Existence and Attributes of God

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 • hat could be done greater for the salvation of our Souls, and consequently what could have been done more to enforce our observance. We have a Redeemer, as man, to copy it to us, and as God to perfect us in it. It would make the heart of any to tremble to wound him that hath provided such a salve for our Sores, and to make Grace a warrant for Rebellion: Motives, capable to form Rocks into a flexibleness. Thus is the Wisdom of God seen in giving us a ground of the surest confidence, and furnishing us with incentives to the greatest Obedience by the horrors of wrath, death and sufferings of our Savior.

8. The Wisdom of God is apparent in the Condition he hath settled for the enjoying the fruits of Redemption, and this is faith, a wise and reasonable Condition: And the concomitants of it.

1. In that it is suited to man's lapsed state and God's Glory. Innocence is not required here; that had been a Condition impossible in its own nature after the Fall: The rejecting of Mercy is now only condemning, where mercy is proposed: Had the Condition of Perfection in Works been required, it had rather been a condemnation than redemption. Works are not demanded whereby the Creature might ascribe anything to himself; but a Condition which continues in man a sense of his Apostasy, abates all aspiring Pride, and makes the reward of Grace not of Debt: A Condition whereby Mercy is owned, and the Creature emptied: Flesh silenced in the Dust, and God set upon his Throne of Grace and Authority: The Creature brought to the lowest debasement, and Divine Glory raised to the highest pitch. The Creature is brought to acknowledge Mercy, and seal to Justice, to own the Holiness of God in the hatred of sin, the Justice of God in the Punishment of sin, and the Mercy of God in the pardoning of sin: A condition that despoils Nature of all its pretended excellency: Beats down the glory of man at the foot of God, 1 Cor. 1.29.31. It subjects the Reason and Will of man to the Wisdom and Authority of God; it brings the Creature to an unreserved submission and entire resignation. God is made the Sovereign Cause of all; the Creature continued in his emptiness, and reduced to a greater dependence upon God than by a Creation; depending upon him for a constant influx for an entire happiness. A Condition that renders God glorious in the Creature, and the fallen creature happy in God: God glorious in his Condescension to Man, and Man happy in his emptiness before God.

Faith is made the Condition of man's recovery, that the lofty looks of man might be humbled, and the haughtiness of man be pulled down, Isa. 2.11. that every towering imagination might be levelled, 2. Cor. 10.5. Man must have all from without doors; he must not live upon himself, but upon another's allowance. He must stand to the provision of God, and be a perpetual Sutor at his Gates.

2. A Condition opposite to that which was the cause of the Fall. We fell from God an unbelief of the Threatning, he recovers us by a belief of the Promise; by Unbelief we laid the Foundation of God's dishonor, by Faith therefore God exalts the Glory of his free Grace. We lost ourselves by a desire of self dependence, and our return is ordered by a way of self-emptiness. 'It is reasonable we should be restored in a way contrary to that whereby we fell: We sinned by a refusal of cleaving to God, tis a part of divine Wisdom to restore us in a denial of our own righteousness and strength . Man having sinned by Pride, the Wisdom of God humbles him (saith one) at the very root of the Tree of Knowledge, and makes him deny his own Understanding, and submit to Faith, or else, forever to lose his desired Felicity.

3. It is a Condition suited to the Common Sentiment and custom of the World. There is more of belief than reason in the World. All Instructers and Masters in Sciences and Arts, require first a belief in their Disciples, and a resignation of their Understandings and Wills to them. And it is the Wisdom of God to require that of man, which his own reason makes him submit to another which is his fellow Creature. He therefore that quarrels with the Condition of Faith, must quarrel with all the World, since Belief is the beginning of all Knowledge ; yea, and most of the Knowledge in the World, may rather come under the title of Belief, than of Knowledge: For what we think we know this day, we may find from others such Arguments as may stagger our Knowledge, and make us doubt of that we thought ourselves certain of before: Nay sometimes we change our Opinions, our Selves, without an • Instructor; and see a reason to entertain an Opinion quite contrary to what we had before. And if we found a general Judgment of others • o vote against what we think we know, it would make us give the less Credit to ourselves and our own Sentiments. All Knowledge in the World, is only a belief depending upon the testimony or arguings of others; for indeed it may be said of all men as in Job, 8. Job. 9. We are but of yesterday, and know nothing: Since therefore Belief is so universal a thing in the World, the Wisdom of God requires that of us which every man must count reasonable, or render himself utterly ignorant of anything. It is a Condition that is common to all Religions. All Religions are Founded upon a Belief: Unless men did believe future things, they would not hope nor fear. A Belief and Resignation was required in all the Idolatries in the World; so that God requires nothing but what a universal custom of the World gives its suffrage to the reasonableness of: Indeed justifying Faith is not suited to the Sentiments of men; but that Faith which must precede justifying, a belief of the Doctrine, though not comprehended by Reason, is common to the custom of the World . 'It is no less madness not to submit our Reason to Faith, than not to regulate our Fancies by Reason.

4. This Condition of Faith and Repentances is suited to the Conscience of Men. The Law of Nature teaches us, th • t we are bound to believe every revelation from God, when it is made known to us: And not only to assent to it as true, but embrace it as good. This Nature dictates, that we are as much oblige • to believe God, because of his Truth, as to love him, because of his Goodness. Every man's Reason tells him, he cannot obey a Precept, nor depend upon a Promise, unless he believes both the one and the other. No man's Conscience, but will inform him upon hearing the revelation of God, concerning his excellent contrivance of Redemption, and the way to Enjoy it, that it is very reasonable he should strip off all affections to sin, lie down in Sorrow and bewail what he hath done amiss against so tender a God. Can you expect that any man that Promises you a great honor or a rich donative, should demand less of you than to trust his word, bear an affection to him, and return him kindness? Can any less be expected by a Prince than obedience from a pardoned Subject, and a redeemed Captive? If you have injured any man in his Body, Estate, Reputation, would you not count it a reasonable Condition for the partaking of his Clemency and Forgiveness, to express a hearty sorrow for it, and a resolution not to fall into the like Crime again? Such are the Conditions of the Gospel, suited to the Consciences of men.

5. The Wisdom of God appears, in that this condition was only likely to attain the end. There are but two Common Heads appointed by God, Adam and Christ: By one we are made a living Soul, by the other a quickening Spirit: By the one we are made sinners, by the other we are made righteous. Adam fell as a Head, and all his members, his whole Issue and Posterity fell with him, because they proceeded from him by natural Generation. But since the second Adam cannot be our Head by natural Generation, there must be some other way of engrafting us in him, and uniting us to him as our Head, which must be Moral and Spiritual; this cannot rationally be conceived to be by any other way than What is suitable to a reasonable Creature, and therefore must be by an act of the Will, Consent and Acceptance, and owning the terms settled for an Admission to that Union. And this is that we properly call Faith, and therefore called a receiving of him, John 1.12.

Now this Condition of enjoying the Fruits of Redemption could not be a bare Knowledge; for that is but only an act of the Understanding, and doth not in itself include the act of the Will, and so would have united only one Faculty to him, not the whole Soul: But Faith in an act both of the Understanding and Will too; and principally of the Will, which doth presuppose an act of the Understanding: For there cannot be a Perswasion in the Will, without a Proposition from the Understanding. The Understanding must be convinced of the truth and goodness of a thing, before the Will can be persuaded to make any motion towards it; and therefore all the Promises, Invitations and Proffers are suited to the Understanding and Will; To the Understanding in regard of Knowledge, to the Will in regard of Appetite; to the Understanding as true, to the Will as good; To the Understanding as practical and influencing the Will.

2. Nor could it be an entire Obedience. That, as was said before, would have made the Creature have some matter of boasting, and this was not suitable to the Condition he was sunk into by the fall. Besides, man's Nature being corrupted, was rendered uncapable to obey, and unable to have one thought of a due Obedience. 2 Cor. 3.5.

When man turned from God, and upon that was turned out of Paradise, his return was impossible by any strength of his own; his Nature was as much corrupted as his re-entrance into Paradise was prohibited. That Covenant, whereby he stood in the garden, required a perfection of action and intention in the observance of all the Commands of God: But his Fall had cracked his Ability to recover happiness, by the terms and condition of an entire Obedience; yet man being a person governable by a Law, and capable of happiness by a Covenant; if God would restore him, and enter into a Covenant with him, we must suppose it to have some Condition, as all Covenants have. That Condition could not be works, because man's Nature was polluted. Indeed, had God reduced man's Body to the dust, and his Soul to nothing, and framed another man, he might have governed him by a Covenant of Works: But that had not been the same man that had revolted, and upon his revolt was stained and disabled. But suppose God had by any transcendent Grace, wholly purified him from the stain of his former Transgression, and restored to him the strength and ability he had lost, might he not as easily have rebelled again? And so the Condition would never have been accomplisht, the Covenant never have been performed, and Happiness never have been enjoyed. There must be some other Condition then in the Covenant God would make for man's Security.

Now Faith is the most proper for receiving the Promise of Pardon of Sin: Belief of those promises is the first natural reflection that a Malefactor can make upon a pardon offered him, and acceptance of it is the first consequent from that belief. Hence is Faith entitled a persuasion of, and embraceing the Promises, Heb, 11.13. and a receiving the atonement, Rom. 5.11.

Thus the Wisdom of God is apparent in annexing such a Condition to the Covenant, whereby man is restored, as answers the end of God for his glory, the State, Conscience, and necessity of Man, and had the greatest congruity to his recovery.

9. This Wisdom of God is manifest in the manner of the publishing and propagating this Doctrine of Redemption.

1. In the gradual discoveries of it. Flashing a great light in the face of a sudden, is amazing; should the Sun glare in our Eye in all its brightness on a sudden, after we have been in a thick darkness, it would blind us, instead of comforting us: So great a work as this must have several digestions.

God first reveals of what Seed the Redeeming Person should be, the Seed of the Woman, Gen. 3.15. Then of what Nation, Gen. 26.4. then of what Tribe, Gen. 49.12. of the Tribe of Judah; then of what Family, the family of David; then what works he was to do, what sufferings to undergo. The first Predictions of our Savior were obscure. Adam could not well see the Redemption in the Promise, for the punishment of death which succeeded in the Threatning; the Promise exercised his Faith, and the Obscurity and bodily Death, his Humility. The Promise made to Abraham was clearer than the Revelations made before, yet he could not tell how to reconcile his Redemption with his Exile. God supported his Faith by the Promise, and exercised his Humility by making him a Pilgrim, and keeping him in a perpetual dependence upon him in all his motions.

The Declarations to Moses are brighter than those to Abraham. The delineations of Christ by David in the Psalms, more illustrious than the former. And all those exceeded by the Revelations made to the Prophet Isaiah, and the other Prophets, according as the Age did approach, wherein the Redeemer was to enter into his Office.

God wrapped up this Gospel in a multitude of Types and Ceremonies, fitted to the Infant state of the Church, Gal. 4.3. An Infant State is usually affected with sensible things; yet all those Ceremonies were fitted to that great end of the Gospel, which he would bring forth in time to the World. And the Wisdom of God in them would be amazing, if we could understand the analogy between every Ceremony in the Law and the thing signified by it. As it cannot bu • affect a diligent Reader to observe that little account of them we have by the Apostle Paul, sprinkled in his Eipstles, and more largely in that to the Hebrews. As the Political Laws of the Jews flowed from the depth of the Moral Law, so their Ceremonial did from the depth of Evangelical Counsels, and all of them had a special relation to the honor of God, and the debasing the Creature.

Though God formed the Mass and Matter of the World at the first creation at once, yet his Wisdom took six days time for the disposing and adorning it. The more illustrious truths of God are not to be comprehended on a sudden by the weakness of men: Christ did not declare all Truths to his Disciples in the time of his life, because they were not able at that present to bear them, John, 16.12. Ye cannot bear them now. Some were reserved for his Resurrection, others for the coming of the Spirit; and the full discovery of all kept back for another World. This Doctrine God figured out in the Law, Oracled by the Prophets, and unvail'd by Christ and his Apostles:

2. The Wisdom of God appeared, in using all proper means to render the belief of it easy.

1. The most minute things that were to be transacted, were predicted in the ancient foregoing Age, long before the coming of the Redeemer: The vinegar and gall offered to him upon the Cross, the parting his Garments, the not breaking of his Bones, the piercing of his Hands and Feet, the betraying of him, the slighting of him by the multitude, all were exactly painted and represented in variety of Figures. There was Light enough to good men not to mistake him; and yet not so plain, as to hinder bad men from being Serviceable to the counsels of God in the crucifying of him when he came.

2. The translation of the Old Testament from the private Language of the Jews, into the most public Language of the World. That Translation which we call Septuagint, from Hebrew into Greeks, some years before the coming of Christ, that Tongue being most diffused at that time, by reason of the Macedonian Empire raised by Alexander, and the University of Athens, to which other Nations resorted for Learning and Education: This was a preparation for the Sons of Japheth to dwell in the Tents of Shem. By this was the entertainment of the Gospel facilitated: When they compared the Prophecies of the Old Testament, with the Declarations of the New, and found things so long predicted before they were transacted in the public view.

3. By ordering concurrent Testimonies as to matter of Fact, that the matter of Fact was not deniable. That there was such a Person as Christ, that his Miracles were stupendous, that h • s Doctrine did not incline to Sedition, that he affected not Worldly Applause, that he did suffer at Jerusalem, was acknowledged by all: Not a man among the greatest Enemies of Christians, was found, that denied the matter of Fact. And this great truth, that Christ is the Messiah and Redeemer, hath been, with universal consent, owned by all the Professors of Christianity throughout the World: Whatever Bickerings there have been among them about some particular Doctrines, they all centred in that Truth of Christ's being the Redeemer. The first publication of this Doctrine was sealed by a thousand Miracles, and so illustrious, that he was an utter Stranger to the World that was ignorant of them.

4. In keeping up some Principles and Opinions in the World to facilitate the belief of this, or render men inexcusable for rejecting of it. The Incarnation of the Son of God could not be so strange to the World, if we consider the general belief of the Appearances of their God's among them; that the Epicureans, and others, that denied any such Appearances, were counted Atheists And Pythagoras was esteemed to be one, not of the inferior Genij and Lunar Daemons, but one of the higher God's, who appeared in a Human Body, for the curing and rectifying mortal Life . And himself tells Abaris the Scythian, that he was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that he took the flesh of man, that men might not be astonished at him, and in a fright fly from his Instructions. It was not therefore accounted an irrational thing among them, that God should be Incarnate: But indeed the great stumbling block was a crucified God. But had they known the holy and righteous Nature of God, the Malice of sin, the universal Corruption of Human Nature, the first threatening, and the necessity of vindicating the honor of the Law, and clearing the Justice of God; the Notion of his crucifixion would not have appeared so incredible, since they believed the possibility of an Incarnation.

Another Principle was that universal One of Sacrifices for Expiation, and rendering God propitious to man, and was practiced among all Nations. I remember not any wherein this Custom did not prevail; for it did even among those People where the Jews, as being no trading Nation, had not any Commerce; and also in America, found out in these latter Ages. It was not a Law of Nature, no man can find any such thing written in his own heart, but a Tradition from Adam. Now that among the loss of so many other Doctrines, that were handed down from Adam to his immediate Posterity, as in particular that of the Seed of the Woman, which one would think a necessary Appendix to that of Sacrificing; This latter should be preserved as a Fragment of an ancient Tradition, seems to be an Act of Divine Wisdom, to prepare men for the entertainment of the Doctrine of the great Sacrifice for the Expiation of the sin of the World. And as the Apostle forms his Argument from the Jewish Sacrifices in the Epistle to the Hebrews, for the convincing them of the end of the death of Christ, so did the Ancient Fathers make use of this practice of the Heathen, to convince them of the same Doctrine.

5. The wisdom of God appeared in the time and circumstances of the first solemn publication of the Gospel by the Apostles at Jerusalem. The Relation you may read in Acts 2. from verse 1. to the 12th. The Spirit was given to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost; a time wherein there were multitudes of Jews from all Nations, not only near, but remote, that heard the great things of God spoken in the several Languages of those Nations, where their Habitations were fixed; and that by twelve illiterate men, that two or three hours before knew no Language but that of their Native Country.

It was the custom of the Jews, that dwelt among other Nations, at a distance from Jerusalem, to assemble together at Jerusalem at the Feast of Pentecost: And God pitched upon this Season, that there might be Witnesses of th • s Miracle in many parts of the World: There were some of every Nation under Heaven; verse 5. that is, of that known part of the World, so saith the Text. Fourteen several Nations are mentioned; and Proselytes as well as Jews by Birth. They are called devout men, men of Conscience, whose testimony would carry weight with it among their Neighbors at their return, because of their Reputation by their Religious Carriage.

Again, this was not heard and seen by some of them at one time, and some at another, by someone hour, by others the next successively , but altogether, in a Solemn Assembly, that the testimony of so many Witnesses at a time, might be more valid, and the truth of the Doctrine appear more illustrious and undeniable. And it must needs be astonishing to them, to hear that Person magnified in so miraculous a manner, who had so lately been condemned by their Country-men as a Malefactor.

Wisdom consists in the timing of things. And in this Circumstance doth the wisdom of God appear, in furnishing the Apostles with the Spirit at such a time, and bringing forth such a Miracle, as the gift of Tongues, on a sudden, that every Nation might hear in their own Language, the wonder of Redemption, and as Witnesses at their returns into their own Countries, report it to others; that the credit they had, in their several Places, might facilitate the belief and entertainment of the Gospel, when the Apostles, or others, should arrive to those several Charges and Dioceses appointed for them to preach the Gospel in. Had this Miracle been wrought in the presence only of the Inhabitants of Judea, that understood only their own Language, or one or two of the Neighbouring Tongues, it had been counted by them rather a Madness than a Miracle. Or had they understood all the Tongues which they spoke, the news of it had spread no further than the limits of their own Habitations, and had been confined within the narrow bounds of the Land of Judea: But now it is carried to several remote Nations, where any of those Auditors then assembled had their Residence.

As God chose the time of the Passover for the Death of Christ, that there might be the greatest Number of the Inhabitants of the Country, as Witnesses of the Matter of Fact, the Innocence and Sufferings of Christ, so he chose the time of Pentecost for the first publishing the value and end of this Blood to the World.

Thus the Evangelical Law was given in a Confluence of People from all Parts and Nations, because it was a Covenant with all Nations: And the variety of Languages spoken by a Company of poor Galileans, bred up at the Lake of Tiberias, and in poor corners of Canaan, without the Instructions of men for so great a Skil, might well evidence to the hearers, that God that brought the Confusion of Languages first at Babel, did only work that Cure of them, and combine all together at Jerusalem.

3. The wisdom of God is seen in the Instruments he employed in the publishing the Gospel. He did not employ Philosophers, but Fishermen, used not acquired Arts, but infused wisdom and courage. This Treasure was put into, and preserved in Earthen Vessels, that the Wisdom, as well as the Power of God, might be magnified. The weaker the means are which attain the end, the greater is the skill of the Conductor of them.

Wise Princes choose men of most credit, Interest, Wisdom, and Ability to be Ministers of their Affairs, and Ambassadors to others. But what were these that God chose for so great a Work, as the publishing a new Doctrine to the World? What was their quality but mean, what was their Authority, without Interest? What was their Ability, without eminent Parts for so great a Work, but what Divine Grace in a special manner endowed them with? Nay, what was their disposition to it? as dull and unwieldy. Witness the frequent rebukes for their slow-heartedness, from their Master, when he conversed in the Flesh with them. And One of the greatest of them, so fond of the Jewish Ceremonies and Pharisaical Principles, wherein he had been more than ordinarily principled, that he hated the Christian Religion to extirpation, and the Professors of it to death; by those ways which were out of the rode of Human wisdom, and would be accounted the greatest absurdity to be practice'd by men that have a repute for Discretion, did God advance his Wisdom. 1 Cor. 1.25. The foolishness of God is wiser than man. By this means it was indisputably evidenced to unbiased Minds, that the Doctrine was Divine. It could not rationally be imagined, that Instruments destitute of all Human Advantages, should be able to vanquish the World, confound Judaism, overturn Heathenism, chase away the Devils, strip them of their Temples, alienate the Minds of men from their several Religions, which had been rooted in them by Education, and established by a long succession. It could not, I say, reasonably be imagined to be without a Supernatural Assistance, an heavenly and efficacious working: Whereas, had God taken a Course agreeable to the prudence of Man, and used those that had been furnished with Learning, tip'd with Eloquence, and armed with Human Authority, the Doctrines would have been thought to have been of a Human Invention, and to be some subtle Contrivance for some unworthy and ambitious end: The nothingness and weakness of the Instruments manifest them to be conducted by a Divine Power, and declare the Doctrine itself to be from Heaven.

When we see such feeble Instruments proclaiming a Doctrine repugnant to Flesh and Blood, sounding forth a crucified Christ to be believed in, and trusted on, and declaiming against the Religion and Worship, under which the Roman Empire had long flourished; exhorting them to the Contempt of the World, preparation for Afflictions, denying themselves, and their own Honors, by the hopes of an unseen reward, things so repugnant to Flesh and Blood. And these Instruments concurring in the same Story, with an admirable Harmony in all parts, and sealing this Doctrine with their Blood; can we upon all this, ascribe this Doctrine to a Human Contrivance, or fix any lower Author of it than the wisdom of Heaven? 'It is the wisdom of God that carries on his own Designs in methods most suitable to his own Greatness, and different from the Customs and Modes of Men, that less of Humanity, and more of Divinity might appear.

