direct the defence and rescue, were closed up by blindness and darkness ? Adore God for this wonderful perfection.

7. In the consideration of this excellent attribute, what low thoughts should we have of our own knowledge, and how humble ought we to be before God! There is nothing man is more apt to be proud of than his knowledge ; it is a perfection he glories in; but if our own knowledge of the little outside and barks of things puffs us up, the consideration of the in-finiteness of God's knowledge should abate the tumour. As our beings are nothing in regard to the infiniteness of his essence, so our knowledge is nothing in regard of the vastness of his understanding. We have a spark of being, but nothing to the heat of the sun ; we have a drop of knowledge, but nothing to the divine ocean. What a vain thing is it for a shallow brook to boast of its streams, before a sea whose depths are unfathomable! As it is a vanity to brag of our strength when we remember the power of God, and of our prudence when we glance upon the wisdom of God, so it is no less a vanity to boast of our knowledge when we think of the understanding and knowledge of God.

How hard is it for us to know anything! * Too much noise deafs us, and too much light dazzles us; too much distance alienates the object from us, and too much nearness bars up our sight from beholding it. When we think ourselves to be near the knowledge of a thing, as a ship to the haven, a puff of wind blows us away, and the object which we desired to know eternally flies from us. We burn with a desire of knowledge, and yet are oppressed with the darkness of ignorance; we spend our days more in dark Egypt than in enlightened Goshen. In what narrow bounds is all the knowledge of the most intelligent persons included ! t How few understand the exact harmony of their own bodies, the nature of the life they have in common with other animals ! Who understands the nature of his own faculties, how he knows, and how he wills, how the understanding proposeth, and how the will embraceth, how his spiritual soul is united to his material body, what the nature is of the operation of our spirits ? Nay, who understands the nature of his own body, the offices of his senses, the motion of his members, how they come to obey the command of the will, and a thousand other things ? What a vain, weak, and ignorant thing is man, when compared with God! Yet thero is not a greater pride to be found among devils than among ignorant men, with a little, very little, flashy knowledge. Ignorant man is as proud as if he knew as God! * Pascal, p 170. f Amyraut, do Prsdest, p. 110, 117, somewhat changed.

Pft.OXLTII.ff. r<1 "

i render him honour in om i dd render m vile in ooz own. God, 1

knowle Igo, i ir from flifdainwig his . <, that

a minister to I No m- p" •. —• d of should

make hi iwell frith to

V7e infinitely moro of i

remembert in ill "ur thoughl of G I that be G oen,

end Lherefo •• Immhle, us I men, nml dJ end

foolish m. mi, to be. A - vr< bonld Ii-* i

i, :11111 imp i holy < iuil, f.il m creeturt

il'ul (id I. finite Ci infinite (tod, |0 !■ 1m. II

•i all knowing <i<>d. All G tributes teach edmii

tin • ; thoughts ft' onr

i: may inform us how mneb tbii sttribute ii injured in the world. :!•. r \ lam ' the forbidden fruit vu the denial

the omnipn G i Gen. iii. LO, ' I heard thy voice in

th«« garden, and I bid myself, 1 us it* the thickness <»t* I him from the eye of hi I r. Ami, after Gain's murdi perfection he affronts: Gen. iv. •.», 4 VYhi Abel, thy broth nth

G I. How roundly doth, he answer,' I know not I G

man, to be put off with ■ Lie. M m doth si nsturslly hai tion as much si In* cannot naturally but acknowledge it; be wish* G stripped of this eminency, thai he might be incapable his crimes, and iherofthe e I hii heart. En wishing him

prived of this, there ii i hatred of G I himself, Cor it is a I

ntial property without whi.-h he would be s pitiful governor

tin* world. What s kind of <'"'! should that be, ofs sinner'i wishing, that

. wanted a crime,and right punish it? T.

of the consideration of tbii attribute is the cause of all sin in the world : ll 9. vii. 2, • They consider not in their thai I remember all their

wid not to their hearts, nor make any |

the infiniteness of my knowledge; it is a high contempt of he

were an idol, asei bs stock or stone; in all evil practices this is denu L We km>w God Bees all thin we live and walk as if he knew noth i

we call him omniscient, and live as if he were ignorant; we say ho is all

• vt art as if he were wholly Mind. In particular, this attribute is injured, by invading the peculiar rights of

it, by preenming on it, and by a practical denial of it. By invading the peculiar rights of it. 1. \\y invocation of creatures. Praying to saints, by the Romanists,

I disparagement to this divine excellency ; he that knows all thingl

only lit to have the petitions of men presented to him. Prayer Buppot

ient being ss the object of it; no other being but G I .ditto h that honour scknowled it, no understanding but his is infinil

but his is everywhere. To implore any d< ture for

d in them s prop rty of the l 1 ty, and m - that were but men, and increase their glory by ■ diminul l*s honour, in ascribing that perfection to creatures which belongs only

r from understanding t ;

• they kl ■ the WOrdfl of our lips. It is against

thai neither UU Isa.

kid. L6, ' Ahraham is us, an 1 Israel Scknowledgl

th him

for the wh ; ; nut 01 the wh

years between the creation of the world and the coming of Christ, was ever prayed to by the Israelites, or ever imagined to have a share in God's omniscience, so that to pray to St Peter, St Paul, much less to St Eoch, St Swithin, St Martin, St Francis, &c, is such a superstition that hath no footing in the Scripture.

To desire the prayers of the living, with whom we have a communion, who can understand and grant our desires, is founded upon a mutual charity; but to implore persons that are absent, at a great distance from us, with whom we have not, nor know how to have any commerce, supposeth them in their departure to have put off humanity, and commenced gods, and endued with some part of the divinity to understand our petitions ; * we are, indeed, to cherish their memories, consider their examples, imitate their graces, and observe their doctrines; we are to follow them as saints, but not elevate them as gods, in ascribing to them such a knowledge which is only the necessary right of their and our common Creator. As the invocation of saints mingles them with Christ in the exercise of his office, so it sets them equal with God in the throne of his omniscience, as if they had as much credit with God as Christ in a way of mediation, and as much knowledge of men's affairs as God himself. Omniscience is peculiar to God, and incommunicable to any creature; it is the foundation of all religion, and therefore one of the choicest acts of it, viz. prayer and invocation. To direct our vows and petitions to any else is to invade the peculiarity of this perfection in God, and to rank some creatures in a partnership with him in it.

