On Glorifying God in His Attributes

by Ezekiel Hopkins

"YE ARE NOT YOUR OWN: FOR YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE: THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY, AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH ARE GOD'S." 1 COR. 6:19, 20.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The PROPOSITION, Ye are not your own

II. The next thing to be considered is the REASON: For ye are bought with a price.

III. The Doctrine, and the Reason of it.

IV. Application

The PROPOSITION, Ye Are Not Your Own

WITHOUT any more curious division, we may take notice of Three parts in these words.

A Doctrine:

A Reason: and

A Use.

The Doctrine is, Ye are not your own.

The Reason of it, For ye are bought with a price.

The Use, which is strongly inferred from both these, and is indeed the most natural and genuine result of the doctrine of our redemption purchased by Christ, Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

It is this last, which I principally intend to insist on; as that, unto which both the former parts refer, and in which they centre. Yet I shall not altogether wave the former branches; but more briefly represent what they administer to us, either of instruction or direction.

I. To begin with the PROPOSITION, Ye are not your own.

i. And, here, TWO THINGS must fall under our disquisition:

What this phrase implies, and

What it infers.

What significancy it carries in itself; and what obligation it lays upon us.

1. For the Import of this Phrase, Ye are not your own, because it is a negative proposition and all negatives are measured by their contrary affirmatives, we shall best conceive it, if we first rightly state, what it is for any essence to be its own.

Now here

(1) Certain it is, that no being can be said to be simply its own, but what is supreme, absolute, and independent.

For, if its being be derived from any superior cause, it holds it only upon courtesy. And, as we cannot strictly call that our own, which is but lent unto us; so neither is our nature and being our own, which is but bestowed upon us by the bounty of another, maintained by his continual influence, and subjected to his sovereign control and dominion. A being, then, that is its own, must not be dependent on, or beholden to any other; nor acknowledge any thing superior to it, from which it hath received, or to which it is indebted.

(2) That essence, which is its own, must be itself the end of all its actions.

The first efficient must, of necessity, be the last end: and, therefore, whatsoever can direct any of its actions to an end higher and more ultimate than itself, is not the first cause, but a dependent and secondary one. It is impossible that any creature should be made for itself only; to seek and serve itself: for, since every agent is excited to his operations by some end which he propoundeth to himself, if the creature were its own utmost end, the Creator could have no end at all in forming him, and consequently would never do it. Hence the Wise Man tells us, Prov. 16:4. that the Lord hath made all things for himself. And, indeed, he, who is the great Architect of the World, "The maker of all things visible and invisible," can fix no other end in any of his works, but himself, and his own glory.

(3) And, from these two principles, it evidently follows, that there is no being simply its own, but that, which is the First Cause and the Last End of all beings: and that is God.

He only is his own: all other things are of him, and for him: they are all derivative from him, dependent upon him, and subordinate unto him; and, therefore, they are not their own.

[1] They are all Derivative beings; and flow from the First Source and Fountain of Being, even God himself.

Before the creation of the world, all was an Infinite God, and an Infinite Nothing. But, his goodness delighting to communicate itself, he designs a numberless variety of creatures: and, by his almighty word, impregnates the womb of this great nothing, and makes it fruitful; causing all things to start up in the same form and order, which he had before conceived in the eternal ideas of his own mind. Now, since all things are by participation from the First Cause, and all their perfections are but faint strictures and glimmering resemblances of his, it is most unreasonable that those should belong to themselves, who were made by another; and that they should be their own, who, without his influence and efficacy, had still been nothing.

[2] All other beings are Dependent, and owe their continued preservation to the goodness and powerful influx of God.

Indeed, preservation is nothing else, but a prolonged production. For, as we see the light of the sun preserved in the air, by a constant emanation that it hath from the sun; and that, as bright and glorious a creature as it is, yet it cannot subsist one moment upon its own succours; and that there needs nothing else to blot it out of our hemisphere, and to involve all in night and darkness, but only the sun's withdrawing itself: so is it with us, in respect of God. We depend upon him, as necessarily as the light depends upon the sun: he is the fountain of our life and being: the continuance of it, thus long, is by a continual emanation and streaming of it forth from him: should he withdraw his preserving influence from us, we should instantly dissolve, and fall all abroad into nothing. And, therefore, it were insupportable arrogance for us to think ourselves our own; who are what we are by his creating power, and while we are by his preserving influence.

[3] All other beings are Subordinate to the First; made for his ends and uses, and to be employed in his service.

Never had there been any such thing as a world and creatures in it, but that the all-wise God intended them all as the instruments of promoting his glory. And this they all do. Some, indeed, only objectively; as brute and inanimate creatures, by exhibiting the prints and footsteps of the power, and wisdom, and being of their Almighty Creator: and, therefore, the Psalmist tells us, that the heavens declare the glory of God; Ps. 19:1. that is, the beauty, splendor, and harmony of that most excellent piece of the creation, do evidently demonstrate the infinite wisdom, power, and majesty of the great Architect; who hath framed such a glorious roof for our house here on earth, and so glorious a pavement for his own in heaven. But, because glory requires celebration, therefore God hath created other ranks of rational and intellectual beings, who might actively serve and glorify him; and, by taking notice of his attributes, so conspicuously shining forth in the works of Creation and Providence, ascribe unto him the praise that is due unto his name for such his wonderful works: and these are angels and men; both which he made for himself, in a more especial and peculiar manner; communicating to them more exalted perfections, and more express resemblances of his divine attributes, than to other inferior things. And, although endless multitudes of these have, by their apostacy and rebellion, defeated the primary end of their creation, refusing to glorify God actively: yet God will certainly fetch his glory out of them; and, that they may not be made in vain, will glorify himself upon them passively, in inflicting that wrath and vengeance, that shall make him known and revered as an infinitely just and jealous God: though they transgress the law of their own natures, yet they cannot transgress the law of the Divine Providence: God will make them serve to the promoting of his glory; if not voluntarily, as the vessels of his mercy, yet by constraint and a sad necessity, as the objects of his wrath and fury. And thus Solomon tells us, that God hath made all things for himself; yea, even the wicked also for the day of wrath: and so, likewise, in that doxology of the elders, Rev. 4:11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created: and therefore, certainly, if all things were created for God as their highest and ultimate end, all things are his, and not their own; and the right and title to them is in him, by whom and for whom they were made.

And thus you see the Import of this Phrase, Ye are not your own: that is, you are not supreme, absolute, independent beings, left only to your own ways and wills; but ye are God's; created, supported, and governed by him, and accountable to him for all your actions.

Indeed the Apostle, in the text, gives us another reason why we are not our own: and that is, upon the account of our Redemption by Christ: Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a price. Redemption gives him as much, if not a greater title to you, than Creation: for it was not so considerable an effect of the divine power and goodness, to create, as to redeem you: the one was but the expence of his breath; the other is the expence of his blood. But, because this falls in with the second part of the text, I shall at present wave it, reserving it to its proper place.

Briefly, therefore, when the Apostle saith Ye are not your own, it is as much as if he had said, "You have no right nor title to yourselves: ye are not your own proprietors, nor to look upon yourselves as lords over your own beings. There is another Lord, to whom ye appertain; and that is God: whose right you infinitely wrong, if you acknowledge not yourselves to be his inheritance and possession." Indeed it is a sacrilegious invading of the divine prerogative, for any creature to pretend to be its own, or to live as though it were so. This is no less, than impiously to ascribe an all-sufficiency to itself.

And, thus much, for the First General, what it implies not to be our own.

2. Let us consider what it Infers, and what Obligation it lays upon us.

And this I shall endeavour to shew you, in these following corollaries.

(1) If we are not our own, then certainly we ought not to seek our own.

Self-seeking is the very bane of Christianity. It is that worm, that lies at the root, and eats out the very life and sap of it. A self-seeking Christian is a downright contradiction, an absurdity in religion: for the very first lesson, that Christ teaches in his school, is that hard one of self-denial; and our Saviour hath told us, that whosoever refuseth to deny himself, and to take up his cross, cannot be his disciple.

But, as there is in every Christian a twofold self: a spiritual, heaven-born self, the new man, the divine nature, the impress and stamp of the image of God upon the soul, consisting in the sanctifying principles both of knowledge and holiness, and all the habits of special grace infused into us by the Holy Ghost in our first conversion; and, likewise, an earthy, dreggy, and inferior self, the utmost tendency of which is only the satisfying of the sensual part of man, and all its good things are only such as the world and its stock can furnish it withal: as, I say, there is this twofold self in every true Christian, so must we distinguish likewise of a twofold self-seeking.

[1] There is a seeking of those things, which are grateful and pleasing to the Spiritual Self of a good Christian; those, which may promote its interests and concerns, and make it flourishing and vigorous in us.

And this is a self-seeking so far from being condemned, that it is our highest praise and glory.

