CHAP. I.
The Scope of the Text. How the Gentiles though without the written Law yet are under Sin. What the Law of Nature is. How Adam had the know­ledge of his Creator. What meant by the Invisible Things of God. Though Invisible, yet how seen. What meant by the Creation of the World. What difference betwixt the Creation of the World, and things made. Why the Apostle only mentions God's eternal Power and God-head. How the Gentiles are without excuse by the Light of Nature.

THe Scope of the Apostle in the first part of this Epistle, is to assert and prove the great Doctrine of Justification by Faith, and not by [Page 2] the Works of the Law. And to make his way to it, He first proveth all men to be under sin. And all Man-kind being divided into Jew and Gentile; he first proves the Gentile to be under sin, in this first Chapter; and the Jew in the Se­cond. And those that are under Sin, cannot be justified by the Works of the Law, and therefore must of necessity have recourse to the Righteous­ness of Faith, being convicted of Sin by the Law.

Now lest it might be argued, How could the Gentile be under sin, not having the Written Law made known unto them? Ʋnderstand it of Gentiles without the Church. for it was the Jew to whom were committed the Oracles of God; and where there is no Law, there is no transgression. The A­postle therefore in this Chapter tells us, they had the Law of Nature, which was God's Law; which though it is not written in Ink and Paper, yet it is written in the Hearts of all Men, and in the visible Works of God's Creation: and the Gentiles thereupon are convicted to be under Sin, not following the Light and Conduct of that Universal Law.

For as a Law is Directive and Preceptive, it ministreth Knowledge, and commandeth Practice: So was the Law of Nature to the Gentiles; it had a Light in it whereby they might attain some knowledge of God; and it had a force in it to urge them upon the performance of Duty and Service to Him, answerable to that knowledg.

[Page 3] But because they darkned this Light in them­selves, as in vers. 21. Their foolish heart was dark­ned, and they did not follow the conduct of it, but retained the Truth in unrighteousness; hereup­on they are convinced of Sin; for they did nei­ther take up those worthy Conceptions of God's Being, which the Law of Nature might direct them to; as the Apostle speaks in vers. 21, 22. neither did they manage their conversation to­wards men, with that justice, sobriety, equity, and charity, as that Law did both direct and urge them to; as the Apostle doth at large de­clare in the enumeration of those several Vices, which they lived in the practice of, in the last part of the Chapter.

Now this Law of Nature, as written in the Hearts of Men, he speaketh of in the Verse be­fore the Text; calling it [...]: That which may be known of God, mani­fest in them. And as written in the Works of Creation, he speaks it of these words of the Text; For the Invisible Things of Him from the Creation of the World are seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal Power and God­head: And hence he infers they are [...], without excuse. And so I am come to the Text.

I having already spoken from another Scrip­ture at large of the Glory of God, as manifested in Christ; and of the Glory of Christ, as mani­fested in the Gospel-Ministration; my intention from this Text is, to set forth the Glass of the World's Creation; wherein we may behold, and [Page 4] from whence we may evince, both the Being of God, or his Deity; and many Attributes and Properties of his Being.

And whereas all Theology consisteth of two Parts; either that which is called Natural, or that which consisteth of Supernatural Revelation; the former I shall here speak of.

By Natural Theology, that all may understand, I mean that knowledge of God, and our duty to Him, which the Light of Nature may lead Man up to, and which is concreat with his Soul. The Image of God upon Man in his first Creation, consisted in Knowledge as well as Holiness; and the knowledge Adam had of his Creator, was partly by the Character of his Being engraven up­on his Soul, which is by some stiled verbum [...], an implanted Word; and partly by what the large power of his intellectual Faculty might gather from the Works of Creation; by both which he was led to God as his ultimate end. Now the Light of Nature, as it is now found in Man, is the [...], or the dark and weak remain­ders of this Image still; which the Apostle saith the Heathens had, who had nothing of the verbum [...], or the external Word, either by Writing, or any other way of Revelation.

The Text may seem a Paradox; for it speaks of things Invisible that are seen: If seen, how are they Invisible? And if Invisible, how are they seen? And therefore I must explain the Text.

1. And first I shall shew what are the Invisible Things of God, spoken of in the Text.

[Page 5] 2. How these Invisible Things are seen, and un­derstood, from the Creation of the World; and the things that are made.

3. How upon the account thereof, the Gentiles are said to be without excuse.

1. For the First: [...]. By the Invisible Things of God are meant his Being, and the Properties and Attri­butes of his Being; and which is exprest in the Arabic Version. These are called the Things of God; Proprietates ejus quae non sunt visae. Arab. not as if in God there was Thing, and Thing, or any multiplicity, diversity, or variety in his Being, as there is in the Beings of Men; where the Mind is one Faculty, and the Will another: the Fa­culty is one thing, and the Act another; Wisdom is one thing, and Power another; Habit is one thing, and Operation another; the Whole is one thing, and Parts another: For the Nature of God is perfect Unity, Identity, Simplicity, with­out any division or composi­tion; Mens soluta & libe­ra, segregata ab omni Concretione. As Ci­cero speaks of God. Tusc. q. lib. 1. p. 118. where Mind is the same with Will, Act with Power, Wisdom with Good­ness, &c. but God speaking to Men, speaketh of himself, as we are able to understand. And therefore we read of Attributes and Properties in his Being, as if these were distinct things; which yet are all one in Him; and are his Essence and Being, ra­ther [Page 6] than the Attributes of it. Now these are the Invisibles of God.

As God himself is said to be the King Eternal, 1 Tim. 1. 17. 1 Tim. 6. 16. Immor­tal, and Invisible; and to dwell in Light Inaccessible, Operationes Dei de­scendunt ad nos, essen­tia tamen manet in­accessa. whom no Eye hath seen, or can see: So are all the Attributes of his Being, in themselves invisible. Though his Good­ness, Power, and Wisdom, are visible in their Effects; yet as they are in God they are invisible. For God being a Spirit, cannot be seen by a cor­poreal Faculty; for all sensation is made by a suitableness of the Object to the Sense: Nay, the Soul it self, though it is a Spirit, while it dwells and acts in the Body, cannot see God as he is, because it acteth here according to the Law and capacity of its present state: Which is to un­derstand, and see things by those Species and I­mages which are presented to it from the Phancy, and conveyed to the Phancy from the Sense. But how it may see God, and understand in its separate state, is not my present work to enquire; for the Apostle speaketh in the Text, of Man in his present state; and so these things of God are invisible to him, as to any immediate and intui­tive sight of them. For they are not absolutely invisible; for the Soul, when it is fortified and fitted, may be capable of seeing them but it can­not in its present state; Propter excessum intelli­gibilis [Page 7] supra intellectum. Aquin. For the excess of the Object above the faculty, as the light of the Sun is to the eyes of a Bat.

2. How are these Invisible Things of God said to be clearly seen from the Creation of the World? The Greek word [...], The Greek word may be best rendred, Despiciuntur; Are seen here below. which we render, clearly seen, will not well bear that interpretation: neither can I find it so in any other Translation. For the clear sight of God, and of his Attributes, is rather to be seen in Christ, than in the Works of Creation; who is called, the brightness of his Fathers Glory, Heb. 1. 3. Or, it is rather reserved for the future, than attained in this present state. But yet these Invisible Things of God, though more darkly, may be seen from the Creation of the World, and the Things that are made; as the Apostle here asserts.

Now by the Creation of the World, [...]. is either here meant the beginning of its Being, and so the beginning of Time; and then the Apostle means, that those Invisible Things of God have been discovered and seen, a constitu­tione Mundi, from the first beginning of the World, in the things that are made. Those At­tributes of his that were Invisible, did then mani­fest themselves in visible effects, and not be­fore.

[Page 8] And this sense the Sy­riac, The beginning of the World is some­times exprest by [...], Eph. 1. 4. or by [...], Mar. 13. 19. but not by [...]. and some other Tran­slations do seem to follow; though disapproved by most of others: As also by most of our Modern Exposi­tors; Doctor Hammond ex­cepted.

Therefore by the Creation of the World, I conceive, is meant the Things created, especially the first Mass and Chaos; which alone was pro­perly and strictly, the effect of God's Creating Power. Creatio est emanatio universalis entis ex nihilo. Aquin. Now here is seen God's Eternal Power, con­sidering that he did Create, not with labour and diffi­culty, but by his Word; not out of praeexistent Matter, but out of Nothing.

Quest. When the Apostle speaks of these Invisi­ble Things as seen; Doth he speak of the sight of the Body, or of the Mind?

Answ. He speaketh of both, though chiefly of the latter; For the Eye of the Body behold­ing this Visible World, the Mind thence, by the help of the Sense, is enabled to infer and con­clude, that this must be the Effect of some Infi­nite Power; and so the Mind doth see this Power: For when the Mind, by reasoning, hath found out Effects in their Cause, it hath an intel­lectual sight of what it hath discovered. And that [Seeing] is here to be chiefly taken for the Sight of the Mind, the next words more clearly [Page 9] shew; [ being understood by the Things that are made] which run thus in the Greek, [...]. And [...] implies the Acts of the Mind, as it doth raise it self up to the knowledg of things, by its agitations and exercise: And so it seeth the Invisible things of God, in the Things that are made, as it ascends from Finite, to that which is Infinite; from Visible, to that which is Invisible; from Corporeal, to that which is In­corporeal; from Temporal, to that which is Eter­nal. And by the next words, [the things that are made] in the Greek [...], we may under­stand the Works of Creation, as they were formed out of the first Chaos, which was the proper Object of Creation. So that we may di­stinguish in the Text between the Creation of the World, and the Things which are made; taking the word [ [...], or Creation] as expressing the first Matter of all Things, and [ [...], things made] the several Creatures, both Animate, and Inanimate, that were educed out of that first Matter.

Or, A work curiously wrought, is either pro­perly called [...], if we derive it from [...], as some do; or else [...]; and so words and syllables set together in meeter, are called [...], or a Poem; or the producing of any work, secundum praecepta artis, according either to the Precepts of Rhetorick, Musick, Architecture, &c. as Criticks tell us. as the former word doth properly express, the producing of all things out of nothing; so the latter word, the curious frame and order, wherein all things were made.

[Page 10] As when the Apostle speaketh of the New Creation, which Believers have in Christ; he maketh use of both these words of the Text; Eph. 2. 10. We are his Workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good Works. To shew the excellent frame of this spiritual Work, [...], &c. it is called [...], the Work­manship of God. And to shew the Power of God ma­nifested therein, it is said to be Created.

Quest. But why doth the Apostle only mention God's Eternal Power? Are not other Attributes of his Being to be seen in the Works of Creation, as his Wisdom and Goodness, as well as his Eternity and Power?

Answ. The Apostle mentioneth the Power of God, because of all God's Attributes, that seem­eth to be most eminent and conspicuous in the Work of Creation. For it was properly an Act of Power, to make all things out of Nothing; though his Wisdom was seen in the guiding of his Power, and his Goodness in making all things good. And the Apostle mentions God's Eterni­ty in the Text, which is another Attribute, when he calls his Power Eternal: And by this he shews, that as the World had its being in Time, so that God who made it, was before it, or else he could not have made it, as the Cause must needs be be­fore the Effect; And what is before the Creation of the World, and every thing that is made, must needs be before all Time, (which came in with the Creature, as the measure of its duration) and so be Eternal.

[Page 11] But yet though only God's Power and Eter­nity be here mentioned; yet, as a Learned Expositor Observes, Estius in Loc. his other Attributes are includ­ed in the Word God-head. As if the Apostle should have said, In the Creation of the World are seen God's Power, and God's Eterni­ty: But what need I particularly mention any more Attributes of his Being, when his God­head it self, which comprehends them all, is ma­nifested therein.

The last particular to be explained is, How the Gentiles are hereupon said to be without ex­cuse?

A man may be said to be without excuse, when he hath no Apology to make for himself, as the word in the Text signifies; and that either with respect to malum culpae, the fault committed by him: Or, malum poenae, the punishment inflicted upon him. In both, the Gentiles were without excuse.

1. As to the malum culpae, or the evil of sin they were guilty of: For they had such means of knowledg ministred to them, by the Light and Law of Nature, that might have led them to more venerable thoughts of God, and a more honourable worship of him, than was practised by them: And also to a more righteous and blameless conversation amongst men: So that thereupon they were without excuse.

2. And then as to the evil of Punishment, in­flicted for their sin; God would be justified [Page 12] therein, and they left without excuse, when he should proceed to Judgment.

For God doth, and will manage his Judgments in such Righteousness towards all men, with re­spect to their several capacities and conditions in this World, that every man may be found with­out excuse that falls under them.

How far the Light and Law of Nature may lead a man towards his Salvation, I shall not here dispute: All that the Apostle asserteth here con­cerning the Gentiles, is, That they were [...], or without excuse thereby.

And the Apostle Paul deals with the Gentiles thus particularly, because the Ministry of the Un­circumcision was more peculiarly committed to him than the other Apostles. And he doth it rather in this Epistle to the Romans, than in any other, because Rome was the chief Seat of the Gentiles Empire in the Apostles time; and where Idolatry and moral Wickedness also did most a­bound, as it usually doth in such great Cities; and as their own Historians do abundantly declare concerning it.

CHAP. II.
The two Doctrines that result from the Text. The two wayes of Demonstration. The Being of God three wayes made known. Se­veral Arguments to prove God's Being from the Works of Creation.

THus having explained the parts of the Text, I shall raise out of them these two general Doctrines.

DOCT. I. 1. That the Being of God, and several Attri­butes of his Being, may be seen and understood from the Creation of the World, and the things that are made.

DOCT. II. 2. That to fall short in knowledg or practice, of what the Light and Law of Nature may lead men up to, will render them inexcusable, though they have not the written Word.

I shall first speak of the former; and first shew how the Being of God, and then the Attributes of his Being, may be demonstrated therefrom.

Now there are two sorts of Demonstrations, one is, [...]. a Priori; when Ef­fects are demonstrated from their Cause. Now the Being [Page 14] of God cannot be thus demonstrated; no man can demonstrate the necessity of such a Being from any Antecedent Cause.

And the other is a poste­riori; [...]. where Causes are de­monstrated from their Ef­fects. And so the Works of Creation do demon­strate God's Being. When a Man shall seriously consider this great Fabrick of Heaven and Earth, his mind may thence gather the Being of God. There is enough written in the Book of God's Creation, to declare his Being to us; though there was nothing written of it in the Book of the Scriptures.

The Being of God is three wayes made known to men.

1. By the Light of Natural Conscience. There are some Characters and Impressions of his Being within all men; for Man being made for God, he hath put a peculiar impression of his Being upon his Soul, which the brute Beasts have not. Though they have some resemblance of reason, yet they have nothing of the impression of a Deity, be­cause they are not made to the immediate praise and glory of their Creator, as Man is: Which is the reason why all Nations have acknowledged, and worshipped a Deity. When the Apostle went forth in the execution of his Commission, to preach the Gospel in the Nations of the Gen­tile World; where-ever he came, he found the People performing Worship to some Deity or other. When he came to Athens, he found there [Page 15] that [...], or superstitious fear, and reve­rence of their Gods; which Luke mentions in Acts 17. 22. Yea, not onely at Athens, which was a place of Learning, but even amongst the barbarous people: Which we read of in Acts 14. how they brought Garlands, and would have offered Sacrifices to Barnabas and Paul, which shews they had upon their hearts the sense of a Deity; and some kind of religious Worship was found amongst them. And their Learned Men have all along asserted, the worship of a Deity to be the chief part of the Law of Nature, God having a Witness for himself in every Man's Con­science. But this I shall speak more of after­wards.

2. The Being of God is made known by the Scriptures, which throughout declare to us that God is: And this is the evidence of Faith, as in Heb. 11. 3. Through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God; so that the things which are seen, were not made of things which do appear. A Text somewhat parallel to that which I am now discoursing upon. For both of them speaks of the Visible Things of Nature, and the Invisible Things of God. Both do speak of these Invisible things of God, evidenced to the mind of man. But with this difference, the one doth speak of the evidence that Reason gathers from Nature, the other of the evidence of Faith from the Word of God. So it follows in the sixth Verse; He that cometh to God, must be­lieve that he is. Faith believes it from the Scrip­tures, [Page 16] which give witness of him, being the pro­per Object of Faith. And God hath written his Name in clearer Characters in these, than what is found in the Book of Conscience. Had Natu­ral Conscience been sufficient, there had been no need of the Scriptures, which were written to in­form, rectifie, and guide Conscience, wherein it is defective or erroneous: So that, as it is said, Ideò scribuntur omnes Libri ut emendetur unus; All Books are written to amend the Book of Con­science. So especially we may say it of the Book of Scriptures. Conscience hath thence a clearer account, not only of the Will and Counsels of God, but even of his very Nature and Being, than by any Characters thereof it can discover within it self.

3. The Being of God is also made known to us from the Works of Creation. All these Works of God do preach a Deity. As the Heavens are said to declare his Glory, and the Firmament to shew his Handy-work, Psal. 19. 1. so his Name is said to be excellent in all the Earth, Psal. 8. 1. The Beams of his Divinity shine through the Latitude of all Created Beings. And if you lay your eye in a Beam of the Sun, it leads it to the Body of the Sun. As in every Creature there is aliquid nihili, something of nothing; so there is aliquid Dei, something of God.

The Herbs we see, shew God to Be.

[Page 17] As the Philosopher being asked, where his Books were, answered, His Books were, Totius Entis naturalis Universitas; The University of all natural Being. And verily those that have no Books, and never were at any University of Learning, may in the Book of Nature, and the University of created beings, read and under­stand the Being of God.

Now this is the Evidence of his Being that my Text speaks of, and therefore is to be the subject of my present Discourse. Which I shall explain by these following Arguments.

Arg. 1. It is impossible for this Creation to give itself a Being. The Heavens could not make themselves, nor the Earth itself, for then they should be before themselves. Their acting before their existing, which is impossible to Rea­son. For it is a true saying in Philosophy, Ope­rari sequitur esse; Operations do follow the Crea­tures Being, both as to time, and the manner of working. As also, Nihil producitur in actum nisi per ens in actu; Nothing is produced into actual being but by some Being that doth actually exist. And therefore this Creation must be brought into being by some actual Being that was before it: Nil se gignit, nil provenit a se. Paling. And what can that be but God alone.

Should we assert the World was made by An­gels, as the Carpocratians said of old; yet who then made those Angels. Much less could it be made by Men, for they understand little of the [Page 18] works of it how it is made. And how came Man himself first to be? Its true what we read Act. 17. Of one Blood were made all Nations; but not by Creation, but Generation. And what gave being to that one Blood? There we must have recourse to a first Being; and who that is, the Text tells us, God made of one Blood all Na­tions.

Or, should we say according to the antient Phi­losophy, now revived by some, That the Universe was framed by the fortuitous concourse of in­numerable Atomes of several Forms, Figures, and Qualities, that from Eternity danced up and down in an infinite space. And those that were heaviest fell lowest, and made the Earth; And those that were lighter took their place above them. Those that were moist did coalesce into Water, and those that were thin and rare into Air and the superiour Elements. Which was the fond and irrational Opinion of certain Philosophers of old, The account of this Opinion we find at large in Gassendus. as Leucippus, Lucretius, and espe­cially Epicurus.

But of this Opinion we need no other confu­tation than the exact Order of all things in Na­ture; which could not be so by some chance or accident. No more than an House exactly built could come into such a frame by the Casual meeting together of Stones and Timber. And why did those Atomes fall together then, and not sooner? And whence is it that the course of Nature is now so fixed and constant? if all things [Page 19] came together at first by chance, all things still should fall out by chance. Or if we should ad­mit a possibility of such an orderly concourse of these Atomes, yet how came these Atomes into being? Did they make themselves? That I shewed was impossible. Were they Eternal? How come they then to be changed from what they were. For whatever is from Eternity m [...]st needs be the same to Eternity. But he that de­sires a further confutation of this fancy, may read what is written against it by a learned Knight in his Book against Atheism. Sir Char. Wolsely.

There were some other Philosophers that said, All things did arise out of Number; as the Py­thagoreans. But it is supposed, they meant all things did arise out of Unity; that is, from one first Being; from that Unity which is, Unitatis omnis effectrix, as one speaks; that hath pro­duced all creatures, in the several Unities of their individual Beings.

Others of them thought that all things did at first spring out of Contraries. It's true, All com­pound Bodies are made up of contrary Elements. Frigida pugnabant ca­lidis, humentia siccis. Ovid. Met. l. 1. p. 2. And the opposition of two Con­traries in Nature may pro­duce some third thing different from them both. But these Contraries must have an existence in their distinct natures before any compound can result from them. And so though they be the [Page 20] material or formal cause of any effects in Nature, yet they themselves could not have existence with­out some efficient cause; and this doth necessa­rily lead us up to God, who is the first Cause.

Or, could we conjecture with Pliny, (for it was but his conjecture) that the World itself is an Eternal Deity. Plin. Nat. Phil. Lib. 1. c. 7. For so he speaks; God, whosoever he be, if happily there be any other but the very world, he is all Sight, all Hearing, all Life, all Soul, all of Himself.

But he speaks more positively concerning the Sun, Verily, saith he, it is the Life and Soul of the World, the principal Governour of Nature, Lib. 1. cap. 6. and no less than a God, or Divine Power, considering his work and operation.

Or, can we say with Aristotle, That the World is eternal; which Opinion he grounded upon this Principle, Ex nihilo nil fit; Out of nothing nothing is made. Which is true, if we speak of nothing as it imports matter out of which things are made. But if we mean by nothing only the term from whence Creation began, so it is not true; For all things did so arise from nothing as their term. It is also true in Philosophy, that no­thing can bring forth nothing in a natural course; but it is not so in Divinity, that treats of God and his Infiniteness; For He can produce being out of non-being, as He hath done in the Worlds Creation. And as we read in Genesis 1. 1.

But it is as well against Reason as against Scri­pture [Page 21] to assert the World to be Eternal. For as there could be no Progress in Number, if there was no unit out of which all Number springs: For Number is greater or lesser as it is nearer to, or farther off from Unity: So there could be no computation of time, if there was not some first moment. For Time is nothing else but a succession or flux of moments; as one gives this description of it it is Nunc fluens. So that all time must be computed according to its nearness to, or remoteness from the beginning of time. If there was no beginning of time, there could be no Prius & posterius. We could not reckon Ancient and Modern. And there could properly be no such thing as Antiquity. For this present mo­ment would be as antient, with respect to Eter­nity, as a thousand years ago. And therefore seeing there is prius & posterius, sooner and later in time, there must of necessity be some beginning of time.

And if there be a beginning of Time, there must be a beginning of the World. For Time and the World were alwaies together.

Arg. 2. We see in Nature every thing is ser­ving a rational End. As the Sun enlightens the World, which else would be but one great Dun­geon, and unfit for habitation. The Clouds and Rain serve an end, which is to cool and mo [...]sten the Earth, which else would be dry and barren. The Winds do serve an end, which is to purge and purifie the Air, that for want of motion it might not corrupt and putrifie. And the Earth [Page 22] is endued with a Seminal vertue to bring forth Herbs and Fruits of several kind for the use of Man and Beast.

And as all things in Nature serve an End, so they are wonderfully fitted to their several Ends. Now whence is this but from some wise Agent that fitted things thus to their end. As Philosophers tell us of four sorts of Causes in Nature, the Effi­cient, Formal, Material, and Final, and the one hath dependance upon the other: If there was no efficient there could be no matter, if no matter no form, if no form no end; for the form is given with respect to the end. But where we see mat­ter, and that matter invested with form, and that form serving an end, we may then conclude this could not be without an efficient. As when we see a Clock or Watch, and see how every Wheel, yea every Pin therein doth serve an end, and these fitted to that end, we conclude this was not by chance, but by the workmanship of some skilful Artist. Or, had we seen Archimedes his Sphere, artificially framed to represent the several Moti­ons of the Heavenly Orbes, we should conclude, this was not thus framed of it self. So when we see all things in Nature in motion, and every wheel of Nature moving to a rational end, we may conclude, this was done by some Infinite Intelli­gence. Which the Heathen Philosophers did acknowledg, when they called God, or the Ma­ker of all things, [...], Mind, and Reason, as we read in Plato. Anaxagoras so freq [...]ently called God Mens, that in derision [Page 23] they gave him the name of Mens. And as Virgil, as I remember speaks,

By which we may perceive that they appre­hended the World had a Maker, and that He that made all things, was an Intelligent Being. Lactantius quoting the several descriptions the Heathen Philosophers made of God, Lib. 1. cap. 5. among the rest, quotes Chrysippus describing him to be, Naturalem vim divinâ Ratione praeditam. A natural Power endued with Divine Reason. For they evidently saw a Divine Wisdom join'd with Power in all the works of Creation.