4. The wisdom of God appears in the ways and manner, as well as in the Instruments of its propagation. By ways seemingly contrary. You know how God had sent the Jews into Captivity in Babylon, and though he struck off their Chains, and restored them to their Country, yet many of them had no mind to leave a Country wherein they had been born and bred. The distance from the place of the Original of their Ancestors, and their affection to the Country wherein they were born, might have occasioned their embracing the Idolatrous Worship of the place. Afterwads the Persecutions of Antiochus scattered many of the Jews for their security into other Nations; yet a great part, and perhaps the greatest, preserved their Religion, and by that were obliged to come every year to Jerusalem to Offer, and so were present at the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and were witnesses of the miraculous effects of it: Had they not been dispersed by Persecution, had they not resided in several Countries, and been acquainted with their Languages, the Gospel had not so easily been diffused into several Countries of the World. The first Persecutions also raised against the Church propagated the Gospel; the scattering of the Disciples enflamed their courage, and dispersed the Doctrine , ccording to the Prophecy of Daniel, Dan. 12.4. Many should run to and fro, and knowledge should be increased. The flights and hurryings of men should enlarge the Territories of the Gospel. There was not a Tribunal, but the primitive Christians were cited to; not a horrible Punishment, but was inflicted upon them. Treated they were, as the dregs and offals of Mankind, as the common Enemies of the World; yet the Flames of the Martyrs brightned the Doctrine and the Captivity of its Professors, made way for the Throne of its Empire. The imprisonment of the Ark was the downfall of Dagon. Religion grew stronger by Sufferings, and Christianity taller by Injuries. What can this be ascribed to, but the conduct of a Wisdom superior to that of Men and Devils, defeating the methods of human and hellish Policy; thereby making the wisdom of the World foolishness with God? 1 Cor. 3.19.

Fifthly, The Use, I. Of Information. If wisdom be an excellency of the Divine Nature; then

1. Christ's Deity may hence be asserted. Wisdom is the emphatical Title of Christ in Scripture, Prov. 8.12, 13, 31. where Wisdom is brought in speaking as a distinct Person; ascribing Counsel, and Understanding, and the Knowledge of witty Inventions to itself. He is called also the power of God, and the wisdom of God . And the Ancients generally understood that place, Col. 2.3. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, as an assertion of the God-head of Christ, in regard of the infiniteness of his knowledge; referring wisdom to his knowledge of Divine things; and knowledge to his understanding of all Human things. But the natural sense of the place seems to be this, that all wisdom and knowledge is displayed by Christ in the Gospel; and the words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , refer either to Christ, or the mystery of God spoken of, verse. 2. But the Deity of Christ, in regard of infinite Wisdom, may be deduced from his Creation of things, and his Government of things; both which are ascribed to him in Scripture. The first ascribed to him, John 1.3. All things were made by him; and verse 27. Without him was not anything made, that was made. The second John 5.22. The Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son; and both put together, Col. 2.16, 17.

Now since he hath the Government of the World, he hath the Perfections necessary to so great a Work. As the Creation of the World, which is ascribed to him, requires an infinite power, so the Government of the World requires an infinite wisdom. That he hath the knowledge of the hearts of men, was proved in handling the Omniscience of God. That knowledge would be to little purpose without wisdom to order the motions of men's hearts, and conduct all the qualities and actions of Creatures, to such an end as is answerable to a wise Government; we cannot think so great an Employment can be without an Ability necessary for it. The Government of Men and Angels is a great part of the glory of God; and if God should intrust the greatest part of his Glory in hands unfit for so great a trust, it would be an argument of weakness in God, as it is in men, to pitch upon unfit Instruments for particular Charges: Since God hath therefore committed to him his greatest Glory, the Conduct of all things for the highest end, he hath a wisdom requisite for so great an end, which can be no less than infinite: If then Christ were a finite Person, he would not be capable of an infinite Communication; he could not be a Subject wherein infinite wisdom could be lodged; for the terms finite and infinite are so distant, that they cannot commence one another; finite can never be changed into infinite, no more than infinite can into finite.

2. Hence we may assert, The right and fitness of God for the Government of the World, as he is the wisest Being. Among men, those who are excellent in Judgment, are accounted fittest to preside over, and give orders to others; the wisest in a City are most capable to govern a City; or at least, though ignorant men may bear the Title, yet the advice of the soundest and skillfullest Heads should prevail in all public Affairs: We see in Nature, that the eye guides the body, and the mind directs the eye.

Power and Wisdom are the two Arms of Authority: Wisdom knows the end, and directs the means; Power executes the means designed for such an end. The more splendid and strong those are in any, the more Authority results from thence, for the conduct of others that are of an inferior Orb: Now God being infinitely excellent in both, his ability and right to the management of the World, cannot be suspected; the whole World is but one Commonwealth, whereof God is the Monarch. Did the Government of the World depend upon the Election of Men and Angels, where could they pitch, or where would they find Perfections capable of so great a work, but in the Supreme Wisdom? His Wisdom hath already been apparent in those Laws, whereby he formed the World into a Civil Society, and the Israelites into a Commonwealth: The one suited to the Consciences and Reasons of all his Subjects, and the other suited to the Genius of that particular Nation, drawn out of the Righteousness of the Moral Law, and applicable to all Cases that might arise among them in their Government; so that Moses asserts, that the wisdom apparent in their Laws enacted by God, as their chief Magistrate, would render them famous among other Nations, in regard of their Wisdom, as well as their Righteousness, Deut. 4.6, 7, 9. Also this perfection doth evidence, that God doth actually govern the World. It would not be a commendable thing for a man, to make a curious Piece of Clock-work, and take no care for the orderly motion of it. Would God display so much of his Skill in framing the Heaven and Earth, and none in actual guidance of them to their particular and universal ends? Did he lay the Foundation in order, and fit every Stone in the Building, make all things in weight and measure, to let them afterwards run at hap hazard? Would he bring forth his Power to view in the Creation, and let a more glorious perfection lie idle, when it had so large a Field to move in? Infinite wisdom is inconsistent with inactivity. All Prudence doth illustrate itself in untying the hardest knots, and disposing the most difficult Affairs to a happy and successful Issue: All those various Arts and Inventions among men, which lend their assisting hand to one another, and those various Employments, their several Genius's lead them to, whereby they support one another's welfare, are Beams and instincts of Divine wisdom in the Government of the World. He that made all things in wisdom would not leave his works to act and move only according to their own folly, and idly behold them jumble together, and run counter to that end he designed them for; we must not fancy a Divine Wisdom to be destitute of Activity.

3. Here we may see a ground of God's patience. The most impotent persons are the most impatient, when un-foreseen Emergencies arise, or at Events expected by them, when their feeble Prudence was not a sufficient match to contest with them, or prevent them. But the wiser any man is, the more he bears with those things which seem to cross his Intentions, because he knows he grasps the whole Affair, and is sure of attaining the end he proposeth to himself; yet as a finite wisdom can have but a finite patience, so an infinite wisdom possesses an infinite patience.

The wise God intends to bring glory to himself, and good to some of his Creatures, out of the greatest evils that can happen in the World: He beholds no exorbitant Afflictions and monstrous Actions, but what he can dispose to a good and glorious end, even to work together for good to them that love God ; and therefore doth not presently fall foul upon the Actors, till he hath wrought out that temporary Glory to himself, and Good to his People which he designs. The times of Ignorance God winked at, till he had brought his Son into the World, and manifested his wisdom in Redemption, and when this was done he presseth men to a speedy repentance ; that as, he forebore punishing their Crimes, in order to the displaying his wisdom in the designed Redemption; so when he had effected it, they must forbear any longer abusing his Patience.

4. Hence appears the Immutability of God in his Decrees. He is not destitute of a Power and Strength to change his own Purposes; but his Infinite Perfection of Wisdom is a bar to his laying aside his Eternal Resolves, and f rming new ones; Isai. 46.10. He resolves the end from the beginning, and his cou • sel stands; stands immovable, because it is Counsel. 'It is an impotent Counsel, that is subject to a daily thwarting itself. Inconstant Persons are accounted by Men, destitute of a due measure of Prudence. If God change his Mind, 'tis either for the better or the worse; if for the better, he was not wise in his former Purpose; if for the worse, he is not wise in his present Resolve. No alteration can be without a reflect on of Weakness upon the former or present determination. God must either cease to be as Wise as he was before, or begin to be Wiser than he was before the change; which to think or imagine is to deny a Deity. If any Man change his Resolution, he is apprehensive of a flaw in his former Purpose, and finds an Inconvenience in it, which moves him to such a change; which must be either for want of fore-sight in himsel • , or want of a due consideration of the object of his Counsel: Neither of whic • can be imagined of God without a denial of the Deity. No, t • ere are no blots and blemishes in his Purposes and Promises. Repentance indeed is an act of Wisdom in the Creature; but it presupposeth Folly in his former Actions, which is inconsistent with Infinite Perfection. Men are often too rash in Promising; and therefore what they promise in haste, they perform at leisure, or not at all: They consider not before they Vow, and make After-enquiries, whether they had best stand to it.

The only wise God need not any After-game: As he is Soveraignly Wise, he sees no cause of r • versing anything, and wants not expedients for his own Purpose; and as he is Infinitely Powerful, he hath no Superior to hinder him from executing his Will, and making his People enjoy the effects of his Wisdom. If he had a recollection of Thoughts (as Man hath) and saw a necessity to mend them, he were not Infinitely Wise in his first Decrees. As in Creation, he looked back upon the several Pieces of that goodly Frame he had erected, and saw them so exact, that he did not take up his Pensil again to mend any Particle of the first Draught; so his Promises are made with such Infinite Wisdom and Judgment, that what he writes is Irreversible and for Ever, as the Decrees of the Medes and Persians. All the words of God are Eternal, because they are the Births of Righteousness and Judgment, Hos. 2.19. I will betroth thee to me forever, in Righteousness and Judgment. He is not of a wavering and flitting Discretion: If he Threatens, he wisely considers what he Threatens; if he Promises, he wisely considers what he Promises, and therefore is Immutable in both.

5. Hence it follows, th • t God is a fit Object for our Trust and Confidence. For God being Infinitely Wise, when he Promises anything, he sees every th ng which may hinder, and everything which may promote the execution of it; so that he cannot discover anything aft • rwards, that may move him to take up After though • ts: He hath more Wisdom than to promise anything hand over head, or anything which he knows he cannot accomplish. Thoug • God, as True, be the Object of our Trust; yet God, as Wise, is the Foundation of our Trust. We trust him in his Promise; the Promise was made by Mercy, and 'tis perform d by Truth; but Wisdom conducts all Means to the accomplishment of it. There are many Men, whose Honesty we can confide in, but whose Discretion we are diffident of: But there is no defect eith r of the one or the other, which may scare us from a depending upon God in our concerns. The words of Mans wisdom the Apostle entitles Enticing, 1 Cor. 2.4. in opposition to the words of God's wisdom, which are firm, stable, and undeniable demonstrations. As the Power of God is an encouragement of Trust, because he is able to effect; so the Wisdom of God comes into the rank of those Attributes which support our Faith. To put a Confidence in him, we must be persuaded, not only that he is Ignorant of nothing in the World, but that he is Wise to manage the whole course of Nature, and dispose of all his Creatures, for the bringing his Purposes and his Promises to their designed perfection.

6. Hence appears the necessity of a public review of the Management of the World, and of a Day of Judgment. As a Day of Judgment may be infer'd from many Attribute of God; as his Sovereignty, Justice, Omniscience, &c. so among the rest from this of Wisdom. How much of this Perfection will lie unvail'd and obscure, if the Sins of Men be not brought to view, whereby the ordering the unrighteous Actions of Men, by his directing and over-ruling Hand of Providence, in subserviency to his own Purposes and his Peoples good, may appear in all its glory? Without such a public Review, this part of Wisdom will not be clearly visible; how those Actions, which had a vile foundation in the Hearts and designs of Men, and were formed there to gratify some base Lust, Ambition, and Covetousness, &c. were by a secret Wisdom presiding over them, conducted to amazing Ends.

'It is a part of Divine Wisdom to right itself, and convince Men of the reasonableness of its Laws, and the unreasonableness of their Contradictions to it. The execution of the Sentence, is an act of Justice; but the conviction of the reasonableness of the Sentence, is an act of Wisdom, clearing up the Righteousness of the proceeding; and this precedes, and the other follows. Jude 15. To convince all that are ungodly, of all their ungodly deeds. That Wisdom which contrived satisfaction, as well as that Justice which required it, is concerned in righting the Law, which was enacted by it. The Wisdom of a Sovereign Law-giver is engaged not to see his Law vilified and trampled on, and exposed to the Lusts and Affronts of Men, without being concerned in vindicating the Honor of it. It would appear a Folly to enact and publish it, if there were not a Resolution to right and execute it.

The Wisdom of God can no more associate Iniquity and Happiness together, than the Justice of God can separate Iniquity from Punishment. It would be defective, if it did always tamely bear the Insolences of Offenders, without a time of remark of their Crimes, and a Justification of the Precept rebelliously spurn'd at. He would be Unwise, if he were Unjust; Unrighteousness hath no better a Title in Scripture, than that of Folly. 'It is no part of Wisdom, to give birth to those Laws which he will always behold ineffectual, and neither vindicate his Law by a due execution of the Penalty, nor right his own Authority, con • emn'd in the violation of his Law, by a just Revenge. Besides, What Wisdom would it be for the Sovereign Judge, to lodge such a Spokesman for himself, as Conscience in the Soul of Man, if it should be always found speaking, and at length be found false in all that it speaks? There is therefore an apparent prospect of the Day of Account, from the consideration of this Perfection of the Divine Nature.

7. Hence we have a ground for a mighty Reverence and Veneration of the Divine Majesty. Who can contemplate the Sparklings of this Perfection in the variety of the Works of his hands, and the exact Government of all his Creatures, without a raised Admiration of the Excellency of his Being, and a falling flat before him, in a posture of Reverence to so great a Being? Can we behold so great a mass of Matter, digested into several Forms, so exact a Harmony and Temperament in all the Creatures, the proportions of Numbers and Measures, and one Creature answering the Ends and Designs of another, the distinct Beauties of all, the perpetual Motion of all things without checking one another; the variety of the Nature of things, and all acting according to their Nature with an admirable Agreement; and altogether, like differing strings upon an Instrument, emitting divers Sounds, but all reduced to order in one delightful Lesson. I say, Can we behold all this without Admiring and Adoring the Divine Wisdom, which appears in all?

And from the Consideration of this, let us pass to the Consideration of his Wisdom in Redemption; in reconciling divided Interests, untying Hard-knots, drawing one contrary out of another; and we must needs acknowledge that the Wisdom of all the Men on Earth, and Angels in Heaven, is worse than Nothing, and Vanity in comparison of this vast Ocean. And as we have a greater esteem for those that invent some excellent Artificial Engines; what Reverence ought we to have for him that hath stamped an unimitable Wisdom upon all his Works? Nature orders us to give Honor to our Superiors in Knowledge, and conside in their Counsels; but none ought to be Reverenc'd as much as God, since none equals him in Wisdom.

8. If God be Infinitely Wise, it shows us the necessity of our Address to him, and Invocation of his Name. We are subject to Mistakes, and often overseen; we are not able rightly to Counsel ourselves. In some cases all Creatures are too short-sighted to apprehend them, and too ignorant to g ve Advice proper for them, and to contrive Remedies for their ease; but with the Lord there is Counsel, Jer. 32.19. He is great in counsel, and mighty in working; great in Counsel to advise us, mighty in Working to assist us. We know not how to effect a design, or prevent an expected Evil. We have an Infinite Wisdom to go to, that is every way skillful to manage any business we desire, to avert any Evil we fear, to accomplish anything we commit into his hands. When we know not what to resolve, he hath a Counsel to guide us, Psal 73.24. He is not more Powerful to effect what is needful, than Wise to direct what is fitting. All Men stand in need of the Help of God, as one Man stands in need of the assistance of other Men, and will not do anything without Advice; and he that takes Advice, deserves the Title of a Wise man, as well as he that gives Advice. But no Man needs so much the Advice of another Man, as all Men need the Counsel and Assistance of God: Neither is any man's Wit and Wisdom so far in • eriour to the Prudence and Ability of an Angel, as the Wisdom of the wisest Man and the most sharp-sighted Angel, is inferior to the Infinite Wisdom of God. We see therefore, that it is best for us to go to the Fountain, and not content ourselves with the Streams; to beg Advice from a Wisdom that is Infinite and Infallible, rather than from that which is Finite and Fallible.

Use II. If Wisdom be the Perfection of the Divine Majesty, How prodigious is the Contempt of it in the World?

In General.

All Sin strikes at this Attribute, and is in one part or other a degrading of it: The first Sin directed its Venom against this. As the Devils endeavored to equal their Creator in Power; so Man endeavored to equal him in Wisdom: Both indeed scorned to be ruled by his Order; but Man evidently exalted himself against the Wisdom of God, and aspired to be a sharer with him in his Infinite Knowledge: Would not let him be the only wise God, but cherished an ambition to be his Partner. Just as if a Beam were able to imagine, it might be as bright as the Sun; or a Spark fancy, it could be as full fraught with Heat, as the whole Element of Fire. Man would not submit to the Infinite Wisdom of God in the prohibition of one single Fruit in the Garden, when by the right of his Sovereign Authority, he might have granted him only the use of one. All Presumptuous sins are of th • s nature, they are therefore called Reproaches of God, Numb. 15.30. the Soul that doth ought presumptuously, reproacheth the Lord. All Reproaches are either for Natural, Moral, or Intellectual defects. All Reproaches of God, must imply either a Weakness or Unrighteousness in God. If Unrighteousness, his Holiness is denied; if Weakness, his Wisdom is blemished.

In General, All Sin strikes at this Perfection two ways.

1. As it defaceth the wise workmanship of God. Every Sin is a deforming and blemishing our own Souls, which, as they are the prime Creatures in the lower World, so they have greater Characters of Divine Wisdom in the Fabric of them: But this Image of God is ruined and broken by Sin. Though the spoiling of it be a scorn of his Holiness, 'tis also an affront to his Wisdom; for though his Power was the cause of the production of so fair a Piece, yet his Wisdom was the guide of his Power, and his Holiness the Pattern whereby he wrought it: His Power effected it, and his Holiness was exemplified in it; but his Wisdom contrived it.

If a Man had a curious Clock or Watch, which had cost him many years pains and the strength of his Skill to frame it; for another, after he had seen and considered it, to trample upon it, and crush it in pieces, would argue a contempt of the Artificers Skill. God hath shewn infinite Art in the Creation of Man; but Sin unbeautifies Man, and ravisheth his Excellency. It cuts and slasheth the Image of God stamped by Divine Wisdom, as though it were an Object only of Scorn and Contempt. The Sinner in every Sin acts, as if he intended to put himself in a better posture, and in a fairer dress, than the Wisdom of God hath put him in by Creation.

2. In the slighting his Laws. The Laws of God are highly Rational; they are drawn from the depths of the Divine Understanding, wherein there is no unclearness, and no defect. As his Understanding apprehends all things in their true Reason; so his Will enjoins all things for worthy and wise Ends: His Laws are contrived by his Wisdom for the happiness of Man, whose Happiness, and the M • thods to it, he understands better than Men or Angels can do. His Laws being the Orders of the Wisest Understanding, every breach of his Law is a flying in the Face of his Wisdom. All Human Laws, though they are enforced by Sovereign Authority; yet they are, or ought to be in the composing of them, founded upon Reason, and should be particular applications of the Law of Nature, to this or that particular emergency. The Laws of God then, who is summa ratio, are the birth of the truest Reason; though the Reason of everyone of them may not be so clear to us.

Every Law, though it consists in an act of the Will, yet doth presuppose an act of the Understanding. The act of the Divine Understanding in framing the Law, must be supposed to precede the act of his Will, in commanding the Observance of that Law. So every Sin against the Law, is not only against the Will of God commanding, but the Reason of God contriving; and a cleaving to our own Reason, rather than the Understanding or Mind of God: As if God had mistaken in making his Law, and we had more understanding to frame a better, and more conducing to our happiness: As if God were not Wise enough to govern us, and prescribe what we should do, and what we should avoid; as if he designed not our welfare, but our misfortune.

Whereas the Precepts of God are not tyrannical Edicts, or Acts of mere Will, but the fruits of Counsel; and therefore every breach of them is a real declamation against his Discretion and Judgment, and preferring our own Imaginations, or the Suggestions of the Devil, as our Rule, before the Results of Divine Counsel: While we acknowledge him Wise in our Opinion, we speak him Foolish by our Practice; when instead of being guided by him, we will guide ourselves. No Man will question, but it is a controlling Divine Wisdom, to make Alterations in his Precepts; dogmatically, either to add some of their own, or expunge any of his: And is it not a Crime of the like reflection to alter them Practically? When we will observe one part of the Law, and not another part; but pick and choose where we please ourselves, as our Humors and Carnal Interest prompts us. It is to charge that part of the Law with Folly, which we refuse to conform unto.

The more cunning any Man is in Sin, the more his sin is against Divine Wisdom, as if he thought to out-wit God. He that receives the Promises of God, and the Testimony of Christ, sets to his Seal, that God is true, John 3.33. By the like strength of Argument it will undeniably follow, That he that refuseth Obedience to his Precept, sets to his Seal that God is foolish. Were they not Rational, God would not enjoin them; and if they are Rational, we are Enemies to Infinite Wisdom, by not complying with them. If Infinite Prudence hath made the Law, why is not every part of it observed; if it were not made with the best Wisdom, why is any part of it observed? If the defacing his Image be any Sin, as being a defaming his Wisdom in Creation; the breaking his Law is no less a Sin, as being a disgracing his Wisdom in his Administration. 'It is upon this account, likely, that the Scripture so often counts Sinners Fools, since it is certainly inexcusable Folly, to contradict undeniable and infallible Wisdom; yet this is done in the least Sin: And as he that breaks one title of the Law, is deservedly accounted guilty of the breach of the whole, James 2.10. so he that despiseth the least stamp of Wisdom in the minutest part of the Law, is deservedly counted as a Contemner of it, in the frame of the whole Statute-Book.