The tendency of the new nature is towards Two things:

The Increase of Grace in us, here; and

The Participation of Glory, hereafter.

For the First, all grant that we ought to labour.

But, for the Second, some have been so weak as to doubt, whether we might make the eternal glory and happiness of our souls the end of our duties and endeavours: and, with many high-flown inconsistencies, that seem to have in them much of spiritual rapture, but indeed are nothing else but idle dreams and false delusions, tell us that we must serve and obey God only out of love and gratitude, neither for hope of reward, nor fear of punishment; and condemn all that obedience, which respects these, as sordid and mercenary, unworthy of the true and generous spirit of the Gospel. But, if we should tell these men, that they pretend to a greater degree of spiritualness than ever Moses did, possibly their pride and self-conceit would make them assume it: for, alas! Moses was but a poor Old-Testament Saint, and we read of him, Heb. 11:26 that he had respect unto the recompence of the reward: but, though they think themselves more spiritual than he, what! are they likewise more spiritual than St. Paul? and yet he tells us, Phil. 3:13, 14. that he reached forth unto those things, which are before, pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus: or have they attained to an elevation of spiritualness beyond our Lord Jesus Christ himself? of whom the Apostle witnesseth, Heb. 12:2 that, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame. It is allowable, therefore, yea it is necessary, to be selfish; to consider our own interest and our own advantage, in this case: for, since our very nature is so tempered, that the two great advantages which we have to quicken it, are hopes and fears, I shall very much doubt that those will prove but slothful and negligent Christians, who shall, out of a fond conceit of greater spiritualness and perfection, lay these spurs aside; and pretend to make use of other arguments, which, though they seem more specious, yet, I am sure, must needs be less effectual.

Others again, who do allow that our obedience may be directed unto God, with an eye and respect unto the reward which he hath promised us, yet question whether we ought chiefly and principally to regard our own happiness or his honour, our own glory or his. I answer: This is but a nice and needless scruple: and, though many infirm and tender spirits may be much puzzled in directing their obedience, yet this solicitude is but vain; for, whilst they do either, they do both: for what is the glory of God's grace and mercy? is it not the accomplishment of our salvation? and therefore, certainly, whilst I endeavour to promote mine own salvation, I do as much endeavour to promote the glory of God: although, perhaps, in every duty I do it not with a distinct particular act of reflection; yet, so long as I endeavour to promote mine own salvation, I do implicitly and interpretatively endeavour the advancement of God's glory; for that is the next and immediate means to this: we need not, therefore, be anxious, whether we seek ourselves, or the honour of God; for, in thus seeking ourselves, we do nothing else but seek his honour and glory. Let us again consider what is our happiness and felicity: our objective happiness, is the infinite and boundless good, even God himself; our formal happiness, is our clear vision and full fruition of him, and the near conjunction of our souls unto him by love and inherence: now, certainly, his infinite goodness will never reject those duties as sordid and mercenary, that aspire to no greater, no other reward but the enjoyment of himself: in thus seeking ourselves, we seek God; and, the more intensely we thus love our own souls, the more supremely do we love God, while we breathe and pant after the fruition of him with the holy impatience of an amorous spirit: in this sense, therefore, although we are not our own, yet we may seek our own: we appertain not to ourselves, but to God; yet, certainly, when this self which we seek hath God for its object and end, we seek him in seeking of ourselves.

And that is the First kind of seeking, which is not only warrantable but necessary.

But

[2] There is a seeking of those things, which are only conducible to the ease, profit, and advantage of the Natural and Earthy Self.

And these St. John hath briefly summed up in three things: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life: which is but to tell us more enigmatically, that they are pleasures, riches, and honours. Self is the center of all the actions of a worldly man; and, whatsoever he doth are but so many lines, which, though they may seem far distant one from another, yet all meet together there.

Indeed, there is a seeking of these worldly advantages, which is not justly to be branded with this black mark of self-seeking.

And that is,

1st. When we seek them only by lawful means.

As industry in our callings, and prayer to God for a blessing upon it; detesting all the wicked and base methods of fraud and superchery.

2dly. When we seek them with due moderation.

When our care about them is but prudent and provident; not carking, nor distracting.

3dly. When we seek them at allowed seasons.

The shop must not intrench upon either the church or the closet; nor the duties of our particular callings, as we are men, devour the duties of our general callings, as Christians. Both are beautiful in their season; and, indeed, the one is an excellent preparative for the other. How comfortably may that man follow his vocation all day, who hath begun the morning with God, and humbly implored his blessing and assistance! and how sweetly may that man close up his day's task with prayer, who hath used such care and conscience in his calling, as to bring no new guilt to confess in the evening!

4thly. When we seek these things with a due subordination to the higher and more noble ends of piety and holiness.

And that is,

(1st) When we seek them, that we may avoid those temptations, which possibly the want of them might expose us unto.

Thus Agur prays, Prov. 30:8 that God would feed him with food convenient, lest he be poor, and steal, and take the name of his God in vain: that is, as I conceive, lest he should be, first, tempted to theft; and, then, to perjury to conceal it, if suspected.

(2dly) When we seek them, that we may be the better furnished for good works.

For earthly comforts and enjoyments, if they be well improved, are excellent instruments to promote the glory of God, in furthering the good and welfare of others. Hence the Apostle, Eph. 4:28. Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. And indeed it will require somewhat of a plentiful estate, to be able to maintain good works, as the Apostle twice useth that expression, Titus 3:8 and at the 14th verse.

If these rules be duly observed, he is no self-seeker, who diligently may seek after these temporal accommodations.

But, when gain shall be preferred before godliness; and all the crooked ways of deceit and fraud made use of, only to amass together a heap of ill-gotten trash: when thou wilt rather choose to make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, than to cast overboard any part of thy wealth, though it be to save thy soul from being drowned and sunk in perdition: when this golden idol shall be set up by thee; and God, and Christ, and religion, and conscience, all sacrificed unto it: what is this, but a base self-seeking, unworthy of a Christian, nay of a man? too impious for a Christian, too foolish for any man: for, in thus seeking themselves, they lose themselves for ever. And this is that, which the Apostle so grievously complains of, Phil. 2:21. All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. A mean and sordid temper this. And, as it is sordid; so is it, likewise, most unjust and unreasonable: for consider, you are not your own, but God's: he hath manifold titles to you: you have no self of your own, but you, and all, are his: and what presumption is it for you to provide for what is his, otherwise than he hath ordered; yea, contrary to his express command!

That is the First Inference.

(2) If we are not our own, we may infer, that certainly we are not at our own dispose.

And this should teach us patience in all the cross and sad occurrences of our lives. We are not our own; and, therefore, we may not carve out our own condition to ourselves, nor prescribe to God what we would have done, or what we would avoid: for this is boldly to intermeddle with that, which doth not belong to thee. Thou art God's; and what is it to thee, O busy man, what he doth with his own? If it seemeth good to him to chastise thee with poverty, reproach, pains, and diseases, or to take from thee any of thy dearest and most desirable comforts, what hast thou to do to interpose with thy complaints and murmurings? May he not do what he will with his own? Thou art no farther interested in any of these things, than to hear them meekly as a Christian; and voluntarily to resign up thyself unto him, unto whom thou dost naturally and necessarily belong.

(3) If we are not our own, we may very rationally infer, that we ought not to follow our own wills and our own affections.

Indeed, the great contest between God and man ever was, and still is, about sovereignty. It hath been the perpetual quarrel of all ages, which shall be the chief; and whose will shall take place, either his or ours. The first crafty temptation, Ye shall be as gods, hath strangely prevailed upon us ever since: we would fain all be gods, independent and uncontroulable. Now check this rebellion of thy will and affections, by considering that thou art not thine own, but God's: he hath the supreme right to thee; and thou art injurious to his right, if thou settest up thy will a competitor with his. Yea, indeed, thou oughtest to have no will peculiar to thyself, but it should be all melted down and resolved into God's. And, therefore, the Apostle puts an excellent form of words into our mouths: James 4:15. If the Lord will, we will do thus and thus. So say thou, "If the Lord will, I will." Bring thy will to conform unto his Will of Precept, absolutely; for that he hath made known unto thee in his word: and neither will nor desire what he hath therein forbidden thee. Bring it also to conform unto his Will of Purpose, conditionally; for that is hidden and secret to us, until the event declare it: but, when God hath manifested it by the effects, bend thy will unto it; and quietly acquiesce in all his dispensations, as infinitely wise and gracious. Say thou unto him, "Lord, I am blind and ignorant; and cannot see through the consequences of things. That, which I apprehend at present would be for my advantage, may possibly prove a snare and a curse unto me. Thou comprehendest all, in thy infinite wisdom; and, therefore, I resign up my choice to thee. Do thou, Lord, choose for me: and, howsoever thy providence shall order my affairs, make me as thankful for disappointments, as I ought to be for successes." This is a right, Christian temper; worthy of him, who acknowledgeth himself, not to be his own, but God's.

