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DISCOURSES

THE EXISTENCE

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

BY
STEPHEN CHARNOCK, B. D.

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION.
JAMES RUSSELL, PUBLISHING AGENT.
1840.

PHILADELPHIA.
WILLIAM S, MARTIEN, PKINTER.

CONTENTS

VOLUME I.

DISCOURSE I.
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. PAGE
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt,
they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. —
Psalm xiv. I. - - .... 9
DISCOURSE II.
PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
The fool hath said in his heart. There is no God. They are corrupt,
they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. —
Psalm xiv. 1. - - -  86
DISCOURSE m.
GOD IS A SPIRIT.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth.— John iv. 24.  - 189
DISCOURSE IV.
SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth. — John iv. 24.  222
DISCOURSE V.
THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed
the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou
art God.— Psalm xc. 2. -  306

4 CONTENTS.
DISCOURSE VL
THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. PAGE
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure : yea, all of thera shall wax
"Old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they
shall be changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall have
no end.— Psalm cii. 26, 27. .... . 345
DISCOURSE VII.
GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. .
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him'! saith
the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth'! saith the Lord.— Jer.
xxiii. 24.  ... 407
DISCOURSE VIII.
GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.—
Psalm cxlvii, 5. -. ...... 457
DISCOURSE IX.
THE WISDOM OF GOD.
To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.—
Rom. xvi. 27. - .  _ " _ i-oa

TO THE READER.

This long since promised and greatly expected volume of the reverend
author upon the Divine attributes, being transcribed out of his own manu
scripts, by the unwearied diligence of those worthy persons that undertook
it, 1 is now at last come to thy hands. Doubt not but thy reading will pay
for thy waiting, and thy satisfaction make full compensation for thy patience.
In the epistle before his Treatise of Providence, it was intimated that his
following Discourses would not be inferior to that, and we are persuaded,
that ere thou hast perused one half of this, thou wilt acknowledge that it
was modestly spoken. Enough, assure thyself, thou wilt find here for thy
entertainment and delight, as well as profit. The sublimity, variety, and
rareness of the truths here handled, together with the elegance of the com
posure, neatness ofthe style, and whatever is wont to make any book desira
ble, will all concur in the recommendation of this. What so high and noble
a subject, what so fit for his meditations or thine, as the highest and noblest
Being, and those transcendently glorious perfections wherewith he is
clothed'! A mere contemplation of the Divine excellencies may afford much
pleasure to any man that loves to exerflise his reason, and is addicted to
speculation; but what incomparable sweetness then will holy souls find, in
viewing and considering those perfections now, which they are more fully
to behold hereafter; and seeing what manner of God, how wise and power
ful, bow great and good, and holy he is, in whom the covenant interests
them, and in the enjoyment of whom their happiness consists! If rich
men delight to sum up their vast revenues, to read over their rentals, look
upon their hoards; if they bless themselves in their great wealth, or, to use
the prophet's words, Jer. ix. 23, glory in their riches, well may believers re
joice and glory in their knowing the Lord, verse 24, and please themselves
in seeing how rich they are in having an immensely full and all-sufficient
God for their inheritance. Alas ! how little do most men know that Deity
they profess to serve and own, not as their Sovereign only, but their por
tion ! To such this author might say, as Paul to the Athenians, 'Whom you
ignorantiy worship, him declare I unto you. Acts xvii. 23. These treatises,
reader, will inform thee who He is whom thou callest thine, present thee
with a view of thy Chief Good, and make thee value thyself a thousand
times more upon thy interest in God, than upon all external accomplish
ments and worldly possessions. Who but delights to hear well of one whom
he lovesT God is thy love, if thou be a believer; and then it cannot but fill
thee with delight and rapture to hear so much spoken in his praise. David
desired to dwell in the house of the Lord, that he might there behold his
• Mr. J. Wichens, Mr. Ashton.

g TO THE READER.
beauty : how much of that beauty (if thou art but capable of seeing it)
mayest thou behold in this volume, which was our author's main business,
for about three years before he died, to display before his hearers! True,
indeed, the Lord's glory, as shining forth before his heavenly courtiers above,
is unapproachable by mortal men; but what of it is visible in his works,
creation, providence, redemption, falls under the cognizance of his inferior
subjects here; and this is in a great measure presented to view in these
Discourses, and so much we may well say, as may (by the help of grace) be
effectual to raise thy admiration, attract thy love, provoke thy desires, and
enable thee to make some guess at what is yet unseen; and why not like
wise to clear thy eyes, and prepare them for future sight, as well as turn
them away from the contemptible vanities of this present life? Whatever is
glorious in this world, yet (as the apostle in another case) hath no glory by
reason of the glory that excels, 2 Cor. iii. 10. This excellent glory is the
subject of this book, to which all created beauty is but mere shadow and
duskiness. If thy eyes be well fixed on this, they will not be easily drawn
to wander after other objects: if thy heart be taken with God, it will be
mortified to every thing that is not God.
But thou hast in this book not only an excellent subject in the general,
but great variety of matter, for the employment of thy understanding, as
well as enlivening thy affections, and that too such as thou wilt not readily
find elsewhere; many excellent things whioh are out ofthe road of ordinary
preachers and writers, and which may be grateful to the curious, no less
than satisfactory to the wise and judicious. It is not therefore a book to be
played with, or slept over, but read with the most intent and serious mind ;
for though it afford much pleasure for the fancy, yet much more work for
the heart, and has indeed enough in it to busy all the faculties. The dress
is complete and decent, yet not garish or theatrical; the rhetoric masculine
and vigorous, such as became a pulpit, and was never borrowed from the»
stage; the expressions full, clear, apt, and such as are best suited to the
weightiness and spirituality of the truths here delivered. It is plain he was
no empty preacher, but was more for sense than sound; he filled up his
words with matter, and chose rather to inform his hearers' minds, than to
gratify any itching ears. Yet we will not say but some little things, a word
or a phrase now and then he may have, which no doubt had he lived to trans
cribe his own sermons, he would have altered. If in some lesser matters
he differ from thee, it is but in such as godly and learned men do frequently,
and may without breach of charity diff'er in among themselves; in some
things he may diff'er from us too, and, it may be, we from each other; and
where are there any two persons, who have in all, especially the more dis
putable points of religion, exactly the same sentiments, at least express
themselves altogether in the same terms'! But this we must say, that though
he treat of many of the most abstruse and mysterious doctrines of Chris
tianity, which are the subjects of great debates and controversies in the
world, yet we find no one material thing in which he may justly be called
heterodox (unless old heresies be of late orthodox, and his differing from
them must make him faulty); but generally delivers (as in his' former
' Treatise of Providence, and of Thoughts.

TO THE READER. ^
pieces) what is most consonant to the faith of this, and other the best re
formed churches. He was not indeed for that modern divinity which is so
much in vogue with some, who would be counted the only sound divines;
having tasted the old, he did not desire the new, but said the old is better.
Some errors, especially the Socinian, he sets himself industriously against,
and cuts the very sinews of them, yet, sometimes, almost without naming
them. In the doctrinal part of several ofhis discourses, thou wilt find the depth
(^ polemical divinity, and in his inferences from thence the sweetness of
practical; some things which may exercise the profoundest scholar, and
others which may instruct and edify the weakest Christian. Nothing is
more nervous than his reasonings, and nothing more affecting than his appli
cations. Though he make great use of schoolmen, yet they are certainly
more beholden to him than he to them ; he adopts their notions, but he re
fines them too, and improves them, and reforms them from the barbarousness
in which they were expressed, and dresses them up in his own language,
(so far as the nature of the matter will permit, and more clear terms are to
be found,) and so makes them intelligible to common capacities, which in
their original rudeness were obscure and strange, even to learned heads.
In a word, he handles the great truths of the gospel with that perspicuity,
gravity, and majesty which best becomes the oracles of God ; and we have
reason to believe, that no judicious and unbiassed reader, but will acknow
ledge this to be incomparably the best practical treatise the world ever saw
in English upon this subject. What Dr. Jackson did (to whom our author
gave all due respect) was more brief, and in another way. Dr. Preston
did worthily upon the attributes in his day, but his discourses likewise are
more succinct, when this author's are more full and large. But whatever
were the mind of God in it, it was not his will that either of these two
should live to finish what he had begun, both being taken away when preach
ing upon this subject. Happy souls! whose last breath was spent in so
noble a work, praising God while they had any being, Psal. cxlvi. 2.
His method is much the same in most of these Discourses, both in the
doctrinal and practical part, whioh will make the whole more plain and
easy to ordinary readers. He rarely makes objections, and yet frequently
answers them, by implying them in those propositions he lays down for the-
clearing up the truths he asserts. His dexterity is admirable in the appli-
catory work, where he not only brings down the highest doctrines to the
lowest capacities, but collects great variety of proper, pertinent, useful, and
yet (many times) unthought of inferences; and that from those truths,
which however they afford much matter for inquisition and speculation, yet
might seem (unless to the most intelligent and judicious Christians) to have
a more remote influence upon the practice. He is not like some school
writers, who attenuate and rarify the matter they discourse of to a degree
bordering upon annihilation; at least beat is so thin, that a pufF of breath
may blow it away; spin their thread so fine, that the cloth, when made up,
proves useless; solidity dwindles into niceties, and what we thought we had
got by their assertions, we lose by their distinctions. But if our author
have some subtilties and superfine notions in his argumentations, yet he

8 TO THE READER.
condenses them again, and consolidates them into substantial and profitable
corollaries in his applications. And in them his main business is, as to dis
cipline a profane world for its neglect of God, and contempt of him in his
most adorable and shining perfections; so likewise to show how the Divine
attributes are not only infinitely excellent in themselves, but a grand foun
dation for all true Divine worship, and should be the great motives to pro
voke men to the exercise of faith, and love, and fear, and humility, and all
that holy obedience they are called to by the gospel. And this, without
peradventure, is the great end of all those rich discoveries God has in his
word made of himself to us. And, reader, if these elaborate Discourses of
this holy man, through the Lord's blessing, become a means of promoting
holiness in thee, and stir thee up to love, and live to the God of his praise,
Psal. cix. 1, we are well assured that his end in preaching them is answer
ed, and so is ours in publishing them.
Thine in the Lord, EDW. VEEL.
RI. ADAMS.
A. D. 1684.

ON THE

EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

DISCOURSE L

ON THE EXISTENCE OP GOD.

Psalm xiv. 1. — The fool hath said in his heart. There is no God. They are cor
rupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good..
This psalm is a description of the deplorable corruption by
nature of every son of Adam, since the withering of that com
mon root. Some restrain it to the Gentiles, as a wilderness full
of briers and thorns; as not concerning the Jews, the garden of
God, planted by his grace, and watered by the dew of heaven.
But the apostle, the best interpreter, rectifies this in extending
it by name to Jews, as well as gentiles, (Rom. iii. 9.) ''We
have before proved both Jews and gentiles, that they are all
under sin ;' and (ver. 10 — 12,) cites part of this psalm and other
passages of Scripture for the further evillence of it, concluding
by Jews and gentiles, every person in the world naturally in
this state of corruption.
The psalmist first declares the corruption of the faculties of
the soul, The fool hath said in his heart; secbndly, the streams
issuing from thence, they are corrupt, &c.: the first in atheisti
cal principles, the other in unworthy practices; and he lays all
the evil, tyranny, lust, and persecutions by men, (as if the
world were only for their sake) upon their neglect of God,
and the atheism cherished in their hearts.
The fool, a terra in Scripture signifying a wicked man, tsed
also by the heathen philosophers to signify a vicious person,
'jaj as coming from ''aa signifies the extinction of life in men,
animals and plants ; so the word '?3i is taken, a plant that hath
lost all the juice that made it lovely and useful.^ So a fool is
one that hath lost his wisdom, and right notion of God and
' Isaiah xl. 7. y>s hsi 'the flower fadeth.' Isaiah xxvii. 1.
Vol. I.— 2

JO THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
divine things which are communicated to man by creation ; one
dead in sin, yet one not so much void of rational faculties as of
grace in those faculties, not one that wants reason, but abuses
his reason. In Scripture the word signifies foolish.'
Said in his heart; that is, he thinks, or he doubts, or he
wishes. The thoughts ofthe heart are in the nature of words
to God; though not to men. It is used in the like case of the
atheistical person, (Ps. x. 11, 13.) ' He hath said in his heart,
God hath forgotten; he hath said in his heart. Thou wilt not re
quire it.' He doth not form a syllogism, as Calvin speaks, that
there is no God: he dares not openly publish it, though he dares
secretly think it. He cannot rase out the thoughts of a Deity,
though he endeavours to blot those characters of God in his
soul. He hath some doubts whether there be a God or no: he
wishes there were not any, and sometimes hopes there is none
at all. He could not so ascertain himself by convincing argu
ments to produce to the world, but he tampered with his own
heart to bring it to that persuasion, and smothered in himself
those notices of a Deity; which is so plain against tbe light of
nature, that such a man may well be called a fool for it.
There is no God^ t^xhvs n'S non potestas Domini, Chaldee.
It is not Jehovah, which name signifies the essence of God, as
the prime and supreme being; but Eloahia, which name signi
fies the providence of God, God as a ruler and judge. Not
that he denies the existence of a Supreme Being, that created
the world, but his regarding the creatures, his government of
the world, and consequently his reward of the righteous or pun
ishments of the wicked.
There is a threefold denial of God, 1. Quoad existentiam;
this is absolute atheism. 2. Quoad Providentiam, or his in
spection into, or care of the things ofthe world, bounding him
in the heavens. 3. Quoad nattiram, in regard of one or other
of the perfections due to his nature.
Ofthe denial of the providence of God most understand this,
not excluding the absolute atheist, as Diagoras is reported to be,
nor the sceptical atheist, as Protagoras, who doubted whether
there were a God.^ Those that deny the providence of God,
do in effect deny the being of God; for they strip him of that
wisdom, goodness, tenderness, mercy, justice, righteousness,
which are the glory of the Deity. And that principle, of a
greedy desire to be uncontrolled in their lusts, which induceth
men to a denial of Providence, that thereby they might stifle
those seeds of fear which infect and embitter their sinful plea-
1 Muis Saj and tan kS put together. Deut. xxxii. 6. 'O foolish people and
nwise.' 2 d'hSn i»n ' No God.' Muis. 3 Cocceius.
¦• Not owning him as the Egyptians called 6 tav ifxaB/iiov. Eugubin in loc.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 1 1
sures, may as well lead them to deny that there is any such
being as a God. Thus at one blow, their fears may be dashed
all in pieces and dissolved by the removal of the foundation :
as men who desire liberty to commit works of darkness,
would not have the lights in the house dimmed, but extin
guished. What men say against Providence, because they
would have no check on their lusts, they may say in their
hearts against the existence of God upon the same account ;
there is little difiierence between the dissenting from the one
and disowning the other.
They art corrupt, they have done abominable works, there
is none that doeth good. He speaks of the atheist in the sin
gular, 'the fool;' of the corruption issuing in the life in the
plural ; intimating that though some few may choke in their
hearts the sentiments of God and his providence, and positively
deny them, yet there is something of a secret atheism in all,
which is the fountain of the evil practices in their lives, not an
utter disowning ofthe being of a God, but a denial or doubting
of some of the rights of his nature.' When men deny the God
of purity, they must needs be polluted in soul and body, and
grow brutish in their actions. When the sense of religion is
shaken off', all kind of wickedness is.eagerly rushed into, where
by they become as loathsome to God as putrefied carcasses are
to men.^ Not one or two evil actions is the product of such a
principle, but the whole scene of a man's life is corrupted and
becomes execrable.
No man is exempted from some spice of atheism by the de
pravation of his nature, which the psalmist intimates, ' there is
none that doeth good :' though there are indelible convictions
ofthe being of a God, that they cannot absolutely deny it; yet
there are some atheistical bubblings in the hearts of men, which
evidence themselves in their actions. As the apostle, (Tit, i.
16.) 'They profess that they know God, but in works they
deny him.' Evil works are a dust stirred up by an atheistical
breath. He that habituates himself in some sordid lust, can
scarcely be said seriously and firmly to believe that there is a
God in being; and the apostle doth not say that they know
God, but they profess to know him ; true knowledge and pro
fession of knowledge are distinct. It intimates also to us, the
unreasonableness of atheism in the consequence, when men
shut their eyes against the beams of so clear a sun, God re-
vengeth himself upon them for their impiety, by leaving them
to their own wills ; lets them fall into the deepest sink and dregs
' Atheism absolute is not in all men's judgments, but practice is in all men's
actions. ^ The Apostle in the Romans applying the latter part of it to all mankind,
but not the former; as the word translated corrupt signifies.

12 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
of iniquity ; and since they doubt of him in their hearts, suffers
them above others to deny him in their works, this the apostle
discourseth at large.' The text then is a description of man's
corruption. 1. Ofhis mind. The fool hath said in his heart. No better
title than that of a fool is afforded to the atheist.
2. Ofthe other faculties, 1. In sins of commission, expressed
by their loathsomeness [corrupt, abominable,) 2. In sins of
omission (there is none that doeth good) he lays down the cor
ruption of the mind as the cause, the corruption of the other
faculties as the effect.
I. It is a great folly to deny or doubt of the existence or being
of God : or, an atheist is a great fool.
II. Practical atheism is natural to man in his corrupt state.
It is against nature as constituted by God, but natural, as nature
is depraved by man: the absolute disowning of the being of a
God is not natural to men, but the contrary is natural ; but an
inconsideration of God, or misrepresentation of his nature, is
natural to man as corrupt.
III. A secret atheism, or a partial atheism, is the spring of
all the wicked practices in the world : the disorders of the life
spring from the ill dispositions ofthe heart.
For the first, every atheist is emphatically a fool. If he were
not a fool, he would not imagine a thing so contrary to the
stream of the universal reason of the world, contrary to the
rational dictates of his own soul, and contrary to the testimony,
of every creature, and link in the chain of creation: if he were
not a fool, he would not strip himself of humanity, and degrade
himself lower than the most despicable brute. It is a folly; for
though God be so inaccessible that we cannot know him per
fectly, yet he is so much in the light, that we cannot be totally
ignorant of him; as he cannot be comprehended in his essence,
he cannot be unknown in his existence; it is as easy by reason
to understand that he is, as it is difficult to know what he is.
The demonstrations reason furnisheth us with for the existence
of God, will be evidences of the atheist's folly. One would
think there were little need of spending time in evidencing this
truth, since, in the principle of it, it seems to be so universally
owned, and at the first proposal and demand, gains the assent
of most men.
But, 1. Doth not the growth of atheism among us, render
this necessary? may it not justly be suspected that the swarms
of atheists are more numerous in our times, than history records
to have been in any age, when men will not only say it in their
hearts, but publish it with their lips, and boast that they have
shaken off those shackles which bind other men's consciences ?
1 Rom. i. 24.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. I3
Doth not the barefaced debauchery of men evidence such a
settled sentiment, or at least a careless belief of the truth, v,rhich
lies at the root and sprouts up in such venomous branches in
the world ? Can men's hearts be free from that principle where
with their practices are so openly depraved ? It is true, the
light of nature shines too vigorously for the power of man to
tally to put it out; yet loathsome actio,ns impair and weaken
the actual thoughts and considerations of a Deity, and are like
mists that darken the light of the sun, though they cannot ex
tinguish it: their consciences, as a candlestick, must hold it,
though their unrighteousness obscure it, (Rom. i. 18,) ' Who
hold the truth in unrighteousness.' The engraved characters
of the law of nature remain, though they daub them with their
polluting lusts to make them illegible: so that since the incon
sideration of a Deity is the cause of all the wickedness and
extravagances of men; and, as Austin saith, the proposition is
always true, the fool hath said in his heart, &c., and more evi
dently true in this age than any, it will not be unnecessary to
discourse of the demonstrations of this first principle. The
apostles spent little time in urging this truth; it was taken for
granted all over the world, and they were generally devout in
the worship of those idols they thought to be gods: that age run
from one God to many, and our age is running from one God
to none at all.
2. The existence of God is the foundation of all religion. The
whole building totters if the foundation be out of course: if we
have not deliberate and right notions of it, we shall perform
no worship, no service, yield no affection to him. If there be
not a God, it is impossible there can be one, for eternity is essen
tial to the notion of a God ; so all religion would be vain, and
unreasonable to pay homage to that which is not in being, nor
can ever be. We must first believe that he is, and that he is
what he declares himself to be, before we can seek him, adore
him, and devote our affections to him.' We cannot pay God
a due and regular homage, unless we understand him in his
perfections, what he is; and we can pay him no homage at all,
unless we believe that he is.
3. It is fit we should know why we believe, that our belief
of a God may appear to be upon undeniable evidence, and that
we may give a better reason for his existence, than that we
have heard our parents and teachers tell us so, and our acquaint
ance think so. It is as much as to say there is no God, when
we know not why we believe there is, and would not consider
the arguments for his existence.
4. It is necessary to depress that secret atheism which is in
the heart of every man by nature. Though every visible object
< Heb. xi. 6.

14 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
which offers itself to our sense, presents a Deity to our minds
and exhorts us to subscribe to the truth of it, yet there is a root
of atheism springing up sometimes in wavering thoughts and
foolish imaginations, inordinate actions, and secret Avishes, Cer
tain it is, that every man that doth not love God, denies God;
now can he that disaffects him, and hath a slavish fear of him,
wish his existence, and say to his own heart with any cheerful
ness, there is a God, and make it his chief care to persuade
himself of it? he would persuade himself there is no God, and
stifle the seeds ofit in his reason and conscience, that he might
have the greatest liberty to entertain the allurements of the
flesh. It is necessary to excite men to daily and actual consi
derations of God and his nature, which would be a bar to much
of that wickedness which overflows in the lives of men.
5. Nor is it unuseful to those who effectually believe and
love him;' for those who have had a converse with God, and
felt his powerful influences in the secrets of their hearts, to
take a prospect of those satisfactory accounts which reason
gives of that God they adore and love; to see every creature
justify them in their owning of him, and affections to him:
indeed, the evidences of a God striking upon the conscience of
those who resolve to cleave to sin as their chiefest darling, will
dash their pleasures with unwelcome mixtures.
I shall further premise this, That the folly of atheism is
evidenced by the light of reason. Men that will not listen to
Scripture, as having no counterpart of it in their souls, cannot
easily deny natural reason, which riseth up on all sides for the
justification of this truth. There is a natural as well as a re
vealed knowledge, and the book of the creatures is legible in
declaring the being of a God, as well as the ScriptureS are in
declaring the nature of a God; there are outward objects in the
world, and common principles in the conscience, whence it may
be inferred.
For, ] . God in regard of his existence is not only the disco
very of faith, but of reason. God hath revealed not only his
being, but some sparks of his eternal power and godhead in his
works, as well as in his word. (Rom. i. 19, 20,) 'God hath
showed it unto them,' — how?^ in his works; by the things that
are made, it is a discovery to our reason, as shining in the crea
tures ; and an object of our faith as breaking out upon us in the
Scriptures: it is an article of our faith, and an article of our
reason. Faith supposeth natural knowledge, as grace suppo
seth nature. Faith, indeed, is properly of things above reason
purely depending upon revelation. What can be demonstrated
by natural light, is not so properly the object of faith; though
• Cocceii Sum, Theol. c. 8, § 1- 2 Aqmnas.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. it
in regard of the addition of a certainty by revelation, it is so.
The belief that God is, which the apostle speaks of,' is not so
much of the bare existence of God, as what God is in relation
to them that seek him, viz. a rewarder. The apostle speaks of
the faith of Abel, the faith of Enoch, such a faith that pleases
God: but the faith of Abel testified in his sacrifice, and the
faith of Enoch testified in his walking with God, was not sim
ply a faith of the existence of God. Cain in the time of Abel,
other men in the world in the time of Enoch, believed this as
well as they: but it was a faith joined with the worship of God,
and desires to please him in the way of his own appointment;
so that they believed that God was such as he had declared
himself to be in his promise to Adam, such an one as would be
as good as his word, and bruise the serpent's head. He that
seeks to God according to the mind of God, must believe that
he is such a God that will pardon sin, and justify a seeker of
him; that he is a God of that abihty and will, to justify a sinner
in that way he hath appointed for the clearing the holiness of
his nature, and vindicating the honour of his law violated by
man. No man can seek God or love God, unless he believe
him to be thus; and he cannot seek God without a discovery
of his own mind how he would be sought. For it is not a
seeking God in any way of man's invention, that renders him
capable of this desired fruit of a reward. He that believes God
as a rewarder, must believe the promise of God concerning the
Messiah. Men under the conscience of sin cannot tell, without
a divine discovery, whether God will reward, or how he will
reward the seekers of him; and therefore cannot act towards
him as an object of faith. Would any man seek God merely
because he is, or love him because he is, if he did not know
that he should be acceptable to him? The bare existence of a
thing is not the ground of affection to it, but those qualities of
it and our interest in it, which render it amiable and delightful.
How can men, whose consciences fly in their faces, seek God
or love him, without this knowledge that he is a rewarder?
Nature doth not show any way to a sinner, how to reconcile
God's provoked justice with his tenderness. The faith the
apostle speaks of here is a faith that eyes the reward as an
encouragement, and the will of God as the rule of its acting;
he doth not speak simply of the existence of God.
I have spoken the more of this place, because the Socinians^
use this to decry any natural knowledge of God, and that the
existence of God is only to be known by revelation, so that by
that reason any one that lived without the Scripture hath no
ground to believe the being of a God. The Scripture ascribes
' Heb. xi. 6, 2 Voet. Theol. Natural, cap. 3. ^ I. p. 92.

Ig THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
a knowledge of God to all nations in the world (Rom. i. 19;)
not only a faculty of knowing, if they had arguments and
demonstrations, as an ignorant man in any art hath a faculty
to know; but it ascribes an actual knowledge (ver. 19) 'mani
fest in them;' (ver. 21) 'They knew God;' not they might know
him ; they knew him when they did not care for knowing him.
The notices of God are as intelligible to us by reason, as any
object in the world is visible; he is written in every letter.
2. We are often in the Scripture sent to take a prospect of the
creatures for a discovery of God. The apostles drew argu
ments from the topics of nature, when they discoursed with
those that owned the Scripture (Rom. i. 19,) as well as when
they treated with those that were ignorant of it, as Acts xiv.
16, 17. And among the philosophers of Athens (Acts xvii. 27,
29,) such arguments the Holy Ghost in the apostles thought
sufficient to convince men of the existence, unity, spirituality,
and patience of God. Such arguments had not been used by
them and the prophets from the visible things in the world to
silence the gentiles with whom they dealt, had not this truth, and
much more about God, been demonstrable by natural reason:
they knew well enough that probable arguments would not
satisfy piercing and inquisitive minds.'
In Paul's account, the testimony of the creatures was with
out contradiction. God himself justifies this way of proceed
ing by his own example, and remits Job to the consideration of
the creatures, to spell out something of his divine perfections.^
And this is so convincing an argument of the existence of God,
that God never vouchsafed any miracle, or put forth any act of
omnipotency, besides what was evident in the creatures, for the
satisfaction of the curiosity of any atheist, or the evincing of his
being, as he hath done for the evidencing those truths which
were not written in the book of nature, or for the restoring a de
cayed worship, or the protection or deliverance of his people.
Those miracles in publishing the gospel, indeed, did demon
strate the existence of some supreme power; but they were
not seals designedly affixed for that, but for the confirmation of
that truth, which was above the ken of purblind reason, and
purely the birth of Divine revelation. Yet what proves the
truth of any spiritual doctrine, proves also in that act the exis
tence of the Divine Author of it. The revelation always im
plies a revealer, and that which manifests it to be a revelation,
manifests also the supreme revealer of it. By the same light
the sun manifests other things to us, it also manifests itself.
' Voet. Theol. Natural, cap. 3. § I, p. 22.
2 Job xxviii. 39, 40, &c. It is but one truth in philosophy and divinity;
that which is false in one, cannot bo true in another ; truth, in what appearance
soever, doth never contradict itself.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. j«
But what miracles could rationally be supposed to work upon
an atheist, who is not drawn to a sense of the truth proclaimed
aloud by so many wonders of the creation ? Let us now pro
ceed to the demonstration of the atheist's folly.
It is a folly to deny or doubt of a Sovereign Being incompre
hensible in his nature, infinite in his essence and perfections,
independent in his operations, who hath given being to the
whole frame of sensible and intelligible creatures, and governs
them according to their several natures, by an inconceivable
wisdom ; who fills the heavens with the glory of his majesty,
and the earth with the influences ofhis goodness.
It is a folly inexcusable to renounce, in this case, all appeal
to universal consent, and the joint assurances of the creatures.
Reason I. 'Tis a folly to deny or doubt of that which hath
been the acknowledged sentiment of all nations, in all places
and ages. There is no nation but hath owned some kind of
religion, and, therefore, no nation but hath consented in the
notion of a Supreme Creator and Governor.
1. This hath been universal. 2. It hath been constant and
uninterrupted. 3. Natural and innate.
First, It hath been universally assented to by the judgments
and practices of all nations in the world.
] . No nation hath been exempt from it. All histories of for
mer and latter ages have not produced any one nation but fell
under the force of this truth. Though they have differed in
their religions, they have agreed in this truth ; here both hea
then, Turk, Jew, and Christiain, centre without any contention.
No quarrel was ever commenced upon this score ; though about
other opinions wars have been sharp, and enmities irreconcila
ble. The notion of the existence of a Deity was the same in
all, Indians as well as Britons, Americans as well as Jews. It
hath not been an opinion peculiar to this or that people, to this
or that sect of philosophers; but hath been as universal as the
reason whereby men are differenced frora other creatures, so
that some have rather defined raan by animal religiosum, than
animal rationale. 'Tis so entwined with reason that a man can
not be accounted rational, unless he own an object of religion;.
therefore he that understands not this, renounceth his humanity
when he renounceth a Divinity. No instance can be given of
any one people in the world that disclaimed it. It hath been
owned by the wise and ignorant, by the learned and stupid, by
those who had no other guide but the dimmest light of nature,
as well as by those whose candles were snuffed by a more
polite education, and that without any solemn debate and con
tention. Though some philosophers have been known to change
their opinions in the concerns of nature, yet none can be proved
to have absolutely changed their opinion concerning the being
Vol. I.— 3

Ig THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
of a God. One died for asserting one God; none, in the for
mer ages upon record, hath died for asserting no God. Go to
utmost bounds of America, you may find people without some
broken pieces of the law of nature, but not without this signa
ture and stamp upon them, though they wanted commerce with
other nations, except as savage as themselves, in whom the
light of nature was -as it were sunk into the socket, who are
but one remove frora brutes, who clothe not their bodies, cover
not their shame, yet were they as soon known to own a God,
as they were known to be a people. They were possessed with
the notion of a Supreme Being, the author of the world ; had
an object of religious adoration ; put up prayers to the deity
they owned for the good things they wanted, and the diverting
the evils they feared. No people so untamed where absolute
perfect atheism had gained a footing. Not one nation of the
world known in the time of the Romans that were without
their ceremonies, whereby they signified their devotion to a
deity. They had their places of worship, where they made
their vows, presented their prayers, offered their sacrifices, and
implored the assistance of what they thought to be a god; and
in their distresses ran immediately, without any deliberation,
to their gods: so that the notion of a deity was as inward and
settled in them as their own souls, and, indeed, runs in the blood
of mankind. The distempers of the understanding cannot
utterly deface it; you shall scarce find the most distracted mad
man, in his raving fits, to deny a God, though he may blas
pheme, and fancy himself one.
2. Nor doth the idolatry and multiplicity of gods in the
world weaken, but confirm this universal consent. Whatso
ever unworthy conceits men have had of God in all nations, or
Avhatsoever degrading representations they have made of hira,
yet they all concur in this, that there is a Supreme Power to be
adored. Though one people worshipped the sun, others the
fire — and the Egyptians, gods out of their rivers, gardens, and
fields; yet the notion of a Deity existent, who created and
governed the world, and conferred daily benefits upon them,
was maintained by all, though applied to the stars, and in part
to those sordid creatures. All the Dagons of the world esta
blish this triuh, and fall down before it. Had not the nations
owned the being of a God, they had never offered incense to
an idol: had there not been a deep impression ofthe existence
of a Deity, they had never exalted creatures below themselves
to the honour of altars: men could not so easily have been de
ceived by forged deities, if they had not had a notion of a real
one. Their fondness to set up others in the place of God,
evidenced a natural knowledge that there was one who had a
right to be worshipped. If there were not this sentiment of a

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

19

Deity, no man would ever have made an image of a piece of
wood, worshipped it, prayed to it and said,"Deliver me, for
thou art my God.'" They applied a general notion to a particu
lar image. The difference is in the manner, and immediate
object of worship, not in the formal ground of worship. The
worship sprung from a true principle, though it was not applied
to a right object: while they were rational creatures they could
not deface the notion; yet while they were corrupt creatures it
was not difficult to apply themselves to a wrong object from a
true principle. A blind man knows he hatha way to go as well
as one of the clearest sight; but because of his blindness he
he may miss the way and stumble into a ditch. No man would
be imposed upon to take a Bristol stone instead of a diamond,
if he did not know that there were such things as diamonds in
the world: nor any man spread forth his hands to an idol, if he
were altogether without the sense of a Deity. Whether it be
a false or true God men apply to, yet in both, the natural sen
timent of a God is evidenced; all their mistakes were grafts
inserted in this stock, since they would multiply gods rather
than deny a Deity."
How should such a general submission he entered into by
all the world, so as to adore things of a base alloy, if the force
of religion were not such, that in any fashion a man would
seek the satisfaction of his natural instinct to some object of
worship? This great diversity confirms this consent to be a
good argument, for it evidenceth it not to be a cheat, combina
tion or conspiracy to deceive, or a mutual intelligence, but
every one finds it in his climate, yea in himself. People would
never have given the title of a God to men or brutes had there
not been a pre-existing and unquestioned persuasion, that there
was such a Being; — how else should the, notion of a God come
into their minds? — the notion that there is a God must be more
ancient.^ 3. Whatsoever disputes there have been in the world, this
of the existence of God was never the subject of contention.
All other things have been questioned. What jarrings were
there among philosophers about natural things! into how many
parties were they split! with what animosities did they main
tain their several judgments! but we hear of no solemn con
troversies about the existence of a Supreme Being: this never
met with any considerable contradiction: no nation, that hath
put other things to question, would ever suffer this to be dis
paraged, so much as by a public doubt. We find among the
heathen contentions about the nature of God and the number
of gods, some asserted an innumerable multitude of gods, some
' Isaiah xliv. 17. ^ Charron de la Sagesse, Liv. i. ch. 7. p. 43, 44.
3 Gassend. Phys. § 1. lib. iv. ^. 2. p. 291.

20 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
affirmed him to be subject to birth and death, some affirmed
the entire world was God; others fancied him to be a circle of
a bright fire; others that he was a spirit diffused through the
whole world:' yet they unanimously concurred in this, as the
judgment of universal reason, that there was such a sovereign
Being: and those that were sceptical in every thing else, and
asserted that the greatest certainty was that there was nothing
certain, professed a certainty in this. The question was not
whether there was a First Cause, but what it was. It is much
the same thing, as the disputes about the nature and matter of
the heavens, the sun and planets, though there be great diver
sity of judgments, yet all agree that there are heavens, sun,
planets; so all the contentions among men about the nature of
God, weaken not, but rather confirm, that there is a God, since
there was never a public formal debate about his existence. ^
Those that have been ready to pull out one another's eyes for
their dissent from their judgments, sharply censured one an
other's sentiments, envied the births of one another's wits,
always shook hands with an unanimous consent in this; never
censured one another for being of this persuasion, never called
it into question; as what was never controverted among men
professing Christianity, but acknowledged by all, though con
tending about other things, has reason to be judged a certain
truth belonging to the Christian religion; so what was never
subjected to any controversy, but acknowledged by the whole
world, hath reason to be embraced as a truth without any doubt.
4. This universal consent is not prejudiced by some few dis
senters. History doth not reckon twenty professed atheists in
all ages in the compass of the whole world: and we have not
the name of any one absolute atheist upon record in Scripture:
yet it is questioned, whether any of them, noted in history with
that infamous name, were downright deniers of the existence
of God, but rather because they disparaged the deities com
monly worshipped by the nations where they lived, as being
of a clearer reason to discern that those qualities, vulgarly attri
buted to their gods, as lust and luxury, wantonness and quar
rels, were unworthy of the nature of a god. ^ But suppose
they were really what they are termed to be, what are they to
the multitude of men that have sprung out of the loins of Adam ?
not so much as one grain of ashes is to all that were ever turn
ed into that form by any fires in your chimnies. And many
more were not sufficient to weigh down the contrary consent
of the whole world, and bear down an universal impression.
Should the laws of a country, agreed universally to by the
whole body of the people, be accounted vain, because a hun-
1 Amyraut des Religions, p. 50. 2 Gassend. Phys. § 1. lib. iv. c. 2. p. 291.
3 Gassend. ibid. c. 7. p. 282.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 21
dred men of those millions disapprove of them, when not their
reason, but their folly and base interest, persuades them to dis
like them and dispute against them? What if some men be
blind, shall any conclude from thence that eyes are not natural
to men? shall we say that the notion of the existence of God
is not natural to men, because a very small number have been
of a contrary opinion? shall a man in a dungeon, that never
saw the sun, deny that there is a sun, because one or two blind
men tell him there is none, when thousands assure him there
is?' Why should then the exceptions of a few, not one to
millions, discredit that which is voted certainly true by the
joint consent ofthe world? Add this, too, that if those that are
reported to be atheists had had any considerable reason to step
aside from the common persuasion of the whole world, it is a
wonder it met not with entertainment by great numbers of
those, who, by reason of their notorious wickedness and in
ward disquiets, might reasonably be thought to wish in their
hearts that there were no God. It is strange if there were any
reason on their side, that in so long a space of time as hath run
out from the creation of the world, there could not be engaged
a considerable number to frame a society for the profession of
it. It hath died with the person that started it, and vanished
as soon as it appeared.
To conclude this, is it not folly for any man to deny or doubt
of the being of a God, to dissent from all mankind, and stand
in contradiction to human nature? What is the general dictate
of nature is a certain truth. It is impossible that nature can
naturally and universally lie. And therefore those that ascribe
all to nature, and set it in the place of God, contradict them
selves, if they give not credit to it in that which it universally
affirms. A general consent of all nations is to be esteemed as
a law of nature. ^ Nature cannot plant in the minds of all
men an assent to a falsity, for then the laws of nature would
be destructive to the reason and minds of men. How is it pos
sible, that a falsity should be a persuasion spread through all
nations, engraven upon the minds of all men, men of the most
towering, and men of the most creeping understanding; that
they should consent to it in all places, and in those places
where the nations have not had any known commerce with
the rest ofthe known world ? a consent not settled by any law
of man to constrain people to a belief of it: and indeed it is
impossible that any law of man can constrain the belief of the
mind. Would not he deservedly be accounted a fool, that
should deny that to be gold which hath been tried and ex
amined by a great number of knowing goldsmiths, and hath
1 Gassend. Phys. § 1. lib. iv. c. 7. p. 290. 2 Cicero.

22 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
passed the test of all their touchstones? What excess of folly
would it be for him to deny it to be true gold, if it had been
tried by all that had skill in that metal in all nations in the
world! Secondly, It hath been a constant and uninterrupted consent.
It hath been as ancient as the first age of the world ; no man is
able to mention any time, from the beginning of the world,
wherein this notion hath not been universally owned; it is as
old as mankind, and hath run along with the course of the sun,
nor can the date be fixed lower than that.
1. In all the changes of the world, this hath been maintain
ed. In the overturnings ofthe government of states, the altera
tion of modes of worship, this hath stood unshaken. The rea
sons upon which it was founded were, in all revolutions of
time, accounted satisfactory and convincing, nor could absolute
atheism in the changes of any laws ever gain the favour of any
one body of people to be established by a law. When the
honour of the heathen idols was laid in the dust, this suffered
no impair. The being of one God was more vigorously own
ed, when the unreasonableness of multiplicity of gods was
manifest; and grew firmer by the detection of counterfeits.
When other parts of the law of nature have been violated by
some nations, this hath maintained its standing. The long
series of ages hath been so far from blotting it out, that it hath
more strongly confirmed it, and maketh further progress in the
confirmation of it. Time, which hath eaten out the strength of
other things, and blasted mere inventions, hath not been able to
consume this. The discovery of all other impostures, never
made this by any society of men to be suspected as one. It
will not be easy to name any imposture that hath walked per
petually in the world without being discovered, and whipped
out by some nation or other. Falsities have never been so uni
versally and constantly owned without public control and ques
tion. And since the world hath detected rnany errors of the
former age, and learning been increased, this hath been so far
from being dimmed, that it hath shone out clearer with the
increase of natural knowledge, and received fresh and more
vigorous confirmations.
2. The fears and anxieties in the consciences of men have
given men sufficient occasion to root it out, had it been possible
for them to do it. If the notion of the existence of God had
been possible to have been dashed out of the minds of men,
they would have done it rather than have suffered so many
troubles in their souls upon the commission of sin; since there
did not want wickedness and wit in so many corrupt ages to
have attempted it and prospered in it, had it been possible.
How comes it therefore to pass, that such a multitude of pro-

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

23

fligate persons that have been in the world since the fall of
man, should not have rooted out this principle, and dispossessed
the minds of men of that which gave birth to their tormenting
fears ? How is it possible that all should agree together in a
thing which created fear, and an obligation against the interest
of the flesh, if it had been free for men to discharge themselves
ofit ? No raan, as far as corrupt nature bears sway in him, is
willing to live controlled.
The first man would rather he a god himself than under
one;' why should men continue this notion in thera, which
shackled them in their vile inclinations, if it had been in their
power utterly to deface it ? If it were an imposture, how comes
it to pass, that all the wicked ages of the world could never
discover that to be a cheat, which kept them in continual
alarms ? Men wanted not will to shake off such apprehensions;
as Adam, so all his posterity are desirous to hide themselves
from God upon the commission of sin,^ and by the same rea
son they would hide God from their souls. What is the reason
they could never attain their will and their wish by all their
endeavours? Could they possibly have satisfied themselves
that there were no God, they had discarded their fears, the dis
turbers of the repose of their lives, and been unbridled in their
pleasures. The wickedness of the world would never have
preserved that which was a perpetual molestation to it, had it
been possible to be rased out.
But since men under the turmoils and lashes of their own
consciences could never bring their hearts to a settled dissent
from this truth, it evidenceth, that as it took its birth at the
beginning of the world, it cannot expire, no not in the ashes of
it, nor in any thing but the reduction of the soul to that nothing
from whence it sprung. This conception is so perpetual, that
the nature ofthe soul must be dissolved before it be rooted out,
nor can it be extinct while the soul endures.
3. Let it be considered also by us that own the Scripture,
that the devil deems it impossible to root out this sentiment.
It seems to be so perpetually fixed, that the devil did not think
fit to tempt raan to the denial of the existence of a Deity, but
persuaded him to believe he might ascend to that dignhy and
become a god himself; Gen. iii. 1. 'Hath God said?' and he
there owns him (ver. 5), ' Ye shall become as gods.' He owns
God in the question he asks the woman, and persuades our
first parents to be gods themselves. And in all stories, both
ancient and modern, the devil was never able to tincture men's
minds with a professed denial of the Deity, which would have
opened a door to a world of more wickedness than hath been
' Gen. iii. 5. 2 Gen. iii. 9.

24 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
acted, and took away the bar to the breaking out of that evil,
which is naturally in the hearts of men, to the greater preju
dice of human societies. He wanted not malice to rase out
all the notions of God, but power: he knew it was impossible
to effect it, and therefore in vain to attempt it. He set up him
self in several places of the ignorant world as a god, but never
was able to overthrow the opinion of the being of a God. The
impressions of a Deity were so strong as not to be struck out
by the malice and power of hell.
What a folly is it then in any to contradict or doubt of this
truth, which all the periods of time have not been able to wear
out ; which all the wars and quarrels of men with their own
consciences have not been able to destroy ; which ignorance
and debauchery, its two greatest enemies, cannot weaken;
which all the falsehoods and errors which have reigned in one
or other part of the world, have not been able to banish; which
lives in the consents of men in spite of all their wishes to the
contrary, and hath grown stronger, and shone clearer, by the
improvements of natural reason!
Thirdly, Natural and innate ; which pleads strongly for the
perpetuity of it. It is natural, though some think it not a
principle written in the heart of man ; ' it is so natural that every
man is born with a restless instinct to be of some kind of reli
gion or other, which implies some object of religion. The im
pression of a Deity is as common as reason, and of the same
age with reason.^ It is a relic of knowledge after the fall of
Adam, like fire under ashes, which sparkles as soon as ever the
heap of ashes is opened : — a notion sealed up in the soul of
every man f else how could those people who were unknown
to one another, separate by seas and mounts, differing in various
customs and manner of living, who had no mutual intelligence
one with another, light upon this as a comraon sentiment, if
they had not been guided by one uniform reason in all their
minds, by one nature common to them all: though their cli
mates be different, their tempers and constitutions various, their
imaginations in some things as distant from one another as
heaven is from earth, the ceremonies of their religion not all
of the same kind ; yet wherever you find human nature, you
find this settled persuasion. So that the notion of a God seems
to be entwined with the nature of man, and is the first natural
branch of common reason, or upon either the first inspection of
a man into himself and his ov/n state and constitution, or upon
the first sight of any external visible object. Nature within
man, and nature without man, agree upon the first meeting to
gether to form this sentiment, that there is a God. It is as
' Pink. Eph. 6, p, 10, II. ' King on Jonah, p. 16.
^ Amyraut des Religions, p. 6 — 9.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, 25
natural as any thing we call a common principle. One thing
which is called a common principle and natural is, that the
whole is greater than the parts. If this be not born with us,
yet the exercise of reason essential to man settles it as a certain
maxim; upon the dividing any thing into several parts, he
finds every part less than when they were altogether. By the
same exercise of reason, we cannot cast our eyes upon any
thing in the world, or exercise our understandings upon our
selves, but we must presently imagine, there was some cause of
those things, some cause of myself and my own being; so that
this truth is as natural to man as any thing he can call most
natural or a common principle.
It must be confessed by all, that there is a law of nature writ
ten upon the hearts of men, which will direct them to commenda
ble actions, if they will attend to the writing in their own con
sciences. This law cannot be considered without the notice of
a lawgiver. For it is but a natural and obvious conclusion,
that some superior hand engrafted those principles in man,
since he finds something in him twitching him upon the pursuit
of uncomely actions, though his heart be mightily inclined to
them; raan knows he never planted this principle of reluctancy
in his own soul ; he can never be the cause of that which he
cannot be friends with. If he were the cause of it, why doth
he not rid himself of it ? No man would endure a thing that
doth frequently molest and disquiet him, if he could cashier it.
It is therefore sown in man by some hand more powerful than
man, which riseth so high, and is rooted so strong, that all the
force that man can use cannot pull it up. If iherjefore this
principle be natural in man, and the law of nature be natural,
the notion of a lawgiver must be as natural, as the notion of
a printer, or that there is a printer, is obvious upon the sight of
a stamp impressed. After this the multitude of effects in the
world step in to strengthen this beam of natural light, and the
direct conclusion from thence is, that that power which made
those outward objects, implanted this inward principle. This
is sown in us, born with us, and sprouts up with our growth,
or as one saith; it is like letters carved npon the bark of a
young plant, which grows up together with us, and the longer
it grows the letters are more legible.'
This is the ground of this universal consent, and why it may
well be termed natural. This will more evidently appear to
be natural, because,
1. This consent could not be by mere tradition. 2. Nor by
any mutual intelligence of governors to keep people in awe,
Avhich are two things the atheist pleads; the first hath no strong
I Charloton,
Vol. I.— 4

26 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
foundation, and that other is as absurd and foolish as it is
wicked and abominable. 3. Nor was it fear first introduced it.
First, It could not be by mere tradition. Many things indeed
are entertained by posterity which their ancestors delivered to
them, and that out of a common reverence to their forefathers,
and an opinion that they had a better prospect of things than
the increase of the corruption of succeeding ages would permit
them to have. But if this be a tradition handed from our
ancestors, they also must receive it from theirs; we must then
ascend to the first man, we cannot else escape a confounding
ourselves with running into infinite. Was it then the only
tradition he left to them? Is it not probable he acquainted them
with other things in conjunction with this, the nature of God,
the way to worship him, the manner of the world's existence,
his own state? We may reasonably suppose him to have a
good stock of knowledge; what is become of it? It cannot be
supposed that the first man should acquaint his posterity with
an object of worship, and leave them ignorant of a mode of
worship and of the end of worship. We find in Scripture his
immediate posterity did the first in sacrifices, and without doubt
they were not ignorant of the other: how come men to be so
uncertain in all other things, and so confident of this, if it were
only a tradition? How did debates and irreconcilable questions
start up concerning other things, and this remain untouched,
but by a small number ? Whatsoever tradition the first man left
besides this, is lost, and no way recoverable, but by the revela
tion God hath made in his word. How comes it to pass this tra
dition of a God is longer lived than all the rest which we may
suppose man left to his immediate descendants? How come
men to retain the one and forget the other? What was the rea
son this survived the ruin of the rest, and surmounted the
uncertainties into which the other sunk? Was it likely it should
be handed down alone without other attendants on it at first?
Why did it not expire among the Americans, who have lost
the account of their own descent, and the stock from whence
they sprung, and cannot reckon above eight hundred or a thou
sand years at most? Why was not the manner of the worship
of a God transmitted as well as that of his existence ? How
came men to dissent in their opinions concerning his nature,
whether he was corporeal or incorporeal, finite or infinite,
omnipresent or Hmited ? Why were not men as negligent to
transmit this of his existence as that of his nature? No reason
can be rendered for the security of this above the other, but
that there is so clear a tincture of a Deity upon the minds of
men, such traces and shadows of him in the creatures, such
indelible instincts within, and invincible arguments without, to
keep up this universal consent. The characters are so deep

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 27
that they cannot possibly be rased out, which would have been
one time or other, in one nation or other, had it depended only
upon tradition, since one age shakes off frequently the senti
ments of the former. I cannot think of above one which may
be called a traduion, which indeed was kept up among all
nations, viz. sacrifices, which could not be natural, but insti
tuted. What ground could they have in nature, to imagine
that the blood of beasts could expiate and wash off the guilt
and stains of a rational creature ? Yet they had in all places
(except among the Jews, and some of them only) lost the know
ledge of the reason and end of the institution, which the Scrip
ture acquaints us was to typify and signify the redemption by
the promised seed. This tradition hath been superannuated
and laid aside in most parts of the world, while this notion of
the existence of a God hath stood firm. But suppose it were
a tradition, was it likely to be a mere invention and figment of
the first man? Had there been no reason for it, his posterity
would soon have found out the weakness of its foundation.
What advantage had it been to him to transmit so great a false
hood to kindle the fears or raise the hopes of his posterity, if
there were no God? It cannot be supposed he should be so void
of that natural affection men in all ages bear to their descendants,
as so grossly to deceive them, and be so contrary to the simplicity
and plainness which appear in all things nearest their original.
Secondly, Neither was it by any mutual intelligence of
governors arnong themselves to keep people in subjection to
them. If it were a political design at first, it seems it met with the
general nature of mankind very ready to give it entertainment.
1. It is unaccountable how this should come to pass. It must
be either by a joint assembly of them, or a mutual correspond
ence. If by an assembly, who were the persons? Let the name
of any one be mentioned. When was the time ? Where was
the place of this appearance? By what authority did they meet
together? Who made the first motion, and first started this great
principle of policy? By what means could they assemble from
such distant parts of the world? Human histories are utterly
silent in it, and the Scripture, the most ancient history, gives an
account of the attempt of Babel, but not a word of any design
of this nature. What mutual correspondence could such have,
whose interests are for the most part different, and their designs
contrary to one another? How could they, who were divided
hy such vast seas, have this mutual converse? How could those
who were different in their customs and manners, agree so
unanimously together in one thing to cheat the people? If there
had been such a correspondence between the governors of all
nations, what is the reason some nations should be unknown to
the world till of late times? How could the business be so

28 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD,
secretly managed, as not to take vent, and issue in a discovery
to the world? Can reason suppose so many in a joint conspi
racy, and no man's conscience in his life under sharp afflictions,
or on his death-bed, when conscience is most awakened, con
strain him to reveal openly the cheat that beguiled the world?
How came they to be so unanimous in this notion, and to differ
in their rites almost in every country ? Why could they not
agree in one mode of worship throughout all the world, as well
as in this universal notion? If there were not a mutual intelli
gence, it cannot be conceived how in every nation such a state
engineer should rise up with the same trick to keep people in
awe. What is the reason we cannot find any law in any one
nation to constrain men to the belief of the existence of a God,
since politic stratagems have been often fortified by laws?
Besides, such men make use of principles received to effect
their contrivances, and are not so impolitic as to build designs
upon principles that have no foundation in nature. Some
heathen lawgivers have pretended a converse with their gods,
to make their laws be received by the people with greater vene
ration, and fix with stronger obligation the observance and
perpetuity of them; but this was not the introducing of a new
principle, but the supposition of an old received notion, that
there was a God, and an application of that principle to their
present design. The pretence had been vain had not the notion
of a God been ingrafted. Politicians are so little possessed with
a reverence of God, that the first mighty one in the Scripture
(which may reasonably gain with the atheist the credit of the
most ancient history iu the world,) is represented without any
fear of God.' An invader and oppressor of his neighbours, and
reputed the introducer of a new worship, and being the first
that built cities after the flood (as Cain was the first builder of
them before the fiood,) built also idolatry with them, and erected
a new worship, and was so far from strengthening that notion
the people had of God, that he endeavoured to corrupt it. The
first idolatry in common histories being noted to proceed from
that part ofthe world; the most ancient idol being at Babylon,
and supposed to be first invented by this person; whence, by
the way, perhaps Rome is in the Revelation called Babylon,
with respect to that similitude of their saint worship, to the
idolatry first set up iu that place.^ 'Tis evident politicians have
often changed the worship of a nation, but it is not upon record
that the first thoughts of an object of worship ever entered into
the minds of people by any trick of theirs.
1 Gen. X, 9. ' Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord,'
2 Or if we understand it as some think, that he defended his invasions under a
pretext of the preserving religion, it assures us that there was a notion of an
object of religion before, since no relig; ion can be without an object of worship.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 29
But to return to the present argument, the being of a God is
owned by some nations that have scarce any form of policy
among them. 'Tis as wonderful how any wit should hit upon
such an invention, as it is absurd to ascribe it to any human
device, if there were not prevailing arguments to constrain the
consent. Besides, how is it possible they should deceive them
selves? What is the reason the greatest politicians have their
fears of a Deity upon their unjust practices, as well as other
men they intended to befool? How many of them have had
forlorn consciences upon a death-bed, upon the consideration
of a God to answer an account to in another world? Is it cre
dible they should be frighted by that wherewith they knew
they beguiled others? No man satisfying his pleasures would
impose such a deceit upon himself to render and make himself
more miserable than the creatures he hath dominion over.
2. It is also unaccountable how it should endure so long a time;
that this policy should be so fortunate as to gain ground in the
consciences of men, and exercise an empire over them, and
meet with such an universal success. If the notion of a God
were a state-engine, and introduced by some politic grandees,
for the ease of government, and preserving people with more
facility in order, how comes it to pass the first broachers of it
were never upon record ? There is scarce a false opinion vented
in the world, but may, as a stream, be traced to the first head
and fountain. The inventors of particular forms of worship are
known, and the reasons why they prescribed them known; but
what grandee was the author of this? Who can pitch a time
and person that sprung up this notion? If any be so insolent
as to impose a cheat, he can hardly be supposed to be so suc
cessful as to deceive the whole world for many ages: impos
tures pass not free through the whole world without examina
tion and discovery; falsities have not been universally and con
stantly owned without control and question. If a cheat im
poseth upon some towns and countries, he will be found out by
the more piercing inquiries of other places; and it is not easy
to name any imposture that hath walked so long in its disguise
in the world, without being unmasked and whipped out by
some nation or other. If this had been a mere trick, there
would have been as much craft in some to discern it as there
was in others to contrive it. No man can be imagined so wise
in a kingdom, but others may be found as wise as himself: and
it is not conceivable, that so many clear-sighted men in all
ages should be ignorant of it, and not endeavour to free the
world from so great a falsity. It cannot be found that a trick
of state should always beguile men of the most piercing in
sights, as well as the most credulous: that a few crafty men
should befool all the wise men in the world, and the world lie

30 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
in a belief of it and never like to be freed from it.' What is
the reason the succeeding politicians never knew this strata
gem, since their maxims are usually handed to their suc
cessors ?2
This persuasion of the existence of God, owes not itself to
any imposture or subtlety of men: if it had not been agreeable
to common nature and reason, it could not so long have borne
sway. The imposed yoke would have been cast off by multi
tudes ; men would not have charged themselves with that which
was attended with consequences displeasing to the flesh, and
hindered them from a full swing of their rebellious passions;
such a shackle would have mouldered of itself, or been broke
by the extravagances human nature is inclined unto. The
wickedness of men, without question, hath prompted them to
endeavour to unmask it, if it were a deception, but could never
yet be so successful as to free the world from a persuasion, or
their own consciences from the tincture of the existence of a
Deity. It must be therefore of a more ancient date than the
craft of statesmen, and descend into the world with the first
appearance of human nature. Time, which hath rectified
many errors, improves this notion, makes it strike down its
roots deeper, and spread its branches larger.
It must be a natural truth that shines clear by the detection
of those errors that have befooled the world, and the wit of
man is never able to name any human author that first insinu
ated it into the beliefs of men.
Thirdly, Nor was it fear first introduced it. Fear is the con
sequent of wickedness. As man was not created with any inhe
rent sin, so he was not created with any terrifying fears; the
one had been against the holiness of the Creator, the other
against his goodness: fear did not make this opinion, but the
opinion ofthe being of a Deity was the cause of this fear, after
his sense of angering the Deity by his wickedness. The object
of fear is before the act of fear; there could not be an act of
fear exercised about the Deity, till he was believed to be ex
istent, and not only so, but off'ended: for God as existent onlv,
is not the object of fear or love; it is not the existence of a
thing that excites any of those affections, but the relation a
thing bears to us in particular. God is good, and so the object
of love, as well as just, and thereby the object of fear. He
was as much called Love,^ and Mens, or Mind, in regard
of his goodness and understanding, by the heathens, as by
any other name. Neither of those names were proper to
insinuate fear; neither was fear the first principle that made
• Fotherby de Theomastrix, p, 64.
2 And there is nof a Richlieu but leaves his axioms to a Mazarine,
3 Epcjy.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. oi
the heathen worship a God; they offered sacrifices out of gra
titude to some, as well as to others, out of fear; the fear of
evils in the world, and the hopes of relief and assistance from
their gods, and not a terrifying fear of God, was the principal
spring of their worship. When calamities from the hands of
men, or judgments by the influences of heaven were upon
them, they implored that which they thought a Deity; it was
not their fear of him, but a hope in his goodness, and persua
sion of remedy from him, for the averting those evils that ren
dered them adorers of a God: if they had not had pre-existent
notions of his being and goodness, they would never have made
addresses to him, or so frequently sought to that they only
apprehended as a terrifying object.' . When you hear men calling
upon God in a time of affrighting thunder, you cannot imagine
that the fear of thunder did first introduce the notion of a God,
but implies, that it was before apprehended by them, or stamped
upon them, though their fear doth at present actuate that belief,
and engage them in a present exercise of piety; and whereas
the Scripture saith, "The fear of God is the beginning of wis
dom,"^ or of all religion; it is not understood of a distracted
and terrifying fear, but a reverential fear of him, because of
his holiness; or a worship of him, a submission to him, and
sincere seeking of him.
Well, then, is it not a folly for an atheist to deny that which
is the reason and common sentiment of the whole world; to
strip himself of humanity, run counter to his own conscience,
prefer a private before a universal judgment, give the lie to his
own nature and reason, assert things impossible to be proved,
nay, impossible to be acted, forge irrationalities for the support
of his fancy against the common persuasion of the world, and
against him,self, and so much of God as is manifest in him and
every man ? ^
Reason II. It is a folly to deny that which all creatures or
all things in the world manifest.'" Let us view this in Scrip
ture, since we acknowledge it, and after consider the arguments
from natural reason.
The apostle resolves it (Rom. i. 19, 20,) " The invisible things
of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power
and Godhead, so that they are whhout excuse." They know,
or might know, by the things that were made, the eternity and
power of God; their sense might take a circuit about every
object, and their minds collect the being and something of the
perfections of the Deity. The first discourse of the mind upon
I Gassend. Phys. § 1. lib. iv. c. 2. p. 291, 292. ^ Pjov. ix. 10. Psalm oxi. 10.
' Rom. i. 19. ^ Jupiter est quodcunque vides, &c.

32 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD,
the sight of a delicate piece of workmanship, is the conclusion
ofthe being of an artificer, and the admiration of his skill and
industry. The apostle doth not say, the invisible things of God
are believed, or they have an opinion of them, but they are
seen, and clearly seen. They are like crystal glasses, which
give a clear representation of the existence of a Deity, like that
mirror, reported to be in a temple in Arcadia, which repre
sented to the spectator, not his own face, but the image of that
Deity which he worshipped. The whole world is like a looking-
glass, which, whole and entire, represents the image of God,
and every broken piece of it, every little shred of a creature
doth the like; not only the great ones, elephants and the levia
than, but ants, flies, worms, whose bodies rather than names
we know: the greater cattle and the creeping things (Gen. i.
24:) not naming there any intermediate creature, to direct us
to view him in the smaller letters, as well as the greater cha
racters of the world. His name is "glorious," and his attri
butes are excellent "in all the earth;" ' in every creature, as the
glory ofthe sun is in every beam and smaller flash; he is seen
in every insect, in every spire of grass. The voice of the Cre
ator is in the most contemptible creature. The apostle adds,
that they are so clearly seen, that men are inexcusable if they
have not some knowledge of God by them; if they might not
certainly know them, they might have some excuse; so that his
existence is not only probably, but demonstratively proved from
the things of the world.^
Especially the heavens declare him, which God " stretches
out like a curtain,"^ or, as some render the word, a "skin,"
whereby is signified, that heaven is an open book, which was
anciently made of the skins of beasts, that by the knowledge
of them we may be taught the knowledge of God: Where
Scripture was not revealed, the world served for a witness of a
God; whatever arguments the Scripture uses to prove it, are
drawn from nature (though, indeed, it doth not so much prove
as suppose the existence of a God;) but what arguments it uses
are from the creatures, and particularly the heavens, which are
the public preachers of this doctrine. The breath of God sounds
to all the world through those organ-pipes. His being is visible
in their existence, his wisdom, in their frame, his power in their
motion, his goodness in their usefulness. They have a voice,
and their voice is as intelligible as any common language." And
those are so plain heralds of a Deity, that the heathen mistook
them for deities, and gave them a particular adoration, which
' Psalm viii, I. 2 Banes in Aquin. Par. 2. Qu. 2. Artie. 2, p. 78. col. 2.
3 Psalm civ, 2.
¦< 'For their voice goeth to the end ofthe earth.' Psalm xix. 4.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

33

was due to that God they declared. The first idolatry seems
to be of those heavenly bodies, which began probably in the
time of Nimrod. In Job's time it is certain they admired the
glory of the sun, and the brightness of the moon, not without
kissing their hands, a sign of adoration.' It is evident a man
may as well doubt whether there be a sun, when he sees his
beams gilding the earth, as doubt whether there be a God,
when he sees his works spread in the world.
The things in the world declare the existence of a God, 1. In
their production. 2. Harmony. 3. Preservation. 4. Answering
their several ends.
First, In their production. The declaration of the existence
of God was the chief end for which they were created, that
the notion of a supreme and independent Eternal Being might
more easily reach the active understanding of man from the
objects of sense, dispersed in every corner of the world, that
he might pay a homage and devotion to the Lord of all, (Isaiah
xl. 12, 13. 18, 19, &c.) 'Have you not understood from the
foundation of the earth, it is he that sits upon the circle of the
heaven,' &c. How could this great heap be brought into being
unless a God had framed it ? Every plant, every atom, as well
as every star, at the first meeting whispers this in our ears, ' I
have a Creator; I am witness to a Deity.' Who ever saw statues
or pictures but presently thinks of a statuary and a limner ? Who
beholds garments, ships, or houses, but understands there was
a weaver, a carpenter, an architect ? ^ Who can cast his eyes
about the world, but must think of that power that formed it,
and that the goodness which appears in the formation of it hath
a perfect residence in some being? 'Those things that are
good must flow from something perfectly good: that which
is chief in any kind is the cause of all that kind. Fire, which
is most hot, is the cause of all things which are hot. There is
some being therefore which is the cause of all that perfection
which is in the creature; and this is God.' [Aquin. 1 qu. 2.
Artie. 3.) All things that are demonstrate something from
whence they are. All things have a contracted perfection, and
what they have is communicated to thera. Perfections are par
celled out among several creatures. Any thing that is imper
fect cannot exist of itself We are led, therefore, by them to
consider a fountain which bubbles up in all perfection; a hand
which distributes those several degrees of being and perfection
to what we see. We see that which is imperfect; our minds
conclude something perfect to exist before it. Our eye sees
the streams, but our understanding riseth to the head ; as the
< Job xxxi. 26, 27.
2 Philo. ex Petav. Theolo. Dog. Tom. I. lib. i. >;. 1. p. 4. somewhat changed.
Vol. I.— 5

34 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
eye sees the shadow, but the understanding informs uS whether
it be the shadow of a man or of a beast.
God has given us sense to behold the objects in the world,
and understanding to reason his existence from them. The
understanding cannot conceive a thing to have made itself; that
is against all reason. As they are made, they speak out a
Maker,' and cannot be a trick of chance, since they are made
with such an immense wisdom, that is too big for the grasp
of all human understanding. Those that doubt \Vhether the
existence of God be an implanted principle, yet agree that the
effects in the world lead to a supreme and universal cause ;
and that if we have not the knowledge of it rooted in our na
tures, yet we have it by discourse; since, by all masters of
reason, a. processus in infinitum must be accounted impossible
in subordinate causes. This will appear in several things.
I. The world and every creature had a beginning. The
Scripture ascertains this to us. David who was not the first
man, gives the praise to God of his being 'curiously wrought,'
&c. (Psal. cxxxix. 14, 15.) Godgave being to men, and plants,
and beasts before they gave being to one another. He gives
being to them now as the Fountain of all being, though the
several modes of being are from the several natures of second
causes. It is true, indeed, we are ascertained that they were made by
the true God; that they were made by his word;" that they
were made of nothing; and not only this lower world wherein
we live, but, according to the Jewish division, the world of
men, the world of stars, and the world of spirits and souls. We
do no not waver in it, or doubt ofit, as the heathen did in their
disputes; we know they are the workmanship ofthe true God,
of that God we adore, not of false gods; 'by his word,' with
out any instrument or engine, as in earthly structures; 'of
things which do not appear,' without any pre-existent matter,
as all artifical vworks of men are framed. Yet the proof of the
beginning of the world is affirmed with good reason ; and if it
had a beginning, it had also some higher cause than itself:
every effect hath a cause.
The world was not eternal, or from eternity.^ The matter
of the world cannot be eternal. Matter cannot subsist with
out form, nor put on any form without the action of some cause.
This cause must be in being before it acted; that which is not
cannot act. The cause of the world must necessarily exist be
fore any matter was endued with any form; that, therefore,
1 Rom. i. 20.
2 Gen. i. " By faith we understand that the worlds were framed bv the word of
God." &.C. Heb. xi. 3. '
3 Daille 20. Serm. Paahn cii. 26. p. 13, 14.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

35

cannot be eternal before which another did subsist; if it were
from eternity, it would not be subject to mutation. If the whole
was from eternity, why not also the parts; what makes the
changes so visible then, if eternity would exempt it from mu
tability ?
1. Time cannot be infinite, and, therefore, the world not eter
nal. All motion hath its beginning ; if it were otherwise, we
must say the number of heavenly revolutions of days and
nights, which are past to this instant, is actually infinite, which
cannot be in nature.' If it were so, it must needs be granted
that a part is equal to the whole ; because infinite being equal
to infinite, the number of days past in all ages to the beginning
of one year being infinite (as they would be supposing the
world had no beginning) would by consequence be equal to
the number of days which shall pass to the end of the next ;
whereas that number of days past is indeed but a part; and
so a part would be equal to the whole.
2. Generations of men, aniraaJs, and plants, could not be
from eternity; if any man say the world was from eternity,
then there must be propagations of living creatures in the
same manner as are at this day ; for without this the world
could not consist.* What we see now done must have been
perpetually done, if it be done by a necessity of nature; but
we see nothing now that doth arise but by a mutual propa
gation from another. If the world were eternal, therefore,
it must be so in all eternity. Take any particular species.
Suppose a man, if men were from eternity; then there were
perpetual generations — some were born into the world, and
sorae died. Now the natural condition of generation is, that
a raan doth not generate a man, nor a sheep a lamb, as soon
as ever itself is brought into the world ; but get strength and
vigour by degrees, and must arrive to a certain stated age be
fore they can produce the like ; for whilst any thing is little and
below the due age, it cannot increase its kind. Men therefore,
and other creatures, did propagate their kind by the same law,
not as soon as ever they were born, but in the interval of some
time; and children grew up by degrees in the mother's womb
till they were fit to be brought forth. If this be so, then there
could not be an eternal succession of propagating; for there is
no eternal continuation of time. Time is always to be con
ceived as having one part before another; but that perpetuity of
nativities is always after some time, wherein it could not be for
the weakness of age. If no man then can conceive a propaga
tion from eternity, there must be then a beginning of generation
in time, and, consequently, the creatures were made in time.
' Daille, ut supra. « Petav. The«. Dogmat. Tom. I. lib. i c. 2. p. 15.

36 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
' If the world were eternal, it must have been in the same
posture asit is now, in a state of generation and corruption;
and so corruption must have been as eternal as generation, and
then things that do generate and corrupt must have eternally
been and eternally not have been: there must be some first way
to set generation on work." We must lose ourselves in our
conceptions ; we cannot conceive a father before a child, as well
as we cannot conceive a child before a father: and reason is
quite bewildered, and cannot return into a right way of concep
tion, till it conceive one first of every kind: one first man, one
first animal, one first plant, from whence others do proceed.
The argument is unanswerable, and the wisest atheist (if any
atheist can be called wise) cannot unloose the knot. We must
come to something that is first in every kind, and this first must
have a cause, not of the same kind, but infinite and indepen
dent; otherwise men run into inconceivable labyrinths and
contradictions. Man, the noblest creature upon earth hath a beginning. No
man in the world but was some years ago no man. If every
man we see had a beginning, then the first man had also a be
ginning, then the world had a beginning : for the earth, which
was made for the use of man, had wanted that end for which
it was made. We must pitch upon some one man that was
unborn ; that first man must either be eternal ; that cannot be,
for he that hath no beginning hath no end; or must spring out
ofthe earth as plants and trees do ;^ that cannot be : why should
not the earth produce men to this day, as it doth plants and
trees? He was therefore made; and whatsoever is made hath
some cause that made it, which is God. If the world were un
created it were then immutable, but every creature upon the
earth is in a continual flux, always changing:^ if things be mu
table, they were created; if created, they were made by some
author: whatsoever hath a beginning must have a maker ; if the
world hath a beginning, there was then a time when it was not;
it must have some cause to produce it. That which makes is
before that which is made, and this is God.
II. Which win appear further in this proposition. No crea
ture can make itself: the world could not make itself
If every man had a beginning, every man then was once
nothing; he could not then make himself, because nothing can
not be the cause of something; 'The Lord he is God; he hath
made us, and not we ourselves.' (Ps. c. 3.) Whatsoever begun
in time was not; and when it was nothing, it had nothing, and
could do nothing; and therefore could never give to itself,
nor to any other, to be, or to be able to do: for then it gave
1 Wolseley, on Atheism, p, 47. 2 Petav. ut supra, p, 10. s Damascenus.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

37

what it had not, and did what it could not. Since reason
must acknowledge a first of every kind, a first man, &c. it must
acknowledge him created and made, not by himself ' ,why
have not other men since risen up by themselves, not by chance?
why hath not chance produced the like in that long time the
word hath stood? If we never knew any thing give being to
itself, how can we imagine any thing ever could? If the chiefest
part of this lower world cannot, nor any part of it hath been
known to give being to itself, then the whole cannot be sup
posed to give any being to itself: man did not form himself; his
body is not from himself; it would then have the power of
moving itself, but that is not able to live or act without the pre
sence ofthe soul. Whilst the soul is present, the body moves;
when that is absent, the body lies as a senseless log, not having
the least action or motion. His soul could not form itself Can
that which cannot form the least mote, the least grain of dust,
form itself, a nobler substance than any upon the earth? This
will be evident to every man's reason, if we consider,
1. Nothing can act before it is. The first man was not, and
therefore could not make himself to be. For any thing to pro
duce itself is to act: if it acted before it was, it was then some
thing and nothing at the same tirae ; it then had a being before
it had a being ; it acted when it brought itself into being. How
could it act without a being, unless it was? So that if it were
the cause of itself, it must be before itself as well as after itself;
it was before it was; it was as a cause hefore it was as an effect.
Action always supposeth a principle from whence it flows; as
nothing hath no existence, so it hath no operation ; there must
be, therefore, something of real existence to give a being to
those things that are, and every cause must he an effect of some
other before it be a cause. To be and not to be at the same
time, is a manifest contradiction, which would be, if any thing
made itself That which makes is always before that which
is raade. Who will say the house is before the carpenter, or
the picture before the limner? The world as a creator must be
before itself as a creature.
2. That which doth not understand itself and order itself
could not raake itself If the first man fully understood his own
nature, the excellency ofhis own soul, the manner of its opera
tions, why was not that understanding conveyed to his pos
terity? Are not many of them found, who understand their
own nature, almost as little as a beast understands itself; or a
rose understands its own sweetness; or a tulip its own colours?
The Scripture, indeed, gives us an account how this came about,
viz. by the deplorable rebellion of man, whereby death was
1 Petav, Theo. Dog. Tom. I. lib. i, c. 2. p, 14.

38 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
brought upon them (a spiritual death, which includes ignorance,
as well as an inability to spiritual action.') Thus he fell from his
honour, and became hke the beasts that perish, and not retain
ing God in his knowledge, retained not himself in his own
knowledge. But what reply can an atheist make to it, who acknowledges
no higher cause than nature? If the soul made itself, how
comes it to be so dark, so wanting in its knowledge of itself,
and of other things ? If the soul made its own understanding,
whence did the defect arise ? If some first principle was set
tled by the first man in himself, where was the stop that he did
not implant all in his own mind, and consequently, in the minds
of all his decendants? Our souls know little of themselves,
little of the world, are every day upon new inquiries, have little
satisfaction in themselves, meet with many an invincible diflicul
ty in their way, and when they seem to come to some resolution
in some cases stagger again, and, like a stone rolled up to the
top of the hill, quickly find themselves again at the foot. How
come they to be so purblind in truth? so short of that which
they judge true goodness? How comes it to pass that they
cannot order their own rebellious affections, but suffer the
reins they have to hold over their affections to be taken out of
their hands by the unruly fancy and flesh ? This no man that
denies the being of a God, and the revelation in Scripture, can
give an account of Blessed be God that we have the Scripture,
which gives us an account of those things, that all the wit of
men coifld never inform us of; and that when they are dis
covered and known by revelation, they appear not contrary to
reason! 3. If the first man made himself, how came he to limit him
self? If he gave himself being, why did he not give himself all
the perfections and ornaments of being? Nothing that made
itself could sit down contented with a little, but would have
had as much power to give itself that which is less, as to give
itself being, when it was nothing. The excellences it wanted
had not been more difficult to gain than the other which it
possessed, as belonging to its nature. If the first man had
been independent upon another, and had his perfection frora
himself, he might have acquired that perfection he wanted as
well as have bestowed upon himself that perfection he had; and
then there would have been no bounds set to hira. He would
have been omni.scient and immutable. He might have given
himself what he would; if he had had the setting his own bounds,
he would have set none at all; for what should restrain him?
No man now wants ambition to be what he is not; and if the
' Gen ii. 17. Psalm xlix. 20.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

39

first man had not been determined by another, but had given
himself being, he would not have remained in that determi
nate being, no more than a toad would remain a toad, if it had
power to make itself a man, and that power it would have had,
if it had given itself a being. Whatsoever gives itself being,
would give itself all degrees of being, and so would have no
imperfection, because every imperfection is a want of some
degree of being. He that could give himself matter and life,
might give himself every thing.' The giving of life is an act
of omnipotence; and what is omnipotent in one thing may be
in all. Besides, if the first man had made himself, he would
have conveyed himself to all his posterity in the same manner;
every raan would have had all the perfections ofthe first man,
as every creature has the perfections of the same kind, from
whence it naturally issues; all are desirous to communicate
what they can to their posterity. Communicative goodness be
longs to every nature. Every plant propagates its kind in the
same perfection it hath itself; and the nearer any thing comes
to a rational nature, the greater affection it hath to that which
descends frora it; therefore this affection belongs to a rational
nature, much more. The first man, therefore, if he had had
power to give himself being, and, consequently, all perfection,
he would have had as much power to convey it down to his
posterity; no irapediraent could have stopped his way ; then all
souls proceeding from that first man would have been equally
intellectual. What should hinder them from inheriting the
same perfections ? Whence should they have divers qualifica
tions and differences in their understandings ? No man then
would have been subject to those weaknesses, doubtings, and
unsatisfied desires of knowledge and perfection. But seeing all
souls are not alike, it is certain they depend upon some other
cause for the communication of that excellency they have. If
the perfections of men be so contracted and kept within certain
bounds, it is certain that they were not in his own power, and
so were not from himself. Whatsoever hath a determinate
being must be limited by some superior cause. There is, there
fore, some superior power, that hath thus determined the crea
ture by set bounds and distinct measures, and hath assigned to
every one its proper nature, that it should not be greater or less
than it is; who hath said of every one as of the Avaves of the
sea, ' Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further ;* and this is God.
Man could not have reserved any perfection from his posterity;
for since he doth propagate not by choice, but nature, he could
no more have kept. hack any perfection from them, than he
1 Therefore the heathens called God *« «" the only Being. Other thmgs were
not beings, because they had not all degrees of being.
2 Job xxxviii. II.

40 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
could, as he pleased, have given any perfection belonging to
his nature to them.
4. That which hath power to give itself being, cannot want
power to preserve that being. Preservation is not more diffi
cult than creation. If the first man made himself, why did he
not preserve himself? He is not now among the living in the
Avorld. How came he to be so feeble as to sink into the grave?
Why did he not inspire himself with new heat and moisture,
and fill his languishing limbs and declining body with new
strength? Why did he not chase away diseases and death at
the first approach ? What creature can find the dust of the first
man? All his posterity traverse the stage and retire again; in
a short space their age departs, and is removed from them ' as
a shepherd's tent,' and is ' cut off with pining sickness." ' The
life of man is as a wind, and like a cloud that is consumed and
vanishes away. The eye that sees him shall see him no more ;
he returns not to his house, neither doth his place knoAV him
any more.'^ The Scripture gives us the reason of this, and lays
it upon the score of sin against his Creator, which no man,
Avithout revelation, can give any satisfactory account of Had
the first man made himself, he had been sufficient for himself,
able to support himself without the assistance of any creature.
He would not have needed animals and plants, and other helps
to nourish and refresh him, nor medicines to cure him. He
could not be beholden to other things for his support, which he
is certain he never made for himself His own nature would
have continued that vigour, which once he had conferred upon
himself He would not have needed the heat and light of the
sun; he would have wanted nothing sufficient for himself in
himself; he needed not have sought without himself for his own
preservation and comfort. What depends upon another, is not
of itself; and Avhat depends upon things inferior to itself, is
less of itself Since nothing can subsist of itself, since we see
those things upon which man depends for his nourishment and
subsistence, growing and decaying, starting into the world and
retiring from it, as well as man himself; some preserving cause
must be concluded, upon which all depends.
5. If the first man did produce himself, why did he not pro
duce himself before ?
It hath been already proved that he had a beginning, and
could not be from eternity. Why then did he not make him
self before? Not because he would not; for having no being,
he could have no will : he could neither be willing nor not
willing. If he could not then, how could he afterwards? If
it were in his own power, he could have done it, he would
' Isaiah xxxviii. 12. 2 Job vii, 6 — 9.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

41

have done it; if it were not in his own power, then it was in
the power of some other cause, and that is God. How came
he by that power to produce himself? If the power of pro
ducing himself were communicated by another, then man could
not be the cause of himself; that is the cause ofit which com
municated that power to it. But if the power of being was
in and from himself, and in no other, nor communicated to him,
raan Avould always have been in act, and always have existed;
no hinderance can be conceived. For that which had the power
of being in itself, was invincible by any thing that should stand
in the way of its own being.
We may conclude from hence, the excellency of the Scrip
ture; that it is a word not to be refused credit. It gives us the
most rational account of things in the 1st and 2d of Genesis,
which nothing in the world else is able to do.
III. -No creature could make the world. No creature can
create another. If it creates of nothing, it is then omnipotent
and so not a creature. If it makes something of matter unfit
for that which is produced out of it, then the inquiry will be.
Who was the cause ofthe matter? and so Ave must arrive to
some uncreated being, the cause of all. Whatsoever gives
being to any other, must be the highest being, and must possess
all the perfections of that which it gives being to. What visible
creature is there which possesses the perfections of the whole
world? If, therefore, an invisible creature made the world,
the same inquiries will return, Avhence that creature had its
being? for he could not make himself If any creature did
create the world, he must do it by the strength and virtue of
another, which first gave him being, and this is God., For
whatsoever hath its existence and virtue of acting from another,
is not God. If it hath its virtue from another, it is then a second
cause, and so supposeth a first cause. It must have some cause
of itself, or be eternally existent. If eternally existent, it is not
a second cause, but God; if not eternally existent, we must
come to something at length which was the cause of it, or else
be bewildered without being able to give an account of any
thing. We must come at last to an infinite, eternal, indepen
dent Being, that Avas the first cause of this structure and fabric
wherein Ave and all creatures dwell. The Scripture proclaims
this aloud, ' I am the Lord, and there is none else: I form the
light, and I create darkness.' ' Man, the noblest creature, can
not of himself make a man, the chiefest part of the world. If
our parents only, without a superior power, made our bodies
or souls, they would know the frame of them; as he that makes
a lock knows the wards of it; he that makes any curious piece
I Isaiah xiv. 6, 7. Deut. iv. 35.
Vol. I.— 6

42 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
of arras, knows how he sets the various colours together, and
how many threads Avent to each division in the Aveb; he that
makes a watch, having the idea of the whole work in his mind,
knows the motions of it, and the reason of those motions. But
both parents and children are equally ignorant of the nature of
their souls and bodies, and of the reason of their motions. God
only, that had the supreme hand in forming us, in whose ' book
all our members are written, which in continuance were fash
ioned," knows Avhat we all are ignorant of If man hath, in
an ordinary course of generation, his being chiefly from a
higher cause than his parents, the world then certainly had its
being from some infinitely wise intelligent being, Avhich is God.
If it were, as some fancy, made by an assembly of atoms, there
must be some infinite intelligent cause that made them, some
cause that separated them, some cause that mingled them to
gether for the piling up so comely a structure as the world. It
is the most absurd thing to think they should meet together by
hazard, and rank themselves in that order we see, without a
higher and a wise agent. So that no creature could make the
world. For supposing any creature was formed before this
visible world, and might have a hand in disposing things, yet
he must have a cause of himself, and must act by the virtue
and strength of another, and this is God.
' IV. From hence it follows, that there is a first cause of things,
Avhich we call God. There must be something supreme in the
order of nature, something which is greater than all, which
hath nothing beyond it or above it, otherwise we must run in
infinitum. We see not a river, but we conclude a fountain;
a watch, but we conclude an artificer. As all number begins
from unity, so all the multitude of things in the world begins
from some unity, oneness as the principle of it. It is natural
to arise from a view of those things, to the conception of a
nature more perfect than any. As from heat mixed with cold,
and light mixed with darkness, men conceive and arise in their
understandings to an intense heat and a pure light; and from
a corporeal or bodily substance joined Avith an incorporeal, (as
man is an earthly body and a spiritual soul,) Ave ascend to a
conception of a substance purely incorporeal and spiritual: so
from a multitude of things in the world, reason leads us to one
choice being above all. And since in all natures in the Avorld,
we still find a superior nature; the nature of one beast above
the nature of another; the nature of man above the nature of
beasts; and some invisible nature, the worker of strange effects
in the air and earth, which cannot be ascribed to any visible
cause, we must suppose some nature above all those, of incon
ceivable perfection. ' Psalm cxxxix, IB,

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD,

43

Every sceptic, one that doubts whether there be any thing
real or not in the world, that counts every thing an appearance,
must necessarily own a first cause.' They cannot reasonably
doubt, but that there is some first cause which makes the things
appear so to them. They cannot be the cause of their own
appearance. For as nothing can have a being from itself, so
nothing can appear by itself and its own force. Nothing can
be and not be at the same time. But that which is not and
yet seems to be; if it be the cause why it seems to be what it is
not, it may be said to be and not to be. But certainly such
persons must think themselves to exist. If they do not, they
cannot think; and if they do exist, they must have some cause
of that existence. So that which way soever Ave turn ourselves,
we must in reason own a first cause of the world. Well, then,
might the Psalmist terra an atheist a fool, that disowns a God
against his own reason. Without owning a God as the first
cause of the world, no raan can give any tolerable or satisfac
tory account of the world to his own reason. And this first
cause, 1. Must necessarily exist. It is necessary that He by whom
all things are, should be before all things, and nothing before
him. ^ And if nothing be before him, he conies not from any
other; and then he always was, and without beginning. He is
from himself; not that he once was not, but because he hath
not his existence from another, and therefore of necessity he
did exist from all eternity. Nothing can make itself, or bring
itself into being; therefore there must be some being which
hath no cause, that depends upon no other, never was pro
duced by any other, but was Avhat he is from eternity, and
cannot be otherwise; and is not Avhat he is by will, but nature,
necessarily existing, and always existing without any capacity
or possibility ever not to be.
2. Must be infinitely perfect. Since man knows he is an
imperfect being, he must suppose the perfections he wants are
seated in some other being which hath limited him, and upon
Avhich he depends. Whatsoever we conceive of excellency or
perfection, must be in God. For we can conceive no perfection
but what God hath given us a power to conceive. And he
that gave us a power to conceive a transcendent perfection
above Avhatever we saw or heard of, hath much more in him
self; else he could not give us such a conception.
Secondly, As the production of the world, so the harmony of
all the parts of it declare the being and wisdom of a God.
Without the acknowledging God, the atheist can give no ac
count of those things. The multitude, elegancy, variety, and
1 Coccei sum Theol. c, 8. § 33, &c.
2 Petav. Theol. Dog. Tom. I. lib. i. c. 2. p. 10, 11.

44 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
beauty of all things are steps Avhereby to ascend to one foun
tain and original of them. Is it not a folly to deny the being
of a wise agent, Avho sparkles in the beauty and motions of the
heavens, rides upon the Avings ofthe wind, and is written upon
the flowers and fruits of plants? As the cause is known by the
effects, so the wisdom of the cause is known by the elegancy
ofthe work, the proportion of the parts to one another. Who
can imagine the world could be rashly made, and without con
sultation, which, in every part of it, is so artificially framed?
No work of art springs up of its oavu accord. ' The world is
framed by an excellent art, and, therefore, made by some skil
ful artist. As Ave hear not a melodious instrument, but we
conclude there is a musician that touches it, as well as some
skilful hand that framed and disposed it for those lessons; and
no man that hears the pleasant sound of a lute but will fix his
thoughts, not upon the instrument itself, but upon the skill of
the artist that made it, and the art of the musician that strikes
it, though he should not see the first, Avhen he saw the lute,
nor see the other, when he hears the harmony: so a rational
creature confines not his thoughts to his sense when he sees the
sun in its glory, and the moon Avalking in its brightness; but
riseth up in a contemplation and admiration of that Infinite
Spirit that composed, and filled them with such sweetness.
This appears,
1. In the linking contrary qualities together. All things are
compounded ofthe elements. Those are endued with contrary
qualities, dryness and moisture, heat and cold. These would
always be contending with and infesting one another's rights,
till the contest ended in the destruction of one or both. Where
fire is predominant, it would suck up the water; where Avater
is prevalent, it would quench the fire. The heat would wholly
expel the cold, or the cold overpower the heat; yet we see
them chained and linked one within another in every body
upon the earth, and rendering mutual offices for the benefit of
that body wherein they are seated, and all conspiring together
in their particular quarrels for the public interest of the body.
How could those contraries, that of themselves observe no
order, that are always preying upon one another, jointly accord
together of themselves, for one common end, if they were not
linked in a common band, and reduced to that order by some
incomprehensible wisdom and power, which keeps a hand
upon them, orj^ers their motions and directs their events, and
makes them readily pass into one another's natures? Confu
sion had been the result of the discord and diversity oftheir
natures; no composition could have been of those conflicting
1 Philo. Judffi. Petav. Theolog. Dog. Tom. I. lib. i, u, 1. p. 9.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

45

qualities for the frame of any body, nor any harmony arise
from so many jarring strings, if they had not been reduced into
concord by one that is supreme Lord over them, and knows
how to dispose their varieties and enmities for the public good.
If a man should see a large city or country, consisting of great
multitudes of men, of different tempers, full of frauds, and fac
tions, and animosities in their natures against one another, yet
living together in good order and peace, Avithout oppressing
and invading one another, and joining together for the public
good, he would presently conclude there were some excellent
governor, who tempered them by his wisdom, and preserved
the public peace, though he had never yet beheld him with his
eye. ' It is as necessary to conclude a God, who moderates the
contrarieties in the world, as to conclude a wise prince who
overrules the contrary dispositions in a state, making every
one to keep his own bounds and confines. Things that are
contrary to one another subsist in an admirable order.
2. In the subserviency of one thing to another. All the
members of living creatures are curiously fitted for the service
of one another, destined to a particular end, and endued with
a virtue to attain that end, and so distinctly placed, that one is
no hinderance to the other in its operations. ^ Is not this more
admirable than to be the work of chance, which is incapable
to settle such an order, and fix particular and general ends,
causing an exact correspondency of all the parts Avith one an
other, and every part to conspire together for one common end?
One thing is fitted for another. The eye is fitted for the sun,
and the sun fitted for the eye. Several sorts of food are fitted
for several creatures, and those creatures fitted with organs for
the partaking that food.
(1.) Subserviency of heavenly bodies. The sun, the heart
ofthe world, is not for itself, but for the good of the world, as
the heart of man is for the good of the body. ^ How conveni
ently is the sun placed, at a distance from the earth, and the
upper heavens, to enlighten the stars above, and enliven the
earth below? If it were either higher or lower, one part Avould
want its influences. It is not in the higher parts of the hea
vens; the earth then Avhich lives and fructifies by its influence
would have been exposed to a perpetual winter and chillness,
unable to have produced any thing for the sustenance of man
or beast. If seated lower, the earth had been parched up, the
world made uninhabitable, and long since had been consumed
to ashes by the strength of its heat. Consider the motion, as
well as the situation of the sun. Had it stood still, one part of
the Avorld had been cherished by its beams, and the other left
' Athanasius Petav. Theol. Dog. Tom. I, lib. i. u. 1. p, 4, 5,
2 Gassend. Physic. § I. lib. iv. c, 2. p. 315. ^ Lessius.

46 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
in a desolate widowhood, in a disconsolate darkness. Besides,
the earth Avould have had no shelter from its perpendicular
beams striking perpetually, and without any remission, upon
it. The same incommodities would have followed upon its
fixedness as upon its too great nearness. By a constant day
the beauty of the stars had been obscured, the knowledge of
their motions been prevented, and a considerable part of the
glorious wisdom of the Creator, in those choice ' works of his
fingers,' ' had been veiled from our eyes. It moves in a fixed
line, visits all parts of the earth, scatters in the day its refresh
ing blessings in every creek of the earth, and removes the mask
from the other beauties of heaven in the night, which sparkle
out to the glory of the Creator. It spreads its light, Avarms the
earth, cherisheth the seeds, excites the spirit in the earth, and
brings fruit to maturity. View also the air, the vast extent
between heaven and earth, which serves for a water-course, a
cistern for water, to bedew the face of the sun-burnt earth, to
satisfy the desolate ground, and to cause the ' bud of the ten
der herb to spring forth.' ^ Could chance appoint the clouds
of the air to interpose as fans between the scorching heat of
the sun, and the faint bodies of the creatures ? Can that be the
'father ofthe rain, or beget the drops of dew?'^ Could any
thing so blind settle those ordinances of heaven for the preser
vation of creatures on the earth? Can this either bring or stay
the bottles of heaven, when the ' dust grows into hardness, and
the clods cleave fast together?'^
(2.) Subserviency of the lower world, the earth, and sea,
which was created to be inhabited, (Isa. xiv. 18.) The sea
affords water to the rivers, the rivers, like so many veins, are
spread through the whole body of the earth, to refresh and
enable it to bring forth fruit for the sustenance of man and
beast, (Psa. civ. 10, 11.) ' He sends the springs into the val
leys, which run among the hills; they give drink to every beast
of the field ; the wild asses quench their thirst. He causes the
grass to grow for the cattle, and the herb for the service of
man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth.' (ver. 14.)
The trees are provided for shades against the extremity of
heat, a refuge for the panting beasts, an ' habitation for birds,'
wherein to make their nests (ver. 17,) and a basket for their
provision. How are the valleys and mountains of the earth
disposed for the pleasure and profit of man! Every year are
the fields covered Avith harvests, for the nourishing the crea
tures; no part is barren, but beneficial to man. The moun
tains that are not clothed Avith grass for his food, are set with
stones to make him an habitation; they have their peculiar ser-
' Psalm viii. 3. 2 Job xxxviii. 25. 27. 3 Job xxxviii. 28. i Job xxxviii, 37, 38.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. ^-j
vices of metals and minerals, for the conveniency and comfort
and benefit of man. Things which are not fit for his food, are
medicines for his cure, under some painful sickness. Where
the earth brings not forth corn, it brings forth roots for the ser
vice of other creatures. Wood abounds more in those coun
tries where the cold is stronger than in others. Can this be the
result of chance, or not rather of an Infinite Wisdom? Consi
der the usefulness ofthe sea, for the supply of rivers to refresh
the earth: ' Which go up by the mountains and down by the
valleys into the place God hath founded for them,' (Psal. civ.
8:) a store-house for fish, for the nourishment of other crea
tures, a shop of medicines for cure, and pearls for ornament:
the band that ties remote nations together, by giving opportu
nity of passage to, and commerce with, one another. How
should that natural inclination of the sea to cover the earth,
submit to this subserviency to the creatures? Who hath
bounded this fluid mass of water in certain limits, and con
fined it to its own channel, for the accommodation of such
creatures, who, by its common law, can only be upon the
earth? Naturally the earth was covered with the deep as
with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. ' Who
set a bound that they miglit not pass over," that they return
not again to cover the earth? Was it blind chance, or an Infi
nite Power, that ' shut up the sea Avith doors, and made thick
darkness a swaddling band for it, and said, 'Hitherto shall
thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed?'^ All things are so ordered, that they are not propter
se, but propter aliud. What advantage accrues to the sun by
its unwearied rolling about the world? Doth it increase the
perfection of its nature by all its circuits? No; but it serves
the inferior world, it impregnates things by its heat. Not the
most abject thing but hath its end and use. There is a straight
connexion : the earth could not bring forth fruit without the
heavens; the heavens could not water the earth, without va
pours from it.
(3.) All this subserviency of creatures centres in man. Other
creatures are served by those things, as well as ourselves, and
they are provided for their nourishment and refreshment, as
well as ours ;^ yet, both they, and all creatures meet in man, as
lines in their centres. Things that have no life or sense, are
made for those that have both life and sense; and those that
have life and sense, are made for those that are endued with
reason. When the Psalmist admiringly considers the heavens,
moon and stars, he intimates man to be the end for which they
were created, (Ps. viii. 3, 4:) 'What is man, that thou art
1 Psalm civ. 6. 9. 2 Job xxxviii. 8, 9. II.
" Amirald. de Trinitate, pp. 13, 18,

48 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
mindful of him?' He expresseth more particularly the domin
ion that man hath 'over the beasts of the field, the fowl of the
air, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the sea' (ver.
6 — 8;) and concludes from thence, the 'excellency of God's
name in aU the earth.' All things in the world, one way or
other, centre in an usefulness for man ; some to feed him, some
to clothe him, some to dehght him, others to instruct him, some
to exercise his wit, and others his strength. Since man did not
make them, he did not also order them for his own use. If
they conspire to serve him who never made them, they direct
man to acknowledge another, who is the joint Creator both of
the lord and the servants under his dominion; and therefore, as
the inferior natures are ordered by an invisible hand for the
good of man, so the nature of man is, by the same hand, order
ed to acknowledge the existence and the glory of the Creator
of him. This visible order man knows he did not constitute;
he did not settle those creatures in subserviency to himself;
they were placed in that order before he had any acquaintance
with them, or existence of himself; which is a question God
puts to Job, to consider of (Job xxxviii. 4:) ' Where wast thou
Avhen I laid the foundation of the earth? declare, if thou hast
understanding.' All is ordered for man's use; the heavens
answer to the earth, as a roof to a floor, both composing a de
lightful habitation for man; vapours ascend from the earth, and
the heaven concocts them, and returns them back in welcome
showers for the supplying of the earth.' The light of the sun
descends to beautify the earth, and employs its heat to bring
forth its fruits, and this for the good of the community, whereof
man is the head; and though all creatures have distinct natures,
and must act for particular ends, according to the law of their
creation, yet there is a joint combination for the good of the
whole, as the common end; just as all the rivers in the world,
from what part soever they come, whether north or south, fall
into the sea, for the supply of that mass of waters, which loudly
proclaims some infinitely wise nature, who made those things
in so exact an harmony. ' As in a clock, the hammer which
strikes the bell leads us to the next wheel, that to another, the
little Avheel to a greater, whence it derives its motion, this at
last to the spring, which acquaints us that there was some artist
that framed them in this subordination to one another, for this
orderly motion.'^
(4.) This order or subserviency is regular and uniform;
every thing is determined to its peculiar nature.^ The sun and
moon make day and night, months and years, determine the
seasons, never are defective in coming back to their station and
' Jer. X. 13. 2 Morn, de Verit. u. I. p. 7, a Amiraut.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

49

place ; they Avander not from their roads, shock not against one
another, nor hinder one another in the functions assigned them.
From a small grain or seed, a tree springs, with body, root,
hark, leaves, fruit of the same shape, figure, smell, taste; that
there should be as many parts in one, as in all of the same
kind, and no more; and that in the womb of a sensitive crea
ture, should be formed one of the same kind, with all the due
members, and no more; and the creature that produceth it
knows not how it is formed, or how it is perfected. If we say
this is nature, this nature is an inteUigent being; if not, hoAv
can it direct all causes to such uniform ends? if it be intelligent,
this nature must be the same we call God, ' who ordered every
herb to yield seed, and every fruit tree to yield fruit after its
kind, and also every beast, and every creeping thing after its
kind.' (Gen. i. 11, 12. 24.) And every thing is determined to
its particular season; the sap riseth from the root at its appoint
ed time, enlivening and clothing the branches with a new gar
ment at such a time of the sun's returning, not wholly hindered
by any accidental coldness of the weather, it being often colder
at its return, than it was at the sun's departure. All things
have their seasons of flourishing, budding, blossoming, bring
ing forth fruit ; they ripen in their seasons, cast their leaves at
the same time, throw off their old clothes, and in the spring
appear with new garments, but still in the same fashion. The
winds and the rain have their seasons, and seem to be admin
istered by laws for the profit of man.' No satisfactory cause
of those things can be ascribed to the earth, the sea, to the air,
or stars. ' Can any understand the spreading of his clouds, or
the noise of his tabernacle?' (Job xxxviii. 29.) The natural
reason of those things cannot be demonstrated, without re
course to an infinite and intelligent being; nothing can be ren
dered capable ofthe direction of those things but a God.
This regularity in plants and animals is in all nations. The
heavens have the same motion in all parts of the world;
all men have the same law of nature in their mind; all crea
tures are stamped with the same laAV of creation. In all parts
the same creatures serve for the same use; and though there
be different creatures in India and Europe, yet they have the
same subordination, the same subserviency to one another,
and ultimately to man; which shows that there is a God, and
but one God, who tunes all those different strings to the same
notes in all places. Is it nature merely conducts these natural
causes in due measures to their proper effects, without inter
fering with one another? Can mere nature be the cause of
those musical proportions of time? You may as well conceive
1 Coccei. sum. Theol. o. 8. § 77.
Vol. I.— 7

50 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
a lute to sound its own strings without the hand of an artist; a
city well governed without a governor; an army keep its sta
tions without a general, as imagine so exact an order without
an orderer. Would any man, when he hears a clock strike,
by fit intervals, the hour of the day, imagine this regularity in
it Avithout the direction of one that had understanding to man
age it? He would not only regard the motion ofthe clock but
commend the diligence ofthe clock-keeper.
(5.) This order and subserviency is constant. Children
change the customs and manners of their fathers; magistrates
change the laws they have received from their ancestors, and
enact new ones in their room: but in the world all things con
sist as they were created at the beginning; the law of nature
in the creatures hath met Avith no change. Who can behold
the sun rising in the morning, the moon shining in the night,
increasing and decreasing in its due spaces, the stars in their
regular motions night after night, for all ages, and yet deny a
President over them?' And this motion of the heavenly bo
dies, being contrary to the nature of other creatures, who move
in order to rest, must be from some higher cause. But those,
ever since the settling in their places, have been perpetually
rounding the world. What nature, but one powerful and in
telligent, could give that perpetual motion to the sun,^ which
being bigger than the earth a hundred sixty-six times, runs
many thousand miles with a mighty swiftness in the space of
an hour, with an unwearied diligence performing its daily task,
and, as a strong man, rejoicing to run its race, for above five
thousand years together, without intermission, but in the time
of Joshua?^ It is not nature's sun, but God's sun, which he
' makes to rise upon the just and unjust."^ So a plant receives
its nourishment from the earth, sends forth its juice to every
branch, forms a bud which spreads it into a blossom and flower;
the leaves of this drop off, and leave a fruit of the same colour
and taste, every year, which, being ripened by the sun, leaves
seeds behind it for the propagation of its like, which contains
in the nature of it the same kind of buds, blossonig, fruit, which
were before; and being nourished in the womb of theearth,
and quickened by the power of the sun, discovers itself at
length, in all the progresses and motions which its predecessor
did. Thus in all ages, in all places, every year it performs the
same task, spins out fruit of the same colour, taste, virtue, to
refresh the several creatures for which they are provided.
This settled state of things comes from that God who laid the
' foundations of the earth,' that it should ' not be removed' for
1 Petav. ex Athanas. Theol. Dog. Tom. I. lib. i. c. I. § 4.
2 Whether it be the sun or the earth that moves, it is all one. Whence have
either of them this constant and uniform motion? ' Josh. a. 13. * Matt. v. 45.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. k.i
ever;' and set 'ordinances for them' to act by a stated law;^
according to which they move as if they understood themselves
to have made a covenant with their Creator.*
3. Add to this union of contrary qualities, and the subser
viency of one thing to another, the admirable variety and
diversity of things in the Avorld. What variety of metals,
living creatures, plants! what variety and distinction in the
shape of their leaves, flowers, smell, resulting from them ! Who
can number up the several sorts of beasts on the earth, birds in
the air, fish in the sea? Hoav various are their motions! Some
creep, some go, some fly, some swim; and in all this variety
each creature hath organs or members, fitted for their peculiar
motion. If you consider the multitude of stars, which shine
like jewels in the heavens, their different magnitudes, or the
variety of colours in the flowers and tapestry of the earth,
you could no more conclude they made themselves, or were
made by chance, than you can imagine a piece of arras, with
a diversity of figures and colours, either wove itself, or were
knit together by hazard.
How delicious is the sap of the vine, when turned into wine,
above that of a crab! Both have the same womb of earth to
conceive them, both agree in the nature of wood and twigs, as
channels to convey it into fruit. What is that which makes
the one so sAveet, the other so sour, or makes that sweet which
was a few weeks before unpleasantly sharp? Is it the earth?
No: they both have the same soil; the branches may touch
each other; the strings of their roots may, under ground, en
twine about one another. Is it the sun ? both have the same
beams. Why is not the taste and colour of the one as gratify
ing as the other? Is it the root? the taste of that is far differ
ent from that of the fruit it bears. Why do they not, when
they have the same soil, the same sun, and stand near one
another, borrow something frora one another's natures? No
reason can be rendered, but that there is a God of infinite wis
dom hath determined this variety, and bound up the nature of
each creature within itself. 'Every thing follows the law of
its creation; and it is worthy observation, that the Creator of
them hath not given that power to animals, which arise from
different species, to propagate the like to themselves; as mules,
that arise from different species. No reason can be rendered
of this, but the fixed determination of the Creator, that those
species Avhich were created by him should not be lost in those
mixtures which are contrary to the law of the creation.' * This
cannot possibly be ascribed to that which is commonly called
' Psalm civ. 5. 2 Job xxxviii. 33.
' Jer. xxxiii. 20. * Amirald. de Trinitate, p. 21.

52 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
nature, but unto the God of nature, who will not have his crea
tures exceed their bounds or come short of them.
Now since among those varieties there are some things bet
ter than other, yet all are good in their kind, and partake of
goodness,' there must be something better and more excellent
than all those, from whom they derive that goodness, which
inheres in their nature and is communicated by them to others:
and this excellent Being must inherit, in an eminent way in his
own nature, the goodness of all those varieties, since they
made not themselves, but Avere made by another. All that
goodness which is scattered in those varieties must be infinitely
concentred in that nature, which distributed those various per
fections to them (Ps. xciv. 9:) 'He that planted the ear, shall
not he hear; he that formed the eye, shall not he see; he that
teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ?' The Creator is
greater than the creature, and whatsoever is in his effects, is
but an impression of some excellency in himself; there is,
therefore, some chief fountain of goodness whence all those
various goodnesses in the world do flow.
Frora all this it follows, if there be an order, and harmony,
there must be an Orderer; one that 'made the earth by his
poAver, established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out
the heavens by his discretion.' (Jer. x. 12). Order being the
effect, cannot be the cause of itself: order is the disposition of
things to an end, and is not intelligent, but implies an intelligent
Orderer; and, therefore, it is as certain that there is a God, as
it is certain there is order in the world. Order is an effect of
reason and counsel ; this reason and counsel must have its resi
dence in some being before this order was fixed: the things
ordered are always distinct from that reason and counsel
Avhereby they are ordered, and also after it, as the effect is
after the cause. No man begins a piece of work but he hath
the model of it in his own mind: no man builds a house, or
makes a watch, but he hath the idea or copy of it in his own
head. This beautiful Avorld bespeaks' an idea of it, or a model:
since there is such a magnificent wisdom in the make of each
creature, and the proportion of one creature to another, this
model must be before the world, as the pattern is always be
fore the thing that is wrought by it. This, therefore, must be
in some intelligent and wise agent, and this is God. Since the
reason of those things exceed the reason and all the art of man,
who can ascribe them to any inferior cause ? Chance it could
not be; the motions of chance are not constant, and at set sea
sons, as the motions of creatures are. That which is by
chance is contingent, this is necessary; uniformity can never
I Gen. i. 31.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 50
be the birth of chance. Who can imagine that all the parts of
a watch can meet together and put themselves in order and
motion by chance ? « Nor can it be nature only, which indeed
is a disposition of second causes. If nature hath not an under
standing, it cannot work such effects. If nature therefore uses
counsel to begin a thing, reason to dispose it, art to effect it,
virtue to complete it, and power to govern it, why should it be
called nature rather than God?" Nothing so sure as that
which hath an end to which it tends, hath a cause by which it
is ordered to that end. Since therefore all things are ordered
in subserviency to the good of man, they are so ordered by
Him that made both man and them; and man must acknow
ledge the wisdom and goodness of his Creator, and act in sub
serviency to his glory, as other creatures act in subserviency to
his good. Sensible objects were not made only to gratify the
sense of man, but to hand something to his mind as he is a
rational creature; to discover God to him as an object of love
and desire to be enjoyed. If this be not the effect of it, the
order of the creature, as to such an one, is in vain, and falls
short of its true end.^
To conclude this: As when a man comes into a palace, built
according to the exactest rule of art, and with an unexception
able conveniency for the inhabitants, he would acknowledge
both the being and skill ofthe builder; so whosoever shall ob
serve the disposition of all the parts of the world, their con
nexion, comeliness, the variety of seasons, the swarms of
different creatures, and the mutual offices they render to one
another, cannot conclude less, than that it was contrived by an
infinite skill, effected by infinite power, and governed by infi
nite wisdom. None can imagine a ship to be orderly conducted
without a pilot; nor the parts of the world to perform their
several functions without a wise guide; considering the raem-
bers of the body cannot perform theirs, without the active pre
sence of the soul. The atheist, then, is a fool to deny that
which every creature in his constitution asserts, and thereby
renders himself unable to give a satisfactory account of that
constant uniformity in the motions of the creatures.
Thirdly, As the production and harmony, so particular crea
tures, pursuing and attaining their ends, manifest that there is
a God. All particular creatures have natural instincts, which
move them for some end. The intending of an end is a pro
perty of a rational creature; since the lower creatures cannot
challenge that title, they must act by the understanding and
direction of another; and since man cannot challenge the
honour of inspiring the creatures with such instincts, it must
be ascribed to some nature infinitely above any creature in
1 Lactantius. 2 Coccei. Sum. Theol. c. 8. ^ 63, 64.

54 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
understanding. No creature doth determine itself Why do
the fruits and grain of the earth nourish us, when the earth
which instrumentally gives them that fitness, cannot nourish
us, but because their several ends are determined by one higher
than the world ?
1. Several creatures have several natures. How soon will
all creatures, as soon as they see the light move to that where
by they must live, and make use of the natural arms God hath
given their kind, for their defence, before they are grown to any
maturity to afford them that defence! The Scripture makes
the appetite of infants to their milk a foundation of the divine
glory, (Psal. viii. 3,) ' Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings
hast thou ordained strength;' that is, matter of praise and ac
knowledgment of God, in the natural appetite they have to
their milk and their relish of it. All creatures have a natural
affection to their young ones; all young ones by a natural
instinct, move to, and receive the nourishment that is proper for
them; some are their own physicians, as well as their own
caterers, and naturally discern what preserves them in life, and
what restores them when sick. The swallow flies to its celan
dine, and the toad hastens to its plantain. Can we behold the
spider's nets, or silkworm's web, the bee's closets, or the ant's
granaries, without acknowledging a higher being than a crea
ture who hath planted that genius in them? The consideration
of the nature of several creatutes God commended to Job,
(chap, xxxix., where he discourseth to Job ofthe natural in
stincts of the goat, the ostrich, horse, and eagle, &c.) to per
suade him to the acknowledgment and admiration of God,
and humiliation of himself The spider, as if it understood the
art of weaving, fits its web both for its own habitation, and a
net to catch its prey. The bee builds a cell which serves for
chambers to reside in, and a repository for its provision. Birds
are observed to build their nests with a clammy matter without,
for the firmer duration of it, and with a soft moss and down
within, for the conveniency and warmth of their young. ' The
stork knows his appointed time,' (Jer. viii. 7,) and the swallows
observe the time of their coming ; they go and return according.
to the seasons ofthe year; this they gain not by consideration,
it descends to them with their nature; they neither gain nor in
crease it by rational deductions. It is not in vain to speak of
these. How little do we improve by meditation those objects
which daily offer themselves to onr view, full of instructions
for us ! And our Saviour sends his disciples to spell God in the
lilies.' It is observed also, that the creatures offensive to man
go single; if they went by troops, they would bring destruction
upon man and beast ; this is the nature of them, for the preser
vation of others. 1 Matt. vi. 28,

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. ck
2. They know not their end. They have a law in their na
tures, but have no rational understanding, either of the end to
which they are appointed, or the means fit to attain it; they
naturally do what they do, and move by no counsel of their
own, but by a law impressed by some higher hand upon their
natures. What plant knows why it strikes its root into the
earth? doth it understand what storms it is to contest with?
Or why it shoots up its branches towards heaven ? doth it know
it needs the droppings of the clouds to preserve itself and make
it fruitful? These are acts of understanding; the root is down
ward to preserve its own standing, the branches upAvard to
preserve other creatures ; this understanding is not in the crea
ture itself but originally in another. Thunders and tempests
know not why they are sent; yet by the direction of a mighty
hand, they are instruments of justice upon a wicked world.
Rational creatures that act for some end, and know the end they
aim at, yet know not the manner of the natural motion of the
members to it.' When we intend to look upon a thing, we take
no counsel about the natural motion of our eyes, we know not
all the principles of their operations, or how that dull matter
whereof our bodies are composed, is subject to the order ofour
minds. We are not of counsel with our stomachs about the
concoction of our meat, or the distribution of the nourishing
juice to the several parts of the body.^ Neither the mother nor
the foetus sit in council how the formation should be made in
the womb. We know no more than a plant knows what stature
it is of, and what medicinal virtue its fruit hath for the good of
man ; yet all those natural operations are perfectly directed to
their proper end, by an higher wisdom than any human under
standing is able to conceive, since they exceed the ability of an
inanimate or fleshly nature, yea, and the wisdom of a man.
Do we not often see reasonable creatures acting for one end,
and perfecting a higher than what they aimed at or could sus
pect ? When Joseph's brethren sold hira for a slave, their end
was to be rid of an informer;* but the action issued in prepar
ing hira to be the preserver of them jind their families. Cyrus's
end was to be a conqueror, but the action ended in being the
Jews' deliverer. (Prov. xvi. 9.) 'A man's heart deviseth his
way, but the Lord directs his steps.'
3. Therefore there is some superior understanding and nature
which so actuates them. That which acts for an end unknown
to itself, depends upon some overruling wisdom that knoAVS
that end. Who should direct them in all those ends, but he
that bestowed a being upon them for those ends; who knows
what is convenient for their life, security and propagation of
• Coccei. Sum. Theolog. c. 8. § 67, &c. 2 Peirson on the Creed, p. 35.
' Gen. xxxvii.

56 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
their natures?' An exact knowledge is necessary both of what
is agreeable to them, and the means whereby they must attain
it, which since it is not inherent in them, is in that wise God,
who puts those instincts into them, and governs them in the
exercise of them to such ends. Any man that sees a dart flung,
knows it cannot hit the mark without the skfll and strength of
an archer; or he that sees the hand of a dial pointing to the
hours successively, knows that the dial is ignorant of its own
end, and is disposed and directed in that motion by another.
All creatures ignorant of their own natures, could not univer
sally in the whole kind, and in every climate and country,
without any difference in the whole world, tend to a certain
end, if sorae over ruling wisdom did not preside over the world
and guide them: and if the creatures have a Conductor, they
have a Creator; all things, are 'turned round about by his coun
sel, that they may do whatsoever he commands them, upon the
face of the world and the earth.* So that in this respect the folly
of atheism appears. Without the owning a God no account can
he given of those actions of creatures, that are an imitation of rea
son. To say the bees, &c. are rational, is to equal them to man:
nay, make them his superiors, since they do more by nature
than the wisest man can do by art: it is their own counsel
whereby they act, or another's; if it be their own, they are
reasonable creatures; if by another's, it is not mere nature that
is necessary; then other creatures would not be without the
same skill, there would be no difference among them. If na
ture be restrained by another it hath a superior ; if not it is a
free agent; it is an understanding Being that directs them; and
then it is something superior to all creatures in the world; and
by this, therefore, we may ascend to the acknoAvledgment ofthe
necesity of a God.
Fourthly, Add to the production and order of the world and
the creatures acting for their end, the preservation of them.
Nothing can depend upon itself in its preservation, no more
than it could in its being. If the order of the world Avas not
fixed by itself, the preservation of that order cannot be con
tinued by itself Though the matter of the world after creation
cannot return to that nothing whence it was fetched, without
the power of God that made it, (because the same power is as
requisite to reduce a thing to nothing as to raise a thing from
nothing,) yet without the actual exerting of a power that made
the creatures, they would faU into confusion. Those contest
ing qualities which are in every part of it, could not have pre
served but would have consumed and extinguished one ano
ther, and reduced the world to that confused chaos, wherein it
was before the Spirit moved upon the waters: as contrary parts
' Lessius de Providen. lib. i. p. 652. 2 Job xxxvii. 12.

THE EXISTENCE OF QOD. 5'y
could not have met together in one form, unless there had been
one that had conjoined them; so they could not have kept toge
ther after their conjunction unless the same hand had preserved
them. Natural contrarieties cannot be reconciled. It is as
great power to keep discords knit, as at first to link them.
Who would doubt but that an army made up of several nations
and humours, Avould fall into a civil war and sheathe their
swords in one another's bowels, if they were not under the
management of some wise general; or a ship dash against the
rocks without the skill of a pilot ? As the body hath neither
life nor motion without the active presence of the soul, which
distributes to every part the virtue of acting, sets every one in
the exercise of its proper function, and resides in every part ;
so there is some powerful cause which doth the like in the
world that rules and tempers it.' There is need of the same
power and action to preserve a thing, as there was at first to-
make it. When we consider that we are preserved, and know
that we could not preserve ourselves, we must necessarily run
to some first cause which doth preserve us. All works of art
depend upon nature, and are preserved while they are kept by
the force of nature, as a statue depends upon the matter where
of it is made, whether stone or brass; this nature, therefore,
must have some superior by whose influx it is preserved. Since,
therefore, we see a stable order in the things of the Avorld, that
they conspire together for the good andbeauty of the universe;
that they depend upon one another; there must be some prin
ciple upon which they do depend ; something to which the first
link of the chain is fastened, which himself depends upon no
superior, but wholly rests in his own essence and being. It is
the title of God to be the ' Preserver of man and beast.'2 The
Psalmist elegantly describeth it, (Psalra civ. 24, &c.) 'The earth
is full of his riches : all wait upon hira, that he raay give thera
their meat in due season. When he opens his hand, he fills
them with good; when he hides his face they are troubled; if
he take away their breath, they die, and return to dust. He
sends forth his Spirit, and they are created, and renews the face
of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever ;
and the Lord shall rejoice in his works.' Upon the considera
tion of all which, the Psalmist (ver. 34,) takes a pleasure in the
meditation of God as the cause and manager of all those things;
which issues into a joy in God, and a praising of hira. And
why should not the consideration of the power and wisdom of
God in the creatures produce the same effept in the hearts of us,
if he be our God ? Or, as some render it, ' My meditation shall
be sweet,' or acceptable to hira, whereby I find matter of praise
in the things of the world, and offer it to the Creator ofit.
' Gassend. Phys. k 6. lib. iv. c. 2. p. 101. 2 Psahn xxxvi. 6.
Vol. I.— 8

58 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
Reason III. It is a folly to deny that which a man's own
nature wUnesseth to him. The whole frame of bodies and
souls bears the impress of the infinite power and wisdom of the
Creator: a body framed with an admirable architecture, a soul
endowed with understanding, Avill, judgment, memory, imagi
nation. Man is the epitome of the world, contains in himself
the substance of all natures, and the fulness of the whole uni
verse; not only in regard of the universality of his know
ledge, whereby he comprehends the reasons of many things;
but as all the perfections of the several natures of the world are
gathered and united in man,, for the perfection of his own, in
a smaller volume. In his soul he partakes of heaven; in his
body of the earth. There is the life of plants, the sense of
beasts, and the intellectual nature of angels. ' The Lord
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man," &c. :
mm, of lives. Not one sort of lives, but several ; not only an
animal, but a rational life; a soul of a nobler extract and na
ture, than what was given to other creatures. So that Ave
need not step out of doors, or cast our eyes any further than
ourselves, to behold a God. He shines in the capacity of our
souls, and the vigour of our members. We must fly from our
selves, and be stripped of our own humanity, before we can
put off the notion of a Deity. He that is ignorant of the exist
ence of God, must be possessed of so much folly as to be igno
rant of his own make and frame.
1. In the parts whereof he doth consist, body and soul.
First, Take a prospect of the body. The Psalmist counts it
a matter of praise and admiration (Psalm cxxxix. 15, 16:) 'I
will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
When I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth, in thy book all my members were
written.' The scheme of man and every member was drawn
in his book. All the sinews, veins, arteries, bones, like a piece
of embroidery or tapestry, were wrought by God, as it were,
with deliberation ; like an artificer, that draws out the model of
what he is to do in writing, and sets it before hira when he
begins his work. And, indeed, the fabric of raan's body, as
well as his soul, is an argument for a Divinity. The artifi
cial structure of it, the elegancy of every part, the proper situa
tion of them, their proportion one to another, the fitness for
their several functions, drew from Galen^ (a heathen, and one
that had no raised sentiments of a Deity) a confession of the
admirable wisdom and power ofthe Creator, and that none but
God could frame it.
1. In the order, fitness, and usefulness of every part. The
1 Gen. ii, 7.
^- Uh. iii, d« Usu Fartium. Petav. Theol. Dog. Tom. I^ lib. i. e. 1. p. 6.

THE EXISTENCE OP GOD.

59

whole model of the body is grounded upon reason. Every
member hath its exact proportion, distinct office, regular mo
tion. Every part hath a particular comeliness, and convenient
temperament bestowed upon it, according to its place in the
body. The heart is hot, to enliven the whole; the eye clear,
to take in objects to present thera to the soul. Every member
is presented for its peculiar service and action. Some are for
sense, some for motion, sonie for preparing, and others for dis
pensing nourishment to the several parts : they mutually de
pend upon and serve one another. What small strings fasten
the particular members together, ' as the earth, that hangs upon
nothing!" Take but one part away, and you either destroy
the whole, or stamp upon it some mark of deformity. All are
knit together by an admirable symmetry ; all orderly perform
their functions, as acting by a settled law; none swerving from
their 'rule, but in case of some predominant humour. And
none of those, in so great a multitude of parts, stifled in so
little a room, or justling against one another, to hinder their
mutual actions; none can be better disposed. And the greatest
wisdom of man could not imagine it, till his eyes present them
with the sight and connexion of one part and member with
another. (1.) The heart.^ How strongly it is guarded with ribs like a
wall, that it might not be easily hurt! It draws blood from
the liver, through a channel raade for that purpose ; rarefies it,
and makes it fit to pass through the arteries and veins, and to
carry heat and life to every part ofthe body: and by a perpet
ual motion, it sucks in the blood, and spouts it out again ;
which motion depends not upon the command of the soul, but
is purely natural.
(2.) The mouth takes in the meat, the teeth grind it for the
stomach, the stomach prepares it, nature strains it through the
milky veins, the liver refines it, and mints it into blood, sepa
rates the purer from the drossy parts, which go to the heart,
circuits through the whole body, running through the veins,
like rivers through so many channels of the world, for the
watering of the several parts ; which are fraraed of a thin skin
for the straining the blood through, for the supply of the mera-
bers of the body, and fraraed with several valves or doors, for
the thrusting the blood forwards to peform its circular motion.
(3.) The brain, fortified by a strong skull, to hinder outward
accidents, a tough membrane or skin, to hinder any oppression
by the skull; the seat of sense; that which coins the animal
spirits, by purifying and refining those which are sent to it,
and seems like a curious piece of needlework.
' Job xxvi. 7. 2 Theod. de Providen. Orat. 3.

gQ THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
(4.) The ear, framed with windings and turnings, to keep
any thing from entering to offend the brain ; so disposed as to
admit sounds with the greatest safety and delight; filled AVith
an air within, by the motion whereof the sound is transmitted
to the brain:' as sounds are made in the air by diffusing them
selves, as you see circles made in the water by the fiinging in
a stone. This is the gate of knowledge, whereby we hear the
oracles of God, and the instruction of men for arts. It is by
this they are exposed to the mind, and the mind of another
man framed in our understandings.
(5.) What a curious workmanship is that of the eye, which
is in the body, as the sun in the world ; set in the head as in a
watch-tower, having the softest nerves for the receiving the
greater multitude of spirits necessary for the act of vision!
How is it provided with defence, by the variety of coats to se
cure and accommodate the little humour and part whereby the
vision is made! Made of a round figure, and convex, as most
commodious to receive the species of objects; shaded by the
eyebrows and eyelids; secured by the eyelids, which are its
ornament and safety, which refresh it when it is too much dried
by heat, hinder too much light from insinuating itself into it to
offend it, cleanse it from impurities by their quick motion pre
serve it from any invasion, and by contraction confer to the
more evident discerning of things. Both the eyes seated in the
holloAv of the bone for security, yet standing out, that things
may be perceived more easily on both sides. And this little
member can behold the earth, and in a moraent view things as
high as heaven.
(6.) The tongue for speech framed like a musical instrument;
the teeth serving for variety of sounds; the lungs serving for
bellows to blow the organs as it were, to cool the heart, by a
continual motion transmitting a pure air to the heart, expelling
that which was smoky and superfluous.^ It is by the tongue
that communication of truth hath a passage among men; it
opens the sense of the mind; there would be no converse and
commerce without it. Speech among all nations hath an ele
gancy and attractive force, mastering the affections of men. Not
to speak of other parts, or of the multitude of spirits that actu
ate every part; the quick flight of them where there is a neces
sity of their presence. Solomon (Eccles. xii.) makes an elegant
description of them, in his speech of old age; and Job speaks
of this formation ofthe body (Job x. 9 — 11,) &c. Not the least
part of the body is made in vain. The hairs of the head have
their use, as well as are an ornament. The whole symmetry
of the body is a ravishing object. , Every member hath a sig
nature and mark of God and his wisdom. He is visible in the
• Eccles. xii. 4. 2 Coccei. sum. Theol. c. 8. § 49.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

61

formation of the members, the beauty of the parfs, and the
vigour ofthe body. This structure could not be from the body;
that only hath a passive power, and cannot act in the absence
of the soul. Nor can it be frora the soul. How comes it then
to be so ignorant of the manner of its formation ? The soul
knows not the internal parts of its own body, but by informa
tion from others, or inspection into other bodies. It knows less
of the inward frame of the body than it doth of itself; but he
that makes the clock can tell the number and motions of the
wheels within, as well as what figures are without.
This short discourse is useful to raise our admiration of the
wisdom of God, as well as to demonstrate that there is an infi
nitely wise Creator; and the consideration of ourselves every
day, and the wisdom of God in our frame, would maintain
religion much in the world; since all are so framed that no
man can tell any error in the constitution of him. If thus the
body of raan is fitted for the service of his soul by an infinite
God, the body ought to be ordered for the service of this God,
and in obedience to hira.
2. In the admirable difference ofthe features of men; which
is a great argument that the world Avas raade by a Avise Being.
This could not be wrought by chance, or be the Avork of raere
nature, since we never find, or very rarely, two persons exactly
alike. This distinction is a part of infinite wisdom; otherwise
what confusion would be introduced into the world ? Without
this, parents could not knoAV their children, nor children their
parents, nor a brother his sister, nor a subject his magistrate.
Without it there had been no comfort of relations, no govern
ment, no commerce. Debtors would not have been known from
strangers, nor good men frora bad. Propriety could not have
been preserved, nor justice executed; the innocent might have
been apprehended for the wicked; wickedness could not have
been stopped by any law. The faces of men are the same for
parts, not for features, a dissimilitude in a likeness. Man, like
to all the rest in the world, yet unlike to any, and differenced
by some mark from all, which is not to be observed in any
other species of creatures. This speaks some Avise agent which
framed raan; since, for the preservation of human society and
order in the world, this distinction Avas necessary.
Secondly, As man's own nature witnesseth a God to him in
the structure of his body, so also 'in the nature of his soul."
We know that we have an understanding in us; a substance
we cannot see, but we know it by its operations; as thinking,
reasoning, Avilling, remembering, and as operating about things
that are invisible and remote from sense. This must needs be
' Coccei, c. 8. § 50, 51.

62 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
distinct from the body; for that being but dust and earth in its
original, hath not the power of reasoning and thinking; for
then it would have that poAver, when the soul were absent, as
well as when it is present. Besides, if it had that power of
thinking, it could think only of those things which are sensible,
and made up of matter, as itself is. This soul hath a greater
excellency; it can know itself, rejoice in itself, which other
creatures in this world are not capable of The soul is the
greatest glory of this lower world; and, as one saith, 'There
seems to be no more difference between the soul and an angel,
than between a sword in the scabbard and when it is out of the
scabbard." 1. Consider the vastness of its capacity. The understanding
can conceive the Avhole world, and paint in itself the invisible
pictures of all things. It is capable of apprehending and dis
coursing of things superior to its own nature. ' It is suited to
all objects, as the eye to all colours, or the ear to all sounds.'*
How great is the memory, to retain such varieties, such diver
sities! The will also can accommodate other things to itself It
invents arts for the use of man; prescribes rules for the govern
ment of states; ransacks the bowels of nature; makes endless
conclusions, and steps in reasoning from one thing to another,
for the knowledge of truth. It can contemplate and form
notions of things higher than the world.
2. The quickness of its motion. ' Nothing is more quick in
the Avhole course of nature. The sun runs through the world
in a day; this can do it in a moment. It can, with one flight
of fancy, ascend to the battlements of heaven.'^ The mists of
the air, that hinder the sight of the eye, cannot hinder the
flights of the soul; it can pass in a moment from one end of
the world to the other, and think of things a thousand miles dis
tant. It can think of some mean thing in the Avorld; and
presently, by one cast, in the twinkling of an eye, mount up as
high as heaven. As its desires are not bounded by sensual
objects, so neither are the motions of it restrained by them. It
will break forth with the greatest vigour, and conceive things
infinitely above it; though it be in the body, it acts as if it Avere
ashamed to be cloistered in it. This could not be the result of
any material cause. Whoever knew mere matter understand,
think, Avill? and what it hath not, it cannot give. That which
is destitute of reason and will, could never confer reason and
will. It is not the effect of the body; for the body is fitted with
metnbers to be subject to it. It is in part ruled by the activity
of the soul, and in part by the counsel of the soul: it is used
by the soul, and knows not how it is used.^ Nor could it be
1 More. 2 Culverwel. 3 Theodoret.
¦• Coccei. sum. Theolog. c. 8. § 51, 52.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. qo
from the parents, since the souls of the chfldren often transcend
those of the parents in vivacity, acuteness, and comprehensive
ness. One man is stupid, and begets a son with a capacious
understanding; one is debauched and beastly in his morals, and
begets a son who, from his infancy, testifies some virtuous
inclinations, which sprout forth in delightful fruit with the ripe
ness of his age. Whence should this difference arise — a fool
begat the wise man, and a debauched the virtuous man? The
wisdom of the one could not descend from the foolish soul of
the other; nor the virtues of the son, frora the deformed and
polluted soul of the parent.' It lies not in the organs of the
body: for if the folly of the parent proceeded not frora their
souls, but the ill disposition of the organs of their bodies, how
coraes it to pass that the bodies of the children are better organ
ized beyond the goodness of their iraraediate cause? We must
recur to some invisible hand, that makes the difference, who
bestows upon one at his pleasure richer qualities than upon
another. Yot.i can see nothing in the world endowed with
some excellent quality, but you must imagine some bountful
hand did enrich it with that dowry. None can be so foolish as
to think that a vessel ever enriched itself with that sprightly
liquor wherewith it is filled; 6r that any thing worse than the
soul should endow it with that knowledge and activity which
sparkles in it. Nature could not produce it. That nature is
intelligent, or not; if it be not, then it produceth an effect more
excellent than itself, inasmuch as an understanding being sur
mounts a being that hath no understanding. If the supreme
cause of the soul be intelligent, why do we not cafl it God as
well as nature? We must arise from hence to the notion of a
God; a spiritual nature cannot proceed but frora a spirit higher
than itself, and of a transcendent perfection above itself If
we believe we have souls, and understand the state of our own
faculties, Ave must be assured that there was some invisible
hand which bestowed those faculties, and the riches of them
upon us. A raan raust be ignorant of hiraself before he can
be ignorant of the existence of God. By considering the nature
of our souls, we may as well be assured that there is a God,
as that there is a sun, by the shining of the beams in at our
windows; and, indeed, the soul is a statue and representation
of God, as the landscape of a country or a map represents all
the parts of it, but in a far less proportion than the country
itself is. The soul fills the body, and God the world; the soul
sustains the body, and God the world; the soul sees, but is not
seen; God sees ah things, but is himself invisible. How base
1 I do not dispute whether the soul were generated or no. Suppose the sub
stance of it was generated by the parents, yet those more excellent qualities were
not the result of them.

g4 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
are they then that prostitute their souls, an image of God, to
base things inexpressibly below their own nature!
3. I might add the union of soul and body. Man is a kind
of compound of angel and beast, of soul and body ; if he were
only a soul, he were a kind of angel ; if only a body he were
another kind of brute. Now that a body as vile and dull as
earth, and a soul that can mount up to heaven, and rove about
the world, with so quick a motion, should be hnked in so strait
an acquaintance ; that so noble a being as the soul should be an
inhabitant in such a tabernacle of clay; must be owing to some
infinite power that hath so chained it.
Thirdly, Man witnesseth to a God in the operations and
reflections of conscience. (Rom. ii. 15,) 'Their thoughts are
accusing or excusing. ' An inward comfort attends good actions,
and an inward torment follows bad ones ; for there is in every
man's conscience fear of punishment and hope of reward : there
is, therefore a sense of some superior judge, which hath the
power both of rewarding and punishing. If man were his
supreme rule, Avhat need he fear punishment, since no man
would inflict any evil or torment on himself; nor can any man
be said to reward himself, for all rewards refer to another, to
whom the action is pleasing, and is a conferring some good a
man had not before ; if an action be done by a subject or ser
vant, with hopes of reward, it cannot be imagined that he ex
pects a reward from himself, but from the prince or person
whom he eyes in that action, and for Avhose sake he doth it.
1. There is a law in the minds of men which is a rule of
good and evil. There is a notion of good and evil in the con
sciences of men, which is evident by those laws which are com
mon in all countries, for the preserving human societies, the
encouragement of virtue, and discouragement of vice; what
standard should they have for those laAvs, but a common reason?
the design of those laws was to keep men within the bounds of
goodness for mutual commerce, whence the apostle calls the
heathen magistrate a 'minister of God for good,' (Rom. xiii. 4:)
and ' the gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law.'
(Rom. ii. 14.)
Man in the first instant of the use of reason, finds natural
principles within himself; directing and choosing them, he finds
a distinction between good and evil; how could this be if there
were not some rule in him to try and distinguish good and evil ?
If there were not such a law and rule in raan, he could not sin;
for where there is no law there is no transgression. If man
Avere a law to himself, and his own wfll his law, there could be
no such thing as evfl ; Avhatsoever he Avilled would be good and
agreeable to the law, and no action could be accounted sinful;
the Avorst act would be as commendable as the best. Every

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. g5
thing at man's appointment would be good or evil. If there
Were no such law, how should men that were naturally inclined
to evfl disapprove of that which is unlovely, and approve of
that good which they practise not? No man but inwardly
thinks Well of that which is good, while he neglects it ; and
thinks ill of that which is evil, while he commits it. Those that
are vicious, do praise those that practise the contrary virtues.
Those that are evil would seem to be good, and those that are
blameworthy yet wifl rebuke evil in others. This is really to dis
tinguish between good and evil. Whence doth this arise, by what
rule do we measure this, but by some innate principle ? And
this is universal, the same in one raan as in another, the same
in one nation as in another ; they were born with every man,
and inseparable from his nature (Prov. xxvii. 19:) as in water,
face answers to face, so the heart of man to man. Common
reason supposes that there is some hand which hath fixed
this distinction in man ; how could it else be universally im
pressed? No law can be without a lawgiver: no sparks but
must be kindled, by some other. Whence should this law then
derive its original ? Not from man ; he would fain blot it outj
and cannot alter it when he pleases. Natural generation never
intended it ; it is settled therefore by some higher hand, Avhich,
as it imprinted it, so it maintains it against the violences of men,
who, were it not for this law, would make the world more than
it is, an aceldema and field of blood ; for had there not been
some supreme good, the measure of all other goodness in the
world, we could not have had such a thing as good. The Scrip
ture gives us an account that this good was distinguished from
evil before man fell, they Avere objecta scibilia; good was com
manded, and evil prohibited, and did not depend upon man.
From this a man may rationally be instructed that there is a
God; for he may thus argue: I find myself naturally obliged to
do this thing, and avoid that ; I have, therefore, a superior that
doth oblige me; I find something Avithin me that directs me to
such actions, contrary to ray sensitive appetite; there must be
something above me, therefore, that puts this principle into
man's nature ; if there were no superior, I should be the su
preme judge of good and evil; were I the lord of that law
which doth oblige me, I should find no contradiction within
myself, between reason and appetite.
2. From the transgression of this law of nature, fears do
arise in the consciences of men. Have we not known or heard
of men struck by so deep a dart, that could not be drawn out
by the strength of men, or appeased by the pleasure of the
World; and men crying out with horror, upon a death-bed of
their past life, when ' their fear hath come as a desolation, and
destruction as a whirlwind?' (Prov. i. 27:) and often in some
Vol. I.— 9

gg THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
sharp afliiction, the dust hath blown off men's consciences,
which for a while hath obscured the writings of the law. If
men stand in awe of punishment there is then some superior to
whom they are accountable ; if there were no God, there were
no punishment to fear. What reason of any fear, upon the
dissolution ofthe knot between the soul and body, if there were
not a God to punish, and the soul remained not in being to be
punished? How suddenly will conscience work upon the ap
pearance of an affliction, rouse itself from its sleep like an
armed man, and fly in a man's face before he is aware of it !
It wfll ' surprise the hypocrites' (Isa. xxxvui. 14:) it wfll bring
to mind actions committed long ago, and set them in order be
fore the face, as God's deputy, acting by his authority and
omniscience. As God hath not left himself without a witness
among the creatures, (Acts xiv. 17,) so he hath not left himself
without a witness in a man's own breast.
(1.) This operation of conscience hath been universal. No
nation hath been any more exempt from it than from reason ;
not a man but hath one time or other more or less smarted
under the sting of it. All over the Avorld conscience hath shot
its darts; it hath torn the hearts of princes in the midst of their
pleasures ; it hath not flattered them Avhom most men flatter;
nor feared to disturb their rest, whom no man dares to provoke.
Judges have trembled on a tribunal, when innocents have re
joiced in their condemnation. The iron bars upon Pharaoh's
conscience, were at last broke up, and he acknowledged the
justice of God in all that he did, (Exod. ix. 27:) 'I have sinned,
the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.' Had
they been like chfldish frights at the apprehension of bugbears,
why hath not reason shaken them off; but, on the contrary,
the stronger reason grows, the smarter those lashes are; ground
less fears had been short-lived, age and judgment would have
Avorn them off, but they grow sharper with the growth of per
sons. The Scripture informs us they have been of as ancient a
date as the revolt ofthe first man, (Gen. iii. 10:) ' I was afraid,'
saith Adam, ' because I was naked;' which was an expectation
of the judgment of God. All his posterity inherit his fears,
when God expresseth himself in any tokens of his majesty and
providence in the world. Every man's conscience testifies that
he is unlike what he ought to be, according to that law en
graven upon his heart. In some, indeed, conscience may be
seared, or dimmer; or suppose some men may be devoid of
conscience, shall it be denied to be a thing belonging to the
nature of man? Some men have not their eyes, yet the power
of seeing the light is natural to man, and belongs to the integrity
of the body. Who would argue that, hecause some men are
mad and have lost their reason by a distemper of the brain, that
therefore reason hath no reality, but is an imaginary thing?

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. Q>y
But I think it is a standing truth that every raan hath been
under the scourge of it, one time or other, in a less or a greater
degree; for, since every man is an offender, it cannot heimagined
conscience, which is natural to man and an active faculty, should
ahvays lie idle, without doing this part of its ofl[ice. The apos
tle tells us of the thoughts accusing or excusing one another,
(or by turns,) according as the actions were. Nor is this truth
weakened by the corruptions in the world, whereby many have
thought themselves bound in conscience to adhere to a false
and superstitious AVorship and idolatry, as much as any have
thought themselves bound to adhere to a worship commanded
by God. This very thing infers that all men have a reflecting
principle in them ; it is no argument against the being of con
science, but only infers that it may err in the application of what
it naturally owns. We can no more say, that because some
men walk by a false rule, there is no such thing as conscience,
than we can say that because men have errors in their minds,
therefore they have no such faculty as an understanding; or
because men will that which is evfl, they have no such faculty
as a will in them.
(2.) These operations of conscience are when the Avicked
ness is most secret. These tormenting fears of vengeance have
been frequent in men, who have had no reason to fear man,
since their Avickedness being unknown to any but themselves,
they could have no accuser but themselves. They have been
in many acts which their companions have justified them in;
persons above the stroke of human laws, yea, such as the peo
ple have honoured as gods, have been haunted by them. Con
science hath not been frightened hy the power of princes, or
bribed by the pleasures of courts. David was pursued by his
horrors, when he was, by reason of his dignity, above the
punishment of the law, or, at least, was not reached by the
law; since, though the murder of Uriah Avas intended by him,
it was not acted by him. Such examples are frequent in hu
man records; when the crime hath been above any punish
ment by man, they have had an accuser, judge, and execu
tioner in their own breasts. Can this be originally from a
man's self? He who loves and cheri.shes himself, would fly
from any thing that disturbs him ; it is a greater power and
majesty from whom man cannot hide himself, that holds him
in those fetters. What should affect their minds for that which
can never bring them shame or punishment in this world, if
there were not some supreme judge to whom they were to
give an account, whose instrument conscience is? Doth it do
this of itself? hath it received an authority from the man him
self to sting hira ? It is some supreme power that doth direct
and commission it against our wills.

gg THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
(3.) These operations of conscience cannot be totally shaken
off by man. If there be no God, why do not men silence the
clamours of their consciences, and scatter those fears that dis
turb their rest and pleasures? How inquisitive are men after
some remedy against those convulsions! Sometimes they
would render the charge insignificant, and sing a rest to them
selves, though they ' walk in the wickedness of their own
hearts.' ' How often do men attempt to drown it by sensual
pleasures, and perhaps overpower it for a time; but it revives,
reinforceth itself, and acts a revenge for its former stop. It
holds sin to a man's view, and fixes his eyes upon it, Avhether
he will or no. ' The wicked are like a troubled sea, and cannot
rest,' (Isa. Ivii. 20:) they would waUow in sin without control,
but this inward principle will not suffer it ; nothing can shelter
men from these blows. What is the reason it could never be
cried down? Man is an enemy to his own disquiet; what
man would continue upon the rack, if it were in his poAver to
deliver himself? Why have all human remedies been without
success, and not able to extinguish these operations, though all
the wickedness of the heart hath been ready to assist and
second the attempt? It hath pursued men notwithstanding all
the violence used against it; and renewed its scou-rges with
more severity, as men deal with their resisting slaves. Man
can as little silence those thunders in his soul, as he can the
thunders in the heavens; he raust strip himself of his humanity,
before he can be stripped of an accusing and affrighting con
science; it sticks as close to him as his nature; since man can
not throw out the process it makes against him, it is an evi
dence that some higher power secures its throne and standing.
Who should put this scourge into the hand of conscience,
which no man in the world is able to wrest out?
(4.) We may add, the comfortable reflections of conscience.
There are excusing, as well as accusing reflections of con
science, when things are done as works as the 'law of nature,'
(Rom. ii. 15:) as it doth not forbear lo accuse and torture,
when a wickedness, though unknown to others, is committed;
so when a man hath done well, though he be attacked with all
the calumnies the wit of man can forge, yet his conscience jus
tifies the action, and fills him with a singular contentment. As
there is torture in sinning, so there is peace and joy in well
doing. Neither of those it could do, if it did not understand a
Sovereign Judge, who punishes the rebels, and rewards the
well-doer. Conscience is the foundation of all religion; and
the two pillars upon which it is built, are the being of God, and
the bounty of God to those that ' diligently seek him.' ^ This
proves the existence of God. If there were no God, conscience
• Deut. xxix. 19. 2 Heb. xi. 6.

THE EXISTENCE OP GOD.

69

were useless; the operations ofit would have no foundation, if
there were not an eye to take notice, and a hand to punish or
reward the action. The accusations of conscience evidence the
omniscience and the holiness of God; the terrors of conscience,
the justice of God; the approbations of conscience, the good
ness of God. All the order in the world owes itself, next to
the providence of God, to conscience; without it the world
would be a Golgotha. As the creatures witness, there was a
First Cause that produced them, so this principle in man evi
denceth itself to be set by the same hand, for the good of that
which it had so framed. There could be no conscience if there
were no God, and man could not be a rational creature, if there
were no conscience. As there is a rule in us, there must be a
judge, whether our actions be according to the rule. And since
conscience in our corrupted state is in some particular misled,
there must be a power superior to conscience, to judge how it
hath behaved itself in its deputed ofiice; we must come to some
supreme judge, who can judge conscience itself As a man
can have no surer evidence that he is a being, than because he
thinks he is a thinking being; so there is no surer evidence in
nature that there is a God, than that every man hath a natural
principle in him, which continually cites him before God, and
puts him in mind of him, and makes him one way or other fear
him, and reflects upon hira whether he will or no. A man hath
less power over his conscience, than over any other faculty; he
may choose whether he will exercise his understanding about,
or move his will to such an object; but he hath no such autho
rity over his conscience: he cannot limit it, or cause it to cease
from acting and reflecting; and therefore, both that, and the
law about which it acts, are settled by some Supreme Autho
rity in the mind of man, and this is God.
Fourthly. The evidence of a God results from the vastness
of desires in man, and the real dissatisfaction he hath in every
thing below himself Man hath a boundless appetite after
some sovereign good ; as his understanding is more capacious
than any thing below, so is his appetite larger. This affection
of desire exceeds all other affections. Love is determined to
something known; fear, to something apprehended: but desires
approach nearer to infiniteness, and pursue, not only what we
know, or what we have a glimpse of, but what we find want
ing in what we already enjoy. That which the desire of man
is most naturally carried after is bonum; some fully satisfying
good. We desire knowledge by the sole impulse of reason, but
we desire good before the excitement of reason; and the desire
is always after good, but not always after knowledge. Now
the soul of man finds an imperfection in every thing here, and
cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity. In the

<jQ THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
highest. fruitions of Avorldly things it is stifl pursuing something
else, which speaks a defect in what it already hath. The
world may afford a felicity for our dust, the body, but not for
the inhabitant in it; it is too mean for that. Is there any one
soul among the sons of men, that can upon a due inquiry say
it was at rest and Avanted no more, that hath not sometimes
had desires after an immaterial good ? The soul ' follows hard
after' such a thing, and hath frequent looks after it, (Psal. Ixin.
8.) Man desires a stable good, but no sublunary thing is so;
and he that doth not desire such a good, wants the rational
nature of a man. This is as natural as understanding, will,
and conscience. Whence should the soul of man haye those
desires? how came it to understand that something is still want
ing to make its nature more perfect, if there Avere not in it some
notion of a more perfect being which can give it rest? Can
such a capacity be supposed to be in it without something in
being able to satisfy it? if so, the noblest creature in the world
is miserablest, and in a worse condition than any other. Other
creatures obtain their ultimate desires, ' they are filled with
good,' (Psal. civ. 28:) and shall man only have a vast desire
without any possibility of enjoyment? Nothing in man is in
vain ; he hath objects for his affections, as Avell as affections for
objects; every member ofhis body hath its end, and doth attain
it; every affection of his soul hath an object, and that in this
world; and shall there be none for his desire, which comes
nearest to infinite of any affection planted in him ? This bound
less desire had not its original from man himself; nothing
would render itself restless ; something above the bounds of
this world implanted those desires after a higher good, and
made him restless in every thing else. And since the soul can
only rest in that which is infinite, there is something infinite for
it to rest in; since nothing in the world, though a man had the
whole, can give it a satisfaction, there is something above the
world only capable to do it, otherwise the soul would be always
Avithout it, and be more in vain than any other creature. There
is, therefore, some infinite being that can only give a content
ment to the soul, and this is God. And that goodness which
implanted such desires in the soul, would not do it to no pur
pose, and mock it in giving it an infinite desire of satisfaction,
without intending it the pleasure of enjoyment, if it doth not
by its oAvn folly deprive itself of it. The felicity of human na
ture must needs exceed that which is allotted to other crea
tures. Reason IV. As it is a folly to deny that Avhich all nations in
the world have consented to, which the frame of the world
evidenceth, which man in his body, soul, operations of con
science, witnesseth to; so it is a folly to deny the being of God,

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

71

which is witnessed unto by extraordinary occurrences in the
world. 1. In extraordinary judgments: When a just revenge fol
lows abominable crimes, especiafly when the judgment is suited
to the sin, by a strange concatenation and succession of provi
dences, methodized to bring such a particular punishment;
Avhen the sin of a nation or person is made legible in the in
flicted judgment, which testifies that it cannot be a casual
thing. The Scripture gives us an account of the necessity of
such judgments, to keep up the reverential thoughts of God in
the world (Ps. ix. 16 :) 'The Lord is known by the judgment
Avhich he executes; the wicked is snared in the Avork of his
own hand:' and jealousy is the name of God, (Exod. xxxiv.
14,) ' Whose name is jealous.' He is distinguished frora false
gods by the judgments which he sends, as men are by their
names. Extraordinary prodigies in many nations have been
the heralds of extraordinary judgraents, and presages of the
particular judgraents Avhich afterwards they have felt, of which
the Roraan histories, and others, are full. That there are such
things is undeniable, and that the events have been answera
ble to the threatening, unless we will throw aAvay all huraan
testimonies, and count all the histories of the world forgeries.
Such things are evidences of some invisible poAver which orders
those affairs. And if there be invisible powers, there is also
an efficacious cause which moves them; a government cer
tainly there is among them, as well as in the world, and then
we must come to some suprerae governor which presides over
them. Judgments upon notorious offenders have been evident
in all ages ; the Scripture gives many instances. I shall only
mention that of Herod Agrippa, which Josephus mentions."
He receives the flattering applause of the people, and thought
himself a God; but by the sudden stroke upon him, was forced
by his torture to confess another. ' I am God,' saith he, ' in
your account, but a higher calls me away; the will of the
heavenly Deity is to be endured.' The angel of the Lord
smote him. The judgment here was suited to the sin; he that
would be a god, is eaten up of worms, the vilest creatures.
TuUy Hostflius, a Roman king, who counted it the most un
royal thing to be religious, or own any other God but his
sword, was consuraed himself, and his whole house, by light
ning from heaven. Many things are unaccountable unless we,
have recourse to God. The strange revelations of murderers,
that have most secretly committed their crimes ; the making
good some dreadful imprecations, which some wretches have
used to confirm a lie, and immediately have been struck with
that judgment they wished; the raising often unexpected per-
1 Lib. xix. Antiq. Acts xii. 21—23.

72 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
sons to be instruments of vengeance on a sinful and perfidious
nation ; the overturning the deepest and surest counsels of men,
when they have had a successful progress, and came to the
very point of execution; the vvhole design of men's preserva
tion hath been beaten in pieces by some unforeseen circum
stance, so that judgments have broken in upon them without
control, and all their subtleties been outwitted; the strange
crossing of some in their estates, though the most wise, indus
trious, and frugal persons, and that by strange and unexpected
ways; and it is observable how often every thing contributes
to carry on a judgment intended, as if they rationally designed
it: all these loudly proclaim a God in the world; if there Avere
no God, there would be no sin; if no sin, there would be no
punishment. 2. In miracles. The course of nature is uniform; and when
it is put out of its course, it must be by some superior power
invisible to the world; and by whatsoever invisible instru'
ments they are wrought, the efficacy of thera must depend upon
some first cause above nature. (Psalm Ixxii. 18:) 'Blessed be
the Lord God of Israel, Avho only doeth wondrous things,' by
himself and his sole power. That which cannot be the result
of a natural cause, must be the result of something supernatural :
what is beyond the reach of nature, is the effect of a power
superior to nature; for it is quite against the order of nature,
and is the elevation of something to such a pitch, which all
nature could not advance it to. Nature cannot go beyond its
own limits; if it be detetmined by another, as hath been for
merly proved, it canUot lift itself above itself, without that
power that so determined it. Natural agents act necessarily;
the sun doth necessarily shine, fire doth necessarfly burn : that
cannot be the result of nature, which is above the abihty of
nature; that cannot be the work of nature which is against the
order of nature: nature cannot do any thing against itself, or
invert its own course. We must own that such things have
been, or we must accuse all the records of former ages to be a
pack of lies; which AvhosoeVer doth, destroys the greatest and
best part of human knowledge. The miracles mentioned in
the Scripture, Avrought by our Saviour, are acknowledged by
the heathen, by the Jews at this day, though his greatest ene
mies. There is no dispute whether such things Avere wrought,
the ' dead raised,' the ' blind restored to sight.' The heathen
have acknowledged the miraculous eclipse of the sun at the
passion of Christ, quite against the rule of nature, the moon
being then in opposition to the sun : the propagation of Chris
tianity contrary to the methods whereby other religions have
been propagated: that in a few years the nations of the world
should be sprinkled with this doctrine, and give in a greater

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. ,jo
catalogue of martyrs courting the devouring flames, than all
the religions of the world. To this might be added, the strange
hand that was over the Jews, the only people in the world pro
fessing the true God, that should so often be befriended by
their conquerors, so as to rebuild their temple, though they
were looked upon as a people apt to rebel. Dion and Seneca
observe, that wherever they were transplanted, they prospered,
and gave laws to the victors; so that this proves also the autho
rity ofthe Scripture, the truth ofthe Christian religion, as well
as the being of a God, and a superior poAver over the world.
To this might be added, the bridling the tumultuous passions
of men for the preservation of human societies, which else
would run the world into inconceivable confusions, (Psalm
Ixv. 7 :) ' Which stilleth the noise of the sea, and the tumults of
the people;' as also the miraculous deliverance of a person or
nation, when upon the very brink of ruin; the sudden answer
of prayer when God hath been sought to, and the turning
away a judgment, which in reason could not be expected to be
averted, and the raising a sunk people from a ruin which
seemed inevitable, by unexpected ways.
3. Accomplishments of prophecies. Those things which are
purely contingent, and cannot he known by natural signs and
in their causes, as eclipses and changes in nations, which may
be discerned by an observation of the signs ofthe times; such
things that fall not within this compass, if they be foretold and
come to pass, are solely from some higher hand, and above the
cause of nature. This in Scripture is asserted to be a notice of
the true God (Isa. xii. 23:) ' Show the things that are to come
hereafter, that we may know that you are God,' and (Isa. xlvi.
10), ' I am God declaring the end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My
counsel shall stand, and I Avfll do all my pleasure.' And pro
phecy was consented to by all the phflosophers to be from
divine illumination: that power which discovers things future,
which all the foresight of men cannot ken and conjecture, is
above nature. And to foretell them so certainly as if they did
already exist, or had existed long ago, must be the result of a
mind infinitely intelligent; because it is the highest way of
knowing, and a higher cannot be imagined: and he that knows
things future in such a manner, must needs know things pre
sent and past. Cyrus was prophesied of by Isaiah (xliv. 28,
and xiv. 1,) long before he was born: his victories, spoils, afl
that should happen in Babylon, his bounty to the Jews came
to pass, according to that prophecy ; and the sight of that pro
phecy which the Jcavs shoAved him, as other historians report,
Avas that which moved him to be favourable to the Jews.
Alexander's sight of Daniel's prophecy concerning his victo-
VOL. I.— 10

>74 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
lies moved him to spare Jerusalem. And are not the four
monarchies plainly decyphered in that book, before the fourth
rose up in the world ? That power which foretells things be
yond the reach of the wit of man, and orders all causes to bring
about those predictions, must be an infinite power, the same
that made the Avorld, sustains it and governs aU things in it
according to his pleasure, and to bring about his own ends ;
and this being is God.
Use I. If atheism be a folly, it is then pernicious to the
world and to the atheist himself Wisdom is the band of
human societies, the glory of man. Folly is the disturber of
famflies, cities, nations; the disgrace of human nature.
First, It is pernicious to the world.
1. It would root out the foundations of government. It de-
molisheth all order in nations. The being of a God is the
guard of the world: the sense of a God is the foundation of
civil order; without this there is no tie upon the consciences
of men. What force would there be in oaths for the decisions
of controversies, what right could there be in appeals made to
one that had no being? A city of atheists Avould be a heap of
confusion; there could be no ground of any commerce, Avhen
all the sacred bands of it in the consciences of men were snapt
asunder, which are torn to pieces and utterly destroyed by de
nying the existence of God. What magistrate could be secure
in his standing ? what private person could be secure in his
right? Can that then be a truth that is destructive of all pub
lic good? If the atheist's sentiment, that there Avere no God,
were a truth, and the contrary that there Avere a God, were a
falsity, it would then follow, that falsity made men good and
serviceable to one another; that error Avere the foundation of
all the beauty, and order, and outward felicity of the world,
the fountain of all good to man.' If there Avere no God, to be
lieve there is one, would be an error; and to believe there is
none, would be the greatest wisdom, because it would be the
greatest truth. And then as it is the greatest Avisdom to fear
God, upon the apprehension of his existence, so it would be
the greatest error to fear him, if there Avere none.^ It would
unquestionably follow, that error is the support of the world,
the spring of all human advantages; and that every part ofthe
Avorld were obliged to a falsity for being a quiet habitation,
which is the most absurd thing to imagine. It is a thing im
possible to be tolerated by any prince, without laying an axe
to the root of the government.
2. It would introduce all evfl into the world. If you take
away God, you take away conscience, and thereby afl
measures and rules of good and evfl. And how could any
' Lessius de Provid. p. 665. 2 Psalm cxi. 10.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD,

75

laws be made when the measure and standard of them were
removed? All good laws are founded upon the dictates of
conscience and reason, upon common sentiments in human
nature, which spring from a sense of God; so that if the foun
dation be demolished, the whole superstructure must tumble
down : a man might be a thief, a murderer, an adulterer, and
could not in a strict sense be an offender. The worst of ac
tions could not be evil, if a man were a god to himself, a law
to himself Nothing but evil deserves a censure, and nothing
would be evil if there were no God, the governor of the world
against whom evil is properly committed. No man can make
that morally evil that is not so in itself: as where there is a
faint sense of God, the heart is more strongly inclined to wick
edness; so where there is no sense of God, the bars are remov
ed, the flood-gates set open for all wickedness to rush in upon
mankind. Religion pinions men from abominable practices,
and restrains them from being slaves to their own passions:
an atheist's arms would be loose to do any thing.' Nothing
so vfllanous and unjust but would be acted if the natural fear
of a Deity were extinguished. The first consequence issuing
from the apprehension of the existence of God, is his govern
ment of the world. If there be no God, then the natural con
sequence is that there is no supreme government of the world :
such a notion would cashier all sentiments of good, and be like
a Trojan horse, whence all impurity, tyranny, and all sorts of
mischiefs would break out upon mankind: corruption and
abominable works in the text are the fruit of the fool's persua
sion that there is no God. The perverting the ways of men,
oppression and extortion, owe their rise to a forgetfulness of
God (Jer. iii. 21 :) ' They have perfected their way, and they
have forgotten the Lord their God.' (Ezek. xxu. 12:) 'Thou
hast greedfly gained by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith
the Lord. The whole earth would be filled with violence, all
flesh would corrupt their Avay, as it was before the deluge,
when probably atheism did abound more than idolatry; and if
not a disowning the being, yet denying the providence of God
by the posterity of Cain: those of the famfly of Seth only ' cal
ling upon the name of the Lord.' (Gen. vi. 11, 12, compared
with Gen iv. 26.)
The greatest sense of a Deity in any, hath been attended
with the greatest innocence of life and usefulness to others;
and a weaker sense hath been attended with a baser impurity.
If there were no God, blasphemy would be praiseworthy; as
the reproach of idols is praiseworthy, because we testify that
there is no divinity in them.^ What can be more contemptible
than that which hath no being ? Sin would be only a false
' Lessius de Provid, p, 664. 2 Ibid. p. 665.

7g THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
opinion of a violated law, and an offended deity. If such
apprehensions prevafl, what a wide door is opened to the
worst of vfllanies! If there be no God, no respect is due to
him; all the rehgion in the world is a trifle, and error; and
thus the piUars of all human society, and that which hath made
commonwealths to flourish, are bloAvn aAvay.
Secondly, It is pernicious to the atheist himself If he fear
no future punishment, he can never expect any future reward :
all his hopes must be confined to a swinish and despicable
manner of life, Avithout any imaginations of so much as a dram
of reserved happiness. He is in a Avorse condition than the
silliest animal, which hath something to please it in its life;
whereas an atheist can have nothing here to give him a full
content, no more than any other man in the world, and can
have less satisfaction hereafter. He deposeth the noble end of
his own being, Avhich was to serve a God and have a satisfac
tion in him, to seek a God and be reAvarded by him; and he
that departs from his end, recedes from his own nature. All
the content any creature finds, is in performing its end, moving
according to its natural instinct; as it is a joy to the sun to run
its race.' In the same manner it is a satisfaction to every other
creature, and its delight to observe the law of its creation.
What content can any man have that runs from his end, oppo
seth his OAvn nature, denies a God by whom and for whom he
was created, whose image he bears, Avhich is the glory of his
nature, and sinks into the very dregs of brutishness ? How
elegantly is it described by Bildad,^ ' His own counsel shall
cast him doAvn, terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
destruction shall be ready at his side, the first-born of death
shall devour his strength, his confidence shall be rooted out,
and it shall bring him to the king of terrors. Brimstone shall
be scattered upon his habitation ; he shall be driven from light
into darkness, and chased out of the world. They that come
after him shall be astonished at his day, as they that went be
fore were affrighted. And this is the place of him that knows
not God.^ If there be a future reckoning (as his own con
science cannot but sometimes inform him of,) his condition is
desperate, and his misery dreadful and unavoidable. It is not
righteous a hell should entertain any else, if it refuse him.
Use II. How lamentable is it, that in our times this fofly of
atheism should be so rife! That there should be found such
monsters in human nature, in the midst of the improvements of
reason, and shinings of the gospel, who not only make the
Scripture the matter of their jeers, but scoff at the judgments
and providences of God in the Avorld, and envy their Creator a
being, without whose goodness they had none themselves; who
' Psalm xix. 5. 2 Job xviii. 7, 8, &c. to the end. 3 Ver. 24,

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

77

contradict in their carriage what they assert to be their senti
ment, when they dreadfully imprecate damnation to themselves !
Whence should that damnation they so rashly wish be poured
forth upon them, if there Avere not a revenging God? For
merly atheism was as rare as prodigious, scarce tAvo or three
knoAvn in an age; and those that are reported to be so in for
mer ages, are rather thought to be counted so for mocking at
the senseless deities the common people adored, and laying
open their impurities. A mere natural strength would easily
discover that those they adored for gods, could not deserve that
title, since their original was known, their uncleanness manifest
and acknowledged by their worshippers. And probably it
was so; since the Christians Avere termed aStoi, because they
acknowledged not their vain idols.'
I question whether there ever was, or can be in the world,
an uninterrupted and internal denial of the being of God, or
that men (unless we can suppose conscience utterly dead) can
arrive to such a degree of impiety; for before they can stifle
such sentiments in them (whatsoever they may assert,) they
must be utter strangers to the common conceptions of reason,
and despoil themselves of their own humanity. He that dares
to deny a God with his lips, yet sets up something or other as
a God in his heart. Is it not lamentable that this sacred truth,
consented to by all nations, which is the band of civil societies,
the source of all order in the world, should be denied Avith a
bare face, and disputed against in companies, and the glory of
a wise Creator ascribed to an unintelligent nature, to blind
chance ? Are not such Avorse than heathens ? They worshipped
many gods, these none : they preserved a notion of God in the
world under a disguise of images, these would banish him both
from earth and heaven, and demohsh the statutes of him in
their own consciences; they degraded him, these would destroy
him; they coupled creatures with him — (Rom. i. 25,) 'Who
worshipped the creature with the Creator,' as it may most pro
perly be rendered — and these would make him worse than the
creature, a mere nothing. Earth is hereby become worse than
heO. Atheism is a persuasion which finds no footing any
where else. Hell, that receives such persons, in this point re
forms them: they can never deny or doubt of his being, while
they feel his strokes. The devfl, that rejoices at their wicked
ness, knows them to be in an error; for he 'believes, and
trembles at the belief'^ This is a forerunner of judgment.
Boldness in sin is a presage of vengeance, especially when the
honour of God is more particularly concerned therein; it tends
to the overturning human society, taking off the bridle from
the wicked inclinations of men: and God appears not in such
> As Justin informs us, 2 James ii. 19.

78 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
visible judgments against sin immediately committed against
himself, as in the case of those sins that are destructive to hu
man society. Besides, God, as Governor of the world, wiU
uphold that, without which all his ordinances in the world
would be useless. Atheism is point blank against all the glory
of God in creation, and against aU the glory of God in redemp
tion, and pronounceth at one breath, both the Creator, and afl
acts of religion and divine institutions, useless and insignificant.
Since most have had, one time or other, some risings of doubt,
whether there be a God, though fcAv do in expressions deny his
being, it may not be unnecessary to propose some things for
the further impressing this truth, and guarding themselves
•against such temptations.
1. It is utterly impossible to demonstrate there is no God.
He can choose no medium, but Avill faU in as a proof for his
existence, and a manifestation of his excellency, rather than
against it. The pretences of the atheist are so ridiculous, that
they are not Avorth the mentioning. They never saw God, and
therefore know not how to believe such a being; they cannot
comprehend him. He would not be a God, if he could fall
Avithin the narrow model of a human understanding; he Avould
not be infinite, if he were comprehensible, or to be terminated
by our sight. How small a thing must that be Avhich is seen
by a bodily eye, or grasped by a Aveak mind! If God were
visible or comprehensible, he would be limited. Shall it be a
sufficient demonstration from a blind man, that there is no fire
in the room because he sees it not, though he feel the warmth
of it? The knowledge of the effect is sufficient to conclude the
existence of the cause. Who ever saAV his own life? Is it suffi
cient to deny a man lives, because he beholds not his life, and
only knows it by his motion ? He never saAv his own soul, but
knows he hath one by his thinking poAver. The air renders
itself sensible to men in its operations, yet was never seen by
the eye. If God should render himself visible, they might
question as well as now, Avhether that Avhich Avas so visible
were God, or some delusion. If he should appear glorious, we
can as little behold him in his majestic glory, as an owl can
behold the sun in its brightness: we should stfll but see him
in his effects, as we do the sun by his beams. If he should
show a new miracle, we should still see him but by his works;
so we see him in his creatures, every one of which would be
as great a miracle as any can be wrought, to one that had the
first prospect of them. To require to see God, is to require
that which is impossible, (1 Tim. vi. 16:) =He dwefls in the
light which no raan can approach unto, whom no man hath
seen, nor can see.' It is visible that he is, 'for he covers him
self with light as with a garment' (Psalm civ. 2;) it is visible

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. ~q
what he is, ' for he makes darkness his secret place' (Psalm
xviii. 11.) Nothing more clear to the eye than light, and nothing
more difficult to the understanding than the nature of it: as
light is the first object obvious to the eye; so is God the first
object obvious to the understanding. The arguments from
nature do, with greater strength, evince his existence, than any
pretences can manifest there is no God. No man can assure
himself by any good reason there is none; for as for the like
ness of events to him that is righteous, and him that is wicked;
to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not (Eccles.
ix. 2 :) it is an argument for a reserve of judgment in another
state, Avhich every man's conscience dictates to him, when the
justice of God shall be glorified in another world, as much as
his patience is in this.
2. Whosoever doubts of it, makes himself a mark, against
which all the creatures fight. All the stars fought against
Sisera for Israel: all the stars in heaven, and the dust on earth
fight for God against the atheist. He hath as many arguments
against him as there are creatures in the whole compass of
heaven and earth. He is most unreasonable, that denies or
doubts of that whose image and shadow he sees round about
him; he may sooner deny the sun that warms him, the moon
that in the night walks in her brightness, deny the fruits he
enjoys from the earth, yea, and deny that he doth exist. He
must tear his own conscience, fly from his own thoughts, be
changed into the nature of a stone, which hath neither reason
nor sense, before he can disengage himself from those argu
ments which evince the being of a God. He that would make
the natural religion professed in the world a mere romance,
must give the lie to the common sense of mankind; he must
be at an irreconcflable enmity with his own reason, resolve to
hear nothing that it speaks, if he wfll not hear Avhat it speaks
in this case, with a greater evidence than it can ascertain any
thing else. God hath so settled himself in the reason of man,
that he must villify the noblest faculty God hath given him,
and put off nature itself, before he can blot out the notion of a
God. 3. No question but those that have been so bold as to deny
that there was a God, have sometimes been much afraid they
have been in an error, and have at least suspected there was a
God, when some sudden prodigy hath presented itself to them,
and roused their fears; and whatsoever sentiments they might
have in their blinding prosperity, they have had other kind of
motions in them in their stormy afflictions, and, like Jonah's
mariners, have been ready to cry to him for help, whom they
disdained to own so much as in being, while they swam in
their pleasures. The thoughts of a Deity cannot be so extin-

8Q THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
guished, but they wiU revive and rush upon a man, at least
under some sharp affliction. Amazing judgments wfll make
them question their oAvn apprehensions. God sends some mes
sengers to keep ahve the apprehension of him as a Judge, while
men resolve not to own or reverence him as a Governor. A
man cannot but keep a scent of what was born with him; as a
vessel that hath been seasoned first with a strong juice wifl pre
serve the scent of it, Avhatsoever liquors are afterwards put
into it.
4. What is it for which such men rack their whs, to form
notions that there is no God? Is it not that they would indulge
some vicious habit, which hath gained the possession of their
soul, which they know ' cannot be favoured by that holy God,'
whose notion they would raze out?' Is it not for some brutish
affection, as degenerative of human nature, as derogatory to
the glory of God; a lust as unmanly as sinful? The terrors of
God are the effects of guilt; and therefore men would wear out
the apprehensions of a Deity, that they might be brutish with
out control. They Avould fain believe there were no God, that
they might not be men, but beasts. How great a folly is it to
take so much pains in vain, for a slavery and torment; to cast
off that which they call a yoke, for that Avhich really is one !
There are more pains and toughness of soul requisite to shake
off the apprehensions of God, than to believe that he is, and
cleave constantly to him. What a madness is it in any to take
so much pains to be less than a man, by razing out the appre
hensions of God, when, with less pains, he may be more than
an earthly man, by cherishing the notions of God, and walking
answerably thereunto !
5. How unreasonable is it for any man to hazard himself at
this rate in the denial of a God! The atheist saith he knows
not that there is a God; but may he not reasonably think there
may be one for aught he knows? and if there be, what a des
perate confusion wfll he be in, when aU his bravadoes shaU
prove false! What can they gain by such an opinion? A free
dom, say they, from the burdensome yoke of conscience, a
liberty to do what they list, that doth not subject them to divine
laws. It is a hard matter to persuade any that they can gain
this. They can gain but a sordid pleasure, unworthy the nature
of man. But it were well that such Avould argue thus with
themselves: if there be a God, and I fear and obey him, I gain
a happy eternity; but if there be no God, I lose nothing but
my sordid lusts, by firmly believing there is one. If 1 be de
ceived at last, and find a God, can I think to be rewarded by
him, for disowning him ? Do not I run a desperate hazard to
lose his favour, his kingdom, and endless felicity, for an end-
' Psalm xciv. 6, 7,

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. gi
less torment? By confessing a God I venture no loss; but by
denying him, I run the most desperate hazard, if there be one.
He is not a reasonable creature, that will not put himself upon
such a reasonable arguing. What a doleful meeting Avill there
be between the God who is denied, and the atheist that denies
him, who shall meet Avith reproaches on God's part, and terrors
on his own ! All that he gains is a liberty to defile himself here,
and a certainty to be despised hereafter, if he be in an error,
as undoubtedly he is.
6. Can any such person say he hath done all that he can to
inform hiraself of the being of God, or of other things which he
denies ? Or rather, they would fain imagine there is none, that
they may sleep securely in their lusts, and be free (if they
could) frora the thunder^claps of conscience. Can such say
they have used their utmost endeavours to instruct themselves
in this, and can meet with no satisfaction ? Were it an abstruse
truth it might not be wondered at; but not to meet with satis
faction in this which every thing minds us of, and helpeth, is
the fruit of an extreme negligence, stupidity, and a willingness
to be unsatisfied, and a judicial process of God against them.
It is strange any man should be so dark in that upon which de
pends the conduct ofhis life, and the expectation of happiness
hereafter. I do not know what some of you may think, but I be
lieve these things are not useless to be proposed for ourselves to
answer temptations; we know not what wicked temptation in a
debauched and sceptic age, meeting Avith a corrupt heart, may
prompt men to; and though there may not be any atheist here
present, yet I know there is more than one, who have acciden
tally met Avith such, who openly denied a Deity; and if the
like occasion happen, these considerations may not be unuseful
to apply' to their consciences. But I must confess, that since
those that live in this sentiment, do not judge themselves wor^
thy of their own care, they are not worthy ofthe care of others;
and a man must have all the charity of the Christian religion,
which they despise, not to contemn them, and leave them to
their own folly. As we are to pity mad men, who sink under
an unavoidable distemper, we are as much to abominate them,
who wilfully hug this prodigious frenzy.
Use III. If it be the atheist's folly to deny or doubt of the
being of God, it is our Avisdom to be firmly settled in this truth,
that God is. We should never be without our arms in an age
wherein atheism appears barefaced without a disguise. You
may meet with suggestions to it, though the devfl forraerly
never attempted to demolish this notion in the world, but Avas
willing to keep it up, so the worship due to God might run in
his own channel, and was necessitated to preserve it, Avithoiit
which he could not have erected that idolatry, which was his
Vol. I.— 11

82 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
great design in opposition to God ; yet since the foundations
of that are torn up, and never like to be rebuilt, he may endea
vour as his last refuge, to banish the notion of God out of the
world, that he may reign as absolutely without it, as he did
before by the mistakes about the divine nature. Bjit we must
not lay all npon Satan ; the corruption ofour own hearts min
isters matter to such sparks. It is not said Satan hath suggested
to the fool, but 'the fool hath said in his heart' there is no God.
But let them come from what principle soever, sflence them
quickly, give them their dismissal; oppose the whole scheme of
nature to fight against them, as the stars did against Sisera.
Stir up sentiments of conscience to oppose sentiments of corrup
tion. Resolve sooner to believe that yourselves are not, than
that God is not; and if you suppose they at any time come
from Satan, object to him that you know he believes the con
trary to what he suggests. Settle this principle firmly in you,
'let us behold him that is invisible,' as Moses did;' let us have
the sentiments following upon the notion of a God, to be re
strained by a fear of him, excited by a love to him, not to vio
late his laAVS and offend his goodness. He is not a God care
less of our actions, negligent to inflict punishment, and bestow
rewards, 'he forgets not the labour of our love,'^' nor the
integrity of our Avays; he were not a God, if he were not a
governor ; and punishments and rewards are as essential to
government, as a foundation to a building. His being and his
government in rewarding, Avhich implies punishment, (for the
neglects of him are linked together)' are not to be separated in
our thoughts of him.
1. Without this truth fixed in us, we can never give him the
worship due to his name. When the knowledge of any thing
is fluctuating and uncertain, our actions about it are careless.
We regard not that which we think doth not much concern us.
If we do not firmly believe there is a God, we shafl pay him
no steady worship; and if we beheve not the excellency of his
nature, we shall offer him but a slight service." The Jews call
the knowledge ofthe being of God the foundation and piflar of
wisdom.* The Avhole frame of religion is dissolved Avithout
this apprehension, and totters if this apprehension be wavering.
Religion in the heart is as water in a weather-glass, which
riseth or faUs according to the strength or weakness of this be
lief How can any man worship that which he believes not
to be, or doubts of? Could any man omit the paying a homage
to one, whom he did believe to be an omnipotent, wise being,
possessing (infinitely above our conceptions) the perfections of
all creatures.,? He must eflher think there is no such being, or
1 Heb. xi. 27. 2 Heb. vi. 10. 3 Heb. xi 6
* Mai. i. 13, 14, i Maimon, Funda. Legis cap. 1.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, oo
oo
that he is an easy, drowsy, inobservant God, and not such an
one as our natural notions of him, if listened ta as Avell as the
Scripture represents hira to be.
2. Without being rooted in this, we cannot order our lives.
AU our baseness, stupidity, dulness, wanderings, vanity, spring
from a wavering and unsettledness in this principle. This
gives ground to brutish pleasure, not only to solicit, but con
quer us. Abraham expected violence in any place where God
was not owned (Gen. xx. 11,) ' Surely the fear of God is not in
this place, and they wiU slay me for my wife's sake.' The
natural knowledge of God firmly impressed, would choke that
Avhich would stifle our reason and deface our souls. The belief
that God is, and what he is, would have a mighty influence to
persuade us to a real religion, and serious consideration, and
cast about how to be like to him and united with him.
3. Without it Ave cannot have any comfort of our lives. Who
would willingly live in a stormy world, void of a God ? If we
waver in this principle, to Avhom should Ave make our com
plaints in our afflictions ? Where should we meet with sup
ports? How could Ave satisfy ourselves with the hopes of a
future happiness? There is a sweetness in the meditation of
his existence, and that he is a Creator.' Thoughts of other
things have a bitterness mixed with them: houses, lands, chil
dren, now are, shortly they will not be ; but God is, that made
the world : his faithfulness, as he is a Creator, is a ground to
deposit our souls and concerns in our innocent sufferings. ^ So
far as we are we^tk in the acknowledgment of God, we de
prive ourselves of our content in the view of his infinite per
fections. 4. Without the rooting of this principle, we cannot have a
firm belief of Scripture. The Scripture will be a slight thing
to one that hath weak sentiments of God. The belief of a God
must necessarily precede the belief of any revelation ; the lat
ter cannot take place without the former as the foundation.
We must firmly believe the being of a God, wherein our hap
piness doth consist, before Ave can believe any means Avhich
conduct us to him. Moses begins with the Author of creation,
before he treats of the promise of redemption. Paul preached
God as a Creator to a university, before he preached Christ as
Mediator.^ What influence can the testimony of God have in
his revelation upon one that doth not firmly assent to the truth
of his being? All would be in vain that is so often repeated,
'Thus saith the Lord,' if we do not believe there is a Lord that
speaks it. There could be no awe from his sovereignty in his
commands, nor any comfortable taste of his goodness in his
promises. The more we are strengthened in this principle, the
• Psalm civ. 24. 2 I Pet iv. 19. ' Acts xvii. 24,

84 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
more credit we shall be able to give to divine revelation, to rest
in his promise, and to reverence his precept; the authority of all
depends upon the being of the Revealer.
To this purpose, since Ave have handled this subject by na
tural arguments,
1. Study God in the creatures as weU as in the Scriptures.
The primary use of the creatures, is to acknoAvledge God in
them ; they Avere made to be witnesses of himself and his good
ness, and heralds of his glory, which glory of God as Creator
'shafl endure forever:' (Psalm civ. 31:) that whole Psalm is a
lecture of creation and providence. The world is a sacred tem
ple; man is introduced to contemplate it, and behold Avith praise
the glory of God in the pieces of his art. As grace doth not
destroy nature, so the book of redemption blots not out that of
creation. Had he not shown himself in his creatures, he could
never have shown himself in his Christ; the order of things re
quired it. God must be read wherever he is legible ; the crea
tures are one book, wherein he hath written apart ofthe excel
lency of his name,' as many artists do in their works and
watches. God's glory like the filings of gold, is too precious
to be lost Avherever it drops: nothing so vile and base in the
world, but carries in it an instruction for man, and drives
in further the notion of a God. As he said of his cottage. Enter
here. Sunt hie etiam Dii, God disdains not this place: so the
least creature speaks to man, every shrub in the field, every fly
in the air, every limb in a body; Consider me, God disdains not
to appear in me; he hath discovered in me his being and a part
of his skfll, as well as in the highest. The creatures manifest
the being of God and part of his perfections. We have indeed
a more excellent way, a revelation setting him forth in a more
excellent manner, a firmer object of dependence, a brighter ob
ject of love, raising our hearts from self confidence to a confi
dence in him. Though the appearance of God in the one be
clearer than in the other, yet neither is to be neglected. The
Scripture directs us to nature to vicAv God ; it had been in
vain else for the apostle to make use of natural arguments. Na
ture is not contrary to Scripture, nor Scripture to nature ; un
less we should think God contrary to himself, who is the author
of both.
2. View God in your own experiences of him. There is a
taste and sight ofhis goodness, though no sight ofhis essence. ="
By the taste of his goodness you may know the reality ofthe
fountain, whence it springs and from whence it flows; this sur
passeth the greatest capacity of a mere natural understanding.
Experience of the sweetness of the ways of Christianity is a
mighty preservative against atheism. Many a man knoAVS not
1 Psalm viii. 9, 2 Psalm xxxiv, 98,

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. gi-
how to prove honey to be sweet by his reason, but by his
sense ; and if all the reason in the Avorld be brought against it
he wifl not be reasoned out of what he tastes. Have not many
found the delightful illapses of God into their souls, often
sprinkled Avith his iuAvard blessings upon their seeking of him;
had secret warnings in their approaches to him; and gentle
rebukes in their consciences upon their swervings from him?
Have not many found sometimes an invisible hand raising
them up when they were dejected; some unexpected provi
dence stepping in for their relief; and easily perceived that it
could not be a work of chance, nor many times the intention of
the instruments he hath used in it? You have often found that
he is, by finding that he is a rewarder, and can set to your
seals that he is what he hath declared himself to be in his word,
(Isa. xliii. 12:) 'I have declared, and have saved; therefore
you are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.' The
secret touches of God upon the heart, and inward converses
with him, are a greater evidence of the existence of a supreme
and infinitely good Being, than aU nature.
Use IV. Is it a folly to deny or doubt of the being of God?
It is a folly also not to worship God, Avhen we acknowledge
his existence; it is our wisdom then to worship him. As it is
not indifferent whether we believe there is a God or no; so it
is not indifferent Avhether we will give honour to that God or
no. A AVorship is his right as he is the Author of our being,
and fountain of our happiness. By this only we acknowledge
his Deity; though we may profess his being, yet we deny that
profession in neglects of worship. To deny him a worship is
as great a folly, as to deny his being. He that renounceth all
homage to his Creator, envies him the being which he cannot
deprive him of The natural inclination to worship is as uni
versal as the notion of a God; idolatry else had never gained
footing in the world. The existence of God was never owned
in any nation, but a worship of him was appointed. And many
people Avho have turned their backs upon some other parts of
the law of nature, have paid a continual homage to some supe
rior and invisible being. The Jews give a reason why man
Avas created in the evening of the Sabbath, because he should
begin his being with the worship of his Maker. As soon as
ever he found himself to be a creature, his first solemn act
should be a particular respect to his Creator. ' To fear God
and keep his commandment, is the whole of man,' or is whole
man;=^ he is not a man but a beast, without observance of God.
Religion is as requisite as reason to complete a man: he were
not reasonable ifhe were not rehgious; because by neglecting
religion, he neglects the chiefest dictate of reason. Either God
1 Eccl. xii. 13, 2 Heb,

8g ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
framed the world with so much order, elegancy, and variety to
no purpose, or this was his end at least, that reasonable crea
tures should admire him in it, and honour him for it. The
notion of God was not stamped upon men, the shadows of God
did not appear in the creatures, to be the subject of an idle
contemplation, but the motive of a due homage to God. He
created the world for his glory, a people for himself, that he
might have the honour of his works; that since we live and
move in him, and by him, Ave should live and move to him and
for him. It was the condemnation of the heathen world, that
when they knew there was a God, they did not give him the
glory due to him. ' He that denies his being, is an atheist to
his essence: he that denies his worship, is an atheist to his
honour. If it be a folly to deny the being of God, it will be our wis
dom, then, since we acknowledge his being, often to think of
him. Thoughts are the first issue of a creature as reasonable: 2
He that hath given us the faculty Avhereby we are able to
think, should be the principal object about which the power of
it should be exercised. It is a justice to God, the author of
our understandings, a justice to the nature of our understand
ings, that the noblest faculty should be employed about the
most excellent object. Our minds are a beam from God; and,
therefore, as the beams of the sun, when they touch the earth,
should reflect back upon God. As we seem to deny the being
of God not to think of him; we seem also to unsoul our souls in
misemploying the activity of them any other way, like flies, to
be oftener on dunghills than flowers. It is made the black
mark of an ungodly man, or an atheist, that ' God is not in all
his thoughts, (Psal. x. 4.) What comfort can be had in the
being of God Avithout thinking of him Avith reverence and de
light? A God forgotten is as good as no God to us.

DISCOURSE II.
ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
Psalm xiv. I.— The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are cor
rupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Practical atheism is natural to man in his depraved state,
and very frequent in the hearts and lives of men.
The fool hath said in his heart. There is no God. He
regards him as little as if he had no being. He said in his
' Rom. i. 21. 2 Prov. iv. 23,

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. g«^
heart, not whh his tongue, nor in his head : he never firmly
thought it, nor openly asserted it. Shame put a bar to the first
and natural reason to the second; yet, perhaps, he had some
times some doubts whether there were a God or no. He wish
ed there were not any, and sometimes hoped there were none
at all. He could not raze out the notion of a Deity in his mind,
but he neglected the fixing the sense of God in his heart, and
made it too much his business to deface and blot out those cha
racters of God in his soul, which had been left under the ruins
of original nature. Men may have atheistical hearts without
atheistical heads. Their reasons may defend the notion of a
Deity, while their hearts are empty of affections to the Deity.
Job's children may curse God in their hearts, though not with
their lips. '
There is no God. Most understand it of a denial of the pro
vidence of God, as I have said in opening the former doctrine.
He denies some essential attribute of God, or the exercise of
that attribute in the world. ^ He that denies any essential attri
bute, may be said to deny the being of God. Whosoever denies
angels or men to have reason and wiU, denies the human and
angelical nature, because understanding and will are essential
to both those natures ; there could neither be angel nor man
without them. No nature can subsist without the perfections
essential to that nature, nor God be conceived of without his.
The apostle tefls us, (Eph. ii. 12,) that the gentiles were ' with
out God in the world.' So, in some sense, all unbelievers may
be termed atheists; for rejecting the Mediator appointed by
God, they reject that God Avho appointed hira. But this is be
yond tbe intended scope, natural atheism being the only sub
ject; yet this is deducible from it. That the title of «9eoc doth
not only belong to those who deny the existence of God, or to
those who contemn all sense of a Deity, and would root the
conscience and reverence of God out of their souls ; but it be
longs also to those who give not that worship to God which is
due to him, who worship many gods, or who worship one God
in a false and superstitious manner, when they have not right
conceptions of God, nor intend an adoration of him according
to the excellency ofhis nature. All those that are unconcern
ed for any particular religion fall under this character: though
they own a God in general, yet are willing to acknowledge
any God that shall be coined by the powers under Avhom they
live. The gentfles were without God in the world; without
the true notion of God, not without a God of their own fram
ing. This general or practical atheism is natural to men.
1 Job i. 5.
2 So the Chaldee reads, Njta'jw P'"?, Non potestas, denying the authority of
God in the world.

88 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
1. Not natural by created, but by corrupted nature. It is
against nature, as nature came out of the hand of God; but
universally natural, as nature hath been sophisticated and in
fected by the serpent's breath. Inconsideration of God, or
misrepresentations of his nature, are as agreeable to corrupt
nature, as the disowning the being of a God is contrary to com
mon reason. God is not denied, natura, sed vitiis.'
2. It is universally natural: 'The wicked are estranged from
the Avomb. (Psalm Iviii. 3.) They go astray as soon as they be
born: their poison is like the poison of a serpent.' The wicked,
(and who by his birth hath a better title?) they go astray from
the dictates of God and the rifle of their creation as soon as ever
they be born. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, which
is radically the same in all of the same species. It is seminally
and fundamentally in all men, though there may be a stronger
restraint by a divine hand upon some men than upon others.
This principle runs through the whole stream of nature. The
natural bent of every man's heart is distant from God. When
we attempt any thing pleasing to God, it is like the climbing up
a hill, against nature ; when any thing is displeasing to him, it
is like a current running down the channel in its natural course;
when we attempt any thing that is an acknowledgment of the
holiness of God, we are fain to rush, with arms in our hands,
through a multitude of natural passions, and fight the Avay
through the oppositions of our own sensitive appetite. How
softly do we naturaUy sink down into that Avhich sets us at a
greater distance from God! There is no active, potent, effica
cious sense of a God by nature. 'The heart of the sons of men
is fully set in them to do evfl.' (Eccl. viii. 11.) The heart, in
the singular number, as if there were but one common heart
beat in all mankind, and bent, as with one pulse, Avith a joint con
sent and force to wickedness, without a sense of the authority of
God in the earth, as if one heart actuated every man in the world.
The great apostle cites the text to verify the charge he brought
against afl mankind. ^ In his interpretation, the' Jews, who
owned one God, and were dignified with special privfleges, as
well as the gentiles that maintained many gods are within the
compass of this character. The apostle leaves out the first part
of the text, ' The fool hath said in his heart,' but takes in the
latter part, and the verses following. He charges all, because
all, every man of them, was under sin, — ' There is none that
seeks God;' and ver. 19, he adds, ' What the law saith, it speaks
to thera that are under the law,' that none should imagine he
included only the gentfles, and exempted the Jews from this
description. The leprosy of atheism had infected the whole
mass of human nature. No raan, among Jcavs or gentiles, did
' Augustin de Civit. Dei. 2 Rom. iii. 9  12.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. gg
naturally seek God; and, therefore, all were void of any spark
of the practical sense of the Deity. The effects of this atheism
are not in all externaUy of an equal size; yet in the funda
mentals and radicals of it, there is not a hair's difference between
the best and the worst men that ever traversed the world. The
distinction is laid either in common grace, bounding and sup
pressing it; or in special grace, kiUing and crucifying it. It is
in every one either triumphant or militant, reigning or deposed.
No man is any more born with sensible acknowledgments of
God, than he is born with a clear knowledge of the nature of
all the stars in the heavens, or plants upon the earth. None
seek after God.' None seek God as his rule, as his end, as his
happiness, which is a debt the creature naturally owes to God.
He desires no communion with God; he places his happiness
in any thing inferior to God; he prefers every thing before him,
glorifies every thing above him; he hath no delight to know
him; he regards not those paths which lead to him; he loves
his OAvn filth better than God's holiness; his actions are tinc
tured and dyed with self, and are void of that respect which is
due from him to God.
The noblest faculty of raan, his understanding, wherein the
remaining lineaments of the image of God are visible; the
highest operation of that faculty, which is wisdom, is, in the
judgment of the Spirit of God, devilish, whflst it is earthly and
sensual;'^ and the wisdom of the best man is no better by na
ture ; a legion of impure spirits possess it; devilish, as the devfl,
who, though he believe there is a God, yet acts as if there were
none, and wishes he had no superior to prescribe hira a law,
and inflict that punishment upon him which his crimes have
merited. Hence the poison of man by nature is said to be like
the poison of a serpent,^ alluding to that serpentine temptation
which first infected mankind, and changed the nature of man
into the likeness of that of the devil; so that, notwithstanding
the harmony of the world, that presents men not only with the
notice of the being of a God, but darts into their minds some
remarks of his power and eternity; yet the thoughts and rea
sonings of man are so corrupt, as may well be caUed diabolical,
and as contrary to the perfection of God, and the original law
of their nature, as the actings of the devfl are; for since every
natural man is a child of the devfl, and is actuated by the diabo
lical spirit, he must needs have that nature which his father hath,
and the infusion of that venom which the spirit that actuates him
is possessed with, though the full discovery of it may be restrained
by various circumstances. (Eph. u. 2.) To conclude : though no
man, or at least very few, arrive to a round and posflive con
clusion in their hearts that there is no God, yet there is no man
1 Coccei. 2 James iii. 15. » Psalm Iviii. 4.
Vol. L— 12

90 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
that naturally hath in his heart any reverence of God. In
general, before I come to a particular proof, take some proposi
tions. Prop. I. Actions are a greater discovery of a principle than
words. The testimony of works is louder and clearer than that
of words; and the frame of men's hearts must be measured
rather by what they do than by what they say. There may
be a mighty distance between the tongue and the heart, but a
course of actions is as little guilty of lying as interest is, accord
ing to our common saying. All outward impieties are the
branches of an atheism at the root of our nature, as all pesti
lential sores are expressions of the contagion in the blood ; sin
is therefore frequently called ungodliness in our English dialect.
Men's practices are the best indexes of their principles: the
current of a raan's life is the counterpart of the frame of his
heart. Who can deny an error in the spring or wheels, when
he perceives an error in the hand of the dial? Who can deny
an athei.sm in the heart, when so much is visible in the life?
The taste of the water discovers what mineral it is strained
through. A practical denial of God is worse than a verbal,
because deeds have usually more of deliberation than words;
words may be the fruit of a passion, but a set of evil actions
are the fruit and evidence of a predorainant evil principle in
the heart. All slighting words of a prince do not argue an
habitual treason; but a succession of overt treasonable attempts
signify a settled treasonable disposition in the mind. Those,
therefore, are more deservedly termed atheists, who acknow
ledge a God, and walk as if there were none, than those (if
there can be any such) that deny a God, and walk as if there
were one. A sense of God in the heart would burst out in the
life; where there is no reverence of God in the life, it is easily
concluded there is less in the heart. What doth not influence
a man when it hath the addition of the eyes, and censures of
outward spectators, and the care of a reputation (so much the
god of the world) to strengthen it and restrain the action, must
certainly have less power over the heart when it is single,
without any other concurrence. The flames breaking out of a
house discover the fire to be much stronger and fiercer within.
The apostle judgeth those of the circumcision, who gave heed
to Jewish fables, to be deniers of God, though he doth not tax
them with any notorious profaneness: (Tit. i. 16,) 'They pro
fess that they know God, but in works they deny him.' He
gives them epithets contrary to what they arrogated to them
selves.' They boasted themselves to be holy; the apostle calls
them abominable: they bragged that they fulfilled the law, and
observed the traditions of their fathers; the apostle calls them
' Illyric.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. gj
disobedient, or unpersuadable: they boasted that they only had
the rule of righteousness, and a sound judgment concerning it;
the apostle said they had a reprobate sense, and unfit for any
good work; and judges against all their vainglorious brags,
that they had not a reverence of God in their hearts; there was
more of the denial of God in their works than there was ac
knowledgment of God in their words. Those that have neither
God in their thoughts, nor in their tongues, nor in their works,
cannot properly be said to acknowledge hira. Where the honour
of God is not practically owned in the lives of men, the being
of God is not sensibly acknowledged in the hearts of men. The
principle must be of the same kind with the actions; if the
actions be atheistical, the principle of them can be no better.
Prop. II. All sin is founded in a secret atheism. Atheism
is the spirit of every sin ; all the floods of impieties in the world
break in at the gate of a secret atheism, and though several
sins may disagree with one another, yet, like Herod and Pilate
against Christ, they join hand in hand against the interest of
God. Though lusts and pleasures be diverse, yet they are all
united in disobedience to him.' All the wicked inclinations in
the heart, and struggling motions, secret repinings, self-applaud
ing confidences in our own wisdom, strength, &c. envy, ambi
tion, revenge, are sparks from this latent fire; the language of
every one of these is, I would be a Lord to myself, and would
not have a God superior to me. The variety of sins against
the first and second table, the neglects of God, and violences
against man, are derived from this in the text; first, ' The fool
hath said in his heart,' and then follows a legion of devils. As
all virtuous actions spring from an acknowledgment of God;
so all vicious actions rise from a lurking denial of him: all
licentiousness goes glib down where there is no sense of God.
Abraham judged himself not secure from murder, nor his wife
from defilement in Gerar, if there Avere no fear of God there. ^
He that makes no conscience of sin has no regard to the honour,
and, consequently, none to the being of God. ' By the fear of
God men depart from evil:' (Prov. xvi. 6;) by the non-regarding
of God men rush into evil. Pharaoh oppressed Israel because
he ' knew not the Lord.' If he did not deny the being of a
Deity, yet he had such an unworthy notion of God as was
inconsistent with the nature of a Deity; he, a poor creature,
thought himself a mate for the Creator. In sins of omission
we own not God, in neglecting to perform what he enjoins; in
sins of commission we set up some lust in the place of God,
and pay to that the homage which is due to our Maker. In
both we disown him; in the one by not doing what he com
mands, in the other by doing what he forbids. We deny his
< Tit. iii. 3. 'Gen. xx. 11.

92 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
sovereignty when we violate his laAvs; we disgrace his holi
ness when we cast our filth before his face ; Ave disparage his
wisdom when we set up another rule as the guide of our actions
than that law he hath fixed; we slight his sufficiency when we
prefer a satisfaction in sin before a happiness in him alone; and
his goodness, when we judge it not strong enough to attract us
to him. Every sin invades the rights of God, and strips him
of one or other of his perfections. It is such a vilifying of God
as if he were not God; as if he were not the Supreme Creator
and Benefactor of the world; as if we had not our being from
him; as if the air we breathed in, the food we lived by, Avere
our own by right of supremacy, not of donation. For a sub
ject to slight his sovereign, is to slight his royalty; or a servant
his master, is to deny his superiority.
Prop. III. Sin implies that God is unworthy of a being.
Every sin is a kind of cursing God in the heart;' an aim at the
destruction of the being of God; not actually, but virtually;
not in the intention of every sinner, but in the nature of every
sin. That affection Avhich excites a man to break his law,
would excite him to annihilate his being if it were in his power.
A man in every sin aims to set up his own will as his rule, and
his own glory as the end of his actions against the wfll and
glory of God; and could a sinner attain his end, God would be
destroyed. God cannot outlive his Avill and his glory; God
cannot have another rule but his own will, nor another end but
his own honour. Sin is called a turning the back upon God,^
a kicking against him,' as if he were a slighter person than the
meanest beggar. What greater contempt can be shown to the
meanest, vilest person, than to turn the back, lift up the heel,
and thrust away with indignation? all which actions, though
they signify that such a one hath a being; yet they testify also
that he is unworthy of a being, that he is an unuseful being
in the world, and that it were well the world were rid of him.
All sin against knowledge is called a reproach of God.'* Re
proach is a vilifying a man as unworthy to be admitted into
company. We naturally judge God unfit to be conversed with.
God is the term turned from by a sinner; sin is the term turned
to, which implies a greater excellency in the nature of sin than
in the nature of God; and as we naturally judge it more worthy
to have a being in our affections, so consequently more worthy
to have a being in the world, than that infinite nature from
whom we derive our beings and our all, and upon whom, with
a kind of disdain, we turn our backs. Whosoever thinks the
notion of a Deity unfit to be cherished in his mind by warm
medflation, implies that he cares not whether he hath a being
1 Job i. 5. 2 Jer. xxxii. 33.
' Deut. xxxii. 15. * Numb. xv. 38. Ezek xx. 27.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

93

in the world or no. Now though the light of a Deity shines
so clearly in man, and the stings of conscience are so smart
that he cannot absolutely deny the being of a God, yet most
men endeavour to smother this knowledge, and make the notion
of a God a sapless and useless thing: (Rom. i, 28:) 'They like
not to retain God in their knowledge.' It is said ' Cain went
out from the presence of the Lord:' (Gen. iv. 16:) that is, from
the worship of God. Our refusing or abhorring the presence
of a man implies a carelessness whether he continue in the
world or no; it is a using him as if he had no being, or as if
we were not concerned in it. Hence all men in Adara, under
the erablem of the prodigal, are said to go into a far country;
not in respect of place, because of God's omnipresence, but in
respect of acknowledgment and affection: they mind and love
any thing but God. And the descriptions of the nations of the
world, lying in the ruins of Adam's fall, and the dregs of that
revolt, is that they know not God. They forget God, as if there
were no such being above thera; and, indeed, he that doth the
works of the devfl, owns the devfl to be more worthy of ob
servance, and, consequently, of a being, than God, whose nature
he forgets, and whose presence he abhors.
Prop. IV. Every sin in its own nature would render God a
foolish and impure being. Many transgressors esteera their
acts, which are contrary to the law of God, both wise and good :
if so~, the law against which they are committed, must be both
foolish and impure. What a reflection is there then upon the
Lawgiver! The moral law is not properly a mere act of God's
wifl considered in itself, or a tyrannical edict, Iflce those of
Avhom it may well be said, stat pro ratione voluntas; but it
commands those things which are good in their own nature,
and prohibits those things which are in their own nature evil;
and therefore is an act of his wisdom and righteousness; the
result of his wise counsel, and an extract of his pure nature ;
as all the laws of just lawgivers are not only the acts of their
wfll, but of a wifl governed by reason and justice, and for the
good of the public, Avhereof they are conservators. If the
moral commands of God were only acts of his will, and had
not an intrinsic necessity, reason and goodness, God might have
commanded the quite contrary, and made a contrary law,
Avhereby that which we now call vice, might have been canon
ized for virtue: he might then have forbid any worship of hitn,
love to hira, and fear of his name : he might then have com
manded murders, thefts, adulteries. In the first he would have
untied the hnk of duty from the creature, and dissolved the
obligations of creatures to him, which is impossible to be con
ceived ; for frora the relation of a creature to God, obligations
to God, and duties upon those obligations, do necessarily result.