But in Particular, the Wisdom of God is affronted and Invaded,

1. By introducing new Rules and Modes of Worship, different from Divine Institutions. Is not this a manifest reflection on this Perfection of God, as though he had not been Wise enough to provide for his own Honor, and model his own S • rvice; but stood in need of our directions, and the caprichio's of our Brains? Some have observed, that it is a greater Sin in Worship to do what we should not, than to omit what we should perform . The one seems to be out of weakness, because of the high exactness of the Law; and the other out of impudence, accusing the Wisdom of God of Imperfection, and controlling it in its Institutions. At best, it seems to be an Imputation of Human Bashfulness to the Supreme Sovereign; as if he had been ashamed to prescribe all that was necessary to his own Honor, but had left something to the Ingenuity and Gratitude of Men.

Man has ever since the foolish Conceit of his old Ancestor Adam, presumed he could be as Wise as God; and if he who was created upright entertained such Conceits, much more doth Man now, under a mass of Corruption, so capable to foment them. This hath been the continual practice of Men; not so much to reject what once they had received as Divine, but add something of their own Inventions to it.

The Heathens renounced not the Sacrificing of Beasts for the expiation of their Offences (which the Old World had received by Tradition from Adam, and the New World, after the Deluge, from Noah. ) But they had blended that Tradition with Rites of their one, and offered Creatures unclean in themselves, and not fit to be offered to an Infinitely Pure Being; for the distinction of Clean and Unclean, was as Ancient as Noah, Gen. 8.20. yea before, Gen. 7.2.

So the Jews did not discard what they had received from God, as Circumcision, the Passover, and Sacrifices; but they would mix a heap of Heathenish Rites with the Ceremonies of Divine Ordination, and practice things which he had not commanded, as well as things which he had enjoined them. And therefore 'tis observable, that when God taxeth them with this Sin; he doth not say, They brought in those things which he had forbidden into his Worship; but those things which he had not commanded, and had given no order for, to intimate, that they were not to move a step without his Rule; ( Jer. 7.31. They have built the high places of Tophet, which I commanded them not, nor came it into my heart; and Levite. 10.1. Nadabs and Abihu's strange Fire was not commanded; ) so charging them with Impudence and Rashness in adding something of their own, after he had revealed to them the manner of his Service, as if they were as Wise as God. So loath is Man to acknowledge the Supremacy of Divine Understanding, and be sensible of his own Ignorance.

So after the divulging of the Gospel, the Corrupters of Religion did not fling off, but preserved the Institutions of God, but painted and patch'd them up with Pagan Ceremonies; imposed their own Dreams with as much force, as the Revelations of God. Thus hath the Papacy turned the Simplicity of the Gospel into Pagan Pomp, and Religion into Politicks; and revived the Ceremonial Law, and raked some Limbs of it out of the Grave, after the Wisdom of God had rung her Knell, and honourably Interr'd her, and shelter'd the Heathenish Superstitions in Christian Temples, after the Power of the Gospel had chas'd the Devils, with all their Trumpery, from their ancient Habitations.

Whence should this proceed, but from a partial Atheism, and a mean conceit of the Divine Wisdom? As though God had not Understanding enough to prescribe the Form of his own Worship; and not Wisdom enough to support it, wit • out the Crutches of Human Prudence.

Human Prudence is too low to parallel Divine Wisdom; 'tis an incompetent Judge of what is fit for an Infinite Majesty. 'It is sufficiently seen in the ridiculous and senseless Rites among the Heathens; and the Cruel and Devilish ones, fetched from them by the Jews. What work will Human Wisdom make with Divine Worship, when it will presume to be the Director of it, as a Mate with the Wisdom of God? Whence will it take its measures, but from Sense, Humor, and Fancy? As though what is grateful and comely to a depraved Reason, were as beautiful to an unspotted, and Infinite Mind. Do not such tell the World, that they were of God's Cabinet Council, since they will take upon them to judge, as well as God, what is well pleasing to him? Where will it have the humility to stop, if it hath the presumption to add any one thing to Revealed Modes of Worsh p? How did God tax the Israelites with making Idols according to their own understanding? Hos. 13.2. imagining their own Understandings to be of a siner make, and a perfecter Mould than their Creators; and that they had fetched more light from the Chaos of their own Brains, than God had from Eternity in his own Nature? How slight will the Excuse be, God hath not forbidden this, or that, when God shall silence Men with the Question, Where, or when did I command this, or that? There was no Addition to be made under the Law to the meanest Instrument God had appointed in his Service. The Sacred Perfume was not to have one Ingredient more put into it, than what God had prescribed in the Composition; nor was any Man upon pain of Death to imitate it; nor would God endure, that Sacrifices should be consumed with any other Fire, than that which came down from Heaven. So tender is God of any Invasions of his Wisdom and Authority. In all things of this Nature, whatsoever voluntary humility and respect to God they may be disguised with, there is a swelling of the fleshly mind against Infinite Understanding, which the Apostle nauseates, Coloss. 2.18.

Such Mixtures have not been blest by God: As God never prospered the Mixtures of several kinds of Creatures, to form and multiply a new Species, as being a dissatisfaction with his Wisdom, as Creator; so he doth not prosper Mixtures in Worship, as being a Conspiracy against his Wisdom, as a Law-giver. The Destruction of the Jews, was judged by some of their Doctors to be, for preferring Human Traditions before the Written Word; which they ground on Isai. 29.33. Their fear of me was taught by the Precepts of Men. The Injunctions of Men were the Rule of their Worship, and not the Prescripts of my Law.

To conclude, Such as make Alterations in Religion, different from the first Institution, are intolerable Busie-bodies, that will not let God alone with his own Affairs. Vain Man would be wiser than his Maker, and be dabbling in that which is his sole Prerogative.

2. In neglecting Means Instituted by God. When Men have risings of heart against God's Ordinances, They reject the counsel of the Lord against themselves, or in themselves, Luke 7.30. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . They disannul'd the Wisdom of God, the Spring of his Ordinances: All neglects, are disregards of Divine Prescriptions, as impertinent and unavailable to that End for which they were appointed, as not being suited to the common dictates of Reason; sometimes out of a Voluntary humility, such as Peters was, when he denied Christ's condescension to wash his feet, John 13.8. and thereby judged of the comeliness of his Masters intention and action. Such as continually neglect the great Institution of the Lord's Supper out of a sense of Unworthiness, are in the same rank with Peter, and do, as well as he, fall under the blame and reproof of Christ.

Men would be saved, and use the Means; but either Means of their own Appointment, or not all the Means of God's ordering . They would have God's Wisdom and Will condescend to theirs, and not theirs conformed to God. As if our blind Judgments were fittest to make the election of the Paths to Happiness. L • ke Na • man, who when he was ordered by the Prophet, for the cure of his Leprosy, to wash seven times in Jordan, would be the Prophets Director, and have him touch him with his Hand: As if a Patient sick of a desperate Disease, should Prescribe to his Skilful Physician, what Remedies he should order for his Cure, and make his own infirm Reason, or his Gust and Palate the Rule, rather than the Physicians Skill.

Men's Inquiries are, Who will show us any good? They rather fasten upon any Means, than what God hath ordained. We invert the Order Divine Wisdom hath established, when we would have God save us in our own way, not in his. 'It is the same thing, as if we would have God nourish us without Bread, and cure our Diseases without Medicines, and increase our Wealth without our Industry, and cherish our Souls without his Word and Ordinances. 'It is to demand of him an alteration or his Methods, and a separation of that which he hath by his Eternal Judgment joined together. Therefore for a Man to pray to God to save him, when he will not use the Means he hath appointed for Salvation, when he slights the Word, which is the Instrument of Salvation, is a Contempt of the Wisdom of Divine Institutions.

Also in Onassions of Prayer; when we consult not with God upon emergent Occasions, we trust more to our own wisdom than God's, and imply, that we stand not in need of his Conduct, but have ability to direct ourselves, and accomplish our Ends without his guidance. Not seeking God, is by the Prophet tax'd to be a reflection upon this Perfection of God, Isai. 31.1, 2. They look not to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord, &c. And the like Charge he brings against them, Hos. 8.9. They are gone up to up to Assyria, a wild Ass alone by himself, not consulting God.

3. In censuring God's Revelations and Actions, if they be not according to our Schemes. When we will not submit to his plain Will, without penetrating into the unrevealed Reason of it, nor adore his Counsels without controlling them; as if we could correct both Law and Gospel, and frame a better Method of Redemption than that of God's contriving. Thus Men slighted the Wisdom of God in the Gospel, because it did not agree with that Philosophical Wisdom and Reason they had sucked in by Education from their Masters , contrary to their Practice in their Superstitious Worsh • p; where the Oracles they thought Divine, were entertained with Reverence, not with Dispute; and though ambiguous, were not counted ridiculous by the Worshipper. How foolish is Man in this, wherein he would be accounted wise? Adam in Innocence was unfit to control the Doctrine of God, when the Eye of his Reason was clear; and much more are we, since the depravation of our Natures.

The Revelations of God tower above Reason in its Purity; much more above Reason in its Mud and Earthiness. The Rays of Divine Wisdom are too bright for our Human Understandings, much more for our Sinful Understandings. 'It is base to set up Reason, a Finite principle, against an Infinite Wisdom; much baser to set up a depraved and and purblind Reason, against an All-seeing and holy Wisdom. If we would have a Reason for all that God speaks, and all that God acts; our Wisdom must become Infinite as his, or his Wisdom become Finite as ours.

All the Censures of God's Revelations arise from some prejudicate Opinions or Traditional Maxims, that have enthroned themselves in our Minds, which are made the Standard whereby to judge of the things of God, and receive or reject them, as they agree with or dissent from those Principles . Hence it was that the Philosophers in the Primitive Times were the greatest Enemies to the Gospel: And the Contempt of Divine Wisdom, in making Reason the Supreme Judge of Divine Revelation, was the fruitful Mother of the Heresies in all Ages springing up in the Church, and especially of that Socinianism, that daily insinuates itself into the minds of Men.

This is a wrong to the Wisdom of God. He that censures the Words or Actions of another, implies, that he is in his Censure wiser than the Person censured by him. 'It is as insupportable to determine the Truth of God's plain Dictates by our Reason, as it is to measure the suitableness or unsuitableness of his Actions by the humor of our Will. We may sooner think to span the Sun, or grasp a Star, or see a Gnat swallow a Leviathan, than fully understand the Debates of Eternity.

To this we may refer too curious Enquiries into Divine Methods, and intruding into those things which are not revealed, Coloss. 2.18. It is to affect a Wisdom equal with God, and an Ambition to be of his Cabinet-Council. We are not content to be Creatures, that is, to be every way below God; below him in Wisdom, as well as Power.

4. In prescribing God methods of Acting. When we pray for a thing without a due submission to God's Will; as if we were his Counselors, yea his Tutors, and not his Subjects, and God were bound to follow our humors, and be swayed according to the Judgment of our Ignorance; when we would have such a Mercy which God thinks not fit to give, or have it in this method, which God designs to convey through another Chanel. Thus we would have the only wise God take his measures from our Passions: Such a controlling of God was Jonahs Anger about a Gourd, Jonah 3.10. It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

We would direct him how to dispose of us; as though he that had Infinite Wisdom to contrive, and rear the excellent Fabric of the World, had not Wisdom enough, without our Discretions, to place us in a sphere proper for his own Ends, and the use he intends us in the Universe. All the Speeches of Men, (Would I had been in such an Office, had such a Charge: Would I had such a Mercy, in such a method, or by such Instruments,) are Intrenchments upon God's wise disposal of Affairs.

This imposing upon God is a Hellish disposition, and in Hell we find it. The Rich man in Hell, that pretends some Charity for his Brethren on Earth, would direct God a way to prevent their ruin, by sending one from the dead to school them, as a more effectual Means than Moses and the Prophets, Luke 16.29, 30. 'It is a Temper also to be found on Earth; what else was the language of Saul's saving the Amalekites Cattle against the plain Command of God, 1 Sam. 15.15. As if God in his Fury had overshot himself, and overlooked his Altar, in d • priving it of so great a Booty for its Service: As if it were an unwise thing in God, to lose the Prey of so many stately Cattle, that might make the Altar smoke with their Entrails, and serve to expiate the Sins of the People; and therefore he would rectify that which he thought to be an oversight in God, and so magnifies his own Prudence and Discretion above the Divine.

We will not let God act as he thinks fit, but will be directing him, and teaching him knowledge, Job. 21.22. As if God were a Statue, an Idol, that had Eyes and saw not, Hands, but acted not; and could be turned as an Image may be, to what quarter of the Heaven we please ourselves. The Wisdom of God is unbyast; he orders nothing but what is fittest for his End, and we would have our shallow Brains the bias of God's acting. And will not God resent such an Indignity, as a reflection upon his Wisdom as well as Authority, when we intimate that we have better Heads than he, and that he comes short of us in Understanding?

5. In Murmuring and Impatience. One demands a Reason, why he hath this or that Cross? Why he hath been deprived of such a Comfort, lost such a Venture, languisheth under such a Sickness, is tormented with such Pains, oppressed by Tyrannical Neighbors, is unsuccessful in such Designs? In these, and such like, the Wisdom of God is questioned and defam'd. All Impatience, is a suspicion, if not a condemnation of the Prudence of God's Methods, and would make Human Feebleness and Folly the Rule of God's dealing with his Creatures. This is a presuming to instruct God, and a reproving him for Unreasonableness in his Proceedings, when his dealings with us do not exactly answer our Fancies and Wishes; as if God, who made the World in Wisdom, wanted Skill for the management of his Creatures in it. Job 40.2. Shall he that contends with the Almighty, instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it. We that are not wise enough to know ourselves, and what is needful for us; presume to have Wit enough to guide God in his dealing with us. The Wisdom of God rendered Job more useful to the World by his Afflictions, in making him a Pattern of Patience, than if he had continued him in a confluence of all Worldly Comforts, wherein he had been beneficial only in communicating his Morsels to his Poor Neighbors. All Murmuring is a fastening Error upon unerring Wisdom.

6. In Pride and Haughtiness of Spirit. No Proud man, but sets his Heart as the heart of God, Ezek. 28.2, 3. The Wisdom of God hath given to Men divers Offices, set them in divers places; some have more honorable Charges, some meaner. Not to give that respect their Offices and Places call for, is to quarrel with the Wisdom of God, and overturn the Rank and Order wherein he hath placed things.

'It is unfit we should affront God in the disposal of his Creatures, and intimate to him by our Carriage that he had done more wisely in placing another, and that he hath done foolishly in placing this or that Man in such a Charge. Sometimes Men are unworthy the Place they fill; they may be set there in Judgment to themselves and others: But the Wisdom of God in his management of things, is to be honored and regarded.

'It is an infringing the Wisdom of God, when we have a vain Opinion of ourselves, and are blind to others. When we think ourselves Monarchs, and treat others as Worms or Flies in comparison of us. He would reduce all things to his own honor, perverts the Order of the World, and would constitute another Order than what the Wisdom of God hath established; and move them to an End contrary to the intention of God, and charges God with want of Discretion and Skill.

7. Distrust of God's Promise is an impeachment of his Wisdom. A secret Reviling of it, as if he had not taken due consideration before he past his Word; or a suspicion of his Power, as if he could not accomplish his Word. We trust the Physicians Skill with our Bodies, and the Lawyers Counsel with our Estates; but are loath to rely upon God for the concerns of our Lives. If he be Wise to dispose of us, why do we distrust him? If we distrust him, why do we embrace an opinion of his Wisdom?

Unbelief also is a contradiction to the Wisdom of God in the Gospel, &c. but that I have already handled in a Discourse of the Nature of Unbelief.

III. Use of Comfort. God hath an Infinite Wisdom, to conduct us in our Affairs, rectify us in our Mistakes, and assist us in our Straits. 'It is an inestimable privilege to have a God in Covenant with us; so Wise, to communicate all Good, to prevent all Evil; who hath Infinite ways to bring to pass his gracious Intentions towards us. How unsearchable are his Judgments, and his ways past finding out? Rom. 11.33. His Judgments or Decrees are incomprehensibly Wise, and the ways of effecting them, are as wise as his Resolves effected by them. We can a little search into his Methods of Acting, as we can into his Wisdom of Resolving; both his Judgments and Ways are unsearchable.

1. Comfort in all Straits and Afflictions. There is a Wisdom in inflicting them, and a Wisdom in removing them. He is wise to suit his Medicines to the humor of our Disease, though he doth not to the humor of our Wills: He cannot mistake the nature of our Distemp r, or the virtue of his own Physic. Like a skillful Physician, he sometime prescribes bitter Potions, and sometimes cheering Cordials, according to the strength of the Malady, and necessity of the Patient to reduce him to health. As nothing comes from him, but what is for our good; so nothing is acted by him in a rash and temerarious way. His Wisdom is as Infinite as his Goodness; and as exact in managing, as his Goodness is plentiful in streaming out to us. He understands our Griefs, weighs our Necessities, and no Remedies are beyond the reach of his Contrivance. When our feeble Wits are bewildered in a maze, and at the end of their Line for a rescue; the Remedies unknown to us, are not unknown to God. When we know not how to prevent a Danger, the Wise God hath a Thousand Blocks to lay in the way: When we know not how to free ourselves from an oppressive Evil, he hath a Thousand ways of Relief.

He knows how to Time our Crosses, and his own Blessings. The heart of a Wise God, as well as the heart of a wise Man, discerns both time and judgment, Eccles. 8.5. There is as much Judgment in sending them, as Judgment in removing them. How comfortable is it to think, that our Distresses, as well as our Deliverances, are the fruits of Infinite Wisdom? Nothing is done by him too soon or too slow; but in the true point of Time, with all its due circumstances, most conveniently for his glory and our good. How Wise is God, to bring the glory of our Salvation out of the depths of a seeming Ruin, and make the Evils of Affliction subservient to the good of the Afflicted?

2. In Temptations, his Wisdom is no less employed in permitting them, than in bringing them to a good issue. His Wisdom in leading our Savior to be Tempted of the Devil, was to fit him for our succor; and his Wisdom in suffering us to be Tempted, is to fit us for his own Service, and our Salvation. He makes a Thorn in the flesh to be an occasion of a refreshing Grace to the Spirit, and brings forth cordial Grapes from those pricking Brambles, and magnifies his Grace by his Wisdom, from the deepest subtleties of Hell. Let Satan's Intentions be what they will, he can be for him at every turn, to out-wit him in his Stratagems, to baffle him in his Enterprizes; to make him instrumental for our good, where he designs nothing but our hurt. The Lord hath his methods of Deliverance from him, 2 Pet. 2.9. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of Temptation.

3. In Denials, or delays of Answers of Prayer. He is gracious to Hear; but he is wise to Answer in an acceptable time, and succor us in a day proper for our salvation, 2 Cor. 6.2. We have partial Affections to ourselves, Ignorance is natural to us, Rom. 8.26. We ask we know not what, because we ask out of Ignorance. God grants what he knows, what is fit for him to do, and fit for us to receive; and the exact season wherein it is fittest for him to bestow a Mercy. As God would have us bring forth our Fruit in season, so he will send forth his Mercies in season.

He is wise to suit his Remedy to our Condition, to Time it so, as that we shall have an evident prospect of his Wisdom in it; that more of Divine Skill, and less of Human, may appear in the Issue. He is ready at our Call; but he will not Answer, till he see the Season fit to reach out his hand. He is wise to prove our Faith, to humble us under the sense of our own Unworthiness, to whet our Affections, to set a better estimate on the Blessings prayed for, and that he may double the Blessing, as we do our Devotion: But when his Wisdom sees us fit to receive his Goodness, he grants what we stand in need of. He is Wise to choose the fittest Time, and Faithful to give the best Covenant Mercy.

4. In all Evils threatened to the Church by her Enemies. He hath Knowledge to fore-see them, and Wisdom to disappoint them; Job 5.13. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.

The Church hath the Wisdom of God, to enter the Lists with the Policy of Hell. He defeated the Serpent in the first Net he laid, and brought a glorious Salvation out of Hells Rubbish; and is yet as Skilful to disappoint the After-game of the Serpentine -brood. The Policy of Hell, and the Subtilty of the World, are no better than Folly with God, 1 Cor. 3.19. All Creatures are Fools, as Creatures, in comparison with the Creator. The Angels he chargeth with Folly, much more us Sinners.

Depraved Understandings are not fit Mates for a pure and unblemished Mind. Pharaoh, with his wisdom, finds a Grave in the Sea; and Ahithophel's Plots are finished in his own murder: He breaks the Enemies by his Power, and orders them by his Skill to be a feast to his People. Psal. 74.14. Thou brakest the Head of the Leviathan, and gavest him to be meat to the people in the Wilderness. The Spoils of the Egyptians Carkasses cast upon the shore served the Israelites Necessities (or were as Meat to them;) as being a Deliverance the Church might feed upon in all Ages in a Wilderness Condition, to maintain their Faith, the vital Principle of the Soul.

There is a Wisdom superior to the subtleties of Men, which laughs at their Follies, and hath them in derision, Psal. 2.4. There is no wisdom or counsel against the Lord, Prov. 21.30. You never question the wisdom of an Artist, to use his File, when he takes it into his hand: Wicked Instruments are God's Axes and Files; let him alone, he hath Skill enough to manage them: God hath too much Affection to destroy his People, and Wisdom enough to beautify them by the worst Tools he uses. He can make all things conspire in a perfect harmony for his own Ends, and his Peoples good, when they see no way to escape a Danger feared, or attain a Blessing wanted.

Use IV.

I. For Exhortation.

1. Meditate on the Wisdom of God in Creation and Government. How little do we think of God when we behold his Works? Our Sense dwells upon the surface of Plants and Animals, beholds the variety of their Colours, and the progress in their Motion: Our Reason studies the qualities of them; our Spirits seldom take a slight to the Divine Wisdom which framed them. Our Senses engross our Minds from God, that we scarce have a Thought free to bestow upon the Maker of them, but only on the by. The constancy of seeing things that are common, stifles our Admiration of God, due upon the sight of them. How seldom do we raise our Souls as far as Heaven in our views of the Order of the World, the Revolutions of the Seasons, the Natures of the Creatures that are common among us, and the mutual Assistances they give to each other? Since God hath manifested himself in them, to neglect the Consideration of them, is to neglect the Manifestation of God, and the way whereby he hath transmitted something of his Perfections to our Understanding. It renders Men inexcusably guilty of not glorifying of God, Rom. 1.19, 20. We can never neglect the meditation of the Creatures, without a blemish cast upon the Creators Wisdom. As every River can conduct us to the Sea; so every Creature points us to an Ocean of Infinite Wisdom. Not the minutest of them, but rich tracts of this may be observed in them, and a due sense of God result from them. They are exposed to our view, that something of God may be lodged in our Minds; that as our Bodies extract their quintessence for our Nourishment, so our Minds may extract a quintessence for the Makers Praise.