Argum. 3. We see in the Creation the excellent proportion and usefulness of one part to another for the preservation of the whole, and the suita­bleness of the whole to Man that is made the Lord of it. The Life of Man or Beast cannot be pre­served without Food; Food they cannot have unless the Earth bring it forth; bring it forth it cannot unless it be watered with Showers from Heaven; Showers there cannot be without Clouds; Clouds cannot be without Vapours; Va­pours there cannot be, unless they are exhaled by the Sun from the Waters; and for this end the Sun-beams do not only bring down Light and Heat to the Earth, but attract Vapours from it [Page 24] towards Heaven, and all for the service of the Earth. Wherein we see the Heavens hearing the Earth, and the Earth hearing the Corn, Wine, and Oyl, and other Fruits, and all hearing Man. And as in this lower World one part of the Crea­tion is supported by another, as the Earth by the Waters and Air, so this whole lower World is preserved by the superiour World, and under the dominion of it, which shews the excellent Order of things in Nature; each part tending to pre­serve the whole, which the Philosophers call the Harmony of the Universe. As one of them speaks, Natura est perfectissima Harmonia; There is no Harmony better than the Order of Nature. For as in Harmony, though there are several Sounds, yet are they so tempered and modulated, as to make pleasant Musick. So the several parts of the Universe are so adapted and fitted to each other, as that they all do constitute an harmonious Order. And as Harmony ariseth out of Discords, so there is in the Universe, Concordia discors, Creatures of contrary Natures and Qualities, yet so mixed and proportioned, as that they sweetly agree together, and harmonize with each other, and serve mutually to the preservation of one another.

And if we consider how the Creation is fitted to the use of Man, and Man is fitted to it, who was made the Lord of it, we may easily discern this was done by some wise Agent. As there are many pleasant qualities in natural things, so man hath several bod [...]ly Senses, whereby to dis­cern [Page 25] and enjoy the pleasantness of them. To what purpose was there sweet Smells, beautiful Co­lours, pleasant Tasts in the Flowers and Fruits of the Earth, if there were no such Senses, as Seeing, Tasting, or Smelling. And so to what pur­pose would these Senses be in the Bodies of Men, if there were not suitable Objects provided in Na­ture for them. And so when we observe in these fruits of the Earth such vertues and qualities that are both nourishing and medicinal to the Body of Man, and some of them have Signatures and Cha­racters upon them that declare their vertue, and what part of Mans Body they are useful to, it shewes they were created for the use of Man. As we see a Man that builds an House for his use, he doth fit it with Rooms, Furniture, and Uten­sils, to make it a convenient Habitation. So hath God fitted this World to be an habitation for Man, who is made to be the Inhabitant of it, Act. 17. 26.

And as the Nature of Man doth affect variety, so hath God furnisht the World with infinite variety of Creatures, for the gratifying of his Sense, and for the delightful exercise of his Mind; and by all setting forth His own manifold Wisdom; and commending Himself to Man by his great Good­ness and Bounty herein.

And there is such a suitableness betwixt the World and Man, that Man is called a little World. But the greater World doth serve the lesser. After God had made and finished the rest of his works, He then made Man, and epitomized them all in him; and gave him dominion over them: [Page 26] And the exact fitness of the several parts of the Creation to his use, doth shew that it is the Ef­fect of some Infinite Wisdom.

Arg. 4. Whence is it that those two Natural Principles of Self-preservation, and Self-propaga­tion, are so inviolably founded in the Nature of all living Creatures; even those that have no Rea­son, as well as those that have: both which are necessary to the preservation of the Universe. May not we hence easily argue, that surely this was done intentionally for such an end. And if in­tentionally, then it is done by Reason; and if by Reason, it must be by His Reason that first made this Universe. For is it not rational, that when the Creatures were made they should be pre­served, both in the Individuals and the several Species or kinds of their being; and what can do this better in a natural course, than for them to have these two Principles inherent in their se­veral Natures.

And so we may observe in Vegetables, as Herbs, Flowers, Trees; they all have a Seed in them­selves, which Nature brings forth for the pre­servation of their several Kinds in a continued succession of Individuals of the same kind. And whence is this rational provision in Nature, but by some rational Agent, and who can that be but the God of Nature, that was before it, and founded this rational Law in it, and is the Natu­ra naturans, as Philosophers speak: That Na­ture that is the Original and Law-giver of Na­ture.

[Page 27] Arg. 5. We may observe in the Creation there are degrees of being, and this shews there is some chief Being. And there are degrees of Perfection, which shews there is some chief Perfection. For else we could not compute degrees, if there was no first, with respect to which such computation is to be made.

These degrees in Nature are by learned Men call'd the Scale of Nature; and we must come to some top in the Scale or Ladder, and not ascend in Infinitum, though we must into Infini­ty, which is the Infinite God. For, as I said before, where there is prius & posterius, there is primum & postremum; So where there is magis & minus, there is maximum & minimum; where there are degrees of Perfection, there must needs be some greatest Perfection, and what can that be, but that God who is Optimus & Maximus, who is the most excellent Being, and the first Perfection. For instance; we see some know­ledg in Brutes, but more in Man, more in Angels, but there is a Being then that is perfect in know­ledg. And so I might speak of all Perfections, whether natural or moral; The degrees of them shew there is One First. Or, if you will look upon these degrees of Being amongst the Creatures as several parts of being, we may again argue, Where there are parts, there must be some whole; and where there are particulars, there must be some universal. Now we see the Creatures Be­ing is but a particular being, and in their several kinds we see several parts of Being, none of them [Page 28] having all Being in themselves, and therefore there must be some totum of Being, or some Be­ing that is universal, that comprehends in it self all Being, and what can this be but God alone.

Argum. 6. We see in the Creation how Crea­tures that are without Reason, yet act according to the exact Rules of Reason; which could not be, were they not guided and acted by some other principle than their own respective Natures. For no Nature can act of it self beyond its own Principle: As we see how the Bee doth make its Comb, and the Spider its Web, and the Birds their Nests, and Bevers their Houses in the Waters, consisting of several stories (as I have heard from Eye-witnesses) according to the exactest Rules of Art and Reason. And if you say, that these Creatures have Reason quoad hoc, as to those things that belong to the benefit of their own na­tures, though not to other things; Yet what shall we say to those Creatures that have not so much as Sense, or a Sensitive life; as Plants and Trees in this lower World. Whence is it that the Ivy, as if it did know it was a weak Plant, and could not subsist of itself should naturally bend to the Wall or Tree that is near it, there to fix, and as it were incorporate itself by a strange and firm in.hesion? Whence is it that a Tree doth fix its Roots with that strength and Art in the bowels of the Earth, that no man can imagine how it could be done better, as if it did know what blasts of wind it must encounter with, which threaten its subversion, &c.

[Page 29] And what Wisdom is that which guides and carries the Root downward, when the Boughs and Branches ascend upward; as if it understood the need it stood in of the fatness and moisture of the Earth, and therefore doth send forth its roots up and down through the Earth to forage, and fetch it in.

So also, If we consider how curiously the Em­brio or Infant is formed in the Womb of her that is with Child; the formative vertue that doth this is ignorant of what it doth, and yet every part is formed to a rational End in Nature.

And whence is it in the upper World that the Sun is placed at such a convenient distance from the Earth, and steers its motion by such a Line as is most for the benefit of it. That when it is gone to its Tropic in the South, it should return back again to the North, as if it did rationally provide for the benefit of each part and region of the lower World? In so much that the Psalmist doth attribute Knowledg to it, Psal. 104. 19. The Sun knoweth its going down. And as Tully argues concerning the Heavens, Their motion is either by Nature, Chance, or Prudence. Not by Na­ture, for if they were light, they would move upwards; if heavy, they would move down­wards; if neither, they would stand still: Nor by chance, for they move in a constant and re­gular Order, where there is nothing temerarium nec fortuitum, nothing rash nor accidental, as he speaks Lib. 2. De Nat. Deor. And therefore they move by Prudence: And that not their own, as [Page 30] they were Gods, as some imagined, but by his Wisdom that made them, by that Eternal Mind that superintends and guides their motions; which he that denies, Ipse mentis expers judicandus est, as he there speaks: that is, one void of Reason. If we yield these things are done by Nature, and natural Instincts; yet still we must reply, Whence had Nature these several instincts; and if it acts and moves by a Law, who put this Law first into it, but He that made all things in Wisdom, and hath left the prints and footsteps of it in the several works of his hand. If we see an Arrow for the most part hit the mark, no man will say, This is by chance; but it is guided by some skilful hand. So Nature could never produce in so great a con­stancy such admirable effects, if it was not guided by some invisible hand.

Argum. 7. We see this Order in Nature, that all Creatures do serve some end above themselves; As Creatures without life do serve those Creatures that have life, and those Creatures that have only a vegetative life serve the Creatures that have a Sen­sitive Life, and those that have a Sensitive Life do serve Man that hath a superiour Rational Life; and therefore Man also was made to serve some end above himself: and what can this be but to serve his Creator. For there is no end that Man can serve above himself, but serving God, which may evidence to us that God is.

And as there is some Equity and Reason that those things in Nature which are inferior should serve the superior, so it is the highest Reason in [Page 31] the world, that Man should serve Him that is infinitely superiour to him, and supreme over all, and which is that End above Man which he was made to serve.

Argum. 8. Lastly, We see all things in Nature under certain bounds and limits. As the Earth, the Waters, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Heavens; So are all living creatures bounded and limited in their several natures. And within these bounds they still abide. Now how came all things to be thus circumscribed and limited? Why are their several natures extended thus far and no farther, when it is natural to the Creatures to be extensive of themselves towards some further per­fection in their Beings? Natural Bodies are under Limits, and so are created Spirits, as Angels in their several Orders or denominations, and the Souls of Men. Now who hath set these limits, but that first Being, who is unlimited, and hath made all things in Number, Weight and Measure? It is He that hath given the Earth its dimensions, and confined the Waters within their Banks, that comprehendeth the dust of the Earth in a Measure; that weigheth the Hills in Scales, and the Moun­tains in a Balance. It is He that hath meted out the Heavens with his Span, and appointed the number of the Stars, and calleth them all by name. Which the Grecians meant by calling their chief God Jupiter, [...], or the Limiter; and the Romans call'd him Jovem Terminalem. As God hath given the Creatures their being, so He hath set them the several Bounds of their Being. And [Page 32] to make this yet more plain in a few Instances. Whence is it that a Stone hath not a vegetative Life as well as a Tree; and a Tree a Sensitive Life as well as a Beast; and a Beast Reason as well as a Man; and why are not Men intellectual Spi­rits as well as Angels? All Creatures are bounded in their several natures, and what, or who could thus bound them, but the God and Author of Na­ture. So that upon the whole I may conclude, That if the World was a living Animal, as Plato fancied, and knew it self, it would readily ac­knowledg its Beginning and Being from God alone.

CHAP. III.
The general Doctrine improved. Atheism un­reasonable. The Degeneracy of Reason about Divine Objects. Few profest A­theists, The reason why some attempt to make themselves Atheists. The several Causes out of which Atheism springs. Why amongst Christians, that live under the Gospel, there is found the greatest Atheism.

THus we have demonstrated the God-head, or the Being of God from the Works of Crea­tion; I should now proceed to Demonstrate thence also several Attributes of his Being: but I shall first endeavour to reduce this Knowledge of God's Being, arising from the light and Law of Nature, to the service of Christianity. For my design is for Practice rather than Speculation.

Inf. 1. First, We may hence take notice, that Atheism is not only Impious but Irrational. To deny a God, is to deny and contradict true Rea­son. The Psalmist calls him a Fool that saith in his heart, there is no God, Psal. 14. 1. And a Fool [Page 34] is one that is defective, or di­stempered in his Reason. [...]. Tri [...]megist. If Idolaters be charged with brutishness that worshipped false gods, Jer. 10. 14, 18. how much more the Atheist that denies a God? And if the Apostle saith of them, that their foolish heart was darkened, when they debased him in their vain Rites and Modes of Wor­ship, Rom. 1. 18. how much more are such dark'ned with fol­ly that deny his Being?

Though Hell be the Seat of perfect Wicked­ness, yet this Speculative Atheism is not to be found there. The Devils themselves believe and tremble. And what a monstrous thing then is it, that it should be found upon Earth! And especially in that part of the Earth, where Men have not only the Book of Nature, but the written Word of the God of Nature as a Comment upon the works of it; for men to think it an height of Wit, to be able to dispute against a Deity, and a piece of Gallantry to live above the fear of it!

Men that are rational enough in other things, yet in this their Reasons are strangely blinded; which shews the strange degeneracy of their Souls in things that concern another World, while they are ripe and pregnant enough in things that concern this World. For did Men exert their Reason in those things, as they can and do in these, it would conclude nothing more strongly than that God is. It is the proper Office of Rea­son to argue from the Effect to the Cause; why [Page 35] should it not then argue, when it beholds the won­derful Works of this Creation, these must needs proceed from some Infinite Cause, and thereby be led up to the Being of God? As when a man seeth a Tree that is extended into Boughs and Branches, his thoughts are naturally led to some Root out of which it springs; and so when he see­eth a River, his thoughts will lead him to some Spring out of which it ariseth; why then should we not, when we see this visible World, have our thoughts as it were naturally led up to a first Be­ing? God hath sufficiently by his Works of Crea­tion evidenced to Mankind his Being, that they might seek after him; And therefore there will be no room left for any such plea in the day of Judg­ment, for any people whatsoever in any part of the world. If we had known there had been a God, we would have sought him, served, and worshipped him. Doth Man plead, I never saw his Being; Will we believe nothing but what our eyes see? We never saw those Souls that dwell within us, shall we therefore not believe we have Souls? do not their operations sufficiently evidence their Being in us? Nay, we do not see the Air in which we breath, and yet no Man denies but there is Air. And doth not the Text tell us of the invisible things of God, and therefore not to be seen? Or, will Man plead he was not pre­sent when God made this World; how shall he then know that he made it? If we see an House erected according to the Rules of Art; shall we not believe it is the work of some skilful [Page 36] Artificer, though we did not stand by and see him build it?

But of these profest Atheists we have not many instances; we read in Ancient Writers of such as Protagoras, Diagoras, Theodorus, &c. who de­nyed, or disputed all Deity; whom I find quoted and confuted by learned Bradwardine, as they were before condemned by the Athenians, Brad. lib. 1. Coral. 1. pars secund. and indeed such were exploded by the Heathen. And those that were so, yet were not constantly so, as to maintain this Opinion to the end. In mens serious and retired thoughts, especially if they be under some smart affliction, the Belief and Sence of a Deity re­turns upon them. Nullus eorum in hac Opinione quod Dii non sunt, ab adoles­centiâ ad senectutem perseveravit. Plato. 1. 10. de legibus. As a mo­tion that is against Nature, will some time or other re­cur. And therefore the Phi­losopher said that no Man persevered in this Opinion from Youth to Old Age. Nature cannot utter­ly forget her first and fundamental Lesson, that God is; and that first Verity, that is so deeply rooted in Nature that it can­not be totally blotted out: Licet enim noster ani­mus multis inquina­mentis abducatur à suo naturali proposito, frequens tamen illud recurrit, ut exprimat innatos veritatis igni­culos. Pamel. Adnot. in Tertul. C. 17. Apo. As that Renowned Carver did grave his own Image into the Buckler of Pallas with such singular Art and Cunning, that it could not be removed without defacing the whole [Page 37] Work. For the Soul being from Divine Inspirati­on, God hath put the Character of himself upon it which cannot be utterly defaced, while its Being continues. And therefore the Opinion that denies a Deity, is rather a Frolick, a Fancy, a Dream, than a grounded Opinion. And when the Soul of Man is itself, and converseth with it self, and be­holdeth the Legible Characters of God's Being written upon this whole Creation, such Opinion vanisheth away.

But yet we find many have this sence of a Dei­ty very weak, and the Notion of it very dark in their Souls, and many staggerings in their minds about it. And not only amongst Hea­thens, but even amongst themselves, where the Gospel is profest and preached. Yea, we find in many that live under the Gospel less sence of a Deity upon their hearts, than amongst the most barbarous Nations of the World.

But of all others these are the most monstrous, who study to make themselves Atheists, who set their wits on work to frame Arguments against a Deity. And they do it to deliver themselves from Service; and from Fear. 1. From Ser­vice, that they might be free from the Yoke of serving God; for if they own a Deity, their Rea­son tells them, they ought to give him Worship and Service, and this they account a Yoke and Burthen. As those said in Malachi 1. ver. 13. Behold, what a weariness is it, and ye have snuf­fed at it. They think they cannot be perfect free men till they have freed themselves from all [Page 38] Belief and Sence of a Dei­ty. Aug. de verâ Re­lig. C. 36. To. 1. As Austin to this pur­pose, Quidam propterea pu­tant nihil colendum esse, ne ser­viant. Some think no Deity is to be worship­ped that they might not serve. And Lucretius boasts of Epicurus that he was the first that de­livered the World from the burden of Religion▪

But are not these Men much mistaken? when they have cast off the Service of God, Deo parere libertas est. Sen. de vita beata. which is the true Li­berty of Man; are they not gi­ven up to the Service of base Lusts, which is true Bondage? And made Drudges to the God of this World, who will not be the servants of the true God? Though the Orator define Liberty to be this, Libertas est facultas vivendi ut velis, Cicero. Liberty is a power of living as a Man will: Yet to be o­bedient to a corrupt Will, is Bondage not Li­berty.

True Liberty is not as one well speaks; Sibi servire, sed sibi imperare; Not to serve a Mans self, [...]otherby. A­theomas [...]ix. p. 118. but to rule over himself; So that in this they miss their end. 2. They design to deliver themselves [Page 39] from fear. But they are not able to accomplish this end neither. For though in their Cups, and Caresses they can dis­charge their fear, Non quenquam vidi qui magis ea, quae ti­menda non esse dixit, magis timeret; mor­tem dico, & Deos. yet let them fall under some sharp afflicti­on, or draw near the King of Terrours, and their fears of God and Judgment will be ready to return upon [...] As Tully observed of Epicurus, though he disputed against the Be­ing of God, and that Death ought not to be fear­ed, yet saith he, I never observed any Man to fear more those very things which he said ought not to be feared, namely, Death and the Godds.

Now the Causes that Men are led into Atheism by, are such as these.

1. Is, the Course and Efficacy of second Causes. They observe how all things come to pass by some visible Causes, which are either Na­tural, or Voluntary. In Natural Causes, if the Cause be sufficient the Effect follows, if not, the Effect miscarries. So that it is not a God, say they, that governs the Events of Nature, but the Natural Cause doth all. So, in Voluntary Causes that depend upon the will of Man; If it be a good thing that is designed and endeavoured, yet it falls short if the Cause be not sufficient; if it be a bad thing, it comes to pass if there be sufficient means prepared for it. But let me answer as I go along. 1. Is it an Argument against the Being of God, because there are second Causes? Because inferi­our Ministers are made use of in the Affairs of [Page 40] Government, doth this prove thar there is no Supreme Governour? May there not be second Causes, and yet the concurrence of a first Cause also, that doth steer and influence them in their O­perations? 2. And it is not alwayes that these se­cond Causes how sufficient soever they may seem, that they produce their end. Sometimes Nature miscarries in her Productions, and none can give a reason for it.

And so in Voluntary Causes, The Race is not always to the swift, nor the Battel to the strong, nor Riches to Men of understanding, as Solomon ob­serves. Though for the most part, the second Cause doth accomplish the Effect according to to the Law and Ordinance God hath setled in the World; yet sometimes it miscarries and fails, that Men might not place their confidence there. 3. Where the Effect miscarries through the De­ficiency of second Causes, those Deficiences are ordered and regulated by God, as well as the Efficacy of Causes. When God intends an Effect, he will Order and Influence the second Cause, so as to produce it, where he intends o­therwise, he will so suspend or divert it, that the Effect shall not succeed. And under this Head I may take notice that the long cessation of Mira­cles may be some occasion of Atheism. For Mira­cles are wrought above or against the course of se­cond Causes; and when Men see them, they are then even forced to say as Pharaoh's Magicians, Hic Digitus Dei, Here is the Finger of God. But when men for a long time together have observed that [Page 41] Nature keeps its course, and things come to pass by the use of means, they grow into an Opinion that all things are by Nature, and that there is no Providence, and so no God.

Object. But why doth not God then in every Age work Miracles to convince the World of his Be­ing?

Answ. Because the ordinary course of Nature is sufficient to it, if men did not shut up their eyes, and refuse to see. And God thinks it not meet to put Nature out of its ordinary course that he setled at the beginning, unless on some extra­ordinary occasions, and for some extraordinary end. But is it not as wonderful in it self to see the Sun move in a constant Line, from one end of the year to the other, as to see it stand still? And to see a watery Sap rising out of the Earth to be turned into Wine, as to see Water in a Vessel turn'd into Wine; as it was in the Miracle of Christ wrought at Cana, John 2. 3. Or to see Bread brought of the Earth, as to have it rained down from Heaven, as it was upon Israel in the Wil­derness?

2. Another cause is, Guilt in the Conscience. Though it is not an immediate, yet it is a remote cause of Atheism. For Guilt working in the Conscience, is an immediate proof of a Deity and Judgment to come; but it proves a remote cause of Atheism. For it makes men wish there was no God, and so are thereby the more disposed to believe there is none. For the old Proverb is, Quod valdè volumus, facilè credimus. What a [Page 42] Man earnestly desires might not be, he is inclina­ble to believe it not to be. And hereupon are ready to extinguish those innate Notions of a Deity that are within themselves, or such as may be gathered from without, and to comply with any suggestions to that end, that may be admini­stred either by Satan, their own corrupt Hearts, or prophane Men. Guilt begets Fear, Fear be­gets Torment; this Torment doth disquiet Mens Peace, and much allayes the pleasure of Sin; That they may therefore provide a Remedy for themselves, they are willing enough to believe there is no God. As Moralists tells us of an Ig­norance that is Ignorantia pravae Dispositionis, of a wicked Disposition: Such is that, when men seek to darken that [...], that which they may be Nature know of God; that they may sin with the greater freedom and peace. But this is just as if a Man, to prevent a Danger, should hood-wink himself that he might not see it. It's true, if there was no Remedy provided Man of God against this Guilt, and fear arising out of it, this might seem to be a rational course; but see­ing there is a Remedy provided, it is Man's Wis­dom to seek after it, whereby to have his fear and his Danger also removed together.

3. A third Cause is, The strange administrati­on of things in the World. Men cannot see Ju­stice, Goodness, or Wisdom manifested therein. But it often falls out to the Wicked, according to the Work of the Righteous; and to the Righteous, ac­cording to the Work of the Wicked, as Solomon speaks. [Page 43] Hence Men conclude there is no Government of the World; and if so, then no God.

Men cannot see a righteous and equal distribu­tion of Rewards and Punishments. Whereupon are ready to say with the A­theist, whom Tully mentions, Cic. de naturâ De­orum, p. 196. Vitam regit Fortuna, non Sa­pientia; It is Fortune, not Wisdom, governs the Life of Man.

And as Ovid speaks, as some think, moved by the indignity of Tully's untimely death;

[Page 44] And another of the Heathen Poets speaks of such in his Time, who thought there was no Di­vine Providence, but all things came to pass by Fortuitous Causes.

Men deny Providence, and so thence step into Atheism.

But because Men cannot wade into the depths of God's Providence, shall they therefore con­clude there is no Providence, and no God? Was it not better for Man, when he sees he cannot, with the short line of his Reason, reach the bot­tom of God's Works, cry out with the Apostle, Rom. 11. 33. [...], O the Depth! But, let Men with David enter God's Sanctuary, and take a view of things in the Light of Faith, and the [Page 45] Scriptures, and then they shall see the Reason of those things that at present they are offended and stumble at.

There they may see Reasons why the Wicked for a while go unpunished, and why the Righte­ous meet with afflictions in the World; there they may see the Compass that Providence hath taken about, before it finisht its Work; there they may see how Providence hath brought one contrary out of another, and made the Saints afflictions to usher in their mercies; and the prosperity of the Wicked to be the fore-runner of their greater fall. There they may also learn the wise End that God hath in the chastisements of his People, and suffering the wicked to prosper, and to triumph a while over the Church, and the Cause of Truth and Holiness in the World.

4. Again, Atheism ariseth in the hearts of men from the diversity of Opinions that have been, and still are, in the World about Religion. As Po­lutheism of old was an occasion of Atheism; For when men set up many ridiculous Godds to be worshipped, no wonder though they caused ma­ny to deride them, and to cast off all sense of Re­ligion. So many now observing diversity of Opi­nions about Religion, are hereby led to think there is no Religion; and if no Religion, then there is no God; at least, there is little sense of a Deity upon his Heart that hath no Religion. As it fared in Philosophy, the many differences of Opinions therein, made some at last turn Scepticks, and doubt of every thing. And so in Divinity, ac­cording [Page 46] to that known and true Apothegm, Theo­logia Sceptica tandem exit in Atheismo; Sceptical Divinity ends in Atheism. And men by seeing the various Judgments that are about Religion, begin to question every thing, and fix in nothing, till at last they settle in Atheism. But ought not men rather argue, seeing that all do embrace some Religion or other, therefore certainly there is a true Religion, though many mistake it? And Religion is embraced by all with respect to a Dei­ty. Will men say there is no such thing as Plea­sure, because one Man affects one kind of Plea­sure, and another another kind; and there is no such thing as Government, because some people affect one kind, and others another kind; and no such Being as the Soul, because Philosophers dif­fered about its Definition? It rather proves the contrary. The variety of Sentiments about Re­ligion should make men to search out the true, ra­ther than to cast off all; and when they have found it, to hold it fast, and observe it with all ho­nourable respect to that God that is the Object of it, and say with the Church in Mich. 4. 5. All Nations will walk in the Name of their God, and we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever, and for ever.

