Existence and Attributes of God
Be glory through Jesus Christ.] As God is only known in and by Christ, so he must be only worshipped and celebrated in and through Christ. In him we must Pray to him, and in him we must Praise him. As all Mercies flow from God through Christ to us, so all our Duties are to be presented to God through Christ.
In the Greek, verbatim, it runs thus; To the alone Wise God, through Jesus Christ, to him be glory forever. But we must not understand it, as if God were Wise by Jesus Christ; but that Thanks is to be given to God through Christ, because in and by Christ God hath revealed his Wisdom to the World. The Greek hath a Repetition of the Article 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not expressed in the Translation, To him be glory. Beza expungeth this Article, but without reason, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is as much as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , To him; and joining this, The only Wise God with the 25th Verse, To him that is of Power to establish you; Reading it thus, To him that is of Power to establish you, the only Wise God, leaving the rest in a Parenthesis, it runs smoothly, To him be glory through Jesus Christ. And Crellius the Socinian observes, that this Article 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which some leave out, might be industriously inserted by the Apostle, to show, that the Glory we ascribe to God, is also given to Christ.
We may Observe, That neither in this place, nor anywhere in Scripture, is the Virgin Mary, or any of the Saints, associated with God or Christ in the Glory ascribed to them.
In the Words there is,
1. An Appropriation of Wisdom to God, and a Remotion of it from all Creatures; Only wise God.
2. A Glorifying him for it.
The Point I shall insist upon, is,
[Doctr.] That Wisdom is a transcendent Excellency of the Divine Nature. We have before spoken of the Knowledge of God, and the Infiniteness of it: The next Attribute is the Wisdom of God. Most, confound the Knowledge and Wisdom of God together; but there is a manifest distinction between them in our conception.
I shall handle it thus;
- 1. Shew what Wisdom is. Then lay down,
- 2. Some Propositions about the Wisdom of God. And show,
- 3. That God is Wise; and only Wise.
- 4. Wherein his Wisdom appears.
- 5. The Use.
I. What Wisdom is. Wisdom among the Greeks, first signified an eminent Perfection in any Art or Mystery; so a good Statuary, Engraver, or Limner, was called Wise, as having an excellent Knowledge in his particular Art. But afterwards the Title of Wise was appropriated to those that devoted themselves to the contemplation of the highest things, that served for a Foundation to Speculative Sciences . But ordinarily we count a Man a Wise Man, when he conducts his Affairs with discretion, and governs his Passions with moderation, and carries himself with a due proportion and harmony in all his concerns.
But in Particular, Wisdom consists,
1. In acting for a right End. The chiefest part of Prudence is in fixing a right End, and in choosing fit Means, and directing them to that scope: To shoot at random is a mark of Folly. As he is the wisest Man, that hath the noblest End and fittest Means; so God is Infinitely Wise; as he is the most excellent Being, so he hath the most excellent End. As there is none more excellent than himself, nothing can be his End but himself: As he is the Cause of all, so he is the End of all; and he puts a true Bias into all the Means he useth to hit the Mark he aims at: Of him, and through him, and to him are all things, Rom. 11.36.
2. Wisdom consists, in observing all Circumstances for Action. He is counted a Wise man, that lays hold of the fittest Opportunities to bring his designs about, that hath the fullest foresight of all the little Intrigues which may happen in a Business he is to manage, and Times every part of his Action in an exact harmony with the proper Minutes of it. God hath all the Circumstances of things in one entire Image before him; he hath a prospect of every little Creek in any design. He sees what Second Causes will act, and when they will act this or that; yea, he determines them to such and such Acts; so that it is impossible he should be mistaken, or miss of the due Season of bringing about his own Purposes. As he hath more Goodness, than to deceive any; so he hath more Understanding, than to be mistaken in anything. Hence the Time of the Incarnation of our Blessed Savior, is called the Fulness of Time, the proper Season for his coming. Every Circumstance about Christ was Tim'd according to the Predictions of God; even so little a thing as not parting his Garment, and the giving him Gall and Vinegar to drink: And all the Blessings he showers down upon his People, according to the Covenant of Grace, are said to come in his season, Ezek. 34.25, 26.
3. Wisdom consists, In willing and acting according to the right Reason, according to a right Judgment of things. We never count a Wilful man a Wise man, but him only that acts according to a right Rule, when right Counsels are taken and vigorously executed. The Resolves and Ways of God are not mere Will, but Will guided by the Reason and Counsel of his own Infinite Understanding; Eph. 1.11. Who works all things according to the counsel of his own will. The Motions of the Divine Will are not rash, but follow the Proposals of the Divine Mind: He chooses that which is fittest to be done, so that all his Works are graceful, and all his Ways have a comeliness and decorum in them. Hence all his Ways are said to be Judgment, Deut. 32.4. not mere Will.
Hence it appears, that Wisdom and Knowledge are two distinct Perfections, Knowledge hath its seat in the Speculative Understanding, Wisdom in the Practical. Wisdom and Knowledge are evidently distinguished as two several gifts of the Spirit in Man, 1 Cor. 12.8. To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom, to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit. Knowledge is an understanding of general Rules, and Wisdom is a drawing Conclusions from those Rules in order to particular cases. A Man may have the Knowledge of the whole Scripture, and have all Learning in the Treasury of his Memory, and yet be destitute of Skill to make use of them upon particular Occasions, and untie those knotty Questions which may be proposed to him, by a ready application of those Rules.
Again, Knowledge and Wisdom may be distinguished in our Conception, as two distinct Perfections in God: The Knowledge of God is his Understanding of all things; his Wisdom is the Skilful resolving and acting of all things. And the Apostle, in his Admiration of him, owns them as distinct, Oh the depths of the riches, both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God, Rom. 11.33. Knowledge is the Foundation of Wisdom, and antecedent to it; Wisdom the Superstructure upon Knowledge: Men may have Knowledge without Wisdom, but not Wisdom without Knowledge; according to our common Proverb, The greatest Clerks are not the wisest Men. All Practical Knowledge is founded in Speculation, either Secundum rem, as in a Man; or Secundum rationem, as in God. They agree in this, that they are both Acts of the Understanding; but Knowledge is the Apprehension of a thing, and Wisdom is the Appointing and Ordering of things. Wisdom is the splendor and luster of Knowledge shining forth in Operations, and is an Act both of Understanding and Will; Understanding in Counselling and Contriving, Will in Resolving and Executing: Counsel and Will are linked together, Ephes. 1.11.
II. The Second thing is to lay down some Propositions in general, concerning the Wisdom of God.
1. There is an Essential and a Personal Wisdom of God. The Essential Wisdom, is the Essence of God; the Personal Wisdom, is the Son of God. Christ is called Wisdom by himself, Luke 7.35. The Wisdom of God by the Apostle, 1 Cor. 1.24. The Wisdom I speak of belongs to the Nature of God, and is considered as a necessary Perfection. The Personal Wisdom is called so, because he opens to us the Secrets of God. If the Son were that Wisdom whereby the Father is Wise, the Son would be also the Essence whereby the Father is God. If the Son were the Wisdom of the Father, whereby he is Essentially Wise; the Son would be the Essence of the Father, and the Father would have his Essence from the Son, since the Wisdom of God is the Essence of God; and so the Son would be the Father, if the Wisdom and Power of the Father were originally in the Son.
2. Therefore Secondly, The Wisdom of God is the same with the Essence of God. Wisdom in God is not a Habit added to his Essence, as it is in Man, but it is his Essence. 'It is like the splendor of the Sun, the same with the Sun itself; or like the brightness of Crystal, which is not communicated to it by anything else, as the Brightness of a Mountain is by the Beam of the Sun, but it is one with the Crystal itself. 'It is not a Habit superadded to the Divine Essence; that would be repugnant to the Simplicity of God, and speak him compounded of divers Principles; it would be contrary to the Eternity of his Perfections: If he be Eternally Wise, his Wisdom is his Essence; for there is nothing Eternal, but the Essence of God. As the Sun melts some things, and hardens others; blackens some things, and whitens others, and produceth contrary qualities in different Subjects; yet it is but one and the same quality in the Sun, which is the cause of those contrary Operations: So the Perfections of God seem to be diverse in our Conceptions, yet they are but one and the same in God. The Wisdom of God, is God acting Prudently; as the Power of God, is God acting Powerfully, and the Justice of God, is God acting Righteously: And therefore 'tis more truly said, that God is Wisdom, Justice, Truth, Power, than that He is Wise, Just, True, &c. as if he were compounded of Substance and Qualities. All the Operations of God proceed from one Simple Essence; as all the Operations of the Mind of Man, though various, proceed from one faculty of Understanding,
3. Wisdom is the Property of God alone. He is only Wise. 'It is an Honor peculiar to him. Upon the account that no Man deserved the Title of Wise, but that it was a Royalty belonging to God , Pythagoras would not be called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Title given to their Learned Men; but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The Name Philosopher, arose out of a respect to this transcendent Perfection of God.
1. God is only Wise necessarily. As He is necessarily God, so he is necessarily Wise; for the Notion of Wisdom is inseparable from the Notion of a Deity. When we say God is a Spirit, is True, Righteous, Wise; we understand that he is transcendently these, by an intrinsic and absolute necessity, by virtue of his own Essence, without the Efficiency of any other, or any Efficiency in and by him •• lf. God doth not make himself Wise, no more than he makes himself God. As • e is a necessary Being in regard of his Life, so he is necessarily Wise in regard o • • is Understanding. Synesius saith, that God is Essentiated, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , by his Understan • ing. He places the Substance of God in Understanding and Wisdom: Wisdom is the first vital Operation of God. He can no more be Unwise than he can be Untrue; for Folly in the Mind is much the same with Falsity in Speech. Wisdom among Men is gained by Age and Experience, furthered by Instructions and Exercise; but the Wisdom of God is his Nature. As the Sun cannot be without Light, while it remains a Sun; and as Eternity cannot be without Immortality; So neither can God be without Wisdom. As he only hath Immortality, 1 Tim. 6.16. not arbitrarily, but necessarily; so he only hath Wisdom: Not because he will be Wise, but because he cannot but be Wise. He cannot but contrive Counsels, and exert Operations, becoming the Greatness and Majesty of his Nature.
2. Therefore only Wise originally. God is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Men acquire Wisdom by the loss of their fairest years; but his Wisdom is the Perfection of the Divine Nature, not the birth of Study or the growth of Experience, but as necessary, as Eternal, as his Essence. He goes not out of himself to search Wisdom: He needs no more the Brains of Creatures in the contrivance of his Purposes, than he doth their Arm in the execution of them. He needs no Counsel, he receives no Counsel from any; Rom. 11.34. Who hath been his Counselor? and Isai 40.14. With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, or taught him in the path of Judgment, and taught him Knowledge, and shown to him the path of Understanding? He is the only Fountain of Wisdom to others; Angels and Men have what Wisdom they have, by communication from him. All created Wisdom is a spark of the Divine Light, like that of the Stars borrowed from the Sun. He that borrows Wisdom from another, and doth not originally possess it in his own Nature, cannot properly be called Wise. As God is the only Being, in regard that all other Beings are derived from him; so he is only Wise, because all other Wisdom slows from him. He is the Spring of Wisdom to all; none the Original of Wisdom to him.
3. Therefore only Wise perfectly. There is no cloud upon his Understanding. He hath a distinct and certain Knowledge of all things that can fall under action: As he hath a perfect Knowledge without Ignorance, so he hath a Beautiful Wisdom without Mole or Wart. Men are wise, yet have not an Understanding so vast as to grasp all things; nor a Perspicacity so clear, as to penetrate into the depths of all Beings. Angels have more delightful and lively sparks of Wisdom, yet so imperfect, that in regard of the Wisdom of God they are charged with folly, Job 4.18. Their Wisdom as well as their Holiness is veiled in the Presence of God. It vanisheth, as the glowing of a Fire doth before the beauty of the Sun; or as a Light of a Candle in the midst of a Sunshine contracts itself, and none of its Rays are seen, but in the body of the Flame. The Angels are not perfectly Wise, because they are not perfectly Knowing: The Gospel, the great Discovery of God's Wisdom, was hid from them for Ages.
4. Therefore only Wise universally. Wisdom in one Man is of one sort, in another of another sort; one is a wise Tradesman, another a wise Statesman, and another a wise Philosopher: One is wise in the business of the World, another is wise in Divine Concerns. One hath not so much of plenty of one sort, but he may have a scantiness in another; one may be wise for Invention, and foolish in. Execution; an Artificer may have skill to frame an Engine, and not skill to use it: The ground that is fit for Olives, may not be fit for Vines; that will bear one sort of Grain and not another. But God hath an Universal Wisdom, because his Nature is Wise; 'tis not limited, but hovers over everything, shines in every Being. His Executions are as wise as his Contrivances: He is Wise in his Resolves, and wise in his Ways; Wise in all the varieties of his Works of Creation, Government, Redemption. As his Will wills all things, and his Power effects all things; so his wisdom is the universal Director of the motions of his will, and the executions of his power: As his Righteousness is the measure of the matter of his Actions, so his Wisdom is the Rule that directs the manner of his Actions. The absolute power of God is not an unruly power: His wisdom orders all things, so that nothing is done, but what is fit and convenient, and agreeable to so excellent a Being: As he cannot do an unjust thing because of his righteousness, so he cannot do an unwise act, because of his infinite wisdom. Though God be not necessitated to any Operation without himself, as to the Creation of anything, yet supposing he will act, his wisdom necessitates him to do that which is congruous, as his righteousness necessitates him to do that which is just: So that though the will of God be the principle, yet his wisdom is the rule of his Actions. We must in our conceiving of the order, suppose wisdom antecedent to will: None that acknowledges a God, can have such an impious thought, as to affix temerity and rashness to any of his proceedings.
All his Decrees are drawn out of the infinite Treasury of Wisdom in himself. He resolves nothing about any of his Creatures without Reason; but the reason of his purposes is in himself, and springs from himself, and not from the Creatures: There is not one thing that he wills, but he wills by counsel, and works by counsel, Eph. 1.11. Counsel writ down every line, every letter, in his eternal Book; and all the Orders are drawn out from thence by his wisdom and will: What was illustrious in the contrivance, glitters in the execution. His understanding and will are infinite; what is therefore the act of his will, is the result of his understanding, and therefore rational: His understanding and will join hands; there is no contest in God, will against mind, and mind against will; they are one in God, one in his resolves, and one in all his works.
5. Therefore he is only wise perpetually. As the wisdom of man is got by ripeness of Age, so it is lost by decay of years; 'tis got by instruction, and lost by dotage. The perfectest minds, when in the wane, have been darkened with folly: Nebuchadnezzar that was wise for a man, became as foolish as a Brute. But the Ancient of days is an unchangeable Possessor of Prudence; his wisdom is a mirror of brightness, without a defacing spot. It was possessed by him in the beginning of his ways, before his works of old, Prov. 8.22. and he can never be dispossessed of it in the end of his works. 'It is inseparable from him: The Being of his Godhead may as soon cease, as the Beauty of his Mind; with him is wisdom, Job 12.13. it is inseparable from him, therefore as durable as his Essence. 'It is a wisdom infinite, and therefore without increase or decrease in itself. The experience of so many Ages in the Government of the World, hath added nothing to the immensity of it; as the shining of the Sun since the Creation of the World, hath added nothing to the light of that glorious Body. As Ignorance never darkens his knowledge, so Folly never disgraces his Prudence: God infatuates men, but neither Men nor Devils can infatuate God; he is unerringly wise; his Counsel doth not vary and flatter; 'tis not one day one Counsel, and another day another, but it stands like an immovable Rock, or a Mountain of Brass. The Counsel of the Lord stands forever, and the thoughts of his heart to all Generations, Psal. 33.11.
6. He is only incomprehensibly wise. His thoughts are deep, Psal. 92.5. His judgments unsearchable, his ways past finding out, Rom. 11.33. Depths that cannot be fathomed. A splendor, more dazzling to our dim minds, than the light of the Sun to our weak eyes. The wisdom of one man may be comprehended by another, and over comprehended; and often men are understood by others to be wiser in their Actions, than they understand themselves to be. And the wisdom of one Angel may be measured by another Angel of the same perfection. But as the Essence, so the wisdom of God is incomprehensible to any Creature, God is only comprehended by God: The secrets of wisdom in God are double to the expressions of it in his works, Job 11.6, 7. Canst thou by searching find out God. There is an unfathomable depth in all his Decrees, in all his Works; we cannot comprehend the reason of his Works, much less that of his Decrees, much less that in his Nature; because his wisdom being infinite as well as his power, can no more act to the highest pitch, than his power. As his power is not terminated by what he hath wrought, but he could give further testimonies of it; so neither is his wisdom, but he could furnish us with infinite expressions and pieces of his skill. As in regard of his Immensity, he is not bounded by the limits of place; in regard of his Eternity, not measured by the Minutes of Time; in regard of his Power, not terminated with this or that number of Objects; so in regard of his Wisdom, he is not confined to this or that particular mode of working; so that in regard of the reason of his Actions, as well as the Glory and Majesty of his Nature, he dwells in unapproachable light, 1 Tim. 6.16. and whatsoever we understand of his wisdom in Creation and Providence, is infinitely less than what is in himself, and his own unbounded Nature.
Many things in Scripture are declared chiefly to be the acts of the Divine will, yet we must not think that they were acts of mere will without wisdom, but they are represented so to us, because we are not capable of understanding the infinite Reason of its acts: His Sovereignty is more intelligible to us than his Wisdom. We can better know the Commands of a Superior, and the Laws of a Prince, than understand the reason that gave birth to those Laws. We may know the Orders of the Divine will, as they are published, but not the sublime Reason ot his will. Though Election be an act of God's Sovereignty, and he hath no cause from without to determine him; yet his infinite wisdom stood not silent while mere Dominion acted. Whatsoever God doth, he doth wisely, as well as sovereignly; though that wisdom which lies in the secret places of the Divine Being, be as incomprehensible to us, as the effects of his Sovereignty and Power in the World are visible: God can give a reason of his proceeding, and that drawn from himself, though we understand it not.
The causes of things visible lie hid from us; Doth any man know how to distinguish the seminal virtue of a small Seed from the Body of it, and in what nook and corner that lies, and what that is that spreads itself in so fair a Plant, and so many Flowers? Can we comprehend the Justice of God's proceedings in the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the Godly? Yet as we must conclude them the fruits of an unerring righteousness, so we must conclude all his actions the fruits of an unspotted wisdom, though the concatenation of all his counsels is not intelligible to us; for he is as essentially and necessarily wise, as he is essentially and necessarily good and righteous.
God is not only so wise that nothing more wise can be conceived, but he is more wise than can be imagined; something greater in all his Perfections than can be comprehended by any Creature. 'It is a foolish thing therefore to question that which we cannot comprehend: we should adore it instead of disputing against it; and take it for granted, that God would not order anything, were it not agreeable to the Sovereignty of his wisdom, as well as that of his will. Though the reason of man proceed from the wisdom of God, yet there is more difference between the reason of man, and the wisdom of God, than between the light of the Sun, and the feeble shining of the Glowworm; yet we presume to censure the ways of God, as if our purblind reason had a reach above him.
7. God is only wise infallibly. The wisest men meet with rubs in the way, that make them fall short of what they aim at; they often design, and fail; then begin again, and yet all their counsels end in smoke, and none of them arrive at perfection. If the wisest Angels lay a plot, they may be disappointed; for though they are higher and wiser than man, yet there is one higher and wiser than they, that can check their Projects. God always compasseth his end, never fails of anything he designs and aims at; all his undertakings are counsel and will; as nothing can resist the efficacy of his will, so nothing can countermine the skil of his counsel; There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord, Prov. 21.30. He compasseth his ends by those actions of Men and Devils, wherein they think to cross him; they shoot at their own Mark, and hit his. Lucifer 's plot by Divine wisdom fulfilled God's purpose against Lucifer 's mind. The counsel of Redemption by Christ, the end of the Creation of the World, rode into the World upon the back of the Serpents Temptation. God never mistakes the means, nor can there be any disappointments, to make him vary his Counsels, and pitch upon other means than what before he had ordained. His word that goeth forth of his mouth shall not return to him void, but it shall accomplish that which he pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto he sent it, Isa. 55.11. What is said of his word, is true of his counsel, it shall prosper in the thing for which it is appointed; it cannot be defeated by all the Legions of Men and Devils▪ for as he thinks, so shall it come to pass; and as he hath purposed, so shall it stand; The Lord hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? Isa. 14.24, 27. The wisdom of the Creature is a drop from the wisdom of God, and is like a drop to the Ocean, and a shadow to the Sun; and therefore is not able to mate the wisdom of God, which is infinite and boundless. No wisdom is exempted from mistakes, but the Divine: He is wise in all his Resolves, and never calls b • ck his words and purposes, Isa. 31.2.
III. The third General is to prove that God is wise.
This is ascribed to God in Scripture; Dan. 2.20. Wisdom and might are his; Wisdom to contrive, and Power to effect. Where should Wisdom dwell, but in the head of a Deity; and where should Power triumph, but in the arm of Omnipotency? All that God doth, he doth artificially, skillfully; whence he is called the Builder of the Heavens, Heb. 11.10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an artificial and curious Builder, a Builder by Art. And that word, Prov. 8.30. meant of Christ, Then I was by him as one brought up with him; some render it, Then was I the curious Artificer; and the same word is translated a cunning workman, Cant. 7.5. For this cause Counsel is ascribed to God ; not properly; for Counsel implies something of Ignorance, or Irresolution, antecedent to the consultation, and a posture of will afterwards, which was not before. Counsel is properly a laborious deliberation, and a reasoning of things: An invention of means for the attainment of the end, after a discussing and reasoning of all the doubts which arise pro re natâ, about the matter in counsel: But God hath no need to deliberate in himself, what are the best means to accomplish his ends: He is never ignorant, or undetermin'd, what course he should take, as men are before they consult. But it is an expression in condescension to our Capacity, to signify that God doth nothing but with reason and understanding, with the highest prudence, and for the most glorious ends, as men do after consultation, and the weighing of every foreseen circumstance.