(4) Ye are not your own; look not then upon any thing as your own.

Certainly, if thou thyself art God's, whatsoever thou fondly accountest thine is much more his. Shall the principal be his, and not the accessaries? Thy friends, thy children, thy estate, thy good name, are not indeed thine: and, though common words and language call them so; yet take heed that thou dost not lay any emphasis upon it. Thus Nabal, that blunt churl, accents his selfishness: 1 Sam. 25:11. Shall I take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shepherds? alas! poor wretch, there is nothing of all this thine: nay, thou thyself art not thine, but belongest, if not to the grace, yet to the dominion of God. Indeed we must distinguish between things being ours for our good and benefit, and being ours as to absolute title and dominion. Neither way can a wicked man call any thing his: his table is a snare; and that, which should have been for his welfare, is become a curse unto him. But it is not thus with the godly: for the Apostle tells us, 1 Cor. 3:22, 23. that whether.… the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are theirs; and they are Christ's; and Christ is God's: this argument is very cogent, as to the benefit and good, that shall redound unto them from every thing they enjoy; in this sense, all is theirs, because they are God's. But, because they are God's, therefore nothing is theirs as to absolute right and sovereign dominion. Both they and wicked men have a natural right to many blessings, and a civil right to many more: but neither of them have a supreme, free, and independent right, to any thing which they enjoy; but all is God's, lent to them for their use and his service.

(5) Ye are not your own; let not then any sin be your own.

You are God's peculiar people; let not any sin be your peculiar sin. Shall we ourselves be God's, and yet any sin be ours? what is this less than, by a kind of practical blasphemy, to transfer our sins upon God?

And, so much, for the First Part of the words, Ye are not your own.

Thus have we considered the proposition, Ye are not your own. Ye have not a sovereign right over your own beings, to seek your own interests, to dispose of your own affairs, to follow your own wills and appetites; but you entirely belong unto another.

ii. And, lest you should be put to seek for an owner, since you are thus denied, and, as it were, turned out of the possession of yourselves, the Apostle informs you WHO IT IS, THAT LAYS IN HIS CLAIM TO YOU; even the great and universal Lord both of Heaven and Earth, whose all things are by a most absolute and indisputable right: Ye are God's.

Indeed, God hath manifold titles to you.

1. As he is your Almighty Creator.

When thou layedst huddled up in the great chaos and confusion of mere possibilities, he beckoned and called thee forth; bade thee be, and take thy place and station in the order of things: and that, not in a vile and contemptible nature, a worm, or a fly, which we crush or sport to death; but a man, one of the peers and nobles of the world. See how magnificently David speaks of thy original: Ps. 8:5, 6. Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou art born a king; crowned, in thy very cradle: and thy being, in the scale of creatures, is but one round lower than that of the angels.

Thy Body, which is the basest and most disgraceful part thou hast, yet of how excellent a texture and frame is it! such various springs of motion, such secret channels and conveyances for life and spirits, such a subserviency of parts one to another in their mutual offices, and such a perfect beauty and harmony in the whole, that David might well say, Ps. 139:14, 15. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.… and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Yea, not only a David, but Galen a heathen, when he had minutely inspected the admirable artifice that appeared in the frame of our bodies, the structure and use of the several parts, and the many wonders and miracles that were woven up in every one of them, his speculation of nature led him to adore the God of Nature, and he could not forbear composing a hymn in the praise of our All-wise Creator. Now whose is this elegant piece of workmanship, but God's? In his book, saith the Psalmist, were all our members written, which afterwards were fashioned: as architects do usually draw a model of those buildings, which they intend for more than ordinary state and magnificence before they erect them; so God doth, as it were, delineate a draught and platform of man in his book, that is, in his own counsel and decree; and limns out every member, giving it its shape and proportion in his own ideas; and afterward, according to that perfect pattern, sets up the frame: he first makes the materials, and then brings them together; and causes all nature to contribute what is most fit and proper for it.

And yet these bodies, though they have so much cost and care bestowed upon them, are but a case and covering for the Soul. That is perfectly spiritual; and hath no other cause of its being, but only that God, who is the Father of Spirits. It is a spark, kindled immediately by his own breath: not formed out of any pre-existent matter, as corporeal beings are; but created out of pure and unmixed nothing, by the same almighty word, that spake out angels, and all the glorious hosts of heaven, and made them emerge into being. And when the body is sufficiently furnished with all the organs and instruments necessary for the function of life, then God bestows a soul upon it. Not as if the soul did pre-exist before its union; but it is created in that very instant when it is united to the body. And this is the meaning of that known maxim of St. Augustin, Creando infunditur, & infundendo creatur: "It is created in infusing, and infused in creating."

Since, then, God hath created us; and chosen us, out of the infinite number of things possible, to bestow an actual being upon us: since, if he had so pleased, we might have been as much nothing to all eternity, as we were from all eternity; and might have lain hid in that vast crowd and multitude of souls, which might have been, but never shall be; only, God hath been pleased to lay the ideas of them aside, and to pick and cull us out to be his creatures, to prepare us such exquisite bodies, and to breathe into us such rational and intellectual spirits: shall we not with all thankfulness acknowledge, that we appertain unto him, who without him should have continued a long and endless nothing? Hath not he, who created us, an absolute and sovereign right to do to us and to require from us, whatsoever pleaseth him? Thus the Psalmist infers it, Ps. 100:3. It is he, that hath made us, and not we ourselves; and therefore it follows, we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. And,

2. We are his, upon the account of Preservation.

He still maintains those beings, which at first he made; and exerts the same almighty power to continue thee in thy being, as at first he did in producing it. Every new moment that passeth over thee, thou art, as it were, again created; fetched out of nothing: for all that part of thy life, which is already passed, is become a mere nothing. So that, whether thou lookest to the time that is before thee, or to that which is behind thee; yet, still, thou flowest along, from that which is nothing, to that which is nothing: and yet, still, thou thyself art preserved in being, and art not swallowed up in the same nothing, that yesterday or the last year are dissolved into. To whom owest thou this, but only to that God who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever? He makes all the differences of time in thy age, in whom time itself makes no difference. It is his visitation, as Job speaks, that preserves our spirits: Job 10:12. nor can we subsist one breath, or one pulse, nor one moment longer, than he is pleased to wind off our time to us, from that great bottom of eternity which he holds in his own hand. If thou canst find out any one such day or hour, wherein thou canst maintain thyself, without any charge to God or dependance upon him; if thou canst either live, or move, or be, without the continual influence of the divine power and providence; then, for that time, thou mayest glory in thine own sufficiency, acknowledge no superior, be thine own, and live wholly to thyself: but, certainly, whilst thou owest both the beginning and the progress of thy being unto God, thou owest thyself to him, and art his.

But this is not all; for,

3. God hath another right and title to us, as he is our Governor.

Now the two chief and comprehensive parts of government, are Protection and Provision: to defend those, that are under their charge, from harms and injuries; and, to supply them with necessaries.

But,

(1) God doth mightily protect us from those innumerable evils and mischiefs, which would else befall us.

Perils and mishaps are thick strewed in all our ways; and death and ruin lie every where in ambush for us: in our food, our affairs, our recreations, at home and abroad, every where, death and danger take their stand and aim at us; dangers, that we could neither foresee, nor prevent, but only the watchful providence of God hath watched over us hitherto: He hath given his angels charge concerning us, to keep us in all our ways. In their hands have they borne us up, so that our feet have not dashed against a stone. Who can particularly recount the infinite number of those private mercies, which we have received? or how often God hath diverted and struck aside many sad casualties, that were just befalling us; and plucked us back, when we were just upon the very edge and brink of destruction? Or, if we consider the boundless wrath and malice of the Devil against us, or wicked men his instruments, have we not great cause thankfully to acknowledge that powerful restraint, which God lays both upon him and them? the Devil implacably hates us; and would, every step that we take, tear our souls from our bodies, and our bodies in pieces, and both from God: wicked men, who are inspirited and acted by him, would soon fill the world with the direful effects of their hellish natures; and by killing, and stealing, and swearing, and lying, and committing adultery, they would break out until blood touched blood: but only God holds them both in a strong adamantine chain, so that they cannot come near to hurt us, but by a special permission.

(2) Neither is God only a shield to us, but a Sun. The Lord God is our sun and shield: Ps. 84:11. He not only protects us from dangers, but he likewise cherishes us and provides for us.

We live upon his allowance; and are maintained by him, as those, who belong unto his family. All are waiters at his table, and he giveth them their food in due season: He crowneth the year with his blessings, and filleth our hearts with food and gladness: he better manures the earth by his blessing, than the husbandman can by his industry; and makes our sustenance to grow and spring up round about us, allotting unto every one a needful and convenient portion.