Though God is principally to be Praised in and for Christ; yet as Grace doth not raze out the Law of Nature, so the operations of Grace put not the dictates of Nature to silence, nor suspend the Homage due to God upon our inspection of his Works. God hath given full Testimonies of this Perfection in the Heavenly Bodies, dispersing their Light, and distributing their Influences to every part of the World: In framing Men into Societies, giving them various Dispositions, for the preservation of Governments; making some Wise for Counsel, others Martial for Action; changing Old Empires, and raising New. Which way soever we cast our Eyes, we shall find frequent occasions to cry out, Oh the depth of the Riches, both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God, Rom. 11.33.

To this purpose, we must not only look upon the bulk and outside of his Works, but consider from what Principles they were raised, in what order disposed, and the exact symmetry and proportion of their parts. When a Man comes into a City or Temple, and only considers the surface of the Build • ngs, they will amaze his Sense, but not better his Understanding; unless he considers the Methods of the Work, and the Art whereby it was erected.

1. This was an End for which they were created. God did not make the World for Mans use only, but chiefly for his own Glory; for Mans use to enjoy his Creatures, and for his own Glory to be acknowledged in his Creatures, that we may consider his Art in framing them, and his Skill in disposing them; and not only gaze upon the Glass without considering the Image it represents, and acquainting ourselves whose Image it is. The Creatures were not made for themselves, but for the service of the Creator and the service of Man. Man was not made for himself, but for the Service of the Lord that created him. He is to consider the Beauty of the Creation, that he may thereby glorify the Creator. He knows in part their excellency; the Creatures themselves do not. If therefore Man be idle and unobservant of them, he deprives God of the glory of his Wisdom, which he should have by his Creatures.

The Inferior Creatures themselves cannot observe it. If Man regard it not, what becomes of it; his Glory can only be handed to him by Man. The other Creatures cannot be Active Instruments of his Glory, because they know not themselves, and therefore cannot render him an active Praise. Man is therefore bound to praise God for himself, and for all his Creatures; because he only knows himself, and the Perfections of the Creatures, and the Author both of himself and them.

God Created such Variety, to make a Report of himself to us; we are to receive the Report, and to reflect it back to him. To what purpose did he make so many things, not necessary, for the support and pleasure of our L • ves, but that we should behold him in them, as well as in the other?

We cannot behold the Wisdom of God in his own Essence and Eternal Idea's, but by the reflection of it in the Creatures: As we cannot steadily behold the Sun with our Eye, but either through a Glass, or by reflection of the Image of it in the Water. God would have us meditate on his Perfections; he therefore chose the same Day wherein he reviewed his Work, and rested from it, to be celebrated by Man for the contemplation of him, Gen. 2.2, 3. that we should follow his Example, and rejoice as himself did, in the frequent reviews of his Wisdom and Goodness in them. In vain would the Creatures afford Matter for this study, if they were wholly neglected.

God offers something to our Consideration in every Creature: Shall the Beams of God shine round about us, and strike our Eyes, and not affect our Minds? Shall we be like Ignorant Children, that view the Pictures, or point to the Letters in a Book without any sense and meaning? How shall God have the homage due to him from his Works, if Man hath no care to observe them? The 148 Psalm is an Exhortation to this. The view of them should often extract from us a wonder of the like nature of that of David's, Psal. 104.24. Oh Lord, how wonderful are thy Works, in wisdom hast thou made them all. The World was not Created to be forgotten, nor Man created to be unobservant of it.

2. If we observe not the Wisdom of God in the views of the Creatures, we do no more than Brutes. To look upon the Works of God in the World, is no higher an act than mere Animals perform. The Glories of Heaven, and Beauties of the Earth, are visible to the sense of Beasts and Birds. A Brute beholds the motion of a Man, as it may see the Wheels of a Clock, but understands not the inward Springs of Motion; the End for which we move, or the Soul that acts us in our motion; much less that Invisible Power which presides over the Creatures, and conducts their motion. If a Man do no more than this, he goes not a step beyond a Brutish Nature, and may very well acknowledge himself with Asaph, a foolish and ignorant Beast before God, Psal 73.22. The World is viewed by Beasts, but the Author of it to be contemplated by Man. Since we are in a higher rank than Beasts, we owe a greater Debt than Beasts; not only to enjoy the Creatures, as they do, but behold God in the Creatures, which they cannot do.

The Contemplation of the Reason of God in his Works, is a noble and suitable employment for a Rational Creature: We have not only Sense to perceive them, but Souls to mind them. The Soul is not to be without its operation: Where the operation of Sense ends, the work of the Soul ought to begin. We travel over them by our Senses, as Brutes; but we must pierce further by our Understandings, as Men, and perceive and praise him that lies Invisible, in his visible Manufactures. Our Senses are given us as Servants to the Soul, and our Souls bestowed upon us for the knowledge and praise of their and our Common Creator.

3. This would be a means to increase our Humility. We should then flag our Wings and veil our Sails, and acknowledge our own Wisdom to be as a drop to the Ocean, and a Shadow to the Sun. We should have mean thoughts of the Nothingness of our Reason, when we consider the sublimity of the Divine Wisdom. Who can seriously consider the Sparks of Infinite Skill in the Creature, without falling down at the feet of the Divine Majesty, and acknowledging himself a dark and foolish Creature, Psal. 8.4, 5. When the Psalmist considered the Heavens, the Moon and Stars, and God's ordination and disposal of them, the use that results from it is, What is Man, that thou art mindful of him? We should no more think to mate him in Prudence, or set up the spark of our Reason to vie with the Sun. Our Reason would more willingly submit to the Revelation, when the Characters of Divine Wisdom are stamped upon it, when we find his Wisdom in Creation incomprehensible to us.

4. It would help us in our acknowledgments of God, for his Goodness to us. When we behold the Wisdom of God in Creatures below us, and how ignorant they are of what they possess. It will cause us to reflect upon the deeper Impressions of Wisdom in the frame of our own Bodies and Souls, an excellency far superior to theirs; this would make us admire the magnificence of his Wisdom and Goodness, and sound forth his Praise for advancing us in dignity above other Works of his hands, and stamping on us by Infinite Art, a Nobler Image of himself.

And by such a Comparison of ourselves with the Creatures below us, we should be induced to act excellently, according to the nature of our Souls; not brutishly, according to the nature of the Creatures God hath put under our feet.

5. By the Contemplation of the Creatures, we may receive some assistance in clearing our knowledge in the Wisdom of Redemption. Though they cannot of themselves inform us of it; yet since God hath revealed his Redeeming Grace, they can illustrate some particulars of it to us. Hence the Scripture makes use of the Creatures to set forth things of a higher orb to us: Our Savior is called a Sun, a Vine, and a Lion; the Spirit likened to a Dove, Fire, and Water. The Union of Christ and his Church, is set forth by the Marriage Union of Adam and Eve.

God hath placed in Corporeal things the Images of Spiritual, and wrapped up in his Creating Wisdom the representations of his Redeeming Grace; Whence some call the Creatures, Natural Types of what was to be transacted in a new formation of the World, and Allusions to what God intended in and by Christ.

6. The Meditation of God's Wisdom in the Creatures, is in part a beginning of Heaven upon Earth. No doubt but there will be a perfect opening of the Model of Divine Wisdom. Heaven is for clearing what is now obscure, and a full discovering of what seems at present intricate. Psal. 36.9. In his light shall we see light: All the Light in Creation, Government, and Redemption. The Wisdom of God in the New Heavens, and the New Earth, would be to little purpose, if that also were not to be regarded by the Inhabitants of them. As the Saints are to be restored to the state of Adam and higher; so they are to be restored to the employment of Adam, and higher: But his employment, was to behold God in the Creatures. The World was so soon depraved, that God had but little joy in, and Man but little knowledge of his Works.

And since the Wisdom of God in Creation is so little seen by our Ignorance here, would not God lose much of the glory of it, if the glorified Souls should lose the understanding of it above? When their Darkness shall be expelled, and their Advantages improved; when the Eye that Adam lost, shall be fully restored, and with a greater clearness; when the Creature shall be restored to its true End, and Reason to its true Perfection ; when the Fountains of the depths of Nature and Government shall be opened, Knowledge shall increase, and according to the increase of our Knowledge, shall the admiration of Divine Wisdom increase also.

The Wisdom of God in Creation, was not surely intended to lie wholly unobserved in the greatest part of it; but since there was so little time for the full observation of it, there will be a time wherein the Wisdom of God shall enjoy a resurrection, and be fully contemplated by his understanding and glorified Creature.

II. Exhortation. Study and admire the Wisdom of God in Redemption. This is the Duty of all Christians. We are not called to understand the great depth of Philosophy; we are not called to a skill in the Intricacies of Civil Government, or understand all the methods of Physic: but we are called to be Christians, that is, Studiers of Divine Evangelical Wisdom. There are first Principles to be learned; but not those Principles to be rested in, without a further progress. Heb. 6.1. Therefore leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Duties must be practiced, but knowledge is not to be neglected. The study of Gospel Mysteries, the harmony of Divine Truths, the sparkling of Divine Wisdom, in their mutual combination to the great ends of God's Glory and Mans Salvation, is an Incentive to Duty, a Spur to Worship, and particularly to the greatest and highest part of Worship, that part which shall remain in Heaven; the Admiration and Praise of God, and Delight in him. If we acquaint not ourselves with the Impressions of the glory of Divine Wisdom in it, we shall not much regard it as worthy our observance in regard of that Duty.

The Gospel is a Mystery; and as a Mystery hath something Great and Magnificent in it, worthy of our daily inspection; we shall find fresh Springs of New wonders, which we shall be invited to adore with a Religious Astonishment. It will both raise and satisfy our Longings. Who can come to the depths of God manifested in the flesh? How amazing is it, and unworthy of a slight thought, that the Death of the Son of God should purchase the happy Immortality of a Sinful Creature, and the glory of a Rebel be wrought by the Ignominy of so great a Person? That our Mediator, should have a Nature whereby to Covenant with his Father, and a Nature whereby to be a Surety for the Creature? How admirable is it, that the Fallen Creature should receive an advantage by the Forfeiture of his Happiness? How Mysterious is it, that the Son of God should bow down to Death upon a Cross, for the satisfaction of Justice; and rise Triumphantly out of the Grave, as a declaration, that Justice was contented and satisfied? That he should be exalted to Heaven, to Intercede for us; and at last return into the World, to receive us, and invest us with a Glory forever with himself?

Are these things worthy of a Careless regard, or a Blockish amazement? What Understanding can p • erce into the depths of the Divine Doctrine of the Incarnation and Birth of Christ; the indissoluble Union of the two Natures? What Capacity is able to measure the miracles of that Wisdom, found in the whole Draught and Scheme of the Gospel? Doth it not merit then to be the Object of our daily Meditation? How comes it to pass then, that we are so little curious to concern our Thoughts in those Wonders, that we scarce taste or sip of these Delicacies? That we busy ourselves in Trifles, and consider what we shall eat, and in what fashion we shall be dressed; please ourselves with the ingeniousness of a Lace or Feather; admire a Moth-eaten Manuscript, or some Half-worn piece of Antiquity; and think our time Ill-spent in the contemplating and celebrating that wherein God hath busied himself, and Eternity is designed for the perpetual expressions of?

How Inquisitve are the Blessed Angels; with what vigor do they renew their daily Contemplations of it, and receive a fresh Contentment from it; still learning, and still enquiring? 1 Pet. 1.12. their Eye is never off the Mercy Seat; they strive to see the bottom of it, and employ all the Understanding they have to conceive the Wonders of it. Shall the Angels be ravished with it, and bend themselves down to study it, who have but little interest in it in comparison of us, for whom it was both contrived and dispensed? And shall not our Pains be greater for this hidden Treasure? Is not that worthy the study of a Rational Creature, that is worthy the study of the Angelical? There must indeed be Pains, 'tis expressed by Digging, Prov. 2.4. A lazy Arm will not sink to the depth of a Mine. The neglect of Meditating on it is inexcusable, since it hath the Title and Character of the Wisdom of God.

The Ancient Prophets searched into it, when it was folded up in Shadows, when they saw only the fringes of Wisdoms Garment ; and shall not we, since the Sun hath mounted up in our Horizon, and sensibly scattered the light of the knowledge of this and the other Perfections of God? As the Jewish Sabbath was appointed to celebrate the Perfections of God, discovered in Creation; so is the Christian Sabbath appointed to meditate on, and bless God for the discovery of his Perfections in Redemption. Let us therefore receive it according to its worth; let it be our only Rule to walk by. 'It is worthy to be valued above all other Counsels; and we should never think of it without the Doxology of the Apostle, To the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ, forever; that our Speculations may end in affectionate Admirations, and Thanksgivings, for that which is so full of Wonders! What a little prospect should we have had of God, and the Happiness of Man, had not his Wisdom and Goodness revealed these things to us? The Gospel is a marvelous Light, and should not be regarded with a stupid Ignorance, and pursued with a duller Practice.

3. Exhortation, Let none of us be proud of, or trust in our own wisdom. Man by affecting Wisdom out of the way of God, got a crack in his Head, which hath continued Five thousand years and upwards; and ever sin our own wisdom and knowledge hath perverted us, Isai. 47.10. To be guided by this, is to be under the conduct of a blind Leader, and follow a Traitor and Enemy to God and our Selves. Mans Prudence often proves hurtful to him: He often accomplisheth his ruin, while he designs his establishment; and finds his Fall, where he thought to settle his Fortune: Such bad Eyes hath Human wisdom often in its own Affairs. Those that have been heightened with a conceit of their own Cunning, have at last proved the greatest Fools. God delights to make foolish the wisdom of this world, 1 Cor. 1.20.

Thus God writ Folly upon the crafty Brains of Achitophel, and Simplicity upon the subtle Projects of Herod against our Savior; and the Devil, the Prince of Carnal Wisdom, was befooled into a furthering our Redemption by his own Projects to hinder it. Carnal Policy, against the Prescripts of Divine Wisdom, never prospers: 'It is like an Ignis fatuus, which leads Men out of the w • y of Duty, and out of the way of Security, and perverts them into the Mire, and dangerous Precipices.

When Jeroboam would coin a Religion to serve his Interest of State, he • ore up the Foundations both of his Kingdom and Family. The way the Jews took to prevent a fresh Invasion of the Romans, by the Crucifying Christ, brought the Judgment more swift upon them . There is no Man ruined here, or damned hereafter, but by his own wisdom and will. Prov. 3.5, 7. The fear of the Lord, and departure from evil, are inconsistent with an overweening conceit of our own Wisdom; and leaning to our own understanding, is inconsistent with a trusting in the Lord with all our hearts. 'It is as much a Deifying ourselves, to trust to our own wit, as it is a Deifying the Creature to affect or conside in it, superior to God, or equally with him.

The true way to Wisdom is to be sensible of our own Folly, 1 Cor. 3.18. If any man be wise, let him become a fool. He that distrusts his own guidance, will more securely and successfully follow the Counsel of another in whom he consides. The more Water, or any other Liquor, is poured out of a Vessel, the more Air enters. The more we distrust our own wisdom, the more capable we are of the conduct of God's.

Had Jehoshaphat relied upon his own Policy, he might have found a Defeat when he met with a Deliverance; but he disowned his own skill and strength, in telling God, We know not what to do, but our eyes are towards thee, 2 Chron. 20.12. Let us therefore with Augur, disesteem our own Understanding to esteem Divine. Human Prudence is like a Spiders -web, easily blown away, and swept down by the Besom of some unexpected Revolution. God by his Infinite Wisdom can cross the wisdom of Man, and make a Mans own Prudence hang in his own light. Isaiah 29.14. The understanding of their Prudent Men shall be hid.

4. Exhortation, Seek to God for Wisdom. The Wisdom we have by Nature, is like the Weeds the Earth brings forth without Tillage. Our Wisdom since the Fall, is the Wisdom of the Serpent, without the Innocency of the Dove: It flows from Self-love, runs into Self-interest. 'It is the wisdom of the Flesh, and a prudence to manage means for the contenting our Lusts. Our best wisdom is imperfect, a mere Nothing and Vanity, in comparison of the Divine, as our Beings are in comparison of his Essence. We must go to God for a Holy and Innocent Wisdom, and fill our Cisterns from a pure Fountain. The Wisdom that was the glory of Solomon, was the Donation of the most High. James 1.5. If any man want wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. The faculty of Understanding is from God by Nature; but a Heavenly light to direct the Understanding is from God by Grace. Children have an Understanding, but stand in need of wise Masters to rectify it, and form Judicious Notions in it.

There is a spirit in man, but the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding, Job 32.8. We must beg of God, Wisdom. The Gospel is the Wisdom of God; the Concerns of it great and Mysterious, not to be known without a New understanding, 1 John 5.20. A new Understanding is not to be had but from the Creator of the first. The Spirit of God is the Searcher of the deep things of God; the Revealer of them to us, and the enlightner of our Minds to apprehend them; and therefore called, a Spirit of wisdom and revelation, Eph. 1.17. Christ is made Wisdom to us, as well as Righteousness; not only by Imputation, but Effusion . Seek to God therefore for that Wisdom which is like the Sun, and not that Worldly wisdom which is like a Shadow: For that Wisdom whose effects are not so outwardly glorious, but inwardly sweet, seek it from him, and seek it in his Word, that is the Transcript of Divine Wisdom; through his Precepts understanding is to be had *. . As the wisdom of Men appears in their Laws; so doth the Wisdom of God in his Statutes.

By this means we arrive to a Heavenly sagacity. If these be rejected, what Wisdom can be in us? a dream and conceit only; Jer. 8. They have rejected the word of the Lord, and what Wisdom is in them? Who knows how to order any concerns as he ought, or any one faculty of his Soul? Therefore desire God's direction in outward concerns, in personal, family, in Private and Public: He hath not only a Wisdom for our Salvation, but for our outward Direction. He doth not only guide us in the one, and leave Satan to manage us in the other: Those that go with Saul to a Witch of Endor, go to Hell for craft, and prefer the Wisdom of the hostile Serpent, before the holy Counsel of a Faithful Creator. If you want health in your Body, you advise with a Pysician; if direction for your Estate, you resort to a Lawyer; If passage for a voyage, you address to a Pilot; why not much more your selves, your all to a Wise God. As Pliny said concerning a Wise man, Oh sir, how many Cato's are there in that wise Person? how much more Wisdom than men or Angels possess, is infinitely centered in the Wise God?

5. Submit to the Wisdom of God in all cases. What else was inculcated in the first Precept forbidding man to eat of the Fruit of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil; but that he should take heed of the swelling of his mind against the Wisdom of God? It is a Wisdom Incomprehensible to flesh and blood: We should adore it in our minds, and resign up ourselves to it in our practice: How unreasonable are repinings against God, whereby a Creatures Ignorance endites and judges a Creators Prudence? Were God weak in Wisdom and only mighty in Power, we might suspect his Conduct. Power without Wisdom and goodness is an unruly and ruinous thing in the World. But God being Infinite in one, as well as the other, we have no reason to be jealous of him, and repine against his methods; Why should we quarrel with him that we are not as high, or as wealthy as others; that we have not presently the Mercy we want? If he be Wise, we ought to stay his time, and wait his leisure, because he is a God of Judgment. Esa. 30.18. Presume not to shorten the time which his discretion hath fixed, tis a folly to think to do it. By impatience we cannot hasten relief; we alienate him from us by debasing him to stand at our bar, disturb ourselves, lose the comfort of our lives and the sweetness of his mercy. Submission to God we are in no case exempted from, because there is no case wherein God doth not direct all the acts of his Will by Counsel. Whatsoever is drawn by a strait rule must be right and strait; the rule that is right in itself, is the measure of the straitness of everything else: Whatsoever is wrought in the World by God, must be Wise, Good, Righteous; because God is essentially Wisdom, Goodness, and Righteousness.

Submit to God, (1.) in his Revelations.

1. Measure them Not by Reason: The truths of the gospel must be received with a self emptiness and annnihilation of the Creature. If our Reason seems to lift up itself against Revelation, because it finds no testimony for it in its own light; Consider how Crazy it is in natural and obvious things and therefore sure it is not strong enough to enter into the depths of Divine Wisdom: The Wisdom of God in the Gospel is too great an Ocean to be contained or laved out by a Cockleshell. It were not infinite, if it were not beyond our finite reach; our Reason must as well stoop to his Wisdom, as our Wills to his Sovereignty. How great a vanity is it for a Glow-worm to boast, that it is as full of light as the Sun in the firmament? for reason to leave its proper sphere, is to fall into confusion, and thicken its own darkness. We should settle ourselves in the belief of the Scripture, and confirm ourselves by a meditation on those many undeniable arguments, for its divine authority. The fulfilling of its predictions, the antiquity of the writing, the holiness of the precepts, the heavenliness of the Doctrine, the glorious effects it hath produced, and doth yet produce, different from human methods of success; and submit our reason to the voice of so high a Majesty.