Though he acts all things Soveraignly by his will, yet he acts all things wisely by his understanding; and there is not a decree of his will, but he can render a satisfactory reason for in the face of Men and Angels. As he is the Cause of all things, so he hath the highest wisdom for the ordering of all things. If wisdom among men be the knowledge of Divine and Human things, God must be infinitely wise, since knowledge is most radiant in him; he knows what Angels and Men do, and infinitely more; what is known by them obscurely, is known by him clearly: What is known by man after it is done, was known by God before it was wrought. By his wisdom as much as by anything, he infinitely differs from all his Creatures; as by wisdom Man differs from a Brute. We cannot frame a notion of God, without conceiving him infinitely wise. We should render him very inconsiderable, to imagine him furnished with an infinite knowledge, and not have an infinite wisdom to make use of that knowledge; or to fancy him with a mighty power, destitute of prudence. Knowledge without prudence is an eye without motion; and power without discretion, is an arm without a head; a hand to act, without understanding to contrive and model; a strength to act, without reason to know how to act: It would be a miserable notion of a God, to fancy him with a brutish and unguided power. The Heathens therefore had, and could not but have this natural notion of God. Plato therefore calls him Men's , and Cleanthes used to call God Reason, and Socrates thought the title of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 too magnificent to be attributed to anything else but God alone.
Arguments to prove that God is wise.
Reas. 1. God could not be infinitely perfect without wisdom. A rational Nature is better than an irrational Nature. A man is not a perfect man without reason; how can God without it, be an infinitely perfect God. Wisdom is the most eminent of all Virtues; all the other perfections of God without this, would be as a body without an eye, a soul without understanding. A Christian's Graces want their luster, when they are destitute of the guidance of wisdom: Mercy is a feebleness, and Justice a cruelty, Patience a timerousness, and Courage a madness, without the conduct of wisdom; so the Patience of God would be cowardice, his Power an oppression, his Justice a tyranny, without wisdom as the Spring and Holiness as the Rule. No attribute of God could shine with a due luster and brightness without it. Power is a great perfection, but wisdom a greater . Wisdom may be without much power, as in Bees and Ants; but power is a tyrannical thing without wisdom and righteousness. The Pilot is more valuable because of his skil, than the Gally Slave because of his strength; and the conduct of a General more estimable than the might of a private Soldier. Generals are chosen more by their skill to guide, than their strength to act; What a Clod is a man without Prudence; what a Nothing would God be without it? This is the Salt that gives relish to all other perfections in a Creature: This is the Jewel in the Ring of all the Excellencies of the Divine Nature, and Holiness is the splendor of that Jewel.
Now God being the first Being, possesses whatsoever is most noble in any Being. If therefore Wisdom, which is the most noble perfection in any Creature, were wanting to God, he would be deficient in that which is the highest Excellency. God being the living God, as he is frequently termed in Scripture, he hath therefore the most perfect manner of living, and that must be a pure and intellectual life: Being essentially living, he is essentially in the highest degree of living. As he hath an infinite life above all Creatures; so he hath an infinite intellectual life, and therefore an infinite Wisdom; whence some have called God not sapientem, but super-sapientem , not only wise, but above all wisdom.
Reas. 2. Without infinite Wisdom he could not govern the World. Without wisdom in forming the Matter, which was made by Divine power, the World could have been no other than a Chaos; and without wisdom in Government, it could have been no other than a heap of Confusion; without wisdom the World could not have been created in the posture it is. Creation supposeth a determination of the will putting power upon acting; the determination of the will supposeth the counsel of the understanding, determining the will: No work, but supposeth understanding as well as will in a rational Agent. As without skill things could not be created, so without it things cannot be governed. Reason is a necessary perfection to him that presides over all things: Without knowledge there could not be in God a foundation for Government, and without wisdom there could not be an exercise of Government; and without the most excellent wisdom, he could not be the most excellent Governor. He could not be an universal Governor, without a universal wisdom; nor the sole Governor without an unimitable wisdom; nor an independent Governor without an original and independent wisdom; nor a perpetual Governor without an incorruptible wisdom. He would not be the Lord of the World in all points, without skill to order the affairs of it. Power and wisdom are foundations of all Authority and Government: Wisdom to know how to rule, and command; Power to make those Commands obeyed: No regular Order could issue out without the first, nor could any order be enforced without the second. A feeble wisdom, and a brutish power, seldom or never produce any good effect. Magistracy without wisdom, would be a frantic power, a rash conduct; like a strong arm when the eye is out, it strikes it knows not what, and leads it knows not whither. Wisdom without power, would be like a great body without feet , like the knowledge of a Pilot that hath lost his arm, who though he knows the Rule of Navigation, and what Course to follow in his Voyage, yet cannot manage the Helm: But when those two, wisdom and power are linkit together, there ariseth from both a fitness for Government: There is wisdom to propose an end, and both wisdom and power to employ means that conduct to that end. And therefore when God demonstrates to Job his right of Government, and the unreasonableness of Job 's quarrelling with his proceedings, he chiefly urgeth upon him the consideration of those two excellencies of his Nature, power and wisdom, which are expressed in his Works . A Prince without wisdom, is but a Title without a Capacity to perform the Office; no man without it is fit for government: Nor could God without wisdom exercise a just Dominion in the World. He hath therefore the highest wisdom, since he is the universal Governor. That wisdom which is able to govern a Family, may not be able to govern a City; and that wisdom which governs a City, may not be able to govern a Nation or Kingdom, much less a World. The bounds of God's government being greater than any, his wisdom for government must needs surmount the wisdom of all. And though the Creatures be not in number actually infinite, yet they cannot be well governed, but by one endowed with infinite Discretion. Providential government can be no more without infinite wisdom, than infinite wisdom can be without Providence.
Reas. 3. The Creatures working for an end, without their own knowledge, demonstrates the wisdom of God that guides them. All things in the World work for some end; the ends are unknown to them, though many of their ends are visible to us. As there was some prime Cause, which by his power inspired them with their several instincts, so there must be some supreme wisdom, which moves and guides them to their end. As their Being manifests his power that endowed them, so the acting according to the rules of their Nature, which they themselves understand not, manifests his wisdom in directing them. Every thing that acts for an end, must know that end, or be directed by another to attain that end. The Arrow doth not know who shoots it, or to what end it is shot, or what Mark is aimed at; but the Archer that puts it in, and darts it out of the Bow, knows. A Watch hath a regular motion, but neither the Spring nor the Wheels that move, know the end of their motion; no man will judge a wisdom to be in the Watch, but in the Artificer that disposed the Wheels and Spring, by a joint combination to produce such a motion for such an end. Doth either the Sun that enlivens the Earth, or the Earth that travels with the Plant, know what Plant it produceth in such a Soil, what temper it should be of, what fruit it should bear, and of what color? What Plant knows its own medicinal qualities, its own beautiful flowers, and for what use they are ordained? When it strikes up its head from the Earth, doth it know what proportion of them there will be? Yet it produceth all these things in a state of ignorance. The Sun warms the Earth, concocts the humors, excites the virtue of it, and cherishes the Seeds, which are cast into her lap, yet all unknown to the Sun or the Earth. Since therefore that Nature, that is the immediate cause of those things, doth not understand its own quality, nor operation, nor the end of its action, that which thus directs them must be conceived to have an infinite wisdom. When things act by a Rule they know not, and move for an end they understand not, and yet work harmoniously together for one end, that all of them, we are sure, are ignorant of, it mounts up our minds to acknowledge the wisdom of that supreme Cause, that hath rang'd all these inferior Causes in their order, and imprinted upon them the Laws of their motions, according to the Ideas in his own Mind, who orders the Rule by which they act, and the end for which they act, and directs every motion according to their several Natures, and therefore is possessed with infinite wisdom in his own Nature.
Reas. 4. God is the fountain of all wisdom in the creatures and therefore is infinitely wise himself. As he hath a fullness of being in himself, because the streams of being are derived to other things from him; So he hath a fullness of wisdom, because he is the spring of wisdom to Angels and men. That Being must be infinitely wise, from whence all other wisdom derives its original: For nothing can be in the effect, which is not eminently in the cause; the cause is always more perfect than the effect. If therefore the creatures are wise, the Creator must be much more wise. If the Creator were destitute of wisdom, the creature would be much more perfect than the Creator. If you consider the wisdom of the Spider in her web, which is both her house and net; the artifice of the Be in her Comb, which is both her chamber and granary; the provision of the Pismire in her repositories for corn; the wisdom of the Creator is illustrated by them; whatsoever excellency you see in any creature, is an Image of some excellency in God. The skill of the artificer is visible in the fruits of his Art; a workman transcribes his spirit in the work of his hands. But the wisdom of rational creatures, as men, doth more illustrate it: All Arts among men are the rays of divine Wisdom shining upon them, and by a common gift of the Spirit enlightening their minds to curious inventions, as Prov. 8.12. I wisdom find out the knowledge of witty inventions; that is, I give a faculty to men to find them out; without my wisdom, all things would be buried in darkness and ignorance: Whatsoever wisdom there is in the World, it is but a shadow of the wisdom of God, a small Rivulet derived, from him, a spark leaping out from Uncreated Wisdom. Isa 54.16. He created the Smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and makes the Instruments: The skill to use those weapons in War-like Enterprises is from him, I have created the waster to destroy; 'It is not meant of creating their Persons, but communicating to them their Art; He speaks it there to expel fear from the Church of all war-like preparations against them: He had given Men the skill to form and use Weapons, and could as well strip them of it, and defeat their purposes: The Art of husbandry is a fruit of divine teaching, Isa. 28.24, 25. If those lower kinds of Knowledge, that are common to all Nations, and easily learned by all, are discoveries of Divine Wisdom, much more the nobler Sciences, intellectual and Political Wisdom, Dan. 2.21. He gives Wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding; speaking of the more abstruse parts of knowledge The; inspiration of the Almighty gives Understanding, Job. 32.8. Hence the Wisdom which Solomon expressed in the Harlots case, 1 Kings 3.28. was in the Judgment of all Israel, the Wisdom of God; that is, a fruit of Divine Wisdom, a beam communicated to him from God. Every man's Soul is endowed more or less with those noble qualities: The Soul of every man exceeds that of a Brute; If the streams be so excellent, the Fountain must be fuller and clearer. The first Spirit must infinitely more possess, what other Spirits derive from him by Creation; Were the Wisdom of all the Angels in Heaven and men on Earth collected in one Spirit, it must be infinitely less than what is in the Spring; for no Creature can be equal to the Creator. As the highest Creature already made, or that we can conceive may be made by Infinite Power, would be infinitely below God in the Notion of a Creature, so it would be infinitely below God in the Notion of Wise.
IV. The fourth Thing is, Wherein the Wisdom of God appears.
It appears (1.) In Creation, (2.) In Government, (3.) In Redemption.
1. In Creation. As in a Musical Instrument, there is first the skill of the Workman in the frame; then the skill of the Musician in stringing it, proper for such Musical Notes as he will express upon it; and after that the tempering of the Strings by various stops to a delightful Harmony: So is the Wisdom of God seen in framing the World, then in tuning it, and afterwards in the motion of the several Creatures. The Fabric of the World is called the Wisdom of God; 1 Cor. 1.21. After that in the Wisdom of God the World by Wisdom knew not God; i. e. by the Creation the World knew not God; the framing Cause is there put for the Effect and the Work framed: Because the Divine Wisdom stepped forth in the Creatures to a public appearance, as if it had presented itself in a visible shape to Man, giving Instructions in and by the Creatures, to know and adore him. What we translate 1 Gen. 1. In the beginning God Created the Heaven and the earth, the Targum expresseth, In wisdom God created the Heaven and the Earth. Both bear a stamp of this perfection on them: And when the Apostle tells the Romans, Rom. 1.20. the invisible things of God were clearly understood by the things that are made; the word he uses is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; this signifies a work of labor, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a work of skill, or a Poem. The whole Creation is a Poem, every Species a Stanza, and every individual Creature a Verse in it. The Creation presents us with a prospect of the Wisdom of God, as a Poem doth the Reader with the wit and fancy of the Composer: By wisdom he created the Earth, Pro. 3.19. and stretched out the Heavens by discretion, Jer. 10.12. There is not anything so mean, so small, but Glitters with a beam of Divine skill; and the consideration of them would justly make every man subscribe to that of the Psalmist, O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in Wisdom hast thou made them all. Psal. 104.24. All, the least as well as the greatest, and the meanest as well as the noblest; even those creatures which seem ugly and deformed to us, as Toads, &c. because they fall short of those perfections which are the dowry of other Animals: In these there is a footstep of Divine Wisdom, since they were not produced by him at random, but determined to some particular end, and designed to some usefulness, as parts of the World in their several natures and stations. God could never have had a satisfaction in the review of his works, and pronounced them good or comely, as he did, Gen. 1.31. had they not been agreeable to that eternal original Copy in his own mind: 'It is said he was refreshit, viz. with that review, Exod. 31.17. which could not have been, if his piercing eye had found any defect in anything which had sprung out of his hand, or an unsuitableness to that end for which he Created them. He seems to do as a man that hath made a curious and polite work, with exact care to peer about every part and line, if he could perceive any imperfection in it, to rectify the mistake: But no defect was found by the infinitely wise God upon this second examination.
This Wisdom of the Creation appears,
(1.) In the variety, (2.) In the beauty, (3.) The fitness of every Creature for its use, (4) The subordination of one Creature to another, and the joint concurrence of all to one common end.
1. In the Variety. Psal. 104.24. O Lord how manifold are thy works! How great a variety is there 〈◊〉 Animals and Plants, with a great variety of forms, Shapes, Figurations, Colours, various smells, virtues and qualities! and this rarity is produced from one and the same Matter, as Beasts and Plants from the Earth; Gen. 1.11.24. Let the Earth bring forth living Creatures; and the Earth brought forth grass and the herb yielding seed after his kind: Such diversity of Fowl and Fish from the water; Gen. 1.20. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life, and Fowl that may fly; Such a beautiful and active variety from so dull a matter as the Earth; so solid a variety from so fluid a matter as the Water; so noble a piece as the body of man, with such variety of members, fit to entertain a more excellent Soul as a guest, from so mean a matter as the dust of the ground, Gen. 2.7. This extraction of such variety of forms out of one single and dull matter, is the Chimistry of Divine wisdom: 'It is a greater skill to frame noble Bodies of vile Matter, as varieties of precious Vessels of Clay and Earth, than of a nobler Matter, as Gold and Silver.
Again, all those varieties propagate their kind in every particular and quality of their nature, & uniformly bring forth exact copies according to the first pattern God made of the kind, Gen. 1.11.12.24. Consider also how the same piece of ground is garnished with Plants and Flowers of several virtues, Fruits, Colours, Scents, without our being able to perceive any variety in the Earth that breeds them, and not so great a difference in the Roots that bear them. Add to this, the diversities of Birds of different Colours, Shapes, Notes, consisting of various Parts, Wings like Oars to cut the Air, & Tails as the Rudder of a Ship to guide their motion.
How various also are the Endowments of the Creatures? some have Vegetation, and the power of growth; others have the addition of Sense, and others the excellency of Reason; something wherein all agree, and something wherein all differ; variety in unity, and unity in variety: The wisdom of the Workman had not been so conspicuous, had there been only one degree of goodness: The greatest skill is seen in the greatest variety.
The comeliness of the Body is visible in the variety of Members, and their usefulness to one another; What an inform thing had Man been, had he been all Ear, or all Eye? If God had made all the Stars to be Suns, it would have been a demonstration of his Power, but perhaps less of his Wisdom; No Creatures, with the Natures they now have, could have continued in being under so much heat: There was no less Wisdom went to the frame of the least, than to the greatest Creature. It speaks more art in a Limner to paint a Landskip exactly, than to draw the Sun, though the Sun be a more glorious Body.
I might instance also in the different Characters and Features imprinted upon the Countenances of Men and Women, the differences of Voices and Statures, whereby they are distinguished from one another: These are the Foundations of Order and of Human Society and Administration of Justice; what Confusion would have been, if a grown-up Son could not be known from his Father, the Magistrate from the Subject, the Creditor from the Debtor, the Innocent from the Criminal? The Laws God hath given to Mankind, could not have been put in execution: This variety speaks the wisdom of God.
2. The wisdom of the Creation appears in the beauty and order and situation of the several Creatures. Eccles. 3.11. He hath made everything beautiful in his time. As their Being was a fruit of Divine Power, so their Order is a fruit of Divine wisdom. All Creatures are as Members in the great Body of the World, proportioned to one another, and contributing to the beauty of the whole; so that if the particular forms of everything, the union of all for the Composition of the World, and the Laws which are established in the Order of Nature for its conservation, be considered, it would ravish us with an admiration of God: All the Creatures are as so many Pictures or Statues, exactly framed by line; Psal. 19.4. Their Line is gone through all the Earth; Their Line, a measuring Line, or a Carpenters Rule, whereby he proportions several pieces to be exactly linked and coupled together. Their Line, that is, their harmonious proportion, and the instruction from it is gone forth through all the Earth. Upon the account of this harmony, some of the ancient Heathens framed the Images of their God's with Musical Instruments in their hands, signifying tha • God wrought all things in a due proportion .
The Heavens speak this wisdom in their Order.
The Revolutions of the Sun and Moon determine the Seasons of the Year, and make Day and Night in an orderly Succession. The Stars beautify the Heavens, and influence the Earth, and keep their Courses, Judges 5.20. They keep their Stations without interfering with one another; and though they have rould about for so many Ages, they observe their distinct Laws, and in the variety of their Motions have not disturbed one another's Functions.
The Sun is set as the heart in the midst of this great Body, to afford warmth to all: Had it been set lower, it had long since turned the Earth into flame and ashes: Had it been placed higher, the Earth would have wanted the nourishment and refreshment necessary for it. Too much nearness had ruined the Earth by parching heat, and too great a distance had destroyed the Earth by starving it with cold.
The Sun hath also its appointed Motion; had it been fixed without motion, half of the Earth had been unprofitable; there had been a perpetual darkness in a moiety of it; nothing had been produced for nourishment, and so it had been rendered uninhabitable: But now by this motion, it visits all the Climates of the World, runs its Circuit, so that nothing is hid from the heat thereof, Psal. 19.6. It imparts its virtue to every Corner of the World in its daily and yearly visits. Had it been fixed, the Fruits of the Earth under it had been parchit and destroyed before their Maturity; but all those Inconveniencies are provided against by the perpetual Motion of the Sun.
This Motion is orderly ; It makes its daily Course from East to West, its yeary Motion from North to South: It goes to the North, till it comes to the Point God hath set it, and then turns back to the South, and gains some point every day: It never riseth nor sets in the same place one day, where it did the day before. The World is never without its light; some see it Rising the same moment we see its Setting.
The Earth also speaks the Divine wisdom; 'tis the Pavement of the World, as the Heaven is the Ceiling of Fretwork. It is placed lowermost, as being the heaviest Body, and sit to receive the weightiest Matter, and provided as an Habitation proper for those Creatures, which derive the Matter of their Bodies from it, and partake of its Earthy Nature; and garnished with other Creatures for the profit and pleasure of man.
The Sea also speaks the same Divine Wisdom. He strengthened the Fountains of the Deep, and gave the Sea a decree, that it should not pass his Command, Prov. 8.28, 29. He hath given it certain Bounds, that it should not overflow the Earth, Job 28.11. It contains itself in the situation wherein God hath placed it, and doth not transgress its bounds. What if some part of a Country, a little Spot, hath been overflowed by it, and groaned under its Waves? yet for the main, it retains the same Chanels wherein it was at first lodged.
All Creatures are clothed with an outward Beauty, and endowed with an inward Harmony; there is an agreement in all parts of this great Body; everyone is beautiful and orderly; but the Beauty of the World results from all of them disposed and linked together.
3. This Wisdom is seen in the fitness of everything for its end, and the usefulness of it. Divine Wisdom is more illustrious in the fitness and usefulness of this great variety, than in the Composure of their distinct parts: As the Artificers Skill is more eminent in fitting the Wheels, and setting them in order for their due motion, than in the external Fabric of the Materials which compose the Clock.
After the most diligent inspection, there can be found nothing in the Creation unprofitable; nothing but is capable of some Service, either for the support of our Bodies, recreation of our Senses, or Moral Instruction of our Minds: Not the least Creature, but is formed and shap'd and furnished with Members and Parts, in a due proportion for its end and service in the World; nothing is superfluous, nothing defective.
The Earth is fitted in its parts ; the Valleys are appointed for Granaries, the Mountains to shadow them from the scorching heat of the Sun; the Rivers like veins, carry refreshment to every Member of this Body; Plants & Trees thrive on the face of the Earth, and Metals are engendered in the Bowels of it, for Materials for Building and other uses for the service of Man. There he causes the Grass to grow for the Cattle, and Herb for the Service of Man, that he may bring forth food out of the Earth, Psal. 104.14.
The Sea is fitted for use; 'tis a Fish-pond for the Nourishment of Man; a Boundary for the dividing of Lands and several Dominions; It joins together Nations far distant: A great Vessel for Commerce, Psal. 104.26. There go the Ships. It affords Vapours to the Clouds, wherewith to water the Earth, which the Sun draws up, separating the finer from the salter parts, that the Earth may be fruitful, without being burdened with barrenness by the salt. The Sea hath also its Salt, its ebbs and floods; the one as Brine, the other as Motion, to preserve it from Putrification, that it may not be Contagious to the rest of the World.
Showers are appointed to refresh the Bodies of living Creatures, to open the Womb of the Earth, and water the Ground to make it fruitful, Psal. 104.3. The Clouds therefore are called the Chariots of God; he rides in them in the manifestation of his goodness and wisdom.
Winds are fitted to purify the Air, to preserve it from Putrefaction; to carry the Clouds to several parts, to refresh the parched Earth, and assist her Fruits: And also to serve for the Commerce of one Nation with another by Navigation. God in his wisdom and goodness walks upon the wings of the Wind, Psal. 104.3.
Rivers are appointed to bathe the Ground, and render it fresh and lively; they fortify Cities, are the limits of Countries, serve for Commerce; they are the Watring-pots of the Earth, and the Vessels for Drink for the living Creatures that dwell upon the Earth. God cut those Chanels for the wild Asses, the Beasts of the Desert, which are his Creatures as well as the rest, Psal. 104.10, 12, 13.