If, then, God doth thus protect thee and provide for thee, hath he not a right and title to thee? Is not that life his, which he hath defended from so many deaths; and rescued, when thou hast been surrounded with dangers? If thou wilt not acknowledge thyself his, why dost thou live in his family, eat his bread, and wear his livery, and maintain thyself at his expence? It is but reason and justice, that thou shouldst either refuse his benefits, or not refuse his Commands and service.

But, yet farther,

4. We are God's by Covenant-Engagement and solemn Promise.

In our baptism, we were consecrated and devoted to be the Lord's, to fight under his banner against all the enemies of his glory and our salvation: therein, we have renounced and abjured the usurpation and tyrannical power, that sin and Satan have exercised over us; and, with the greatest solemnity, have bound ourselves unto the service of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our baptism is a seal: not only on God's part, of the truth and stability of his promises, that we shall obtain remission of our sins and eternal life, upon the performance of the conditions of faith and new obedience; but it is likewise a seal on our part, obliging us to fulfil unto God the promises we have made, of believing in him and obeying him. In this ordinance, you have sealed and delivered yourselves up unto him; for it is the initiating ordinance: it enters you into the Church, registers you among the number of the faithful, lists you under the spiritual banner: it is, as it were, heaven's press-money, which as soon as you receive, you are enrolled under Jesus Christ, the great Captain of your Salvation: that sacrament is your military oath, properly so called; and you are bound, by the most serious engagements that can be laid upon a creature, to continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant to your lives' end. Now, unless thou thinkest these vows to be written only on the water that sprinkled thee, and wiped away together with that; unless thou accountest thy baptism nothing else but a long-received custom of the place where thou livest, a solemn piece of pageantry, and only a ceremony used on a festival day; thou must needs look upon thyself engaged by the stricted bonds, that truth, religion, vows, and oaths can lay upon thee, to be that God's, unto whom thou didst then professedly give up thyself; and whose badge and cognizance thou then tookest upon thee, that thou mightest be known whose thou art, and to whom thou appertainest. And,

5. We are God's by Profession, and our own voluntary and free Acknowledgment.

We have taken, and still do own, him to be our Lord. And, although, in works, too many deny even the Lord that bought them; living in a direct contrariety to their vows, covenants, and engagements: yet, in words and in profession, all acknowledge him to be their Lord and Master. And, though Christ might very justly upbraid too many among us, who are either professors at large or hypocritical dissemblers, as he did the Jews, Luke 6:46. Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? yet this very profession of his name is but the strengthening of his title to us; and all those appellations of our Lord, and our Master, our God, and our Saviour, by which we call him, are but so many acknowledgments of his right unto us. And, if we contradict this profession by an unholy and profane life and conversation, all that we shall get by such fawnings will be, that he, whom we have so often acknowledged for our Lord and Master, may the more justly and the more severely punish us for our disobedience. And consider again, how often hast thou renewed thy baptismal vows! of how many vows and promises have thy fears, and thy dangers, and thy diseases, and thy convictions, been both the causes and the witnesses! hast thou not, again and again, given up thyself unto God, and bound thyself by vow never to repeal nor recall it? when death and danger have stared thee in the face, and all other hopes and helps have failed thee, hast thou not promised and sworn, that, if he would save and deliver thee that once, thou wouldst be the Lord's, and serve and fear him only? God hath heard thy prayers, and accepted thy vows, and rescued thee from thy fears and dangers: and, though he had a sovereign right and title to thee before, upon other accounts; yet, to shew how grateful and pleasing the free-will offerings of a devout soul are to him, though we can offer him nothing but what is his own, yet now he especially expects that we should give up ourselves to him by obedience, as we have frequently done by promise, and should at length fulfil what we have so often engaged.

Yea, again,

6. Some are God's in a more Especial and Peculiar Manner. His chosen and beloved ones; who have, from the heart, given up and devoted themselves to the service of God; and not only bear his mark upon them, in the enjoyment of external privileges and church-ordinances, but bear likewise the stamp of his image upon them in the inward sanctification and renovation of their souls.

These, God hath set apart for himself: Ps. 4:3. They are his peculiar people: Titus 2:14 and, 1 Pet. 2:9. they are called by many special and discriminating titles: a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people: they are called his portion, and the lot of his inheritance: Deut. 32:9. The Lord's portion is his people: Jacob is the lot of his inheritance: they are his jewels: Mal. 3:17. And, certainly, whatever a man will most earnestly plead his right in, it will be his jewels, his portion, his inheritance, his peculiar treasure; those things, which are of the greatest value and dearest esteem. So God stands much upon his right to his own people and children, whilst all the wicked of the world, although they are his, yet they are in his account vile refuse creatures; more despicable in God's eyes, than true saints are in theirs; the dung and dross, the filth and offscouring of all things. These, indeed, are God's, by the obligation of common nature; but his holy ones are his, by the privilege of special grace. There is a strict and close bond of union between Christ and them: on his part, by his Spirit; on theirs, by their faith. And, being united unto Christ as their Head, they are likewise united unto God, as his: for the head of Christ is God; as the Apostle speaks, 1 Cor. 11:3.

7. We are God's by the right of Redemption.

This I have reserved to the last place, because it is the Second General Part of my Text, as being the Reason of the Proposition. Ye are not your own, but God's: for ye are bought with a price.

This, indeed, is a strong title, that God hath to us; a super-addition to the rest. God did, at first, create us in a state of perfect holiness and felicity; but we sold ourselves to Satan, and are become his vassals and bond-slaves. We have thrown God's yoke from off our neck, and his burden from off our shoulders; and have broken his bonds asunder, and cast away his cords from us; and have taken upon us the yoke of the Devil, the burden of sin and guilt, a load that would sink us into the very bottom of hell. We stand forfeited to the divine justice; liable to the eternal wrath of the Great God; ready to be dragged away every moment unto torments. But, in this our forlorn and desperate condition, that so noble and excellent a piece of the creation might not for ever perish, Infinite and Sovereign Mercy interposeth; prepares a ransom for us, which is paid down to the very uttermost farthing of all that the justice of God could demand; and so rescues us from that perdition and misery, into which we had plunged ourselves.

Now the love and mercy of God, in redeeming us, is far more eminent than in creating us. And therefore his right and title to us, upon this account, is far greater, than upon the other.

For,

(1) Creation only gives us a being, brings us only out of the dark shade and state of nothing: and, in this our fallen and sinful condition, it only capacitates us for woe and misery. But redemption finds out an expedient, and opens a way for us unto bliss and happiness.

And although, perhaps, metaphysically considered, it is better to be wretched than not to be at all; yet, certainly, in a natural and moral sense, it is not so. For so saith our Saviour: Matt. 26:24. Woe unto that man, by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! it had been good for that man, if he had not been born: that is, it had been better for him never to have had a being, but to have lain eternally forgotten in the purpose and decree of God, than that he should have a being, an immortal soul bestowed upon him, to be for ever most exquisitely tormented for this horrid sin of betraying the life and blood of his Lord and Master. Creation frees us not from so great an Evil, neither confers upon us so great and inestimable Benefits, as redemption doth. Alas! what torture or vexation is it to mere nothing, that it must eternally remain so? will not this be the hearty wish and desire of all the damned wretches in hell? would they not account it a kind of salvation, to be annihilated; that their souls and bodies might fall asunder and flit away into nothing, so that they might escape the everlasting residue of their torments? and, if sores and botches, and temporal losses and afflictions, could so far transport even holy Job, who yet is represented unto us as the mirror of patience, as to cause him to curse the day of his birth, and to wish that he had never seen the light; how much more shall we think will those infernal wretches, on whom God exerciseth the whole skill and power of his wrath, wish that they had been toads or serpents, rather than men! yea, that they had never been at all, but had lain undisturbed in a dark and gloomy nothing; since they shall have more sufferings and anguish to torture them, and no patience, no comfort, no mercy for ever to support them! Neither doth creation confer upon them so great and inestimable Benefits, as redemption. It is true, we have an excellent being and nature bestowed upon us, as creatures of a higher form than others, the chiefest of all visible and corporeal things: we are endowed with rational and intellectual faculties; and are capable of pleasures, not only such as brute beasts are, but of speculative and mental delights, which are far more noble and more refined: but yet, alas! what are we, but lords perhaps of the world, and all the while slaves to the Devil? miserable drudges to our own vile and base lusts, for gratifying of which these excellent natures, which we boast and glory so much of, must for ever lie under most inconceivable horror and torments? But redemption brings us into a capacity of far greater happiness, than that, from which we fell: it gives us hopes, that, though we lost paradise, we may gain heaven; yea, and assures us, that we shall certainly do so, if we do not wilfully neglect that great salvation, that is purchased for us; and frowardly choose death and out own destruction, before eternal life and joy. So that you see creation is a mercy and blessing to us, chiefly upon the account of redemption; and we are obliged to bless God, that he hath by creation made us subjects capable of that glory and happiness, which he hath prepared for us by redemption. And,

(2) God's mercy in redeeming us is far more eminent and conspicuous, than in creating us; because it hath been far more expensive to him.

