Mr. Resburys SERMON Preached before the QUEEN, AT WHITEHALL. On Sunday, Aug. 16. 1691.   
JOB XXXVI. 8. Behold God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. 
THese words are part of a long discourse that Elihu took up with Job, after his three friends had ended theirs. This person, perhaps a Syrian born, and of the kindred and family of Abraham, though of younger years than the other three, yet seems of deeper judgement, stronger reasoning, less affected piety, and one that framed the method of his discourse to a better design, as he had grounded it upon a better foundation than the other three had done.  
He apprehends Job as having a little too much insisted upon his own Innocency, and so, by justifying himself too warmly, had seemed to glance obliquely upon God; as if by that severe usage of his Providence, God had dealt in something an unjustifiable rigour with him. The part therefore that Elihu takes, is, not so much to charge Job with some unknown wickednesses which his friends had been loading him with, because of the present condition they saw him in. But to justify God in his deal with him, who knew his own holy ends and designs in all, though man is not able reach or to fathom them. My Text is in that part of the argument where Elihu is setting forth the perfections of God, which to us are so incomprehensible; His power, his greatness, his eternity, which being so infinitely beyond the reach or compass of humane understanding, should keep the man in so humble and resigned a sense of God, as not to cherish the least irreverent thought of him, let the condition be never so miserable, to which he may be reduced.  
In the words we have laid before us, 1. The greatness of God, infinitely surpassing our knowledge of him; Behold, God is great, and we know him not. 2. His Eternity, not to be brought within the compass of our numbers; Neither can the number of his years be searched out. By both which is intimated to us, how very short and imperfect all the knowledge we can have of God in this World ought to be esteemed; how scanty all the conceptions we can frame of his Majesty or Eternity? Perfections infinitely surpassing all our measures, either as we are mortal, or finite and limited creatures. This I shall a little illustrate, and then draw some useful inferences from the whole.  
1. To illustrate the thing; viz. How infinitely short we are in our highest conceptions of God, while we are in this World. We may ask the same question still with Zophar the Naamathite, Job 11.7. Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? This may appear, if we consider how imperfect our knowledge is, either as to 1. The Divine nature; or 2. His decrees or counsels; or 3. His works either of Creation, or Providence.  
1. As to the Divine nature: It is some demonstration how incompetent humane nature is herein, when we consider that any part of it has sunk so low in its speculations concerning God, so far short of his immense and boundless, his pure and invisible nature, as not only to make Gods of men, and adore them, but to fancy a Divinity even in Serpents, and Dogs, and Fish; the trunks of old and overgrown Trees, in Leeks and Onions, and what not! It is not more evident still, were we to look among the wiser Heathens who made it the business of their profession to inquire into the nature of the chief good, who after they had raised their minds much beyond the common pitch of men of that age, yet after their most laboured researches, have been fain to confess that God was something not only invisible, but unintelligible. Plato tells us, it is impossible to find out God, and as impossible it would be to express him, or communicate the notion of him when once found out. So Xenophon, God, etc. the great and the powerful, who is in every one's view, and yet, what his form and essence is, is evident to none but himself, who makes all things clear and conspecious by his own light.  
But such thoughts as these, though the highest flights among the wisest Philosophers, need not be much insisted upon. For we may observe it, in the H. Scriptures, where God has condescended to make as plain revelations of himself as he thought fit; when Moses made request for a fuller discovery of his nature, he tells him how incompetent this state of life is for beholding or knowing him aright. Exod. 33.20. Thou canst not see my face, for there shalls not man see me and live: That is, thou canst have no proper conceptions of my nature and essence, for there is no mortal in this state of life capable of the Speculation. This is said to Moses, who yet was blest with such lintimacies, that it is said, God spoke to him face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend, Exod. 23.10. Yet is he in this place assured, that this distant, obnoxious, mortal state of life, is not the state where the Divinity is pleased to make any adequate displays of his incomprehensible nature, but reserves that for the happiness of the other World. Hence is God pleased so far to consider the infancy and childishness of this state, that he does in the H. Scriptures (if I may so express it) 〈…〉, he attributes to himself what is most fitted to our senses, and therefore represents himself by hands, and eyes, and ears; by all the shapes of men, and human passions, etc. which are infinitely below his immenseland spiritual nature, to which no mortal eye can approach. He gives us notions of his mercy, by that of an indulgent and compassionate father; and of his justice, by that of a severe and impartial Judge; and of his power, by that of a Crowned and Sceptered King; and of his bounty, by that of a liberal and rich Housholder, and of his Eternity, by that of an old man, or the Ancient of Days.  