94 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
It had been against the rule of goodness and justice to have
commanded thef creature not to love him, and fear and obey
him: this had been a command against righteousness, goodness,
and intrinsic obligations to gratitude. And should murder,
adulteries, rapines, have been commanded instead of the con
trary, God would have destroyed his own creation ; he would
have acted against the rule of goodness and order; he had been
an unjust tyrannical governor of the world: public society
would have been cracked in pieces, and the world become a
shambles, a brothel-house, a place below the common senti
ments of a mere man. AU sin, therefore, being against the
law of God, the wisdom and holy rectitude of God's nature is
denied in every act of disobedience. And what is the conse
quence of this, but that God is both foolish and unrighteous in
commanding that, which was neither an act of wisdom, as a
governor, nor an act of goodness, as a benefactor to his crea
ture? As was said before, presumptuous sins are called re
proaches of God (Numb. xv. 30:) 'The soul that doth aught
presumptuously reproacheth the Lord.' Reproaches of men
are either for natural, moral, or intellectual defects. All re
proaches of God must imply a charge either of unrighteousness
or ignorance : if of unrighteousness, it is a denial of his holi
ness; if of ignorance, it is a blemishing his wisdom. If God's
laws were not wise and holy, God Avould not enjoin them; and
if they are so, we deny infinite wisdom and holiness in God by
not complying with them. As when a man believes not God
when he promises, he makes him a liar; (1 John v. 10;) so he
that obeys not a wise and holy God commanding, makes him
guilty either of folly or unrighteousness.
Now, suppose you knew an absolute atheist Avho denied the
being of a God, yet had a life free from any notorious spot or
defilement ; would you in reason count him so bad as the other
that owns a God in being, yet lays, by his course of action,
such a black imputation of folly and impurity upon the God
he professeth to own; an imputation Avhich renders any raan a
most despicable creature.
Prop. V. Sin in its own nature endeavours to render God
the most miserable being. It is nothing but an opposition to
the will of God: the will of no creature is so much contradict
ed as the wfll of God is by devfls and men : and there is nothing
under the heavens that the affections of human nature stand
more point blank against, than against God. There is a slight
of him in all the faculties of raan; our souls are as unwilling
to know him, as our wills are averse to follow him; "The
carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the
law of God, nor can be subject." Rom. viii. 7. It is true, God's
wfll cannot be hindered of its effect, for then God would not

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

95

be supremely blessed, but unhappy and miserable. AU misery
ariseth frora a want of that, which a nature would have, and
ought to have. Besides, if any thing could frustrate God's wifl
it would be superior to him; God would not be oranipotent,
and so would lose the perfection of the Deity, and consequently
the Deity itself; for that which did wholly defeat God's wiU
would be raore powerful than he. But sin is a contradiction
to the Avill of God's revelation, to the will of his precept; and
therein doth naturally tend to a superiority over God, and
would usurp his omnipotence, and deprive him of his blessed
ness. For if God had not an infinite power to turn the designs
of it to his own glory, but the will of sin could prevail, God
would be totally deprived of his blessedness. Doth not sin
endeavour to subject God to the extravagant and contrary wflls
of men, and make him more a slave than any creature can be?
For the will of no creature, not the meanest and most despica
ble creature, is .so much crossed as the will of God is by sin.
" Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins." Isa. xliii. 24.
Thou hast endeavoured to make a mere slave of me by sin.
Sin endeavours to subject the blessed God to the humour and
lust of every person in the world.
Prop. VI. Men sometimes in some circumstances do wish
the not being of God. This some think to be the meaning of
the text, "The fool hath said in his heart. There is no God:"
that is, he wishes there were no God. Many tamper with their
own hearts, to bring thera to a persuasion that there is no God;
and when they cannot do that, they conjure up wishes that
there were none. Men naturally have some conscience of sin,
and some notices of justice. They know the judgment of God,
Rom. i. 32; and they know the demerit of sin. They know
the judgment of God, and that they which do such things are
Avorthy of death. What is the consequent of this but fear of
punishment? and what is the issue of that fear, but a wishing
the Judge either unwilling or unable to vindicate the honour
of his violatedjaw? When God is the object of such a wish,
it is a virtual undeifying of him: not to be able to punish, is to
be impotent; not to be wflhng to punish, is to be unjust;
imperfections inconsistent with the Deity. God cannot be sup
posed without an infinite power to act, and an infinite right
eousness as the rule of acting. Fear of God is natural to all
men ; not a fear of offending him, but a fear of being punished
by him: the wishing the extinction of God has its degree in
men, according to the degree of their fears of his just ven
geance; and though such a wish be not in hs meridian but in
the damned in hell, yet it hath its starts and motions in affright
ed and awakened consciences on the earth. Under this rank

gg ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
of wishers that there were no God, or that God were destroyed,
do fall,
(1.) Terrified consciences, that are Magor-missabib, see no
thing but matter of fear round about. As they have lived
without the bounds of the law, they are afraid to fall under
the stroke of his justice. Fear wishes the destruction of that
which it apprehends hurtful : it considers hira as a God to whora
vengeance belongs, as the Judge of all the earth. Psal. xciv.
1, 2. The less hopes such a one hath of his pardon, the more
joy he would have to hear that his Judge should be stripped of
his hfe. He would entertain Avith delight any reasons that
might support hira in the conceit that there were no God. In
his present state such a doctrine would be his security frora an
account. He would as much rejoice, if there were no God to
inflame a hell for him, as any guilty malefactor would if there
were no judge to order a gibbet for him. Shame may bridle
men's words, but the heart will be casting about for some argu
ments this Avay to secure itself Such as are at any time in
Spira's case, would be willing to cease to be creatures, that God
might cease to be judge. " The fool hath said in his heart.
There is no Elohim, no judge," fancying God without any ex
ercise of his judicial authority. And there is not any wicked
man under anguish of spirit, but, were it Avithin the reach of
his power, would take aAvay the life of God, and rid himself
of his fears, by destroying his avenger.
(2.) Debauched persons are not without such wishes some
times. An obstinate servant wishes his master's death, from
whom he expects correction for his debaucheries. As man
stands in his corrupt nature, it is impossible but one time or
other most debauched persons, at least, have some kind of im
perfect wishes. It is as natural to men to abhor those things
which are unsuitable and troublesome, as it is to please them
selves in things agreeable to their minds and humours: and
since man is so deeply in love with sin as to count it the most
estimable good, he cannot but wish the abohtion of that law
Avhich checks it, and consequently the change of the Lawgiver
which enacted it; and in wishing a change in the holy nature
of God, he wishes a destruction of God, who could not be God
if he ceased to be immutably holy. They do as certainly wish
that God had not a holy wfll to command them, as despairing
souls wish that God had not a righteous Avill to punish them;
and to wish conscience extinct for the molestations they receive
from it, is to wish the power conscience represents out of the
world also.
, Since the state of sinners is a state of distance from God, and
the language of sinners to God is, " Depart from us," Job xxi.
14; they desire as little the continuance of his being as they

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. g>j
desire the knowledge of his ways. The same reason which
moves them to desire God's distance from them, would move
them to desire God's not being. Since the greatest distance
would be most agreeable to them, the destruction of God must
be so too; because there is no greater distance from us than in
not being. Men would rather have God not to be, than them
selves under control, that sensuality might range at pleasure.
He is like a heifer sliding from the yoke, Hos. iv. 16. The
cursing of God in the heart feared by Job of his children, inti
mates a wishing God despoiled of his authority, that their
pleasure might not be damped by his law. Besides, is there
any natural man that sins against actuated knowledge, but
either thinks or Avishes that God might not see him, that God
might not know his actions? and is not this to wish the destruc
tion of God, who could not be God unless he were immense
and omniscient?
(3.) Under this rank fall those who perform external duties
only out of a principle of slavish fear. Many men perform
those duties that the laAv enjoins with the same sentiments that
slaves perform their drudgery, and are constrained in their
duties by no other considerations but those of the whip and
the cudgel. Since, therefore, they do it with reluctancy, and
secretly murmur while they seem to obey, they would be will
ing that both the command were recalled, and the master that
commands them were in another world. The spirit of adoption
makes men act towards God as a Father, a spirit of bondage
only eyes him as a Judge. Those that look upon their supe
riors as tyrannical, will not be much concerned in their welfare;
and would be more glad to have their nails pared than be un
der perpetual fear of them.
Many men regard not his infinite goodness in their service
of him, but consider him as cruel, tyrannical, injurious to their
liberty. Adam's posterity are not^ free from the sentiments of
their common father, till they are regenerate. You knoAv what
conceit was the hammer whereby the hellish Jael struck the
nafl into our first parents, which conveyed death, together with
the same imagination, to all their posterity: " God knows that
in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye
shall be as gods, knowing good and evfl." Gen. ni. 5. Alas,
poor souls! God knew what he did, when he forbade you that
fruit: he was jealous you should be too happy! It was a cru
elty in him to deprive you of a food so pleasant and delicious !
The apprehension of the severity of God's commands riseth up
no less in desires that there were no God over us, than Adam's
apprehension, of envy in God for the restraint of one tree,
moved him to attempt to be equal with God: fear is as power
ful to produce the one in his posterity, as pride was to produce
Vol. I.— 13

98 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
the other in the common root. When we apprehend a thing
hurtful to us, Ave desire so much evil to it as may render it in
capable of doing us the hurt we fear. As Ave wish the preser
vation of what we love or hope for; so we are naturally apt
to wish the not being of that whence we fear some hurt or
trouble. We must not understand this as if any man did for
mally wish the destruction of God as God. God in himself is
an infinite mirror of goodness and ravishing loveliness. He is
infinitely good, and universally good, and nothing but good;
and is therefore so agreeable to a creature as a creature, that
fl is impossible that the creature, Avhile it bears itself to God
as a creature, should be guilty of this, but thirst after him, and
cherish every motion to him. As no man wishes the destruc
tion of any creature, as a creature, but as it may conduce to
something which he counts may be beneficial to himself; so
no man doth, nor perhaps can Avish the cessation of the being
of God as God; for then he must wish his own being to cease
also: but as he considers him clothed with some perfections,
which he apprehends as injurious to him; as his holiness in
forbidding sin,, his justice in punishing sin; and God being
judged in those perfections contrary to what the revolted crea
ture thinks convenient and good for himself, he may wish God
stripped of those perfections, that thereby he may be free from
all fear of trouble and grief from him in his fallen state. In
wishing God deprived of those, he wishes God deprived ofhis
being; because God cannot retain his Deity without a love of
righteousness and hatred of iniquity; and he could not testify
his love to the one, or his loathing of the other, without en
couraging goodness, and testifying his anger against iniquity.
Let us now appeal to ourselves, and examine our OAvn con
sciences. Did we never please ourselves sometimes in the
thoughts, how happy we should be, how free in our vain plea
sures, if there were no God? Have we not desired to be our
own lords without control, subject to no law but our own, and
be guided by no will but that of the flesh? Did we never rage
against God under his affiicting hand? Did we never wish God
stripped of his holy Avill to command, and his righteous will to
punish? Thus much for the general.
For the proof of this, many considerations wifl bring in evi
dence; most may be reduced to these two generals.
Man would set himself up. First, as his own rule; Secondly,
as his own end and happiness.
Assertion 1. Man would set himself up as his own rule,
instead of God. This wfll be evidenced in this method. — Man
naturally disowns the rule God sets him. — He OAvns any other
rule rather than that of God's prescribing. — These he does in

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. gg
order to the setting himself up as his own rule. — He makes
himself not only his own rule, but would make himself the
rule of God, and give laws to his Creator.
(1.) Man naturally disowns the rule God sets hira. It is all
one to deny his royalty and to deny his being; Avhen we dis
own his authority, we disown his Godhead: it is the right of
God to be the Sovereign of his creatures; and it must be a very
loose and trivial assent that such men have to God's superiority
over thera, (and consequently to the excellency of his being,
upon which that authority is founded,) who are scarce at ease
in themselves, but when they are invading his rights, breaking
his bands, casting away his cords, and contradicting his will.
Every man naturally is a son of Belial, would be without a
yoke, and leap over God's enclosures; and in breaking out
against his sovereignty, we disown his being as God; for to be
God and Sovereign are inseparable. He could not be God if
he were not supreme; nor could he be a Creator without being
a Lawgiver. To be God, and yet inferior to another, is a con
tradiction. To make rational creatures without prescribing
them a law, is to make them without holiness, wisdom, and
goodness. [1.] There is in man naturally an unAvillingness to have any
acquaintance with the rule God sets him. None that did under
stand and seek God. Psal. xiv. 2. The refusing instruction and
casting his word behind the back is a part of atheism. Psal. I.
17. We are heavy in hearing the instructions either of law or
gospel, and slow in the apprehension of Avhat we hear. Heb.
V. 11, 12. The people that God had hedged in from the wil
derness of the world for his own garden, were foolish, and did
not know God; Avere sottish, and had no understanding of him.
Jer. iv. 22. The law of God is accounted a strange thing,
Hos. viii. 12; a thing of a different climate, and a far country
from the heart of man, wherewith the mind of man had no
natural acquaintance, and had no desire to have any; or they
regarded it as a sordid thing. What God accounts great and
valuable, they account mean and despicable. Men may show
a civility to a stranger, but scarce contract an intimacy: there
can be no amicable agreement between the holy will of God
and the heart of a depraved creature. One is holy, the other
unholy; one is universally good, the other worth naught. The
purity of the divine rule renders it nauseous to the impurity of
a carnal heart. Water and fire may as well kiss each other
and live together without quarrelUng and hissing, as the holy
will of God and the unregenerate heart of a fallen creature.
The nauseating a holy rule is an evidence of atheism in the
heart, as the nauseating wholesome food is of the unhealthy
state of the stomach. It is found more or less in every Chris-

100 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
tian, in the remains, though not in a full empire. As there is
a law in his mind whereby he delights in the law of God, so
there is a law in his members whereby he wars against the law
of God. Rom. vii. 22, 23. 25. How predominant is this loath
ing of the law of God, when corrupt nature is in its full
strength, without any principle to control it! There is in the
mind of such a one a darkness whereby it is ignorant ofit, and
in the will a depravedness whereby it is repugnant to it. If
man were naturally willing and able to have an intimate ac
quaintance with and delight in the law of God, it had not been
such a signal favour for God to promise to write the law in the
heart. A man may sooner engrave the chronicle of a whole
nation, or all the records of God in the Scripture, upon the
hardest marble with his bare finger, than write one syllable of
the law of God in a spiritual manner upon his heart. For,
Men are negligent in using the means for the knowledge of
God's will. All natural men are fools, who know not how to
use the price God puts into their hands, Prov. xvii. 16; they
put not a due estimate upon opportunities and means of grace,
and account that law folly which is the birth of an infinite and
holy wisdom. The knowledge of God Avhich they may glean
from creatures, and which is more pleasant to the natural taste
of men, is not improved to the glory of God, if we believe the
indictment the apostle brings against the gentiles. Rom. i. 21.
And most of those that have dived into the depths of nature,
have been more studious of the qualities of the creatures, than
of the excellency of the nature, or the discovery of the mind
of God in them; who regard only the rising and motions of
the star, but follow not with the Avise men its conduct to the
King of the Jews. How often do we see men filled with an
eager thirst for all other kind of knowledge; that cannot acqui
esce in a twilight discovery, but are inquisitive into the causes
and reasons of effects, yet are contented with a weak and lan
guishing knowledge of God and his law, and are easfly tired
with proposals of them!
He now that nauseates the means whereby he may come to
know and obey God, has no intention to 'make the law of God
his rule: there is no man that intends seriously an end, but he
intends means in order to that end. As when a man intends
the preservation or recovery of his health, he will intend means
in order to those ends, otherwise he cannot be said to intend
his health; so he that is not diligent in using means to know
the mind of God, has no sound intention to make the wfll of
and law of God his rule. Is not the inquiry after the will of
God made a work by the by, fain to lackey after other concerns
of an inferior nature, if fl hath any place at aU in the soul?
which is a despising the being of God. The notion of the

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. jqI
sovereignty of God, bears the same date with the notion of his
Godhead; and by the same Avay that he reveals himself, he
reveals his authority over us, Avhether it be by creatures with
out, or conscience within. All authority over rational creatures
consists in comraanding and directing; the duty of rational
creatures in compliance with that authority consists in obeying.
Where there is therefore a careless neglect of those means
which convey the knowledge of God's wifl and our duty, there
is an utter disowning of God as our sovereign and our rule.
When any part of the mind and will of God breaks in upon
men, they endeavour to shake it off, as a man would a sergeant
that comes to arrest him; they like not to retain God in their
knowledge. Rom. i. 28. A natural man receives not the things
of the Spirit of God; that is, into his affection; he pusheth them
back as men do troublesome and importunate beggars; they
have no kindness to bestow upon them. They thrust with both
shoulders against the truth of God, when it presseth in upon
them; and dash as much contempt upon it as the Pharisees did
upon the doctrine our Saviour directed against their covetous
ness. As men naturally delight to be without God in the world,
so they delight to be without any offspring of God in their
thoughts. Since the spiritual palate of man is depraved, divine
truth is unsavoury and ungrateful to us, till our taste and relish
is restored by grace: hence men damp and quench the motions
of the Spirit to obedience and compliance with the dictates of
God; strip them of their life and vigour, and kill them in the
womb. How unable are our memories to retain the substance
of spiritual truth; but, like sand in a glass, put in at one part,
it runs out at the other! Have not many a secret wish that the
Scripture had never mentioned some truths, or that they were
blotted out of the Bible, because they face their consciences,
and discourage those boiling lusts they would with eagerness
and delight pursue? Methinks that interruption John gives our
Saviour when he was upon the reproof of their pride, looks
little better than a design to divert him from a discourse so
much against the grain, by telling him a story of their prohibit
ing one to cast out devils, because he followed not them. Mark
ix. 33. 38. How glad are men when they can raise a battery
against a comraand of God, and raise some smart objection
whereby they may shelter themselves from the strictness of it!
When men cannot shake off' the notices ofthe wiU and mind
of God, they have no pleasure in the consideration of them.
Which could not possibly be, if there Avere a real and fixed
design to own the mind and law of God as our rule: subjects
or servants that love to obey their prince and master, Avill
delight to read and execute his orders. The devils under
stand the law of God in their minds, but they loathe the im-

102 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
pressions of it upon their wflls. Those miserable spirits are
bound in chains of darkness, evil habits in their wills, that they
have not a thought of obeying that law they know. It was
an unclean beast under the law, that did not chew the cud:
it is a corrupt heart that doth not chew truth by meditation.
A natural man is said not to know God, or the things of God;
he may know them notionally, but he knows them not affec
tionately. A sensual soul can have no delight in a spiritual
laAV. To be sensual and not to have the Spirit, are inseparable.
Jude 19.
Natural men may indeed meditate upon the law and truth of
God, but without delight in it : if they take any pleasure in it,
it is only as it is knowledge, not as it is a rule; for we delight
in nothing that we desire, but upon the same account that we
desire it. Natural men desire to know God and some part of
his will and law, not out of a sense of their practical excel
lency, but a natural thirst after knowledge: and if they have
a delight, it is in the act of knowing, not in the object known,
not in the duties that stream from that knowledge; they design
the furnishing their understandings, not the quickening their
affections; like idle boys that strike fire, not to warm themselves
by the heat, but sport themselves with the sparks; whereas, a
gracious soul accounts not only his meditation, or the operations
of his soul about God and his wfll to be sweet, but he hath a
joy in the object of that meditation. Psal. civ. 34. Many have
the knowledge of God who have no delight in him or his will.
Owls have eyes to perceive that there is a sun, but by reason
of the weakness of their sight have no pleasure to look upon
a beam of it; so neither can a man by nature love or delight
in the will of God, because of his natural corruption: that law
that riseth up in men for conviction and instruction, they keep
down under the power of corruption; making their souls not
the sanctuary, but prison of truth. Rom. i. 18. They wUl keep
it down in their hearts, if they cannot keep it out of their heads,
and will endeavour not to know and taste the spirit of it.
There is, further, a rising and swelling of the heart against
the wfll of God. — Internal. God's law cast against a hard
heart, is like a ball thrown against a stone wall, by reason of
the resistance rebounding the further from it. The meeting of a
divine truth and the heart of man, is like the meeting of two
tides, the weaker swells and foams. We have a natural antipa
thy against a divine rule; and therefore when it is clapped
close to our consciences, there is a snuffing at it, and high
reasonings against it. Corruption breaks out more strongly;
as water poured on lime sets it on fire, and the more Avater
is cast upon it the more furiously it burns; or as the sun
beam shining upon a dunghfll makes the steams the thicker

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 103
and the stench the more noisome, neither being the positive
cause of the smoke in the lime, or the stench in the dunghfll,
but by accident the causes of the eruption. " But sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of
concupiscence: for without the laAV sin was dead." Rom. vii.
8. Sin was in a languishing posture, as if it were dead; like a
lazy garrison in a city, till upon an alarm from the adversary,
it takes arms and revives its courage: all the sin in the heart
gathers together its force to maintain its standing; like the
vapours of the night, which unite themselves more closely to
resist the beams of the rising sun. Deep conviction often pro
vokes fierce opposition; and sometimes disputes against a divine
rule end in blasphemies. Acts xiii. 45. Contradicting and blas
pheming are coupled together. Men naturally desire things
that are forbidden, and reject things commairded, from the cor
ruption of nature, which affects an unbounded liberty, and is
impatient of returning under that yoke it hath shaken off; and
therefore rageth against the bars of the law as the waves roar
against the restraint of a bank. When the understanding is
dark and the mind ignorant, sin lies as dead : " A raan scarce
knows he hath such motions of concupiscence in him, he finds
not the least breath of wind, but a full calm in his soul; but
when he is awakened by the law, then the viciousness of nature
being sensible of an invasion of its empire, arms itself against
the divine law, and the more the command is urged, the more
vigorously it bends its strength, and more insolently lifts up
itself against it;'" he perceives more and more atheistical lusts
than before; all manner of concupiscence, more leprous and
contagious than before. When there are any motions to turn
to God, a reluctancy is presently perceived; atheistical thoughts
bluster in the mind like the wind, they know not whence they
come, nor Avhither they go: so unapt is the heart to any ac
knowledgment of God as his ruler, and any re-union with him.
Hence men are said to resist the Holy Ghost, Acts vii. 51; to
fall against it, as the word signifies, as a stone or any ponder
ous body falls against that which lies in its way: they would
dash to pieces pr grind to powder that very motion which is
made for their instruction, and the Spirit too which makes it,
and that not from a fit of passion, but an habitual repugnance.
" Ye always resist!" — External; it is a fruit of atheism, in the
fourth verse of this Psalm: "Who eat up my people as they
eat bread." How do the revelations of the mind of God nieet
with opposition! and the carnal world, like dogs, bark against
the shining of the moon! so much men hate the lights, that
they spurn at the lanthorns that bear it; and because they can
not endure the treasure, often fling the earthen vessels against
¦ Thes. Salmur. De Spiritu Servitutis, Thes. 19.

104 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
the ground wherein it is held. If the entrance of truth render
the market worse for Diana's shrines, the whole city will be in
an uproar. Acts xix. 24. 28, 29. When Socrates, upon natural
principles, confuted the heathen idolatry, and asserted the unity
of God, the whole cry of Athens, a learned university, is against
him; and because he opposed the publicly received religion,
though with an undoubted truth, he must end his life by vio
lence. How has every corner of the world streamed with the
blood of those that would maintain the authority of God in
the world! The devfl's children wiU follow the steps of their
father, and endeavour to bruise the heel of divine truth, that
would endeavour to break the head of corrupt lust.
Men often seem desirous to be acquainted with the will of
God, not out of any respect to his will and to make it their
rule, but upon some other consideration. Truth is scarcely re
ceived as truth. There is more of hypocrisy than sincerity in
the pale of the church, and attendance on the mind of God.
The outward dowry of a religious profession makes it often
more desirable than the beauty. Judas was a follower of Christ
for the bag, not out of any affection to the divine revelation.
Men sometimes pretend a desire to be acquainted with the wfll
of God, to satisfy their own passions, rather than to conform
to God's will. The religion of such is not the judgment ofthe
man, but the passion of the brute. Many entertain a doctrine
for the person's sake, rather than a person for the doctrine's
sake; and believe a thing because it comes from a man they
esteem, as if his lips were more canonical than Scripture.
The apostle implies in the commendation he gives the Thes
salonians, 1 Thess. ii. 13, that some receive the word for human
interest, not as it is in truth the Avord and will of God, to com
mand and govern their consciences by its sovereign authority:
or else they have the truth of God (as St. James speaks of the
faith of Christ) Avith respect of persons, James u. 1, and receive
it not for the sake of the fountain, but of the channel. So that
many times the same truth dehvered by another is disregarded,
which when dropping from the fancy and mouth of a man's
own idol, is cried up as an oracle. This is to make not God,
but man, the rule; for though we entertain that which materi
ally is the truth of God, yet not formally as his truth, but as
conveyed by one we esteem. And that we receive a truth and
not an error, we owe the obligation to the honesty of the instru
ment, and not to the strength and clearness of our own judg
ment. Wrong considerations may give admittance to an unclean
as weU as a clean beast into the ark of the soul: that which is
contrary to the mind of God, may be entertained as weU as
that which is agreeable. It is all one to such that have no
respect to God, what they have ; as it is all one to a spunge to

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. IO5
suck up the foulest water or the sweetest wine, when either is
applied to it.
Many that entertain the notions of the will and mind of God,
admit them with unsettled and wavering affections. There is
a great levity in the heart of man. The Jews that one day
applaud our Saviour Avith hosannahs as their King, vote his
crucifixion the next, and treat him as a murderer. We begin in
the Spirit and end in the flesh. Our hearts, like lute-strings,
are changed with every change of weather, Avith every appear
ance of a temptation; scarce one motion of God in a thousand
prevafls with us for a settled abode. It is a hard task to make
a signature of those truths upon our affections, Avhich will Avith
ease pass current with our understandings; our affections will
as soon loose them, as our understandings embrace them. The
heart of man is unstable as water. Gen. xlix. 4; James i. 8.
Some were willing to rejoice in John's light, which reflected a
lustre on their minds; but not in his heat, which would have
conveyed a warmth to their hearts: and the light was pleasing
lo them but for a season, Avhfle their corruptions lay as if they
were dead, not when they were awakened. John v. 35. Truth
may be admitted one day, and the next day rejected. As Aus
tin saith of a wicked man, he loves the truth shining, but he
hates the truth reproving. This is not to make God, but our
own humour, our rule and measure.
Many desire an acquaintance with the law and truth of God,
with a design to gratify some lust by it, to turn the word of
God to be a pander to the breach of his law. This is so far
from making God's will our rule, that Ave make our own vile-
affections the rule of his law. How many forced interpreta
tions of Scripture have been coined to give content to the lusts
of men; and the divine rule forced to bend and be squared to
men's loose and carnal apprehensions! It is a part of the insta-
bflity or falseness of the heart to wrest the Scriptures to their
own destruction, 2 Pet. iii. 16; which they could not do, if they
did not first wring them to cpuntenance some detestable error
or filthy crime. In paradise the first interpretation made of the
first law of God, Avas point blank against the mind of the Law
giver, and venomous to the Avhole race of mankind. Paul
himself feared that some might put his doctrine of grace to so
ill a use, as to be an altar and sanctuary to sheUer their pre
sumption; "Shall we then continue in sin, that grace may
abound?" Rom. vi. 1. 15. Poisonous consequences are often
drawn from the sweetest truths; as when God's patience is
made a topic, whence to argue against his providence, Psal.
xciv. 7; or an encouragement to commit evfl more greedfly;
as though because he had not presently a revenging hand, he
had not an all-seeing eye: or when the doctrine of justification
Vol. I.— 14

106 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
by faith is made use of to depress a holy life, or God's readi
ness to receive returning sinners, an encouragement to defer
repentance tiU a death-bed. A liar will hunt for shelter in the
reward God gave the midwives that lied to Pharaoh for the
preservation of the males of Israel, and Rahab's saving the
spies by false intelligence. God knoAvs how to distinguish be
tween grace and corruption, that may lie close together, or
between something of moral goodness and moral evil, which
may be mixed : we find their fidelity rewarded, which was a
moral good, but not their lie approved, which was a moral evfl.
Nor will Christ's conversing with sinners be a plea for any to
thrust themselves into evfl company. Christ conversed with
sinners as a physician with diseased persons, to cure them, not
approve them; others with profligate persons to receive infec
tion from them, not to communicate holiness to them. Satan's
children have studied their father's art, who Avanted not per
verted Scripture to second his temptations against our Saviour.
Matt. iv. 4. 6. How often do carnal hearts turn divine revelation
to carnal ends, as the sea turns fresh water into salt! As men
subject the precepts of God to carnal interests, so they subject
the truths of God to carnal fancies. When men will allegorize
the word, and make a humorous and crazy fancy the interpre
ter of divine oracles, and not the Spirit speaking in the word,
this is to enthrone our oavu imaginations as the rule of God's
law, and depose his law from being the rule of our reason:
this is to rifle truth of its true mind and intent. It is more to
rob a man ofhis reason, tlie essential constitutive part of man,
than of his estate. This is to refuse an intimate acquaintance
with his will. We shall never tell Avhat is the matter of a pre
cept, or the matter of a promise, if we impose a sense upon it
contrary to the plain meaning of it^ thereby we shall make
the law of God to have a distinct sense according to the variety
of men's imaginations, and so make every man's fancy a law
to himself
Now that this unwiUingness to have a spiritual acquaintance
whh divine truth, is a disoAvning God as our rule, and a setting
up self in his stead, is evident; because this unwillingness re
spects truth,
As it is most spiritual and holy. A fleshly mind is most
contrary to a spiritual law, and particularly as it is a searching
and discovering law, that would dethrone all other rules in the
soul. As men love to be without a holy God in the Avorld, so
they love to be without a holy law, the transcript and image
of God's holiness in their hearts; and without holy men, the
lights kindled by the Father of lights. As the holiness of God,
so the holiness of the law most offends a carnal heart. " Cause
the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us: prophesy not

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM IO7
unto us right things." Isa. xxx. 10, 11. They could not endure
God as a Holy One. Herein God places their rebellion, reject
ing him as their rule: "Rebellious chfldren, that will not hear
the law of the Lord." ver. 9. The more pure and precious any
discovery of God is, the more it is disrelished by the world:
as spiritual sins are sweetest to a carnal heart, so spiritual truths
are most distasteful. The more of the brightness of the sun any
beam conveys, the more offensive it is to a distempered eye.
As it doth most relate to or lead to God. The devil directs
his fiercest batteries against those doctrines in the Avord, and
those graces in the heart which most exalt God, debase man,
and bring men to the lowest subjection to their Creator; such
is the doctrine and grace of justifying faith. That men hate
not knowledge as knowledge, but as it directs them to choose
the fear of the Lord, was the deterraination of the Holy Ghost
long ago: " For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose
the fear of the Lord." Prov. i. 29. Whatsoever respects God,
clears up guflt, witnesses man's revolt to him, rouses up con
science, and moves to a return to God, a man naturally runs
from, as Adam did frora God, and seeks a shelter in some weak
bushes of error, rather than appear before it. Not that men
are unwilling to inquire into and contemplate some divine
truths, which lie furthest from the heart, and concern not them
selves immediately with the rectifying the soul. They may
view them with such a pleasure as some might take in behold
ing the miracles of our Saviour, who could not endure his
searching doctrine. The light of speculation may be pleasant,
but the light of conviction is grievous; that which gafls their
consciences', and would affect them with a sense of their duty
to God.
Is it not easy to perceive, that when a raan begins to be seri
ous in the concerns of the honour of God and the duty of his
soul, he feels a reluctancy within him, even against the pleas
of conscience; which evidences that some unworthy principle
has got footing in the hearts of men, which fights against the
declarations of God without, and the impressions of the law
of God whhin, at the same time when a man's own conscience
takes part with it, which is the substance of the apostle's dis
course. Rom. vii. 15, 16.
Close discourses of the honour of God, and our duty to him,
are irksome when raen are merry. They are like a damp in a
mine, that takes away their breath; they shuffle them out as
soon as they can, and are as unwiUing to retain the speech of
them in their mouths as the knowledge of them in their
hearts. Gracious speeches, instead of bettering many men, dis
temper them, as sometimes sweet perfumes affect a weak head
\<rith aches.

108 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
As it is most contrary to self Men are unwUling to acquaint
themselves with any truth that leads to God, because it leads
from self Every part of the will of God is more or less dis
pleasing, as it sounds harsh against some carnal interest men
would set above God, or on a level with him. Man cannot
desire any intimacy with that law which he regards as a bird
of prey, to pick out his right eye, or gnaw off his right hand,
his lust dearer than himself The reason we have such hard
thoughts of God's will, is because we have such high thoughts
of ourselves. It is a hard matter to believe or will that which
has lio affinity Avith some principle in the understanding, and
no interest in our wUl and passions. Our unwillingness to be
acquainted with the will of God arises from the disproportion
between that and our corrupt hearts; we are alienated from
the life of God in our minds. Eph. iv. 18, 19. As we live not
like God, so we neither think nor Avill as God. There is an
antipathy in the heart of man against that doctrine which
teaches us to deny ourselves and be under the rule of another;
but whatsoever favours the ambition, lusts, and profits of men,
is easily entertainable. Many are fond of those sciences, which
may enrich their understandings, and grate not upon their sen
sual delights. Many have an admirable dexterity in finding
out philosophical reasons, mathematical demonstrations, or
raising observations upon the records of history, and spend
much time and many serious and affectionate thoughts in the
study of them; in those they have not immediately to do with
God, their beloved pleasures are not impaired. It is a satisfac
tion to self without the exercise of any hostility against it. But
had those sciences been against self, as much as the law and
will of God, they had long since been rooted out of the world.
Why did the young man turn his back upon the law of Christ?
Because of his worldly self Why did the Pharisees mock at
the doctrine of our Saviour, and not at their own traditions?
Because of covetous self Why did the Jcavs slight the person
of our Saviour and put him to death, after the reading so many
credentials of his being sent from heaven ? Because of ambi
tious self, that the Romans might not come and take away their
kingdom. If the law of God were fitted to the humours of self,
it would be readily and cordially observed by all men. Self is
the measure of a world of seeming rehgious actions ; while
God seems to be the object and his law the motive, self is the
rule and end; " Did you fast unto rae," &c. Zech. vn. 5.
[2.] As men discover their disowning the will of God as a
rule by unwiUingness to be acquainted with it, so they discover
it by the contempt of it, after they cannot avoid the notions
and some impressions of it. The rule of God is burdensome to
a sinner, he flies from it as from a frightful bugbear and un-

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. lOg
pleasant yoke. Sin against the knowledge of the law is there
fore called, a going back from the commandment of God's lips.
Job xxiu. 12 ; a casting of God's word behind them, Psal. l'
17, as a contemptible thing, fitter to be trodden in the dirt than
lodged in the heart. Nay, it is a casting it off as an abomina
ble thing, for so the word mi signifies ; " Israel hath cast off
the thing that is good," Hos. viii. 3: an utter refusal of God;
"As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name
ofthe Lord, we will not hearken." Jer. xliv. 16. In the slight
of his precepts his essential perfections are slighted. In dis
owning his wfll as a rule, we disown all those attributes which
flow from his wifl, as goodness, righteousness, and truth. As
an act of the Divine understanding is supposed to precede the
act of the Divine wfll, so we slight the infinite reason of God.
Every law, though it proceeds from the will of the lawgiver,
and does formally consist in an act of the will, yet it presup
poses an act of the understanding. If the commandment be
holy, just, and good, Rom. vii. 12; if it be the image of God's
holiness, a transcript of his righteousness, and the efflux of his
goodness; then in every breach of it dirt is cast upon those
attributes which shine in it, and a slight of all the regards he
has to his own honour, and all the provisions he makes for his
creature. This atheism or contempt of God, is more taken no
tice of by God than the matter of the sin itself: as a respect to
God in a weak and imperfect obedience, is more than the mat
ter of the obedience itself, because it is an acknowledgment of
God; so a contempt of God in an act of disobedience, is more
than the matter of disobedience. The creature stands in such
an act not only in a posture of distance from God, but defiance
of him: it was not the bare act of murder and adultery which
Nathan charged upon David, but the atheistical principle which
spirited those evfl acts. The despising the commandment of
the Lord was the venom of thera. 2 Sam. xii. 9, 10. 'It is
possible to break a law without contempt; but when rnen pre
tend to believe there is a God, and that this is the law of God,
it shows a contempt of his majesty: men naturally account
God's laws too strict, his yoke too heavy, and his limits too
strait; and he that lives in a contempt of this law, curses
God in his life. How can they believe there is a God, who
despise him as a Ruler ? How can they believe him to be a
Guide, that disdain to folio av him? To think we firmly believe
a God without living conformable to his law, is an idle and
vain imagination. The true and sensible notion of a God can
not subsist with disorder and an affected unrighteousness.
This contempt is seen,
In any presumptuous breach of any part of his law. Such
1 Claud.

110 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
suis are frequently called in Scripture rebeUions, which are a
denial of the allegiance we owe to him. By a wflful refusal
of his right in one part, we root up the foundation of that rule
he doth justly challenge over us : his right is as extensive to
command us in one thing as in another : and if it be disowned
in one thing, it is virtually disowned in aU, and the whole
statute book of God is contemned. " Whosoever shaU keep the
whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guflty of all."
Jam. ii. 10. A willing breaking one part, though there be a
wflling observance of all the other points of it, is a breach of the
whole, because the authority of God, Avhich gives sanction to
the whole, is slighted. The obedience to the rest is dissembled :
for the love,'which is the root of all obedience, is wanting; for
" love is the fiflfiUing ofthe law." Rom. xni. 10. The rest are
obeyed because they cross not carnal desire so much as the
other, and so it is an observance of himself, not of God. Besides,
the authority of God, which is not prevalent to restrain us from
the breach of one point, would be of as little force with us to
restrain us from the breach of all the rest, did the allurements
ofthe flesh give us as strong a diversion from the one, as from
the other; and though the command that is transgressed be the
least in the whole law, yet the authority which enjoins it is the
same with that which enacts the greatest. And it is not so
much the matter of the command, as the authority commanding
which lays the obligation.
This is also seen in the natural averseness to the declarations
of God's wfll and mind, which way soever they tend. Since
man affected to be as God, he desires to be boundless ; he would
not have fetters, though they be golden ones, and conduce to
his happiness; though the law of God be a strength to them,
yet they will not ; " In returning shall be your strength, and
you would not." Isa. xxx. 15. They Avould not have a bridle
to restrain them from running into the pit, nor be hedged in by
the law, though for their security: as if they thought it too
slavish and low-spirited a thing to be guided by the wiU of
another. Hence man is compared to a wUd ass, that loves to
snuff up the wind in the wilderness at her pleasure, rather than
come under the guidance of God. Jer. ii. 24. From whatsoever
quarter of the heavens you pursue her, she will run the other.
The Israelites could not endure what Avas commanded, Heb.
xn. 20, though, in regard of the moral part, agreeable to what
they found written in their own nature; and to the observance
whereof they had the highest obligations of any people under
heaven, since God had by many prodigies delivered them from
a cruel slavery; the memory of which prefaced the decalogue;
" I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Exod. xx. 2.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. HI
They could not think of the rule of their duty, but they must
reflect upon the grand incentive of it in their redemption from
Egyptian thraldom. Yet this people were cross to God, which
way soever he moved : when they were in the brick-kflns, they
cried for deliverance; when they had heavenly manna, they
longed for their onions and garlick. In Numb. xiv. 3, they
repent of their deliverance from Egypt, and talk of returning
again to seek the remedy of their evils in the hands of their
most cruel enemies ; and would rather put themselves into the
irons, whence God hath delivered them, than believe one word
of the promise of God for giving them a fruitful land. But
when Moses tells them God's order, that they should turn back
by the way ofthe Red sea, ver. 25, and that God had confirmed
it by an oath,, that they should not see the land of Canaan, ver.
28, they then run cross to this command of God, and instead of
marching towards the Red sea, Avhich they had Avished for
before, they will go up to Canaan, as in spite of God and his
threatening : " We will go to the place which the Lord hath
promised," ver. 40; which Moses caUs a transgressing the
commandment of the Lord, ver. 41. They Avould presume to
go up, notAvithstanding Moses's prohibition, and are smitten by
the Araalekites. When God gives them a precept, with a
promise to go up to Canaan, they long for Egypt; when God
commands them to return to the Red sea, which was nearer to
the place they longed for, they will shift sides and go up to
Canaan.' And when they found they were to traverse the
solitudes of the desert, they took pet against God; and instead
of thanking him for the late victory against the Canaanites,
they reproach him for his conduct from Egypt, and the manna
wherewith he nourished them in the wilderness. They would
not go to Canaan, the way God had chosen, nor preserve
themselves by the means God had ordained. They would not
be at God's disposal, but complain of the badness of the way,
and the lightness of manna, empty of any necessary juice to
sustain their nature. They murmuringly solicit the avUI and
power of God to change all that order which he had resolved
in his council, and take another, conformable to their vain,
foolish desires. And they signified thereby that they would
invade his conduct, and that he should act according to their
fancy; which the psalmist calls a tempting of God, and limiting
the Holy One of Israel. Psa. Ixxviii. 41.
To what point soever the declarations of God stand, the wfll
of man turns the qufle contrary way. Is not the conduct of
this nation the best then in the world for discovery of the depth
of our natural corruption; how cross man is to God: and that
charge God brings against them, may be brought against all
' Numb. xxi. 4, 5. and Daille Serm. 1 Cor. x. Ser. 9. p. 234, 235. 40.

112 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
men by nature, that they despise his judgments, and have a
rooted abhorrence of his statutes in their soul. Lev. xxvi. 43.
No sooner had they recovered from one rebellion, but they re
volted to another. So difficult a thing it is for man's nature to
be rendered capable of conforming to the Avill of God. The
carriage of his people is but a copy of the nature of mankind,
and is written for our admonuion, 1 Cor. x. 11. From this
temper men are said to make void the law of God, Psal. cxix.
126; to make it of no obligation, an antiquated and moth-eaten
record. And the pharisees, by setting up their traditions against
the will of God, are said to make his law of none effect, to strip
it of all its authority, as the word signifies. Matt. xv. 6. 'r,xvpu<sa-ts.
Again, we have the greatest slight of that will of God which
is most for his honour and his greatest pleasure. It is the na
ture of man, ever since Adam, to do so. God " desired mercy
and not sacrifice, the knowledge of hiraself more than burnt
offering; but they, like men, (as Adam,) have trangressed the
covenant," invaded God's rights, and not let hira be Lord of
one tree. Hos. vi. 6, 7.
We are raore curious observers of the fringes of the law,
than of the greater concerns ofit. The Jews were diligent in
sacrifices and offerings, which God did not urge' upon them as
principles, but as types of other things, but negligent of the
faith which was to be established by him: holiness, mercy,
pity, Avhich concerned the honour of God, as Governor of the
world, and were imitations of the holiness and goodness of
God, they were strangers to. This is God's complaint. Isa. i.
11, 12, 16, 17.
We shall find our hearts most averse to the observation of
those laws which are eternal and essential to righteousness;
such that he could not but command, as he is a righteous Gover
nor; in the observation of which, we come nearest to him and
express his image most clearly; as those laws for an inward
and spiritual worship, a supreme affection to him. God in re
gard of the righteousness and holiness of his nature, and the
exceUency of his being, could not command the contrary to
these. But this part of his wfll our hearts most swell against,
our corruption doth most snarl at; whereas those laws which
are only positive, and have no intrinsic righteousness in them,
but depend purely upon the avUI of the Lawgiver, and may be
changed at his pleasure, (which the other, that have an intrin
sic righteousness in them, cannot,) we better comply with, than
that part of his will that doth express more the righteousness
ofhis nature, Psal. 1. 6. 17. 19; such as the ceremonial part of
worship, and the ceremonial law among the Jews. We are
more wiUing to observe order in some outward attendances
and ostentatious devotions, than discard secret affections to

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. Hg
evfl, crucify inward lusts and delightful thoughts. A hanging
down the head like a bulrush is not difficult, but the breaking
the heart like a potter's vessel to shreds and dust, (a sacrifice
God delights in, whereby the excellency of God and the vUe
ness of the creature is owned) goes against the grain. To cut
off an outward branch is not so hard as to hack at the root.
What God most loathes, as most contrary to his Avill, we most
love: no sin did God so severely hate, and no sin were the
Jews more inclined unto, than that of idolatry. The heathen
had not changed their gods, as the Jews had changed their
glory. Jer. ii. 11. And all men are naturally tainted with this
sin, which is so contrary to the holy and excellent nature of
God. By how much the more defect there is of purity in our
respects to God, by so much the more respect there is to some
idol within or without us — to humour, custom, or interest.
Never did any law of God meet with so much opposition as
Christianity, which was the design of God, from the first pro
mise to the exhibiting of the Redeemer, and from thence to the
end of the world. All people drew swords at first against it:
the Romans prepared yokes for their neighbours, but provided
temples for the idols those people worshipped. But Christianity,
the choicest design and most delightful part of the will of God,
never met with a kind entertainment at first in any place.
Rome, that entertained all others, persecuted this with fire and
sword, though sealed by greater testimonies from heaven, than
their own records could report in favour of their idols.
And we run great hazards, and expose ourselves to more
trouble to cross the will of God than is necessary to the observ
ance of it. It is a vain charge men bring against the divine
precepts, that they are rigorous, severe, and difficult; when,
besides the contradiction to our Saviour, who tells us his yoke
is easy and his burden light, they thwart their own calm reason
and judgment. Is there not more difficulty to be vicious, covet
ous, violent, cruel, than to be virtuous, charitable, kind ? Doth
the will of God enjoin that which is not conformable to right
reason, and secretly delightful in the exercise and issue? And,
on the contrary, what doth Satan and the world engage us in,
that is not full of molestation and hazard ? Is it a sweet and
comely thing to combat continually against our own con
sciences, and resist our own light, and commence a perpetual
quarrel against ourselves, as we ordinarily do when we sin?
They in the prophet would be at the expense of thousands of
rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil, if they could coinpass
them; yea, would strip themselves of their natural affection to
their first-born to expiate the sin of their soul, rather than do
justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, Mic. vi.
6—8; things more conducive to the honour of God, the wel-
VoL. I.— 15

114 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
fare of the world, the security of their souls, and of a more
easy practice than the offerings they wished for.
Do not men then disown God when they Avill walk in ways
hedged with thorns, wherein they meet with the arrows of
conscience at every turn in their sides, and slide down to an
everlasting punishment, sink under an intolerable slavery to
contradict the will of God ? When they avUI prefer a sensual
satisfaction, with remorse in their consciences, violation of
their reason, gnawing cares and weary travels, before the
honour of God, the dignity of their natures, the happiness of
peace and health, which might be preserved at a cheaper rate,
than they are at to destroy them ?
It is also seen in the unwUlingness and awkwardness df the
heart, Avhen it is to pay God a service. Men do evil with both
hands earnestly, Mic. vii. 3, but do good with one hand faintly;
no life in the heart, nor any diligence in the hand. What slight
and loose thoughts of God doth this unwillingness imply! It is
a wrong to his providence, as though we were not under his
government, and had no need of his assistance; a wrong to his
exceUency, as though there were no amiableness in him to
make his service desirable ; an injury to his goodness and
poAver, as if he were not able or willing to reward the crea
ture's obedience, or careless not to take notice of it. It is a
sign we receive httle satisfaction in him, and that there is a
great unsuitableness between him and us.
There is a kind of constraint in the first engagement. We
are rather pressed to it than enter ourselves volunteers. What
Ave call service to God, is done naturally much against our
wills; it is not a delightful food, but a bitter potion; we are
rather haled, than run to it. There is a contradiction of sin
within us against our service, as there was a contradiction of
sinners Avithout our Saviour against his doing the wiU of God.
Our hearts are unwieldy to any spiritual service of God; Ave
are fain to use a violence with them sometimes. Hezekiah, it
is said, walked before the Lord with a perfect heart, 2 Kings
XX. 3; he walked, 'he made himself to walk;' Man naturally
cares not for a walk with God: ifhe hath any communion with
him, it is with such a dulness and heaviness of spirit, as if he
Avished himself out of his company. Man's nature, being con
trary to holiness, hath an aversion to any act of homage to
God, because holiness must at least be pretended. In every
duty Avherein we have a communion with God, holiness is re
quisite. Now as men are against the truth of holiness, because
it is unsuitable to thern, so they are not friends to those duties
which require it, and for some space divert them from the
thoughts of their beloved lusts. The word of the Lord is a
yoke, prayer a drudgery, obedience a strange element. We

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. Hc
are like fish, that drink up iniquity like water. Job xv. 16, and
come not to the bank without the force of an angle ; no more
wflling to do service for God, than a fish is of itself to do ser
vice for raan. It is a constrained act to satisfy conscience, and
such are servile, not son-like performances, and spring from
bondage more than affection: if conscience, like a task-master,
did not scourge them to duty, they would never perform it.
Let us appeal to ourselves, whether we are not more unwil
ling to secret, closet, hearty duty to God, than to join with others
in some external service; as if those inward services were a
going to the rack, and rather our penance than privflege. How
much service hath God in the world from the same principle
that vagrants perform their task in brideAvell! How glad are
many of evasions to back them in the neglect of the commands
of God, of corrupt reasonings from the flesh to waylay an act
of obedience, and a multitude of excuses to blunt the edge of
the precept ! The very service of God shall be a pretence to
deprive him of the obedience due to him. Saul will not be
ruled by God's wfll in the destroying the cattle of the Araalek
ites but by his own: and wiU impose upon the will and wisdom
of God, judging God mistaken in his command, and that the
cattle God thought fittest to be meat to the fowls, were fitter to
be sacrifices on the altar. 1 Sam. xv. 3. 9. 15. 21.
If we do perform any part of his wiU, is it not for our own
ends, to have some deliverance from trouble? " In trouble have
they visited thee ; they poured out a prayer when thy chasten
ing was upon them." Isa. xxvi. 16. In affliction he shaU find
them kneeling in homage and devotion. In prosperity he shall
feel them kicking with contempt. They can pour out a prayer
in distress, and scarce drop one when they are delivered.
There is a slightness in our service of God. We are loth to
come into his presence, and when we do come, we are loth to
continue with him. We pay not a homage to him heartfly, as
to our Lord and Governor; we regard him not as our Master,
whose work we ought to do, and whose honour we ought to
aim at.
In regard to the matter of service. When the torn, the lame,
and the sick are offered to God, Mai. i. 13, 14; so thin and lean
a sacrifice, that you might have thrown it to the ground with
a puff, so some understand the meaning of the words, " you
have snuffed at it." Men have naturaUy such slight thoughts
of the majesty and law of God, that they think any service is
good enough for hira, and conformable to his law. The duUest
and deadest times we think fittest to pay God a service in;
Avhen sleep is ready to close our eyes, and we are unfit to serve
ourselves, we think it a fit time to open our hearts to God.
How few morning sacrifices hath God from many persons and

] 16 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
families? Men leap out of their beds to their carnal pleasures or
worldly employments, without any thought of their Creator
and Preserver, or any reflection upon his Avfll as the rule ofour
daily obedience. And as many reserve the dregs of their lives,
their old age, to offer up their souls to God; so they reserve the
dregs of the day, their sleeping time, for the offering up their
service to him. How many grudge to spend their best time in
the serving the wfll of God, and reserve for him the sickly and
rheumatic part of their hves ; the remainder of that which the
devfl and their own lusts have fed upon !
Would not any prince or governor judge a present half eaten
up by wild beasts, or that which died in a ditch, a contempt of
his royalty? A corrupt thing is too base and vile for so great a
king as God is, whose name is dreadful. Mai. i. 14. When by
age men are weary of their own bodies, they would present
them to God; yet grudgingly, as if a tired body were too good
for him, snuffing at the command for service. God calls for our
best, and we give him the Avorst.
In respect of frame. We think any frame wfll serve God's
turn, which speaks our slight of God as a Ruler. Man natu
rally performs duty with an unholy heart, whereby it becomes
an abomination to God: " He that turneth away his ear from
hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination" to God.
Prov. xxviii. 9. The services which he commands, he hates for
their evil frames or corrupt ends, " I hate, I despise your feast-
days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies." Amos
V. 21. God requires gracious services, and we give him corrupt
ones. We do not rouse up our hearts, as David called upon his
lute and harp to awake. Psa. Ivii. 8. Our hearts are not given
to him, we put him off with bodily exercise: the heart is but
ice to Avhat it doth not affect. There is not that natural vigour
in the observance of God, which we have in worldly business:
Avhen we see a liveliness in men in other things, change the
scene into a motion towards God, how suddenly doth their
vigour shrink, and their hearts freeze into sluggishness! Many
times we serve God as languishingly as if we were afraid he
should accept us, and pray as coldly as if we were unwilling he
should hear us, and take away that lust by which we are gov
erned, and which conscience forces us to pray against, as if we
were afraid God should set up his own throne and government
in our hearts. How fleeting are we in Divine meditation, how
sleepy in spiritual exercises ! but in other exercises how active!
The soul doth not awaken itself, and excite those animal and
vital spirits, which it wfll in bodily recreations and sports;
much less the powers of the soul; whereby it is evident we
prefer the latter before any service to God. Since there is a
fulness of animal spirits, why might they not be excited in holy

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. Hy
duties as weU as in other operations, but that there is a reluc
tancy in the soul to exercise its supremacy in this case, and
perform any thing becoming a creature in subjection to God as
a Ruler? It is evident also in the distractions we have in his service:
hoAv loth are we to serve God fixedly one hour, nay, a part of
an hour, notwithstanding all the thoughts of his majesty, and
the eternity of glory set before our eye? What raan is there
since the fall of Adam, that served God one hour without many
wanderings and unsuitable thoughts unfit for that service? How
ready are our hearts to start out, and unite themselves with
any worldly objects that please us!
Weariness in it evidenceth it. To be weary of our dulness
signifies a desire; to be weary of service signifies a discontent
to be ruled by God. How tired are we in the performance
of spiritual duties, when in the vain triflings of tirae we have
a perpetual motion! How wiU many wfllingly revel whole
nights, when their hearts will flag at the threshold of a reli
gious service! Like Dagon, 1 Sam. v. 4, we lose both our heads
to think, and hands to act, Avhen the ark of God is present.
Some in the prophet wished the new moon and the sabbath
over, that they might sell their corn, and be busied again in
their worldly affairs. Amos viii. 5. A slight and weariness of
the sabbath was a slight of the Lord of the sabbath, and of that
freedom from the yoke and rule of sin, which was signified by
it. The design of the sacrifices in the new moon was to sig
nify a rest from the tyranny of sin, and a consecration to the
spiritual service of Gpd. Servants that are quickly weary of
their work, are Aveary of the authority of their master, that
enjoins it. If our hearts had a value for God, it would be with
us as with the needle to the loadstone; there Avould be upon
his beck a speedy motion to him, and a fixed union with him.
When the judgments and affections of the saints shall be fully
refined in glory, they shall be wUUng to behold the face of God,
and be under his government to eternity, without any weari
ness: as the holy angels have owned God as their sovereign
nearly these six thousand years, without being weary of run
ning on his errands. But alas! while the flesh clogs us, there
wfll be some relics of unwillingness to hear his injunctions, and
weariness in performing them; though men may excuse those
things by extrinsic causes, yet God's unerring judgment calls
it a weariness of himself "Thou hast not called upon me, 0
Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, 0 Israel." Isa. xliii.
22. Of this he taxeth his own people, when he tells them he
would have the beasts of the field, the dragons and the owls;
the gentiles, that the Jews counted no better than such, to honour

118 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
him and acknowledge hira their rule in a way of duty. Ver.
20, 21.
This contempt is seen in a deserting the rule of God, when
our expectations are not answered upon our service. When
services are performed from carnal principles, they are soon
cast off when carnal ends meet not Avith desired satisfaction.
But when we own ourselves God's servants, and God our
Master, our eyes will Avait upon him tfll he have mercy on us.
Psal. cxxfli. 2. It is one part of the duty we owe to God as
our master in heaven, to continue in prayer. Col. iv. 1,2; and
by the same reason in all other service, and to watch in the
same with thanksgiving. To watch for occasions of praise, to
watch with cheerfulness for further manifestations of his wfll,
strength to perform it, success in the performance, that we may
from all draAv matter of praise: as Ave are in a posture of obe
dience to his precepts, so we should be in a posture of Availing
for the blessing of it.
But naturally we reject the duty we owe to God, if he do
not speed the blessing we expect from him. How many do
secretly mutter the same as they in Job xxi. 15, " What is the
Almighty, that Ave should serve him? and what profit shall we
have if we pray to him ?" They serve not God out of con
science to his commands, but for some carnal profit ; and if
God make them to wait for it, they will not stay his leisure,
but cease soliciting him any longer. Two things are expressed
that God was not worthy of any homage from them. " What
is the Almighty, that we should serve him:" and that the ser
vice of him would not bring them in a good revenue, or an
advantage of that kind they expected. Interest drives many
men on to some kind of service, and when they do not find an
advance of that, they wfll acknowledge God no raore; but like
some beggars, if you give them not upon their asking, and call
ing you good master, from blessing they will turn to cursing.
How often do men do that secretly, practically, if not plainly,
which Job's wife advised him to, " curse God," and cast off
that disguise of integrity they had assumed. " Dost thou stiU
retain thine integrity ? Curse God." Job ii. 9. What a stir,
and puUing, and crying is here ! cast off afl thoughts of religious
service, and be at daggers-drawing with that God, who for aU
thy service of him has made thee so wretched a spectacle to
men and a banquet for worms! The like temper is deciphered
in the Jews: " It is in vain to serve God; and what profit is it
that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked
mournfuUy before the Lord?" Mai. ni. 14. What profit is it
that we have regarded his statutes, and carried ourselves in a
way of subjection to God, as our Sovereign, Avhen we inherit
nothing but sorrow, and our idolatrous neighbours swim in aU

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. Hg
kind of pleasures? As if it were the most miserable thing to
acknowledge God. If men have not the benefits they expect
they think God unrighteous in himself, and injurious to them'
in not conferring the favour they imagine they have merited:
and if they have not that recompense, they will deny God that
subjection they owe to him as creatures. Grace moves to God
upon a sense of duty; corrupt nature upon a sense of interest:
sincerity is encouraged by gracious returns, but is not melted
away by God's delay or refusal; corrupt nature would have
God at its beck, and steers a course-of duty by hope of some
carnal profit, not by a sense of the sovereignty of God.
This contempt is seen in breaking promises with God.
" One while the conscience of a man makes vows of new
obedience, and perhaps binds himself with many an oath, but
they prove like Jonah's gourd, withering the next day after
their birth. This was Pharaoh's temper; under a storm he
would submit to God, and let Israel go; but when the storm is
ended, he will not be under God's control; and Israel's slavery
shall be increased. The fear of Divine wrath makes many a
sinner turn his back upon his sin, and the love of his ruling
lust makes him turn his back upon his true Lord. This is from
the prevalency of sin, that disputes with God for the sove
reignty.'" When God hath sent a sharp disease, as a messenger to bind
men to their beds, and make an interruption of their sinful
pleasures, their mouths are full of promises of a new life, in
hope to escape the just vengeance of God. The sense of hell
which strikes strongly upon them, makes them full of such pre
tended resolutions when they howl upon their beds. But if
God be pleased in his patience to give them a respite, to take
off the chains wherewith he seemed to be binding thera for
destruction, and recruit their strength, they are more earnest in
their sins, than they were in their promises of a reforraation;
as if they had got the mastery of God, and had outwhted him.
How often doth God charge them with not returning to him
after a succession of judgments! Amos iv. 6. 10, 11. So hard
it is, not only to allure, but to scourge men to an acknoAvledg-
ment of God as their Ruler.
Consider then,
Are we not naturally inclined to disobey the known AviU of
God? Can we say. Lord, for thy sake we refrain the thing to
which our hearts incline? Do we not allow ourselves to be
licentious, earthly, vain, proud, revengeful, though we know it
wUl offend him? Have we not been peevishly cross to his
declared wiU, and run counter to him and those laws which
express most ofthe glory ofhis holiness? Is not this to disown
I Reynolds.

120 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
him as our rule ? Did we never wish there were no law to bind
us, no precept to check our idols? What is this, but to wish
that God would depose himself from being our governor, and
leave u? to our own conduct ? or else to wish that he were as
unholy as ourselves, as careless of his own laws as we are, that
is, that he were no more a God than Ave, a God as sinful and
unrighteous as ourselves? He whose heart riseth against the
law of God to unlaw it, riseth against the Author of that law
to undeify him. He that casts contempt upon the dearest thing
God hath in the Avorld, that Avhich is the image ofhis holiness,
the delight of his soul; that Avhich he hath given a special
charge to maintain, and that because it is holy, just, and good ;
would not stick to rejoice at the destruction of God himself If
God's holiness and righteousness in the stream be despised,
much more avUI an immense goodness and holiness in the foun
tain be rejected. He that wisheth a beam far from his eyes,
because it offends and scorches him, can be no friend to the
sun, from whence that beam doth issue. How unworthy a
creature is man, since he only, a rational creature, is the sole
being that withdraws itself from the rule of God in this earth!
And how miserable a creature is he also, since departing from
the order of God's goodness, he falls into the order of his jus
tice; and while he refuseth God to be the rule of his life, he
cannot avoid him being the judge of his punishment? It is
this is the original of all sin, and the fountain of all our misery.
This is the first thing raan disowns, the rule which God sets
him. (2.) Man naturally owns any other rule than that of God's
prescribing. The law of God orders one thing, the heart of man
desires another. There is not the basest thing in the world, but
man would sooner submit to be guided by it, rather than by the
holiness of God; and Avhen any thing that God commands
crosses our own wills, we value it no more than we would the
advice of a poor despicable beggar.
How many are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God?
2 Tim. iii. 4. To make something which contributes to the per
fection of nature, as learning, wisdom, moral virtues, our rule,
would be more tolerable; but to pay that homage to a swinish
pleasure, which is the right of God, is an inexcusable contempt
of him. The greatest excellency in the world is infinitely below
God; much more a bestial delight, which is both disgraceful
and below the nature of man. If we made the vilest creature
on earth our idol, it is more excusable than to be the slave of
a brutish pleasure. The vUer the thing is that doth possess the
throne in our heart, the greater contempt it is of him who can
only claim a right to it, and is worthy of it. Sin is the first
object of man's election, as soon as the faculty whereby he

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 121
chooses comes to exercise its power: and it is so dear to man
that it is, in the estimate of our Saviour, counted as the right
hand, ahd the right eye, dear, precious and useful members.
[1.] The rule of Satan is OAvned before the rule of God. The
natural man would rather be under the guidance of Satan than
the yoke of his Creator. Adam chose hira to be his governor
in paradise. No sooner had Satan spoke of God in a way of
derision, "Yea, hath God said?" Gen. iii. 1. 5, but man fol
lows his counsel and approves of the scoff; and the greatest
part ofhis posterity have not been wiser by his fall, but would
rather ramble in the devil's Avilderness, than to stay in God's
fold. It is by the sin of man that the devil is become the god
of the world, as if men were the electors of him to the govern
ment: sin is an election of him for a lord, and a putting the soul
under his government. Those that live according to the course
ofthe Avorld, and are loth to displease it, are under the govern
ment of the prince of it. The greatest part of the works done
in the world is to enlarge the kingdom of Satan. For how
many ages Avere the laws whereby the greatest part of the
world was governed in the affairs of religion, the frufls of his
usurpation and policy, when temples were erected to him,
priests consecrated to his service! The rites used in most ofthe
worship of the world were either of his own coining, or the
misapplying the rites God had ordained, to himself under the
notion of a God: whence the apostle calls all idolatrous feasts,
the table of devils, the cup of devils, sacrifice to devils, fellow
ship with devils, 1 Cor. x. 20, 21; devils being the real object
of the pagan Avorship, though not formally intended by the
worshipper: though in some parts of the Indies, the direct and
peculiar worship is to the devfl, that he raight not hurt them.
And though the intention of others was to offer to God, and not
the devfl, yet, ^ince the action was contrary to the wifl of God,
he regards it as a sacrifice to devils. It was not the intention
of Jeroboam to establish priests to the devil, when he conse
crated them to the service of his calves, for Jehu afterwards
calls them the servants of the Lord, 2 Kings x. 23, " See if there
be here none of the servants of the Lord," to distinguish them
from the servants of Baal; signifying that the true God Avas
worshipped under those images, and not Baal, nor any of the
gods of the heathens; yet Scripture couples the calves and
devils together, and ascribes the worship given to one, to be
given to the other. "He ordained him priests for the high
places, and for the devfls, and for the calves which he had
made;" 2 Chron. xi. 15; so that they were sacrifices to devils,
notwithstanding the intention of Jeroboam and his subjects that
had set them up and worshipped them; because they were con
trary to the mind of God, and agreeable to the doctrine and
Vol. I.— 16

122 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
mind of Satan, though the object of their Avorship in their own
intention Avas not the devfl, but some dejfied man or some
canonized saint. The intention makes not a good action: if
so, when men kill the best servants of God with a design to do
God service, as our Saviour foretells, John xvi. 2, the action
would not be murder ; yet who can call it otherwise, since God
is wronged in the persons of his servants? Since most of the
worship of the world, which men's corrupt natures incline them
to, is false, and different from the revealed will of God, it is a
practical acknowledgment ofthe devil, as the governor, by ac
knowledging and practising those doctrines, which have not the
stamp of Divine revelation upon them, but were invented by
Satan to depress the honour of God in the world. It doth con
cern men then to take good heed, that in their acts of worship
they have a Divine rule; otherwise it is an owning the devil as
the rule: for there is no medium. Whatsoever is not frora God,
is from Satan.
But to bring this closer to us, and consider that which is more
common among us: men that are in a natural condition and
wedded to their lusts, are under the paternal government of Sa
tan, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father
ye wfll do." John viii. 44. If Ave divide sin into spiritual and
carnal, which division comprehends aU, the devfl's authority is
owned in both: in spiritual, we conform to his example, be
cause those he commits; in carnal, we obey his wfll, because
those he directs. He acts the one, and sets us a copy: he
tempts to the other, and gives us a kind of a precept. Thus
raan by nature being a Avilling servant of sin, is more desirous
to be bound in the devil's iron chains, than in God's silken
cords. What greater atheism can there be than to use God as if he
were inferior to the devil? to take the part of his greatest
enemy, who drew all others into the faction against him? to
please Satan by offending God, and gratify our adversary
with the injury of our Creator? For a subject to take arms
against his prince with the deadliest enemy, that both himself
and prince hath in the whole world, adds a greater blackness to
the rebellion.
[2.] The more visible rule preferred before God in the world,
is man. The opinion of the world is more our rule than the
precept of God; and many men's abstinence from sin is not
from a sense of the Divine wfll, no, nor from a principle of rea
son, but from an affection to some man on whom they depend,
or fear of punishment from a superior: the same principle with
that in a ravenous beast, Avho abstains from what he desires
for fear only of a stick or club. Men wfll walk with the herd,
go in fashion wflh the most, speak and act as the most do.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. loq
While Ave conform to the world, we cannot perform a reasona
ble service to God, nor prove, nor approve practically what
the good and acceptable will of God is. The apostle puts them
in opposition to one another. Rom. xii. 1, 2.
This appears.
In complying more with the dictates of men than the will of
God. Men draw encouragement from God's forbearance to
sin more freely against him; but the fear of punishment for
breaking the will of man, lays a restraint upon them. The
fear of man is a more powerful curb, to restrain men in their
duty, than the fear of God: if we may please a friend, a mas
ter, a governor, we are regardless whether we please God or
no: raen pleasers are more than God pleasers. Man is more
advanced as a rule than God, when we submit to human orders
and stagger and dispute against divine. Would not a prince
think himself slighted in his authority, if any of his servants
should decline his commands, by the order of one of his sub
jects? And will not God make the same account of us, when
we deny or delay our obedience, for fear of one of his crea
tures? In the fear of man, we as little acknowledge God for
our sovereign, as we do for our comforter: " I, even I am he
that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid
of a raan that shall die — and forgettest the Lord thy Maker?"
Isa. li. 12, 13. We put a slight upon God, as if he were not
able to bear us out in our duty to him, and incapable to balance
the strength of an arm of flesh.
In observing that which is materially the wiU of God, not
because it is his wfll, but the injunctions of men. As the word
of God may be received, yet not as his word, so the wfll of
God may be performed, yet not as his wfll. It is materially
done, but not formally obeyed. An action, and obedience in
that action, are two things: as when man commands the ceas
ing from all works of the ordinary calling on the Sabbath, it is
the same that God enjoins; the cessation, or attendance of his
servants on the hearing the word, are conformable in the mat
ter of it to the wUl of God; but it is only conformable in the
obediential part of the acts to the wfll of man, when it is done
only with respect to a human precept. As God hath a right
to enact his laws without consulting his creatures in the Avayof
his government, so man is bound to obey those laws without
consulting whether they be agreeable to men's laws or not. If
we act the will of God, because the wifl of our superiors con
curs wflh it, we obey not God in that, but man; a human wiU
being the rule of our obedience, and not the divine. This is
to vflify God, and make him inferior to man in our esteem, and
to value the rule of man above that of our Creator.
Since God is the highest perfection and infinitely good, what-

124 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
soever rule he gives the creature must bc' good, else it cannot
proceed from God. A base thing cannot be the product of an
infinite excellency; and an unreasonable thing cannot be the
product of an infinite wisdom and goodness. Therefore as the
respecting God's will before the will of man is exceUent and
worthy of a creature, and is an acknoAvledging the excellency,
goodness, and wisdom of God, so the eyeing the will of man
before and above the Avill of God, is, on the contrary, a denial
of all those in a lump, and a preferring the Avisdom, goodness,
and power of raan in his law above all those perfections of
God in his. Whatsoever raen do that looks like moral virtue
or abstinence from vices, not out of obedience to the rule God
has set, but because of custom, necessity, example, or imita
tion, they may in the doing of it be rather said to be apes than
Christians. In obeying the Avill of man, Avhen it is contrary to the will
of God. As the Israelites willingly walked after the command
ment, Hos. V. 11, not of God, but of Jeroboam in the case of
the calves; and made the king's heart glad with their lies.
Hos. vii. 3. They cheered him with their ready obedience to
his command for idolatry, which was a lie in itself, and a lie in
them, against the commandment of God and the warnings of
the prophets; rather than cheer the heart of God with their
obedience to his worship instituted by him. Nay, and when
God offered to cure their wound, their iniquity breaks out
afresh; they would neither have him as a Lord to rule them,
nor a Physician to cure them: "When I would have healed
Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered." Hos.
vii. 1. The whole Persian nation shrunk at once from a duty due
by the light of nature to the Deity, upon a decree that neither
God nor man should be petitioned to for thirty days, but only
their king. Dan. vi. One only, Daniel, excepted against it, who
preferred his homage to God above obedience to his prince.
An adulterous generation is many times made the rule of men's
professions, as is implied in those words of our Saviour;
" Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation," Mark viii. 38, that is, own
hira among his disciples, and be ashamed of him among his
enemies. Thus men are said to deny God, Tit. i. 16, when
they attend to Jewish fables and the precepts of men, rather
than the word of God; when the decrees or canons of fallible
men are valued at a higher rate, and preferred before the wri
tings of the Holy Ghost by his aposUes.
As man naturally disowns the rule God sets him, and owns
any other rule rather than that of God's prescribing, so,
(3.) He does this in order to the setting himself up as his
own rule. As though our own wiUs, and not God's, were the

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 125
true square and measure of goodness. We make an idol of
our own wflls; and as much as self is exalted, God is deposed.
The more we esteem our own Avflls, the more we endeavour
to annihflate the AviU of God; account nothing of hira, the more
Ave account of ourselves; and endeavour to render ourselves
his superiors by exalting our own wiUs. No prince but would
look upon his authority as invaded, and his royalty derided, if a
subject should resolve to be a law to himself, in opposition to
his known will. True piety is to hate ourselves, deny our
selves, and cleave solely to the service of God. To make our
selves our own rule, and the object of our chiefest love, is
atheism. If self-denial be the greatest part of godliness, the
great letter in the alphabet of religion, self-love is the great letter
in the alphabet of practical atheism. Self is the great anti
christ and antigod in the world, that sets up itself above all that
is called God. Self-love is the captain of that black band; 2
Tim. iii. 2. It sits in the temple of God, and would be adored
as God. Self-love begins, but denying the power of godliness,
which is the same Avith denying the ruling poAver of God, ends
the list. It is so far frora binding to the righteous will of the
Creator, that it Avould have the eternal will of God stoop, to the
humour and unrighteous will of a creature: and this is the
ground of the contention between the flesh and the spirit in
the heart of a renewed man ; flesh wars for the godhead of
self, and spirit fights for the godhead of God. The one would
settle the throne of the Creator, and the other maintain a law
of covetousness, ambition, envy, lust, in the stead of God.
The evidence of this will appear in these propositions.
¦ [1.] This is natural to man as he is corrupted. What was the
venom of the sin of Adam, is naturally derived with his nature
to all his posterity. It was not the eating a forbidden fruit, or
the pleasing his palate, that Adam aimed at, or was the chief
object of his desire ; but to live independently on his Creator,
and be a godTto himself; " Ye shall be as gods." Gen. iii. 5.
That which was the matter of the devil's temptation, was the
incentive of man's rebellion. A likeness to God he aspired to
in the judgment of God himself, an infallible interpreter of
man's thoughts; "behold, man is become as one of us, to know
good and evfl," in regard of self-sufficiency and being a rule to
himself The Jews understood the ambition of man to reach
no further than an equality with the angelic nature: but Jeho
vah here understands it in another sense. God had ordered man
by this prohibition not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knoAV-
ledge of good and evil; not to attempt the knowledge of good
and evfl of hiraself, but to wait upon the dictates of God ; not
to trust to his own counsels, but to depend wholly upon him for
direction and guidance. Certainly he that would not hold ofl his

126 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
hand from so small a thing, when he had his choice of the fruit
of the garden, would not have denied himself any thing his
appetite had desired when that principle had prevafled upon
him. He would not have stuck at a greater matter to please
himself, with the displeasing of God, when for so small a thing
he would incur the anger ofhis Creator.
Thus would he deify his own understanding against the wis
dom of God, and his own appetite against the wfll of God. This
desire of equality with God, a learned man' thinks the apostle
intimates in the words, " Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Phil. ii. 6. The
Son's being in the form of God, and thinking it not robbery to
be equal with God, implies that the robbery of sacrilege com
mitted by our first parents, for which the Son of God humbled
himself to the death of the cross, was an attempt to be equal
with God, and depend no more upon God's directions, but his
own conduct, which could be no less than an invasion of the
throne of God, and an endeavour to put himself into a posture
to be his equal. Other sins, adultery and theft, &c. could not
be committed by him at that time, but he immediately puts
forth his hand to usurp the power of his Maker : this treason is
the old Adam in every man. The first Adam contradicted
the will of God to set up himself: the second Adam humbled
himself, and did nothing but by the command and will of his
Father. This principle, wherein the venom of the old Adam
lies, must be crucified, to make way for the throne ofthe hum
ble and obedient principle of the new Adam, or quickening
Spirit. Indeed sin in its own nature is nothing else but a wil
ling according to self, and contrary to the will of God. Lusts
are therefore caUed the wills of the flesh and of the raind; Eph.
ii. 3. As the precepts of God are God's will, so the violations
of these precepts is man's wifl: and thus man usurps a godhead
to himself, by giving that honour to his own wifl which belongs
to God; appropriating the right of rule to himself, and denying
it to his Creator.' That servant that acts according to his own
wfll, with a neglect of his master's, refuseth the duty of a ser
vant, and invades the right of his master. This self-love and
desire of independency on God has been the root of all sin in
the world: the great controversy between God and man hath
been, whether he or they shall be God; whether his reason or
theirs, his wUl or theirs, shall be the guiding principle. As grace
is the union of the Avill of God and the will of the creature, so
sin is the opposition of the will of self to the AviU of God.
Leaning to our own understanding, is opposed, as a natural
evfl, to trusting in the Lord, a supernatural grace; Prov. in. 5.
Men comraonly love what is their own, their own inventions,
' Dr. Jackson.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 127
their own fancies; therefore the ways of a Avicked man are
caUed the ways of his own heart, Eccles. xi. 9; and the ways
of a superstitious man his own devices; "we will walk after
our own devices," Jer. xviu. 12, we wifl be a law to ourselves.
And what the psalmist saith of the tongue, "Our tongues are
our own, who shall control us? is as truly the language of men's
hearts. Our wflls afe our own, who shaU check us?
[2.] This is evident in the dissatisfaction of men with their
own consciences when they contradict the desires of self Con
science is nothing but an actuated or reflex knowledge of a
superior power and an equitable law; a law impressed, and a
power above it impressing it. Conscience is not the lawgiver,
but the remembrancer, to remind us of that law of nature im
printed upon our souls, and actuate the considerations of the
duty and penalty, to apply the rule to our acts, and pass judg
ment upon matter of fact; it is to give the charge, urge the
rule, enjoin the practice of those notions of right, as part of
our duty and obedience.
But man is as much displeased with the directions of con
science, as he is out of love with the accusations and con
demning sentence of this officer of God. We cannot naturally
endure any quick and lively practical thoughts of God and his
will, and we distaste our own consciences for putting us in raind
of it. They therefore like not to retain God in their knowledge,
Rora. i. 28, that is, God in their own consciences; they would
blow it out as it is the candle of the Lord in them to direct
them, and their acknowledgments of God, to secure themselves
against the practice of its principles. They would stop all the
avenues to any beam of light, and would not suffer a sparkle
of divine knowledge to flutter in their minds, in order to set
up another directing rule suited to the fleshly appetite; and
Avhen they cannot stop the light of it from glaring in their faces,
they rebel against it, and cannot endure to abide in its paths;
Job xxiv. 13. He speaks not of those who had the written
word or special revelations; but only a natural light, or tradi
tional, handed from Adam: hence are all the endeavours to
stfll it, when it begins to speak, by some carnal pleasures, as
Saul's evfl spirit with a fit of music; or bribe it with some fits
of a showy devotion, when it holds the law of God in its com
manding authority before the mind. They Avoiild Avipe out all
the impressions of it when it presses the advancement of God
above self, and entertain it with no better compliment than
Ahab did Elisha, "Hast thou found me, 0 ray eneray?"
If we are like to God in any thing of our natural fabric, it
is in the superior and more spiritual part of our souls. The
resistance of that which is most like to God, and instead of God
in us, is a disowning of the Sovereign represented by that

128 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
officer. He that would be without conscience, would be with
out God, whose vicegerent it is, and make the sensitive part,
which conscience opposes, his lawgiver. Thus a man, out of
respect to sinful self, quarrels with his natural selfj and cannot
comport himself in a friendly behaviour to his internal im
planted principles: he hates to come under the rebukes of them
as much as Adam hated to come into the presence of God, after
he turned traitor against him. The bad entertainment God's
deputy has in us, reflects upon that Gpd whose cause it pleads;
it is upon no other account that men loathe the upright lan
guage of their own reason in those matters, and wish the eter
nal sflence of their own consciences, but as they maintain the
rights of God, and would hinder the idol of self from usurping
his Godhead and prerogative. Though this power be part of
a man's self, rooted in his nature, as essential to him and inse
parable from him as the best part ofhis being; yet he quarrels
with it as it is God's deputy, and stickling for the honour of
God in his soul, and quarrelling with that sinful self he Avould
cherish above God. We are not displeased Avith this faculty
barely as it exercises a self-reflection, but as it is God's vice
gerent, and bears the mark of his authority in it. In some cases
this self-reflecting act meets with good entertainment, when it
acts not in contradiction to self, but suitable to natural affec
tions. As, suppose a man has in his passion struck his child,
and caused thereby some great mischief to him, the reflection
of conscience will not be unwelcome to him; will work some
tenderness in him, because it takes the part of self and of natu
ral affection. But in the more spiritual concerns of God, it AviU
be rated as a busy-body.
[3.] Many, if not most actions, materially good in the world,
are done more because they are agreeable to self, than as they
are honourable to God. As the word of God may be heard
not as his word, 1 Thess. ii. 13, but as there may be pleasing
notions in it, or discourses against an opinion or party we dis-
affect; so the will of God may be performed, not as his will,
but as it may gratify some selfish consideration, when we will
please God so far as it may not displease ourselves, and serve
him as our Master so far as his command may be a servant to
our humour; when we con.sider not who it is that commands,
but how short it comes of displeasing that sin which rules in
our heart, pick and choose what is least burdensome to the flesh
and distasteful to our lusts.
He that doth the avUI of God, not out of conscience of that
wfll, but because it is agreeable to himself, casts down the wiU
of God, and sets his own will in the place of it; takes the croAvn
from the head of God, and places it upon the head of self If
things are done, not because they are commanded by God, but

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 12g
desirable to us; it is a disobedient obedience; a conformity to
God's wfll in regard of the matter, a conformity to our own
wfll in regard of the motive; either as the things done are
agreeable to natural and moral self, or sinful self
As they are agreeable to natural or moral self When men
will practise some points of religion, and walk in the track of
some Divine precepts, not because they are Divine, but because
they are^ agreeable to their humour or constitution of nature;
from the sway of a natural bravery, the bias of a secular inte
rest, not from an ingenuous sense of God's authority, or a
voluntary submission to his wfll; as when a man will avoid
excess in drinking, not because it is dishonourable to God, but as
it is a blemish to his own reputation, or an impairing of the health
ofhis body: doth this deserve the name of an observance ofthe
Divine injunction, or rather an obedience to ourselves? Or Avhen
a man will be liberal in the distribution of his charity, not
with an eye to God's precept, but in compliance with his own
natural compassion, gr to indulge the generosity of his nature.
The one is obedience to a man's own preservation, the other
an obedience to the interest or inipulsp of a moral virtue. It is
not respect to the rule of God, but the authority of self; and at
the best, is but the performance of the material part of the
Divine rule, without any concurrence of a spiritual motive ora
spiritual manner. That only is maintaining the rights of God,
when we pay an observance to his rule, without examining the
agreeableness of it to our secular interest, or consulting Avith the
humour of flesh and blood; when we will not decline his ser
vice, though we find it cross, and hath no affinity with the plea
sure of our oAvn nature : such an obedience as Abraham mani
fested in his readiness to sacrifice his son; such an obedience as
our Saviour demands in cutting off the right hand. When we
observe any thing of divine order upon the account of its suita
bleness to our natural sentiments, we shall readily divide from
him. When the interest of nature turns its point against the inte
rest of God's honour, we shall fall off from him according to the
change we find in our own humours. And can that be valued
as a setting up the rule of God, which must be deposed upon
the mutable interest of an mconstant mind? Esau had no regard
to God in delaying the execution of his resolution to shorten his
brother's days, though he was awed hy the reverence of his
father to delay it: he considered, perhaps, how justly he might
lie under the imputation of hastening aged Isaac's death, by
depriving him of a beloved son. But had the old man's head
.beenlaid, neither the contrary command of God, nor the near
ness of a fraternal relation, could have bound his hands from
the act, no raore than they did his heart from the resolution.
" Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewflh his
Vol. I.— 17

130 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
Father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart. The days of
mourning for my father are at hand, then wifl I slay my bro
ther." Gen. xxvii. 41.
So, many children that expect at the death of their parents
great inheritances or portions, may be observant of them, not in
regard ofthe rule fixed by God, but to their own hopes, which
they would not frustrate by disobliging them. Whence is it
that many men abstain from gross sins, but in love to their
reputation? Wickedness may be acted privately, which a man's
own credit puts a bar to the open commission of The pre
serving his own esteem may divert hira from entering into a
brothel-house, to which he hath set his mind before, against a
knoAvn precept of his Creator. As Pharaoh parted with the
Israelites, so do some men with their blemishing sins; not out
of a sense of God's rule, but the smart of present judgments, or
fear of a future wrath. Our security then, and reputation, are set
up in the place of God.
This also maybe and is in renewed meii, (who have the law
written in their hearts, that is, an habitual disposition to an
agreement with the law of God,) when what is done is with a
respect to this habitual inclination, without eyeing the Divine
precept, which is appointed to be their rule. This also is to set
up a creature, as rencAved self is, instead of the Creator, and
that law of his in his word, which ought to be the rule of our
actions. Thus it is when men choose a moral life, not so much
out of respect to the law of nature as it is the law of God, but
as it is a law become one with their souls and constitutions;
there is more of self in this, than consideration of God; for if it
were the latter, the revealed laAv of God would upon the sarne
reason be received as well as his natural law. From this prin
ciple of self, morality comes by some to be .advanced above
evangelical dictates.
As they are agreeable to sinful self Not that the commands
of God are sufled to bolster up the corruptions of men, fio more
than the law can be said to excite or revive sin. Rom. vii. 8, 9.
But it is like a scandal taken, not given; an occasion taken
by the tumultuousness of our depraved nature. The Phari
sees were devout in long prayers, not from a sense of duty, or
a care of God's honour; but to satisfy their ambition, and
rake together fuel for their covetousness, that they might have
the greater esteem and richer offerings, to free by their prayers
the souls- of deceased persons from purgatory; an opinion that
some think the Jewish synagogue had then entertained,' since
some of their doctors have defended such a notion. Men may
observe some precepts of God, to have a better conveniency to
> Matt, xxiii. 14. " Ye devour v?idows' houses, and for a pretence make long
prayers." Gerard in loco.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

131

break others. Jehu Avas ordered to cut off the house of Ahab.
The service he undertook was in itself acceptable, but corrupt
natuje misacted that which holiness and righteousness com
manded. God appointed it to magnify his justice, and check
the idolatlry that had been supported by that family: Jehu acted
it to satisfy his revenge and ambition ; he did it to fulfil his
lust, not the Avill of God Avho enjoined hira. Jehu applauds it
as zeal, and God abhors it as murder, and therefore would
"avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu." Hos.
i. 4. Such kind of services are not paid to God for his own
sake, but to ourselves for our lusts' sake.
[4.] This is evident in neglecting to take God's direction upon
emergent occasions. This follows the text, "none did seek
God." When we consult not with him, but trust more to our
own will and counsel, we make ourselves our own governors
and lords, independent upon him. As though we could be our
own counsellors, and raanage our concerns without his leave
and assistance; as though our works were in our own hands,
and not in the hands of God, Eccles. ix. 1, that we can by onv
own strength and sagacity direct them to a successful end with
out hira. If we raust acquaint ourselves with God before we
decree a thing. Job xxii. 28, then to decree a thing without
acquainting God with it, is to prefer our purblind wisdohi be
fore the infinite wisdom of God. To resolve without consulting
God, is to depose God, and deify self, our own wit and strength.
We would rather, like Lot, follow our own humour and stay
in Sodoin, than observe the angels' order to go out ofit.
[5.] As we account the actions of others to be good or evil,
as they suit with or spurn against our fancies and humours.
Virtue is a crime, and vice a virtue, as it is contrary to or concur
rent with our humours. Little reason have many men to blame
the actions of others, but because they are not agreeable to
what they affect and desire: we would have all men take
directions frora us, and move according to our beck. Hence
that common speech in the world; Such an one is an honest
friend: why? because he is of their humour, and lackeys ac
cording to their wills. Thus we make self the measure and
square of good and evil in the rest of mankind, and judge of it
by our own fancies, and not by the will of God, the proper rule
of judgment.Well then let us consider,
Is not this very common? are we not naturaUy more wiUing
to displease God than displease ourselves, when it comes to a
point that we raust do one or other? Is not our.own counsel of
more value with us than conformity to the will ofthe Creator?
Do not our judgments often run counter to the judgment of
God? Have his laws a greater respect from us than our own

132 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
humours? Do we scruple the staining hishonoiir when it comes
in competition with our own? Are not the lives of most men a
pleasing themselves, Avithout a repentance that ever they dis
pleased God? Is not this to undeify God, to deify ourselves, and
disown the propriety he hath in us by the right of creation and
beneficence? We order our own ways by our own humours, as
though we were the authors of our own being, and had given
ourselves life and understanding. This is to destroy the order
that God hath placed between our wflls and his own, and a
lifting up of the foot above the head; it is the deformity of the
creature. The honour of every rational creature consists in the
service of the first cause of his being; as the welfare of every
creature consists in the orders and proportionable motion of its
members, according to the law of its creation.
He that moves and acts according to a law ofhis own, offers
a manifest wrong to God, the highest Avisdom and chiefest
good; disturbs the order ofthe world; annuls the design ofthe
righteousness and holiness of God. The laAv of God is the rule
of that order he would have observed in the world : he that
makes another law his rule, thrusts out the order of the Crea
tor, and establishes the disorder of the creature.
But this wfll yet be more evident in the fourth thing.
(4.) Man would make himself the rule of God, and give
laAvs to his Creator. We are wflling God should be our bene
factor, but not our ruler; we are content to admire his excel
lency and pay him a worship, provided he will walk by our rule.
"This commits a riot upon his nature : to think him to be
what we ourselves would have him and wish him to be. Psal.
1. 21. We would amplify his mercy and contract his justice.
We would have his pbwer enlarged to supply our wants, aiid
straitened when it goes about to revenge our crimes. We would
haVe him wise to defeat our enemies, but not to disappoint our
unworthy projects: we would have him all eye to regard our
indigence, and blind, not to discern our guflt: we would ha've
him true to his promises, regardless of his precepts, and false
to his threatenings. We would form anew the nature of God
according to our models, and shape a God according to our
fancies, as he made Us at first according to his own image: in
stead of obeying him, Ave would have. him obey us: instead
of owning and admiring his perfections, we Avould have hini
strip himself of his infinite exceUency, and clothe himself with
a nature agreeable to our own. This is not only to set up
self as the law of God, but to make our own imaginations the
model of the nature of'God.'"
Corrupted man takes a pleasure to accuse or suspect fhe ac
tions of God. We would not have him act conveniently to his
> Decay of Christian Piety, p. 169.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

133

nature", but act what doth gratify us, and abstain from what is
distasteful to us. Man is never well, but when he is impeach
ing one or other perfection of God's nature, and undermining
his glory; as if all his attributes must stand indicted at the bar
of our purblind reason. This weed shoots up in the exercise
of grace; Peter intended the refusal of our Saviour's washing
his feet as an act of humility, but Christ understands it to be a
prescribing a law to himsel-f, a correcting his love. Johnxiii.
8, 9. '
This is evidenced,
[1.] In the strivings against his law. How many men imply
by their lives that they would have God deposed from his
government, and sorae unrighteous being step into his throne;
as if God had or should change his laws of holiness into laws
of licentiousness; as ifhe should abrogate his own eternal pre
cepts, and enact contrary ones in their stead! What is the lan
guage of such practices, but that they would be God's lawgivers
and not his subjects? tjfiat he should deal with them according
to their own wills, and not according to his righteousness? that
they could make a more holy, wise, and righteous law than the
laAV of God ? that their imaginations, and not God's righteous
ness, should be the rifle of his doing good to them? " They have
forsaken my law, and walked after the imaginations of their
own heart." Jer. ix. 13, 14.
When an act is known to be a sin, and the laAV that forbids
it acknowledged to be the law of God, and after this we per
sist in that which is contrary to it, we tax his wisdom as if he
did not understand what was convenient for us; we would
teach God knowledge. Job xxi. 22; it is an implicit wish that
God had laid asjde the holiness of his nature, and framed a laAv
to humour our lusts. When God calls for Aveeping, and mourn
ing, and girding with sackcloth upon approaching judgments,
thenthe corrupt heart is for 'joy and gladness, eating of flesh
and drinking of wine, beeause to-morrow they should die, Isa.
xxii. 12, 13: as if God had mistaken himself when he ordered
them so much sorrow, when their lives were so near an end;
and had lost his understanding, when he ordered such a pre
cept. Disobedience is therefote caUed contention; "contentious
and obey not the truth," Rom. ii. 8; contention against God,
whose truth it is that they disobey; a dispute Avith him, as to
which hath more of wisdom in itself and conveniencyfor them,
his truth or their imaginations. The more the love, goodness,
. and holiness of God^ appears in any command, the more are we
naturally averse from it, and cast an imputation on him, as if
he were foolish, unjust, cruel, and that we could haveadvised
and directed him better. The goodness of God is eminent to
us in appointing a day for his own worship, wherein we might

134 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
converse with him and he with us, and our souls be refreshed
with spiritual comraunications from him; and we rather use it
for the ease of our bodies, than the advancement of our souls;
as if God were mistaken and injured his creature, when he
urged the spiritual part of duty. Every disobedience to the
. law is an implicit giving law to him, and a charge against him
that he raight have provided better for his creatures.
[2.] In disapproving the methods of God's government of
the world. If the counsels of Heaven roll not about according
to their schemes, instead of adoring the unsearchable depths of
his judgments, they call him to the bar, and accuse him, because
they are not fitted to their narrow vessels; as if a nut-shell
could contain an ocean. As corrupt reason esteems the highest
truths foolishness, so it counts the most righteous ways unequal.
Thus we commence a suit against God, as though he had not
acted righteously and wisely, but raust give an account of his
proceedings at our tribunal. This is to njake ourselves God's
superiors, and presume to instruct him better in the govern
ment of the world, as though God hindered himself and the
world, in not making us of his privy councfl, and not ordering
his affairs according to the contrivances of our dim understand
ings. Is not this manifest in our immoderate complaints of God's
dealings Avith his church, as though there were a coldness of
God's affections to his church, and a glowing heat towards it
only in us? Hence are those importunate desires for things
which are not established by any promise, as though we would
overrule and over-persuade God to comply with our humour.
We have an ambition to be God's tutors, and direct him in his
counsels. "Who hath been his counsellor?" saith the apostle.
Rom. xi. 34. Who ought not to be his counsellor? saith cor
rupt nature. Men will find fault with God in what he suffers
to be done according to their own minds, when they feel the
bitter fruit of it. When Cain had killed his brother, and his
conscience racked him, how saucily and discontentedly does he
ansAver God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Geh. iv. 9. Since
thou dost own thyself the Rector of the world, thou shouldest
have preserved his person from my fury; since thou dost ac
cept his sacrifice before my offering, preservation was due as
well as acceptance. If this temper be found on earth, no won
der it is lodged in hell. Thab deplorable person under the
sensible stroke of God's sovereign justice, would oppose his
nay to God's will. " And he said. Nay, father Abraham : but.
if one went unto them from the dead they Avill repent." Luke"
xvi. 30. He would presume to prescribe more effectual means
than Moses and the prophets, to inform men of the danger they
incurred by their sensuality. David was displeased, it is said,

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. I35
when the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah, 2 Sam. vi. 8-
not wflh Uzzah, who was the object of his pity, but with God
who was the inflicter of that punishment.
When any-of our friends have been struck with a rod against
our sentiments and wishes, have not our hearts been apt to
swell in complaints against God, as though he disregarded the
goodness of such a person, did not see Avith our eyes, and mea
sure him by our esteem of him? As if he should have asked
our counsel before he had resolved, and managed himself ac
cording to our will rather than his own. If he be patient to
the Avicked, we are apt to tax his holiness, and accuse hira as
an enemy to his pwn law. If he inflict severity upon the right
eous, we are ready to suspect his goodness, and charge him to
be an enemy to his affectionate creature. If he spare the Nim-
rods of the world, we are ready to ask, " Where is the God of
judgraent?" Mai. ii. 17. If he afflict the piUars of the earth,
we are ready to question, where is the God of mercy? It is
impossible, since the depraved nature of man, and the various
interests and passions in the world, that infinite power and
wisdom can act righteously for the good of the universe, but
he will shake some corrupt interest or other upon the earth; so
various are the inclinations of raen, and such a weathercock-
judgment hath every man in himself, that the Divine method
he applauds this day, upon a change of his interest, he Avill
cavil at the next. It is impossible for the just orders of God
to please the same person many weeks, scarce many rainutes
together. God must cpase to be God, or to be holy, if he should
manage the concerns of the world according to the fancies of
men. How unreasonable is it thus to impose laws upon God?
Must God revoke his own orders? govern according to the dic
tates of his creature ? Must God, who only hath power and
wisdom to sway the sceptre, become the obedient subject of
every man's humour, and manage every thing to serve the
design of a simple creature? This is not to be God, but to set
the creature in his throne. Though this be not formally done,
yet that it is interpretatively and practically done, is every
hour's experience.
[3.] In impatience in our particular concerns. It is ordinary
with man to charge God in his complaints in the tirae of afflic
tion. Therefore it is the commendation the Holy Ghost gives
to Job, that in all this, that is, in those many waves that rolled
over hira, he did not charge God foolishly, he never spoke nor
thought any thing unAvorthy of the majesty and righteousness
of God. Job i. 22. Yet afterwards we find him warping; he
nicknames the affliction to be God's oppression of him, and no
act of his goodness; « Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest

136 ON PRACTICAL. ATHEISM.
oppress?" Joh x. 3. He seems to charge God with injustice,
for punishing him when he Avas not wicked; for which he ap
peals to God, '-'Thou knowest that I am not wicked," ver. 7;
and that God acted not like a Creator, ver. 8.
If our projects are disappointed, what fretfulness against
God's management are our hearts racked with! How do un
comely passions bubble up in us, interpretatively at least, wish
ing that the arms ofhis power had been bound, and the eye of
his omniscience been hoodwinked, that we might have been
left to our own liberty and designs ! And this oftentimes when
we have more reason to bless him than repine at him. The
Israelites murmured more against God in the wUderness, with
manna in their mouths, than they did at Pharaoh in the brick-
kflns, with their garlic and onions between their teeth. Though
we repine at instruments in our afflictions, yet God counts it a
reflection upon himself The Israelites' speaking against Moses,
was in God's interpretation a rebellion against himself. Numb.
xvi. 41, compared with xvii. 10. And rebellion is always a
desire of imposing laws and conditions upon those against whom
the rebellion is raised. The sottish dealings of the vine-dressers
in Franconia with the statue of St. Urban, the protector of the
vines, upon his own day, is an emblem of our dealing Avith
God. If it be a clear day and portend a prosperous vintage,
they honour the statue and drink healths to it; if it be a rainy
day, and presage a scantiness, they daub it with dirt in indig
nation. We cast out our mire and dirt against God when he
acts cross to our wishes, and flatter him when the wind of his
Providence joins itself to the tide ofour interest.
Men set a high price upon themselves, and are angry God
values them not at the same rate; as if their judgment concern
ing themselves were more piercing than his. This is to dis
annul God's judgment, and condemn him, and count ourselves
righteous, as it is in Job xl. 8. This is the epidemical disease
of human nature; they think they deserve caresses instead of
rods, and upon crosses are more ready to tear out the heart of
God, than reflect humbly upon their own hearts. When we
accuse God, we applaud ourselves, and make ourselves his
superiors, intimating that we have acted more righteously to
him than he to us, which is -the highest manner of imposing
laws upon him; as that emperor accused the justice of God for
snatching him out of the world too soon. ' What a high piece
of practical atheism is this, to desire that that infinite wisdom
should be guided by our folly, and asperse the righteousness of
God_ rather than blemish our own! Instead of silently submit
ting to his wfll and adoring his wisdom, we declaim against
him, as an unwise and unjust Governor. We would invert his
• Coelum suspiciens vitam, &c. Vita Titi, c. 10.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

137

order, raake hira the steward, and ourselves the proprietors of
what we are and have : we deny ourselves to be sinners, and
our mercies to be forfeited.
[4.] It is evidenced, in envying the gifts and prosperities of
others. Envy hath a deep tincture of practical atheism, and is
a cause of atheism.' We are unwilling to leave God to be the
Proprietor, and do what he will with his own, and, as a Crea
tor, to do Avhat he pleases with his creatures : we assume a
liberty to direct God what portions, Avhen and how he should
bestow upon his creatures: we would not let him choose his
own favourites, and pitch upon his own instruments for his
glory: as if God should have asked counsel of us how he should
dispose of his benefits. We are unwilling to leave to his Avis
dom the management ofhis own judgments to the wicked, and
the dispensation of his own love to ourselves. This temper is
natural. It is as ancient as the first age of the Avorld. Adam
envied God a felicity by himself, and Avould not spare a free
that he had reserved as a mark ofhis sovereignty. The passion
that God had given Cain to employ against his sin, he turns
against his Creator : he was wroth Avith God, Gen. iv. 5, and
with Abel; but envy was at the root, because his brother's
sacrifice was accepted, and his refused. How could he envy
his accepted person, without reflecting upon the accepter ofhis
offering? Good men have not been free from it. Job questions
the goodness of God, that he should shine upon the counsel of
the wicked. Job. x. 3. Jonah had too much of self in fearing to
be counted a false prophet; Avhen he came with absolute denun
ciations of Avrath. Jonah iv. 2. And when he could not bring
a volley of destroying judgments upon the Ninevites, he would
shoot his fury against his Master, envying those poor people the
benefit, and God the honour ofhis mercy; and this af^terhehad
been sent into the whale's belly to learn humiliation; which,
though he exercised there, yet those two great branches of self-
pride and envy were not lopped off from him in the belly of
hell. And God was fain to take pains wflh him, and, by a gourd,
scarce makes hira ashamed ofhis peevishness. Envy is not like
to cease, till all atheism be cashiered, and that is in heaven.
This sin is an imitation of the devil, whose first sin upon
earth was envy, as his first sin in heaven was pride. It is a
wishing that to ourselves which the devil asserted as his right,
to give the kingdoms of the world to AVhom he pleased, Luke
iv. 6; it is an anger with God, because he hath not given us a
patent for government. It utters the same language in dis
paragement of God, as Absalom did in reflection on his father.
If I were king in Israel, justice should be better managed : if I
> Because wicked men flourish in the world— SoUicitor uullos esse putare Deos,
"I am led to think there are no gods."
Vol. I.— 18

138 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
were lord of the world, there should be more wisdom to discern
the merits of men, and more righteousness in distributing to
them their several portions. 1 bus we impose laws upon God,
and would have the righteousness of his will submit to the cor
ruptions of ours, and have him lower himself to gratify our
minds, rather than fulfil his own: we charge the Author of
those gifts with injustice, that he hath not dealt equally; or with
ignorance, that he hath mistaken his mark. In the same breath
that we censure him by our peevishness, Ave would guide him
by our wills.
This is an unreasonable part of atheism. If .all Avere in the
same state and condition, the order of the world would be im
paired. Is God bound to have a care of thee, and neglect aU the
Avorld besides ? " Shall the earth be forsaken for thee ?" Job
xviii. 4. Joseph had reason to be displeased with his brothers,
if they had muttered because he gave Benjamin a double por
tion, and the rest a single. It was unfit that they, who had
deserved no gift at all, should prescribe him rules how to dis
pense his own gifts; much more unworthy it is to deal so with
God; yet this is too common.
[5.] It is evidenced in corrupt matter or ends of prayer and
praise. When we are importunate for those things, that Ave
know not whether the righteousness, holiness, and wisdom of
God can grant, because he hath not discovered his will in any
promise to bestow them; we Avould then impose such condi
tions on God, which he never obliged himself to grant; when
we pray for things not so much to glorify God, which ought to
be the end of prayer, as to gratify ourselves. We acknowledge
indeed by the act of petitioning, that there is a God; but we
Avould have him undeify himself to be at our beck, and debase
himself to serve our turns, when we desire those things which
are repugnant to those attributes, whereby he doth manage fhe
government of the world, or when by some superficial services
we think we have gained indulgence to sins: which seems to
be fhe thought ofthe strumpet in her paying her vows, to wallow
more freely in the mire of her sensual pleasure; " I have peace
offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows:" I have
made my peace with God, and have entertainment for thee,
Prov. vii. 14; or when men desire God to bless them in the
commission of some sin. As when Balak and Balaam offered
sacrifices, that they might prosper in the cursing of the Israel
ites. Numb, xxiii. l.
So for a man to pray to God to save him while he neglects
the means of salvation appointed by God, or to renew him,
when he slights the word, the only in.strument to that purpose,
this is to impose laws upon God, contrary to fhe declared will
and wisdom of God, and to desire hira to slight his own insti-

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

139

tutions. When we come into the presence of God with lusts
reeking in our hearts, and leap from sin fo duty, we would im
pose the law of our corruption on the holiness of God. While
we pray the "will of God may be done," self-love wishes its
own will may be perforraed, as though God should serve our
huraours, when we will not obey his precepts. And when we
make vows under any affiiction, what is it often but a secret
contrivance to bend and flatter him to our conditions? We wfll
serve him ifhe wfll restore us; we think thereby to compound
the business with him, and bring him down to our terms.
[6.] It is evidenced in positive and bold interpretations of
the judgments of God in the world. To interpret the judgments
of God to the disadvantage of the sufferer, unless it be an un
usual judgment, and have a remarkable hand of God in it, and
the sin'^be rendered plainly legible in the affliction, is a pre
sumption of this nature; as when men will judge the GaUleans,
whose blood Pflate raingled with their sacrifices, greater sinners
than others, and themselves righteous, because no drops of it
were dashed upon thera; or Avhen Shimei, being of the house
of Saul, shall judge according to his own interest, and desires,
David's flight upon Absalom's rebeUion, to be a punishment
for invading the rights of Saul's family, and depriving him of
the succession in the kingdom, 2 Sara. xvi. 5, as if he had been
of God's privy council, when he decreed such acts of justice in
the Avorld.
Thus we would fasten our own wills as a law or motive
upon God^ and interpret his acts according to the motions of
self. ' Is it not too ordinary when God sends an affliction upon
those that bear ill will to us, to judge it to be a righting of our
cause, to be a fruit of God's concern for us in revenging our
wrongs, as if we had heard the secrets of God, or as Eliphaz
saith, had turned over the records of heaven. Job xv. 8. This
is a judgment according to self-love, not a divine rule; which
imposes laws upon heaven, implying a secret wish that God
would take care only of them, make our concerns his own, not
in ways of kindness and justice, but according to our fancies.
And this is common in the profane world, in those curses they
so readily denounce upon any affront, as if God were bound to
draw his arrows and shoot thera into the heart of all their
offenders at their beck and pleasure.
[7.] It is evidenced in mixing rifles for the worship of God
wflh those which have been ordered by him. Since men are
most prone to live by sense, it is no wonder that a sensible
worship, which affects their outward sense with some kind of
amazement, is dear to thera, and spiritual AVorship raost loath
some. Pompous rites have been the great engine wherewith the

140 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
devfl hath deceived the souls of men, and wrought them to a
nauseating the simplicity of divine worship, as unworthy the
majesty and excellency of God. 2 Cor. xi. 3. Thus fhe Jews
would not understand the glory of the second temple in the
presence of the Messiah, because it had not the pompous
grandeur of that of Solomon's erecting.
Hence in all ages men have been forward to disfigure God's
models, and dress up a child of their own, as though God had
been defective in providing for his own honour in his institu
tions without the assistance of his creature. This has always
been in the world : the old world had their imaginations, and
the new world has continued them. The Israelites in the
midst of miracles, and under fhe memory of a famous deliver
ance, would erect a calf The Pharisees, that sat in Moses'
chair, would coin new traditions, and enjoin them to be as cur
rent as the law of God. Matt. xv. 6. Papists wUl be blending
the Christian appointments with Pagan ceremonies, to please
the carnal fancies of the common people. Altars have been
multiplied under the knoAvledge of the laAV of God. Hos. viii.
11. Interest is made the balance of the conveniency of God's
injunctions. Jeroboam fitted a worship fo politic ends, and
posted up calves to prevent his subjects revolting from his
sceptre, which might be occasioned by their reSort to Jerusa
lem, and converse with the body of the people from whom they
were separated. 1 Kings xii. 27. Men Avill be putting in their
own dictates Avith God's laws, and are unwilling he should be
the sole Governor of the world without their counsel; they will
not suffer him to be Lord of that Avhich is purely and solely
his concern. How often have the practice of the primitive
church, the custom wherein we are, bred, the sentiments ofour
ancestors, been owned as a more authentic rule in matters of
worship, than the mind of God delivered in his word! It is
natural by creation to worship God; and it is as natural by cor
ruption for man to worship him in a human way, and not in a
divine. Is not this to impose laws upon God? to esteem our
selves wiser than he? to think him negligent of his own service,
and that our feeble brains can find out ways to accommodate
his honour, better than himself has done? Thus do men for
the most part equal their own imaginations to God's oracles:
as Solomon built a high place to Moloch and Chemosh, upon
the mount of Olives, to face on the east part Jerusalem and
the temple. 1 Kings xi. 7. This is not only to impose laws on
God, but also to make self the standard of them.
[8.] It is evidenced in fitting interpretations of Scripture to
their own minds and humours. Like the Lacedemonians, that
dressed the images of their gods according to the fashion of
their own country, we would wrest Scripture to serve our own

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. l^j
designs, and judge the law of God by the law of sin, and make
the serpentine seed in us to be the interpreter of divine oracles.
This is like Belshazzar, to drink healths out of the sacred ves
sels. As God is the author of his laAv and word, so he is the
best interpreter ofit; the Scripture having an impress of divine
wisdom, holiness, and goodness, raust be regarded according to
that impress, with a submission and meekness of spirit and
reverence of God in it. But when in our inquiries into the
word, we inquire not of God, but consult flesh and blood,
the temper of the times wherein we live, or fhe satisfaction of
a party, we side withal, and impose glosses upon it according
to our own fancies, it is to put laws upon God, and make self
the rule of him. He that interprets the law to i)olsfer up some
eager appetite against the will of the Lawgiver, ascribes to
himself as great an authority as to him that enacted it.
[9.] In falling off from God after some fair compliances,
when his wifl grateth upon us and crosseth ours. They will
walk with him as far as he pleaseth them, and leave him upon
the first distaste, as though God must observe their humours
more than they his wifl. Amos must be suspended from pro
phesying, because the land could not bear his words, and his
discburses condemned their unworthy practices against God.
Amos vii. 10, &c. The young man came not to receive direc
tions from our Saviour, but expected a confirmation of his own
rules, rather than an imposition of new. Mark x. 17. 22. He
rather cares for commendations than instructions, and upon the
disappointment turns his back. He was sad, that Christ would
not suffer him ,to be rich and a Christian together, and leaves
him because his command Avas not suitable to the law of his
covetousness. Some truths that are at a further distance from
us, we can hear gladly. But when the conscience begins to
smart under others, if God will not observe our wills, we will
with Herod, be a law to ourselves. Mark vi. 20. 27.
More instances might be observed ;
Ingratitude is a setting up self, and an imposing laws on God.
It is as much as to say, God did no more than he was obliged
to do; as if the mercies we have were an act of duty in God,
and not of bounty. — Insatiable desires after wealth; hence are
those speeches, " We wfll go into such a city, and buy and sell,
and get gain." James iv. 13. As though they had the command
of God, and God must lackey after their wills. — When our
hearts are not contented with any supply of our wants, but are
craving an,.overplus for our lust: when we are unsatisfied in
the midst of plenty, and still, like the grave, cry. Give, give.
Incorrigibleness under affliction also evinces this.
Assertion 2,. As man would be a laAv to himself, so he would
be his own end and happiness in opposition to God.

142 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
Here four things should be discoursed on. Man would make
himself his own end and happiness. — He would make any
thing his end and happiness rather than God. — He would make
himself the end of all creatures. — He would make himself the
end of God.
(1.) Man would make himself his own end and happiness.
As God ought to be esteemed the first cause, in point of our
dependence on him, so he ought to be our last end, in point of
our enjoyment of him. When we therefore trust in ourselves,
we refu.se him as the first cause ; and when we act for ourselves
and expect a blessedness from ourselves, we refuse him as the
chiefest good and last end, which is an undeniable piece of
atheism. For man is a creature of a higher rank than others
in the world, and was not made as animals, plants, and other
Avorks of the Divine power, materially to glorify God; but a
rational creature, intentionally to honour God by obedience to
his rule, dependence on his goodness, and zeal for his glory.
It is therefore as much a slighting of God, for man, a creature,
to set himself up as his own end, as to regard himself as his
own law.
For the discovery of this, observe that there is a three-fold
self-love. Natural; which is common to us by the law of nature with
other creatures, inanimate, as well as animate ; and so closely
twisted with the nature of every creature, that it cannot be dis
solved, but with the dissolution of nature itself It consisted
not with the wisdom and goodness of God to create an unna
tural nature, or to command any thing unnatural. Nor doth
he; for when he commands us to sacrifice ourselves and dear
est lives for himself, it is not without a promise of a more noble
state and being, in exchange for what we lose. This self-love
is not only commendable, but necessary, as a rule to measure
that duty Ave owe to our neighbour, whom we cannot love as
ourselves if we do not first love ourselves. God having planted
this self-love in our nature, makes this natural principle the
measure of our affection to all mankind of the same blood Avith
ourselves. Carnal; when a man loves himself above God, in opposition
to God, Avith a contempt of God; when our thoughts, affections,
designs, centre only in our own fleshly interest; and rifle God
of his honour, to make a present of it to ourselves. Thus the
natural self-love, in itself good, becomes criminal by the excess,
when it would be superior and not subordinate to God.
Gracious; when we love ourselves for higher ends than fhe
nature of a creature, as a creature, dictates, namely, in subser
viency to the glory of God. This is a reduction of the revolted
creature, to his true and happy order. A Christian is therefore

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. I43
said to be created in Christ to good works. Eph. ii. 10. As all
creatures were created, not only for themselves, but for the
honour of God, so the grace of the new creation carries a man
to answer this end, and to order all his operations to the honour
of God, and his well pleasing.
The first is from nature, the second from sin, the third from
grace. The first is implanted by creation, the second the fruit
of corruption, and the third is by the powerful operations of
grace. Now the carnal self-love is set up in the stead of God as our
last end ; like the sea, which all the litfle and great streams of
our actions run to and rest in.
And this is.
Natural. It sticks as close to us as our souls; it is as natural
as sin; the foundation of all the evil in the world. As self-
abhorrence is the first stone that is laid in conversion, so an
inordinate self-love Avas the first inlet to all iniquity: as grace
is a rising from self to centre in God, so is sin a shrinking from
God into the mire of a carnal selfishness. Since every creature
is nearest to itself and next to God, it cannot fall from God, but
must immediately sink into self And therefore all sins are
well said to be branches or modifications of this fundamental
passion.' What is Avrath, but a defence and strengthening of
self against the attempts of some real or imaginary evil?
Whence springs envy, but from a self-love, grieved at its own
wants in the midst of another's enjoyment, able to supply it?
What is impatience, but a regret that self is not provided for at
the rate of our wish, and that it has met with a shock against
supposed merit ? What is pride, but a sense of self-worth, a de
sire to have self of a higher elevation than others? What is
drunkenness, but a seeking a satisfaction for sensual self in the
spoils of reason? No sin is committed as sin, but as it pretends
a self-satisfaction. Sin indeed may well be termed a man's self,
because it is, since the loss of original righteousness, the form
that overspreads every part of our souls. The understanding
assents to nothing false but under the notion of true, and the
will embraces nothing evil but under the notion of good; but
the rule whereby Ave measure the truth and goodness of pro
posed objects, is not the unerring word, but the inchnations of
self, the gratifying of which is the aim of our whole lives.
Sin and self are afl one. What is called a living to sin in one
place, Rora. vi., is caUed a living to self in another. "That they
that hve should not live unto theraselves." 2 Cor. v. 15. And
upon this account it is that both the Hebrew word, xm and the
Greek word, afiapt»vsi.>,, used in Scripture to express sin, pro
perly signify to miss the mark, and swerve from that object to
> More, Dial. 2. § 17. p. 274.

144 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
which all our actions should be directed, namely, the glory of
God. When we fell to loving ourselves, we fell from loving
God: and therefore when the psalmist saith, there were none
that sought God, namely, as the last end, he presently adds,
" they are all gone aside," namely, from their true mark, and
therefore become filthy. Psal. xiv. 3.
Since it is natural, it is also universal. Ps. xiv. 1. The not
seeking God is as universal as our ignorance of him. No man
in a state of nature, but has it predominant; no renewed man
on this side heaven but has it partiaUy: the one has it flourish
ing, the other has it struggling. If to aim at the glory of God
as fhe chief end, and not to live to ourselves, be the greatest
mark of the restoration of the Divine image, 2 Cor. v. 15, and
a conformity to Christ, who glorified not himself, Heb. v. 5, but
the Father, John xvii. 4, then every man wallowing in the mire
of corrupt nature, pays a homage to self, as a renewed man is
biassed by the honour of God.
The Holy Ghost excepts none from this crime, " aU seek their
own." Phfl. ii. 21. It is rare for them to look above or beyond
themselves: whatsoever may be the immediate subject oftheir
thoughts and inquiries, yet the utmost end and stage is their
profit, honour, or pleasure: whatever it be that immediately
possesses the mind and wUl, self sits like a queen, and sways
the sceptre, and orders things at that rate that God is excluded,
and can find no room in his thoughts; "The Avicked, through
the pride of his countenance, wiU not seek after God; God is
not in all his thoughts." Psal. x. 4. The whole little world of
man is so overflowed wflh a deluge of self, that the dove, the
glory of the Creator, can find no place Avhere to set its foot;
and if ever it gain the favour of admfltance, it is to disguise
and be a vassal to some carnal project; as the glory of God was
a mask for the murdering his servants.
It is from the power of this principle that the difficulty of
conversion arises. As there is no greater pleasure to a believing
soul than the giving itself up to God, and no stronger desire in
it than to have a fixed and unchangeable will to serve the de
signs of his honour: so there is no greater torment to a wicked
man than to part with his carnal ends, and lay down the Da
gon of self at the feet of the ark. Self love and self-opinion
in the Pharisees, waylaid aU the entertainment of truth. They
sought honour one of another, and not the honour which comes
from God. John v. 44. It is of so large an extent, and so in
sinuating a nature, that fl winds itself into the exercise of
moral virtues, mixes with our charity. Matt. vi. 2, and finds
nourishment in the ashes of martyrdom, 1 Cor. xiii. 3.
This making ourselves our end, wiU appear in a few things.
[1.] In frequent self-applauses, and inward overweening

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 14=
reflectiorts. Nothing is more ordinary in the natures of men
than a doting on their own perfections, acquisitions, or actions
in the Avorld. Most think of themselves above what they ought
to think. Rom. xii. 3. Few think of themselves so meanly as
they ought fo think. This sticks as close to us as our skin.
And as humility is the beauty of grace, this is the filthiest soil
of nature. Our thoughts run more delightfully upon the track
of our own perfections, than the excellency of God. And when
we find any thing of a seeming worth, that may raake us glitter
in the eyes of the world, how cheerfully do Ave grasp and era-
brace ourselves! When the grosser profanenesses of men have
been discarded, and the floods of them dammed up ; the head of
corruption, whence they sprang, will swell the higher within,
in self-applauding speculations of their own reformation, with
out acknowledgments of their own weaknesses, and desires of
Divine assistance to make a further progress. " I thank God, I
am not like this publican." Lukexviii.il. A self-reflection,
with a contempt rather than compassion to his neighbour, is
frequent in every Pharisee. The vapours of self-affections, in
our clouded understandings, like those in the air in misty morn
ings, alter the appearance of things, and make them look bigger
than they are. This is thought by some to be the sin of the
fallen angels, who reflecting upon their own natural excellency
superior to other creatures, would find a blessedness in their
own nature, as God did in his ; and make themselves the last
end oftheir actions. -It is from this principle we are naturally
so ready to compare ourselves, rather with those that are below
us, than Avith those that are above us; and often think those
that are above us, inferior to us, and secretly glory that we are
become none of the meanest and loAvest in natural or moral
excellencies. How far were the gracious penmen of the Scripture from
this, who when possessed and directed by the Spirit of God,
and filled with a sense of him, instead of applauding themselves,
publish upon record their oavu faults to all the eyes of the
world! And if Peter, as some think, dictated the gospel Avhich
Mark wrote as his amanuensis, it is observable, that his crime
in denying his Master is aggravated in that gospel in some
circumstances, and less spoken of his repentance, than in the
other evangelists. " When he thought thereon, he wept," Mark
xiv. 72; but in the other, "He went out, and wept bflterly."
Matt. xxvi. 75. Luke xxii. 62.
This is one .part of atheism and self-idolatry, to magnify
ourselves with the forgetfulness and to the injury of our Crea
tor. [2.] In ascribing the glory of what we do or have, to our
selves, to our OAvn wisdom, power, and virtue. How flaunting
Vol. I.— 19

146 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
is Nebuchadnezzar, at the prospect of Babylon, which he had
exaUed to be the head of so great an empire, "Is not this great
Babylon that I have buflt?" Dan. iv. 30. He struts upon the
battlements of his palace, as if there were no God but himself
in the Avorld, while his eye could not but see the heavens above
him to be none ofhis own framing; attributing his acquisitions
to his own arm, and referring them to his own honour, for his
own delight; not for the honour of God, as a creature ought;
nor for the advantage of his subjects, as the duty of a prince:
he regards Babylon as his heaven, and himself as his idol, as if
he were all, and God nothing. An example of this we have in
the present age. But it is often observed, that God vindicates
his own honour, brings the most heroical men to contempt and
unfortunate ends, as a punishment of their pride, as he did
here, " WhUe the word Avas in the king's mouth, there fell a
voice from heaven." Dan. iv. 31.' This was Herod's crime, to
suffer others to do it: he had discovered his eloquence actively,
and made himself his own end passively, in approving the flat
teries of the people; and offered not with one hand to God the
glory he received from his people Avith the other. Acts xii.
22, 23. Samosatenus is reported to have put down the hymns
which Avere sung for the glory of God and Christ, and caused
songs to be sung in the temple for his own honour.
When any thing succeeds well, Ave are ready to attribute it
to our own prudence and industry: if we meet Avith a cross,
we fret against the stars and fortune, and second causes, and
sometimes against God; as they curse God as well as their
king, Isa. viii. 21, not acknowledging any defect in themselves.
The psalmist by his repetition of " Not unto us, not unto us,
but to thy name give glory," Psal. cxv. 1, implies the natu-
rality of this temper, and fhe difficulty to cleanse our hearts
from those self-reftections. If it be angelical to refuse an undue
glory stolen from God's throne. Rev. xxn. 8, 9, it is diabolical
to accept and cherish it. To seek our own glory is not glory,
Prov. xxv. 27. It is vfle, and fhe dishonour of a creature, who
by the law of his creation is referred to another end. So much
as we sacrifice to our own credfl, to the dexterfly ofour hands,
or the sagacity of our wit, we detract from God.
[3.] In desires to have self-pleasing doctrines; when we
cannot endure to hear anything that crosses the flesh; though
the wise man tells us, " It is better to hear the rebuke of the
wise, than the song of fools." Eccles. vii. 5. If Hanani the
seer reprove king Asa for not relying on the Lord, his passion
shall be armed for self against the prophet, and arrest him a
prisoner. 2 Chron. xvi. 1 0. If Micaiah declare to Ahab the
evU that shaU befall him. Anion the governor shall receive
' Sanderson's Sermons.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. 14.^
orders to clap him up in a dungeon. Fire doth not sooner
seize upon combustible matter, than fury Avill be kindled, if
self be but pinched. This interest of lustful self barred the
heart df Herodias against the entertainment of the truth, and
caused her savagely to dip her hands in the blood of the Bap
tist, to make him a sacrifice to that inward idol. Mark vi. 18,
19. 28.
[4.] In being highly concerned for injuries done to ourselves,
and little or not at all concerned for injuries done to God. Hoav
wfll the blood rise in us, when our honour and reputation are
invaded, and scarce reflect upon the dishonour God suffers in
our sight and hearing. Violent passions will transform us into
Boanerges in the one case, and our unconcernedness render us
Gallios in the other. We shall extenuate that which concerns
God, and aggravate that Avhich concerns ourselves. Nothing
but the death of Jonathan, a first born and a generous son, will
satisfy his father Saul, when the authority of his edict was
broken by his tasting of honey; though he had recompensed
his crime comraitted in ignorance, by the purchase of a gallant
victory. But when the authority of God was violated in saving
the Amalekites' cattle, against the command of a greater Sove
reign than himself; he can daub the business, and excuse it
with a design of sacrificing. He was not so earnest in hinder
ing the people from the breach of God's command, as he was
in vindicating the honour of his own, 1 Sam. xv. 21. He
could hardly admit of an excuse to salve his own honour; but
in the concerns of God's honour, pretend piety, to cloak his
avarice. And it is often seen, when the violation of God's authority
and the stain of our own reputation are coupled together; we
are more troubled for what disgraces us, than for what dis
honours God: when Saul had thus transgressed, he is desirous
that Samuel would turn again to preserve his own honour
before the elders, rather than grieved that he had broken the
command of God. ver. 30.
[5.] In trusting in ourselves. When we consult with our
own wit and wisdom, more than inquire of God, and ask leave
of him: as the Assyrian, "By the strength of my hand I have
done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent." Isa. x. 13.
When we attempt things in the strength of our own heads and
parts, and trust in our own industry, Avithout application to
God, for direction, blessing, and success, avc affect the privflege
of the Defly, and make gods of ourselves. The same language
in reahty with Ajax in Sophocles: " Others think to overcome
with the assistance of the gods, but I hope to gain honour
without them." Dependence and trust is an act due froni the
creature onlv to God. Hence God aggravates the crime of the

148 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
Jews in trusting in Egypt, " the Egyptians are men, and not
God." Isa. xxxi. 3. Confidence in ourselves is a defection from
God. Jer. xvii. 5. And when Ave depart from and cast off
God to depend upon ourselves, which is but an arm of flesh,
we choose the arm of flesh for our god; we rob God of that
confidence we ought to place in him, and that adoration Avhich
is due to him, and build it upon another foundation: not that
we are to neglect the reason and parts God hath given us, or
spend more time in prayer than in consulting about our own
affairs; but to rhix^ourown intentions in business Avith ejacula
tions to Heaven, and take God along with us in every rhotion.
But certainly it is an idolizing of self, when we are "more dili
gent in our attendance on our own wit, than fervent in our
recourses to God:
[6.] The power of sinful self, above the efficacy of the no
tion of God, is evident in our workings for carnal self against
the light of our owjl consciences. When men of sublime rea
son and clear natural wisdorp, are voluntary slaves to their own
lusts, roAV against the stream of their own consciences, serve
carnal self with a disgraceful and disturbing drudgery, making
it their god, sacrificing natural self, all sentiments of virtue, and
the quiet oftheir lives, to the pleasure, honour, and satisfaction
of carnal self; this is a prostituting God, in his deputy con
science, to carnal affections, Avhen their eyes are shut against
the enlightenings of it, and their ears deaf to its voice, but open
to the least breath and whisper of self ; a debt that the creature
owes supremely to God.
Much more might be said, but let us see what atheism lurks
in this, and how it intrenches upon God.
It is a usurping God's prerogative. It is God's prerogative
to be his own end, and act for his own glory, because there is
nothing superior to him in excellency and goodness to act for:
he had not his being from any thing without himself, whereby
he should be obliged to act for any thing but himself To make
ourselves then our last end, is to co-rival God in his being the
supreme good, and blessedness to himself: as if we were our
own principle, the author ofour own being, and Avere not
obliged to a higher power than ourselves for what we are and
have. To direct the lines of all our motions to ourselves, is to
imply that they first issued only from ourselves. When we are
rivals to God in his chief end, we own or desire to be rivals to
him in the principle of his being: this is to set ourselves in the
place of God. AU things have something without them, and
above them as their end : afl inferior creatures act for some
superior order in the rank of creation ; the lesser animals are
designed for .the' greater, and all for man; man, therefore, for
something nobler than himself To make ourselves therefore

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM, 14q
our OAvn end is to deny any superior, to whom we are to direct
our actions. God alone being the Supreme Being, can be his
own ultimate end, for if there were any thing higher and bet
ter than God, the purity and righteousness of his own nature
would cause him to act for and toward that as his chiefest mark.
This is the highest sacrilege, to alienate the proper good and
rights of God, and employ them for our own use; to steal from
him his own honour, and put it into our own cabinets; like
those birds that ravished the sacrifice from the altar and car
ried it to their own nests. When we love only ourselves, and
act for no other end but ourselves, we invest ourselves with the
dominion which is the right of God, and take the crown from
his head: for as the crown belongs to the king, so to love his
own will, to ,wiU by his own will and for himself, is the pro
perty of God, because he has no other Avifl, no other end above
him to be the rule and scope of his actions.
When therefore we are by self-love transformed AvhoUy into
ourselves, we make ourselves our own foundation, without God
and against God ; when we raind our own glory and praise,
we would have a royal state equal with God, Avho created all
things for himself Prov. xvi. 4. What can man do more for
God than he naturally does for- himself, since he does all those
things for himself which he should do for God? we own our
selves to be our own creators and benefactors, and fling off all
sentiments of gratitude to him.
It is a vilifying of God. When we make ourselves our end,
it is plain language that God is not our happiness: we postpone
God to ourselves, as if he were not an object so excellent and
fit for our love as ourselves are ; for it is irrational to make
,that our end Avhich is not God, and not the chiefest good. It
is to deny him to be better than we, to make him not to be so
good as ourselves, and so fit to be our chiefest good as ourselves
are; that he has not deserved any such acknowledgment at
our hands by all that he has done for us. We assert ourselves
his superiors by such kind of acting, though we are infinitely
more inferior to God than any creature can be to us. Man
cannot dishonour God more than by referring that to his own
glory which God raade for his own praise, upon account where
of he only has a right to glory and praise, and none else. He
thus changes the glory of the incorruptible God into a cor
ruptible iraage, Rom. i. 23; a perishing fame and reputation,
which extends but little beyond the limits of his oavu habita
tion, or if it does, survives but a few years, and perishes at last
with the age wherein he lived.
It is as much as in us lies a destroying of God. By this teni-
per we destroy that God that made us, because we destroy his
intention and his honour. God cannot outlive his Avill and his

150 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
glory, because he cannot have any other rule but his own wilV,
or any other end but his own honour. The setting up self as
our end, puts a nullity upon the true Deity: by paying to our
selves that respect and honour which is due to God, we make
the true God as no God. Whosoever makes himself a king of
his prince's rights and territories, manifests an intent to throw
him out of his government. To choose ourselves as our end
is to undeify God, since to be the last end of a rational creature
is a right inseparable from the nature of the Deity; and there
fore not to set God, but self, always before us, is to acknow
ledge no being but ourselves to be God.
(2.) The second thing is, man would make any thing his end
and happiness rather than God. An end is so necessary in all
our actions, that he deserves not the name of a rational crea
ture that proposes not one to himself. This is the distinction
between rational creatures and others; they act with a formal
intention, whereas other creatures are directed to their end by
a natural instinct, and moved by nature to what the' others
should be moved to by reason. When a man therefore acts for
that end, which was not intended him by the law of his crea
tion, nor is suited to the noble faculties ofhis soul, he acts con
trary to God, overturns his order, and merits no better a title
than that of an atheist.
A man may be said two ways to make a thing his last end
and chief good.
Formally. When he actually judges this or that thing to be
his chiefest good, and orders all things to it. So man does not
formally judge sin to be good, or any object which is the incen
tive of sin to be his last end: this cannot be while he has the
exercise of his rational faculties.
VirtuaUy and implicitly. When he loves any thing against
the command of God, and prefers in the stream of his actions
the enjoyment of that, before the friution of God ; and lays out
more strength and expends more time in the gaining that, than
answering the true end of his creation: Avhen he acts so as if
something below God could make him happy without God,
or that God could not make him happy without the addi
tion of something else. Thus the glutton makes a god of his
dainties; the ambitious man of his honour; the incontinent man
of his lust; and the covetous man of his wealth; and conse
quently esteems them as his chiefest good, and the most noble
end, to which he directs his thoughts. Thus he vilifies and
lessens the true God, which can make him happy, in a multi
tude of false gods, that can only render him miserable. He that
loves pleasure more than God, says in his heart there is no God
but his pleasure. He that loves his belly more than God, says
in his heart there is no god but his belly. Their happiness is

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. jgl
not accounted to he in that God that made fhe world, but in the
pleasure or profit they make their god.
In this, though a created object be the immediate and subor
dinate term to which we turn, yet principaUy and ultimately,
the affection to it terminates in self: nothing is naturally enter
tained by us, but as it aflects our sense, or mingles with some
promise of advantage to us.
This is seen,
[1.] In the fewer thoi.ights we have of God, than of any
thing else. Did we apprehend God to be our chiefest good and
highest end, should Ave grudge him the pains- of a few days'
thoughts upon him? Men in their travels are frequently think
ing upon their intended stage; but our thoughts run upon new
acquisitions to increase our wealth, rear up our famUies, re
venge our injuries, and support our reputation. Trifles possess
us; but God is not in aU our thoughts, Psa. x. 4, seldom the
sole object of them. We have durable thoughts of transitory
things, and flitting thoughts of a durable and eternal good. The
covenant of grace engages the whole heart to God, and bars
any thing else from engrossing it. But what strangers are God
and the souls of most men! Though we have the knowledge of
him by creation, yet he is for the most part an unknown God
in the relations wherein he stands to us, because a God unde-
lighted in. Hence it is, as one observes,' that because we ob
serve not the ways of God's wisdom, conceive not of him in his
vast perfections, nor are stricken with an admiration of his
goodness, we have fewer good sacred poems than of any
other kind. The wits of men hang the Aving when they come
to exercise their reason and fancies about God. Parts and
strength are given us, as well as corn and wine to the Israelites
for the service of God: but those are consecrated to some cursed
Baal. Hos. ii. 8. Like Venus in the poet, we forsake heaven to
follow some Adonis.
[2.] In the greedy pursuit of the world. When we pursue
worldly wealth or worldly reputation with more vehemence
thah the riches of grace, or the favour of God.^ When we have
a foolish imagination, that our happiness consists in them, we
prefer earth before heaven, broken cisterns which can hold no
water, before an ever-springing fountain of glory and bliss;
and, as though there Avere a defect in God, cannot be content
with him as our portion, without an addition of something infe
rior to him. When we make it our hopes, and say to fhe golden
wedge, "Thou art my confidence:" and rejoice more because
' Jackson, see book I . cap. 14. p. 48.
2 Quod quisque prte cfflteris petit, summum judical bonum. " What a man pur
sues above all other things, that he judges his chief good." Boet. lib. 3. p, 24.

152 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
fl is great, and because our hand hath gotten much, than in the
privilege of communion with God and the prornise of an ever
lasting fruition of him. Job. xxxi. 24, 25. This is so gross, that
Job joins it Avflh the idolatry of the sun and moon, which he
purgeth himself of, ver. 26. And the apostle, when he men
tions covetousness or covetous men, passes it not over without
the title of idolatry fo the vice, and idolater to fhe person. Col.
in. 5. Eph. v. 5; in that it is a preferring clay and dirt as an
end more desirable than the original of all goodness, in regard
of affection and dependence.
[3.] In a strong addictedness to sensual pleasures. Who
make their belly their God, Phil. in. 19; subjecting the truths
of God to the maintenance of their luxury. In debasing the
higher faculties to project for the satisfaction of the sensitive
appetite as their chief happiness, whereby many render them
selves no better than a rout of sublimated brutes among men,
and gross atheists to God. When men's thoughts run also upon
inventing new methods to satisfy their bestial appetite, for
saking the pleasures which are to be had in God, Avhich are the
delights of angels, for the satisfaction of brutes. This is an open
and unquestionable refusal of God for our end, when our rest
is in them, as if they were the chief good, and not God.
[4.] In paying a service upon any success in the world, to
instruments^more than to God the Sovereign Author. When
they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag. Hab.
i. 16. Not that the Assyrian did offer a sacrifice to his arms,
but ascribed to them what was due only to God, and appro
priated the victory to his forces and arms. The prophet a,lludes
to those that worshipped their warlike instruments, whereby
they had attained great victories; and those artificers who wor
shipped the tools by which they had purchased great wealth, in
the stead of God; preferring them as the causes oftheir happi
ness before God who governs the world.
And are not our affections, upon the receiving of good things,
more closely fixed to the instruments of conveyance, than to the
chief Benefactor, from whose coffers they are taken ? Do we
not more delight in them, and hug them Avith a greater endear-
edness, as if all our happiness depended on them, and God
were no more than a bare spectator ? Just as if when a man
were warmed by a beam, he should adore that, and not admire
the sun, that darts it out upon him.
[5.] In paying a respect to man more than God. When in a
pubhc attendance on his service, we will not laugh, or be garish,
because men see us, but our hearts shall be in a ridiculous pos
ture, playing with feathers and trifling fancies, though God sees
us;, as though our happiness consisted in the pleasing of men,

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. I53
and our misery in a respect to God. There is no fool that saflh
in his heart. There is no God, but he sets up something in his
heart as a god.
This is, a debasing of God in setting up a creature. It
speaks God less amiable than the creature, short of those
perfections which some silly, sordid thing, which hath en
grossed their affections, is possessed with: as if the cause
of all being could be transcended by his creature, and a vile
lust could equal, - yea, surmount the loveliness of God. It
is to say to God, as the rich to the poor, " stand thou there,
or sit here under my footstool," Jaraes ii. 3 : it is to sink
him below the mire of the world, to order him to come down
from his glorious throne, and take his place below a con
temptible creature, which in regard of its infinite distance is
not to be compared with him. It strips God of the love that
is due to him by the right of his nature, and the greatness
of his dignity; and of the trust that is due to hira, as fhe first
cause and the chiefest good, as though he were too feeble and
mean to be our blessedness. This is intolerable, to make
that which is God's footstool, the earth, to climb up into his
throne; to set that in our heart which God hath made even
below ourselves, and put under our feet; to make that which
we trample upon, to dispose of the right which God has to our
hearts;' it is worse than if a queen should fall in love with the
little iraage of the prince in the palace, and slight the beauty
ofhis person; and as if people should adore the footsteps of a
king in the dirt, and turn their backs upon his presence.
It doth still more debase him to set up a sin, a lust, a carnal
affection, as our chief end. To steal aAvay the honour due to
God, and appropriate it to that which is no work of his hands,
to that which is loathsome in his sight, hath disturbed his rest,
and wrung out his just breath to kindle a hell for its eternal
lodging, a God-dishonouring and a soul-murdering lust — is
worse than to prefer Barabbas before Christ. The baser the
thing, the worse is the injury to him with whom we would
associate it. If it were some generous principle, a thing useful
to the world, that we place in an equality with, or a superiority
above him, though it were a vile usage, yet it were not alto
gether so criminal: but to gratify some unworthy appetite, Avith
the displeasure of the Creator, something below the rational
nature of man, much more infinitely below the excellent majesty
of God, is a more unworthy usage of him. To advance one of
the most virtuous nobles in a kingdora as a raark of our service
and subjection, is not so dishonourable to a despised prince, as
to take a shabby beggar, or a carcass, to place in his throne.
Creeping things, aborainable beasts, the Egyptian idols, cats,
1 Noremberg de Adorat. p. 30.
Vol. I. — 20

154 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
and crocodfles, were greater abominations, and a greater despite
done to God, than the image of jealousy at the gate ofthe altar.
Ezek. vui. 5, 6. 10.
> And let not any excuse themselves, that it is but one lust or
one creature which is preferred as the end: is not he an idola
ter that worships the sun or moon, or one idol, as wefl as he
that worships the whole host of heaven?
The inordinacy of the heart to one lust may imply a stronger
contempt of him, than if a legion of lusts did possess the heart.
It argues a greater disesteem, when he shall be slighted for a
single vanity. The depth of Esau's profaneness in contemning
his birthright, and God in it, is aggravated by his selling it for
one morsel of meat, Heb. xii. 16, and that none of the daintiest,
none of the costliest, a mess of pottage; implying, had he parted
with it at a greater rate, it had been more tolerable, and his
profaneness more excusable. And it is reckoned as a high
aggravation of the corruption of fhe Israelite judges, that " they
sold the poor for a pair of shoes," Amos ii. 6 ; that is, that they
would betray the cause of fhe poor for a bribe of no greater
value, than might purchase them a pair of shoes. To place any
one thing as our chief end, though never so light, does not excuse:
he that Avill not stick to break with God for a trifle, a small
pleasure, will leap the hedge upon a greater temptation.
Nay, and if wealth, riches, friends, and the best thing in the
world, our own lives, be preferred before God, as our chief
happiness and end but one moment, it is an infinite Avrong;
because the infinite goodness and excellency of God is denied.
As though the creature or lust we love, or our own life which
we prefer in that short moment before him, had a goodness in
itself superior to, and more desirable than the blessedness in
God. And though it should be but one minute, and a man in
all the periods of his days both before and after that faflure,
should actually and intentionally prefer God before all other
things; yet he does him an infinite wrong, because God in
every moment is infinitely good, and absolutely desirable, and
can never cease to be good, and cannot have the least shadow
of change in him and his perfections.
It is a denying of God.
" If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking
in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my
mouth hath kissed my hand; this also were an iniquity to be
punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that
is above," Job xxxi. 26 — 28. This denial of God is not only
the act of an open idolater, but the consequent of a secret con
fidence, and immoderate joy in worldly goods: this denial of
God is to be referred to ver. 24, 25. When a man saith to gold,
" Thou art my confidence," and rejoices because his wealth is

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

155

great; he denies that God who is superior to all those, and the
proper object of trust: both idolatries are coupled here to
gether; that which has wealth, and that which has those glo
rious creatures in heaven for its object. And though some
may think it a light sin, yet the critne being of deeper guilt, a
denial of God, deserves a severer punishment, and falls under
the sentence of the just Judge of all the earth, under that no
tion; which Job intimates in those words, " This also were an
iniquity to be punished by the Judge."
The kissing the hand to the sun, moon, or any idol, was an
external sign of religious worship among those and other na
tions. This is far less than an inward, hearty confidence, and
an affectionate trust; if the motion of the hand be, much more
is the affection of the heart to a creature or a brutish pleasure,
a denial of God, and a kind of an abjuring of him, since the
supreme affection of the soul is undoubtedly and solely the
right of the Sovereign Creator, and not to be given in common
to others, as the outward gesture may in a Avay of civil respect.
Nothing that is an honour peculiar to God, can be given to a
creature, Avithout a plain exclusion of God to be God; it being
a disowning fhe rectitude and excellency of his nature. If God
should command a creature such a love, and such a confidence
in any thing inferior to hira, he would deny to himself his own
glory. He would deny himself to be the most excellent being.
Can the Romanists be free from this, when they call the cross
" Spem unicam," " The only hope," and say to the virgin, " In
te, Domina, speravi," " In thee. Lady, have I hoped," as Bona
venture has It.
Good reason therefore have worldlings and sensualists, per
sons of immoderate fondness fo any thing in the world, to
reflect upon themselves; since though they own the being of
a God, they are guilty of so great disrespect to him, that it
cannot be excused from the title of an unworthy atheism: and
those that are renewed by the Spirit of God, may here see
ground of a daily humiliation for the frequent and too common
excursions of their souls after creature confidences and affec
tions, whereby they fall under the charge of an act of practical
atheism, though they may be free from a habit of it.
(3.) The third thing is, man would make himself the end of
aU creatures. Man would sit in the seat of God, and set his
heart as the heart of God, as the Lord saiih of Tyrus. Ezek.
xxvni. 2. What is the consequence of this, but to be esteem
ed the chief good and end of other creatures? A thing, that
the heart of God cannot be set upon, it being an inseparable
right of the Defly, who must deny himself, if he deny this
affection of the heart. .
Since it is the nature of man derived from this root, to desire

156 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
to be equal wflh God, it follows that he desires no creature
should be equal with him, but subservient to his ends and his
glory. He that Avould make himself God, would have the
honour proper to God: he that thinks himself worthy of his
own supreme affection, thinks himself worthy to be the object
of the supreme affection of others: whosoever counts himself
the chiefest good and last end, would have the same place in
the thoughts of others. Nothing is more natural to man than
a desire to have his own judgment, the rule and measure of
the judgments and opinions of the rest of mankind. He that
sets himself in the place of the prince, does by that act chal
lenge all the prerogatives and dues belonging to the prince;
and apprehending himself fit to be a king, apprehends himself
also worthy of the homage and fealty of the subjects. He that
loves himself chiefly, and all other things and persons for him
self, would make himself the end of all creatures. It has not
been once or twice only in the Avorld that some vain princes
have assumed to themselves the title of gods, and caused divine
adorations to be given to them, and altars to smoke with sacri
fices for their honour. What has been practised by one, is by
nature seminally in aU: we would have all pay an obedience
to us, and give to us the esteem that is due to God.
This is evident,
[1.] In pride. When we entertain a high opinion of our
selves, and act for our own reputes, we dispossess God from
our own hearts; and while Ave Avould have our fame to be in
every man's mouth, and be admired in the hearts of men, we
would chase God out of the hearts of others, and deny his glory
a residence any where else; that our glory should reside more
in their minds than the glory of God; that their thoughts should
be filled with our achievements, more than the works and ex
cellency of God; with our image, and not with fhe Divine.
Pride would be paramount with God in the affections of others,
and justle God out of their souls; and by the same reason that
man does thus in the place where he lives, he would do so in
the whole world, and press the whole creation from the service
oftheir true Lord to his own service. Every proud man would
be counted by others as he counts himself, the highest, chiefest
piece of goodness; and be adored by others, as much as he
adores and admires himself No proud man, in his self-love and
self-admiration, thinks himself in an error: and ifhe be worthy
of his own admiration, he thinks himself worthy ofthe highest
esteem of others; that they should value him above themselves,
and value themselves only for him. What did Nebuchadnezzar
intend by setting up a golden image, and commanding all his
subjects to worship it, upon the highest penalty he could inflict,
but that afl should aim only at the pleasing his humour?

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. is^
[2.] In using the creatures contrary to the end God has ap
pointed. God created the Avorld and all things in it, as steps
whereby men might ascend to a prospect of him, and the ac
knowledgment of his glory; and Ave would use them to dis
honour God and gratify ourselves. He appointed them fo supply
our necessities, and support our rational delights; and we use
them to cherish our sinful lusts. We wring groans from fhe
creature in diverting them from their true scope, to one of our
own fixing, when we use them not in his service, but purely
for our oAvn, and turn those things he created for himself to be
instruments of rebeUion against him to serve our turns ; and
hereby endeavour to defeat the ends of God in them, to esta
blish onr OAvn ends by them. This is a high dishonour fo God,
a sacrilegious undermining of his glory; to reduce Avhat God
has made, to serve our own glory and our own pleasure:' it
perverts the whole order ofthe world, and directs it to another
end than what God has constituted; to another intention, con
trary to the intention of God, and thus man makes himself a
God by his own authority. As all things were made by God,
so they are for God: but while we aspire to the end of the
creation, we deny and envy God the honour of being Creator.
We cannot make ourselves the chief end of the creatures
against God's order, but we imply thereby that we were their
first principle; for if we lived under a sense of the Creator of
them while we enjoy them for our use, we should return the
glory to the right owner.
This is diabolical: though the devfl for his first afl'ecting an
authority in heaven, has been hurled down from the state of
an angel of light info that of darkness, vileness, and misery, to
be the most accursed creature living; yet he still aspires to
match God, contrary to the knowledge of the impossibility of
success in it. Neither the terrors he feels, nor the future tor
ments he doth expect, do a jot abate his ambition to be com
petitor with his Creator. How often has he since his first sin
arrogated lo himself the honour of a god from the blind world,
and attempted to make the Son of God by a particular wor
ship, count him as the chiefest good and benefactor of the
world? Matt. iv. 9. Since all raen by nature are the devil's
children, the serpent's seed, they have something of this venom
in their natures, as wefl as others of his qualities. We see that
there may be, and is a prodigious atheism lurking under the
belief of a God. The devfl knows there is a God, but acts hke
an atheist, and so do his children.
(4.) Man would make himself the end of God. This neces
sarily follows upon the former. Whosoever makes himself his
OAvn law and his own end in the place of God, would make
1 Sabunde, Tit. 200. p. 352.

1 58 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
God the subject in making himself the sovereign: he that steps
into the throne of a prince, sets the prince at his footstool; and
while he assumes the prince's prerogative, demands a subjec
tion from him. The order of the creation has been inverted by
the entrance of sin. God implanted an affection in man with
a double aspect, the one to pitch upon God, the other to respect
ourselves, but with this proviso, that our affection to God should
be infinite, in regard of the object and centre in him as the
chiefest happiness and highest end.' Our affections to ourselves
should be finite, and refer ultimately to God as the original of
our being; but sin has turned man's affections wholly to him
self Whereas he should love God first, and himself in order
to God; he now loves himself first, and God in order to him
self; love to God is lost, and love to self has usurped fhe throne.
As God by creation put all things under the feet of man, Psal.
viii. 6, reserving the heart for himself; man by corruption has
dispossessed God ofhis heart, and put him under his own feet.
We often intend ourselves, when we pretend the honour of God,
and make God and religion a handle to some designs we have in
hand; our Creator a tool for our own ends.
This is evident,
[1.] In our loving God, because of some self-pleasing bene
fits distributed by him. There is in men a kind of natural love
to God, but it is but a secondary one, because God gives them
the good things of this world, spreads their table, fills their cup,
stuffs their coffers, and does them some good turns by unex
pected providences. This is not an affection to Gbd for the
unbounded excellency of his OAvn' nature, but for his benefi
cence, as he opens his hand for them; an affection to themselves,
and those creatures, their gold, their honour, which their hearts
are most fixed upon, without a strong spiritual inclination that
God should be glorified by them in the use of those mercies.
It is rather a disowning of God, than any love to him; because
fl postpones God to those things they love him for. This would
appear to be no love, if God should cease to be their benefac
tor, and deal Avith them as a Judge; if he should change his
outward smiles into afflicting frowns, and not only shut his
harid, but strip them of Avhat he sent them. The motive of
their love being expired, the affection raised by it must cease
for want of fuel to feed fl: so that God is beholden to sordid
creatures, of no value, but as they are his creatures, for most
of the love the sons of men pretend to him. The devil spake
truth of most men, though not of Job, when he said, They
love not God for nought, Job i. 9; fl is but whfle he makes a
hedge about them and their famihes, whflst he blesses the works
of their hands, and increases their honour in the land. It is
¦ Pascal, Pensees. § 30. p. 294.

ON PRACTICAL ATHESIM. Igg
like Peter's sharp reproof of his Master, when he spake of the
iU usage, even to death, he was to meet with at Jerusalem •
"This shaU not be unto thee:" fl was as much out of love to
himself, as zeal for his Master's interest, knowing his Master
could not be in such a storm without some drops lighting upon
himself AU the apostasies of men in the world are witnesses
to this. They fawn whUst they raay have a prosperous pro
fession, but Avill not bear one chip of the cross for the interest
of God: they would partake of his blessings, but not endure
the prick of a lance for him, as those that admired the mira
cles of our Saviour, and shrunk at his sufferings. A time of
trial discovers these mercenary souls to be more lovers of them
selves than their Maker. This is a pretended love of friend
ship to God, but a real love to a lust, only to gain by God. A
good man's temper is contrary: "Quench hell, burn heaven,"
said a holy man, "I will love and fear my God."
[2.] It is evident; in abstinence from some sins, not because
they offend God, but because they are against the interest of
some other beloved corruption, or a bar to something men hunt
, after in the world: as when temperance is cherished, not to
honour God, but to preserve a crazy carcass; prodigality for
saken, out of a humour of avarice; uncleanness forsaken, not
out of a hatred of lust, but love to their money; declining a
denial ofthe interest and truth of God, not out of affection to
them, but an ambitious zeal for their own reputation. There is
a kind of conversion from sin, when God is not made the term
ofit : " If thou wflt return, 0 Israel, saith the Lord, return unto
me." Jer. iv. 1.' When we forbear sin as dogs do the meat
they love; they forbear not out of a hatred of the carrion, but
fear of the cudgel ; these are as wicked in their abstaining
from sin, as others are in their furious committing it. Nothing
of the honour of God and the end of his appointments is indeed
in all this, but the conveniences self gathers from them. Again,
many of the motives the generality of the world use to their
friends and relations to draw them from vices, are drawn from
self, and used to prop up natural or sinful self in them. " Come,
reform yourself, take other courses, you will stain your reputa
tion and be despicable; you will destroy your estate and com
mence a beggar; your family wiU be undone, and you may
rot in a prison:" not laying close to them the duty they owe to
God, the dishonour which accrues to him by their unworthy
courses, and the ingratitude to the God of their mercies. Not
that the other motives are to be laid aside and slighted: mint
and cummin may be tflhed, but the weightier concerns are not
to be omitted. But this shows that self is the bias, not only of
men in their own course, but in their dealings Avith others:
> Trap, on Gen. p. 148.

160 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
what should be subordinate to the honour of God, and the duty
we owe to him, is made superior.
[3.] It is evident in performing duties merely for a selfish
interest ; making ourselves the end of rehgious actions, paying
a homage to that, while we pretend to render it to God: " Did
ye at aU fast unto me, even to me?" Zech. vii. 5. Things
ordained by God may fall in with carnal ends affected by our
selves; and then religion is not kept up by any interest of God
in the conscience, but the interest of self in the heart. We then
sanctify not the name of God in the duty, but gratify ourselves:
God may be the object, self is the end; and a heavenly object
is raade subservient to a carnal design. Hypocrisy passes a
compliment on God, and is called flattery. " They did flatter
him with their mouth." Psal. Ixxviii. 36. They gave him a
parcel of good words for their own preservation. Flattery in
the old notion among the heathens, is a vice raore peculiar to
serve our own turn, and purvey for the belly. They kn&w
they could not subsist without God, and therefore gave him a
parcel of good words, that he might spare them, and make pro
vision for them. " Israel is an empty vine," Hos. x. 1 ; a vine,
say some, with large branches and few clusters, but " bringeth
forth fruit unto himself" Whfle they professed love to God
with their hps, it was that God should promote their covetous
designs, and preserve their wealth and grandeur. Ezek xxxiii.
31. In which respect, a hypocrite may be well termed a reli
gious atheist, an atheist masked with religion. The chief
arguments which prevail wifh many men to perform some
duties and appear religious, are the same that Hamor and
Shechem used to the people of their city to submit to circum
cision, namely, the engrossing of more wealth: " If every male
among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised, shall not
their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be
ours?" Gen. xxxiv. 22, 23.
This is seen, in unAvieldiness to religious duties where self
is not concerned. With what lively thoughts wfll many ap
proach to God, when a revenue may be brought in to sup
port their own ends! but when the concerns of God only
are in fl, the duty is not the delight, but the clog; such fee
ble devotions that warm not the soul, unless there be some
thing of self to give strength and heat to them. Jonah was
sick of his work, and ran from God, because he thought he
should get no honour by his message; God's mercy wfll dis
credit his prophecy. Jonah iv. 2. Thoughts of disadvantage
cut the very sinews of service. You may as wefl persuade
a merchant to venture afl his estate upon the inconstant waves,
without the hopes of gain, as prevail with a natural man
to be serious in duty, Avflhout expectation of some warm

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. Igl
advantage. " What profit should we have if we pray unto
him," is the natural question. Job xxi. 15. " What profit shall
I have, if I be cleansed frora my sin ?" Job xxxv. 3. I shall
have raore good by ray sin than by my service. It is for God
that I dance before the ark, saith David, therefore I wfll be
more vile. 2 Sam. vi. 22. It is for self that I pray, saith a
natural man, therefore I wifl be raore warm and quick. Ordi
nances of God are observed only as a point of interest, and
prayer is often raost fervent when it is least godly and most
selfish: carnal ends and affections will pour out lively expres
sions. If there be no delight in the means that lead to God,
there is no delight in God himself; because love is appetitiis
unionis, a desire of union ; and where the object is desirable,
the means that bring us to it Avould be dehghtful too.
In calling upon God only in a time of necessity. How offi
cious wfll raen be in affliction to that God whom they neglect
in their prosperity! " When he slew them, then they sought
him: and they returned and inquired early after God. And
they remembered that God was their rock." Psa. Ixxviii. 34, 35.
They remembered him under the scourge, and forgat him under
his smiles. They visit the throne of grace, knock loud at hea
ven's gates, and give God no rest for their early and importu
nate devotions when under distress; but when their desires are
answered, and the rod removed, they stand aloof frora hira, and
rest upon their own bottom, as Jer. ii. 31. " We are lords; we
will come no more unto thee." When we have need of him,
he shall find us clients at his gate; and when we have served
our turn, he hears no more of us: like Noah's dove sent out of
the ark, that returned to him when she found no rest on the
earth, but came not back when she found a footing elsewhere.
How often do men apply themselves to God, when they have
some business for him to do for them! And then, too, they are
loth to put it solely into his hand, to manage it for his own
honour; but they presume to be his directors, that he may
manage it for their glory. Self spurs men on to the throne of
grace; they desire to be furnished with some mercy they want,
or to have the clouds of some judgments which they fear, blown
over. This is not affection to God, but to ourselves: as the
Romans worshipped a quartan ague as a goddess, and Timo
rem, et Pallorem, Fear and Paleness, as gods; not out of any
affection they had to the disease or the passion, but for fear
to receive any hurt by them.
Again, when we have gained the mercy we need, how little
do we warm our souls with the consideration of that God that
gave it, or lay out the mercy in his service! We are importu
nate to have him our Friend in our necessities, and are un
gratefully careless of him, and the injuries he suffers by us or
Vol. I.— 21

162 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
Others. When he has discharged us from the rock where Ave
stuck, we leave him, as having no more need of him, and able
to do well enough without him; as if we were petty gods our
selves, and only wanted a lift from him at first. This is not to
glorify God as God, but as our servant; not an honouring of
God, but a self-seeking: he would hardly beg at God's door, if
he could gratify himself without him.
In begging his assistance to our own projects. When we lay
the plot of our own affairs, and then come to God, not for coun
sel, but blessing. Self only shaU give us counsel how to act;
but because we believe that there is a God that governs the
world, we will desire him to contribute success. God is not con
sulted with, tiU the counsel of self be fixed; then God must be
the executor of our wfll: self must be the principal, and God
the instrument to hatch whatAve have contrived. It is worse
when we beg of God to favour some sinful aim; the psalmist
implies this, " If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord wifl
not hear me." Psa. Ixvi. 18. Iniquity regarded as the aim in
prayer, renders the prayer successless, and the suppliant an
atheist, in debasing God to back his lust by his holy provi
dence. The disciples had determined revenge; and because they
could not act it without their Master, they would have him be
their second in their vindictive passion — call for fire from
heaven, Luke ix. 54.
We scarce seek God, till we have modelled the whole con
trivance in our own brains, and resolved upon the methods of
performance; as though there were not a fulness of wisdom in
God to guide us in our resolves, as well as power to breathe
success upon them.
In impatience upon the refusal of our desires. How often
do men's spirits rise against God, when he steps not in with
the assistance they want ! If the glory of God swayed more
with them than their private interest, they Avould let God be
judge of his own glory, and rather magnify his wisdom, than
complain of his Avant of goodness. Selfish hearts wfll charge
God with neglect of them, if he be not as quick in their sup
plies as they are in their desires ; like those in Isa. Ivfli. 3.
" Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not ?
wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no
knowledge?" When we aim at God's glory in our importu
nities, we shall fall down in humble submissions Avhen he de
nies us: whereas self rises up in bold expostulations, as if God
were our servant, and had neglected the service he owed us,
not to come at our call. We overvalue the satisfactions of self
above the honour of God. Besides, if what we desire be a sin,
our impatience at a refusal is more intolerable ; it is an anger

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. I63
that God will not lay aside his holiness to serve our corrup
tion. In the actual aims men have in their duties. In prayer for
temporal things — when we desire health for our own ease,
wealth for our oavu sensuality, strength for our revenge, chil
dren for, the increase of our family, gifts for our applause, as
Simon Magus did the Holy Ghost; or, when some of those
ends are aimed at; this is to desire God not to serve himself of
us, but to be a servant to our worldly interest, our vain-glory,
the greatening of our names, and so on. In spiritual mercies
begged for; when pardon of sin is desired only for our own
security from eternal vengeance; sanctification desired only to
make us fit for everlasting blessedness; peace of conscience
only that we may lead our lives more comfortably in the world;
when we have not actual intentions for the glory of God, or
when our thoughts of God's honour are overtopped by the
aims of .self-advantage. Not but that, as God has pressed us
to those things by motives drawn from the blessedness derived
to ourselves by them, so we may desire them with a respect to
ourselves; but this respect must be contained within the due
banks, in subordination to the glory of God, not above it, nor
in an equal balance with it. That which is nourishing or
medicinal in the first or second degree, is in the fourth or fifth
degree mere destructive poison.'
Let us consider it seriously; though a duty be heavenly,
does not some base end pollute us in it?
How is it with our confessions of sin ? Are they not more
to procure our pardon, than to shame ourselves before God, or
to be freed from the chains that hinder us from bringing him
the glory for which we were created; or more to partake ofhis
benefits, than to honour him in acknowledging fhe rights of his
justice? Do we not bewail sin as it has ruined us, not as it
opppsed the holiness of God? Do we not shuffle with God,
and confess one sin, while we reserve another; as if we would
allure God by declaring our dislike of one, to give us liberty to
commit wantonness with another; not to abhor ourselves, but
to compromise with God?
Is it any better in our private and family worship ? Are
not such assemblies frequented by some, Avhere some upon
whom they have a dependence may eye them, and have a
better opinion of them, and affection to them? If God were
the sole end of our hearts; would they not be as glowing under
the sole eye of God, as our tongues or carriages are seemingly
serious under the eye of man ? Are not family duties performed
by some that their voices may be heard and their reputation
supported among godly neighbours?
- 1 GurnaU. Part 3. p. 337.

164 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
Is not the charity of many raen tainted with this end self?
as the Pharisees were. Matt. vi. 1, whfle they set the miserable
object before them, but not the Lord; bestowing alms, not so
much upon the necessities of the people, as the friendship we
owe them for some particular respects: or casting our bread
upon those waters which stream down in the sight of the
world, that our alms may be visible to them and commended
by them: or when we think to oblige God to pardon our
transgression ; as if we merited it and heaven too at his hands,
by bestowing a few pence upon indigent persons. And
Is it not the same wifh the reproofs of men ? Is not heat
and anger carried out with full sail when our worldly interest
is prejudiced, and becalmed in the concerns of God? Do not
many masters reprove their servants with more vehemency
for the neglect of their trade and business, than the neglect of
divine duties ; and that upon religious arguments, pretending
the honour of God, that they may mind their own interest?
But when they are negligent in Avhat they owe to God, no
noise is made, they pass without rebuke. Is not this to make
God and religion a handle to their own ends ? It is part of
atheism, not to regard the injuries done to God, as Tiberius; '
" Let God's wrongs be looked to or cared for by himself"
Is it not thus in our seeming zeal for religion? As Demetrius
and the craftsmen at Ephesus cried up aloud the greatness of
Diana of the Ephesians, not out of any true zeal they had for
her, but their gain, which was increased by the confluence of
her worshippers, and the sale of her own shrines. Acts xix.
24. 28.
Our performing duties merely for a selfish interest, is also
shown — in making use of the name of God to countenance
our sin; as when we set up an opinion that is a friend to our
lusts, and then dig deep into the Scripture to find crutches to
support it, and authorize our practices; when men will thank
God for what they have got by unlawful means, fathering the
fruit of their cheating craft, and the simplicfly of their chap
men upon God ; crediting their cosenage by his name, as men
do brass money, with a thin plate of silver, and the stamp and
image of the prince. The Jews urge the law of God for the
crucifying his Son, " We have a law, and by that law he is to
die," John xix. 7 ; and would make him a party in their pri
vate revenge. Thus often when we have faltered in some
actions, we wipe our mouths, as if we sought God more than
our own interest, prostituting the sacred name and honour of
God, either to hatch or defend some unworthy lust against his
word.^ Is not all this a high degree of atheism?
¦ Dei injuria Deo curte. 2 Sanderson's S. Part 2. p. 158.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

165

It is a viflfying of God, an abuse of the highest good. Other
sins subject the creature and outward things to them; but act
ing in religious services for self, subjects not only the highest
concernments of men's souls, but the Creator himself to the
creature; nay, it makes God contribute to thatwhich is the
pleasure of the devil. It is a greater slight than to cast the
gifts of a prince to a herd of nasty swine. It were more ex
cusable to serve ourselves of God upon the higher accounts,
such as materially conduce fo his glory; but it is an intolera
ble wrong to make him and his ordinances caterers for our own
bellies, as they did, Hos. viu. 13. They sacrificed the nnj of
which the offerer might eat; not out of any reference to God,
but love to their gluttony; not to please him, but to feast them
selves.' The belly Avas truly made their god, when God was
served only in order to the belly, as though the blessed God
had his being, and his ordinances were enjoined, to gratify
their foolish and wanton appetites: as though the work of God
were only to patronize unrighteous ends, and be as bad as
themselves, and become a pander to their corrupt affections.
Because it is a vilifying of God, it is an undeifying or de
throning God. It is an acting as if we were the lords, and God
our vassal: a setting up those secular ends in the place of God,
who ought to be our ultimate end in every action; to whom a
glory is as due as his mercy to us is utterly unmerited by us.
He that thinks to cheat and put the fool upon God by his pre
tences, does not heartily believe there is such a being. He
could not have the notion of a God without that of omniscience
and justice; an eye to see the cheat, and an arm to punish it.
The notion of the one would direct him in the manner of his
services, and the sense of the other would scare him from the
cherishing his unworthy ends. He that serves God with a sole
respect to himself, is prepared for any idolatry; his religion
shall warp Avith the times and his interest; he shall deny the
true God for an idol, when his worldly interest shall advise him
to it, and pay the same reverence to the basest image which he
pretends now to pay to God; as the Israelites were as real for
idolatry under their basest princes as they were pretenders to
the true religion under those that were pious.
Before I come to the use of this, give me leave to evince thisi
practical atheism by two other considerations.
1. By our unworthy imaginations of God.
"The fool hath said in his heart. There is no God;" that is,
he is not such a God as you report him to be: this is meant by
their being corrupt in ver. 1, corrupt being taken for playing
the idolaters. Exod. xxxfl. 7. We cannot comprehend God;
if Ave could, we should cease to be finite ; and because we can-
> Hos. viii. 13. Vid. Cocc. in locum.

166 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
not comprehend him, we erect strange images of hira. in our
fancies and affections. And since guilt came upon us, because
we cannot root out the notions of God, we would debase the
majesty and nature of God, that we may have some ease in
our consciences, and lie down with some comfort in the sparks
of our oAvn kindling.
This is universal in men by nature. " God is not in all his
thoughts," Psa. x. 4. Not in any of his thoughts according
to the excellency of his nature and greatness of his majesty. As
the heathen did not glorify God as God, so neither do they con
ceive of God as God; they are aU infected with some one or
other Ul opinion of him, thinking him not so holy, powerful,
just, good as he is, and as the natural force of a human under
standing might arrive to. We join a new notion of God incur
vain fancies, and represent him not as he is, but as we would
have him to be, fit for our OAvn use, and suited to our own plea
sure; we set that active power of imagination on work, and
there comes out a god, (a calf,) whom we own for a notion of
God. Adam cast him into so narrow a mould, as to think that him
self, Avho had newly sprouted up by his Almighty power, was
fit to be his co-rival in knowledge, and had vain hopes to grasp
as much as infiniteness. If he in his first declining began to
have such a conceit, it is no doubt but we have as bad under a
mass of corruption. When holy Agur speaks of God, he cries
out that he had not the understanding of a man, nor the know
ledge ofthe holy. Prov. xxx. 2, 3. He did not think rationally
of God as man might by his strength at his first creation. There
are as many carved images of God, as there are minds of men,
and as monstrous shapes as those corruptions, into Avhich they
Avould transform him.
Hence sprang,
(1.) Idolatry. Vain imaginations first set afloat and kept up
this in the world; vain imaginations of the God whose glory
they changed into the image of corruptible man, Rom. i. 21.23.
They had set up vain images of him in their fancy, before
they set up idolatrous representations of him in their temples;
the likening him to those idols of wood and stone, and various
metals, Avas the fruit of an idea erected in their own minds.
This is a mighty debasing the Divine nature, and rendering him
no better, than that base and stupid matter they make the visi
ble object of their adoration; equalling him with those base
creatures they think worthy to be the representations of him.
Yet how far did this crime spread itself in all corners of the
world, not only among the more barbarous and ignorant, but
the more polished and civihzed nations ! Judea only, where
God had placed the ark of his presence, Avas free from it, in

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM I67
some intervals of time only, after some sweeping judgment.
And though they cast away their idols under some sharp
scourge, they took them again after the heavens were cleared
over 'their heads. The whole book of Judges makes mention
of it: and though an evangelical light has chased that idolatry
aAvay from a great part of the world, yet the principle remain
ing, coins more spiritual idols in the heart, which are brought
before God in acts of worship.
(2.) Hence all superstition received its rise and growth.
When we make a god according to our own complexion, like
to us in mutable and various passions, soon angry and soon
appeased, it is no wonder that we invent Avays of pleasing him
after we have offended him; and think to expiate the sin ofl
our souls by some melancholy devotions and self-chastisements. |
Silperstition is nothing else but an unscriptural and unreasonable
dread of God.' When they imagined him a rigorous and severe
Master, they cast about for ways to mitigate him whom they
thought so hard to be pleased; a very mean thought of him, as
if a shght and pompous devotion could as easily bribe and flat
ter him out of his rigours, as a few good words or baubling
rattles could please and quiet little children; and that whatso
ever pleased us, could please a God infinitely above us. Such
narrow concefls had the Phflistines, when they thought to stifl
the anger of the God of Israel, whom they thought they pos
sessed in the ark, with the present of a few golden mice, 1 Sam.
vi. 3, 4. All the superstition this day living in the world is built
upon this foundation: so natural it is to man to pull God down
to his OAvn imaginations, rather than raise his imaginations up
to God. Hence doth arise also the diffidence of his mercy,
though they repent; measuring God by the contracted models
of their own spirits, as though his nature were as difficult to
pardon their offences against him, as they are to remit wrongs
done to themselves.
(3.) Hence springs all presumption, the common disease of
the world. AU the wickedness in the world, Avhich is nothing
else but presuming upon God, rises from the ill interpretations
of the goodness of God, breaking out upon them in the works
of creation and providence. The corruption of man's nature
engendered, by those notions of goodness, a monstrous birth of
vain imaginations. Not of themselves primarily, but of God ;
whence arose all that folly and darkness in their minds and
conversations, Rom. i. 20, 21. They glorified him not as God,
but according to themselves, imagined him good that themselves
might be bad; fancied himself so indulgent, as to neglect his
own honour for their sensuality. How doth the unclean per
son represent him to his own thoughts, but as a goat; the mur-
' AnatSai-novKi,.

168 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
derer, as a tiger; the sensual person, as a swine; while they
fancy a god indulgent to their crimes without their repentance!
As the image on the seal is stamped upon the wax, so the
thoughts of the heart are printed upon the actions. God's
patience is apprehended to be an approbation of their vices,
and from the consideration of his forbearance, they fashion a
god that they believe wfll smile upon their crimes. They ima
gine a god that plays with them; and though he threatens,
doth it only to scare, but means not as he speaks; a god they
fancy like themselves, that would do as they would do, not be
angry for Avhat they count a light offence; "Thou thoughtest I
was such a one as thyself," Psa. 1. 21; that God and they were
as exactly alike as two tallies. " Our wilful misapprehensions
of God are the cause of our misbehaviour in all his Avorship:
our slovenly and lazy services tell him to his face what slight
thoughts and apprehensions we have of him." '
Compare these two together.
Superstition arises from terrifying misapprehensions of
God; presumption from self-pleasing thoughts. One repre
sents him only rigorous, and the other careless. One makes us
over-officious in serving him by our own rules, and the other
over-bold in offending him, according to our humours. The
want of a true notion of God's justice makes some men slight
him; and the want of a true apprehension of his goodness
makes others too servile in their approaches to him. One
makes us careless of duties, and the other makes us look on
them rather as physic than food; an insupportable penance,
than a desirable privilege. In this case, hell is the principle of
duty performed to heaven. The superstitious man believes
God hath scarce mercy to pardon; the presumptuous man be
heves he hath no such perfection as justice to punish. The one
makes him insignificant to Avhat he desires, kindness and good
ness; the other renders him insignificant to Avhat he fears, his
vindictive justice. What between the idolater, the superstitious,
the presumptuous person, God should look like no God in the
world. These unworthy imaginations of God are likewise,
A vilifying of him : debasing the Creator, to be a creature
oftheir own fancies; putting their own stamp upon him; and
fashioning him not according to that beautiful image he im
pressed upon them by creation, but the defaced image they
inherit by their fall, and which is worse, the image of the devil,
which spread itself over thera at their revolt and apostasy.
Were it possible to see a picture of God, according to the fan
cies of men, it would be the most monstrous being ; such a God
that never was nor ever can be.
1 GurnaU, Part 2. p. 245, 246.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

169

We honour God when we have worthy opinions of him,
suitable to his nature ; when we conceive of hira as a being of
unbounded loveliness and perfection. We detract from him
when we ascribe to him such qualities as would be a horrible
disgrace to a wise and good man ; as injustice and impurity.
Thtis men debase God when they invert his order, and would
create him according to their image, as he first created thera
according to his own ; and think hira not worthy to be a God,
unless he fully answer the mould they would cast him into,
and be what is unworthy of his nature. Men do not conceive
of God as he would have them ; but he must be what they
would have him, one of their own shaping.
This is worse than idolatry. The grossest idolater commits
not a crime so heinous, by changing his glory into the image of
creeping things and senseless creatures, as the imagining God
to he as one of our sinful selves, and likening him to those
filthy images we erect in our fancies. One makes him an earthly
god, like. an earthly creature; the other fancies hira an unjust
and impure god, like a wicked creature; one sets up an iraage
of hira in the earth, which is his footstool ; the other sets up an
image of him in the heart, Avhich ought to be his throne.
It is worse than absolute atheism, or a denial of God. Dig-
nius credimus non esse, quodcunque non ita fuerit, ut esse de
beret, was the opinion of Tertulhan ; " it is more commendable
to think him not to be, than to think hira such a one as is in
consistent with his nature." ' Better to deny his existence, than
deny his perfection. No Avise man but would rather have his
memory rot, than be accounted infamous; and would be more
obliged to him that should deny that ever he had a being in the
world, than to say he did indeed live, but he was a sot, a de
bauched person, and a man not to be trusted. When Ave
apprehend God deceitful in his promises, unrighteous in his
threatenings, unwilling to pardon upon repentance, or resolved
to pardon notwithstanding impenitency; these are things either
unworthy of the .nature of God, or contrary to that revelation,
he hath given of himself Better for a man never to have been
born, than be for ever miserable; so better to be thought no
God, than represented impotent or negligent, unjust or deceit
ful; Avhich are more contrary to the nature of God, than hell
can be to the greatest criminal. In this sense perhaps the apos
tle affirms the gentiles to be such as are withbut God in the
world, Eph. ii. 12; as being more atheists in adoring God
under such notions, as they commonly did, than if they had
acknowledged no God at all.
By our natural desire to be distant frora him, and unwflhng-
ness to have any acquaintance with him. Sin set us first at a
' Tertul. cont. Maxim, lib. 1. cap. 2.
Vol. I.— 22

170 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
distance frora God, and every new act of gross sin estranges
us more from him, and indisposes us more for him; it makes
us both afraid and ashamed to be near him. Sensual men were
of this frame that Job discourses of Job xxi. 7 — 9. 14, 15.
Where grace reigns, the nearer to God, the more vigorous the
motion. The nearer any thing approaches to us, that is the
object of our desires, the more eagerly do we press forward to
it; but our blood rises at the approaches of any thing to which
we have an aversion. We have naturally a loathing of God's
coming to us, or our return to him: we seek not after him as
our happiness; and when he offers himself, we like it not, but
put a disgrace upon him in choosing other things before him.
God and we are naturally at as great a distance as light and
darkness, life and death, heaven and hell. The stronger im
pression of God any thing has, the more we fly from it. The
glory of God in reflection upon Moses's face scared the Israel
ites; they who had desired God to speak to them by Moses,
when they saw a signal impression of God upon his counte
nance, were afraid to come near him, as they were before un
willing to come near to God, Exod. xxxiv. 30: not that the
blessed God is in his own nature a frightful object, but our own
guilt renders him so to us, and ourselves indisposed to converse
with him. As the light of the sun is as irksome to a distem
pered eye, as it is in its own nature desirable to a sound one.
The saints themselves have had so much frailty, that they have
cried out that they were undone, if they had any more than
ordinary discoveries of God made unto them, as if they wished
him more remote from them. Vileness cannot endure the splen
dour of majesty, nor guilt the glory of a judge.
We have naturally no desire of remembrance of him — or
converse with him — or thorough return to him — or close imi
tation of him; as if there were not any such being as God in
the world, or as if we Avished there Avere none at all, so feeble
and spiritless are our thoughts of the being of a God.
No desire for the remembrance of him. How delightful are
other things in our minds! how burdensome the memorials of
God, from whom we have our being! With what pleasure do
we contemplate the nature of creatures, even of flies and toads,
while our minds tire in the search of him who has bestowed
upon us our knowing and meditating faculties! Though God
shows himself to us in every creature, in the meanest weed, as
well as the highest heavens, and is more apparent in them to
our reason than themselves can be to. our sense, yet though we
see them, we will not behold God in them. We will view
them to please our sense, to improve our reason, in their natu
ral perfections, but pass by the consideration of God's perfec
tions so visibly beaming from them. Thus we play the beasts

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. I7I
and atheists in the very exercise of reason, and neglect our
Creator to gratify our sense; as though the pleasure of that were
more desirable than the knoAvledge of God. The desire ofour
soul is not towards his name and the remembrance of him,
Isa. xxvi. 8, when we set not ourselves in a posture to feast
our souls with deep and serious meditations of him; have a
thought of him only by the by and away, as if we were afraid
of too intimate acquaintance with him.
Are not the thoughts of God rather our invaders than our
guests, seldom invited to reside and take up their home in our
hearts ? Have we not, when they have broken in upon us, bid
them depart frora us. Job xxii. 17, and warned them to come
no more upon our ground; sent them packing as soon as we
could, and Avere glad when they were gone? And when they
have departed, have we not often been afraid they should re
turn again upon us, and therefore looked about for other
inmates, things not good, or if good, infinitely below God, to
possess the room of our hearts before any thoughts of him
should appear again? Have we not often been glad of excuses
to shake off present thoughts of him; and when we have
wanted real ones, found out pretences to keep God and our
hearts at a distance? Is not this a part of atheism, to be so un
wiUing to employ our faculties about the Giver of them, to
refuse to exercise them in a way of grateful remembrance of
him, as though they were none of his gift, but our own acqui
sition; as though the God that truly gave them had no right to
them; and he that thinks on us every day in a way of provi
dence, were not worthy to be thought on by us in a way of
special remembrance?
Do not the best, that love the remembrance of him, and abhor
this natural averseness, lind, that when they Avould think of
God, many things tempt thera and turn thera to think else
where ? Do they not find their apprehensions too feeble, their
motions too dull, and their impressions too slight? This natural
atheism is spread over human nature.
No desire of converse wifh him. The word "remeraber"
in the command for keeping holy the Sabbath day, including
all the duties of the day, and the choicest of our lives, implies
our natural unwillingness to them, and forgetfulness of them.
God's pressing this command with more reasons than the rest,
manifests that man has no heart for spiritual duties. No spi
ritual duty, which sets us immediately face to face with God,
but in the attempts of it, we find naturally a resistance from
some powerful principle; so that every one may subscribe to
the speech of the apostle, that when we would do good, evil is
present wflh us. No reason of this can be rendered, but the
natural temper of our souls, and an affecting a distance from

172 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
God under any consideration. For though our guUt first made
the breach, yet this aversion to a converse with him steps up
withottt any actual reflections upon our guflt, which may ren
der God terrible to us as an offended Judge. Are we not often
also, in our attendance upon him, more pleased with fhe modes
of worship which gratify our fancy, than to have our souls
inwardly delighted with the object of worship himself?
This is a part of our natural atheism. To cast such duties off
by total neglect, or in part, by affecting a coldness in them, is
to cast off the fear of the Lord. Job. xv. 4. Not to call upon
God, and not to know him, are One and the same thing. Jer.
X. 25. Either we think there is no such being in the world, or
that he is so slight a one, that he deserves not the respect he
calls for; or so impotent and poor, that he cannot supply what
ojir necessities require.
No desire of a thorough return to hira. The first man fled
from him after his defection, though he had no refuge to fly to
but the grace of his Creator. Cain went from his presence,
would be a fugitive from God, rather than a supplicant to him;
when by faith in, and application of the promised Redeemer, he
might have escaped the wrath to come for his brother's blood,
and mitigated the sorrows he was justly sentenced to bear in
the world. Nothing will separate prodigal man from common-
ing with swine, and make him return to his Father, but an
empty trough: have we but husks to feed on, we shall never
think of a Father's presence. It were well if our sores and
indigence would drive us to him; but when our strength is
devoured, we wfll not return to the Lord our God, nor seek
him for all this. Hos. vii. 10. Not his draAvn SAvord as a God
of judgment, nor his mighty power as a Lord, nor his open
arms as the Lord their God, could move thera to turn their eyes
and their hearts towards him. The more he invites us to partake
of his grace, the further we run from him to provoke his wrath:
the louder God called them by his prophets, the closer they
stuck to their Baal. Hos. xi. 2. We turn our backs when he
stretches out his hand, stop our ears when he lifts up his voice;
we fly from him when he courts us, and shelter ourselves in any
bush from his merciful hand, that would lay hold upon us; nor
will we set our faces towards him, tfll our way be hedged up
with thorns, and not a gap left to creep out any by-way. Hos.
ii. 6, 7. Whosoever is brought to a return, puts the Holy Ghost
to the pain of striving; he is not easfly brought to a spiritual
subjection to God, nor persuaded to surrender at a summons,
but sweetly overpowered by storra, and victoriously draAvn into
the arms of God. God stands ready, but the heart stands off;
grace is full of entreaties, and the soul fufl of excuses; Divine
love offers, and carnal self-love rejects. Nothing so pleases us.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

173

as when we are furthest from him; as if any thing were more
amiable, any thing more desirable than himself
No desire of any close imitation of him. When our Saviour
was to come as a refiner's fire to purify the sons of Levi, the
cry is, " Who shaU abide the day of his coming ?" Mai. in. 2, 3.
Since we are ahenated from the life of God, we desire no more
naturally to live the life of God, than a toad or any other ani
mal desires to live the life of a man. No heart that knows God,
but has a holy ambition to imitate him ; no soul that refuses
him for a copy, but is ignorant of his excellency, and of this
temper is all mankind naturally. Man in corruption is as loth
to be like God in holiness, as Adam after his creation was de
sirous to be like God in knowledge; his posterity are like their
father, who soon turned his back upon his original copy.
What can be worse than this ? Can the denial of his being
be a greater injury than this contempt of hira; as if he had not
goodness to deserve our reraembrance, nor amiableness fit for
our converse; as if he were not a Lord fit for our subjection,
nor had a holiness that deserved our imitation?
For the use of this.
Use 1. It serves for information.
(1.) It gives us occasion to admire the wonderful patience
and mercy of God. How many millions of practical atheists
breathe every day in his air, and live upon his bounty, who
deserve to be inhabitants in hell, rather than possessors of the
earth ? An infinite holiness is offended, an infinite justice is
provoked; yet an infinite patience forbears the punishment,
and an infinite goodness relieves our wants. The more Ave had
merited his justice and forfeited his favour, the more is his
affection enhanced, which makes his hand so liberal to us.
At the first invasion of his rights, he mitigates the terror of the
threatening which was set to defend his law, with the grace of a
promise to relieve and recover his rebellious creature. Gen. in.
15. Who would have looked for any thing but tearing thunders,
sweeping judgments, to rase up the foundations of the apos
tate world? But 0, how great are his bowels to his aspiring
competitors! Have we not experienced his contrivances for
our good, though we have refused him for our happiness ? Has
he not opened his arms, when we spurned with our feet; held
out his alluring mercy, when we have brandished against him
a rebellious sword ? Has he npt entreated us whfle we have
invaded him, as if he were unAviUing to lose us, Avho are ambi
tious to destroy ourselves ? Has he yet denied us the care of
his providence, while we have denied him the rights of his
honour, and would appropriate them to ourselves? Has his
sun forborne shining upon us, though we have shot our arrows
against him? Have not our beings been supported by his

174 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
goodness, whfle we have endeavoured to climb up to his
throne; and his mercies continued to charm us, whfle we have
used them as weapons to injure hira? Our own necessities
might excite us to own him as our happiness, but he adds his
invitations to the voice of our wants. Has he not promised a
kingdom to those that would strip him of his crown, and pro
claimed pardon upon repentance to those that would take away
his glory? and has so twisted together his oAvn end, which
is his honour, and man's true end, Avhich is his salvation, that a
man cannot truly mind himself and his own salvation, but he
must mind God's glory; and cannot be intent upon God's
honour, but by the same act he promotes himself and his own
happiness; so loth is God to give any just occasion of dissatis
faction to his creature, as well as dishonour hiraself All those
wonders of his raercy are enhanced by the heinousness of our
atheism; a multitude of gracious thoughts from him above the
multitude of contempts from us, Psal. cvi. 7. What rebels in
actual arms against their prince aiming at his life, ever found
that favour from him, to have all their necessaries richly afforded
them, without which they Avould starve, and without which
they would be unable to manage their attempts, as we have
received from God ? Had not God had riches of goodness, for
bearance, and long-suffering, and infinite riches too ; the des
pite the Avorld has done him in refusing him as their rule,
happiness, and end, would have emptied him long ago, Rom.
ii. 4.
(2.) It brings in a justification of the exercise of his justice.
If it gives us occasion loudly to praise his patience, it also stops
our mouths from accusing any acts of his vengeance. What
can be too sharp a recompense for the despising and disgracing
so great a Being ? The highest contempt merits the greatest
anger; and when we will not own him for our happiness, it is
fit we should feel the misery of separation from him. If he
that is guflty of treason deserves to lose his life, what punish
ment can be thought great enough for him that is so disinge
nuous as to prefer himself before a God so infinitely good, and is
so foolish as to invade the rights of one infinitely powerful ? It
is no injirstice for a creature fo be for ever left to himself, to see
what advantage he can make of that self he was so busily em
ployed to set up in the place of his Creator. The soul of man
deserves an infinite punishment for despising an infinite good:
and it is not unequitable, that that self, which man makes his
rule and happiness above God, should become his torment and
misery by the righteousness of that God whom he despised.
(3.) Hence arises a necessity of a new state and frame of
soul, to alter an atheistical nature. We forget God; think of
him Avith reluctancy; have no respect to God in our course

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. j-,c
and acts: this cannot be our original state. God being infi-
nflely good, never let man come out of his hands wflh this
actual unAviUingness to acknowledge and serve him: he never
intended to dethrone himself for the work ofhis hands, or that
the creature should have any other end than that of his Crea
tor. As the apostle saith in the case of the Galatians' error,
"This persuasion came not of hira that called you," Gal. v. 8;
so this frame comes not from him that created you. How much
therefore do we need a restoring principle in us! Instead of
ordering ourselves according to the will of God, we are desi
rous to fulfil the Avills of the flesh, Eph. fl. 3. There is a ne
cessity of some other principle in us to make us fulfil the wfll
of God, since we were created for God, not for the flesh.
We can no more be voluntarily serviceable to God, while
our serpentine nature and devilish habits remain in us, than
we can suppose the devfl can be wiUing to glorify God, while
the nature he contracted by his fafl abides powerfully in him.
Our nature and wfll must be changed, that our actions may
regard God as our end, that we may delightfully meditate on
him, and draw the motives of our obedience from him. Since
this atheism is seated in nature, the change must be in our
nature; since our first aspirings to the rights of God were the
fruits of the serpent's breath, which tainted our nature, there
must be a removal of this taint, whereby our natures may be
on the side of God against Satan, as they were before on the
side of Satan against God. There must be a supernatural prin
ciple before we can live a supernatural life, that is, we must
live to God, since we are naturally alienated from the life of
God. The aversion of our natures from God, is as strong as
our inclinations to evil; we are disgusted with one, and pressed
Wflh the other; we have no will, no heart, to come to God in
any service. This nature must be broken in pieces and new
moulded, before we can make God our rule and our end.
Whfle men's deeds are evil, they cannot comply wflh God,
John ni. 19, 20; much less Avhfle their natures are evil. Tfll
this be done, all the service a man performs rises frora sorae
evfl imagination of the heart, which is evil, only evil, and that
continuaUy, Gen. vi. 5; from wrong notions of God, wrong
notions of duty, or corrupt motives. AU the pretensions of
devotion to God are but the adoration of some golden iraage.
Prayers to God for the ends of self, are like those of the devfl
to our Saviour, when he asked leave to go into the herd of
swine. The object was right, Christ; the end was the destruc
tion of the swine, and the satisfaction of malice to the owners.
There is a necessity then that depraved ends should be removed,
that that which Avas God's end in our framing, may be our end
in our acting, namely, his glory, which cannot be without a

176 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
change of nature. We can never honour him supremely Avhom
we do not supremely love. Tifl this be, we cannot glorify God
as God, though we do things by his command and order; no
more than Avhen God employed the devil in afflicting Job, Job
i.; his performance cannot be said to be good, because his end
was not the same with God's; he acted out of malice, what
God commanded out of sovereignty, and for gracious designs.
Had God employed a holy angel in his design upon Job, the
action had been good in the affliction, because his nature was
holy, and therefore his ends holy; but bad in the devil, because
his ends were base and unworthy.
(4.) We may gather from hence the difflculty of conversion,
and mortification to follow thereupon. What is the reason men
receive no more impression frora the voice of God and the light
of his truth, than a dead man in the grave does from the roar
ing thunder, or a blind mole from the light of the sun ? It is
because our atheism is as great as the deadness of the one, or
the blindness of the other. The principle in the heart is strong
to shut the door both of the thoughts and affections against
God. If a friend oblige us, we shaU act for him as for our
selves: we are won by entreaties, soft words overcome us, but
our hearts are as deaf as the hardest rock at the call of God.
Neither the joys of heaven proposed by him can allure us, nor
the flashing terrors of hell affright us to him, as if we conceived
God unable to bestow the one, or execute the other. The true
reason is, God and self contest for the deity ; the law of sin is,
God must be at the footstool; the law of God is, sin must be
utterly deposed: now it is difficult to leave a law beloved, for
a law long ago discarded. The mind of man Avill hunt after
any thing; the will of man embrace any thing; upon the pro
posal of mean objects the spirit of raan spreads its wings, flies
to catch them, becomes one with them; but attempt to bring it
under the power of God, the wings flag, the creature looks life
less, as though there were no spring of motion in it. It is as
much crucified to God as the holy apostle was to the world:
the sin of the heart discovers its strength, the more God disco
vers the hohness of his wifl. Rom. vfl. 9—12. The love of
sin has been predominant in our nature, and has quashed a
love to God, if not extinguished it.
Plence also is the difficulty of mortification. This is a work
tending to the honour of God, the abasing of that inordinately
aspiring humour in ourselves. If the nature of man be inclined
to sin, as it is, it must needs be bent against any thing that op
poses it. It is impossible to strike any true blow at any lust,
tifl the true sense of God be re-entertained in the sofl where it
ought to grow. Who can be naturally wflhng to crucify what
is incorporated with him, his flesh; what is dearest to bimj

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

177

himself? Is it an easy thing for man, the competitor with God,
to turn his arms against himself; that self should overthrow its
own empire; lay aside all its pretensions to, and designs for a
God-head; to hew off its own members, and subdue its own
affections? It is the nature of man to cover his sin, to hide it in
his bosom;" ' not to destroy it, and as un wfllingly part with his
carnal affections, as the legion of devils were with the man that
had been long possessed. And when he is forced and fired from
one, he wfll endeavour to espouse some other lust, as those
devils desired to possess swine, when they were chased from
their possession of that man.
(5.) Here we see the reason of unbelief That which has
most of God in it, meets with most aversion from us ; that which
has least of God, finds better and stronger inclinations in us.
What is the reason that the heart of man is more unwiUing to
embrace the gospel, than acknowledge the equity of the law?
Because there is more of God's nature and perfection evident
in the gospel than in the law. Besides, there is more reliance
on God and. distance frora self commanded in the gospel. The
law puts a mart lipoh his own strength; the gospel takes him
off from his own bottom: the law acknowledges hira to have a
power in himself, and to act for his OAvn reward; the gospel
strips him of all his proud and towering thoughts, 2 Cor. x. 5;
brings him to his due place, the foot of God ; orders him to deny
himself as his own rule, righteousness, and end; and henceforth
not to hve to himself 2 Cor. v. 15. This is the true reason
why men are raore against the gospel than against the law;
because it doth more deify God, and debase man. Hence it is
easier to reduce men to some moral virtue, than to faith ; to
make men blush at their outward vices, but not at the inward
impurity of their natures. Hence it is observed that those that
asserted, that all happiness did arise from something in a man's
self, as the Stoics and Epicureans did, and that a wise man was
equal with God, were greater enemies to the truths of the gos
pel than others. Acts xvii. 18, because it lays the axe to the root
of their principal opinion; takes the one from their self-suffi
ciency, and the other frora their self-gratification; opposes fhe
brutish principle ofthe one, Avhich placed happiness in the plea
sures of the body, and the more noble principle of the other,
which placed happiness in the virtue of the mind. The one was
for a sensual, the other for a moral self; both disowned by the
doctrine of the gospel.
(6.) It informs us consequently, who can be fhe Author of
grace and conversion, and every other good work. No practical
atheist ever yet turned to God, but Avas turned by God; and not
to acknowledge it to God, is a part of this atheism, since it is a
> " If I cover my transgressions as Adam," Job xxxi, 33.
Vol. I. — 23

178 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
robbing God of the honour of one of his most glorious works.
If this practical atheism be natural to man ever since the first
taint 01^ nature in paradise, what can be expected from it but a
resisting of the work of God, and setting up all the forces of
nature against the operations of grace, till a day of power dawn
and clear up upon the soul, Psa. ex. 3. Not all the angels in
heaven, or men upon earth, can be imagined to be able to per
suade a man to fall out with himself Nothing can turn the tide
of nature, but a power above nature. God took away the sanc
tifying Spirit from man, as a penalty for the first sin: who can
regain it but by his Avill and pleasure ? who can restore it but
he that removed it? Since every man hath the same fundamen
tal atheism in him by nature, and would be a rule to himself,
and his own end; he is so far from dethroning himself, that all
the strength of his corrupted nature is alarmed up to stand to
its arms, upon any attempt God makes to regain the fort. The
will is so strong against God, that it is like many wifls twisted
together; " wiUs ofthe flesh," Eph. ii. 3; we translate it, "the
desires of the flesh;" like many threads twisted in a cable,
never to be snapped asunder by a human arm : a power and
will above ours can alone untwist so many wills in a knot.
Man cannot rise to an acknowledgment of God, without God:
hell may as well become heaven, the devil be changed into an
angel of light. The devil cannot but desire happiness ; he knows
the misery into which he is fallen ; he cannot be desirous of
that punishment he knows is reserved for him. Why does he
not sanctify God and glorify his Creator, wherein there is abun
dantly more pleasure than in his malicious course? why does
he not petition to recover his ancient standing? He will not;
there are chains of darkness upon his faculties; he will not be
otherwise than he is: his desire to be god of the world, sways
him against his own interest, and out of love to his malice, he
will not sin at a less rate to raake a diminution of his punish
ment. Man, if God utterly refuseth to work upon him, is no
better, and to maintain his atheism, would venture a hell. How
is it possible for a man to turn himself to that God, against
whom he has a quarrel in his hature; the raost rooted and
settled habit in him being to set himself in the place of God.
An atheist by nature can no more alter his oavu temper, and
engrave in himself the Divine nature, than a rock can carve
itself into the statue of a man, or a serpent, that is an enemy to
raan, could or would raise itself to the nobility of the human
nature. That soul that by nature would strip God of his rights,
cannot wflhout a Divine power be made conformable to him,
and acknowledge sincerely and cordially the rights and glory of
God. (7.) We may here see the reason why there can be no justi-

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. j7g
fication by the best and strongest works of nature. Can that
which has atheism at the root, justify either the action or per
son? What strength can those works have which have neither
God's law for their rifle, nor his glory for their end ; that are
not wrought by any spirflual strength from him, nor fend with
any spir'tual affection to him? Can these be a foundation for
the most holy God to pronounce a creature righteous? They
will justify his justice in condemning, but cannot sway his jus
tice to an absolution. Every natural man in his works picks
and chooses ; he owns the Avill of God no further than he can
wring it to suit the law of his members, and minds not the
honour of God, but as it justles not with his own glory and
secular ends. Can he be righteous that prefers his own Avill
and his own honour, before the will and honour of the Crea
tor? However men's actions may be beneficial to others, Avhat
reason has God to esteem thera, wherein there is no respect to
him, but themselves, Avhereby they dethrone him in their
thoughts, whfle they seem to own hira in their religious works?
Every day reproves us with something different from the rule ;
thousands of wanderings offer themselves to our eyes. Can
justification be expected from that which in itself is matter of
despair? (8.) See here the cause of all the apostasy in the world.
Practical atheism was never conquered in such: they are stfll
alienated from the life of God, and will not live to God, as he
lives to himself and his own honour, Eph. iv. 17, 18. They loathe
his rule, and distaste his glory; are loath to step out of them
selves to promote the ends of another, find not fhe satisfaction
in him that they do in themselves: they wfll be judges of what
is good for them and righteous in itself, rather than admit of
God to judge for them. When men draw back from truth to
error, it is to such opinions which may serve more to foment
and cherish their ambition, covetousness, or some beloved lust
that disputes with God for precedency, and is designed to be
served before him. "They loved the praise of men more than
the praise of God." John xii. 42, 43. A preferring man before
God was the reason they would not confess Christ, and God in
him. (9.) This shows us the excellency of the gospel and Chris
tian religion. It sets man in his due place, and gives to God
what the excellency of his nature requires. It lays man in the
dust from whence he was taken, and sets God upon that throne
where he ought to sit. Man by nature would annihilate God
and deify himself; the gospel glorifies God and annihilate.-
raan. In our first revolt we would be like hira in knowledge;
in the means he has provided for our recovery, he designs to
make us like him in grace. Thegospel shows ourselves to ne

180 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
an object of humUiation, and God to be a glorious object for
our imitation. The light of nature tells us there is a God; the
gospel gives us a more magnificent report of him: fhe light of
nature condemns gross atheism, and that of the gospel con
demns and conquers spiritual atheism in the hearts of men.
Use 2. Of exhortation.
(1.) Let us labour to be sensible of this atheism in our na
ture, and be humbled for it. Hoav should we he in the dust,
and go boAving under the humbling thoughts of it all our days!
Shall we not be sensible of that whereby we spill the blood of
our souls, and give a stab to the heart of our own salvation?
Shall we be worse than any creature, not to bewail that which
tends to our destruction? He that does not lament it, cannot
challenge the character of a Christian, has nothing of the divine
life and love planted in his soul. Not a man but shall one day
be sensible, Avhen the eternal God shall call him out to exami
nation, and charge his conscience to discover every crime, which
will then own the authority whereby it acted; when the heart
shall be torn open, and the secrets of it brought to public view,
and the worid and man himself shall see Avhat a viperous brood
of corrupt principles and ends nestled in his heart. Let us
therefore be truly sensible of it, till the consideration draw tears
from our eyes and sorrow from our souls. Let us urge the
thoughts of it upon our hearts, tfll the core of that pride be
eaten out, and our stubbornness changed into humility ; tifl our
heads become waters, and our eyes fountains of tears, and be
a spring of prayer to God to change the heart and mortify the
atheism in it. And consider what a sad thing it is to be a
practical atheist, and who is not so by nature?
Let us be sensible of it in ourselves. Have any of our hearts
been a soil wherein the fear and reverence of God has natu
rally grown? have we a desire to know him, or a wfll to em
brace him? do we delight in his will, and love the remembrance
of his name? are our respects fo him as God equal to the specu
lative knowledge we have of his nature? is the heart, wherein
he has stamped his image, reserved for his residence? is not
the world more affected than fhe Creator of the world, as though
that could contribute to us a greater happiness than the Author
ofit? have not creatures as much of our love, fear, trust; nay,
more than God, that framed both them and us? have aVc not
too often relied upon our own strength, and made a calf ofour
OAvn wisdom, and said of God as the Israelites of Moses, " As
for this Moses, we wot not what is become of him, Exod.
xxxii. 1 ; and oftener given the glory of our good success to
our drag and our net, to our craft and our industry, than to the
wisdom and blessing of God? Are we then free from this sort
of atheism? It is as impossible to have two gods at one time

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. jgj
in one heart, as to have tAvo kings at one time in fufl power in
one kingdom.' Have there not been frequent neglects of Gpd?
have we not been deaf whilst he has knocked at our doors,
slept when he has sounded in our ears, as if there had been no
such being as a God in the world? How many strugglings have
been against our approaches to him! Has not folly often been
committed with vain imaginations, starting up in the time of
religious service, Avhich we would scarce vouchsafe a look to
at another time, and in another business, but would have thrust
them away with indignation? Had they slept in to interrupt
our Avorldly affairs, they would have been troublesome intru
ders, but while we are with God they are acceptable guests!
How unwilling have our hearts been to fortify themselves with
strong and influencing considerations of God, before we ad
dressed hira! Is it not too often that our lifelessness in prayer
proceeds from this atheism; a neglect of seeing what argu-
raents and pleas may be drawn from the divine perfections, to
second our suit in hand, and quicken our hearts in the service?
Whence are those indispositions to any spiritual duty, but be
cause we have not due thoughts of the majesty, holiness, good
ness, and excellency of God? Is there any duty which leads to
a more particular inquiry after him, or a more clear vision of
him, but our hearts have been ready to rise up and cafl it
cursed rather than blessed? Are not our minds bemisted with
an ignorance of him, our wills drawn by aversion from him,
our affections rising in distaste of him; more wUling to knoAV
any thing than his nature, and more industrious fo do any thing
than his wfll? Do we not all fall under some one or other of
these considerations? Is it not fit then that we should have a
sense of them? It is to be bcAvailed by us that so little of God
is in our hearts, when so many evidences of the love of God
are in the creatures; that God should be so little our end, who
has been so much our benefactor; that he should be so little in
our thoughts, who sparkles in every thing which presents itself
to our eyes.
Let us be sensible of it in others. We ought to have a just
execration of the too open iniquity in the midst of us, and imi
tate holy David, whose tears plentifully gushed out, because
men kept not God's laAV, Psal. cxix. 136. And is it not a time
to exercise this pious lamentation? Has the wicked atheism of
any age been greater, or can you find worse in hell than we
may hear of and behold on earth? How is the excellent ma
jesty of God, adored by the angels in heaven, despised and
reproached by men on earth; as if his name were published to
be raatter of their sport! What a gasping thing is a natural
sense of God among men in the world! Is not the law of God,
1 Lawson's Body of Divinity, p. 153, 154.