In creation, there needed no more but an almighty fiat: Let it be; and it was so: here was nothing of preparation, nor difficulty, nor cost; nor was there any more labour or trouble, than only to will, and speak it. But, in redemption, God must not only act, but suffer; not only speak, but bleed. In creation, there was nothing that might abase or traduce God, nothing but glorious demonstrations of his wisdom and godhead: he humbled not himself, nor descended from his throne, when he formed us; but he only spake a quickening word, and all creatures presently sprung up, and paid their homage and obeisance to their great Creator. But, in redemption, God himself doth, as it were, lay aside his glory, and humble himself, first to become a creature, and then accursed: he must be wounded, that we might be healed: he must die, that we might live: he must be debased, that we might be exalted. And therefore, certainly, if love and good-will are to be measured, either by the greatness of the benefits conferred upon us, or by the difficulty and damage that accrue to the benefactor, God's mercy in redeeming us, when miserable and lost and undone, is infinitely more considerable, than his mercy in creating us and giving us a being. And, yet, if creation alone gives God so great a right to us, that those beings, which we received from him, should therefore be entirely his; shall not redemption make us much more his? shall we not be his, who hath redeemed us from being wretched and miserable; since we are his, who hath given us to be? And, therefore, well might the Apostle argue, Ye are not your own, but God's: for ye are bought with a price.

And thus you see how manifold titles God hath to us; as he is our Creator, our Preserver, our Governor, and Benefactor; as we are his Covenant-Servants, united unto him, not only by his benefits, but by his grace; and, lastly, as we are redeemed by him from the service of sin, and the wages due unto it.

But, before I proceed to consider this part of the text as it stands absolutely in itself, give me leave to close up what hath been now spoken concerning God's right unto us, with two or three Inferences.

First. See, here, how dear we are unto God, and how highly he esteems of us, that he thus strengthens his right to us by so many multiplied titles.

As those, who prize any possession, seek to confirm it to themselves by all the ways that law and equity can find out; and have writings upon writings and evidences upon evidences for it, that their title to it may be unquestionable: thus seems God to deal with us. A single right, for so dear a portion and inheritance, is not enough: and, therefore, though he hath made us, and preserves us, and bountifully supplies us, though we profess ourselves to be his own; yet, to prevent all doubts and suits, he buys us too. He buys what is his own, that it might be more his own: and, because justice and vengeance lay in their claim to us, that the title of his mercy might not be litigious, that there might be nothing in himself to hinder his quiet enjoyment of us, he pays down a full price to justice, and satisfies all its demands. So dear are we to God! And,

Secondly. See how unfaithful we are to him, that we need so many bonds and engagements laid upon us to secure us.

So slippery and deceitful are our hearts, that we are still starting aside from him; and, though we have no right to dispose of ourselves, yet are we still selling or giving away ourselves to every lust and vanity. And, therefore, as we use to deal with those who are of a suspected honesty, lay all the bonds upon them that possibly we can and make them enter into strict and punctual engagements, so doth God with us: he trusts us not upon a single obligation; but makes us enter into bond upon bond; and all scarce sufficient to make such fickle and treacherous creatures stable and faithful to him.

And,

Thirdly. Hence learn, that all impiety and irreligion are the highest wrong and injustice in the world.

Will a man rob God? saith the Prophet Malachy: ch. 3:8. intimating, by the very question, that this is such a horrid and heinous sin, as that it is not easy to be supposed any man would be so profligate a wretch as to be guilty of it: and therefore sacrilege, a stealing and purloining from God, is justly branded as one of the most foul and odious sins that can be committed. And yet this is a sin more commonly committed, than most men think of. Every wicked man is guilty of sacrilege. He robs God, steals from him, and alienates that which is properly his due. Thou stealest thyself from him, thy heart and thy affections, thy love and thy service: these thou givest to thy lusts, and to the world; and maintainest his sworn enemies upon his right and due. If it be sacrilege, to convert things hallowed and dedicate to profane and common uses, art not thou then a sacrilegious wretch, who stealest away thy soul from God, which is by so many just titles his own; and convertest it not only to common, but filthy and unclean uses? The Apostle tells us, that we are the temple of God: 2 Cor. 6:16: our hearts are the Sanctum Sanctorum, the "Holiest of Holies" in this temple; and all our faculties are dedicated things, the holy utensils for the worship and service of God. And, what! shall we pollute this temple; set up idols there; and serve our lusts and follies with those very instruments and vessels, which God hath made and prepared for his own service and worship? And, yet, how many such sacrilegious persons are there! The worldling sets up an image of gold in the temple of God: and therefore covetousness is, by the Apostle, called idolatry, Colos. 3:5: Mammon is his God; and all the hallowed vessels of the temple, his thoughts, designs, and affections, must all be employed in the service of this idol. The sensual unclean person turns this temple of God into a stew; and, with the heathen, makes his temple the scene of all his impurities. The beastly drunkard makes this temple the place of all his riot and excess; and, with impiety as great as Belshazzar's, makes the bowls and vessels of God's sanctuary serve him only to quaff and carouse in. And, indeed, there is no sin whatsoever, but it is complicated of sacrilege. For what is sin, but, as the Schools define it, an aversion of the soul from God, and an inordinate conversion of it to the creature? now to convert that to the creature, which is proper and due to God, is to rob him, to take away what he hath hallowed, to pollute and profane things dedicate, to defile his temple. And, now, to close up this, consider that dreadful threatening of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 3:17. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

And, thus much, for the Proposition in the text, ye are not your own, but God's.

II. The next thing to be considered is the REASON: For ye are bought with a price.

The force of this reason I have already shewn you. I shall only now consider it absolutely, as it is in itself.

In these words is held forth unto us the great mystery of the Gospel, our redemption by Jesus Christ. I shall not treat of it in that latitude, that a full and complete handling of this subject would require; but confine myself to speak more briefly only to these few heads.

What this price of our redemption is.

To whom this price was paid, and of whom we were bought.

How the payment of a price can be consistent with the free mercy and grace of God in saving us.

What it is, that we are by this price redeemed from.

i. Let us consider WHAT THIS PRICE IS, WHICH IS PAID DOWN FOR OUR REDEMPTION.

And that is a price infinitely inestimable, consisting in all those dolorous sorrows and sufferings that our Lord Christ underwent in the days of his flesh, when it pleased the Lord to bruise him. In his nativity and circumcision, was this rich exchequer first opened; which was never afterwards shut, till he paid out to the very last farthing, the very last drop of his most precious blood, as a full and satisfactory price of our redemption. But, though the whole course of his humiliation and abasement was part of this price which he paid; yet, because the chief and greatest sum of it was told down to God in his death and last passion, and all his other sorrows and sufferings were completed in this, therefore the Scripture doth principally ascribe our redemption to the blood of Christ. So, 1 Peter 1:18, 19. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold.… But with the precious blood of Christ. His soul was made an offering for sin: Isa. 53:10. The blood of Jesus Christ.… cleanseth us from all sin: 1 John 1:7. and many other places to the same import. Now the blood and death of Christ, and all other parts of his exinanition, carried in them a sufficient, yea a redundant value, to expiate the sins of the whole world; from the infinite virtue of the hypostatical union of the divine with the human nature, whereby his blood became the blood of God; his sufferings, the abasement and humiliation of God: and this made it a price, not only equivalent unto, but infinitely surpassing and outbidding the purchase, for which it was offered.

ii. Let us consider, TO WHOM THIS PRICE WAS PAID; and that is to our great creditor, God.

The Socinians, on purpose to undermine this fundamental doctrine of Christ's satisfaction, tell us, that, if we are redeemed by a price in this strict and proper sense, that price must then be paid into the hands of Satan, because we are in bondage under him: but this is as weak, as it is impious: for, indeed, Satan is not our creditor; we owe him nothing, but hatred and aversation: neither is any man, that is kept in ward for crimes or debts, properly said to be his goaler's prisoner, but the king's or the creditor's; so, though we are naturally in bondage under Satan, yet he is but our goaler: we are not his prisoners; but God's, who is both our sovereign, and our creditor. And therefore the price is not to be paid to him, by whom we are detained: but to him, by whose authority or by whose suit we are detained; and that is, the justice of God: and therefore Christ, by satisfying the justice of God, releaseth us from under the power of Satan. We are under a twofold bondage to the Devil: the one moral, by our sins and vices, doing his work and toiling in his drudgery; and thus we are his slaves: the other legal, by the guilt of sin binding us over and making us liable unto his plagues and torments. Christ hath redeemed us from both: improperly, from the former; by the power of his grace breaking asunder our chains and fetters in our conversion, and so setting us free from the service of sin and the Devil: most properly, from the latter; by the infinite virtue of his merits ransoming us from that death, and woe, and wrath, to which we stood exposed, and which else the Devil would have inflicted upon us, as being the great minister and executioner of divine vengeance. Now we are not properly redeemed from our moral bondage, our slavery to sin and Satan, but conquered: therefore no price was paid to him, under whose vassalage we were held. But we are properly redeemed from our legal bondage; from our liableness to eternal death and sufferings: yet the price ought not to be paid to Satan, but unto God, whose minister and executioner Satan is.