Trees are appointed for the Habitations of Birds, Shadows for the Earth, Nourishment for the Creatures, Materials for Building, and Fuel for the relief of man against Cold.
The Seasons of the Year have their use; the Winter makes the Juice retire into the Earth, fortifies Plants, and fixes their Roots: It moystens the Earth that was dried before by the heat of Summer, and cleanseth and prepares it for a new fruitfulness. The Spring calls out the Sap in new Leaves and Fruit: The Summer consumes the superfluous moisture, and produceth Nourishment for the Inhabitants of the World.
The Day and Night have also their usefulness: The Day gives Life to Labor, and is a guide to Motion and Action. Psal. 104.23. The Sun ariseth, man goeth forth to his labor until the Evening. It warms the Air, and quickens Nature; without Day the World would be a Chaos, an unseen Beauty. The Night indeed casts a Vail upon the bravery of the Earth, but it draws the Curtains from that of Heaven; though it darkens below, it makes us see the Beauty of the World above, and discovers to us a glorious part of the Creation of God, the Tapistry of Heaven, and the Motion of the Stars, hid from us by the eminent light of the Day. It procures a Truce from Labor, and refresheth the Bodies of Creatures, by recruiting the Spirits which are scattered by watching. It prevents the ruin of Life, by a reparation of what was wasted in the Day. It takes from us the sight of Flowers and Plants, but it washeth their Face with Dews for a new Appearance next Morning. The length of the Day and Night, is not without a Mark of Wisdom; were they of a greater length, as the length of a Week or Month, the one would too much dry, and the other too much moisten; and for want of Action, the Members would be stupefied. The perpetual Succession of Day and Night, is an Evidence of the Divine Wisdom, in tempering the travel and rest of Creatures. Hence the Psalmist tells us, Psal. 74.16, 17. The day is thine, and the night is thine; thou hast prepared the light of the Sun, and made Summer and Winter; i. e. they are of God's framing, not without a wise counsel and end.
Hence let us ascend to the Bodies of living Creatures, and we shall find every Member fitted for use. What a Curiosity is there in every Member? Everyone fitted to a particular use in their situation, form, temper, and mutual agreement for the good of the whole: The Eye to direct, the Ear to receive Directions from others, the Hands to act, the Feet to move. Every Creature hath Members fitted for that Element wherein it resides: And in the Body, some parts are appointed to change the Food into Blood, others to refine it, and others to distribute and convey it to several parts for the maintenance of the whole: The Heart to mint vital Spirits for preserving Life, and the Brain to coin Animal Spirits for Life and Motion; the Lungs to serve for the cooling the Heart, which else would be parched as the ground in Summer. The Motion of the Members of the Body by one act of the Will, and also without the Will by a natural Instinct, is an admirable Evidence of Divine Skill in the Structure of the Body; so that well might the Psalmist cry out, Psal. 139.14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
But how much more of this Divine Perfection is seen in the Soul? A Nature furnished with a Faculty of Understanding to judge of things, to gather in things that are distant, and to reason and draw Conclusions from one thing to another, with a Memory to treasure up things that are past, with a Will to apply itself so readily to what the Mind judges fit and comely, and fly so speedily from what it judges ill and hurtful. The whole World is a Stage, every Creature in it hath a part to act, and a Nature suited to that part and end 'tis designed for; and all concur in a joint Language to publish the Glory of Divine Wisdom, they have a Voice to proclaim the Glory of God, Psal. 19.1, 3. And it is not the least part of God's Skill, in framing the Creatures so, that upon Man's Obedience, they are the Chanels of his Goodness; and upon Man's Disobedience, they can in their Natures be the Ministers of his Justice for the punishing of offending Creatures.
4. Fourthly, This Wisdom is apparent in the linking all these useful parts together, so that one is subordinate to the other for a common end. All parts are exactly suited to one another, and every part to the whole, though they are of different Natures, as Lines distant in themselves, yet they meet in one common Center, the good and the preservation of the Universe; they are all jointed together, as the word translated framed signifies; knit by fit Bands and Ligaments to contribute mutual Beauty, Strength and Assistance to one another; like so many Links of a Chain coupled together, that though there be a distance in place, there is a unity in regard of connection and end, there is a consent in the whole. Hosea 2.21, 22. The Heavens hear the Earth, and the Earth hears the Corn, and the Wine, and the Oil. The Heavens communicate their qualities to the Earth, and the Earth conveys them to the Fruits she bears: The Air distributes Light, Wind and Rain to the Earth; the Earth and the Sea render to the Air Exhalations and Vapours, and all together charitably give to the Plants and Animals that which is necessary for their nourishment and refreshment. The Influences of the Heavens animate the Earth, and the Earth affords matter in part for the Influences it receives from the Regions above. Living Creatures are maintained by Nourishment; Nourishment is conveyed to them by the Fruits of the Earth; the Fruits of the Earth are produced by means of Rain and Heat; Matter for Rain and Dew is raised by the heat of the Sun; and the Sun by its motion distributes heat and quickening virtue to all parts of the Earth. So Colours are made for the pleasure of the Eye, Sounds for the delight of the Ear: Light is formed, whereby the Eye may see the one, and Air to convey the Species of Colours to the Eye, and Sound to the Ear; all things are like the Wheels of a Watch compacted: And though many of the Creatures be endowed with contrary qualities, yet they are joined in a Marriage-knot for the Public Security, and Subserviency to the Preservation and Order of the Universe: As the variety of Strings upon an Instrument, sending forth various and distinct sounds, are tempered together, for the framing excellent and delightful Airs. In this universal conspiring of the Creatures together to one end, is the wisdom of the Creator apparent; in tuning so many Contraries as the Elements are, and preserving them in their Order, which if once broken, the whole Frame of Nature would crack, and fall in pieces; all are so interwoven and inlaid together, by the Divine Workmanship, as to make up one entire Beauty in the whole Fabric: As every part in the Body of Man hath a distinct Comliness, yet there is besides, the Beauty of the whole, that results from the union of divers parts exactly fashioned to one another, and linked together.
By the way,
Use. How much may we see of the Perfection of God in everything that presents itself to our eyes? And how should we be convinced of our unworthy neglect of ascending to him with reverent and admiring thoughts, upon the prospect of the Creatures? What dull Scholars are we, when every Creature is our Teacher, every part of the Creature a lively Instruction! Those things that we tread under our feet, if used by us according to the full design of their Creation, would afford rich matter, not only for our heads, but our hearts. As Grace doth not destroy Nature, but elevate it, so neither should the fresher and fuller discoveries of Divine Wisdom in Redemption, deface all our thoughts of his Wisdom in Creation. Though the greater Light of the Sun, obscures the lesser sparkling of the Stars, yet it gives way in the Night to the discovery of them, that God may be seen, known, and considered in all his Works of Wonder, and Miracles of Nature. No part of Scripture is more spiritual than the Psalms; none filled with clearer Discoveries of Christ in the Old Testament; yet how often do the Penmen consider the Creation of God, and find their Meditations on him to be sweet, as considered in his Works? Psal. 104.34. My meditation of him shall be sweet. When? why, after a short History of the Goodness and Wisdom of God in the Frame of the World, and the Species of the Creatures.
2. The wisdom of God appears in his Government of his Creatures. The regular motion of the Creatures speaks for this Perfection, as well as the exact Composition of them. If the exquisiteness of the Frame conducts us to the skill of the Contriver; the exactness of their Order, according to his Will and Law, speaks no less the wisdom of the Governor. It cannot be thought that a rash and irrational Power presides over a World so well disposed: The disposition of things hath no less characters of Skill, than the Creation of them. No man can hear an excellent Lesson upon a Lute, but must presently reflect upon the Art of the Person that touches it. The Prudence of man appears in wrapping up the Concerns of a Kingdom in his mind, for the well-ordering of it; and shall not the wisdom of God shine forth, as he is the Director of the World?
I shall omit his Government of Inanimate Creatures, and confine the Discourse to his Government of Man, as Rational, as Sinful, as Restor'd.
1. In his Government of man as a Rational Creature.
1. In the Law he gives to man. Wisdom framed it, though Will enacted it. The will of God is the Rule of Righteousness to us, but the wisdom of God is the Foundation of that Rule of Righteousness which he prescribes us. The Composure of a Musician is the Rule of singing to his Scholars; yet the Consent and Harmony in that Composure, derives not itself from his will, but from his understanding; he would not be a Musician, if his Composures were contrary to the Rules of true Harmony: So the Laws of men are composed by wisdom, though they are enforced by will and authority.
The Moral Law, which was the Law of Nature, the Law imprinted upon Adam, is so framed, as to secure the Rights of God as Supreme, and the Rights of Men in their distinctions of Superiority and Equality: 'It is therefore called holy and good, Rom. 7.12. holy, as it prescribes our duty to God in his worship; good, as it regulates the offices of human life, and preserves the common interest of Mankind.
1. 'It is suited to the Nature of Man. As God hath given a Law of Nature, a fixed Order to Inanimate Creatures, so he hath given a Law of Reason to Rational Creatures: Other Creatures are not capable of a Law differencing good and evil, because they are destitute of Faculties and Capacities to make distinction between them. It had not been agreeable to the wisdom of God to propose any Moral Law to them, who had neither understanding to discern, nor will to choose. 'It is therefore to be observed, that whilst Christ exhorted others to the embracing his Doctrine, yet he exhorted not little Children, though he took them in his Arms, because though they had Faculties, yet they were not come to such a Maturity, as to be capable of a Rational Instruction. But there was a necessity for some Command for the government of man; since God had made him a Rational Creature, it was not agreeable to his wisdom to govern him as a Brute, but as a Rational Creature, capable of knowing his Precepts, and voluntarily walking in them; and without a Law, he had not been capable of any exercise of his Reason in Services respecting God.
He therefore gives him a Law with a Covenant annexed to it, whereby man is obliged to Obedience, and secured of a Reward. This was enforced with severe Penalties, Death, with all the Horrours attending it, to deter him from Transgression, Gen. 2.17. wherein is implied a Promise of continuance of Life, and all its Felicities, to allure him to a mindfulness of his Obligation. So perfect a Hedge did Divine Wisdom set about him, to keep him within the bounds of that Obedience, which was both his Debt and Security, that wheresoever he looked, he saw either something to invite him, or something to drive him to the payment of his Duty, and perseverance in it. Thus the Law was exactly framed to the Nature of man; man had twisted in him a desire of Happiness; the Promise was suited to cherish this natural Desire. He had also the Passion of Fear; the proper Object of this was anything destructive to his Being, Nature, and Felicity; this the threatening met with. In the whole it was accommodated to man as rational: Precepts to the Law in his mind, Promises to the natural Appetite, Threatenings to the most prevailing Affection, and to the implanted Desires of preserving both his Being and Happiness in that Being. These were rational Motives, fitted to the nature of Adam, which was above the life God had given Plants, and the sense he had given Animals.
The Command given man in Innocence, was suited to his strength and power; God gave him not any Command, but what he had ability to observe: and Since we want not power to forbear an Apple in our corrupted and impotent State, he wanted not strength in his state of Integrity. The Wisdom of God Commanded nothing, but what was very easy to be observed by him, and inferior to his natural Ability. It had been both unjust and unwise to have commanded him to fly up to the Sun, when he had not Wings; or stop the Course of the Sea, when he had not strength.
2. 'It is suited to the happiness and benefit of man. God's Laws are not an act of mere Authority respecting his own Glory, but of wisdom and goodness respecting man's Benefit. They are perfective of man's Nature, conferring a Wisdom upon him, rejoicing his Heart, enlightening his eyes, Psal. 19.7, 8. affording him both a knowledge of God, and of himself. To be without a Law, is for man to be as Beasts, without Justice and without Religion: Other things are for the good of the Body, but the Laws of God for the good of the Soul; the more perfect the Law, the greater the benefit. The Laws given to the Jews were the honor and excellency of that Nation; Deut. 1.8. What Nation is there so great, that hath statutes and Judgments so righteous? They were made States-men in the Judicial Law, Ecclesiastics in the Ceremonial, honest men in the Second Table, and Divine in the First. All his Laws are suited to the true satisfaction of man, and the good of Human Society. Had God framed a Law only for one Nation, there would have been the Characters of a particular Wisdom; but now an universal wisdom appears, in accommodating his Law, not only to this or that particular Society or Corporation of men, but to the benefit of all mankind in the variety of Climates, and Countries wherein they live: Every thing that is disturbing to Human Society is provided aga • nst; nothing is enjoined, but what is sweet, rational and useful: It orders us not to attempt anything against the life of our Neighbor, the honor of his Bed, propriety in his Goods, and the clearness of his Reputation; and if well observed, would alter the face of the World, and make it look with another hue. The World would be altered from a brutish to a human World: It would ch • nge Lions and Wolves, men of Lion-like and Wolvish disposition, into reason and sweetness. And because the whole Law is summed up in love, it obligeth us to endeavor the preservation of one another's Beings, the favoring of one another's Interests, and increasing the Goods, as much as Justice will permit, and keeping up one another's Credits; because love, which is the Soul of the Law, is not shewn by a cessation from action, but signifies an ardor upon all occasions in doing good. I say were this Law well observed, the World would be another thing than it is. It would become a Religious Fraternity, the Voice of Enmity and the Noise of Groans and Cursings would not be heard in our Streets: Peace would be in all Borders; plenty of Charity in the midst of Cities and Countries; Joy and singing would sound in all habitations. Mans advantage was designed in God's Laws, and doth naturally result from the observance of them. God so ordered them by his Wisdom, that the obedience of man should draw forth his Goodness, and prevent those smarting Judgments, which were necessary to reduce the Creature to order, that would not voluntarily continue in the order God had appointed. The Laws of men are often unjust, oppressive, cruel; sometimes against the Law of nature: But an universal wisdom and righteousness glitters in the Divine Law. There is nothing in it, but what is worthy of God, and useful for the Creature; so that we may well say with Job, Who teaches like God, Job. 36.22. or as some render it, who is a law-giver like God? Who can say to him, thou hast wrought iniquity or folly among men? His Precepts were framed for the preservation of man in that rectitude wherein he was Created, in that likeness to God wherein he was first made, that there might be a correspondence between the Integrity of the Creature and the Goodness of his Creator, by the Obedience of man; that man might exercise his Faculties in Operations worthy of him, and beneficial to the World.
3. The Wisdom of God is seen in suiting to Laws to the Consciences, as well as the Interest of all Mankind. Rom. 2.14. The Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law; so great an affinity there is between the wise Law and the Reason of man.
There is a natural Beauty emerging from them, and darting upon the Reasons, and Consciences of men, which dictates to them that this Law is worthy to be observed in itself. The two main Principles of the Law, the Love and worship of God, and doing as we would be done by, have an indelible impression in the Consciences of all men in regard of the Principle, though they are not suitably expressed in the Practice. Were there no Law outwardly published, yet every man's Conscience would dictate to him, that God was to be acknowledged, worshipped, loved, as naturally as his Reason would acquaint him that there was such a Being as God. This suitableness of them to the Consciences of men, is manifest, in that the Laws of the best governed Nations among the Heathen have had an agreement with them. Nothing can be more exactly composed, according to the Rules of right and exact Reason than this; no man but approves of something in it, yea of the whole when he exerciseth that dim Reason which he hath. Suppose any man, (not an absolute Atheist) he cannot but acknowledge the reasonableness of worshipping God. Grant him to be a Spirit, and it will presently appear absurd to represent him by any Corporeal Image, and derogate from his Excellency by so mean a resemblance; with the same easiness he will grant a reverence due to the Name of God; that we must not serve our turn of him, by calling him to witness to a lie in a solemn Oath. That as Worship is due to him, so that some stated time is a circumstance necessary to the performance of that Worship. And as to the Second Table, will any man in his right reason quarrel with that Command that engageth his Inferiors to honor him; that secures his Being from a violent murder, and his goods from unjust rapine? and though by the fury of his Lusts he break the Laws of Wedlock himself, yet he cannot but approve of that Law, as it prohibits every man from doing him the like injury and disgrace. The suitableness of the Law to the Consciences of men, is further evidenced by those furious reflections and strong alarms of Conscience upon a transgression of it, and that in all parts of the World, more or less in all men: So exactly hath Divine wisdom fitted the Law to the Reason and Consciences of men, as one Tally to another. Indeed, without such an agreement, no man's Conscience could have any ground for a Hue and Cry, nor need any man be startled with the Records of it. This manifests the wisdom of God in framing his Law so, that the Reasons and consciences of all men do one time or other subscribe to it. What Governor in the World is able to make any Law distinct from this revealed by God, that shall reach all places, all persons, all Hearts?
We may add to this the extent of his Commands in ordering goodness at the root, not only in action but affection; not only in the motion of the Members, but the disposition of the Soul; which suiting a Law to the inward frame of man, is quite out of the compass of the wisdom of any Creature.
4. His Wisdom is seen in the encouragements he gives for the studying and observing his will, Psal. 19.11. In keeping thy Commandments there is great reward. The variety of them; there is not any particular Genius in man, but may find something suitable to win upon him in the revealed will of God. There is a strain of Reason to satisfy the Rational; of Eloquence, to gratify the the Fanciful; of Interest to allure the Selfish; of Terror, to startle the Obstinate. As a skillful Angler stores himself with Baits, according to the Appetites of the sorts of fish he intends to catch; so in the Word of God, there are varieties of Baits, according to the varieties of the Inclinations of men; Threatenings to work upon Fear; Promises to work upon Love; Examples of holy men set out for Imitation; and those plainly, neither his Threatenings nor his Promises are dark as the Heathen Oracles; but peremptory, as becomes a Sovereign Law giver; and plain, as was necessary for the understanding of a Creature: As he deals graciously with men in exhorting and encouraging them; so he deals wisely herein, by taking away all Excuse from them if they ruin the interest of their Souls by denying Obedience to their Sovereign.
Again, the Rewards God proposeth are accommodated, not to the Brutish parts of man, his Carnal Sense and Fleshly Appetite; but to the Capacity of a Spiritual Soul, which admits only of Spiritual Gratifications; and cannot in its own Nature, without a sordid subjection to the Humors of the Body, be moved by Sensual Proposals. God backs his Precepts with that which the Nature of Man longed for, and with Spiritual Delights, which can only satisfy a rational Appetite: And thereby did as well gratify the noblest Desires in man, as Oblige him to the noblest Service and Work . Indeed Virtue and Holiness being perfectly amiable, ought chiefly to affect our Understandings, and by them draw our Wills to the esteem and pursuit of them. But since the desire of Happiness is inseparable from the Nature of Man, as impossible to be dis-joined, as an Inclination to descend to be severed from heavy Bodies, or an instinct to ascend from Light and A ry of Substances; God serves himself of the Inclination of our Natures to happiness, to engender in us an esteem and affection to the Holiness he doth require. He proposeth the enjoyment of a supernatural Good and everlasting Glory, as a Bait to that insatiable longing our Natures have for Happiness, to receive the impression of Holiness into our Souls. And besides, he doth proportion Rewards according to the degrees of men's Industry, Labor, and Zeal for him; and weighs out a Recompence, not only suited to, but above the service. He that improves five Talents, is to be ruler over five Cities; that is, a greater proportion of Honor and Glory than another, Luke 19.17.18. As a wise Father excites the affection of his Children to things worthy of Praise, by varieties of Recompenses according to their several Actions. And it was the Wisdom of the Steward, in the Judgment of our Savior, to give everyone the portion that belonged to him, Luke 12.42. There is no part of the Word wherein we meet not with the will and Wisdom of God, varieties of Duties, and varieties of Encouragement mingled together.
5. The Wisdom of God is seen In fitting the Revelations of his will to aftertimes, and for the preventing of the foreseen Corruptions of men. The whole Revelation of the mind of God is stored with Wisdom in the words, connection, sense; It looks backwards to past, and forwards to Ages to come: A hidden wisdom lies in the bowels of it, like Gold in a Mine.
The Old testament was so composed, as to fortify the New, when God should bring it to light. The Foundations of the Gopel were laid in the Law: The Predictions of the Prophets, and figures of the Law were so wisely framed and laid down in such clear expressions, as to be Proofs of the Authority of the New Testament, and Convictions of Jesus his being the Messiah, Luke 24.14. Things concerning Christ, were written in Moses, the Prophets, and Psalms, and do to this day stare the Jews so in the face, that they are fain to invent absurd and Nonsensical Interpretations to excuse their Unbelief, and continue themselves in their obstinate Blindness. And in pursuance of the efficacy of those Predictions, it was a part of the Wisdom of God to bring forth the Translation of the Old Testament, (by the means Ptolemy King of Egypt some hundreds of years before the coming of Christ) into the Greek Language, the Tongue then most known in the World; And why? to prepare the Gentiles by the reading of it, for that gracious call he intended them, and for the entertainment of the Gospel, which some few years after was to be published among them; that by reading the Predictions so long before made, they might more readily receive the accomplishment of them in their due time.
The Scripture is written in such a manner, as to obviate Errors foreseen by God to enter into the Church. It may be wondered, why the Universal Particle should be inserted by Christ, in the giving the Cup in the Supper, which was not in the distributing the Bread, Mat. 26, 27. Drink ye all of it; Not at the distributing the Bread, Eat you all of it: And Mark in his Relation tells us, They all drank of it, Mark 11.23. The Church of Rome hath been the occasion of discovering to us the Wisdom of our Savior in ins erting that Particle all, since they were so bold to exclude the Communicants from the Cup by a trick of Concomitancy. Christ foresaw the Error, and therefore put in a little word to obviate a great Invasion: And the spirit of God hath particularly left upon record, that Particle, as we may reasonably suppose to such a purpose. And so in the description of the blessed Virgin, Luke 1.27. There is nothing of her Holiness mentioned, which is with much diligence recorded of Elizabeth; Vers. 6. Righteous, walking in all the commandments of God blameless; Probably to prevent the superstition which God foresaw would arise in the World. And we do not find more undervaluing speeches, uttered by Christ to any of his Disciples in the exercise of his Office, than to her, except to Peter. As when she acquainted him with the want of Wine at the Marriage in Cana, she receives a slighting answer; Woman, what have I to do with thee? John. 2.4. And when one was admiring the blessedness of her that bare him, he turns the Discourse another way, to pronounce a blessedness rather belonging to them that hear the Word of God and keep it, Luke 11.27, 28. in a mighty Wisdom to Antidote his people against any conceit of the prevalency of the Virgin over him in Heaven, in the Exercise of his Mediatory Office.
