THIS Psalm is a description of the deplorable corruption by Na­ture of every Son of Adam, since the withering of that Common Root. Some restrain it to the Gentiles, as a Wilderness full of Bry­ars 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. 3.9. [We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.] And v. 10.11, 12. Cites part of his Psalm and other passages of Scripture for the further evidence 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. Secondly, the streams issuing from thence, they are corrupt, &c. the first in Athestical principles, the other in unworthy practices; and lays all the Evil, Tyranny, Lust and Persecutions by men, (as if the World were only for their sake) upon the neglects of God, and the Atheism cherished in their hearts.

The fool, a term in Scripture signifying a wicked man, used also by the Heathen Philosophers to signifie a vicious person, [...] as coming from [...] signifies the extinction of life in Men, Animals and Plants, so the word [...] is takenIsa. 40.7. [...] the flower fadeth Isa. 28.1., a plant that hath lost all that juyce that made it lovely and useful. So a fool is one that hath lost his Wisdom, and right notion of God and Divine things which were 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.Mais [...] and [...] put together Deut. 32.6. Oh foolish people and unwise.

* Said in his heart, that is, he thinks, or he doubts, or he wishes. The thoughts of the heart are in the nature of words to God, though not to men. Tis used in the like case of the Atheistical person, Psal. 10.11.13. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hath said in his heart thou wilt not require 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 can not rase out the thoughts of a Deity, though he endeavors to blot those Characters of God in his Soul. He hath some doubts whither 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 him self by convincing arguments to produce to the World, but he tampered with his own heart to bring it to that perswasion, and smothered in himself those notices of a Deity; which is so plain against the light of nature, that such a man may well be called a fool for it.

There is no God [...] No God] [...] non potestas Domini, Chaldae. Tis not Jehovah, which name signifies the Essence of God, as the Prime and Supream being; But Eloahia, which name signifies the Providence of God,Muis. God as a Rector and Judge. Not that he denyes the Existence of a Supream being, that Created the World, but his regarding the Creatures, his Government of the world, and consequently his re­ward of the Righteous or Punishments of the Wicked.

Cocceius.There is a threefold denyal of God, 1. Quoad exisientiam; this is absolute A­theism, 2. Quoad Providentiam, or his inspection into, or care of the things of the World, bounding him in the Heavens, 3. Quoad naturam, in regard of one or other of the perfections due to his nature.

Not owning him as the Egypti­ans called, [...]Of the denyal of the Providence of God most understand thisEugubin in cloc. not exclud­ing the absolute Atheist, as Diagoras is reported to be, nor the Sceptical Atheist, as Protagoras, who doubted whither 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 uncon­troul'd in their Lusts, which induceth men to a denyal of Providence, that there­by they might stifle those seeds of fear which infect and embitter their sinful pleasures, may as well lead them to deny that there is any such being as a God.

That at one blow, their fears may be dasht all in peices 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 dimm'd, but extinguished. What men say against Providence, because they would have no check in their Lusts, they may say in their hearts against the existence of God upon the same account; little difference between the dissenting from the one and disowning the other.

They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doth good.

He speaks of the Atheist in the singular, the fool; of the corruption issuing in the life in the plural; Intimating that though some few may choak in their hearts the sentiments of God and his Providence, and positively deny them, yet there is some­thing of a secret Atheism in all which is the fountain of the evil practices in their lives, not an utter disowning of the Being of a God, but a denyal or doubt­ing of some of the rights of his nature:Atheism ab­solute is not in all mens judge­ments, but practical is in all mens actions. The Apostle in the Romans ap­plying the later part of it to all mankind, but not the former. As the word translated cor­rupt signifies. 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 rusht, into, whereby they become as loathsome to God as putrified carcases are to men:Atheism ab­solute is not in all mens judge­ments, but practical is in all mens actions. The Apostle in the Romans ap­plying the later part of it to all mankind, but not the former. As the word translated cor­rupt signifies. Not one or two evil actions is the product of such a principle, but the whole scene of a mans life is corrupted and becomes execrable.

No man is exempted from some spice of Atheism by the depravation of his na­ture, which the Psalmist intimates, there is none that doth good: Though there are in­delible convictions of the being of a God that they cannot absolutely deny it; yet there are some Atheistical bublings in the hearts of men, which Evidence them­selves in their actions: As the Apostle, Tit. 1.16. 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 scarcly be said seriously and firmly to believe that there is a God in being, and the Apostle doth not say that they know God, but they profess to know him: True knowledge and profession of knowledge are distinct. It intimates also to us, the unreasonableness of Atheism in the Con­sequence, when men shut their eyes against the beams of so clear a sun, God re­vengeth himself upon them for their impiety, by leaving them to their own wills, lets them fall into the deepest sink and dregs of iniquity; and since they doubt of him in their hearts, suffers them above others to deny him in their works, this the Apostle discourseth at largeRom. 1.24..

The Text then is a description of mans Corruption.

1. Of his mind. The fool hath said in his heart. No better title than that of a fool is afforded to the Atheist.

2. Of the other faculties, 1. In sins of Commission, exprest by the loathsomeness [corrupt, abominable] 2. In sins of Ommission [there is none that doth good] he lays down the Corruption of the mind as the cause, the corruption of the other facul­ties as the effect.

[Page 3]I. Doct. 1 'Tis 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. 'Tis 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 mis-representation of his Nature, is natural to Man as corrupt.

III. A secret Atheism, or a partial Atheism is the Spring of all the wicked Practices in the world: The disorders of the Life spring from the ill dispositions of the Heart.

For the first, every Atheist is a Grand Fool. If he were not a Fool, he would not imagine a thing so contrary to the stream of the Universal Reason 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.

'Tis a Folly, for tho God be so Inaccessible, that we cannot know him perfectly, 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, 'tis as easie 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 own'd, 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 of those Shackles which bind other mens Consciences? Doth not the bare-fac'd Debauchery of men evidence such a setled Sentiment, or at least a careless Beleif of the truth, which lies at the root and sprouts up in such venemous branches in the World? Can mens hearts be free from that Principle wherewith their Practices are so openly depra­ved? 'Tis true, the light of Nature shines too vigorously for the Power of Man to­tally to put it out; yet loathsom Actions impair and weaken the actual thoughts and considerations of a Deity, and are like Mists that darken the light of the Sun, though they cannot extinguish it: their Consciences as a Candlestick, must hold it, though their unrighteousness obscure it, Rom. 1.18. [Who hold the Truth in Ʋnrighte­ousness.] The engraved Characters of the Law of Nature remain, though they dawb them with their muddy Lusts to make them illegible: So that since the in­consideration of a Deity is the cause of all the wickedness and extravigancies of men; and as Austin saith, the Proposition is always true, the Fool hath said in his heart, &c. and more evidently true in this age than any, it will not be unnecsseary to discourse of the Demonstrations of this first Principle.

The Apostles spent little time in urgng 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, yeild no affection to him. If there be not a God, 'tis impossible there can be one; for Eternity is Essential to the notion of a God; so all Religion would be vain, and unreasonable to pay Ho­mage to that which is not in being, nor can ever be. We must first beleive that he is, and that he is what he declares himself to be, before we can seek him, adore him, and devote our Affections to him:Heb. 11.6. 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 beleive that he is.

3. 'Tis sit, we should know why we beleive, that our Beleif 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 [Page 4] acquaintance think so. 'Tis as much as to say there is no God, when we know not why we believe there is, and would not consider the Arguments for his Ex­istence.

4. It is necessary to depress that secret Atheism which is in the heart of every man by nature. Though every visible object which offers it self to our sense, presents a Deity to our minds, and exhorts us to subscribe to the truth of it, yet there is a Root of Atheism springing up sometimes in wavering thoughts, and foolish imaginati­ons, inordinate actions, and secret wishes. Certain it is, that every man that doth not love God, denyes 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 chearfulness, there is a God, and make it his cheif care to perswade himself of it? he would perswade himself there is no God, and stifle the seeds of it in his Reason and Conscience, that he might have the greatest liberty to intertain the allurements of the Flesh.

'Tis necessary to Excite men to daily and actual considerations of God and his nature, which would be a bar to much of that wickedness which overflows in the lives of men.

5. Nor is it unuseful to those who effectually beleive and love him; Coccei Sum. Theol. c. 8. § 1. 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 justifie 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 cheifest darling, will dash their pleasures with unwelcome mixtures.

I shall further premise this.

That the folly of Atheism is evidenced by the light of Reason. Men that will not listen to Scripture, as having no counterpart of it in their Souls, cannot easily de­ny natural Reason, which riseth up on all sides for the justification of this Truth: There is a natural as well as a revealed Knowledg, 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 inferr'd,

For, 1. God in regard of his Existence is not only the discovery of Faith, but of Reason. God hath revealed not only his Being, but some sparks of his eternal Power and Godhead in his Works, as well as in his Word. Rom. 1.19, 20. God hath shew­ed it unto them, how?Aquin. in his works; by the things that are made, tis a discovery to our Reason, as shining in the Creatures; and an object of our Faith as break­ing out upon us in the Scriptures: 'tis an Article of our Faith, and an Article of our Reason. Faith supposeth natural knowledge, as Grace supposeth nature. Faith indeed is properly of things above Reason, purely depending upon Revelation: What can be demonstrated by natural light, is not so properly the object of Faith; though in regard of the addition of a certainty by Revelation it is so.

The beleif that God is, which the Apostle speaks of,Heb. 11.6. is not so much of the bare Existence of God, as what God is in Relation to them that seek to him, viz. a 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 simply a Faith of the Exist­ence of God. Cain in the time of Abel, other men in the World in the time of Enoch, beleived this as well as they: But it was a Faith joyned with the Worship of God, and desires to please him in the way of his own appointment; so that they be­leived 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 Serpents head: He that seeks to God according to the mind of God, must beleive that he is such a God that will pardon sin, and justifie a seeker of him; that he is a God of that abili­ty and will, to Justifie 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 beleive him to be thus, and he cannot seek God without a discovery of his own mind how he would be sought. [Page 5] For it is not a seeking God in any way of mans Invention, that renders him cap­able of this desired fruit of a Reward: He that beleives God as a Rewarder, must beleive the promise of God concerning the Messiah. Men under the Conscience of sin, cannot tell without a divine discovery, whither 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 meerly 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 sly in their faces, seek God or love him, without this knowledge that he is a Rewarder? Nature doth not shew any way to a sinner, how to reconcile Gods 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 Voet. Theol natural. cap. 3. § 1. p. 22. 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 beleive the being of a God.

[The Scripture ascribes a knowledge of God to all Nations in the world, Rom. 1.19. not only a faculty of knowing, if they had arguments and demonstrations; as an ignorant man in any art hath a faculty to know; but it ascribes an actual knowledge ver. 19. manifest in them, ver. 21. They knew God, not they might know him, they knew him when they did not care for knowing him: the notices of God are as intelligible to us by reason, as any object in the world is visible, he is written in every Letter.

2. We are often in the Scripture sent to take a prospect of the Creatures for a discovery of God. The Apostles drew arguments from the Topicks of nature, when they discoursed with those that owned the Scripture, Rom. 1.19. As well as when they treated with those that were ignorant of it; as Acts 14.16, 17. And among the Philoso­phers of Athens, Acts 17.27, 29. such arguments the Holy Ghost in the Apostles thought sufficient to convince men of the Existence, Unity, Spirituality and Pati­ence of God.Voet Theol. natural. cap. 3. § 1. p. 22. 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 satisfie peircing and inquisitive minds.

In Pauls account, the Testimony of the Creatures was without contradiction; God himself justifies this way of proceeding by his own example, and remits Job to the consideration of the Creatures, to spell out something of his Divine Per­fections.Job. 28.39.40. &c. Tis but one truth in Philosophy and Divinity, That which is false in one, cannot be true in another; Truth in what appearance so e­ver doth never contradict it self. 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 de­cayed worship, or the protection or deliverance of his people: Those Miracles in publishing the Gospel, indeed did demonstrate the existence of some supream Power; but they were not seals designedly affixt for that, but for the confirma­tion of that truth, which was above the ken of purblind Reason, and purely the birth of Divine Revelation: Yet what proves the Truth of any Spiritual Do­ctrine, proves also in that act the Existence of the Divine Author of it: The Reve­lation alwayes implies a Revealer, and that which manifests it to be a Revelation, manifests also the supream Revealer of it. By the same light the Sun manifests o­ther things to us, it also manifests it self. But what Miracles could rationally be supposed to work upon an Atheist, who is not drawn to a sence of the Truth pro­claimed aloud by so many wonders of the Creation?

Let us now proceed to the demonstration of the Atheists Folly.

Tis a Folly to deny or doubt of a Soveraign Being, incomprehensible in his Nature, infinite in his Essence and Perfections, independent in his Operations, who hath given Being to the whole frame of sensible and intelligible Creatures, and governs [Page 6] them according to their several natures, by an unconceivable Wisdom; who fills the Heavens with the Glory of his Majesty, and the Earth with the influences of his Goodness.

'Tis a Folly inexcusable, to renounce in this case all appeal to universal consent, and the joynt assurances of the Creatures.

Reason 1. '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 supream Creator and Governor.

1. This hath been universal.

2. It hath been constant and uninterrupted.

3. Natural and innate.

First, I. It hath been universally assented to by the Judgments and practices of all Nations in the World.

1. No Nation hath been exempt from it. All Histories of former and 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 Heathen, Turk, Jew and Christian, center without any Contention. No quarrel was ever commenced upon this score; though about other opinions Wars have been sharp and Enmities Irriconcilable; The notion of the Exi­stence of a Deity was the same in all, Indians as well as Britains; 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 differenc'd from other Creatures, so that some have rather defin'd man by animal religiosum, then animal rationale. 'Tis so twisted with Reason that a man cannot 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 snuft by a more polite Education, and that without any solemne de­bate and contention: 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 of a God: One died for asserting one God, none in the former Ages upon record hath died for asserting no God. Go to the utmost bounds of America, you may find people without some broken peices of the Law of nature, but not without this signature and stamp upon them, though they wanted commerce with other Nation; except as Savage as themselves, in whom the light of nature was as it were sunk into the Socket, who are but one remove from Brutes, who cloath 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 Supream 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 hath 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 run immediatly, without any deliberation, to their Gods, so that the notion of a Deity was as inward and setled in them as their own Souls, and indeed runs in the blood of mankind: the distempers of the understanding, cannot utterly deface it, you shall scarce find the most distracted Bedlam in his raving sits to deny a God, though he may Blaspheme and fancy himself one.

2. Nor doth the Idolatry and multiplicity of Gods in the World weaken, but confirm this universal consent. Whatsoever unworthy conceits men have had of God in all Nations, or whatsoever degrading representations they have made of him, yet [Page 7] they all concur in this, that there is a Supream Power to he ador'd. Tho 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, tho applyed to the Stars, and in part to those sordid Creatures. All the Dagons of the World establish this Truth, and fall down before it. Had not the Nations owned the Being of a God, they had never offered Incense to an Idol: Had there not been a deep impression of the Existence of a Deity, they had never exalted Creatures below themselves to the honour of Altars: Men could not so easily have been deceived by forged Deities, if they had not had a Notion of a real one. Their fondness to set up others in the place of God, evidenced a na­tural knowledg that there was one, who had a right to be worshipped. If there were not this sentiment of a Deity no man would ever have made an Image of a peice of Wood, worshipp'd it, pray'd to it, and said deliver me for thou art my God Isa. 44.17.. They applyed a general Notion to a perticular 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 Principal, though it was not applyed to a right object: While they were rational Creatures, they could not deface the Notion; yet while they were corrupt Creatures it was not difficult to apply them­selves to a wrong object from a true principle. A blind man knows he hath a way to go as well as one of the clearest sight, but because of his blindness he may miss the way and stumble into a Ditch. No man would be impos'd upon to take a Bristol Stone instead of a Diamond, if he did not know that there were such things as Diamonds in the World: nor any man spread forth his hands to an Idol, if he were altogether without the sense of a Deity. Whether it be a false or a true God men apply to, yet in both, the natural sentiment of a God is evidenc'd; all their mistakes were grafts inserted in this Stock, since they would multiply gods ra­ther than deny a Deity.

Charron de la Sagesse Livr. 1. Cha. 7. p. 43. 44. How should such a general submission be entered into the 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, combination or conspiracy to deceive, or a mutual intelligence, but every one finds it in his climate, yea in himself.Gassend. Phys. § 1. lib. 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. People would never have given the Title of a God to men or Brutes, had there not been a pre­existing and unquestioned perswasion, that there was such a Being, how else should the Notion of a God come into their minds, the Notion that there is a God must be more ancient.

3. Whatsoever disputes there have been in the World, this of the existence of God was never the subject of contention. All other things have been questioned. What Jar­rings were there among Philosophers about natural things, into how many parties were they split, with what animosities did they maintain their several judgments? but we hear of no solemn Controversies about the Existence of a Supream Being: this never met with any considerable contradiction: no Nation, that hath put o­ther things to question, would ever suffer this to be disparaged, so much as by a publick doubt.Amyrant des Religion p. 50. We find among the Heathen contentions about the Nature of God and the number of gods; some asserted an innumerable multitude of gods, some affirmed him to be subject to birth and death, some affirmed the intire 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 concurr'd 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, profest a certainty in this. The question was not whether there was a First Cause, but why it was.Gassend. Phys. § 1. l [...]b 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. 'Tis much the same thing, as the disputes about the Nature and matter of the Heavens, the Sun and Planets, tho there be great diversity of Judgments, yet all agree that there are Heavens, Sun, Planets; so all the Contentions among men about the Nature of God, weaken not, but rather confirm, that there is a God, since there was never a publick formal de­bate about his Existence. Those that have been ready to pull out one anothers [Page 8] eyes for their dissent from their judgments, sharply censured one anothers senti­ments, envied the births of one anothers wits, alwayes shook hands with an unani­mous consent in this; never censured one another for being of this perswasion, ne­ver called it into question; as what was never controverted among men professing Christianity, but acknowledged by all, though contending about other things, has reason to be judged a certain Truth belonging to the Christian Religion; so what was never subjected to any Controversy, but acknowledged by the whole World, hath reason to be imbraced as a Truth without any doubt.

4. This Ʋniversal Consent is not prejudiced by some few Dissenters. History doth not reckon twenty profest Atheists in all Ages in the compass of the whole World:Gassend. Phys. § 1. lib. 4. cap. 7. p. 282. 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 down-right denyers of the Existence of God, but rather because they disparaged the Deities commonly worshipped by the Nations where they lived, as being of a clearer reason to discern, that those qualities, vulgarly attributed to their gods, as lust and luxury, wantonness and quarrels, 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 loyns of Adam? not so much as one grain of ashes is to all that were ever turned 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 hundred men of those millions disapprove of them, when not their reason, but their folly and base interest, perswades them to dislike them and dispute against them?Gassend. ibid. p. 290. 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 joynt consent of the World? Add this too, that if those that are reported to be Atheists had had any considera­ble reason to step aside from the common perswasion of the whole world, 'tis a wonder it met not with entertainment by great numbers of those, who, by rea­son of their notorious wickedness, and inward disquiets, might reasonably be thought to wish in their hearts that there were no God. 'Tis 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 vanish'd 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 humane Nature? What is the general dictate of Nature is a certain Truth. 'Tis impossible, that Nature can naturally and universally lie. And therefore those that ascribe all to Nature, and set it in the Place of God, contradict themselves, if they give not credit to it in that which it universally affirms.Cicero. 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 possible, that a falsity should be a perswasion spread through all Nations, engraven upon the minds of all men, men of the most towr­ing, and men of the most creeping understanding; that they should consent to it in all places, and in those places, where the Nations have not had any known com­merce with the rest of the known World? A Consent not settled by any Law of Man to constrain People to a belief of it: And indeed 'tis 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 tryed and exa­mined by a great number of knowing Goldsmiths, and hath past the test of all their touch-stones? what excess of folly would it be for him to deny it to be true gold, if it had been tryed by all that had skill in that metal in all Nations in the World?

Secondly, 2. It hath been a constant and uninterrupted consent. It hath been as Ancient as the first age of the World; no man is able to mention any time, from the beginning of the World, wherein this Notion hath not been universally owned; tis a old as man-kind, and hath run along with the course of the Sun, nor can the date be fixed lower than that.

1. First, In all the changes of the World, this hath been maintained. In the over­turnings of the Government of States, the alteration of Modes of Worship this hath stood unshaken. The reasons upon which it was founded were in all Revolu­tions of time accounted satisfactory and convincing, nor could absolute Atheism in the changes of any Laws ever gain the favour of any one Body of people to be established by a Law. When the Honour of the Heathen Idols was laid in the dust, this suffered no impair. The being of one God was more vigorously owned, when the unreasonableness of multiplicity of Gods was manifest; and grew taller by the detection of counterfeits. 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 meer inventions, hath not been able to con­sume this. The discovery of all other Impostures, never made this by any society of men to be suspected as one. It will not be easy to name any Imposture that hath walked perpetually in the world without being discovered, and whipped out by some Nation or other. Falsities have never been so universally and constantly own­ed without publick controul and question. And since the world hath detected many errors of the former age, and learning been increased, this hath been so far from being dimm'd, 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 dasht 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 profligate persons that have been in the world since the fall of man, should not have rooted out this principle, and dispostest 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 obli­ligation against the Interest of the Flesh, if it had been free for men to discharge themselves of it? No man, as far as corrupt nature bears sway in him, is willing to live contrould.

The first Man, would rather be a God himself than under one:Gen. 3.5. Why should men continue this Notion in them, which shackled them in their vile inclinations, if it had been in their power utterly to deface it? If it were an Imposture, how comes it to pass that all the wicked ages of the world could never discover that to be a cheat, which kept them in continual alarums? 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,Gen. 3.9. and by the same reason 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 disturbers 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 setled 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 of the Soul must be dissolved before it be rooted out, nor can it be extinct whiles the Soul endures.

3. Let it be considered also by us that own the Scripture, that the Devil deems it [Page 10] impossible to root out this sentiment. It seems to be so perpetually fixed, that the De­vil did not think fit to tempt man to the denial of the Existence of a Deity, but per­swaded him to beleive he might ascend to that Dignity and become a God himself, Gen. 3.1. 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 perswades our first Parents to be Gods themselves. And in all stories both Ancient and Modern, the Devil was never able to Tincture mends minds, with a professed denial of the Deity, which would have opened a door to a world of more wickedness than hath been acted, and took away the bar to the breaking out of that evil, which is naturally in the hearts of men, to the greater prejudice of human societies. He wanted not malice to 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 himself in several places of the ignorant world as a God, but never was able to overthrow the opinion of the being of a God: The impressions of a Deity were so strong as not to be struck out by the malice and power of Hell.

What a folly is it then in any to contradict or doubt of this Truth, which all the pe­riods of time have not been able to wear out; which all the Wars and Quarrels of men with their own Consciences have not been able to destroy; which Ignorance and De­bauchery, its two greatest Enemies, cannot weaken; which all the falsehoods and er­rors, which have reigned in one or other part of the world, have not been able to ban­ish; which lives in the consents of men in spight of all their wishes to the contrary, and hath grown stronger and Shone clearer by the improvements of natural reason?

3. Natural and innate; which pleads strongly for the perpetuity of it. Tis natural tho some think it not a Principle writ in the heart of man;Pink. Eph. 6. pag. 10. 11. tis so natural that e­very man is born with a restless instinct to be of some kind of Religion or other, which implies some object of Religion. The impression of a Deity is as common as rea­son, and of the same age with reason.King. en Jonah pag. 16. Tis a Relique of knowledg 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;Amyrant des Religious pag. 6. 5. 8. 9. else how could those people who were unknown to one another, separate by Seas and Mounts, differing in various customes and manner of living, had no mutual intelligence one with another, light upon this as a common Sentiment, if they had not been guided by one uniforme reason in all their minds, by one nature common to them all: though their Clymates be different, their tempers and constitutions various, their imaginations in somethings 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 setled perswa­sion. So that the Notion of a God seems to be twisted with the nature of man, and is the first natural branch of Common reason, or upon either the first inspection of a man into himself and his own state and constitution, or upon the first sight of any external visible object. Nature within man, and nature without man agree upon the first meeting together to form this Sentiment, that there is a God. Tis as 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 my self 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 confest by all, that there is a Law of nature writ upon the hearts of men, which will direct them to commendable actions, if they will attend to the writ­ing in their own Consciences. This Law cannot be considered without the notice of a Law-giver. For tis 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 enclined to them; man knows he never planted this principle of Reluctancy in his own Soul; he can never be the cause of that, which he cannot be friends with. If he were the cause of it, why doth he not rid himself of it? No man would endure a thing that doth frequently mo­lest and disquiet him if he could casheir it. Tis therefore sown in man by some hand more powerful than man, which riseth so high and is rooted so strong, that all the force [Page 11] that man can use cannot pull it up. If therefore this principle be natural in man, and the Law of Nature be natural, the Notion of a Law-giver must be as natural, as the Notion of a Printer or that there is a Printer is obvious upon the sight of a stamp imprest: 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 saithCha [...]le [...] tis like Let­ters carved upon the bark of a young plant which grows up together with us and the longer it grows the Letters are more legible.

This is the ground of this universal consent, and why it may well be termed na­tural.

This will more evidently appear to be natural because,

1. This consent could not be by meer Tradition.

2. Nor by any mutual intelligence of Governors to keep people in aw, which are two things the Atheist pleads, the first hath no strong foundation, and that other is as absurd and foolish as it is wicked and abominable.

3. Nor was it fear first introduced it.

1. It could not be my meer Tradition. Many things indeed are entertained by posterity which their Ancestors delivered to them, and that out of a common re­verence to their Fore-Fathers, and an opinion that they had a better prospect of things than the increase of the corruption of suceeding 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 Worlds Existence, his own state? We may resonably 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 untouch'd, but by a small number? whatsoever Tradition the first Man left besides this, is lost, and no way recoverable, but by the Revelation God hath made in his Word.

How comes it to pass this of a God is longer liv'd, than all the rest which we may suppose Man left to his immediate descendents? How come men to retain the one, and forget the other? What was the reason this surviv'd 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 thousand 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 limited? Why were not men as negligent to transmit this of his Existence as that of his Nature? No reason can be rendred 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 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 Sentiments of the former.

I cannot think of above one which may be called a Tradition, which indeed was kept up among all Nations, viz. Sacrifices, which could not be natural but institu­ted: What ground could they have in Nature, to imagin that the blood of Beasts could expiate and wash off the guilt and stains of a rational Creature? Yet they [Page 12] had in all places (but among the Jews, and some of them only) lost the knowledg of the reason and end of the Institution, which the Scripture acquaints us was to ty­pifie and signifie 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 meer intention and figment of the first Man? Had there been no reason for it, this Posterity would soon have found out the weakness of its Foundation: What advantage had it been to him to transmit so great a falshood 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 Descendents, as so grosly to deceive them, and be so con­trary to the simplicity and plainness which appears in all things nearest their Ori­ginal.

2. Neither was it by any mutual Intelligence of Governours among 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.

I. It is unaccountable how this should come to pass. It must be either by a joynt As­sembly of them, or a mutual Correspondence. 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? humane Histories are utter­ly silent in it, And the Scripture, the antientest 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 by such vast Seas have this mutual Converse? How could those who were different in their Customs and Manners, agree so unanimously together in one thing to gull the People? If there had been such a Correspondence between the Governours of all Nations, what is the reason some Nations should be unknown to the world till of late times? How could the business be so secretly managed, as not to take Vent, and Issue in a discovery to the World? Can reason suppose so many in a joynt Conspiracy, and no mans Conscience in his life under sharp Afflictions, or on his death bed, when Conscience is most awakened, constrain him to reveal openly the Cheat that beguil'd the World? How came they to be so uanimous in this Notion, and to differ in their Rites almost in every Country? why could they not a­gree in one Mode of Worship throughout all the World, as well as in this universal Notion? If there were not a mutual intelligence, it can not be conceived how in every Nation such a state-Engineer should rise up with the same trick to keep people in aw. What is the reason we cannot find any Law in any one Nation to constrain men to the beleif of the Existence of a God, since politick Stratagems have been often fortified by Laws? Besides, such men make use of Principles received to effect their Contrivances, and are not so impolitick as to build designes upon Principles that have no Foundation in nature: Some Heathen Law-givers have pretended a converse with their Gods to make their Laws be received by the people with a great­er veneration, 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 designe. 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 Ancientest History in the World) is represented without any fear of God.Gen. 10.9. Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. An Invader and Oppressor of his Neighbors, 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 flood,) built also Idolatry with them. And erected a new Worship, and was so far from strengthing 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 of the World; the Ancientest Idol being at Babylon, and supposed to be first invented by this Person: Whence by the way per­haps [Page 13] Rome is in the Revelations called Babylon, with respect to that similitude of their Saint-Worship, to the Idolatry first set up in that place.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 Religion can be without an ob­ject of Worship. 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 entred into the minds of people by any trick of theirs.

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 absur'd to ascribe it to any humane de­vice, if there were not prevailing Arguments to constrain the consent. Besides, how is it possible they should deceive themselves? 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 credible they should be frighted by that wherewith they knew they beguiled others? No man satisfying his pleasures would impose such a deceipt upon himself o render and make himself more miserable than the Creatures he hath dominion over.

2. It is unaccountable how it should indure 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 a State-Engine and introduced by some Politick 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 successful as to deceive the whole world for many ages: Impostures pass not free through the whole world without Examination and discovery; Falsities have not been universally and constantly owned without con­troul and question. If a cheat imposeth upon some Towns and Countries, he will be found out by the more peircing enquiries 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 meer 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.Fotherby a Theomastix, p. 64. It cannot be found that a trick of State should always beguile men of the most piercing insights, as well as the most credulous: That a few crafty men should befool all the wisemen in the world; and the world lie in a beleif of it and never like to be freed from it. What is the reason the succeeding Politicians never knew this Stratagem, since their Maxims are usually handed to their Successors?And there is not a Richlieu but leaves his Axi­oms to a Maza­rine.

This perswasion of the Existence of God, ows not it self to any Imposture or subtelty of Men: If it had not been agreable to common Nature and Reason, it could not so long have born sway. The imposed yoke would have been cast off by Multitudes; Men would not have charged themselves with that which was attended with consequences displeasing to the Flesh, and hindred them from a full swing of their rebellious Passions; such a shackle would have mouldred of it self, or been broke by the extravigances humane nature is enclin'd unto: The wickedness of men without question, hath prompted them to endeavour to unmask it, if it were a Cosenage, but could never yet be so successful as to free the world from a perswasion, or their own Consciences from the tincture of the Existence of a Deity. It must be therefore of an ancienter Date than the Craft of States-men, and descend into the world with the first appearance of humane nature. Time, which hath rectified many Errors, im­proves this Notion, makes it shock 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 humane [Page 14] Author that first insinuated it into the beleifs of men.

3. Nor was it Fear first introduced it. Fear is the Consequent of Wickedness. As Man was not created with any inherent 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 of the Being of a D [...]ity was the cause of this Fear, after his sense of angring 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 it was beleived to be existent, and not only so, but Offended: For God as existent only, is not the Object of Fear or Love; 'tis 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 much as by any other Name. Neither of those names were proper to insinuate Fear; neither was Fear the first Prin­ciple that made the Heathens worship a God; they offered Sacrifices out of Grati­tude to some, as well as to others out of Fear; the fear of Evils in the world, and the hopes of Releif 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 Perswasion of Remedy from him, for the averting those Evils that rendred them Adorers of a God: If they had not had preexistent 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:Gassend. Phys. sect. 1. l. 4. c. 2. p. 291. 292. When you hear men calling upon God in a time of affrighting Thunder, you cannot imagin that the fear of Thunder did first introduce the Notion of a God, but implies that it was before apprehended by them, or stampt upon them, though their Fear doth at present actuate that Beleif, and engage them in a present Exercise of Piety: and whereas the Scripture saith the fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom, or of all Religion;Pro. 9.16. Psal. 111.10. 'tis 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 per­swasion of the world and against himself and so much of God as is manefest in him and every manRom. 1.19.?

Jupiter est quodcunque vides, &c.II. It is a folly to deny that which all Creatures or all things in the World manifest. Let us view this in Scripture since we acknowledge it, and after consider the arguments from natural reason.

The Apostle resolves it, Rom. 1.19, 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 without excuse: They know or might know, by the things that were made, the Eternity and power of God; their sence might take a Circuit about every object, and their minds collect the being and som­thing of the perfections of the Deity: The first discourse of the mind upon the sight of a delicate peice of workman-ship, is the Conclusion of the being of an Artificer and the admiration of his skill and industry. The Apostle doth not say, the in­visible things of God are beleived, or they have an opinion of them, but they are seen and clearly seen: They are like Cristal glasses which give a clear representa­tion of the Existence of a Deity, like that Mirrour reported to be in a Temple in Arcadia, which represented to the Spectator, not his own face, but the Image of that Deity which he Worshipped.

The whole world is like a looking-glass, which whole and entire represents the Image of God, and every broken peice of it, every little shred of a Creature doth the like, not only the great ones, Elephants and the Leviathan, but Ants, Flies, Worms, whose bodies rather then names we know: The greater Cattle and the Creeping things Gen. 1.24. Not naming there any intermediate Creature, to direct us to view him in [Page 15] the smaller Letters, as well as the greater Characters of the World. His name is Glorious and his Attributes are excellent in all the Earth, Psal. 8.1. in every Creature, as the glory of the Sun is in every beam and smaller flash; he is seen in every Insect, in every Spire of grass: The voice of the Creator is in the most contemptible Creature:Banes in Aquin. Par. 2. Qu. 2. Artic. 2. pa. 78. Col. 2. 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, Psal. 104.2. or as some render the word, a Skin, whereby is signified, that Heaven is as an open book, which was Anciently made of the skins of beasts, that by the knowledge of them we may be taught the knowledge of God. Where Scripture was not revealed the world served for a witness of a God; what ever 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 publick Preachers of this Doctrin: The breath of God sounds to all the World through those Organ-pipes. His Being is visible in their Existence, his Wisdom in their frame, his Power in their motion, his Goodness in their usefulness:For their voice goeth to the end of the Earth, Psal. 19.1, 2. 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 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 Jobs 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.Job. 31.26.27. Tis evident a man may as well doubt whither there be a Sun when he sees his beams guilding the Earth, as doubt whither 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, 1. In their production. The declaration of the Existence of God was the chief end for which they were Created, that the Notion of a Supream and Independent Eternal Being, might easier incur into the active understanding of man from the ob­jects of sensedispersed in every corner of the World, that he might pay a homage and devotion to the Lord of all, Isa. 40.12, 13, 18, 19. &c. Have you not under­stood from the foundation of the Earth, tis 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 Atome, as well as every Star, at the first meeting whispers this in our Ears, I have a Creator, I am witness to a Deity; who ever saw Statues or Pictures but presently thinks of a Statuary and Limner? Who beholds Garments, Ships or Houses, but understands there was a Weaver, a Carpenter, an Architect?Philo. ex Petav. Theolo. Dog. Tom 1. li. 1. cap. 1, pa. 4. somewhat changed. 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 somthing perfectly good: that which is chief in any kind is the cause of all of that kind. Fire which is most hot is the cause of all things which are hot. There is some being therefore which is the cause of all that Perfection, which is in the Creature; and this is God. Aquin. 1 qu. 2. Artic. 3.] All things that are, demonstrate something from whence they are. All things have a contracted perfection and what they have is Communicated to them. Perfections are parcelled out among several Creatures. Any thing that is imper­fect cannot exist of it self. 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 somthing perfect to exist before it; our eye sees the streams, but our understanding ris­eth to the head: as the eye sees the shadow, but the understanding informs us whi­ther it he the shadow of a man, or of a beast.

God hath given us Sense to behold the objects in the World, and Understanding to reason his Existence from them; the understanding cannot conceive a thing to have made it self; that is against all reason.Rom. 1.20. As they are made they speak out a Maker; and can­not [Page 16] be a trick of chance, since they are made with such an immense Wisdom, that is too big for the grasp of all humane understanding. Those that doubt whither the Existence of God be an implanted Principle, yet agree that the effects in the world lead to a supream and universal cause: And that if we have not the knowledge of it rooted in our Natures, yet we have it by discourse, since by all Masters of rea­son a Processus in Infinitum must be accounted impossible in subordinate causes.

This will appear in several things.

First, I. The World and every Creature had a beginning. The Scripture Ascertains this to us;Gen. 1. By Faith we un­derstand that the worlds were framed by the word of God &c. David who was not the first man gives the praise to God of his being curiously wrought, &c. Psal. 139.14.15. God gave 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.Heb. 11.3.

Tis 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 the world of Stars and the world of Spirits, and Souls: We do not waver in it or doubt of it as the Heathen did in their disputes, we know they are the workman­ship of the true God, of that God we adore, not of false Gods: By his Word, with­out any instrument or engin, as in earthly S [...]ructures; of things which do not ap­pear, without any preexistent matter, as all Artificial works 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 it self: Every effect hath a cause.

Daille 20. Serm. Psa. 102.26. pa. 13. 14. The World was not Eternal or from Eternity. The matter of the world cannot be Eternal: Matter cannot subsist without form, nor put on any form without the action of some cause, this cause must be in being before it acted; that which is not cannot act. The cause of the world must necessarily exist before any matter was en­dued with any form; that therefore cannot be Eternal before which another did subsist; if it were from Eternity it would not be subject to mutation: If the whole was from Eternity why not also the parts, what makes the changes so visible then, if Eternity would exempt it from mutability?

1. Time cannot be infinite, and therefore the World not Eternal; Daille ut Supra. 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, Animals and Plants could not be from Eternity. Petar. Theo. Dogmat. tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pag. 15. 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 propagation 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 some died: Now the natural condition of generation is, that a man doth not generate a man, nor a Sheep a Lamb, as soon as ever it self is brought into the World, but get strength and vigour by degrees, and must arrive to a certain stated age before 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 Mothers 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 conceived as having one part before another: But that perpetuity of Nativities is [Page 17] always after some time, wherein it could not be for the weakness of age: If no man then can conceive a propagation from Eternity, there must be then a beginning of Generation in time, and consequently the Creatures were made in time.

To express [...] in the words of one of our own. Wolscley of Atheism pa. 4 [...].[If the World were Eternal, it must have been in the same posture as it 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 our selves 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 bewil­dred, and cannot return into a right way of Conception 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 unlose the knot. We must come to something, that is first in every kind, and this first must have a cause, not of the same kind, but Infi­nite and Independent; otherwise men run into unconceivable 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 beginning, 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,Petav. ut supr. p. 10. that cannot be, for he that hath no beginning hath no end; or must spring out of the Earth as Plants and Trees do: That cannot be: Why should not the Earth pro­duce men to this day, as it doth Plants and Trees? He was therefore made; and whatsoever is made hath some cause that made it, which is God.Damason If the World were uncreated it were then immutable, but every Creature upon the Earth is in a continual flux, always changing: If things be mutable, they were Created, if Cre­ated they were made by some Author; whatsoever hath a beginning, must have a maker, if the World hath a beginning, there was then a time when it was not; it must have some cause to produce it. That which makes is before that which is made, and this is God.

Secondly, II. Which will appear further in this proposition, No Creature can make it self: The world could not make it self.

If every man had a beginning, every man then was once nothing; he could not then make himself, because nothing cannot be the cause of something, Psa. 100.3. The Lord he is God he hath made us and not we our selves, [whatsoever begun in time, was not; and when it was nothing, it had nothing, and could do nothing: And therefore could never give to it self nor to any other to be, or to be able to do: For then it gave what it had not, and did what it could not.Petav. Theo. Dog. tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pag. 14. 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 rise up by themselves? not by Chance; why hath not Chance produced the like in that long time the World hath stood? If we never knew any thing give being to it self, 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 it self, then the whole cannot be supposed to give any being to it self: Man did not forme himself: His body is not from himself, it would then have the power of moving it self, but that is not able to live or act without the presence of the 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 it self, can that which cannot form the least mote, the least grain of dust, form it self a nobler substance than any upon the Earth?

This will be evident to every Mans reason, if we consider

1. Nothing can act before it be. The first Man was not, and therefore could not make himself to be: For any thing to produce it self is to act; if it acted before it was, it was then something and nothing at the same time; it then had a being before it had a being; it acted when it brought it self into being. How could it act without a be­ing, without it was? So that if it were the cause of it self, it must be before it self as well as after it self; it was before it was; it was as a cause before it was as an effect. Action always supposeth a priciple from whence it flows; as nothing hath no Existence, so it [Page 18] hath no operation; there must be therefore something of real Existence to give a Being to those things that are, and every cause must be an effect of some other be­fore it be a cause: To be and not be at the same time, is a manifest contradiction, which would be, if any thing made it self: That which makes is always before that which is made: Who will say the House is before the Carpenter, or the Picture before the Limbner? The world as a Creature, must be before it self as a Creature.

2. That which doth not understand it self and order it self could not make it self. If the first Man fully understood his own nature, the excellency of his own Soul, the manner of its operations, why was not that understanding conveyed to his posteri­ty? Are not many of them found, who understand their own nature, almost as little as a Beast understands it self; or a Rose understands its own sweetness; or a Tulip its own Colours? The Scripture indeed gives us an account how this came about, viz. by the deplorable Rebellion of Man, whereby Death was brought upon them (a Spiritual Death, which includes ignorance as well as an inability to Spritual acti­onGen. 2.17. Psal. 49.8.). Thus he fell from his Honour and became like the Beasts that perish, and not retaining God in his knowledge, retained not himself in his own knowledge.

But what reply can an Atheist make to it, who acknowledges no higher cause than nature? If the Soul made it self, how comes it to be so muddy, so wanting in its knowledge of it self, and of other things? If the Soul made its own understanding whence did the defect arise? If some first principle was setled 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 descendents? Our Souls know little of themselves, little of the World, are every day upon new enquiries, have little satisfaction in themselves, meet with many an invincible rub in their way; and when they seem to come to some resoluti­on in some cases, stagger again, and like a stone rould up to the top of the Hill, quickly find themselves again at the foot. How come they to be so purblind in Truth? So short of that which they Judge true goodness? How comes it to pass they cannot order their own Rebellious affections, and suffer the rains 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 could never inform us of; and that when they are discovered and known by Revelation, they appear not contrary to reason.

3. If the first Man made himself, how came he to limit himself? If he gave himself be­ing, why did he not give himself all the perfections and Ornaments of being? No­thing that made it self could sit down contented with a little, but would have had as much power to give it self that which is less, as to give it self being, when it was nothing. The exellencies it wanted had not been more difficult to gain than the o­ther which it possessed as belonging to its nature. If the first man had been inde­pendent upon another, and had his perfection from himself, he might have acquired that perfection he wanted as well as have bestowed upon himself that perfecti­on he had; and then there would have been no bounds set to him. He would have been Omniscient and Immutable. He might have given himself what he would; if he had had the setting his own bounds, he would have set none at all; For what should restrain him? No man now wants Ambition to be what he is not; and if the first man had not been determined by another, but had given himself being, he would not have remained in that determinate being, no more than a Toad would remain a Toad, if it had power to make it self a man, and that power it would have had, if it had given it self a being. Whatsoever gives it self being, would give it self all degrees of being, and so would have no imperfection, because every imperfecti­on, is a want of some degree of being.Therefore the Heathens called God [...] the only Being. Other things were not beings, because they had not all degrees of being. He that could give himself matter and life, might give himself every thing. The giving of life is an act of Omnipotence, and what is Omnipotent in one thing, may be in all. Besides, if the first man had made himself, he would have conveyed himself to all his posterity in the same manner, every man would have had all the perfections of the first man, as every Creature hath the per­fections of the same kind, from whence it naturally Issues, all are desirous to com­municate what they can to their posterity. Communicative goodness belongs to e­very nature. Every plant propagates its kind in the same perfection it hath itself; [Page 19] and the nearer any thing comes to a rational nature, the greater affection it hath to that which descends from it; therefore this affection belongs to a rational nature much more. The first man therefore, if he had had power to give himself being, and consequently all perfection, he would have had as much power to convey it down to his posterity; no impediment could have stopt 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 qualifications and differences in their understandings? No man then would have been subject to those weaknesses, doubtings, and unsatisfied desires of know­ledg and perfection. But being all Souls are not alike, 'tis certain they depend up­on some other cause for the communication of that excellency they have. If the perfections of Man be so contracted and kept within certain bounds, 'tis certain that they were not in his own power, and so were not from himself. Whatsoever hath a determinate being must be limited by some superior cause. There is therefore some superior power, that hath thus determined the Creature by set bounds and di­stinct measures, and hath assigned to every one its proper nature, that it should not be greater or less than it is; who hath said of every one as of the waves of the Sea,Job 38.11. Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and this is God. Man could not have reserved any perfection from his Posterity. For since he doth propagate not by choice but nature, he could no more have kept back any perfection from them, than he could, as he pleased, have given any perfection belonging to his nature to them.

4. That which hath power to give it self being, cannot want power to preserve that be­ing. Preservation is not more difficult than Creation. If the first Man made him­self, why did he not preserve himself? He is not now among the living in the world. 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 Shepherds Tent, and is cut off with pining Sickness. Isa. 38.12. The life of Man is as a wind, and like a cloud that is consumed and vanishes away,Job 7.6, 7, 8, 9. The Eye that sees him shall see him no more, he returns not to his house, neither doth his place know him any more The Scripture gives us the reason of this, and layes it upon the score of sin against his Creator; which no Man without revelation can give any satisfactory account of.

Had the first Man made himself, he had been sufficient for himself, able to support himself without the assistance of any creature. He would not have needed animals and plants, and other helps to nourish and refresh him, nor Medicines to cure him. He could not be beholding to other things for his support, which he is certain he ne­ver made for himself. His own nature would have continued that vigour, which once he had conferred upon himself. He would not have needed the heat and light of the Sun; he would have wanted nothing sufficient for himself in himself; he needed not have sought without himself for his own preservation and comfort. What depends upon another is not of it self, and what depends upon things inferiour to it self is less of it self. Since nothing can subsist of it self, since we see those things upon which Man depends for his nourishment and subsistence, growing and decaying, starting into the world and retiring from it, as well as man himself; some preserving cause must be concluded, upon which all depends.

5. If the first Man did produce himself, why did he not produce himself before?

It hath been already proved, that he had a beginning, and could not be from Eternity. Why then did he not make himself before? Not because he would not. For having no being, he could have no will; he could neither be willing nor not wil­ling. If he could not then, how could he afterwards? if it were in his own power he could have done it, he would have done it; if it were not in his own power, then it was in the power of some other cause, and that is God. How came he by that power to produce himself? If the power of producing himself were communicated by another, then Man could not be the cause of himself. That is the cause of it which communicated that power to it. But if the power of being was in and [Page 20] from himself and in no other, nor communicated to him, man would always have been in act, and always have Existed; no hinderance can be conceived. For that which had the power of being in it self was invincible by any thing that should stand in the way of its own being.

We may conclude from hence, the excellency of the Scripture; that it is a Word not to be refused credit. It gives us the most rational account of things in the 1. and 2. of Genesis, which nothing in the world else is able to do.

Thirdly, III. Proposition, no Creature could make the world. No Creature can create another. If it creates of nothing, tis then Omnipotent and so not a Creature. If it makes something of matter unfit for that which is produced out of it, then the in­quiry will be, who was the cause of the matter? and so we must arrive to some un­created being, the cause of all. Whatsoever gives being to any other must be the highest being and must possess all the perfections of that which it gives being to. what visible Creature is there which possesses the perfections of the whole world? If therefore an invisible Creature made the world, the same enquiries will return whence that Creature had its being? for he could not make himself. If any Creature did Create the World, he must do it by the strength and vertue of another, which first gave him being; and this is God. For whatsoever hath its Existence and vertue of act­ing from another, is not God. If it hath its vertue from another tis then a second cause, and so supposeth a first cause. It must have some cause of it self, or be Eternally Ex­istent. If Eternally Existent, tis not a second cause, but God; if not Eternally Ex­istent, we must come to somthing at length which was the cause of it, or else be be­wildred without being able to give an account of any thing. We must come at last to an Infinite Eternal Independent Being, that was the first cause of this Structure and Fabrick wherein we and all Creatures dwell. The Scripture proclaims this a­loud,Isa. 45.6.7. Deut. 4.35. I am the Lord and there is none else: I Form the light and I Create darkness. Man the Noblest Creature cannot of himself make a man, the chiefest part of the World. If our Parents only without a Superior power made our Bodies or Souls, they would know the frame of them; as he that makes a Lock knows the Wards of it; he that makes any curious peice of Arras, knows how he setts the various colours to­gether, and how many threads went to each division in the Web; he that makes a Watch, having the Idea of the whole work in his mind, knows the motions of it and the reason of those motions. But both Parents and Children are equally ig­norant of the nature of their Souls and Bodies, and of the reason of their motions. God only that had the Supream hand in forming us, in whose Book all our members are written, Psal. 139.16. which in continuance were fashioned, knows what we all are ignorant of. If man hath in an ordinary course of generation his being chiefly from an higher cause than his Parents, the World then certainly had its being from some infinitely wise intelligent Being, which is God. If it were, as some fancy, made by an Assembly of Atomes, there must be some infinite intelligent cause that made them, some cause that separated them, some cause that mingled them together for the piling up so come­ly a structure as the world. Tis the most absurd thing to think they should meet to­geither 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.

Fourthly, IV. Proposition. From hence it follows, that there is a first cause of things which we call God. There must be somthing supreme in the order of nature, som­thing 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. Tis 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 joyned with an incorporeal, (as man is an earth­ly body, and a Spiritual Soul,) we ascend to a conception of a substance purely in­corporeal [Page 21] 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 World, 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 unconceivable perfection.

Coccei sum. Theol. cap. 8. § 33. &c. Every Sceptick, one that doubts whither there be any thing real or no 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 it self, so nothing can appear by it self and its own force. Nothing can be and not be, at the same time. But that which is not and yet seems to be; if it be the cause why it seems to be what it is not, it may be said to be and not to be. But certainly such persons must think themselves to exist. If they do not, they cannot think; and if they do exist, they must have some cause of that Existence. So that which way soever we turn our selves, we must in reason own a first cause of the World.

Well then might the Psalmist term an Atheist a fool, that disowns a God against his own reason. Without owning a God as the first cause of the world, no man can give any tolerable or satisfactory account of the world to his own reason.

And this first cause,

1. Must necessarily exist. Petav. Theol. Dog. Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pa. 10. 11. Tis necessary that he by whom all things are, should be before all things and nothing before him. And if nothing be before him, he comes not from any other; and then he always was, and without beginning. He is from himself; not that he once was not but because he hath not his Existence from another, and therefore of necessity he did exist from all Eternity. Nothing can make it self, or bring it self into being; therefore there must be some being which hath no cause, that depends upon no other, never was produced by any o­ther, but was what he is from Eternity, and cannot be otherwise; and is not what he is by will, but nature, necessarily existing, and always existing without any ca­pacity or possibility ever not to be.

2. Must be infinitely perfect. Since man knows he is an imperfect being, he must suppose the perfections he wants, are seated in some other being which hath limited him, and upon which 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 whatever we saw or heard of, hath much more in himself; else he could not give us such a conception.

Secondly, II. As the production of the world, so the harmony of all the parts of it declare the being and wisdom of a God. Without the acknowledging God the A­theist can give no account of those things. The multitude, elegancy, variety, and beauty of all things are steps whereby to ascend to one fountain and orignal of them.

Is it not a folly to deny the being of a wise Agent, who sparkles in the beauty and motions of the Heavens; rides upon the wings of the wind, and is writ upon the flowers and fruits of Plants. As the cause is known by the effects, so the wisdom of the cause is known by the elegancy of the work, the proportion of the parts to one another. Who can imagine the world could be rashly made, and without con­sultation, which in every part of it is so Artificially framed?Philo. Judae. Petav. Theolog. Dogmat. Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 9. No work of Art springs up of its own accord. The world is framed by an excellent Art, and therefore made by some skilful Artist. As we hear not a melodious instrument, but we conclude there is a Musitian 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 it self, but upon the skill of the Artist that made it, and the art of the Musitian that strikes it, though he should not see the first, when he saw the Lute, nor see the other when he hears the harmony. So a rational Creature confines not his thoughts to his sense when he sees the Sun in its Glory and the Moon walking in its brightness; but riseth up in a contemplation and admirati­on of that infinite Spirit that composed, and filled them with such sweetness.

This appears.

[Page 22]1. In the linking contrary qualities together. All things are compounded of the Ele­ments. Those are endued with contrary qualities, driness and moisture, heat and cold. These would always be contending with and infesting one anothers rights, till the con­test ended in the destruction of one or both. Where fire is predominant, it would suck up the water; where water is prevalent, it would quench the fire. The heat would wholly expel the cold, or the cold over-power the heat. Yet we see them chained and linkt one within another in every body upon the Earth, and rendring mutual offices for the benefit of that body wherein they are seated, and all conspiring toge­ther in their particular quarrels for the publick interest of the body. How could those contraries that of themselves observe no order, that are always preying upon one another, joyntly accord together of themselves, for one common end, if they were not linkt in a common band, and reduced to that order by some incomprehen­sible wisdom and power, which keeps a hand upon them, orders their motions and directs their events, and makes them friendly pass into one anothers Natures? Con­fusion had been the result of the discord and diversity of their Natures. No compo­sition could have been of those conflicting qualities for the frame of any body, nor any harmony arose from so many jarring strings, if they had not been reduced, into concord by one that is supream Lord over them, and knows how to dispose their varieties and enmities for the publick good.Athanasius Petav. Theol. Dog. Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 4. 5. If a man should see a large City or Country consisting of great multitudes of men of different tempers, full of Frauds and Factions and Animosities in their natures against one another, yet living toge­ther in good order and peace, without oppressing and invading one another and joyning together for the publick good; he would presently conclude, there were some excellent Governor, who tempered them by his Wisdom, and preserved the publick Peace, though he had never yet beheld him with his eye. Tis 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. Gassend. Physic. sect. 1. lib. 4. cap. 2. pag. 315. All the Members of living Creatures are curiously fitted for the service of one another, destin'd to a particular end, and endued with a vertue 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 uncapable to settle such an order and fix particular and general ends, causing an exact correspondency of all the parts with one another, 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. Lessius. The Sun, the heart of the world, is not for it self but for the good of the World, as the heart of man is for the good of the body. How conveniently is the Sun placed, at a distance from 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 would want its influences. Tis not in the higher parts of the Heavens; the Earth then which lives and fructifies by its influence would have been exposed to a perpetual Winter and chilness, unable to have produced any thing for the sustenance of man or beast. If seated lower, the Earth had been parch'd 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 World had been cherished by its beams, and the other left in a desolate Widow-hood, in a disconsolate darkness. Besides, the Earth would have had no shelter from its perpendicular beams striking perpetually and without any remission upon it. The same incommodities would have followed upon its fixedness as upon its too great nearness. By a constant day the beauty of the Stars had been obscured, the knowledge of their motions been prevented, and a considerable part of the Glorious wisdom of the Creator in those choice works of his fingers Psal. 8.3. had been vail'd from our eyes. It moves in a fixed line, visits all parts of the Earth, scat­ters in the day its refreshing blessings in every creeke of the Earth, and removes the mask from the other beauties of Heaven in the night, which sparkle out to the glory [Page 23] of the Creator. It spreads its Light, warms the Earth, cherisheth the Seeds, excites the Spirit in the Earth, and brings Fruit to maturity. View also the Air, the vast extent between Heaven and Earth, which serves for a Water-course, a Cistern for water, to bedew the face of the Sun-burnt Earth, to satisfie the desolate ground and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth. Job. 38.25 27. 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 of the Rain or beget the drops of dew? Job. 38.28. Could any thing so blind settle those ordinances of Heaven for the preservation of Creatures on the Earth? Can this either bring or stay the bottles of Heaven, when the dust grows into hardness, and the Clods cleave fast toge­ther? Job. 38.37.38.

2. Subserviency of the lower World, the Earth, and Sea, which was Created to be inhabited, Isa. 45.18. 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, Psal. 104.10.11. He sends the Springs into the Vallies, 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, v. 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 Vallies and Mountains of the Earth disposed for the pleasure and profit of man? Every year are the Feilds covered with Harvests, for the nourishing the Creatures, no part is Barren but beneficial to man. The Mountains that are not cloathed with grass for his food are set with stones to make him an Habitation; they have their peculiar services 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 service of other Crea­tures. Wood abounds more in those Countries where the cold is stronger than in others. Can this be the result of Chance, or not rather of an infinite Wisdom?

Consider the usefulness of the Sea, for the supply of Rivers to refresh the Earth. Which go up by the Mountains and down by the Vallies into the place God hath founded for them, Psal. 104.8. A store-house for fish for the nourishment of other Crea­tures, a shop of Medicines for cure, and Pearls for ornament. The band that ties remote Nations together, by giving opportunity of passage to and commerce with one another. How should that natural inclination of the Sea to cover the Earth, submit to this subserviency to the Creatures? Who hath pounded in this fluid mass of Water in certain limits, and confin'd 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 might not pass over, that they return not again to cover the Earth?Psa. 104.6.9. Was it blind Chance, or an Infinite Power, that shut up the Sea with doors, and made thick darkness a swadling band for it, and said hi­therto shall thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be staid? Job. 38.8.9.11.

All things are so ordered that they are not propter se but propter aliud. What ad­vantage accrues to the Sun by its unwearied rouling 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 strait connexion, the Earth could not bring forth fruit without the Heavens, the Heavens could not water the Earth without vapours from it.

3. All this Subserviency of Creatures centers in man. Other Creatures are served by those things as well as our selves, and they are provided for their nourishment and refreshment as well as ours;Amirald. de Trinitate pa. 13. and pag. 18. yet both they and all Creatures meet in man as lines in their Centers: 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 Starrs, he intimates man to be the end for which they were Created, Psal. 8.3, 4. What is man that thou art mindful of him? He expresseth more particularly the [Page 24] Dominion that Man hath over the beasts of the field, the fowl of the Air, and what­soever passes through the paths of the Sea, vers. 6.7.8. and concludes from thence the excellency of Gods Name in all the Earth. All things in the World one way or other Center in an usefulness for man, some to feed him, some to clothe him, some to delight him, others to instruct him, some to exercise his wit, and others his strength. Since man did not make them, he did not also order them for his own use. If they conspire to serve him who never made them, they direct man to acknowledge an other, who is the joynt 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 ordered 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 38.4. Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the Earth, declare if thou hast understanding? All is ordered for Mans use, the Heavens answer to the Earth as a roof to a floor, both composing a delightful habitation for man; vapors ascend from the Earth, and the Heaven concocts them, and returns them back in welcome showers for the supply­ing of the Earth.Jer. 10.13. The light of the Sun descends to beautifie the Earth, and imploys its heat to midwife 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 joynt 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.Morn. de verit. cap. 1. pag. 7. [As in a Clock, the hammer which strikes the bell, leads us to the next Wheel, that to another, the little wheel 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 uniforme. Every thing is determined to its peculiar nature.Amiraut. The Sun and Moon make day and night, months and years, determine the seasons, never are defective in coming back to their station and place, they wander 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, bark, leaves, fruit of the same shape, figure, smell, tast; 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 Creature, 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 tis perfected. If we say this is nature; this nature is an intelligent being; if not, how can it direct all causes to such uni­forme ends. If it be intelligent, this nature must be the same we call God, Who or­dered every herb to yeild seed, and every fruit-Tree to yeild fruit after its kind, and also every Beast and every creeping thing after its kind, Gen. 11, 12, 24.

And every thing is determined to its particular season. The sap riseth from the Root at its appointed time, enlivening and cloathing the branches with a new Gar­ment at such a time of the Suns returning, not wholly hindered by any accidental coldness of the weather, it being often colder at its return, than it was at the Suns departure. All things have their Seasons of flourishing, budding, blossoming, bring­ing forth fruit; they ripen in their seasons, cast their leaves at the same time; throw off their old cloaths, and in the spring appear with new Garments, but still in the same fashion.

Coccei. sum. Theol. cap. 8. § 77.The Winds and the Rain have their seasons and seem to be administred 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 38.29. The natural reason of those things cannot be demonstrated without recourse to an infinite and intelligent being: Nothing can be rendred capable of the direction of those things but a God.

This regularity in Plants and Animals is in all Nations. The Heavens have the [Page 25] same motion in all parts of the world; all men have the same Law of nature in their mind; all Creatures are stampt with the same law 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 meerly conducts these natural causes in due measures to their proper effects, without interfering with one another? Can meer nature be the cause of those musical proportions of time? You may as well conceive a Lute to sound its own strings without the hand of an Artist; a City well Governed without a Governor; an Army keep its Stations without a General, as imagine so exact an order, without an Orderer: Would any Man, when he hears a Clock strike, by sit intervals, the hour of the day, imagine this regularity in it, without the direction of one that had understanding to manage it? He would not only regard the motion of the Clock, but commend the diligence of the Clock-Keeper.

5. This order and Subserviency is constant. Children change the customes and manners of their Fathers: Magistrats change the Laws they have received from their Ancestors, and enact new ones in their room: But in the world all things consist as they were created at the beginning; The Law of nature in the Crea­tures hath met with no change.Petav. ex Athanas. T [...]eol. Dog. tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 1. § 4. Who can behold the Sun rising in the morn­ing; the Moon shining in the night; increasing and decreasing in its due spaces; the Stars in their regular motions night after night, for all ages, and yet de­ny a President over them? And this motion of the Heavenly bodies, being contrary to the nature of other Creatures, who move in order to rest; must be from some higher cause. But those ever since the setling in their places, have been perpe­tually rounding the world:(Whether it be the Sun, or the Earth that moves, it is all one: Whence have either of them this con­stant and uni­form motion?) What nature, but one powerful and intelligent, could give that perpetual motion to the Sun, which being bigger than the Earth a hundred sixty six times, runs many thousand miles with a mighty swiftness in the space of an hour, with an unwearied diligence, performing its dayly task, and as a strong man, rejoycing to run its race, for above five thousand years to­gether, without intermission, but in the time of Joshuah? Josh. 10.13. Tis not natures Sun, but Gods Sun, which he makes to rise upon the just and unjust. Mat. 5.45.

So a Plant receives its nourishment from the Earth, sends forth its juyce 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 tast, 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, blossoms, fruit which were before; and being nourished in the Womb of the Earth, and quickened by the power of the Sun, discovers it self 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, spinns out fruit of the same colour, tast, vertue, to refresh the several Creatures, for which they are provided.

This setled state of things comes from that God who laid the foundations of the Earth, that it should not be removed for ever;Psal. 104.5. and set ordinances for them to act by a stated law;Job. 38.33. according to which they move as if they understood themselves to have made a Covenant with their Creator.Jer. 33.20

3. Add to this union of contrary qualities, and the subserviency of one thing to another, the admirable variety and diversity of things in the World. 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? How 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 peice of Arras, with a diversity of figures and colours, either wove it self, or were knit together by hazzard.

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 convay it into fruit: What is that which makes the one so sweet, the other so sower, 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 entwine about one another. Is it the Sun? both have the same beams: Why is not the tast and colour of the one as gratifying as the other? Is it the root? The tast of that is far different 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 from one anothers natures? No reason can be rendred, but that there is a God of infinite Wisdom, hath determin'd this variety, and bound up the nature of each Crea­ture within it self.Amirald. de Trinitate pa. 21. [Everything 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 rendred of this, but the fixt determina­tion of the Creator, that those species which 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 nature, but unto the God of nature, who will not have his Creatures exceed their bounds or come short of them.

Now since among those varieties, there are somethings better than other, yet all are good in their kind, and partake of Goodness,Gen. 1.31. there must be something better and more execellent 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 were made by another. All that goodness which is scattered in those varieties must be infinitely concentred in that nature, which distributed those various perfections to them, Psal. 94.9. 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 cheif fountain of goodness, whence all those various goodnesses in the world do flow.