All which we ought to make so awful and reverend an use of, as to look upon them only as Condescensions in God to help us in our contemplations of the divine Nature, not to make them the boundaries and limits of our thoughts. And yet, they are a standing argument, that the wise God, who knows our frame, knows how incapable we are without such condescensions to frame any useful, or comfortable Ideas of him. And indeed, so far are we owing to these lower helps of instruction, that 'tis more than probable, where the minds of men are wholly destitute, even of these Rudiments they are so far from knowing any thing agreeably of the divine Nature, that they have not the least thoughts or consciousness of God at all. I know some have made it an Argument against the Atheist, that there is no Nation under heaven so brutish, no part of mankind so savage, but they have naturally and inseparably some notion and sense of God, and are apt of themselves, and in the natural tendency of their own thoughts to offer at some kind of Worship. But I fear, this is gratis dictum, sooner said than proved. Histories give us frequent instances of several regions of a wild and uncultivated sort of Mankind, that give no vilible intimations at all, by which a man might guests they have any sense or apprehension of God. This is true indeed, that no one endued with reason, however void of all thoughts of this nature he may have been, but when the notion comes to be offered him, and he is told there is a God above that gave him his being, and that governs the world, he speedily embraces it as highly reasonable, and finds a natural and ready inclination to so great and probable a truth. And this gives the Argument as strong a force against the Atheist, in that, the ready compliance of the mind with all such notions when first offered, seems a demonstration that the thing itself has a native and original truth in it, which needs only to be brought to remembrance, and then reason falls in immediately with it. But this is certain; as there may be that failure and defect of Reason in some parts of the World, where barbarous mankind may either have lost all notions of God, or at least have taken up some, that are no more suited to the divine nature, than the conjectures of a man born blind would be in the description of colours, or the figures and shapes of things. So, those that have the greatest advantages of revelation by the word of God himself, and have improved these advantages by the greatest industry and enquiry thereinto, yea, that have wrought their minds into some participation of the divine nature, by laboured meditation, fall infinitely short of all just and adequate conceptions of God. For  
1. We are greatly to seek in the first notion of God, that he is a Spirit: The Scripture tells us, God is a Spirit, but we are no more able to conceive what the nature of a Spirit is, than the Child in the Womb apprehends what the nature of his being and sustenance is there. To say the truth, were the great searcher of hearts, but to lay to our charge all those absurd Idolatries we commit, in the odd conceptions, the mean and bodily shapes we frame of God in our imaginations, whiles we offer at the most solemn acts of worship toward him, we might perish under the iniquities of our most holy things, and the guilt of our most laboured endeavours in devotion.  
2. As we are to seek in the notion of a Spirit, so no less are we in that deep and bewondring mystery of the Trinity in Unity, which, upon the strength of Divine revelation we justly believe and adore. We are indeed sure, from the H. Scriptures, that the Father is God, and that Jesus Christ the Son is not only God too, but was so from all Eternity, and that the H. Ghost is no less God, than the Father and the Son. We also know, from the same express revelation that we are to own and worship no other than the One only, and true God. These things are certain matter of Divine revelation, and being so, we have all imaginable reason to believe and embrace them. But then how these three distinct Persons should be so united in one undivided nature, that while we worship three Persons, we still do worship but one God, this is a mystery reserved to be unfolded in the other world only.  
We may, perhaps, endeavour to illustrate the notion by some faint and imperfect resemblances, but alas! they are so faint and imperfect, that they rather serve to darken and obscure it still more.  