2. As his Wisdom appears in his Government by his Laws, so it appears in the various inclinations and conditions of Men. As there is a distinction of several Creatures, and several qualities in them, for the Common good of the World; so among men there are several inclinations and several Abilities, as Donatives from God, for the Common advantage of Human Society; As several Chanels cut out from the same River run several ways, and refresh several Soils; one Man is qualified for one Employment, another marked out by God for a different Work, yet all of them fruitful to bring in a Revenue of Glory to God, and a harvest of Profit to the rest of Mankind. How unuseful would the Body be, if it had but one Member? 1 Cor. 12.19. How unprovided would a House be, if it had not Vessels of Dishonor as well as of Honor? The Corporation of Mankind would be as much a Chaos, as the Matter of the Heavens and the Earth was, before it was distinguished by several forms breathed into it at the Creation. Some are inspired with a particular Genius for one Art, some for another: Every man hath a distinct Talent. If all were Husband-men, where would be the Instruments to Plow and Reap? If all were Artificers, where would they have Corn to nourish themselves? All men are like Vessels, and Parts in the Body, designed for distinct Offices and Functions for the good of the whole, and mutually return an advantage to one another.
As the variety of Gifts in the Church is a fruit of the Wisdom of God, for the preservation and increase of the Church, so the variety of Inclinations and Employments in the World is a fruit of the Wisdom of God, for the preservation and subsistence of the World by mutual Commerce, What the Apostle largely discourseth of the former, in 1 Cor. 12. may be applied to the other.
The various Conditions of men is also a fruit of Divine Wisdom. Some are Rich, and some Poor; the Rich have as much need of the Poor, as the Poor have of the Rich: If the Poor depend upon the Rich for their livelihood, the Rich depend upon the Poor for their Conveniencies. Many Arts would not be learned by men, if Poverty did not oblige them to it; and many would faint in the learning of them, if they were not thereunto encouraged by the Rich.
The Poor labor for the Rich, as the Earth sends Vapours into the vaster and fuller Air; and the Rich return advantages again to the Poor, as the Clouds do the Vapours in Rain upon the Earth. As Meat would not afford a nourishing Juice without Bread, and Bread without other Food would immoderately fill the Stomach, and not be well digested; so the Rich would be unprofitable in the Commonwealth without the Poor, and the Poor would be burdensome to a Commonwealth without the Rich: The Poor could not be easily governed without the Rich, nor the Rich sufficiently and conveniently provided for without the Poor. If all were Rich, there would be no Objects for the exercise of a Noble part of Charity: If all were Poor, there were no Matter for the exercise of it. Thus the Divine Wisdom planted various Inclinations, and diversified the Conditions of Men for the public advantages of the World.
2. God's Wisdom appears, in the government of Men, as Fallen and Sinful; or in the government of Sin. After the Law of God was broke, and Sin invaded and conquered the World; Divine Wisdom had another Scene to act in, and other Methods of Government were necessary. The Wisdom of God is then seen in ordering those Jarring Discords, drawing Good out of Evil, and Honor to himself out of that, which in its own Nature tended to the supplanting of his Glory. God being a Sovereign Good, would not suffer so great an Evil to enter, but to serve hims • lf of it for some greater End; for all his Thoughts are full of Goodness and Wisdom.
Now though the Permission of Sin be an Act of his Sovereignty, and the Punishment of Sin be an Act of his Justice; yet the Ordination of Sin to good, is an Act of his Wisdom, whereby he doth dispose the Evil, over-rules the Malice, and orders the Events of it to his own Purposes. Sin in itself is a Disorder, and therefore God doth not permit Sin for itself; for in its own Nature it hath nothing of Amiableness; but he wills it for some Righteous End, which belongs to the manifestation of his Glory, which is his aim in all the Acts of his Will: He wills it not as Sin, but as his Wisdom can order it to some greater Good than was before in the World, and make it contribute to the beauty of the Order he intends. As a dark Shadow is not delightful and pleasant in itself, nor is Drawn by a Painter for any Amiableness there is in the Shadow itself, but as it serves to set forth that Beauty, which is the main design of his Art; so the glorious Effects which arise from the Entrance of Sin into the World, are not from the Creatures Evil, but the Depths of Divine Wisdom.
Particularly,
1. God's Wisdom is seen in the bounding of Sin. As it is said of the Wrath of Man, it shall praise him, and the remainder of Wrath God doth restrain, Psal. 76.10. He sets limits to the boiling Corruption of the Heart, as he doth to the boisterous Waves of of the Sea, Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further. As God is the Rector of the World, he doth so restrain Sin, so temper and direct it, as that Human Society is preserved, which else would be overflown with a Deluge of Wickedness, and Ruin would be brought upon all Communities. The World would be a Shambles, a Brothel-house, if God by his Wisdom and Goodness, did not set bars to that Wickedness which is in the Hearts of Men: The whole Earth would be as bad as Hell. Since the Heart of Man is a Hell of Corruption, by that, the Souls of all Men would be excited to the acting the worst Villanies; since every thought of the heart of Man is only evil, and that continually, Gen. 6.5. if the Wisdom of God did not stop these Flood-gates of Evil in the Hearts of Men, it would overflow the World, and frustrate all the Gracious Designs he carries on among the Sons of Men. Were it not for this Wisdom, every House would be filled with Violence, as well as every Nature is with Sin. What harm would not strong and furious Beasts do, did n • t the Skill of Man tame and bridle them? How often hath Divine Wisdom restrained the Viciousness of Human Nature, and let it run, not to that point they ••••• 'd, but to the end he purposed? Laban's Fury, and Esau's Enmity against 〈…〉 • ere p •• t in within bounds for Jacob's safety, and their Hearts over-ruled 〈…〉 intended destruction of the good Man to a perfect Amity .
II. God's Wisdom is seen, in the bringing glory to himself out of Sin.
1. Out of Sin itself. God erects the Trophies of Honor upon that, which is a Natural means to hinder and deface it. His glorious Attributes are drawn out to our view, upon the occasion of Sin, which otherwise had lain hid in his own Being. Sin is altogether black and abominable; but by the Admirable Wisdom of God, he hath drawn out of the dreadful darkness of Sin, the saving Beams of his Mercy, and displayed his Grace in the Incarnation and Passion of his Son for the Atonement of Sin. Thus he permitted Adams Fall, and wisely ordered it, for a fuller discovery of his own Nature, and a higher elevation of Mans good, that as Sin reigned to death, so might Grace reign through Righteousness to Eternal life, by Jesus Christ, Rom. 5.21. The unbounded Goodness of God could not have appeared without it. His Goodness in rewarding Innocent Obedience, would have been manifested; but not his Mercy, in pardoning Rebellious Crimes: An Innocent Creature is the Object of the Rewards of Grace, as the standing Angels are under the Beams of Grace; but not under the Beams of Mercy, because they were never Sinful, and consequently never Miserable. Without Sin the Creature had not been Miserable: Had Man remained Innocent, he had not been the Subject of Punishment; and without the Creatures Misery, God's Mercy in sending his Son to save his Enemies, could not have appeared. The abundance of Sin is a Passive occasion for God to manifest the Abundance of his Grace:
The Power of God in the changing the Heart of a Rebellious Creature, had not appeared, had not Sin infected our Nature. We had not clearly known the Vindictive Justice of God, had no Crime been committed; for that is the proper Object of Divine Wrath. The Goodness of God could never have permitted Justice to exercise itself upon an Innocent Creature, that was not guilty either Personally, or by Imputation. Psal. 11.7. The righteous Lord loveth Righteousness, his countenance doth behold the upright. Wisdom is illustrious hereby. God suffered Man to fall into a Mortal Disease, to show the virtue of his own Restoratives to cure Sin, which in itself is Incurable by the Art of any Creature. And otherwise this Perfection whereby God draws Good out of Evil, had been utterly useless, and would have been destitute of an Object wherein to discover itself.
Again, Wisdom in ordering a Rebellious head-strong World to its own ends, is greater than the ordering an Innocent World, exactly observant of his Precepts, and complying with the End of the Creation. Now, without the entrance of Sin, this Wisdom had wanted a Stage to act upon. Thus God raised the Honor of his Wisdom, while Man ruined the Integrity of his Nature; and made use of the Creatures breach of his Divine Law, to establish the Honor of it in a more signal and stable manner, by the Active and Passive Obedience of the Son of his Bosom. Nothing serves God so much, as an occasion of glorifying himself, as the entrance of Sin into the World; by this occasion God communicates to us the knowledge of those Perfections of his Nature, which had else been folded up from us in an Eternal Night; his Justice had lain in the dark, as having nothing to punish; his Mercy had been obscure, as having none to pardon; a great part of his Wisdom had been silent, as having no such Object to order.
2. His Wisdom appears, In making use of sinful Instruments. He uses the Malice and Enmity of the Devil to bring about his own Purposes, and makes the sworn Enemy of his Honor contribute to the Illustrating of it against his will. This great Crafts-Master he took in his own Net, and defeated the Devil by the Devils Malice; by turning the Contrivances he had hatched and accomplished against Man, against himself. He used him as a Tempter, to grapple with our Savior in the Wilderness, whereby to make him fit to succor us; and as the God of this World, to inspire the wicked Jews to Crucify him, whereby to render him actually the Redeemer of the World, and so made him an Ignorant Instrument of that Divine Glory he designed to ruin.
'It is more Skill to make a curious piece of Workmanship with Ill condition'd Tools, than with Instruments naturally sitted for the work: 'It is no such great wonder for a Limner to draw an exact piece with a fit Pencil and suitable Colours, as to begin and perfect a beautiful work with a Straw and Water, things improper for such a design. This Wisdom of God is more admirable and astonishing than if a Man were able to rear a vast Palace by Fire, whose nature is to consume Combustible matter, not to erect a Building.
To make things serviceable contrary to their own Nature, is a Wisdom peculiar to the Creator of Nature. God's making use of Devils, for the glory of his Name, and the good of his People, is a more amazing piece of Wisdom, than his Goodness in employing the Blessed Angels in his work. To promise, that the World, (which includes the God of the World) and Death, and Things present, let them be as Evil as they will, should be ours, that is, for our good, and for his glory, is an act of Goodness; but to make them serviceable to the Honor of Christ, and the good of his People, is a Wisdom that may well raise our highest Admirations : They are for Believers, as they are for the glory of Christ, and as Christ is for the glory of God.
To Chain up Satan wholly, and frustrate his Wiles, would be an Argument of Divine Goodness; but to suffer him to run his risque, and then improve all his Contrivances for his own glorious and grac • ous Ends and Purposes, manifests besides his Power and Goodness, his Wisdom also. He uses the Sins of Evil Instruments for the glory of his Justice, Isa. 10.5 6, 7. Thus he served himself of the Ambition and Covetousness of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Romans, for the Correction of his People and Punishment of his Rebels. Just as the Roman Magistrates used the fury of Lions and other wild Beasts, in their Theatres, for the Punishment of Criminals: The Lions acted their Natural temper in tearing those that were exposed to them for a Prey; but the intent of the Magistrates was to punish their Crimes. The Magistrate inspired not the Lions with their Rage, that they had from their Natures; but served themselves of that Natural Rage, to execute Justice.
3. God's Wisdom is seen in bringing good to the Creature out of Sin. He hath ordered Sin to such an end as Man never dreamt of, the Devil never imagined, and Sin in its own Nature could never attain. Sin in its own Nature tends to no good, but that of Punishment, whereby the Creature is brought into order. It hath no relation to the Creatures good in itself, but to the Creatures mischief: But God, by an act of Infinite Wisdom brings good out of it to the Creature, as well as glory to his Name, contrary to the Nature of the Crime, the Intention of the Criminal, and the Design of the Tempter.
God willed Sin, that is, he willed to permit it, that he might communicate himself to the Creature in the most excellent manner. He willed the Permission of Sin, as an occasion to bring forth the Mystery of the Incarnation and Passion of our Savior; as he permitted the Sin of Josephs Brethren that he might use their Evil to a good end. He never, because of his Holiness, wills Sin as an End; but in regard of his Wisdom he wills to permit it as a Means and Occasion: And thus, to draw good out of those things which are in their own Nature most contrary to Good, is the highest pitch of Wisdom.
1. The Redemption of Man in so excellent away, was drawn from the occasion of Sin. The greatest Blessing that ever the World was blest with, was ushered in by Contrarieties, by the Lust and irregular Affection of Man; the first Promise of the Redeemer by the Fall of Adam, Gen. 3.15. and the bruising the heel of that Promised Seed, by the blackest Tragedy acted by wicked Rebels, the Treachery of Judas and the Rage of the Jews; the highest Good hath been brought forth by the greatest Wickedness. As God out of the Chaos of rude and indigested Matter framed the first Creation; so from the S ns of Men, and Malice of Satan, he hath erected the Everlasting Scheme of Honor in a New Creation of all things by Jesus Christ.
The Devil inspired Man, to content his own fury in the Death of Christ; and God ordered it to accomplish his own design of Redemption in the Passion of the Redeemer: The Devil had his Diabolical Ends, and God over-powers his Action to serve his own Divine ends. The Person that betrayed him, was admitted to be a Spectator of the most private Actions of our Savior, that his Innocence might be justified; to show, that he was not afraid to have his Enemies Judges of his most retired Privacies. While they all thought to do their own Wills, Divine Wisdom orders them to do God's Will. Acts 2.23. Him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and Fore-knowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have Crucified and slain. And wherein the Crucifiers of Christ sinned, in shedding the richest Blood, upon their Repentance they found the expiation of their Crimes, and the discovery of a superabundant Mercy. Nothing but Blood was aimed at by them: The best Blood was shed by them; but Infinite Wisdom makes the Cross the Scene of his own Righteousness, and the Womb of Mans Recovery.
By the occasion of Mans Lapsed state, there was a way open to raise Man to a more excellent Condition, than that whereinto he was put by Creation: And the depriving Man of the happiness of an Earthly Paradise, in a way of Justice, was an occasion of advancing him to a Heavenly Felicity, in a way of Grace. The Violation of the Old Covenant, occasionally introduced a better: The loss of the first Integrity, ushered in a more stable Righteousness, an Everlasting Righteousness, Dan. 9.24. And the falling of the First Head, was succeeded by one whose standing could not but be Eternal.
The Fall of the Devil was ordered by Infinite Wisdom, for the good of that Body from which he fell. 'It is supposed by some, that the Devil was the Chief Angel in Heaven, the Head of all the rest; and that he Falling, the Angels were left as a Body without a Head; and after he had Politically beheaded the Angels, he endeavored to destroy Man, and rout him out of Paradise: But God takes the opportunity to set up his Son, as the Head of Angels and Men. And thus whilst the Devil endeavored to spoil the Corporation of Angels, and make them a Body contrary to God, God makes Angels and Men one Body under one Head, for his Service.
The Angels in losing a defectible Head, attained a more excellent and glorious Head in another Nature, which they had not before; though of a Lower Nature in his Humanity, yet of a more glorious Nature in his Divinity: From whence many suppose they derive their Confirming Grace, and the stability of their standing. All things in Heaven and Earth are gathered together in Christ, Eph. 1.10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , All united in him, and reduced under one Head: That though our Savior be not properly their Redeemer, for Redemption supposeth Captivity, yet in some sense he is their Head and Mediator; so that now the Inhabitants of Heaven and Earth are but one Family, Ephes. 3.15. And the Innumerable Company of Angels are parts of that Heavenly and Triumphant Jerusalem, and that General Assembly, whereof Jesus Christ is Mediator, Heb. 12.22, 29.
2. The Good of a Nation often, by the skill of Divine Wisdom, is promoted by the Sins of some Men. The Patriarchs selling Joseph to the Midianites , was without question a Sin, and a breach of Natural Affection; yet by God's Wise Ordination, it proved the Safety of the whole Church of God in the World, as well as the Egyptian Nation .
The Jews Unbelief, was a step whereby the Gentiles arose to the knowledge of the Gospel: As the setting of the Sun in one place, is the rising of it in another . He uses the Corruptions of Men Instrumentally to propagate his Gospel: He built up the True Church by the Preaching of some out of envy, Phil. 1.15. as he blessed Israel out of the Mouth of a False Prophet, Numb. 23. How often have the Heresies of Men been the occasion of clearing up the Truth of God, and fixing the more lively Impressions of it on the Hearts of Believers?
Neither Judah nor Tamar, in their Lust, dreamt of a Stock for the Redeemer; yet God gave a Son from that Unlawful Bed, whereof Christ came according to the flesh; Gen. 38.29. compared with Mat. 1.3.
Jonahs Sin was probably the first and remote occasion of the Ninevites giving credit to his Prophesy: His Sin was the cause of his Punishment, and his being slung into the Sea, might facilitate the reception of his Message, and excite the Ninevites Repentance, whereby a Cloud of severe Judgment was blown away from them.
'It is thought by some, That when Jonah passed through the Streets of Nineveh with his Proclamation of Destruction, he might be known by some of the Mariners of that Ship, from whence he was cast Over-board into the Sea, and might after their Voyage be occasionally in that City, the Metropolis of the Nation, and the place of some of their Births; and might acquaint the People, that this was the same Person they had cast into the Sea by his own consent, for his acknowledged running from the Presence of the Lord; for that he had told them Jonah 1.10. and the Mariners Prayer, Verse 14. evidenceth it, whereupon they might conclude his Message worthy of Belief, since they knew from such Evidences, that he had sunk into the Bowels of the Waters, and now saw him safe in their Streets, by a Deliverance unknown to them; and that therefore that Power that delivered him, could easily verify his Word in the threatened Judgment.
Had Jonah gone at first without committing that Sin, and receiving that Punishment, his Message had not been judged a Divine Prediction, but a fruit of some Enthusiastic madness: His Sin upon this account was the first occasion of averting a Judgment from so great a City.
3. The good of the Sinner himself is sometimes promoted by Divine Wisdom, ordering the Sin. As God had not permitted Sin to enter upon the World, unless to bring Glory to himself by it; so he would not let Sin remain in the little World of a Believers Heart, if he did not intend to order it for his good. What is done by Man to his damage and disparagement, is directed by Divine Wisdom to his advantage; not that it is the intent of the Sin, or the Sinner; but it is the event of the Sin, by the Ordination of Divine Wisdom and Grace.
As without the Wisdom of God permitting Sin to enter into the World, some Attributes of God had not been Experimentally known; so some Graces could not have been exercised: For where had there been an Object for that Noble Zeal, in vindicating the Glory of God, had it not been invaded by an Enemy? The intenseness of Love to him could not have been so strong, had we not an Enemy to hate for his sake. Where had there been any place for that Noble part of Charity in holy Admonitions and Compassion to the Souls of our Neighbors, and Endeavors to reduce them out of a destructive to a happy Path? Humility would not have had so many grounds for its growth and exercise, and holy Sorrow had had no fuel.
And as without the appearance of Sin, there had been no exercise of the Patience of God; so without Afflictions, the Fruits of Sin, there had been no ground for the exercise of the Patience of a Christian, one of the Noblest parts of Valour. Now Sin being Evil, and such as cannot but be Evil, hath no respect in itself to any good, and cannot work a gracious End, or anything profitable to the Creature; nay it is a hindrance to any good, and therefore what good comes from it, is Accidental, occasioned indeed by Sin, but efficiently caused by the over-ruling Wisdom of God, taking occasion thereby to display itself and the Divine Goodness.
The Sins and Corruptions remaining in the Heart of a Man, God orders for good, and there are good effects by the direction of his Wisdom and Grace.
I. As the Soul respects God.
1. God often brings forth a sensibleness of the necessity of Dependance on him. The Nurse often lets the Child slip, that it may the better know who supports it, and may not be too venturous and confident of its own strength. Peter would trust in Habitual Grace, and God suffers him to Fall, that he might trust more in Assisting Grace, Mat. 26.35. Though I should die with thee, yet I will not deny thee. God leaves sometimes the brightest Souls in an Eclipse, to manifest, that their Holiness, and the preservation of it, depend upon the darting out his Beams upon them.
As the Falls of Men are the effects of their coldness and remissness in Acts of Faith and Repentance; so the fruit of these Falls is often a running to him for Refuge, and a deeper sensibleness where their Security lies. It makes us Lower our swelling Sails, and come under the Lee and Protection of Divine Grace. When the Pleasures of Sin answer the expectations of a Revolted Creature, he reflects upon his former state, and sticks more close to God, when before God had little of h • s Company; Hos. 2.7. I will return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now.
As God makes the Sins of Men sometimes an occasion of their Conversion; so he sometimes makes them an occasion of a further Conversion. Onesimus run from Philemon, and was met with by Paul, who proved an Instrument of his Conversion, Philem. 10. My Son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my Bonds. His slight from his Master, was the occasion of his Regeneration by Paul a Prisoner.
The Falls of Believers God orders to their further stability: He that is fallen for want of using his Staff, will Lean more upon it to preserve himself from the like Disaster.
God, by permitting the Lapses of Men, doth often make them despair of their own strength to subdue their Enemies, and rely upon the strength of Christ, wherein God hath laid up Power for us, and so becomes stronger in that strength which God hath ordained for them.
We are very apt to trust in ourselves, and have confidence in our own worth and strength; and God lets loose Corruptions to abate this swelling humor. This was the reason of the Apostle Paul's Thorn in the flesh, 2 Cor. 12.9. whether it were a Temptation, or Corruption, or Sickness, that he might be sensible of his own inability, and where the sufficiency of Grace for him was placed.
He that is in danger of Drowning, and hath the Waves come over his head, will with all the might he hath, lay hold upon anything near him, which is capable to Save him. God lets his People somet • mes sink into such a condition, that they may lay the faster hold on him who is near to all that call upon him.