From all this it follows, if there be an Order, and Harmony, there must be an Orderer, one that made the Earth by his Power, established the world by his Wisdom, and stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion, Jer. 10.12. Order being the effect, cannot be the cause of it self: 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 residence in some being, be­fore this order was fixed: The things ordered are always distinct from that Reas­on and Counsel whereby they are ordered, and also after it as the effect is after the cause. No Man begins a peice of work, but he hath the Model of it in his own mind: No Man builds an House, or makes a Watch, but he hath the Idea or Copy of it in his own head: This beautiful world bespeaks an Idea of it, or a model: Since there is such a magnificent wisdom in the make of each Creature, and the proportion of one Creature to another, this model must be before the World, as the patern is always before the thing that is wrought by it. This there­fore must be in some intelligent and wise agent, and this is God: Since the rea­son of those things exceed the reason and all the art of Man, who can as­cribe them to any inferior cause? Chance it could not be; the motions of Chance are not constant, and at set seasons, as the motions of Creatures are: That which is by Chance is contingent, this is necessary; Uniformity can never be the birth of Chance: Who can imagine that all the parts of a Watch can meet together and put themselves in order and motion by Chance? [Lactant. Nor can it be nature only which indeed is a disposition of second causes: If nature hath not an under­standing, it cannot work such effects: If nature therefore uses Counsel to begin a thing, reason to dispose it, art to effect it, vertue to compleat it and power to Govern it, why should it be called nature rather than God?] Nothing so sure as that that which hath an end to which it tends, hath a cause by which it is ordered to that end: [Page 27] Since therefore all things are ordered in subserviency to the good of man, they are so ordered by him that made both man and them; And man must acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of his Creator, and act in subserviency to His glory, as other Creatures act in subserviency to His good: Sensible objects were not made only to gratifie the sense of man, but to hand somthing to his mind as he is a rational Crea­ture; to discover God to him as an object of love and desire to be enjoyed:Coccei. sum. Theol. cap. 8. § 63.64. 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 unexceptionable conveniency for the Inhabitants, he would acknowledge both the being and skill of the Builder: So whosoever shall observe the disposition of all the parts of the World, their connexion, comelines, 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 Infinite Wisdom. None can imagine a Ship to be orderly conducted without a Pilot; Nor the parts of the World to perform their several functions without a wise guide; considering the Members of the Body, cannot perform theirs, without the active presence 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, III. As the production and harmony, so particular Creatures, 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 property 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 honor of inspiring the Creatures with such instincts, it must be ascribed to some nature infinitely above any Creature in understanding. No Crea­ture doth determine it self. 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 whereby they must live, and make use of the na­tural arms God hath given their kind, for their defence, before they are grown to any maturity to afford them that defence? The Scripture makes the appetite of In­fants to their milk a foundation of the divine Glory, Psal. 8.3. Out of the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings, hast thou ordained strength; that is, matter of praise and acknowledg­ment of God, in the natural appetite they have to their milk and their rellish 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 Physitians 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 Celendine, and the Toad hastens to its Plantain.

Can we behold the Spiders Nets, or Silkworms Web, the Bees Closets, or the Ants Granaries, without acknowledging a higher Being than a Creature, who hath planted that Genius in them? The consideration of the nature of several Creatures God commended to Job, (Chap. 39. where he discourseth to Job of the natural instincts, of the Goat, the Ostrich, Horse and Eagle, &c.) to perswade 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. 8.7. And the Swallows observe the time of their coming; they go and return according to the seasons of the year, This they gain not by consideration, it descends to them with their nature: They neither gain nor increase it by rational deductions. Tis not in vain to speak of these. How little do we improve by Meditation those objects, which daily offer themselves [Page 28] to our view, full of instructions for us? And our Saviour sends his disciples to spell God in the Lillies. Mat. 6.28. Tis 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 preservation of others.

2. They know not their end. They have a Law in their natures, 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 imprest 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 it self, and make it fruitful? These are acts of understanding: The root is downward to preserve its own standing, the branches upward to preserve other Creatures: This understand­ing is not in the Creature it self, 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.

Coccei. sum. Theolog. cap. 8. § 67. &c.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 of our minds.Peirson, on the Creed p. 35. We are not of Counsel with our stomacks about the concoction of our meat, or the distribution of the nourish­ing juyce 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 vertue its fruit hath for the good of man; yet all those natural operations are perfectly directed to their proper end, by an higher wisdom than any human understanding is able to conceive, since they exceed the ability of an inanimate or fleshly nature, yea and the wisdom of a man. Do we not often see reasonable Creatures acting for one end, and perfecting a higher than what they aimed at, or could suspect? When Josephs Brethren sold him for a Slave, their end was to be rid of an Informer:Gen. 37.2. But the action issued in preparing him to be the preserver of them and their families. Cyrus his end was to be a Conqueror, but the action ended in being the Jews deliverer, Prov. 16.9. A mans heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

3. Therefore there is some superior understanding and nature which so acts them. That which acts for an end unknown to it self, depends upon some over-ruling wis­dom that knows that end. Who should direct them in all those ends, but he that bestowed a being upon them for those ends,Lessius de providen. lib. 1. pag. 652. who knows what is convenient for their life, security and propagation of their natures? An exact knowledge is neces­sary both of what is agreeable to them, and the means whereby they must attain it, which since it is not inherent in them, 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 skil 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 an other. All Creatures ignorant of their own natures could not univer­sally in the whole kind, and in every Climate and Country, without any difference in the whole world, tend to a certain end, if some over-ruling 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 Council, that they may do what­soever he Commands them upon the face of the world in the earth. Job. 37.12.

So that in this respect the folly of Atheism appears. Without the owning a God no account can be given of those actions of Creatures, that are an imitation of Reas­on: 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: Tis their own Counsel whereby they act, or anothers; If it be their own, they are reason­able Creatures; If by anothers, tis not meer nature that is necessary; Then other Creatures would not be without the same skill: There would be no difference a­mong them: If nature be restrained by another, it hath a superior; if not tis a free [Page 29] agent: Tis 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 ac­knowledgment of the necessity of a God.

Fourthly, IV. Add to the production and order of the world and the Creatures acting for their end, the preservation of them. Nothing can depend upon it self in its preservation, no more than it could in its being. If the order of the world was not fixed by it self, the preservation of that order cannot be continued by it self.

Tho 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 fall into confusion. Those contesting qualities which are in every part of it, could not have preserved, but would have consumed, and extinguisht one another, and re­duced the world to that confused Chaos, wherin it was before the Spirit moved up­on the waters: As contrary parts could not have met together in one form, unless there had been one that had conjoyned them: So they could not have kept toge­ther after their conjunction unless the same hand had preserved them. Natural contrarieties cannot be reconciled. Tis 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 humors, would fall into a Civil War, and sheath their Swords in one ano­thers 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?Gassend. Phy. sect. 6. lib. 4. cap. 2. pa. 101. As the body hath neither life nor motion, without the active presence of the Soul, which distributes to every part the vertue 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 our selves; we must ne­cessarily run to some first cause which doth preserve us. All works of art depend upon nature, and are preserved while they are kept by the force of nature: As a Statue depends upon the matter whereof it is made, whither 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 world, that they conspire toge­ther for the good and beauty of the universe; that they depend upon one another: There must be some principle upon which they do depend; somthing 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: Tis the title of God to be the preserver of man and beast. Psa. 36.6. The Psalmist elegantly describeth it, Psal. 104.24. &c. The Earth is full of his riches, all wait upon him, that he may give them 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 rejoyce in his works: Upon the consideration of all which the Psalmist v. 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 him. And why should not the consideration of the power and wisdom of God in the Crea­tures produce the same effect in the hearts of us, if he be our God? Or as some ren­der it, my Meditation shall be sweet, or acceptable to him, whereby I find matter of praise in the things of the world, and offer it to the Creator of it.

Thirdly, III. Reason,The third Reas. Tis a folly to deny that which a mans own nature witnesseth 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, Will, Judgment, Memory, Imagination. Man is the Epitome of the World, contains in himself the substance of all natures, and the fulness of the whole universe; not only in regard of the universalness of his know­ledge, whereby he comprehends the reasons of many things; but as all the perfecti­ons of the several natures of the world are gathered and united in man, for the perfection of his own, in a smaller volum. 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 [Page 30] nature of Angels. Gen. 2.7. The Lord breathed into his Nostril the breath of life, and man, &c. [...] of lifes. Not one sort of, lifes; but several, not only an Animal, but a Rational life; a Soul of a Nobler extract and nature, than what was given to o­ther Creatures.

So that we need not step out of doors, or cast our eyes any further than our selves, to behold a God. He shines in the capacity of our Souls and the vigour of our Members. We must flie from our selves and be stript of our own humanity, before we can put off the Notion of a Deity: He that is ignorant of the Existence of God, must be possessed with so much folly, as to be ignorant of his own make and frame.

1. In the parts whereof he doth consist, Body and Soul.

First, I. Take a prospect of the Body. The Psalmist counts it a matter of praise and admiration, Psal. 139.15, 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 peice of Embroidery or Tapestry, were wrought by God, as it were with deliber­ation; like an Artificer that draws out the model of what he is to do in writing, and sets it before him when he begins his work.

And indeed the Fabrick of mans Body, as well as his Soul, is an argument for a Divinity. The artificial structure of it, the Elegancy of every part, the proper Situation of them, their proportion one to another, the fitness for their several functions, drew from Galen, Lib. 3. de usu. partium. Petav. Theol. Dog. Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 1. pa. 6. (a Heathen and one that had no raised sentiments of a Deity,) a confession of the admirable Wisdom and Power of the Creator, and that none but God could frame it.

1. In the order, fitness and usefulness of every part. The whole model of the bo­dy is grounded upon reason. Every member hath its exact proportion, distinct of­fice, regular motion. Every part hath a particular comliness, and convenient tempera­ment bestowed upon it, according to its place in the Body. The Heart is hot to enliven the whole. The Eye clear to take in objects to present them to the Soul: Every member is fitted for its peculiar service and action: Some are for sense, some for motion, some for preparing, and others for dispensing nourishment to the several parts: They mutually depend upon, and serve one another. What small strings fasten the particular members together, as the Earth that hangs upon no­thing? Job. 26.7. Take but one part away, and you either destroy the whole, or stamp upon it some mark of deformity. All are knit together by an admirable Symmetry; all orderly perform their functions, as acting by a setled Law; none swerving from their rule, but in case of some predominant humor: 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. Theod. de providentiâ. Orat. 3. 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 made for that purpose: Rarifies it and makes it fit to pass through the Arteries and Veins, and to carry heat and life to every part of the body: And by a perpetual motion, it sucks in the blood and spouts it out again; which motion depends not upon the command of the Soul, but is pure natural.

2. The Mouth, takes in the meat, the teeth grind it for the stomack, the stomack prepares it, nature strains it through the milky veins, the liver refines it and mints it into blood, separates the purer from the drossy parts, which go to the heart, cir­cuites 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 framed of a thin skin for the straining the blood through, for the supply of the members of the body, and framed with several valves or doors, for the thrusting the blood forwards to perform 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 [Page 31] it, and seems like a curious peice of Needlework.

4. The Ear, framed with windings and turnings, to keep any thing from en­tring to offend the Brain; so disposed as to admit sounds with the greatest safety and delight;Eccles. 12.4. filled with an air within, by the motion whereof the sound is trans­mitted to the Brain: As sounds are made in the Air by diffusing themselves, as you see Circles made in the water by the flinging in a stone. This is the Gate of know­ledge, whereby we hear the Oracles of God, and the instruction of men for arts: Tis 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 secure and accomodate the little humor 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 eye-brows and eye-lids, secured by the eye-lids which are its ornament and safety; which refresh it when it is too much dried by heat, hinder too much light from insinuating it self into it to offend it, cleanse it from impurities, by their quick motion preserve it from any invasion, and by contraction confer to the more evident discerning of things: Both the eyes seated in the hollow 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 moment veiw things as high as Heaven.

6.Coccei. sum. Theol. cap. 8. § 49. 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. Tis 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 elegancy and attractive force, mastering the affections of men.

Not to speak of other parts, or of the multitude of Spirits that act every part; he quick flight of them where there is a necessity of their presence. Solomon 12 Ecclesiast. makes an elegant description of them, in his Speech of old age: And Job [...]peaks of this formation of the body, Job 10.9, 10, 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 Signature and mark of God and his Wisdom: He is visible in the for­mation of the Members, the beauty of the parts, and the vigor of the body: This structure could not be from the body, that only hath a passive power, and cannot act in the absence of the Soul: Nor can it be from the Soul. How comes it then to be so ignorant of the manner of its formation? The Soul knows not the internal parts of its own body, but by information from others, or inspection into other bodies: It knows less of the inward frame of the body than it doth of it self: But he that makes the Clock can tell the number and motions of the wheels within, as well as what figures are without.

This short discourse is useful to raise our admirations of the Wisdom of God, as well as to demonstrate, that there is an Infinite, Wise Creator: And the considera­tion of our selves every day, and the wisdom of God in our frame would maintain Religion much in the world; Since all are so framed that no man can tell any error in the constitution of him. If thus the body of man is fitted for the service of his Soul by an infinite God, the body ought to be ordered for the service of this God and in obedience to him.

2. In the admirable difference of the features of Men. Which is a great argument that the world was made by a wise Being: This could not be wrought by Chance or be the work of meer nature, since we find never or very rarely two persons exactly alike. This distinction is a part of infinite wisdom; otherwise what con­fusion would be introduced into the World? Without this, Parents could not know their Children, nor Children their Parents, nor a Brother his Sister, nor a Subject his Magistrate: Without it there had been no comfort of Relations, no [Page 32] Government, no commerce: Debtors would not have been known from strangers, nor good men from bad: Propriety could not have been preserved, nor justice executed; the innocent might have been apprehended for the nocent; wickedness could not have been stopt 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 wise Agent which framed man; since for the preservation of human society and order in the world, this distinction was necessary.

Secondly, II. As mans own nature witnesseth a God to him in the structure of his body, so also in the nature of his Soul. Co [...]cei. sam. Theolog. cap. 8. § 50.51. We know that we have an understanding in us; a substance we cannot see, but we know it by its operations; as thinking, reas­oning, willing, remembring; And as operating about things that are invisible and remote from sense: This must needs be distinct from the body, for that being but dust and Earth in its original, hath not the power of reasoning, and thinking; for then it would have that power, when the Soul were absent, as well as when it is present. Besides, if it had that power of thinking, it could think only of those things which are sensible and made up of matter, as it self is. This Soul hath a greater excellency, it can know it self, rejoyce in it self, which other Creatures in this world are not ca­pable of: The Soul is the greatest glory of this lower world, and as one saith;More. 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.

First, I. Consider the vastness of its capacity. The understanding can conceive the whole world, and paint in it self the invisible Pictures of all things. Tis ca­pable of apprehending and discoursing of things superior to its own nature. [Culverwel. Tis suted 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 diversities? The Will also can ac­comodate other things to it self. It invents Arts for the use of Man; prescribes rules for the Government 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. [Theodoret. Nothing is more quick in the whole course o [...] 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 distant. It can think of some mean thing in the world, 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 were ashamed to be Cloystered in it. This could not be the result of any material cause: Whoever knew meer matter understand, think, will? And what it hath not, it cannot give. That which is destitute of Reason and Will, could never confer Reason and Will.Coccei. sum. The dog. cap. 8. § 51.52. Tis not the effect of the Body, for the Body is fitted with members to be subject to it: Tis in part ruled by the activity of the Soul, and in part by the Counsel of the Soul; Tis used by the Soul and knows not how it is used. Nor could it be from the Parents, since the Souls of the Children often transcend those of the Parents in vivacity, acuteness and comprehensiveness: One man is stupid and begets a Son with a capacious understanding; one is debauched and beastly in morals, and be­gets a Son who from his Infancy testifies some vertuous inclinations, which sprout forth in delightful fruit with the ripeness of his age.I do not dispute whether the Soul were ge­nerated or no; Suppose the sub­stance of it was generated by the Parents, yet those more ex­cellent qualities were not the result of them. Whence should this diffe­rence arise, a fool begat the wise man, and a debauched the vertuous man? The wis­dom of the one could not descend from the foolish Soul of the other; nor the vertues of the Son, from 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 from their Souls, but the ill disposition of the Organs of their bodies, how comes it to pass that the bodies of the Children are better Organiz'd beyond the goodness of their immediate cause? We must recur to some invisible hand, that makes the dif­ference, [Page 33] who bestows upon one at his pleasure richer qualities, than upon ano­ther: You can see nothing in the World endowed with some excellent quality, but you must imagine some bountiful hand did inrich it with that dowry: None can be so foolish as to think that a vessel ever inricht it self with that spritely Liquor, wherewith it is filled; or that any thing worse than the Soul should indow 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 it self, in as much as an understanding being surmounts a being that hath no understanding; If the supream cause of the Soul be intelligent, why do we not call it God as well as nature? We must arise from hence to the notion of a God; a Spiritual nature cannot proceed but from a Spirit higher than it self, and of a tran­scendent perfection above it self: If we beleive we have Souls and understand the state of our own faculties, we must be assured that there was some invisible hand which bestowed those faculties and the riches of them upon us: A man must be ig­norant of himself before he can be ignorant of the Existence of God: By consider­ing the nature of our Souls, we may as well be assured that there is a God, as that there is a Sun by the shining of the beams in at our Windows: And indeed the Soul is a Statue and representation of God, as the Land-Skip of a Country or Map represents all the parts of it, but in a far less proportion than the Country it self is. The Soul fills the body, and God the world; the Soul sustains the body, and God the World; the Soul sees, but is not seen; God sees all things, but is himself invisible. How base are they then that prostitute their Souls an image of God to base things unexpressibly below their own nature?

3. I might add the union of Soul and Body. Man is a kind of compound of Angel and Beast, of Soul and body; if he were only a Soul, he were a kind of Angel; if only a body, he were another kind of brute: Now that a body as vile and dull as earth, and a Soul that can mount up to Heaven, and rove about the world with so quick a motion, should be linkt in so strait an acquaintance; that so noble a being as the Soul should be an inhabitant in such a Tabernacle of Clay, must be owned to some in­finite power that hath so chained it.

3. Man witnesseth to a God in the operations and reflections of Conscience. Rom. 2.15. Their thoughts are accusing or excusing. An inward comfort attends good actions, and an inward torment follows bad ones; for there is in every mans 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 supream rule, what need he fear punishment, since no man would inflict any evil or torment on himself; nor can any man be said to reward himself, for all rewards refer to ano­ther, to whom the action is pleasing, and is a conferring some good a man had not be­fore: If an action be done by a Subject or Servant, with hopes of reward, it can not be imagined, that he expects a reward from himself, but from the Prince or per­son whom he eyes in that action, and for whose sake 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 Consciences of men, which is evident by those Laws which are common in all Countries, for the preserving human societies, the encourag­ment of Vertue, and discouragement of Vice; What Standard should they have for those Laws, but a common reason? The designe 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. 13.4. and the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law, Rom. 2.14.

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 man, he could not sin; for where there is no Law there is no transgression. If man were a Law to himself and his own will his Law, there could be no such thing as evil; whatsoever he willed would be good and agreeable to the Law; and no action could be accounted sinful: The worst act would be as commendable as the best. Every thing at mans appointment would be good or evil. If there were no such Law, how should men that are naturally in­clined to evil disapprove of that which is unlovely, and approve of that good which [Page 34] 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 vitious, do praise those that practise the contrary vertues. Those that are evil would seem to be good, and those that are blameworthy, yet will rebuke evil in others. This is really to distinguish 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 man as in another, the same in one Nation as in another, they are born with every man, and inseparable from his nature, Prov. 27.19. As in water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man. Common reason sup­poseth, that there is some hand which hath fixed this distinction in man: How could it else be universally imprest? No Law can be without a Law-giver; 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 out, and cannot alter it when he pleases: Natural generation never intended it; tis setled therefore by some higher hand, which 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 supream good, the measure of all other goodness in the world, we could not have had such a thing as good. The Scripture gives us an account that this good was distinguisht from evil before man fell, they were objecta scibilia; good was commanded 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 my self naturally obliged to do this thing and avoid that, I have therfore a superior that doth oblige me; I find something within me that directs me to such actions, contrary to my sensitive appetite, there must be something above me therefore that put this prin­ciple into mans nature: If there were no superior, I should be the supream Judge of good and evil: Were I the Lord of that Law which doth oblige me, I should find no contradiction within my self 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 horrour upon a death-bed of their past life, when their fear hath come as a desolation, and destruction as a whirlewind, Prov. 1.27. And often in some sharp af­fliction, the dust hath been blown off from mens Consciences, which for a while hath obscured the writing 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 of the 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 appearance of an affliction, rouze it self from sleep like an armed man, and fly in a mans face before he is aware of it? It will surprize the Hipocrites. Isa. 38.14. It will bring to mind actions committed long ago, and set them in order before the face, as Gods deputy acting by his authority and Omniscience. As God hath not left himself without a witness among the Crea­tures, Acts 14.17. So he hath not left himself without a witness in a mans 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 world Conscience hath shot its darts. It hath torn the hearts of Princes in the midst of their pleasures: It hath not flattered them whom most men flatter, nor feared to disturb their rest, whom no man dares to provoke. Judges have trembled on a Tribunal, when Innocents have rejoyced in their condemnation: The Iron bars upon Pharaohs Conscience, were at last broke up, and he acknowledged the Justice of God in all that he did, Exod. 9.27. I have sinned, the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Had they been like Child­ish frights at the apprehension of bug-bears, why hath not reason shaken them off? But on the contrary the stronger reason grows, the smarter those lashes are: Groundless fears had been short liv'd, Age and Judgement would have worn them off, but they grow sharper with the growth of persons. The Scripture informs us they have been of as ancient a date as the revolt of the first man, Gen. 3.10. I was afraid, saith Adam, beecause I was naked; which was an expectation of the Judgment of God. All his [Page 35] posterity inherit his fears, when God expresseth himself in any tokens of his Majesty and Providence in the world. Every mans Conscience testifies that he is unlike what he ought to be according to that law engraven upon his heart. In some indeed Consci­ence may be feared, or dimmer, or suppose some men may be devoid of Conscience; shall it be denyed to be a thing belonging to the nature of Man? Some Men have not their eyes, yet the power of seeing the light is natural to Man, and belongs to the in­tegrity of the body: Who would argue, that because some men are mad and h [...]ve lost their reason by a distemper of the brain, that therefore reason hath no reality, but is an imaginary thing? But I think it is a standing truth, that every man hath been under the scourge of it, one time or other, in a less or greater degree: For since every man is an offender, it cannot be imagined, Conscience which is natural to man and an active faculty, should always lie idle, without doing this part of its office? The Apostle tells us of the thoughts, accusing or excusing one another, (or by turns) according as the actions were. Nor is this truth weakned by the corruptions in the world, where­by many have thought themselves bound in Conscience to adhere to a false and su­perstitious worship and Idolatry, as much as any have thought themselves bound to adhere to a Worship commanded by God. This very thing infers that all men have a reflecting principle in them; it is no argument against the being of Conscience, but only inferrs that it may Err in the application of what it naturally owns. We can no more say, that because some men walk by a false rule, there is no such thing as Conscience, than we can say that because men have Errors in their minds, there­fore they have no such faculty as an Understanding; or because men will that which is evil, they have no such faculty as a Will in them.

2. These operations of Conscience, are when the wickedness is most secret. These tormenting fears of Vengeance, have been frequent in men, who have had no reason to fear man, since their wickedness being unknown to any but themselves, they could have no accuser but themselves. They have been in many acts which their companions have justified them in: Persons above the stroak of human laws, yea such as the people have honoured as Gods, have been haunted by them. Conscience hath not been frighted by the power of Princes, or brib'd by the pleasures of Courts: David was pursued by his horrors, when he was by reason of his dignity above the punishment by the Law, or at least was not reacht by the Law; since though the Murder of Ʋriah was intended by him, it was not acted by him. Such examples are frequent in human Records: When the crime hath been above any punishment by man, they have had an Accuser, Judge and Executioner in their own breasts: Can this be originally from a mans self? He who loves and cherishes himself, would fly from any thing that disturbs him: Tis 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 supream Judge, to whom they were to give an account, whose instrument Conscience is? Doth it do this of it self; hath it received an Au­thority from the man himself to sting him? It is some supream power, that doth direct and commission it against our Wills.

3. These operations of Conscience cannot be totally shaken off by Man. If there [...] no God, why do not men silence the clamors of their Consciences, and scatter th [...]e fears that disturb 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 themselves, though they walk in the wickedness of their own hearts: De [...] How often do men attempt to drown it by sensual pleasures, and perhaps over-power it for a time; but it revives, reinforceth it self and Acts a re­venge for its former stop. It holds sin to a mans view, and fixes his eyes upon it, whether he will or no: The wicked are like a troubled Sea, and cannot rest, Isa. 57.20. They would wallow in sin without controul, but this inward principle will not suffer it; nothing can shelter men from those 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 power to deliver himself? why have all human remedies been without success; and not able to extinguish those 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 [Page 36] used against it, and renewed its scourges 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 must strip himself of his humanity before he can be stript of an accusing and affrighting Conscience; It sticks as close to him as his nature: Since man cannot throw out the Process it makes against him, tis an evidence that some higher power secures its Throne and standing: Who should put this scourge into the hand of Conscience, which no man in the World is able to wrest out?

4. We may add, the comfortable reflections of Conscience. There are excusing as well as accusing reflections of Conscience, when things are done as works of the law of nature, Rom. 2.15. As it doth not forbear to accuse and torture, when a wickedness though unknown to others is committed; So when a man hath done well, though he be attackt with all the calumnies the wit of man can forge, yet his Conscience justifies the action, and fills him with a singular contentment. As there is torture in sinning, so there is peace and joy in well doing: Neither of those it could do, if it did not understand a Soveraign 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. Heb. 11.6.

This proves the Existence of God: If there were no God, Conscience were useless; the operations of it 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 Goodness of God: All the order in the world owes it self, 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 evidenceth it self 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 it self, in its deputed office: We must come to some supream Judge, who can Judge Conscience it self. As a man can have no surer evidence, that he is a being, than because he thinks; he is a thinking being: So there is no surer evidence in nature, that there is a God, than that every man hath a natural principle in him, which continually cites him before God, and puts him in mind of him, and makes him one way or other fear him, and reflects upon him whether he will or no: A man hath less power over his Conscience, than over any other faculty: He may choose whether he will exercise his understanding about, or move his will to such an object, but he hath no such Authority over his Conscience; he cannot limit it, or cause it to cease from acting and reflecting; and therefore both that, and the law about which it acts, are settled by some supream Authority in the mind of man, and this is God.

Fourthly, IV. 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 Soveraign 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 glimps of; but what we find wanting in what we al­ready enjoy. That which the desire of man is most naturally carryed after, is Bo­num; some fully satisfying good. We desire knowledge by the sole impulse of rea­son; but we desire Good before the excitement of reason, and the desire is always after Good, but not always after Knowledge.

Now the Soul of man finds an imperfection in every thing here, and cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity. In the highest fruitions of worldly things, tis still pursuing something else, which speaks a defect in what it already hath. The world may afford a felicity for our dust, the body, but not for the inhabi­tant in it; tis two mean for that. Is there any one Soul among the Sons of men, [Page 37] that can upon a due enquiry say, it was at rest and wanted no more, that hath not sometimes had desires after an immaterial Good? The Soul follows hard after such a thing, and hath frequent looks after it, Psal. 63.8. 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 have those desires? How came it to understand that something is still wanting to make its nature more perfect; if there were not in it some notion of a more perfect being, which can give it rest?

Can such a capacity be supposed to be in it without something in being able to satisfie 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. 104.28. 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 well as affections for objects. Every Member of his body hath its end, and doth attain it. Every affection of his Soul hath an object, and that in this World, and shall there be none for his desire, which comes nearest to infinite of any affection planted in him? This boundless desire had not its original from man himself: Nothing would render it self 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 without it, and be more in vain than any other Creature.

There is therefore some infinite being that can only give a contentment to the Soul, and this is God. And that goodness which implanted such desires in the Soul, would not do it to no purpose, and mock it in giving it an infinite desire of satis­faction, without intending it the pleasure of enjoyment, if it doth not by its own folly deprive it self of it. The felicity of human nature must needs exceed that which is allotted to other Creatures.

4. And last Reason. Fourth Reason. As tis a folly to deny that which all Nations in the World have consented to, which the frame of the world evidenceth, which man in his Body, Soul, Operations of Conscience witnesseth to: So tis a folly to deny the Being of God, which is witnessed unto by extraordinary occurrences in the world.

1. In extraordinary Judgments. When a just revenge follows abominable crimes, especially when the Judgment is suted to the sin, by a strange Concatenation and succession of Providences, methodized to bring such a particular punishment; When the sin of a Nation or person is made legible in the inflicted 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. Psal. 9.16. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes, the wick­ed is snared in the work of his own hand. And Jealousy is the name of God, Exod. 34.14. Whose name is Jealous: He is distinguisht from 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 Judgments, and presages of the particular Judgments which after­wards they have felt, of which the Roman Histories, and others are full. That there are such things is undeniable, and that the events have been answerable to the threatning, unless we will throw away all human Testimonies, and count all the Histories of the World Forgeries. Such things are evidences of some invisible Power which orders those affairs. And if there be invisible Powers, there is also an effica­cious cause which moves them: A Government certainly there is among them, as well as in the world, and then we must come to some supream Governour 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.Lib. 19. Antiq. Act. 12.21.22.23. He receives the flattering applause of the people, and thought himself a God. But by the suddain stroak 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 [Page 38] will of the Heavenly Deity is to be endured. The Angel of the Lord smote him. The Judgment here was suted to the sin; he that would be a God is eaten up of Worms, the vilest Creatures. Tully Hostilius, a Roman King, who counted it the most un­royal thing to be Religious, or own any other God but his Sword, was consu­med himself and his whole House by Lightning 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 confirme a lie, and immediatly have been struck with that Judgement they wished: The raising often unexpected persons to be instruments of Vengeance on a sinful and perfidious Nation: The overturning the deepest and surest Counsels of men, when they have had a succesful progress and came to the very point of execution; the whole designe of mens preservation hath been beaten in peices by some un­foreseen circumstance, so that Judgments have broken in upon them without con­troul, and all their subtilties been out-witted. The strange crossing of some in their Estates, though the most wise, industrious and frugal persons, and that by strange and unexpected wayes: And it is observable how often every thing con­tributes to carry on a Judgment intended, as if they rationally designed it. All those loudly proclaim a God in the world: If there were no God, there would be no sin; if no sin, there would be no punishment.

2. In Miracles. The course of nature is uniforme; and when it is put out of its course, it must be by some superior power invisible to the world; and by whatso­ever invisible instruments they are wrought, the efficacy of them must depend up­on some first cause above nature. Psal. 72.18. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only doth wondrous things, by himself and his sole power.

That which cannot be the result of a natural cause, must be the result of some­thing supernatural: What is beyond the reach of nature, is the effect of a power superior to nature. For it is quite against the order of nature, and is the eleva­tion of something to such a pitch, which all nature could not advance it to. Na­ture cannot go beyond its own limits: If it be determined by another, as hath been formerly proved, it cannot lift it self above it self, without that power, that so determined it. Natural agents act necessarily: The Sun doth necessarily shine, fire doth necessarilly burn. That cannot be the result of nature, which is above the Ability of nature. That cannot be the work of nature, which is against the order of nature: Nature cannot do any thing against it self, or invert its own course

We must own that such things have been, or we must accuse all the Records of former ages to be a pack of lies; which whosoever doth, destroys the greatest and best part of human knowledge. The Miracles mentioned in the Scripture, wrought by our Saviour, are acknowledged by the Heathen, by the Jews at this day, though his greatest enemies. There is no dispute whether such things were wrought, the dead raised, the blind restored to sight. The Heathens have acknowledged the Miraculous Eclipse of the Sun, at the Passion of Christ, quite against the rule of nature, the Moon being then in opposition to the Sun. The propagation of Christianity contrary to the methods whereby other Religions have been propaga­ted, that in a few years the Nations of the world should be sprinkled with this Doctrine, and give in a greater Catalogue of Martyrs courting the devouring flames, than all the Religions of the world.

To this might be added, the strange hand that was over the Jews, the only people in the world professing the true God, that should so often be befriended by their Conquerors, so as to rebuild their Temple, though they were looked up­on as a people apt to rebel. Dion and Seneca observe, that whereever they were transplanted, they prospered and gave laws to the Victors: So that this proves also the Authority of the Scripture, the truth of Christian Religion, as well as the being of a God, and a superior power over the world.

To this might be added, the bridling the tumultuous passions of men for the preservation of human societies, which else would run the world into uncon­ceivable confusions, Psal. 65.7. Which stilleth the noise of the Sea, and the tu­mults of the people. As also the Miraculous deliverance of a person or Nation, [Page 39] when upon the very brink of ruin; The suddain 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 ruine which seem­ed inevitable, by unexpected ways.

3. Accomplishments of Prophecies. Those things which are purely contingent, and cannot be known by Natural signs and in their causes, as Ecclipses and changes in Nations, which may be discerned by an observation of the signs of the 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. 41.23. Sh [...]w the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are God, and Isa. 46.10. 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 will do all my pleasure. And Prophecy was consent­ed to by all the Philosophers to be from Divine illumination: That power which discovers things future, which all the foresight of men cannot kenn and conjecture, is above nature. And to foretel 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 present and past. Cyrus was Prophesied of by Esay. ch. 44.28. & 45.1. long before he was born: His Victories, Spoils, all that should happen in Babylon, his bounty to the Jews came to pass, according to that Prophecy; and the sight of that Prophecy which the Jews shew­ed him, as other Historians report, was that which moved him to be favour­able to the Jews.

Alexanders sight of Daniels Prophecy concerning his Victories moved him to spare Jerusalem. And are not the four Monarchies plainly deciphered in that Book, be­fore the fourth rose up in the world? That power which foretells things beyond 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 world, sustains it and governs all things in it according to his pleasure, and to bring about his own ends; And this Being is God.

Ʋse 1 1. If Atheism be a folly; Tis then pernicious to the World, and to the Atheist him­self. Wisdom is the band of human societies, the glory of Man. Folly is the distur­ber of Families, Cites, Nations: The disgrace of human nature.

First, I. Tis pernicious to the World.

1. It would root out the foundations of Government. It demolisheth all order in Nations. The being of a God is the guard of the world: The sense of a God is the foundation of Civil order; without this there is no tye 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 would be a heap of confusion; there could be no ground of any commerce, when all the sacred bands of it in the Consciences of men were snapt asunder, which are torne to peices and utterly destroyed by denying the Existence of God: What Ma­gistrate could be secure in his standing, what private person could be secure in his right?Lessius de Provid. p. 665. Can that then be a truth that is destructive of all publick good? If the A­theists sentiment, that there were no God, were a truth; and the contrary that there were a God, were a falsity; It would then follow, that falsity made men good and serviceable to one another: That error were the foundation of all the beauty and or­der and outward felicity of the world; the fountain of all good to man. If there were no God, to believe there is one, would be an error, and to beleive there is none would be the greatest wisdom, because it would be the greatest truth. And then as it is the greatest wisdom to fear God, upon the apprehension of his Exist­ence;Psal. 111.1 [...]. So it would be the greatest error to fear him, if there were none. It would unquestionably follow, that Error is the support of the world, the spring of all human advantages; and that every part of the world were obliged to a falsity for being a quiet habitation, which is the most absur'd thing to imagine. Tis a thing impossible to be tolerated by any Prince, without laying an Axe to the root of the Government.

2. It would introduce all evil into the World. If you take away God, you take a­way [Page 40] Conscience, and thereby all measures and rules of good and evil. And how could any Laws be made when the measure and standard of them were removed? All good Laws are founded upon the dictates of Conscience and reason, upon com­mon sentiments in human nature, which spring from a sense of God: So that if the foundation be demolisht, the whole superstructure must tumble down: A man might be a Thief, a Murderer, an Adulterer, and could not in a strict sense be an offen­der. The worst of actions could not be evil, if a man were a God to himself, a Law to himself. Nothing but evil deserves a Censure, and nothing would be evil, if there were no God, the Rector of the world against whom evil is properly committed: No man can make that morally evil that is not so in it self. As where there is a faint sense of God, the heart is more strongly inclin'd to wickedness; so where there is no sense of God, the bars are re­moved, the flood-gates set open for all wickedness to rush in upon mankind. Religion pinions men from abominable practices, and restrains them from being Slaves to their own passions: An Atheists arms would be loose to do any thing.Lessius de Provid. p. 664. Nothing so villanous and unjust but would be Acted if the natural fear of a Deity were extinguisht. The first consequence issuing from the apprehension of the Ex­istence of God, is his Government of the world. If there be no God, then the natural consequence is that there is no supream Government of the world: Such a Notion would cashiere all sentiments of good, and be like a Trojan Horse, whence all impurity, tyranny and all sorts of mischeifs would break out upon mankind: Corruption and abominable works in the text are the fruit of the fools perswa­sion that there is no God. The perverting the ways of men, oppression and ex­tortion owe their rise to a forgetfulness of God. Jer. 3.21. They have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God. Ezek. 22.12. Thou hast greedily gained by extortion and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord. The whole Earth would be filled with violence, all flesh would corrupt their way, as it was before the deluge, when probably Atheism did abound more than Idolatry; and if not a disowning the being, yet denying the Providence of God by the posterity of Cain: Those of the Family of Seth only calling upon the name of the Lord, Gen. 6.11.12. com­pared, which Gen. 4.26.

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.Iessius de Provid. p. 665. If there were no God, Blasphemy would be praise-worthy: As the reproach of Idols is praise-worthy, because we testifie that there is no Di­vinity in them. What can be more contemptible than that which hath no being? Sin would be only a false opinion of a violated Law, and an offended Deity. If such appresensions prevail, what a wide door is opened to the worst of villanies? If there be no God, no respect is due to him; all the Religion in the world is a trifle, and Error, and thus the Pillars of all human society, and that which hath made Common-wealths to flourish, are blown away.

Secondly, 2: Tis 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, without any imaginations of so much as a dram of reserved hapiness. He is in a worse condition than the filliest 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, which was to serve a God and have a satisfaction in him, to seek a God and be re­warded 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, moveing according to its natural instinct: As it is a joy to the Sun to run its race: Psal. 19.5. 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, opposeth his own nature, denies a God by whom and for whom he was Created, whose Image he bears, which is the Glory of his nature; and sinks into the very, dregs of bruitishness? How elegantly is it described by Bildad, Job. 18.7.8. &c. to the end. his own Counsel shall cast him down, terrors shall make him afraid on every side, destruction shall be ready at his side, the first born of Death shall devour his strength, his confidence shall be rooted [Page 41] 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 before were af­frighted: and this is the place of him that knows not God. Ver. 21, If there be a future recko­ning, (as his own Conscience cannot but sometimes inform him of) his condition is desperate, and his misery dreadful and unavoidable: Tis not righteous a Hell should entertain any else, if it refuse him.

Ʋse 2 2. How lamentable is it, that in our times this folly of Atheism should be so rise? That there should be found such Monsters in human nature, in the midst of the improvements of Reason, and shinings of the Gospel, who not only make the Scripture the matter of their Jeers, but Scoff at the Judgments and Providences of God in the World, and envy their Creator a being, without whose goodness they had had none themselves; who contradict in their carriage what they assert to be their sentiment, when they dreadfully imprecate damnation to themselves? Whence should that damnation they so rashly wish, be poured forth upon them, if there were not a revenging God? Formerly Atheism was as rare as prodigious, scarce two or three known in an age. * And those that are reported to be so in former ages, are rather thought to be counted so, for mocking at the senceless Deities, the common people ador'd, and laying open their impurities. A meer 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,As Justin in­f [...]rm us. since the Christians were termed [...], because they acknowledged not their vain Idols.

I question whether there ever was, or can be in the world, an uninterrupted and in­ternal denyal 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 despoile 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 denyed with a bare face, and disputed against in Com­panies; And the Glory of a wise Creator ascribed to an unintelligent nature, to blind chance? are not such worse then Heathens? They worshipped many Gods, these none: They preserved a notion of God in the world under a disguise of I­mages: These would banish him both from Earth and Heaven, and demolish the Statues of him in their own Consciences: They degraded him, these would de­stroy him: They coupled Creatures with him; Rom 1.25. Who worshipped the Crea­ture with the Creator, as it may most properly be rendred: And these would make him worse than the Creature, a meer nothing. Earth is hereby become worse than Hell. Atheism is a perswasion, which finds no footing any where else. Hell that receives such persons, in this point reforms them: They can never deny or doubt of his being, while they feel his stroaks. The Devil that rejoyces at their wickedness, knows them to be in an error; for he believes and trembles at the belief. Jam. 2.19. This is a forerunner of Judgment: Boldness in sin is a presage of vengeance, especially when the honour of God is more particularly concern'd therein. It tends to the overtur­ning human society, taking off the Bridle from the wicked inclinations of men. And God appears not in such visible Judgments against sin immediately commit­ted against himself, as in the case of those sins that are destructive to human society. Besides, God as Governor of the world will uphold that, without which all his ordinances in the world would be useless. Atheism is point blank against all the Glory of God in Creation, and against all the glory of God in Redemption, and pronounceth at one breath, both the Creator, and all Acts of Religion and Divine Institutions useless and insignificant.

Since most have had one time or other, some risings of doubt, whether there be a God, tho few do in expressions deny his being, it may not be unnecessary to propose somethings for the further impressing this truth, and guarding themselves against such temptations.

1. Tis utterly impossible to demonstrate there is no God. He can choose no Me­dium, [Page 42] but will fall in as a proof for his Existence, and a manifestation of his excel­lency, rather than against it. The pretences of the Atheist are so ridiculous, that they are not worth the mentioning.

They never saw God, and therefore know not how to believe such a Being; they cannot comprehend him. He would not be God, if he could fall within the narrow Model of an humane Understanding: He would not be infinite, if he were comprehensible, or to be terminated by our sight. How small a thing must that be which is seen by a bodily Eye, or graspt by a weak 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 saw his own Life? Is it sufficient to deny a man lives, because he beholds not his Life, and only knows it by his motion? He never saw his own Soul, but knows he hath one by his thinking power: The Air renders it self sensible to Men in its Operations, yet was never seen by the eye.

If God should render Himself visible, they might question as well as now, whether that which was so visible, were God or some delusion. If he should appear glorious, we can as little behold him in his Majestick Glory, as an Owl can behold the Sun in its brightness; we should still but see him in his Effects, as we do the Sun by his Beams. If he should shew 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. 6.16. He dwels in the Light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see. 'Tis visibe that he is, for he covers himself with Light as with a Garment, Psal. 104.2. 'Tis invisible what he is, for he makes Darkness his seceret place, Psal. 18.11. 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 likeness of Events to him that is righteous and him that is wicked, to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not, Eccles. 9.2. It is an Argument for a reserve of Judgment in another State, which every mans Conscience dictates to him; when the Justice of God shallbe 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 disingage himself from those Arguments which evince the Being of a God. He that would make the natural Religion professed in the world a meer Romance, must give the lye to the common sense of Mankind; he must be at an irreconcileable enmi­ty with his own Reason, resolve to hear nothing that it speaks, if he will not hear what it speaks in this case, with a greater evidence than it can ascertain any thing else. God hath so setled himself in the reason of Man, that he must vilify the noblest Faculty God hath given him, and put off Nature it self 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 suddain Prodigy hath presented it self 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 extinguisht, but they will revive and rush upon a Man, at least under some sharp [Page 43] affliction. Amazing judgments will make them question their own apprehensions. God sends some Messengers to keep alive the apprehension of him as a Judg, while men resolve not to own or reverence him as a Governour. 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 will preserve the scent of it, whatsoever liquors are afterwards put into it.

4. What is it for which such men rack their wits, to form Notions, that there is no God? Is it not that they would indulge some vitious habit, which hath gained the possession of their Soul, which they know cannot be favoured by that holy God, whose Notion they would raze outPsal. 94.6.7.? Is it not for some brutish affection, as degene­rative of human Nature, as derogatory to the Glory of God; a lust as unmanly as sinful?

The terrours of God are the effects of guilt; and therefore men would wear out the apprehensions of a Deity, that they might be brutish without controul. They would 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 which really is one! There is more pains and toughness of Soul requisite to shake off the apprehensions of God, than to beleive that he is, and cleave constantly to him. What a madness is it in any to take so much pains to be less than a man, by razing out the apprehensions of God, when with less pains, he may be more than an earthly man, by cherishing the notions of God, and walking answerably thereunto.

5. How unreasonable is it for any man to hazard himself at this rate in the denial of a God? The Atheist saith he knows not that there is a God; but may he not rea­sonably think, there may be one for ought he knows? and if there be, what a desperate confusion will he be in, when all his bravado's shall prove false? What can they gain by such an Opinion? a freedom say they from the burdensome yoke of Conscience, a liberty to do what they list: that doth not subject them to Divine Laws. 'Tis an hard matter to perswade any that they can gain this. They can gain but a sordid pleasure, unworthy the Nature of Man. But it were well, that such would argue thus 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 beleiving there is one. If I be deceived at last, and find a God, can I think to be rewarded by him, for disowning him? Do not I run a desperate hazard to lose his favour, his Kingdom and endless felicity, for an endless torment? By confessing a God I venture no loss; but by denying him I run the most desperate hazard, if there be one.

He is not a reasonable Creature, that will not put himself upon such a reasonable arguing.

What a doleful meeting will there be between the God who is denyed, and the Atheist that denyes him, who shall meet with reproaches on Gods 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 errour, as undoubtedly he is.

6. Can any such person say he hath done all that he can to inform himself of the being of God, or of other things which he denyes? Or rather they would fain imagine there is none, that they may sleep securely in their lusts and be free (if they could) from the thunder-claps of Conscience? Can such say they have used their utmost indea­vours to instruct themselves in this, and can meet with no satisfaction? Were it an abstruse Truth it might not be wondred at: but not to meet with satisfaction in this which every thing minds us of, and helpeth, is the fruit of an extream negli­gence, stupidity, and a willingness to be unsatisfied, and a judicial process of God against them. 'Tis strange any man should be so dark in that upon which depends the conduct of his life, and the expectation of happiness hereafter.

I do not know what some of you may think, but I beleive these things are not useless to be proposed for our selves to answer temptations: We know not what wicked temptation in a debauched and sceptick Age, meeting with a corrupt heart, may prompt men to: And tho there may not be any Atheist here present, yet I know there is more than one, who have accidentally met with such, who openly denyed a Deity. And if the like occasion happen, these considerations may not be [Page 44] unuseful to apply to their Consciences. But I must confess, that since those that live in this sentiment, do not judg themselves worthy of their own care, they are not worthy of the 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 willfully hug this prodigious frenzy.

Ʋse 3 If it be the Atheists folly to deny or doubt of the being of God, 'Tis our wisedom to be firmly settled in this Truth, That God is. We should never be without our Arms in an Age wherein Atheism appears bare fac'd without a disguise.

You may meet with suggestions to it; though the Devil formerly never attempt­ed to demolish this notion in the World, but was willing to keep it up, so the wor­ship due to God might run in his own Channel; and was necessitated to preserve it, without which he could not have erected that Idolatry, which was his great de­sign in opposition to God: yet since the Foundations of that are torn up, and ne­ver like to be rebuilt, he may indeavour, 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. But we must not lay all upon Satan; the corruption of our own hearts ministers matter to such Sparks. 'Tis 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, silence them quickly, give them their dismiss; oppose the whole Scheme of Nature to sight against them, as the Stars did against Sisera. Stir up sentiments of Conscience to oppose sentiments of corrup­tion. Resolve sooner to believe, that your selves 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 contrary, to what he suggests. Settle this principle firmly in you, let us behold Him that is invisible, as Moses did: Heb. 11.27. Let us have the sentiments following upon the Notion of a God; to be restrained by a fear of him, excited by a love to him, not to violate his Laws and offend his Goodness. He is not a God careless of our actions, negligent to inflict punishment, and bestow re­wards, he forgets not the labor of our love, Heb. 6.10. nor the integrity of our ways: He were not a God, if he were not a Governor: And punishments and rewards are as es­sential to Government, as a Foundation to a building: His being and his Govern­ment in rewarding, which implies punishment, (for the neglects of him are linkt to­gether,) Heb. 11.6. 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 shall pay him no steady wor­ship; and if we believe not the excellency of his nature, we shall offer him but a slight service.Mal. 1.13.14. The Jews Maimon. funda. Legis cap. 1. call the knowledge of the being of God, The Foun­dation and Pillar of wisdom. The whole frame of Religion is dissolved without this apprehension, and totters if this apprehension be wavering. Religion in the heart is as water in a weather glass which riseth or falls according to the strength or weakness of this belief: How can any man worship that which he beleives not to be, or doubts of? Could any man omit the paying a homage to one, whom he did beleive to be an Omnipotent, Wise Being, possessing, (infinitely above our conceptions) the perfections of all Creatures? He must either think there is no such being, or that he is an easy drowsy inobservant God, and not such a one as our na­tural Notions of him, if listened to, as well as the Scripture, represents him to be.

2. Without being rooted in this, we cannot order our lives. All our baseness, stu­pidity, dulness, wandrings, vanity spring from a wavering and unsetledness in this principle. This gives ground to brutish pleasures, not only to sollicite, but con­quer us. Abraham expected violence in any place where God was not owned, Gen. 20.11. Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my Wises sake. The natural knowledge of God firmly imprest, would choak that which would stifle our reason and deface our Souls. The beleif that God is, and what he is, would have a mighty influence to perswade us to a real Religion, and serious Consideration, and casting about how to be like to him and united with him.

3. Without it we cannot have any comfort of our Lives. Who would willingly live [Page 45] in a stormy world, void of a God? If we waver in this Principle, to whom should we make our complaints in our afflictions? Where should we meet with supports? How could we satisfy our selves with the hopes of a future Happiness? There is a Sweetness in the Meditation of his Existence, and that he is a Creator. Psal. 104.24. Thoughts of other things have a Bitterness mixed with them: Houses, Lands, Children now are, shortly they will not be; but God is, that made the World: His Faithfullness as he is a Creator, is a Ground to deposite our Souls and Concerns in our innocent Suf­ferings. 1 Pet. 4.19. So far as we are weak in the acknowledgment of God, we deprive our selves of our content in the veiw of his infinite perfections.

4. Without the rooting of this Principle, we cannot have a firm beleif of Scripture. The Scripture will be a slight thing to one that hath weak sentiments of God. The Belief of a God must necessarily precede the Belief of any Revelation; The latter cannot take place without the former as the foundation. We must firmly beleive the Being of a God, wherein our Happiness doth consist, before we can beleive any means which conduct us to him: Moses begins with the Author of Creation, be­fore he treats of the Promise of Redemption. Paul preached God as a Creator to a University, before he preached Christ as Mediator.Acts 17.24. What influence can the Te­stimony of God have in his Revelation upon one that doth not firmly assent to the truth of his Being? All would be in vain that is so often repeated [thus saith the Lord] if we do not beleive there is a Lord that speaks it. There could be no aw from his Soveraignity in his Commands, nor any comfortable taste of his Goodness in his Promises. The more we are strengthened in this Principle, the more credit we shall be able to give to divine Revelation, to rest in his Promise, and to reverence his Precept; the Authority of all depends upon the Being of the Revealer.

To this purpose, since we have handled this discourse by natural Arguments,

1. Study God in the Creatures as well as in the Scriptures. The primary use of the Creatures, is to acknowledge God in them; they were made to be witnesses of him­self and his Goodness, and Heralds of his Glory, which Glory of God as Creator shall endure for ever, Psal. 104.31. that whole Psalm is a Lecture of Creation and Providence. The World is a sacred Temple; Man is introduced to contemplate it, and behold with 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 shewn himself in his Creatures, he could never have shewn himself in his Christ: The order of things required it. God must be read where ever he is legible; The Creatures are one book, wherein he hath writ a part of the excellency of his name, Psal. 8.9. as many Artists do in their Works and Watches. Gods Glory like the Fi­lings of Gold is too precious to be lost where ever 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 hic etiam Dij, God dis­dains not this place: So the least Creature speaks to Man, every Shrub in the Field, every Fly in the Air, every Limbin a Body; consider me, God disdains not to ap­pear in me; he hath discovered in me his Being and a part of his Skill, 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 Object of Love, raising our hearts from self confidence to a confidence 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 view God; it had been in vain else for the Apostle to make use of natural Arguments: Nature is not contrary to Scripture, nor Scripture to Nature; unless 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 of his Good­ness, though no sight of his Essence.Psal. 34.98. By the taste of his Goodness you may know the reality of the fountain, whence it springs and from whence it flows: This sur­passeth the greatest Capacity of a meer natural Understanding. Experience of the sweetness of the ways of Christianity is a mighty preservative against Atheism. Ma­ny a Man knows not how to prove Hony to be sweet by his reason, but by his sense; and if all the reason in the world be brought against it, he will not be reasoned out of what he tasts.

Have not many found the delightful illappses of God into their Souls, often sprink­led [Page 46] with his inward blessings upon their seeking of him; had secret warnings in their approaches to him; and gentle rebukes in their Consciences upon their swer­vings from him? Have not many found sometimes an invisible hand raising them up when they were dejected; some unexpected providence stepping in for their relief; and easily perceived that it could not be a work of chance, nor many times the intention of the instruments he hath used in it? You have often found that he is, by finding that he is a rewarder, and can set to your seals that he is what he hath declared himself to be in his word, Isa. 43.12. 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 supream and infinitely good being, than all nature.

Ʋse 4 4. Is it a folly to deny or doubt of the being of God? Tis a folly also not to wor­ship God, when we acknowledge his Existence: Tis our Wisdom then to Worship him. As it is not indifferent whether we beleive there is a God or no: So it is not indif­ferent whether we will give Honour to that God or no. A worship is his right as he is the Author of our being, and fountain of our happiness. By this only we ac­knowledge his Deity: Tho we may profess his being, yet we deny that profession in neglects of worship. To deny him a Worship is as a great folly, as to deny his being. He that renounceth all homage to his Creator, envies him the being which he cannot deprive him of. The natural inclination to worship is as universal as the Notion of a God; Idolatry else had never gained footing in the world. The Existence of God was never owned in any Nation, but a Worship of him was ap­pointed. And many people who have turned their backs upon some other parts of the Law of nature, have paid a continual homage to some superior and invisible being. The Jews give a Reason why Man was Created in the Evening of the Sab­bath, because he should begin his being with the worship of his Maker. As soon as ever he found himself to be a Creature, his first solemn act, should be a particu­lar respect to his Creator.Eccl. 12. To fear God and keep his Commandment, is the whole of man, or isHeb. whole man; he is not a man but a beast, without observance of God. Religion is as requisite as reason to compleat a man: He were not reasonable if he were not Religious; because by neglecting Religion, he neglects the chiefest dictate of reason. Either God framed the world with so much Order, Elegancy, and variety to no purpose, or this was his end at least, that reasonable Creatures should admire him in it, and Honour him for it. The Notion of God was not stampt upon men, the shadows of God did not appear in the Creatures, to be the Subject of an idle contemplation, but the motive of a due homage to God: He Created the world for his glory, a people for himself, that he might have the Honour of his works: That since we live and move in him and by him, we should live and move to him and for him. It was the condemnation of the Heathen world, that when they knew there was a God, they did not give him the Glory due to him.Rom. 1.21. He that denyes his being is an Atheist to his essence: He that denyes his worship is an Atheist to his Honour.

5. If it be a folly to deny the being of God, It will be our Wisdom then, since we acknowledge his being, often to think of him. Thoughts are the first issue of a Creature as reasonable:Pro. 4.23. He that hath given us the faculty whereby we are able to think, should be the principal object about which the power of it should be exercised. Tis a Justice to God the Author of our understandings, a Justice to the nature of our understandings, that the noblest faculty should be imployed 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 misimploying the activity of them any other way: like Flies to be oftner on Dunghils than Flowers.

Tis made the black mark of an ungodly Man or an Atheist, that God is not in all his thoughts, Psal. 10.4. What comfort can be had in the being of God with­out thinking of him with Reverence and delight? A God forgotten is as good as no God to us.

Doct. 2. 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 heart, not with 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 sometimes some doubts whether there were a God or no: He wished there were not any, and sometimes hoped there were none at all: He could not rase out the Notion of a Deity in his mind, but he neglected the fixing the sence of God in his heart, and made it too much his business to de­face and blot out those Characters of God in his Soul, which had been left under the ruines 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 affection to the Deity: Jobs Children may curse God in their hearts, tho not with their lips.Job. 1.5.

There is no God. Most understand it of a denial of the Providence 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.So the Chalde reads. [...] Non potestas, denying the authority of God in the world.

He that denies any essential Attribute, may be said to deny the being of God. Whosoever denies Angels or men to have Reason and Will, denies the human and Angelical nature, because Understanding and Will are essential to both those Na­tures; there could neither be Angel nor Man without them. No Nature can sub­sist without the perfections essential to that Nature, nor God be conceived of with­out His: The Apostle tells us, Eph. 2.12. that the Gentiles were without God in the World: So in some sence all unbelievers may be termed Atheists; for rejecting the Mediator appointed by God, they reject that God who appointed him.

But this is beyond the intended scope; Natural Atheism being the only subject: Yet this is deducible from it. That the title of [...], doth not only belong to those who deny the Existence of God, or to those who contemn all sence of a Deity, and would root the Conscience and Reverence of God out of their Souls: But [Page 48] it belongs also to these 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 of his Nature: All those that are uncon­cerned for any particular Religion, fall under this Character. Though they own a God in general, yet are willing to acknowledge any God that shall be coined by the powers under whom they live. The Gentiles were without God in the world; without the true Notion of God, not without a God of their own framing.

This general or practical Atheism is natural to men.

1. Not natural by Created, but by corrupted Nature: Tis against nature, as nature came out of the hand of God: But universaly natural, as nature hath been sophisti­cated and infected by the Serpents 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 common reason. God is not denied naturâ, sed vitiis. Augustin de Civit. Dei.

2. Tis universally natural: The wicked are estranged from the Womb, Psa. 58.3. They go astray as soon as they be born, their poyson is like the poyson of a Serpent. The wicked: And who by his birth hath a better title? They go astray from the dictates of God and the rule of their Creation as soon as ever they be born; Their poyson is like the poyson of a Serpent, which is radically the same in all of the sames species. Tis 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 mans heart is distant from God: When we attempt any thing pleasing to God, tis like the climb­ing up a Hill, against nature; when any thing is displeasing to him, tis 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 Armes in our hands through a multitude of natural passions, and fight the way through the oppositions of our own sensitive appetite. How softly do we naturally sink down into that which sets us at a greater distance from God? There is no active, potent, efficacious sence of a God by nature. The heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil, Eccl. 8.11. The heart in the singular number; as if there were but one Common heart beat in all mankind, and bent as with own pulse, with a joynt consent and force to wickedness, without a sence of the Authority of God in the Earth; as if one heart acted every Man in the world.

The great Apostle cites the Text to verefie the charge he brought against all man­kind.Rom. 3.9, 10.11.12. In his interpretation, the Jews, who owned one God, and were dignified with special priviledges, as well as the Gentiles that maintained many Gods, are within the compass of this Character: The Apostle leaves out the first part of the Text, the fool hath said in his heart, but takes in the latter part, and the verses fol­lowing: He charges all, because all, every man of them was under sin: There is none that seeks God, and ver. 19. He adds what the law saith, it speaks to those that are un­der the Law. That none should imagine he included only the Gentiles and exemp­ted the Jews from this description. The Leprosie of Atheism had infected the whole Mass of human nature: No Man among Jews or Gentiles did naturally seek God; and therefore all were void of any spark of the practical sence of the Deity. The effects of this Atheism are not in all externally of an equal size: Yet in the fundamentals and radicals of it, there is not a hairs difference between the best and the worst men that ever traversed the world. The distinction is laid either in common Grace, bounding and suppressing it; or in special Grace killing and cruci­fying it. Tis 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 seeks after God. Coccei. 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 own filth better than Gods Holiness; his actions are tinctured, and dyed with self, and are void of that respect which is due from him to God.

The noblest Faculty of Man, 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, whiles it is earth­ly and sensual Jam. 3.15.: and the Wisdom of the best man is no better by Nature; a legion of impure Spirits possess it. Devilish, as the Devil, who though he believe there is a God, yet acts as if there were none, and wishes he had no Superior to prescribe him a Law, and inflict that punishment upon him which his Crimes have merited. Hence the Poyson of Man by Nature is said to be like the Poyson 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.Psal. 58.4. 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 reasonings of Man are so corrupt, as may well be called Diabolical, and as contrary to the Perfection of God and the original Law of their Nature, as the act­ings of the Devil are: For since every natural Man is a Child of the Devil, and is acted by the Diabolical Spirit, he must needs have that Nature which his Father hath, and the Infusion of that Venom which the Spirit that acts him, is possessed with; though the full Discovery of it may be restrained by various Circumstances, Eph. 2.2. To conclude, though no man, or at least very few arrive to a round and positive Conclusion in their hearts that there is no God, yet there is no man that naturally hath in his heart any reverence of God.

In general, before I come to a particular Proof, take some Propositions.

Proposition 1. 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 mens 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, according to our common saying: All outward Impieties are the branches of an Atheism at the root of our Nature, as all pestilential sores are expressions of the Contagion in the Blood. Sin is therefore frequently called Ungodliness in our English Dialect. Mens Practices are the best Indexes of their Principles: The Current of a Mans Life, is the counter-part 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 Atheism in the Heart, when so much is visible in the Life? The Tast of the water discovers what Mineral 'tis 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 predominant evil Principle in the Heart: All slighting words of a Prince do not argue an habitual Treason, but a succession of overt treasonable Attempts signifie a setled treasonable disposition in the Mind: Those therefore are more deservedly termed Atheists, who acknowledge a God and walk as if there were none, than those (if there can be any such) that deny a God and walk as if there were one.

A Sense of God in the Heart, would burst out in the Life: Where there is no reverence of God in the Life, 'tis 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 Denyers of God, though he doth not tax them with any notorious Prophaness. Tit. 1.16. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him; he gives them Epithites contrary to what they arrogated to themselves:Illyric. They boasted them­selves to be holy, the Apostle calls them abominable; They bragged that they ful­filled the Law and observed the Traditions of their Fathers, the Apostle calls them diso­bedient, or unperswadable; They boasted that they only had the Rule of Righteous­ness, and a sound Judgment concerning it, the Apostle said they had a Reprobate Sense and unfit for any good work; and judges against all their vain glorious braggs, that they had not a Reverence of God in their Hearts; there was more of the Denial of [Page 50] God in their Works than there was Acknowledgement 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 acknwledge him: Where the Honour of God is not practically owned in the lives of men, the Being of God is not sensibly acknow­ledged in the hearts of men: The Principle must be of the same kind with the Acti­ons; if the Actions be Atheistical, the Principal of them can be no better.

Prop. 2. All Sin is founded in a secret Atheism. Atheism is the Spirit of every Sin; all the Flouds 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 joyn hand in hand against the interest of God. Though lusts and pleasures be divers, yet they are all united in Disobedience to him.Tit. 3.3. All the wicked inclinations in the heart, and strugling motions, secret repinings, self ap­plauding confidences in our own wisdom, strength, &c. envy, ambition, revenge, are sparks from this latent fire; the language of every one of these is, I would be a Lord to my self, 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 vertuous actions spring from an acknow­ledgment of God; so all vitious actions rise from a lurking Denial of him. All li­centiousness goes glib down where there is no sense of God. Abraham judged him­self not secure from Murder, nor his Wife from Defilement in Gerar, if there were no Fear of God there.Gen. 20.11. He that makes no Conscience of Sin has no regard to the Honour, and consequently none to the Being of God. By the Fear of God men de­part from Evil, Pro. 16.6. By the non-regarding of God men rush into Evil. Pharaoh opprest 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 Ommission we own not God, in neglecting to perform what he enjoyns: 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 commands, in the other by doing what he forbids.

We deny his Soveraignty when we violate his Laws; we disgrace his Holiness when we cast our filth before his Face; we 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: 'Tis such a vilifying of God as if he were not God; as if he were not the supream 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, were our own by right of Suprea­macy not of Donation: For a Subject to slight his Soveraign, is to slight his Roy­alty; or a Servant his Master, is to deny his Superiority.

Prop. 3. Sin implies that God is unworthy of a Being. Every Sin is a kind of cur­sing God in the Heart Job. 1.5.; an aim at the destruction of the Being of God; not actually, but vertually; not in the intention of every Sinner, but in the nature of every Sin. That Affection which 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 will and glory of God; and could a Sinner attain his end, God would be destroyed: God can­not out live his will 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,Jer. 32.33. Deut. 32.15. a kicking against him, Jer. 32.33. Deut. 32.15. as if he were a slighter person than the meanest beggar. What greater contempt can be shew'd to the meanest, vilest person, than to turn the back, lift up the heel, and thrust away with indignation? All which actions, though they signifie that such a one hath a Being; yet they testifie 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. Numb. 15.30. Ezek. 20.27. Reproach is a vilifying [Page 51] 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 Meditation, implies that he cares not whe­ther he hath a being in the world or no. Now tho 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. 1.28. They like not to retain God in their knowledge.

It is said, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, Gen. 4.16. 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: Tis a using him, as if he had no being, or as if we were not concerned in it. Hence all men in Adam, under the Emblem of the prodigal, are said to go into a far Country. Not in respect of place, because of Gods 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 Ruines of Adams fall, and the dregs of that re­volt, is that they know not God: They forget God, as if there were no such being above them; and indeed he that doth the works of the Devil, owns the Devil to be more worthy of observance, and consequently of a being, than God, whose na­ture he forgets and whose presence he abhors.