II. As we are very short in apprehending the Nature of God, so are we no less as to his Decrees and Counsels. The one is the consequence of the other, we therefore must needs conjecture uncertainly about his Decrees, because we are so distant, and so incompetent in all our Speculations about the Divine Nature. There have been warm and heated disputes about these things amongst assuming men. The Decrees of God have been canvased and talked over by some, as if they were the very rudiments of Religion, and might be the first learned and understood; when in the mean time, the dust that disputes have raised in things of so high and unsearchable a Nature, have only served to hurt the Eyes of both the contending Parties, that they have seen the less for their warmth in arguing. What man knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of a man? Even so the things of God, knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2.11. It is an excellent passage in the Apocryphal book of Wisdom to this purpose. Chap. 4. from v. 13 ad finem. What man is he that can know the Counsel of God, or who can think what the will of the Lord is? For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable, and our devices are but uncertain, for the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things. And hardly do we guests aright at things that are upon the Earth, and with labour dough find the things that are before us; but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out? and thy Counsel who hath known? Except thou give Wisdom and send thy Holy Spirit from above! It is plain how short we are in our thoughts of this kind, not only from the irreconcilable differences about these things, but also the infinite difficulties wherewith both ways of thinking are perplexed. Thus when any would be point blank representing God, as from all eternity choosing out some few for everlasting happiness, and decreeing the rest of mankind absolutely to eternal damnation, how are they graveled in their thoughts when they observe God in his holy word exhibiting himself as so kind and benign a Lover of Mankind, so unlikely to hate originally any thing he makes, that he does never willingly grieve nor afflict the Children of men. On the other hand when some are peremptorily rejecting all doctrines of this Nature, how do they stick and labour under the inexplicable difficulty of Divine foreknowledge, etc.  
Herein therefore, we should all imitate the Modesty of St. Paul, who yet had the advantage of brighter revelations than ever we can pretend to. He, when he had been discoursing that difference it had pleased God to put betwixt the Nation of the Jews and all the rest of mankind, results the whole in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and of the Knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out! Rom. 11.34, 35.  
III. Last. Come we to consider, lastly, how short and imperfect we are in our knowledge of God, as to his works either of Creation or Providence.  
1. The works of his Creation. And therefore Elihu to confirm what he had said in the words of my Text appeals to the Works of his Creation, and instances in so small a thing as a drop of Water, the breaking of a Cloud, and a clap of Thunder. Behold God is great and we know him not— For the maketh small the drops of water, they pour down rain according to the Vapour thereof, which the Clouds do drop, and distil upon man abundantly; Also can any understand the spreading of the Clouds, or the noise of his Tabernacles, v. 27, 28, 29.  
It is from these works of his, that it pleases God to humble Job, by laying them before him, and thereby giving him a view of his own ignorance, Job 38.16. Hast thou entered into the Springs of the Sea, or hast thou walked in the search of the deep? Have the gates of death been opened to thee, or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? Hast thou perceived the breadth of the Earth? declare if thou knowest it at all. Where is the way where light dwelleth, and as for darkness, where is the place of it? Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail? Out of whose womb came the Ice, and the hoary frost, who hath gendered it? Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleyades, or lose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazaroth in his season, or canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons? etc. We live by conjecture only as to the reasons and nature of all those things we either see or use. It is no certain account we can give of the air we breathe in, or the light that gives us the pleasure of all created glories; not only the Stars of Heaven, but the Spark in the Diamond, and the lustres we meet with in a clod of Earth, puzzles our deepest Philosophy. Nothing we see either in the Air, or Seas, or Earth, or Heaven, but, as they have been mighty subjects of enquiry, so, they never yet could be so explained, but that some new supposals of things have been offered with as probable reasons; and the man of strongest fancy has usually made the most pleasing and acceptable guesses, and all is but guests at last.  