[2.] This attribute is injured by curiosity of knowledge, especially of future things, which God hath not discovered in natural causes, or supernatural revelation. It is a common error of men's spirits to aspire to know what God would have hidden, and to pry into divine secrets; and many men are more willing to remain without the knowledge of those things which may, with a little industry, be attained, than be divested of the curiosity of inquiring into those things which are above their reach. It is hence that some have laid aside the study of the common remedies of nature, to find out the philosopher's stone, which scarce any ever yet attempted but sunk in the enterprise. From this inclination to know the most abstruse and difficult things, it is that the horrors of magic and the vanities of astrology have sprung, whereby men have thought to find, in a commerce with devils and the jurisdiction of the stars, the events of their lives, and the disposal of states and kingdoms.! Hence also arose those multitudes of ways of divination invented among the heathen, and practised too commonly in these ages of the world. This is an invasion of God's prerogative, to whom secret things belong: Deut. xxix. 29, ' Secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but revealed things belong to us and our children.' It is an intolerable boldness to attempt to fathom those, the knowledge whereof God hath reserved to himself, and to search that which God will have to surpass our understandings, whereby we more truly envy God' a knowledge superior to our own, than we in Adam imagined that he envied us. Ambition is the greatest cause of this, ambition to be accounted some great thing among men, by reason of a knowledge estranged from the common mass of mankind, but more especially that soaring pride to be equal with God, which lurks in our nature ever since the fall of our first parents. This is not yet laid aside by man, though it was tho first thing that embroiled the world witli tho wrath of God. Some think a curiosity of knowledge was the cause of the fall of the devils; I am sure it was the foil of Adam, and is yet the

* Daille, Melang. part ii. p. 5G0, 661. | Amyraut, Moral, torn. iii. p. 75, &c.

■ I , : I fur-

I. ■ , .

ofthi kth.

All oariotu and bold inqaii 10 the thi

in, win:. :i<llM'HS,

himI t I.uiv by ' ■ ■

I

I

i i Baperior ) the oeoeeeary d

the i

lod upon and d honour of this aitril

»rv of liis ml'il of nil tliiii!.' . I • ■

i r by ;ii. i phemoo

. ad invests it in that which ii the peculiar hoc r, when an] r truly, they intend the in

hie witi an nndonbt

rt. While any therefor* by a en

ire, or that which they !, i« ;

, which to be ia only the right of God; th< which is the property of God alone, to know the 1 i whether ti, ik trne ox d », and thii I by all nati

true design of an oath, A I i - ^ 11 -

r 1 y any on atari the throne at perfi ction to

r< ings to the ( , for it tfl not in the p

to the troth of the heart, bat of him thai u the aearchex <>i" fa

dnat this attribute l>y oenaoring the of oti

An i Ime indeed falls onder our eognia . under our

: for whatsoever falls onder the authority <>t* man to 1" bed,

lulls onder the judgment of man to be a nam law of God. Ye1 when a censure ia boiH upon the evil i obvioui view, if we tab . to judge the hearl

Jed role of the law, tribunal

equal with God's, and usurp a judicial power, |

rernor of the world; and consequently pretend to be p

mniscience, which i i ary to i him capabl

authority. For it is in p thai <. i«»• 1 hath the supreme right to jo od in n his km

that he hath an incommunicable capacity to jodge.

i m that is doubtful, the good or evil whereof di |

:i, and wherein much of f. aent de]

disc rning the intention of onot jodge any man v.

jht. Booh . not by our turm God only is the I in such

to whoi DL xiv. 1. Till t]

principle and i action be known by tl

i trim judgment <>f it is n,.t in oar power. 1 deep and hid from I it is intolerable prid<

G O] t Cal ' which he hath

Besides of the ml urity in mi

Bo. i i

which may be great and generous in their root and principle, we invade God's right, as if our ungrounded imaginations and conjectures were in joint commission with this sovereign perfection; and thereby we become usurping 'judges of evil thoughts,' James ii. 4. It is therefore a boldness worthy to be punished by the judge, to assume to ourselves the capacity and authority of him who is the only judge. For as the execution of the divine law for the inward violation of it belongs only to God, so is the right of judging a prerogative belonging only to his omniscience ; his right is therefore invaded if we pretend to a knowledge of it. This humour of men the apostle checks, when he saith, 1 Cor. iv. 5, ' He that judgeth me is the Lord: therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will manifest the counsels of all hearts.' It is not the time yet for God to erect a tribunal for the trial of men's hearts, and the principles of their actions ; he hath reserved the glorious discovery of this attribute for another season. We must not therefore presume to judge of the counsels of men's hearts, till God hath revealed them by opening the treasuries of his own knowledge.

Much less are we to judge any man's final condition. Manasseh may sacrifice to devils, and unconverted Paul tear the church in pieces; but God had mercy on them and called them. The action may be censured, not the state, for we know not whom God may call. In censuring men, we may doubly imitate the devil, in a false accusation of the brethren, as well as in an ambitious usurpation of the rights of God.

(2.) This perfection is injured, by presuming upon it, or making an ill use of it : as in the neglect of prayer for the supply of man's wants, because God knows them already; so that that which is an encouragement to prayer, they make the reason of restraining it before God. Prayer is not to administer knowledge to God, but to acknowledge this admirable perfection of the divine nature. If God did not know, there were indeed no use of prayer; it would be as vain a thing to send up our prayers to heaven, as to implore the senseless statue or picture of a prince for a protection. We pray because God knows, for though he know our wants with a knowledge of vision, yet he will not know them with a knowledge of supply, till he be sought unto, Mat. vi. 82, 33. All the excellencies of God are ground of adoration; and this excellency is the ground of that part of worship we call prayer, Mat. vii. 11. If God be to be worshipped, he is to be called upon : invocations of his name in our necessities is a chief act of worship, whence the temple, the place of solemn worship, was not called the house of sacrifice, but ' the house of prayer.'

Prayer was not appointed for God's information as if he were ignorant, but for the expression of our desires; not to furnish him with a knowledge of what we want, but to manifest to him by some rational sign convenient to our nature, our sense of that want, which he knows by himself. So that prayer is not designed to acquaint God with our wants, but to express the desire of a remedy of our wants. God knows our wants, but hath not made promises barely to our wants but to our asking, that his omniscience in hearing, as well as his suiliciency in supplying, may have a sensible honour in our acknowledgments and receipts. It is therefore an ill use of this excellency of God to neglect prayer to him as needless, because he knows already.