Proposition, 4. Every sin in its own nature would render God a foolish and impure being. Many Transgressors esteem their acts, which are contrary to the Law of God, both Wise and Good: If so, the Law against which they are committed, must be both foolish and impure: What a reflection is there then upon the Law-giver? The Moral Law is not properly a meer act of Gods Will considered in it self, or a Tyran­nical Edict, like those of whom it may well be said, stat pro ratione voluntas: But it commands those things, which are good in their own nature, and prohibits those things, which are in their own nature evil; and therefore is an act of his Wisdom and Righteousness; the result of his wise Council, and an extract of his pure nature; as all the Laws of just Law-givers, are not only the acts of their Will, but of a Will governed by Reason and Justice, and for the good of the publick, whereof they are conservators. If the Moral commands of God were only acts of his Will, and had not an intrinsick necessity, reason and goodness, God might have commanded the quite contrary, and made a contrary Law, whereby that which we now call Vice, might have been canonized for Virtue: He might then have forbid any Worship of him, Love to him, fear of his name: He might then have commanded Murders, Thefts, Adulteries. In the first he would have untied the link of duty from the Creature, and dissolved the obligations of Creatures to him, which is impossible to be conceived; for from the Relation of a Creature to God, obligations to God, and duties upon those obligations, do necessarily result. It had been against the rule of Goodness and Justice, to have commanded the Creature not to love him, and fear and obey him: This had been a command against Righteousness, Goodness, and intrinsick obligations to Gratitude: And should Murder, Adulteries, Rapines have been com­manded instead of the contrary, God would have destroyed his own Creation; he would have acted against the rule of goodness and order; he had been an unjust tyrannical Governor of the world: Publick society would have been crackt in peices, and the world become a Shambles, a Brothel House, a place below the common sentiments of a meer man. All sin therefore being against the Law of God, the Wis­dom and holy rectitude of Gods Nature is denyed in every Act of disobedience: And what is the consequence of this, but that God is both foolish and unrighteous in commanding that, which was neither an Act of Wisdom, as a Governour, nor an Act of goodness, as a benefactor to his Creature?

As was said before, presumptuous sins are called reproaches of God, Num. 15.30. The Soul that doth ought presumptuously, reproacheth the Lord. Reproaches of men [Page 52] are either for natural, moral, or intellectual defects. All reproaches of God must imply a charge, either of unrighteousness, or ignorance: If of unrighteousness, tis a denial of his Holiness: If of Ignorance, tis a blemishing his Wisdom. If Gods Laws were not wise and holy, God would not enjoyn 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 lyar, 1 John 5.10. 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, who denyed 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 which renders any man a most despicable Creature?

Proposition, 5. Sin in its own nature endeavours to render God the most miserable being. Tis nothing but an opposition to the will of God: The will of no Creature is so much contradicted, as the Will of God is by Devils 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 Man; our Souls are as unwilling to know him, as our Wills are averse to follow him, Rom. 8.7. The carnal mind is enmity against God, tis not subject to the Law of God, nor can be subject. Tis true, Gods will cannot be hindered of its effect, for then God would not be supremely blessed, but unhappy and miserable: All misery a­riseth from a want of that, which a nature would have, and ought to have: Besides if any thing could frustrate Gods Will, it would be superior to him: God would not be Omnipotent, and so would lose the perfection of the Deity, and conse­quently the Deity it self; for that which did wholly defeat Gods Will, would be more powerful than he. But sin is a contradiction to the Will of Gods 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 blessedness. 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 wills of men, and make him more a slave than any Creature can be? For the Will of no Creature, not the meanest and most despicable Creature, is so much crost, as the Will of God is by sin, Isa. 43.24. Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins: Thou hast endeavoured to make a meer slave of me by sin: Sin endeavors to subject the blessed God to the humour and lust of every person in the world.

Proposition, 6. 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 them to a perswasion 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; Rom. 1.32. They know the Judge­ment of God, and they know the demerit of sin; they know the Judgment of God, and that they which do such things are worthy of death. What is 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 violated Law? When God is the object of such a wish, tis a vertual undeifying of him: Not to be able to punish, is to be impotent; not to be willing to punish, is to be unjust; Im­perfections inconsistent with the Deity: God cannot be supposed without an infinite Power to act, and an infinite Righteousness 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 Vengeance: And though such a Wish be not in its Meridian but in the Damned in Hell, yet it hath its starts and motions in affrighted and awakened Consciences on the Earth: Under this Rank of Wishers, that there were no God, or that God were destroyed, do fall

1. Terrified Consciences, that are Magor missabib, see nothing but matter of fear round about. As they have lived without the bounds of the Law, they are affraid [Page 53] to fall under the stroak of his Justice: Fear wishes the destruction of that which it ap­prehends hurtful: It considers him as a God to whom Vengeance belongs, as the Judge of all the Earth. Psal. 94.12. The less hopes such a one hath of his Pardon, the more joy he would have to hear that his Judge should be stript of his Life: He would entertain with delight any reasons, that might support him in the conceit that there were no God: In his present State such a Doctrine would be his Security from an Account: He would as much rejoyce, if there were no God to enflame an Hell for him, as a­ny guilty Malefactor would if there were no Judge to order a Gibbet for him. Shame may bridle mens words, but the Heart will be casting about for some Argu­ments this way, to secure it self: Such as are at any time in Spira's Case, would be willing to cease to be Creatures, that God might cease to be Judge. The Fool hath said in his heart, there is no Elohim, no Judge, fancying God without any exer­cise of his judicial Authority. And there is not any wicked man under anguish of Spirit, but, were it within the reach of his power, would take away the Life of God, and rid himself of his fears, by destroying his Avenger.

2. Debaucht Persons are not without such wishes sometimes: An obstinate Ser­vant wishes his Masters death, from whom he expects Correction for his Debauche­ries. As Man stands in his corrupt Nature, 'tis impossible but one time or other most debaucht persons, at least have so me kind of velleities, or imperfect wishes. 'Tis as natural to men to abhor those things which are unsuteable and troublesome, as it is to please themselves in things agreeable to their minds and humours: And since Man is so deeply in love with Sin, as to count it the most estimable good, he cannot but wish the abolition of that Law which checks it, and consequently the change of the Law-Giver which Enacted it; and in wishing a change in the holy Nature of God, he wishes a destruction of God, who could not be God, if he ceased to be immutably holy. They do as certainly wish, that God had not a holy Will to command them, as desparing Souls wish, that God had not a righteous Will to punish them; and to wish Conscience extinct for the molestations they receive from it, is to wish the power Conscience represents out of the world also.

Since the State of Sinners is a State of distance from God, and the Language of Sinners to God is departed from us: Joh. 21.14. They desire as litle the continuance of his Be­ing as they desire the knowledge of his Ways: The same reason which moves them to desire Gods distance from them, would move them to desire Gods not Being: Since the greatest distance would be most agreeable to them, the Destruction of God must be so too: Because there is no greater distance from us, than in not Being. Men would rather have God not to be, than themselves under controle, that sensuality might range at pleasure: He is like a Heifer sliding from the Yoke, Hos. 4.16. The Cursing of God in the Heart feared by Job of his Chidren, intimates a wishing God despoild of his Authority, that their pleasure might not be dampt by his Law. Besides, is there any natural man that sins against actuated knowledge, but either thinks or wishes that God might not see him, that God might not know his actions? And is not this to wish the Destruction of God, who could not 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 Law enjoyns 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 willing that both the Command were recall'd, 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 Superiors as tyrannical, will not be much concerned in their wel­fare; and would be more glad to have their Nails pared, than be under perpetual fear of them.

Many men regard not the 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 know what Conceit was the Hammer whereby the Hellish Jael struck the Nail into our first Parents, which conveyed Death, together with the same Imagination to all [Page 54] their Posterity, Gen. 3.5. God knows that in the day you eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil: Alas poor Souls! God knew what he did when he forbad you that Fruit: He was jealous you should be too happy: It was a cruelty in him to deprive you of a Food so pleasant and delicious. The apprehension of the severity of Gods 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 mov'd him to attempt to be equal with God: Fear is as powerful to produce the one in his Posterity, as Pride was to produce the other in the Common-Root. When we apprehend a thing hurtful to us, we desire so much evil to it, as may render it uncapable of doing us the hurt we fear. As we wish the preservation 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 formally wish the destruction of God, as God. God in himself is an infinite Mirror of Goodness and ravishing Loveliness: He is infinitely good, and so universally good, and nothing but good; and is therefore so agreeable to a Creature, as a Creature, that it is impossible that the Creature, while 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 destruction 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 wish 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 Creature thinks convenient and good for himself, he may wish God stript 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 of his Being; because God cannot retain his Deity without a love of Righteousness and Hatred of Iniquity; and he could not testifie his love to the one, or his loathing of the other, without encouraging Goodness, and wit­nessing his Anger against Iniquity.

Let us now appeal to ourselves, and examin our own Consciences: Did we never please our selves sometimes in the thoughts, how happy we should be, how free in our vain pleasures, if there were no God? Have we not desired to be our own Lords without controle, 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 afflicting Hand? Did we never wish God stript of his Holy Will to command, and his Righteous Will to punish, &c.

Thus much for the general.

For the proof of this, many considerations will bring in Evidence: Most may be reduced to these two Generals.

Man would set himself up, First as his own Rule. Secondly as his own End and Hap­piness.

1. Man would set himself up as his own Rule instead of God: This will be evidenced in this Method.

• 1. Man naturally disowns the Rule God sets him.
• 2. He owns any other Rule rather than that of Gods prescribing.
• 3. These he doth in order to the setting himself up as his own Rule.
• 4. He makes himself not only his own Rule, but would make himself the Rule of God, and give Laws to his Creator.

1. Man naturally disowns the Rule God sets him. 'Tis all one to deny his Royalty and to deny his Being: When we disown his Authority, we disown his God-head: 'Tis the Right of God to be the Soveraign of his Creatures; and it must be a very loose and trivial assent that such men have to Gods Superiority over them, (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 Gods Inclosures; and in breaking out against his Soveraignity, we disown his Being as God: For to be God and Soveraign are inseparable: He could not be God, if he [Page 55] were not Supreme; nor could he be a Creator without being a Law-giver. To be God and yet inferior to another, is a Contradiction. To make Rational Creatures without prescribing them a Law, is to make them without Holiness, Wisdom and Goodness.

1. There is in Man naturally an unwillingness to have any acquaintance with the Rule God sets him, Psal. 14.2. None that did understand and seek God. The refusing Instruction and casting his Word behind the back is a part of Atheism.Psal. 50.1 [...]. We are heavy in hearing the Instructions either of Law or Gospel,Heb. 5.11, 12. and slow in the Apprehension of what we hear. The people that God had hedged in from the Wilderness of the World for his own Garden, were foolish and did not know God; were sottish and had no understanding of him.Jer. 4.22. The Law of God is accounted a strange thing; Hos. 8.12. a thing of a different Clymate, and a far Country from the heart of Man; wherewith the mind of Man had no natural acquaintance, and had no desire to have any; or they regarded it as a sordid thing: What God accounts great and valuable, they account mean and despicable. Men may shew a Civility to a Stranger, but scarce contract an Intimacy: There can be no Amicable Agreement between the holy Will of God and the heart of a depraved Creature: One is holy, the other unholy; one is uni­versally good, the other stark naught. The purity of the Divine Rule renders it nauseous to the impurity of a carnal heart. Water and Fire may as well friendly kiss each other and live together without quarrelling and hissing, as the holy Will of God and the unregenerate heart of a fallen Creature.

The nauseating a Holy Rule is an Evidence of Atheism in the heart, as the nausea­ting wholesome Food is of putrified Flegm in the Stomack. 'Tis found more or less in every Christian, in the Remainders, though not in a full Empire As there is a Law in his Mind whereby he delights in the Law of God, so there is a Law in his Members whereby he wars against the Law of God, Rom. 7.22, 23, 25. How predominant is this loathing of the Law of God, when corrupt Nature is in its full strength, without any Principle to controul it? There is in the Mind of such a one a Darkness, whereby it is ignorant of it, and in the Will a Depravedness where­by it is repugnant to it. If Man were naturally willing and able to have an inti­mate acquaintance 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,

1. Men are negligent in using the means for the knowledge of Gods Will. All natural men are Fools, who know not how to use the price God puts into their hands; Pro. 17.16. 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 which they may glean from Creatures, and is more pleasant to the natural gust of men, is not improved to the Glory of God, if we will believe the Indictment the Apostle brings against the Gentiles. Rom. 1.21. 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 wise 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 acquiesce in a twilight discovery, but are inquisitive into the causes and reasons of effects, yet are contented with a weak and languishing knowledge of God and his Law, and are easily tired with the 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 Will and Law of God his Rule. Is not the inquiry after the Will of God made a work by the by, and fain to lacquy after other concerns of an inferior nature, if it hath any place at all in the Soul? which is a despising the Being of God: The Notion of the Soveraignty of God, bears the same date with the Notion of his Godhead; [Page 56] and by the same way that he reveals Himself, he reveals his Authority over us; whether it be by Creatures without, or Conscience within. All Authority over Rational Creatures consists in commanding and directing; the duty of Rational Creatures in compliance with that Authority consists in obeying: Where there is therefore a careless neglect of those means which convey the knowledge of Gods Will and our Duty, there is an utter disowning of God as our Soveraign and our Rule.

2. When any part of the Mind and Will of God breaks in upon Men, they endeavour to shake it off; As a Man would a Sergeant that comes to arrest him; they like not to retain God in their Knowledge, Rom. 1.28. 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 Beggers: They have no kindness to bestow upon it: 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 Covetousness. 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 Vigor, and kill them in the Womb. How unable are our Memories to retain the substance of spiritual Truth; but like Sand in a Glass, put in at one part and runs out at the other? Have not many a secret wish, that the Scripture had never mentioned some truths, or that they were blotted out of the Bible, because they face their Consciences, and discourage those boiling Lusts they would with eagerness and delight pursue? Me thinks that interruption John gives our Saviour when he was upon the Reproof of their Pride, looks little betterMark 9.33.38 than a design to divert him from a discourse so much against the grain, by telling him a story of their prohibiting one to cast out Devils, because he followed not them. How glad are men when they can raise a Battery against a Command of God, and raise some smart Objection whereby they may shelter themselves from the strictness of it?

3. When men cannot shake off the Notices of the Will and Mind of God, they have no pleasure in the consideration of them. Which could not possibly be, if there were a real and fixed design to own the Mind and Law of God as our Rule: Subjects or Servants that love to obey their Prince and Master, will delight to read and execute their Orders. The Devils understand the Law of God in their minds, but they loath the impressions of it upon their Wills: Those miserable Spirits are bound in Chains of Darkness, evil Habits in their Wills, that they have not a thought of obeying that Law they know. It was an unclean Beast under the Law, that did not chew the Cud: 'Tis 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 affectionately. A sensual Soul can have no de­light in a spiritual Law. To be sensual and not to have the Spirit are inseparable. Jude 19.

Natural Men may indeed meditate upon the Law and Truth of God, but with­out delight in it; if they take any pleasure in it, 'tis only as 'tis knowledge, not as it is a Rule; for we delight in nothing that we desire, but upon the same account that we desire it. Natural Men desire to know God and some part of his Will and Law, not out of a sense of their practical excellency, but a natural thirst after knowledge: and if they have a delight, 'tis in the act of knowing, not in the Ob­ject known, not in the Duties that stream from that Kowledge; they design the furnishing their Understandings, not the quickning their Affections; like idle Boys that strike Fire, not to warm themselves by the heat, but sport themselves with the Sparks; Whereas a gracious Soul accounts not only his Meditation, or the Opera­tions of his Soul about God and his Will to be sweet, but he hath a joy in the ob­ject of that Meditation.Psal. 104.34. 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, [Page 57] they keep down under the power of Corruption; making their Souls not the Sanctuary, but Prison of Truth, Rom. 1.18. They will keep it down in their hearts, if they cannot keep it out of their heads, and will not endeavour to know and taste the Spirit of it.

4. There is farther, a rising and swelling of the Heart against the Will of God. (1.) Internal. Gods 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 Antipathy against a Divine Rule; and therefore when it is clapt close to our Consciences, there is a snuffing at it, high rea­sonings against it, corruption breaks out more strongly: As Water poured on Lime sets it on Fire by an Antiperistasis, and the more Water is cast upon it, the more furiously it burns: Or as the Sun Beams shining upon a Dung-hill makes the steams the thicker and the stench the noysomer, neither being the positive cause of the smoke in the Lime, or the stench in the Dung-hill; but by accident the causes of the eruption, Rom. 7.8. But Sin taking occasion by the Commandment, wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence, for without the Law Sin was dead. 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 provokes fierce Opposition; sometimes Disputes against a Divine Rule end in Blasphemies, Acts 13.45. Contradicting and Blaspheming are coupled together. Men naturally desire things that are forbidden, and reject things commanded, from the corruption 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;Thes. Salmur. De Spiritu. Servitutis Thes. 19. [a man 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 vitiousness of nature being sensible of an Invasion of its Empire, arms it self against the Divine Law, and the more the Command is urged, the more vigorously it bends its strength, and more insolently lifts up it self 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 whether they go: So unapt is the heart to any acknowledgement of God as his Ruler, and any re-union with him. Hence men are said to resist the Holy Ghost, Acts 7.51. to fall against it, as the word signifies, as a stone or any ponderous body falls against that which lies in its way: They would dash to pieces or 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, &c. (2.) External, 'tis 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 meet with opposition? And the Carnal World like dogs bark against the shining of the Moon? So much men hate the Light, that they spurn at the Lanthorns that bear it: And because they cannot endure the Treasure, often fling the earthen vessels against 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. Act. 19.24.28.29. 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 publick received Reli­gion, though with an undoubted Truth, he must end his Life by Violence: How hath every Corner of the World steam'd with the blood of those, that would maintain the Authority of God in the World! The Devils Children will follow the steps of their Father, and endeavour to bruise the Heel of Divine Truth, that would endeavour to break the Head of corrupt Lust.

5. Men often seem desirous to be acquainted with the Will of God, not out of any re­spect to his Will and to make it their Rule, but upon some other Consideration. Truth is [Page 58] scarce received as truth. There is more of Hypocrisie 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 sometime pretend a desire to be acquainted with the Will of God, to satisfie their own passions, rather than to conform to Gods Will: The Religion of such is not the judgment of the Man, but the passion of the Brute. Many entertain a Doctrine's for the persons sake, rather than a person for the Doctrine sake; and believe a thing be­cause it comes from a Man they esteem, as if his lips were more Canonical than Scrip­ture.

The Apostle implies in the Commendation he gives the Thessalonians, 1 Thes. 2.13. that some receive the Word for human interest, not as it is in truth the Word and Will of God to command and govern their Consciences by its Soveraign Authority: Or else they have the Truth of God (as St. James speaks of the Faith of Christ) with respect of persons: Jam. 2.2. and receive it not for the sake of the Fountain, but of the Channel: So that many times the same Truth delivered by another, is disregarded, which when dropping from the fancy and mouth of a Mans own Idol, is cryed up as an Oracle. This is to make not God, but Man the Rule: For though we entertain that which materially is the Truth of God, yet not formally as his Truth, but as conveyed by one we affect: And that we receive a Truth and not an Error, we ow the obligation to the honesty of the Instrument, and not to the strength and clearness of our own Judgment. Wrong considerations may give admittance to an unclean as well as a clean beast into the Ark of the Soul: That which is contrary to the Mind of God, may be entertained, as well as that which is agreeable. 'Tis all one to such that have no respect to God, what they have; As it is all one to a Spunge to suck up the foulest water or the sweetest wine, when either is applyed to it.

6. 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 with Hosannahs as their King, vote his Crucifixion the next, and use him as a Murderer. We begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh. Our hearts like Lute-strings are changed with every change of weather, with every appearance of a Temptation; scarce one motion of God in a thousand prevails with us for a setled abode. 'Tis a hard task to make a signature of those Truths upon our affections, which will with ease pass currant with our understandings; Our affections will as soon lose them, as our understandings embrace them. The heart of Man is unstable as water. Gen. 49.4. Jam. 1.8. Some were willing to rejoyce in Johns Light, which reflected a lustre on their minds; but not in his heat, which would have con­veyed a warmth to their hearts: and the Light was pleasing to them but for a sea­son,Joh. 5.35. while their corruptions lay as if they were dead, not when they were a­wakened. Truth may be admitted one day, and the next day rejected. As Austin saith of a wicked Man, he loves the Truth shining, but he hates the Truth reproving. This is not to make God, but our own humor our rule and measure.

7. Many desire an acquaintance with the Law and Truth of God, with a design to im­prove 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 Gods Will our Rule, that we make our own vile affections the Rule of his Law. How many forced Interpretations of Scripture have been coyned to give content to the lusts of men; and the Divine Rule forced to bend and be squared to mens loose and carnal apprehensions! 'Tis a part of the instability or falseness of the heart to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction; 2 Pet. 3.16. which they could not do, if they did not first wring them to countenance some de­testable Error or filthy Crime. In Paradise the first Interpretation made of the first Law of God, was point blank against the mind of the Law-giver, and venemous to the whole 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 shelter their Pre­sumption, Rom. 6.1.15. shall we then continue in Sin, that Grace may abound? Poysonous Consequences are often drawn from the sweetest Truths: As when Gods Patience is made a Topick, whence to argue against his Providence, Psal. 94.1. or an encou­ragement to commit Evil more greedily; as though because he had not presently a revenging Hand, he had not an all seeing Eye: Or when the Doctrine of Justifica­tion [Page 59] by Faith, is made use of to depress a holy life; or Gods readiness to receive re­turning sinners, an encouragement to defer repentance till a death bed. A Lyar will hunt for shelter in the reward God gave the Midwifes that lyed to Pharaoh for the preservation of the Males of Israel, and Rahabs saving the Spies by false intelligence. God knows how to distinguish between 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 lye ap­proved, which was a moral evil. Nor will Christs conversing with sinners, be a plea for any to thrust themselves into evil Company. Christ conversed with sinners, as a Physitian with diseased persons, to cure them, not approve them; others with pro­fligate persons to receive infection from them, not to communicate holiness to them. Satans Children have studied their Fathers art, who wanted not perverted Scrip­ture to second his Temptations against our Saviour. [...] How often do carnal hearts turn Divine Revelation to carnal ends, as the Sea fresh water into salt? As me [...] [...] ject the precepts of God to carnal interests, so they subject the truths of God to [...] nal fancies. When men will allegorize the Word, and make a humorous and crazy fancy the Interpreter of Divine oracles, and not the Spirit speaking in the Word; This is to enthrone our own imaginations as the rule of Gods Law, and depose his Law from being the rule of our reason: This is to riflle truth of its true mind and in­tent. Tis more to rob a man of his reason, the essential constitutive part of man, than of his estate. This is to refuse an intimate acquaintance with his Will. We shall ne­ver tell what is the matter of a precept, 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 mens imaginations, and so make every mans fancy a Law to himself.

Now that this unwillingness to have a Spiritual acquaintance with Divine Truth, is a disowning God as our rule, and a setting up self in his stead, is evident; because this unwillingness respects Truth,

1. 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 world, so they love to be without a holy Law, the transcript and image of Gods 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. Isa. 30.11. Cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us, prophecy to us right things: They could not endure God as a holy one. Herein God places their Rebellion, rejecting him as their rule, ver. 9. Rebellious Children that will not hear the Law of the Lord. The more pure and precious any discovery of God is, the more it is disrelisht by the world: As Spiritual sins are sweetest to a carnal heart, so Spiritual truths are most distastful. The more of the brightness of the Sun any beam conveys, the more offen­sive it is to a distempered eye.

2. As it doth most relate to, or lead to God. The Devil directs his fiercest batteries against those Doctrines in the Word, and those Graces in the heart, which most ex­alt God, debase man, and bring men to the lowest subjection to their Creator; Such is the Doctrine and grace of justifying faith. That men hate not knowledge as know­ledge, but as it directs them to choose the fear of the Lord, was the determination of the Holy Ghost long ago. Prov. 1.29. for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Whatsoever respects God, clears up guilt, witnesses mans revolt to him, rouzeth up Conscience, and moves to a return to God, a man natural­ly runs from, as Adam did from God, and seeks a shelter in some weak bushes of error, rather than appear before it. Not that men are unwilling to inquire into and contemplate some Divine Truths, which lie furthest from the heart, and concern not themselves immediatly with the rectifying the soul: They may view them with such a pleasure as some might take in beholding the Miracles of our Saviour, who could not endure his searching Doctrine. The light of speculation may be plea­sant, but the light of conviction is grievous; that which galls their Consciences, and would affect them with a sense of their duty to God.

Is it not easy to perceive, that when a man begins to be serious in the concerns of the Honour of God and the duty of his soul, he feels a reluctancy within him, even [Page 60] against the pleas of Conscience; which evidenceth that some unworthy principle has got footing in the hearts of men which fights against the declarations of God without, and the impressions of the Law of God within, at the same time when a mans own Con­science takes part with it, which is the substance of the Apostles discourse, Rom. 7.15, 16, &c.

Close discourses of the Honour of God, and our duty to him are irksome, when men are upon a merry pin: They are like a damp in a Mine that takes away their breath; they shuffle them out as soon as they can, and are as unwilling to retain the-speech of them in their mouths, as the knowledge of them in their hearts. Graci­ous speeches, instead of bettering many men, distemper them, as sometimes sweet per­fumes affect a weak head with aches.

3. As tis most contrary to self. Men are unwilling to acquaint themselves with a­ny truth that leads to God, because it leads from self. Every part of the Will of God, is more or less displeasing, as it sounds harsh against some carnal interest men would set above God, or as a Mate with him. Man cannot desire any intimacy with that Law which he regards as a Bird of prey, to pick out his right eye or gnaw off his right hand, his lust dearer than himself. The reason we have such hard thoughts of Gods Will, is because we have such high thoughts of our selves. Tis a hard mat­ter to Believe or Will that, which hath no affinity with some principle in the un­derstanding, and no interest in our Will and Passions: Our unwillingness to be ac­quainted with the Will of God ariseth from the disproportion between that and our corrupt hearts, We are alienated from the life of God in our minds, Eph. 41 18, 19. As we live not like God, so we neither think, or Will as God: There is an anti­pathy in the heart of man against that Doctrine, which teaches us to deny our selves 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 sensual 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 immediatly to do with God, their beloved pleasures are not impaired: Tis a satisfaction 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 Jews 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 am­bitious self, that the Romans might not come and take away their Kingdom. If the Law of God were fitted to the humors of self, it would be readily and cordially ob­served by all men: Self is the measure of a world of seeming Religious actions; while God seems to be the object, and his Law the motive, self is the rule and end; Zach. 7.5. Did you fast unto me, &c.

2 As men discover their disowning the Will of God as a rule by unwillingness 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 burthensome to a sinner, he flies from it as from a frightful bug-bear, and unpleasant Yoke: Sin against the knowledge of the Law is therefore called, a going back from the Commandment of Gods lips, Job. 23.12. A casting Gods word behind them, Psal. 50.17. as a contemptible thing, fit­ter to be trodden in the durt, than lodged in the heart: Nay it is a casting it off as an abominable thing, for so the word [...] signifies, Hos. 8.3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good; an utter refusal of God, Jer. 44.16. As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken. In the slight of his precepts his essential perfections are slighted. In disowning his Will as a Rule, we disown all those attributes which flow from his Will, as Goodness, Righteousness and Truth. As an Act of the Divine understanding is supposed to precede the Act of the Divine Will, so we slight the infinite reason of God. Every Law, tho it proceeds from the Will of the Law-giver, and doth formally consist in an Act of the Will, yet it doth presuppose an act of the understanding. If the Commandment be holy, just and [Page 61] good, as it is Rom. 7.12. if it be the image of Gods holiness, a transcript of his righte­ousness, and the efflux of his goodness; then in every breach of it durt is cast upon those Attributes which shine in it, and a slight of all the regards he hath to his own Honour, and all the provisions he makes for his Creature. This Atheism or con­tempt of God, is more taken notice of by God than the matter of the sin it self: As a respect to God in a weak and imperfect obedience is more than the matter of the obe­dience it self, because it is an acknowledgment of God: So a contempt of God in an act of disobedience, is more than the matter of the 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 evil acts. The despising the Com­mandment of the Lord, was the venom of them.2 Sam. 12. [...].1 [...]. Tis possible to break a Law with­out contempt; But when men pretend to believe there is a God, and that this is the Law of God, it shews a contempt of his Majesty:Claud. Men naturally account Gods Laws too strict, his Yoak too heavy, and his limits too strait: And he that liveth in a contempt of this Law, curseth God in his life: How can they believe there is a God, who despise him as a Ruler? How can they believe him to be a guide, that disdain to follow him? To think we firmly believe a God without living conform­able to his Law, is an idle and vain imagination. The true and sensible Notion of a God cannot subsist with disorder and an affected unrighteousness.

This contempt is seen,

1. In any presumptuous breach of any part of his Law. Such sins are frequently called in Scripture Rebellions, which are a denial of the Allegiance we owe to him. By a wilful refusal of his right in one part we root up the foundation of that rule he doth justly challenge over us: His Right is as extensive to command us in one thing, as in another: And if it be disowned in one thing, tis vertually disowned in all, and the whole Statute book of God is contemned. Jam. 2.10.11. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point is guilty of all. A willing breaking one part, tho there be a willing observance of all the other points of it, is a breach of the whole, because the Authority of God, which gives sanction to the whole is slighted: The obedience to the rest is dissembled: For the Love, which is the root of all obedi­ence, is wanting; For Love is the fulfilling the whole Law: Rom. 13. [...] The rest are obeyed be­cause they cross not carnal desire so much as the other, and so tis an observance of himself, not of God. Besides, the Authority of God, which is not prevalent to restrain us from the breach of one point, would be of as little force with us to re­strain us from the breach of all the rest, did the allurements of the flesh give us as strong a diversion from the one, as from the other: And tho the Command that is transgrest be the least in the whole Law, yet the Authority which enjoyns it is the same with that which enacts the greatest. And it is not so much the matter of the command, as the Authority commanding which lays the obligation.

2. In the natural averseness to the declarations of Gods Will and mind, which way so ever they tend. Since man affected to be as God, he desires to be boundless; he he would not have Fetters, tho they be Golden ones, and conduce to his happiness; tho the Law of God be a strength to them, yet they will not, Isa. 30.15. In return­ning shall be your strength and you would not. They would not have a bridle to re­strain them from running into the pit, nor be hedged in by the Law, tho for their security: As if they thought it too slavish and low Spirited a thing to be guided by the Will of another: Hence man is compared to a Wild-Ass, that loves to snuff up the wind in the Wilderness at her pleasure, rather than come under the guidance of God;Jer. 2.2 [...] From whatsoever quarter of the Heavens you pursue her she will run to the other.

The Israelites could not indure what was Commanded, Heb. 12. [...] tho 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 prefac'd the Decalogue; Exod. 20.2. I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the House of bondage: They could not think of the rule of their duty, but they must reflect upon the grand incentive of it in their Redemption from Aegyptian thraldome: Yet this people were cross to God, [Page 62] which way soever he moved: When they were in the Brick-kilns, they cryed for deliverance; when they had heavenly Manna, they longed for their Onions and Gar­lick. In Num. 14.3. They repent of their deliverance from Egypt, and talk of re­turning again to seek the Remedy of their Evils in the hands of their cruellest Ene­mies; and would rather put themselves into the Irons, whence God had delivered them, than believe one word of the Promise of God for giving them a fruitful Land: But when Moses tells them Gods Order, that they should turn back by the way of the 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, which they had wished for before, they will go up to Canaan, as in spight of God and his threatning. We will go to the Place which the Lord hath promised, v. 40. which Moses calls a Transgressing the Comandment of the Lord, v. 41. They would presume to go up, notwithstanding Moses his Pro­hibition, and are smitten by the Amalekites: 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. Num. 21.4, 5. & Daillê Serm. 1 Cor. 10. Ser. 9 p. 234. 235. 40. And when they found they were to traverse the Solitudes of the Desart, they took Pett against God, and instead of thanking him for the late Victory against the Cananites, 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 Gods disposal, but complain of the bad­ness of the way, and the lightness of Manna, empty of any necessary juyce to sustain their Nature. They murmuringly sollicite the Will 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, Psal. 78.41.

To what point soever the Declarations of God stand, the Will of Man turns the quite contrary way. Is not the carriage of this Nation, the best then in the world? A discovery of the depth of our natural corruption, how cross Man is to God? And that charge God brings against them, may be brought against all men by Nature, that they despise his Judgements, and have a rooted Abhorrency of his Statutes in their Soul, Levit. 26.43. No sooner had they recovered from one Rebellion, but they revolted to another: So difficult a thing it is for mans nature to be rendred capable of conforming to the Will of God: The carriage of this People is but a Copy of the Nature of Mankind, and is written for our admonition, 1 Cor. 10.11. From this temper men are said to make void the Law of God Psal. 119.126.: 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, Mat. 15.6. [...]

3. We have the greatest slight of that Will of God which is most for his Honour and his greatest Pleasure. 'Tis the Nature of Man, ever since Adam, to do so, Hos. 6.6.7. God desired Mercy and not Sacrifice, the Knowledge of Himself more than burnt Offer­ing; but they like men, as Adam, have transgressed the Covenant, invade Gods Rights, and not let him be Lord of one Tree.

We are more curious Observers of the Fringes of the Law, than of the greater concerns of it. The Jews were diligent in Sacrifices and Offerings, which God did not urge upon them as Principals, but as Types of other things; but negligent of the Faith which was to be established by him: Holiness, Mercy, Pity which concerned the Honour of God, as Governour of the World, and were imitations of the Holi­ness and Goodness of God, they were Strangers to. This is Gods Complaint, Isa. 1.11, 12. and 16, 17.

We shall find our hearts most averse to the observation of those Laws which are Eternal and Essential to Righteousness; such, that he could not but command, as he is a Righteous Governour; in the observation of which, we come nearest to him and express his Image more clearly: As those Laws for an inward and spiritual Wor­ship, a supreme Affection to him. God in regard of his Righteousness and Holi­ness of his Nature, and the Excellency of his Being, could not command the contra­ry [Page 63] to these: But this part of his Will our hearts most swell against, our corrupti­on doth most snarle at; whereas those Laws which are only positive and have no intrinsick Righteousness in them, but depend purely upon the Will of the Law-giver, and may be changed at his pleasure, (which the other, that have an intrinsick Righte­ousness in them, cannot) we better comply with, than that part of his Will that doth express more the Righteousness of his Nature;Psal. 5 [...].6.17, 19. such as the Ceremonial part of Wor­ship, and the Ceremonial Law among the Jews: We are more willing to observe Or­der in some outward attendances and glavering devotions, than discard secret af­fections to evil, crucify inward lusts and delightful thoughts: A hanging down the head like a bulrish is not difficult, but the breaking the heart like a Potters vessel to shreds and dust, (a sacrifice God delights in, whereby the excellency of God and the vileness of the Creature is owned) goes against the grain: To cut off an outward branch is not so hard, as to hack at the root. What God mosts loaths, as most contrary to his Will, we most love: No sin did God so severely hate, and no sin were the Jews more enclined unto, than that of Idolatry. The Heathen had not changed their God, as the Jews had changed their glory, Jer. 2.11. 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 humor, custom and interest, &c.

Never did any Law of God meet with so much opposition as Christianity, which was the design of God from the first promise to the exhibiting the Redeemer, and from thence to the end of the World: All people drew Swords at first against it: The Romans prepared Yokes for their Neighbors, 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, tho sealed by greater Testimonies from Heaven, than their own Records could report in fa­vour of their Idols.

4. In running the greatest hazards, and exposing our selves to more trouble to cross the Will of God, than is necessary to the observance of it. Tis a vain charge men bring against the Divine precepts, that they are rigorous, severe, difficult: When, besides the contradiction to our Saviour, who tells us his Yoke is easy, and his Burthen light, they thwart their own calm reason and Judgment. Is there not more difficulty to be Vicious, Covetous, Violent, Cruel, than to be Vertuous, Charitable, Kind? Doth the Will of God enjoyn that, that 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 Consciences, and resist our own light, and commence a perpetual quarrel against our selves, as we ordinarily do when we sin? They in the Prophet, Mich. 6.6, 7, 8. would be at the expence of thou­sands of Rams, and ten thousand Rivers of Oyl, if they could compass them; yea, would strip themselves of their Natural affection to their first-born to expiate the sin of their Soul, rather then to do Justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God; things more conducible to the Honour of God, the welfare of the world, the security of their Souls, and of a more easie practice than the offerings they wished for.

Do not men then disown God when they will walk in ways hedged with thorns, wherein they meet with the Arrows of Conscience at every turn in their sides, and slidedown to an everlasting punishment, sink under an intolerable slavery to con­tradict the Will of God? When they will prefer a sensual satisfaction, with a com­bustion in their Consciences, violation of their reasons, 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?

5. In the unwillingness and awkardness of the heart, when it is to pay God a ser­vice. Men do evil with both hands earnestly, Mich. 7.3. 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? Tis a wrong to his providence, as tho we were not under his Government, and had no need of his assistance. A wrong to his excel­lency, [Page 64] as tho there were no aimableness in him to make his service desirable. An in­jury to his goodness and power, as if he were not able or willing to reward the Creatures obedience, or careless not to take notice of it. Tis a sign we receive little satisfaction in him, and that there is a great unsutableness between him and us.

1. There is a kind of constraint in the first engagement. We are rather prest to it than enter our selves Volunteers. What we call service to God, is done naturally, much against our Wills; tis 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 without our Saviour against his do­ing the Will of God. Our hearts are unweildy to any Spiritual service of God; we are fain to use a violence with them sometimes Hezekiah, it is said, walked before the Lord with a perfect heart. 2 Kings 20.9. he walked, he made himself to walk: Man naturally cares not for a walk with God: If he hath any Communion with him, tis with such a dulness and heaviness of Spirit, as if he wished himself out of his Company. Mans nature, being contrary to holiness, hath an aversion to any act of homage to God; because Holiness must at least be pretended: In every duty wherein we have a Communion with God, Holiness is requisite: Now as men are a­gainst the truth of Holiness, because it is unsutable to them, 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 are like fish, that drink up iniquity like water, Job. 15.16. and come not to the bank without the force of an Angle: No more willing to do ser­vice for God, than a fish is of it self to do service for Man. Tis a constrained act to satisfie 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 our selves, whether we are not more unwilling to secret, Clos­et, hearty duty to God, than to joyn with others in some external service; as if those inward services, were a going to the rack, and rather our pennance than pri­viledg. How much service hath God in the world from the same principle that Va­grants perform their task in Bridewel? 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 Gods Will in the destroying the Cattle of the A­malekites, but by his own; and will impose upon the Will and Wisdom of God, Judg­ing God mistaken in his Command, and that the Cattle God thought fittest to be meat to the fouls, were fitter to be Sacrifices on the Altar.1 Sam. 15.3.9.15.21.

If we do perform any part of his Will, is it not for our own ends to have some deliverance from trouble? Isa. 26.16. In trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a Prayer, when thy Chastening was upon them. In affliction he shall find them kneeling in Homage and Devotion. In prosperity, he shall feel them kick­ing with contempt; they can poure out a Prayer in distress, and scarce drop one when they are delivered.

2. There is a slightness in our service of God. We are loath to come into his pre­sence, and when we do come, we are loth to continue with him. We pay not an Homage to him heartily, as to our Lord and Governour; we regard him not as our Master, whose work we ought to do, and whose Honour we ought to aime at.

1. In regard of the matter of service. When the torn, the lame, and the sick is of­fered to God;Mal. 1.13.14. so thin and lean a Sacrifice, that you may have thrown it to the ground with a puff, so some understand the meaning of (you have snufft at it.) Men have naturally such slight thoughts of the Majesty and Law of God, that they think any service is good enough for him and conformable to his Law. The dullest and deadest times we think fittest to pay God a service in; when sleep is ready to close our eyes and we are unfit to serve our selves, we think it a fit time to open our hearts to God. How few Morning Sacrifices hath God from many persons and Families? Men leap out of their beds to their carnal pleasures or worldly employ­ments, without any thought of their Creator and Preserver, or any reflection upon his Will as the rule of our dayly obedience. And as many reserve the dregs of [Page 65] their Lives, their Old-age, to offer up their Souls to God: So they reserve the Dreggs of the Day, their sleeping time for the offering up their service to Him: How many grudge to spend their best time in the serving the Will of God, and re­serve for him the sickly and rheumatick part of their Lives; the remainder of that which the Devil and their own Lusts have fed upon?

Would not any Prince or Governour 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. Mal. 1.14. 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 worst.

2. In respect of Frame. We think any frame will serve Gods turn, which speaks our slight of God as a Ruler. Man naturally performs duty with an unholy heart, whereby it becomes an abomination to God, Pro. 28.9. He that turns away his Ear from hearing the Law, even his prayers shall be an abomination to God. The Ser­vices which he commands, he hates for their evil frames or corrupt ends, Amos, 5.21. I hate I despise your Feast-days, I will not smell in your Solemn Assemblies: God requires gracious services, and we give him corrupt ones: We do not rouze up our hearts, as David called upon his Lute and Harp to awake, Psal. 57.8. Our hearts are not given to him, we put him off with bodily exercise: The heart is but Ice to what it doth not affect, [1.] There is not that natural vigor in the observance of God, which we have in worldly business: When we see a liveliness in men in other things change the Scene into a motion towards God, how suddenly doth their vigo [...] shrink and their hearts freeze into sluggishness? Many times we serve God as lan [...] guishingly 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 Go­verned, 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 active: The Soul doth not awaken it self, and excite those animal and vital Spirits, which it will in bodily recreations and sports; much less the powers of the Soul; whereby tis 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 duties as well as in other operations, but that there is a reluctancy in the Soul to exercise its. Supremacy in this case, and perform any thing becoming a Creature in subjecti­on to God as a Ruler?

2. Tis evident also in the distractions we have in his service: How 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 man is there since the fall of Adam, that served God one hour without many wandrings and un­sutable thoughts unfit for that service? How ready are our hearts to start out and unite themselves with any worldly objects that please us?

3. 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 time we have a perpetual motion? How will many willingly revel whole nights, when their hearts will flag at the Threshold of a Religious service? Like Dagon, 1 Sam. 5.4. lose, both our heads to think, and hands to act, when 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 8.5. 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 signifie a rest from the tyranny of sin, and a con­secration to the Spiritual service of God. Servants that are quickly weary of their work, are weary of the Authority of their Master, that enjoyns it: If our hearts had a value for God, it would be with us as with the needle to the Load-stone; there would 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 willing to behold the face of God and be under his Govern­ment [Page 66] to Eternity, without any weariness. As the holy Angels, have owned God as their Soveraign neer these six thousand years, without being weary of running on his Errands: But alas while the flesh clogs us, there will be some Reliques of un­willingness to hear his Injunctions, and weariness in performing them; tho men may excuse those things by extrinsick causes, yet Gods unerring Judgment calls it a weariness of himself, Isa. 43.22. Thou hast not called upon me oh Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me ch Israel. Of this he taxeth his own people, when he tells them he would have the beasts of the Field; The Dragons and the Owls; the Gen­tiles, that the Jews counted no better than such, to honour him and acknowledge him their rule in a way of duty, ver. 20.21.

6. This contempt is seen in a deserting the rule of God, when our expectations are not answered upon our service. When services are performed from carnal principles, they are soon cast off when carnal ends meet not with desired satisfaction. But when we own our selves Gods Servants, and God our Master, our eyes will wait upon him till he have mercy on us. Psal. 123.2. Tis one part of the duty we owe to God as our Master in Heaven, to continue in Prayer, Col. 4.1, 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 chear­fulness for further manifestations of his Will, strength to perform it, success in the per­formance, that we may from all draw matter of praise: As we are in a posture of obedi­ence to his precepts, so we should be in a posture of waiting for the blessing of it.

But naturally we reject the duty we owe to God, if he do not speed the blessing we expect from him. How many do secretly mutter the same as they in Job. 21.15. What is the Almighty that we should serve him, and what profit shall we have if we Pray to him? They serve not God out of Conscience to his Commands, but for some carnal profit; and if God make them to wait for it, they will not stay his leasure, but cease solliciting him any longer. Two things are exprest that God was not wor­thy of any Homage from them. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and that the service of him would not bring 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 will acknowledge God no more; but like some beggers, if you give them not upon their asking, and calling you good Master, from blessing they will turn to cursing.

How often do men do that secretly, practically, if not plainly, which Jobs Wife advised him to, Curse God, and cast off that disguise of integrity they had assum­ed? Job. 2.9. Dost thou still retain thy integrity? Curse God. What a stir and puling, and crying is here? Cast off all thoughts of Religious service, and be at Daggers drawing with that God, who for all thy service of him has made thee so wretch­ed a spectacle to men, and a banquet for worms. The like temper is deciphered in the Jews Mal. 3.14. Tis in vain to serve God, and what profit is it, that we have kept his ordinances, that we have walked mournfully before the Lord? What profit is it that we have regarded his Statutes, and carryed our selves in a way of subjection to God, as our Soveraign, when we inherit nothing but sorrow, and the Idolatrous Neigh­bors swim in all kind of pleasures? as if it were the most miserable thing to acknow­ledge God. If men have not the benefits they expect, they think God unrighteous in himself, and injurious to them, in not conferring the favour they imagine they have merited: And if they have not that recompence, they will deny God that sub­jection they owe to him as Creatures. Grace moves to God upon a sense of duty; corrupt nature upon a sense of Interest: Sincerity is encouraged by gracious re­turns, but is not melted away by Gods delay or refusal: Corrupt nature would have God at its back, and steers a course of duty by hope of some carnal profit, not by a sense of the Soveraignty of God.

7. This contempt is seen in breaking promises with God. Reyn. [One while the Con­science of a man makes vows of new obedience, and perhaps binds himself with many an Oath, but they prove like Jonahs Gourd, withering the next day after their birth. This was Pharaohs temper; under a storm he would submit to God, and let Israel go; but when the storm is ended, he will not be under Gods controul, and Israels 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 Soveraignty.]

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 pretended 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 them for destruction, and recruit their strength, they are more earnest in their sins, than they were in their promises of a reformation; as if they had got the mastery of God, and had outwitted him. How often doth God charge themAmos 4.6. to ver. 11. of not returning to him after a succession of Judgments? So hard it is, not only to allure, but to scourge men to an acknowledgement of God as their Ruler.

Consider then,

Are we not naturally inclined to disobey the known Will of God? Can we say, Lord, for thy sake we refrain the thing to which our hearts encline? Do we not al­low our selves to be licentious, earthly, vain, proud, revengful, tho we know it will offend him? Have we not been peevishly cross to his declared Will? Run Coun­ter to him and those Laws which express most of the glory of his holiness? Is not this to disown him as our Rule? Did we never wish there were no Law to bind us, no precept to check our Idols? What is this, but to wish that God would depose himself from being our Governour, and leave us to our own conduct? or else to wish that he were as unholy as our selves, as careless of his own laws as we are, that is, that he were no more a God then we, a God as sinful and unrighteous as our selves? He whose heart riseth against the Law of God to unlaw it, riseth against the Author of that Law to undeifie him. He that casts contempt upon the dearest thing God hath in the world, that which is the image of his holiness, the delight of his Soul; that which he hath given a special charge to maintain, and that because it is holy, just and good; would not stick to rejoyce at the destruction of God himself. If Gods Ho­liness and righteousness in the beam be despised, much more will an immense good­ness and holiness in the fountain be rejected: He that wisheth a beam far from his eyes, because it offends and scorcheth 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 it self from the rule of God in this Earth? And how miserable a Creature is he also, Since departing from the order of Gods goodness, he falls into the order of his Justice; and while he refuseth God to be the rule of his life, he cannot avoid him being the Judge of his punishment? Tis this is the original of all sin, and the fountain of all our misery.

This is the first thing man disowns, the Rule which God sets him.

Secondly, 2. Man naturally owns any other rule rather than that of Gods 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 when any thing that God commands crosses our own Wills, we value it no more, than we would the advise of a poor despicable beggar

How many are lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God? 2 Tim. 3.4. To make something which contributes to the perfection of nature, as learning, wisdom, moral vertues, 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, tis more excusable than to be the slave of a brutish pleasure. The viler the thing is that doth possess the throne in our heart, the greater contempt it is of him who can only claim a right to it and is worthy of it. Sin is the first object of mans election, as soon as the faculty whereby he choses comes to exercise its power: And it is so dear to man, that it is, in the estimate of our Saviour, counted as the right hand, and the right eye, dear, precious and useful members.

1. The rule of Satan is owned before the rule of God. The natural man would rather be under the guidance of Satan than the Yoke of his Creator. Adam chose him to be his Governour in Paradice. No sooner had Satan spoke of God in a way of derision, Gen. 3.1, 5. Yea, hath God said, but man follows his Counsel and ap­proves [Page 68] of the scoff; and the greatest part of his posterity, have not been wiser by his fall, but would rather ramble in the Devils Wilderness, than to stay in Gods fold. Tis by the sin of man that the Devil is become the God of the world, as if men were the Electors of him to the Government: Sin is an Election of him for a Lord, and a putting the Soul under his Government. Those that live according to the course of the world, and are loath to displease it, are under the Government of the Prince of it. The greatest part of the works done in the world is to enlarge the Kingdom of Satan. For how many ages were the laws whereby the greatest part of the world was governed in the affairs of Religion, the fruits of his usurpation and policy? When Temples were erected to him, Priests consecrated to his service; The rites u­sed in most of the Worship of the world were either of his own Coyning, or the misapplying the Rites, God had ordained to himself, under the notion of a God: Whence the Apostle calls all Idolatrous Feasts, the table of Devils, the cup of De­vils, Sacrifice to Devils, fellowship with Devils, 1 Cor. 10.20.21. Devils being the real object of the Pagan Worship, tho not formally intended by the Worshipper; tho in some parts of the Indies, the direct and peculiar worship is to the Devil, that he might not hurt them. And tho the intention of others was to offer to God, and not the Devil, yet since the action was contrary to the Will of God, he regards it as a Sacrifice to De­vils. It was not the intention of Jeroboam to establish Priests to the Devil, when he Consecrated them to the service of his Calves, for Jehu afterwards calls them the Ser­vants of the Lord, 2 King. 10.23. 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 was Worshipped under those Images, and not Baal, nor any of the Gods of the Hea­thens; yet the Scripture couples the Calves and Devils together, and ascribes the Worship given to one, to be given to the other.2 Cron. 11.15. He ordained him Priests for the high places, and for the Devils, and for the Calves which he had made; 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 contrary to the mind of God and agreeable to the Doctrine and mind of Satan, tho the object of their worship in their own intention were not the Devil but some deified 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 foretels,Joh. 16.2. 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 mens cor­rupt natures incline them to, is false and different from the revealed will of God, tis a practical acknowledgment of the Devil, as the Governour, by acknowleding and practising those Doctrines, which have not the stamp of Divine Revelation upon them, but were minted by Satan to depress the Honour of God in the world: It doth concern 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 from 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 Satan, Joh. 8.44. Ye are of your Father the Devil, and the lusts of your Father you will do. If we divide sin into Spiritual and carnal, which di­vision comprehends all, the Devils authority is owned in both; In spiritual, we con­form to his example, because those he commits: In carnal, we obey his will, 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 man by nature being a willing servant of sin, is more desirous to be bound in the Devils Iron Chain, than in Gods 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 pleasure Satan by offending God, and gratifie our adversary with the injury of our Creator? For a Subject to take arms against his Prince with the deadliest Enemy, both himself and Prince hath in the whole 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 mens abstinence from sin, is not from a sense of the Divine Will, no, nor from a priciple of reason, [Page 69] 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, who abstains from what he desires for fear only of a stick or Club: Men will walk with the Herds, go in fashion with the most, speak and act as the most do: While we conform to the world, we cannot perform a reasonable 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. 12.1, 2.

This appears,

1. In complying more with the dictates of men, than the Will of God. Men draw en­couragement from Gods 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 a is more powerful curb, to restrain men in their duty, than the fear of God: So we may please a Friend, a Master, a Governour, we are regardless whither we please God or no: Men 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 subjects? And will not God make the same account of us, when we deny or delay our obedience, for fear of one of his Creatures? In the fear of man, we as little acknowledge God for our Soveraign, as we do for our comforter: Isa. 51.12, 13. I, even I am he, that com­forteth you, who art thou, thou shouldst be affraid of a man that shall die, &c. and for­gettest the Lord thy maker, &c. We put a slight upon God, as if he were not able to bear us out in our duty to him; and uncapable to ballance the strength of an arm of flesh.

2. In observing that which is materially the Will of God, not because tis his Will, but the injunctions of men. As the word of God may be received, yet not as his word, so the Will of God may be performed, yet not as his Will. Tis materially done, but not formally obeyed: An action, and obedience in that action are two things: as when man Commands the ceasing from all works of the ordinary calling on the Sab­bath, tis the same that God enjoyns; the Cessation, or attendance of his servants on the hearing the word, are conformable in the matter of it to the Will of God; but it is only conformable in the obediential part of the acts to the Will of man, when it is done only with respect to a human precept. As God hath a right to en­act his laws without consulting his Creature in the way of his government; So man is bound to obey those Laws, without consulting whither they be agreeable to mens laws or no: If we act the Will of God, because the Will of our superiors concurs with it, we obey not God in that, but man; a human Will being the rule of our obedience; and not the Divine: This is to vilifie God, and make him in­ferior to man in our esteem, and a valuing the rule of man above that of our Creator.

Since God is the highest perfection and infinitely good, whatsoever rule he gives the Creature must be good, else it cannot proceed from God. A base thing cannot be the product of an infinite excellency; and an unreasonable thing cannot be the product of an infinite wisdom and goodness: Therefore as the respecting Gods Will before the Will of man is excellent and worthy of a Creature, and is an acknowledg­ing the excellency, goodness and wisdom of God; So the eying the Will of man before and above the Will of God, is, on the contrary, a denyal of all those in a lump, and a preferring the wisdom, goodness and power of man in his Law above all those perfections of God in his. Whatsoever men do that looks like moral virtue or ab­stinence from vices, not out of obedience to the rule God hath set, but because of custome, necessity, example or imitation, they may in the doing of it be rather said to be Apes than Christians.

3. In obeying the Will of man, when tis contrary to the Will of God. As the Israe­lites willingly walked after the Commandment; Hos. 5.11. Not of God, but of Jeroboam in the [...]ase of the Calves: And made the Kings heart glad with their lies. Hos. 7.3. They cheered [...]im with their ready obedience to his Command for Idolatry (which was a lie in i [...]self, and a lie in them) against the Commandment of God and the warnings of the Prophets; rather than cheer the heart of God with their obedience to his wor­ship instituted by him: Nay, and when God offered them, to cure them their wound, [Page 70] their iniquity breaks out a fresh; they would neither have him as a Lord to rule them, nor a Physitian to cure them, Hos. 7.1. When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered. 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 or man should be petitioned to for thirty days, but only their King. Daniel 6. 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 mens professions, as is im­plyed in those words of our Saviour, Mark 8.38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this Adulterous and sinful Generation: Own him among his Disciples, and be ashamed of him among his enemies: Thus men are said to deny God, Tit. 1.16. 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 writings of the holy-ghost by his Apostles.

As Man naturally disowns the rule God sets him, and owns any other rule than that of Gods prescribing, so

Thirdly, 3. He doth this in order to the setting himself up as his own rule. As tho our own Wills, and not Gods, were the true square and measure of Goodness. We make an Idol of our own Wills: And as much as self is exalted, God is deposed: The more we esteem our own Wills, the more we endeavour to annihilate the Will of God: Account nothing of him, the more we account of our selves: And endeavor to render our selves his superiors by exalting our own Wills. No Prince but would look upon his Authority as invaded, 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 our selves, 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 denyal 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 Anti-God in the World, that sets up it self above all that is called God: Self love is the Captain of that black band, 2 Tim. 3.2. It sits in the Temple of God and would be ador'd, as God: Self love begins; but denying the the power of Godliness, which is the same with denying the ruling power of God, ends the list: Tis so far from bending to the righteous Will of the Creator, that it would have the eternal Will of God stoop to the humor and unrighteous Will of a Creature: And this is the ground of the contention between the flesh and Spirit in the heart of a renewed man; Flesh Wars for the God-head of self, and Spirit fights for the God-head of God: The one would settle the throne of the Creator, and the other maintain a Law of Covetosness, 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 Apple, 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 God to himself, Gen. 3.5. You shall be as Gods. That which was the matter of the Devils Temptation, was the incentive of mans rebellion: A likeness to God he aspired to in the Judgment of God himself, an infallible interpreter of mans thoughts; Behold, man is become as one of us, to know good and evil, in regard of self sufficiency and be­ing a rule to himself. The Jews understand the ambition of man to reach no fur­ther, than an equality with the Angelical nature: But Jehovah here understands it in another sense: God had ordered man by this prohibition not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil; not to attempt the knowledge of good and evil of himself, 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 off his hand from so small a thing as an Apple, when he had his choice of the fruit of the Garden, would not have denyed himself any thing his Appetite had desired, when that principle had prevailed upon him: He would not have stuck at a greater matter to pleasure himself with the displeasing of God, when for so small a thing he would incur the anger of his Creator.

Thus would he deifie his own understanding against the wisdom of God, and his [Page 71] own appetite against the Will of God: This desire of equality with God, a learn­ed man thinks the Apostle intimates, Phil. 2.6. Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: The Sons being in the form of God,Dr. Jackson. and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God, implies that the robbery of sacriledge commit­ted by our first Parents, for which the Son of God humbled himself to the death of the Cross, was an attempt to be equal with God, and depend no more upon Gods di­rections, but his own conduct, which could be no less than an invasion of the throne of God, and endeavor to put himself into a posture to be his Mate: Other sins, A­dultery and Theft, &c. could not be committed by him at that time, but he immediatly puts forth his hand to usurp the power of his Maker: This Treason is the old Adam in every man. The first Adam contradicted the Will of God to set up himself: The second Adam humbled himself, and did nothing but by the Command and Will of his Father. This principle wherein the venom of the Old Adam lies, must be Crucified to make way for the Throne of the humble and obedient principle of the New Adam or quickning Spirit. Indeed sin in its owns nature is nothing else, but a willing according to self, and contrary to the Will of God: Lusts are therefore called the Wills of the flesh and of the mind.Eph. 2.3. As the precepts of God are Gods Will: So the violations of these precepts is mans Will: And thus man usurps a God-head to himself, by giving that Honour to his own Will which belongs to God; appro­priating the right of rule to himself and denying it to his Creator. That Servant that acts according to his own Will, with a neglect of his Masters, refuseth the du­ty of a Servant, and invades the right of his Master: This Self-love and desire of In­dependency on God has been the root of all sin in the World: The great contro­versy between God and man hath been, whether he or they shall be God; whether his Reason or theirs, his Will or theirs shall be the guiding principle: As Grace is the union of the Will of God and the Will of the Creature; so sin is the opposition of the Will of self to the Will of God. Leaning to our own understanding, is op­posed as a natural, evil to trusting in the Lord, Pro. 3.5. a supernatural grace. Men com­monly love what is their own, their own inventions, their own fancies; therefore the ways of a wicked man are called the ways of his own heart; Eccl. 11.9. and the ways of a superstitious man his own devices, Jer. 18.11. We will walk after our own devices: We will be a law to our selves: And what the Psalmist saith of the tongue, our tongues are our own, who shall controul us? is as truly the language of mens hearts, our Wills are our own, who shall check us?

2. This is eviden in the dissatisfaction of men with their own Consciences when they contradict the desires of self. Conscience is nothing but an actuated or reflex knowledg of a superior power and an equitable law; a law imprest, and a power above it im­pressing it. Conscience is not the law-giver, but the remembrancer to mind us of that law of nature imprinted upon our Souls, and actuate the considerations of the duty and penalty, to apply the rule to our acts, and pass Judgment upon matter of fact: Tis to give the charge, urge the rule, enjoyn the practice of those notions of Right, as part of our duty and obedience.

But man is much displeased with the directions of Conscience, as he is out of love with the accusations and condemning sentence of this officer of God: We cannot naturally endure any quick and lively practical thoughts of God and his Will, and distast our own Consciences for putting us in mind of it: They therefore like not to retain God in their knowledge, Rom. 1.28. 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 when 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. 24.13. He speaks not of those which had the written word, or special Revelations; but only a natural light or traditional, handed from Adam: Hence are all the endeavors to still it when it begins to speak, by some carnal pleasures; as Sauls evil Spirit with a fit of Musick; or bribe it with some fits of a glavering devotion, when it holds the Law of God in its commanding Authority before the mind: They would wipe out all the impressions of it when it presses the advancement of God above self, and en­tertain [Page 72] it with no better Complement, than Ahab did Elijah, hast thou found me O my Enemy?

If we are like to God in any thing of our natural fabrick, tis 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 Soveraign represented by that Officer: He that would be without Conscience, would be without God, whose Vice­gerent it is, and make the sensitive part, which Conscience opposes, his Law-giver. Thus a man out of respect to sinful self, quarrels with his natural self; and cannot com­port himself in a friendly behaviour to his internal implanted 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 Traytor against him: The bad entertainment Gods de­puty hath in us, reflects upon that God whose cause it pleads: Tis upon no other ac­count that men loath the upright Language of their own reasons in those matters, and wish the eternal silence of their own Consciences, but as they maintain the rights of God, and would hinder the Idol of self from usurping his God-head, and prero­gative. Tho this power be part of a mans self, rooted in his nature, as essential to him and inseparable from him, as the best part of his being; yet he quarrels with it as it is Gods Deputy, and stickling for the honour of God in his Soul, and quarrel­ling with that sinful self he would cherish above God: We are not displeased with this faculty barely as it exerciseth a self-reflection; but as it is Gods 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 sutable to natural affections: As suppose a man hath in his passion struck his Child, and caus­ed thereby some great mischeif 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 natural affection: But in the more Spiritual concerns of God, it will 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 Thes 2.13. but as there may be pleasing Notions in it, or discourses against an opinion or party we disaffect: So the Will of God may be performed, not as his Will, but as it may gratifie some selfish consideration, when we will please God so far as it may not displease our selves, and serve him as our Master, so far as his Command may be a Servant to our humor; When we consider not who it is that Commands, but how short it comes of displeasing that sin which Rules in our heart, pick and chuse what is least burdensom to the flesh and distastful to our lusts.

He that doth the Will of God, not out of Conscience of that Will, but because it is agreeable to himself, casts down the Will of God, and sets his own Will in the place of it; takes the Crown from the head of God, and places it upon the head of self: If things are done, not because they are Commanded by God, but desirable to us; tis a disobedient obedience; a conformity to Gods Will in regard of the matter, a confor­mity to our own Will in regard of the motive; either as the things done are a­greeable to natural and moral self, or sinful self.

1. As they are agreeable to natural or moral self. When men will practise some points of Religion, and walk in the track of some Divine precepts; not because they are Divine, but because they are agreeable to their humor or constitution of nature; from the sway of a natural bravery, the Byas of a secular interest, not from an ingenuous sense of Gods Authority, or a voluntary submission to his Will: 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 impair of the health of his body: Doth this deserve the name of an observance of the Divine injunction, or rather an obedience to our selves? Or when a man will be liberal in the distribution of his Charity, not with an eye to Gods precept, but in compliance with his own natural compassion, or to pleasure the generosity of his nature: The one is obedience to a mans own preservation, the other an obedience to the interest or impulse of a moral Vertue. Tis 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 or a Spiritual manner. That only is a maintaining [Page 73] the rights of God, when we pay an observance to his rule, without examining the agreeableness of it to our secular interest, or consulting with the humour of flesh and blood; when we will not decline his service, though we find it cross, and hath no affinity with the pleasure of our own nature: Such an obedience as Abraham manifested in his readiness to sacrifice his Son: Such an obedience as our Saviour demands in cutting off the right hand. When we observe any thing of di­vine order upon the account of its suitableness to our natural Sentiments, we shall readily divide from him, when the interest of nature turns it's point against the in­terest of Gods 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 depos'd upon the mutable interest of an inconstant mind? Esau had no regard to God in delaying the execution of his resolution to shorten his brothers dayes; though he was awed by the reverence of his Father to delay it; he considered perhaps, how justly he might lie under the imputation of hastening crazy Isaacs death, by depriving him of a beloved Son: But had the old mans head been laid, neither the contrary command of God, nor the nearness of a fraternal relation could have bound his hands from the act, no more than they did his heart from the resolution, Gen. 27.41. Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing, where­with his father blessed him; and Esau said in his heart the days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother.

So many Children, that expect at the death of their Parents great Inheritances or Portions, may be observant of them, not in regard of the rule fixed by God, but to their own hopes, which they would not frustrate by a disobligement: Whence is it that many men abstain from gross sins, but in love to their reputation? Wicked­ness may be acted privately, which a mans one credit puts a bar to the open com­mission of. The preserving his own esteem may divert him from entring into a brothell house, to which he hath set his mind before, against a known precept of his Creator. As Pharaoh parted with the Israelites, so do some men with their ble­mishing sins; not out of a sense of Gods rule, but the smart of present Judgments, or fear of a future wrath: Our security then, and reputation is set up in the place of God.

This also may be, and is in renewed men, 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 eying the divine precept, which is appointed to be their rule; This also is to set up a creature, as re­newed 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 chuse 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 law of God would upon the same reason be received as well as his natural law: From this prin­ciple of self, morality comes by some to be advanced above Evangelical dictates.