5. It ariseth in some from pride of heart, as the Psalmist speaks, Psal. 10. 4. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God, God is not in all his thoughts; or, as the Margent reads it, All his thoughts are, there is no God.

A proud Man doth secretly affect a Deity, [Page 47] would be a God to himself, and therefore desires not to own a Deity, because he hath no heart to stoop to him.

It was Pharaoh's Pride, as well as his Igno­rance, that made him to disown the true God, the God of Israel, and say, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his Voice? Exod. 5. 2. And that pride of Senacherib, that made him think himself superior to all the Godds of the Nations that he had con­quered, and to the God of Israel also, would easily lead him to cast off the sense and acknow­ledgment of any Deity at all. As you read the Story of him, Isa. 36. 19, 20. And those that we read of Psal. 12. 3, 4. Whose tongue speaketh proud things, saying, with our tongue we will pre­vail; our lips are our own, who is Lord over us? discovered herein the prevalency of Pride and Atheism in their hearts.

As Pride did first lead the Humane Nature to affect a Being like God, so it is that also that leads men to disacknowledg him, and set up themselves in his room. It was this Pride in the Prince of Tyrus, that made him say, I am a God, and do sit in the Seat of God, Ezek. 28. 2. It was Pride in Herod that made him take Divine Honour to himself upon the acclamations of the people to his Oration; It is the Voice of a God, not of a Man, Acts 12. 22. And what was it but Pride in Alexander, Caligula, Claudius, Domitian, and others, who would be accounted Godds, when here upon Earth. And he that deifies himself, will soon deny the true God.

[Page 48] 6. Atheism springs from inconsideration. Mens minds are so alienated from God, and Divine Things, and so immerst in the Affairs of the World, that they can find no time to sit down and consider, what even Reason it self might suggest to them concerning the necessary existence of a Deity. Though Reason cannot lead men to the knowledg of Christ's Mediatorship, and the Mysteries of the Gospel, the notice whereof we have from Divine Revelation; yet if stirred up, and improved, it might lead men to the know­ledg of a Creator, and a first Being. The Crea­tion of the World carries in it a rational evidence of a Deity to the Reasonable Creature. As God calls upon Idolaters that worship the Work of mens hands; An Image that they bore upon their Shoulders, and set him in his place; to shew them­selves men, Isa. 46. 6, 7, 8. Had they but consider­ed and consulted with their reason as men, they would never have worshipt a dumb Idol. And so God tells them, Isa. 44. 19. None considereth in his Heart, neither is there knowledg and under­standing to say, I have burnt part of it in the fire; yea, I have baked Bread upon the Coals thereof, &c. and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a Tree? So it is in the present case; Did men consider the Crea­tion of the World, and the Characters of a Dei­ty that are written upon it; and did they use their rational faculty, and argue as men, and as they can do in other things, they would not run into Atheism.

[Page 49] 7. It ariseth also from that little regard that men see is had to God in the World. When men observe how little the generality of Man-kind do take notice of him, so as to fear him, to ho­nour him, to ingage him with them in their Affairs, they are tempted to think thereby there is no such Being. And though men with their tongues say they believe his Being, yet mens actions speak otherwise; and actions carry more evidence to the World than words, and so Atheism is propaga­ted by Example. And the innate notions of a Deity in the hearts of men are much corrupted and stifled, by the general contempt of God in the World. When Children observe that their Parents take little notice of God, and Subjects observe the same in their Prince, and Tenants in their Landlords, and the Unlearned observe the same in many that are Learned: Yea, when Peo­ple shall observe their Ministers debaucht, and re­gardless of God, how strangely is Atheism propa­gated hereby! But if men well considered how all Man-kind fell from God in the first Adam, and how the minds of all men are now by Nature darkned and alienated from him; and the domi­nion that sin hath got in the hearts of men, they need not hence haesitate in their minds about the Being of God, because the generality of men have so little respect unto him. For till the Grace of God renews Man's Nature, he will, by a course of sin, grow up into that hardness and security, as to live, as it were, without God in the World, especially if men live at ease, and enjoy [Page 50] outward prosperity. For the Sense of a Deity is much excited in men by trouble and affliction: As in Jonah's Ship, when the Mariners were in a Storm, Jonah 2. 14, 16. every one then was calling upon his God, offered Sacrifice, and made Vows. And the like account we have in the Psalmist, Psal. 107. where men are in a stormy Sea, reel to and fro like a drunken Man, and are at their wits end, then they cry to the Lord in their distresses. But in prosperity men think they have no need of God, and so cast off all respect to him. And David himself, who in his prosperity said, My Mountain standeth strong, I shall never he moved; when God hid his Face, and he troubled, then saith he, I cryed unto the Lord, and to the Lord I made supplication, Psal. 30. 6, 7, 8.

8. Again, it arises from the Hypocrisy and Apo­stacy of some that have made high pretensions to the wayes of God, and Communion with him. When it shall appear to the World that these have made use of the Name of God only to serve a Carnal Design, and their Profession hath been no­thing else but Policy to advance some selfish In­terest. Many are ready hence to conclude, that all that is talked about a Deity and Religion in the World, is but Pretene or Fancy, and that Grace it self is but Nomen inane, as one said of Vertue, a vain Name. For it is presumed, if any have found out God, and the good of Religion, it is such as these; and if they had found them, [Page 51] and enjoyed them, they would never have for­saken them.

Now this Apostacy is either General, from all Religion; when Men run into down-right Pro­faneness and Debauchery: Or particular, when men forsake their particular Professions and Prin­ciples, that they have shewed Zeal in, and do it for Carnal Ends; many are apt to be shaken here­upon, not only with respect to the Truth of the particular perswasions of such Men, but as to the Truth of all Religion, and all Deity. For what sense any Man hath of a Deity, will be manifested in that particular Way of Religion that he is inga­ged in. And he that forsakes that particular Way, whether in it self it be true or false, for some corrupt end, as he will himself be in danger of running into Atheism, so it will have a bad influence to draw others to it also.

Again, this Apostasie is either through a Man's own Corrupt Inclinations, or else occasioned by some External Coaction. As when a Man, to a­void Fines, Penalties, or other Persecutions shall practise contrary to the Dictates of his Consci­ence. And a Three fold evil ariseth hence; one is, To them that thus practise against Conscience. Another to them that urge them to it. And a third to them that shall be scandalized; and here­upon prejudiced against Religion it self, and so are upon the very Threshold of Atheism.

But may it not be replyed, Shall all be judged by some? If some have been false in their Pro­fession, have not others been faithful? Are there [Page 52] not Instances of thousands that have forsaken all, and laid down their Lives upon the Cause and Conscience of their Religion, and confidence of this Principle, that God is? Which should more confirm our belief thereof, than the Hypocrisie or Apostasie of others shake it and weaken it. I know this Apostasie is a great scandal to the World, and in all Ages it hath been a Stumbling-Block, and never greater than at this day. And wo to the World because of such Offences. And they must needs come, as Christ speaks, Mat. 18. 7. And as Heresies must come to make manifest mens Integrity and Soundness in the Faith, 1 Cor. 11. 19. so these Apostasies come to try mens stability in the grand Foundations of Religion.

9. Many are so drown'd in the Life of Sense, that they cannot believe the Existence of Invisi­ble Things. They can believe the Existence of the Works of Nature, because they are visible to Sense; but the Invisible Things of God, out of which these Works spring, they cannot believe. A Sensualist, his Language is, Tell not me of a God whom I never saw, of Heaven, and Invisible Powers, and the Pleasures I never felt; give me Houses and Lands, Corn and Wine, and these good Things that mine Eye can see, my Mouth can taste, and my Hands can feel. These Invisible Things the Syriack Version renders [...], Recondita Dei, The Hidden Things of God; and being hidden out of mens sight, they regard them not, they believe them not. But what, O Man, wilt [Page 53] thou believe nothing but what thine Eyes can see? Are there not Spiritual Beings in the Creation, as wel as Corporeal? Shal we with the Sadduces de­ny Angels and Spirits? And are not Spiritual Be­ings out of the reach of corporeal Sight or Sense. And are not these Spiritual Beings the most per­fect and excellent; and therefore God being the most excellent Being, he must needs be the purest Spirit, and so must be thereby invisible to Sense: Do we not read of Moses, Heb. 11. He endured, as seeing him that is invisible: And of Paul, 2 Cor. 4. Whilst we look not at things that are seen, but at things that are not seen. And of those Believers, 1 Pet. 1. Whom having not seen, you love. And had men Faith, it would be to them an evidence of Things not seen, it would lead them up to that which is Invisible; but being immerst in the Life of Sense, they cannot reach so high, and so God is to them as if he was not.

10. Philosophy and State-Policy have been great Causes of Atheism. I put them together, that I might not multiply Particulars.

1. Philosophy. Though in it self it is a good Hand-maid to Divinity; yet the Mistress hath been wronged by her Maid. The courting of Nature hath kept many from espousing true Di­vinity. So long as they can find a natural cause of things, they will not, at least heartily, own a Deity. And therefore it is observed, that Athe­ism first began where Philosophy was in its highest improvement, namely, among the Grecians. But I touched upon this before. As it is said of Pliny, [Page 54] he being inquisitive to find out the Reason of the Smoaking of Mount Vesuvius, went so near to it, that he was choaked in the Smoak. So many by their curious enquiries into Natural Causes, have choaked the Innate Notices of a Deity within their Hearts. He that wrote a Dis­course called Philosophia Theologiae An­cillans, Baron. Philosophy ministring to Divini­ty, set Philosophy in its right place; and to make the Encrease of the one, the Decrease of the other, is the highest abuse of it.

2. State Policy. The Politician seeth he shall never accomplish his Designs, if he be over-awed by Conscience, and Sense of a Deity. He must not be a slave to his Promises, or stand in fear either of making or breaking an Oath. He must not be confined within the narrow Rules of Reli­gion or Righteousness. He may see it his interest sometimes to seem Religious; but to be so in­deed, is not for his turn; which is according to the advice of Machiavel to the young Prince. And hence ariseth Atheism.

11. It ariseth from a forgetfulness of God. As the Psalmist speaks of such, Psal. 51. 22. Consi­der this ye that forget God. Men do not exercise their Minds in thoughts of God, and so forget him. And a Person, or Thing that are not in our Thoughts, are forgotten; and being forgot­ten, are as if they were not. Though men have additional knowledge to the Natural Notions of a Deity; yet if this Knowledge be not stirred up and exercised, it will not prevent the growth of [Page 55] Atheism in ther Hearts. When men set not God in the view of their Minds, look not on him either in Mercies or Afflictions, and carry on their Affairs from day to day, without respect to him, this is forgetting him, whereby they are in­deed [...], without God in the World. As we know Fire, if it be not stirred or blown up, will be ready to go out. So will the Notices of the Being of God in the Soul, if they be not daily excited in us; and there is nothing Man is more apt to forget than God. Whiles he remembers every thing else that concerns him, he is most prone to a forgetfulness of him whom he should most of all remember. Let Man but follow the natural bent of his own Heart, and he will sel­dom have God in his Thoughts, and have little or no respect to him in the Actions of his Life. And so God is forgotten, and is as if he was not. And the great Adversary of God in the World, the Devil, will be sure to assist with his Temptations, that mens thoughts may be diverted and alienated from the true God, that he himself might reign as God in the World. He is said to be the Ruler of the darkness of this World; and therefore seeks to propagate darkness, not only by hindring the Light of the Gospel from shining into mens hearts, but by extinguishing the very Light of Natural Conscience, and so to propa­gate his own Rule and Government.

Lastly; Atheism ariseth from detaining the Truth of God in Unrighteousness, the sin that is charged upon the Heathen. Men sin against the Innate [Page 56] Notion of a Deity in their Hearts, till at last the force of it is quite lost; by giving way to fleshly Lusts, against the Dictates of their Natural Light they smother it. And it is at best but as a Spark covered in an heap of Ashes, that doth neither give Light or Heat. When men to gratifie their Lusts will debauch their Conscience, they will hereby by degrees sear it. For, Nemo repentè fit Turpissimus. And men grow up to a profli­gacy in sin, as they by sinning against their Con­science do by degrees benum and stupifie it. As it is said of the Gentiles, Rom. 1. 18. they first de­tained the Truth that was naturally in their Hearts, and then God gave them up to vile affecti­ons, &c. vers. 24. And not following the Light of Nature, were given up to sins against Nature, vers. 27. And Ephes. 4. 18. the Apostle speaks of the Gentiles, they walked first in vanity of Mind, and then came to be past feeling; there the Sense of a Deity is gone, and then they gave up themselves to all uncleanness with greediness, vers. 19.

Thus I have shewn some of those Causes out of which Atheism grows, and is cherisht in the hearts of men.

And was it only found in the dark parts of the World, where the Gospel shines not, it was the less to be wondred at, but it is found even a­mongst our selves, and is become a spreading Le­prosie in the Heads, but especially the Hearts of multitudes at this day. And I verily believe there is to be found less sence of a Deity upon [Page 57] many Christians so call'd, that live in the mid'st of Gospel-Light, than in any part of the World. For if we look to the Heathens, they all acknow­ledge some Deity or other, so they have a Reli­gious respect to it, and have some awful impres­sions upon their Hearts towards it, will lavish Gold out of the Bag, and be at cost for Oblations, Temples, and Sacrifices; and have Indignation against any that cast contempt upon it. As you know the cry that was made at Ephesus, when they thought Paul did derogate from the Honour of their Goddess, Great is Diana of the Ephesians, Act. 19. 28. And were fearful of having their Godds charmed from them, and would put Chains upon them to hold them fast; But alas, how many amongst us have not so much respect as this to the true God; but in stead of vindicating his Honour, do blaspheme his Name; find no awe upon their hearts towards him, can part with nothing of their Estates to serve his Name, Worship, and People; are under no Conscience of praying to him, praising of him, or depend­ing upon him, are careless about keeping his fa­vour, or presence with them. As God complain­ed of old that Israel dealt more injuriously with him, than any Nations had dealt with their Godds, Jer. 2. 10, 11.

I have sometimes considered with my self whence this should be; and have thought of these things about it.

1. It may proceed from the just Judgment of God. When Men have the higher Light of the [Page 58] Gospel, and refuse to walk in it; God doth just­ly leave them to fall below the Light of Nature. According to that saying of our Saviour, To him that hath not, shall be taken away even that he hath. Where Gospel-Light doth not enlighten Men, it blinds them; and where it doth not melt and soften, it hardens Men: and where it brings not Men nearer to God, it sets them farther off from him.

2. I have thought again, where the Gospel comes, Men take greater offence at Religion; ei­ther at the strict Precepts of it, which cross the Carnal bent of Mens Hearts; or the Distinction it necessarily makes amongst Men, taking some out of others, and separating them both in Prin­ciples and Practice, which makes Men take great offence, and think disdainfully of Religion that hath such Effects attending it; and thereupon to cast it off, to turn Scoffers, and then Athe­ists.

3. When the Gospel comes, it doth detect and condemn Superstition, which in many is the whole of their Religion. And when that is taken away, their Religion, and respect to a Deity doth fall with it. Superstition is Religion corrupted, blind Zeal, fleshly Wisdom, and the Arrogance of Rea­son; and the evil of it lies rather in the Excess than in the Defect; and though it be a corrupt Branch, yet it radically Springs from the Natu­ral Sence of a Deity in the Conscience. As when Paul came to Athens, and observed the many gods they worshipt, and the many Rites attending that [Page 59] Worship, tells them, Acts 17. 22. Ye men of Athens I perceive you are in all things too Superstitious. [...]. I see you too great fearers of Daemons, which they looked upon as inferiour Deities; Now when such Super­stitious fear is removed by the knowledge of the Gospel, and no other true fear of God planted in the room of it, the Sense of a Deity will decay and decline in such a Soul. As Micah said to the Danites, Judg. 18. 24. Ye have taken away my Godds which I made, and the Priest, &c. and what have I more? Some put all their Religion in a Form, or a Ceremony, and when that is taken away, what have they more? where false Wor­ship is removed from a People, and they do not embrace the true Worship in its room, they will come to no Worship, and so to no God.

Superstitious Worship presents Objects to the Eye of Man's devising to affect the Heart; as it was in the Worship of the Heathens of Old; and so is now seen in the Pictures and Images of the Romish Church; whereby some kind of Re­verence and Adoration is maintained in the Hearts of the People, that are yet meer strangers to the Worship of God in Spirit. And let these be removed which upheld their Worship and De­votion, and they will run apace into Atheism, when all a Man's Religion is upheld by these Crutches, if you remove them, it falls to the ground.

4. The great Truths of the Gospel, and the Principles of Christianity lie so high above Man's [Page 60] Reason that they are foolishness to him; as the Apostle speaks, 1 Cor. 2. 14. But the Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Now these things of the Spirit are the great Truths and Doctrines of the Gospel. As that God and Man should be but one Person; that Life should come into the World by Death, and Redemption by the Cross. That we should be justified in anothers Righte­ousness, by Faith, and not by our own good Works. That a Man must be born again: That the Body sown in the Dust, shall be raised again; and many such. Now when Men hear that these are the Principles of that Religion that is account­ed (as indeed it is) the only true Religion in the World, because they seem so incredible to their Reason, therefore they do at least inwardly in their Hearts reject them, and account them foolishness. And when Religion is rejected, men will easily run into Atheism. And hence it is, that sometimes Men of the strongest Reason are the greatest Opposites to Religion; where the Heart is Carnal, it will influence Reason, and en­gage it against it, both in the Practice, and Prin­ciples of it: And the stronger Reason is, in this Case, the stronger will the Opposition be. And the Apostle therefore tells us, Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, 1 Cor. 1. 26. Their fleshly Wisdom re­jects the Principles of the Gospel as ridiculous to their Reason, and their Might and Nobility the wayes of it, because of their seeming meanness.

CHAP. IV.
The Doctrine further improved by way of Ex­hortation. The best way of improving the Works of Creation. How all wickedness springs from want of a through Belief of God's Being.

I Shall proceed next to Exhort you to Improve the Works of Creation to the strengthening this principle in you, that God is. Some arrive to no higher Improvement of them, than what is Na­tural and Sensual to please and delight their Sense, or satisfie their Appetite in the Natural Goodness of the Creatures. As those Jews whom Christ reproves in the 6th of John, who followed him be­cause of the Loaves which they had eaten, and were filled with, but regarded not the power of Christ which wrought the Miracles in the Loaves. So Sensual Men are pleased with that good they find in the Creatures to satisfie their Appetite, and gratifie their Sense, but look not to that pow­er of God that gave these Creatures their Being, nor to that goodness of God that put this good in­to them. The Philosophers of Old went higher, when they delighted their minds in the disquisiti­on of the secrets of Nature in the Works of Cre­ation. But we should ascend yet a step higher [Page 62] in a Theological use of the Creation, to ascertain and discover thence the Godhead to us: So as to be led up from the Visible to the Invisible, from Fi­nite to that which is Infinite, from Particular Be­ings to that which is Universal, and from Corrupti­ble things, to that which is Eternal. Of all Funda­mentals of Religion; this is the most Fundamen­tal, and therefore should be most deeply [...]ound­ed in us. It is as the Spring whence all our Mo­tions in Religion arise, and so they will be stron­ger or weaker as our Belief of this great Prin­ciple is strong or weak in us. For as God him­self is Prima Veritas, the first Truth, so to be­lieve his Being, is Primum Verum, The first Truth to be received of us. And as Moses sets it down for the first Commandment to be obey­ed to have the true God for our God: So the A­postle doth deliver it as the prime Object of Faith, to believe that the Worlds were made by God, Heb. 11. 3. That is, to believe him not only to Be, but to be the first Being.

The Heathens beholding the Sun, Moon, and Host of Heaven, imagined them to have some Deity in them, and Worshipped them as Godds, instead of ascending to God by them, from whence they were call'd Tsa­bit. Bradward. lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 8. And so in the lower World, what-ever they found comfortable to Nature, they were ready to Deifie. As the Poet speaks, ‘Jupiter esse pium statuit quodcunque juvatet.’ [Page 63] Hereupon the Caldeans worshipped the Sun and Fire, because they found them beneficial. The Egyptians Worshipt the River Nilus, be­cause it was profitable to their Country. And others would Worship the very Leeks and Onions in their Gardens upon that account; which one of their own Poets derides them for,

And verily a God is he to a Man, that helps a Man, Plin. Lib. 1. Cap. 7. said Pliny. And so these visible things of God that should have led them to the Invisible, did hide God out of their sight. The acknowledgment of God to be the Creatour of the World, did continue with some Evidence and Power until Nimrod's time, who taught the Babylonians to contemn God's Power and Provi­dence, as Josephus tells us; and after that Idola­try began to spring up apace. And as our A­postle speaks, They worshipped and served the Creature, more than the Creatour. And as Philo to the same pur­pose, Philo. Lib. de mundi opificio. [...]; more admiring the World, than the Maker of the World. For [Page 64] what was their Apollo, but the Sun? their Dia­na, but the Moon? their Venus, but a Star, &c. It's true, there are some Footsteps of a Deity in all the Works of Nature; but we should ascend by these Footsteps, as by a Footstool to the God of the World, as Solomon by several steps ascended to his Throne; and by the Scale of Nature as­cend to the God of Nature. But because this Belief of God's Being, is not so throughly rooted, or at least not excited as it ought, therefore so much wickedness is practised in the World, even at this day.

If you look upon the wicked and ungodly, that give up themselves to all kind of Excess and Sensuality, do they, think you, verily believe there is a God? Doth not the Psalmist tell us that secret Atheism is the Root of that impiety that is so visible in the World? Psal. 41. 2. The fool hath said in his Heart, there is no God; and what follows? They are corrupt, they have done abo­minable works, &c.

Or, if you look upon Men that are of a more sober Constitution, and it may be under some outward Profession, 1. Whence is it that they are more careful to please Men, than to please God; to have Man's favour, than God's? Or 2. Why can Men take liberty to sin in secret, when they think no Eye of Man observeth them? 3. Why are Men more careful to ingage the help of a Creature with them in their undertakings, than God's assistance? 4. Why are Men so little Soli­citous about a future State, and a World, and [Page 65] Judgment to come? 5. Why are Men so wholly bent upon a Finite Good, which is found in the Creature; and look so little after their chief Good? 6. Why are Men so self-confident, and think themselves to be self-sufficient to subsist, and act of themselves? 7. Why is it Men make them­selves their ultimate End, and look not to an higher End in the several Designs and Acti­ons of their Life? 8. Why are not Men thank­ful, and give God the praise of what good they en­joy? Why is it when Men come to worship, they worship as if they worship't not? care not with what Slightness, Dulness, Formality it is perform­ed? care not to ingage their Hearts in what they do? Whence is all this miscarriage, and much more that I might mention, but because there is a Root of Atheism still in the Hearts of Men? I say it again. Did Men truly, and throughly be­lieve the Being of God, do ye think they would not prefer pleasing him before the pleasing of Men? Would they not be afraid of secret, as well as open sins? Would they not principally endea­vour to engage him with them in their Affairs? Would they not be more Solicitous about their Final Account, and Eternal Estate? Would they not seek after him who is the chief Good, more then the Inferiour Good of this world? Would they not put their trust in him, and devote them­selves to him; & look better to the manner of their Worship, both as to Principle, Rule, and End, and shew themselves thankful for Mercies they enjoy? As the Apostle ells the Ephesians, Cap. 2. 12. that [Page 66] before their Conversion by the Gospel, they were not only without Christ, but [...], Atheists in the World. And yet at Ephesus there was the Temple of the great Goddess Diana, whom they all worshipt, and the Image which fell down from Jupiter, Act. 19. 35. They knew not the true God, and the true Worship of him, and so are said to be without God. And I may apply this to our selves; whatever Men's Tongues may speak of God, and pretend of De­votion to him, yet it is evident Men's Actions declare that they do not in their hearts believe his Being. In their words they profess him, and in their works they deny him, Tit. 1. ult. And there is no greater Monster in the Creation, than the Speculative Atheist, unless it be the practical; that saith there is a God, and yet lives without him: and God's own People who fear him, trust in him, seek after him, obey him, &c. yet they would do all these with greater strength, integri­ty, and freedom of Soul, if they did more Practi­cally believe his Being, and had the impression of it more powerful upon their hearts. When A­haziah sent to enquire of Baalzebub, whether he should recover or not, what said Elijah? Is it not because there is no God in Israel, that thou sendest to ènquire of Baal-zebub? 2 King. 1. Yes, there was a God of Israel, but he was as if he was not unto Ahaziah. Men cannot nullifie God's Be­ing in it self, but they may nullifie it to them­selves. As the Heathen Idols they were [...] Nothings, as the Apostle saith of them, 1 Cor. 8. 4. [Page 67] yet when Men Worships them, trusted in them, and gave Divine Honour to them, they made them Godds. So on the other-hand, they not honouring, acknowledging, reverencing, and trusting in the true God, do make him as nothing. For it is only those that glorifie him as God that do truly own and believe his Being. Yea, those Duties that are more properly Evan­gelical, and not so expresly contained in the Law of Nature, yet the belief we gather to our selves, of the Being of God from the Creation of the World, may much influence us that live under the Gospel to the performance of; and so Natural Divinity may be made subservient to Christiani­ry, whereof I shall give account in the next Chapter.