(H.) This perfection of God is wronged by a practical denial of it. It is tho language of every sin, and so God takes it when ho comes to reckon with men for their impieties. Upon this he charges tho greatness of the iniquity of Israel, tho overflowing of blood in the land, and the porversonoss

of the ottj : ' Thej %j t T\ 9 Lord 1 fan the earth, and thi L

| |,i, , ; ilimi t.i

| • 1111:

I. [1 will ii|»|m:u in fori

11 i i from be* e of 1

; but

rniiiiiiitli-il in tl.nKn. -.tl

11. Il is to Olll

muffled with th< I the night, Job ssii. 1 L. '1 hi

• of Jonah's flight ; hti mi 'I'' mas' raid not follow him, b - though tho <

could leoure him from the knowli d 11

ship could from the dashing of th< W hal I

ace whon ii ly wounded,

inolincd. David'i mote him no! onlj

at as particularly eireumBtantiAted by th( commi ion of it ii I I ....I : Pg, I, i. • \. mi t tii, e, thee only, have I rim ( \il in thv Bight.' None knew th< of 1 th but i

tuse otto re kn< w it oot, I i

ib's sons used their brother Joseph bo barbarously, they took hide it from their father, bul i J " whoi

could not be oonoi aled.

Doth not the presence of i child bridle ■ man from the ad of nn, when the eye of G in him

knowledge were of less value than the righl of i little boy <>r girl, si if ■ child only could Bee, and God were blind. He thai will t rthy

action for fear of an informer, will not forbear ii for God j f( Dani-

lull an intelligencer to him, as man can be an informer ■ate. As we acknowledge the of men Beeing us when

ashamed to commit a filthy action in their view, bo w< power of God Beeing as when we regard not what we do before the light has ■ B ret sins are more againsl God than open. Op<

against the law, Beeret Bins are against the law and this prin d ol

liis nature. The majesty of God is not only violate. 1, but the omn of God disowned, who is the only witness. We must, in all of them, either imagine him to be without eyes to behold us, or without an arm of jusi

onish us. And often it is, I believe, in such i thai if any thon

ofGod'fl know' trike upon men, they quickly (lump them, lest they

should begin to know what they tear, and fear that they mig] i - int sinful morsels.

2, It appears in partial confessions before God. Afl by ■ free, full, ingenuous confession we offer a due glory to 1

and curtailed confession we deny him the honour of it ; for though oy confession we in pari own him to be a bov< n ign and jud half and pared ackno at, we own him to be no more than a human

and ignorant Achan's mil confession gave God the

. manifested in the discovery of his bua vn. 19,

t Joshua said to Aehan, My son, give glory to the! mas d unto him.' And bo, l'-.

t'uth in . ofession, as the word signifieth, in which I sua

rather take it. referring to this attribute, which God bo with the denial of, ver. 21, telling them thai he would o]

. and indid th< m particularlj for ei * Q

fore you would glorify this attribute, which shall one day break open your consciences, offer to me a sincere confession. When David speaks of the happiness of a pardoned man, Ps. xxxii. 1, 2, he adds, 'in whose spirit there is no guile,' not meaning a sincerity in general, but that ingenuity in confessing.* To excuse or extenuate sin, is to deny God the knowledge of the depths of our deceitful hearts. When we will mince it rather than aggravate it, lay it upon the inducements of others when it was the free act of our own wills, study shifts to deceive our judge, this is to ' speak lies of him,' as the expression is, Hosea vii. 13 ; as though he were a God easy to be cheated, and knew no more than we are willing to declare. What did Saul's transferring his sin from himself to the people, 1 Sam. xv. 15, but charge God with a defect in this attribute ? When man could not be like God in his knowledge, he would fancy a God like to him in his ignorance, and imagine a possibility of hiding himself from his knowledge; and all men tread more or less in their father's steps, and are fruitful to devise distinctions to disguise errors in doctrine, and excuses to palliate errors in practice. This crime Job removes from himself, when he speaks of several acts of his sincerity : ' If I covered my transgression as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom,' Job xxxi. 33, I hid not any of my sins in my own conscience, but acknowledged God a witness of them, and gave God the glory of his knowledge by a free confession. I did not conceal it from God as Adam did, or as men ordinarily do, as if God could understand no more of their secret crimes than they will let him, and had no more sense of their faults than they would furnish him with. As the first rise of confession is the owning of this attribute (for the justice of God would not scare men, nor the holiness of God awe them without a sense of his knowledge of their iniquities), so to drop out some fragments of confession, discover some sins, and conceal others, is a plain denial of the extensiveness of the divine knowledge.

[3.] It is discovered by putting God off with an outside worship. Men are often flatterers of God, and think to bend him by formal glavering devotions, without the concurrence of their hearts, as though he could not pierce into the darkness of the mind, but did as little know us as one man knows another. There are such things as ' feigned lips,' Ps. xvii. 1; a contradiction between the heart and the tongue, a clamour in the voice aud scoffing in the soul, a crying to God, ' Thou art my father, the guide of my youth,' and yet speaking and doing evil to the utmost of our power, Jer. iii. 4, 5 ; as if God could be imposed upon by fawning pretences, and, like old Isaac, take Jacob for Esau, and be cozened by the smell of his garments; as if he could not discern the negro heart under an angel's garb. Thus Ephraim, the ten tribes, apostatised from the true religion, would go with their flocks and their herds to seek the Lord, Hosea v. 6 ; would sacrifice multitudes of sheep and heifers, which was the main outside of the Jewish religion ; only with their flocks and their herds, not with their hearts, with those inward qualifications of (loop humiliation and repentance for sin, as though outside appearances limited God's observation, whereas God had told them before that he 'knew Ephraim, and Israel was not hid from him' ver. 3. Thus to do is to put a cheat upon God, and think to blind his all-seeing eye, and therefore it is called deceit: Ps. lxxviii. 36, 'They did flatter him with their mouths.' The word JlilS signifies to deceive as well as to flatter ; not that tliev or any else can deceive God, but it implies an endeavour to deceive him by a few dissembling words and gestures, or an imagination that God was Batisfied with bare professions, and would not

* Camera y. 89, col. 1.

:' in i farther inqi

jii'l'in. i loud \

< i liildren» would I bell,

!!• chin

milt ill ur.H itliil ill!

I. Ill clll'1 until it ■!■ I«

i the understand i bis luzv \ i ».• the i

mil..in «ritl orb, i1

falli I

:iv belief al all. I with a i meditation i i wander into «

I doth it intim iblo or inaudibli

V\ 111 i man thin) 1. won] i tell him thai <i<"l di of hit heart d to hi

of your minds. But ■' nil Light, muster up coi '

ami BO sink into the puddle of I

dned in darkni I 4.