2. God hereby raiseth higher Estimations of the value and virtue of the Blood of Christ. As the great Reason why God permitted Sin to enter into the World, was to honor himself in the Redeemer; so the Continuance of Sin, and the Conquests it sometimes makes in Renewed Men, are to honor the Infinite value and virtue of the Redeemers Merit, which God from the beginning intended to magnify: The Value of it, in taking off so much successive Guilt; and the Virtue of it, in washing away so much daily filth.
Th • Wisdom of God hereby keeps up the Credit of Imputed Righteousness, and manifests the Immense Treasure of the Redeemers Merit to pay such daily Debts. Were we perfectly Sanctified, we should stand upon our own Bottom, and imagine no need of the continual and repeated Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ for our Justification: We should confide in Inherent Righteousness, and slight Imputed.
If God should take off all Remainders of Sin, as well as the Guilt of it, we should be apt to forget that we are Fallen Creatures, and that we had a Redeemer: But the Relics of Sin in us, mind us of the necessity of some higher strength to set us right: They mind us both of our own Misery, and the Redeemers perpetual benefit. God by this keeps up the Dignity and Honor of our Savior's Blood to the height, and therefore sometimes lets us see, to our own cost, what filth yet remains in us for the employment of that Blood, which we should else but little think of, and less admire. Our Gratitude is so small to God, as well as Man, that the first Obligations are soon forgot, if we stand not in need of fresh ones successively to second them; we should lose our Thankful Remembrance of the first virtue of Christ's Blood in washing us, if our Infirmities did not mind us of fresh Reiterations and Applications of it.
Ours Savior's Office of Advocacy was erected especially for Sins committed after a Justified and Renewed state . We should scarce remember we had an Advocate, and scarce make use of him without some sensible Necessity; but our Remainders of Sin discover our Impotency, and an impossibility for us either to expiate our Sin, or conform to the Law, which necessitates us to have recourse to that Person whom God hath appointed, to make up the breaches between God and us.
So the Apostle wraps up himself in the Covenant of Grace and his Interest in Christ, after his conflict with Sin, Rom. 7. ult. I thank God through Jesus Christ. Now, after such a Body of Death, a Principle within me that sends up daily steams; yet as long as I serve God with my Mind, as long as I keep the main Condition of the Covenant, there is no Condemnation : Christ takes my part, procures my acceptance, and holds the Band of Salvation firm in his hands. The brightness of Christ's Grace, is set off by the darkness of our Sin. We should not understand the Sovereignty of his Medicines, if there were no Relics of Sin for him to exercise his Skill upon: The Physicians Art is most experimented, and therefore most valued in Relapses, as dangerous as the former Disease. As the Wisdom of God brought our Savior into Temptation, that he might have Compassion to us; so it permits us to be overcome by Temptation, that we might have due Valuations of him.
3. God hereby often engageth the Soul to a greater Industry for his glory. The highest Persecutors, when they have become Converts, have been the greatest Champions for that Cause they both hated and oppressed. The Apostle Paul is such an Instance of this, that it needs no enlargement. By how much they have failed of answering the end of their Creation in glorifying God; by so much the more they summon up all their Force for such an end, after their Conversion; to restore as much as they can of that Glory to God, which they by their Sin had robbed him of. Their Sins, by the order of Divine Wisdom, prove Whetstones to sharpen the edge of their Spirits for God. Paul never remembered his Persecuting Fury, but he doubled his Industry for the Service of God, which before he trampled under his feet. The further we go back, the greater Leap many times we take forward.
Our Savior, after his Resurrection, put Peter upon the exercise of that Love to him, which had so lately shrunk his head out of Suffering ; and no doubt, but the consideration of his base Denial, together with a reflection upon a gracious Pardon, engaged his Ingenuous Soul to stronger and fiercer flames of Affection. A Believers Courage for God, is more sharpened oftentimes by the shame of his Fall: He endeavors to repair the faults of his Ingratitude and Disingenuity, by larger and stronger steps of Obedience. As a Man in a fight, having been foiled by his Enemy, reassumes new Courage by his Fall; and is many times obliged to his Foil, both for his Spirit and his Victory. A gracious Heart will, upon the very motions to sin, double its Vigor, as well as by good ones: It is usually more quickened, both in its motion to God and for God, by the Temptations and Motions to Sin, which run upon it. This is another Good the Wisdom of God brings forth from Sin.
4. Again, Humility towards God, is another Good, Divine Wisdom brings forth from the Occasion of Sin. By this God beats down all good opinion or ourselves. Hezekiah was more humbled by his fall into Pride, than by all the Distress he had been in by Senacharibs Army, 2 Chron. 32.26. Peters Confidence before his Fall, gave way to an humble Modesty after it: You see his Confidence, Mark 14.24. Though all should be offended in thee, yet will not I; and you have the mark of his Modesty, John 21.17. 'tis not then, Lord, I will love thee to the death, I will not start from thee; but, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. I cannot assure myself of anything after this Miscarriage; but, Lord, thou knowest there is a Principle of Love in me to thy Name: He was ashamed, that himself who appeared such a Pillar, should bend as meanly as a Shrub to a Temptation.
The reflection upon Sin, lays a Man as low as Hell in his Humiliation, as the Commission of Sin did in the Merit. When David comes to exercise Repentance for his Sin, he begins it from the Well-head of Sin , his Original Corruption, and draws down the streams of it to the last commission: Perhaps he did not so seriously humble himself for the Sin of his Nature all his days, so much as at that time; at least, we have not such Evidences of it. And Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart; not only for the Pride of his Act , but for the Pride in the Heart, which was the Spring of that Pride in Act, in showing his Treasures to the Babylonish Ambassadors. God lets Sin continue in the Hearts of the best in this World, and sometimes gives the Reins to Satan, and a Mans own Corruption, to keep up a sense of the ancient Sale we made of ourselves to both.
II. In regard of ourselves. Herein is the wonder of Divine Wisdom, that God many times makes a Sin, which Meritoriously fits us for Hell, a Providential occasion to fit us for Heaven; when it is an occasion of a more humble Faith and believing Humility, and an occasion of a through Sanctification and growth in Grace, which prepares us for a state of Glory.
1. He makes use of one Sin's breaking out to discover more; and so brings us to a Self-abhorrency and Indignation against Sin, the first step towards Heaven. Perhaps David, before his gross Fall, thought he had no Hypocrisy in him. We often find him appealing to God for his Integrity, and desiring God to try him, if any guile could be found in his Heart, as if he could find none himself: But his Lapse into that great Wickedness, makes him discern much Falseness in his Soul, when he desires God to renew a right Spirit within him, and speaks of Truth in the inward parts, Psal. 51.6, 10. The stirring of one Corruption, makes all the Mud at the bottom appear, which before a Soul did not suspect. No Man would think there were so great a Cloud of Smoke contained in a little Stick of Wood, were it not for the powerful operation of the Fire, that both discovers and separates it. Job, that Cursed the Day of his Birth, and uttered many Impatient expressions against God upon the account of his own Integrity; upon his Recovery from his Affliction, and God's close application of himself, was wrought to a greater Abhorrency of himself, than ever we read he was exercised in before . The Hostile acts of Sin increase the Souls hatred of it; and the deeper our Humiliations are for it, the stronger impressions of Abhorrency are made upon us.
2. He often orders it, to make Conscience more tender, and the Soul more watchful. He that finds by his Calamity, his Enemy to have more strength against him than he suspected, will double his Guards and quicken his Diligence against him. A being overtaken by some Sin, is by the Wisdom of God disposed to make us more fearful of cherishing any occasion to enflame it, and watchful against every motion and start of it. By a Fall, the Soul hath more experience of the Deceitfulness of the Heart; and by observing its methods, is rendered better able to watch against them. 'It is our Ignorance of the Devices of Satan, and our own hearts, that makes us obnoxious to their Surprizes. A fall into one Sin is often a prevention of more which lay in wait for us. As the fall of a small Body into an Ambush, prevents the design of the Enemy upon a greater. As God suffers Heresies in the Church, to try our Faith; so he suffers Sins to remain, and sometimes to break out, to try our Watchfulness. This advantage he brings from them, to steel our Resolutions against the same Sins, and quicken our Circumspection for the future against new Surprizes by a Temptation. David's Sin was ever before him, Psal. 51.3. and made his Conscience cry, Blood, Blood, upon every occasion: He refused the Water of the Well of Bethlehem, 2 Sam, 23.16, 17. because it was gained with the hazard of Lives: He could endure nothing that had the taste of Blood in it. Our fear of a thing depends much upon a Trial of it: A Child will not fear too near approaches to the Fire, till he feels the smart of it.
Mortification doth not wholly suppress the Motions of Sin, though it doth the Resolutions to commit it; but that there will be a proneness in the Relics of it, to entice a Man into those Faults, which upon sight of their blemishes cost him so many Tears. As great Sicknesses after the Cure are more watched, and the Body humor'd, that a Man might not fall from the Craziness they have left in him; which he is apt to do, if Relapses are not carefully provided against. A Man becomes more careful of anything, that may contribute to the resurrection of an expired Disease.
3. God makes it an occasion of the Mortification of that Sin, which was the matter of the Fall. The livelyness of one Sin in a Renewed Man, many times is the occasion of the death of it. A wild Beast, while kept close in a Den, is secure in its life; but when it breaks out to Rapine, it makes the Master resolve to prevent any further mischief by the death of it. The impetuous stirring of a humor in a Disease, is sometime Critical, and a Prognostick of the strength of Nature against it, whereby the Disease loseth its strength by its struggling, and makes room for health to take place by degrees. One Sin is used by God for the destruction both of itself and others: As the Flesh of a Scorpion cures the biting of it. It sometimes by wounding us loseth its Sting, and like the Be renders itself uncapable of a second Revenge. Peter, after his gross Denial, never denied his Master afterwards. The Sin that lay undiscovered, is by a Fall become visible, and so more obvious to a mortifying stroke. The Soul lays the faster hold on Christ and the Promise, and goes out against that Enemy in the Name of that Lord of Hosts of which he was too negligent of before; and therefore as he proves more strong, so more successful: He hath more strength, because he hath less confidence in himself, and more in God, the prime strength of his Soul. As it was with Christ, so it is with us, while the Devil was bruising his Heel, he was bruising his Head; and while the Devil is bruising our Heel, the God of Peace and Wisdom is sometimes bruising his Head both in us and for us; so that the strugglings of Sin, are often as the faint groans or bitings of a Beast that is ready to expire. 'It is just with a Man sometimes, as with a Running Fountain that hath Mud at the bottom, when it is stirred the Mud tinctures and defiles it all over; yet some of that Mud hath a vent with the Streams which run from it, so that when it is re-settled at the bottom, 'tis not so much in quantity as it was before. God by his Wisdom weakens the Sin, by permitting it to stir and defile.
4. Sometimes Divine Wisdom makes it an occasion to promote a Sanctification in all parts of the Soul. As the working of one Ill-humor in the Body, is an occasion of cashiering not only that, but the rest by a sound Purge. As a Man that is a little Cold, doth not think of the Fire; but if he slips with one Foot into an Icy-puddle, he hastens to the Fire, whereby not only that part, but all the rest receive a warmth and strength upon that occasion: Or, as if a Person fall into the Mire, his Cloaths are washed; and by that means cleansed, not only from the filth at present contracted, but from the former Spots that were before unregarded. God by his Wisdom brings secret Sins to a discovery, and thereby cleanseth the Soul of them.
David's Fall might be ordered as an Answer to his former Petition, Psal. 19.12. Cleanse thou me from my secret sins; and as he did earnestly pray after his Fall, so no doubt but he endeavor'd a thorough Sanctification, Psal 51.7. Purge me, wash me; and that he meant not only a Sanctification from that single Sin, but from all, Root and Branch, is evident by that Complaint of the slaw in his Nature, verse 5. the Dross and Chaff which lies in the heart is hereby discovered, and an opportunity administered of throwing it out, and searching all the corners of the Heart to discover where it lay. As God sometimes takes occasion from one Sin, to reckon with Men in a way of Justice for others; so he sometimes takes occasion from the commission of one Sin, to bring out all the actions against the Sinner, to make him, in a way of gracious Wisdom, set more cordially upon the work of Sanctification.
A great Fall sometimes hath been the occasion of a Mans Conversion. The Fall of Mankind occasioned a more blessed Restoration; and the Falls of particular Believers, ofttimes occasion a more extensive Sanctification. Thus the only Wise God makes poisons in Nature, to become Medicines in a way of Grace and Wisdom.
5. Hereby the growth in Grace is furthered. 'It is a wonder of Divine Wisdom, to subtract sometimes his Grace from a Person, and let him fall into Sin, thereby to occasion the increase of habitual Grace in him, and to augment it by those ways that seemed to depress it. By making Sins an occasion of a more vigorous acting the contrary Grace, the Wisdom of God makes our Corruptions in their own nature destructive, to become profitable to us. Grace often breaks out more strongly afterwards, as the Sun doth with its heat, after it hath been mask'd and interrupted with a Mist: They often, through the mighty working of the Spirit make us more humble, and Humility fits us to receive more Grace from God . How doth Faith, that sunk under the Waves, lift up its head again, and carry the Soul out with a greater liveliness? What ardours of Love, what floods of Repenting Tears, what severity of Revenge, what horrors at the remembrance of the Sin, what Tremblings at the appearance of a second Temptation? So that Grace seems to be be awakened to a new and more vigorous life . The broken Joynt is many times stronger in the Rupture, than it was before. The Luxuriancy of the Branches of Corruption, is an occasion of purging, and purging is with a design to make Grace more fruitful; John 15.2. He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Thus Divine Wisdom doth both sharpen and brighten us by the dust of Sin, and ripen and mellow the fruits of Grace by the dung of Corruption. Grace grows the stronger by opposition, as the Fire burns hottest and clearest, when it is most surrounded by a cold Air; and our Natural heat reassumes a new strength by the coldness of the Winter. The foil under a Diamond, though an imperfection in itself, increaseth the beauty and luster of the Stone. The Enmity of Man was a commendation of the Grace of God: It occasioned the breaking out of the Grace of God upon us; and is an occasion, by the Wisdom and Grace of God, of the increase of Grace many times in us.
How should the Consideration of God's Incomprhensible Wisdom, in the management of Evil, swallow us up in Admiration; who brings forth such beauty, such eminent Discoveries of himself, such excellent good to the Creature, out of the bowels of the greatest Contrarieties, making dark Shadows serve to display and beautisie to our Apprehensions the Divine Glory? If Evil were not in the World, Men would not know what Good is: They would not behold the luster of Divine Wisdom; as without Night we could not understand the beauty of the Day.
Though God is not the Author of Sin, because of his Holiness, yet he is the Administrator of Sin by his Wisdom, and accomplisheth his own Purposes, by the Iniquities of his Enemies, and the Lapses and Infirmities of his Friends.
Thus much for the Second, The Government of Man in his Lapsed state, and the Government of Sin, wherein the Wisdom of God doth wonderfully appear.
III. The Wisdom of God appears in the Government of Man in his Conversion and Return to him. If there be a Counsel in framing the lowest Creature, and in the minutest passages of Providence; there must needs be a higher Wisdom in the government of the Creature to a Supernatural End, and framing the Soul to be a monument of his Glory. The Wisdom of God is seen with more Admirations, and in more varieties by the Angels in the Church, than in the Creation ; that is, in forming a Church out of the Rubbish of the World, out of Contrarieties and Contradictions to him; which is greater than the framing a Celestial and Elementary World out of a rude Chaos. The most glorious Bodies in the World, even those of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, have not such stamps of Divine Skill upon them, as the Soul of Man; nor is there so much of Wisdom in the Fabric and Faculties of that, as in the reduction of a blind, willful, rebellious Soul to its own happiness, and God's glory; Eph. 1.11, 12. He worketh all things according to the counsel of his own Will, that we should be for the praise of his glory. If all things, then this, which is none of the least of his works: To the praise of the glory of his Goodness in his work, and to the praise of the Rule of his work, his Counsel, in both the act of his Will, and the act of his Wisdom. The restoring of the Beauty of the Soul, and its fitness for its true end, speaks no less Wisdom, than the first draught of it in Creation: And the application of Redemption, and bringing forth the fruits of it, is as well an act of his Prudence, as the contrivance was of his Counsel.
Divine Wisdom appears,
First, In the Subjects of Conversion. His Goodness reigns in the very Dust, and he erects the Walls and Ornaments of his Temple from the Clay and Mud of the World: He passes over the Wise, and Noble, and Mighty, that may pretend some grounds of boasting in their own natural or acquired Endowments; and pitches upon the most contemptible Materials, wherewith to build a Spiritual Tabernacle for himself, 1 Cor. 1.26, 27. The foolish, and weak things of the World; those that are naturally most unfit for it, and most refractory to it. Herein lies the Skill of an Architect, to render the most knotty, crooked, and inform Pieces, by his Art, subservient to his main purpose and design. Thus God hath ordered from the beginning of the World, contrary Tempers, various Humors, diverse Nations, as Stones of several Natures, to be a Building for himself, fitly framed together, and to be his own Family . Who will question the Skill that alters a black Jet into a clear Crystal, a Glow-worm into a Star, a Lion into a Lamb, and a Swine into a Dove? The more intricate and knotty any business is, the more eminent is any Mans Ability and Prudence, in untying the knots and bringing it to a good Issue. The more desperate the Disease, the more admirable is the Physicians Skill in the Cure.
He pitches upon Men for his service, who have Natural dispositions to serve him in such ways as he disposeth of them, after their Conversion; So Paul was naturally a Conscientious Man; what he did against Christ was from the dictates of an erroneous Conscience, soak'd in the Pharisaical Interpretations of the Jewish Law: He had a strain of Zeal to prosecute what his depraved Reason and Conscience did inform him in. God pitches upon this Man, and works him in the Fire for his Service: He alters not his Natural disposition, to make him of a Constitution and Temper contrary to what he was before; but directs it to another Object, claps in another Bias into the Bowl, and makes his Ill-governed Disposition • move in a new way of his own appointment, and guided that Natural heat to the service of that Interest, which he was before ambitious to extirpate. As a high metled Horse, when left to himself, creates both disturbance and danger. But under the conduct of a wise Rider, moves regularly; not by a change of his Natural fierceness, but a skillful management of the Beast to the Riders purpose.
2. In the seasons of Conversion. The Prudence of Man consists in the Timing the execution of his Counsels; and no less doth the Wisdom of God consist in this. As he is a God of Judgment, or Wisdom, he waits to introduce his Grace into the Soul in the fittest Season.
This Attribute, Paul in the story of his own Conversion puts a particular remark upon, which he doth not upon any other, in that Catalogue he reckons up 1 Tim. 1.17. Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only Wise God, be Honor and Glory forever and ever, Amen. A most solemn Doxology, wherein Wisdom sits upon the Throne above all the rest, with a special Amen to the glory of it; which refers to the Timing of his Mercy so to Paul, as made most for the glory of his Grace, and the encouragement of others from him as the Pattern. God took him at a time when he was upon the brink of Hell; when he was ready to devour the New-born Infant Church at Damascus; when he was Arm'd with all the Authority from without, and fired with all the Zeal from within, for the prosecution of his Design: Then God seizeth upon him, and runs him in a Chanel for his own Honor, and his Creatures happiness.
'It is observable how God set his Eye upon Paul all along in his furious course, and lets him have the Reins, without putting out his hand to bridle him; yet no motion he could take, but the Eye of God runs along with him: He suffered him to kick against the pricks of Miracles, and the convincing Discourse of Stephen, at his Martyrdom. There were many that Voted for Stephens Death, as the Witnesses that flung the Stones first at him; but they are not named, only Saul, who testified his Approbation as well as the rest, and that by watching the Witnesses Cloaths while they were about that bloody work, Acts 7.58. The Witnesses laid their clothes at a young Mans feet, named Saul. Again, though Multitudes were consenting to his Death, yet Acts 8.1. Saul only is mentioned. God's Eye is upon him, yet he would not at that time stop his Fury. He goes on further, and makes havoc of the Church, Acts 8.3. He had surely many more Complices, but none are named (as if none regarded with any design of Grace) but Saul: Yet God would not reach out his hand to Change him, but Eyes him, waiting for a fitter opportunity, which in his Wisdom he did foresee. And therefore Acts 9.1. the Spirit of God adds a Yet; Saul yet breathing out Threatenings. It was not God's time yet, but it would be shortly. But when Saul was putting in execution his design against the Church of Damascus, when the Devil was at the top of his Hopes, and Saul in the height of his Fury, and the Christians sunk into the depth of their Fears; the Wisdom of God lays hold of the opportunity, and by Paul's Conversion at this Season, defeats the Devil, disappoints the High Priests, shields his People, discharges their Fears by pulling Saul out of the Devils hands, and forming Satan's Instrument to a holy Activity against him.
3. The Wisdom of God appears, In the manner of Conversion. So great a Change God makes, not by a destruction, but with a preservation of, and suitableness to Nature. As the Devil Tempts us, not by offering violence to our Natures, but by proposing things convenient to our Corrupt Natures; so doth God solicit us to a Return, by proposals suited to our Faculties. As he doth in Nature convey Nourishment to Men, by means of the Fruits of the Earth, and produceth the Fruits of the Earth by the Influences of Heaven; the Influences of Heaven do not force the Earth, but excite that Natural virtue and strength which is in it. So God produceth Grace in the Soul by the Means of the Word, fitted to the capacity of Man, as Man, and proportioned to his Rational Faculties, as Rational.
It would be contrary to the the Wisdom of God, to move Man like a Stone, to invert the order and privilege of that Nature which he settled in Creation; for then God would in vain have given Man Understanding and Will: Because without moving Men according to those Faculties, they would remain unprofitable and unuseful in Man. God doth not reduce us to himself, as Logs, by a mere force; or as Slaves forced by a Cudgel, to go forth to that place, and do that work which they have no stomach to: But he doth accommodate himself to those Foundations he hath laid in our Nature, and guides us in a way agreeable thereunto, by an Action as sweet as powerful; clearing our Understandings of dark Principles whereby we may see his Truth, our own Misery, and the Seat of our Happiness; and bending our Wills according to this Light, to desire and move conveniently to this End of our Calling: Efficaciously, yet agreeably; powerfully, yet without imposing on our Natural Faculties; sweetly without Violence in ordering the Means, but effectually without Failing in accomplishing the End. And therefore the Scripture calleth it, Teaching, John 6.45. Alluring, Hos. 2.14. Calling us to seek the Lord, Psal. 27.8. Teaching, is an act of Wisdom; Alluring, an act of Love; Calling, an act of Authority: But none of them argue a violent constraint. The principle that moves the Will is Supernatural; but the Will, as a Natural Faculty, concurs in the act or motion.