CHAP. V.
Evangelical Duties are promoted by a true be­lief of God's Being. How the Light of Nature may further the belief of the Scrip­tures, and Faith in Christ, and Repentance. Whence Repentance first springs? what is it to take up Christ's Cross. How helped there­in from the belief of God's Being. What influence the Light of Nature hath upon Obe­dience to Gospel-Institutions. Inference from the whole.

1. IT is an Evangelical Duty to believe the Scrip­tures; To receive them as a Divine and cer­tain Rule of Faith and Obedience. Now we may fetch some help from the Light of Nature herein. Though I deny not but the Scripture is [...], and hath such Characters within it self, as may perswade the belief of it, and the Testi­mony of the Spirit in a Man's Conscience is the surest bottom of Divine Faith; yet some additio­nal strength may be borrowed from the Light of [Page 69] Nature. For that Light that declares to Man. There is a God that made the World, declares also a Providence, that he governs the World. If he governs the World he governs it in Wisdom; Etenim si Deus est, u­tique providens est ut Deus. Nec aliter po­test ei Divinitas at­tribui. &c. Lact. de ira Dei. Cap. 9. if in Wisdom, then every Crea­ture is governed according to the respective Principles of their several Natures. And therefore Man must be govern'd as a rational Crea­ture. And he cannot be so governed but by a Law, and that Law enforced by Rewards on one hand, and Punishments on the other. Now either this Law thus enforced is found in the Scriptures, or no where,

There is no Book can pretend to stand in com­petition with the Scripture, exstant in the World, fot the Turkish Alchoran, that is but of late years, and Man hath been under God's Government from the beginning. And most know by what Impo­stures it obtained any credit; and the several Ab­surdities contained in it; and what a sensual hap­piness it proposeth to them that receive it. How it hath been from the beginning enforced upon people by the Sword. And never confirmed by those many undoubted Miracles, which the Truths of the Scriptures have been.

But I need not enlarge on this Subject. There having been so many Learned Pens already en­gaged herein, especially that Hononred Knight, whose worthy Book concerning the Reasonable­ness of receiving the Scriptures for the Word of [Page 70] God, doth justly add new Honour to Himself, and a great Confirmation to the Truth.

2. The Gospel calls upon Men to come to Christ, and to believe in him as the Saviour of the World: Now the powerful Sence of a Dei­ty upon the Heart, will Excite and Influence Men thereunto. And the want of this I look up­on as one great Reason why Christ is preached so much in vain. When Conscience is awakened, then the Innate Notion of a Deity that was be­fore, as it were asleep, begins to awake. And then Men begin to fear, and the Sence of Sin, and Judgment to come, makes them enquire after a way of Reconciliation; and so Men are brought to Christ as the way, according to the notice they have of him in the Gospel. So that as he that cometh to God, must first believe that God is, as we read, Heb. 11. So he that cometh to Christ, must be brought to him by an operative Belief of the Being of God.

When Paul came to Athens to preach Christ to them, he first instructed them concerning the true God, Act. 17. whom he declares to them to be the Maker of the World, ver. 24. God that made the World, and all things therein, &c. Here begins true Christianity. Men are Christi­ans but in Name, till they come to Christ by true Faith, and they come not to him till the Practi­cal Belief of God's Being doth excite them to it. As the dark Notions the Heathen had concerning God did lead them to offer Sacrifice to him, when they feared he was offended; So much more [Page 71] will the clearer knowledg of his Being, and the fear of his Wrath send those that live under the Gospel, to Jesus Christ the true Sacrifice and Pro­pitiation.

So that whiles I have been demonstrating a Deity from the Works of Creation, I hope I have collaterally been serving the great Design of the Gospel of bringing home sinners to Jesus Christ. As a Learned Man speaks to this purpose; Dr. Jackson, Vol. 1. p. 874. The ingrafted Notion is the Matter or Sub­ject out of which God's Spirit raiseth the entire and right frame of Faith, as it did the frame and fashion of this visible World out of that Mass, which was first without Form, though created by him.

3. So Repentance is hereby promoted also. When men are throughly convinced that God is, they then begin to bethink themselves of their wayes; how they have carried it towards him; how observant they have been of his Law; how they have answered his end in their Creation.

And hence now Repentance doth take its first rise; What, saith the Sinner, if there be a God, as I now clearly find there is, wo is me that I have thus sinned against him, and have taken no more notice of him! Alas, I have lived without him in the World; I have been concerning my self about the Creatures; and have little thought of God my Creator, and had as little belief of his Being. Alas! what shall I do? How shall I pos­sibly escape? I cannot flee from him for he is [Page 72] God. I will now judge and condemn my self; I will mourn bitterly; I will lament my Folly and Ignorance; I will go to him, and say, Lord, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee: I am thy Creature, and the Work of thine Hands, yet have rebelled against thee. As Balaam went on confidently, tlll his eyes were opened, and he saw the Angel with the drawn Sword; but then saith the Text, He bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face; Then he confesseth, I have sin­ned and if it displease thee, I will go back again, Numb. 22. 31, 34. When sinners eyes are so far opened that they can behold, and do power­fully believe the Being of God, it is the first step towards their return and repentance. And the Works of Creation may be serviceable to this end. Though they cannot lead men of them­selves either to that knowledg of God, or know­ledg of Sin, as might effect evangelical Repen­tance; yet the belief, and sense of a Deity that may result from thence, may be the first step to­wards it. And we know how God brought Job to abhor himself, and repent in dust and ashes, by setting before him the glory and greatness of his Being in the several works of Creation, and giving him a spiritual sight of himself therein; as we read in the five last Chapters of that Book. So that Repentance may not only be helpt there­by, as to its first beginning in the hearts of the Im­penitent, but furthered also in the Hearts of true Saints.

4. Taking up the Cross of Christ; which we [Page 73] read of in the Scriptures, but not in the Works of Nature. However the knowledge we have of God's Being from those Works, will further this Christian Duty. For it is certain, what-ever it is that strengthens this grand Principle in us, that God is, will enable us the better to suffer Persecu­tion. And upon the full belief of this did so many thousand Martyrs offer up their lives, as I said before, as knowing that it was for God's sake, and from him they should have a reward.

Was there no God, it was madness and folly in them to have so suffered; and had they not well believed it, they would not have been able to suffer. To you it is given, saith the Apostle, first to believe, and then to suffer, Phil. 1. 29. It is said of Moses, Heb. 11. 27. He endured as see­ing him that is invisible. And my Text saith, The invisible Things of God, and his God-head are seen in the Works of Creation; so that the seeing of the Invisible God, even in the Works of God, as well as his Word, may enable us the better to endure suffering. And however Atheistical Men may account it folly to suffer, yet from this Prin­ciple believed, That God is, a Christian can de­monstrate his sufferings for God to be most ratio­nal, upon the grounds of truest Reason.

And if you understand taking up Christ's Cross as some do, for the crucifixion of the Flesh; though this be also an Evangelical Duty, yet it is furthered and promoted by a practical believing the Being of God; to which the Works of Crea­tion do contribute much. As Atheism, and not [Page 74] believing God's Being, doth open a wide Door of Liberty to the Flesh; so the true believing it will engage Man to restrain and crucifie it. As when there was no King in Israel, Every Man did that which was right in his own eyes; much more if men believe not there is a God in Heaven. But now the setting of an Almighty Infinite God, the Creator of the World, in the view of the Soul, How doth this dash sin out of countenance, as it did in Joseph? How can I commit this wickedness and sin against God? What shall I sin against and before that God which made Heaven and Earth? that God that hath stampt the Characters of his Being round about me, upon me, and within me? If there be a God, as I see the undeniable evidence of it in his Works; Shall I maintain an Idol-Lust as a false god in mine own heart? And shall he, who is the supream Being, find any thing set up in my mind above him? and he that is the chief Good, find any Good standing as Competi­tor with him in my Affections? And that God that made all things for himself, shall I not live unto him as my ultimate End, and live no more to my self in the serving of the Lusts of mine own Heart and Mind?

4. If we speak of those Institutions of the Go­spel, which are the Ordinances of Divine Wor­ship, and not made known by the Light of Na­ture, yet we may derive strength from Nature's Light, to enforce their Authority upon our obe­dience. Though we cannot do it ex antecedenti, because the Light of Nature doth not reveal [Page 75] them; yet we may do it a consequenti, seeing they are acknowledged from the Scripture to be the Ordinances of God. For the Light of Nature tells men there is a God, it then tells men this God ought to be worshipped; now the Scrip­tures, that Christians receive as the Word of God, tell men that these Institutions are his Commands and Rule for Worship; and therefore the very Light of Nature that declares a God to us, doth also thereby urge us to give obedience, that therein we may give worship to him. I deny not but God is to be obeyed and worshipped up­on a newer and more Evangelical account, as our Redeemer in Jesus Christ, and as we are pur­chased by his Blood; yet a Christian may and ought to strengthen his Obligation to Obedience herein, from the evidence he finds of God's Being, and so of his Sovereignty over his Crea­tures from the Works of his Creation. For as when we find an Institution upon a moral Duty evidenced by the Law of Nature, that Law is strengthned thereby; so we may derive Strength from the Law of Nature, to make those Institu­tions that are not contained therein, more obli­gatory to us. As God himself doth confirm this Truth when he speaks to Israel, Levit. 19. 30. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my San­ctuary, I am the Lord. The true owning God's Being, that he is Jehovah, the Lord, will strongly oblige us to give obedience to Worship, that is, of pure Institution. The first Commandment of the Law, well received, gives life and vigour [Page 76] to the Second, that speaks of this Instituted Wor­ship.

5. Or Lastly; The believing the fulfilling what God hath spoken in his Word; and that the Counsels of his Mind revealed therein shall take place, is another Gospel-Duty. Now when we believe his Being from the Creation of the World, and there see how his Word was fulfil­led, when he said, Let there be Light, and let there be a Firmament, &c. and it was so: We may hence strengthen our Faith concerning the accomplishment of his Word that is written; whether the Word of Promise to his Children, or Threatning to his Adversaries. When Sarah doubted the fulfilling God's Promise to her; What, said the Angel, Is any thing too hard for Jehovah? Which Name of God we do not read of until his Creation was finished, and he had given being to all his Works; as appears by Gen. 2. 4. being before that called Elohim. Now Je­hovah, that gave being to the Works of Creation, can he not also give being to his Word? Can there be greater difficulty in the fulfilling of his Word, than in creating all Things out of No­thing? After God had set before Job the Works of Creation, Job thence concludes, I know thou canst do every thing, Job 42. 2. And the Psal­mist having said, Psal. 33. 6. By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made, &c. And Vers. 9. For be spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast: He hence makes this Inference; That his Counsel shall stand for ever, and the [Page 77] thoughts of his Heart to all Generations. His secret Counsel shall take place; but that is not the Ob­ject of our Faith, but his Counsel revealed in his Word; And we may strengthen our Faith concerning it, by looking upon him as the Crea­tor of the World. For when and wheresoever God speaks, his Word never returns in vain; when he spake in the Creation of the World, his Word took place; and so shall his Word in the Scripture, where he is speaking in every Age of the World.

CHAP. VI.
The several Moral Duties that result from Man to God, as the Creator of the World. Self-Debasement. Dependance. Awful-Fear. Praise. Admiration; which is described in the Ground, Kind, and proper Effects of it.

BUt yet further to improve the Doctrine in hand, I shall next speak of some other Du­ties which are more expresly in the Law of Na­ture, and the great parts of Natural Worship, and which a Christian, by considering God as the Creator of the World, is obliged to perform.

1. Is, to humble and debase our selves before him: Considering him in the greatness of his Works, which yet are but the shadow of his Greatness. And if all Nations before him are but as the drop of a Bucket, and the dust of the Ballance; How humbly should this make us to walk before him, and come unto him? When David looked upon part of God's Creation, in Psal. 8. it had this effect upon him, to make him shrink into a narrow compass of self-esteem; O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth! thou hast set thy Glory above the Heavens. And vers. 3. When I consider thy Heavens, the Work of [Page 80] thy Fingers, the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained: What is Man that thou art mindful of him, &c? And it was the course that God took with Job to take down his Spirit and to lay him at his foot, to set himself before him as the Creator of the World. Job 38. 3, 4. Gird up now thy loyns like a man, &c. Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the Earth? Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the Line upon it, &c? and so he proceeds in the following Chapters; and it had this effect, for he was brought hereby to acknow­ledg himself vile, chap. 40. 4. and to ahhor him­self, and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42. 6. The words may be read, Wherefore I despise my self; [...] and that meant upon the account of his Parvity and Nothingness compared with the great God, as well as his sinfulness and folly. And to lie in the Dust, is the deepest expression of an hum­bled Soul. Or, as one glosseth upon the words; It grieves me what I have spoke against the great God; Cum ipse pulvis sim & abjectissimus, when as I my self am but Dust, and most contempti­ble.

Can a Man behold God in the vast Works of his Creation, and not be self-debased, and as it were self-annihilated thereby; and say as one speaks, Lord, thou art an Abyss of Being, and I of Nothing; especially considering how infinitely his Greatness transcends them all. They tell us, that the Earth is but as a Punctum, a small Point [Page 81] in comparison of the Heavens; but Earth and Heaven both are less than a Punctum compared with the great God. For there is some propor­tion betwixt Finite and Finite, but none betwixt Finite and Infinite. And therefore the Prophet Isaiah, to express this infinite disproportion, speaks thus, Chap. 40. 17. All Nations before him are nothing; and they are accounted to him less than nothing, and vanity. Which is to shew that be­twixt him and the Works of his Creation there is indeed no proportion at all.

So that our minds may behold God's greatness in the greatness of his Works; and much more in the littleness and nothingness of these Works com­pared with his Greatness; and from both should lay us very low, and humble us deeply before him. It made Solomon have a mean opinion of the great House he had built, considering the great God that was to dwell in it; 1 Kings 8. 27. Behold, the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee, much less this House that I have builded. It is Man's unacquaintedness with the great Creator of the World, that makes him admire any great­ness in himself, or in the greatest things of this World.

[...], said the Philosopher. Men that have true greatness of mind are not so apt to wonder, as men of little Souls. So that this acquaintance with the great God will greaten the Soul towards God, but will diminish and les­sen it towards a mans self, and the World in our estimation thereof.

[Page 82] 2. We ought from hence also be led to a de­pendance upon him; for he that made Heaven and Earth, must needs be sufficient to help us in all cases whatsoever. The Heathens are said to trust in a God that could not save, Isa. 45. 20. And the Reason is given, because their gods did not make Heaven and Earth, as we read, vers. 18. He that brought all things out of the Abyss of non-entity into Being, can raise us out of the low­est depth of affliction and misery. He that said, Let there be Light, and made the Darkness vanish before it▪ is able to bring us out of the greatest darkness of trouble. He that made the Waters retreat from covering the Earth, can discharge us of the Waters of Sorrow and Affliction, where­with we sometimes seem to be covered or over­whelmed.

The Church of Israel comforts her self in such a prospect of God; Psal. 124. 8. Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth. That is to say, Our help is in one that is All-suf­ficient, and upon whom we may safely depend.

One great cause of the Saints distrustful heart-fainting fears, is, the not considering this: Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the ever­lasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not? Isa. 40. 28. Why then doth Jacob faint in his distress? And when we are afraid of Man, it is because we forget the Lord our Maker, that stretched forth the Heavens, and laid the Foundations of the Earth, Isa. 51. 13. Did we well remember this, it would strengthen [Page 83] our Faith, and vanquish our Fears; and make us able, under the greatest Difficulties, and Dan­gers, and Deaths, to commit our Souls to him as a faithful Creator, 1 Pet. 4. 19. For as in the Works of Creation, we behold him a powerful Creator, so in Christ Jesus, and the Covenant made with us in him, we may behold him also a faithful Creator, and so be encouraged to depend upon him, and commit our selves to him.

3. Hereupon we ought to have an holy awe and fear of him. As the considering God the Creatour of the World should dispel distrust­ful fear, so it ought to beget an awful fear of him. All appearances of God are tremendous to the Creature. As when he appeared in Transient Visions to the Prophets, it struck them with dread, as we read of Daniel, Chap. 10. And those Beams of Glory that shone forth in Christ's Transfiguration made the Disciples fear, Matth. 17. 6. So verily his appearances in in the Works of Creation are wonderful and dreadful. Aquin. 1. 2. q. 41. Art. 4. Here we may first wonder and then fear, as the School­men have made Admiration one of the kinds of Fear. Greatness and Majesty are apt to strike this Heart with Fear; and both these are vi­sibly written upon God's Creation. What can­not he do either for a Man, or against him that is the Maker of the World? what is exceeding high hath a dread in it. As in Ezekiels Vision of the Wheels, it's said, Chap. 1. 18. As for their [Page 84] Rings, they were so high that they were dreadful. In the Creation of the World we behold the sub­limity of God's Majesty; and his Wisdom, and Greatness in a Stupendious Elevation. As Bil­dad tells Job, Job 25. 2. speaking of God, Domi­nion and Fear are with him. These are joyned together as Cause and Effect. And he shews Job this Dominion of God in the Works of his Creati­on. He maketh peace in his high places. All the Crea­tures of the upper World, quietly subject to the Creator's Law. And vers. 3. Is there any num­ber of his Armies? &c. which are the Hosts in Heaven and Earth, as the Creatures are called, Gen. 2. 1. Here is God's Dominion, which should strike us with an holy awe of him.

The Heathen beholding these glorious Works of the Creation, had thereby a fear of a Deity imprest upon their hearts, which was the occasion of that Atheistical Speech of the Poet;

Yet this is a Truth; the Works of God's Crea­tion should strike our Hearts with a reverend Fear of the Creatour; which the Psalmist exhorts men to, Let all the Earth fear the Lord; let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him: For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. Oh, how should the whole World stand in awe of such a Being! Our very praises [Page 85] are to be mixt with fear. He is therefore said to be fearful in praises, Exod. 15. 11. For those Excellencies of his Works for which we praise him, have such Impressions of his Glory and Power upon them, that may make men fear while they are praising of them.

But because I would still make my Discourse to serve the Design of true Christianity, I there­fore add, That this Fear ought not to be afright­ing, or meerly astonishing, to enslave the Soul, or drive Man into fond superstition, as it did the Hea­then, but such as may suit a state of Sonship, and may be proper to him that is not only our Crea­tor, but our Redeemer, and Father in Christ Je­sus. And by that Principle of Grace we have re­ceived of him as our Redeemer, to fear him as our Creatour.

Upon this account also we owe him Praise and Admiration. 1. Praise; It is the ultimate end of these Works of Creation that the Creator may be praised in them; and it is the ultimate end of Man to give Glory and Praise to him. After God had made and finished the rest of his Works, he lastly made Man, that he might have a Crea­ture to contemplate the Works of his hands, and praise him in them all, and by him reduce all his Works back again to himself. And without question Adam, as soon as he had a Being, and was placed in the Theatre of this World, he saw the Creator in his Works, and found in himself a Principle that naturally led him to adore and mag­nifie him.

[Page 86] And as this Principle is renewed in any Man, and the Image of God restored to him, so is he disposed to the performance of it. How often do we find David's heart in a rapture of praise upon the contemplation of God's Workmanship in the Worlds Creation; as we may find in Psal. 8. 1. Psal. 33. 6, 7. Psal. 104. 24. And when he calls upon irrational Creatures to praise their Cre­ator, as in Psal. 148. Praise him Sun and Moon, praise him all ye Stars of Light: Praise him ye Heavens of Heavens, and ye Waters that are a­bove the Heavens: And thence he comes down to this lower World, vers. 7. Praise the Lord from the Earth; ye Dragons, and all Deeps, &c. All this is but to quicken up his own heart to that Duty which was his, rather than theirs. And so all God's Works are said to praise him, as they become to Man both the Motives and Subjects of his Praise.

Had this Creation sprung from God, as it were, by Natural Emanation, or necessity of Nature, as some have said, as Light out of the Sun, or Wa­ter from the Spring.

Or had he made it, as men build an House, because he needed an Habitation, or some service from the Creatures existent therein, it might seem to be some eclipse to the Glory due to him. But when he was led to it only by a most free Act of his own Will, and the infinite goodness of his Nature; this renders him therein infinitely praise­worthy.

[Page 87] Epicurus that did not believe God to be either the Creator or Governor of the World, yet said he ought to be magnified for the excellencies of his Being; how much more should he be adored by us, who know that all things were made by him, and behold an infinite goodness manifested therein.

And we may from the Creation learn these three things concerning the Creator to commend him to us. 1. Is, Self-sufficiency. For he ex­isted of himself, and is truly [...], Vide Lact. lib. 1. p. 29. as the O­racle of Apollo once said of him, and was infinitely bles­sed in himself before any Creature had a Being, and the Creation added nothing to him. 2. All Fulness and Perfection of Being existing in him; for the Beings of all Creatures, Infinitum quod­aam Essentiae Pe­lagus. As Da­mascen speaks of him. with their several Perfections, did spring out of his Being, as Rivers out of the Sea. And therefore he must needs have all Fulness and Perfection of Being in himself; as what-ever is in the Effect doth either formally, vertually, or eminently pre-exist in the Cause. Logicians that have reduced all natural things under ten Heads or Predicaments, do well leave out God as Ens transcendens, as a transcen­dent Being. For he is infinitely above all natu­ral things, and his Nature infinitely differing from theirs, though he comprehends all their [Page 88] perfections eminently in himself. God is [...], &c. And much to that purpose we may read in Dionys. Areop. De divinis nominibus. He is Essence, Sub­stance, Life, Light, Wisdom, Act, Power, &c. Yet not according to what we appre­hend of these things; And therefore we must take heed of forming finite Images and Representations of him in our Minds; as the Heathen did of old form visible Images of him to worship him by. But to whom will you liken me? saith the Lord, Isa. 40. Though God, speaking in his Word to us finite Creatures, re­presents himself to us by finite Things; ‘Se quasi finitum finitis mentibus offert.’ Yet he is infinitely above all these things; and it is a true rule, nothing can be predicated univo­cally of God and the Creatures. 3. Allosufficien­cy to his People. For he that hath all Good emi­nently in himself, must needs be an All-sufficient Portion. For God, as one saith him, he is [...], He is all things that the Creature is, and yet nothing that the Creature is. All things are in him as in the Fountain; and he that abides with God, and enjoyes him, he drinks at the Fountain, whereas others drink at the Stream; and at the Fountain the Waters are in their greatest sweetness, fulness, and purity. And though he hath communicated Being to such in­numerable Creatures, yet he is not in the least [Page 89] exhausted in his own Being; no more than the Sun is exhausted in its Light, by those streams of Light it is daily pouring forth upon the World. In our Metaphysicks, we read a distinction of Mundus Archetypus, and Mundus Emanationis: The former is the Eternal God himself, and the other is the Created World. So that what-ever is in the World, was in God before as the Arche­type. The Frame and Fabrick of it was first in his own infinite Mind; and all the Good, Beauty, Sweetness, that are scattered abroad among the Creatures of the Universe, were all first transcen­dently in himself; so that he must needs be All-sufficient to our Happiness.

For what-ever is the first Original of any Good, hath the whole of that Good in it self; as the Sun that is the Original of Light, hath all Light in it self; and so the Sea, with respect to Wa­ter. Now God is the Original of all that Good that is in the Creature, of what-ever kind it is, and therefore the whole of all Good is in him­self. Here we have Unity bringing forth Plura­lity, and all Plurality eminently comprehended in Unity. As Du Bartas divinely to this purpose speaks;

[Page 90] And hereupon also we may sit down and be sa­tisfied. Though we want many good things that are in the Creature, and which others enjoy, yet we have them all eminently in him that is the Fountain of all Good; and is the totum univer­sale, the Universal whole of that partial and par­ticular Good that the Crea­tures have in their several Beings. Omnia habeo, neque quicquam habeo, nihil cum est, nihil deest ta­men. Terent. Eunuch. Acts 2. This is true in Divinity. So that we need not be overwhelmed with sorrow, when we meet with losses of some created finite Good, if we have the Lord himself to be our God. That he is a Good suf­ficient to make the Soul happy, appears in this, That the Angels are happy in God alone, who are Spirits of wider Capacities than the Souls of Men. Yea, God is his own Happiness, much more is he sufficient to be the Creatures Happiness. Whereupon we ought to acquiesce in him.