I i right further in

□ of prayer, which "Who will cull upon a God thai

her a denial of I cy to 1

t<> know, aa it' Qod were 1. •; itue of i Crete,

i

i hypocritical pr< I f men I b them from

vi God calls them to; when men pretend one thin . lurks in the veins Bometimes of thi

man. when men are more afraid of I Almighty. It will pr ague of the a . . .

Tl b ( ] lain in . A ho, wh< n ordered I

I eloquence, and an ung 1. iv. 10. Tl. il, that before ■■ w»'

Limsilt" in the midsl of Egypt for his conntrym

1 w< a] i veil his carnal fear with a . 1 . • '.. am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh? 1 iii. 11.

allege an inability to go to Pharao] . n in tl:. m learning, which rendered him capable I

leth him, and ah< wa it all I and whi \ the pretence, fear lay at the I

life upon his app aranee before from

ptian, which God intimates to •Go, pt, for all the

What doth • , but as if G

though we oould lock him ■

* ! lib. ii. en;

Use 2. The second use is of comfort. It is a ground of great comfort under the present dispensation wherein we are. We have heard the doctrinal part, and God hath given us the experimental part of it in his special providence this day* upon the stage of world. And blessed be God that he hath given us a ground of comfort without going out of our ordinary course to fetch it, whereby it seems to be peculiarly of God's ordering for us.

1. It is a comfort in all the clandestine contrivances of men against the church. His eyes pierce as far as the depths of hell. Not one of his church's adversaries lies in a mist; all ara as plain as the stars which he numbers. 'Mine adversaries are all before thee,' Ps. lxix. 19; more exactly known to thee than I can recount them. It is a prophecy of Christ, wherein Christ is brought in speaking to God, of his own and the church's enemies. He comforts himself with this, that God hath his eye upon every particular person among his adversaries. He knows where they repose themselves when they go out to consult, and when they come in with their resolves. He discerns all the rage that spirits their hearts, in what corner it lurks, how it acts; all the disorders, motions of it, and every object of that rage. He cannot be deceived by the closest and subtilest person. Thus God speaks concerning Sennacherib and his host against Jerusalem, Isa. xxxvii. 28, 29. After he had spoke of the forming of his church and the weakness of it, he adds, ' But I know thy abode, and thy going out and thy coming in, and thy rage against me ; because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back,' &c. He knows all the methods of the counsels, the stages they had laid, the manner of execution of their designs, all the ways whither they turned themselves, and would use them no better than men do devouring fish and untamed beasts, with a hook in the nose and a bridle in the mouth. Those statesmen in Isa. xxix. 15, thought their contrivances too deep for God to fathom, and too close for God to frustrate : ' They seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord ; surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay,' of no more force and understanding than a potter's vessel, which understands not its own form wrought by the artificer, nor the use it is put to by the buyer and possessor ; or shall be esteemed as a potter's vessel, that can be as easily flung back into the mass from whence it was taken, as preserved in the figure it is now endued with. No secret designer is shrouded from God's sight, or can be sheltered from God's arm. He understands the venom of their hearts better than we can feel it, and discovers their inward fury more plainly than we can see the sting or teeth of a viper when they are opened for mischief; and to what purpose doth God know and see them, but in order to deliver his people from them in his own due time : ' I know their sorrow, and am come down to deliver them,' Exod. iii. 7, 8. The walls of Jerusalem are continually before him ; he knows, therefore, all that would undermine and demolish them. None can hurt Zion by any ignorance or inadvertency in God.

It is observable that our Saviour, assuming to himself a different title in every epistle to the seven churches, doth particularly ascribe to himself this of knowledge and wrath in that to Thyatira, an emblem or description of the Romish stato : Rev. ii. 19, ' And unto the angel of the church at Thyatira write: Theso things saith the Son of God, who hath liis eves like to a flame of lire, and his feet like fine brass.' His eves, like a flame of fire, are of a piercing nature, insinuating themselves into all the pores and parts of the body they encounter with ; and his feet, like * Nov. 1G78, when the popish plol was discovered.

i with, in explain. • I .. ... i bildn D

with death, and all tin- churches thai] kn I I ... hi

I tin- Ik art : ami 1 wi]

your vvoi i. .11 church of Tbj

church as shall act as J< /< I" I. All

II |.n.| . . I 1 ih, nun - ihoth, I

.••>si..n. Ami it' it Ikj laid tliat, .. i . 10 »;. r woi I. . failb, patii act r it ih 1

< I llllllllt.llll. .1 I ()1 It, l.llt .:

■ .•iiiiiiit!' • ;ial a<l

own< d I ifo thai iiu« pl.t; . tin irai hirmtt

mod ' ''\ thou do!

I will . .1 : In i intu a h. .|," • ructiou "1 oof to be at on< . hut in a liu

conaumea a b< 2, Thia p< rf< ction of <i".| fits him to

il, what comfort could we have in any | we di p. od apon him it' he w< re i porani of o B

pity Q8, hia readini I •< r to |

■. without his oniniscn : nlonn 1

arm of hie powi r. Thii perfi •

yOUI iin ■im»ramluiu-hf»nk to SHOW \

1 I tn hia omniscience. Thi him with tl. $iti< - of hia church, and directs all hie oth

tin i- and about hia | foam >y depend upon

hath promised, and upon hia truth arm, upon his auffi<

ami his goodnesa to relies righteouani

mse he hath an infinite understanding to know you and your and your a< rviei b. And without thia knowledge of hi drawn from any other perfection ; none of them could be our hopes and confidence upon. This ia thai the church alv

Ei hath remembered hi covenant forever, and the word which he hath commanded to a thousand generations;' and ■ ■_'. 'Hei

is holy promise;' and Ps. evi, 16, • Ih remembered fort] •.' II. remembers and understands hi oant, therefore hii i

mise to perform it, and therefore our wants to supply them.