God doth not act in this in a way of Absolute Power, without an Infinite Wisdom, suiting himself to the Nature of the things he acts upon: He doth not change the Physical Nature, though he doth the Moral. As in the Government of the World, he doth not make heavy things ascend, nor light things descend, ordinarily; but guides their Motions according to their Natural qualities: So God doth not strain the Faculties beyond their due pitch. He lets the nature of the Faculty remain; but changes the Principle in it: The Understanding remains Understanding, and the Will remains Will. But where there was before Folly in the Understanding, he puts in a Spirit of Wisdom; and where there was before a stoutness in the Will, he forms it to a pliableness to his offers. He hath a Key to fit every Ward in the Lock, and opens the Will without injuring the Nature of the Will.
He doth not change the Soul by an alteration of the Faculties, but by an alteration of something in them: Not by an Inroad upon them, or by mere power, or a blind Instinct; but by proposing to the Understanding something to be known, and informing it of the Reasonableness of his Precepts, and the Innate goodness and excellency of his Offers, and by inclining the Will to love and embrace what is proposed. And things are proposed under those Notions, which usually move our Wills and Affections. We are moved by things as they are good, pleasant, profitable; we entertain things as they make for us, and detest things as they are contrary to us. Nothing affects us but under such qualities, and God suits his Encouragements to these Natural Affections which are in us: His Power and Wisdom go hand in hand together; his Power to act what his Wisdom orders, and his Wisdom to conduct what his Power executes. He brings Men to him in ways suited to their Natural dispositions. The stubborn he tears like a Lion, the gentle he wins like a Turtle, by sweetness; he hath a Hammer to break the stout, and a Cord of Love to draw the more pliable Tempers: He works upon the more Rational in a way of Gospel Reason; upon the more Ingenuous in a way of kindness, and draws them by the Cords of Love.
The Wise-men were led to Christ by a Star, and Means suited to the knowledge and study that those Eastern Nations used, which was much in Astronomy: He worketh upon others by Miracles accommodated to every ones sense, and so proportions the Means according to the Nature of the Subjects he works upon.
4. The Wisdom of God is apparent in his Discipline, and Penal Evils. The Wisdom of Human Governments is seen in the matter of their Laws, and in the Penalties of their Laws, and in the proportion of the Punishment to the Offence, and in the good that redounds from the Punishment either to the Offender, or to the Community.
The Wisdom of God is seen in the Penalty of Death upon the Transgression of his Law; both in that it was the greatest Evil that Man might fear, and so was a convenient means to keep him in his due bound, and also in the proportion of it to the Transgression. Nothing less could be in a Wise Justice inflicted upon an Offender for a Crime against the highest Being, and the Supreme Excellency: But this hath been spoken of before, in the Wisdom of his Laws. I shall only mention some few, it would be too tedious to run into all.
1. His Wisdom appears in Judgments, in the suiting them to the qualities of Persons, and nature of Sins. He deviseth evil, Jer. 18.11. his Judgments are fruits of Counsel. He also is wise, and will bring Evil, Isai. 31.2. Evil suitable to the Person offending, and Evil suitable to the Offence committed: As the Husbandman doth his Threshing Instruments to the Grain: He hath a Rod for the Cumin, a tenderer Seed, and a Flayl for the harder; so hath God greater Judgments for the obdurate Sinner, and lighter for those that have something of tenderness in their Wickedness, Isai. 28.27, 29. Because he is wonderful in Counsel, and excellent in working; so Some understand the place, With the froward, he will show himself froward.
He proportions punishment to the Sin, and writes the cause of the Judgment in the Forehead of the Judgment itself. Sodom burned in Lust, and was consumed by Fire from Heaven. The Jews sold Christ for Thirty pence; and at the Taking of Jerusalem, Thirty of them were sold for a Penny. So Adonibezek Cut off the Thumbs and great Toes of others, and he is served in the same kind, Judge. 1.7. The Babel Builders designed an indissoluble union, and God brings upon them an unintelligible Confusion. And in Exod. 9.9. the Ashes of the Furnace, where the Israelites burnt the Egyptian Bricks, sprinkled towards Heaven, brought Boyls upon the Egyptian Bodies, that they might feel in their own, what Pain they had caused in the Israelites flesh; and find by the smart of the inflamed Scab, what they had made the Israelites endure. The Waters of the River Nile are turned into Blood, wherein they had stifled the breath of the Israelites Infants: And at last the Prince, and the flower of their Nobility, are drowned in the Red Sea.
'It is part of the Wisdom of Justice to proportion punishment to the Crime, and the degrees of Wrath to the degrees of Malice in the Sin. Afflictions also are wisely proportioned: God, as a wise Physician, considers the nature of the humor and strength of the Patient, and suits his Medicines both to the one and the other, 1 Cor. 10.13.
2. In the seasons of Punishments and Afflictions. He stays till Sin be ripe, that his Justice may appear more equitable, and the Offender more inexcusable; Dan. 9.14. he watches upon the evil to bring it upon Men. To bring it in the just Season, and order for his righteous and gracious Purpose; his Righteous purpose on the Enemies, and his Gracious purpose on his People.
Jerusalem's Calamity came upon them, when the City was full of People at the Solemnity of the Passover, that he might Mow down his Enemies at once, and Time their Destruction to such a moment wherein they had Timed the Crucifixion of his Son. He watched over the Clouds of his Judgments, and kept them from pouring down, till his People the Christians were provided for, and had departed out of the City to the Chambers and Retiring places God had provided for them. He made not Jerusalem the Shambles of his Enemies, till he had made Pella, and other places, the Arks of his Friends. As Pliny tells us, The Providence of God holds the Sea in a calm for fifteen days, that the Halcyons, little Birds, that frequent the Shoar, may build their Nests, and hatch up their Young. The Judgment upon Sodom was suspended for some hours, till Lot was secured.
God suffered not the Church to be Invaded by Violent Persecutions, till she was established in the Faith: He would not expose her to so great Combats, while she was weak and feeble, but gave her time to fortify herself, to be rendered more capable of bearing up under them. He stifled all the motions of Passion the Idolaters might have for their Superstition, till Religion was in such a condition, as rather to be increased and purified, than extinguished by Opposition. Paul was s • cured from Nero's Chains, and the Nets of his Enemies, till he had broke off the Chain of the Devil from many Cities of the Gentiles, and catched them by the Net of the Gospel out of the Sea of the World.
Thus the Wisdom of God is seen in the Seasons of Judgments and Afflictions.
3. It is apparent in the gracious issue of Afflictions and Penal Evils. It is a part of Wisdom to bring Good out of Evil of Punishment, as well as to bring Good out of Sin. The Church never was so like to Heaven, as when it was most Persecuted by Hell: The Storms often cleansed it, and the Lance often made it more healthful. Jobs Integrity had not been so clear, nor his Patience so illustrious, had not the Devil been permitted to afflict him. God by his Wisdom outwits Satan; when he by his Temptations intends to pollute us and buffet us, God orders it to purify us; he often brings the clearest light out of the thickest darkness, makes Poysons to become Medicines. Death itself, the greatest Punishment in this Life, and the entrance into Hell in its own Nature, he hath by his Wise contrivance, made to his People the Gate of Heaven, and the passage into Immortality. Penal Evils in a Nation often end in in a public Advantage: Troubles and Wars among a People are many times not destroying, but Medicinal, and cure them of that Degeneracy, Luxury, and Effeminateness, they contracted by a long Peace.
4. This Wisdom is evident, in the various Ends which God brings about by Afflictions. The attainment of various Ends by one and the same Means, is the fruit of the Agents Prudence. By the same Affliction, the Wise God corrects sometimes for some base Affection, excites some sleepy Grace, drives out some lurking Corruption, refines the Soul, and ruins the Lust; discovers the greatness of a Crime, the Vanity of the Creature, and the Sufficiency in himself.
The Jews bind Paul, and by the Judge he is sent to Rome; whi • his Mouth is stopped in Judea, 'tis opened in one of the greatest Cities of the World, and his Enemies unwittingly contribute to the increase of the knowledge of Christ by those Chains, in that City that triumphed over the Earth. And his afflictive Bonds added Courage and Resolution to others, Phil. 1.14. Many waxing confident by my Bonds; which could not in their own Nature produce such an effect, but by the order and contrivance of Divine Wisdom: In their own nature, they would rather make them disgust the Doctrine he suffered for, and cool their Zeal in the propagating of it, for fear of the same disgrace and hardship they saw him suffer . But the Wisdom of God changed the nature of these Fetters, and conducted them to the glory of his Name, the encouragement of others, the increase of the Gospel, and the comfort of the Apostle himself, Phil. 1.12, 13, 18. The Sufferings of Paul at Rome confirmed the Philippians, a People at a distance from thence, in the Doctrine they had already received at his hands.
Thus God makes Sufferings sometimes, which appear like Judgments, to be like the Viper on Paul's hand, Acts 28.6. a means to clear up Innocence, and procure favor to the Doctrine among those Barbarians. How often hath he multiplied the Church by Death and Massacres, and increased it by those means used to annihilate it?
5. The Divine Wisdom is apparent in the Deliverances he affords to other parts of the World, as well as to his Church. There are delicate composures, curious threads in his Webs, and he works them like an Artificer. A goodness wrought for them, curiously wrought, Psal. 31.19.
1. In making the Creatures subservient in their Natural order to his gracious Ends and Purposes. He orders things in such a manner, as not to be necessitated to put forth an extraordinary Power in things, which some part of the Creation might accomplish. Miraculous productions would speak his Power; but the ordering the Natural course of things, to occasion such effects they were never intended for, is one part of the glory of his Wisdom. And that his Wisdom may be seen in the course of Nature, he conducts the Motions of Creatures, and acts them in their own strength; and doth that by various windings and turnings of them, which he might do in an instant by his Power, in a Supernatural way. Indeed, sometimes he hath made Invasions on Nature, and suspended the Order of their Natural Laws for a season, to show himself the Absolute Lord and Governor of Nature: Yet if frequent Alterations of this nature were made, they would impede the knowledge of the Nature of things, and be some bar to the discovery and glory of his Wisdom; which is best seen by moving the wheels of Inferior Creatures, in an exact regularity to his own Ends. He might, when his little Church in Jacob's Family was like to starve in Canaan, have for their preservation turned the Stones of the Country into Bread; but he sends them down to Egypt to procure Corn, that a way might be opened for their removal into that Country; the Truth of his Prediction in their Captivity accomplished, and a way made after the declaration of his great Name Jehovah, both in the fidelity of his Word and the greatness of his Power, in their Deliverance from that Furnace of Affliction. He might have struck Goliath, the Captain of the Philistines Army, with a Thunderbolt from Heaven, when he Blasphemed his Name and scared his People; but he useth the Natural strength of a Stone, and the Artificial motion of a Sling, by the Arm of David, to confront the Giant, and thereby to free Judea from the ravage of a potent Enemey. He might have delivered the Jews from Babylon by as strange Miracles, as he used in their Deliverance from Egypt: He might have plagu'd their Enemies, gathered his People into a Body, and protected them by the bulwark of a Cloud and a Pillar of Fire, against the Assaults of their Enemies. But he uses the differences between the Persians and those of Babylon, to accomplish his Ends. How sometimes hath the veering about of the Wind on a sudden been the loss of a Navy, when it hath been upon the point of Victory, and driven back the Destruction upon those which intended it for others? And the accidental stumbling, or the Natural fierceness of a Horse, flung down a General in the midst of a Battle, where he hath lost his life by the throng, and his death hath brought a defeat to his Army, and deliverance to the other Party, that were upon the brink of ruin? Thus doth the Wisdom of God link things together according to Natural order, to work out his intended preservation of a People.
2. In the season of Deliverance. The Timing of Affairs is a part of the Wisdom of Man, and an eminent part of the Wisdom of God. It is in due season he sends the former and the latter Rain, when the Earth is in the greatest Indigence, and when his Influences may most contribute to the bringing forth and ripening the Fruit. The dumb Creatures have their meat from him in due season : And in his due season have his darling People their Deliverance. When Paul was upon his Journey to Damascus with a Persecuting Commission, he is struck down for the security of the Church in that City. The Nature of the Lion is changed in due season, for the preservation of the Lambs from worrying. The Israelites are miraculously rescued from Egypt, when their Wits were at a loss, when their danger to Human understanding was unavoidable; when Earth and Sea refused protection, then the Wisdom and Power of Heaven stepped in to effect that, which was past the skill of the Conductors of that Multitude. And when the Lives of the Jews lay at the stake, and their Necks were upon the Block at the mercy of their Enemies Swords, by an Order from Shushan; not only a Reprieve, but a Triumph arrives to the Jews, by the Wisdom of God guiding the Affair, whereby of Persons designed to execution, they are made Conquerors, and have opportunity to exercise their Revenge instead of their Patience, proving Triumphers where they expected to be Sufferers . How strangely doth God by secret ways bow the hearts of Men, and the nature of things to the execution of that which he designs, notwithstanding all the resistance of that which would traverse the security of his People? How often doth he trap the wicked in the work of their own hands, make their confidence to become their ruin, and ensnare them in those Nets they wrought and laid for others? Psal. 9.16. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. He scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts, Luke 1.51. in the height of their hopes, when their designs have been laid so deep in the Foundation, and knit and cemented so close in their superstructure, that no Human Power or Wisdom could raze them down: He hath then disappointed their Projects, and befooled their Craft. How often hath he kept back the Fire, when it hath been ready to devour; broke the Arrows, when they have been prepared in the Bow; turned the Spear into the bowels of the Bearers, and wounded them at the very instant they were ready to wound others?
3. In suiting Instruments to his purpose. He either finds them sit, or makes them on a sudden fit for his gracious ends. If he hath a Tabernacle to build, he will sit a Bezaleel and an Aholiab, with the Spirit of wisdom and Understanding in all cunning workmanship, Exod. 31.3, 6. If he finds them crooked pieces, he can, like a wise Architect, make them strait Beams for the rearing his House, and for the honor of his Name.
He sometimes picks out men, according to their natural Tempers, and employs them in his Work: Jehu, a man of a furious Temper, and ambitious Spirit, is called out for the destruction of Ahab 's House. Moses, a man furnished with all Egyptian wisdom, fitted by a generous Education, prepared also by the Affliction he met with in his flight, and one who had had the benefit of conversation with Jethro, a man of more than an ordinary wisdom and goodness, as appears by his prudent and religious Counsel; this man is called out to be the Head and Captain of an oppressed People, and to rescue them from their Bondage, and settle the first National Church in the World. So Elijah, a high spirited man, of a hot and angry temper, one that sl ghted the Frowns, and undervalued the Favor of Princes, is set up to stem the Torrent of the Israelitish Idolatry. So Luther, a man of the same temper, is drawn out by the same Wisdom to encounter the Corruptions in the Church, against such Opposition, which a milder Temper would have sun • under. The Earth in Rev. 12.16. is made an Instrument to help the woman: When the Grandees of that Age transferred the Imperial Power upon Constantine, who became afterwards a protecting and nursing Father to the Church, a thnig end which many of his Favourers never designed, nor ever dreamt of: But God by his infinite Wisdom made these several Designs like several Arrows shot at Rovers, meet in one Mark to which he directed them, viz. in bringing forth an Instrument to render Peace to the World, and Security and Increase to his Church.
3. The wisdom of God doth wonderfully appear in Redemption. His wisdom in Creation ravisheth the Eye and Understanding; his wisdom in Government, doth no less affect a curious Observer of the Links and Concatenation of the Means; but his wisdom in Redemption mounts the Mind to a greater astonishment. The works of Creation are the Footsteps of his wisdom; the work of Red • mption is the Face of his wisdom: A man is better known by the Features of his Face, than by the Prints of his Feet. We with open face, or a revealed face, beholding the glory of the Lord, 2 Cor. 3.18. Face there, refers to God, not to us; the glory of God's wisdom is now open, and no longer covered and veiled by the shadows of the Law. As we behold the Light glorious, as scattered in the Air before the appearance of the Sun, but more gloriously in the Face of the Sun, when it begins its Race in our Horizon. All the wisdom of God in Creation and Government in his variety of Laws, was like the light the three first days of the Creation dispersed about the World, but the fourth day it was more glorious, when all gathered into the Body of the Sun, Gen. 1.4, 16. So the Light of Divine wisdom and glory, was scattered about the World, and so more obscure, till the fourth Divine day of the World about the four thousandth year, it was gathered into one Body, the Sun of Righteousness, and so shone out more gloriously to Men and Angels. All things are weaker, the thinner they are extended, but stronger, the more they are united and compacted in one Body and Appearance. In Christ, in the dispensation by him, as well as in his Person, were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Coloss. 2.3. Some Doles of wisdom were given out in Creation, but the Treasures of it opened in Redemption; the highest degrees of it that ever God did exert in the World. Christ is therefore called the wisdom of God, as well as the power of God, 1 Cor. 1.24. and the Gospel is called the wisdom of God. Christ is the wisdom of God principally, and the Gospel instrumentally, as it is the power of God instrumentally to subdue the heart to himself. This is wrapped up in the appointing Christ as Redeemer, and opened to us in the revelation of it by the Gospel.
1. It is a hidden wisdom. In this regard God is said in the Text, to be only wise; and it is said to be a hidden wisdom, 1 Tim. 1.17. and wisdom in a mystery, 1 Cor. 2.7. incomprehensible to the ordinary Capacity of an Angel, more than the abstruse qualities of the Creatures are to the understanding of man. No wisdom of Men or Angels is able to search all the Veins of this Mine, to tell all the threads of this Web, or to understand the luster of it; they are as far from an ability fully to comprehend it, as they were at first to contrive it. That wisdom that invented it, can only comprehend it. In the uncreated Understanding only there is a clearness of light without any shadow of darkness. We come as short of full apprehensions of it, as a Child doth of the Counsel of the wisest Prince. It is so hidden from us, that without Revelation, we could not have the least imagination of it; and though it be revealed to us, yet without the help of an Infiniteness of Understanding, we cannot fully fathom it: 'It is such a tractate of Divine wisdom, that the Angels never before had seen the Edition of it, till it was published to the World. Eph. 3.10. To the intent that now unto Principalities and Powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. Now made known to them, not before; and now made known to them in the heavenly places. They had not the knowledge of all heavenly Mysteries, though they had the possession of heavenly Glory: They knew the Prophecies of it in the Word, but attained not a clear Interpretation of those Prophecies, till the things that were prophesied of came upon the Stage.
2. Manifold wisdom: So 'tis called. As manifold as mysterious. Variety in the Mystery, and Mystery in every part of the Variety. It was not one single act, but a variety of Counsels met in it; a conjunction of excellent ends and excellent means. The glory of God, the salvation of Man, the defeat of the Apostate Angels, the discovery of the blessed Trinity in their Nature, Operations, their combined and distinct Acts and Expressions of Goodness: The means are the conjunction of two Natures infinitely distant from one another; the union of Eternity and Time, of Mortality and Immortality: Death is made the way to Life, and Shame the path to Glory. The weakness of the Cross is the reparation of man; and the Creature is made wise by the foolishness of preaching; fallen man grows rich by the poverty of the Redeemer, and man is filled by the emptiness of God: The Heir of Hell made a Son of God, by God's taking upon him the form of a Servant; the Son of Man advanced to the highest degree of Honor, by the Son of God becoming of no reputation.
'It is called Eph. 1.8. abundance of wisdom and prudence. Wisdom in the Eternal Counsel, contriving a way; Prudence in the Temporary Revelation, ordering all Affairs and Occurrences in the World for the attaining the end of his Counsel. Wisdom refers to the Mystery; Prudence to the manifestation of it in fit ways and convenient seasons. Wisdom, to the contrivance and order; Prudence, to the execution and accomplishment. In all things God acted as became him, as a wise and just Governor of the World, Heb. 2.10. Whether the wisdom of God might not have found out some other way, or whether he were, in regard of the necessity and naturalness of his Justice, limited to this, is not the question: But that it is the best and wisest way for the manifestation of his glory, is out of question.
This wisdom will appear in the different Interests reconciled by it. In the Subject, the second Person in the Trinity, wherein they were reconciled: In the two Natures, wherein he accomplished it; whereby God is made known to man in his Glory, Sin eternally condemned, and the repenting and believing sinner eternally rescued. The honor and righteousness of the Law vindicated both in the Precept and Penalty. The Devil 's Empire overthrown by the same Nature he had overturned, and the Subtilty of Hell defeated by that Nature he had spoiled: The Creature engaged in the very act to the highest Obedience and Humility, that as God appears as a God upon his Throne, the Creature might appear in the lowest posture of a Creature, in the depths of resignation and dependence; the publication of this made in the Gospel, by ways congruous to the wisdom which appeared in the execution of his Counsel, and the Conditions of enjoying the fruit of it, most wise and reasonable.
1. The greatest different Interests are reconciled, Justice in punishing, and Mercy in pardoning. For man had broken the Law, and plunged himself into a Gulf of Misery: The Sword of Vengeance was unsheathed by Justice, for the punishment of the Criminal: The Bowels of Compassion were stirred by Mercy, for the rescue of the Miserable. Justice severely beholds the Sin, and Mercy compassionately reflects upon the Misery. Two different claims are entered by those concerned Attributes: Justice votes for Destruction, and Mercy votes for Salvation. Justice would draw the Sword, and drench it in the blood of the Offender; Mercy would stop the Sword, and turn it from the breast of the Sinner. Justice would edge it, and Mercy would blunt it. The Arguments are strong on both sides.