Now (to reduce this Duty also to Christian Practice) let every true Saint that is in Cove­nant with God, praise this God as his God. Let him look upon the great Creator of the World, as standing in a particular Relation to himself in Jesus Christ, and that infinite Goodness out of which all created Good doth originally spring, to be ingaged to him, to satisfie him, and make him blessed for ever; as the Prophet Jeremy calls the Former of all things the Portion of Jacob, Jer. 10. 16. And by this he hath an advantage of lift up the Praises of God to an higher degree than [Page 91] the Light of Nature could ever raise Man to; when he shall praise him, not only as a Creator, but as his God, and his Portion for ever. So that Praise is due to him from us.

But, 2. we owe him also the Duty of Admi­ration. For seeing we cannot comprehend him in the mysterious and glorious Works of his Cre­ation, we should therefore admire him. As one having read an obscure Author, and being askt his Judgment about it, answered, [...]. What I have understood in it is excellent, and so I judge also is what I have not understood. Or rather, as one that having read the Book of the Revelation, said this of it, Non Reprobo quod non Intelligo, sed eo magis admiror, quo minus assequor; I do not reject what I do not understand, but the less I can understand the more I wonder. By Admiration we give God the glory of his Incomprehensibleness. [...]. Dionys. Areop. De Divinis nominibus. Whereby (as one speaks) not only our Knowledge but our Ignorance turns to his Praise. This is that Act of the Soul that best agrees to Infinity. While the Soul is admiring God, it is as it were gone out of its own finitness into his infinitness; Quando mens se ad Deum cum amore in­tegre convertit, ratio­nis & Intellectus ocu­lus reverberatus Ca­ligat. Isagoge Cor­derii ad Myst. Theol. where it is gone beyond its depth; as in the deep Ocean where men may swim but cannot wade. And hence it is that [Page 92] the Works of God are so often said in Scripture to be wonderful Works, which shews they are above Knowledg; and so they, and much more their Maker, are the Objects of our Admira­tion.

Only, let me add here also, Let us admire him as Christians; not only to astonish our Reason, but to the sanctifying our Hearts. 1. Let our admiration of him lead us to love him; and that not only for what we know of him, but for that also which is above our knowledg; and if pos­sible, to love him infinitely, which we come nearest to, when after all our love of him we are still wishing we could love him yet more abun­dantly.

2. It should also lead us infinitely to esteem him, Hic nec videri potest, visu clarior est, nec comprehendi, tactu purior est; nec aesti­mari, sensu major est, & ideo sic eum digne aestimamus, dum in­aestimabilem dicimus. Cypr. De Idolorum Vanitate, p. 289. and to despise all things in com­parison of him, and account them as nothing; for so in­deed they are compared with him. Our highest e­steem is of those things which we do not compre­hend. Any Excellency, the more we admire it, the more we esteem it. As the Eye that hath been gazing upon the Sun is darkned to the sight of other things. So the Soul that is employed in the true beholding and admiring the excellencies of God's Being, hath thereby the glory of this World darkned to it.

[Page 93] 3. Again, it should lead the Soul forth with strong desires to the knowledge and fruition of him.

1. Knowledg of him; As things that are won­derful are most desirable to be known. The Mind of Man hath a natural propension to Know­ledg, especially to the knowledg of things great and wonderful. [...]. Arist. And the Philosophers defined Wisdom to be the knowledg of things great and wonderful. And admiration put them upon the study of them. First, They admired, and then searched. And therefore it was well stiled, Principium Philoso­phiae; the Original of Philosophy. So God be­ing the Object of our admiration, it should ex­cite our Minds to more diligent enquiries into the knowledg of him. Although, he being an infinite Object, we cannot comprehend him, yet to search after him so far as our finite capacity may extend, and then sit down and leave the rest to an holy admiration. As the Apostle prayes for the Ephesians, that they may know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledg, Ephes. 3. 18. So though the infinite Being of God passeth Know­ledg, yet we should search into the knowledg of him.

2. The Fruition of him. For God is an Ob­ject, not only to be known, but enjoyed. And to enjoy him so far as we are capable in this Life, and to send forth our earnest Desires to the fuller fruition of him in the Life that is yet to come, [Page 94] especially seeing he is best known by enjoying, as every good is. So that as the Mind is to travel into the knowledg of him, as he is the most ex­cellent Object to be known, so is the will to pur­sue after him as the chiefest Good to be enjoyed. The admiring any Good, satisfies not, without the enjoying it.

CHAP. VII.
The Creation of the World considered with re­spect to Christ. How all Things are said to be made by him in Scripture. Some places of it briefly vindicated against the Socinians and Arrians. How the Creation is most properly attributed to the Son of God. The Creator of the World is also the Saviour of it. Many great Considerations resulting thence. All things made for Christ, as well as by him. A brief Account of those Works of Christ, with respect to which the World was crea­ted. Some Inferences thence.

I Shall next consider the Worlds Creation, with a particular respect to Jesus Christ, and our Redemption by him.

[Page 95] And herein consider. 1. That all things were made by Him. 2. For Him.

1. All things were made by him. So we have it made known to us by Scripture-Revelation; as Joh. 1. 1. where the Apostle enters his Discourse of Christ from his Divinity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and with­out him was nothing made that was made. This beginning is not the beginning of the Gospel, as the Socinians speak, but the beginning of Time. And all things made by him, are not the things of the New Creation, but of the First. But if they cavil at this Text, because they own not Christ's Eternal God-head, and any preexistence of him to his Incarnation; what can they say to that in Colos. 1. 16. For by him were all things crea­ted that are in Heaven, and that are in the Earth, Visible or Invisible, whether they be Thrones, Domi­nions, Principalities or Powers, &c. Where not only Things, but Persons, and Persons that are the chief of the whole Creation, are said to be created by Jesus Christ; and it is spoken of a pro­per Creation, for the Angels needed not a Resto­ration, as fallen Man did, which is called by the name of Creation in an improper sense. And Heb. 1. 2. it's expresly said concerning Christ, By whom also he made the Worlds. Not as by an Instrument, as the Arrians held, as if God first made Christ, and then all things by him; but by him as the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Fa­ther.

[Page 96] And by Worlds [...], is not meant the new state of things under the Messiah, which is cal­led by the Apostle, according to the Jews usual appellation, the World to come, Heb. 2. But by Worlds, he means the whole created Universe, which the Jews usually exprest by [...], gnola­mim; and the Apostle in Greek by [...], signifying the World both in its succession and du­ration; or in the two, or three, or four parts of it, according to the several distributions they dif­ferently made of it, and so called plurally Worlds.

Doth not the Psalmist speak of Christ, when he saith, Ps. 95. 5. The Sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry Land? And then addeth, vers. 7, 8. To day if ye will hear his Voice, harden not your hearts. Which words the Apostle quotes in Heb. 3. as referring to Christ; Moses verily was faithful in all his House as a Servant, &c. But Christ as a Son over his House, &c. Where­fore, as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if you will hear his Voice, harden not your hearts. That is, the Voice of Christ, vers. 5, 6, 7. to whom the Psalmist had ascribed the Creation of the World. And in Heb. 1. 10. the laying the Foundation of the Earth, and the making of the Heavens, is expresly attributed to Jesus Christ. But I must not divert to that Controversie, only to shew how the Creation of the World hath respect to Christ as its Creator; not excluding the Father and the Holy Ghost; for in all Works, ad extrà, they work, as we say, indivisim: yet according to [Page 97] the order of their subsisting, is the order of their working; so all things are of the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. And the Creation of all things seems most properly to appertain to the second Person. For he being the First and Imme­diate Off-spring of his Father, it belongs to him to propagate and communicate of his Being in the things that are made, which are therefore called the Off-spring of God. As the Apostle quotes the Heathen Poet, saying, Acts 17. We are also his Off-spring: And saith it also himself in the next words, Forasmuch as we are the Off-spring of God. And not onely Men, but all created Beings may be stiled his Off-spring, as they are the Finite Emana­tions of his Infinite Being. Magne parens mundi, As the Poet speaks of God. And the Heathens therefore did stile God the great Father of the World. Col. 1. 15. [...]. And Jesus Christ is called by the Apostle the first-Born of every Crea­ture, or of all Creation. So called, as some conceive, with respect to his E­ternal Generation, and the Creation that in time sprung from him. He was brought forth by an Eternal Generation, and then by him was the Generation of all the things of Time. God com­municated his Being Eternally and Infinitely to his Son, and then by him communicates of his Being Finitely, and in time to the Creatures. His communication of himself to his Son, is by an immanent Act, wherein God did not go out of [Page 98] himself; and so by him gave Being to the Creation in those Transient Acts, wherein God doth work ad extra, and goes out of himself. Now what may Christians observe from hence.

1. In general. That the Creator of the World is also the Redeemer of it. He that made all things, is also the Restorer of all things. The collapsed ruined World, is put into his hand to raise and renew it that first made it. As we read Heb. 1. 2. He is appointed Heir of all things, by whom God made the Worlds. He had an original Title to be Heir as Creator; but hath a new Ti­tle given him as Redeemer; and this he executes in the Government of the World.

2. More particularly. We may observe that it is the Infinite Creator of the World who hath cloathed himself with the flesh of Man, and made it to subsist personally in himself. Here we may behold this great Mystery, Finiteness, and In [...]inity; Mortal, and Immortality; Divinity, and Humanity; the Creator and the Creature uni­ted in one Person. As the Evangelist first speaks of Christ as the Creator of all things, John 1. 3. and then as assuming our flesh, vers. 14. The Word that made all things, afterwards spake and dwelt personally in humane flesh.

And Man's Nature being a System of the whole Creation, he did in a manner cloath himself with it, in his assuming our flesh. As one of the An­cients to this purpose speaks; Incarnatio est ele­vatio totius Universi in Divinam Personam; Incar­nation is the lifting up the whole Universe into [Page 99] Divine Person. Which taken in a qualified sense is true. And in assuming our flesh, How many wonders do here meet together? To see the Divine Nature stooping so low, is one wonder; to see the Humane Nature raised so high, is ano­ther; to see Man's sinful Nature assumed without sin, is a third; to see the Angelical Nature past by that stood nearest to God, and Man's Nature assumed that stood farther off, is a fourth; to see the Creator assuming the Properties of a Creature, which is to be finite, passive, dependent, &c. and the Creature assumed into the Properties of the Creator, which is to be Infinite, Almighty, Om­nipotent, is a fifth, &c. So that God is hereby Humani­fied, [...]. Athanas. and Man, as it were, Deified, as one speaks.

3. We may further observe, and that with great delight, how it is the Creator of all things that is become the Head of the Church. Which the Apostle suggests in Col. 1. 16. and vers. 18. compared; By him were all things created, whe­ther Visible or Invisible, &c. and he is the Head of the Body of the Church; an Head, not only by way of Government to rule over it, but by way of Spiritual Union to influence it, and dwell in it as the Head in the Body. To see the Infinite Crea­tor humble himself, to look down upon his Creatures, is taken notice of by the Psalmist as a great condescent, Psal. 113. 5, 6. But to take [Page 100] any of them into a nearness, into an oneness with himself, is yet far greater.

He first came into a natural Union with us in assuming our Nature, and into a legal Union with us, by becoming our Surety; and then comes into a mystical Union, by making us Members of his Body through the Spirit. And this Mystical Union is also set forth by a Marriage Union, Ephes. 5. 32. And is not this wonderful, to see the Crea­tor to match himself with a Creature, and that not of the highest Order, but with Man; and not with him neither, when at his best, but when degenerated and corrupted. Should we see a great King take a poor Maid from the Dunghil and match himself to her, it could scarce be a sha­dow of this. For our Maker to become our Husband, as it is said, Isa. 54. 5. our Reasons cannot comprehend it. Ambition it self can hardly aspire to such a thing.

And now what an honour is this to the Church to have such an Head and Husband? and what security also to be under the Headship and Pro­tection of the Creator of the World? He that created all things, can create Salvation for it, when there is no visible matter or means out of which to bring it. And he that gave Being to the first Cre­ation, can and will raise up and perfect his New Creation in his Church, which he will effect by this Union it hath with himself as the Head there­of. And the assurance hereof the Saints have in that light of the Knowledg of God that hath al­ready shined into their hearts. For this New [Page 101] Creation begins in Light as the first did, which the Apostle takes notice of 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness, hath shined into our hearts. And as he proceeded in the first Creation, till the whole was made perfect, so will he do in the New; where he hath begun a good Work he will perfect it; he will proceed from that first Light of Grace wherein he shined into the Soul to the perfection of his Work in the eternal Light of Glory.

4. Observe also that our Reconciler to God is he that made the World. As the Apostle in Col. 1. 1. speaks of Christ as the Creator of the World; vers. 16. and then as our Reconciler by the Blood of his Cross, v. 20. And having made peace by the Blood of his Cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. How may this strengthen our Faith in Christ's Blood, seeing it is the Blood of him that made the World. As it doth mani­fest stupendious love that the Creator should die for his Creature; so it may assure us that his death must needs be infinitely meritorious. Un­der the Law, the Blood of Creatures was shed for the People, but that could of it self merit nothing; but now under the New-Testament there is the Blood of the Creator shed for us: Here is the Lord of all Life himself dying, and he that gave Being to all things emptying him­self, and as it were, made nothing. What unspeakable Merit must hence arise for us! Cer­tainly, the merit of the Creator must needs infi­nitely exceed all demerit of the Creature.

[Page 102] And as hence we may conclude an infinite me­rit, so we may observe the fitness of him that was the Creator to make Reconciliation for us. Who so fit to look after poor lost Creatures as he that made them? He had the greatest property in us, and therefore was concerned most to look af­ter us. As when the Sheep are wandred, the Praprietor is the fittest Person to take care for the bringing them home again. So that as our Crea­tor, he had not only Jus Proprietatis, the Right of Property to redeem us, but also Jus Idonei­tatis, the Right of Fitness also.

5. Lastly; We may hence take notice of the Bounty and Goodness of Christ Jesus our Savi­our. We may see it in the Creation of the World, which is every where filled with the Effects hereof. When he made the World, he shewed not only his Power, but the infinite benig­nity and goodness of his Nature. And this Na­ture he hath still, whereby we may encourage our selves to go to him for spiritual Blessings, behold­ing the Creation filled with his common Blessings.

As from the Afflictions and Temptations of his Humane Nature, we may be encouraged to go to him for succour when we are tempted and tryed. So from the infinite benignity of his Di­vine Nature shining forth in his Creation, we may be encouraged to ask the things that are necessary for our Salvation. Hath he in his creating Good­ness provided food for every Creature, when it was not asked, and will he not give thee bread for thy Soul, when thou goest and askest him for it? [Page 103] Did his Goodness so freely flow out to his whole Creation; and hath that Nature no goodness re­maining in it to his own People, that are nearer to him than any other Creature? And are not on­ly Parts of his Natural, but the Subjects of his New-Creation; which, as it is Spiritual, is the better part of it.

But secondly; As all Things were made by Christ, so also for him, as the Scripture in many places asserts, Col. 1. 16. All things were made by him and far him. It was usually said by the Jews; All things were made for the Messias. Rev. 4. ult. Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. The first Adam was set over the works of God's Hand, but he sinning against his Crea­tor, it came into the hand of the second Adam, and all things were put under his Feet. But this fell out, not by chance or accident, but accord­ing to the Counsel of God when the World was made. And accordingly the management of the Creation hath been in his hands from the be­ginning; as it appears in the Records of the Old Testament. And when he came into our Nature, our Humanity was invested in this power with the Divine Person of Christ, especially at his Resur­rection and Ascention into Heaven; and there­fore he speaks as if it was then given him, Matth. 28. All power is given me both in Heaven and Earth. And John 17. Thou hast given him power over all flesh, &c. Now this was in the Counsel of Heaven, and this was the end of this [Page 104] Worlds Creation, that being put under the Do­minion of Jesus Christ it might be governed, and all things managed therein to the highest exaltati­on of the Glory of God. For this Son of God,

1. He brings forth the Knowledg of the eter­nal Counsels of God concerning Man's Redemp­tion; wherein he shews forth the [...], the deep things of God. Wherein the infinite Wis­dom, Mercy, Love, Justice, and Holiness of God are manifested in the World, in the most resplendent edition of them. And for that end he hath inspired men by his Spirit in the several Ages of the World, whereby this great Mystery might be made known to the Glory of his Fa­ther. For though there have been Prophets speaking of it ever since the World began, Luk. 1. 70. yet it was by the Spirit of Christ that they so spake, 1 Pet. 1. 11.

2. He hath also delivered to men the Rules of Worship and Obedience, and such as conduce more in the practice of them to the honour of God, than what was performable in Man's Primitive State; the Conditions of Life under the New-Covenant being more to his Glory, than those of the [...]ormer were.

3. He hath in all Ages been gathering in some of the Children of men into a state of Salvation, out of that lost and ruined state into which the sin of the first Adam had cast them, acquainting them with the Counsel of God for that end, giving them his Spirit to enlighten their Minds, and to sanctifie their Hearts; and so forming [Page 105] them to the praise of God, and as Vessels of Mercy preparing them for his Glory. And this he did before his Incarnation.

4. In the fulness of time he came himself into the flesh of Man, and brought forth upon the Stage of the World, that great Mystery of the Incarnation. When also he declared the infinite Love, and the Counsels and Purposes of the Heart of God more fully than had before been made known, encountred and conquered the ut­most Temptations of Satan and the World, and then offered up that great Sacrifice of himself for to make atonement for sin, which had been signi­fied from the beginning of the World. And then being buried, he rose again, loosing the Bands of Death and the Grave, and ascended triumphant­ly into Heaven, and acquired a new Title to his Dominion over the World in his conquest of it.

5. And being now in Heaven, yet still the Creation is in his hand, and bringing in revenews of Glory to God by him. He disposeth of King­doms and Nations as he pleaseth; sometimes throwing down the mighty from their Seats, and then exalting the lowly and meek, as was prophesied of him, Luk. 1. 70. Sometimes straitning the Nations in his displeasure, and then enlarging them again in his mercy and goodness.

He takes care for the upholding and propa­gating the everlasting Gospel; accompanies it with his Spirit to the conversion of Souls to God, and building them up an habitation for him; fits them for his Service and Praise in this World, and [Page 106] then gathers them into the presence of his Father to stand before him, and to minister to him for ever. He also orders their Tryals and Sufferings as he seeth them requisite to the Glory of God, and their preparation for Heaven; and then when he seeth it meet, delivers them out of them al­so.

6. After all this, at the time of the Consumma­tion of all things, he will come down from Hea­ven and judge the World, receiving some into the Kingdom of his Father, and sending others into everlasting Fire, wherein the riches of God's Grace and Mercy, and the clearness of his Justice will most illustriously shine forth, to his eternal Praise and Glory.

And when this is done, he delivers up his Kingdom and Dominion to his Father that he had received from him; having subdued all Enemies under his feet, and put down all Rule, 1 Cor. 15. 28. Authority, and Power, his Father becomes All in All.

Thus with respect to Christ, and to the ac­complishment of these Glorious Works, (which I have but briefly touched) was this Creation of the World erected; and which are transcendently more to the glory of God than what could have been under the first Adam, either by any obedi­ence performed by him, or the dispensation of God towards him under that first Covenant.

And from hence I shall briefly make three In­ferences.

CHAP. VIII.
The deficiency of Natural Theology com­pared with the Scriptures, evidenced in sun­dry Particulars. The Work of Redempti­on not known by it. It reveals not the way of coming to God by Christ. It gives not a perfect account of sin. It shews not the way of Reconciliation, nor of Satisfa­ction in Man's chief Good, nor of the right Worship of God. Conformity to God not attained by it. Nor the true Tranquillity under Humane Calamities. One Inference from the Whole.

THus having considered the Creation of the World, in the great Efficient of it, and al­so shewed what use may be made of the Know­ledg of God resulting thence; I next proceed to shew wherein this Knowledg is deficient, and falls short of that which we have by Divine Revelation in the Word of God.

1. In General. The Mystery of Man's Re­demption by Christ, is not made known by the Works of Creation. All that the Apostle saith in my Text was known concerning God by it, is, his Eternal Power and Godhead. It would not [Page 112] have been a Mystery hid in God for so many A­ges, if the Works of Nature had declared it to men. Adam might see God as a Creator, but not as a Redeemer in these Works of Nature. He might see an infinite Power, Wisdom, Good­ness shining forth herein. But that Second and better Edition of these Attributes to be set forth in the work of Redemption, he could not see. For though God made the World, in order to the Work of Redemption, as I shewed before, yet he did not make it as a Redeemer. And therefore it hath nothing directly written concerning Christ upon it. The Tree of Life, Paradise, the mak­ing of Eve out of Adam's side, and then joyn­ing them together in Marriage; yea, the making Adam himself, and the dominion God gave him over the Creatures, and constituting him a com­mon Person, are applicable to Christ and the Church, and are figuratively so applyed; but yet it cannot well be imagined that Adam could read any thing of Christ, or the Work of our Redemption herein. There was no need of God's revealing any thing concerning the Worlds Redemption until Man's sin and fall. Therefore after the Fall God revealed it to Adam. And the first intimation of it was, of the Seed of the Woman breaking the head of the Serpent; and there was nothing in Nature could have declared so much as this. And the farther discovery of it to the World, was by Inspiration, or Visions, or by an audible Voice, &c. God needed not have sent forth Prophets, and Christ Apostles to have [Page 113] preached this Mystery to the World, if the Works of Creation could have declared it. It's true, it's said, Psal. 19. 1. of the Heavens, and the Firmament, the course of Night and Day, that they preach to the World. Their Line is gone forth into all the Earth, and their Words to the end of the World. Which words are applyed to the Apostles Ministry, Rom. 10. But yet they are not such Preachers as the Apostles; for they tell the World of a Knowledg, which the greatest Searchers of Nature were ignorant of. A My­stery that was hid in God, and in former Ages, not made known to Men, no nor to Angels nei­ther, that can read what is written in Nature bet­ter than Man. And Athens was a stranger to it, when the Apostle Paul came thither, as you read Acts 17. There was the Seminary of Humane Literature, there he met with Learned Epicure­ans and Stoicks, &c. but he found nothing of the Knowledg of Christ there.

Well then, where is the Wise? Where is the Scribe? Where is the Disputer of this World? As the Apostle speaks in a way of holy derision, or of triumph rather, 1 Cor. 1. 20. Where is So­crates and Plato? Where is Xenophon and Aristo­tle? Where is Seneca and Cato? Where is De­mosthenes and Cicero? How is all their Wisdom bafled and non-plust by the foolishness of Preach­ing? wherein the way to Man's true Felicity, which they so anxiously sought after, is declared to be by a Crucified Christ.

[Page 114] 2. But more particularly. If you speak of Ma [...]s coming to God; though Natural Light may dictate this to be his Duty, yet coming to God by the Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus, is above the reach of this Light. Here we must have recourse to Scripture-Revelation, that tells us that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and no Man cometh to the Father but by Him, John 14. And there is one Mediatour between God and Man, the Man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. 2. 5. As a Ladder standing up betwixt Heaven and Earth, as it was presented to Jacob. And the Name Immanuel is not found written any where in the Book of Nature; who is the way whereby God is with Men, and they with Him. For want of the knowledg whereof, the Gentiles addrest themselves to their chief God, by their Daemons, or inferiour Deities; by their Heroes, Men of re­nown, whom at their death they deified and adop­ted into the number of their gods; many of whom they stiled secundi Ordinis Deos, Gods of the second Order. [...], [...], &c. Yea, they had many Orders of them, distinguished either by the places of abode they assign­ed to them, or the Offices performed by them. Now as these inferiour Deities did themselves address to the Supream; so by them, as Mediatours, did the Pagans ad­dress themselves to him. To both of which the A­postle seems to [...]llude in 1 Cor. 8. 5. when he [Page 115] saith, There be gods many, and lords many. And in opposition to which he adds, But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things; and one Lord Jesus, through whom are all things. But this Mediation of Jesus Christ they were whol­ly ignorant of. God hath written nothing of this in the Works of Nature. Though the Light of Nature could instruct them in the necessity, or at least the expediency of going to God by some Mediator or other, and therefore they invented such to themselves; yet that the Son of God, in the Nature of Man, should be the Person by whom to go to God, they knew nothing of.

3. If we speak of Man's Reconciliation to God. Though the Light of Nature declares to Man, it is his great happiness to have the favour of God, and to have that sin pardoned to him, which his natural Conscience doth condemn him for; yet how to obtain this Pardon and Reconciliation is only made known to us by the direction of the Scriptures. It's true, the Heathens made use of Sacrifices of several sorts, as Bullocks, Lambs, Sheep, Goats, Swine; and in some cases, Men and Children, as their own Poets, Virgil and Plau­tus, &c. and so Plutarch and others of their Moral Writers affirm; and these they offered up to appease their gods▪ when any Calamities fell upon them.