\ml the rat I tod km... of ;i n bia own. }{•■

i in his infinite understanding the exact number of all the individual] a that belong to him: ~ Tim. ii. 19, • I L I i them that

Be knowa all things, because he hath

hath not only made them, bnt also ch ... Jh-

could no more choose he knew not what, than he could c not

what. Se knowa them under a double title: ot . in

union : i creation; creator .

in. He cannot be ignorant of them in time whom he foreko 1! in time is ih • aame he had I rnity.

knew them that he intended to give the gr knows tinm after tin3 . because he know snact i

graor upon them, and his own mark

* Wat the eridenoe of it I rel 11r H

•g, and i : ber

'. in loc.

them. No doubt but lie that ' calls the stars of heaven by their names,' Ps. cxlvii. 4, knows the number of those living stars that sparkle in the firmament of his church. He cannot be ignorant of their persons, when he numbers the hairs of their heads, and hath registered their names in the book of life. As he only had an infinite mercy to make the choice, so he only hath an infinite understanding to comprehend their persons. We only know the elect of God by a moral assurance in the judgment of charity, when the conversation of men is according to the doctrine of God. We have not an infallible knowledge of them, we may be often mistaken; Judas, a devil, may be judged by man for a saint, till he be stripped of his disguise. God only hath an infallible knowledge of them; he knows his own records, and the counterparts in the hearts of his people. None can counterfeit his seal, nor can any raze it out. When the church is either scattered like dust by persecution, or overgrown with superstition and idolatry, that there is scarce any grain of true religion appearing, as in the time of Elijah, who complained that he was left alone, as if the church had been rooted out of that corner of the world, 1 Kings xix. 14, 18, yet God knew that he had a number fed in a cave, and had reserved ' seven thousand men ' that had preserved the purity of his worship, and ' not bowed their knee to Baal.' * Christ knew his sheep as well as he is known of them, yea, better than they can know him. Histoiy acquaints us that Cyrus had so vast a memory that he knew the name of every particular soldier in his army, which consisted of divers nations. Shall it be too hard for an infinite understanding to know every one of that host that march under his banners ? May he not as well know them as know the number, qualities, influences of those stars which lie concealed from our eye, as well as those that are visible to our sense ? Yes, he knows them, as a general, to employ them, as a shepherd, to preserve them. He knows them in the world to guard them, and he knows them, when they are out of the world, to gather them, and cull out their bodies, though w r rapped up in a cloud of the putrified carcasses of the wicked. As he knew them from all eternity to elect them, so he knows them in time to clothe their persons with righteousness, to protect their persons in calamity, according to his good pleasure, and at last to raise and reward them according to his promise.

4. We may take comfort from hence, that our sincerity cannot be unknown to an infinite understanding. Not a way of the righteous is concealed from him, and therefore they shall ' stand in judgment before him.' Ps. i. 6, * The Lord knows the way of the righteous;' he knows them to observe them, and he knows them to reward them. How comfortable is it to appeal to this attribute of God for our integrity, with Hezekiah: 2 Kings xx. 3, ' Remember, Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart.' Christ himself is brought in this prophetical psalm drawing out the comfort of this attribute: Ps. xl. 9, ' I have not refrained my lips, 0 Lord, thou knowest,' meaning his faithfulness in declaring the righteousness of God. Job follows the same steps : ' Also now, behold, my record is in heaven, and my witness is on high,' Job xvi. 19; my innocence hath tho testimony of men, but my greatest support is in the records of God. Also now, or besides the testimony of my own heart, I have another witness in heaven that knows tho heart, and can only judge of the principles of my actions, and clear me from the scorn of my friends, and the accusations of men, with a justification of my innocence. He repeats it twice, to take the greater comfort in it. God knows that we do that iu the simplicity of our hearts, which may be judged by men to be done for

* Turrettine'fl Sermons, p. SOL'.

unworthy ai

inward that which

down ii itlit'ul §i which i

ib with tli. ider tl

11 <i liruvrii, mil . follies

.

ill.' hill-W bat :i bappin*

who iill v wipe <'it the dirt •

. i i knows the I' toople, though 1 conviction, knows ti . t woik be bath abandon

-■ii in < rt us

in (Mil- I i <

U) tlir I

: :i Bcantine I ni a heai t in i

understand the faith and pi

in ?ain. How could I that m

ignorant inward ' I [yp< i

expressions, shoii of t ; :. i. p]

•

•i is the body, and i litV. my word ,01

r . \. 1. . ;be mind, n

parrot; prayi r is dung i i!

to the words, bnt b the m< ( deration is a more •

notice than hearing, th< ly ft' the ear. Were not God of an infinite

understanding, an omniscient, he might e cloth. .

the man himself, and ho put off by glittering words, without ■ Bpiril frame. What matter of i r is it, that we call not 0]

rant idol, but on one that listens to our l a

despatch, that knows our desires afar off, and from the in: mercy, joined with his omnii idy to give us ■

>k of remembrance for them that bar him, and forth •.■I ejaculations to him as well i see of him, Hal. iii.

- they utter, but what ■. and holy ti

they have of him, ' that thought upon his name' t Though millions of supplications be put up at the same I : they have all a di

■■) in an infinite understands nds

:i all. As lie i 3 millions of BU

a vail number of \ • > to n cord them in ord< r to punishment, so he d

tinctly d an infinite number of Dries at the same moment to

: in order to an answer.

in infinite understandi] . bty multitude i from others, or < ny unn

disti ;ian

that had the bl( as could be con

be throi (

ligible to him as our *

.

Rom. viii. 27. Thus David cheers up himself under the neglects of his friends : Ps. xxxviii. 9, ' Lord, my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.' Not a groan of a panting spirit shall be lost till God hath lost his knowledge, not a petition forgotten while God hath a record, nor a tear dried while God hath a bottle to reserve it in, Ps. lvi. 8.

Our secret works are also known and observed by him, not only our outward labour, but our inward love in it, Heb. vi. 10. If with Isaac we go privately into the field to meditate, or secretly ' cast our bread upon the waters,' he keeps his eye upon us to reward us, and returns the fruit into our own bosoms, Mat. vi. 4, 6; yea, though it be but a cup of cold water, from an inward spring of love given to a disciple. He sees your works and your labours, and faith and patience in working them, Rev. ii. 2, all the marks of your industry, and strength of your intentions, and will be as exact at last in order to a due praise, as to open sins in order to a just recompence, 1 Cor. iv. 5.