In short, how can we expect well to understand the secrets of nature at a distance, when we know so little nearer home. We carry about with us in the nature of our own beings such numberless and insuperable difficulties, that they are never to be solved till the Soul comes nearer to its first original, and the body is refined from its corruption and dross, that the whole man may discern himself (if I may so express it) in his own transparency. Let our thoughts therefore turn a little inward, and see what conjectures we can make about our own frame and nature, and this perhaps, will let us see how short our sight is, as to all the other great works of the Creation. This observation the wise man makes Eccl. 11.5. As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child, even so thou knowest not the works of God that maketh all. The Spirit that enlivens and actuates us, lies hid from us in the whole course of its motion, discourse, or thinking. We know we subsist of something that can discourse and think, can grieve and rejoice, can remember and reflect; but that Soul itself that does all this, by all its reasoning, can give no account how it came into the body, nor where the seat of its own residence is, nor by what way or influence it gives the body sense or motion. It never yet has seen its own face in any glass that could give it any tolerable representation of itself, but must wait the time when it shall arrive at its own proper Country, that world of Spirits, where the body itself shall be spiritualised, and come so much nearer to the nature of that being that informs, and is to dwell for ever in it. But further  
2. As our insight into the works of God's creation is short and imperfect, so is it no less into those of his providence. We are apt to wonder and stand amazed at many unaccountable events in the world, and many times can discern no other reason but the mere arbitrary will of God. Several perplexing amusoments about the age and first birth of the World: Why of no earlier a date than 7000 years ago? About the fall of man, why permitted to be so soon baffled by the Devil? About the great mystery of Redemption, why to be brought about by no less a method than the incarnation and death of the Son of God? About the prosperity of some Kingdoms, and the overthrow of others; about particular events of providence to ourselves, our friends, or our enemies; and innumerable instances of this kind, that may perplex and confound our thoughts; but we must expect to have no tolerable account of them, till we come to that state where all stories will be told over again, all amazing revolutions of things shall be discerned fully in their first causes, and their last issues; where wisdom will justify itself in all the intricacies of its operations, and the great Judge of all shall be clear indeed when he hath judged.  
And thus much may serve for illustrating the argument, viz. how infinitely short we are, in our highest conceptions of God, as to any just and adequate knowledge of him, if we consider either his nature, or his decrees and counsels, or his works either of creation or providence.  
Come we now to some useful inferences from the whole.  
I. From all that has been said we learn what an inestimable treasure the H. Scriptures ought to be esteemed by us: Wherein it has pleased God to make known himself so far as our natures in this present condition of life, are capable of apprehending him. It is very little that we could ever have conjectured aright concerning God without some revelations of himself, in what method he himself pleased. It is indeed but little he has given us leave to know of him in this world, by all that he hath told us in his word: But herein are we blest and privileged indeed, that having this free use of the H. Scriptures, if we will learn not to be wise beyond what revelation has thought fit to teach us, we may be sure that all the knowledge of God which we acquire from the H. Scriptures, is most unquestionably true, because they are the dictates of that H. Spirit, who only knows the nature, and counsels, and operations of God, and is himself, the God that cannot lie or deceive us. And besides that, what we learn of God from the H. Scriptures is unquestionably true, so, we shall not be accountable for what we do not know of God, if we make the Scriptures our guide, because therein is contained the whole revelation of the divine Nature, so far as he is pleased to indulge it to us in this World. If we submit our speculations of God to these lively oracles, by which, and by which alone, he hath taken care we should know any thing of him, we are safe from all the false flights of Superstition on the one hand, Enthusiasm on the other hand, and all the wand'ring misguided opinions concerning God on every hand. Here we may set our foot, and acquiesce in what we certainly meet with here, though we may not be carried into those heights to which some vain opiniastres think they could be soaring, or though there may be some mysteries which leave our reason behind them, and call in for the assistance of Faith as believing that they are the certain matter of revelation, which must therefore be true, because revealed to us by the H. Spirit of God.  
There are two things wherein the Socinians have seemed to lay a bar against themselves as to the soundness of their Faith.  