182 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
accompanied with such dreadful threatenings and curses, made
light of; as if raen would place their honour in being above or
beyond any sense of that glorious Majesty? How many wal
low in pleasures as if they had been made men only to turn
brutes, and their souls given them only for salt to keep their
bodies from putrefying! It is as well a part of atheism not to
be sensible of the abuses of God's name and laws by others,
as to violate them ourselves. What is the language of a stupid
senselessness of them, but that there is no God in the Avorld,
whose glory is worth a vindication and deserves our regards?
That we may be sensible of the unworthiness of neglecting
God as our rule and end; consider,
[1.] The unreasonableness of it as it concerns God.
It is a high contempt of God. It is an inverting the order of
things; a making God, the highest, to become the lowest, and
self, the lowest, to become the highest. To be guided by every
base companion, some idle vanity, some carnal interest, is to
acknowledge an excellency abounding in them which is want
ing in God; an equity in their orders, and none in God's pre
cepts; a goodness in their promises, and a falsity in God's: as
if infinite excellency were a mere vanity, and to act for God
were the debasement of our reason; to act for self, or some piti
ful creature or sordid lust, were the glory and advancement of
it. To prefer any one sin before the honour of God, is as if
that sin had been our creator and benefactor, as if it were the
original cause ofour being and support. Do not men pay as
great a homage to that as they do to God? do not their minds
eagerly pursue it? are not the revolvings of it in their fancies
as delightful to them, as fhe remembrance of God to a holy
soul? Do any obey the commands of God Avith more readi
ness than they do the orders of their base affections ? Did Peter
leap more readily into the sea to meet his Master, than many
into the jaws of hell fo meet their Delilahs? How cheerfiflly
did the Israelites part with their ornaments for the sake of an
idol, who would not have spared a moiety for the honour of
their deliverer! ' If to make God our end is the principal duty
in nature, then to make ourselves or any thing else our end is
the greatest vice in the rank of evils.
It is a contempt of God as the raost amiable object. God is
infinitely excellent and desirable. " How great is his goodness,
and how great is his beauty!" Zech. ix. 17. There is nothing
in him but what may ravish our affections; none that knoAv him
but find attractives to keep them with him; he has nothing in
him which can be a proper object of contempt, no defects or
shadow of evfl; there is infinite excellency to charm us, and
infinite goodness to allure us; he is the Author of our beings,
1 All the people brake off tbe golden ear-rings. E.xod. xxxii. 3.

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. Igo
the Benefactor of our lives. Why then should man, who is
his image, be so base as to slight the beautiful Original which
stamped it on him? He is fhe most lovely object; therefore
to be studied, therefore to be honoured, therefore to be follow
ed: in regard of his perfection he has the highest right to our
thoughts. All other beings were eminently contained in his
essence, and were produced by his infinite power: the creature
has nothing but what it has frorn God. And is it not un
worthy to prefer the copy before the original, to fall in love
with a picture instead ofthe beauty it represents? The crea
ture, which we advance to be our rule and end, can no more
report to us the true amiableness of God, than a few colours,
mixed and suited together upon a piece of cloth, can the moral
and intellectual loveliness of the soul of man. To conteran
God one moment is more base, than if all creatures were con
temned by us for ever; because the excellency of creatures is
to God, like that of a drop to the sea, or a spark to the glory of
inconceivable miUions of suns. As much as the excellency of
God is above our conceptions, so much does the debasing of
him admit of inexpressible aggravations.
[2.] Consider the ingratitude in it; that we should resist that
God Avith our hearts, who made us the Avork of his hands, and
count hira as nothing, frora whom we derive all the good that
we are or have! There is no contempt of man but steps in
here to aggravate our slighting of God, because there is no
relation one man can stand in to another, wherein God does
not more highly appear to man. If we abhor the uuAvorthy
carriage of a child to a tender father, a servant to an indulgent
master, a man fo his obliging friend ; why do men daily act
that towards God, which they cannot speak of without abhor
rence, if acted by another against man? Is God a being less
to be regarded than man, and more worthy of contempt than
a creature? " It would be strange if a benefactor should hve
in the same town, in the same house with us, and we never
exchange a word wflh him; yet this is our case, who have the
works of God in our eyes, the goodness of God in our being,
the mercy of God in our daily food,'" yet think so little of him,
converse so little with him, serve every thing before him, and
prefer every thing above him. Whence have we our mercies,
but from his hand? Who, besides him, maintains our breath
this moment? Should he call for our spirits this moment, they
must depart from us to attend his command. There is not a
moment wherein our unworthy carriage is not aggravated,
because there is not a moraent Avherein he is not our guardian,
and gives us not tastes of a fresh bounty. And it is no light
aggravation of our crime, that we injure him, without whose
' Reynolds, '

184 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM,
bounty in giving us our being we had not been capable of
casting contempt upon him. Alas! that he that has the great
est stamp of his image, man, should deserve the character of
the worst of his rebels; that he, who hath only reason by the
gift of God to judge of fhe equity of the laws of God, should
swell against them as grievous, and the government of the
Lawgiver as burdensome! Can it lessen the crime, to use the
principle wherein we excel the beasts, to the disadvantage of
God, who endowed us with that principle above the beasts?
It is a debasing of God beyond what the devil does at pre
sent. He is more excusable in his present state of acting, than
man is in his present refusing God for his rule and end. He
strives against a God that exercises upon him a vindictive jus
tice ; we debase a God that loads us with his daily mercies.
The despairing devils are excluded from any mercy or Divine
patience : but we are not only under the long-suffering of his
patience, but the large expressions of his bounty. He would
not be governed by him when he Avas only his bountiful Crea
tor: we refuse to be guided by him after he hath given us the
blessing of creation from his own hand, and the more obliging
blessings of redemption by the hand and blood of his Son.
It cannot be imagined that the devils and the damned should
ever make God their end, since he has assured them he will
not be their happiness, and shut up all his perfections from
their experimental notice, but those of his power to preserve
them, and his justice to punish them. They have no grant
from God of ever having a heart to comply with his wiU, or
ever having the honour to be actively employed for his glory.
They have some plea for their present contempt of God; not
in regard of his nature, for he is infinitely amiable, exceUent,
and lovely; but in regard of his administration towards them:
but what plea can man have for his practical atheism, Avho
lives by his power, is sustained by his bounty, and solicited by
his Spirit? What an ungrateful thing is it to put off the nature
of man for that of devils; and dishonour God under mercy, as
the devils do under his wrathful anger?
It is an ungrateful contempt of God, who cannot be injurious
to us. He cannot do us wrong, because he cannot be unjust.
" Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Gen xviii. 25.
His nature doth as much abhor unrighteousness, as love a com
municative goodness: he never commanded any thing, but what
was highly conducive to the happiness of man. Infinite good
ness can no more injure man, than it can dishonour itself: it
lays out itself in additions of kmdness, and whflst we bebase
him, he continues to benefit us. And is it not an unparaUeled
ingratitude to turn our backs upon an object so lovely, an
object so loving, in the midst of varieties of aUurements from

ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM. Igg
him? God did create intellectual creatures, angels and men,
that he might communicate more of himself, and his own good
ness and holiness to man, than creatures of a lower rank were
capable of What do we do by rejecting him as our rule and
end, but cross, as much as in us lies, God's end in our crea
tion, and shut our souls, against the communications of those
perfections he was so wflling to bestow ? We use him as if
he intended us, the greatest Avrong, when it is impossible for
him to do Avrong to any of his creatures.
Consider the misery Avhich will attend such a temper if it
continue predominant. Those that thrust God away as their
happiness and end, can expect no other, but to be thrust away
by him as to any relief and compassion. A distance from God
here can look for nothing but a remoteness from God hereafter.
When the devfl, a creature of vast endoAvments, would advance
himself above God, and instruct man to commit the same sin,
he is cursed above all creatures. Gen. iii. 14. When we will
not acknowledge him a God of all glory, we shall be separated
from him as a God of all comfort: all they that are afar off
shall perish, Psal. Ixxiii. 27. This is the spring of aU woe.
What the prodigal suffered, Avas because he would leave his
father and live of himself Whosoever is ambitious to be his
own heaven, will at last find his soul to become his own hell.
As it loved all things for itself, so it shall be grieved with all
things for itself As it would be its own God against the right
of God, it shall then be its own tormentor by the justice of
God. (2.) Watch against this atheism, and be daily employed in
the raortification ofit. In every action Ave should make the
inquiry. What is the rule I observe? Is it God's wfll or my
own? whether do my intentions tend to setup God or self? As
much as we destroy this, we abate the power of sin. These two
things are the head of the serpent in us, Avhich we must bruise
by the power of the cross. Sin is nothing else but a turning
from God, and centring in self, and raost in the inferior part of
self If we bend our force against these two, self-wfll and self-
ends, we shall intercept atheisra at the spring head, take away
that which doth constitute and animate all sin: the sparks must
vanish, if the fire be quenched which affords them fuel. They
are but two short things to ask in every undertaking; is God
my rule in regard of his wfll? is God my end in regard of his
glory? All sin lies in the neglect of these; aU grace lies in the
practice of thera.
Without some degree of the mortification of these, we cannot
make profitable and comfortable approaches to God. When we
come with idols in our hearts, we shall be answered according
to the multitude and the baseness of them too, Ezek. xiv. 4.
Vol. I.— 24

186 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
What expectation of a good look from him can Ave have, when
we come before him with undeifying thoughts of him ; a peti
tion in our mouths, and a sword in our hearts to stab his
honour? To this purpose,
[1.] Be often in the views ofthe excellencies of God. When
we have no intercourse with God by delightful meditations, we
begin to be estranged from him, and prepare ourselves to live
without God in the world. Strangeness is the mother and nurse
of disaffection. We slight men sometimes because we know
them not. The very beasts delight in the company of men,
when being tamed and familiar, they become acquainted with
their disposition. A daily converse with God Avould discover
so much of loveliness in his nature, so much of sweetness in his
ways, that our injurious thoughts of God Avould wear off, and
we should count it our honour to contemn ourselves and mag
nify him. By this means a slavish fear, which is both a dis
honour to God and a torment to the soul, 1 John iv. 18, and the
root of atheism, will be cast out, and an ingenuous fear of him
wrought in the heart. Exercised thoughts on him would issue
out in affections to him, which Avould engage our hearts to
make him both our rule and our end. This course would stifle
any temptations to gross atheism, wherewith good souls are
sometimes haunted, by confirming us more in the belief of a
God; and discourage any attempts to a deliberate practical
atheism. We are not like to espouse any principle which is con
futed by the delightful converse we daily have with him. The
more Ave thus enter into the presence-chamber of God, the more
we cling about him with our affections; the more vigorous and
lively will the true notion of God grow up in us, and be able
to prevent any thing which raay dishonour him and debase our
souls. Let us therefore consider him as the only happiness ; set up
the true God in our understandings; possess our hearts Avitha
deep sense of his desirable excellency above all other things.
This is the main thing we are to do in order to our great busi
ness. All the directions in the world, with the neglect of this,
will be insignificant ciphers. The neglect of this is common,
and is the basis of all the mischiefs which happen to the souls
of men.
[2.] To this purpose, prize and study the Scriptures. We
can have no delight in meditation on him, unless we know him;
and we cannot knoAv him but by the means of his own revela
tion. When the revelation is despised, the revealer Avill be of
httle esteein. Men do not throw off God from being their rule,
till they throAV off Scripture from being their guide; and God
must needs be cast off from being an end, when the Scripture

ON PRACTICAL ATHESIM. Ig7
is rejected frora being a rule. Those that do not care to know
his wfll, that love to be ignorant of his nature, can never be
wefl affected to his honour. Let therefore the subtleties of
reason submit to fhe doctrine of faith, and the humour of the
will to the command of the Avord.
[3.] Take heed of sensual pleasures, and be very watchful
and cautious in the use of those comforts God allows us. Job
was afraid when his sons feasted, that they should curse God
in their hearts. Job. i. 5. It Avas not Avithout cause that the
apostle Peter joined sobriety with watchfulness and prayer:
" The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and
watch unto prayer," 1 Pet. iv. 7. Use moderately Avorldly
comforts. Prayer is the great acknowledgment of God, and too
much sensuality is a hinderance of this, and a step to atheism.
Belshazzar's lifting himself up against the Lord, and not glori
fying of God, is charged upon his sensuality, Dan. v. 23.
Nothing is more apt to quench the notions of God, and root out
the conscience of him, than an addictedness to sensual pleasures.
Therefore take heed of that snare.
[4.] Take heed of sins against knowledge. The more sins
against knowledge are committed, the more careless we are,
and the more careless we shall be of.God and his honour. We
shall more fear his judicial power, and the raore we fear that,
the more Ave shall disaffect that God in whose hands vengeance
is, and to whom it doth belong. Atheism in conduct proceeds
to atheism in affection, and that wfll endeavour to sink into
atheisra in opinion and judgraent.
THE SUM OF THE WHOLE.
And now consider in the whole what has been spoken.
Man loould set himself up as his own rule. He disowns
the rule of God, is unwilling to have any acquaintance with
the rule God sets hira, is negligent in using the means for the
knowledge of his will, and endeavours to shake it off when any
notices of it break in upon him. When he cannot expel it, he
has no pleasure in the consideration of it, and the heart swells
against fl. When the notions of the will of God are entertained,
it is on some other consideration, or with wavering and unset
tled affections. Many times men design to improve some lust
by his truth. This unwfllingness respects truth as it is niost
spiritual and holy; as it most relates and leads to God; as it is
most contrary to self He is guilty of contempt of the will of
God, which is seen in every presumptuous breach of his la,w_.
In the natural aversion to fhe declaration of his wfll and mind
which way soever he turns. In slighting that part of his will
which is most for his honour. In the awkwardness ot tne

1 88 ON PRACTICAL ATHEISM.
heart, when it is to pay God a service. A constraint in the
first engagement; slightness in the service in regard of the
matter; in regard of the frame, without a natural vigour.
Many distractions, much weariness; in deserting the rule of
God, when our expectations are not answered upon our ser
vice ; in breaking promises Avith God.
Man naturally owns any other rule, rather than that of God's
prescribing : the rule of Satan, the will of man ; in complying
more with the dictates of men than the will of God ; in obser
ving that which is materially so, not because it is his wfll, but
the injunctions of men; in obeying the will of man, Avhen it is
contrary to the wifl of God. This man doth in order to the
setting up himself This is natural to man as he is corrupted.
Men are dissatisfied with their own consciences when they
contradict the desires of self Most actions in the world are
done, more because they are agreeable to self, than as they are
honourable to God; as they are agreeable to natural and moral
self, or sinful self It is evident in neglect of taking God's
directions upon emergent occasions. In counting the actions
of others to be good or bad, as they suit with or spurn against
our fancies and humours. Man would make himself the rule
of God, and give laws to his Creator: in striving against his
law; disapproving of his methods of government in the world;
in impatience in our particular concerns; envying the gifts and
prosperity of others; corrupt matter or ends of prayer or
praise ; bold interpretations of the judgments of God in the
Avorld; mixing rules in the worship of God with those which
have been ordained by him; suiting interpretations of Scripture
with our own minds and humours; falling off from God after
some fair compliances, Avhen his will grates upon us and
crosseth ours.
Man would be his own end. This is natural and universal.
This is seen in frequent self-applauses, and iuAvard overween
ing reflections; in ascribing the glory of what we do or have
to ourselves; in desire of self-pleasing doctrines; in being
highly concerned in injuries done to ourselves,. and little or not
at all concerned for injuries done to God ; in trusting in our
selves; in working for carnal self against the light of our oavu
consciences, which is a usurping God's prerogative, vilifying
God, destroying God. Man would make any thing his end or
happiness rather than God. This appears in the fewer thoughts
we have of him than of any thing else; in the greedy pursuit
of the world; in the strong addictedness fo sensual pleasures;
in paying a service upon any success in the world to instru
ments more than to God. This is a debasing God in setting up
a creature; but more in setting up a base lust: it is a denying
of God. Man woifld make himself the end of aU creatures. In

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.

189

pride; using the creatures contrary to the end God hath
appointed. This is to dishonour God; and it is diabolical.
Man Avould make himself the end of God. In loving God
because of some self-pleasing benefits distributed by him; in
abstinence from some sins, because they are against the interest
of some other beloved corruption ; in performing duties merely
for a selfish interest, which is evident in unwieldiness in reli
gious duties where self is not concerned; in calling upon God
only in a time of neccessity ; in begging his assistance to our
own projects, after we have by our own craft laid the plot; in
impatience upon a refusal of our desires; in selfish aims we
have in our duties. This is a vilifying God, a dethroning him.
In unworthy imaginations of God, universal in man by nature.
Hence springs idolatry, superstition, presumption, the common
diseases of the world. This is a vilifying God ; worse than
idolatry, worse than absolute atheisra. Natural desires to be
distant from him. No desires for the remembrance of him. No
desires of converse with him. No desires of a thorough return
to hira. No desire of any close imitation of him.

DISCOURSE III.
BEING A SPIRIT.
John iv. 24. — God is a Spirit : and they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth.
The words are part of the dialogue betAveen our Saviour and
the Samaritan woman. Christ intending to return frorn Judea
to Galilee, passed through the country of Samaria, a place in
habited not by Jews, but a mixed company of several nations,
and some remainders of the posterity of Israel, who escaped
the captivity, and were returned from Assyria;' and being
weary with his journey, arrived about the sixth hour, or noon,
(according to the Jews' reckoning the time of the day.) at the
well that Jacob had digged, which was of great account among
the inhabitants for the antiquity of it, as well as the usefulness
of it in supplying their necessities. He being thirsty, and
having none to furnish him wherewith to draw water, at last
comes a woraan from the city, whom he desires to give him
some water to drink. The woman perceiving him by his lan
guage or habit to be a Jew, wonders at the question, since the
hatred the Jews bore the Samaritans was so great that they
' Amyraut. Paraph, sur Jean.

190 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
would not vouchsafe to have any commerce with them, not
only in religious but civil affairs, and comraon offices belonging
to mankind. Hence our Saviour takes occasion to publish to
her the doctrine of the gospel, and excuses her rude answer
by her ignorance of him; and tells her, that if she had asked
him a greater matter, even that which concerned her eternal
salvation, he would readfly have granted it, notwithstanding
the rooted hatred between the Jews and Samaritans; and be
stowed a water of a greater virtue, the water of life,' ver. 10.
The woraan is no less astonished at his reply, than she was at
his first demand. It was strange to hear a man speak of giving
living water, to one of Avhom he had begged the water of that
spring, and had no vessel to draw any to quench his own thirst.
She therefore demands whence he could have this Avater that
he speaks of, ver. 11, since she conceived him not greater
than Jacob, who had digged that well and drunk of it. Our
Saviour, desirous to make a progress in that work he had be
gun, extols the water he spake of above this ofthe wefl, from its
particular virtue, fully to refresh those that drank of it, and be as
a cooling and comforting fountain within them, of more efficacy
than that without, ver. 13, 14. The woman conceiving a good
opinion of our Saviour, desires to partake of this water to save
her pains in coming daily to tbe Avell, not apprehending the
spirfluality of Christ's discourse to her, ver. 15. Christ finding
her to take some pleasure in his discourse, partly to bring her
to a sense of her sin, before he did communicate the excellency
of his grace, bids her return back to the city and bring her
husband with her to him, ver. 16. She freely acknowledges
that she had no husband, Avhether having some check of con
science at present for the unclean life she led, or loth to lose so
much time in the gaining this water so much desired by her,
ver. 17. Our Saviour takes an occasion from this to lay open
her sin before her, and to make her sensible of her own wicked
life, and the prophetic excellency of himself; and tells her she
had had five husbands to whom she had been false, and by whom
she was divorced, a^nd the person she now dwelt with was not
her lawful husband, and in living Avith him she violated the
rights of marriage, and increased guflt upon her conscience,
ver. 18. The woman being affected with this discourse, and
knowing hira to be a stranger, that could not be certified of
those things but in an extraordinary way, begins to have a
high esteera of him as a prophet, ver. 19. And upon this opin
ion she esteems him able to decide a question which had been
canvassed between them and the Jews about the place of wor
ship, ver. 20. Their fathers' worshipping in that mountain, and
the Jews affirming Jerusalem to be a place of worship, she
' Or, living water.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. igi
pleads the antiquity of the worship in this place; Abraham
too, having buUt an altar there. Gen. xii. 7; and Jacob, upon
his return from Syria. And surely had the place been capable
of an exception, such persons as they, and so weU acquainted
with the wiU of God, would not have pitched upon that place
to celebrate their worship.
Antiquity has too, too often bewitched the minds of men,
and drawn them from the revealed wiU of God. Men are
more wflhng to imitate the outward actions of their famous
ancestors than conform themselves to the revealed wifl of their
Creator. The Samaritans would imitate the patriarchs in the
place of worship, but not in the faith ofthe worshippers.
Christ ansAvers her, that this question would quickly be re
solved by a new state of the church which was near at hand;
and neither Jerusalem, which had not the precedency, nor that
mountain, should be of any more value in that concern than
any other place in the world, ver. 21. But yet to make her
sensible of her sin, and that of her countrymen, tells her that
their worship in that mountain was not according to the will
of God, he having, long after the altars built in this place,
fixed Jerusalem as the place of sacrifices; besides, they had
not the knowledge of that God who ought to be worshipped
by them, but the Jews had the true object of worship and the
true manner of worship, according to the declaration God had
made of himself to thera, ver. 22. But all that service shall
vanish, the veil of the temple shall be rent in twain, and that
carnal worship give place to one more spiritual; shadows shall
fly before substance, and truth advance itself above figures,
and the worship of God shall be with the strength of the
Spirit ; such a Avorship and such worshippers does the Father
seek, ver. 23; for "God is a Spirit; and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth." The. design -of
our Saviour is to declare, that God is not taken with external
worship invented by raen, no, nor commanded by himself; and
that upon this reason, because he is a spiritual essence, infi
nitely above gross and corporeal matter, and is not taken
with that pomp which is a pleasure to our earthly imagina
tions. nj'sS/to 0 ©E«5. Some translate it just as the words lie — Spirit
is God:' but it is not unusual both in the Old and New Testa
ment languages, to put thepredicate before the subject, as Psal.
v. 9, "Their throat is an open sepulchre;" in the Hebrew,
"A sepulchre open, their throat." So Psal. cxi. 3, "His work is
honourable and glorious; in the Hebrew, " Honour and glory
his work." And there wants not one example in the sanae
evangelist, John i. 1. " And the word was God; in the Greek,
1 Vulgar Latin. Illyric, Clav.

192 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
" And God was the Word." In all, the predicate, or what is
ascribed, is put before the subject to Avhich it is ascribed.
One tells us, and he a head of a party that has made a dis
turbance in the church of God,' that this place is not apfly
brought to prove God to be a Spirit : and that the reason of
Christ runs not thus, God is of a spiritual essence, and there
fore must be worshipped with a spiritual worship; for the
essence of God is not the foundation of his worship, but his
will; for then Ave were not to worship him with a corporeal
worship, because he is not a body : but with an invisible and
eternal worship, because he is invisible and eternal.
But the nature of God is the foundation of worship, the will
of God is the rule of worship ; the matter and manner is to be
perforraed according to the will of God. But is the nature of
the object of worship to be excluded ? No, as the object is, so
ought our devotion to be spiritual, as he is spiritual. God in
his commands for worship respected the discovery of his own
nature ; in the law he respected the discovery of his mercy and
justice, and therefore commanded a Avorship by sacrifices. A
spiritual worship without those institutions would not have
declared those attributes, which was God's end to display to
the world in Christ. And though the nature of God is to be
respected in worship, yet the obligations of the creature are
also to be considered. God is a Spirit, therefore must have a
spiritual worship: the creature has a body as well as a soul,
and both from God; and therefore ought to worship God AAdth
the one as well as the other, since one as well as the other is
freely bestowed upon hira.
The spirituality of God was the foundation of the change
from the Judaical carnal worship to a more spiritual and evan
gelical. " God is a Spirit." That is, he hath nothing corporeal, no
mixture of matter, not a visible substance, a bodily form.^ He
is a Spirit, not a bare spiritual substance; but an understanding,
wflling. Spirit, holy, wisei, good, and just. Before Christ spake
ofthe Father, verse 23, the first person in the Trinity: now he
speaks of God essentially. The word Father is personal, the
word God essential. So that our Saviour would render a rea
son, not from any one person in the blessed Trinity, but from
the Divine nature, why we should worship in Spirit, and there
fore makes use of the word God, the being a Spirit being com
mon to the other persons with the Father.
This is the reason of the proposition, verse 23. " Of a spirit
ual AVorship." Every nature delights in that which is like it,
aild distastes that which is most different from it. If God were
corporeal, he might be pleased with the victims of beasts, and
I Episcop. Institut, lib. 4. cap. 3. = Melancthon.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. igg
the beautiful magnificence of temples, and the noise of music.
But being a Spirit, he cannot be gratified with carnal things:
he demands something better and greater than all those, that
soul which he made, that soul which he hath endowed, a spirit
of a frame suitable to his nature. He, indeed, appointed sacri
fices and a temple, as shadows of those things which were to
be most acceptable to him in the Messiah, but they were im
posed only tfll the time of reformation, Heb. ix. 10.
" Must worship him." Not, they may, or it would be more
agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship; but they
m,ust. It is not exclusive of bodily worship; for this were to
exclude all public worship in societies, which cannot be per
formed Avithout reverential postures of the body. The gestures
of the body are helps to worship and declarations of spiritual
acts.' We can scarcely worship God with our spirits, without
some tincture upon the outward man. But he excludes all
acts nierely corporeal, all resting upon an external service and
devotion, which was the crime of the Pharisees, and the general
persuasion of the Jews as well as heathens, who used the out
ward ceremonies, not as signs of better things, but as if they
did of themselves please God, and render the worshippers ac
cepted with him, Avithout any suitable frame ofthe inward man.
It is as if he had said, now you raust separate yourselves from
all carnal modes to which the service of God is now tied, and
render a worship chiefly consisting in the affectionate motions
of the heart, and accommodated more exactly to the condition
of the object, who is a Spirit.^
" In spirit and truth." The evangelical service now requir
ed, has the advantage of the former; that was a shadow and
figure, this the body and truth.^ Spirit, say some, is here op
posed to the legal ceremonies;^ truth, to hypocritical services;
or rather truth is opposed to shadows, and an opinion of worth
in the outward action;' it is principally opposed to external
rites, because our Saviour saith, " The hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him,"
verse 23. Had it been opposed to hypocrisy, Christ had said
no new thing: for God always required truth in the inward
parts, and all true worshippers had served him with a sincere
conscience and single heart. The old patriarchs did worship
God in spirit and truth, as taken for sincerity: such a worship
was always, and is perpetuaUy due to God ; because he always
was, and eternally will be a Spirit. And it is said, " the Father
seeks such to worship, him;"^ not, shall seek: he always sought
fl; it always was performed to him by one or other in the
' Terniti. ^ Amyraldus in loc. ^ Ibid.
" Muscul. « Chemnit. " Muscul.
Vol. I.— 25

194 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
world : and the prophets had always rebuked them, for resting
upon their outAvard solemnities, Isa. Iviii. 5; Micah vi. 6,7.
But a worship without legal rites was proper to an evangehcal
state and the times of the gospel ; God having then exhibited
Christ, and brought into the world the substance of those sha
dows, and the end of those institutions. There was no more
need to continue them, when the true reason of them was ceased.
All laws do naturally expire, when the true reason upon which
they were first framed is changed.
Or by spirit may be meant, such a worship as is kindled in
the heart by the breath of the Holy Ghost. Since we are dead
in sin, a spiritual light and flame in the heart suitable to the
nature of the object of our worship, cannot be raised in us
without the operation of a supernatural grace: and though the
fathers could not worship God without the Spirit, yet in the
gospel times, there being a fuller effusion of the Spirit, the evan
gelical state is called the administration of the Spirit, and the
newness of the Spirit, in opposition to the legal economy, enti
tled the oldness of the letter, 2 Cor. ni. 8 ; Rom. vii. 6. The
evangelical state is raore suited to the nature of God than any
other: such a Avorship God must have, whereby he is acknow
ledged to be the true sanctifier and quickener of the soul. The
nearer God doth approach to us, and the more full his mani
festations are, the more spiritual is the worship Ave return to
God. The gospel pares off the rugged parts of the law, and
heaven shall remove what is material in the gospel, and change
the ordinances of worship into that of a spiritual praise.
In the words there is,
I. A proposition, " God is a Spirit," the foundation of all
religion. II. An inference, " They that worship him must wor
ship him in spirit and in truth." As God, a AVorship belongs to
him; as a Spirit, a spiritual worship is due to him. In the infer
ence we have — The manner of worship, "in spirit and in
truth"— The necessity of such a AVorship, " must." The pro
position declares the nature of God; the inference the duty of
man. The observations we have to make lie plain. — God is a pure
spiritual Being, he " is a Spirit." The worship due from fhe
creature to God, must be agreable to the nature of God, and
purely spiritual. The evangelical state is suited to the nature
of God. Observation 1. God isa pure spiritual Being.
It is the observation of one,' that the plain assertion of God's
being a Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible, and that is
in this place; Avhich may well be wondered at; because God is
so often described with hands, feet, eyes, and ears, in the form
> Episcop. Institut. 1. 4. c. 3.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. igg
and figure of a man. The spiritual nature of God is deducible
from many places; but not anywhere, as I remeraber, asserted
totidem verbis, in so many words, but in this text. Sorae allege
that place, " the Lord is that Spirit," 2 Cor. in. 17, for the proof
ofit; but that seems to have a different sense. In the text the
nature of God is described ; in that place, the operations of God
in the gospel. " It is not the ministry of Moses, or that old
covenant, which coraniunicates to you that spirit it speaks of;
but it is the Lord Jesus, and the doctrine of the gospel delivered
to him whereby this spirit and liberty is dispensed to you: he
opposes here the liberty of the gospel to the servitude of the
law." ' It is from Christ, that a Divine virtue diffuseth itself
by the gospel: it is by him, not by the law, that we partake of
that Spirit.
The spirituality of God, is as evident as his being.^ If we
grant that God is, Ave must necessarily grant that he cannot be
corporeal; because a body is of an imperfect nature. It wfll
appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being
and Creator of all things, that he should be a massy, heavy
body, and have eyes and ears, feet and hands, as Ave have. For
the explication ofit;
(1.) Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture. It signifies
sometimes an aerial substance, as Psa. xi. 6, a " horrible tem
pest;" Hebrew, " a spirit of tempest." Sometiraes the breath,
which is a thin substance. Gen. vi. 17, " all flesh, wherein is the
breath of life;" Hebrew, "spirit of life." A thin substance,
though it be raaterial and corporeal, is called spirit: and in the
bodies of living creatures, that which is the principle of their
actions is called spirit — the animal and vital spirits, and the
finer parts extracted from plants and minerals we call spirits,
those volatile parts separated from that gross matter Avherein
they were immersed, because they come nearest to the nature
of an incorporeal substance. And from this notion of the word,
it is translated to signify those substances that are purely imma
terial, as angels, and the souls of men. Angels are called
spirits. " Who maketh his angels spirits," Psa. civ. 4. Heb. i.
14: and not only good angels are so called, but evil angels.
Mark i. 27., Souls of men are called spirits, Eccl. xu ; and the
soul of Christ is called so, John xix. 30. Whence God is caUed
"the God of the spirfls of all flesh," Numb, xxvii. 16: and
spirit is opposed to flesh. Isa. xxxi. 3. The Egyptians are
" flesh and not spirit." And our Saviour gives us the notion of
a spirit to be something above the nature of a body, Luke xxiv.
39; not having flesh and bones, extended parts, loads of gross
matter. It is also taken for those things which are active and
efficacious: because activity is ofthe nature of a spirit. Caleb
> Amyraldus in loco. ' Suarez.de Deo, vol. I.

196 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
had another spirit, Numb. xiv. 24, an active affection. The
vehement motions of sin are caUed spirit, Hps. iv. 12. " The
spirit of whoredoms" is used in that sense. " A fool uttereth afl
his mind," all his spirit, Prov. xxix. 11 ; he knows not how to
restrain the vehement motions of his mind. So that the notion
of a spirit is, that it is a fine immaterial substance, an active
being, that actuates itself and other things. A mere body cannot
actuate itself; as the body of man cannot raove without the soul,
no more than a ship can move itself without wind and waves.
So God is called a Spirit, as being not a body, not having
the greatness, figure, thickness, or length of a body, wholly
separate from any thing of flesh and matter. We find a prin
ciple within us nobler than that of our bodies ; and therefore
we conceive the nature of God, according to that which is more
worthy in us, and not according to that Avhich is the vflest part
of our natures. God is a most spiritual Spirit, more spirflual
than all angels, all souls : ' as he exceeds all in the nature of
being, so he exceeds all in the nature of spirit : he hath nothing
gross, heavy, material in his essence.
(2.) When we say God is a Spirit, it is to be understood by
way of negation. There are two ways of knowing or describing
God : the one by way of affirmation, affirming that of him in
a way of eminency, Avhich is excellent in fhe creature ; as
when we say, God is wise, good : the other by way of nega
tion, when Ave remove from God in our conceptions what is
tainted with imperfections in the creature. The first ascribes
to him whatsoever is excellent;^ the other separates from him
whatsoever is imperfect. The first is like a limning, which
adds one colour to another to make a comely picture ; the other
is like a carving, which pares and cuts away Avhatsoever is
superfluous, to make a complete statue. This way of negation
is more easy; we better understand Avhat God is not, than Avhat
he is; and most of our knowledge of God is b}'' this way: as
when we say, God is infinite, imraense, immutable, they are
negatives: he hath no limits, is confined to no place, admfls of
no change. When we remove from him what is inconsistent
with his being, we do more strongly assert his being, and know
more of him Avhen we elevate him above aU, and above our
own capacity.^ And when we say God is a Spirit, it is a nega
tion; he is not a body; he consists not of various parts, extended
one without and beyond another. He is not such a spirit as our
souls are, to be the form of any body; a spirit, not as angels
and souls are, but infinitely higher: we call him so, because,
in regard of our weakness, we have not any other term of ex
cellency to express or conceive of him by; we transfer it to
1 Gerhard. jxavo-tpoTtcos. ^ Garaacheus, tom. 1. q. 3, cap. 1. p. 42.
a Coccei. Sum. Theol. cap. 8.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.

197

God in honour, because spirit is the highest exceflency in our
nature. Yet Ave naust apprehend God above any spirit, since
his nature is so great, that he cannot be declared by human
speech, perceived by human sense, or conceived by human
understanding. Some ainong the heathens imagined God to have a body;
some thought him to have a body of air, some a heavenly bofly,
some a human body.' And many of them ascribed bodies to
their gods; but bodies without blood, without corruption;
bodies made up of the finest and thinnest atoms; such bodies,
which if compared wifh ours, were as no bodies.^ The Saddu
cees also, who denied all spirits, and yet acknowledged a God,
must conclude him to be a body and no spirit. Some among
Christians have been of that opinion. Tertulhan is charged by
some, and excused by others : and some monks of Egypt were
so fierce for this error, that they attempted to kiU one Theophi
lus a bishop, for not being of that judgraent.
But the wiser heathens were of another mind, and esteemed
it an unholy thing to have such imaginations of God.^ And
some Christians have thought God only to be free from any
thing of body, because he is oranipresent, immutable, he is
only incorporeal and spiritual;" all things else, even the angels,
are clothed with bodies, though of a finer matter and a raore
active frame than ours: a pure spiritual nature they allowed
to no being but God. Scripture and reason meet together to
assert the spirituality of God. Had God had the lineaments
of a body, the gentiles had not fallen under that accusation of
changing his glory into that of a corruptible man, Rora. i. 23.
This is signified by the name God gives hiraself, Exod. iii.
14, " I am that I am," a simple, pure, uncompounded being,
without any created mixture; as infinitely above the being of
creatures as above the conceptions of creatures: "Touching
the Almighty, we cannot find him out," Job xxxvii. 23. He
is so much a Spirit that he is the Father of spirits, Heb. xii. 9.
The Almighty Father is not of a nature inferior to his children.
The soul is a spirit; it could not else exert actions without the
assistance of the body, as the act of understanding itself and
its own nature, the act of willing, and willing things against
the incitements and interest of the body; it could not else con
ceive of God, angels, and immaterial substances; it coifld not
else be so active, as with one glance to fetch a compass from
earth to heaven, and by a sudden motion, to elevate the under
standing from an earthly thought, to the thinking of things as
1 Thes. Sedan, part 2. p. 1000.
2 Vossius, Idolol. lib. 2. cap. I. Forbes, Instrument, 1. 1. c. 36.
^ Plutarch. 'Ovx oatov. j
< Incorporalis ratio divinus spiritus, Seneca.

198 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
high as the highest heavens. If we have this opinion of our
souls, which in the nobleness of their acts surmount the body,
without which the body is but a duU, inactive piece of clay;
we must needs have a higher conception of God, than to clog
him with any raatter, though of a finer temper than ours. We
must conceive of hira by the perfections of our souls, without
the vileness of our bodies. If God made man according to his
image, we must raise our thoughts of God according to the
noblest part of that image, and imagine the exemplar or copy,
not to come short, but to exceed the thing copied by it. God
were not the most excellent substance, if he were not a Spirit.
Spiritual substances are more excellent than bodily; the soul
of man more excellent than other animals; angels more excel
lent than men: they contain in their own nature whatsoever
dignity there is in the inferior creatures. God must have there
fore an excellency above all those, and therefore is entirely re
mote from the conditions of a body.
It is a gross conceit, therefore, to think that God is such a
Spirit as the air is:' for that is to be a body as the air is, though
it be a thin one; and if God Avere no more a Spirit than that
or than angels, he would not be the raost siraple Being. Yet
some think that the spiritual Deity was represented by the air
in the ark of the testament.^ It was unlawful to represent him
by any image; that God had prohibited. Every thing about
the ark had a particular signification: the gold and other orna
ments about it signified something of Christ, but were unfit to
represent the nature of God. A thing purely invisible, and
falling under nothing of sense, could not represent him to the
mind of man: the air in the ark was the fittest, it represented
the invisibflity of God, air being imperceptible to our eyes.
Air diffuses itself through all parts of the world, it glides
through secret passages into all creatures, it fifls the space be
tween heaven and earth; there is no place wherein God is not
present. To evidence this,
[1.] If God were not a Spirit, he could not be Creator. All
multitude begins in and is reduced to unity. As above multi
tude there is an absolute unity, so above mixed creatures there
is an absolute simplicity. You cannot conceive number with
out conceiving the beginning of it in that which was not num
ber, namely, a unit: you cannot conceive any mixture, but you
must conceive some simple thing to be the original and basis of
it. The works of art, done by rational creatures, have their
foundation in something spiritual. Every artificer, watchmaker,
carpenter, has a model in his own mind of the work he designs
' Talov. Socin. Proflig. p. 129, 130.
2 Amyrald Sup. Heb. 9. p. 146, &c.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. I99
to frame : the material and outward fabric is squared according
to an inward and spiritual idea. A spiritual idea speaks a
spiritual faculty as the subject of it. God could not have an
idea of that vast number of creatures he brought into being,
if he had not a spiritual nature. The wisdom whereby the
world was created could never be the fruit of a corporeal na
ture; such natures are not capable of understanding and com
prehending the things which are within the compass of their
nature, much less of producing them.' And therefore beasts,
which have only corporeal faculties, move to objects by the
force of their sense, and have no knowledge of things as they
are comprehended by the understanding of man. All acts of
Avisdom speak an inteUigent and spiritual agent. The effects
of wisdom, goodness, power, are so great and admirable, that
they bespeak hira a more perfect and eminent Being than can
possibly be beheld under a bodfly shape. Can a corporeal
substance put " wisdom in the inward parts," and give " un
derstanding to the heart?" Job xxxviii. 36.
[2.] If God were not a pure Spirit, he could not be one. If
God had a body consisting of distinct members, as ours, or all
of one nature, as the water and air are, yet he were then capa
ble of division, and therefore could not be entirely one. Either
those parts would be finite or infinite:' if finite, they are not
parts of God; for to be God and finite is a contradiction: if infi
nite, then there are as many infinities as distinct merabers, and
therefore as many deities. Suppose this body had all parts of
the same nature as air and water have, every little part of air
is as much air as the greatest, and every little part of water is
as much water as the ocean; so every little part of God would
be as much God as the whole; as many particular deities to
make up God, as little atoms to compose a body. What can be
raore absurd? If God had a body like a huraan body, and were
compounded of body and soul, of substance and quality, he
could not be the most perfect unity ; he would be raade up of
distinct parts, and those of a distinct nature, as the raembers of
a human body a,re. Where there is the greatest unity, there
must be the greatest simplicity ; but God is one. As he is free
from any change, so he is void of any multitude. " The Lord
our God is one Lord." Deut. vi. 4.
[3.] If God had a body as we have, he would not be invisi
ble. Every material thing is not visible; the air is a body yet
invisible, but it is sensible ; the cooling quality of it is felt by us
at every breath, and we know it by our touch, which is the
most material sense. Every body that hath members like to
bodies, is visible; but God is invisible. ^ The apostle reckons it
amongst his other perfections, " Now unto the King, eternal,
' Amyraldus, Moral, tom. 1. p. 282. 2 Daille in Tim.

200 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
immortal, invisible," 1 Tim. i. 17. He is invisible to our sense,
which beholds nothing but material and coloured things ; and
incomprehensible to our understanding, that conceives nothing
but what is finite. God is therefore a Spirit incapable of being
seen, and infinflely incapable of being understood. If he be in
visible, he is also spiritual. If he had a body, and hid it from
our eyes, he might be said not to be seen, but could not be said
to be invisible. When we say a thing is visible, we understand
that it has such quahties as are the object of sense, though
Ave may never see that which in its own nature is to be seen.
God has no such qualities as fall under the perception of our
senses. His works are visible to us, but not his Godhead. Rom.
i. 20. The nature of a human body is to be seen and handled.
Christ gives us such a description of it, Luke xxiv. 39. "Handle
me and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me
have:" but man has been so far from seeing God, that it is
impossible he can see him, 1 Tim. vi. 16. There is such a dis
proportion betAveen an infinite object and a finite sense and
understanding, that it is utterly impossible either to behold or
comprehend him. But if God had a body raore luminous and
glorious than that of the sun, he would be as Avell visible to us
as the sun, though the immensity of that light would dazzle
our eyes, and forbid any close inspection into him by the virtue
of our sense. We have seen the shape and figure of the sun,
but no man hath ever seen the shape of God, John v. 37. If
God had a body he were visible, though he might not perfecfly
and fully be seen by us:' as we see the heavens, though we
see not the extension, latitude, and greatness of them. Though
God has manifested himself in a bodfly shape. Gen. xviii. 1,
and elsewhere, Jehovah appeared to Abraham; yet the sub
stance of God was not seen, no more than the substance of
angels was seen in their apparitions to men. A body was
formed to be made visible by them, and such actions done in
that body, that spake the person that did thera to be of a higher
eminency than a bare corporeal creature. Sometimes a repre
sentation is made to the inward sense and imagination, as to
Micaiah, 1 Kings x;xfl. 19; and to Isaiah, chap. vi. 1. But
they saw not the essence of God, but some images and figures
of him proportioned to their sense or imagination. The essence
of God no man ever saw, nor can see, John i. 18.
Nor does it follow that God has a body, because Jacob is
said to see God face to face,^ Gen. xxxii. 30. And Moses had
the like privflege, Deut. xxxiv. 10. This only signifies a fuller
and clearer manifestation of God, by some representations
offered to the bodfly sense, or rather to the inward spirit: for
God tells Moses he could not see his face, Exod. xxxiu. 20;
' Goulart. de Dieu. p. 94. » Ibid p. 95, 96.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.

201

and that none ever saw the simUitude of God, Deut. iv. 15.
Were God a corporeal substance, he might, in some measure,
be seen by corporeal eyes.
[4.] If God were not a Spirit, he could not be infinite. All
bodies are of a finite nature: every body is material, and every
material thing is terminated. The sun, a vast body, has a
bounded greatness: the heavens, of a mighty bulk, yet have
their limits. If God had a body, he must consist of parts; those
parts would be bounded and limited, and whatsoever is limited
is of a finite virtue, and therefore below an infinfle nature.
Reason therefore tells us, that the most excellent nature, as
God is, cannot be of a corporeal condition; because of the
limitation and other actions which belong to every body. God
is infinite, for " the heaven of heavens cannot contain him,"
2 Chron. ii. 6. The largest heavens, and those imaginary
spaces beyond the world, are no bounds to him. He has an
essence beyond the bounds of the world, and cannot be included
in the vastness of the heaven's. If God be infinite, then he can
have no parts in him; if he had, they must be finite, or infinite:
finite parts can never make up an infinite being. A vessel of
gold of a pound weight cannot be raade of the quantity of an
ounce. Infinite parts they cannot be, because then every part
would be equal to the whole, as infinite as the whole, which is
contradictory. We see in all things every part is less than the
whole bulk that is composed of it; as every member of a raan
is less than the whole body of man. If all the parfs were finite,
then God in his essence were finite ; and a finite God is not
more excellent than a creature: so that if God were not a Spirit,
he could not be infinite.
[5.] If God were not a Spirit, he could not be an indepen
dent Being. Whatsoever is compounded of many parts, de
pends either essentially or integrally upon those parts; as the
essence of a man depends upon the conjunction and union of
his two main parts, his soul and body: when they are separat
ed, the essence of a man ceaseth; and the perfection of a man
depends upon every member of the body; so that if one be
wanting, the perfection of the whole is wanting. As if a man
has lost a Umb, you call him not a perfect man; because that
part is gone upon which his perfection, as an entire man, did
depend. If God, therefore, had a body, the perfection of the
Deity would depend upon every part of that body: and the
more parts he were compounded of, the raore his dependency
would be multiplied according to the number of those parts of
the body: for that which is compounded of many parts, is more
dependent than that which is compounded of fewer."*
And because God would be a dependent being if he had a
body, he could not be the first being; for the compounding
Vol. I.— 26

202 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
parts are in order of nature, before that which is compounded
by them; as the soul and body are before the man which
results from the union of them. If God had parts and bodfly
members as we have, or any composition, the essence of God
would result from those parts, and those parts be supposed fo
be before God. For that which is a part, is before that Avhose
part it is. As in artificial things, you may conceive it; all the
parts of a watch or clock, are in time before that Avatch which
is made by setting those parts together. In natural things, you
must suppose the members of a body framed, before you can
call it a man; so that the parts of this body are before that
which is constituted by them. We can conceive no other of
God, if he were not a pure, entire, unmixed Spirit: if he had
distinct parts, he would depend upon them; those parts would
be before him; his essence would be the effect of those distinct
parts, and so he Avould not be absolutely and entirely the first
being. But he is so: "I am the first and I am the last," Isa.
xliv. 6. He is the first; nothing is before him: whereas if he
had bodily parts, and those finite, it would follow, God is made
up of those parts which are not God, and that Avhich is not
God, is in order of nature before that which is God. So that
we see if God were not a Spirit, he could not be independent.
[6.] If God were not a Spirit, he were not immutable and
unchangeable. His immutability depends upon his simplicity.
He is unchangeable in his essence, because he is a pure and
unmixed spiritual being. Whatsoever is compounded of parts,
may be divided into those parts, and resolved info those distinct
parts which make up and constitute fhe nature. Whatsoever
is compounded, is changeable in its own nature, though it
shoiild never be changed. Adam, who was constituted of body
and soul, had he stood in innocence, had not died; there had
been no separation made between his soul and body, whereof
he was constituted, and his body had not been resolved info
those principles of dust from whence it Avas extracted. Yet in
his own nature he was dissoluble info those distinct parts
whereof he was compounded. And so the glorified saints in
heaven, after the resurrection, and the happy meeting of their
souls and bodies in a new marriage knot, shall never be dis
solved; yet in their own nature they are mutable and dissolu
ble, and cannot be otherwise, because they are made up of such
distinct parfs that may be separated in their own nature, unless
sustained by the grace of God :" they are immutable by will, the
Avfll of God, not by nature. God is immutable by nature, as
well as will : as he has a necessary existence, so he has a ne
cessary unchangeableness. " I am the Lord, I change not,"
Mai. iii. 6. He is as unchangeable in his essence, as in his
veracity and faithfulness: they are perfections belonging to his

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.

203

nature. But if he were not a pure Spirit, he could not be
immutable by nature.
[7.] If God were not a pure Spirit, he could not be omni
present. He is in heaven above, and the earth below, Deut.
iv. 39. He fiUs heaven and earth, Jer. xxiii. 24. The Divine
essence is at once in heaven and earth: but it is impossible a
body can be in two places at one and the same time. Since
God is every where, he must be spiritual. Had he a body, he
could not penetrate all things ; he would be circtimscribed in
place. He could not be every where but in parts, not in the
whole; one member in one place, and another in another; for
to be confined to a particular place, is the property of a body;
but since he is diffused through the whole world, higher than
heaven, deeper than hell, longer than the earth, broader than
the sea. Job xi. 8, 9 ; he has not any corporeal matter. If he
had a body wherewith to fill heaven and earth, there could be
no body besides his own. It is the nature of bodies to bound
one another, and hinder the extending of one another. Two
bodies cannot be in the same place in the same point of earth;
one excludes the other: and it will follow hence, that Ave are
nothing, no substances, mere illusions; there could be no place
for any body else.' If his body were as big as the world; as it
must be, if with that he filled heaven and earth, there would
not be room for him to move a hand or a foot, or extend a fin
ger; for there would be no place remaining for the motion.
[8.] If God were not a Spirit, he could not be the most per
fect being. The more perfect any thing is in the rank of crea
tures, the more spiritual and simple it is; as gold is the more
pure and perfect that has least mixture of other metals. If
God were not a spirit, there would be creatures of a more ex
cellent nature than God; as angels and souls, which the Scrip
ture caUs spirits, in opposition to bodies. There is more of per
fection in the first notion of a spirit, than in the notion of a
body. God cannot be less perfect than his creatures, and con
tribute an exceUency of being to them which he wants himself.
If angels and souls possess such an excellency, and God want
that excellency; he would be less than his creatures, and ex
cellency of the effect would exceed the excellency of the cause.
But every creature, even the highest creature, is infinitely short
of the perfection of God ; for whatsoever excellency they have,
is finite and limited ; *it is but a spark from the sun, a drop from
the ocean ; but God is tmboundedly perfect in the highest man
ner, without any limflation; and therefore above spirits, angels,
the highest creatures that Avere made by him y an infinite sub
limity, a pure act, to which nothing can be added, from which
nothing can be taken. In him there is light, and no darkness,
' GamaoheUs Theol. tom. 1. Ques. 3. C, 1.

204 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
1 John i. 5 ; spirituality without any matter, perfection without
any shadow or taint of imperfection. Light pierces into all
things, preserves its own purity, and admits of no mixture of
any thing else with it.
Question. It may be said. If God be a Spirit, and it is im
possible he can be otherwise than a Spirit ; how comes God so
often to have such members as we have in our bodies ascribed
to him; not only a soul, but particular bodUy parts; as heart,
arms, hands, eyes, ears, face, and back-parts ? And how is it
that he is never called a Spirit in plain words, but in this text
by our Saviour ?
It is true, many parts of the body, and natural affections of
the human nature, are reported of God in Scripture. Head,
Dan. vii. 9; eyes and eye-lids, Psal. xi. 4; apple of the eye,
mouth, and so on; our affections also, grief, joy, anger. But
it is to be considered.
Answer 1. That this is in condescension to our weakness.
God being desirous to make himself known to man, whom he
created for his glory, humbles as it were his own nature to such
representations, as may suit and assist the capacity of the crea
ture. ' Since by the condition of our nature nothing erects a
notion of itself in our understanding, but as it is conducted in
by our sense. God has served himself of those things which
are most exposed to our senses, most obvious to our understand
ings, to give us some acquaintance with his own nature, and
those things which otherwise we were not capable of having
any notion of As our souls are linked with our bodies, so our
knowledge is linked with our senses; that we can scarce ima
gine any thing at first but under a corporeal form and figure,
till we come by great attention to the object, to make up the
help of reason, a separation of the spiritual substance from the
corporeal fancy, and consider it in its own nature. We are not
able to conceive a spirit, without some kind of resemblance to
something below it; nor understand the actions of a spirit,
without considering the operations of a human body in its seve
ral members. As the glories of another life are signified to us
by the pleasures of this ; so the nature of God, by a gracious
condescension to our capacities, is signified to us by a likeness
to our own. The more famihar the things are to us which God
uses to this purpose, the more proper they are to teach us what
he intends by them.
Answer 2. All such representations are to signify the acts of
God, as they bear some likeness to those which we perform by
those members he ascribes to himself So that those members
ascribed to him, rather note his visible operations to us, than his
1 "The law speaks after the manner of men." Loquitur lex secundum lingam
filiorura hominum.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. 205
invisible nature, and signify that God does some Avorks like to
those which men do, by the assistance of those organs of their
bodies. So the wisdom of God is caUed his eye, because he
knows that with his mind which we see with our eyes. ' The
efficiency of God is called his hand and arm; because as Ave
act with our hands, so does God with his power. The Divine
efficacies are thus signified : by his eyes and ears, we under
stand his omniscience; by his face, the manifestation of his
favour; by his mouth, the revelation of his will; by his nos
trils, the acceptation of our prayers ; by his bowels, the tender
ness of his compassion ; by his heart, the sincerity of his affec
tions; by his hand, the strength of his power; by his feet, the
ubiqufly of his presence. And in this, he intends instruction
and comfort ; by his eyes he signifies his watchfulness over us ;
by bis ears, his readiness to hear the cries of the oppressed,
Psa. xxxiv. 15; by his arm, his poAver, an arm to destroy his
enemies, and an arm to relieve his people, Isa. li. 9. All those
are attributed to. God to signify divine actions, which he does
without bodily organs, as we do with them.
Answer 3. Consider also, that only those merabers which are
the instruments of the noblest actions, and under that conside
ration, are used by him to represent a notion of him to our
minds. Whatsoever is perfect and excellent, is ascribed to him,
but nothing that savours of imperfection. The heart is ascribed
to him, it being the principle of vital actions, to signify the life
that he has in himself: ^ A^'-atchful and discerning eyes, not
sleepy and lazy ones: a mouth to reveal his will, not to take in
food. To eat and sleep are never ascribed to him, nor those
parts that belong to the preparing or transmitting nourishment
to the several parts of the body, as stomach, liver, reins, nor
bowels, under that consideration, but as they are significant of
compassion : but only those parts are ascribed to him whereby
we acquire knowledge, as eyes and ears, the organs of learning
and wisdom ; or to comraunicate it to others, as the mouth, lips,
tongue, as they are instruments of speaking, not of tasting: or
those parts which signify strength and power, or whereby we
perforra the actions of charity for the relief of others. Taste and
touch, senses that extend no further than to corporeal things,
and are the grossest of aU the senses, are never ascribed to hira.
It were worth consideration, whether this describing God by
the members of a human body were so much figuratively to be
understood, as with respect to the incarnation of our Saviour,
who was to assume the human nature and all the members of
a human body. ^
Asaph speaking in the person of God, " I will open my
' Amyral. de Trin. p. 218, 219. ^ Episcop. institut. 1. 4, § 3. c. 3.
= It is Zanchie's observation, tom. 2. de Natura Dei, lib. 1. cap. 4. thes. 9.

206 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
mouth in a parable," Psa. Ixxviu. 2 ; in regard of God, it is to
be understood figuratively, but in regard of Christ literaUy, to
whom it is applied, Matt. xiii. 34, 35. And that apparition, Isa.
vi., which was the appearance of Jehovah, is applied to Christ,
John xn. 40,41.
After the report of the creation, and the forming of man, we
read of God's speaking to him, but not of God's appearing to
him in any visible shape." A voice might be formed in the air
to give man notice of his duty; some way of information he
must have, what positive laws he was to observe, besides that
laAV which was engraven in his nature, which we cafl the law
of nature ; and without a voice the knowledge of the Divine
wiU could not be so conveniently communicated to man.
Though God was heard in a voice, he Avas not seen in a shape :
but after the fall we several times read of his appearing in such
a form. Though we read of his speaking before man's com
mitting of sin, yet not ofhis walking, which is more corporeal,
till afterwards. Gen. iii. 8. " Though God would not have
man believe him to be corporeal, yet he judged it expedient to
give some pre-notices of that Divine incarnation which he had
promised.^ Answer 4. Therefore we must not conceive of the visible
Deity according to the letter of such expressions, but the true
intent of them. Though the Scripture speaks of his eyes and
arms, yet it denies them to be arms of flesh, Job. x. 4; 2 Chron.
xxxii. 8. We must not conceive of God according to fhe letter,
but the design of the metaphor. When we hear things de
scribed by metaphorical expressions for the clearing them up
to our fancy, we conceive not of them under that garb, but re
move the veil by an act of our reason. When Christ is called
a sun, a vine, bread, is any so stupid as to conceive him to be
a vine with material branches and clusters ; or to be of the
same nature Avith a loaf? But the things designed by such
metaphors are obvious to the conception of a mean understand
ing. If Ave would conceive God to have a body like a man,
because he describes himself so, we may conceit him to be like
a bird, because he is mentioned with wings, Psal. xxxvi. 7; or
like a lion, or leopard, because he likens himself to them in the
acts of his strength and fury, Hos. xiii. 7, 8. He is called a
rock, a horn, fire, to note his strength and wrath : if any be so
stupid as to think God to be really such, they Avould make him
not only a man, but worse than a monster.
Onkelos, the Chaldee paraphrast upon parfs of the Scripture,
was so tender of expressing the notion of any corporeity in
God, that when he meets with any expressions of that nature,
he translates them according to the true intent of thera; as Avhen
1 Amyrald. Moral, tom. 1. p. 293, 294. 2 Amyrald.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. 207
God is said to descend. Gen. xi. 5, which implies a local motion,
a motion from one place to another, he translates it, " and God
revealed himself" We should conceive of God according to
the design ofthe expressions. When we read of his eyes, we
should conceive his omniscience; of his hand, his power; of
his sitting, his immutability; of his throne, his majesty; and
conceive of him as surmounting, not only the grossness of
bodies, but the spiritual exceUency of the most dignified crea
tures; something so perfect, great, spiritual, as nothing can be
conceived higher and purer.
Christ, saith one, is truly Deus figuratus; and for his sake,
was it more easily permitted to the Jews to, think of God in the
shape of a man.^
Use 1. If God be a pure spiritual being, then man is not the
image of God, according to his external bodily form and
figure. The image of God in man consisted not in what is
seen, but in what is not seen; not in the conformation of the
members, but rather in the spiritual faculties of the soul;
or most of all in the holy endowments of those faculties.
" That ye put on the new man which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness," Eph. iv. 24; Col. iii. 10. The
image which is restored by redeeming grace, was the image of
God by original nature. The image of God cannot be in that
part which is common to us Avith beasts, but rather in that
wherein we excel all living creatures, in reason, understanding,
and an immortal spirit. God expressly saith, that no one saw a
similitude of him, Deut. iv. 15, 16; which had not been true,
if man in regard of his body had been the image and similitude
of God; for then a figure of God had been seen every day, as
often as we saw a man or beheld ourselves. Nor would the
apostle's argument stand good, that the Godhead is not like to
stone graven by art. Acts xvii. 29, if we were not the offspring
of God, and bore the stamp of his nature in our spirits rather
than our bodies. It was a fancy of Fugubinus, that when God
set upon the actual creation of man, he took a bodily form for
an exemplar of that Avhich he would express in his work, and
therefore that the words of Moses, Gen. i. 26, are to be under
stood of the body of man; because there was in man such a
shape which God had then assumed.^ To let alone God's form
ing himself a body for that AVork as a groundless fancy; man
can in nowise be said to be the image of God, in regard of the
substance of his body; but beasts may as well be said to be
made in the image of God, Avhose bodies have the same mem
bers as the body of man for the most part, and excel men in the
• Maimon. More Nevoc. par. 1. cap. 27.
2 More's Conjectura Cabalistica, p, 122.
3 Petav. Theol. Dog. torn. 1. lib. 2. cap. 1. p. 104.

208 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
acuteness of the senses and swiftness of their motion, agility of
body, greatness of strength, and in some kind of ingenuities
also, wherein man has been a scholar to the brutes, and be
holden to their skiU. The soul comes nearest the nature of
God, as being a spiritual substance; yet considered singly in
regard of its spiritual substance, cannot well be said to be the
image of God. A beast, because of its corporefly, may as well
be called the image of a man; for there is a greater similitude
between a man and a brute in the rank of bodies, than there
can be between God and the highest angels in the rank of
spirits. If it does not consist in the substance of the soul, much
less can it in any simihtude of the body. This iraage consisted
partly in the state of man, as he had dominion over the crea
tures; partly in the nature of man, as he was an intelligent
being, and thereby was capable of having a grant of that do
minion ; but principaUy in the conformity of the soul with God
in the frame of his spirit and the holiness of his actions. Not
at all in the figure and form of his body physically, though
moraUy there might be, as there was a rectitude in the body,
as an instrument to conform to the holy motions of the soul,
as the holiness of the soul sparkled in the actions and members
of the body. If man were like God because he has a body,
whatsoever has a body has some resemblance to God, and
may be said to be in part his image. But the truth is, the
essence of all creatures cannot be an image of the immense
essence of God.
Use 2. If God be a pure Spirit, it is unreasonable to frame any
image or picture of God. ' Some heathens have been Aviser in this
than some Christians. Pythagoras forbade his scholars to en
grave any shape of God upon a ring, because he was not to be
comprehended by sense, but conceived only in our minds; our
hands are as unable to fashion him as our eyes to see him. The
ancient Romans worshipped their gods one hundred and seventy
years before any material representations of them;^ and the
ancient idolatrous Germans thought it a wicked thing to repre
sent God in a human shape. ^ Yet some, and those no Roman
ists, labour to defend the making images of God in the resem
blance of man; because he is so represented in Scripture, "he
may be," saith one,^ "conceived so in our mmds and figured
so to our sense." If this were a good reason, why may he
not be pictured as a lion, horn, eagle, rock, since he is under
such metaphors shadowed to us? The same ground there is for
the one as for the other. What though man be a nobler crea
ture, God has no more the body of a man than that of an eagle;
1 Jamblicus, Protrept. cap, 21. symb. 24.
2 Austin de Civitat. Dei, lib. 4. cap. 31. out of Varro. 3 Tacitus.
¦> Gerhard loc. Commun. vol. 4. Exegesis de Natura, Dei, cap. 8. § 1.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.

209

and some perfections in other creatures represent some excel
lencies in his nature and actions, which cannot be figured by a
huraan shape, as strength by the lion, swiftness and readiness,
by the wings of the bird. But God has absolutely prohibited
the raaking any image whatsoever of him, and that with terri
ble threatenings, "I the Lord am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquflies ofthe fathers upon their children," Exod. xx. 5, and
Dent. V. 8, 9. After God had given the Israelites the com
mandment Avherein he forbade them to have any other gods
before him, he forbids all figuring of him by the hand of man;
not only images, but any likeness of him either by things in
heaven, in the earth, or in the Avater. How often does he dis
cover his indignation by the prophets, against them that offer
to mould him in a creature form ! This law Avas not to serve
a particular dispensation, or to endure a particular time, but it
was a declaration of his Avill, invariable in all places and all
times, being founded upon the irarautable nature of his being,
and therefore agreeable to the law of nature, otherwise not
chargeable upon the heathens. And therefore when God had
declared his nature and his works in a stately and majestic elo
quence, he demands of them, to whom they would liken him,
or what likeness they would compare unto him? Isa. xl. 18.
Where they could find any thing that would be a lively iraage
and reserablance of his infinite excellence — founding it upon
the infiniteness of his nature, which necessarily implies the
spirituality ofit. God is infinitely above any statue; and those
that think to draw God by a stroke of a pencil, or form him by
the engravings of art, are raore stupid than the statues thern
selves. To show the unreasonableness of it ; consider,
1. It is impossible to fashion any image of God. If our
more capacious souls cannot grasp his nature, our weaker sense
cannot frame his image: it is more possible of the two to com
prehend him in our minds than to frame hira in an image to
our sense. He inhabits inaccessible light: as it is impossible
for the eye of man to see him, it is impossible for the art of man
to paint him upon walls, and carve him out of wood. None
knows him but himself, none can describe him but himself '
Can we draw a figure of our own souls, and express that part
of ourselves wherein we are most like to God? Can we extend
this to any bodily figure and divide it into parts? How can we
deal so with the original copy, whence the first draft of our
souls was taken, and which is infinitely more spiritual than
men or angels? No corporeal thing can represent a spiritual
substance; there is no proportion in nature between them. God
is a siraple, infinite, immense, eternal, invisible, incorruptible
' Cocceius. Sum, Theol. cap, 9, p. 47. § 35,
Vol. I.— 27

210 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
being; a statue is a compounded, finite, limited, temporal, visi
ble, and corruptible body. God is a living Spirit; but a statue
neither sees, nor hears, nor perceives any thing. But suppose
God had a body, it is impossible to mould an image ofit i[i fhe
true glory of that body. Can the statue of an exceUent mo
narch represent the majesty and air of his countenance though
made by fhe skilfullest workman in the Avorld ? If God had a
body in some measure suited to his exceUency, Avere it possible
for man to make an exact image of him, who cannot picture
the light, heat, motion, magnitude, and dazzling property of
the sun? The excellency of any corporeal nature of the least
creature — the femper, instinct, artifice, are beyond the power
of a carving tool; much more is God.
2. To make auy corporeal representation of God is unworthy
of God. It is a disgrace to his nature. Whosoever thinks a
carnal corruptible image to be fit for a representation of God,
renders God no better than a carnal and corporeal being. It is
a kind of debasing an angel, who is a spiritual nature, to re
present him in a bodily shape, who is as far removed from any
fleshliness as heaven from earth; much more to degrade the
glory of the divine nature to the lineaments of a man. The
Avhole stock of images is but a lie of God, a doctrine of vani
ties and falsehood: Jer. x. 8 — 14: it represents him in a false
garb to the world, Rom. i. 25, and sinks his glory into that of
a corruptible creature, Rom. i. 23. It impairs the reverence of
God in the minds of men, and by degrees may debase men's
apprehensions of God, and be a means to make them believe
he is such a one as themselves: and that not being free from
the figure, he is not also free from the imperfections of their
bodies. Corporeal images of God were the fruits of base ima
ginations of him, and as they sprang from them, so they con
tribute to a greater corruption of the notions of the divine
nature. The heathen began their first representations of him
by the image of a corruptible man, then of birds, till they de
scended, not only to four-footed beasts, but creeping things,
even serpents, as the apostle seems to intimate in his enumera
tion, Rom. i. 23. It had been more honourable to have con
tinued in human representation of him, than have sunk so low
as beasts and serpents, the baser images; though the first had
been infinitely unworthy of him, he being more above a man,
though the noblest creature, than man is above a Avorra, a toad,
or the most despicable creeping thing upon fhe earth. To think
we can make an image of God of a piece of marble or an in
got of gold, is a greater debasing of him, than it would be of
a great prince, if you should represent him in the statue of a
frog. When the Israelites represented God by a calf, it is said
they sinned a great sin, Exod. xxxii. 31. And the sin of Jero-

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. 211
boam, who intended only a representation of God by the calves
at Dan and Bethel, is caUed more emphatically, "the Avicked
ness of your Avickedness," Hos. x. 15, the very scum and dregs
of wickedness. As men debased God by this, so God debased
men for this; he degraded the Israelites into captivity under
the worst of their enemies, and punished the heathen with
spiritual judgments, as uncleanness through the lusts oftheir
own hearts, Rom. i. 24; which is repeated again in other ex
pressions, verse 26, 27, as a meet recompense for their dis
gracing the spiritual nature of God. Had God been like to
man, they had not offended in it. But I mention this to show
a probable reason of those base lusts which are in the midst of
us, that have scarce been exceeded by any nation, namely, the
unworthy and unscriptural conceits of God, which are as much
a debasing of him as material images were Avhen they were
more rife in fhe world; and may be as well the cause of those
spirflual judgments upon men, as the worshipping molten
and carved images was the cause of the same upon the heathen.
3. Yet this is natural to man. Wherein we may see the
contrariety of man to God. Though God be a Spirit, yet there
is nothing man is more prone to, than to represent him under
a corporeal form. The most famous guides of the heathen
world have fashioned him, not only according to the more
honourable images of men, but bestialized him in the form of
a brute. The Egyptians, whose country was the school of
learning to Greece, were notoriously guilty of this brutishness
in worshipping an ox for an image of their God; and the Phi
listines their Dagon, in a figure composed of the image of a
woman and a fish. Such representations were ancient in the
oriental parts.' The gods of Laban, that he accuses Jacob of
stealing from him, are supposed to be little figures of men.
Gen. xxxi. 30, 34. Such Avas the Israelites' golden calf; their
worship was not terminated on the image, but they worshipped
the true God under that representation. They could not be so
brutish as to call a calf their deliverer, and give to him a great
title, ("These be thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out
of the land of Egypt," Exod. xxxii. 4;) or that which they
knew belonged to the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, Exod. iii. 16, 17. They knew the calf to be formed
of their ear-rings; but they had consecrated it to God as a
representation of him. Though they chose fhe form of the
Egyptian idol, yet they knew that Apis, Osiris and Isis, the gods
the Egyptians adored in that figure, had not wrought their
redemption from bondage, but would have used their force, had
they been possessed of any, to have kept them under the yoke,
rather than have freed thera from it. The feast, also, which
' DailI6 super Cor. i. 10. Ser. 3.

212 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
they celebrated before their image, is caUed by Aaron the feast
ofthe Lord, Exod. xxxii. 5; a feast to Jehovah, the incommu
nicable name of the Creator of the world. It is therefore evi
dent, that both the priest and the people pretended to serve the
true God, not any false divinity of Egypt — that God who had
rescued them from Egypt with a mighty harldj-divided the Red
sea before them, destroyed their enemies, conducted them, fed
them by miracle, spoken to them from Mount Sinai, and amazed
them by his thunderings and lightnings when he instructed
thera by his law; a God they could not so soon forget. And
with this representing God by that image, they are charged by
the psalmist: " They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped
the molten iraage. Thus they changed their glory into the
similitude of an ox that eateth grass," Psalm cvi. 19, 20. They
changed their glory, that is, God the glory of Israel ; so that
they took this figure for the image of the true God of Israel,
their own God ; not the god of any other nation in the world.
Jeroboam intended no other by his calves, but symbols of the
presence of the true God, instead of the ark and the propitiatory
which remained among the Jews. We see the inclination of
our natures in the practice of the Israelites — a people chosen
out of the whole world to bear up God's name, and preserve
his glory; and in that the images of God were so soon set up
in the Christian church. And to this day, the picture of God,
in the shape of an old man, is visible in the temples of the
Romanists. It is prone to the nature of man.
4. To represent God by a corporeal image, and to worship
him in and by that image, is idolatry. Though the Israelites
did not acknowledge the calf to be God, nor intended a worship
to any of the Egyptian deities by it; but worshipped that God
in it, who had so lately and miraculously delivered them from
a cruel servitude; and coifld not in natural reason judge him
to be clothed with a bodfly shape, much less to be like an ox
that eats grass; yet the aposfle brings no less a charge against
them than that of idolatry, 1 Cor. x. 7. He calls them idola
ters, who before that calf kept a feast to Jehovah, citing Exod.
xxxii. 6. Suppose we could make such an image of God as
might perfectly represent him; yet since God has prohibited it,
shall we be Aviser than God ? He has sufficiently manifested
himself in his works without images. He is seen in the crea
tures; more particularly in the heavens, which declare his
glory. His Avorks are more excellent representations of him,
as being the works of his own hands, than any thing that is
the product ofthe art of man. His glory sparkles in the hea
vens, sun, moon and stars, as being magnificent pieces of his
wisdom and power; yet the kissing the hand to the sun or the
heavens, as representative ofthe excellency and majesty of God,

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. 213
is idolatry in Scripture account, and a denial of God, Job xxxi.
26 — 28; a prostituting the glory of God to a creature.' Either
the worship is terminated on the image itself, and then it is
confessed by all to be idolatry, because it is a giving that wor
ship to a creature which is the sole right of God;^ or not ter
minated in the image, but in the object represented by it: it is
then a foolish thing; we may as well terminate our worship on
the true object without, as with an image. An erected statue
is no sign or symbol of God's special presence, as the ark, taber
nacle and temple were. It is no part of Divine institution; has
no authority of a command to support it; no cordial of a pro
mise to encourage it; and the image being infinitely distant
from and below the majesty and spirituality of God, cannot
constitute one object of worship wifh hira. To put a religious
character upon any image formed by the corrupt imagination
of man, as a representation ofthe invisible and spiritual Deity,
is to think the Godhead to be like silver and gold, or stone
graven by art and man's device. Acts xvii. 29.
Use 3. This doctrine will direct us in our conceptions of God,
as a pure, perfect Spirit, than which nothing can be imagined
more perfect, more pure, more spiritual.
1. We cannot have an adequate or suitable conception of
God: he dwells in inaccessible light; inaccessible to the acute
ness of our fancy, as Avell as fhe weakness of our sense. If
we could have thoughts of him as high and excellent as his
nature, our conceptions must be as infinite as his nature. All
our imaginations of him cannot represent him, because every
created species is finite: it cannot therefore represent to us a
full and substantial notion of an infinite being. We cannot
speak or think worthily enough of him who is greater than our
words, vaster than our understandings. Whatsoever we speak
or think of God, is handed first fo us by the notice we have of
some perfection in the creature, and explains to us some par
ticular excellency of God rather than the fulness of his essence.
No creature, nor all creatures together, can furnish us with
such a magnificent notion of God as can give us a clear view
of him. Yet God in his word is pleased to step below his OAvn
excellency, and point us to those excellencies in his works,
whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellen
cies which are in his nature. But the creatures, whence we
draw our lessons, being finite, and our understandings being
finite, it is utterly impossible to have a notion of God com
mensurate to the immensity and spirituality of his being. " God
is not like to visible creatures, nor is there any proportion be
tween him and the most spiritual."^ We cannot have a full
' Chin. Predict, part 2, p. 252. 2 Lawson, Body Divin. p. 161.
3 Amyraldus Moral, tom. 1. p. 289.

214 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
notion of a spiritual nature, much less can we have of God,
who is a Spirit above spirits. No spirit can clearly represent
him. The angels that are great spirits, are bounded in their
extent, finite in their being, and of a mutable nature.
Yet though we cannot have a suitable conception of God,
Ave must not content ourselves without any conception of him.
It is our sin not to endeavour after a true notion of him; it is
our sin to rest in a mean and Ioav notion of him, when our
reason tells us we are capable of having higher. But if Ave
ascend as high as we can, though we shall then come short of a
suitable notion of him; this is not our sin, but our weakness.
God is infinitely superior to the choicest conceptions, not only
of a sinner, but of a creature. If all conceptions of God below
the true nature of God were sin, there is not a holy angel in
heaven free from sin; because though they are fhe most capa
cious creatures, yet they cannot have such a notion of an infi
nite being as is fully suitable to his nature, unless they were
infinite as he himself is.
2. But, however, we must by no means conceive of God
under a human or corporeal shape. Since we cannot have
conceptions honourable enough for his nature, we must take
heed we entertain not any which may debase his nature.
Though we cannot comprehend him as he is, Ave must be care
ful not to fancy him to be what he is not. It is a vain thing to
conceive him Avith human lineaments. We must think higher
of him than to ascribe to him so mean a shape: Ave deny his
spirituality when we fancy hira under such a forra: he is spirit
ual, and between that which is spiritual and that which is
corporeal, there is no resemblance. Indeed Daniel saw God in
a human form:' " The Ancient of days did sit, Avhose garment
was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure
wool," Dan. vii. 9. He is described as coming to judgment. It
is not meant of Christ probably, because Christ is called the
Son of man coming near to the Ancient of days, ver. 13. This
is not the proper shape of God, for no man has seen his shape.
It was a vision wherein such representations were made as
were accommodated to the inward sense of Daniel. Daniel saw
him in a rapture or ecstasy, wherein outward senses are of no
use. God is described, not as he is in himself, of a human form,
but in regard of his fitness to judge: white denotes the purity
and simplicity of the Divine nature: Ancient of days, in re
gard of his eternity; whfle hair in regard of his prudence and
wisdom, which is more eminent in age than youth, and more
fit to discern causes and to distinguish between right and
wrong. Visions are riddles, and must not be understood in a
literal sense. We are to watch against such determinate con-
' Episc. Institut. li. 4. § 2. u. 17.

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. 215
ceptions of God. Vain imaginations do easily infest us: tinder
wifl not sooner take fire than our natures kindle into wrong
notions of the Divine majesty. We are very apt to fashion a
god like ourselves: we must therefore look upon such repre
sentations of God as accommodated to our weakness; and no
more think them to be literal descriptions of God, as he is in
himself, than we avUI think the image of the sun in the wafer
to be the true sun in the heavens. We may indeed conceive
of Christ as man, who has in heaven the vestment of our na
ture, and is Deus figuratus, though we cannot conceive the
Godhead under a human shape.
To have such a fancy is to disparage and wrong God. A
corporeal fancy of God is as ridiculous in itself, and as inju
rious fo God as a wooden statue. The caprices of our imagi
nation are often more monstrous than the images which are
the works of art: it is as irreligious to measure God's essence
by our line, his perfections by our imperfections, as to measure
his thoughts and actings by the weakness and unworthiness of
our own. This is to limit an infinite essence, and pull him
down to our scanty measures, and render that which is incon
ceivably above us equal with us. It is impossible we can con
ceive God after the manner of a body, but we must bring him
down to the proportion of a body, which is to diminish his
glory, and stoop him beloAV the dignity of his nature. God is
a pure Spirit, he has nothing of the nature and tincture of a
body; whosoever therefore conceives of him as having a bodily
form, though he fancy the most beautiful and comely body,
instead of owning his dignity, detracts from the supereminent
excellency of his nature and blessedness. When men fancy
God like themselves in their corporeal nature, they Avfll soon
make a progress, and ascribe to him their corrupt nature; and
while they clothe him with their bodies, invest him also in the
infirmities of them. God is a jealous God, very sensible of any
disgrace, and Avill be as much incensed against an inward
idolatry as an outward. That command which forbade corpo
real images, Exod. xx. 4, would not indulge carnal imagina
tions, since fhe nature of God is as much wronged by unwor
thy images erected in the fancy as by statues carved out of
stone or metals. One as Avell as the other is a deserting ofour
true Spouse, and committing adultery, one Avith a material
image, and the other wflh a carnal notion of God. Since God
humbles himself to our apprehensions, we should not debase
him in thinking him to be that in his nature, Avhich he makes
only a resemblance of himself to us.
To have such fancies of God, will obstruct and pollute our
worship of him. How is it possible to give him a right wor
ship, of whom Ave have so debasing a notion ? We shaU never

216 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
think a corporeal deity worthy of a dedication of our spirits.
The hating instruction, and casting God's word behind the
back, is charged upon the imagination they had, that God was
such a one as themselves, Psal. I. 17. 21. Many of the wiser
heathen did not judge their statues to be their gods, or their
gods to be like their statues; but suited them to their politic
designs; and judged them a good invention to keep people
within the bounds of obedience and devotion, by such visible
figures of them, which might imprint a reverence and fear of
those gods upon them. But these were false measures: a des
pised and undervalued God is not an object of petition or
affection. Who could address seriously a God he has low
apprehensions of? The more raised thoughts we have of him,
the viler sense Ave shall have of ourselves: they would make
us humble and self-abhorrent in our supplications to him,
" wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes,"
Job xhi. 6.
3. Though we must not conceive of God as of a human or
corporeal shape; yet we cannot think of God, without some
reflection upon our own being. We cannot conceive him to
be an intelligent being, but we must make some comparison
between him and our own understanding nature, to come to a
knoAV ledge of him. Since we are enclosed in bodies, we appre
hend nothing but what comes in by sense, and what we in
some sort measure by sensible objects. And in the considera
tion of those things which we desire to abstract from sense, we
are fain to make use of the assistance of sense and visible
things: and therefore, when we frame the highest notion, there
wfll be some similitude of some corporeal thing in our fancy;
and though we would spiritualize our thoughts, and aim at a
raore abstracted and raised understanding, yet there Avill be
some dregs of matter sticking to our conceptions; yet we stifl
judge by argument and reasoning, what the thing is we think
of under those material images. A corporeal image will follow
us, as the shadow does the body: ' Avhile Ave are in the body,
and surrounded with fleshly matter, we cannot think of things
without some help from corporeal representations. Something
of sense wifl interpose itself in our purest conceptions of spiri
tual things; for the faculties which serve for contemplation,
are either corporeal, as the sense and fancy, or so aflied to
them, that nothing passes into them but by fhe organs of the
body;^ so that there is a natural inclination to figure nothing
but under a corporeal notion, till by an attentive application of
the mind and reason to the object thought upon, we separate
that which is bodily from that which is spiritual, and by de
grees ascend to that true notion of what we think upon, and
I Nazianzen. 2 Amyrald. Moral, tom, I, p. 180, Sec

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. 217
would have a due conception of in our mind. Therefore God
tempers the declaration of himself to our weakness, and the
condition of our natures: he condescends to our littleness and
narrowness, when he declares himself by the sirailitude of
bodily members; as the light of the sun is tempered, and diffu
ses itself to our sense through the air and vapours, that our
weak eyes may not be too much dazzled with it. Without it
we could not know or judge of the sun, because we could have
no use ofour sense, Avhich we must have before we can judge
of it in our understanding: so Ave are not able to conceive of
spiritual beings in the purity of their own nature, without such
a temperament and such shadows to usher thera into our
minds. And therefore we find the Spirit of God accommodates
himself to our contracted and tethered capacities, and uses such
expressions of God, as are suited to us in this state of flesh
Avherein we are : and therefore because we cannot apprehend
God in the simplicity of his own being, and his undivided
essence, he draws the representations of himself from several
creatures and several actions of those creatures: as sometimes
he is said to be angry, to walk, to sit, to fly; not that we should
rest ill such conceptions of him, but take our rise from this
foundation, and such perfections in the creatures, to mount up
to a knowledge of God's nature by those several steps, and
conceive of him by those divided excellencies, because we can
not conceive of him in the purity of his own essence. We
cannot possibly think or speak of God, unless Ave transfer the
names of created perfections to him;^ yet we are to conceive
of them in a higher manner when we apply them to the Divine
nature, than when we consider them in the several creatures
formally, exceeding those perfections and excellencies which
are in the creature, and in a more excellent manner: as one
says, " though we cannot comprehend God without the help
of such resemblances, yet Ave may Avithout making an image
of him; so that inabihty of ours excuses those apprehensions of
him from any way offending against his Divine nature." ^
These are not notions so much suited to the nature of God as
the weakness of man: they are helps to our meditations, but
ought not to be formal conceptions of him. We may assist
ourselves in our apprehensions of him, by considering the sub
tilty and spirituality of air, and considering the members of a
body, without thinking him to be air, or to have any corporeal
member. Our reason tells us, that whatsoever is a body is
limited and bounded; and the notion of infiniteness and pos
sessing a body, cannot agree and consist together; and there
fore what is offered by our fancy should be purified by our
reason. ' Lessius. 2 Towerson on the Commandments, p. 112.
Vol. I. — 28

218 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
4. Therefore we are to elevate and refine all our notions of
God, and spiritualize our conceptions of him. Every man is
to have a conception of God ; therefore he ought to have one
of the highest elevation. Since we cannot have a full notion
of him, we should endeavour to make it as high and as pure
as Ave can. Though Ave cannot conceive of God, but some
corporeal representations or images in our minds will be con
versant with us, as motes in the air when we look upon the
heavens; yet our conception may and must rise higher. As
when we see the draught of the heavens and earth in a globe,
or a kingdom in a map, it helps our conceptions, but does not
terminate them; we conceive them to be of a vast extent, far
beyond that short description of them: so we should endeavour
to refine every representation of God, to rise higher and higher,
and have our apprehensions stfll more purified; separating the
perfect from the imperfect, casting away the one and greaten
ing the other: conceive him to be a Spirit diffused through all,
containing all, perceiving all. All fhe perfections of God are
infinitely elevated above the excellencies of the creatures;
above whatsoever can be conceived by the clearest and most
piercing understanding. The nature of God as a Spirit, is in
finitely superior to Avhatsoever we can conceive perfect in the
notion of a created spirit. Whatsoever God is, he is infinitely
so; he is infinite wisdom, infinite goodness, infinite knowledge,
infinite power, infinite spirit, infinitely distant from the weak
ness of creatures, infinitely mounted above the excellencies of
creatures; as easy to be known that he is, as impossible to be
comprehended Avhat he is.
Conceive of him as excellent, Avithout any imperfection; a
Spirit without parts, great without quantity, perfect without
quality, every where without place; powerful Avithout mem
bers, understanding without ignorance, wise without reasoning,
light without darkness; infinitely more excelling the beauty of
all creatures, than the light in the sun, pure and unviolafed,
exceeds the splendour of the sun dispersed and divided through
a cloudy and misty air. And when you have risen to the
highest, conceive him yet infinitely above all you can conceive
of spirit, and acknowledge the infirmity of your OAvn minds.
And whatsoever conception comes into your minds, say," This
is not God, God is more than this. If I could conceive him,
he were not God ; for God is incomprehensibly above whatso
ever I can say, whatsoever I can think and conceive of him."
Use 4. If God be a Spirit, no corporeal thing can defile him.
Some bring an argument against the omnipresence of God, that
it is a disparagement to the Divine essence to be every where;
in nasty cottages, as well as beautiful palaces and garnished
temples. What .place can defile a spirit? Is light, which

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. 219
approaches to the nature of spirit, polluted by shining upon a
dunghill, or a sunbeam tainted by darting upon a quagmire?
Does an angel contract any soil, by stepping into a nasty prison
to deliver Peter? What can steam from the most noisome
body, to pollute the spiritual nature of God ? As he is of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity, Hab. i. 13, so he is of a more
spiritual substance, than to contract any physical pollution from
the places where he diffuses hirnself Did our Saviour, who
had a true body, derive any taint frora fhe lepers he touch
ed, the diseases he cured, or the devils he expelled? God is a
pure Spirit; plunges himself into no filth; is dashed with no
spot by being present with all bodies. Bodies alone receive
defilement frora bodies.
Use 5. If God be a Spirit, he is active and communicative.
He is not clogged with heavy and sluggish matter, which is
cause of dulness and inactivity. The more subfile, thin, and
approaching nearer the nature of a spirit any thing is, fhe more
diffusive it is. Air is a gliding substance; it spreads itself
through all regions; pierces into all bodies; it fills the space
between heaven and earth; there is nothing but partakes of
the virtue of it. Light, Avhich is an emblem of spirit, insinu
ates itself info all places, refreshes all things. As spirits are
fuller, so they are more overflowing, more piercing, more ope
rative than bodies. The Egyptians' horses were weak things,
because they were flesh and not spirit, Isa. xxxi. 3. The soul
being a spirit, conveys raore to the body than the body can to
it. What cannot so great a Spirit do for us? What cannot
so great a Spirit work in us? God being a Spirit above all
spirits, can pierce into the centre of all spirits; raake his way
info the most secret recesses; stamp Avhat he pleases. It is no
more to hira to turn our spirits, than to make a wilderness be
come waters, and speak a chaos into a beautiful frame of hea
ven and earth: he can influence our souls with infinitely more
ease than our souls can influence our bodies; he can fix in us
what motions, frames, inclinations he pleases; he can come and
settle in our hearts Avith all his treasures. It is an encourage
ment to confide in him, when Ave petition him for spiritual
blessings: as he is a Spirit, he is possessed with spiritual bless
ings, Eph. i. 3. A spirit delights to bestow things suitable to
its nature, as bodies do to communicate what is agreeable to
theirs. As he is a Father of spirits, we may go to him for the
welfare ofour spirits: he being a Spirit, is as able to repair our
spirits, as he was to create them.
As he is a Spirit, he is indefatigable in acting. The mera
bers of the body tire and flag; but who ever heard of a soul
Avearied with being active; who ever heard of a weary angel?
In the purest simplicity there is the greatest power, the mosf^

220 ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
efficacious goodness, the most reaching justice to affect the
spirit, that can insinuate itself every where to punish wicked
ness without weariness, as Avell as to comfort goodness. God
is active, because he is a Spirit; and if we be like to God, the
more spiritual we are, the more active we shall be.
Use 6. God being a Spirit, is immortal. His being immortal
and being invisible are joined together, I Tim. i. 17. Spirits
are in their nature incorruptible; they can only perish by that
hand that framed them. Every compounded thing is subject
to mutation ; but God being a pure and simple Spirit, is Avithout
corruption, without any shadow of change, James i. 17. Where
there is composition, there is some kind of repugnancy of one
part against the other; and where there is repugnancy, there
is a capabUity of dissolution. God, in regard of his infinite
spirituality, has nothing in his own nature contrary to it; can
have nothing in himself which is not himself The world
perishes; friends change and are dissolved; bodies moulder,
because they are mutable. God is a Spirit in the highest ex
cellency and glory of spirits; nothing is beyond him; nothing
above him; no contrariety within him. This is our comfort, if
we devote ourselves to him; this God is our God; this Spirit
is our Spirit; this is our all, our immutable, our incorruptible
support; a Spirit that cannot die and leave us.
tise 7. If God be a Spirit, we see how alone we can con
verse with him by our spirits. Bodies and spirits are not suitable
to one another; we can only see, know, embrace a spirit with
our spirits. He judges not of us by our corporeal actions, nor
our external devotions by our masks and disguises: he fixes
his eye upon the frame of the heart, bends his ear to the groans
of our spirits. He is not pleased with outward pomp: he is
not a body; therefore the beauty of temples, delicacy of sacri
fices, fumes of incense, are not grateful to him; by those, or
any external action, we have no communion with him. A
spirfl when broken is his delightful sacrifice, Psal. li. 17. We
must therefore have our spirits fitted for him, be rencAved in
the spirit of our minds, Eph. iv. 23, that Ave may be in a pos
ture to live with him, and have an intercourse Avith him. We
can never be united to God, but in our spirits. Bodies unite
with bodies, spirits Avith spirits. The more spiritual any thing
is, the more closely does it unite. Air has the closest union;
nothing meets together sooner than that, when the parts are
divided by the interposition of a body.
Use 8. If God be a Spirit, he only can be the true satisfac
tion of our spirits. Spirit can alone be filled with a spirit.
Content flows from likeness and suitableness: as we have a
resemblance to God in regard of the spiritual nature of our
soul, so we can have no satisfaction but in him. Spirit can no

ON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT. 221
more be reaUy satisfied with that which is corporeal, than a
beast can delight in the company of an angel. ' Corporeal
things can no raore fill a hungry spirit than pure spirit can feed
a hungry body. God, the highest Spirit, can alone reach out
a full content to our spirits. Man is lord of the creation; no
thing below him can be fit for his converse; nothing above him
offers itself to his converse but God. We have no correspond
ence with angels; the influence they have upon us, the protec
tion they afford us, is secret and undiscerned; but God, the highest
Spirit, offers himself to us in his Son, in his ordinances, is visi
ble in every creature, presents himself to us in every provi
dence; to him we must seek; in him we must rest. God had
no rest frora the creation till he had made man; and man can
have no rest in the creation, till he rests in God. God only is
our dwelling-place, Psal. xc. 1 ; our souls should long only for
him, Psal. Ixiii. 1 ; our souls should wait only upon hira. The
spirit of man never rises to its original glory, till it be carried
up on the wings of faith and love to its original copy. The
face of the soul looks most beautiful when it is turned to the
face of God the Father of spirits; when the derived spirit is
fixed upon the original Spirit, drawing from it life and glory.
Spirit alone is the receptacle of spirit. God as Spirit is our
principle; Ave must therefore live upon him. God as Spirit has
some resemblance to us his image ; we must therefore satisfy
ourselves only in him.
Use 9. If God be a Spirit, we should take most care of that
wherein we are like to God. Spirit is nobler than body; we
must therefore value our spirits above our bodies. The soul,
as spirit, partakes more of the Divine nature, and deserves more
of our choicest cares. If we have any love to this Spirit, we
should have a real affection to our own spirits, as bearing a
stamp of the spiritual Divinity, the chiefest of all the works of
God, as it is said of Behemoth, Job xl. 19. That which is
raost the image of this immense Spirit, should be our darling;
so David calls his soul, Psal. xxxv. 17. Shall we take care of
that wherein we partake not of God, and not delight in the
jewel which has his own signature upon it? God was not only
the framer of spirits and the end of spirits, but the copy and
exemplar of spirits. God partakes of no corporeity, he is pure
spirit; but how do we act as if we were only raatter and body!
We have but little kindness for this great Spirit as well as our
own, if we take no care of his immediate offspring, since he
is not only Spirit, but the Father of spirits, Heb. xii. 9.
Use 10. If God be a Spirit, let us take heed of those sins
which are spiritual. Paul distinguished between the filth of
the flesh and that of the spirit, 2 Cor. vfl. 1. By the one we
defile the body, by the other we defile the spirit, which in re-

222 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
gard of its nature is of kin to the Creator. To wrong one who
is near of kin to a prince, is worse than to injure an inferior
subject. When Ave make our spirits, which are raost like to
God in their nature, and fraraed according to his image, a stage
to act vain imaginations, wicked desires, and unclean affec
tions, we wrong God in the excellency of his work, and reflect
upon the nobleness of the pattern; we wrong him in that part
where he has stamped the most signal character of his own
spiritual nature; we defile that whereby alone we have con
verse Avith him as a Spirit, which he has ordered more imme
diately to represent him in this nature than all corporeal things
in the world can, and make that Spirit with whora we desire
to be joined unfit for such a knot. God's spirituality is the root
of his other perfections. We have already heard he could not
be infinite, omnipresent, immutable without it. Spiritual sins
are the greatest root of bitterness within us. As grace in our
spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God, so spiritual sins
bring us into a conformity to a degraded devfl, Eph. ii. 2, 3.
Carnal sins change us from men to brutes, and spiritual sins
divest us of the image of God for the image of Satan. We
should by no means make our spirits a dunghfll, which bear
upon them the character of the spiritual nature of God, and
were made for his residence. Let us therefore behave our
selves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature
of God requires us.

DISCOURSE IV.
ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
John iv. 24. — God is a Spirit : and they that worship him, must worship him in
spirit and in truth.
II. Inference. Having thus despatched the first proposition,
" God is a Spirit;" it wfll not be amiss to handle the inference
our Saviour makes from that proposition: which is the second
observation propounded.
Observation 2. That the worship due from us to God ought
to be spiritually performed.
" Spirit and truth" are understood variously. We are to wor
ship God,
Not by legal ceremonies, the evangelical administration being
called spirit in opposition to the legal ordinances as carnal, and
truth, in opposition to them as typical. As the whole Judaical

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 223
service is called flesh; so the whole evangelical service is called
spirit. Or spirit may be opposed to the worship at Jerusalem,
as it was carnal; truth, to the Avorship on the mount Gerizira,
because it was false. They had not the true object of worship,
nor the true medium of worship, as those at Jerusalem had.
Their worship should cease, because itwas false; and the Jew
ish worship should cease, because it was carnal.
There is no need of a candle when the sun spreads its beams
in the air; no need of those ceremonies, when the Sun of right
eousness appeared. They only served for candles to instruct
and direct men till the time of his coming. The shadows are
chased away by the displaying the substance, so that they can
be of no more use in the worship of God, since the end for
which they Avere instituted is expired; and that is discovered to
us in the gospel, which the Jews sought for in vain, among the
baggage and stuff of their ceremonies.
And with a spiritual and sincere frame. " In spirit," that is,
with spirit; Avith the inward operations of aU the faculties of
our souls, and the cream and flower of them. And the reason
is, because there ought to be a worship suitable to the nature
of God. And as the worship was to be spiritual, so the exer
cise of that worship ought to be in a spiritual manner. It shall
be a worship in truth, because the true God shall be adored
without those vain imaginations and phantastic resemblances
of him, which were common among the bhnd gentfles, and con
trary to the glorious nature of God, and unworthy ingredients
in religious services. ' It shall be a Avorship in spirit, without
those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on. ^ Such a pos
ture of soul which is the life and ornament of every service
God looks for at your hands: there must be some proportion
between the object adored, and the manner in Avhich we adore
it. It must not be a mere corporeal worship, because God is
not a body; but it must rise from the centre of our soul, because
God is a Spirit. Ifhe were a body, a bodily worship might
suit him, images might be fit to represent hira; but being a
Spirit, our bodily services bring us not into communion with him.
God heing a Spirit, we must banish from our minds all carnal
imaginations of him, and separate from our wifls all cold and
dissembled affections to him. We must not only have a loud
voice, but an elevated soul; not only a bended knee, but a bro
ken heart; not only a supplicating tone, but a groaning spirit;
not only a ready ear for the word, but a receiving heart: and
this shall be of greater value with him than the most costly
outward services offered on Gerizim or at Jerusalem.
Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping in spirit,
only the matter of the evangelical service, as opposed to the
' Lingend. tom. 2. p. 777. ^ Taylor's EJremplar, Preface, § 30.

224 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
legal administration, without the manner wherein it was to be
performed. It is true, God always sought a worship in spirfl;
he expected the heart of the worshipper should join with his
instituted rites of adoration in every exercise of them: but he
expects such a carriage more under the gospel admiiristration,
because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it, and
the greater assistances conveyed by it.
I shall therefore — Lay down some general propositions —
Show what this spiritual worship is — Why we raust offer to
God a spiritual service — and point out the use.
1. Some general propositions.
Prop. (1.) Theright exercise of worship is founded upon and
rises from the spirituality of God. The first ground of fhe
worship we render to God, is the infinite excellency ofhis na
ture, which is not only one attribute, but results from all.' For
God, as God, is the object of worship ; and the notion of God
consists not in thinking him wise, good, just, but all those in
finitely beyond any conception. And hence it follows that God
is an object infinitely to be loved and honoured. His goodness
is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage.
" There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared,"
Psa. cxxx. 4. Fear in the Scripture dialect signifies the whole
worship of God. But in every nation he that fears him is
accepted of him. Acts x. 35. So 2 Kings xvu. 32, 33. If God
should act towards men according to the rigours ofhis justice
due to them for the least of their crimes, there could be no ex
ercise of any affection but that of despair, which could not
engender a worship of God; which ought to be joined with love,
not with hatred. The beneficence and patience of God and his
readiness to pardon men, is the reason of the honour they
return to him. And this is so evident a motive, that generally
the idolatrous world ranked those creatures in the number of
their gods, which they perceived useful and beneficial to man
kind; as the sun and moon, the Egyptians the ox, &c. And
the more beneficial any thing appeared to mankind, the higher
station men gave it in the rank of their deities, and bestowed a
more peculiar and solemn worship upon it. Men worshipped
God to procure or continue his favour, which would not have
been acted by them, had they not conceived it a pleasing thing
to him to be merciful and gracious.
Sometimes his justice is proposed to us as a rhotive of wor
ship. " Serve God acceptably wflh reverence and godly fear;
for our God is a consuming fire," Heb. xii. 28, 29; which
includes his holiness whereby he hates sin, as Avell as his
Avrath whereby he punishes it. Who but a mad and totally
brutish person, or one that was resolved to raake war against
> Ames, Medul. lib. 2. cap. 4. § 20.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 225
heaven, could behold the effects of God's anger in the world,
consider him in his justice as a consuming fire, and despise him,
and rather be drawn out by that consideration to blasphemy
and despair, than to seek all ways to appease him? Now though
the infinite power of God, his unspeakable wisdom, his incom
prehensible goodness, the holiness of his nature, the vigilance
ofhis providence, the bounty of his hand, signify to man that
he should love and honour him, and are the motives of Avor
ship; yet the spirituality of his nature is the rule of worship,
and directs us to render our duty to him with all the powers of
our soul. As his goodness beams out upon us, worship is due
injustice to him; and as he is the most excellent nature, vene
ration is due to him in the highest manner with the choicest
affections. So that indeed the spirituality of God comes chiefly into
consideration in matter of worship: aU his perfections are
grounded upon this: he could not be infinite, immutable, om
niscient, if he were a corporeal being: we cannot give him a
AVorship unless we judge him worthy, exceUent, and deserving
a worship at our hands:' and we cannot judge hira AVorthy of
a Avorship, unless we have some apprehensions and admirations
of his infinite virtues: and we cannot apprehend and admire
those perfections, but as we see thera as causes shining in their
effects. When we see, therefore, the frame of the world to be
the work of his power, the order of the world to be the fiuit of
his wisdom, and the usefulness of the world to be the product
of his goodness, we find the motives and reasons of worship;
and weighing that this power, wisdom, goodness, infinitely
transcend any corporeal nature, we find a rule of worship, that
it ought fo be offered by us in a manner suitable to such a
nature as is infinitely above any bodily being. His being a
Spirit declares what he is; his other perfections declare what
kind of Spirit he is. AU God's perfections suppose him a Spi
rit; all centre in this: his wisdom does not suppose hira merci
ful, or his mercy suppose him omniscient: there may be distinct
notions of those, but all suppose him to be of a spiritual nature.
How cold and frozen will our devotions be, if we consider not
his omniscience, whereby he discerns our hearts! How carnal
will our services be, if we consider him not as a pure Spirit!^
In our offers to, and transactions with men, we deal not with
thera as raere aniraals, but as rational creatures; and we debase
their natures if we treat them otherwise: and if we have not
raised apprehensions of God's spiritual nature in our treating
wflh him, but allow him only such frames as we think fit
enough for men, we debase his spirituality to the littleness of
our own being: we must therefore possess our souls with this,
' Amyrald. dissert. 6. disp. 1. p. 12. ^ Amyraut. de Relig.
Vol. I.— 29

226 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
we shall else render him no better than a fleshly service. We
do not much concern ourselves in those things, of which we are
either utterly ignorant, or have but slight apprehensions.
That is the first proposition ; the right exercise of worship is
grounded upon the spirituality of God.
Prop. (2.) This spirflual Avorship of God is manifest by the
light of nature to be due to him. In reference to this, consider,
[1.] The outward means or matter of that worship which
would be acceptable to God, was not known by the light of
nature. The law for a worship, and for a spiritual worship,
by the faculties ofour souls was natural, and part of the law
of creation; though the deterraination of the particular acts,
whereby God would have this homage testified, was of posi
tive institution, and depended not upon the law of creation.
Though Adam in innocence knew God was to be worshipped;
yet by nature he did not know by what outward acts he was
to pay this respect, or at what time he was raore solemnly to
be exercised in it than at another: this depended upon the di
rections God, as the sovereign Governor and Lawgiver, should
prescribe. You therefore find the positive institutions of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the determination
of the time of worship. Gen. ii. 3. 17. Had there been any
such notion in Adam naturally, as strong as that other, that a
worship was due to God, there would have been found some
relics of these modes universally consented to by mankind, as
well as of the other: but though all nations have, by a univer
sal consent, concurred in the acknowledgment of the being of
God, and his right to adoration, and the obligation of the crea
ture to it; and that there ought to be some public rule and
polity in matters of religion; (for no nation has been in the
world without a worship, and without external acts and certain
ceremonies to signify that worship;) yet their modes and rites
have been as various as their climates, unless in that common
notion of sacrifices, not descending to thera by nature, but
tradition from Adam; and the various ways of worship have
been more provoking than pleasing: every nation suited the
kind of worship to their particular ends and polities they de
signed to rule by. How God was to be worshipped, is more
difficult to be discerned by nature wifh its eyes out, than with
its eyes clear. The pillars upon which the worship of God
stands, cannot be discerned without revelation, no more than
blind Samson could tefl where the piflars of the Philistines'
theatre stood, without one to conduct him. ' What Adam could
not see with his sound eyes, we cannot with our dim eyes; he
must be told from heaven what worship was fit for the God of
heaven. It is not by nature that we can have such a fuU pros-
' King on Jonah, p. 63.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 227
pect of God as may content and quiet us; this is the noble effect
of Divine revelation ; he only knows himself, and can alone
make himself known to us. It could not be supposed, that an
infinite God should have no perfections but what were visible
in the works of his hands; and that these perfections should
not be infinitely greater, than as they were sensible in their
present effects: this had been to apprehend God a limited being,
meaner than he is. Noav it is impossible to honour God as we
ought, unless we know him as he is; and we could not know
him as he is, without Divine revelation from himself: for none
but God can acquaint us with his own nature ; and therefore
the nations void of this conduct, heap up modes of worship
from: their oavu imaginations, unworthy of the majesty of God,
and beloAV the nature of man. A rational man would scarce
have owned such for signs of honour, as the Scripture men
tions in the services of Baal and Dagon; much less an infinitely
wise and glorious God. And when God had signified his mind
to his own people, how unwilling were they to rest satisfied with
God's determination, but would be Avarping to their own inven
tions, and make gods and ways of worship to themselves, Amos
V. 26. As in the matter ofthe golden calf, as was lately spoken of
[2.] Though the outward manner of worship acceptable to
God, could not be known without revelation, and those revela
tions might be various; yet the inward manner of worship with
our spirits was manifest by nature. And not only manifest by
nature to Adam in innocence, but after his fall, and the scales
he had brought upon his understanding by that faU. When
God gave him his positive institutions before the fall, or what
soever additions God shoifld have made, had he persisted in
that state; or when he appointed him after his fall to testify his
acknowledgraent of hira by sacrifices, there needed no com
mand to him to make those acknowledgraents by those out
ward ways prescribed to hira, with the intention and prirae
affection of his spirit: this nature would instruct him in with
out revelation : for he could not possibly have any semblance
of reason to think, that the offering of beasts, or the presenting
the first-fruits of the increase of the ground, as an acknowledg
ment of God's sovereignty over him, and his bounty to him,
was sufficient without devoting to him that part wherein the
image of his Creator did consist: he could not but discern by a
reflection upon his own being, that he was raade for God as
well as by God ; (for it is a natural principle of which the apos
tle speaks, Rom. xi. 36. " For of him, and through him, and
to him, are all things," &c.) that the whole Avhereof he did con
sist was due to God; and that his body, the dreggy and dusty
part of his nature, was not fit to be brought alone before God,
wflhout that nobler principle, which he had by creation linked

228 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
wflh fl. Nothing in the Avhole law of nature, as it is informed
of religion, was clearer next to the being of God, than this man
ner of worshipping God with the mind and spirit. And as the
gentfles never sunk so low into the mud of idolatry, as to think
the images they worshipped were really their gods, but the re
presentations, or habitations of their gods; so they never deserted
this principle in the notion of it, that God was to be honoured
with the best they were and the best they had. As they never
denied the being of a God in the notion, though they did in the
practice, so they never rejected this principle in notion, though
they did, and now most men do, in the inward observation of
it. It was a maxim among them that God was mens, animus,
" mind and spirit," and therefore was to be honoured with the
mind and spirit: that religion did not consist in the ceremonies
of the body, but fhe work of the soul ; whence the speech of one
of them, " Sacrifice to the gods, not so much clothed wifh pur
ple garments as a pure heart;"' and of another, " God regards
not the multitude of the sacrifices, but the disposition of the sac-
rificer." " It is not fit we should deny God the cream and flour,
and give him the worthless part and the stalks. And with Avhat
reverence and intention of mind they thought their worship was
to be performed, is evident by the priest's crying out often.
Hoc age, " Mind this," let your spirits be intent upon it.
This could not but result.
From fhe knowledge of ourselves. It is a natural principle,
God hath made us, and not we ourselves, Psa. c. 3. Man
knows himself to be a rational creature: as a creature he was
to serve his Creator; and as a rational creature, with the best
part of that rational nature he derived from him. By the same
act of reason that he knows himself to be a creature, he knows
himself to have a Creator; that this Creator is more excellent
than himself, and that an honour is due from him to the Crea
tor for framing of him; and therefore this honour was to be
offered to him by the most excellent part which was framed by
him. Man cannot consider himself as a thinking, understanding
being, but he must know that he must give God the honour of
his thoughts, and Avorship him with those faculties whereby he
thinks, wills, and acts. He must know his faculties were given
him to act, and to act for the glory of that God who gave him
his soul and the faculties of it;^ and he could not in rea.son
think they must be only active in his own service, and the ser
vice of the creature, and idle and unprofitable in the service of
his Creator. With the same poAvers of our soul whereby we
contemplate God, we must also worship God. We cannot
think of him but with our minds, nor love him but with our
'¦ Menander. Grot, de Veritat. Relig. lib. 4. § 12. 2 Jamblicus.
^ Amyrald. Mor. tom. I. p. 309, 310.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 229
wifl; and we cannot worship him without the acts of thinking
and loving, and therefore cannot worship him without the ex
ercise of our inward faculties. How is it possible then for any
man that knows his own nature, to think that extended hands,
bended knees, and uplifted eyes were sufficient acts of worship,
wflhout a quickened and active spirit?
And from the knowledge of God. As there was a knoAV-
ledge of God by nature, so the same nature did dictate to man
that God v/as to be glorified as God: the apostle implies the
inference in the charge he brings against thera for neglecting it,
Rom. i. 21. We should speak of God as he is, said one; and
the same reason would inform thera that they were to act to
wards God as he is.' The excellency of the object required a
worship according to the dignity of his nature ; which could
not be answered but by the most serious inward affection, as
Avell as outward decency ; and a want of this cannot but be
judged to be unbecoming the majesty of the Creator of the
world, and the excellency of religion. No nation, no person
did ever assert, that the vflest part of man was enough for the
most exceUent Being, as God is : that a bodily service could be
a sufficient acknowledgment of the greatness of God, or a suffi
cient return for the bounty of God. Man could not but know
that he was to act in religion, conformably to the object of reli
gion, and to the exceUency of his own soul.^ The notion of a
God was sufficient to fill the mind of man with admiration and
reverence, and the first conclusion from it would be to honour
God, and that he have all the affection placed on hira that so
infinite and spiritual a Being did deserve. The progress then
would be, that this excellent being was to be honoured with
the motions ofthe understanding and wiU; with the purest and
most spiritual powers in the nature of man; because he was
a spiritual Being, and had nothing of matter mingled with him.
Such a brutish imagination, to suppose that blood and fumes,
beasts and incense, could please a Deity without a spiritual
frame, cannot be supposed to befall any but those that had lost
their reason in the rubbish of sense. Mere rational nature
could never conclude, that so excellent a Spirit would be put
off with a mere animal service, and attendance of raatter and
body without spirit; when they theraselves, of an inferior
nature, would be loth to sit down contented with an outside
service frora those that belong to thera : so that this instruction
of our Saviour, that God is to be worshipped in spirit and
truth, is conformable to the sentiments of nature, and drawn
from the raost undeniable principles of it. The excellency of
God's nature, and the excellent constitution of human faculties,
concur naturaUy to support this persuasion. This was as natu-
,' Bias. ' Amyrald.

230 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
ral to be known by men, as the necessity of justice and tempe
rance for the support of human societies and bodies. It is to
be feared, that if there be not among us such brutish apprehen
sions, there are such brutish dealings with God in our services
against the light of nature ; when we place all our worship of
God in outward attendances and drooping countenances, with
unbelieving frames and formal devotions; when prayer is
muttered over in private slightly, as a parrot learns lessons by
rote, not understanding what it speaks, or to what end it speaks
it; not glorifying God in thought and spirit, with understand
ing and wfll.
Prop. (3.) Spiritual worship therefore was always required
by God, and always offered to hira by one or other. Man had
a perpetual obligation upon him to such a worship from the
nature of God, and what is founded upon the nature qf God is
invariable. This and that particular mode of worship may wax
old as a garment, and as a vesture may be folded up and
changed, as the expression is of the heavens, Heb. i. 11, 12:
but God endures for ever: his spirituality fails not, and there
fore a worship of him in spirit must run through all ways and
rites of worship. God must cease to be Spirit, before any ser
vice but that Avhich is spiritual can be accepted by him. The
light of nature is the light of God ; the light of nature being
unchangeable, what was dictated by that, was always and will
always be required by God. The worship of God being per
petually due from the creature, the worshipping him as God
is as perpetually his right. Though the outward expressions
of this honour were different, one way in paradise, (for a wor
ship was then due, since a solemn time for that worship was
appointed,) another under the law, another under the gospel;
the angels also worship God in heaven, and fall down before
his throne; yet though they differ in rites, they agree in this
necessary ingredient. All rites, though of a different shape,
must be offered to him not as carcasses, but animated with the
affections of the soul. Abel's sacrifice had not been so excel
lent in God's esteem, without those gracious habits and affec
tions working in his soul, Heb. xi. 4. Faith works by love;
his heart was on fire as well as his sacrifice. Cain rested upon
his present; perhaps thought he had obhged God; he depended
upon the outward ceremony, but sought not for the inward
purity. It was an offering brought to the Lord, Gen. iv. 3:
he had the right object, but not theright manner: "If thou
dost well, shalt thou not be accepted ?" Gen. iv. 7. And in the
command afterwards to Abraham, " Walk before me, and be
thou perfect," was the direction in all our religious acts and
walkings with God. A sincere act of the mind and wiU, look
ing above and beyond all symbols, extending the soul to a pitch

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 231
far above the body, and seeing the day of Christ through the
veil of the ceremonies, was required by God: and though
Moses by God's order had instituted a multitude of carnal ordi
nances, sacrifices, washings, oblations of sensible things, and
recommended to the people the diligent observation of those
statutes by the allurements of promises and denouncing of
threatenings; as if there were nothing else to be regarded, and
the true workings of grace were to be buried under a heap of
ceremonies; yet sometimes he does point them to the inward
worship, and by the command of God requires of them the cir
cumcision ofthe heart, Deut. x. 16, the turning to God with all
their heart and all their soul, Deut. xxx. 10; whereby they
might recollect, that it was the engagement of the heart, and
the worship of the spirit, that was raost agreeable to God ; and
that he took not any pleasure in their observance of ceremonies,
without true piety within, and the true purity of their thoughts.
Prop. (4.) It is therefore as much every man's duty to wor
ship God in spirit, as it is his duty to worship him. Worship
is so due to him as God, as that he that denies it disowns his
Deity ; and spiritual worship is so due, that he that waves it
denies his spirituality. It is a debt of justice we owe to God
to worship him, and it is as much a debt of justice to Avorship
him according to his nature. Worship is nothing else but a
rendering to God the honour that is due to him; and therefore
the right posture of our spirits in it is as much or more due
than the material worship in the modes of his own prescribing;
that is grounded both upon his nature and upon his command,
this only upon his command; that is perpetuaUy due, whereas
the channel wherein outward worship runs may be dried up,
and the river diverted another Avay. If the worship be not such
wherein the mind thinks of God, feels a sense of God, has the
spirit consecrated to God, the heart glowing with affections to
God, it is else a mocking God with a feather. A rational nature
must worship God with that wherein the glory of God does
most sparkle in him. God is most visible in the frame of the
soul, it is there his image glitters: he has given us a jewel as
well as a case, and the jewel as well as the case we must re
turn to him. The spirit is God's gift, and must return to him,
Eccl. xii, 7. It must return to him in every service morally, as
well as it must return to him at last physicafly. It is not fit we
should serve our Maker only with that which is the brute in
us, and withhold from him that which does constitute us rea-,
sonable creatures ; we must give him our bodies, but a living
sacrifice, Rom. xii. 1. If the spirit be absent from God when
the body is before hira, we present a dead sacrifice ; it is mo
rally dead in the duty, though it be naturally alive in the pos
ture and action. It is not an indifferent thing whether we shall

232 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
worship God or no, nor is it an indifferent thing whether we
shall worship him Avith our spirits or no. As the excellency of
man's knoAvledge consists in knowing things as they are fl
truth, so the excellency of the wiU, in willing things as they are
in goodness. As it is the excellency of man to knoAv God as
God, so it is no less his excellency, as well as his duty, to ho
nour God as God. As the obligation we have to the power of
God for our being, binds us to a worship of him, so the obliga
tion we have to his bounty for fashioning us according to his
own image, binds us to an exercise of that part wherein his
image does consist. God has made all things for himself, Prov.
xvi. 4, that is, for the evidence of his own goodness and wis
dom: we are therefore to render him a glory according to the
exceUency of his nature, discovered in the frame of our own.
It is as much our sin not to glorify God as God, as not to at
tempt the glorifying of him at all: it is our sin not to worship
God as God, as well as to omit the testifying any respect at all
to him. As the Divine nature is the object of worship, so the
Divine perfections are to be honoured in worship: we do not
honour God if we honour him not as he is; we honour him
not as a Spirit, if we think him not worthy of the ardours and
ravishing admiration of our spirits. If we think the devotions
of the body are sufficient for him, we contract him into the
condition of our own being, and not only deny him to be a
spiritual nature, but dash out all those perfections which he
could not be possessed of were he not a Spirit.
Prop. (5.) The ceremonial law was abolished to promote the
spirituality of divine worship. That service was gross, carnal,
calculated for an infant and sensitive church: it consisted in
rudiments, the circumcision of the flesh, the blood and smoke
of sacrifices, the steams of incense, observation of days, dis
tinction of meats, corporeal purifications; every leaf of the
law is clogged with some rite to be particularly observed by
them. The spirituahty of worship lay veiled under a thick
cloud, that the people could not behold the glory of the gospel,
which lay covered under those shadows. They "could not
steadfasfly look to the end of that which is abolished," 2 Cor.
iii. 13. They understood not the glory and spiritual intent of
the law, and therefore came short of that spiritual frame in the
worship of God which was their duty. And therefore in op
position fo this administration, the worship of God under the
gospel is called by our Saviour in the text, "a worship in
spirit;" more spiritual for the matter, more spiritual for the
motives, and more spirflual for the manner and frames of wor
ship. [1.] This legal service is caUed flesh in Scripture, in opposi
tion to the gospel, which is called spirfl. The ordinances of

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 233
the law, though of Divine institution, are dignified by the
apostle with no better a title than carnal ordinances, Heb. ix.
10, and a carnal commandment, Heb. vii. 16; but the gospel
is caUed the ministration of the spirit, as being attended with
a special and spiritual efficacy on the minds of men, 2 Cor. iii.
8. And when the degenerate Galatians, after having tasted of the
pure streams of the gospel, turned about to drink of the thicker
streams of the law, the aposfle tells them that they began in
the Spirit and would now be made perfect in the flesh. Gal. iii.
3. They would leave the righteousness of faith for a justifica
tion by works. The moral law which is in its own nature
spiritual, Rora. vii. 14, in regard of the abuse of it, in expec
tation of justification by the outward works of it, is called flesh :
much more may the ceremonial administration, which was
never intended to run parallel with the moral, nor had any
foundation in nature as the other had.
That whole economy consisted in sensible and material things
which only touched the flesh ; it is called the letter, and the old
ness of the letter, Rom. vfl. 6 ; as letters which are but empty
sounds of themselves, but put together and formed into words,
signify something to the mind of the hearer or reader'; an old
letter, a thing of no efficacy upon the spirit, but as a law writ
ten upon paper. The gospel has an efficacious spirit attending
it, strongly working upon the raind and will, and raoulding the
soul into a spiritual frame for God, according to the doctrine of
the gospel: the one is old and decays, the other is new and in
creases daily.
And as the law itself is called flesh, so the observers of it
and rosters in it are called Israel after the flesh, 1 Cor. x. 18.
And the evangelical worshipper is caUed a Jew after the spirit,
Rom. ii. 29. They were Israel after the flesh as born of Jacob,
not Israel after the spirit as born of God; and therefore the
aposfle calls them Israel and not Israel, Rom. ix. 6; Israel after
a carnal birth, not Israel after a spiritual : Israel in the circum
cision of the flesh, not Israel by a regeneration of the heart.
[2.] The legal ceremonies Avere not a fit raeans to bring the
heart into a spiritual frame. They had a spiritual intent: the
rock and manna prefigured the salvation and spiritual nourish
ment by the Redeemer, 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. The sacrifices were to
point thera to the justice of God in the punishment of sin, and
the mercy of God in substituting them in their stead, as types
of the Redeemer and the ransom by his blood. The circum
cision of the flesh was to instruct them in the circumcision of
the heart; they were flesh in regard oftheir matter, weakness,
and cloudiness ; spiritual in regard oftheir intent and signifi
cation: they did instruct, but not efficaciously work strong
spiritual affections in the soul of the worshipper. They were
Vol. I.— 30

234 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
weak and beggarly elements. Gal. iv. 9 ; had neither Avealth to
enrich nor strength to nourish the soul ; they could not perfect
the comers to them, or put them into a frame agreeable to the
nature of God, Heb. x. 1 ; ix. 9, nor purge the conscience from
those dead and dull dispositions which were by nature in them,
Heb. ix. 14. Being carnal, they could not have an efficacy fo
purify the conscience of the offerer, and work spiritual effects:
had they continued without the exhibition of Christ, they could
never have wrought any change in us, or purchased any favour
for us. At the best they were but shadows, and came inex
pressibly short of the efficacy of that person and state whose
shadows they were." The shadow of a man is too weak fo
perform what the man himself can do, because it wants the
life, spirit, and activity of the substance. The whole pomp
and scene was suited more to the sensitive than the intellectual
nature; and like pictures, pleased the fancy of children, rather
than improved their reason. The Jewish state was a state of
childhood. Gal. iv. 3, and that administration a pedagogy, Gal.
iii. 24. The law was a schoolmaster fitted for their Aveak and
chfldish capacity, and could no more spiritualize the heart than
the teachings in a primer-school can enable the mind, and make
it fit for affairs of state. And because they could not better
the spirit, they were instituted only for a time, as elements de
livered to an infant age, which naturally lives a life of sense,
rather than a life of reason. It was also a servile state, whicli
does rather debase than elevate the mind, rather carnalize than
spiritualize the heart : besides, it is a sense of mercy that both
melts and elevates the heart into a spiritual frame : " There is
forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared:" Psal. cxxx.
4. And they had in that state but some glimmerings of mercy
in the dafly bloody intimations of justice; there was no sacrifice
for some sins, but a cutting off without the least hints of pardon;
and in the yearly remembrance of sin, there was as much to
shiver them with fear, as to possess them with hopes. And
such a state Avhich always held them under the conscience of
sin, could not produce a free spirit, which was necessary for a
worship of God according to his nature.
[3.] In their use they rather hindered than furthered a spiritual
worship. In their own nature they did not tend to the obstruct
ing a spiritual worship; for then they had been contrary to the
nature of religion, and the end of God who appointed them:
nor did God cover the evangelical doctrine under the clouds of
the legal administration, to hinder the people of Israel from
perceiving it; but because they were not yet capable to bear
the splendour of it, had it been clearly set before them. The
shining of the face of Moses was too dazzling for their weak
1 Burges' Vind. p, 256,

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.

235

eyes, and therefore there was a necessity of a veil, not for the
things themselves, but the weakness of their eyes, 2 Cor. iii.
13, 14. The carnal affections of that people sunk down into
the things themselves; stuck in the outward pomp, and pierced
not through the veil to the spiritual intent of them. And by
the use of thera without rational conceptions they besotted their
minds, and became senseless of those spiritual motions required
of thera. Hence came all their expectations of a carnal Mes
siah; the veil of ceremonies was so thick, and the film upon
their eyes so condensed, that they could not look through the
vefl to the Spirit of Christ. They beheld not the heavenly
Canaan for the beauty of the earthly, nor minded the regenera
tion of the spirit, whfle they rested upon the purifications of
the flesh. The prevalency of sense and sensitive affections
diverted their minds from inquiring into the intent of them.
Sense and matter are often clogs to the mind, and sensible
objects are the same often to spiritual motions. Our souls are
never more raised, than when they are abstracted frora the en
tanglements of them. A pompous worship made up of many
sensible objects, Aveakens the spirituality of religion: those that
are most zealous for outward, are usually most cold and indif
ferent in inward observances; and those that over-do in carnal
modes, usually under-do in spiritual affections.
This was the Jewish state. The nature of the ceremonies
being pompous and earthly, by their show and beauty, meeting
with their weakness and chfldish affections, fiUed their eyes
with an outward lustre, allured their minds, and detained them
from seeking things higher and more spiritual.' The kernel of
those rites lay concealed in a thick shell; the spiritual glory was
little seen, and the spiritual sweetness little tasted. Unless the
Scripture be diligently searched, it seems to transfer the worship
of God from true faith and the spiritual motions of the heart,
and stake it down to outward observances, and the "opus
operatum." Besides, the voice of the law did only declare
sacrifices, and invited the worshipper to them, with a promise
ofthe atonement of sin, turning away the wrath of God. It
never plainly acquainted them, that those things were types
and shadows of something future, that they Avere only outward
purifications of the flesh: it never plainly told them at the time
of appointing them, that those sacrifices could not abolish sin,
and reconcile thera to God. Indeed we see more of them since
their death and dissection, in that one epistle to the Hebrews,
than can be discerned in the five books of Moses. Besides,
man naturally affects a carnal life, and therefore affects a carnal
worship ; he designs the gratifying his sense, and would have
a religion of the same nature. Most men have no mind to
' Illyric. de Velam. Mosis, p. 221. &c.

236 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
busy their reason above the things of sense, and are naturafly
unwilling to raise them up to those things which are allied to
the spiritual nature of God; and therefore the raore spiritual
any ordinance is, the more averse is the heart of man to it.
There is a simplicity of the gospel from which our minds are
easily corrupted by things that please the sense, as Eve was
by the curiosity of her eye, and the liquorishness of her palate,
2 Cor. xi. 3. From this principle has sprung all the idolatry
in the world, The Jews knew they had a God who had deliv
ered them, but they would have a sensible God to go before
them, Exod. xxxii. 1. And the papacy at this day, is a wit
ness ofthe truth of this natural corruption.
[4.] Upon these accounts therefore God never testified him
self well pleased with that kind of worship. He was not dis
pleased with them as they were his own institution, and or
dained for the representing (though in an obscure manner) the
glorious things of the gospel; nor.-was he offended with those
people's observance of them ; for since he had commanded them,
it was their duty to perform them, and their sin to neglect
them. But he was displeased with them as they Avere prac
tised by them, Avith souls as morally carnal in the practices, as
the ceremonies Avere materially carnal in their substance. It
was not their disobedience to observe them ; but it was a diso
bedience, and a contempt of the end of the institution to rest
upon them; to be warm in them, and cold in raorals; they fed
upon the bone, and neglected the marrow; pleased theraselves
with the shell, and sought- not for the kernel: they joined not
with them the internal worship of God, fear of him, with faith
in fhe promised Seed, which lay veiled under those coverings:
" I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God
more than burnt offerings," Hos. vi. 6: and therefore he seems
sometimes weary of his own institutions, and calls thera not his
own, but their sacrifices, their feasts, Isa. i. 11. 14. They were
his by appointment, theirs by abuse : the institution was from
his goodness and condescension, therefore his; the corruption of
them was frora the vice of their nature, therefore theirs. He
often blamed them for their carnality in them; showed his dis
like of placing all their religion in them; gives the sacrifices
upon that account no better a title, than that of the princes of
Sodom and Gomorrah, Isa. i. 10; and corapares the sacrifices
themselves to the cutting off a dog's neck, swine's blood, and
the murder of a man, Isa. Ixvi. 3. And indeed God never
valued them, or expressed any delight in them: he despised the
feasts of the wicked, Amos v. 21, and had no esteem for the
material offerings of the godly: "Will I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?" Psa. I. 13; which he speaks to
his saints and people, before he comes to reprove the wicked;

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 237
which he begins, ver. 1 6, " But unto the wicked God saith,"
&c. So slightly he esteemed them, that he seems to disown
them to be any part of his comraand, when he brought his peo
ple out of the land of Egypt: " I spake not to your fathers, nor
commanded them — concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices,"
Jer. vii. 21. He did not value nor regard them, in comparison
of that inward frame which he had required by fhe moral law ;
that being given before the law of ceremonies, obliged them in
the first place to an observance of those precepts. They seemed
to be below the nature of God, and could not of themselves
please him. None could in reason persuade themselves, that
the death of a beast was a proportionable offering for the sin of
a man, or ever Avas intended for the expiation of transgression.
In the same rank are all our bodily services under the gospel:
a loud voice without spirit, heads bended like bulrushes without
inward affections, are no more delightful to God than the sacri
fices of animals. It is but a change of one brute for another of a
higher species ; a mere brute, for that part of man which has an
agreement Avith brutes : such a service is a mere animal service,
and not spiritual.
[5.] And therefore God never intended that sort of worship
to be durable, and had often mentioned the change of it for one
more spiritual. It was not good or evil in itself; whatsoever
goodness it had, was solely derived to it by institution, and
therefore it Avas mutable. It had no conformity with the spiri
tual nature of God, who was to be worshipped ; nor with the
rational nature of man, who Avas to worship: and therefore he
often speaks of taking away the new moons, and feasts, and
sacrifices, and all the ceremonial worship, as things he took no
pleasure in, to have a worship more suited to his excellent
nature. But he never speaks of removing the gospel adminis
tration, and the worship prescribed there, as being raore agree
able to the nature and perfections of God, and displaying them
more iUustriously to the Avorld.
The apostle tells us, it was to be disannulled because of its
weakness, Heb. vii. 18. A determinate time was fixed for its
duration, till the accomplishment of the truth figured under that
pedagogy. Gal. iv. 2. Some of the modes of that worship being
only typical, must naturally expire and be insignificant in their
use, upon the finishing of that by fhe Redeemer which they did
prefigure. And other parts of it, though God suffered them so
long because of the weakness of the worshipper, yet because it
became not God to be always worshipped in that manner, he
would reject and introduce another more spiritual and elevated.
Incense and a pure offering should be offered every where unto
his name,-Mal. i. 11.
He often told them he would make a neAV covenant by the

238 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
Messiah, and the old should be rejected ;' that the former things
should not be reraembered, and fhe things of old no raore con
sidered, when he should do a new thing in the earth, Isaiah
xliii. 18, 19; that even fhe ark of the covenant, the symbol of
his presence, and the glory of the Lord in that nation, should
not any more be remembered and visited, Jer. iii. 16; that the
temple and sacrifices should be rejected, and others established;
that the order of the Aaronical priesthood should be abolished,
and that of Melchizedek set up in the stead of it, in the person
of the Messiah, to endure for ever. Psalm ex: that Jerusalem
should be changed ; a new heaven and earth created ; a wor
ship more conformable to heaven, more advantageous to earth.
God had proceeded in the removal of some part of it, before
the time of taking down the whole furniture of this house: the
pot of manna was lost; Urim and Thummim ceased; the glory
of the temple was diminished; and the ignorant people wept
at the sight of the one, without raising their faith and hope in
the consideration of the other, which was promised to be filled
with a spiritual glory. And as soon as ever the gospel was
spread in the world, God thundered out his judgments upon
that place in which he had fixed all those legal observances, so
that the Jews, in the letter and flesh, could never practise the
main part of their worship, since they were expelled from that
place where alone it was to be celebrated. It is one thousand
six hundred years since they have been deprived of their altar,
which was the foundation of all the Levitical Avorship, and
have wandered in the world without a sacrifice, a prince or
priest, an ephod or teraphim, Hosea iii. 4.
And God fully put an end to it in the command he gave to
the apostles, and in them to us, in fhe presence of Moses and
Elias, to hear his Son only: " Behold a voice out of the cloud,
which said. This is my beloved Son, in Avhora I am well pleas
ed; hear ye him," Matt. xvii. 5. And at the death of our
Saviour, he testified it to that whole nation and the world, by
the rending in twain the veil of the temple.
The whole frame of that service, which was carnal, and by
reason of the corruption of man, weakened, is annulled; and a
spiritual worship is raade known to the world, that we might
now serve God in a more spiritual manner, and with more
spiritual frames.
Prop. (6.) The service and worship the gospel settles, is spi
ritual, and the performance of it more spiritual. Spirituality
is the genius of the gospel, as carnahty Avas of the law; the
gospel is therefore called spirit: we are abstracted from the
employments of sense, and brought nearer to a heavenly state.
The Jews had angels' bread poured upon them; we have an-
I Pascal, Pen. 142.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 239
gels' service prescribed to us; the praises of God, communion
with God in spirit through his Son Jesus Christ, and stronger
foundations for spiritual affections. It is called a reasonable
service, Rom. xii. 1. It is suited to a rational nature, though
it finds no friendship from the corruption of reason. It pre
scribes a service fit for the reasonable faculties of the soul, and
advances them whfle it employs them. The Avord reasonable
may be translated word-service,' as well as reasonable service ;
an evangelical service in opposition to a law service. All evan
gelical service is reasonable, and all truly reasonable service is
evangelical. The matter of the Avorship is spiritual: it consists in love of
God, faith in God, recourse to his goodness, meditation on him,
and coraraunion with hira. It lays aside the ceremonial, spirit
ualizes the moral: the commands that concerned our duty to
God, as well as those that concerned our duty to our neighbour,
were reduced by Christ to the spiritual intention.
The motives are spiritual; it is a state of more grace as well
as of more truth, John i. 17; supported by spiritual promises,
beaming out in spiritual privileges; heaven comes doAvn in it
to earth, to spiritualize earth for heaven.
The manner of worship is more spiritual; higher flights of
the soul, stronger ardour of affection, sincerer aims at his glory:
mists are removed from our minds, clogs from the soul, there is
more of love than fear; faith in Christ kindles the affections
and works by them.
The assistances to spiritual worship are greater. The Spirit
does not drop, but is plentifully poured out. It does not light
sometimes upon, but dwells in the heart. Christ suited the goa
pel to a spiritual heart, and the Spirit changes a carnal heart
to make it fit for a spiritual gospel. He blows upon the garden,
and causes the spices to flow forth; and often makes the soul
in worship like the chariots of Ammi-nadib, in a quick and
nimble motion. Our blessed Lord and Saviour by his death
discovered to us the nature of God; and after his ascension sent
his Spirit to fit us for the worship of God and converse with him.
One spiritual, evangelical, believing breath, is more delight
ful to God than millions of altars made up of the richest pearls,
and smoking with the costliest oblations, because it is spiritual;
and a mite of spirit is of more worth than the greatest weight
of flesh. One holy angel is more excellent than a whole world
of mere bodies.
Prop. (7.) Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to
be rejected upon the account that God requires a spiritual wor
ship. Though we must perform the weightier duties of the
law, yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter pre-
' Vide Hammond in loc.

240 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
cepts; since both the magnalia and minutula^ legis, the
greater and the lesser duties of the law, have the stamp of
Divine authority upon them.
As God under the ceremonial law did not command the wor
ship ofthe body, and the observation of outward rites without
the engagement ofthe spirit; so neither does he command that
of the spirit, without the peculiar attendance ofthe body.
The Schwelkfendians denied bodily worship. And the in
decent postures of many in public attendance, intimate no great
care either of composing their bodies or spirits. A morally dis
composed body intimates a tainted heart.
Our bodies as well as our spirits are to be presented to God,
Rom. xii. 1. Our bodies in lieu of the sacrifices of beasts, as in
the Judaical institutions; body for the whole raan; a living
sacrifice, not to be slain, as the beasts were, but living a new
life, in a holy posture, with crucified affections. This is the
inference the apostle makes of the privfleges of justification,
adoption, coheirship with Christ, which he had before dis
coursed of; privileges conferred upon the person, and not upon
a part of man.
[1.] Bodily worship is due to God. He has a right to an
adoration by our bodies as they are his by creation ; his right
is not diminished but increased by the blessing of redemption:
" For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God's," 1 Cor. vi. 20. The
body as well as the spirit is redeemed, since our Saviour suffered
crucifixion in his body as Avell as agonies in his soul. Body is
not taken here for the whole man, as it may be in Rom. xii;
but for the material part of our nature, it being distinguished
from the spirit. If we are to render to God an obedience
with our bodies, we are to render him such acts of worship
Avith our bodies as they are capable of As God is the Father
of spirits, so he is the God of all flesh: therefore the flesh he
has framedj of the earth, as Avell as the noble portion he has
breathed into us, cannot be denied him without a palpable injus
tice. The service of the body we must not deny to God, unless
we will deny him tobe the Author ofit, and the exercise ofhis
providential care about it. The mercies of God are rencAved
every day upon our bodies as well as our souls, and therefore
they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty every day.'
" Both are from God, both should be for God. Man consists
of body and soul; the service of man is the service of both. The
body is to be sanctified as well as the soul, and therefore to be
offered to God as well as the soul. Both are to be glorified,
both are to glorify: as our Saviour's Divinity was manifested in
his body, so should our spirituality in ours. To give God the
' Sherman's Greek in the Temple, p. 61, 62.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 241
service of the body and not of the soul is hypocrisy; to give
God the service ofthe spirit and not ofthe body is sacrilege; to
give him neither, atheism." If the only part of man that is
visible were exempted from the service of God, there coifld be
no visible testimonies of piety given upon any occasion: since
not a moiety of man, but the whole is God's creature, he ought
to pay a homage with the whole, and not only Avith a moiety
of himself
[2.] Worship in societies is due to God, but this cannot be
without some bodily expressions. The law of nature does as
much direct men to combine together in public societies for the
acknowledgment of God, as in civil communities for self-pre
servation and order. And the notice of a society for rehgion
is more ancient than the mention of civil associations for poli
tical government: " Then began men to call upon the name of
the Lord," Gen. iv. 26; namely, in the time of Seth. No ques
tion but Adam had worshipped God before as weU as Abel,
and a family religion had been preserved; but as mankind in
creased in distinct families, they knit together in companies to
solemnize the worship of God. Hence, as some think, those
that incorporated together for such ends, Avere called the sons
of God:' sons by profession, though not sons by adoption; as
those of Corinth were saints by profession, though in such a
corrupted church they could not be all so by regeneration; yet
saints, as being of a Christian society, and calling upon the
name of Christ, that is, worshipping God in Christ, though they
might not be all saints in spirit and practice. So Cain and Abel
met together to Avorship, at the end ofthe days, at a set time.
Gen. iv. 3. God settled a public worship among the Jews,
instituted synagogues for their convening together, whence
called the synagogues of God, Psal. Ixxiv. 8. The Sabbath
was instituted to acknowledge God a common Benefactor.
Public worship keeps up the meraorials of God in a world
prone to atheisra, and a sense of God in a heart prone to for
getfulness. The angels sang in company, not singly, at the
birth of Christ, Luke ii. 13; and praised God not only with a
simple elevation of their spiritual nature, but audibly by form
ing a voice in the air. Affections are more lively, spirits more
raised in public than private; God will credfl his own ordi
nance. Fire increases by laying together many coals on one
place; so is devotion inflamed by the union of many hearts,
and by a joint presence: nor can the approach of the last day
of judgment, or particular judgments upon a nation, give a
writ of ease from such assemblies: " Not forsaking the assem
bling ourselves together; and so much the more, as ye see the
day approaching," Heb. x. 25. Whether it be understood of
> StiUingfleet's Irenicura, cap. 1. § 1. p. 23.
Vol. L— 31

242 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
the day of judgment, or the day of the Jewish destruction and
the Christian persecution, the apostle uses it as an argument to
quicken them to the observance, not to encourage them to a
neglect. Since therefore natural light informs us, and Divine
institution commands us publicly to acknowledge ourselves the
servants of God, it implies a service of the body; such acknow
ledgments cannot be without visible testimonies, and outward
exercises of devotion, as well as inward affections. This pro
motes God's honour, checks others' profaneness, allures men
to the same expressions of duty. And though there may be
hypocrisy, and an outward garb without an inward frame; yet
better a moiety of worship, than none at all : better acknow
ledge God's right in one, than disown it in both.
[3.] Jesus Christ, the most spiritual worshipper, worshipped
God with his body. He prayed orally, and kneeled — Father,
if it be thy will, &c. Luke xxii. 41, 42. He blessed with his
mouth — Father, I thank thee. Matt. xi. 25. He lifted up his
eyes as well as elevated his spirit, when he praised his Father
for mercy received, or begged for the blessings his disciples
wanted, John xi. 41; John xvii. 1. The strength of the spirit
must have vent at fhe outward members. The holy men of
God have employed the body in significant expressions of wor
ship: Abraham in falling on his face, Paul in kneeling, em
ploying their tongues, lifting up their hands. Though Jacob
was bed-ridden, yet he would not worship God without some
devout expression of reverence; it is in one place, "leaning
upon the top of his staff," Heb. xi. 21; in another, "bowed
himself upon the bed's head," Gen. xlvii. 31. The reason of
the diversity is in the HebreAv word, which without vowels
may be read mittah, a bed, or m.atteh, a staff; howsoever, both
signify a testimony of adoration by a reverent gesture of the
body. Indeed in angels and separated souls a worship is per
formed purely by the spirit; but whUe the soul is in conjunction
with the body, it can hardly perform a serious act of worship
without some tincture upon the outward man, and reverential
composure of the body. Fire cannot be in the clothes, but fl
will be felt by the members; nor flames be pent up in the soul
without bursting out in the body: the heart can no more re
strain itself from breaking out, than Joseph could enclose his
affections wflhout expressing them in tears to his brethren,
Gen. xiv. 1, 2. "We also believe, and therefore speak," 3
Cor. iv. 13.
To conclude; God has appointed some parts of worship
which cannot be performed Avithout the body, as sacraments;
we have need of them because we are not wholly spiritual and
incorporeal creatures.
The religion which consists in externals only, is not for an

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 243
inteUectual nature: a worship purely intellectual is too sublime
for a nature allied to sense and depending much upon it. The
Christian mode of worship is proportioned to both; it makes
the sense to assist the mind, and elevates the spirit above the
sense. Bodily worship helps the spiritual: fhe raembers of
the body reflect back upon the heart, the voice bars distrac
tions, the tongue sets the heart on fire in good as well as in
evil. It is as much against the light of nature to serve God
wflhout external significations, as to serve him only with them
without the intention of the mind. As the invisible God de
clares himself to men by visible works and signs, so should we
declare our invisible frames by visible expressions. God has
given us a soul and body in conjunction, and we are to serve
him in the same manner in which he has framed us.
2. The second thing I am to show, is, what spiritual worship
is. In general, the whole spirit is to be employed. The name
of God is not sanctified but by the engagement of our souls.
Worship is an act of the understanding, applying itself to
the knowledge of the excellency of God, and actual thoughts
of his majesty, recognizing him as the supreme Lord and Gov
ernor ofthe world, which is natural knowledge; beholding the
glory of his attributes in the Redeemer, which is evangelical
knowledge. This is the sole act of the spirit of man. The
same reason is for all our worship as for our thanksgiving: this
must be done with understanding, " Sing ye praises with un
derstanding," Psal. xlvii. 7, with a knowledge and sense ofhis
greatness, goodness, and wisdom. It is also an act of fhe will,
whereby the soul adores and reverences his majesty, is ravished
with his amiableness, embraces his goodness, enters itself into
an intimate communion with this most lovely object, and pitches
all its affections upon him.
We must worship God understandingly; it is not else a rea
sonable service. The nature of God and the law of God abhor
a blind offering; we must worship him heartily, else Ave offer
him a dead sacrifice. A reasonable service is that wherein the
mind does truly act something with God. All spiritual acts
must be acts of reason, otherwise they are not human acts,
because they Avant that principle which is constitutive of raan,
and makes him differ from other creatures. Acts done only
by sense are the acts of a- brute; acts done by reason are the
acts of a man : that which is only an act of sense, cannot be
an act of religion. The sense Avithout the conduct of reason is
not the subject of religious acts, for then beasts were capable
of religion as well as men. There cannot be rehgion where
there is not reason ; and there cannot be the exercise of reli
gion where there is not an exercise of the rational faculties.
Nothing can be a Christian act that is not a human act. Be

244 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
sides, all worship must be for some end ; the worship of God
must be for God ; it is by the exercise of our rational faculties
alone that we can intend an end : an ignorant and carnal wor
ship is a brutish worship.
Particularly, (1.) Spiritual worship is a worship from a spiritual nature.
Not only physically spiritual, so our souls are in their frame;
but morally spiritual, by a renewing principle. The heart must
be first cast into the mould of the gospel, before it can perform
a Avorship required by the gospel. Adam living in paradise,
might perform a spiritual worship ; but Adam fallen from his
rectitude could not. We being heirs of his nature, are heirs of
his impotence: restoration to a spiritual life must precede any
act of spiritual worship. As no work can be good, so no wor
ship can be spiritual till we are created in Christ, Eph. fl. 10.
Christ is our life. Col. iii. 4. As no natural action can be per
formed without life in the root or heart, so no spiritual act with
out Christ in the soul. Our being in Christ, is as necessary to
every spiritual act, as the union of our soul with our body is
necessary to natural action. Nothing can exceed fhe limits of
its nature; for then it should exceed itself in acting, and do
that which it has no principle to do. A beast cannot act like
a man, without partaking of the nature of a man ; nor a man
act like an angel, without partaking of the angelical nature.
How can we perform spiritual acts without a spiritual principle?
Whatsoever Avorship proceeds from the corrupted nature, can
not deserve the title of spiritual worship, because it springs not
from a spiritual habit. If those that are evfl cannot speak good
things, those that are carnal cannot offer a spiritual service.
Poison is the fruit of a viper's nature: " 0 generation of vipers,
hoAv can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abun
dance of the heart the mouth speaketh," Matt. xn. 34. As
the root is, so is the fruit. If the soul be habitually carnal, fhe
worship cannot be actually spiritual. There may be an inten
tion of spirit, but there is no spiritual principle as a root of that
intention. A heart may be sensibly united with a duty, when
it is not spiritually united with Christ in it. Carnal moflves
and carnal ends may fix the mind in an act of worship, as fhe
sense of some pressing affliction may enlarge a man's mind in
prayer. Whatsoever is agreeable to the nature of God, must
have a stamp of Christ upon it; a stamp of his grace in per
formance, as well as of his mediation in the acceptance. The
apostle lived not, but Christ lived in him, Gal. ii. 20; the soul
worships not, but Christ in hira. Not that Christ performs the
act of worshipi, but enables us spirituaUy to worship, after he
enables us spiritually to live. As God counts not any soul
living but in Christ, so he counts not any a spiritual worship-

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP 245
per but in Christ. The goodness and fatness of the fruit comes
from the fatness of the olive wherein we are engrafted. We
must find heahng in Christ's wings, before God can find spirit
uality in our services. AU worship issuing from a dead nature
is but a dead service: a living action cannot be performed
without being knit to a living root.
(2.) Spiritual worship is done by the influence and Avith the
assistance of the Spirit of God. A heart may be spiritual,
when a particular act of worship may not be spiritual. The
Spirit may dwell in the heart, when he may suspend his influ
ence on the act. Our worship is then spiritual, Avhen the fire
that kindles our affections comes from heaven, as that fire upon
the altar wherewith the sacrifices were consuraed. God tastes
a sweetness in no service, but as it is dressed up by the hand
ofthe Mediator, and has the air of his own Spirit in it: they
are but natural acts, without a supernatural assistance. With
out an actual influence, we cannot act from spiritual motives,
nor for spiritual ends, nor in a spiritual manner. We cannot
mortify a lust without the Spirit, Rom. viii. 13, nor quicken a
service without the Spirit. Whatsoever corruption is kflled, is
slain by his power; whatsoever duty is spiritualized, is refined
by his breath. He quickens our dead bodies in our resurrec
tion, Rom. viii. 11; be renews our dead souls in our regenera
tion; he quickens our carnal services in our adorations; the
choicest acts of worship are but infirmities, without his auxili
ary help, Rom. viii. 26. We are as logs, unable to move our
selves, till he raises our faculties to a pitch agreeable to God ;
puts his hand to the duty, and lifts that up and us with it.
Never any great act was performed by the apostles to God, or
for God, but they are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost.
Christ could not have been conceived immaculate as ' that holy
thing,' without the Spirit's overshadowing the virgin; nor any
spiritual act conceived in our heart, without the Spirit's moving
upon us, to bring forth a living religion from us. The acts of
worship are said to be in the Spirit, " supplication in the Spirit,"
Eph. vi. 18; not only with the strength and affection of our
own spirits, but with the mighty operation of the Holy Ghost,
if Jude may be the interpreter, Jude 20; the Holy Ghost excit
ing us, impelling us, and firing our souls by his divine flame;
raising up the affections, and making the soul cry, with a holy
importunity, Abba, Father. To render our worship spiritual,
we should, before every engagement in it, implore the actual
presence of the Spirit, without which we are not able to send
forth one spiritual breath or groan; but must be wind-bound
like a ship without a gale, and our worship be no better than
carnal. How does the spouse solicit the Spirit with an "AAvake,
0 north wind; and come, thou south!" Cant. iv. 16.

246 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
(3.) Spiritual worship is done with sincerity, when the heart
stands right to God, and the soul performs what it pretends to
perform; when we serve God with our spirits, as the aposfle,
" God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel
of his Son," Rom. i. 9. This is not meant ofthe Holy Ghost;
for the apostle would never have called the Spirit of God, his
own spirit; but with my spirit, that is, a sincere frame of heart.
A carnal worship, whether under the laAV or gospel, is when
we are busied about external rites, without an inward compli
ance of soul. God demands the heart: " My son, give me thine
heart," Prov. xxui. 26; not give rae thy tongue, or thy lips, or
thy hands; these may be given without the heart, but the heart
can never be bestowed without these as its attendants. A heap
of services can be no more welcome to God, without our spirits,
than all Jacob's sons could be to Joseph, without the Benjamin
he desired to see. God is not taken with the cabinet, but the
jewel; he first respected Abel's faith and sincerity, and then
his sacrifice; he disrespected Cain's infidelity and hypocrisy,
and then his offering. " For this cause he rejected the offerings
of the Jews, the prayers of the Pharisees, and the alms of Ana
nias and Sapphira, because their hearts and their duties were
at a distance from one another. In all spiritual sacrifices, our
spirits are God's portion. Under the law, the reins were to be
consumed by the fire on the altar, because the secret intentions
ofthe heart were signified by them: ' The righteous God trieth
the hearts and the reins,' Psalm vii. 9. It Avas an ill omen
among the heathen, if a victim wanted a heart. The widow's
mites with her heart in them, were more esteemed than the
richer offerings Avithout it.'" Not the quantity of service, but
the will in it, is of account Avith this infinite Spirit. All that
was to be brought for the framing of the tabernacle, was to be
offered willingly with the heart, Exod. xxv. 2. The more of
will, the more of spirituality and acceptableness to God; "Ac
cept, I beseech thee, the free-Avill offerings of my mouth," Psa.
cxix. 108. Sincerity is the salt which seasons every sacrifice.
The heart is most like to the object of worship. The heart in
the body is the spring of afl vital actions; and a spiritual soul
is the spring of all spiritual actions. How can we imagine
God can delight in the mere service of the body, any more than
we can delight in converse with a carcass ?
Without the heart it is no worship: it is stage-play; an acting
a part Avithout being that person really which is acted by us.
A hypocrite, in the notion of the word, is a stage-player. We
may as Avell say a man may believe with his body, as worship
God only with his body. Faith is a great ingredient in wor
ship ; and it is " with the heart raan believes unto righteous-
' Moulin. Sermons, decad. 4. ser. 4. p, 80.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 247
ness," Rom. x. 10. We may be truly said to worship God,
though we want perfection; but we cannot be said to worship
him, if we want sincerity. A statue upon a tomb, with eyes
and hands lifted-up, offers as good and true a service; it wants
only a voice, the gestures and postures are the same: nay, the
service is better; it is not a mockery; it represents all that it can
be framed to. But to worship without our spirits, is a present
ing God with a picture, an echo, voice, and nothing else ; a
compliment; a mere lie; a compassing him about with lies,
Hos. xi. 12. Without the heart, the tongue is a liar, and the
greatest zeal, dissembling with him. To present the spirit, is to
present that which can never naturally die; to present him only
the body, is to present him that which is every day crumbling
to dust, and wUl at last lie rotting in the grave. To offer him
a few rags easily torn; a skin for a sacrifice, a thing unworthy
the majesty of God; a fixed eye and elevated hands, with a
sleepy heart and earthly soul, are pitiful things for an ever
blessed and glorious Spirit. Nay, it is so far from being spirit
ual, that it is blasphemy: to pretend to be a Jew outwardly,
without being so inwardly, is in the judgment of Christ to blas
pheme. Rev. ii. 9. And is not the same title to be given with
as much reason to those that pretend a worship and perform
none? Such a one is not a spiritual worshipper, but a blas
pheming devil in Samuel's mantle.
(4.) Spiritual worship is performed with a unfledness of
heart. The heart is not only now and then with God, but
united to fear or worship his name, Psa. Ixxxvi. 11. A spiritual
duty must have the engagement of the spirit, and the thoughts
tied up to the spiritual object. The union of all the parts of
the heart together with the body is the life of the body; and the
moral union of our hearts, is the life of any duty. A heart
quickly flitting frora God, makes not God his treasure; he
slights the worship, and therein affronts fhe object of worship.
All our thoughts ought to be ravished with God; bound up in
hitn as in a bundle of life. But when we start frora him to
gaze after every feather, and run after every bubble, we disown
a full and affecting excellency, and a satisfying sweetness in
him. When our thoughts run from God, it is a testimony we
have no spiritual affection to God: affection would stake down
the thoughts to the object affected: it is but a mouth-love, as
the prophet phraseth it, Ezek. xxxiu. 31; but their hearts go
after their covetousness. Covetous objects pipe, and the heart
dances after thera; and thoughts of God are shifted off, to receive
a multitude of other imaginations. The heart and the service
staid a while together, and then took leave of one another.
The psalmist still found his heart with God when he awaked,
Psa. cxxxix. 18; stifl wflh God in spiritual affections and fixed

248 ON SPIRITUAL. WORSHIP.
meditations. A carnal heart is seldom with God, either in or
out of worship : if God should knock at the heart in any duty,
it would be found not at home, but straying abroad. Our
worship is spiritual, when the door ofthe heart is shut against
aU intruders, as our Saviour commands in closet duties. Matt.
vi. 6 : it was not his meaning, to command the shutting the
closet door, and leave the heart-door open for every thought
that would be apt to haunt us. Worldly affections are to be
laid aside, if we would have our worship spiritual. This was
meant by the Jewish custom of wiping or washing off the dust
oftheir feet, before their entrance into the temple; and of not
bringing money in their girdles. To be spiritual in worship, is
to have our souls gathered and bound up AvhoUy in themselves,
and offered to God. Our loins must be girt, as the fashion was
in the eastern countries, where they wore long garments, that
they might not waver with the wind, and be blown between
their legs, to obstruct thera in their travel. Our faculties must
not hang loose about us. He is a carnal worshipper, that gives
God but a piece of his heart, as Avell as he that denies him the
whole ofit; that has some thoughts pitched upon God in wor
ship, and as many willingly upon the world. David sought
God, not with a moiety of his heart, but Avith his whole heart,
with his entire frame, Psal. cxix. 10; he brought not half his
heart, and left the other in the possession of another master.
It was a good lesson Pythagoras gave his scholars, " Not to
make the observance of God a work by the by." ' If those
guests be invited, or entertained kindly, or if they come unex
pected, the spirituality of that worship is lost; the soul kicks
down what is wrought before. But if they be browbeaten by
us, and our grief rather than our pleasure, they divert our
spiritual intention from the work in hand, but hinder not God's
acceptance of it as spiritual ; because they are not the acts of
our wfll, but offences to our wills.
(5.) Spiritual worship is performed Avith a spiritual activity
and sensibleness of God; with an active understanding to
meditate on his excellency, and an active will to embrace him
when he drops upon the soul. If we understand the amiable
ness of God, our affections wifl be ravished ; if we understand
the immensity of his goodness, our spirits will be enlarged. We
are to act with the highest intention, suitable to the greatness
of that God Avith whom we have to do : " Praise him according
to his exceUent greatness," Psal. cl. 2. Not that we can wor
ship him equally; but in some proportion the frame ofthe heart
is to be suited to the excellency of the object. Our spiritual
strength is to be put out to the utmost, as creatures that act
naturally do. The sun shines and the fire burns to, the utmost
' 'Od yap rtapEgyov Ss7 rtoie'ig^ai, ¦tov ©so.'. JamWich. 1. 1. c. 518. p. 87.

ON" SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 249
of their natural power. This is so necessary, that David, a spi
ritual worshipper, prays for it before he sets upon acts of ado
ration; "Quicken us, and we wifl call upon thy name," Psal.
Ixxx. 18 : as he was loth to have a drowsy faculty, he was loth
to have a drowsy instrument, and Avould wiUingly have them
as lively as himself: " Awake up, my glory ; awake, psaltery
and harp : I myself wUl awake early," Psal. Ivii. S. How
would this divine soul elevate himself towards God, and be
turned into nothing but a holy flame ! Our souls must be boil
ing hot' when we serve the Lord, Rora. xii. 11. The heart
does no less burn when it spiritually coraes to God, than when
God does spiritually approach to it, Luke xxiv. 32. A Nabal's
heart, one as cold as a stone, cannot offer up a spiritual service.
Whatsoever is enjoined us as our duty, ought to be per
formed with the greatest intenseness of our spirit. As it is our
duty to pray, so it is our duty to pray with the most fervent
importunity. It is our duty to love God, but with the purest
and most sublime affections : every command of God requires
the whole strength of the creature to be employed in it. That
love to God, Avherein aU our duty to God is summed up, is f o be
with all our strength, with all our might, &c.^ Though in the
covenant of grace he has mitigated the severity of the law, and
requires not from us such an elevation of our affections as was
possible in the state of innocence, yet God requires of us the
utmost moral industry to raise our affections to a pitch, at least
equal to what they are in other things: what strength of affec
tion we naturally have, ought to be as much and more excited
in acts of worship, than upon other occasions, and our ordinary
works. As there was an inactivity of soul in worship, and a
quickness to sin, when sin had the dominion; so when the soul
is spiritualized, the temper is changed; there is an inactivity to
sin and an ardour in duty. The more the soul is dead to sin
the more it is alive to God, Rom. vi. 11, and the more lively
too in all that concerns God and his honour. For grace being
a ncAV strength added to our natural, determines the affections
to new objects, and excites them to a greater vigour. And as
the hatred of sin is more sharp, the love to every thing that de
stroys the dominion of it is more strong. And acts of worship
may be reckoned as the chiefest batteries against the power of
this inbred enemy. When the Spirit is in the soul, like the
rivers of waters flowing out of the befly, the soul has the
activity of a river, and makes haste to be swallowed up in God,
as the streams of the river in the sea. Christ makes his people
kings and priests to God, Rev. i. 6. First kings, then priests;
gives first a royal temper of heart, that they may offer spiritual
sacrifices as priests: kings and priests to God, acting with a
' ^iov-iif. - Lady Falkland's Life, p. 130,
Vol. I.— 32

250 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
magnificent spirit in all their motions to him: we cannot be
spiritual priests tiU we be spiritual kings. The Spirit appeared
in the likeness of fire; and where he resides, communicates,
like fire, purity and activity.
Dtflness is against the light of nature. I do not remember
that the heathen ever offered a snail to any of their false deities,
nor an ass, but to Priapus their unclean idol ; but the Persians
sacrificed fo the sun a horse, a swift and generous creature.
God provided against those in the law, commanding an ass's
firstling, the offspring of a sluggish creature, to be redeemed,
or his neck broke; but by no means to be offered to him, Exod.
xiii. 13. God is a Spirit infinitely active, and therefore frozen
and benumbed frames are unsuitable to him: he rides upon a
cherub and flies, he comes upon the wings of the wind, he rides
upon a swift cloud, Isa. xix. 1 ; and therefore demands of us
not a duU reason, but an active spirit. God is a living God,
therefore must have a lively service. Christ is life, and slothftit
adorations are not fit to be offered up in the name of life. The
worship of God is called wrestling, in Scripture, and Paul was
a striver in the service of his Master, in an agony,' Col. i. 29.
Angels worship God spiritually with their wings on ; and when
God commands them to worship Christ, the next Scripture
quoted is, that he makes them flames of fire, Heb. i. 7.
If it be thus, how may we charge ourselves! What Paul said
of the sensual widoAv, 1 Tim. v. 6, that she is dead whfle she
lives, we raay say often of ourselves, we are dead while we
worship. Our hearts are in duty as the Jews were in deliver
ances, as those in a dream, Psal. cxxvi. 1 ; by which unexpect
edness, God showed the greatness of his care and mercy; and
we attend him as men in a dream, whereby we discover our
negligence and folly. This activity does not consist in outward
acts ; the body may be hot and the heart may be faint ; but in
an iuAvard stirring, meltings, flights. In the highest raptures the
body is most insensible. Strong spiritual affections are ab
stracted from outward sense.
(6.) Spiritual worship is performed with acting spiritual
habits. When all the living springs of grace are opened, as the
fountains of the deep were in the deluge, the soul and all that
is within it, all the spiritual impresses of God upon it, erect
themselves to bless his holy name, Psal. ciii. 1.
This is necessary to make a worship spiritual. As natural
agents are determined to act suitable to their proper nature ; so
are rational agents, to act conformable to a rational being.
When there is a conformity between the act and the nature
whence it flows, it is a good act in its kind; if it be rational, it

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 251
is a good rational act, because suitable to its principle. As a
man endowed with reason must act suflable to that endow
ment, and exercise his reason in his acting; so a Christian
endued with grace must act suitable to that nature, and exer
cise his grace in his acting. Acts done by a natural inclination
are no more human acts, than the natural acts of a beast may
be said to be human;-though they are the acts of a raan, as he
is the efficient cause of them, yet they are not huraan acts, be
cause they arise noJ frora that principle of reason which denorai-
nates hira a man. So acts of worship perforraed by a bare
exercise of reason, are not Christian and spiritual acts, because
they come not from the principle which constitutes him a
Christian ; reason is not the principle, for then all rational crea
tures would be Christians. They ought therefore to be acts of
a higher principle, exercises of that grace whereby Christians
'are what they are. Not but that rational acts in worship are
due to God ; for worship is due from us as men ; and we are
settled in that rank of being by our reason. Grace does not
exclude reason, but ennobles it, and calls it up to another form:
but we must not rest in a bare rational worship, but exert that
principle whereby we afe Christians. To worship God with our
reason, is ,to worship him as men; to worship God with our
grace, is to worship him as Christians, and so spirituaUy; but to
worship him only with our bodies, is no better than brutes.
Our desires of the word are to issue from the regenerate prin
ciple: "As new-born babes, desire the sincere •. milk of the
word," 1 Pet. ii. 2. It seems to be not a comparison, but a
restriction. All worship must have the same spring, and be the
exercise of that principle ; otherwise Ave can have no commu
nion with God. Friends that have the same habitual disposi
tions, have a fundamental fitness for an agreeable converse
with one another; but if the temper wherein their likeness con
sists, be languishing, and the string out of tune, there is not an
actual fitness ; and the present indisposition breaks the converse,
and renders the company troublesome. Though we may have
the habitual graces which compose in us a resemblance to God,
yet for want of acting those suitable dispositions, we render
ourselves unfit for his converse, and make the worship, which
is fundamentally spiritual, to become actuaUy carnal. As the
wfll cannot naturaUy act to any object, but by the exercise of
its affections, so the htart cannot spiritually act towards God,
but by the exercise of graces. This is God's music, " singing
and making melody to God in your heart," Eph. v. 19. Singing
and all other acts of worship are outward, but the spiritual
melody is by grace in the heart. Col. in. 16. This renders it a
spiritual worship ; for it is an effect of the fulness of the Spirit
in the soul,, as Eph. v. 18. "But be filled with the Spirit."

252 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
The overflowing of the Spirit in the heart, setting the soul of a
believer thus on work to make a spiritual melody to God,
shows that something higher than bare reason is put in tune in
the heart. Then is the fruit of the garden pleasant to Christ,
Avhen the Holy Spirit, the north and south wind, blow upon the
spices, and strike out the fragrancy of them. Cant. iv. 16. Since
God is the author of graces, and bestows them to have a glory
from them, they are best employed about him and his service.
It is fit he should have the cream of his oVn gifts. Without
the exercise of grace we perform but a Avork of nature, and
offer him a few dry bones without marrow.
The whole set of graces ihust be one way or other exercised.
If any treble be wanting in a lute, -there will be a great defect
in the music. If any one spiritual string be- dull, the spirflual
harmony of worship will be spofled.
And therefore,
. [1.] First, faith must be acted in worship; a confidence in
God. A natural worship cannot be performed Avithout a natu
ral confidence in the goodness of God. Whosoever comes to
him, must regard him as a rewarder and a faithful Creator,
Heb. xi. 6. A spiritual worship cannot be performed without
an evangelical confidence in him as a gracious Redeemer. To
think him a tyrant meditating revenge, damps the soul; to re
gard him as a gracious King, full bf tender bowels, spirits the
affections to him. The mercy of God is the proper object of
trust: " The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon
them that hope in his mercy," Psal. xxxiii. 18. The worship
of God in the Old Testament, is most described by fear; in the
New Testament, by faith. Fear, or the worship of God, and
hope in his mercy are linked together; when they go hand in
hand, the accepting. eye of God is upon us; when we do not
trust, we do not worship. Those of Judah had the temple
worship among them, especially in Josiah's time, Zeph. iii. 2,
the time of that prophecy; yet it Avas accounted no worship,
because no trust in the worshippers. Interest in God cannot
be improved Avithout an exercise of faith.' The gospel worship
is prophesied of, to be a confidence in God, as in a husband
more than in a Lord ; " Thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call
me no more Baali," Hosea ii. 16. " Thou shalt call me," that
is, thou shalt Avorship me; Avorship being often comprehended
under invocation. More confidence is' to be exercised in a
husband or father, than in a lord or master.
If a man have not faith, he is without Christ; and though a
man be in Christ by the habit of faith, he performs a duty out
of Christ wflhout an act of faith. Without the habit of faith,
our persons are out of Christ; and without the exercise of faith,
the duties are out of Christ. As the want of faith in a person

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP, 253
is the death of the soul, so the want of faith in a service is the
death of the offering. Though a man were at the cost of an
ox, yet to kill it without bringing it to the door of the taberna
cle, Avas not a sacrifice, but a murder. Lev. xvii. 3, 4. The
tabernacle was a type of Christ; and a look to hirii is necessary
in every spiritual sacrifice. As there must be faith to make
any act an act of obedience, so there must be faith to raake any
act of worship spiritual. That service is not spiritual, that is
not vital; and it cannot be vital without the exercise of a vital
principle. All spiritual life is hid in Christ, and drawn frora
him by faith. Gal. ii. 20. Faith, as it has relation- to Christ,
makes every act of worship a hving act, and consequently a
spiritual act. Habitual unbelief cuts us off from: the body of
Christ: " Because of unbelief they were broken off,'.' Rom. xi.
20; and a want of actuated belief breaks us off from a present
communion with Christ in spirit. As unbelief in us hinders
Christ from doing any mighty work, so unbelief in us hinders
us from doing any mighty spiritual duty.
So that the exercise of faith, and a confidence in God, is
necessary to every duty.
[2.] Love must be acted to render a AVorship spiritual.
Though God commanded love in the Old Testament, yet the
manner of giving the law bespoke raore of fear than love.
The dispensation ofthe law was with fire and thunder; proper
to raise horror, and benumb the spirit; which effect it had
upon the Israelites, when they desired that God would speak
no more to them. Grace is the genius of the gospel, proper to
excite the affection of love. The law was given by the dispo
sition of angels, with signs to amaze; the gospel was ushered
in with the songs of angels, composed of peace and good wifl,
calculated to ravish the soul. Instead of the terrible voice of
the law, "Do this and live;" the comfortable voice of the gos
pel is, " Grace, grace." Upon this account, the principle of
the Old Testament was fear, and the worship often expressed
by the fear of God. The principle of the New Testament is
love. The mount Sinai gendereth to bondage. Gal. iv. 24;
mount Sion, from whence the gospel or evangelical law goes
forth, gendereth to liberty; and therefore ' the spirit of bondage
unto fear,' as the property of the law, is opposed to the state of
adoption, the principle of love, as the property of the gospel,
Rom. vfli. 15. And therefore the worship of God under the
gospel, or New Testament, is oftener expressed by love than
fear, as proceeding frora higher principles, and acting nobler
passions. In this state, we are to serve him without fear, Luke
i. 74; without a bondage fear; not without a fear of unworthfly
treating him; with a fear of his goodness, as it is prophesied
of, Hos. iii. 5. Goodness is not the object of terror, but reve-

254 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
rence. God in the law had more the garb of a Judge; in the
gospel, of a Father: the name of a Father is sweeter, and be
speaks more of affection. As their services were with a feel
ing of the thunders of the law in their consciences, so is our
worship to be with a sense of gospel grace in our spirits: spirit
ual worship is that, therefore, which is exercised with a spiritual
and heavenly affection, proper to the gospel. The heart should
be enlarged, according to the liberty the gospel gives of draw
ing near to God as a Father; as he gives us the nobler relation
of children, we are to act the nobler qualities of chfldren. Love
should act accprding to its nature, which is desire of union;
desire of a moral union by affections, as well as a mystical
union by faith; as flame aspires to reach flame, and become
one with it. In every act of Avorship, we should endeavour to
be united to God, and become one spjrit with him. This grace
does spiritualize worship: in that one word "love," God has
wrapt up all the devotion he requires of us: it is the total sum
of fhe first table, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." It is
to be acted in every thing Ave do. But in worship, our hearts
should more solemnly rise up and acknowledge him amiable
and lovely, since the laAV is stripped of its cursing power, and
made sweet in the blood of the Redeemer. Love is a thing
acceptable of itself; but nothing acceptable without it. The
gifts of one man to another are spiritualized by it. We would
not value a present without the affection of the donor ; every
man Avould lay claira to the love of others, though' he would
not to their possessions. Love is God's right in every service,
and the noblest thing we can bestow upon him in our adora
tions of him. God's gifts to us are not so estimable Avithout
his love; nor our services valuable to him Avithout the exer
cise of a choice affection. Hezekiah regarded not his deliver
ance without the love of the deliverer: " Thou hast in love to
my soul delivered it, Isa. xxxviii. 17; so does God say. In love
to my honour thou hast worshipped me.
So that loye raust be active, to render our worship spiritual.
[3.] A spiritual sensibleness of our OAvn weakness, is neces
sary to make our Avorship spiritual. Affections to God cannot
be without relentings in ourselves. When the eye is spirituaUy
fixed upon a spiritual God, the heart will mourn that the wor
ship is no more spiritually suitable. The more we act love
upon God, as amiable and gracious, the more Ave should exer
cise grief in ourselves, as we are vfle and offending. Spiritual
worship is a melting worship, as Avell as an elevating worship;
it exalts God, and debases the creature. The publican was
more spiritual in his humble address to God, when the Phari
see was wholly carnal with his swelling language. A spirflual
love in worship wfll make us grieve, that Ave have given him

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP- 255
SO little, and could give him no more. It is a part of spiritual
duty to bewail our carnality mixed with it; as Ave receive mer
cies spiritually, when Ave receive them with a sense of God's
goodness and our own vileness, in the same raanner Ave render
a spiritual worship.
[4.] Spiritual desires for God render the service spiritual.
Wifien the soul follows hard after him, Psal. Ixiii. 8; pursues
after God as a God of infinite communicative goodness, with
sighs and groans unutterable. A spiritual soul seems to be
transformed into hunger and thirst, and becomes nothing but de
sire. A carnal Avorshipper is taken with the beauty and magnifi
cence of the temple; a spiritual worshipper desires to see the
glory of God in the sanctuary, Psal. Ixni. 2; he pants after God.
As he came to worship to find God, so he boils up in desires for
God, and is loth to go from it without God, "the living God,"
Psal. xhi. 2. He Avould jee the Urim and the Thummim ; the un
usual sparkling ofthe stones upon the high priest's breastplate.
That deserves not the title of spiritual worship, when the soul
makes no longer inquiries. Saw ye him whom my soul loves?
A spiritual Avorship is, when our desires are chiefly for God in
the worship; as David desires to dwell in the house of the
Lord: but his desire is not terminated there; but to behold the
beauty of the Lord, Psal. xxvii. 4, and taste the ravishing
sweetness of his presence. No doubt but Elijah's desires for
the enjoyment of God whfle he was mounting to heaven, were
as fiery as the chariot wherein he was carried. Unutterable
groans acted in worship are the fruit of the Spirit, and certainly
render it a spiritual service, Rom. viii. 26. Strong appetites
are agreeable to God, and prepare us to eat the fruit of wor
ship. A spiritual Paul presses forward to know Christ, and
the power of his resurrection; and a spiritual worshipper actu-^
ally aspires in every duty to know God, and the power of his
grace. To desire worship as an end, is carnal; to desire it as
a means, and act desires in it for communion with God in it,
is spiritual, and the frufl of a spiritual life.
[5.] Thankfulness and admiration are to be exercised in
spiritual services. This is a worship of spirits. Praise is the
adoratioh of the blessed angels, Isa. vi. 3, and of glorified spi
rits: " Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory, and honour,
and power," Rev. iv. 11: and they worship him, ascribing
" blessing, honour, glory, and power to him that sits upon the
throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever," Rev. v. 13, 14.
Other acts of worship are confined to this life, and leave us as
soon as we have set our foot in heaven; there no notes but this
of praise are warbled out; the power, wisdom, love, and grace
in the dispensation of the gospel, seat themselves in the thoughts
and tongues of blessed souls. Can a Avorship on earth be spi-

256 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
ritual, that has no mixture of an eternarheavenly duty with fl?
The worship of God in innocence had been chiefly an admira
tion of him in the works of creation; and should not our evan
gelical Avorship be an admiration of him in the work of redemp
tion, which is a restoration to a better state? After the peti
tioning for pardoning grace, Hos. xiv. 2, there is a rendering
the calves or heifers ofour lips, alluding to the heifers used in
eucharistical sacrifices. The praise of God is the choicest sac
rifice and worship, under a dispensation of redeeming grace;
this is the prime and eternal part of worship under the gospel.
The psalmist, Psal. cxlix. and cl., speaking of the gospel times,
spurs on to this kind of worship; " Sing to, the Lord a new
song; let the children of Zion be joyful in their king; let the
saints be joyful in glory, and sing aloud upon their beds; let
the high praises of God be in their mouths." He begins and
ends both psalms with " Praise ye the Lord." That cannot be
a spiritual and evangelical worship, that has nothing of the
praise of God in the heart. The consideration of God's adora
ble perfections discovered in the Gospel, will make us come to
hira with raore seriousness; beg blessings of him with more
confidence; fly to him with a winged faith and love, and more
spirituaUy glorify him in our attendances upon him.
[6.] Spiritual worship is performed with delight. The evan
gelical worship is prophetically signified by keeping the feast
of tabernades; they shall " go up from year to year to worship
the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of taberna
cles," Zech. xiv. 16. Why that feast, when there were other
feasts observed by the Jcavs? That Avas a feast celebrated
with the greatest joy; typical ofthe gladness which was to be
under the exhibition of the Messiah, and a thankful commemo
ration of the redemption wrought by him. It was to be cele
brated five days after the solemn day of atonement, Lev. xxiii.
34, compared Avith ver. 27, wherein there was one of the most
solemn types of the sacrifice of the death of Christ. In this
feast they commemorated their exchange of Egypt for Canaan;
the manna wherewith they were fed; the water out of the
rock wherewith they were refreshed: in remembrance of this,
they poured water on the ground, pronouncing those words in
Isaiah, they shall "draw water out ofthe wells of salvation;"
which our Saviour refers to himself, John vii. 37, inviting them
to him, to drink, upon the last day, the great day of the feast
of tabernacles, wherein this solemn ceremony was observed.
Since we are freed by the death of the Redeemer from the
curses of the law, God requires of us a joy in spirflual privi
leges. A sad frame in worship gives the lie to all gospel
liberty; to the purchase ofthe Redeemer's death, the triumphs
of his resurrection. It is a carriage, as if we were under the

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 257
influences ofthe legal fire and lightning, and an entering a pro
test against the freedom of the gospel. The evangelical wor
ship is a spiritual worship; and praise, joy, and delight are
prophesied of, as great ingredients in attendance on gospel
ordinances, Isa. xii. 3 — 5. What was occasion of terror in the
worship of God under the law, is the occasion of delight in the
worship of God under the gospel. The justice and holiness of
God, so terrible in the law, becomes comfortable under the
gospel, since they have feasted themselves on the active and
passive obedience of the Redeemer. The approach is to God
as gracious, not to God as unpacified; as a son to a father, not
as a criminal to a judge. Under the law, God was represented
as a Judge; remembering their sin in their sacrifices, and repre
senting the punishment they had merited; in the gospel, as a
Father, accepting the atonement, and publishing the reconcflia-
tion wrought by the Redeemer. Delight in God is a gospel
frame; therefore the more joyful, the more spiritual. The
Sabbath is to be a delight; not only in regard of the day, but
in regard of the duties of it, Isa. Iviii. 13; in regard of the
marveUous work he Avrought on it; raising up our blessed Re-
deeraer on that day, whereby a foundation was laid for the
rendering our persons and services acceptable to God: " This
is the day which the Lord hath made, Ave will be glad and re
joice in it," Psal. cxviii. 24. A dUU frame becomes not a day
and a duty that has so noble and spiritual a mark upon it.
The angels in the first act of worship after the creation, were
highly joyful, they shouted for joy ! Job xxxvifl. 7.
The saints have particularly acted this in their worship.
David would not content himself with an approach to the altar,
without going to God as his exceeding joy, Psa. xliii. 4. My
triumphant joy! When he danced before the ark, he seems to
be transformed into delight and pleasure, 2 Sam. vi. 14. 16. He
had as much delight in Avorship, as others had in their harvest
and vintage. And those that took joyfully the spoiling oftheir
goods, would as joyfully attend upon the communications of
God. Where there is a fulness of the Spirit, there is a making
melody to God in the heart, Eph. v. 18, 19; and where there
is an acting of love, (as there is in all spiritual services,) the
proper fruit of it is joy in a near approach to the object of the
soul's affection. Love is appetitus unionis, "desire of union;"
the more love, the raore delight in the approachings of God to
the soul, or the outgoings of the soul to God. As the object of
worship is amiable in a spiritual eye, so the means tending to a
communion with this object jare delightful in the exercise.
Where; there is, no delight in a duty, there is no delight in the
object of th.e'duty;. the more of grace, the more of pleasure in
the actings of it: as'the more of nature there is in any natural
Vol. I.— ^3

258 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
agent, the more of pleasure in the act; so the more heavenly
the worship, the more spirflual. Delight is the frame and tem
per of glory. A heart filled up to the brim with joy, is a heart
filled up to the brim with the spirit : joy is the fruit of the Holy
Ghost, Gal. V. 22.
Not the joy of God's dispensation flowing from God, but a
gracious active joy streamhig to God. There is a joy when the
comforts of God are dropped into the soul, as oil upon the
wheel; which indeed makes the faculties move with more
speed and activity in his service, like the chariots of Ammi-na
dib: and a soul may serve God in the strength of this taste,
and its delight terminate in the sensible comfort. This is not
the joy I mean, but such a joy that has God for its object, de
lighting in him as the term, in worship as the way to him. The
first is God's dispensation, the other is our duty; the first is an
act of God's favour to us, the second a sprout of habitual grace
in us. The comforts Ave have from God, may elevate our duties;
but the grace we have within spiritualizes our duties.
Nor is every delight an argument of a spiritual service. All
the requisites to worship must be taken in. A man may invent
a worship, and delight in it; as Micah in the adoration of his
idol, when he was glad he had got both an ephod and a Levite,
Judg. xvu. As a man may have a contentment in sin, so he
may have a contentment in worship; not because it is a wor
ship of God, but the worship of his own invention, agreeable to
his own humour and design, as, Isa. Iviii. 2, it is said, they de
lighted in approaching to God, but it was for carnal ends.
Novelty engenders complacency; but it must be a worship
wherein God wfll delight; and that must be a Avorship according
to his own rule and infinite wisdom, and not our shallow fancies.
God requires a cheerfulness in his service, especially under
the gospel, where he sits upon a throne of grace; discovers
himself in his amiableness, and acts the covenant of grace, and
the sweet relation of a Father. The priests of old were not to
sully themselves with any sorrow, when they were in the exer
cise of their functions. God put a bar to the natural affections
of Aaron and his sons, when Nadab and Abihu had been cut
off by a severe hand of God, Lev. x. 6. Every true Christian in
a higher order of priesthood, is a person dedicated to joy and
peace, offering himself a lively sacrifice of praise and thanks
giving; and there is no Christian duty, but is to be set off and
seasoned with cheerfulness. He that loves a cheerful giver in
acts of charity, requires no less a cheerful spirit in acts of wor
ship. As this is an ingredient in worship, so it is the means to
make your spirits intent in worship. When the heart triumphs
in the consideration of Divine excellency and goodness, it wfll
be angry at any thing that offers to jog and disturb it.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 259
[7. J Spiritual worship is to be performed, though Avith a de
light in God, yet Avith a deep reverence of God. The gospel in
advancing the spirituality of worship, takes off the terror, but
not the reverence of God; which is nothing else in its own
nature, but a due and high esteem of the excellency of a thing
according to the nature ofit: and therefore the gospel, present
ing us with raore Ulustrious notices of the glorious nature of
God, is so far from indulging any disesteem of him, that it
requires of us a greater reverence suitable to the height of its
discovery, above Avhat could be spelt in the book of creation.
The gospel worship is therefore expressed by trembling, " They
shall walk after the Lord: he shaU roar like a lion: when he
shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west," Hos.
xi. 10. When the Lion of the tribe of Judah shall lift up his
powerful voice in the gospel, the western gentiles shall run
trerabling to walk after the Lord, God has always attended
his greatest manifestations with remarkable characters of majes
ty, to create a reverence iri his creature. He caused the wind
to march before him, to cut the mountain, when he manifested
himself to Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 1 1 ; a wind and a cloud of fire
before that magnificent vision to Ezekiel, Ezek. i. 4; thunders
and lightnings before the giving the laAV, Exod. xix. 16 ; and a
mighty wind before the giving the Spirit, Acts ii. 2. God re
quires of us an awe of him in the very act of performance. The
angels are pure, and cannot fear him as sinners, but in reve
rence they cover their faces when they stand before him, Isa.
vi. 2. His power should make us reverence him, as we are
creatures; his justice, as Ave are sinners; his goodness, as we
are restored creatures. "God is clothed Avith unspeakable
majesty; the glory of his face shines brighter than the lights of
heaven in their beauty. Before him the angels tremble, and the
heavens melt: We ought not therefore to come before him with
the sacrifice of fools, nor tender a duty to him, without falling
low upon our faces, and bowing the knees of our hearts in token
of reverence.'" Not a slavish fear, like that of devils, but a
godly fear, like that of saints, Heb. xii. 28, joined with a sense
of an unmovable kingdom, becometh us. And this the apostle
calls a grace necessary to make our service acceptable, and there
fore the grace necessary to make it spiritual, since nothing finds
admission to God but what is of a spiritual nature. The con
sideration of his glorious nature, should imprint an awful
respect upon our souls to him: his goodness should make his
majesty more adorable to us, as his majesty makes his goodness
more admirable in his condescensions to us. As God is a Spirit,
our worship must be spiritual ; and seeing he is the supreme
Spirfl, our Avorship must be reverential. We must observe the
I Daill^ sur 3. Jean. P. 150.

260 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
state he takes upon him in his ordinances ; he is in heaven, we
upon the earth; we raust not therefore be hasty to utter any
thing before God, Eccl. v. 2. Consider him a Spirit in the high
est heavens, and ourselves spirits dwelling in a dreggy earth.
Loose and garish frames debase him to our own quality; slight
postures of spirit intimate him to be a slight and mean being;
our being in covenant with him, must not lower our awful ap
prehensions of him ; as he is " the Lord thy God," it is a glori
ous and fearful name, or wonderful, Deut. xxviii. 58. Though he
lay by his justice to believers, he does not lay by his majesty.
When we have a confidence in him, because he is the Lord our
God ; we must have awful thoughts of his majesty, because his
name is glorious. God is terrible from his holy places in regard of
the great things he does for his Israel, Psa. Ixviii. 35. We should
behave ourselves with such iuAvard honour and respect of him,
as if he were present to our bodily eyes. The higher apprehen
sions we have of his majesty, the greater awe will be upon our
hearts in his presence, and the greater spirituality in our acts.
We should manage our hearts so, as if we had a view of God
in his heavenly glory.
[8.] Spiritual worship is to be performed with humUity in
our spirfls. This is to follow upon the reverence of God. As
we are to have high thoughts of God, that Ave may not debase
him; we must have low thoughts of ourselves, not' to vaunt
before him. When we have right notions of the Divine Ma
jesty, we shall be as worms in our own thoughts, and creep as
worms into his presence. We can never consider him in his
glory, but we have a fit opportunity to reflect upon ourselves,
and consider how basely we revolted from him, and how gra
ciously we are restored by him. As the gospel affords us greater
discoveries of God's nature, and so enhances our reverence of
him; so it helps us to a fuller understanding ofour own vUe
ness and weakness, and therefore is proper to engender humi
lity: the more spiritual and evangelical, therefore, any service
is, the more humble it is. That is a spiritual service, that most
manifests the glory of God; and this cannot be manifested by
us, without manifesting our own emptiness and nothingness.
The heathens were sensible of the necessity of humility, by the
light of nature;' after the name of God signified by 'Et, " Thou
art," inscribed on the temple at Delphos, followed rvu^i tseav-tov,
" Know thyself," whereby was insinuated, that when we have
to do wflh God, who is the only Uns, we should behave our
selves with a sense of our own infirmity, and infinite distance
from him. As a person, so a duty leavened with pride has
nothing of sincerity, and therefore nothing of spirituahty in it:
" His soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him," Hab.
1 Plutarch, Moral, p, 344.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 261
ii. 4. The elders that were crowned by God to be kings and
priests, to offer spiritual sacrifices, uncrown themselves in their
worship of him, and cast down their ornaments at his feet.
Rev. iv. 10, compared with v. 10. The Greek Avord to wor
ship, B-pouxwaTj/, signifies to creep like a dog upon his belly be
fore his master; to lie low. Hoav deep should our sense be of
the privilege of God's admitting us to his worship, and afford
ing us such a mercy under our deserts of wrath! How mean
should be our thoughts, both of our persons and performances!
Hoav patiently should we Avait upon God for the success of
worship ! How did Abraham, the father of the faithful, bow
himself to the earth, when he supplicated the God of heaven,
and devote himself to him under the title of very dust and ashes!
Gen. xvui. 27. Isaiah did but behold an evangelical apparition
of God and the angels worshipping him, and presently reflects
upon his own uncleanness, Isa. vi. 5. God's presence both
requires and causes humility. How lowly is David in his own
opinion, after a magnificent duty performed by himself and his
people! " Who am I, and what is my people, that we should
be able to offer so wiUingly?" 1 Chron. xxix. 14. The more
spiritual the soul is in its carriage to God, the raore humble it
is; and the more gracious God is in his communications to the
soul, the lower it lies.
God commanded not the fiercer creatures fo be offered to
him in sacrifices, but lambs and kids, meek and lowly creatures;
none that had stings in their taUs or venom in their tongues.^
The meek lamb was the daily sacrifice: the doves were to be
offered by pairs. God would not have honey mixed with any
sacrifice. Lev. fl. 11; that breeds choler, and choler pride: but
ofl he commanded to housed; that supples and mollifies the
parts. Swelling pride and boiling passions render our services
''carnal; they cannot be spiritual, without an humble sweetness
and an innocent sincerity: one grain of this transcends the most
costly sacrifices. A contrite heart puts a gloss upon worship.
Psalm li. 16, 17. The departure of men and angels from God
began in pride; our approaches and return to him must begin
in humility: and therefore aU those graces which are bottomed
on humihty must be acted in worship, as faith, and a sense of
our own indigence. Our blessed Saviour, the most spiritual
worshipper, prostrated himself in the garden with the greatest
lowliness, and offered himself upon the cross a sacrifice with
the greatest humility. Melted souls in worship have the most
spiritual conformity to the person of Christ in the state of humi
hation, and his design in that state: as worship without it is
not; suitable to God, so neither is it advantageous for us. A
time of worship is a time of God's communication. The vessel
' Gaudam aculeatam vel linguam nigram, Alexand. ab Alex. 1. 3. c, 12.

262 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
must be melted to receive the mould it is designed for: softened
wax is fittest to receive a stamp, and a spiritually melted soul
fittest to receive a spiritual impression. We cannot perform
duty in an evangelical and spiritual strain, without the melting
feelings and meanness in ourselves which the gospel requires.
[9.] Spiritual AVorship is to be performed with holiness. God
is a holy Spirit: a likeness to God must attend the worshipping
ofGodasheis: holiness is always in season; it becomes his
house for ever, Psalm xciii. 5. We can never serve the living
God, fill we have consciences purged from dead works, Heb.
ix. 14. Dead AVorks in our consciences are unsuitable to God,
an eternal living Spirit. The more mortified the heart, the
more quickened the service. Nothing can please an infinite
purity, but that Avhich is pure: since God is in his glory in his
ordinances, we must not be in our filthiness. The holiness of
his Spirit sparkles in his ordinances: fhe holiness ofour spirits
ought also to sparkle in our observance of them. The holiness
of God is most celebrated in the worship of angels, Isa. vi. 3 ;
Rev. iv. 8. Spiritual worship ought to be like angelical; that
cannot be with souls totally impure. As there must be perfect
holiness to make a worship perfectly spiritual, so there must
be some degree of holiness to make it in any measure spiritual.
God would have all the utensils of the sanctuary employed
about his service to be holy. The inwards of the sacrifice were
to be rinsed thrice.' The crop and feathers of sacrificed doves
were to be hung eastward towards the entrance of the temple,
at a distance from the holy of holies, where the presence of God
was most eminent. Lev. i. 16. When Aaron was to go into
the holy of holies, he Avas to sanctify himself in an extraordi
nary manner. Lev. xvi. 4. The priests Avere to be bare-footed
in the temple, in the exercise oftheir office; shoes always were
to be put off upon holy ground: "Keep thy foot when thou
goest to the house of God," says the wise man, Eccl. v. 1: strip
Sie affections, the feet of the soul, of all dirt contracted; discard
all earthly and base thoughts from the heart. A beast was not
to touch the mount Sinai, without losing his life; nor can we
come near the throne Avith brutish affections, without losing the
life and fruit of the Avorship. An unholy soul degrades himself
from a spirit to a brute, and the worship from spiritual to bru
tish. If any unmortified sin be found in the hfe, as it was in
the comers to the temple, it taints and pollutes the worship, Isa.
i. 15; Jer. vii. 9, 10. All worship is an acknowledgment ofthe
excellence of God, as he is holy: hence it is called a sanctifying
God's name : how can any person sanctify God's name, that
has not a holy resemblance to his nature? If he be not holy
as he is holy, he cannot worship him according to his excel-
' As the Jewish doctors observe on Lev. i. 9.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 263
lence in spirit and in truth: no worship is spiritual wherein we
have not a communion with God. But what intercourse can
there be between a holy God and an impure creature, between
light and darkness? We have no fellowship with him in any
service, unless we walk in the light, in service and out of ser
vice, as he is light, 1 John i. 7. The heathen thought not their
sacrifices agreeable to God, without washing their hands,
Avhereby they signified the preparation of their hearts, before
they made the oblation. Clean hands, without a pure heart,
signify nothing: the frame of our hearts must ansAver the purify
of the outward symbols. " I will wash my hands in innocency :
so Avill I compass thine altar, 0 Lord," Psalm xxvi. 6. He
would observe the appointed ceremonies, but not wflhout
cleansing his heart as well as his hands. Vain man is apt to
rest upon outward acts and rites of worship: but this must al
ways be practised. The words are in the present tense, I wash,
I compass. Purity in Avorship ought to be our continual care.
If we would perform a spiritual service, wherein we would
have communion with God, it must be in holiness: if we would
walk with Christ, it must be in white. Rev. iii. 4; alluding to
the white garments the priests put on, when they went to
perform their service. As without this we cannot see God in
heaven, so neither can we see the beauty of God in his own
ordinances. [10.] Spiritual worship is performed with spiritual ends, with
raised aims at the glory of God. No duty can be spiritual that
has a carnal aim. Where God is the sole object, he ought to
be the principal end. In all our actions he is to be our end, as
he is the principle ofour being; ranch more in religious acts, as
he is the object ofour Avorship. The worship of God in Scrip
ture, is expressed by the seeking of him, Heb. xi. 6: him, not
ourselves; aU is 'to be referred fo God. As we are not to hve
to ourselves, that being the sign of a carnal state; so Ave are not
to worship for ourselves, Rom. xiv. 7, S. As all actions are
denominated good frora their end, as well as their object; so
upon the same account they are denominated spiritual. The
end spiritualizes our natural actions; much more our religious:
then are our faculties devoted fo him Avhen they centre in him.
If the intention be evil, there is nothing but darkness in the
whole service, Luke xi. 34. The first institution of the Sab
bath, the solemn day for worship, was to contemplate the glory
of God in his stupendous works of creation, and render hira a
homage for thera: " Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory,
and honour, and power: for thou hast created afl things, and
for thy pleasure they are and were created," Rev. iv. 11. No
worship can be returned, without a glorifying of God; and Ave
cannot actually glorify him, without direct aims at the promot-

264 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
ing his honour. As we have immediately to do with God, so
we are immediately to mind the praise of God. As we are not
to content ourselves with habitual grace, but be rich in the ex
ercise ofit in Avorship ; so we are not to acquiesce in habitual aims
at the glory of God, without the actual out-flowings of our
hearts in those aims.
It is natural for man to Avorship God for self: self-righteous
ness is the rooted aim of man in his worship since his revolt
from God, and being sensible it is not fo be found in his natural
actions, he seeks for it in his moral and religious. By the first
pride we fiung God ofl' from being our Sovereign, and from
being our end ; since a pharisaical spirit struts it in nature, not
only to do things to be seen of men, but to be admired by God:
"Wherefore have we fasted — and thou takest no knowledge?"
Isa. Iviii. 3. This is to have God worship them, instead of
being worshipped by them. Cain's carriage after his sacrifice,
testified some base end in his worship ; he came not to God as
a subject to a sovereign, but as if he had been the sovereign,
and God the subject ; and Avhen his design is not answered, and
his desire not gratified, he proves more a tebel to God, and a
murderer of his brother. Such base scents will rise up in our
worship from the body of death which cleaves to us, and mix
themselves with our services, as weeds with the fish in the net.
David therefore, after his people had offered Avillingly to the
temple, begs of God, that their hearts might be prepared to
him, 1 Chron. xxix. 18; that their hearts might stand right to
God, without any squinting to self-ends.
Some present themselves to God, as poor men offer a present
to a great person ; not to honour him, but to gain for themselves
a reward richer than their gift. " What profit is it that we
have kept his ordinance?" Mai. iii. 14. Some worship him,
intending thereby to make him amends for the wrong they have
done him; to wipe off their scores, and satisfy their debts; as
though a spiritual Avrong could be recompensed with a bodily
service, and an infinite Spirit be outwitted and appeased by a
carnal flattery. Self is the spirit of carnality: to pretend a
homage fo God, and intend only the advantage of self, is rather
to mock him than worship him. When we believe that we
ought to be satisfied, rather than God glorified ; we set God
below ourselves; imagine thathe should submit his own honour
to our advantage ; we make ourselves more glorious than God,
as though we were not made for him, but he has a being only
for us : this is to have a very Ioav esteem of the majesty of God.
Whatsoever a man aims at in worship above the glory of God,
that he forms as an idol to himself instead of God, and sets up
a golden image. God counts not this as a worship. The offer
ings made in the wilderness for forty years together, God

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 265
esteemed as not offered to him : " Have ye offered unto me
sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years, 0 house
of Israel?" Amos v. 25. They did it not to God, but to them
selves; for their own security, and the attainment ofthe pos
session of the promised land. A spiritual worshipper performs
not worship for some hopes of carnal advantage ; he uses ordi
nances as means to bring God and his soul together ; to be more
fitted to honour God in the world, in his particular place.
When he has been inflamed and humble in any address or
duly, he gives God the glory; his heart suits the doxology at
the end of the Lord's prayer, ascribes the kingdom, power, and
glory to God alone; and if any viper of pride starts out upon
him, he endeavours presently to shake it off. That which was
the first end of our framing, ought to be the chief end of our
acting towards God ; but when men have the same ends in
worship as brutes, the satisfaction of a sensitive part, the ser
vice is no more than brutish. The acting for a sensitive end,
is unworthy of the majesty of God to whom we address, and
unbecoming a rational creature. The acting for a sensitive end,
is not rational, much less can it be a spiritual service; though
the act may be good in itself, yet not good in the agent, because
he wants a due end. We are then spiritual, when we have
the same end in our redeemed services as God had in his
redeeming love, namely, his own glory.
[11.] Spiritual service is offered to God in the name of Christ.
Those only are spiritual sacrifices, that are offered up to God
by Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. ii. 5; that are the fruits of the sanctifica
tion ofthe Spirit, and offered in the mediation of the Son. As
the altar sanctifies the gift, so does Christ spiritualize our ser
vices for God's acceptation ; as the fire upon the altar separated
the airy and finer parts of the sacrifice from the terrene and
earthly. This is the golden altar upon which the prayers of the
saints are offered up before the throne. Rev. viii. 3. As aU that
we have frora God streams through his blood; so all that we
give to God ascends by virtue of his merits. All the blessings
God gave to the Israelites came out of Sion, Psal. cxxxiv. 3;
that is, from the gospel hid under the law; all fhe duties Ave
present to God, to be presented in Sion, in an evangelical man
ner: aU our worship must be bottomed on Christ. God has
intended that we should honour the Son as we honour the
Father: as we honour the Father by offering our service only
to him, so we are to honour the Son by offering it only in his
name. In him alone God is well pleased, because in him alone
he finds our services spiritual and Avorthy of acceptation: we
must therefore take fast hold of him with our spirits, and the
faster Ave hold him, the more spiritual is our worship. To do
any thing in the name of Christ, is not to believe the worship
Vol. I.— 34

266 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
shaU be accepted for itself, but to have our eye fixed upon
Christ for the acceptance of it, and not to rest upon the work
done, as carnal people are apt to do. The creatures present
their acknowledgments to God by man; and man can only pre
sent his by Christ. It was utterly unlawful after the building
of the temple, to sacrifice any where else. The temple being a
type of Christ, it is utterly unlawful for us to present our ser
vices in any other name than his.
This is the way to be spiritual. If we consider God out
of Christ, we can have no other notions but those of horror
and bondage. We behold him a Spirit, but environed with
justice and wrath for sinners: but the consideration of him in
Christ, veUs his justice, draws forth his mercy, represents him
more a Father than a Judge. In Christ the aspect of justice is
changed, and by that the temper of the creature; so that in
and by this Mediator, Ave can have a spiritual boldness, and
access to God Avith confidence, Eph. iii. 12; whereby the spirit
is kept from benumbedness and distraction, and our souls
quickened and refined. The thoughts kept upon Christ in a
duty of worship, quickly elevate fhe soul, and spiritualize the
whole service. Sin makes our services black, and the blood of
Christ makes both our persons and services Avhite.
To conclude this head.
God is a Spirit infinitely happy, therefore we must approach
to him with cheerfulness; he is a Spirit of infinite majesty,
therefore we must come before him with reverence; he isa
Spirit infinitely high, therefore we must offer up our sacrifices
with the deepest humility; he is a Spirit infinitely holy, there
fore we must address him with purity; he is a Spirit infinitely
glorious, we must therefore acknowledge his excellency in all
that we do, and in our measures contribute to his glory, by
having the highest aims in his worship; he is a Spirit infinitely
provoked by us, therefore we must offer up our worship in the
name of a pacifying Mediator and Intercessor.
3. The third general is, why a spiritual worship is due to
God, and to be offered fo him. We must consider the object
of worship and the subject of Avorshlp; the worshipper and
the worshipped. God is a Spiritual Being; man is a reasona
ble creature. The nature of God informs us Avhat is fit to be
presented to him; our own nature informs us what is fit to be
presented by us.
Reason (1.) The best we have is to be presented to God in
worship. For since God is the most excellent Being, he is to be served
by us with fhe most excellent thing we have, and with the
choicest veneration. God is so incomprehensibly excellent,
that we cannot render him what he deserves; we must render

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.