6. The consideration of this excellent attribute affords comfort in the afflictions of good men. He knows their pressures, as well as hears their cries, Exod. iii. 7. His knowledge comes not by information from us, but his compassionate listening to our cries springs from his own inspection into our sorrows; he is affected with them before we make discovery of them. He is not ignorant of the best season, when they may be usefully inflicted, and when they may be profitably removed. The tribulation and poverty of his church is not unknown to him : Rev. ii. 8, 9, * I know thy works and tribulation,' &c. He knows their works, and what tribulation they meet with for him; he sees their extremities, when they are toiling against the wind and tide of the world, Mark vi. 48; yea, the natural exigencies of the multitude are not neglected by him, he discerns to take care of them. Our Saviour considered the three days' fasting of his followers, and miraculously provides a dish for them in the wilderness. No good man is ever out of God's mind, and therefore never out of his compassionate care; his eye pierceth into their dungeons, and pities their miseries. Joseph may forget his brethren, and the disciples not know Christ when he walks upon the midnight waves and turbulent sea,* but a lion's den cannot obscure a Daniel from his sight, nor the depths of the whale's belly bury Jonah from the divine understanding. He discerns Peter in his chains, and Stephen under the stones of martyrdom; he knows Lazarus under his tattered rags, and Abel wallowing in his blood; his eye and knowledge goes along with his people when they are transplanted into foreign countries, and sold for slaves into the islands of the Grecians; for 1 he will raise them out of the place,' Joel iii. 6, 7. He would defeat the hopes of the persecutors, and applaud the patience of his people. He knows his people in the tabernacle of life, and in the ■ valley of the shadow of death,' Ps. xxiii. He knows all penal evils, because he commissions and directs them. He knows the instruments, because they are his sword, Ps. xvii. 13; and he knows his gracious sufi'erer, because he hath his mark. He discerns Job in his anguish, and the devil in his malice. By the direction of this attribute ho orders calamities, and rescues from them: ' Thou hast seen it, for thou beholdest mischief and spite,' Ps. x. 14. That is the comfort of the psalmist, and the comfort of every believer, and the ground of committing themselves to God under all the injustice of men.

7. It is a comfort in all our infirmities. As he knows our sins to charge them, so ho kno*s the weakness of our nature to pity us. As his infinite understanding may scare us, because he knows our transgressions, so it may

* Barlow's Man's Refuge, p. 20, 30.

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.

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mindfn] i til r- in. mb< r the mnl ir nature as we

.• much aid our

id 1"' than it i ! 11 ii r. membra

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ir iniin: hut <ln^t when he

■ I

Bi I in the Inrkiog corruptioD in onr

mow by this whither to ail v of it. I" some cala-

mity i we audi rstand qo! the particoJ u of are inflii I • titions

have pal op bsj . ad the chariot wheels of divine

ii are long in coming. I. I at beg the this

id then thai \ the mi int, or i the affliction we feel, or bars

the door turn of onr supplioal v. Lim sight cannot

of God can make visible to as. J me

whei Lest with me. inwantofpard particularly

■I his D .'I in OUT desitt a for th | nuance of I we

nil him from his faithfulness, bo in the fear of any insiocerity or

hidden corruption we should implore his oi For i ii a

• I 1 in the whole of his nat lie per-

i in th< il static: i of

' .is David's practice a: r that la

meditation on the omniscience and omnipresence I irni his

thonghts of it ii r the employment of it in tlic cone f his

:. and begS a nit-ivy suitable to the

arch iih . 0 G u«l try my heart : try me, and ki

84, 'And in me,

d me in the way everlasting.' Ii t barely th I i

should know him, for it would I nld

Lhfulnest, o r knowledge io I : but he

ribute in th<

in « bt of any wicked way, and humiliatioD for ma-

tion of it in or d to

this pei , when I i I y

Vol.. I. l 1

others, so we may implore it to search us when our sincerity is questioned by ourselves, that our minds may be enlightened by a beam from his knowledge, and the little thieves may be pulled out of their dens in our hearts by the hand of his power. In particular, it is our comfort that w r e can, and our necessity that we must, address particularly to this, when we engage solemnly in a work of self-examination ; that we may have a clearer eye to direct us than our own, that we may not mistake brass for gold, or counterfeit graces for true ; that nothing that is filthy and fit to be cast out may escape our sight, and preserve its stations. And we need not question the laying at the door of this neglect (viz., not calling in this attribute to our aid, whose proper office it is, as I may so say, to search and inquire) all the mistakes, ill success, and fruitlessness of our endeavours in self-examination, 'because we would engage in it in the pitiful strength of our own dimness, and not in the light of God's countenance, and the assistance of his eye, which can discern what we cannot see, and discover that to us which we cannot manifest to ourselves. It is a comfort to a learner of an art, to have a skilful eye to overlook his work, and inform him of the defects. Beg the help of the eye of God in all your searches and self-examinations.

9. The consideration of this attribute is comfortable in our assurances of, and reflections upon, the pardon of sin, or seeking of it. As God punishes men for sin according to his knowledge of them, which is greater than the knowledge their own consciences have of them, so he pardons according to his knowledge. He pardons not only according to our knowledge, but according to his own. He is greater than any man's heart, to condemn for that which a man is at present ignorant of, and greater than our hearts, to pardon that which is not at present visible to us; he knows that which the most watchful conscience cannot take a survey of. If God had not an infinite understanding of us, how could we have a perfect and full pardon from him ? It would not stand with his honour to pardon he knew not what. He knows what crimes we have to be pardoned, when we know not all of them ourselves, that stand in need of a gracious remission ; his omniscience beholds every sin, to charge it upon our Saviour. If he knows our sins that are black, he knows every mite of Christ's righteousness, which is pure, and the utmost extent of his merits, as well as the demerit of our iniquities. As he knows the filth of our sin, he also knows the covering of our Saviour ; he knows the value of the Redeemer's sufferings, and exactly understands every plea in the intercession of our advocate. Though God knows our sins oculo indice, yet he doth not see them oculo judice, with a judicial eye. His omniscience stirs not up his justice to revenge, but his mercy to pity. His infinite understanding of what Christ hath done directs him to disarm his justice, and sound an alarm to his bowels. As he understands better than we what we have committed, so he understands better than we what our Saviour hath merited, and his eye directs his hand in the blotting out guilt, and applying the remedy.

Use 3. The third use shall be to sinners to humble them, and put them upon serious consideration. This attribute speaks terrible things to a profligate sinner. Basil thinks that the lipping open the sins of the damned to their faces by this perfection of God is more terrible than their other torments in hell. God knows the persons of wicked men, not one is exempted from his eye, he sees all the actions of men as well as he knows their persons : Job xi. 11, 'He knows vain men, he sees wickedness also.' Job xxxiv. 21, 'His eye is upon all their goings.' Ho hears the most private whispers, Ps. exxxix. 4; the scope, manner, circumstance of speaking he

In-'' • 1 -• and< i land ail <>ur tl:

of I

urn , nun.I, abort n

■ thou h

i ' mm lli«j

I'll' I HI I'V the help I ■ .Oil. I I

battel would il to sinners to l

■

tboold 1 -• Know ii

t <• ti ,.!/;... a I tli him '

I. (

. dot ' on, can hide any sin from the syi i

iro in h b thick< h wedge I

by him, though buried hi the ••• ,1 Sarali he unset n by him, when she mock

i tell :i i . niiiiM If w th an

I rod knows it ? \\ bid firoi whether done in the darkness or t, in the midni

r the n an. B

mish. Tho wheels in E (ire full i i

behold tlir sinner, Mid a swift wheel of wrath to overtake hit . G ill things light is most diffieoltly kepi oat, Tin ' - u

:ht of his countenance,' l'-. :f writ with

mbeem : more visible to him then the

fornications of the Samaritan wounn, perhap i only to hi

oom Christ, John i . I , so

etly done, bnl there is an infallible witness to ] I

G in?isibl most not imagii to him.