1. The lose conceptions about the Divine inspiration of the H. Scriptures. 2. Their apprehension that they must believe nothing, which their own reasons cannot comprehend. By the former, they let go that firm hold they ought to have of some first principles, on which they ought to rest and depend, and lay themselves open to a gradual Scepticism throughout the whole Occonomy of Faith. And by the other they discard all mystery in Religion, and would pretend to fathom the utmost depths of that, while they are uncapable of solving a thousand difficulties in every thing which they see and handle, and converse immediately with. Hence their hesitating in the great mystery of our redemption by Christ Jesus, and the satisfaction to divine justice effected by his death; the deep and unfathomable doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity. They forget the authority that matters of pure revelation ought to have with our Belief, and that where our reason cannot reach they must not therefore cry out of Contradiction and Impossibility, because we cannot tell what is contradictory or what is impossible, where we cannot understand the nature of that thing about which we are apt to suspect an impossibility; unless it appear contradictory to something that is plainly revealed. It is therefore a good Caution of the Apostles which he gives, and that in a peculiarly smart turn of words, which he has hardly used more than this one time throughout his whole writings. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to think more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly. Rom. 21.3. Let this be the measure we take in all matters of pure revelation, first to satisfy ourselves, that this or that thing is unquestionably revealed, and then, how insuperable soever the difficulties may seem that attend it, not to perplex ourselves in nicely unfolding them, but give Reason only the scope of arguing the necessity of believing what is revealed, and after submitting the whole mystery of it to the obedience of faith. And this will infinitely endear to us the H. Scriptures wherein we know is contained the whole compass of knowledge concerning God, which we ought to aspire after in this world.  
II. We may hence also infer how reasonable a thing it is for us to love one another in some differences of thought and opinion while we are on this side heaven. Our knowledge of God is scanty and imperfect, and in our imperfect way of thinking it is hardly possible not to think differently, where therefore any differences in opinion have no influences to a bad life, nor disturb the government, nor lead to a necessity of throwing off the Authority of the Scriptures, there, our mutual love and forbearance (whatever else is) is a most undoubted command.  
III. Last We may hence infer, how justly the wise and the good mind may be longing after that state where their knowledge of God may be advanced to such unspeakable degrees, suitably both to the nature of God, and the capacious nature of our Souls. Alas! What is all this World (in comparison) but ignorance and mistake! Where fancy chief proves the guide to reason, and in recompense to all its travels in Worldly knowledge, gives it little other satisfaction than cheat and delusion! With what satisfaction can the wise mind linger and trifle here, distant from home, and a stranger to the interests and affairs of its own Country above! Cooped up and confined to a place where so little light is; conversing hardly with any thing, but the shapes and images of things, which a trivial fancy or a diseased eye is framing to itself. It is in the other World only that the Soul can bathe itself in the pure, and clear streams of rational knowledge. The Apostle tells us, that we see but through a glass darkly, and we know but in part; i. e. it is but little we see at most, and but uncertainly at best. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 1 Cor. 13.9, 10, 11, 12. Then as to the nature, and decrees, and works of God, We shall see all face to face, and know even as we are known, v. 12. That will be the land of Vision indeed; where all things shall be seen as they are, where all representations shall cease, and metaphors prove useless. Where every riddle shall be explained to the utmost satisfaction of greediest enquirers into the deep things of God. Then, though the Divine Nature be so boundless and infinite that it surpasses the thoughts and comprehensions of Angels themselves, yet will both Angels and Men so far comprehend the nature and being of God, that they shall never entertain any unworthy or uncomely thoughts of him more: They shall never frame to themselves any mean and wretched images of God, but shall see him as he is; and that so substantially, and so much in reality, that the very sight will, in some measure, transform them into his image, and make them like him whom they thus view. So S. John tells us, Behold now we are the sons of God, (1 Joh. 3.2.) and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We shall not then see the back parts only, as it once pleased God to indulge to Moses in this world, but we shall be able fully and substantially to contemplate his nature, so as to acquiesce in the knowledge of him, as a most sure and indissoluble bond of eternal Converse and Communion with him. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matth. 5.8.  