2. As they are agreeable to sinful self. Not that the commands of God are suit­ed to bolster up the corruptions of men, no more than the law can be said to ex­cite or revive sin.Rom. 7.8, 9. But it is like a scandal taken, not given; an occasion taken by the tumultuousness of our depraved nature. The Pharisees were devout in long Prayers, not from a sense of duty, or a care of Gods honour; but to satisfie their ambition, and rake together fuel for their covetuousness; Math. 23.14. You devour Widdows Hou­ses, and for a pretence makes long Prayers. 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 entertain'd,Gerrard in loc. since some of their Doctors have defended such a notion. Men may observe some Precepts of God to have a better conveniency to break others. Jehu was ordered to cut off the house of Ahab: The service he undertook was in it self acceptable, but corrupt nature misacted that which holiness and righteousness commanded: God appointed it to magnifie his Justice, and check the Idolatry that had been supported by that family: Jehu acted it to satisfie his revenge and ambiti­on; he did it to fulfil his lust, not the will of God who enjoyn'd him: Jehu ap­plauds it as zeal, and God abhors it as murder, and therefore would avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, Hos. 1.4. Such kind of services are not paid to God for his own sake, but to our selves for our lusts sake.

[Page 74]4. This is evident in neglecting to take Gods 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 our selves our own Governours and Lords, independent upon him: As though we could be our own Counsellors, and manage our Concerns without his leave and assistance; as though our works were in our own hands and not in the hands of God, Eccles. 9.1. that we can by our own strength and sagacity direct them to a successful end without him. If we must acquaint our selves with God before we decree a thing;Job 22.28. then to decree a thing without acquaint­ing God with it, is to prefer our purblind wisdom before the infinite Wisdom of God; to resolve without consulting God, is to depose God, and deifie self, our own wit and strength. We would rather like Lot follow our own humor and stay in So­dom, than observe the Angels order to go out of it.

5. As we account the actions of others to be good or evil, as they suit with or spurn against our fancies and humours. Vertue is a crime, and vice a vertue, as it is contrary or con­current with our humors: Little Reason have many men to blame the actions of o­thers, but because they are not agreeable, to what they affect and desire: We would have all men take directions from us, and move according to our beck: Hence that common Speech in the world; such an one is an honest friend, why? because he is of their humour, and lackies according to their wills: Thus we make self the measure and square of good and evil in the rest of mankind, and judge of it by our own fan­cies, and not by the will of God, the proper rule of Judgment.

Well then let us Consider.

Is not this very common, are we not naturally more willing to displease God than displease our selves, when it comes to a point that we must do one or other? Is not our own Counsel of more value with us than Conformity to the will of the Crea­tor? Do not our Judgments often run Counter to the Judgment of God? Have his Laws a greater respect from us, than our own humours. Do we scruple the stain­ing his honour when it comes in competition with our own? Are not the Lives of most men a pleasing themselves, without a repentance that ever they displeased God? Is not this to undeifie God, to deifie our selves, 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 our selves life and understanding. This is to destroy the order that God hath placed between our wills and his own, and a lifting up of the foot above the head; 'tis the deformity of the Creature: The honor 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 it's Creation.

He that moves and acts according to a law of his own, offers a manifest wrong to God, the highest wisdom and chiefest good; disturbs the order of the world; nulls the design of the righteousness and holiness of God: The Law of God is the rule of that order he would have observed in the world: He that makes another law his rule, thrusts out the order of the Creator, and establishes the disorder of the Creature.

But this will yet be more evident in the fourth thing.

4. Man would make himself the rule of God, and give Laws to his Creator. VVe are willing God should be our benefactor, but not our ruler; we are content to admire his excellency and pay him a worship, provided he will walk by our rule.

Decay of Christian piety p. 169. some­what changed. [This commits a riot upon his nature. To think him to be what we our selves would have him and wish him to be, Psal. 50.21. VVe would amplifie his Mercy and contract his Justice: We would have his power enlarg'd to supply our wants, and straightned when it goes about to revenge our crimes: VVe would have him wise to defeat our enemies, but not to disappoint our unworthy projects: We would have him all eye to regard our indigence, and blind, not to discern our guilt: We would have him true to his promises, regardless of his precepts, and false to his threatnings. VVe would new mint 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:] Instead of obeying him, we would have him obey us: Instead of owning and ad­miring [Page 75] his perfections, we would have him strip himself of his infinite excellency, and cloth 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 the actions of God: We would not have him act conveniently to his nature; but act what doth gratifie us, and ab­stain from what distasts us. Man is never well, but when he is impeaching one or other perfection of Gods 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 Saviours washing his feet, as an act of humility, but Christ understands it to be a prescribing a law to himself, a correcting his love, John 13.8, 9.

This is evidenc'd.

1. In the strivings against his Law. How many men imply by their Lives, that they would have God depos'd from his Government, and some unrighteous be­ing, step in to his Throne; as if God had or should change his Laws of Holiness into Laws of Licentiousness; as if he should abrogate his old Eternal Precepts and enact contrary ones in their stead? What is the Language of such practices, but that they would be Gods Law-givers and not his Subjects? that he should deal with them according to their own wills, and not according to his righteousness? that they could make a more holy, wise and righteous Law than the Law of God? that their imagi­nations, and not Gods righteousness, should be the rule of his doing good to them? Jer. 9.31. They have forsaken my Law and walked after the imaginations of their own heart.

When an act is known to be a sin, and the Law that forbids it acknowledg'd to be the Law of God, and after this a we persist in that which is contrary to it, we tax his wisdom as if he did not understand, what was convenient for us, we would teach God knowledge Job. 21 [...]; 'tis an implicite wish that God had laid aside the holiness of his nature, and framed a Law to pleasure our lusts. When God calls for weeping and mourn­ing and girding with sackcloth upon approaching Judgments, then the corrupt heart is for joy and gladness, eating of Flesh and drinking of Wine, because to morrow they should die Isa. [...] 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 precept: Disobedience is therefore called contention, Rom. 2.8. Centen­tious and obey not the truth: Contention against God, whose truth it is that they dis­obey; a dispute with him, which hath more of wisdom in it self and conveniency for 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 have advised and directed him better. The goodness of God is eminent to us in ap­pointing a day for his own worship, wherein we might converse with him and he with us, and our souls be refresht with spiritual Communications 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 urg'd the spiritual part of duty. E­very disobedience to the Law is an implicite giving Law to him, and a charge against him that he might have provided better for his Creature.

2. In disapproving the methods of Gods government of the world. If the Counsels of Heaven roul 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 must give an account of his proceedings at our tribu­nal. This is to make our selves Gods superiors, and presume to instruct him bet­ter in the government of the world; As though God hinder'd himself and the world, in not making us of his Privy Counsel, and not ordering his affairs according to the contrivances of our dim understandings.

Is not this manifest in our immoderate complaints of Gods dealings with his Church, as though there were a coldness in Gods affections to his Church, and a [Page 76] glowing heat toward [...] it only in us? Hence are those importunate desires for things which are not established by any promise, as though we would over-rule and over-perswade God to comply with our humour. We have an ambition to be Gods Tu­tors and direct him in his Counsels: Who hath been his Counsellor, saith the Apostle? Rom. 11.34. Who ought not to be his Counsellor, saith corrupt nature? Men will find fault with God in what he suffers to be done according to their own minds, when they feel the bitter fruit of it. When Cain had kill'd his brother, and his Conscience rackt him, how sawcily and discontedly doth he answer God, Gen. 4.9. Am I my brothers keeper? Since thou dost own thy self the Rector of the world, thou shouldst have preserved his person from my fury; since thou dost accept his Sacrifice before my Offering, preservation was due as well as acceptance. If this temper be found on earth, no wonder it is lodged in hell. That deplorable person under the sensible stroke of Gods Soveraign justice, would oppose his Nay, to Gods will, Luke 16.30. (And he said, nay, Father Abra­ham, but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent): He would presume to pre­scribe more effectual means than Moses and the Prophets, to inform men of the danger they incurr'd by their sensuality: David was displeas'd, it's said, 2 Sam. 6.8. When the Lord had made a breach upon Ʋzzah; not with Ʋzzah, 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 with our eyes, and measure him by our esteem of him? As if he should have ask'd our Counsel, before he had re­solved, and managed himself according to our will, rather than his own. If he be pa­tient to the wicked, we are apt to tax his holiness, and accuse him as an enemy to his own Law. If he inflict severity upon the righteous, we are ready to suspect his goodness, and charge him to be an enemy to his affectionate Creature. If he spare the Nimrods of the World, we are ready to ask where is the God of Judgment? Mal 2.17. If he afflict the Pillars of the Earth, we are ready to question where is the God of Mer­cy? 'Tis impossible, since the depraved nature of man, and the various interests and passions in the world, that infinite power and wisdome can act righteously for the good of the Universe, but he will shake some corrupt interest or other upon the earth; so various are the inclinations of men, and such a Weather-cock Judgment hath eve­ry man in himself, that the divine method he applauds this day, upon a change of his interest he will cavil at the next: 'Tis impossible for the just orders of God to please the same person many weeks, scarce many minutes together: God must cease to be God or to be a 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 dictates of his Creature? Must God, who hath only power and wisdom to sway the Scepter, become the obedient Subject of every mans 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 hours experience.

3. In impatience in our particular concerns. 'Tis ordinary with man to charge God in his complaints in the time of affliction. Therefore 'tis the commendation the Holy Ghost gives to Job, Job. 1.22. That in all this, that is, in those many waves that roll'd over him, he did not charge God foolishly, he never spake nor thought any thing unworthy of the Majesty and righteousness of God: Yet afterwards we find him warping; he nicknames the affliction to be Gods oppression of him, and no act of his goodness, Job. 10.3. Is it good for thee, that thou shouldst oppress? He seems to charge God with injustice, for punishing him when he was not wicked, for which he ap­peals to God; thou knowest that I am not wicked, v. 7. and that God acted not like a Creator, v. 8.

If our projects are disappointed, what fretfulness against Gods management are our hearts rackt with? How do uncomely passions bubble upon us, interpretatively at least wishing that the arms of his power had been bound, and the eye of his omni­science been hoodwinkt, 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 [Page 77] Israelites murmured more against God in the Wilderness, with Manna in their mouths, than they did at Pharoah in the Brickilns, with their Garlike and Onyons between their Teeth. Tho we repine at Instruments in our afflictions, yet God counts it a reflection upon himself: The Israelites speaking against Moses, was in Gods in­terpretation a Rebellion against himself.Numb. 16.41 compar'd with 17, 10. And Rebellion is alwaies 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. Ʋrban, the Protector of the Vines upon his own day, is an Emblem of our dealing with 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 durt in indignation. We cast out our mire and durt against God when he acts cross to our wishes, and flatter him when the wind of his Providence joyns it self to the tide of our interest.

Men set a high price upon themselves, and are angry God values them not at the same rate; as if their Judgment concerning themselves, were more piercing than his. This is to disannul Gods Judgment, and condemn him and count our selves righteous, as tis Job. 40.8. 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 our selves, and make our selves 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 seen.Caelum suspi­ciens vitam, &c. Vita Titi, ca. 10. What an 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 submitting to his Will and adoring his Wisdom, we declaim against him, as an unwise and unjust Governour: We would invert his order, make him the Steward and our selves the proprietors of what we are and have: we deny our selves to be sinners and our mercies to be forfeited.

4. Tis evidenced, in Envying the gifts and prosperities of others. Envy hath a deep tincture of practical Atheism, and is a cause of Atheism.Because wick­ed men flourish in the world, Solicitor nullos esse putare Deos. We are unwilling to leave God to be the proprietor and do what he will with his own, and as a Crea­tor to do what he pleases with his Creatures: We assume a liberty to direct God what Portions, when and how he should bestow upon his Creatures: We would not let him chuse his own favourites, and pitch upon his own instruments for his Glory: As if God should have askt Counsel of us how he should dispose of his benefits. We are unwilling to leave to his wisdom the management of his own Judgments to the wicked, and the dispensation of his own love to our selves. This temper is natural: Tis as ancient as the first age of the world: Adam envyed God a felicity by himself, and would not spare a Tree that he had reserved as a mark of his So­veraignty: The passion that God had given Cain to employ against his sin, he turns against his Creator: He was wroth with GodGen. 4.5. and with Abel; but envy was at the root, because his Brothers Sacrifice was accepted and his refused. How could he envy his accepted person, without reflecting upon the accepter of his 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. 10.3. Jonah had too much of self in fearing to be counted a false Prophet, when he came with absolute denunciations of wrath.Jonah 4.2. And when he could not bring a volley of destroying Judgments upon the Ninevites, he would shoot his fury against his Master, envying those poor people the benefit, and God the honour of his mercy: And this after he had been sent into the Whales belly to learn humiliation; which tho he exercised there, yet those two great branches of self-pride and envy were not lopt off from him in the belly of hell. And God was fain to take pains with him, and by a Gourd, scarce makes him ashamed of his peevishness. Envy is not like to cease, till all Atheism be Cashiered, and that is in Heaven.

This sin is an imitation of the Devil, whose first sin upon Earth was Envy, as his first sin in Heaven was Pride. Tis a wishing that to our selves, which the Devil asserted as his right, to give the Kingdoms of the World to whom he pleased: Luke 4.6. Tis an anger with God, because he hath not given us a Patent for Government. It utters [Page 78] the same Language in disparagement of God, as Absolom did in reflection on his Fa­ther. If I were King in Israel, Justice should be better managed: If I were Lord of the world, there should be more Wisdom to discern the merits of men, and more righteousness in distributing to them their several portions. Thus we impose Laws upon God, and would have the righteousness of his Will submit to the cor­ruptions of ours, and have him lower himself to gratifie our minds, rather than fulfill his own: We charge the Author of those gifts with injustice, that he hath not dealt equally; or with ignorance, that he hath mistook his mark. In the same breath that we censure him by our peevishness, we would Guide him by our Wills.

This is an unreasonable part of Atheism. If all were in the same state and con­dition, the order of the world would be impaired: Is God bound to have a care of thee, and neglect all the world besides? Shall the Earth be forsaken for thee? Job. 18.4. Joseph had reason to be displeased with his Brothers, if they had muttered, because he gave Benjamin a double portion, and the rest a single. It was unfit that they, who had de­served no gift at all, should prescribe him rules how to dispense his own doles; much more unworthy it is to deal so with God; yet this is too rife.

5. It is evidenced, in corrupt matter or ends of Prayer and praise. When we are importunate for those things, that we know not whither the righteousness, holiness, and wisdom of God can grant, because he hath not discovered his Will in any pro­mise to bestow them; we would then impose such conditions on God, which he ne­ver oblidged himself to grant; when we pray for things not so much to glorifie God, which ought to be the end of Prayer, as to gratifie our selves. We acknowledg indeed by the act of petitioning, that there is a God; but we would have him un-God 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 the Government of the world; When by some superficial services we think we have gained indulgence to sins: Which seems to be the thought of the Strumpet in her paying her vows, to wallowmore freely in the mire of her sensual pleasures;Pro. 7.14. I have peace offerings with me, this day I have paid my vows, I have made my peace with God, and have entertainment for thee: Or when men desire God to bless them in the Commission of some sin. As when Balack and Balaam offered Sacri­fices, that they might prosper in the Cursing of the Israelites, Numb. 25.1. &c.

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 Instrument to that purpose: This is to impose Laws upon God, contrary to the declared Will and wisdom of God, and to desire him to slight his own institutions. When we come into the presence of God with lusts reeking in our hearts, and leap from sin to duty, we would impose 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 per­formed, as tho God should serve our humors, when we will not obey his pre­cepts. And when we make vows under any affliction, what is it often but a se­cret conontrivance to bend and flatter him to our conditions? We will serve him if he will restore us; we think thereby to compound the business with him and bring him down to our terms.

6. Tis 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 unusual Judgment, and have a remarkable hand of God in it, and the sin be rendred plainly legible in the affliction; is a presumption of this nature. When men will Judge the Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with the Sacrifi­ces, greater sinners than others, and themselves righteous, because no drops of it were dasht upon them. Or when Shimei, being of the House of Saul, shall Judge ac­cording to his own interest and desires Davids flight upon Absoloms rebellion to be a punishment for invading the rights of Sauls Family, and depriving him of the succession in the Kingdom,2 Sam. 16.5. as if he had been of Gods Privy Counsel when he decreed such acts of Justice in the world.

Thus we would fasten our own Wills as a Law or motive upon God, and 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 [Page 79] our cause, to be a fruit of Gods 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 15.8. This is a judgment according to self-love, not a divine rule; and impo­seth 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 prophane World in those curses they so readily spit out upon any affront; as if God were bound to draw his Ar­rowes and shoot them into the heart of all their offenders at their beck and pleasure.

7. It is evidenc'd. In mixing rules for the worship of God, with those which have been ordered by him. Since men are most prone to live by sense; 'tis no wonder that a sensible worship, which affects their outward sence, with some kind of amazement, is dear to them, and spiritual worship, most loathsome.

Pompous rites have been the great Engine wherewith the Devil hath deceived the souls of men, and wrought them to a nauseating the simplicity of divine worship, as unworthy the Majesty and excellency of God.2 Cor. 11.3. Thus the Jews would not under­stand the glory of the second Temple in the presence of the Messiah, because it had not the pompous grandeur of that of Solomons erecting.

Hence in all Ages men have been forward to disfigure Gods models, and dress up a brat of their own; as though God had been defective in providing for his own honour in his institutions without the assistance of his Creature. This hath alwayes been in the world: the old World had their imaginations, and the new World hath continued them. The Israelites in the midst of miracles, and under the memory of a famous deliverance would erect a Calf. The Pharises, that sate in Moses Chair, would coyn new Traditions and enjoyn them to be as currant as the Law of God.Mat. 13.6. Papists will be blending the Christian appointments with Pagan Ceremonies, to please the carnal fancies of the common people. Altars have been multiplied, under the know­ledge of the Law of God.Hos. 8.12. Interest is made the ballance of the conveniency of Gods injunctions. Jeroboam fitted a worship to politick ends, and posted up Calves to prevent his subjects revolting from his Scepter, which might be occasioned by their resort to Hierusalem, and converse with the body of the people from whom they were separated.1 Kings 12.27. Men will be putting in their own dictates with Gods Laws, and are unwil­ling he should be the sole Governour of the World without their Counsel: They will not suffer him to be Lord of that which is purely and solely his concern. How of­ten hath the practice of the Primitive Church, the Custom wherein we are bred, the Sentiments of our Ancestors been owned as a more authentick rule in matters of Worship, than the mind of God delivered in his word? 'Tis natural by Creation to worship God; and it is as natural by corruption for man to worship him in a humane 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 hath done? Thus do men for the most part equal their own imaginations to Gods oracles: As Solomon built a high place to Moloch and Chemoch, upon the Mount of Olives, to face on the East part Hierusalem and the Temple: 1 Kings 11.7▪ This is not only to impose Laws on God, but also to make self the Standard of them.

8. 'Tis evidenc'd, in suting interpretations of Scripture to their own minds and hu­mors. Like the Lacedemonians, that drest the Images of their Gods according to the fashion of their own Countrey: We would wring Scripture to s [...]rve our own de­signs; and Judge the Law of God by the law of sin; and make the Serpentine seed in us to be the interpreter of Divine Oracles. This is like Belshazar; to drink healths out of the sacred Vessels. As God is the Author of his Law and Word, so he is the best interpreter of it; the Scripture having an impress of divine Wisdom, Holiness, and Goodness, must be regarded according to that impress, with a submission and meekness of Spirit and Reverence of God in it. But when in our enquiries into the word, we enquire not of God, but consult flesh and blood, the temper of the times wherein we live, or the 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 bolster up some eager appetite a­gainst the Will of the law-giver, ascribes to himself as great an authority as he that enacted it.

[Page 80]9. In falling off from God after some fair compliances, when his Will grateth upon us and crosseth ours. They will walk with him as far as he pleaseth them, and leave him upon the first distast, as tho God must observe their humors more than they his Will. Amos must be suspended from Prophecying, because the Land could not bear his words, and his discourses condemned their unworthy practices against God.Amos. 7.10. &c. The Young man came not to receive directions from our Saviour, but expected a Confirmation of his own rules, rather than an imposition of new.Mark 10.17, 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 was 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 our selves.Mark 6.2 [...].27.

More instances might be observed.

Ingratitude is a setting up self, and an imposing Laws on God. Tis 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, Jam. 4.13. We will go into such a City and buy and sell, &c. to get gain. As tho they had the Command of God, and God must Lacquey after their Wills. VVhen 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, &c.

Secondly, 2. The second main thing. As Man would be a Law to himself; So he would be his own end and happiness in opposition to God.

Here four things shall be discoursed on.

• 1. Man would make himself his own End and Happiness.
• 2. He would make any thing his End and Happiness rather than God.
• 3. He would make himself the End of all Creatures.
• 4. He would make himself the End of God.

First, 1. Man would make himself his own End and Happiness. As God ought to be esteem'd the first cause, in point of our dependance on him, so he ought to be our last end, in point of our enjoyment of him. When we therefore trust in our selves, we refuse him as the first cause; and when we act for our selves and ex­pect a blessedness from our selves, 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 works of the Divine power, materially to glorifie God; but a rational Creature, intenti­onally to Honour God by obedience to his Rule, dependance on his goodness and zeal for his glory. Tis 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.

1. 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 dissolved, but with the dissolution of nature it self. It consist­ed not with the wisdom and goodness of God to Create an unnatural nature, or to Command any thing unnatural: Nor doth he; for when he Commands us to Sacrifice out Selves, and dearest lives for himself, tis not without a promise of a more noble state and being, in exchange for what we lose. This self-love is not only commendable, but necessary, as a Rule to measure that duty we owe to our Neighbour, whom we cannot love as our selves, if we do not first love our selvs: God having planted this self-love in our nature, makes this natural principle the measure of our affection to all Mankind of the same blood with our selves.

2. Carnal self-love, when a man loves himself above God, in opposition to God, with a contempt of God; when our thoughts, affections, designs, Center only in our own fleshly interest; and rifle God of his honour, to make a present of it to our selves: Thus the natural self-love, in it self good, becomes Criminal by the ex­cess, when it would be superior and not subordinate to God.

[Page 81]3. A Gracious self-love: VVhen we love our selves for higher ends than the nature of a Creature, as a Creature dictates, Viz. in subserviency to the Glory of God. This is a reduction of the revolted Creature, to his true and happy order. A Christian is therefore said to be Created in Christ to good works. Eph. 1, 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 operation of Grace.

This Carnal self-love is set up in the stead of God as our last end; like the Sea, which all the little and great streams of our actions run to, and rest in.

And this is,

1. Natural. It sticks as close to us as our Souls; it is as natural as sin; the foundation of all the evil in the world: As self-abhorrency is the first stone that is laid in Con­version: So an inordinate self-love was the first in let to all iniquity: As Grace is a rising from self to Center in God; so is sin a shrinking from God, into the mire of a Carnal selfishness: Since every Creature is nearest to it self and next to God, it cannot fall from God, but must immediatly sink into self. M [...]r [...], Dial. 2. § 17. pa. 274. And there­fore all sins are well said to be branches, or modi [...]ations of this fundamen­tal passion. What is wrath, but a defence and strengthning 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 anothers enjoyment, able to supply it? What is impatience, but a regret, that self is not provided for at the rate of our wish, and that it hath met with a shock against supposed merit? What is pride, but a sense of selfworth, a desire to have self of a higher Elevation than others? What is drunkenness, but a seeking a satisfaction for sensual self in the spoils of reason? No sin is committed as sin, but as it pretends a self-satisfaction. Sin indeed may well be term'd a mans 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 embraceth nothing evil but under the Notion of good; but the rule whereby we measure the truth and goodness of pro­posed objects, is not the unerring word, but the inclinations of self, the gratifying of which is the aim of our whole lives.

Sin and self are all one: What is called a living to sin in one place,Rom. 6. is called a living to self in another:1 Cor. 5.15. That they that live should not live unto themselves. And upon this account it is that both the Hebrew word, [...] and the Greek word, [...], used in Scripture to express sin, properly signifie to miss the mark, and swerve from that white to which all our actions should be directed, viz. the glory of God. When we fell to loving our selves, we fell from loving God: And there­fore when the Psalmist saith, Psal. 14.2. there were none that sought God, viz. as the last end; he presently adds, they are all gone aside, viz. from their true mark, and therefore become filthy.

2. Since tis natural, Tis also universal. Psa. 14.1. The not seeking God is as universal as our ignorance of him. No Man in a state of nature, but hath it predominant; no renewed Man on this side Heaven, but hath it partially: The one hath it flou­rishing, the other hath it strugling. If to aim at the glory of God as the chief end, and not to live to our selves, be the greatest mark of the restauration of the Divine Image,1 Cor. 5.15. and a conformity to Christ, who glorified not himself, Heb. 1.5. but the Fa­ther: Joh. 17.4. then every man wallowing in the mire of Corrupt nature, pays a homage to self, as a renewed Man is byast by the honour of God.

The Holy-Ghost excepts none from this Crime, Phil. 2.21. All seek their own. Tis rare for them to look above or beyond themselves: Whatsoever may be the immediate subject of their thoughts and enquiries, yet the utmost end and stage, is their profit, honour or pleasure: Whatever it be, that immediatly possesses the Mind and VVill, self sits like a Queen, and sways the Scepter, and orders things at that rate, that God is Excluded, and can find no room in all his thoughts, Psa. 10.4. The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God, God is not [Page 82] in all his thoughts. The whole little World of Man is so overflowed with a Deluge of self, that the Dove, the Glory of the Creator, can find no Place where to set its Foot; and if ever it gain the favour of Admittance, 'tis to disguise and be a Vassal to some carnal Project; as the Glory of God was a Mask for the murdering his Servants.

'Tis from the Power of this Principle, that the difficulty of Conversion ariseth. As there is no greater pleasure to a believing Soul, than the giving it self up to God; and no stronger desire in him, than to have a fixed and unchangeable Will to serve the designs of his Honour: So there is no greater torment to a wicked Man, than to part with his carnal Ends, and lay down the Dagon of self at the feet of the Ark. Self-Love, and Self-Opinion in the Pharisees, way-layd all the entertainment of Truth, John 5.44. They sought Honour one of another, and not the Honour which comes from God. 'Tis of so large an Extent, and so insinuating Na­ture, that it winds it self into the exercise of moral Virtues, mixeth with our Charity, Matt. 6.2. and finds nourishment in the Ashes of Martyrdom, 1 Cor. 13.3.

This making our selves our End, will appear in a few things.

1. In frequent self Applauses, and inward overweening Reflections. Nothing more ordinary in the Natures of Men, than a dotage on their own Perfections, Acquisi­tions, or Actions in the World: Most think of themselves above what they ought to think, Rom. 12.3, 4. Few think of themselves so meanly as they ought to think. This sticks as close to us as our Skin. And as Humility is the Beauty of Grace, this is the filthiest Soyl 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 make us glitter in the eyes of the World; how chearfully do we grasp and embrace our selves? When the grosser Prophanesses of Men have been discarded, and the Flouds of them damm'd up; the Head of Cor­ruption, whence they sprang, will swell the higher within, in self-applauding speculations of their own Reformation, without acknowledgements of their own weaknesses, and desires of Divine Assistance to make a further Progress. I thank God I am not like this Publican. Luke 18.11. A self-reflection, with a contempt rather than com­passion to his Neighbor, is frequent in every Pharisee. The vapors of self-affecti­ons, in our clouded understandings, like those in the Air in misty mornings, alter the appearance of things, and make them look bigger than they are. This is thought by some to be the Sin of the fallen Angels, who reflecting upon their own natural Excellency superior to other Creatures, would find a Blessedness in their own Na­ture, as God did in his; and make themselves the last end of their Actions. 'Tis from this Principle we are naturally so ready to compare our selves, rather with those that are below us, than with those that are above us; and often think those that are above us, inferior to us, and secretly glory that we are become none of the meanest and lowest in natural or moral Excellencies.

How far were the gracious Pen-men of the Scripture from this, who when pos­sessed and directed by the Spirit of God, and filled with a Sence of him; instead of applauding themselves, publish upon Record their own faults to all the Eyes of the World? And if Peter, as some think, dictated the Gospel which Mark wrote as his Amanuensis; 'tis 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 14.72. But in the other, He went out and wept bitterly. Matt. 26 75.

Luke 22.62. This is one part of Atheism and Self-Idolatry, to magnifie our selves with the For­getfulness, and to the injury of our Creator.

2. In ascribing the glory of what we do or have, to our selves, to our own Wisdom, Power, Vertue, &c. How flaunting is Nebuchadnezzar, at the Prospect of Babilon, which he had exalted to be the Head of so great an Empire, Dan. 4.30? Is not this great Babilon that I have built? For, &c. He struts upon the Battlements of his Palace, as if there were no God but himself in the World, while his eye could not but see the Heavens above him to be none of his own framing; attributing his Acquisitions to his own Arm, and referring them to his own Honour, for his own delight; not for the Honour of God, as a Creature ought; nor for the advantage of his Subjects, as the Duty of a Prince: He regards Babilon as his [Page 83] Heaven, and himself as his Idol, as if he were all, and God nothing. An Example of this we have in the present Age. But it is often observed, that God vindicates his own Honour, brings the most heroical men to contempt and unfortunate ends, as a punishment of their Pride, as he did here, Dan. 4.31. While the Word was in the Kings Mouth, there fell a Voice from Heaven, &c.Sandersons Sermons. This was Herods Crime, to suffer others to do it: He had discovered his Eloquence actively, and made himself his own end passively, in approving the flatteries of the people; and offered not with one hand to God the glory, he received from his people with the other.Acts 12.22, 23. Samosatenus is reported to put down the Hymnes which were 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, we are ready to attribute it to our own Prudence, and Industry: If we meet with a Cross, we fret against the Stars and Fortune, and second Causes, and sometimes against God; as they curse God as well as their King, Esa. 8.21. 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. 115.1. implies the naturality of this temper, and the difficulty to cleanse our Hearts from those Self-reflections. If it be Angelical to refuse an undue Glory stollen from Gods Throne, Revela. 22.8, 9. 'tis Diabolical to accept and cherish it. To seek our own Glory is not Glory, Pro. 25.27. 'Tis vile, and the dishonour of a Crea­ture, who by the Law of his Creation is referred to another end. So much as we sacrifice to our own credit, to the dexterity of our 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 any thing that crosses the Flesh; though the wise man tells us, 'tis better to hear the Re­buke of the Wise, than the Song of Fools, Eccles. 7.5. 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 Cron. 16.10. If Micaiah declare to Ahab the Evil that shall befall him, Amon the Governour shall receive Orders to clap him up in a Dungeon. Fire doth not sooner seize upon combustible matter, than Fu­ry will be kindled, if self be but pincht. This interest of lustful self barr'd the heart of Herodias against the entertainment of the Truth, and caused her savagely to dip her hands in the blood of the Baptist, to make him a Sacrifice to that inward Idol Mark 6.18, 19, 28..

4. In being highly concerned for Injuries done to our selves, and little or not at all concerned for Injuries done to God. How will the blood rise in us, when our Honour and Re­putation is invaded, and scarce reflect upon the Dishonour God suffers in our sight and hearing. Violent Passions will transform us into Bonarges in the one Case, and our unconcernedness render us Gallios in the other. We shall extenuate that which concerns God, and aggravate that which concerns our selves. Nothing but the Death of Jonathan, a first born and a generous Son, will satisfie his Father Saul, when the Authority of his Edict was broken by his tasting of Hony; though he had re­compensed his Crime committed in Ignorance, by the Purchase of a Gallant Victo­ry. But when the Authority of God was violated in saving the Amalekites Cattel, against the Command of a greater Soveraign than himself; he can daub the busines, and excuse it with a Design of sacrificing. He was not so earnest in hindring the people from the breach of Gods Command, as he was in vindicating the Honour of his own: 1 Sam. 15.21. He could hardly admit of an excuse to salve his own Honour; but in the Concerns of Gods Honour, pretend Piety, to cloak his Avarice.

And it is often seen, when the violation of Gods Authority, and the stain of our own Reputation are coupled together; we are more troubled for what disgraces us, than for what dishonours God: When Saul had thus transgrest, 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, v. 30.

5. In trusting in our selves. When we consult with our own Wit and Wisdom, more than inquire of God, and ask leave of him: As the Assyrian, Isa. 10.13. By the Strength of my hands I have done it, and by my Wisdom, for I am prudent. When we attempt things in the strengh of our own heads and parts, and trust in our own Industry, without application to God, for Direction, Blessing and Success, we affect the priviledge of the Deity, and make Gods of our selves. The same language in reality with Ajax in Sophocles: Others think to overcome with the assistance of the Gods, [Page 84] but I hope to gain Honour without them. Dependence and Trust is an act due from the Creature only to God. Hence God aggravates the crime of the Jews in trusting in Egypt, Isa. 31.3. the Egyptians are men and not Gods. Confidence in our selves is a defection from God, Jer. 17.5. And when we depart from and cast off God to depend upon our selves, which is but an arm of flesh, we chuse the arm of flesh for our God; We rob God of that confidence, we ought to place in him, and that ado­ration which is due to him, and build it upon another foundation: Not that we are to neglect the reason and parts God hath given us, or spend more time in prayer than in consulting about our own affairs; but to mix our own intentions in business, with Ejaculations to heaven, and take God a long with us in every motion: But certainly it is an Idolizing of self, when we are more diligent 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 notion of God, is evident in our workings for carnal self against the light of our own Consciences. When men of sublime reason, and clear natural wisdom, are voluntary slaves to their own lusts, row against the stream of their own Consciences, serve carnal self with a disgrace­ful and disturbing drudgery, making it their God, sacrificing natural self, all Senti­ments of virtue, and the quiet of their lives, to the pleasure, honour, and satisfaction of carnal self: This is a prostituting God in his Deputy Conscience, to carnal affections, when their eyes are shut against the inlightnings of it, and their ears deaf to its voice, but open to the least breath and whisper of self: A debt that the Creature owes Su­premely to God.

Much more might be said, but let us see what Atheism lurks in this, and how it intrencheth upon God.

1. 'Tis a usurping God's prerogative. 'Tis Gods 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 our selves then our last End, is to corrival God in his being, the Supreme Good, and Blessedness to himself: As if we were our own Principle, the Author of our own Being, and were not obliged to a higher Power than our selves, for what we are and have. To direct the Lines of all our Motions to our selves, is to imply that they first issued only from our selves. 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 our selves in the place of God. All things have something without them, and above them as their end: All inferior Creatures act for some Superior order in the rank of Creation; the lesser animals are design'd for the greater, and all for man: Man therefore for some­thing nobler than himself. To make our selves therefore our own end, is to deny any Superior, to whom we are to direct our actions. God alone being the Supreme be­ing, can be his own ultimate end: For if there were any thing higher and better than God, the purity and righteousness of his own Nature would cause him to act for and toward that as his chiefest mark: This is the highest Sacriledge, 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 ravisht the Sacrifice from the Altar and carried it to their own nestsSabunde tit. 140.: When we love only our selves, and act for no other end but our selves, we invest our selves with the Domi­nion which is the right of God, and take the Crown from his head: For as the Crown belongs to the King; so to love his own Will, to Will by his own Will and for him­self, is the property of God; because he hath no other Will, no other End above him to be the rule and scope of his actions.

When therefore vve are by self-love transformed vvholly into our selves, vve make our selves our ovvn foundation, vvithout God and against God; vvhen vve mind our ovvn glory and praise, vve would have a Royal State equal vvith God, who Created all things for himself. Pro. 16.4. What can man do more for God than he natural­ly doth for himself, since he doth all those things for himself vvhich he should do for God? We ovvn our selves to be our own Creators and Benefactors, and fling off all Sentiments of gratitude to him.

2. It is a vilifying of God. When vve make our selves our End, 'tis plain lan­guage that God is not our happiness: We post-pone God to our selves, as if he vvere [Page 85] not an object so excellent and fit for our love as our selves are: (for it is irrational to make that our end, which is not God, and not the chiefest good) Tis to deny him to be better than we, to make him not to be so good as our selves, and so fit to be our chiefest good as our selves are; that he hath not deserved any such acknowledg­ment at our hands by all that he hath done for us: We assert our selves his superiors by such kind of acting, tho 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 made for his own praise, upon account whereof he only hath a right to glory and praise and none else. He thus changeth the glory of the incorruptible God into a Corruptible Image; Rom. 1.23. a perishing fame and reputation, which extends but little beyond the limits of his own habitation; or if it doth, survives but a few years, and perishes at last with the age wherein he lived.

3. Tis as much as in us lies a destroying of God. By this temper we destroy that God that made us, because we destroy his intention and his honour. God can­not outlive his Will and his Glory: Because he cannot have any other Rule but his own Will, 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. VVhosoever makes himself a King of his Princes rights and Territories, manifests an intent to throw him out of his Government: To chuse our selves as our end is to undeifie God, since to be the last end of a rational Creature is a right inseparable from the nature of the Deity; and therefore not to set God, but self always before us, is to ac­knowledge no being but our selves to be God.

Secondly, 2. The second thing, 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 Creature, that proposeth 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 by reason: When a Man there­fore Acts for that end, which was not intended him by the Law of his Creation, nor is suited to the noble faculties of his Soul; He acts contrary 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.

1. Formally. When he actually Judges this or that thing to be his chiefest good, and orders all things to it. So Man doth not formally Judge sin to be good, or any object which is the incentive of sin to be his last end: This cannot be while he hath the exercise of his rational faculties.

2. Vertually and implicitely. When he loves any thing against the Command of God, and preferrs in the stream of his actions the enjoyment of that, before the fruition of God; and lays out more strength and expends more time in the gain­ing that, than answering the true end of his Creation: VVhen he acts so as if some­thing below God could make him happy without God, or that God could not make him happy without the addition 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 Consequently 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 multitude of false Gods, that can only render him miserable. He that loves pleasure more than God, says in his heart there is no God but his pleasure. He that loves his belly more than God, says in his heart there is no God but his belly: Their happiness is not accounted to lie in that God that made the World, but in the pleasure or profit they make their God.

In this, tho a Created object be the immediate and subordinate term to which we turn, yet principally and ultimately, the affection to it terminates in self: Nothing is naturally entertained by us, but as it affects our sense or mingles with some pro­mise of advantage to us.

This is seen,

1. In the fewer thoughts we have of God than of any thing else. Did we appre­hend God to be our chiefest good and highest end, should we grudge him the pains of a few days thoughts upon him? Men in their Travells are frequently [Page 86] thinking upon their intended stage: But our thoughts run upon new acquisitions to increase our wealth, rear up our Families, Revenge our injuries and support our reputation: Trifles possess us; but God is not in all our thoughts, Psa. 10.4. seldom the sole object of them. VVe have durable thoughts of transitory things, and flitting thoughts of a durable and Eternal good. The Covenant of grace engageth the whole heart to God, and bars any thing else from ingrossing it: But what stran­gers are God and the Souls of most men? Though we have the knowledge of him by Creation, yet he is for the most part an unknown God in the Relations where­in he stands to us, because a God undelighted in: Hence it is, as one obeserves,Jackson vol. book 1. cap. 14. pa. 48. that because we observe not the ways of Gods wisdom, conceive not of him in his vast per­fections, nor are stricken with an admiration of his goodness, that we have fewer good sacred Poems, than of any other kind. The wits of Men hang the wing when they come to exercise their reasons and fancies about God. Parts and strength are gi­ven us, as well as Corn and Wine to the Isralites for the service of God; but those are Consecrated to some Cursed Baal. Hos. 2.8. Like Venus in the Poet, we forsake Heaven to follow some Adonis.

2. In the greedy pursuit of the World. Quod quis (que) prae caeteris pe­tit, summum judicat bonum. B [...]et. lib. 3. pa. 24. When we pursue worldly wealth or worldly reputation with more vehemency than the riches of grace, or the fa­vour of God. VVhen 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 tho there were a defect in God, cannot be content with him as our portion, without an addi­tion of something inferior to him: VVhen we make it our hopes and say to the wedge thou art my Confidence; and rejoyce more because it is great, and because our hand hath gotten much, than in the priviledge of Communion with God and the promise of an everlasting fruition of him.Job. 31.24.25. This is so gross, that Job joyns it with the Idolatry of the Sun and Moon, which he purgeth himself of, ver. 26. And the Apostle when he mentions Covetousness or Covetous men, passes it not over with­out the title of Idolatry to the vice, and Idolater to the person:Col. 3.5. Eph. 5.5. 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, Phil. 3.19. VVho make their bel­ly their God; 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 themselves no better than a rout of sublimated brutes among men, and gross Atheists to God. VVhen mens thoughts run also upon inventing new methods to satisfie their bestial appetite, forsaking the pleasures which are to be had in God, which 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 Soveraign Author. VVhen they Sacrifice to their Net, and burn incense to their Drag. Hab. 1.16. Not that the Assyrian did offer a Sacrifice to his arms, but ascrib'd to them, what was due only to God, and appropriated the Victory to his forces and arms. The Prophet alludes to those that worshipped their VVarlike Instruments, where­by they had attained great Victories; and those Artificers who worshipped the Tools by which they had purchased great wealth, in the stead of God; pre­ferring them as the causes of their happiness 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, with a greater indearedness; 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. VVhen in a publick attendance on his service, we will not laugh, or be garish, because Men see us: But our hearts shall be in a ridiculous posture, playing with Feathers and trifling fancies, tho God see us; [Page 87] as tho our happiness consisted in the pleasing of Men, and our misery in a respect to God: There is no fool that saith in his heart there is no God; but he sets up some­thing in his heart as a God.

This is.

1. A debasing of God. 1. In setting up a Creature. It speaks God less amiable than the Creature, short of those perfections, which some silly sordid thing which hath engrossed 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: Tis to say to God as the rich to the poor, James 2.3. Stand thou there or sit here under my foot-stool: Tis to sink him below the mire of the world, to order him to come down from his glorious throne, and take his place below a contemptible 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 him, as the first cause and the chiefest good, as tho he were too feeble and mean to be our blessedness. This is in­tolerable, to make that which is Gods foot-stool, the Earth, to climb up into his throne; to set that in our heart which God hath made even below our selves and put under our feet; to make that which we trample upon, to dispose of the right God hath to our hearts;Neremberg de adorat. p. 30. Tis worse than if a Queen should fall in love with the little I­mage of the Prince in the Palace, and slight the beauty of his person; and as if peo­ple should adore the foot-steps of a King in the dirt, and turn their backs upon his presence.

2. It doth more debase him to set up a sin, a lust, a carnal affection, as our chief end. To steal away 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; tho it were a vile usage, yet it were not altogether so Criminal: But to gratifie some unworthy appetite, with the displeasure of the Creator, something below the rational nature of Man, much more infinitely below the excellent Majesty of God, is a more unworthy usage of him. To advance one of the most vertuous Nobles in a Kingdom as a mark of our service and subjection, is not so dishonourable to a despised Prince, as to take a Scabby Begger, or a rotten Carcass to place in his throne. Creeping things, abomi­nable beasts, the Egyptian Idols, Cats and Crocodiles, were greater abominations, and a greater despite done to God, than the Image of Jealousy at the gate of the Altar. Ezek. 8.5, 6, 10.

And let not any excuse themselves, that tis but one lust or one Creature which is preferred as the end: Is not he an Idolater that worships the Sun or Moon, one Idol, as well as he that worships the whole host of Heaven?

The 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 Esaus prophaneness in con­temning his birth right, and God in it, is aggravated by his selling it for one morsel of meat, Heb. 12.16. 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 pro­phaness more excusable. And it is reckoned as a high aggravation of the Corrup­tion of the Israelite Judges, Amos 2.6. That they sold the poor for a pair of shoos; That is, that they would betray the cause of the poor for a bribe of no greater value, than might purchase them a pair of shoos. To place any one thing as our chief end, tho never so light, doth not excuse: He that will not stick to break with God for a trifle, a small pleasure, will leap the hedge upon a greater temptation.

Nay, and if wealth, riches, friends, and the best thing in the world, our own lives be preferred before God, as our chief happiness and end but one moment, tis an infinite wrong; because the infinite goodness and excellency of God is denyed: As tho the Creature or lust we love, or our own life which we prefer in that short moment before him, had a goodness in it self, superior to, and more desirable than [Page 88] the Blessedness in God: And though it should be but one Minute, and a Man in all the Periods of his days both before and after that Failure, should actually and inten­tionally prefer God before all other things; yet he doth him an infinite wrong, be­cause God in every moment is infinitely good, and absolutely desirable, and can never cease to be good, and cannot have the least shadow or change in him and his Perfections.

2. 'Tis a denying of God.

Job. 31.26, 27, 28. If I beheld the Sun when it shined, and the Moon walking in its Brightness, and my Heart hath been secretly enticed, or my Mouth hath kist my Hand; this also were Iniquity to be punished by the Judge; for I should have denyed the Lord above. This Denial of God is not only the act of an open Idolater, but the consequent of a secret confidence, and immoderate joy in worldly Goods: This Denial of God is to be referred to v. 24.25. When a man saith to Gold, thou art my confidence, and rejoyces because his wealth is great; he denies that God which is Superior to all those, and the proper Object of Trust: Both Idolatries are coupled here together; that which hath Wealth, and that which hath those glorious Creatures in Heaven for its Object: And though some may think it a light Sin, yet the Crime 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 Notion; 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 Nations: 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 an excrementitious Creature, or a brutish Pleasure is a Denial of God, and a kind of an Abjuring of him, siince the Su­pream Affection of the Soul is undoubtedly and solely the Right of the Soveraign Creator, and not to be given in common to others, as the outward gesture may in a way of civil respect. Nothing that is an Honour peculiar to God, can be given to a Creature, without a plain exclusion of God to be God; it being a disowning the rectitude and excellency of his Nature. If God should command a Creature such a Love, and such a Confidence in any thing inferior to him; He would deny 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, and say to the Vir­gin, In te Domina speravi, as Bonaventure, &c.

Good reason therefore have Worldlings and Sensualists, persons of immoderate fondness to 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 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 in Creature Confidences and Affections, whereby they fall under the charge of an act of practical Atheism, though they may be free from an habit of it.

3. The third thing is, Man would make himself the end of all Creatures. Man would fit in the Seat of God, and set his heart as the heart of God, as the Lord saith of Tyrus Ezek. 28.2. What is the consequence of this; but to be esteemed the chief Good, and end of other Creatures? A thing, that the heart of God cannot but be set upon, it being an inseparable Right of the Deity; who must deny him­self, if he deny this affection of the Heart.

Since it is the nature of Man deriv'd from his Root, to desire to be equal with God; it follows that he desires no Creature should be equal with him, but subservi­ent to his ends and his glory. He that would make himself God, would have the Honour proper to God: He that thinks himself worthy of his own supream affecti­on, thinks himself worthy to be the Object of the supream 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, doth by that act chal­lenge 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 [Page 89] of the Subjects. He that loves himself chiefly, and all other things and persons for himself, would make himself the end of all Creatures. It hath not been once or twice only in the World, 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 Sacrifices for their Honour: What hath been practised by one, is by Nature seminal­ly in all. 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 an high Opinion of our selves, and act for our own Reputes, we dispossess God from our own hearts; and while we would have our Fame to be in every mans 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 Atchievements, more than the Works and Excellency of God, with our Image and not with the Divine. Pride would paramount God in the affections of others, and justle God out of their Souls; and by the same reason that man doth thus in the Place where he lives, he would do so in the whole world, and press the whole Creation from the Service of their true Lord, to his own Service. Every proud man would be counted by others as he counts himself; the highest, chiefest piece of Goodnes; and be adored by others, as much as he adores and admires himself. No proud man in his self-love, and self-admiration, thinks himself in an Error; and if he be worthy of his own admiration, he thinks himself worthy of the highest esteem of others; that they should value him above themselves, and value themselves only for him. What did Nebuchadnezzar intend, by setting up a Golden Image, and commanding all his Subjects to worship it, upon the highest Penalty he could inflict; but that all should aim only at the pleasing his Humor?

2. In using the Creatures contrary to the End God has appointed. God created the World and all things in it, as steps whereby men might ascend to a Prospect of him, and the acknowledgment of his Glory; and we would use them to dishonour God, and gratifie our selves: He appointed them to supply our necessities, and support our rational delights; and we use them to cherish our sinful lusts. We wring groans from the Creature in diverting them from their true scope, to one of our own fixing, when we use them not in his service, but purely for our own, and turn those things he created for himself to be instruments of Rebellion against him to serve our turns; and hereby endeavour to defeat the ends of God in them, to establish our own ends by them: This is a high dishonour to God, a Sacrilegious undermining of his Glory;Sabunde Tit. 200. P. 352. to reduce what God hath made to serve our own glory, and our own pleasure: It perverts the whole Order of the World, and di­rects it to another end than what God hath constituted; to another intention con­trary to the intention of God; and thus Man makes himself a God by his own Authority. As all things were made by God, so they are for God: but while we aspire to the end of the Creation, we deny and envy God the honour of being Cre­ator. We cannot make our selves the chief end of the Creatures against Gods 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 Devil for his first affecting an Authority in Hea­ven, has been hurled down from the State of an Angel of Light, into that of Dark­ness, Vileness and Misery, to be the most accursed Creature living; yet he still as­pires to mate God, contrary to the knowledge of the impossibility of success in it: Neither the terrors he feels, nor the future torments he doth expect, do a jot abate his Ambition to be Competitor with his Creator. How often hath he since his first sin, arrogated to himself the Honour of a God from the blind world, and attempted to make the Son of God by a particular Worship, count him as the chiefest Good and Benefactor of the World? Mat. 4.9. Since all men by Nature are the Devils Children, the Ser­pents Seed, they have something of this Venom in their Natures, as well as others of his qualities. We see that there may be, and is a prodigious Atheism lurking un­der the Belief of a God. The Devil knows there is a God, but acts like an Atheist, and so do his Children.

[Page 90]4. Man would make himself the end of God. This necessarily follows upon the former: Whosoever makes himself his own Law and his own End in the place of God, would make God the Subject in making himself the Soveraign: He that steps into the Throne of a Prince, sets the Prince at his Foot-stool; and while he assumes the Princes Prerogative, demands a Subjection from him. The Order of the Crea­tion, has been inverted by the entrance of Sin.Pascal Pens. §. 30. P. 294. God implanted an affection in Man with a double aspect, the one to pitch upon God, the other to respect our selves; but with this proviso, that our affection to God should be infinite, in re­gard of the Object and Center in him, as the chiefest Happiness and highest End: Our affections to our selves should be finite, and refer ultimately to God as the Ori­ginal of our Being: But Sin hath turned Mans affections wholy to himself: Where­as he should love God first, and himself in order to God; he now loves himself first, and God in order to himself: Love to God is lost, and Love to self hath u­surpt the Throne. As God by Creation put all thing under the feet of Man, Psal. 8.6. reser­ving the Heart for himself; Man by Corruption hath dispossessed God of his Heart, and put him under his own feet. We often intend our selves, when we pretend the Honour of God, and make God and Religion a Stale 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 benefits 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 doth them some good turns by unexpected Providences: This is not an affection to God for the unbounded Excellency of his own Nature, but for his beneficence, as he opens his hand for them; an affection to themselves, and those Creatures, their Gold, thier 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. 'Tis rather a disowning of God, than any love to him; because it postpones God to those things they love him for. This would appear to be no love, if God should cease to be their Benefactor, and deal with them as a Judge; if he should change his out­ward smiles into afflicting frowns; and not only shut his hand, but strip them of what he sent them. The Motive of their love being expired, the affection raised by it, must cease for want of fewel to feed it: 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, Job. 1.10. They love not God for nought; but while he makes a hedge a­bout them and their Families, whilest he blesseth the works of their hands, and in­creaseth their honour in the Land. 'Tis like Peter's sharp reproof of his Master, when he spake of the ill usage, even to death, he was to meet with at Hierusalem; This shall not be unto thee: It was as much out of love to himself, as zeal for his Ma­sters Interest, knowing his Master could not be in such a Storm without some drops lighting upon himself. All the Apostacies of men in the world are Witnesses to this: They fawn whilest they may have a prosperous Profession, but will 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 Launce for him: As those that admired the Miracles of our Saviour, and shrunk at his Sufferings. A time of tryal discovers these Mercenary Souls to be more Lovers of themselves than their Maker. This is a pretended love of friendship to God, but a real love to a Lust, only to gain by God: A good mans temper is contrary: Quench Hell, burn Heaven said a holy Man, I will love and fear my God.

2. 'Tis evident; in abstinence from some sins; not because they offend God, but be­cause they are against the Interest of some other beloved Corruption, or a Bar to something men hunt after in the World. When temperance is cherished, not to honour God, but preserve a crazy Carcass: Prodigality forsaken, out of a humor of Avarice: Uncleaness forsaken, not out of a hatred of Lust, but love to their mony: Decli­ning a Denial of the Interest and Truth of God, not out of affection to them, but an ambitious Zeal for their own Reputation. There is a kind of Conversion from Sin, when God is not made the Term of it, Jer. 4.1. If thou wilt return oh Israel, return unto me saith the Lord. Trap on Gen. pa. 148. When we forbear Sin as Dogs do the Meat [Page 91] they love; they forbear not out of a hatred of the Carrion, but fear of the Cud­gel: These are as wicked in their abstaining from Sin, as others are in their furious committing it. Nothing of the Honour of God and the End of his appointments is indeed in all this, but the conveniences self gathers from them. Again, many of the motives the generality of the world uses to their Friends and Relations to draw them from Vices, are drawn from self, and used to prop up natural or sinful self in them: Come, reform your self, take other courses, you will smut your Reputation and be despicable; you will destroy your Estate and commence a Beg­gar; your Family will be undone, and you may rott in a Prison: Not laying close to them the Duty they owe to God, the Dishonour which accrues to him by their unworthy courses, and the ingratitude to the God of their mercies: Not that the other motives are to be laid aside and slighted: Mint and Cummin may be tithed, but the weightier concerns are not to be omitted: But this shews that self is the Byas, not only of men in their own course, but in their dealings with others: What should be subordinate to the Honour of God, and the Duty we owe to him, is made superior.

3. 'Tis evident, In performing Duties meerly for a selfish Interest: Making our selves the End of Religious Actions, paying a Homage to that, while we pretend to render it to God, Zach. 7.5. Did you at all fast unto me, even unto me? 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 sanctifie not the Name of God in the Duty, but gra­tifie our selves: God may be the Object, self is the End; and a Heavenly Object is made subservient to a Carnal Design. Hypocrisie passes a Complement on God, and is called Flattery, Psal. 78.36. They did flatter him with their lips, &c. They gave him a parcel of good words for their own preservation. Flattery in the old Noti­on among the Heathens, is a Vice more peculiar to serve our own turn and pur­vey for the Belly: They knew they could not subsist without God, and therefore gave him a parcel of good words, that he might spare them, and make Provision for them. Israel is an empty Vine, Hos. 10.1. a Vine say some, with large Branches and few Clusters, but brings forth Fruit to himself; while they professed Love to God with their lips: It was, that God should promote their covetous designs, and preserve their Wealth and Grandeur:Ezek. 33.31. In which respect, an Hypocrite may be well termed a Religious Atheist, an Atheist maskt with Religion. The chief Arguments which prevail with 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 Circumcision, viz. the ingrossing of more Wealth, Gen. 34.21, 22. If every Male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised, shall not their Cattel and their Substance, and every Beast of theirs be ours?

This is seen,

1. In unweildiness to Religious Duties, where self is not concern'd. With what live­ly thoughts will many approach to God, when a Revenue may be brought in to support their own ends? But when the Concerns of God only are in it, the Duty is not the Delight, but the Clogg; such feeble Devotions that warm not the Soul, un­less there be somthing of self to give strength and heat to them. Jonah was sick of his work, and run from God, because he thought he should get no honour by his Message; Gods Mercy would discredit his Prophecy. Johuah 4.2. Thoughts of disadvantage, cut the very sinews of service. You may as well perswade a Merchant to venture all his Estate upon the inconstant Waves without hopes of Gain, as prevail with a natural man to be serious in Duty, without expectation of some warm Advan­tage. What profit should we have if we pray to him? is the natural Question, Job. 21.15. What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my Sin? Job. 35.3. I shall have more good by my sin than by my service. 'Tis for God that I dance before the Ark, saith David, therefore I will be more vile, 2 Sam. 6.2. Tis for self that I pray saith a natural Man, therefore I will be more Warm and quick. Ordinances of God are observed only as a point of interest, and Prayer is often most fervent, when it is least Godly, and most selfish: Carnal Ends and Affections, will pour out lively Ex­pressions. If there be no delight in the means that lead to God, there is no de­light in God himself: Because Love is appetitus unionis, a desire of Union; and where [Page 92] the Object is desireable, the means that brings us to it would be delightful too.

2. In calling upon God only in a time of necessity. How officious will men 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 after God, and they remembred that God was their Rock, Psal. 78.34. They remembred him under the Scourge, and forgate him under his Smiles: They visit the Throne of Grace, knock loud at Heavens Gates, and give God no rest for their early and importunate Devotions when under Distress: But when their desires are answered, and the Rod removed; they stand aloof from him, and rest upon their own bottom, as Jer. 2.31. 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 Noahs 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 else where. How often do men apply themselves to God, when they have some business for him to do for them? And then too, they are loath 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 spurrs men on to the Throne of Grace; they desire to be furnisht 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 our selves: As the Romans worshipped a Quartane Ague as a Goddess, and Timorem & 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 importunate to have him our friend in our necessities, and are un­gratefully careles of him, and his injuries, he suffers by us or others: When he hath discharged us from the Rock where we stuck, we leave him, as having no more need of him, and able to do well enough without him: As if we were petty Gods our selves, and only wanted a lift from him at first: This is not to glorifie God as God, but as our Servant; not an honouring of God, but a self seeking: He would hardly begg at Gods door, if he could pleasure himself without him.

3. In begging his Assistance to our own Projects. When we lay the Plot of our own Affairs, and then come to God, not for Counsel but Blessing; Self only shall give us counsel how to act; but because we believe there is a God that governs the world, we will desire him to contribute success. God is not consulted with, till the Counsel of self be fixed; then God must be the Executor of our Will: Self must be the Principal, and God the Instrument to hatch what we have contrived. 'Tis worse when we beg of God to favour some sinful Aim; the Psalmist implies this, Psal. 66.18. If I regard Iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Ini­quity regarded as the aim in Prayer, renders the Prayer succesless, and the Sup­pliant an Atheist, in debasing God to back his Lust by his holy Providence.

The Disciples had determined Revenge; and because they could not act it with­out their Master, they would have him be their Second in their vindictive passion, Luke 9.55. Call for fire from Heaven.

We scarce seek God, till we have modell'd the whole Contrivance in our own Brains, and resolved upon the Methods of Performance; as though there were not a fullness of Wisdom in God to guide us in our resolves, as well as Power to breath Success upon them.

4. In impatience upon the refusal of our desires. How often do mens Spirits rise a­gainst God, when he steps not in with the Assistance they want? If the glory of God swayed more with them than their private interest, they would let God be Judge of his own glory, and rather magnifie his Wisdom, than complain of his want of Goodness: Selfish hearts will charge God with neglect of them, if he be not as quick in their supplies as they are in their desires; like those in Isa. 58.3. Where­fore have we fasted say they, and thou seest not; wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge? When we aim at Gods glory in our importunities, we shall fall down in humble Submissions when he denies us; whereas self riseth up in bold Expostulations, as if God were our Servant, and had neglected the service [Page 93] he owed us, not to come at our call. We over-value the satisfactions of self above the honour of God. Besides, if what we desire be a sin, our impatience at a refusal is more intolerable: 'Tis an anger, that God will not lay aside his holiness to serve our corruption.

5. In the actual aims men have in their Duties. In Prayer for temporal things, when we desire Health for our own ease, Wealth for our own sensuality, Strength for our revenge, Children for the increase of our Family, Gifts for our ap­plause, as Simon Magus did the Holy-Ghost, or; when some of those ends are aimed at: This is to desire God not to serve himself of us, but to be a Servant to our world­ly interest, our vain glory, the greatning of our names, &c. In spiritual mercies beg­ged for; When pardon of sin is desired only for our own security from eternal Vengeance; Sanctification desired only to make us fit for everlasting blessedness; Peace of Conscience only that we may lead our lives more comfortably in the world; when we have not actual intentions for the glory of God, or when our thoughts of Gods honour are overtopt by the aims of self advantage: Not but that as God hath prest us to those things by motives drawn from the Blessedness derived to our selves by them, so we may desire them with a resepect to our selves; but this re­spect must be contained within the due banks, in subordination to the glory of God, not above it, nor in an equal ballance with it.Gurnall. Part. 3. Pag. 337. That which is nourishing or medicinal in the first or second degree, is in the fourth or fifth degree meer de­structive poyson.

Let us consider it seriously; though a Duty be heavenly, doth not some base end smut us in it?

[1.] How is it with our Confessions of Sin? Are they not more to procure our Pardon, than to shame our selves 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 of his benefits, than to honour him in acknowledging the rights of his Justice? Do we not bewail sin as it hath ruined us, not as it opposed 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 Wantoness with another; not to abhor our selves, but to daub with God?

2. Is it any better in our private and Family Worship? Are not such Assemblies frequented by some, where some upon whom they have a dependance 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?

[3.] Is not the Charity of many men tainted with this end self?Mat. 6.1. as the Pharisees were, while they set the miserable Object before them, but not the Lord; bestowing Alms, not so much upon the necessities of 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 Doles may be visible to them and commended by them: Or when we think to oblige God to pardon our transgressi­ons; as if we merited it and Heaven too at his hands, by bestowing a few pence upon indigent persons. And

[4.] Is it not the same with the Reproofs of men? Is not Heat and Anger carried out with full Sail when our worldly interest is prejudic'd, and becalm'd 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 what they owe to God, no noyse is made, they pass without rebuke. Is not this to make God and Reli­gion a Stale to their own ends? 'Tis a part of Atheism, not to regard the injuries done to God, as Tiberius Dei injuria Deo curae.; Let Gods wrongs be looked to or cared for by himself.

[5.] 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 [Page 94] of her Worshippers, and the Sale of her own Shrines, Acts 19.24.28.

4. In making use of the Name of God to countenance our Sin. 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 simplicity of their Chapmen upon God: Crediting their Cousenage by his Name, as men do brass mony, with a thin plate of silver, and the stamp and image of the Prince. The Jews urge the Law of God for the crucifying his Son, John 19.7. We have a Law, and by that Law he is to dye: And would make him a Party in their private Revenge.Sanaerson's S. Part. 2. P. 158. Thus often when we have faultered in some actions, we wipe our mouths, as if we sought God more than our own interest, pro­stituting the sacred Name and Honour of God, either to hatch or defend some unworthy lust against his Word.

Is not all this a high degree of Atheism?

1. 'Tis a vilifying God, an abuse of the highest good: Other sins subject the Crea­ture and outward things to them; but acting in Religious services for self, subjects not only the highest concernments of mens Souls, but the Creator himself to the Creature: Nay, to make God contribute to that which is the pleasure of the Devil: A greater slight, than to cast the gifts of a Prince to a Herd of nasty Swine. It were more excusable to serve our selves of God upon the higher ac­counts, such that materially conduce to his glory; but it is an intolerable wrong, to make Him and his Ordinances Caterers for our own bellies, as they didHos. [...]8.13. Vid. Cocc. in locum.: They sacrificed the [...] of which the Offerer might eat; not out of any reference to God, but love to their Gluttony; not to please him, but feast themselves. The Belly was truly made the God, when God was served only in order to the Belly: As though the blessed God had his Being, and his Ordinances were enjoyned to pleasure 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.

2. Because it is a vilifying of God, It is an undeifying or dethroning God. 'Tis an acting, as if we were the Lords, and God our Vassal: A setting up those secu­lar ends in the place of God, who ought to be our ultimate end in every action; to whom a glory is as due, as his mercy to us is utterly unmerited by us. He that thinks to cheat, and put the Fool upon God by his pretences, doth not heartily believe there is such a Being. He could not have the Notion of a God, without that of Omniscience and Justice; an eye to see the cheat, and an Arm to punish it: The Notion of the one would direct him in the manner of his Services, and the Sense of the other would scare him from the cherishing his unworthy ends. He that serves God with a sole respect to himself, is prepared for any Idolatry; his Religion shall warp with the times and his interest; he shall deny the true God for an Idol, when his worldly interest shall advise him to it; and pay the same Reverence to the basest Image, which he pretends now to pay to God: As the Israelites were as real for Idolatry under their basest Princes, as they were Pre­tenders to the true Religion under those that were Pious.

Before I come to the use of this, give me leave to evince this practical Atheism by two other Considerations.

1. Ʋnworthy Imaginations of God.