267

him what we are able to offer; the best of our affections; the
flower of our strength; the cream and top of our spirits. By
the same reason that we are bound to give to God the best
worship, we must offer it to him in the best manner. We can
not give to God any thing too good for so blessed a Being:
God being a great King, slight services become not his majesty,
Mai. i. 13, 14. It is unbecoming the majesty of God, and the
reason of a creature, to give him a trivial thing: it is unworthy
to bestow the best of our strength on our lust, and the worst
and weakest in the service of God. An infinite Spirit should
have affections as near to infinite as we can: as he is a Spirit
without bounds, so he should have a service without limits.
When we have given him all, Ave cannot serve him according
to the excellency of his nature. Josh. xxiv. 19. And shall we
give him less than all? His infinite excellency, and our de
pendence on him as creatures, demand the choicest adoration:
our spirits being the noblest part of our nature, are as due to
him as the service ofour bodies, which are the vilest. To serve
hira with the worst only, is to diminish his honour.
Under the laAv, God commanded fhe best to be offered him.
He would have the males, the best of the kind; the fat, the
best ofthe creature,' Exod. xxix. 13. He commanded them to
offer hira the firstlings of the fiock; not the firstlings of the
womb, but the firstlings ofthe year; the Jewish cattle having
two breeding times, in the beginning of the spring, and the be
ginning of Septenlber. The latter breed was the weaker, which
Jacob knew. Gen. xxx. 41, 42, when he laid the rods before
the cattle when they Avere strong in the spring, and withheld
them when they were feeble in the autumn. One reason (as^
the Jews say) why God accepted not the offerings of Cain was,
because he brought the meanest, not the best of the fruit; and
therefore it is said, only that he brought of fhe fruit of the
ground. Gen. iv. 3; not the first of the fruit, or the best of the
fruit, as Abel, Avho brought the firstlings of his flock, and the
fat thereof, ver. 4.
And this the heathen practised by the light of nature. They
for the most part offered males, as being more worthy; and
burnt tbe male, not the female frankincense, as it is divided into
those two kinds. They offered the best, when they offered
their children to Moloch. Nothing more excellent than man,
and nothing dearer to parents than their children, which are
parts of themselves. When the Israelites would have a golden
calf for a representation of God, they would dedicate their
jewels, and strip their wives and children of their richest orna
ments, to show their devotion. Shall men serve their dumb
idols with the best of their substance, and the strength of their
' The inward fat, not the offal.

268 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
souls, and shall the living God have a duller service from us
than idols had from them? God requires no such hard, but de
lightful worship from us, our spirits.
All creatures serve man, by the providential order of God,
with the best they have. As we by God's appointment receive
from creatures the best they can give, ought we not with a free
will to render to God the best we can offer? The beasts give
us their best fat; the trees their best fruit; the sun its best light;
the fountains their best streams: shall God order us the best
from creatures, and Ave put him off with the worst from our
selves ?
God has given us the choicest thing he had. A Redeemer,
that was the power of God, and the wisdom of God : the best
he had in heaven, his own Son, and in himself a sacrifice for
us, that we might be able to present ourselves a sacrifice to
him. And Christ offered himself for us, the best he had, and
that with the strength of the Deity through the eternal Spirit;
and shall we grudge God the best part of ourselves ? As God
would have a Avorship from his creature, so it must be with the
best part of his creature. If we have given ourselves to the
Lord, 2 Cor. viu. 5, avc can worship with no less than our
selves. What is the man without his spirit? If we are to wor
ship God with all that we have received from him, we must
worship him with the best part we have received from him: it
is but a small glory Ave can give him with the best, and shall
we deprive him ofhis right by giving him the worst? As what
we are is from God, so what we are ought to be for God.
Creation is the foundation of worship: "Serve the Lord with
gladness. — Know ye that the Lord he is God ; it is he that hath
made us," Psal. c. 2, 3. He has ennobled us Avith spiritual
affections; where is it fittest for us to employ them, but upon
him? and at what time, but when Ave come solemnly to con
verse with him? Is it justice to deny him the honour of his best
gift to us? Our souls are more his gift to us, than any thing in
the world: other things are so given that they are often taken
from us, but our spirits are the most durable gift. Rational
faculties cannot be removed without a dissolution of nature.
WeU, then, as he is God, he is to be honoured wflh all the
propensions and ardour that the infiniteness and excellency of
such a Being require, and the incomparable obligations he has
laid upon us in this state deserve at our hands: in all our Avor
ship, therefore, our minds ought to be filled wflh the highest
admiration, love, and reverence. Since our end was to glorify
God, Ave answer not our end, and honour him not, unless we
give him the choicest we have.'
Reason (2.) We cannot else act towards God according to
1 Amyraldus Mor. tom. 2. p. 311.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 269
the nature of rational creatures. Spiritual worship is due to
God, because of his nature, and due from us, because of our
nature. As we are to adore God, so we are to adore him as
men. The nature of a rational creature inakes this impression
upon him: he cannot view his OAvn nature without having this
duty striking upon his raind. As he knows by inspection into
himself, that there is a God that made him; so, that he is
made to be in subjection to God, subjection to him in his spirit
as well as his body, and ought morally to testify his natural
dependence on him. His constitution informs him that he has
a capacity to converse with God; that he cannot converse with
him, but by those inward faculties: if it could be managed by
his body without his spirit, beasts might as Avell converse with
God as men. It can never be a reasonable service as it ought
to be, Rom. xn. 1, unless the reasonable faculties be employed
in the management of it. It must be a worship prodigiously
lame, without the concurrence of the chiefest part of man with
it. As we are to act conformably to the nature of the object,
so also to the nature of our own faculties. Our faculties in the
very gift of them to us were destined to be exercised; about
what?-;— What? AU other things but the Author of them! It
is a conceit cannot enter into the heart of a rational creature,
that he should act as such a creature in other things, and as a
stone in things relating to the donor of them; as a man, with
his mind about him, in the affairs of the world; as a beast,
without reason, in his acts towards God. If a man did not
employ his reason in Pther things, he Avould be an unprofitable
creature in the Avorld: if he do not employ his spirflual facul
ties in Avorship, he denies them the proper end and use for
which they were given him ; it is a practical denial that God
has given him a soul, and that God has any right to the exer-'
cise of it. If there were no worship appointed by God in the
world, the natural inclination of man to some kind of religion
would be in vain; and if our inward faculties were not em
ployed in the duties of religion, they would be in vain. The
true end of God in the endowment of us wflh them Avould be
defeated by us, as much as lies in us, if we did not serve him
with that which we have from him solely at his own cost. As
no man can Avith reason conclude, that the rest commanded on
the Sabbath and the sanctification of it, was only a rest of the
body, (that had been performed by the beasts as well as men,)
but some higher end was aimed at for the rational creature;
so no man can think that the command for worship terminated
only in the presence of the body; that God should give the
command to man as a reasonable creature, and expect no other
service from him than that of a brute.
God did not require a worship from man, for any want he

270 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
had, or any essential honour that could accrue to him; but that
men might testify their gratitude to him, and dependence on
him. It is the most horrid ingratitude not to have lively and
deep sentiments of gratitude after such obligations, and not to
make those due acknowledgments that are proper for a- rational
creature. Religion is the highest and choicest act of a reason
able creature; no creature under heaven is capable of it that
wants reason. As it is a violation of reason not to worship
God, so it is no less a violation of reason not to worship him
with the heart and spirit: it is a high dishonour to God, and
defrauds him not only of the service due to him from man, but
that which is due to him from all the creatures. Every crea
ture, as it is an effect of God's poAver and wisdom, does pas
sively worship God ; that is, it affords matter of adoration
to raan that has reason, to collect it and return it where it is
due. Without fhe exercise of the soul we can no more hand
it to God, than without such an exercise we can gather it from
the creature. So that by this neglect, the creatures are re
strained from answering their chief end; they cannot pay any
service to God without man; nor can man, without the em
ployment of his rational faculties, render a homage to God,
any more than beasts can. This engagement of our inward
poAver stands firm and inviolable, let the modes of worship be
what they wUl, or the changes of thera by the sovereign au
thority of God never so frequent; this could not expire or be
changed, as long as the nature of man endured. As man had
not been capable of a command for worship, unless he had
been endued with spiritual faculties; so he is not active in a
true practice of worship, unless they be employed by him in it.
The constitution of man makes this manner of Avorship per
petually obligatory: and the obligation can never cease, fill
man cease to be a creature furnished wifh such faculties. In
our worship therefore, if we would act like rational creatures,
we should extend all the powers of our souls to the utmost
pitch, and essay to have apprehensions of God equal to the
excellency of his nature, which though we may attempt, we
can never attain.
Reason (3.) Without this engagement of our spirits, no act
is an act of worship. True worship being an acknowledgment
of God and the perfections of his nature, results only from the
soul, that only being capable of knowing God and those per
fections which are the object and motive of worship. The
posture of the body is but to testify fhe inward femper and
affection of the mind: if therefore it testifies what it is not, it
is a lie and no worship. The cringes a beast raay be taught to
make to an altar, may as well be called worship ; since a man
thinks as little of that God he pretends to honour, as the beast

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 271
does of the altar to which he bows. Worship is a reverent re
membrance of God, and giving some honour to him with the
intention of the soul: it cannot justly have the name of wor
ship, that wants the essential part of it. It is an ascribing to
God the glory of his nature, an owning of subjection and obedi
ence to hira as our sovereign Lord: this is as impossible to be
performed without the spirit, as that there can be life and mo
tion in a body without a soul. It is a drawing near to God,
not in regard of his essential presence; so all things are near
to God; but in an acknowledgment of his excellency, which is
an act of the spirit: without this, the worst of men in a place
of worship are as near to God as the best. The necessity of
the conjunction of our soul arises from the nature of worship,
which being the most serious thing we can be employed in, the
highest converse with the highest object, requires the choicest
temper of spirit in the performance. That cannot be an act of
worship Avhich is not an act of piety and virtue; but there is
no act of virtue done by the members of the body, Avithout the
concurrence of the powers of the soul. We raay as well call
the presence of a dead carcass in a place of Avorship an act of
religion, as the presence of a living body without an intent
spirit. The separation of the soul frora one is natural, the
other moral; that renders the body lifeless, but this renders the
act loathsome to God. As the being of the soul gives hfe to
the body, so the operation of the soul gives life to the actions.
As he cannot be a man that wants the form of a man, a rational
soul; so that cannot be a Avorship that wants an essential part,
the act of the spirit. God wfll not vouchsafe any acts of man
so noble a title, without the requisite qualifications: "They
shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the
Lord," Hos. v. 6; a multitude of lambs and bullocks for sacri
fice, to appease God's anger. God Avould not give it the title
of worship, though instituted by himself, when it wanted the
quahties of such a service: the spirit of Avhoredom was in the
midst of them, ver. 4. In the judgment of our Saviour, it is a
vain worship, when the traditions of men are taught for the
doctrines of God, Matt. xv. 9; and no less vain must it be,
when the bodies of men are presented to suoply the place of
their spirits. As an omission of duty is a contempt of God's
sovereign authority, so the omission of the manner of it is a
contempt of it, and of his amiable excellency; and that which
is a contempt and mockery can lay no just claim to the title of
worship. Reason (4.) There is in worship an approach of God to man.
It was instituted to this purpose, that God might give out his
blessings to man]: and ought not our spirits to be prepared and
ready to receive his'communications? We are in such acts more

272 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
pecuharly in his presence. In the Israehtes hearing the law,
it is said God Avas to come among them, Exod. xix. 10, 11.
Then men are said to stand before the Lord, Deut. x. 8: God
before Avhom I stand, 1 Kings xvii. 1, that is, whom I worship;
and therefore Avhen Cain forsook the worship of God settled in
his father's famfly, he is said to go out from the presence ofthe
Lord, Gen. iv. 16. God is essentially present in the world;
graciously present in his church. The name of the evangehcal
city is Jehovah Shammah, " The Lord is there," Ezek. xlviii.
35. God is more graciously present in the evangelical institu
tions, than in the legal; he " loveth the gates of Zion more than
all the dwellings of Jacob," Psal. Ixxxvii. 2; his evangelical
laAV and worship, which was to go forth from Zion, as the other
did from Sinai, Mic. iv. 2. God delights to approach to men,
and converse Avith them in the worship instituted in the gos
pel, more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graci
ously present, ought not we to be spirituaUy present? A lifeless
carcass service becomes not so high and delectable a presence
as this. It is to thrust him from us, not invite him to us: it
is to practise in the ordinances, what the prophet predicts con
cerning men's usage ofour Saviour; there is no form, no come
liness, nor beauty that we should desire him, Isa. liii. 2. A
slightness in worship, reflects upon the excellence ofthe object
of worship. God and his worship are so linked together, that
whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care, esteems
the other not worth his inward affection. Hoav unworthy a
slight is it of God, who proffers the opening his treasure ; the
re-impressing his image ; conferring his blessings ; admits us
into his presence, when he has no need for us, who has millions
of angels to attend him in his court, and celebrate his praise!
He that worships not God with his spirit, regards not God's
presence in his ordinances, and slights the great end of God in
them, and that perfection he may attain by them. We can only
expect what God has promised to give, when we render to
him Avhat he has commanded us to present. If we put off God
Avith a shell, he will put us off with a husk. How can we ex
pect his heart, when we do not give him ours? or hope for the
blessing needful for us, when we render not the glory due to
him? It cannot be an advantageous worship, without spiritual
graces; for those are uniting, and union is the ground of aU
communion. Reason (5.) To have a spiritual worship is God's end in the
restoration of the creature; both in redemption by his Son,-
and sanctification by his Spirit. A fitness for spiritual offer
ings, was the end of the corning of Christ: Mai. iii. 3, he should
purge them, as gold and silver by fire, a Spirit burning up their
dross, melting them into a holy compliance with and submission

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 273
to God. To what purpose? that they may offer to ,the Lord
an offering in righteousness; a pure offering from a purified
spirit. He came to bring us to God, 1 Pet. ui. 18, in such a
garb, as that we might be fit to converse with hira: and can
we be thus, without a fixedness of our spirits on him ?
The offering of spiritual sacrifices is the end of making a
spiritual habitation and a holy priesthood, 1 Pet. ii. 5. We
can no more be worshippers of God, without a worshipper's
nature, than a raan be a man without huraan nature. As man
was at first created for the honour and worship of God, so the
design of restoring that image, which Avas defaced by sin, tends
to the same end. We are not brought to God by Christ, nor
are our services presented to him, if they be without our spirits.
Would any man that undertakes to bring another to a prince,
introduce him in a slovenly and sordid habit, such a garb that
he knows is hateful to him? or bring the clothes or skin of a
man stuffed with straw, instead of the person? To come with
our skins before God without our spirits, is contrary to the
design of God in redemption and regeneration.
If a carnal worship would have pleased God, a carnal heart
would have served his turn, without the expense of his Spirit
in sanctification. He bestows upon man a spiritual nature,
that he raay return to him a spiritual service; he enlightens the
understanding, that he may have a rational service; and ncAV
moulds the wUl, that he may have a voluntary service. As it
is the milk of the word wherewith he feeds us, so it is the ser
vice of the word wherewith we must glorify him. So much
as there is of confusedness in our understanding, so much of
starting and levity in our wiUs, so much of slipperiness and
skipping in our affections, so much is abated of the due quali
ties of the worship of God, and so much we fall short of the
end of redemption and sanctification.
Reason (6.) A spiritual worship is to be offered to God,, be
cause no worship but that can be acceptable. We can never
be secured of acceptance Avithout it; he being a Spirit, nothing
but the worship in spirit can be suitable to him: what is un
suitable, cannot be acceptable: there must be something in us,
to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for
an actual acceptation. No service is acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ, but as it is a spirituial sacrifice, and offered by a
spiritual heart, 1 Pet. ii. 5. The sacrifice is first spiritual, be
fore it be acceptable to God by Christ: Avhen it is an offering
in righteousness, it is then, and then only pleasant to fhe Lord,
Mai. ifl. 3, 4. No prince Avould accept a gift that is unsuflable
to his majesty, and beloAV the condition ofthe person that pre
sents it: Avould he be pleased Avith a bottle of water for drink,
from one that has his ceUar full of wine? How unacceptable
Vol. I.— 35

274 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
must that be, that is unsuflable to the Divine majesty! and
Avhat can be more unsuitable, than a Avithdrawing the opera
tions of our souls from him in the oblation of our bodies? We
as little glorify God, as God, when we give him only a corpo
real worship; as the heathen did, when they represented him
in a corporeal shape, Rom. i. 21: one as well as the other denies
his spiritual nature. This is worse; for had it been lawful to
represent God to the eye, it could not have been done, but by
a bodily figure suited to the sense; but since it is necessary to
worship him, it cannot be by a corporeal attendance, without
the operation of the spirit. A spiritual frame is more pleasing
to God, than the highest exterior adornments; than the greatest
gifts, and the highest prophetical illumination. The glory of
the second temple exceeded the glory of the first. Hag. fl. 9.
As God accounts the spiritual glory of ordinances most benefi
cial for us, so our spiritual attendance upon ordinances is most
pleasing to him: he that offers the greatest services without it,
offers but flesh : " They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of my
offerings, but the Lord accepteth them not," Hos. viii. 13. Spi
ritual frames are the soul of religious services; all other car
riages without them are contemptible to this Spirit. We can
never lay claim to that promise of God, None shall seek my
face in vain; we affect a vain seeking of him, when we want
a due temper of spirit for him. And vain spirits shaU have
vain returns. It is more contrary to the nature of God's holi
ness to have communion wifh such, than it is contrary to the
nature of light to have communion with darkness.
4. The last thing is to make use of this.
Use [1.) It serves for information.
[1.] If spiritual worship be required by God, how sad is it
for thern that are so far from giving God a spiritual worship,
that they render him no worship at all! I speak not of the
neglect of public, but of private; when men present not a de
votion to God from one year's end to the other. The speech
of our Saviour, that we must worship God in spirit and in
truth, implies that a Avorship is due to him from every one.
That is the common impression upon the consciences of all
men in the world, if they have not by some constant course in
gross sins, hardened their souls, and stifled those natural senti
ments. There was never a nation in the world Avithout some
kind of religion, and no religion was ever without some modes
to testify a devotion: the heathen had their sacrifices and pu
rifications, and the Jews, by God's order, had their rites, where
by they were to express their allegiance to God. Consider,
Worship is a duty incumbent upon all men. It is a homage
mankind owes to God, under the relation wherein he stands
obliged to him; it is a prime and immutable justice to own our

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 275
allegiance to him. It is as unchangeable a truth that God is
to be worshipped, as that God is: he is to be worshipped as
God, as Creator; and therefore by all, since he is the Creator of
all, the Lord of all, and all are his creatures, and all are his
subjects. Worship is founded upon creation, Psal. c. 2, 3. It
is due to God for himself and his own essential excellence, and
therefore due from all: it is due upon the account of man's
nature, as the human rational nature is the same in all. What
soever is due to God upon the account of man's nature, and
the natural obligations he has laid upon man, is due from all
men, because they all enjoy the benefits which are proper to
their nature.
Man in no state was exempted, nor can be exempted frora
it. In paradise he had his sabbaths and sacraments. Man
therefore dissolves the obligation of a reasonable nature, by
neglecting the worship of God.
Religion is in the first place to be minded. As soon as Noah
came out of the ark, he contrived not a habitation for himself,
but an altar for the Lord, to acknowledge him the Author of
his preservation from the deluge. Gen. viii. 20. And where
soever Abraham came, his first business was to erect an altar,
and pay his arrears of gratitude to God, before he ran upon
the score for new mercies. Gen. xii. 7; xifl. 4, 18; he left a
testimony of worship wherever he came.
Wholly therefore to neglect it, is a high degree of atheisra.
He that calls not upon God, says in his heart there is no God,
and seems to have the sentiments of natural conscience, as to
God, stifled in hira, Psal. xiv. 1, 4. It must arise from a con
ceit that there is no God, or that Ave are equal to him, adora
tion not being due from persons of an equal state; or that God
is unable or unwilhng to take notice of the adoring acts of his
creatures. What is any of these but an undeifying the Su
preme Majesty? When we lay aside all thoughts of paying
any homage to him, we are in a fair way opinionatively to
deny him, as much as we practically disown him. Where there
is no knowledge of God, that is, no acknowledgment of God,
a gap is opened to all licentiousness, Hos. iv. 1, 2; and that by
degrees hardens the conscience, and razes out the sense of God.
Those forsake God that forget his holy mountain, Lsa. Ixv. 11;
they do not practically own him as the -Creator of their souls
or bodies. It is the sin of Cain, who turning his back upon
worship, is said to go out from the presence of the Lord, Gen.
iv. 16. Not to worship him with our spirits, is against his law
of creation; not to worship him at all, is against his act of cre
ation; not to worship him in truth is hypocrisy; not to Avorship
him at all is atheism, whereby we render ourselves worse than
the worms in the earth or a toad in a ditch.

276 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
To perform a worship to a false god, or to the true God in a
false manner, seems to be less a sin than to live in perpetual
neglects of it. Though fl be directed to a false object instead
of God, yet it is under the notion of a God, and so is an ac
knowledgment of such a being as God in the world; whereas,
the total neglect of any worship is a practical denying of the
existence of any Supreme Majesty.
Whosoever constantly omfls a public and private worship,
transgresses against a universally received dictate; for all na
tions have agreed in fhe common notion of worshipping God,
though they have disagreed in the several modes and rites
whereby they would testify that adoration. By a worship of
God, though superstitious, a veneration and reverence of such
a Being is maintained in the world; whereas, by a total ne
glect of worship, he is virtually disowned and discarded, if nof
from his existence, yet from his providence and government of
the world ; all the mercies we breathe in are denied to flow
from hira. A foolish worship owns religion, though it bespat
ters it. As if a stranger coming into a country mistakes a
subject for the prince, and pays that reverence to the subject
which is due to the prince. Though he mistakes the object, yet
he owns an authority; or if he pays any respect to the true
prince of that country after the mode of his own, though ap
pearing ridiculous in the place where he is, he owns the autho
rity of the prince; whereas, the omission of all respect would
be a contempt of majesty. And therefore the judgments of
God have been more signal upon the sacrflegious contemners
of worship arnong the heathen, than upon those that were
diligent and devout in their false worship; and they generally
owned the blessings received, to the preservation of a sense
and worship of a Deity among thera. Though such a worship
be not acceptable to God, and every man is bound to offer to
God a devotion agreeable to his own mind; yet it is commend
able, not as worship, but as it speaks an acknowledgment of
such a being as God in his power in creation, and his benefi
cence in his providence.
Well then, omissions of worship are to be avoided. Let no
man execute that upon himself, which God will pronounce at
last as the greatest misery, and bid God depart from him, who
wUl at last be loath to hear God bid him depart from him.
Though man has natural sentiments that God is to be worship
ped, yet having a hostUity in his nature, he is apt to neglect, or
give it him in a slight manner. He therefore sets a particular
mark and notice of attention upon the fourth command, " Re
member thou keep holy the Sabbath day." Corrupt nature is
apt to neglect the worship of God, and flag in it: this command

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 277
therefore which concerns his worship, he fortifies with several
reasons. Nor let any neglect worship, because they cannot find their
hearts spiritual in it. The further we are from God, the more
carnal shall we be. No man can expect heat by a distance
frora the sun-beams or other means of warmth. Though God
commanded a circumcised heart in the Jewish services, yet he
did not warrant a neglect of the outward testimonies of religion
he had then appointed; he expected, according to his comraand,
that they should offer the sacrifices and practise the legal puri
fications he had coraraanded; he woifld have thera diligently
observed, though he had declared that he imposed them only
for a time. And our Saviour ordered the practice of those posi
tive rites as long as the law remained unrepealed, as in the case
of the leper, Mark i. 44. It is an injustice to refuse the offering
ourselves to God according to the manner he has in his wisdom
prescribed and required.
If spiritual worship be reqiflred by God, then,
[2.] It informs us, that dfligence in outward worship is not
to be rested in. Men may attend all their days on worship,
with a juiceless heart and unquickened frame, and think to
compensate the neglect of the raanner with abundance of the
raatter of service.' Outward expressions are but the badges
and liveries of service, not the service itself As the strength
of sin lies in the inward frame of the heart, so the strength of
worship is in the inward complexion and temper of the soul.
What do a thousand services avaU, without cutting the throat
ofour carnal affections? What are loud prayers, but as sound
ing brass and tinkling cymbals, Avithout Divine _charity? A
pharisaical diligence in outward forms without inward spirit,
bad no better a title vo'Jchsafed by our Saviour, than that of
hypocritical. God desires not sacrifices, nor delights in burnt-
offering; shadows are not to be offered instead of substance.
God required the heart of raan for itself; but coraraanded out
ward ceremonies, as subservient to inward worship, and goads
and spurs unto it: they were never appointed as the substance
of religion, but auxUiaries to it. What value had the offering
of the human nature of Christ been of, if he had not had a
Divine nature to qualify him to be the priest? And what is the
oblation ofour bodies, without a priestly act ofthe spirit in the
presentation of it? Could the Israelites have called themselves
worshippers of God according to his order, if they had brought
a thousand lambs that had died in a dflch, or been killed at
home? They were to be brought living' to the altar; the blood
shed at the foot ofit: a thousand sacrifices kifled without, had
not been so valuable as one brought alive to the place of offer-
1 Daille, melange des Sermons, Ser. 2.

278 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
ing. One sound sacrifice is better than a thousand rotten ones.
As God took no pleasure in the blood of beasts without its-rela
tion to the antitype ; so he takes no pleasure in the outward
rites of worship, without faith in the Redeemer. To offer a
body with a sapless spirit, is a sacrilege of the same nature with
that of the Israelites when they offered dead beasts. A man
without spiritual worship is dead while he worships, though,
by his diligence in the externals of it, he raay, like the angel of
the church of Sardis, have a name to live, Rev. iii. 1. What
security can we expect from a multitude of dead services? What
weak shields are they against the holy eye and revenging wrath
of God? What man, but one out of his Avits, would solicit a
dead man to be his advocate or champion?
DUigence in outAvard worship is not fo be rested in.
Use (2.) shall be for examination: let us try ourselves con
cerning the manner of our worship. We are now in the end
ofthe world, and the dregs of time; wherein the apostle pre
dicts, there may be much of a form and little of the power of
godliness, 2 Tim. ifl. 1. 5: and therefore it stands us in hand to
search into ourselves, whether it be not thus with us; whether
there be as much reverence in our spirits, as there may be de
votion in our countenances and outward carriages.
[1.] How therefore are our hearts prepared to worship? Is
our dUigence greater to put our hearts in an adoring posture
than our bodies in a decent garb? or are we content to have a
muddy heart, so we may have a dressed carcass ? To have a
spirit a cage of unclean birds, whUe we wipe the filth from the
outside of the platter, is no better than a pharisaical devotion,
and deserves no better a name than that of a whited sepulchre.
Do we take opportunities to excite and quicken our spirits
to the performance, and cry aloud with David, Awake, awake>
my glory ? Are not our hearts asleep when Christ knocks:
when we hear the voice of God, Seek my face; do we answer
him with warm resolutions. Thy face, Lord, we Avill seek?
Psal. xxvii. 8. Do Ave comply with spiritual motions, and
strike whfle the iron is hot? Is there not more of reluctancy
than readiness? Is there a quick rising ofthe soul in reverence
to the motion, as Eglon to Ehud; or a sullen hanging the head
at the first approach of it ? Or if our hearts seem to be en
gaged, and on fire, what are the motives that quicken that
fire? Is it only the blast of a natural conscience; fear of hell;
desires of heaven as abstracted from God ? Or is it an affection
to God? an obedient will to please him; longings to enjoy him,
as a holy and sanctifying God in his ordinances, as well as a
blessed and glorified God in heaven?
What do we expect in our approaches from him? That
which may make divine impressions upon us, and more exacfly

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 279
conform us to the Divine nature ? Or do we design nothing
but an empty formality, a rolling eye, and a filling the air with
a few words, without any openings of heart to receive the in
comes, which according to the nature of the duty might be
conveyed to us? Can this be a spiritual worship ? The soul
then closely waits upon hira, when its expectation is only from
him, Psal. lxii. 5. Are our hearts seasoned with a sense of
sin; a. sight of our spiritual wants; raised notions of God;
glowing affections to him; strong appetite after a spiritual ful
ness ? Do we rouse up our sleepy spirits, and make a cove
nant with all that is within us to attend upon him ? So much
as we want of this, so much Ave come short of a spiritual wor
ship. In Psal. Ivfl. 7. " My heart is fixed, 0 God, my heart
is fixed!" David would fix his heart, before he Avould engage
in a praising act of worship: he appeals to God about it, and
that Avith doubling the expression, as being certain of an iuAvard
preparedness. Can we make the same appeals in a fixedness of
spirit ?
[2.] How are our hearts fixed upon him, how do they
cleave to him in the duty? Do we resign our spirits to God,
and make them an entire holocaust, a whole burnt-offering in
his worship ? Or do we not wiUingly admit carnal thoughts
to mix themselves with spiritual duties, and fasten our minds
to the creature, under pretences of directing them to the Crea
tor ? Do we not pass a mere compliment on God, by some
superficial act of devotion ; AvhUe some covetous, envious, am
bitious, voluptuous imagination rnay possess our rainds ? Do
we not invert God's order, and Avorship a lust instead of God
with our spirit, that should not have the least service, either
from our souls or bodies, but with a spiritual disdain be sacri
ficed to the just indignation of God ? How often do we fight
against his will, while we cry. Hail, Master; instead of cruci
fying our own thoughts, crucifying the Lord of our lives; our
outward carriage plausible, and our inward walk naught! Do
we not often regard iniquity more than God in our hearts, in a
time of worship ? roll some filthy imagination as a sweet mor
sel under our tongues, and taste raore sweetness in that than in
God? Do not our spirits smell rank of earth, whUe we offer to
heaven; and have we not hearts full of thick clay, as the
hands of some were fufl of blood? Isa. i. 15. When we sacri
fice, do we not Avrap up our souls in communion with sorae
sordid fancy, when we should entwine our spirits about an
amiable God? While we have sorae fear of him, may we not
have a love to something else above him ? This is to worship
or swear by the Lord and by Malcham, Zeph. i. 5. How often
does an apish fancy render a service inwardly ridiculous, under
a grave outward posture; skipping to the shop, warehouse.

280 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
counting-house in the space of a short prayer! and we are be
fore God as a Babel, a confusion of internal languages ; and
this in those parts of Avorship which are in the right use most
agreeable to God, profitable for ourselves, ruinous to the king
dom of sin and Satan, and means to bring us into a closer coni-
munion wflh the Divine Majesty! Can this be a spiritual
worship? [3.] How do we act our graces in worship? Though the
instrument be strung, if the strings be not wound up, what
melody can be the issue? All readiness and alacrity discover a
strength of nature, and a readiness in spirituals discovers a
spirituality in the heart. As unaffecting thoughts of God are
not spiritual thoughts, so unaffecting addresses to God are not
spiritual addresses. WeU then, what awakenings, and eleva
tions of faith and love have we? what strong outflowings of
our souls to him? what indignation against sin? what admira
tions of redeeming grace ? How low have we brought our cor
ruptions to the footstool of Christ, to be made his conquered
enemies? How straitly have we clasped our faith about fhe
cross and the throne of Christ, to become his intimate spouse?
Do we in hearing hang upon the lips of Christ; in prayer take
hold of God, and will not let him go; in confessions rend the caul
of our hearts, and indite our soufs before him with a deep hu
mUity? Do we act more by a soaring love than a drooping fear?
So far as our spirits are servfle, so far they are legal and carnal;
so much as they are free and spontaneous, so much they are
evangelical and spiritual. As men under the. law are subject
to fhe constraint of bondage aU their lifetime, in all their, Avor
ship, Heb. ii. 15; so under the gospel they are under a constraint
of love, 2 Cor. v. 14. How then are believing affections exer
cised, Avhich are always accompanied with holy fear, a fear of
his goodness that admits us into his presence, and a fear to
offend him in our act of worship? So much as we have of forced
or feeble affection, so much we have of carnality.
[4.] How do we find our hearts after worship? By an after-
earriage, we may judge ofthe spirituality ofit.
How are we as to inward strength? When a worship is spir
itually performed, grace is more strengthened, corruption more
mortified; the soul, like Samson after his awakening, goes out
with a renewed strength. As the inward man is renewed day
by day, that is, every day; so it is renewed in every worship.
Every shower makes the grass and fruit grow in good ground
where the root is good, and the weeds where the ground is
naught ; and the more prepared the heart is to obedience in other
duties after worship, the more evidence there is that it has heen
spiritual in the exercise of it. It is the end of God in every dis
pensation, as in that of John Baptist, "to make ready a people

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.

281

prepared for the Lord," Lukei. 17. When the heart is by
worship prepared for fresh acts of obedience, it has a more ex
act watchfulness against the encroachments of sin.' As carnal
men after worship sprout up in spiritual wickedness, so do spir
itual worshippers in spiritual graces : spiritual fruits are a sign
of a spiritual frarae. When men are more prone to sin after
duty, it is a sign there was but little communion with God in
it, and a greater strength of sin, because such an act is contrary
to the end of worship, which is the subduing of sin. It is a sign
the physic has wrought well, when the stomach has a better
appetite to its appointed food; and Avorship has been Avell per
formed, when we have a stronger inchnation to other acts well
pleasing to God, and a more sensible distaste of those tempta
tions Ave too miich relished before. It is a sign of a good con
coction, when there is a greater strength in the vitals of religion,
a more eager desire to know God. When Moses had been
praying to God, and prevailed with him, he puts up a higher
request, to behold his glory, Exod. xxxiii. 13. 18. When the
appetite stands strong to fuller discoveries of God, it is a sign
there has been a spiritual converse with him.
How is it especially as to humility? The pharisees' AVorship
was, without dispute, carnal; and we find thera not more hum
ble after all their devotions, but overgrown with hiore weeds
of spiritual pride; they performed them as their righteousness.
What men dare plead before God in his day, they plead before
him in their hearts, in their day; but this men will do at the day
of judgment: We have prophesied in thy name! Matt. vfl. 22.
They show what tincture their services left upon their spirits:
that which excludes them from any acceptation at the last day,
excludes them from any estimation of being spiritual in this
day. The carnal worshippers charge God Avith injustice in not
rewarding them, and claim an acceptation as a compensation
due to them: "Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou
takest no knowledge?" Isa. Iviii. 3. A spiritual worshipper
looks upon his duties with sharae, as well as he does upon his
sins with confusion, and iraplores the mercy of God for the one
as weU as the other. In Psal. cxliii. 2, the prophet David after
his supplications begs of God not to enter into judgment with
hira, and acknowledges any ansAver that God should give hira,
as a fruit of his faithfulness to his promise, and not the merit of
his worship: " In thy faflhfulness answer rae," ver. 1. What
soever springs frora a gracious principle, and is the breath of
the Spirit, leaves a man more humble; whereas that which pro
ceeds from a stock of nature, has the true blood of nature run
ning in the veins of it, namely, that pride which is naturally
derived from Adam. The breathing of the Divine Spirit is in
every thing to conform us to our Redeemerj that being the main
Vol. L— 36

282 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
work ofhis office, is his work in every particular 'Christain act
influenced by hira. Now Jesus Christ in all his actions was an
exact pattern of humility. After the institution and celebration
of the supper, a special act of worship in the church, though he
had a sense of all fhe authority his Father had given. him, yet
he humbles himself to wash his disciples' feet, John xiii. 2 — 5.
And after his sublime prayer, John xvii, he humbles hirnself to
the death, and offers himself to his murderers, because of his
Father's pleasure: when he had spoken those words, he went
over the brook Cedron into the garden, John xviii. 1. What is
the end of God in appointing worship, is the end of a spiritual
heart in offering it; not its own exaltation, but God's glory.
Glorifying the name of God, is the fruit of that evangelical
Avorship the gentiles were in time to give to Go'd: " AU nations
whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, 0
Lord ; and shall glorify thy name," Psal. Ixxxvi. 9. Let us
examine then what debasing ourselves there is in a sense of our
own vileness, and distance from so glorious a Spirit. Self-
denial is the heart of all gospel grace. Evangelical spiritual
worship cannot be Avithout the ingredient of the main evange
lical principle.
What delight is there after it? What pleasure is there, and
what is fhe object of that pleasure? Is it communion Ave have
had with God, or a fluency in ourselves? Is it something
which has touched our hearts, or tickled our fancies? As the
strength of sin is known by the delightful thoughts of it after
the commission, so is the spirituality of duty, by the object of
our delightful remembrance after the performance. It was a
sign David was spiritual in the Avorship of God in the taberna
cle v/hen he enjoyed it, because he longed for the spiritual part
of it when he was exUed from it : his desires were not only for
liberty to revisit the tabernacle, but to see the power and glory
of God in the sanctuary, as he had seen it before, Psalra Ixiii.
2. His desires for it could not have been so ardent, if his re
flection flpon Avhat had passed had not been delightful ; nor could
his soul be poured out in him for the Avant of such opportuni
ties, if the remembrance of fhe converse he had had with God,
had not been accompanied with a delightful relish. Psalm xlfl.
4. Let us examine what delight we find in our spirits after
worship. Use (3.) Is of comfort. And it is very comfortable to consi
der, that the smallest worship with the heart and spirit, flowing
from a principle of grace, is more acceptable than the most
pompous veneration; yea, if the oblation were as precious as
the whole circuit of heaven and earth without it. That God,
that.yalues a cup of cold water given to any as his disciple,
Avfll value a sincere service above a costly sacrifice. God has

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 283
his eye upon them that honour his nature ; he would not seek
such to worship him, if he did not intend to accept such a wor
ship from them: when Ave therefore invoke him, and praise
him, which are the prime parts of religion, he will receive it as
a sweet savour from us, and overlook infirraities mixed with
the graces.
The great matter of discomfort, and that which makes us
question the spirituality of worship, is the many starts of our
spirits and rovings to other things.
For answer to which,
[1.] It is to be confessed, that these starts are' natural to us.
Who is free from them? We hear in our own bosom, a nest
of turbulent thoughts, which, like busy gnats, wfll be buzzing
about us, while we are in our most inward and spiritual con
verses. Many wild beasts lurk in a man's heart, as in a close
and covert wood, and scarce discover themselves but at our
solemn worship.
No duty so holy, no worship so spiritual, that can Avholly
privflege us from them. They wifl jog us in our most weighty
employments, that, as God said to Cain, sin 'lies at the door,
and enters in, and makes a riot in our souls. As it is said of
wicked men, they cannot sleep for multitude of thoughts, Eccles.
V. 12; so it may be of many a good man, he cannot worship for
nufltitude of thoughts. There Avfll be starts, and more in our
religious than natural employments; it is natural to man: some
therefore think, the bells tied to Aaron's garments, betAveen the
pomegranates, Avere to Avarn the people, and recall their fugi
tive minds to the present service, when they heard fhe sound
of them, upon fhe least motion of the high priest. The sacri
fice of Abraham, the father ofthe faithful, was not exempt from
the fowls pecking at it. Gen. xv. 11. Zechariah himself was
drowsy in the midst of his visions, Avhich being more amazing,
might cause a heavenly intenseness: "The angel that talked
with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened
out of his sleep," Zech. iv. 1. He had been roused up before,
but he was ready to drop down again; his heart was gone, till
the angel jogged him. We may complain of such imaginations,
as Jeremiah does of the enemies of the Jews: " Our persecutors
are swifter than th'e eagles," Lam. iv. 19; they light upon us
with as much speed as eagles upon a carcass; they pursue us
upon the mountain of Divine instflution, and they lay wait for
us in the wilderness, in our retired addresses to God.
And this will be so while
There is natural corruption in us. There are in a godly
man two contrary principles, flesh and spirit, which endeavour
to hinder one another's acts, and are always stirring upon the
offensive or defensive part. Gal. v. ^7. There is a body of

284 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
death continually exhaling its noisome vapours; it is a body of
death in our worship, as Avell as in our natures; it snaps our
resolutions asunder, Rora. vii. 19; it hinders us in the doing
good, and contradicts our wills in the stirring up evil. This
corruption being seated in all the faculties, and a constant do
mestic in thera, has the greater opportunity to trouble us, since
it is by those faculties that we spiritually transact with God ;
and it stirs more in the time of religious exercises, though it be
in part mortified ; as a wounded beast, though tired, AviU rage
and strive to its utmost when the enemy is about to fetch a
blow at it. All duties of worship tend to the wounding. of
corruption; and it is no wonder to feel the striving of sin to
defend itself, and offend us when we have our arms in our
hands to mortify it, that the blow may be diverted which is
directed against it.
The apostles had aspiring thoughts; and being persuaded of
an earthly kingdom, expected a grandeur in it. And though
we find some appearance of it at other times; as when they
were casting out devfls, and gave an account of it to their
Master, he gives'them a kind of check, Luke x. 20, intiraating
that there was some kind of evil in their rejoicing upon that
account; yet this never swelled so high, as to break out into a
quarrel who should be greatest, until they had the most solemn
ordinance, the Lord's supper, fo quell it, Luke xxii. 24. Our
corruption is like lime, which discovers not its fire by any
smoke or heat, tiU you cast water, the enemy of fire, upon it;
neither does our natural corruption rage so much, as wh§n we
are using means to quench and destroy it.
This corruption will remain while there is a devil, and we in
his precinct. As he accuses us to God, so he disturbs us in
ourselves: he is a bold spirfl, and loves to intrude himself when
we are conversing with God. We read that when the angels
presented themselves before God, Satan comes among them,
Job i. 6. Motions frora Satan will thrust thehiselves in with
our raost raised and angelical frames; he loves to take off the
edge ofour spirits from God: he acts but after fhe old rate; he
from the first envied God an obedience frora man, and envied
man the felicity of communion with God; he is unwilling God
should have the honour of worship, and th'at Ave should have
the fruit of it : he has himself lost it, and therefore is unwil
ling Ave should enjoy it; and being subtle, he knows how to
make impressions upon us suitable to our inbred corruptions,
and assault us in the weakest part: he knows all the avenues
to get within us, (as he did in the temptation of Eve,) and
being a spirit, he wants not a power to dart them immediately
upon our fancy; and being a spirit, and therefore active and
nimble, he can shoot tho%e darts faster than our weakness can

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP 285
beat them off: he is dfligent also, and watches for his prey, and
seeks to devour our. services as well as our souls, and snatch
our best morsels from us. We know he mixed himself wifh
our Saviour's retirements in the wilderness, and endeavoured
to fly-bloAV his holy converse wflh his Father, in the prepara
tion to his mediatory work.
Satan is God's ape, and imitates the Spirit in the office of a
remembrancer. As the Spirit brings good thoughts and Divine
promises to mind, to quicken our worship; so the devil brings
evil things to raind, and endeavours to fasten them in our souls
to disturb us. And though all the foolish starts we have in
worship are not purely his issue, yet being of kin to hira, he
claps his hands, and sets thera on like so many mastiffs to tear
the service in pieces.
And both those distractions which arise frora our own cor
ruption, and from Satan, are most rife in worship, when Ave
are under sorae pressing affliction. This seems to be David's
case, Psal. Ixxxvi. When, in ver. 11, he prays God to unite
his heatt to fear and worship his name, he seems to be under
some afflibtion, or fear ofhis enemies; " 0 free rae from those
distractions of spirit, and those passions which arise in my
soul, upon considering the designs of my enemies against me,
and press upon me in ray addresses to thee, and attendances on
thee." Job also in his affliction coraplains, that his purposes
were broken off. Job xvii. 11. He coifld not make an even
thread of thoughts and resolutions ; they were frequently snap
ped asunder, like rotten yarn Avhen one is winding it up.
Good men and spiritual worshippers have lain under this
trouble. Though they are a sign of weakness of grace, or some
obstructions in the acting of strong grace, yet they are not
always evidences of a want of grace. What arises from our
own corruption, is to be matter of humfliation and resistance ;
what arises from Satan, should edge our minds to a noble con
quest of them. If the apostle did comfort himself with his dis-,
approving of Avhat rose frora the natural spring of sin within
him, with his consent to the law, and dissent from his lust;
and charges it not upon himself, but upon the sin that dwelt in
hira, with which he had broken off the former league, and was
resolved never to enter into amity with it; by the same reason
we may comfort -ourselves, if such thoughts are undelighted in,
and alienate not our hearts from the worship of God by all
their busy intrusions to interrupt us.
[2.] These distractions (not alloAved) may be occasions by a
holy improvement to make our hearts more spiritual after
worship, though they disturb us in it, by answering those ends
for which we may suppose God permits them to invade us.
And that is, when they are occasions to humble us;

286 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
For our carriage in the particular worship. There is nothing
so dangerous as spiritual pride; it deprived devils and men of
the presence of God, and will hinder us of the influence of God.
If we had raised and uninterrupted motions in worship, we
should be apt to be lifted up ; and the devil stands ready to
tempt us to self-confidence. You know how it Avas Avith Paul,
2 Cor. xii. 1 — 7; his buffetings were occasions to render him
more spiritual than his raptures, because more humble. God
suffers those Avanderings, starts, and distractions to prevent our
spiritual pride, Avhich is as a worm at the root of spiritual wor
ship, and minds us of the dusty frame of our spirits, how easUy
they are blown away; as he sends sickness to put us in mind
of the shortness of our breath, and the easiness to lose it. God
would make us ashamed of ourselves in his presence ; that we
may own, that what is good in any duty, is merely from hi^
grace and Spirit, and not from ourselves; that with Paul we
may cry out, by grace we are what we are, and by grace we
do Avhat we do. We may be hereby made sensible, that God
can always find something in our exactest worship, as a. ground
of denying us the successful fruit of it. If we cannot stand
upon our duties for salvation, what can we bottom upon in
ourselves? If therefore they are occasions to make us out of
love with any righteousness of our own, to make us break our
hearts for them, because we cannot keep them out ; if we mourn
for them as our sins, and count them our great afflictions; we
have attained that brokenness which is a choice ingredient in a
spiritual sacrifice. Though Ave have been disturbed by them,
yet we are not robbed of the success; we may behold an an
swer of our worship in our humfliation, in spite of all of them.
For the baseness of our nature. These unsteady motions
help us to discern that heap of vermin that breeds in our na
ture. Would any man think he had such an averseness to his
Creator and Benefactor, such an unsuitableness to him, such
an estrangedness from him, were it not for his inspection into
his distracted frames ? God suffers this to hang over us as a
rod of correction, to discover and fetch out the folly of our
hearts. Could we imagine our natures so highly contrary to
that God who is so infinitely amiable, so desirable an object;
or that there should be so much folly and madness in the heart,
as to draw back from God in those services which God has ap
pointed as pipes through which to communicate his grace, ,to
convey himself, his love, and goodness to fhe creature ? If there
fore we have a deep sense of, and strong refiections upon our
base nature, and bewail that mass of averseness Avhich lies
there, and that fulness of irreverence towards the God of our
mercies, the object of our worship, it is a blessed improvement
of our wanderings and diversions. Certainly if any Israelite

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 287
had brought a lame and rotten lamb to be sacrificed to God,
and afferAvard had bewailed it, and laid open his heart to God
in a sensible and humble confession of it, that repentance had
been a better sacrifice, and more acceptable in the sight of God,
than if he had brought a sound and a living offering.
When, they are occasions to make us prize duties of wor
ship: when we argue, as rationaUy we may, that they are of
singular use; since our corrupt hearts and a malicious devil
does chiefly endeavour to hinder us from thera; and that we
find we have not those gadding thoughts when Ave are upon
worldly business, or upon any sinful design which raay dis
honour God and wound our souls. This is a sign sin and Satan
dislike worship; for he is too subtle a spirit to oppose that
which would further his kingdora. As it is an argument the
Scripture is the word of God, because the wickedness of the
AVorld does so much oppose it, so it is a ground to believe the
profitableness and excellency df worship, because Satan and
our own unruly hearts do so much interrupt us in it. If there
fore we raake this use of our cross steps in worship, to have a
greater value for such duties, more affections to thera and de
sires to be frequent. in them, our hearts are growing spiritual,
under the weights that would depress them to carnality.
When we take a rise frora hence, to have heavenly adraira-
tions of the graciousness of God; that he should pity and par
don so many slight addresses to him, and give any gracious
returns to us. .Though men have foolish ranging every day,
and in every duty, yet free grace is so tender as not to punish
them: "And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord
said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more
for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart; is evU from
his youth," Gen. vin. 21. It is observable that this was just
after a sacrifice which Noah offered to God, ver. 20, but proba
bly not without infirmities coramon to human nature;- which
may be grounded upon the reason God gives, that though he
had destroyed the earth before, because of the evil of man's
imaginations, Gen. vi. 5, he stfll found evil imaginations. He
does not say in the heart of Ham, or others of Noah's famfly,
but in man's heart, including Noah also; who had both the
judgments of God upon the -former world, and the mercy of
God in his own preservation before his eyes ; yet God saw evil
imaginations rooted in the nature of man, and though it were
so, yet he would be merciful. If therefore we can, after find
ing our hearts so vagrant in worship, have real fraraes of
thankfulness that God has spared us, and be heightened in our
admirations at God'S' giving us any fruit qf such a distracted
worship ; we take advantage from them, to be raised into an
evangelical frame, which consists in the humble acknowledg-

288 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
ments of the grace of God. When David takes a review bf
those tumultuous passions which had ruffled his mifld, and
possessed him with unbelieving notions of God in the persons
of his prophets, Psal. cxvi. 11; how high does his soul mount
in astonishment and thankfulness to God for his mercy ! verse
12. Notwithstanding his distrust, God did graciously perform
his promise, and answer his desire. Then it is, " What shall I
render to the Lord ?" His heart was more affected for it, be
cause it had been so passionate- in former distrusts. It is indeed
a ground of wondering at the patience of the Spirit of God,
that he should guide our hearts Avhen they are so apt to start
out; as it is the patience of a master to guide the hand of his
scholar, while he mixes his writing with many blots. It is not
one or two infirraities the Spirit helps us in, and helps over, but
raany, Rora. viii. 26. It is a sign of a spiritual heart, when he
can fake a rise to bless God for the renewing and blowing up
his affections, in the midst of so many incursions from Satan
to the contrary, and the readiness of the heart too much to
comply with thera.
When we take occasion from thence to prize the mediation of
Christ. The more distractions jog us, the more need we should
see of going out to a Saviour by faith. One part of our Saviour's
office is to stand between us and the infirmities of our wor
ship : as he is an Advocate, he presents our services, and pleads
for them and us, 1 John ii. 1; for the sins ofour duties^ as wefl
as for our other sftis. Jesus Christ is a High Pjriest, appointed
by God to take away the iniquities of our holy things, which
was typified by Aaron's plate upon his mitre, Exod. xxviii.
36. 38. Were there no imperfections, were there no creeping
up of those frogs into our minds, we would think our worship
raight merit acceptance with God, upon its own account: but if
we behold our own weakness, that not a tear, a groan, a sigh
is so pure, but must have Christ to make it entertainable; that
there is no worship without those blemishes; and upon this,
throw all our services into the arms of Christ for acceptance,
and solicit him to put his merits in the front, to make our
ciphers appear valuable; it is a spiritual act, the design of God
in the gospel being to advance the honour and mediation ofhis
Son. That is a spiritual and .evangelical act, which answers
the evangelical design. The design of Satan and our own cor
ruption is defeated, when those interruptions make us run
swifter, and take faster hold on the High Priest, who is to pre
sent our worship to God, and our own souls receive comfort
thereby. Christ had teraptations offered to hira by the devfl in
his wilderness retireraent, that from an experimental knowledge
he m.ight be able more compassionately to succour us, Heb. ii.
18. We have such assaults in our retired worship especially,

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 289
that we may be able more highly to value him and his media
tion. [3.] Let us not therefore be discouraged by those interrup
tions and starts ofour hearts;
If we find in ourselves a strong resistance of them. The flesh
will be lusting; that cannot be hindered; yet if we do not fulfil
the lusts of it, rise up at its command and go about its work,
Ave may be said to walk in the Spirit, Gal. v. 16, 17. We walk
in the Spirit, if Ave fulfil not the lusts of the flesh, though there
be a lusting of the flesh against the Spirfl. So Ave worship in
the Spirit, though there be carnal thoughts arising, if we do not
fulfil them; though the stirring of them discovers sorae contra
riety in us to God, yet the resistance manifests, that there is a
principle of contrariety in us to them; that as there is some
thing of flesh that lusts against the Spirit, so there is something
of Spirit in worship which lusts against the flesh. We must
take heed of omitting worship, because of such inroads, and
lying down in the mire of a total neglect. If our spirits are
made more lively and vigorous against them; if those cold va
pours which have risen frora our hearts, make us like a spring
in the midst of the cold earth, more warra ; there is in this case
more reason for us to bless God, than to be discouraged. God
looks upon it as the disease, not the wilfulness of our nature;
as the weakness of the flesh, not the willingness of the spirit.
If we would shut the door upon them, it seems they are unwel
come company; men do not use to lock their doors upon those
they love: if they break in and disturb us with their imperti
nences, we need not be discorafited, unless we give them a share
in our affections, and turn our back upon God to entertain them.
If their presence makes us sad, their flight would make us
joyful. If we find ourselves excited to a stricter watch over our
hearts against them; as travellers will be careful when they
come to places Avhere they have been robbed before, that they
be not so easily surprised again. We should not only lament
when we have had such foolish imaginations in worship break
ing in upon us, but also bless God that we have had no more,
since Ave have hearts so fruitful of Aveeds. We should give God
the glory when we find our hearts preserved from these intru
ders, and not boast of ourselves, but return him our praise for
the watch and guard he kept over us to preserve us from such
thieves. Let us not be discomforted; for as the greatness of our sins
upon our turning to God is no hinderance to our justification,
because it does not depend upon our conversion as the merito
rious cause, but upon the infinite value of our Saviour's satis
faction, Avhich reaches the greatest sins as well as the least; so
Vol. I.— 37

290 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
the multitude ofour bewailed distractions in Avorship are not a
hinderance to our acceptation, because of the uncontrollable
power of Christ's intercession.
Use (4. ) Is for exhortation. Since spiritual worship is due
to God, and the Father seeks such to worship him, how much
should we endeavour to satisfy the desire and order of God,
and act conformable to the law of our creation and the love of
redemption! Our end must be the same in worship which Avas
God's end in creation and redemption; to glorify his name, set
forth his perfections, and be rendered fit as creatures and re
deemed ones to partake of that grace which is the fruit of wor
ship. An evangelical dispensation requires a spiritual homage;
to neglect therefore either the matter or manner of gospel duties,
is fo put a slight upon gospel privileges. The manner of duty
is ever of more value than the matter; the scarlet dye is more
precious than the cloth tinctured with it. God respects more
the disposition of the sacrificer than the multitude of the sacri
fices. ' The solemn feasts appointed by God, were but dung,
as managed by the Jews, Mai. ii. 3. The heart is often wel
come without the body, but the body never grateful without the
heart: the inward acts ofthe Spirit require nothing from with
out to constitute them good in themselves; but the outward
acts of devotion require inward acts to render them savoury to
God. As the goodness of outward acts consists not in the acts
themselves, so the acceptableness of them results not from the
acts themselves, but from the inward frame animating and
quickening those acts, as blood and spirits running through the
veins of a duty to make it a living service in the sight of God.
Imperfections in worship hinder not God's acceptation of it, if
the heart, spirited by grace, be there to make it a sweet savour.
The stench of burning flesh and fat in the legal sacrifices, inight
render them noisome to the outward senses; but God smelt a
sweet savour in them, as they respected Christ. When the
heart and spirit are offered up to God, it may be a savoury duty,
though attended with unsavoury imperfections. But a thou
sand sacrifices without a stamp of faith, a thousand spiritual
duties Avith an habitual carnality, are no better than stench with
God. The heart must be purged, as well as the temple was by our
Saviour, ofthe thieves that would rob God ofhis due worship.
Antiquity had some temples, Avherein it was a crime to bring
any gold; therefore those that came to worship laid their gold
aside, before they went into the temple. We should lay aside
our worldly and trading thoughts before we address to worship:
" With my spirit Avflhin me will I seek thee early," Isa. xxvi. 9.
'Nia'K'hov fo ia.iji,ovi,ov ?rp«S *o ^wv Ovevtav ^8oy rttSu Ovofii voiv rCKiiBoi.
Porphyr, ds Abstinentia.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 291
Let not our minds be gadding abroad, and exiled from God and
themselves. It wUl be thus when the desire of our soul is to
his name and the remembrance of him, ver. 8. When he has
given so great and admirable a gift, as that of his Son, in whom
are all things necessary to salvation, righteousness, peace, and
pardon of sin, we should manage the reraembrance of his name
in Avorship with the closest unitedness of heart, and the most
spiritual affections. The motion of the spirit is the first act in
religion; to this we are obliged in every act. The devil requires
the spirit of his votaries: should God have a less dedication
than the devil ?
Motives to back this exhortation.
[1.] Not to give God our spirit is a great sin. It is a mockery
of God, not worship; contempt, not adoration, whatever our
outward fervency or protestations may be.' Every alienation
of our hearts from hira is a real scorn put upon him. The acts
of the soul are real, and more the acts of the man than the acts
ofthe body; because they are the acts of the choicest part of
man, and of that Avhich is the first spring of all bodfly motions;
it is the Xo'yos luSiaeitoi, the " internal speech," whereby we
must speak Avith God: to give him therefore only an external
form of worship without the life of it, is a taking his name in
vain. We mock him, Avhen we mind not what we are speak
ing to him, or what he is speaking to us; when the motions of
our hearts are contrary to the motions of our tongues; when we
do any thing before him slovenly, impudently, or rashly. As
in a musician, it is absurd to sing one tune and play another; so
it is a foul thing, to tell God one thing with, our lips, and think
another with our hearts; it is a sin like that the apostle charges
the heathen with, Rom. i. 28. They like not to retain God in
their knowledge; their stomachs are sick while they are upon
any duty, and never leave working, till they have thrown up
all the spiritual part of worship, and rid theraselves of the
thoughts of God, which are as unwelcorae and troublesorae
guests to thera. When raen behave themselves in the sight of
God, as if God were not God, they do not only defame hira, but
deny hira, and violate the unchangeable perfections of the
Divine nature.
It is against the majesty of God, when we have not awful
thoughts of that great Majesty whom we, address; when our
souls cleave not to him, when we petition him in prayer, or
when he gives out his orders in his word. It is a contempt of
the majesty of a prince, if, whfle he is speaking to us, we listen
not to him with reverence and attention, but turn our backs on
him, fo play with one of his hounds, or talk with a beggar; or
I Non valet protestatio contra factum. "No protestation is oi" avail against
fact," is a rule in the civil law.

292 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
while we speak to him, to rake in a dunghfll. Solomon advises
us to keep our foot when we go to the house of God, Eccles.
V. 1. Our affections should be steady, and not slip away again.
Why? Because God is in heaven, and we on earth, ver. 2.
He is a God of majesty : earthly, dirty fraraes are unsuitable
to the God of heaven ; low spirits are unsuitable to the Most
High. We would not bring our mean servants, our dirty dogs,
into a prince's presence-chamber; yet Ave bring not only our
worldly, but our profane affections into God's presence; we
give, in this case, those services to God, which our governor
would think unworthy of him, Mai. i. 8. The more excellent
and glorious God is, fhe greater contempt of him it is to suffer
such foolish affections to be competitors Avith him for our hearts:
it is a scorn put upon him to converse wifh a creature while we
are dealing Avith him; but a greater to converse in our thoughts
and fancies with some sordid lust, whichis most hateful to him:
and the more aggravation it attracts, in that we are to appre
hend him the most glorious object sitting upon his throne, in
time of worship, and ourselves standing as vfle creatures before
him, supplicating for our lives, and the conveyances of grace
and mercy to our souls; as if a grand mutineer, instead of hum
bly begging the pardon of his offended prince, should present
his petition not only scribbled and blotted, but besmeared with
some lothsome filth. It is unbecoming the majesty both of
God, and the worship itself, to present him with a picture in
stead of substance, and bring a world of filthy affections in our
hearts, and ridiculous toys in our heads before him, and worship
with indisposed and heedless souls.
He is a great King, Mai. i. 14; therefore address him with
fear and reverence.
It is against the life of God. Is a dead worship proportioned
to a living God? The separation of heavenly affections from
our souls before God, makes them as much a carcass in his
sight, as the divorce of the soul makes the body a carcass; when
the affections are separated, worship is no longer worship, but
a dead offering, a lifeless bulk; for the essence and spirit of
worship is departed. Though the soul be present with the body
in a way of information, yet it is not present in a way of affec
tion, and this is the worst; for it is not the separation of the soul
from informing, that does separate a raan from God, but the
removal of our affections from him. If a man pretend an appli
cation to God, and sleep and snore all the time, without ques
tion such a one did not worship. In a careless Avorship, the
heart is morally dead while the eyes are open : the heart of the
spouse awaked Avhfle her eyes slept. Cant. v. 2, and our hearts,
on the contrary, sleep while our eyes awake.
Our blessed Saviour has died to purge our consciences from

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 293
dead works and frames, that we may serve the living God, Heb.
ix, 14; to serve God as a God of life. David's soul cried and
fainted for God under this consideration, Psal. xiii. 2; but to
present our bodies without our spirits, is such a usage of God,
that implies he is a dead image, not worthy of any but a dead
and heartless service: like one of those idols the psalmist speaks
of, Psal. cxv. 5; that have eyes and see not, ears and hear not,
no life in it. Though it be not an objective idolatry, because
the worship is directed to the true God; yet I may cafl it a
subjective idolatry, in regard of the frame, fit only to be pre
sented to some senseless stock: we intimate God to be no better
than an idol, and to have no more knowledge of us, and insight
into us, than an idol can have. If we did believe him to be the
living God, we durst not come before him with services so un
suitable to him, and approaches of him.
It is against the infiniteness of God. We should worship
God with those boundless affections which bear upon them a
shadow or image ofhis infiniteness; such are the desires ofthe
soul which know no limits, but start out beyond whatsoever
enjoyment the heart of man possesses. No creeping creature
was to be offered to God in sacrifice; but such as had legs to
run, or wings to fly. For us to come before God wifh a light
creeping frame, is to worship him with the lowest finite affec
tions; as though any thing, though ever so mean or torn, might
satisfy an infinite Being; as though a poor shaUow creature
could give enough to God without giving him the heart, when
indeed we cannot give him a Avorship proportionable to his infi
niteness, did our hearts sAvell as large as heaven in our desires
for him in every act ofour duties.
It is against the spirituality of God. God being a Spirit, caUs
for a worship in spirit; to withhold this from him, implies him
to be some gross corporeal matters. As a Spirit, he looks for the
heart; a wrestling heart in prayer; a trembling heart in the
word, Isa. Ixvi. 2. To bring nothing but the body when we
come to a spiritual God to beg spiritual benefits, to Avait for
spiritual communications, which can only be dispensed to us in
a spiritual manner, is unsuitable to the spiritual nature of God.
A mere carnal service implicitly denies his spirituality, which
requires of us higher engagements than mere corporeal ones.
Worship should be rational, not an imaginative service;
wherein is required the activity of our noblest faculties; and our
fancy ought to have no share in it, but in subserviency to the
more spiritual part of our soul.
It is against the supremacy of God. As God is one, the only
sovereign; so our hearts should be one, cleaving wholly to him,
and undivided from him: in pretending to deal with him, we
acknowledge his deity and sovereignty; but in withholding our

294 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
choicest faculties and affections from him, and the starting of
our minds to vain objects, we intimate their equality with God,
and their right as well as his to our hearts and affections. It
intimates that other things are superior to God: they are true
sovereigns that engross our hearts. If a man were addressing
himself to a prince, and should in an instant turn his back upon
him, upon a beck or nod from some inconsiderable person ; is it
not an evidence, that that person that invited him aAvay, has a
greater sovereignty over him, than that prince to Avhom he was
applying? And do we not discard God's absolute dominion
over us, when at the least beck of a corrupt inclination, Ave can
dispose of our hearts to it, and alienate them from God? As
they in Ezek. xxxiii. 31, left the service of God for the service
of their covetousness; which evidenced that they owned the
authority of sin more than the authority of God. This is not
to serve God as our Lord and absolute Master, but to make
God serve our turn, and submit his sovereignty to the supre
macy of some unworthy affection. The creature is preferred
before the Creator, when the heart runs most upon it in time of
religious worship, and our own carnal interest swallows up fhe
affections that are due to God: it is an idol set up in the heart,
Ezek. xiv. 4, in his solemn presence, and attracts that devotion
to itself, which we owe only to our sovereign Lord; and the
more base and contemptible that is to which the spirit is devo
ted, the more contempt there is of God's dominion. Judas's
kiss with a " HaU, Master," was no act of Avoj-ship, or an own
ing his Master's authority ; but a designing the satisfaction of
his covetousness in the betraying of him.
It is against the wisdom of God. God as a God of order,
has put earthly things in subordination fo heavenly; and we
by this unworthy carriage invert this order, and put heavenly
things in subordination to earthly; in placing mean and low
things in our hearts, and bringing them so placed into God's
presence, which his Avisdom at the creation put under our feet.
A service without spiritual affections is a sacrifice of fools,
Eccl. V. 1, Avho have lost their brains and understandings: a
foolish spirfl is very unsuitable fo an infinitely wise God. Wefl
may God say of such a one, as Achish of David who seemed
raad, Why have you " brought this fellow to play the madman
in my presence? Shafl this fellow come into my house?" 1 Sam.
xxi. 15.
It is against the ornniscience of God. To carry it fair wflh
out and impertinently within, is as though God had not an all-
seeing eye that could pierce into the heart, and understand
every motion of the iuAvard faculties; as though God were
easily cheated with an outward fawning service, like an apo
thecary's, box with a gilded title, that may be fuU of cobwebs

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 295
within. What is such a carriage but a design to deceive God,
when with Herod we pretend fo worship Christ, and intend to
murder all fhe motions of Christ in our souls? A heedless spirit,
an estrangement of our souls, a giving fhe reins to them to run
out from the presence of God to see every reed shaken with
the wind, is to deny him to be the searcher of hearts, and the dis
cerner of secret thoughts, as though he could not look through
us to the darkness and remoteness of our minds, but were an
ignorant God, who might be put off with the worst as well as
the best in our flock. If we did really believe there was a
God of infinite knowledge, who saw our frames, and whether
we came dressed with wedding garments suitable to fhe duties
we are about to perform; should we be so garish, and put him
off Avith such trivial stuff, without any reverence of his ma
jesty ?
It is against the holiness of God. To alienate our spirits is
to offend him while we pretend to worship him; though we
may be mighty officious in the external part, yet our base and
carnal affections make all our worship but as a heap of dung;
and who Avould not look upon it as an affront, to lay dung be
fore a prince's throne? "7'he sacrifice of the Avicked is an
abomination: how much more when he bringeth it with a
wicked mind!" Prov. xxi. 27. A putrefied carcass under the
law had not been so great an affront to the holiness of God, as
a frothy unmelted heart, and a wanton fancy in a time of wor
ship. God is so holy, that if we could offer the worship of
angels and fhe quintessence of our souls in his service, it would
be beneath his inflnite purity: how unworthy then are they of
him, when they are presented not only without the sense ofour
uncleanness, but sullied with the fumes and exhalations ofour
corrupt affections, which are as so many plague-spots upon our
duties, contrary to the unspotted purity of the Divine nature!
Is not this an unworthy conceit of God, and injurious to his
infinite holiness?
It is against the love and kindness of God. It is a conde
scension in God to admit a piece of earth to offer up a duty to
him, when he has myriads of angels to attend him in his court
and celebrate his praise: to admit man to be an attendant on
him, and a partner Avith angels, is a high favour. It is not a
single mercy, but a heap of mercies, to be admitted into the
presence of God: "I Avfll come into thy house in the multitude
of thy mercy," Psal. v. 7. When the blessed God is so kind
as fo give us access to his majesty, do we not undervalue his
kindness when we deal uncivilly with him, and deny him the
choicest part of ourselves ? It is a contempt of his sovereignty,
as our spirits are due to him by nature; a contempt of his good
ness, as our spirits are due to him by gratitude. How abusive

296 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
a carriage is it to make use of his mercy to encourage our im
pudence, that should excite our fear and reverence! How
unAvorthy would it be for an indigent debtor to bring to his
indulgent creditor an empty purse instead of payment! When
God holds out his golden sceptre to encourage our approaches
to him; stands ready to give us the pardon of sin and full feli
city, the best things he has; is it a fit requital of his kindness,
to give him a formal outside only, a shadow of religion; to
have the heart overswayed with other thoughts and affections,
as if all his proffers were so contemptible as to deserve only a
slight at our hands? It is a contempt of the love and kindness
of God.
It is against the sufficiency and fulness of God. When we
give God our bodies aud the creature our spirits, it intimates a
conceit that there is more content to be had in the creature than
in God blessed for ever; that the waters in the cistern are
SAveeter than those in the fountain. Is not this a practical giving
God the lie, and denying those promises wherein he has declared
the satisfaction he can give to the spirit, as he is the God of the
spirits of all flesh ?
If we did imagine the excellency and loveliness of God were
worthy to be the ultimate object of our affections, the heart
would attend more closely upon him and be terminated in him.
Did we believe God to be all-sufficient, full of grace and good
ness, a tender Father, not wiUing to forsake his own; wUling as
well as able to supply their Avants; the heart Avould not so
lamely attend upon him, and would not upon every imperti-
nency be diverted from him. There is much of a wrong notion
of God, and a predominancy of the world above him in the
heart, when we can with more savour relish the thoughts of low
inferior things than of heavenly, and let our spirits upon every
trifling occasion be fugitives from him. It is a testimony that
we make not God our chiefest good. If apprehensions of his
excellency did possess our souls, they would be fastened on him,
glued to him; we should not listen to that rabble of foolish
thoughts that steal our hearts so often from him. Were our
breathings after God as strong as the pantings of the hart after
the water brooks, we should be like that creature, not diverted
in our course by every puddle. Were God the predominant
satisfactory object in our eye, he Avould carry our whole soul
along Avith him.
When our spirits readily retreat from God in worship upon
every giddy motion, it is a kind of repentance that ever we did
come near him, and implies, that there is a fuller satisfaction,
and raore attractive excellency in that which does so easily divert
us, than in that God to whose worship we did pretend to ad
dress ourselves: it is as if, Avhen we were petitioning a prince.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.

297

we should immediately turn about, and make request to one
of his guard; as though so mean a person were more able to
give us the boon we want, than the sovereign is.
[2.] Consideration by way of motive. To have our spirits
off from God in worship is a bad sign. It was not so in inno
cence. The heart of Adam could cleave to God; the law of
God was engraven upon him; he could apply himself to the
fulfilling of it without any twinkling; there was no folly and
vanity in his mind, no independency in his thoughts, no duty
was his burden; for there was in him a proneness to and delight
in all the duties of worship. It is the fall that has distempered
us; and the more unAvieldiness there is in our spirits, the more
carnal our affections are in Avorship, the more evidence there is
of the strength of that revolted state.
It argues much corruption in the heart. As by the eructa
tions of fhe stomach, we may judge of the windiness and foul
ness ofit; so by the inordinate motions of our minds and hearts
we may judge ofthe weakness of its complexion. A strength
of sin is evidenced by the eruptions and ebullitions ofit in wor
ship, when they are more sudden, numerous, and vigorous than
the motions of grace. When the heart is apt hke tinder to catch
fire from Satan, it is a sign of much combustible matter suita
ble to his temptation. Were not corruption strong, the soul
could not turn so easfly from God when it is in his presence,
and has advantageous opportunity to create a fear and awe of
God in it. Such base fruit could not sprout up so suddenly,
were there not much sap and juice in the root of sin.
What communion with a living root can be evidenced with
out exercises of an inward life? That spirit which is a well of
living waters in a gracious heart, wfll be especially springing
up when it is before God.
It shows much affection to earthly things, and little to heav
enly. There must needs be an inordinate affection to earthly
things, when upon every slight sohcitation we can part with God,
and turn the back upon a service glorious for him, and advan
tageous for ourselves; to wed our hearts to some idle fancy
that signifies nothing. How can Ave be said to entertain God
in our affections, when we give him not the precedency in our
understandings, but let every trifle justle the sense of God out
of our minds? Were our hearts fully determined to spiritual
things, such vanities could not seat themselves in our under
standings, and divide our spirits frora God. Were our hearts
balanced with a love to God, the world could never steal our
hearts so much from his Avorship, but his worship would draAV
our hearts to it.
It shows a base neutrality in the greatest concernments, a
halting between God and Baal, a contrariety between affection
Vol. I.— 38

298 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
and conscience, when natural conscience presses a raan to du
ties of worship, and his other afiections pull him back, draw
him to carnal objects, and make him slight that whereby he
may honour God. God argues the profaneness of fhe Jews'
hearts, frora the wickedness they brought into his house, and
acted there. " Yea, in my house," that is, my worship, " have
I found their wickedness, saith the Lord," Jer. xxiii. 11. Car
nality in worship is a kind of an idolatrous frame; when the
heart is renewed, idols are cast to the moles and the bats, Isa.
ii. 20.
It shoAvs much hypocrisy to have our spirits off from God.
The mouth speaks and the carriage pretends what the heart
does not think; there is a dissent of the heart from the pretence
of the body.
Instability is a sure sign of hypocrisy. Double thoughts
argue a double heart. The wicked are compared to chaff,
Psal. i. 4, for fhe uncertain and various motions of their minds,
by tbe least wind of fancy. The least motion of a carnal ob
ject diverts the spirit from God, as the scent of carrion does the
raven from the flight it was set upon.
The people of God are called God's spouse, and God calls
himself their Husband; whereby is noted the most intimate
union of the soul with God, and that there ought to be the
highest love and affection to him, and faithfulness in his wor
ship; but when the heart does start from him in worship, it is
a sign of the unsteadfastness of it with God, and a disrelish of
any communion with him; it is, as God complains of the
Israelites, a going a whoring after our own imaginations.
As grace respects God as the object of worship, so it looks
most upon God in approaching to him. Where there is a like
ness and love, there is a desire of converse and intimacy: if
there be no spiritual entwining about God in our worship, it is
a sign there is no likeness to him, no true sense of him, no re
newed image of God in us. Every living image will move
strongly to join itself with its original copy, and be glad with
Jacob to sit steadily in those chariots that shall convey him to
his beloved Joseph.
[3.] Consider the danger of a carnal worship.
We lose the comfort of worship. The soul is a great gainer
when it offers a spiritual worship, and as great a loser when it
is unfaithful with God. Treachery and perfidiousness hinder
commerce among men; so does hypocrisy in its own nature,
communion with God. God never promised any thing to the
carcass but to the spirit of worship. God has no obligation
upon him by any word ofhis, to reward us Avith himself, when
we perform it not to himself: when we give an outside wor
ship, we have only the outside of an ordinance: we can expect

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 299
no kernel, when we give God only the shell: he that only licks
the outside of the glass, can never be refreshed with the rich
cordial enclosed within. A cold and lazy formality will make
God to Avithdraw the light of his countenance, and not shine
with any delightful communications upon our souls; but if we
come before him with a liveliness of affections, and steadiness
of heart, he will draw the vefl, and cause his glory fo display
itself before us. An humble praying Christian, and a warm
affectionate Christian in worship, will soon find a God who -is
delighted with such frames, and cannot long withhold himself
from the soul: when our hearts are inflamed Avith love to hira
in worship, it is a preparation to some act of love on his part
whereby he intends further to gratify us. When John was in
the Spirit on the Lord's day, that is, in spiritual employment
and meditation and other duties, he had that great revelation
of what should happen to the church in all ages. Rev. i. 10.
His being in the Spirit, intimates his ordinary course on that
day, and not an extraordinary act in him, though it was fol
lowed Avith an extraordinary discovery of God to him; Avhen
he was thus engaged, he heard a voice behind him.
God does not require of us spirituality in worship to advan
tage himself, but that Ave might be prepared to be advantaged
by him. If we have a clear and Avell disposed eye, it is not a
benefit to the sun, but fits us to receive benefits from his beams.
Worship is an act that perfects our own souls; they are then
raost widened by spiritual frames, to receive the influence of
Divine blessings, as an eye most opened receives the fruit of
the sun's light better than the eye that is shut. The communi
cations of God are more or less, according as our spiritual
frames are more or less in our worship: God will not give his
blessings to unsuitable hearts. What a filthy vessel is a carnal
heart for a spiritual communication ! The chief end of every
duty enjoined by God, is to have communion with him ; and
therefore it is called a drawing near to God: it is impossible,
therefore, that the outward parts of any duty can answer the
end of God in his institution. It is not a bodily appearance or
gesture whereby men can have communion Avith God, but by
tbe impressions of the heart, and reflections of the heart upon
God: without this, allthe rich streams of grace will run beside
us, and the growth of the soul be hindered and impaired. A
diligent hand makes rich, says the wise raan; a diligent heart
in spiritual worship, brings in rich incomes to the humble and
spirflual soul.
It renders the worship not only unacceptable, but abomina
ble to God. It raakes our gold to become dross; it soils our
duties, and bespots our souls. A carnal and-- unsteady frame
shows an indifferency of spirit at best; and lukewarmness is as

300 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
ungrateful to God, as heavy and nauseous meat is to the
stomach; he spues them out of his mouth. Rev. iii. 16. As our
gracious God doth overlook infirmities where intentions are
good, and endeavours serious and strong; so he lothes the
services where the frames are naught; " If I regard iniquity in
my heart, the Lord avUI not hear me," Psal. Ixvi. 18. Luke
warm and indifferent services stink in the nostrils of God. The
heart seems to lothe God when it starts from him upon every
occasion, when it is unwilling to employ itself about and stick
close to him. And can God be pleased with such a frame ?
The more of the heart and spirit is in any service, the more real
goodness there is in it, and the more savoury it is to God; the
less of the heart and spirit — the less of goodness, and the more
nauseous to God, who loves righteousness and truth in the in
ward parts, Psal. li. 6. And therefore infinite goodness and holi
ness cannot but hate worship presented to him with deceitful,
carnal, and flitting affections. They must be more nauseous to
God, than a putrefied carcass can be to man: they are the pro-
fanings of that which should be the habitation of the Spirit:
they make the spirit, the seat of duty — a filthy dunghill; and
are as lothsome to God as money-changers in the temple were
to our Saviour.
We see fhe evil of carnal frames, and the necessity and
benefit of spiritual frames; for further help in this last, let us
practise these following directions.
Keep up spiritual frames out of Avorship. To avoid low affec
tions, we must keep our hearts as much as we can in a settled
elevation. If we admit unworthy dispositions at one time, we
shall not easily be rid of them at another:' as he that would
not be bitten with gnats in the night, must-keep his windows
shut in the day; when they are once entered, it is not easy to
expel them. In Avhich respect, one advises to be such out of
worship as we would be in worship. If we mix spiritual affec
tions Avith our worldly employments, worldly affections will
not mingle themselves so easily with our heavenly engagements.
If our hearts be spiritual in our outward calling, they wUl
scarce be carnal in our religious service. If Ave walk in fhe
Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Gal. v. 16. A
spiritual walk in the day, wifl hinder carnal lustings in worship.
The fire was to be kept alive upon the altar when sacrifices
were not offered, from morning till night, from night till morn
ing, as well as in the very time of sacrifice. A spiritual life and
vigour out of worship, would render it at its season sweet and
easy, and preserve a spontaneity and preparedness to it, and
make it both natural and pleasant to us.
Any thing that does unhinge and discompose our spirits, is
1 Fitzherbert. Pol. in Relig. Part, 2. Cap. 19. § 12.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 301
inconsistent with religious services, which are to be performed
with the greatest sedateness and gravity. All irregular passions
disturb the serenity of the spirit, and open the door for Satan.
" Let not the sun go down upon your wrath," says the Apostle,
"neither give place to the devfl," Eph. iv. 26,27. Where wrath
breaks the lock, the devil wifl quickly be over the threshold;
and though they be allayed, yet they leave the heart some time
after like the sea rolling and swelling after the storm is ceased.
Mixture with ill company leaves a tincture upon us in wor
ship. Ephraira's allying himself with the gentiles, bred an
indifferency in religion. " Ephraim, he hath mixed himself
among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned," Hos. vii. 8.
It wfll raake our hearts, and consequently our services, half
dough, as well as half baked. These and the like make the
Holy Spirit withdraw hiraself, and then the soul lies like a
wind-bound vessel, and can make no way. When the sun
departs from us, it carries its beams away with it; then does
darkness spread itself over the earth, and the beasts of the
forests creep out, Psal. civ. 20. When the Spirit withdraws a
whfle from a good man, it carries away, (though not habitual,
yet) much of the exciting and assisting grace; and then carnal
dispositions perk up themselves from the bosom of natural cor
ruption. To be spiritual in worship, we must bar the door at
other times against that which is contrary to it. As he that
would not be infected with a contagious disease, carries some
preservative about Avith him, and inures himself to good scents.
To this end, be much in secret ejaculations to God; these
are the purest flights oif the soul, that have more of fervour
and less of carnality; they preserve a liveliness in the spirit,
and make it more fit to perform solemn stated Avorship with
greater freedom and activity: a constant use of this would
make our whole lives, lives of worship. As frequent sinful acts
strengthen habits of sin, so frequent religious acts strengthen
habits of grace.
Excite and exercise particularly a love to God, and depen
dence on him.
Love is a commanding affection, a uniting grace; it draws
all the faculties of the soul fo one centre. The soul that loves
God, when it has to do with him, is bound to the beloved
object; it can mind nothing else during such impressions.
When the affection is set to the worship of God, every thing
the soul has wUl be bestowed upon it; as David's disposition
was to the temple, 1 Chron. xxix. 3. Carnal frames, like the
fowls, Avfll be lighting upon the sacrifice, but not when it is
inflamed. Though the scent of the flesh invite them, yet the
heat of the fire drives them to their distance. A flaming love
wfll singe the flies that endeavour to interrupt and disturb us.

302 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
The happiness of heaven consists in a full attraction of the soul
to God, by his glorious influence upon it; there wUl be such a
diffusion of his goodness throughout the souls of the blessed,
as will unite the affections perfectly to him. These affections
which are scattered here, will be there gathered into one flame,
moving to him and centring in him: therefore the more of a
heavenly frame possesses our affections here, the more setfled
and uniform avUI our hearts be in all their motions to God, and
operations about him.
Excite a dependence on him. " Commit thy Avorks unto the
Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established," Prov. xvi. 3.
Let us go out in God's strength, and not in our own; vain is
the help of man in any thing, and vain is the help ofthe heart.
It is through God only we can do valiantly in spiritual con
cerns as well as temporal; the want of this makes but slight
impressions upon the spirit.
Nourish right conceptions of the majesty of God in your
minds. Let us consider that we are drawing to God; the most
amiable object, fhe best of beings, worthy of infinite honour,
and highly meriting the highest affections we can give; a God
that made the world by a Avord, that upholds the great frame
of heaven and earth; a majesty above the conception of an
gels, who uses not his power to strike us to our deserved pun
ishment, but his love and bounty to allure us; a God that gave
all the creatures to serve us, and can in a trice make them as
much our enemies as he has now made them our servants. Let
us view him in his greatness and in his goodness, that our
hearts may have a true value of the worship of so great a Ma
jesty, and count it fhe most worthy employment with all dfli
gence to attend upon him. When we have a fear of God, it
will make our worship serious; when we have a joy in God,
it wfll make our worship durable. Our affections will be raised
when we represent God in the most reverential, endearing, and
obliging circumstances. We honour the majesty of God, when
we consider him with due reverence according to the greatness
and perfection of his works; and in this reverence of his ma
jesty does worship chiefly consist. Low thoughts of God wifl
make low frames in us before him. If we thought God an
infinite, glorious Spirit, how would our hearts be lower than
our knees in his presence! How humbly, hoAv believingly
pleading is the Psalmist, when he considers God to be without
comparison in the heavens; to whom none of the sons of the
mighty can be likened; when there was none like to hira in
strength or faithfulness round about! Psal. Ixxxix. 6 — 8. We
should have also deep impressions of the omniscience of God;
and remeraber we have to deal Avith a God that searches fhe
heart and tries the reins; to whom the most secret temper is

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 3Q3
as visible as the loudest words are audible; that though raan
judges by outward expressions, God judges by inward affec
tions. As the law of God regulates the inward fraraes of the
heart, so the eye of God pitches upon the inward intentions of
the soul. If God were visibly present with us, should we not
approach to hira wifh strong affections; summon our spirits to
attend upon him; behave ourselves modestly before him? Let
us consider, he is as reaUy present with us as if he were visi
ble to us; let us therefore preserve a strong sense of the pre
sence of God. No man but one out of his wits, when he was
in the presence of a prince, and raaking a speech to him, would
break off at every period, and run after the catching of butter
flies. Remember, in all worship you are before the Lord, to
whom all things are open and naked.
Let us take heed of inordinate desires after the world. As
the world steals away a man's heart from the word, so it does
from all other worship ; it chokes the word. Matt. xiii. 22 ; it
stifles all the spiritual breathings after God in every duty. The
edge of the soul is blunted by it, and made too dull for such
sublime exercises. The apostle's rule in prayer, when he joins
sobriety with watching unto prayer, 1 Pet. iv. 7, is of concern
in all worship, sobriety in the pursuit and use of all worldly
things. A man drunk with Avorldly fumes cannot watch, can
not be heavenly, affectionate, spiritual in service. There is a
magnetic force in the earth, to hinder our flights to heaven.
Birds, when they take their first flights from the earth, have
more flutterings of their wings, than when they are mounted
further in the air, and got more without the sphere of the earth's
attractiveness; the motion of their wings is more steady, that
you can scarce perceive them stir; they move like a ship with
a full gale. The world is a clog upon the soul, and a bar to
spiritual frames: it is as hard to elevate the heart to God in the
midst of a hurry of worldly affairs, as it is difficult to meditate
when we are near a great noise of waters falling from a preci
pice, or in the midst of a volley of muskets. Thick clay-like
affections bemire the heart, and make it unfit for such high
flights it is to take in worship: therefore get your hearts clear
from worldly thoughts and desires, if you would be more spi
ritual in worship.
Let us be deeply sensible of our present wants, and the sup
plies we may meet with in worship. Cold affections to the
things we would have, will grow cooler: weakness of desire for
the communications in worship, wUl freeze our hearts at the
time of worship, and make way for vain and foolish diversions.
A beggar that is ready to perish, and knows he is next door to
ruin, wiU not slightly and dully beg an alms; and will not be
diverted from his importunity by every slight call, or the mov-

304 ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
ing of an atom in the air. Is it pardon we would have ? Let
us apprehend the blackness of sin, with the aggravations of it as
it respects God; let us be deeply sensible ofthe want of pardon
and worth of mercy, and get our affections into such a frame
as a condemned man would do: let us consider, that as we are
now at the throne of God's grace, Ave shall shortly be at the
bar of God's justice ; and if the soul should be forlorn there,
how fixedly and earnestly would it plead for mercy! Let us
endeavour to stir up the same affections now, which we have
seen some dying men have, and which we suppose despairing
souls would have done at God's tribunal. We must be sensible
that the life or death of our souls depends upon worship.'
Would we not be ashamed lo be ridiculous in our carriage
while we are eating; and shall we not be ashamed to be cold
or garish before God, when the salvation of our souls as well
as the honour of God is concerned ? If we but saw the heaps
of sins, the eternity of punishment due to them; if we but saw
an angry and offended J udge ; if we but saw the riches of mercy,
the glorious outgoings of God in the sanctuary, the blessed doles
he gives out to men when they spiritually attend upon him;
both the one and the other would make us perform our duties
humbly, sincerely, earnestly, and affectionately, and wait upon
him with our whole souls, to have misery averted and mercy
bestowed. Let our sense of this be encouraged by the con
sideration of our Saviour presenting his merits. With what
affection does he present his merits, his blood shed upon the
cross, noAv in heaven ! And shall our hearts be cold and frozen,
flitting and unsteady, when his affections are so much con
cerned? Christ does not present any man's case and duties with
out a sense of his wants; and shall we have none of our own?
Let me add this; let us affect our hearts with a sense of what
supplies we have met with in former worship. The delightful
remembrance of what converse we have had with God in
former worship, would spiritualize our hearts for the present
worship. Had Peter had a view of Christ's glory in the mount,
fresh in his thoughts, he would not so easily have turned his
back upon his Master: nor would the Israelites have been at
leisure for their idolatry, had they preserved the sense of the
majesty of God discovered in his late thunders from mount
Sinai. If any thing intrudes that may choke the worship, cast it
speedUy out. We cannot hinder Satan and our oAvn corrupflon
from presenting coolers to us, but we may hinder the success
of them. We cannot hinder the gnats from buzzing about us
when we are in our business, but we may prevent them from
setthng upon us. A raan that is running on a considerable
' Guliel. Paris, Rhetor. Divin. cap. 26, p. 350. col. 1.

ON SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. 3O5
errand Avifl shun all unnecessary discourse that may make him
forget or loiter in his business. What though there may be
something offered that is good in itself; yet if it has a tendency
to despoil God of his honour, and ourselves of the spiritual
intentness in worship, send it away. Those that weed a field
of corn, examine not the nature and particular virtues of the
weeds; but consider only hoAv they choke the corn, to which
the native juice ofthe soil is designed. Consider what you are
about; and if any thing interpose that may divert you, or cool
your affections in your present worship, cast it out.
As to private worship, let us lay hold of the most melting
opportunities and frames.
When we find our hearts in a more than ordinary spiritual
frame, let Us look upon it as a call from God to attend him ;
such impressions and motions are God's voice, inviting us into
communion with him in sorae particular act of worship, and
promising us some success in it. When the psalmist had a
secret motion to seek God's face, and complied with it, Psal.
XXVU. 8; the issue is the encouragement of his heart, which
breaks out into an exhortation to others to be of good courage,
and wait on the Lord: " Wait on the Lord ; be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart : wait, I say, on the Lord,"
ver. 14.
One blow will do more on the iron when it is hot, than a
hundred when it is cold. ' Melted metals may be stamped with
any impression ; but once hardened, wfll with difficulty be
brought into the figure Ave intend.
Let us examine ourselves at the end of every act of worship,
and chide ourselves for any carnality we perceive in them.
Let us take a review of them, and examine the reason; Avhy art
thou so low and carnal, 0 my soul? As David did of his dis-
quietedness; "Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul? and why
art thou disquieted in me?" Psal. xiii. 5. If any unworthy
frames have surprised us in Avorship, let us seek thera out after
worship; callthem to the bar; make an exact scrutiny into the
causes of them, that we may prevent their incursions another
time : let our pulses beat quick, by way of anger and indignation
against them: this would be a repairing Avhat has been amiss;
otherwise they may grpw, and clog an after-worship raore than
they did a former. DaUy examination is an antidote against
the temptations ofthe foUowing day, and constant examination
of ourselves after duty, is a preservative against vain encroach
ments in following duties; and upon the finding them out, let
us apply the blood of Christ by faith for our cure, and draw
strength from the death of Christ for the conquest of them, and
let us also be humbled for them. God lifts up the hurable:
' Reynolds.
Vol. I.— 39

306 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
when we are humbled for our carnal frames in one duty, we
shall find ourselves by the grace of God more elevated in the
next.

DISCOURSE V.
ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
Psalm xc. 2. — Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed
the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
The title of this psalm is, A prayer; the author, Moses. Some
think not only this, but the ten following psalms were composed
by him. The title wherewith he is dignified, is. The man of
God, as also in Deut. xxxiii. 1. One inspired by him, to be his
interpreter, and deliver his oracles; one particularly directed by
him; one who, as a servant, did diligently employ himself in his
Master's business, and acted for the glory of God;' he was the
minister ofthe Old Testament, and the prophet ofthe New.^
There are two parts of this psalm. •
A complaint of the frailty of man's life in general, ver. 3 — 6 ;^
and then a particular complaint of the Condition of the church,
ver. 8 — 10. A prayer, ver. 12.
But before he speaks of the shortness pf human life, he forti
fies them by the consideration of the refuge they had, and should
find in God; " Lord thou hast been our dwelling-place in aU
generations," ver. 1. We have had no settled abode in the
earth since the time of Abraham's being called out from Ur of
the Chaldees: Ave have had Canaan in a promise, we have it not
yet in possession; we have been exposed to the cruelties of an
oppressing enemy, and the incommodities of a desert wilderness;
we have wanted the fruits of the earth, but not the dcAVS of
heaven. " Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all genera
tions." Abraham was under thy conduct; Isaac and Jacob un
der thy care; their posterity were multiplied by thee, and that
under their oppressions. Thou hast been our shield against
dangers, our security in the time of trouble : when we were
pursued to the Red Sea, it was nota creature delivered us; and
Avhen we feared the pinching of our bowels in the desert, it was
no creature rained manna upon us. " Thou hast been our
dweUing-place." Thou hast kept open house for us, sheltered us
against storms, and preserved us from mischief, as a house does
an inhabitant from wind and weather ; and that not in one or
two, but in all generations, — Sorae think an aUusion is here
' Coccei. in loc z Austin in loc. » Pareus in loc.

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD, 3Q7
made to the ark, to which they were to have recourse in all
emergencies. Our refuge and defence has not been from created
things; not from the ark, but from the God ofthe ark.
Observe from it,
God is a perpetual refuge and security to his people. His
providence is not confined to one generation; it is not one age
only that tastes ofhis bounty and compassion. His eye never
yet slept, nor has he suffered the little ship ofhis church to be
swallowed up, though it has been tossed upon the waves. He
has always been a haven to preserve us, a house to secure us; he
has always had compassion to pity us, and power to protect us;
he has had a face to shine, when fhe world has had an angry
countenance to frown: he brought Enoch home by an extraor
dinary translation from a brutish Avorld;' and when he was
resolved to reckon with men for their brutish lives, he lodged
Noah, the phoenix of the world, in an ark, and kept him alive
as a spark in the midst of raany waters, whereby to rekindle
ai-church in the Avorld. In all generations he is a dwelling-
place, to secure his people here, or entertain thera above.
His providence is not wearied nor his care fainting. He
never wanted will to relieve us, for he has been our refuge: nor
ever can want power to support us, for he is a God from ever
lasting to everlasting. The church never wanted a pilot to steer
her, and a rock to shelter her, and dash in pieces the waves
which threaten her.
How AVorthy is it to remember former benefits, when we
come to beg for new ! Never are the records of God's mercies so
exactly revised, as when his people stand in need of new edi
tions ofhis power. Hoav necessary are our wants to stir us up
to pay fhe rent of thankfulness in arrear! He renders himself
doubly unworthy ofthe mercies he wants, that does not grate
fully acknowledge the mercies he has received. God scarce
promised any deliverance to the Israelites, and they in their dis
tress scarce prayed for any deliverance, but that from Egypt
was mentioned on both sides; by God to encourage thera, and
by them to acknowledge their confidence in him. The greater
our dangers, the more we should call to raind God's forraer
kindness. We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the
mercies bestoAved upon our persons, or in our age, but those of
former times. " Thou hast been our dweUing-place in all gene
rations." Moses was not living in the former generations, yet he ap
propriates the former mercies to fhe present age. Mercies, as
well as generations, proceed out of the loins of those that have
gone before. All mankind are but one Adam; the whole church
but one body. ' Theodoret in loc.

308 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
In the second verse he backs his former consideration — by
the greatness of his power in forming the world, and — by the
boundlessness of his duration; "from everlasting to everlast
ing." As thou hast been our dwelling-place, and expended
upon us the strength of thy power, and riches of thy love, so
we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part, if we
be not Avanfing on our parts: for the vast mountains and fruit
ful earth are the works of thy hands; and there is less power
requisite for our relief, than there was for their creation; and
though so much strength has been upon various occasions mani
fested, yet thy arm is not weakened; for "from everlasting to
everlasting thou art God.'"
Thou hast always been God, and no time can be assigned
as the beginning of thy being: the mountains are not of so
long a standing as thyself; they are the effects of thy power,
and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration; since they are
effects, they suppose a precedency of their cause.^ If we would
look back, we can reach no further than tbe beginning of the
creation, and account the years from the first foundation of the
world; but after that we must lose ourselves in the abyss of
eternity; Ave have no clue to guide our thoughts; we can see
no bounds in thy eternity. But as for man, he traverses the
world a few days, and by thy order pronounced concerning all
men, returns lo the dust, and moulders into the grave.
By mountains some understand angels, as being creatures of
a more elevated nature: by earth, they understand human na
ture, the earth being the habitation of men. There is no need
to divert in this place from the letter to such a sense. The de
scription seems to be poetical, and amounts to this, he neither
began with the beginning of time, nor will expire with the end
of itr^ he did not begin Avhen he made himself known to our
fathers ; but his being did precede the creation of the world,
before any created being was formed, or any time settled.
"Before the mountains were brought forth," or before they
were begotten or born, (the word being used in those senses in
Scripture,) before they stood up higher than the rest of the
earthly mass God had created. It seems that mountains were
not casually cast up by the force of the deluge, softening the
ground, and driving several parcels of it together to grow up
into a massy body, as the sea does the sand in several places;
but they were at first formed by God.
The eternity of God is here described — ^in his priority, " be
fore the Avorld; — in the extension of his duration, "from ever
lasting to everlasting thou art God." He was before the world,
yet he neither begins nor ends. He is not a temporary, but an
< htf strong. 2 Amyrald. in loc.
' « vapxo; xai a-(E%sv(tjtos, Theodoret in loc

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.

309

eternal God : it takes in both parts of eternity, what was before
the creation of the Avorld, and what is after. Though the eter
nity of God be one permanent state without succession, yet the
Spirit of God suiting himself to the weakness of our concep
tion, divides it into two parts, one passed before the foundation
of the world, another to come after the destruction of the world;
as he did exist before all ages, and .as he will exist after all
ages. Many truths lie couched in the verse.
The world has a beginning of being. It was not from eter
nity, it was once nothing; had it been of a very long duration,
some records Avould have remained of some memorable actions
done of a longer date than any extant. The world owes its
being to the creating power of God. " Thou hadst formed it"
out of nothing into being. Thou, that is, God. It could not
spring into being of itself; it was nothing; it must have a
former. — God was in being before the world. The cause must be
before the effect; that word which gives being must be before
that which receives being. This Being was from eternity,
"from everlasting." — This Being shall endure to eternity, "to
everlasting." There is but one God, one Eternal; "from ever
lasting to everlasting thou art God." None else but one has
the property of eternity: the gods of the heathen cannot lay
claim to it.
Doctrine. God is of an eternal duration. The eternity of
God is the foundation of the stability of the covenant, the great
comfort of a Chiistian. The design of God in Scripture is to
set forth his dealing with men in the way of a covenant. The
priority of God before all things begins the Bible: "In the
beginning God created," Gen. i. 1. His covenant can have no
foundation, but in his duration before and after the world.'
And Moses here mentions his eternity, not only with respect to
the essence of God, but to his federal providence: — as he is the
dwelling-place of his people in all generations. The duration
of God for ever, is more spoken of in Scripture than his eter
nity a parte ante, that is, eternity past; though that is the
foundation of all the comfort we can take from his immortality:
for ifhe had a beginning, he might have an end; and so all our
happiness, hope, and being would expire with him; but the
Scripture sometiraes takes notice of his being without begin
ning as well as without end. " Thou art from everlasting,"
Psal. xciii. 2. " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel frora ever
lasting, and to everlasting," Psal. xii. 13. "I was set up
from everlasting," Prov. viii. 23. If his wisdom were frora
everlasting, hiraself was from everlasting. Whether we under
stand it of Christ Jhe Son of God, or of the essential wisdom of
1 Calv. in loc.

310 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
God, it is all one to the present purpose. The wisdom of God
supposeth the essence of God, as habits in creatures suppose
the being of some power or faculty as their subject. The wis
dom of God supposeth mind and understanding, essence and
substance. The notion of eternity is difficult, as Austin said' of time:
" If no man will ask me the question what time is, I know well
enough what it is; but if any ask me what it is, I know not how
to explain it." So may I say of eternity; it is easy in the word
pronounced, but hardly understood, and more hardly expressed;
it is better expressed by negative than positive words.
Though we cannot comprehend eternity, yet we may com
prehend that there is an eternity; as, though we cannot com
prehend the essence of God, what he is, yet Ave may compre
hend that he is; Ave may understand the notion ofhis existence,
though we cannot understand the infiniteness of his nature.
Yet we may better understand eternity than infiniteness; we
can better conceive a time Avith the addition of numberless days
and years, than imagine a being without bounds: whence the
apostle joins his etennty with his power; " his eternal power
and godhead," Rom. i. 20. Because next to the power of God
apprehended in the creature, we come necessarily by reasoning
to acknowledge the eternity of God. He that hath an incom
prehensible power, must needs have an eternity of nature. His
power is most sensible in the creatures to the eye of man, and
his eternity easily from thence deducible by the reason of man.
Eternity is a perpetual duration, which has neither begin
ning nor end. Time has both. Those things we say are in
time, that have beginning, grow up by degrees, have succession
of parts. Eternity is contrary to time, and is therefore a per
manent and immutable state; a perfect possession of life with
out any variation. It comprehends in itself all years, all ages,
all periods of ages: it never begins! It endures after every
duration of time, and never ceases; it does as much outrun
time as it went before the beginning of it. Time supposes
something before if, but there can be nothing before eternity; it
were not then eternity. Time has a continual succession; fhe
forraer time passes away, and another succeeds; the year is
not this year, nor this year the next. We must conceive of
eternity contrary to the notion of time; as the nature of time
consists in the succession of parts, so the nature of eternity in
an infinite immutable duration.^ Eternity and time differ as
the sea and rivers: the sea never changes place, and is always
one water; but the rivers glide along, and are swallowed up
in the sea; so is time by eternity.
A thing is said to be eternal, or everlasting rather, in Scripture,
I Consul. Lib. II. Confes. 15. ^ Moulin. Coo. 1. Ser. 2. p. 52.

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 3J1
When it is of a long duration, though it Avill have an end;
when it has no nieasure of time determined to it; so circumci
sion is said to be in the flesh for an everlasting covenant. Gen.
xvii. 13; not purely everlasting, but so long as that administra
tion of the covenant should endure.
And so when a servant would not leave his master, but
would have his ear bored, it is said, he should be a servant for
ever, Deut. xv. 17, that is, till the jubilee, which was every
fiftieth year. So the meat-offering the}?^ were to offer, is said
to be perpetual. Lev. vi. 20. Canaan is said to be given to
Abraham for an everlasting possession, Gen. xvii. 8, whereas
the Jews are expelled from Canaan, which is given a prey to
the barbarous nations. Indeed circumcision was not everlast
ing; yet the substance ofthe covenant whereof this was a sign,
namely, that God would be the God of believers, endures for
ever; and that circumcision of the heart Avhich was signified
by circumcision of the flesh, shall remain for ever in the king
dom of glory; it was not so much the lasting of the sign, as of
the thing signified by it, and the covenant sealed by it: the sign
had its abolition, so that the apostle is so peremptory in it, that
he asserts, that if any went about to establish it, he excluded
himself frora a participation of Christ, Gal. v. 2. The sacrifices
were to be perpetual, in regard of the thing signified by thera,
namely, the death of Christ, which Avas to endure in fhe efficacy
of it ; and the passover was to be for ever, Exod. xii. 24, in
regard of the redemption signified by it, which was to be of
everlasting remembrance. Canaan was to be an everlasting
possession in regard of the glory of heaven typified, to be for
ever conferred upon the spiritual seed of Abraham. — Again,
When a thing has no end, though it has a beginning. So
angels and souls are everlasting; though their being shall never
cease, yet there Avas a time when their being began; they were
nothing before they were something, though they shall never
be nothing again, but shall live in endless happiness or misery.
But that properly is eternal that has neither beginning nor
end; and thus eternity is a property of God. In this doctrine
I shall show — How God is eternal, or in what respects eternity
is his property. — That he is eternal, and must be so. — That
eternity is proper only to God, and not common to him with
any creature. — The use of the whole.
1. How God is eternal, or in Avhat respects he is so. Eternity
is a negative attribute, and is a denying of God any measures
of time, as immensity is a denying of him any bounds of place.
As immensity is the diffusion of his essence, so eternity is the
duration of his essence. And when we say God is eternal, Ave
exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending, all
flux and change: as the essence of God cannot be bounded by

312 : ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
any place, so it is not to be limited by any time; as it is his
immensity to be every where, so it is his eternity to be always.
As created things are said fo be somewhere in regard of place,
and to be present, past, or future, in regard of time, so fhe Cre-
tor, in regard of place, is every Avhere; in regard of time, is
sempei — always:' his duration is as endless as his essence is
boundless.^ He always was, and always will be, and will no
more have an end than he had a beginning; and this is an ex
cellency belonging to the Supreme Being: as his essence com
prehends all beings and exceeds them, and his immensity
surmounts all places;^ so his eternity comprehends all times, all
durations, and infinitely excels them.
(1.) God is without beginning.
In the beginning God created the world. Gen. i. 1. God was
then before the beginning of it; and what point can be set
wherein God began, if he were before tbe beginning of created
things? God was without beginning, though all other things
had time and beginning from him. As unity is before all num
bers, so is God before all his creatures. Abraham called upon
the name of the everlasting God, Gen. xxi. 33; the eternal
God: it is opposed to the heathen gods, which were but of yes
terday, new coined, and so new; but the eternal God was be
fore the world was made. In that sense it is to be understood.
" The mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the pro
phets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God,
made known to all nations for the obedience of faith," Rom.
xvi. 25, 26. The gospel is not preached by the command of a
new and temporary God, but of that God that was before all
ages: though the manifestation of it be in time, yet the pur
pose and resolve of it was from eternity.
If there were decrees before the foundation of the world,
there was a Decreer before the foundation of the world. Be
fore the foundation of the world he loved Christ as a Mediator,
John xvu. 24: a foreordination of him was before the founda
tion of the world: a choice of men, and therefore a chooser,
before the foundation of the world, Eph. i. 4; a grace given in
Christ before the Avorld began, 2 Tim. i. 9, and therefore a do
nor of that grace. From those places, says Crellius, it appears
that God Avas before the foundation of the world, but they do
not assert an absolute eternity;" hut to be before all creatures,
is equivalent to his being from eternity. Time began Avith fhe
foundation ofthe world, but God being before time, could have
no beginning in time: before the beginning of the creation and
the beginning of time, there could be nothing but eternity; no-
• Gassend. ^ Crellius de Deo, cap. 18. p. 41. s Lingend. tom. 2. p. 496.
¦> Coccei. Sum, Theol. p. 48. Gerhard, Exeges. cap. 86. 4. p. 266.

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 3J3
thing but Avhat was uncreated, that is, nothing but what Avas
without beginning. To be in time, is to have a beginning; to be
before all time, is never to have a beginning, but always to be :
for as between the Creator and creatures there is no medium,
so between time and eternity there is no mediura. It is as easily
deduced, that he that was before all creatures is eternal, as he
that made all creatures is God: ifhe had a beginning, he must
have if from another, or from himself; if from another, that
from whom he received his being would be better than he, so
more a God than he. He cannot be God that is not supreme;
he cannot be supreme that owes his being to the power of an
other: he would not be said only to have imraortality as he is,
1 Tira. vi. 16, if he had it dependent upon another. Nor could
he have a beginning from himself: if he had given a begin-
'ning to himself, theh he was once nothing, there was a time
when he was not; if he was not, how could he be the cause
of himself? It is impossible for any fo give^ a beginning and
being to itself. If it acts, it must exist; and so exist before it
existed; a thing would exist as a cause before it existed as an
effect. He that is not, cannot be the cause that he is. If there
fore God does exist, and has hot his being from another, he
miist exist from eternity: therefore Avhen we say God is of and
from himself, we raean not that God gave being to himself;
but it is negatively to be understood that he has no cause of
existence Avithout himself
Whatsoever number of mfllions of rafllions of years Ave can
imagine before the creation of the Avorld, yet God was infinitely
before those: he is therefore called the Ancient of days, Dan.
vii. 9, as being before all days and time, and eminently contain
ing in hiraself all tiraes and ages; thoiigh indeed God fca'nnot
properly be called ancient, for that will testify that he is decay
ing, and shortly will not be, no more than. he can be called
young, which would signify that he was not long before. All
created things are new and fresh ; but no creature can find out
any beginning of God: it is impossible there should be any
beginning of him.
(2.) God is without end. He always was, always is, and
alwaysi-will be Avhat he is; he remains always the same in
being; so far from any change, that no shadow of it can touch
hira, James i. 17. He will continue in being as long as he has
already enjoyed it; and if we could add never so many millions
of years together, Ave are still as far from an end as from a
beginning; for "the Lord shall endure for ever," Psal. ix. 7.
As it is impossible he should not be, being from all eternity; so
it is impossible that he should not be to all eternity. The Scrip
ture is most plentiful in testimonies of this eternity of God, b,
parte post, or after the creation of the world. He is said to
Vol. I.— 40

314 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
live for ever. Rev. iv. 9, 10. The earth shall perish, but God
shafl endure for ever, and his years shafl have no end, Psal. cu.
27. Plants and animals grow up from small beginnings, arrive
to their fuU growth and decline again, and have always remark
able alterations in their nature ; but there is no declination in
God by all the revolutions of time: hence some think the in
corruptibility ofthe Deity Avas signified by the shittim or cedar
wood, whereof fhe ark was made, it being of an incorruptible
nature, Exod. xxv. 10.
That which had no beginning of duration can never have
an end, or any interruptions in it. Since God never depended
upon any, what should rnake him cease to be Avhat eternally he
has been, or put a stop to the continuance of his perfections?
He cannot will his own destruction; that is against universal
nature in all things to cease from being, if they can preserve
themselves. He cannot desert his own being, because he can
not but love himself as the best and chiefest good. The reason
that any thing decays, is either its own native weakness, or
superior power of somethijig contrary to it. There is no weak
ness in the nature of God that can introduce any corruption,
because he is infinitely simple without any mixture.' Nor can
he be overpowered by any thing else; a weaker cannot hurt
him, and a stronger than he there cannot be: nor can he be
outwitted or circumvented, because of his infinite wisdom. As
he received his being from none, so he cannot be deprived of
it by any; as he does necessarily exist, so he does necessarily
¦ always exist: this indeed is the property of God; nothing so
proper to him as ahvays to be. Whatsoever perfection any
being has, if it be not eternal, it is not divine. God only is immor
tal, 1 Tim. vi. 16;^ he only is so by a necessity of nature.
Angels, souls, and bodies too, after the resurrection shall be
immortal, not by nature, but grant: they are subject fo return
to nothing, if that word that raised them from nothing sliould
speak them into nothing again: it is as easy with God to strip
them of it, as to invest them wflh it; nay, it is impossible but
that they should perish, if God should withdraw his power from
preserving them, which he exerted in creating them. But God
is immovably fixed in his own being; that as none gave him
his life, so none can deprive hira ofhis life, or the least particle
of it: not a jot of the happiness and life which God infinitely
possesses, can be lost; it will be as durable to everlasting, asit
has been possessed frora everlasting.
(3.) There is no succession in God. God is without succes
sion or change; it is a part of eternity; from everlasting to
everlasting he is God, that is, the same. God does not only
always remain in being, but he always remains the sanie in
' Crellius de Deo, cap. 18. p. 41. ^ Daille in loc

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 3J5
that being ; " Thou art the same," Psal. cu. 27. The being of
creatures is successive; the being of God is permanent, and re
mains entire with all its perfections, unchanged in an infinite
duration. Indeed the first notion of eternity is, to be without
beginning and end, which notes to us the duration of a being
in regard of its. existence ; but to have no succession, nothing
first or last, notes rather the perfection of a being in regard of
its essence.
The creatures are in a perpetual flux; something is acquired,
or something lost every day. A man is the same in regard of
existence when he is a man, as he was when he was a child ;
but there is a new succession of quantities and qualities in him ;
every day he acquires something till he comes to his maturity ;
every day he loses something till he comes to his period. A
man is not the same at night that he was in the morning;
something is expired, and something is added; every day there
is a change in his age, a change in his substance, a change in
his accidents. But God has his whole being in one and the
same point, or moment of eternity ; he receives nothing as an
addition to what he was before; he loses nothing of what he
was before; he is always the same excellency and perfection
in the same infiniteness as ever: his years do not fail, Heb. i.
12; his years do not come and go as others do; there is not this
day, to-morrow, or yesterday with hira. As nothing is past or
future with him in regard of knowledge, but all things are pre
sent; so nothing is past or future in regard of his essence; he
is not in his essence this day what he was not before, or will be
the next day and year what he is not now. All his perfections
are most perfect in him every moment, before all ages, after all
ages: ' as he has his whole essence undivided in everyplace as
weU as in immense space; so he has all his being in one mo
ment of lime, as well as in infinite intervals of time. Some
illustrate the difference between eternity and time, by the simi
litude of a tree, or a rock, standing upon the side of a river or
shore of the sea ; the tree stands always the same and un
moved, Avhfle the waters of the river glide along at the foot;
the flux is in the river, but the tree acquires nothing but a di
verse respect and relation of presence to the various parts of
the river as they flow : the waters of the river press on, and
push forward one another, and what the river had this minute
it has not the same the next.^ So are all sublunary things in a
continual flux; and though the angels have no substantial
change, yet they have an accidental ; for the actions of the
angels this day are not the same individual actions which they
1 Lessius de Perfect. Divin. lib. 4. cap. I.
2 Gamacheus in Aquin. part I. qu. 10. cap. I.

316 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
perfprmed yesterday. But in God there is no change, he
always remains the same.
Of a creature it may be said, he was, or he is, or he shall
be ; ' of God it cannot be said, but only he is: he is what he
ahvays was, and he is what he always vtrfll be; whereas a
creature is Avhat he was not, and will be what he is not now;
as it raay be said of the flame of a candle, it is flame; but it is
not the same individual flame as was before, nor is it the same
that Avill be presently after; there is a continual dissolution of
it into air, and a continual supply for the generation of more.
While it continues, it may be said there is a flame; yet not en
tirely one, but in a succession of parts. So of a raan it may be
said, he is in a succession of parts; but he is not the same that
he was, and will not be the same that he is : but God is fhe
same without any succession of part and of time ; of him it
may be said, he is ; he is no raore now than he was, and he
shall be no more hereafter than he is. God possesses a firm
and absolute being, always constant to himself; he sees all
things sliding under him in continual variation ; he beholds the
revolutions in the world without any change of his most glo
rious and immovable nature: all other things pass from one
state to another; from their original, to their eclipse and de
struction.^ But God possesses his being in one indivisible
point, having neither beginning, end, nor middle.
[1.] There is no succession in the knowledge of God. The
variety of successions and changes in the world, make not
succession or new objects in the Divine mind: for all things are
present to him from eternity in regard of his knowledge, though
they are not actuaUy present in the world in regard to their ex
istence. He does not know one thing now, and another anon;
he sees all things at once: known unto God are all things from
the beginning of the world. Acts xv. 18; but in their true order
of succession, as they lie in the eternal counsel of God, to be
brought forth in time. Though there be a succession and order
of things as they are wrought, yet there is no succession in God
in regard to his knowledge of them. God knows the things
that shall be wrought, and the order of thera in their being
brought upon the stage of the world; yet both the things and
the order he knows by one act. Though aU things be present
with God, yet they are present in him in the order of their 'ap
pearance in the world, and not so present with hira as if they
should be wrought at once. The death of Christ was to pre
cede his resurrection in order of time; there is a succession in
this; both at once are known by God, yet the act of his know
ledge is not exercised about Christ as dying and rising at the
1 Gassend. tom. I. Physic. § I. 1. 2. c. 7. p. 293.
2 Daille, Melange de Sermon, p. 252.

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 31 7
same time: so there is succession in things, when there is no
succession in God's knowledge of them. Since God knows
time, he knows all things as they are in time; he does nof know
all things to be at once, though he knows at once what is, has
been, and will be. All things are past, present, and to come,
in regard of their existence: but there is not past, present, and
to corae in regard fo God's knowledge of them; because he
sees and knows not by any other, but by himself; ' he is his own
light by which he sees, his own glass Avherein he sees; behold
ing himself, he beholds all things.
[2.] There is no succession in the decrees of God. He does
not decree this noAV, which he decreed not before; for as his
works were known from the beginning of the world, so his
works were decreed from the beginning of the world; as they
are known at once so they are decreed at once. There is a
succession in the execution of them, first grace, then glory; but
the purpose of God for the bestowing of both, was in one and
the same moment of eternity. "He hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy,"
Eph. i. 14. The choice of Christ, and the choice of some in
him to be holy, and to be happy, were before the foundation of
the world. It is by the eternal courisel of God, all things ap
pear in tjme; they appear in their order according to the coun
sel and wUl of God from eternity. The redemption of fhe
world is after the creation of the Avorld ; but the decree whereby
the world was created, and whereby it was redeemed, was
from eternity.
(4.) God is his own eternity. He is not eternal by grant,
and the disposal of any other, but by nature and essence. The
eternity of God is nothing else but the duration of God;^ and
the duration of God is nothing else but his existence enduring.^
If eternity were any thing distinct frora God, and not of the
essence of God ; then there would be something which was not
God; necessary to perfect God. As immortality is the great
perfection of a rational creature, so eternity is the choice per
fection of God, yea, the gloss and lustre of all others. Every
perfection would be imperfect, if it Avere not always a perfec
tion. God is essentially whatsoever he is; and there is nothing in
God but his essence. Duration, or continuance in being in
creatures, differs frora their heing; for they might exist but for
one instant; in which case they maybe said to have being, but
not duration, because all duration includes prius et posterius,
" before and after." All creatures may cease from being, if it
be the pleasure of God; they are not therefore durable by their
essence, and therefore are not their own duration, no more than
' Parisiensis. ' Calov. Socinian. ^ Existentia durans.

318 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
they are their OAvn existence. And though some creatures, as
angels, and souls, may be called everlasting, as a perpetual life
is communicated to them by God; yet they can never be called
their own eternity; because such a duration is not simply
necessary, nor essential to them, but accidental, depending upon
the pleasure of another ; there is nothing in their nature that
can hinder them from losing it, if God, from whom they re
ceived it, should design to take it away. But as God is his
own necessity of existing, so he is his own duration in existing.
As he does necessarily exist by himself, so he will always
necessarily exist by himself
(5.) Hence all the perfections of God are eternal. In regard
ofthe Divine eternity, all things in God are eternal, his power,
mercy, wisdom, justce, knowledge. G.od himself Avere not
eternal, if any of his perfections which are essential to him
were not eternal also ; he had not else been a perfect God from
all eternity, and so his whole self had not been eternal. If any
thing belonging to the nature of a thing be wanting, it cannot
be said to be that thing which it ought to be. If any thing re
quisite to the nature of God had been wanting one moment, he
could not have been said to be an eternal God.
2. God is eternal. The Spirit of God in Scripture conde
scends to our capacities in signifying the eternity of God by days
and years, which are terms belonging fo time, whereby we
measure it, Psal. cii. 27. But we must no raore conceive that
God is bounded, or measured by time, and has succession of
days, because of those expressions, than we can conclude him
to have a body, because members are ascribed to him in Scrip
ture, to help our conceptions of his glorious nature and opera
tions. Though years are ascribed to him ; yet they are such as can
not be numbered, cannot be finished, since there is no propor
tion between the duration of God and the years of men. " The
number of his years cannot be searched out. For he makes
small the drops of Avater: they pour down rain according fo the
vapour thereof," Job xxxvi. 26, 27. The number of the drops
of rain which have fallen in all parts of the earth since the
creation of the world, if subtracted from the number of the
years of God, would be found a small quantity, a mere nothing
to the years of God. As all the nations in the world, compared
with God, are but as the drop of a bucket worse than nothing,
and vanity, Isa. xl. 15; so all the agesof the world, if compared
with God, amount not to, so much as the one hundred thou
sandth part of a minute. The minutes from the creation may
be numbered, but the years of the duration of God, being infi
nfle, are without measure. > Gassend.

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 3ig
As one day is to the life of man, so are a thousand years to
the .life of God, Psal. xc. 5. The Holy Ghost expresses himself
to the capacity, of man, to give us some notion of an infinite
duration, by a reserablance suited to the capacity of man. ' If
a thousand years be but as a day to the life of God, then as a
year is to the life of man, so are three hundred sixty-five thou
sand years to the life of God; and as seventy years are to the
life of man, so are twenty-five millions four hundred and fifty
thousand years to the life of God. Yet still, since there is no
proportion between time and eternity, we must dart our thoughts
beyond afl those; for years and days measure only the duration
of created "things, and of those only that are material and corpo
real, subject to the motion of the heavens, which makes days
and years. '^
Sometimes this eternity is expressed by parts, as looking
backward and forward ; by the differences of time, past, present,
and to come^ "which was, and is, and is to corae," Rev. i. 8;
iv. 8. Though this raight be spoken of any thing in being,
though but for an hour; it was the last minute, it is now, and it
will be the next minute; yet the Holy Ghost would declare
something proper to God, as including all parts of time. He
always was, is now, and always shall be; it might always be
said of him, he was, and it may always be said of hira, he will
be: there is no time when he began, no time when he shall
cease. It cannot be said of a creature, he always was, he
always is what he Avas, and he always will be what he is: but
God always is what he was, and always will be what he is; so
that it is as significant an expression of the eternity of God
as can be suited to our capacities.
(1.) His eternity is evident by the name God gives himself
"And God said unto Moses, I am that I am: and he said. Thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me
unto you," Exod. iii. 14. This is the name whereby he is dis
tinguished from all creatures; /aw is his proper narae. This
description being in the present tense, shows that his essence
knows no past nor future: if it were " he was," it would inti
mate he were not uoav what he once Avas; if it were "he will
be," it would intimate he were not yet what he will be. But
" I am ;" lam the only being, the root of aU beings ; he is there
fore at the greatest distance from not being, and that is eternal.
So that is signifies his eternity, as well as his perfection and
immutability. As I am speaks the want of no blessedness, so
it speaks the want of no duration; and therefore the French,
wherever they find this word Jehovah in the Scripture, which
' Amyrald. Trin. p. 44.
' Daille, Vent. Sermons, Ser. 1. sur. 102. Psal. 27. p. 21.
' Crellius weakens this argument. De Deo. cap. 18. p. 42.

320 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
we translate " Lord," and " Lord eternal," render it the " Eter
nal." Iam always, and imrautably the same. - The eternity
of God is opposed to the volubility of time, which is extended
into past, present, and to come. Our time is but a small drop,
as sand to all the atoms and small particles of which fhe world
is made; but God is an unbounded sea of being; "lamthat
I am," that is, an infinite life. I have not that now which I
had not formerly; I shall not after Avards have that Avhich I have
not now; I am that in every moment which I was, and will be
in all moments of time; nothing can be added to me, nothing
can be detracted from me: there is nothing superior -to him,
which can detract from him; nothing desirable that can be
added to him. Now if there Avere any beginning and end of
God, any succession in him, he could not be I am; for in regard
of what was past he would not be, in regard of what was to
come he is not yet.' And upon this account,^ a heathen argues
well, of all creatures it may be said they, were, or they will be;
but of God it cannot be said any thing else but Est, God is, be
cause he fills an eternal duration: a creature cannot be said to
be, if it be not yet, nor if it be not now, but has been.'
God only can be called I am: all creatures have more of not
being than being; for every creature was nothing from eternity,
before it Avas made something in time; and if it be corruptible
in its whole nature, it will be nothing to eternity after it has
been something in time; and if it be not corniptible in its nature,
as the angels, or in every part of its nature, as man in regard of
his soul, yet it has not properly a being, because it is dependent
upon the pleasure of God to continue it, or deprive it of it; and
while it is, it is mutable, and all mutability is a mixture of not
being. If God therefore be properly I am, that is, being, it fol
lows that he always was; for if he were not always, he must,
as was argued before, be produced by some other, or by him
self: by another he could not, then he had not been God, but a
creature; nor by himself, for then as producing, he must be
before himself as produced; he had been before he was. And
he always will be; for being " I am," having all being in him
self, and the fountain of all being to every thing else, how can
he ever have his name changed to " I am not?"
(2.) God hath life in hiraself " The Father hath life in him
self," John V. 26. He is the living God, therefore steadfast for
ever, Dan. vi. 26. He has life by his essence, not by partici
pation ; be is a Sun to give light and life to all creatures, but
receives not light or life frora any thing; and therefore he has
an unlimited life; not a drop of life, but a fountain; not a spark
of a limited hfe, but a life transcending aU bounds. He has life
I Thes. Salmur. p. 1. p, 145, Thes. 14. 2 Plutarch de 'Et, 1. p. 462.
» Perer. in Exo. 3. Disput 13.

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 321
in himself; all creatures have their life in him and frora him.
He that has life in hiraself does necessarily exist and could
never be made to exist; for then he had not life in hiraself, but
in that which raade him to exist, and gave him life. What does
necessarily exist therefore, exists from eternity; what has being
of itself, could never be produced in tirae, could not want being
one raoraent, because it has being from its essence, without in
fluence of any efficient cause. When God pronounced his name,
" I am that I am," angels and raen were in being; the world
had been created above two thousand four hundred years;
Moses, to whom he then speaks, was in being; yet, God only
is, because he only hath the fountain of being in himself, but
all that they were Avas a rivulet frora hira.' He has from nothing
else, that he does subsist: every thing else has its subsistence
from him as their root, as the beam from the sun, as the rivers
and fountains from the sea. All life is seated in God, as in its
proper throne; in its most perfect purity. God is life; it is in
him originally, radicaUy, therefore eternaUy. He is a pure act,
nothing but vigour and act: he has by his nature that life
which others have by his grant: whence the apostle says,
1 Tim. vi. 16, not only that he is immortal, but he has immor
tality in a full possession; fee-simple, not depending upon the
will of another, but containing all things within himself He
that has life in himself, and is from himself, cannot but be: he
always was, because he received his being from no other, and
none can take away that being which was not given by ano
ther.^ If there were any space before he did exist, then there
were something which made him to exist; life would not then
be in hira, but in that which produced hira into being; he could
not then be God, but that other which gave hira being would
be God. And to say, God sprang into being by chance, when
Ave see nothing in the world that is brought forth by chance,
but has some cause of its existence — would be vain ; for since
God is a being, chance, which is nothing, coifld not bring forth
something, and, by the same reason that he sprang up by chance,
he might totally vanish by chance. What a strange notion of
a God would this be, such a God that had no life in himself,
but from chance.
Since he had hfe in himself, and that there was no cause Pf
his existence; he can have no cause of his limitation, and cati
no more be determined to a time, than he can to a place. What
hath hfe in itself, hath life without bounds, and can never de
sert it, nor be deprived of it: so that he lives necessarily, and
it is absolutely impossible that he should not live; whereas all
other things live, and move, and have their being in hini. Acts
' Petav. TheoL Dogm. tom. 1. lib. 1. c. 6. § 6, 7.
« Amyrald. de Trinit. p. 48.
Vol. I.— 41

322 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
xvii. 28; and as they live by his wiU, so they can return to nor
thing at his word.
(3.) If God Avere not eternal, he were not immutable in his
nature. It is contrary to the nature of immutability to be
without eternity; for whatsoever begins, is changed in its pass
ing from not being to being. It began to be what it was not,
and if it ends it ceaseth to be what it was; it cannot therefore
be said to be God, if there Avere either beginning, or ending, or
succession in it. " I am fhe Lord, I change not," Mai. iii.
6. "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out," Job
xxxvii. 23. God argues here, says Calvin, from his unchange
able nature as Jehovah, to his immutability in his purpose: had
he not been eternal, there had been the greatest change from
nothing to something: a change of the essence is greater than
a change of purpose. God is a sun glittering always in the
same glory; no growing up in youth; no passing on to age.
If he Avere not without succession, standing in one point of
eternity, there would be a change from past to present, from
present to future. The eternity of God is a shield against all
kind of mutabUity. If any thing sprang up in the essence of
God that was not there before, he could not be said to be either
an eternal or an unchanged substance.
(4.) God could not be an infinitely perfect being, if he were
not eternal. A finite duration is inconsistent with infinite per
fection. Whatsoever is contracted within the limits of time,
cannot swallow up all perfections in itself. God hath an un
searchable perfection. " Canst thou by searching find out God ?
canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" Job xi. 7.
He cannot be found out, he is infinite, because he is incompre
hensible: incomprehensibUity arises from an infinite perfec
tion, Avhich cannot be fathomed by the short lines of man's
understanding: his essence, in regard of its diffusion, and in
regard of its duration, is incomprehensible as well as his action.
If God therefore had beginning, he could not be infinite; if not
infinite, he did not possess the highest perfection, because a
perfection might be conceived beyond it. If his being could
fail, he were not perfect. Can that deserve the name of the
highest perfection, which is capable of corruption and dissolu
tion ? To be finite and limited, is the greatest imperfection, for
it consists in a denial of being. He could not be the most
blessed being, if he were not ahvays so, and should not for ever
remain to be so ; and whatsoever perfections he had, would be
soured by the thoughts, that in time they would cease; and so
could not be pure perfections, because not permanent: but he
IS blessed from everlasting to everlasting, Psal. xii. 13. Had
he a beginning, he could not have all perfection without limi
tation; he would have been limited by that which gave him

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 323
beginning; that which gave him being would be God, and
not himself, and so more perfect than he. But since God is the
most sovereign perfection, than which nothing can be imagined
raore perfect by the most capacious understanding, he is cer
tainly eternal ; being infinite, nothing can be added to hira,
ndthing detracted frora hira.
(5.) God could not be omnipotent, almighty, if he were not
eternal. The title of Alniighty agrees not with a nature that
had a beginning; whatsoever has a beginning was once no
thing, and when it was nothing could act nothing. Where
there is no being, there is no poAver. Neither does the title of
Almighty agree with a perishing nature: he can do nothing to
purpose, that cannot preserve himself against the outward force
and violence of enemies, or against the inward causes of cor
ruption and dissolution. No account is to be made of man,
because his breath is in his nostrfls, Isa. ii. 22. Could a better
account be made of God, if he were of the like condition ? He
could not properly be almighty, that were not always mighty.
If he "be omnipotent, nothing can impair him; he that has all
power, can have no hurt." If he does whatsoever he pleases,
nothing can make him miserable, since misery consists in those
things which happen against our wUl. The almightiness and
eternity of God are linked together : " I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty," Rev. i. 8:
almighty because eternal, and eternal because almighty.
(6.) God would not be the first cause of all if he were not
eternal. But he is the first and the last; the first cause of all
things, the last end of all things. Rev. i. S. That Avhich is the
first cannot begin to be, it were not then the first. ^ It cannot
cease to be ; whatsoever is dissolved, is dissolved into that
AVhereof it does consist, which was before it, and then it was
not the first. The world might not have been, it was once no
thing ; it must have some cause to call it out of nothing ; no
thing has no power to make itself something ; there is a
superior cause, by Avhose wiU and power it comes into being,
and so gives ail the creatures their distinct forms. ^
This power cannot but be eternal; it must be before the
world; the founder must be before the foundation;^ and his ex
istence raust be frora eternity, or we must say nothing did exist
from eternity. And if there were no being from eternity, there
eould not now be any being in time: what we see, and what
we are, must arise from itself or some other. It cannot from
itself: if any thing made itself, it had a power to make itself;
it then had an active power before it had a being; it was some-
' Voet. Natural. Theol. p. 313. ^ Ficin. de Immort. 1. 2. cap, 5.
'' Coccei. Sum. Theol. ¦* Crellius de Deo, cap. 18, p. 43.

324 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
thing in regard of power, and was nothing in regard of exist
ence at the same time: suppose it had a power to produce itself,
this power must be conferred upon it by another; and .so the
power of producing itself was not from itself, but from another;
but if the power of being was frora itself, why did it not pro
duce itself before? why was it one raoraent out of being? If
there be any existence of things, it is necessary that that which
was the first cause should exist from eternity.' Whatsoever
was the immediate cause of the world, yet fhe first and chief
cause, wherein we must rest, must have nothing before it; if
it had any thing before it, it were not the first. He therefore that
is the first cause must be without beginning, nothing must be
before him; if he had a beginning from some other, he could
not be the first principle and author of all things; if he be the
first cause of all things, he must give himself a beginning, or
be from eternity. He could not give himself a beginning;
whatsoever begins in time was nothing before, and when it
was nothing it could do nothing ; it could not give itself any
thing, for then it gave what it had not, and did what it could
not. If he made himself in time, why did he not make hini
self before? What hindered him? It was either because he
could not, or because he would not. Ifhe could not, he always
wanted power, and always would, unless it were bestowed
upon him, and then he could not be said to be from himself
If he would not raake himself before, then he might have raade
hiraself when he would. How had he fhe power of wUhng
and niUing without a being ? Nothing cannot will or nill, nothing
has no faculties: so that it is necessary to grant some eternal
being, or run into inextricable labyrinths and mazes. If we
deny some eternal being, we must deny aU being; our own
being, the being of everything about us; inconceivable absur
dities will arise.
So then if God were the cause of all things, he did exist be
fore all things, and that from eternity.
3. Eternity is only proper to God, and not communicable.
It is as great a madness to ascribe eternity to the creature, as
to deprive the Lord of the creature of eternity.^ It is so pro
per to God, that when the apostle Avould prove the deity of
Christ, he proves it by his immutability and eternity, as well
as his creating power: " Thou art the same, and thy years shall
not fail," Heb. i. 10. 12. The argument had no strength, if
eternity belonged essentially to any but God, and therefore he
is said only to have immortality, 1 Tim. vi. 16. All other things
receive their being frora him, and can be deprived of their be
ing by him: all things depend on him, he on none: aiiother
things are like clothes, which would consume if God preserved
i Petav. TheoL Dogmat. tom I. 1. I. c 10, II. 2 Bapt.

ON THE ETERNITY, OF GOD. 335
thera not. Immortality is appropriated to God, that is, an in
dependent immortality. Angels and souls have an imraortality,
but by donation from God, not by their own essence; depen
dent upon their Creator, not necessary in their own nature.
God raight have annihflated thera after he had created them;
so that their duration cannot properly be called an eternity, it
being extrinsical to them, and depending upon the Avill of their
Creator, by whora they raay be extinguished; it is not an ab
solute and necessary, but a precarious immortality. Whatso
ever is not God, is temporary: whatsoever is eternal, is God.
It is a contradiction to say a creature can be eternal: as no
thing eternal is created, so nothing created is eternal. What is
distinct frora the nature of God cannot be eternal, eternity be
ing the essence of God. Every creature in the notion of a
creature speaks a dependence on sorae cause, and therefore
cannot be eternal. As it is repugnant to the nature of God
not to be eternal, so it is repugnant to the nature of a creature
tobe eternal; for then a creature would be equal to the Cre
ator, and the Creator, or the cause, would not be before the
creature or effect.'
It would be all one to admit many gods as many eternals;
and aU one to say God can be created, as to say a creature can
be uncreated, which is to be eternal.
(1.) Creation is a producing soraething frora nothing. What
was once nothing, cannot therefore be eternal; not being was
eternal; therefore its being could not be eternal, for it should
be then before it was, and would be soraething when it was
nothing. It is the nature of a creature to be nothing before it
was created; what was nothing before it was, cannot be equal
with God in an eternity of duration.
(2.) There is no creature but is rautable, therefore not eternal.
As it had a change from nothing to something, so it may be
changed frora being to not being. If the creature Avere ^not
mutable it would be raost perfect, and so would not be a crea
ture, but God ; for God only is raost perfect. It is as much
the essence of a creature to be rautable, as it is the essence of
God to be irarautable: mutabUity and eternity are utterly in
consistent. (3.) No creature is infinite, therefore not eternal. To be infi
nfle in duration is all one to be infinite in essence : it is as rea
sonable to conceive a creature immense, fifling all places at once,
as eternal, extended to all ages;^ because neither can be with
out infiniteness, which is the property of the Deity. A creature
may as well be without bounds of place as limitations of time.
(4.) No effect of an intellectual free agent, can be equal in
duration to its cause. The production of natural agents are as
' Lessius de Perfect. 1. 4. c. 2. ' Ibid.

326 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
ancient often as tjiemselves; the sun produces a beam as old
in time as itself; but who ever heard of a piece of wise Avork
manship as old as the wise artificer? God produced a crea
ture, not necessarily and naturally, as fhe sun does a beam, but
freely, as an intelligent agent. The sun was not necessary ; it
might be or not be, according to the pleasure of God. A free
act of the will is necessary to precede in order of time as the
cause of such effects as are purely voluntary.' Those causes
that act as soon as they exist, act naturally, necessarfly, not
freely, and cannot cease from acting.
But suppose a creature might have existed by the wiU of
God from eternity ; yet, as some think, it could not be said abso
lutely, and in its own nature, fo be eternal; because eternity
was not of the essence of it. The creature could not be its own
duration; for though it were from eternity, it might not have
been from eternity; because its existence depended upon the
free will of God, who might have chosen whether he would
have created it or no.
God only is eternal, the first and the last, the beginning and
the end; who, as he subsisted before any creature had a being,
so he wifl eternally subsist if all creatures were reduced to
nothing.
4. Use.
(1.) Information.
If God be of an eternal duration, then Christ is God. Eter
nity is the property of God, but it is ascribed to Christ ; " He is
before all things," Col. i. 17 ; that is, all created things. He is
therefore no creature ; and if no creature, eternal. " All things
were created by him," both in heaven and in earth, angels as
well as men, whether they be thrones or dominions, Col. i. 16.
If all things were his creatures, then he is no creature; ifhe
were, all things were not created by him, or he must create
himself He hath no difference of time ; for he is " fhe same yesterday,
and to-day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8;^ the sarae with the
name of God, "I am," which signifies his eternity: he is no
more to-day than he was yesterday, nor will be any other to
morrow than he is to-day. And therefore Melchisedek, whose
descent, birth and death, father and mother, beginning aud end
of days, are not upon record, Avas a type of fhe existence of
Christ Avithout difference of time: "Having neither beginning of
days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God," Heb.
vii. 3. The suppression of his birth and death, was intended by
the Holy Ghost as a type of the excellency of Christ's person
in regard of his eternity, and the duration of his charge in re-
1 Crellius de Deo. cap. 18. p. 43.
2 " He which is, and which was, and which is to come," Rev. i, 8.

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 327
gard ofhis priesthood. As there was an appearance of an eter
nity in the suppression of the race of JMelchisedek, so there is a
true eternity in the Son of God. How could the eternity of the
Son of God be expressed by any resemblance so well, as by such
a suppression of the beginning and end of this great person, dif
ferent from the custom of the Spirit of God in fhe Old Testament,
who often records the generations and ends of holy men; and
why inight not this which was a kind of a shadow of eternity, be
a representation ofthe true eternity of Christ as well as the res
toration of Isaac to his father without death, is said to be a
figure of the resurrection of Christ after a real death ? Mel
chisedek is only mentioned once (without any record of his
extraction) in his appearance to Abraham after his victory, as
if he came from heaven only for that action, and instantly dis
appeared again, as if he had been an eternal person.'
And Christ himself hints his one eternity; "I came forth
from the Father, and am come into the world : again, I leave
the world, and go to the Father," John xvi. 28. He goes to
the Father as he came from the Father ; he goes to the Father
for everlasting, so he came from the Father from everlasting;
there is the sarae duration in coraing forth from the Father, as
in returning to the Father. But more plainly; he speaks of a
glory that he had with the Father before the world was, John
xvii. 5, Avhen there was no creature in being : this is an actual
glory, and not only in decree; for a decreed glory believers
had, and why may not every one of thera say the same words,,
"Father, glorify me Avith that glory Avhich I had with thee be-,
fore the world was," if it were only a glory in decree ? Nay
it may be said of every man, he was before fhe Avorld Avas, be
cause he was so in decree. Christ speaks of something pecu
liar to him, a glory in actual possession before the world Avas;
glorify me, embrace, honour me as thy Son, whereas I have
now been in the eyes of the world handled disgracefully as a
servant: if it were only in decree, why is not the like expres
sion used of others in Scripture as well as of Christ ? Why
did he not use the sarae words for his disciples that were then
with him,-Avho had a glory in decree? His eternity is also
mentioned in the Old Testament. " The Lord possessed me in
the beginning ofhis way, before his works of old," Prov. viii,
22. If he were the work of God, he existed before hiraself if he
existed before all the works of God. It is not so properly
meant ofthe essential wisdom of God, since the discourse runs
in the name of a person; and several passages there are which
belong not so much fo the essential wisdom of God ; as, "The
evfl way and the froward mouth do I hate," ver. 13; which
belongs rather to the hohness of God than to the essential wis-
1 Mestrcezat. in loc

51

328 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
dom of God : besides, it is distinguished from Jehovah, as pos
sessed by him, and rejoicing before him. Yet plainer, " Out
of thee," that is, Bethlehem, " shall he come forth unto me that
is to be Ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of
old, from everlasting," from the ways of eternity, Micah v. 2.
There are two goings forth of Christ described, one from Beth
lehem in the days of his incarnation, and another from eternity.
The Holy Ghost adds after his prediction of his incarnation,
his going out from everlasting, that none should doubt of his
Deity. If this going out from everlasting were only in the pur
pose of God, it might be said of David, and of every creature.
And in Isa. ix. 6, he is particularly called the everlasting or
eternal Father. Not the Father in the Trinity, but a Father
to us : yet eternal, the Father of eternity. As he is the mighty
God, so he is the everlasting Father. Can such a title be as
cribed to any, whose being depends upon the wUl of another,
and may be dashed out at the pleasure of a superior ?
As the eternity of God is the ground of all religion, so the
eternity of Christ is the ground of the Christian religion.
Could our sins be perfectly expiated, had he not an eternal
Divinity to answer for the offences committed against an eter
nal God? Temporary sufferings had been of little validity,
without an infiniteness and eternity in his person to add weight
to his passion.
If God be eternal, he knows all things as present. All things
are present to him in his eternity; for this is the notion of eter
nity, to be without succession.' If eternity be one indivisible
point, and is not diffused into preceding and succeeding parts,
then that which is known in it or by it, is perceived without
any succession. For knowledge is as the substance ofthe per
son knowing; if that has various actions and distinct from
itself, then it understands things in differences of time as time
presents them to view. But since God's being depends not
upon the revolutions of time, so neither does his knowledge;
it exceeds all motions of years and days, comprehends infinite
spaces of past and future. God considers all things in his eter
nity in one simple knowledge, as if they were now acted before
him: 'Known unto God are all his works from the beginning
of the world," ««' aiSva, ci seculo, from eternity. Acts xv. 18.
God's knowledge is co-eternal with him: if he knoAvs that in
time which he did not know frora eternity, he would not be
eternally perfect, since knowledge is the perfection of an intel
ligent nature.
How bold and foolish is it for a raortal creature to censure
the counsels and actions of an eternal God, or be too curious
in his inquisitions! It is by the consideration ofthe unsearcha-
1 Petav.

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 329
ble number of the years of God that Ehhu checks too bold
inquiries: "Who hath enjoined him his way? or who can say.
Thou hast wrought iniquity ? Behold, God is great, and we
know him hot, neither can the number ofhis years be searched
out," Job xxxvi. 23. 26. Eternity sets God above our inqui
ries and censures. Infants of a day old are not able to under
stand the acts of wise and grey heads: shall Ave, that are of so
short a being and understanding as yesterday, presume to mea
sure the motions of eternity by our scanty intellects ? We that
cannot foresee an unexpected accident which faUs in to blast a
well laid design, and run a ship many leagues back from the
intended harbour; Ave that cannot understand the reason of
things we see done in time, the motions of the sea, the genera
tion of rain, the nature of light, the sympathies and antipathies
of the creatures; shall we dare to censure the actions of an
eternal God so infinitely beyond our reach? The counsels of a
boundless being are not to be scanned by the brain of a silly
worra, that has breathed but a few minutes in the world.
Since eternity cannot be comprehended in tirae, it is not to be
judged by a creature of time. Let us remember to magnify
his works which we behold, because he is eternal, which is the
exhortation of Elihu, backed by this doctrine of God's eternity.
Job xxxvi. 24 ; and not accuse any work of hira Avho is the
Ancient of days, or presume to direct him of whose eternity we
come infinitely short. Whenever, therefore, any unworthy
notion of the counsels and works of God is suggested to us by
Satan, or our own corrupt hearts, let us look backward to
God's eternal, and our own short duration, and sflence our
selves with the same question' wherewith God put a stop to the
reasoning of Job, "Where wast thou when I laid the founda
tions of the earth?" Job xxxviii. '4, and reprove ourselves for
our curiosity; since we are of so short a standing, and were
nothing Avhen the eternal God Iai(J thefirst stone ofthe world.
What a folly and boldness is there in sin, since an eternal
God is offended thereby! All sin is aggravated by God's eter
nity: the blackness ofthe heathen idolatry was in changing the
glory ofthe incorruptible God, Rom. i. 23, erecting resemblances
of him contrary to his imraortal nature; as if the eternal God,
whose life is as unlimited as eternity, were like those creatures
whose beings are measured by the short ell of time, which are
of a corruptible nature, and daily passing oh to corruption.
They could not really deprive God of his glory and immortalifyj
but they did in estimation. There is in the nature of every sin
a tendency to reduce God to a not being. He that thinks un-
worthUy of God, or acts unworthily towards him, does (as
much as in him lies) sully and destroy these two perfections of
his, immutabihty and eternity. It is a carriage, as if he were
Vol. I. — 42

330 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
as contemptible as a creature that were but of yesterday, and
shaU not remain in being to-morrow. He that would put an
end to God's glory by darkening it, would put an end to God's
life by destroying it. He that should love a beast with as great
an affection as he loves a man, contemns a rational nature; and
he that loves a perishing thing with the same affection he
should love an everlasting God, contemns his eternity; he de
bases the duration of God below that of the world. The low
valuation of God speaks him, in his esteem, no better than
withering grass, or a gourd, which lasts for a night; and the
creature which possesses his affection, to be a good that lasts
for ever. How foolish then is every sin, that tends to destroy
a Being that cannot destroy or desert himself; a Being, without
whose eternity the sinner himself could not have had the capa
city of a being, to affront him! How base is that, which would
not let the works of God remain in their established posture!
How much more base in not enduring the fountain and glory
of all beings; that would not only put an end to the beauty of
the world, but the eternity of God!
How dreadful is it to lie under the stroke of an eternal God!
His eternity is as great a terror to him that hates him, as it is
a comfort to him that loves him; because he is the living God,
an everlasting King, the nations shall not be able to abide his
indignation, Jer. x. 10. Though God be least in their thoughts,
and is made light of in the world, yet the thoughts of God's
eternity, Avhen he comes to judge the world, shall make the
slighters of him tremble. That the Judge and punisher lives
for ever, is the greatest grievance to a soul in misery, and adds
an inconceivable weight to it, above what the infiniteness of
God's executive power could do without that duration. His
eternity makes the punishment more dreadful than his power:
his power makes it sharp, but his eternity renders it perpetual:
ever to endure, is the sting a^t the end of every lash.
And how sad is it, to think that God lays his eternity fo pawn
for the punishment of obstinate sinners, and engages it by an
oath, that he wfll whet his glittering sword, that his hand shall
take hold of judgment, that he will render vengeance to his
enemies, and a reward to them that hate him; a reward pro
portioned to the greatness oftheir offences, and the glory of an
eternal God! " I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for
ever;" that is. As surely as I live for ever, I wifl whet my glit
tering sword, Deut. xxxii. 40, 41. As none can convey good
iwflba perpetuity, so none can convey evil with such a lasting-
ness as God. It is a great loss to lose a ship richly fraught in
the bottom of the sea, never to be cast upon the shore; but how
much greater is it, to lose eternally a sovereign God, which we
were capable of eternally enjoying, and undergo an evfl as

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 331
durable as that God we shghted, and Avere in a possibility of
avoiding! The miseries of men after this life are not eased, but
sharpened by the life and eternity of God.
(2.) For comfort. What foundation of comfort can we have
in any of God's attributes, were it not for his infiniteness and
eternity; though he be merciful, good, wise, faithful? What
support could there be, if they were perfections belonging to a
corruptible God? What hopes of a resurrection to happiness
can we have, or of the duration of it; if that God that promised
it were not immortal to continue it, as well as powerful to
effect it? His power Avere not almighty, if his duration were not
eternal. If God be eternal, his covenant wfll be so. It is founded
upon the eternity of God; the oath whereby he confirms it, is
by his life : since there is none greater than himself, he swears
by himself, Heb. vi. 13, or by his own life which he engages
together with his eternity for the full performance; so that ifhe
lives for ever, the covenant shall not be disannulled, it is an
immutable counsel, Heb. vi. 16, 17. The immutabflity ofhis
counsel follows the immutabflity of his nature. Immutability
and eternity go hand in hand together. The promise of eternal
life is as ancient as God himself in regard ofthe purpose ofthe
promise, or in regard of the promise made to Christ for us :
" Eternal hfe, which God — promised before the world began,"
Tit. i. 2. As it has an ante-eternity, so it has a post-eternity;
therefore the gospel, which is the new covenant published, is
termed the everlasting gospel. Rev. xiv. 6 ; which can no more
be altered and perish, than God can change and vanish into
nothing. He can as little moraUy deny his truth, as he can
naturally desert his life. The covenant is there represented in
a green colour, to note his perpetual verdure: fhe rainbow, the
emblem of the covenant, about the throne, was like to an emer
ald, a stone of a green colour. Rev. iv. 3; whereas the natural
rainbow has many colours, this but one, to signify its eternity.
If God be eternal, he being our God in covenant is an eternal
good and possession. "This God is our God for ever and
ever," Psal. xlviii. 14. He is a dAvefling-place in all genera
tions. We shall traverse the world awhile, and then arrive at
the blessings Jacob wished for Joseph, the blessings of the ever
lasting hills. Gen. xlix. 26. If an estate of a thousand pounds
per annum render a man's life comfortable for a short term,
how much more raay the soul be swallowed up wifh joy in the
enjoyment of the Creator, whose years never fail, who lives for
ever to be enjoyed, and can keep us in life for ever to enjoy
him? Death Indeed wiU seize upon us by God's irreversible
order, but the immortal Creator wUl make him disgorge his mor
sel, and land us in a glorious immortality; our souls at their

332 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
dissolution, and our bodies atthe resurrection; after which they
shall remain for ever, and employ the extent of that boundless
eternfly in the fruition of the sovereign and eternal God. For
it is impossible that the behever, who is united fo fhe immortal
God that is from everlasting to everlasting, can ever perish; for
being in conjunction with him who is an ever-flowing fountain
of life, he cannot suffer him to remain in the jaws of death.
While God is eternal, and always the same, it is not possible
that those that partake of his spiritual life should not also par
take of his eternal. It is from the consideration of the endless
ness of the years of God that the church comforts herself, that
her children shall continue, and their seed be established for
ever, Psal. cii. 27, 28. And from the eternity of God, Habak-
kuk, chap. i. 12, concludes the eternity of believers, "Art thou
not from everlasting, 0 Lord my God, mine Holy One? we
shall not die." After they are retired frora this world, they
shall live for ever with God, without any change by the multitude
of those imaginable years and ages that shall run for ever. It
is that God that has neither beginning nor end, that is our God;
who has not only imraortality in himself, but immortality to
give out to others. As he has abundance of spirit to quicken
them, Mai. ii. 15, so he has abundance of immortality to con
tinue them. It is only in the consideration of this a man can
with wisdom say. Soul, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up
for many years ; to say it of any other possession, is the greatest
folly in the judgraent of our Saviour, Luke xii. 19, 20. Mor
tality shafl be swaUowed up of imraortality ; rivers of pleasure
shall be for everraore. Death is a word never spoken there by
any, never heard by any in that possession of eternity; it is for
ever put out, as one of Christ's conquered enemies.
The happiness depends upon the presence of God, with
whom believers shall be for ever present. Happiness cannot
perish as long as God lives: he is the first and the last; the first
of all delights, nothing before him; the last of all pleasures, no
thing beyond him: a paradise of delights in every point, with
out a flaming sword.
The enjoyment of God will be as fresh and glorious after
many ages, as it was at first. God is eternal, and eternity knows
no change ; there wfll then be the fullest possession, without
any decay in the object enjoyed. There can be nothing past,
nothing future; time neither adds to it, nor detracts from it;
that infinite fulness of perfection which flourishes in him now,
will flourish eternally, without any discolouring of it in the least
by those innumerable ages that shall run to eternity, much less
any despofling him of it. He is the same in his endless dura
tion, Psal. cu. 27. As God is, so wifl the eternity of him be,
without succession, without division. The fulness of joy will

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 333
be always present; without past to be thought ¦ f with regret
for being gone; without future to be expected with tormenting
desires. When we enjoy God, we enjoy him in his eternity
without any flux; an entire possession of all together, without
the passing away of pleasures that may be wished to return,
or expectation of future joys which might be desired to hasten.
Time is fluid, but eternity is stable ; and after raany ages, the
joys will be as savoury and satisfying, as if they had been but
that raoraent first tasted by our hungry appetites. When the
glory of the Lord shall rise upon you, it shall be so far from
ever setting, that after raillions of years are expired, as nume
rous as the sands on the sea shore, the Sun, in the light of
whose countenance you shall live, shall be as bright as at the
first appearance. He wUl be so far from ceasing to flow, that
he will flow as strong, as full as at the first communication of
himself in glory to the creature. God therefore, as sitting upon
his throne of grace, and acting according to his covenant, is like
a jasper-stone, which is of a green colour, a colour always de
lightful. Rev. iv. 3. Because God is always vigorous and
flourishing; a pure act of life, sparkling new and fresh rays of
life and light to the creature, flourishing with a perpetual
spring, and contenting the most capacious desire; forming your
interest, pleasure, and satisfaction, with an infinite variety,
without any change or succession — he wifl have variety to in
crease delights, and eternity to perpetuate them. This will be
the fruit ofthe enjoyment of an infinite, an eternal God: he is
not a cistern, but a fountain, wherein water is always living
and never putrifies.
If God be eternal, here is a strong ground of comfort against
all the distresses of the church and the threats of the church's
enemies. God's abiding for ever, is the plea Jeremy makes for
his return to his forsaken church. " Thou, 0 Lord, remainest
for ever; thy throne from generation to generation," Lam. v.
19. The church is weak; created things are easily cut off.
What prop is there, but that God that lives for ever? What
though Jerusalem lost its bulwarks, the temple were defaced,
the land wasted, yet the God of Jerusalem sits upon an eternal
throne, and from everlasting to everlasting there is no diminu
tion of his power. The prophet intimates in this coraplaint,
that it is not agreeable to God's eternity to forget his people, to
whom he has from eternity borne good Avill. In the greatest
confusions, the church's eyes are to be fixed upon the eternity
of God's throne, where he sits as Governor of the world. No
creature can take any comfort in this perfection, but the church ;
other creatures depend upon God, but the church is united to
him. The first discovery of the name " I am," whieh signifies the

334 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
Divine eternity as well as immutability, was for the comfort of
the oppressed Israelites in Egypt, Exod. iii. 14, 15. It was then
published from the secret place of the Almighty, as the only
strong cordial to refresh them: it hath not yet, it shall not ever
lose its virtue in any of the miseries that have, or shall succes
sively befall the church. It is a comfort as durable as the God
whose name it is; he is still "I am," and the same to the
church as he Avas then to his Israel. His spiritual Israel have
a greater right to the glories of it, than the carnal Israel could
have. No oppression can be greater than theirs: what was a
comfort suited to that distress, has the same suitableness to
every other oppression. It was not a temporary name, but a
name for ever; his "raeraorial to all generations," ver. 15; and
reaches to the church of the gentiles, with whom he treats as
the God of Abraham, ratifying that covenant by the Messiah,
which he made wflh Abraham the father of the faithful.
The church's enemies are not to be feared; they may spring
as the grass, but soon after do wither by their own inward
principles of decay, or are cut down by the hand of God. They
may be instruments of the anger of God, but they shaU be
scattered as the workers of iniquity by the hand of the Lord,
that is high for evermore, Psal. xcii. 7 — 9, and is engaged, by
his promise, to preserve a church in the world. They raay
threaten, but their breath may vanish as soon as their threat
enings are pronounced; for they carry their breath in no surer
a place than their oavu nostrils, upon which the eternal God
can put his hand, and sink them, wifh all their rage. Do the
prophets and instructors ofthe church live for ever? Zech. i. 5.
No. Shall then the adversaries and disturbers of the church
live for ever? They shall vanish as a shade av; their being de
pends upon fhe eternal God of the faithful, and the everlasting
Judge of fhe wicked. He that inhabits eternity, is above them
that inhabit mortality, and must, whether they wfll or no, " say
to corruption, Thou art my father; and to the worm. Thou art
my mother, and my sister," Job xvii. 14. When they wifl act
with a confidence, as if they were living gods, he will not be
rivalled, but evidence himself to be a living God above them.
Why then should raortal men be feared in their frowns, when
an immortal God has proraised protection in his word, and
lives for ever to perform it?
Hence follows another comfort; since God is eternal, he has
as much power as will to be as good as his word. His pro
mises are established upon his eternity, and this perfection is a
main ground of trust; "Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in
the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength, Isa. xxvi. 4. His
name is doubled, that name "Jab" and "Jehovah," which
was always the strength of his people ; and not a single one,

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 335
but the strength or rock of eternities; not a failing but an eter
nal truth and power; that as his strength is eternal, so our trust
in him should imitate his eternity in its perpetuity: and there
fore in the despondency of his people, as if God had forgot his
promises, and raade no account of thera, or his word, and were
weary of doing good, he calls them to reflect on what they had
heard ofhis eternity, which is attended wifh immutability, who
has an infiniteness of power to perform his will, and an infi
niteness of understanding to judge of the right seasons of it,
Isa. xl. 27, 28. His wisdom, Avill, truth, have always been,
and wUl to eternity be the same. He wants not life, any more
than love, for ever to help us; since his word is passed, he will
never fail us; since his life continues, he can never be out of a
capacity to relieve us: and therefore whenever we foolishly
charge hira by our distrustful thoughts, we forget his love,
which raade the proraise, and his eternal life, which can ac-
coraplish it. As his word is the bottom of our trust, and his
truth is the assurance of his sincerity, so his eternity is the as
surance of his ability to perform. His word stands for ever,
Isa. xl. 8. And man may- be ray friend this day, and be in an
other world to-raorrow; and though he be never so sincere in
his word, yet death snaps his life asunder, and forbids the exe
cution. But as God cannot die, so he cannot lie, because he is
the eternity of Israel. The Strength of Israel will not lie, nor
repent, the perpetuity or eternity of Israel, 1 Sam. xv. 29.
Eternity implies immutability; we could have no ground for
our hopes, if we knew hira not to be longer lived than our
selves. The Psalmist beats off our hands from trust in men,
because their breath goes forth, they return to their earth, and
in that day their thoughts perish, Psal. cxlvi. 3, 4. And if the
God of Jacob were like them, what happiness could we have
in making hira our help? As his sovereignty in giving precepts
had not been a strong ground of obedience, without consider
ing hira as an eternal LaAvgiver, who could maintain his rights,
so his kindness in making the promises had not been a strong
ground of confidence, without considering him as an eternal
promisor, whose thoughts and whose life can never perish.
And this may be one reason why the Holy Ghost mentions so
often the post- eternity of God, and so little his ante-eternity;
because that is the strongest foundation of our faith and hope,
which respects chiefly that which is future, and not that which
is past; yet indeed no assurance of his after-eternity can be
had, if his ante-eternity be not certain.' If he had a beginning,
he may have an end; and if he had a change in his nature, he
might have in his counsels. But since all the resolves of God
are as himself is, eternal, and all the promises of God are the
" Crellius de Deo, cap. 18. p. 44, 45.

336 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
fruits of his counsel, therefore they cannot be changed: if he
should change thera for the better, he would not have been
eternally wise, to know what was best; if for the worse, he
had not been eternally good or just. Men may break their
promises, because they are made without foresight; but God,
that inhabits eternity, foreknows all things that shall be done
under the sun, as if they had been then acting before him; and
nothing can intervene, or work a change in his resolves, be
cause the least circumstances were eternally foreseen by him.
Though there raay be variations and changes to our sight, the
winds raay tack about, and every hour new and cross accidents
happen, yet the eternal God, who is eternaUy true to his word,
sits at the helm, and the winds and the waves obey him. And
though he should defer his proraise a thousand years, yet he is
not slack, for he defers it but a day to his eternity, 2 Pet. iii. 8,
9. And who would not with corafort stay a day in expectation
of a considerable advantage ?
(3.) For exhortation. — To something which concerns us in
ourselves. — To something which concerns us with respect to
God. [1.] To something which concerns us in ourselves.
Let us be deeply affected with our sins long since committed.
Though they are past with us, they are in regard of God's eter
nity present with him; there is no succession in eternity, as
there is in time. All things are before God at once ; our sins
are before him, as if committed this raoraent, though coramitted
long ago. As he is what he is in regard of duration, so he
knows what he knows in regard of knowledge. As he is not
more than he was, nor shall not be any more than he is, so he
always knew what he knows, and shall not cease to know what
he now knows. As hiraself, so his knowledge is one indivisi
ble point of eternity. He knows nothing, but what be did know
from eternity; he shall know no more for the future, than he
now knows. Our sins being present with him in his eternity,
should be present with us in our regard of remembrance of
them, and sorrow for them. What though many years are
lapsed, much time run out, and our iniquities alraost blotted
out of our memory; yet since a thousand years are in God's
sight, and in regard of his eternity, but as a day, (" a thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a
watch in the night," Psal. xc. 4,) they are before him. For sup
pose a man were as old as the world, above five thousand
six hundred years, the sins committed five thousand years ago,
according to that rule, but as if they were comraitted five days
ago; so that sixty-two years are but as an hour and half, and
the sins committed forty years since, are as if they were com
mitted but this present hour. But if we wfll go further, and con-

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 33'7
sider them but as a watch ofthe night, about three hours, (for the
night consisting of twelve hours, was divided into set watches,)
then a thousand years are but as three hours in the sight of
God; and then sins committed sixty years ago, are but as if
they were committed Avithin these five minutes.
Let none of us set hght by the iniquities committed many
years ago, and imagine that length of time can wipe out their
guilt. No; let us consider them in relation to God's eternity,
and excite an inward remorse, as if they had been but the birth
of this moment.
Let the consideration of God's eternity abate our pride. This
is the design of the verses foUowing the text, the eternity of
God being so sufficient to make us understand our own nothing
ness, which ought to be one great end of man, especiaUy as
fallen ; the eternity of God should make us as much disesteem
ourselves, as the exceflency of God made Job abhor himself.
Job xiii. 5, 6. His excellency should humble us under a sense of
our vanity, and his eternity under a sense of the shortness of
our duration. If man compares himself with other creatures, he
raay be too sensible of his greatness; but if he compares him
self with God, he cannot but be sensible of his baseness.
In regard of our irapotence to comprehend this eternity of
God. How little do we know, how litfle can we know of God's
eternity! We cannot fully conceive it, much less express it;
we have but a brutish understanding in all those things, as
Agur said of himself, Prov. xxx. 2.
What is infinite and eternal cannot be comprehended by
finite and temporary creatures.' If it could, it would notbe
infinite and eternal; for to know a thing, is to know the extent
and cause of it. It is repugnant to eternity to be known, be
cause it has no limits, no causes ; the most soaring understand
ing cannot have a proportionable understanding of it. What
disproportion is there between a drop of water and the sea in
their greatness and motion ! yet by a drop we raay arrive to a
knowledge of the nature of the sea, which is a mass of drops
joined together. But the longest duration of times cannot raake
us know what eternity is, because there is no proportion be
tween tirae and eternity. The years of God are as numberless
as his thoughts, Psal. xl. 5, and our minds as far from reckon
ing the one as the other. If our understandings are too gross to
comprehend the majesty of his infinite works, they are much
more too short to comprehend the infiniteness of his eternity.
In regard of the vast disproportion of our duration to this
duration of God.
We have more of not being than being. We were nothing
from an unbegun eternity, and we might have been nothing to
' Charrontrois. Vent, livr, 1. chap. 5. p. 17, &c.
Vol. I.— 43

338 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
an endless eternity, had not God called us into being; and ifhe
please, we may be nothing by as short an annihilating word,
as we Avere something by a creating word. As it is the pre
rogative of God to be, " I am that I am;" so it is the property
of a creature to be, I am not what I am; I am not by myself
what I am, but by the indulgence of another. I was nothing
formerly, I raay be nothing again, unless he that is "I am,"
make me to subsist what I now am. Nothing is as much the
title of the creature, as Being is the title of God. Nothing is
so holy as God, because nothing has being as God. " There is
none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee," 1 Sam.
ii. 2. Man's life is an image, a dream, which are next to no
thing; and if compared with God, worse than nothing; a nul
lity as well as a vanity, because with God only is the fountain
of life, Psal. xxxvi. 9. The creature is but a drop of life from
him, dependent on him. A drop of Avater is a nothing, if
compared with the vast conflux of Avaters and numberless drops
in the ocean.
How unworthy is it for dust and ashes kneaded together in
tirae, to strut against the Father of eternity! Much more un
worthy for that which is nothing, worse than nothing, to quar
rel wifh that which is only being, and equal himself with him
that inhabits eternity.
What being we have, had a beginning. After an unaccount
able eternity was run out, in the very dregs of time, a few years
ago we were created, and made of the basest and vilest dross
of the world, the slime and dust of the earth; made of that
wherewith birds build their nests: made of that which creeping
things make their habitation, and beasts trample upon. How
monstrous is pride in such a creature, to aspire as if he were
the Father of eternity, and as eternal as God, and so his own
eternity! What being we have is but of a short duration in regard of
our life in this world. Our life is in a constant change and
flux, Ave remain not the same an entire day. Youth quickly
succeeds childhood, and age as speedily treads upon the heels
of youth; there is a continual defluxion of minutes, as there is
of sands in a glass. He is as a watch wound up at the beginning
of his life, and from that time is running down, tfll he comes to
the bottom: some part of our lives is cut off every day, every
minute. Life is but a moment; what is past cannot be recalled;
what is future cannot be insured. If we enjoy this moment,
we have lost that which is past, and shafl presently lose this by
the next that is to come.
The short duration of men is set out in Scripture by such
creatures as soon disappear. A Avorm, Job xxv. 6, that can
scarce ouflive a winter; grass, that withers by the summer sun;

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 339
life is a flower soon withering. Job xiv. 2, a vapour soon vanish
ing, James iv. 14, a smoke soon disappearing, Psal. cii. 3. The
strongest man is but compacted dust, the fabric must moulder;
the highest mountain falls and comes to nought. Time gives
place to eternity; we live now, and die to-morrow. Not a
man, since the world began, ever lived a day in God's sight;
for no man ever lived a thousand years. The longest day of
any man's life never amounted to twenty-four hours in the
account of Divine eternity. A life of so many hundred years,
with the addition " he died," makes up the greatest part of the
history of the patriarchs. Gen. v. And since the life of man
has been curtailed, if any be in the world eighty years, he
scarce properly lives sixty of them, since the fourth part of time
is at least consumed in sleep.
A greater difference there is between the duration of God,
and that of a creature, than between the life of one for a minute,
and the life of one that should live as many years as the whole
globe of heaven and earth, if changed into papers, could con
tain figures. And this life, though but of a short duration
according to the period God hath determined, is easfly cut off;
the treasure of life is deposited in a brittle vessel: a small stone
hitting against Nebuchadnezzar's statue, wfll tumble it down
into a poor and nasty grave. A grape-stone, the bone of a fish,
a small fly in the throat, a moist damp, are enough to destroy
an earthly eternity, and reduce it to nothing.
What a nothing then is our shortness, if compared with God's
eternity; our fraflty, with God's duration! How hurable then
should perishing creatures be before an eternal God, with whom
our days are as a handbreath, and our age as nothing! Psal.
xxxix. 5. The angels that have been of as long a duration as
heaven and earth, tremble before him, the heavens melt at his
presence; and shall we that are but of yesterday, approach a
Divine eternity with unhumbled souls, and offer the calves of
our lips with the pride of devUs, and stand upon our terms with
him, without falling upon our faces, with a sense that Ave are
but dust and ashes, and creatures of time? How easy is it to
reason out man's humihty, but how hard is it to reason man
into it!
Let the consideration of God's eternity take off our love and
confidence from the world, and the things thereof The eter
nity of God reproaches a pursuit of the world, as preferring a
momentary pleasure before an everlasting God; as though a
temporal worid'could be a better supply than a God whose
years never fafl. Alas ! what is this earth men are so greedy
of, and wfll get, though by blood and sweat ? what is this
whole earth, if we had the entire possession of it, if compared
with the vast heavens, the seat of angels aud blessed spirits ?

340 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
It is but as an atom to the greatest mountain, or as a drop of
dcAV to the immense ocean. How foolish is it, to prefer a drop
before the sea, or an atom before the world! The earth is but
a point to the sun; the sun, with its whole orb, but a little part
of the heavens, if compared Avith the whole fabric. If a man
had the possession of all those, there could be no comparison
between those that have had a beginning, and shall have an
end, and God who is without either of them. Yet, how many
are there, that make nothing of the Divine eternity, and ima
gine an eternity of nothing!
The world has been but of a short standing. It is not yet
six thousand years since the foundations of it were laid; and
therefore it cannot have a boundless excellency, as that God,
who has been from everlasting, does possess. If Adam had
lived to this day, and been as absolute lord of his posterity as
he was of the other creatures, had it been a competent object
to take up his heart, had he not been a madman, to have pre
ferred this little created pleasure before an everlasting uncreated
God ? a thing that had a dependent beginning, before that Avhich
had an independent eternity?
The beauties of the Avorld are transitory and perishing. The
Avhole world is nothing else but a fluid thing, the fashion of it
isa pageantry, passing away, 1 Cor. vii. 31; though the glories
of it might be conceived greater than they are, yet they are not
consistent, but transient. There cannot be an entire enjoyment
of them; because they groAV up, and expire every moment, and
slip away between our fingers while we are using them. Have
we not heard of God's dispersing the greatest empires like
chaff before a whirlwind, or as smoke out of a chimney, Hos.
xiii. 3; which though it appears as a compacted cloud, as if it
would choke the sun, is quickly scattered into several parts of
the air, and becomes invisible? Nettles have often been heirs
to stately palaces, as God threatens Israel, Hos. ix. 6. We
cannot promise ourselves over night any thing the next day.
A kingdom, with the glory of a throne, may be cut off in a
morning, Hos. x. 15. The new wine raay be taken from the
raouth, when the vintage is ripe; the devouring locust may
snatch away both the hopes of that and the harvest, Joel. i. 10.
They are therefore things which are not, and nothing cannot be
a fit object for confidence or affection. " Wilt thou set fhine
eyes upon that Avhich is not ? for riches certainly raake them
selves wings," Prov. xxiu. 5. They are not properly beings;
because they are not stable, but flitting. They are not; because
they may not be the next moment to us what they are this;
they are but cisterns, not springs, and broken cisterns, not
sound and stable; no solidity in their substance, nor stability in
their duration. What a foolish thing is fl then to prefer a

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 341
transient fehcity, a mere nuUfly, before an eternal God! What
a senseless thing would it be in a man, to prefer the map of a
kingdom, which the hand of a chUd can tear in pieces, before
the kingdom shadowed by it! How much more inexcusable is
it to value things, that are so far from being eternal, that they
are not so fliuch as dusky reserablances of an eternity ! Were
the things of the world more glorious than they are, yet they
are but as a counterfeit sun in a cloud, which comes short of
the true sun in the heavens both in glory and duration; and to
esteem them before God, is inconceivably baser, than if a man
should value a particoloured bubble in the air before a durable
rock of diamonds. The comforts of this world are as candles,
that wifl end in a snuff; whereas the felicity that flows from
an eternal God, is like the sun, that shines more and more to a
perfect day.
They cannot therefore be fit for a soul, which was made to
have an interest in God's eternity. The soul being of a per
petual nature, was made for the fruition of an eternal good;
without such a good it can never be perfect. Perfection, that
noble thing, rises not from any thing in this world, nor is it a
title due to the soul Avhile in this world; it is then they are said
to be made perfect, when they arrive at that entire conjunction
with the eternal God in another life, Heb. xii. 23. The soul
cannot be ennobled by an acquaintance with these things, or
established by a dependence on them ; they cannot confer, what
a rational nature should desire, or supply it with Avhat it
wants. The soul has a resemblance to God in a post-eternity.
Why should it be drawn aside by the blandishments of earthly
things, to neglect its true estabhshment, and lacquey after the
body, which is but the shadow of the soul, and was made to
follow it and serve it ? But whfle it busieth itself altogether in
the concerns of a perishing body, and seeks satisfaction in things
that glide away, it becomes rather a body than soul, descends
below its nature, reproaches that God who has imprinted
upon it an image of his own eternity, and loses the comfort of
the everlastingness of its Creator. How shall the whole world,
if our lives were as durable as that, be a happy eternity to us,
who have souls that shall survive afl the delights of it, which
must be tortured in those flames, that shall fire the whole
frame of nature at the general conflagration of the world ? 2
Pet. in. 10.
Therefore let us provide for a happy interest in the eternity
of God. Man is made for an eternal state. The soul has such
a perfection in its nature that it is fit for eternity, and cannot
display aU its operations but in eternity. To an eternity it
must go, and live as long as God himself lives. Things of a

342 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
short duration are not proportioned to a soul made for an eter
nal continuance ; to see that it be a comfortable eternity is
worth all our care. Man is a forecasting creature, considers
not only the present, but the future too, in his provisions for
his family; and shall he disgrace his nature in casting off aU
consideration of a future eternity ? Get possession therefore of
the eternal God. A portion in this life is the lot of those Avho
shall be for ever miserable, Psal. xvii. 14; but God, an ever
lasting portion is the lot of them that are designed for happi
ness. " God is my portion for ever," Psal. Ixxiii. 26.
Time is short, 1 Cor. vii. 29. The whole time for which
God designed this building of the world is of a httle compass;
it is a stage erected for rational creatures to act their parts upon
for a few thousand years; the greatest part of which time is
run out; and then shall time like a rivulet fall into the sea of
eternity, from whence it sprung. As time is but a slip of eter
nity, so it will end in eternity; our advantages consist in the
present instant. What is past never promised a return, and
cannot be fetched back by all our vows. What is future we
cannot promise ourselves to enjoy; we raay be snatched away
before it comes. Every minute that passes speaks the fewer
remaining till the time of death. And as we are every hour
further from our beginning, we are nearer our end. The child
born this day grows up, to grow nothing at last. In all ages
there is but a step between us and death, as David said of him
self, 1 Sam. XX. 3. The little time that remains for the devil
tiU the day of judgment, envenoms his wrath ; he rages be
cause his time is short, Rev. xii. 12. The little time that re
mains between this moment and our death, should quicken our
diligence to inherit the endless and unchangeable eternity of
God. Often meditate on the eternity of God. The holiness, power,
and eternity of God, are the fundamental articles of all religion,
upon which fhe whole body of it leans ; his holiness for con
formity to him, his power and eternity for the support of faith
and hope. The strong and incessant cries of the four beasts,
representing that Christian church, are, "Holy, holy, holy.
Lord God almighty, which was, and is, and is to come," Rev.
iv. 8. Though his power is intimated, yet the chiefest is his
holiness, three times expressed; and his eternity, which is re
peated ver. 9, " who lives for ever and ever." This ought to
be fhe constant practice in fhe church ofthe gentiles, which this
book chiefly respects. The meditation of his converting grace
manifested to Paul, ravished the aposfle's heart, but not with
out the triumphant consideration of his immortality and eter
nity, which are the principal parts of the doxology; "Now
unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,

ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 343
be honour and glory for ever and ever," 1 Tim. i. 15 — 17. It
could be no great transport to the spirit, to consider him glorious
Avithout considering him immortal. The unconfinedness of
his perfections in regard of time, presents the soul with matter
of the greatest complacency. The happiness of our souls de
pends upon his other attributes, but the perpetuity of it upon
his eternity. Is it a comfort to vieAV his immense wisdom, his
overflowing goodness, his tender mercy, his unerring truth?
What comfort were there in any of those, if it were a Avisdom
that could be baffled, a goodness that could be damped, a
mercy that can expire, and a truth that can perish with fhe
subject of it ? Without eternity, what were all his other per
fections, but as glorious yet withering flowers, a great but a
decaying beauty ? By a frequent medflation of God's eternity
we should become more sensible of our own vanity and the
world's triflingness. How nothing would ourselves, how no
thing would aU other things, appear in our eyes! How coldly
should Ave desire them ! How feebly should we place any
trust in them ! Should we not think ourselves worthy of con
tempt to dote upon a perishing glory, to expect support from
an arm of flesh, when there is an eternal beauty to ravish us,
an eternal arm to protect us? Asaph, when he considered God
a portion for ever, thought nothing of the glories of the earth
or the beauties of the created heavens worth his appetite or
complacency, but God, Psal. Ixxiii. 25, 26. Besides, an ele
vated frame of heart at the consideration of God's eternity,
would batter down the strong hold and engines of any tempta
tion. A slight temptation will not know where to find and
catch hold of a soul high and hid in a meditation ofit; and if it
does, there Avill not be wanting frora hence preservatives to re
sist and conquer it. What transitory pleasures will not the
thoughts of God's eternity stifle ! When this work busieth a
soul, it is too great to suffer it to descend, to listen to a sleeve
less errand from hell or the world. The wanton aUurements
of the flesh will be put off with indignation. The proffers of
the world will be ridiculous Avhen they are cast into the
balance with the eternity of God, which sticking in our thoughts,
we shall not be so easy a prey for the fowler's gin.
Let us therefore often meditate upon this, but not in a bare
speculation, without engaging our affections, and making every
notion ofthe Divine eternity end in a suitable impression upon
our hearts. This would be much like the disciples gazing upon
the heavens at the ascension of their Master, while they forgot
the practice ofhis orders. Acts i. 11. We may else find some
thing of the nature of God; and lose ourselves, not only in eter
nity but to eternity.

344 ON THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
[2.] And hence the second part of the exhortation is to some
thing which concerns us with a respect to God.
If God be eternal, how worthy is he of our choicest affections,
and strongest desires of communion with him! Is not every
thing to be valued according to the greatness of its being? How
then should we love him, who is not only lovely in his nature,
but eternally lovely, having frora everlasting all those perfec
tions centred in hiraself which appear in tirae ! If every thing
be lovely by how much the more it partakes of the nature of
God who is the chief good, how much more infinitely lovely is
God, who is superior to all other good, and eternally so! Nota
God of a few minutes, months, years, or mUlions of years; not
ofthe dregs of time or the top of time, but of eternity; above
time, inconceivably immense beyond time. The loving him
infinitely, perpetually, is an act of homage due to him for his
eternal excellency. We may give him the one, since our souls
are immortal, though Ave cannot the other, because they are
finite. Since he encloses in himself all the excellencies of
heaven and earth for ever, he should have an affection, not only
of time in this world, but of eternity in the future; and if we
did not OAve him a love for Avhat we are by him, we owe him
a love for what he is in himself; and more for what he is, than
for what he is to us. He is more worthy of our affections be
cause he is the eternal God, than because he is our Creator ; be
cause he is more excellent in his nature than in his transient
actions. The beams of his goodness to us, are to direct our
thoughts and affections to him ; but his own eternal excellency
ought to be the ground and foundation of our affections to him.
And truly, since nothing but God is eternal, nothing but God is
worth the loving ; and we do but a just right to our love, to pitch
it upon that which can always possess us, and be possessed by
us; upon an object that cannot deceive our affection, and put it
out of countenance by a dissolution.
And if our happiness consists in being like God, we should
imitate him in loving him as he loves himself, and as long as he
loves hiraself God cannot do more to himself than love him
self; he can make no addition to his essence, nor diminution
from it. What should we do less to an eternal Being than to
bestow affections upon him like his own to himself, since we
can find nothing so durable as himself, for which we should
love it?
He only is worthy of our best service. The Ancient of days
is to be served before all that are younger than hiraself; our
best obedience is due to him as a God of unconfined exceUency.
Every thing that is excellent deserves a veneration suitable to
its excellency. As God is infinite, he has right to a boundless
service; as he is eternal, he has right to a perpetual service.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 345
As service is a debt of justice upon the account of the excel
lency of his nature, so a perpetual service is as much a debt of
justice upon the accountof his eternity. If God be infinite and
eternal, he merits an honour and comportment from his crea
tures suited to the unlimited perfection of his nature and the
duration of his being. How worthy is the psalmist's resolu
tion! "I wiU sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I wiU sing
praise to my God whfle I have my being," Psal. civ. 33: it is
the use he makes of the endless duration of the glory of God,
and wifl extend to all other service as weU as praise. To serve
other things, or to serve ourselves, is too vast a service upon
that which is nothing. In devoting ourselves to God, we serve
him that is; that was, so as that he never began; is to come, so
as that he never shall end; by whom all things are Avhat they
are; who has both eternal knowledge to remember our service,
and eternal goodness to reward it.

DISCOURSE VI.
ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
Psalm cii. 26, 27. — They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them
shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they
shall be changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
This psalm contains a complaint of a people pressed with a
great calamity; some think of the Jewish church in Babylon;
others think the psalmist doth here personate mankind lying
under a state of corruption, because he wishes for the coming
of the Messiah, to accomplish that redemption promised by
God and needed by them. Indeed the title of the psalm is,
"A prayer of the affiicted, when he is overwhelmed, and
poureth out his complaint before the Lord;" whether afflicted
wflh the sense of corruption, or with the sense of oppression.
And the redemption by the Messiah, which the ancient church
looked upon as the fountain of their deliverance from a sinful
or a servile bondage, is in this psalm spoken of: a set time ap
pointed for the discovery of his mercy to Zion, ver. 13; an
appearance in glory to build up Zion, ver. 16; the loosening
of the prisoner by redemption, and them that are appointed to
death, ver. 20; the calhng of the gentiles, ver. 22. And the
latter part of the psalm, wherein are the verses I have read,
are applied to Christ, Heb. i. Whatsoever the design of the
psalm might be, many things are intermingled that concern the
kingdom of the Messiah, and redemption by Christ.
Vol. I. — 44

346 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
Some make three parts ofthe psalra:
A petition plainly delivered, ver. 1,2. "Hear ray prayer,
0 Lord, and let my cry come unto thee," &c. — The petition
strongly and argumentatively enforced and pleaded, ver. 3,
from the misery of the petitioner in himself, and his reproach
from his eneraies. — An acting of faith in the expectation of an
answer in the general rederaption proraised, ver. 12, 13, 15.
" But thou, 0 Lord, shalt endure for ever; — thou shalt arise,
and have raercy upon Zion; — the heathen shall fear thy name."
The first part is the petition pleaded; the second part is the
petition answered in an assurance, that there should in time
be a full deliverance. The design of the sacred penman is fo
confirm the church in the truth of the Divine promises, that
though the foundations of the Avorld should be ript up, and the
heavens clatter together, the whole fabric of them be unpinned
and fall to pieces, and the firmest parts of it dissolved; yet the
Church should continue in its stabUity, because it stands not
upon the changeableness of creatures, but is buUt upon the
immutable rock ofthe truth of God, which is as little subject to
change as his essence.'
" They shall perish, thou shalt change them." As he had
before ascribed to God the foundation of heaven and earth,
ver. 25, so he ascribes to God here the destruction of them:
both the beginning and end of the world are here ascertained.
There is nothing indeed from the present appearance of things
that can demonstrate the cessation of the world; the heaven
and earth stand firm; the motions of the heavenly bodies are
the same, their beauty is not decayed ; individuals corrupt, but
the species and kinds remain; the successions of the year ob
serve their due order ; but the sin of man renders the change
of the present appearance of the world necessary, to accomplish
the design of God for the glory of his elect. The heavens do
not naturally perish, as some fancied an old age of the world,
wherein it must necessarily decay as the bodies of animals do;
or that the parts of the heavens are broken off by their rubbing
one against another in their motion, and, falling to the earth,
are the seeds of those things that grow up among us.^
" The earth and heavens." He names here the most stable
parts of the world, and the most beautiful parts of fhe creation,
those that are freest from corruptibflity and change, to fllustrate
thereby the immutability of God; that though the heavens and
earth have a prerogative of fixedness above other parts of the
v/orld and the creatures that reside below; though the heavens
remain the same as they were created, and the centre of the
earth retains its fixedness, and are as beautiful and fresh in their
age as they were in their youth many years ago, notAvithstand-
1 Parens. 2 Plin. Hist. lib. 2. cap. 3.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 3417
ing the change of the elements, fire and water being often
turned into air, so that there may remain but little of that air
which was first created by reason of the continual transrauta-
tion; yet this firraness of the earth and heavens is not to be re
garded in coraparison of the unmovableness and fixedness of
the being of God. As their beauty comes short ofthe glory of
his being, so does their firmness come short of his stability.
Some hy heavens and earth, understand the creatures which
reside in the earth, and those which are in the air, Avhich is
called heaven often in Scripture ; but the ruin and fall of these
being seen every day, had been no fit illustration of the un
changeableness of God."
" They shall perish, they shall be changed."
They may perish, say sorae; they have it not from them
selves that they do not perish, but from thee, Avho didst indue
them with an incorruptible nature; they shall perish if thou
speakest the word ; thou canst with as much ease destroy
them as thou didst create them. But the psalmist speaks not
of their possibUity, but the certainty of their perishing.
They shall perish in their qualities and motion, not in their
substance, say others. They shall cease from that motion
which is designed properly for the generation and corruption
of things in the earth; but in regard of their substance and
beauty they shall remain: as when the strings or wheels of a
clock or watch are taken off, the material parts remain ; though
the motion of it, and the use for discovering the time of the
day ceaseth. To perish, doth not signify always a falling into
nothing, an annihilation, by which both the matter and the
forra are destroyed; but a ceasing of the present appearance of
them ; a ceasing to be what they now are, as a man is said to
perish when he dies, whereas the better part of man does not
cease to be. ' The figure of the body moulders away, and the
matter of it returns to dust ; but the soul being immortal ceases
not to act, when the body by reason of the absence of the soul
is incapable of acting. So the heavens shall perish ; the ap
pearance they now have shall vanish, and a more glorious and
incorruptible frame be erected by the power and goodness of
God. The dissolution of heaven and earth is meant by the
word "perish;" the raising a new frame is signified by the
word " changed;" as if the Spirit of God would prevent any
wrong meaning of the word " perish," by alleviating the sense
of that by another which signifies only a mutation and change;
as when we change a habit and garment, we quit the old to
receive the new.
" As a garment, as a vesture." Thou shalt change them,"
«w'laj, thou shalt fold them up. The heavens are compared to
1 Cocceius in loc. ' Septuag.

348 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
a curtain, Psal. civ. 2, and shall in due time be folded up as
clothes and curtains are. As a garment encompasses the whole
body, so do the heavens encircle the earth. Some say, as a
garment is folded up to be laid aside, that when there is need
it may be taken again for use; so shalt thou fold up the hea
vens like a garment, that Avhen they are repaired thou mayst
again stretch them out about the earth; thou shalt fold them
up, so that what did appear shall not now appear.' It may be
illustrated by the metaphor of a scroll or book, which the Spirit
of God uses, Isa. xxxiv. 4. " The heaven departed as a scroll,
when it is roUed together," Rev. vi. 14. When a book is rolled
up or shut, nothing can be read in ittUl it be opened again; so
the face of the heavens, wherein the stars are as letters de
claring the glory of God, shaU be shut or rolled together, so
that nothing shall appear till by its renovation it be opened
again. As a garment it shall be changed, not to be used in the
same fashion and for the same use again. It seems indeed to
be for the worse; an old garment is not changed but into rags,
to be put to other uses, and afterwards thrown upon the dung
hill: but similitudes are not to be pressed too far, and this will
not agree with the new heavens and new earth, physically so,
as well as metaphoricaUy so. It is not likely the heavens will
be put to a worse use than God designed them for in creation:
however, a change as a garment speaks not a total corruption,
but an alteration of qualities; as a garment not to be used in
the same fashion as before. We may observe.
That it is probable the world shall not be annihflated, but re
fined. It shall lose its present form and fashion, but not its
foundation. Indeed, as God raised it from nothing, so he can
reduce it to nothing; yet it does not appear that God wUl anni
hilate it, and utterly destroy both the matter and form of it;
part shafl be consumed and part purified, " The heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved — nevertheless we, according to his
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth," 2 Pet. iii. 12,
13. They shall be melted doAvn as gold by the artificer, to be
refined from its dross, and wrought into a more beautiful
fashion, that they may serve the design of God for those that
shall reside therein: a new world Avherein righteousness shafl
dwell, the apostle opposing it thereby to the old world, wherein
wickedness did reside. The heavens are to be purged, as the
vessels that held the sin-offering were to be purified by the fire
of the sanctuary.
God indeed wUl take doAvn this scaffold Avhich he has built
to publish his glory. As every individual has a certain term
of its duration, so an end is appointed for the universal nature
of heaven and earth: "The heavens shall vanish away like
' Estius in Heb. 1 .

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 349
smoke," which disappears, Isa. h. 6. As smoke is resolved
and attenuated into air, not annihilated, so shall the world as
sume a new face, and have a greater clearness and splendour:
just as the bodies of men dissolved into dust, shall have more
glorious qualities at their resurrection; or as a vessel of gold
is melted down to remove the batterings in it, and receive a
more comely forra by the skill of the workman.
The world was not destroyed by the deluge. It was rather
washed by water than consumed: so it shall be rather refined
by the last fire, than lie under an irrecoverable ruin.
It is not likely God would liken the everlastingness of his
covenant, and the perpetuity of his spiritual Israel, to the dura
tion of the ordinances of the heavens, as he does in Jer. xxxi.
35, 36, if they were whoUy to depart frora before him. Though
that place may only tend to an assurance of a church in the
world AvhUe the world endures, yet it would be but smaU com
fort, if the happiness of believers should endure no longer than
the heavens and earth, if they were to have a total period.
Besides, the bodies of the saints must have place for their
support to move in, and glorious objects suited to those glori
ous senses which shaU be restored to them; not in any carnal
way which our Saviour rejects, when he says there is no eat
ing, or drinking, or marrying, &c. in the other world, but where
by they raay glorify God; though how or in what manner their
senses shall be used would be rashness to determine; only
something is necessary for the corporeal state of men, that there
may be an employraent for their senses as well as their souls.
Again, how could fhe creature, the world, or any part of it,
be said to be " delivered frora the bondage of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the sons of God," Rom. viii. 21, if the whole
frame of heaven and earth were to be annihilated? The apostle
also says that the creature waits with an earnest expectation
for this manifestation of the sons of God, ver. 19, which would
have no foundation if the whole frame should be reduced to
nothing. What joyful expectation can there be in any of a
total ruin ? How should the creature be capable of partaking
in this glorious liberty of the sons of God? As the world for
the sin of raan lost its first dignity, and was cursed after the
fafl, and the beauty bestowed upon it by creation defaced; so
it shall recover that ancient glory, when he shall be fully re
stored by the resurrection to that dignity he lost by his first
sin.' As raan shaU be freed frora his corruptibility to receive
that glory Avhich is prepared for hira; so shall the creatures be
freed from that imperfection or corruptibility, those stains and
spots upon the face of them, to receive a new glory suited to
their nature and ansAverable to the design of God, when the
1 Hyper, in Heb. i.