■ think from God, the

from <>" .If m<:; m tlie

of all men, as from those of the sun : yea, if theycould from tin til told not draw them

understanding. How then ran darkm de-

fend u>? With what shame will sinners be filled) when God, who fa

. and writ tin ;i make a repetition of

. and unvi il the web of their wicke B, \\. r a In idfui consideration is th joggling hypocrite, that

with an a] | I An infinite and

judges nol according to the veils and shadows, bat sot to truth : • He

: i appearand . i 9 on. xvi. 7. I itward e

\ of s work imposeth not on him ; his . and therefore 1.

ma; nature than I a. By this j> rfection

1, ami beholds th< litter of abominations in the onl, the true quality and prinei] rk, and

they appear. ' ive him: the d a are known ai . lie

i into the depth bstrnse n'.'.

Led in

to him as ii be

prove as, < iii. 10. V. i

the eyes oi and Ui\

ance; but an infinite understanding, that fathoms the secret depths of the heart, is too knowing to let a dream pass for a truth, or mistake a shadow for a body. Though we call God Father all our days, speak the language of angels, or be endowed with the gift of miracles, he can discern whether we have his mark upon us ; he can espy the treason of Judas in a kiss ; Herod's intent of murdering under a specious pretence of worship ; a Pharisee's fraud under a broad philactery ; a ravenous wolf under the softness of a sheep's skin ; and the devil in Samuel's mantle, or when he would shroud himself among the sons of God, Job i. 6, 7. All the rooms of the heart, and every atom of dust in the least chink of it, is clear to his eye. He can strip sin from the fairest excuses, pierce into the heart with more ease than the sun can through the thinnest cloud or vapour, and look through all Ephraim's ingenious inventions to excuse his idolatry, Hosea v. 3. Hypocrisy then is a senseless thing, since it cannot escape unmasking by an infinite understanding. As all our force cannot stop his arm, when he is resolved to punish, so all our sophistry cannot blind his understanding, when he comes to judge. Woe to the hypocrite, for God sees him ; all his juggling is open and naked to infinite understanding.

3. Is it not also a senseless thing to be careless of sins committed long ago ? The old sins forgotten by men, stick fast in an infinite understanding. Time cannot raze out that which hath been known from eternity. Why should they be forgotten many years after they were acted, since they were foreknown in an eternity before they were committed, or the criminal capable to practise them ? Amalek must pay their arrears of their ancient unkind-ness to Israel in the time of Saul, though the generation that committed them were rotten in their graves, 1 Sam. xv. 2. Old sins are written in a book, which lies always before God ; and not only our own sins, but the sins of our fathers, to be requited upon their posterity: Isa. lxv. 6, ' Behold it is written.' What a vanity is it, then, to be regardless of the sins of an age that went before us ; because they are in some measure out of our knowledge, are they therefore blotted out of God's remembrance ? Sins are bound up with him, as men do bonds, till they resolve to sue for the debt: 1 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up,' Hosea xiii. 12. As his foreknowledge extends to all acts that shall be done, so his remembrance extends to all acts that have been done. We may as well say, God foreknows nothing that shall be done to the end of the world, as that he forgets any things that hath been done from the beginning of the world. The former ages of the world are no further distant from him than the latter. God hath a calendar (as it were) or an account-book of men's sins ever since the beginning of the world, what they did in their childhood, what in their youth, what in their manhood, and what in their old age. He hath them 'in store among his treasure,' Deut. xxxii. 34. He hath neither lost his understanding to know them, nor his resolution to revenge them. As it follows: ver. 35, ' To me vengeance belongs.' He intends to enrich his justice with a glorious manifestation, by rendering a due recompence. And it is to be observed, that God doth not only necessarily remember them, but sometimes binds himself by an oath to do it: Amos viii. 7, ' The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works ;' or in the Hebrew, ' If I ever forget any of their works;' that is, let me not be accounted a God for ever, if I do forget; ht me lose my Godhead, if I lose my remembrance. It is not Letl a misery to (he wicked, than it is a comfort to the godly, that their record is in heaven.

4. Let it be observed, that this infinite understanding doth exactly know the sins of men ; he knows so as to consider. He doth not only know them,

hut intently behold them i I' . si. i. •

■ metaphor m meo, would

tly and ; it ia Dot a I

I . 1 I. • . ; i .11. hi hold - and krj n i th<

ticulsr man, u if I

r their Pi. n

Be ii t a 1 ' B

! i!l). II. in

there ia to bl< ;: v an I quantil I

CHI!

minute when, the hut.' t which ii i oomm the numl

■■ii. ■ i : ey bav<

i. \iv. S '. n I •

wililcrn Dhe whole guUt in every circumatance

of nun's i ch an ii

understanding c e subja ' iniquity if mfti

him/ Jer. ii. 22.

men'a i i aa to jn Thi mni-

:i authority in I justice. 11 the ni l is in order to a jo

x. 1 l. • Thou I i miachief, to requite it with thy band.

knowledge direeta the band of his justice, and Calls

under his i nee but will fajj under hi aa little

■ ■ in bia knowled •■•. II omniscience, tl ay be ;» judge in his righi • B

of the wicked 1 i • their works, and testify his shh

thai which is of high value with men, Luke xvi. 15. Sin is not pre-serred in 1. r written down in bia looks to

an old manuscript, but to b 1 one daj and c out in the t

Be writes them to publish them, and nem in I

light of his countenance, to bring them to the light of their c . What

d( ration ia it, to think that the Bins of a d in an infallible understanding, much more I What ■ num-

. then, do tl of a month, a year, ten or forty

mai • ! What an infinite number

them, all hound up in the court-r Ua of ( orm brought oul d ! W;

ads, ret d's kne

to I : out against the sinner in due time, without an on ~;blo

horn

. Let us havo a sense of God's knowk n our hearts. All wickednesa hath a spring from a wai

dm it. ] !xxxvi. 1 I ;

proud rose np ■• him, and \ :ht after hi

car. I them. They think <

an i • iw they art. Wh( n t: f this attri-

i!l impi. ty. ^

•

: bia infinite ui

What faith could then t, in witneaess? 1: founda human - upon which cornice stands bo lissolvedl What soc; . be

preserved if this be not truly believed and faithfully stuck to ? But how easily would oaths be swallowed and quickly violated if the sense of this perfection were rooted out of the minds of men ! What fear could they have of calling to witness a being they imagine blind and ignorant ? Men secretly imagine that God knows not, or soon forgets, and then make bold to sin against him, Ezek. viii. 12. How much does it therefore concern us to cherish and keep alive the sense of this? If God 'writes us upon the palms of his hands,' as the expression is, to remember us, let us engrave him upon the tables of our hearts to remember him. It would be a good motto to write upon our minds, God knows all, he is of infinite understanding.