The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God: That is, he is not such a God as you report him to be: This is meant by their being corrupt, in the 2. v. corrupt being taken for playing the Idolaters, Exod. 32.7. We cannot comprehend God; if we could, we should cease to be finite; and because we cannot comprehend him, we erect strange Images of him in our fancies and affections. And since guilt came upon us, because we cannot root out the Notions of God, we would debase the Majesty and Nature of God, that we may have some ease in our Consciences, and lye down with some comfort in the sparks of our own kindling.

This is universal in men by Nature. God is not in all his thoughts: Psal. 10.4. 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 conceive [Page 95] of God as God: They are all infected with some one or other ill opinion of him, thinking him not so holy, powerful, just, good as he is, and as the natural force of a human understanding might arrive to. VVe joyn a new Notion of God in our vain fancies, and represent him not as he is, but as we would have him to be, fit for our own use, and suted to our own pleasure: VVe 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 himself, who had newly sprouted up by his Almighty power, was fit to be his Corrival in knowledge, and had vain hopes to grasp as much as infiniteness: If he in his first declining begun to have such a conceit, tis no doubt but we have as bad under a mass of Corruption. VVhen holy Agur speaks of God, he crys out that he had not the understanding of a Man, nor the knowledge of the holy: Pro. 30.2.3. 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 which they would transform him.

Hence sprang,

1. Idolatry. Vain Imaginations first set afloat and kept up this in the world.Rom. 1.2 [...].23. Vain Imaginations of the God whose glory they changed into the Image of corruptible Man: 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, were the fruit of an Idea Erected in their own minds; This is a mighty debasing the Divine nature, and rendring him no better, than that base and stupid matter they make the visible 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 it self in all Corners of the world, not only a­mong the more barbarous and Ignorant, but the more polisht and Civilized Na­tions? Judea only, where God had placed the Ark of his presence, being free from it, in some intervals of time only after some sweeping Judgment. And tho they vomited up their Idols undersome sharp scourge, they licked them up again after the Hea­vens were cleared over their Heads: The whole book of Judges makes mention of it. And tho an Evangelical light hath chased that Idolatry away from a great part of the world; yet the Principle remaining, Coyns 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 Mint a God accor­ding to our own Complexion, like to us in mutable and various passions, soon angry and soon appeased, tis no wonder that we invent ways of pleasing him after we have offended him; and think to expiate the sin of our Souls, by some Melancholy devo­tions and self Chastisements. Superstition is nothing else but an unscriptural and unrevealed 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 slight and pompous Devotion could as easily bribe and flatter him out of his rigors, as a few good words or baubling rattles could please and quiet little Children; And whatsoever pleased us, could please a God infinitely above us. Such narrow conceipts had the Philistins, when they thought to still the anger of the God of Israel, whom they thought they possess'd in the Ark, with the present of a few Golden mice. 1 Sam. 6.3, 4. All the Superstition this day li­ving in the world is built upon this foundation: So natural it is to Man to pull God down to his own Imaginations, rather than raise his Imaginations up to God. Hence doth arise also the diffidence of his mercy, tho they repent; measuring God by the con­tracted Models of their own Spirits; as tho his nature were as difficult to Pardon their offences against him, as they are to remit wrongs done to themselves.

3. Hence Springs all Presumption, the Common disease of the world. All the wicked­ness in the World, which is nothing else but presuming upon God, rises from the ill interpretations of the goodness of God, breaking out upon them in the works of Creation and Providence: The Corruption of Mans nature engendred 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. 1.20.21. They glorified him not as God, but according [Page 99] to themselves, imagined him good that themselves might be bad; fancyed him so in­dulgent, as to neglect his own honour for their sensuality. How doth the unclean person represent him to his own thoughts, but as a Goat; the Murderer as a Tyger; 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 stampt upon the wax, so the thoughts of the heart are Printed upon the actions. Gods Patience is apprehended to be an approbation of their Vices, and from the Consideration of his forbearance, they fashion a God that they believe will smile upon their Crimes: They imagine a God that plays with them; and tho he threatens, doth it only to scare, but means not as he speaks: A God they fancy like themselves, that would do as they would do, not be angry for what they count a light offence, Psal. 50.21. Thou thoughtest I was such a one as thy self: That God and they were exactly alike as two Tallies.Gurnal part 2. p. 245. 246. [Our wilful misapprehensions of God are the cause of our misbehaviour in all his worship: Our slovenly and lazy services tell him to his face what slight thoughts and appre­hensions we have of him]

Compare these two together.

Superstition ariseth from terrifying misapprehensions of God: Presumption from self pleasing thoughts: One represents him only rigorous, and the other careless: One makes us over officious in serving him by our own rules; and the other over bold in offending him, according to our humors. The want of a true Notion of Gods 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 Physick than food; an unsupportable pennance, than a desirable priviledge. In this Case, Hell is the principle of Duty performed to Heaven. The superstitious Man believes God hath scarce mercy to Pardon; the presumptuous Man believes he hath no such perfecti­on as Justice to punish. The one makes him insignificant to what he desires, kindness and goodness; the other renders him insignificant to what 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 of their own fancies; putting their own stamp upon him; and fashioning him not according to that beautiful Image he imprest upon them by Creation; but the defaced Image they inherit by their fall, and which is worse, the Image of the Devil which spread it self over them at their revolt and apostacy. Were it possible to see a Picture of God, according to the fancies of Men, it would be the most Monstrous being, such a God that never was, nor ever can be.

VVe honour God when we have worthy opinions of him sutable to his nature; when we conceive of him as a being of unbounded loveliness and perfection: VVe 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. Thus Men debase God when they invert his order, and would Create him according to their Image, as he first Created them according to his own: And think him 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.

1. This is worse than Idolatry. The grossest Idolater commits not a Crime so hainous, by changing his glory into the Image of Creeping things and senseless Crea­tures, as the imagining God to be 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 him an unjust and impure God, like a wicked Creature: One sets up an Image of him in the Earth, which is his footstool; the other sets up an Image of him in the heart, which ought to be his throne.

2. Tis worse than absolute Atheism, or a denial of God. Dignius credimus non esse, quod­cunque non ita fuerit, ut esse deberet, was the opinion of Tertullian. Tertul. cont. Maxim. lib. 1. cap. 2. Tis more Com­mendable to think him not to be, than to think him such a one as is inconsistent with his nature. Better to deny his Existence, than deny his perfection. No wise Man but would rather have his memory rot, than be accounted infamous; and would be [Page 97] 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 debaucht Person, and a man not to be trusted. When we apprehend God deceitful in his promises, unrighteous in his threatnings, 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 deceitful; which are more contrary to the Nature of God, than Hell can be to the greatest Criminal. In this sense per­haps the Apostle affirms the Gentiles, Eph. 2.12. to be such as are without God in the World; as being more Atheists in adoring God under such Notions, as they commonly did, than if they had acknowledged no God at all.

2. This is evident by our natural desire to be distant from him, and unwillingness to have any acquaintance with him. Sin set us first at a distance from God; and every new act of gross Sin estrangeth us more from him, and indisposeth us more for him: It makes us both afraid and ashamed to be neer him. Sensual men were of this frame that Job discourseth of, Job. 21.7, 8, 9, and 14, and 15. verses: Where grace reigns, the neerer to God, the more vigorous the motion; The neerer any thing ap­proaches to us, that is the Object of our desires, the more eagerly do we press for­ward to it: But our blood riseth at the approaches of any thing to which we have an aversion: We have naturally a loathing of Gods coming to us or our return to him: We seek not after him as our happiness; and when he offers himself, we like it nor, but put a disgrace upon him in chusing other things before him. God and we are naturally at as great a distance, as Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Heaven and Hell. The stronger impression of God any thing hath, the more we fly from it. The glory of God in reflection upon Moses his face scar'd the Israelites; they who had desired God to speak to them by Moses, when they saw a signal im­pression of God upon his Countenance, were afraid to come neer him, as they were before unwilling to come neer to God Exod. 34.30.: Not that the blessed God is in his own Na­ture a frightful Object; but our own guilt renders him so to us, and our selves in­disposed to converse with him. As the light of the Sun is as irksome to a distemper'd 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 splendor of Majesty, nor Guilt the glory of a Judge.

We have naturally, (1.) No desire of remembrance of him, (2.) or converse with him, (3.) or thorough return to him, (4.) or close imitation of him: As if there were not any such Being as God in the world; or as if we wished there were none at all; so feeble and spiritless are our thoughts of the Being of a God.

(1.) No desire for the remembrance of him. How delightful are other things in our minds? How burdensome the Memorials of God, from whom we have our Being? With what pleasure do we contemplate the Nature of Creatures; even of Flyes and Toads; while our minds tire in the search of him, who hath bestowed upon us our knowing and meditating Faculties? Though God shews himself to us in every Creature; in the meanest Weed, as well as the highest Heavens; and is more apparent in them to our reasons than themselves can be to our sense; yet though we see them, we will not behold God in them: We will view them to please our sense, to improve our reason in their natural perfections; but pass by the con­sideration of Gods perfections so visibly beaming from them. Thus we play the Beasts and Atheists in the very exercise of reason, and neglect our Creator to grati­fie our sense; as though the pleasure of that were more desireable than the know­ledge of God: The desire of our Souls is not towards his Name and the Remem­brance of him, Isa. 26.8. when we set not our selves 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; seldome in­vited to reside and take up their home in our hearts? Have we not when they have broke in upon us, bid them depart from us, Job. 22.17. and warned them to come no more [Page 98] upon our ground; sent them packing as soon as we could, and were glad when they were gone? And when they have departed, have we not often been afraid they should return again upon us; and therefore lookt 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 unwilling to imploy our faculties about the giver of them, to refuse to exercise them in a way of a grateful remembrance of him; as though they were none of his gift, but our own acquisition; 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 Providence, 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 abhorr this natural avers­ness, find, that when they would think of God, many things tempt them and turn them to think elsewhere? Do they not find their apprehensions too feeble, their motions too dull, and the impressions too slight? This natural Atheism is spread over humane nature.

(2.) No desire of converse with him. The word remember 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: Gods pressing this Command with more reasons than the rest, manifests that man hath no heart for Spiritual Duties. No spiritual 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 with them. No reason of this can be rendred, but the natural temper of our Souls, and an affecting a distance from God under any consideration: For though our guilt first made the breach, yet this aversion to a converse with him steps up without any actual reflections upon our guilt, which may render God terrible to us as an offended Judge: Are we not often also in our attendance upon him, more pleased with the modes of Worship which gratifie 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. 15.4. Not to call upon God, and not to know him, are one and the same thing. Jer. 10.25. 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 our necessities require.

(3.) No desire of a thorough return to him. 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 Suppliant to him; when by Faith in, and application of the promised Redeemer, he might have escaped the wrath to come for his Brothers blood, and mitigated the sorrows he was justly sentenced to bear in the World. Nothing will separate prodigal Man from commoning 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 Fathers presence. It were well if our sores and indigence would drive us to him; but when our strength is de­voured, we will not return to the Lord our God, nor seek him for all this. Hos. 7.10. Not his drawn Sword as a God of Judgment, nor his mighty Power as a Lord, nor his open Arms as the Lord their God, could move them 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. 11.2. 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 our selves in any bush from his merciful hand, that would lay hold upon us; nor will we set our faces towards him, till our way be hedged up with thorns, and not a gap left to creep out any by-way.Hos. 2.6.7. Whosoever is brought to a return, puts the Holy-Ghost to the pain of striving; he is not easily brought to a spiritual subjection [Page 99] to God, nor perswaded to a Surrender at a Summons, but sweetly over power'd by storm, and victoriously drawn into the Arms of God: God stands ready, but the heart stands off; Grace is full of intreaties, and the Soul full of excuses: Divine love offers, and Carnal self-love rejects: Nothing so pleases us, as when we are furthest from him; as if any thing were more amiable, any thing more desirable than himself.

(4.) No desire of any close imitation of him. When our Saviour was to come as a Refiners fire to purifie the Sons of Levi, the cry is, who shall abide the day of his coming? Mal. 3.2, 3. Since we are alienated from the Life of God, we desire no more naturally to live the Life of God, than a Toad or any other Animal desires to live the Life of a Man: No heart that knows God, but hath a holy ambition to imitate him. No Soul that refuseth him for a Copy, but is ignorant of his Excellen­cy: Of this temper is all Mankind naturally. Man in Corruption is as loth to be like God in Holiness; as Adam after his Creation was desirous to be like God in Know­ledge; his Posterity are like their Father, who soon turned his back upon his origi­nal Copy.

What can be worse than this? Can the denial of his Being be a greater injury than this contempt of him; as if he had not goodness to deserve our remembrance, nor amiableness fit for our converse; as if he were not a Lord fit for our subjection, nor had a Holiness that deserved our imitation?

For the use of this. It serves,

1. For Information.

1. It gives us occasion to admire the wonderful Patience and Mercy of God. How many Millions of practical Atheists breath every day in his Air, and live upon his Bounty, who deserve to be Inhabitants in Hell, rather than Possessors of the Earth? An infinite Holiness is offended, an infinite Justice is provoked; yet an infinite Patience forbears the Punishment, and an infinite Goodness relieves our wants: The more we had merited his Justice and forfeited his Favour, the more is his af­fection inhanc'd, which makes his hand so liberal to us.

At the first invasion of his rights, he mitigates the terror of the threatning which was set to defend his Law, with the grace of a Promise to relieve and recover his rebellious Creature:Gen. 3.15. Who would have looked for any thing but tearing Thun­ders, sweeping Judgments, to rase up the foundations of the apostate world? But oh, how great are his Bowels to his aspiring Competitors? Have we not ex­perimented his Contrivances for our good, though we have refused him for our happiness? Has he not opened his Arms, when we spurned with our Feet; held out his alluring mercy, when we have brandisht against him a rebellious sword? Has he not intreated us while we have invaded him, as if he were unwilling to lose us, who are ambitious to destroy our selves? Has he yet denyed us the care of his Providence, while we have denyed him the rights of his Honour, and would ap­propriate them to our selves? Has the Sun forborn shining upon us, though we have shot our Arrows against him? Have not our Beings been supported by his Goodness, while we have endeavoured to climb up to his Throne; and his mercies continued to charm us, while we have used them as weapons to injure him? Our own necessities might excite us to own him as our happiness, but 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 proclaimed Pardon upon Repentance to those that would take away his Glory? And hath so twisted together his own end which is his Honour, and mans true end, which is his Salvation, that a man cannot truly mind himself and his own Salvation, but he must mind Gods glory; and cannot be intent upon Gods honour, but by the same act he promotes himself and his own happiness; So loth is God to give any just occasion of dissatisfaction to his Creature, as well as dishonour himself. All those wonders of his mercy are inhanc'd by the hainousness of our Atheism; a multitude of gracious thoughts from him above the mul­titude of contempts from us.Psal. 106. [...] What Rebells 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 would 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, forbearance and long suffering, and infinite riches too; [Page 100] the despight the world hath done him in refusing him as their Rule, Happiness, and End would have emptied him long agoe.Rom. 2.4.

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 recompence 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, 'tis equal we should feel the misery of separati­on from him. If he that is guilty of Treason deserves to lose his Life; what punishment can be thought great enough for him that is so disingenious as to prefer himself before a God so infinitely good, and so foolish as to invade the rights of one infinitely powerful? 'Tis no injustice for a Creature, to be for ever left to himself, to see what advantage he can make of that self he was so busily imployed 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 ariseth a necessity of a new state and frame of Soul, to alter an Atheistical Na­ture. We forget God: Think of him with reluctancy: Have no respect to God in our course and acts: This cannot be our original state. God being infinitely good, never let man come out of his hands with this actual unwillingness to ac­knowledge and serve him: He never intended to dethrone himself for the work of his hands, or that the Creature should have any other end than that of his Creator: As the Apostle saith in the Case of the Galatians Error, Gal. 5.8. This perswasion came not of him that called you; so this frame comes not from him that created you: How much therefore do we need a restoring Principle in us? Instead of ordering our selves according to the Will of God, we are desirous to fulfil the Wills of the Flesh Ephes. 2.3.: There is a necessity of some other principle in us to make us fulfil the Will 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 Devillish habits remain in us; than we can suppose the Devil can be willing to glorifie God, while the nature he contracted by his fall abides powerfully in him. Our Nature and Will 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 Ser­pents 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 Principle before we can live a supernatural Life, i. e. 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 inclina­tion to evil; we are disgusted with one, and pressed with the other; we have no will, no heart, to come to God in any service. This Nature must be broken in pieces and new moulded, before we can make God our Rule and our End: While mens deeds are evil, they cannot comply with GodJoh. 3.19, 20.; much less while their natures are evil: Till this be done, all the service a man performs riseth from some evil imagination of the heart, which is evil, only evil, and that continually Gen. 6.5., from wrong Notions of God, wrong Notions of Duty, or corrupt Motives. All the pretences of Devotion to God, are but the Adoration of some golden Image. Prayers to God for the ends of self, are like those of the Devil to our Saviour, when he askt leave to go into the Herd of Swine: The Object was right, Christ; the end was the destruction of the Swine, and the satisfaction of their malice to the Owners: There is a necessity then that depraved ends should be removed, that that which was Gods end in our framing, may be our end in our acting, viz. his glory, which cannot be without a change of Nature. We can never honour him supreamly whom we do not supreamly love: Till this be, we cannot glorifie God as God, though we do things by his Command and Order; no more, than when God imployed the Devil in afflicting Job Job. 1.: His performance cannot be said to be good, because his end was not the same with Gods; he acted out of Malice, what God commanded out of Soveraignity, and for gracious designs: Had God imployed an Holy Angel in his [Page 101] design upon Job, the Action had been good in the Affliction; because his Nature was holy, and therefore his ends holy; but bad in the Devil, because his ends were base and unworthy.

4. We may gather from hence, the difficulty of Conversion, and Mortification to follow thereupon. What is the reason men receive no more impression from the Voice of God and the Light of his Truth, than a dead man in the Grave doth from the roar­ing Thunder, or a blind Mole from the Light of the Sun? 'Tis because our Athe­ism is as great as the deadness of the one, or the blindness of the other. The Princi­ple in the heart is strong to shut the door both of the thoughts and affections a­gainst God. If a Friend oblige us, we shall act for him as for our selves: We are won by intreaties, 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 flasht terrors of Hell affright us to him; as if we conceived God unable to bestow the one, or execute the other: The true reason is, God and self contest for the Deity: The Law of Sin is, God must be at the foot-stool; the Law of God is, Sin must be utterly deposed: Now it is difficult to leave a Law beloved, for a Law long agoe discarded. The mind of man will hunt after any thing; the will of man embrace any thing; upon the proposal of mean Objects the Spirit of man spreads its wings, flyes to catch them, becomes one with them: But attempt to bring it under the Power of God; the wings flag, the Creature looks liveless, as though there were no spring of motion in it: 'Tis as much crucified to God, as the holy Apostle was to the world: The sin of the heart discovers its strength, the more God discovers the holiness of his Will. Rom. 7.9, 10, 11, 12. The love of Sin hath been predo­minant in our Nature, has quasht a love to God, if not extinguisht it

Hence also is the difficulty of Mortification. This is a work tending to the ho­nour of God, the abasing of that inordinatley aspiring humour in our selves. If the Nature of Man be inclin'd to Sin, as it is, it must needs be bent against any thing that opposes it. 'Tis impossible to strike any true blow at any Lust, till the true Sense of God be re-entertained in the Soyl where it ought to grow. Who can be natural­ly willing to crucifie what is incorporated with him, his flesh? what is dearest to him, himself? Is it an easie 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? 'Tis the Nature of Man to cover his sin, to hide it in his bosomJob. 13.33. If I cover my Transgression, as Adam.; not to destroy it; and as unwillingly 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 will 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 hath most of God in it, meets with most aversion from us: That which hath least of God, finds better and stronger inclinations in us. What is the reason, that the heart of Man is more unwilling to embrace the Gospel, than acknowledge the equity of the Law? Because there is more of Gods Nature and perfection evident in the Gospel than in the Law: Besides there is more reliance on God, and distance from self commanded in the Gospel. The Law puts a man upon his own strength, the Gospel takes him off from his own bottom: The Law acknowledges him to have a power in himself, and to act for his own reward; the Gospel strips him of all his proud and towring thoughts 2 Cor. 10.5., 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 live to himself. 2 Cor. 5.15. This is the true reason why men are more 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 Ver­tue, 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 mans self, as the Stoicks and Epicureans did; and that a wise man was equal with God; were greater Enemies to the truths of the Gospel than others, Acts 17.18. because it lays the Ax to the root of their principal Opinion. Takes the one from their self-sufficiency, and the other from their self-gratification: It opposeth the brutish principle of the one, which placed happiness in the plea­sures of the body, and the more noble principle of the other, which placed happiness [Page 102] in the vertue of the mind: The one was for a sensual, the other for a moral self; both disowned by the Doctrin of the Gospel.

6. It informs us consequently, who can be the Author of Grace and Conversion, and every other good Work. No practical Atheist ever yet turned to God, but was tur­ned by God; and not to acknowledge it to God, is a part of this Atheism, since it is a 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 of Nature in Paradice, 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 SoulPsal. 110.3.: Not all the Angels in Heaven, or men upon Earth, can be imagined to be able to perswade a Man to fall out with himself. Nothing can turn the Tide of Nature, but a Power above Nature. God took away the sanctifying Spirit from man, as a Penalty for the first sin: Who can regain it but by his Will and Pleasure? Who can restore it but he that remov'd it? Since every man hath the same fundamental 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 alarm'd up to stand to their Arms, upon any attempt God makes to regain the Fort. The Will is so strong against God, that 'tis like many wills twisted together, Eph. 2.3. Wills of the Flesh, we translate it the desires of the flesh: Like many Threds twisted in a Cable, never to be snapt asunder by a hu­man Arm; a Power and Will above ours, can only untwist so many Wills in a knot. Man cannot rise to an acknowledgement of God without God: Hell may as well become Heaven, the Devil be changed into an Angel of Light. The Devil cannot but desire happiness; he knows the misery into which he is fallen; he can­not be desirous of that punishment he knows is reserved for him. Why doth he not sanctifie God and glorifie his Creator, wherein there is abundantly more pleasure than in his malicious course? Why doth he not petition to recover his ancient stan­ding? He will not; there are Chains of Darkness upon his faculties; he will not be otherwise than he is: His desire to be God of the World sways him against his own interest; and out of love to his malice, he will not sin at a less rate to make a diminu­tion of his punishment. Man, if God utterly refuseth to work upon him, is no better; and to maintain his Atheism, would venture a Hell. How is it possible for a man to turn himself to that God, against whom he hath a quarrel in his Nature; the most rooted and settled habit in him being to set himself in the place of God? An Atheist by Nature, can no more alter his own temper, and engrave in himself the Divine Nature, than a Rock can carve it self into the Statue of a man, or a Ser­pent that is an Enemy to Man, could or would raise it self to the Nobility of the humane Nature. That Soul that by Nature would strip God of his Rights, can­not without a Divine Power be made conformable to him, and acknowledg sincerely and cordially the Rights and Glory of God.

7. We may here see the reason why there can be no justification by the best and strongest works of Nature. Can that which hath Atheism at the root, justifie either the action or person? What strength can those works have, which have neither Gods Law for their Rule, nor his Glory for their End; that are not wrought by any spiritual strength from him, nor tend with any spiritual affection to him? Can these be a foundation for the most holy God to pronounce a Creature righteous? They will justifie his Justice in condemning, but cannot sway his Justice to an Absolution. E­very natural man in his works, picks and chuses; he owns the Will of God no further than he can wring it to sute the law of his Members; and minds not the honour of God, but as it justles not with his own glory and secular ends. Can he be righteous that prefers his own Will and his own Honour, before the Will and Honour of the Creator? However mens actions may be beneficial to others, what reason hath God to esteem them, wherein there is no respect to him but themselves; whereby they dethrone him in their thoughts, while they seem to own him in their religious works? Every day reproves us with something different from the Rule: Thou­sands of wandrings offer themselves to our eyes. Can Justification be expected from that which in it self is matter of despair?

8. See here the cause of all the apostacy in the World. Practical Atheism was never conquered in such: They are still alienated from the Life of God, and will not live [Page 103] to God, as he lives to himself and his own honour.Eph. 4.17, 18. They loath his Rule, and distaste his Glory; are loth to step out of themselves to promote the ends of another; find not the satisfaction in him as they do in themselves: They will be Judges of what is good for them and righteous in it self, rather than admit of God to judge for them. When men draw back from Truth to Error; 'tis to such opinions which may serve more to foment and cherish their Ambition, Covetousness, or some be­loved Lust that dispates with God for precedency, and is designed to be served before him, John 12.42.43. They love the praise of men more than the praise of God. A preferring man before God, was the reason they would not confess Christ, and God in him.

9. This shews us the excellency of the Gospel and Christian 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 si [...] Man by Nature would annihilate God and deisie himself; the Gospel glorifies God and annihilates Man. In our first revolt we would be like him in knowledge; in the means he hath provided for our recovery, he designs to make us like him in Grace: The Gospel shews our selves to be an Object of Hu­miliation, 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: The light of Nature condemns gross Atheism, and that of the Gospel condemns 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 Nature, and be humbled for it. How should we lye in the Dust, and go bowing 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 stabb 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 doth not lament it, cannot challenge the Character of a Christian, hath nothing of the divine Life and Love planted [...] his Soul. Not a man but shall one day be sensible, when the Eternal God shall call him out to Examination, 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 publick view; and the World and Man himself shall see what a viperous Brood of corrupt Principles and Ends nested 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, till the Core of that Pride be eaten out, and our Stubborness changed into Humility: Till our Heads become Waters, and our Eyes Fountains of tears, and be a spring of Prayer to God to change the heart, and mortifie the Atheism in it; and consider what a sad thing it is to be a practical Atheist: And who is not so by Nature?

1. Let us be sensible of it in our selves. Have any of our hearts been a Soyl where­in the Fear and Reverence of God hath naturally grown? Have we a desire to know him, or a will to embrace him? Do we delight in his Will, and love the remembrance of his Name? Are our respects to him as God, equal to the speculative knowledge we have of his Nature? Is the heart wherein he hath stampt his Image, reserved for his Residence? Is not the world more affected than the Creator of the world; as though that could contribute to us a greater happiness than the Author of it? Have not Creatures as much of our love, fear, trust; nay, more than God that framed both them and us? Have we not too often relyed upon our own strength, and made a Calf of our own wisdom, and said of God as the Israelites of Moses, As for this Mo­ses we wot not what is become of him, Exod. 32.1. and given oftener the glory of our good success to our Dragg 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 AtheismLawson body of Divinity pa. 153. 154.? 'Tis as impossible to have two Gods at one time in one heart, as to have two Kings at one time in full power in one Kingdom. Have there not been frequent neglects of God? Have we not been deaf whilst he hath knocked at our doors; slept when he hath sounded in our Ears, as if there had been no such Being as a God in the world? How many struglings have been against our approaches to him? Hath not folly often been committed with vain imaginations starting up in the time of Religious Service, [Page 104] which we would scarce vouchsafe a look to at another time, and in another business, but would have thrust them away with indignation? Had they stept in to interrupt our worldly Affairs, they would have been troublesome Intruders, but while we are with God they are acceptable Guests. How unwilling have our hearts been to fortifie themselves with strong and influencing considerations of God, before we ad­drest to him? Is it not too often that our lifelesness in Prayer proceeds from this A­theism; a neglect of seeing what Arguments and Pleas may be drawn from the di­dine perfections, to second our suit in hand, and quicken our hearts in the service? Whence are those indispositions to any spiritual duty, but because we have not due thoughts of the Majesty, Holiness, Goodness and Excellency of God? Is there any duty which leads to a more particular inquiry after him, or a more clear vision of him; but our hearts have been ready to rise up and call it cursed rather than bles­sed? Are not our minds bemisted with an ignorance of him, our wills drawn by a­version from him, our affections rising in distast of him? More willing to know any thing than his Nature, and more industrious to do any thing than his Will? Do we not all fall under some one or other of these considerations? Is it not fit then that we should have a sense of them? 'Tis to be bewail'd by us, that so little of God is in our hearts, when so many evidences of the love of God are in the Crea­tures; that God should be so little our end, who hath been so much our Benefactor; that he should be so litte in our thoughts, who sparkles in every thing which presents it self to our eyes.

2. Let us be sensible of it in others. We ought to have a just execration of the too open iniquity in the midst of us; and imitate holy David, whose tears plenti­fully gusht out, because men kept not Gods Law. Psa. 119.136. And is it not a time to exercise this pious lamentation? Hath the wicked Atheism of any age been greater, or can you find worse in Hell, than we may hear of and behold on Earth? How is the ex­cellent Majesty of God, adored by the Angels in Heaven; despised and reproach­ed by men on Earth; as if his name were publisht to be matter of their sport? What a gasping thing is a natural sense of God among men in the World? Is not the Law of God, accompanied with such dreadful threatnings and curses, made light of; as if men would place their honour in being above or beyond any sense of that glori­ous Majesty? How many wallow in Pleasures, as if they had been made men, on­ly to turn brutes, and their Souls given them only for Salt to keep their bodies from putrifying? Tis as well a part of Atheism not to be sensible of the abuses of Gods name and Laws by others, as to violate them our selves: What is the language of a stupid senselesness of them, but that there is no God in the world, whose glory is worth a vindication and deserves our regards?

That we may be sensible of the unworthiness of neglecting God as our Rule and end; consider,

1. The Ʋnreasonableness of it as it concerns God.

1. First, Tis a high contempt of God. Tis 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 wanting in God: An equity in their orders and none in Gods precepts: A goodness in their promises and a falsity in Gods: As if infinite excellency were a meer vanity, and to act for God, were the debasement of our reason; to act for self or some pitiful 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 of our 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 the remembrance of God to a holy Soul? Do any obey the Commands of God with more readiness, 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 to meet their Dalilah's? How cheerfully 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?Exod. 32.3. All the people brake off the golden ear-rings. 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.

Secondly, Tis a contempt of God as the most amiable object. God is infinitely excel­lent and desirable, Zach. 9.17. How great is his goodness and how great is his beauty? There is nothing in him but what may ravish our affections; none that knows him but finds attractives to keep them with him: He hath nothing in him which can be a pro­per object of contempt, no defects or shadow of evil; there is infinite excellency to charm us and infinite goodness to allure us; the Author of our beings, the Bene­factor of our lives: Why then should Man, which is his Image, be so base as to slight the beautiful original which stampt it on him? He is the most lovely object, there­fore to be studied, therefore to be honoured, therefore to be followed: In regard of his perfection he hath the highest right to our thoughts. All other beings were emi­nently contained in his essence, and were produced by his infinite power: The Creature hath nothing but what it hath from God: And is it not unworthy to prefer the Copy before the original, to fall in love with a Picture instead of the beauty it represents? The Creature which we advance to be our rule and end, can no more report to us the true amiableness of God, than a few Colours mixed and suted toge­ther upon a peice of cloth, can the moral and intellectual loveliness of the Soul of Man. To contemn God one moment is more base, than if all Creatures were contemned, by us for ever; because the excellency of Creatures is to God, like that of a drop to the Sea, or a spark to the glory of unconceivable millions of Suns. As much as the excellency of God is above our conceptions, so much doth the debasing of him admit of unexpressible aggravations.

2. Consider the ingratitude in it. That we should resist that God with our hearts, who made us the work of his hands, and count him as nothing, from 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 doth not more highly appear to man. If we ab­hor the unworthy carriage of a Child to a tender Father, a Servant to an indul­gent Master, a Man to his obliging Friend; why do men dayly act that towards God, which they cannot speak of without abhorrency, if acted by another against man? I God a being less to be regarded than man, and more worthy of contempt than a Creature? [Reynolds. It would be strange if a benefactor should live in the same Town, in the same house with us and we never exchange a word with 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? Would he call for our Spirits this moment, they must depart from us to attend his Command. There is not a moment wherein our unworthy carriage is not aggra­vated, because there is not a moment wherein he is not our guardian, and gives us not tasts of a fresh bounty. And it is no light aggravation of our Crime, that we injure him, without whose bounty in giving us our being, we had not been capable of casting contempt upon him: That he that hath the greatest stamp of his Image, Man, should deserve the Character of the worst of his Rebels: That he who hath on­ly reason by the gift of God to Judge of the equity of the Laws of God, should swel against them as greivous, and the Government of the Lawgiver as burdensome. Can it lessen the crime to use the principle wherein we excel the beasts to the disadvan­tage of God, who endowed us with that principle above the beasts?

1. Tis a debasing of God beyond what the Devil doth at present. He is more ex­cusable in his present state of acting, than man is in his present refusing God for his Rule and End. He strives against a God that exerciseth upon him a vindictive Justice: We debase a God that loads us with his dayly mercies. The despairing Devils are excluded from any mercy or divine patience: But we are not only under the long suffering of his patience, but the large expressions of his bounty. He would not be governed by him when he was only his bountiful Creator. 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 hath assured them he will not be their happiness; and shut up all his perfections from their experimental notice, but those of his power to preserve [Page 106] them and his Justice, to punish them: They have no grant from God of ever hav­ing a heart to comply with his Will, or ever having the honour to be actively em­ployed for his glory. They have some plea for their present contempt of God; not in regard of his nature, for he is infinitely amiable, excellent and lovely; but in regard of his administration towards them: But what plea can Man have for his Practical Atheism, who lives by his power, is sustained by his bounty, and sollicited by his Spirit? What an ungrateful thing is it to put off the nature of Man for that of Devils; and dishonour God under mercy, as the Devils do under his wrathful anger?

2. Tis an ungratefull contempt of God, who cannot be injurious to us. He cannot do us wrong, because he cannot be unjust, Gen. 18.25. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? His nature doth as much abhorr unrighteousnes, as love a Com­municative goodness: He never Commanded any thing, but what was highly con­ducible to the happiness of man. Infinite goodness can no more injure man, than it can dishonour it self: It lays out it self in additions of kindness, and whiles we debase him, he continues to benefit us: And is it not an unparalleld ingratitude to turn our backs upon an object so lovely, an object so loving in the midst of varie­ties of allurements from him? God did Create intellectual Creatures, Angels and Men, that he might Communicate more of himself and his own goodness and holi­ness to man, than Creatures of a lower rank were capable of. What do we do by rejecting him as our Rule and End, but cross, as much as in us lies, Gods end in our Creation, and shut our Souls against the Communications of those perfections he was so willing to bestow? We use him as if he intended us the greatest wrong, when tis impossible for him to do any to any of his Creatures.

3. Consider the misery which 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 Devil, a Creature of vast Endowments, would advance himself above God, and instruct man to commit the same sin he is Cursed above all Creatures. Gen. 3.14. 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, Psa. 73.27. This is the spring of all woe. What the Prodigal suffered, was because he would leave his Father and live of himself. Whosoever is ambitious to be his own Heaven; will it last find his Soul to become its own Hell. As it loved all things for it self, so it shall be griev­ed with all things for it self. As it would be its own God against the right of God, it shall then be its own tormenter by the Justice of God.

2. Duty, Watch against this Atheism and be dayly employed in the mortification of it. In every action we should make the inquiry, what is the rule I observe? Is it Gods Will or my own? Whether do my intentions tend, to set up 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, which we must be bruising by the power of the Cross. Sin is nothing else but a turning from God and centring in self, and most in the inferior part of self: If we bend our force against those two self-Will, and self-Ends, we shall in­tercept Atheism at the Spring head, take away that which doth constitute and ani­mate all sin: The sparks must vanish, if the fire be quencht which affords them fuel. They are but two short things to ask in every undertaking: Is God my Rule in re­gard of his Will? Is God my End in regard of his glory? All sin lies in the neg­lect of these, all grace lies in the practice of them.

Without some degree of the mortification of these, we cannot make profitable and comfortable approaches to God. When we come with Idols in our hearts, we shall be answered according to the multitude and the baseness of them too.Ezek. 14.4. What expectation of a good look from him can we have, when we come before him with undeifying thoughts of him; a Petition in our mouths and a Sword in our hearts to stab his honour?

To this purpose,

1. Be often in the views of the excellencies of God. When we have no intercourse with God by delightful Meditations, we begin to be estranged from him, and pre­pare our selves to live without God in the world. Strangness is the Mother and [Page 107] 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 dayly converse with God would discover so much of loveliness in his nature, so much of sweetness in his ways, that our injurious thoughts of God would wear off, and we should count it our ho­nour to contemn our selves and magnifie him. By this means a slavish fear which is both a dishonour to God and a torment to the Soul,1 Joh. 4.18. and the root of Atheism, will be cast out, and an ingenious fear of him wrought in the heart. Exercised thoughts on him would issue out in affections to him, which would engage our hearts to make him both our rule and our end. This course would stifle any temptations to gross Atheism, wherewith good 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 confuted by the delightful converse we dayly have with him. The more we thus enter into the presence Chamber of God, the more we cling about him with our affections; the more vigorous and lively will the true Notion of God grow up in us, and be able to prevent any thing which may dishonour him and debase our Souls.

Let us therefore consider him as the only happiness: Set up the true God in our understandings; possess our hearts with a deep sense of his desirable excellency above all other things. This is the main thing we are to do in order to our great business: All the directions in the world with the neglect of this, will be insignificant Ci­phers. The neglect of this is Common, and is the basis of all the mischiefs which happen to the Souls of men.

2. To this purpose, Prize and study the Scripture. We can have no delight in Meditation on him, unless we know him; and we cannot know him but by the means of his own Revelation: When the Revelation is despised, the Revealer will be of little esteem. Men do not throw off God from being their rule, till they throw off Scripture from being their guide; and God must needs be cast off from being an end, when the Scripture is rejected from being a Rule: Those that do not care to know his Will, that love to be ignorant of his nature, can never be af­fected to his honour. Let therefore the subtilties of reason vail to the Doctrine of faith, and the humor of the Will to the Command of the word.

3. Take heed of sensual pleasures, And be very watchful and cautious in the use of those comforts God allows us. Job was afraid when his Sons feasted, that they should Curse God in their hearts. Job. 1.4. It was not without cause that the Apostle Peter joyned sobriety with watchfulness and Prayer, 1 Pet. 4.7. The end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober and watch unto Prayer. A moderate use of worldly comforts. Prayer is the great acknowledgment of God, and too much sensuality is a hindrance of this, and a step to Atheism. Belshazzars lifting himself up against the Lord, and not glorifying of God, is charged upon his sensuality, Dan. 5.23. No­thing is more apt to quench the Notions of God, and root out the Conscience of him, than an addictedness to sensual pleasures. Therefore take heed of that snare.

4. Take heed of sins against knowledge. The more sins against knowledge are com­mitted, the more careless we are, and the more careless we shall be of God and his honour. We shall more fear his judicial power, and the more we fear that, the more we shall disaffect that God in whose hand vengeance is, and to whom it doth belong. Atheism in conversation proceeds to Atheism in affection, and that will en­deavour to sink into Atheism in opinion and Judgment.

The Sum of the Whole.

And now consider in the whole what has been spoken.

1. Man would set himself up as his own Rule. He disowns the Rule of God, is unwilling to have any acquaintance with the Rule God sets him, negligent in using the means for the knowledge of his Will; and Endeavours to shake it off when any notices of it breaks in upon him. VVhen he cannot expel it, he hath no pleasure in the Consideration of it, and the heart swels against it. VVhen the Notions of the Will of God are entertained, it is on some other Consideration, or with wavering and unsetled affections. Many times men designe to improve some lust by his truth. [Page 108] This unwillingness respects Truth as tis most Spiritual and holy; as it most relates and leads to God; as it is most contrary to self. He is guilty of Contempt of the Will of God, which is seen in every presumptuous breach of his Law. In the natural aversions to the declaration of his Will and mind which way soever he turns. In slighting that part of his Will which is most for his honour. In the awkwardness of the 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 service, in breaking promises with God.

Man naturally owns any other Rule, rather than that of Gods prescribing. The Rule of Satan; the Will of Man; In complying more with the dictates of Men than the Will of God; In observing that which is materially so, not because it is his Will, but the injunctions of Men. In obeying the Will of Man when it is contra­ry to the Will of God. This Man doth in order to the setting up himself. This is natural to Man as he is corrupted. Men are disatisfied 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 agreable to natural and moral self or sinful self. 'Tis evident in neglects of taking Gods directions upon emergent occasions. In counting the actions of others to be good or bad, as they sute with or spurn against our fancies and humors. 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 world. Mixing Rules in the Worship of God with those which have been ordain­ed by him. Suting interpretations of Scripture with our own minds and humors. Fal­ling off from God after some fair compliances, when his Will grates upon us and cros­seth ours.

2. Man would be his own end. This is natural and universal. This is seen in fre­quent self applauses and inward overweening reflections. In ascribing the glory of what we do or have to our selves. In desire of self pleasing Doctrines. In be­ing highly concerned in injuries done to our selves, and little or not at all concer­ned for injuries done to God. In trusting in our selves. In workings for Carnal self against the light of our own Consciences, this is a usurping Gods 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 to sensu­al pleasures. In paying a service upon any success in the world to instruments more than to God. This is a debasing God in setting up a Creature; But more in setting up a base lust: Tis a denying of God. Man would make himself the end of all Crea­tures. In pride; using the Creatures contrary to the end God hath appointed. This is to dishonour God; And it is Diabolical. Man would make himself the end of God. In loving God, because of some self pleasing benefits distributed by him. In abstinence from some sins, because they are against the interest of some other be­loved Corruption. In performing duties meerly for a selfish interest which is evi­dent in unwealdiness in Religious duties where self is not concern'd. In calling upon God only in a time of necessity. 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 spring Idolatry, Superstition, Presumption, the common disease of the world. This is a vilifying God; worse than Idolatry, worse than absolute Atheism. Na­tural desires to be distant from him. No desires for the remembrance of him. No desires of converse with him. No desires of a through return to him. No desire of any close imitation of him.

THE words are part of the Dialogue between our Saviour, Amiraut. Paraph. sur Jean. and the Samaritan Woman. Christ intending to return from Judea to Ga­lilee, passed through the Country of Samaria, a place inhabited not by Jews, but a mixt Company of several Nations, and some remain­ders of the posterity of Israel, who escaped the Captivity and were returned from Assyria; and being weary with his Journey, arrived about the sixth hour or noon (according to the Jews reckoning the time of the day) at a 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 Woman from the City, whom he desires to give him some water to drink. The Wo­man perceiving him by his Language or Habit to be a Jew, wonders at the questi­on, since the hatred the Jews bore the Samaritans was so great, that they would not vouchsafe to have any Commerce with them, not only in Religious, but Civil af­fairs, and Common Offices belonging to Man-kind. Hence our Saviour takes oc­casion to publish to her the Doctrine of the Gospel; and excuseth her rude Answer by her Ignorance of him: And tells her, that if she had askt him a greater matter, even that which concern'd her Eternal Salvation, he would readily have granted it, notwithstanding the rooted hatred between the Jews and Samaritans; and be­stowed a water of a greater vertue, the water of life. ver. 10. Or living water. The Woman is no less asto­nished at his reply, than she was at his first demand. It was strange to hear a Man speak of giving living water, to one of whom he had beg'd the water of that Spring, and had no Vessel to draw any to quench his own thirst. She therefore demands whence he could have this water that 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 [Page 110] to mak a progress in that work, he had begun, extols the Water he spake of, above this of the Well, from its particular vertue, 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 dayly to the Well, not ap­prehending the Spirituality of Christs 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, whether having some check of Conscience 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 prophetick excellency of himself; and tells her, she had had five Husbands to whom she had been false, and by whom she was divorced, and the person she now dwelt with was not her lawful Husband, and in living with him she violated the Rights of Marriage, and encreased guilt up­on her Conscience.ver. 18. The Woman being affected with this discourse, and knowing him to be stranger, that could not be certified of those things but in an extra­ordinary way, begins to have a high esteem of him as a Prophet. [...] 19. And upon this opinion she esteems him able to decide a question which had been Canvast between them and the Jews about the place of Worship. [...]r. 20. Their Fathers Worshipping in that Mountain, and the Jews affirming Jerusalem to be a place of worship: She pleads the Antiquity of the worship in this place: Abraham having built an Altar there, Gen. 12.7. and Jacob upon his return from Syria. And surely had the place been capable of an exception, such persons as they and so well acquainted with the Will of God, would not have pitched upon that place to Celebrate their wor­ship.

Antiquity hath too too often bewitched the minds of Men, and drawn them from the revealed Will of God. Men are more willing to imitate the outward actions of their famous Ancestors, than conform themselves to the revealed Will of their Crea­tor. The Samaritans would imitate the Patriarchs in the place of worship, but not in the faith of the worshippers.

Christ answers her, that this question would quickly be resolved by a new state of the Church which was neer at hand, and neither Jerusalem which had now 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 Country-men, 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 which 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 them. ver. [...]. But all that service shall vanish, the vail 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 it self above figures, and the worship of God shall be with the strength of the Spirit; such a worship, and such worshippers doth the Father seek: ver. 23. For God is a Spirit, and those 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 men, no nor Commanded by himself; and upon that this reason, because he is a Spiritual essence, infinitely above gross and Corporeal mat­ter, and is not taken with that pomp which is a pleasure to our Earthly imagi­nations.

[...]. Some translate it just as the words lie. Spirit is God: Ʋulgar lat. Illyrc. Clav. But it is not unusual both in the old and new Testament languages, to put the predicate before the subject, as Psal. 5.9. Their throat is an open Sepulchre, in the Hebrew a Sepulchre o­pen their throat. So Psa. 111.3. His work is honourable and glorious. Heb. Ho­nour and glory his work: And there wants not one example in the same Evangelist, Joh. 1.1. And the word was God. Greek and God was the word: In all, the predicate or what is ascribed, is put before the subject to which it is ascribed.

One tells us, and he an head of a party, that hath made a disturbance in the Church [Page 111] of God,E [...]p. In­stitut. lib. 4. cap. 3. that this place is not aptly brought to prove God to be a Spirit: And the reason of Christ runs not thus, God is of a Spiritual Essence, and therefore must be worshipped with a Spiritual worship; for the Essence of God is not the Founda­tion of his worship, but his Will; for then we were not to worship him with a Cor­poral worship, because he is not a body; but with an invisible and Eternal worship because he is invisible and eternal.

But the nature of God is the foundation of worship, the Will of God is the Rule of worship; the matter and manner is to be performed according to the Will of God. But is the nature of the object of worship to be excluded? No, as the object is, so ought our Devotion to be, Spiritual as he is Spiritual. God in his Commands for worship respected the discovery of his own nature; in the Law he respected the dis­covery of his mercy and justice, and therefore Commanded a worship by Sacrifi­ces; a Spiritual worship without those institutions would not have declared those Attributes, which was Gods end to display to the world in Christ: And tho the na­ture of God is to be respected in worship, yet the obligations of the Creature are to be considered. God is a Spirit therefore must have a Spiritual worship: The Creature hath a body as well as a Soul, and both from God; and therefore ought to worship God with the one as well as the other, since one as well as the other is freely bestowed upon him.

The Spirituality of God was the foundation of the change from the Judaical car­nal worship to a more Spiritual and Evangelical.

[God is a Spirit.]

That is, he hath nothing Corporeal, no mixture of matter, not a visible substance, a bodily form.Melancton. He is a Spirit, not a bare Spiritual substance: But an understand­ing willing Spirit, holy, wise, good and just. Before Christ spake of the Fa­ther,ver. 23. the first person in the Trinity: Now he speaks of God Essentially: The word Father is personal, the word God essential. So that our Saviour would ren­der a reason, not from any one person in the blessed Trinity, but from the Divine nature, why we should worship in Spirit, and therefore makes use of the word God, the being a Spirit being Common to the other persons with the Father.

This is the reason of the proposition, verse 23. Of a Spiritual Worship. Every nature delights in that which is like it, and distasts that which is most different from it. If God were Corporeal, he might be pleased with the victims of beasts, and the beautiful Magnificence of Temples, and the noyse of Musick: 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 sutable to his nature. He indeed appointed Sacrifices and a Tem­ple, as shadows of those things which were to be most acceptable to him in the Mes­siah, but they were imposed only till the time of Reformation. Heb. 9.10.

[Must Worship him.]

Not they may, or it would be more agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship: But they must. Tis not exclusive of bodily worship; for this were to ex­clude all publick worship in societies, which cannot be performed without reveren­tial postures of the body.Terniti. 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 meerly 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 outward Ceremonies, not as signs of better things, but as if they did of themselves please God, and render the worshippers accepted with him, without any sutable frame of the inward man:Amirald in loc. It is as if he had said, now you must separate your selves from all carnal modes to which the service of God is now tyed, 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]

Amirald. in loc.The Evangelical Service now required, has the advantage of the former; that was a Shadow and Figure, this the Body and Truth.Muscul. Spirit, say some, is here opposed to the legal Ceremonies; Truth, to hypocritical services; orChemnit: rather truth is opposed to shadows, and an opinion of worth in the outward action; 'tis principally [Page 112] opposed to external Rites, because our Saviour saith, v. 23. The hour comes, and [...]o [...] is, &c. 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 Patriarks did worship God in Spirit and Truth, as taken for sincerity: Such a Worship was always, and is perpetually due to God; because he always was, and eternally will be a Spirit.Mus [...]al. And it is said, the Father seeks such to worship him; not shall seek: He always sought it; it always was performed to him by one or other in the world: And the Prophets had always rebuked them, for resting upon their outward Solemnities, Isa. 58.7. and Micah. 6.8. But a Worship without legal Rites was proper to an Evangelical State and the times of the Gospel; God having then exhibited Christ, and brought into the world the substance of those shadows, and 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 sutable 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 Evangelical State is called the administration of the Spirit, and the newness of the Spirit, 2 Cor. 3.8. in opposition to the legal Oeconomy, entitled the oldness of the Letter. Rom. 7.6. The Evangelical State is more suted to the Nature of God than any other: Such a Worship God must have, whereby he is acknowledged to be the true Sanctifier and Quickner of the Soul. The nearer God doth approach to us, and the more full his manifestations are; the more spiritual is the Worship we 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,

• 1. A Proposition [God is a Spirit.] The Foundation of all Religion.
• 2. An Inference [they that worship him, &c.]

As God, a Worship belongs to him; as a Spirit, a spiritual Worship is due to him, in the inference we have.

• 1. The manner of Worship [in Spirit and Truth]
• 2. The necessity of such a Worship [must]

The Proposition declares the Nature of God; the Inference, the Duty of Man.

The Observations lie plain.

Ob. 1. God is a pure spiritual Being. [He is a Spirit]

2. The Worship due from the Creature to God, must be agreeable to the Nature of God, and purely spiritual.

3. The Evangelical State is suted to the Nature of God.

For the first,

D. God is a pure spiritual Being.

'Tis the Observation of one,Episcop. insti. tut. l. 4. c. 3. that the plain assertion of Gods being a Spirit, is found but once in the whole Bible, and that is in this place; which may well be wondred at; because God is so often described with hands, feet, eyes and ears in the form and figure of a Man. The spiritual Nature of God, is deducible from many places; but not any where, as I remember, asserted totidem verbis, but in this Text: Some alledge that place, 2 Cor. 3.17. the Lord is that Spirit, for the proof of it; but that seems to have a different sense: In the Text the Nature of God is de­scribed; in that place, the operations of God in the Gospel. [Amyrald in loc. 'Tis not the Ministry of Moses, or that old Covenant, which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of; but it is the Lord Jesus, and the Doctrin of the Gospel delivered by him, whereby this Spirit and Liberty is dispensed to you: He opposes here the Liberty of the Gospel to the Servitude of the Law] 'Tis from Christ, that a Divine Vertue diffuseth it self by the Gospel; 'tis by him, not by the Law, that we partake of that Spirit.

Suarez. de Deo vol. 1. P. 9. Col. 2.The Spirituality of God, is as evident as his Being. If we grant that God is, [Page 113] we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal; because a Body is of an imperfect Nature. It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being and Creator of all things, that he should be a massy heavy Body, and have Eyes and Ears, Feet and hands as we have.

For the explication of it.

1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture. It signifies sometimes an aereal substance, as Psal. 11.6. A horrible Tempest: Heb. A Spirit of Tempest: Sometimes the breath, which is a thin substance, Gen. 6.17. All Flesh wherein is the breath of Life: Heb. Spirit of Life. A thin substance, though it be material and corporeal, is called Spirit: And in the bodies of living Creatures, that which is the principle of their actions is called Spirits; the animal and vital Spirits: And the finer parts extracted from Plants and Minerals, we call Spirits: Those volatile parts separated from that gross matter wherein they were immerst, because they come nearest to the nature of an in­corporeal substance: And from this notion of the word, 'tis translated to signifie those substances that are purely immaterial, as Angels, and the Souls of Men. An­gels are called Spirits, Psal. 104.4. who makes his Angels Spirits Heb. 1.14.; And not only good Angels are so called, but evil Angels, Mark 1.27. Souls of men are called Spirits, Eccl. 12. And the Soul of Christ is called so, John 19.30. whence God is called the God of the Spirits of all Flesh, Numb. 22.16. and Spirit is opposed to Flesh, Isa. 31.3. 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 24.39. not having flesh and bones, extended parts, loads of gross matter. 'Tis also taken for those things which are active and efficacious; because activity, is of the nature of a Spirit. Caleb had another Spirit, Num. 14.24. an active affection. The vehe­ment motions of sin are called Spirit, Hos. 4.12. the Spirit of Whoredoms, in that sense that Pro. 29.11. a Fool utters all his mind, all his Spirit, 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 acts it self and other things. A meer Body cannot act it self; as the Body of Man cannot move without the Soul, no more than a Ship can move it self 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 Principle 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 which is the vilest part of our Natures. God is a most spiritual Spirit, more spiritual than all Angels, all Souls:Gerhard. [...] 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, 'tis to be understood by way of Negation. There are two ways of knowing or describing God: By way of affirmation, affirming that of him in a way of eminency, which is excellent in the Creature; as when we say God is wise, good: The other, by way of negation, when we remove from God in our conceptions, what is tainted with imperfection in the Creature.Gamacheus Tom. 1. q. 3. Cap. 1. P. 42. 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 whatsoever is super­fluous, to make a compleat Statue. This way of negation is more easie; we better understand what God is not, than what he is; and most of our knowledge of God, is by this way: As when we say God is infinite, immense, immutable, they are ne­gatives: He hath no limits, is confined to no place, admits of no change.Coccei. sum. Theol. Cap. 8. When we remove from him what is inconsistent with his Being, we do more strongly assert his Being, and know more of him when we elevate him above all, and above our own capacity. And when we say God is a Spirit, 'tis a negation; he is not a Body; he consists not of various parts, extended one without and beyond another: He is not a Spirit so 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 excellency to express or conceive of him by: We transfer it to God in honour, because Spirit is the highest excellency in our nature: Yet we must apprehend God above any Spirit, since his Nature is so great, that he [Page 114] cannot be declared by human speech, perceived by human sense, or conceived by human understanding.

The second thing, That God is a Spirit.

Thes. Sedan. Part. 2. P. 1 [...]Some among the Heathens imagined God to have a Body; some thought him to have a Body of Air, some a Heavenly Body, some a human Body:Vossius Idolol. lib. 2. cap. 1. Forbes Instru­ment l. 1. c. 36. And many of them ascribed bodies to their Gods; but bodies without blood, without corruption; bodies made up of the finest and thinnest Atomes; such bodies, which if compared with ours, were as no bodies. The Saddures also, who denied all Spirits, and yet ac­knowledged a God, must conclude him to be a Body and no Spirit. Some among Christians have been of that opinion. Tertullian is charged by some, and excused by others: And some Monks of Egypt were so fierce for this Error, that they at­tempted to kill one Theophilus a Bishop, for not being of that Judgment.

[...]But the wiser Heathens were of another mind, and esteemed it an unholy thing to have such imaginations of God.Plutarch. in­corporalis ratio divinus spiritus. Seneca. And some Christians have thought God only to be free from any thing of body, because he is omnipresent, immutable, he is only incorporeal and spiritual; all things else, even the Angels are clothed with bodies, though of a neater matter and a more active frame than ours; a pure spiritual Na­ture they allowed to no Being but God. Scripture and Reason meet together to assert the spirituality of God. Had God had the Lineaments of a Body, the Gen­tiles had not fallen under that accusation of changing his Glory into that of a Corruptible Man Rom. 1.23..

This is signified by the name God gives himself, Exod. 3.14. I am that I am, a simple, pure, uncompounded Being, without any created mixture; as infinitely above the being of Creatures, as above the conceptions of Creatures, Job. 37.23. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out. He is so much a Spirit, that he is the Fa­ther of Spirits, Heb. 12.9. 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 it self, and its own nature, the act of willing and willing things against the incitements and interest of the Body: It could not else conceive of God, Angels and immaterial substances: It could not else be so active, as with one glance to fetch a compass from Earth to Heaven, and by a sud­den motion, to elevate the understanding from an earthly thought, to the thinking of things as high as the highest Heavens. If we have this opinion of our Souls which in the nobleness of their acts surmount the Body, without which the Body is but a dull unactive piece of clay; we must needs have a higher conception of God, than to clogg him with any matter, though of a finer temper than ours: We must con­ceive of him by the perfections of our Souls, without the vileness of our Bodies. If God made Man according to his Image, we must raise our thoughts of God accor­ding to the noblest part of that Image, and imagine the Exemplar or Copy, not to come short, but to exceed the thing copyed by it. God were not the most excel­lent substance, if he were not a Spirit: Spiritual substances are more excellent than bodily; the Soul of Man more excellent than other Animals; Angels more ex­cellent than Men: They contain in their own nature, whatsoever dignity there is in the inferior Creatures. God must have therefore an excellency above all those, and therefore is intirely remote from the conditions of a Body.

Calov. Socin. Proflig. P. 129. 130.'Tis a gross conceit therefore to think that God is such a Spirit as the Air is; for that is to be a body as the Air is, though it be a thin one; and if God were no more a Spirit than that, or than Angels, he would not be the most simple Being:Amirald Sup. Heb. 9. p. 146. &c. 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 Ornaments 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 invisibility of God, Air being imperceptible to our eyes. Air diffuseth it self through all parts of the world, it glides through secret passages into all Creatures, it fills the space between Heaven and Earth; there is no place where­in God is not present.

To evidence this,

[Page 115]1. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be Creator. All multitude begins in, and is reduced to unity. As above multitude there is an absolute unity; So above mixt Creatures, there is an absolute simplicity: You cannot conceive number without conceiving the beginning of it in that which was not number, viz. a unite: 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, Watch-maker, Carpen­ter hath a model in his own mind of the work he designs to frame: The material and outward Fabrick 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 had a Spiritual Na­ture.Amiral. mo­ral Tom. 1. pa. 282. The wisdom whereby the world was Created could never be the fruit of a Corporeal nature; such natures are not capable of understanding and comprehend­ing the things which are within the compass of their nature, much less of produ- 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 wisdom speak an intelligent and Spiritual agent: The effects of wisdom, goodness, power are so great and ad­mirable, that they bespeak him a more perfect and eminent being, than can possibly be beheld under a bodily shape. Can a Coporeal substance put Wisdom in the inward parts, and give understanding to the heart? Job. 38.16.

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 capable of division, and therefore could not be entirely one. Either those parts would be finite or infinite; if finite, they are not parts of God; for to be God and finite is a contradiction: If infinite, then there are as many infinites, as distinct members, and therefore as many Deities: Suppose this body had all parts of the same nature as air and water hath, every little part of air is as much air as the greatest, and every little part of water is as much water as 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 Atomes to compose a body: What can be more absurd? If God had a body like a human body, and were compounded of body and Soul, of substance and quality, he could not be the most perfect unity; he would be made up of distinct parts, and those of a distinct nature, as the members of a human body are: 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, Deut. 6.4. The Lord our God is one Lord.

3. If God had a body as we have, he would not be invisible. 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.Daille. in Tim The Apostle reckons it amongst his other perfections, 1 Tim. 1.17. Now unto the King, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible: He is invisible to our sense, which beholds nothing but material and coloured things; and incomprehensible to our understanding that conceives nothing but what is finite. God is therefore a Spirit uncapable of being seen, and infinitely uncapable of being understood. If he be in­visible, he is also Spiritual. If he had a body, and hid it from our eyes, he might be said not to be seen, but could not be said to be invisible. When we say a thing is visible, we understand that it hath such qualities which are the objects of sense, tho we may never see that, which is in its own nature is to be seen. God hath no such qualities as fall under the perception of our sense. His works are visible to us, but not his God-head. Rom. 1.20. The nature of a human body is to be seen and handled, Christ gives us such a description of it, Luke 24.39. Handle me and see, for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have: But man hath been so far from seeing God, that it is impossible he can see him, 1 Tim. 6.16. There is such a disproportion between an infinite object and a finite sense and understanding, that it is utterly impossible ei­ther to behold or comprehend him. But if God had a body more luminous and glorious than that of the Sun, he would be as well visible to us as the Sun, tho the immensity of that light would dazle our eyes, and forbid any close inspection into [Page 116] him by the vertue of our sence: We have seen the shape and figure of the Sun, but no man hath ever seen the shape of God. Joh. 5.37. If God had a body he were visible, tho he might not perfectly and fully be seen by us.Goulart. de Dieu pa. 94. As we see the Heavens, tho we see not the extension, latitude and greatness of them. Tho God hath manifested himself in a bodily shape, Gen. 18.1. And elsewhere, Jehovah appeared to Abraham: Yet the substance of God was not seen, no more than the substance of Angels was seen in their Apparitions to men. A body was formed to be made visible by them, and such actions done in that body, that spake the person that did them, to be of a higher eminency than a bare Corporeal Creature: Sometimes a representation is made to the inward sense and imagination, as to Michaiah, 1 King. 22.19. and to Isa. 6. chap. 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. Joh. 1.18.

Goulart. de Dieu p. 95. 96.Nor doth it follow, that God hath a body, because Jacob is said to see God Face to Face, Gen. 32.30. And Moses had the like priviledge, Deut. 34.10. This only signifies a fuller and clearer manifestation of God, by some representations offered to the bodily sense, or rather to the inward Spirit: For God tells Moses he could not see his Face, Exod. 33.20. And that none ever saw the similitude of God, Deut. 4.15. Were God a Corporeal substance he might in some measure be seen by Cor­poreal eies.

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, hath a bounded greatness: The Heavens of a mighty bulk, yet have their limits. If God had a body he must consist of parts, those parts would be bounded and limited, and whatsoever is limited is of a finite vertue, and therefore below an infinite 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. 2.6. The largest Heavens, and those imaginary spaces beyond the world, are no bounds to him. He hath an essence beyond the bounds of the world, and cannot be included in the vastness of the Heavens. 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 made 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 Man is less than the whole body of Man: If all the parts 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 independent being. Whatsoever is compounded of many parts, depends 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 separated 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 hath lost a limb, you call him not a perfect man; because that part is gone upon which his per­fection as an intire 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 more his dependency would be multiplyed 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 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 bodily Members as we have, or any composition, the Essence of God would result from those parts, and those parts be supposed to be before God. For that which is a part, is before that whose part it is. As in Artificial things you may conceive it: All the parts of a Watch or Clock, are in time before that Watch which is made by setting those parts together. In na­tural [Page 117] 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, intire, 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 would not be absolutely and intirely the first Being: But he is so, Isa. 44.6. I am the first, and I am the last. 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 which 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 into those distinct parts which make up and con­stitute the Nature. Whatsoever is compounded, is changeable in its own nature, though it should 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 resol­ved into those principles of Dust from whence it was extracted. Yet in his own na­ture he was dissoluble into those distinct parts whereof he was compounded: And so the glorified Saints in Heaven, after the Resurrection, and the happy meeting of their Souls and Bodies in a new Marriage knot, shall never be dissolved: yet in their own nature they are mutable and dissoluble, and cannot be otherwise, be­cause they are made up of such distinct parts that may be separated in their own na­ture, unless sustained by the grace of God: They are immutable by Will, the Will of God, not by Nature. God is immutable by Nature as well as Will: As he hath a necessary Existence, so he hath a necessary Unchangeableness, Mal. 3.6. I the Lord change not. He is as unchangeable in his Essence, as in his Veracity and Faith­fulness: They are perfections belonging to his Nature. But if he were not a pure Spirit, he could not be immutable by Nature.

7. If God were not a pure Spirit, He could not be omnipresent. He is in Heaven above, and the Earth below: Deut. 4.39. He fills Heaven and Earth. Jer. 23.24. 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 circumscribed 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 particlar 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. 11.8. he hath not any corporeal matter. If he had a Body wherewith to fill Heaven and Earth, there could be no Body besides his own: 'Tis the Nature of Bodies to bound one another, and hinder the extending of one another. Two Bodies cannot be in the same place in the same point of Earth, one excludes the other: And it will follow hence, that we are nothing, no sub­stances, meer illusions; there could be no place for any Body else.Gamacheus Theol. Tom. 1. Quos. 3. C. 1. If his Body were as bigg as the World; as it must be, if with that he filled Heaven and Earth, there would not be room for him to move a hand or a foot, or extend a finger; for there would be no place remaining for the motion.

8. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be the most perfect Being. The more per­fect any thing is in the rank of Creatures, the more spiritual and simple it is, as Gold is the more pure and perfect that hath least mixture of other Metals. If God were not a Spirit, there would be Creatures of a more excellent Nature than God; as An­gels and Souls, which the Scripture calls Spirits, in opposition to Bodies. There is more of perfection in the first notion of a Spirit, than in the notion of a Body. God cannot be less perfect than his Creatures, and contribute an excellency of being to them which he wants himself. If Angels and Souls possess such an excellency, and God want that excellency; he would be less than his Creatures, and the excel­lency of the Effect, would exceed the excellency of the Cause. But every Creature, even the highest Creature, is infinitely short of the perfection of God; for what­soever excellency they have, is finite and limited; 'tis but a spark from the Sun, a [Page 118] drop from the Ocean; but God is unboundedly perfect in the highest manner, with­out any limitation; and therefore above Spirits, Angels, the highest Creatures that were made by him: An infinite sublimity, a pure act, to which nothing can be ad­ded, from which nothing can be taken. In him there is light and no darkness, 1 John 1.5. spiritu­ality without any matter, perfection without any shadow or taint of imperfection: Light pierceth 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 impossible 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 bodily 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?

Answ. 'Tis true, many parts of the Body, and natural affections of the human nature, are reported of God in Scripture. Head, Dan. 7.9. Eyes and Eye-lids, Psal. 11.4. Apple of the Eye, Mouth, &c. our Affections also, Grief, Joy, Anger, &c. But it is to be con­sidered,

1. That this is in condescension to our weakness. God being desirous to make him­self known to Man,Loquitur lex secund. ling. fili­orum. hominum, was the H. say­ing. whom he created for his Glory, humbles as it were his own Nature to such representations, as may sute and assists the capacity of the Creature: Since by the condition of our nature nothing erects a notion of it self in our under­standing, but as it is conducted in by our sence. God hath served himself of those things which are most exposed to our sence, most obvious to our understandings, 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 linkt with our Bodies, so our knowledge is linkt with our sence; that we can scarce imagin any thing at first but under a corporeal form and figure, till we come by great attenti­on to the Object, to make by 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 several 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 familiar the things are to us which God uses to this purpose, the more proper they are to teach us what he intends by them.

Answ. 2. All such representations are to signifie the acts of God, as they hear 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 invisible Nature; and signifie that God doth some works like to those which men do, by the assistance of those Organs of their Bodies.Amyral. de Trin. p. 218. 219. So the wisdom of God is called 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 we act with our hands, so doth God with his Power. The divine Efficacies are signified: By his eyes and ears, we under­stand his Omniscience; by his face, the manifestation of his Favour; by his mouth the revelation of his Will; by his nostrils, the acceptation of our Prayers; by his bowels, the tenderness of his Compassion; by his heart, the sincerity of his Affecti­ons: by his hand, the strength of his Power; by his feet, the ubiquity of his Pre­sence. And in this, he intends instruction and comfort: By his eyes he signifies his watchfulness over us: By his ears, his readiness to hear the crys of the oppressed: Psal. 34.15. By his Arm, his Power; an Arm to destroy his Enemies, and an Arm to relieve his People.Isa. 51.9. All those are attributed to God to signifie divine actions, which he doth without bodily organs, as we do with them.

3. Consider also, that only those members which are the instruments of the noblest acti­ons, and under that consideration, are used by him to represent a notion of him to our minds. Whatsoever is perfect and excellent, is ascribed to him, but nothing that savours of imperfection.Episcop. insti­tu. l. 4. § 3. c. 3 The heart is ascribed to him, it being the principle of vital actions, to signifie the Life that he hath in himself: Watchful and discerning eys, not sleepy and lazy ones: A mouth to reveal his Will, not to take in food. To eat and sleep [Page 119] are never ascribed to him, nor those parts that belong to the preparing or transmit­ting nourishment to the several parts of the body, as stomach, liver, reins, nor bowels under that consideration, but as they are significant of compassion; but on­ly those parts are ascribed to him whereby we acquire knowledge, as eyes and ears, the Organs of learning and wisdom: Or to Communicate it to others, as the mouth, lips, tongue, as they are the Instrmments of speaking, not of tasting: Or those parts which signifie strength and power, or whereby we perform the actions of Chari­ty for the relief of others: Tast, and touch, senses that extend no further than to Cor­poreal things, and are the grossest of all the senses, are never ascribed to him.

Tis Zanchie [...] observation Tom. 2. de natura Dei lib. 1. cap. 4. Thes. 9.It were worth consideration, whither this describing God by the Members of an human body were so much figuratively to be understood, as with respect to the incar­nation of our Saviour, who was to assume the human nature and all the Members of a human body.

Asaph speaking in the person of God, Psal. 78.1. I will open my mouth in Parables: In regard of God it is to be understood figuratively, but in regard of Christ literal­ly, to whom it is applied, Matt. 13.34.35. And that Apparition, Isa. 6. which was the appearance of Jehovah, is applied to Christ, John 12.40.41.

Amiraut. Me­ral. T [...]m. 1. pa. 293. 294.After the report of the Creation, and the forming of man, we read of Gods speak­ing to him, but not of Gods 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 info [...]a [...]i [...]n he must have what positive Laws he was to observe, besides that Law w [...]ch w [...] [...]gra­ven in his nature, which we call the Law of nature: And without a voice the know­ledge of the Divine Will could not be so conveniently communicated to man: Tho God was heard in a voice, he was not seen in a shape: But after the fall we se­veral times read of his appearing in such a form. Tho we read of his speaking before mans committing of sin, yet not of his walking, which is more Corporeal, till after­wards:Gen. 3.8. [Tho God would not have man believe him to be Corporeal, yet he judged it expedient to give some prenotices of that Divine incarnation which he had promised.Amirald.]

5. Therefore we must not conceive of the visible Deity according to the letter of such ex­pressions, but the true intent of them. Tho the Scripture speaks of his eyes and arm, yet it denies them to be arms of flesh. Job. 10.4. 2 Chron. 32.8. We must not conceive of God according to the Letter, but the design of the Metaphor. When we hear things described by Metaphorical expressions for the clearing them up to our fancy, we conceive not of them under that garb, but remove the vail by an act of our reason: When Christ is called a Sun, a Vine, Bread, is any so stupid as as to conceive him to be a Vine with material branches and Clusters; or be of the same nature with a Loaf? But the things designed by such Metaphors are obvious to the conception of a mean understand­ing. If we would conceive God to have a body like a man, because he describes himself so, we may conceit him to be like a Bird, because he is mentioned with wings; Psal. 36.7. or like a Lyon or Leopard, because he likens himself to them in the Acts of his strength and fury. Hos. 13.7.8. 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 would make him not only a man, but worse than a Monster.

Maimon. More Nevoc. par. 1. cap. 27. Onkelos, the Chalde Paraphrast upon parts 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 them; as when God is said to descend, Gen. 11.5. 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 of the 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 excellency of the most dignified Crea­tures; something so perfect, great, spiritual, as nothing can be conceived higher and purer.

Mores con­jectura caba­listica pa. 122.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. If God be a pure Spiritual being, then

1. Man is not the image of God, according to his external bodily form and figure. [Page 120] 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, Eph. 4.24. That ye put on the new man which after God is Created in righteousness and true holiness. Col. 3.1 [...]. 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 with beasts, but rather in that wherein we excell all living Creatures, in reason, understanding, and an immortal Spirit. God expresly saith, that none saw a similitude of him Deut. 4.15, 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 our selves. Nor would the Apostles argument stand good, Acts 17.29. That the Godhead is not like to stone graven by art, if we were not the off-spring of God and bore the stamp of his nature in our Spirits rather than our bodies.Petav. Theol. Dog. Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 1. pa. 104. It was a fancy of Eugubinus, that when God set upon the actual Creation of man, he took a bodily form for an Exemplar of that which he would express in his work, and therefore that the words of MosesGen. 1.26. are to be understood of the body of man; be­cause there was in Man such a shape which God had then assumed. To let alone Gods forming himself a body for that work as a groundless fancy; Man can in no wise 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, whose bodies have the same Members as the body of Man for the most part, and excell Men in the acuteness of the senses and swiftness of their motion, agility of body, greatness of strength, and in some kind of ingenuities also, wherein Man hath been a Scholar to the brutes, and beholden to their skill. 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 Corporeity, may as well be called the image of a Man; for there is a greater similitude between 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 doth not consist in the substance of the Soul, much less can it in any similitude of the body. This Image consisted partly in the state of man, as he had dominion over the Creatures; partly in the nature of man as he was an intelligent being, and thereby was capable of having a grant of that Domi­nion; but principally in the conformity of the Soul with God in the frame of his Spirit and the holiness of his actions. Not at all in the figure and form of his body Physically, tho morally there might be, as there was a rectitude in the body as an instrument to conform to the holy motions of the soul, as the holiness of the soul sparkled in the actions and members of the body. If man were like God because he hath a body, whatsoever hath a body, hath some resemblance to God, and may be said to be in part his image: But the truth is, the essence of all Creatures cannot be an image of the immense essence of God.

2. If God be a pure Spirit; Tis unreasonable to frame any Image or picture of God. Jamblyc. protrept. cap. 21. Symb. 24. Some Heathens have been wiser in this than some Christians: Pythagoras forbad his Scholars to engrave any shape of him upon a Ring, because he was not to be comprehended by sense, but conceived only in our minds; our hands are as unable to fashion him as our eyes to see him.Austin de Civitat. Dei lib. 4. cap. 31. out of Varro. The ancient Romans worshipped their Gods 170. years before any material representations of them;Tacitus. and the Ancient Idolatrous Germans thought it a wicked thing to represent God in a human shape. Yet some, and those no Romanists, labour to defend the making Images of God in the resemblance of man; because he is so represented in Scripture, he may be,Gerhard loc. Comun. vol. 4. Exegesis de na­turâ Dei cap. 8. § 1. saith one conceived so in our minds and figured so to our sense. If this were a good reason, why may he not be pictured as a Lyon, 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 tho man be a nobler Creature, God hath no more the body of a man, than that of an Eagle; and some perfections in other Creatures represent some excellencies in his nature and actions, which cannot be figur'd by a human shape, as strength by the Lyon, swiftness and readiness by the wings of the Bird. But God hath absolutely prohibited the making any Image whatsoever of him, and that with ter­rible threatnings, Exod. 20.5. I the Lord am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon their Children, and Deut. 5.8, 9. After God had given the Israelites [Page 121] the Commandment wherein he forbad them to have any other Gods before him, he forbids all figuring of him by the hand of man;Amiraut. Mo­rale Christiene Tom. 1. p. 294. not only Images, but any likness of him either by things in Heaven, in the earth or in the water. How often doth he discover his indignation by the Prophets against them that offer to mould him in a Creature form? This law was not to serve a particular dispensation or to endure a particular time, but it was a declaration of his Will, invariable in all places and all times; being founded upon the immutable nature of his being, and therefore agreeable to the Law of nature; otherwise not chargeable upon the Heathens. And therefore when God had declared his nature and his works in a stately and Majestick eloquence, he demands of them, To whom they would liken him, or what likeness they would compare unto him? Isa. 40.18. Where they could find any thing that would be a lively image and resemblance of his infinite excellency? Founding it upon the infiniteness of his nature, which necessarily implies the Spirituality of it. God is infinitely above any Statue; and those that think to draw God by a stroak of a pensil, or form him by the engravings of Art, are more stupid than the Statues themselves.

To shew the unreasonableness of it; Consider,

1. Tis impossible to fashion any image of God. If our more capacious Souls cannot grasp his nature, our weaker sense cannot frame his image: Tis more possible of the two, to comprehend him in our minds, than to frame him in an image to our sense. He inhabits inaccessible light: As it is impossible for the eye of man to see him, tis 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.Cocceius sum. Theol. cap. 9. pa. 47. § 35. Can we draw a figure of our own Souls, and express that part of our selves, 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 draught 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 simple, infinite, immense, eternal, invisible, incorruptible being: A Sta­tue is a compounded, finite, limited, temporal, visible and corruptible body. God is a living Spirit; but a Statue, nor sees, nor hears, nor perceives any thing. But suppose God had a body, tis impossible to mould an Image of it in the true glory of that body: Can the Statue of an excellent Monarch represent the Majesty and air of his Countenance, tho made by the skilfullest workman in the world? If God had a body in some measure suted to his excellency, were it possible for Man to make an exact Image of him, who cannot picture the light, heat, motion, mag­nitude and dazling property of the Sun? The excellency of any Corporeal nature of the least Creature, the temper, instinct, artifice, are beyond the power of a Carving tool; much more is God.

2. To make any Corporeal representations of God is unworthy of God. 'Tis 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. 'Tis a kind of debasing an Angel, who is a Spiritual nature, to represent 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 whole stock of Images is but a lie of God, Jer. 10, 8, 14. A Doctrin of vanities and falsehood: It represents him in a false garb to the world, and sinks his glory into that of a corruptible Creature. Rom. 1.25. It impairs the reverence of God in the minds of men, and by degrees may debase mens apprehensions of God,Rom. 1.22. 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 imaginations of him; and as they sprung from them, so they contribute to a greater corruption of the notions of the Divine nature: The Hea­thens begun their first representations of him by the Image of a corruptible Man, then of birds, till they descended, not only to four footed beasts, but creeping things, e­ven Serpents, as the Apostle seems to intimate in his enumeration, Rom. 1.23. It had been more honourable to have continued in human representations of him, than have sunk so low as beasts and Serpents, the baser Images; tho the first had been infinitely [Page 122] unworthy of him, he being more above a man, though the noblest Creature, than Man is above a Worm, a Toad, or the most despicable creeping thing upon the Earth. To think we can make an Image of God of a piece of Marble, or an Ingot 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, 'tis said, they sinned a great sin, Exod. 32.31. And the sin of Jeroboam, who intended only a representation of God by the Calves at Dan and Bethel, is called more em­phatically,Hosea 10.15. [...] the wickedness of your wickedness, the very skum and dreggs of wicked­ness. As men debased God by this, so God debased men for this; he degraded the Israelites into Captivity under the worst of their Enemies, and punished the Heathens with spiritual Judgments, as uncleaness through the lusts of their own hearts, Rom. 1.24. which is repeated again in other expressions, v. 26, 27. as a meet recompence for their disgracing the spiritual nature of God. Had God been like to Man, they had not offended in it: But I mention this, to shew a probable reason of those base lusts which are in the midst of us, that have scarce been exceeded by any Nation, viz. the un­worthy and unspiritual conceits of God, which are as much a debasing of him as material Images were when they were more rife in the world; and may be as well the cause of those spiritual Judgments upon men, as the worshipping molten and carved Images were the cause of the same upon the Heathen.

3. Yet this is natural to Man. Wherein we may see the contrariety of Man to God. Though God be a Spirit, yet there is nothing Man is more prone to, than to represent him under a corporeal form. The most famous Guides of the Heathen world have fashioned him, not only according to the more honourable Images of men, but beastialized 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 worshiping an Ox for an Image of their God; and the Philistines their Da­gon in a figure composed of the Image of a Woman and a Fish:Daille super Cor. 1.10. Ser. 3. Such representa­tions were ancient in the Oriental parts. The Gods of Laban that he accuseth Ja­cob of stealing from him, are supposed to be little figures of men.Gen. 31.30.34. Such was the Israelites Golden-Calf; their worship was not terminated on the Image, but they wor­shipped the true God under that representation: They could not be so brutish as to call a Calf their Deliverer, and give so him great a Title, (these be thy Gods oh Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, Exod. 32.4.) or that which they knew belonged to the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Gen. 3.16, 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 the form of the Egyptian Idol; yet they knew that Apis, Osiris and Isis the Gods the Egyptians adored in that figure, had not wrought their Redemption from Bondage, but would have used their force, had they been possessed of any, to have kept them under the Yoke, rather than have freed them from it: The Feast also which they celebrated before that Image, is called by Aaron the Feast of the Lord, Exod. 32.5. a Feast to Jehovah, the incommuni­cable name of the Creator of the world: 'Tis therefore evident, that both the Priest and the People pretended to serve the true God, not any false Divinity of Egypt: That God who had rescued them from Egypt with a mighty hand, divided the Red-Sea be­fore them, destroyed their Enemies, conducted them, fed them by miracle, spoken to them from Mount Sinai, and amazed them by his Thundrings and Lightnings when he instructed them by his Law; a God they could not so soon forget. And with this representing God by that Image, they are charged by the Psalmist, Psal. 106.19, 20. they made a Calf in Horeb, and changed their glory into the similitude of an Ox that eateth Grass: They changed their glory, that is, God the glory of Israel; so that they took this figure for the Image of the true God of Israel, their own God; not the God of any other Nation in the world. Jeroboam intended no other by his Calves, but Symbols of the presence of 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 Gods 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.

'Tis prone to the Nature of Man.

[Page 123]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 could not in natural reason judge him to be clothed with a bodily shape, much less to be like an Ox that eateth grass; yet the Apostle brings no less a charge against them, than that of Idolatry, 1 Cor. 10.7. he calls them Idolaters, who before that Calf kept a Feast to Jehovah, citing Exod. 32.5. Suppose we could make such an Image of God as might perfectly represent him; yet since God hath prohibited it, shall we be wiser than God? He hath sufficiently manifested himself in his Works without Ima­ges: He is seen in the Creatures; more particularly in the Heavens, which declare his Glory. His Works are more excellent representations of him, as being the works of his own hands, than any thing that is the Product of the Art of Man. His Glory sparkles in the Heavens, 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 representatives of the Excellency and Majesty of God, is Idolatry in Scrip­ture account, and a denial of God; Job. 31.26 27, 28. Chin. Predict. Part. 2. P. 252. a prostituting the glory of God to a Creature:Lawson. Body Divin. P. 161 Either the worship is terminated on the Image it self, and then it is confessed by all to be Idolatry, because it is a giving that worship to a Creature which is the sole right of God; or not terminated in the Image, but in the Object represented by it; 'tis 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 Gods special presence, as the Ark, Tabernacle, Temple were. It is no part of divine in­stitution; has no Authority of a Command to support it; no Cordial of a promise to encourage it; and the Image being infinitely distant from, and below the Majesty and Spirituality of God, cannot constitute one object of worship with him. To put a Religious Character upon any Image formed by the corrupt imagination of Man, as a representation of the invisible and spiritual Deity; is to think the God­head to be like silver and gold, or stone graven by art and mans device. Acts 17.29.

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 sutable conception of God: He dwells in inaccessible light; inaccessible to the acuteness of our fancy, as well as the 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 to us by the notice we have of some perfection in the Creature, and explains to us some particular 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 own excellency, and point us to those excellencies in his works, whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellencies which are in his Nature. But the Creatures, whence we draw our lessons being finite, and our understandings being finite, 'tis utterly impossile to have a notion of God commensurate to the immensity and spiritua­lity of his Being. [Amyraut Mo­ral. Tom. 1. P. 289.God is not like to visible Creatures, nor is there any pro­portion between him and the most spiritual]. We cannot have a full notion of a spiritual Nature; much less can we have of God, who is a Spirit above Spirits. No Spirit can clearly represent him: The Angels that are great Spirits, are boun­ded in their extent, finite in their being, and of a mutable Nature.

Yet though we cannot have a sutable conception of God, we must not content our selves without any conception of him. 'Tis our sin not to endeavour after a true notion of him: 'Tis our sin to rest in a mean and low notion of him, when our reason tells us we are capable of having higher: But if we ascend as high as we can, though we shall then come short of a sutable notion of him; this is not our sin, but our weakness. God is infinitely superior to the choicest conceptions; not only of [Page 124] 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 tho they are the most capacious Creatures, yet they cannot have such a Notion of an infinite being as is fully sutable 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: Tho we can­not comprehend him as he is, we must be careful not to fancy him to be what he is not. 'Tis a vain thing to conceive him with human lineaments: We must think higher of him, than to ascribe to him so mean a shape: We deny his Spirituality when we fancy him under such a form: He is Spiritual, and between that which is Spiritual and that which is Corporeal, there is no resemblance.Episco. institu. li. 4. § 2. c. 10. Indeed Daniel saw God in a human form, Daniel. 7.9. The Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hairs of his head like pure Wool; he is described as coming to Judgment; tis not meant of Christ probably, because Christ ver. 13. is called the Son of Man coming near to the Ancient of days. This is not the proper shape of God, for no man hath seen his shape. It was a vision wherein such representations were made, as were accomodated to the inward sense of Daniel; Daniel saw him in a rapture or extasy, 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 notes the purity and simplicity of the Divine nature: Ancient of days in regard of his eternity; white hair in regard of his prudence and wisdom, which is more eminent in age than youth, and more fit to discern causes and to distinguish between right and wrong. Visions are riddles and must not be understood in a litteral sense. We are to watch against such determinate conceptions of God. Vain imaginations do easily infest us; Tinder will not sooner take fire than our natures kindle into wrong Noti­ons of the Divine Majesty. We are very apt to fashion a God like our selves: We must therefore look upon such representations of God, as accommodated to our weak­ness: And no more think them to be literal descriptions of God, as he is in himself, than we will think the image of the Sun in the water to be the true Sun in the Hea­vens. We may indeed conceive of Christ as man, who hath in Heaven the vestment of our nature, and is Deus figuratus, tho we cannot conceive the God-head under a human shape.

1. To have such a fancy is to disparage and wrong God. A Corporeal fancy of God is as ridiculous in it self and as injurious to God, as a wooden Statue. The capricios of our imagination are often more monstrous than the images which are the works of art: Tis as irreligious to measure Gods 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 unconceivably above us, equal with us. Tis im­possible we can conceive God after the manner of, we a body but must bring him down to the proportion of a body, which is to diminish his glory, and stoop him below the dignity of his nature. God is a pure Spirit, he hath nothing of the nature and tincture of a body; whosoever therefore conceives of him as having a bodily form, tho 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 will 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 will be as much incensed against an inward Idolatry as an out­ward: ThatExod. 20.4. Command which forbad Corporeal images, would not indulge car­nal imaginations, since the nature of God is as much wronged by unworthy images erected in the fancy as by statues carved out of stone or metals: One as well as the other is a deserting of our true spouse and committing Adultery, one with a mate­rial image, and the other with 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, which he makes only a resemblance of himself to us.

2. To have such fancies of God, will obstruct and pollute our worship of him. How is it possible to give him a right worship, of whom we have so debasing a Notion? We [Page 125] shall never think a corporeal Deity, worthy of a dedication of our Spirits. The hating Instruction, and casting Gods word behind the back, is charged upon the imaginati­on they had, that God was such a one as themselves, Psal. 50.17.21. Many of the wiser Heathens did not judge their Statues to be their Gods, or their Gods to be like their Statues; but suted them to their politick 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 despised and undervalued God, is not an Object of Petition or Affection: Who would address seriously to a God he has low apprehensions of? The more raised thoughts we have of him, the viler sense we shall have of our selves: They would make us humble and self abhorrent in our supplications to him, Job. 42.6. wherefore I abhorr my self, &c.

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 knowledge of him. Since we are inclosed in bodies, we apprehend nothing but what comes in by sense, and what we in some sort measure by sensible Objects. And in the consideration of those things, which we desire to abstract from sense, we are fain to make use of the assistances of sense and visible things: And therefore when we frame the highest notion, there will be some similitude of some corporeal thing in our fancy; and though we would spiritualize our thoughts, and aim at a more abstracted and raised understanding, yet there will be some dreggs of matter sticking to our concepti­ons; yet we still judge by argument and reasoning, what the thing is we think of under those material Images.Nazianzen. A corporeal Image will follow us, as the shadow doth the body: While we are in the body, and surrounded with fleshly matter, we can­not think of things without some help from corporeal representations: Something of sense will interpose it self in our purest conceptions of spiritual things;Amiraut Mo­rale Tom. 1. P. 180, &c. for the faculties which serve for contemplation, are either corporeal, as the sense and fancy, or so allyed to them, that nothing passes into them but by the 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 degrees ascend to that true notion of that we think upon, and would have a due conception of in our mind. Therefore God tempers the declaration of himself to our weakness, and the condition of our Natures: He condescends to our littleness and narrowness, when he declares himself by the similitude of bodily members. As the light of the Sun is tempered, and diffuseth it self to our sense through the air and vapours, that our weak eyes may not be too much dazled with it: Without it we could not know or judge of the Sun, because we could have no use of our sense, which we must have before we can judge of it in our understanding: So we are not able to conceive of spiritual Beings in the purity of their own nature, without such a tem­perament, and such shadows to usher them into our minds. And therefore we find the Spirit of God accommodates himself to our contracted and teddered capa­cities, and uses such expressions of God, as are suted to us in this state of flesh wherein we are: And therefore because we cannot apprehend God in the simplicity of his own Being, and his undivided Essence, he draws the representations of him­self from several Creatures and several actions of those Creatures: As sometimes he is said to be angry, to walk, to sit, to fly; not that we should rest in such concepti­ons of him, but take our rise from this foundation, and such perfections in the Crea­tures, to mount up to a knowledge of Gods nature by those several steps, and con­ceive of him by those divided Excellencies, because we cannot conceive of him in the purity of his own Essence.Lessius. We cannot possibly think or speak of God, un­less we transfer the names of created perfections to him; yet we are to conceive of them in a higher manner when we apply them to the Divine Nature, than when we consider them in the several Creatures formally, exceeding those perfections and ex­cellencies which are in the Creature, and in a more excellent manner:Towerson on the Command­ments. P. 112. [as one saith, though we cannot comprehend God without the help of such resemblances, yet we may without making an Image of him; so that inability of ours excuseth [Page 126] those apprehensions of him from any way offending against his Divine Nature] These are not notions so much suted 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 our selves in our apprehensions of him, by considering the subtilty and spirituality of Air; and considering the members of a body, without thinking him to be air, or to have any corporeal member. Our reason tells us, that whatsoever is a body, is limited and bounded; and the notion of infiniteness and bodiliness, cannot agree and consist together: And therefore what is offered by our fancy should be purified by our reason.

4. 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 we can. Though we cannot conceive of God, but some corporeal representations or images in our minds will be conversant with us, as motes in the Air when we look upon the Heavens; yet our conceptions 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 doth 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 still more purified; se­parating the perfect from the imperfect, casting away the one, and greatning the other; conceive him to be a Spirit diffused through all, containing all, perceiving all. All the 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 infinitely superior to whatsoever 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 weakness of Creatures, in­finitely mounted above the excellencies of Creatures: As easie to be known that he is, as impossible to be comprehended what he is.

Conceive of him as excellent, without any imperfection: A Spirit without parts; great without quantity; perfect without quality; every where without place; Powerful without members; 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 unviolated exceeds the splendor of the Sun dispersed and divided through a cloudy and misty Air: And when you have risen to the highest, conceive him yet infinitely above all you can conceive of Spirit; and acknowledge the infirmity of your own minds. And whatsoever concepti­on comes into your minds, say this is not God; God is more than this: If I could conceive him, he were not God; for God is incomprehensibly above whatsoever I can say, whatsoever I can think and conceive of him.

4. Inference. 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 garnisht Temples. What place can defile a Spirit? Is Light, which approaches to the nature of Spirit polluted by shining upon a Dung-hill, or a Sun-beam tainted by darting upon a Quag-mire? Doth an Angel contract any soyl, by stepping into a nasty Prison to deliver Peter? What can steam from the most noysom body, to pol­lute the spiritual nature of God? As he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity Heb. 1.13., so he is of a more spiritual substance, than to contract any physical pollution from the places where he doth diffuse himself. Did our Saviour who had a true body, de­rive any taint from the Lepers he touched, the diseases he cured, or the Devils he expell'd? God is a pure Spirit; plungeth himself into no filth; is dasht with no spot by being present with all bodies. Bodies only receive defilement from bodies.

5. Inference. If God be a Spirit, he is active and communicative. He is not clogg'd with heavy and sluggish matter, which is cause of dulness and inactivity. The more subtil thin, and approaching neerer the Nature of a Spirit any thing is, the more diffu­sive it is. Air is a gliding substance; spreads it self through all Regions; peirceth [Page 127] into all bodies; it fills the space between Heaven and Earth; there is nothing but partakes of the vertue of it. Light, which is an emblem of Spirit, insinuates it self into all places, refresheth all things. As Spirits are fuller, so they are more over­flowing, more piercing, more operative than bodies. The Egyptian Horses were weak things, because they were Flesh and not Spirit Isay 31.3.: The Soul being a Spirit con­veys more to the Body, than the Body can to it. What cannot so great a Spirit do for us? What cannot so great a Spirit work in us? God being a Spirit above all Spirits, can pierce into the Center of all Spirits; make his way into the most secret recesses; stamp what he pleases: 'Tis no more to him to turn our Spirits, than to make a Wilderness become Waters, and speak a Chaos into a beautiful frame of Hea­ven and Earth: He can act our souls with infinite more ease, than our souls can act our bodies; he can fix in us what motions, frames, inclinations he pleases; he can come and settle in our hearts with all his Treasures. 'Tis an encouragement to confide in him, when we petition him for spiritual Blessings: As he is a Spirit, he is possessed with spiritual Blessings. Eph. 1.3. A Spirit delights to bestow things sutable to its Nature, do Bodies are to communicate what is agreeable to theirs: As he is a Father of Spirits, we may go to him for the Welfare of our Spirits; he being a Spirit, is as able to repair our Spirits, as he was to create them.

As he is a Spirit, he is indefatigable in acting: The members of the body tire and flagg; but whoever heard of a Soul wearied with being active? Whoever heard of a weary Angel? In the purest Simplicity, there is the greatest Power, the most effica­cious Goodness, the most reaching Justice to affect the Spirit, that can insinuate it self every where to punish wickedness without weariness, as well as to comfort goodness. God is active, because he is Spirit; and if we be like to God, the more spiritual we are, the more active we shall be.

6. Inference. God being a Spirit, is immortal. His being immortal, and being in­visible are joyned together.1 Tim. 1.17. Spirits are in their nature incorruptible; they can only perish by that hand that framed them. Every compounded thing is subject to mutation; but God being a pure and simple Spirit, is without corruption, without a­ny shadow of change.James 1.17. Where there is composition, there is some kind of repug­nancy of one part against the other; and where there is repugnancy, there is a ca­pability of dissolution. God in regard of his infinite spirituality, hath nothing in his own nature contrary to it; can have nothing in himself which is not himself. The world perishes; friends change and are dissolved; bodies moulder, because they are mutable. God is a Spirit in the highest excellency and glory of Spirits; nothing is beyond him; nothing above him; no contrariety within him: This is our comfort, if we devote our selves 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.

7. Inference. If God be a Spirit, we see how we can only converse with him by our Spirits. Bodies and Spirits are not sutable 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 Sacrifices, fumes of Incense are not grateful to him; by those or any exter­nal action, we have no communion with him: A Spirit when broken, is his delightful Sacrifice Psal. 51.17.; We must therefore have our Spirits fitted for him, be renewed in the spirit of our minds Eph. 4.23., that we may be in a posture to live with him, and have an intercourse with him. We can never be united to God, but in our Spirits: Bodies unite with Bodies, Spirits with Spirits. The more spiritual any thing is, the more closely doth it unite. Air hath the closest union, nothing meets together sooner than that, when the parts are divided by the interposition of a body.

8. Inference. If God be a Spirit, he can only be the true satisfaction of our Spirits. Spirit can only be fill'd with Spirit. Content flows from likeness and sutableness: 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 more be really satisfied with that which is corporeal, than a beast can delight in the company of an Angel. Cor­poreal things can no more fill a hungry Spirit, than pure Spirit can feed an hungry [Page 128] Body. God the highest Spirit, can only reach out a full content to our spirits. Man is Lord of the Creation; nothing below him can be fit for his converse; no­thing above him offers it self to his converse but God. We have no correspondence with Angels: The influence they have upon us, the protection they afford us, is secret and undiscern'd; but God the highest Spirit offers himself to us in his Son, in his Ordinances, is visible in every Creature, presents himself to us in every pro­vidence; to him we must seek; in him we must rest. God had no rest from the Creation, till he had made Man; and Man can have no rest in the Creation, till he rests in God.Psal 90.1. God only is our dwelling place; our Souls should only long for him; our Souls should only wait upon him.Psal. 63.1. The Spirit of Man never riseth 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 is only the receptacle of Spirit. God as Spirit is our Principle; we must therefore live upon him. God as Spirit, hath some resemblance to us as his Image; we must therefore only satisfie our selves in him.

9. Inference. 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 thererefore value our Spirits above our Bodies: The Soul as Spirit, partakes more of the Divine Nature, and de­serves more of our choycest 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. 40.19.. That which is most the Image of this immense Spirit, should be our Darling: So David calls his Soul, Psal. 35.17. Shall we take care of that wherein we partake not of God, and not delight in the Jewel which hath his own Signature upon it? God 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 matter 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. 12.9.

10. Inference. If God be a Spirit, let us take heed of those sins which are spiritual. Paul distinguisheth between the filth of the Flesh, and that of the Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1.: By the one we defile the Body; by the other we defile the Spirit, which in regard of its Nature is of kin to the Creator. To wrong one who is neer of kin to a Prince, is worse than to injure an inferior Subject. When we make our Spirits, which are most like to God in their Nature, and framed according to his Image, a stage to act vain imaginations, wicked desires, and unclean affections, we wrong God in the excellency of his Work, and reflect upon the nobleness of the Patern; we wrong him in that part where he hath stampt the most signal Character of his own spiritual nature; we defile that whereby we have only converse with him as a Spirit, which he hath ordered more immediately to represent him in this Nature, than all corporeal things in the world can, and make that Spirit with whom we desire to be joyned, unfit for such a knot. Gods Spirituality is the root of his other perfections. We have already heard, he could not be infinite, omnipresent, immutable without it. Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us: As grace in our Spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God; so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded Devil.Eph. 2.2, 3. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes, and spiritual sins devest us of the Image of God for the Image of Satan. We should by no means make our Spirits a Dung-hill, 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.

HAVING thus dispatcht the first proposition, God is a Spirit; It will not be amiss to handle the inference our Saviour makes from that proposition, which is the second observation propounded.

Doct. That the Worship due from us to God ought to be Spiritual and Spiritually performed.

Spirit and Truth are understood variously. Either we are to Worship God,

1. 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 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 worship on the Mount Gerizim, because it was false. They had not the true object of worship, nor the true Medium of worship as those at Jerusa­lem had. Their worship should cease, because it was false; and the Jewish worship should cease, because it was carnal.

There is no need of a Candle, when the Sun spreads it beams in the Air; no need of those Ceremonies, when the Sun of righteousness 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 were instituted, is expired; and that discovered to us in the Gospel which the Jews sought for in vain, among the baggage and stuff of their Ceremonies.

2. With a Spiritual and sincere frame. In Spirit, i. e. with Spirit; with the in­ward operations of all the faculties of our Souls, and the cream and flower of them: And the reason is, because there ought to be a worship sutable to the nature of God. And as the worship was to be Spiritual, so the exercise of that worship ought to be in a Spiritual manner.Lingend. Tom. 2. p. 777. It shall be a worship in Truth, because the true God shall be adored without those vain imaginations, and phantastick resemblances of him,Taylors Ex­emplar Preface § 30. which were common among the blind Gentiles, and contrary to the glorious nature of God, and unworthy ingredients in Religious services. It shall be a worship in Spi­rit, without those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on: Such a posture of Soul which is the life and ornament of every service God looks for at your hands: There must be some proportion between the object adored and the manner in which we adore it. It must not be a meer Corporeal worship, because God is not a body; but it must rise from the Center of our Soul, because God is a Spirit. If he were a body, a bodily worship might sute him, Images might be fit to represent him; but being a Spirit, our bodily services enter us not into communion with him. Being a Spirit we must banish from our minds all carnal imaginations of him, and separate from our Wills all cold and dissembled affections to him. We must not only have a loud voice, but an elevated Soul; not only a bended knee, but a broken heart; not only a supplicating tone, but a groaning Spirit; not only a ready ear for the word, but a receiving heart; and this shall be of greater value with him, than [Page 130] the most costly outward services offered at Gerizim or Jerusalem.

Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping in Spirit, only the matter of the Evangelical service, as opposed to the legal administration, without the manner wherein it was to be performed. Tis true, God always sought a worship in Spirit; he expected the heart of the worshipper should joyn with his instituted rights of a­doration in every exercise of them: But he expects such a carriage more under the Gospel administration, because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it, and the greater assistances conveyed by it.

I shall therefore,

• 1. Lay down some general propositions.
• 2. Shew what this Spiritual worship is.
• 3. Why we must offer to God a Spiritual service.
• 4. The Ʋse.

1. Some general propositions.

Proposition, 1. First. The right exercise of worship is founded upon and riseth from the Spirituality of God. Ames medul. lib. 2. cap. 4. § 20. The first ground of the worship we render to God, is the infinite excellency of his nature, which is not only one attribute, but results from all: For God, as God, is the object of worship; and the Notion of God consists not in thinking him wise, good, just, but all those infinitely beyond any Conception. And hence it follows that God is an object infinitely to beloved and honoured. His goodness is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage. Psal. 130.4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared. Fear in the Scripture dialect signifies the whole worship of God. Acts 10.35. But in every Nation he that fears him is accepted of him.So 2 Kings 17.32, 33. If God should act towards men according to the rigors of his Justice due to them for the least of their Crimes, there could be no exercise of any affection but that of despair, which could not engender a worship of God which ought to be joyned 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 rankt those Creatures in the number of their Gods, which they perceived useful and neficial to man-kind; as the Sun and Moo [...], the Aegyptians 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 motive of worship, Heb. 12.28, 29. Serve God with Reverence and Godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire; which in­cludes his holiness, whereby he doth hate sin, as well as his wrath, whereby he doth punish it. Who but a mad and totally brutish person, or one that was resolved to make war against heaven, could behold the effects of Gods 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 tho the infinite power of God, his unspeakable wisdom, his incomprehensible goodness, the holiness of his nature, the vigilance of his Providence, the bounty of his hand signifie to man, that he should love and honour him, and are the motives of worship; 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 in Justice to him; and as he is the most excellent nature, veneration 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: All his perfections are grounded upon this: He could not be infinite, immutable, omniscient if he were a Corporeal being:Amirald dis­sert. 6. disp. 1. pa. 11. We cannot give him a worship unless we Judge him worthy, excellent and deserving a worship at our hands: And we cannot Judge him worthy of a worship, unless we have some ap­prehensions and admirations of his infinite vertues: And we cannot apprehend and admire those perfections, but as we see them 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 [Page 131] the world to be the fruit 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 to be offered by us in a manner sutable 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. All Gods per­fections suppose him a Spirit; all center in this: His wisdom doth not suppose him merciful, 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?Amyraut de Relig. In our offers to, and transactions with men, we deal not with them as meer Animals, but as rational Creatures; and we debase their natures if we treat them otherwise: And if we have not raised apprehensions of Gods spiritual nature in our treating with 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, we shall else render him no better than a fleshly service. We do not much concern our selves in those things, of which we are either utterly ignorant, or have but slight apprehensions of.

That is the first Proposition; The right exercise of worship is grounded upon the spirituality of God.

Propos. 2. This spiritual worship 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 of our Souls was natural, and part of the Law of Creation; though the determination of the particular acts, whereby God would have this homage testi­fied, was of positive institution, and depended not upon the Law of Creation Though Adam in Innocence knew God was to be worshipped; yet by Nature he did not know by what outward acts he was to pay this respect, or at what time he was more solemnly to be exercised in it than at another: This depended upon the directions God as the soveraign Governour and Law-giver 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. 2.3.17. 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 reliques of these modes universally consented to by Mankind, as well as of the other: But though all Nations have by an universal consent concurred in the acknowledgment of the Being of God, and his right to adoration, and the obligation of the Creature to it; and that there ought to be some publick rule and polity in matters of Religion; (for no Nation hath been in the world without a worship, and without external acts and certain ceremonies to sig­nifie that worship) yet their modes and rites have been as various as their climates, unless in that common notion of sacrifices, not descending to them by nature, but tradition from Adam; and the various ways of worship have been more pro­voking than pleasing: Every Nation suted the kind of worship to their particular ends and polities they designed to rule by. How God was, to be worshipped, is more difficult to be discerned by Nature with its eyes out, than with its eyes clear.King on Jo­nah. P. 63. The pillars upon which the worship of God stands, cannot be discerned without revelation, no more than blind Sampson could tell where the pillars of the Philistians 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. 'Tis not by Nature that we can have such a full pro­spect of God as may content and quiet us; This is the noble effect of Divine Revela­tion; He only knows himself, and can only make himself known to us. It could not be supposed, that an infinite God should have no perfections but what were visible in the works of his hands; and that these perfections should not be infinitely greater, than as they were sensible in their present effects: This had been to appre­hend God a limited Being, meaner than he is. Now 'tis impossible to honour God as we ought, unless we know him as he is; and we could not know him as he is, with­out [Page 132] divine revelation from himself; for none but God can acquaint us with his own nature: And therefore the nations void of this conduct, heapt up modes of wor­ship from their own imaginations, unworthy of the Majesty of God, and below the nature of man: A rational man would scarce have owned such for signs of honour, as the Scripture mentions in the services of Baal and Dagon. Much less an infinitely wise and glorious God: And when God had signified his mind to his own people, how un­willing were they to rest satisfied with Gods determination, but would be warping to their own inventions, and make Gods, and wayes of worship to themselves?Amos 5.26. As in the matter of the Golden Calf, as was lately spoken of.

2. Tho the outward manner of worship acceptable to God, could not be known without revelation, and those revelations might be various; yet the inward manner of worship with our Spirits was manifest by nature. And not only manifest by nature to Adam in Innocence, but after his fall, and the scales he had brought upon his understanding by that fall. When God gave him his positive institutions before the fall, or whatso­ever additions God should have made, had he persisted in that state; or when he ap­pointed him after his fall to testifie his acknowledgment of him by Sacrifices, there needed no Command to him to make those acknowledgments by those outward wayes prescribed to him, with the intention and prime affection of his Spirit: This nature would instruct him in without 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 acknowledgment of Gods Sove­raignty 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 discerne by a reflection upon his own being, that he was made for God as well as by God: [For it is a natural principle, of which the Apostle speaks, Rom. 11.36. For of him and through him and to him are all things, &c.] That the whole, whereof he did consist 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, without that nobler principle, which he had by Creation linkt with it. Nothing in the whole law of nature, as it is informed of Re­ligion, was clearer next to the being of God, than this manner of worshipping God with the mind and Spirit. And as the Gentiles never sunk so low into the mud of Idolatry, as to think the Images they worshipped were really their Gods, but the representations, 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 denyed the being of a God in the Notion, tho they did in the practise; so they never rejected this principle in Notion, tho they did, and now most men do, in the inward observation of it: It was a maxime 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 the work of the Soul; Whence, the speech of one of them;Menander. Grot. de veritat relig. lib. 4. § 12. Sacri­fice to the Gods not so much clothed with purple garments as a pure heart: And of another. God regards not the multitude of the Sacrifices, but the disposition of the Sacrificer. Tis not fit we should deny God the Cream and Flower,Jamblick and give him the flotten part and the stalks. And with what Reverence and intention of mind they thought their worship was to be performed, is evident by the Priests crying out often, hoc age, Mind this, let your Spirits be intent upon it.

This could not but result

(1.) From the knowledge of our selves. Tis a natural principle, God hath made us and not we our selves, Psal. 100.1, 2. 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 Creator 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 worship him with those faculties whereby he Thinks, Wills, and Acts.Amiraut. Mor. Tom. 1. pa. 309. 310. 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 [Page 133] could not in reason think they must be only active in his own service, and the service of the Creature, and idle and unprofitable in the service of his Creator. With the same Powers 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 Will; and we cannot worship him without the acts of thinking and loving, and therefore cannot worship him without the exercise of our inward faculties: How is it possible then for any man that knows his own nature, to think that extended hands, bended knees and lifted up eyes were sufficient acts of worship, without a quickned and active Spirit?

(2) From the knowledge of God. As there was a knowledge of God by nature, so the same nature did dictate to Man that God was to be glorified as God: The Apostle implies the inference in the charge he brings against them for neglecting it. We should speak of God as he is, said oneBias.;Rom. 1.21. and the same reason would inform them that they were to act towards God as he is. The excellency of the Object required a worship according to the dignity of his Nature; which could not be answered but by the most serious inward affection, as well as outward decency; and a want of this, cannot but be judged to be unbecoming the Majesty of the Creator of the world, and the excellency of Religion. No Nation, no person did ever assert, that the vilest part of man was enough for the most excellent Being, as God is: That a bodily service could be a sufficient acknowledgment of the greatness of God, or a sufficient return for the bounty of God.Amyraut Ib. Man could not but know that he was to act in Religion, conformably to the Object of Religion, and to the excellency of his own Soul: The notion of a God was sufficient to fill the mind of man with ad­miration and reverence, and the first conclusion from it would be to honour God, and that he have all the affection placed on him, that so infinite and spiritual a Be­ing did deserve: The progress then would be, that this excellent Being was to be honoured with the motions of the Understanding and Will; with the purest and most spiritual powers in the nature of man; because he was a spiritual Being, and had nothing of matter mingled with him. Such a brutish imagination, to suppose that blood and fumes, beasts and incense could please a Deity without a spiritual frame, cannot be supposed to befal any but those that had lost their reason in the rubbish of sense. Meer rational nature could never conclude, that so excellent a Spirit would be put off with a meer animal service; an attendance of matter and body without Spirit, when they themselves of an inferior nature, would be loath to sit down contented with an outside service from those that belong to them: So that this instruction of our Saviour, that God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth, is conformable to the sentiments of nature, and drawn from the most undeniable principles of it. The excellency of Gods nature, and the excel­lent constitution of human faculties, concur naturally to support this perswasion: This was as natural to be known by men, as the necessity of Justice and Tem­perance for the support of human societies and bodies. 'Tis to be feared that if there be not among us such brutish apprehensions, there are such brutish dealings with God in our services against the light of nature; when we place all our worship of God in outward attendances and drooping countenances, with unbelieving frames and formal devotions; when Prayer is muttered over in private slightly, as a Parrot learns lessons by rote, not understanding what it speaks, or to what end it speaks it; not glorifying God in Thought and Spirit, with Understanding and Will.

3. Spiritual Worship therefore was always required by God, and always offered to him by one or other. Man had a perpetual obligation upon him to such a worship from the nature of God, and what is founded upon the nature of God is unvariable. 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 HeavensHeb. 1.11, 12.: But God en­dures for ever; his spirituality fails not, therefore a worship of him in Spirit must run through all ways and rites of Worship. God must cease to be Spirit, before any service but that which 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 alway and will alway be required by God. The worship of God be­ing perpetually 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 [Page 134] in Paradice (for a worship 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. Abels Sacrifice had not been so excellent in Gods esteem, without those gra­cious habits and affections working in his SoulHeb. 11.4.. Faith works by Love; his heart was on fire as well as his Sacrifice. Cain rested upon his Present, perhaps thought he had obliged God; he depended upon the outward Ceremony, but sought not for the inward purity: It was an offering brought to the LordGen. 4.5.; he had the right object but not the right manner, Gen. 4.7. If thou dost well, shalt thou not be accepted? 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 Will, looking above and beyond all Symbolls; extending the Soul to a pitch far above the Body, and seeing the day of Christ through the vail of the Cere­monies, was required by God: And though Moses by Gods order had instituted a multitude of carnal Ordinances, Sacrifices, Washings, Oblations of sensible things, and recomended to the people the diligent observation of those Statutes by the al­lurements of promises, and denouncing of threatnings; 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 doth point them to the inward worship, and by the Command of God, requires of them the Circumcision of the Heart, Deut. 10.16. the tur­ning to God with all their heart, and all their Soul, Deut. 30.10. whereby they might recollect, that it was the engagement of the Heart, and the worship of the Spirit that was most 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.

4. 'Tis therefore as much every mans duty to worship God in Spirit, as it is their 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. 'Tis a debt of Justice we owe to God to worship him, and it is as much a debt of Justice to worship him according to his Nature. Worship is nothing else but a ren­dring 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 perpetually due, whereas the Channel where­in outward worship runs may be dryed up, and the River diverted another way: Such a worship wherein the mind thinks of God, feels a sense of God, has the Spirit consecrated to God, the Heart glowing with affections to God: 'Tis else a mocking God with a feather. A rational Nature must worship God with that wherein the Glory of God doth most sparkle in him. God is most visible in the frame of the Soul, 'tis there his Image glitters: He hath given us a Jewel as well as a Case, and the Jewel as well as the Case we must return to him: The Spirit is Gods gift, and must return to him Eccl. 12.7.: It must return to him in every service morally, as well as it must return to him at last physically. 'Tis not fit we should serve our Maker only with that which is the Brute in us, and withold from him that which doth constitue us reasonable Creatures; we must give him our bodies, but a living Sacrifice Rom. 12.1.. If the Spirit be absent from God when the Body is before him, we present a dead Sacri­fice; 'Tis morally dead in the duty, though it be naturally alive in the posture and action. 'Tis not an indifferent thing whether we shall worship God or no, nor is it an indifferent thing whether we shall worship him without Spirits or no: As the ex­cellency of mans knowledge consists in knowing things as they are in Truth; so the excellency of the Will in willing things as they are in goodness. As it is the excel­lency of Man to know God as God; so it is no less his excellency, as well as his duty, to honour God as God. As the obligation we have to the Power of God for our Being, binds us to a worship of him; so the obligation we have to his bounty for fashioning us according to his own Image, binds us to an exercise of that part where­in his Image doth consist. God hath made all things for himself, Pro. 16.4. that is, for the evidence of his own goodness and wisdom: We are therefore to render him [Page 135] a glory according to the the excellency of his nature, discovered in the frame of our own. Tis as much our sin not to glorifie God as God, as not to attempt the glorifying of him at all: Tis 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 ardors and ravishing admirations of our Spirits. If we think the Devotions of the body are sufficient for him, we contract him into the condition of our own being; and not only deny him to be a Spiritual nature, but dash out all those perfections which he could not be possessed of, were he not a Spirit.

5. The Ceremonial law was abolisht 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 smoak of Sa­crifices, the steams of incense, observation of days, distinction of meats, Corporal purifications; every leaf of the law is clogged with some rite to be particularly ob­served by them: The Spirituality of worship lay veild under a thick clo [...]ld, that the people could not behold the glory of the Gospel, which lay covered under those shadows, 2 Cor. 3.13. They could not stedfastly look to the [...]d of that which is a­bolished: They understood not the Glory and Spiritual intent of the law and there­fore came short of that Spiritual frame in the worship of God, which was their duty. And therefore in opposition to this administration, the worship of God under the Gospel is called by our Saviour in the Text, a worship in Spirit; more Spi­ritual for the matter, more Spiritual for the motives, and more Spiritual for the manner and frames of worship.

(1.) This legal service is called flesh in Scripture, in opposition to the Gospel which is called Spirit. The ordinances of the Law, tho of Divine institution, are dig­nified by the Apostle with no better a title than Carnal ordinances, Heb. 9.10. and a Carnal Command: Heb. 7.16. But the Gospel is called the Ministration of the Spirit, as being at­tended with a special and Spiritual efficacy on the minds of men.2 Cor. 3.8. 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 Apostle tells them, that they begun in the Spirit and would now be made perfect in the flesh. Gal. 3.3. They would leave the righteousness of faith for a justification by works. The moral law which is in its own nature Spiritual, Rom. 7.14. in regard of the abuse of it, in expectation 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 Oeconomy consisted in sensible and material things which only touch­ed the flesh; 'Tis called the letter and the oldness of the Letter; Rom. 7.6. as Letters which are but empty sounds of themselves, but put together and formed into words, signifie something to the mind of the hearer or reader: An old Letter, a thing of no efficacy upon the Spirit, but as a law written upon paper. The Gospel hath an efficacious Spirit attending it strongly working upon the mind and Will; and moul­ding the Soul into a Spiritual frame for God, according to the Doctrin of the Gospel; the one is old and decays, the other is new and increaseth dayly.

And as the law it self is called flesh, so the observers of it and resters in it are called Israel after the flesh, 1 Cor. 10.18. And the Evangelical worshipper is called a Jew after the Spi­rit. Rom. 2.29. They were Israel after the flesh as born of Jacob, not Israel after the Spirit as born of God; and therefore the Apostle calls them Israel and not Is­rael. Rom. 9.6. Israel after a carnal birth, not Israel after a Spiritual: Israel in the Circum­cision of the flesh, not Israel by a regeneration of the heart.

(2.) The legal Ceremonies were not a fit means to bring the heart into a Spiritual frame. They had a Spiritual intent; the Rock and Manna prefigured the Salva­tion and Spiritual nourishment by the Redeemer.1 Cor. 10.3, 4. The Sacrifices were to point them to the Justice of God in the punishment of sin, and the mercy of God in sub­stituting them in their steads, as types of the Redeemer and the ransome by his blood. The Circumcision of the flesh was to instruct them in the Circumcision of the heart: They were flesh in regard of their matter, weakness and cloudiness: Spiri­tual in regard of their intent and signification: They did instruct, but not effica­ciously [Page 136] work strong Spiritual affections in the Soul of the worshipper. They were weak and beggerly elements; Gal 4.9. had neither wealth to inrich 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. 10.1. Heb. 9.9. nor purge the Conscience from those dead and dull dispositions which were by nature in them:Heb. 9.14. Being Carnal they could not have an efficacy to purifie 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.Burges vind. pa. 256. At the best they were but shadows, and came unexpressibly short of the efficacy of that person and state whose shadows they were. The shadow of a man is too weak to perform what the man him­self can do, because it wants the life, Spirit and activity of the substance: The whole pomp and scene was suted 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 Child-hood, Gal. 5.2. and that administration a Pedagogy. Gal. 4.24. The Law was a Schoolmaster fitted for their weak and Childish 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 delivered to an infant age, which natu­rally lives a life of sense, rather than a life of reason. It was also a servile state, which doth rather debase than elevate the mind; rather Carnalize than Spiritualize the heart: Besides, tis a sense of mercy that both melts and elevates the heart into a Spiritual frame:Psa. 130.4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared: And they had in that state but some glimmerings of mercy in the dayly 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 than with hopes: And such a state which alwayes 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 hindred than furthered a Spiritual worship. In their own nature they did not tend to the obstructing a Spiritual worship; for then they had been contrary to the nature of Religion, and the end of God who appointed them: Nor did God cover the Evangelical Doctrine under the clouds of the legal administration, to hinder the people of Israel from perceiving it; but be­cause they were not yet capable to bear the splendor of it, had it been clearly set before them. The shining of the face of Moses was too dazling for their weak eyes, and therefore there was a necessity of a veil, not for the things themselves, but the weakness of their eyes. 2 Cor. 3.13.14. The carnal affections of that people sunk down into the things themselves; stuck in the outward pomp, and pierced not through the vail to the Spiritual intent of them. And by the use of them without rational concep­tions they besotted their minds and became senseless of those Spiritual motions re­quired of them. Hence came all their expectations of a Carnal Messiah; the veil of Ceremonies was so thick and the film upon their eyes so condensed, that they could not look through the veil to the Spirit of Christ. They beheld not the Hea­venly Canaan for the beauty of the earthly, nor minded the regeneration of the Spi­rit, while they rested upon the purifications of the flesh: The prevalency of sense and sensitive affections diverted their minds from enquiring into the intent of them. Sense and matter are often cloggs to the mind, and sensible objects are the same of­ten to Spiritual motions. Our Souls are never more raised, than when they are ab­stracted from the entanglements of them. A pompous worship made up of many sen­sible objects, weakens the Spirituality of Religion: Those that are most zealous for outward, are usually most cold and indifferent in inward observances: And those that overdo in carnal modes, usually underdo in Spiritual affections.

This was the Jewish state.Illyric. de velam. Mosi [...] pa. 221. &c. The nature of the Ceremonies being pompous and earthly by their show and beauty, meeting with their weakness and Childish affecti­ons, filled their eyes with an outward lustre; allured their minds, and detained them from seeking things higher and more Spiritual: The kernel of those rites lay con­cealed in a thick shell, the Spiritual glory was little seen, and the Spiritual sweet­ness little tasted: Unless the Scripture be diligently searched, it seems to transfer the worship of God from true faith and the Spiritual motions of the heart, and stake it [Page 137] 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 of the 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 were 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 them to God. Indeed we see more of them since their death and dissection, in that one Epistle to the Hebrews, than can be discern'd 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 busie their reasons about the things of sense, and are na­turally unwilling to raise them up to those things which are allyed to the spiritual nature of God; and therefore the more 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 pleasure the sense, as Eve was by the curiosity of her eye, and the liquorishness of her Palate2 Cor. 11.3. From this Principle hath sprung all the Idolatry in the world. The Jews knew they had a God who had delivered them, but they would have a sensible God to go before themExod. 32.1.: And the Papacy at this day, is a Witness of the truth of this natural Corruption.

4. Ʋpon these accounts therefore God never testified himself well pleased with that kind of Worship. He was not displeased with them as they were his own institution, and ordained for the representing (though in an obscure manner) the glorious things of the Gospel; nor was he offended with those peoples 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 were practised by them, with Souls as morally carnal in the practises, as the Ceremonies were materially car­nal in their substance. It was not their disobedience to observe them; but it was a disobedience, and a contempt of the end of the institution to rest upon them; to be warm in them, and cold in morals: They fed upon the Bone, and neglected the Marrow; pleased themselves with the Shell, and sought not for the Kernel: They joyned not with them the internal Worship of God, Fear of him, with Faith in the promised Seed, which lay vail'd under those Coverings, Hos. 6.6. I desired Mercy, and not Sacrifice; and the Knowledge of God, more than burnt Offerings: And therefore he seems sometimes weary of his own institutions, and calls them not his own, but their Sacrifices, their Feasts, Isa. 1.11, 14. They were his by appoint­ment, theirs by abuse: The Institution was from his goodness and condescension, therefore his; the corruption of them was from the vice of their Nature; there­fore theirs. He often blamed them for their carnality in them; shew'd his dislike of placing all their Religion in them; gives the Sacrificers upon that account, no better a title, than that of the Princes of Sodom and Gomorrah Isa. 1.10.: And compares the Sacrifices themselves to the cutting off a Dog's Neck, Swines Blood, and the Murder of a Man. Isa. 66.3. And indeed God never valued them, or exprest any delight in them: He despised the Feasts of the Wicked, Amos 5.21. and had no esteem for the material Offerings of the Godly, Psal. 50.13. Will I eat the flesh of Bulls, or drink the blood of Goats? which he speaks to his Saints and People, before he comes to reprove the Wicked; which he begins v. 16. But to the Wicked, God said, &c. So slightly he esteemed them, that he seems to disown them to be any part of his Command when he brought his People out of the Land of Egypt, Jer. 7.21. I spake not to your Fathers, nor commanded them concerning burnt Offerings and Sacri­fices. He did not value and regard them, in comparison of that inward frame which he had required by the 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 perswade themselves, that the death of a Beast, was a proportionable Offering for the sin of a Man, or ever was intended for the expiation of Transgres­sion. In the same rank are all our bodily services under the Gospel: A loud voice without Spirit; bended bulrushes without inward affections, are no more delight­ful to God, than the Sacrifices of Animals: 'Tis but a change of one Brute for a­nother of a higher species; a meer Brute, for that part of man which hath an agree­ment [Page 138] with Brutes: Such a service is a meer 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 it self; whatsoever goodness it had, was solely deriv'd to it by institution, and therefore it was mutable: It had no conformity with the spiritual nature of God who was to be worshipped, nor with the rational nature of man who was to worship: And therefore he often speaks of taking away the New-Moons, and Feasts, and Sacrifi­ces and all the ceremonial Worship, as things he took no pleasure in; to have a Worship more suted to his excellent Nature: But he never speaks of removing the Gospel Administration, and the worship prescribed there, as being more agreeable to the nature and perfections of God, and displaying them more illustriously to the World.

The Apostle tells us, it was to be disannul'd because of its weakness Heb. 7.18.: A determinate time was fixed for its duration, till the accomplishment of the truth figured under that Pedagogy Gal. 4.2.. Some of the modes of that worship being only typical, must na­turally expire and be insignificant in their use, upon the finishing of that by the 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 alway worshipped in that manner, he would reject them, and intro­duce another more spiritual and elevated. Incense and a pure Offering should be of­fered every where unto his Name.Mal. 1.11.

Pascal. Pen. 142.He often told them he would make a new Covenant by the Messiah, and the old should be rejected; that the former things should not be remembred, and the things of old no more considered, when he should do a new thing in the Earth Isa. 43.18.19.: Even the Ark of the Covenant, the Symbol of his presence, and the glory of the Lord in that Nation should not any more be remembered and visitedJer. 3.16.; That the Temple and Sacrifices should be rejected, and others established; That the Order of the Aaronical Priest-hood should be abolisht, and that of Melchisedeck set up in the stead of it in the Person of the Messiah to endure for ever Psal. 110.: That Jerusalem should be changed; a new Heaven and Earth created; a Worship more conformable to Heaven, more advantagious to Earth. God had proceeded in the removal of some parts of it, before the time of taking down the whole furniture of this house: The Pot of Manna was lost; Ʋrim and Thumim ceased; the glory of the Temple was diminish'd; 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 thundred 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 it was only to be celebrated. 'Tis one thousand six hundred years since they have been deprived of their Altar, which was the foundation of all the Levitical-worship, and have wandred in the world without a Sacrifice, a Prince or Priest, an Ephod or Teraphim. Hos. 3.4.

And God fully put an end to it in the Command he gave to the Apostles; and in them to us in the presence of Moses and Elias, to hear his Son only, Matth. 17.5. Behold a voice out of the Cloud, which said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear him. And at the death of our Saviour, testified it to that whole Nation and the World, by the rending in twain the vail of the Temple.

The whole frame of that service, which was carnal, and by reason of the corrup­tion of Man, weakned, is nulled; and a spiritual worship is made known to the world, that we might now serve God in a more spiritual manner, and with more spiritual frames.

6. Proposition, The Service and worship the Gospel settles, is spiritual, and the performance of it more spiritual. Spirituality is the Genius of the Gospel, as Carnality was of the Law; the Gospel is therefore called Spirit: We are ab­stracted from the imployments of Sense, and brought neerer to a Heavenly State. The Jews had Angels Bread poured upon them; we have Angels Service prescri­bed to us; the Praises of God; Communion with God in Spirit, through his Son Jesus Christ, and stronger foundations for spiritual affections. 'Tis called a reason­able [Page 139] service, Rom. 12.1. tis suted to a rational nature, tho it finds no friendship from the Corrup­tion of reason. It prescribes a service fit for the reasonable faculties of the Soul, and advanceth them while it employs them. The word reasonable may be transla­ted, word service, V. Hammond in loc. as well as reasonable service; an Evangelical service in opposi­tion to a Law service. All Evangelical service is reasonable, and all truly reason­able service is Evangelical.

The matter of the worship is Spiritual; it consists in love of God, faith in God, recourse to his goodness, Meditation on him and Communion with him. It lays a­side the Ceremonial, Spiritualizeth 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 their Spiritual intention.

The Motives are Spiritual; tis a state of more grace as well as of more truth, John 1.17. supported by Spiritual promises, beaming out in Spiritual priviledges; heaven comes down in it to Earth, to Spiritualize Earth for Heaven.

The manner of worship is more Spiritual; higher flights of the Soul, stronger ar­dours of affections, sincerer aims at his glory; mists are removed from our minds, Cloggs from the Soul, more of love than fear; faith in Christ kindles the affections and works by them.

The assistances to Spiritual worship are greater. The Spirit doth not drop, but is plentifully poured out. It doth not light sometimes upon, but dwells in the heart. Christ suted the Gospel to a Spiritual heart, and the Spirit changeth 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 Aminadab 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 delightful to God, than millions of Altars made up of the richest pearls, and smoaking 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 meer bodies.

7. Proposition. Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to be rejected upon the account that God requires a Spiritual worship. Tho we must perform the weigh­tier duties of the Law, yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter precepts. 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 worship of the body, and the observation of outward rites without the engagement of the Spirit; so nei­ther doth he Command that of the Spirit, without the peculiar attendance of the body.

The Schwelk sendians denied bodily worship. And the indecent postures of ma­ny in publick attendance, intimate no great care either of Composing their bodies or Spirits. A morally discomposed body intimates a tainted heart.

Our Bodies as well as our Spirits are to be presented to God.Rom. 12.1. Our bodies in lieu of the Sacrifices of Beasts, as in the Judaical institutions; body for the whole man; a living Sacrifice, not to be slain, as the Beasts were, but living a new life, in a holy posture, with Crucified affections: This is the inference the Apostle makes of the priviledges of Justification, Adoption, Coheirship with Christ, which he had before discoursed of; Priviledges conferred upon the person and not upon a part of man.