2. Not to be too curiously inquisitive into what is not Revealed. There is something hid in whatsoever is Revealed. We know the son of God was begotten from eternity, but how he was begotten, we are ignorant. We know there is a Union of the Divine Nature wi h the Human, and that the Fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily; but the manner of its inhabitation we are in a great part ignorant of. We know God hath chosen some and refused others, and that he did it with Counsel; but the reason why he chose this man and not that, we know not; we can refer it to nothing but God's Sovereign pleasure. 'It is revealed that there will be a day wherein God shall judge the World; but the particular time is not reveal d. We know that God Created the World in Time; but why he did not create the World millions of years before, we are ignorant of, and our Reasons would be be wildred in their too much curiosity. If we ask why he did not create it before; we may as well ask why he did create it then? And may not the same q •••• ion be asked, if the World had been Created millions of years before it was? That he Created in it six days, and not in an instant, is revealed; but why he did not do it in a moment, since we are sure he was able to do it, is not revealed. Are the reasons of a wise man's proceedings hid from us, and shall we presume to dive into the reason of the proceedings of an only wise God, which he hath Judged not expedient to discover to us? Some sparks of his Wisdom he hath caused to issue out, to exercise and delight our Minds; others he keeps within the center of his own breast: We must not go about to unlock his Cabinet. As we cannot reach to the utmost lines of his Power; so we cannot grasp the intimate reasons of his Wisdom. We must still remember, that which is Finite can never be able to comprehend, the Reasons, Motives, and Methods of that which is Infinite. It doth not become us to be resty, because God hath not admitted us into the Debates of Eternity. We are as little to be curious at what God hath hid, as to be careless of what God hath manifested. Too great an inquisitiveness beyond our line, is as much a provoking arrogance, as a blockish negligence of what is revealed, is a slighting ingratitude.

2. Submit to God in his Precepts and Methods. Since they are the results of Infinite Wisdom, disputes against them are not tolerable: What orders are given out by Infallible Wisdom are to be entertained with respect and reverence, though the reason of them be not visible to our purblind minds. Shall God have less respect from us than Earthly Princes, whose Laws we observe without being able to pierce into the exact reason of them all? Since we know he hath not a Will without an Understanding, our observance of him must be without Repining; we must not think to mend our Creators Laws, and presume to judge and condemn his Righteous Statutes: If the flesh rise up in opposition, we must cross its motions, and Silence its Murmurings; his Will should be an acceptable Will to us, because it is a wise Will in itself. God hath no need to impose upon us and deceive us; He hath just and righteous ways to attain his glory and his Creatures good. To deceive us, would be to dishonor himself and contradict his own nature. He cannot impose false injurious Precepts or unavailable to his subjects happiness; not false, because of his Truth; not injurious because of his Goodness; not vain, because of his Wisdom. Submit therefore to him in his Precepts, and in his Methods too. The honor of his Wisdom and the interest of our Happiness calls for it. Had Noah disputed with God about building an Ark, and listened to the scoffs of the senseless World, he had perished under the same fate and lost the honor of a Preacher and worker of righteousness. Had not the Israelites been their own enemies, if they had been permitted to be their own guides, and returned to the Egyptian bondage and furnaces, instead of a liberty and earthly felicity in Canaan? Had our Savior gratified the Jews by descending from the Cross and freeing himself from the power of his Adversaries, he might have had that Faith from them which they promised him: but It had been a faith to no purpose, because without ground; they might have believed him to be the Son of God, but he could not have been the Savior of the World: His death the great ground and object of Faith had been unaccomplished, they had believed a God pardoning without a content to his Justice, and such a Faith could not have rescued them from falling into eternal Misery. The Precepts and Methods of Divine Wisdom must be submitted to.

3. Submit to God in all Crosses and Revolutions. Infinite Wisdom cannot err in any of his paths, or step the least hairs breadth from the way of Righteousness: There is the Understanding of God in every motion; an Eye in every Wheel; the Wheel that goes over us and crusheth us. We are led by Fancy more than Reason: We know no more what we ask or what is fit for us, than the Mother of Zebedees children did, when she Petitioned Christ for her sons advancement, when he came into his Temporal Kingdom : The things we desire might pleasure our Fancy or Appetite, but impair our health: One man complains for want of Children, but knows not whither they may prove Comforts or Crosses: Another for want of Health, but knows not whither the health of his Body may not prove the disease of his Soul. We migh • lose in Heavenly things, if we possess in Earthly things what we long for. God in regard of his infinite Wisdom is fitter to carve out a condition than we ourselves; our Shallow reason, and self-love, would wish for those things, that are injurious to God, to ourselves, to the World; but God always chooses what is best for his Glory, and what is best for his Creatures, either in regard of themselves, or as they stand in relation to him, or to others, as parts of the World.

We are in danger from our self-love, in no danger in complying with God's Wisdom: When Rachel would die, if she had no Children, she had Children, but Death with one of them . Good men may conclude, that whatsoever is done by God in them or with them, is best and fittest for them; because by the Covenant which makes over God to them, as their God, the conduct of his Wisdom is assured to them as well as any other Attribute: And therefore, as God in every transaction appears as their God, so he appears as their wise Director, and by this Wisdom he extracts good out of evil, makes the affliction which destroys our outward Comforts, consume our inward Defilements; And the waves which threatened to swallow up the vessel, to cast it upon the shore: And when he hath occasion to manifest his Anger against his People, his Wisdom directs his Wrath. In Judgment he hath a work to do upon Zion, and when that work is done, he punishes the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria ; As in the answers of Prayer he doth give oftentimes above what we ask or think, Eph. 3.20. so in outward concerns he doth above what we can expect, or by our short-sightedness conclude will be done; Let us therefore in all things frame our minds to the Divine Wisdom, and say with the Psalmist, Psal 47.4. The Lord shall choose our inheritance and condition for us.

6. Exhortation. Censure not God in any of his ways. Can we Understand the full scope of Divine Wisdom in Creation, which is perfected before our Eyes? Can we by a rational knowledge walk over the whole Surface of the Earth, and wade through the Sea? Can we Understand the Nature of the Heavens? Are all, or most, or the thousandth part of the particles of Divine Skil known by us, yea or any of them thoroughly known? How can we then Understand his deeper methods in things, that are but of yesterday, that we have not had a time to View? We should not be too quick or too rash in our Judgments of him: The best that we attain to, is but feeble conjectures at the designs of God.

As there is something hid in whatsoever is revealed in his Word, so there is something inaccessible to us in his Works, as well as in his Nature and Majesty. In our Savior's act in washing his Disciples feet, he checked Peters contradiction, John 13.7. What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. God were not infinitely wise if the reason of all his acts were obvious to our Shallowness. He is no profound States-man, whose inward intention can be sounded by vulgar Heads at the first act he starts in his designed method. The wise God is in this like wisemen, that have not breasts like glasses of Crystal, to discover all that they intend. There are secrets of Wisdom above our reach ; nay when we see all his acts, we cannot see all the draughts of his skill in them. An unskillful hearer of a musical lesson may receive the melody with his Ear, and understand not the rarities of the composition as it was wrought by the Musicians mind. Under the old Testament there was more of Divine Power, and less of his Wisdom apparent in his acts: As his Laws, so his acts were more fitted to their Sense. Under the New Testament there is more of Wisdom and less of power; As his Laws so his acts are more fitted to a spiritual mind; Wisdom is less discernible than power. Our Wisdom therefore in this case, as it doth in other things, consists in silence and expectation of the end and event of a work. We owe that honor to God that we do to men wiser than ourselves, to imagine he hath reason to do what he doth, though our shallowness cannot comprehend it. We must suffer God to be wiser than ourselves, and acknowledge that there is something sovereign in his ways not to be measured by the feeble reed of our weak understandings. And therefore we should acquiesce in his proceedings; take heed we be not found slanderers of God, but be adorers instead of Censurers; and lift up our hands in admiration of him and his ways, instead of citing him to answer it at our Bar. Many things in the first appearance may seem to be rash and unjust, which in the Issue appear comely and regular. If it had been plainly spoke before that the Son of God should die, that a most holy person should be crucified; it would have seemed cruel to expose a Son to misery; unjust to inflict punishment upon one that was no Criminal; to join together exact Goodness and Physical evil; that the Sovereign should die for the Malefactor, and the Observer of the Law for the Violators of it. But when the whole design is unravelled, what an admirable connection is there of Justice and Mercy, Love and Wisdom, which before would have appeared absurd to the muddied reason of man?

We see the Gardener pulling up some delightful Flowers by the roots, digging up the Earth, overwhelming it with Dung; an ignorant person would imagine him wild, out of his wits, and charge him with spoiling his Garden: But when the Spring is arrived, the spectator will acknowledge his skill in his former Operations.

The truth is, the whole design and methods of God are not to be judged by us in this World; the full declaration of the whole contexture is reserved for the other World, to make up a part of good men's happiness in the amazing views of divine Wisdom, as well as the other perfections of his nature. We can no more perfectly understand his Wisdom, than we can his Mercy and Justice, till we see the last lines of all drawn, and the full expressions of them: We should therefore be sober and modest in the consideration of God's ways; his Judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out. The riches of his Wisdom are past our counting, his depths not to be fathomed, yet they are depths of righteousness and equity: Though the full manifestation of that equity, the grounds and methods of his proceedings are unknown to us. As we are too short fully to know God, so we are too ignorant fully to comprehend the acts of God: Since he is a God of Judgment, we should wait till we see the issue of his works, Esa. 30.18. And in the mean time, with the Apostle in the Text, give him the glory of all, in the same expressions, To the only wise God be glory, through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.

A DISCOURSE UPON THE Power of God.

BILDAD had in the foregoing Chapter entertained Job with a Discourse of the dominion and power of God, and the purity of his righteousness, whence he argues an impossibility of the justification of Man in his Presence, who is no better than a Worm. Job in this Chapter acknowledges the greatness of God's power, and descants more largely upon it than Bildad had done; but doth Preface it with a kind of Ironical speech, as if he had not acted a friendly part, or spake little to the purpose, or the matter in hand: The subject of Job 's Discourse was the worldly happiness of the Wicked, and the Calamities of the Godly: And Bildad reads him a Lecture, of the extent of God's Dominion, the number of his Armies, and the unspotted rectitude of his Nature, in comparison of which the purest Creatures are foul and crooked. Job therefore from verse 1. to verse 4. taxeth him in a kind of scoffing manner, that he had not touched the Point, but rambled from the Subject in hand, and had not applied a Salve proper to his Sore: Verse 2. How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm of him that hath no strength? &c. your discourse is so impertinent, that it will neither strengthen a weak person, nor instruct a simple one . But since Bildad would take up the Argument of God's Power, and discourse so short of it, Job would show that he wanted not his Instructions in that kind, and that he had more distinct Conceptions of it than his Antagonist had uttered: And therefore from verse 5. to the end of the Chapter, he doth magnificently treat of the Power of God in several Branches. And verse 5. he begins with the lowest.

Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. You read me a Lecture of the Power of God in the heavenly Host: Indeed it is visible there, yet of a larger extent; and Monuments of it are found in the lower parts. What do you think of those dead things under the Earth and Waters, of the Corn that dies, and by the moys •• ng influences of the Clouds springs up again with a numerous progeny and increase for the nourishment of man? What do you think of those varieties of Metals and Minerals conceived in the bowels of the Earth; those Pearls and Riches in the depths of the Waters, midwifed by this Power of God? Add to these those more prodigious Creatures in the Sea, the Inhabitants of the Waters, with their vastness and variety, which are all the Births of God's Power; both in their first Creation by his mighty Voice, and their propagation by his cherishing Providence.

Stop not here, but consider also that his Power extends to Hell; either the Graves the Repositories of all the crumbled dust that hath yet been in the World (for so Hell is sometimes taken in Scripture: Verse 6. Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering ) The several lodgings of deceased men are known to him: No screen can obscure them from his sight, nor their dissolution be any bar to his Power, when the time is come to compact those mouldred Bodies to entertain again their departed Souls, either for weal or woe. The Grave, or Hell, the place of punishment, is naked before him; as distinctly discerned by him, as a naked Body in all its lineaments by us, or a dissected Body is in all its parts by a skillful Eye. Destruction hath no covering; none can free himself from the Power of his Hand. Every person in the bowels of Hell; every person punished there, is known to him, and feels the Power of his Wrath.

From the lower parts of the World he ascends to the consideration of the Power of God in the Creation of Heaven and Earth, He stretches out the North over the empty places . The North, or the North-pole over the Air, which by the Greeks was called void or empty, because of the tenuity and thinness of that Element; and he mentions here the North, or North-pole, for the whole Heaven, because it is more known and apparent than the Southern-pole. And hangs the Earth upon nothing: The massy and weighty Earth hangs like a thick Globe in the midst of a thin Air, that there is as much Air on the one side of it, as on the other. The Heavens have no prop to sustain them in their height, and the Earth hath no basis to support it in its place. The Heavens are as if you saw a Curtain stretched smooth in the Air without any hand to hold it; and the Earth is as if you saw a Ball hanging in the Air without any solid Body to under-prop it, or any Line to hinder it from falling; both standing Monuments of the Omnipotence of God.

He then takes notice of his daily Power in the Clouds, He binds up the waters in his thick Clouds, and the Cloud is not rent under them . He compacts the Waters together in Clouds, and keeps them by his Power in the Air against the force of their natural gravity and heaviness, till they are fit to flow down upon the Earth, and perform his pleasure in the places for which he designs them. The Cloud is not rent under them; the thin Air is not split asunder by the weight of the Waters contained in the Cloud above it. He causes them to distill by drops, and strains them as it were through a thin Lawn, for the refreshment of the Earth; and suffers them not to fall in the whole lump, with a violent torrent, to waste the industry of Man, and bring Famine upon the World, by destroying the Fruits of the Earth. What a wonder would it be to see but one entire drop of water hang itself but one Inch above the ground, unless it be a Bubble which is preserved by the Air enclosed within it? What a wonder would it be to see a Gallon of Water contained in a thin Cobweb as strongly as in a Vessel of Brass? Greater is the wonder of Divine Power in those thin Bottles of Heaven, as they are called ; and therefore called his Clouds here, as being daily Instances of his Omnipotence: That the Air should sustain those rolling Vessels, as it should seem, weightier than itself: That the force of this Mass of Waters should not break so thin a Prison, and hasten to its proper place which is below the Air: That they should be daily confined against their natural inclination, and held by so slight a Chain: That there should be such a gradual and successive falling of them, as if the Air were pierced with holes like a Gardiners watering-pot, and not fall in one entire body to drown or drench some parts of the Earth. These are hourly Miracles of Divine Power, as little regarded as clearly v sible.

He proceeds, Verse 9. He holds back the face of his Throne, and spreads the Cloud upon it. The Clouds are designed as •• rtains to cover the Heavens, as well as Vessels to water the Earth . As a Tapestry Curtain between the Heavens, the Throne of God, Isa. 66.1. and the Earth his Footstool: the Heavens are called his Throne, because his Power doth most shine forth there, and magnificently declare the glory of God; and the Clouds are as a Screen between the scorching heat of the Sun, and the tender Plants of the Earth, and the weak Bodies of Men.

From hence he descends to the Sea, and considers the Divine Power apparent in the bounding of it: Verse 10. He hath compassed the Waters with bounds, till the day and night come to an end. This is several times mentioned in Scripture as a signal Mark of Divine strength . He hath measured a place for the Sea, and struck the Limits of it as with a Compass, that it might not mount above the Surface of the Land, and ruin the ends of the Earths Creation; and this while day and night have their mutual turns, till he shall make an end of time by removing the measures of it. The bounds of the tumultuous Sea are in many places as weak as the Bottles of the upper Waters; the one is contained in thin Air, and the other restrained by weak Sands in many places, as well as by stubborn Rocks in others; that though it swells, foams, roars, and the Waves encouraged and egg'd on by strong Winds, come like Mountains against the Shore, they overflow it not, but humble themselves when they come near to those Sands, which are set as their Lists and Limits, and retire back to the Womb that brought them forth, as if they were ashamed and repented of their proud Invasion: Or else it may be meant of the Tydes of the Sea, and the stated time God hath set it for its ebbing and flowing, till night and day come to an end ; both that the fluid Waters should contain themselves within due bounds, and keep their perpetual orderly motion, are amazing Argumens of Divine Power.

He passes on to the Consideration of the Commotions in the Air and Earth raised and stilled by the Power of God; The Pillars of Heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof. By Pillars of Heaven are not meant Angels, as some think; but either the Air called the Pillars of Heaven in regard of place, as it continues and knits together the parts of the World, as Pillars do the upper and nether parts of a Building. As the lowest parts of the Earth are called the Foundations of the Earth; so the lowest parts of the Heaven may be called the Pillars of Heaven . Or else by that Phrase may be meant Mountains, which seem at a distance to touch the Sky, as Pillars do the top of a Structure; and so it may be spoken according to vulgar Capacity, which imagines the Heavens to be sustained by the two extreme parts of the Earth, as a Convex Body, or to be archt by Pillars; whence the Scripture, according to common apprehensions, mentions the ends of the Earth, and the utmost parts of the Heavens, though they have properly no end, as being round. The Power of God is seen in those Commotions in the Air and Earth, by Thunders, Lightnings, Storms, Earthquakes, which rack the Air, and make the Mountains and Hills tremble as Servants before a frowning and rebuking Master.

And as he makes motions in the Earth and Air, so is his Power seen in their Influences upon the Sea; He judges the Sea with his power, and by his understanding he smites through the proud . At the Creation he put the Waters into several Channels, and caused the dry Land to appear barefac'd for a Habitation for Man and Beasts; or rather he splits the Sea by Storms, as though he would make the bottom of the Deep visible, and rakes up the Sands to the Surface of the Waters, and marshals the Waves into Mountains and Valleys. After that, he smites through the proud, that is, humbles the proud Waves, and by allaying the Storm reduceth them to their former Level: The Power of God is visible, as well in rebuking, as in awakening the winds; he makes them sensible of his Voice, and according to his Pleasure exasperates or calms them. The striking through the proud here, is not probably meant of the destruction of the Egyptian Army; for some guess that Job died that year , or about the time of the Israelites coming out of Egypt: So that this Discourse here being in the time of his Affliction, could not point at that which was done after his restoration to his temporal Prosperity.

And now at last he sums up the Power of God in the chiefest of his Works above, and the greatest wonder of his Works below: Verse 13. By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked Serpent, &c. The greater and lesser Lights, Sun, Moon, and Stars, the Ornaments and Furniture of Heaven; and the Whale, a prodigious Monument of God's Power, often mentioned in Scripture to this purpose, and in particular in this Book of Job , and called by the same name of Crooked Serpent, Isa. 27.1. where it is applied by way of Metaphor, to the King of Assyria or Egypt, or all Oppressors of the Church. Various Interpretations there are of this crooked Serpent: Some understanding that Constellation in Heaven which Astronomers call the Dragon; some that Combination of weaker Stars, which they call the Galaxia, which winds about the Heavens: But it is most probable that Job, drawing near to a conclusion of his Discourse, joins the two greatest Testimonies of God's Power in the World, the highest Heavens, and the lowest Leviathan, which is here called a bar Serpent in regard of his strength and hardness, as mighty Men are called bars in Scripture, Jer. 51.30. Her bars are broken things. And in regard of this Power of God in the Creation of this Creature, 'tis particularly mentioned in the Catalogue of God's Works, Gen. 1.21. And God created great Whales; all the other Creatures being put into one sum, and not particularly expressed.

And now he makes the use of this Lecture in the Text, Loe, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his Power who can understand? This is but a small Landskip of some of his Works of Power, the outsides and extremities of it; more glorious things are within his Palaces: Though those things argue a stupendous Power of the Creator in his Works of Creation and Providence, yet they are nothing to what may be declared of his Power. And what may be declared, is nothing to what may be conceived; and what may be conceived, is nothing to what is above the conceptions of any Creature. These are but little Crumbs and Fragments, of that infinite Power which is in his Nature, like a drop in comparison of the mighty Ocean; a hiss or whisper in comparison of a mighty Voice of Thunder . This which I have spoken is but like a Spark to the fiery Region, a few lines by the by, a drop of speech.

The thunder of his Power: Some understand it of Thunder literally, for material Thunder in the Air: The Thunder of his Power, that is according to the Hebrew Dialect, his powerful Thunder. This is not the sense; the nature of Thunder in the Air doth not so much exceed the capacity of human understanding; 'tis therefore rather to be understood Metaphorically, The Thunder of his Power, that is, the greatness and immensity of his Power manifested in the magnificent Miracles of Nature, in the consideration whereof men are astonished, as if they had heard an unusual Clap of Thunder. So Thunder is used, Job 39.25. The Thunder of the Captains; that is, strength and force of the Captains of an Army. And verse 19. God speaking to Job of a Horse, saith, Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? that is, strength. And Thunder being a mark of the Power of God, some of the Heathen have called God by the name of a Thunderer . As Thunder pierceth the lowest places, and alters the state of things; so doth the Power of God penetrate into all things whatsoever; the Thunder of his Power; that is, the Greatness of his Power: as the strength of Salvation, Psal. 20.6. that is, a mighty Salvation.

Who can understand? Who is able to count all the Monuments of his Power? How doth this little, which I have spoken of, exceed the capacity of our Understanding, and is rather the matter of our astonishment, than the object of our comprehensive knowledge? The Power of the greatest Potentate or the mightiest Creature, is but of small extent: None but have their limits: It may be understood, how far they can act, in what sphere their activity is bounded: But when I have spoken all of Divine Power that I can; when you have thought all that you can think of it, your Souls will prompt you to conceive something more, beyond what I have spoken, and what you have thought. His Power shines in everything, and is beyond everything. There is infinitely more Power lodged in his Nature, not expressed to the World. The understanding of Men and Angels centred in one Creature, would fall short of the perception of the Infiniteness of it. All that can be comprehended of it, are but little Fringes of it, a small Portion. No man ever discoursed, or can, of God's Power according to the magnificence of it. No Creature can conceive it; God himself only comprehends it; God himself is only able to express it. Mans power being limited, his Line is too short to measure the incomprehensible Omnipotence of God. The thunder of his Power who can understand? that is, none can.

The Text is a lofty declaration of the Divine Power, with a particular note of Attention, Loe.

• 1. [unspec 1] In the expressions of it, in the works of Creation and Providence; [Loe, these are his ways; Ways and Works excelling any created strength, referring to the little summary of them he had made before.
• [unspec 2] 2. In the Insufficiency of these ways to measure his Power; [but how little a portion is heard of him?
• [unspec 3] 3. In the Incomprehensibleness of it; [The thunder of his Power who can understand?