And of their Humane Sacrifices, see Lact. lib. 1. p. 81, 82, 83. and Dr. Owen's [...], p. 307. They offered Placatory Sacrifices to such gods of whom they feared harm, and Propitiato­ry to such of whom they expected good, as Dr. Jackson Observes. But these they used not with any respect to Christ, who was the end of the Institution of all the Expiatory or Propitiatory Sacrifices, and gave them their Vertue and Effi­cacy, and so they could not avail them to what they designed; as the very use of them they bor­rowed either from the Sacrifice of Noah, con­veighed in the notice of it down to his Posterity, or from some acquaintance they might have with the Jewish Laws, rather than from any Dictates of Natural Light, howsoever improved by them. For what-ever may be said concerning Sacrifices, called Gratulatory, offered by way of Thanks­giving, that a principle of Natural Gratitude might lead them to their use; by giving part of the whole, to acknowledg the whole from God; yet who can imagine it concerning Expiatory Sa­crifices, that ever the Light of Nature could lead them, to think that the slaying of a Bruit Crea­ture, as a Sheep, or a Lamb, or a Goat, &c. [Page 117] should be able to reconcile God to Man, or be a meet Satisfaction to the offended Deity for his sin, or indeed be pleasing to God at all. And though this was the practice of the Jews, yet they were led to it by God's Institution, and not by the Light of Nature. And though some have said, that the continuance of Nature in its course, and the benefits that are thereby daily conveigh­ed from God to the World, do declare to all Men, that he is some-way reconciled, else Man's sin would either have dissolved, or at least inter­rupted this beneficial course of Nature; yet this cannot lead Man to the true Propitiatory, nor to the way of enjoying the benefit thereof. By these common benefits of Nature, God left not himself without witness to the Gentiles; and for which they ought to have been thankful; but by these they could not understand that they had fa­vour with God, were not under God's displeasure for their sin, seeing the worst of men partaked of them as well as others, and the Beasts as well as Men. It's true, something may hence be gather­ed of the benignity and goodness of the Nature of God, his long-suffering and patience, whereby they might be encouraged to go to him for Mer­cy and Pardon; but the way wherein God hath appointed to bestow this pardoning Mercy, they could not know by any natural Light. And what respect God may have to some among the Gentiles that best improved that Light, and had recourse to his general Mercy, without the distinct know­ledg [Page 118] of a Saviour, which they had not means to attain, I shall rather leave it amongst the Secrets of God's Counsel, than make determination therein.

But we that have the Scriptures, know that all Man's Reconciliation is by the death of the Son of God. And that pardon of sin is by Faith in his Blood, which things the Light of Nature is a meer stranger too.

3. As to the true knowledg of sin, the Scrip­tures give a more distinct account than any that can be known by Nature. Some grosser sins may be known by it, but the secret Obliquities of the Heart and Life are not detected but by a straiter Rule than the Light or Law of Nature. The Apostle, ( Rom. 7.) professeth he had not known Lust to be sin, except the Law of God had said, Thou shalt not covet. It is the Com­mandment of God▪ that David saith is exceeding broad, can only discover sin in the full latitude of it. And which made the Apostle say, By the Law is the knowledg of sin. And therefore the Law was first briefly published upon Mount Sinai, and afterwards explained and urged upon the People by Moses, as appears in the Book of Deuterono­my that they might, being under the conviction of sin, look towards the Messiah for Salvation, who was yet to come, which needed not have been, could the Law of Nature have given a per­fect Knowledg and Conviction. Of it the Scrip­tures resolve that great Question, unde malum? [Page 119] discoursing of it in the first original of it; as also in the due merit of it, and the punishment it leadeth to.

As for sins that are more strictly Evangelical, as Unbelief in Christ, &c. As the Light of Na­ture doth not discover the Gospel, so neither can it do sins against it. For this, we must have re­course to the Word of Christ, and to his Spirit. Whom he promised to send to convince the World of sin, because they believed not on him; for the Light of Nature could not evidence it to be sin.

4. If we speak also of the satisfaction of the Soul in possessing the chief Good; Here also Scripture-Light excels that of Nature. There was nothing did more exercise the Minds of the wiser Heathens than this; to find out and enjoy this Good; and nothing were they more divided in their Judgments about. But the Reason was, because they wanted the true knowledg of God, and knew not the way to the fruition of him, who alone is this chief Good of Man. But here the Scriptures again supply the defect of Nature's Light; which reveal to us, not only that God is, and what he is, but that Everlasting Covenant of his Grace made in Jesus Christ, wherein, and whereby he offers himself to Men to become their God, and to take them for his People. And there we find this summum Bonum. this chief good

The Philosophers of old, Yea, all Men are as Merchants seeking this godly Pearl, but they find [Page 120] it not until they are by Scripture-Light led to it. And we may say of it as Job speaks of Wisdom; The Depth saith, It is not in me; and the Sea saith, It is not with me: It cannot be gotten for Gold, neither shall Silver be weighed for the price thereof, &c. (and therefore is not found in Silver or Gold); Destruction and Death say, We have heard the same thereof with our Ears. Those that are in the Grave, or Hell, may have heard of it; but where there is no Good, there cannot be found this chief Good. But the Word of God tells the Living of it, shews it to them, and invites them to the possessing of it.

5. With respect to the Worship of God. The Light of Nature doth dictate that God ought to be worshipt; but Scripture-Revelation is requi­site to guide us unto the right way of Worship. I know there is Natural Worship founded upon the Right of Creation, which is known by Na­ture's Light; but then there is other Worship that is Instituted, with respect to the Work of Redemption, which is made known only by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament; as Plato once said, The Maker of this universe, as it is hard to find out, so as hard to find out the right way of worshipping him. Whereupon the Apo­stle, in Rom. 1. speaks of the Gentiles, That they became vain in their Imaginations, inventing to themselves wayes of Worship, some whereof were ridiculous, others obscene, and all disho­nourable to the Greatness and Holiness of the [Page 121] Supream Deity. As the late Author of the Book called Moral Vertue and Grace, quòtes a memo­rable Passage out of Jamblichus; which, by his leave, I shall here transcribe in the English of it; It is not easie to know what God will be pleased with, unless we be either immediately instructed by God our selves, or taught by some Person whom God hath con­versed with, or arrived to it by some Divine Means or other. And therefore the Worship the Hea­thens performed to their gods, how ridiculous soever, they pretended to receive it, either Affla­tu Numinis, by some kind of Inspiration, or from their Oracles, or some other way of Revelation. And we know what the Mahometan Religion pre­tends to in this case. But because they were strangers to the Authentick Revelation of the true God in the Word of Truth, therefore they so grosly erred in the Way and Rule of their Wor­ship.

6. Or, if we speak of tranquillity of Mind, under all the Calamities that attend Man's Life. This the Philosophers of old industriously sought after as a chief part of Man's Happiness, and proposed several wayes to attain it. Some, by looking upon all things as coming by an inevita­ble Fate, and an invincible connection of second Causes. Others of them relieved themselves by looking upon these Evils as such as are common to Men▪ and they must be content to bear the common lot of all Man-kind. Nihil humanum a m [...] alienum put [...], as one speaks. And others, That they were sent to be the Tryals of Vertue, [Page 122] and in patient bearing them, men discovered true greatness of Mind, &c. But, alas, the Bed they made was too short for the Soul to repose it self upon. But the Scriptures shew the true way of it. 1. By shewing all these evils, as dispenced by the Sovereign Hand of the onely Wise God. 2. That they are the Discipline of God for the good of his Family. 3. This also sets before us the great Example of Christ in patient suffering. 4. As also an everlasting Rest in the World to come, assured by the Promises of God, and en­tred into by Christ as a fore-runner, having first purchased it by his Blood; the true hope where­of, is the great relief the Saints have under all their present troubles; and many such like. Which being truly apprehended, will bring in that true [...], or tranquillity of Mind which all Philosophy cannot reach. A Principle of Faith being able to do more for us in this kind than any principle of Reason. Those few words of the Apostle, recorded 2 Cor. 4. 17, 18. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, &c. is more than can be found in all the Volums of Natural or Moral Phi­losophy, to quiet and comfort the Soul of Man under all the Calamities of Life.

7. As to Conformity to God. The Light of Nature taught Plato, and some of the wiser Hea­thens to say, That Man's Happiness did consist in [Page 123] his likeness to God; but the way of growing up into this Likeness they did not understand. For to this is requisite the mortification of fleshly Lusts, which the Precepts of their strictest Philosophers could not effect. Some things they might do to the subduing of the Passions to the Dominion of Reason, and thereby introduce some moral tran­quillity into the Soul of Man. But the radical Corruptions of Man's Nature, which especially are Self-exaltation and Self-sufficiency they rather did cherish than extirpate. The Stoicks seem to proceed farthest towards this subduing of Nature, upon the Fundamental Principle of their Philoso­phy, That Man's Happiness lay in things that were in his own Power, as in maintaining a con­stant serenity and evenness of Soul in all the Oc­currences of Life, and not in the things of Fortune, Vid. Epict. Enchirid. which were out of his Power; but it reached rather to those Passions that they perceived did disquiet Nature, than to those other evils that are pleasing to it.

But to this Conformity is also requisite the in­troducing of a New and Divine Nature; Now it is not any natural Knowledg of God can effect this. The Apostle tells us, 2 Pet. 1. 4. That Believers are made Partakers of the Divine Nature; but it is through the knowledg of Christ calling them to Glory and Vertue, and through the great and pre­cious promises given us in him. Hereupon also we read, That Christ is made to us sanctification, &c. [Page 124] 1 Cor. 1. 30. And whoever is in Christ is a New Creature, 2 Cor. 5. 17. Which is all one as to partake of the Divine Nature. So that this con­formity to God results from partaking his Na­ture; this we cannot have without communion with him; this Communion we cannot have but in Christ; and Christ is not made known but by Scripture-Revelation. So that Nature cannot make a Christian; as Tertullian speaks, Apol. cap. 18. Fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani; Christians are made so, not born so. And therefore that so noted Saying of the same Author, in the forego­ing Chapter, that seems to contradict this; O Te­stimonium Animae naturaliter Christianae! is to be rightly understood in the sense he speaks it. For speaking against the vanity of the Heathen, in making many gods to themselves, he appeals to a practice that even Nature did lead them to, which was to lift up their eyes to Heaven, and to say, Deus dedit, God gave me this or that; and Deus videt, God seeth. Whereby the Soul did, as it were, naturally own but one God, as the Christi­ans do. Whereupon he breaks out into that no­ted Speech, O the testimony of the Soul naturally Christian! But to make us Christians, in the par­taking the Nature of Christ, and conformity to God; this is above the reach of Nature. Though the Heavens declare God's Glory, day and night ut­ter speech; and the Sun comes forth as a Bride­groom out of his Chamber every morning, &c. and nothing is hid from the heat of it; yet it is the Law [Page 125] of God that converts the Soul, enlightens the Eyes, &c. and so brings Man into conformity to God, Psal. 19.

8. Or if we speak of the Immortality of the Soul, the Resurrection of the Body, the Judg­ing of the World, the future Rewards of Men in the World to come, these are all made evident to us by Scripture-Light, which were either not at all, or but darkly known by any Light of Na­ture. How dubiously, and sometimes ridiculou­sly did the sagest of the Heathen write of these things. As to the Souls Immortality, their great Orator Cicero doubted of it. As for the Resurrection of the Dead, Plin. lib. 7. cap. 55. their great Naturalist Pliny ex­plodes it. As to Rewards and Punishments in a future State, their Poets had ri­diculous Fictions about them. Therefore Life and Immortality are said to be brought to Light by the Gospel, speaking more distinctly of the future State, and World to come, than what is found either in the Dictates of Nature, or the Writings of the Old-Testament.

Lastly; Yea, as to the very Nature of God, his Holiness, Unity, Simplicity, Actuality of Being, Omniscience, Immensity, and other At­tributes; these are more clearly revealed in the Word of God, than in any Evidence of Nature. Which though in this it is not wholly dark, as in some other Truths before mentioned, yet even here it is not so distinct and clear as the Scripture [Page 126] is; which as it is a System of Natural Truth, be­yond any other Writing in the World; so it contains those Supernatural Truths that could not else be known to the Sons of Men.

And this is all I shall speak to this Head; which though it doth not so immediately result from my present Subject, yet I thought needful to inter­pose; only in my leaving it shall add this Infe­rence.

CHAP. VII.
God's Being Demonstrated from the Creati­on of man. Several peculiar things spoken of about his Creation. How the Workmanship and Operations of of the body declares Gods Being. The soul considered in its Capacity, innate principles, immortality, operations; whence we have a further evidence of God's Being.

I Shall now proceed to speak to a further evidence of God's Being from one special part of his Creation, which is the Creation of man. And therefore shall speak to it by it self. And we may observe some pecu­liar things related about it above what is said of the other works of God.

1. When God in the course of his works came to give Man his Being, He said Come let us make Man. Of his other Works he only said let them be, as, Let there be Light, and Let there be a Firmament &c. But as if him­self was more Concerned, and that in the Trinity of his Being, about making Man then any other of his works, he saith let us make Man.

[Page 162] 2. Other creatures he speaks to the Earth and Waters to bring them forth, whether Ve­getables; as Herbs, Grass, Fruits, Trees, &c. Or Animals in the several Regions of Ayr, Earth, or Water where they do Inhabit, But God sets to his own hand in the making of Man, He himself forms him of the dust of the ground, and then himself breathed into him the breath of life, Gen. 2. 7.

3. God saith also of Man, Let us make Man, after our own Image, and our own likeness. Gen. 1. 26. Which he said not of his other works, either the Light or Firmament, or Sun, Moon, or Stars, which are all Glorious Creatures; Yet he said of none of these, Let us make them after our own likeness. It may be ob­served also that the Word Created is three times repeated, and that in one Verse, with respect to Man's Creation. So God Created Man in his own Image, in the Image of God Created he him, Male and Female Created he them. Gen. 1. 27. Which some concieve refers to the plural term used about the making of Man. Let us make Man. God Crea­ted him, that is God the Father; God Crea­ted him, that is God the Son; God Crea­ted him that is God the Holy Ghost. And which is remarkable, when God is called in Scripture the Maker or Creator of Man it is still expressed Plurally, as 35 Job 10. and 149 Psal. 2. 12 Eccles. 1. 54 Isa. 5. Where God is stiled the Creatours, and Makers of [Page 163] Man in the Hebrew Text. Yet the Creation of him was but one; and the God that Cre­ated him one also.

4. Man had this Preeminence also that he was Created last. God proceeding from the more imperfect to the more perfect Works. Making Man last, shews he is the most perfect part of his Creation. And God shewed this respect to him also herein, that he would not make him, till he had Built and richly fur­nisht the World, to be a fit habitation for him. And it is Evident that God had Man in his eye when he was erecting, framing, and furnishing of it, for it is exactly fitted to the nature, necessity, and delight of Man: as he had Christ in his eye when he made Man. And indeed when God had finisht the rest of his Creation, he did Epitomize it all in Man; for in his constitution, we have Mortal, and Immortal, Visible and Invisible, Corpo­real and Incorporeal, Material and Immaterial, the Superior and Inferior World joyn'd toge­ther to the making of one person. So that man is utriusque mundi nexus, as Scaliger speaks. And there is not such a creature as Man upon this account in the whole Crea­tion. Whereupon David that knew well his curious frame, speaks largely of the work­manship of God herein, Psal. 139. v. 13. 14, 15. 16. verses. Thou hast possessed my Reins, thou hast covered me in my Mothers Womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and won­derfully [Page 164] made, Marvelous are thy Works, and that my Soul knoweth right well. My Substance was not hid from thee when I was made in se­cret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth. So that God having imprest so much of his own Likeness, and bestowed such peculiar Workmanship upon Man, he hath laid a foundation for strong Arguments to evince his Being to us therefrom.

If we look upon his body; How curiously and rationally are the several Organs, Vessels, and Members thereof fitted to their several Fun­ctions in nature, and each of them contributing in their several offices to one general End, which is the life of Man. How do the Veins and Arteries meet about the heart; Nature sending succour from all parts to it, as being the chief Seat of life. And again the heart doth by them convey Blood and Spirits to the whole Body, it being the chief Fountain of life. And to give but one instance more in that which seems to be the most contemptible part of the Body, which is the humours of it. In these we may take notice of a Divine Wisdom. Choler that is hot, and of a fiery quality is useful to quicken the body, and to stirr up Nature to 'its proper Functions, and by 'its heat to prevent the coagulation and corruption of the blood. And the Melancho­lick humour being thick and gross is useful to retain the natural and Vital Spirits that they may not be too Volatile and evaporate.

[Page 165] And the Phlegmatick humour, which is more watery, cool, and moist, is of use to cool and attenuate the blood, and so make it fitter for Motion. Now if the Wisdom of the Creator appears in these meanest things, which are as it were the Excrements of Nature, how much more in the noble parts of the Body: But I must not, nay I cannot speak of these things as an Anatomist or Physician. But we may behold this frame, and admiring say, Oh how exquisitly are the Eyes turned, the Ears, and Nostrils bored, the Fingers branched, the Joynts coupled, the Nerves extended, the Veins diffused, the Bones firmed and fastned. I remember what I have long since read, in the Poet, concerning the seve­ral Parts of Man's body.

And so he proceeds. And in the least part of man something may bee seen of God. In so much that Galen though before a meer Na­turalist, and so an Atheist, upon the obser­ving the curious Structure of Man's Body, could not forbear the giving an Hymn of Praise to the wise Creator and framer of it. And it is so every way perfect that if a Man had an hundred years given him, as it is said of one, to find out some defect in it he would not be able to do it. As among the Heathens they [Page 166] had a God calld Momus who made it his work to Carp at the works of the other Gods. But let a Man study to find out something to Carp at in this exquisite frame, he shall be able ratio­nally to find nothing. Many indeed will pretend there are Errata's in the Works of Providence which they could correct, but it is because they understand them not. But what Errata's can they find in the Works of Creation, and par­ticularly this of the body of Man? This is one of the [...] that my Text mentions, of the things that God made wherein we may be­hld his Eternal power and Godhead. And if a Man would play the part of Zoilus, to repre­prehend this Poem, as he did Homers, he would but shew himself Ignorant and Impious at once. So that Man need not go far to fetch an Argu­ment for the Being of God, he carries an Evident one continually about him in his own body; Especially if man did but know himself in this his meaner part. Did he but know the curi­ous frame of the eye, and the several Tunicles and Humours belonging to it, whereby it is fit­ted for seeing: And did he then but know how the eye doth see; How the raies that come from one point in the Object do meet in one point in the bottom of the Eye. Did he also know the various Workmanship of the Ear, and understand how an Articulate voice should pass through the fluid medium of the Air, and enter the Ear Articulated as it comes from the mouth of the speaker.

[Page 167] To give but one Instance more, in that work of Nature which is proper to Man, and that is, Speech. It is wonderful to consider how a little breath should be modulated into so many distinct syllabical sounds, by the nimble touches of the Tongue in the several parts of the Mouth, and by other instruments of Speech. But these common works of Nature, we won­der not at; partly because they are common, and partly because so little understood: yet if duly considered, they carry in them a clear evidence of the Being of God.

But to pass to the more sublime part of Man, which is his Soul, which doth so much the more clearly demonstrate God's Being to us, by how much he hath stampt more of his own likeness upon it. And,

1. We may argue from the Capacity of the Soul, which manifestly extends beyond the things of this World: And is capable of en­joying a greater good then any of this Creati­on, in regard that no finite good doth satisfie it. Now if it be capable of a greater good, surely there is such a good, for there is no Capacity in Nature in vain: As there is no Vacuity in Nature; Quaelibet potentia appetit objectum sibi Conveniens. Aquin. 3. p. q. 78. Art. 1. Appetitus &. appetitum sunt ut locum & locatum. Fotherb. Atheom. p. 196. every place is fil'd with something. So if there was any natural Capacity in the creatures, and no object to Answer to it, there would be a kind of va­cuity in the Creation: Those infinite and bound­less [Page 168] desires of the Soul, shew that there is an in­finite object to satisfie them. And therefore of all the faculties of the Soul, that which the Phi­losophers call [...], or the Appetite of the Soul, doth best represent infinity, because it is infinite in its Inclinations, though not in its Na­ture. And as it best doth represent Infinity, so it doth demonstrate also that somewhere it is to be found. Now it is Evident it is not found in the Creature, and therefore it is in God.

And as it had been (to speak with reve­rence) some deficiency in Gods Creation, not to have made a Creature capable of knowing and enjoying the Creator: So there being a Creature in the Universe of such a Capacity, it shews that there is such an Object for which this Capacity is given.

2. It is evident that the Soul hath within it divine inclinations, or, an Idea of Divini­ty, as one speaks, and aspiring to higher things then those that are Earthly and sensual, even towards Divinity, and therefore there is a Divinity, As the Philosopher said, Hoc ha­bet anima argumentum divinitatis quod eam di­vina delectent. The Soul hath this Argument in its self, that it is of a Divine Nature, be­cause Divine things are delightful to it: So it shews there are Divine Beings, (or rather a Divine Being) because the Soul hath incli­nations towards a Divinity: And as Aristotle once said, as I have somewhere read of him, Though it be but little we know of Superiour [Page 169] Beings, yet that little doth more delight us, then all that we know of things here below. I know that men given up to a sensual life, little concern themselves about higher things then of this lower World; But we are not to take the measure of the Soul from such that so de­base it, but rather from them in whom it hath had its best improvements. And though it is a true saying, Semen naturae non assurgit in fru­ctum gratiae; The Seed of Nature cannot rise up into the Fruit of Grace; yet in some it hath risen up to a greater heigth then in others, in whom we may take the best measures of it: As Christ our Saviour said to the man menti­oned in the Gospel, Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God: Of those that are out of the Kingdom of God, yet some come nearer to it then others, that have made better improve­ments of natural helps, and in whom we may take the best measure of the principles of Nature.

3. Whence is it that the Soul brings an Impression of a Deity upon it into the World? Even those people that have not had the bene­fit of any Institution in Knowledge, yet have all acknowledg'd a Deity, which shews they had this from Nature, and not from Educati­on? So that in this sence, that saying of Theodoret is true, Theodoret lib. de An­gelis, Tom. 2. p. 498. Divinity is first taught men by Nature, and then it is rectified and confirmed to men by Scripture. And this Man's Nature [Page 170] hath peculiar to it, that this Impression is not found in any Creature of this lower World, but here alone; because Man was made for an higher end then the Brutes. And if there was no God, this Impression would be in vain, which yet of all others is most generally in­graven; Si enim anima divi­na, aut à Deo data est, sinc dubio datorem suum novit. Tertul. Testimon. animae. p. 88. Yea, Man would be herein more miserable then the Brutes, to have the fear of a Dei­ty upon his Soul, when there is no such object of his fear.

The greatest Travellers have not been able to out-travel this notion of a Deity in the re­motest Countries whither they have come: As is evident in that account given by the greatest Travellers, as Drake, Candish, Hack­luit, &c. One of them tells us that the first thing he found amongst the Salvage people in No [...]a Albion, when he arrived there, was that he found them busied about Off'ring a Sacri­fice; and when he had bestowed some gifts of his liberality upon them, they would have Sacrific'd to him and his Company as Gods. And to this I may add what I find in Scripture, Pass over the Isles of Chittim and see, and send to Kedar and consider, hath a Nation changed their Gods that were no Gods? Jer. 2. 10. And the Prophet Micah to the same purpose, chap. 4. v. 5. All people will walk every one in the Name of his God. All people, not only the more civil, which some think, are meant by the Isles of Chittim, but the more barba­rous [Page 171] and undisciplin'd, as the Kedarens: They will none of them change their Gods, but will walk in their Name. So that though the Heathen did differ about the Number, Or­der, Nature, and Power of their Gods, yet all had some Deity they worshipt; And the wiser of them did acknow­ledge one supreme Deity; Multi de diis prava sentiunt, id enim vi­cioso more effici solet, omnes tamen esse vim & naturam divinam arbitrantur. Cic. l. 1. Tusc. the Maker of the World, and the other, but Deos populares, popu­lar Gods.

And this acknowledgment of a Deity is not sprung up in Later Times, but hath been from the beginning; neither is it confined only to some one Nation, but is in every Nation: So that what we can plead so Ancient prescription for, and the suffrage of all mankind, is cer­tainly a great Truth, and a Truth that is sown in Nature it self. Now what an undeniable Evidence is this of the Being of God, when it is so legibly written in every Man's Heart.

Not that the Notice hereof is so clear and operative, as it was in Man's state of Innocen­cy; yet something still remains of the old In­scription, which is renewed and quickned by the Spirit, through the Written Word, where it doth inhabit. As an Ancient writing in Mar­ble that still remains, though much cover'd and obscur'd with dust; yet as the dust is rubbed off, so the Writing appears Legible again: It's true some Men seem to have no Conscience [Page 172] and sence of a Deity; yet this is no Argu­ment but that Conscience is Universal to Men: Even as the Sottishness or Distraction of some Mens Reason, is no Argument against Rea­sons being an Vniversal Principle in Men.

4. We may argue from the Souls Immor­tality: To what purpose should it Survive the Body, if there be no God? For if it survive, as I shall afterwards shew, it must Survive to some end; and this end cannot be with respect to any Creature, and therefore it must be with respect to God. It doth not Survive with respect to the enjoyment of the sensual things of this World, for in its separate state it hath no need of them; neither with respect to any Homage and Service to be performed to the Angels, for it owes no such thing to them; and there­fore it must be with respect to some other end: And he that denyes the Being of God, cannot imagine to what end the Soul should continue for ever.