1. Bodily worship is due to God. He hath a right to an Adoration by our bodies as they are his by Creation; his right is not diminisht but increased by the blessing of Redemption, 1 Cor. 6.20. For you are bought with a price, therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your Spirits, which are Gods. The Body as well as the Spirit is re­deemed, since our Saviour suffered Crucifixion in his body, as well as Agonies in his Soul: Body is not taken here for the whole man, as it may be in Rom. 12. But for the material part of our nature, it being distinguisht from the Spirit: If we are to render to God an obedience with our bodies, we are to render him such Acts of worship with our bodies, as they are capable of. As God is the Father of Spirits, [Page 140] so he is the God of all flesh: Therefore the flesh he hath framed of the Earth, as well as the noble portion he hath breathed into us, cannot be denyed him without apal­pable in justice: The service of the body we must not deny to God, unless we will deny him to be the author of it, and the exercise of his providential care about it. The mercies of God are renewed every day upon our bodies as well as our Souls, and therefore they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty everyday; [Sherman's Greek in the Temple pa. 61.62. 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 glorifie: As our Saviours Divinity was manifested in his body, so should our Spirituality in ours. To give God the service of the body and not of the Soul, is hypocrisie; to give God the service of the Spirit and not of the body, is sacriledge; to give him neither, Atheism.] If the only part of man that is visible were exemp­ted from the service of God, there could be no visible Testimonies of piety given upon any occasion: Since not a moiety of man, but the whole is Gods Creature, he ought to pay a homage with the whole and not only with a moiety of himself.

2. Worship in societies is due to God, but this cannot be without some bodily expres­sions. The law of nature doth as much direct men to combine together in publick societies for the acknowledgment of God, as in Civil Communities for self preser­vation and order, And the notice of a society for Religion is more Ancient than the mention of Civil associations for Politick Government, Gen. 4.26. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord, viz. In the time of Seth. No question but Adam had worshipped God before as well as Abel, and a Family-Religion had been preserved; but as mankind increased in distinct Families, they knit together in Com­panies to solemnize the worship of God.Stillingfleet's Irenicum cap. 1. § 1. pa. 23. Hence as some think, those that incor­porated together for such ends, were called the Sons of God: Sons by profession, tho not Sons by Adoption: As those of Corinth were Saints by profession, tho 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, tho they might not be all Saints in Spirit and Practise. So Cain and Abel met together to worship, Gen, 4.3. at the end of the days, at a set time. God setled a publick worship among the Jews, instituted Synagogues for their Con­vening together, whence call'd the Synagogues of God. Psa. 74.8. The Sabbath was instituted to acknowledge God a Common Benefactor. Publick worship keeps up the Me­morials of God in a world prone to Atheism, and a sense of God in a heart prone to forgetfulness. The Angels sung in Company, not singly at the Birth of Christ,Luke 2.13. and praised God not only with a simple elevation of their Spiritual nature, but audibly by forming a voice in the air: Affections are more lively, Spirits more raised in publick than private; God will Credit his own ordinance. Fire increaseth by lay­ing together many Coals on one place; so is devotion inflamed by the union of ma­ny hearts and by a joynt 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. Heb. 10.25. Not forsaking the assembling our selves together, but so much the more as you see the day approaching: Whether it be understood of 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, publickly to acknowledge our selves the Servants of God, it implies the service of the body: Such acknowledgments cannot be without vi­sible Testimonies, and outward exercises of devotion, as well as inward affections. This promotes Gods honour, checks others prophaness, allures men to the same expressions of duty. And tho there may be hypocrisy and an outward garb with­out an inward frame; yet better a moiety of worship, than none at all; better ac­knowledge Gods right in one than disown it in both.

3. Jesus Christ the most Spiritual worshipper worshipt God with his body. He Pray­ed orally, and kneeled, Father if it be thy Will, &c. Luke 22.41, 42. He blessed with his mouth, Father I thank thee. Mat. 11.26. 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 11.41. John 12.1. The strength of the Spirit must have vent at the outward members. [Page 141] The holy men of God have employed the body in significant expressions of worship: Abraham in falling on his face, Paul in kneeling, employing their Tongues, lifting up their hands. Tho Jacob was bedrid, yet he would not worship God without some devout expression of Reverence; tis in one place leaning upon his staff; Heb. 11.21. in a­nother bowing himself upon his beds head: Gen. 47.31. The reason of the diversity is in the Heb. word, which without vowels may be red Mittah a bed, or Matteh a staff; how­soever, both signifie a Testimony of adoration by a reverent gesture of the body. Indeed in Angels and separated Souls a worship is performed purely by the Spirit; but whiles the Soul is in conjunction with the body, it can hardly perform a serious act of worship, without some tincture upon the outward man and reverential compo­sure of the body: Fire cannot be in the clothes, but it will be felt by the members; nor flames be pent up in the Soul without bursting out in the body: The heart can no more restrain it self from breaking out, than Joseph could enclose his affecti­ons, without expressing them in tears to his Brethren.Gen. 45.1, 2. We Believe, and therefore speak. 2 Cor. 4.13.

To conclude; God hath appointed some parts of worship which cannot be per­formed without the body, as Sacraments; we have need of them because we are not wholly spiritual and incorporeal Creatures.

The Religion, which consists in externals only, is not for an intellectual nature: A worship purely intellectual is too sublime for a nature allyed to sense and depend­ing much upon it: The Christian mode of worship is proportioned to both; It makes the sense to assist the mind, and elevates the spirit above the sense: Bodily worship helps the spiritual: The members of the body reflect back upon the heart, the voice bars distractions, the tongue sets the heart on fire in good as well as in evil. Tis as much against the light of nature to serve God without external signi­fications, as to serve him only with them without the intention of the mind. As the invisible God declares himself to men by visible works and signs, so should we declare our invisible frames by visible expressions: God hath given us a soul and body in conjunction, and we are to serve him in the same manner he hath framed us.

2. The second thing I am to shew, is, what Spiritual worship is. In general, the whole Spirit is to be employed: The name of God is not sanctifyed but by the engagement of our Souls.

Worship is an Act of the understanding, applying it self to the knowledge of the excellency of God and actual thoughts of his Majesty, recognizing him as the su­preme Lord and Governour of the world, which is natural knowledge; beholding the glory of his Attributes in the Redeemer, which is Evangelical knowledge: This is the sole act of the Spirit of Man. The same reason is for all our worship as for our thanksgiving: This must be done with understanding, Psal. 47.7. Sing ye praise with understanding, with a knowledge and sense of his greatness, goodness and Wisdom. Tis also an act of the Will, whereby the Soul adores and reverenceth his Majesty, is ravisht with his amiableness, embraceth his goodness, enters it self into an in­timate Communion with this most lovely object, and pitcheth all his affections upon him.

We must worship God understandingly; tis not else a reasonable service: The nature of God and the Law of God abhor a blind offering; we must worship him heartily, else we offer him a dead Sacrifice: A reasonable service is that wherein the mind doth truly act something with God. All Spiritual acts must be acts of reason, o­therwise they are not human acts, because they want that principle which is con­stitutive of man, and doth difference him from other Creatures: Acts done only by sense are the acts of a brute; acts done by reason are the acts of a man; That which is only an act of sense, cannot be an act of Religion: The sense without the conduct of reason is not the subject of Religious acts, for then beasts were capable of Religion as well as Men: There cannot be Religion where there is not reason; and there cannot be the exercise of Religion, where there is not an exercise of the rational faculties. Nothing can be a Christian act, that is not a human act: Besides, all worship must be for some end; the worship of God must be for God; tis by the exercise of our rational faculties, that we only can intend an end: An Ignorant and Carnal wor­ship is a brutish worship.

Particularly,

[Page 142]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 Worship required by the Gospel. Adam living in Paradice, 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 worship can be spiritual, till we are created in ChristEph. 2.10.. Christ is our LifeCol. 3.4.. As no natural action can be performed without life in the root or heart, so no spiritual act without 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 the limits of its nature; for then it should exceed it self in acting, and do that which it hath no principle to doe. 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 worship proceeds from the corrupted nature, cannot deserve the title of spiritual worship, because it springs not from a spiritual habit. If those that are evil cannot speak good things, those that are carnal cannot offer a spi­ritual service. Poyson is the fruit of a Vipers nature, Mat. 12.34. Oh, Generati­on of Vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. As the root is, so is the fruit. If the Soul be habitually carnal, the worship cannot be actually spiritual: There may be an intention 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 mo­tives, and carnal ends may fix the mind in an act of worship, as the sense of some pressing affliction may enlarge a mans 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 per­formance, as well as of his mediation in the acceptance. The Apostle lived not, but Christ lived in him Gal. 2.20.; the Soul worships not, but Christ in him: Not that Christ per­forms the act of Worship; but enables us spiritually 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 Worshipper but in Christ. The goodness and fatness of the fruit comes from the fatness of the Olive wherein we are engrafted: We must find hea­ling in Christs wings, before God can find spirituality in our services. All 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 with 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 influence on the act. Our worship is then spiritual, when the fire that kindles our affections comes from Heaven, as that fire upon the Altar wherewith the Sacrifices were consumed. God tasts a sweetness in no service, but as it is drest up by the hand of the Mediator, and hath the Air of his own Spirit in it: They are but natural acts, without a superna­tural assistance: Without an actual influence, we cannot act from spiritual motives, nor for spiritual ends, nor in a spiritual manner. We cannot mortifie a Lust with­out the Spirit Rom. 8.13., nor quicken a service without the Spirit. Whatsoever corruption is killed, is slain by his Power; whatsoever duty is spiritualized, is refined by his Breath. He quickens our dead bodies in our ResurectionRom. 8.11.; He renews our dead Souls in our Regeneration; He quickens our carnal services in our adorations: The choicest acts of worship are but infirmities, without his auxiliary help Rom. 8.26.. We are Loggs, un­able to move our selves, till he raise our faculties to a pitch agreeable to God; puts his hand to the duty, and lifts that up and us with it. Never any great act was per­formed by the Apostles to God, or for God, but they are said to be filled with the Holy-Ghost. Christ could not have been conceived immaculate as that holy thing, without the Spirits overshadowing the Virgin; nor any spiritual act conceived in our heart, without the Spirits 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. 6.18.; 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 InterpreterJude 20.. The Holy-Ghost [Page 143] exciting us; impelling us, and firing our Souls by his divine flame; raising up the affections, and making the Soul cry with a holy importunity Abba Father. To render our worship spiritual, we should, before every ingagement in it, implore the actual presence of the Spirit, without which we are not able to send forth one spiritual breath or groan; but be Wind-bound like a Ship without a Gale, and our worship be no better than carnal. How doth the Spouse solicite the Spirit with an awake oh North-wind, and come thou South-wind, &c.Cant. 4.16.

3. Spiritual Worship is done with Sincerity: When the heart stands right to God, and the Soul performs what it pretends to perform: When we serve God with our Spirits, as the Apostle, Rom. 1.9. God is my Witness, whom I serve with my Spirit in the Gos­pel of his Son: This is not meant of the Holy-Ghost; for the Apostle would never have called the Spirit of God, his own Spirit; but with my Spirit, that is a sincere frame of heart. A Carnal-worship, whether under the Law or Gospel, is when we are busied about external rites, without an inward compliance of Soul. God demands the heart;Pro. 23.26. my Son give me thy heart; not give me thy tongue, or thy lips, or thy hands; these may be given without the heart, but the heart can never be bestowed without these as its attendants. A heap of services can be no more wel­come to God, without our Spirits, than all Jacobs 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 Abels Faith and Sincerity, and then his Sacrifice; he disrespected Cains Infidelity and Hypocrisie, and then his Offering.Moulin. Ser­mons Decad. 4. Ser. 4. P. 80. [For this cause he rejected the Offerings of the Jews, the Prayers of the Pharisees, and the Alms of Ananias and Sapphira, because their hearts and their duties were at a distance from one ano­ther. In all spiritual Sacrifices, our Spirits are Gods portion. Under the Law, the Reins were to be consumed by the Fire on the Altar, because the secret intentions of the heart were signified by them, Psal. 7.9. The Lord trieth the Heart and the Reins. It was an ill Omen among the Heathen, if a Victim wanted a heart. The Widows Mites with her heart in them, were more esteemed than the richer Offe­rings without it.] Not the quantity of service, but the will in it, is of account with this infinite Spirit. All that was to be brought for the framing of the Tabernacle, was to be offered willingly with the heart. Exod. 25.7. The more of Will, the more of Spiritu­ality and Acceptableness to God, Psal. 119.108. Accept the Free-will-offering of my lips. 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 all vital actions; and a spiritual Soul is the spring of all spiritual actions. How can we imagin God can delight in the meer service of the Body, any more than we can delight in con­verse with a Carcass?

Without the heart 'tis no worship: 'Tis a Stage-play; an acting a part without being that person really which is acted by us: A Hypocrite in the notion of the word, is a Stage-player. We may as well say a man may believe with his body, as worship God only with his body. Faith, is a great ingredient in Worship; and it is with the heart Man believes unto Righteousness. Rom. 10.10. 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; 'tis not a mockery; it represents all that it can be fra­med to: But to worship without our Spirits, is a presenting God with a Picture, an Eccho, Voice and nothing else; a Complement; a meer Lye; a compassing him about with Lyes Hos. 11.12.. Without the heart, the tongue is a Lyar, and the greatest Zeal, dissembling with him. To present the Spirit, is to present with that which can ne­ver naturally dye; to present him only the Body, is to present him that which is e­very day crumbling to dust, and will at last lye rotting in the Grave: To offer him a few Raggs 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 spiritual, that it is Blasphemy; To pretend to be a Jew outwardly, without being so inwardly, is in the Judgment of Christ to blasphemeRevel. 2.9.. 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 blaspheming Devil in Samuel's Mantle.

[Page 144]4. Spiritual Worship is performed with an unitedness of heart. The heart is not only now and then with God, but united to fear or worship his name. Psal. 86.11. A spiritual duty must have the engagement of the Spirit, and the thoughts tyed 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 from God, makes not God his treasure; he slights the worship, and therein affronts the Object of Worship. All our thoughts ought to be ravished with God; bound up in him as in a bundle of life: But when we start from 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, 'tis a testimony we have no spiritual affection to God: Affection would stake down the thoughts to the Object affected: 'Tis but a Mouth-love, as the Prophet phraseth itEzek. 33.31.: But their hearts go after their Covetousness: Covetous Objects pipe, and the heart danceth after them; and thoughts of God are shifted off, to receive a multi­tude of other imaginations: The heart and the service stayed a while together, and then took leave of one another. The Psalmist Psal. 39.18. still found his heart with God when he awak'd; still with God in spiritual affections, and fixed 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 of the heart is shut against all Intruders, as our Saviour commands in Closet-duties Mat. 6.6.: 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 of their feet, before their entrance into the Temple; and of not bringing mony in their girdles. To be spiritual in worship, is to have our Souls gathered and bound up wholly in themselves, and offered to God. Our Loyns 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 leggs, to ob­struct them in their travel: Our faculties must not hang loose about us. He is a carnal Worshipper, that gives God but a piece of his heart, as well as he that de­nies him the whole of it; that hath some thoughts pitch'd upon God in worship, and as many willingly upon the World. David sought God, not with a moity of his heart, but with his whole heart; with his intire framePsal. 119.10.: 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 [...] Jamblich l. 1. c. 518. p. 87., Not to make the Observance of God a work by the by. If those Guests be invited, or entertained kindly, or if they come unexpected, the spirituality of that worship is lost; the Soul kicks down what it wrought before: But if they be Brow-beaten by us, and our grief, rather than our pleasure; they divert our spiritual intention from the work in hand, but hinder not Gods acceptance of it as spiritual; because they are not the acts of our Will, but offences to our Wills.

5. Spiritual Worship is performed with a spiritual activity and 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 amiableness of God, our affections will be ravisht; if we understand the immensity of his good­ness, our Spirits will be enlarged. We are to act with the highest intention, sutable to the greatness of that God with whom we have to do, Psal. 150.2. Praise him according to his excellent greatness: Not that we can worship him equally, but in some proportion, the frame of the heart is to be suted to the excellency of the Object: Our spiritual strength is to be put out to the utmost, as Creatures that act naturally do: The Sun shines, and the Fire burns to the utmost of their natural power. This is so necessary, that David a spiritual Worshipper prays for it before he sets upon acts of adoration, Psal. 80.18. quicken us, that we may call upon thy Name: As he was loth to have a drowzy faculty, he was loth to h [...] a drowzy in­strument, and would willingly have them as lively as himself, Psal. 57.8. Awake up my glory; awake Psaltery and Harp; I my self will awake early: How would this Divine Soul serue himself up to God, and be turned into nothing but a holy flame? Our Souls must be boyling hot when we serve the LordRom. 12.11. [...]. The heart doth no less [Page 145] burn when it Spiritually comes to God, than when God doth Spiritually approach to it.Luke 24.32. A Nabals heart, one as cold as a stone, cannot offer up a Spiritual ser­vice.

Whatsoever is enjoyned us as our duty, ought to be performed with the greatest intensness of our Spirit. As it is our duty to pray, so it is our duty to pray with the most fervent importunity. Tis 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 imployed in it. That love to God, wherein all our duty to God is summed up, is to be with all our strength, with all our might, &c. Lady Falk­lands life pa. 130. Tho in the Covenant of grace he hath 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 affections 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 ardor in duty: The more the Soul is dead to sin the more it is alive to God, Rom. 6.11 and the more lively too in all that concerns God and his honour. For grace being a new strength added to our natural, determines the affections to new objects and excites them to a greater vigor. And as the hatred of sin is more sharp, the love to e­very thing that destroys the dominion of it, is more strong. And acts of worship may be reckoned as the cheifest batteries against the power of this inbred enemy. When the Spirit is in the Soul, like the Rivers of waters flowing out of the belly, the Soul hath the activity of a River, and makes hast to be swallowed up in God, as the streams of the River in the Sea. Christ makes his people Kings and Priests to God; Revel. 1.6. 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 mag­nificent Spirit in all their motions to him: We cannot be Spiritual Priests, till we be Spiritual Kings. The Spirit appeared in the likeness of fire, and where he resides, Communicates like fire purity and activity.

Dulness 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 to the Sun a Horse, a swift and generous Creature. God provided against those in the Law, Commanding an Asses First­ling, the off-spring of a sluggish Creature, to be Redeemed, or his neck broke; but by no means to be offered to him.Exod. 13.13 God is a Spirit infinitely active, and therefore fro­zen and benummed frames are unsutable to him: He rides upon a Cherub and flies, he comes upon the wings of the wind, he rides upon a swift cloud; Isa. 19.1. and therefore demands of us not a dull reason, but an active Spirit: God is a living God, therefore must have a lively service. Christ is life, and slothful 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,Col. 1.29. in an agony. [...] 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. 1.7.

If it be thus, how may we charge our selves? What Paul said of the sensual Widow, 1 Tim. 5.6. that she is dead while she lives, we may say often of our Selves, we are dead while we worship. Our hearts are in duty as the Jews were in deliverances; as those in a dream; Psa. 126.1. by which unexpectedness, God shewed 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 doth not consist in outward acts. The body may be hot and the heart may be faint; but in an inward stirring, meltings, flights. In the highest raptures the body is most insensible. Strong Spiritual affections are abstracted 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. Psa. 103.1.

This is necessary to make a worship Spiritual. As natural agents are determined [Page 146] to act sutable to their proper nature; So rational agents, are to act conformable to a rational being: When there is a conformity between the act and the nature whence it flows, tis a good act in its kind; if it be rational, tis a good rational act, be­cause sutable to its principle: As a Man endowed with reason must act sutable to that endowment, and exercise his reason in his acting; So a Christian endued with Grace must act sutable to that nature, and exercise his Grace in his acting. Acts done by a natural inclination are no more human acts, than the natural acts of a beast may be said to be human; Tho they are the acts of a Man as he is the efficient cause of them, yet they are not human acts, because they arise not from that princi­ple of Reason which denominates him a man. So acts of worship performed by a bare exercise of reason, are not Christian and Spiritual acts, because they come not from the principle which constitutes him a Christian; Reason is not the principle, for then all rational Creatures would be Christians: They ought therefore to be acts of a higher principle; Exercises of that Grace whereby Christians are what they are: Not but that rational acts in worship are due to God; for worship is due from us as men; and we are setled in that rank of being by our reason. Grace doth not exclude reason, but ennobles it, and calls it up to another form: But we must not rest in a bare rational worship, but exert that principle whereby we are Christians. To worship God with our reason, is to worship him as Men: To wor­ship God with our grace, is to worship him as Christians, and so Spiritually: But to worship him only with our bodies, is no better than Brutes.

Our desires of the word are to issue from the regenerate principle, 1 Pet. 2.2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word: It seems to be not a comparison but a re­striction. All worship must have the same spring, and be the exercise of that principle; o­therwise we can have no Communion with God. Friends that have the same habitual dispositions, have a fundamental fitness for an agreeable converse with one another; but if the temper wherein their likeness consists, be languishing, and the string out of tune, there is not an actual fitness; and the present indisposition breaks the converse, and renders the Company troublesome. Tho we may have the habitual graces which compose in us a resemblance to God, yet for want of acting those sutable dispositions, we render our selves unfit for his converse, and make the worship, which is funda­mentally Spiritual, to become actually carnal. As the Will cannot naturally act to any object, but by the exercise of its affections: So the heart cannot Spiritually act towards God, but by the exercise of graces. This is Gods Musick: Eph. 5.19. Singing and making melody to God in your hearts. Singing and all other acts of wor­ship are outward, but the Spiritual melody is by grace in the heart. Col. 3.16. This renders it a Spiritual worship; for it is an effect of the fulness of the Spirit in the Soul, as v. 19. But be filled with the Spirit: The overflowing of the Spirit in the heart, setting the Soul of a beliver thus on work to make a Spiritual melody to God, shews that something higher than bare reason is put in tune in the heart. Then is the fruit of the Garden pleasant to Christ, when the holy Spirit, the North and South wind blow upon the spices, and strike out the fragrancy of them.Cant. 4.16. 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. Tis fit he should have the Cream of his own gifts. Without the exercise of grace we perform but a work of nature, and offer him a few dry bones without marrow.

The whole set of graces must be one way or other exercised. If any treble be wanting in a Lute, there will be a great defect in the Musick. If any one Spiritual string be dull, the Spiritual harmony of worship will be spoil­ed. And therefore,

1. First, Faith must be acted in worship. A confidence in God. A natural wor­ship cannot be performed without a natural confidence in the goodness of God. Whosoever comes to him, must regard him as a Rewarder and a faithful Creator.Heb. 11.6. 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 regard him as a gracious King full of tender bowels, Spirits the affections to him. The mercy of God is the proper object of trust; Psal. 33.18. The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. The wor­ship of God in the old Testament is most described by fear: In the new Testa­men by faith. Fear, or the worship of God and hope in his mercy are linkt toge­ther; [Page 147] when they go hand in hand, the accepting eye of God is upon us: When we do not trust, we do not worship.Zeph. 3.2. Those of Judah had the Temple worship among them, especially in Josiah's time, Zeph. 3.2. the time of that Prophecy; yet it was accounted no worship, because no trust in the Worshippers. Interest in God, can­not be improved without an exercise of Faith. The Gospel worship is prophecied of, to be a confidence in God, as in a Husband more than in a Lord, Hos. 2.16. Thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Baali: Thou shalt call me, that is, thou shalt worship me, Worship 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, [...]e performs a duty out of Christ without 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 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 Tabernacle, was not a Sacrifice, but a Murder.Levit. 17.3, 4. The Tabernacle was a Type of Christ; and a look to him is necessary in every spiritual Sacrifice. As there must be Faith to make any act, an act of obedience; so there must be Faith to make any act of 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 from him by Faith Gal. 2.20.. Faith as it hath relation to Christ, makes every act of worship, a living act, and consequently a spiritual act. Habitual unbe­lief, cuts us off from the Body of Christ, Rom. 11.20. Because of unbelief they were broken off; 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 worship spiritual. Though God commanded love in the Old-Testament; yet the manner of giving the Law, bespoke more of Fear than Love. The dispensation of the Law, was with Fire, Thunder, &c. proper to raise horror, and benum the Spirit; which effect it had upon the Israelites, when they desired that God would speake no more to them. Grace is the Genius of the Gospel, proper to excite the affection of Love. The Law was given by the disposi­tion of Angels, with signs to amaze; the Gospel was usher'd in with the songs of An­gels, composed of peace and good-will, calculated to ravish the Soul. Instead of the terrible voice of the Law, do this and live: The comfortable voice of the Gos­pel is Grace, Grace: Upon this account, the principle of the Old testament was Fear; and the Worship often exprest by the Fear of God. The principle of the New-testament is Love. The Mount Sinai gendreth to Bondage Gal. 4.44.; Mount Sion, from whence the Gospel or Evangelical Law goes forth, gendreth 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 GospelRom. 8.15.: And therefore the worship of God under the Gospel, or New-testament, is oftner exprest by Love than Fear; as proceeding from higher principles, and acting nobler passi­ons. In this State, we are to serve him without fear; Luke 1.74. without a Bondage-fear; not without a fear of unworthy treating him; with a fear of his goodness as it is prophesied ofHos. 9.9.: Goodness is not the object of terror, but reverence. God in the Law, had more the garb of a Judge; in the Gospel, of a Father. The name of a Father is sweeter, and bespeaks more of affection. As their services were with a feeling of the thunders of the Law in their Consciences; so is our worship to be with a sense of Gospel-grace in our Spirits: Spiritual worship is that therefore, which is exercised with a spiritual and heavenly affection, proper to the Gospel. The heart should be enlarged, according to the liberty the Gospel gives of drawing neer to God as a Father: As he gives us the nobler relation of Children, we are to act the nobler qualities of Children. Love should act according to its nature, which is desire of Union; desire of a moral union by Affections, as well as a mystical union by Faith; as flame aspires to reach flame, and become one with it. In every act of worship, [Page 148] we should endeavour to be united to God, and become one Spirit with him: This Grace doth spiritualize Worship: In that one word Love, God hath wrapt up all the devotion he requires of us: 'Tis the total sum of the first Table, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. 'Tis to be acted in every thing we do: But in Worship, our hearts should more solemnly rise up and acknowledge him amiable and lovely, since the Law is stript of its cursing power, and made sweet in the blood of the Redeemer. Love is a thing acceptable of it self; 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 would lay claim to the love of others, though he would not to their Possessions. Love is Gods right in every ser­vice, and the noblest thing we can bestow upon him in our adorations of him. Gods gifts to us are not so estimable, without his love; not our services valuable by him, without the exercise of a choice affection. Hezekiah regarded not his delive­rance, without the love of the Deliverer; In love to my Soul thou hast delivered me Isa. 38.17.: So doth God say, in love to my honour thou hast worshipped me.

So that Love must be acted, to render our worship spiritual.

3. A spiritual sensibleness of our own weakness, is necessary to make our worship spiritu­al. Affections to God cannot be without relentings in our selves. When the eye is spiritually fixed upon a spiritual God, the heart will mourn, that the worship is no more spiritually sutable. The more we act love upon God, as amiable and gra­cious, the more we should exercise grief in our selves, as we are vile and offending. Spiritual worship is a melting worship, as well as an elevating worship; It exalts God, and debaseth the Creature. The Publican was more spiritual in his humble address to God, when the Pharisee was wholly carnal with his swelling language. A spiritual love in worship will make us grieve, that we have given him so little, and could give him no more. 'Tis a part of spiritual duty to bewail our carnality mixed with it; as we receive mercies spiritually, when we receive them with a sense of Gods goodness and our own vileness, in the same manner we render a spiritual worship.

4. Spiritual desires for God render the service spiritual. When the Soul follows hard after him Psal. 63.8.; pursues after God as a God of infinite and communicative goodness, with sighs and groans unutterable. A spiritual Soul seems to be transformed into hunger, and thirst, and becomes nothing but desire. A carnal Worshipper is taken with the beauty and magnificence of the Temple; a spiritual Worshipper desires to see the glory of God in the SanctuaryPsal. 63.2.; He pants after God: As he came to worship, to find God, he boyls up in desires for God, and is loth to go from it without God, the living God, Psal. 42.2. He would see the Ʋrim and the Thummim; the unusual sparkling of the stones upon the High-priests Breast-plate. That deserves not the title of spiritual worship, when the Soul makes no longing inquiries; saw you him whom my Soul loves? A spiritual worship 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 LordPsal. 27.4., and taste the ravishing sweetness of his presence. No doubt but Elijah's desires for the enjoyment of God, while 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 serviceRom. 8.26.. Strong appetites are agreeable to God, and pre­pare us to eat the fruit of worship. A spiritual Paul presseth forward to know Christ, and the power of his Resurrection; and a spiritual Worshipper actually 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 fruit of a spiritual life.

5. Thankfulness, and admiration are to be exercised in spiritual services. This is a worship of Spirits. Praise is the adoration of the blessed Angels Isa. 6.3., and of glorified Spirits, Rev. 4.11. Thou art worthy oh Lord, to receive Glory, and Honour, and Power: And, Rev. 5.13.14. they worship him, ascribing Blessing, Honour, Glory and Power to him that sits upon the Throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever. 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 [Page 149] blessed Souls. Can a worship on Earth be spiritual, that hath no mixture of an eternal heavenly duty with it? The worship of God in Innocence, had been chiefly an admiration of him in the works of Creation; and should not our Evan­gelical worship be an admiration of him in the works of Redemption, which is a re­storation to a better State? After the petitioning for pardoning GraceHos. 14.2., there is a rendring the Calves or Heifers of our lips, alluding to the Heifers used in Eucharisti­cal Sacrifices. The Praise of God is the choicest Sacrifice and Worship, under a dispensation of redeeming Grace; This is the prime and eternal part of worship under the Gospel. The Psalmist, Psalm 149. and 150. speaking of the Gospel times, spurrs on to this kind of worship; Sing to the Lord a new Song; Let the Chil­dren of Zion be joyful i [...] [...]ir 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 hath nothing of the praise of God in the heart. The consideration of Gods adorable perfections discovered in the Gospel, will make us come to him with more seriousness; beg blessings of him with more confidence; fly to him with a winged Faith and Love, and more spiritually glorify him in our attendances upon him.

7. Spiritual Worship is performed with delight. The Evangelical worship is pro­phetically signified by keeping the Feast of Tabernacles;Zach. 14.16. they shall go up from year to year, to worship the King the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles: Why that Feast, when there were other Feasts observed by the Jews? That was a Feast celebrated with the greatest joy; typical of the gladness which was to be un­der the exhibition of the Messiah, and a thankful comemmoration of the Redemption wrought by him. It was to be celebrated five days after the solemn day of Atonement, Levit. 23.34. compared with v. 27. wherein there was one of the solemnest types of the Sacrifice of the death of Christ. In this Feast they commemorated their exchange of Egypt for Canaan; the Manna wherewith they were fed; the Water out of the Rock wherewith they were refresht: In remembrance of this, they poured water on the ground, pronouncing those words in Isaiah, they shall draw waters out of the Wells of Salvation, which our Saviour referrs to himself, John 7.37. inviting them to him, to drink, upon the last day, the great day of the Feast of Taber­nacles, wherein this solemn Ceremony was observed. Since we are freed by the death of the Redeemer from the Curses of the Law, God requires of us a Joy in spiritual priviledges. A sad frame in worship, gives the lye to all Gospel-liberty; to the Purchase of the Redeemers Death; the Triumphs of his Resurrection: 'Tis a carriage, as if we were under the influences of the legal Fire and Lightning, and an entring a Protest against the Freedom of the Gospel. The Evangelical worship is a Spiritual worship; and Praise, Joy and Delight are prophecied of, as great in­gredients in attendance on Gospel Ordinances, Isa. 12.3, 4, 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, remembring their Sin in their Sacrifices, and representing the punishment they had merited; in the Gospel as a Father, accepting the Atonement, and publishing the Reconciliation wrought by the Redeemer. Delight in God, is a Gospel frame; therefore the more joyful, the more spiritual: The Sabbath is to be a delight; not only in regard of the Day, but in regard of the Duties of itIsa. 58.13.; in regard of the marvelous work he wrought on it; raising up our blessed Redeemer on that day, whereby a foundation was laid for the rendring our persons and services acceptable to God, Psal. 118.24. This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will be glad and rejoyce in it. A lumpish frame becomes not a day and a duty, that hath so noble and spiritual a mark upon it.

The Angels in the first act of worship after the Creation, were highly joyful, Job. 38.7. They shouted for joy, &c.

The Saints have particularly acted this in their Worship. David would not con­tent [Page 150] himself with an approach to the Altar, without going to God as his exceeding joy, Psal. 43.4. My triumphant joy: When he danced before the Ark, he seems to be transformed into delight and pleasure, 2 Sam. 6.14, 16. He had as much de­light in Worship, as others had in their Harvest and Vintage. And those that took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods, would as joyfully attend upon the Com­munications of God. Where there is a fullness of the Spirit, there is a waking melody to God in the heart Eph. 5.18.19.; and where there is an acting of love, (as there is in all spiritu­al services) the proper fruit of it is joy in a neer approach to the Object of the Souls affection. Love is appetitus unionis: The more love, the more delight in the approachings of God to the Soul, or the out-goings of the Soul to God. As the Object of Worship is amiable in a spiritual eye, so the [...]hs tending to a commu­nion with this Object are delightful in the exercise: Where there is no delight in a duty, there is no delight in the object of the duty; The more of grace, the more of pleasure in the actings of it: As the more of nature there is in any natural Agent, the more of pleasure in the Act; So the more heavenly the Worship, the more spiri­tual. Delight is the frame and temper 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. 5.22.

1. Not the joy of Gods dispensation flowing from God, but a gracious active joy stream­ing to God. There is a joy, when the Comforts of God are dropt into the Soul, as Oyle upon the Wheel; which indeed makes the faculties move with more speed and activity in his service, like the Chariots of Aminadab: And a Soul may serve God in the strength of this taste, and its delight terminated in the sensible comfort. This is not the joy I mean, but such a joy that hath God for its Object, delighting in him as the term, in worship as the way to him: The first is Gods dispensation, the other is our duty; The first is an act of Gods favour to us, the second a sprout of habitual grace in us. The Comforts we have from God, may elevate our duties; but the grace we have within, doth spiritualize our duties.

2. Nor is every delight an argument of a spiritual service. All the 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 Judges 17.. As a man may have a contentment in Sin, so he may have a contentment in Worship; not because it is a worship of God, but the worship of his own inventi­on, agreeable to his own humor and design, as Isa. 58.2. 'tis said, they delighted in approaching to God, but it was for carnal ends. Novelty ingenders Complacency; but it must be a worship wherein God will delight; and that must be a worship 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 fully themselves with any sorrow, when they were in the exercise 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 GodLev. 10.6.. Every true Christian in a higher order of Priest-hood, is a person dedicated to joy and peace, offering himself a lively Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving: 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 Worship: 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 will be angry at any thing that offers to jogg and disturb it.

8. Spiritual worship is to be performed, though with a delight in God; yet with a deep reverence of God. The Gospel in advancing the spirituality of worship, takes off the terror, but not the reverence of God; which is nothing else in its own nature, but a due and high esteem of the excellency of a thing according to the nature of it: And therefore the Gospel presenting us with more illustrious notices of the glorious nature of God, is so far from indulging any disesteem of him, that it requires of us a greater reverence sutable to the hight of its discovery, above what could be spell'd in the Book of Creation: The Gospel worship is therefore exprest by trembling, Hos. 11.10. They shall walk after the Lord; he shall roar like a Lion; when he shall [Page 151] roar, then the Children shall tremble from the West. When the Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall lift up his powerful voice in the Gospel, the Western Gentiles shall run trembling to walk after the Lord. God hath alway attended his greatest manifesta­tions with remarkable Characters of Majesty, to create a reverence in his Creature: He caused the wind to March before him; to cut the Mountain, when he manifested himself to Elijah, 1 Kings 19.11. A Wind and a Cloud of Fire, before that mag­nificent Vision to Ezekiel, Ezek. 1.4, 5. Thunders and Lightnings before the giving the Law, Exod. 19.18. And a mighty wind before the giving the Spirit, Acts 2. God requires of us an aw of him in the very act of performance. The Angels are pure, and cannot fear him as Sinners, but in reverence they cover their Faces when they stand before himIsa. 6.2.: His power should make us reverence him, as we are Creatures; His Justice as we are Sinners; His goodness as we are restored Creatures.Daille Sur. 3. Jean. P. 150. [God is clothed with unspeakable Majesty; the glory of his face shines brighter than the Lights of Heaven in their beauty. Before him the Angels tremble, and the Hea­vens melt; we ought not therefore to come before him with the Sacrifice of Fools, nor tender a duty to him, without falling low upon our faces, and bowing the knees of our hearts in token of reverence.] Not a slavish fear, like that of Devils; but a Godly fear, like that of SaintsHeb. 12.28, joyned with a sense of an unmoveable Kingdom becomth us: And this the Apostle calls a grace necessary to make our service acceptable: And therefore the grace necessary to make it spiritual, since nothing finds admission to God, but what is of a spiritual nature. The consideration of his glorious nature, should im­print an awful respect upon our Souls to him: His goodness should make his Ma­jesty more adorable to us, as his Majesty makes his goodness more admirable in his condescensions to us. As God is a Spirit, our worship must be spiritual; and be­ing he is the supream Spirit, our worship must be reverential: We must observe the State he takes upon him in his Ordinances; He is in Heaven, we upon the Earth; we must not therefore be hasty to utter any thing before God, Eccles. 5.7. Consider him a Spirit in the highest Heavens, and our selves Spirits dwelling in a dreggy Earth. Loose and garish frames debase him to our own quality: Slight postures of Spirit, intimate him to be a slight and mean Being: Our being in Covenant with him, must not lower our awful apprehensions of him: As he is the Lord thy God, 'tis a gloririous and fearful Name, or wonderful Deut. 28.58.: Though he lay by his Justice to Believers, he doth 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 doth for his Israel Psal. 68.35.: We should behave our selves with that inward honour and respect of him, as if he were present to our bodily eyes: The higher apprehensions we have of his Majesty, the greater aw 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.

9. Spiritual Worship is to be performed with humility in our Spirits. This is to follow upon the reverence of God. As we are to have high thoughts of God, that we may not debase him; we must have low thoughts of our selves, not to vaunt before him. When we have right notions of the Divine Majesty; 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 our selves, and consider how basely we revolted from him, and how graciously we are restored by him. As the Gospel affords us greater discoveries of Gods nature, and so enhaunceth our reverence of him; so it helps us to a fuller understanding of our own vileness and weakness, and therefore is proper to ingender Humility: The more spiritual and evangelical therefore any service is, the more humble it is. That is a spiritual ser­vice, that doth most manifest 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 NaturePlutarch Mo­ral. P. 344.; after the Name of God signified by [...] inscribed on the Temple at Delphos, followed [...] whereby was insinuated, that when we have to do with God, who is the only Ens, 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, hath nothing of sincerity, and therefore nothing of spirituality in it, Hab. 2.4. His Soul which is lifted up, is [Page 152] not upright in him. 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 Revel. 4.1 [...]. compared with 5. and the 1 [...].: The Greek word to worship [...] signifies to creep like a Dog upon his belly before his Master; to lye low. How deep should our sense be of the priviledge of Gods admitting us to his worship, and affording us such a mercy under our deserts of wrath? How mean should be our thoughts, both of our persons and performances? How patiently should we wait upon God for the success of worship? How did Abraham the Father of the Faithful, equal himself to the Earth, when he supplicated the God of Heaven, and devote him­self to him under the title of very Dust and Ashes Gen. 18.27.? Isaiah did but behold an Evan­gelical Apparition of God and the Angels worshipping him, and presently reflects up­on his own uncleaness Isa 6.5.. Gods presence both requires and causes Humility. How lowly is David in his own opinion, after a magnificent duty performed by himself and his people? 1 Chron. 29.14. Who am I? And what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly? The more spiritual the Soul is in its carriage to God, the more humble it is; and the more gracious God is in his communications to the Soul, the lower it lies.

God commanded not the fiercer Creatures to be offered to him in Sacrifices, but Lambs and Kids, meek and lowly Creatures; none that had stings in their tails, or venom in their tonguesCaudam a­culeatam vel linguam nigram Alexand. ab Alex. l. 3. c. 12.. The meek Lamb was the daily Sacrifice: The Doves were to be offered by Pairs: God would not have Hony mixed with any Sacrifice, Levit. 2.11. That breeds Choler, and Choler Pride; but Oyle, he commanded to be used; 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 WorshipPsal. 51.16, 17. The departure of men and Angels from God, began in Pride; Our approaches and return to him must begin in Humility: And therefore all those Graces which are bottom'd on Humility, must be acted in worship, as Faith, and a sense of our own indigence. Our blessed Sa­viour, the most spiritual Worshipper, prostrated himself in the Garden with the greatest lowliness, and offered himself upon the Cross a Sacrifice with the greatest humility. Melted Souls in worship, have the most spiritual conformity to the per­son of Christ in the state of humiliation, and his design in that state: As worship without it is not sutable to God, so neither is it advantageous for us. A time of worship, is a time of Gods Communication. The Vessel must be melted to receive the Mould it is designed for: Softned wax is fittest to receive a stamp, and a spiritual­ly melted Soul fittest to receive a spiritual impression. We cannot perform duty in an evangelical and spiritual strain, without the meltingness and meaness in our selves which the Gospel requires.

10. Spiritual worship is to be performed with Holiness. God is a holy Spirit; a likeness to God must attend the worshipping of God as he is: Holiness is alway in season; It becomes his house for ever Psal. 91.5.. We can never serve the living God, till we have Consciences purged from dead works, Heb. 9.14. Dead works in our Consciences, are unsutable to God, an eternal living Spirit. The more mortified the heart, the more quickned the service. Nothing can please an infinite Purity, but that which is pure: Since God is in his Glory, in his Ordinances; we must not be in our Filthi­ness. The Holiness of his Spirit doth sparkle in his Ordinances; The holiness of our Spirits ought also to sparkle in our observance of them. The Holiness of God is most celebrated in the worship of AngelsIsa. 6.3. Revel. 4.8.: 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 thriceAs the Jewish Doctors observe on Lev. 1.9.. The Crop and Feathers of sacrificed Doves, was 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 eminentLev. 1.16.. When Aaron was to go into the Holy of Holies, he was to sanctifie himself in an extraordinary mannerLev. 16.4.. The Priests were to be bare footed in the Temple, in the exercise of their Office; shoes alway were to be put off upon holy ground: Look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of [Page 153] God, saith the wise man, Eccles. 5.1. Strip the affections, the feet of the Soul, of all the dirt contracted; discard all earthly and base thoughts from the heart A Beast was not to touch the Mount Sinai, without losing his Life: Nor can we come near the Throne with brutish affections, without losing the life and fruit of the worship. An unholy Soul degrades himself from a Spirit to a Brute, and the worship from spiri­tual to brutish. If any unmortified sin be found in the Life, as it was in the comers to the Temple, It taints and pollutes the Worship Isa. 1.15.. All worship is an acknowledgment of the excellency of God as he is holy: Jer. 7.9, 10. Hence it is called a sancti­fying Gods Name: How can any person sanctifie Gods Name, that hath not a holy resemblance to his Nature? If he be not holy as he is holy, he cannot worship him according to his excellency in Spirit and in Truth: No worship is spiritual wherein 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 service, as he is Light1 John 1.7.. The Heathen thought not their Sacrifices agreeable to God, without washing their hands, whereby 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 answer the purity of the outward Sym­bols. Psal. 26.6. I will wash my hands in Innocence, so will I compass thine Altar, oh Lord: He would observe the appointed Ceremonies, but not without cleansing his heart as well as his hands. Vain Man is apt to rest upon outward acts and rites of worship: But this must alway be practised: The words are in the present Tense, I wash, I compass. Purity in worship 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 Revel. 3.4.; 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.

11. Spiritual worship is performed with spiritual ends, with raised aims at the glory of God. No duty can be spiritual that hath 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 of our Being; much more in Religious Acts, as he is the Object of our worship. The worship of God in Scripture, is exprest by the seeking of him Heb. 11.6,; Him, not our selves; all is to be referred to God. As we are not to live to our selves, that being the sign of a carnal state; so we are not to worship for our selves, Rom. 14.7, 8. As all actions are denominated good from their end, as well as their ob­ject; so upon the same account they are denominated spiritual. The end spiritu­alizeth our natural actions; much more our religious: Then are our faculties de­voted to him when they center in him. If the intention be evil, there is nothing but darkness in the whole service, Luke 11.34. The first institution of the Sabbath, the solemn day for worship, was to contemplate the glory of God in his stupendous works of Creation, and render him a homage for them, Revel. 4.11. Thou art wor­thy oh Lord, to receive Honour, Glory and Power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. No worship can be returned, without a glo­rifying of God; and we cannot actually glorify him, without direct aims at the pro­moting 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 our selves with habitual grace, but be rich in the exercise of it in worship; so we are not to acquiesce in habitual aims at the glory of God, without the actual outflowings of our hearts in those aims.

'Tis natural for Man to worship God for self: Self-righteousness is the rooted aim of Man in his worship since his revolt from God, and being sensible it is not to be found in his natural actions, he speaks for it in his moral and religious. By the first Pride we flung God off from being our Soveraign, 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, Isa. 58.3. Wherefore have we fasted and thou takest no know­ledge? 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 Soveraign, but as if he had been the Soveraign, and God [Page 154] the Subject; and when his design is not answered, and his desire not gratified, he proves more a Rebel 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 willingly to the Temple, beggs of God, that their hearts might be prepared to him 1 Cron. 29.18.; 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, &c? Mal. 3.14. Some worship him, intending thereby to make him amends for the wrong they have done him; wipe off their scores, and satisfie their debts; as though a spiritual wrong could be recompensed with a bodily service, and an infinite Spirit be outwitted and appeased by a carnal flattery. Self is the Spirit of Carnality: To pretend a homage to God, and intend only the advantage of self, is rather to mock him, than worship him. When we believe that we ought to be satisfied, rather than God glorified; we set God below our selves, imagin that he should submit his own honour to our advan­tage: We make our selves more glorious than God, as though we were not made for him, but he hath a Being only for us; this is to have a very low esteem of the Majesty of God. Whatsoever any man aims at in worship above the glory of God, that he forms as an Idol to himself instead of God, and sets up a Golden-Image: God counts not this as a Worship. The Offerings made in the Wilderness for forty years together, God esteemed as not offered to him, Amos 5.25. Have you offered to me Sacrifices and Offerings in the Wilderness forty years, oh House of Israel? They did it not to God, but to themselves; for their own security, and the attainment of the possession of the promised Land. A spiritual Worshipper performs not worship for some hopes of carnal advantage; he uses ordinances as means to bring God and his Soul together; to be more fitted to honour God in the world, in his particular place: When he hath been inflamed and humble in any address or duty, he gives God the glory; his heart sutes the doxology at the end of the Lords-prayer, ascribes the Kingdom, Power and Glory to God alone; and if any viper of Pride starts out upon him, he endeavours presently to shake it off. That which was the first end of our framing, ought to be the chief end of our acting towards God: But when men have the same ends in worship as Brutes, the satisfaction of a sensi­tive part; the service is no more than brutish. The acting for a sensitive end, is unworthy of the Majesty of God to whom we address, and unbecoming a rational Creature. The acting for a sensitive end, is not a rational, much less can it be a spiritual service; though the Act may be good in it self, yet not good in the Agent, because he wants a due end: We are then spiritual, when we have the same end in our re­deemed services, as God had in his redeeming love, viz. his own Glory.

12. Spiritual service is offered to God in the name of Christ. Those are only spiritual Sa­crifices, that are offered up to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5., that are the fruits of the Sanctification of the Spirit, and offered in the mediation of the Son: As the Altar sanctifies the gift, so doth Christ spiritualize our services for Gods 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 Revel. 8.3.. As all that we have from God streams through his blood: so all that we give to God ascends by vertue of his merits. All the blessings God gave to the Israelites came out of Sion Psal. 134.3. The Lord bless thee out of Sion., that is, from the Gospel hid under the Law; all the duties we present to God are to be presented in Sion, in an evangelical manner: All our worship must be bottomed on Christ. God hath 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 worthy of acceptation: We must therefore take fast hold of him with our Spirits, and the faster we hold him, the more spiritual is our worship. To do any thing in the name of Christ, is not to believe the worship shall be accepted for it self, 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 [Page 155] to God by Man; and man can only present 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 services 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 environ'd with Justice and Wrath for Sinners: But the consideration of him in Christ, vails 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, we can have a spiritual boldness, and access to God with confidence Eph. 3.12.; whereby the Spirit is kept from benummedness, and distraction; and our Souls quickned and refined. The thoughts kept upon Christ in a duty of wor­ship, quickly elevates the Soul, and spiritualizeth the whole service. Sin makes our services black, and the blood of Christ makes both our persons and services white.

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 is a Spirit infinitely high, therefore we must offer up our Sacrifices with the deepest humility; He is a Spirit infinitely holy, therefore we must address 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 Inter­cessour.

3. The third general, is why a spiritual worship is due to God, and to be offered to him. We must consider the Object of Worship, and the Subject of worship; the Worshipper and the Worshipped. God is a spiritual Being; Man is a reasonable Creature. The nature of God informs us, what 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

1. Since God is the most excellent Being, he is to be served by us with the 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 him what we are able to offer; the best of our affiections; 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 cannot give to God any thing too good for so blessed a Being: God being a great King, slight services be­come not his MajestyMal. 1.13, 14.: 'Tis unbecoming the Majesty of God, and the reason of a Creature, to give him a trivial thing: 'Tis 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, we cannot serve him according to the excellency of his natureJosh. 24.19.; and shall we give him less than all? His infinite excellency and our dependance on him as Crea­tures, demands the choicest adoration: Our Spirits being the noblest part of our nature, are as due to him, as the service of our bodies which are the vilest: To serve him with the worst only, is to diminish his honour.

2. Ʋnder the Law, God commanded the best to be offered him. He would have the Males, the best of the kind; the fat, the best of the CreatureExod. 29.13. The inward fat not the of-fails.: He commanded them to offer him the Firstlings of the flock; not the Firstlings of the Womb, but the Firstlings of the Year: The Jewish Cattle having two breeding times, in the beginning of the Spring, and the beginning of September; The latter breed was the weaker which Jacob knewGen. 30., when he laid the Rods before the Cattle when they were strong in the Spring, and witheld them when they were feeble in the Autumn. One reason (as the Jews say) why God accepted not the offering of Cain was, be­cause he brought the meanest, not the best of the fruit; and therefore 'tis said, only that he brought of the fruit of the Ground, Gen. 4.3. not the first of the fruit, or the best of the fruit; as Abel who brought the Firstling of his Flock, and the Fat thereof, v. 4.

[Page 156]3. And this the Heathen practiced by the light of Nature. They for the most part offered Males, as being more worthy; and burnt the Male, not the Female Frank in­cense, as it is divided into those two kinds: They offered the best, when they of­fered their Children to Molock. Nothing more excellent than Man, and nothing dearer to Parents than their Children, which are parts of themselves. When the Israelites would have a Golden-Calf for a representation of God, they would de­dicate their Jewels, and strip their Wives and Children of their richest Ornaments, to shew their devotion. Shall men serve their dumb Idols with the best of their substance, and the strength of their Souls; and shall the living God have a duller service from us, than Idols had from them? God requires no such hard, but delight­ful worship from us, our spirits.

4. All Creatures serve Man, by the providential order of God, with the best they have. As we by Gods appointment receive from Creatures the best they can give, ought we not with a free will render to God the best we can offer? The Beasts give us their best Fat; the Trees their best Fruit; the Sun its best Light; the Fountains their best Streams: Shall God order us the best from Creatures, and we put him off with the worst from our selves?

5. God hath 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 enabled to present our selves 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 our selves? As God would have a worship from his Creature, so it must be with the best part of his Creature. If we have given our selves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5., we can worship with no less than our selves. What is the Man without his Spirit? If we are to worship God with all that we have received from him, we must worship him with the best part we have received from him: 'Tis but a small glory we can give him with the best, and shall we deprive him of his 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, Psal. 100.2, 3. Serve the Lord with glad­ness: Know ye that the Lord he is God; 'tis he that hath made us: He hath ennobled us with spiritual affections; where is it fittest for us to employ them, but upon him? and at what time, but when we come solemnly to converse 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.

Well thenAmyraut. Mor. Tom. 2. P. 311.; As he is God, he is to be honoured with all the propensions and ar­dor that the infiniteness and excellency of such a Being requires, and the incompa­rable obligations he hath laid upon us in this state deserve at our hands: In all our worship therefore, our minds ought to be filled with the highest admiration, love and reverence. Since our end was to glorifie God, we 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 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 makes this impression upon him: He cannot view his own nature without having this duty striking upon his mind. As he knows by inspection into himself, that there was 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 testifie this natural dependance on him: His constitution informs him, that he hath 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 well converse with God as Men. It can never be a reasonable service as it ought to beRom. 12.1., unless the reasonable faculties be employed in the management of it: It must be a worship prodigiously lame, without the concurrence of the cheifest 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? All other things but the Au­thor [Page 157] of them: 'Tis 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 other things, he would be an unprofitable Creature in the world: If he do not employ his spiritual faculties in worship, he denies them the proper end and use for which they were given him; 'tis a practical denial that God hath given him a Soul, and that God hath any right to the exercise 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 employed in the duties of Religion, they would be in vain: The true end of God in the endowment of us with them would be defeated by us, as much as lies in us, if we did not serve him with that which we have from him solely at his own cost. As no man can with rea­son conclude, that the Rest commanded on the Sabbath and the 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 had, or any essential honour that could accrue to him; but that men might testifie their gratitude to him, and dependance on him. 'Tis the most horrid ingratitude, not to have lively and deep sentiments of gratitude after such obligations, and not to make those due ac­knowledgments that are proper for a rational Creature. Religion is the highest and choicest act of a reasonable Creature: No Creature under Heaven is capable of it that wants reason. As it is a violation of reason not to worship God, so it is no less a violation of reason not to worship him with the Heart and Spirit: It is a high disho­nour to God, and defeats him not only of the service due to him from Man, but that which is due to him from all the Creatures. Every Creature, as it is an effect of Gods Power and Wisdom, doth passively worship God; that is, it doth afford matter of adoration to man that hath, reason to collect it and return it where it is due: Without the exercise of the Soul we can no more hand it to God, than with­out such an exercise we can gather it from the Creature: So that by this neglect, the Creatures are restrained from answering their chief end; they cannot pay any ser­vice to God without man; nor can man without the employment of his rational faculties, render a homage to God, any more than beasts can. This engagement of our inward power stands firm and unviolable, let the modes of worship be what they will, or the changes of them by the Soveraign Authority of God never so fre­quent; this could not expire or be changed, as long as the nature of Man endu­red. As Man had not been capable of a Command for Worship, unless he had been endued with spiritual faculties; so he is not active in a true practice of Worship, unless they be imployed by him in it. The constitution of Man makes this man­ner of worship perpetually obligatory; and the oblation can never cease, till man cease to be a Creature furnisht with such faculties: In our worship therefore, if we would act like rational Creatures, we should extend all the powers of our Souls to the utmost pitch, and essay to have apprehensions of God, equal to the excellency of his Nature, which though we may attempt, we can never attain.

Reason 3. Without this engagement of our Spirits, no act is an act of worship. True worship being an acknowledgment of God and the perfections of his Nature, results only from the Soul, that being only capable of knowing God and those perfections, which are the object and motive of worship: The posture of the body, is but to testifie the inward temper and affection of the mind: If therefore it testifies what it is not, 'tis a lye and no worship: The cringes a Beast may be taught to make to an Altar, may as well be called Worship; since a man thinks as little of that God he pretends to honour, as the beast doth of the Altar to which he bowes. Worship is a reverent remembrance of God, and giving some honour to him with the intenti­on of the Soul: It cannot justly have the name of Worship, that wants the essential part of it: 'Tis an ascribing to God the glory of his Nature, an owning subjection and obedience to him as our soveraign Lord: This is as impossible to be performed [Page 158] without the Spirit, as that there can be life and motion in a body without a Soul: 'Tis a drawing neer to God, not in regard of his essential presence; so all things are neer to God; but in an acknowledgement of his excellency, which is an act of the Spirit; without this, the worst of men in a place of worship, are as neer to God as the best. The necessity of the conjunction of our Soul, ariseth from the nature of wor­ship; which being the most serious thing we can be employed in, the highest con­verse with the highest object, requires the choicest temper of Spirit in the perfor­mance. That cannot be an act of worship, which is not an act of Piety and Ver­tue; but there is no act of vertue done by the members of the Body, without the concurrence of the Powers of the Soul. We may as well call the presence of a dead Carcass in a place of worship, an act of Religion, as the presence of a living body without an intent Spirit: The separation of the Soul from 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 life 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 worship that wants an essential part, the act of the Spirit: God will not vouchsafe any acts of man so noble a title, without the re­quisite qualifications, Hos. 5.6. They shall go with their Flocks and their Herds, to seek the Lord, &c. A multitude of Lambs and Bullocks for Sacrifice, to appease Gods Anger: God would not give it the title of worship, though instituted by himself, when it wanted the qualities of such a service: The Spirit of Whoredom was in the midst of them, v. 4. In the judgment of our Savior, it is a vain worship, when the Traditions of Men are taught for the Doctrins of God Mat. 15.9.; and no less vain must it be, when the Bodies of Men are presented to supply the place of their Spirits. As an omission of duty is a contempt of Gods Soveraign 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 peculiarly in his presence. In the Israelites hearing the Law, it is said God was to come among them Exod. 19.10, 11.: Then, men are said to stand before the LordDeut. 10.8.: God before whom I stand, that is, whom I worship: And therefore when Cain forsook the worship of God setled in his Fathers Family,Kings 1.17. he is said to go out from the presence of the Lord, Gen. 4.16. God is essentially present in the world; graciously present in his Church. The name of the Evangelical City is, Jehovah Shammah Ezek. 48.35., the Lord is there. God is more graciously present in the Evangelical institutions, than in the Legal: He loves the Gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of JacobPsal. 87.2.: His Evange­lical Law and Worship which was to go forth from Zion, as the other did from Sinai, Mic. 4.2. God delights to approach to Men, and converse with them in the wor­ship instituted in the Gospel, more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graciously present, ought not we to be spiritually present? A liveless Carcass ser­vice, becomes not so high and delectable a presence as this: 'Tis to thrust him from us, not invite him to us: 'Tis to practise in the Ordinances, what the Prophet pre­dicts concerning mens usage of our Saviour, Isa. 53.2. There is no form, no comeliness, nor beauty that we should desire him. A slightness in worship, reflects upon the excel­lency of the object of worship. God and his worship are so linkt together, that whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care, esteems the other not worth his inward affection. How unworthy a slight is it of God, who profers the opening his Treasure; the reimpressing his Image; conferring his blessings; admits us into his presence, when he hath no need for us, who hath millions of Angels to attend him in his Court, and celebrate his Praise? He that worships not God with his Spirit, regards not Gods 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 hath promised to give, when we tender to him what he hath commanded us to present. If we put off God with a Shell, he will put us off with a Husk. How can we expect 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 [Page 159] advantagious worship, without spiritual graces; for those are uniting, and Union is the ground of all Communion.

Reason 5. To have a spiritual worship is Gods end in the restoration of the Creature; both in Redemption by his Son, and Sanctification by his Spirit. A fitness for spiritual Offerings, was the end of the coming of Christ Mal. 3.3.; He should purge them, as Gold and Silver by Fire, a Spirit burning up their dross, melting them into a holy compliance with and submission to God: To what purpose? That they may offer to the Lord an Of­fering in Righteousnes; a pure Offering from a purified Spirit: He came to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18. in such a Garb, as that we might be fit to converse with him: Can we be thus, without a fixedness of our Spirits on him?

The offering of spiritual Sacrifices, is the end of making any a spiritual Habita­tion, and a holy Priest-hood Pet. 2.5.. We can no more be Worshippers of God, without a Worshippers nature, than a man can be a man without humane nature. As man was at first created for the honour and worship of God; so the design of resto­ring that Image which was defaced by Sin, tends to the same end. We are not brought to God by Christ, nor are our services presented to him, if they be without our Spirits: Would any man that undertakes to bring another to a Prince, intro­duce him in a slovenly and sordid habit, such a garb that he knows hateful to him? Or bring the Clothes or Skin of a Man stuft 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 expence of his Spirit in Sanctification: He bestows upon man a spiritual nature, that he may return to him a spiritual service: He enlightens the Understanding, that he may have a rational service; and new moulds the Will, that he may have a voluntary service. As it is the Milk of the Word wherewith he feeds us, so it is the service of the Word wherewith we must glorifie him. So much as there is of confusedness in our understanding, so much of starting and levity in our Wills; so much of slipperiness and skipping in our affections; so much is abated of the due qualities of the worship of God; and so much we fall short of the end of Redemption and Sanctification.

Reason 6. A spiritual worship is to be offered to God, because no worship but that can be acceptable. We can never be secured of acceptance without it; He being a Spirit, nothing but the worship in Spirit can be sutable to him: What is unsutable, cannot be acceptable: There must be something in us, to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for an actual acceptation. No service is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, but as it is a spiritual Sacrifice, and offered by a spiritual heart, 1 Pet. 2.5. The Sacrifice is first spiritual, before it be acceptable to God by Christ: When it is an offering in righteousness, it is then, and only then pleasant to the Lord, Mal. 3.3, 4. No Prince would accept a gift that is unsutable to his Majesty, and below the condition of the person that presents it: Would he be pleased with a bottle of water for drink, from one that hath his Cellar full of wine? How unacceptable must that be, that is unsutable to the Divine Majesty? And what can be more un­sutable, than a withdrawing the operations of our Souls from him, in the oblation of our Bodies? We as little glorifie God as God, when we give him only a corporeal worship; as the Heathen did, when they represented him in a corporeal shapeRom. 1.21.; 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 suted 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 illuminations. The glory of the second Temple ex­ceeded the glory of the firstHag. 2.8, 9.: As God accounts the spiritual glory of Ordinances most beneficial for us, so our spiritual attendance upon Ordinances is most pleasing to him; He that offers the greatest services without it, offers but flesh, Hos. 8.13. They sacrifice Flesh for the Sacrifices of my Offerings, but the Lord accepts them not. Spiri­tual frames are the Soul of Religious services; all other carriages 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 [Page 160] of Spirit for him: And vain Spirits shall have vain returns: 'Tis more contrary to the nature of Gods Holiness to have communion with such, than it is contrary to the nature of Light to have communion with Darkness.

To make use of this.

Ʋse 1. First it serves for information.

1. If spiritual worship be required by God; How sad is it for them 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 publick, but of private; when men present not a devotion to God from one years end to the other. The speech of our Saviour, that we must worship God in Spirit and Truth, implies that a worship 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, hardned their Souls, and stifled those natural sentiments. There was never a Nation in the world, without some kind of Religion; and no Religion was ever without some modes, to testifie a devotion: The Heathens had their Sacrifices and Purifications; and the Jews by Gods order had their rites, whereby they were to express their Allegiance to God.

Consider,

1. Worship is a duty incumbent upon all men. 'Tis a homage Mankind ows to God, under the relation wherein he stands obliged to him: 'Tis a prime and immutable justice to own our Allegiance to him. 'Tis 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. 100.2, 3. 'Tis due to God for himself and his own essential excellency, and therefore due from all: 'Tis due upon the account of mans nature: The human rational nature is the same in all. Whatsoever is due to God upon the account of mans nature, and the natural obligations he hath 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 from it: In Paradise he had his Sabbath 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 DelugeGen. 8.20.: And wheresoever Abra­ham came, his first business was to erect an Altar, and pay his arrears of gratitude to God, before he ran upon the score for new merciesGen. 12.7. Gen. 13.4.18.; He left a testimony of wor­ship where ever he came.

2. Wholly therefore to neglect it, is a high degree of Atheism. He that calls not upon God, saith in his heart there is no God; and seems to have the sentiments of natural Conscience, as to God, stifled in himPsal. 14.1, 4: It must arise from a conceit that there is no God, or that we are equal to him, adoration not being due from persons of an equal state; or that God is unable, or unwilling to take notice of the adoring acts of his Creatures: What is any of these but an undeifying the supream 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 licen­tiousnessHos. 4.1, 2.: And that by degrees brawns the Conscience, and raseth out the sense of God. Those forsake God that forget his holy Mountain Isa. 65.11.; They do not practically own him as the Creator of their Souls or bodies. 'Tis the sin of Cain, who tur­ning his back upon worship, is said to go out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16.. Not to worship him with our Spirits, is against his Law of Creation: Not to worship him at all, is against his act of Creation: Not to worship him in truth is Hypocrisie: Not to worship him at all is Atheism, whereby we render our selves worse than the worms in the Earth, or a toad in a Ditch.

3. To perform a worship to a false God, or to the true God in a false manner, seems to be less a sin, than to live in perpetual neglects of it. Though it be directed to a false Object instead of God; yet it is under the notion of a God, and so is an acknow­ledgement 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 supream Majesty.