[Doct.] Infinite and Incomprehensible Power pertains to the Nature of God, and is expressed in part in his Works: or, Though there be a mighty expression of Divine Power in his Works, yet an Incomprehensible Power pertains to his Nature. The thunder of his Power, who can understand?

His Power glitters in all his Works, as well as his Wisdom; Psal. 62.11. Twice have I heard this, that Power belongs unto God. In the Law and in the Prophets, say some: But why▪ Power twice, and not Mercy, which he speaks of in the following Verse? He had heard of Power twice, from the voice of Creation, and from the voice of Government. Mercy was heard in Government after Man's Fall, not in Creation; Innocent man was an object of God's goodness, not of his Mercy till he made himself miserable: Power was expressed in both; or Twice have I heard, that Power belongs to God, that is, it is a certain and undoubted Truth, that Power is essential to the Divine Nature. 'It is true, Mercy is essential, Justice is essential; but Power more apparently essential, because no acts of Mercy, or Justice, or Wisdom, can be exercised by him without Power: The repetition of a thing confirms the certainty of it. Some observe, that God is called Almighty Seventy times in Scripture . Though his Power be evident in all his Works, yet he hath a Power beyond the expression of it in his Works, which, as it is the glory of his Nature, so it is the comfort of a Believer. To which purpose the Apostle expresseth it by an excellent Periphrasis for the honor of the Divine Nature; Eph. 3.20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think, unto him be glory in the Churches. We have reason to acknowledge him Almighty, who hath a Power of acting above our power of understanding. Who could have imagined such a powerful operation in the propagation of the Gospel, and the Conversion of the Gentiles, which the Apostle seems to hint at in that place? His Power is expressed by Horns in his hands, Hab. 3.4. because all the Works of his hands are wrought with Almighty strength. Power is also used as a Name of God, Mark 14.62. The Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power, that is, at the right hand of God: God and Power are so inseparable that they are reciprocated. As his Essence is Immense not to be confined in Place, as it is Eternal, not to be measured by Time; so it is Almighty, not to be limited in regard of Action.

[unspec 1] 1. 'It is Ingeniously illustrated by some by a Unit ; all Numbers depend upon it, it makes Numbers by Addition, Multiplies them inexpressibly; when one Unit is removed from a Number, how vastly doth it diminish it? It gives perfection to all other Numbers, it receives perfection from none. If you add a Unit before 100, how doth it multiply it to 1100? If you set a Unit before twenty Millions, it presently makes the Number swell up to an hundred and twenty Millions: and so powerful is a Unit by adding it to Numbers, that it will infinitely enlarge them to such a vastness that shall transcend the capacity of the best Arithmetician to count them. By such a Meditation as this you may have some prospect of the Power of that God who is only Unity; the Beginning of all things, as a Unit is the beginning of all Numbers; and can perform as many things really, as a Unit can numerically, that is, can do as much in the making of Creatutes, as a Unit can do in the multiplying of Numbers. The Omnipotence of God was scarce denied by any Heathen, that did not deny the Being of a God, and that was Pliny, and that upon weak Arguments.

[unspec 2] 2. Indeed we cannot have a conception of God, if we conceive him not most Powerful, as well as most Wise: He is not a God, that cannot do what he will, and perform all his pleasure. If we imagine him restrained in his Power, we imagine him limited in his Essence. As he hath an infinite Knowledge to know what is possible, he cannot be without an infinite Power to do what is possible. As he hath a Will to resolve what he sees good, so he cannot want a Power to effect what he sees good to decree. As the Essence of a Creature cannot be conceived without that activity that belongs to his nature; as when you conceive Fire, you cannot conceive it without a power of burning and warming; and when you conceive Water, you cannot conceive it without a power of moistening and cleansing: So you cannot conceive an Infinite Essence without an Infinite Power of activity. And therefore a Heathen could say, If you know God, you know he can do all things; and therefore saith Austin, Give me not only a Christian but a Jew, not only a Jew but a Heathen, that will deny God to be Almighty. A Jew, a Heathen may deny Christ to be Omnipotent, but no Heathen will deny God to be Omnipotent, and no Devil will deny either to be so: God cannot be conceived without some Power, for then he must be conceived without Action: Whose then are those products and effects of Power which are visible to us in the World? to whom do they belong? who is the Father of them? God cannot be conceived without a Power suitable to his Nature and Essence; if we imagine him to be of an Infinite Essence, we must imagine him to be of an Infinite Power and Strength.

In particular, I shall show,

• 1. The Nature of God's Power.
• 2. Reasons to prove that God must needs be Powerful.
• 3. How his Power appears; in Creation, in Government, in Redemption.
• 4. The Use.

[unspec 1] I. What this Power is; or the Nature of it.

1. Power sometimes signifies Authority: And a Man is said to be Mighty and Powerful in regard of his Dominion, and the right he hath to Command multitudes of other persons to take his part; but Power taken for Strength, and Power taken for Authority, are distinct things, and may be separated from one another: Power may be without Authority, as in successful Invasions that have no just foundation: Authority may be without Power; as in a Just Prince, expel'd by an unjust Rebellion, the Authority resides in him, though he be over-power'd, and is destitute of Strength to support and exercise that Authority. The Power of God is not to be understood of his Authority and Dominion, but his Strength to act, and the word in the Text properly signifies Strength.

2. This Power is divided ordinarily into Absolute and Ordinate. Absolute, is that Power whereby God is able to do that which he will not do, but is possible to be done: Ordinate, is that Power whereby God doth that which he hath decreed to do, that is, which he hath ordained or appointed to be exercised . Which are not distinct Powers, but one and the same Power; his Ordinate Power is a part of his Absolute; for if he had not a Power to do everything that he could will, he might not have a Power to do everything that he doth will.

The Object of his Absolute Power is all things possible; such things that imply not a contradiction, such that are not repugnant in their own nature to be done, and such as are not contrary to the Nature and Perfections of God to be done: Those things that are repugnant in their own nature to be done are several, as to make a thing which is past not to be past. As for Example, The World is created; God could have chose whether he would create the World, and after it is created he hath Power to dissolve it; but after it was created, and when it is dissolved, it will be eternally true, that the World was created, and that it was dissolved; for it is impossible, that that which was once true, should ever be false: If it be true that the World was created, it will forever be true that it was created, and cannot be otherwise. And also, if it be once true that God hath decreed, 'tis impossible in its own nature to be true that God hath not decreed. Some things are repugnant to the Nature and Perfections of God: As it is impossible for his Nature to die and perish; impossible for him in regard of Truth, to lie and deceive. But of this hereafter; only at present to understand the Object of God's Absolute Power to be things possible, that is, possible in Nature; not by any strength in themselves, or of thems • lves; for nothing hath no strength, and everything is nothing before it comes into being : So God by his Absolute Power might have prevented the Sin of the Fallen Angels, and so have preserved them in their first habitation. He might by his Absolute Power have restrained the Devil from tempting of Eve, or restrained Her and Adam from swallowing the Bait, and joining hands with the Temptation. By his Absolute Power, God might have given the reins to Peter to betray his Master, as well as to deny him; and employed Judas in the same glorious and successful Service, wherein he employed Paul. By his Absolute Power he might have created the World Millions of years before he did create it, and can reduce it into its empty Nothing this moment. This the Baptist affirms, when he tells us, That God is able of these Stones (meaning the Stones in the Wilderness, and not the People which came out to him out of Judea, which were Children of Abraham) to raise up Children to Abraham, Mat. 3.9. that is, there is a possibility of such a thing, there is no contradiction in it, but that God is able to do it if he please.

But now the Object of his Ordinate Power, is all things ordained by him to be done, all things decreed by him; and because of the Divine ordination of things, this Power is called Ordinate; and what is thus ordained by him he cannot but do, because of his Unchangeableness. Both those Powers are expressed, Mat. 26.53, 54. My Father can send twelve legions of Angels, there is his Absolute Power; but how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? there is his Ordinate Power. As his Power is free from any act of his Will, 'tis called Absolute; as it is joined with an act of his Will, it is called Ordinate. His Absolute Power is necessary, and belongs to his Nature; his Ordinate Power is free, and belongs to his Will; a Power guided by his Will; not, as I said before, that they are two distinct Powers, both belonging to his Nature, but the latter is the same with the former, only it is guided by his Will and Wisdom.

[unspec 3] 3. It follows then, That the Power of God is that ability and strength, whereby he can bring to pass whatsoever he please. Whatsoever his infinite Wisdom can direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of his Will can resolve. Power, in the primary notion of it, doth not signify an act, but an ability to bring a thing into act; 'tis Power, as able to act before it doth actually produce a thing: As God had an Ability to create before he did create, he had Power before he acted that Power without. Power notes the principle of the Action, and therefore is greater than the Act itself. Power exercised and diffused, in bringing forth and nursing up its particular Objects without, is inconceivably less than that Strength which is Infinite in himself, the same with his Essence, and is indeed Himself: By his Power exercised he doth whatsoever he actually Wills; but by the Power in his Nature, he is able to do whatsoever he is able to Will. The Will of Creatures may be, and is more extensive than their Power; and their Power more contracted and shortened, than their Will: But, as the Prophet saith, His Counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure, Isai. 46.10. His Power is as great as his Will, that is, whatsoever can fall within the verge of his Will, falls within the compass of his Power. Though he will never actually Will this or that, yet supposing he should Will it, he is able to perform it: So that you must in your notion of Divine Power, enlarge it further than to think, God can only do what he hath resolved to do; but that he hath as Infinite a Capacity of Power to act, as he hath an Infinite Capacity of Will to resolve.

Besides, this Power is of that nature, that he can do whatsoever he pleases without difficulty, without resistance; it cannot be checked, restrained, frustrated . As he can do all things possible in regard of the Object, he can do all things easily in regard of the manner of acting: What in human Artificers is Knowledge, Labor, Industry, that in God is his Will; his Will works without labor, his works stand forth as he Wills them. Hands and Arms are ascribed to him for our Conceptions, because our power of acting is distinct from our will; but God's Power of acting is not really distinct from his Will; 'tis sufficient to the existence of a thing, that God Wills it to exist; he can act what he will only by his Will, without any Instruments. He needs no Matter to work upon, because he can make something from nothing; all Matter owes itself to his Creative Power: He needs no time to work in, for he can make Time, when he pleases to begin to work: He needs no Copy to work by, Himself is his own Pattern and Copy in his Works. All created Agents want Matter to work upon. Instruments to work with, Copies to work by; Time to bring either the births of their Minds, or the works of their hands to perfection: But the Power of God needs none of these things, but is of a vast and Incomprehensible nature, beyond all these. As nothing can be done without the compass of it, so itself is without the compass of every Created Understanding.

[unspec 4] 4. This Power is of a distinct conception from the Wisdom and Will of God. They are not really distinct, but according to our Conceptions. We cannot discourse of Divine things, without observing some proportion of them with human, ascribing unto God the Perfections, sifted from the Imperfections of our Nature. In Us there are three Orders, of Understanding, Will, Power; and accordingly three Acts, Counsel, Resolution, Execution; which though they are distinct in Us, are not really distinct in God. In our Conceptions, the Apprehension of a thing belongs to the Understanding of God; Determination, to the Will of God; Direction, to the Wisdom of G • d; Execution, to the Power of God. The Knowledge of God regards a thing as possible, and as it may be done; the Wisdom of God regards a thing as fit, and convenient to be done; the Will of God resolves that it shall be done; the Power of God is the application of his Will, to effect what it hath resolved. Wisdom is a fixing the Being of things, the measures and perfections of their several Beings; Power is a conferring those Perfections and Beings upon them. His Power is his ability to act, and his Wisdom is the Director of his action: His Will orders, his Wisdom guides, and his Power effects. His Will as the spring, and his Power as the worker, are expressed Psal. 115.3. He hath done whatsoever he pleased. He commanded, and they were created, Psal. 140.5. and all three expressed Eph. 1.11. Who works all things according to the counsel of his own will: So that the Power of God is a Perfection (as it were) subordinate to his Understanding and Will, to execute the results of his Wisdom and the orders of his Will; to his Wisdom as directing, because he works skillfully; to his Will as moving and applying, because he works voluntarily and freely. The exercise of his Power depends upon his Will: His Will is the supreme cause of everything that stands up in Time, and all things receive a Being as he wills them. His Power is but Will perpetually working, and diffusing itself in the season his Will hath fixed from Eternity; 'tis his Eternal Will in perpetual and successive springs and streams in the Creatures; 'tis nothing else but the constant efficacy of his Omnipotent Will. This must be understood of his Ordinate Power: But his Absolute Power is larger than his Resolving Will: for though the Scripture tells us, He hath done whatsoever he will; yet it tells us not, that he hath done whatsoever he could: He can do things that he will never do.

Again, His Power is distinguished from his Will in regard of the Exercise of it, which is after the act of his Will: His Will was conversant about Objects, when his Power was not exercised about them. Creatures were the objects of his Will from Eternity, but they were not from Eternity the effects of his Power. His Purpose to Create was from Eternity, but the execution of his Purpose was in Time. Now this execution of his Will we call his Ordinate Power: His Wisdom and his Will are supposed antecedent to his Power, as the Counsel and Resolve, as the Cause precedes the performance of the Purpose, as the effect. Some distinguish his Power from his Understanding and Will, in regard that his Understanding and Will are larger than his Absolute Power; for God understands Sins, and wills to permit them, but he cannot himself do any Evil or Unjust action, nor have a power of doing it. But this is not to distinguish that Divine Power, but Impotence; for to be unable to do Evil is the perfection of Power; and to be able to do things Unjust and Evil, is a weakness, imperfection, and inability. Man indeed wills many things that he is not able to perform, and understands many things that he is not able to effect; he understands much of the Creatures, something of Sun, Moon and Stars; he can conceive many Suns, many Moons, yet is not able to create the least Atom: But there is nothing that belongs to Power but God understands, and is able to effect. To sum this up, The Will of God is the Root of all, the Wisdom of God is the Copy of all, and the Power of God is the Framer of all.

[unspec 5] 5. The Power of God gives activity to all the other perfections of his Nature, and is of a larger extent and efficacy, in regard of its Objects, than some perfections of his Nature. I put them both together.

[unspec 1] 1. It contributes Life and Activity to all the other perfections of his Nature. How vain would be his Eternal Counsels, if Power did not step in to execute them? His Mercy would be a feeble pity, if he were destitute of Power to relieve; and his Justice a slighted Scarecrow, without Power to punish; his Promises an empty sound, without Power to accomplish them. As Holiness is the Beauty, so Power is the Life of all his Attributes in their exercise; and as Holiness, so Power is an Adjunct belonging to All, a Term that may be given to All. God hath a powerful Wisdom to attain his Ends, without interruption: He hath a powerful Mercy to remove our Misery; a powerful Justice to lay all Misery upon Offenders: He hath a powerful Truth to perform his Promises; an Infinite Power to bestow Rewards and inflict Penalties. 'It is to this purpose Power is first put in the two things which the Psalmist had heard, Psal. 62.11, 12. Twice have I heard, or two things have I heard; first Power, then Mercy and Justice, included in that expression, Thou rendrest to every man according to his work: In every perfection of God he heard of Power. This is the Arm, the Hand of the Deity, which all his other Attributes lay hold on, when they would appear in their Glory; this hands them to the World; by this they act, in this they triumph. Power framed every stage for their appearance in Creation, Providence, Redemption.

[unspec 2] 2. 'It is of a larger extent in regard of its Objects, than some other Attributes. Power doth not always suppose an Object, but constitutes an Object. It supposeth an Object in the act of Preservation, but it makes an Object in the act of Creation; but Mercy supposeth an object Miserable, yet doth not make it so. Justice supposeth an object Criminal, but doth not constitute it so: Mercy supposeth him Miserable, to relieve him; Justice supposeth him Criminal, to punish him: but Power supposeth not a thing in real existence, but as possible; or rather, it is from Power that anything hath a possibility, if there be no repugnancy in the nature of the thing.

Again, Power extends further than either Mercy or Justice. Mercy hath particular Objects, which Justice shall not at last be willing to punish; and Justice hath particular Objects, which Mercy at last shall not be willing to refresh: but Power doth, and always will extend to the Objects of both Mercy and Justice. A Creature, as a Creature, is neither the object of Mercy nor Justice, nor of Rewarding Goodness: A Creature, as Innocent, is the Object of Rewarding Goodness; a Creature, as Miserable, is the Object of Compassionate Mercy; a Creature, as Criminal, is the Object of Revenging Justice: but all of them the Objects of Power, in conjunction with those Attributes of Goodness, Mercy, and Justice, to which they belong. All the Objects that Mercy, and Justice, and Truth, and Wisdom, exercise themselves about, have a possibility and an actual Being from th • s perfection of Divine Power. 'It is Power first frames a Creature in a capacity of Nature for Mercy or Justice, though it doth not give an immediate qualification for the exercise of either. Power makes Man a Rational Creature, and so confers upon him a Nature mutable, which may be Miserable by its own fault, and punishable by God's Justice; or pityable by God's Compassion, and relievable by God's Mercy: but it doth not make him Sinful, whereby he becomes miserable and punishable.

Again, Power runs through all the degrees of the states of a Creature. As a thing is possible, or may be made, 'tis the Object of Absolute Power; as it is factibile, or ordered to be made, 'tis the Object of Ordinate Power: As a thing is actually made, and brought into Being, it is the Object of Preserving Power. So that Power doth stretch out its Arms to all the Works of God, in all their Circumstances, and at all Times. When Mercy ceaseth to relieve a Creature, when Justice ceaseth to punish a Creature, Power ceaseth not to preserve a Creature. The Blessed in Heaven, that are out of the reach of punishing Justice, are forever maintained by Power in that Blessed Condition: the Damned in Hell, that are cast out of the Bosom of Intreating Mercy, are forever sustained in those remediless Torments by the Arm of Power.

[unspec 6] 6. This Power is Originally and Essentially in the Nature of God, and not distinct from his Essence. 'It is Originally and Essentially in God. The strength and power of Great Kings is originally in their People, and managed and ordered by the Authority of the Prince for the Common good. Though a Prince hath Authority in his Person to Command, yet he hath not sufficient Strength in his Person, without the Assistance of Others, to make his Commands to be obeyed. He hath not a single Strength in his own Person to conquer Countries and Kingdoms, and increase the Number of his Subjects: He must make use of the Arms of his own Subjects, to over-run other places, and yoke them under his Dominion: But the Power of all things that ever were, are, or shall be, is Originally and Essentially in God. 'It is not derived from anything without him, as the Power of the greatest Potentates in the World is: Therefore Psal. 62.11. it is said, Power belongs unto God, that is, solely, and to none else. He hath a Power to make his Subjects, and as many as he pleases; to create Worlds, to enjoin Precepts, to execute Penalties, without calling in the strength of his Creatures to his Aid. The Strength that the Subjects of a Mortal Prince have, is not derived to them from the Prince, though the Exercise of it for this or that end, is ordered and directed by the Authority of the Prince: But what Strength soever anything hath to act as a Means, it hath from the Power of God as Creator, as well as whatsoever Authority it hath to act is from God, as a Rector and Governor of the World. God hath a Strength to act without Means, and no Means can act anything without his Power and Strength communicated to them. As the Clouds in the 8th Verse before the Text, are called God's Clouds, his Clouds: So all the Strength of Creatures may be called, and truly is, God's Strength and Power in them; a drop of Power shot down from Heaven, originally only in God. Creatures have but a little Mite of Power; somewhat communicated to them, somewhat kept and reserved from them, of what they are capable to possess. They have limited Natures, and therefore a limited Sphere of Activity. Clothes can warm us, but not feed us; Bread can nourish us, but not clothe us. One Plant hath a Medicinal quality against one Disease, another against another; but God is the possessor of Universal Power, the Common Exchequer of this Mighty Treasure. He acts by Creatures, as not needing their power, but deriving power to them: What he acts by them, he could act himself without them: And what they act as from themselves, is derived to them from Him through Invisible Chanels. And hence it will follow, that because Power is Essentially in God, more Operations of God are possible than are exerted.

And as Power is Essentially in God, so it is not distinct from his Essence. It belongs to God in regard of the inconceivable Excellency and Activity of his Essence . And Omnipotence is nothing but the Divine Essence efficacious ad extra. 'It is his Essence as operative, and the immediate principle of Operation: As the power of Enlightning in the Sun, and the power of Heating in the Fire, are not things distinct from the Nature of them; but the Nature of the Sun bringing forth Light, and the Nature of the Fire bringing forth Heat. The power of Acting is the same with the Substance of God, though the Action from that Power be terminated in the Creature. If the Power of God were distinct from his Essence, he were then compounded of Substance and Power, and would not be the most Simple Being. As when the Understanding is informed in several parts of Knowledge; it is skilled in the Government of Cities and Countries, it knows this or that Art: It Learns Mathematics, Philosophy; this, or that Science. The Understanding hath a power to do this; but this power, whereby it Learns those Excellent things, and brings forth Excellent Births, is not a thing distinct from the Understanding itself; we may rather call it the Understanding powerful, than the Power of the Understanding; and so we may rather say, God powerful, than say, the Power of God; because his Power is not distinct from his Essence.

From both these it will follow, That this Omnipotence is incommunicable to any Creature; no Creature can inherit it, because it is a contradiction for any Creature to have the Essence of God. This Omnipotence is a peculiar Right of God, wherein no Creature can share with him. To be Omnipotent is to be Essentially God▪ And for a Creature to be Omnipotent, is for a Creature to be its own Creator. It being therefore the same with the Essence of the Godhead, it cannot be communicated to the Humanity of Christ, as the Lutherans say it is, w • thout the communication of the Essence of the Godhead *; for then the Humanity of Christ would not be Humanity, but Deity. If Omnipotence were communicated to the Humanity of Christ, the Essence of God were also communicated to his Humanity, and then Eternity would be communicated. His Humanity then was not given him in Time, his Humanity would be uncompounded, that is, his Body would be no Body, his Soul no Soul. Omnipotence is Essentially in God; 'tis not distinct from the Essence of God, 'tis his Essence, Omnipotent, able to do all things.