1. Justice pleads. I Arraign, before thy Tribunal, a Rebel, who was the glorious Work of thy Hands, the Center of thy rich Goodness, and a Counterpart of thy own Image; he is indeed miserable, whereby to excite thy Compassion; but he is not miserable, without being Criminal. Thou didst create him in a state, and with ability to be otherwise: The riches of thy Bounty aggravate the blackness of his Crime. He is a Rebel, not by necessity, but will. What constraint was there upon him to listen to the Counsels of the Enemy of God? What force could there be upon him, since it is without the compass of any Creature to work upon, or constrain the Will? Nothing of Ignorance can excuse him; the Law was not ambiguously expressed, but in plain words, both as to Precept and Penalty; it was writ in his Nature in legible Characters: Had he received any disgust from thee after his Creation, it would not excuse his Apostasy, since, as a Sovereign, thou wert not obliged to thy Creature. Thou hadst provided all things richly for him; he was crowned with glory and honor: Thy infinite power had bestowed upon him an Habitation richly furnished, and varieties of Servants to attend him. Whatever he viewed without, and whatever he viewed within himself, were several Marks of thy Divine Bounty, to engage him to Obedience: Had there been some reason of any disgust, it could not have balanced that kindness which had so much reason to oblige him: However, he had received no courtesy from the fallen Angel, to oblige him to turn into his Camp. Was it not enough, that one of thy Creatures would have stripped thee of the glory of Heaven, but this also must deprive thee of thy glory upon Earth, which was due from him to thee as his Creator? Can he charge the difficulty of the Command? No: It was rather below, than above his strength. He might rather complain that it was no higher, whereby his Obedience and Gratitude might have a larger scope, and a more spacious Field to move in, than a Precept so light, so easy, as to abstain from one Fruit in the Garden. What excuse can he have, that would prefer the liquorishness of his Sense before the dictates of his Reason, and the Obligations of his Creation? The Law thou didst set him, was righteous and reasonable, and shall Righteousness and Reason be rejected by the Supreme and Infallible Reason, because the rebellious Creature hath trampled upon it? What? must God abrogate his holy Law, because the Creature hath slighted it? What Reflection will this be upon the Wisdom that enacted it; And upon the Equity of the Command and Sanction of it? Either Man must suffer, or the Holy Law be expunged, and forever out of date. And is it not better, Man should Eternally smart under his Crime, than any dishonorable Reflections of Unrighteousness be cast upon the Law, and of folly, and want foresight upon the Lawgiver? Not to punish, would be to approve the Devils Lye, and justify the Creatures Revolt. It would be a Condemnation of thy own Law as unrighteous, and a Sentencing thy own Wisdom as imprudent. Better Man should forever bear the Punishment of his Offence, than God bear the dishonor of his Attributes: Better Man should be miserable, than God should be unrighteous, unwise, false, and tamely bear the denial of his Sovereignty. But what advantage would it be to gratify Mercy by Pardoning the Malefactor? Besides the irreparable dishonor to the Law, the falsifying thy veracity in not executing the denounced threatening, he would receive encouragement by such a grace to spurn more at thy Sovereignty, and oppose thy Holiness by running on in a course of sin with hopes of Impunity: If the Creature be restored, it cannot be expected, that he that hath fared so well, after the breach of it, should be very careful of a future observance: His easy readmission would abet him in the repetition of his Offence, and thou shalt soon find him cast off all Moral dependence on thee. Shall he be restored without any Condition, or Covenant? He is a Creature not to be governed without a Law, and a Law is not be enacted without a Penalty. What future regard will he have to thy Precept, or what fear will he have of thy Threatning, if his Crime be so lightly past over? Is it the stability of thy Word? What reason will he have to give credit to that, which he hath found already disregarded by thyself? Thy Truth in future Threatenings will be of no force with him, who hath experienced thy laying it aside in the former. 'It is necessary therefore that the rebellious creature should be punished for the preservation of the honor of the Law and the honor of the Lawgiver, with all those perfections that are united in the composure of it.
2. Secondly, Mercy doth not want a Plea. 'It is true indeed, the sin of man wants not its aggravations: He hath slighted thy Goodness, and accepted thy Enemy as his Counselor; but it was not a pure act of his own, as the Devils revolt was: He had a Tempter, and the Devil had none: He had, I acknowledge, an Understanding to know thy Will, and a Power to obey it; yet he was mutable, and had a capacity to fall. It was no difficult task that was set him, nor a hard yoke that was laid upon him; yet he had a brutish part, as well as a rational, and sense as well as Soul; whereas the fallen Angel was a pure Intellectual Spirit. Did God create the World to suffer an eternal dishonor, in letting himself be outwitted by Satan, and his work wrested out of his hands? Shall the work of eternal Counsel presently sink into irreparable destruction, and the honor of an Almighty and wise Work be lost in the ruin of the Creature? This would seem contrary to the nature of thy Goodness, to make Man only to render him miserable: To design him in his Creation for the Service of the Devil, and not for the Service of his Creator. What else could be the issue, if the chief work of thy Hand, defaced presently after the erecting, should forever remain in this marred condition? What can be expected upon the continuance of his misery, but a perpetual hatred, and enmity of thy Creature against thee? Did God in Creation design his being hated, or his being loved by his Creature? Shall God make a holy Law, and have no obedience to that Law from that Creature whom it was made to govern? Shall the curious workmanship of God, and the excellent Engravings of the Law of Nature in his heart, be so soon defaced, and remain in that blotted condition forever? This fall thou couldst not but in the treasures of thy Infinite Knowledge foresee; Why hadst thou Goodness then to Create him in an Integrity, if thou wouldst not have Mercy to pity him in Misery? Shall thy Enemy forever trample upon the honor of thy Work, and triumph over the glory of God, and applaud himself in the success of his subtlety? Shall thy Creature only passively glorify thee as an Avenger, and not actively as a Compassionater? Am not I a perfection of thy Nature as well as Justice? Shall Justice ingross all, and I never come into view? 'It is resolved already, that the fallen Angels shall be no Subjects for me to exercise myself upon; and I have now less reason than before to plead for them: They fell with a full consent of will, without any motion from another; and not content with their own Apostasy they envy thee, and thy glory upon Earth, as well as in Heaven, and have drawn into their party the best part of the Creation below: Shall Satan plunge the whole Creation in the same irreparable ruin with himself? If the Creature be restored, will he contract a boldness in sin by impurity? Hast thou not a Grace to render him ingenuous in Obedience, as well as a Compassion to recover him from Misery? What will hinder, but that such a Grace, which hath established the standing Angels, may establish this recovered Creature? If I am utterly excluded from exercising myself on men, as I have been from Devils, a whole Species is lost; nay, I can never expect to appear upon the Stage: If thou wilt quite ruin him by Justice, and create another World, and another Man, if he stand, thy Bounty will be eminent, yet there is no room for Mercy to act, unless by the Commission of sin, he exposeth himself to Misery; and if sin enter into another World, I have little hopes to be heard then, if I am rejected now. Worlds will be perpetually created by Goodness, Wisdom, and Power: Sin entering into these Worlds, will be perpetually punished by Justice; and Mercy, which is a Perfection of thy Nature, will forever be commanded silence, and lie wrapped up in an eternal Darkness. Take occasion now therefore to expose me to the knowledge of thy Creature, since without Misery, Mercy can never set foot into the World.
Mercy pleads, if man be ruined, the Creation is in vain; Justice pleads, if man be not sentenced, the Law is in vain; Truth backs Justice, and Grace abets Mercy. What shall be done in this seeming Contradiction? Mercy is not manifested, if man be not pardoned; Justice will complain, if man be not punished.
3. An expedient is found out by the wisdom of God to answer these Demands, and adjust the Differences between them. The wisdom of God answers, I will satisfy your Pleas. The Pleas of Justice shall be satisfied in punishing, and the Pleas of Mercy shall be received in pardoning. Justice shall not complain for want of Punishment, nor Mercy for want of Compassion. I will have an infinite Sacrifice to content Justice; and the Virtue and Fruit of that Sacrifice shall delight Mercy. Here shall Justice have punishment to accept, and Mercy shall have Pardon to bestow. The Rights of both are preserved, and the Demands of both amicably accorded in punishment and pardon, by transferring the punishment of our Crimes upon a Surety, exacting a Recompence from his Blood by Justice, and conferring life and salvation upon us by Mercy, without the expense of one drop of our own. Thus is Justice satisfied in its Severities, and Mercy in its Indulgences. The riches of Grace are twisted with the terrors of Wrath. The bowels of Mercy are wound about the flaming Sword of Justice, and the Sword of Justice protects and secures the bowels of Mercy. Thus is God righteous without being cruel, and merciful without being unjust; his Righteousness inviolable, and the World recoverable. Thus is a resplendent Mercy brought forth in the midst of all the Curses, Confusions, and Wrath threatened to the Offender.
This is the admirable temperament found out by the wisdom of God: His Justice is honored in the Sufferings of Man's Surety; and his Mercy is honored in the application of the Propitiation to the Offender. Rom. 3.24, 25. Being justified freely by his Grace, through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ: Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. Had we in our Persons been Sacrifices to Justice, Mercy had forever been unknown; had we been solely fostered by Mercy, Justice had forever been secluded; had we, being guilty, been absolved, Mercy might have rejoiced, and Justice might have complained; had we been solely punished, Justice would have triumphed, and Mercy grieved. But by this medium of Redemption, neither hath ground of Complaint: Justice hath nothing to charge, when the Punishment is inflicted; Mercy hath whereof to boast when the Surety is accepted. The Debt of the Sinner is transferred upon the Surety, that the Merit of the Surety may be conferred upon the Sinner; so that God now deals with our sins in a way of consuming Justice, and with our Persons in a way of relieving Mercy. 'It is highly better, and more glorious, than if the Claim of one had been granted, with the exclusion of the Demand of the other: It had then been either an unrighteous Mercy, or a merciless Justice: 'It is now a righteous Mercy, and a merciful Justice.
2. The Wisdom of God appears in the Subject or Person wherein these were accorded; The second Person in the blessed Trinity. There was a congruity in the Sons undertaking and effecting it rather than any other Person, according to the order of the Persons, and the several functions of the Persons, as represented in Scripture. The Father, after Creation, is the Law-giver, and presents man with the Image of his own Holiness and the way to his Creatures happiness: But after the Fall, man was too impotent to perform the Law, and too polluted to enjoy a Felicity. Redemption was then necessary; not that it was necessary for God to redeem man, but it was necessary for man's happiness, that he should be recovered. To this the second Person is appointed, that by Communion with him, man might derive a happiness, and be brought again to God. But since man was blind in his Understanding, and an Enemy in his will to God, there must be the exerting of a Virtue to enlighten his mind, and bend his Will to understand, and accept of this Redemption: And this work is assigned to the third Person, the Holy Ghost.
1. It was not congruous that the Father should assume Human Nature, and suffer in it for the Redemption of man. He was first in order, he was the Lawgiver, and therefore to be the Judge. As Lawgiver, it was not convenient he should stand in the stead of the Law-breaker; and as Judge, it was as little convenient he should be reputed a Malefactor: That he who had made a Law against sin, denounced a Penalty upon the commission of sin, and whose part it was actually to punish the sinner, should become sin for the willful Transgressor of his Law. He being the Rector, how could he be an Advocate and Intercessor to himself? How could he be the Judge and the Sacrifice? A Judge, and yet a Mediator to himself? If he had been the Sacrifice, there must be some Person to examine the validity of it, and pronounce the Sentence of acceptance. Was it agreeable that the Son should sit upon a Throne of Judgment, and the Father stand at the Bar, and be responsible to the Son? That the Son should be in the place of a Governor, and the Father in the place of the Criminal? That the Father should be bruised by the Son, as the Son was by the Father; that the Son should awaken a Sword against the Father, as the Father did against the Son; that the Father should be sent by the Son as the Son was by the Father : The order of the Persons in the blessed Trinity had been inverted and disturbed. Had the Father been sent, he had not been first in order; the Sender is before the Person sent: As the Father begets, and the Son is begotten, Joh. 1.14. so the Father sends, and the Son is sent. He whose order is to send, cannot properly send himself.
2. Nor was it congruous that the Spirit should he sent upon this Affair. If the Holy Ghost had been sent to redeem us, and the Son to apply that Redemption to us, the order of the Persons had also been inverted: The Spirit then, who was third in order, had been second in Operation. The Son would then have received of the Spirit, as the Spirit doth now of Christ, and show it unto us, Joh. 1.15. As the Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son, so the proper Function and Operation of it, was in order alter the Operations of the Father and the Son: Had the Spirit been sent to redeem us, and the Son sent by the Father, and the Spirit to apply that Redemption to us; the Son in his acts had proceeded from the Father and the Spirit; the Spirit, as sender, had been in order before the Son; whereas the Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ, as sent by Christ from the Father, Gal. 4.6. Joh. 15.27. But as the order of the Works, so the order of the Persons is preserved in their several Operations. Creation, and a Law to govern the Creature, precedes Redemption. Nothing, or that which hath no being, is not capable of a redeemed being. Redemption supposeth the existence and the misery of a Person redeemed. As Creation precedes Redemption, so Redemption precedes the application of it. As Redemption supposeth the being of the Creature, so application of Redemption supposeth the efficacy of Redemption. According to the order of these Works, is the order of the Operations of the three Persons. Creation belongs to the Father, the first Person. Redemption, the second work, is the Function of the Son, the second Person. Application, the third work, is the Office of the Holy Ghost, the third Person. The Father orders it, the Son acts it, the Holy Ghost applies it. He purifies our Souls to understand, believe, and love these Mysteries. He forms Christ in the womb of the Soul, as he did the Body of Christ in the womb of the Virgin. As the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, to garnish and adorn the World, after the Matter of it was formed, Gen. 1.2. so he moves upon the heart, to supple it to a compliance with Christ, and draws the Lineaments of the new Creation in the Soul, after the Foundation is laid.
The Son pays the price that was due from us to God, and the Spirit is the earnest of the Promises of Life and Glory purchased by the Merit of that Death. 'It is to be observed, that the Father, under the dispensation of the Law, proposed the Commands with the Promises and Threatenings, to the Understandings of Men and Christ, under the dispensation of Grace, when he was upon the Earth, proposeth the Gospel as the Means of Salvation, exhorts to Faith as the Condition of salvation; but it was neither the Function of the one, or the other, to display such an efficacy in the Understanding, and Will to make men believe and obey, and therefore there were such few Conversions in the time of Christ, by his Miracles: But this work was reserved, for the fuller and brighter appearance of the Spirit, whose Office it was to convince the World of the necessity of a Redeemer, because of their lost Condition; of the Person of the Redeemer, the Son of God; of the sufficiency and efficacy of Redemption, because of his righteousness and acceptation by the Father. The Wisdom of God is seen in preparing and presenting the Objects, and then in making impression of them upon the Subjects he intends. And thus is the order of the three Persons preserved.
2. The second Person had the greatest congruity to this work. He by whom God created the World, was most conveniently employed in restoring the defaced World: Who more fit to recover it from its lapsed state, than he that had erected it in its primitive state? Hebr. 1.2. He was the light of men in Creation, and therefore it was most reasonable he should be the light of men in Redemption. Who sitter to reform the Divine Image, than he that first formed it? Who fitter to speak for us to God, than he who was the Word? Joh. 1.1. Who could better intercede with the Father, than he who was the only begotten and beloved Son? Who so fit to redeem the forfeited Inheritance as the Heir of all things? Who fitter and better to prevail for us to have the right of Children, than he that possessed it by Nature? We fell from being the Sons of God, and who fitter to introduce us into an adopted state, than the Son of God? Herein was an expression of the richer Grace, because the first sin was immediately against the wisdom of God, by an ambitious affectation of a wisdom equal to God: That that Person, who was the wisdom of God, should be made a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin against Wisdom.
3. The wisdom of God is seen in the two Natures of Christ, whereby this Redemption was accomplished. The Union of the two Natures was the Foundation of the Union of God, and the fallen Creature.
1. The Union itself is admirable: The Word is made Flesh, Joh. 1.14. One equal with God in the form of a Servant, Phil. 2.7. When the Apostle speaks of God manifested in the flesh, he speaks the wisdom of God in a Mystery. 1 Tim. 3.16. That which is incomprehensible to the Angels, which they never imagined before it was revealed, which perhaps they never knew till they beheld it. I am sure, under the Law the Figures of the Cherubims were placed in the Sanctuary with their faces looking towards the Propitiatory, in a perpetual posture of Contemplation and Admiration, Exod. 37.9. to which the Apostle alludes, 1 Pet. 1.12.
Mysterious is the wisdom of God to unite Finite and Infinite, Almightiness and Weakness, Immortality and Mortality, Immutability with a Thing subject to Change; to have a Nature from Eternity, and yet a Nature subject to the Revolutions of Time; a Nature to make a Law, and a Nature to be subjected to the Law; to be God blessed forever, in the bosom of his Father, and an Infant exposed to C • l • mities from the Womb of his Mother: Terms seeming most distant from union, most uncapable of conjunction, to shake hands together, to be most intimately conjoined; Glory and Vileness, Fulness and Emptiness, Heaven and Earth; the Creature with the Creator; he that made all things, in one Person with a Nature that is made; Immanuel, God and Man in one: That which is most Spiritual to partake of that which is Carnal flesh and blood: One with the Father in his Godhead, one with us in his Manhood: The Godhead to be in him in the fullest Perfection, and the Manhood in the greatest Purity: The Creature one with the Creator, and the Creator one with the Creature. Thus is the incomprehensible Wisdom of God declared in the Word being made Flesh.
2. In the manner of this Union. A Union of two Natures, yet no Natural Union. It transcends all the Unions visible among Creatures : It is not like the Union of Stones in a Building, or of two pieces of Timber fastened together, which touch one anot • er only in their Superficies and outside, without any intimacy with one another. By such a kind of Union, God would not be man: The Word could • ot so be made Flesh. Nor is it a Union of Parts to the whole, as the Members and the Body; the Members are Parts, the Body is the whole; for the whole results from the Parts, and depends upon the Parts: But Christ being God, is independent upon anything. The parts are in order of Nature before the whole, but nothing can be in order of Nature before God. Nor is it as the Union of two Liquors, as when Wine and Water are mixed together; for they are so Incorporated, as not to be distinguished from one another; no man can tell which Particle is Wine, and which is Water. But the Properties of the Divine Nature are distinguishable from the Properties of the Human. Nor is it as the Union of the Soul and Body, so as that the Deity is the form of the Humanity, as the Soul is the form of the Body: For as the Soul is but a part of the Man, so the Divinity would be then but a part of the Humanity; & as a Form, or the Soul is in a state of Imperfection, without that which it is to inform; so the Divinity of Christ would have been Imperfect, till it had assumed the Humanity. And so the perfection of an Eternal Deity would have depended on a Creature of Time.
This Union of two Natures in Christ is incomprehensible: And it is a mystery we cannot arrive to the top of, How the Divine Nature, which is the same with that of the Father and the Holy Ghost, should be united to the Human Nature; without its being said, that the Father and the Holy Ghost were united to the Flesh; but the Scripture doth not encourage any such Notion: It speaks only of the Word, the Person of the Word being made Flesh. And in his being made Flesh, distinguisheth him from the Father, as the only begotten of the Father, Joh. 1.14. The Person of the Son was the term of this Union.
1. This Union doth not confound the Properties of the Deity, and those of the Humanity. They remain distinct and entire in each other. The Deity is not changed into Flesh, nor the Flesh transformed into God: They are distinct and yet united: They are conjoined, and yet unmixed: The Dues of either Nature are preserved. 'It is impossible that the Majesty of the Divinity can receive an alteration: 'It is as impossible that the meanness of the Humanity can receive the Impressions of the Deity, so as to be changed into it, and a creature be metamorphos'd into the Creator, and Temporary Flesh become Eternal, and Finite mount up into Infinity: As the Soul and Body are united, and make one Person, yet the Soul is not changed into the perfections of the Body, nor the Body into the perfections of the Soul. There is a change made in the Humanity by being advanced to a more Excellent Union, but not in the Diety; as a change is made in the Air, when it is enlightened by the Sun, not in the Sun, which communicates that brightness to the Air. Athanasius makes the burning Bush to be a type of Christ's Incarnation, Exod. 3.2. The Fire signifying the Divine Nature, and the Bush the human. The Bush is a branch springing up from the Earth, and the Fire descends from Heaven; as the Bush was united to the Fire, yet was not hurt by the flame, nor converted into Fire, there remained a difference between the Bush and the Fire, yet the properties of the Fire shined in the Bush, so that the whole Bush seemed to be on Fire. So in the Incarnation of Christ, the Human Nature is not swallowed up by the Divine, nor changed into it, nor confounded with it; But so united, that the properties of both remain firm: Two are so become one that they remain two still: One person in Two Natures, containing the glorious perfections of the Divine, and the weaknesses of the Human. The fullness of the Deity dwells bodily in Christ, Col. 2.9.
2. The Divine Nature is united to every part of the Humanity. The whole Divinity to the whole Humanity; so that no part but may be said to be the Member of God, as well as the Blood is said to be the Blood of God, Acts 20.28. By the same reason it may be said, the Hand of God, the Eye of God, the Arm of God. As God is infinitely present everywhere, so as to be excluded from no place; so is the Deity hypostatically everywhere in the Humanity not excluded from any part of it; As the light of the Sun in every part of the Air; as a sparkling splendor in every part of the Diamond. Therefore it is concluded by all that acknowledge the Deity of Christ, that when his Soul was separated from the Body, the Deity remained united both to Soul and Body, as light doth in every part of a broken Crystal.
3. Therefore perpetually united Coloss. 2.9. The fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily. It Dwels in him, not lodges in him as a Traveler in an Inn: It resides in him as a fixed habitation. As God describes the perpetuity of his presence in the Ark by his habitation or dwelling in it, Exod. 29.44. so doth the Apostle the inseparable duration of the Deity in the Humanity, and the indissoluble Union of the Humanity with the Deity. It was united on Earth, it remains united in Heaven. It was not an Image or an Apparition, as the Tongues wherein the Spirit came upon the Apostles, were a Temporary Representation, not a thing united perpetually to the person of the Holy Ghost.