But because there is a God, who is an Eternal Being, therefore are there Creatures made by him that are of an Eternal durati­on, that in them he might have glory for ever.

Now that the Soul is Immortal, appears, Because in the Creation of the World there is distinction made in the Creatures; Those that were to have Corruptible Natures, were formed out of Corruptible Matter; but those that were to abide for ever, were by Imme­diate Creation, as Angels, as also the Souls of [Page 173] Men; of which it is said, God breathed into Man the breath of Life, and he became a living Soul. Which the Prophet Malachy refers to, in chap. 2. 15. And did he not make One, yet had he the Residue of the Spirit: which shews the Divine Original of the Soul, proceeding immediately from the Divine Spirit.

Was the Soul of Man Mortal and Corrupti­ble, God could and would have educed it out of those Sensitive Spirits that were Con­created with the Chaos, as he did the Souls of Beasts, Fishes, and the Fowls of the Air; but because he did immediately breathe it into Man, it shews that it is of a different Nature from them, and doth not, as they do, return to Corruption.

But to Demonstrate this from Reason, as well as from Scripture, which it may be sup­posed an Atheist will deny.

1. It is Irrational to conceive, that there should never be a respect given to Virtue more than Vice; to Righteousness than Unrighte­ousness: Seeing it is written in every Mans Nature, that the one is better then the other. Now in this Life we see it not; there is one event to the Righteous and the Wicked. And even in the Deaths of Men it is not visible nei­ther, For how dieth the wise Man? as the Fool, as Solomon speaks; And therefore it must be after Death; was the Soul Mortal, wicked­ness would escape the hands of Justice, and Holiness would never meet with the rewards [Page 174] of Grace: Seeing God made the World, he also necessarily must Govern it, if he Govern it, it is in Wisdom and Righteousness. If so, there must be different rewards to the Evil, and the Good: And therefore the Souls of Men necessarily must survive to receive those rewards.

2. God hath made but two sorts of Intel­ligent Creatures in the Universe, Angels and Men: And these are more immediately made for the Glory of their Creator, who as he is the King Eternal, and Immortal, so the Glory that is suitable to him, must be Eternal and Immortal; which he cannot have but from Immortal Creatures that live for ever; whe­ther it be the Glory of Mercy or of Justice. And as he hath the Glory of both in the An­gels, some always beholding the Face of God, and the others that fell, cast down to Hell, and delivered into chains of Darkness, 2 Pet. 2. 4. So will he have the same of Men, the one, in those that are saved; and in them that perish, the other: And this could not be, did not the Souls of Men abide for ever.

3. Whence is it that the Souls of Men have respect to a future state, which no other Creatures have: Some have respect to it with fear, and terrour; some with hope, and joy­fulness.

And however some Men that are wholly im­merst in a Life of Sensuality, concern them­selves little about it, yet when they come to [Page 175] leave this World, they cannot but have some thoughts concerning it; and then, though it may be too late, will be making some pro­vision for it.

And if we look to the Heathen Nations, that had only the Light of Nature to see by, we shall find they had all some rude Notions of a future State: Hence were their Noti­ons of Olympus, Elysium, or a state of Happi­ness; of their Pluto, Proserpina, Rhadamanthus, Cerberus, Styx, and their Dirae, or Canes Sty­giae; which shew'd the Notions they had in their Souls of a State of Misery after Death. And the Poets fictions of Tantalus, Sisiphus, Ixion, and others, that were suffering Tor­ments of several kinds in Hell; which shews they had some apprehensions of the Souls survival after it leaves the Body. And as Ter­tullian argues against the Hea­then, Imo cur in totum times mortem, si nihil est tibi timendum post mortem, nec ex­periendum post mor­tem? &c. Tertul. Test. animae, p. 88. If there was no survival of the Soul, what need Men to fear Death; You may say be­cause it cuts Men off from the Commodities and Comforts of Life: But it delivers Men from all the Sorrows and Troubles of Life, which usually exceed the other. And therefore, for it self, it ought not to be feared: And when Men fear it, it is an Argument of some state of Misery after it.

[Page 176] Object. But these were but some confused Notions, and uncertain Conjectures, and so prove nothing?

Answ. Since the Fall of Man all those in­nate Notions of Knowledge, and Principles of Righteousness, that were Concreated with the Soul are disordered, and darkned; and amongst the rest, that Knowledge the Soul had of it self, and its own Immortality. But those that yet remain, though Confused and Im­perfect, do shew the prints and foot-steps of what it once more perfectly was possessed of. As the Ruins of some Ancient stately Edifice, do darkly shew that there hath been former­ly such a stately structure in Being.

When meer Nature did lead the Heathen to such (though very rude) Conceptions of the future State of the Soul, it hath a strong Argument in it for such a State. And those Natural Principles and Characters in the Soul, that the Gospel doth Confirm and clear up to us, to be sure were Originally placed there by God himself: As its of the Immortality is one, which we find the Gospel doth give abundant Light and Testimony to. And so it may be an Argument to us that have the Gospel, though not to the Heathen that had it not.

Object. But these apprehensions that the Heathen had of the future State of the Soul, were at first devised for Political ends, to keep people the better under Government.

[Page 177] Answ. 1. Those Heathen that lived under no Government, had such apprehensions. And 2. Such Political devices would have had but little Influence to such an end, was there not a Natural (though but a confused) Notion of such a state radically in the Hearts of Men: For no Man came from the dead so as to tell the World of the state of separate Souls, and therefore for Men to have gene­rally some respect to a future state, it shews there is a Natural and Connate notice there­of in the Souls of Men.

Neither is it an Argument to be slighted, whereby some have proved the Souls Immor­tality from Mens Natural desire to Immorta­lize their Name; which shews the Soul doth look beyond its present state, which the Soul of a Brute doth not: As appears by Absolon's Pillar, set up by him to preserve his Name. And that Fellow that is said to burn Diana's Temple, that he might perpetuate his Name. And how did the Poets please themselves, that by their Poems they should have their Names preserved after their death. Multaque pars mei vitabit Libitinam, said Horace; A great part of me shall escape death, he means his Name shall not die. As he saith in the conclusion of his Odes, as I remember, Exegi monumentum aere perennius, &c. He had raised, he saith, a Monument, to his Name, more lasting than Brass, whereby he should live in the World after death. And so Ovid, with respect to one [Page 178] of his chief Poems adds this Conclusion.

We see by this, the Natural desire of the Soul to Immortality. And because these Heathen were without the Light of the Word to direct them to the true Immortality of Heaven, therefore they sought it, by provi­ding an Immortality to their Names here on Earth. And Tertullian much Insists upon this Argument, lib. de Test. animae, and Argues thus, Vnde anima hodie affectaret aliquid quod velit post mortem, & tantopere praepararet quo sit usura post obitum si nihil de postero sciret, &c. Why should the Soul be so solicitous to prepare for the enjoyment of something after death, if it did not survive the grave. And he instanceth in the Curtii and Reguli, who contemned their lives that they might have a Name after death.

5. The Soul of Man is capable of fra­ming a Conception of God, and that is an Argument that God is: To what purpose should such a Capacity be in the Soul, if there was no such Object? To what purpose was the faculty of seeing, if there was no visible Objects in Nature? Had the Soul no higher [Page 179] end then to animate an Earthly Body, and to guide Men about the affairs of this lower World, it needed not to have a Capacity be­yond them.

And though we know little of the Divine Being, and our highest Conceptions, are but some low Adumbrations of it, yet the Soul is not altogether destitute of them, though in a faln state, And that may shew that these Con­ceptions were far higher in it before its fall.

I shall illustrate this Argument by Instances in several of the Divine Attributes, that are Essential to the Being of God: Of all which the Mind is Capable of framing a Conception, though not to comprehend them.

1. Is God's eternity; it is essential to his Being to be eternal: And the Mind is capable of running back in its thoughts beyond the Beginning of time, which is eternity, a parte ante, and forward beyond the end of time, yea to an endless duration; which is eternity a parte post. It is able to lanch it self out into that wide Ocean.

For whence is it that we have in Divinity a definition given us of eternity; Interminabilis, Boetius. perfecta, & tota simul vitae possessio; An endless, entire, and perfect possession of life all at once; but that the Mind can frame some concepti­on about it?

[Page 180] 2. Is Immensity, or Omnipresence. The Mind can inlarge it self to the utmost Sphaere of the World's Circumference; yea it can imagine a Sphaere beyond that Sphaere, and a space comprehended in no Sphaere; as some of the Philosophers had Notions of an Infi­nite space before the World's Creation. It can also conceive of a Being whose presence may be extensive to this vast space; and may extend beyond the utmost Sphaere of the Universe, whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain; yea it can conceive of God according to the Philosophers description of him. He is a Being whose Centre is every where, and his Circumferance no where. Though I must say, this conception is accor­ding to the Mind's finiteness, not God's Infi­niteness.

3. Is Universality of perfection and Being. Though particulars and Individuals are the only object of Sence, for Vniversalia non incurrunt in Sensum; Vniversals do not run into the Sence; yet the Mind is able to frame an abstract Notion of Universality: As of Light, Life, Beauty, Strength, Wisdom, &c. as they are in themselves without respect to any Individual Subject wherein they may exist. It can surveigh this whole Creation, and all the perfections of it, and then can conceive of a Being that may have all these perfections eminently in it self.

[Page 181] The Philosophers of old in their search of Nature did raise up their Minds from Indi­viduals to apprehend a Species containing all the Individuals; and then by a more abstract thought, to apprehend a Genus that contain­ed all the Species. And from thence they rai­sed their Minds to a Conception of Ens, or Being it self, which is Genus Generalissimum. Now God is an Universal Perfection, and Universal Being; and the Mind though in a low degree, can frame a conception of his Universality. As Seneca a Moral Heathen, said of God, Totum est quod vides, & totum est quod non vides; He is all that thou seest, and all which thou dost not see; such an Uni­versal Notion did his Mind frame of God.

4. Is Simplicity. Though our eyes never saw such a thing in any Creature, neither can we find it absolutely in any Creature either in Heaven or Earth, yet the Mind can frame a Conception of it; which is one of the glo­rious Attributes of God, that he is without any Composition, or any diversity in his Be­ing, in the most abstract and refined Notion of it. As the School-Men have given us a description of this attribute, which shews the Mind can conceive something of it. 1. That God is without Parts, either Similar, or In­tegral, as the Body of Man hath. 2. That he is without matter and form, as we see in the Constitution of Man, and other Crea­tures. 3. He is without general and special [Page 182] Nature; as Man hath a general Nature, as he is a living Creature; and special, as he is a Man. 4. Without quality; as distinct from Essence; or Accidents, as distinct from Sub­stance: as may be found in all Creatures, the very Angels not excepted. 5. Without Act and Power, as distinct things: That is, God cannot be possibly any thing that he is not, or cease to be what he is. 6. Without any distinction of Essence, and Existence, which some call Being, and Individuation: As we can distinguish betwixt the common Nature of Man, which is Humanity; and the ex­istence of this Nature in Peter, or John, or any Individual Person: So that there is no shadow of any composition, distinction, or as some call it, Alterity in his Being: But he is all perfection of Being, not only com­prehensively, but in the greatest Purity, Uni­ty, and Actuality: And so I might proceed to speak of other properties of his Being, but these I only mention to shew the Capaci­ty that is in the Mind of Man, to frame a Physical, or rather a Metaphysical, conception of a Deity, and the several properties Essential to it; and from hence to draw a rational proof of God's Being.

6. Lastly, We may Argue from those in­nate Notions of Good and Evil, that are naturally in the Soul of Man; whereby that which is morally Good is approved, and the contrary is disapproved: As we see it among [Page 183] the Indians, and other Heathens, who have not only Natural Reason to discern, but have a moral Judgment to approve the good, and to disprove the evil. And amongst many of them Injustice, Fraud, Violence, Oppression, are severely punisht, and the contrary rewar­ded and commended. As the Apostle speaks of the Gentiles, that though they were without the Law, yet they did by Nature the things con­tained in the Law. Now whence is this? why should Justice be rather approved of then Injustice, Honesty then Dishonesty? but that the Soul did Originally spring from some Fountain of goodness, that did derive some resemblance, and imprint some Characters of his own Nature upon it. The Reliques of which the School-Men call Synteresis, which are yet found in Man; And by Philosophers are called [...], and [...]; Common Principles, and Anticipations; preceding all acquired Habits or Principles, by Education, Experience, or Custom.

How is it possible to believe a distinction of Good and Evil, and a Conscience about them should be naturally inherent in every Man, as we find it is, unless some Superior Power had fixed such Principles in us by our first constitution; and left an indelible Testi­mony in our own Souls about them: So that no Man can, if he would, in his sober Mind think Evil to be better then Good, and in his serious thoughts prefer it before it: [Page 184] wherein we have Nature to be our Mistress and Teacher. And who was the Teacher of Nature? Tertullian will Answer for me, Ma­gistra natura, anima discipula: Quicquid aut illa edocuit, aut ista perdidiscit a Deo traditum est, Magistro scilicet ipsius Magistrae: Nature is the Mistress, the Soul the Disciple; what ever the one hath Taught, and the other hath Lear­ned is derived from God, who is the Master of the Mistress her self, Test. animae adu: Gentes. And from hence it was that the Barbarous peo­ple mention'd, Act. 28. when they saw the Viper fasten upon St. Paul's hand, said, This Man is a Murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the Sea, yet Vengeance suffers not to live. Nature it self taught them that Murther was not only in it self an Evil, but that Ven­geance would pursue the Murtherer.

And though since sin entred the Nature of Man, fleshly lusts do precipitate Men to acts of moral unrighteousness, yet it is be­cause they offer Violence to that Light and Law of Nature that is planted in their Hearts.

And hence it is that we find many of the Heathen loved Justice for its own sake, with­out any respect to profit or praise of Men; as seeing a native Pulchritude, and goodness in it, conform to the inward Rule and Prin­ciple that was within themselves: Such as Socrates, Aristides, Fabritius, Licurgus, Solon, and the like. It was once argued by an Hea­then [Page 185] then Philosopher, If there be a God, whence is it that we see Evil in the World; if there be no God, whence is it that Good is in the World: He thought the good found therein might be an Argument for the Being of God; though he doubted it, for want of knowledge how Evil did first arise. But to us that know that Evil came not from God, but from some other cause, the Argument is strong, There is a Natural Goodness, there­fore there is a God.

CHAP. VIII.
God's perfect knowledge of Man, Evi­denced from his making Man. The several duties Man owes to God as his Creator. Man's destruction whence it ariseth, that the Creator destroyes his own Creature.

THus I have endeavoured to demonstrate the Being of God to Man, from the Cre­ation of Man, which methinks should be the most cogent Argument upon him, being taken from himself. Argumentum ad hominem ab homine. And because I would still make Natural Theology serve the Interest of true Religion, as the Hand-maid doth her Mistress; I shall there­fore draw several practical Inferences that na­turally arise from the Consideration of God as the Creator of Man.

Infer. I. First, He that made Man must needs know him. He that made a Watch, or Clock, knows every pin in it, and the motion of every wheel. So doth God know the Soul in all the faculties of it, knows what it can do, what it can not do; What are the apprehensions, volitions, and inclinations of it; What are the regular, and what are the ob­lique motions of it; What principles are in the Mind, how resented by the Will, how [Page 187] they are entertained in the Affections: He knows what it doth, what it would do, what it will not do. So that as it is said of Christ, he needed not that any should testifie of Man, for he knew what was in Man, Joh. 2. 25.

The Prophet David in the 139. Psalm, speaks of God's exact knowledge of him; First, in General, O God thou hast searched and known me, v. 1. And then particularly, Thou understandest my thoughts afar off, v. 2. Thou compassest my path, and art acquainted with all my ways, v. 3. There is not a word in my mouth, but thou knowest it altogether, v. 4. As if he should say, Thou knowest what I think, what I speak, what I do: And he giveth a twofold reason of this knowledge God had of him: One was, because he was every where present with him, v. 7. 8, 9, 10. And the other, because he made him and formed him; Thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my Mothers womb, v. 13. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, v. 15. In thy Book were all my members written, v. 16. God laid the draught of him, and made him, and therefore must needs have a perfect knowledge of him.

And from this knowledge of God a Chri­stian may form, to himself, matter both of Cau­tion and Consolation.

1. Caution, Ought we not then take heed to our selves, when God hath such perfect knowledge of us? Our actions are all known [Page 188] to him, y ea our words, yea our thoughts: The very frame and constitution of our most inward man is known to him: What neither Men or Angels know of us, or can know, that God knows. The Anatomist that dis­sects the Body, and discerns all its secret Veins and Arteries, and the smallest Fibrae's of Na­ture doth not so exactly know it, as God doth know it that made it, and he knows also that Spirit that dwels in it, it being the work of his own hand: Doth the Spirit in Man know the things of Man? yet God knows them better then the Spirit of Man; yea, he knows the Spirit it self, and that better then it knows it self.

Let then Christians walk continually under an awful sence of this: And take heed of all sin, because it is all known, especially that of Hypocrisie; an Hypocrite pleaseth himself that he is not known to Men: But let him consider that he is known to his own Consci­ence, and that condemns him; And he is known better to God then to his own Con­science, and therefore God will condemn much more, as knowing all things, 1 Joh. 3. 20. And suppose a Man should be unknown to himself, as we know the Heart of Man is deceitful not only to the deceiving of others, but even of it self, yet nothing in the Heart is hid to God; So that when the question is put, The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it? It is answered, I the Lord search the heart, &c. Jer. 17. 9, 10.

[Page 189] It should ingage every Christian to search and know his own Heart, because it is searched and known of God: That he that knows the Heart may find uprightness, and truth in the in­ward parts, which he is said to Love.

II. Consolation, A true Christian may com­fort himself in God's knowledge of him.

1. That God knows the weakness of our Nature, carries comfort in it to his people. As 103. Psalm 14. He knoweth our frame, he remembreth that we are dust: He knows he made us at first out of the dust, and he re­members it still, and as he makes it to him­self an Argument of pity, as the Psalmist speaks in the 13. verse, so we may thence also frame an Argument to our own comfort in the daily feeling we have of it.

2. That he also knows the Heart, is no small comfort to the upright in Heart. And that 1. In respect of the obloquies, censures, and misjudg­ings of Men. 2. In respect of the failings and defects that attend our Services: God can look through them all, to that integrity that is in the Heart which is known to him: Heze­kiah was guilty of many failings, but he had this to comfort him, that his Heart was up­right with God, and that God knew this, for he prays God to remember it, 38. Isa. 3. 3. In respect of Inability to perform what good we desire: God doth not only know what we act, but that desire of the Heart out of which we act, and where the Desire is [Page 190] beyond the Act, as it is in all true Saints, God knows that desire to accept it, though the Act falls short of it: David was under such a deep sence of God's goodness to him, that he knew not how sufficiently to express his thankfulness, but he comforts himself in this, that God knew him, 2 Sam. 7. And what can David say more unto thee for thou knowest thy servant.

Infer. II. If God be the Creator of Man, it followes that Man is not his own, God hath a supreme right to him as his Maker: He hath made us, and his we are, [...] for [...] as those words may be read, Psal. 100. 3. He hath made us, and not we our selves. And this Ori­ginal Right of God cannot be alienated, either by any extrinsick Power, or by any Compact made by our selves: Though Men sell themselves to work wickedness as Ahab did, yet they cannot sell away God's right to them as their Creator. As he that is the true proprietor will claim his goods where he sinds them, though sold over and over by such as had no right.

And therefore for Men to be their own, and live to themselves, hath a manifold Evil wrapt up in it.

1. It is Ingratitude; If it be Ingratitude not to improve, and devote the additional Comforts of our Being to God, much more not to devote our Being it self. Being it self [Page 191] is the greatest favour we receive from him, and therefore it is the greatest unthankful­ness, not to give him the Praise of it, by living to him. If any of us should raise a Man into some good condition in the World, and then should not be acknowledged by him that is thus raised, we should justly brand him with Ingratitude: Much more Ingratitude is it not to acknowledge God that hath raised us out of Non-being into Being. When Paul desired a favour of Philemon, with respect to Onesimus, he presseth it by this Argument that he could tell him, that he owed himself unto him, Philem. 19. It would have been great ingratitude had Philemon denyed his re­quest, though he did not owe himself to the Apostle in that Supreme and absolute Right as we owe our selves to God. And he that made us reasonable Creatures could have made us Brutes; ought we not then to be thankful to our Creator for making us such, and no Man is truly thankful that is his own, and reserveth himself from him. Man's service of God may be accounted reasonable, [...] cultus rationalis. Beza. as ma­king him a reasonable Creature, and not a Brute, Rom. 12. 1.

2. It is Injustice; He that is his own, and lives to himself, detaineth from God that which is His, and that is Injustice.

And as the Heathen Poet speaks, [...], &c. all Vertue is comprehended in Ju­stice, [Page 192] so injustice runs through the Nature of all sin, and all sin is radically comprehended in this, In Mans being his own. The unprofi­table servant in the Parable was Condemned for not improving his Masters Talent to his use; and the unjust Steward was cast out of his Office for imbezeling his Masters goods: And there was injustice found in them both: For Man not to improve the Talent of his Being to the use of his Creator is unjust, much more to imbezel and waste it upon the service of his Lusts. For what are all the faculties of our Souls and Bodies, but our Masters Goods, and to be devoted to his use.

Know ye not that the unrighte­ous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? [...]. saith the Apostle, 1 Cor. 6. 9. He mentions afterwards several sorts of sinner,s but in this they all agree, they are all un­righteous.

3. It is folly; should a Man live to him­self, when he cannot make himself happy? Happiness is that which all desire; why should then Man make himself his End, when he cannot be his own happiness? was Man self sufficient he need not go out of himself, but be his own Principle, Rule, and End, But seeing he is not sufficient to his own hap­piness, it is folly for him to live to himself. If Man in his fullest state of perfection was not his own happiness, how much less can he be now in his Indigent empty state? When Man [Page 193] changeth his ultimate end from himself to God, he now returns to the true Wisdom, and is delivered from that folly that sin had possest him with. For Men imagine they can make themselves happy, else they would not ultimately live to themselves.

Two things are requisite to Man's happi­ness in his present state. One is, That he be delivered from those hurtful Evils that are in­jurious, or destructive to it. And the other is, That he possess that positive good that is suitable, and every way satisfactory to his Nature, as he is a rational Creature; But nei­ther of these can man effect for himself. For the former, Can he deliver himself from sin, which is the worst of all Evils, and that Wrath, Curse, and Death, which he lies ob­noxious to upon the account of it? We see he cannot deliver himself from Temporal Evils, which seems more in his power to do, much less from those Eternal Evils which are inflicted by God's more immediate hand.

As to the latter, Can he of himself raise up his Soul to the well-head of all true feli­city, and fetch thence those Living Waters, that shall quench the thirst of his Soul, and satisfie all his desires? Can he, having extri­cated himself from those chains of sin that held him in bondage, enfranchise himself in­to a State and Spirit of true liberty? Can he enlighten his own mind, and quicken him­self into the life of holiness, when he is dead [Page 194] in sin? Alass, how little is it Man can do for himself in any thing, much less in these great things wherein his true happiness consists? Therefore is it not folly for Man to be his own, and live to himself?

4. Hereby Man perverts the End of his Be­ing. For God made Man for himself: He is both the Efficient, and End of his Being. And making Man for himself, he fitted him with Faculties to serve his End: As every Ratio­nal Agent doth propose to himself an End in what he doth, and doth forme means suitable to that End: Now if Man lives to himself, he serves not the End of his Creation; And what is a thing good for, if it doth not serve its End?

Would it not be a Monstrous thing in Na­ture, if the Sun should not shine forth its light upon the World, which is the end God made it for? Or if the Earth should impri­son within it self its seminal vertue, and not send it forth in those several fruits that it had a Commission to do for the use of Man and Beast? But we see these inferior parts of God's Creation do serve their End, and is it not sad that the supremer part of it, which is Man, should not serve his? May not he look upon the whole Creation, and then blush at himself? And the very Horse, Man rides upon, reproves the rider whiles he is serving of him.

This is the Harmony of the Creation, when [Page 195] every part of it keeps its place, and serves its End; It is only Man's sin that hath disturbed this harmony, by making Man live to him­self, and so not to serve his End.

5. Man's Being is prophaned; As the de­voting it to God doth Sanctifie it, so not to do it leaves it Common; Those Beasts, those Fruits under the Law that were given to God were Sanctified, and the rest were Common: Man doth Sanctifie his Being when he cea­seth from himself, and offers up himself to God: It is the Apostles exhortation, 12. Rom. 1. Present your Bodies, that is by a Synec­doche, your selves as a living Sacrifice: And then it follows, holy. When Man makes him­self a Sacrifice to God, then is his Being Con­secrated: As Lactantius tells the Heathen, Lib. 5. p. 421. that the Christian Sa­crifice was bona mens, purum pectus, innocens vita; A good Mind, pure Heart, innocent Life.