7. Hence it follows, That this Power is infinite; Eph. 1.19. What is the exceeding greatness of his power, &c. According to the working of his mighty power. God were not Omnipotent, unless his Power were Infinite; for a Finite Power is a limited Power, and a limited Power cannot effect everything that is possible. Nothing can be too difficult for the Divine Power to effect: He hath a Fulness of Power, an Exceeding Strength, above all Human Capacities; 'tis a Mighty power , able to do above all that we can ask or think : That which he acts, is above the power of any Creature to act. Infinite Power consists in the bringing things forth from nothing. No Creature can imitate God in this Prerogative of Power. Man indeed can carve various Forms, and erect various pieces of Art; but from preexistent Matter. Every Artificer hath the Matter brought to his hand, he only brings it forth in a new Figure. Chimists separate one thing from another, but create nothing, but sever those things which were before compacted and curdled together: But when God speaks a powerful Word, Nothing begins to be Something: Things stand forth from the Womb of Nothing and obey his mighty Command, and take what Forms he is pleased to give them. The Creating one thing, though never so small and minute, as the least Fly, cannot be but by an Infinite Power; much less can the producing of such Variety we see in the World. His Power is Infinite, in regard it cannot be resisted by anything that he hath made; nor can it be confined by anything he can will to make. His Greatness is unsearchable *. 'It is a Greatness, not of quantity, but quality. The Greatness of his Power hath no end: 'It is a vanity to imagine any limits can be affixed to it, or that any Creature can say, Hitherto it can go, and no further. 'It is above all Conception, all Inquisition of any Created Understanding. No Creature ever had, nor ever can have that strength of Wit and Understanding, to conceive the extent of his Power, and how Magnificently he can work.

1. His Essence is Infinite. As in a Finite Subject there is a Finite Virtue: so in an Infinite Subject there must be an Infinite Virtue. Where the Essence is limited, the Power is so : Where the Essence is unlimited, the Power knows no bounds . Among Creatures, the more excellency of Being and Form anything hath, the more activity, vigor and power it hath, to work according to its Nature. The Sun hath a mighty power to warm, enlighten and fructify, above what the Stars have; because it hath a vaster Body, more intense degrees of light, heat, and vigor. Now, if you conceive the Sun made much greater than it is, it would proportionably have greater degrees of power to heat and enlighten than it hath now: And were it possible to have an Infinite Heat and Light, it would infinitely heat and enlighten other things; for everything is able to act according to the Measures of its Being: Therefore, since the Essence of God is unquestionably Infinite, his power of Acting must be so also. His Power (as was said before) is one and the same with his Essence: And though the Knowledge of God extends to more Objects than his Power, because he knows all Evils of Sin, which because of his Holiness he cannot commit; yet it is as Infinite as his Knowledge, because it is as much one with his Essence, as his Knowledge and Wisdom is: For as the Wisdom or Knowledge of God, is nothing but the Essence of God, Knowing; so the Power of God, is nothing but the Essence of God, Able.

2. The Objects of Divine Power are innumerable. The Objects of Divine Power are not Essentially Infinite; and therefore we must not measure the Infiniteness of Divine Power by an Ability to make an Infinite Being; because there is an Incapacity in any created thing to be Infinite; for to be a Creature and to be Infinite; to be Infinite and yet Made, is a contradiction. To be Infinite, and to be God, is one and the same thing. Nothing can be Infinite, but God; nothing but God is Infinite. But the Power of God is Infinite, because it can produce Infinite effects, or Innumerable things, such as surpass the Arithmetic of a Creature; nor yet doth the Infiniteness consist simply in producing innumerable Effects; for that a Finite Cause can produce. Fire can by its finite and limit d Heat burn numberless combustible things and parcels; and the Understanding of Man hath an infinite number of thoughts and acts of Intellection, and Thoughts different from one another. Who can number the Imaginations of his Fancy, and Thoughts of his Mind, the space of one Month or Year? much less of Forty or an Hundred years; yet all these Thoughts are about things that are in Being, or have a foundation in things that are in Being. But the Infiniteness of God's Power consists in an ability to produce Infinite Effects, formally distinct, and diverse from one another; such as never had Being, such as the Mind of Man cannot conceive: Able to do above what we can think, Eph. 3.20. And whatsoever God hath made, or is able to make, he is able to make in an Infinite manner, by calling them to stand forth from nothing. To produce innumerable Effects of distinct Natures, and from so distant a term as Nothing, is an argument of Infinite Power.

Now, that the Objects of Divine Power are Innumerable appears, because God can do Infinitely more th • n he hath done, or will do. Nothing that God hath done can enfeeble or dull his Power; there still resides in him an Ability beyond all the settled Contrivances of his Understanding, and Resolves of his Will, which no Effects which he hath wrought can drain and put to a stand. As he can raise Stones to be Children to Abraham ; so with the same mighty Word whereby he made one World, he can make Infinite numbers of Worlds, to be the Monuments of his Glory. After the Prophet Jeremy, 32.17. had spoke of God's Power in Creation, he adds, And nothing is too hard for thee. For one World that he hath made, he can create Millions: For one Star which he hath beautified the Heavens with, he could have garnished it with a Thousand, and multiplied, if he had pleased, everyone of those into Millions, for he can call things that are not; not some things, but all things possible. The barren Womb of Nothing can no more resist his Power now to educe a World from it, than it could at first: No doubt, but for one Angel which he hath made, he could make many Worlds of Angels. He that made one with so much ease, as by a Word, cannot want Power to make many more, till he wants a Word. The Word that was not too weak to make One, cannot be too weak to make Multitudes. If from One Man he hath, in a way of Nature, multiplied so many in all Ages of the World, and covered with them the whole Face of the Earth; he could in a Supernatural way, by One Word, multiply as many more. 'It is the breath of the Almighty that gives life, Job. 33.4. He can create infinite Species and kinds of Creatures more than he hath created, more variety of Forms: For since there is no searching of his Greatness, there is no conceiving the numberless possible effects of his Power. The Understanding of Man can conceive Numberless things possible to be, more than have been or shall be. And shall we imagine, that a Finite Understanding of a Creature hath a greater Omnipotency to conceive things possible, than God hath to produce things possible? When the Understanding of Man is tyr'd in its Conceptions, it must still be concluded, That the Power of God extends, not only to what can be conceived, but infinitely beyond the measures of a Finite faculty. Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out, he is excellent in power and in judgment, Job. 36.23. For the Understanding of Man, in its Conceptions of more kind of Creatures, is limited to those Creatures which are: It cannot, in its own Imagination conceive anything, but what hath some foundation in and from something already in Being. It may frame a new kind of Creature, made up of a Lion, a Horse, an Ox; but all those parts whereof its Conception is made, have distinct Beings in the World, though not in that composition as his Mind mixes and joins them: But no question but God can create Creatures that have no resemblance with any kind of Creatures yet in Being. 'It is certain, that if God only knows those things which he hath done, and will do, and not all things possible to be done by him, his knowledge were finite; so if he could do no more than what he hath done, his Power would be finite.

1. Creatures have a power to act about more objects than they do. The Understanding of man can frame from one Principle of Truth many Conclusions and Inferences more than it doth. Why cannot then the Power of God frame from one first Matter, an infinite number of Creatures more than have been created? The Almightiness of God in producing real Effects, is not inferior to the Understanding of man in drawing out real Truths. An Artificer that makes a Watch, supposing his li • e and health, can make many more of a different form and motion: And a Limner can draw many Draughts, and frame many Pictures with a new variety of Colours, according to the richness of his Fancy. If these can do so, that require a preexistent Matter framed to their hands, God can much more, who can raise beautiful Structures from nothing. As long as men have matter, they can diversify the matter, and make new Figures from it: So long as there is nothing, God can produce out of that nothing whatsoever he pleases.

We see the same in Inanimate Creatures. A spark of Fire hath a vast Power in it; it will kindle other things, increase and enlarge itself: Nothing can be exempt from the active force of it. It will alter by consuming or refining whatsoever you offer to it. It will reach all, and refuse none; and by the efficacious power of it, all those new Figures which we see in Metals, are brought forth: When you have exposed to it a multitude of things, still add more, it will exert the same strength; yea, the vigor is increased rather than diminished. The more it catcheth, the more fiercely and irresistibly it will act; you cannot suppose an end o • its operation, or a decrease of its strength, as long as you can conceive its duration and continuance: This must be but a weak shadow of that infinite Power which is in God. Take another Instance in the Sun: It hath power every year to produce Flowers and Plants from the Earth; and as is able to produce them now, as it was at the first lighting it and rearing it in the Sphere wherein it moves. And if there were no kind of Flowers and Plants now created, the Sun hath a power residing in it, ever since its first Creation, to afford the same warmth to them for the nourish • ng and bringing them forth. Whatsoever you can conceive the Sun to be able to do in regard of Plants, that can God do in regard of Worlds; produce more Worlds than the Sun doth Plants every year, without weariness, without languishment. The Sun is able to influence more things than it doth, and produce numberless effects; but it doth not do so much as it is able to do, because it wants matter to work upon: God therefore who wants no matter, can do much more than he doth; He can either act by second Causes if there were more, or make more second Causes if he pleased.

2. God is the most free Agent. Every free Agent can do more than he will do. Man being a free Creature, can do more than ordinarily he doth will to do. God is most free, as being the Spring of Liberty in other Creatures: He acts not by a necessity of Nature; as the waves of the Sea, or the motions of the Wind; and therefore is not determined to those things which he hath already called forth into the World. If God be infin • tely wise in contrivance, he could contrive more than he hath, and therefore can effect more than he hath effected. He doth not act to the extent of his Power upon all occasions. 'It is according to his will that he works, Eph. 1. 'It is not according to his work that he wills; his work is an evidence of his will, but not the rule of his will. His Power is not the rule of his Will, but h • s Will is the disposer of his Power, according to the light of his infinite Wisdom, and other Attributes that direct his Will; and therefore his Power is not to be measured by his actual Will. No doubt, but he could in a moment have produced that World which he took six days time to frame: He could have drowned the old World at once, without prolonging the time till the revolution of forty days: He was not limited to such a term of time by any weakness, but by the determination of his own Will. God doth not do the hundred thousandth part of what he is able to do, but what is convenient to do, according to the • nd which he hath proposed to himself. Jesus Christ, as Man, could have asked Legions of Angels; and God, as a Sovereign, could have sent them . God could raise the dead every day if he pleased, but he doth not: He could heal every d ceased person in a moment, but he doth not: As God can will more than he doth actually will; so he can do more than he hath actually done: He can do whatsoever he can will; he can will more Worlds, and therefore can create more Worlds. If God hath not abil • ty to do more than he will do, he then can do no more than what he actually hath done; and then it will follow, that he is not a free, but a natural and necessary Agent, which cannot be supposed of God.

[unspec 2] 2. This Power is infinite in regard of action. As he can produce numberless Objects above what he hath produced, so he could produce them more magnificently than he hath made them. As he never works to the extent of his Power in regard of things, so neither in regard of the manner of acting; for he never acts so but he could act in a higher and perfecter manner.

1. His Power is infinite in regard of the independency of Action: He wants no Instrument to act. When there was nothing but God, there was no cause of action but God: When there was nothing in being but God, there could be no instrumental Cause of the being of anything. God can perfect his action without dependence on anything ; And to be simply independent, is to be simply infinite. In this respect it is a Power incommunicable to any Creature, though you conceive a Creature in higher degrees of perfection than it is. A Creature cannot cease to be dependent, but it must cease to be a Creature: To be a Creature and independent, are terms repugnant to one another.

2. But the infiniteness of Divine Power consists in an ability to give higher degrees of perfection to everything which he hath made. As his Power is infinite extensive, in regard of the multitude of Objects he can bring into being; so it is infinite intensive, in regard of the manner of operation, and the endowments he can bestow upon them. Some things indeed God doth so perfect, that higher degrees of perfection cannot be imagined to be added to them . As the Humanity of Christ cannot be united more gloriously than to the Person of the Son of God; a greater degree of perfection cannot be conferred upon it. Nor can the Souls of the Blessed have a nobler Object of vision and fruition than God himself, the infinite Being: No higher than the enjoyment of himself can be conferred upon a Creature, Respectu termini. This is not want of power: He cannot be greater because he is greatest, nor better because he is best; nothing can be more than infinite. But as to the things which God hath made in the World, he could have given them other manner of beings than they have. A human Understanding may improve a thought or conclusion; strengthen it with more and more force of reason, and adorn it with richer and richer elegancy of Language: Why then may not the Divine Providence produce a World more perfect and excellent than this? He that makes a plain Vessel, can embellish it more, engrave more Figures upon it, according to the capacity of the subject: And cannot God do so much more with his Works? Could not God have made this World of a larger quantity, and the Sun of a greater bulk and proportionable strength to influence a bigger World? so that this World would have been to another that God might have made, as a Ball or a Mount, this Sun as a Star to another Sun that he might have kindled. He could have made every Star a Sun, every spire of Grass a Star, every grain of Dust a Flower, every Soul an Angel. And though the Angels be perfect Creatures, and inexpressibly more glorious than a visible Creature; yet who can imagine God so confined, that he cannot create a more excellent kind, and endow those which he hath made with excellency of a higher rank than he invested them with at the first moment of their Creation? Without question God might have given the meaner Creatures more excellent endowments, put them into another order of nature for their own good and more diffusive usefulness in the World. What is made use of by the Prophet in another case, may be used in this, Yet had he a residue of Spirit. The capacity of every Creature might have been enlarged by God; for no work of his in the World doth equal his Power, as nothing that he hath framed doth equal his Wisdom. The same matter which is the matter of the body of a Beast, is the matter of a Plant and Flower; is the matter of the body of a Man; and so was capable of a higher form and higher perfections, than God hath been pleased to bestow upon it. And he had power to bestow that perfection on one part of matter which he denied to it, and bestowed on another part. If God cannot make things in a greater perfection, there must be some limitation of him: He cannot be limited by another, because nothing is superior to God. If limited by himself, that limitation is not from a want of Power, but a want of Will. He can by his own Power raise Stones to be Children to Abraham : He could alter the nature of the Stones, form them into Human Bodies, dignify them with rational Souls, inspire those Souls with such Graces that may render them the Children of Abraham. But for the more fully understanding the nature of this Power, we may observe,

1. That though God can make everything with a higher degree of perfection, yet still within the limits of a finite Being. No Creature can be made infinite, because no Creature can be made God. No Creature can be so improved, as to equal the goodness and perfection of God ; yet there is no Creature, but we may conceive a possibility of its being made more perfect in that rank of a Creature than it is: As we may imagine a Flower or Plant to have greater beauty and richer qualities imparted to it by Divine Power, without rearing it so high as to the dignity of a rational or sensitive Creature. Whatsoever perfections may be added by God to a Creature, are still finite perfections; and a multitude of finite excellencies can never amount to the value and honor of infinite: As if you add one number to another as high as you can, as much as a large piece of Paper can contain, you can never make the numbers really infinite, though they may be infinite in regard of the inability of any human Understanding to count them. The finite condition of the Creature suffers it not to be capable of an infinite perfection. God is so great, so excellent, that it is his perfection not to have any Equal; the defect is in the Creature, which cannot be elevated to such a pitch; as you can never make a Gallon measure to hold the quantity of a Butt, or a Butt the quantity of a River, or a River the fullness of the Sea.

2. Though God hath a Power to furnish every Creature with greater and nobler perfections than he hath bestowed upon it, yet he hath framed all things in the perfectest manner, and most convenient to that end for which he intended them. Every thing is endowed with the best nature and quality suitable to God's end in Creation, though not in the best manner for itself . In regard of the Universal end, there cannot be a better; for God himself is the End of all things, who is the supreme Goodness. Nothing can be better than God, who could not be God if he were not Superlatively best or Optimus; and he hath ordered all things for the declaration of his Goodness or Justice, according to the behaviours of his Creatures. Man doth not consider what strength or power he can put forth in the means he useth to attain such an end, but the suitableness of them to his main design, and so fits and marshals them to his grand purpose. Had God only created things that are most excellent, he had created only Angels and Men; how then would his Wisdom have been conspicuous in other works in the subordination and subserviency of them to one another? God therefore determined his Power by his Wisdom: And though his absolute Power could have made every Creature better, yet his ordinate Power, which in every step was regulated by his Wisdom, made everything best for his designed intention. A Musician hath a power to wind up a string on a Lute to a higher and more perfect Note in itself, but in wisdom he will not do it, because the intended Melody would be disturbed thereby, if it were not suited to the other Strings on the Instrument; a Discord would mar and taint the Harmony which the Lutenist designed. God in Creation observed the Proportions of Nature: He can make a Spider as strong as a Lion; but according to the order of Nature which he hath settled, 'tis not convenient that a Creature of so small a compass should be as strong as one of a greater bulk. The absolute Power of God could have prepared a Body for Christ as glorious as that he had after his Resurrection; but that had not been agreeable to the end designed in his Humiliation: And therefore God acted most perfectly by his ordinate Power, in giving him a Body that wore the Livery of our Infirmities. God's Power is always regulated by his Wisdom and Will; and though it produceth not what is most perfect in itself, yet what is most perfect and decent in relation to the end he fixed. And so in his Providence, though he could rack the whole Frame of Nature to bring about his ends in a more miraculous way and astonishment to Mortals; yet his Power is usually and ordinarily confined by his Will to act in concurrence with the nature of the Creatures, and direct them according to the Laws of their being, to such ends which he aims at in their conduct, without violencing their Nature.

[unspec 3] 3. Though God hath an absolute Power to make more Worlds, and infinite numbers of other Creatures, and to render every Creature a higher mark of his Power, yet in regard of his decree to the contrary, he cannot do it. He hath a Physical Power, but after his resolve to the contrary, not a Moral Power: The exercise of his Power is subordinate to his decree, but not the essence of his Power. The decree of God takes not away any Power from God, because the Power of God is his own Essence, and uncapable of change; and is as great physically and essentially after his decree as it was before; only his Will hath put in a bar to the demonstration of all that Power which he is able to exercise. As a Prince that can raise a 100000 men for an Invasion, raises only 20 or 30000; he here, by his order limits his Power, but doth not devest himself of his Authority and Power to raise the whole number of the Forces of his Dominions if he pleases: The Power of God hath more Objects than his Decree hath; but since it is his perfection to be immutable, and not to change his Decree, he cannot morally put forth his Power upon all those Objects, which as it is essentially in him, he hath Ability to do. God hath decreed to save those that believe in Christ, and to judge Unbelievers to everlasting Perdition: He cannot morally damn the first, or save the latter; yet he hath not devested himself of his Absolute Power to save all, or damn all. Or suppose God hath decreed not to create more Worlds than this we are now in, doth his decree weaken his strength to create more if he pleased: His not creating more is not a want of strength, but a want of will: 'It is an act of Liberty, not an act of Impotency. As when a man solemnly resolves not to walk in such a way, or come at such a place, his Resolution deprives him not of his natural strength to walk thither; but fortifies his Will against using his strength in any such motion to that place. The Will of God hath set bounds to the exercise of his Power, but doth not infringe that Absolute Power which still resides in his Nature: He is girded with more power than he puts forth .

[unspec 4] 4. As the Power of God is infinite in regard of his Essence, in regard of the Objects, in regard of Action, so Fourthly, in regard of Duration. The Apostle calls it an eternal power . His eternal Power is collected and concluded from the things that are made: They must needs be the products of some Being which contains truly in itself all Power, who wrought them without Engines, without Instruments; and therefore this Power must be infinite, and possessed of an unalterable virtue of acting. If it be eternal, it must be infinite, and hath neither beginning nor end; what is eternal hath no bounds. 〈◊〉 it be eternal, and not limited by time, it must be infinite, and not to be restrained by any finite Object: His Power never begun to be, nor ever ceaseth to be, it cannot languish; men are fain to unbend themselves, and must have some time to recruit their tired spirits: But the Power of God is perpetually vigorous, without any interrupting qualm. Isa. 40.28. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not, neither is weary? That Might which suffered no diminution from Eternity, but hatched so great a World by brooding upon nothing, will not suffer any dimness or decrease to Eternity. This Power being the same with his Essence, is as durable as his Essence, and resides forever in his Nature.

[unspec 8] 8. The Eighth Consideration, for the right understanding of this Attribute, The impossibility of God's doing some things, is no infringing of his Almightiness, but rather a strengthening of it. 'It is granted that some things God cannot do; or rather, as Aquinas and others, 'tis better to say, such things cannot be done, than to say that God cannot do them; to remove all kind of imputation or reflection of weakness on God , and because the reason of the impossibility of those things is in the nature of the things themselves.

1. First, Some things are impossible in their own nature. Such are all those things which imply a Contradiction; as for a thing to be, and not to be at the same time; for the Sun to shine, and not to shine at the same moment of time; for a Creature to act, and not to act at the same instant: One of those parts must be false; for if it be true that the Sun shines this moment, it must be false to say it doth not shine. So it is impossible that a rational Creature can be without reason: 'It is a contradiction to be a rational Creature, and yet want that which is essential to a rational Creature. So it is impossible that the Will of man can be compelled, because Liberty is the Essence of the Will; while it is Will it cannot be constrained; and if it be constrained it ceaseth to be Will. God cannot at one time act as the Author of the Will, and the Destroyer of the Will. 'It is impossible that Vice and Virtue, Light and Darkness, Life and Death should be the same thing. Those things admit not of a Conception in any Understanding. Some things are impossible to be done, because of the incapability of the subject; as for a Creature to be made infinite, independent, to preserve itself without the Divine concourse and assistance. So a Brute cannot be taken into communion with God, and to everlasting spiritual Blessedness, because the Nature of a Brute is uncapable of such an Elevation: A rational Creature only can understand and relish spiritual delights, and is capable to enjoy God and have communion with him. Indeed God may change the nature of a Brute, and bestow such Faculties of Understanding and Will upon it, as to render it capable of such a Blessedness; but then 'tis no more a Brute, but a rational Creature; but while it remains a Brute, the excellency of the Nature of God doth not admit of communion with such a Subject: So that this is not for want of Power in God, but because of a deficiency in the Creature: To suppose that God could make a Contradiction true, is to make himself false, and to do just nothing.