And this is in answer to the Second Enquiry.

iii. The Third general Enquiry is, HOW THE PAYMENT OF A FULL AND SATISFACTORY PRICE CAN BE CONSISTENT WITH THE FREE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD IN SAVING US.

For the Scripture speaks so much of God's mercy and free grace in saving sinners, that some have thought it very difficult to reconcile those expressions with the notion of a price of redemption, properly so called. The chief sense in which grace is said to be free, is, that it gratuitously confers upon us the benefits of our redemption without merit or desert. If then these be merited, if an equal price be paid down for them, what becomes of all those magnificent exaltations of free grace, which the Scripture seems so much to glory in? I, even I am he, that blotteth out thy transgressions for my name's sake: By grace are ye saved, &c. Certainly, what is so dearly bought and purchased as by the blood of Jesus Christ, cannot be said to be a free and gratuitous gift.

To this I answer, in the general, that these things are not at all inconsistent: and, therefore, it ought to be no prejudice to our most high veneration of the infinitely rich and infinitely free grace of God in our redemption, although that redemption be purchased for us, and a price paid down fully answerable to the demands of divine justice.

I shall endeavour to clear up this, in these following particulars.

1. We are not so freely redeemed, pardoned, and saved, as to exclude all merit and desert on Christ's part.

This is not necessary to the establishing of free grace, that our Saviour himself should be the object of it. For God transacted with his Son, only upon the terms of strict and impartial justice: nor was there ever any one sin, that he was pleased to take upon himself, that was pardoned to him; but a plenary satisfaction was exacted from him, and justice had out its full due in his sufferings. Every sin stood him as dear, as it would have done the sinners themselves, had God resolved never to have administered mercy and grace unto them: and, therefore, saith the Apostle, Col. 1:14. In him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: and, without shedding of blood there is no remission: Heb. 9:22: and, This is my blood.… which is shed.… for the remission of sins: Matt. 26:28. All our sins were laid upon him, and imputed to him; and he underwent and eluctated the whole pressure of those punishments, that were due unto them, and is now set down at the right-hand of the Majesty on high, to make intercession for us. So that, though never any who was a sinner, either through the corruption of nature or actual transgression, hath attained to the joy and happiness of heaven, but only through the pardoning grace and mercy of God; yet he, who was the Greatest Sinner (as Luther made bold to call him, and so he was by imputation) is now triumphing in those regions of bliss, crowned with glory, and arrayed with infinite majesty, whose sins yet were never pardoned, nor ever had he the least free grace or mercy shewn him; but, whatsoever he hath obtained either for himself or for us, the possession of it for himself and the possibility and assured hopes of it for us, he hath most dearly bought and purchased. Yea, indeed, in respect of this purchase made by Christ, we receive nothing at all of free grace from God; but, whatever we have or expect is paid for to the very utmost of what it is worth: for, as we ourselves are bought with a price, so is every thing we enjoy: even the most common and vulgar blessings, that are promiscuously distributed among the sons of men, all flow to us in a stream of blood.

But, yet,

2. In respect of ourselves, our redemption, pardon, and salvation, and all the mercies we enjoy, are of mere free grace.

No merit, no price is required from us: but all is excluded on our part, besides a grateful acknowledgment and an humble expression of our duty, by that rich mercy, which requires these from us; not as the price of our redemption, but only as a testimony of our love and ready obedience. Alas! could we pray, till our knees took root in the earth; could we weep whole rivers, and, after our tears were spent, drop our eye-balls too; could we fast ourselves into ghosts, and sigh away our souls into air; should we give all our goods to the poor, and our body to the flames: yet all our prayers, and tears, and fasting, and alms, and all the stock of our own righteousness, yea should it be supposed that a tax and subsidy should be levied upon the good works of all mankind and put into one common treasure for the use and benefit of any one particular soul, yet it would not be found a price rich enough for its redemption, nor at all available to buy off the guilt of the least sin. For, whatsoever is required of us, is but debt and duty; and therefore cannot be meritorious: and, whatsoever is not required of us, is but will-worship and superstitious devotion; and therefore cannot be acceptable. So, then, it is no derogation at all from the free grace of God, that he pardons and saves us upon the intervention of a price; that our pardon is bought, and our inheritance is purchased: for we ourselves have not been at any part of the charge: we have not so much as cast in one mite into this treasury; but all is as freely and gratuitously bestowed upon us, as if it had never been purchased at all.

And, again,

3. The relaxing of the rigour of the Covenant of Works, so far forth as to take off our personal obligation to punishment by the commutation of persons, accepting the substitution of another, of a Surety, of a Redeemer, is an act of infinite free grace and rich mercy.

For, by the letter of the Law, Do this and live, implying the contrary threatening of death in case of disobedience, every sinner stood bound to suffer the whole curse and penalty in his own person: and God might for ever have refused to recede so far from his own right, as to admit of any satisfaction made and tendered by another; but might have seized upon us, who were the transgressors, and bound us over to answer it at the great assize before his dreadful tribunal, and to suffer for it eternal torments in hell. Now, O Sinner, though God hath received a price and ransom for thy soul at the hands of another, is this any diminution of the absolute freeness of his grace towards thee? Dost thou envy that he receives satisfaction for thy sins, since he receives it not from thyself? Or, dost thou grudge and repine that he should glorify his justice and severity upon another, since he intends only to glorify his mercy and grace upon thee?

"Yea," you will say, "this indeed is something of mercy and free grace, that God hath stricken my name out of the bond, and put in my Surety's, whereas he might justly have exacted the forfeiture from myself: but, had it not been a more glorious demonstration of free grace, absolutely to have forgiven the whole debt, and to have required no payment, no satisfaction at all? We see that, among men, he is accounted most bountiful, that forgives the surety as well as the principal. For, what singular act of mercy is it, to release the debtor, and yet rigorously to prosecute his sponsor and undertaker, from whom he is sure to recover all his right and demands? If God had been pleased thus totally to part with his right, and neither exact it from us nor our Surety, had not this been a far more generous mercy, and a more glorious demonstration of his infinite free grace?"

I answer, No. And therefore assert,

4. That God's free grace is more gloriously demonstrated in the redemption of the world through a price, than it would have been, if he had only freely and arbitrarily remitted to them their offences and delivered them from eternal death, without requiring any satisfaction.

And this will appear most clearly, if we consider but these Two things.

(1) Who the Person is, that is appointed our Surety and our Ransom.

Is it an angel? truly, if it were, this had been wonderful love, that God should part with so bright and glorious an attendant, send him down to earth, cruciate and torment him for the sins of such vile worms as we are. But, oh astonishment! when, not an angel, but the God of Angels: not a servant, but a Son, yea the Son of his Eternal Love and Delights, is, by the Father himself, appointed to such unspeakable miseries and dolours; and thrust under the sword of justice, when it was just falling upon us, only that he might ward off the blow, and save us from so great and inevitable a ruin, though it was to the death and ruin of his Only Son! Now judge, yourselves, whether it be not infinitely more expressive of the divine love, to save us by devoting his Own Son to be an execration and a sacrifice for us, than if he had only, out of his absolute prerogative, pardoned our sins, and, without more expence or difficulty, received us up into glory. This, indeed, had been grace; but it had been more thrifty and sparing, than that method, which God hath now designed for our salvation, through the blood and sufferings of Jesus Christ. And, therefore, the Scripture every where lays an accent and emphasis upon this: Rom. 8:32. He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all: and, John 3:16. God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son to save it. God lay under no necessity of saving us at all, and much less lay he under any necessity of saving us in so chargeable a manner as by the death of Christ: but yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; to make his soul an offering for sin; and to cause to meet together upon him, all our iniquities and all his plagues and curses. And wherefore was this? not only that justice might be satisfied, but that mercy might also be satisfied; and free love and grace might be glorified in such a stupendous expression of it. The divine wisdom approves of this way of redemption, because divine love dictates it to be most advantageous to commend itself unto us: and that ever-adored design of a Mediator took place in God's eternal councils, that it might be a means, as well for the demonstration of mercy, as for the satisfaction of justice.