350 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
glorious liberty of the saints shall be accomplished. As when
a prince's nuptials are solemnized, the whole country echoes
with joy; so the inanimate creatures, when the time of the mar
riage of the Lamb is come, shall have a delight and pleasure
from that renovation.' The apostle sets forth the whole world
as a person groaning, and the Scripture is frequent in such
metaphors; as when the creatures are said to wait upon God,
and to be troubled, Psal. civ. 27. 29; the hUls are said to leap,
and the mountains to rejoice: the creature is said to groan, as
the heavens are said to declare the glory of God, passively,
naturaUy, not rationaUy. It is not likely angels are here meant,
though they cannot but desire it: since they are affected with
the dishonour and reproach God has in the world, they cannot
but long for the restoration of his honour in the restoration of
the creature to its true end : and indeed the angels are employed
to serve man in this sinful state, and cannot but in holiness wish
the creature freed from his corruption. Nor is it meant of the
ncAV creatures which have the first fruits of the Spirit, those he
brings in afterwards, groaning and waiting for the adoption,
ver. 23; Avhere he distinguishes the rational creature from the
creature he had spoken of before: if he had meant the believ
ing creature by that creature that desired the liberty of the
sons of God, what need had there been of that additional dis
tinction. And not only they, but we also, Avho have the first-
fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves? Whereby it seems
he means some creatures below rational creatures, since neither
angels nor blessed souls can be said to travail in pain, with that
distress as a woman in travail has, as the word signifies, who
perforra the work joyfuUy Avhich God sets them upon.^ If the
creatures be subject to vanity by the sin of man, they shall also
partake of a happiness by the restoration of man. The earth
has borne thorns and thistles, and venomous beasts; the air has
had its tempests and infectious qualities ; the water has caused
its floods and deluges. The creature has been abused to luxury
and intemperance, and been tyrannized over by man, contrary
to the end of its creation. It is convenient that some time
should be allotted for the creature's attaining its true end, and
that it may partake of the peace of raan, as it has done of the
fruits ofhis sin; otherwise it Avould seem that sin had prevafled
more than grace, and would have had more power to deface,
than grace to restore things into their due order.
Again, upon what account should the Psalmist exhort the
heavens to rejoice, and the earth to be glad, when God comes
to judge the world with righteousness, Psal. xcvi. 11 — 13, if
they should be annihflated and sunk for ever into nothing? It
would seem, says Daifle, to be an impertinent figure, if the
' Mestrezat sur. Heb. i. 2 ibjd.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 351
Judge of the world brought them to a total destruction; and
entire ruin could not be matter of triumph to creatures, who
naturally have that instinct or inclination put into them by their
Creator to preserve themselves, and to affect their oAvn pre
servation. Again, the Lord is to rejoice in his works: " The glory ofthe
Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works,"
Psal. civ. 31; not has, but shall rejoice in his works; in the
works of creation; which the psalmist had enumerated, and
which is the whole scope of the psalra: and he intimates that
it is part of the glory of the Lord which endures for ever, that
is, his manifestative glory, to rejoice in his works. The glory
of the Lord must be understood with reference to the creation
he had spoken of before. How short was that joy God had in
his works after he had sent them beautified out of his hand!
How soon did he repent, not only that he had made man, but
was grieved at the heart also, that he made the other creatures
which man's sin had disordered! Gen. vi. 7. What joy can
God have in them, since the curse upon the entrance of sin into
the world remains upon them ? If they are to be annihilated
upon the fufl restoration of his hohness, what tirae wUl God
have to rejoice in the other works of creation ? It is the joy of
God to see all his works in their due order; every one pointing
to their true end; marching together in their exceUency, accord
ing to his first intendment in their creation. Did God create
the world to perform its end only for one day, scarce so much,
if Adara fell the very first day of his creation? What Avould
have been their end, if Adara had been confirmed in a state of
happiness as the angels were, it is likely will be answered and
performed upon the complete restoration of raan to that happy
state from whence he fell. What artificer compfles a work by
his skill, but to rejoice in it? And shall God have no joy from
the works of his hands? Since God can only rejoice in good
ness, the creatures must have that goodness restored to thera
which God pronounced thera to have at the first creation, and
which he ordained thera for, before he can again rejoice in his
works. The goodness of the creatures is the glory and joy of
God. We raay infer from hence, what a base and vile thing sin is,
which lays the foundation ofthe world's change. Sin brings it
to decrepid age; sin overturned the whole work of God, Gen. in.
17; so that to render it useful to its proper end, there is a neces-
sfly of a kind of a new creating it. This causes God to fire the
earth for a purification of it from that infection and contagion
brought upon it by the apostasy and corruption of man: it has
served sinful man, and therefore must undergo a purging flame
to be fit to serve the holy and righteous Creator. As sin is so

352 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
riveted in the body of man, that there is need of a change by
death to raze it out; so has the curse for sin got so deep into
the bowels of the world, that there is need of a change by fire
to refine it for its Master's use. Let us look upon sin Avith no
other notion than as the object of God's hatred, the cause of his
grief in the creatures, and the spring of the pain and ruin of the
world. We may also infer, how foolish a thing is it to set our hearts
upon that which shall perish, and be no more what it is now.
The heavens and earth, the solidest and firmest parts of the
creation, shaU not continue in the posture they are; they must
perish, and undergo a refining change. How feeble and weak
are the other parts of the creation, the little creatures walking
upon and fiuttering about the world, that are perishing and
dying every day ; and we scarce see them clothed with life and
beauty this day, but they wither and are bespoUed of all the
next! And are such frail things fit objects for our everlasting
spirits and affections ? Though the daily employment of the
heavens is the declaration ofthe glory of God, Psal. xix. 1, yet
neither this, nor their harraony, order, beauty, amazing great
ness and glory of them, shall preserve them from a dissolution
and melting at the presence of the Lord. Though they have
remained in the same posture from the creation to this day, and
are of so great antiquity; yet they must bow down to a change
before the will and word of their Creator. And shall we rest
upon that which shall vanish like smoke? Shall we take any
creature for our support like ice, that wfll crack under our feet,
and must by the order of their Lord Creator deceive our hopes?
Perishing things can be no support to the soul; if we would
have rest, we must run to God and rest in God. Hoav con
temptible should that be to us, whose fashion shall pass away,
which shall not endure long in its present form and appearance!
contemptible as a rest, not contemptible as the Avork of God;
contemptible as an end, not contemptible as a means to attain
our end. If these must be changed, how unworthy are other
things to be the centre of our souls, that change in our very
using of them, and slide away in our very enjoyment of them!
" Thou art the same." The essence of God, with aU the
perfections of his nature, are pronounced the same, without any
variation, from eternity to eternity: so that the text does not
only assert the eternal duration of God, but his immutabflity in
that duration: his eternity is signified in that expression, "thou
shalt endure ;" his immutabihty in this, " thou art the same."
To endure, argues indeed his immutability as well as eternity;'
for what endures is not changed, and what is changed does not
endure; but "thou art the same"= does more fully signify it.
' Estius in Heb. 1. ^ Chrysostom.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 353
He could not be the same if he could be changed into any other
thing than what he is. The psalmist therefore puts, not thou
hast been, or shalt be, but thou art the same without any altera
tion ; thou art the same, that is, the same God, the same in
essence and nature, the same in wfll and purpose. Thou dost
change afl other things as thou pleasest; but thou art irarautable
in every respect, and receivest no shadoAV of change, though
never so light and smafl.' The psalmist here alludes to the
name Jehovah, " I am;" and doesnot only ascribe immutabihty
to God, but excludes every thing else from partaking in that per
fection. All things else are tottering; God sees all other things
in continual motion under his feet, like water passing away and
no raore seen, while he reraains fixed and iraraovable : his wis-
dora and power, his knowledge and wiU are ahvays the sarae.
His essence can receive no alteration, neither by itself, nor by
any external cause ; whereas other things either naturaUy de
cline to destruction, pass frora one term to another till they
come to their period; or shall at the last day be wrapped up,
after God has completed his Avfll in them and by them ; as a
man does a garment he intends to repair and transform to an
other use. .
So that in the text God as immutable, is opposed to all crea
tures as perishing and changeable.
. Doctrine. God is unchangeable in his essence, nature, and
perfections. Immutability and eternity are linked together;
and indeed true eternity is true immutability, whence eternity
is defined the possession of an irarautable life. Yet immuta
bility differs from eternity in our conception: immutabflity re
spects the essence or existence of a thing, eternity respects the
duration of a being in that state; or rather,^ immutability is
the state itself, eternity is the measure of that state., A thing
is said to be changed, when it is otherwise now in regard of
nature, state, will, or any quality than it was before; when
either something is added to it or taken from it; when it either
loses or acquires; but now it is the essential property of God,
not to have any accession to or diminution of his essence or
attributes, but to remain entirely the same: he wants nothing;
he loses nothing; but does uniformly exist by himself, without
any ucav nature, new thoughts, new wiU, new purpose, or new
place. I
¦ i This unchangeableness of God was anciently represented by
the figure of a cube, a piece of metal or wood framed four
square; when every side is exactly of the same equality, cast
it which way you will, it wfll always be in the same posture,
' AVKoiamui xpiiff'iiliv, above all change, Theodor.
' Gamacheus.
Vol. I. — 45

354 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
because it is equal to itself in all its dimensions.' He was there
fore said to be the centre of all things, and other things the
circumference ; the centre is never moved, while the circum
ference is; it remains immovable in the midst of the circle.
There is no variableness nor shadow of turning with him,
James i. 17. The moon has her spots, so has the sun; there
is a mixture of light and darkness; it has its changes; some
times it is in the increase, sometimes in the wane ; it is always
either gaining or losing, and by the turnings and motions, either
of the heavenly bodies or of the earth, it is in its echpse, by
the interposition of the earth between that and the sun. The
sun also has its diurnal and annual motion; it rises and sets,
and puts on a different face. It does not always shine with a
noon-day light; it is sometimes veiled with clouds and va
pours; it is always going from one tropic to another, whereby
it makes various shadows on the earth, and produces the va
rious seasons of the year ; it is not always in our hemisphere,
nor does it always shine with an equal force and brightness in
it. Such shadows and variations have no place in the eternal
Father of lights; he has not the least spot or diminution of
brightness; nothing can cloud him or eclipse him. For the
better understanding this perfection of God,
I shall premise three things.
The immutability of God is a perfection. Imrautability
considered in itself, without relation to other things, is not a
perfection. It is the greatest misery and imperfection of the
evil angels, that they are immutable in malice against God.
But as God is infinite in essence, infinitely good, wise, holy;
so it is a perfection necessary to his nature, that he should be
immutably all this; all excellency, goodness, wisdom, immuta
bly all that he is: without this he would be an imperfect being.
Are not the angels in heaven, who are confirmed in a holy and
happy state, more perfect than when they were in a possibihty
of committing evil and becoming miserable? Are not the saints
in heaven, whose wills by grace do unalterably cleave to God
and goodness, more perfect than if they were as Adam in para
dise, capable of losing their felicity as well as preserving it ?
We count a rock in regard of its stability, more excellent than
the dust of the ground, or a feather that is tossed about with
every wind; is it not also the perfection of the body to have a
constant tenor of health, and the glory of a man not to warp
aside from what is just and right, by the persuasions of any
temptations? Immutability is a glory belonging to all the attributes of
God. It is not a single perfection of the Divine nature, nor is
it limited to particular objects thus and thus disposed. Mercy
' Amyraut sur. Heb. ix. p. 153.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 355
and justice have their distinct objects, and distinct acts; mercy
is conversant about a penitent, justice conversant about an ob
stinate sinner. In our notion and conception of the Divine
perfections, his perfections are different ; the wisdom of God is
not his power, nor his power his holiness; but immutability is
the centre wherein they all unite. There is not one perfection
but may be said to be, and truly is immutable; none of them
will appear so glorious without this beam, this sun of immuta
bility, which renders them highly excellent without the least
shadow of imperfection. How cloudy Avould his blessedness
be, if it were changeable! How dim his wisdom, if it raight
be obscured! How feeble his power if it Avere capable to be
sickly and languish! How would mercy lose much of its lustre
if it could change into wrath; and justice much of its dread, if
it could be turned into raercy; whfle the object of justice re
mains unfit for raercy, and one that has need of raercy continues
only fit for the Divine fury! But unchangeableness is a thread
that runs through the whole web; it is the enarael of all the
rest; none of thera without it could look Avith a trumphant as
pect. His power is unchangeable; "In the Lord Jehovah is
everlasting strength," Isa. xxvi. 4. His mercy and his holiness
endure for ever; he never could, nor ever can look upon ini
quity, Hab. i. 13. He is a Rock in the righteousness of his
ways, the truth of his word, the holiness of his proceedings,
and the rectitude of his nature. All are expressed, Deut. xxxii.
4: "He is a Rock, his work is perfect: for all his' ways are
judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right
is he." All that we consider in God is unchangeable; for his
essence and his properties are the same, and therefore Avhat is
necessarily belonging to the essence of God, belongs also to
every perfection of the nature of God; none of them can re
ceive any addition or diminution. From the unchangeableness
ofhis nature, the apostle, James i. 17, infers the unchangeable
ness of his holiness; and himself, in Mai. iii. 6, the unchange
ableness of his counsel.
Unchangeableness does necessarily pertain to the nature
of God. It is of the same necessity Avith fhe rectitude of his
nature; he can no more be changeable in his essence, than
he can be unrighteous in his actions. God is a necessary being;
he is necessarily what he is, and therefore is unchangeably
what he is. Mutability belongs to contingency. If any per
fection of his nature could be separated from him, he would
cease to be God. What did not possess the Avhole nature
of God, could not have the essence of God; it is reciprocated
with the nature of God. Whatsoever is immutable by nature,
is God; whatsoever is God, is immutable by nature. Some
creatures are immutable by his grace and power: God is holy.

356 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
happy, wise, good by his essence ; • angels and men are made
holy, wise, happy, strong, and good by qualities and graces:
the holiness, happiness, and wisdom of saints and angels, as
they had a beginning, so they are capable of increase and dimi
nution, and of an end also ; for their standing is not from them
selves, or from the nature of created strength, holiness, or wis
dom, which in themselves are apt to fafl, and finally to decay;
but from the stability and confirmation they have by the gift
and grace of God. The heaven and earth shall be changed,
and after that rene wal and reparation, they shall not be changed.
Our bodies after the resurrection shall not be changed, but
for ever be made conformable to the glorious body of Christ,
PhU. iii. 21 ; but this is by the poAverful grace of God. So that
indeed those things may be said afterwards rather to be un
changed than unchangeable, because they are not so by nature,
but by sovereign dispensation. As creatures have not neces
sary beings, so they have not necessary immutability. Neces
sity of being, and therefore immutabilty of being, belongs by
nature only to God; otherwise, if there were any change in
God he would be sometiraes what he was not, and would
cease to be what he was; which is against the nature, and in
deed against the natural notion of a Deity. Let us see then.
In what respects God is immutable. — Prove that God is
immutable. — That this is proper to God, and incommuni
cable to any creature. — Some propositions to clear the un
changeableness of God from any thing that seems contrary to
it. The use.
1. In Avhat respects God is unchangeable.
(1.) God is unchangeable in his essence. He is unalterably
fixed in his being, that not a particle of it can be lost from it,
not a mite added to it. If a man continue in being as long as
Methuselah, nine hundred and sixty-nine years; yet there is
not a day, nay an hour, wherein there is not some altera
tion in his substance ; though no substantial part is Avanting,
yet there is an addition to hira by his food, a diminution of
something by his labour; he is always making some acquisition,
or suffering some loss. But in God there can be no alteration,
by the accession of any thing f o make his substance greater or
better, or by diminution fo make it less or worse. He who has
no being from another, cannot but be always what he is: God
is the first being, an independent being; he was not produced
of himself, or of any other, but by nature always has been;
and therefore cannot by himself or by any other, be changed from
what he is in his own nature. That which is not, may as wefl
assume to itself a being, as he, who has and is all being, have
the least change frora what he is. Again, because he is a
Spirit, he is not subject to those mutations Avhich are found in
' Archbold. Serm.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 357
corporeal and bodfly natures. Because he is an absolutely
simple Spirit, not having the least particle of composition, he is
not capable of those changes which may be in created spirits.
[1.] If his essence were mutable, God would not truly be; it
could not be truly said by himself, " I am that I ara," Exod.
iii. 14, ifhe were such a thing or being at this time, and a dif
ferent being at another time. Whatsoever is changed, properly
is not, because it does not remain to be what it was. That
which is changed was something, is something, and wfll be
something; a being remains to that thing which is changed; yet
though it may be said such a thing is, yet it may be also said
such a thing is not, because it is not what it was in its first be
ing: it is not noAV what it was, it is now what it was not; it is
another thing than it was; it Avas another thing than it is; it
will be another thing than what it is or was: it is indeed a be
ing, but a different being frora what it was before. But if God
were changed, it could not be said of him that he is, but it might
also be said of him that he is not; or if he were changeable or
could be changed, it might be said of him, he is, but he will not
be what he is, or he may not be what he is, but there will be
or may be sorae difference in his being; and so God would not
be " I am that I am ;" for though he would not cease utterly to
be, yet he would cease to be what he was before. -
[2.] Again, if his essence were mutable, he could not be per
fectly blessed, and fully rejoice in himself If he changed for
the better, he could not have an infinite pleasure in Avhat he
was before the change, because he was not infinitely blessed;
and the pleasure of that state could not be of a higher kind than
the state itself, or at least the apprehension of a happiness in it:
if he changed for the worse, he could not have a pleasure in it
after the change; for according to the diminution of his state,
would be the decrease of his pleasure. His pleasure could not
be infinite before the change, if he changed for the better; it
could not be infinite after the change, if he changed for the
worse; ifhe changed for the better, he would not have had an
infinite goodness of being before; and not having an infinite
goodness of being, he Avould have a finite goodness of being;
for there is no mediura between finite and infinite. Then
though the change were for the better, yet being finite before,
something would be stifl Avanting to make him infinitely bless
ed; because being finite, he could not change to that which is
infinite; for finite and infinite are extremes so distant that they
can never pass into one another ; that is, that that which is finite
should become infinite, or that which is infinite should become
finite : so that supposing him mutable, his essence in no state of
change could furnish him wflh an infinite peace and blessed
ness.

358 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
[3.] Again, if God's essence be changed, he either increases
or diminishes.' Whatsoever is changed, does either gain by
receiving something larger and greater than it had in itself be
fore, or gains nothing by being changed. If the former, then it
receives more than itself, more than it had in itself before. The
Divine nature cannot be increased; for whatsoever receives any
thing besides what it had in itself before, must necessarily re
ceive it from another, because nothing can give to itself that
which it has not: but God cannot receive from another what he
has not already, because whatsoever other things possess, is
derived from him, and therefore contained in him, as the foun
tain contains the virtue in itself which it conveys to the streams;
so that God cannot gain any thing. If a thing that is changed
gain nothing by that change, it loses something of what it had
before in itself; and this loss must be by itself or some other. God
cannot receive any loss frora any thing in himself; he cannot
will his own diminution; that is repugnant to every nature.
He raay as well Avill his own destruction as his own decrease.
Every decrease is a partial destruction. But it is impossible
for God to die any kind of death, to have any resemblance of
death, for he is immortal and only has immortality, 1 Tim. vi.
16, therefore impossible to be diminished in any particle ofhis
essence. Nor can he be diminished by any thing in his own
nature, because his infinite simplicity admits of nothing distinct
from himself, or contrary to himself. All decreases come from
soraething contrary to the nature of that thing which does de
crease. Whatsoever is made less than itself, was not truly
unum, one and simple, because that which divides itself in sepa
ration was not the same in conjunction. Nor can he be dimin
ished by any other without himself; because nothing is superior
to God, nothing stronger than God which can oppress him.
But whatsoever is changed, is weaker than that which changes
it, and sinks under a power it cannot successfully resist: weak
ness belongs not to the Deity. Nor, lastly, can God change
frora a state wherein he is, to another state equal to the former,
as raen in sorae cases may do ;^ for in passing from one state fo
another equal to it, something must be parted with which he
had before, that some other thing may accrue to him as a recom
pense for that loss, to make him equal to what he was. This
recompense then he had not before, though he had something
equal to it. And in this case it could not be said by God, "I
am that I am," but, I am equal to what I was ; for in this case
there would be a diminution and increase which (as Avas show
ed) cannot be in God.
[4.] Again, God is of himself, from no other. ^ Natures
which are raade by God, raay increase, because they began to
' Hugo Victorin, in Petavio. ^ Victorinus in Petavio. ' Austin. Fulgen. in Petavio.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 359
be; they may decrease, because they were made of nothing,
and so tend to nothing; the condflion of their original leads
them to defect, and the power of their Creator brings thera to
increase. But God has no original, he has no defect, because
he was not made of ndthing; he has no increase, because he
had no beginning: he Avas before all things, and therefore de
pends upon no other thing which by its own change can bring
any change upon him. That which is frora itself, cannot be
changed, because it has nothing before it, nothing more excel
lent than itself; but that which is from another, as its first cause
and chief good, may be changed by that which was its efficient
cause and last end. '
(2.) God is immutable in regard of knowledge. God has
known frora all eternity all that which he can know, so that
nothing is hid frora hira; he knows not at present anymore
than he has known from eternity, and that which he knows
now, he always knows; aU things are open and naked before
him, Heb. iv. 13. A man is said to be changed in regard of
knowledge, when he knows that now which he did not know
before, or knows that to be false now which he thought true
before, or has something for the object of his understanding
now Avhich he had not before. But,
[1.] This would be repugnant to the wisdom and omniscience
which belongs to the notion of a Deify. That cannot be God,
that is not infinitely wise; that cannot be infinitely wise, that
is either ignorant of or mistaken in his apprehension of any
one thing. If God be changed in knowledge, it must be for
want of wisdom; all change of this nature in creatures implies
this defect preceding or accompanying it. Such a thought of
God would have been unworthy of him that is "only wise;"
that has no equal for wisdom, 1 Tim. i. 17; none wise beside
himself. If he knew that thing this day which he knew not
before, he would not be an only wise being; for a being that
did knoAV every thing at once might be conceived, and so a
wiser being be apprehended by the mind of raan. If God un
derstood a thing at one time, which he did not at another, he
would be changed from ignorance to knowledge, as if he could
not do that this day whicli he could do to-morrow, he would be
changed from impotence to power. He could not be always
omniscient, because there might be yet something still to come
which he yet knows not, though he may know all things that
are past. What way soever you suppose a change, you must
suppose a present or a past ignorance; if he be changed in his
knowledge for the perfection of his understanding, he was ig
norant before; if his understanding be impaired by the change,
he is ignorant after it. 1 Petav. tom. 1. p. 173.

360 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
[2.] If God were changeable in his knowledge, it would
make him unfit to be an object of trust to any rational crea
ture. His revelations would want the due ground for enter
tainment, if his understanding were changeable, for that might
be revealed as truth now which raight prove false hereafter,
and that as false now which hereafter might prove true; and
so God would be an object of obedience in regard of his pre
cepts, and an unfit object of confidence in regard of his pro
mises. For if he be changeable in knowledge, he is defective
in knowledge, and might promise that now which he would
know afterwards was unfit to be promised, and therefore unfit
to be performed. It would make hira an incorapetent object of
dread, in regard ofhis threatenings; for he might threaten that
now, which he might know hereafter were not fit or just fo be
inflicted. A changeable mind and understanding cannot make
a due and right judgment of things to be done and things to be
avoided. No Avise man would judge it reasonable to trust a
weak and flitting person.
God must needs be unchangeable in his knowledge. But,
as the schoolmen say, that, as the sun always shines, so God
always knows; as the sun never ceases to shine, so God never
ceases to know. Nothing can be hid from the vast compass of
his understanding, no more than any thing can shelter itself
without the verge of his power. This further appears in that,
God knoAvs by his own essence. He does not know as we
do, by habits, qualities, species, whereby we raay be raistaken
at one time, and rectified at another. He has not an under
standing distinct from his essence, as we have, but being the
raost simple being, his understanding is his essence; and as
from the infiniteness of his essence we conclude the infiniteness
of his understanding, so from the unchangeableness of his
essence we may justly conclude the unchangeableness of his
knowledge. Since therefore God is without all composition,
and his understanding is not distinct from his essence, what he
knows, he knows by his essence; and there can then be no
more mutability in his knowledge than there can be in his
essence; and if there were any in that, he could not be God,
because he would have the property of a creature. If his un
derstanding then be his essence, his knowledge is as necessary,
as unchangeable as his essence. As his essence eminently con
tains all perfections in itself, so his understanding comprehends
all things past, pre.sent, and future, in itself If his understand
ing aud his essence Avere not one and the same, he were not
simple but compounded; if compounded, he would consist of
parts; if he consisted of parts, he would not be an independent
being, and so would not be God.
God knows all things by one intuitive act. As there is no

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 3gi
succession in his being so that he is one thing now and another
thing hereafter, so there is no succession in his knowledge. He
knows things that are successive, before their existence and
succession, by one single act of intuition; by one cast of his
eye all things future are present to hira in regard of his eter
nity and oranipresence: so that though there is a change and
variation in the things known, yet his knowledge of them and
their several changes in nature, is invariable and unalterable.
As imagine a creature that could see with his eye at one glance
the M^hole compass of the heavens, by sending out beams from
his eye without receiving any species from them, he would see
the whole heavens uniformly; this part now in the east, then
in the west, without any change in his eye; for he sees every
part and every motion together: and though that great body
varies and Avhirls about, and is in continual agitation, his eye
remains steadfast, suffers no change, beholds all their motions
at once and by one glance. God knows all things frora eternity,
and therefore perpetually knows them;' the reason is because
the Divine knowledge is infinite, and therefore comprehends
all knowable truths at once.^ An eternal knowledge compre
hends in itself all time, and beholds past and present in the
same manner, and therefore his knoAvledge is immutable. By
one simple knowledge he considers the infinite spaces of past
and future.
God's knowledge and will is tbe cause of all things and their
successions. There can be no pretence of any changeableness
of knowledge in God, but in this case, before things come to
pass, he knows that they will corae to pass; after they are
come to pass, he knows that they are past and slid away.^ This
would be something if the succession of things were the cause
of the Divine knowledge, as it is ofour knowledge; but on the
contrary, the Divine knowledge and will is the cause of the
succession of thera: God does not know creatures because they
are, but they are because he knows them. " All his works
were known to him from the beginning of the world," Acts
XV. 18. All his AVorks were not known to him, if the events
of all those works were not also known to him; if they were
not known to him how should he make them? He could not
do any thing ignorantiy: he made them then after he knew
them, and did not knoAV them after he made them: his know
ledge of thera made a change in them, their existence made no
change in his knowledge: he knew them when they were to
be created, in the same raanner that he knew thera after they
were created ; before they were brought into action, as well as
after they were brought into action; before they were made,
' Saurez. vol. 1. p, 137. 2 " His understanding is infinite," Psal. cxlvii. 5.
^ Austin. Bradwardine.
Vol. L— 46

362 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
they were, and were not; they were in the knowledge of God,
when they were not in their own nature. God did not receive
his knowledge from their existence, but his knowledge and AviU
acted upon them to bring them into being.
Therefore the distinction of past and future makes no change
in the knowledge of God. When a thing is past, God has no
more distinct knowledge of it after it is past, than he had Avhen
it Avas to corae; all things were in all their circumstances of
past, present, and to come, seen by his understanding, as they
were determined by his will. Besides, to know a day to be
past or future, is only to knoAv the state of that day in itself,
and to know its relation to that which follows and that which
went before.' This day wherein we are, if we consider it in
the state wherein it was yesterday, it was to come, it Avas
future; but if Ave consider it in that state wherein it will be to
morrow, we understand it as past. This in man cannot be said
to be a different knowledge of the thing itself, but only of the
circumstance attending a thing, and the different relation of it.
As I see the sun this day, I know it was up yesterday, I know
it will be up to-morrow; my knowledge of the sun is the same;
if there be any change it is in the sun, not in my knowledge,
only I apply my knowledge to such particular circumstances.
How much more must fhe knowledge of those things in God
be unchangeable, who knows all those states, conditions, and
circumstances most perfectly from eternity, wherein there is no
succession, no past or future, and therefore will know them
for ever! He ahvays beholds the same thing; he sees indeed
succession in things, and he sees a thing to be past which be
fore Avas future, as from eternity he saw Adam as existing in
such a time; in the first time he saw that he Avould be, in the
following time he saAv that he had been. But this he knew
from eternity, this he knew in the same manner; though there
was a variation in Adam, yet there was no variation iu God's
knowledge of him in all his states; though Adam was not pre
sent to himself, yet in all his states he was present to God's
eternity. Consider also, that the knowledge of God, in regard of the
manner of it as Avell as the objects, is incomprehensible to a
finite creature. So that though we cannot arrive to a full
understanding of the manner of God's knowledge, yet we must
conceive so of it, as to remove all imperfection from him in it.
And since it is an iraperfection to be changeable, Ave must re
move that from God; the knowledge of God about things past,
present, and future, raust be inconceivably above ours: " His
understanding is infinfle," Psal. cxlvii. 5. There is no number
of it; it can no more be calculated or drawn into an account
I Gamach. 1. p. Aquin. qu. 9. cap. 1. pa. 73.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.

363

by us, than infinite spaces which have no bounds and limits
can be measured by us. We can no raore arrive, even in
heaven, to a comprehensive understanding of the manner of
his knowledge, than of the infinite glory of his essence; we
may as well comprehend one as the other. This Ave must con
clude, that God being not a body, does not see one thing with
eyes and another thing with mind, as we do; but being a Spi
rit, he sees and knows only with mind, and his mind is hira
self, and is as unchangeable as himself; and therefore as he is
not now another thing than what he was, so he knows not any
thing now in another manner than as he knew it from eternity.
He sees all things in the glass ofhis own essence; as therefore
the glass does not vary, so neither does his vision.
(3.) God is unchangeable in regard of his will and purpose.
A change in purpose is, when a man determines to do that
now which before he determined not to do, or to do the con
trary; when a man hates that thing Avhich he loved, or begins
to love that which he before hated. When the Avill is changed,
a man begins to avUI that Avhich he wflled not before, and
ceases to will that which he wUled before: but Avhatsoever God
has decreed, is immutable; Avhatsoever God has promised,
shall be accomplished; the word that goes forth of his mouth
shall not return to him void, but it shall accomplish that which
he pleaseth, Isa. Iv. 11; xlvi. 11; whatsoever he purposes, he
will do, Numb, xxiii. 19. His decrees are therefore called
mountains of brass, Zech. vi. 1; brass, as having substance and
solidity; mountains, as being immovable, not only by any
creature but by himself because they stand upon the basis of
infallible wisdom, and are supported by uncontrollable power.
From this immutability of his Avill published to man, there
could be no release from the severity of the law, without satis
faction made by fhe death of a Mediator, since it was the unal
terable will of God that death should be the wages of sin: and
from this immutable wUl it Avas, that the length of time from
the first promise of the Redeemer to his mission, and the daily
provocations of men, altered not his piirpose for the accom
plishment of it in the fulness of that time he had resolved upon.
Nor did the wickedness of former ages hinder the addition of
several promises, as buttresses to the first.
To make this out, co'nsider,
[1.] The will of God is the same Avith his essence. If God
had a will distinct from his essence, he would not be the most
simple being. God has not a faculty of AviU distinct from him
self: as his understanding is nothing else but Deus intelligens,
God understanding; so his will is nothing else but Deus volens,
God Avilling. Being therefore the essence of God, though it
is considered according to our weakness asa faculty, it is as his

364 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
understanding and wisdom, eternal and immutable, and can no
more be changed than his essence. The immutabflity of the
Divine counsel depends upon that ofhis essence: he is the Lord
Jehovah; therefore he is true to his word, Mai. ifl. 6. "Yea,
before the day Avas, I am he; and there is none that can dehver
out of my hand," Isa. xliii. 13. He is the same, immutable
in his essence, therefore irresistible in his power.
[2.] There is a concurrence of God's will and understand
ing in every thing. As his knowledge is eternal, so is his pur
pose. Things created had not been known to be, had not God
resolved them to be the act of his wfll ; the existence of any
thing supposes an act of his wifl. Again, as God knows all
things by one simple vision of his understanding, so he wills
all things by one act of volition; therefore the purpose of God
in the Scripture is not expressed by counsels, in the plural num
ber, but counsel, showing that all the purposes of God are not
various, but as one wfll, branching itself out into many acts
towards the creature; but all knit in one root, all links of one
chain. Whatsoever is eternal, is immutable : as his knowledge
is eternal, and therefore immutable, so is his wUl; he Avills or
nills nothing to be in time, but Avhat he willed and niUed from
eternity; if he willed in time that to be, that he willed not
from eternity, then he would know that in time which he
knew not from eternity : for God knows nothing future, but
as his wifl orders it to be future, and in time to be brought into
being. [3.] There can be no reason for any change in the wfll of
God. When men change in their rainds, it must be for want
of foresight: because they could not foresee afl the rubs and
bars which might suddenly offer themselves; which, if they had
forseen, they would not have taken such measures: hence men
often will that which they afterwards wish they had not wflled.
When they corae to understand it clearer, and see that to be
injurious to them which they thought to be good for them; or
else the change proceeds from a natural instabflity Avithout any
just cause, and an easiness to be drawn into that which is un
righteous; or else it proceeds from a want of power, when men
take new counsels, because they are invincibly hindered from
executing the old. But none of those can be in God.
It cannot be for want of foresight. What can be wanting to
an infinite understanding? How can any unknown event defeat
his purpose, since nothing happens in the world but what he
wills to effect, or wills to permit; and therefore all future events
are present wifh him? Besides, it does not consist with God's
wisdom to resolve any thing but upon the highest reason; and
what is the highest and infinite reason, cannot but be unalter
able in itself; for there can be no reason and wisdom higher

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 355
than the highest. All God's purposes are not bare acts of will,
but acts of counsel; he works all things according to the coun
sel of his own wfll, Eph. i. 1 1 ; and he does not say so much
that his wifl, as that his counsel, shall stand, Isa. xlvi. 10. It
stands because it is counsel: and the imrautability of a pro
mise is called the "immutabihty of his counsel," Heb. vi. 17,
as being introduced and settled by the most perfect wisdom, and
therefore to be carried on to a full and complete execution.
His purpose then cannot be changed for want of foresight, for
this would be a charge of weakness.
Nor can it proceed from a natural instability of his will, or
an easiness to be drawn to that which is unrighteous. If his
wfll should not adhere to his counsel, it is because it is not fit
to be followed, or because it will not follow it; if not fit to be
followed, it is a reflection upon his wisdom ; if it be established
and he will not follow it, there is a contrariety in God, as there
is in a fallen creature, will against wisdom. That cannot be in
God which he hates in a creature, namely, the disorder of facul
ties, and being out of their due place. The righteousness of
God is like a great mountain, Psal. xxxvi. 6. The rectitude of
his nature is as immovable in itself, as all the great mountains
in the world are by the strength of man. He is not as a man,
that he should repent or lie. Numb, xxiii. 19, who often changes
out of a perversity of Avill, as well as want of wisdom to foresee,
or want of ability to perform. His eternal purpose must either
be righteous or unrighteous; if righteous and holy, he would
become unholy by. the change; if not righteous nor holy, then
he Avas unrighteous before the change ; which way soever it
falls, it would reflect upon the righteousness of God, which is
a blasphemous imagination. If God did change his purpose,
it must be either for the better, and then the counsel of God
was bad before ; or for the worse, then he was not wise and
good before.'
Nor can it be for want of strength. Who hath power to
control him? Not all the combined devices and endeavours of
men can make the counsel of God to totter: " There are many
devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel ofthe Lord,
that shall stand," Prov. xix. 21 ; that, and that only shall stand.
Man has a power to devise and imagine, but no power to
effect and execute of hiraself God wants no more power to
effect what he wifl, than he wants understanding to know
Avhat is fit.
Well then, since God wanted not wisdom to frame his de
crees, nor holiness to regulate thera, nor power to effect them,
what should make him change them, since there can be no
reason superior to his; no event unforeseen by him ; no holi-
1 Maxim. Tyrhis, dissert. 3. 30.

366 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
ness comparable to his ; no unrighteousness found in him; no
power equal to his to put a rub in his way.
Though the wUl of God be immutable, yet it is not to be
understood so, as that the things themselves so willed are im
mutable ; nor wfll the immutabflity of the things willed by
him, follow upon the unchangeableness of his will in willing
them; for though God be firm in wUling them, yet he does not
wUl that they should alway be. God did not perpetually will
the doing those things which he once decreed to be done. He
decreed that Christ should suffer, but he did not decree that
Christ should alway suffer; so he willed the Mosaical rites for
a tirae, but he did not will that they should alway continue;
he willed that they should endure only for a tirae, and when
the time came for their ceasing, God had been mutable if he
had not put an end to them, because his wifl had fixed such a
period. So that the changing of those things which he had
once appointed to be practised, is so far frora charging God
with changeableness, that God would be rautable if he did not
take them aAvay, since he decreed as well their abolition at
such a time, as their continuance till such a time; so that the
removal of them was pursuant to his unchangeable will and
decree. If God had decreed that such laws should alway con
tinue, and afterwards changed that decree, and resolved the
abrogation of them; then indeed God had been mutable; he
had rescinded one decree by another; he had then seen an
error in his first resolve, and there must be some weakness in
the reason and wisdom whereon it was grounded. But it was
not so here; for the change of those laws is so far from slurring
God with any mutability, that the very change of them is no
other than the issue of his eternal decree ; for from eternity he
purposed in himself to change this or that dispensation, though
he did decree to bring such a dispensation into the world. ' The
decree itself was eternal and immutable, but the thing decreed
was temporary and mutable. As a decree from eternity does
not make the thing decreed to be eternal; so neither does the
immutability of the decree render the thing so decreed to be
immutable. As for example, God decreed from all eternfly fo
create the world; the eternity of this decree did not make the
world to be in being and actually created from eternity. So
God decreed immutably that the world so created should con
tinue for such a time; the decree is immutable if the world
perish at that time, and would not be irarautable if fhe world
did endure beyond that time that God had fixed for the dura
tion of it. As when a prince orders a raan's remaining in pri
son for so many days; if he be prevailed with to give him a
delivery before those days, or to continue him in custody for
' Tuiretih, de Satisfac. p. 266.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 3g7
the same crime after those days, his order is changed ; but if he
orders the delivery of him just at that time, tfll which he had
before decreed that he should continue in prison, the purpose
and order of the prince remains firm, and the change in the
state of the prisoner is the fruit of that firm and fixed resolu
tion. So that we must distinguish betAveen the person decree
ing, fhe decree itself, and the thing decreed. The person
decreeing, namely, God, is in himself immutable, and the de
cree is immutable ; but the thing decreed rnay be rautable ;
and if it were not changed according to the first purpose, it
would argue the decree itself to be changed ; for while a man
wills that this may be done now, and another thing done after
wards, the same will remains, and though there be a change in
the effect, there is no change in the wfll.
The immutability of God's wfll does not infringe the liberty
of it. The liberty of God's will consists with the necessity of
continuing his purpose. God is necessarfly good, immutably
good; yet he is freely so, and would not be otherwise than
Avhat he is. God was free in his first purpose; and pur
posing this or that by an infaUible and unerring wisdom, it
would be a Aveakness to change the purpose. But indeed the
hberty of God's will does not seem so much to consist in an in
differency to this or that, as an independency on any thing with
out himself: his will was free, because it did not depend upon the
objects about which his will was conversant. To be immuta
bly good, is no point of imperfection, but the height of perfec
tion. (4.) As God is unchangeable in regard of essence, knowledge,
purpose; so he is unchangeable in regard of place. He cannot
be changed in tirae, because he is eternity; so he cannot be
changed in place because he has ubiquity: he is eternal, there
fore cannot be changed in time ; he is omnipresent, therefore
cannot be changed in place; he doesnot begin to be in one
place wherein he was not hefore, or cease to be in a place
wherein he was before. He that fills every place in heaven
and earth, cannot change place ; he cannot leave one to possess
another, that is equally in regard of his essence in all; he fills
heaven and earth, Jer. xxiii. 24. The heavens that are not
subject to those changes to which sublunary bodies are subject
that are not diminished in quantity or quality, yet they are
always changing place in regard to their motion ; no part of
them does alway continue in the same point. But God
has no change of his nature, because he is most inward in
every thing ; he is substantially in all spaces, real and imagi
nary; there is no part of the world which he does not fiU; no
place can be imagined wherein he does not exist. Suppose a
mUlion of worlds above and about this, encircling one another;

368 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
his essence would be in every part and point of those worlds.
Because it is indivisible, it cannot be divided; nor can it be con
tained within those created limits of millions of worlds, Avheu
the most soaring and best coining fancy has run through all
creatures, to the highest sphere of the heavens, and imagined
one world after another, till it can fancy no more; none of
these nor all of these can contain God; for the heaven of hea
vens cannot contain him, 1 Kings vii. 27. He is higher than
heaven, deeper than hell. Job xi. 8, and possesses infinite ima
ginary spaces beyond created limits. He who has no cause of
being, can have no limits of being:' and though by creation he
began to be in the world; yet he did not begin to be Avhere the
world is, but was in the same imaginary space frora all eternfly:
for he was always in himself by his own eternal property.
Therefore observe, that Avhen God is said to draw near to
us when we draw near to him, James iv. 8, it is not by local
motion or change of place, but by special and spiritual in
fluences, by exciting and supporting grace. As we ordinarily
say, the sun is come into the house, when yet it remains in its
place and order in the heavens, because the beams pierce
through the windoAvs and enlighten the room; so when God is
said to come down or descend. Gen. xi. 5; Exod. xxxiv. 5, it is
not by a change of place, but a change of outward acts, when
he puts forth himself in ways of fresh mercy or new judgments,
in the effluxes of his love or the flames of his wrath; when
good men feel the warm beams of his grace refreshing them, or
wicked men feel the hot coals of his anger scorching them.
God's drawing near to us, is not so much his coming to us, but
his drawing us to him: as when watermen pull a rope that is
in one end fastened to the shore, and the other end to the ves
sel ; the shore is immovable, yet it seems to the eye to come to
them, but they really move to the shore. ^ God is an immova
ble Rock; we are floating and uncertain creatures: while he
seems to approach to us, he does really raake us to approach to
him : he comes not to us by any change of place himself, but
draws us to him by a change of mind, will, and affections in us.
2. The second thing propounded is, the reasons to prove God
immutable. The heathen acknowledged God to be so; Plato
and the Pythagoreans called God or the stable good principle,
av-tiv, idem, " the same :" ^ the evil principle, ttspov, another
thing, changeable ;4 one thing one time, and another thing an
other time.
" He is the living God, and steadfast for ever," Dan. vi. 26.
» Gamacheus, ut supra.
2 The ancients as Dionysius, expressed it by this similitude.
' Plato calls God iiaiav aii Ixof-ivov.
* Stabilisq ; manens dat cuncta moveri, Boet. Consolat. lib. 3.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD, 369
(1.) The name Jehovah signifies this attribute: "I am that I
am: I am hath sent rae to you," Exod. in. 14. It signifies his
immutability as well as eternity. I am, signifies his eternity ; '
that, or, the same that I am, his immutability. As it respects
the essence of God, it signifies his unchangeable being from
eternity to eternity;^ as it respects the creature, it signifies his
constancy in his counsels and promises, which spring from no
other cause but the unchangeableness of his nature. The rea
son why men stand not to their covenant, is because they are
not always the same: "I ara," that is, I am the same, before
the creation of the world, and since the creation of the world;
before the entrance of sin, and since the entrance of sin; before
their going into Egypt, and while, they remain in Egypt. The
very name Jehovah bears, according to the grammatical order,
a raark of God's unchangeableness; it never has any thing
added to it, nor any thing taken from it; it has no plural num
ber, no affixes, a custom peculiar to the eastern languages; it
never changes its letters as other words do.^ That only is a
true being, which has not only an eternal existence, but sta
bility in it: that is not truly a being that never remains in the
same state.'* Afl things that are changed, cease to be what they
were, and begin to be what they were not, and therefore can
not have the title truly applied to thera, they are; they are
indeed but like a river in a continual flux, that no raan ever
sees the same ; let his eye be fixed upon one place of it, the
Avater he sees slides away, and that Avhich he saw not succeeds
in its place; let him take his eye off but for the least moraent,
and fix it there again, and he sees not the sarae that he saw
before. All sensible things are in a perpetual stream; that
which is soraetiraes this, and sometiraes that, is not, because it
is not ahvays the same ; whatsoever is changed, is something
now which it was not always. But of God it is said, " I am,"
which could not be if he were changeable; for it may be said
of hira, he is not, as well as he is, because he is not what he
was. If we say not of him, he was, nor, he will be, but only,
he is, whence should any change arrive? He must invincibly
remain the same, of whose nature, perfections, knowledge, and
wifl, it cannot be said it was, as if it were not now in him; or,
it shall be, as if it were not yet in him; but he is, because he
does not only exist, but does always exist the same. " I am,"
that is, I receive from no other what I am in myself: he de
pends upon no other in his essence, knowledge, purposes, and
therefore has no changing power over him.
(2.) If God were changeable, he could not be the most per-
1 Trap, on Exod. ' Amyrald. de Trinitat. p. 433.
' Spanhe. Synta. part i. p. 39.
* Petav. Theol. Dogmat. tom. i. cap. 6. § 6 — 8.
Vol. I.— 47

370 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
feet being. God is the most perfect being, and possesses in
hiraself infinite and essential goodness. Your heavenly Father
is perfect. Matt. v. 48. If he could change from that perfec
tion, he Avere not the highest exemplar and copy for us to wrfle
after. If God does change, it must be either to a greater per
fection than he had before, or to a less, mutatio perfectiva vel
amissiva; if he changes to acquire a perfection he had not,
then he was not before the most excellent being necessarily;
he was not what he might be; there was a defect in him, and
a privation of that which is better than what he had and was;
and then he was not always the best, and so was not always
God; and being nof always God, could never be God; for to
begin to be God is against the notion of God. Not to a less
perfection than he had; that Avere to change to imperfecflon,
and to lose a perfection which he possessed before, and cease
to be the best being; for he would lose some good which he
had, and acquire some evil which he was free from before. So
that the sovereign perfection of God is an invincible bar fo any
change in hira; for which way soever you cast it for a change,
his supreme excellency is impaired and nulled by it. For in
all change there is something from Avhich a thing is changed,
and something to Avhich it is changed; so that on the one part
there is a loss of Avhat it had, and on the other part there is an
acquisition of what it had not: if to the better, he Avas not per
fect, and so Avas not God; if to the worse, he Avfll not be per
fect, and so be no longer God after that change.
If God be changed, his change must be voluntary or neces
sary; if voluntary, he then intends the change for the better,
and chose it to acquire a perfection by it. The will must be
carried out to any thing under the notion of some goodness in
that which it desires. Since good is the object of the desire
and will of the creature, evil cannot be the object of the desire
and Avfll of the Creator. And if he should be changed for fhe
worse when he did really intend the better, it would speak a
defect of wisdom, and a mistake of that for good Avhich was
evil and imperfect in itself; and if it be for the better, it must
be a motion or change for something without himself; that
which he desires is not possessed by himself, but by some
other: there is then some good Avithout him and above him,
which is the end in this change; for nothing acts but for some
end, and that end is Avithin itself or without itself: if the end
for which God changes be without himself, then there is some
thing better than himself Besides, if he were voluntarily
changed for the better, why did he not change before? If it
were for want of power, he had the imperfection of Aveakness;
if for Avant of knowledge of Avhat was the best good, he had
the imperfection of wisdom, he was ignorant of his own hap-

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 371
piness; if he had both Avisdom to know it and power to effect
it, it must be for want of will ; he then wanted that love to
himself and his own glory, which is necessary in the Supreme
Being. Voluntarily he could not be changed for the worse, he
could not be such an enemy to his own glory, there is nothing
but would hinder its own imperfection and becoming worse:
necessarfly he could not be changed, for that necessity must
arise from himself, and then the difficulties spoken of before
Avill recur, or it must arise from another. He cannot be bettered
by another, because nothing has any good but what it has re
ceived from the hands of his bounty, and that Avithout loss to
himself: nor made worse; if any thing made him worse, it
would be sin, but that cannot touch his essence or obscure his
glory, but in the design and nature of the sin itself " If thou
sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions
be multiplied, what doest thou unto him ? If thou be righteous,
what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?"
Job xxxv. 6, 7. He has no addition by the service of raan, no
more than the sun has of light by a multitude of torches
kindled on the earth; nor any more irapair by the sins of
men, than the light of the sun has by men's shooting arrows
against it.
(3.) God Avere not the most simple being, if he were not
immutable.' There is in every thing that is rautable a com
position, either essential or accidental; and in all changes some
thing of the thing changed remains, and something of it ceases
and is done away; as for example, in an accidental change. If
a white wall be made black, it loses its white colour; but the
wall itself, which was the subject of that colour, remains and
loses nothing of its substance. Likewise in a substantial change,
as when wood is burnt, the substantial part of wood is lost, the
earthly part is changed into ashes, the airy part ascends in
smoke, the watery part is changed into air by the fire. There
is not an annihilation of it, but a re-solution of it into those
parts whereof it was compounded; and this change does evi
dence that it Avas compounded of several parts distinct from
one another. If there were any change in God, it is by sepa
rating something from him or adding something to him; if by
separating something from him, then he was compounded of
soraething distinct from himself; for if it were not distinct from
himself, it could not be separated from him without loss of his
being; if by adding any thing to him, then it is a compounding
of him, either substantially or accidentally.
Mutabihty is absolutely inconsistent with simplicity, whether
the change come from an internal or external principle. If a
change be wrought by something without, it supposes either
' Gamach. in prim. part. Aquin. quest. 9. cap. 1. part 72.

372 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
contrary or various parts in the thing so changed, whereof it
does consist; if it be wrought by any thing within, it supposes
that the thing so changed does consist of one part that does
change it, and another part that is changed, and so it would
not be a simple being. If God could be changed by any thing
within himself, all in God would not be God; his essence would
depend upon some parts, whereof some would be superior to
others. If one part were able to change or destroy another,
that which does change would be God, that which is changed
would not be God; so God would be made up of a Deity and
a non-deity, and part of God would depend upon God; part
would be dependent, and part would be independent; part
would be rautable, part immutable. So that mutabUity is
against the notion of God's independency as well as his simpli
city. God is the most simple being; for that which is first in
nature, having nothing beyond it, cannot by any means be
thought to be compounded ; for whatsoever is so depends upon
the parts whereof it is compounded, and so is not the first be
ing. ' Now God being infinitely simple, has nothing in himself
which is not himself, and therefore cannot wUl any change in
himself, he being his own essence and existence.
(4.) God were not eternal, if he were mutable. In all change
there is soraething that perishes, either substantially or acci
dentaUy. All change is a kind of death, or iraitation of death;
that which was, dies, and begins to be what it was not. The
soul of man, though it ceases not to be and exist; yet when it
ceases to be in quality what it was, is said to die. Adam died
when he changed from integrity fo corruption, though both his
soul and body were in being. Gen. ii. 17; and the soul of a
regenerate man is said to die to sin, when it is changed from
sin to grace, Rom. vi. 11. In all change there is a resemblance
of death: so the notion of rautabflity is against the eternity of
God. If any thing be acquired by a change, then that which
is acquired was not from eternity, and so he was not wholly
eternal; if any thing be lost which was from eternity, he is
not wholly everlasting. If he did decrease by the change,
something in him which had no beginning would have an end;
if he did increase by that change, something in him would have
a beginning that might have no end." What is changed does
not remain, and what does not remain is not eternal. Though
God always remains in regard of existence, he would be im
mortal and live always ; yet if he should suffer any change, he
could not properly be eternal; because he would not always
be the same, and Avould not in every part be eternal; for afl
change is finished in time, one moment preceding, another mo-
' Ficinus Zachar, mitylen in Peta. tom. 1. p. 169.
' Austin in Pet. tom. i. p. 201.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 373
ment following: but that which is before time cannot be changed
by time. God cannot be eternally what he was, that is, he
cannot have a true eternity, if he had a new knowledge, new
purpose, a new essence: if he were sometimes this, and some
times that, sometimes know this and sometimes know that,
soinetimes purpose this and afterwards has a new purpose ; he
would be partly temporary and parfly eternal, not truly and
universally eternal. He that has any thing of newness, has not
properly and truly an entire eternity. Again, by the same rea
son that God could in the least cease to be what he was, he
might also cease whoUy to be; and no reason can be rendered
why God might not cease wholly to be, as well as cease to be
entirely and uniformly what he was. All changeableness im
plies a corruptibility.
(5.) If God were changeable, he were not infinite and
almighty. AU change ends in addition or diminution; if any
thing be added, he was not infinite before; if any thing be
diminished, he is not infinite after. All change implies bounds
and limits to that which is changed; but God is infinite, " his
greatness is unsearchable," ' Psal. cxlv. 3. We can add num
ber to number without any end, and can conceive an infinite
number; yet the greatness of God is beyond all our conceptions.
But if there could be any change in his greatness for the better.
it would not be unsearchable before that change; if for the
worse, it would not be unsearchable after that change. What
soever has limits and is changeable, is conceivable and search
able; but God is not only not known, but impossible in his own
nature to be known and searched out, and therefore impossible
to have any diminution in his nature. All that which is changed
arrives to soraething which it was not before, or ceases in part
to be what it was before.
He would not also be almighty. What is oranipotent cannot
be raade worse; for to be made worse is in part to be corrupted.
If he be made better, he was not almighty before, something
of poAver was wanting to him: and if there should be any
change, it must proceed from himself or from another; if from
himself, it would be an inability to preserve himself in the per
fection of his nature ; if from another, he would be inferior in
strength, knowledge, and power to that which changes him,
either in his nature, knowledge, or will; in both an inabflity;
an inability in him to continue the same, or an inabihty in him
to resist the power of another.
(6.) The world could not be ordered and governed, but by
some principle or being which were immutable. Principles
are always more fixed and stable, than things which proceed
from those principles; and this is true both in morals and
' To end, no term.

374 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
naturals. Principles in conscience, whereby raen are governed,
remain firmly engraven in their minds. The root lies firmly
in the earth, while branches are shaken with the wind. The
heavens, the cause of generation, are more firm and stable than
those things which are wrought by their influence. All things
in the Avorld are moved by some power and virtue which is
stable; and unless it were so, no order would be observed in
motion, no motion could be regularly continued. He could not
be a full satisfaction to the infinite desire of the souls of his
people. Nothing can truly satisfy the soul of man but rest;
and nothing can give it rest but that which is perfect, and im
mutably perfect; for else it would be subject to those agitations
and variations which the being it depends upon is subject to.
The principle of all things must be immutable;' which is
described by some by a unit, the principle of number, wherein
there is a resemblance of God's unchangeableness. A unit is
not variable, it continues in its own nature immutably a unit;
it never varies from itself, it cannot be changed from itself, but
is, as it were, so omnipotent towards others, that it changes all
numbers. If you add any number, it is the beginning of that
number, but the unit is not increased by it; a new number
arises from that addition, but the unit still remains fhe same,
and adds a value to other figures, but receives none from them.
3. The third thing to speak to is,
That immutability is proper to God, and incommunicable to
any creature. MutabUity is natural to every creature as a
creature, and immutability is the sole perfection of God. He
only is infinite wisdom, able to foreknow future events. He
only is infinitely powerful, able to call forth all means to effect;
so that wanting neither wisdom to contrive, nor strength to
execute, he cannot alter his counsel. None heing above hira,
nothing in him contrary to him, and being defective in no bless
edness and perfection, he cannot vary in his essence and na
ture. Had not immutabihty as wefl as eternity been a property
solely pertaining to the Divine nature, as well as creative
power and eternal duration, the apostle's argument to prove
Christ to be God frora this perpetual saraeness, had come short
of any convincing strength. These words of the text he apphes
to Christ, Heb. i. 10 — 12. "They shafl be changed, but thou
art the same." There had been no strength in the reason, if
immutability by nature did belong to any creature.
The changeableness of all creatures is evident.
Of corporeal creatures, it is evident to sense. All plants
and aniraals, as they have their duration bounded in certain
limits ; so while they do exist, they proceed from their rise to
their fall ; they pass through many sensible alterations, from
' Fotherby, Atheomastix. p. 308. Gerhard, loc. com.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 375
one degree of growth to another, from buds to blossoms, from
blossoms to flowers and fruits; they come to their pitch that
nature has set them, and return back to the state frora whence
they sprung; there is not a day, but they make some acquisi
tion, or suffer some loss; they die and spring up every day;
nothing in them more certain than their inconstancy: the crea
ture is subject lo vanity, Rora. viii. 20. The heavenly bodies
are changing their place; the sun every day is running his
race, and stays not in the same point; and though they are
not changed in their essence, yet they are in their place. Some
indeed say there is a continual generation of light in the sun,
as there is a loss of light by the casting out its beams, as in a
fountain there is a flowing out ofthe streams, and a continual
generation of supply. And though these heavenly bodies have
kept their standing and motion from the time of their creation,
yet both the sun's standing still in Joshua's time, and its going
back in Hezekiah's tirae, show that they are changeable at the
pleasure of God.
But in man, the change is perpetually visible; every day
there is a change frorn ignorance to knowledge, from one will
to another, from passion to passion, sometimes sad and some
times cheerful, sometimes craving this and presently nauseating
it; his body changes from health to sickness, or from weakness
to strength; some alteration there is either in body or mind.
Man, who is the noblest creature, the subordinate end of the
creation of other things, cannot assure himself of a consistency
and fixedness in any thing, the short space of a day, no not of
a minute; all his months are months of vanity. Job vii. 3;
whence the psalmist calls man at the best estate altogether
vanity, Psal. xxxix. 5, a mere heap of vanity. As he contains
in his nature the nature of all creatures, so he inherits in his
nature the vanity of all creatures: a little world, the centre of
the Avorld, and of the vanity of the world; yea, lighter than
vanity, Psal. lxii. 9; more moveable than a feather; tossed be
tween passion and passion, daily changing his end, and changing
the means; an image of nothing.
Spiritual natures, as angels, change not in their being, but
that is from the indulgence of God; they change not in their
goodness, but that is not from their nature, but Divine grace in
their confirraation: but they change in their knowledge, they
knoAV more by Christ than they did by creation, 1 Tira. iii. 16;
they have an addition of knowledge every day, by the provi
dential dispensation of God to his church, Eph. ifl. 10 ; and the
increase of their astonishment and love, is according to the in
crease of their knowledge and insight. They cannot have a
new discovery, without new admirations of what is discovered
to them. There is a change in their joy, when there is a change

376 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
in a sinner, Luke xv. 10. They were changed in their essence,
when they were made such glorious spirits of nothing. Some
of thera were changed in their will, when of holy they became
impure. The good angels Avere changed in their understand
ings, when the glories of God in Christ were presented to their
view ; and all can be changed in their essence again ; and as
they were made of nothing, so by the power of God they may
be reduced to nothing again. So glorified souls shall have an
unchanged operation about God, for they shaU behold his face
without any grief or fear of loss, without vagrant thoughts;
but they can never be unchangeable in their nature, because
they can never pass from finfle to infinite.
No creature can be unchangeable in its nature :
Because every creature rose from nothing. As they rose
from nothing, so they tend to nothing unless they are preserved
by God. The notion of a creature speaks changeableness; be
cause to be a creature, is to be made something of nothing, and
therefore creation is a change of nothing into soraething. The
being of a creature begins from change, and therefore the
essence of a creature is subject to change: God only is uncre
ated, and therefore unchangeable; if he were made he coifld
not be immutable; for the very making is a change of not
being into being. All creatures were made good, as they were
the fruits of God's goodness and power; but must needs be
mutable, because they were the extracts of nothing.
Again, this is so because every creature depends purely upon
the wfll of God. They depend not upon themselves but upon
another for their being. As they received their being from the
word of his mouth and the arm of his power, so by the same
word they can be cancelled into nothing, and return into as
little significancy as when they were nothing. He that created
them by a word, can by a word destroy them. If God should
take away their breath, they die and return into their dust,
Psal. civ. 29. As it was in the power of the Creator that things
might be before they actually were; so it is in the power of the
Creator that things after they are raay cease to be what they
are; and they are in their OAvn nature as reducible to nothing,
as they were producible by the power of God from nothing;
for there needs no more than an act of God's will to null them,
as there needed only an act of God's wfll to make them. Crea
tures are all subject to a higher cause: they are all "reputed as
nothing: he doth according to his wfll in the army of heaven,
and among the inhabitants ofthe earth: and none can stay his
hand, or say unto him, What dost thou?" Dan. iv. 35. But
God is unchangeable, because he is the highest good; none
above him, all below him; aU dependent on him, himself upon
none.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 377
No creature is absolutely perfect. No creature can be so
perfect, or can ever be, but something by the infinite power of
God maybe added to it; for whatsoever is finite may receive
greater additions, and therefore a change. No creature you
can imagine, but in your thoughts you may fancy him capable
of greater perfections than you know he has, or than really he
has. The perfections of all creatures are searchable ; the per
fection of God only is unsearchable, Job. xi. 7, and therefore
he only immutable.
God only is always the same. Time makes no addition to
him, nor diminishes any thing of him ; his nature and essence,
his wisdom and wfll, have always been the same from eternity,
and shall be the same to eternity without any variation.
4. The fourth thing propounded is — some propositions to
clear this unchangeableness of God from any thing that seems
contrary to it.
(1.) There was no change in God when he began to create
the world in tirae. The creation was a real change, but the
change was not subjectively in God, but in the creature; the
creature began to be what it was not before. Creation is con
sidered as active or passive;' active creation is the will and
power of God to create; this is frora eternity, because God
wiUed from eternity to create in time; this never had beginning,
for God never began in time to understand any thing, to will
any thing, or to be able to do any thing; but he always under
stood and always willed those things which he determined from
eternity to produce in tirae. The decree of God may be taken
for the act decreeing, that is, eternal and the same; or for the
object decreed, that is, in time: so that there may be a change
in the object, hut not in the will whereby the object does exist.
[1.] There was no change in God by the act of creation, be
cause there was no new wiU in hira. There was no new act
of his Avill which was not before. The creation began in tirae,
but the wfll of creating was from eternity. The work was new,
but the decree whence that new work sprung, Avas as ancient
as the Ancient of days. When the time of creating came, God
Avas not made ex nolente volens, " wflling from unwilling," as
we are; for Avhatsoever God willed to be now done, he willed
from eternity to be done ; but he willed also that it should not
be done till such an instant of tirae, and that it should not exist
before such a tirae. If God had willed the creation of the "world
only at that time when the world was produced, and not before,
then indeed God had been changeable. But though God spake
that word, which he had not spoken before, whereby the Avorld
was brought into act; yet he did not will that wiU he willed
not before. God did not create by a new counsel or new will,
' Gamach. in part, 1. Aquin. qu, 9, cap. 1. p. 72.
Vol. I.— 48

378 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
but by that Avhich was from eternity, Eph. i. 9. AU things are
wrought according to that purpose in himself, and according to
the counsel of his avUI, ver. 11. And as the holiness of the
elect is the fruit of his eternal will before the foundation of the
world, ver 4, so likewise is the existence of things, and of those
persons whora he did elect. As when an artificer frames a
house or a temple according to that raodel he had in his raind
some years before, there is no change in the model in his mind,
the artificer is the same, though the work is produced by him
some tirae after he had fraraed that copy ofit in his own mind;
but there is a change of the thing produced by him according
to that model. Or when a rich man intends four or five years
hence, if he lives, to build a hospital, is there any change in
his wfll, when, after the expiration of that time, he builds and
endows it? Though it be after his will, yet it is the fruit of his
precedent will. So God from aU eternity did Avill and command
that the creatures should exist in such a part of time ; and by
this eternal wiU, all things, Avhether past, present, or to come,
did, do, and shall exist at that point of time, which that will did
appoint for them; not as though God had a new will Avhen
things stood up in being, but only that which was prepared in
his immutable counsel and wfll from eternity, doth then appear.
There can be no instant fixed from eternity, wherein it can be
said, God did not wfll the creation of the world. For had the
will of God for the shortest moment been undetermined to the
creation of the Avorld, and afterwards resolved upon it, there
had been a moral change in God from not wUling to wflling:
but this there Avas not, for God executes nothing in time which
he had not ordained from eternity, and appointed all the means
and circumstances whereby it should be brought about; as fhe
determination of our Saviour to suffer was not a new will, but
an eternal counsel, and wrought no change in God, Acts fl. 23.
[3>] There is no change in God by the act of creation, be
cause there was no new power in God. Had God had a will
at the time of the creation which he had not before, there had
been a moral change in hira, so had there been in him a power
only to create then and not before, there had been a physical
change in him from weakness to ability. There can be no more
ncAV power in God, than there can be a new will in God; for
his will is his power, and what he wills to effect, that he does
effect. As he was unchangeably holy, so he was unchange
ably almighty, " which was, and is, and is to come," Rev. iv.
8; which was almighty, and is almighty, and ever will be
alraighty. The work therefore makes no change in God,
but there is a change in the thing wrought by that power
of God. Suppose you had a seal engraven upon some metal a
hundred years old, or as old as the creation ; and you should

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 379
this day, so many ages after the engraving of it, make an im
pression of that seal upon wax; would you say the engrave-
nient upon the seal were changed, because it produced that
stamp upon the wax now which it did not before ? No, the
change is purely in the wax, which receives a new figure or
form by the impression; not in the seal, that was capa
ble of imprinting the sarae long before. God was the same
from eternity as he was when he made a signature of himself
upon the creatures by creation, and is no more changed by
stamping thera into several forms, than the seal is changed by
making impression upon the wax. As when a house is en
lightened by the sun, or that which Avas cold is heated by it,
there is a change in the house from darkness to light, from
coldness to heat; but is there any change in the light and heat
of the sun? There is a change in the thing enlightened or
warmed by that light and heat which remains fixed and con
stant in the sun, which was as capable in itself to produce the
same effects before, as at that instant when it works them: so
when God is the author of a new work, he is not changed; be
cause he works it by an eternal wfll and an eternal power.
[3.] Nor is there any new relation acquired by God by the
creation of the world. There was a new relation acquired by
the creature; as when a raan sins, he has another relation to
God than he had before: he has relation to God, as a crirainal
to a judge. But there is no change in God, but in the raale-
factor. The being of men makes no more change in God than
the sins of raen ; as a tree is now on our right hand, and by our
turning about, it is on our left hand, sometimes before us, some
times behind us, according to our motion near it or about it,
and the turning of the body. There is no change in the tree,
which remains firm and fixed in the earth ; but the change is
wholly in the posture of the body ; whereby the tree may be
said to be before us or behind us, or on the right hand or on
the left hand. God gained no new relation of Lord or Creator
by the creation ; ' for though he had nothing to rule over, yet
he had the power to create and rule though he did not create and
rule. As a man raay be called a skilful writer though he does
not write, because he is able to do it when he pleases ; or a
man skilful in physic is caUed a physician, though he does not
practise that skifl, or discover his art in the distribution of medi
cines, because he may do it when he pleases, it depends upon
his own wfll to show his art Avhen he has a mind to it ; so the
name Creator and Lord, belongs to God from eternity, because
he could create and rule. But howsoever, if there were any
such change of relation, that God may be called Creator and
Lord after the creation and not before, it is not a change in es-
' Petav. Theol. Dogmat. Toni. 1.

380 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
sence, nor in knowledge, nor in wiU ; God gains no perfection nor
diminution by it; his knowledge is not increased hy it; he is no
more by it than he was, and wUl be, if all those things ceased:
and therefore Austin illustrates it by this simihtude ; — as a piece
of raoney when it is given as the price of a thing, or deposited
only as a pledge for the security of a thing borrowed; the coin
is the sarae and is not changed, though the relation it had as
a pledge and as a price be different frora one another; so that
suppose any new relation be added, yet there is nothing hap
pens to the nature of God which raay infer any change.
(2.) The second proposition. There was no change in the
Divine nature of the Son, when he assuraed huraan nature.
There was a union of the two natures, but no change of the
Deity into the humanity, or of the humanity into the Deity;
both preserved their peculiar properties. The humanity was
changed by a comraunication of excellent gifts frora the Divine
nature, not by being brought into an equality with it, for that
was impossible that a creature should become equal to the
Creator. He took the form of a servant, but he lost not the
form of God; he despoUed not himself ofthe perfections ofthe
Deity: he was indeed emptied, and became of no reputation,
Phfl. ii. 7; but he did not cease to be God, though he was re
puted to be only a man, and a very mean one too. The glory
of his Divinity was not extinguished nor diminished, though it
Avas obscured and darkened under the veil of our infirmities ;
but there was no more change in the hiding of it, than there is
in the body of the sun when it is shadowed by the interposition
of a cloud. His blood, while it was pouring out frora his veins,
was the blood of God, Acts xx. 28; and therefore when he was
bowing the head of his humanity upon the cross, he had the
nature and perfections of God ; for had he ceased to be God, he
had been a mere creature, and his sufferings would have been
of as little value and satisfaction as the sufferings of a creature.
He could not have been a sufficient Mediator had he ceased
to be God; and he had ceased to be God, had he lost any one
perfection proper to the Divine nature ; and losing none, he lost
not this of unchangeableness, which is none of the meanest be
longing to the Deity. Why by his union with the human na
ture should he lose this, any more than he lost his omniscience,
which he discovered by his knowledge of the thoughts of men;
or his mercy, which he manifested to the height in the time of
his suffering ? That is truly a change, when a thing ceases to
be what it was before: this was not in Christ, he assuraed our
nature without laying aside his oavu. When the soul is united
to the body, does it lose any of those perfections that are proper
to its nature?' Is there any change either in the substance or
' Zanch. de Immutab. Dei. Goulart de Immutab. de Dieu.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 381
qualities of it ? No ; but it makes a change in the body, and of
a dull lump it raakes a living raass, conveys a vigour and
strength to it ; and by its power, quickens it to sense and raotion :
so did the Divine nature and huraan remain entire; there was
no change of the one into the other, as Christ by a miracle
changed water into wine, or raen by art change sand or ashes
into glass. And when he prays for the glory he had with God
before the world was, John xvii. 5, he prays that a glory he
had in his Deity raight shine forth in his person as Mediator,
and be evidenced in that height and splendour suitable to his
dignity, which had been so lately darkened by his abaseraent;
that as he had appeared to be the Son of man in the infirmity
of the flesh, he might appear to be the Son of God in the glory
of his person ; that he might appear to be the Son of God and
the Son of raan in one person.
Again, there could he no change in this union; for in a real
change soraething is acquired which was not possessed before,
neither formally nor eminently; but the Divinity had from eter
nity before the incarnation, all the perfections ofthe human na
ture erainenfly in a nobler raanner than they are in themselves,
and therefore could not be changed by a real union. '
(3.) The third proposition. Repentance and other affections
ascrihed to God in Scripture, argue no change in God. We
often read of God's repenting, repenting of the good he pro
mised, Jer. xviii. 10; and ofthe evil he threatened, Exod. xxxii.
14; Jonah iii. 10; or of the work he hath wrought. Gen. vi. 6.
We must observe therefore, that
Repentance is not properly in God. He is a pure Spirit,
and is not capable of those passions Avhich are signs of weak
ness and impotence, nor is subject to those regrets we are
subject lo. Where there is a proper repentance there is a want
of foresight, an ignorance of what would succeed, or a defect
in the examination of the occurrences which might fall within
consideration: all repentance of a fact is grounded upon a mis
take in the event, which was not foreseen; or upon an after-
knoAvledge of the evil of the thing which was acted by the
person repenting. But God is so wise that he cannot err; so
holy he cannot do evil; and his certain prescience or foreknow
ledge secures him against any unexpected events: God does
not act but upon clear and infallible reason. And a change
upon passion is accounted by all so great a weakness in man,
that none can entertain so unworthy a conceit of God. Where
he is said to repent. Gen. vi. 6, he is also said to grieve; now
no proper grief can be imagined to be in God: as repentance is
inconsistent with infaUible foresight, so is grief no less inconsist
ent with -undefiled blessedness. God is blessed for ever, Rom.
1 Gamach. in part. 1. Aquin, qu. 9. cap. I.

383 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
ix. 5, and therefore nothing can befall him that can stain that
blessedness: his blessedness would be impaired and interrupted
whfle he is repenting, though he did soon rectify that which is
the cause of his repentance : God " is in one mind, and who
can turn hira ? and what his soul desireth, even that he doth,"
Job xxiii. 13.
But God accoramodates himself in the Scripture to our weak
capacity. God has no more of a proper repentance, than he
has of a real body. Though he, in accommodation to our
weakness, ascribes to himself the merabers of our bodies to set
out to our understanding the greatness of his perfections, we
raust not conclude him a body like us; so because he is said to
have anger and repentance, we must not conclude hira to have
passions like us. When we cannot fully coraprehend him as
he is, he clothes himself with our nature in his expressions that
we may apprehend him as we are able, and by an inspection
into ourselves, learn something ofthe nature of God; yet those
human ways of speaking ought to be understood in a manner
agreeable to the infinite excellency and majesty of God ; and
are only designed to raark out something in God which has a
resemblance to something in us. As we cannot speak to God
as gods, but as men ; so we cannot understand him speaking to
us as a God, unless he condescends to speak to us like a man.
God therefore frames his language to our dulness, not to his
own state ; and informs us by our own phrases what he would
have us learn of his nature; as nurses talk broken language
to young children. In all such expressions, therefore, we must
ascribe the perfection we conceive in them to God, and lay the
imperfection at the door of the creature.
Therefore repentance in God is only a change ofhis outAvard
conduct, according to his infalhble foresight, and irarautable
wfll. He changes the way of his providential proceeding ac
cording to the carriage of the creature, without changing his
will, which is the rule of his providence. When God speaks
of his repenting that he had made man. Gen. vi. 6, it is only
his changing his conduct frora a way of kindness to a way of
severity; and is a word suited to our capacities, to signify his
detestation of sin and his resolution to punish it, after man had
made himself quite another thing than God had raade him.
"It repents me," that is, I am purposed to destroy the world;
as he that repents of his work throws it away. As, if a potter
cast away the vessel he had fraraed, it were a testimony that
he repented that ever he took pains about it ; so the destruction
of them seems to be a repentance in God that ever he made
them : it is a change of events, not of counsels. ' Repentance
in us is a grief for a former fact, and a changing of our course
' Mercer in loc.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 353
in it: grief is not in God,' but his repentance is a willing a
thing should not be as it was, which wiU was fixed from eter
nity: for God foreseeing man would fall, and decreeing to per
mit it, he could not be said to repent in time of what he did
not repent from eternity; and therefore if there were no repent
ance in God from eternity, there could be none in time. But
God is said to repent, when he changes the disposition of af
fairs without himself. As men, when they repent, alter the
course of their actions, so God alters things extra se, or with
out himself, but changes nothing of his own purpose within
himself It rather notes the action he is about to do, than any
thing in his own nature, or any change in his eternal purpose.
God's repenting of his kindness is nothing but an inflicting of
punishment, which the creature by the change of his carriage
hath merited; as his repenting of the evil threatened is the
withholding the punishment denounced, when the creature has
hurably subraitted to his authority and acknowledged his crime.
Or ,else we may understand those expressions of joy, and
grief, and repentance, to signify thus much,^ that the things de
clared to be the objects of joy, and grief, and repentance, are of
that nature, that if God were capable of our passions, he would
discover himself in such cases as we do ; as when the prophets
mention the joys and applaudings of heaven, earth, and the sea,
they only signify that the things they speak of are so good, that
if the heavens and the sea had natures capable of joy, they
would express it upon that occasion in Such a manner as we
do: so would God haAre joy at the obedience of men, and grief
at the unworthy carriage of ihen, and repent of his kindness
when men abuse it, and repent of his punishment when men
reform under his rod, were the majesty of his nature capable
of such affections.
(4. ) Proposition. The not fulfilling of some predictions in
Scripture, which seem to imply a changeableness of the Divine
will, do not argue any change in it. As when he reprieved
Hezekiah from death, after a message sent by the prophet
Isaiah, that he should die, 2 Kings xx. 1. 5; Isa. xxxviii. 1. 5;
and when he made an arrest of that judgment he had threat
ened by Jonah against Nineveh, Jonah iii. 4. 10.
There is not indeed the same reason of pronuses and threat
enings altogether, for in promising the obligation lies upon God,
and the right to deraand, is in the party that performs the con
dition of the promise. But in threatenings the obligation lies
upon the sinner, and God's right to punish is declared thereby:
so that though God does not punish, his will is not changed ;
because his will was to declare the demerit of sin, and his right
to punish upon the commission of it ; though he may not pun-
' Petavius Theol. Dogmat. 2 Daille, in Sermon on 2 Pet. iii. 9. p. 60.

384 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
ish according to the strict letter of the threatening the person
sinning, but relax his own law for the honour of his attributes,
and transfer the punishment frora the offender to a person sub
stituted in his room. This was the case in the first threatening
against man, and the substituting a surety in the place of the
malefactor. But the answer to these cases is this,' that where Ave find
predictions in Scripture declared, and yet not executed, we must
consider them not as absolute, but conditional, or as the civil
law calls it, an interlocutory sentence. God declared what
would follow by natural causes, or by the demerit of man, not
what he would absolutely hiraself do. And in raany of those
predictions, though the condition be not expressed, yet it is to
be understood. So the promises of God are to be understood
with the condition of perseverance in well doing; and threaten
ings with a clause of revocation annexed to them, provided that
men repent. And this God lays down as a general case,
always to be remembered as a rule for the interpreting his
threatenings against a nation, and the same reason wiU hold in
threatenings against a particular person. "At what instant I
shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to
pluck up, and to puU down, and fo destroy it; if that nation,
against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will
repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them ;" and so when
he speaks of planting a nation, if they do evil, he will repent of
the good, Jer. xviii. 7 — 10. It is a universal rule by which all
particular cases of this nature are to be tried: so that when
man's repentance arrives, God remains firm in his first avUI,
always equal to himself, and it is not he that changes, but man.
For since the interposition of the Mediator, with an eye to
whom God governed the world after the fall, the right of pun
ishing was taken off if men repented and mercy was to flow
out, if by a conversion men returned to their duty, Ezek. xviii.
20, 21. This I say is grounded upon God's entertaining the
Mediator; for the covenant of works discovered no such thing
as repentance or pardon. Now these general rules are to be
the interpreters of particular cases : so that predictions of good
are not to be counted absolute, if men return to evil; nor pre
dictions of evil, if men be thereby reduced to a repentance of
their crimes.
So Nineveh shall be destroyed, that is, according to the gene
ral rule, unless the inhabitants repent, which they did; they
manifested a belief of the threatening, and gave glory to God
by giving credit to the prophet: and they had a notion of this
rule God lays down in the other prophets; for they had an
apprehension that upon their humbling themselves, they might
' Rivet in Genes. Exercita. 51. p. 213.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 335
escape the threatened vengeance, and the shooting those ar
rows that were ready in the bow. Though Jonah proclaimed
destruction Avithout declaring any hopes of an arrest of judg
ment; yet their natural notions of God afforded some natural
hopes of relief, if they did their duty, and spurned not against
the prophet's message: and therefore saith one,' " God did not
always express this condition, because it was needless; his own
rule revealed in Scripture was sufficient to some, and the natu
ral notion all men had of God's goodness upon their repent
ance, made it not absolutely necessary to declare it. And be
sides," says he, "it is bootless; the expressing it can do but
little good; secure ones Avill repent never the sooner, but rather
presume upon their hopes of God's forbearance, and linger out
their repentance till it be too late: and to work men to repent
ance, whom he has purposed to spare, he threatens them with
terrible judgments; which by how much the more terrible and
peremptory they are, are likely to be more effectual for the end
God in his purpose designs them, namely, to hurable them
under a sense of their demerfl, and an acknowledgment of his
righteous justice; and therefore though they be absolutely de
nounced, yet they are to be conditionally interpreted with a
reservation of repentance." As for that answer which one
gives, that by forty days Avas not meant forty natural days, but
forty prophetical days, that is, years, a day for year; and that
the city was destroyed forty years after by the Medes, the ex
pression of God's repenting upon their hurailiation, puts a bar
to that interpretation: God repented, that is, he did not bring
the punishment upon them according to those days the prophet
had expressed; and therefore forty natural days are to be
understood; and if it were meant of forty years, and they were
destroyed at the end of that term, how could God be said to
repent, since according to that, the, punishment threatened was,
according to the time fixed, brought upon them? And the
destruction of it forty years after Avill not be easily evinced, if
Jonah lived in the time of Jeroboam fhe second king oflsrael,
as he did, 2 Kings xiv. 25; and Nineveh was destroyed in the
time of Josiah king of Judah. But the other answer is plain.
God did not fulfil what he had threatened, because they re
formed what they had commuted. When the threatening was
made, they Avere a fit object for justice; but when they re
pented, they were a fit object for a merciful respite. To
threaten when sins are high, is a part of God's justice; not to
execute when sins are revoked by repentance, is a part of
God's goodness. And in the case of Hezekiah, Isaiah coraes
wflh a message frora God, that he should set his house in
order, for he shall die ; that is, the disease Avas mortal, and no
' Sanderson's Sermon, par. 2. p. 257, 258.
Vol. I.— 49

386 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
outward applications could in their own nature resist the dis
temper. "Behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years; I
will heal thee," 2 Kings xx. 1. 5; Isa. xxxviii. 1. 5. It seems
to me to be one entire message, because the latter part of it was
so suddenly after the other committed to Isaiah to be delivered
to Hezekiah; for he was not gone out of the king's house, be
fore he was ordered to return with the noAvs of his health, by
an extraordinary indulgence of God against the power of na
ture and force of the disease. Behold, I will add to thy life;
noting it an extraordinary thing. He was in fhe second court
of the king's house when this word came to him, 2 Kings xx.
4; the king's house having three courts, so that he Avas not
gone above half way out ofthe palace. God might send this
message of death to prevent the pride Hezekiah might sweU
with for his deliverance from Sennacherib; as Paul had a mes
senger of Satan to buffet him to prevent his lifting up, 2 Cor.
xii. 7: (and this good man was subject to this sin, as we find
afterwards in the case of the Babylonish ambassadors:) and
God delayed this other part of the message to humble him, and
draw out this prayer; and as soon as ever he found Hezekiah
in this temper, he sent Isaiah with a comfortable message of
recovery. So that the will of God Avas to signify to him the
mortality of his distemper, and afterwards to relieve him by a
message of an extraordinary recovery.
(5.) Proposition. God is not changed, when of loving to
any creatures he becomes angry with them, or of angry he be
comes appeased. The change in these cases is in the creature;
according to the alteration in the creature, it stands in a various
relation to God: an innocent creature is the object of his kind
ness, an offending creature is the object ofhis anger: there is a
change in the dispensation of God, as there is a change in the
creature making himself capable of such dispensations. God
always acts according to the immutable nature of his holiness,
and can no more change in his affections fo good and evil, than
he can in his essence. When the devils, now fallen, stood as
glorious angels, they Avere the objects of God's love, because
holy: when they fell, they were the objects of God's hatred, be
cause impure ; the same reason which raade him love them
while they were pure, made him hate them when they were
criminal. The reason of his various dispensations to them was
the same in both, as considered in God, his immutable holiness ;
but as respecting the creature, different; the nature ofthe crea
ture was changed, but the Divine holy nature of God remained
the same: "With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and
with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward," Psal. xviii.
26. He is a refreshing light to those that obey him, and a con
suming fire to those that resist him. Though the same angels

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.

387

Wfere not always loved ; yet the same reason that moved him to
Idve'th^m moved him to hate them. It had argued a change
in' God, if he had loved them always, in Avhatsoever posture
they were towards him : it could not be counted love, but a
weakness and impotent fondness: the change is in the object,
not in the affection of God. For the object loved before is not
beloved now, because that Avhich was the motive of love, is not
now in it: so that the creature having a different state from
what it had, falls under a different affection or dispensation.
It had been a mutable affection in God, to love that which
was not worthy of love, with the same love wherewith he
loyed'fhat which had the greatest resemblance to himself Had
God loved the fallen angels in that state and for that state, he
had hated ^himself, because he had loved that which Avas con
trary to himself, and the image ofhis own holiness, which made
them appear before good in his sight. The will of God is un
changeably set to love righteousness and hate iniquity, and
from this hatred to punish it; and if a righteous creature con
tracts the wrath of God, or a sinful creature has the communi
cations of God's love, it must be by a change in themselves. Is
the sun changed when it hardens one thing and softens another,
according to the disposition of the several subjects ? or Avhen
the sun makes a flower raore fragrant, and a dead carcass more
noisome ? There are divers effects, but the reason of that di
versity is not in the sun, but in the subject: the sun is the
same and produces those different effects by the same quahty
of heat. So if an unholy soul approach to God, God looks an-
grfly upon him, the same immutable perfection in God draAvs
out his kindness towards him; as some think the sun would
rather refresh than scorch us, if our bodies Avere of the same
nature and substance Avith that luminary.
As the will of God for creating the world was no new, but
an eternal wUl, though it manifested itself in time; so the wfll
of God for the punishment of sin, or the reconciliation of the sin
ner, Avas no new will; though his Avrath in tirae breaks out in the
effects of it upon sinners, and his love floAvs out in the effects ofit
upon penflents. Christ by his death reconcfling God to raan,
did not alter the will of God, but did what was consonant to
his eternal will: he came not fo change his will but to execute
his will. "Lo, I come to do thy wfll, 0 God," Heb. x. 7.
And the grace of God in Christ, was not a ncAv grace, but an
old grace in a new appearance; "the grace of God — hath ap
peared," Tit. n. 11.
(6.) Proposflion. A change of laws by God argues no change
in God, when God abrogates some laws which he had settled
in the church and enacts others. I spoke of this something the
last day : I shall only add this. God commanded one thing to

388 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
the Jews when the church was in an infant state, and removed
those laws when the church came to some growth. The ele
ments of the world were suited to the state of children. Gal. iv.
3. A mother feeds not the infant with the same diet as she
does when it is grown up. Our Saviour acquainted not his
disciples with some things atone time which he did at another,
because they were not able to bear them. Where was the
change, in Christ's will, or in their growth frora a state of weak
ness to that of strength ? A physician prescribes not the same
thing fo a person in health, as he does to one conflicting with
a distemper; nor the same thing in the beginning, as he does
in the state or declination of the disease. The physician's
wfll and skill are the same, but the capacity and necessity of
the patient for this or that medicine or method of proceeding
are not the same.
When God changed fhe ceremonial law, there was no change
in the Divine Avill, but an execution of his will ; for when God
commanded the ohservance of the law he intended not the per
petuity of it; nay, in the prophet he declares the cessation ofit.
He decreed to comraand it, but he decreed to comraand it only
for such a tirae; so that the abrogation ofit was no less an ex
ecution of his decree, than the establishment of it for a season
was. The commanding of it was pursuant to his decree for
the appointing of it, and the nulling of it was pursuant to his
decree of continuing it only for such a season; so that in all
this there was no change in the will of God.
The counsel of God stands sure: what changes soever there
are in the world, are not in God or his will, but in the events
of things, and the different relations of things fo God: it is in
the creature, not in the Creator. The sun always remains of
the same hue, and is not discoloured in itself, because it shines
green through a green glass, and blue through a blue glass;
the difterent colours come from the glass, not from the sun.
The change is always in the disposflion of the creature, not in
the nature of God or his will.
5. Use.
(1.) For information.
[1.] If God be unchangeable in his nature, and immutability
be a property of God, then Christ has a Divine nature. This
in the psalm is applied to Christ in the Hebrews, Heb. i. 11,
where he joins the citation out of this psalm with that out of
Psalm xiv. 6, 7. " Thy throne 0 God, is for ever and ever:—
"thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore
God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy feflows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast
laid the foundation of the earth." As the first must neces
sarily be meant of Christ the Mediator, and therein he is dis-

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 339
tinguished from God, as one anointed by hira; so the other
must be raeant of Christ, whereby he is raade one with God in
regard of the creation and dissolution of the world; in regard
of eternity and irarautability. Both the testimonies are linked
together by the copulative, and; " and thou Lord," declaring
thereby that they are both to be understood of the sarae per
son, the Son of God. The design of the chapter is to prove
Christ to be God ; and such things are spoken of him as could
not belong to any creature, no, not to the raost excellent ofthe
angels. The sarae person that is said to be anointed above his
fellows, and is said to lay the foundation of the earth and hea
ven, is said to be the same, that is, the same in himself: the
prerogative of sameness belongs to that person, as well as crea
tion of heaven and earth.
The Socinians say it is spoken of God, and that God shall
destroy the heavens by Christ; if so, Christ is not a mere crea
ture, nor created when he was incarnate; for the same person
that shall change the world, did create the world : if God shall
change the world by him, God also created the world by hira ;
he was then before the world was ; for how could God create
the world by one that was not, or that was not in being till
after the creation of the world ? The heavens shall be changed,
but the person who is to change the heavens is said to be the
sarae, or unchangeable, in the creation as well as the dissolu
tion of the world. This sameness refers to the whole sentence.
The psalm wherein the text is, and whence this in the He
brews is cited, is properly meant of Christ, and redemption by
hira, and the completing of it at the last day, and not of the
Babylonish captivity. ' That captivity was not so deplorable
as the state the psalmist describes. Daniel and his companions
flourished in that captivity; it could not reasonably be said of
them, that their days were consumed like smoke, their heart
withered like grass ; that they forgot to eat their bread, as it is
ver. 3, 4. Besides, he coraplains of shortness of life, ver. 11;
but none had any more reason to complain of that in the time
of the captivity, than before and after it, or than at any other
time : their deliverance would contribute nothing to the natural
length of their lives. Besides, when Zion should be buflt, the
heathen should fear the name of the Lord, (that is, worship
God,) and afl the kings of the earth his glory, ver. 15. The
rearing the second teraple after the deliverance, did not prose
lyte the nations ; nor did the kings of the earth worship the
glory of God ; nor did God appear in such glory at the erecting
the second teraple. The second temple was less glorious than
the first, for it wanted sorae of the ornaments which were the
glory of the first ; but it is said of this state, that when the
I Placeus de Deitate Christi.

390 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
Lord should build up Zion, he should appear in his glory, ver.
16; his proper glory, and extraordinary glory. Noav that God
Avho shall appear in glory, and build up Zion, is the Son of
God, the Redeemer of the world ; he builds up the church, he
causes the nations to fear the Lord, and the kings of the earth
his glory; he broke doAvn the partition wall, and opened a
door for the entrance ofthe gentiles; he struck the chains from
off the prisoners, and loosed those that were appointed to death
by the curse of the law, ver. 20. And to this Person is as
cribed the creation of the Avorld ; and he is pronounced to
remain fhe same in the midst of an infinite number of changes
in inferior things. And it is hkely the psalmist considers not
only the beginning of redemption, but the completing of it at
the second coming of Christ; for he complains of those evils,
which shall be removed by his second coraing, namely, the
shortness of life, persecutions and reproaches wherewith the
church is afflicted in this world ; and comforts not himself with
those attributes which are directly opposed to sin, as the mercy
of God, fhe covenant of God, but with those that are opposed
to mortality and calamities, as the unchangeableness and eter
nity of God; and from thence infers a perpetual establishment
of believers. " The children of thy servants shall continue,
and their seed shall be established before thee," ver. 28. So
that the psalm itself seems to aim in fhe whole discourse at
Christ, and asserts his Divinity, which the aposfle as an inter
preter doth fully evidence; applying it to him, and manifesting
his Deity by his immutability as well as eternity. Wliile all
other things lose their forms, and pass through multitudes of
variations, he constantly remains the same, and shall be the
same when all fhe empires of the world shall slide away, and
a period be put to the present motions of the creation. ' And as
there was no change made in his being by the creation of
things, so neflher shall there be by the final alteration of things;
he shall see them finish as he saw them rise up info being, and
be the same after their reign as he Avas before their original;
he is the first and fhe last. Rev. i. 17.
[2. J Here is ground and encouragement for worship. An
atheist wUl make another use of this: if God be immutable,
why should we worship him, why should we pray to him?
good wUl come if he wills it, evil cannot be averted by aU our
supplications, ifhe has ordered it to fall upon us.
But certainly since unchangeableness in knoAving and willing
goodness is a perfection, an adoration and admiration is due to
God upon the account of this excellence. If he be God he is
to be reverenced, and the more highly reverenced because he
cannot but be God.
' Daille, Melang. des Sermons, part 2. sect. 1. p. 8 — 10, &c.

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 391
Again, what comfort could it be to pray to a God, that, like
the chamelion, changed colours every day, every moment?
What encouragement could there be to lift up our eyes to one
that were of one raind this day, and of another mind to-mor
row? Who would put up a petition to an earthly prince that
Avere so rautable, as to grant a petition one day, and deny it
another, and change his own act? But if a prince promise this
or that thing upon such or such a condition, and you know his
promise to be as unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and
Persians, would any man reason thus? — Because it is unchange
able Ave will not seek to him, we will not perform fhe condition,
upon which the fruit of the proclamation is to be enjoyed ? Who
would not count such an inference ridiculous? What blessings
has not God promised upon the condition of seeking him? Were
he of an unrighteous nature, or changeable in his mind, this
would be a bar to our seeking him, and frustrate our hopes:
but since it is otherwise, is not this excellency of his nature the
highest encouragement to ask of him the blessings he has pro
mised, and a beam from heaven to fire our zeal in asking? If
you desire things against his will, which he has declared he
will not grant, prayer then would be an act of disobedience, an
injury to him, as well as an act of folly in itself; his unchange
ableness then might stifle such desires. But if Ave ask accord
ing to his will, and according to our reasonable wants, what
ground have we to make such a ridiculous argument? He has
Avilled every thing that may be for our good, if Ave perform the
condition he has required ; and has put it upon record, that we
may know it, and regulate our desires and supplications accord
ing to it. If we wUl not seek him, his immutability cannot be
a bar, but our own folly is the cause; and by our neglect we
despoil him of this perfection as to us; and either imply that
he is not sincere, and means not as he speaks; or that he is as
changeable as the Avind, sometimes this thing, sotnetimes that,
and not at all to be confided in. If we ask according to his
revealed wUl, the unchangeableness ofhis nature will assure us
ofthe grant; and Avhat a presumption would it be in a creature
dependent upon his sovereign, to ask that which he knows he
has declared his will against; since there is no good we can
want, but he has promised to give, upon our sincere and ardent
desire for it.
God has decreed to give this or that to man, but condition-
aUy, and by the raeans of inquiring after him, and asking for
it, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. Ask, and you shall receive. Matt. vii. 7;
as much as to say, you shall not receive unless you ask. When
the highest promises are made, God expects they should be put
in suit: our Saviour joins fhe promise and the petition together;
the promise to encourage the petflion, and the petition to enjoy

392 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
the promise: he does not say perhaps it shall be given, but it
shall, that is, it certainly shall; your heavenly Father is un
changeably willing to give you those things. We raust depend
upon his irarautability for the thing, and submit to his wisdom
for the time. Prayer is an acknowledgment ofour dependence
upon God, Avhich dependence could have no firm foundation
without unchangeableness. Prayer does not desire any change
in God, but is offered to God that he would confer those things
which he has immutably willed to communicate; but he willed
them not without prayer as the means of bestowing them. The
light of the sun is ordered for our comfort, for the discovery of
visible things, for the ripening the fruits of the earth; but Avifhal
it is required that we use our faculty of seeing, that we employ
our industry in sowing and planting, and expose our fruits to
the view of the sun, that they may receive the infiuence of it.
If a man shuts his eyes, and complains that the sun is changed
into darkness, it would be ridiculous; the sun is not changed,
but we alter ourselves; nor is God changed in not giving us the
blessings he has promised, because he has promised in the way
of a due address to him, and opening our souls to receive his
influence; and to this, his immutabihty is the greatest en
couragement. [3.] This shows how contrary man is to God in regard of
his inconstancy. What an infinite distance is there between
the immutable God and mutable man, and how should we be
wail this flittingness in our nature!
There is a mutability in us as creatures, and a creature can
not but be mutable by nature, otherwise it were not a creature,
but God. The establishment of any creature is from grace and
gift; naturally we tend to nothing, as we come from nothing.
This creature mutability is not our sin, yet it should cause us
to lie down under a sense of our own nothingness, in the pre
sence of the Creator. The angels as creatures, though not cor
rupt, cover their faces before him: and the arguments God uses
to humble Job, though a fallen creature, are not from his cor
ruption; for I do not remember that he taxed him with that;
but from the greatness of his majesty and excellency of his
nature declared in his works. Job xxxviii. — xii. And there
fore raen that have no sense of God, and humility before him,
forget that they are creatures, as well as corrupt ones.
How great is the distance hetween God and us, in regard of
our inconstancy in good, which is not natural to us by creation!
For the mind and affections Avere regular, and by the great
Artificer were pointed to God as the object of knowledge and
love. We have the same faculties of understanding, wiU, and
affection as Adam had in innocence, but not with the same
light, the same bias, and the same ballast. Man by his fall

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 393
wounded his head and heart; the wound in his head made him
unstable in the truth, and that in his heart unsfeadfast in his
affections. He changed hiraself frora the image of God to that
of the devil, from innocence to corruption, and from an ability
to be steadfast to a perpetual inconstancy. His silver became
dross, and his wine was mixed with water, Isa. i. 22. He
changed. To inconstancy in truth, opposed to the immutabflity of
knowledge in God. How are our minds floating between igno
rance and knowledge! Truth in us is like those ephemera,
creatures of a day's continuance, which spring up in the morn
ing and expire at night. How soon does that fly aAvay from
us, which we have had, not only sorae weak flashes of, but
Avhich we have learned and have had some relish of! The
devfl stood not in the truth, John viii. 44, and therefore man
ages his engines to make us as unstable as himself Our minds
reel, and corrupt reasonings oversway us; like spunges we
suck up water, and a light compression makes us spout it out
again. Truths are not engraven upon our hearts, but Avritten
as in dust, defaced by the next puff of wind; "carried about
with every wind of doctrine," Eph. iv. 14: like a ship with
out a pilot and sails, at the courtesy of the next storm; or like
clouds that are tenants to the wind and sun, moved by the
wind, and melted by the sun. The Galatians were no sooner
called into the grace of God, but they were removed from it.
Gal. i. 6. Some have been reported to have kept an opinion
for a month; and many are like him that believed the soul's
immortality no longer than he had Plato's book of that subject
in his hand.' One likens such to children; they play with
truths as children do Avith babies, one while embrace thera, and
a little after throw them into the dirt. How soon do we forget
what is the truth dehvered to us, and what it represented us to
be! James i. 23, 24. Is it not a thing to be bewailed, that
man should be such a Aveathercock, turned about with every
breath of Avind, and shifting aspects as the wind shifts points?
Inconstancy in wUl and affections, opposed to the imrauta-
bUity of will in God. We waver between God and Baal; and
while we are not only resolving, but upon raotion a little way,
look back with a hankering after Sodom ; soraetiraes lifted up
with heavenly intentions, and presently cast down with earthly
cares; like a ship, that by an advancing wave seems to aspire
to heaven, and the next fall of the waves raakes it sink down to
the depths. We change purposes oftener than fashions; and
our resolutions are like letters in water, Avhereof no mark re
mains. We wUl be as John to-day to love Christ, and as Judas
to-morrow to betray him, and by an unworthy levity pass into
1 Sedgwick, Christ's Counsel, p 230.
Vol. I.— 50

394 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
the camp ofthe enemies of God; resolved to be as holy as an
gels in the morning, when the evening beholds us as impure as
devils. How often do we hate what before we loved, and shun
what before we longed for! And our resolutions are like ves
sels of crystal, which break at the first knock, are dashed in
pieces by the next temptation. Saul resolved not to persecute
David any more; hut you soon find him upon his old game.
Pharaoh more than once promised and probably resolved to let
Israel go ; but at the end of the storra his purposes vanish, Exod.
vni. 28. 32. When an affiiction pinches men, they intend to
change their course; and the next ncAvs of ease changes their
intentions: like a bow, not fully bent in their inclinations, they
cannot reach the mark, but live many years between resolu
tions of obedience and affections to rebellion, Psal. Ixxviii. 57.
And Avhat promises men make to God are often the fruit of
their passion, their fear, not of their wifl. The Israelites were
startled at the terrors wherewith the law was delivered, and
proraised obedience, Exod. xx. 19; but a month after forgot
them, and make a golden calf, and in the sight of Sinai call for
and dance before their gods, Exod. xxxii. Never people more
unconstant. Peter, who vowed an allegiance to his Master,
and a courage to stick to him, forswears him almost with the
same breath. Those that cry out vvith a zeal, " The Lord he
is God," shortly after return to the service of their idols, 1 Kings
xviii. 39. That which seems to be our pleasure this day, is
our vexation to-morrow: a fear of a judgment puts us info a
religious pang, and a love to our lusts reduces us to a rebellious
inclination. As soon as fhe danger is over, the saint is forgot
ten: salvation and damnation present themselves fo us, touch
us, and engender some weak wishes, which are dissolved by
the next allurements of a carnal interest. No hold can be taken
of our promises ; no credit is to be given to our resolutions.
Inconstancy in practice. How much beginning in the Spirit,
and ending in the fiesh ; one day in the sanctuary, another in
vice; clear in the morning as the sun, and clouded before noon;
in heaven by an excellency of gifts, in hell by a course of pro
faneness ! Like a flower, Avhich sorae mention, that changes its
colour three times a day; one part white, then purple, then yel
low. The Spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh quickly
triumphs over the Spirit. In a good man hoAv often is there a
spiritual lethargy ! Though he does not openly defame God, yet
he does not always glorify him: he does not forsake the fruth,
but he does not always make the attainment of it, and settle
ment in it, his business. This levity discovers itself in religious
duties; "When I woifld do good, evfl is present with me,"
Rom. vfl. 21 : never more present than when we have a mind fo
do good, and never more present than when we have a mind

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 395
to do the best and greatest good. How hard is it to make our
thoughts and affections keep their stand! place them upon a
good object, and they will be frisking from it, as a bird from
one bough, one fruit to another. We vary postures according
to the various objects we meet with. The course of the Avorld
is a very airy thing, suited to the uncertain motions of that
prince ofthe power ofthe air, which works in it, Eph. ii. 2.
This ought to be bewailed by us. Though we may stand
fast in the truth, though we raay spin our resolutions into a firra
web, though the Spirit may triumph over the flesh in our prac
tice, yet we ought to bewail it, because inconstancy is our na
ture, and Avhat fixedness Ave have in good is from grace.
What we find practised by most men, is natural to all.' As
face answers to face in a glass, so does heart to heart, Prov.
xxvii. 19: a faoe in the glass is not more like a natural face,
whose image it is, than one man's heart is naturafly like an
other. It is natural to those out of the church. Nebuchadnezzar
is so affected with Daniel's prophetic spirit, that he would have
none accounted the true God but the God of Daniel, Dan. ii. 47.
How soon does this notion slip from him, and an image must
be set up for all to worship, upon pain of a most cruel, painful
death! Daniel's God is quite forgotten. The miraculous deliv
erance of the three children for not worshipping his image,
makes him settle a decree to secure the honour of God from the
reproach of his subjects, Dan. iii. 29; yet a little while after you
have hira strutting in his palace, as if there were no God but
himself It is natural to those in the church. The Israelites were the
only church God had in the world, and a notable example of
inconstancy. After the miracles of Egypt they murmured
against God, Avhen they saw Pharaoh marching with an array
at their heels. They desired food, and soon nauseated the manna
they were before fond of When they came into Canaan, they
sometimes worshipped God, and sometimes idols, not only the
idols of one nation, but of all their neighbours: in Avhich regard
God calls this his heritage a speckled bird, Jer. xii. 9 ; a pea
cock, saith Hierom, inconstant, made up of varieties of idola
trous colours and ceremonies.
This levity of spirit is the root of all mischief; it scatters our
thoughts in the service of God, it is the cause of all revolts and
apostasies from him, it makes us unfit to receive the comrauni
cations of God ; whatsoever we hear is like words written in
sand, ruffied out by the next gale ; whatsoever is put into us is
like precious liquor in a palsied hand, soon spilt. It breeds
distrust of God; when we have an uncertain judgment of him,
1 Lawrence of Faith, p. 262.

396 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
we are not like to confide in him: an uncertain judgment will
be folloAved with a distrustful heart. In fine, Avhere it is pre
valent, it is a certain sign of ungodliness; to be driven with the
wind like chaff, and to be ungodly, is all one in the judgment of
the Holy Ghost: "The ungodly are like the chaff which the
wind driveth away," Psal. i. 4; which signifies not their de
struction, but their disposition, for their destruction is inferred
from it, " Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment,"
ver. 5.
How contrary is this to the unchangeable God, Avho is al
ways the same, and would have us the same, in our religious
promises and resolutions for good!
[4.] If God be immutable, it is sad news to those that are re
solved in wickedness, or careless of returning to that duty he
requires. Sinners must not expect that God Avill alter his will,
make a breach upon his nature, and violate his own word to
gratify their lusts. No ; it is not reasonable that God should
dishonour himself to secure them, and cease to be God that they
may continue to be wicked, by changing his own nature that
they may be unchanged in their vanity. God is the same;
goodness is as amiable in his sight, and sin as abominable in
his eyes noAV, as it was at the beginning of the world. Being
the same God, he is the same enemy to the wicked, as the same
friend to the righteous; he is the same in knoAvledge, and can
not forget sinful acts; he is the same in Avill, and cannot ap
prove of unrighteous practices; goodness can not but be always
the object of his love, and Avickedness cannot but be always the
object ofhis hatred. And as his aversion to sin is always the
same, so as he has been in his judgments upon sinners, the
same he will be still; for the same perfection of immutabihty
belongs to his justice for the punishment of sin, as to his holi
ness for his disaffection to sin. Though the covenant of works
was changeable by the crime of man violating it; yet it was
unchangeable in regard to God's justice vindicating .it, which
is inflexible in the punishment ofthe breaches ofhis law. The
law had a preceptive part, and a minatory part: when man
changed the observation ofthe precept, the righteous nature of
God could not null the execution of the threatening; he could
not upon the account of this perfection neglect his just word,
and countenance the unrighteous transgression. Though there
were no more rational creatures in being but Adam and Eve, yet
God subjected them to that death he had assured them of: and
from this immutability of his will, arises the necessity of the
suffering ofthe Son of God, for the relief of the apostate crea
ture. His wifl in the second covenant is as unchangeable as
that in the first, only repentance is settled as the condition of
the second, Avhich was not indulged in the first; and without

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 397
repentance the sinner must irrevocably perish or God must
change his nature. There must be a change in man; there
can be none in Gbd; his bow is bent, his arrows are ready, if
the wicked do not turn, Psal. vii. 12, 13. There is not an athe
ist, a hypocrite, a profane person, that ever Avas upon the earth,
but God's soul abhorred hira as such, and the like he will ab
hor for ever. While any therefore continue so, they raay sooner
expect the heavens should roU as they please, the sun stand
still at their order, the stars change their course at their beck,
than that God should change his nature, which is opposfle to
profaneness and vanity: " Who hath hardened hiraself against
him and hath prospered?" Job ix. 4.
(2.) Of comfort.
The imrautability of a good God is a strong ground of con
solation. Subjects wish a good prince to live for ever, as being
loath to change hira; but care not how soon they are rid of an
oppressor. This unchangeableness of God's will, shows him
as ready to accept any that come to him as ever he was; so that
we raay with confidence raake our addresses to him, since he
cannot change his affections to goodness. The fear of change
in a friend hinders a full reliance upon him: an assurance of
stability encourages hope and confidence. This attribute is the
strongest prop for faith in all our addresses; it is not a single
perfection, but the glory of all those that belong to his nature ;
for he is unchangeable in his love, Jer. xxxi. 3, in his truth,
Psal. cxvii. 2. The more solemn revelation of himself in this
name Jehovah, which signifies chiefly his eternity and immuta
bility, was to support the Israelites' faith, in expectation of a
deliverance from Egypt, that he had not retracted his purpose,
and his promise made to Abraham for giving Canaan to his
posterity, Exod. in. 14 — 17. Herein is the basis and strength
of all his promises; therefore, says the psalmist, "They that
know thy name wfll put their trust in thee," Psal. ix. 10. Those
that are spiritually acquainted with thy name Jehovah, and
have a true sense of it upon their hearts, will put their trust in
thee. His goodness could not be distrusted, if his unchange
ableness were well apprehended and considered: all distrust
would fly before it as darkness before the sun; it only gets ad
vantage of us, when we are not Avell grounded in his name;
and if ever we trusted God, we have the sarae reason to trust
him for ever; " Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord
Jehovah is everlasting strength," or, as it is in the Hebrew,
" a>rock of ages," Isa. xxvi. 4; that is, perpetually unchange
able. We find the traces of God's immutability in the crea
tures; he has by his peremptory decree, set bounds to the sea,
" Hitherto shalt thou corae, but no further; and here shall thy
proud waves be stayed," Job xxxviu. 11. Do we fear the sea

398 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
overflowing us in this island? No, because of his fixed decree.
And is not his promise in his word as unchangeable as his
word concerning inanimate things, and as good a ground to
rest upon?
[1.] The covenant stands unchangeable. Mutable creatures
break their leagues and covenants, and snap them asunder like
Samson's cords, when they are not accommodated to their
interests. But an unchangeable God keeps his; "The moun
tains shall depart and the hills be removed; but ray kindness
shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my
peace be removed," Isa. liv. 10. The heaven and earth shall
sooner fall asunder, and the strongest and firmest parts of the
creation crumble to dust, than one iota of my covenant shall
fail. It depends upon the unchangeableness of his will, and
the unchangeableness of his word, and therefore is called the
immutabihty of his counsel, Heb. vi. 17. It is fhe fruit of the
everlasting purpose of God; whence the apostle links purpose
and grace together, 2 Tim. i. 9. A covenant with a nation may
be changeable, because it may not be buflt upon the eternal
purpose of God to put his fear in the heart; but with respect
to the creatures's obedience. Thus God chose Jerusalem, as
the place wherein he would dwell for ever, Psal. cxxx. 14; yet
he threatens to depart from them, when they had broken cove
nant with him, " and the glory of the Lord went up from the
midst ofthe city — to the mountain on the east side," Ezek. xi.
23. The covenant of grace does not run, " I wifl be your God,
if you wfll be my people ;" but, " I will he their God, and they
shall be my people." " I wfll betroth thee unto me for ever. — ¦
I will say — Thou art my people; and they shaU say. Thou art
my God," Hos ii. 19. 23. His everlasting purpose is to Avrite
his laws in the hearts of the elect. He puts a condition to his
covenant of grace, the condition of faith, and he resolves to
work that condition in the hearts of the elect; and therefore
believers have two immutable pillars for their support, stronger
than those erected by Solomon at the porch of the temple, called
Jachin and Boaz, to note the firmness of that buflding dedicated
to God, 1 Kings vii. 21; these are — election, or the standing
counsel of God, and the covenant of grace: he will not revoke
the covenant and blot the names of his elect out of the book
of life.
[2.] Perseverance is ascertained. It consists not with the
majesty of God to call a person effectually to himself to-day,
to make hira fit for his eternal love, to give him faith, and take
away that faith to-raorrow: his effectual call is the fruit of his
eternal election, and that counsel has no other foundaUon, but
his constant and unchangeable wiU; a foundation that stands
sure, and therefore called the foundation of God, and not of

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 399
the creature; "The foundation of God standeth sure — The
Lord knoweth them that are his," 2 Tim. ii. 19. It is not
founded upon our own natural strength, it may be then subject
to change, as all the products of nature are : the fallen angels
had created grace in their innocency, but lost it by their fafl.
Were this the foundation of the creature, it might soon be
shaken; since man after his revolt can ascribe nothing constant
to himself, but his own inconstancy.' But the foundation is not
in the infirmity of nature, but the strength of grace, and of the
grace of God who is immutable, who wants not virtue to be
able, nor kindness to be willing to preserve his own foundation.
To what purpose does our Saviour tell his disciples their names
were written in heaven, Luke x. 20, but to mark the infaUible
certainty of their salvation, by an opposition to those things
which perish and have their names written in the earth, Jer.
xvii. 13, or upon the sand, where they may be defaced? And
why should Christ order his disciples to rejoice that their names
were Avritten in heaven, if God were changeable to blot them
out again? Or why should the apostle assure us, that though
God had rejected the greatest part of the Jews, he had not there
fore rejected his people elected according to his purpose and
irarautable counsel, because there are none of the elect of God
but will come to salvation? for, says he, " the election hath ob
tained it," Rom. xi. 7; that is, all those that are of the election
have obtained it, and the others are hardened. Where the seal
of sanctification is stamped, it is a testimony of God's election,
and that foundation shall stand sure. " The foundation of God
standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that
are his:" that is the foundation, the naming the name of Christ,
or believing in Christ; and departing from iniquity is the seal.
As it is impossible, when Gpd calls those things that are not,
but that they should spring up into being and appear before
him; so it is impossible, but that the seed of God by his eternal
purpose, should be brought to a spiritual life: and that calling
cannot be retracted; for that gift and caUing is without repent
ance, Rora. xi. 29.^ And when repentance is removed from
God in regard to some works, the immutability of those works
is declared: and the reason of that imrautability is their pure
dependence on the eternal favour and unchangeable grace of
God, "purposed in hiraself," Eph. i. 9. 11, and not upon the
mutability of the creature. Hence their happiness is not as
patents among men, quam diu bene se gesserint, so long as
they behave theraselves weU; but they have a proraise, that
they shall behave themselves so as never whoUy to depart from
God: "I Avill make an everlasting covenant with them, that I
wifl not turn aAvay from thera, to do them good; but I will put
1 Turretin Ser. p. 322. s> Cocceius.

400 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me,"
Jer. xxxii. 40. God wfll not turn from them, to do them good,
and promises that they shall not turn from hira for ever or for
sake him. And the bottom of it is the everlasting covenant;
and therefore believing and sealing, for security, are linked to
gether, Eph. i. 13. And Avhen God doth inwardly teach us his
law, he puts in a Avill not to depart from it: "I have not de
parted from thy judgments;" what is the reason? "for thou
hast taught me," Psal. cxix. 102,
¦ [3.] By this, eternal happiness is insured. This is the' in
ference made from the eternity and unchangeableness of God
in the verse following the text, " The children of thy servants
shaU continue, and their seed shall be established before thee,"
ver. 28. This is the sole conclusion drawn from those perfec
tions of God solemnly asserted before. The children which
the prophets and apostles have begotten to thee, shall be totally
delivered from the relics of their apostasy and the punishment
due to them, and rendered partakers of imraortality with thee,
as sons fo dweU in their Father's house for ever. The spirit
begins a spiritual life here, to fit for an immutable life in glory
hereafter; where believers shall be placed upon a throne that
cannot be shaken, and possess a crown that shall not be taken
off their heads for ever.
(3.) Of exhortation.
[1.] Let a sense of the changeableness and uncertainty of
all things except God be upon us. There are as many changes
as there are figures in the world. The whole fashion of the
world is a transient thing; every man may say as Job, " Changes
and war are against me," Job x. 17. Lot chose the plain of
Sodom, because it was the richer soil; he was but a little time
there before he was taken prisoner, and his substance made
the spoil ofhis enemy: that is again restored, but a while after
fire from heaven devours his wealth, though his person was
secured from the judgment by a special providence. We burn
Avith a desire to setfle ourselves; but mistake the Avay, and
build castles in the air, Avhich vanish like bubbles of soap in
water. And therefore,
Let not our thoughts dwell much upon them. Do but con
sider those souls that are in the possession of an unchangeable
God, that behold his never-fading glory! Would it not be a
kind of hell to them to have their thoughts starting out to
these things, or find any desire in themselves to the changeable
trifles of the earth? Nay, have we not reason to think that
they cover their faces with shame, that ever they should have
such a weakness of spirit when they were here below, as to
spend more thoughts upon them than were necessary for this

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.

401

present life, much more that they should at any time value and
court them above an unchangeable good? Do they not disdain
themselves that they should ever debase the immutable perfec
tions of God, as to have neglecting thoughts of him at any
time, for the entertainment of such a mean and inconstant
rival? Much less should we trust in them or rejoice in them. The
best things are mutable, and things of such a nature are not fit
objects of confidence. Trust not in riches, they have their wane
as well as increase; they rise sometimes like a torrent and flow
in upon men, but resemble also a torrent in as sudden a fall
and departure, and leave nothing but slime behind them. Trust
not in honour; all the honour and applause in the world is no
better than an inheritance of wind, which the pilot is not sure
of, but shifts from one corner to another, and stands not perpe
tuaUy in the ,same point of the heavens. How in a few ages
did the house of David, a great monarch, and a man after God's
OAvn heart, descend to a mean condition, and all the glory pf
that house shut up in the stock of a carpenter ! David's sheep-
hook was turned into a sceptre, and the sceptre by the same
hand of Providence turned into a hatchet in Joseph his des
cendant. Rejoice not immoderately in wisdom; that and learning lan
guish with age. A wound in the head may impair that which
is the glory of a man. If an organ be out of frame, folly may
succeed, and all a man's prudence be wound up in an irreco
verable dotage. Nebuchadnezzar was no fool, yet by a sudden
hand of God he became not only a fool or a madraan, but a
kind of brute. Rejoice not in strength; that decays, and a
mighty man may live to see his strong arm withered, and a
grasshopper to become a burthen, Eccles. xii. 5. " The strong
men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because
they are few," verse 3. Nor rejoice in children; they are
like birds upon a tree, that make a little chirping music, and
presently fall into the fowler's net. Little did Job expect sUch
sad news as the loss of all his progeny at a bloAV, when . the
messenger knocked at his gate: and such changes happen often
times, when our expectations of comfort and a contentment in
thera are at the highest. How often does a string crack when
the musician has wound it up to a just height for a tune, and
all his pains and delight marred in a moment! Nay, all these
things change while we are using them, like ice that melts be
tween our fingers, and. flowers that wither while we are
smelling thera. The apostle gave them a good title, when
he called them uncertain riches, and thought it a strong argu-
menf^to: dissuade meh from trusting in them, 1 Tim. vi. 17.
The wealth of the merchant depends upon the winds and
Vol.i.— 51

402 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
waves, and the revenue of the husbandraan upon the clouds;
and since they depend upon those things which are used to
express the most changeableness, they can be no fit object for
trust. Besides, God sometimes kindles a fire under all a man's
glory, which does insensibly consume it, Isa. x. 6; and whUe
we have them, the fear of losing them renders us not very
happy in the fruition of them; we can scarce tell whether they
are contentments or no, because sorrow foUoAVs them so close
at fhe heels. It is not an unnecessary exhortation for good
men; the best men have been apt to place too much trust in
them. David thought himself immutable in his prosperity;
and such thoughts could not be without some immoderate out
lets of the heart fo them, and confidences in them. And Job
promised hiraself to die in his nest, and raultiply his days as
the sand without any interruption. Job xxix. 18, 19, &c.; but
he Avas mistaken and disappointed.
Let rae add this; trust not in raen, Avho are as inconstant as
any thing else, and often change their raost ardent affections
into iraplacable hatred; and though their affections may not
be changed, their power to help you may. Haman's friends
that depended on him one day, were crestfallen the next, when
their patron was to exchange his chariot of state for an igno
minious gallows.
Prefer an immutable God before mutable creatures. Is it
not a horrible thing to see what we are,, and Avhat Ave possess,
daily crumbling to dust, and in a continual flux from us; and
not seek out something that is permanent, and always besides
the same, for our portion? In God, or Wisdom, which is Christ,
there is substance, Prov. viii. 21 ; in which respect he is opposed
to all the things in the world, that are but shadows, that are
shorter or longer according to the motion of the sun; mutable
also by every little body that intervenes. God is subject to no
decay within, to no force without; nothing in his own nature
can change him from what he is, and there is no power above
can hinder him from being what he will fo the soul. He is an
ocean of all perfection; he wants nothing without himself to
render him blessed, which may allure him fo a change; his
creatures can want nothing out of him to make them happy,
whereby they may be enticed fo prefer any thing before him.
If we enjoy other things, it is by God's donation, who can
as well Avithdraw them as bestow them; and it is but a rea
sonable as well as a necessary thing, to endeavour the enjoy^
ment of the immutable Benefactor, rather than his revocable
gifts. If the creatures had a sufficient virtue in themselves to ravish
our thoughts and engross our souls; yet when we take a pros
pect of a fixed and unchangeable Being, what beauty, what

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 408
strength have any of those things to vie with hira ? How can
they bear up and raaintain their interest against a lively
thought and sense of God? All the glory of them would fly
before him like that of the stars before the sun. They were
once nothing, they raay be nothing again; as their own nature
brought thera not out of nothing, so their nature secures them
not from being reduced to nothing. What an unhappiness is
it, to have our affections set upon that which retains something
of its non esse Avifh its esse, its not being with its being; that
lives indeed, but in a continual flux, and may lose that plea-
sureableness to-raorrow which charms us to-day!
[2.] This doctrine Avill teach us patience under such pro
vidences as declare his unchangeable wfll. The rectitude of
our wflls consists in conformity to the Divine, as discovered in
his words, and manifested in his providence, which are the
effluxes of his irarautable will. The tirae of trial is appointed
by his irarautable will, Dan. xi. 35; it is not in the power of
the sufferer's will to shorten it, nor in the power of the enemy's
wfll to lengthen it. Whatsoever does happen, has been de
creed by God; ("That which hath been is named already,"
Eccl. vi. 10;) therefore to murmur or be discontented, is to con
tend with God, who is mightier than we to maintain his own
purposes. God does act all things conveniently for that immu
table end intended by himself, and according to the reason of
his own Divine will, in the true point of time most proper for
it and for us, not too soon or too slow, because he is unchange
able in knowledge and wisdom. God does not act any thing
barely by an immutable will, but by an immutable wisdom,
and an unchangeable rule of goodness; and therefore Ave
should not only. acquiesce in what he works, but have a com
placency in it; and by having our Avflls thus knitting them
selves with the immutable will of God, we attain some degree
of Hkeness to him in his own unchangeableness. When there
fore God has manifested his will in opening his decree to the
world by his work of providence, we must cease all disputes
against it, and with Aaron hold our peace, though the afflic
tion be very sraart. Lev. x. 3. All flesh must be silent before
God, Zech. ii. 13; for whatsoever is his counsel shall stand,
and cannot be recalled; all strugghng against it is like a brittle
glass contending Avifh a rock; for " if he cut off, and shut up,
or gather together, then who can hinder him?" Job xi. 10.
Nothing can help us, if he has determined to afflict us; as no
thing can hurt us, if he has deterrained to secure us. The
more clearly God has evinced this or that to be his will, the
more sinful is our struggling against it. Pharoah's sin was
the greater in keeping Israel, by how much the more God's

404 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
miracles had been demonstrations of his setfled will to dehver
thera. Let nothing snatch our hearts to a contradiction to him,
but let us fear and give glory to hira, when the hour of judg
ment, which he has appointed, is come. Rev. xiv. 7; that is,
comply with the unchangeable wfll of his precept, the more he
declares the immutable Avill of his providence: we must not
think, God must disgrace his nature and change his proceed
ings for us: better the creature should suffer, than God be im
paired in any of his perfections. If God changed his purpose
he would change his nature. Patience is the way to perform
the immutable wiU of God, and a means fo attain a gracious
immutability for ourselves by receiving the proraise. "Ye
have need of patience, that, after ye have done the wiUof God,
ye raight receive the promise," Heb. x. 36.
[3.] This doctrine wiU teach us to imitate God in this perfec
tion hy striving fo be iraraovable in goodness. God never
goes back from himself, he finds nothing better than hiraself
for which he should change; and can we find any thing better
than God to allure our hearts to a change from him ? The sun
never declines from the ecliptic line, nor should we from the
paths of holiness. A steadfast obedience is encouraged by an
unchangeable God to reward it: "Be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye
know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord," 1 Cor. xv.
58. Unsteadfastness is the note of a hypocrite, Psal. Ixxviii.
37. Steadfastness is that which is good, is the mark of a saint;
it is the character of a righteous person to keep the truth, Isa.
xxvi. 2; and it is as positively said, that he that abides not in
the doctrine of Christ has not God, but he that does, has both
the Father and the Son, 2 John 9. So much of uncertainty as
there is, so much of nature; so much of firmness in duty, so
much of grace. We can never honour God unless we finish
his work; as Christ did not glorify God but in finishing the
work God gave him to do, John xvii. 4. The nearer the Avorld
comes to an end, the more is God's immutabflity seen in his
promises and predictions, and the more must our unchangea
bleness be seen in our obedience: " Let us hold fast the pro
fession ofour faith without wavering: — and so much fhe more
as ye see the day approaching," Heb. x. 23, 25. The Chris
tian Jews were to be the more tenacious of their faith, the
nearer they saw the day approaching, the day of Jerusalem's
destruction prophesied by Daniel, Dan. ix. 26; which accom
plishment must be a great argument to establish the Christian
Jews in the profession of Christ to be the Messiah; because
the destruction of the city was not to be before the cutting off
the Messiah. Let us be therefore constant in our profession

ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 4Q5
and service of God, and not suffer ourselves to be driven from
hira by the ill usage,''or flattered from hira by the caresses of
of the world.
It is reasonable. If God be unchangeable in doing us good,
it is reason we should be unchangeable in doing hira service;
ifhe assure us that he is our God, our "I ara," he would also
that Ave should be his people. His we are. If he declare hira
self constant in his promises, he expects we should be so in our
obedience. As a spouse, we should be unchangeably faithful
to him as a Husband ; as subjects, have an unchangeable alle
giance to him as our Prince. He would not have us faithful to
him for an hour or a day, but to the death. Rev. ii. 10. And
it is reason we should be his : and if we be his chUdren, imitate
him in his constancy of his holy purposes.
It is our glory and interest. To be a reed shaken Avith every
wind, is no commendation among men, and it is less a ground
of praise with God. It was Job's glory, that he held fast his
integrity: " In all this Job sinned not," Job i. 22. In all this,
which whole cities and kingdoms would have thought ground
enough of high exclamations against God. And also against
the temptation of his wife, he retained his integrity: " Dost thou
still retain thine integrity?" Job ii. 9. The devil, who by
God's permission stripped him of hi^ goods and health, yet
could not strip him of his grace. As a traveUer, when the wind
and snow beat in his face, wraps his cloak more closely about
him to preserve that and himself Better we had never made
profession, than afterwards to abandon it ; such a withering
profession serves for no other use than to aggravate the crime,
if any of us fly like a coward or revolt like a traitor. What
profit will it be to a soldier, if he has withstood many assaults
and turn his back at last? If we Avould have God crown us with
an irarautable glory, we must crown our beginnings with a
happy perseverance: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will
give thee a crown of life," Rev. ii. 10. Not as though this
were the cause to merit it, but a necessary condition to possess
it. Constancy in good is accompanied with an immutabflity
of glory.
¦By an unchangeable disposition to good we should begin the
happiness of heaven upon earth. This is the perfection of
blessed spirits, those that are nearest to God, as angels and glo
rified souls; they are immutable, not indeed by nature, but by
grace ; yet nbt only by a necessity of grace, but a liberty of will.
Grace will not let thera change; and that grace does animate
their wUls that they would not change ; an immutable God fills
their imderstandings and affections, and gives satisfaction to
their dewes. The saints when they were beloAV, tried other
things and found them deficient. But now, they are so fully

406 ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD.
satisfied with fhe beatific vision, that if Satan should have en
trance among the angels and sons of God, it is not likely he
should have any influence upon them; he could not present to
their understandings anj'^ thing that could, either at the first
glance or upon a deliberate vieAV, be preferable to what they
enjoy and are fixed in.
Well then, let us be immovable in the knowledge and love
of God. It is the delight of God to see his creatures resemble
him in what they are able. Let not our affections to him be as
Jonah's gourd, growing up one night and withering the next.
Let us not only fight a good fight, but do so till we have fin
ished our course, and imitate God in an unchangeableness of
holy purposes; and to that purpose, examine ourselves daily
what fixedness we have arrived unto; and to prevent any temp
tation to a revolt, let us often possess our rainds Avith thoughts
ofthe irarautability of God's nature and avUI, which like fire
under Avater, wiU keep a good matter boUing up in us, and
make it both retain and increase its heat.
Let this doctrine teach us to have recourse to God, and aim
at a near conjunction with him. When our spirits begin to
flag, and a cold anguish temper is drawing upon us, let us go to
him, who only can fix our hearts, and furnish us with a bal
last to render them steadfast. As he only is immutable in his
nature, so he is the only principle of irarautabUity as well as
being in the creature. Without his grace, we shall be as
changeable in our appearances as a chameleon, and in our
turnings as the wind. When Peter trusted in himself, he
changed to the worse: it was his Master's recourse to God for
him that preserved in him a reducing principle, which changed
him again for the better and fixed him in it, Luke xxii. 32.
It will be our interest to be in conjunction with him, that
moves not about with the heavens, nor is turned by the force
of nature, nor changed by the accidents in the world;. but sits
in the heavens, raoving all things by his powerful arra, accord
ing to his infinite skUl. While we have him for our God, we
have his irarautabUity as wefl as any other perfection of his
nature for our advantage; the nearer we corae to him, the
more stability we shall have in ourselves; the further from hira,
the more liable to change. The line that is nearest to the place
where it is first fixed, is least subject to raotion; the further it
is stretched frora it, the weaker it is, and more liable to be sha
ken. Let us also affect those things which are nearest to him
in this perfection; the righteousness of Christ that shall never
wear out, and the graces ofthe Spirit that shaU never burn out;
by this means what God is infinitely by nature, we shall come
to be finitely by grace immutable, as far as the capacity of a
creature can contain.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 407
DISCOURSE VII.
ON god's omnipresence.
Jeb. JExiii. 24. — Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?
¦'-;¦''•, saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.
TffB occasion of this discourse begins ver. 16, where God
admonishes the people not to hearken to the words of the false
prophets which spake a vision of their own heart, and not out
of the mouth of the Lord. They made the people vain by
their insinuations of peace, Avhen God had proclaimed war and
calamity; and uttered the dreams of their fancies, and not fhe
visions of the Lord; and so turned the people from the expec-
tion of the evil day which God had threatened: "They say
still unto them that despise me. The Lord hath said. Ye shall
have peace ; and they say unto every one that walketh after
the imagination of his own heart. No evil shall corae upon
you," ver. 17. And they invalidate the prophecies of those
whora God had sent: "Who hath stood in the counsel of the
Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word ? who . hath
marked his word and heard it?" "Who hath stood in the
counsel ofthe Lord?" ver 18. Are they acquainted with the
secrets of God more than we? Who have the word of the
Lord, if we have not? Or, it may be a continuation of God's
admonition: — Believe not those prophets; for who of them
have been acquainted with the secrets of God? or by what
means should they learn his counsel? No; assure yourselves,
"a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a griev
ous whirlwipd: it shaU faU grievously upon the head of the
wicked," ver. 19. A whirlwind shaU corae from Babylon, it
is just at the door, and shall not be blown over, it shall fall with
a witness upon the wicked people, and the deceiving prophets,
and sweep them together into captivity. For ver. 20 says,
" The anger ofthe Lord shall not return, until he have executed,
and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart." My
fury shall not be a chUdish fury that quickly languisheth, but
shall accomplish whatsoever I threaten ; and burn so hot, as
not to be cool till I have satisfied my vengeance; "in the latter
days ye shall consider it perfectly," ver. 20; when the storm
shall beat upon you, you shall then know, that tbe calamities
shall answer the words you have heard. When the conqueror
shall waste your grounds, demolish your houses, and manacle
your hands, then shall you consider it, and have the wishes of
fools, that you had had your eyes in your heads before ; you

408 ON GOD'S OMririFRESENCE.
shall then know the falseness of your guides, and the truth of
my prophets, and discern who stood in the counsel of the Lord,
and shall subscribe to the messages I have sent you.
Some understand this not only of the Babylonish captivfly,
but refer it to the time of Christ, and the false doctrine of men's
own righteousness in opposition to the righteousness of God;
understanding this verse to be partly a threatening of wrath,
which shall end in an advantage to the Jews, who shall in fhe
latter tirae consider the falseness of their notions about a legal
righteousness. Thus they make it a promise; they shall then
know fhe intent of the Scripture, and in the latter days, the
latter end of fhe world, when time shall be near the rolling up,
they shall reflect upon themselves; they shall look upon him
whom they have pierced; and till these latter days, they shall
be hardened, and believe nothing of evangehcal truths.
Now God denies that he sent those prophets ; " I have not
sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them,
yet they prophesied," ver. 21. They have intruded themselves
without a commission from me, whatsoever their brags are.
The reason to prove it is, if they had stood in my counsel, if
they had been instructed and inspired by me, they would have
caused my people to hear my words ; they would have regu
lated themselves according to my word, and have turned them
from their evil way, ver. 22 : that is, endeavoured to shake
down their false confidences of peace, and make thera sensible
of their false notions of me and my ways. Now because those
false prophets could not be so impudent as to boast, that they
prophesied in the name of God, when they had not coramis-
sion from him, unless they had some secret sentiment, that
they and their intentions were hid from the knoAvledge and eye
of God ; he adds, " Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar
off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see
him? ver. 23, 24. Have I not the poAver of seeing and know
ing what they do, what they design, what they think? Why
should I not have such a power, since I fill heaven and earth
by my essence? " Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar
off?" He excludes here the doctrine of those that excluded
the providence of God from extending itself to the inferior
things ofthe earth; which error was ancient, as ancient as fhe
time of Job, as appears by their opinion, that God's eyes were
hoodwinked and muffled by the thickness of the clouds, and
could not pierce through their dark and dense body: "Thick
clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not," Job. xxii. 14.
Some refer it to time.' Do you imagine me a God new
framed like your idols, beginning a little time ago, and not
existing before the foundation of the world; yea, from eter-
' Munster, Vatablus, Castalio, Oecolamp.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 4Q9
nit^r? « A God afar off," further than your acutest undersfand-i
ings can reach? I am of a longer standing, and you ought to
know my majesty. But it rather refers to place than time.
Do you think I do not behold every thing in the earth, as well
as iu heaven? Am I locked up Avithin the walls of my palace,
and cannot peep out to behold the things done in the world?
Or that I am so linked to pleasure in fhe place of my glory, as
earthly kings are in their courts, that I have no mind or leisure
to take notice of the carriage of men upon earth? God does
not say, he was afar oft', but only gives an account of the in
ward thoughts of their minds; or at least, of the language ex
pressed by their actions.
The interrogation carries in it a strong affirmation, and
assures us more of God's care, and the folly of men in not con
sidering it. "Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off?
Can any hide himself in secret places?" (Heb. in hiddennesses,
in the deepest cells.) What! are you besotted by your base
lusts, that you think me a God careless, ignorant, blind, that I
can see nothing but as a purblind man, what is very near my
eye? Are you so out of your wits, that you imagine you can
deceive me? Does not all your behaviour speak such a senti
ment to lie secret in your heart, though not formed into a full
conception, yet testified by your actions? No, you are much
mistaken, it is irapossible but that I should see and know all
things, since I am present with all things, and am not at a
greater distance from fhe things on earth than from the things
in heaven; for I fill all that vast fabric which is divided into
those two parts of heaven and earth: and that he has such an
infinite essence, cannot be distant, cannot be ignorant; nothing
can be far from his eyes, since every thing is so near to his
essence. So that it is an elegant expression of the omniscience of God,
and a strong argument for it. He asserts, first, the universality
of his knowledge; but lest they should mistake, and confine
his presence only to heaven, he adds, that he fills heaven and
earth. I do not see things so, as if I were in one place, and
the things seen in another, as it is with man; but whatsoever I
see, I see not Avithout myself; because every corner of heaven
and earth is filled by me. He that fiUs all, must needs see and
know all.
And indeed, men that question the knowledge of God, would
be rnore convinced by the doctrine of his iraraediate presence
with them. And this seems to be the design and manner of
arguing in this place. Nothing is remote from my knoAvledge,
because nothing is distant from my presence.
"I fill heaven and earth;" he does not say, I am in heaven
Vol. I.— 52

410 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
and earth, but I fill heaven and earth, that is, say some, ' with
my knowledge; others, with my authority, or my power. But,
The word " filling" cannot properly be referred to the act of
understanding and will. A presence by knowledge is to be
granted, but to say such a presence fills a place, is an impro
per speech. Knowledge is not enough to constitute a pre
sence. A man at London knows there is such a city as Paris, and
knows many things in it; can he be concluded therefore to be
present in Paris, or fill any place there, or be present with the
things he knows there? If I knoAv any thing to be distant from
me, how can it be present with me? For by knowing it to be
distant, I know it not to be present. Besides, j?//i?2^ heaven and
earth, is distinguished here from knowing or seeing. His pre
sence is rendered as an argument to prove his knowledge. Now
a proposition, and the proof of that proposition, are distkict,
and not fhe same.
It cannoi be imagined that God should prove idem per idem,
"the same by the same," as we say; for Avhat would be the
import of the speech then? I know all things, I see all things,
because I know and see all things. ^ The Holy Ghost here
accommodates himself to the capacity of men; because we
know that a man sees and knows that which is done, Avhere he
is corporeally present; so he proves that God knows all things
that are done in the most secret caverns of the heart, because
he is every where in heaven and earth, as light is every where
in the air, and air every where in the world. Hence the schools
use the term repletivl (before explained) for the presence of
God. Nor by filling of heaven and earth is meant his authority
and power. It would be improperly said of a king, that, in
regard of the government of his kingdom, is every where by
his authority, that he fills all the cities and countries of his do
minions. " I, do not I fiU?"^ That " I" notes the essence of
God, as distinguished, according to our capacity, from the per
fections pertaining to his essence; and is in reason better refer
red to the substance of God than to those things we conceive
as attributes in him. Besides, were it raeant only of his au
thority or poAver, the argument would not run well. I see afl
things, because my authority and power fills heaven and earth.
Power does not always rightly infer knoAvledge, no, not in a
rational agent. Many things in a kingdom are done by fhe
authority of the king, that never arrive to the knowledge of
the king. Many things in us are done by the power of our
souls, which yet we have not a distinct knowledge of in our
I Tum perspicacia, tum efficaci4. Grot.
« Suarez. 3 Amyrald. de Trinitate, p. 57.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 41 1
understandings. There are many motions in sleep, by the
virtue of the soul informing the body, that we have not so much
as a simple knowledge of in our minds. Knowledge is not
rightly inferred frora power, or power from knowledge.
By filling heaven and earth is raeant therefore a filling it
with his essence. No place can be imagined that is deprived
of the presence of God; and therefore when the Scripture any
where speaks of the presence of God, it joins heaven and earth
together; he so fills them, that there is no place without hira.
We do not say a vessel is fuU, so long as there is any space to
contain more. Not a part of heaven, nor a part of earth, but
the whole heaven, the whole earth, at one and the same time.
If he Avere only in one part of heaven, or one part of earth;
nay, if there Avere any part of heaven or any part of earth void
of him, he could not be said to fill them. I fill heaven and
earth; not a part of me fills one place, and another part of me
fills another; but I, God, fiU heaven and earth; I am whole
God filling the heaven, and whole God filling the earth. I fill
heaven, and yet fill earth; I fill earth, and yet fill heaven, and
fill heaven and earth at one and the same tirae. God fiUs his
own Avorks, a heathen philosopher says.'
Here is then a description of God's presence. — By power; Am
I not a God afar off? a God in the extension of his arm. By
knowledge; Shall I not see them? — By essence, as an undenia
ble ground for inferring the two former; I fill heaven and earth.
Doctrine. God is essentially every Avhere present in heaven
and earth.
If God be, he must be some where; that which is no where,
is nothing. Since God is, he is in the world; not in one part of
it, for then he were circumscribed by it: if in the Avorld, and
only there, though it be a great space, he were also limited.
Some therefore said, God was every where, and no where. ^
No Avhere, that is, not bounded by any place, nor receiving
from any place any thing for his preservation or sustainraent.
He is every where, because no creature, either body or spirit,
can exclude the presence of his essence ; for he is not only near,
but in every thing; "In him we live, and move, and have
our being," Acts xvii. 28. Not absent from any thing, but
so present with them, that they live and raove in him, and
move more in God than in the air or earth wherein they are;
nearer to us than our flesh to our bones, than the air to our
breath; he cannot be far from them that live and have every
motion in him. The apostle does not say, by him, but in him,
to show the inwardness of his presence.
As eternity is the perfection whereby he has neither begin-
1 Seneca de Beneiic. lib. 4. cap. 8. Ipse opus suum implet.
2 Chrysostom.

412 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
ning nor end; immutability the perfection whereby he has:
neither increase, nor diminution ; so imraensity or oranipresence
is that Avhereby he has neither bounds nor limitation. As he is
in all time, yet so as fo be above time ; so is he in all places, yet
so as to be above limitation by any place. It was a good ex
pression of a heathen to illustrate this, that God is a sphere or
circle, whose centre is every where, and circumference no where.
His meaning was, that the essence of God was indivisible; that
is, could not be divided. It cannot be said, here and there the
lines of it terminate ; it is like a line drawn out in infinite spaces,
that no point can be conceived Avhere its length and breadth
end. The sea is a vast mass of waters; yet to that it is said.
Hitherto shalt thou go and no further. But it cannot be said
of God's essence. Hitherto it reaches, and no further, here it is,
and there it is not. It is plain, that God is thus immense, be
cause he is infinite; we have reason and Scripture to assent to
it, though we cannot conceive it. We know that God is eter
nal, though eternity is too great to be measured by fhe short
line of a created understanding. We cannot conceive the vast
ness and glory of the heavens, much less that which is so great
as to fill heaven and earth, yea, not to be contained in the
heaven of heavens, 1 Kings viii. 27.
Things are said to be present, or in place.
Circumscriptive, as circumscribed. This belongs to things
that have quantity, as bodies that are encompassed by that place
wherein they are; and a body fills but one particular space
wherein it is, and the space is commensurate to every part of it,
and every meraber has a distinct place: the hand is not in the
same particular space that fhe foot or head is.
Definitive, which belongs to angels and spirits, which are
said fo be in a point, yet so as that they cannot be said to be in
another at the same time.
Repletivl, filling all places; this belongs only to God. As he
is not measured by time, so he is not limited by place. A body
or spirit, because finite, fills but one space ; God, because infi
nite, fills all, yet so as not to be contained in them, as wine and
water is in a vessel. He is from the height of the heaven fo the
bottom of the deeps, in every point of the world, and in the
whole circle ofit, yet not limited by it, but beyond it.
Now this has been acknoAvledged by the Avisest in the world.
Some indeed had other notions of God. The raore ignorant
sort ofthe Jews confined hira to the temple:' and God intimates
that they had such a thought, Avhen he asserts his presence in
heaven and earth, in opposition to the temple they built as his
house, and the place of his rest;^ and the idolaters among them
thought their gods might be at a distance from them, which
' Hierom on Isa. Ixvi. 1 . 2 Hammond on Matt vi. 7.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 413
Elias intimates in the scoff he puts upon them, "Cry aloud, for
he is a god," meaning Baal; either he is talking, or he is pursu
ing, or he, is in a journey," 1 Kings xviii. 27; and they follow
his advice, and cried louder, ver. 28 ; whereby it is evident, they
looked not on it as a mock, but as a truth. And the Syrians
called the God of Israel the God of the hills, as though his pre
sence were fixed there, and not in the valleys, 1 Kings xx. 23;
and their own gods in the valleys, and not in the mountains:
they fancied every god to have a particular dominion and pre
sence in one place, and not in another; and bounded the terri
tories of their gods, as they did those of their princes.' And
some thought him tied to and shut up in their temples and
groves wherein they worshipped him.^ Some of them thought
God to be confined to heaven, and therefore sacrificed upon the
highest mountains, that the steam might ascend nearer heaven,
and their praises he heard better in those places which were
nearest to the habitation of God. But the wiser Jews acknow
ledged it; and therefore called Godplace,^ whereby they deno
ted his immensity ; he was not contained in anyplace, every
part of the Avorld subsists by hira : he was a place to himself,
greater than any thing made by him. And the Aviser heathen
acknowledged it also.
One calls God a mind passing through the universal nature
of things;^ another, that he was infinite and immense air;'
another, that it is as natural to think that God is every where,
as to think that God is. Hence they called God the soul of the
world, that as the soul is in every part of fhe body, to quicken
it, so is God in every part of the world, to support it.
And there are some resemblances of this in the world, though
no creature can fully resemble God in any one perfection; for
then it Avould not he a creature, but God. But air and light
are some weak resemblances of it; air is in all the spaces of fhe
world, in the pores of all bodies, in the bowels of the earth, and
extends itself from the lowest earth to the highest regions; and
the heavens theraselves are probably nothing else but a refined
kind of air; and light diffuseth itself through the whole air, and
every part of it is truly light, as every part of the air is truly
air; and though they seem to be mingled together, yet they are
distinct things, and not of the same essence. So is the essence
of God in the whole world, not by diffusion as air or light; not
mixed with any creature; but reraaining distinct frora the
essence of any created being. Now when this has been OAvned
by raen instructed only in the school of nature, it is a greater
shame to any acquainted Avith the Scripture, to deny it.
' Med. Diatrib. vol. 1. p. 71, 72. 2 Dought, Analec. excurs. 61. 113.
' Grot, upon Mar. v. 16. Mares. Contra Volk. hb. 1. cap. 27. p. 494.
* Vide Minut. Fel. p. 20. ^ Plotin. Enead 6. lib. 5. cap. 4.

414 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
1. For the understanding of this, there shafl be some propo
sitions premised in general.
Prop. (1.) This is negatively to be understood. Our know
ledge of God is most by withdrawing from him, or denying to
him, in our conception, any weaknesses or imperfections in the
creature. As the infiniteness of God is a denial of limitation
of being, so immensity or omnipresence is a denial of limitation
of place. And when Ave say, God is totus, " whole" in every
place, Ave must understand it thus, that he is not every where
by parts, as bodies are, as air and light are: he is every where,
that is, his nature has no bounds, he is not tied to any place, as
the creature is, Avho when he is present in one place, is absent
from another. As no place can be without God, so no place
can compass and contain him.
Prop. (2.) There is an influential oranipresence of God.
Universal with all creatures. He is present with all things
by his authority, because all things are subject fo him; by his
power, because all things are sustained by him; by his know
ledge, because all things are naked before him. He is present
in the world, as a king is in all parts of his kingdom regally
present: providentially present with all, since his care extends
to the meanest of his creatures. His power reaches afl, and
his knowledge pierces all.
As every thing in the world was created by God, so every
thing in the world is preserved by God ; and since preservation
is not wholly distinct from creation, it is necessary God should
be present with every thing while he preserves it, as well as
present Avith it when he created it. " Thou preservest man and
beast," Psal. xxxvi. 6. " He upholds all things by the word of
his power," Heb. i. 3. There is a virtue sustaining every crea
ture, that it may not fall back into that nothing frora whence it
was elevated by the power of God. All those natural virtues
we call the principles of operation, are fountains springing from
his goodness and power; all things are acted,and managed by
him, as well as preserved by him ; and in this sense God is pre
sent with all creatures; for whatsoever acts another, is present
with that which it acts, by sending forth sorae virtue and influ
ence, whereby it acts. If free agents do not only live, but move
in him, and by him. Acts xvfl. 28, much more are the motions
of other natural agents, by a virtue communicated to them, and
upheld in them in the time of their acting. This virtual pre
sence of God is evident to our sense, a presence we feel; his
essential presence is evident to our reason. This influential
presence may be compared to that ofthe sun, which, though at
so great a distance from the earth, is present in the air and
earth by its hght, and within the earth by its influence in con
cocting those metals which are ni the bowels of it, without be-

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 41 5
ing substantially with either of them. God is thus so intimate
with every creature, that there is not the least particle of any
creature, but the marks of his power and goodness are seen in
it, and his goodness does attend them, and is more swift in its
effluxes than the breaking out of light from the sun, which yet
are more swift than can be declared. But fo say he is in the
world only by his virtue, is to acknowledge only the effects of
his power and wisdom in the world, that his eye sees all, his
arm supports all, his goodness nourishes all, but himself and his
essence at a distance from them:' and so the soul of man, accord
ing to its measure, would have in some kind a more exceUent
manner of presence in the body, than God according to the infi
niteness of his being with his creatures; for that does not only
communicate life to the body, but is actuaUy present with it,
and spreads its whole essence through fhe body and every
member of it. All grant, that God is efficaciously in every
creek of the world; but some say he is only substantially in
heaven. It is also limited to such subjects that are capacitated for
this or that kind of presence. Yet it is an omnipresence, be
cause it is a presence in all the subjects capacitated for it; thus
there is a special providential presence of God with some, in
assisting them when he sets them on work as his instruments for
sorae special service in the world: as with Cyrus, " I will go be
fore thee, Isa. xiv. 2;" and with Nebuchadnezzar, and Alexan
der, whom he protected, and directed to execute his counsels
in the world ; such a presence Judas and others^ had in the
working of miracles who shall not enjoy his glorious pre
sence. Besides,^ as there is an effective presence of God
with all creatures, because he produced them, and preserves
them; so there is an objective presence of God with rational
creatures, because be offers himself to them, to be known and
loved by them. He is near to wicked men in fhe offers of
his grace; "Call ye upon him whfle he is near," lsa. Iv. 6.
Besides, there is a gracious presence of God with his people in
whom he dwells, and raakes his abode, as in a temple conse
crated fo him by the graces of the Spirit. " We will come unto
him," that is, the Father and the Son, " and make our abode
with him," John xiv. 23. He is present with all by fhe
presence of his Divinity, but only in his saints by a presence of
a gracious efficacy ; be walks in the midst of the golden candle
sticks, and has dignified the congregation ofhis people with the
title of Jehovah Shammah, « The Lord is there," Ezek. xlvni.
35. " In Salem is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in
I Zanch.
^ "In thy name we have done many -wonderful works," Matt. vii. 22.
' Cajetan in Axjuin, par. 1. qu. 8. artic. 3.

416 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
Zion," Psal. Ixxvi. 2. As he fiUed the tabernacle, so he does
the church with the signs of his presence; this is not the pre
sence wherewith he fills heaven and earth. His Spirit is not
bestowed upon all, to reside in their hearts, enlighten their
minds, and bedew them with refreshing comforts. When the
apostle speaks of God's being above all, and through all, Eph.
iv. 6, above all in his majesty, through all in his providence;
he does not appropriate that, as he does what follows, "and in
you all;" in you all by a special grace: as God Avas specially
present with Christ by the grace of union, so he is specially
present Avith his people by the grace of regeneration. So there
are several manifestations of his presence; he has a presence of
glory in heaven whereby he comforts the saints; a presence of
wrath in hell, whereby he torments the damned; in heaven he
is a God spreading his beams of light; in hell, a God distribut
ing his strokes of justice; by the one he fills heaven, by the
other he fills hell; by his providence and essence he fills both
heaven and earth.
Prop. (3.) There is an essential presence of God in the
world. He is not only every where, by his power upholding
the creatures, by his wisdom understanding them, but by his
essence containing them. That any thing is essentiaUy present
any where, it has from God; God is therefore much more pre
sent every where, for he cannot give that which he has not.
[1.] He is essentially present in all places.' It is as reasona
ble to think fhe essence of God to be every Avhere, as fo be
always; immensity is as rational as eternity; that indivisible
essence which reaches through all times, may as Avell reach
through all places. It is more excellent to be always, than to
be every Avhere; for to be always in duration is intrinsical; to
be every Avhere is extrinsic; if the greater belongs to God, Avhy
not the less ? As all times are a moraent to his eternity, so all
places are as a point to his essence: as he is larger than all time,
so he is vaster than aU place. The nations of the world are to
bim as the dust of the balance, or drop of a bucket, Isa. xl. 15.
the nations are accounted as the small dust. The essence of
God may well be thought to be present every where with that
which is no more than a grain of dust to him, and in all those
isles, which if put together, are a very litfle thing in his hand:
therefore says a learned Jew,^ if a man were set in the highest
heavens, he would not be nearer to fhe essence of God than if
he were in the centre of the earth. Why may not the presence
of God in the world be as noble as that ofthe soul in the body,
which is generally granted to be essentially in every part of the
body of man, which is but a little world; and animates every
member by its actual presence, though it exerts not the same
> Ficin. « Maimonides.

ON GOD'S OBINIPRESENCE. 417
operation in every part ? ' The world is less to the Creator,
than the body to the soul ; and needs more the presence of God,
than the body needs the presence of the soul. That glorious
body of the sun visits every part of the habitable earth in
twenty-four hours by its beams; which reaches the troughs of
the lowest valleys, as well as the pinnacles of the highest
mountains; must we not acknowledge in the Creator of this
sun an infinite greater proportion of presence ? Is it not as
easy with the essence of God to overspread the whole body of
heaven and earth, as it is for the sun to pierce and diffuse itself
through the whole air between it and the earth, and send up its
light also as far to the regions above? Do we not see some
thing like it in sounds and voices ? Is not the same sound of a
trumpet, or any other musical instrument, at the first breaking
out of a blast, in several places Avithin such a compass at the
same time ? Does not every ear that hears it, receive alike the
whole sound of it ? And fragrant odours scented in several
places at the same time, in the same manner ; and the organ
proper for sraeUing takes in the same in every person within
the compass of it ? How far is the noise of thunder heard
alike to every ear, in places something distant from one an
other! And do we dafly find such a manner of presence in
those things of so low a concern, and not imagine a kind of
presence of God greater than all those? Is the sound of thun
der, the voice of God as it is called, every where in such a
compass, and shall not the essence of an infinite God be much
more every where ? Those that would confine the essence of
God only to heaven, and exclude it from the earth, run into
great inconveniences. It may be demanded whether he be in
one part of the heavens, or in the whole vast body of them?
If in one part of them, his essence is bounded; if he moves
from that part, he is rautable, for he changes a place wherein
he was for another wherein he was not. If he be always fixed
in one part of the heavens, such a notion would render him
little better than a living statue. =* If he be in the whole heaven,
why cannot his essence possess a greater space than the Avhole
heavens which are so vast ? How comes he to be confined
within the compass of that, since the whole heaven corapasses
the earth ? If he be in the whole heaven, he is in places fur
ther distant one from another, than any part ofthe earth can be
from the heavens; since the earth is like a centre in the midst
of a circle, it must be nearer to every part of the circle than
some parts of the circle can be to one another. If therefore
his essence possesses the Avhole.heavens, no reason can be ren
dered why he does not also possess the earth, since also the
earth is but a little point in comparison of the vastness of the
' Ficin. ' Hornbeck, Soun. part 1. p. 303.
Vol. I.— 53

418 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
heavens; if therefore he be in every part of the heavens, why
not in every part of the earth?
This Scripture is plain, " Whither shaU I go from thy spirit?
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there: if I make ray bed in hell, behold, thou
art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in
the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead
me, and thy right hand shall hold me," Psal. cxxxix. 7 — 9. If
he be in heaven, earth, hell, sea, he fills all places with his
presence; his presence is here asserted in places the most dis
tant from one another; all the places then between heaven and
earth are possessed by his presence. It is not meant of his
knowledge, for that the Psalmist had spoken of before, ver. 2,
3. " Thou understandest my thought afar off — and art ac
quainted with all my ways." Besides, " thou art there," not
thy wisdom or knowledge; but thou, thy essence, not only thy
virtue. For having before spoken ofhis omniscience, he proves
that such knowledge could not be in God, unless he Avere pre
sent in his essence in all places, so as to be excluded from none:
he fills the depths of hell, the extension of the earth, and the
heights of the heavens. When the Scripture mentions fhe
power of God only, it expresses it by hand or arm; but when
it mentions the Spirit of God, and does not intend the third
person in the Trinity, it signifies the nature and essence of God:
and so here, when he says, " Whither shall I go from thy
Spirit," he adds exegetically, "whither shall I flee from thy
presence," (or Heb. face,) and the face of God in Scripture
signifies the essence of God. "Thou canst not see my face,"
and "my face shall not be seen," Exod. xxxui. 20.23; the
effects of his power, wisdom, providence are seen, which are
his back parts, but not his face; the effects of his power and
wisdom are seen in the world, but his essence is invisible; and
this the Psalmist elegantly expresses. Had I wings endued
with as much quickness as the first dawnings of the morning
light, or the first darts of any sunbeam that spreads itself
through the hemisphere, and passes many miles in as short a
space as I can think a thought, I should find thy presence in
all places before me, and could not fly out of the infinite com
pass of thy essence.
[2.] He is essentially present with all creatures. If he be
in all places, it follows that he is with all creatures in those
places; as he is in heaven, so he is wifh all angels; as he is in
hell, so is he with all devils; as he is in the earth and sea, he
is with all creatures inhabiting those elements. As his essen
tial presence Avas the ground of the first being of things by
creation, so it is the ground of the continued being of things
by conservation. As his essential presence was the original.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 41 g
so it is the support of the existence of all the creatures. What
are all those magnificent expressions of his creative virtue, but
testiraonies of his essential presence at the laying the founda
tion of the world? when he " measured the waters in the hol
low of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and
coraprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance," Isa. xl. 12.
He sets forth the power and majesty of God in the creation
and preservation of things, and every expression testifies his
presence with thera. The waters that were upon the face of
the earth at first were no raore than a drop in the palm of a
raan's hand, which in every part is touched by his hand. And
thus he is equally present with the blackest devils, as well as
the brightest angels; Avith the loAvest dust, as well as with the
most sparkling sun. He is equally present with the damned
and the blessed, as he is an infinite Being, but not in regard of
his goodness and grace. He is equally present with the good
and the bad, with the scoffing Athenians as well as the believ
ing apostles, in regard of his essence, but not in regard of the
breathing of his Divine virtues upon them to make them like
himself "He is not far frora every one of us; for in hira we
live, and move, and have our being," Acts xvii. 2,7, 28. The
apostle includes all; he tells them they should seek the Lord;
the Lord that they were to seek is God essentially considered:
we are indeed to seek the perfections of God, that glitter in his
works, but to the end that they should direct us to the seeking
of God himself in his own nature and essence:' and therefore
what follows, " in him we live," is to be understood not of his
power and goodness, perfections of his nature, distinguished
according to our raanner of conception frorn his essence; but
of the essential presence of God with his creatures. If he had
meant it of his efficacy in preserving us, it had not been any
proof of his nearness to us. Who would go about to prove
the body or substance of the sun to be near us, because it does
warm and enlighten us, when our sense evidences the distance
of it? We live in the beams of the sun, but we cannot be said
to live in the sun, which is so far distant from us. The expres-.
sion seems to be too emphatical to intend any less than his
essential presence. But we live in him not only as the efficient
cause of our life, but as the foundation, sustaining our lives
and motions, as if he Avere like air, diffused round about us.
And we move in him, as Austin says, as a spunge in the sea,
not containing him, but being contained by him. He compasses
afl, is encompassed by none; he fills all, is comprehended by
none. The Creator contains the world, the world contains not
the Creator; as the hollow of the hand contains the water, the
' Amyrald. de Trinit.

420 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
water in the hollow of the hand contains not the hand; and
therefore some have chosen to say rather, that the world is in
God, it lives and moves in him, than that God is in the Avorld.
If all things thus live and move in hira, then he is present with
every thing that has life and motion; and as long as the devUs
and damned have life, and motion, and being, so long is he
with them; for whatsoever lives and moves, lives and moves
in him.
But now this essential presence is
Without any mixture. I fill heaven and earth, not, I ara
raixed with heaven and earth; his essence is not mixed with
the creatures; it remains entire in itself The spunge retains
the nature of a spunge, though encompassed by the sea, and
moving in it; and the sea stiU retains its own nature. God is
most simple; his essence therefore is not mixed with any thing.
The hght of the sun is present wflh the air, but not mixed with
it; it remains light, and the air remains air: the light of the
sun is diffused through all the hemisphere, it pierceth all trans
parent bodies, it seems to raix itself with all things, yet remains
unmixed and undivided; the light remains light, and the air
remains air; the air is not light though it be enlightened. Or
take this simihtude; when many candles are lighted up in a
room, the light is all together, yet not mixed with one another;
every candle hath a particular hght belonging to it, which may
be separated in a moment, by removing one candle from an
other; but if they were mixed, they could not be separated, at
least so easfly. God is not formally one with the world, or
with any creature in the world, by his presence in it; nor can
any creature in fhe world, no, not the soul of man, or an angel,
come to be essentially one Avith God, though God be essentially
present with it.
The essential presence is without any division of himself I
fill heaven and earth, not part in heaven, and part in earth; I
fill one as Avell as the other. One part of his essence is not in
one place, and another part ofhis essence in another place; he
would then be changeable; for that part of his essence which
were now in this place he might alter to another, and place
that part of his essence which were in another place to this;
but he is undivided every where. As his eternity is one indi
visible point, though in our conception we divide it into past,
present, and to come; so the Avhole world is a point fo him, in
regard of place, as before was said; it is as a small dust, and
grain of dust. It is impossible that one part ofhis essence can
be separated from another, for he is not a body, to have one
part separable from another. The light of the sun cannot be
cut into parts, it cannot be shut into any place and kept there,
it is entire in every place: shall not God, who gives the light

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 421
that power, be much more present himself? Whatsoever has
parts is finite; but God is infinite, therefore has no parts of his
essence. Besides, if there were such a division of his being,
he Avould not be the most simple and uncompounded Being,
but would be made up of various parts; he would not be a
Spirit, for parts are evidences of composition; and it could not
be said that God is here or there, but only a part of God here,
and a part of God there. But he fills heaven and earth, he is
as much a God in the earth beneath as in heaven above, Deut.
iv. 39; entirely in all places, not by scraps and fragments ofhis
essence. This essential presence is not by multiplication. For that
Avhich is infinite cannot multiply itself, or make itself more or
greater than it was.
This essential presence is not by extension or diffusion; as a
piece of gold may be beaten out to cover a large compass of
ground. No, if God should create milhons of worlds, he would
be in them all, not by stretching out his being, but by fhe infi
niteness of his being; not by a new growth of his being, but
by the same essence he had from eternity; upon the same rea
sons mentioned before, his simplicity and indivisibflity.
But totally. There is no space, not the least, Avherein God
is not wholly according to his essence, and wherein his whole
substance does not exist; not a part of heaven can be designed
wherein the Creator is not wholly; as he is in one part of hea
ven he is in every part of heaven. Some kind of resemblance
we raay have from the water of the sea, which fills the great
space ofthe world, and is diffused through all: yet the essence
of v/ater is in every drop of water in the sea, as much as the
whole ; and the same quality of water, though it comes short
in quantity; and why shall we not allow God a nobler way of
presence without diffusion, as is in that ? Or take this resem
blance, since God likens hiraself to light in the Scripture, ' " he
covereth himself with light," Psal. civ. 2: a crystal globe hung
up in the air has light all about it, all within it, every part is
pierced by it, wherever you see the crystal you see the light;
the light in one part of the crystal cannot be distinguished
frora the light in the other part: and the whole essence of hght
is in every part : and shaU not God be as ranch present with
his creatures, as one creature can be Avith another ? ^ God is
totally every where by his own siraple substance.
Prop. (4.) God is present beyond the world. He is within
and above all places, though places should be infinite in num
ber; as he was before and beyond all time, so he is above and
beyond all place; being from eternity before any real time, he
raust also be wflhout as wefl as within any real space. If God
' " God is light, and in him is no darkness at all," 1 John i. 5. 2 Bernard.

422 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
were only confined to the Avorld, he would be no more infinite
in his essence than the world is in quantity : as a moment can
not be conceived from eternity, wherein God was not in being,
so a space cannot be conceived in the mind of man, wherein
God is not present; he is not contained in the world nor in the
heavens. "But wfll God indeed dwell on the earth? behold
the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee," l
Kings viii. 27. Solomon wonders that God should appoint a
temple to be erected to hira upon the earth, when he is not con
tained in the vast circuit of the heavens; his essence is not
straitened in the limits of any created work, he is not contained
in the heavens, that is, in the raanner that he is there ; but he is
there in his essence, and therefore cannot be contained there in
his essence. If it should be raeant only of his power and provi
dence, it would conclude also for his essence; if his power and
providence were infinite, his essence must be so too ; for the in
finiteness of his essence is the ground of the infiniteness ofhis
power. It can never enter into any thought, that a finite es
sence can have an infinite power, and that an infinite power
can be without an infinite essence. It cannot be meant of his
providence, as if Solomon should say, the heaven of heavens
cannot contain thy providence; for naming fhe heaven of heav
ens, that which encircles and bounds the other parts of the
world, he could not suppose a providence to be exercised where
there was no object to exercise it about ; as no creature is men
tioned to be beyond the uttermost heaven, which he calls here
the heaven of heavens. Besides, to understand it of his provi
dence does not consist with Solomon's admiration : he wonders
that God, that has so immense an essence, should dwell in a
temple raade with hands; he could not so ranch wonder at his
providence in those things that immediately concern his wor
ship. Solomon plainly asserts this of God, that he was so far
from being bounded within the rich wall of the temple, which
wflh so much cost he had framed for the glory of his name that
the richer palace of the heaven of heavens could not contain
him; it is true, it could not contain his power and wisdom, be
cause his wisdom could contrive other kind of worlds, and his
power erect them. But does the meaning of that wise king
reach no further than this — WUl the power and wisdom of God
reside on the earth? He was too wise to ask such a question,
since every object that his eyes met with in the Avorld resolved
him, that the wisdom and power of God dwelt upon the earth,
and glittered in every thing he had created; and reason would
assure him, that the power that had framed this world, was
able to frame many raore: but Soloraon, considering fhe immen
sity of God's essence, wonders that God should order a house
to be built for him, as if he wanted roofs, and coverings, and

ON <50D^S OMNIPRESENCE. 423
habitation, as bodily creatures do. Wifl God indeed dwell in a
temple, who has an essence so immense as not to be contained
in the heaven of heavens ? it is not the heaven of heavens that
can contain hira, his substance. Here he asserts the iramensity
of his essence, and his presence not only in the heaven, but be
yond the heavens; he that is not contained in the heavens, as
a man is in a chamber, is without, and above, and beyond the
heavens; it is not said they do not contain hira, but it is impos
sible they should contain hira ; they cannot contain him. It is
impossible then but that he should be above them: he that is
without the compass of the world, is not bounded by the limits
of the Avorld: as his power is not limited by the things he has
raade, but can create innumerable Avorlds, so can his essence
be in innumerable spaces; for as he has power enough to make
more worlds, so he has essence enough to fill them, and there
fore cannot be confined to what he has already created; innu
merable worlds cannot be a sufficient place to contain God, he
can only be a sufficient place to himself. ' He that was before
the world, and place, and all things, was to himself a world,
a place, and every thing; ^ he is really out of the world in
himself, as he was in himself before the creation of the world.
As because God was before the foundation of the world, we
conclude his eternity; so because he is without fhe bounds of
the world, we conclude his immensity, and from thence his om
nipresence. The world cannot be said to contain him, since it
Avas created by him: it cannot contain him now, who was con
tained by nothing before the world was: as there was no place
to contain him before the Avorld was, there can be no place to
contain hira since the world was.
God might create more worlds circular and round as this, and
those could not be so contiguous, but some spaces would be left
between; as take three round balls, lay thera as close as you
can to one another, there Avill be some spaces between; none
would say but God would be in these spaces, as well as in the
world he had created, though there were nothing real and posi
tive in those spaces. Why should we then exclude God from
those imaginary spaces without fhe world? God might also
create many worlds, and separate thera by distances, that they
might not touch one another, but be at a great distance frora
one another; and Avould not God fill them as well as he does
this ? If so, he must also fill the spaces between thera: for if he
were in all those worlds, and not in the spaces between those
worlds, his essence would be divided ; there would be gaps in
it, his essence would be cut into parts, and the distance between
every part of his essence would be as great as the space be-
' Petav. 2 Maccor. Loc. Commun. cap. 19. p. 153.

424 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
tween each world. The essence of God may be conceived then
well enough to be in all those infinfle spaces where he can erect
new worlds.
I shall give one place more to prove both these propositions,
namely. That God is essentiaUy in every part of the world, and
essentially above ours without the world.
" The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool,"
Isa. Ixvi. 1. He is essentially in every part ofthe Avorld, he is
in heaven and earth at the same time; as a man is upon his
throne and his footstool. God descrihes himself in a human
shape, accommodated to our capacity; as ifhe had his head in
heaven and his feet on earth; doth not his essence then fill aU
intermediate spaces between heaven and earth? as when the
head of a raan is in the upper part of a room, and his feet
upon the floor, his body fills up the space between the head
and his feet. This is meant of the essence of God ; it is a simi
litude drawn from kings sitting upon the throne, and not their
power and authority, but the feet of their persons, are supported
hy the footstool: so here it is not meant only ofthe perfections
of God, but the essence of God. Besides, God seems to tax them
with an erroneous conceit they had as though his essence Avere
in the temple, and not in any part ofthe world; therefore God
makes an opposition between heaven and earth, and the tem
ple; "Where is the house that ye build unto me? and where
is the place of my rest ?" Had he understood it only of his
providence, it had not been any thing against their mistake ;
for they granted his providence to be not only in the teraple,
but in all parts of the world. " Where is the house that ye
buUd unto me? to me, not to my power or providence, but
think to include me, Avithin those walls.
Again, it shows God to be above the heavens. If the hea
vens be his throne, he sits upon them, and is above thera as
kings are above the thrones on which they sit. So it cannot
be meant of his providence, because no creature being Avithout
the sphere of the heavens, there is nothing of the power and
the providence of God visible there; for there is nothing for
him to employ his providence about ; for providence supposes
a creature in actual being ; it must be therefore meant of his
essence, which is above the world, and in the world.
And the like proof you may see. Job. xi. 8, 9. " It is as high
¦as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst
thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
and broader than the sea." Where he intends the un.search-
ableness of God's wisdom, but proves it by the infiniteness of
his essence ; (Hebr. He is the height of the heavens;) he is the
top of all the heavens; so that when you have begun at the
lowest part, and traced him through all the creatures, you wfll

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 425
find his essence fiUing all the creatures to be at the top of the
world, and infinitely beyond it.
Prop. (5.) This is the pro perty of God, incommunicable to any
creature. As no creature can be eternal and immutable, so no
creature can be immense, because it cannot be infinite; nothing
can be of an infinite nature, and therefore nothing of an im
raense presence, but God. It cannot be comraunicated to the
huraan nature of Christ, though in union with the Divine;'
some indeed argue, that Christ in regard of his human nature
is every where, because he sits at the right hand of God ; and
the right hand of God is every where. His sitting at the right
hand of God signifies his exaltation, and cannot Avith any rea
son be extended to such a kind of arguing. The hearts of
kings are in the hand of God; are the hearts of kings every
where, because God's hand is every where ? The souls of the
righteous are in the hand of God; is the soul therefore of
every righteous raan every where in the world ? The right
hand of God is from eternity; is the humanity of Christ there
fore from eternity, because it sits at the right hand of God?
The right hand of God rnade the world; did the humanity of
Christ therefore raake heaven and earth? The humanity of
Christ must then be confounded with his Divinity; be the same
Avith it, not united to it. All creatures are distinct from their
Creator, and cannot inherit the properties essential to his na
ture; as eternity, immensity, immutability, omnipresence, om
niscience; no angel, no soul, no creature can be in all places at
once ; before they can be so, they raust be imraense, and so
must cease to be creatures, and comraence God; this is impos
sible. 2. We shall give some reasons to prove God's essential pre
sence. (1.) Because he is infinite. As he is infinite, he is every
where; as he is simple, his whole essence is every where; for
in regard of his infiniteness, he has no bounds; in regard ofhis
simplicity, he has no parts. And therefore those that deny God's
oranipresence, though they pretend to own hira infinite, must
really conceive him finite.
[1.] God is infinite in his perfections. None can set bounds
to terminate the greatness and excellency of God. " His great
ness is unsearchable," Psal. cxlv. 3; Sept. oix 'iati, Ttipas, there
is no end, no limitation; what has no end is infinite. His power
is infinite, " which doeth great things and unsearchable," Job
V. 9 ; no end of those things he is able to do. His wisdom infi
nite, Psal. cxlvii. 5: he understands all things past, present, and
to come; what is already made, what is possible to be made.
His duration infinite: the number of his years cannot be
' Rivet. 110. Psal. p. 301. col. 2.
Vol. I.— 54

426 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
searched out, &7tipav-tos, Job xxxvi. 26. To make a finite thing
of nothing, is an argument of an infinite virtue; infinite power
only can extract something out ofthe barren womb of nothing;
but all things were drawn forth by the word of God, the
heavens and all the host of them; the sun, moon, stars, the rich
embellishments of the Avorld, appeared in being at the breath of
his mouth, Psal. xxxiii. 6: the Author therefore must be infimte.
And since nothing is the cause of God, or of any perfection in
him: since he derives not his being, or the least spark of his
glorious nature from any thing without him, he cannot be
liraited in any part of his nature by any thing Avithout hini;
and indeed the infiniteness of his power and his other perfec
tions is asserted by the prophet, when he tells us that the nations
are as a drop of a bucket, or the dust of the balance, and less
than nothing and vanity, Isa. xl. 15. 17; they are all so in re
gard of his power, wisdom, &c. Conceive what a httle thing
a grain of dust or sand is to all the dust that may be made by
the rubbish of a house; what a little thing the heap of the rub
bish of a house is to the vast heap of the rubbish of a whole
city, such a one as London; how little that also would be tothe
dust of a whole empire; how inconsiderable that also to the
dust of one quarter ofthe world, Europe, or Asia; how much
less that still to the dust ofthe whole world. The whole world
is composed of an inconceivable nuraber of atoms, and the sea
of an inconceivable number of drops; now what a little grain
of dust is in coraparison of the dust of the whole world, a drop
of water from the sea to aU the drops remaining in the sea, that
is the whole world to God. Conceive it still less, a mere no
thing, yet is it all less than this in comparison of God. There
can be nothing more magnificently expressive of the infiniteness
of God to a huraan conception, than this expression of God him
self in the prophet.
In the perfection of a creature, something stfll raay be thought
greater to be added to it; but God containing all perfections in
himself formally, if they be mere perfections; and eminently, if
they be but perfections in the creature mixed with imperfection;
nothing can be thought greater, and therefore every one of them
is infinite. [2.] If his perfections be infinite, his essence must be so.
How God can have infinite perfections and a finite essence is
inconceivable by a human or angelical understanding: an infi
nite power, an infinite wisdom, an infinite duration, must needs
speak an infinite essence; since the infiniteness of his attributes
is grounded upon the infiniteness of his essence: to own infi
nite perfections in a finite subject is contradictory. The manner
of acting by his power, and knowing by his wisdom, cannot
exceed the manner of being by his essence. His perfections

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.

427

flow from his essence, and the principle must be of the same
rank with what flows from it; and if we conceive his essence
to be the cause of his perfections, it is utterly impossible that
an infinite effect should arise from a finite cause : but indeed
his perfections are his essence; for though we conceive the
essence of God as the subject, and the attributes of God as
faculties and qualities in that subject according to our weak
model, who cannot conceive of an infinite God without some
manner of likeness to ourselves; (Avho find understanding, and
wiU, and power, in us distinct from our substance;) yet truly
and reafly there is no distinction between his essence and attri
butes; one is inseparable from the other. His power and wisdom
are his essence; and therefore to maintain God infinite in the
one, and finite in the other, is to make a monstrous God, and
have an unreasonable notion of the Deity; for there would be
the greatest disproportion in his nature, since there is no greater
disproportion can possibly be between one thing and another,
than there is between finite and infinite : God must not only
then be compounded, but have parts of the greatest distance
from one another in nature ; but God being the most simple
Being, Avithout the least composition, both must be equally infi
nite. If then his essence be not infinite, his power and wisdom
cannot be infinite, which is both against Scripture and reason.
Again, how should his essence be finite, and his perfections
be infinite; since nothing out of himself gave them either the
one or the other ?
Again, either the essence can be infinite, or it cannot; ¦ if it
cannot, there must be some cause of that impossibility: there
can be nothing without him ; because nothing without him can
be as powerful as himself, much less too powerful for him; no
thing within him can be an enemy to his highest perfection :
since he is necessarily Avhat he is, he must be necessarily the
most perfect Being, and therefore necessarily infinite ; since to
be soraething infinitely, is a greater perfection than to be some
thing finitely : ^ if he can be infinite he is infinite ; otherwise he
could be greater than he is, and so more blessed and more
perfect than he is, which is irapossible ; for being the most per
fect Being, to whom nothing can be added, he must needs be
infinite. If therefore God have an infinite essence, he has an infinite
presence. An infinite essence cannot be contained in a finite
place : as those things which are finite have a bounded space,
wherein they are, so that which is infinite has an unbounded
space ; for as finiteness speaks limitedness, so infiniteness
speaks unboundedness; and if we grant to God an infinite
' Amyrald. de Trinitat. p. 89.
2 Deus est actus purus et nuUam habet potentiam passivam.

428 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
duration, there is no difficulty in acknowledging an infinfle pre
sence. Indeed the infiniteness of God is a property belonging
to him in regard of time and place ; he is bounded by no place,
and limited to no time.
Again, infinite essence may as well be every where, as in
finite power reach every thing; it may as well be present wflh
every being, as infinite power in its Avorking may be present
wifh nothing to bring it into being. Where God works by his
power he is present in his essence, because his power and his
essence cannot be separated ; and therefore his power, wisdom,
goodness, cannot be anywhere where his essence is not : his
essence cannot be severed from his power, nor his power from
his essence^; for the power of God is nothing but God acting,
and the wisdom of God nothing but God knowing. As fhe
power of God is always, so is his essence ; as the poAver of God
is every where, so is his essence ; whatsoever God is, he is
ahvays, and every where. To confine him to a place, is to mea
sure his essence; as to confine his actions, is to limit his power:
his essence being no less infinite than his power and his wis
dom, can be no more bounded than his poAver and wisdom;
but they are not separable from his essence, yea they are his
essence. If God did not fill the whole world, he would be de
termined to some place, and excluded from others; and so his
substance would have bounds and limits, and then something
might be conceived greater than God ; for we may conceive
that a creature may be made by God of so vast a greatness as
to fifl the whole world; for the power of God is able to make
a body that should take up the whole space between heaven
and earth, and reach to every corner of it: but nothing can be
conceived by any creature greater than God; he exceeds all
things, and is exceeded by none: God therefore cannot be in
cluded in heaven, nor included in the earth, cannot be contain
ed in either of them; for if we should imagine them vaster than
they are, yet still they would be finite; and if bis essence were
contained in them, it could be no raore infinite than the world
which contains it; as water is not of a larger compass than the
vessel which contains it. If the essence of God were limited
either in fhe heavens or earth, it must needs be finite, as the
heavens and earth are; but there is no proportion between
finite and infinite; God therefore cannot be contained in them:
if there were an infinite body, that raust be every Avhere; cer
tainly then an infinite Spirit raust be every where. Unless we
will account him finite, we can render no reason why he should
not be in one creature as well as in another: if he be in hea
ven, which is his creature, why can he not be in the earth,
which is as well his creature as the heavens ?
(2.) Because ofthe continual operation of God in the world.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 429
This was one reason which made the heathen believe that
there was an infinite Spirit in the vast body of the world, act
ing in every thing, and producing those admirable motions
which we see every where in nature. The cause which acts
in the most perfect manner, is also in the most perfect manner
present with its effects.
God preserves all, and therefore is in all. The apostle
thought it a good induction; — He is not far from us; for in
hira we live. Acts xvii. 27. For being as much as because,
shows that from his operation he concluded his real presence
wflh all; it is not, his virtue is not far from every one of us, but
he, his substance, himself; for none that acknowledge a God,
Avill affirm the absence of the virtue of God from any part of
the world. He works in every thing, every thing lives and
works in him ; therefore he is present with all.' Or rather, if
things live, they are in God, who gives them life. If things
hve, God is in thera, and gives them life : if things move, God
is in them, and gives them raotion : if things have any being,
God is in them, and gives them being; if God withdraws him
self, they presently lose their being: and therefore some have
compared the creature to the impression of a seal upon the
Avafer, that cannot be preserved but by the presence of the
seal. As his presence was actual with Avhat he created, so his
presence is actual with what he preserves, since creation and
preservation do so little differ ; if God creates things by his es
sential presence, by the same he supports them : if his substance
cannot be disjoined from his preserving power, his power and
wisdom cannot be separated from his essence ; Avhere there are
the marks ofthe one, there is the presence of the other; for it
is by his essence that he is powerful and wise; no raan can
distinguish the one from the other in a simple being : God does
not preserve and act things by a virtue diffused from hira. It
raay be deraanded, whether that virtue be distinct from God ?
If it be not, it is then the essence of God ; if it be distinct, it is
a creature; and then it may be asked, how that virtue which
preserves other things is preserved itself? It must be ulti
mately resolved into the essence of God, or else there must be
a running in infinitum: or else,^ is that virtue of God a sub
stance or not ; is it endued with understanding or not ? If it
has understanding, how does it differ from God? If it wants
understanding, can any imagine that the support of the world,
the guidance of all creatures, the wonders of nature can be
wrought, preserved, managed by a virtue that has nothing of
understanding in it ? If it be not a substance, it can much less
be able to produce such excellent operations, as the preserving
aU the kinds of things in the world, and ordering thera to per-
I Pont. 2 Amyrald, de Trinitat, p. 106, 107.

430 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
form such exceUent ends. This virtue is therefore God him
self, the infinite power and wisdom of God; and therefore
wheresoever the effects of these are seen in the world God is
essentially present: sorae creatures indeed act at a distance by
a virtue diffused ; but such a raanner of acting coraes from a
limfledness of nature, that such a nature cannot be every where
present, and extend its substance to all parts. To act by a
virtue, speaks the subject finite^ and it is a part of indigence.
Kings act in their kingdoms by ministers and messengers, be
cause they cannot act otherAvise ; but God being infinflely per
fect, Avorks all things in all irarnediately, 1 Cor. xii. 6. Illumi
nation, sanctification, grace, &c., are the iraraediate works of
God in the heart, and iraraediate agents are present with what
they do. It is an arguraent of the greater perfection of a being,
to know things immediately which are done in several places,
than to know thera at the second hand by instruraents : it is no
less a perfection to be every where, rather than to be tied to
one place of action, and to act in other places by instruments,
for want of a power to act immediately itself God indeed acts
by means and second causes in his providential dispensations in
the world, but this is not out of any defect of power to Avork
all immediately hiraself ; but he thereby accommodates his way
of acting to the nature of the creature, and the order of things
which he has settled in the Avorld. And when he works byi
means, he acts with those means, in those means; sustains their
faculties and virtues in them, concurs Avith them by his power;
so that God's acting bymeans, does rather strengthen his essen
tial presence than weaken it ; since there is a necessary de
pendence of the creatures upon the Creator in their being and
acting; what they are, they are by the power of God; what
they act, they act in the power of God, concurring with them;
they have their motion in him as well as their being; and
where the power of God is, his essence is, because they are
inseparable; and so this omnipresence arises from the sim
plicity of the nature of God. The more vast any thing is, the
less confined. All that Avill acknowledge God so great, as to
be able to work all things by his will, without an essential pre
sence, cannot iraagine hira, upon the sarae reason, so little as to
be contained in and bounded by any place.
(3.) Because ofhis suprerae perfection.
No perfection is wanting to God. But an unbounded essence
is a perfection ; a limited one is an imperfection. Though it
be a perfection in a man to be wise, yet it is an imperfection
that his wisdom cannot rule all the things that concern him;
though it be a perfection to be present in a place where his
affairs lie, yet is it his imperfection that he cannot be present
every where, in the midst of all his concerns; if any man could

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 43 1
be so, it would be universally owned as a prime perfection in
hira above others: is that which Avould be a perfection in man
to be denied fo God?' As that which has life is more perfect
than that which has not life; and that Avhich has sense is more
perfect than that which has only life, as the plants have; and
Avhat has reason is more perfect than that Avhich has only life
and sense, as the beasts have; so what is every where is more
perfect than that which is bounded in sorae narroAV confines.
If a power of raotion be raore exceUent than to be bed-ridden ;
and swiftness in a creature be a more excellent endowment
than to be slow and snail-like; then to be every where with
out motion, is inconceivably a greater excellency than to be
every where successively by motion. God sets forth his readi
ness to help his people and punish his enemies, or his omnipre
sence, by swiftness, or flying upon the wings ofthe wind, Psal.
xviii. 10. The wind is in every part of the air Avhere it bloAvs;
it cannot be said that it is in this or that point of the air where
you feel it, so as to exclude it from another part of the air
where you are not; it seems to possess all at once.
If the Divine essence had any bounds of place, it would be
imperfect, as well as if it had bounds of time: where any thing
has limitation, it has some defect in being; and therefore if
God were confined or concluded, he would he as good as no
thing in regard of infiniteness. Whence should this restraint
arise? There is no power above hira to restrain hira to a cer
tain space; if so, then he would not be God, but that power
which restrained him would be God. Not from his own na
ture, for the being every where implies no contradiction to his
nature; if his own nature determined him to a certain place,
then if he removed from that place he would act against his
nature; to conceive any such thing of God is highly absurd.
It cannot be thought God should voluntarily impose any such
restraint or confinement upon himself; this would be to deny
himself a perfection he might have: if God have not this per
fection, it is either because it is inconsistent with his nature, or
because he cannot have it, or because he will not. The forraer
cannot be; for if he has irapressed upon air and light a resem
blance of his excellency, to diffuse themselves and fill so vast
a space, is such an excellency inconsistent with the Creator
more than the creature?, Whatsoever perfection the creature
has, is eminently in God. " Understand, ye brutish among the
people: and ye fools, when wUl ye be Avise? He that planted
the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed fhe eye, shall he not
see? — He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ?"
Psal. xciv. 8 — 10. By the same reason he that has given such
a power to those creatures, air and light, shall not he much
' Amyrald. de Trinitat. p. 74, 75.

432 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
more fiU all spaces of the world ? It is so clear a rule, that the
Psalmist fixes a folly and brutishness upon those that deny it:
it is not therefore inconsistent with his nature; it were not then
a perfection, but an imperfection; but Avhatsoever is an excel
lency in creatures, cannot in a way of eminency be an imper
fection in God. If it be then a perfection, and God want it, it
is because he cannot have it; where then is his power? how
can he be then the fountain of his own being? If he Avill not,
where is his love to his own nature and glory? since no crea
ture would deny that to itself which it can have, and is an ex
cellency to it. God therefore has not only a power or fitness
to be every where, but he is actually every where.
(4.) Because of his immutability.
If God did not fill all the spaces of heaven and earth, but
only possess one, yet it must be acknowledged that God has
a power to move himself to another. It were absurd to fix
God in a part of the heavens, like a star in an orb, without a
poAver of motion to another place. If he be therefore essen
tially in heaven, may he not be upon the earth ifhe please, and
transfer his substance from one place to another? To say he
cannot, is to deny him a perfection which he has bestowed upon
his creatures: the angels, his messengers, are sometimes in
heaven, sometimes on the earth; the eagles, meaner creatures,
are sometimes in the air out of sight, sometimes upon the earth.
If he does move therefore and recede from one place, and settle
in another, does he not declare himself mutable by changing
places, by being where he was not before, and in not being
where he was before? He would not fiU heaven and earth at
once, but successively: no man can be said to fill a room, that
moves from one part of a room to another; if therefore any in
their imaginations take God to the heavens, they render him
less than his creatures. If they allow him a power of raotion
frora one place to another, they conceive hira changeable; and
in either of thera they own hira no greater than a finite and
limited being; limited to heaven, if they fix him there; hmited
to that space to which they imagine him to raove.
(5.) Because ofhis omnipotence.
The almightiness of God is a notion settled in the minds of
aU, that God can do whatsoever he pleases, every thing that is
not against the purity of his nature, and does not imply a con
tradiction in itself He can therefore create millions of worlds
greater than this; and miUions of heavens greater than this hea
ven he has already created. If so, he is then in inconceivable
spaces beyond this world; for his essence is not less and nar
rower than his power, and his power is not to be thought of a
further extent than his essence; he cannot be excluded there
fore from those vast spaces where his power may fix those

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 433
worlds if hf please: if so, it is no AVonder that he should fiU this
world; and there is no reason to exclude God frora the narrow
space of this world, that is not contained in infinite spaces be
yond the Avorld. God is wheresoever he has a power to act ;
but he has a power to act every where in the world, every
where out of the world; he is therefore every where in
the world, every where out of the Avorld. Before this world
was raade, he had a power to make it in the space where now
it stands. Was he not then unlimitedly where the world now
is before the world received a being by his powerful word ?
Why should he not then be in every part of the Avorld now?
Can ifhe thofight that God, who was immense before, should,
after he had created the world, contract himself to the limits
of one of his creatures, and tie himself to a particular place
ofhis own creation, and be less after his creation than he was
before? This might also be 'prosecuted by an argument from his eter
nity. What is. eternal in duration, is immense in essence ; the
same reason which renders him eternal, renders him imraense.
That which proves him to be always, will prove him to be
every where.
3. The third point is, propositions for the further clearing this
doctrine from any exceptions.
(1.) This truth is not weakened by the expressions in
Scripture, where God is said to dwell in heaven, and in the tem
ple. He is indeed said to sit in heaven, Psal. ii. 4; and to dwell
on high, Psal. cxiu. 5 ; but he is no where said to dwell only in
the heavens, as confined to them. It is the court of his majes-
tical presence, but not the prison of his essence. For when we
are told, that the heaven is his throne, we are told with the sarae
breath that the earth is his footstool, Isa. Ixvi. 1. He dwells on
high in regard of the excellency of his nature ; but he is in all
places in regard of the diffusion of his presence. The soul is
essentiaUy in all parts of the body, but it does not exert the
sarae operations in all ; the more noble discoveries of it are in
the head and heart : in the head, where it exercises the chiefest
senses, for the enriching the understanding; in the heart, where
it vitally resides, and communicates life and motion to the rest
of the body. It does not understand with the foot, or any
other raember, though it be in all parts of the body it informs.
And so God may be said to dweU in heaven, both in regard of
the raore excellent and majestic representation of himself to the
creatures that inhabit the place, as angels and blessed spirits ;
and also in those marks of his greatness which he has planted
there, those spiritual natures which have a nobler stamp of
God upon them, and those excellent bodies, as sun and stars.
Vol. I.— 55

434 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
which as so many tapers, light us to behold his glory, Psal. xix.
1, and astonish the minds of men when they gaze upon thera.
It is his court, Avhere he has the most solemn worship from his
creatures, all his courtiers attending there with a pure love and
glowing zeal. He reigns there in a special manner, wflhout
any opposition to his government; it is therefore called his holy
dweUing place, 2 Chron. xxx. 27. The earth has not thattifle,
since sin cast a stain and a ruining curse upon it. The earth
is not his throne, because his government is opposed. But hea
ven is none of Satan's precinct, and the rule of God is uncontra
dicted by the inhabitants of it. It is from thence also he has
given the greatest discoveries of himself Thence he sends
the angels his messengers, his Son upon redemption, his Spirit
for sanctification. From heaven his gifts drop down upon our
heads, and his grace upon our hearts, James iii. 17. From
thence fhe chiefest blessings of earth descend. The motions of
the heavens fatten the earth ; and the heavenly bodies are but
stewards to the earthly comforts for man by their influence.
Heaven is the richest, vastest, most steadfast and majestic part
of the visible creation. It is there where he wfll at last manifest
himself to his people in a full conjunction of grace and glory,
and be for ever open to his people in uninterrupted expressions
of goodness, and discoveries of his presence, as a reward of
their labour and service. And in these respects it raay pecu
liarly be called his throne. And this does no more hinder his
essential presence in all parts of the earth, than it does his gra
cious presence in all the hearts of his people. God is in heaven
in regard of the manifestation of his glory: in hell by the ex
pressions of his justice; in the earth by the discoveries of his
wisdom, power, patience, and compassion; in his people by
the monuments of his grace; and in all, in regard of his sub
stance. He is said also to dwell in the ark and teraple. It is called
the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour
dwelleth, Psal. xxvi. 8. And he is said to dwell in Jerusalem
as in his holy mountain, " The mountain of the Lord of Hosts,"
Zech. viii. 3; in regard of publishing his oracles, answering
their prayers, manifesting more of his goodness to the Israelites
than to any other nation in the world, erecting his true worship
among them, which was not settled in any part of the world
besides. And his worship is principally intended in that psalm.
Th'e ark is the place where his honour dwells; the worship of
God is called the glory of God: they changed the glory of God
into an image made like to corruptible man, Rom. i. 23; that
sjs, they changed the worship of God into idolatry; and to that
itlso doth the place in Zechariah refer.
Now because he is said to dwell in heaven, is he essentially

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.

4.35

only there? Is he not as essentially in the temple and ark as
he is in heaven, since there are as high expressions of his habi
tations there' as of his dwelling in heaven? If he dwell only
in heaven, how came he to dwell ih the temple? both are
asserted in Scripture, one as much as the other. If his dwell
ing in heaven did not hinder his dwelling in the ark,'it could
as little hinder the presence of his essence on the earth. To
dwell in heaven and in one part of the earth at the same time,
is all one as to dwell in all parts df heaven and all parts of
earth. Ifhe were in heaven, and in the ark and temple, it was
the sarae essence in both, though not the same kind of mani
festation of himself If by his dwelling in heaven be meant
his whole essence, why is it not also to be meant by his dwell
ing in the ark? It was not, surely, part ofhis essence that was
in heaven, and part of his essence that was on earth; his essence
would then be divided; and can it be imagined, that he would
be in heaven and the ark at the same time, and not in the
spaces between? Could his essence be split into fragments, and
a gap made in it, that two distant spaces should be filled by him,
and all between be empty of hira. So that God's being said
to dwell in heaven, and in the temple, is so far from impairing
the truth of this doctrine, that it more confirms and evidences it.
(2.) Nor do the expressions of God's coming to us, or depart
ing from us, impair this doctrine of his omnipresence.
God is said to hide his face from his people, Psal. x. 1; to be
far from the wicked, Prov. xv. 29, and the gentUes are said to
be afar off, namely, from God, Eph. ii. 17, and upon the mani
festation of Christ made near. These must not be understood
of any distance or nearness of his essence, for that is equally
near to all persons and things; but of some other special way
and manifestation of his presence. Thus God is said to be in
believers by love, as they are in him; "He that dwelleth in
love dweUeth in God, and God in him," 1 John iv. 16. He
that loves is in the thing beloved; and Avhen two love one an
other they are in one another. God is in a righteous man by
a special grace, and far from the wicked in regard of such spe
cial works; and God is said to be in a place by a special raani-
festation, as when he was in the bush, Exod. iii. or manifesting
his glory upon mount Sinai : " The glory of the Lord abode
upon mount Sinai," Exod. xxiv. 16. God is said to hide his
face, when he Avithdraws his comforting presence, disturbs the
repose of our hearts, flashes terror into our consciences: when
he puts men under the smart of the cross, as though he had
ordered his mercy utterly to depart from them ; or when he does
withdraw his special assisting providence from us in our affairs :
so he' departed from Saul, when he withdrew his direction and
protection from him in the concerns of his government; " The

436 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul," 1 Sam. xvi. 14, that is,
the spirit of governraent. God may be far from us in one
respect, and near to us in another; far from us in regard of
comfort, yet near to us in regard of support, Avhen his essential
presence continues the same; this is a necessary consequent
upon the infiniteness of God, the other is an act of the wfll of
God: so he was said to forsake Christ in regard of his obscuring
his glory from his human nature, and inflicting his wrath,
though he was near to him in regard of his grace, and preserved
hira from contracting any spot in his sufferings. We do not say
the sun is departed out of the heavens when it is bemisted ; it
remains in the same part of the heavens, passes on its course,
though its beams do not reach us by reason ofthe bar between
us and it. The soul is in every part of the body, in regard of
its substance, and constantly in it, though it does not act so
sprightly and vigorously at one time as at another in one and
the sarae raember, and discover itself so sensibly in its opera
tions; so all the various effects of God towards the sons of men
are but divers operations of one and the same essence. He is
far from us, or near to us, as he is a Judge or a Benefactor;
when he comes to punish, it notes not the approach of his
essence, but the stroke of his justice; when becomes to benefit,
it is not by a new access of his essence, but an efflux of his
grace: he departs frora us when he leaves us to the frowns of
his justice; he comes to us when he encircles us in the arms of
his mercy; but he was equally present with us in both dispen
sations, in regard of his essence. And likewise God is said to
come down, "And the Lord came down to see the city," Gen.
xi. 5, Avhen he does some signal and wonderful works which
attract the minds of men to the acknowledgment of a supreme
power and providence in the world, who judged God absent
and careless befpre.
(3.) Nor is the essential presence of God with all creatures
any disparagement to him. Since it Avas no disparagement to
create the heaven and the earth, it is no disparagement to him
to fill them : if he were essentially present with them when he
created him, it is no dishonour to him to be essentially present
with them to support them: if it were his glory to create them
by his essence, when they were nothing, can it be his disgrace
to be present by his essence, since they are soraething,, and
something good, and very good in his eye? Gen. i. 31. God
saw every thing, and behold it was very good, or mighty good;
all ordered to declare his goodness, wisdom, power, and to make
hira adorable to man; and he therefore took complacency in
them. There is a harmony in aU things, a combination in them
for those glorious ends for which God created them; and is fla
disgrace for God to be present with his own harmonious com-

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.

437

position? Is it not a musician's glory to touch with his fingers
the treble, the least and tenderest string, as well as the strongest
and greatest bass? Has not every thing sorae stamp of God's
own being upon it, since he eminently contains in hiraself the
perfections of all his works? Whatsoever has being, has a foot
step of God upon it, who is all being; every thing in the earth
is his footstool, having a mark of his foot upon it; all declare the
being of God, hecause they had their being from God ; and will
God account it any disparagement to him to be present with
that which confirms his being, and the glorious perfections of
his nature to his intelligent creatures? The meanest things are
not without their virtues, which may boast God's being the
Creator of them; and rank them in the midst of his works of
wisdom as well as power. Does God debase himself to be pre
sent by his essence with the things he has made, more than he
does to know them by his essence ? Is not the least thing known
by him? How ? not by a faculty or act distinct from his esence;
but by his essence itself How is any thing disgraceful to the es
sential presence of God, that is not disgraceful to his knowledge
by his essence ? Besides, would God make any thing that should
be an invincible reason to hira to part with his OAvn infiniteness,
by a contraction of his own essence into a less compass than
before ? It Avas imraense before, it had no bounds ; and would
God make a world that he would be ashamed to be present wifh,
and continue it to the diminution and lessening of hiraself,
rather than annihflate it to avoid the disparagement ? This were
to irapeach the wisdom of God, and cast a blemish upon his
infinite understanding, that he knows not the consequences of
his work, or is weU contented to be impaired in the imraensity
of his own essence by it. No raan thinks it a dishonour to light,
a raost excellent creature, to be present with a toad or serpent;
and though there be an infinite disproportion betAveen light, a
creature, and the Father of lights, the Creator; yet God being a
Spirit, knoAvs how to be with bodies as if they Avere not bodies;
and being jealous of his own honour, would not, could not do
any thing that might impair it. '
(4.) Nor will it follow, that because God is essentiaUy every
where, that every thing is God. God is not every where by
any conjunction, composition, or mixture with any thing on
earth. When light is in every part of a crystal globe, and encir
cles it close on every side, do they become one? No; the crystal
remains vi^hat it is, and the light retains its own nature. God
is not in us as a part of us, but as an efficient and preserving
cause; it is not by his essential presence, but his efficacious pre
sence, that he brings any person into a likeness to his own na
ture. God is so in his essence with things, as to be distinct
< Gassend.

438 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
from thera as a cause from the effect; as a Creator different from
the creature, preserving their nature, not communicating his
own ; his essence touches all, is in conjunction with none. Finite
and infinite cannot be joined; he is not far from us, therefore
near to us ; so near that we live and move in him Acts, xvu. 28.
Nothing is God because it raoves in hira, any more than a fish
in the sea, is the sea, or a part of the sea, because it moves in
it. Does a man that holds a thing in fhe hollow ofhis hand,
transform it by that action, and make it like his hand?" The soul
and body are more straitly united, than the essence of God is
by his presence with any creature. The soul is in the body as
a form in matter, and from their union does arise a man; yet
in this near conjunction, both body and soul remain distinct;
the soul is not the body, nor the body the soul ; they both have
distinct natures and essences; the body can never be changed
into a soul, nor the soul into a body: no more can God into the
creature, or the creature into God. Fire is in heated iron in
every part ofit, so that it seems to be nothing but fire; yet fire
and iron are not the same thing. But such a kind of arguing
against God's omnipresence, that if God were essentially pre
sent every thing Avould be God, would exclude him from heaven
as well as from earth. By the same reason, since they ac
knowledge God essentially in heaven, the heaven where he is
should be changed into the nature of God; and by arguing
against his presence on earth upon this ground, they run into
such an inconvenience, that they must own him to be no where,
and that which is no where is nothing. Does the earth become
God, because God is essentially there, any more than fhe hea
vens, where God is acknowledged b}?- all to he essentially present?
Again, if where God is essentially that must be God, then if
they place God in a point of fhe heavens, not only that point
must be God, but all the world; because if that point be God
because God is there, then the point touched by that point
must be God, and so consequently as far as there are any points
touched by one another. We live and raove in God, so we
live and move in the air; we are no more God by that, than
we are mere air, because Ave breathe in it, and it enters into aU
the pores ofour body. Nay, where there was a straiter union
of the Divine nature to the human in our Saviour, yet the na
ture of both was distinct, and the humanity Avas not changed
into the Divinity, nor the Divinity into fhe humanity.
(5.) Nor does it follow, that hecause God is every where,
therefore a creature may be worshipped without idolatry.
Some ofthe heathens who acknowledged God's omnipresence,
abused it to the countenancing idolatry: because God was
resident in every thing, they thought every thing inight be
1 Amyrald. de Trinitat. p. 99, 100.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 439
worshipped ; and some have used it as an argument against
this doctrine : the best doctrines may by men's corruption be
drawn out into unreasonable and pernicious conclusions. Have
you not met with any, that frora the doctrine of God's free
mercy, and our Saviour's satisfactory death, have drawn poi
son to feed their lusfs and consume their souls, a poison com
posed by their own corruption, and not offered by those truths?
The apostle intimates to us, that some did, or at least were
ready to be more lavish in sinning, because God was abun
dant in grace ; " Shall Ave continue in sin, that grace may
abound?" Rom. vi. 1;' Avhere he prevents an objection that
he thought might be made by some. But as to this case ; since
though God be present in every thing, yet every thing retains
its nature, distinct from the nature of God; therefore it is not
to have a worship due to the excellency of God. As long as
any thing reraains a creature, it is only to have the respect from
us which is due to it in the rank of creatures. When a prince
is present Avith his guard, or ifhe should go arm in arm with a
peasant, is therefore the veneration and honour due to the
prince to be paid to the peasant, or any of his guard ? Would
the presence of the prince excuse it, or Avould it not rather
aggravate it? He acknowledged such a person equal to me,
by giving him my rights, even in my sight. Though God
dwelt in the temple, would not the Israelites have been ac
counted guflty of idolatry, had they worshipped the images of
the cherubim, or the ark, or the altar, as objects of worship,
which were erected only as means for his service ? Is there
not as much reason to think God was as essentially present in
the teraple as in heaven; since the same expressions are used
of the one and the other ? The sanctuary is called the glorious
high throne, Jer. xvfl. 12 ; and he is said to dwell between the
cherubims, Psal. Ixxx. 1, that is, the two cherubims that were at
the two ends of the mercy-seat, appointed by God as the two
sides of his throne in the sanctuary, Exod. xxv. 18, where he
was to dwell, ver. 8, and meet and commune with his people,
ver. 22. Could this excuse Manasseh's idolatry in bringing in
a carved image into the house of God? 2 Chron. xxxiii. 7.
Had it been a good answer to the charge, " God is present
here, and therefore every thing may be worshipped as God?"
If he be only essentially in heaven, would it not be idolatry to
direct a worship to the heavens, or any part of it, as a due ob
ject, because of the presence of God there? Though we look
up to the heavens, when we pray and worship God, yet hea
ven is not the object of worship: the soul abstracts God from
the creature.
(6.) Nor is God defiled by being present with those crea-
' " Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?" ver. 15.