2. Some things are impossible to the Nature and Being of God. As to die, implies a flat repugnance to the Nature of God: To be able to die, is to be able to be cashierd out of being. If God were able to deprive himself of life, he might then cease to be: He were not then a necessary, but an uncertain contingent being, and could not be said only to have Immortality, as he is . He cannot die who is life itself, and necessarily Existent: He cannot grow old or decay, because he cannot be measured by time. And this is no part of Weakness, but the perfection of Power. His Power is that whereby he remains forever fixed in his own everlasting being; that cannot be reckoned as necessary to the Omnipotence of God, which all Mankind count a part of weakness in themselves. God is Omnipotent because he is not Impotent; and if he could die, he would be Impotent, not Omnipotent: Death is the feebleness of Nature. 'It is undoubtedly the greatest impotence to cease to be: Who would count it a part of Omnipotency to disenable himself, and sink into nothing and not being. The impossibility for God to die, is not a fit Article to impeach his Omnipotence; this would be a strange way of arguing, a thing is not powerful, because it is not feeble, and cannot cease to be powerful; for Death is a cessation of all Power. God is Almighty in doing what he will, not in suffering what he will not. To die is not an active, but a passive Power; a defect of a Power: God is of too noble a Nature to perish.

Some things are impossible to that eminency of Nature which he hath above all Creatures; as to walk, sleep, feed, these are Imperfections belonging to Bodies and compounded Natures. If he could walk, he were not everywhere present: Motion speaks Succession. If he could increase, he would not have been perfect before.

3. Some things are impossible to the glorious perfections of God. God cannot do anything unbecoming his holiness and goodness; anything unworthy of himself, and against the perfections of his Nature. God can do whatsoever he can will. As he doth actually do whatsoever he doth actually will; so it is possible for him to do whatsoever it is possible for him to will. He doth whatsoever he will, and can do whatsoever he can will; but he cannot do what he cannot will: He cannot will any unrighteous thing, and therefore cannot do any unrighteous thing. God cannot love sin, this is contrary to his Holiness; he cannot violate his Word, this is a denial of his Truth; he cannot punish an Innocent, this is contrary to his Goodness; he cannot cherish an impenitent Sinner, this is an injury to h • s Justice: He cannot forget what is done in the World, this is a disgrace to his Omniscience; he cannot deceive his Creature: This is contrary to his faithfulness: none of these things can be done by him, because of the perfection of his Nature. Would it not be an imperfection in God to absolve the Guilty, and condemn the Innocent? Is it congruous to the righteous and holy nature of God to command Murder and Adultery; to command men not to worship him, but to be base and unthankful? These things would be against the Rules of Righteousness. As when we say of a good Man, he cannot rob or fight a Duel; we do not mean that he wants a courage for such an Act, or that he hath not a natural strength and knowledge to manage his Weapon as well as another; but he hath a righteous Principle strong in him which will not suffer him to do it; his will is settled against it: No Power can pass into Act unless applied by the will. But the will of God cannot will anything but what is worthy of him, and decent for his Goodness.

1. The Scripture saith 'tis impossible for God to lie ; and God cannot deny himself because of his faithfulness . As he cannot die, because he is life itself; as he cannot deceive, because he is goodness itself; as he cannot do an unwise action, because he is wisdom itself; so he cannot speak a false word, because he is truth itself. If he should speak anything as true, and not know it, where is his infinite Knowledge and Comprehensiveness of Understanding? If he should speak anything as true, which he knows to be false, where is his infinite Righteousness? If he should deceive any Creature, there is an end of his Perfection of Fidelity and Veracity. If he should be deceived himself, there is an end of his Omniscience; we must then fancy him to be a deceitful God, an ignorant God, that is, no God at all. If he should lie, he would be God and no God; God upon supposition, and no God, because not the first Truth. All Unrighteousness is Weakness, not Power; 'tis a Defection from right Reason, a Deviation from Moral Principles, and the Rule of perfect Action, and ariseth from a defect of Goodness and Power: 'It is a Weakness, and not Omnipotence, to lose Goodness: God is Light, 'tis the perfection of Light not to become Darkness, and a want of Power in Light, if it should become Darkness: His Power is infinitely strong, so is his Wisdom infinitely clear, and his Will infinitely pure: Would it not be a part of Weakness to have a disorder in himself, and these Perfections shock one against another? Since all Perfections are in God in the most Sovereign height of Perfection, nothing can be done by the Infiniteness of one against the Infiniteness of the other. He would then be unstable in his own Perfections, and depart from the infinite rectitude of his own Will, if he should do an evil action. Again; What is an Argument of greater strength, then to be utterly ignorant of Infirmity? God is Omnipotent, because he cannot do Evil, and would not be Omnipotent if he could: Those things would be Marks of Weakness, and not Characters of Majesty. Would you count a sweet Fountain impotent, because it cannot send forth bitter Streams? Or the Sun weak, because it cannot diffuse Darkness as well as Light in the Air? There is an inability arising from Weakness, and an ability arising from Perfection: 'It is the Perfection of Angels and blessed Spirits, that they cannot sin: And it would be the Imperfection of God, if he could do Evil.

2. Hence it follows, that 'tis impossible that a thing past should not be past. If we ascribe a Power to God, to make a thing that is past not to be past, we do not truly ascribe Power to him, but a Weakness: For it is to make God to lie: As though God might not have created man, yet after he had created Adam, though he should presently have reduced Adam to his first nothing, yet it would be forever true that Adam was created, and it would forever be false that Adam never was created: So though God may prevent sin, yet when sin hath been committed, it will always be true that sin was committed: It will never be true to say such a Creature that did sin, did not sin; his sin cannot be recalled: Though God by pardon take off the Guilt of Peter 's denying our Savior, yet it will be eternally true, that Peter did deny him. It is repugnant to the Righteousness and Truth of God, to make that which was once true to become false, and not true; that is, to make a Truth to become a Lye, and a Lye to become a Truth.

This is well argued from Hebr. 6.18. 'It is impossible for God to lie. The Apostle argues, that what God had promised and sworn will come to pass, and cannot but come to pass. Now if God could make a thing past not to be past, this consequence would not be good, for then he might make himself not to have promised, not to have sworn, after he hath promised and sworn: And so if there were a power to undo that which is past, there would be no foundation for Faith, no certainty of Revelation. It cannot be asserted, that God hath created the World, that God hath sent his Son to die, that God hath accepted his death for man: These might not be true, if it were possible that, that which hath been done, might be said never to have been done: So that what any may imagine to be a want of Power in God, is the highest perfection of God; and the greatest security to a believing Creature that hath to do with God.

Fourthly, Some things are impossible to be done, because of God's Ordination. Some things are impossible, not in their own nature, but in regard of the determined Will of God: So God might have destroyed the World after Adam 's fall, but it was impossible; not that God wanted Power to do it, but because he did not only decree from Eternity to create the World, but did also decree to redeem the World by Jesus Christ, and erected the World in order to the manifestation of his glory in Christ. Eph. 1.4.5. The choice of some in Christ was before the foundation of the World: Supposing that there was no hindrance in the Justice of God to pardon the sin of Adam after his fall, and to execute no punishment on him; yet in regard of God's threatening, that in the day he eat of the forbidden fruit, he should die, it was impossible. So though it was possible that the Cup should pass from our blessed Savior, that is, possible in its own nature; yet it was not possible in regard of the determination of God's Will; since he had both decreed and published his Will to redeem Man by the Passion and Blood of his Son. These things God by his absolute Power might have done, but upon the account of his decree, they were impossible, because it is repugnant to the Nature of God to be mutable: 'It is to deny his own Wisdom which contrived them, and his own Will which resolved them, not to do that which he had decreed to do. This would be a diffidence in his Wisdom, and a change of his Will. The impossibility of them is no result of a want of Power, no mark of an Imperfection, of Feebleness and Impotence; but the Perfection of Immutability and Unchangeableness.

Thus have I endeavored to give you a right Notion of this excellent Attribute of the Power of God, in as plain terms as I could; which may serve us for a matter of Meditation, Admiration, Fear of him, Trust in him, which are the proper Uses we should make of this Doctrine of Divine Power. The want of a right understanding of this Doctrine of the Divine Power hath caused many to run into mighty Absurdities; I have therefore taken the more pains to explain it.

II. The second thing I proposed, is the Reasons to prove God to be Omipotent. The Scripture describes God by this Attribute of Power. Psal. 115.3. He hath done whatsoever he pleased. It sometimes sets forth his Power in a way of derision of those that seem to doubt of it. When Sarah doubted of his ability to give her a Child in her old Age, Gen. 18.14. Is anything too hard for the Lord? They deserve to be scoffit, that will despoil God of his strength, and measure him by their shallow Models. And when Moses uttered something of unbelief of this Attribute, as if God were not able to feed 600000 Israelites besides Women and Children, which he aggravates by a kind of imperious scoff; Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them? Or shall all the fish of the Sea be gathered together for them? &c. Numb. 11.23. God takes him up short, verse. 23. Is the Lord's hand waxed short? What, can any weakness seize upon my Hand? Can I not draw out of my own Treasures what is needful for a supply? The Hand of God is not at one time strong, and another time feeble. Hence it is that we read of the Hand and Arm of God, an out-stretched Arm; because the strength of a man is exerted by his Hand and Arm; the Power of God is called the Arm of his Power, and the right hand of his Strength. Sometimes, according to the different manifestation of it, it is expressed by Finger, when a less power is evidenced; by Hand, when something greater; by Arm, when more mighty than the former. Since God is Eternal, without limits of time, he is also Almighty, without limits of strength. As he cannot be said to be more in Being now than he was before; so he is neither more nor less in strength than he was before: As he cannot cease to be, so he cannot cease to be Powerful, because he is Eternal. His Eternity and Power are linkit together as equally demonstrable ; God is called the God of God's, El Elohim , the Mighty of Mighties, whence all mighty persons have their activity and vigor: He is called the Lord of Hosts, as being the Creator and Conductor of the heavenly Militia.

Reason 1. The Power that is in Creatures demonstrates a greater and an inconceivable Power in God. Nothing in the World is without a power of Activity according to its Nature: No Creature but can act something: The Sun warms and enlightens everything: It sends its Influences upon the Earth, into the bowels of the Earth, into the depths of the Sea: All Generations owe themselves to its instrumental Virtue: How powerful is a small Seed to rise into a mighty Tree with a lofty top, and extensive branches, and send forth other Seeds, which can still multiply into numberless Plants? How wonderful is the Power of the Creator, who hath endowed so small a Creature as a Seed with so fruitful an Activity? Yet this is but the virtue of a limited nature: God is both the producing and preserving cause of all the virtue in any Creature, in every Creature: The power of every Creature belongs to him as the Fountain, and is truly his Power in the Creature. As he is the first Being, he is the original of all Being; as he is the first Good, he is the Spring of all Goodness; as he is the first Truth, he is the source of all Truth; so as he is the first Power, he is the Fountain of all Power.

1. He therefore that communicates to the Creature what power it hath, contains eminently much more power in himself. Psal. 94.10. He that teaches man knowledge, shall not he know? So he that gives created Beings power, shall not he be Powerful? The first Being must have as much Power as he hath given to others: He could not transfer that upon another, which he did not transcendently possess himself. The sole cause of created Power cannot be destitute of any Power in himself. We see that the power of one Creature transcends the power of another. Beasts can do the things that Plants cannot do; besides the power of growth, they have a power of sense and progressive motion: Men can do more than Beasts; they have rational Souls to measure the Earth and Heavens, and to be repositories of multitudes of things, Notions and Conclusions. We may well imagine Angels to be far superior to man: The power of the Creator must far surmount the power of the Creature, and must needs be Infinite; for if it be limited, it is limited by himself or by some other; if by some other, he is no longer a Creator, but a Creature; for that which limits him in his Nature, did communicate that Nature to him; not by himself, for he would not deny himself any necessary Perfection: We must still conclude a reserve of Power in him, that he that made these can make many more of the same kind.

2. All the power which is distinct in the Creatures, must be united in God. One Creature hath a strength to do this, another to do that; every Creature is as a Cistern filled with a particular and limited power, according to the capacity of its nature, from this Fountain; all are distinct Streams from God: But the strength of every Creature, though distinct in the rank of Creatures, is united in God the Center, whence those lines were drawn, the Fountain whence those Streams were derived: If the power of one Creature be admirable, as the power of an Angel, which the Psalmist saith, excelleth in strength; how much greater must the power of a Legion of Angels be? How inconceivably superior the power of all those numbers of spiritual Natures, which are the excellent Works of God? Now if all this particular power which is in every Angel distinct, were compacted in one Angel, how would it exceed our Understanding, and be above our power to form a distinct Conception of it? What is thus divided in every Angel, must be thought united in the Creator of Angels, and far more excellent in him. Every thing is in a more noble manner in the Fountain, than in the Streams which distill and descend from it. He that is the Original of all those distinct Powers, must be the Seat of all Power without distinction: In him is the Union of all without division; what is in them as a quality, is in him as his Essence. Again, if all the powers of several Creatures, with all their principal qualities and vigors, both of Beasts, Plants, and rational Creatures, were united in one Subject; As if one Lion had the strength of all the Lions that ever were; or if one Elephant had the strength of all the Elephants that ever were; nay, if one Be had all the power of motion and stinging that all Bees ever had, it would have a vast strength; but if the strength of all those thus gathered into one of every kind should be lodged in one sole Creature, one Man, would it not be a Strength too big for our conception? Or suppose one Canon had all the force of all the Canons that ever were in the World, what a battery would it make, and, as it were, shake the whole frame of Heaven and Earth? All this Strength must be much more incomprehensible in God, all is united in him. If it were in one individual Created Nature, it would still be but a finite Power in a finite Nature: But in God it is Infinite and Immense.

Reas. 2. If there were not an incomprehensible Power in God, he would not be infinitely perfect. God is the First Being; It can only be said of him, Est, he is. All other things are nothing to him, Less than nothing, and vanity, Isai. 40.17. and reputed as nothing, Dan. 4.35. All the Inhabitants of the Earth, with all their Wit and Strength, are counted as if they were not; just in comparison with Him and his Being, as a little Mote in the Sun-beams: God therefore is a pure Being. Any kind of Weakness whatsoever is a defect, a degree of not Being; so far as anything wants this or that Power, it may be said Not to be. Were there anything of Weakness in God, any want of strength which belonged to the perfection of a Nature, it might be said of God, He is not this or that, he wants this or that perfection of Being, and so he would not be a pure Being, there would be something of not Being in him. But God being the First Being, the only Original Being, He is infinitely distant from not Being, and therefore infinitely distant from anything of Weakness.

Again, If God can know whatsoever is possible to be done by him and cannot do it, there would be something more in his Knowledge than in his Power. What would then follow? That the Essence of God would be in some regard greater than itself, and less than itself, because his Knowledge and his Power are his Essence; his Power as much his Essence, as his Knowledge: And therefore, in regard of his Knowledge his Essence would be greater, in regard of his Power his Essence would be less, which is a thing impossible to be conceived in a most perfect Being. We must understand this of those things, which are properly and in their own Nature subjected to the Divine Knowledge; for otherwise God knows more than he can do; for he knows Sin, but he cannot act it; because Sin belongs not to Power, but Weakness; and Sin comes under the Knowledge of God, not in itself and its own Nature, but as it is a defect from God, and contrary to Good, which is the proper Object of Divine Knowledge. He knows it also not as possible to be done by himself, but as possible to be done by the Creature. Again, If God were not Omnipotent, we might imagine something more perfect than God: For if we bar God from any one thing which in its own nature is possible, we may imagine a Being that can do that thing, one that is able to effect it; and so imagine an Agent greater than God, a Being able to do more than God is able to do, and consequently a Being more perfect than God: But no Being more perfect than God can be imagined by any Creature. Nothing can be called most Perfect, if anything of Activity be wanting to it. Active Power follows the perfection of a thing, and all things are counted more noble, by how much more of Efficacy and Virtue they possess. We count those the best and most perfect Plants, that have the greatest Medicinal Virtue in them, and power of working upon the Body for the cure of Distempers. God is perfect of himself, and therefore most powerful of himself. If his Perfection in Wisdom and Goodness be unsearchable, his Power, which belongs to Perfection, and without which all the other Excellencies of his Nature were insignificant, and could not show themselves, (as was before evidenced) must be unsearchable also. 'It is by the Title of Almighty he is denominated, when declared to be Unsearchable to perfection. Job 11.7. Canst thou by searching find out God, canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? This would be limited and searched out, if he were destitute of an active Ability to do whatsoever he pleased to do, whatsoever was possible to be done. As he hath not a perfect liberty of Will, if he could not will what he pleased; so he would not have a perfect Activity, if he could not do what he willed.

Reason 3. The Simplicity of God manifests it. Every Substance, the more Spiritual it is, the more Powerful it is. All Perfections are more united in a simple, than in a compounded Being. Angels, being Spirits, are more powerful than Bodies. Where there is the greatest Simplicity, there is the greatest Unity; and where there is the greatest Unity, there is the greatest Power. Where there is a composition of a Faculty and a Member, the Member or Organ may be weakened and rendered unable to act, though the Power doth still reside in the Faculty. As a Man, when his Arm or Hand is cut off or broke, he hath the faculty of Motion still; •• t he hath lost that Instrument, that part whereby he did manifest and put forth that Motion: But God being a pure Spiritual Nature, hath no Members, no Organs to be defaced or impaired. All Impediments of Action arise either from the nature of the thing that acts, or from something without it. There can be no hindrance to God to do whatsoever he pleases; not in himself, because he is the Most Simple Being, hath no contrariety in himself, is not composed of divers things: And it cannot be from anything without himself, because nothing is equal to him, much less Superior. He is the Greatest, the Supreme: All things were made by him, depend upon him, nothing can disappoint his Intentions.

Reas. 4. The Miracles that have been in the World evidence the Power of God. Extraordinary productions have awakened Men from their stupidity, to the acknowledgment of the Immensity of Divine Power. Miracles are such effects as have been wrought without the assistance and cooperation of Natural Causes, yea contrary, and besides the ordinary course of Nature, above the reach of any Created Power. Miracles have been; and saith Bradwardine , To deny that ever such things were, is uncivil: 'It is inhuman to deny all the Histories of Jews and Christians; whosoever denies Miracles, must deny all possibility of Miracles, and so must imagine himself fully skilled in the extent of Divine Power. How was the Sun suspended from its Motion for some hours; The Dead raised from the Grave; Those reduced from the brink of it, that had been brought near to it by prevailing Diseases; and this by a word speaking? How were the famished Lions bridled from exercising their rage upon Daniel, exposed to them for a Prey? The activity of the Fire curbed for the preservation of the Three Children? Which proves a Deity more powerful than all Creatures. No power upon Earth can hinder the operation of the Fire upon combustible Matter, when they are united, unless by quenching the Fire, or removing the Matter: But no created Power can restrain the Fire, so long as it remains so, from acting according to its Nature. This was done by God, in the case of the Three Children, and that of the Burning Bush. It was as much miraculous that the Bush should not consume, as it was natural that it should burn by the efficacy of the Fire upon it. No Element is so obstinate and deaf, but it hears and obeys his Voice, and performs his Orders, though contrary to its own Nature: All the violence of the Creature is suspended as soon as it receives his Command. He that gave the original to Nature, can take away the necessity of Nature: He presides over Creatures, but is not confined to those Laws he hath prescribed to Creatures. He framed Nature, and can turn the Channels of Nature according to his own pleasure. Men dig into the bowels of Nature, search into all the Treasures of it, to find Medicines to cure a Disease, and after all their Attempts it may prove Labor in vain: But God, by one Act of his Will, one Word of his Mouth, overturns the Victory of Death, and rescues from the most desperate Diseases . All the Miracles which were wrought by the Apostles, either speaking some Words, or Touching with the Hand, were not effected by any virtue inherent in their Words or in their Touches. For such Virtue inherent in any created finite Subject would be created and finite itself, and consequently were incapable to produce effects, which required an infinite Virtue, as Miracles do which are above the power of Nature. So when our Savior wrought Miracles, it was not by any quality resident in his human Nature, but by the sole Power of his Divinity. The Flesh could only do what was proper to the Flesh; but the Deity did what was proper to the Deity. God alone doth wonders. Excluding every other cause from producing such things. He only doth those things which are above the power of Nature, and cannot be wrought by any Natural causes whatsoever. He doth not hereby put his Omnipotence to any stress: 'It is as easy with him to turn Nature out of its settled course, as it was to place it in that station it holds, and appoint it that course it runs. All the Works of Nature are indeed Miracles and Testimonies of the Power of God producing them, and sustaining them: But Works above the Power of Nature, being Novelties and unusual, strike Men with a greater admiration upon their appearance, because they are not the products of Nature, but the convulsions of it.

I might also add as an Argument, The Power of the Mind of Man to conceive more than hath been wrought by God in the World. And God can work whatsoever Perfection the Mind of man can conceive: Otherwise the reaches of a created Imagination and Fancy, would be more extensive than the Power of God. His Power therefore is far greater than the conception of any Intellectual Creature; else the Creature would be of a greater capacity to conceive, than God is to effect. The Creature would have a power of Conception, above God's Power of Activity; and consequently a Creature, in some respect greater than himself. Now whatsoever a Creature can conceive possible to be done, is but finite in its own nature; and if God could not produce what Being a created Understanding can conceive possible to be done, he would be less than Infinite in Power, nay, he could not go to the extent of what is Finite. But I have touched this before; That God can create more than he hath created, and in a more perfect way of Being, as considered simply in themselves.