And consider,

(2) That God himself furnished and enabled our Redeemer to pay down the whole of that price, which he exacted from him.

For the Son of God had not been passible, had he not become the Son of Man. He had not been wounded, nor buffeted, nor crucified, nor bled, nor died: he had not had any stock nor treasury of merits to have ransomed us; had he not taken upon him the form of a servant, had he not appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh. And, whence had he this, but only of God's providing? Heb. 10:5. A body hast thou prepared me. Now is it not as much free grace, to furnish our Surety with means and abilities to make satisfaction, as to forgive us without requiring any satisfaction at all? Yea, let me add, that free grace is much more glorious, inasmuch as the price with which our Redeemer is furnished, is more than sufficient to pay the debt.

And thus you see, that the intervention of a price is no derogation at all from the freeness of God's grace; yea, rather, this method of redeeming us mightily enhances his mercy, and makes it more rich and glorious. And therefore it is very observable, how the Scripture joins these two together, Free Grace and the Purchased Redemption, as if it would on purpose stop the mouths of those, who, by pleading the inconsistency of these, seek to undermine the greatest support of all our faith and hope, and the most dear and precious truth of the Gospel, I mean the satisfaction of Christ for our sins. See Rom. 3:24. We are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: and, Eph. 1:7. In him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. What can be more express, to reconcile the grace vouchsafed by God, with the price paid for it by Christ? it is free grace, that justifies us; but yet we are justified through redemption: we are redeemed through his blood; but yet this is likewise according to the riches of his grace. And indeed both are easily accommodated: it is of price and purchase, in respect of Christ; but it is of gift and free grace, in respect of us: free, in that God was pleased to accept a Surety for us; and much more free, in that this Surety was his Son.

And, so much, for the Third Inquiry.

iv. The Fourth is, WHAT WE ARE REDEEMED FROM, by that price, which Jesus Christ hath paid down for us.

This I shall briefly shew you, in these following particulars.

1. We are redeemed from the dread Wrath and Vengeance of God.

And what an inestimable mercy is this! Vengeance follows a sinner close at the heels, pursues him through all the threatenings of the Law, brandishes its flaming sword over his head, and is ready every moment to plunge it into his very heart. The poor guilty sinner trembles, under the direful expectation of that fiery indignation, which will for ever consume him: he flies, but knows not whither; is destitute of hope, as he is of help. Now, in this forlorn and desperate condition, for one that might shew unto him a City of Refuge, and guide his trembling steps, and his amazed soul into it! now, for a messenger of peace, an interpreter, one of a thousand, that might declare unto man his righteousness! It is done, O soul: Christ Jesus meets the avenger of blood in his pursuit of thee, offers himself to his sword, falls and dies under his hand; whilst thou fliest into thy refuge, and art free both from thy fears and dangers. We find the high-priest, under the Law, a notable type of Christ in this particular: for the slayer was to abide in the City of Refuge till the death of the high-priest, and then to be set at liberty: Numb. 35:28: so, by the death of Jesus Christ our High-Priest, we are set at liberty, and may walk in safety, being secured and warranted from the wrath of the avenger. Indeed, the wrath and justice of God is the most dreadful and formidable enemy we can have; but, even this enemy, thy Saviour hath satisfied and reconciled: he hath bought out thy peace for thee; and now thou mayest safely treat with justice itself, as thy friend and patron. The divine wrath is pacified; and God is more contented and recompensed by what thy Redeemer hath suffered for thee, than if he had haled thee forth to suffer in thine own person. God infinitely more acquiesceth in the sufferings of his Eternal Son, than he could have done in thine: for thine could have paid his justice but by small parcels at a time, and therefore must have endured eternally; but Christ Jesus paid down the whole sum and debt at once, so that justice could no longer be so if it did not perfectly free us who believe from any farther obligation to wrath and punishment. It is Jesus, saith the Apostle, who hath delivered us from the wrath to come: 1 Thes. 1:10. And therefore, O doubting and trembling Christian, be not so injurious to thy God, as to fear he will revenge those sins upon thee, for which thy Redeemer hath so fully satisfied: thou mayest go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God hath accepted thee: he is at peace with thee, and smiles upon thee. But, if thy conscience still lour, and speak nothing but thunders and threatenings, tell it that thou hast a Peace-Maker: the blood of Jesus, shed upon the cross, hath pacified God; and his blood, sprinkled upon thy conscience, will likewise atone and pacify it towards thee.

2. We are redeemed from under the Slavery and Vassalage of the Devil.

He is that mighty tyrant, that hunts after our souls to destroy them; that great dragon, that casts out of his mouth whole floods of persecutions and temptations to overwhelm us. And, if his rage be so inveterate against us here on earth, how implacable, think you, would his malice be towards us in hell! how would he triumph in our eternal perdition, who is now so aborious and solicitous to procure it! But, thanks be unto God, who hath delivered us from the snare of the fowler; so that now, through the redemption purchased for us by Christ our Lord, we may safely defy his spite, and contemn all the poor and impotent effects of it.

His power is seen chiefly in three things; in tempting, in accusing, in tormenting. But, by the virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, and the price that he hath paid for our redemption, this threefold power is either wholly taken from him, or else much abated.

(1) His Tempting power is restrained and cut short.

He can tempt us no farther, than he hath a permission given him by that God, who hath promised, that we shall not be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, or that he will make a way for us to escape. We see what manacles are upon him, when he must first petition God before he could stretch forth his hand against Job, or touch any thing that he had. And, therefore, O Christian, be confident, that, if he cannot touch thy body or estate, much less shall he touch thy soul and thy conscience by his horrid temptations and injections, without the special leave of God. And, in all his temptations, suppose them never so violent, if thou be but true to thyself, they shall all redound more to his shame and disappointment, than to thine. If thou canst but resist them, and, with a holy scorn and disdain cast back his fiery darts in his face, and keep close to thy duty and allegiance, all his temptations shall but fall upon himself, and be reckoned as his sins, and only thy troubles.

(2) His Accusing power is rebuked.

Thus, when Satan comes with a vehement accusation against Joshua, Zech. 3:2. The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord, that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Our Redeemer will be our advocate: and though, according to the terms of the first Covenant of Works, which requires perfect and spotless obedience, his accusations will most of them be found true against us; yet, according to the Covenant of Grace, which requires faith and sincerity, they will be found malicious and impertinent: and our Redeemer will fetch us off with the loud applause of saints and angels.

(3) His Tormenting power shall be wholly abolished.

The great end and design of the Devil is, only that he might train us into that dark region, where himself hath the sole jurisdiction, there to satiate his revenge upon us in our eternal torments. But Christ, our Redeemer, hath destroyed this power of the Devil: he hath ransacked this dark shop, and broken in pieces all his horrid racks and instruments of cruelty; so that, unless we ourselves will, not a soul of us shall ever fall into the hands of that merciless executioner.

3. We are redeemed from the Power of Sin.

And that, both from its reigning, and likewise from its condemning power.

(1) From its Reigning power.

It is true, that we cannot, in this life, be freed totally from its molestations. It is like the leprosy, that hath eaten so deep into the walls, that it can never be perfectly cleansed till the house itself be destroyed and demolished. But, yet, every true Christian is free from the dominion of it. It may tumultuate and rebel in the best; for we find a law in our members, warring against the law in our minds; many uproars, bandyings, and intestine dissentions: but, yet, it hath lost the sovereignty over them; and is now, not a commander, but a rebel.

(2) We are redeemed, likewise, from the Condemning power of sin.

The other freedom from sin is, by the Spirit of Christ, working mightily in us; but this is by the merits of Christ, effectually applied unto us: Rom. 8:1. There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For, certainly, there is not so much malignity in our sins to destroy us, as there is in the blood of Christ to save us. And, he having interposed his infinite merits in our behalf, it would be a great disparagement to his all-sufficiency, if thou, who art but a poor vile creature, couldst have done that, which he, who is an Infinite God, could not expiate.

4. We are redeemed from the Curse and Malediction of the Law.

All our trials, crosses, and afflictions, that may befal us, are sanctified to us, and have nothing of the curse in them: for nothing is a curse, but what is inflicted in order to the satisfying of divine justice upon us. But, the justice of God being fully satisfied in the sufferings of our Lord Christ, all our own sufferings, how sharp soever they may be, are only for the exercise of our graces, the trial of our faith and patience, the conforming of us to the pattern of our Saviour, demonstrations of God's holiness, and means to make us partakers of it. We may rest confidently assured, that, if we believe, there is nothing of the venom and malignity of the curse in them; for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, saith the Apostle: Gal. 3:13.

III. We have spoken hitherto of the two former parts of the Text; the Doctrine, and the Reason of it.

The next thing to be considered, is the INFERENCE or COROLLARY, which the Apostle draws from them: Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.

Wherein we have Two parts:

An Exhortation: Glorify God.