440 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
tures which seem filthy to us. Nothing is filthy in the eye of
God as his creature; he could never else have pronounced aU
good: whatsoever is filthy to us, yet as it is a creature, it owes
itself to the power of God. His essence is no more defiled by
being present with it, than his power by producing it : no crea
ture is foul in itself, though it may seem so to us. Does not an
infant he in a womb of irapurities ? Yet is not the power of
God present with it, in working it curiously in the lower parts
of the earth ? Are his eyes defiled by seeing the substance
Avhen it is yet imperfect ? or his hand defiled by writing every
meraber in his book? Psal. cxxxix. 15, 16. Have not the vilest
and most noisome things excellent medicinal virtues? How
are they endued with them? Hoav are those qualifies preserved
in thera ? By any thing without God, or no ? Every arUficer
looks with pleasure upon the work he has wrought with art
and skiU; can his essence be defiled by being present with them,
any raore than it was in giving thera such virtues, and preserv
ing thera in them ? God measures the heaven and the earth
with his hand; is his hand defiled by the evil influences of the
planets, or the corporeal impurities of the earth ? Nothing can
be filthy in the eye of God but sin, since every thing else owes
its being, to him. What may appear deformed and unworthy
to us, is not so to the Creator; he sees beauty where we see de
formity; finds goodness where we behold what is nauseous to
us. All creatures being the effects of his power; may be the
objects of his presence. Can any place be more foul than befl,
if you take it either for the hell of the damned, or for the grave
Avhere there is rottenness ? yet there he is, Psal. cxxxix. 8. When
Satan appeared before God, and God spake with hira. Job i. 7,
could God contract any irapurity by being present where that
filthy spirit was, more impure than any corporeal, noisome, and
defiling thing can be ? No, God is purity to hiraself in the
midst of noisomeness ; a heaven to himself in the midst of hell.
Who ever heard of a sunbeam stained by shining upon a quag
mire, any more than sweetened by breaking into a perfumed
room? ' Though the light shines upon pure and irapure things,
yet it raixes not itself with either of them; so though God be
present with devils and wicked men, yet it is without any mix
ture: he is present Avith their essence, to sustain it and support
it; not in their defection, wherein lies their defileraent, and
which is not a physical but a raoral evfl; bodily filth can never
touch an incorporeal substance. Spirits are not present with us
in the same manner that one body is present with another:
bodies can by a touch only defile hodies. Is the glory of an
angel stained by being in a coal-mine ? Or could the angel
that carae into the lion's den, to deliver Daniel, Dan. vi. 22, be
¦ Shelford of the Attributes, p. 170.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 441
any more disturbed by the stench of the place, than he could
be scratched by fhe paws or torn by the teeth of the beasts ?
Their spiritual nature secures them against any infection, when
they are ministering spirits to persecuted believers in their filthy
prisons. Acts xii. 7. The soul is straitly United with the body,
but it is not made white or black by the whiteness or blackness
of its habitation; is it infected by the corporeal impurities of
the body, while it continually dwells in a sea of filthy pollu
tion ? If the body be cast into a comraon sewer, is the soul de
filed by it ? Can a diseased body derive a contagion fo the
spirit that animates it ? Is it not often the purer by grace, the
raore the body is infected by nature ? Hezekiah's spirit Avas
scarce ever raore fervent with God, than when the sore, which
some think to be a plague sore, was upon him, Isa. xxxviii. 3.
How can any corporeal filth impair the purity of the Divine
essence? It may as well be said, that God is not present in
battles and fights for his people. Josh. xxiu. 10, because he
would not be disturbed by the noise of cannons and clashing of
swords, as that he is not present in the world, because of the
fll scents. Let us therefore conclude this with the expression
of a learned man ofour own;' " To deny the omnipresence of
God because of ill-scented places, is to measure God rather by
the nicety of sense than by the sagacity of reason."
4. The Use.
Use (1.) Of information.
[1.] Christ has a Divine nature. As eternity, and immuta
bflity, tAVO incommunicable properties of the Divine nature, are
ascribed to Christ, so also is this of omnipresence or immensity.
"No man hath ascended up to heaven, hut he that carae down
frora heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven," John
iii. 13. Not which was, but Avhich is; he comes frora hea
ven by incarnation, and reraains in heaven by his Divinity.
He was, Avhfle he spake to Nicoderaus, locally on earth, in re
gard of his humanity, but in heaven according to his Deity, as
well as upon 'earth in the union of his Divine and human na
ture. He descended upon earth, but he left not heaven; he
was in the world before he came in the flesh. " He was in the
Avorld, and the world was raade by hira," John i. 10. He -was
in the world, as the light that enlightens every man that comes
into the world: in the world as God, before he was in the world
as man. He was then in the world as man, while he discoursed
with Nicodemus, yet so thathe was also in heaven as God. No
creature but is bounded in space, either circumscribed as body,
or deterrained as spirit to be in one place, so as not to be in
another at the same tirae; to leave a place where they were,
and possess a place where they were not. But Christ is so on
" Dr. More.
Vol. I.— 56

442 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
earth, that at the sarae tirae he is in heaven ; he is therefore
infinite. To be in heaven and earth at the sarae moraent of
tirae, is a property solely belonging to the Deity, wherein no
creature can be a partner with him. He was in the Avorld be
fore he came to the world, and " the world was made by him,"
John i. 10. His coming was not as the coraing of angels, that
leave heaven, and begin to be on earth, where they were not
before; but such a presence as can be ascribed only to God,
who fills heaven and earth. Again, if all things were made
by hira, then he was present with all things Avhich were made.
For where there is a presence of power, there is also a presence
of essence, and therefore he is stfll present. For the right and
power of conservation follows the power of creation. And
according to this Divine nature, he proraises his presence with
his church. " There am I in the midst of them," Matt, xviii.
20. And, " I ara with you alway, even unto the end of the
world," Matt, xxviii. 20, that is, hy his Divinity; for he had
before told thera, that they Avere not to have hira always with
thera. Matt. xxvi. 11, meaning, according to his humanity; but
in his Divine nature he is present with, and walks in the midst
of the golden candlesticks. If we understand it of a presence
by his Spirit in the midst of the church, does it invalidate his
essential presence? No, he is no less than the Spirit whom he
sends; and therefore as little confined as the Spirit is, who
dwells in every believer. And this may also be inferred from
John X. 30. "I and my Father are one; not one by consent,
though that be included; but one in power: for he speaks not
of their consent, but of their joint power in keeping his people.
Where there is a unity of essence, there is a unity of presence.
[2.] Here is a confirraation of the spiritual nature of God.
If he were an infinite body, he could not fill heaven and earth,
but with the exclusion of all creatures. Two bodies cannot be
in the same space; they may be near one another, but not in
any of the sarae points together. A body bounded he has not,
for that would destroy his immensity; he could not then fill
heaven and earth, because a body cannot be at one and the
same time in two different spaces; but God does not fiU heaven
at one time and the earth at another, but both at the same time.
Besides, a limited body cannot be said to fill the whole earth,
but one particular space in the earth at a tirae. A body may
fill the earth with its virtue, as the sun, but not with its substance.
Nothing can be every where with a corporeal weight and mass;
but God being infinite, is not tied to any part of the world, but
penetrates all, and equaUy acts by his infinite power in all.
[3.] Here is an arguraent for providence. His presence is
mentioned in the text, in order to his government of the affairs
of the world. Is he every where, to be unconcerned wflh

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 443
every thing? Before the world had a being, God was present
with hiraself; since the world has a being, he is present with
his creatures, to exercise his Avisdora in the ordering, as he did
his power in the production of them. As the knowledge of
God is not a bare conteraplation of a thing, so his presence is
not a bare inspection into a thing. Were it an idle, careless
presence, it were a presence to no purpose, which cannot be
iraagined of God. Infinite power, goodness, and wisdom being
every where present with his essence, are never Avithout their
exercise. He never manifests any of his perfections, but the
manifestation is full of some indulgence and benefit to his crea
tures. It cannot be supposed God should neglect those things
wherewith he is constantly present in a way of efficiency and
operation. He is not every where, without acting every Avhere.
Wherever his essence is, there is a power and virtue worthy of
God every where dispensed. ' He governs by his presence
what he made by his power; and is present as an agent with
all his works. His power and essence are together to preserve
them whfle he pleases, as his power and his essence are toge
ther to create them when he saw good to do it. Every creature
has a stamp of God, and his presence is necessary to keep the
impression standing upon the creature. As all things are his
works, they are the objects of his care; and the wisdom he
employed in framing thera wUl not suffer him to be careless of
them. His presence with them engages hira in honour not fo
be a negligent Governor. His immensity fits him for govern
ment ; and where there is a fitness, there is an exercise of go
vernment, where there are objects for the exercise of it. He
is worthy to have the universal rule of the world, he can be
present in all places of his empire, there is nothing can be done
by any of his subjects but in his sight. As his eternity renders
him King always, so his immensity renders him King every
where. If he were only present in heaven, it might occasion
a suspicion that he minded only the things of heaven, and had
no concern for things below that vast body; but if he be pre
sent here, his presence has a tendency to the government of
those things with which he is present. We are all in hira as
fish in the sea; and he bears all creatures in the Avomb of his
providence and the arms of his goodness. It is raost certain
that his presence with his people is far from being an idle one ;
for when he promises to be Avith them, he adds sorae special
cordial, as, " I will be with thee, and wUl bless thee," Gen.
xxvi. 3; Jer. xv. 20. "I am with thee — I wfll strengthen thee;
— I will help thee — I will uphold thee," Isa. xii. 10. 14. Infi
nite goodness will never countenance a negligent presence.
[4.] The omniscience of God is inferred from hence. If God
I Cyril.

444 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
be present every where, he must needs know what is done
every Avhere. It is for this end he proclaims himself a God
filling heaven and earth, in the text: " Can any hide himself in
secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord." I have
heard what the prophets say, that prophesy lies in my name.
" If I fill heaven and earth, fhe most secret thing cannot be hid
from my sight." An intelligent being cannot be every where
present, and more intimate in every thing than it can be in
itself; hut he must know what is done without, what is thought
within. Nothing can be obscure to him, who is in every part
of the world, in every part ofhis creatures. Not a thought can
start up but in his sight, who is present in the souls and minds
of every thing. How easy is it with him, to whose essence the
world is but a point, to know and observe every thing done in
this world ! as any of us can know what is done in one point
of place where we are present. If light were an understand
ing being, it would behold and know every thing done where
it diffuseth itself God is light, (as light in a crystal glass, all
within it, all without it,) and is not ignorant of what is done
within and without; no ignorance can be fastened upon him
who hath a universal presence.
Hence by the way Ave may take notice of the wonderful
patience of God, who bears with so many provocations; not
from a principle of ignorance, for he bears with sins that are
comraitted near him, in his sight; sins that he sees, and cannot
but see.
[5.] Hence may be inferred the incomprehensibility of God.
He that fills heaven and earth cannot be contained in any thing;
he fills the understandings of men, the understandings of angels,
but is comprehended by neither: it is a rashness to think to find
out any bounds of God; there is no raeasuring of an infinite
Being; if it were to be measured it Avere not infinite; but be
cause it is infinite, it is not to be measured. God sits above the
cherubim, Ezek. x. 1, above the fulness, above the brightness,
not only of a human, but a created understanding. Nothing
is more present than God, yet nothing more hid ; he is light,
and yet obscurity;' his perfections are visible, yet unsearcha
ble: we know there is an infinite God, but it surpasses the
compass ofour minds. We know there is no number so great,
but another may be added to it ; but no man can put it in prac
tice without losing hiraself in a maze of figures. What is the
reason Ave comprehend not many, nay most things in the world?
Partly from the excellency of the object, and partly from the
imperfection of our understanding. How can we then cora
prehend God, who exceeds all, and is exceeded by none; con-
' Kpv^Utiji; Dionysius called God,

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 445
tains afl, and is contained by none; is above our understanding,
as well as above our sense? As considered in himself, infinite;
as considered in comparison with our understandings, incom
prehensible ; who can with his eye measure the breadth, length,
and depth of the sea, and at one cast vicAV every dimension of
the heavens: God is greater, and we cannot know him. Job
xxxvi 26; he fills the understanding as he fills heaven and
earth; yet is above the understanding as he is above hea.ven
and earth. He is known by faith, enjoyed by love, but com
prehended by no mind, God is not contained in that one sylla
ble, God: by it we apprehend an excellent and unliraited nature :
hiraself only understands hiraself, and can unveil himself
[6.] How wonderful is God, and how nothing are crea
tures! "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God," Deut. xxxii. 2.
He is adrairable in the consideration of his power, in the ex
tent of his understanding, and no less wonderful in the im
mensity of his essence ; so that, as Austin says, he is in the
world, yet not confined to it; he is out of the world, yet not
debarred from it; he is above the world, yet not elevated
by it; he is below the world, yet not depressed by it; he is
ahove all, equaUed by none; he is in all, not because he needs
them, but they stand in need of him; — all this, as Avell as eter
nity, makes a vast disproportion between God and the creature.
The creature is bounded by a little space, and no space is so
great as to bound the Creator, By this we may take a prospect
ofour own nothingness: as in the consideration of God's holi
ness we are minded of our own impurity, and in the thoughts
of his Avisdom have a view of our own folly, and in the medi
tation of his power have a sense of our weakness; so his im
raensity should make us, according to our own nature, appear
htfle in our oavu eyes. 'What little, little, little things are we to
God ! Less than an atom in the beams of the sun ; poor drops
to a God that fills heaven and earth; and yet dare we to strut
against hira, and dash ourselves against a Rock? If the consid
eration of ourselves in comparison with others, be apt to puff
us up, the consideration of ourselves in comparison with God,
wiU be sufficient to pull us down. If we consider him in the
greatness of hjs essence, there is but little more proportion be
tween him and us, than between being and not being, than be
tween a drop and the ocean. We should never think of God
without a holy admiration of his greatness, and a deep sense of
our own littleness. As the angels cover their faces before him,
with what awe should creeping worms come into his sight! and
since God fills heaven and earth with his presence, we should
fill heaven and earth with his glory ; for this end he created
angels to praise him in heaven, and men to worship him on
earth, that the places he fills with his presence may be filled

446 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
with his praise. We should be swallowed up in admiration of
the imraensity of God, as men are at the first sight of the sea,
when they behold a mass of waters, without beholding the
bounds and immense depth of it.
[7.J How much is this attribute of God forgotten or con
temned! We pretend to believe him to be present every where,
and yet raany live as if he were present no where.
It is coraraonly forgotten, or not believed. All the extrava
gancies of men may be traced to the forgetfulness of this attri-
hute, as their spring. The first speech .4dara spake in paradise
after his fall, testified his unbelief of this ; " I heard thy voice
in the garden — and I hid rayself," Gen. iii. 10; his ear under
stood the voice of God, but his mind did not conclude the pre
sence of God; he thought the trees could shelter him from hira,
whose eye was present in the minutest parts of the earth. He
that thought after his sin that he could hide hiraself from the
presence of his justice, thought before that he could hide hira
self from the presence of his knowledge; and being deceived in
the one, he would try what would be the fruit of fhe other.
In both he forgets, if not denies this attribute ; either corrupt no
tions of God, or a slight belief of what in general men assent
unto, give birth to every sin. In all transgressions there is
something of atheisra; either denying the being of God, or a
dash upon sorae perfection of God; a not believing his holiness
to hate it, his truth that threatens, his justice to punish it, and
his presence to observe it. Though God be not afar off in his
essence, he is afar off in the apprehension of the sinner. » There
is no Avicked man, but if he be an atheist, he is a heretic; and
to gratify his lust, will fancy himself to be out of the presence
of his Judge. His reason tells him God is present with him ;
his lust presses him fo embrace the season of a sensual pleasure:
he will forsake his reason, and prove a heretic that he may be
an undisturbed sinner ; and sins doubly, both in the error of his
mind, and the vUeness of his practice. He will conceit God,
with those in Job xxu. 14, veiled with thick clouds, and not able
to pierce into the lower world; as if his presence and cares were
confined to celestial things, and the earth were too low a sphere
for his essence to reach, at least with any credit. It is forgot
ten by good men, when they fear too much the designs oftheir
enemies. " Fear not, for I am with thee," Isa. xliii. 5. If the
presence of God be enough to strengthen against fear, then the
prevailing of fear issues from our forgetfulness ofit.
This attribute of God's omnipresence is for the raost part
conteraned, when raen AviU coramit that in the presence of God
which they Avould be afraid or ashamed to do before the eye
of man. Men do not practise that modesty before God as be-
' Drexel. Nieet. lib. 2. cap. ID.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 447
fore men. He that would restrain his tongue out of fear of
men's eyes, will not restrain either tongue or hands out of fear
of God's. What is the language of this, but that God is not
present with us, or his presence ought to he of less regard with
us, and influence upon us, than that of a creature? ' Ask the
thief why he dares to steal. Wfll he not answer, no eye sees
him? Ask the adulterer why he strips himself of his chastity,
and invades the rights of another ? Will he not answer, no
eye sees me ? Job xxiv. 15. He disguises himself to be un
seen by man, but slights the all-seeing eye of God. If only a
" man know thera, they are in terrors ofthe shadow of death,"
Job xxiv. 17; they are planet-struck; but stand unshaken at
the presence of God. Is not this to account God as limited as
raan, as ignorant, as absent, as if God Avere soraething less than
those things which restrain us ? It is a debasing God below a
creature. If we can forbear sin frora any awe of the presence
of raan, to whom we are equal in regard of nature; or from
the presence of a very mean man, to whom we are superior in
regard of condition, and not forbear it because we are Avithin
the ken of God, Ave respect hira not only as our inferior, but in
ferior to the meanest man or child of his creation, in whose
sight we Avould not coramit the like action. It is to represent
him as a sleepy, negligent, or careless God; as though any
thing might be concealed frora him, before whom the least
fibres of the heart are anatomized and open, who sees as plainly
midnight as noon- day sins, Heb. iv. 13. Now this is a high
aggravation of sin. To break a king's laws in his sight, is
more bold than to violate them behind his back. The least
iniquity receives a high tincture from this. And no sin can be
little that is an affront in the face of God, casting the filth of the
creature before the eyes of his holiness: as if a wife should
commit adultery before her husband's face, or a slave dis
honour his master, and disobey his commands in his presence.
And has it not often been thus with us ? have we not been
disloyal to God in his sight, before bis eyes, those pure eyes
that cannot behold iniquity without anger and grief? " Ye did
evil before my eyes," Isa. Ixv. 1 2. Nathan charges this home
upon David. Thou hast " despised the comraandraent of the
Lord to do evfl in his sight," 2 Sam. xii. 9. And David, in
his repentance, reflects upon himself for it; " Against thee,
thee only, have I sinned, and done this evfl in thy sight," Psal.
li. 4. I observed not thy presence, I neglected thee while thy
eye was upon me. And this consideration should sting our
hearts in all our confessions of our crimes. Men wifl be afraid
of the presence of others, whatsoever they think in their heart.
I Drexel. Nieet. lib. 2. cap. 10.

448 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
How unworthily do we deal wflh God, in not giving him so
much as an eye-service, which we do man!
[8.] How terrible should the thoughts of this attribute be to
sinners! How foolish is it, to imagine any hiding-place from
the incomprehensible God, who fills and contains all things,
and is present in every point of the world!' When men have
shut the door, and made all darkness within, to meditate or
commit a crime, they cannot in the most intricate recesses be
sheltered from the presence of God. If they could separate
themselves from their own shadows, they could not avoid his
company, or be obscured from his sight. ^ Hypocrites cannot
disguise their sentiments from him, he is in the raost secret
nook of their hearts. No thought is hid, no lust is secret, but
the eye of God beholds this, and that, and the other. He is
present with our heart when we iraagine, with our hands
when Ave act. We raay exclude the sun from peeping into
our solitudes, but not the eyes of God frora beholding our
actions. " The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding
the evfl and the good," Prov. xv. 3. He lies in the depths of
our souls, and sees afar off our designs before we have con
ceived them. He is in the greatest darkness, as well as the
clearest light ; in the closest thought of the mind, as well as the
openest expressions. Nothing can be hid frora hira, no not in
the darkest cells, or thickest walls. He corapasses our path
wherever we are, and is acquainted with afl our ways, Psal.
cxxxix. 3. He is as ranch present with wicked men to ohserve
their sins, as he is to detest them. Where he is present in his
essence, he is present in his attributes; his holiness to hate, and
his justice to punish, if he please to speak the word. It is
strange raen should not be raindful of this, Avhen their very
sins themselves might put them in mind of his presence.
Whence hast thou the power to act? who preserves thy being,
whereby thou art capable of committing that evfl ? Is it not
his essential presence that sustains us, and his arm that supports
us? and where can any man fly from his presence ? Not the
vast regions of heaven could shelter a sinning angel from his
eye. How was Adam ferreted out of his hiding-places in
paradise! Nor can we find the depths of the sea a sufficient
covering to us. If we were with Jonah closeted up in the belly
of a Avhale; if we had the wings of the morning, as quick a
motion as the light at the dawning of the day, that does in
an instant surprise and overpower the regions of darkness,
and could pass to the utmost parts of the earth or hell, there
we should find hira, there his eye would be upon us, there
• Quo fugis Encelade quascunque accesseris oras, sub Jove semper eris.
« " The darkness and the light are both ahke to thee," Psal. cxxxix. 12.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 449
would his hand lay hold of us, and lead us as a conqueror tri
umphing over a captive, Psal. cxxxix. 8 — 10. Nay, if we
could leap out of the compass of heaven arid earth, we should
find as little reserves from him. He is without the Avorld in
those infinite spaces which the mind of man can imagine. In
regard of his immensity, nothing in being can be distant from
him, wheresoever it is.
Use (2.) For comfort. That God is present every where, is
as ranch a corafort to a good man as it is a terror to a wicked
one. He is every where for his people, not only by a neces
sary perfection of his nature, but an imraense diffusion of his
goodness. He is in all creatures as their Preserver, in the
daraned as their terror, in his people as their Protector. He
fills hell with his severity, heaven with his glory, his people
with his grace. He is with his people as light in darkness, a
fountain in a garden, as manna in the ark. God is in the world
as a spring of preservation, in the church as his cabinet, a spring
of grace in consolation. A man is present sometimes in his
field, but more delightfully in his garden. A vineyard, as it
has more of cost, so raore of care, and a Avatchful presence of
the owner. "I the Lord do keep it;" namely, his vineyard;
"I will water it every moraent: lest any hurt it, I will keep it
night and day," Isa. xxvii. 3. As there is a presence of essence
which is natural, so there is a presence of grace, which is foede-
ral; a presence hy covenant, "I will not leave thee, I will be
with thee:" this latter depends upon the former; for take away
the imraensity of God, and you leave no foundation for his
universal gracious presence with his people in all their eraer-
gencies, in all their hearts. And therefore where he is present
in his essence, he cannot be absent in his grace from them that
fear him. It is from his filling heaven and earth he proves his
knowledge of the designs of the false prophets; and from the
same topic may as well be inferred the eraployraent of his power
and grace for his people.
[I.J The omnipresence of God is comfort in all violent
temptations. No fiery dart can be so present with us, as God
is present both with that and the marksman. The most raging
devUs cannot be so near us, as God is to us and them. He is
present with his people to relieve them, and present with the
devil to manage him to his own holy purposes: so he was with
Job, defeating his enemies, and bringing him triumphantly out
of those pressing trials. „' This presence is such a terror, that
whatsoever the devil can despofl us of, he must leave this un
touched. He might scratch the apostle with a thorn, but he
could not rifle him of the presence of Divine grace, which God
promised him, 2 Cor. xvii. 7. 9. He must prevail so far as to
make God cease to be God, before he can make him to be dis-
VoL. I.— 57

450 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
tant from us: and while this cannot be, the devils and men
can no more hinder the emanations of God to the soul, than a
child can cut off fhe rays of the sun frora embellishing fhe
earth. It is no mean support for a good man, at any tirae buf
feted by a raessenger of Satan, to think God stands near hira,
and beholds how ill he is used. It would be a satisfaction to a
king's favourite in fhe midst of the violence some eneraies
might use to hira upon a surprise, to understand that the king
who loves hira, stands behind a curtain, and through a hole
sees the injuries he suffers; and Avere the devil as considerate
as he is malicious, he could not but be in great fear at God's
being in the generation of the righteous, as his serpentine seed
is: "There were they in great fear; for God is in the genera
tion of the righteous," Psal. xiv. 5.
[2.] The omnipresence of God is a comfort in sharp afflic
tions. Good men have a comfort in this presence in their
filthy prisons, oppressing tribunals; in the overflowing waters
or scorching flames, he is still with them, Isa. xliii. 2 ; and
many times by his presence keeps the bush from consuming,
when it seems to be all in a flame. In affiictions God shows
himself most present, when friends are most absent: "When
my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me
up," Psal. xxvii. 10 ; then God will stoop and gather me into his
protection: (Hebr. Avill gather me;) alluding to those tribes that
were to bring up the rear in the Israelites' march, to take care
that none were left behind, and exposed to famine or wild
beasts, by reason of some disease that disabled them fo keep
pace with their brethren. He that is the sanctuary ofhis peo
ple in all calamities, is more present with them to support thera,
than their adversaries can be present with thera to affiict thera:
"A very present help in trouble," Psal. xlvi. 2. He is present
with all things for thisend: though his presence be a necessary
presence, in regard ofthe immensity of his nature; yet the end
of this presence, in regard that it is for the good of his people,
is a voluntary presence. It is for the good of man he is present
in the lower world, and principally for fhe good of his people,
for whose sake he keeps up the world, his eyes " run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the be
half of them whose heart is perfect towards him," 2 Chron.
xvi. 9. If he does not deliver good men frora afflictions, he
will be so present as to manage them, as that his glory shall
issue from their sufferings, and their grace be brightened by
them.' What a man was Paul when he was lodged in a prison, or
dragged to the courts of judicature! Avhen he was torn Avith
rods, or laden with chains! then did he show the greatest niira-
' Chrysostom. *

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 451
cles, made the judge tremble upon the bench, and brake the
heart, though not the prison, of the jailor; so powerful is the
presence of God in the pressures of his people. This presence
outAveighs all other comforts, and is more valuable to a Chris
tian than barns of corn or cellars of wine can be to a covetous
man, Psal. iv. 7. It was this presence was David's cordial in the
mutinying of his soldiers, 1 Sam. xxx. 6. What a corafort is
this in exile, or a forced desertion of our habitations ! Good
men may be banished from their country, but never from the
presence of their protector. Ye cannot say of any corner of the
earth, or of any dungeon in a prison, God is not here. If you
were cast out of your country one thousand miles off, you are
not out of God's precinct; his arm is there to cherish the good
as Avell as to drag out the wicked ; it is the same God, the same
presence in every country, as well as the same sun, moon, and
stars: and were not God every Avhere, yet he could not be
meaner than his creature, the sun in the firmament, Avhich
visits every part of the habitable world in twenty-four hours.
[3.] The omnipresence of God is a comfort in all duties of
worship. He is present to observe, and present to accept our
petitions, and answer our suits. Good men have not only the
essential presence, which is coramon to, all, but his gracious
presence ; not only the presence that flows from his nature, but
that which flows from his promise; his essential presence makes
no difference between this and that man in regard of spirituals,
without this in conjunction with it; his nature is the cause of
the presence of his essence ; his wfll, engaged by his truth, is
the cause of the presence of his grace. He promised to meet
the Iraelites in the place where he should set his name, and in
aU places where he does record it: "In all places where I re
cord my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee,"
Exod. XX. 24; in everyplace where I shall manifest the special
presence of my Divinity. In all places, hands may be lifted up,
without doubting of his abflity to hear; he dwells in the contrite
heart, wherever it is most in the exercise of contrition ; which is
usuaUy in times of special worship, Isa. Ivii. 15, and that fo revive
and refresh it. Habitation notes a special presence; though he
dweU in the highest heavens in the sparklings of his glory, he
dwells also in the lowest hearts in the beams of his grace: as
none can expel him from his dwelling in heaven ; so none can
eject him from his residence in the heart. The tabernacle
had his peculiar presence fixed to it, Lev. xxvi. 11; his soul
Avfll not abhor them as they are washed by Christ, though they
are loathsorae by sin. In a greater dispensation there cannot
be a less presence, since the church under the New Testaraent
is called the teraple of the Lord, wherein he wifl both dwell
and walk, 3 Cor. vi. 6: or, "I wifl indwefl in thera;" as if

452 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
he should say, I will dwell in and in them ; I wfll dwell in
them by grace, and walk in them by exciting their graces. He
wiU be more intimate with them than their own souls, and con
verse with them as the living God, that is, as a God that has
life in himself, and life to convey fo them in their converse with
him ; and shoAv his spiritual glory among them in a greater mea
sure than in the temple ; since that Avas but a heap of stones, and
the figure of the Christian Church, the mystical body of his
Son. His presence is not less in the substance than it Avas in
the shadow; this presence of God in his ordinances, is the glory
of a church, as the presence of a king is the glory of a court;
the defence of it too, as a wall of fire, Zech. ii. 5, alluding to
the fire travellers in a Avilderness made to fright aAvay wild
beasts. It is not the meanness of the place of Avorship can ex
clude him. The second temple was not so magnificent as the
first of Solomon's erecting; and the Jews seem to despond of
so glorious a presence of God in the second, as they had in the
first ; because they thought it not so good for the entertainment
of him that inhabits eternity; but God comforts thera against
this conceit again and again; "Be strong — be strong — be strong
— I ara wifh you," Hag. ii. 4; the meanness of the place shall
not hinder the grandeur of my presence. No matter what the
room is, so it be the presence-charaber of the King, wherein he
will favour our suits; he can every where slide into our souls
with a perpetual sweetness, since he is every where, and so inti
mate with every one that fears hira. If we should see God on
earth in his amiableness, as Moses did, should Ave not be en
couraged by his presence, to present our requests to him, to echo
out our praises of him. And have Ave not as great a ground
now to do it, since he is as really present with us, as ifhe were
visible to us? He is in the same room wifh us, as near to us as
our souls to our bodies; not a word but he hears, not a motion
but he sees, not a breath but he perceives; he is through aU;
he is in all.
[4.] The omnipresence of God is a corafort in all special ser
vices. God never puts any upon a hard task, but he makes
promises to encourage them and assist them ; and the matter
of fhe promise is that of his presence: so he did assure the pro
phets of old Avhen he set them difficult tasks: and strengthened
Moses against the face of Pharaoh, by assuring him he would
be with his mouth, Exod. iv. 12: and when Christ put his apos
tles upon a contest with the whole Avorld, to preach a gospel
that would be foolishness to the Greeks, and a stumbling-block
to fhe Jews; he gives them a cordial composed only ofhis pre
sence, I wUl be with you. Matt, xxvni. 20. It is this presence
scatters by its light the darkness of our spirits; it is this that is
the cause of what is done for his glory in the world; it is this

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 453
that mingles itself with afl that is done for his honour; it is this
from whence springs all the assistance of his creatures, marked
out for special purposes.
[5.] This presence is not without the special presence of all
his attributes. Where his essence is, his perfections are, because
they are one with his essence ; yea, they are his essence, though
they have their several degrees of manifestation. As in the
covenant, he makes over himself as our God, not a part of him
self, but his whole Deity; so in promising of his presence, he
means not a part of it, but the whole, the presence of all the
exceUericies of his nature to be manifested for our good. It is
not a piece of God is here, and another parcel there; but God
in his whole essence and perfections; in his wisdom to guide
us, his power to protect and support us, his raercy to pity us,
his fulness to refresh us, and his goodness to relieve us. He is
ready to sparkle out in this or that perfection, as the necessities
of his people require, and his own wisdom directs for his own
honour: so that being not far from us in any excellency of his
nature, we can quickly have recourse to hira upon any eraergency;
so that if we are raiserable, we have the presence of his good
ness ; if we want direction, we have the presence of his wis
dom; if we are weak, we have the presence ofhis power: and
should we not rejoice in it, as a man does in the presence of a
powerful, wealthy, and corapassionate friend?
Use (3.) For exhortation.
[1.] Let us be much in the actual thought of this truth. How
should we enrich our understandings with the knowledge of
the excellency of God, whereof this is none of the least; nor has
less of honey in its bowels, though it be more terrible to the
wicked than the presence of a lion. It is this that makes all other
excellencies of the Divine nature sweet. What would grace,
wisdom, power, signify at a distance frora us? Let us frame in
our minds a strong idea of it ; it is this raakes so great a differ
ence between the actions of one man and another; one main
tains actual thoughts of it, another does not, though all believe
¦It as a perfection pertaining to the infiniteness of his essence.
David, or rather a greater than David, had God ahvays before
him; there was no time, no occasion wherein he did not stir
up some lively thoughts of hira, Psal. xvi. 8. Let us have
right notions of it; imagine not God as a great King, sitting
only in his majesty in heaven; acting all by his servants and
ministers. This, saith one,' is a childish and unworthy conceit
of God, and may in tirae bring such a conceiver by degrees to
disny his providence. The denial of this perfection is an axe
at the root of religion ; if it be not deeply imprinted in the raind,
personal rehgion grows faint and feeble. Who would fear that
1 Musculus.

454 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
God that is not imagined to be a witness of his actions?, Who
would worship a God at a distance both frora the worship and
worshipper? ' Let us believe this truth, but not with an idle faith,
as if we did not believe it; let us know, that as wheresoever
the fish moves, it is in the water ; wheresoever the bird moves,
it is in the air; so wheresoever we move Ave are in God: as
there is not a moraent but we are under his mercy; so there is
not a moment that we are out of his presence. Let us there
fore look upon nothing, without thinking who stands by, with
out reflecting upon him in whom it lives, moves, and has its
being. When you vIcav a man, you fix your eyes upon his
body, but your mind upon that invisible part that acts every
member by life and motion, and makes them fit for your con
verse. Let us not bound our thoughts to the creatures we see,
but pierce through the creature to that boundless God we do
not see: we have continual remembrances of his presence, the
light whereby we see, and the air Avhereby we live, give us per
petual notices of it, and sorae weak reserablance : why should
we forget it? yea, what a sharae is our unraindfulness of it,
when every cast ofour eye, every motion ofour lungs, jogs us
to remember it ! Light is in every part of the air, in every part
of the Avorld, yet not mixed Avith any; both remain entire in
their own substance. Let us not be worse than some of the
heathen, who pressed this notion upon themselves for the spirit
ing their actions with virtue, That all places were full of God.^
This was the means Basil used to prescribe, upon a question
which was asked him, "How shall we do to be serious?"
"Mind God's presence." How shall we avoid distractions in
service? "Think of God's presence." How shall we resist
temptations ? Oppose to them the presence of God.
This will be a shield against all temptations. " God is pre
sent," is enough to blunt the Aveapons of hell: this Avill secure
us from a ready compliance with any base and vile attractives,
and curb that headstrong principle in our nature, that would
join hands with them; the thoughts of this would, like the pow
erful presence of God with the Israelites, take off the wheels
from the chariots of our sensitive appetites, and make them,
perhaps, more sIoav, at least towards a temptation. How did
Peter fling off the temptation Avhich had worsted him, upon a
loojc from Christ! The acted faith of this would stifle the darts
of Satan; and fire us with an anger against his solicitations,
as strong as the fire that inflames the darts. Moses's sight of
him that was invisible, strengthened him against the costly plea
sures and luxuries of a prince's court, Heb. xi. 27. We are
utterly senseless of a Deity, if we are not moved with this hint
frora pur conscience, "God is present." Had our first pa-
' Drexel. 2 Omnia Diis plena.

ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE. 455
rents actually considered the nearness of God to them, when
they were tempted to eat of the forbidden fruit, they had not
probably so easily been overcome by the temptation. What
soldier would be so base as to revolt under the eye of a tender
and obliging general? Or what man so negligent of himself, as
to rob a house in the sight of a judge? Let us consider, that
God is as near to observe us, as the devil to solicit us, yea nearer:
the devil stands by us, but God is in us ; we may have a thought
the devil knows not, but not a thought but God is actually pre
sent wflh, as our souls are with the thought they think; nor can
any creature attract our heart, if our minds Avere fixed on that
invisible presence that contributes to that excellency, and sus
tains it, and considered that no creature could be so present
with us as the Creator is.
It wiU be a spur to holy actions. What man would do an
unworthy action, or speak an unhandsome word, in the presence
ofhis prince? The eye of the general inflames the spirit of a
soldier. Why did David keep God's testimonies? because he
considered that all his ways were before him, Psal. cxix. 168;
because he was persuaded his ways were present with God,
God's precepts should be present with him. The same Avas the
cause of Job's integrity; "Does not he see my ways?" Job
xxxi. 4. To have God in our eye is the way to be sincere;
« Walk before me," as in my sight, " and be thou perfect,"
Gen. xvii. 1. Coraraunion with God consists chiefly in an or
dering our ways as in the presence of hira that is invisible.
This would raake us spiritual, raised, and Avatchful in all our
passions, if we considered that God is present with us in our
shops, in our chambers, in our walks, and in our meetings, as
present with us as Avith the angels in heaven; who though they
have a presence of glory above us; yet have not a greater mea
sure of his essential presence than we have. What an awe
had Jacob upon him when he considered God was present in
Bethel! Gen. xxvni. 16,17. If God should appear visibly fo
us when Ave were alone, shoifld we not be reverent and serious
before him! God is every where about us, he does encompass
us with his presence; should not God's seeing us have the same
influence upon us as our seeing God? He is not more essen
tially present if he should so manifest himself to us, than when
he does not. Who would appear besmeared in the presence of
a great person? or not be ashamed to be found in his chamber
in an indecent posture by some visitant? Would not a man
blush to be catched about sorae mean action, though it were not
an imraoral crime? If this truth were impressed upon our
spirits, Ave should blush more to have our souls daubed with
some loathsome lusts, swarms of sin, like Egyptian lice and
frogs, creeping about our heart in his sight. If the most sen-

456 ON GOD'S OMNIPRESENCE.
sual man be asharaed to do a dishonest action in the sight of a
grave and holy man, one of great reputation for wisdom and
integrity; how much more should we lift up ourselves in tbe
ways of God, who is infinite and iraraense,is every where, and
infinitely superior to man, and more to be regarded ! We could
not seriously think of his presence, but there would pass some
intercourse between us; we should be putting up some petition
upon the sense of our indigence ; or sending up our praises to
hira upon the sense ofhis bounty. The actual thoughts ofthe
presence of God is the life and spirit of all religion; we could
not have sluggish spirits, and a careless watch, if we considered
that his eye is upon us all the day.
It will quell distractions in worship. The actual thought of
this would establish our thoughts, and pull thera back when
they began to rove; the mind could not boldly give God the
slip, if it had: lively thoughts of it; the consideration of this
would blow off all the froth that lies on the top of our spirits.
An eye taken up with the pr^ence of one object, is not at lei
sure to be filled with another. : He that looks intently upon the
sun, shall have nothing for a whUe but the sun in his eye.
Oppose to every intruding thought the idea of the Divine om
nipresence, and put it to sUence by the awe of his majesty.
When the master is present, scholars mind their books, keep
their places, and run not over the fo.rras to play with one an
other. The raaster's eye keeps an idle servant to his work,
that otherwise would be gazing at everystraw, and prating to
every passenger. How soon would the reraerabrance of this
dash all extravagant fancies out of countepance! just as the
noAvs of the approach of a prince would-'make the courtiers
bustle up themselves, huddle up their vain sports, and prepare
themselves for a reverent behaviour in his sight. We should
not dare to give God a piece ofour heart, when we apprehend
hira present with the whole; we should not dare to mock one
that we knew was raore intiraately acquainted with us than
we are with ourselves, and that beheld every raotion of our
mind, as well as action of our body.
[2.] Let us endeavour for fhe more special and influential
presence of God. Let the essential presence of God be the
ground of our awe, and his gracious influential presence the
object of our desire. The heathen thought themselves secure
if they had their little petty household gods with thera in their
journeys. Such seera to he the images Rachel stole from her
father. Gen. xxxi. 19, to accompany her travel with their bless
ings. She might not at that tirae have cast off all respect to
those idols, in the acknowledgraent of which she had been
educated frora her infancy ; and they seera to have been kept
by her, till God called Jacob to Bethel, after the rape of Dinah,

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

457

when Jacob caUed for the strange gods, and hid them under the
oak. Gen. xxxv. 4. The gracious presence of God we should
look after in our actions, as travellers that have a charge of
money or jewels, desire to keep themselves in company that
may protect them from highwaymen that Avould rifle them.
Since we have the concern of the eternal happiness of our
souls upon our hands, we should endeavour to have God's
merciful and powerful presence with us in all our ways. " In
all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths,"
Prov. iii. 6; acknowledge him before any action, by imploring;
acknoAvledge him after, by rendering him the glory; acknow
ledge his presence before worship, in worship, after worship.
It is this presence makes a kind of heaven upon earth, causes
affliction to put off the nature of misery. How much will the
presence of the sun outshine the stars of lesser comforts, and
fully answer the want of them! The ark of God going before
us, can alone raake all things successful: it was this led the
Israelites over Jordan, and settled thera in Canaan. Without
this we signify nothing. Though we live without this, we
cannot be distinguished for ever from devUs; his essential pre
sence they have, and if we have no raore we shall be no better.
It is the enlivening, fructifying presence of the sun, that revives
the languishing earth; and this alone can repair our ruined
soul. Let it be therefore our desire, that as he fills heaven
and earth by his essence, he raay fill our understandings and
wUls by his grace; that we may have another kind of presence
with us, than animals have In their brutish state, or devils in
their chains: his essential presence maintains our beings, but
his gracious presence confers and continues a happiness.

DISCOURSE VIII.
ON god's knowledge.
Psalm cxtvii. 5. — Great is our Lord, and of great power : his understanding is
infinite.
It is uncertain who was the author of this psalm, and Avhen it
was penned; some think after the return from the Babylonish
captivity. It is' a psalm of praise, and is raade up of matter of
praise from 'the beginning to tbe end ; God's benefits to fhe
church, his providence over his creatures, the essential excel
lency of his nature.
The psalmist doubles his exhortation to praise God, " Praise
Vol. I.— 58

458 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
ye the Lord — sing praises to our God," ver. 1; to praise him
from his dominion as Lord; from his grace and mercy as our
God; from the excellency of the duty itself, it is good, it is
comely: some read it comely, sorae lovely or desirable, frora
the various derivation ofthe word.
Nothing does so ranch delight a gracious soul, as an oppor
tunity of celebrating the perfections and goodness of the Crea
tor. The highest duties a creature can render to the Creator are
pleasant and delightful in themselves; they are comely. Praise
is a duty that affects the Avhole soul.
The praise of God is a decent thing; the excellency of God's
nature deserves it, and the benefits of God's grace require it.
It is comely Avhen done as it ought to be, with the heart as
well as with the voice: a sinner sings ill though his voice be
good; the soul in it is to be elevated above earthly things.
The first matter of praise, is God's erecting and preserving
his church, " The Lord doth bufld up Jerusalem: he gathereth
together the outcasts of Israel," ver. 2. The walls of derao-
lished Jerusalera are now re-edified; God has brought back
tbe captivity of Jacob, and restored his people from their Baby
lonish exile, and those that were dispersed into strange regions
he has restored to their habitations. Or it may be prophetic
of the caUing of the gentiles, and the gathering the outcasts of
the spiritual Israel, that Avere before as without God in the
world, and strangers to the covenant of promise. Let God be
praised, but especially for building up his church, and gather
ing the gentiles, before counted as outcasts, lsa. xi. 12; he
gathers them in this world to the faith, and hereafter to glory.
From the two first verses observe.
All people are under God's care; but he has a particular re
gard to his church. This is the signet on his hand, as a brace
let upon his arm; thi^ is his garden which he delights to dress;
ifhe prunes if, it is to purge it; if he digs about his vine, and
wounds the branches, it is to make it more beautiful with new
clusters, and restore it to a fruitful vigour.
All great deliverances are to be ascribed to God, as the prin
cipal author, whosoever are the instruments. " The Lord
doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of
Israel." This great deliverance frora Babylon, is not to be
ascribed fo Cyrus or Darius, or the rest of our favourers; it is
theLord that does it; Ave had his proraise for if, we have now
bis performance. Let us not ascribe that which is the effect of
his truth, only to the good wfll of men: it is God's act; not by
might, nor by power, nor by AVeapons of Avar or strength of
horses, but by the Spirit of the Lord. He sent prophets to cora
fort us whfle we were exfles ; and now he has stretched out his

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

459

own arm to work our deliverance, according to his Avord.
Blind man looks so much upon instruments, that he hardly
takes notice of God, either in afflictions or mercies, and this is
the cause that robs God of so much prayer and praise in the
world. " He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their
wounds," ver. 3. He has now restored those who had no hope
but in his word; he has dealt with them as a tender and skilful
Surgeon; he has applied his curing plasters, and dropped in his
sovereign balsams; he has now furnished our fainting hearts
with refreshing cordials, and comforted our wounds with
strengthening ligatures.
How gracious is God, that restores liberty to the captives,
and righteousness to the penitent! Man's misery is the fittest
opportunity for God to make his mercy illustrious in itself, and
most welcome to the patient.
He proceeds.^Wonder not that God calls together the out
casts, and singles them out from every corner, for a return ; why
can he not do this, as well as tell the number of the stars, and
call them all by their names? ver. 4.
There are none ofhis people so despicable in the eye of raan,
but they are known and regarded by God; though they are
clouded in the Avorld, yet they are the stars of the Avorld; and
shall God number the inanimate stars in the heavens, and make
no account of his living stars on the earth? No, wherever they
are dispersed he will not forget them, however they are affiicted
he will not despise them: the stars are so numerous, that they
are innumerable by man ; some are visible and known by men,
others lie more hid and undiscovered in a confused light, as
those in the milky-way; man cannot see one of them distinctly.
God knows all his people. As he can do what is above the
power of man to perform, so he understands what is above the
skill of man to discover; shall man measure God by his scanti
ness? Proud man must not equal himself to God, nor cut God
as short as his own line.
"He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by
their names." He has them all in his list, as generals the namL«^
of their soldiers in their muster-roll, for they are his host, whiih
he marshals in the heavens, as Isa. xl. 26, where you have'th^
like expression; he knows them more distinctly than man can
know any thing, and so distinctly as to call them all by their
names. He knows their names, that is, their natural offices, influ-f
ences, the different degrees of heat and light, their order and mo^
tion; and all of thera, the least glimmering star as well as the
most glaring planet. This man cannot do ; " Tell the stars, if
thou be able to number thera," Gen. xv. 5, says God to Abra
ham (whom Josephus represents as a great astronomer:) yea.

460 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
they cannot be numbered, Jer. xxxiu. 22; and the uncertainty
of the opinions of men, evidences their ignorance of their num
ber; some reckoning one thousand and twenty-two, others one
thousand and twenty-five, others one thousand and ninety-eight,
others seven thousand, besides those that, by reason of their
mixture of light with one another, cannot be distinctly discerned,
and others perhaps so high, as not to be reached by the eye of
man. To impose names on things, and names according to
their natures, is both an argument of power and dominion, and
of wisdora and understanding: from the imposition of names
upon the creatures by Adam, the knowledge of Adam is gene
rally concluded, and it was also a fruit of that dominion God
allowed him over the creatures. Now he that nurabers and
naraes the stars that seem to lie confused among one another,
as well as those that appear to us in an unclouded night, may
well be supposed accurately to know his people, though lurking
in secret caverns, and know those that are fit to be instruments
of their deliverance ; the one is as easy to him as the other ; and
the number ofthe one as distinctly known by him as the multi
tude of the other.
For "great is our Lord, and of great power: his understand-
standing is infinite," ver. 5. He wants not knowledge to know
the objects, nor power to effect his will concerning them. Of
great power. Much po-wer, plenteous in power; so this word
is rendered, Psal. Ixxxvi. 15. A multitude of power, as well
as a multitude of mercy; a power that exceeds all created
power and understanding.
" His understanding is infinite." You may not imagine
hoAV he can call the stars by name; the multitude of visible
being so great, and the multitude of the invisible being greater;
but you must know, that as God is almighty, so he is omni
scient; and as there is no end of his power, so no account can
exactly be given of his understanding. "His understanding is
infinite;" no number or account of it, and so the same words
are rendered Joel i. 6. " A nation — strong, and without num
ber:" no end of his understanding, [Syriac,) no measure, no
bounds. His essence is infinite, and so is his power and under
standing: so vast is his knowledge, that we can no more com
prehend it than we can measure spaces that are without limits,
or tell the minutes or hours of eternity. Who then can fathom
that whereof there is no number, but which exceeds all, so
that there is no searching of it out? He knows universals, he
knows particulars. We raust not take understanding here as
noting a faculty, but the use of the understanding in the know
ledge of things, and the judgment in the consideration of them:
and so it is often used.
In the verse there is a description of God — In his essence.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. ^gj
"great is the Lord." — In his power, "of great power."  In
his knowledge, " his understanding is infinite ;" his understand
ing is his eye, and his power is his arra. — Of his infinfle under
standing I am to discourse.
Doctrine. God has an infinite knowledge and understand
ing: all knbwledge. Omnipresence, which before we spake
of, respects his essence ; omniscience respects his understand
ing, according to our manner of conception.
This is clear in Scripture; hence God is called a God of
knowledge, 1 Sara. fl. 3. " The Lord is a God of knowledge,"
(Heb.) knowledges, in the plural number, of all kind of know
ledge. It is spoken there to quell man's pride in his own rea
son and parts. What is the knowledge of man but a spark to
the whole element of fire, a grain of dust, and worse than
nothing in coraparison of the knowledge of God, as his essence
is in comparison of the essence of God? All kind of know
ledge. He knows what angels know, what man knows, and
infinitely more; he knows himself, his OAvn operations, all his
creatures, the notions and thoughts of them; he is understand
ing above understanding, mind above mind, the Mind of minds,
the Light of lights: this the Greek word ©eJs signifies in the
etymology of it; of @s7a9at, to see, to contemplate; and Sal/ii^v,
of Saiu, scio. The names of God signify a nature viewing and
piercing all things; and the attributing of our senses to God in
Scripture, as hearing and seeing, which are the senses whereby
knowledge enters into us, signifies God's knowledge.
The notion of God's knowledge of all things lies above the
ruins of nature; it was not obliterated by the faU of man. It
was necessary that offending man should know that he had a
Creator whom he had injured, that he had a Judge to try and
punish him; since God thought fit to keep up the world, it had
been kept up to no purpose, had not this notion been continued
alive in the rainds of raen; there would not have been any
practice of his laws, no bar to fhe Avorst of criraes. If raen
had thought they had to deal with an ignorant Deity, there
could be no practice of religion. Who would lift up his eyes
or spread his hand towards heaven, if he imagined his devo
tion were directed to a God as blind as the heathen imagined
fortune ? To what boot would it be for them to make heaven
and earth resound Avith their cries, if they had not thought God
had an eye to see them, and an ear to hear them ? And indeed
the very notion of a God at the first blush, speaks him a Being
endued with understanding; no man can imagine a creator
void of one of the noblest perfections belonging to those crea
tures that are the flower and cream of his works.
Therefore aU nations acknowledge this, as well as the exist
ence and being of God. No nation but had their temples.

462 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
particular ceremonies of worship, and presented their sacrifices,
which they could not have been so vain as to do without an
acknowledgment of this attribute. This notion of God's know
ledge owed not its rise to tradition, but to natural implantation;
it was born and grew up wifh every rational creature. Though
the several nations and men of the world agreed not in one
kind of Deity, or in their sentiments ofhis nature or other per
fections, some judging him clothed with a fine and pure body,
others judging him an uncompounded Spirit; some fixing hira
to a seat in the heavens, others owning his universal presence
in all parts of the world, yet they all agreed in the universality
of his knowledge: and their own consciences reflecting their
crimes, unknown to any but themselves, Avould keep this notion
in some vigour whether they would or not. Now this being
implanted in the minds of all men by nature, cannot be false;
for nature imprints not in the minds of all men an assent to a
falsify. Nature Avould not pervert the reason and minds of
men: universal notions of God are from original, not lapsed
nature, and preserved in mankind in order fo a restoration from
a lapsed state. The heathen did acknowledge this:' in all the
solemn covenants, solemnized with oaths and the invocation of
the narae of God, this attribute was supposed. They confessed
knoAvledge to be peculiar to the Deity; Scieniia deorum vita,
"Knowledge is the life of the gods," says Cicero. Some called
him Nas, Mens, Mind, pure understanding, without any mote;
'Esrortrj^s, the Inspector of all. As they called hira Life, be
cause he was the Author of life; so they called hira Intellectus,
because he was the Author of aU knowledge and understand
ing in his creatures. And one being asked, whether any man
could be hid from God? No, says he, not so much as thinking.
Some call him the Eye ofthe world,= and the Egyptians repre
sented God by an eye on the top of a sceptre, beeause God is
all eye, and can be ignorant of nothing.
And the same nation made eyes and ears of the most excel
lent metals, consecrating them to God, and hanging them up in
the midst of their temples, in signification of God's seeing and
hearing all things; hence they called God Light, as well as the
Scripture, because all things are visible to him.
For the better understanding of this, we will inquire — What
kind of knowledge or understanding there is in God — What God
knows— How God knows things — The proof that God knows
all things — The use of all to ourselves.
1. What kind of understanding or knowledge there is in
God? 1 Agamemnon, making a covenant with Priam, invocates the sun;
'H£>.'os o{ TiiUvt^ l^opcis xai Ticrnt' IsraxSEt;. — Homer 11. 3. v. 6.
2 Gamach. in 1 Pa. Aqui. q. 14. cap. 1. p. 119. Clem. Alexand. Strom. Ub. 6.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

463

The knowledge of God in Scripture has various names,
according fo the various relations or objects of it: in respect of
present things, it is called knowledge or sight; in respect of
things past, reraembrance; in respect of things future or to
corae, it is called foreknowledge or prescience, 1 Pet. i. 2. In
regard of the universality of the objects, it is called omniscience;
in regard of the simple understanding of things, it is called
knoAvledge; in regard of acting, and modelling the ways of act
ing, it is called wisdom and prudence, Eph. i. 8. He must have
knowledge, otherwise he could not be wise; wisdom is the
flower of knowledge, and knowledge is fhe root of Avisdom.
As to what this knowledge is; if we know Avhat knowledge
is in man, we may apprehend what it is in God, removing all
iraperfection frora it, and ascribing to him the most eminent
way of understanding, because we cannot comprehend God
but as he is pleased to condescend to us in his own ways of
discovery, that is, under some way of simihtude to his most
perfect creatures. Therefore Ave have a notion of God by his
understanding and will; understanding, whereby he conceives
and apprehends things; will, whereby he extends himself in
acting according to his wisdom, and Avhereby he does approve
Or disapprove. Yet we raust not raeasure his understanding by
our own, or think it to be of so gross a temper as a created
mind; that he has eyes of flesh, or sees or knoAvs as man sees.
Job X. 4. We can no more measure his knowledge by ours,
than we can measure his essence by our essence: as he has an
incomprehensible essence, to which ours is but as a drop of a
bucket; so he has an incomprehensible knowledge, to Avhich
ours is but as a grain of dust, or mere darkness: his thoughts
are above our thoughts, as the heavens are above the earth.
The knowledge of God is variously divided by the schools,
and acknowledged by all divines.
(1.) A knowledge vi.nonis, et simplicis inteUigentise: the
one we may call a sight, the other an xmderstanding; fhe one
refers to a sense, the other to fhe mind.
A knowledge oi vision or sight, — Thus God knoAVS hiraself,
and all things that really were, are, or shall be in time ; all
those things which he hath decreed to be, though they are not
yet actually sprung up in the world, but lie hidden in their
causes. A knoAvledge of intelligence or simple understanding. —
The object of this is not things that are in being, or that shall
by any decree of God ever be existent in fhe world; but such
things as are possible to be wrought by the power of God,
though they shall never in the least peep up into being, but lie
for ever wrapped up in darkness and nothing. ' This also is a
' Suarez de Deo, lib. 3. cap. 4. p. 230.

464 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
necessary knowledge to be allowed to God, because the object
of this knowledge is necessary. The possibility of raore crea
tures than ever were or shall be, is a conclusion that has a ne
cessary truth in it ; as it is necessary that the power of God
can produce more creatures, though it be not necessary that it
should produce more creatures; so it is necessary that whatso
ever the power of God can work, is possible to be. And as
God knows this possibility, so he knows all the objects that are
thus possible ; and herein doth much consist the infiniteness of
his knowledge, as shall be shown presently.
These two kinds of knowledge differ. That of vision, is of
things Avhich God hath decreed to be, though they are not yet.
That of intelligence, is of things which never shall be; yet they
raay be, or are possible to be, if God please to will and order
their being. One respects things that shall be; the other,
things that raay be, and are not repugnant to the nature of God
to be. The knowledge of vision follows the act of God's Avill,
and supposes an act of God's wfll before, decreeing things to
be. If we could suppose any first or second in God's decree,
we might say God knew them as possible before he decreed
them; he knew thera as future because he decreed thera. For
without the will of God decreeing a thing to come to pass, God
cannot know that it will infallibly corae to pass. But the
knoAvledge of intelligence stands without any act ofhis will, in
order to the being of those things he knows: he knows possi
ble things only in his poAver; he knoAvs other things both in
his power, as able to effect thera, and in his wfll, as determin
ing the being of them. Such knowledge we must grant to be
in God, for there is such a kind of knowledge in man; for raan
does not only know and see what is before his eyes in this
world, but he raay have a conception of raany more worlds,
and many more creatures, which he knows are possible to the
power of God.
(2.) Secondly, There is a speculative and jorac^icaJ know
ledge in God.
A speculative knowledge is, when the truth of a thing is
known without a respect to any working or practical operation.
The knowledge of things possible is in God only speculative; '
and sorae say God's knowledge of himself is only speculative,
because there is nothing for God to Avork in himself And
though he knows himself, yet this knowledge of himself does
not terminate there, but flows into a love of himself, and de
light in hiraself; yet this love of hiraself, and delight in hiraself,
are not enough to make it a practical knowledge, because it is
natural, and naturally and necessarily flows from the know
ledge of himself and his own goodness: he cannot but love
' Suarez de Deo, lib. 3. cap. 4. p. 138.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. ^gc
himself, and delight in himself, upon the knowledge of himself
But that which is properly practice, is where there is a domi
nion over the action, and it is wrought not naturally and neces
sarily, «but in a way of freedom and counsel. As when we see
a beautiful flower or other thing, there arises a delight in the
mind; this no man will call practice, because it is a natural
affection ofthe wfll, arising from the virtue ofthe object, Avith
out any consideration of the understanding in a practical man
ner by counselling, commanding, &c.
K practical knowledge, Avhich tends to operation and prac
tice, and is the principle of working about things that are
known ; as the knoAvledge an artificer has in an art or mystery.
This knowledge is in God. The knowledge he has of the
things he has decreed, is such a kind of knowledge ; for it ter
minates in the act of creation, which is not a natural and neces
sary act, as the loving himself and delighting in himself is, but
wholly free; for it was at his hberty whether he would create
them or not: this is called discretion, " He hath stretched out
the heavens by his discretion," Jer. x. 12. Such also is his
knowledge of the things he has created, and which are in being,
for it terminates in the government of them for his own glori
ous ends. It is by this knowledge " the depths are broken up,
and the clouds drop down the dew," Prov. iii. 20. This is
a knowledge whereby he knows the essence, qualities, and
properties of what he creates and governs in order to his own
glory, and the common good of the world over which he pre
sides. So that speculative knowledge is God's knowledge of
hiraself and things possible, practical knowledge is his know
ledge of his creatures and things governable; yet in some sort
this practical knowledge is not only of things that are made,
but of things which are possible, which God might make,
though he Avill not; for as he knows that they can be created,
so he knows how they are to be created, and how to be
governed, though he never wfll create them. This is a practi
cal knowledge; for it is not requisite to constitute a knoAvledge
practically, actually to act, but that the knowledge in itself be
referable to action.'
(3.) There is a knoAvledge of approbation, as weU as appre
hension. This the Scripture often mentions: words of under
standing are used to signify the acts of affection. This know
ledge adds to the simple act of the understanding, the compla
cency and pleasure of the Avill; and is improperly knowledge:
because it belongs to the will and not to the understanding,
only it is radically in the understanding, because affection im
plies knowledge; men cannot approve of that which they are
ignorant of Thus knowledge is taken, Amos iu. 2, "You only
1 Suarez de Deo, 1. 3. c. 4. p, 140.
Vol. I.— 59

466 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
have I known of afl the famUies ofthe earth." And 2 Tim. ii.
19, "The Lord knoweth them that are his;" that is, he loves
them, he does not only know them, but acknowledges them for
his own: it denotes not only an exact understanding, but a special
care of them. And so is that to be understood. Gen. i. 31.
" God saw every thing that he had raade, and, behold, it was
very good ;" that is he saw it with an eye of approbation, as well
as apprehension. This is grounded upon God's knowledge of
vision, his sight of his creatures; for God does not love or de
light in any thing but what is actuaUy in being, or what he
has decreed to bring into being. On the contrary, also when
God does not approve, he is said not to know: "I know you
nof," Matt. xxv. 12; and, "I never knew you," Matt. vii. 23.
He does not approve of their works: it is not an ignorance of
understanding, but an ignorance of wUl: for while he says he
never kneAv thera, he testifies that he did know them in ren
dering the reason of his disapproving them — ^because he knows
all their works. So he knows them and does not know them,
in a different manner: he knows thera so as to understand
thera, but he does not know them so as to love them.
We must then ascribe a universal knowledge to God. If we
deny him a speeulative knowledge, or knowledge of intelli
gence, we destroy his Deity, we make hira ignorant ofhis own
power: if we deny hira practical knowledge, we deny ourselves
to be his creatures; for as his creatures, we are the fruits of this
his discretion discovered in creation: if we deny his knowledge
of vision, we deny his governing dominion. How can he ex
ercise a sovereign and uncontrollable dominion, that is igno
rant of the nature and qualities of the things he is fo govern ?
Ifhe had not knowledge he could make no revelation; he that
knows not, cannot dictate; we could then have no Scripture.
To deny God knoAvledge, is to dash out the Scripture, and de
molish the Deity.
God is described in Zech. iii. 9, with seven eyes, to show his
perfect knowledge of all things, all occurrences in the world:
and the cherubim, or whatsoever is raeant by the wings, are
described f o be full of eyes, both before and behind, Ezek. i. IS,
round about thera; much more is God all eye, all ear, all un
derstanding. The sun is a natural image of God: if the sun had
an eye, it Avould see; if it had an understanding, it would know
all visible things ; it would see what it shines upon, and un
derstand Avhat it influences in the most obscure bowels of the
earth. Does God exc^l his creature the sun in excellency and
beauty, and not in light and understanding? Certainly, more
than the sun excels an atom or grain of dust.
We raay yet raake some representation of this knowledge of
God by a loAver thing; a picture, Avhich seems to look upon

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

467

every one, though there be never so great a multitude in the
room where it hangs; no man can cast his eye upon it, but it
seeras to behold hira in particular, and so exactly as if there
were none but hira upon Avhora the eye of it Avere fixed; and
every man finds the sarae cast ofit. Shall art frarae a thing of
that nature, and shall not the God of art and all knoAvledge be
much more in reality than that is in imagination? Shall not
God have a far greater capacity to behold every thing in the
Avorld, Avhich is infinitely less to him than a wide room to a
picture ?
2. The second thing is, Avhat God knows : how far his un
derstanding reaches.
(I.) God knows himself, and he only knows hiraself This
is the first and original knoAvledge, wherein he excels all crea
tures. No raan does exactly knoAv himself; much less does he
understand the full nature of a spirit; much less stUl the nature
and perfections of God; for what proportion can there be be
tween a finite faculty and an infinite object ? Herein consists
the infiniteness of God's knoAvledge, that he knows his oavu
essence, that he knows that which is unknowable to any else.
It does not so much consist in knowing the creature which he
has made, as in knowing himself who was never made. It is
not so much infinite, because he knows all things which are in
the world, or that shall be; or things that he can make, because
the number of them is finite ; but because he has a perfect and
comprehensive knowledge of his own infinite perfections.'
Though it be said that angels see his face, Matt, xviii. 10, that
sight denotes rather their immediate attendance than their exact
knowledge; they see some signs of his presence and majesty,
more illustrious and express than ever appeared to raan in this
life ; but the essence of God is invisible to them, hid from them
in the secret place of eternity: none knows God but himself,
" What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of
man which is in hira ; even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirfl of God," 1 Cor. fl. 11. The Spirfl of God
searches the deep things of God; searches, that is, exactly
knows, thoroughly understands, as those who have their eyes
in every chink and crevice, to see what lies hid there: the word
search, notes not an inquiry, but an exact knowledge, such as
men have of things upon a dihgent scrutiny; as when God is
said to search the heart and the reins, it does not signify a pre
cedent ignorance, but an exact knowledge of the most intimate
corners of the hearts of men. As the conceptions of men are
unknown to any but themselves; so the depths of the Divine
essence, perfections, and decrees, are unknown to any but to
• Moulin.

468 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
God himself; he only knows what he is, and what he knoAVS,
what he can do, and what he has decreed to do.
If God did not know hiraself, he would not be perfect. It
is the perfection of a creature to know itself, much more a per
fection belonging to God. If God did not comprehend himself,
he would want an infinite perfection, and so would cease to be
God, in being defective in that which intellectual creatures in
some measure possess. As God is the most perfect Being, so
he must have the most perfect understanding: if he did not
understand himself, he Avould be under the greatest ignorance,
because he would be ignorant of the most excellent object.
Ignorance is the imperfection of the understanding; and igno
rance of oneself is a greater imperfection than ignorance of
things without. If God should know all things Avithout himself,
and not know himself, he would not have the most perfect
knoAvledge, because he would not have the knowledge of the
best of objects.
Without the knowledge of himself, he could not be blessed.
Nothing can have any complacency in itself, without the know
ledge of itself Nothing can in a rational manner enjoy itself,
Avithout understanding itself. The blessedness of God consists
not in the knowledge of any thing without him, but in the
knowledge of himself and his own excellency, as the principle
of all things. If, therefore, he did not perfectly knoAV himself
and his own happiness, he could not enjoy happiness; for to be,
and not to know to be, is as if a thing were not. He is " God
blessed for ever," Rom. ix. 5, and therefore for ever had a
knowledge of himself.
Without the knowledge of himself he could create nothing.
For he would be ignorant of his own power, and his own abi
lity; and he that does not know how fay his power extends,
could not act. If he did not know himself, he could know no
thing; and he that knows nothing, can do nothing. He could
not know an effect to be possible to him, unless he knew his
OAvn power as a cause.
Without the knowledge of himself, he could govern nothing.
He could not without the knoAvledge of his oAvn holiness and
righteousness, prescribe laws to men ; nor without a knowledge
of his own nature, order himself a manner of AVorship suitable
to fl.
All worship must be congruous to the dignity and nature of
the object worshipped; he must therefore know his own
authority Avhereby Avorship Avas to be enacted, his own excel
lency to which worship was to be suited, his own glory to
which worship was to be directed. Ifhe did not know himself,
he did not knoAV what to punish, because he would not know
what Avas contrary to himself Not knowing himself, he would

ON GOD'S KNQWLEDGE. 4g9
not know Avhat was a contempt of him, and what an adoration
of him; Avhat was worthy of God, and what was unworthy of
him. In fine, he could not know other things unless he knew
himself: unless he knew his own power, he could not know how
he created things; unless he knew his own wisdom, he could
not know the beauty of his works; unless he knew his own
glory, he could not know the end of his works; unless he knew
his own holiness, he could not know what was evil; and unless
he knew his oAvn justice, he could not know how to punish the
crimes of his offending creatures. And therefore,
God knows himself, because his knowledge with his wfll is the
cause of all other things that can fall under his cognizance. He
knows himself first, before he can know any other thing, that is,
first according to our conceptions; for indeed God knows himself
and all other things at once: he is the first truth, and therefore
is the first object ofhis own understanding. There is nothing
more exceUent than himself, and therefore nothing more known
to him than himself As he is all knowledge, so he has in him
self the most excellent object of knowledge. To understand is
properly to know oneself No object is so inteUigible to God
as God is to himself; nor so intiraately and iraraediately joined
with his understanding as himself; for his understanding is his
essence, himself
He knows himself by his own essence. He knows not him
self and his OAvn poAver by the effect, because he knows himself
from eternity, before there was a Avorld, or any effect of his
power extant. It is not a knoAvledge by the cause, for God has
no cause; nor a knowledge of himself by any species, or any
thing from without. If it were any thing from without himself,
that must be created or uncreated : if uncreated, it would be
God; and so we must either own many Gods, or own it to be
his essence, and so not distinct from hiraself If created, then
his knowledge of hiraself Avould depend upon a creature ; he
could not then know himself from eternity, but in time, because
nothing can be created from eternity, but in time. God knows
not himself by any faculty, for there is no composition in God;
he is not made up of parts, but is a simple being: some therefore
have caUed God, not intellectus, understanding, because that
savours of a faculty; but intellectio, intellection. God is all act
in the knowledge of himself, and his knowledge of other things.
God therefore knows himself perfectly, comprehensively.
Nothing in his own nature is concealed from him, he reflects
upon every thing that he is.' There is a positive comprehen
sion: in this does God not comprehend himself; for what is
comprehended has bounds, and what sura is comprehended by
itself is finfle, to itself And there is a negative comprehension:
1 Magalancus.

470 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
God so comprehends himself; nothing in his own nature is ob
scure to him, unknown by him. For there is as great a perfec
tion in the understanding of God to know, as there is in the
Divine nature to be known. The understanding of God, and
the nature of God, are both infinite, and so equal to one another:
his understanding is equal to himself; he knows himself so well,
that nothing can be known by him more perfectly than himself is
known to himself He knows himself in the highest manner,
because nothing is proportioned to the understanding of God
as hiraself: he knows his own essence, goodness, power, all his
perfections, decrees, intentions, acts, the infinite capacity ofhis
own understanding, so that nothing of hiraself is in the dark to
himself And in this respect some use this expression, that the
infiniteness of God is in a manner finite to himself, because it
is coraprehended by himself
Thus God transcends all creatures; thus his understanding is
truly infinite, because nothing but himself is an infinite object
for it. What angels may understand of themselves perfectly, I
know not; but no creature in the world understands himself;
man understands not fuUy the excellency and parts ofhis own
nature. Upon God's knowledge of himself depends the com
fort of his people, and the terror of fhe wicked: this is also a
clear argument for his knoAvledge of all other things without
hiraself; he that knows hiraself, must needs know all other
things, which are less than hirnself, and which Avere made by
himself When the knowledge of his own imraensity and infi
niteness is not an object too difficult for hira; the knowledge of
a finite and hmited creature in all his actions, thoughts, circum
stances, cannot be too hard for him. Since he knows himself
who is infinite, he cannot but know whatsoever is finite ; this is
the foundation of all his other knowledge; the knowledge of
every thing present, past, and to come, is far less than the know
ledge of himself He is more incomprehensible in his own na
ture, than all things created, or that can be created, put together
can be. If he then have a perfect comprehensive knowledge
of his oAvn nature, any knowledge of all other things is less than
the knowledge of himself: this ought to be well considered by
us, as the fountain whence all his other knowledge floAvs.
(2.) Therefore God knows all other things, whether they be
possible, past, present, or future.
Whether they be things that he can do, but will never do,
or Avhether they be things that he has done, but are not now;
things that are now in being, or things that are not now exist
ing, that lie in the Avomb of their proper and iraraediate causes;^
if his understanding be infinfle, he then knows all things
whatsoever that can be known, else his understanding would
' Petav. Theol. Dogm. lib. q. 257.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. ^«1
have bounds, and what has hmits is not infinite, but finite ; if
he be ignorant of any one thing that is knowable, that is a
bound to hira, it comes with an exception, a "but;" God
knows all things but this; a bar is then set on his knowledge.
If there were any thing, any particular circumstance in the
whole creation, or non-creation, and possible to be known by
him, and yet were unknown to him, he could not be said to be
omniscient; just as he would not be alraighty if any one thing
that implied not a repugnancy to his nature, did transcend his
povver. [1.] First, all things possible. No question but God knows
what he could create as well as what he has created; what he
would not create, as well as what he resolved to create; he
knew what he would not do, before he Avilled to do it: this is
tVie next thing which declares the infiniteness of his understand
ing. For as his power is infinite, and can create innumerable
Avorlds and creatures, so is his knowledge infinite, in knowing
innumerable things possible to his poAver. Possibles are infinite;
that is, there is no end of what God can do, and therefore no end
of what God does knoAV, otherwise his power would be more
infinite than his knowledge. If he knew only what is created,
there would be an end of his understanding, because all crea
tures may be numbered, but possible things cannot be reckon
ed up by any creature. There is the same reason of this in.
eternity; Avhen never so many numbers of years are run out,
there is still more to come, there still wants an end; and when
raiUions of Avorlds are created, there is no raore an end of God's
power than of eternity. Thus there is no end of his under
standing; that is, his knowledge is not terrainated by anything.
This the Scripture gives us some account of God knows
things that are not, " for he calls things that are not, as if they
were," Rom. iv. 17. He calls things that are not, as if they Avere
in being; what he caUs is not unknown to him. If he knows
things that are not, he knows things that may never be: as he
knows things that shall be, because he wflls thera, so he knows
things that raight be, [because he is able to effect thera. He
knew that the inhahitants of Keflah Avould betray David to
Saul, if he remained in that place, 1 Sam. xxiii. 11. He knew
what they would do upon that occasion, though it was never
done; as he knew what was in their power and in their wills,
so he must needs know what is within the compass of his own
power: as he can permit more than he does permit, so he knoAVS
what he can permit, and what upon that permission would be
done by his creatures: so God knew the possibUity of the
Tyrians' repentance, if they had the same means, heard the
same truths, and beheld the sarae miracles which were offered
to the ears, and presented to the eyes ofthe Jews, Matt. xi. 21.

472 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
This must needs be so; because,
Man knows things that are possible to him, though he Avill
never effect them. A carpenter knoAvs a house in the model
he has of it in his head, though he never build a house accord
ing to that model: a watchmaker has fhe frame of a watch in
his mind, which he will never Avork with his instruments: man
knows what he could do, though he never intends to do it. ' As
the understanding of man has a virtue, that where it sees one
man it may iraagine thousands of men of the same shape,
stature, form, parts; yea, taller, more vigorous, sprightly, intel
ligent than the man he sees, because it is possible such a num
ber may be; shall not the understanding of God much more
knoAv what he is able to effect, since the understanding of man
can know what he is never able to produce, yet may be pro
duced by God, namely, that he who produced this man which
I see, can produce a thousand exactly like him? If the Divine
understanding did not know infinite things, but Avere confined
to a certain number, it may be demanded whether God can
understand any thing further than that number, or whether he
cannot? If he can, then he does actually understand all those
things which he has a power to understand : otherwise there
would be an increase of God's knowledge, if it were actually
now and not before, and so he Avould be more perfect than he
Avas before. If he cannot understand them, then he cannot
understand what a human mind can understand; for our un
derstandings can multiply nurabers in infinitum; and there is
no number so great, but a raan can stiU add to it: we raust sup
pose the Divine understanding more exceUent in knowledge.
God knows all that a man can imagine, though it never were,
and never shall be; he must needs know whatsoever is in the
power of man to imagine or think, because God concurs fo the
support of the faculty in that imagination: and though it may
be replied, an atheist may imagine that there is no God, a man
may imagine that God can lie, or that he can be destroyed, does
God know therefore that he is not? or that he can lie, or cease
to be? No, he knows he cannot; his knoAvledge extends to
things possible, not to things impossible to himself; he knows
it as imaginable by man, not as possible in itself; because it is
utterly impossible, and repugnant to the nature of God :^ since
he eminently contains in himself all things possible, past, pre
sent, and to corae, he cannot know himself without knowing
them. God knowing his own power, knows whatsoever is in his
poAver to effect. If he knows not aU things possible, he could
not know the extent of his own power, and so would not
know himself, as a cause sufficient for more things than he has
' Ficin. do Immort. lib. 9. cap. 10. s Gamach.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

473

created. How can he comprehend himself, who comprehends
not all effiuxes of things possible that may come from him and
be wrought by hira? How can he know hiraself as a cause, if
he know not the objects and works which he is able to pro
duce?' Since the power of God extends to numberless things,
his knowledge also extends to numberless objects; as if a unit
could see the numbers it could produce, it would see infinite
numbers; for a unit is, as it were, all number. God knowing
the fruitfulness of his own virtue, knows a numberless multi
tude of things which he can do, more than have been done, or
shall be done by hira; he therefore knoAvs innumerable worlds,
innumerable angels, with higher perfections than any of them
which he has created have; so that if the world should last
many millions of years, God knows that he can every day
create another world more capacious than this; and having
created an inconceivable number, he knows he could still create
more. So that he beholds infinite worlds, infinite nurabers of
men and other creatures in himself, infinite kinds of things, in
finite species and individuals under those kinds, even as many
as he can create, if his will did order and determine it; for not
being ignorant ofhis own power, he cannot be ignorant of the
effects wherein it may display and discover itself A compre
hensive knowledge of his own poAver does necessarily include
the objects of that power; so he knows whatsoever he could
effect, and whatsoever he could permit, if he pleased to do it.
If God could not understand more than he has created, he
could not create more than he has created; for it cannot be
conceived how he can create any thing that he is ignorant of;
what he does not know, he cannot do: he must know also the
extent ofhis own goodness, and how far any thing is capable to
partake ofit: so much, therefore, as any detract from the know
ledge of God, they detract from his power.
It is further evident that God knows all possible things, be
cause he kncAV those things which he has created before they
were created, when they were yet in a possibility. If God
knew things before they were created, he knew them when
they were in a possibUity, and not in actual reality. It is ab
surd to imagine that his understanding did lackey after the
creatures, and draw knowledge from them affer,^they were
created. It is absurd to think that God did create before he
knew what he could or would create. Ifhe knew those things
he did create when they were possible, he must know all
things which he can create, and therefore aU things that are
possible. To conclude this; we must consider that this knowledge is
of another kind than his knowledge of things that are or shall
' Ficin. de Immort. lib. 9. cap, 10.
Vol. I.— 60

474 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
be. He sees possible things as possible, not as things that ever
are or shaU be. If he saw them as existing or future, and they
shall never be, this knowledge would be false; there would be
a deceit in it, Avhich cannot be. He knows those things not in
themselves, because they are not, nor in their causes, because
they shall never be: he knows them in his oavu power, not in
his will. He understands thera, as able to produce them, not
as willing to effect them. Things possible he knows only in
his power, things future he knows both in his power and his
wfll, as he is both able and determined in his own good plea
sure to give being to them. Those that shall never corae to
pass, he knows only in hiraself, as a sufficient cause; those
things that shall come into being, he knows in himself as the
efficient cause, and also in their immediate second causes.
This should teach us to spend our thoughts in the admiration
of the excellency of God, and the Divine knowledge; "his
understanding is infinite."
[2.] God knows all things past. This is an argument used
by God himself to elevate his excellency above all the comraon
ly adored idols; "Let them show the former things what they
be, that we may consider thera, and know the latter end of
thera," Isa. xii. 22. He knows them as if they were now pre
sent and not past ; for indeed in his eternity there is nothing
past or future to his knowledge. This is called remembrance
in Scripture, as when God remembered Rachel's prayer for a
child. Gen. xxx. 22; and he is said to put tears into his bottle,
and write thera in his book of accounts, which signifies fhe ex
act and unerring knowledge in God of the minute circumstances
past in the world ; and this knowledge is called a book of re
membrance, Mai. iii. 16, signifying the perpetual presence of
things past before him. There are two elegant expressions
signifying the certainty and perpetuity of God's knowledge of
sins peist: "My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou
sevvest up my iniquity," Job xiv. 17. A metaphor taken
from raen that put up in a bag the money they would charily
keep, tie the bag, sew up the holes, and bind it hard that
nothing may fall out; or a vessel wherein they reserve liquors,
and daub it with pitch and glutinous stuff, that nothing may
leak out, but be safely kept till the tirae of use. Or else,
as sorae think, frora the bags attorneys carry with them, full
of writings, when they are to manage a cause against a per
son. Thus we find God often in Scripture calling to men's
minds their past actions, upbraiding them with their ingratitude,
wherein he testifies his reraembrance of his own past benefits,
and their criraes. His knowledge in this regard has soraething
of infinity in it, since though the sins of all men that have been
in the world are finite in regard of number, yet when the sins

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

475

of one man in thoughts, words, and deeds, are numberless in
his own account, and perhaps in the account of any creature,
and the sins of all the vast numbers of men that have been, or
shall be, are much more numberless, it cannot be less than infi
nite knowledge that can raake a collection of them, and take a
survey of them all at once.
If past things had not been known by God, hoAV could Moses
have been acquainted Avith the original of things? How could
he have declared the former transactions, wherein all histories
are silent but the Scripture? How could he know the cause of
man's present misery so many ages after, whercAvith all philo
sophy was unacquainted? How could he have written the
order of the creation, the particulars of the sin of Adara, the cir-
curasfances of Cain's raurder, the private speech of Lamech to
his wives, if God had not revealed them? And how could a
revelation be made, if things past Avere forgotten by him ? Do
we not remember many things done araong men, as well as by
ourselves, and reserve the forras of divers things in our minds,
which rise as occasions are presented to draw them forth? And
shall not God ranch more, who hath no cloud of darkness upon
his understanding? A raan that makes a curious picture, has
the form of it in his mind before he raade it; and if the fire
burn it, the form of it in his mind is not destroyed by the fire,
but retained in it. God's memory is no less perfect than his
understanding. If he did not know things past, he could not
be a righteous Governor, or exercise any judicial act in a right
eous manner: he could not dispense rewards and punishments
according to his promises and threatenings, if things that were
past could be forgotten by him; he eould not require that
which is past, Eccl. iii. 15, if he did not remeraber that which
is past. And though God be said to forget in Scripture, and not to
know his people, and his people pray to hira to reraeraber them,
as if he had forgotten them, Psal. cxix. 49, this is improperly
ascribed to God.' As God is said to repent, when he changes
things according to his counsel beyond the expectation of men ;
so he is said to forget, when he defers the making good his pro
mise to the godly, or his threatenings to the wicked: this is not a
defect of memory belonging to his raind, but an act of his will.
When he is said to reraeraber his covenant, it is to will grace
according to his covenant; when he is said to forget his cove
nant, it is to intercept the influences of it, whereby to punish
the sin of his people ; and when he is said not to know his peo
ple, it is not an absolute forgetfulness of them, but withdrawing
frora them the testiraonies of his kindness, and clouding the
signs of his favour. So God in pardoning is said to forget sin,
I Bradward.

476 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
not that he ceases to know it, but ceases to punish it: it is not
to be meant of a siraple forgetfulness, or a lapse of his memory,
butof a judicial forgetfulness; so when his people in Scripture
pray. Lord, reraeraber thy word unto thy servant; no more is
to be understood, but. Lord, fulfil thy word and promise to thy
servant. [3.] He knows things present. "All things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with Avhom we have to do," Heb.
iv. 13. This is grounded upon the knowledge of himself; it is
not so difficult to know all creatures exactly, as to knoAv him
self, because they are finite, but himself is infinite : he knows
his o\vn power, and therefore every thing through which his
omnipotence is diffused, all the acts and objects of it; not the
least thing that is the birth of his power can be concealed from
hira: he knows his own goodness, and therefore every object
upon which the warra bearas of his goodness strike; he there
fore knows distinctly the properties of every creature, because
every property in them is a ray of his goodness ; he is not only
the efficient, but the exemplary cause: therefore as he knows
all that his power has wrought, as he is the efficient, so he
knows them in hiraself as the pattern, as a carpenter can give
an account of every part and passage in a house he has built,
by consulting the model in his own mind, whereby he built it.
He looked upon all things after he had made them, and pro
nounced thera good. Gen. i. 31, full of a natural goodness he
had endowed them Avith; he did not ignorantiy pronounce them
so, and call them good whether he knew them or not; and
therefore he knows thera in particular, as he knew them all in
their first presence. Is there any reason he should be ignorant
of every thing now present in the world, or that any thing that
derives an existence from hira as a free cause, should be con
cealed from him? If he did not know things present in their
particularities, many things woifld be known by man, yea by
beasts, which the infinite God were ignorant of; and if he did
not know all things present, but only some, it is possible for the
most blessed God to be deceived and be miserable. Ignorance
is a calamity to the understanding: he could not prescribe laws
to his creatures, unless he knew their natures, to which those
laAvs were to be suited; no,' nor natural ordinances to the sun,
moon, and heavenly bodies, and inanimate creatures, unless he
knew the vigour and virtue in them, to execute those ordi
nances; for to prescribe laAvs above the nature of things, is in
consistent Avith the wisdom of government: he must know how
far they were able to obey; whether the laws were suited to
their abflfly; and for his rational creatures, whether the punish-
raents annexed to the law were proper, and suited to the trans
gression of the creature.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

477

He knows all creatures from the highest to the lowest, the
least as Avell as the greatest. He knows the ravens and their
young ones. Job xxxviii. 41; the drops of rain and dew which
he has begotten. Job. xxxviii. 28; every bird in fhe air, as well
as any man does what he has in a cage at home : " I know all the
fowls ofthe mountains, and the wild beasts of the field," Psal.
1. 1 1 ; which some read creeping things. The clouds are num
bered in his wisdoni. Job xxxvifl. 37. Every worm in the
earth, every drop of rain that falls upon the ground, the flakes
of snow, and the knots of hafl, the sands upon the sea-shore, the
hairs upon the head; it is no more absurd to imagine that God
knows them, than that God raade thera; they are all the effects
of his power, as well as the stars, which he calls by their naraes,
as well as the most glorious angel and blessed spirit: he knoAvs
them as well as if there were none but them in particular for
him to know: the least things were framed by his art as well as
fhe greatest; the least things partake of his goodness as wefl as
the greatest; he knows his own arts, and his own goodness, and
therefore all the stamps and impressions of them upon all his
creatures: he knows the iraraediate causes of the least, and
therefore the effects of those causes. Since his knowledge is
infinite, it must extend to those things which are at the greatest
distance from him, to those which approach nearest to not be
ing; since he did not want poAver to create, he cannot want
understanding to know every thing he has created, the disposi
tions, qualities, and virtues ofthe minutest creature.
Nor is the understanding of God debased, nor suffers a dimi
nution, by the knowledge ofthe vilest and raost inconsiderable
things. Is it not an imperfection fo be ignorant of the nature of
any thing? and can God have such a defect in his most perfect
understanding? Is the understanding of man of an impurer
alloy by knowing the nature ofthe rankest poisons? by under
standing a fly, or a small insect, or by considering the deformity
of a toad ? Is it not generally counted a note of a dignified mind,
to be able to discourse of the nature of them? Was Soloraon,
who knew aU from the cedar to the hyssop, debased by so rich
a present of wisdom frora his Creator? Is any glass defiled by
presenting a deformed image? Is there any thing more vile
than the " imaginations, whicli are only evfl, and continually?"
Does not the mind of man descend to the mud of the earth, play
the adulterer or idolater with mean objects, suck in the most
unclean things? yet God knows these in all their circum
stances, in every appearance, inside and outside. Is there any
thing viler than sorae thoughts of men, than some actions of
men? their unclean beds, and gluttonous vomiting, and Lucife-
rian pride ? yet do not these fall under the eye of God, ih afl
their nakedness? The second Person's taking human nature.

478 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
though it obscured, yet it did not disparage the Deity, or bring
any disgrace to it. Is gold the worse for being formed into fhe
image of a fly? does it not still retain the nobleness of the metal?
When men are despised for descending to the knowledge of
mean and vile things, it is because they neglect the knowledge
of the greater, and sin in their inquiries after lesser things, with
a neglect of that which concerns rnore the honour of God and
the happiness of theraselvefs; to be arabitious of such a know
ledge, and careless of that of more concern, is criminal and con
temptible. But God knows the greatest as well as least: mean
things are not known by him to exclude the knowledge ofthe
greater; nor are vile things governed by him to exclude the or
der of the better. The deformity of objects known by God
does not deform him nor defile him; he does not view them
without himself, but within himself, Avherein all things in their
ideas are beautiful and comely. Our knowledge of a deformed
thing, is not a deforming of our understanding, but is beautiful
in the knowledge, though it be not in the object; nor is there
any fear that the understanding of God should become material
by knowing material things, any more than our understandings
lose their spirituality by knowing the nature of bodies. It is to
be observed, therefore, that only those senses of men, as seeing,
hearing, smelling, Avhich have those qualities for their objects
that come nearest the nature of spiritual things, as light, sounds,
fragrant odours, are ascribed to God in Scripture; not touching
or tasting, which are senses that are not exercised without a
more immediate commerce with gross matter; and the reason
may be, because we should have no gross thoughts of God, as
if he were a body, and made of mafter, like the things he
knows. As he knows all creatures, so God knows all the actions of
creatures. He counts in particular all the ways of men. " Doth
not lie see all my ways, and count all my steps?" Job xxxi. 4.
He tells their wandering.s, as if one by one, Psal. Ivi. 8. " His
eyes are upon all the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings,"
Job xxxiv. 21; a metaphor taken from raen, when they look
wistfully, Avith fixed eyes, upon a thing, to view it in every cir
cumstance, Avhence it comes, whither it goes, to observe every
little motion of it. God's eye is not a wandering but a fixed
eye, and the ways of raan are not only before his eyes, but he
does exacfly ponder thera, Prov. v. 21; as one that wUl not be
ignorant of the least raife in them, but Aveigh and examine
thera by the standard of his law: he may as well know the
motions ofour members as the hairs ofour heads: the smallest
actions before they be, whether civfl, natural, or rehgious, fall
under his cognizance: what meaner than a man carrying a
pitcher? yet our Saviour foretells it, Luke xvii. 10. God knows

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

479

not only what men do, but what they would have done had he
not restrained them; what Abimelech would have done to
Sarah, had not God put a bar in his way. Gen. xx. 6 ; what a
man, that is taken away in his youth, would have done, had
he lived to a riper age: yea, he knows the most secret words
as well as actions; the words spoken by the king of Syria in
his bed-charaber, were revealed to Elisha, 2 Kings vi. 12. And
indeed how can any action of man be concealed from God?
Can we view the various actions of a heap of ants or a hive of
bees in a glass, without turning our eyes? and shall not God
behold the actions of all men in the world, which are less than
bees or ants in his sight, and more visible to him than an ant
hill or bee-hive can be to the acutest eye of man?
As God knows all the actions of creatures, so he knows all
the thoughts of creatures. The thoughts are the most closeted
acts of man, hid from men and angels, unless disclosed by some
outward expressions; but God descends into the depths and
abysses of the soul, discerns the raost inward contrivances;
nothing is impenetrable to hira ; the sun does not so ranch en
lighten the earth as God understands the heart ; all thoughts
are as visible to him as flies and motes enclosed in a body of
transparent crystal. This raan naturally allows to God. Men
often speak to God by the raotions of their rainds and secret
ejaculations, which they would not do, if it were not naturally
implanted in thera that God knows all their inward motions;
the Scripture is plain and positive in this, he tries the heart and
the reins, Psal. vii. 9, (as raen by the use of fire discern the
drossy and purer parts of raetals,) the secret intentions and
airas, the raost lurking affections seated in the reins. He knows
that which no man, no angel is able to know; Avhich a man
himself knows not, nor makes any particular reflection upon;
yea, he weighs the spirit, Prov. xvi. 2, he exactly numbers all
the devices and inclinations of men, as men do every piece of
coin they teU out of a heap. He discerns the thoughts and in
tents of the heart, Heb. iv. 12; all that is in the mind, all that
is in the affections, every stirring and purpose, so that no one
thought can be withheld from him, Job xiii. 2 ; " yea, hell
and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then the
hearts of the children of men!" Prov. xv. 11: he works afl
things in the bowels of the earth, and brings forth all things
out of that treasure, say some: but more naturaUy God knows
the whole state of the dead, all the receptacles and graves of
their bodies, afl the bodies of men consumed by the earth, or
devoured by living creatures; things that seem to be out of all
being; he knows the thoughts of the devils and damned crea
tures, whom he has cast out of his care for ever, into the arras
of his justice, never more to cast a delightful glance towards

480 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
them; not a secret in any soul in befl (which he has no need
to know, because he shall not judge them by any of the
thoughts they now have, since they were condemned to punish
ment) is hid from him: much raore is he acquainted with the
thoughts of living men, the counsels of whose hearts are yet
to be manifested, in order to their trial and censure ; yea, he
knows them before they spring up into actual being. "Thou
understandest ray thoughts afar off," Psal. cxxxix. 2; my
thoughts, that is, every thought, though innuraerable thoughts
pass through nie in a day, and that in the source and fountain,
when it is yet in the womb, before it is our thought : if he
knows them before their existence, before they can be properiy
called ours ; much raore does he know thera when they actu
ally spring up in us : he knows the tendency of them — where
tbe bird will light when it is in flight; he knows them exactly;
he is therefore called a discerner or criticiser of the heart, Heb.
iv. 12, as a critic discerns every letter, point, and stop. He is
more intimate wflh us than our souls with our bodies, and has
more the possession of us than we have of ourselves; he
knoAVS thera by an inspection into the heart, not by the raedia-
tion of second causes, by the looks or gestures of men, as men
may discern the thoughts of one another.
God discerns all good motions of the mind and wfll. These
he puts into men, and God needs must knoAV his own act. He
knew the son of Jeroboara to have some good thing in hira
towards the Lord God of Israel, 1 Kings xiv. 13, and the in
tegrity of David and Hezekiah; the freest motions of the wfll
and affections fo him, " Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,"
said Peter, John xxi. 17. Love can be no more restrained
than fhe Avill itself can. A man may make another to grieve
and desire, but none can force another to love.
God discerns all the evil motions ofthe raind and will; every
imagination of the heart. Gen. vi. 5 ; the vanity of men's
thoughts, Psal. xciv. 11; their inward darkness and deceitful
disguises. No wonder that God who fashioned the heart,
should understand the raotions ofit: he "looketh from heaven,
he beholdeth all the sons of raen: he fashioneth their hearts
alike; he considereth all their works," Psal. xxxfli. 13. 15.
Does any man make a watch, and yet be ignorant of its motion?
Did God fling away the key to this secret cabinet, Avhen he
framed it, and put off the poAver of unlocking it when he
pleased? He did not surely frame it in such a posture as that
any thing in it should be hid from his eye; he did not fashion
it to be privfleged frora his governraent: which would follow,
if he were ignorant of what was minted and coined in it.
He could not be a judge to punish men, if the inward frames
and principles of men's actions Avere concealed from him : an

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

481

outward action may glitter to an outward eye, yet the secret
spring be a desire of applause, and not the fear and love of God.
If the inward fraraes of the heart did lie covered from hira in
the secret recesses of the heart, those plausible acts, Avhich in
regard of their principles would merit a punishment, would
meet with a reward; and God should bestow happiness where
he had denounced misery. As without the knowledge of what
is just, he could not be a Avise lawgiver; so without the know
ledge of what is inwardly committed, he could not be a righteous
judge: acts that are rotten in the spring, might be judged good
by the fair colour and appearance.
This is the glory of God at the last day, to manifest the
secrets of all hearts, 1 Cor. iv. 5: and the prophet Jeremiah
links the power of judging and the prerogative of trying the
hearts together; "But, 0 Lord of Hosts, that judgest righte
ously, that triest the reins and the heart," Jer. xi. 20 : and, " I
theLord search the heart, I try the reins;" to what end? "even
to give every man according to his ways, and according to the
fruit of his doings," Jer. xvii. 10. And indeed his binding up
the whole law with that command of not coveting, evidences
that he wfll judge men by the inward affections and frames of
their hearts. Again, God sustains the mind of raan in every
act of thinking; in hira we have not only fhe principle of life,
but every raotion, the motion of our minds as well as of our
members: "In him Ave live, and raove, and have our being,"
Acts xvii. 28. Since he supports the vigour of the faculty in
every act, can he be ignorant of those acts which spring frora
the faculty, to which he does at that instant coramunicate power
and abihty ?
Now this knowledge of the thoughts of men is.
An incomraunicable property, belonging only to the Divine
understanding. Creatures indeed may know the thoughts of
others by Divine revelation, but not by themselves; no crea
ture has a key immediately to open the rainds of raen, and see
all that lodges there ; no creature can fathom the heart by the
line of created knowledge. ' Devils rnay have a conjectural
knowledge, and raay guess at them, by the acquaintance they
have with the disposition and constitution of men, and the
iraages they behold in their fancies; and by some marks which
an inward imagination may stamp upon the brain, blood, ani
mal spirits, face, &c. But the knowing the thoughts merely as
thought, without any impression by it, is a royalty God appro
priates to himself, as the main secret of his governraent, and a
perfection declarative ofhis Deity, as much as any else: " The
heart" of man "is desperately wicked; who can know it?"
' Daille, Serm. part 1. p. 230.
Vol. L— 61

482 ON, GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
Yes, there is one, and but one ; " I the Lord search the heart,
I try the. reins," Jer. xvii. 9, 10. "Man looketh on the out
ward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart," 1 Sam.
xvi. 7; where God is distinguished by this perfection from all
raen whatsoever. Others may know by revelation, as Elisha
did what Avas in Gehazi's heart, 2 Kings v. 26; but God
knows a man more than anj'' raan knows himself What per
son upon earth understands the windings and turnings of his
own heart, what reserves it wiU have, what contrivances, what
inclinations ? all which God knows exactly.
But God acquires no new knowledge of the thoughts and
heart, by the discovery of them in the actions. He Avould
then be but equal in this part of knowledge fo his creatures:
no raan or angel but may thus arrive to the knowledge of
them. God Avere then excluded from an absolute dominion
over the prime work of his lower creation; he would have
made a creature superior in this respect to hiraself, upon whose
will to discover, his knowledge of their inward intentions
should depend; and therefore when God is said to search the
heart, we must not understand it as if God were ignorant
before, and was fain to make an exact scrutiny and inquiry,
before he attained what he desired to know; but God conde
scends to our capacity in the expression of his oAvn knowledge,
signifying that his knowledge is as complete as any man's
knowledge can be, of the designs of others, after he has sifted
them by a strict and thorough exaraination, and wrung out a
discovery of their intentions; that he knows thera as perfectly
as if he had put thera upon the rack, and forced them to make
a discovery oftheir secret plottings. Nor must we understand
that in Gen. xxii. 12, where God says, after Abraham had
stretched out his hand to sacrifice his son, "Now I know that
thou fearest God," as though God was ignorant of Abraham's
gracious disposition to him. Did Abraham's drawing his knife
furnish God with a new knowledge? No; God knew Abra
ham's pious inclinations before; " I know him, that be wUl
command his children — after hira," &c. Gen. xvui. 19. Know
ledge is sometiraes taken for approbation; then the sense will
be, Now I approve this fact as a testimony of thy fear of me;
since thy affection to thy Isaac is extinguished by the more
powerful fiame of affection to my will and command; I now
accept thee, and count thee a meet subject°of my choicest bene
fits: or, Noav I know, that is, I have made known and mani
fested the faith of Abraham to himself and to the world. Thus
Paul uses the word "know," 1 Cor. fl. 2; I have determined
to know nothing, that is, to declare and teach nothing, to raake
known nothing but Christ crucified. Or else. Now I know,
fliat is, I have an evidence and experiment in this noble fact.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

483

that thou fearest me. God often condescends to our capacity
in speaking of himself after the manner of men, as if he had
(as men do) known the inward affections of others by their
outward actions.
God knows afl the evils and sins of creatures. —
God knows all sin. This follows upon the other. If he
knows aU the actions and thoughts of creatures, he knoAvs also
all the sinfulness in those acts and thoughts. This Zophar in
fers frora God's punishing men: " For he knoweth vain men:
he seeth wickedness also," Job xi. 11; he knoAvs every man,
and sees the wickedness of every man; he looks down frorn
heaven, and beholds not only the filthy persons, but Avhat is
filthy in them, Psal. xiv. 2, 3; all nations in the world, and
every man of every nation, none of their iniquity is hid from
his eyes; he searches Jerusalem with candles, Zeph. i. 12.
God follows sinners step by step with his eye ; and will not
leave searching out tfll he has taken them; a metaphor taken
from one that searches afl chinks with a candle, that nothing
can be hid from him. He knows it distinctly in all the parts
of it, how an adulterer rises out of his bed to commit unclean
ness, what contrivances he had, what steps he took, every cir
cumstance in the whole progress; not only evil in the bulk, but
every one of the blacker spots upon it, which raay most aggra
vate it. Ifhe did not know evil, how could he permit it, order
it, punish it, or pardon it? Doth he permit he knows not what?
order to his own holy ends what he is ignorant of? punish or
pardon that which he is uncertain whether it be a crime or no ?
Cleanse rae, says David, frora ray secret faults, Psal. xix. 12,
secret in regard of others, secret in regard of hiraself: how could
God cleanse him from that whereof he was ignorant? He
knows sins before they are committed, much more when they
are in act. He forekncAV the idolatry and apostasy ofthe Jcavs;
what gods they would serve, in Avhat measure they would pro
voke him, and violate his covenant, Deut. xxxi. 20, 21: he
knew Judas' sin long before Judas' actual existence, foretelling
it in the psalms; and Christ predicts it before he acted it. He
sees sins future in his own perraitting avUI; he sees sins present
in his own supporting act. As he knows things possible to
hiraself, because he knows his own power; so he knows things
practicable by the creature, because he knows the power and
principles ofthe creature.' This sentiraent of God is naturally
written in the fears of sinners, upon lightning, thunder, or some
prodigious operation of God in the world: what is the language
of thera, but that he sees their deeds, hears their words, knoAVS
the inward sinfulness of their hearts; that he does not only be-
> Fotherby Atheomastise, p. 132.

484 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
hold them as a raere spectator, but considers them as a just
Judge? And the poets say, that the sins of men leaped into
heaven, and were written in parchments of Jupiter,' Scelus in
terrarn, geritur, in coelo scribitur: Sin is acted on earth, and
recorded in heaven. God indeed does not behold evil with the
approving eye ; he knows it not with a practical knowledge to
be the author of it, but with a speculative knowledge, so as to
understand the sinfulness ofit; or a knowledge simplicis intel-
ligentise, " of simple intelligence," as he permits sins, not posi
tively wiUs them; he knows thera not Avith a knowledge of
assent to them, but dissent from them. Evil pertains to a dis
senting act of the raind, and an aversive act of the will, and
what though evU, forraally taken, has no distinct conception,
because it is a privation ; a defect bas no being, and all know
ledge is by the apprehension of sorae being; would not this
lie as strongly against our own knoAvledge of sin? Sin is a
privation ofthe rectitude due to an act; and who doubts man's
knowledge of sin? by his knowing the act, he knows the defi
ciency ofthe act; the subject of evil has a being, and so has a
conception in the mind; thatwhich has no being cannot be
known by itself, or in itself, but will it follow that it cannot be
known by its contrary? as we know darkness to be a privation
of light, and folly to be a privation of wisdora. God knows
all good by himself, because he is the sovereign good ; is it
strange, then, that he should know all evU, since all evfl is in
some natural good?
But the manner of God's knoAving evil is not so easily
known. And, indeed, as we cannot comprehend the essence
of God, though it is easily intelligible that there is such a being;
so we can as little comprehend the raanner of God's knowledge,
though we cannot but conclude him to be an inteUigent being,
a pure understanding, knowing all things. As God bas a higher
manner of being than his creatures, so he has another and
higher manner of knowing; and we can as little coraprehend
the raanner ofhis knowing, as we can the manner of his being.
But as to the raanner.
Does not God know his own law, and shall he not know how
much any action comes short of his rule? He cannot know
his own rule without knowing all the deviations from it. He
knows his own holiness, and shall he not see how any action
is contrary to fhe holiness of flis own nature? Does not God
know every thing that is true? and is it not true that this or
that was evU? and shaU God be ignorant of any truth? How
does God knoAv that he cannot lie, but by knowing his own
veracity ? How does God know that he cannot die, but by
1 Cross. AnthoL dec. I. cap 393. p. 101.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

485

knowing his own immutabihty ? And by knowing those, he
knows what a lie is, he knows what death is; so if sin never
had been, if no creature had ever been, God would have known
what sin was, because he knows his own holiness; because he
knew what law was fit to be appointed to his creatures if he
should create them, and that that law might be transgressed by
thera. God knows all good, all goodness in himself; he there
fore has a foundation in himself fo know all that comes short
of that goodness, that is opposite to that holiness: as if light
were capable of understanding, it would know darkness only
by knowing itself; by knowing itself, it would know what is
contrary to itself God knows all creafed goodness which he
has planted in the creature ; he knows then all defects frpm his
goodness, what perfection an act is deprived of; what is oppo
site to that goodness, and that is evil. As we know sickness
by health, discord by harmony, blindness by sight, because it is
a privation of sight; whosoever knows one contrary knows the
other; God knows unrighteousness by the idea which he has of
righteousness, and sees an act deprived of that rectitude and
goodness which ought to be in it; he knows evil because he
knows the causes whence evil proceeds.' A painter knows a
picture of his own framing; and if any one dashes any base
colour upon it, shall not he also know that? God by his hand
painted all creatures, irapressed upon man the fair stamp and
colour of his own iraage; the devils defile it, man daubs it;
does not God, that knows his own work, know how this piece
is become different from his work? Does not God, that knows
his creatures' goodness, which himself was the fountain of,
know the change of this goodness? Yea, he knoAV before, that
the devil would sow tares where he had sown wheat; and
therefore that controversy of some in the schools, whether God
knew evil by its opposition to created or uncreated goodness, is
needless. 'We may say God knows sin as it is opposite to cre
ated goodness, yet he knows it radically by his own goodness,
because he knows the goodness he has communicated to the
creature by his own essential goodness in himself. To conclude
this head;
The knowledge of sin does not bespot the holiness of God's
nature; for the bare knowledge of a crirae does not infect the
mind of raan with the filth and pollution of that crime. For
then every man that knows an act of raurder commflted by
another, woifld by that bare knowledge be tainted with his sin;
yea, and a judge that condemns a raalefactor, raay as well con-
deran hiraself, if this were so. The knowledge of sin infects
not the understanduig that knows them, but only the will that
> Cusan p. 245.

486 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
approves them. It is no discredit to us to know evfl, in order
to pass a right judgment upon it; so neither can ithe to God.
{4.] God knows all future things, all things to come. The
differences of time cannot hinder a knowledge of all things by
hira, who is before time, above time, that is not measured by
hours, or days, or years. If God did not know them, the hin
derance must he in himself, or in the' things themselves, because
they are things to corae. Not in himself: if it did, it must arise
from some impotency in his own nature, and so we render hira
weak; or frora an unwillingness to knoAv, and so we render
hira lazy, and an eneray to his OAvn perfection ; for simply con
sidered, the knowledge of more things is a greater perfection
than the knbwledge of a few; and if the knowledge of a thing
includes something of perfection, the ignorance of a thing in
cludes something of iraperfection. The knowledge of future
things is a greater perfection than not to know thera, and is
accounted araong men a great part of wisdom, which they call
foresight ; it is then surely a greater perfection in God to know
future things than to be ignorant of them. And would God
rather have something of imperfection than be possessor of all
perfection? Nor does fhe hinderance lie in the things them
selves, because their futurition depends upon his will; for as
nothing can actually be Avithout his wiU, giving it existence ; so
nothing can be future without his will designing the futurity of
it. Certainly if God knows all things possible, which he wUl
not do, he must know all things future, which he is not only
able, but resolved to do, or resolved to perrait. God's perfect
knowledge of hiraself, that is, of his OAvn infinite power and
concluding wiU, necessarily includes a foreknowledge of what
he is able to do, and what he wfll do.
Again, if God does not know future things, there Avas a time
when God was ignorant of most things in the world. Before
the deluge he was more ignorant than after; the more things
were done in the world, the more knowledge did accrue to
God, and so the raore perfection. Then the understanding of
God was not perfect frora eternity, but in time; nay, is not per
fect yet, if he be ignorant of those things which are still to
come to pass; he must tarry for a perfection he wants, tfll those
futurities come to be in act, tifl those things which are to come
are to be future, and begin to be present. Either God knows
them or desires to know them; ifhe desires to know them and
does not, there is something Avanting to him: all desire speaks
an absence of the object desired, and a sentiment of want in
the person desiring. If he does not desire to know them, nay,
if he does not actually know them, it destroys all providence,
all his government of affairs; for his providence has a concate
nation of means with a prospect of soraething that is future:

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

487

as in Joseph's case, who Avas put into the pit, and sold to the
Egyptians in order to his future advancement, and the preser
vation both of his father and his envious brethren. If God
did not know all the future inclinations and actions of men,
something might have been done by the will of Potiphar, or
by the free-will of Pharaoh, whereby Joseph might have been
cut short of his advancement, and so God have been interrupt
ed in the track and method of his designed providences. He
that has decreed to govern man for that end he has designed
him, knows all the means before, whereby he will govern him,
and therefore has a distinct and certain knowledge of all things;
for a confused knowledge is an imperfection in government. It
is in this the infiniteness of his understanding is raore seen than
in knowing things past or present; his eyes are as a flame of
fire. Rev. i. 14, in regard of the penetrating virtue of them into
things impenetrable by any else.
To make it further appear that God knows all things future,
consider. Every thing which is the object of God's knowledge with
out himself, was once only future. There was a moment when
nothing was in being but himself; he knew nothing actually
past, because nothing was past ; nothing actuaUy present, be
cause nothing had any existence but himself; therefore only
what was future : and why not every thing that is future now,
as well as only what was future and to come to pass just at the
beginning of the creation? God indeed knows every thing as
present, but fhe things themselves known by him were not pre
sent, but future : the whole creation was once future, or else it
was from eternity; if it begun in time, it was once future in
itself, else it could never have begun to be. Did not God know
what would be created by him, before it was created by him?'
Did he create he knew not Avhat, and knew not before what he
should create? Was he ignorant before he acted, and in his act
ing, what his operation would tend to? Or did he not know the
nature of things and the ends of them, tfll he had produced
thera, and saAv thera in being ? Creatures then did not arise
from his knowledge, but his knowledge frora thera; he did not
then wfll that his creatures should be, or he had then wflled
what he knew not, and knew not what he willed. They there
fore raust be known before they were raade, and not known
because they were raade; he knew thera to make them, and he
did not make them to know thera. By the same reason that
he knew Avhat creatures should be before they were, he knows
stfll what creatures shall be before they are;^ for all things that
are, were in God, not really in their own nature, but in him as
a cause ; so the earth and heavens were in him, as a model is
' Petavius, changed. ''¦ Bradward. lib. 3. cap. 14.

488 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
in the raind of a workman, which is in his raind and soul be
fore it be brought forth info outward act,
Moreover, the predictions of future things evidence this.
There is not a prophecy of any thing to corae, but is a spark
of his foreknowledge, and bears witness to the truth of this
assertion, in the punctual accomplishment of it; this is a thing
challenged by God, as his own peculiar, wherein he surmounts
all fhe idols that man's inventions have deified in the Avorld.
" Let them bring forth (speaking of the idols) and show us
what shall happen — or declare us things for to come : show
the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that
ye are gods," Isa. xii. 22, 23. Such a foreknowledge of things
to corae, is here ascribed to God by God himself, as a distinc
tion of him frora all false gods; such a knowledge, that if any
could prove that they were possessors of, he would acknow
ledge them gods as well as himself; "that we may know that
ye are gods." He puts his Deity to stand or fall upon this ac
count, and this should be the point which should decide the
controversy, whether he or the heathen idols were the true
God; the dispute is managed by this medium. He that knows
things to come, is God; I know things to corae, ergo, I am
God; the idols know not things to come, therefore they are not
gods : God submits the being of his Deity to this trial. If
God knows things to come no more than the heathen idols,
which were either devils or men, he would be in his own ac
count no raore a God than devfls or raen, no more a God
than the pagan idols he does scoff at for this defect. If the
heathen idols were to be stripped oftheir deity for want of this
foreknowledge of things to come, would not the true God also
fall frora the sarae excellency, if he were defective in know
ledge? He v/ould in his own judgraent no more deserve the
title and character of a God than they. How could he reproach
them for that, if it were wanting in himself? It cannot be un
derstood of future things in their causes, when the effects neces
sarUy arise from such causes, as light from the sun, and heat
from the fire: raany of these raen know — more of thera, angels
and devils knoAV, if God therefore had not a higher and further
knowledge than this, he would not by this be proved to be God
any more than angels and devils, who know necessary effects
in their causes. The devfls indeed did predict some things in
the heathen oracles; but God is differenced from thera here by
the infiniteness of his knowledge, in being able to predict things
to come that they knoAV not, or things in their particularities,
things that depended on the liberty of man's wfll, which the
devils could lay no claira to a certain knowledge of Were it
only a conjectural knoAvledge that is here meant, the devfls
might answer, they can conjecture, and so their deity were as

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

489

good as God's; for though God might know more things, and
conjecture nearer to what would be, yet still it would be but
conjectural, and therefore not a higher kind of knowledge than
what the devils might challenge. How much then is God be
holden to the Socinians for denying the knowledge of all future
things to hini, upon Avhich here he puts the trial of his Deity!
God asserts his knowledge of things to come, as a manifest evi
dence of his Godhead; those that deny therefore the arguraent
that proves it, deny fhe conclusion too; for this will necessarily
follow, that if he be God because he knows future things, then
he that does not know future things is not God; and if God
knows not future things but only by conjecture, then there is
no God; because a certain knowledge, so as infallibly to pre
dict things to corae, is an inseparable perfection of the Deity.
It was therefore well said by Austin, that it was as high a raad-
ness to deny God fo be, as to deny him the foreknowledge of
things to come.
The whole prophetic part of Scripture declares this perfection
of God; every prophet's candle was lighted at this torch;
they could not have this foreknoAvledge of themselves. Why
might not many other men have the same insight, if it were by
nature? It must be from some superior agent; and all nations
OAvned prophecy as a beam from God, a fruit of Divine illumi
nation. Prophecy must be totally expunged if this be denied;
for the subjects of prophecy are things future, and no man is
properly a prophet, but in prediction ; now prediction is nothing
but foretelling, and things foretold are not yet come ; and the
foretelling of them, supposes them not fo be yet, but that they
shall be in time; several such predictions we have in Scripture
the event whereof has been certain. The years of famine in
Egypt foretold that God would order second causes for bringing
that judgraent upon thera; the captivity ofhis people in Baby
lon, the calling of the gentiles, the rejection of the Jcavs are pre
dicted. Daniel's revelation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, that
prince refers to God as the revealer of secrets, Dan. ii. 47. By
the same reason that he knows one thing future by himself, and
by the infiniteness ofhis knowledge before any causes of them
appear, he does know all things future.
Again, some future things are known by men, and we must
allow God a greater knowledge than any creature. Future
things in their causes may be known by angels and men (as I
said before ;) whosoever knoAvs necessary causes and the effi
cacy of them, raay foreteU the effects; and Avhen he sees fhe
meeting and concurrence of several causes together, he may
presage what the consequent effect wifl be of such a concur^
rence. So physicians foreteU the progress of a disease, the in
crease or diminution of it, by natural signs; and astronomers
Vol. I.— 62

490 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
foretell eclipses by their observation of the motion of heavenly
bodies, many years before they happen; ' can they be hid from
God, Avith whom are the reasons of all things ? ^ An expert
gardener, by knowing the root in the depth of winter, can tell
what flowers and what fruit it wfll bear, and the month when
they will peep out their heads; and shall not God much more
that knows the principles of all his creatures, and is exacfly
privy to all their natures, and qualities, know what they Avill be,
and what operations shall be from those principles ? Noav if
God did not know things only in their causes, his knowledge
would not be raore excellent than the knoAvledge of angels and
men, though he might know more than they, of the things that
wiU come to pass, from every cause singly, and from the con
currence of many. Now as God is more excellent in being
than his creature, so he is more excellent in the objects of his
knowledge and the manner of his knowledge: well then, shall
a certain knowledge of something future, and a conjectural
knowledge of raany things, be found among raen: and shall
a determinate and infallible knowledge of things to come, be
found no where, in no being ? If the conjecture of future things
savours of ignorance, and God knows them only by conjecture,
there is then no such thing in being as a perfect intelligent being,
and so no God.
We may add, God knows his own decree and wfll, and
therefore must needs know all future things. If any thing be
future, or to come fo pass, it must be from itself, or from God:
not from itself, then it would be independent and absolute: if
it has its futurity from God, then God must know Avhat he
has decreed to come to pass ; those things that are future in
necessary causes, God must know, because he Avilled them to
be causes of such effects ; he therefore knows them, because he
knows what he willed. The knowledge of God cannot arise
from the things themselves, for then the knowledge of God
would have a cause without him ; and knowledge, Avhich is an
eminent perfection, would be conferred upon him by his crea
tures. But as God sees things possible in the glass of his own
power, so he sees things future in the glass of his own will; in
his effecting will, if he has decreed to produce them ; in his
permitting will, as he has decreed to suffer them and dispose of
them; nothing can pass out of the rank of things merely possi
ble into the order of things future, before some act of God's
will has passed for its futurition. ^
It is not from the infinitiveness of his own nature, simply
considered, that God knows things to be future; for as things
are not future because God is infinite, (for then all possible
things should be future,) so neither is any thing known to be
1 Cusanus. ' Fuller's Pisgah, 1. 2. p. 281. 3 Chequell.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

491

future only because God is infinite, but because God has
decreed it; his declaration of things to come is founded upon
his appointment of things to come. ' In Isa. xliv. 7, it is said,
"And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it — since I ap
pointed the ancient people, and the things that are coming?" »
Nothing is created or ordered in the world, but what God
decreed to be created and , ordered. God knoAvs his own
decree, and therefore all things Avhich he has decreed to exist
in time; not the minutest part of the world could have existed
without his Avill, not an action can be done without his avUI:
as life the principle, so motion the fruit of that life, is by and
frora God; as he decreed life to this or that thing, so he decreed
motion as the effect of life, and decreed to exert his poAver in
concurring with them, for producing effects natural from such
causes; for without such a concourse they could not have acted
any thing, or produced any thing. And therefore as for natu
ral things, Avhich Ave call necessary causes, God foreseeing
them all particularly in his own decree, foresaAv also all effects
which must necessarily floAV from them, because such causes
cannot but act when they are furnished with all things neces
sary for action. He knows his own decrees, and therefore
necessarfly knows what he has decreed; or else we must say
things come to pass whether God will or no; or, that he wills
he knows not what; but this cannot be, for "known unto God
are all his Avorks from the beginning of the Avorld," Acts xv.
18. Now this necessarily floAvs from that principle first laid
doAvn, that God knows himself, since nothing is future without
God's wfll: if God did not knoAv future things, he would not
know his own will; for as things-possible could not be known
by him, unless he knew the fulness of his own power; so
things future could not be known by understanding, unless he
knew the resolves ofhis own will.
Thus the knoAvledge of God differs from the knowledge of
men:^ God's knoAvledge of his works precedes his works,
man's knowledge of God's works follows his Avorks; just as an
artificer's knowledge of a watch, instrument, or engine, which
he would make, is before his making of it: he knows the
motions of it, and the reason of those motions before it is
made, because he knows what he has determined fo work; he
knows not those motions from the consideration of them after
they were made, as the spectator does, who by viewing the
instrument after it is made, gains a knowledge frora fhe sight
and consideration of it, tUl he understands the reason of the
whole. So we know things frora the consideration of them
' Coccei. Sum. Theol. p. 50.
2 Gama. iu Aquin. part 1. q. 24. cap. 3. p, 124.
3 Maimonid. More Nevoch. part. 3. cap. 21. p. 393, 394.

492 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE,
after we see them in being, and therefore we know not future
things. But God's knowledge does not arise frora things
because they are, but because he Avants them to be; and there
fore he knows every thing that shall be, because it cannot be
without his will, as the Creator and mainfainer of all things:
knowing his own substance, he knoAvs all his works.
To conclude this; if God did not know all future things he
would be mutable in his knowledge.
If he did not know all things that ever were or are to be,
there would be, upon the appearance of every uoav object, an
addition of light to his understanding, and therefore such a
change in him, as every new knowledge causes in the mind of
a man, or as the sun works in the world upon its rising every
morning, scattering the darkness that was upon the face of the
earth. If he did not know thera before they carae, he would
gain a knowledge by them when they came to pass, Avhich he
had not before they were effected; his knoAvledge would be
new according to the newness of the objects, and multiplied
according fo the multitude of the objects. If God did not know
things to come as perfectly as he knew things present and
past, but knew those certainly, and the others doubtfully and
conjecturally, he would suffer some change, and acquire some
perfection in his knowledge, when those future things should
cease fo be future, and become present; for he Avould know it
more perfecfly when it Avas present than he did when it was
future, and so there would be a change from iraperfection to a
perfection: but God is every Avay immutable.
Besides, that perfection would not arise from the nature of
God, but from the existence and presence ofthe thing; but who
will affirm that God acquires any perfection of knowledge from
his creatures, any more than he does of being? He would not
then have had that knowledge, and consequently that perfection
from eternity, as he had when he created the world; and will
not have a full perfection of fhe knowledge of his creature fill
the end ofthe world,norof imraortal souls, which will certainly
act as well as live fo eternity: and so God never was nor ever
will be perfect in knowledge; for Avhen you have conceived
raillions of years, wherein angels and souls live and act, there
is stUl more coraing than you can conceive, Avherein they will
act. And if God be always changing to eternity, frora igno
rance to knowledge, as those acts corae to be exerted by his
creatures, he will not be perfect in knowledge, no, not to eter
nity, but wifl always be changing frora one degree of knowledge
to another: a very unworthy conceit to entertain of the most
blessed, perfect, and infinite God!
Hence then it foUows, that
God foreknows all his creatures. All kinds which he deter-

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

493

mined to make, aU particulars that should spring out of every
species, the time when they should come forth of the womb, the
manner how; "In thy book aU my members Avere wrflfen,"
Psal. cxxxix. 16. Members is not in the Hebrew; whence
some refer all, to all living creatures whatsoever, and all the
parts of them, which God did foresee ; he knew the nurabers of
creatures with all their parts, they were written in the book of
his foreknowledge; the duration of thera, how long they shall
remain in being, and act upon the stage ; he knows their strength,
the links of one cause with another, and what will follow in all
their circumstances, and the series and combination of effects
with their causes.
The duration of every thing is foreknown, because deterhiin-
ed ; " Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months
are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot
pass," Job xiv. 5: bounds are fixed, beyond which none shall
reach: he speaks of days and months, not of years, to give us
notice of God's particular foreknowledge of every thing, of
every day, month, year, hour, of a raan's life.
All the acts of his creatures are foreknown by him. All
natural acts, because he knows their causes: voluntary acts I
shall speak of afterwards.
This foreknowledge was certain. For it is an unworthy no
tion of God, to ascribe to him a conjectual knowledge; if there
were only a conjectural knowledge, he could but conjecturally
foretell any thing ; and then it is possible the events of things
might be contrary to his predictions. It would appear then
that God were deceived and mistaken, and then there could be
no rule of trying things whether they were from God or no; for
the rule God sets down to discern his words from the words of
false prophets, is fhe event and certain accomplishment of what
is predicted. To that, question, How shall we know whether
God has spoken or no? he answers, that if the thing does not
come to pass, the Lord has not spoken, Deut. xviii. '21. If his
knowledge of future things were not certain, there were no sta
bility in this rule, it Avould fall to the ground. We never yet
find God deceived in any prediction, but fhe event did answer
his fore-revelation; his foreknoAvledge therefore is certain and
infallible. We cannot make God uncertain in his knowledge,
but we raust conceive him fluctuating and wavering in his will;
but if his Avill be not yea and nay, but yea, his knowledge is
certain, because he does certainly will and resolve.
This foreknowledge was from eternity. Seeing he knows
things possible in his power, and things future in his will, if his
power and resolves were from eternity, his knowledge must be
so too ; or else we must make him ignorant of his own power
and ignorant of his own wfll from eternity, and consequently

494 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
not from eternity blessed and perfect. His knoAvledge of possi
ble things must run parallel with his power, and his knowledge
of future things run parallel with his will. If he willed from
eternity, he knew from eternity what he willed; but that he did
will from eternity we must grant, unless we would render hira
changeable, and conceive him fo be made in time of not willing,
wUhng. The knowledge God has in time, was always one and
the same, because his understanding is his proper essence, as
perfect as his essence, and of an immutable nature.
And indeed the actual existence of a thing is not simply ne
cessary to its being perfectly knoAvn;' we may see a thing that
is past out of being, when it does not actually exist ; and a car
penter may know the house he is to build, before it be built, by
the model of it in his own mind; much more, we may conceive
the same of God, whose decrees were before the foundation of
the world ;^ and to be before time was, and to be from eternity,
has no difference. As God in his being exceeds all beginning
of time, so does his knowledge all motions of time.
God foreknows all things as present with him from eter
nity. As he knows mutable things with an immutable and firm
knowledge, so he knows future things with a present know
ledge:' not that the things which are produced in time, were
actually and really present with him in their own being from
eternity ; for then they could not be produced in time : had they a
real existence, then they would not be creatures, but God ; and
had they actual being, then they could not be future, for future
speaks a thing to come that is not yet. If things had been
actually present with him, and yet future, they had been made
before they Avere made, and had a being before they had a
being; but they were all present to his knovs^ledge, as if they
were in actual being, because the reason of all things that were
to be made was present with him.
The reason of the wfll of God that they shall be, was equaUy
eternal Avith him, wherein he saw what, and when, and how
he would create things, how he would govern them, to what
ends he would direct them.^ Thus all things are present to
God's knowledge, though in their own nature they may be past
or future, not in esse reali, "in real existence," but in esse in-
telligibili, "to the understanding," objectively; not actuaUy
present; ' for as fhe unchangeableness and infiniteness of God's
knowledge of changeable and finite things, does not make the
things he knoAvs immutable and infinite, so neither does the
eternity of his knowledge make them actually present with
hira from eternity; but all things are present to his understand-
1 Gamach. in Aquin, part 1. q. 14. c. 3. p. 124. 2 Eph. i. 5, and in other places.
3 Gerhard Exeges, ch. 8. de Deo, sect. 13. p. 303.
< Bradward. 1. 3. c. 14. 5 Hornbeck.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

495

ing, because he has at once a view of all successions of times •
and his knowledge of future things is as perfect as of present
things, or what is past; it is not a certain knowledge of present
things, and an uncertain knowledge of future; but his know
ledge of one is as certain and unerring as his knoAvledge of the
other; ' as a man that beholds a circle Avith several lines from
the centre, beholds the lines as they are joined in the centre,
beholds them also as they are distant and severed frora one an
other, beholds thera in their extent and in their point all at once,
though they raay have a great distance from one another. He
saw, from the beginning of time to the last minute of it, all
things coming out of their causes, marching in their order ac
cording to his own appointment; as a man may see a multi
tude of ants, some creeping one way, some another, employed
in several husinesses for their winter provision. The eye of
God at once runs through the whole circle of time ; as the eye
of man upon a toAver sees all the passengers at once, though
some be past, some under the tower, some coming at a further
distance : God, says Job, " looketh to the ends of the earth, and
seeth under the whole heaven," Job xxviii. 24. The know
ledge of God is expressed by sight in Scripture, and futurity to
God is the same thing as distance to us : we can Avith a per
spective glass make things that are afar off appear as if they
were near; and the sun, so many thousand miles distant from
us, to appear as if it were at the end of the glass. Why should
then future things be at so great a distance from God's know
ledge, when things so far from us may be made to approach so
near to us ?
God considers all things in his own simple knoAvledge, as if
they were now acted; and therefore some have chosen to call
the knowledge of things to come, not prescience or foreknow
ledge, but knowledge because God sees all things in one instant,
scientid nunquam deficientis instantias.^ Upon this account
tilings that are to come, are set down in Scripture as present,
and sometimes as past: "Unto us a child is born," Isa. ix. 6,
though not yet born ; so of the sufferings of Christ, " He hath
borne our griefs — he Avas wounded for our transgressions — he
was taken from prison," Isa. liii. 4, &c., not, shall be; and,
" They part my garments among them," Psal. xxii. 18, as if it
were present: all to express the certainty of God's foreknow
ledge, as if things were actually present before him.
This is proper to God, and incommunicable to any crea
ture. Nothing but what is eternal can know all things that are
to come. Suppose a creature might know things that are fo
come, after he is in being; he cannot know things simply as
future, because there were things future before he was in being.
' Fugio Fidei, part 1. ch. 19. ' Boet. Consolat. lib. 5. pros. 6.

496 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
The devfls know not men's hearts, therefore cannot foreteU their
actions with any certainty; they may indeed have a knowledge
of some things fo corae, but it is only conjectural, and often inis-
taken; as the devil was in his predictions among the heathen,
and in his presage of Job's cursing God to his face upon his
pressing calamities, Job. i. 11. Sometimes indeed they have a
certain knowledge of something future by the revelation of God,
when he uses them as instruments of his vengeance, or for the
trial ofhis people; as in the case of Job, when he gave him a
commission to strip him ofhis goods; or as the angels have, -tvhen
he uses them as instruments ofthe deliverance ofhis people.
Tliough this be certain, that God foreknoivs all things and
actions; yet the manner of his knowing all things before
they come, is not so easily resolved. We must not, therefore,
deny this perfection in God, because we understand not the man
ner how he has the knowledge of all things: it Avere unworthy
for us to own no more of God than we can perfectly conceive of
him; we should then own no more of him than that he does
exist. " Canst thou," says Job, " by searching find out God;
canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" Job xi. 7.
Do we nof see things unknown to inferior creatures to be known
to ourselves? Irrational creatures do not apprehend the nature
of a man, nor what we conceive of them Avhen we look upon
them; nor do Ave know what they fancy of us when they look
wistfully upon us; for aught I know, Ave understand as little the
manner oftheir imaginations, as they do of ours: and shall we
ascribe a darkness in God as to future things, because we are
ignorant of them, ahd of the manner how he should know
thera?' Shall we doubt whether God does certainly know those
things which we only conjecture? As our poAver is not the
raeasure of the power of God, so neither is our knoAvledge the
judge of the knowledge of God, no better nor so well as an irra
tional nature can be the judge of our reason. Do Ave perfectly
know the raanner how we know? Shall Ave therefore deny that
we know any thing? We know we have such a faculty which
we call understanding, but does any man certainly know Avhat
it is? And because he does not, shall he deny that Avhich is
plain and evident to him? Because we cannot ascertain our
selves of the causes of the ebbing and flowing of the sea, of the
manner how minerals are engendered in the earth, shall we
therefore deny that which our eyes convince us of?
And this will be a preparation to the last thing.
[5.] God knows all future contingencies, that is, God knows
all things that shall accidentally happen, or, as we say, by
chance ; and he knows all the free motions of men's wflls that
shafl be to the end ofthe world.
' Ficinus in Procl. cap. 19.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

497

If all things be open to him, Heb. iv. 13, then all contingen
cies are, for they are iri the number of things; and as, according
to Christ's speech, those things that are impossible to man, are
possible to God; so those things which are unknown to man,
are known to God; because of the infinite fulness and perfection
of the Divine understanding.
Let us see Avhat a contingent is.
That is contingent which we commonly call accidental, as
when a tile falls suddenly upon a man's head as he is Avalking
in the street ; or, when one letting off a musket at random, shoots
another he did not intend to hit: such Avas that arrow whereby
Ahab was killed, shot by a soldier at a venture, 1 Kings xxii.
34; this sorae call a raixed contingent, made up partly of neces
sity, and partly of accident; it is necessary the bullet, when sent
out of the gun, or arrow out of the bow, should fly and light
some where, but it is an accident that it hits this or that man,
that was never intended by the archer. Other things, as volun
tary actions, are purely contingents, and have nothing of neces
sity in thera; all free actions that depend upon the Avill of raan,
whether to do, or not to do, are of this nature, because they de
pend not upon a necessary cause, as burning does upon the fire,
moistening upon water, or as descent or falling down is neces
sary to a heavy body, for those cannot in their own nature do
otherwise; but the other actions depend upon a free agent, able
to turn to this or that point, and determine himself as he pleases.
Now we must know, that what is accidental in regard of the
creature, is not so in regard of God; the manner of Ahab's
death was accidental, in regard of the hand by which he wa:s
slain, but not in regard of God who foretold his death, and
foreknew the shot, and directed the arrow. God Avas not
uncertain before of the manner of his faU, nor hovered over
the battle to watch for an opportunity to accomplish his own
prediction. What may be or not be, in regard of us, is certain
in regard of God; to imagine that what is accidental to us, is
so to God, is to measure God by our short line. How many
events following upon the results of princes in their counsels,
seera to persons ignorant of those counsels fo be a haphazard,
yet were not contingencies to the prince and his assistants, but
foreseen by hira as certainly to issue so as they do, which they
knew before would be the fruit of such causes and instruments
they would knit together! That^maybe necessary in regard
of God's foreknowledge, which is merely accidental in regard
of the naturali:d|sposition of -the immediate causes which do
actually produce it; .contingent in,:its oavu nature, and in regard
of us, but fixed in.the knowledge of God. One Ulustrates it
by this simihtude: a master sends two servants to one and the
same place, two several ways, unknown to one another; they
Vol. I.— 63

498 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
meet at the place which their master had appointed thera ;
their raeeting is accidental fo thera, one knows not ofthe other,
but it was foreseen by the master that they should so meet,
and that in regard of them it would seem a mere accident, till
they came to explain the business to one another. Both the
necessity of their meeting in regard to their master's order, and
the accidentalness of it in regard of themselves, were in both
their circumstances foreknown by the master that employed
4hem. '
For the clearing of this, take it in this method.
It is an unworthy conceit of God in any to exclude him
from the knoivledge of tliese things.
For it will be a strange contracting of hira, to allow him no
greater a knoAvledge than we have ourselves. Contingencies
are known to us when they come into act, and pass from futu
rity to reality; and when they are present to us, we can order
our affairs accordingly. Shall we allow God no greater a
measure of knowledge than we have, and make him as blind
as ourselves, not to see things of that nature before they come
to pass? Shall God know them no more, shall we imagine
God knows no otherwise than we know? and that he does,
like us, stand gazing with admiration at events? Man can
conjecture many things: is it fit to ascribe the same uncer
tainty to God, as though he, as Avell as we, could have no
assurance fill the issue appear in the view of all? If God does
not certainly foreknow them, he does but conjecture them; but
a conjectural knowledge is by no means to be fastened on
God; for that is not knowledge, but guess, and destroys a
Deity by making him subject to mistake; for he that only
guesseth, may guess wrong: so that this is to make God like
ourselves, and strip him of a universally acknowledged perfec
tion of omniscience. " A conjectural knowledge," saiih one,
"is as unworthy of God, as the creature is unworthy of om
niscience." ^ It is certain man hath a liberty fo act many
things this or that way as he pleases ; fo walk to this or that
quarter, to speak or not fo speak, to do this or that thing or not
to do it; which way a raan will certainly determine himself, is
unknown before to any creature, yea often at the present to
himself for he may be in suspense; but shall we imagine this
future determination of himself is concealed from God? Those
that deny God's foreknowledge in such cases, must either say,
that God hath an opinion that a man will resolve rather this
way than that; but then if a man by his liberty determine
himself contrary to the opinion of God, is not God then de
ceived; and what rational creature can OAvn him for a God
that can be deceived in any thing? Or else they must say that
1 Zanch. -2 Scrivener.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE,

499

God is at uncertainty, and suspends his opinion without deter
mining it any way: then he cannot know free acts till they are
done; he would then depend upon the creature for his infor
mation; his knoAvledge would be every instant increased, as
things, he knew not before, came into act; and since there are
every minute an innumerable multitude of various imagina
tions in the rainds of raen, there would be every minute an
accession of new knowledge to God, which he had not before.
Besides, this knowledge would be mutable according to the
wavering and weathercock resolutions of men, one while
standing to this point, another while to that, if he depended
upon the creature's determination for his knowledge.
Again, if the free acts of men were unknown before to God,
no raan can see how there can be any governraent of the world
by hira. Such contingencies raay happen, and such resolves
of men's free wills unknown to God, as may perplex his affairs,
and put him upon new counsels and methods for attaining those
ends which he settled at the first creation of things. If things
happen which God knows not of before, this must be the con
sequence; Avhere there is no foresight there is no providence;
things may happen so sudden, if God be ignorant of them, that
they may give a check to his intentions and scheme of govern
ment, and put him upon changing the model of it. How pften
does a smafl intervening circumstance, unforeseen by man, dash
in pieces a long meditated and well formed design! To govern
necessary causes, as sun and stars, whose effects are natural
and constant in theraselves, is easy to be iraagined: but how
to govern the world, that consists of iSO many men of free will
able to determine themselves to this*' or that, and which have
no constancy in themselves, as the sun and stars have, cannot
be imagined, unless we will alloAV in God as great a certainty
of foreknowledge of the designs and actions of men, as there
is inconstancy in their resolves. God must be altering the me
thods of his government every day, every hour, every minute,
according to the determinations of men, which are so various
and changeable in the Avhole compass ofthe world in the space
of one minute; he raust wait to see Avhat the counsels of men
wUl be, before he could settle his own methods of government;
and so must govern the world according to their mutability, ari^
not according to any certainty in himself But his counsel 4?
stable in the midst of multitudes of free devices in the heart of
man, Prov. xix. 21 ; and knowing them all before, orders them
to be subservient to his own stable counsel. Ifhe cannot know
what to-morrow wfll bring forth in the mind of a raan, how
can he certainly settle his own determination of goy,e.rning
hira? His decrees and resolves must be teraporal, andafisej^ro
renatd, "as occasion requires," and he must always r be in

500 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
counsel what he should do upon every change of men's minds.
This is an unworthy conceit of the infinite Majesty of heaven,
to make his governraent depend upon the resolves of men, ra
ther than their resolves upon the design of God.
It is therefore certain that God does foreknoAV the free and
voluntary acts of men. How could he else order his people to
ask of him things to come, in order to their deliverance, such
things as depended upon the will of man, if he foreknew not
the motions of their will? Isa. xiv. 11.
He knoAvs actions good or indifferent depending upon the
liberty of man's avUI, as much as any whatsoever. Several of
these he has foretold; not only a person to build up Jerusalem
was predicted by him, but the name of that person, Cyrus, Isa.
xliv. 28. What is more contingent, or is more the eft'ect of the
liberty of man's Avill, than the names of their children? Was
not the destruction of the Babylonish empire foretold, which
Cyrus undertook, not by any compulsion, but by a free inclina
tion and resolve of his own will? And was not the dismission
of the Jcavs into their own country a voluntary act in that con
queror? If you consider the liberty of man's will, might not
Cyrus as well have continued their yoke as have struck off their
chains, and kept thera captive as well as dismissed them? Had
it not been for his own interest, rather fo have strengthened
the fetters of so turbulent a people, who being tenacious of
their religion and laws, different from that professed by the
whole world, were like to make disturbances more when they
were linked in a body in their own country, than when they
were transplanted and scattered into the several parts of his
empire? It was in the power of Cyrus (take him as a raan) to
choose one or the other; his interest invited him to continue
their captivity, rather than grant their deliverance; yet God
knew that he would Avillingly do this rather than the other; he
knew this which depended upon the wfll of Cyrus; and why
may not an infinite God foreknow the free acts of all men, as
well as of one? If the liberty of Cyrus's will was no hindrance
to God's certain and infallible foreknowledge ofit, how can the
contingency of any other thing be a hindrance to him? For
there is the same reason of one and aU; and his government
extends fo every vUlage, every family, every person, as well as
to kingdoms and nations. |
So God foretold by his prophet, not only the destruction of
Jeroboam's altar, but the name of the person that should be
the instrument of it, 1 Kings xni. 2; and this about three hun
dred years before Josiah's birth. It is a wonder that none of
the pious kings of Judah, in detestation of idolatry, and hopes
to recover again the kingdom of Israel, had in all that space
named one of their sons by that narae of Josiah, in hopes that

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 501
that prophesy should be accomplished by him; or that Manas
seh only should do this, who was fhe greatest imitator of Jero
boam's idolatry among all the Jewish kings, and indeed Avent
beyond them; and had no mind to destroy in another kingdom
what he propagated in his own. What is freer than the impo
sition of a narae? yet this God forekncAV; and this Josiah was
Manasseh's son, 2 Kings xxi. 26. Was there any thing more
voluntary than for Pharaoh to honour the butler by restoring
hira to his place, and punish the baker by hanging hira on a
gibbet? yet this was foretold,^ Gen. xl. 8. And were not all
the voluntary acts of men, which were the means of Joseph's
advancement, foreknown by God, as well as his exaltation,
which was the end he aimed at by those means? Many of these
may be reckoned up.
Can all the free acts of man surmount the infinite capacity
of fhe Divine understanding ? If God singles out one voluntary
action in man as contingent as any, and lying among a vast
number of other designs and resolutions, both antecedent and
suhsequent; why should he not know the Avhole mass of men's
thoughts and actions, and pierce into all that the liberty of man's
will can effect? Why should he not know every grain, as well
as one that lies in the midst of many ofthe same kind?
And since the Scripture gives so large an account of contin
gents, predicted by God, no man can certainly prove that any
thing is unforeknown to him. It is as reasonable to think he
knows every contingent, as that he knows sorae that lie as
much hid frora the eye of any creature, since there is no raore
difficulty to an infinite understanding to know all, than to know
sorae.' Indeed if we deny God's foreknowledge ofthe volun
tary actions of raen, we must strike ourselves off from the belief
of Scripture predictions, that yet remain unaccomplished, and
wfll be brought about by the voluntary engagements of raen,
as the ruin of antichrist, for instance. If God foreknows not
the secret raotions of raan's wiU, how can he foreteU thera? If
Ave strip him of this perfection of prescience, why should we
believe a word of Scripture predictions? All the credit ofthe
word of God is torn up by the roots. If God were uncertain of
such events, how can we reconcile God's declaration of thera
to his truth, and his demanding our belief of them to his good
ness? Were it good and righteous in God to urge us to the
belief of that he were uncertain of himself? How could he be
true in predicting things he were not sure of? or good, in re
quiring credit to be given to that Avhich might be false ? This
1 The Stoics that thought their souls to be some particle of God ('Artosniia-
liata,, " pieces pulled off from him,") did conclude from thence that he knevp all
the motions oftheir souls as his ovfn mover, as things coherent with him. — ^Arrian
Epictet. lib. 1. chap. 14, p. 60.

502 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
would necessarily follow, if God did not foreknow the motions
of men's wills, whereby many of his predictions were fulfilled,
and some remain yet to be accomplished.
God also equally foreknows the voluntary sinful motions
of men's wills.
He has foretold several of them. Were not all the minute
sinful circumstances about the death of our blessed Redeemer,
as fhe piercing him, giving him gall to drink, foretold, as well
as the not breaking his bones, and parting his garments? What
were those but the free actions of men, which they did willingly
without any constraint? And those foretold by David, Isaiah,
and other prophets, some above a thousand, some eight hun
dred, and some more, some fewer years, before they carae to
pass: and events punctually answered the prophecies. Many
sinful acts of men, which depended upon their free-wiU, have
been foretold: the Egyptians' voluntary oppressing Israel, Gen.
XV. 13; Pharaoh's hardening his heart against the voice of
Moses, Exod. iii. 19; that Isaiah's message would be in vain
to the people, Isa. vi. 9; that fhe Israelites would be rebellious
after Moses' death, and turn idolaters, Deut. xxxi. 16; Judas'
betraying of our Saviour, a voluntary action, John vi. ult. He
Avas not forced to do what he did, for he had some kind of re
pentance for it; and not violence, but voluntariness falls under
repentance. The truth of God has depended upon this foresight. Let us
consider that declaration in Gen. v. 16, but " the fourth genera
tion, they shall come hither again;" that is, the posterity of
Abraham shall come into Canaan; "for the iniquity of the
Amorites is not yet full." ' God makes a promise to Abraham,
of giving his posterity the land of Canaan, not presently, but in
the fourth generation. If the truth of God be infallible in the
performance of his promise, his understanding is as infallible
in the foresight of the Amorites' sin ; the fulness of their iniquity
was to precede the Israelites' possession. Did fhe truth of God
depend upon an uncertainty? Did he make the promise hand
over head (as we say?) How could he with any wisdom and
truth assure Israel of the possession of the land in the fourth
generation, if he had not been sure that the Amorites would
fill up the measure of their iniquities by that time? If Abraham
had been a Socinian, to deny God's knowledge of the free acts
of men, had he not had a fine excuse for unbelief? What
would his reply have been to God ? Alas, Lord, this is not a
promise to be relied upon, the Amorites' iniquity depends upon
the acts of their free will, and such thou canst have no know
ledge of; thou canst see no more than a likelihood of their ini
quity being full, and therefore there is but a likelihood of thy
' Vid. Rivet, in loc. exerci. 86. p. 329.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

503

performing thy proraise, and not a certainty. Would not this
be judged not only a saucy, but a blasphemous answer? And
upon these prhiciples the truth of the most faithful God had
been dashed to uncertainty and a peradventure.
God provided a remedy for man's sin, and therefore foresaw
the entrance ofit into the world by the fall of Adam. He had
a decree before the foundation of the world, to manifest his
wisdom in the gospel by Jesus Christ, an eternal purpose in
Jesus Christ, Eph. iii. 11. And a decree of election passed
before fhe foundation of the Avorld; a separation of some to
redemption, and forgiveness of sin in the blood of Christ, in
whom they were from eternity chosen, as Avell as in time ac
cepted in Christ, Eph. i. 4. 6, 7; which is called a purpose in
himself, ver. 9. Had not sin entered, there had been no occa
sion for the death of the Son of God, it being every where in
Scripture laid upon that score; a decree for the shedding of
blood, supposed a decree for the permission of sin, and a cer
tain foreknoAvledge of God that it would be committed by raan.
An uncertainty of foreknowledge, and a fixedness of purpose,
are not consistent in a wise raan, much less in the only wise
God. God's purpose to manifest his wisdom to men and
angels in this way, might have been defeated, had God had
only a conjectural foreknowledge of the fall of man; and all
those solemn purposes of displaying his perfections in those
methods had been to no purpose;' the provision of a remedy
supposed a certainty of the disease. If a sparrow fall not to
the ground without the will of God, how much less could such
a deplorable ruin fall upon mankind, without God's will per
mitting it, and his knowledge foreseeing it!
It is not hard to conceive how God might foreknow it:^ he
indeed decreed to create raan in an excellent state; the good
ness of God could not but furnish him with a power to stand;
yet in his wisdom he might foresee, that the devil would be
envious of man's happiness, and would out of envy attempt
his subversion. As God knew of what temper the faculties
were he had endued man with, and how far they were able to
endure the assaults of a temptation; so he also foreknew the
grand subtlety of Satan, how he would lay his mine, and to
what point he would drive his temptation; how he would pro
pose and manage it, and direct his battery against the sensitive
appetite, and assault the Aveakest part of the fort. IMight he
not foresee that the efficacy of fhe temptation would exceed
the measure ofthe resistance ? Cannot God know how far the
malice of Satan would extend, what shots he would according
to his nature use, how high he would charge his temptation
without his powerful restraint, as Avell as an engineer judge
- Mares, cont. Volkel. lib. 1. cap. 24. p. 343. ^ Amyrald. de Prredestin. cap. 6.

504 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
how raany shots of a cannon wfll make a breach in a town,
and how raany casks of powder will blow up a fortress, who
never yet built the one nor founded the other? We may easUyj
conclude God could not be deceived in the judgment of the
issue and event, since he knew how far he would let Satan
loose, how far he would permit man to act; and since he divesi
to the bottom of the nature of all things, he foresaw that Adam,
was endued wifh an ability to stand, as he foresaw that Ben-
hadad might naturally recover of his disease; but he foresaw
-also that Adam would sink under the allurements of the temp
tation, as he foresaw that Hazael would not let Benhadad live,
2 Kings viii. 10.
Now since the whole race of mankind lies in corruption, and
is subject to the power of the devfl, 1 John iii. 8; may not God,
that knows the corruption in every man's nature, and the force
of every man's spirit, and what every particular nature will
incline him to upon such objects proposed to him, and what fhe
reasons of the temptation will be, know also the issues? Is
there any difficulty in God's foreknowing this, since man
knoAving the nature of one he is Avell acquainted with, can
conclude what sentiments he will have, and hoAv he will be
have himself upon presenting this or that object to hira ?
If a raan that understands the disposition ofhis child, or ser
vant, knows before what he will do upon such an occasion;
may not God much more, who knows the inchnations of all
his creatures and from eternity, run with his eyes over aU the
works he intended? Our wills are in the number of causes;
and since God knows our wills, as causes, better than Ave do
ourselves, why should he be ignorant of the effects.
God determines to give grace to such a man ; not to give it
to another, but leave him to himself, and suffer such teraptations
to assault him: now God knowing the corruption of man in the
whole mass, and in every part of it, is it not easy for him to
foreknow Avhat the future actions of the wiU Avill be, Avhen the
tinder and fire meet together, and how such a raan Avill deter
mine himself both as to the substance and manner of the action?
Is it not easy for him to know, how a corrupted temper and a
temptation will suit? God is exactly privy to all the gall in the
hearts of men, and what principles they will have, before they
have a being. He knows their thoughts afar off, Psal. cxxxix.
2, as far ofl' as eternity, as some explain the Avords; and thoughts
are as voluntary as any thing: he knows the power and inclina
tions of raen in the order of second causes; he understands the
corruption of men, as well as the poison of dragons, and the
venom of asps; this is laid up in store with him, and sealed
among his treasures, Deut. xxxii. 33, 34; among the treasures
ofhis foreknowledge, say some.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

505

What was the cruelty of Hazael, but a free act? yet God
knew the frarae of his heart, and what acts of murder and op
pression would spring from that bitter fountain, before Hazael
had conceived them in hiraself, 2 Kings viu. 12. As a man that
knows the mineral through which waters pass, may know what
relish they will have before they appear above the earth; so
our Saviour knew how Peter would deny him; he knew what
quantity of powder would serve for such a battery; in what
measure he would let loose Satan, how far he would leave the
reins in Peter's hands, and then the issue rnight easily be known.
And so in every act of man, God knows in his own will what
measure of grace he will give, to determine the will to good,
and what measure of grace he will wflhdraAV frora such a per
son, or not give to him, and consequently, how far such a per
son will fall or not. God knows the inclinations of the creature ;
he knows his own permissions, what degrees of grace he will
either allow him or keep from hira, according to which wUl be
the degree of his sin. This raay in sorae measure help our
conceptions in this, though, as was said before, the manner of
God's foreknowledge is not so easily explicable.
To conclude this part ofthe subject; God's foreknowledge of
man's voluntary actions does not necessitate the will of man.
The foreknowledge of God is not deceived, nor the liberty of
man's will diminished. I shall not trouble you with any school
distinctions, but be as plain as I can, laying down several pro
positions in this case.
It is certain all necessity does not take away liberty. In
deed a corapulsive necessity takes away liberty; but a necessity
of immutability removes not liberty from God; why should then
a necessity of infallibility in God remove liberty from the crea
ture? God did necessarily create the world, because he decreed
it; yet freely because his will from eternity stood to it; he freely
decreed it, and freely created it: as the apostle says in regard of
God's decrees, "who hath been his counsellor?" Rora. xi. 34;
so in regard ofhis actions I may say, who has been his compel-
ler? he freely decreed, and he freely created. Jesus Christ neces
sarily took our flesh, because he had covenanted with God so
to do; yet he acted freely and voluntarily according to that
covenant, otherwise his death had not been efficacious for us.
A good man does naturally, necessarily love his children, yet
voluntarUy. It is part ofthe happiness of the blessed, to love
God unchangeably, yet freely, for it would not be their happi
ness if it were done by compulsion. What is done by force,
cannot be called felicity, because there is no delight or compla
cency in it; and though the blessed love God freely, yet if there
Avere a possibflity of change, it would not be their happiness;
their blessedness would be damped by their fear of faUing from
Vol. I.— 64

506 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
this love, and consequently frora their nearness to God, in whom
their happiness consists : God foreknows that they wUl love him
for ever; but are they therefore compelled for ever to love him?
If there were such a kind of constraint, heaven would be ren
dered burdensome to them, and so no heaven.
Again, God's foreknowledge of what he wifl do, does not ne
cessitate hiin to do; he foreknew that he Avould create a Avorld,
yet he freely created a world. God's foreknowledge does not
necessitate himself; Avhy should it necessitate us raore than
himself? We may instance in ourselves: when we will a thing,
we necessarily use our faculty of will ; and when we freely will
any thing, it is necessary that we freely will; but this necessity
does not exclude but include liberty: or, more plainly, when a
man writes or speaks, AvhUst he writes or speaks, those actions
are necessary, because to speak and be sUent, to write and not
to write at the same time, are irapossible; yet our Avriting or
speaking does not fake away the power not to write or to be
silent at that tirae if a man would be so ; for he might have
chosen Avhether he would have spoken or Avritten. So there is a
necessity of such actions of man which God foresees; that is, a
necessity of infaUibility, because God cannot be deceived; but
not a coactive necessity, as if man were compelled by God to act
thus or thus.
No man can say in any of his voluntary actions that he
ever found any force upon him. When any of us have done
any thing according to our wUls, can we say we could not have
done the contrary to it? Were we determined to it in our own
intrinsic nature, or did we not determine ourselves ? Did we
not act either according to our reason, or according to outward
allurements ? did we find any thing without us or within us,
that did force our wills to the embracing this or that? What
ever action you do, you do it because you judge it fit to be done ;
or because you will do it. What though God foresaw that you
would do so, and that you would do this or that, did you feel
any force upon you ? did you not act according to your nature ?
God foresees that you will eat or walk at such a time; do you
find any thing that moves you to eat, but your own appe
tite? or to walk, but your own reason and will? If prescience
had imposed any necessity upon man, should he not pro
bably have found some kind of plea from it in the mouth of
Adam ? He knew as much as any man ever since knew of
the nature of God, as discoverable in creation; he could not
in innocence fancy an ignorant God, a God that knew nothing
of future things ; he could not be so ignorant of his own
action, but he must have perceived a force upon his Avfll, had
there been any; had he thought that God's prescience im
posed any necessity upon him, he would not have omflted the

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 5Q17
plea, especiaUy when he was so daring as to charge the provi
dence of God in the gift of the woman to him, to be the cause
of his crirae. Gen. ni. 12. How came his posterity to invent
new charges against God, which their father Adam never
thought of, who had more knowledge than all of them ? He
could find no cause of his sin but the liberty of his OAvn will;
he charges it not upon any necessity frora the devU, or any
necessity from God; nor does he allege the gift of the woman
as a necessary cause of his sin, but an occasion of it, by giving
the fruit to him. Judas knew that our Saviour did foreknow
his treachery, for he had told him ofit in the hearing ofhis dis
ciples, John xiu. 21. 26 ; yet he never charged the necessity of
his crime upon the foreknowledge ofhis Master. If Judas had
not done it freely, he had had no reason to repent of it ; his repen
tance justifies Christ from imposing any necessity upon him by
that foreknowledge. No man acts any thing, but he can give
an account of the motives of his action ; he cannot father it upon
a blind necessity ; the wUl cannot be corapelled, for then it
would cease to be will. God does not root up the foundations
of nature, or change the order of it, and make men unable fo
act like men, that is, as free agents. God foreknoAvs the actions
of irrational creatures, this concludes no violence upon their
nature ; for we find their actions to be according to their
nature, and spontaneous.
God's foreknowledge is not [simply considered) the cause
of 'any thing. It puts nothing into things, but only beholds
them as present, and arising from their proper causes. The
knowledge of God is not the principle of things, or the cause of
their existence, but directive of the action : nothing is betiause
God knows it, but because God wflls it, either positively or
perraissively. God knoAVS all things possible, yet because God
knows them they are not brought into actual existence, but
remain still only as things possible : knowledge only appre
hends a thing, but acts nothing; it is the rule of acting, but not
the cause of acting: the wfll is the iraraediate principle, and the
power the iraraediate cause. To know a thing is not to, do a
thing, for then we may be said to do every thing that we know ;
but every man knows those things which he never did, and
never will do. KnoAvledge in flself is an apprehension of a
thing, and is not the cause of it. A spectator of a thing is not
the cause of that thing which he sees, that is, he is not fhe
cause ofit as he beholds it: we see a man Avrfle, we knoAv be
fore that he will Avrite at such a time ; but this foreknowledge
is not the cause of his writing. We see a man walk, but our
vision of him brings no necessity of walking upon him: he was
free to walk or not to walk.' We foreknow that death wifl
' Rawler of the World, lib. 1. cap, 1, sect. 12.

508 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
seize upon all men, we foreknoAv that the seasons of the year
will succeed one another; yet is not our foreknowledge the
cause of this succession of spring after winter, or of the death
of all men, or any man. We see one man fighting with ano
ther; our sight is not the cause of that contest, but some quarrel
among themselves exciting their own passions. As the know
ledge of present things imposes no necessity upon them while
they are acting and present; so the knowledge of future things
iraposes no necessity upon them while they are coraing. We
are certain there will be men in the world to-morrow, and that
the sea will ebb and flow; but is this knowledge of ours the
cause that those things wUl be so? I know that the sun will
rise to-morrow, it is true that it shall rise; but it is not true
that my foreknowledge makes it to rise. If a physician prog
nosticates upon seeing the intemperances and debaucheries of
raen, that they will fall into such a disteraper, is his prognosti
cation any cause of their disease, or of the sharpness of any
symptoms attending it? The prophet foretold the cruelty of
Hazael before he committed it; but who will say, that the
prophet was the cause of his commission of that evil? And
thus the foreknowledge of God takes not away the liberty of
man's will, no more than a foreknowledge that we have of
any man's actions takes away his liberty. We may upon our
knowledge of the temper of a raan, certainly foreknow, that if
he fall into such company, and get among his cups, he will be
drunk; but is this foreknowledge the cause that he is drunk?
no, the cause is the liberty of his own wfll, and not resisting
the temptation. God purposes to leave such a man to himself
and his own ways; and man being so left, God foreknows
what will be done by him according to that corrupt nature
which is in him: though the decree of God of leaving a man
to the liberty of his oavu wfll be certain, yet the liberty of
man's will as thus left, is the cause of all the extravagances he
does commit. Suppose Adam had stood, would not God cer
tainly have foreseen that he would have stood ? yet it would
have been concluded that Adam had stood, not by any neces
sity of God's foreknowledge, but by the liberty of his own will.
Why should then the foreknowledge of God add raore necessity
to his falling than to his standing? And though it be said
sometiraes in Scripture, that such a thing was done that the
Scripture might be fulfilled, as John xii. 38. ' " That the say
ings of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled — Lord, who hath
believed our report?" the word That, does not infer that the
prediction of the prophet was the cause of the Jews' unbelief,
but infers this, that the prediction was manifested to be true
by their unbelief, and the event answered the prediction: this
' Rivet, in lea. liii. 1. p, 16.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. s^qq
prediction was not the cause of their sin, but their foreseen sin
was the cause of this prediction. And so the particle that is
taken, Psal. li. 6. "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned —
that thou mightest be justified," &c.; the justifying God was
not the end and the intent of the sin, but the event of it upon
his acknowledgment.
God foreknoivs things because they will come to pass; but
thitigs are not future because God knows them. Foreknow
ledge pre-supposeth the object which is foreknown; a thing
that is to come to pass is the object of the Divine knowledge,
but not the cause of the act of Divine knowledge; and though
the foreknowledge of God does in eternity precede the actual
presence of a thing which is foreseen as future, yet the future
thing, in regard of its futurity, is as eternal as the foreknow
ledge of God; as the voice is uttered before it be heard, and a
thing is visible before it be seen, and a thing knowable before
it be known. But how comes it to be knowable to God? It
must be answered, either in the power of God as a thing pos
sible, or in the will of God as a thing future; he first willed,
and then knew what he willed; he knew what he willed to
effect, and he knew what he willed to permit: as he willed the
death of Christ by a determinate counsel, and willed the per
mission ofthe Jews' sin, and the ordering ofthe malice oftheir
nature to that end. Acts fl. 23. God decrees to make a rational
creature, and to govern him by a law; God decrees not to
hinder this rational creature from transgressing his law; and
God foresees that what he would not hinder would come to
pass. Man did not sin because God foresaw him; but God
foresaw him to sin because man would sin. If Adam and
other men would have acted otherwise, God would have fore
known that they would have acted well. God foresaw our
actions because they would so come to pass by the rhotion of
our free will, which he would permit, which he would concur
with, Avhich he would order to his own holy and glorious ends,
for the manifestation of the perfection of his nature. If I see a
man lie in a sink, no necessity is inferred upon him from my
sight to lie in that filthy place; but there is a necessity inferred
by him that lies there, that I should see him in that condition
if I pass by, and cast ray eye that way.
God did not only foreknow our actions, but the manner of
our actions. That is, he did not only know that we would do
such actions, but that we would do them freely; he foresaw
that the will would freely determine itself to this or that: the
knowledge of God takes not away the nature of things; though
God knoAvs possible things, yet they remain in the nature of
possibility; and though God knows contingent things, yet they

510 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
remain in the nature of contingencies; and though God knows
free agents, yet they remain in the nature of liberty. God did
not foreknow fhe actions of man, as necessary, but as free; so
that liberty is rather established by this foreknowledge, than
removed: God did not foreknow that Adara had not a power
to stand, or that any man has not a poAver to omit such a sin
ful action, but that he would not omit it. Man has a power to
do otherwise than that which God foreknows he wUl do: Adam
was not determined by any iuAvard necessity to fall, nor any
man by any inward necessity to commit this or that particular
sin; but God foresaw that he would fall, and fall freely; for he
saw the whole circle of means and cause,s whereby such and
such actions should be produced; and can be no more ignorant
of the motions of our wills, and the manner of them, than an
artificer can be ignorant of the motions .of his watch, and how
far the spring wfll let down the string in the space of an hour:
he sees all causes leading to such events in their Avhole order,
and, how the free wUl of raan Avill comply with this, or refuse
that; he changes not the manner of the creature's operation,
whatsoever it be.
But lohat if the foreknoioledge of God, and the liberty of
the will, cannot be fully reconciled by man? shall we there
fore deny a perfection in God to support a liberty in our
selves? Shall we rather fasten ignorance upon God, and accuse
him of blindness, to maintain our liberty? That God does fore
know every thing, and yet that there is liberty in the rational
creature,, are both certain; but how fully to reconcUe them may
surmount the understanding of man. Some truths the disciples
were not capable of bearing in the days of Christ ; and several
truths our understandings cannot reach as long as the world
does last; yet in the mean time we must, on the one hand, take
heed of conceiving God ignorant, and, on the other hand, of
imagining the creature necessitated; the one wiU render God
imperfect, and the other wfll seera to render hira unjust, in
punishing man for that sin Avhich he could not avoid, but was
brought into by a fatal necessity. God is sufficient to render a
reason of his own proceedings, and clear up aU at the day of
judgment; it is a part of man's curiosity, since the fall, to be
prying into God's secrets, things too high for hira; whereby he
singes his oavu Avings, and confounds his oavu understanding.
It is a cursed affectation that runs in the blood of Adara's pos
terity, to know as God, though our first father sraarted and
ruined his posterity in that attempt: the ways and knowledge
of God are as much above our thoughts and conceptions as the
heavens are above the earth, Isa. Iv. 9, and so subhme, that we
cannot comprehend them in their true and just greatness; his

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

511

designs are so mysterious, and the ways of his conduct so pro
found, that it is not possible to dive info them.' The force of
our understandings is below his infinite wisdom, and therefore
we should adore him with an humble astonishment, and cry out
with the apostle, " 0 the depth of the riches both of the Avis
dom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judg
ments, and his ways past finding out!" Rom. xi. 33. "When-
eyer we meet with depths that we cannot fathom, let us
remember that he is God, and we his creatures; and not be
- guilty of so great extravagance as to think that a subject can
pierce'into all the secrets of a prince, or a work understand all
the operations of the artificer. Let us only resolve not to fasten
any thing on God that is unworthy of the perfection of his
nature, and dishonourable to the glory of his majesty; nor
imagine that we can ever step out of the rank of creatures to
the glory of the Deity, to understand fully every thing in his
nature. So much for the second general — What God knows.
3. The next is, How God knows all things? As it is neces
sary we should conceive God to be an understanding Being,
else he could not be God, so we must conceive his understand
ing to be infinitely more pure and perfect than ours in the act
of it, else we liken him to ourselves, and debase hira as low as
his footstool.^ As among creatures there are degrees of being
and perfection; plants above earth and^sand, because they have
a power of growth; beasts above plants, because to their power
of growth there is an addition of excellency of sense; rational
creatures above beasts, because to sense there is added the dig
nity of reason, and the understanding of man is more noble than
all fhe vegetative power of plants, or the sensitive power of
beasts; God therefore must be infinitely more excellent in his
understanding, and therefore in the manner of it. As man dif
fers from a beast in regard of his knowledge, so does God also
from man, in regard of his knowledge. As God therefore is,
in being and perfection, infinitely more above a man than a
raan is above a beast, the manner of his knowledge must be
infinitely more above a man's knowledge, than the knowledge
of a man is above that of a beast: our understandings can clasp
an object in a moment, that is at a great distance from our
sense; our eye by one elevated motion can view the heavens:
the raanner of God's understanding must be inconceivably
above our glimmerings : as the manner of his being is infinitely
more perfect than all beings, so must the manner of his under
standing be infinflely more perfect than all created understand
ings. Indeed the manner of God's knowledge can no more be
I Daille, Melang. part 1. p. 712. 725. 2 Maxim. Tyrius Dissert. I. p. 9, 10.

512 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
known by us, than his essence can be known by us;' and the
the sarae incapacity in raan which renders him unable to com
prehend the being of God, renders him as unable to compre
hend the manner of God's understanding. As there is a vast
distance between the essence of God and our beings, so there
is between the thoughts of God and our thoughts; the heavens
are not so much higher than the earth, as the thoughts of God
are above the thoughts of men, yea, and of the highest angel.,
Isa. Iv. 8, 9. Yet though we know not the manner of God's
knowledge, we know that he knows; as, though we know not
the infiniteness of God, yet we know that he is infinite. Il is
God's sole prerogative to know himself, what he is; and it is
equally his prerogative to know how he knows; the manner
of God's knowledge therefore must be considered by us, as
free from those imperfections our knowledge is encumbered
wifh. In general, God does necessarily know all things; he is ne
cessarily omnipresent, because of the immensity of his essence;
so he is necessarily omniscient, becaj.ise of the infiniteness of
his understanding. It is no more at the liberty of his will,
whether he AviU know things, than whether he will be able to
create all things; it is no more at the liberty of his will, whether
he will be omniscient, than Avhether he will be holy: he can as
little be ignorant as he can be impure; he knows not all things
because he will know them, but because it is essential to his
nature to know them.
In particular,
(1.) God knows by his own essence; that is, he sees the
nature of things in the ideas of his own mind, and the events
of things in the decrees of his own will: he knows them not
by viewing the things, but by viewing himself; his own essence
is the mirror and. book, wherein he beholds all things that he
does ordain, dispose, and execute: and so he knows all things
in the first and original cause, which is no other than his own
essence wiUing, and his own essence executing what he Avills;
he knows thera in his power, as the physical principle, in his
will, as fhe moral principle of things, as some speak.
He borrows not the knowledge of creatures from the crea
tures, nor depends upon them for means of understanding, as
we poor worms do, who are beholden to the objects abroad to
assist us with images of things, and to our senses to convey
thera into our rainds. God would then acquire a perfection
from those things which are below himself, and an excellency
from those things that are vile; his knowledge would not pre
cede the being of the creatures, but the creatures would be
before the act of his knowledge. If he understood by images
' Maimonides More Nevochin. part, 3, c. 20. p. 391, 392, 393.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

513

drawn from the creatures, as we do, there would be something
in God which is not God, namely, the images of things drawn
from outward objects. God would then depend upon creatures
for that which is more noble than a bare being; for to be
understanding, is more excellent than barely to be. Besides,
if God's knowledge of his creatures were derived from the
creatures by the impression of any thing upon hira, as there is
upon us, he could not know from eternity, because from eter
nity there was no actual existence of any thing but himself;
and therefore there could not be any images shot out from any
thing, because there was not any thing in being but God: as
there is no principle of being to any thing but by his e.ssence;
so there is no principle of the knowledge of any thing by him
self but his essence. If the knowledge of God were distinct
frora his essence, his knowledge were not eternal, because
there is nothing eternal but his essence.
His understanding is not a faculty in him as it is in us, but
the same with his essence, because of the simplicity of his
nature; God is not made up of various parts, one distinct from
another, as we are, and therefore does not understand by a
part of himself, but by himself;" so that to be and to understand
is the same with God: his essence is not one thing, and the
poAver whereby he understands, another; he would then be
compounded, and not be the most siraple being. This also is
necessary for the perfection of God; for the raore perfect and
noble the way and manner of knowing is, the more perfect and
noble is the knowledge. The perfection of knowledge depends
upon the excellency of the medium whereby we know. As a
knowledge by reason is a .more noble way of knowing than
knowledge by sense; so it is more excellent for God to know
by his essence, than by any thing without hira, any thing mix
ed with him: the first would render him dependent, and the
other would deraolish his simphcity.
Again, the natures of all things are contained in God; not
formally, for then the nature of the creatures would be God;
but eminently: " He that planted the ear, shaU he not hear?
he that formed the eye, shall he not see ?" Psal. xciv. 9. He
has in himself eminently the beauty, perfection, life, and vigour
of all creatures; he created nothing contrary to himself, but
every thing with some footsteps of himself in them; he could
not have pronounced them good, as he did, had there been any
thing in them contrary to his own goodness; and therefore, as
his essence primarily represents itself, so it represents the crea
tures, and makes them known to hira.' As the essence of God
is eminently afl things, so by understanding his essence, he
eminently understands all things. And therefore he has not
> Dionys.
Vol. I.— 65

514 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
one knowledge of hiraself, and another knowledge of the crea
tures; but by knowing himself, as the original and exemplary
cause of all things, he cannot be ignorant of any creature which
he is the cause of; so that he knows aU things, not by an un
derstanding of them, but by an understanding of himself; by
understanding his own poAver as the efficient of them, his own
wUl as fhe orderer of thera, his own goodness as the adorner
and beautifier of them, his own wisdom as the disposer of thera,
and his own holiness, to which many of their actions are con
trary. As he sees all things possible In his own power, because he
is able to produce them, so he sees all things future in his own
will; decreeing to effect them, if they be good; or decreeing to
permit them, if they be evil.' In this glass he sees Avhat he
will give being to, and what he wUl suffer to fall into a defi
ciency, Avithout looking out of himself, or borrowing know
ledge from his creatures; he knows all things in himself And
thus his knowledge is more noble and of a higher elevation
than ours, or the knowledge of any creature can be; he knows
all things by one comprehension of the causes in himself.
(2.) God knows all things by one act of intuition. This the
schools call an intuitive knowledge. This follows upon the
other; for if he know by his own essence, he knows all things
by one act; there would be otherwise a division in his essence,
a first and a last, a nearness and a distance. As what he made,
he made by one word; so Avhat he sees, he pierces into by one
glance from eternity to eternity. As he wills all things by one
act of his will, so he knows all things by one act of his under
standing: he knows not some things discursively from other
things, nor knows one thing successively after another. As by
one act he imparts essence to things, so by one act he knows
the nature of things.
[1.] He does not know by discourse, as we do. That is, by
deducing one thing from another, and from comraon notions
drawing out other rational conclusions, and arguing one thing
from another, and springing up various consequences from
sorae principle assented to: but God stands in no need of rea
sonings; the making inferences and abstracting things, would
be stains in the infinite perfection of God; here would be a
mixture of knowledge and ignorance; while he knew the prin
ciple, he would not know the consequence and conclusion, till
he had actuaUy deduced it; one thing would be known after
another, and so he would have an ignorance, and then a know
ledge; and there Avould be different conceptions in God, and
knowledge would be multiplied according to the multitude of
objects,: as it is in human understandings. But God knoAvsall
' Kendal against Goodwin of Foreknowledge.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

515

things before they did exist, and never Avas ignorant of them:
" Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the
world," Acts XV. 18. He therefore knoAvs them all at once;
the knowledge of one thing was not before another, nor depen
ded upon another, as it does in the way of human reasoning.
Though, indeed, some make a virtual discourse in God; that
is, though God has a simple knowledge, yet it virtually con
tains a discourse by the flowing of one knowledge from an
other; as from the knowledge of his own poAver, he knows
what things are possible to be made by him; and from the
knowledge of himself, he passes to the knowledge of the crea
tures; but this is only according to our conception, and because
of our weakness they are apprehended as two distinct acts in
God, one of which is the reason of another, as we say that one
attribute is the reason of another; as his mercy may be said to
be the reason of his patience, and his omnipresence to be the
reason of the knowledge of present things done in the world.'
God, indeed, by one siraple act, knoAvs hiraself and the crea
tures; but when that act whereby he knows himself, is con
ceived by us to pass to the knoAvledge of the creatures, we must
not understand it to be a new act, distinct from the other; but
the sanie act upon different terms or objects; such an order is
in our understandings and conceptions, not in God's.
£2.] Nor does he know successively as we do. That is, not
by drops, one thing after another. This follows from the for-,
mer; a knoAvledge of all things without discourse, is a know
ledge without succession. The knowledge of one thing is not
in God before another, one act of knowledge does not forget
another; in regard of the objects, one thing is before another,
one year before another, one generation of men before another,
one is the cause,' the other is the effect: in the creatures there
is such a succession, and God knows there will be such a suc
cession; but there is no such order in God's knowledge; for he
knows all those successions by one glance, without any succes
sion of knoAvledge in himself^
Man in his view of things, must turn sometimes his body
sometimes only his eyes: he cannot see all the contents of a
letter at once; and though he beholds all the lines in the page
of a book at once, and a whole country in a map, yet to know
what is contained in them, he must turn his eye from word to
word, and line to line, and to spin out one thing after another
by several acts and motions. We behold a great part of the
sea at once,^ but not all the dimensions of it; for to know the
length of the sea we move our eyes one way; to see the breadth
of it, we turn our eyes another way; to behold the depth ofit,
' Suarez. vol. 1. de Deo, lih. 3. cap. 2. p. 133, 134.
' Gamach. in Aquin. q. 14. cap. 1. p. 119. •'' Saith Epiphanius.

516 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
we have another motion of them. And when we cast our eyes
up to heaven, we seem to receive in at an instant the whole
extent of the hemisphere; yet there is but one object the eye
can attentively pitch upon, and we cannot distinctly vieAV what
we see in a lump, without various motions of our eyes, Avhich
is not done without succession of time.' And certainly the
understanding of angels is bounded, according fo the measure
of their beings; so that it cannot extend itself at one tirae to a
quantity of objects, to raake a distinct application of thera, but
the objects raust present themselves one by one. But God is
all eye, all understanding; as there is no succession in his
essence, so there is none in his knowledge; his understanding,
in the nature and in the act, is infinite as it is in the text. He
therefore sees eternally and universally all things by one act,
without any motion, rauch less various motions; the various
changes of things, in their substance, qualities, places, and rela
tions, withdraw not any thing from his eye, nor bring any new
thing to his knowledge; he does not upon consideration of pre
sent things turn his raind frora past; nor when he beholds
future things, turn his mind from present; but he sees thera,
not one after another, but all at once and all together; the whole
circle ofhis own counsels, and all the various lines drawn forth
from the centre of his will, to the circumference of his creatures;
just as if a man were able in one moment to read a whole
library; or, as if you should imagine a transparent crystal
globe, hung up in the midst of a room, and so framed as to take
in the images of all things in the room, the fret-work in the
ceUing, the inlaid parts of the floor, and the particular parts of
the tapestry about it, the eye of a man would behold all the
beauty of the room at once in it. As the sun by one light and
heat fraraes sensible things; so God by one simple act knows
all things: as he knows mutable things by an immutable know
ledge, bodily things by a spiritual knowledge; so he knows
many things by one knoAvledge. All things are open and naked
to him, Heb. iv. 13, raore than any one thing can be to us; and
therefore he views all things at once, as well as we can behold
and conteraplate one thing alone. As he is the Father of lights,
a God of infinite understanding, there is no variableness in bis
mind, nor any shadow of turning ofhis eye, as there is of ours,
to behold various thhigs, Jaraes i. 17. His knowledge being
eternal, includes all tiraes; there is nothing past or future with
him, and therefore he beholds all things by one and the same
manner of knowledge, and comprehends all knowable things
by one act, and in one moraent.
This must needs be so.
Because of the eminency of God. God is above all, and
' Amyrant.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

517

therefore cannot but see the motions of all. He that sits in a
theatre, or at the top of a place, sees all things, all persons, by
one aspect he comprehends the whole circle of the place;
whereas he that sits below, when he looks before, cannot see
things behind. God being above all, about all, in all, sees at
once the motions of all. The whole world in the eye of God,
is less than' a point that divides one sentence from another in a
book; as a cipher, a grain of dust, Isa. xl. 15. So little a thing
can be seen hy man at once; and all things being as little in
the eye of God, are seen at once by hira. As aU time is but a
moment to his eternity, so all things are but as a point to the
immensity of his knowledge, which he can behold with more
ease than we can move or turn our eye.
Because all the perfections of knowing are united in God.
As particular senses are divided in man, by one he sees, by
another he hears, by another he smells, fet all those are united
in one common sense, and this comraon sense apprehends all;
so the various and distinct Avays of knowledge in the creatures,
are all erainently united in God. ' A raan, when he sees a grain
of wheat, understands at once all things that can in tirae pro
ceed from that seed; so God, by beholding his own virtue and
power, beholds all things which shall in time be unfolded by
hira. We have a shadow of this way of knowledge in our
own understanding; the sense only perceives a thing present,
and one object only proper and suitable to it; as the eye sees
colour, the ear hears sounds; we see this and that man, one
time this, another minute that; but the understanding abstracts
a notion of the comraon nature of raan, and fraraes a concep
tion of that nature wherein all men agree; and so in a manner
beholds and understands all men at once, by understanding the
comraon nature of man, which is a degree of knowledge above
the sense and fancy: we may then conceive an infinitely vaster
perfection in the understanding of God. As to know is simply
better than not to know at all ; so to know by one act compre
hensive, is a greater perfection than to know by divided acts,
by succession to receive information, and to have an increase
or decrease of knowledge, to be like a bucket, always descend
ing into the well, and fetching water from thence. It is a
man's weakness that he is fixed on one object only at a time.
It is God's perfection that he can behold all at once, and is
fixed upon one no more than upon another.
(3.) God knows all things independently. This is essential
to an infinite understanding. He receives not his knowledge
from any thing without him, he has no tutor to instruct him,
or book to inform him; "Who hath been his counsellor?"
saith the prophet, Isa. xl. 13. He has no need of the counsels
' Cusan. p. 646.

518 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
of Others, nor ofthe instructions of others. This follows upon
the first and second propositions; if he knows things by his
essence, then as his essence is independent from the creatures,
so is his knowledge; he borrows not any images from the crea
ture, hath no species or pictures of things in his understanding,
as we have; no beams frora the creature strike upon hira, to
enlighten him, but beams from hira upon the world; the earth
sends not light to the sun, but the sun to the earth.
Our knowledge indeed depends upon the object; but all
created objects depend upon God's knowledge and avUI : we
could not know creatures unless they were; but creatures
could not be unless God knew thera. As nothing that he wills
is the cause of his will; so nothing that he knows is the cause
of his knowledge: he did not make things to know them, but
he knows them to make thera; who will imagine that the mark
of the foot in the dust, is the cause that the foot stands in this
or that particular place?
If his knowledge did depend upon the things, then the exist
ence of things did precede God's knowledge of thera: to say
that they are the cause of God's knowledge, is to say, that God
was not the cause of their being; and if he did create thera, it
was effected by a blind and ignorant power, he created he
knew not what till he had produced it. If he be beholden for
his knowledge to the creatures he has raade, he had then no
knowledge of them before he raade thera. If his knowledge
¦^rere dependent upon them, it could not be eternal, but must
have a beginning when the creatures had a beginning, and be
of no longer a date than since the nature of things was in
actual existence: for whatsoever is a cause of knowledge, does
precede the knowledge it causes, either in order of time, or
order of nature; temporal things, therefore, cannot be the cause
of that knowledge which is eternal. His works could not be
foreknown to him. Acts xv. 18, if his knowledge commenced
with the existence of his works; if he knew them before he
made them, he could not derive a knowledge from them after
they were made. He made all things in wisdom, Psal. civ. 24.
How can this be iraagined, if the things known Avere the cause
of his knowledge, and so before his knowledge, and therefore
before his action? ' God would not then be the first in the order
of knowing agents, because he would not act by knoAvledge,
but act before he knew, and know after he had acted, and so
the creature which he made would be before the act of his
understanding, whereby he knew what he made.
Again, since knoAvledge is a perfection, if God's knowledge
ofthe creatures depended upon the creatures, he would derive
au exceUency from them, they would derive no excellency from
' Bradward. lib. I, cap. 15.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

519

any idea in the Divine mind; he would not be infinflely perfect
in himself; if his perfection in knowledge were gained frora any
thing without hiraself and below himself, he would not be suf
ficient of hiraself, but be urider an indigence, which wanted a
supply from the things he had made; and could not be eternally
perfect till he had created, and seen the effects of his own power,
goodness, and wisdom, to render him more wise and knowing
in tirae than he was frora eternity. Who can fancy such a God
as this, without destroying the Deity he pretends to adore? For
if his understanding be perfected hy something without him,
why raay not his essence be perfected by something without
him; that as he was made knowing by something without him,
he might be raade God by something without him?
How could his understanding be infinite, if it depended upon
a finite object, as upon a cause? Is the majesty of God to be
debased to a mendicant condition, to seek for a supply from
things inferior to himself? Is it to be imagined that a fool, a toad,
a fly should be assistant to the knowledge of God? that the
most noble Being should be perfected by things so vile? that
the Supreme Cause of all things should receive any addition of
knowledge, and be determined in his understanding, by the no
tion of things so mean? To conclude this particular, afl things
depend upon his knowledge, his knowledge depends upon
nothing, but is as inde,pendent as himself and his own essence.
(4.) God knows all things distinctly. His understanding is
infinite in regard of clearness; " God is light, and in him is no
darkness at all," 1 John i. 5. He sees not through a mist or
cloud; there is no blemish in his understanding, no mote or beam
in his eye, to render any thing obscure to him. Man discerns
the surface and outside of things, little or nothing ofthe essence
qf things; we see the noblest things but as in a glass darkly, 1
Cor. xiii. 12. The too great nearness, as well as the too great
distance of a thing, hinders our sight; the smaUness of a mote
escapes our eye, and so our knowledge ; also the weakness of
our understanding is troubled with the multitude of things, and
cannot know many things but confusedly. But God knows the
forms and essence of things, every circumstance ; nothing is so
deep, but he sees to the bottom ; he sees the mass, and sees the
motes of beings; his understanding being infinite, is not offended
with a multflude of things, or distracted with the variety of
thera; he discerns every thing infinitely more clearly and per
fectly than Adam or Solomon could any one thing in the circle
of their knowledge. What knowledge they had was from him ;
he has therefore infinflely a more perfect knowledge than they
were capable in their natures to receive a comraunication of.
All things are open to him, Heb. iv. 13. The least fibre in its

520 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
nakedness and distinct frame is transparent to him; as by the
help of glasses, the mouth, feet, hands of a sraall insect are visi
ble to a man, which seem to the eye, without that assistance,
one entire piece, not diversified into parts. All the causes,
qualities, natures, properties of things are open to him ; he brings
out the host of heaven by number, and calls them by names,
Isa. xl. 26. He numbers the hairs ofour heads. What more
distinct than number? Thus God beholds things in every unity,
which makes up the heap: he knows, and none else can, every
thing in its true and intimate causes, in its original and interme
diate causes; in himself, as the cause of every particular of their
being, every property in their being.
Knowledge by the causes is the raost noble and perfect know
ledge, and most suited to the infinite exceUency of the Divine
Being; he created all things, and ordered thera to a universal
and particular end; he therefore knows fhe essential properties
of every thing, every activity of their nature, all their fitness for
those distinct ends, to which he orders thera, and for which he
governs and disposes thera; and understands their darkest and
most hidden qualities, infinitely clearer than any eye can behold
the clear beams of the sun. He knows all things as he raade
them; he made them distinctly, and therefore knows them dis
tinctly, and that too every individual; therefore God is said to
see every thing that he has made. Gen. i. 31; he took a review
of every particular creature he had made, and upon his view
pronounced it good. To pronounce that good which was ^ not
exactly known in every creek, in every mite of its nature, had
not consisted with his veracity; for every one that speaks truth
ignorantiy, that knoAvs not that he speaks truth, is a liar in
speaking that which is true. God knows every act ofhis own
will, whether it be positive or permissive, and therefore every
effect of his will. We must needs ascribe to God a perfect
knowledge; but a confused knowledge cannot challenge that
title. To know things only in a heap, is unworthy of the
Divine perfection; for if God knows his own ends in the crea
tion of things, he knows distinctly the raeans Avhereby he will
bring thera to those ends for which he has appointed them.
No wise man intends an end, without a knowledge of the means
conducing to that end: and ignorance then of any thing in the
world, which falls under the nature of a means to a Divine end,
(and there is nothing in the world but does,) would be incon
sistent with the perfection of God; it would ascribe to him a
blind providence in the world. As there can be nothing iraper-
fect in his being and essence, so there can be nothing imperfect
in his understanding and knowledge; and therefore he has not
a confused knowledge, which is an iraperfection. Darkness and

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

521

light are both alike to him, Psal. cxxxix. 12. He sees distinctly
into the one, as well as the other; what is darkness to us, is not
so to him.
. (5.) God knows aU things infallibly. His understanding is
infinite, in regard of certainty; every tittle of what he knows,
is as far from failing, as what he speaks: our Saviour affirms
the one. Matt. v. 18; and there is the same reason of the cer
tainty of one as well as the other. His essence is the raeasure
of his knowledge; whence it is as impossible that God should
be mistaken in the knowledge of the least thing in the world,
as it is that he should be mistaken in his own essence; for
knowing hiraself comprehensively, he must know all other
things infallibly; since he is essentially omniscient, he is no
more capable of error in his understanding than of imperfection
in his essence; his counsels are as unerring as his essence is
perfect, and his; knoAvledge as infallible as his essence is free
from defect. -
Again, since God knows aU things with a knowledge of
vision, because. he wills them, his knowledge must be as infal
lible as his purpose: now his purpose will certainly be effected;
what he hag thought shall come to pass, and what he has pur
posed shall stand, Isa. xiv. 24. His counsel shall stand, and
he will do all his pleasure, Isa. xliv. 10. There may be inter
ruptions of nature, the foundations of it may be out of course,
but there can be no bar upon the Author of nature; he has an
infinite power to carry on and perfect, the resolves of his own
will ; he can effect what he pleases by a Avord. Speech is one
of the least motions; yet when God said. Let there be light,
there was light; arising from darkness. No reason can be
given Avhy God knows a thing to be, but because he infallibly
wills it to be.
Again, ' the schools make this difference between the know
ledge of the good and bad angels, that the good are never de
ceived; for that' is repugnant to their blessed state: for deceit
is an evU and an imperfection inconsistent with that perfect
blessedness the good angels are possessed of: and would it not
much more be a stain upon the blessedness of that God that is
blessed for ever, to be subject to deceit? His knoAvledge there
fore is not an opinion, for an opinion is uncertain: a man
knows not what to think, but leans to one part of the question
proposed, rather than to the other. If things did not come to
pass therefore as God knows them, his knowledge would be
imperfect; and since he knows by his essence, his essence also
would be imperfect, if God were exposed to any deceit in his
knowledge ; he knows by himself, Avho is the highest truth ;
I Suarez. vol. 2, p, 298,
Vol. I.— 66

522 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
and therefore it is impossible he should err in his understand
ing. (6.) God knows immutably. His understanding else could
not be infinite: every thing and every act that is mutable, is
finfle, it has fls bounds; for there is a term from which it
changes, and a term fo which it changes. ' There is a change
in the understanding when we gain the knowledge of a thing
which was unknown to us before; or when we actually consi
der a thing which we did not know before, though we had fhe
principles of the knowledge of it; or when we know that dis
tinctly, Avhich Ave before knew confusedly. None of these can
be ascribed to God, without a manifest disparagement of his
infiniteness. Our knowledge indeed is always arriving to us
or flowing from us; we pass from one degree to another, from
worse to better, or from better to worse; but God loses no
thing by the ages that are run, nor wfll gain any thing by the
ages that are to come. If there were a variation in the know
ledge of God, by the daily and hourly changes in the world he
would grow Aviser than he was, he was not then perfectly wise
before. A change in the objects known, infers not any change
in the understanding exercised about them; the wheel moves
round, the spokes that are lowest are presently highest, and
presently return to be Ioav again; but the eye that beholds
them changes not wifh the motion of the wheels. God's
knowledge admits no more of increase or decrease, than his
essence does; since God knows by his essence, and the essence
of God is God himself, his knowledge raust be void of any
change. The knowledge of possible things arising from the
knowledge of his^ own power cannot be changed, unless his
power be changed, and God become weak and impotent ; the
knoAvledge of future things cannot be changed, because that
knowledge arises from his wifl, which is irreversible; "The
counsel of the Lord, that shall stand," Prov. xix. 21. So that
if God can never decay into weakness, and never turn to in
constancy, there can be no variation of his knoAvledge. He
knows Avhat he can do, and he knows what he will do, and
both these being immutable, his knowledge must consequently
be so too. It was not necessary that this or that creature
should be, and therefore it was not necessary that God should
know this or that creature with a knowledge of vision; but-
after the will of God had determined the existence of this or
that creature, his knowledge being then determined to this or
that object, did necessarily continue unchangeable. God there-"
fore knows no raore now than he did before; and at fhe end
of the world he shall know no more than he does noAv; and
frora eternity he knows no less than he does now, and shall do
' Tileni Syntagma, part 1. disp. 13. thes. 13.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

523

to eternity. Though things pass into being and out of being,
the knowledge of God does not vary with them; for he knows
them as well before they were as when they are, and knoAvs
them as Avell when they are past as when they are present.
(7.) God knows afl things perpetually, that is, in act. Since
he knows by his essence, he always knows, because his essence
never ceases, but is a pure act ; so that he does not knoAV only
in habit, but in act. Men that have the knowledge of some art
or science, have it alwaj^s in habit, though when they are asleep
they have it not in act: a musician has fhe habit of music, but
does not so much as think of it when his senses are bound up.
But God is an un-sleepy eye,' he never slumbers nor sleeps;
he never slumbers in regard of his providence, and therefore
never slumbers in regard of his knowledge. He knows not
himself, nor any other creature more perfectly at one time than
at another; he is perpetually in the act of knowing, as the sun
is in the act of shining: fhe sun never ceased to shine in one or
other part of the world, since it was first fixed in the heavens;
nor God to be in the act of knowledge, since he was a God;
and therefore since he always was and always will be God, he
always was and always Avill be in the act of knowledge;
always knoAving his own essence, he must ahvays actually
know what has been gone and ceased from being, and what
shall come and arise into being. As a watch-maker knows
what watch he intends to make; and after he has made it,
though it be broken to pieces or consumed by the fire, he still
knows it because he knows the copy of it in his own mind.
Some therefore, in regard of this perpetual act of the Divine
knowledge, have called God not " Intellectus,'^ but the intel
lection of intellections; we have no proper English word to
express the act of the understanding: as his power is co-eternal
Avith him, so his knowledge ; all times past, present, and to
corae, are embraced in the bosom of his understanding; he
fixed all things in their seasons, that nothing new comes to him,
nothing old passes from him.^ What is done in a thousand
years, is as actually present with his knowledge, as what is
done in one day, or in one watch in the night, is with ours;
since a thousand years are no raore to God than a day or a
watch in the night is to us, Psal. xc. 4. God is in the highest
degree of being, and therefore in the highest degree of under
standing. Knowledge is one of the most perfect acts in any
creature. God therefore has all actual, as well as essential and
habitual knowledge, "his understanding is infinite."
4. The next general, is the reasons to prove this.
(1.) God must know what any creature knows, and more
than any creature knows. There is nothing done in the world,
1 Plato, «XEi.'/t>jT'05 of^aA/LtUf. Damianus.

524 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
but is known by some creature or other; every action is at
least known by the person that acts, and therefore known by
the Creator, Avho cannot be exceeded by any of the creatures,
or all of them together; and every creature is known by him,
since every creature is made by him. And as God works all
things by an infinite power, so he knoAvs aU things by an
infinite understanding.'
(2.) The perfection of God requires this. All perfections that
include no essential defect, are formaUy in God; but know
ledge includes no essential defect in itself, therefore fl is in God.''
Knowledge in itself is desirable, and an exceUency; ignorance
is a defect; it is impossible that the least grain of defect can be
found in the most perfect Being. Since God is wise, he must
be knowing; for wisdom must have knowledge for fhe basis of
it. A creature can no more be wise Avithout knowledge, than
he can be active wflhout strength. Now God is the only wise,
Rom. xvi. 27; and therefore the only knowing in the highest
degree of knowledge, incomprehensibly beyond all degrees of
knowledge, because infinite.
Again, the more spiritual any thing is, the more understand
ing it is. The dull body understands nothing; sense perceives,
but the understanding faculty is seated in the soul, which is of
a spiritual nature, which knows things that are present, remem
bers things that are past, foresees many things to come. What
is the property of a spiritual nature, must be in a most eminent
manner in the Supreme Spirit ofthe world, that is, in the high
est degree of spirituality, and most remote from any matter.
Again, nothing can enjoy other things, but by some kind of
understanding them; God has the highest enjoyment of himself,
of all things he has created, of all the glory that accrues to him
by them; nothing of perfection and blessedness can be wanting
to him. Felicity does not consist with ignorance, and all im
perfect knowledge is a degree of ignorance: God therefore does
perfectly know himself, and all things from whence he designs
any glory to himself The most noble manner of acting must
be ascribed to God, as being the most noble and excellent Being;
to act by knowledge, is the most excellent manner of acting;
God has, therefore, not only knowledge, but the most exceUent
manner of knowledge; for as it is better to know than to be
ignorant, so it is better to know in the most excellent raanner,
than to have a mean and low kind of knowledge; his know
ledge therefore must be every way as perfect as his essence,
infinite as well as that. An infinite nature must have an infi
nite knowledge : a God ignorant of any thing, cannot be counted
infinite, for he is not infinite to whom any degree of perfection
is wanting. I Gerhard. = Gamach. in 1, part. Aquin. q. 14. cap. I. p, 118, 119.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 525
(3.) All the knowledge in any creature is frora God. And
you must allow God a greater and more perfect knowledge
than any creature has, yea, than all creatures have. All the
drops of knowledge any creature has, come from God; and all
the knowledge in every creature, that ever was, is, or shall be
in the whole mass, was derived from him. If all those several
drops in particular creatures were collected into one spirit, into
one creature, it would be an inconceivable knowledge, yet still
lower than what the Author of all that knowledge has; for God
cannot give more knowledge than he has himself; nor is the
creature capable of receiving so much knowledge as God has.
As the creature is incapable of receiving so much power as
God has, for then it would be almighty; so it is incapable of
receiving so much knowledge as God has, for then it would be
God. Nothing can be made by God equal to him in any thing;
if any thing could be made as knowing as God, it Avould be
eternal as God, it would be the cause of all things as God. The
knowledge that Ave poor worms have, is an argument God uses
for the asserting the greatness of his own knowledge: " He
that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he knoAv?" Psal. xciv.
10. Man has here knowledge ascribed to him, the Author of
this knowledge is God, he furnished him with it, and therefore
does in a higher manner possess it ; and much raore than can
fall under the comprehension of any creature; as the sun en
lightens all things, but has more light in itself than it darts upon
the earth or the heavens: and shall not God eminently contain
all that knowledge he imparts to the creatures, and infinitely
more exact and comprehensive?
(4.) The accusations of conscience evidence God's know
ledge of all actions of all his creatures. Does not conscience
check for the most secret sins, to which none are privy but a
man's self — the whol'e'Avorld beside being ignorant of his crime?
Do not the fears of another judge gall the heart? If a judgment
above him be feared, an understanding above him discerning
their secrets is confessed by those fears; whence can those hor
rors arise, if there be not a superior that understands and records
the crime? What perfection of fhe Divine Being can this relate
unto, but omniscience? What other attribute is to be feared,
if God were defective in this?
The condemnation of us by our own hearts, when none in
the world can conderan us, renders it legible, that there is one
greater than our hearts in respect of knowledge, who knows
all things, 1 John in. 20: conscience would be a vain principle,
and stingless without this; it Avould be an easy raatter to silence
aU fls accusations, and mockingly laugh in the face of its se
verest frowns. What need any trouble themselves, if none
knows their crimes but themselves? Concealed sins gnawing

526 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
the conscience, are arguments of God's omniscience of all pre
sent and past actions.
(5.) God is the first cause of every thing, every creature'is
his production. Since all creatures, from the highest angel to
the lowest worm, exist by the power of God — if God under
stands his own power and excellency, nothing can be hid from
him that was brought forth by that power, as well as nothing
can be unknown to him that that power is able to produce. If
God knows nothing besides himself, he may then believe there
is nothing besides himself; we shall then fancy a God misera
bly mistaken.' If he knows nothing besides himself, then
things were not created by him, or not understandingly and
voluntarily created, but dropped from him before he was aware.
To think that the first cause of all should be ignorant of those
things he is the cause of, is to make him not a voluntary, but
natural agent, and therefore necessary; and then that the crea
ture came from him as light from the sun, and moisture from
the water: this would be an absurd opinion of the world's
creation: if God be a voluntary Agent, as he is, he must be an
intelligent Agent. The faculty of will is not in any creature
without that of understanding also: if God be an intelligent
Agent, his knowledge must extend as far as his operation, and
every object of his operation, unless we imagine God has lost
his memory, in that long tract of time since the first creation
of them. An artificer cannot be ignorant of his own Avork: if
God knows hiraself, he knows himself to be a cause: how can
he know himself to be a cause, unless he know the effects he
is the cause of? One relation implies another: a man cannot
know himself to be a father, unleSs he has a child, because it
is a name of relation, and in the notion of it refers to another.
The name of cause is a narae of relation, and implies an effect:
if God therefore know himself in all his perfections, as the cause
of things, he must know all his acts, what his wisdora contrived,
what his counsel deterrained, and what his power effected.
The knowledge of God is to be supposed in a free determina
tion of himself; and that knowledge must be perfect, both of
the object, act, and all the circumstances of it. How can his
will freely produce any thing that was not first known in his
understanding? From this the prophet argues the understand
ing of God, and the unsearchableness of if, because he is the
Creator of the ends of the earth, Isa. xl. 28: and the same rea
son David gives of God's knowledge of him, and of every
thing he did, and that afar off, because he was formed by him,
Psal. cxxxix. 2. 15, 16. As the perfect making of things be
longs only to God, so does the perfect knowledge of things: it
> Bradwardin, p. 6.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

527

is absurd to think that God should be ignorant of what he has
given being to; that he should not know aU the creatures and
their qualities, tlie plants and their virtues; as that a man should
not know the letters that are formed by him in writing. Every
thing bears in itself the mark of God's perfections; and shall
not God knoAV the representation of his own virtue ?
(6.) Without this knowledge, God could no more, be the Go
vernor than he could. be the Creator of the world. Knowledge
is the basis of providence; to know things is before the govern
ment of things; a practical knowledge cannot be without a
theoretical knowledge. Nothing coifld be directed to its proper
end, without the knowledge of the nature of fl, and its suita
bleness to answer that end for which it is intended. As every
thing, even the minutest, falls under the cohduct of God, sp
every thing falls under the knowledge of God. A blind coach
man is not able to hold the reins of his horses, and direct them
in the right paths. Since the providence of God is about par
ticulars, his knowledge must be about particulars; he could not
else govern them in particular; nor could all things be said to_
depend upon him in their being and operations. Providence'
depends upon the knowledge of God, and the exercise of it
upon the goodness of God; it cannot be without understanding
and will; understanding fo know what is convenient, and will
to perform it. When our Saviour therefore speaks of provi
dence, he intimates these two, in a special manner. " Your
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these
things," Matt. vi. 32; and goodness, in Luke xi. 13. The rea
son of providence is so joined with omniscience, that they can
not be separated: what a kind of God would he be that were
ignorant of those things that were governed by him! The.ascribT
ing this perfection to him, asserts his providence; for if is as
easy for one that knows all things, to look over the whole
world, if Avriften wifh monosyllables, in every little particular
of it, as it is with a man to take a view of one letter in an
alphabet. Again, if God Avere not omniscient, how coifld he reward
the good, and punish the evil? ' The works of men are either
rewardable or punishable; not only according to their outward
circumstances, but inward principles and ends, and the degrees
of venom lurking in the heart. The exact discerning of these,
without a possibility to be deceived, is necessary to pass a
right and infallible judgment upon them, and proportion the
censure and punishment to the crime. Without such a know
ledge and discerning,- men would not have their due; nay, a
judgnient just for the matter, would be unjust in the manner,
because unjustly passed, without an understanding of the merit
' Sabund. tit. 84. much changed.