4. It was a personal Union. It was not an union of persons, though it was a personal union; So Davenant expounds, Col. 2.9. Christ did not take the Person of Man, but the Nature of Man into subsistence with himself. The Body and Soul of Christ were not united in themselves, had no subsistence in themselves, till they were united to the Person of the Son of God. If the Person of a Man were united to him, the Human Nature would have been the Nature of the Person so united to him, and not the Nature of the Son of God, Heb. 2.14, 16. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him, that had the power of death, that is, the Devil. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels: but he took on him the seed of Abraham. He took flesh and blood to be his own Nature, perpetually to subsist in the Person of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which must be by a Personal Union, or no way: The Deity united to the Humanity, and both Natures to be one Person. This is the mysterious and manifold Wisdom of God.
3. The end of this Union.
1. He was hereby fitted to be Mediator. He hath something like to Man, and something like to God. If he were in all things only like to Man, he would be at a distance from God: If he were in all things only like to God, he would be at a distance from Man. He is a true Mediator between Mortal Sinners, and the Immortal Righteous One. He was near to us by the Infirmities of our Nature, and near to God by the Perfections of the Divine; as near to God in his Nature, as to us in ours; as near to us in our Nature as he is to God in the Divine. Nothing that belongs to the Deity, but he possesses; nothing that belongs to the Human Nature, but he is clothed with.
He had both the Nature which had offended, and that Nature which was offended; a Nature to please God, and a Nature to pleasure us: A Nature whereby he experimentally knew the excellency of God, which was injured, and understood the Glory due to him, and consequently the Greatness of the Offence, which was to be measured by the Dignity of his Person: And a Nature whereby, he might be sensible of the Miseries contracted by, and endure the calamities due to the Offender, that he might both have Compassion on him, and make due Satisfaction for him. He had two distinct Natures, capable of the Affections and Sentiments of the two Persons he was to accord; he was a just Judge of the Rights of the one, and the demerit of the other. He could not have this full and perfect Understanding, if he did not possess the Perfections of the one, and the Qualities of the other: The one fitted him for things appertaining to God, Heb. 5.1. and the other furnished him with a sense of the Infirmities of man, Heb. 4.15.
2. He was hereby fitted for the working out the happiness of man. A Divine Nature to communicate to man, and a Human Nature to carry up to God.
1. He had a Nature whereby to suffer for us, and a Nature whereby to be meritorious in those Sufferings. A Nature to make him capable to bear the Penalty, and a Nature to make his Sufferings sufficient for all that embraced him. A Nature capable to be exposed to the flames of Divine Wrath, and another Nature uncapable to be crushed by the weight, or consumed by the heat of it: A Human Nature to suffer, and stand a Sacrifice in the stead of Man; a Divine Nature to sanctify these Sufferings, and fill the Nostrils of God with a sweet savor, and thereby atone his wrath: The one to bear the stroke due to us, and the other to add merit to his Sufferings for us. Had he not been Man, he could not have filled our place in suffering; and could he otherwise have suffered, his sufferings had not been applicable to us; and had he not been God, his Sufferings had not been meritoriously and fruitfully applicable. Had not his Blood been the Blood of God, it had been of as little advantage as the Blood of an ordinary Man, or the Blood of the Legal Sacrifices . Nothing less than God, could have satisfied God for the injury done by Man. Nothing less than God, could have countervail'd the Torments due to the offending Creature: Nothing less than God, could have rescued us out of the hands of the Jailor, too powerful for us.
2. He had therefore a Nature to be compassionate to us, and victorious for us. A Nature sensibly to compassionate us, and another Nature to render those Compassions effectual for our Relief; he had the Compassions of our Nature to pity us, and the Patience of the Divine Nature to bear with us. He hath the affections of a Man to us, and the power of a God for us: A Nature to disarm the Devil for us, and another Nature to be sensible of the working of the Devil in us, and against us. If he had been only God, he would not have had an experimental sense of our Misery; and if he had been only Man, he could not have vanquished our Enemies: Had he been only God, he could not have died; and had he been only Man, he could not have conquered Death.
3. A Nature efficaciously to instruct us. As Man, he was to instruct us sensibly; as God, he was to instruct us infallibly. A Nature whereby he might converse with us, and a Nature whereby he might influence us in those Converses. A Human Mouth to minister Instruction to Man, and a Divine Power to imprint it with efficacy.
4. A Nature to be a pattern to us. A Pattern of Gr • ce as Man, as Adam was to have been to his Posterity. A Divine Nature shining in the Human, the Image of the invisible God in the glass of our Flesh, that he might be a perfect Copy for our Imitation. Col. 1.15. The Image of the invisible God, and the first-born of every Creature in conjunction The Virtues of the Deity are sweetened and tempered by the Union with the Humanity, as the Beams of the Sun are by shining through a color'd Glass, which condescends more to the weakness of our eye.
Thus the Perfections of the invisible God, breaking through the first-born of every Creature, glittering in Christ's created state, became more sensible for Contemplation by our Mind, and more imitable for Conformity in our practice.
5. A Nature to be a ground of confidence in our approach to God. A Nature wherein we may behold him, and wherein we may approach to him. A Nature for our comfort, and a Nature for our confidence. Had he been only Man, he had been too feeble to assure us; and had he been only God, he had been too high to attract us: But now we are allured by his Human Nature, and assured by his Divine, in our drawing near to Heaven. Communion with God was desired by us, but our Guilt stifled our hopes, and the Infinite Excellency of the Divine Nature, would have damped our hopes of speeding; but since these two Natures, so far distant, are met in a Marriage-knot, we have a ground of hope, nay, an earnest that the Creator and believing Creature shall meet and converse together.
And since our sins are expiated by the Death of the Human Nature in conjunction with the Divine, our Guilt, upon believing, shall not hinder us from this comfortable approach. Had he been only Man, he could not have assured us an approach to God: Had he been only God, his Justice would not have admitted us to approach to him; he had been too terrible for guilty Persons, and too holy for polluted Persons to come near to him: But by being made Man, his Justice is tempered, and by his being God and Man, his Mercy is ensured. A Human Nature he had, one with us, that we might be related to God, as one with him.
6. A Nature to derive all good to us. Had he not been Man, we had had no share or part in him: A Satisfaction by him had not been imputed to us. If he were not God, he could not communicate to us Divine Graces and Eternal Happiness; he could not have had power to convey so great a good to us, had he been only Man; and he could not have done it, according to the Rule of inflexible righteousness, had he been only God. As Man, he is the way of Conveyance; as God, he is the spring of Conveyance. From this Grace of Union, and the Grace of Unction, we find Rivers of Waters flowing, to make glad the City of God. Believers are his Branches, and draw Sap from him as he is their Root in his Human Nature, and have an endless duration of it from his Divine. Had he not been Man, he had not been in a state to obey the Law: Had he not been God as well as Man, his Obedience could not have been valuable to be imputed to us.
How should this Mystery be studied by us, which would afford us both Admiration and Content! Admiration, in the incomprehensibleness of it; Contentment, in the fitness of the Mediator. By this Wisdom of God we receive the props of our Faith, and the fruits of Joy and Peace. Wisdom consists in choosing fit means, and conducting them in such a method, as may reach with good success the variety of Marks which are aimed at. Thus hath the Wisdom of God set forth a Mediator, suited to our wants, fitted for our supplies, and ordered so the whole Affair by the union of these two Natures in the Person of the Redeemer, that there could be no disappointment, by all the bustle Hell and hellish Instruments could raise against it.
4. The Wisdom of God is seen in this way of Redemption, in vindicating the Honor and Righteousness of the Law, both as to Precept and Penalty. The first and irreversible design of the Law, was Obedience. The Penalty of the Law had only entrance upon Transgression. Obedience was the design, and the Penalty was added to enforce the observance of the Precept. Gen. 2.17. Thou shalt not eat; there is the Precept: In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die; There is the Penalty, Obedience was our Debt to the Law, as Creatures; Punishment was due from the Law to us, as Sinners: We were bound to endure the Penalty for our first Transgression, but the Penalty did not Cancel the Bond of future Obedience: The Penalty had not been incur'd without transgressing the Precept; yet the Precept was not abrogated by enduring the Penalty. Since Man so soon revolted, and by his Revolt fell under the threatening, the Justice of the Law had been honored by Man's sufferings, but the holiness, and equity of the Law had been honored by man's Obedience. The Wisdom of God finds out a Medium to satisfy both: The Justice of the Law is preserved in the Execution of the Penalty; and the Holiness of the Law is honored in the observance of the Precept.
The Life of our Savior is a Conformity to the Precept, and his Death is a Conformity to the Penalty; the Precepts are exactly performed, and the Curse punctually executed, by a voluntary observing the one, and a voluntary undergoing the other. It is obeyed, as if it had not been transgressed, and executed as if it had not been obeyed.
It became the Wisdom, Justice, and Holiness of God, as the Rector of the World, to exact it, Heb. 2.10. and it became the holiness of the Mediator to fulfill all the righteousness of the Law And thus the Honor of the Law was vindicated in all the parts of it. The Transgression of the Law was Condemned in the Flesh of the Redeemer, and the Righteousness of the Law was fulfilled in his Person: And both these acts of Obedience, being counted as one Righteousness, and imputed to the believing sinner, render him a subject to the Law, both in its preceptive and minatory part. By Adams sinful acting we were made sinners, and by Christ 's righteous acting we are made righteous. Rom. 5.10. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. The Law was obeyed by him, that the righteousness of it might be fulfilled in us, Rom. 8.4. 'It is not fulfilled in us, or in our actions, by inherency, but fulfilled in us by imputation of that righteousness which was exactly fulfilled by another. As he died for us, and rose again for us, so he lived for us. The Commands of the Law were as well observed for us, as the Threatenings of the Law were endured for us. This justification of a sinner, with the preservation of the holiness of the Law in truth, in the inward parts, in sincerity of intention, as well as conformity in action, is the wisdom of God, the Gospel-wisdom which David desires to know, Psal. 51.6. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom; or as some render it, the hidden things of wisdom. Not an inherent wisdom in the acknowledgments of his sin, which he had confessed before; but the wisdom of God in providing a Medicine, so as to keep up the holiness of the Law in the observance of it in Truth, and the averting the Judgment due to the sinner. In and by this way methodiz'd by the wisdom of God, all doubs and troubles are discharged. Naturally if we take a view of the Law to behold its Holiness and Justice, and then of our hearts, to see the contrariety in them to the command, and the pollution repugnant to its holiness; and after this cast our eyes upward, and behold a flaming Sword, edge'd with Curses and Wrath; Is there any matter, but that of terror, afforded by any of these? But when we behold, in the life of Christ, a conformity to the Mandatory part of the Law, and in the Cross of Christ, a sustaining the minatory part of the Law; this wisdom of God gives a well-grounded and rational dismiss to all the horrors that can seize upon us.
5. The wisdom of God in Redemption is visible in manifesting two contrary Affections at the same time, and in one act: The greatest hatred of Sin, and the greatest love to the Sinner. In this way he punishes the sin without ruining the sinner, and repairs the ruins of the sinner, without indulging the sin. Here is eternal love, and eternal hatred; a condemning the sin to what it merited, and an advancing the sinner to what he could not expect. Herein is the choicest love, and the deepest hatred manifested. An implacableness against the sin, and a placableness to the sinner. His hatred of sin hath been discovered in other ways; in punishing the Devil without remedy; sentencing Man to an expulsion from Paradise, though seduced by another; in accursing the Serpent, an irrational Creature, though but a misguided Instrument. The whole tenor of his Threatenings declare his loathing of sin, and the sprinklings of his Judgments in the World, and the horrible expectations of terrified Consciences confirm it. But what are all these Testimonies to the highest evidence that can possibly be given in the sheathing the Sword of his wrath in the heart of his Son? If a Father should order his Son to take a mean Garb below his Dignity, order him to be dragged to Prison, seem to throw off all Affection of a Father for the severity of a Judge, condemn his Son to a horrible Death, be a Spectator of his bleeding Condition, withhold his hand from asswaging his Misery, regard it rather with Joy than Sorrow, give him a bitter Cup to drink, and stand by to see him drink it off to the bottom, dregs and all, and s • ash frowns in his face all the while; and this not for any fault of his own, but the Rebellion of some Subjects he undertook for, and that the Offenders might have a pardon sealed by the Blood of the Son the sufferer; all this would evidence his detestation of the Rebellion, and his affection to the Rebels; his hatred to their Crime, and his love to their Welfare. This did God do; He delivered Christ up for our Offences, Rom. 8.32. the Father gave him the Cup, John 18 18. the Lord bruised him with pleasure, Isa. 53.10. and that for sin: • e transferred upon the shoulders of his Son the pain we had merited, that the Criminal might be restored to the place he had forfeited. He hates the sin so, as to condemn it forever, and wrap it up in the Curse he had threatened; and loves the sinner believing and repenting so, as to mount him to an expectation of a happiness exceeding the first state, both in glory and perpetuity. Instead of an Earthly Paradise, lays the Foundation of an Heavenly Mansion, brings forth a weight of Glory from a weight of Misery, separates the comfortable light of the Sun, from the scorching heat we had deserved at his hands. Thus hath God's hatred of sin been manifested. He is at an eternal Defiance with sin, yet nearer in alliance with the sinner, than he was before the Revolt: As if man's miserable Fall had endeared him to the Judge. This is the wisdom and prudence of Grace wherein God hath abounded, Eph. 1.9. A wisdom in twisting the happy restoration of the broken Amity, with an everlasting Curse, upon that which made the breach, both upon sin the Cause, and upon Satan the Seducer to it. Thus is hatred and love in their highest glory manifested together: Hatred to sin, in the death of Christ, more than if the torments of Hell had been undergone by the sinner; and love to the sinner, more than if he had, by an absolute and simple Bounty, bestowed upon him the possession of Heaven; because the gift of his Son, for such an end, is a greater token of his boundless Affections, than a reinstating Man in Paradise. Thus is the wisdom of God seen in Redemption; consuming the sin, and recovering the sinner.
6. The wisdom of God is evident in overturning the Devil's Empire, by the Nature he had vanquished, and by ways quite contrary to what that malicious Spirit could imagine. The Devil indeed read his own doom in the first Promise, and found his ruin resolved upon, by the means of the Seed of the Woman, but by what Seed, was not so easily known to him And the methods whereby it was to be brought about, was a Mystery kept secret from the malicious Devils, since it was not discovered to the obedient Angels. He might know from Isa. 53. that the Redeemer was assured to divide the Spoil with the strong, and rescue a part of the lost Creation out of his hands; and that this was to be effected, by making his Soul an offering for sin: But could he imagine which way his Soul was to be made such an Offering? He shrewdly suspected Christ just after his Inauguration into his Office by Bapism, to be the Son of God. But did he ever dream that the Messiah, by dying as a reputed Malefactor, should be a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin, the Devil had introduced by his subtlety? Did he ever imagine a Cross should dispossess him of his Crown, and that dying groans should wrest the Victory out of his hands?
He was conquered by that Nature he had cast headlong into ruin: A Woman, by his subtlety, was the occasion of our death; and a Woman, by the conduct of the only wise God, brings forth the Author of our Life, and the Conqueror of our Enemies. The Flesh of the old Adam had infected us, and the Flesh of the new Adam cures us. 1 Cor. 15.21. By man came death; by man also came the resurrection from the dead. We are killed by the old Adam, and raised by the new. As among the Israelites, a fiery Serpent gave the wound, and a brazen Serpent administers the Cure. The Nature that was deceived bruiseth the Deceiver, and razeth up the Foundations of his Kingdom. Satan is defeated by the Counsels he took to secure his Possession, and loses the Victory by the same means whereby he thought to preserve it.
His tempting the Jews to the sin of Crucifying the Son of God, had a contrary success to his tempting Adam to eat of the Tree. The first death he brought upon Adam, ruined us, and the death he brought by his Instrum • nts upon the second Adam, restored us. By a Tree, if one may so say, he had Triumphed over the World, and by the fruit of a Tree, one hanging upon a Tree, he is disch •• ged of his power over us, Heb. 2.14. Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death. And thus the Devil ruins his own Kingdom while he thinks to confirm & enlarge it. And is defeated by his own policy, whereby he thought to continue the World under his chains, and deprive the Creator of the World of his purposed honor. What deeper Counsel could he resolve upon for his own security, than to be instrumental in the death of him, who was God, the terror of the Devil himself, and to bring the Redeemer of the World to expire with disgrace in the sight of a multitude of men? Thus did the Wisdom of God shine forthin restoring us by methods seemingly repugnant to the end he aimed at, & above the suspicion of a subtle Devil, whom he intended to baffle.
Could he Imagine that we should be healed by stripes, quickened by death, purified by blood, crowned by a cross, advanced to the highest honor by the lowest humility, comforted by sorrows, glorified by disgrace, absolved by condemnation, and made rich by poverty? That the sweetest honey should at once spring out of the belly of a dead Lion, the Lion of the tribe of Judah and out of the bosom of the living God? How wonderful is this Wisdom of God! That the seed of the woman, born of a mean Virgin, brought forth in a stable, spending his days in affliction, misery and poverty, without any pomp and splendor, passing some time in a Carpenters shop, with Carpenters tools, and afterwards exposed to a horrible and disgraceful death, should by this way pull down the gates of Hell, subvert the kingdom of the Devil, and be the hammer to break in pieces that power, which he had so long exercised over the World! Thus became he the Author of our life, by being bound for a while in the chains of death, and arrived to a principality over the most malicious powers by being a prisoner for us, and the anv • l of their rage and fury.
7. The Wisdom of God appears, In giving us this way the surest ground of comfort and the strongest incentive to obedience. The Rebel is reconciled, and the rebellion shamed; God is propitiated and the sinner sanctified by the same blood. What can more contribute to our comfort & confidence, than God's richest gift to us? What can more enflame our love to him, than our recovery from death by the oblation of his Son to misery and death for us? It doth as much engage our duty as secure our happiness. It presents God glorious and gracious, and therefore every way fit to be trusted in regard of the interest of his own glory in it, and in regard of the effusions of his grace by it. It renders the Creature obliged in the highest manner, and so awakens his industry to the strictest and noblest obedience. Nothing so effectual as a crucified Christ to wean us from sin and stifle all motions of despair; a means, in regard of the Justice signaliz'd in it, to make man to hate the sin which had ruined him; and a means, in regard of the love expressed, to make him delight in that Law he had violated, 2. Cor. 5.14, 15. The love of Christ, and therefore the love of God expressed in it, constrains us no longer to live to ourselves.
1. It is a ground of the highest comfort and confidence in God. Since he hath given such an evidence of his impartial truth to his threatening for the honor of his Justice, we need not question but he will be as punctual to his promise for the honor of his mercy. It is a ground of confidence in God, since he hath redeemed us in such a way as glorifies the steadiness of his veracity, as well as the severity of his Justice; We may well trust him for the performance of his promise, since we have experience of the execution of his threatening; his m • rciful truth will as much engage him to accomplish the one, as his just truth did to inflict the other. The goodness which shone forth in weaker rays in the Creation, breaks out with stronger beams in redemption. And the mercy which before the appearance of Christ was manifested in some small Rivulets, diffuseth itself like a boundless Ocean. That God that was our Creator, is our Redeemer, the Repayrer of our Breaches, and the Restorer of our Paths to dwell in. And the plenteous Redemption from all Iniquity, manifested in the Incarnation and Passion of the Son of God, is much more a ground of hope in the Lord, than it was in the past Ages, when it could not be said, the Lord hath, but the Lord shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities, Psal. 130.8. It is a full Warrant to cast ourselves into his Arms.
2. At incentive to obedience.
1. The Commands of the Gospel require the obedience of the Creature. There is not one Precept in the Gospel which interferes with any rule in the Law, but strengthens it, and represents it in its true exactness: The heat to scorch us is allaied, but the light to direct us is not extinguished. Not the least allowance to any sin is granted; not the least affection to any sin is indulged. The Law is tempered by the Gospel, but not null'd and cast out of doors by it; It enacts that none but those that are sanctified, shall be glorified; that there must be Grace here, if we expect Glory hereafter; that we must not presume to expect an admittance to the Vision of God's face, unless our Souls be clothed with a robe of Holiness, Heb. 12.14. It requires an obedience to the whole Law in our intention and purpose, and an endeavor to observe it in our actions: It promotes the honor of God, and ordains a universal Charity among men; it reveals the whole Counsel of God, and furnisheth men with the holiest Laws.
2. It presents to us the exactest pattern for our Obedience. The redeeming Person is not only a Propitiation for the sin, but a pattern to the sinner, 1 Pet. 2.21. The Conscience of man, after the fall of Adam, approved of the reason of the Law, but by the corruption of Nature, man had no strength to perform the Law. The possibility of keeping the Law by Human Nature, is evidenced by the Appearance and life of the Redeemer, and an assurance given that it shall be advanced, to such a state, as to be able to observe it: We aspire to it in this life, and have hopes to attain it in a future: And while we are here, the Actor of our Redemption is the copy for our Imitation. The Pattern to imitate is greater than the Law to be ruled by. What a luster did his Virtues cast about the World? How attractive are his Graces? With what high Examples, for all Duties, has he furnished 〈◊〉 out of the copy of his Life?
3. It presents us with the strongest motives to Obedience. Tit. 2.11, 12. The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness. What Chains bind faster and closer than love? Here is love to our nature, in his Incarnation; love to us, though Enemies, in his Death and Passion; Encouragements to Obedience by the proffers of Pardon for former Rebellions: By the disobedience of man, God introduceth his redeeming Grace, and engageth his Creature to more Ingenious and excellent returns than his Innocent state could oblige him to. In his Created state he had goodness to move him, he hath the same goodness now to oblige him as a Creature, and a greater love and mercy to oblige him as a repaired Creature; and the terror of Justice is taken off, which might invenom his Heart as a Criminal. In his revolted state he had misery to discourage him; in his redeemed state he hath love to attract him. Without such a way, black despair had seized upon the Creature exposed to a remediless misery: And God would have had no returns of love from the best of his earthly Works: But if any sparks of Ingenuity be left, they will be excited by the efficacy of this Argument.
The willingness of God to receive returning sinners, is manifested in the highest degree; and the willingness of a sinner to return to him in duty hath the strongest engagements. He hath done as much to encourage our Obedience, as to illustrate his Glory. We cannot conceive