And as they shall see him in his Nature, so they shall see him in his Decrees too. Then all the difficult knots of the divine foreknowledge shall be untied. We shall then see how the liberty of man's will consisted with God's prescience? that this latter did not influence the former, as to a necessity of the man's sinning and undoing himself, but that he himself was the author and first mover in both. S. Austin after he had so positively asserted and with so much heat argued the doctrines of Predestinanation, yet was he so conscious of his being in the dark in these things, that he made it one comfortable speculation in his thoughts about Heaven and the other state, that he should then come to understand the vast mystery of God's decrees, in what method they were disposed, and what influences they had or had not upon mankind.  
Then (in a word) will all the glories of the Creation unveil themselves? then will all the intricacies of divine Providence be unravelled, and the just connexion of every link in that great Chain, will be seen plainly, and thankfully adored. Then all our perplexed inquiries into the reasons of strange and unaccountable events will be most transportingly satisfied▪ Then all the murmuring and obliqne reflections we have rashly cast upon Providence in this world, shall turn into praises and adorations, wondering and owning that infinite wisdom that has run through all the turns and wind of humane affairs, and made all seeming contrarieties of action and event, conspire in one great and subservient design of God's glory, and the eternal well-being of those that have trusted in, and depended upon him. As God will then call all the actions of men to a severe and particular account, so will he condescend to give as fair and treatable reasons of his deal in this world to the perfect satisfaction of all happy beings, and to the surprising Confusion of Devils, and bad men; when they shall see how much the mischiefs (wherein God permitted them to be so successful and prosperous for a time) tended not only to their own misery and undoing, but to the furtherance of those very Persons happiness whom they so much disdained and hated: which perhaps may be not obscurely intimated in that passage we shall know as we are known. That is, as God will sift all our actions, and make his distinct inquiries what we have had and done in the world, so will he lay before us all his own methods, and show us all the just and wise reasons of his providence in this world. Then David whose feet had well-nigh slipped when he saw the prosperity of the wicked; and Jeremy who would have been pleading the case with God here, wherefore the way of the wicked should prosper, and all they be happy that had dealt very treacherously: Nay I may add, then, all those bleeding Souls, that have been so long crying under the Altar, How long Lord, Holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood upon them that dwell upon the Earth! they shall all join in one consort, and make infinite harmony before the wise and faithful God, in that Song of Moses and of the Lamb, which comprehends the whole Church of God under both dispensations, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, O thou King of Saints, Rev. 15.3. What wise and good mind, should not long for this mighty advance into the knowledge of God, where the knowledge of him will be so transporting and satisfactory, and will advance mankind to such degrees of likeness and conformity with God. To this glorious state of knowledge and enjoyment of himself, the Blessed God bring us all through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with himself and the eternal Spirit of grace be rendered, as is most due, all honour, and glory and praise, both now and for ever, Amen.  
FINIS.   

BOOKS lately Printed, for Tho. Bennet, at the Half-Moon, in St. Paul's Church yard.  
AThena O●onienses. An Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the most ancient and famous University of Oxford, from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year. 1690. Representing the Birth, Fortune, Preferment, and death of all those Authors and Prelates, the great Accidents of their Lives, and the Fate and Character of their Writings. To which are added the Fast● or Annals of the said University, for the same time. The first Volume extending to the 10th Year of King Charles I. Dom. 1640.  
The Second Volume extending to 1691, is in the Press, and will be published with all possible Expedition.  
The Plagiary Exposed: Or an Old Answer to a Newly Revived Calumny against the Memory of King Charles I. Being a Reply to a Book entitled King Charle's Case, Formerly Written by John Cook of Gray's Inn, Barrister; and since Copied out under the Title of Colonel Ludlow's Letter. Written by Mr. Butler, the Author of Hudibras. And never before Printed.  
A Critical History of the New-Testament, In two Parts, by Father Simon.  
The Reasons of Mr. Bay's Changing his Religion, In Three Parts. The Second Edition.