528 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
of the cause. It is necessary therefore that the supreme Judge
of the world should not be thought to be. bhndfold when he
distributes his rewards and punishments, nor'rauffle his face
when he passes his sentence. It is necessary to ascribe to hiin
the knowledge of men's thoughts and intentions, the se'cret
wills and aims, the hidden Avorks of darkness in every man's
conscience, because every man's work is to be measured by
the will and inward frame. It is necessary that he should per
petually retain all those things in the indelible and plain records
of his memory, that there may not be any work without a just
proportion of Avhat is due to it. This is the glory of God, to
discover the secrets of all hearts at last; as 1 Cor. iv. 5, the
Lord " will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and
will raake manifest the counsel of all hearts; and then shall
every man have praise of God." This knowledge fits him to
be a Judge: the reason Avhy the ungodly shall not stand in
judgment, is because God knows their ways, which is implied
iri his knowing the way of the righteous, Psal. i. 5, 6.
5. I now proceed to the use.
Use (1.) Is of information or instruction. If God has all
knowledge, then,
[1.] Jesus Christ is not a mere creature. The two titles of
Wonderful Counsellor and Mighty God, are given him in con
junction, Isa. ix. 6; not only the Angel of the covenant, as he
is called, Mai. iii. 1, or the executor of his counsels, but a
Counsellor, in conjunction with him in counsel as well as
power. This title is superior to any title given to any of the
prophets in regard of their predictions; and therefore I should
take it rather as the note of his perfect understanding, than of
his perfect teaching and discovering, as Calvin does. He is
not only the revealer of Avhat he knows, so were the prophets
according to their measures; but the counsellor of what he
revealed, having a perfect understanding of all the counsels of
God, as being interested in them, as the mighty God. He caUs
himself by the peculiar title of God, and declares that he will
manifest himself by this prerogative to all the churches; "And
aU the churches shall know that I am he Avhich searcheth the
reins and hearts," Rev. ii. 23, the most hidden operations of
the minds of men, that lie locked up from the vieAV of all the
Avorld besides. And this was no new thing to him after his
ascension; for the same perfection he had in the time of his
earthly flesh; "he kncAv their thoughts," Luke vi. 8: his eyes
are therefore compared to dove's eyes. Cant. v. 12, which are
clear and quick; and to a flame of fire. Rev. i. 14; not only
heat to consume his enemies, but light to discern their contri
vances against the church; he pierceth, by his knoAvledge, into
all parts, as fire pierceth into the closest particle of iron, and

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

529

separates between the most united parts of metals; and some
tell us, he is called a roe, from the perspicacity of his sight, as
well as frora the swiftness of his motion.
He has a perfect knowledge of the Father; he knows the
Father, and none else knows the Father; angels know God,
men know God, but Christ in a peculiar manner knows the
Father: "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son," Matt. xi. 27.
He knows so, as that he learns not from any other; he does
perfectly comprehend hira, which is beyond the reach of any
creature with the addition of all the Divine virtue; not because
of any incapacity in God to reveal, but the incapacity of the
creature to receive: finite is incapable of being made infinite,
and therefore incapable of comprehending infinite; so that
Christ cannot be " Deus factus," made of a creature a God, to
comprehend God; for then of finite he would become infinite,
which is a contradiction. As the Spirit is God, because he
searches the deep things of God, 1 Cor. ii. 10, that is, compre
hends them, ' as the spirit of a raan does the things of a man;
(now the spirit of man understands what it thinks, and what
it wills;) so the Spirit of God understands what is in the under
standing of God, and what is in the Avill of God. Christ has
an absolute knowledge ascribed to him, and such as could not
be ascribed to any thing but a Divirnty. Now if the Spirit
knows the deep things of God, and takes from Christ Avhat he
shows to us of him, John xvi. 15, he cannot be ignorant of
those things himself; he must know the depths of God that
affords us that Spirit, that is not ignorant of any of the counsels
of the Father's will. Since he comprehends the Father, and
the Father hira, he is in hiraself infinite; for God, whose
essence is infinite, is infinitely knoAvable ; but no created under
standing can infinitely know God. The infiniteness of the
object hinders it frora being understood by any thing that is
not infinite. Though a creature should understand all the
works of God, yet it cannot be therefore said to understand
God himself: as, though I raay understand all the volitions and
motions of ray soul, yet it does not follow that therefore I
understand the whole nature and substance of my soul; or, if
a man understood all the effects of the sun, that therefore he
understands fully the nature ofthe sun. But Christ knows the
Father, he lay in the bosom of fhe Father, was in the greatest
intimacy wflh him, John i. 18; and from this intirnacy; with
him he saw him and knew him: so he knows God as muph as
he is knowable; and therefore knows him perfectly, as the
Father knows himself by a comprehensive vision: this is the
knowledge of God wherein properly the infiniteness of his
> Petav. Theo. Dogmat. tom. 1. p. 467, &c.
Vol. I.— 67

530 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
understanding appears. And our Saviour uses such expres
sions whieh manifest his knowledge to be above all created
knowledge, and such a raanner of knowledge ofthe Father, as
the Father has of him.
Christ knows all creatures. That knowledge which compre
hends God, comprehends all created things as they are in God;
it is a knowledge that sinks to the depths of his will, and there
fore extends to all fhe acts of his will in creation and provi
dence: by knowing fhe Father he knows all things that are
contained in the virtue, power, and will of God; whatsoever
the Father does, that the Son does, John v. 19. As the Father
therefore knows all things he is the cause of, so does the Son
know all things he is the worker of; as the perfect making of
all things belongs to both, so does the perfect knowledge of all
things belong to both; where the action is the same, the know
ledge is the same. Noav the Father did not create one thing,
and Christ another; "but all things were creafed by him, and
for him: all things both in heaven and earth," Col. i. 16. As
he knows himself the cause of all things, and the end of all
things, he cannot be ignorant of all things that Avere effected
by him, and are referred to him; he knows all creatures in
God, as he knows fhe essence of God, and knows all creatures
in themselves, as he knoAvs his own acts and the fruits of his
power. Those things must be in his knowledge that were in
his power; all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of
God are hid in him. Col. ii. 3. Now it is not fhe wisdora of
God to knoAv in part, and be in part ignorant. He cannot be
ignorant of any thing, since there is nothing but what Avas
made by him, John i. 3, and since it is less fo know than create;
for we know many things which we cannot make. If he be
the Creator, he cannot but be the discerner of what he made;
this is a part of Avisdom belonging to an artificer, to knoAV the
nature and quality of what he makes.' Since he cannot be
ignorant of what he furnished with being, and with various
endowments, he raust know thera not only universally, but
particularly. Christ knows the hearts and affections of men. Peter scru
ples not to ascribe to hira this knowledge, ainong the know
ledge of all other things; " Lord, thou knowest aU things: thou
knowest that I love thee," John xxi. 17. Frora Christ's know
ledge of all things, he concludes his knoAvledge of the inward
frames and dispositions of men. To search the heart, is the
sole prerogative of God: "For thou, even thou only, knoAvest
the hearts of all the children of men," 1 Kings viii. 39. Shafl
we take [only) here Avith a limflation, as some that are no
friends to the Deity of Christ would, and say, God only knows
1" Petav. Theolo. Dogmat. tom. 1. p. 467.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 53 1
the hearts of men frora himself, and by his own infinite virtue ?
Why may we not take [only) in other places with a limitation,
and raake nonsense of it? as Psal. Ixxxvi. 10. "Thou art
God alone." Is it to be understood, that God is God alone
from himself, but other Gods may be made by him, and so
there raay be numberless infinites? As God is God alone, so
that none can be God but himself; so he alone knows all the
hearts of all the children of men, and none but he can know
them; this knowledge is frora his nature. The reason why
God knows the hearts of men, is rendered in the Scripture
double, because he created them, and because he is present
every where, Psal. xxxiii. 13. 15.' These two are by the con
fession of Christians and pagans universally received as the
proper characters of Divinity, whereby the Deity is distin
guished from all creatures. Now when Christ ascribes this to
himself, and that with such an emphasis, that nothing greater
than that could be urged, as he does. Rev. ii. 23; we must con
clude, that he is of the same essence with God, one with him
in his nature, as well as one with him in his attributes. God
only knoAVS the hearts of the children of men; there is the unity
of God: Christ searches the hearts and reins; there is a dis-
tinctioji of persons in a oneness of essence. He knoAvs the
hearts of all men, not only of those that were with hira in the
time of the flesh, that have been and shall be since his ascen
sion; but of those that lived and died before his coming, be
cause he is to be the Judge of all that lived before his humilia
tion on earth, as Avell as after his exaltation in heaven. It
pertains to him as a Judge, to know distinctly the merits ofthe
cause of which he is to judge; and this excellency of searching
the hearts is mentioned by himself with relation to his judicial
proceeding, "I wfll give unto every one of you according to
your works." And though a creature may know what is in
a man's heart, if it be revealed to him, yet such a knoAvledge
is a knowledge only by report, not by inspection; yet this lat
ter is ascribed to Christ, " He knew all men, and needed not
that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in
man," John ii. 24,25; he looked into their hearts. The evan
gelist, to allay the amazement of men at his relation of our
Saviour's knowledge of fhe inward falsity of those that made a
splendid profession of him, does not say, the Father revealed it
to him, but intimates it to be an inseparable property of his
nature. No covering was so thick as to bound his eye; no
pretence so glittering as to impose upon his understanding.
Those that made a profession of him, and could not be dis
cerned by the eye of man from his faithfullest attendants, were
in their inside known to him plainer than their outside was to
' Placeus de Deitate Christi.

532 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
Others; and therefore he committed not hiraself to thera,
though they seeraed to be persuaded to a real belief in his
name because of the power of his miracles, and were touched
wflh an admiration of him, as some great prophet, and perhaps
declared him to be the Me.ssiah, ver. 23.
He had a foreknowledge ofthe particular inclinations of men,
before those distinct inclinations were in actual being in them.
This is plainly asserted, John vi. 64: " But there are some of
you that beheve not; for Jesus knew from fhe beginning who
they were that believed nof, and who should betray him."
When Christ assured them, from the knowledge of the hearts
of his followers, that some of them Avere void of that faith they
professed; the evangelist, to stop their amazement, that Christ
should have such a poAver and virtue, adds, that he knew frora
the beginning, that he had not only a present knowledge, but a
foreknoAvle'dge of every one's inclination; he knew not only
now and then Avhat was in the hearts of his disciples, but from
the beginning of any one's giving up his name to him, he knew
whether it Were a pretence or sincere; he knew who should
betray him, and there Avas no man's inward affection but was
foreseen by him.. " From the beginning,'" whether we under
stand it from the beginning of the world, as when Christ saith
concerning divorces, " from the beginning it was not so;" that
is, frora the beginning of the world, from the beginning of the
law of nature,'or from the beginning oftheir attending him, (as
it is taken, Luke i. 2,) he had a certain prescience of the inward
dispositions of men's hearts, and their succeeding sentiments:
he foreknew the treacherous heart of Judas in the midst of his
splendid profession; and discerned his resolution in the root,
and his thought in the confused chaos of his natural corruption;
he knew how it would spring up, before it did spring up, be
fore Judas had any distinct and formal conception of it himself,
or before there was any actual preparation to a resolve. Peter's
denial Avas not unknown to him, when Peter had a present
resolution, and, no question, spake it in the present sincerity of
his soul, " never to forsake him;" he foreknew what Avould be
the result of that poison which lurked in Peter's nature, before
Peter himself imagined any thing of it; he discerned Peter's
apostatizing heart, when Peter resolved the contrary: our Sa
viour's prediction was accomplished, and Peter's valiant reso
lution languished into cowardice.
Shall we then conclude our blessed Saviour a creature, who
perfectly and only knew the Father, who knew all creatures,
who had all the treasures of wisdora and knowledge, Avho knew
the inward raotions of men's hearts by his own virtue, and had
not only a present knowledge, but a prescience of them.
' 'E? dpa;?j.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 533
[2.J The second instruction from this position — That God
has an infinfle knowledge and understanding, is — Then there
is a providence exercised by God in the world, and that about
every thing. As providence infers oraniscence as the guide of
it; so oraniscence infers providence as the end of it. What ex
ercise would there be of this attribute, but in the government
ofthe Avorld? To this infinite perfection Jeremiah refers, xvii.
10; " I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even fo give
every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of
his doings." He searches the heart to reward, he rewards
every man according to the rewardableness of his actions; his
government therefore extends to every man in the world; there
is no heart but he searches, therefore no heart but he governs.
To what purpose else Avould be this knowledge of all his crea
tures? For a mere contemplation of them? No, what pleasure
can that be to God, Avho knows himself, who is infinitely raore
excellent than all his creatures? Does he know them, to neglect
all care of thera? This must be either out of sloth, (but how in
compatible is laziness to a pure and infinite activity!) or out of
majesty; but it is no less for fhe glory of his majesty to conduct
them, than it was for the glory ofhis power to erect thera into
being: he that counts nothing unworthy of his arms to make,
nothing unworthy of his understanding to know, why should
he count any thing unworthy of his wisdom to govern? If he
knoAvs them, to neglect them, it must be because he has no will
to it, or no goodness for it; either of these would be a stain upon
God; to want goodness is to be evil, and to want will is to be
negligent and scornful, which are inconsistent with an infinite,
active goodness. Does a father neglect providing for the wants
ofthe family Avliich he knows; or a physician the cure of that
disease he understands? God is omniscient, he therefore sees
all things; he is good, he does not therefore neglect any thing,
but conducts it to the end he appointed it. There is nothing so
little that can escape his knowledge, and therefore nothing so
little but falls under his providence; nothing so sublime as to be
above his understanding, and therefore nothing can be without
the compass of his conduct: nothing can escape his eye, and
therefore nothing can escape his care; nothing is known by
him in vain, as nothing was made by him in vain; there must
be acknowledged therefore sorae end of this knowledge of afl
his creatures.
[3.] Hence then wfll follow fhe certainty of a day of judg
ment. To what purpose can Ave imagine this attribute of om
niscience so often declared and urged in Scripture to our con
sideration, but in order to a government of our practice, and a
future trial? Every perfection ofthe Divine nature has sent out
brighter rays in the world than this of his infinite knowledge:

534 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
his power has been seen in the being of the world, and his wis
dora in the order and harmony ofthe creatures; his grace and
raercy has been plentifully poured out in the mission of a Re
deemer; and his justice has been elevated by the dying groans
of the Son of God upon the cross. But has his omniscience yet
met with a glory proportionable to that of his other perfections?
All the attributes of God that have appeared in some beautiful
glimmerings in the Avorld, wait for a more full manifestation in
glory, as the creatures do for the " manifestation of the sons of
God," Rom. viii. 19; but especially this, since it has been less
evidenced than others, and as much or more abused than any:
it expects therefore a public righting in the eye of the world.
There have been indeed some few sparks of this perfection sen
sibly struck out now and then in the world, in some horrors of
conscience, which have made men become their own accusers
of unknown crimes, and in bringing out hidden wickedness to
a public view, by various providences. This has also been the
design of sprinklings of judgments upon several generations, as
Psal. xc. 7, 8. " We are consumed by thine anger, and by thy
wrath we are troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before
thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance." The
word there used signifies youth, as wefl as secret, that is, sins
committed long ago, and that with secrecy. By this he has
manifested, that secret sins are not hid from his eye. Though
inward terrors and outward judgments have been let loose to
worry men into a belief of this, yet the corruptions of men
would still keep a contrary notion in their minds, that God has
forgotten, that he hides his face frora transgression, and will not
regard their irapiety, Psal. x. 11. There must therefore be a
time of trial for the public demonstration of this excellency, that
it raay receive its due honour by a full testiraony, that no
secrecy can be a shelter frora it. As his justice, which consists
in giving every one his due, could not be glorified, unless raen
were caUedto an account for their actions; so neither would his
oraniscience appear in its illustrious colours, without such a
raanifestation of the secret motions of men's hearts and of vfl
lanies done under lock and key, when none Avere conscious of
thera but the committers of thera. Now the last judgment is
the time appointed for the opening of the books, Dan. vii. 10.
The book of God's records, and conscience the counterpart,
were never fully opened and read before, only now and then
some pages turned to, in particular judgments; and out of those
books shall men be judged according to their works. Rev. xx.
12. Then shall the defaced sins be brought with all their cir
cumstances to every man's meraory. The counsels of men's
hearts fled far from their present remembrance ; all fhe habitual
knowledge they had of their own actions, shafl by God's know-

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

535

ledge of them be excited to an actual review; and their works
not only made manifest to themselves, but notorious to the
world. All the words, thoughts, deeds of men shall be brought
forth into the light of their own minds, by the infinite light of
God's understanding reflecting on them. His knowledge ren
ders him an unerring witness, as well as his justice a SAvift wit
ness, Mai. iii. 5; a swift witness, because he shall without any
circuit, or length of speech, convince their consciences by an
inward illumination of them, to take notice of fhe blackness and
deformity of their hearts and works. In all judgments God is
somewhat known to be the searcher of hearts; the time of judg
raent is the tirae of his remembrance; " Now will he remember
their iniquity, and visit their sins," Hos. viii. 13; but the great
instant, or now, of the full glorifying it, is the grand day of ac
count. This attribute must have a tirae for its full discovery;
and no time can be fit for it but a time of a general reckoning.
Justice cannot be exercised without omniscience; for as justice
is a giving to every one his due, so there must be knowledge to
discern Avhat is due to every man: the searching the heart is in
order to the rewarding fhe works.
[4.] This perfection in God gives us ground to believe a
resurrection. Who can think this too hard for his power, since
not the least atom of the dust of our bodies can escape his
knowledge? An infinite understanding coraprehends every
mite of a departed carcass; this will not appear irapossible or
irrational to any upon a serious consideration of this excellency
in God. The hody is perished, the matter of it bas been since
clothed Avith different forms and figures; part of it has been
made the body of a worm, part of it returned to the dust that
has been blown away by the wind, part ofit has been concocted
in tlie bodies of cannibals, fish, ravenous beasts ; the spirits
have evaporated into air, part of the blood melted into water:
what then, is the matter of the body annihilated ? is that
wholly perished? No, the foundation remains, though it has
put on a variety of forms; neither the body of Abel, the first
man that died, nor the body of Adam, are to this day reduced
to nothing. Indeed the quantity and the qualfly of those bodies
have been lost, by various changes they have passed through.
sitice their dissolution; but the matter or substance of them
remains entire, and is not capable to be destroyed by aU those
transforming alterations in so long a revolution of time.
The body of a man in his infancy and his old age, if it were
Methuselah's, is the same in the foundation in those multitude
of years. Though the quantity of it be altered, the quality
different; though the colour and other things be changed in it;
the matter of this body remains the same araong all the altera-.
tions after death. And can it be so mixed with other natures

536 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
and creatures, as that it is past finding out by an infinite under
standing? Can any particle of this mafter escape the eye of
him that makes and beholds all those various alterations, and
where every mite of the substance of those bodies is particu
larly lodged ; so as that he cannot compact it together again
for a habitation of that soul, that many a year before fled frora
it ? ' Since the knowledge of God is infinite, and his providence
extensive over the least as well as the greatest parts of the
world, he must needs know the least as well as the greatest of
his creatures in their beginning, progress, and dissolution; all
the forms through which the hodies of all creatures roll, the
particular instants of tirne, and the particular place when and
Avhere those changes are made, they are all present with him ;
and therefore when the revolution of time allotted by him for
the re-union of souls and deceased bodies is come, it cannot be
doubted but out of the treasures of his knowledge he can call
forth every part of the matter of the bodies of men, frorn the
first to the last man that expired, and strip it of all those forms and
figures, which it shall then have, to compact it fo be a lodging
for that soul which it entertained before; and though fhe bodies
of raen have been devoured by wild beasts in the earth, and
fish in the sea, and been lodged in the stomachs of barbarous
men-eaters, the matter is not lost. There is but httle of the
food we take, that is turned into the substance ofour own bodies;
that Avhich is not proper for nourishment, which is the greatest
part, is separated, and concocted, and rejected. Whatsoever
objections are made, are answered by this attribute. Nothing
hinders a God of infinite knowledge from discerning every par
ticle of the matter, wheresoever it is disposed; and since he
has an eye to discern, and a hand to recollect and unite, what
difficulty is there in believing this article ofthe Christian faith?
He that questions this revealed truth of the resurrection of the
body, raust question God's oraniscience, as well as his omnipo
tence and power.
[5.] What semblance of reason is there to expect a justifica
tion in the sight of God by any thing in ourselves? Is there
any action done by any of us, but upon a scrutiny we may find
flaws and deficiency in it? What then? shall not this perfec
tion of God discern thera? The raotes that escape our eyes
cannot escape his, " God is greater than our heart, and know
eth all things," 1 John iii. 20; so that it is in vain for any man
to flatter himself with the rectitude of any work, or enter into
any debate with him Avho can bring a thousand articles against
us, out of his own infinite records, unknown to us and unan
swerable by us. If conscience, a representative or counterpart
of God's omniscience in our own bosoms, find nothing done by
1 Daille, Serm. 15. p. 21—24.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

537

us, but in a copy short ofthe original, and beholds, if not blurs,
yet imperfections in the best actions, God must much more dis
cern them; we never knew a copy equally exact with the ori
ginal. If our own conscience be as a thousand witnesses, the
knowledge of God is as millions of witnesses against us: if
our corruption be so great, and our holiness so low in our own
eyes, how much greater must the one, and how much meaner
must the other appear in the eyes of God ? God has an unerring
eye to see, as well as an unspotted holiness to hate, and an un-
bribable justice to punish: he wants no more understanding to
know the shortness of our actions, than he does hohness to
enact and power to execute his laws. Nay, suppose we could
recollect many actions, Avherein there were no spot visible to
us, the consideration of this attribute should scare us from rest
ing upon any or all of them; since it is the Lord that by a
piercing eye sees and judges according to the heart, and not
according to appearance. The least crookedness of a stick, not
sensible to an acute eye, yet wUl appear when laid to the line ;
and the impurity of a counterfeit metal be manifest when ap
plied to the touchstone; so will the best action of any mere
man in the world, when it comes to be measured in God's
knowledge by the straight line of his law.
Let every man therefore, as Paul, though he should know
nothing by himself, think not himself therefore justified; since
it is the Lord, who is of an infinite understanding, that judgeth,
1 Cor. iv. 4. A man may be justified in his own sight, but not
any living man can be justified in the sight of God, Psal. cxliii.
2; in his sight, whose eye pierces into our unknown secrets and
fraraes. It was therefore well answered of a good man upon
his death-bed, being asked what he was afraid of? " I have
laboured (says he) with all my strength to observe the com
mands of God; but since I am a man, I am ignorant whether
my works are acceptable to God, since God judges in one man
ner, and I in another manner." Let the consideration there
fore of this attribute make us join with Job in his resolution.
Job ix. 21 ; " though I were perfect, yet would I not know my
own soul. I would not stand up to plee^d any of ray virtues
before God." Let us therefore look after another righteous
ness, wherein the exact eye of the Divine omniscience, we are
sure, can discern no stain or crookedness.
[6.] What honourable and adoring thoughts ought we to
have of God for this perfection ! Do Ave not honour a man that
is able to predict ? do we not think it a great part of wisdom ?
Have not aU nations regarded such a faculty as a character and
a mark of divinity? There is something raore ravishing in the
knowledge of future things, both to the person that knows
thera, and the person that hears them, than there is in any other
Vox. I.— 68

538 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
kind of knowledge; whence the greatest prophets have been
accounted in the greatest veneration, and men have thought it
a way to glory, to divine and predict. Hence it was that the
devils and pagan oracles gained so much credit; upon this foun7
dation were they established, and the enemies of mankind
OAvned for a true God; I say, frora the prediction of future
things, though their oracles were often ambiguous, many times
false. Yet those poor heathen framed raany ingenious excuses,
to free their adored gods frora the charge of falsity and impos
ture. And shall we not adore the true God, the God of Israel,
the God blessed for ever, for this incommunicable property,
whereby he flies above the wings of the wind, the understand
ings of raen and cherubira?
Consider how great it is to know the thoughts, and inten
tions, and works of one man, from the beginning to the end of
his life; to foreknoAV afl these before the being of this man,
Avhen he was lodged afar off in the loins of his ancestors, yea,
of Adam; hoAV much greater is it to foreknow and know the
thoughts and works of three or four men, of a whole village or
neighbourhood! It is greater stfll to know the imaginations and
actions of such a multitude of men as are contained in London,
Paris, or Constantinople; how much greater stfll fo know the
intentions and practices, the clandestine contrivances of so many
millions, that have, do, or shall swarm in all quarters of the
world, every person of them having millions of thoughts, de
sires, designs, affections, and actions!'
Let this attribute, then, make the blessed God honourable in
our eyes, and adorable in all our affections; especially since it
is an excellency which has so lately discovered itself, in bring
ing to light the hidden things of darkness; in opening, and in
part confounding the Avicked devices of bloody men. Espe
ciaUy let us adore God for it, and admire it in God, since it is
so necessary a perfection, that without it the goodness of God
had been irapotent, and could not have relieved us; for what
help can a distressed person expect from a man of the sweetest
disposition, and the strongest arm, if the eyes Avhich should dis
cover the danger, and direct the defence and rescue, were closed
up by blindness and darkness ? Adore God for this wonderful
perfection. [7.] In the consideration of this excellent attribute, what Ioav
thoughts should we have of our own knowledge, and how hum
ble ought we to be before God! There is nothing raan is raore
apt to be proud of than his knowledge; it is a perfection he glo
ries in; but if our own knowledge ofthe little outside and bark
of things puffs us up, the consideration of the infiniteness of
God's knowledge should abate the tumour. As our beings are
' Sabund Theol. Natural, tit. 84. somewhat changed.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

539

nothing in regard to the infiniteness of his essence, so our know
ledge is nothing in regard ofthe vastness ofhis understanding:
we have a spark of being, but nothing to the heat of fhe sun:
we have a drop of knowledge, but nothing fo the Divine ocean.
What a vain thing is it for a shallow brook to boast of its
streams before a sea, whose depths are unfathoraable! As it
is a vanity to brag of our strength when we remeraber the
power of God; and ofour prudence, when we glance upon the
wisdora of God; so it is no less a vanity to boast of our knoAV-
ledge, when we think of the understanding and knowledge of
God. Hoav hard is it for us to know any thing! Too much noise
deafens us, and too much light dazzles us; too much distance
alienates the object from us, and too much nearness bars up our
sight frora beholding it.' When we think ourselves to be near
the knowledge of a thing, as a ship to the haven, a puff of wind
blows us away, and the object which we desired to know eter
nally flies from us; Ave burn with a desire of knowledge, and
yet are oppressed Avith the darkness of ignorance; we spend
our days more in dark Egypt than in enlightened Goshen. In
what narrow bounds is all the knoAvledge of the most intelli
gent persons included! Hpw few understand the exact har
mony of their own bodies, the nature of the life they have in
common Avith other animals!^ Who understands the nature of
his own faculties, how he knows, and hoAv he wUls, how the
understanding proposes, and how the will embraces, how his
spiritual soul is united to his material body, what the nature is
ofthe operation ofour spirits? Nay, who undestands the nature
of his own body, the offices of his senses, the motion of his
merabers, hoAv they come to obey the command of the Avill,and
a thousand other things? What a vain, weak, and ignorant
thing is man, when compared with God ! Yet there is not a
greater pride to be found among devils, than among ignorant
raen, with a litfle, very little flashy knowledge; ignorant man
is as proud, as if he knew as God!
As the consideration of God's omniscience should render
him honourable in our eyes, so it should render us vfle in our
own. God, because of his knowledge, is so far from disdain
ing his creatures, that his omniscience is a minister to his good
ness. No knowledge that we are possessed of, should make
us swell with too high a conceit of ourselves, and a disdain of
others. We have infinitely raore of ignorance than knowledge.
Let us therefore reraeraber in all our thoughts of God, that he
is God, and we are men; and therefore ought to be humble, as
becomes men, and ignorant and foolish men to be. As weak
creatures should lie low before an almighty God, and irapure
I Pascal!, p. 170. 2 Amyraut, de Preedest. p. 116, 117, somewhat changed.

540 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
creatures before a holy God, false creatures before a faithful
God, finite creatures before an infinite God; so should ignorant
creatures before an all-knowing God. All God's attributes
teach admiring thoughts of God, and low thoughts of ourselves.
[8.] It raay inform us, how much this attribute is injured in
the world. The first error after Adam's eating the forbidden
fruit, Avas the denial of this, as Avell as fhe omnipresence of
God : " I heard thy voice in the garden, and I hid myself,"
Gen. iii. 10; as if the thickness of the trees could screen him
from the eye of his Creator. And after Cain's murder, this is
the first perfection he aff'ronts: " Where is Abel, thy brother?"
says God: how roundly he answers, " I know not!" Gen. iv. 9;
as if God were as weak as man, to he put off with a lie. Man
as naturally hates this perfection, as much as he cannot natu
rally but acknowledge it; he wishes God stripped of this emi
nency, that he might be incapable to be an inspector of his
crimes, and a searcher of the closets of his heart. In wishing
bim deprived of this, there is a hatred of God himself; for it is a
loathing an essential property of God, without which he would
be a pitiful Governor of the world. "What a kind of God should
that be, of a sinner's wishing, that had wanted eyes to see a
crime, and righteousness to punish it! The want of the con
sideration of this attribute, is the cause of all sin in the Avorld:
" They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their
wickedness," Hos. vii. 2. They speak not to their hearts, nor
make any reflection upon the infiniteness of my knowledge!
It is a high contempt of God, as if he were an idol, a senseless
stock or stone. In aU evil practices, this is denied. We know
God sees all things, yet we live and walk as if he knew nothing;
we call him omniscient, and live as if he were ignorant; we
say he is all eye, yet act as if he were whoUy blind.
In particular, this attribute is injured by invading the pecu
liar rights of it, by presuming on it, and by a practical denial
of it.
By invading the peculiar rights of it.
By invocation of creatures. Praying to saints, by the Ro-
manists, is a disparageraent to this Divine excellency: he that
knows all things, is alone fit to have the petitions of men pre
sented to him. Prayer supposes an omniscient Being, as the
object of it; no other being but God ought to have that honour
acknowledged to it; no understanding but his is infinite; no
other presence but his is every where: to implore any deceased
creature for a supply of our wants, is to own in them a property
of the Deity; and make them deities that were but men, and
increase their glory by a diminution of God's honour, in ascrib
ing that perfection to creatures which belongs only to God.
Alas! they are so far from understanding the desires of our

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

541

souls, that they know not the words of our lips. It is against
reason to address our supplications to them that neither under
stand us nor discern us: Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel
acknowledges us not, Isa. Ixiii. 16. The Jews never called
upon Abraham, though the covenant was made with him for
the whole seed; not one departed saint for the whole four thou
sand years between the creation of the world and the coming
of Christ, was ever prayed to by the Israelites, or ever imagined
to have a share in God's omniscience; so that to pray to St.
Peter, St. Paul, rauch less to St. Roch, St. Swithin, St. Martin,
St. Francis, &c., is such a superstition that has no footing in the
Scripture. To desire the prayers of the living, with whom we have a
communion, Avho can understand and grant our desires, is
founded upon a mutual charity; but to implore persons that
are absent, at a great distance from us, with whom we have
not, nor know hoAV to have any commerce, supposes them in
their departure to have put off humanity, and commenced gods,
and endued with some part of the Divinity to understand our
petitions: we are indeed to cherish their memories, consider
their examples, imitate their graces, and observe their doctrines ;
we are to follow them as saints, but not elevate them as gods,
in ascribing to them such a knowledge which is only the neces
sary right of their and our comtnon Creator.' As the invoca
tion of saints mingles them with Christ in the exercise of his
office, so it sets thera equal with God in the throne of his oranis
cience; as if they had as rauch credit with God, as Christ, in a
way of mediation; and as much knowledge of men's affairs, as
God himself Omniscience is peculiar to God, and incommuni
cable to any creature; it is the foundation of all religion, and
therefore to one of the choicest acts of it, namely, prayer and
invocation. To direct our vows and petitions to any else, is to
invade the peculiarity of this perfection in God, and to rank
some creatures in a partnership with him in it.
This attribute is injured also by curiosity of knowledge;
especially of future things, which God has not discovered in
natural causes, or supernatural revelation. It is a common
error of men's spirits to aspire to know what God would have
hidden, and to pry into Divine secrets; and many men are
more wUhng to remain without the knoAvledge of those things
which may with a little industry be attained, than be divested
ofthe curiosity of inquiring into those things which are above
their reach; it is hence that sorae have laid aside the study of
the coraraon remedies of nature, to find out the phUosopher's
stone; which scarce any yet ever attempted, but sunk in the
enterprise. From this inclination to know the most abstruse
" Daille, Melang. part 2. p. 560, 561.

542 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
and difficult things it is, that the horrors of magic and the vani
ties of astrology have sprung, Avhereby men have thought to
find, in a commerce with devils and fhe jurisdiction of the stars,
the events of their lives, and the disposal of states and king
doms.' Hence also arose those multitudes of ways of divina
tion invented among the heathen, and practised too commonly
in these ages of the world. This is an invasion of God's pre
rogative, to whom secret things belong: " Secret things belong
unto the Lord our God, but those things Avhich are revealed
belong unto Us and to our children," Deut. xxix. 29. It is an
intolerable boldness to attempt to fathom those, the knowledge
whereof God has reserved to himself, and to search that which
God will have to surpass our understandings; whereby we
more truly envy God a knoAvledge superior to our own, than
we in Adam imagined that he envied us. Ambition is the
greatest cause of this, ambition to be accounted some great
thing among men, by reason of a knowledge estranged frora
the comraon mass of mankind; but more especiaUy that soar
ing pride to be equal with God, which lurks in our -nature ever
since the fall of our first parents. This is not yet laid aside by
man, though it was the first thing that embroiled the world
with the wrath of God. Some think a curiosity of knoAvledge
was the cause ofthe fall of the devils; I am sure it was the
foil of Adam, and is yet the crime of his posterity; had he been
contented to know what God had furnished him with, neither
he nor his posterity had smarted under the venom of the ser
pent's breath.
All curious and bold inquiries into things not revealed, are
an attempt upon the throne of God, and are both sinful and
pernicious; like to glaring upon the sun, when instead of a
greater acuteness, we meet with blindness, and pay too dearly,
by our ignorance in attempting a superfluous knowledge. As
God's knowledge is destined to the government of the world,
so should ours be to the advantage of the world, and not
degenerate into vain speculations.
This attribute is injured by swearing by creatures. To swear
by the name of God, in a righteous cause,^ when we are laAV-
fully called to it by a superior power, or by the necessary deci
sion of some controversy, for the ends of charity and justice, is
an act of religion, and a part of Avorship, founded upon and
directed to the honour of this attribute; by it Ave acknow
ledge the glory ofhis infallible knowledge of all things; but to
swear by false gods, or by any creature, is blasphemous; it
sets the creature in the place of God, and invests it with that
which is the peculiar honour of the Divinity; for Avhen any
swear truly, they intend the invocation of an infallible witness,
' Amyraut, Moral, tom. 3. p. 75, &c. 2 Cajetan. Sum. p. 190,

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 543
and the bringing an undoubted testimony for what they do
assert. While any therefore swear by a creature, or a false
god, they profess that that creature, or that which they esteem
to be a god, is an infallible witness, which to be, is fhe right
only of God; they attribute to the creature that whichis the
property of God alone, to know the heart, and to be a witness
whether they speak true or no; and this was accounted by all
nations the true design of an oath. As to swear falsely, is a
plafli denial of the all-knowledge of God; so to swear by any
creature, is to set fhe creature upon fhe throne of God, in
ascribing that perfection to the creature which sovereignly
belongs to the Creator: for it is not in the power of any to wit
ness to the truth of the heart, but of him that is the Searcher of
hearts. We sin against this attribute by censuring the hearts of
others. An open crime indeed falls under our cognizance, and
therefore under our judgment; for Avhatsoever falls under the
authority of man to be punished, falls under the judgment of
man to be censured, as an act contrary to the law of God; yet
when a censure is built upon the evil of the act which is
obvious to the view, if we take a step further to judge the
heart and state, we leave the revealed rule of the law, and
ambitiously erect a tribunal equal with God's; and usurp a
judicial power, pertaining only to the supreme Governor ofthe
world; and consequently pretend to be possessed of this per
fection of oraniscience, which is necessary to render hira capa
ble of the exercise of that sovereign authority. For it is in
respect of his dorainion, that God has the supreme right to
judge, and in respect of his knowledge that he has an incom
municable capacity to judge.
In an action that is doubtful, the good or evil whereof de
pends only upon God's determination, and wherein much of
the judgment depends upon the discerning the intention of the
agent, avc cannot judge any man without a manifest invasion
of God's peculiar right: such actions are to be tried by God's
knoAvledge, not by our surmises; God only is the Master in
such cases, to whom a person stands or fafls, Rom. xiv. 4.
TUl the true principle and ends of an action be known by
the confession of the party acting it, a true judgment of it,
is not in our power. Principles and ends lie deep and hid
from us; and it is intolerable pride to pretend to have a joint
key with God to open that cabinet which he has reserved to
himself Besides the violation of the rule of charity in misconstruing
actions which may be great and generous in their root and
principle, we invade God's right, as if our ungrounded imagi
nations and conjectures were in joint commission with this

544 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
sovereign perfection; and thereby we become usurping judges
of evil thoughts, James ii. 4. It is therefore a boldness worthy
to be punished by the judge, to assume to ourselves the capa
city and authority of him, Avho is the only Judge. For as the
execution of the Divine law, for the inward violation of it,
belongs only to God, so is the right of judging a prerogative
belonging only to his omniscience; his right is therefore in
vaded, if we pretend to a knowledge of it. This humour of
men the apostle checks, when he says, " He that judgeth me
is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until
the Lord come, who will — manifest the counsels of all hearts,"
1 Cor. iv. 4, 5. It is not the time yet for God to erect the tri
bunal for the trial of men's hearts, and the principles of their
actions; he has reserved the glorious discovery of this attribute
for another season; we must not therefore presume to judge of
the counsels of men's hearts, till God has revealed them by
opening the treasuries ofhis own knowledge.
Much less are we to judge any man's final condition.
Manasseh may sacrifice to devils, and unconverted Paul tear
the church in pieces; but God had mercy on them and called
thera. The action may be censured, not the state, for we
know not Avhom God may call. In censuring men we may
doubly imitate the devU, in a false accusation of the brethren,
as well as in an ambitious usurpation of the rights of God.
This perfection is injured, by presuming upon it, or making
an ill use of it. As in the neglect of prayer for the supply of
men's wants, because God knows them already; so that that
which is an encourageraent to prayer, they raake the reason of
restraining it before God. Prayer is not to administer knoAv-
ledge to God, but to acknowledge this adrairable perfection of
the Divine nature. If God did not know, there were indeed
no use of prayer; it would be as vain a thing to send up our
prayers to heaven, as to implore the senseless statue or picture
of a prince for a protection. We pray because God knows ;
for though he know our wants with a knowledge of vision, yet
he will not knoAv them Avith a knowledge of supply till he be
sought unto. Matt. vi. 32, 33; vii. 11. AU the excellencies of
God are ground of adoration; and this excellency is the ground
of that part of worship we cafl prayer. If God be to be Avor
shipped, he is to be called upon; invocation of his name in our
necessities is a chief act of worship ; whence the temple, the
place of solemn worship, was not caUed the house of sacrifice,
but the house of prayer.
Prayer Avas not appointed for God's information, as if he
were ignorant, but for the expression ofour desires; not to fur
nish him with a knowledge of what we want, but to manifest
to him by some rational sign convenient to our nature, our

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 545
sense of that want, which he knows by himself So that prayer
is not designed to acquaint God with our wants, but fo express
the desire of a remedy of our Avants. God knows our wants,
but has not made proraises barely to our Avants, but to our ask
ing; that his omniscience in hearing, as well as his sufliciency
in supplying, may have a sensible honour in our acknowledg
ments and receipts. It is therefore an ill use of this excellency
of God, to neglect prayer to him as needless, because he knows
already. This perfection of God is wronged, by a practical denial of
it. It is the language of every sin, and so God takes it when
he comes to reckon with men for their impieties. Upon this
he charges the greatness ofthe iniquity of Israel, the overflow
ing of blood in the land, and the perverseness of the city;
" They say. The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord
seeth not," Ezek. ix. 9 ; they deny his eyes to see, and his re
solution to punish.
It will appear also, in forbearing sin from a sense of man's
knowledge, not of God's. Open impieties are refrained from be
cause of the eye of man ; but secret sins are not checked because
of the eye of God. Wickedness is committed in darkness, that
is restrained in light; as if darkness were as great a clog to
God's eyes as it is to ours; as though his eyes were muffled
with the curtains of fhe night. Job xxii. 14. This it is likely
Avas at the root of Jonah's flight; he might have some secret
thought, that his Master's eye could not foUow hira, as though
the close hatches of a ship could secure hira frora the know
ledge of God, as well as the sides of the ship could frora the
dashing of the waves. What lies most upon the conscience
when it is graciously wounded, is least regarded, or contemned
when it is basely inclined. David's heart smote him not only
for his sin in the gross, but as particularly circumstantiated by
the comraission of it in the sight of God; " Against thee, thee
only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight," Psal. li. 4.
None knew the reason of Uriah's death but myself, and be
cause others knew it not, I neglected any regard to this Divine
eye. When Jacob's sons used their hrother Joseph so bar
barously, they took care to hide it frora their father; but cast
away all thoughts of God, from whom it could not be con
cealed. Does not the presence of a chfld bridle a man frora the act
of a longed for sin, when the eye of God is of no force to
restrain hira? As if God's knowledge were of less value than
the sight of a little boy or girl ; as if a child only could see, and
God were blind. He that wifl forbear an unworthy action for
fear of an informer, avIU not forbear it for God ; as if God's
omniscience were not as full an intelligencer to him, as man
Vol. I.— 69

546 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
can be an informer to a magistrate. As we acknowledge the
power of men seeing us, when we are ashamed to comrait a
filthy action in their view; so vie discredit .the power of God
seeing us, when we regard not what we do before the light of
his eyes. Secret sins are more against God than open; open
sins are against the law, secret sins are against the law, and
this prime perfection of his nature. The majesty of God is not
only violated, but the omniscience of God disowned, who is
the only witness ; we must, in all of them, either imagine him
to be without eyes to behold us, or without an arm of justice
to punish us. And often it is, I believe, in such cases, that if
any thoughts of God's knowledge strike upon raen, they
quickly damp thern, lest they should begin to knoAV what they
fear, and fear that they might not eat their pleasant sinful
morsels. It appears, in partial confessions of sin before God. As by
a free, full, and ingenuous confession, we offer a due glory to
this attribute ; so by a feigned and curtailed confession we deny
him fhe honour of it. For though by any confession we in
part own him to be a Sovereign and Judge, yet by a half and
pared acknowledgment, we own bim to be no more than a
human and ignorant one. Achan's full confession gave God
the glory of his omniscience, manifested in the discovery of his
secret crime. "And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I
pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confes
sion unto him," Josh. vii. 19. And so, Psal. I. 23, "Whoso
offereth praise glorifieth me;" or confession, as the word signi
fies, in which sense I would rather take it, referring to this
attribute; which God seems to tax sinners with the denial of,
ver. 21, telling them that he would open the records of their
sins before them, and indict them particularly for every one.
If therefore you Avould glorify this attribute, which shall one
day break open your consciences, offer to me a sincere confes
sion. When David speaks of the happiness of a pardoned
raan, Psal. xxxu. 1, 2, he adds, ¦ in "whose spirit there is no
guile;" not meaning a sincerity in general, but that ingenuous
ness in confessing. To excuse or extenuate sin, is to deny God
the knowledge of the depths of our deceitful hearts. When
Ave will mince it rather than aggravate it, and lay it upon the
inducements of others, when it was the free act of our OAvn
¦wflls, study shifts to deceive our Judge — this is to speak lies of
him, as the expression is, Hos. vii. 13; as though he were a
God easy to be cheated, and knew no more than we are willing
to declare. What did Saul's transferring his sin from himself
to the people, 1 Sam. xv. 15, but charge God with a defect in
this attribute ? When man could not be hke God in his know-
' Camero. p. 80. col. I.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

547

ledge, he would fancy a God like to him in his ignorance; and
imagine a possibility of hiding himself from his knowledge:
and all men tread more or less in their father's steps, and are
fruitful to devise distinctions to disguise errors in doctrine, and
excuses to palliate errors in practice. This crime Job removes
from himself, when he speaks of several acts of his sincerity;
"If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine
iniquity in my bosom," Job. xxxi. 33. I hid not any of my
sins in my own conscience, but acknoAvledged God a witness
to them, and gave him the glory of his knowledge by a free
confession. I did not conceal it from God as Adam did, or as
men ordinarily do ; as if God could understand no more of their
secret crimes than they will let him and had no more sense of
their faults than they Avould furnish him with. As the first
rise of confession is the owning, of this attribute; (for the jus
tice of God would not scare men, nor the holiness of God awe
them, Avithout a sense of his knowledge of their iniquities;) so
to drop out some fragments of confession, discover some sins,
and conceal others, is a plain denial of the extensiveness of the
Divine knowledge.
It is discovered, by putting God off with an outside worship.
Men are often flatterers of God, and think to bend him by for
mal flattering devotions, without the concurrence oftheir hearts ;
as though he could not pierce into the darkness of the mind,
but did as little know us as one man knows another. There
are such things as feigned lips, Psal. xvii. 1 ; a contradiction
between the heart and the tongue, a clamour in the voice, and
scoffing in the soul; a crying to God, thou art " my Father, the
guide of my youth," and yet speaking and doing evil to the
utmost of our power, Jer. iii. 4, 5. As if God could be imposed
upon by fawning pretences: and, like old Isaac, take Jacob for
Esau, and be cozened by the smell of his garments ; as if he
could not discern the negro heart under an angel's garb. Thus
Ephraim, the ten tribes, apostatized from the true religion,
would go with their flocks and their herds to seek the Lord,
Hos. V. 6, Avould sacrifice multitudes of sheep and heifers,
which was the main outside of the Jewish religion; only with
their flocks and their herds, not with their hearts, Avifh those
inward qualifications of deep humiliation and repentance for
sin: as though outside appearances limited God's observation,
whereas God had told them before, that he knew Ephraim, and
Israel was not hid from him, ver. 3. Thus to do is to put a
cheat upon God, and think to blind his all-seeing eye; and
therefore fl is called deceit, Psal. Ixxvin. 38. " They did flatter
him with their mouth :" the word signifies to deceive, as well
as to flatter: not that they or any else can deceive God, but it
implies an endeavour to deceive him, by a few dissembling

548 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
words and gestures, or an imagination that God was satisfied
with bare professions, and Avould not concern himself in a fur
ther inquisition. This is an unworthy conceit of God, to fancy
that Ave can satisfy for inward sins, and avert approaching judg
ments, by external offerings, by a loud voice with a false heart,
as if God (like children) would be pleased wflh the glittering
of an empty shell, or the rattling of stones, the chinking of
money, a mere voice and crying, without inward frames and
intentions of service.
Once more, in cherishing multitudes of evil thoughts. No
man but would blush for shame, if the base, impure, slovenly
thoughts, either in or out of duties of worship, were visible to
the understanding of raan : how diligent would he be to curb
his luxuriant and unworthy fancies, as well as bite in his words !
But when we give the reins to the motions of our hearts, and
suffer them to run at random without a curb, it is an evidence
we are not concerned for their falling under the notice of fhe
eye of God: and it argues a very weak belief of this perfection,
or scarce any belief at all. Who can think any man's heart
possessed with a sense of this infinite excellency, that suffers his
mind, in his meditation on God, to wander into every sty, and
be picking up stones upon a dunghill? What does it intimate,
but that those thoughts are as invisible, or inaudible to God, as
they are to men without the garments of words ? When a
man thinks of obscene things, his own natural notions, if
revived, would tell hira, that God discerns what he thinks, that
the depths of his heart are open to him.' And the voice of those
notions is, deface those vain imaginations out of your minds.
But what is done ? Men cast aAvay rational light, muster up
conceits, that God sees them not, knows them not, and so sink
into the puddle of their sordid imaginations, as though they
remained in darkness to God.
I might further instance,
In omission of prayer, which arises sometimes from a flat
atheism. Who will call upon a God, that beheves no such
being? Or from partial atheism, either a denial of God's suffi
ciency to help, or of his omniscience to know, as if God Avere
like the statue of Jupiter in Crete, framed without ears.
And in the hypocritical pretences of men, to exempt them
from the service God calls them to; when men pretend one
thing, and intend another. This lurks in the veins sometimes
ofthe best men; sometimes it arises from a fear of man ; when
men are more afraid ofthe power of raan, than of dissembling
with the Almighty. It wfll pretend a virtue to cover a secret
wile; and choose the tongue of the crafty, as the expression in
Job is, ch. XV. 5. ' Drexel Nicetas. Lib. 2. cap. 10. p. 357.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 549
The case is plain in Moses, who, when ordered to undertake
an eminent service, pretends a want of eloquence, and an un-
ungrateful sloVness of speech, Exod. iv. 10. This generous
soul, that before was not afraid to discover himself in the midst
of Egypt for his countrymen, ansAvers sneakingly to God, and
would veil his carnal fear Avith a pretence of insufficiency and
humflity; "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?" Exod.
iii. 11. He could not well allege an inability to go to Pharaoh,
since he had had an education in the Egyptian learning, Avhich
rendered him capable to appear at court. God at last uncases
him, and shows it all to be a dissimulation, and whatsoever was
the pretence, fear lay at the bottom; he was afraid of his life
upon his appearance before Pharaoh, frora whose face he had
fled upon the slaying the Egyptian, which God intimates to
him: " Go, return into Egypt: for aU the men are dead which
sought thy life," Exod. iv. 19. What does this carriage speak,
but as if God's eye were not upon our inward parts, as though
we could lock him out of our hearts, that cannot be shut out
from any creek of the hearts of men and angels.
Use (2.) The second use is of comfort. It is a ground of
great comfort under the present dispensation wherein we are;
Ave have heard the doctrinal part, and God has given us the
experimental part of it in his special providence this day, upon
the stage of the Avorld.' And blessed be God thathe has given
us a ground of comfort, without going out of our ordinary
course to fetch it, wherehy it seems to be peculiarly of God's
ordering for us.
[1.] It is a comfort in all the clandestine contrivances of raen
against the church. His eyes pierce as far as the depths of
hell; not one of his church's adversaries lies in a mist, all are
as plain as the stars which he numbers: " Mine adversaries are
all before thee," Psal. Ixix. 19, more exactly known to thee,
than I can recount them. It is a prophecy of Christ, wherein
Christ is brought in speaking to God, of his own and the
church's enemies. He comforts himself with this that God has
his eye upon every particular person among his adversaries:
he knows where they repose theraselves, when they go out to
consult, and Avhen they corae in with their resolves: he dis
cerns all the rage that spirits their hearts, in Avhat corner it
lurks, hoAV it acts; all the disorders, raotions of it, and every
object of that rage; he cannot be deceived by the closest and
subtlest person. Thus God speaks concerning Sennacherib
and his host against Jerusalem. After he had spoken of fhe
forming of his church, and the weakness of it, he adds, " But
I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and
thy rage against me. Because thy rage against me, and thy
1 Nov. 1678, when the popish plot was discovered.

550 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore Avill I put my hook
into thy nose, and my bridleUnto thy lips, and I will turn thee
back," Isa. xxxvii. 28, 29, &c. He knows all the methods of
the counsels, the stages they had laid, the raanner of execution
of their designs, all fhe ways Avhither they turned themselves,
and Avould use them no better than men do devouring fish and
untamed beasts, with a hook in the nose and a bridle in the
mouth. Those statesmen in Isa. xxix. 15, thought their con
trivances too deep for God to fathom, and too close for God to
frustrate; they "seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord:
surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed
as the potter's clay," of no more force and understanding than
a potter's vessel, Avhich understands not its own form wrought
by the artificer, nor the use it is put to by the buyer and pos
sessor; or shall be esteemed as a potter's vessel, that can be as
easily flung back into the mass from whence it was taken, as
preserved in fhe figure it is now endued Avith. No secret de
signer is shrouded from God's sight, or can be shrouded from
God's arm; he understands the venom of their hearts better
than we can feel it, and discovers their iuAvard fury more plain
ly than we can see the sting or teeth of a viper when they are
opened for mischief; and to Avhat purpose does God know and
see them, but in order to deliver his people from them in his
own due time? "I know their sorrows, and I am come down
to deliver them," Exod. iii. 7, 8. The walls of Jerusalem are
continually before him, he knows therefore all that would un
dermine and demolish them; none can hurt Zion by any igno
rance or inadvertence in God.
It is observable, that our Saviour assuming to himself a dif
ferent title in every epistle to the seven churches, does particu
larly ascribe to himself this of knowledge and wrath in that to
Thyatira, an emblem or description of the Romish state: "And
unto fhe angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things
saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of
fire, and his feet like fine brass," Rev. fl. 18. His eyes, like a
fiame of fire, are of a piercing nature, insinuating themselves
into all the pores and parts of the body they encounter; and
his feet like brass to crush them Avith, is explained, ver. 23.
" I will kill her chfldren Avith death; and aU the churches shall
know that 1 am he Avhich searcheth the reins and the hearts:
and I wfll give unto every one of you according to your works."
He knows every design of the Romish party, designed by that
church of Thyatira.' Jezebel, there, signifies a whorish church,
such a church as shall act as Jezebel, Ahab's wife, who was
1 For the evidence of it, I refer you to Dr. More's Exposition of the Seven
Churches, worthy every learned and understanding man's reading, and of every
sober Romanist.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.

551

not only a worshipper of idols, but propagated idolatry in
Israel, slew the prophets, persecuted Elijah, murdered Nabofh,
the name whereof signifies prophecy, seized upon his posses
sion. And if it be said that — this church was commended for
her Avorks, faith, patience, ver. 19; it is true Rome did at first
strongly profess Christianity, and maintained the interest of it,
but afterwards fell into the practice of Jezebel, and committed
spiritual adultery. And is she to be owned for a wife, that now
plays the harlot, because she was honest and modest at her first
marriage?^ And though she shall be destroyed, yet not speedi
ly: "I will cast her into a bed," ver. 22, seeras to intimate the
destruction of Jezebel not to be at once and speedily, but in a
lingering way, and by degrees, as sickness consumes a body.
[2.] This perfection of God fits him to be a special object of
trust. If he were forgetful, Avhat comfort could we have in any
proraise? How coifld we depend upon hira, ifhe were ignorant
of our state ? His corapassions to pity us, his readiness to relieve
us, his power to protect and assist us, would be insignificant,
without his omniscience to inform his goodness, and direct the
arm of his power. This perfection is as it Avere God's office of
intelligence. As you go to your memorandum book to knoAv
what you are to do; so does God to his omniscience. This per
fection is God's eye, to acquaint him Avith the necessities of his
church, and directs all his other attributes in their exercise for
and about his people. You may depend upon his mercy that has
promised, and upon his truth to perform, upon his sufficiency to
supply you, and his goodness to relieve you, and his righteous
ness to reward you, because he has an infinite understanding
to know you and your wants, you and your services. And
without this knowledge of his, no comfort could be drawn frora
any other perfection; none of them could be a sure nail to hang
our hopes and confidence upon. This is that the church ahvays
celebrated: "He hath remembered his covenant for ever, and
the word which he hath commanded to a thousand genera
tions," Psal. cv. 7; and "He remembered his holy promise,"
ver. 42; and, "Heremembered for them his covenant," Psal. cvi.
45. He remembers and understands his covenant; therefore
his promise, to perform it; and therefore our wants, to supply
them. [3.] And the rather, because God knows the persons of all
his own. He has in his infinite understanding, the exact num
ber of all the individual persons that belong f o him ; " The Lord
knoweth them that are his," 2 Tim. ii. 19. He knows afl
things, because he has created them; and he knows his people,
because he has not only made them, but also chosen them. He
could no more choose he knew not what, than he could create
¦ Coe. in loc.

552 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
he knew not what: he knows them under a double tide; of
creation, as creatures, in the common mass of creation; as neA\'
creatures, by a particular act of separation. He cannot be
ignorant of them in time, whom he foreknew from eternity: his
knoAvledge in time is the same he had from eternity. He fore
knew them that he had intended to give the grace of faith unto;
and he knows them after they believe, because he knows his
own act in bestowing grace upon them, and his own mark and
seal wherewith he has stamped thera. No doubt but he that
calls the stars of heaven by their names, Psal. cxlvii. 4, knows
the number of those living stars that sparkle in the firraament
of his church. He cannot be ignorant of their persons, when
he numbers the hairs of their heads, and has registered their
names in the book of life. As he only had an infinite mercy to
make the choice; so he only has an infinite understanding to
comprehend their persons. We only know the elect of God by
a moral assurance in the judgment of charity, when the conver
sation of men is according to the doctrine of God. We have
not an infallible knowledge of them, Ave may be often mistaken;
Judas, a devil, may be judged by man for a saint, till he be
stripped ofhis disguise. God only has an infallible knowledge
of them; he knows his own records, and the counterparts in the
hearts of his people; none can counterfeit his seal, nor can any
raze it out. When the church is either scattered, like dust, by
persecution, or overgrown with superstition and idolatry, that
there is scarce any grain of true religion appearing, as in the
time of Elijah, who complained that he was left alone, as if the
church had been rooted out of that corner of the world;' yet
God knew that he had a number fed in a cave, and had reserved
seven thousand men that had preserved the purity of his wor
ship, and not bowed their knee to Baal, 1 Kings xix. 14. 18.
Christ knew his sheep, as well as he is knoAvn of them ; yea,
better than they can know him, John x. 14. History acquaints
us, that Cyrus had so vast a memory, that he knew the name
of every particular soldier in his array, which consisted of divers
nations: shaU it be too hard for an infinfle understanding to
know every one of that host that raarch under his banners?
may he not as' well know them, as know the number, quahties,
influences of those stars which lie concealed from our eye, as
weU as those that are visible to our sense ? Yes, he knows them,
as a general to employ thera, as a shepherd to preserve them:
he knows them in the Avorld to guard thera, and he knows them
when they are out of the Avorid to gather them, and cull out
their bodies, though wrapped up in a cloud of the putrified car
casses of the wicked. As he kncAv them from all eternity to
elect thera, so he knows thera in time to clothe their persons
' Turretin's Sermons, p. 362.

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 553
with righteousness, to protect their persons in calamity accord
ing to his good pleasure, and at last to raise and reward them
according to his promise.
[4.] We may take comfort frora hence, that our sincerity
cannot be unknown to an infinite understanding. Not a way
ofthe righteous is concealed from hira, and therefore they shall
stand in judgment before hira: "The Lord knoweth fhe way
of the righteous," Psal. i. 6; he knows thera to observe them,
and he knows them to reward them. How comfortable is it
to appeal to this attribute of God for our integrity, with Heze
kiah, " 0 Lord, remember uoav how I have walked before thee
in truth and with a perfect heart," 2 Kings xx. 3. Christ him
self is brought in this prophetical psalm drawing out the com
fort of this attribute, " I have not refrained my lips, 0 Lord,
thou knowest," Psal. xl. 9; meaning his faithfulness in declar
ing the righteousness of God. Job foUoAvs the same steps,
" Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is
on high," Job xvi. 19. My innocence has the testimony of
men, but my greatest support is in the records of God. Also
now, or besides the testimony of my oavu heart, I have another
witness in heaven that knoAvs the heart, and can only judge of
the principles of my actions, and clear me from the scorn of my
friends, and the accusations of men, with a justification of my
innocence. He repeats it twice, to take the greater comfort in
it. God knows, that we do that in the simplicity of our hearts,
which may be judged by men to be -done for unworthy and
sordid ends: he knows not only the outward action, but the
inward affection: and praises that which men often dispraise;
and writes down that with "Euge," " Well done, good and
faithful servant," which men daub with their severest censures,
Rom. ii. 29. How refreshing is it to consider, that God never
mistakes the appearance for reality, nor is led by the judgment
of man! He sits in heaven, and laughs at their follies and cen
sures. If God had no sounder and no raore piercing a judg
ment than man, woe be to the sincerest souls that are often
judged hypocrites by some. What a happiness is it for integrity
to have a judge of infinite understanding, who will one day
wipe off the dirt of worldly reproaches!
Again, God knows the least dram of grace and righteousness
in the hearts of his people, though but as a smoking flax, or as
the least particle of a saving conviction. Matt. xii. 20; and
knows it so as to cherish it; he knows that work he has begun,
and never has his eye off from it to abandon it.
[5.] The consideration of this exceflent perfection in God
raay comfort us in our secret prayers, sighs, and works. If
God were not of infinite understanding, to pierce into the heart,
what comfort has a poor creature, that has a scantiness of ex-
VoL. I.— 70

554 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
pression, but a heart in a flame? If God did not understand
the heart, faith and prayer, which are internal works, Avould be
in vain. How could he give that mercy our hearts plead for,
if he were ignorant of our inward affections? Hypocrites
might scale heaven by lofty expressions, and a sincere soul
come short of the happiness he is prepared for, for want of
flourishing gifts. Prayer is an internal work, words are but. the
garment of prayer; meditation is the body, and affections the
soul and life of prayer ; " Give ear to my words, 0 Lord, con
sider my raeditation," Psal. v. 1. Prayer is a rational act, an
act ofthe mind, not the act of a parrot: prayer is an act of the
heart, though the speaking prayer is the work of the tongue:
noAv God gives ear to the words, but he considers the medita
tion, the frame of the heart. Consideration is a more exact
notice than hearing, the act only of the ear. Were not God of
an infinite understanding, and omniscient, he might take fine
clothes, a heap of garraents, for the raan hiraself; and be put
off by glittering words, without a spiritual frame. What mat
ter of rejoicing is it, that we call not upon a deaf and ignorant
idol; but on one that listens to our secret petitions to give, thera
a despatch, that knows our desires afar off, and frora the infi
niteness ofhis raercy, joined with his omniscience, stands ready
to give us a return! Has he not a book of remembrance for
them that fear him, and for their sighs and ejaculations to him
as well as their discourses of hira, Mai. iii. 16; and not only
what prayers they utter, but what gracious and holy thoughts
they have of hira? That " thought upon his name." Though
mUlions of supplications be put up at fhe same time, yet they
have all a distinct file (as I may say) in an infinite understand
ing, Avhich perceives and comprehends them all. As he ob
serves millions of sins committed at the same time by a vast
nuniber of persons, to record them in order to punishment; so
he distinctly discerns an infinite number of cries at the same
moment, to register them in order to an answer.
A sigh cannot escape an infinite understanding, though
crowded among a mighty multitude of cries from others, or
covered with many unwelcome distractions in ourselves; no
raore than a believing touch from the woman that had the
bloody issue, could be concealed from Christ, and be undis
cerned from the press of the thronging multitudes. Our groans
are as audible and inteUigible to him as our words, and he
knows what is the mind ofhis own Spirit, though expressed in
no plainer language than sobs and heavings, Rom. vui. 27.
Thus David cheers up himself under the neglects of his friends,
"Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not
hid from thee," Psal. xxxvifl. 9. Not a groan of a panting
.spirfl shafl be lost, tUl God has lo§t his knowledge; not a peti-

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 555
tion forgotten whfle God has a record, nor a tear dried whfle
God has a bottle to reserve it in, Psal. Ivi. 8.
Our secret works are also known and observed by him; not
only our outward labour, but our inward love in it, Heb. vi.
10. If with Isaac we go privately into the field to meditate,
or secretly cast our bread upon the waters, he keeps his eye
upon us to reward us, and returns the fruit into our own bo
soms. Matt. vi. 4. 6 ; yea, though it be but a cup of cold water,
frora an inward spring of love given to a disciple, he sees your
works and your labours, and faith and patience in working
them. Rev. ii. 2, all the marks of your industry, and strength
of your intentions; and will be as exact at last iu order to a
due praise, as to open sins in order to a just recompense, 1 Cor.
iv. 5.
[6.] The consideration of this excellent attribute affords com
fort in the afflictions of good raen. He knows their pressures,
as weU as hears their cries, Exod. iii. 7. His knowledge
comes not by information from us; but his compassionate
listening to our cries springs from his own inspection into our
sorrows; he is affected with them, before we make any disco
very of them. He is not ignorant of the best season, when
they may be usefufly inflicted, and when they may be profita
bly removed: the tribulation and poverty of his church is not
unknown to him; "I know thy AVorks, and tribulation," &c.
Rev. ii. 9. He knows their works, and what tribulation they
meet with for him; he sees their extremities, when they are
toiling against the wind and tide of the world, Mark vi. 48.
Yea, the natural exigences of the multitude are not neglected
by him, he discerns to take care of them; our Saviour consi
dered the three days' fasting ofhis followers, and miraculously
provides a dish for them in the wilderness. No good man is
ever out of God's mind, and therefore never out of his compas
sionate care ; his eye pierceth into their dungeons and pities
their miseries: Joseph may forget his brethren, and the disci
ples not know Christ when he walks upon the nfldnight waves
and turbulent sea; ' but a lion's den cannot obscure a Daniel
from his sight, nor the depth of the whale's belly bury Jonah
frora the Divine understanding. He discerns Peter in his
chains, and Stephen under the stones of martyrdom : he knows
Lazarus under his tattered rags, and Abel wallowing in his
blood: his eye and knowledge goes along with his people,
when they are transplanted into foreign countries, and sold for
slaves into the islands of the Grecians, for he will raise them
out of the place, Joel iii. 6, 7. He would defeat fhe hopes of
the persecutors, and applaud the patience of his people. He
knows his people in the tabernacle of life, and in the valley of
¦ Barlow's Man's Refuge, p, 29, 30.

556 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
the shadow of .death, Psal. xxiii. He knows all penal evils,
because he commissions and directs them: he knoAvs the instru
ments, because they are his sword, Psal. xvii. 13; and he
knows his gracious sufferer, because he has his mark: he dis
cerns Job in his anguish, and the devil in his malice. By the
direction of this attribute he orders calamities, and rescues from
thera. "Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and
spite," Psal. x. 14. That is the comfort of the psalmist, and
the comfort of every believer, and the ground of committing
themselves to God under all the injustice of men.
[7.] It is a comfort in all our infirmities. As he knows our
sins to charge thera, so he knows the weakness of our nature
to pity us. As his infinite understanding may scare us, because
he knoAvs our transgressions; so it raay relieve us, because he
knows our natural mutability in our first creation: " He know
eth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust," Psal. ciii.
14. It is the reason of the precedent verses, why he reraoves
our transgression frora us, why he is so backward in punish
ing; so patient in waiting; so forward in pitying. Why? He
does not only remeraber our sins, but remember our frame or
forraing, Avhat brittle, though clear glasses we were by crea
tion, how easy to be cracked. He reraerabers our impotent
and weak condition by corruption; what a sink we have of
vain imaginations that remain in us after regeneration ; he does
not only consider that we were raade according to his iraage,
and therefore able to stand, but that we were raade of dust and
weak raatter, and had a sensitive soul, like that of beasts, as
well as an intellectual nature, like that of angels, and therefore
liable to follow the dictates of it, without exact care and watch
fulness. If he remembered only the first, there would be no
issue but indignation; but the consideration ofthe latter moves
his compassion. How miserable should we be for want of this
perfection in the Divine nature, whereby God remembers and
reflects upon his past act in our first frame, and the mindful
ness of our condition excites the motion of his bowels to us!
Had he lost the knowledge, hoAV be first framed us ; did he not
stfll remeraber the rautabflity of our nature, as we were formed
and stamped in bis mint; how much more wretched would our
condition be than it is! If his reraerabrance of our original be
one ground of his pity, the sense of his oraniscience should be
a ground of our corafort, in the stirring of our infirraities. He
reraerabers we were but dust, when he raade us; and yet re
members we are but dust, whfle he preserves and forbears us.
[8.] It is some comfort in the fears of sorae lurking corrup
tion in our hearts. We know by this whither to address our
selves for the search and discovery of it: perhaps some bless
ings we want are retarded, sorae calamities we understand not

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 557
the particular cause of are inflicted, some petitions we have
put up hang too long for an answer; and the chariot wheels of
Divine goodness move slow and are long in coming. Let us
beg the aid of this attribute to open to us the remoras, to dis
cover what base affection there is that retards the mercies we
want, or attracts the affliction we feel, or bars the door against
the return of our supplications. What our dim sight cannot
discover, the clear eye of God can make visible to us. " Show
rae wherefore thou contendest with me," Job x. 2. As in want
of pardon, we particularly plead his mercy, and in our desires
for the performance of his proraise, we argue with hira from
his faithfulness; so in the fear of any insincerity or hidden cor
ruption we should implore his omniscience: for as God is a
God in covenant, our God, our God in the whole of his nature ;
so the perfections of his nature are employed in their several
stations, as assistances of his creatures. This was David's
practice and comfort ; after that large meditation on the oranis
cience and omnipresence of God, he turns his thoughts of it
into petitions for the employment of it in the concerns of his
soul, and begs a mercy suitable to the glory of this perfection :
" Search me, 0 God, and know my heart: try me, and know
my thoughts," Psal. cxxxix. 23; dive to the bottom, "and see
if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting," ver. 24. His desire is not barely that God should
know hira, for it would be senseless to beg of God that he
should have raercy, or faithfulness, or power, or knowledge in
his nature; but he desires the exercise of this attribute, in the
discovery of himself to himself, in order to his sight of any
wicked way, and humiliation for it, and reformation of it in
order to his conduct to everlasting life. As we may appeal to
this perfection to judge us, when the sincerity of our actions is
censured by others; so we may iraplore it to search us, when
our sincerity is questioned by ourselves; that our minds may
be enlightened by a beam from his knowledge, and fhe little
thieves raay be puUed out of their dens in our hearts by the
hand of his power. In particular, it is our comfort that we
can, and our necessity that we must address particularly to
this, when we engage solemnly in a work of self-exaraination;
that we raay have a clearer eye to direct us than our own; that
we raay not mistake brass for gold, or counterfeit graces for
true; that nothing that is filthy and fit to be cast out, may es
cape our sight, and preserve its station. And we need not
question the laying at the door of this neglect (namely, not
calling in this attribute to our aid, whose proper office it is, as
I may so say, to search and inquire) all the mistakes, ill suc
cess, and fruitlessness of our endeavours in self-examination,
because we would engage in it in the pitiful strength of our

558 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
own dimness, and not in the light of God's countenance and
the assistance of his eye, which can discern what we cannot
see, and discover that to us which we cannot raanifest fo our
selves. It is a corafort to a learner of an art, to have a skilful
eye to overlook his work, and inforra hira of the defects. Beg
the help ofthe eye of God in all your searches and self-exarai-
nations. [9.] The consideration of this attribute is comfortable in our
assurances of and reflections upon the pardon of sin, or seeking
of it. As God punishes men for sin according to his knowledge
of them, which is greater than the knowledge their own con
sciences have of them; so he pardons according to his know
ledge: he pardons not only according to our knowledge, but
according to his own. He is greater than any man's heart, to
condemn for that which a man is at present ignorant of; and
greater than our hearts, to pardon that which is not at present
visible to us: he knoAVS that which the most watchful conscience
cannot take a survey of If God had not an infinite under
standing of us, how could we have a perfect and full pardon
from him? It would not stand with his honour to pardon he
knew not Avhat. He knows what crimes we have to be par
doned, when we knoAV not all of them ourselves that stand in
need of a gracious remission; his omniscience beholds every sin
to charge it upon our Saviour. If he knows our sins that are
black, he knows every mite of Christ's righteousness which is
pure, and the utmost extent of his merits, as well as the demerit
of our iniquities. As he knows the filth of our sin, he also
knows the covering ofour Saviour: he knows the value ofthe
Redeemer's sufferings, and exactly understands every plea in
the intercession of our Advocate. Though God knows our sins
"oculo indice," " Avith an eye that marks them," yet he does
not see them "oculo judice," with a judicial eye: his omnisci
ence stirs not up his justice to revenge, but his mercy to pity.
His infinite understanding of what Christ has done, directs him
to disarm his justice, and sound an alarm to his bowels. As he
understands better than we, what Ave have committed; so he
understands better than we, what our Saviour has merited;
and his eye directs his hand in the blotting out guUt, and
applying the remedy.
Use (3.) The third use shall be to sinners, to humble thera,
and put them upon serious consideration. This attribute speaks
terrible things to a profligate sinner. Basfl thinks that the rip
ping open the sins of the damned to their faces by this perfec
tion of God, is more terrible than their other torments in hell.
God knows the persons of wicked raen, not one is exerapted
frora his eye, he sees all the actions of raen as well as he knows
their persons: "He knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 559
also," Job xi. 11. His eye is upon all their goings. Job xxxiv.
21. He hears the most private whispers, the scope, manner,
circumstance of speaking, he knows it altogether, Psal. cxxxix.
4. He understands all our thoughts, the first bubblings of
that bitter spring, ver. 2. The quickest glances of the fancy,
the closest musings of the mind, and the abortive wishes
of the will, the language of the heart, as Avell as the language
of the tongue; not a foolish thought or an idle word, not
a wanton ^glance or a dishonest action, not a negligent service
or a distracting fancy, but is more visible to him, than the filth
of a dunghill, can be to any man by the help of a sun-beara.
How much better would it be for desperate sinners, to have
their crimes known to all the angels in heaven, and men upon
earth, and devUs in hell, than that they should be knoAvn to
their Sovereign, whose laws they have violated, and to their
Judge, whose righteousness obliges him to revenge the injury!
[1.] Consider, what a poor refuge is secrecy to a sinner!
Not the mists of a foggy day, nor the obscurity of the darkest
night, nor the closest curtains, nor the deepest dungeon, can hide
any sin from the eye of God. Adam is known in his thickets,
and Jonah in his cabin. Achan's wedge of gold is discerned
by him, though' buried in the earth, and hooded with a tent.
ShaU Sarah be unseen by him, when she mockingly laughs be
hind the door? Shall Gehazi tell a lie, and corafort hiraself with
an iraagination of his raaster's ignorance, as long as God knows
it? Whatsoever works men do, are not hid frora God, whether
done in the darkness or day-hght, in the midnight darkness or
the noon-day sun : he is all eye to see, and he has a great Avrath
to punish. The wheels in Ezekiel are full of eyes, a piercing
eye to behold the sinner, and a sAvift wheel of wrath to overtake
hira. God is light, and of all things light is most difficult to
keep out. The most secret sins are set in the light ofhis coun
tenance, Psal. xc. 8; as legible to him as if written wifh a sun
beam; more visible to him than the greatest print to the sharp
est eye. The fornications of the Samaritan woraan, perhaps
known only to her own conscience, were raanifest to Christ,
John iv^ 18. There is nothing so secretly done, but there is an
infaUible witness to prepare a charge. Though God be invisi
ble to us, we must not imagine Ave are so to him; it is a vanity
therefore to think, we can conceal ourselves frora God, by con
cealing the notions of God frora our sense and practice. If men
be as close frora the eyes of all men, as from those of the sun:
yea, if they could separate themselves from their own shadow,
they could not draw themselves from God's understanding: how
then can darkness shelter us, or crafty artifices defend us?
With what shame will sinners be filled, when God, who has
traced their steps, and written their sins in a book, shall make

560 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
a repetition of their ways, and unvefl the web of their wicked

ness

[2.] What a dreadful consideration is this to the juggling
hypocrite, that masks hiraself with an appearance of piety!
An infinite understandingjudges not according to the veils and
shadows, but according to truth; he judges not according to
appearance, 1 Sara. xvi. 7. The outward coraeliness of a work
imposeth not on him, his knowledge, and therefore his estima
tions are quite of another nature than those of raen. By this
perfection God looks through the veil, and beholds the fitter of
abominations in the secrets of the soul, the true quality and
principle of every work, and judges of them as they are, and
not as they appear. Disguised pretexts cannot deceive him;
the disguises are known afar off before they are weaved; he
pierces into the depths of the most abstruse wills; all secret
ends are dissected before him; every action is naked in its out
side, and open in its inside ; all are as clear to him as if their
bodies were of crystal, so that if there be any secret reserves,
he wUl certainly reprove us. Job xiii. 10. 'We are often de
ceived, we may take wolves for sheep, and hypocrites for be
lievers; for the eyes of raen are no better than flesh, and dive
no further than appearance; but an infinite understanding, that
fathoras the secret depths of the heart, is too knowing to let a
dream pass for a truth, or mistake a shadow for a body.
Though we caU God Father all our days, speak the language
of angels, or be endowed with the gift of miracles, he can dis
cern whether we have his mark upon us; he can espy the trea
son of Judas in a kiss; Herod's intent of murdering under a
specious pretence of worship: a pharisee's fraud under a broad
philactery; a ravenous wolf under the softness of a sheep's
skin; and the devil in Sarauel's mantle, or when he would
shroud himself among the sons of God, Job i. 6, 7. All the
rooras of the heart, and every atom of dust in the least chink
of it, is clear to his eye. He can strip sin from the fairest ex
cuses, pierce into the heart with more ease than the sun can
through the thinnest cloud or vapour, and look through afl
Ephraira's ingenious inventions to excuse his idolatry, Hos. v.
3. Hypocrisy then is a senseless thing, since it cannot escape
unmasking by an infinite understanding. As all our force can
not stop his arm, when he is resolved to punish; so all our
sophistry cannot blind his understanding, when he comes to
judge. Woe to the hypocrite, for God sees him ; aU his jug
gling is open and naked to an infinite understanding.
[3.] Is it not also a senseless thing to be careless of sins com
mflted long ago ? The old sins forgotten by men, stick fast in
an infinite understanding: time cannot raze out that which
hath been known from eternity. Why should they be for-

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE, 561
gotten many years after they Avere acted, since they were fore
known in an eternity before they were committed, or the crimi
nal capable to practise them? Amalek must pay their arrears
of their ancient unkindness to Israel in the time of Saul, though
the generation that committed thera were rotten in their
graves, 1 Sam. xv. 2. Old sins are written in a book, which
lies always before God; and not only our own sins, hut the
sins of our fathers, to be requited upon their posterity. ' What
a vanity is it then to be regardless of the sins of an age that.
went before us! Because they are in sorae measure out of
our knowledge, are they therefore blotted out of God's remem
brance? Sins are bound up with him, as men do bonds, tfll
they resolve to sue for the debt ; " The iniquity of Ephraim is
bound up," Hos. xui. 12. As his foreknowledge extends to aU
acts that shall be done, so his remembrance extends to all acts
that have been done. We may as well say, God foreknows
nothing that shall be done to the end of the world, as that he
forgets any thing that has been done from the beginning of
the world. The former ages of the world are no further dis
tant from him than the latter. God has a calendar, (as it
were,) or an account book of men's sins ever since the begin
ning of the world; what they did in their chfldhood, what in
their youth, what in their manhood, and Avhat in their old age;
he hath thera in store araong his treasure, Deut. xxxii. 34. He
hath neither lost his understanding to know them, nor his reso
lution to revenge them: as it folloAVS, " To me belongeth ven
geance," ver. 35. He intends to enrich his justice with a glo
rious manifestation, by rendering a due recompense. And it
is to be observed, that God does not only necessarily remem
ber them, but sometimes binds himself by an oath to do it:
" The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I
will never forget any of their Avorks," Amos vin. 7; or in the
Hebrew, If I ever forget any of their works; that is, let me not
be accounted a God for ever, if I do forget ; let me lose my
Godhead, if I lose my remembrance. It is not less a misery
to the wicked, than it is a comfort to the godly, that their re
cord is in heaven.
[4.] Let it be observed, that this infinite understanding does
exactly know the sins of men, he knows so as to consider. He
does not only know them, but intently beholds thera; "His
eyelids try the chfldren of men," Psal. xi. 4; a metaphor taken
from men, that contract the eyelids when they Avould wistly
and accurately behold a thing; it is not a transient and careless
look: "Thou hast seen it," Psal. x. 14: thou hast intently be
held it, as the word properly signifies. He beholds and knows
the actions of every particular man, as if there were none but
1 " Behold it is written." Isa. Ixv. G.
Vol. I.— 71

562 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
he in the Avorld; and does not only know but ponder, Prov. v.
21, and consider their works, Psal. xxxiii. 15. He is not a bare
spectator, but adiligent observer. " By him actions are weigh
ed," 1 Sam. ii. 3, to see what degree of good or evil there is
in thera, what there is fo blemish them, what to advantage
them, what the quality and quantity of every action is. Con
sideration takes in every circumstance ofthe considered object;
notice is taken of the place where, the minute when, the mercy
against which it is comraitted; the nuraber of them is exact in
God's book. They " have tempted me now these ten tiraes,"
against the demonstrations of my glory in Egypt and the wil
derness. Numb. xiv. 22. The whole guilt in every circumstance
is spread before him: his knowledge of men's sins is not con
fused; such an imperfection an infinite understanding cannot
be subject to. It is exact, for iniquity is raarked before hira,
Jer. fl. 22.
[5.] God knows men's miscarriage so as to judge. This use
his omniscience is put to, to maintain his sovereign authority
in the exercise of his justice: his notice of the sins of men is
in order to a just retribution: thou hast seen mischief to requite
it with thy hand, Psal. x. 14. The eye of his knowledge di
rects the hand of his justice; and no sinful action that falls
under his cognizance, but will fall under his revenge: they can
as little escape his censure as they can his knowledge: he is a
witness in his omniscience, that he may be a Judge in his right
eousness: he knows fhe hearts of the wicked, so as to hate
their works, and testify his abhorrence of that which is of high
value with men, Luke xvi. 15. Sin is not preserved in his un
derstanding, or written down in his book to be moth-eaten as
an old manuscript, but to be opened one day, and copied out
in the consciences of men: he writes them to publish them,
and sets them in the light of his countenance, to bring them to
the hght of their consciences. What a terrible consideration
is it, to think that the sins of a day are upon record in an infal
lible understanding; much more the sins of a week: what a
number then do the sins of a month, a year, ten, or forty years
arise to! How many actions against charity, against sincerity;
what an infinite number is there of thera, all bound up in the
court rolls of God's omniscience, in order to a trial, to be brought
out before the eyes of men! Who can seriously consider all
those bonds, reserved in the cabinet of God's knowledge to be
sued out against the sinner in due time, without an inexpressible
horror ?
Use (4.) The fourth use is qf exhortation. Let us have a
sense of God's knowledge upoh our hearts. All wickedness
has a spring from a want of due consideration and sense of it.
David concludes it so; the proud rose against him, and violent

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE. 5Q3
men sought after his soifl, because they did not set God before
them, Psal. Ixxxvi. 14. They think God does not know, and
therefore care not what nor how they act. When the fear of
this attribute is removed, a door is opened to all impiety. What
is there so vUlanous, but the minds of raen will attempt to act?
What reverence of a Deity can be left, Avhen the sense of his
infinite understanding is extinguished? What faith could there
be in judgraents, in witnesses? How would the foundations of
human society be overturned! the pillars upon which com
merce stands, be utterly broken and dissolved ! What society
can be preserved, if this be not truly believed and faithfully
stuck to ? How easUy would oaths be swallowed and quickly
violated, if the sense of this perfection were rooted out of the
minds of men ! What fear could they have of calling to wit
ness a Being they imagine blind and ignorant? Men secretly
imagine, that God knows not, or soon forgets, and- then make
bold to sin against him, Ezek. viii. 12. How much does it
therefore concern us to cherish and keep alive the sense of this !
If God writes us upon the palms of his hands, as the expres
sion is, to remember us, let us engrave him upon the tables of
our hearts to remember him. It would be a good motto to
write upon our minds, God knows all, he is of infinite under
standing. [1.] This would give check to much iniquity. Can a man's
conscience easily and delightfully swallow that, which he is
sensible faUs under the cognizance of God, when it is hateful
to the eye ofhis holiness, and renders the actor odious to him?
"Doth he not see my ways, and count all my steps?" saith Job,
ch. xxxi. 4. To what end does he fix this consideration ? To
keep him from wanton glances. Temptations have no encour
ageraent to come near him, that is constantly armed with the
thoughts that his sin is booked in God's omniscience. If any
impudent devil has the face to tempt us, we should not have
the impudence to join issue with him under the sense of an
infinite understanding. How fruitless would his wUes be
against this consideration! How easily would his snares be
cracked, by one sensible thought of this! This does Soloraon
prescribe to aUay the heat of carnal imaginations, Prov. v. 20,
21. It were a useful question to ask, at the appearance of
every temptation, at the entrance upon every action, as the
church did in temptations to idolatry; "Shall not God search
this out? for he knoAveth the secrets of the heart, Psal. xlit. 21.
His understanding comprehends us more than our consciences
can our acts, or our understanding our thoughts. Who durst
speak treason against a prince, if he were sure he heard him,
or that it would come to his knoAvledge? A sense of God's
knowledge of Avickedness in the first motion and inward con-

564 ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.
triyance, woifld bar the accoraplishraent and execution. The
consideration of God's infinite understanding, would cry
"stand" to the first glances ofthe heart to sin.
[2.] It would make us watchful over our hearts and
thoughts. Should we harbour any unworthy thoughts in our
cabinet, if our heads and hearts were possessed with this use
ful truth, that God knows every thing which comes info our
minds, Ezek. xi. 5. We should as rauch blush at the rising of
impure thoughts before the understanding of God, as at the
discovery of unworthy actions to the knowledge of raen. If
we lived under a sense, that not a thought of all those raillions,
which flutter about our minds, can be concealed from him,
how watchful and careful should we be of our hearts and
thoughts! [3.] It would be a good preparation to every duty. This
consideration should be the preface to every service; the Di
vine understanding knows how I now act. This would engage
us to serious intention, and quell wandering and distracting
fancies. Who would come before God with a careless and
ignorant soul, under a sense of his infinite understanding, and
prerogative of searching the heart, "0 thou that dwellest in
the heavens," was a consideration the psalmist had at the
beginning of his prayer, Psal. cxxiii. 1 ; whereby he testifies
not only an apprehension of the majesty and power of God, but
of his oraniscience, as one sitting above beholds all that is
below. Would we offer to God such raw and undigested peti
tions; would there be so much flatness in our services; would
our hearts so often give us the slip; would any hang down
their heads like a bulrush, by an affected or counterfeit humi
lity, while the heart is filled with pride, if we did act faith in
this attribute? No, our prayers would be more sound, our
devotions more vigorous, our hearts more close, our spirits like
the chariots of Aminadib, more swift in their motions. Every
thing Avould be done by us with all our might, which would
be very feeble and faint, if we conceived God to be of a finite
understanding like ourselves. Let us therefore before every
duty, not draw, but open the curtains betAveen God and our
souls, and think that we are going before hira that sees us,
before hira that knows us. Gen. xvi. 13. And the stronger
impressions of the Divine knowledge are upon our minds, the
better would our preparation be for, and the more active our
frames in every service: and certainly we may judge of the
suflableness of our preparations, by the strength of such im
pressions upon us.
[4.] This would tend to make us sincere in our whole course.
This prescription David gave to Solomon, to maintain a sound
ness and health of spirit in his Avalk before God; "And thou,

ON GOD'S KNOWLEDGE.- 5(j5
Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve
him with a perfect heart; — for the Lord understandeth all the
imaginations of the thoughts," 1 Chron. xxvni.- 9. Josephus
gives this reason for Abel's holiness, that he believed God was
ignorant of nothing. ' As the doctrine of omniscience is the
foundation of all religion, so. the impression of it would pro
mote the practiqp of all religion. When all our ways are
imagined by us to be, before the Lord, we shall then keep his
precepts, Psal. cxix. 168. And we can never be perfect or
sincere, till we walk before God, Gen. xvii. -1,. as under the eye
of God's knowledge. What Ave speak, Avhat we think, what
we act is in his' sight: he knows every place where we are,
every thing that we do, as well as Christ knew Nathanael
under-the fig-tree. • As he is too powerful to be vanquished,
so' he is.too full of understanding to be deceived: the sense of
this would make us walk with as much care, as if the under
standing of all men '.did coraprehend us and our actions.
[5.] The consideration of this attribute would make us hum
ble. How, dejected would a. person be, ifhe Avere sure all the
angels in heaven and men upon earth, did perfectly know his
crimes, withall their aggravations! But what is created know
ledge tq an infinite and justly censuring understanding ? When
we consider that he knows our actions whereof there afe multi
tudes, and our thoughts whereof there are millions; that he
views all the. blessings bestowed upon us, all the injuries we
have returned to hira; that he exactly knows his own bounty,
and our ingratitude: all the idolatry, blasphemy and, secret
enmity in every man's heart against him: all tyrannical oppres
sions, hidden lusts, omissions of necessary duties, violation of
plain precepts, every foolish imagination, with all the circum
stances of them, and that perfectly in their full anatomy, every
mite of unworthiness and wickedness in every circumstance ;
and add to this his knowledge, the Avonders of his patience,
which are miraculous upon the score of his omniscience, that
he is not as quick in his revenge as he is in his understanding;
but he is so far from inflicting punishment, that he continues
his former benefits, arras not his justice against us, but solicits
our repentance, and waifs to be gracious with all his knoAv-
ledge of our crimes; should not the consideration of this melt
our hearts into humiliation before him, and make us earnest in
begging pardon and forgiveness of him ?
Again, do we not all find a Avorm in our best fruit, a flaw in
our soundest duties ? Shall any of us vaunt, as if God beheld
only the gold, and not any dross; as if he knew one thing only,
and not another ? If we knew something by ourselves to cheer
us, do Ave not also know something, yea, many things to con-
1 Antiquit, lib. 1. cap. 3.

566 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
demn us, and therefore to humble us ? Let the sense of God's
infinite knowledge therefore be an incentive and argument for
more humfliation in us. If we know enough to render our
selves vUe in our oavu eyes, how much more does God know to
render us vile in his!
[6.] The consideration of this excellent perfection should
make us to acquiesce in God, and rely upon him in every strait.
In public, in private; he knows all cases, and he knows all
remedies; he knows the seasons of bringing them, and he
knows the seasons of removing them, for his own glory. What
is contingent in respect of us, and of our foreknowledge and
in respect of second causes, is not so in regard of God's, who
has the knowledge of the futurition of all things. He knows
all causes in themselves, and therefore knows what every
cause will produce, what will be the event of every coun
sel and of every action. How should we comrait ourselves
to this God of infinite understanding, who knows all things,
and foreknows every thing, that cannot be forced through igno
rance to take new counsel, or be surprised with any thing that
can happen to us ! This use the psalraist makes of it, " Thou
hast seen it: — the poor committeth himself unto thee," Psal. x.
14. Though some trust in chariots and horses, Psal. xx. 7,
some in counsels and counseUors, some in their arms and cour
age, and some in mere vanity and nothing; yet let us remember
the narae and nature of the Lord our God, his Divine perfec
tions, of which this of his infinite understanding and omnis
cience is none of the least, but so necessary, that without it he
could not be God, and the whole world Avould be a mere chaos
and confusion.

DISCOURSE IX.
ON THE WISDOM OP GOD.
RoM. xvi. 27. — To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
This chapter being the last of this epistle, is chiefly made up
of charitable and friendly salutations and commendations of
particular persons, according to the earliness and strength of
their several graces, and their labour of love for the interest of
God and his people.
In verse 17, he warns them not to be draAvn aside from the
gospel doctrine which had been taught them, by the plausible
pretences and insinuations, which fhe corrupters of the doctrine
and rule of Christ never want from the suggestions of their

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

567

carnal wisdora. The .offspring of soul-destroying errrors may
walk about the world in a garb and disguise of good words and
fair speeches; as it is in the 18th verse, " by good words and
fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." And for their
encouragement to a constancy in the gospel doctrine, he assures
them that all those that would dispossess them of truth, to pos
sess them with vanity, are but Satan's instruments, and will fall
under the same captivity and yoke with their principal: " The
God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly," verse
20. Whence observe,
AM corrupters of Divine truth, and troublers of the church's
peace, are no better than devils. Our Saviour thought the
narae " Satan," a. title raerited by Peter, when he breathed out
an advice, as an axe at the root of the gospel, the death of
Christ, the foundation of all gospel truth : and the apostle con
cludes them under the same character, which hinder the super
structure, and would mix their chaff with his wheat. " Get
thee behind me, Satan," Matt. xvi. 23. It is not. Get thee
behind me, Simon, or. Get thee behind me, Peter; but, " Get
thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me;" thou dost
oppose thyself to the wisdom, and grace, and authority of God,
to the redemption of man, and to the good of the world.
As the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of truth, so is Satan the spirit
of falsehood: as the Holy Ghost inspires believers with truth,
so the devil corrupts unbelievers with error. Let us cleave to
the truth of the gospel, that we may not be counted by God as
part of the corporation of fallen angels, and not be barely reck
oned as enemies of God,but in league with the greatest enemy
to his glory in the Avorld.
Again, the Reconciler of the world will be the subduer of
Satan. The God of peace sent the Prince of peace to be the
restorer of his rights, and the hammer to beat in pieces the
usurper of them. As a God of truth he will make good his
proraise, as a God of peace he will perfect the design his wis
dora has laid, and begun to act. In the subduing Satan, he
wifl be the conqueror of his instruments: he says not, God
shall bruise your troublers, and heretics; but Satan: the fall of
a general proves the rout ofthe army. Since God, as a God
of peace, has delivered his own, he wUl perfect the victory,
and make them cease from bruising the heel of his spiritual
seed. Divine evangelical truth shafl be victorious. No weapon
formed against it shafl prosper: the head of the Avicked shaU
fall as low as the feet of the godly. The devil never yet blus
tered in the world, but he met at last Avith a disappointment:
his fall has been like lightning, sudden, certain, vanishing.

568 ON THE AVISDOM OF GOD.
Again, faith must look back as far as the foundation promise.
" The God of peace shall bruise," &c. The apostle seems to
allude to the first promise. Gen. iii. 15; a promise that has
vigour to nourish fhe churches in all ages of the Avorld. It is
the standing cordial; out of the womb of this promise all the
rest have taken their birth. The promises of the Old Testa
ment were designed for those under the Noav, and full perform
ance of them is to be expected and will be enjoyed by thera.
It is a mighty strengthening to faith, to trace the footsteps of
God's truth and wisdom, from the threatening against fhe
serpent in Eden, to the bruise he received in Calvary, and the
triumph over him upon mount Olivet.
Lastly, we are to confide in the promise of God, but leave
the season of its accomplishment to his Avisdom. He will bruise
Satan under your feet, therefore do not doubt it; and shortly,
therefore Avait for it: shortly it wUl be done, that is, quickly,
when you think it may be a great way off; or shortly, that is,
seasonably, when Satan's rage is hottest. God is fhe best judge
ofthe seasons of distributing his own mercies, and darting out
his own glory. It is enough to encourage our waiting, that it
wiU be, and that it wUl be shortly; but we raust not raeasure
God's shortly by our minutes.
The apostle after this concludes with a comfortable prayer,
that since they were liable to many temptations to turn their
backs upon the doctrine which they had learned; yet he desires
God, who had brought them to the knoAvledge of his truth,
would confirm them in the belief of it, since it Avas the gospel
of Christ his dear Son, and a mystery he had been chary of
and kept in his own cabinet, and now brought forth to the
world in pursuance of the ancient prophecies, and now had
published to all nations for that end that it might be obeyed;
and concludes with a doxology, a voice of praise, to hira who
was only wise to effect his own purposes: "Now to hira that
is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the
preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of fhe
mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but noAv
is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, ac
cording to the comraandraent of the everlasting God, raade
known to all nations for the obedience of faifh,'^ ver. 25 — 27.
This doxology is interlaced Avith many comforts for the Ro
mans. He explains the causes of this glory to God, " power
and Avisdom;" power to establish the Romans in grace, which
includes his will. This he proves frora a Divine testiraony,
naraely, the gospel; the gospel committed to him, and preached
by him, which he comraends by calling it the preaching of
Christ; and describes it, for the instruction and comfort of the
Church, from the adjuncts, the obscurity of it under the Old

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 569
Testament, and the clearness of it under the New. It was hid
from the former ages, and kept in silence; not simply and ab
solutely, but comparatively and in part; because in the Old
Testaraent, the doctrine of salvation by Christ was confined to
the lirafls of Judea, preached only to the inhabflants of that
country; to them he gave his statutes and his judgments, and
dealt not so magnificently with any nation, Psal. cxlvii. 19,20;
but now he causes it to spring with greater majesty out of those
narrow bounds, and spread its wings about the world. This
manifestation of the gospel he declares, from the subject, " All
nations:" from the principal efficient cause of it, "The com
raandraent and order of God:" the instrumental cause, " The
prophetic Scriptures:" From the end of it, "The obedience of
faflh" '
Observe here the following things. The glorious atfributes
of God bear a comfortable respect to believers. Power and
wisdom are here mentioned as two props of their faith: his
power here includes his goodness. Power to help without wiU
to assist, is a dry chip. The apostle mentions not God's power
simply and absolutely considered, for that of itself is no more
corafort to men, than it is to devfls; but as considered in the
gospel covenant, his power, as well as his other perfections, are
ingredients in that cordial of God's being our God. We should
never think of the excellency of the Divine nature, without con
sidering the duties they demand, and gathering the honey they
present. Again, the stabUity of a gracious soul depends upon the wis-
dora,"as well as the power of God. It would be a 'disrepute to
the almightiness of God, if that should be totally vahquished
which was introduced by his mighty arra, and rooted in the
soul by an irresistible grace. It would speak a want of strength
to maintain it, or a change of resolution, and so would be no
honour to the wisdom of his first design. It is no part of the
wisdom of an artificer to let a work, wherein he determined to
show the greatness of hisskUl, to be dashed in pieces, when he
has power to preserve it. God designed every gracious soul
for a piece of his Avorkmanship, Eph. ii. 10: what, to have the
skUl of his grace defeated ? If any soul which he has graciously
conquered should be wrested from him, what could be thought,
but that his power is enfeebled? if deserted by him, what could
be imagined, but that he repented of his labour, and altered his
counsel, as if rashly undertaken? These Romans were rugged
pieces, and lay in a filthy quarry, when God came first to
smooth thera; for so the apostle represents thera with the rest
of the heathen, Rom. i. ; and would he throw them away, or
leave them to the power of his eneray, after all his pains he had
' ' •' ' 1 Gomatus in loc.
Vol. I.— 72

570 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
taken with them, to fit thera for his building ? Did he not fore
see the designs of Satan against them; what stratageras he
would use to defeat his purposes and strip him of fhe honour of
his AVork? and would God so gratify his enemy, and disgrace
his own wisdora? The deserting of Avhat has heen acted is a
real repentance, and argues an imprudence in the first resolve
and attempt. The gospel is called the " manifold wisdom of
God," Eph. ih. 10; the fruit of it in the heart of any person,
which is a main design of it, has a tifle to the same character;
and shall this grace, which is fhe product of this gospel, and
therefore the birth of manifold wisdom, be suppressed ? It is
at God's hand we must seek our fixedness and establishment,
and act faith upon these two attributes of God. PoAver is no
ground to expect stability, without Avisdom interesting the
agent in it, and finding out and applying the means for it.
¦Wisdom is naked without power to act, and power is useless
Avithout wisdom to direct. They are these two excellencies of
the Deity, Avhich the apostle here pitches the hope and faith of
the converted Romans upon for their stabUity.
Again, perseverance of believers in grace is a gospel doc
trine. " According to my gospel:" ray gospel ministerially,
according to that gospel doctrine I have taught you in this
epistle; (for, as the prophets were comments upon the laAV, so
are the epistles upon the gospel;) this very doctrine he had
discoursed of, Rom. viii. 38, 39; where he tells them, that
neither death nor life, the terrors of a cruel death, or the allure
ments of an honourable and pleasant life, nor principalities and
powers, with all their subtlety and strength; not fhe things we
have before us, nor the promises of a future felicity, by either
angels in heaven or devils in hell; not the highest angel, nor
the deepest devil, is able to separate us, us Romans, from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus. So that, " according to
my gospel," may be according to that declaration of the gos
pel, Avhich I have made in this epistle, which does not only
proraise the first creating grace, but the perfecting and crown
ing grace; for not only the being of grace, but the health, live
liness, and perpetuity of grace is the fruit of the new covenant,
Jer. xxxii. 40.
Once raore observe, that the gospel is the sole raeans of a
Christian's establishraent. " According to ray gospel," that is,
by my gospel. The gospel is the instrumental cause of our
spiritual life, it is the cause also of the continuance of it; it is
the seed whereby Ave were born, and the milk Avhereby we
are nourished, 1 Pet. i. 23; fl. 2; fl is the power of God to sal
vation, and therefore to all the degrees of fl. " Sanctify them
by thy truth," or "through thy truth," John xvfl. 17; by or
through his truth he sanctifies us, and by the same truth he

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 57 1
establishes us: the first sanctification, and the progress of it,
the first lineaments and the last colours, are wrought by the
gospel. The gospel therefore ought to be known, studied, and
considered by us; it is the charter of our inheritance, and the
security for our standing. The law acquaints us with our
duty, but contributes nothing to our strength and settlement.
Observe also, the gospel is nothing else but the revelation of
Christ. " According to ray gospel, and the preaching of Jesus
Christ," ver. 25, the discovery ofthe raystery, and rederaption,
and salvation, in and by him. It is genitivus objecti, " the
genitive of the object," that preaching wherein Christ is de
clared and set out, with the benefits accruing by hira. This is
the privilege the wisdom of God reserved for the latter times,
which the Old Testament church had only under a veU.
Again, it is a part of the excellency of the gospel, that it had
the Son of God for its publisher. " The preaching of Jesus
Christ." It was first preached to Adam in paradise by God,
and afterwards published by Christ in person to the inhabitants
of Judea. It was not the invention of raan, but copied from
the bosora of the Father by him that lay in his bosom. The
gospel we have, is the same which our Saviour himself preach
ed when he was in the world. He preached it not to the
Romans; but the same gospel he preached is transmitted to
the Romans. It therefore commands our respect: whoever
slights it, it is as much as if he slighted Jesus Christ himself,
were he in person to sound it from his own lips. The validity
of a proclamation is derived from the authority of the prince
that dictates it and orders it; yet the greater the person that
publishes it, the more dishonour is cast upon the authority of
the prince that enjoins it, if it be contemned. The everlasting
God ordained it, and the eternal Son published it.
The gospel, moreover, Avas of an eternal resolution, though
of a temporary revelation. " According to the revelation of
the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,"
ver. 25. It is an everlasting gospel. It was a promise before
the world began, Tit. i, 2. It was not a new invention, but
only kept secret among the arcana, in the breast of the Al
raighty. It was hidden from angels, for the depths of it are
not yet fully made known to them; their desire to look into it,
speaks yet a deficiency in their knowledge of it. 1 Pet. i. 12.
It was published in paradise, but in such words as Adara did
not fully understand. It was both discovered and clouded in
the smoke of sacrifices. It was wrapped up in a veil under
the law, but not opened till the death of the Redeemer: it was
then plainly said to the cities of Judah, Behold, your God
comes. The whole transaction of it between the Father and
the Son, which is the spirit of the gospel, was from eternity;

572 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
the creation of the world was in order to the manifestation of
it. Let us not then regard the gospel as a novelty; the consi
deration of it, as one of God's cabinet rarities, should enhance
our estimation of it. No traditions of men, no invention of
vain wits, that pretend to be wiser than God, should have fhe
same credit with that Avhich bears date from eternity.
Observe yet again, that Divine truth is mysterious. "Ac
cording to the revelation of the mystery, Christ manifested in
the flesh." The whole scheme of godliness is a mystery. No
man or angel could imagine, how two natures so distant as the
Divine and human, should be united; how fhe same person
should be criminal and righteous; how a just God should have
a satisfaction, and sinful man a justification; how the sin should
be punished and the sinner saved. None could imagine such
a way of justification, as the apostle in this epistle declares:
it was a mystery, Avhen hid under the shadows of the law; and
a mystery to the prophets, when it sounded frora their mouths;
they searched it, without being able to comprehend it, 1 Pet. i.
10, 11.
If it be a mystery, it is humbly to be subraitted to. Myste
ries surraount huraan reason. The study of the gospel raust
not be with a yawning and careless frame. Trades you call
"mysteries," are not learned sleeping and nodding; diligence
is required; we must be disciples at God's feet. As it had God
for the author, so we raust have God for the teacher of it; the
contrivance was his, and the illuraination ofour minds must be
frora hira. As God only manifested the gospel, so he only can
open our eyes to see the mysteries of Christ in it.
In ver. 26, we may observe.
The Scriptures of the Old Testament verify the substance of
the New, and the Noav does evidence the authority of the Old.
"By the Scriptures of the prophets made known." The Old
Testament credits the New, and the new illustrates the Old;
the New Testaraent is a comment upon the prophetic part of
the Old; the Old shows the proraises and predictions of God,
and the New shows the performance: what was foretold in the
Old, is fulfilled in the New; the predictions are cleared by the
events. The predictions of the Old are divine, because they
are above the reason of man to foreknow: none but an infinite
knowledge could foretell them, because none but an infinfle
Avisdom could order all things for the accomplishment of them.
The Christian religion has then the surest foundation; since
the Scriptures of the prophets, wherein it is foretold, are of
undoubted antiquity, and owned by the Jews and many hea
then, which are and were the great enemies of Christ. The
Old Testament is therefore to be read for the strengthening of
our faith. Our blessed Saviour himself draws the streams of

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 573
his doctrine from the Old Testament: he clears up th<5 premise
of eternal life, and the doctrine of the resurrection from the
words of the covenant, " I am the God of Abraham," &c.
Matt. xxn. 32. And our apostle clears up the doctrine of jus
tification by faith from God's covenant with Abraham, Rom.
iv. It must be read, and it must be read as it is written : it was
written to a gospel end, it must be studied with a gospel spirit.
The Old Testament was written to give credit to the New,
when it should be manifested in the world. It must be read
by us, to give strength to our faith, and establish us in the doc
trine of Christianity. How many view it as a bare story, an
almanack out of date, and regard it as a dry bone, without
sucking from it the evangelical marrow ! Christ is, in Genesis,
Abraham's Seed; in David's Psalms and the prophets, the Mes
siah and Redeemer of the world.
Again, observe, the antiquity of the gospel is made manifest
by the Scriptures of the prophets. It was of as ancient a date
as any prophecy: the first prophecy was nothing else but a gos
pel charter; it was not made at the incarnation of Christ, but
made manifest. It then rose up to its raeridian lustre, and
sprung out of the clouds, wherewflh it was before obscured.
The gospel was preached to the ancients by the prophets, as
wefl as to the Gentfles by the apostles; " Unto us was the gos
pel preached, as well as unto them," Heb. iv. 2. To them first,
to us after; to them indeed more cloudy, to us more clear;
but they, as well as we, were evangehzed, as the word signifies.
The covenant of grace was the same in the writings of the
prophets, and the declarations of the evangelists and apostles.
Though by our Saviour's incarnation the gospel hght was
clearer, and by his ascension the effusions of the Spirit fuller
and stronger, yet the believers under the Old Testament saw
Christ in the swaddling-bands of legal ceremonies, and the lat
tice of prophetical writings: they could not offer one sacrifice
or read one prophecy with a faith of the right stamp. Abra
ham's justifying faith had Christ for its object, though it was
not so explicit as ours, because the raanifestation was not so
clear as ours.
Observe also, all truth is to be drawn frora Scripture. The
apostle refers them here to the gospel and the prophets. The
Scripture is the source of divine knowledge; not the tradi
tions of men, nor reason separate frora Scripture. Whosoever
brings another doctrine, coins another Christ; nothing is to be
added to what is written, nothing detracted frora it. He does
not send us for truth to the puddles of huraan inventions, to
the enthusiasms of our brain; nor to the see of Rome, no, nor
to the instructions of angels; but the writings of the prophets,
as they clear up the declarations of the apostles. The church

574 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
of Home is not made here the standard of truth; but the Scrip
tures of the prophets are to be the touchstone to the Romans,
for the trial of the truth ofthe gospel.
Again, how great is the goodness of God! The borders of
grace are enlarged to the gentUes, and not hid under the skirts
ofthe Jews. He that was so long the God ofthe Jcavs, is now
also manifest to be the God of the gentiles: the gospel is now
made known to all nations, "according tq the comraandraent
of the everlasting God." Not only in a way of coramon pro
vidence, but special grace; in calling them to the knowledge of
himself, and a justification of them by faith. He has brought
strangers to him, to the adoption of children, and lodged them
under the wings of the covenant, that were before alienated
from him through the universal corruption of nature. Now he
has manifested himselfa God of truth, mindful of his promise
in blessing all nations in the Seed of Abraham. The fury of
devils, and the violence of men, could not hinder the propaga
tion of this gospel; its light has been dispersed as far as that of
the sun; and that grace that sounded in the gentfles' ears, has
bent many of their hearts to the obedience of it.
Observe, that libertinism and licentiousness find no encour
agement in the gospel. It was made known to all nations for
the obedience of faith. The goodness of God is published, that
our enmity to him may be parted with. Christ's righteousness
is not offered to us to be put on, that we may roll more warmly
in our lusts. The doctrine of grace commands us to give up
ourselves to Christ, to be accepted through him, and to be ruled
by him. Obedience is due to God, as a sovereign Lord in his
law; and it is due out of gratitude, as he is a God of grace in
the gospel. The discovery of a further perfection in God
weakens not the right of another, nor the obligation of the
duty the former attribute claims at our hands. The gospel
frees us frora the curse, but not from the duty and service; we
are delivered from the hands of our enemies, that we might
serve God in holiness and righteousness, Luke i. 74, 75. This
is the will of God in the gospel, even our sanctification. When
a prince strikes off a malefactor's chains, though he deliver him
frora the punishments of his crime, he frees him not from the
duty of a subject. His pardon adds a greater obligation than
his protection did before, while he Avas loyal. Christ's right
eousness gives us a tifle to heaven; but there must be a holi
ness to give us a fitness for heaven.
Observe also, that evangelical obedience, or the obedience
of faith, is alone acceptable to God. "Obedience of faith;"
genetivus speeiei, "the genitive of the kind," noting the kind
of obedience God requires; an obedience springing from faith,
animated and influenced by faith. Not obedience of faUh, as

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 575
though faith we're the rule, and the law were abrogated; but
to the law as a rule, and from faith as a principle. There is
no true obedience before faith: Avithout faith it is impossible to
please God, Heb. xi. 6; and therefore without faith irapossible
to obey hira. A good Avork cannot proceed frora a defiled
mind and conscience; and without faith every man's mind is
darkened, and his conscience polluted. Tit. i. 15. Faith is the
band of union to Christ, and obedience is the fruit of union:
we cannot bring forth fruit Avithout being branches, John xv.
4, 5; and we cannot be branches without believing. Legiti
mate fruit follows upon marriage to Christ, not before it:
"That ye should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God," Rom. vn. 4. All frufl before marriage is bastard, and
bastards were excluded frora the sanctuary. Our persons
must be first accepted in Christ, before our services can be
acceptable : those works are not acceptEible where the person
is not pardoned. Good works flow from a pure heart ; but the
heart cannot be pure before faith. AU the good works reck
oned up in the 11th chapter of the Hebrews were from this
spring; those heroes first believed, and then obeyed. By faith
Abel was righteous before God; without it his sacrifice had
been no better than Cain's: by faith Enoch pleased God, and
had a Divine testimony to his obedience before his translation:
by faith Abraham offered up Isaac, without which he had
been no better than a murderer. All obedience has its root in
faith, and is not done in our own strength, but in the strength
and virtue of another, of Christ, whora God has set forth as our
Head and Root.
Lastly, observe, faith and obedience are, distinct, though in
separable. " The obedience of faith." Faith indeed is obe
dience to a gospel command, which enjoins us to believe; but
it is not all our obedience. Justification and sanctification are
distinct acts of God; justification respects the person, sanctifi
cation the nature; justification is first in order of nature, and
sanctification follows. They are distinct, but inseparable;
every justified person hath a sanctified nature, and every sanc
tified nature supposeth a justified person. So faith and obe
dience are distinct; faith as the principle, obedience as the pro
duct; faith as the cause, obedience as the effect; the cause and
the effect are not the same. By faith we own Christ as our
Lord; by obedience Ave regulate ourselves according to his
coraraand. The acceptance of the relation to him as a subject,
precedes the performance ofour duty: by faith we receive his
law, and by obedience we fulfil it. Faith makes us God's
children. Gal. hi. 26. Obedience manifests us to be Christ's
disciples, John xv. 8. Faith is fhe touchstone of obedience ;

576 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
the touchstone and that which is tried by it, are not the same.
But though they are distinct, yet they are inseparable. Faith
and obedience are joined together; obedience foUows faith at
the heels. Faflh purifies the heart, and a pure heart cannot
be without pure actions. Faith unites us to Christ, whereby
we partake of his life; and a living branch cannot be without
fruit in its season, and much fruit, John xv. 5; and that natu
rally from a newness of spirit, Rom. vii. 6; not constrained by
the rigours of the law, but drawn forth frora a sweetness of
love; for faith Avorks by love. The love of God is the strong
motive, and love to God is the quickening principle; as there
can be no obedience without faith, so no faith without obe
dience. After all this, the apostle ends with the celebration of the
wisdom of God; " To God only wise, be glory through Jesus
Christ for ever." The rich discovery of tbe gospel cannot be
thought of by a gracious soul, wflhout a return of praise to
God, and adrairation of his singular wisdom.
"Wise God." His power before, and his wisdom here, are
mentioned in conjunction, (in which his goodness is included,
as interested in his establishing power,) as the ground of all
the glory and praise God hath frora his creatures.
" Only wise." As Christ says. None is good, but God,
Matt. xix. 17; so the apostle says. None wise, but God.
As all creatures are unclean in regard of his purity; so they
are all fools in regard of his wisdom, yea, the glorious angels
themselves. Job iv. 18. Wisdom is the royalty of God; the
proper dialect of all his Avays and works. No creature can
lay claim to it ; he is so wise, that he is wisdora itself.
" Be glory through Jesus Christ." As God is known only
in and by Christ, so he must be worshipped and celebrated
only in and through Christ. In him we must pray to hira, and
in him Ave must praise him. As aU mercies flow frora God
through Christ to us, so all our duties are to be presented to
God through Christ.
In the Greek, verbatim, it runs thus: "To the alone wise
God, through Jesus Christ, to him be glory for ever." But we
must not understand it, as if God were wise by Jesus Christ;
but that thanks is to be given to God through Christ, because
in and by Christ God has revealed his wisdom to the world.
The Greek has a repetition of the article S not expressed in the
translation. To him be glory. Beza expunges this article, but
without reason, for a is as much as aitS, to hira; and joining
this, " the only wise God," with the 25th verse, " to hira that
is of power to stablish you;" reading fl thus. To hira that is of
power to establish you, the only wise God, leaving the rest in
a parenthesis, it runs sraoothly, " to hira be glory through Jesus

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

577

Christ." And CreUius the Socinian observes, that this article
a, which some leave 'out, niight be industriously inserted by
the apostle, to show, that the glory we ascribe to God is also
given to Christ.
We may observe, that neither in this place, nor any where
in Scripture, is the virgin Mary, or any of the saints, associated
with God or Christ in the glory ascribed to them.
In the words there is.
An appropriation of wisdom to God, and a remotion of it
frora afl creatures: "only wise God." — A glorifying him for it.
Doctrine. The point I shall insist upon is.
That wisdora is a transcendent excellency of the Divine na
ture. We have before spoken of the knowledge of God, and
the infiniteness of it: the next attribute is fhe wisdora of God.
Most confound the knowledge and wisdora of God together;
but there is a manifest distinction between thera in our con
ception. I shall handle it thus; — Show what wisdora is. — Then lay
down some propositions about the wisdom of God. — And show,
that God is wise, and only wise. — Wherein his wisdom ap
pears. — Lastly, the use. —
1. What wisdom is. Wisdom among the Greeks first signi
fied an eminent perfection in any art or mystery; so a good
statuary, engraver, or limner, was called wise, as having an
excellent knowledge in his particular art. But afterwards the
title of wise was appropriated to those that devoted themselves
to the contemplation of the highest things, that served for a
foundation to speculative sciences.' But ordinarily we, count
a man a wise man, when he conducts his affairs with discretion,
and governs his passions with moderation, and carries himself!
with a due proportion and harmony in all his concerns.
Bflt in particular, wisdom consists,
(1.) In acting for a right end. The chiefest part of prudence
is in fixing a right end, and in choosing fit means, and directing
thera to that scope: to shoot at randora is a mark of folly. As
he is the wisest man, that has the noblest end and fittest means,
so God is infinitely wise; as he is the most excellent Being, so
he has the most excellent end. As there is none more excellent
than himself, nothing can be his end but himself: as he is the
cause of all, so he is the end of all; and he puts a true bias
into all the means he uses to hflthe mark he aims at: " Of him,
and through hira, and to him are all things," Rora. xi. 36.
(2.) Wisdora consists, in observing all circumstances for
action. He is counted a wise man, that lays hold of the fittest
opportunities to bring his designs about, that has the fullest
' Amyrant. Moral, tom. 3. p, 123.
Vol. I.— 73

578 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
foresight of all the little intrigues which may happen in a busi
ness he is to manage, and times every part of his action in an
exact harmony with the proper minutes of it. God has all the
circumstances of things in one entire linage before hira; he has
a prospect of every little creek in any design. He sees what
second causes will act, and Avhen they will act this or that; yea,
he determines them to such and such acts: so that it is irapqs-
sible he should be mistaken, or miss of the due season of bring
ing about his own purposes. As he has more goodness than to
deceive any; so he has more understanding than to be raistaken
in any thing. Hence the time ofthe incarnation ofour blessed
Saviour, is called the fulness of time, the proper- season for his
coming. Every circumstance about Christ was timed according
to the predictions of God; even so little a thing as not parting
his garment, and the giving him gall and vinegar to drink. And
all the blessings he shoAvers down upon his people, according
to the covenant of grace, are said to corae in his due season,
Ezek. xxxiv. 25, 26.
(3.) Wisdora consists in wflling and acting according to the
right reason, according to a right judgraent of things. We
never count a wilful man a Avise man, but him only that acts
according to a right rule, when right' counsels are taken and
vigorously executed. The resolves and ways of God are not
mere wfll, but will guided by the reason and counsel of his own
infinite, understanding; "'Who Avorketh all things after the
iiounsel of his oAvn wUl," Eph. i. 11. The motions of the
'piyine wUl are not rash, but follow the proposals of the Divine
mind:. he chooses that Avhich is fittest to be done, so that all his
AvorkS are graceful, and all his ways have a coraeliness and
decorum-in them. Hence all his ways are said to be judgment,
Deut; xxxii. 4, not mere wfll.
Hence it appears, that wisdom and knowledge are two dis
tinct perfections. Knowledge has its seat in the speculative
understanding, wisdom in the practical. Wisdom and know
ledge are evidently distinguished as two several gifts of the
Spirit in man ; " To one is given by the Spirit the Vord of wis
dom; to another the Word of knowledge by the same Spirit,"
1 Cor. xii. 8. Knowledge is an understanding of general rules,
and wisdom is a drawing conclusions from those rules in order
to particular cases. A'man may have the knowledge of the
whole Scripture, and haVe all learning in the treasury of his
memory, and yet be destitute of skfll to make use of them upon
particular occasions, and unite those knotty questions which
may be proposed to hira, by a ready application of those rules.
Again, knoAvledge and wisdora raay be distinguished in our
conception, as two distinct perfections in God: the knowledge
of God is his' understanding of all things; his wisdom is the

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 579
skilful resolving and acting of all things. And the apostle, in
his admiration of hitn, owns them as distinct: " 0 the depth of
the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God," Rom.
xi. 33. Knowledge is the foundation of wisdom, and antece
dent to it; wisdom, the superstructure upon knowledge: men
raay have knoAvledge without wisdora, but not wisdom without
knowledge; according to our common proverb. The greatest
clerks are not the wisest men. All practical knowledge is
founded in speculation, either secundum rem, as in a man; or
secundum rationem, as in God. They agree in this, that they
are both acts of the understanding; but knowledge is the appre
hension of a thing, and Avisdom is the appointing and ordering
of things. Wisdom is the splendour and lustre of knowledge
shining forth in operations, and is an act both of understanding
and will; understanding in counselling and contriving, will in
resolving and executing: counsel and wfll are linked together,
Eph. i. 11.
2. The second thing is to lay down sorae propositions in ge-
fieral, concerning the wisdom of God.
(1.) There is an essential and a personal wisdora of God.
The essential wisdom, is the essence of God; the personal Wis
dom, is the Son of God. Christ is caUed "Wisdom by himself,
Luke vn. 35. The Wisdoni of God, by the apostle, 1 Cor. i.
24. The wisdom I speak of belongs to the nature of God, and
is considered as a necessary perfection. The personal Wisdom
is caUed so, because he opens to us the secrets of God. If the
Son were that wisdom whereby the Father is wise, the Son
would be also the essence whereby the Father is God. If the
Son were the wisdom of the Father, Avhereby he is essentially
wise; the Son would be the essence of the Father, and the
Father Avould have his essence from the Son, since the wisdom
of God is the essence of God ; and so the Son would be the
Father, if the wisdom and poAver of the Father were originally
in the Son.
(2.) Therefore, secondly. The wisdom of God is the same
with the essence of God. Wisdom in God is not a habit added
to his essence, as it is in man, but it is his essence. It is like
the splendour of the sun, the same with the sun itself; or like
the brightness of crystal, Avhich is not communicated to it by
any thing else, as the brightness of a mountain is by the beam
of the sun, but it is one wflh the crystal itself It is not a habit
superadded to the Divine essence; that would be repugnant to
the simplicity of God, and speak him compounded of divers
principles; it would be contrary to the eternity of his perfec
tions. If he be eternally wise, his wisdom is his essence; for
there is nothing eternal but the essence of God. As the sun
melts some things and hardens others, blackens some things

580 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
and Avhitens others, and produces contrary qualities in different
subjects, yet is but one and the same quality in the sun, which
is fhe cause of those contrary operations; so the perfections of
God seem to be diverse in our conceptions, yet they are but
one and fhe same in God.' The wisdom of God, is God acting
prudently; as the power of God, is God acting powerfully, and
the justice of God, is God acting righteously: and therefore it is
more truly said, that God is wisdom, justice, truth, power, than
that he is wise, just, true, poAverful, as if he were compounded
of substance and qualities. All the operations of God proceed
from one simple essence; as all the operations of the mind of
man, though various, proceed from one faculty of understand
ing. (3.) Wisdom is the property of God alone. He is only wise.
It is an honour peculiar to him. Upon the account that no
man deserved the tifle of Wise, but that it was a royalty be
longing to God,= Pythagoras would not be called 'Sof'i;, a title
given to their learned men; but ^aouofos. The name phUoso
pher arose out of a respect to this transcendent perfection of
God. [1.] God only is wise necessarfly. As he is necessarily God,
so he is necessarily Avise; for the notion of wisdom is insepara
ble from the notion of a Deity. When we say God is a Spirit, is
true, righteous, wise; we understand that he is transcendently
these, by an intrinsic and absolute necessity, by virtue of his
own essence, without the efficiency of any other, or any effi
ciency in and by himself God does not raake hiraself wise, no
more than he raakes himself God. As he is a necessary Being
in regard of his life, so he is necessarily wise in regard of his
understanding. Synesius says that God is essentiated, ouaioiiff^ai,,
by his understanding. He places the substance of God in un
derstanding and wisdom: wisdom is the first vital operation of
God. He can no more be unwise than he can be untrue; for
folly in the mind is much the same Avith falsity in speech. Wis
dom among men is gained by age and experience, furthered by
instructions and exercise; but the wisdom of God is his nature.
As the sun cannot be without light, Avhile it remains a sun, and
as eternity cannot be without immortality, so neither can God
be without wisdom. As he only has immortality, 1 Timi vi.
16, not arbitrarily, but necessarily; so he only has wisdora, not
because he will be wise, but because he cannot but be wise;
He cannot but contrive counsels, and exert operations, becom
ing the greatness and majesty of his nature.
[2.] Therefore only -wise originally, God is ai^io&fSaxfos,
aiiieo(poi, " self-taught," and "naturally wise." Men acquire
Avisdom by the loss oftheir fairest years; but his wisdora is the
1 Maimon. Mor. part I. cap. 53. ' Laert. lib. 1. Proem.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 581
perfection of the Divine nature, not fhe birth of study or the
growth of experience, but as necessary, as eternal, as his es
sence. He goes not out of himself to search for wisdom; he
needs no more the brains of creatures in the contrivance ofhis
purposes, than he does their arm in fhe execution of them. He
needs no counsel, he receives no counsel from any ; " Who hath
been his counsellor?" Rom. xi. 34; and, "With whora took he
counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of
judgrnent, and taught him knowledge, and showed fo him the
way of understanding?" Isa. xl. 14. He is the only fountain
of wisdom to others; angels and raen have what wisdom they
have by communication from him. All created wisdom is a
spark of the Divine light, like that of the stars borrowed from
the sun. He that borroAvs wisdom from another, and does not
originally possess it in his own nature, cannot properly be called
wise. As God is the only Being, in regard that aU other beings
are derived from him; so he is only wise, because all other wis
dom flows from him. He is the spring of wisdom to all; none
the original of Avisdom to him.
[3.] Therefore only wise perfectly. There is no cloud upon
his understanding. He -has a distinct and certain knowledge
of all things that can fall under action. As he has a perfect
knowledge without ignorance, so he has a beautiful wisdom
without mole or wart. Men are wise, yet have not an under
standing so vast as to grasp all things; nor a perspicacity so
clear, as to penetrate into the depths of all beings. Angels have
more delightful and lively sparks of Avisdom, yet so imperfect,
that in regard of the wisdom of God they are charged with folly.
Job. iv. 18. Their wisdom as well as their holiness, is veiled
in the presence of God. It vanishes, as the glowing of a fire
does before the beauty ofthe sun; or as a light of a candle in
the midst of a sun-shine contracts itself, and none of its rays are
seen, but in the body of the flame. The angels are not perfectly
wise, because they are not perfectly knowing: the gospel, the
great discovery of God's wisdom, Avas hid from them for ages.
[4.] Therefore only wise universally. Wisdom in one man
is of one sort, in another of another sort; one is a wise trades
man, another a wise statesman, and another a wise philosopher:
one is wise in the business of the world, another is wise in
Divine concerns. One has not so much of plenty of one sort,
but he may have a scantiness in another; one may be wise for
invention, and foolish in execution; an artificer may have skill
to frame an engine, and not skfll to use it: the ground that
is fit for olives, may not be fit for vines; that wUl bear one sort
of grain and not another. But God has a universal wisdora,
because his nature is wise; it is not limited, but hovers over
every thing, shines in every being. His executions are as wise

582 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
as his contrivances; he is wise in his resolves, and wise in his
Avays; Avise in all the varieties of his works of creation, govern
ment, redemption. As his wUl Avills all things, and his power
effects all things; so his wisdom is the universal director ofthe
motions of his will and the executions of his power: as his
righteousness is the measure ofthe matter ofhis actions, so his
wisdom is the rule that directs the manner ofhis actions. The
absolute power of God is not an unruly power: his wisdom
orders all things, so that nothirig is done but what is fit and con
venient, and agreeable to so excellent a Being. As he cannot
do an unjust thing because of his righteousness, so he cannot
do an unwise act because ofhis infinite wisdom. Though God
be not necessitated to any operation without himself, as to the
creation of any thing, yet supposing he wfll act, his wisdom ne
cessitates him to do that which is congruous, as his righteous
ness necessitates him to do that which is just: so that though the
will of God be the principle, yet his wisdom is the rule ofhis
actions. We must in our conceiving of the order, suppose wis
dom antecedent to will: none that acknowledges a God, can
have such an impious thought, as to affix temerity and rashness
to any ofhis proceedings.
All his decrees are drawn out of the infinite treasury of wis
dom in himself He resolves nothing about any ofhis creatures
without reason; but fhe reason of his purposes is in himself,
and springs from hirnself, and not from the creatures:' there is
not one thing that he wills, but he wills by counsel, and works by
counsel, Eph. i. 11. Counsel wrote down every line, every
letter, in his eternal book; and all the orders are drawn out
from thence by his wisdom and will : what was illustrious in
the contrivance, glitters in the execution. His understanding
and will are infinite; what is therefore the act ofhis wUl is the
result of his understanding, and therefore rational: his under
standing and will join hands; there is no contest in God, wfll
against mind, and mind against will; they are one in God, one
in his resolves, and one in all his Avorks.
[5.] Therefore he only is wise perpetuaUy. As the wisdom
of man is got by ripeness of age, so it is lost by decay of years;
it is got by instruction and lost by dotage. The most perfect
minds, when in the Avane, have been darkened with folly.
Nebuchadnezzar, that was wise for a man, became as foolish
as a brute. But the Ancient of days is an unchangeable pos
sessor of prudence; his wisdom is a mirror of brightness, Avith
out a defacing spot. It was possessed by him " in the beginning
of his way, before his works of old," Prov. viii. 22, and he can
never be dispossessed of it in the end of his works. It is inse
perable from hira: the being ofhis Godhead may as soon cease
1 Polhil against Sherlock, p. 377.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 583
as the beauty of his mind; with him is wisdom. Job xii. 13.
It isinseparable from him, therefore as durable as his essence.
It is a wisdom infinite, and therefore without increase or de
crease in itself. The experience of so many ages in the govern
ment of the world, has added nothing to the imraensity of it;
as the shining of the sun since the creation of the world has
added nothing to the light of that glorious body. As ignorance
never darkens his knowledge, so folly never disgraces his pru
dence; God infatuates men, but neither men nor devils can
infatuate God; he is unerringly wise; his counsel does not vary
and flatter: it is not one day one counsel, and another day an
other, but it stands like an immovable rock, or a mountain of
brass. " The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts
of his heart to all generations," Psal. xxxiii. 11.
[6;] He only is incomprehensibly wise. His thoughts are
deep, Psal. xcii. 5; his judgments unsearchable, his Avays past
finding out, Rom. xi. 33, depths that cannot be fathomed. A
splendour more dazzling to our dim minds, than the light of
the sun to our weak eyes. The wisdom of one man may be
coraprehended by another, and over-comprehended; and often
men are understood by others fo be wiser in their actions than
they understand themselves to be. And the wisdom of one
angel may be measured by another angel of the same perfec
tion: but as the essence, so the Avisdom of God is incompre
hensible to any creature; God is comprehended only by God.
The secrets of wisdom in God are double to the expressions of
it in his works; "Canst thou by searching find out God," Job
xi. 6, 7. There is an unfathomable depth in all his decrees, in
all his works; we cannot comprehend the reason of his works,
much less that ofhis decrees, much less that in his nature; be
cause his wisdom being infinite as Avell as his power, can no
more act to the highest pitch than his power. As his power is
not terminated by what he has wrought, but he could give fur
ther testimonies of it, so neither is his wisdom, but he could
furnish us with infinite expressions and pieces of his skill. As
in regard of his immensity, he is not bounded by the limits of
place; in regard of his eternity, not measured by the minutes
of time; in regard of his power, not terrainated wifh this or
that number of objects; so in regard of his wisdom, he is not
confined to this or that particular mode of working: so that in
regard of the reason of his actions, as well as the glory and
majesty of his nature, he dwells in unapproachable light, 1
Tim. vi. 16; and whatsoever we understand of his Avisdora in
creation and providence, is infinitely less than what is in him
self and his own unbounded nature.
Many things in Scripture are declared chiefly to be the acts
of the Divine wifl, yet we must not think that they were acts

584 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
of mere will without wisdom, but they are represented so to
us, because we are not capable of understanding the infinite
reason of its 'acts. His sovereignty is more intelligible to us
than his "wisdom. We can better know the commands of a
superior, and the laws of a prince, than understand the reason
that gave birth fo those laws. We may know the orders ofthe
Divine will, as they are published, but not the sublime reason
of his will. Though election be an act of God's sovereignty,
and he has no cause from without to determine him, yet his
infinite wisdom stood not silent while mere dominion acted.
Whatsoever God does he does wisely, as well as sovereignly;
though that wisdom Avhich lies in the secret places of fhe Di
vine Being, be as incomprehensible to us as the eft'ects of his
sovereignty and power in the world are visible: God can give
a reason of his proceeding, and that drawn from himself, though
we understand it not.
The causes of things visible lie hid from us. Does any man
know how to distinguish the seminal virtue of a small seed
from the body ofit, and in what nook and corner that lies, and
what that is that spreads itself in so fair a plant, and so many
flowers? Can we comprehend the justice of God's proceed
ings in the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the
godly? Yet as we must conclude them the fruits of an unerr
ing righteousness, so we must conclude aU his actions the fruits
of an unspotted wisdom, though the concatenation of all his
counsels is not intelligible to us; for he is as essentially and
necessarily wise, as he is essentially and necessarily good and
righteous. God is not only so wise that nothing more Avise can be con
ceived, but he is more wise than can be imagined; something
greater in all his perfections than can be comprehended by any
creature. It is a foolish thing therefore to question that "which
we cannot comprehend: we should adore, instead of disputing
against it; and take it for granted, that God would not order
any thing, were it not agreeable to the sovereignty of his wis
dom, as well as that of his Avill. Though the reason of man
proceed from the wisdom of God, yet there is more difference
hetween the reason of man and the wisdom of God, than be
tween the light of the sun and the feeble shining of the glow
worm; yet we presume to censure the ways of God, as if 5ur
purblind reason had a reach above him.
[7.] God only is wise infallibly. The wisest men meet with
rubs in the way, that make them fall short of what they aim
at; they often design, and faU; then begin again, and yet all
their counsels end in smoke, and none of them arrive at perfec
tion. If the wisest angels lay a plot, they raay be disappointed ;
for though they are higher and wiser than man, yet there is

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 585
one higher and wiser than they, that can check their projects.
God always compasses his end, never fails of any thing he de
signs and aims at; all his undertakings are counsel and will ;
as nothing can resist the efficacy of his will, so nothing can
countermine the skUl ofhis counsel; "There is no wisdom nor
understanding nor counsel against the Lord," Prov. xxi. 30.
He compasses his ends by those actions of raen and devils,
wherein they think to cross him; they shoot at their own mark,
and hit his. Lucifer's plot by Divine wisdom fulfilled God's
purpose against Lucifer's mind. The counsel of redemption
by Christ, the end of the creation of the world, rode into fhe
world upon the back of the serpent's temptation. God never
mistakes the means, nor can there be any disappointments, to
make him vary his counsels, and pitch upon other means than
what before he had ordained. His word that goes forth of his
mouth shall not return to him void, but it shall accomplish
that which he pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
he sent it, Isa. Iv. 11. What is said of his word, is true of his
counsel, it shall prosper in the thing for which it is appointed;
it cannot be defeated by all the legions of men and devils; for
as he thinks, so shall it come to pass; and as he has purposed,
so shall it stand. The Lord has purposed, and who shall dis
annul it? Isa. xiv. 24. 27. The wisdom of the creature is a
drop from the wisdom of God, and is like a drop to the ocean,
and a shadow to the sun; and therefore is not able to match
the wisdora of God, which is infinite and boundless. No wis
dora is exempted from mistakes, but the Divine: he is wise in
all his resolves, and never calls back his words and purposes,
Isa. xxxi. 2.
3. The third general is to prove that God is wise.
This is ascribed to God in Scripture; "Wisdom and might
are his," Dan. ii. 20, wisdora to contrive, and poAver to effect.
Where should wisdom dwell, but in. the heetd of Deity? and
where should power triuraph, but in the arra of Omnipotence?'
All that God does, he does artificially, skUfully: whence he is
called the builder of the heavens, Heb. xi. 10. T£;kviV»js", an
artificial and curious buUder, a buUder by art. And that word,
Prov. vin. 30, meant of Christ, " Then I was by him, as one
brought up with hira;" sorae render fl. Then was I the curious
artificer; and the same Avord is translated, a cunning workman.
Cant. vii. 1. For this cause counsel is ascribed to God, Isa.
xlvi. 10; not properly, for counsel implies soraething of igno
rance, or irresolution, antecedent to the consultation, and a pos
ture of wfll afterwards, which was not before.^ Counsel is pro-
' Culverwell, Light of Nature, p. 30.
2 "Great in counsel,'' Jer. xxxii. 19. "He hath counsel and understanding,"
Job xii. 13.
Vol. I.— 74

586 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
perly a laborious deliberation, and a reasoning of things: an
invention of raeans for the attainraent of the end, after a dis
cussing and reasoning of all the doubts which arise pro re natd,
on the occasion, about the raatter in counsel. But God has no
need to deliberate in hiraself, what are the best means to
accomplish his ends; he is never ignorant, or undetermined,
what course he should take, as men are before they consult.
But it is an expression in condescension to our capacity, fo sig
nify that God does nothing but with reason and understanding,
with fhe highest prudence, and for the most glorious ends, as
men do after consultation, and the weighing of every foreseen
circumstance. Though he acts all things sovereignly by his wUl, yet he acts
all things wisely by his understanding; and there is not a decree
of his wiU, but he can render a satisfactory reason for in the
face of men and angels. As he is the cause of all things, so he
has the highest wisdom for the ordering of all things. If wis
dom araong men be the knowledge of Divine and human things,
God must be infinitely Avise, since knowledge is most radiant
in him; he knows what angels and men do, and infinitely
raore; what is known by them obscurely, is known by him
clearly; what is known by man after it is done, was knoAvn
by God before it was wrought. By his wisdom, as much as
by any thing, he infinitely differs from all his creatures; as
by wisdom man differs from a brute. We cannot frame a
notion of God, without conceiving him infinitely wise. We
should render him very inconsiderable, to imagine hira fur
nished with an infinite knowledge, and not have an infinite
wisdom to make use of that knowledge: or to fancy him with
a mighty power, destitute of prudence. Knowledge without
prudence, is an eye without motion; and power without dis
cretion, is an arm without a head; a hand to act, without un
derstanding to contrive a model; a strength to act, without
reason to know hoAv to act: it would be a miserable notion of
a God, to fancy him with a brutish and unguided power. The
heathens therefore had, and could not but have this natural no
tion of God. Plato therefore calls him Mens,' and Cleanthes
used to call God Reason, and Socrates thought the title of So^ios-
too magnificent to be attributed to any thing else but God
alone. Arguments to prove that God is wise.
Reason (1.) God could not be infinitely perfect without wis
dom. A rational nature is better than an irrational nature. A
man is not a perfect man Avithout reason; howcan God without
it be an infinitely perfect God? Wisdom is fhe most eminent of
afl virtues; all the other perfections of God without this, would
' Eugub. per. Philosoph. lib. I. cap. 5.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

587

be as a body without an eye, a soul without understanding.
A Christian's graces want their lustre when they are destitute
ofthe guidance of wisdom: mercy is a feebleness, and justice a
cruelty, patience a timorousness, and courage a madness, with
out the conduct of wisdom; so the patience of God would be
cowardice, his power oppression, his justice a tyranny, without
wisdom as the spring, and holiness as the rule. No attribute of
God could shine with a due lustre and brightness without it.
Power is a great perfection, but wisdom a greater.' Wisdom
raay be Avithout much power, as in bees and antsf but power is
a tyrannical thing without wisdom and righteousness. The
pilot is more valuable because of his skill, than the galley slave
because of his strength; and the conduct of a general more esti
mable than the might of a private soldier. Generals are chosen
more by their skill to guide, than their strength to act. What
a clod is a man without prudence! what a nothing would God
be without it! This is the salt that gives relish to all other perfec
tions in a creature; this is the jewel in the ring of all the excel
lencies of the Divine nature, and holiness is the splendour of
that jewel.
Now God being the First Being, possesses whatsoever is most
noble in any being. If therefore wisdom, which is the most
noble perfection in any creature, were wanting to God, he
would be deficient in that which is the highest excellency. God
being the living God, as he is frequently termed in Scripture,
he has therefore the most perfect manner of living, and that
must be a pure and intellectual life: being essentially living, he
is essentially in the highest degree of living. As he has an infi
nite life above all creatures; so he has an infinite intellectual
life, and therefore an infinite wisdom; whence some have called
God not sapientem, but super-sapientem, not only wise, but
above all Avisdom.^
Reason (2.) Without infinite wisdom he could not govern
the world. Without wisdom in forming the matter, which was
made by Divine power, the world could have been no other
than a chaos; and wflhout wisdom in government, it could
have been no other than a heap of confusion; wflhout Avisdom
fhe world could not have been created in the posture it is.
Creation supposes a determination of the will putting power
upon acting; the determination of the will supposes the coun
sel of the understanding determining the will; no work but
supposes understanding as AveU as wifl in a rational agent. As
without skiU things could not be created, so wflhout it things
cannot be governed. Reason is a necessary perfection to him
that presides over aU things: without knowledge there could
I Licet magnum sit posse, majus tamen est sapere.
2 Suarez. vol. 1. lib. I. cap, 3. p. 10.

588 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
not be in God a foundation for governraent, and without wis
dora there could not be an exercise of government; and without
the raost excellent Avisdom, he could not be the most excellent
Governor. He could not be a universal Governor without a
universal wisdom, nor the sole Governor without an inimitable
wisdom, nor an independent Governor without an original and
independent wisdom; nor a perpetual Governor without an
incorruptible wisdom. He Avould not be the Lord of the world
in all points, without skUl to order the affairs of it. Power
and wisdora are foundations of all authority and government;
wisdom to know how to rule and command; power to make
those commands obeyed: no regular order could issue out
without the first, nor could any order be enforced without the
second. A feeble wisdom and a brutish power, seldom or
never produce any good effect; magistracy without wisdora,
would be a frantic power, a rash conduct; like a strong arm
when the eye is out, strikes it knoAvs not Avhat, and leads it
knows not whither. Wisdom without power, would be like a
great body without feet;' like the knowledge of a pilot that
has lost his arm, who though he knows the rule of navigation,
and what course, to follow in his voyage, yet cannot manage
the helm: but when those two, wisdom and power, are linked
together, there arises from both a fitness for government; there
is Avisdom to propose an end, and both wisdora and power to
eraploy means that conduct to that end. And therefore when
God demonstrates to Job his right of government, and the
unreasonableness of Job's quarrelling with his proceedings, he
chiefly urges upon him the consideration of those two excel
lencies of his nature, power and wisdom, which are expressed
in his works, chap, xxxviii. — xii. A prince without wisdom,
is but a title Avithout a capacity to perform the office: no man
without it is fit for government; nor could God, without wis
dom, exercise a just dominion in the world. He has therefore
the highest wisdom, since he is fhe universal Governor. That
wisdora which is able to govern a family, may not be able to
govern a city; and that wisdora which governs a city, may not
be able to govern a nation or kingdom, much less a world.
The bounds of God's government being greater than any, his
wisdora for government must needs surraount the wisdom of
all. And though the creatures be not in number actually infi
nite, yet they cannot be well governed, but by one endowed
wifh infinite discretion. Providential government can be no
more without infinite wisdom, than infinite wisdom can be
without providence. ^
Reason (3.) The creatures working for an end, without their
oAvn knowledge, demonstrate the wisdom of God that guides
> Amyrant. Moral. « Amyrald. Desert. Theol. p. III.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 589
them. All things in the world work for some end; fhe ends
are unknown to thera, though many oftheir ends are visible to
us. As there was some prime cause, which by his power
inspired them Avith their several instincts, so there must be
some supreme wisdora, which raoves and guides them to their
end. As their being manifests his power that endowed them,
so the acting according to the rules of their nature, which they
theraselves understand not, raanifests his wisdom in directing
them. Every thing that acts for an end, must knoAv that end,
or be directed by another to attain that end. The arrow does
not know who shoots it, or to what end it is shot, or what mark
is aimed at; but the archer that puts it in, and darts it out of
the bow, knows. A watch has a regular motion, but neither
the spring nor the wheels that move, know the end of their
motion ; no man will judge a wisdom to be in the watch, but
in the artificer that disposed the wheels and spring, by a joint
combination to produce such a motion for such an end. Does
either the sun that enlivens the earth, or fhe earth that travails
with the plant, know what plant it produces in such a soil,
what temper it should be of, what fruit it should bear, and of
what colour? What plant knows its own medicinal qualities,
fls own beautiful flowers, and for what use they are ordained?
When it strikes up its head from the earth, does it know what
proportion of them there will be? Yet it produces all these
things in a state of ignorance. The sun Avarms fhe earth, con
cocts the humours, excites the virtue of it, and cherishes the
seeds, which are cast info her lap, yet all unknown to fhe sun
or the earth. Since therefore that nature, that is the imme
diate cause of those things, does not understand its own quality,
nor operation, nor the end of it« action, that which thus directs
them must be conceived to have an infinite Avisdom. When
things act by a rule they know not, and move for an end they
understand not, and yet work harmoniously together for one
end, that all of them, we are sure, are ignorant of it, it mounts
up our minds to acknowledge the wisdom of that Supreme
Cause, that has ranged all these inferior causes in their order,
and imprinted upon them the laws of their motions, according
to the ideas in his OAvn mind, who orders the rule by which
they act, and the end for which they act, and directs every
raotion according to their several natures, and therefore is pos
sessed Avith infinite wisdom in his own nature.
Reason (4.) God is the fountain of all wisdom in the crea
tures, and therefore is infinflely Avise himself As he has a
fulness of being in himself, because the streams of being are
derived to other things from him; so he has a fulness of wisdora,
because he is the spring of Avisdora to angels and men. Thatj
Being must be infinitely wise from whence all other wisdoni

590 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
derives its original : for nothing can be in the effect, which is
not eminently in the cause; the cause is always more perfect
than the effect. If therefore the creatures are wise, the Creator
must be much more wise. If the Creator were destitute of
Avisdom, the creature would be much more perfect than the
Creator. If you consider the wisdom of the spider in her
web, which is both her house and net; the art of the bee in
her comb, which is both her chamber and granary; the pro
vision ofthe ant in her repositories for corn; the wisdora ofthe
Creator is illustrated by them: Avhatsoever excellency you see
in any creature, is an image of some excellency in God. The
skill of the artificer is visible in the fruits of his art; a work
man transcribes his spirit in the work of his hands. But the
Avisdom of rational creatures, as men, does more illustrate it:
all arts among men are the rays of Divine wisdom shining
upon them, and by a common gift of the Spirit enlightening
their minds to curious inventions: as, "I wisdom — find out
knowledge of witty inventions," Prov. viii. 12; that is, I give
a faculty to men to find them out; without my wisdom, all
things would be buried in darkness and ignorance: whatsoever
wisdom there is in the Avorld, it is but a shadow of the wisdom
of God, a small rivulet derived from him, a spark leaping out
from uncreated wisdom. He created the smith that blows the
coals in the fire, and makes fhe instruments; the skill to use
those weapons in warlike enterprises is frora him, " I have cre
ated the waster to destroy," Isa. liv. 16; it is not meant of
creating their persons, but communicating to them their art;
he speaks it there to expel fear from the Church of all warlike
preparations against them: he had given men the skill to form
and use weapons, and could as well strip them ofit, and defeat
their purposes. The art of husbandry is a fruit of Divine
teaching, Isa. xxviii. 24 — 26. If those lower kinds of knoAV-
ledge that are coramon to all nations, and easily learned by all,
are discoveries of Divine wisdoni, much raore the nobler
sciences, intellectual and political wisdora: "He giveth wis
dora unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know under
standing," Dan. ii. 21; speaking of fhe more abstruse parts of
knowledge; " The inspiration ofthe Almighty giveth them un
derstanding," Job xxxii. 8. Hence the wisdom Avhich Solomon
expressed in. fhe harlots' case, 1 Kings hi. 28, was, in the judg
ment of all Israel, the wisdom of God ; that is, a fruit of Divine
wisdom, a beam communicated to him from God. Every man's
soul is endowed more or less with those noble qualities: the
soul of every man exceeds that of a brute; if the streams be
so excellent, the fountain must be fuller and clearer. The first
Spirit must infinitely more possess what other spirits derive
from him by creation; Avere fhe wisdom of all fhe angels in

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 59 j
heaven and men on earth collected in one spirit, it must be in
finitely less than what is in the spring; for no creature can be
equal to the Creator. As the highest creature already made,
or that we can conceive may be made by infinite power, would
be infinitely below God in the notion of a creature, so it would
be infinitely below God in the notion of wisdom.
4. The fourth thing is, wherein the wisdom of God appears.
It appears — In creation — In government — In redemption.
(1.) In creation. As in a musical instrument, there is first
the skUl of the workman in the frame; then the skill of the
musician in stringing it properly for such musical notes as he
will express upon it; and after that the tempering ofthe strings
by various stops to a delightful harmony: so is the Avisdom of
God seen in framing the Avorld, then in tuning it, and after
wards in the motion of several creatures. The fabric of the
world is called the wisdom of God; " After that in fhe wisdom
of God the wprld by wisdora knew not God," 1 Cor. i. 21 ; that
is, by the creation the world knew not God; the fraraing cause
is there put for the effect and the work framed: because the
Divine wisdom stepped forth in the creatures to a public ap
pearance, as if it had presented itself in a visible shape to man,
giving instructions in and by the creatures, to know and adore
him. What we translate, " In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth,'" Gen. i. 1; the Targum expresseth. In
the Avisdom God created the heaven and the earth: both bear a
starap of this perfection on them. And when the apostle teUs
the Romans, the invisible things of God were clearly under
stood by the things that are made, Rom. i. 20; the word he
uses is, rtom'/tafft, not 'Ipyoig, this signifies a work of labour, but
Holtiiio,, a work of skill, or a poem. The whole creation is a
poem, every species a stanza, and every individual creature a
verse in it. The creation presents us Avith a prospect of the
wisdom of God, as a poem does the reader with the wit and
fancy of the composer: by wisdom he created the earth, Prov.
iii. 19, and stretched out the heavens by discretion, Jer. x.
12. There is not any thing so mean, so small, but glitters with
a beam of Divine skUl; and the consideration of them would
justly make every man subscribe to that of the psalmist, " 0
Lord how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made
thera all," Psal. civ. 24. All, the least as weU as the greatest,
and the meanest as well as the noblest; even those creatures
which seem ugly and deformed to us, as toads-, &c., because
they fall short of those perfections which are the dowry of
other animals. In these there is a footstep of Divine wisdom,
since they were not produced by hira at random, but deter-
' Omne opus naturse est opus intelligentia. " Every work of nature is a work
of intelligence."

592 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
mined to some particular end, and designed to some usefulness,
as parts of the world in their several natures and stations. God
could never have had a satisfaction in the review of his works,
and pronounced them good or comely, as he did. Gen. i. 31,
had they not been agreeable fo that eternal original copy in his
own mind: it is said he was refreshed, naraely, with that review,
Exod. xxxi. 17; which could not have been, if his piercing eye
had found any defect in any thing Avhich had sprung out of his
hand, or an unsuitableness to that end for which he created
them. He seems to do as a man that has made a curious and
polite work, with exact care to peer about every part and line,
if he could perceive any imperfection in it, to rectify the mis
take. But no defect was found by the infinitely wise God upon
his second examination.
This wisdom of the creation appears,
In the variety — In the beauty — The fitness of every creature
for its use — The subordination of one creature to another, and
the joint concurrence of all to one common end.
[1.] In the variety. " 0 Lord, hoAV manifold are thy works!"
Psal. civ. 24. How great a variety is there of animals and
plants, with a great variety of forms, shapes, figurations, co
lours, various smells, virtues, and qualities! and this variety is
produced from one and the same matter, as beasts and plants
from the earth: "Let the earth bring forth the living crea
ture; — and the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding
seed after his' kind," Gen. i. 12. 24. Such diversity of fowl
and fish from the water; "Let the waters bring forth abun
dantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may
fly," Gen. i. 20. Such a beautiful and active variety frora so
dull a matter as the earth; so solid a variety from so fluid a
matter as the water; so noble a piece as the body of raan, Avith
such variety of members, fit to entertain a more excellent soul
as a guest, from so mean a matter as the dust of the ground.
Gen. fl. 7. This extraction of such variety of forms out of
one single and dull matter, is the chemistry of Divine wisdom:
it is a greater skill to frame noble bodies of vfle matter, as
varieties of precious vessels of clay and earth, than of a nohler
raatter, as gold and sflver.
Again, all those varieties propagate their kind in every par
ticular and quality of their nature, and uniformly bring forth
exact copies according to the first pattern God made of the
kind, Gen. i. 11, 12. 24. Consider also how the same piece of
ground is garnished with plants and flowers of several virtues,
fruits, colours, scents, without our being able to perceive any
variety in the earth that breeds them, and not so great a diffe
rence in the roots that bear them. Add to this the diversities
of birds of different colours, shapes, notes, consisting of various

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

593

parts, Avings like oars to cut the air, and tafls as the rudder of a
ship to guide their motion.
How various also are the endowments ofthe creatures! some
have vegetation, and the power of growth; others have the
addition of sense, and others the excellency of reason; some
thing wherein all agree, and something Avherein all differ;
variety in unity, and unity in variety. The Avisdom of the
Workman had not been so conspicuous, had there been only
one degree of goodness: the greatest skfll is seen in the great
est variety.
The comeliness of the body is visible in the variety of mem
bers, and their usefulness to one another. What an fll-forraed
thing had man been, had he been all ear, or all eye ! If God
had made all the stars to be suns, it would have been a demon
stration of his poAver, but perhaps less of his Avisdom: no
creatures, with the natures they now have, could have con
tinued in being under so much heat. There was no less wis
dom went to the frame of the least, than to the greatest creature.
It speaks more art in a limner to paint a landscape exactly,
than to draw the sun, though the sun be a more glorious body.
I might instance also in the different characters and features
imprinted upon the countenances of men and women, the dif
ferences of voices and statures, whereby they are distinguished
from one another. These are the foundations of order and of
human society and administration of justice. What confusion
would have been if a grown-up son could not be known from
his father, the magistrate from tbe subject, the creditor from the
debtor, the innocent from the criminal ! The laws God has given
to, mankind could not have been put in execution. This variety
speaks the wisdom of God.
[2.] The wisdom of the creation appears in the beauty, and
order, and situation of the several creatures. " He hath made
every thing beautiful in his time," Eccles. iii. 11. As their
being was a fruit of Divine power, so their order is a fruit of
Divine wisdom. All creatures are as members in the great
body of the world, proportioned to one another, and contribut
ing to the beauty of the whole;' so that if the particular forms
of every thing, the union of all for the composition of the world,
and the lg,ws which are established in the order of nature for
its conservation, be considered, it would ravish us with an ad
miration of God: all the creatures are so many pictures or
statues, exactly framed by line; " Their hne is gone out through
all the earth," Psal. xix. 4. Their line, a measuring line, or a
carpenter's rule, whereby he proportions several pieces to be
exactly linked and coupled together. "Their line," that is,
their harmonious proportion, and the instruction from it is gone
• Amyrant. Moral, vol. l.p. 257.
Vol. L— 75

594 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
forth through all the earth. Upon the account of this harraony,
sorae of the ancient heathens framed the images of their gods
with musical instruments in their hands, signifying that God
Avrought all things in a due proportion. '
The heavens speak this wisdom in their order.
The revolutions of the sun and moon determine the seasons
of the year, and make day and night in an orderly succession.
The stars beautify the heavens, and influence the earth, and
keep their courses, Judg. v. 20. They keep their stations Avith
out interfering with one another; and though they have rolled
about for so many ages, they observe their distinct laws, and
in the variety of their motions have not disturbed one another's
functions. The sun is set as the heart in the midst of this great body,
to afford warmth to all: had it been set lower, it had long since
turned the earth into flame and ashes: had it been placed higher,
the earth would have wanted the nourishment and refreshraent
necessary for it.^ Too much nearness had ruined the earth by
parching heat, and too great a distance had destroyed the earth
by starving it with cold.
The sun has also its appointed motion: had it been fixed
without motion, half ofthe earth had been unprofitable: there
had been perpetual darkness in a moiety ofit; nothing had
been produced for nourishment, and so it had heen rendered
uninhabitable : but now by this motion, it visits all the climates
of the world, runs its circuit, so that nothing is hid from the
heat thereof, Psal. xix. 6. It imparts its virtue to every corner
of the world in its daily and yearly visfls. Had it been fixed,
the fruits of the earth under it had been parched and destroyed
before their maturity; but all those inconveniences are provided
against by the perpetual motion of the sun.
This motion is orderly ;= it makes its daily course from east
to west, its yearly motion from north to south: it goes to. the
north, tUl fl comes to the point God has set it, and then turns
back to the south, and gains some point every day: it never
rises nor sets in fhe same place one day where it did the day
before. The world is never without its light; some see its rising
the same moment Ave see its setting.
The earth also speaks the Divine wisdom; it is the pavement
of the world, as the heaven is the ceiling of fretwork. It is
placed lowermost, as being the heaviest body, and fit to receive
the weightiest matter; and provided as a habitation proper for
those creatures which derive the matter of their bodies from it,
I Montag. against Selden, p. 281. Plutarch calls God apfiovixos xai, fisBtxoj;
he says, nothing was made without music.
2 Charlton, Light of Nature, p. 57.
3 Daille Mel. part. 1. p. 483.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 595
and partake of its earthy nature; and garnished Avith other
creatures for the profit and pleasure of man."
The sea also speaks the same Divine Avisdom. He strength
ened the fountains of the deep, and gave the sea a decree, that
it should not pass his coramand, Prov. vni. 28, 29. He has
given it certain bounds, that it should not overflow the earth.
Job xxviii. ll. It contains itself in the situation wherein God
has placed it, and does not transgress its bounds. What if some
part of a country, a little spot, has been overflowed by it, and
groaned under its waves; yet for the main, it retains the same
channels wherein it Avas at first lodged.
All creatures are clothed with an outward beauty, and en
dowed with an inward harmony; there is an agreement in all
parts of this great body; every one is beautiful and orderly; but
the beauty of the world results from all of them disposed and
linked together.
[3.] This wisdom is seen in the fitness of every thing for its
end, and the usefulness of it. Divine wisdom is more illustri
ous in the fitness and usefulness of this great variety, than in
the composure oftheir distinct parts; as the artificer's skiU is
more eminent in fitting the Avheels, and setting them in order
for their due motion, than in the external fabric ofthe materials
which compose the clock.
After the most diligent inspection, there can be found nothing
in the creation unprofitable; nothing but is capable of some
service, either for the support of our bodies, recreation of our
senses, or moral instruction of our minds. Not the least crea
ture but is formed, and shaped, and furnished with members
and parts, in a due proportion for its end and service in the
world; nothing is superfluous, nothing defective.
The earth is fitted in its parts; the valleys are appointed for
granaries, the mountains to shadow them from the scorching
heat of the sun; the rivers, like veins, carry refreshment to
every member of this body; plants and trees thrive on the face
ofthe earth, and metals are engendered in the bowels of it, for
materials for buflding and other uses for the service of man.^
There " he causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb
for the service of man : that he may bring forth food out of the
earth," Psal. civ. 14.
The sea is fitted for use : it is a fish-pond for the nourishment
of raan; a boundary for the dividing of lands and several do
minions; it joins together nations far distant: a great vessel for
comraerce: " There go the ships," Psal. civ. 26. It affords
vapours to the clouds, wherewith to water the earth, which fhe
sun draws up, separating the finer from the salter parts, that
the earth may be fruitful, without being burdened with barren-
' Amyrant. Predestin, p, 9. ^ Amyrant. sur Diverses Text. p. 127.

596 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
ness by the salt. The sea has also its salt, its ebbs and floods,
the one as brine, the other as motion, to preserve it from putre
faction, that it may not be contagious to the rest ofthe world.
Showers are appointed to refresh the bodies of living crea
tures, to open the womb of the earth, and Avater the ground to
make it fruitful. The clouds, therefore, are called the chariots
of God, Psal. civ. 3 ; he rides in them in the manifestation of
his goodness and wisdom.
Winds are fitted to purify the air, to preserve it from putre
faction; to carry the clouds to several parts, to refresh the
parched earth, and assist her fruits; and also to serve for the
commerce of one nation with another by navigation.' God in
his wisdom and goodness " walketh upon the wings of the
wind," Psal. civ. 3.
Rivers are appointed to bathe the ground, and render it fresh
and lively; they fortify cities, are the limits of countries, serve
for commerce, they are the watering-pots of the earth, and the
vessels for drink for the living creatures that dwell upon the
earth.^ God cut those channels for the wild asses, the beasts of
the desert, which are his creatures as well as the rest, Psal. civ.
10—12. Trees are appointed for the habitation of birds, shadoAvs for
the earth, nourishment for the creatures, materials for buflding,
and fuel for the rehef of man against cold.
The seasons of the year have their use. The winter makes
the juice retire into the earth, fortifies plants, and fixes their
roots; it moistens the earth, that was dried before by the heat
ofthe summer, and cleanses and prepares it for a new fruitful
ness. The spring calls out the sap in new leaves and fruit.
The summer consumes the superfluous moisture, and produces
nourishment for the inhabitants of the world.
The day and night have also their usefulness.^ The day
gives life to labour, and is a guide to motion and action. " The
sun arises — man goes forth — to his labour until the evening,"
Psal. civ. 22, 23. It warms the air and quickens nature.
Without day the world would be a chaos, an unseen beauty.
The night indeed casts a veil upon the bravery of the earth,
but it draws the curtains from that of heaven; though it dark
ens beloAv, it makes us see the beauty of the world above, and
discovers to us a glorious part of the creation of God, the tapes
try of heaven, and the motion of fhe stars, hid from us by the
eminent light of the day. It procures a truce from labour, and
refreshes the bodies of creatures, by recruiting the spirits which
are scattered by watching. It prevents the ruin of life, by a
reparation of Avhat Avas wasted in the day. It takes frora us
1 Lessius. 2 Daille Melan. part 2. p. 472, 473.
3 Daille Melang. part. I. p. 477, &c.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

597

fhe sight of flowers and plants, but it washes their face with
dews for a new appearance next morning. The length of the
day and night is not Avithout a mark of wisdom: were they
of a greater length, as the length of a week or month, the
one would too rauch dry, and the other too much moisten;
and for want of action, the members would be stupified.
The perpetual succession of day and night, is an evidence
of the Divine wisdom, in tempering the travail and rest of
creatures. Hence the psalmist tells us, "The day is thine,
the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the
sun: thou hast made summer and winter," Psal. Ixxiv. 16, 17;
that is, they are of God's framing, not without a wise counsel
and end.
Hence let us ascend to the bodies of living creatures, and we
shall find every member fitted for use. What a curiosity is
there in every meraber! every one fitted to a particular use in
their situation, form, temper, and mutual agreement for the
good of the whole; the eye to direct, the ear to receive direc
tions from others, the hands to act, the feet to move. Every
creature has members fitted for that element wherein it resides.
And in the body, some parts are appointed to change the food
into blood, others to refine it, and others to distribute and con
vey it to several parts for the maintenance of the whole: the
heart to mint vital spirits for preserving life, and the brain to
coin animal spirits for life and motion; the lungs to serve for
the cooling the heart, which else would be parched as the
ground in summer. The motion of the members of the body
by one act of the will, and also without the will by a natural
instinct, is an admirable evidence of Divine skfll in the struc
ture of the body; so that well might the psalmist cry out, " I
am fearfully and wonderfuUy made," Psal. cxxxix. 14.
But hoAV much more of this Divine perfection is seen in the
soul! A nature furnished with a faculty of understanding to
judge of things, to gather in things that are distant, and to
reason and draAV conclusions from one thing to another; Avith
a memory to treasure up things that are past, with a will to
apply itself so readily to what the mind judges fit and comely,
and fly so speedily from what it judges ifl and hurtful. The
whole world is a stage, every creature in it has a part to act,
and a nature suited to that part and end it is designed for, and
all concur in a joint language to publish the glory of Divine
wisdom; they have a voice to proclaim the glory of God,"
Psal. xix. 1, 3. And it is not the least part of God's skifl, in
framing the creatures so, that upon man's obedience they are
the channels of his goodness; and upon man's disobedience
they can in their natures be the ministers of his justice for the
punishing of offending creatures.

598 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD
[4.J The wisdom is apparent in the linking aU these useful
parts together, so that one is subordinate to the other for a cora
mon end. All parts are exacfly suited to one another, and
every part to the whole; though they are of different natures,
as lines distant in themselves, yet they meet in one common
centre, the good and the preservation of the universe ; they are
all jointed together, as the word tva.ns\a.ted framed, Heb. xi. 3,
signifies; knit by fit bands and ligaments to contribute mutual
beauty, strength, and assistance to one another; like so many
links of a chain coupled together, that though there be a dis
tance in place, there is a unity in regard of connexion and end,
there is a consent in the whole. The heavens hear the earth,
and the earth hears the corn, and the Avine, and the oil, Hos. ii.
21, 22. The heavens communicate their qualities to the earth,
and fhe earth conveys them to the fruits she bears: the air dis
tributes light, wind, and rain to the earth; the earth and the
sea render to the air exhalations and vapours, and all together
charitably give to the plants and animals that which is neces
sary for their nourishment and refreshment.' The influences
of the heavens animate the earth, and the earth affords matter
in part for the influences it receives from the regions above.
Living creatures are maintained by nourishment; nourishment
is conveyed to them by the fruits ofthe earth; the fruits ofthe
earth are produced by means of rain and heat; matter for rain
and dew is raised by the heat of the sun; and the sun by its
motion distributes heat and quickening virtue to all parts of the
earth. So colours are made for the pleasure of the eye, sounds
for the delight of the ear; light is formed, whereby the eye
may see the one, and air to convey the species of colours to
the eye, and sound to the ear; all things are like the Avheels of
a watch compacted. And though many of the creatures be
endowed with contrary qualities, yet they are joined in a mar
riage-knot for the public security, and subserviency to the pre
servation and order of the universe; as the variety of strings
upon an instrument, sending forth various and distinct sounds,
are tempered together, for the framing excellent and delightful
airs. In this universal conspiring of the creatures together fo
one end, is the wisdom of the Creator apparent; in tuning so
many contraries as the elements are, and preserving them in
their order, which if once broken, the whole frame of natura
would crack, and fall in pieces; all are so interwoven and in
laid together, by the Divine Avorkmanship, as to make up one
entire beauty in the whole fabric: as every part in the body of
man has a distinct comeliness, yet there is besides, the beauty
of the whole, that results from the union of divers parts exactly
fashioned to one another, and linked together.
1 Daille. 15. Serm. p. 170.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 599
By the way, we may observe.
How much may we see of the perfection of God in every
thing that presents itself to our eyes! And how should we be
convinced of our unworthy neglect of ascending to him with
reverent and admiring thoughts, upon the prospect of the
creatures! What dull scholars are Ave, when every creature is
our teacher, every part of the creature a lively instruction!
Those things that we tread under our feet, if used by us ac
cording to the full design of their creation, would afford rich
matter, not only for our heads, but our hearts. As grace does
not destroy nature, but elevate it, so neither should the fresher
and fuller discoveries of Divine Avisdom in redemption, deface
our thoughts of his wisdom in creation. Though the greater
light of the sun obscures the lesser sparkling of the stars, yet it
gives way in the night to the discovery of them, that God may
be seen, known, and considered in all his works of wonder and
miracles of nature. No part of Scripture is more spiritual than
the Psalms; none fiUed Avith clearer discoveries of Christ in the
Old Testament; yet how often do the penmen consider the
creation of God, and find their meditations on him to be sweet,
as considered in his Avorks! "My meditation of him shall be
sweet," Psal. civ. 34. When? Avhy, after a short history of
the goodness and wisdom of God in the frame of the world,
and the species of the creatures.
(2.) The wisdom of God appears in his government of his
creatures. The regular motion ofthe creatures speaks for this
perfection, as well as the exact composition of them. If the
exquisiteness of the frame conducts us to the skill of the con
triver; the exactness of their order, according to his Avill and
law, speaks no less the wisdom of the Governor. It cannot be
thought that a rash and irrational power presides over a worid
so well disposed : the disposition of things has no less charac
ters of skill, than the creation of them. No man can hear an
excellent lesson upon a lute, but raust presently reflect upon
the art of the person that touches it. The prudence of man
appears in Avrapping up the concerns of a kingdom in his mind,
for the well ordering of it; and shall not the Avisdom of God
shine forth, as he is the Director of the world ?
I shall omit his government of inanimate creatures-, and con
fine the discourse to his government of man, as rational, as sin
ful, as restored.
[1.] In his government of man as a rational creature.
This is seen in the law he gives to man. Wisdom framed
it, though wUl enacted it. The wifl of God is the rule of
righteousness to us, but the wisdom of God is the foundation
of that rule of righteousness which he prescribes us. The
composure of a musician is the rule of singing to his scholars;

(300 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
yet tbe consent and harmony in that composure, derives not
itself from his wfll, but frora his understanding; he Avould not
be a musician, if his composures were contrary to the rules of
true harraony; so the laws of men are composed by Avisdom,
though they are enforced by will and authority. '
The moral law, which was the law of nature, the laAv im
printed upon Adam, is so framed, as to secure the rights of
God as supreme, and the rights of men in their distinctions of
superiority and equality: it is therefore called holy and good,
Rom. vfl. 12; holy, as it prescribes our duty to God in his
worship; good, as it regulates the offices of human life, and
preserves the common interest of mankind.
This laAV is suited to the nature of man. As God has given
a law of nature, a fixed order to inanimate creatures, so he has
given a law of reason to rational creatures: other creatures are
nbt capable of a law differencing good and evil, because they
are destitute of faculties and capacities to make distinction be
tween them. It had not been agreeable to the wisdom of God
to propose any moral law to them, who had neither understand
ing to discern nor will to choose. It is therefore to be observed,
that AvhUe Christ exhorted others to the embracing his doctrine,
yet he exhorted not little chfldren, though he took them in his
arras, because though they had faculties, yet they were not come
to such a maturity, as to be capable of a rational instruction.
But there was a necessity for some command for tho govern
ment of man; since God had made him a rational creature, it
was not agreeable to his wisdom to gov-ern him as a brute, but
as a rational creature, capable of knowing his precepts, and vol
untarUy walking in them; and without a law, he had not been
capable of any exercise of his reason in services respecting
God. He therefore gives him a law Avith a covenant annexed to it,
whereby man is obliged to obedience, and secured of a reward.
This was enforced with severe penalties, death, with all the
horrors attending if, to deter him from transgression, Gen. ii.
17; wherein is implied a promise of continuance of life, and all
its felicities, to allure him to a mindfulness of his obligation.
So perfect a hedge did Divihe wisdom set about him, to keep
him within the bounds of that obedience, which was both his
debt and security, that' wheresoever he looked, he saw either
something to invite him, or something to drive him to the pay
ment of his duty, and perseverance in it. Thus the laAV was
exacfly framed to the nature of man; man had twisted in him
a desire of happiness; the promise was suited to cherish this
natural desire. He had also the passion of fear; the proper ob
ject of this was any thing destructive to his being, nature, and
' Castellio Dialog. 1. 4, p. 66,

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

601

felicity; this the threatening met with. In fhe whole fl was
accommodated to raan as rational; precepts to the law in his
mind, promises to the natural appetite, threatenings of the most
prevaihng affection, and to the implanted desires of preserving
both his being and happiness in that being. These were rational
motives fitted to the nature of Adara, which Avas above the life
God had given plants, and the sense he had given animals.
The command given man in innocence, was suited to his
strength and power; God gave him not any command, but what
he had ability to observe: and since we want not power to for
bear an apple in our corrupted and impotent state, he Avanted
not strength in his state of integrity. The wisdom of God com
manded nothing, but what Avas very easy to be observed by him,
and inferior to his natural ability. It had been both unjust and
unwise to have commanded him to fly up to the sun, when he
had not wings; or stop the course of the sea, Avhen he had not
strength. It is suited to the happiness and benefit of man. God's laAvs
are not an act of mere authority respecting his own glory, but
of wisdom and goodness respecting man's benefit. They are
perfective of man's nature, conferring a wisdom upon him, re
joicing his heart, enlightening his eyes, Psal. xix. 7, 8, afford
ing him both a knowledge of God and of himself To be with
out a law, is for man to be as beasts, without justice and without
religion: other things are for the good of the body, but the laAvs
of God for the good of the soul: the more perfect the law, the
greater the benefit. The laAvs given to the Jews were the hon
our and excellency of that nation: "What nation is there so
great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous?" Deut. iv.
8. They were made statesmen in the judicial law, ecclesiastics
in the ceremonial, honest men in the second table, and divine in
the first. All his laws are suited to the true satisfaction of man,
and the good of huraan society. Had God fraraed a law only
for one nation, there would have been the characters of a par
ticular wisdora ; but now a universal wisdora appears, in accora-
modating his law, not only to this or that particular society or
corporation of men, but to the benefit of all mankind in the
variety of climates and countries wherein they live. Every
thing that is disturbing to human society is provided against ^
nothing is enjoined, but what is sweet, rational, and useful: ia
orders us not to attempt any thing against the life of our neigh
bour, the honour of his bed, propriety in his goods, and the
clearness of his reputation; andif well observed, would alter
the face of the world, and make it look with another hue. The
world would be altered from a brutish to a human world; it
would change lions and wolves, men of lion-like and wolfish
dispositions, into reason and sweetness. And because the
Vol. I.— 76

602 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
whole law is summed up in love, it obliges us to endeavour
the preservation of one another's beings, the favouring of one
another's interests, and increasing the goods as much as jus
tice will permit, and keeping up one another's credits; because
love, which i^ the soul of the law, is not shown by a cessa
tion from action, but signifies an order upon all occasions in
doing good. I say, were this law well observed, the world
would be another thing than it is. It would become a religi
ous fraternity; the voice of enmity and fhe noise of groans
and cursings would not be heard in our streets; peace Avould
be in all borders; plenty of cha'rity in the midst of cities and
countries; joy and singing would sounds in all habitations.
Man's advantage was designed in God's laws, and does natu
rally result from the observance of them. God so ordered thera
by his wisdom, that the obedience of man should draw forth his
goodness, and prevent those smarting judgments, which were
necessary to reduce the creature to order, that would not volun
tarily continue in the order God had appointed. The laws of
raen are often unjust, oppressive, cruel; sometiraes against the
law of nature ; but a universal Avisdom and righteousness glitters
in the Divine law. There is nothing in it, but what is worthy of
God, and useful for the creature; so that we may well say Avith
Job, Who teaches like God? Job xxxvi. 22; or as some render
it, 'Who is a law-giver like God? Who can say to hira. Thou
hast wrought iniquity or folly araong raen? His precepts were
fraraed for the preservation of man in that rectitude wherein he
was created, in that likeness to God wherein he was first made,
that there might be a correspondence between the integrity of
the creature and the goodness of his Creator, by the obedience
of raan; that raan raight exercise his facuhies in operations
worthy of him, and beneficial to the world.
The wisdom of God is seen in suiting his laws fo the con
sciences as well as the interest of all mankind. The gentiles
do by nature the things contained in the law, Rom. ii. 14; so
great an affinity there is between the wise law and the reason
of man.
There is a natural beauty emerging from them, and darting
upon the reason and consciences of men, which dictates to
them that this law is worthy to be observed in itself The Iavo
main principles ofthe laAv, "the love and worship of God, and
doing as we would be done by," have an indelible impression
in the consciences of all raen in regard ofthe principle; though
they are not suitably expressed in the practice. Were there no
,'law outwardly published, yet every man's conscience would
.'dictate to him, that God was to be acknowledged, worshipped,
loAred, as naturally as his reason would acquaint him that there
was such a being as God. The suitableness of thera to the

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. g03
consciences of men, is manifest, in that the laws of the best
governed nations among the heathen have had an agreement
with thera. Nothing can be more exactly composed, accord
ing to the rules of right and exact reason, than this; no man
but approves of something in it, yea, of the whole, when he
exercises that dim reason whieh he has. Suppose any raan,
(not an absolute atheist,) he cannot but acknowledge the rea
sonableness of worshipping God. Grant God to be a Spirit,
and it will presently appear absurd to represent him by any
corporeal image, and derogate from his excellency by so mean
a resemblance; with the sarae easiness he wfll grant a reve
rence due to the name of God; that Ave must not serve our
turn of him, by calling him to witness to a lie in a solemn oath;
that as worship is due to him, so some stated tirae is a circum
stance necessary to the performance of that worship. And as
to the second table, wfll any man in his right reason quarrel
with that command that engages his inferiors to honour hira;
that secures his being frora a violent murder, and his goods
from unjust rapine? And though by the fury of his lusts he
breaks the laws of wedlock himself, yet he cannot but approve
of that law, a-s it prohibits every man from doing him the hke
injury and disgrace. The suitableness of the law to the con
sciences of men, is further evidenced by those furious reflec-^
tions and strong alarms of conscience upon a transgression of
it, and that in all parts of the world, more or less in all men;
so exactly has Divine wisdom fitted the law to the reason and
consciences of men, as one tally to another. Indeed, without
such an agreement, no man's conscience could have any ground
for a "hue and cry," nor indeed any man be startled with the
records of it. This raanifests the wisdom of God in fraraing
his law so, that the reasons and consciences of all men do one
time or other subscribe to it. What governor in the world is
able to make any law distinct frora this revealed by God, that
shall reach all places, all persons, all hearts?
We may add to this the extent of his commands in ordering
goodness at the root, not only in action, but affection; not only
in the motion of the members, but the disposflion ofthe soul;
which suiting of a law to the inward frame of man, is quite
out of the coinpass of the wisdora of any creature.
His wisdom is seen in the encouragements he gives for the
studying and observing his wUl: In keeping the coramandments
there is great reward, Psal. xix. 11. The variety of them;
there is not any particular genius in man, but may find some
thing suitable to win upon him in the revealed will of God.
There is a strain of reason, to satisfy the rational; of eloquence,
to gratify the fanciful; of interest, to allure the selfish; of terror,
to startle the obstinate. As a skilful angler stores himself with

601 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
baits, according to the appetites of the sorts of fish he intends
to catch ; so in the word of God, there are varieties of baits,
according to the varieties ofthe inclinations of men; threaten
ings to work upon fear, promises to work upon love, exaraples
of holy raen set out for iraitation; and those plainly, for neither
his threatenings nor his proraises are dark, as the heathen ora
cles, but peremptory, as becoraes a sovereign Lawgiver, and
plain, as was necessary for the understanding of a creature. As
he deals graciously with men in exhorting and encouraging
thera; so he deals wisely herein, by taking away allexcuse from
them if they ruin the interest of their souls by denying obe
dience to their Sovereign.
Again, the rcAvards God purposes are accommodated, not to
the brutish parfs of man, his carnal sense and fieshly appetite;
but to the capacity of a spiritual soul, which admits only of
spiritual gratifications; and cannot in its own nature, without a
sordid subjection to the humours of the body, be raoved by
sensual proposals. God hacks his precepts with that which the
nature of man longed for, and Avith spiritual delights, which
only can satisfy a rational appetite; and thereby did as well
gratify the noblest desires in man, as oblige him to the noblest
service and work.' Indeed virtue and holiness being perfectly
amiable, ought chiefiy to affect our understandings, and by
them draw our wills to the esteera and pursuit of thera. But
since the desire of happiness is inseparable frora the nature of
man, as irapossible to be disjoined, as an inclination to descend
to be severed from heavy bodies, or an instinct to ascend from
light and airy substances; God serves himself of the inclination
of our natures to happiness, to engender in us an esteem and
affection to the holiness he does require. He purposes the en
joyment of a supernatural good and everlasting glory, as a bait
to that insatiable longing our natures have for happiness, to re
ceive the impression of holiness into our souls. And besides,
he does proportion rewards according to the degrees of men's
industry, labour, and zeal for hira ; and weighs out a recom
pense, not only suited to, but above the service. He that im
proves five talents, is to be ruler over five cities; that is, a
greater proportion of honour and glory than another, Luke xix.
18, 19; as a wise father excites fhe affection of his chUdren to
things worthy of praise, by varieties of recorapenses according
to their several actions. And it Avas the wisdom of the steward,
in the judgment of our Saviour, to give every one the portion
that belonged fo him, Luke xii. 42. There is no part of the
word wherein we meet not with the wiU and wisdom of God,
varieties of duties and varieties of encourageraent mingled to
gether. 1 Amyrant.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. g05
The wisdom of God is seen in fitting the revelations of his
will to after-times, and for the preventing of the foreseen cor
ruptions of men. The whole revelation of the mind of God is
stored with wisdom in the words, connexion, sense; it looks
backwards to past, and forwards to ages to come. A hidden
wisdora lies in the bowels of jt, like gold in a mine.
The Old Testaraent Avas so coraposed, as to fortify the New,
when God should bring it to light. The foundations of the
gospel were laid in the law: the predictions of the prophets,
and figures of the law, were so wisely fraraed, and laid down
in such clear expressions, as to be proofs of the authority of the
New Testament, and convictions of Jesus being the Messiah.
Things concerning Christ were written in Moses, the Prophets,
and Psalms, Luke xxiv. 27, and do to this day stare the Jews
so in the face, that they are fain to invent absurd and nonsen
sical interpretations to excuse their unbelief, and continue them
selves in their obstinate blindness. And in pursuance of the
efficacy of those predictions, it was a part of the wisdom of God
to bring forth the translation of the Old Testaraent (by the
means of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, sorae hundreds of years be
fore the coming of Christ) info the Greek language, the tongue
the most known in the world. And why? To prepare the
gentiles by the reading of it, for that gracious call he intended
them, and for the entertainment ofthe gospel, which some few
years after was to be published among them; that by reading
the predictions so long before raade, they might more readily
receive fhe accomplishment of them in their due time.
The Scripture is written in such a manner as to obviate errors
foreseen by God to enter into the church. It may be Avondered
why the universal particle should be inserted by Christ, in the
giving the cup in the supper, which was not in the distributing
the bread; "Drink ye all of it," Matt. xxvi. 27; not at the dis
tributing the bread, Eat you all of it. And Mark in his rela
tion tells us " they all drank of it," Mark xiv. 23. The church
of Rome has been the occasion of discovering to us the wis
dom of our Saviour in inserting that particle aU, since they
were so bold to exclude the coraraunicants frora the cup by a
trick of concomitancy. Christ foresaw the error, and therefore
put in a little word to obviate a great invasion: and the Spirit
of God has particularly left upon record that particle, as we
may reasonably suppose, to such a purpose. And so in the
description of the blessed virgin, Luke i. 27. There is nothing
of her holiness mentioned, Avhich is with much dihgence re
corded of Elizabeth, ver. 6. " Righteous — walking in all the
commandments of the Lord blameless;" probably to prevent
the superstition which God foresaw would arise in the world.
And we do not find more undervaluing speeches, uttered by

606 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
Christ to any of his disciples in the exercise of , his office, than
to her, except to Peter; as when she acquainted hira Avith the
want of wine at fhe marriage in Cana, she receives a slightingi
answer, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" John ii. 4;
and when one was admiring the blessedness of her that bare
him, he turns the discourse another way, to pronounce a bless
edness rather belonging to them that hear the word of God
and keep it, Luke xi. 27, 28; in a mighty wisdom to furnish
an antidote to his people against any conceit of the prevalency
of the virgin over him in heaven, in the exercise of his medi
atory office.
As his wisdora appears in his governraent by his laws, so it
appears in the various inclinations and conditions of raen. As
there is a distinction of several creatures, and several qualities
in thera, for the coramon good of the Avorld, so among men
there are several inclinations and several abflities, as donatives
from God, for the common advantage of human society. Just
as several channels cut out from the same river run several
ways, and .refresh several soils; one man is qualified for one
eraployraent, and another raarked out by God for a different
work, yet all of them fruitful to bring in a revenue of glory to
God, and a harvest of profit to the rest of mankind. Hoav use
less would the body be, if it had but one member! 1 Cor. xii.
19. How unprovided would a house be, if it had not vessels
of dishonour as well as of honour! The corporation of man
kind would be as much a chaos, as the matter of the heavens
and fhe earth was, before it was distinguished by several forms
breathed into it at the creation. Some are inspired with a par
ticular genius for one art, some for another: every man has a
distinct talent. If all were husbandmen, where would be the
instruments to plough and reap? If all Avere artificers, where
would they have corn to nourish themselves? AU men are like
vessels, and parts in the body, designed for distinct offices and
functions for the good of the whole, and mutually return an
advantage to one another.
As the variety of gifts in the church is a fruit of the wisdora
of God, for the preservation and increase of the church, so the
variety of inclinations and employments in the world is a fruit
of the wisdom of God, for the preservation and subsistence of
the world by mutual comraerce: what the apostle largely dis
courses of the fornier in 1 Cor. xii., may be applied to the
other. The various condflions of men is also a fruit of Divine wis
dom. Some are rich, and some poor; the rich have as much
need of the poor as the poor have of the rich: if the poor de
pend upon the rich for their livelihood, the rich depend upon
the poor for their conveniencies. Many arts would not be

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 607
learned by men, if poverty did not oblige thern to fl; and many
would faint in the learning of them, if they were not thereunto
encouraged by the rich.
The poor labour for the rich, as the earth sends vapours info
the vaster and fuller air; and the rich return advantages again
to the poor, as the clouds do the vapours in rain upon the earth.
As meat would not afford a nourishing juice without bread,
and bread without other food would imraoderately fill the sto
mach, and not be wefl digested ; so the rich would be unprofit
able in the commonwealth without the poor, and the poor
would be burdensome to a comraonwealfh without the rich.
The poor could not be easily governed without the rich, nor
the rich sufficiently and conveniently provided for without the
poor. If all were rich, there would be no objects for the exer
cise of a noble part of charity; if all were poor, there were no
matter for the exercise of it. Thus the Divine wisdom planted
various inclinations, and diversified the conditions of men for
the public advantages of the world.
[2.] God's wisdom appears, in the government of men, as
fallen and sinful; or in the government of sin. After the law
of God was broken, and sin invaded and conquered the world;
Divine wisdom had another scene to act in, and other methods
of government were necessary. The wisdom of God is then
seen in ordering those jarring discords, drawing good out of
evil, and honour to himself out of that, which in its own nature
tended to the supplanting ofhis glory. God being a sovereign
good, would not suffer so great an evil to enter, but to serve
himself of it for some greater end ; for aU his thoughts are full
of goodness and wisdom.
Now though fhe permission of sin be an act of his sove
reignty, and the punishment of sin be an act of his justice; yet
the ordination of sin to good is an act of his wisdora, whereby
he does dispose the evU, overrules the malice, and orders the
events ofit to his own purposes. Sin in itself is a disorder, and
therefore God does not permit sin for itself; for in its own na
ture it has nothing of amiableness; but he wflls it for some
righteous end, which belongs to the manifestation of his glory,
which is his aim in all the acts of his will: he wills it, not as
sin, but as his wisdom can order it to some greater good than
was before in the world, and make it contrihute to the beauty
of the order he intends. As a dark shadow is not delightful
and pleasant in itself, nor is drawn by a painter for any amia
bleness there is in the shadoAV itself, but as it serves to set forth
that beauty, which is the main design of his art; so the glo
rious effects which arise from the entrance of sin into the world,
are not from the creature's evil, but from the depths of Divine
wisdom.

608 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
Particularly, God's wisdom is seen in the bounding of sin. As it is said
ofthe wrath of man, it shall praise him, and the remainder of
wrath God does restrain, Psal. Ixxvi. 10. He sets limits to the
boiling corruption of the heart, as be does to the boisterous
waves of fhe sea. Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further. As
God is the Rector of the world, he does so restrain sin, so tem
per and direct it, as that huraan society is preserved, which
else would be overflowed with a deluge of wickedness, and
ruin would be brought upon all communities. The world
would be a shambles, a brothel-house, if God, by his wisdom
and goodness, did not set bars to that wickedness which is in
the hearts of men: the Avhole earth Avould be as bad as hell.
Since the heart of man is a hell of corruption, by that the souls
of all rnen would be excited to the acting ofthe worst villanies:
since every thought of the heart of man is only evil, and that
continually. Gen. vi. 5 — if the wisdora of God did not stop
these floodgates of evil in the hearts of men, it would over
flow the world, and frustrate all the gracious designs he carries
on among the sons of men. Were it not for this wisdom, every
house would be filled with violence, as well as every nature is
with sin. What harm would not strong and furious beasts do,
did not the skill of man tarae and bridle them! How often has
Divine wisdom restrained the viciousness of human nature, and
let it run, not to that point they designed, but to the end he
proposed! Laban's fury, and Esau's enmity against Jacob,
were pent in within bounds for Jacob's safety, and their hearts
overruled from an intended destruction of the good raan to a
perfect amity. Gen. xxxi. 29, and xxxiii.
God's wisdom is seen, in the bringing glory to himself out
of sin.
Out of sin itself. God erects the trophies of honour upon
that, which is a natural means to injure and deface it. His
glorious attributes are draAvn out to our view, upon the occa
sion of sin, which otherwise had lain hid in his own being.
Sin is altogether black and abominable; but by the adrairable
wisdora of God, he has drawn out of the dreadful darkness of
sin, the saving beams of his mercy, and displayed his grace in
the incarnation and passion of his Son for the atonement of
sin. Thus he permitted Adara's fall, and wisely ordered it,
for a fuller discovery of his own nature, and a higher elevation
of man's good ; that " as sin hath reigned unto death, even so
might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by
Jesus Christ," Rora. v. 21. The unbounded goodness of God
could not have appeared without it. His goodness in reward
ing innocent obedience, would have been manifested; but not
his mercy, in pardoning rebellious criraes. An innocent crea-

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD, 609
ture is the object of the rewards of grace, as the standing angels
are under the beams of grace; but not under the beams of
raercy, because they Avere never sinful, and consequently never
miserable. Without sin fhe creature had not been miserable.
Had man remained innocent, he had not been the subject of
punishment; and wflhout the creature's misery, God's mercy
in sending his Son to save his enemies, could not have appeared.
The abundance of sin is a passive occasion for God to manifest
the abundance of his grace.
The power of God in tbe changing the heart of a rebeflious
creature, had not appeared, had not sin infected our nature.
We had not clearly known the vindictive justice of God, had
no crime been committed; for that is the proper object of Di
vine wrath. The goodness of God could never have permitted
justice to exercise itself upon an innocent creature, that was
not guilty either personally, or by imputation. " The righteous
Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the
upright," Psal. xi. 7. Wisdom is iUustrious hereby. God suf
fered man to fall into a mortal disease, to shoAv the virtue of
his own restoratives to cure sin, which in itself is incurable by
the art of any creature. And otherwise this perfection whereby
God draws good out of evil, had been utterly useless, and
would have been destitute of an object wherein to discover
itself Again, wisdom in ordering a rebeUious headstrong world to
its own ends, is greater than the ordering an innocent world,
exactly observant of his precepts, and complying Avith the end
of the creation. Now, without the entrance of sin, this wis
dom had wanted a stage to act upon. Thus God raised the
honour of his wisdom, while man ruined the integrity of his
nature; and rnade use of the creature's breach of his Divine
law, to establish the honour of it in a more signal and stable
manner, by the active and passive obedience of the Son of his
bosom. Nothing serves God so much, (as an occasion of glo
rifying himself,) as the entrance of sin into the world; by this
occasion God communicates to us fhe knowledge of those per
fections of his nature, which had else been folded up from us
in an eternal night; his justice had lain in the, dark, as having
nothing to punish; his mercy had been obscure, as having
none to pardon; a great part ofhis wisdom had been silent, as
having no such object to order.
His wisdom appears, in making use of sinful instruments.
He uses the malice and enmity of the devfl to bring about his
OAvn purposes, and make the sworn enemy of his honour con
tribute to the illustrating of fl against his wUl. This great
crafts-master he took in his own net, and defeated the devil by
the devU's malice; by turning the contrivances he had hatched
Vol. I.— 77

610 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
and accomplished against man, against himself He used hira
as a terapter, to grapple with our Saviour in the wilderness,
whereby to make him fit to succour us ; and as the god of this
world, to inspire the Avicked Jews to crucify him, whereby to
render him actually the Redeemer of the Avorld, and so made
him an ignorant instrument of that Divine glory he designed to
ruin. It is more skiU to make a curious piece of Avorkmanship Avith
ill-conditioned tools, than with instruments naturally fitted for
the work: it is no such great wonder for a limner to draw an
exact piece with a fit pencil and suitable colours, as to begin
and perfect a beautiful Avork wifh a straw and water, things
improper for such a design. ' This wisdom of God is more
admirable and astonishing, than if a man were able to rear a
vast palace by fire, whose nature is to consume combustible
raatter, not to erect a building.
To make things serviceable contrary to their own nature, is
a wisdom peculiar to the Creator of nature. God's making-
use of devils, for the glory of his name, and the good of his
people, is a more amazing piece of wisdom, than his goodness
in employing the blessed angels in his work. To promise,
that the world, (which includes fhe god of the Avorld,) and
death, and things present, let them be as evil as they will,
should be ours, that is, for our good, and for his glory, is an
act of goodness; but to make them serviceable to the honour
of Christ, and the good of his people, is a wisdom that may
well raise our highest adrairation, 1 Cor. iii. 22. They are for
believers, as they are for the glory of Christ, and as Christ is
for the glory of God.
To chain up Satan wholly, and frustrate his wiles, would be
an argument of Divine goodness; but to suffer him fo run his
risk, and then improve all his contrivances for glorious and
gracious ends and purposes, manifests, besides his power and
goodness, his wisdom also. He uses the sins of evil instru
ments for the glory ofhis justice, Isa. x. 5 — 7. Thus he served
himself of fhe ambition and covetousness of the Assyrians,
Chaldeans, and Roraans, for the correction of his people and
punishment of his rebels; just as the Roman magistrates used
fhe fury of lions and other wild beasts, in their theatres, for the
punishment of criminals. The lions acted their natural temper
in tearing those that Avere exposed to them for a prey; but the
intent of the magistrates was to punish their crimes. The
magistrate inspired not the lions with their rage; that they had
from their natures; but served themselves of that natural rage,
to execute justice.
God's Avisdom is seen in bringing good to the creature out of
'¦ Moulins Serm. decad, 10. p. 231, 239.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 61 I
sin. He has ordered sin to such an end as man never dreamed
of, the devil never imagined, and sin in its own nature could
never attain. Sin in its own nature tends to no good, but that
of punishment, whereby the creature is brought into order. It
has no relation to the creature's good in itself, but to the crea
ture's mischief: but God, by an act of infinite wisdom, brings
good out of it fo the creature, as well as glory to his name, con
trary to fhe nature of the crime, the intention of the criminal,
and the design ofthe tempter.
God willed sin, that is, he willed to permit it, that he might
communicate himself to the creature in the most excellent man
ner. He willed the perraission of sin, as an occasion to bring
forth the mystery of the incarnation and passion ofour Saviour;
as he permitted the sin of Joseph's brethren, that he might use
their evil to a good end. He never, because of his holiness,
wflls sin as an end; but in regard of his wisdom, he wills to
permit it as a means and occasion. And thus, to draw good
out of those things which are in their own nature most contrary
to good, is the highest pitch of Avisdom. To particularize —
The redemption of man in so exceUent a way, was drawn
from the occasion of sin. The greatest blessing that ever the
world was blessed with, was ushered in by contrarieties: by
the lust and irregular affection of man; the first promise ofthe
Redeemer by the fall of Adam, Gen. iii. 15, and the bruising
the heel of that promised Seed by the blackest tragedy acted
by wicked rebels, the treachery of Judas and the rage of the
Jews; the highest good has been brought forth by the greatest
wickedness. As God out of the chaos of rude and indigested
matter framed the first creation, so from the sins of men, and
malice of Satan, he has erected the everlasting scheme of ho
nour in a new creation of all things by Jesus Christ.
The devil inspired man, to content his oavu fury in the death
of Christ; and God ordered it to accomplish his own design of
redemption in the passion of the Redeemer. The devil had his
diabolical ends, and God overpowers his action to serve his
own divine ends. The person that betrayed hira, was admitted
to be a spectator of the most private actions of our Saviour,
that his innocence might be justified; to shoAv that he Avas not
afraid to have his enemies judges of his most retired privacies.
WhUe they all thought to do their own wiUs, Divine Avisdom
orders them to do God's wiU. " Him being delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken,
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain," Acts ii. 23.
And wherein the crucifiers of Christ sinned, in shedding the
richest blood, upon their repentance they found the expiation
of their criraes, and the discovery of a superabundant raercy.
Nothing biit blood Avas aimed at by them; fhe best blood was

612 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
shed by thera; but infinite wisdora raakes the cross the scene
of his own righteousness, and the womb of man's recovery.
By the occasion of man's lapsed state, there was a way open
to raise man to a more exceUent condition, than that whereinto
he was put by creation: and the depriving raan of the happi
ness of an earthly paradise, in a way of justice, was an occasion
of advancing hira to a heavenly felicity, in a way of grace.
The violation of the old covenant, occasionally introduced a
better; the loss of the first integrity, ushered in a more stable
righteousness, an everlasting righteousness, Dan. ix. 24; and the
faUing of the first head, was succeeded by one whose standing
could not but be eternal.
The fall of the devil Avas ordered by infinite wisdom, for the
good of that body from which he fell. It is supposed by some,
that the devil was the chief angel in heaven, the head of all
the rest; and that he falling, the angels ,Avere left as a body
without a head; and after he had politically beheaded the an
gels, he endeavoured to destroy man, and root hira out of para
dise: but God takes the opportunity to set up his Son, as the
head of angels and raen. And thus, whilst the devil endea
voured to spoil the corporation of angels, and make them a
body contrary to God, God makes angels and men one body
under one head, for his service.
The angels, in losing a defectible head, attained a raore ex
cellent and glorious head in another nature, which they had
not before; though of a lower nature in his humanity, yet of a
more glorious nature in his Divinity: from whence many sup
pose they derive their confirming grace, and the stability of
their standing. AU things in heaven and earth are gathered
together in Christ, Eph. i. 10; avax^pa-i^ai-aaas^ai,, all united in
him, and reduced under one head : that though our Saviour be
not properly their Redeemer, for redemption supposes capti
vity, yet in some sense he is their Head and Mediator; so that
now the inhabitants of heaven and earth are but one family,
Eph. iii. 15. And the innumerable company of angels are
parts of that heavenly and triumphant Jerusalem, and that
general assembly, whereof Jesus Christ is Mediator, Heb. xii.
22 — 24.
The good of a nation often, by the skUl of Divine wisdom,
is promoted by the sins of some raen. The patriarchs' selling
Joseph to the Midianites, Gen. xxxvii. 28, was without ques
tion a sin, and a breach of natural affection; yet by God's wise
ordination, it proved the safety of the whole church of God in
the world, as well as the Egyptian nation. Gen. xiv. 5. 8, and
1. 20. The Jews' unbelief Avas a step whereby the gentUes arose to
the knowledge of the gospel: Matt. xxii. 9; as the setting of

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 613
the sun in one place, is the rising of it in another. He uses
the corruptions of men instrumentally to propagate his gospel:
he built up the true church by the preaching of some out of
envy, Phil. i. 15; as he blessed Israel out of the mouth of a
false prophet, Numb, xxiii. How often have the heresies of
men heen the occasion of clearing up the truth of God, and fix
ing the more lively impressions ofit on the hearts of believers!
Neither Judah nor Ta'raar, in their lust, dreamed of a stock
for the Redeemer; yet God gave a son from that unlawful bed,
whereof Christ canie according to the flesh. Gen. xxxviii. 29,
compared with Matt. i. 3.
Jonah's sin was probably the first and remote occasion of
the Ninevites giving credit to his prophecy: his sin was the
cause of his punishment, and his being flung into the sea might
facilitate the reception of his message, and excite the Ninevites'
repentalhce, Avhereby a cloud of severe judgment was blown
away froih them.
, It is-thought by some, that when Jonah passed through the
streets of Nineveh with his proclamation of destruction, he
¦'might be known by some of the mariners of that ship, from
'Vvhehce he was cast overboard into the sea, and might after
their voyage be occasionally in that city, the metropolis of the
nation, and the place ofthe birth of some; and might acquaint
the^'people that this was the same person they had cast into the
sea by his own consent, for his acknowledged running from
the presence of the Lord ; for that he had told them, Jonah i.
10, and the mariners' prayer, ver. 14, evidences it; whereupon
they might conclude his message worthy of belief, since they
knew from such evidences, that he had sunk into the bowels of
the waters, and now saw him safe in their streets, by a deliver
ance unknown to them; and that therefore that Power that
delivered hira, could easily verify his word in the threatened
judgment. Had Jonah gone at first without committing that sin, and
receiving that punishment, his message had not been judged a
Divine prediction, but a fruit of some enthusiastic madness:
his sin upon this account was the first occasion of averting a
judgment from so great a city.
The good of the sinner hinnself is sometiraes proraoted by
Divine wisdom ordering the sin. As God had not permitted
sin to enter upon the world, unless to bring glory to hiraself by
fl; so he would not let sin remain in the little Avorld of a be
hever's heart, if he did not intend to order it for his good.
What is done by man to his damage and disparagement, is
directed by Divine wisdom to his advantage; not that it is the
intent of the sin, or the sinner; but it is the event of the sin, by
the ordination of Divine wisdom and grace.