1. This would give check to much iniquity. Can a man's conscience easily and delightfully swallow that which he is sensible falls under the cognizance of God, when it is hateful to the eye of his holiness, and renders the actor odious to him ? ' Doth he not see my ways, and count all my steps,' saith Job, chap. xxxi. 4. To what end doth he fix this consideration ? To keep him from wanton glances. Temptations have no encouragement to come near him that is constantly armed with the thoughts that his sin is booked in God's omniscience. If any impudent devil hath the face to tempt us, we should not have the impudence to join issue with him under the sense of an infinite understanding. How fruitless would his wiles be against this consideration! How easily would his snares be cracked by one sensible thought of this ! This doth Solomon prescribe to allay the heat of carnal imaginations, Prov. v. 20, 21. It were a useful question to ask at the appearance of every temptation, at the entrance upon every action, as the church did in temptations to idolatry, Ps. xliv. 21, 1 Shall not God search this out, for he knows the secrets of the heart ? ' His understanding comprehends us more than our consciences can our acts, or our understanding our thoughts. Who durst speak treason against a prince if he were sure he heard him, or that it would come to his knowledge ? A sense of God's knowledge of wickedness in the first motion and inward contrivance would bar the accomplishment and execution. The consideration of God's infinite understanding would cry Stand to the first glances of the heart to sin.

2. It would make us watchful over our hearts and thoughts. Should we harbour any unworthy thoughts in our cabinet, if our heads and hearts were possessed with this useful truth, that God knows everything which comes into our minds, we should as much blush at the rising of impure thoughts before the understanding of God as at the discovery of unworthy actions to the knowledge of men. If we lived under a sense that not a thought of all those millions which flutter about our minds can be concealed from him, how watchful and careful should we be of our hearts and thoughts I

3. It would be a good preparation to every duty. This consideration should be the preface to every service,—The divine understanding knows how I now act. This would engage us to serious intention, and quell wandering and distracting fancies. Who would come before God with a careless and ignorant soul, under a sense of his infinite understanding, and prerogative of searching the heart? '0 thou that sittest in heaven' was a consideration the psalmist had at the beginning of his prayer, Ps. cxxiii. 1, whereby he testifies not only an apprehension of the majesty and power of God, but of his omniscience, ai one sitting above beholds all that is below. Would wo offer to God snch raw and undigested petitions; would there be ho much flatness in our services; should our hearts so often give us the slip; would any hang down their heads like a bulrush by an ail'eeted or

humility wl fiiith in tin i attrib • aoond, on

tl.»|;

!i all our might, v.

llllll tll.lt 1.1

upon ooi min Is,

or fram iit-

ulili ii. i. of < ur i

l.l i ild lend to |

ption 11 andnesa And In

ii m In - walk \x • l I '. 4 \i. I

I of thy f.ii the Lord under all the

!i fi r Al'i'l's holim I

ing, A • iii'' dooti ine of omni gioo, so the impression of it would

When :ill oor waya arc imagined I j;i ll

tli. ii k

till we walk bi Core < tod, Gen. knowledge. What we . what we think, what .

Ur knows every pis

a Nathanarl under the fig-tree, i so he is to i on i ratanding to be d ]

us walk with as much o if the understanding of all men did c

1 us and our actio: ,

ronld m hnmble. If •■■■

D be, it I Mire all tin

upon earth did perfectly know his . with all their aggravati

whai i knowl( an infinite and just censuring u

When •■ knows our actions, whereof thi

and our thoughts, whereof there are millions ; thai he news all the bl< d up<»n os, all the injuries we have return* d to him ; thai . bounty, and our ingratitude; all the idolati and secret enmity in every man's heart against him ; ail tyranni

b, hiddi n In Iasions of necessary duties, violation of plain precepts

v foolish imagination, with all the circumatam them, and t : .

v in their full anatomy, every mite of unworthiness and wi

and add to this his knowli 0 f hj g

bich are miraculous upon tl as quick in his n in his and

i inflicting punishment thai :ns no ^

gainst os, hut . and waits I >us

with all this knowledge of our crii ould not tl this

melt our hearts into humiliation before him, and d in begs

pardon and : >f him ?

Again, I in our s uindest

Shall any oi OS v.urn:, as if I

thing by ourselves to c i know son. .many

• Amipiit., lib. :

things, to condemn us, and therefore to humble us ? Let the sense of God's infinite knowledge, therefore, be an incentive and argument for more humiliation in us. If we know enough to render ourselves vile in our own eyes, how much more doth God know to render us vile in his !

6. The consideration of this excellent perfection should make us to acquiesce in God, and rely upon him in every strait. In public, in private, he knows all cases, and he knows all remedies. He knows the seasons of bringing them, and he knows the seasons of removing them, for his own glory. What is contingent in respect of us, and of our foreknowledge, and in respect of second causes, it is not so in regard of God's, who hath the know-ledge of the futurition of all things. He knows all causes in themselves, and therefore knows what every cause will produce, what will be the event of every counsel and of every action. How should we commit ourselves to this God of infinite understanding, who knows all things, and foreknows everything; that cannot be forced through ignorance to take new counsel, or be surprised with anything that can happen to us. This use the psalmist makes of it: Ps. x. 14, ' Thou hast seen it, the poor committeth himself unto thee.' Though ' some trust in chariots and horses,' Ps. xx. 7, some in counsels and counsellors, some in their arms and courage, and some in mere vanity and nothing, yet let us ' remember the name' and nature ' of the Lord our God,' his divine perfections, of which this of his infinite understanding and omniscience is none of the least, but so necessary, that without it he could not be God, and the whole world would be a mere chaos and confusion.

END OF VOL. I.

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