And as we are to offer our selves to God as a Sacrifice, so to dedicate our selves to him as his Temple; That both Soul and Body may be his habitation: And we know, under the Law, after the Temple was built, and dedicated, it was no longer a Common stru­cture. The Temple of God is Holy, In nostra dedicandus est mente, in nostro consecrandus est pe [...]o­re. Cypr. de Idol. vanitat. p. 289. saith the Apostle, and then addeth, which Temple ye are, 1 Cor. 3. 17. For seeing that he dwels not in Temples [Page 196] made with hands, being the Maker of the World, and all things therein, as we read Acts 17. 24. he now dwels in living Temples made without hands, which are his people that separate themselves unto him.

And least there should be wanting a Priest­hood, with respect to the Sacrifice and Tem­ple; The same that are the Sacrifice and Tem­ple are the Priesthood also. The Priests under the Law were persons separated from Com­mon men, and Sanctified to God. So they that separate themselves from the principles and practise of the Carnal World, and live to the service and honour of God, they are his Priesthood. As the Apostle St. Peter writes to the believing Jews, 1 Pet. 2. 9 and stiles them a Royal Priesthood, and so a peculiar, not Common, People; for they were such as had been Converted to God by the Gospel, and so were Sanctified to his service.

And seeing the same person is both Priest and Sacrifice, that which is off'red up, must needs be a Free-will offering. For the Sancti­fied will offers up the whole Man to God: And seeing it is the whole Man, it is an Ho­locaust also that is off'red up, or as stiled in the Law, a Whole burnt Offering.

Infer. III. But we may hence more particu­larly learn the several duties Man owes to God as his Maker.

1. We owe him Love; We Love them that give us gifts, how much more shouldst [Page 197] thou Love him that gave thee thy self? when Job would reckon up what God had done for him, he insists first upon God's giving him Being, 10. Job 10, 11. &c. Thou hast powred me out like Milk, crudled me as Cheese, cloath­ed me with Skin and Flesh, fenced me with Bones and Sinews, &c. Thou hast granted me life and favour.

And this favour of giving thee Being, is the first of God's favours; and it must needs be favour, for no Man could merit of God to give him Being. And if the preser­vation and accommodation of our Being in the World, should ingage us to Love God; how much more our Creation that gave us Being: And as every Man doth Love him­self, because he is himself; much more should we Love him that gave us our selves, and that more then our selves.

2. Fear; For he that gave thee Being can destroy it: And he is to be fear'd above all, for as he alone could give thee Being, so he alone can destroy it. The Body may be kil­led, and yet Man not destroyed; but to have Soul and Body cast into Hell, this destroys Man: now this only God can do, as our Sa­viour speaks, and therefore he is to be chief­ly feared: And this he will do, if thou fearest him not. He that made thee, will not have Mercy on thee, as it is said 27. Isa. 11. Elihu had an aw of God upon him, considered as his Maker, as appears by his speech, 32. Job last, [Page 198] I know not how to give flattering titles, in so doing my Maker would soon take me away. He that set me in a rank and station of Being, would remove me, or rather throw me out of it again. He that made Man hath there­by Sovereign Power over him; By this Sove­reign Power, he hath right to appoint Man a Law to govern him. And if Man transgress this Law, he violates God's Sovereignty; And therefore it belongs to God, either to pardon or punish the Transgression. And upon the account of both, God is to be feared: As he hath Power to punish, so we are to fear him; and as he hath Power to pardon, so we ought to fear him also, Psal. 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared. And as God's Sovereign Power over Man as his Creator, gives him this Right, so his essential or Creating Power, gives him ability to destroy the Creature which it gave Being to. The Prophet Jeremy therefore bids the people not to fear the Heathen Idols, 10. Jer. 5. And why? For they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good. But then speaking of the true God, adds v. 7. Who would not fear thee, O King of Nations? for to thee doth it appertain: He can do Good and Evil, he can save or destroy Man that made him, and therefore fear appertains to him.

3. Praise; As the Psalmist calls upon the most inferior Beings to praise God▪ as Beasts, [Page 199] and all Cattle, and creeping things: how much more should Man praise God that hath so no­ble a Being. David considering himself as God's Creature and Workmanship, breaks forth into his praise, 139. Psal. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And then he speaks particularly, how God drew out the Scheme of him in his Book, and then how his members were fashioned, and cu­riously wrought, v. 15. 16. Now saith David, I will praise thee; Even as a curious piece of Work, every one is ready to commend and praise: The Philosopher could thank his God that he made him a Man, and then for the advantages he afterwards conferred upon his humane Nature. Ought we to praise God for our Food, that preserves Life? much more for Life it self, that is better then Food, Matth. 6. 25.

4. Submission; Will he correct and cha­sten thee, submit and give him reverence: Do we so to the Fathers of our Flesh, that are but instruments to give us our Flesh and shall we not much more do it to the Father of Spirits, that is the Efficient and Creator of the Spirit? As the Apostle argues, 12. Heb. 9. Hath he made thee out of the clay, as Job ex­presseth it, Chap. 10. Hath he given thee Be­ing, and may he not dispose of it as he will: Hath not the Potter power over the clay to make it, and fashion it as he pleaseth? He that built an House may alter it and change [Page 200] it; yea and pull it down if he please.

God hath a twofold dominion over Man, Dominium jurisdictionis, & proprietatis. A Dominion of jurisdiction, whereby to rule over us, and a Dominion of property to di­spose of us: And both these are founded up­on the highest and most Sovereign Right, which is that of Creation.

5. Dependance; Thou hadst thy Being of him, and thou hast it still in him: As the Apostle puts both these together, 17. Act. 28. We are his of-spring, that is, we have our Be­ing of him; [...]. and saith also, We live, move, and Be in him: Our preservation is but a continued Creation. We subsist every moment in the first princi­ple of our Being; As the beams subsist in the Sun from whence they spring.

Thy Life depends more upon him, then upon the Bread: Man liveth not by Bread a­lone, but by every word that commeth out of the mouth of God. That word that first gave Man his life, is that upon which it still prin­cipally depends: And it is that which Job ac­knowledgeth; Thou hast given me life, and favour, and thy visitation preserveth my spirit, Job 10 9, 10.

Now this Natural dependance upon God, should teach Man a Moral dependance upon him: Man's state is passively a state of de­pendance, and therefore his life should be actively a life of dependance.

[Page 201] Should we not then in all our ways acknow­ledge him? And trust in him with all our Hearts, and not leane to our own understan­ding? 3. Pro. 5, 6. what ever means thou usest for the welfare of thy Soul or Body, yet depend not upon them, but upon him that is the Creator of both: Let that infinite Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, out of which thy Being flowes, be the objects of thy de­pendance for thy well being.

Especially seeing we have these ingaged to us (if we are believers) in an Everlasting Co­venant, to be exerted for our succor and sup­ply in every time of need: So that we may now depend upon him, and commit our selves to him, not only as a Wise, Good, and Power­ful, but as a Faithful Creator, 1 Pet. 4. 19. Considering that the Soul and Body that were made by him, are not under his care only by the common Laws of Creation and providence, but by special Covenant.

6. Obedience to his Law, I mean his Written Law; I know this Law comprehends in it all the foregoing duties, which are in themselves Naturally moral, and by vertue of God's Law are made Positively moral; but yet this Law of God being of further extent, I shall therefore speak of it under a distinct head.

God, as Man's Creator, hath right to ap­point him the Law and Rule of his Life, and Actions; and so as his Creatures we owe him [Page 220] obedience. All Creatures are passively un­der a Natural Law, which the Creator did appoint to them; and which is observed by them, though many of them know it not; But Man is under a Written Law, which he is actively to obey. He being a Reasonable Creature, he is capable of knowing the rule and end of his being, which the other Crea­tures are not: And both these are laid down in the Scriptures. Consider then, 1. God is Man's Creator. 2. He Created him for an End. 3. He hath given him a Law and Rule to walk by in order to that End. And here­upon Man lies under the highest obligation to Obedience, it being the Law of him that made him: And Man's obedience to God ought to be absolute; Though it ought not to be so to Men, because God's dominion over us is superior to that of all Men, and so may supersede and over-rule it.

And if we think it our duty to obey Ma­gistrates and Parents that have some inferior power over us, how much more that God who hath a Supreme Power, and that foun­ded in the highest right, which is that of Creation.

And let us particularly shew our obedience to his Law in our worship of him: For as worship is due to God as our Creator, as the Psalmist speaks, 95. Psal. Oh come let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker; so he hath right also there­by [Page 221] by to set us the rule of our Worship. As not to Worship him is Contempt, so to Worship otherwise then he hath appointed is Idolatry, or Superstition; yea it is a bold usurpation of the Creature upon the Creator. The Apostle calls it Will worship, 2. Col. because it is foun­ded in Man's will and not God's.

And what though the worship God hath in­stituted, hath an outside meanness and no ex­ternal splendor in it, to affect the sense; yet we are to perform it out of meer obedience. And obedience hath a Comeliness and Beauty in it, though it be in the least matters: And in such matters, wherein we can see no Reason for them, but the will of God; as in Abraham's Offering up his Son, and Naaman his washing seven times in Jordan, &c. And in these espe­cially is Man's obedience tryed: All moral duties carry such equity and goodness in the Nature of them, that right Reason doth per­suade obedience to them; but these that are duties only by Institution, are to be obeyed though meerly to comply with the Creatours will. And that God might have this obedi­ence from Adam as well as the former, he forbad him to Eat of one Tree of the Garden. And why one, and not two? why that and not another only depended upon God's So­vereign will: And such Institutions we have still in God's written Word, to which we are to give obedience, as they bear the stamp of God's Authority, though we should see [Page 204] no other Reason for it. This is the third In­ference.

Infer. IV. Hence we may take notice in the next place, that Man's safest and happiest consistance is in God, he being Man's Crea­tor, and the Fountain of his Being: As we see every thing in Nature hath its best existence in the principle out of which it is derived, and the Original out of which it springs: As a Branch hath its best existence in the Tree, Ri­vers in the Sea, Fire in its Element, Earthly matter in the Earth: So hath Man in God; Here is his most proper dwelling, and resting place: As every thing in Nature hath its home and centre; But God himself is these to Man: And therefore hither ought his motions tend, as every thing in Nature, is tending thither where it hath its best abode.

Sin hath separated Man from the principle of his Being, and cut of his Communion with his Creator, and now no wonder though he finds no resting place, being out of his Centre; and that his Soul is withering, being cut off from the root of its life.

Though it is true Man's natural Being is still upheld by the Power and providence of God; yet as to his moral Well-being, sin hath made an intercision betwixt God and him.

But let him not continue thus; But as the Child that is carried from home, cries to re­turn back again; and taken from the Armes of its Parents, reacheth to come to them [Page 205] again; so let Man do, let him be crying after God, to return to him as his true home, and the great Parent of his Being.

Go to him and tell him, thou art his Crea­ture, and he thy Creator, if thou canst not yet call him Father; pray him to have pity on thee, as thou art the work of his Hand: To re­ceive thee, and pardon thee, and to deliver thee from that sin which is none of God's work, yet hath marred his work in thee, and leads the Creature from his Creator, though it self be none of his Creatures.

And we that live under the Gospel have both direction and encouragement herein: The Gospel tells us the way whereby we may come back to God again, which is Jesus Christ; When as those that live without it, feel after him only as Men in the dark (as the Apostle speaks of the Gentiles, 17. Act.) wanting a guide to lead them to him.

It also doth give great Encouragement to Men, by declaring God's infinite readiness to receive his returning Creature: It tells us that Christ came from Heaven to declare this readi­ness, and so he did it all along, when here up­on Earth; especially in the three Parables of the lost Sheep, the lost Drachme, and the lost Son, 15. Luk. But his suffering Death to make way for our return, and to bring us to God, doth above all abundantly declare it, as the Apostle speaks, 1 Pet. 3. 18. Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the un­just, [Page 206] that he might bring us to God.

Infer. V. Hence it follows that if God is our Maker, Man hath no Reason to Glory in himself; For he hath derived his Being, his Self from God: Hast thou Beauty, Strength, Parts, and Endowments of Mind, but why shouldst thou Glory? art thou not God's Creature, hast thou any thing but what thou hast received? It is of him that thou art what thou art in every thing, except thy sin; And wilt thou Glory in that? in that which is thy shame? in that wilt thou Glory which hath stript Man of his Glory? Hath he formed thee out of the Clay, raised thee out of the Dust, clothed thee with Skin and Flesh, breathed in­to thee the breath of Life; yea, brought thee out of the Abyss of nothing into being, (As David speaks of his substance and members formed by God, when once there was none of them, 139. Psal. 16.) and wilt thou Glory in thy self? Especially wilt thou Glory in thy self against God, and say, who is the Lord? I have Strength, Wit, Wisdom of mine own, and why should I be subject to him? or what need I depend upon him. Thus Man comes to disown his Creator, and sets up himself as God, and above him that made him: And as if he had his Being of himself, in the pride of his Heart, saith with the Prince of Tyrus, I AM; when as God's Name alone is I AM, as God told Moses, Exod. 3. 14. And as the Greek word EI was writ upon the gates of Apollo's [Page 207] Temple, which signifies, Thou art; which intimates what Notion the very Heathen had of God; that he was Being it self, and of him­self; so that all other Beings must be of him. But Man forgets this, and thinks he is of him­self, and therefore is apt to lay aside all re­spect to God, and exalt himself into his room.

And as Man was once nothing Negatively, till God gave him Being, and made him some­thing; so he would soon return to nothing again privatively, if he was not continually pre­served by an Influx of Being from the first Being.

So that, as a late Learned Writer speaks, if God should say to him, or to any Angel in Heaven, Accipe quod tuum est, & abi; Take that which is thine one, and be gone; they must depart into their first nothing: What hath Man then left him to Glory in?

Infer. VI. Lastly, The Saints may hence draw several Arguments to plead with God by, and strengthen their Faith therein: Espe­cially in these Cases.

1. To make provision for them; Hath he given me Being, and will he not take care of that Being he hath given me? Hath he given me Life, and will he not give food to main­tain that Life? and a Body, and will he not provide raiment to Cloath it? We know these are Christ's Arguments to strengthen his Disciples Faith against inordinate Cares; in [Page 208] the 6. Matth. 25. Hath he put this Instinct in­to all living Creatures to provide for their young, that proceed from them by Natural Generation; and is it not then eminently in God's Nature, that is the Creator of all things? Hereupon he is said to feed the Ra­vens, cloath the grass of the Field, take care of Sparrows, and to send rain for his Land, Job 37. 13. And will he not take care of his people who are a more special part of his Creation.

2. To redeem them from Sin, and Satan, and the World, the three great Adversaries of their Souls. 1. From Sin, we may plead with God to redeem us from it, that what is no part of his Creation, may not destroy that Soul that is a chief part of it: That what hinders us from serving the end of our Being, which is to Glorifie our Creator, may not still be found dwelling in us his Creatures. 2. From Satan; That we who are God's Creatures, may be delivered from his Vsurpation and Ty­ranny, who hath no right to rule over us: That he who is the God of the World, by permission and power only, not by any right, and to whom we owe no service, may not hinder us in the service of him that is the true God, the Creator, and rightful Governor of the World, and to whom we owe all service. 3. From the World; Did not God make Man, and made him Lord of his Creation, and made the Creatures to serve him? maist [Page 209] not thou then plead with God, that he would help thee to maintain thy Sovereignty over them, that they may not enslave thy Soul, and make thee to be servant to them? That thou mayst not only live as his Creature, but reign in that Station of Sovereignty wherein God first set Man, over the World, and things thereof.

For as the Poet speaks of Money, Imperat aut servit, &c. It is either a Man's Master or his Servant; so it may be said of all other things. A Man may have a Natural dominion over them, and command them for his use, and yet be under a moral slavery and subjecti­on to them, by having his Heart captivated and ensnared by them: And so Man is degra­ded of one great part of that Sovereignty wherein he was first created.

3. To instruct and teach them in their way; As David prays, 119. Psal. 73. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me, give me understan­ding that I may learn thy Commandments. As if he should say, Lord, thou hast given me my Being, and wilt thou leave me; and not guide me and lead me, now thou hast made me? Or as others, thus, Thine hands have made me and fashioned me, therefore I owe thee Obedience, give me therefore understan­ding that I may learn thy Commandments, and so give obedience to thee: Or it may be David looks at God as his Father by Creation, and therefore begs that, as a Father, he would in­struct [Page 210] him, and learn him his Commandments: And so may the Saints plead, that as God hath given them Being, so he would guide them in the way to their Well-being.

4. They may hence plead for support un­der their afflictions; That God would have regard to the work of his hands, that no af­fliction may be above their strength to under­go, least it prove destructive to the Creature that he hath made.

It was Job's complaint to God, though he went too far in it, 10. Job. 8. Thine hands have made me and fashioned me, yet thou doest de­stroy me: And hence he makes his plea also with God, Remember I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and wilt thou bring me to the dust again? And Job speaks this upon the account of his sore afflictions.

And though the Saints may plead with God by a nearer relation to him then that of Creation, as being his adopted Children, yet the former plea is not antiquated, as the rela­tion it self is not nulled. As appears, because God himself from thence draws Arguments to pity and succour his people: As in the 57. Isa. 16. I will not contend for ever, nei­ther will I be always wroth, for the Spirit should fail before me, and the Soul that I have made: And that which is an Argument to himself, may be to us to plead with him by.

And I may add, we may hence also plead [Page 211] to be saved out of affliction, as well as sup­ported under it: For he that first created Man out of the dust, is able to Create deliverance to us, when by afflictions we are laid in the dust, and brought even to the dust of Death, as David's expression is, 22. Psal. 15. And we may believe he is willing as well as able, see­ing our Creation was not the effect of his Power only but of his Goodness also; and this goodness of his continues still towards his Creature, whereby to be ready to give it a Well-being, as he first gave it Being.

And hereupon, Job is thought to comfort himself, that God would raise his Body out of the grave, it being his own Workmanship, 14. Job 15. Thou wilt call, and I will answer; thou wilt have a regard to the work of thy hands. And from that Power and Goodness of God that will raise up the Bodies of the Saints at the last day, they may hope for a Resur­rection out of the grave of any Temporal af­fliction in this World (only with a submissi­on to the Creator's will); As the deliverance of the Jews out of Captivity is set forth by the opening of their graves and making dry bones to live, Ezek. 37. 5, 13.

5. They may hence also plead with God to restore them into a state of holiness and righteousness, seeing he made Man first in such a state: For who can restore lapsed Man, but he that first made Man; God made Man upright at first, and he alone can restore him to it again.

[Page 212] After sin had broke in upon the Nature of Man, and corrupted it; God is said to re­pent of his work, that he had made Man; but in our Restoration God rejoyceth in his work again: As our Saviour telleth us, That there is joy in Heaven when a sinner repents, 15. Luk. 7.

And this Restoration is called a Creation, for it brings Man into the Image of God again; And being a Creation it cannot be ef­fected but by God himself. And he that made Man at first after his Image, of his own good­ness, when none did ask it of him; will he not be ready to restore it to us when we shall come, and begg it at his hand?

There is a cry to God as the great Creator of the World, which is only vox Naturae, the voice of Nature; So every Man is ready to cry to God in his distress; Yea the very brute Creatures thus cry, The young Lions seek their prey of God; and the Ravens cry to be fed, and God is said to hear them: But the Saints cry is vox Spiritus, the voice of God's Spirit in their Hearts; wherein they make a Spiritual and special improvement of their Common relation to God as their Creator, in all the Cases formentioned: And though it be but Common blessings they sometimes begg, and the good things of Nature, yet it is by a principle that is supernatural.

Infer. VII. Lastly, We may hence take notice of the destructive and provoking Na­ture [Page 213] of Sin; It provokes God to destroy the Creature that was made by him: Yea that Creature which he hath bestowed peculiar Workmanship upon. God loves every Crea­ture as it is his Creature, and much more Man among his Creatures; how comes it then that any Man is destroyed? it is because sin hath got into his Nature, and his first armeth him against God his Creator, and thereby his Justice comes to be armed against Man his Creature and he falls before it.

And therefore let no Man plead for liberty and impunity in sin, because he is God's Crea­ture: As many ignorant people have no high­er hope then upon this bottom, He that made them will not damn them: God hath given Man a Law and Rule to walk by, and provided means for him in order to his Salvation; but if Man refuse thus to walk, and reject the means of his own happiness, let him not censure his Maker as cruel to his Creature: For it is not so much God's destroying Man, as Man's de­destroying himself. As if Jeremy the Pro­phet being in the miry Dungeon, and having Ropes and old raggs let down to him to pull him out, should yet have refused to put them under his Arms, but will stay and perish there; Jeremy had thereby been the cause of his own death. Or as a wise and merciful King de­lights not to have his Subjects put to death, but by wilful breaking the Law they bring it upon themselves.

[Page 214] Neither let any Man say God destroys his Creature out of his mere Sovereignty: And that he made some Men on purpose to de­stroy them; And that without any conside­ration of their sin, he decreed them out of his own pleasure to everlasting misery.

And therefore here, though in the close of all, I shall vindicate my Text from a corrupt Interpretation; which though the Grammati­cal construction may bear, yet the Truth will not; [...]. For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen, &c. even his Eternal Power and God-head, to this end that they might be without excuse. As if to make men inexcusable, was God's end in making him­self known in the works of Creation, when it is only a consequence of it through Man's default.

`Some indeed have thought that God out of his absolute Sovereignty may take away from his Creature that which he hath given it, as Life, and Being; he may annihilate what he hath Created: but to make his Crea­ture Eternally miserable (which is worse then a not-Being) meerly out of Sovereignty, this cannot consist with his Infinite Mercy and Goodness: A Man hath that Dominion over a Beast that he may take away the Life of it if he please; but to put his Beast out of his mere pleasure to perpetual Torment, is perfect cru­elty, and contrary to that mercy and humani­ty [Page 215] that belongs to the perfection of Man's Nature. And therefore it cannot be imagi­ned that any such thing can be found in God. I will ascribe Righteousness to my Maker, said Elihu, Job 36. 3. And so we ought to ascribe Mercy and Goodness, and all per­fection to that God that made us all, as it be­comes Creatures to their Creator.

God might have chosen whether he would make such a Creature as Man or not; he did not owe this to him to give him Being, much less to make him a reasonable Creature; but having made such a Creature and put him un­der a Law, now God hath obliged himself to dispose of Man, not according to mere So­vereignty, but according to that Law under which he stands.

And if Men, not so much for want of abili­ty, as out of sloth, or hatred, and contempt, do not comply with this Law, and the terms of their own happiness, they are there­by self-destroyers, as God charged it upon Is­rael of old, O Israel thou hast, destroyed thy self.

And as one well speaks, Deus non prius est ultor quam homo peccator; God is not a re­venger till Man is first a sinner: God is of­ten said to shew mercy for his Names-sake, but is never said to Plague or Punish meerly for his Names-sake. And therefore why should Man complain? as Salvian expostu­lates with the Christians of his time. Why do [Page 216] we complain that our punishment is bitter and grievous; Vnusquisque nostrum ipse se punit? Every Man doth punish himself, though he is also punisht of God; God doth it Judici­ally as a righteous Judge, but Man doth it Meritoriously as a guilty sinner.

Not but that God as an absolute Sovereign may give more of his grace and gifts to one then another; for he may do what he will with his own, where he is Indebted to none; Neither can we conclude because Man's destruction is of himself, therefore his Sal­vation is of himself: For the one Man can effect of himself as Adam did, but the other he can­not attain without God.

As the Sheep in the Parable that went astray of it self, but came not home till the Owner found it out, and brought it back upon his Shoulder, 15. Luk. 4, 5.

Man was able to deprive himself of his Original Righteousness, but it is only God can restore it: As Natural privations in the Body are easily made by a Man's own self, a Man may easily destroy his own sight, but it is beyond his power to restore this habit of sight: According to the Axiom in Philosophy, A privatione ad habitum non da­tur regressus; There is no return in Nature from a privation to the habit again.

And it is much more true of Spiritual pri­vations upon the Soul, Man hath been able to bring them upon himself, but he cannot [Page 217] of himself return to those divine habits that he is deprived of.

So that in those that are Saved, God will have his Grace and Mercy magnified, as be­ing Saved by himself; so, in those that Perish, he will have his Justice magnified, as being destroyed by themselves.

Men Perish by their own Will, but against God's Will; I mean his Antecedent Will, and as revealed in his Word. For else Men Perish by God's consequent Will, ha­ving rejected the means of their own Sal­vation.

So that I shall Conclude in the Con­clusive words of that Learned Gentleman in his late Elaborate Discourse of the Divine Will, Edward Pol­hil Esq it its Eternal Decrees, and Holy Execution. God's Will of Man's Conversion as ordinative of means is accomplished in this; That there is a serious exhibition of the means in order to Conversion as their proper end, and that end, (but for Man's voluntary Corruption) would be thereby attained, even in all.

I should next proceed to speak of those several Attributes of God's Being, which are evidenced from the Works of Creation, which are either mentioned in the Text, or may be educed out of it; And shew how they may all be improved to the service of [Page 218] True Christianity, and to an higher degree then the highest Light, and Power of Na­ture could ever attain to: But this shall suf­fice for the present.