614 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
As Avithout the wisdom of God perraitting sin to enter info
the world, some attributes of God had not been experimentally
knoAvn; so some graces could not have been exercised. For
where had there been an object for that noble zeal, in vindi
cating the glory of God, had it not been invaded by an enemy?
The intenseness of love to him could not have been so strong,
bad we not an enemy to hate for his sake. Where had there
been any place for that noble part of charity in holy admoni
tions and compassion to the souls of our neighbours, and endea
vours to reduce them out of a destructive to a happy path?
Humility would not have had so many grounds for its growth
and exercise, and holy sorrow had had no fuel.
And as without the appearance of sin there had been no
exercise of the patience of God; so v/ithout afflictions, the
fruits of sin, there had been no ground for the exercise of the
patience of a Christian, one of the noblest parts of valour.
Now sin being evil, and such as cannot but be evil, has no
respect in itself to any gffod, and cannot work a gracious end,
or any thing profitable to the creature ; nay, it is a hinderance to
any good, and therefore what good comes from if, is accidental,
occasioned indeed by sin, but efficiently caused by the over
ruling wisdom of God, taking occasion thereby to display itself
and the Divine goodness.
The sins and corruptions remaining in the heart of a man,
God orders for good, and there are good effects by the direction
of his wisdom and grace.
A* the soul respects God.
Good often brings forth a sensibleness of the necessity of de
pendence on hira. The nurse often lets the child shp, that it
may the better know who supports it, and may not be too ven
turous and confident of its own strength. Peter would trust in
habitual grace, and God suffers him to fall, that he might trust
more in assisting grace; "Though I should die with thee, yet
wiU I not deny thee," Matt. xxvi. 35. God leaves sometimes
the brightest souls in an eclipse, to manifest, that their holiness,
and the preservation of it, depend upon the darting out his
beams upon them.
As fhe falls of men are the effects of their coldness and remiss
ness in acts of faith and repentance; so the fruit of these falls is
often a running to him for refuge, and a deeper sensibleness
where their security lies. It raakes us loAver our swelling sails,
and come under the lee and protection of Divine grace. When
the pleasures of sin answer not the expectations of a revolted
creature, he reflects upon his forraer state, and sticks more close
to God, when before God had httle ofhis company: " I AviU go
and return to my first husband; for then Avas it better Avith me
than now," Hos. ii. 7.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 615
As God makes the sins of men soraetiraes an occasion of their
conversion; so he sometimes makes them an occasion of a fur
ther conversion. Onesimus ran from Philemon, and was met
Avith by Paul, who proved an instrument of his conversion:
"My son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds,"
Philem. 10. His flight frora his master was the occasion of his
regeneration by Paul a prisoner.
The falls of believers God orders to their further stabUity: he
that is fallen for want of using his staff, wiU lean more uppn it
to preserve himself frora the like disaster.
God, by permitting the lapses of men, does often make them
despair of their own strength to subdue their enemies, and rely
upon the strength of Christ, wherein God has laid up power for
us, and so becomes stronger in that strength which God has
ordained for them.
We are very apt to trust in ourselves, and have confidence
in our own worth and strength; and God lets loose corruptions
to abate this sweUing humour. This was the reason of the
apostle Paul's thorn in the flesh, 2 Cor. xii. 9; whether it were
a temptation, or corruption, or sickness, that he might be sensi
ble ofhis own inability, and Avhere the sufficiency of grace for
him was placed.
He that is in danger of droAvning, and has the waves come
over his head, will, with afl the might he has, lay hold upon any
thing near him, which is capable to save him. God lets his
people sometimes sink into such condition, that they may lay
the faster hold on him who is near to all that call upon him.
God hereby raises higher estimations ofthe value and virtue
of the blood of Christ. As the great reason Avhy God permitted
sin to enter into the world, Avas to honour himself in the Re
deemer; so the continuance of sin, and the conquests it some
times makes in renewed men, are to honour the infinite value
and virtue of the Redeemer's merit, Avhich God from the begin
ning intended to magnify; the value of it, in taking off so much-
successive guilt; and the virtue of it, in washing away so much
daily filth.
The wisdom of God hereby keeps up the credfl of imputed
righteousness, and manifests the immense treasure of the Re
deemer's merit to pay such daily debts. Were we perfectly
sanctified, we should stand upon our own bottom, and imagine
no need of the continual and repeated imputation of the right
eousness of Christ for our justification: we should confidp in
inherent righteousness, and slight imputed.
If God should take off all remainders of sin, as well as the
guflt ofit, Ave should be apt to forget that we are fallen crea
tures, and that we had a Redeemer; but the relics of sin in us,
remind us of the necessity of some higher strength to set us right:

616 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
they remind us both of our own misery, and the Redeemer's per
petual benefit. God by this keeps up the dignity and honour
ofour Saviour's blood to the height, and therefore sometimes
lets us see, to our own cost, Avhat filth yet remains in us for the
employment of that blood, Avhich we should else but httle think
of, and less admire. Our gratitude is so small to God, as well
as man, that the first obligations are soon forgotten, if vve stand
not in need of fresh ones successively to second them ; we should
lose our thankful reraerabrance of the first virtue of Christ's
blood in washing us, if our infirraities did not raind us of fresh
reiterations and applications ofit.
Our Saviour's office of advocacy was erected especially for
sins coramitted after a justified and renewed state, 1 John ii. 1.
We should scarce remember we had an Advocate, and scarce
raake use of him without sorae sensible necessity; but our re-
raainders of sin discover our impotency, and an impossibUity
for us either to expiate our sin, or conform to the law, which
necessitates us to have recourse to that person whom God has
appointed, to make up the breaches between God and us.
So the apostle wraps up himself in the covenant of grace and
his interest in Christ, after his conflict with sin, " I thank God
through Jesus Christ, Rom. vii. 25. Now, after such a body
of death, a principle Avithin rae that sends up daily streams;
yet as long as I serve God with my mind, as long as I keep the
main condition of the covenant, there is no condemnation, Rom.
vni. 1: Christ takes my part, procures my acceptance, and holds
the band of salvation firm in his hands. The brightness of
Christ's grace, is set off by the darkness of our sin. We should
not understand the sovereignty of his medicines, if there were
no relics of sin for him to exercise his skill upon. The physi
cian's art is most experimented, and therefore most valued in
relapses, as dangerous as the former disease. As the Avisdora
of God brought our Saviour into temptation, that he might
have compassion on us; so it permits us to be overcome by
temptation, that we might have due valuations of him.
God hereby often engages the soul to a greater industry for
his glory. The highest persecutors, when they have become
converts, have been the greatest champions for that cause they
both hated and oppressed. The apostle Paul is such an instance
of this, that it needs no enlargement. By how much they have
failed of answering the end oftheir creation in glorifying God;
by so much the more they summon up a\\ their force for such
an end, after their conversion; to restore as much as they can
of that glory to God, Avhich they, by their sin, had robbed him
of Their sins, by the order of Divine wisdom, prove whet
stones to sharpen the edge oftheir spirits for God. Paul never
remembered his persecuting fury, but he doubled his industry

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 617
for the service of God, which before he trampled under his feet.
The further we go back, the greater leap many times we take
forAvard. Our Saviour after his resurrection, put Peter upon the exer
cise of that love to him, which had so lately shrunk his head
out of suffering, John xxi. 15 — 17; and no doubt but the con
sideration of his base denial, together with a reflection upon a
gracious pardon, engaged his ingenuous soul to stronger and
fiercer flames of affection. A believer's courage for God is
more sharpened oftentimes by the shame of his fall: he en
deavours to repair the faults of his ingratitude and disingenuity,
by larger and stronger steps of obedience. As a man in a fight,
having been foiled by his enemy, re-assumes new courage by
his fall; and is many times obliged to his foil, both for his spirit
and his victory. A gracious heart wiU, upon the very motions
to sin, double its vigour, as well as by good ones; it is usually
more quickened both in its motion to God and for God, by the
temptations and motions to sin, which run upon it. This is
another good the wisdom of God brings forth from-sin.
Again, humility towards God, is another good Divine wisdom
brings forth from the occasion of sin. By this God beats down
all good opinion of ourselves. Hezekiah was more humbled
by his fall into pride, than by all the distress he had been in by
Sennacherib's army, 2 Chron. xxxii. 26. Peter's confidence
before his fall, gave way to an humble modesty after it: you
see his confidence, " Although all shall be offended, yet will
not I," Mark xiv. 29 ; and you have the mark of his modesty,
John xxi. 17. It is not then — Lord, I will love thee to the
death, I will not start from thee; but, " Lord, thou knowest that
I love thee." I cannot assure myself of any thing after this
miscarriage; but. Lord, thou knowest there is a principle of
love in me to thy name. He was ashamed that himself, who
appeared such a pUlar, should bend as meanly as a shrub, to a
temptation. The reflection upon sin, lays a man as low as hell in his
humfliation, as the commission of sin did in the merit. When
David comes to exercise repentance for his sin, he begins it
from the well-head of sin, Psal li. 5, his original corruption,
and draws down the streams of it to the last comraission. Per
haps he did not so seriously hurable himself for the sin of his na
ture all his days, so much as at that time; at least, we have not
such evidences of it. And Hezekiah humbled hiraself for the
pride of his heart; not only for the pride of his act, 2 Chron.
xxxii. 26, but for the pride in the heart, which was the spring
of that pride in act, in shoAving his treasures to the Babylonish
arabassadors. God. lets sin continue in the hearts of the best
in this Avorld, and sometiraes gives the reins to Satan, and a
Vol. I.— 78

618 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
man's own corruption, to keep up a sense of the ancient sale
we made of ourselves lo both.
In regard of ourselves. Herein is the wonder of Divine
wisdom, that God raany tiraes raakes a sin, which meritori
ously fits us for hell, a providential occasion to fit us for
heaven; when it is an occasion of a more humble faith and
believing humility, and an occasion of a thorough sanctifica
tion and growth in grace, which prepares us for a state of
glory. He raakes use of one sin's breaking out to discover raore;
and so brings ns fo a self-abhorrence and indignation against
sin, the first step towards heaven. Perhaps David, before his
gross fall, thought he had no hypocrisy in hira. We often find
hira appealing to God for his integrity, and desiring God to try
hira, if any guile could be found in his heart, as if he could find
none himself But his lapse into that great wickedness,, makes
hira discern rauch falseness in his soul, when he desires God to
renew a right spirit Avithin hira, and speaks of truth in the
inward parts, Psal. li. 6. 10. The stirring of one corruption
makes all the mud at the bottom appear, which before a soul
did not suspect. No man would think there were so great a
cloud of smoke contained in a litfle stick of wood, were it not
for the powerful operation of the fire, that both discovers and
separates it. Job, that cursed the day of his birth, and uttered
many impatient expressions against God upon the account of
his own integrity; upon his recovery from his affliction, and
God's close application of himself, was wrought fo a greater
abhorrence of himself, than ever we read he Avas exercised in
before. Job. xiii. 6. The hostile acts of sin increase the soul's
hatred of it; and the deeper our humiliations are for it, the
stronger impressions of abhorrence are made upon us.
He often orders it, to raake conscience raore fender, and the
soul raore watchful. He that finds by his calamity, his eneray
to have raore strength against hira than he suspected, will
double his guards and quicken his diligence against hira. A
being overtaken by some sin is by the wisdora of God disposed
to make us more fearful of cherishing any occasion to inflarae
it, and watchful against every raotion and start of it. By a
fall, the soul has raore experience of the deceitfulness of the
heart; and by observing its raethods, is rendered better able to
watch against thera. It is our ignorance of the devices of
Satan, and our own hearts, that makes us obnoxious to their
surprises. A fall into one sin is often a prevention of more
which lay in wait for us; as the fall of a small body info an
ambush, prevents the design ofthe enemy upon a greater. As
God suffers heresies in the church to try our faith; so he suffers
sins to remain, and sometiraes to break out, to try our watch-

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 619
fulness. This advantage he brings frora thera, to steel our
resolutions against the same sins, and quicken our circumspec
tion for the future against new surprises by a temptaiion.
David's sin was ever before hira, Psal. li. 3, and raade his
conscience cry. Blood, blood, upon every occasion: he refused
the water of the weU of Befhlehera, 2 Sara, xxiii. 16, 17,
because it was gained with the hazard of lives: he could endure
nothing that had the taste of blood in it. Our fear of a thing
depends much upon the trial of it: a child will not fear too
near approaches to the fire, till he feels the smart of it.
Mortification does not so wholly suppress the motions of sin,
(though it does the resolutions to commit it,) but that there wiU
he a proneness in the relics of it, fo entice a man into those
faults, which upon sight of their hlemishes cost him so many
tears; as great sicknesses after the cUre, are more watched, and
the body humoured, that a man might not fall from the crazi
ness they have left in him; Avhich he is apt to do, if relapses
are not carefully provided against. A raan becoraes more
careful of any thing, that may contribute to the resurrection of
an expired disease.
God makes it an occasion of the mortification of that sin,
which was the matter bf the fall. The liveliness of one sin in
a renewed man, many times is the occasion of fhe death of it.
A wild beast, while kept close in a den, is secure in its life;
but when it hreaks out to rapine, it makes the master resolve
to prevent any further mischief by the death of it. The im
petuous stirring of a humour in a disease, is sometimes critical,
and a prognostic of the strength of nature against it, Avhereby
the disease loses its strength by its struggling, and makes room
for health to take place by degrees. One sin is used by God
for the destruction both of itself and others; as the flesh of a
scorpion cures the biting of it. It sometimes by wounding us
loses its sting, and, like the bee, renders itself incapable of a
second revenge. Peter, after his gross denial, never denied his
Master afterwards. The sin that lay undiscovered, is by a fall
become visible, and so more obvious to a mortifying stroke.
The soul lays the faster hold on Christ and the promise, and
goes out against that enemy in the name of that Lord of hosts
of Avhich he was too negligent before; and therefore as he
proves more strong, so raore successful: he has more strength,
because he has less confidence in himself, and more in God, the
prime strength ofhis soul. As fl was with Christ, so fl is wifh
us; whfle the devfl was bruising his heel, he was bruising his
head; and while the devfl is bruising our heel, the God of
peace and wisdom is sometiraes bruising his head both in us
and for us; so that the strugglings of sin are often as fhe faint
groans or bitings of a beast that is ready to expire. It is just

620 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
with a raan soraetiraes, as with a running fountain that has mud
at the bottom, when it is stirred the mud tinctures and defiles
it all over; yet some of that mud has a vent with the strearas
which run from it, so that when it is re-settled at the bottora, it
is not so much in quantity as it was before. God by his wis
dom weakens the sin, by permitting it to stir and defile.
Sometimes Divine wisdom makes it an occasion to promote
a sanctification in all parts of the soul: as the Avorking of one
ill huraour in the body is an occasion of cashiering not only
that, but the rest, by a sound purge; or as a man that is a little
cold does not think of the fire, but if he slips with one foot
into an icy puddle, he hastens fo the fire, whereby not only
that part, but all fhe rest receive a warmth and strength upon
that occasion: or, as if a person fall into the raire, his clothes
are washed, and by that means cleansed, not only from the
filth at present contracted, but from the former spots that Avere
before unregarded. God by his wisdora brings secret sins to a
discovery, and thereby cleanses the soul of thera.
David's fall raight be ordered as an answer to his former
petition, " Cleanse thou me from my secret faults," Psal. xix.
12: and as he did earnesfly pray after his fall, so no ^oubt but
he endeavoured a thorough sanctification; Purge me, wash me,
Psal. li. 7; and that he meant not only a sanctification from
that single sin, but from afl, root and branch, is evident by that
complaint of the flaw in his nature, ver. 5. The dross and chaff
which lies in the heart is hereby discovered, and an opportu
nity administered of throwing it out, and searching all the cor
ners of the heart to discover where it lay. As God sometimes
takes occasion from one sin to reckon with men in a way of
justice for others; so he sometimes takes occasion from the
commission of one sin, to bring out all the actions against the
sinner, fo make him, in a Avay of gracious wisdom, set more
cordially upon the work of sanctification.
A great fall sometimes has been the occasion of a man's con
version. The fall of mankind occasioned a more blessed res
toration; andthefaUsof particular believers oft times occasion
a raore extensive sanctification. Thus the only wise God makes
poisons in nature, to become medicines in a way of grace and
wisdora. Hereby the growth in grace is furthered. It is a wonder of
Divine wisdom to subtract sometimes his grace from a person,
and let him fall info sin, thereby to occasion the increase of
habitual grace in him, and fo augment it by those ways that
seemed to depress it. By making sins an occasion of a more
vigorous acting the contrary grace, the wisdom of God raakes
our corruptions (in their own nature destructive) to becorae
profitable to us. Grace often breaks out raore strongly after-

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 621
wards, as the sun does with its heat, after it has been masked
a'nd interrupted with a mist: they often, through the mighty
working of the Spirit, make us more humble, and humility fits
us to receive more grace from God, James iv. 6. How does
faith, that sunk under the Avaves, lift up its head again, and
carry the soul out with a greater liveliness! what ardours of
love, what floods of repenting tears, Avhat severity of revenge,
what horrors at the remembra:nce of the sin, what tremblings
at the appearance of a second temptation! so that grace seems
to be awakened to a new and more A'igorous life, 2 Cor. vii. 1 1.
The broken joint is many times stronger in the rupture than it
was before. The luxuriancy of the branches of corruption is
an occasion of purging, and purging is with a design to make
grace more fruitful; " He purgeth it, that it may bring forth
more fruit," John xv. 2.
Thus Divine wisdora does both sharpen and brighten us by
the dust of sin, and ripen and mellow the frufls of grace by
the dung of corruption. Grace grows the stronger by opposi
tion, as the fire burns hottest and clearest when it is most sur
rounded by a cold air, and our natural heat reassuraes a new
strength by the coldness of the winter. The soil under a dia
mond, though an imperfection in itself, increases the beauty
and lustre of the stone. The enmity of man Avas a commenda
tion of the grace of God; it occasioned the breaking out ofthe
grace of God upon us, and is an occasion, by the wisdom and
grace of God, of the increase of grace many tiraes in us.
How should the consideration of God's incomprehensible
wisdom, in the management of evil, swallow us up in admira
tion ; who brings forth such beauty, such eminent discoveries
of himself, such excellent good to the creature, out of the boAvels
of the greatest contrarieties, making dark shadows serve to dis
play and beautify to our apprehensions the Divine glory ! If
evil were not in the Avorld, men would not know what good is;
they would not behold the lustre of Divine wisdora; as without
night we could not understand the beauty ofthe day.
Though God is not the author of sin, because ofhis holiness,
yet he is the administrator of sin by his wisdom, and accom
plishes his own purposes, by the iniquities of his enemies, and
the lapses and infirmities of his friends.
Thus much for the second, the government of raan in his
lapsed state, and the government of sin, wherein the wisdom
of God does wonderfully appear.
[3.] The wisdora of God appears in the government of man
in his conversion and return to hira. If there be a counsel in
framing the lowest creature, and in the minutest passages of
providence; there must needs be a higher wisdom in the gov
ernment of the creature to a supernatural end, and framing

622 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
the soul to be a monuraent of the Divine glory. The wisdom
of God is seen with more admirations, and in more varieties,
by the angels in the church, than in the creation, Eph. iii. 10;
that is, in forming a church out of the rubbish of the world, out
of contrarieties and contradictions to hira; which is greater
than the fraraing a celestial and eleraentary world out of a
rude chaos. The raost glorious bodies in the world, even those
of the sun, raoon, and stars, have not such staraps of Divine
skill upon thera, as the soul of raan; nor is there so rauch of
wisdora in the fabric and faculties of that, as in the reduction
of a blind, wilful, rebellious soul to its own happiness, and
God's glory: He worketh all things after the counsel of his
OAvn will; that we should be to the praise of his glory," Eph.
i. 11. 12; if all things, then this, which is none of the least of
his works; to the praise of the glory of his goodness in his
work, and to fhe praise of the rule of his work, his counsel, in
both the act of his will and the act of his wisdora. The re
storing of the beauty of the soul, and its fitness for its true end,
speak no less wisdom than the first draught of it in creation;
and the application of rederaption, and bringing forth the fruits
of it, is as well an act of his prudence, as the contrivance was
ofhis counsel.
Divine wisdom appears.
In the subjects of conversion. His goodness reigns in the
very dust, and he erects the walls and ornaments of his temple
from the clay and mud of the world: he passes over the wise,
and noble, and mighty, that may pretend some grounds of
boasting in their own natural or acquired endowments; and
pitches upon the most contemptible materials, wherewith to
build a spiritual tabernacle for hiraself, the foolish, and weak
things of the world, 1 Cor. i. 26, 27, those that are naturally
most unfit for it, and raost refractory fo it. Herein lies the skill
of an architect, to render the most knotty, crooked, and de
formed pieces, hy his art, subservient to his main purpose and
design. Thus God has ordered from the beginning of the
world, contrary tempers, various humours, divers nations, as
stones of several natures, to be a building for himself, fitly
framed together, and to be his own faraily, 1 Cor. in. 9. Who
will question the skill that alters a black jet into a clear crys
tal, a glow-worm into a star, a lion into a lamb, and a swine
into a dove? The more intricate and knotty any business is,
the more eminent is any man's abUity and prudence, in untying
the knots, and bringing it to a good issue. The raore desperate
the disease, the more adrairable is the physician's skill in the
cure. He pitches upon men for his service, who have natural dis
positions to serve him in such ways as he disposes of them,

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 623
after their conversion. So Paul was naturally a conscientious
man; what he did against Christ was from the dictates of an
erroneous conscience, soaked in the pharisaical interpretations
of the Jewish law: he had a strain of zeal to prosecute what
his depraved reason and conscience did inform hira in. God
pflches upon this raan, and works him in the fire for his ser
vice: he alters not his natural disposition, to make hira of a
constitution and temper contrary to Avhat he Avas before; but
directs it to another object, claps in another bias into the bowl,
and raakes his ill-governed dispositions move in a new way of
his own appointment, and guides that natural heat to the ser
vice of that interest, which he was before ambitious to extir
pate; as a high-raettled horse, Avhen left to himself, creates
both disturbance and danger, but under the conduct of a wise
rider, moves regularly; not hy a change of his natural fierce
ness, but a skilful management ofthe beast to the rider's pur
pose. In the seasons of conversion. The prudence of man con
sists in the timing the execution of his counsels; and no less
does the wisdom of God consist in this. As he is a God of
judgment, or wisdora, he waits to introduce his grace into the
soul in the fittest season.
This attribute Paul, in the story of his own conversion, puts
a particular reraaik upon, Avhich he does not upon any other,
in that catalogue he reckons up, 1 Tim. i. 17. " Now unto the
King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour
and glory for ever and ever. Amen." A most solemn doxo
logy, wherein wisdom sits upon the throne above all the rest,
with a special Amen to the glory of it; which refers to the
timing of his raercy so to Paul, as made most for the glory of
his grace, and the encourageraent of others frora him as the
pattern. God took him at a tirae when he was upon the brink
of hell; when he was ready to devour the new-born infant
church at Damascus; when he was armed with all the autho
rity from without, and fired with all the zeal from within, for
the prosecution ofhis design. Then God seizes upon him, and
runs him in a channel for his own honour, and his creature's
happiness. It is observable ' how God set his eye upon Paul aU along
in his furious course, and let him have the reins, without put
ting out his hand to bridle him; yet no motion he could take,
but the eye of God runs along wflh hira. He suffered hira to
kick against the pricks of rairacles, and the convincing dis
course of Stephen, at his raartyrdora. There were raany that
voted for Stephen's death, as the witnesses that flung the
stones first at him; but they are not named, only Saul, who
I Which I have upon another occasion noted.

624 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
testified his approbation as well as the rest, and that by watch
ing the Avitnesses' clothes while they were about that bloody
work: "The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young
man's feet, Avhose name was Saul," Acts vii. 58. Again,
though multitudes were consenting to his death, yet Saul only
is mentioned, Acts viii. 1. God's eye is upon him, yet he
would not at that time stop his fury. He goes on further, and
makes havoc of the church. Acts viii. 3. He had surely many
more accomplices, but none are named (as if none regarded
with any design of grace) but Saul: yet God Avould not reach
out his hand to change hira, but eyes him; waiting for a fitter
opportunity, which in his wisdom he did foresee. And there
fore, Acts ix. l,the Spirit of God adds a yet; "Saul yet breath
ing ouf threatenings." It was not God's time yet, but it Avould
be shortly. But when Saul was putting in execution his de
sign against the church of Damascus, when the devil was at
the fop of his hopes, and Saul in the height of his fury, and
the Christians sunk into the depth of their fears; the wisdom
of God lays hold of the opportunity, and by Paul's conversion
at this season, defeats the devil, disappoints the high priests,
shields his people, discharges their fears, by pulling Saul out of
the devil's hands, and forming Satan's instrument to a holy
activity against him.
The wisdom of God appears also, in the manner of conver
sion. So great a change God raakes, not by a destruction, but
with a preservation of and suitableness to nature. As the
devil tempts us, not by offering violence to our natures, but by
proposing things convenient to our corrupt natures; so does
God solicit us to a return by proposals suited to our faculties.
As he does in nature convey nourishment to men, by means of
the fruits of the earth, and produces the fruits of the earth by
the influences of heaven; the influences of heaven do not force
tbe earth, but excite that natural virtue and strength which is
in it ; so God produces grace in the soul by the means of the
word, fitted to the capacity of raan, as raan, and proportioned
to his rational faculties, as rational.
It would be contrary to the wisdora of God, to move raan
like a stone, to invert the order and privilege of that nature
which he settled in creation; for then God would in vain have
given man understanding and will: because without moving
men according to those faculties, they would remain unpro
fitable and useless in man. God does not reduce us to himself,
as logs, by a mere force; or as slaves, forced by a cudgel, to go
forth to that place, and do that Avork which they have no sto
mach to:' but he does accomraodate hiraself to those founda
tions he has laid in our nature, and guides us in a way agree-
' Daille sur Philip, part. 1. p. 545, 546.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 625
able thereunto, by an action as sweet as powerful; clearing
our understandings of dark principles, whereby we may see
his truth, qur own misery, and the seat of our happiness; and
bending our wiUs according to this light, to desire and move
conveniently to this end of our calling: efficaciously,yet agree
ably; powerfully, yet without imposing on our natural facul
ties; sweetly, Avithout violence, in ordering fhe means, but
effectually, without fafling, in accomplishing the end.' And
therefore the Scripture calls it, teaching, John vi. 45; alluring,
Hos. ii. 14; caUing us to seek the Lord, Psal. xxvii. 8. Teach
ing is an act of wisdom; alluring, an act of love; calling, an
act of authority; but none of them argue a violent constraint.
The principle that moves the Avill is supernatural; but the will,
as a natural faculty, concurs in the act or motion.
God does not act in this in a way of absolute power, without
an infinite wisdom, suiting himself to the nature of the things
he acts upon; he does not change the physical nature, though
he does the moral. As in the government of the world, he does
not raake heavy things ascend, nor light things descend, ordi
narily, but guides their motions according to their natural qua
lities; so God does not strain the faculties beyond their due
pitch. He lets the nature of the faculty remain, but changes
the principle in it: the understanding remains understanding,
and the will remains will. But where there was before folly
in the understanding, he puts in a spirit of wisdom; and where
there was before a stoutness in the will, he forms it to a pliable-
ness to his offers. He has a key to fit every ward in the lock,
and opens the will without injuring the nature ofthe wUl.
He does not change the soul by an alteration of the faculties,
but by an alteration of something in them; not by an inroad
upon them, or by mere poAver, or a blind instinct; but by pro
posing to the understanding something to be known, and in
forming it of the reasonableness of his precepts, and fhe innate
goodness and excellency of his offers, and by inclining the wUl
to love and embrace what is proposed. And things are pro
posed under those notions, which usually move our wills and
affections. We are moved by things as they are good, pleasant,
profitable; we entertain things as they make for us, and detest
things as they are contrary to us. Nothing affects us but under
such qualifies; and God suits his encouragements fo these
natural affections which are in us: his power and wisdora go
hand in hand together; his power to act what his wisdom or
ders, and his wisdom to conduct Avhat his power executes. He
brings raen to hira in ways suited to their natural dispositions.
The stubborn he tears like a lion, the gentle he wins like a
turtle, by sweetness; he has a haramer to break fhe stout, and
1 Sanderson, pari 2. p. 905,
Vol. I.— 79

626 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
a cord of love to draw the more pliable tempers: he works
upon the more rational in a way of gospel reason; upon the
raore ingenuous, in a way of kindness, and draws them by the
cords of love.
The wise men were led to Christ by a star, and means suited
to the knowledge and study that those eastern nations used,
Avhich was much in astronomy: he works upon others by mi
racles accommodated to every one's sense, and so proportions
the means according to the nature of the subjects heworks
upon. The Avisdom of God is apparent in his discipline, and penal
evils. The Avisdom of human governments is seen in the raat
ter of their laws, and in the penalties of their laws, and in the
proportion of the punishment to the offence, and in the good
that redounds from the punishment, either to the offender or to
the community.
The wisdom of God is seen in the penalty of death upon the
transgression of his law; both in that it Avas the greatest evil
that man might fear, and so was a convenient means to keep
him in his due bound, and also in the proportion of it to the
transgression. Nothing less could be in a wise justice inflicted
upon an offender for a crime against the highest Being, and fhe
supreme excellency: but this has been spoken of before, in the
Avisdom of his laws. I shall only mention some foAv, it would
be too tedious to run into all.
His wisdora appears in judgments, in the suiting them to the
qualities of persons, and nature of sins. He devises evU, Jer.
xviii. 11; his judgments are fruits of counsel. "He also is
wise, and will bring evil," Isa. xxxi. 2; evil suitable to the
person oflending, and evil suitable to the offence committed; as
the husbandman does his threshing instruments to the grain.
He has a rod for the curarain, a tenderer seed, and a flail for
the harder; so has God greater judgraents for the obdurate
sinner, and lighter for those that have soraething of tenderness
in their Avickedness, because he " is wonderful in counsel, and
excellent in working," Isa. xxviu. 27, 29: so sorae understand
the place, " With the froward he will show himself froward."
He proportions punishment to the sin, and Avrites the cause
of the judgment in the forehead of the judgment itself Sodom
burned in lust, and was consumed by fire from heaven. The
Jews sold Christ for thirty pence; and at the taking of Jerusa
lem, thirty of them Avere sold for a penny. So Adonibezek cut
off the thumbs and great toes of others, and he is served in the
same kind. Judges i. 7. The Babel builders designed an in
dissoluble union, and God brings upon them an unintelligible
confusion. And in Exod. xi. 9, fhe ashes of the furnace, where
the Israelites burnt . the Egyptian bricks, sprinkled towards

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

627

heaven, brought boils upon the Egyptian bodies, that they
might feel in their own what pain they had caused in the Israel
ites' flesh; and find by the smart qf the inflamed scab, what
they had made the Israelites endure. The waters of the river
Nilus are turned into blood, wherein they had stifled the breath
of the Israelites' infants; and at last the prince and the flower
oftheir nobility, are drowned in the Red sea.
It is part of fhe wisdora of justice to proportion punishment
to the crime, and the degrees of wrath to the degrees of malice
in the sin. Afflictions also are wisely proportioned: God, as a
wise physician, considers the nature of the humour and strength
of the patient, and suits his medicines both to the one and the
other, 1 Cor. x. 13.
He displays the sarae wisdom in the seasons of punishments
and afflictions. He stays till sin be ripe, that his justice may
appear more equitable, and the offender more inexcusable; he
watches upon the evil to bring it upon men, Dan. ix. 14; to
bring it in the just season and order, for his righteous and gra
cious purpose; his righteous purpose on his enemies, and his
gracious purpose on his people.
Jerusalem's calaraity carae upon them, Avhen the city was full
of people at the solemnity of the passover, that he might mow
down his enemies at once, and time their destruction to such a
moment Avherein they had timed the crucifixion of his Son.
He watched over the clouds ofhis judgments, and kept them
from pouring doAvn, till his people the Christians were provided
for, and had departed out of the city to the chambers and retiring
places God had provided for them. He made not Jerusalem the
shambles for his enemies, till he had made Pella and other places
the ark of his friends. As Pliny tells us, the providence of God
holds the seas in a calm for fifteen days, that the halcyons, little
birds, that frequent fhe shore, may build their nests, and hatch
up their young. The judgraent upon Sodom was suspended
for some hours, till Lot was secured.
God suffered not the church fo be invaded by violent perse
cutions, tfll she was established in the faith; he would not ex
pose her to so great combats, while she was weak and feeble,
but gave her time to fortify herself, to be rendered more capa
ble of bearing up under them. ' He stifled all the motions of
passion the idolaters might have for their superstflion, till reli
gion was in such a condition, as rather to be increased and puri
fied, than extinguished by opposition. Paul was secured from
Nero's chains, and the nets of his enemies, tfll he had broken off
the chain of the devfl from many cities of the gentiles, and
caught them by the net of the gospel out of the sea of the
world. 1 Daille sur. 1 Cor. x, p. 390,

628 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
Thus the wisdom of God is seen in the seasons of judgments
and afflictions.
It is apparent also in the gracious issue of afflictions and penal
evils. It is a part of Avisdomfo bring good out of the evil of pun
ishment, as well as to bring good out of sin. The church never
was so like to heaven, as when it was most persecuted by hell:
the storms often cleansed it, and the lance often made it more
healthful. Job's integrity had not been so clear, nor his pa
tience so illustrious, had not the devfl been permitted to afflict
bim. God by his wisdom outwits Satan; when he by his temp
tations intends to pollute us and buffet us, God orders it to purify
us; he often brings the clearest light out ofthe thickest darkness,
raakes poisons to become medicines. Death itself, the greatest
punishment in this life, and the entrance into hell in its own
nature, he has, by his wise contrivance, made to his people the
gate of heaven, and the passage into immortality. ' Penal evfls
in a nation often end in a public advantage: troubles and wars
among a people are many times not destroying, but medicinal,
and cure them of that degeneracy, luxury, and effeminateness
they contracted by a long peace.
This Avisdora is evident, in the various ends which God brings
about by afflictions. The attainment of various ends by one
and the same means, is the fruit of the agent's prudence. By
the same affiiction, the Avise God corrects sometimes some base
affection, excites some sleepy grace, drives out some lurking
corruption, refines the soul, and ruins the lust; discovers the
greatness of a crime, the vanity of the creature, and the suffici
ency in himself.
The Jews bind Paul, and by the judge he is sent to Rome;
while his mouth is stopped in Judea, it is opened in one of the
greatest cities of the world, and his enemies unwittingly contri
bute to the increase of the knowledge of Christ by those chains,
in that city that triumphed over the earth, Acts xxviu. 31. And
his afflictive bonds added courage and resolution to others,
"Many waxing confident by my bonds," PhU. i. 14; which
could not in their own nature produce such an effect, but by
the order and contrivance of Divine wisdom: in their own na
ture, they Avould rather make them disgust the doctrine he suf
fered for, and cool their zeal in the propagating of it, for fear of
the same disgrace and hardship they saw hira suffer. = But the
wisdom of God changed the nature of these fetters, and con
ducted thera to the glory of his narae, the encouragement of
others, the increase of the gospel, and the comfort of the apostle
himself, Phil. i. 12, 1 3. 18. The sufferings of Paul at Rome con
firmed the Philippians, a people at a distance frora thence, in
the doctrine they had already received at his hands.
I Turretin, Serm, p, 53. z Daille sur Philip. Parta. p. 116, 117.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 629
Thus God makes sufferings sometimes Avhich appear like
judgraents, to be like the viper on Paul's hand. Acts xxvni. 6;
a means fo clear up innocence, and procure favour to the doc
trine ainong those barbarians. Hoav often has he multiplied
the church by death and massacres, and increased it by those
means used to annihilate it!
The Divine Avisdom is apparent in the deliverances he affords
to other parts of ttie world, as well as to his church. There
are delicate composures, curious threads in his webs, and he
works thera like an artificer. A goodness Avrought for them,
and curiously wrought, Psal. xxxi. 19.
This is seen in making the creatures subservient in their
natural order to his gracious ends and purposes. He orders
things in such a manner as not to be necessitated to put forth
an extraordinary poAAi-er in things which some part of the cre
ation might accomplish. Miraculous productions would speak
his power; but the ordering the natural course of things, to
occasion such effects they Avere never intended for, is one part
of the glory ofhis Avisdom. And that his wisdom may be seen
in fhe course of nature, he conducts the motions of creatures,
and acts them in their own strength; and does that by various
windings and turnings of them, which he might do in an in
stant by his power, in a supernatural way. Indeed, sometimes
he has made invasions on nature, and suspended the order of
their natural laAV for a season, to show himself the absolute
Lord and Governor of nature; yet if frequent alterations of
this nature Avere made, they Avould impede the knoAvledge of
the nature of things, and he some bar to the discovery and
glory of his wisdom, which is best seen by moving the wheels
of inferior creatures in an exact regularity to his own ends.
He inight, when his little church in Jacob's family Avas like to
starve in Canaan, have turned fhe stones of the country into
bread for their preservation; but he sends thera down to Egypt
to procure corn, that a way may be opened for their removal
into that country, the truth of his prediction in their captivity
accomplished, and a way made after the declaration of his great
narae Jehovah, both in the fidelity of his word, and the great
ness of his power, in their deliverance from that furnace of
affliction. He might have struck Goliath, fhe captain of the
Philistines' army, with a thunderbolt from heaven, when he
blasphemed his name and scared his people; but he uses the
natural strength of a stone, and the artificial motion of a sling,
by the arm of David, to confront the giant, and thereby to free
Judea from the ravage of a potent eneray. He might have
delivered the Jews from Babylon by as strange miracles as he
used in their deliverance from Egypt: he might have plagued
their enemies, gathered his people into a body, and protected

630 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
them by the bulwark of a cloud and a pillar of fire, against the
assaults of their enemies. But he uses the differences between
the Persians and those of Babylon, to accomplish his ends.
How sometimes has the veering about of the wind on a sud
den been the loss of a navy, when it has been upon the point
of victory, and driven back the destruction upon those which
intended it for others! and fhe accidental stumbling, or the
natural fierceness of a horse, flung down a general in the midst
of a battle, Avhere he has lost his life by the throng, and his
death has hrought a defeat to his army, and deliverance to the
other party, that were upon the brink of ruin! Thus does the
wisdom of God link things together according to natural order,
to work out his intended preservation of a people.
The same thing is seen in the season of deUverance. The
timing of affairs is a part of the wisdom of man, and an emi
nent part of the wisdom of God. It is in due season he sends
the former and the latter rain, when the earth is in the greatest
indigence, and when his influences may most contribute to the
bringing forth and ripening the fruit. The dumb creatures
have their meat from him in due season, Psal. civ. 27; and in
his due season have his darling people their deliverance. When
Paul was upon his journey to Damascus with a persecuting
commission, he is struck down for the security of the church
in that city. The nature of the lion is changed in due season
for the preservation of the lambs from worrying. The Israel
ites are miraculously rescued from Egypt, when their wits Avere
at a loss, when their danger to human understanding Avas un
avoidable; when earth and sea refused protection, then the
wisdom and power of Heaven stepped in to effect that which
was past the skill of the conductors of that multitude. And
when the lives of the Jews lay at the stake, and their necks
Avere upon the block at the mercy of their enemies' swords by
an order from Shushan, not only a reprieve, but a triumph
arrives to the Jews, by the wisdoni of God guiding the affair,
whereby of persons designed to execution, they are made con
querors, and have opportunity to exercise their revenge instead
of their patience, proving triumphers where they expected to
be sufferers, Esth. viii. and ix. How strangely does God by
secret ways bow the hearts of men and the nature of things fo
the execution of that which he designs, notwithstanding all
the resistance of that which Avould traverse the security of his
people! How often does he trap the wicked in the work of
their own hands, make their confidence to becorae t'neir ruin,
and insnare thera in those nets they wrought and laid for others!
" The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands," Psal.
ix. 16. "He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of
their hearts," Luke i. 51; in the height of their hopes, when

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 631
their designs have been laid so deep in the foundation, and knit
and cemented so close in their superstructure, that no human
poAver or Avisdora could raze them down; he has then disap
pointed their projects, and befooled their craft. How often has
he kept back the fire when it has been ready to devour; broke
the arrows when they have been prepared in the bow; turned
the spear into the bowels of the bearers, and wounded them at
the very instant they were ready to Avound others.
It is seen also in suiting instruraents to his purpose. He either
finds thera fit, or makes them on a sudden fit for his gracious
ends. If he has a tabernacle to build, he will fit a Bezaleel and
Aholiab with the spirit of wisdom and understanding in aU
cunning workraanship, Exod. xxxi. 3. 6. If he finds them
crooked pieces, he can, like a wise architect, make them
straight beams for the rearing his hoUse, and for the honour of
his narae.
He sometimes picks out men, according to their natural tem
pers, and employs them in his work: Jehu, a man of a furious
temper and ambitious spirit, is called out for the destruction of
Ahab's house. Moses, a man furnished with all Egyptian Avis
dom, fitted by a generous education, prepared also hy the afflic
tion he met with in his flight, and one who had had fhe benefit
of conversation with Jethro, a man of more than ordinary Avis
dom and goodness, as appears by his prudent and religious
counsel; this man is called out to be the head and captain of
an oppressed people, and to rescue them from their bondage,
and settle the first national church in the Avorld. So Elijah, a
high-spirited man, of a hot and angry temper, one that slighted
the frowns and undervalued the favour of princes, is set up to
stem the torrent of the Israelitsh idolatry. So Luther, a man
of the same temper, is drawn out by the same wisdom to en
counter the corruptions in the church, against such opposition,
which a milder temper would have sunk urider. The earth, in
Rev. xii. 16, is made an instrument to help the woman. When
the grandees of that age transferred the imperial power upon
Constantine, who became afterwards a protecting and nursing
father to the church, an end which many of his favourers never
designed, nor ever dreamed of: but God by his infinite wisdom
made these several designs like several arroAvs shot at rovers,
meet in one mark to which he directed them, namely, in bring
ing forth an instrument to render peace to the world, and secu
rity and increase to his church.
(3.) The wisdom of God does wonderfully appear in redemp
tion. His wisdom in creation ravishes the eye and understand
ing; his wisdom in government does no less affect a curious
observer of the links and concatenation of the means ; but his
wisdom in redemption mounts the mind to a greater astonish-

632 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
raent. The works of creation are the footsteps of his Avisdora;
the Avork of redemption is the face of his Avisdom: a man is
belter known by fhe features of his face, than by the prints of
his feet. We with open face, or a revealed face, beholding fhe
glory ofthe Lord, 2 Cor. ifl. IS. Face there, refers to God, not
to us; the glory of God's wisdora is now open, and no longer
covered and veiled by the shadows of the laAv; as we behold
the light glorious, as scattered in the air before the appearance
ofthe sun, but more gloriously in the face of the sun, when it
begin its race in our horizon. All the Avisdom of God in crea
tion and governraent in his variety of laws, was like the light
the three first days of the creation, dispersed about the Avorld,
but the fourth day it Avas more glorious, when all gathered into
the body of the sun. Gen. i. 4. 16. So the light of Divine Avis
dom and glory was scattered about the world, and so more
obscure, till the fourth divine day of the world, about the four
thousandth year, it was gathered into one body, the Sun of
righteousness, and so shone out more gloriously to men and
angels. All things are weaker the thinner they are extended,
but stronger the more they are united and compacted in one
body and appearance. In Christ, in the dispensation by him,
as well as in his person, were " hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge," CoL ii. 3. Some doles of wisdora were given
out in creation, but the treasures of it opened in redemption;
the highest degrees of it that ever God did exert in the world-.
Christ is therefore called the Avisdom of God, as well as the
power of God, 1 Cor. i. 24, and the gospel is called the wisdom
of God. Christ is the Avisdom of God principally, and the
gospel instrumentally, as it is the power of God instrumentally
to subdue the heart to himself This is Avrapped up in the ap
pointing Christ as Redeemer, and opened to us in the revelation
of it by the gospel.
It is a hidden Wisdom. In this regard God is said, in the
text, to be only wise; and it is said to be a hidden wisdom, and
wisdom in a mystery, I Cor. ii. 7, incomprehensible tothe ordi
nary capacity of an angel, more than the abstruse qualities of
the creatures are to the understanding of man. No Avisdom of
men or angels is able to search all the veins of this mine, to tell
all the threads of this web, or to understand fhe lustre of it;
they are as far frora an ability fully to comprehend it, as they
were at first to contrive it. That wisdom that invented it, alone
can comprehend it. In the uncreated understanding only there
is a clearness of light without any shadow of darkness. We
come as short of full apprehensions of it, as a child does ofthe
counsel of the wisest prince. It is so hidden from us, that Avith
out revelation Ave could not have the least imagination of it;
and though it be revealed fo ns, yet Avithout the help of an infi-

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

633

niteness of understanding, we cannot fully fathom it. It is such
a tractate of Divine wisdom, that the angels never before had
seen fhe edition of it, tiU it was published to the world: "To
the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in hea
venly places raight be known by the church the manifold wis
dom of God," Eph. ni. 10. Now made known to thera, not
before; and now made known to thera in fhe heavenly places.
They had not the knowledge of all heavenly raysteries, though
they had the possession of heavenly glory: they knew the pro
phecies ofit in the word, but attained nota clear interpretation
of those prophecies, till the things that were prophesied of came
upon the stage.
It is manifold wisdom: so it is called. As manifold as mys
terious. Variety in the mystery, and mystery in every part of
the variety. It was not one single act, but a variety of coun
sels met in it; a conjunction of excellent ends and excellent
means. The glory of God, the salvation of man, the defeat
of the apostate angels, the discovery of the blessed Trinity in
their nature, operations, their combined and distinct acts and
expressions of goodness. The means are the conjunction of
two natures infinitely distant from one another; the union of
eternity and tirae, of mortality and immortahty: death is made
the Avay to life, and shame the path to glory. The weakness
of the cross is the reparation of man, and the creature is made
wise by the foolishness of preaching; fallen man groAvs rich by
the poverty of the Redeemer, and man is filled by the empti
ness of God: the heir of hell made a son of God, by God's
taking upon him fhe form of a servant; the son of man ad
vanced to the highest degree of honour, by the Son of God be
coming of no reputation.
It is called abundance of wisdom and prudence, Eph. i. 8.
Wisdom in the eternal counsel, contriving a way; prudence in
the temporary revelation, ordering all affairs and occurrences
in the world for the attaining the end of his counsel. Wisdom
refers to the mystery; prudence to the manifestation of it in fit
ways and convenient seasons. Wisdom, to the contrivance
and order; prudence, to the execution and accorapUshraent.
In all things God acted as becarae hira, as a wise and just
Governor of the world, Heb, ii. 10. Whether the wisdom of
God might not have found out some other way, or whether he
were, in regard of the necessity and naturalness of his justice,
limited to this, is not the question: but that it is the besT and
wisest way for the manifestation of his glory, is out of question.
This wisdom wfll appear in the different interests reconciled
by it. In the subject, the second person in the Trinity, wherein
they were reconciled: in the two natures, wherein he accom
plished it; whereby God is made knoAvn to man in his glory.
Vol. I.— 80

634 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
sin eternally conderaned, and the repenting and believing sin
ner eternaUy rescued; the honour and righteousness ofthe law
vindicated both in the pirecept and penalty; the devU's erapire
overthrown by the same nature he had overturned, and the
subtlety of hell defeated by that nature he had spoiled; the
creature engaged in the very act to the highest obedience and
humility, that as God appears as a God upon his throne, the
creature might appear in the lowest posture of a creature, in
the depths of resignation and dependence; the publication of
this raade in the gospel, by ways congruous to the wisdom
Avhich appeared in the execution of his counsel; and the con
ditions of enjoying the fruit of it most wise and reasonable.
[1.] The greatest different interests are reconciled, justice in
punishing, and mercy in pardoning. Por man had broken the
law, and plunged himself into a gulf of misery: the sword of
vengeance was unsheathed by justice, for the punishment of
the criminal : the bowels of compassion were stirred by mercy,
for the rescue of the miserable. Justice severely beholds the
sin, and mercy corapassionately reflects upon the raisery. Two
different clairas are entered by those concerned attributes: jus
tice votes for destruction, and mercy votes for salvation. Jus
tice would draw the sAvord, and drench it in the blood of the
offender; mercy would draw the sword, and turn it from the
breast of the sinner. Justice would edge it, and mercy would
blunt it. The arguments are strong on both sides.
Justice pleads thus. I arraign, before the tribunal, a rebel,
who was the glorious work of thy hands, the centre of thy rich
goodness, and a counterpart of thy own image; he is indeed
miserable, whereby to excite thy compassion; but he is not
miserable without being criminal. Thou didst create him in a
state and with ability to be otherwise; the riches of thy bounty
aggravate the blackness of his crirae. He is a rebel, not by
necessity, but will. What constraint was there upon hira to
listen to the counsels of the enemy of God ? What force could
there be upon him, since it is without the compass of any crea
ture to work upon or constrain the Avill? Nothing of ignorance
can excuse him; the law was not ambiguously expressed, but
in plain words, hoth as to precept and penalty; it was written
in his nature in legible characters. Had he received any dis
gust from thee after his creation, it would not excuse his apos
tasy, since, as a Sovereign, thou wert not obliged to thy^crea-
ture. Thou hadst provided all things richly for him; " he was
crowned with glory and honour." Thy infinite power had
bestowed upon him a habitation richly furnished, and varieties
of servants to attend him. Whatever he viewed without, and
whatever he viewed within himself, were several marks of thy
Divine bounty, to engage hira to obedience: had there been

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 635
some reason of any disgust, it could not have balanced that
kindness which had so much reason to oblige him: however,
he had received no courtesy from the fallen angel to oblige
him to turn into his camp. Was it not enough, that one of thy
creatures would have stripped thee ofthe glory of heaven, but
this also must deprive thee of thy glory upon earth, which was
due from hira to thee as his Creator? Can he charge the diffi
culty of the coramand? No; it was rather below than above
his strength. He might rather complain that it was no higher,
whereby his obedience and gratitude might have a larger scope
and a more spacious field to move in, than a precept so light,
so easy, as to abstain from one fruit in fhe garden. What ex
cuse can he have, that would prefer the liquorishness of his
sense before the dictates of his reason and the obligations of
his creation ? The laAV thou didst set him, was righteous and
reasonable, and shall righteousness and reason be rejected by
the suprerae and infallible reason, because the rebellious crea
ture has trampled upon it? What? Must God abrogate his
holy law, because the creature has slighted it? What reflection
will this be upon the Avisdom that enacted it; and upon the
equity of the command and the sanction of it! Either man
must suffer, or the holy law be expunged, and for ever out of
date. And is it not better man should eternaUy smart under
his crirae, than any dishonourable reflections of unrighteous
ness be cast upon the laAv, and of folly and want of foresight
upon the Lawgiver? Not to punish, would be to approve the
devil's lie, and justify the creature's revolt. It would be a
condemnation of thy own law as unrighteous, and a sentencing
thy own wisdom as imprudent. Better man should for ever
bear the punishment of his offence, than God bear fhe dis
honour of his attributes: better man should be miserable, than
God should be unrighteous, unwise, false, or tamely bear the
denial ofhis sovereignty. But what advantage would it be to
gratify mercy by pardoning the malefactor ? Besides the irre
parable dishonour to the law, the falsifying thy veracity in not
executing the denounced threatening, he would receive encou
ragement by such a grace to spurn more at thy sovereignty,
and oppose thy hohness by running on in a course of sin with
hopes of impunity. If the creature be restored, it cannot be
expected that he that has fared so well, after the breach of it,
shoifld be very careful of a future observance: his easy re-ad
mission Avould abet him in fhe repetition of his offence, and
thou shalt soon find him cast off all raoral dependence on thee.
Shall he be restored without any condition, or covenant? He
is a creature not to be governed wflhout a law, and a laAV is
not to be enacted wflhout a penalty. What future regard Avill
he have to thy precept, or what fear "wfll hei have of thy threat-

636 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
ening, if his crirae be so lightly passed over? Is it the stabUity
of thy word ? What reason avUI he have to give credit to that,
which he has found already disregarded- by thyself? Thy
truth in future threatenings Avill be of no force with him, who
has experienced thy laying it aside in the former. It is neces
sary therefore that the rebellious creature should be punished,
for the preservation of fhe honour of the law and fhe honour
of the Lawgiver, with all those perfections that are united in
the coraposure of if.
But raercy does not Avant a plea. It is true indeed, the sin
of raan wants not its aggravations: he has slighted thy good
ness, and accepted thy enemy as his counsellor; but it was not
a pure act of his own, as the devil's revolt was. He had a
tempter, and the devil had none: he had, I acknowledge, an
understanding to know thy will, and a power to obey it; yet
he Avas rautable and had a capacity to fall. It was no difficult
task that was set him, nor a hard yoke that was laid upon him;
yet he had a brutish part as Avell as a rational, and sense as
well as soul ; whereas the fallen angel Avas a pure intellectual
spirit. Did God create the world to suffer an eternal disho
nour, in letting himself be outwitted by Satan, and his work
wrested out of his hands? Shall the work of eternal counsel
presently sink into irreparable destruction, and the honour of
an almighty and wise work be lost in the ruin of the creature ?
This Avould seem contrary to the nature of thy goodness, to
make man only to render him miserable; to design him in his
creation for the service of the devil, and not for the service of
his Creator. What else could be the issue, if the chief work
of thy hand, defaced presently after the erecting, should for
ever reraain in this marred condition; what can he expected
upon the continuance of his misery, but a perpetual hatred,
and enmity of thy creature against thee? Did God in creation
design his being hated or his being loved by bis creature?
Shall God make a holy laAv, and have no obedience to that
law from that creature whom it was made to govern? Shall
the curious workraanship of God, and the exceUent engravings
of the law of nature in his heart, be so soon defaced, and remain
in that blotted condition for ever? This fall thou couldst not
but in the treasures of thy infinite knowledge foresee; why
hadst thou goodness then to create him in an integrity, if thou
wouldst not have raercy to pity hira in misery? Shall thy
enemy for ever trample upon the honour of thy work, and
triumph over the glory of God, and applaud himself in the
success of his subtlety? Shall thy creature only passively
glorify thee as an avenger, and not actively as a compassion-
ater? Ara not I a perfection of thy nature as well as justice?
Shall justice engross all, and I never come into view? It is

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 637*
resolved already, that the fallen angels shaU be no subjects for
me to exercise myself upon; and I have now less reason than
before to plead for them. They fell with a full consent of will,
without any motion from another; and not content with their
own apostasy, they envy thee and thy glory upon earth, as
well as in heaven, and have drawn into their party the best
part of the creation below. Shall Satan plunge the whole
creation in the same irreparable ruin with himself? If the
creature be restored, will he contract a boldness in sin bj?^ im
punity? Hast thou not a grace to render him ingenuous in
obedience, as well as a compassion to recover him from misery?
What will hinder, but that such a grace, which has established
the standing angels, may establish this recovered creature ? If
I am utterly excluded frora exercising rayself on men, as I
have been from devils, a whole species is lost; nay, I can never
expect to appear upon fhe stage. If thou wilt quite ruin hira
by justice, and create another world, and another man, if he
stand, thy bounty will be eminent, yet there is no room for
mercy to act, unless, by the comraission of sin, he exposes hira
self to misery; and if sin enter into another world, I have little
hopes to be heard then, if I am rejected now. Worlds will be
perpetually created by goodness, wisdom, and power: sin en
tering into these worlds, will be perpetually punished by jus
tice; and raercy, which is a perfection of thy nature, will for
ever be coraraanded silence, and lie Avrapped up in an eternal
darkness. Take occasion now therefore to expose me to the
knowledge of thy creature, since Avithout misery, mercy can
never set foot into the world.
Mercy pleads, if man be ruined, the creation is in vain; jus
tice pleads, if man be not sentenced, the law is in vain; truth
backs justice, and grace abets mercy. What shall be done in
this seeming contradiction ? Mercy is not manifested, if man
be not pardoned; justice wUl complain, if man be not punished.
An expedient is found out by fhe wisdora of God to answer
these demands, and adjust the differences between thera. The
wisdora of God answers, I avUI satisfy your pleas. The pleas
of justice shall be satisfied in punishing, and the pleas of mercy
shall be received in pardoning. Justice shall not complain for
want of punishment, nor mercy for want of compassion. T
will have an infinite sacrifice to content justice; and the virtue
and fruit of that sacrifice shall delight mercy. Here shall jus
tice have punishment to accept, and mercy shall have pardon
to bestow. The rights of both are preserved, and the demands
of both amicably accorded in punishment and pardon, by trans
ferring the punishraent of our crimes upon a Surety, exacting a
recompense from his blood by justice, and conferring life and
salvation upon us by mercy without the expense of one drop

638 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
of our own. Thus is justice satisfied in its severities, and
mercy in its indulgences. The riches of grace are twisted with
the terrors of wrath. The bowels of mercy are Avound about
the flaming SAVord of justice, and the sword of justice protects
and secures the bowels of mercy. Thus is God righteous
without being cruel, and merciful without being unjust; his
righteousness inviolable, and the world recoverable. Thus is
a resplendent mercy brought forth in the midst of all the curses,
confusions, and wrath threatened to the offender.
This is the admirable temperament found out by the wisdora
of God; his justice is honoured in the sufferings of man's
Surety, and his mercy is honoured, in fhe application of the
propitiation to the offender. "Being justified freely by his
grace through fhe redemption that is' in Christ Jesus; whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his
blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past, through the forbearance of God," Rora. ui. 24, 25.
Had Ave in our persons been sacrifices to justice, raercy had for
ever been unknoAvn; had we been solely fostered by mercy,
justice had for ever been secluded; had we, being guilty, been
absolved, mercy might have rejoiced, and justice might have
complained; had we been solely punished, justice would have
triumphed, and mercy grieved. But by this hiedium of redemp
tion, neither has ground of complaint: justice has nothing to
charge, when the punishment is inflicted ;.m'ercy has whereof
to boast, Avhen the Surety is accepted. The debt of the sinner
is transferred upon the Surety, that the merit of the Surety
may be conferred upon the sinner; sb that God now deals with
our sins in a way of consuming justice, and with our persons
in a way of relieving mercy. It is highly better, and more glo
rious, than if the claim of one had been granted, Avith the exclu
sion ofthe demand ofthe other: it had then been either an un
righteous mercy, or a merciless justice: it is no v/ a righteous
mercy, and a merciful justice.
[2.] The wisdom of God appears in the subject or person
wherein these Avere accorded; the second Person in the blessed
Trinity. There was a congruity in the Son's undertaking and
effecting it rather than any other person, according to the order
ofthe Persons, and the several functions ofthe Persons, as re
presented in Scripture. The Father, after creation, is the Law
giver, and presents man with the image of his own holiness and
the way to his creature's happiness: but after the fall, man was
too impotent to perform the law, and too polluted to enjoy a
felicity. Redemption was then necessary: not that it was ne
cessary for God to redeem man, but it was necessary for man's
happiness, that he should be recovered. To this the second
Person is appointed, that by communion Avith him, man might

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 639
derive a happiness, and be brought again to God. But since
man was blind in his understanding, and an enemy in his-'wiU-
to God, there must be the exerting of a virtue to enlighten-hiS
mind, and bend his avUI to understand, and accept of this re
deraption; and this work is assigned to the third Person, the'
Holy Ghost.
It was not congruous that the Father should assume human
nature, and suffer in it for the redemption of man. He Avas first
in order, he was the Lawgiver, and therefore to be the Judge.
As Lawgiver, it was not convenient he should stand in the stead
ofthe law-breaker; and as a Judge, it was as little convenient
he should be reputed a malefactor; that he who had made a law
against sin, denounced a penalty upon the commission of sin, and
whose part of it was actually to punish the sinner, should become
sin for the wilful transgressor of his law. He being the Rector,
how could he be an advocate and intercessor to himself? how
could he be the Judge and the sacrifice? a judge, and yet a me
diator to himself? If he had been the sacrifice, there must be
some person to examine the validity of it, and pronounce the
sentence of acceptance. Was it agreeable that the Son should
sit upon a throne of judgment, and the Father stand at the bar,
and be responsible to the Son? that the Son should be in the
place of a governor, and the Father in the place of the criminal?
that the Father should be bruised by the Son, as the Son was
by the Father, Isa. liii. 10; that the Son should awaken a sword
against the Father, as the Father did against the Son, Zech. xiii.'
7; that the Father should be sent by the Son as the Son was by
the Father? Gal. iv. 4. The order of the Persons in the blessed
Trinity had been inverted and disturbed. Had the Father been
..sent, he had not been first in order; the sender is before the per
son sent. As the Father begets, and the Son is begotten, John
i. 14; so the Father sends, and the Son is sent. He whose order
is to send, cannot properly send himself
Nor was it congruous that the Spirit should be sent upon this
affair. If the Holy Ghost had been sent to redeem us, and the
Son to apply that redemption to us, the order of the persons had
also been inverted: the Spirit then, who was third in order, had
been second in operation. The Son would then have received
of the Spirit, as the Spirit doth now of Christ, and show it unto
us, John xvi. 14. As the Spirit proceeded from the Father and
the Son, so the proper function and operation of it, was in order
after the operations of the Father and the Son. Had the Spirit
been sent to redeera us, and the Son sent by the Father and the
Spirit to apply that redemption to us; the Son in his acts had
proceeded from the Father and the Spirit; the Spirit, as sender,
had been in order before the Son; whereas the Spirit is called
the Spirit of Christ, as sent by Christ from the Father, Gal. iv. 6;

640 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
' John XV. 26. But as the order of the works, so the order of the
Persons is preserved in their several operations. Creation, and
a laAV to govern the creature, precedes redemption. Nothing,
or that which has no being, is not capable of a redeemed being.
Redemption supposes the existence and the misery of a person
redeemed. As creation precedes rederaption, so redemption
precedes the application of it. As redemption supposes the
being of the creature, so application of redemption supposes the
efficacy of redemption. According to the order of these works
is the order of the operations of the three Persons. Creation
belongs to the Father, the first Person. Redemption, the second
work, is the function of fhe Son, the second Person. Applica
tion, the third work, is the office of the Holy Ghost, the third
Person. The Father orders it, the Son acts it, the Holy Ghost
applies it. He purifies our souls to understand, believe, and
love these raysteries. He forms Christ in the womb of the soul,
as he did the body of Christ in the Avorab of the virgin. As the
Spirit of God raoved upon the waters, to garnish and adorn fhe
world, after the matter of it was formed. Gen. i. 2; so he moves
upon the heart, to supple it to a compliance Avith Christ, and
draws the lineaments of the new creation in the soul, after the
foundation is laid.
The Son pays the price that was due from us to God, and
the Spirit is the earnest of fhe promises of life and glory pur
chased by the merit of that death.' It is to be observed, that
the Father, under the dispensation of the law, proposed the
commands, with the promises and threatenings, to the under
standings of men; and Christ, under the dispensation of grace,
when he Avas upon the earth, proposes the gospel as the means
of salvation, exhorts to faith as the condition of salvation; but
it was neither the function of the one or the other, to display
such an efficacy in the understanding and will, to make men
believe and obey, and therefore there were such few conver
sions in the time of Christ, by his rairacles: but this work Avas
reserved for the fuller and brighter appearance of the Spirit,
Avhose office it was to convince the world of fhe necessity of a
Redeeraer, because oftheir lost condition; of fhe person ofthe
Redeemer, fhe Son of God; of the sufficiency and efficacy of
redemption,becauseof his righteousness and acceptation by fhe
Father. The Avisdom of God is seen in preparing and presenting
the objects, and then in raaking impression of them upon the
subjects he intends. And thus is the order of the three Persons
preserved. The second Person had the greatest congruity to this work.
He by Avliom God created the world, was most conveniently
employed in restoring the defaced world; and Avho more fit to
I Amyrant. Moral, torn. 5. p. '478—480.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. . 641
recover it from its lapsed state, than he that had erected fl in its
primitive state? Heb. i. 2. He was the light of men in crea
tion, John i. 4, and therefore it was most reasonable he should
be the light of men in rederaption. Who fitter to reforra the
Divine iraage, than he that first forraed it? Who fitter to speak
for us to God, than he who Avas the Word? John i. 1. Who
could better intercede with the Father, than he who was the
only begotten and beloved Son? Who so fit to redeem the for
feited inherflance as the Heir of aU things? Who fitter and bet
ter to prevail for us to have the right of children, than he that
possessed it by nature ? We fell from being the sons of God, and
who fitter to introduce us into an adopted state than fhe Son of
God? Herein was an expression of fhe richer grace, because
the first sin was immediately against the Avisdom of God, by an
ambitious affectation of a wisdom equal to God. That person,
who was the wisdom of God, was made a sacrifice for the ex
piation of the sin against Avisdom.
[3.] The Avisdom of God is seen in the two natures of Christ,
whereby this redemption was accomplished. The union of the
two natures was the foundation of the union of God and the
faUen creature.
The union itself is admirable. The Word is made flesh,
John i. 14. One equal with God in the form of a servant, Phil.
ii. 7. When the apostle speaks of God manifested in the flesh,
he speaks the wisdora of God in a mystery, 1 Tim. in. 16; that
which is incomprehensible to the angels, which they never
imagined before it was revealed, Avhich, perhaps, they never
knew tfll they beheld it. I ara sure, under the law the figures
of the cherubira were placed in the sanctuary with their faces
looking towards the propitiatory, in a perpetual posture of
contemplation and adrairation, Exod. xxxvii. 9, to which the
apostle alludes, 1 Pet. i. 12.
Mysterious is the wisdora of God to unite finite and infinite,
alraighfiness and Aveakness, immortality and mortality, imrau
tability with a thing subject to change ; to have a nature from
eternity, and yet a nature subject to the revolutions of time; a
nature to make a law, and a nature to be subjected to the law;
to be God blessed for ever, in the bosom of his Father, and an
infant exposed to calamities from the womb of his mother;
terras seeming most distant from union, most incapable of con
junction, to shake hands together, to be most intiraately con
joined; glory and vUeness, fulness and emptiness, heaven and
earth; the creature wifh the Creator; he that made aU things,
in one person with a nature that is made; Imraanuel, God and
man in one; that which is most spiritual to partake of that,
which is carnal flesh and blood, Heb. u. 14; one with the Father
in his Godhead, one Avith us in his manhood ; the Godhead to
Vol. I.— 81

642 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
be iu him in the fuUest perfection, and the manhood in the
greatest purity; the creature one with the Creator, and the
Creator one with the creature. Thus is the incomprehensible
wisdom of God declared in the Word being made flesh.
This wisdora is seen, too, in the manner of this union. A
union of two natures, yet no natural union. It transcends all
the unions visible among creatures:' it is not like the union of
stones in buUding, or of two pieces of timber fastened together,
which touch one another only in their superficies and outside,
without any intimacy with one another. By such a kind of
union, God would not be man; the Word could not so be made
flesh. Nor is it union of parts to the whole, as fhe members
and the body; the raembers are parts, the body is the whole;
for the Avhole results from the parts, and depends upon the parts;
but Christ being God, is independent upon any thing. The
parts are in order of nature before the whole, but nothing can
be in order of nature before God. Nor is it as the union of two
liquors, as when wine and Avater are mixed together; for they
are so incorporated, as not to be distinguished from one another;
no man can tell which particle is wine, and Avhich is water.
But the properties of the Divine nature are distinguishable frora
the properties of fhe huraan. Nor is it as- the union of the soul
and body, so as that the Deity is the form of fhe humanity, as
the soul is the form of the body; for as the soul is but a part of
the man, so the Divinity would be then but a part ofthe huma
nity: and as a form, or the soul, is in a state of imperfection,
without that which it is to inform; so the Divinity of Christ
would have been imperfect, tifl it had assumed the humanity.
And so the perfection of an eternal Deity would have depended
on a creature of time.
This union of two natures in Christ is incomprehensible: and
it is a mystery Ave cannot arrive to the top of, how the Divine
nature, which is the same Avith that ofthe Father and the Holy
Ghost, should be united to the human nature, without its being
said that the Father and the Holy Ghost were united to the
flesh; but the Scripture doth not encourage any such notion, it
speaks only ofthe Word, the person, of the Word being made
flesh; and in his being made flesh, distinguishes him from the
Father, as the only begotten of the Father, John i. 14. The
person of the Son was the term of this union.
This union does not confound the properties ofthe Deity and
those of the humanity. They remain distinct and entire in
each other. The Deity is not changed into flesh, nor the flesh
transforn:^,ed, into God: they are distinct, and yet united: they
are conjoiped, and yet unmixed: the dues of either nature are
presersVed; It is impossible that the majesty of the Divinity
' Savana Triump, Crucis, lib. 3. cap. 7, p. 211.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 643
can receive an alteration. It is as impossible that the mean
ness of the huraanity can receive the irapressions of the Deity,
so as to be changed into it, and a creature be metamorphosed
into the Creator, and temporary flesh become eternal, and finite
mount up to infinity: as the soul and body are united, and
make one person; yet the soul is not changed into the perfec
tions of the body, nor the body into the perfections of fhe soul.
There is a change made in the humanity by being advanced fo
a more excellent union, but not in the Deity; as a change is
made in the air, when it is enlightened by the sun, not in the
sun, which communicates that brightness to the air. Athana
sius makes the burning bush to be a type of Christ's incarna
tion, Exod. in. 2. The fire signifying fhe Divine nature, and
the bush the huraan. The bush is a branch springing up from
the earth, and the fire descends from heaven: as the bush was
united to the fire, yet was not hurt by the flame, nor converted
into fire, there remained a difference betAveen the bush and the
fire; yet the properties of the fire shined in the bush, so that
the whole bush seemed to be on fire. So in the incarnation of
Christ, the human nature is not SAvallowed up by the Divine,
nor changed into it, nor confounded with it; but so united that
the properties of both reraain firm, two are so become one that
they remain two still: one person in two natures, containing
the glorious perfections of the Divine, and the weaknesses of
the human. The fulness of the Deity dwells bodfly in Christ,
Col. fl. 9.
The Divine nature is united to every part of the humanity.
The whole Divinity fo fhe whole humanity; so that no part
but raay be said to be the member of God, as well as the blood
is said to be the blood of God, Acts xx. 28. By the same rea
son it may be said, the hand of God, the eye of God, the arm
of God. As God is infinitely present every where, so as to be
excluded frora no place; so is the Deity hypostafically every
where in the humanity, not excluded from any part of it; as
the light of the sun in every part of the air; as a sparkhng
splendor in every part of the diamond. Therefore it is con
cluded by all that acknowledge the Deity of Christ, that when
his soul was separated from the body, the Deity remained united
both to soul and body, as light does in every part of a broken
crystal. Therefore they were perpetually united. The fulness ofthe
Godhead dwells in him bodily. Col. ii. 9. It dwells in him, not
lodges in hira as a traveUer in an inn, it resides in him as a
fixed habitation. As God describes the perpetufly of his pre
sence in the ark by his habitation or dwelling in it, Exod. xxix.
45; so does the apostle the inseparable duration of the Deity
in the humanfly, and the indissoluble union of the humanity

644 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
with the Deity. It was united on earth, it remains united in
heaven. It was not an image or an apparition, as the tongues
wherein the Spirit came upon the apostles were a temporary
representation, not a thing united perpetually to the person of
the Holy Ghost.
It was a personal union. It was not a union of persons,
though it was a personal union; so Davenant expounds Col. ii.
9. Christ did not take the person of man, but the nature of raan
into subsistence with hiraself The body and soul of Christ
were not united in themselves, and had no subsistence in them
selves, tin they were united to the person of the Son of God.
If the person of a man were united to him, the human nature
would have been the nature of the person so united to hira,
and not the nature of the Son of God: "Forasmuch then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
(likewise took part of the sarae; that through death he might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devfl. For
verUy he took not on hira the nature of angels; but he took on
hira the seed of Abrahara," Heb. ii. 14. 16. He took flesh and
blood to be his own nature, perpetually to subsist in the person
of the Ao'yof, which must be by a personal union, or no way:
the Deity united to the humanity, and both natures to be one
person. This is the mysterious and manifold wisdom of God.
This wisdom is displayed in the end of this union.
He Avas hereby fitted fo be Mediator. He has something
like to raan, and something like to God. If he were in all
things only like to man, he would be at a distance from God:
if he were in all things only like to God, he would be at a dis
tance frora man. He is a true Mediator between mortal sinners
and the immortal Righteous One. He was near to us by the
infirmities of our nature, and near to God by the perfections of
the Divine; as near fo God in his nature as to us in ours; as
near to us in our nature, as he is to God in the Divine. Nothing
that belongs to the Deity but he possesses; nothing that belongs
to the human nature but he is clothed Avith.
He had both the nature which had offended, and that nature
which was offended; a nature to please God, and a nature to
pleasure us: a nature Avhereby he experimentally kncAV the
excellency of God, which was injured, and understood the
glory due to hira, and consequently the greatness of the offence,
which was to be measured by the dignify of his person; and
a nature whereby he might be sensible of the miseries con
tracted by, and endure the calamities due to the offender, that
he raight both have compassion on him, and make due satisfac
tion for him. He had two distinct natures, capable ofthe affec
tions and sentiments of the two persons he was to accord ; he
was a, just judge of the rights of the one and the demerit of the

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 645
Other.' He could not have this full and perfect understanding,
ifhe did not possess the perfections of the one and the qualities
ofthe other: the one fitted him for things appertaining to God,
Heb. V. 1, and the other furnished hira with a sense of fhe in
firmities of man, Heb. iv. 15.
He was hereby fitted for the working out the happiness of
man. A Divine nature to communicate to man, and a huraan
nature to carry up to God.
He had a nature whereby to suffer for us, and a nature
whereby to be raeritorious in those sufferings. A nature to
make him capable to bear the penalty, and a nature to make
his sufferings sufficient for all that embraced him. A nature
capable to be exposed to the flames of Divine wrath, and an
other nature incapable to be crushed by the weight, or con
sumed by the heat of it: a huraan nature to suffer, and stand a
sacrifice in the stead of raan ; a Divine nature to sanctify these
sufferings, and fill the noslrUs of God Avith a sweet savour, and
thereby atone his wrath: the one to bear the stroke due to us,
and the other to add raerit to his sufferings for us. Had he not
been raan, he could not have filled our place in suffering, and
could he OtherAvise have suffered, his sufferings had not been
applicable to us; and had he not been God, his sufferings had
not been meritoriously and fruitfully applicable. Had not his
blood been the blood of God, it had been of as little advantage
as the blood of an ordinary man, or the blood of the legal
sacrifices, Heb. ix. 12. Nothing less than God, could have
satisfied God for the injury done by man. Nothing less than
God could have countervailed the torments due to the offending
creature: nothing less than God could have rescued us out of
the hands ofthe jaUor, too powerful for us.
He had therefore a nature to be compassionate to us, and
victorious for us. A nature sensibly fo compassionate us, and
another nature to render those corapassions effectual for our
relief; he had the compassions of our nature to pity us, and
the patience ofthe Divine nature to bear with us. He has the
affections of a man to us, and the power of a God for us: a
nature to discern the devfl for us, and another nature to be sen
sible of the working of the devil in us and against us. If he
had been only God, he Avould not have had an experimental
sense of our misery; and if he had been only man, he could
not have vanquished our enemies: had he been only God, he
could not have died; and had he been only man, he could not
have conquered death.
A nature efficaciously to instruct us. As man, he was to
instruct us sensibly; as God, he was to instruct us infallibly.
A nature whereby he might converse with us, and a nature
1 Gomb. de Relig. p. 43.

646 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
whereby he might influence us in those converses. A huraan
mouth to minister instructions to man, and a Divine power to
imprint it with efficacy.
A nature to be a pattern to us. A pattern of grace as man,
as Adam Avas to have been to his posterity. A Divine nature'
shining in the human, the image of the invisible God in the
glass ofour flesh, that he might be a perfect copy for our imita
tion;' "The image of fhe invisible God," and " the first-born
of every creature in conjunction," Col. i. 15. The virtues of the
Deity are sweetened and tempered by the union with fhe hu
manity, as the bearas of the sun are by shining through a
coloured glass, which condescends raore to the weakness of
our eye.
Thus the perfections of the invisible God breaking through
the first-born of every creature, glittering in Christ's created
state, became more sensible for contemplation by our mind, and
more imitable for conformity in our practice.
A nature to be a ground of confidence in our approach to
God A nature wherein we may behold him, and wherein we
may approach fo him. A nature for our comfort, and a nature
for our confidence. Had he been only man, he had been too
feeble fo assure us; and had he been only God, he had been
too high fo attract us; but now we are aUiired by his human
nature, and assured by his Divine, in our drawing near to hea
ven. Communion with God was desired by us, but our guilt
stifled our hopes, and the infinite excellency of the Divine
nature would have damped our hopes of speeding; but since
these two natures, so far distant, are met in a marriage knot,
we have a ground of hope, nay, an earnest that the Creator
and beheving creature shall meet and converse together.
And since our sins are expiated by the death of the human
nature in conjunction with the Divine, or guilt, upon believing,
shall not hinder us from this comfortable approach. Had he
been only man, he could not have assured us an approach fo
God; had he been only God, his justice would not have ad
mitted us to approach to hira; he had been too terrible for
guilty persons, and too holy for polluted persons to come near
to hira: but by being raade man, bis justice is terapered, and
by his being God and raan, his raercy is insured. A huraan
nature he had, one with us, that we might be related to God,
as one wifh hira.
A nature to derive all good to us. Had he not been raan,
we had had no share or part in hira; a satisfaction by him had
not been imputed to us. If he were not God, he could not
communicate to us Divine graces and eternal happiness; he
could not have had power to convey so great a good to us had
' Amyrant Moral, tom. 5. p. 468, 469.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 647
he been only man; and he could not have done it, according
to the rule of inflexible righteousness, had he been only God.
As man, he is the way of conveyance; as God, he is the
spring of conveyance. From this grace of union, and the grace
of unction, we find rivers of wafers flowing, to make glad the
city of God. Believers are his branches, and draw sap from
him as he is their Root in his human nature, and have an end
less duration of it from his Divine. Had he not been man, he
had not been in a state to obey the law; had he not been God
as well as man, his obedience could not have been valuable to
be iraputed to us.
How should this raystery be studied by us, which would
afford us both admiration and content! admiration in the in-
comprehensibleness of it; contentment in the fitness of the
Mediator. By this Avisdom of God we receive fhe props of
our faith, and the fruits of joy and peace. Wisdora consists
in choosing fit raeans, and conducting them in such a method
as raay reach with good success the variety of marks which
are aimed at. Thus has the Avisdom of God set forth a
Mediator, suited to our wants, fitted for our supplies; and
ordered so the whole affair by the union of these two natures
in the person of the Redeemer, that there could be no disap
pointment, by all the bustle hell and hellish instruraents could
raise against it.
[4.] The wisdom of God is seen in this way of redemption,
in vindicating the honour and righteousness of the law, both as
to precept and penalty. The first and irreversible design of
the law, was obedience. The penalty of the law had only
entrance upon transgression. Obedience was fhe design, and
the penalty was added to enforce the observance of the pre
cept. "Thou shalt not eat;" there is the precept: "In the
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die," Gen. ii. 17; there is
the penalty. Obedience was our debt to the law, as creatures;
punishment was due frora the law to us, as sinners. We were
bound to endure the penalty for our first transgression, but the
penalty did not cancel the bond of future obedience. The
penalty had not been, incurred without transgressing the pre
cept; yet the precept was not abrogated by enduring the
penalty. Since man so soon revolted, and by his revolt feU
uhder the threatening, the justice of the law had been honour
ed by man's sufferings, but the holiness and equity of the law
had been honoured by raan's obedience. The wisdom of God
finds out a medium to satisfy both ; the justice of the laAv is
preserved in the execution of the penalty, and the holiness of
the law is honoured in the observance of the precept.
The life of our Saviour is a conformity to the precept, and
his death is a conformfly to the penalty; the precepts are ex-

648 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
actly perforraed, and the curse punctuaUy executed, by a
voluntary observing the one, and a voluntary undergoing the
other. It is obeyed, as if it had not been transgressed, and
executed, as if it had not been obeyed.
It becarae the wisdora, justice, and holiness of God, as the
Rector of the Avorld, to exact it, Heb. ii. 10; and it becarae the
holiness of the Mediator to fulfil aU the righteousness of the
law, Rora. viii. 4; Matt. iii. 15. And thus the honour of the law
was vindicated in all the parts of it. The transgression of the
law was conderaned in the flesh of the Redeeraer, and the
righteousness of the law was fulfilled in his person. And both
these acts of obedience, being counted as one righteousness,
and iraputed to the believing sinner, render hira a subject to
the law, both in its preceptive and minatory part. By Adara's
sinful acting Ave were raade sinners, and by Christ's righteous
acting we are raade righteous. " As by one raan's disobedi
ence many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
raany be made righteous," Rora. v. 19. The law was obeyed
by hira, that the righteousness of it raight be fulfilled in us,
Rora. vni. 4. It is not fulfilled in us, or in our actions, by in
herency, but fulfilled in us by iraputation of that righteousness
which was exactly fulfilled by another. As he died for us, and
rose again for us, so he lived for us. The coramands of the
law were as well observed for us, as the threatenings of the
law were endured for us. This justification of a sinner, with
the preservation of the holiness of the law in truth, in the in
ward parts, in sincerity of intention, as well as the conformity
in action, is the wisdora of God, the gospel wisdom which
David desires to know: "Thou desirest truth in the inward
parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt raake to know wis
dom," Psal. h. 6; or as sorae render it, the hidden things of
wisdora. Not an inherent wisdora in the acknowledgments of
bis sin, Avhich he had confessed before ; but the wisdora of God
in providing a medicine, so as to keep up the holiness of the
law in the observance of it in truth, and the averting the judg
ment due to the sinner. In and hy this way methodized by
the wisdom of God, all doubts and troubles are discharged.
Naturally, if we take a vIcav of the law to behold its hohness
and justice, and then of our hearts, to see the contrariety in
thera to the coramand, and the pollution repugnant to its holi
ness; and after this cast our eyes upward, and behold a flam
ing sword edged with curses and wrath; is there any matter,
but that of terror, afforded by any of these? But when we
behold, in the life of Christ, a conformity to the mandatory part
of the law, and in the cross of Christ, a sustaining the mina
tory part of the law ; this wisdom of God gives a av ell-grounded
and rational dismissal to all the horrors that can seize upon us.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

649

[5.] The wisdom of God in redemption, is visible in mani
festing two contrary affections at the same tirae, and in one act;
the greatest hatred of sin, and the greatest love to the sinner.
In this way he punishes the sin Avithout ruining the sinner, and
repairs the ruins of the sinner Avithout indulging the sin. Here
is eternal love and eternal hatred: a conderaning the sin to
what it merited, and an advancing the sinner to Avhat he could
not expect. Herein is the choicest love and the deepest hatred
manifest; an implacableness against the sin, and a placableness
to the sinner. His hatred of sin has been discovered in other
ways: in punishing the devil without remedy; sentencing man
to an expulsion from paradise, though seduced by another; in
cursing the serpent, an irrational creature, though but a mis
guided instrument. The whole tenor of his threatenings de
clare his loathing of sin, and the sprinklings of his judgments
in the Avorld and the horrible expectations of terrified con
sciences confirm it. But what are all these testimonies to the
highest evidence that can possibly be given in the sheathing the
sword of his wrath in the heart of his Son ? If a father should
order his son to take a mean garb below his dignity, order him
to be dragged to prison, seem to throw off all 'affection of a
father for the severity of a judge, condemn his son to a horrible
death, be a spectator of his bleeding condition, withhold his
hand from assuaging his misery, regard it rather with joy than
sorrow, give hira a bitter cup to drink, and stand by to see hira
drink it off to the bottom, dregs and all, and flash frowns in his
face aU the whUe; and this not for anj''. fault of his OAvn, but
the rebellion of some subjects he undertook for, and that the
offenders might have a pardon sealed by the blood of the son,
the sufferer; all this would evidence his detestation of the re
bellion, and his affection to the rebels; his hatred fo their crime,
and his love to their welfare. This did God do; he delivered
Christ up for our offences, Rom., vin. 32; the Father gave hira
the cup, John xviii. 11; the Lord bruised hira with pleasure,
Isa. liii. 10, and that for sin; he transferred upon the shoulders
of his Son the pain Ave had merited, that the crirainal raight be
restored to the place he had forfefled. He hates the sin so as
to condemn fl for ever, and wrap it up in the curse he had
threatened; and loves the sinner believing and repenting, so as
to mount him to an expectation of a happiness exceeding fhe
first state, both in glory and perpetuity. Instead of an earthly
paradise, he lays the foundation of.a heavenly mansion, brings
forth a Aveight of glory from a weight of raisery, separates the
comfortable light of the sun from the scorching heat we had
deserved at his hands. Thus has God's hatred of sin been
manifested. He is at an eternal defiance with sin, yet nearer
in alliance wflh the sinner than he Avas before the revolt: as if
Vol. 1.-82^'

650 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
raan's raiserable fall had endeared him to the Judge. This is
the wisdora and prudence of grace wherein God has abounded,
Eph. i. 8. A wisdora in twisting the happy restoration of the
broken araity, with an everlasting curse upon that which made
the breach, hoth upon sin the cause, and upon Satan the se
ducer to it. Thus are hatred and love in their highest glory
manifested together: hatred to sin, in the death of Christ, more
than if the torments of hell had been undergone by the sinner;
and love to the sinner, more than if he had, by an absolute and
simple bounty, bestowed upon him the possession of heaven;
because the gift of his Son, for such an end, is a greater token
of his boundless affections, than a re-instating man in paradise.
Thus is the wisdora of God seen in redemption; consuming the
sin, and recovering fhe sinner.
[6.] The wisdom of God is evident in overturning the devil's
erapire, by the nature he had vanquished, and by ways quite
contrary to what that raalicious spirit could iraagine. The
devil indeed read his own doora in the first proraise, and found
his ruin resolved upon, by the means ofthe seed of the woman,
but by what seed was not so easily known to him.' And the
methods whereby it was to be brought about, was a mystery
kept secret from the mahcious devils, since it was not discover
ed to the obedient angels. He might know from Isa. liii. that
fhe Redeeraer was assured fo divide the spoil Avith the strong,
rescue a part of the lost creation out of his hands; and that
this was to be effected by raaking his soul an oft'ering for sin;
but could he imagine which way his soul Avas to be made such
an offering? He shrewdly suspected Christ, just after his inau
guration into his office by baptism, to be the Son of God. But
did he ever dream that the Messiah, by dying as a reputed
malefactor, should be a sacrifice for the expiation of the sin the
devil had introduced by his subtlety? did he ever imagine a
cross should dispossess him of his crown, and that dying groans
should wrest the victory out of his hands?
He was conquered by that nature he had cast headlong into
ruin. A woraan, by his subtlety, Avas the occasion ofour death;
and woman, by the conduct of the only wise God, brings forth
the Author ofour life, and fhe Conqueror ofour enemies. The
flesh of the old Adam had infected us, and the flesh of the new
Adam cures us. "By man came death; by man came also the
resurrection of the dead," 1 Cor. xv. 21. We are kflled by the
old Adam, and raised by the new. As araong the Israelites, a
fiery serpent gave the wound, and a brazen serpent adminis
ters -the cure. The nature that was deceived bruises the de-
1 And indeed the heathen oracles, managed by the devils, declared that they
were not long to hold their sceptre in the world, but the Hebrew child should van
quish them.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

651

ceiver, and razes up the foundations of his kingdora. Satan
is defeated by the counsels he took to secure his possession, and
loses the victory by the same means whereby he thought to
preserve it.
His tempting the Jews to the sin of crucifying the Son of
God, had a contrary success to his tempting Adam to eat of the
tree. The first death he brought upon Adam, ruined us, and
the death he brought by his instruments upon the second Adam
restored us. By a tree, if one may so say, he had triumphed
over the Avorld; and by the fruit of a tree, one hanging upon a
tree, he is discharged of his power over us: through death he
destroyed him that had the power of death, Heb. ii. 14. And
thus the devil ruins his own kingdom while he thinks to con
firm and enlarge it; and is defeated by his oavu policy, whereby
he thought fo continue the world under his chains, and deprive
the Creator of the world of his purposed honour. What deeper
counsel could he resolve upon for his own security, than fo be
instrumental in the death of him who was God, the terror of
the devfl himself, and to bring the Redeemer of the world to
expire with disgrace in the sight of a multitude of men ? Thus
did the wisdom of God shine forth in restoring us by methods
seemingly repugnant to the end he aimed at, and above the
suspicion of a subtle devil, whom he intended to baffle.
Could he imagine that we should be healed by stripes, quick
ened by death, purified by blood, croAvned by a cross, advanced
to the highest honour by the lowest humility, comforted by sor
rows, glorified by disgrace, absolved by condemnation, and
made rich by poverty? that fhe sweetest honey should at once
spring out of the belly of a dead lion, the lion of the tribe of
Judah, and out of the bosom of the living God? How won
derful is this Avisdom of God! that the seed of the woman,
born of a raean virgin, brought forth in a stable, spending his
days in affliction, raisery, and poverty, without any porap and
splendour, passing some time in a carpenter's shop, Mark vi.
3, with carpenter's tools, and afterAvards exposed to a horrible
and disgraceful death, should by this way pull down the gafes
of heU, subvert the kingdora of the devU, and be the haramer
to break in pieces that power which he had so long exercised
over the world! Thus became he the Author of our life, by
being bound for a Avhile in the chains of death, and arrived to
a principality over the raost raalicious powers, by being a pri
soner fpr us, and the anvil of their rage and fury.
[7.] The wisdom of God appears, in giving us this way
the surest ground of corafort and the strongest incentive to
obedience. The rebel is reconcfled, and the rebellion sharaed;
God is propfliated and the sinner sanctified by the same blood.
What can more contribute to our corafort and confidence, than

652 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD
God's richest gift to us? What can more inflame our love to
him, than our recovery frora death by the oblation of his Son to
misery and death for us? It does as much engage our duty as
secure our happiness. It presents God glorious and gracious,
and therefore every way fit to be trusted in regard of the inte
rest of his own glory in it, and in regard of the effusions of his
grace by it. It renders the creature obliged in the highest
manner, and so awakens his industry to the strictest and noblest
obedience. Nothing so effectual as a crucified Christ to wean
us from sin, and stifie all raotions of despair, a means, in regard
of the justice signalized in it, to make raan to hate the sin
which had ruined hira; and a raeans, in regard ofthe love ex
pressed, to raake him delight in that laAV he had violated. The
love of Christ, and therefore the love of God expressed in it,
constrains us no longer to live to ourselves, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15.
It is a ground of the highest comfort and confidence in God.
Since he has given such an evidence of bis impartial truth to
his threatening for the honour of his justice, we need not ques
tion but he Avill be as punctual to his promise for the honour of
his mercy. It is a ground of confidence in God, since he has
redeemed us in such a way as glorifies the steadiness of his
veracity, as well as the severity of his justice. We may well
trust him for the performance of his promise, since we have
experience of the execution of his threatening; his merciful
truth will as much engage him to accomplish the one, as his
just truth did to. inflict the other. The goodness which shone
forth in weaker rays in the creation, breaks out with stronger
beams in redemption. And the mercy Avhich before the ap
pearance of Christ w-as raanifested in some small rivulets, dif
fuses itself like a boundless ocean. That God, who was our
Creator, is our Redeemer, the repairer of our breaches, and the
restorer ofour paths to dweU in, and the plenteous redemption
from all iniquity, manifested in the incarnation and passion of
the Son of God, is much more a ground of hope in the Lord,
than it was in the past ages, when it could not be said, " The
Lord hath, but the Lord shafl redeem Israel from all his iniqui
ties," Psal. cxxx. 8. It is a full Avarrant to cast ourselves into
his arras.
It is also an incentive to obedience.
The comraauds of the gospel require the obedience of the
creature. There is not one precept in the gospel which inter
feres Avith any rule in the law, but strengthens it, and represents
it in its true exactness: the heat to scorch us is allayed, but the
light to direct us is not extinguished. Not the least allowance
to any sin is granted; not the least affection to any sin is indul
ged. The law is terapered by the gospel, but not nulled and
cast out of doors by it: it enacts that none but those that are

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

653

sanctified shall be glorified; that there must be grace here, if
we expect glory hereafter; that we must not presume to ex
pect an admittance to the vision of God's face, unless our souls
be clothed with a robe of holiness, Heb. xu. 14: it requires an
obedience to the whole law in our intention and purpose, and
an endeavour fo observe it in our actions; it promotes the
honour of God, and ordains a universal charity araong men; it
reveals the whole counsel of God, and furnishes men Avith the
holiest laAvs.
It presents to us the exactest pattern for our obedience. The
redeeming Person is not only a propitiation for the sin, but a
pattern to the sinner, 1 Pet. ii. 21. The conscience of man,
after the fall of Adam, approved of the reason of the law, but
by the corruption of nature, man had no strength to perform
the law. The possibUity of keeping the law by human nature,
is evidenced by the appearance and life of the Redeeraer, and
an assurance given that it shall be advanced to such a state, as
to be able to observe it: we aspire to it in this life, and have
hopes to attain it in a future; and whfle Ave are here, the actor
of our rederaption is the copy for our iraitation. The pattern to
imitate is greater than the law to be ruled by. What a lustre
did his virtues cast about the world! Hoav attractive are his
graces! With Avhat high examples for all duties has he fur
nished us out of the copy of his life !
It presents us with the strongest motives to obedience. The
grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness. Tit. ii. 11, 12.
What chains bind faster and closer than love? Here is love to
our nature, in his incarnation; love to us, though enemies, in
his death and passion; encouragements to obedience by the
proffers of pardon for former rebellions. By the disobedience
of man, God introduces his redeeming grace, and engages his
creature to more ingenuous and excellent returns than his inno
cent state could oblige him to. In his created state he had
goodness to move him; he has the same goodness now to
oblige him as a creature, and a greater love and mercy to
oblige hira as a repaired creature; and the terror of justice is
taken off, which might envenom his heart as a crirainal. In
his revolted state he had misery to discourage him; in his re
deemed state he has love to attract him. Without such a Avay,
black despair had seized upon the creature exposed to a reme
diless misery, and God would have had no returns of love from
the best of his earthly works. But if any spark of ingenuity be
left, man avUI be excfled by the efficacy of this argument.
This Avfllingness of God to receive returning sinners, is man
ifested in the highest degree; and the wiUingness of a sinner to
return to hira in duty has the strongest engageraents. He has
done as much to encourage our obedience, as to fllustrate his

654 ON 'IHE WISDOM OF GOD.
glory. We cannot conceive what could be done greater for
the salvation of our souls, and consequently Avhat could have
been done more to enforce our observance. We have a Re
deemer, as man, to copy it to us, and as God, to perfect us in
it. It would make the heart of any to tremble to wound him
that has provided such a salve for our sores, and to make grace
a warrant for rebellion: motives, capable to form rocks into a
flexibleness. Thus is the Avisdom of God seen in giving us a
ground of the surest confidence, and furnishing us with incen
tives to the greatest obedience by the horrors of wrath; by the
death, and sufferings of our Saviour.
[8.] The wisdora of God is apparent in the condition he has
settled for fhe enjoying the fruits of rederaption, and this is
faith, a wise and reasonable condition: and in the concoraitants
offl. It is so in that it is suited to raan's lapsed state and God's
glory. Innocence is not required here: that had been a con
dition impossible in its own nature after the fall. The reject
ing of mercy is now only condemning, where raercy is pro
posed: had the condition of perfection in AVorks been required,
it had rather been a condemnation than redemption. Works
are not demanded whereby the creature might ascribe any
thing to hiraself; but a condition which continues in man a
sense of his apostasy, abates all aspiring pride, and makes the
reward, of grace, not of debt: a condition whereby mercy is
owned, and the creature emptied; flesh silenced in the dust,
and God set upon his throne of grace and authority; the crea
ture brought to the lowest debasement, and Divine glory raised
to the highest pitch. The creature is brought to acknowledge
mercy, and seal to justice; fo own the holiness of God in the
hatred of sin, the justice of God in the punishment of sin, and
the mercy of God in the pardoning of sin. A condition that
despoils nature of all its pretended exceUency, and beats doAvn
the glory of raan at the foot of God, 1 Cor. i. 29. 31. It sub
jects the reason and will of raan to the wisdora and authority
of God; it brings the creature to an unreserved submission and
entire resignation. God is made the sovereign Cause of all;
the creature continued in his emptiness, and reduced to a
greater dependence upon God than by a creation; depending
upon him for a constant influx, for an entire happiness. A
condition that renders God glorious in the creature, and the
fallen creature happy in God; God glorious in his condescen
sion to man, and man happy in his emptiness before God.
Faith is made the condition of man's recovery, that the lofty
looks of man might be humbled, and the haughtiness of raan
be bowed down, Isa. ii. 11; that every towering iraagination
raight be levelled, 2 Cor. x. 5. Man raust have all frora with-

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 655
out doors; he must not hve upon himself, but upon another's
alloAvance. He raust stand to the provision of God, and be a
perpetual suflor at his gates.
A condition opposite to that which was the cause ofthe fall.
We fell from God by an unbelief of the threatening, he recovers
us by a belief of the promise: by unbelief we laid the founda
tion of God's dishonour, by faith therefore God exalts the glory
of his free grace. We lost ourselves by a desire of self-depend
ence, and our return is ordered by a way of self emptiness. It
is reasonable we should be restored in a way contrary to that
whereby avc fell: we sinned by a refusal of cleaving to God;
it is a part of Divine Avisdora to restore us in a denial of our
OAvn righteousness and strength. Man having sinned by pride,
the wisdora of God humbles hira (says one) at the very root of
the tree of knowledge, and makes him deny his own under
standing, and submit to faith, or else, for ever to lose his desired
felicity.' It is a condition suited to the common sentiment and custom
ofthe world. There is raore of belief than reason in the world.
All instructors and masters in sciences and arts, require first a
belief in their disciples, and a resignation of their understand
ings and wills to them. And it is the wisdom of God to require
that of man which his own reason makes hira yield to another
which is his fellow-creature. He therefore that quarrels with
the condition of faith, raust quarrel with all the world, since
belief is the beginning of all knowledge;^ yea, and raost of
the knowledge in the world may rather come under the title of
belief than of knowledge. For what we think we know this
day, we may find from others such arguments as may stagger
our knowledge, and make us doubt of that we thought our
selves certain of before; nay, sometimes we change our opin
ions ourselves, without any instructor; and see a reason to
entertain an opinion quite contrary to what we had before.
And if we found a general judgment of others to vote against
what we think Ave knoAV, it Avould make us give fhe less credit
to ourselves, and our own sentiments. All knowledge in the
world is only a behef depending upon the testimony or argu
ings of others; for indeed it may be said of all men, as in Job,
" We are but of yesterday, and know nothing," Job vni. 9.
Since therefore belief is so universal a thing in the world, the
wisdom of God requires that of us which every man must
count reasonable, or render himself utteriy ignorant of any
thing. It is a condflion that is common to aU religions. All
religions are founded upon a belief; unless raen did believe
future things they Avould not hope nor fear. A belief and re
signation was required in aU the idolatries of the worid; so
< Laud against Fisher, p. 5. ^ Bradward. 28.

656 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
that God requires nothing but Avhat a universal custom of fhe
world gives its suffrage to the reasonableness of Indeed justi
fying faith is not suited to the sentiments of men; but that faith
which must precede justifying, a belief of the doctrine, though
not comprehended by reason, is common fo the custom of the
world.' It is no less madness not to submit our reason to faith,
than not to regulate our fancies by reason.
This condition of faith and repentance is suited to the con
sciences of men. The law of nature teaches us, that we are
bound to believe every revelation from God, when it is made
known to us; and not only to assent fo it as true, but embrace
it as good. This nature dictates that we are as much obliged
to beheve God, because of his truth, as fo love him, because of
his goodness. Every man's reason tells him, he cannot obey
a precept, nor depend upon a proraise, unless he believes both
the one and the other. No man's conscience but wUl inform
him upon hearing the revelation of God concerning his excel
lent contrivance of redemption, and the way to enjoy it, that
it is very reasonable he should strip off all affections to sin, lie
down in sorrow, and beAvail Avhat he has done amiss against
so tender a God. Can you expect that any man that pro
mises you a great honour or a rich donative, should demand
less of you than to trust his word, bear an affection to him,
and return him kindness? Can any less be expected by a prince
than obedience from a pardoned subject and a redeemed cap
tive? If you have injured any man in his body, estate, repu
tation, would you not count it a reasonable condition for the
partaking of his clemency and forgiveness, to express a hearty
sorrow for it, and a resolution not to fall into the like crime
again? Such are the conditions ofthe gospel, suited to the con
sciences of men.
The wisdom of God appears, in that this condition Avas alone
likely to attain the end. There are but two common heads ap
pointed by God, Adam and Christ: by one we are made a living
soul, by the other a quickening Spirit: by the one we are made
sinners, by the other Ave are made righteous. Adam fell as a
head, and all his raembers, his whole issue and posterity fell
with hira, because they proceeded frora hira by natural gene
ration. But since the second Adara cannot be our head by
natural generation, there raust be some other way of ingrafting
us in him, and uniting us to him as our head, which must be
moral and spiritual ; this cannot rationally be conceived to be
by any other way than what is suitable to a reasonable crea
ture, and therefore must be by an act of the wUl, consent and
acceptance, and owning the terms setfled for an admission to
I Janeway, p. 88.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 657
that union. And this is that we properiy call faith, and there
fore called a receiving of him, John i. 12.
Noav this condition of enjoying the fruits of redemption
could not be a bare knowledge; for that is only an act of the
understanding, and does not in flself include the act of fhe will,
and so would have united only one faculty to him, not the
whole soul. But faith is an act both of the understanding and
wfll too; and principally ofthe wiU, which does presuppose an
act of the tjnderstanding; for there cannot be a persuasion in
the will, without a proposition from the -understanding. The
understanding raust be convinced of the truth and goodness of
a thing, before the wfll can be persuaded to make any motion
towards it; and therefore all the promises, invitations, and
proffers are suited to the understanding and wfll; to the under
standing in regard of knowledge, to the will in regard of appe
tite; to the understanding as true, to the will as good; to the
understanding as practical and influencing the will.
Nor could it be an entire obedience. That, as was said be
fore, would have raade the creature have sorae matter of boast
ing, and this was not suitable to the condition he was sunk into
by the fall. Besides, man's nature being corrupted, was ren
dered incapable to obey, and unablo to have one thought of a
due obedience, 2 Cor. iii. 5.
When man turned from God, and upon that was turned out
of paradise, his return was irapossible by any strength of his
own; his nature was as rauch corrupted as his re-entrance into
paradise was prohibited. That covenant, whereby he stood in
the garden, required a perfection of action and intention in fhe
observance of afl the coraraands of God: but his fall had
cracked his abUity to recover happiness by the terras and con
dition of an entire obedience; yet man being a person govern
able by a law, and capable of happiness by a covenant, if God
would restore hira, and enter into a covenant with hira, we
must suppose it to have some condition, as all covenants have.
That condition could not be works, because man's nature was
polluted. Indeed, had God reduced man's body to the dust,
and his soul to nothing, and fraraed another man, he might
have governed him by a covenant of works: but that had not
been the same man that had revolted, and upon his revolt was
stained and disabled. But suppose God had, by any transcen
dent grace, wholly purified him from the stain of his former
transgression, and restored to him the strength and ability he
had lost, might he not as easily have rebelled again ? And so
the condition Avould never have been accomplished, the cove
nant never have been perforraed, and happiness never have
been enjoyed. There must be sorae other condflion then in the
covenant God would make for man's security.
Vol. I.— S3

658 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
Now faith is the raost proper for receiving the proraise of
pardon of sin. Belief of those proraises is the first natural re
flection that a malefactor can make upon a pardon offered him,
an acceptance of it is the first consequent from that belief
Hence is faith entitled a persuasion of and embracing the pro
mises, Heb. xi. 13, and a receiving the atonement, Rom. v. 11.
Thus the wisdora of God is apparent in annexing such a
condition to the covenant, whereby man is restored, as answers
fhe end of God for his glory, the state, conscience, and neces
sity of man, and had the greatest congruity to his recovery.
[9.] This wisdom of God is raanifest in the raanner of the
publishing and propagating this doctrine of rederaption.
In the gradual discoveries of it. Flashing a great light in
the face of a sudden, is amazing; should the sun glare in our
eye in all its brig'ntness on a sudden, after we have been in a
thick darkness, it would blind us, instead of comforting us. So
great a work as this must have several digestions.
God first reveals of what seed the redeeming person should
be, fhe seed of the woraan. Gen. iii. 15; then of what nation.
Gen. xxvi. 4; then of Avhat tribe. Gen. xlix. 10, of the tribe of
Judah; then of what family, the family of David; then Avhat
works he was to do, what sufferings to undergo. The first
predictions of our Saviour were obscure. Adam could not well
see the redemption in the promise, for the punishment of death
which succeeded in the threatening; the proraise exercised his
faith, and the obscurity and bodily death, his huraility. The
proraise made to Abrahara was clearer than the revelations
made before, yet he could not fell how to reconcile his redemp
tion with his exile. God supported his faith by fhe promise,
and exercised his humUity by making hira a pilgrira,and keep
ing hira in a perpetual dependence upon him in all his motions.
The declarations to Moses are brighter than those to Abra
ham- The delineations of Christ by David in the Psalms, raore
illustrious than the forraer. And all those are exceeded by the
revelations raade to the prophet Isaiah, and the other prophets,
according as fhe age did approach wherein the Redeemer was
to enter into his office.
God wrapt up this gospel in a multitude of types and cere
monies, fitted to the infant state of the church. Gal. iv. 3. An
infant state is usually affected with sensible things; yet those
ceremonies were fitted to that great end of the gospel, which
he would bring forth in time to the world. And the wisdom of
God in them would be amazing, if Ave could understand the
analogy between every ceremony in the law and the thing sig
nified hy it; as it cannot but affect a diligent reader to observe
that little account of thera we have by the apostle Paul,
sprinkled in his epistles, and more largely in that to the He^

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 659
brew^. As the political laws of the Jews flowed from the
depth ofthe raoral law, so their ceremonial did from the depth
of evangelical counsels, and all of them had a special relation
to the honour of God, and the debasing the creature.
Though God formed the mass and matter of the world at the
first creation at once, yet his wisdom took six days' time for
the disposing and adorning it. The more illustrious truths of
God are not to be comprehended on a sudden by the weakness
of men: Christ did not declare all truths to his disciples in the
tirae of his life, because they were not able at that time to
bear them: " Ye cannot bear them now," John xvi. 12. Some
were reserved for his resurrection, others for the coming of the
Spirit; and the full discovery of all kept back for another
world. This doctrine God figured out in the law, oracled by
the prophets, and unveiled by Christ and his apostles.
The wisdom of God appeared, zn. using all proper means to
render the belief of it easy.
The most minute things that Avere to be transacted, were
predicted in fhe ancient foregoing age, long before the coming
ofthe Redeemer: the vinegar and gall offered to him upon the
cross, the parting his garments, the not breaking of his bones,
the piercing of his hands and feet, the betraying of hira, fhe
slighting of hira by the multitude, all were exactly painted and
represented in a variety of figures. There was light enough to
good men not to mistake hira; and yet not so plain, as to hin
der bad men from being serviceable to the counsels of God in
the crucifying of him when he came.
The translation of the Old Testament from the private lan
guage of the Jcavs into the most public language of fhe world;
that translation which Ave call Septuagint, from Hebrew into
Greek, sorae years before the coraing of Christ, that tongue
being raost diffused at that tirae, by reason of the Macedonian
empire raised by Alexander, and the university of Athens, to
which other nations resorted for learning and education. This
was a preparation for the sons of Japhet to dweU in the tents
of Shem. By this was the entertainment of the gospel facili
tated; when they compared the prophecies of the Old Testa
ment with the declarations of the Ncav, and found things so
long predicted before they were transacted in the public- view.
By ordering concurrent testimonies as to matter of fact, that
the matter of fact was not deniable. That there was such a
person as Christ, that his miracles were, stupendous, that his
doctrine did not incline to sedition, that he affected not worldly
applause, that he did suffer at Jerusalem, was acknowledged
by all- not a man among the greatest enemies of Christians
was found, that denied the matter of fact. And this great
truth that Christ is the Messiah and Redeemer, has been, with

660 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
universal consent, owned by ail the professors of Christianity
throughout the world. Whatever bickerings there have been
among them about some particular doctrines, they all centred
in that truth of Christ's being the Redeemer. The first publi
cation of this doctrine was sealed by a thousand miracles, and
so illustrious, that he was an utter stranger to the world that
was ignorant of them.
In keeping up some principles and opinions in the world to
facilitate the belief of this, or render raen inexcusable for reject
ing of it. The incarnation of the Son of God could not be so
strange to the world, if we consider the general belief of the
appearances' of their gods among them; that the epicureans,
and others that denied any such appearances, were counted
atheists.^ And Pythagoras was esteemed to be one, not ofthe
inferior genii and lunar demons, but one of the higher gods,
who appeared in a human body, for the curing and rectifying
mortal life.^ And himself tells Abaris the Scythian, that he
was av^paalnopSfoi, that he took the flesh of man, that men
might not be astonished at him, and in a fright fly from his
instructions. It was not therefore accounted an irrational
thing among them, that God should be incarnate. But indeed
the great stumbling-block Avas a crucified God. But had they
known the holy and righteous nature of God, the malice of
sin, the universal corruption of human nature, the first threat
ening and the necessity of vindicating the honour of the law,
and clearing the justice of God; the notion of his crucifixion
would not have appeared so incredible, since they believed the
possibihty of an incarnation.
Another principle was that universal one of sacrifices for
expiation, and rendering God propitious to man, and Avhich
was practised among all nations. I remember not any where
in this custom did not prevail; for it did, even among those
people where the Jews, as being no trading nation, had not
any comraerce; and also in Araerica, found out in these latter
ages. It was not a law of nature, no man can find any such
thing written in his own heart, but a tradition frora Adara.
Now that, araong the loss of so raany other doctrines that were
handed down from Adam to his immediate posterity, as in par
ticular that of the seed of the woman, which one would think
a necessary appendix to that of sacrificing, this latter should
be preserved as a fragment of an ancient tradition, seems to be
an act of Divine wisdora, to prepare raen for the entertainment
of the doctrine of the great Sacrifice for the expiation of the
sin of the world. And as the apostle forms his arguraent frora
the JcAvish sacrifices in the epistle to the Hebrews, for the con-
' 'E.-rti^avtiai. ^ Dionys. Halicar. Antiq. 1. 2. p. 128.
3 Jamblych. Vit. Pythag, 1. i. cap. 6. p, 44, & lib. 2. c. 19. p. 94.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 661
vincing them of the end of the death of Christ, so did the an
cient fathers make use of this practice of the heathen, to con
vince them of the same doctrine.
The Avisdom of God appeared in the time and circumstances
of the first solemn publication of the gospel by the apostles at
Jerusalem. .The relation you may read in Acts ii. from ver. 1
to 12. The Spirfl was given to the apostles on the day of pen-
tecost: a time wherein there were multitudes of Jcavs from afl
nations, not only near, but remote, that heard the great things
of God spoken in the several languages of those nations where
their habitations were fixed; and that by twelve Uliterate men,
who tAVO or three hours before knew no language but that of
their native country.
It was the custom of the Jews, that dwelt araong other
nations, at a distance frora Jerusalera, to assemble together at
Jerusalem at the feast of pentecost. And God pitched upon
this season, that there niight be witnesses of this rairacle in
many parts of the world: there were sorae of every nation
under heaven, ver. 5; that is, of that known part ofthe world,
so says the text. Fourteen several nations are mentioned; and
proselytes as well as Jcavs by birth. They are caUed devout
men, men of conscience, whose testiraony would carry weight
with it among their neighbours at their return, because of their
reputation by their religious carriage.
Again, this was not heard and seen by some of thera at one
tirae, and some at another, by some one hour, by others the
next successively, ' but all together in a solemn assembly, that
the testimony of so many Avitnesses at a time, might be more
valid, and the truth of the doctrine appear more illustrious and
undeniable. And it raust needs be astonishing to thera, to hear
that Person magnified in so miraculous a manner, who had so
lately been condemned by their countrymen as a malefactor.
Wisdom consists in the tiraing of things. And in this cir
cumstance does the wisdom of God appear, in furnishing the
apostles with the Spirit at such a time, and bringing forth such
a rairacle, as the gift of tongues, on a sudden, that every nation
niight hear in their own language the wonder of redemption,
and as witnesses at their return into their own countries report
it to others; that the credit they had, in their several places,
might facilitate the belief and entertainment of the gospel,
when the apostles or others should arrive to those several
charges and dioceses appointed for them to preach the gospel
in. Had this m.iracle been wrought in the presence only of
the inhabitants of Judea, that understood only their own lan
guage, or one or two of the neighbouring tongues, fl had been
counted by them rather a madness than a miracle. Or had
I Faucheur in loc. p. 294, 295.

662 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
they understood all the tongues which they spoke, the news
ofit had spread no further than the limits of their own habita
tions, and had been confined Avithin the narrow bounds of the
land of Judea. But now it is carried to several remote na
tions, where any of those auditors then assembled had their
residence. As God chose the time of the passover for the death of
Christ, that there might be the greatest nuraber of the inhabi
tants of the country, as witnesses of the raatter of fact, the
innocence and sufferings of Christ; so he chose the time of
pentecost for the first publishing the value and end of this blood
to the world.
Thus the evangelical law was given in a confluence of peo
ple from all parts and nations, because it was a covenant with
all nations: and the variety of languages spoken by a company
of poor Galileans, bred up at the lake of Tiberias, and in poor
corners of Canaan, without the instruction of raen for so great
a skill, raight well evidence to the hearers, that God, that
brought the confusion of languages first at Babel, did only
work that cure of thera, and combine all together at Jerusalem.
The wisdom of God is seen in the instruments he employed
in the publishing the gospel. He did not employ philosophers,
but fishermen, used not acquired arts, but infused wisdom and
courage. This treasure Avas put into and preserved in earthern
vessels, that the wisdora as well as the power of God might be
magnified. The weaker the means are which attain the end,
the greater is the skfll of the conductor of thera.
Wise princes, choose men of most credit, interest, wisdom,
and ability to be ministers of their aff'airs, and ambassadors to
others. But what were these that God chose for so great a
work, as the publishing a new doctrine to the world? What
was their quality but mean, what was their authority? Avith
out interest. What was their abUity? without eminent parts
for so great a work, but what Divine grace in a special manner
endowed them with. Nay, what was their disposition to it?
as dull and unAvieldly. Witness the frequent rebukes of their
slow-heartedness, from their Master, when he conversed in the
flesh with them. And one of the greatest of thera, so fond of
the JcAvish cereraonies and pharisaical principles, wherein he
had been more than ordinarily principled, that he hated the
Christian religion to extirpation, and the professors of it to
death. By those Avays Avhich were out of the road of human
wisdom, and would be accounted the greatest absurdity to be
practised by men that have a repute for discretion, did God
advance his wisdom. " The foolishness of God is wiser than
men," 1 Cor. i. 25. By this means it was indisputably evi
denced to unbiassed minds, that the doctrine was divine. It

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 663
could not rationaUy be imagined, that instruments destitute of
all human advantages, should be able to vanquish the world,
confound Judaism, overturn heathenism, chase away the
devils, strip thera of their temples, alienate the minds of men
from their several religions, which had been roofed in them by
education, and established hy a long succession. It could not,
I say, reasonably be imagined to be without a supernatural
assistance, a heavenly and efficacious working: whereas, had
God taken a course agreeable to the prudence of man, and used
those that had been furnished with learning, tipped with elo
quence, and armed with huraan authority, the doctrines would
have been thought to have been of a huraan invention, and to
be sorae subtle contrivance for sorae uuAvorthy and arabitious
end. The nothingness and weakness ofthe instruments mani
fest them to be conducted by a Divine power, and declare the
doctrine itself to be from heaven.
When we see such feeble instruraents proclaiming a doc
trine repugnant to flesh and blood, sounding forth a crucified
Christ to be believed in and trusted on, and declaiming against
the religion and worship under which the Roraan erapire had
long flourished; exhorting them to the conterapt of the world,
preparation for afflictions, denying themselves, and their own
honours, by the hopes of an unseen reward, things so repug
nant to flesh and blood, and these instruments concurring in
the sarae story, with an adrairable harraony in all parts, and
sealing this doctrine with their blood; can we upon all this
ascribe this doctrine to a human contrivance, or fix any lower
author ofit than the wisdom of Heaven? It is the wisdom of
God that carries on his oAvn designs in raethods raost suitable
to his own greatness, and different from the customs and modes
of men, that less of humanity and more of Divinity might
appear. The Avisdom of God appears in the ways and manner, as
well as in the instruraents of its propagation. By ways seem
ingly contrary. .You know how God had sent the Jews into
captivity in Babylon, and though he struck off their chains, and
restored them to their country, yet many of them had no mind
to leave a country wherein they had been born and bred. The
distance from the place of the original of their ancestors, and
their affection to the country wherein they were born, might
have occasjoned their embracing the idolatrous worship of the
place. Afterwards the persecutions of Antiochus scattered
raany of the Jews for their security into other nations; yet a
great part, and perhaps the greatest, preserved their religion,
and by that were obliged to corae every year to Jerusalera to
offer, and so were present at the effusion of the Spirit on the
day of pentecost, and were witnesses of the miraculous effects

664 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
of it: had they not been dispersed by persecution, had they
not resided in several countries and been acquainted with their
languages, the gospel had not so easily been diffused into seve
ral countries of the world. The first persecutions also raised
against the church propagated the gospel; the scattering ofthe
disciples inflamed their courage, and dispersed the doctrine.
Acts viii. 3. 4; according to the prophecy of Daniel, "Many
shall run to and fro, and knoAvledge shall be increased," Dan.
xii. 14. The fiights and hurryings of men should enlarge the
territories of the gospel. There was not a tribunal, but the
primitive Christians were cited to, not a horrible punishraent,
hut Avas inflicted upon thera. Treated they were as the dregs
and oft'als of mankind, as the common eneraies of the world;
yet the flaraes of fhe martyrs brightened the doctrine, and the
captivity of its professors made way for fhe throne of its em
pire. The imprisonment ofthe ark was the downfall of Dagon.
Religion grew stronger by sufferings, and Christianity taller by
injuries. What can this be ascribed to, but the conduct of a
wisdom superior to that of men and devUs, defeatingthe me
thods of human and hellish policy; thereby making the Avisdora
of this world foolishness with God? 1 Cor. iii. 19.
5. The use:
Use (1.) Of inforraation. If wisdora be an exceUency of the
Divine nature, then,
[1.] Christ's Deity raay hence be asserted. Wisdom is the
emphatic tifle of Christ in Scripture, Prov. vifl. where Wisdom
is brought in speaking as a distinct person ; ascribing counsel
and understanding, and fhe knowledge of witty inventions to
itself He is called also the Power of God, and the Wisdom
of God, 1 Cor. i. 24. And the ancients generally understood
that place. Col. ii. 3. " In whom are hid all the treasures of
Avisdom and knowledge," as an assertion of the Godhead of
Christ, in regard of the infiniteness of his knowledge; referring
wisdora to his knowledge of Divine things, and knowledge to
his understanding of all huraan things. But the natural sense
of the place seems to be this, that all wisdom and knowledge
are displayed by Christ in the gospel; and the words iv aitS,
refer either to Christ, or the raystery of God spoken of, ver. 2.
But the Deity of Christ, in regard of infinite wisdom, may be
deduced from his creation of things, and his government of
things; both which are ascribed to hira in Scripture. The first
ascribed to hira John i. 3. "All things were raade by him;"
without him was not any thing made that was made. The
second John v. 22. " The Father hath comraitted all judgraent
unto the Son;" and both put together. Col. ii. 16, 17.
Now since he has fhe governraent of tbe world, he has the
perfections necessary to so great a work. As the creation of

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

665

the world, which is ascribed to him, requires an infinite power,
so the government of the Avorld requires an infinite wisdom.
That he has a knowledge of the hearts of men was proved in
handling fhe omniscience of God. That knowledge would be
to httle purpose without wisdom to order the motions of men's
hearts, and conduct all the qualifies and actions of creatures,
to such an end as is answerable to a Avise government; we can
not think so great an employment can be wflhout an ability
necessary for it. The government of men and angels is a great
part of the glory of God; and if God should intrust the great
est part of his glory in hands unfit for so great a trust, it would
be an argument of Aveakness in God, as it is in men, to pitch
upon unfit instruments for particular charges: since God has
therefore committed to him his greatest glory, the conduct of
all things for the highest end, he has a wisdom requisite for so
great an end, which can be no less than infinite'. If then Christ
were a finite person, he would not be capable of an. infinite
communication; he could not be a subject wherein infinite wis
dom could be lodged; for the terms finite and infinite are so
distant, that they cannot comraence one another; finite can
never he changed into infinite, no more than infinite can into
finite. [2.] Hence we may assert, the right and fitness of God for
the government of the world, as he is the wisest Being.. Among
men, those who are excellent in judgment,'are accounted fittest'
to preside over and give orders to others; the wisest iri:'a city
are most capable to govern a city; or at least though ignorant
men may bear the title, yet the advice of the soundest and
skilfulest heads should prevail in all public affairs. We see in
nature that the eye guides the body, and the mind directs the
eye. Power and wisdom are the two arms of authority; wisdom
knows the end, and directs the means; power executes the
means designed for such an end.' The more splendid and
strong those are in any. the more authority results from thence,
for the conduct of others that are of an inferior orb. Now God
being infinitely excellent in both, his ability and right to the
management of the world cannot be suspected ; the whole
world is but one coramonwealth, whereof God is the monarch.
Did the governraent of the world depend upon the election of
raen and angels, where could they pitch, or where Avould they
find perfections capable of so great a work, but in the Suprerae
Wisdora? His wisdoni has already been apparent in those laws,
whereby he formed the Avorld into a civil society, and the Israel
ites into a comraonwealth: the one suited to the consciences
and reasons of all his subjects, and the other suited to the
I Amyrant, Moral. 1 tom. p. 258, 259.
Vol. I.— 84

666 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
genius of that particular nation, drawn out of the righteous
ness of the moral law, and applicable to all cases that might
arise among them in their governraent; so that Moses asserts,
that the wisdora apparent in their laws enacted by God as their
chief magistrate, would render thera faraous among other na
tions, in regard of their wisdom, as well as their righteousness,
Deut. iv. 6, 7. Also this perfection does evidence, that God
does actually govern the Avorld. It would not be a comraend-
able thing for a man to make a curious piece of clock-work,
and take no care for the orderly raotion of it. Would God dis
play so rauch of his skill in fraraing the heaven and earth, and
none in actual guidance of thera to their particular and univer
sal ends? Did he lay fhe foundation in order, and fit every
stone in fhe building, raake all things in weight and measure,
to let them afterwards run at hap hazard? would he bring forth
his power to view in the creation, and let a more glorious per
fection lie idle, when it had so large a field to move in? Infinite
wisdom is inconsistent with inactivity. All prudence does illus
trate flself in untying the hardest knots, and disposing the most
difficult affairs to a happy and successful issue. All those va
rious arts and inventions among men, Avhich lend their assist
ing hand to one another, and those various employments their
several geniuses led them to, whereby they support one an
other's welfare, are beams and instincts of Divine wisdom in
the government of the world. He that made all things in wis
dom, Psal. civ. 24, would not leave his works to act and move
only according to their own folly, and idly behold thera jumble
together, and run counter to that end he designed them for; we
must not fancy a Divine wisdom to be destitute of activity.
[3.] Here we may see a ground of God's patience. The
most impotent persons are the most impatient, when unforeseen
eraergencies arise, or at events expected by thera, when their
feeble prudence was not a sufficient raatch to contest with thera,
or prevent thera. But the wiser any man is, the more he bears
with those things which seem to cross his intentions, because
he knows he grasps the whole affair, and is sure of attaining
the end he proposes to himself; yet as a finite wisdom can have
but a finite patience, so an infinite wisdom possesses an infinite
patience. The Avise God intends to bring glory to hiraself and good to
sorae of his creatures, out of the greatest evUs that can happen
in the world; he beholds no exorbitant afflictions and mon
strous actions, but what he can dispose to a good and glorious
end, even to work together for good to them that love God,
Rom. viii. 28; and therefore does not presently fall foul upon
the actors, till he has wrought out that temporary glory to hira
self and good to his people which he designs. The times of

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 667
ignorance God winks at, tfll he had brought his Son into the
worid, and manifested his wisdom in redemption; and when
this was done, he presses men to a speedy repentance. Acts
xvii. 30; that as he forbore punishing their crimes, in order to
the displaying his wisdom in the designed redemption; so when
he had effected it, they must forbear any longer abusing his
patience. [4.] Hence appears the immutabihty of God in his decrees.
He is not destitute of a power and strength to change his own
purposes; but his infinite perfection of Avisdom is a bar to his
laying aside his eternal resolves, and forming new ones: he
resolves the end from the beginning, and his counsel stands,
Isa. xlvi. 10, stands immovable, because it is counsel. It is not
an irapotent counsel, that is subject to a dafly thwarting itself
Inconstant persons are accounted by men destitute of a due
measure of prudence. If God change his mind, it is either for
the better or the worse: if for the better, he was not wise in
his former purpose; if for the worse, he is not wise in his pre
sent resolve. No alteration can be without a reflection of
weakness upon the former or present determination. God must
either cease to be as wise as he was before, or begin to be wiser
than he was before the change; which to think or imagine is
to deny a Deity. If any man change his resolution, he is ap
prehensive of a flaw in his former purpose, and finds an incon
venience in it, Avhich moves hira to such a change; which
must be either for want of foresight in hiraself, or want of a due
consideration of the object of his counsel, neither of Avhich can
be imagined of God without a denial of the Deity. No, there
are no blots and blemishes in his purposes and promises. Re
pentance indeed is an act of wisdom in the creature; but it
presupposes folly in his former actions, which is inconsistent
with infinite perfection. Men are often too rash in promising,
and therefore what they promise in haste, they perform at
leisure, or not at all: they consider not before they vow, and
make after-inquiries whether they had best stand to it.
The only wise God needs not any after-game: as he is sove
reignly wise, he sees no cause of reversing any thing, and wants
not expedients for his own purpose; and as he is infinitely
powerful, he has no superior to hinder him from executing his
wfll, and making his people enjoy the effects of his Avisdom.
If he had a recollection of thoughts (as man has) and saw a
necessfly to mend them, he were not infinitely wise in his first
decrees. As in creation he looked back upon the several pieces
of that goodly frame he had erected, and saAV them so exact,
that he did not take up his pencil again to mend any particle
of the first draught; so his promises are made wifh such infi
nite wisdom and judgment, that what he writes is irreversible

668 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
and for ever, as the decrees of the Medes and Persians. All
the words of God are eternal, because they are the words of
righteousness and judgment; "I wUl betroth thee unto me for
ever — in righteousness and judgment," Hos. ii. 19. He is not
of a wavering and flitting discretion; ifhe threatens, he "wisely
considers what he threatens; if he promises, he wisely considers
what he promises, and therefore is immutable in both.
[5.] Hence it follows, that God is a fit object for our trust
and confidence. For God being infinitely wise, when he pro
mises any thing, he sees every thing which may hinder and
every thing which may promote the execution ofit; so that he
cannot discover any thing afterwards, that may move him to
take up after-thoughts. He has more wisdom than to promise
any thing hand over head, or any thing which he knows he
cannot accomplish. Though God, as true, be the object ofour
trust; yet God, as wise, is the foundation of our trust. We
trust him in his promise; the promise was made by raercy,
and it is performed by truth; but wisdora conducts all means
to the accomplishment of it. There are many men, whose
honesty Ave can confide in, but whose discretion we are diffi
dent of; but there is no defect either of the one or the other,
which raay scare us from a depending upon God in our con
cerns. The words of man's wisdom the apostles entitles enti
cing, 1 Cor. ii. 4, in opposition to the words of God's wisdora,
which are firm, stable, and undeniable demonstrations. As the
power of God is an encouragement of trust, because he is able
to effect; so the wisdora of God comes into the rank of those
attributes which support our faith. To put a confidence in
him, we must be persuaded, not only that he is ignorant of no
thing in the world, but that he is wise to manage the whole
course of nature, and dispose of all his creatures, for the bring
ing his purposes and his proraises to their designed perfection.
[6.] Hence appears the necessity of a public review of the
raanagement ofthe world, and of a day of judgment. As a day
of judgment may be inferred from many attributes of God; as
his sovereignty, justice, omniscience; so, among the rest, frora
this of wisdom. Hoav much of this perfection will lie unveiled
and obscure, if the sins of men be not brought to view, where
by the ordering the unrighteous actions of raen, by his direct
ing and overruling hand of providence, in subserviency to his
own purposes and his people's good, may appear in all its
glory! Without such a public review, this part of wisdora
Avill not be clearly visible; how those actions, which had a vile
foundation in the hearts and designs of men, and were forraed
there to gratify sorae base lust, arabition, and covetousness,
were, by a secret wisdora presiding over them, conducted to
amazing ends.

ON- THE WISDOM OF GOD. 669
It is a part of Divine wisdom to right itself, and convince
men of fhe reasonableness of its laws, and the unreasonable
ness oftheir contradictions to it. The execution ofthe sentence
is an act of justice; but the conviction of the reasonableness of
the sentence is an act of wisdora, clearing up the righteousness
ofthe proceeding; and this precedes, and the other follows, "to
convince all that are ungodly among them of aU their ungodly
deeds," Jude 15.' That wisdom which contrived satisfaction,
as well as that justice which required if, is concerned in right
ing the law, which was enacted by it. The wisdom of a sove
reign lawgiver is engaged not to see his law vilified and tram
pled on, and exposed fo the lusts and affronts of men, without
being concerned in vindicating the honour ofit. It would' ap
pear a folly ts enact and publish it, if there were not a resolu
tion to right and execute it.
The wisdom of God can no more associate iniquity and hap
piness together, than the justice of God can separate iniquity
from punishment. It would be defective, if it did always
tamely bear the insolences of offenders, without a time of re
mark of their crimes, and a justification of the precept rebel-
liously spurned at. He would be unwise, if he Avere unjust;
unrighteousness has no better a title in Scripture than that of
folly. It is no part of wisdora, to give birth to those laws
which he wUl always behold ineffectual, and neither vindicate
his law by a due execution of the penalty, nor right his own
authority, contemned in the violation of his law, by a just re
venge. Besides, Avhat wisdom wouhi it be for the sovereign
Judge, to lodge such a spokesman for himself as conscience in
the soul of man, if it should be ahvays found speaking, and at
length be found false in all that it speaks. There is therefore
an apparent prospect of the day of account, from the conside
ration of this perfection ofthe Divine nature.
[7.] Hence we have a ground for a raighty reverence and
veneration of the Divine majesty. Who can contemplate the
sparklings of this perfection in the variety of the works of his
hands, and fhe exact- government of all his creatures, without
a raised admiration of the excellency of his being, and a falling
'flat before him, in a posture of reverence to so great a Being?
Can we behold so great a mass of matter, digested into several
forms, so exact a harmony and temperament in all the crea
tures, the proportions of numbers and measures, and one crea
ture answering the ends and designs of another, the distinct
beauties of aU, the perpetual motion of all things without
checking one another; the variety of the nature of things, and
all actuig according to their nature with an adtnirable agree
ment; and all together like differing strings upon an instrument,
emflting diverse sounds, but all reduced fo order in one delight-

670 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
ful lesson; I say, can v/e behold all this without adrairing and
adoring the Divine Avisdom, which appears in all?
And from fhe consideration of this, let us pass to the consi
deration of his wisdoni in redemption, in reconciling divided
interests, untying hard knots, drawing one contrary out of an
other; and we must needs acknowledge that the wisdora of all
men on earth, and angels in heaven, is worse than nothing and
vanity in comparison of this vast ocean. And as we have a
greater esteem for those that invent some excellent artificial
engines; what reverence ought we to have for him that has
stamped an inimitable Avisdom upon all his works! Nature
orders us to give honour to our superiors in knowledge, and
confide in their counsels; but none ought to be reverenced as
much as God, since none equals him in wisdora.
[8.] If God be infinitely wise, it shows us fhe necessity of
our address to hira, and invocation of his narae. We are- sub
ject to mistakes, and often overseen; Ave are not able rightly to
counsel ourselves. In sorae cases all creatures are too short
sighted to apprehend the;m, and too ignorant to give advice
proper for them, and to contrive remedies for their ease; but
with the Lord there is counsel. He is great in counsel and
mighty in working, Jer. xxxii. 19; great in counsel to advise
us, mighty in working to assist us. We know not hoAV to efl'ect
a design, or prevent an expected evil. We have an infinite
wisdora to go to, that is every way skilful to raanage any busi
ness we desire, to avert any evil Ave fear, to accoraplish any
thing we commit into his hands. When we know not what to
resolve, he hath a counsel to guide us, Psal. Ixxiii. 24. He is
not more powerful to effect what is needful, than wise to direct
what is fitting. All men stand in need of fhe help of God, as
one man stands in need of the assistance of other men, and
AA'ill not do any thing Avithout advice; and he that takes advice
deserves the title of a wise man, as well as he that gives ad
vice. But no man needs so much the advice of another raan,
as all raen need the counsel and assistance of God. Neither
is any man's wit and Avisdom so far inferior to the prudence
and ability of an angel, as the wisdora of the wisest man and
the most sharp-sighted angel is inferior to the infinite wisdom of
God. We see, therefore, that it is best for us to go to the fountain,
and not content ourselves with the strearas; to beg advice from
a wisdom that is infinite and infallible, rather than from that
which is finite and fallible.
Use (2.) If wisdora be the perfection of the Divine majesty,
how prodigious is the contenipt of it in the world !
In general, ,.
AU sin strikes at tiiis attribute, and is Intone part or other a
degrading of fl: the first sin directed its V'ehora against this.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

671

As the devfls endeavoured to equal their Creator in power, so
man endeavoured to equal him in wisdora; both indeed scorned
to be ruled by his order; but raan evidently exalted himself
against the wisdom of God, and aspired to be a sharer with
him in his infinfle knowledge; would not let him be fhe only
wise God, but cherished an arabition to be his partner. Just
as if a beara were able to iraagine it might be as bright as the
sun; or a spark fancy it could be as full fraught with heat as
the whole element of fire. Man would not submit to the infi
nite wisdom of God in the prohibition of one single fruit in the
garden, when by the right of his sovereign authority he might
have granted him only the use of one. All presumptuous sins
are of this nature, they are therefore called reproaches of God.
" The soul that doeth aught presumptuously — reproacheth the
Lord," Nurab. xv. 30. All reproaches are either for natural,
moral, or intellectual defects. All reproaches of God must
imply either a weakness or unrighteousness in God. If unright
eousness, his holiness is denied; if weakness, his wisdom is
blemished. In general, all sin strikes at this perfection two ways.
As it defaces the wise workmanship of God, Every sin is
a deforming and blemishing our own souls, which, as they are
the prime creatures in the lower world, so they have greater
characters of Divine wisdom in the fabric of thera: but this
image of God is ruined and broken by sin. Though the spoil
ing of it be a scorn of his holiness it is also an affront to his
wisdora; for though his power Avas the cause of the production
of so fair a piece, yet his wisdom was the guide of his power,
and his holiness the pattern whereby he wrought it: his power
effected it, and his holiness Avas exemplified in it, but his wis
dom contrived it.
If a raan had a curious clock or Avatch, which had cost him
many years' pains and the strength of his skill fo frame it; for
another, after he had seen and considered it, to trample upon
it, and crush it in pieces, would argue a conterapt of the artifi
cer's skill. God has shown infinite art in the creation of man;
but sin unbeautifies raan, and ravishes his excellency. It cuts
and slashes the uaaage of God stamped by Divine wisdom, as
though it were an object only of scorn and contempt. The
sinner in every sin acts as if he intended fo put hiraself ih a
better posture, and in a fairer dress, than the wisdora of God
has put him in by creation.
In the slighting his laws. The laws of God are highly
rational; they are drawn from the depths ofthe Divine under
standing, wherein there is no obscurity, and no defect. As
his understanding apprehends aU things in their true reason,
so his wfll enjoins all things for worthy and wise ends. His

672 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
laws are contrived by his wisdora for the happiness of raan,
whose happiness, and the raethods to it, he understands better
than raen or angels can do. His laws being the orders of the
wisest understanding, every breach ofhis law is a flying in the
face of his wisdom. All human laws, though they are enforced
by sovereign authority; yet they are, or ought to be, in the
composing, of them, founded upon reason, and should be par
ticular applications of the law of nature to this or that particu
lar emergency. The laws of God, then, who is summa ratio,
" the highest reason," are the birth of the truest reason, though
the reason of every one of thera may not be so clear to us.
Every laAV, though it consists in an act of the will, yet does
presuppose an act of the understanding. The act ofthe Divine
understanding in framing the law, must be supposed to precede
the act of his will, in commanding the observance of that law.
So every sin against the law, is not only against the will of God
comraanding, but the reason of God contriving; and a cleaving
to our own reason, rather than the understanding or mind of
God: as if God had mistaken in making his law, and we had
more understanding to frame a better, and raore conducive to
our happiness; or as if God were not wise enough to govern
us, and prescribe what we should do, and what we should
avoid; as if he designed notour welfare, but our misfortune.
Whereas the precepts of God are not tyrannical edicts, or
acts of raere avUI, but the fruits of counsel; and therefore every
breach of thera is a real declamation against his discretion and
judgment, and preferring our own imaginations, or the sugges
tions of the devU, as our rule, before the results of Divine
counsel. While we acknowledge him wise in our opinion, we
speak him foolish by our practice, when instead of being guided
by him we avUI guide ourselves. No man will question but it
is a controlling of Divine wisdom to make alterations in his
precepts dogmatically, either to add some of their own, or ex
punge any of his. And is it not a crime of the like reflection
to alter them practically? When we will observe one part of
the law and not another part, but pick and choose where we
please ourselves, as our humours and carnal interest prompt us.
It is to charge that part of the law with folly which we refuse
to conform unto.
The more cunning any man is in sin, the more his sin is'
against Divine wisdom, as if he thought to outwit God. He
that receives the promises of God, and fhe testimony of Christ,
sets to his seal that God is true, John iii. 33. By the like
strength of argument it will undeniably follow that he that re
fuseth obedience to his precept, sets to his seal that God is fool
ish. Were they not rational, God would not enjoin thera; and
if they are rational, we are eneraies to infinite wisdom by not

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

673

complying with them. If infinite prudence has made the law,
why is not every part of fl observed? if it were not made with
the best wisdora, Avhy is any part of fl observed? If the de
facing his iraage be any sin, as being a defaraing his wisdom
in creation, the breaking his law is no less a sin, as being a dis
gracing his wisdom in his administration. It is upon this ac
count, likely, that the Scripture so often counts sinners fools,
since it is certainly inexcusable folly to contradict undeniable
and infallible wisdora; yet this is done in the least sin. And
as he that breaks one tittle of the laAV is deservedly account
ed guilty of the breach of the whole, Jaraes ii. 10; so he that
despises the least stamp of Avisdom in the rainutest part of the
law, is deservedly counted as a contemner of it, in the frame
of the whole statute book.
But in particular, the wisdom of God is affronted and in
vaded. [1.] By introducing new rules and mod6s of worship, differ
ent from Divine institutions. Is not this a manifest reflection
on this perfection of God, as though he had not , been, wise
enough to provide for his own honour, and model' his. o w'nser-
vice, but stood in need of our directions, and the: caprices' of
our brains? Sorae have observed, that it is a greater, sin :ih
worship to do what we should not, than to orait what we should
perform.' The one seems to be out of weakness, because' of
the high exactness ofthe law; and the other out of impudence,
accusing the wisdom of God of iraperfection, and controlling
it in its institutions. At best, it seeras to be an iraputation of
human bashfulness to the Supreme Sovereign; as if he had
been ashamed to prescribe all that was necessary to his own
honour,- but had left something to the ingenuity and gratitude
of men.
Man has, ever since the foolish conceit of his old ancestor
Adara, presuraed he could be as wise as God; and if he who
was created upright entertained such conceits, rauch more does
man now, under a mass of corruption so capable to foraent
thera. This has been the continual practice of men ; not so
much to reject what once they had received as Divine, but to
add something oftheir own inventions to it.
The heathens renounced not the sacrificing of beasts for the
expiation of their offences, which the old world had received
by tradition from Adam, and the new worid, after the deluge,
from Noah. But they had blended that tradition Avith rites of
theh own, and offered creatures unclean in themselves, and not
S-.to be offered to an infinitely pure Being; for the distinction
of clean and unclean was as ancient as Noah, Gen. viii. 20,
yea before. Gen. vii. 2.
. 1 .J? .'.' 1 Strong, Of tha Will.
Vol. I.— 85

674 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
So the Jews did not discard what they had received from
God, as circumcision, the passover, and sacrifices; but they
would mix a heap of heathenish rites with the ceremonies of
Divine ordination, and practise things Avhic'n he had not cora
raanded, as well as things which he had enjoined them. And
therefore it is observable, that when God taxes them with this
sin, he does not say, they brought in those things Avhich he
had forbidden into his worship; but those things which he had
not coraraanded, and had given no order for, to intimate, that
they were not to move a step without his rule: "They have
buih the high places of Tophet, which I commanded them not,
neither came it into my heart," Jer. vii. 31: and Nadab's and
Abihu's strange fire was not commanded, Lev. x. 1: so charg
ing them with impudence and rashness in adding something of
their OAvn, after he had revealed to thera the manner of his
service, as if they were as wise as God. So loath is man to
acknowledge the supremacy of Divine understanding, and be
sensible of his own ignorance.
So after the divulging of the gospel, the corrupters of reli
gion did not fling off but preserved the institutions of God, but
painted and patched them up with pagan cereraonies; imposed
their own dreams with as much force as the revelations of
God. Thus has the papacy turned the simplicity of the gos
pel into pagan pomp, and religion into politics; and revived
the ceremonial law, and raked some limbs of it out of the
grave, after the wisdom of God had rung her kneU, and
honourably interred her; and sheltered the heathenish super
stitions in Christian temples, after the power of the gospel had
chased the devils, Avith all their trumpery, from their ancient
habitations. Whence should this proceed, but from a partial atheisra, and
a mean conceit of the Divine Avisdom? As though God had
not understanding enough to prescribe the forra of his own
worship; and not wisdom enough to support it, without the
crutches of human prudence.
Human prudence is too low to parallel Divine wisdora; it is
an incompetent judge of what is fit for an infinite Majesty. It
is sufficiently seen in the ridiculous and senseless rites among
the heathens; and the cruel and devilish ones, brought frora
thera by the Jews. What work will hiiman Avisdora raake
with Divine Avorship, Avhen it Avill presurae to be the director
of it, as a raatch with the wisdora of God? Whence Avill it
take its raeasures, but frora sense, huraour, and fancy? As
though what is grateful and comely to a depraved reason,
were as beautiful to an unspotted and infinite mind. Do not
such tell the world, that they were of God's cabinet council,
since they Avill take upon them to judge, as well as Godj Avhat

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 675
is well-pleasing to hira? Where wifl it have the humility to
stop, if it has the presumption to add any one thing to revealed
modes of worship. How did God tax the Israehtes with
making idols according to their own understandings, Hos. xiu.
2; imagining their own understandings to be of a finer make
and a perfecter mould than their Creator's; and that they had
fetched more light frora the chaos -of their own brains, than
God had from eternity in his own nature! How slight avUI the
excuse be, God has not forbidden this, or that, when God shall
sUence men with the question, where, or when did I comraand
this or that! There was no addition to be made under the law
to the meanest instrument God bad appointed in his service.
The sacred perfume was not to have one ingredient more put
into it, than what God had prescribed in the composition; nor
was any raan, upon pain of death, to iraitate it; nor would
God endure, that sacrifices should be consuraed wifh any other
fire, than that which carae doAvn frohi heaven. So tender is
God of any invasions of his wisdora and authority. In all
things of this nature, whatsoever voluntary humility and re
spect to God they raay be disguised wifh, there is a swelling
of the fleshly mind against infinite understanding, which the
apostle nauseates. Col. ii. 18.
Such mixtures have not been blessed by God: as God never
prospered the mixtures of several kinds of creatures, fo form
and multiply a new species, as being a dissatisfaction with his
wisdora, as Creator; so he does hot prosper raixtures in wor
ship, as being a conspiracy against his wisdora, as a Lawgiver.
The destruction of the Jews was judged by sorae of their doc
tors to be, for preferring human traditions before the written
word;' which they ground on Isa. xxix. 13. Their fear of me
was taught by the precepts of men. The injunctions of men
were the rule of their worship, and not the prescripts of ray
law.
To conclude, such as make alterations in religion, different
from the first institution, are intolerable busy-bodies, that will
not let God alone wifh his own affairs. Vain man Avould be
wiser than his Maker, and be dabbling in that Avhich is his sole
prerogative. [2.] In neglecting means instituted by God. When men have
risings of heart against God's ordinances, they reject the coun
sel of the Lord against themselves, or in theraselves, Luke vn.
30, )J»£*»jffai'. They disannulled the wisdora of God, the spring
of his ordinances. All neglects are disregards of Divine pre
scriptions, as impertinent and unavailable fo that end for which
1 Vaisin. The Talmud takes notice, that the court of Bethany was wasted
three years before Jerusalem, because they preferred their own words before the
words of the law.

676 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
they were appointed, as not being suited to the comraon dic
tates of reason; sometimes out of a voluntary humility, such
as Peter's was, when he denied Christ's condescension to wash
his feet, John xiii. 8, and thereby judged of the comeliness of
his Master's intention and action. Such as continually neglect
the great institution of fhe Lord's supper, out of a sense of un
worthiness, are in the same rank with Peter, and do, as well
as he, fall under the blame and reproof of Christ.
Men would be saved, and use the means; but either raeans
of their own appointment, or not all the means of God's order
ing.' They would have God's wisdom and wUl condescend to
theirs, and not theirs conformed to God; as if our blind judg
ments were fittest to raake the election of the paths to happi
ness. Like Naaman, who when he was ordered by the prophet,
for the cure of his leprosy, to wash seven times in Jordan, would
be the prophet's director, and have him touch hira with his
hand: as if a patient sick of a desperate disease, should pre
scribe to his skilful physician what reraedies he should order
for his cure, and raake his own infirra reason or his gust and
palate the rule, rather than the physician's skiU.
Men's inquiries are, "Who will show us any good?" They
rather fasten upon any means, than what God has ordained.
We invert the order Divine wisdora has established, when we
would have God save us in our own way, not in his.^ It is
the same thing as if we would have God nourish us without
bread, and cure our diseases without medicines, and increase
our wealth without our industry, and cherish our souls without
his word and ordinances. It is to deraand of hira an alteration
of his raethods, and a separation of that which he has by his
eternal judgment joined together. Therefore for a man to pray
to God to save him, when he will not use the means he has
appointed for salvation, when he slights fhe word, which is the
instrument of salvation, is a conterapt ofthe wisdora of Divine
institutions. Also in omissions of prayer; when we consult not with God
upon emergent occasions, we trust more to our own wisdora
than God's, and imply, that we stand not in need of his con
duct, but have abflity to direct ourselves, and accomplish our
ends without his guidance. Not seeking God, is by the pro
phet taxed to be a reflection upon this perfection of God;
" They look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the
Lord," Isa. xxxi. 1, 2. And the like charge he brings against
thera, Hos. viii. 9. " They are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass
alone by himself," not consulting God.
[3.] In censuring God's revelations and actions, if they be
not according to our schemes. When we wiU not submit to
1 Pont. Medit. part, 3, p, 366. 2 Durant. de Tent. p. 403, 404.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

677

his plain wfll without penetrating into the unrevealed reason
ofit, nor adore his counsels without controlling thera; as if we
could correct both laAV and gospel, and frame a better method
of redemption than that of God's contriving. Thus raen slighted
the wisdora of God in the gospel, because it did not agree with
that phUosophical wisdom and reason they had sucked in by
education frora their masters, 1 Cor. i. 21, 22, contrary to their
practice in their superstitious worship; where the oracles they
thought Divine, were entertained with reverence, not wifh
dispute; and though ambiguous, were not counted ridiculous
by the worshipper. How foolish is man in this, wherein he
would be accounted wise! Adam in innocence was unfit to
control the doctrine of God, when the eye of his reason was
clear; and much more are we, since the depravation of our
nature. The revelations of God tOAver above reason in its purity;
much more above reason in its mud and earthineSs. The rays
of Divine Avisdom are too bright for our human understandings,
much more for our sinful understandings. It is base to set up
reason, a finite principle, against an infinite wisdora; rauch
baser to set up a depraved and purblind reason, against an all-
seeing and holy wisdora. If we would have a reason for all
that God speaks, and all that God acts; our wisdom must be
come infinite as his, or his wisdora becorae finite as ours.
AU the censures of God's revelations arise frora sorae preju
dicate opinions, or traditional raaxims, that have enthroned
themselves in our minds, which are raade the standard whereby
to judge of the things of God, and receive or reject thera as they
agree with or dissent frora those principles. Col. ii. 8. Hence
it was that the philosophers in the primitive times were the
greatest enemies to the gospel: and the contempt of Divine
wisdora, in making reason the supreme judge of Divine revela
tion, was the fruitful mother of the heresies in all ages spring
ing up in the church, and especially of that Socinianism, that
dafly insinuates itself into the minds of men.
This is a wrong to the Avisdora of God. He that censures
the words or actions of another, implies that he is in his cen
sure wiser than the person censured by him. It is as insup
portable to determine the fruth of God's plain dictates by our
reasoHj as it is to measure the suitableness or unsuitableness of
his actions by the humour of our wfll. We raay sooner think
to span the sun, or grasp a star, or see a gnat swaflow a levia
than, than fully understand the debates of eternity.
To this we raay refer too curious inquiries into Divine rae
thods, and intruding into those things which are not revealed.
Col. u. 18. It is to affect a wisdora equal with God, and an
ambUion to be of his cabinet council. We are not content to be

678 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
creatures, that is, to be every way below God; below him in
wisdom, as well as power.
[4.] In prescribing God's method of acting; as when we
pray for a thing without a due submission to God's will; as if
we were his counsellors, yea his tutors, and not his subjects,
and God were bound to follow our huraours, and be swayed
according to the judgraent of our ignorance; when we would
have such a raercy which God thinks not fit to give, or have it
in this raethod, which God designs to convey through another
channel. Thus we would have the only wise God take his
measures from our passions. Such a controlling of God was
Jonah's anger about a gourd, Jonah iv. 9. It displeased Jonah
exceedingly, and he was very angry.
We would direct hira how to dispose of us; as though he
that had infinite wisdora to contrive, and rear fhe excellent
fabric of the world, had not wisdom enough, without our dis
cretion, to place us in a sphere proper for his own ends, and
the use he intends us in fhe universe. All the speeches of raen
(would I had been in such an office, had such charge; would I
had such a raercy, in such a method, or by such instruments)
are intrenchments upon God's wise disposal of affairs.
This iraposing upon God is a hellish disposition, and in hell
we find it. The rich man in hell, that pretends some charity
for his brethren on earth, would direct God a way to prevent
their ruin, by sending one frora the dead to school thera, as a
more effectual means than Moses and the prophets, Luke xvi.
29, 30. It is a temper also to be found on earth: what else
was the language of Saul's saving the Amalekites' cattle
against the plain command of God, 1 Sam. xv. 15. As if God
in his fury had overshot himself, and overlooked his altar, in
depriving it of so great a booty for its service: as if it were an
unwise thing in God, to lose the prey of so raany stately catfle,
that might make the altar smoke with their entrails, and serve
to expiate the sins of the people; and therefore he Avould rec
tify that which he thought to be an oversight in God, and so
magnify his oavu prudence and discretion above the Divine.
We will not let God act as he thinks fit, but will be directing
him, and teaching hira knoAvledge, Job xxi. 22; as if God v/ere
a statue, an idol, that bad eyes and saw not, hands, but acted
not; and could he turned as an image may be, to what quarter
of the heaven we please ourselves. The Wisdom of God is
unbiassed ; he orders nothing but what is fittest for his end, and
we would have our shal Ioav brains the bias of God's acting.
And Avill not God resent such an indignity, as a reflection upon
his wisdora as well as authority, when we intimate that we
have better heafls than he, and that he coraes short of us in
understanding.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

679

[5.] In murmuring and impatience. One deraands a reason
why he has this or that cross? Why he has been deprived of
such a comfort, lost such a venture, languishes under such a
sickness, is tormented with such pains, oppressed by tyrannical
neighbours, is unsuccessful in such designs? In these, and such
like, the wisdom of God is questioned and defamed. All ira-
patience is a suspicion, if not a condemnation of the prudence
of God's methods, and would make huraan feebleness and folly
the rule of God's dealing with his creatures. This is a pre
suming to instruct God, and a reproving hira for unreasonable
ness in his proceedings, when his dealings with us do not exactly
answer our fancies and wishes; as if God, who made the world
in wisdom, wanted skiU for the management of his creatures
in it. " Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct
him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it," .fob xl. 2.
We that are not wise enough to know ourselves, and what is
needful for us, presurae to have wit enough fo guide God in his
dealing with us. The wisdora of God rendered Job more use
ful to the world by his afflictions, in making him a pattern of
patience, than if he had continued him in a confluence of all
worldly comforts, wherein he had been beneficial only in com
municating his morsels to his poor neighbours. All murmuring
is a fastening of error upon unerring wisdora.
[6.] In pride and haughtiness of spirit. No proud raan but
sets his heart as the heart of God, Ezek. xxviii. 2. The wis
dom of God has given to men divers offices, set thera in divers
places; sorae have raore honourable charges, sorae meaner.
Not to give that respect their offices and places call for, is to
quarrel with the wisdom of God, and overturn the rank and
order wherein he has placed things.
It is unfit vve should affront God in the disposal of his crea
tures, and intimate to him by our carriage that he had done
more wisely in placing another, and that he has done foolishly
in placing this or that man in such a charge. Soraetiraes men
are unworthy the place they fill; they may be set there in judg
raent to themselves and others; but the wisdom of God in his
management of things is to be honoured and regarded.
It is an infringing the wisdom of God, when Ave have a vain
opinion of ourselves, and are blind to others. When we think
ourselves monarchs, and treat others as. worms or flies in com
parison of us. He who would reduce all things to his own
honour, perverts the order of the world, and would constflute
another order than what the wisdom of God has established;
and move them to an end contrary to the intention of God, and
charges God with want of discretion and skfll.
[7.] Distrust of God's promise is an irapeachraent of his
wisdom. A secret reviUng of it, as if he had not taken due con-

680 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
sideration before he passes his word; or a suspicion ofhis power,
as if he could not accoraplish his word. We trust the physi
cian's skfll with our bodies, and the lawyer's counsel with our
estates; but are loath to rely upon God for the concerns ofour
lives.. If he be wise to dispose of us, why do we distrust him?
If we distrust hira, why do Ave embrace an opinion of his wis
dom? Unbelief also is a contradiction to the wisdora of God in the
gospel, &c.; but that I have already handled in a discourse of
the nature of unbelief.
Use (3.) Of comfort. God has an infinite wisdora to con
duct us in our affairs, rectify us in our mistakes, and assist us
in our straits. It is an inestimable privilege to have a God in
covenant with us; so wise, to comraunicate all good, to prevent
all evil; who has infinite ways to bring to pass his gracious in
tentions towards us. "How unsearchable are his judgments,
and his Avays past finding out!" Rom. xi. 33. His judgraent
or decrees are incoraprehensibly wise, and the ways of effect
ing them are as wise as his resolves effected by them. We can
as little search into his methods of acting, as we can into his
wisdom of resolving; both his judgraents and ways are un
searchable. [1.] Corafort in all straits and afflictions. There is a wis
dora in inflicting thera, and a Avisdora in reraoving them. He
is wise to suit his medicines to the humour of our disease,
though he does not to the huraour of our wills: be cannot mis
take the nature of our distemper, or the virtue of his own phy
sic. Like a skilful physician, he sometiraes prescribes bitter
potions, and soraetiraes cheering cordials, according to the
strength of the raalady, and necessity of the patient to reduce
him to health. As nothing comes from him but what is for
our good, so nothing is acted by him in a rash and temerarious
way. His wisdora is as infinite as bis goodness, and as exact
in raanaging as his goodness is plentiful in streaming out to us.
He understands our griefs, weighs our necessities, and no rerae
dies are beyond the reach of his contrivance. When our feeble
wits are bewildered in a maze, and at the end of their line for
a rescue, the remedies unknown to us are not unknown to God.
When Ave know not how to prevent a danger, the wise God
has a thousand blocks to lay in the way; when we know not
how to free ourselves from an oppressive evil, he has a thou
sand ways of relief
He knows how to tirae our crosses and his own blessings.
The heart of a wise God, as well as the heart of a wise raan,
discerns both tirae and judgraent, Eccl. viii. 5. There is as
much judgment in sending thera, as judgraent in reraoving
thera. Hoav comfortable is it to think, that our distresses, as

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

681

well as our deliverances, are the fruits of infinite wisdom! No
thing is done by him too soon or too slow; but in the true
point of tirae, with aU its due circurastances, raost conveniently
for his glory and our good. How wise is God, to bring the
glory ofour salvation out of the depths of a seeming ruin, and
make the evfls of affliction subservient to the good of the
afflicted !
[2.] In temptations; his wisdom is no less employed in per
mitting them, than in bringing them to a good issue. His
wisdom in leading our Saviour to be tempted ofthe devU, was
to fit him for our succour; and his wisdom in suffering us to be
tempted, is to fit us for his own service, and our salvation. He
makes a thorn in the flesh to be an occasion of a refreshing
grace to the Spirit, and brings forth cordial grapes from those
pricking brambles, and magnifies his grace by his wisdom,
from the deepest subtleties of hell. Let Satan's intentions be
what they wiU, he can be for us at every turn, to outwit him
in his stratagems, to baffle him in his enterprises; to raake
him instrumental for our good, where he designs nothing but
our hurt. The Lord has his methods of dehverance frora hira,
" The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of terapta
tions," 2 Pet. ii. 9.
[3.] In denials, or delays of answers of prayer. He is
gracious to hear; but he is wise to answer in an acceptable
tirae, and succour us in a day proper for our salvation, 2 Cor.
vi. 2. We have partial affections to ourselves, ignorance is
natural to us; we ask we know not what, Rora. viii. 26, be
cause we ask out of ignorance. God grants what he knows,
what is fit for hira to do, and fit for us to receive; and the
exact season wherein it is fittest for him to bestow a raercy.
As God would have us bring forth our fruit in season, so he
will send forth his mercies in season.
He is wise to suit his remedy to our condition, to time it so,
as that we shall have an evident prospect of his wisdora in it:
that more of Divine skiU, and less of huraan, raay appear in
the issue. He is ready at our caU; but he wfll not answer,
tfll he see the season fit. to reach out his hand. He is wise to
prove our faith, to humble us under the sense of our own un
worthiness, to whet our affections, to set a better estimate on
the blessings prayed for, and that he may double the blessing,
as we do our devotion: but when his wisdom sees us fit to
receive his goodness, he grants what we^ stand in need of He
is wise to choose the fittest time, and faithful to give the best
covenant mercy.
[4.] In all evils threatened to the church by her enemies.
He hdCs knowledgeito foresee them, and wisdom to disappoint
Vol. I.— 86

682 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
thera; "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the
counsel ofthe froward is carried headlong," Job. v. 13.
The church has the wisdora of God, to enter the lists with
the policy of heU. He defeated the serpent in the first net he
laid, and brought a glorious salvation out of hell's rubbish;
and is yet as skilful to disappoint the after-garae of the serpen
tine brood. The policy of hell, and the subtlety of the world,
are no better than folly with God, 1 Cor. ifl. 19. All creatures
are fools, as creatures, in coraparison with the Creator. The
angels he charges with folly, rauch raore us sinners.
Depraved understandings are not fit raates for a pure and
unblemished raind. Pharaoh, with his wisdora, finds a grave
in the sea; and Ahithophel's plots are finished in his own raur
der: he breaks the enemies by his power, and orders them by
his skiU to be a feast to his people: " Thou breakest the heads
of leviathan in pieces, and gavest hira to be raeat to the people
inhabiting the wUderness," Psal, Ixxiv. 14. The spoils of the
Egyptians' carcasses cast upon the shore served the Israelites'
necessities (or were as meat to thera;) as being a deliverance
the church raight feed upon in all ages, in a wilderness condi
tion, to raaintain their faith, the vital principle of the soul.
There is a wisdom superior to the subtleties of men, which
laughs at their follies, and has them in derision, Psal. ii. 4.
" There is no wisdora — nor counsel against the Lord," Prov.
xxi. 30. You never question the wisdom of an artist to use
his file, when he takes it into his hand: wicked instruraents
are God's axes and files; let hira alone, he has skill enough to
manage thera: God has too much affection to destroy his peo
ple, and wisdom enough to beautify them by the worst tools
he uses. He can raake all things conspire in a perfect harraony
for his own ends, and his people's good, when they see no way
to escape a danger feared, or attain a blessing wanted.
Use (4.) Is for exhortation.
[1.] Meditate on the wisdom of God in creation and gov
ernment. How little do we think of God when we behold
his works! Our sense dwells upon the surface of plants and
animals, beholds the variety of their colours, aud the progress
in their motion: our reason studies fhe qualities of thera; our
spirits seldora take a flight to the Divine wisdora which framed
them. Our senses engross our rainds frora God, that we scarce
have a thought free to bestow upon the Maker of them.
The constancy of seeing things that are common, stifles our
adrairation of God, due upon the sight of thera. How seldora
do we raise our souls as far as heaven in our views of
the order of the world, the revolutions of the seasons, the
natures of the creatures that are common among us, and

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 683
the mutual assistances they give to each other! Since God has
manifested himself in them, to neglect the consideration of
them, is to neglect the manifestation of God, and the way
whereby he has transmitted something of his perfections to our
understanding. It renders men inexcusably guifly of not glori
fying of God, Rom. i. 20, 21. We can never neglect the medi
tation of the creatures, Avifhout a blemish cast upon the Crea
tor's wisdom. As every river can conduct us to the sea, so
every creature points us to an ocean of infinite wisdom. Not
the minutest of them, but rich tracts of this may be observed in
them, and a due sense of God result irom them. They are
exposed to our view, that soraething of God may be lodged in
our minds; that as our bodies extract their quintessence for
our nourishment, so our minds may extract a quintessence for
the Maker's praise.
Though God is principally to be praised in and for Christ;
yet as grace does not raze out the law of nature, so the opera
tions of grace put not the dictates of nature to silence, nor sus
pend the homage due to God upou our inspection of his works.
God has given full testiraonies of this perfection in the heavenly
bodies, dispersing their light, and distributing their influences
to every part of the world: in fraraing men into societies,
giving them various dispositions, for the preservation of gov
ernments ; making some wise for counsel, others martial for
action; changing old empires, and raising new. Which way
soever we cast our eyes, we shall find frequent occasions to
cry out, " 0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God," Rom. xi. 33.
To this purpose, we raust not only look upon the bulk and
outside of his works, but consider frora what principles they
were raised, in what order disposed, and the exact symmetry
and proportion of their parfs. When a man comes into a city
or temple, and only considers the surface of the buUdings, they
AviU amaze his sense, but not better his understanding; unless
he considers the methods of the AVork, and the art whereby it
was erected.
This was an end for which they were created. God did
not make the worid for man's use only, but chiefly for his own
glory; for man's use to enjoy his creatures, and.for his own
glory to be acknowledged in his creatures, that we may con
sider his art in fraraing thera, and his skill in disposing them;
and not merely gaze upon the glass without considering fhe
image fl represents, and acquainting ourselves Avhose image it
is. The creatures were not made for theraselves, but for the
service of the Creator, and the service of raan. Man was not
made for himself, but for the service of the Lord that created
him He is to consider the beauty of the creation, that he may

684 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
thereby glorify the Creator. He knows in part their excellency;
the creatures theraselves do not. If therefore raan be idle and
unobservant of thera, he deprives God ofthe glory of his wis
dom, which he should have by his creatures.
The inferior creatures theraselves cannot observe it. If raan
regard it not, what becoraes of it? his glory can only be hand
ed to hira by man. The other creatures cannot be active in
struments of his glory, because they know not theraselves, and
therefore cannot render him an active praise. Man is therefore
bound to praise God for himself, and for all his creatures; be
cause he only knows himself, and the perfections of the crea
tures, and the Author both of himself and thera.
God created sueh variety to raake a report of hiraself to us;
Ave are to receive fhe report, and to reflect it back to hira. To
what purpose did he make so many things, not necessary for
the support and pleasure of our lives, but that we should be
hold hira in them, as well as in the other?
We cannot behold the wisdom of God in his own essence
and eternal idea, but by the reflection of it in the creatures; as
we cannot steadily behold the sun wifh our eye, but either
through a glass, or by reflection of the iraage ofit in the water.
God would have us raeditate on his perfections; he therefore
chose the same day wherein he reviewed his work, and rested
frora it, to be celebrated by raan for the contemplation of him.
Gen. ii. 2, 3, that we should follow his example, and rejoice as
himself did, in the frequent reviews of his wisdom and good
ness in thera. In vain would the creatures afford raatter for
this study, if they were wholly neglected.
God offers soraething to our consideration in every creature.
Shall fhe beams of God shine round about us, and strike our
eyes, and not affect our rainds? ShaU we be like ignorant chil
dren, that view the pictures, or point to the letters in a book
without any sense and meaning? How shall God have the
homage due to him from his works, if man has no care to ob
serve them? The 148th Psalm is an exhortation to this. The
view of them should often extract from us a wonder of the
like nature of that of David's, " 0 Lord, how manifold are thy
works! in wisdom hast thou made thera all," Psal. civ. 24.
The world was not created to be forgotten, nor raan created to
be unobservant of it.
If Ave observe not the Avisdora of God in the vieAVS of the
creatures, we do no more than brutes. To look upon the works
of God in the world, is no higher an act than raere aniraals
perforra. The glories of heaven, and beauties of the earth are
visible to the sense of beasts and birds. A brute beholds the
motion of a man, as it may see the wheels of a clock, but un
derstands not the inward springs of raotion; the end for Avhich

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

685

we move, or the soul that actuates us in our motion; much less
that invisible power which presides over the creatures, and
conducts their motion. If a man do no raore than this, he goes
not a step beyond a brutish nature, and may very well acknow
ledge himself, with Asaph, a foolish and ignorant beast before
God, Psal. Ixxifl. 22. The world is viewed by beasts, but the
Author of it is to be contemplated by man. Since Ave are in
a higher rank than beasts, we owe a greater debt than beasts;
not only to enjoy the creatures, as they do, but behold God in
the creatures, which they cannot do.
The contemplation of the reason of God in his works is a
noble and suitable employment for a rational creature: we have
not only sense to perceive them, but souls to mind thera. The
soul is not to be without its operation: where the operation of
sense ends, the work of the soul ought to begin. We travel
over them by our senses, as brutes; but we must pierce further
by our understandings, as men, and perceive and praise him
that lies invisible, in his visible manufactures. Our senses are
given us as servants to the soul, and our souls bestowed upon
us for the knowledge and praise of their and our comnion Cre
ator. This would be a means to increase our humflity. We should
then flag our wings, and veil our sails, and acknowledge our
own wisdom to be as a drop to the ocean, and a shadow to the
sun. We should have mean thoughts of the nothingness of
our reason, when we consider the sublimity of the Divine wis
dom. Who can seriously consider the sparks of infinite skfll
in the creature, without falling down at the feet of the Divine
Majesty, and acknowledging himself a dark and foolish crea
ture? When the Psalraist considered the heavens, the raoon
and stars, and God's ordination and disposal of thera, the use
that results from it is, " What is man, that thou art mindful of
him?" Psal. viii. 3, 4. We should no more think to match him
in prudence, or set up the spark of our reason to vie with the
sun. Our reason would more willingly submit to the revela
tion, when the characters of Divine wisdom are stamped upon
it, when Ave find his wisdom in creation incomprehensible to us.
It would help us in our acknowledgraents of God, for his
goodness to us, when we behold the wisdom of God in crea
tures below us, and how ignorant they are of what they pos
sess. It wiU cause us to reflect upon the deeper irapressions
of wisdora in the frame of our own bodies and souls, an excel
lency far superior to theirs; this would make us admire the
magnificence of his wisdom and goodness, and sound forth his
praise for advancing us in dignfly above other works of his
hands, and stamping on us, by infinfle art, a nobler image of
himself

686 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
And by such a coraparison of ourselves with the creatures
below us, we should be induced to act excellently, according
to the nature of our souls; not brutishly, according to the na
ture of the creatures God has put under our feet.
By the conteraplation of the creatures, we may receive some
assistance in clearing our knowledge in the wisdora of rederap
tion. Though they cannot of theraselves inforra us of it; yet
since God has revealed his redeeming grace, they can illustrate
some particulars of it to us. Hence the Scripture makes use
of tbe creatures to set forth things of a higher orb to us. Our
Saviour is called a Sun, a Vine, and a Lion; the Spirit likened
to a dove, fire, and water. The union of Christ and his church,
is set forth by the marriage union of Adam and Eve.
God has placed in corporeal things the iraages of spiritual,
and wrapped up in his creating wisdora the representations of
his redeeming grace: whence sorae call the creatures, natural
types of what was to be transacted in a new forraation of the
world, and allusions to what God intended in and by Christ.
The raeditation of God's wisdom in the creatures, is in part
a beginning of heaven upon earth. No doubt but there wfll
be a perfect opening of the model of Divine wisdora. Heaven
is for clearing what is now obscure, and a full discovering of
what seeras at present intricate. " In his light shall we see
light," Psal. xxxvi. 9; all the light in creation," governraent,
and rederaption. The wisdom of God in the new heavens
and the new earth, would be to little purpose, if that also Avere
not to be regarded by the inhabitants of them. As the saints
are to be restored to the state of Adam, and higher; so they
are to be restored to the eraployraent of Adara, and higher.
But his eraployraent was tp behold God in fhe creatures. The
world was so soon depraved, that God had but litfle joy in,
and raan but little knowledge of, his works.
And since the wisdora of God in creation is so little seen by
our ignorance here, would not God lose rauch of the glory of
it, if the glorified souls should lose the understanding of it
above? When their darkness shaU be expelled, and their ad
vantages iraproved; when the eye that Adara lost shall be fully
restored, and with a greater clearness; when the creature shall
be restored to its true end, and reason to its true perfection,
Rora. viii. 21, 22; when the fountains of the depths of nature
and governraent shaU be opened, knowledge shall increase,
and according to the increase of our knowledge shall the admi
ration of Divine wisdom increase also.
The Avisdom of God in creation was not surely intended to
lie wholly unobserved in the greatest part ofit; but since there
was so little tirae for the full observation of it, there will be a
tirae wherein the wisdora of God shaU enjoy a resurrection.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 687
and be fully contemplated by his understanding and glorified
creature. [2.] Study and admire the wisdom of God in redemption.
This is the duty of all Christians. We are not caUed to under
stand the great depths of philosophy; we are not called to a
skiU in the intricacies of civil government, or to understand afl
the methods of physic: but we are called to be Christians, that
is, studiers of Divine evangelical wisdom. There are first
principles to be learned; but not those principles to be rested
in, without a further progress. " Therefore leaving the prin
ciples of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection,"
Heb. vi. 1. Duties must be practised, but knowledge is not to
be neglected. The study of gospel mysteries, the harmony of
Divine truths, the sparkling of Divine wisdom, in their mutual
combination to the great ends of God's glory and man's salva
tion, is an incentive to a duty, a spur to worship, and parti
cularly to the greatest and highest part of worship, that part
which shall reraain in heaven; the admiration and praise of
God, and delight in him- If Ave acquaint not ourselves with
the impressions of the glory of Divine wisdom in it, we shall
not much regard it as worthy our observance in regard of that
duty. The gospel is a mystery ; and, as a mystery, has something
great and magnificent in it, worthy of our daily inspection ; we
shall find fresh springs of new wonders, which we shall be
invited to adore with a religious astonishment. It wUl both
raise and satisfy our longings. Who can fully reach the depths
of God manifested in the flesh? How amazing is it, and
unworthy of a slight thought, that the death of the Son of God
should purchase the happy imraortality of a sinful creature,
and the glory of a rebel be wrought by the ignominy of so great
a Person ! that our Mediator should have a nature whereby to
covenant with his Father, and a nature whereby to be a Surety
for the creature! How admirable is it, that the faUen creature
should receive an advantage by the forfeiture ofhis happiness!
How mysterious is it, that the Son of God should bow down
to death upon a cross, for the satisfaction of justice; and rise
triumphantly out ofthe grave, asa declaration, that justice was
contented and satisfied! that he should be exalted to heaven, to
intercede for us ; and at last return into the worid, to receive
us, and invest us with a glory for ever with hiraself!
Are these things worthy of a careless regard, or of a blockish
araazement? What understanding can pierce into the depths
of the Divine doctrine of the incarnation and birth of Christ,
the indissoluble union of the two natures ? What capacity is
able to measure the miracles of that wisdom, found in the
whole draught and scheme of the gospel? Does it not merit

688 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
then to be the object of our dafly meditation? How comes it to
pass then, that we are so little curious to concern our thoughts
in those wonders, that we scarce taste or sip of these delica
cies? that we busy ourselves in trifles, and consider What we
shall eat, and in Avhat fashion we shall be dressed; please our
selves with the ingeniousness of a lace or feather; admire a
moth-eaten manuscript, or sorae half-Avorn piece of antiquity;
and think our tirae ill spent in the contemplating and celebra
ting that wherein God has busied himself, and eternity is de
signed for the perpetual expressions of?
How inquisitive are the blessed angels! wifh what vigour
do they renew their daUy contemplations of it, and receive a
fresh contentment from it; still learning, and still inquiring!
1 Pet. i. 12: their eye is never off the mercy-seat; they strive to
see the bottom of it, and employ all the understanding they
have to conceive the wonders of it. Shall the angels be ravished
with it, and bend theraselves down to study it, who have but
little interest in it in coraparison of us, for whora it was both
contrived and dispensed? and shall not our pains be greater for
this hidden treasure? Is not that worthy the study of a rational
creature, that is worthy the study of the angelical? There
must indeed be pain^'; it is expressed by digging, Prov. ii. 4.
A lazy arm will not sink to the depth of a raine. The neglect
of raeditating on it is inexcusable, since it has the title and cha
racter ofthe wisdom of God.
The ancient prophets searched into it, when it was folded up
ill shadows, when they saw only the fringes of wisdom's gar
ment, 1 Pet. i. 10; and shall not we, since the sun has mounted
up in our horizon, and sensibly scattered the light ofthe know
ledge of this and the other perfections of God ? As the Jewish
Sabbath was appointed to celebrate the perfections of God, dis
covered in creation ; so is the Christian Sabbath appointed to
meditate on and bless God for the discovery of his perfections
in redemption. Let us therefore receive it according to its
worth ; let it be our only rule to walk by. It is worthy to be
valued above all other counsels; and we should never think of
it wflhout the doxology of the aposfle, " To God only wise, be
glory through Jesus Christ for ever;" that our speculations
may end in affectionate admiration and thanksgivings, for that
which is so full of wonders. What a little prospect should we
have had of God, and the happiness of man, had not his wis
dora and goodness revealed things to us! The gospel is a
marvellous light, and should not be regarded with a stupid
ignorance, and pursued with a duUer practice.
[3.] Let none of us be proud of or trust in our own wis
dom. Man by affecting wisdora out of the way of God, got a
crack in his head, which has continued five thousand years and

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 689
upwards; and ever since, our own wisdora and knowledge has
perverted us, Isa. xlvii. lo. To be guided by this, is to be
under the conduct of a blind leader, and follow a traitor and
enemy to God and ourselves. Man's prudence often proves
hurtful to him; he often accomplishes his ruin whfle he designs
his establishment, and finds his fall where he thought to setfle
his fortune : such bad eyes has human wisdom often'in its own
affa.irs. Those that have been heightened wflh a conceit of
their own cunning, have at last proved the greatest fools. God
delights to make foolish the wisdom of this world, 1 Cor. i. 20.
Thus God wrote folly upon the crafty brains of Ahithophel,
and simplicity upon the subtle projects of Herod against our
Saviour; and the devil, the prince of carnal wisdom, was be
fooled into a furthering our redemption by his own projects to
hinder it. Carnal policy, against- the prescripts of Divine wis
dom, never prospers: it is like an "ignis fatuus," which leads
men out of the way of duty, and out of the way of security,
and perverts thera into the mire, and dangerous precipices.
When Jeroboam would coin a religion to serve his interest
of state, he tore up the foundations both of his kingdom and
family. The way the Jews took to prevent a fresh invasion of
the Roraans, by the crucifying Christ, brought the judgraent
more swift upon thera, John xi. 48. There is no man ruined
here, or damned hereafter, but by his own wisdom and will.
The fear of the Lord and departure" from evil, are inconsistent
with an overweening condeit of our own wisdom; and leaning
to our own understanding, is inconsistent with a trusting in fhe
Lord with all our hearts, Prov. ni. 5- 7. It is as much a deify
ing ourselves to trust to our own wit, as it is a deifying fhe
creature, to affect or confide in it, superior to God, or equally
with him.
The true way to wisdom is to be sensible of our own folly.
If any man be wise, let him become a fool, 1 Cor. ni. 18. He
that distrusts his own guidance, wfll more securely and success
fully foUow the counsel of another in whom he confides. The
more water or any other liquor is poured out of a vessel the
more air enters. The more we distrust our OAvn wisdom, the
more capable we are of the conduct of God.
Had Jehoshaphat relied upon his own policy, he might have
founda defeat when he met Avith a deliverance; but he .dis
owned his own skifl and strength in telling God, We kno\y no,t
what to do, but our eyes are towards thee, 2 Chron. x^. 12.
Let us therefore disesteem our own understandings to esteera"
Divine. Human prudence is like a spider's web, easily blown
away, and swept down by the besom of some unexpected re
volution. God by his infinite wisdom can cross the wisdom of
man, and make a man's own prudence hang in his own light.
Vol. I.— -87

690 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
" The understanding of their prudent men shall be hid," Isa.
xxix. 14.
[4.] Seek to God for wisdom. The wisdom we have by
nature is like the weeds fhe earth brings forth without tillage.
Our wisdom since the fall is the wisdom of fhe serpent, with
out the innocence of the dove: it flows from self-love, runs into
self-interest. It is the wisdom of the flesh, and a prudence to
manage means for the contenting our lusfs. Our best wisdom
is imperfect, a raere nothing and vanity, in comparison of the
Divine, as our beings are in comparison of his essence. We
must go to God for a holy and innocent wisdom, and fill our
cisterns from a pure fountain. The wisdora that was the glory
of Soloraon, was the donation of the Most High. " If any of
you lack wisdom, let hira ask of God, that giveth to all raen
hberally, and upbraidelh not ; and it shall be given him," James
i. 5. The faculty of understanding is from God by nature; but
a heavenly light to direct the understanding is from God by
grace. Children have an understanding, but stand in need of
wise masters to rectify it, and forra judicious notions by it.
" There is a spirit in raan, and the inspiration of the Alraighty
giveth him understanding," Job xxxii. 8. We must beg of God
wisdora. The gospel is the wisdora of God; the concerns of
it great and mysterious, not to be known Avithout a new un
derstanding, 1 John V. 20. A new understanding is not to
be had but from the Creator of the first. The Spirit of God is
the searcher of the deep things of .God; the revealer of thera
to us, and the enlightener of our minds to apprehend them;
and therefore called a Spirit of Avisdom and revelation, Eph. i. 17.
Christ is raade wisdora" fo us as well as righteousness; not only
by imputation, but effusion. ' Seek to God therefore for that
wisdom which is like the sun, and not that worldly wisdom
which is like a shadow. For that wisdora whose effects are
not so outwardly glorious, but iuAvardly sweet, seek it from
him, and seek it in his word, that is the transcript of Divine
wisdom; through his precepts understanding is to be had, Psal.
cxix. 104. As fhe wisdora of raen appears in their laws, so
does the wisdora of God in his statutes.
By this raeans we arrive to a heavenly sagacity. If these
ibe<.rejected, what wisdora can be in us? A dreara and conceit
'•only. " They have rejected the Avord of the Lord, and what
.wisdom is in them?" Jer. viii. 9. Who knows how to order
any concerns as he ought, or any one faculty of his soul ?
Therefore desire God's direction in outward concerns, in per
sonal, and family, in private, and public: he has not only a
wisdom for our^aivation, but for our outward direction. He
does not merely: rguide us in the one, and then leave Satan to
' Seaman's Sermon before the parliament.

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.

691

manage us in the other. Those that go with Saul to a witch
of Etidor, go to hell for craft, and prefer the wisdom of the
hostile serpent, before the holy counsel of a faithful. Creator.
If you want health in your body, you advise with a physician;
if directions for your estate, you resort to a lawyer; if passage
for a voyage, you address to a pUot; why not much raore your
selves, your all, to a wise God. As Pliny said concerning a wise
man. Oh, sir, how many Catos are there in that wise person!
how much raore wisdom than raen or angels possess, is infi
nitely centred in the wise God !
[5.] Submit to the wisdom of God in all cases. What else
was inculcated in the first precept forbidding man fo eat of the
fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but that he
should take heed of the swelling of his mind against the wis
dora of God? It is a Avisdora incoraprehensible to flesh and
blood. We should adore it in our rainds, and resign up our
selves to it in our practice. Hoav unreasonable are repinings
against God, whereby a creature's ignorance indicts and judges
a Creator's prudence! Were God weak in Avisdora, and only
mighty in power, we might suspect his conduct. Power with
out wisdom and goodness is an unruly and ruinous thing in the
world. But God being infinite in one as well as the other, we
have no reason to be jealous of hira, and repine against his
methods: why should we quarrel with hira that we are not as
high or as wealthy as others; that we have not presently the
mercy we Avant? If he be wise, we ought to stay his tirae, and
wait his leisure, because he is a God of judgraent, Isa. xxx. IS.
Presume not to shorten the time which his discretion has fixed,
it is a folly to think fo do it. By impatience we cannot hasten
relief; we alienate him from us by debasing hira to stand at
our bar, disturb ourselves, lose the comfort ofour lives and the
sweetness of his mercy. Submission lo God we are in no case
exempted from, because there is no case wherein God does not
direct all the acts of his will by counsel. Whatsoever is drawn
by a straight rule must be right and straight; the rule that is
right in itself, is the raeasure of the straightness of every thing
else: whatsoever is wrought in the world by God, raust be
wise, good, righteous; because God is essentially wisdora, good
ness, and righteousness.
Submit to God— in his revelations.
Measure them not by reason: the truths of the gospel must
be received with a self emptiness and annihflation of the crea
ture If our reason seems to lift up itself against revelation,
because fl finds no testimony for fl in its own light; consider
how crazy it is in natural and obvious things, and therefore
sure it is not strong enough to enter into the depths of Divine
wisdom. The wisdom of God in the gospel is too great an

692 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
ocean to be contained or laded out by a cockle-shefl. It were
not infinite, if it were not beyond our finite reach; our reason
must as well stoop to his wisdora, as our wifls to his sovereign
ty. How great a vanity is it for a glow-worra to boast that it
is as full of light as the sun in the firraaraent! For reason to
leave its proper sphere, is to fall into confusion, and thicken its
own darkness. We should settle ourselves in the belief of the
Scripture, and confirra ourselves by a meditation on those many
undeniable arguments for its Divine authority; the fulfilling of
its predictions, the antiquity of the writing, the holiness of the
precepts, the heavenliness of the doctrine, the glorious effects
it has produced, and does yet produce, different from human
methods of success, and submit our reason to the voice of so
high a Majesty.
Do not be too curiously inquisitive into what is not revealed.
There is soraething hid in whatsoever is revealed. We know
the Son of God was begotten frora eternity, but how he was
begotten we are ignorant. We know there is a union of the
Divine nature with the huraan, and that the fulness of the God
head dwells in hira bodily; but the manner of its inhabitation
we are in a great part ignorant of We know God has chosen
some and refused others, and that he did it with counsel; but
the reason why he chose this man, and not that, we know not;
we can refer it to nothing but God's sovereign pleasure. It is
revealed that there will be a day wherein God shall judge the
world; but fhe particular time is not revealed. We know that
God created the world in time; but why he did not create the
world millions of years before, we are ignorant of, and our
reasons would be bewildered in their too much curiosity. If
we ask why he did not create it before, we may as well ask
Avhy he did create it then? And may not the same question be
asked, if the world had been created raillions of years before
it Avas? That he created it in six days, and not in an instant,
is revealed; but why he did not do it in a raoraent, since we
are sure he was able to do it is not revealed. Are the reasons
of a wise raan's proceedings hid from us, and shall we pre
surae to dive into the reason of the proceedings of an only wise
God, which he has judged not expedient to discover to us?
Some sparks of his wisdora he has caused to issue out, to ex
ercise and delight our rainds; others he keeps within the centre
of his own breast: Ave raust not go about to unlock his cabinet.
As we cannot reach to the utraost lines of his power, so we
cannot grasp the infiraate reasons of his Avisdora. 'We raust
StUl reraeraher, that which is finite can never be able to cora
prehend the reasons, raofives, and methods of that which is
infinite. It does not become us to be restive, because God has
not adraitted us into fhe debates of eternity. We are as little

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 693
to be curious at what God has hid, as to be careless of what
Lrod has manifested. Too great an inquisfliveness beyond our
hne IS as rauch a provoking arrogance, as a blockish neghgence
of what IS revealed is a shghting ingratitude.
Submit to God— in his precepts and raethods. Since they
are the results of infinite wisdom, disputes against thera are not
tolerable: what orders are given out by infallible Avisdom are
to be entertained with respect and reverence, though the reason
of them be not visible to our purblind minds. Shall God have
less respect from us than earthly princes, whose laws we ob
serve without being able to pierce into the exact reason of them
all? Since we know he bas not a will without an understand
ing, our observance of him raust be without repining; we raust
not think to raend our Creator's laws, and presume to judge
and condemn his righteous statutes. If the flesh rise up in
opposition, we raust cross its motions, and sUence its murmur
ings; his will should be an acceptable will fo us, because it is a
wise will in itself God has no need to impose upon us and
deceive us; he has just and righteous ways to attain his glory
and his creatures' good. To deceive us, would be to dishonour
himself and contradict his own nature. He cannot impose
false, injurious precepts, or unavailable to his subjects' happi
ness: not false, because of his truth ; not injurious, because of
his goodness: not vain, because of his Avisdom. Submit there
fore to hira in his precepts, and in his raethods too. The ho
nour of his wisdora and the interest of our happiness call for it.
Had Noah disputed with God about building an ark, and lis
tened to the scoffs of the senseless world, he had perished under
the same fate, and lost the honour of a preacher and Avorker of
righteousness. Had not the Israelites been their own enemies,
if they had been permitted to be their OAvn guides, and return
to the Egyptian bondage and furnaces, instead of a liberty and
earthly felicity in Canaan ? Had our Saviour gratified the Jews
by descending from the cross and freeing himself from the
power of his adversaries, he raight have had that faith from
them Avhich they promised him, but it had been a faith to no
purpose, because wflhout ground; they might have believed
him to be the Son of God, but he could not have been the
Saviour of the worid : his death, the great groutid and object
of faflh, had been unaccomplished, they had believed a God
pardoning wflhout offering content to his justice, and such a
faith could not have rescued them frora fafling into eternal
misery. The precepts and methods of Divine Avisdom must be
submitted to. ^ . ¦
Submfl to God — in all crosses and revolutions. Infinfle Avis
dom cannot err in any of his paths, or step the least hair's
breadth from the way of righteousness: there is the under-

694 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
Standing of God in every motion; an eye in every wheel, even
the wheel that goes over us and crushes us. We are led by
fancy more than reason : we know no more what Ave ask op
Avhat is fit for us, than the mother of Zebedee's children did,
when she petitioned Christ for her sons' advanceraent Avhen he
came into his temporal kingdora. Matt. xx. 22. The things we
desire might pleasure our fancy or appetite, but impair our
health. One man complains for want of children, but knows
not Avhether they raay prove coraforts or crosses; another for
want of health, but knows not whether the health of his body
may not prove the disease of his soul. We might lose in
heavenly things, if we possess in earthly things Avhat we long
for. God in regard of his infinite wisdom is fitter to carve out
a condition than we ourselves: our shallow reason and self-
love would wish for those things that are injurious to God, to
ourselves, to the world ; but God always chooses what is best
for his glory, and what is best for his creatures, either in regard
of theraselves, or as they stand in relation to him, or to others,
as parts of the world.
'We are in danger frora our self-love; in no danger in cora-
plying with God's wisdora; when Rachel would die if she had
no children, she had chUdren, but death with one of thera.
Gen. xxx. 1. Good men raay conclude, that whatsoever is
done by God in them or with them, is best and fittest for thera;
because by the covenant which makes over God to thera, as
their God, the conduct of his wisdom is assured to them as well
as any other attribute; and therefore, as God in every transac
tion appears as their God, so he appears as their wise Director;
and by this wisdom he extracts good out of evil, raakes the
affliction which destroys our outward comforts, consume our
inward defilements, and the waves which threatened to swallow
up the vessel, to cast it upon the shore. And when he has
occasion to manifest his anger against his people, his wisdora
directs his wrath. In judgment he has a work to do upon
Zion, and when that work is done, he punishes the fruit of fhe
stout heart of the king of Assyria, Isa. x. 12. As in the answers
of prayer he does give oftentimes above what we ask, or think,
Eph. iii. 20; so in outward concerns he does above what we
can expect, or by our short-sightedness conclude Avill be done.
Let us therefore in all things frarae our minds to the Divine
Avisdom, and say with, the psalraist, " The Lord shall choose
our inheritance and condition for us," Psal. xlvn. 4.
[6.] Censure not God in any of his ways. Can we under
stand the full scope of Divine wisdora in creation, which is
perfected before our eyes? Can Ave by a rational knowledge
walk over'the whole surface of the earth, and wade through
the sea ? Can we understand the nature of the heavens ? Are

ON THE WISDOM OF GOD. 695
^}\°^ ™°®*' °^ *® thousandth part of the particles of Divine
skill known by us, yea, or any of thera thoroughly known ?
How can we then understand his deeper methods in things
that are but of yesterday, that we have not had a time to view?
We should not be too quick or too rash in our judgments of
hira: the best that we attain to, is but feeble conjectures at the
designs of God.
As there is something hid in whatsoever is revealed in his
word, so there is something inaccessible to us in his works, as
well as in his nature and majesty. In our Saviour's act in
washing his disciples' feet, he checked Peter's contradiction,
" What I do thou knowest not now ; but thou shalt know here
after," John xiii. 7. God were not infinitely Avise if the reason
of all his acts Avere obvious to our shallowness. He is no pro
found statesraan, whose iuAvard intention can be sounded by
vulgar heads at the first act he starts in his designed method.
The wise God is in this like wise men, that have not breasts
like glasses of crystal, to discover all tliat they intend. There
are secrets of wisdom above our reach. Job xi. 6; nay, when
we see all his acts, Ave cannot see all the draughts of his skill
in them. An unskilful hearer of a musical lesson may receive
the melody with his ear, and understand nof the rarities of the
coraposition as it was Avrought by the rausician's mind. Under
the Old Testament there was more of Divine power, and less
of his wisdom apparent in his acts. As his laAvs, so his acts
were more fitted fo their sense. Under the New Testaraent
there is more of wisdom and less of poAver; as his laws, so his
acts are more fitted to a spiritual mind ; now wisdom is less
discernible than power. Our wisdora therefore in this case, as
it does in other things, consists in silence and expectation of the
end and event of a Avork. We owe that honour to God that
we do to raen wiser than ourselves, to imagine he has reason
to do what he does, though our shallowness cannot compre
hend it. We must suffer God to be wiser than ourselves, and
acknowledge that there is something sovereign in his ways not
to be measured by the feeble reed of our weak understandings.
And therefore we should acquiesce in his proceedings; take
heed Ave be not found slanderers of God, but be adorers in
stead of censurers; and lift up your hands in adrairation of
him and his Avays, instead of citing him to answer fl at our bar.
Many things in the first appearance may seera to be rash and
unjust, which in the issue appear coraely and regular. If it
had been plainly spoken before that the Son of God should die,
that a most holy Person should be crucified; it would have
seemed cruel to expose a Son to misery; unjust to inflict pun
ishment upon one that Avas no criminal; to join together
exact goodness and physical evil; that the Sovereign should

696 ON THE WISDOM OF GOD.
die for the malefactor, and the observer of the law for the
violators. of it. But when the whole design is unravelled,
what an adrairable conjunction is there of justice and raercy,
love and wisdom, which before would have appeared absurd
to the muddy reason of raan.
We see the gardener pulling up sorae delightful flowers by
the roots, digging up the earth, overwhelming it with dung;
an ignorant person would imagine him wild, out of bis wits,
and charge him with spoiling his garden. But when the spring
is arrived, the spectator wUl acknowledge his skfll in his for
mer operations.
The truth is, the whole design and methods of God are not
to be judged by us in this world; the full declaration of the
whole contexture is reserved for the other world, to make up a
part of good men's happiness in the amazing views of Divine
wisdom, as well as the other perfections of his nature. We can
no raore perfectly understand his wisdora, than we can his
mercy and justice, tUl we see the last lines of all drawn, and
the full expressions of thera; we should therefore be sober and
modest in the consideration of God's ways; his judgments are
unsearchable, and his ways past finding out. The riches of his
Avisdom are past our counting, his depths not to be fathoraed;
yet they are depths of righteousness and equity, though the
full raanifestation of that equity, the grounds and methods of
his proceedings, are unknown to us. As we are too short fully
to know God, so we are too ignorant fully to coraprehend the
acts of God: since he is a God of judgment, we should wait
till we see the issue of his works, Isa. xxx. 18; and in the
mean time, with the apostle in the text, give him the glory of
all, in the same expressions; "To God only wise, be glory,
through Jesus Christ for ever. Araen."

END OF VOLUME I.

2660

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