Whosoever constantly omits a publick and private worship, transgresses against an universally received dictate; For all Nations have agreed in the common notion of worshipping God, though they have disagreed in the several modes and rites whereby they would testifie that adoration. By a worship of God, though super­stitious, a veneration and reverence of such a being is maintained in the world; whereas by a total neglect of worship, he is vertually disowned and discarded, if not from his existence, yet from his Providence and Government of the world: All the mercies we breath in are denied to flow from him. A foolish worship owns Re­ligion, though it bespatters it. As if a stranger coming into a Country mistakes a Subject for the Prince, and pays that reverence to the Subject, which is due to the Prince, though he mistakes the object, yet he owns an Authority; or if he pays any respect to the true Prince of that Country after the mode of his own, though ap­pearing ridiculous in the place where he is, he owns the Authority of the Prince; whereas the omission of all respect would be a contempt of Majesty: And therefore the Judgments of God have been more signal upon the Sacrilegious Contemners of worship among the Heathens, than upon those that were diligent and devout in their false worship; and they generally owned the blessings received, to the pre­servation of a sense, and worship of a deity among them. 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 commendable, not as worship, but as it speaks an acknowledgment of such a Being as God in his power in Creation, and his bene­ficence in his Providence.

Well then, omissions of worship 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 will at last be loath to hear God bid him depart from him. Though man hath natural sentiments that God is to be worshipped; yet having an hostility 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, Remember thou keep holy the Sabath-day. Corrupt nature is apt to neglect the worship of God, and flagg in it: This Command 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 from 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 Command, that they should offer the Sacrifices, and practise the legal Purifications he had commanded; he would have them diligently observed, though he had declared that he imposed them only for a time. And our Saviour or­dered the practise of those positive rites as long as the law remained unrepealed, as in the Case of the Leper Mark 14.4.. 'Tis an injustice to refuse the offering our selves to God according to the manner he hath in his Wisdom prescribed and required.

If spiritual worship be required by God; then

2. It informs us, that diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in. Daille melan­ge. des Sermon: Ser. 2. Men may attend all their days on worship, with a juiceless heart and unquickned frame, and think to compensate the neglect of the manner, with abundance of the matter of service. Outward expressions are but the badges and liveries of service, not the service it self. As the strength of Sin lies in the inward frame of the heart, so the strength of worship in the inward complexion and temper of the Soul. What do a thousand services avail, without cutting the throat of our carnal affecti­ons? What are loud Prayers, but as sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals, without Divine Charity? A Pharisaical diligence in outward forms without inward Spirit, had no better a title vouchsafed by our Saviour, than that of hypocritical. God desires not Sacrifices, nor delights in burnt Offerings: Shadows are not to be offered instead of Substance. God required the heart of man for it self; but commanded outward Ceremonies, as subservient to inward worship, and goads and spurs unto it: They were never appointed as the substance of Religion, but auxiliaries to it. What value had the Offering of the human nature of Christ been of, if he had not had a divine nature to qualifie him to be the Priest? And what is the oblation of [Page 162] our Bodies, without a Priestly act of the 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 Ditch, or been killed at home? They were to be brought living to the Altar; the blood shed at the foot of it: A thousand Sacrifices killed without, had not been so valuable as one brought alive to the place of Offering: One sound Sacrifice is better than a thousand rotten ones. As God took no pleasure in the blood of Beasts without its relation 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 Sacriledge of the same nature with that of the Israelites when they offered dead Beasts. A man with­out spiritual worship is dead whiles he worships, though by his diligence in the ex­ternals of it he may like the Angel of the Church of Sardis, have a name to live Revel. 3.1.. 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 wits, would sollicite a dead man to be his Advocate or Champion?

Diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in.

Ʋse 2. Shall be for Examination: Let us try our selves concerning the manner of our worship. We are now in the end of the world, and the dreggs of time; where­in the Apostle predicts, there may be much of a form, and little of the power of Godli­ness 2 Tim. 3.1, 5.: And therefore it stands us in hand to search into our selves, whether it be not thus with us? Whether there be as much reverence in our Spirits, as there may be devotion in our countenances and outward carriages.

1. How therefore are our hearts prepared to worship? Is our diligence greater, to put our hearts in an adoring posture, than our bodies in a decent garb? Or are we con­tent to have a muddy Heart, so we may have a drest Carcass? To have a Spirit a Cage of unclean Birds, while we wipe the filth from the outside of the Platter, is no better than a Pharisaical devotion, and deserves no better a name, than that of a whited Sepulcher.

Do we take opportunities to excite and quicken our Spirits to the performance, and cry aloud with David, awake, awake my glory? Are not our hearts asleep when Christ knocks; when we hear the voice of God, seek my face; Do we answer him with warm resolutions, thy face Lord we will seek Psal. 27.8.? Do we comply with spiritual motions, and strike whiles the Iron is hot? Is there not more of reluctancy, than readiness? Is there a quick rising of the Soul in 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 engaged, and on fire; What are the motives that quicken that fire? Is it only the blast of a natural Conscience; fear of Hell; desires of Heaven as abstracted from God? Or is it an affection to God; an obedient will to please him; longings to enjoy him, as a holy and sanctifying God in his Ordinances, as well as a blessed and glorified God in Heaven?

What do we expect in our approaches from him? That which may make divine impressions upon us, and more exactly conform us to the divine nature? Or do we design nothing but an empty formality, a rowling eye, and a filling the Air with a few words, without any openings of heart to receive the incomes, which accor­ding to the nature of the duty might be conveyed to us? Can this be a spiritual worship? The Soul then closely waits upon him, when its expectation is only from him, Psal. 62.6. Are our hearts seasoned with a sense of sin; a sight of our spiritual wants; raised notions of God; glowing affections to Him; strong appetite after a spiritual fulness? Do we rouze up our sleepy Spirits, and make a Covenant with all that is within us to attend upon him? So much as we want of this, so much we come short of a spiritual worship: In Psal. 57.7. My heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed. David would fix his heart, before he would engage in a praising act of wor­ship: He appeals to God about it, and that with doubling the expression, as being certain of an inward preparedness: Can we make the same appeals in a fixation of Spirit?

2. How are our hearts fixed upon him, How do they cleave to him in the duty? Do we resign our Spirits to God, and make them an intire Holocaust, a whole burnt-offering in his worship? Or do we not willingly admit carnal thoughts to mix them­selves with spiritual duties, and fasten our minds to the Creature, under pretences [Page 163] of directing them to the Creator? Do we not pass a meer complement on God, by some superficial act of devotion; while some covetous, envious, ambitious, vo­luptuous imagination may possess our minds? Do we not invert Gods Order, and worship a Lust instead of God with our Spirits, that should not have the least service, either from our Souls or Bodies, but with a spiritual disdain be sacrificed to the just indignation of God? How often do we fight against his Will, while we cry hail Master; instead of crucifying our own thoughts, crucifying the Lord of our Lives; Our outward carriage plausible, and our inward stark naught? Do we not often regard iniquity more than God in our hearts, in a time of worship? Roul some filthy imagination as a sweet morsel under our tongues, and taste more sweet­ness in that, than in God? Do not our Spirits smell rank of Earth, while we offer to Heaven, and have we not hearts full of thick Clay, as their hands were full of blood Isa. 1.15.? When we sacrifice, do we not wrap up our Souls in communion with some sordid fancy, when we should entwine our Spirits about an amiable God? While we have some 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 Malchom Zeph. 1.5.. How often doth an Apish-fancy render a service inwardly ridiculous, under a grave outward posture; skipping to the Shop, Ware-house, Compting-house in the space of a short Prayer? And we are before God as a Babel, a confusion of internal languages; and this in those parts of worship which are in the right use most agreeable to God; profitable for our selves; ruinous to the Kingdom of Sin and Satan, and means to bring us into a closer communion with 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 str [...]ngs 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. Well t [...]en, what awakenings, and elevations of Faith and Love have we? What strong outflowings of our Souls to him? What indignation against Sin? What admirations of redeeming Grace? How low have we brought our corrupti­ons to the foot-stool of Christ, to be made his conquered Enemies? How straitly have we claspt ou [...] Faith about the Cross and 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 wil not let him go; in confessions rent the Caul of our hearts, and indite our Souls before him with a deep humility? Do we act more by a soaring love than a drooping fear? So far as our Spitits are servile, 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 the constraint of Bondage Heb. 2.15. all their life-time, in all their worship: so under the Gospel they are under a con­straint of love2 Cor. 5.14: How then are believing affections exercised, which are alway 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 carriage, we may judge of the spirituality of it.

1. How are we as to inward strength? When a worship is spiritually performed, grace is more strengthened, corruption more mortified: The Soul, like Sampson 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: The more prepared the heart is to obedience in other duties after worship, the more evidence there is that it hath been spiritual in the exer­cise of it. 'Tis the end of God in every dispensation, as in that of John Baptist, To make ready a People prepared for the Lord Luke 1 17.. When the heart is by worship prepared for fresh acts of obedience, and hath a more exact watchfulness against the incroach­ments of Sin. As carnal men after worship sprout up in spiritual wickedness; so do spiritual Worshippers in spiritual graces: Spiritual fruits, are a sign of a spiritual frame. When men are more prone to sin after duty, 'tis a sign there was but little communion with God in it, and a greater strength of sin, because such an act is [Page 164] contrary to the end of worship, which is the subduing of Sin. 'Tis a sign the Physick hath wrought well, when the stomach hath a better appetite to its appointed food; and worship hath been well performed, when we have a stronger inclination to other acts well pleasing to God, and a more sensible distaste of those temptations we too much relisht before. 'Tis a sign of a good Concoction, when there is a grea­ter strength in the vitals of Religion, a more eager desire to know God. When Moses had been praying to God, and prevailed with him; he puts up a higher re­quest, to behold his Glory Exod. 33.13, 18.. When the appetite stands strong to fuller discoveries of God, it is a sign there hath been a spiritual converse with him.

2. How is it especially as to humility? The Pharisees worship was with­out dispute, carnal; and we find them not more humble after all their devotions, but over-grown with more weeds of spiritual pride; they per­formed them as their righteousness. What men dare plead before God in his day, they plead before him in their hearts, in their day; but this men will do at the day of Judgement, we have prophesied in thy Name, &c. Mat. 7.21. They shew what tincture their services left upon their Spirits: That which excludes them from any acceptation at the last day, excludes them from any estimation of being spiritual in this day. The carnal Worshippers charge God with Injustice in not re­warding them, and claim an acceptation as a compensation due to them, Isa. 58.3. Wherefore have we afflicted our Souls, and thou takest no knowledge? A spiritual Wor­shipper looks upon his duties with shame, as well as he doth upon his sins with con­fusion, and implores the mercy of God for the one as well as the other. In the 143 Psalm v. 2. the Prophet David after his supplications, begs of God not to enter into Judgment with him, and acknowledges any answer that God should give him, as a fruit of his faithfulness to his promise, and not the merit of his wor­ship.Psal. 143.2. In thy Faithfulness answer me, &c. Whatsoever springs from a gracious Prin­ciple, and is the breath of the Spirit, leaves a man more humble; whereas that which proceeds from a stock of nature, hath the true blood of nature running in the veins of it, viz. that pride which is naturally derived from Acam. The breath­ing of the Divine Spirit is in every thing to conform us to our Redeemer; that be­ing the main work of his Office, is his work in every particular Christian-act influ­enced by him. Now Jesus Christ in all his actions was an exact Pattern of Humili­ty. After the institution and celebration of the Supper, a special act of worship in the Church; though he had a sense of all the Authority his Father had given him, yet he humbles himself to wash his Disciples feet John 13.2, 3, 4: And after his sublime Prayer, John 17. He humbles himself to the death, and offers himself to his Murderers, because of his Fathers pleasure, John 18.1. When he had spoken those words, he w [...]nt over the Brook Kedron into the Garden. What is the end of God in appointing worship, is the end of a spiritual heart in offering it; not his own exaltation but Gods glory: Glorifying the name of God, is the fruit of that Evangelical-worship the Gentiles were in time to give to God, Psal. 86.9. All Nations which thou hast made, shall come and worship before thee oh Lord, and shall glorifie thy Name. Let us examin then what debasing our selves 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 without the ingredient of the main Evangelical Prin­ciple.

3. What delight is there after it? What pleasure is there, and what is the Object of that pleasure? Is it Communion the we have had with God, or a Fluency in our selves: Is it something which hath 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 worship of God in the Tabernacle, when he enjoyed it, because he longed for the spiritual part of it, when he was exil'd 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 beforePsal. 63.2.: His desires for it could not have been so ardent, if his reflection upon what had past, had not been delightful; nor could his Soul be poured out in him for the want of such opportunities, if the remembrance of the converse he had had with God, had not been accompanied with a delightful relishPsal. 42.4..

Let us examin what delight we find in our spirits after worship.

Ʋse 3. Is of comfort. And 'tis very comfortable to consider, 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 values a Cup of Cold water given to any as his Disciple, will value a sincere service above a costly Sacrifice. God hath 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 worship from them: When we therefore invoke him, and praise him, which are the prime parts of Religion; he will receive it as a sweet favour from us, and overlook infirmities 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. 'Tis to be confest, that these starts are natural to us. Who is free from them? We bear in our own bosoms a nest of turbulent thoughts, which like busie Gnatts will be buzzing about us, while we are in our most inward and spiritual converses. Many wild beasts lurk in a mans 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 wholly priviledge us from them: They will jogg us in our most weighty employments, that, as God said to Cain, sin lyes 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 thoughtsEccles. 5.12.; so it may be of many a good man; he cannot worship for multitude of thoughts: There will be starts, and more in our Religious, than natural imployments; 'tis natural to man: Some therefore think, the Bells tied to Aarons Garments between the Pomegranates, were to warn the People, and recall their fugitive minds to the present service when they heard the sound of them, upon the least motion of the High priest. The Sacrifice of Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, was not exempt from the Fouls pecking at it.Gen. 15.11. Zechariah himself was drowsie in the midst of his Visions, which being more amazing, might cause a heavenly intentness*, Zech. 4.1. The Angel that talked with me, came again and awaked me, as a man is awaked out of sleep. He had been rouzed 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 Jerem. doth of the Enemies of the JewsLam. 4.19.. Our Persecutors are swifter than Eagles; they light upon us with as much speed, as Eagles upon a Carcass; they pursue us upon the Mountain of Divine institutions, and they lay wait for us in the Wilderness, in our retired addresses to God.

And this will be so while,

1. There is natural corruption in us. There are in a Godly man two contrary principles, Flesh and Spirit, which endeavour to hinder one anothers acts, and are alway stirring upon the offensive or defensive partGal. 5.17.. There is a body of death continually exhaling its noysom vapours; 'Tis a body of death in our worship, as well as in our natures; it snaps our resolutions asunderRom. 7.19.; 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 Domestick in them, has the greater opportunity to trouble us, since it is by those faculties that we spiri­tually transact with God; and it stirs more in the time of religious exercises, though it be in part mortified: As a wounded Beast though tired, will rage and strive to its utmost, when the Enemy is about to fetch a blow at it. All duties of wor­ship tend to the wounding of corruption; and it is no wonder to feel the striving of sin, to defend it self, and offend us when we have our Arms in our hands to mortifie it, that the blow may be diverted which is directed against it.

The Apostles had aspiring thoughts; and being perswaded of an earthly King­dom, expected a Grandeur in it: And though we find some appearance of it at o­ther times; as when they were casting out Devils, and gave an account of it to their Master, he gives them a kind of a checkLuke 10.20, intimating that there was some kind of evil in their rejoycing upon that account: Yet this never swelled so high, as to break out into a quarrel who should be greatest,Luke 22.24 until they had the most solemn [Page 166] Ordinance, the Lords Supper to quell it*. Our corruption is like Lime, which discovers not its fire by any smoke or heat, till you cast water, the Enemy of fire, upon it: Neither doth our natural corruption rage so much, as when we are using means to quench and destroy it.

2. While there is a Devil, and we in his Precinct, As he accuseth us to God, so he disturbs us in our selves: He is a bold Spirit, and loves to intrude himself when we are conversing with God: We read, that when the Angels presented them­selves before God, Satan comes among themJob. 1.6.. Motions from Satan will thrust themselves in with our most raised and Angelical frames; He loves to take off the edge of our Spirits from God; He acts but after the old rate; He from the first envied God an obedience from man, and envied man the felicity of communion with God; He is unwilling God should have the honour of worship, and that we should have the fruit of it; He hath himself lost it, and therefore is unwilling we should enjoy it; and being subtil, he knows how to make impressions upon us sutable 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 immediatly upon our fancy; And being a Spirit, and therefore active and nimble, he can shoot those darts faster than our weakness can beat them off: He is diligent also, and watcheth for his Prey, and seeks to devour our services as well as our Souls, and snatch our best morsels from us: We know he mixed himself with our Saviours retirements in the Wilderness, and endeavoured to Fly-blow his holy converse with his Father in the preparation to his mediatory work.

Satan is Gods 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 mind, 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 him, he claps his hands, and sets them on like so many Mastives to tear the service in pieces.

And both those distractions which arise from our own corruption, and from Satan, are most rise in worship, when we are under some pressing affliction. This seems to be David's Case, Psal. 86. when in v. 11. He prays God to unite his heart to fear and worship his Name; he seems to be under some affliction, or fear of his Ene­mies; Oh free me 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 my addresses to thee, and attendances on thee. Job also in his affliction com­plains, Job. 17.11. That his purposes were broken off: He could not make an even thread of thoughts and resolutions; they were frequently snapt saunder, like rot­ten Yarn when 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 alway evidences of a want of grace: What ariseth from our own corruption, is to be matter of humiliation and resistance; what ariseth from Satan, should edge our minds to a noble conquest of them. If the Apostle did comfort himself with his disapproving of what rose from 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 him, 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 our selves, if such thoughts are undelighted in, and alienate not our hearts from the worship of God by all their busie intrusions to interrupt us.

2. These distractions (not allowed) may be occasions by an 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,

1. When they are occasions to humble us.

(1.) 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 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 was with Paul 2 Cor. 12. from v. 1. to v. 7.; His buffetings were occasions to render him more spiritual than his raptures, because more humble. God suffers [Page 167] those wandrings, starts and distractions to prevent our spiritual pride, which is as a Worm at the root of spiritual worship, and mind us of the dusty frame of our Spirits, how easily 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 our selves in his presence; that we may own, that what is good in any duty, is meerly from his Grace and Spirit, and not from our selves. That with Paul we may cry out, by Grace we are what we are, and by Grace we do what we do: We may be hereby made sensible, that God can alway 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 our selves? 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 brokeness which is a choice ingredient in a spiritual Sacrifice: Though we have been disturbed by them, yet we are not robbed of the success; we may behold an answer of our worship in our humiliation, in spite of all of them.

(2.) For the baseness of our Nature. These unsteady motions help us to discern that heap of vermin that breeds in our nature. Would any man think he had such an averseness to his Creator and Benefactor; such an unsutableness 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 imagin our natures so highly contrary to that God who is so infinitely amiable, so desirable an Object; or that there should be so much folly and madness in the heart, as to draw back from God in those services, which God hath appointed as pipes through which to communicate his grace, to convey himself, his love and goodness to the Creature? If therefore we have a deep sense of, and strong reflections upon our base nature, and bewail that mass of aversness which lies there, and that fulness of irreverence towards the God of our mercies, the Object of our worship; 'tis a blessed improvement of our wandrings and diversions. Certainly if any Israelite had brought a lame and rotten Lamb to be sacrificed to God, and afterward had bewailed it, and laid open his heart to God in a sensible and humble confession of it; That Repentance had been a better Sa­crifice, and more acceptable in the sight of God; than if he had brought a sound and a living Offering.

(2.) When they are occasions to make us prize duties of worship: When we argue, as rationally we may, that they are of singular use; since our corrupt hearts and a malicious Devil doth chiefly endeavour to hinder us from them: And that we find we have not those gadding thoughts when we are upon worldly business, or upon any sinful design which may dishonour God and wound our Souls: This is a sign Sin and Satan dislike worship; for he is too subtle a Spirit to oppose that which would further his Kingdom. As it is an argument the Scripture is the Word of God, because the wickedness of the world doth so much oppose it; so it is a ground to believe the profitableness and excellency of worship, because Satan and our own unruly hearts do so much interrupt us in it: If therefore we make this use of our cross steps in worship, to have a greater value for such duties, more affections to them and desires to be frequent in them: Our hearts are growing spiritual, under the weights that would depress them to carnality.

(3.) When we take a rise from hence, to have heavenly admirations of the graciousness of God. That he should pity and pardon so many slight addresses to him, and give any gracious returns to us. Though men have foolish rangings every day, and in every duty; yet free grace is so tender as not to punish them, Gen. 8.21. And the Lord smelt a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not curse the Ground for mans sake, for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth. 'Tis observable, that this was just after a Sacrifice which Noah offered to God, v. 20. But probably not without infirmities common 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 mans imaginations, Gen. 6.5. He still found evil imaginations; He doth not say in the heart of Cham, or others of Noah's Family; but in mans heart, including Noah also; who had both the Judgments of God upon the former world, [Page 168] and the mercy of God in his own preservation before his eyes; yet God sawevil imaginations rooted in the nature of Man; and though it were so, yet he would be merciful: If therefore we can, after finding our hearts so vagrant in worship, have real frames of thankfulness that God hath spared us; and be hightned in our admirations at Gods giving us any fruit of such a distracted worship; we take ad­vantage from them, to be raised into an Evangelical frame, which consists in the humble acknowledgments of the grace of God. When David takes a review of those tumultuous passions which had rufled his mind, and possessed him with unbe­lieving notions of God in the persons of his Prophets Psal. 116.11.; how high doth 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, because it had been so passionate in former distrusts. 'Tis indeed a ground of wondring at the patience of the Spirit of God, that he should guide our hearts when 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. 'Tis not one or two infirmities the Spirit helps us in, and helps over, but many Rom. 8.26.. 'Tis a sign of a spiritual heart, when he can take 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 them.

(4.) When we take occasion from thence to prize the mediation of Christ. The more distractions jogg us, the more need we should see of going out to a Saviour by Faith. One part of our Saviours Office is to stand between us and the infirmities of our worship: As he is an Advocate, he presents our services, and pleads for them and us1 John. 2.1.; for the sins of our duties, as well as for our other sins. Jesus Christ is an High-priest, appointed by God to take away the iniquities of our holy things, which was typified by Aarons Plate upon his MitreExod. 28.36, 38.. Were there no imperfections, were there no creeping up of those Froggs into our minds, we should think our worship might 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 sollicite him to put his merits in the front, to make our ciphers appear valuable; 'tis a spiritual act, the design of God in the Gospel being to advance the honour and mediation of his Son. That is a spiritual and evangelical act, which answers the evangelical design. The design of Satan and our own corruption is defeated, when those interruptions make us run swifter, and take faster hold on the High-priest who is to present our worship to God, and our own Souls receive comfort there­by. Christ had temptations offered to him by the Devil in his Wilderness retire­ment; that from an experimental knowledge, he might be able more compassionatly to succour us Heb. 2.18.; we have such assaults in our retir'd worship especially, that we may be able more highly to value him and his mediation.

3. Let us not therefore be discouraged by those interruptions and starts of our hearts.

(1.) If we find in our selves 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, we may be said to walk in the SpiritGal. 5.16, 17.: We walk in the Spirit, if we fulfil not the lusts of the Flesh, though there be a lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit: So we worship in the Spirit, though there be carnal thoughts arising, if we do not fulfil them; though the stirring of them discovers some con­trariety in us to God, yet the resistance manifests, that there is a principle of con­trariety in us to them; that as there is something of Flesh that lusts against the Spirit, so there is something of Spirit in worship which lusts against the Flesh: We must take heed of omitting worship, because of such in-rodes; and lying down in the mire of a total neglect. If our Spirits are made more lively and vigorous against them; If those cold vapours which have risen from our hearts, make us like a Spring in the midst of the cold Earth, more warm: There is in this case more reason for us to bless God, than to be discouraged. God looks upon it as the disease, not the wilfulness of our nature; as the weakness of the Flesh, not the willingness of the Spirit. If we would shut the door upon them, it seems they are unwelcome com­pany: [Page 169] Men do not use to lock their doors upon those they love; If they break in and disturb us with their impertinencies, we need not be discomforted, unless we give them a share in our affections, and turn our back upon God to entertain them: If their presence makes us sad, their flight would make us joyful.

(2.) If we find our selves excited to a stricter watch over our hearts against them. As Travellers will be careful when they come to places where they have been rob'd before, that they be not so easily surprized again. We should not only lament when we have had such foolish imaginations in worship breaking in upon us, but also bless God that we have had no more, since we have hearts so fruitful of weeds. We should give God the glory when we find our hearts preserved from these intruders, and not boast of our selves, 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 doth not depend upon our conversion as the meritorious cause, but upon the infinite value of our Saviours satisfaction, which reaches the greatest sins as well as the least; so the multitude of our bewail'd distractions in worship are not a hinderance to our ac­ceptation, because of the uncontroulable power of Christs intercession.

Ʋse 3. Is for exhortation. Since Spiritual worship is due to God, and the Fa­ther seeks such to worship him, how much should we endeavour to satisfie the de­sire and order of God, and act conformable to the Law of our Creation and the love of Redemption? Our end must be the same in worship which was Gods end in Crea­tion and Redemption; to glorifie his name, set forth his perfections, and be ren­dred fit as Creatures and Redeemed ones to partake of that grace which is the fruit of worship. An Evangelical dispensation requires a Spiritual homage; to neglect therefore either the matter or manner of Gospel duties, is to put a slight upon Gospel priviledges. 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 diposition of the Sacrificer than the multitude of the Sacrifices [...] [...] Abstinentia.. The Solemn feasts appointed by God, were but Dung, as managed by the Jews, M [...]. 2.3. The heart is often welcome without the body, but the body never gra [...] ful without the heart; The inward acts of the Spirit require nothing from with­out to constitute them good in themselves; but the outward acts of devotion re­quire inward acts to render them savory 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 quickning 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 Gods 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 might render them noy­some 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 savory duty, though attended with unsavory imperfections. But a thousand Sa­crifices without a stamp of faith, a thousand Spiritual duties with an habitual car­nality, are no better than stench with God.

The heart must be purged, as well as the Temple was by our Saviour, of the Thieves that would rob God of his due worship. Antiquity had some Temples, where­in 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, Isa. 26.9. With my Spirit with­in me will I seek thee early. Let not our minds be gadding abroad, and exil'd from God and themselves. It will be thus when the desire of our Soul is to his name and the remembrance of him, ver. 8. When he hath 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 remembrance of his name in wor­ship 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. Tis a mockery of God, not wor­ship; contempt, not adoration, whatever our outward fervency or protestations may beN [...]n valet pr [...] ­testatio c [...]ntra jactum is a rule in the civil law.. Every alienation of our hearts from him is a real scorn put upon him: The acts of the Soul are real, and more the acts of the man than the acts of the bo­dy; because they are the acts of the choicest part of man, and of that which is the first spring of all bodily motions; 'tis the [...] the Inrenal speech whereby we must speak with God: To give him therefore, only an external form of worship with­out the life of it, is a taking his name in vain: We mock him, when we mind not what we are speaking 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 Lutinisi, 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 thing with our hearts; 'tis a sin like that the Apostle chargeth the Heathens with, Rom. 1.28. 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 themselves of the thoughts of God, which are as unwelcome and troublesome Guests to them: When men behave themselves in the sight of God, as if God were not God; they do not only defame him, but deny him, and violate the unchangeable perfections of the Divine Nature.

(1.) 'Tis against the Majesty of God. When we have not awful thoughts of that great Majesty to whom we address; when our Souls cleave not to him, when we petition him in Prayer, or when he gives out his Orders to us in his Word. 'Tis a contempt of the Majesty of a Prince, if whiles he is speaking to us, we listen not to him with reverence and attention, but turn our backs on him, to play with one of his Hounds, or talk with a Begger; or while we speak to him, to rake in a Dung­hill. Solomon adviseth us to keep our foot when we go to the House of God Eccles. 5.1.. Our af­fections should be steady, and not slip away again; why? v. 2. because God is in Heaven, &c. He is a God of Majesty; earthly durty frames are unsutable to the God of Heaven; low Spirits are unsutable to the most High. We would not bring our mean Servants, or durty Dogs into a Princes Presence Chamber; yet we bring not only our worldly, but our prophane affections into Gods presence: We give in this case, those services to God, which our Governour would think unworthy of himMal. 1.8.. The more excellent and glorious God is, the greater contempt of him it is to suffer such foolish affections to be Competitors with him for our hearts: 'Tis a scorn put upon him to converse with a Creature while we are dealing with him; but a greater to converse in our thoughts and fancies with some sordid lust, which is most hateful to him: And the more aggravation it attracts, in that we are to apprehend him the most glorious Object sitting upon his Throne in time of worship, and our selves standing as vile Creatures before him, supplicating for our lives, and the conveyances of grace and mercy to our Souls: As if a grand Mutineer, instead of humbly beg­ging the pardon of his offended Prince, should present his Petition not only scrib­led and blotted, but besmeared with some loathsome excrement. 'Tis unbecoming the Majesty both of God, and the worship it self, to present him with a Picture in­stead of Substance, and bring a world of nasty affections in our hearts, and ridicu­lous toys in our heads before him, and worship with indisposed and heedless Souls.

Malac. 1.14. He is a great King, therefore address to him with fear and reverence.

(2.) 'Tis 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 liveless bulk; for the essence and spirit of worship is departed: Though the Soul be present with the Body in a way of information, yet it is not pre­sent in a way of affection, and this is the worst; for it is not the separation of the Soul from informing, that doth separate a man from God, but the removal of our affecti­ons from him. If a man pretend an application to God, and sleep and snore all the time; without question such a one did not worship: In a careless worship, the heart [Page 171] is morally dead while the eyes are open: The heart of the Spouse Cant. 5.2. waked whiles her eyes slept, and our hearts on the contrary sleep while our eyes wake.

Our blessed Saviour hath died to purge our Consciences from dead works and frames, that we may serve the living God Heb. 9.14.; to serve God as a God of Life Davids Soul cried and fainted for God under this considerationPsal. 42.2.: 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 ofPsal. 115.5., that have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, no life in it: Though it be not an objective Idolatry, because the worship is directed to the true God; yet I may call it a subjective Idolatry, in regard of the frame, fit only to be presented to some sensless 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 unsutable to him, and reproaches of him.

(3.) 'Tis against the infiniteness of God. We should worship God with those boundless affections which bear upon them a Shadow or Image of his Infiniteness; such are the desires of the 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 leggs to run, or wings to fly: For us to come before God with a light creeping frame, is to worship him with the lowest finite affections; as though any thing though never so mean or torn, might satisfie an infinite Being; as though a poor shallow Creature could give enough to God without giving him the heart, when indeed we cannot give him a worship proporti­onable to his infiniteness, did our hearts swell as large as Heaven in our desires for him in every act of our duties.

(4.) 'Tis against the spirituality of God. God being a Spirit, calls for a worship in Spirit; to withold this from him, implies him to be some gross corporeal mat­ter: As a Spirit, he looks for the heart; a wrestling heart in Prayer; a trembling heart in the WordIsa. 66.2.: To bring nothing but the Body when we come to a spiritual God to beg spiritual benefits, to wait for spiritual communications, which can only be dispensed to us in a spiritual manner, is unsutable to the spiritual nature of God: A meer carnal service implicitely denies his spirituality, which requires of us higher engagements than meer 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.

(5.) 'Tis against the supremacy of God. As God is one, and the only Soveraign; 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 Soveraignty; but in with holding our 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: 'Tis as if a Princess should commit Adultery with some base Scullion, while she is before her Husband; which would be a plain de­nial of his sole right to her. It intimates that other things are superior to God; they are true Soveraigns that ingross 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 away, hath a greater soveraignty over him, than that Prince to whom he was ap­plying himself? And do we not discard Gods absolute dominion over us, when at the least beck of a corrupt inclination, we can dispose of our hearts to it, and alie­nate them from God? As they in Ezek. 33.32. 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 Soveraignity to the Supremacy 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 the affections that are due to God: 'Tis an an Idol set up in the heart Ezek. 14.4. in his solemn presence, and attracts that devotion to it self, which we only owe to our Soveraign Lord; and the more base and contemptible that is to which the Spirit is [Page 172] devoted, the more contempt there is of Gods dominion. Judas his kiss with a hail Master, was no act of worship, or an owning his Masters authority; but a design­ing the satisfaction of his Covetousness in the betraying of him.

(6.) 'Tis against the Wisdom of God. God as a God of order, has put earthly things in subordination to heavenly; and we by this unworthy carriage invert this order, and put heavenly things in subordination to earthly; in placing mean and low things in our hearts, and bringing them so placed into Gods presence, which his Wisdom at the Creation put under our feet. A service without spiritual affecti­ons, is a sacrifice of Fools, Eccles. 5.1. which have lost their Brains and Under­standings: A foolish Spirit is very unsutable to an infinitely wise God: Well may God say of such a one, as Achish of David who seemed mad; Why have you brought this Fellow to play the Mad-man in my presence? Shall this Fellow come into my House? 1 Sam. 21.15.

(7.) 'Tis against the Omnisciency of God. To carry it fair without and imperti­nently within, is as though God had not an all-seeing eye that could pierce into the heart, and understand every motion of the inward faculties; As though God were easily cheated with an outward fawning service, like an Apothecaries box with a guilded title, that may be full of Cobwebs within: What is such a carriage, but a design to deceive God; when with Herod we pretend to worship Christ, and intend to murder all the motions of Christ in our Souls? A heedless Spirit, an estrange­ment of our Souls, a giving the Rains 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 Discerner of secret thoughts; as though he could not look through us to the darkness and remoteness of our minds, but were an ignorant God, who might be put off with the worst as well as the best in our Flock. If we did really believe there were a God of infinite Knowledge, who saw our frames, and whether we came drest with Wedding-garments sutable to the duties we are about to perform; should we be so garish, and put him off with such trivial stuff, without any reve­rence of his Majesty?

(8.) 'Tis against the Holiness of God. To alienate our Spirits, is to offend him while we pretend to worship him; Though we may be mighty officious in the exter­nal part, yet our base and carnal affections make all our worship but as a heap of Dung; and who would not look upon it as an affront, to lay Dung before a Prince's Throne? Pro. 21.27. The Sacrifice of the Wicked, is an abomination: How much more when he brings it with a wicked mind? A putrified Carcass under the Law, had not been so great an affront to the Holiness of God, as a frothy unmelted heart, and a wanton fancy in a time of worship. God is so holy, that if we could offer the worship of Angels, and the quintessence of our Souls in his service, it would be beneath his infinite purity: How unworthy then are they of him, when they are presented not only without the sense of our uncleaness, but sullied with the fumes and exhalations of our 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?

(9.) 'Tis against the Love and Kindness of God. 'Tis a condescension in God to admit a piece of Earth to offer up a duty to him, when he hath miriads of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise: To admit Man to be an Atten­dant on him and a Partner with Angels, is a high favour. 'Tis not a single mercy, but a heap of mercies to be admitted into the presence of God, Psal. 5.7. I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies. When the blessed God is so kind as to give us access to his Majesty, do we not undervalue his kindness when we deal uncivilly with him, and deny him the choicest part of our selves? 'Tis a contempt of his Soveraignty, as our Spirits are due to him by nature; a contempt of his Goodness, as our Spirits are due to him by gratitude: How abusive a carriage is it to make use of his mercy to encourage our impudence, that should excite our fear and reve­rence? How unworthy 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 Scepter to encourage our approaches to him; stands ready to give us the pardon of sin and full felicity, the best things he hath; Is it a fit requital of his [Page 173] 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 profers were so contemptible, as to deserve only a slight at our hands? 'Tis a contempt of the love and kindness of God.

(10.) 'Tis against the Sufficiency and Fullness of God. When we give God our Bodies and 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 sweeter than those in the Fountain: Is not this a practical giving God the Lye, and denying those promises wherein he hath declared the satisfaction he can give to the Spirit, as he is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh?

If we did imagin 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 goodness, a tender Father, not willing to forsake his own; willing, as well as able to supply their wants; the heart would not so lamely attend upon him, and would not upon every impertinency 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 more savourly relish the thoughts of low inferior things than heavenly, and let our Spirits upon every trifling occasion be fugitives from him: 'Tis a testimony that we make not God our chiefest good. If apprehensions of his excellency did possess our Souls, they would be fastned 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 would car­ry our whole Soul along with him.

When our Spirits readily retreat from God in worship upon every giddy motion, 'tis a kind of repentance that ever we did come near him, and implies, that there is a fuller satisfaction, and more attractive excellency in that which doth so easily divert us, than in that God to whose worship we did pretend to address our selves: 'Tis as if, when we were petitioning a Prince, 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 Soveraign 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 Innocence. 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: 'Tis the Fall hath distempered us; and the more unwieldiness there is in our Spirits, the more carnal our affections are in wor­ship, the more evidence there is of the strength of that revolted state.

(1.) It argues much corruption in the heart. As by the eructations of the Stomach, we may judge of the windiness and foulness of it; so by the inordinate motions of our minds and hearts, we may judge of the weakness of its complexion. A strength of sin is evidenced by the eruptions and ebullitions of it in worship, when they are more sudden, numerous, and vigorous than the motions of grace. When the heart is apt like tinder to catch fire from Satan, 'tis a sign of much combustible matter su­table to his temptation. Were not corruption strong, the Soul could not turn so easily from God when it is in his presence, and hath an advantagious opportunity to create a fear and aw of God in it: Such base fruit could not sprout up so suddenly, were there not much sap and juice in the root of sin.

What communion with a living root can be evidenced without exercises of an inward life? That Spirit which is a Well of living waters in a gracious heart, will be especially springing up when it is before God.

(2.) It shews much affection to earthly things, and little to heavenly. There must needs be an inordinate affection to earthly things, when upon every slight sollicita­tion we can part with God, and turn the back upon a service glorious for him, and ad­vantagious for our selves, to wedd our hearts to some idle fancy that signifies no­thing. How can we be said to entertain God in our affections, when we give him [Page 174] 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 understandings, and divide our Spirits from God. Were our hearts ballanced with a love to God, the world could never steal our hearts so much from his worship, but his worship would draw our hearts to it.

It shews a base neutrality in the greatest concernments; a halting between God and Baal; a contrariety between Affection and Conscience, when natural Consci­ence presses a man to duties of worship, and his other affections pull him back, draw him to carnal objects, and make him slight that whereby he may honour God. God argues the prophaness of the Jews hearts from the wickedness they brought into his house, and acted there, Jer. 23.11. Yea, in my house, that is, my worship, I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. Carnality in worship is a kind of an Idolatrous frame; when the heart is renewed, Idols are cast to the Moles and the Batts Isa. 2.20.

(3.) It shews much hypocrisie to have our Spirits off from God. The mouth speaks, and the carriage pretends what the heart doth not think; there is a dissent of the heart from the pretence of the body.

Instability is a sure sign of Hypocrisie. Double thoughts argue a double heart. The Wicked are compared to Chaff Psal. 1.4., for the uncertain and various motions of their minds, by the least wind of fancy. The least motion of a carnal Object diverts the Spirit from God, as the scent of Carrion doth the Raven from the flight it was set upon.

The People of God are called Gods Spouse, and God calls himself their Hus­band; whereby is noted, the most intimate union of the Soul with God, and that there ought to be the highest love and affection to him, and faithfulness in his wor­ship; but when the heart doth start from him in worship, it is a sign of the unsted­fastness of it with God, and a disrelish of any communion with him; It is as God complains of the Israelites, a going a whoreing after our own imaginations.

As grace respects God as the object of worship, so it looks most upon God in ap­proaching to him. Where there is a likeness and love, there is a desire of converse and intimacy; if there be no spiritual entwining about God in our worship, it is a sign there is no likeness to him, no true sense of him, no renewed image of God in us: Every living Image will move strongly to joyn it self with its original Copy, and be glad with Jacob, to sit steadily in those Chariots that shall convey him to his beloved Joseph.

Motion 3. Consider the danger of a carnal worship

(1.) 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 doth Hypocrisie in its own nature, communion with God. God never promised any thing to the Carcass but to the Spirit of worship. God hath no obligation upon him by any word of his, to re­ward us with himself, when we perform it not to himself: When we give an out­side worship, we have only the outside of an ordinance: We can expect 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 withdraw 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 vail, and cause his glory to display it self 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 withold himself from the Soul: When our hearts are en­flamed with love to him in worship, 'tis a preparation to some act of love on his part whereby he intends further to gratifie us. When John was in the Spirit on the Lords 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 agesRev, 1.10.; His being in the Spirit, intimates his ordinary course on that day, and not any extraordinary act in him, though it was followed with an extraordinary discovery of God to him; When he was thus engaged, he heard a voice behind him.

God doth not require of us spirituality in worship to advantage himself, but that we might be prepared to be advantaged by him. If we have a clear and well dis­posed eye, 'tis 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 most widened by spi­ritual frames, to receive the influence of divine blessings, as an eye most opened re­ceives the fruit of the Suns light, better than the eye that is shut. The communi­cations 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 unsutable hearts. What a nasty Vessel is a carnal heart for a spiritual communication? The chief end of every duty enjoyned by God, is to have communion with him; and therefore it is called, a drawing near to God: 'Tis impossible therefore, that the outward part of any du­ty can answer the end of God in his institution. 'Tis not a bodily appearance or gesture whereby men can have communion with God, but by the impressions of the heart, and reflections of the heart upon God: Without this, all the rich streams of grace will run besides us, and the growth of the Soul be hindered and impaired. A diligent hand makes rich, saith the wise man; a diligent heart in spiritual worship, brings in rich incomes to the humble and spiritual Soul.

(2.) It renders the worship not only unacceptable, but abominable to God. It makes our Gold to become Dross; it soyls our duties, and bespotts our Souls. A carnal and unsteady frame shews an indifferency of Spirit at best; and luke warm­ness is as ungrateful to God, as heavy and nauseous meat is to the stomach, he spues them out of his mouth Rev. 3.16.. As our gracious God doth overlook infirmities where inten­tions are good, and endeavours serious and strong; so he loaths the services where the frames are stark naught, Psal. 66.118. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my Prayer. Luke warm and indifferrent services stink in the Nostrils of God. The heart seems to loath God when it starts from him upon every occasion, when it is unwilling to employ it self 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 inward parts Psal. 51.6.. And therefore infinite Good­ness and Holiness cannot but hate worship presented to him with deceitful, carnal and flitting affections: They must be more nauseous to God, than a putrified Car­cass can be to Man: They are the prophanings of that which should be the habitati­on of the Spirit: They make the Spirit, the seat of duty, a filthy dung-hill; and are as loathsome to God, as Mony-changers in the Temple were to our Savi­our.

We see the evil of carnal frames, and the necessity and benefit of spiritual frames: For further help in this last, let us practise thes [...] following directi­ons.

Direction 1. Keep up spiritual frames out of worship. To avoid low affections, we must keep our hearts as much as we can in a setled elevation. If we admit un­worthy dispositions at one time, we shall not easily be rid of them at anotherFitzherbert Pol. in relig. part. 2. cap. 19. § 12.: As he that would not be bitten with Gnats in the Night, must keep his windows shut in the Day; when they are once entred 'tis not easie to expel them: In which re­spect, one adviseth, to be such out of worship as we would be in worship. If we mix spiritual affections with our worldly employments, worldly affections will not mingle themselves so easily with our heavenly engagements. If our hearts be spiritual in our outward calling, they will scarce be carnal in our religious service. If we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the Flesh Gal. 5.16.. A spiritual walk in the day, will hinder carnal lustings in worship. The Fire was to be kept alive upon the Altar when Sacrifices were not offered, from morning till night, from night till morning, as well as in the very time of Sacrifice. A spiritual life and vigour out of worship, would render it at its season sweet and easie, and preserve a spontaneity and pre­paredness to it, and make it both natural and pleasant to us.

Any thing that doth unhinge and discompose our Spirits, is 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 Eph. 4.26.27.. Saith the Apostle, Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the [Page 176] Devil. Where wrath breaks the Lock, the Devil will quickly be over the Thre­shold; and though they be allayed, yet they leave the heart sometime after, like the Sea rowling and swelling after the storm is ceased.

Mixture with ill company leaves a tincture upon us in worship. Ephraims ally­ing himself with the Gentiles, bred an indifferency in Religion. Hos. 7.8. Ephraim hath mixed himself with the People. Ephraim is a Cake not turn'd: It will make our hearts, and consequently our services half Dough, as well as half bak'd: These and the like make the holy Spirit withdraw himself, and then the Soul lies like a wind-bound Vessel and can make no way. When the Sun departs from us, it car­ries its Beams away with it; then doth Darkness spread it self over the Earth, and the Beasts of the Forests creep out Psal. 1 [...]4.2 [...]. When the Spirit withdraws a while from a good man, it carries away, (though not habitual, yet) much of the exciting and assisting grace; and then carnal dispositions perk up themselves from the bosome of natu­ral corruption. 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 with him, and inures himself to good scents.

To this end, be much in secret ejaculations to God; these are the purest slights of the Soul, that have more of fervor and less of carnality; they preserve a liveliness in the Spirit, and make it more fit to perform solemn stated worship 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.

Direction 2. Excite and exercise particularly a love to God, and dependence on him.

Love is a commanding affection, a uniting graces; it draws all the faculties of the Soul to one Center. The Soul that loves God, when it hath 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 hath will be bestow­ed upon it: As David's disposition was to the Temple, 1 Chron. 29.3. Carnal frames like the Fouls, will be lighting upon the Sacrifice; but not when it is enflam'd: Though the scent of the flesh invite them, yet the heat of the fire drives them to their distance. A flaming love will singe the Flies that endeavour to interrupt and di­sturb us. The happiness of Heaven consists in a full attraction of the Soul to God, by his glorious influence upon it; There will 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 settled and uniform will our hearts be in all their motions to God, and operations about him.

Excite a dependence on him, Pro. 16.3. Commit thy works to the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Let us go out in Gods strength and not in our own; vain is the help of man in any thing, and vain is the help of the heart: 'Tis through God only we can do valiantly in spiritual concerns as well as temporal; the want of this makes but slight impressions upon the Spirit.

Direction 3. Nourish right conceptions of the Majesty of God in your minds. Let us consider, that we are drawing to God; the most amiable Object, the best of Be­ings, worthy of infinite honour, and highly meriting the highest affections we can give; a God that made the world by a word; that upholds the great frame of Hea­ven and Earth; a Majesty above the conceptions of Angels; who uses not his power to strike us to our deserved punishment, 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 hath 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 Majesty, and count it the most worthy employment with all diligence 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 will 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 Majesty doth worship chiefly consist. Low thoughts of God will [Page 177] 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, how 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 him in strength or faithfulness round aboutPsal. 89.6, 7, 8.? We should have also deep impressions of the Omniscience of God; and remember we have to deal with a God that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins; to whom the most secret temper is as visible, as the loudest words are Audible; that though man judges by outward expressions, God judges by inward affections. As the Law of God re­gulates the inward frames of the heart; so the eye of God pitches upon the inward intentions of the Soul. If God were visibly present with us, should we not ap­proach to him with strong affections; summon our Spirits to attend upon him; be­have our selves modestly before him? Let us consider, he is as really present with us, as if he were visible to us; let us therefore preserve a strong sense of the presence of God. No man but one out of his wits, when he were in the presence of a Prince, and making a Speech to him; would break off at every Period, and run after the catching of Butter-flyes. Remember in all worship you are before the Lord, to whom all things are open and naked.

Direction 4. Let us take heed of inordinate desires after the world. As the world steals away a mans heart from the Word, so it doth from all other worship; It chokes the Word Mat. 13.27.; it stifles all the spiritual breathings after God in every duty: The edge of the Soul is blunted by it, and made too dull for such sublime exercises. The Apostles rule in Prayer, when he joyns sobriety with watching unto Prayer, 1 Pet. 4.7. is of concern in all worship, sobriety in the pursuite and use of all wordly things. A man drunk with worldly fumes cannot watch, cannot be heavenly, affectionate, spiritual in service. There is a magnetick 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 Sphear of the Earths 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: 'Tis as hard to elevate the heart to God in the midst of a hurry of worldly affairs, as it is difficult to me­ditate when we are near a great noise of waters falling from a Precipice, or in the midst of a Volly of Muskets. Thick claiy affections bemire the heart, and make it unfit for such high flights it is to take in worship: Therefore get your hearts clear from worldly thoughts and desires, if you would be more spiritual in worship.

5. Let us be deeply sensible of our present wants, and the supplies we may meet with in worship. Cold affections to the things we would have, will grow cooler: Weakness of desire for the communications in worship, will freez our hearts at the time of worship, and make way for vain and foolish diversions. A Begger that is ready to perish, and knows he is next door to ruin, will not slightly and dully began Alms; and will not be diverted from his importunity by every slight call, or the moving of an Atom in the Air. Is it Pardon we would have? Let us apprehend the blackness of sin with the aggravations of it as it respects God; Let us be deeply sensible of the want of pardon and worth of mercy, and get our affections into such a frame, as a condemned man would do: Let us consider, that as we are now at the Throne of Gods grace, we shall shortly be at the Bar of Gods 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 Gods Tribunal.Guliel. Paris. Rhetor. Divin. cap. 26. p. 350. Col. 1. We must be sensible that the life or death of our Souls depends upon worship. Would we not be ashamed to be ridiculous in our carriage while 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 did see the heaps of sins, the eternity of punishment due to them; If we did see an angry and offen­ded Judge; If we did see 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 [Page 178] have misery averted and mercy bestowed. Let our sense of this be encourag [...]d by the consideration of our Saviour presenting his merits: With what affection doth he present his merits, his blood shed upon the Cross now in Heaven? And shall our hearts be cold and frozen, flitting and unsteady, when his affectio [...]s are so much con­cerned? Christ doth not present any Mans case and duties without a sense of hi [...] 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 ha [...] met with in former worship: The delightful remembrance of what conver [...] we have had with God in former worship, would spiritualize our hearts for the present worship. Had Peter had a view of Christs 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 leasure for their Idolatry, had they preserved the sense of the Ma­jesty of God discovered in his late Thunders from Mount Sinai.

6. If any thing intrudes that may choak the Worship, cast it speedily out. We can­not hinder Satan and our own Corruption 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 setling upon us. A man that is running on a considerable Errand, will shun all unnecessary discourse that may make him forget or loyter in his business. What though there may be something offered that is good in it self; yet if it hath a tendency to despoil God of his honour, and our selves of the spiritual intentness in worship, send it away. Those that weed a Field of Corn, examin not the nature and particular virtues of the Weeds; but consider only how they choak the Corn, to which the native juyce of the Soil is design'd. 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.

7. As to private worship, let us lay hold of the most melting oportunities 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 Gods Voice, inviting us into communion with him in some particular act of worship, and promising us some success in it. When the Psalmist had a secret motion to seek Gods face, and complied with itPsal. 27.8., 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, v. 13, 14. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart, wait I say on the Lord.

Reynold'sOne blow will do more on the Iron when it is hot, than a hundred when it is cold: Melted Metals may be stampt with any impression; but once hardned, will with difficulty be brought into the figure we intend.

8. Let us examin our selves at the end of every act of worship, and chide our selves for any carnality we perceive in them. Let us take a review of them, and examin the reason; why art thou so low and carnal oh my Soul? As David did of his disquieted­ness, Psalm 42.5. Why art thou cast down oh my Soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? If any unworthy frames have surprized us in worship, let us seek them out after worship; call them to the bar; make an exact scrutiny into the causes of them, that we may prevent their incursions another time; let our pulses beat quick, by way of anger and indignation against them: This would be a repairing what hath been amiss; otherwise they may grow, and clogg an after worship more than they did a former. Dayly examination is an Antidote against the temptations of the following day, and constant examination of our selves after duty, is a Preserva­tive against vain encroachments in following duties; and upon the finding them out, let us apply the blood of Christ by Faith for our Cure, and draw strength from the death of Christ for the conquest of them, and let us also be humbled for them. God lifts up the humble: When we are humbled for our carnal frames in one duty, we shall find our selves by the Grace of God more elevated in the next.

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. 33.1. One inspir'd by him, to be his Interpreter, and deliver his Oracles; One particularly directed by him:Coccei in Loc. One who as a Servant, did dili­gently employ himself in his Masters business, and acted for the Glory of God;Austin in Loc. He was the Minister of the Old Testament, and the Prophet of the New.

There are two parts of this Psalm.Pareus in loc.

1. A complaint of the frailty of Mans Life in general, verse 3, 4, 5, 6. And then a particular complaint of the condition of the Church, v. 8, 9, 10.

2. A Prayer, v. 12.

But before he speaks of the shortness of humane life, he fortifies them by the con­sideration of the refuge they had, and should find in God, v. 1. Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations.

We have had no settled abode in the Earth, since the time of Abraham's being cal­led out from Ʋr of the Chaldees: We 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 dews of Heaven. Thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generati­ons. Abraham was under thy Conduct; Isaac and Jacob under thy Care: Their Posterity were multiplied by thee, and that under their oppressions. Thou hast been our Shield against dangers, our security in the times of trouble: When we were pursued to the Red-sea, it was not a Creature delivered us; and when we feared the pinching of our Bowels in the Desert, it was no Creature rain'd Manna upon us. Thou hast been our dwelling place; Thou hast kept open house for us, sheltered us against storms, and preserved us from mischief, as a house doth an Inhabitant from wind and weather; and that not in one or two, but in all Generations: Some think [Page 180] an allusion is here made to the Ark, to which they were to have recourse in all emergencies. Our refuge and defence hath not been from created things; not from the Ark, but from the God of the Ark.

Observe,

1. God is a perpetual refuge and security to his People. His Providence is not con­fin'd to one Generation; 'tis not one Age only that tastes of his bounty and com­passion: His eye never yet slept, nor hath he suffered the little Ship of his Church to be swallowed up, though it hath been tost upon the waves: He hath always been an Haven to preserve us, a House to secure us; He hath alway had compassions to pity us, and power to protect us; He hath had a Face to shine, when the world hath had an angry Countenance to frown;Theodoret in loc. He brought Enoch home by an extra­ordinary translation from a brutish world; and when he was resolved to reckon with men for their brutish lives, he lodged Noah, the Phoenix of the world, in an Ark, and kept him alive as a spark in the midst of many waters, whereby to rekindle a Church in the world: In all Generations he is a dwelling place, to secure his people here, or entertain them above.

His Providence is not wearied, nor his Care fainting: He never wanted Will to relieve us, For he hath been our refuge; Nor ever can want Power to support us; for he is a God from everlasting to everlasting. The Church never wanted a Pilot to steer her, and a Rock to shelter her, and dash in pieces the waves which threaten her.

2. How worthy is it to remember former benefits, when we come to beg for new? Ne­ver were the Records of Gods mercies so exactly revised, as when his people have stood in need of new Editions of his Power. How necessary are our wants to stir us up to pay the rent of thankfulness in arrear? He renders himself doubly unwor­thy of the mercies he wants, that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he hath received. God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites, and they in their distress scarce prayed for any deliverance, but that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides; by God to encourage them, and by them to acknowledge their con­fidence in him. The greater our dangers, the more we should call to mind Gods former kindness. We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our persons, or in our age, but those of former times. Thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations.

Moses was not living in the former Generations, yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age. Mercies as well Generations proceed out of the loyns of those that have gon before. All Man-kind are but one Adam; the whole Church but one Body.

In the second verse he backs his former consideration.

1. By the greatness of his Power in forming the world.

2. By the boundlesness of his duration; From everlasting to everlasting. As thou hast been our dwelling place, and expended upon us the strength of thy power, and riches of thy love; so we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part, if we be not wanting on our parts; For the vast Mountains, and fruitful Earth are the works of thy hands; and there is less power requisite for our relief, than there was for their Creation; and though so much strength hath been upon va­rious occasions manifested, yet thy Arm is not weakned; for from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God [...] strong..

Amyrald in loc.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 thy self; 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 the beginning of the Creation, and account the years from the first foun­dation of the world; but after that we must lose our selves in the Abyss of Eternity; we have no Cue to guide our thoughts; we can see no bounds in thy Eternity: But as for Man he traverseth the world a few days, and by thy order pronounced concer­ning all men, returns to the Dust, and moulders into the Grave.

By Mountains, some understand Angels, as being Creatures of a more elevated Nature: By Earth, they understand humane Nature, the Earth being the habitation of Men. There is no need to divert in this place, from the Letter to such a sense. [Page 181] The description seems to be Poetical, and amounts to this; He neither began with the beginning of Time, nor will expire with the End of it: [...] Theodoret in loc. He did not begin when he made himself known to our Fathers; but his Being did precede the Creation of the World; before any created Being was formed, and any time set­led.

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, softning the Ground, and driving several parcels of it together, to grow up into a massy body, as the Sea doth the Sand in several places; but they were at first formed by God.

The Eternity of God is here described.

1. In his Priority [Before the world.]

2. In the extension of his duration. [From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.] He was before the world, yet he neither began nor ends: He is not a Temporary, but an Eternal God: It takes in both parts of Eternity, what was before the Creati­on of the world, and what is after: Though the Eternity of God be one perma­nent state without succession, yet the Spirit of God suiting himself to the weak­ness of our conception, divides it into two parts, one past 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 lye coucht in the verse.

1. The World hath a beginning of being. It was not from Eternity, it was once no­thing; had it been of a very long duration, some Records would have remained of some memorable actions done of a longer date than any extant.

2. 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 it self; it was nothing; it must have a Former.

3. 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.

4. This Being was from Eternity. [From Everlasting]

5. This Being shall endure to Eternity. [To Everlasting]

6. There is but one God, one Eternal. [From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.] None else but one hath the Property of Eternity; the Gods of the Hea­then cannot lay claim to it.

Doct. God is of an eternal duration. The Eternity of God is the foundation of the stability of the Covenant, the great comfort of a Christian. The design of God in Scripture is to set forth his dealing with men in the way of a Covenant.Gen. 1.1. The Priority of God before all things begins the Bible: In the beginning God created. His Covenant can have no foundation, but in his duration before and after the world:Calv. in loc. And Moses here mentions his Eternity; not only with respect to the Essence of God, but to his faederal 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 Eternity à parte ante, though that is the foundation of all the comfort we can take from his Immortality: If he had a beginning, he might have an end; and so all our happiness, hope and being would expire with him; but the Scripture sometimes takes notice of his being without beginning, as well as without end.Psal. 93.2. Thou art from everlasting. Psal. 41.13. Blessed be God from everlasting to everlasting: Prov. 8.23. I was set up from everlasting: If his Wisdom were from everlasting, himself was from everlasting: Whether we understand it of Christ the Son of God, or of the essential wisdom of God, 'tis all one to the present purpose. The Wisdom of God supposeth the Essence of God, as habits in Creatures suppose the being of some power or faculty as their Subject. The Wisdom of God supposeth Mind and Understanding, Essence and Substance.

The notion of Eternity is difficult, as Austin saidConfes. lib. 11. Confes. 14. 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; 'tis easie in the word pronounced, but hardly understood, and more hardly exprest; 'tis better exprest by negative than positive words.

Though we cannot comprehend Eternity, yet we may comprehend that there is [Page 182] an Eternity; as, though we cannot comprehend the Essence of God what he is, yet we may comprehend that he is; we may understand the notion of his Existence, though we cannot understand the infiniteness of his Nature; Yet we may better un­derstand Eternity than Infiniteness; we can better conceive a time with the additi­on of numberless days and years, than imagin a Being without bounds; whence the Apostle joyns his Eternity with his Power;Rom. 1.20. His eternal Power and God-head; Because next to the Power of God apprehended in the Creature, we come necessarily by reasoning to acknowledge the Eternity of God. He that hath an incomprehensible Power, must needs have an Eternity of Nature: His Power is most sensible in the Creatures to the eye of Man, and his Eternity easily from thence deducible by the reason of Man.

Eternity is a perpetual duration, which hath neither beginning nor end: Time hath both. Those things we say are in time, that have beginning, grow up by de­grees, have succession of parts: Eternity is contrary to Time, and is therefore a permanent and immutable state; a perfect possession of life without any variation: It comprehends in it self all years, all ages, all periods of ages; It never begins; it endures after every duration of time, and never ceaseth; it doth as much out-run time, as it went before the beginning of it: Time supposeth something before it, but there can be nothing before Eternity; it were not then Eternity. Time hath a continual succession; the former time passeth away, and another succeeds; the last year is not this year, nor this year the next. We must conceive of Eternity contra­ry to the notion of time; As the nature of time consists in the succession of parts, so the Nature of Eternity in an infinite immutable duration.Moulin. Cod. 1. Ser. 2. P. 52. 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.

1. When it is of a long duration, though it will have an end; When it hath no measures of time determined to it; so Circumcision is said to be in the Flesh for an everlasting Covenant; Gen. 17.13. not purely everlasting, but so long as that administration of the Covenant should endure.

And so when a Servant would not leave his Master, but would have his ear boared; 'tis said, he should be a Servant for ever, Deut. 15.17. i. e. till the Jubilee, which was every fiftieth year: So the Meat-offering they were to offer, is said to be Perpetual: Levit. 6.20. Canaan is said to be given to Abraham for an everlasting possession:Gen. 17.8. When as the Jews are expelled from Canaan, which is given a Prey to the barbarous Nations. In­deed Circumcision was not everlasting; yet the substance of the Covenant whereof this was a sign, viz. that God would be the God of Believers, endures for ever; and that Circumcision of the heart which was signified by Circumcision of the flesh, shall remain for ever in the Kingdom 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 from a participiation of Christ.Gal. 5.2. The Sacrifices were to be perpetual, in regard of the thing signified by them, viz. the death of Christ, which was to endure in the efficacy of it: And the Passover was to be for ever,Exod. 12.24. 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 conferr'd upon the spiritual Seed of Abra­ham.

2. When a thing hath no end, though it hath a beginning. So Angels, and Souls are everlasting; though their being shall never cease, yet there was 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 hath neither beginning nor end; and thus Eternity is a Property of God. In this Doctrin I shall shew

• 1. How God is eternal, or in what respects Eternity is his Property.
• 2. That he is eternal, and must needs be so.
• 3. That Eternity is only proper to God, and not common to him with any Creature.
• 4. The Ʋse.

[Page 163]1. How God is eternal, or in what respects he is so. Eternity is a Negative Attri­bute, and is a denying of God any measures of time, as Immensity 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, we exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending, all flux and change: As the Essence of God cannot be bounded by 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 alway.Gasse [...]d. As created things are said to be somewhere in regard of place, and to be present, past or fu­ture, in regard of time; so the Creator in regard of place, is everywhere; in regard of time, is semper: C [...]llius de Deo cap, 18. p. 41. 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 Begininng; and this is an excellency belonging to the Supream Being:Lingend Tom. 2. p 496. As his Es­sence comprehends 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: God was then before the beginning of it;Gen. 1.1. and what point can be set wherein God began, if he were before the beginning of created things? God was without beginning, though all other things had time and beginning from him. As Unity is before all Numbers, so is God before all his Crea­tures. Abraham called upon the name of the everlasting God;Gen. 21.33. [...] The eternal God: 'Tis opposed to the Heathen Gods, which were but of Yesterday, new coyn'd, and so new; but the Eternal God, was before the world was made: In that sense it is to be understood,Rom. 16.26. The Mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest; and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Command of the ever­lasting God, made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith. The Gospel is not preached by the Command of a new and temporary God, but of that God that was before all Ages; though the manifestation of it be in time, yet the purpose and re­solve of it was from Eternity.

If there were Decrees before the foundation of the World, there was a Decreer before the foundation of the World: Before the foundation of the world he lov'd Christ as a Mediator:John 1 [...].24. A fore-ordination of him was before the foundation of the world; a Choice of men, and therefore a Chooser before the foundation of the world; a Grace given in Christ before the world began, Eph. 1.4. and therefore a Donor of that Grace.2 Tim. 1.9. From those places saith Crellius, it appears that God was before the foundation of the world, but they do not assert an absolute Eternity;Coccei Sum. p. 48. Theol. Gerhard Exe­ges. cap. 86.4. p. 266. But to be before all Crea­tures, is equivalent to his Being from Eternity. Time began with the foundation of the world, but God being before time, could have no beginning in time: Be­fore the beginning of the Creation, and the beginning of Time, there could be nothing but Eternity; nothing but what was uncreated, that is nothing but what was without beginning. To be in time, is, to have a beginning; to be before all time, is never to have a beginning, but always to be: For as between the Creator and Crea­tures there is no Medium, so between Time and Eternity, there is no Medium. 'Tis as easily deduced, that he that was before all Creatures is Eternal, as he that made all Creatures is God: If he had a beginning, he must have it from another, or from himself; if from another, that from whom he received his Being would be better than he, so more a God than he. He cannot be God, that is not Supream; he cannot be Supream that owes his Being to the Power of another: He would not be said only to have Immortality as he is,1 Tim. 6.16. if he had it dependent upon another; nor could he have a beginning from himself; if he had given beginning to himself, then he was once nothing, there was a time when he was not; if he was not, how could he be the Cause of himself? 'Tis impossible for any, to give a Beginning and Being to it self: 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 therefore God doth exist, and hath not his Being from