A Direction how we ought to do it: In our body, and in our spirit.

It is only the former of these, that I intend to insit on. Possibly, I may briefly touch and glance upon the other, in my way. And, as a foundation of my following discourse, I shall lay down this plain Proposition.

THAT THE INFINITE MERCY OF GOD IN OUR REDEMPTION LAYS AN OBLIGATION UPON US TO GLORIFY HIM IN ALL THAT WE DO, HAVE, AND ARE.

This Proposition, I suppose, reacheth the full sense and meaning of the Apostle.

And, in prosecuting it, I shall observe this method:

Shew you what it is to glorify God.

How we are to glorify him.

What force and influence the consideration of our redemption hath to oblige us thus to glorify him.

i. WHAT IT IS, TO GLORIFY GOD.

And, here, we may take notice, that there are very many words used in Scripture, equipollent to this phrase of glorifying God. Such are, To do all things to the glory of God: 1 Cor. 10:31. To give glory to God: Ps. 29:2. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. To honour God: 1 Sam. 2:30. Them, that honour me, I will honour. To make God's name, and his praise glorious: Ps. 66:2 which is indeed the most proper signification of this word "glorify," though other expressions also speak the same sense.

So then, to glorify God, is to make him glorious.

"But, what! is it in the power of any creature to do this? is not God's glory infinite, eternal, and immutable? and would it not be an attempt, both fond and blasphemous, to go about to crown his Deity with any new rays, which shone not in his essence from all eternity? for, since the divine nature is infinitely simple and uncompounded, whatsoever is in God must be God himself; and, therefore, we may as well create a new godhead, as contribute any new accession of glory to that nature, which is altogether unchangeable. How then can we be said to glorify God, or to make him glorious?"

To this I answer, that glory is twofold: either a real glory, perfecting the subject in which it is; or else a relative glory, which doth not perfect the subject, but only declare those perfections which are already in it. The one we may well call a subjective, the other an objective glory.

Now,

1. As to Real and Subjective Glory, certain it is, that we cannot so glorify God, but God may and doth thus glorify us.

We cannot thus glorify God; since this would be utterly inconsistent with his eternal unchangeableness, and independency, and self-sufficiency: for, if we could add any real and absolute perfection to his nature, it would necessarily argue a preceding defect, a present change, and a perpetual obligation to his creatures; all which are infinitely incompatible with the divine essence.

But, yet, it is his prerogative so to glorify us; even by endowing our natures with real and absolute perfections.

Which also he doth,

(1) In our Creation:

Bestowing upon us rational and intellectual faculties, a discursive mind, and many other peculiar privileges both of soul and body; and investing us with sovereignty and dominion over inferior creatures. Upon which account, the Psalmist tells us, that God hath crowned man with honour and glory: Ps. 8:5.

(2) In our Restitution from our lapsed estate:

Implanting in us the seminal inchoations and initials of glory, In our regeneration: for grace is glory in the seed, and glory is but grace in the flower. Thus the Apostle, 2 Cor. 3:18. We are changed into the same image from glory to glory: that is, the image of God is still perfecting in us by his Spirit, carrying on his work from one measure and degree of grace unto another. For the whole life of a Christian here on earth, is but as it were one continued sitting under the hand and pencil of the Holy Ghost; till those first lines and obscurer shadows, which were laid in his New Birth, receive more life, sweetness, and beauty from his progressive sanctification. And this is a being changed from glory to glory. And when this is come to that perfection as to need only the last hand, and the completing touch, then,

(3) God glorifies us by the full Consummation of our Holiness and Happiness in Heaven.

Thus Christ prays, John 17:1. The hour is come: glorify thy Son: and so, v. 5. Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. And so, when our hour is likewise come, when we have attained to the full measure of our stature in Christ Jesus, God will then glorify us with himself; in that glory, which he hath prepared for us before the world was.

Thus, then, God doth confer real glory upon us; which if we should again think to do towards him, it were no less than an impious and blasphemous arrogance: for it would imply, that he were a defective, mutable, and dependent God. And, therefore, in this sense, Eliphaz speaks excellently, Job 22:2, 3. Can a man be profitable unto God?.… Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect? certainly, we can neither add any real good to him by our righteousness, nor detract it from him by our wickedness: for he is as far above the reach of our good works, to benefit him; as he is above the reach of our sins, to wrong and injure him. Therefore we cannot thus glorify God.

But,

2. There is a Relative Glory of God, which he is then said to have; when his real and absolute perfections are declared, and made manifest and conspicuous to the world.

And this glory perfects not him, to whom it is ascribed; but us, who ascribe it to him. And, thus, God may and ought to be glorified by us. The former may be called his essential glory; this latter, his declarative glory. God's Essential Glory is nothing else but the infinite perfection of his own nature: it is a constellation and concentering of all his inconceivable attributes of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, mercy, truth, and the rest, into one ever-blessed essence: this glory is capable neither of addition, diminution, nor change. But his Declarative Glory is nothing else, but the gloss and shine, the visible splendour and lustre, which reflects from his essential glory, upon the notice and admiration of his creatures: and this glory may be both increased and lessened. As to his attributes themselves: so, God is glorious: as to the manifestation of them; so, he is said to be glorified.

And that, either by himself or others.

(1) God is said to glorify Himself.

And that, when he is pleased to dart down a ray, either of his wisdom, or power, or justice, or mercy, or any other of his attributes, so as to make it conspicuous in the administration of affairs here below. And, therefore, John 12:28 we find our Blessed Saviour, sadly reflecting upon the sorrows and agonies of his death, at last composeth and resigneth up himself with this prayer: Father, glorify thy name: and it follows, Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. Indeed, never was there any thing that God did in the world, that so illustriously conduced to his glory, as the adored design of saving it by his Son: this brought in a large share and revenue of glory to most of his attributes: he had already glorified himself in his wisdom and mercy, by the birth of his Son; and, in his power, by the miracles he wrought; and he would glorify himself again, that is, he would now glorify his dread justice and severity, by the death he was to suffer.

(2) Creatures also may be said to glorify God.

Brute and inanimate creatures do it only passively and objectively; as they exhibit the tracks and impresses of the divine attributes upon them: but rational and intelligent creatures ought to do it actively; by observing and ascribing to him those perfections, which he visibly manifests in the ways of his grace or providence. When they see some eminent effects and footsteps of his wisdom, of his power, of his goodness, or the like, in the management of things here below; and are thereby moved piously and seriously to acknowledge that God is wise, powerful, and gracious, as he expresseth himself to be: this ascribing unto God his attributes from what appears in his actions, is our glorifying of him. And so, on the contrary, when sordid, earthy, and bestial men take no notice of the emanations and beamings-forth of God's attributes, neither so as to have their hearts affected with them nor their lives conformed to them, they are said to dishonour God. Not that any, the most boisterous sinners that are, can invade his essence, or rend away any of his infinite perfections from him: this glory they cannot eclipse, but it shines eternally in the same lustre; but they do really eclipse his declarative glory. Which yet is a greater wrong done to themselves, than to him: for, as the sun is still full of light in itself, when yet we see it under an eclipse by the moon's interposing between us and it, which indeed is not properly so much an eclipse of the sun as of the earth; so the glory of God is obscured and eclipsed by the wickedness of men: not that his essential glory is at all prejudiced, for this retains the same tenor of light and lustre for ever; but that they observe not, they admire not, the bright discoveries of his glorious attributes: and so they dishonour him, not by depriving God of any perfection; but themselves, whose highest perfection and the end of whose being it is, to adore God, and to be made conformable unto him.

And thus you see what it is to glorify God. It is to make him glorious: and that, not by the addition of any new glory to him; but only by declaring that glory, which eternally and unchangeably is in him.

ii. The Second thing to be enquired into, is, HOW WE OUGHT TO GLORIFY GOD.

The disquisition of this will both receive light from, and add light unto, what went before.

Now, here, that we may have right and clear apprehensions of a duty, that is so vastly comprehensive, and indeed the whole of man, we must remember that all our glorifying of God is only in relation to his essential attributes, which are properly and really his glory.

And, therefore, Two things are here to be done.

To shew you what these Essential Attributes are. And,

How they may be glorified by us.

1. For the first, these attributes of God are many; which, though they differ according to our manner of conception and expression, yet are all really the same nature and essence in God.

I shall mention only those, which are most conspicuous, and which we have most frequent occasion in the course of our lives to glorify. And such are these Seven following: Purity and Holiness, Power and Sovereignty, Mercy and Goodness, Equity and Justice, Wisdom and Omniscience, Immensity and Omnipresence, Truth and Veracity. There are, indeed, many more; as Eternity, Unchangeableness, Simplicity, and Oneness, &c. but these, because they are not so conversant about human affairs, I shall not now particularly speak of.

2. These attributes may be glorified, in the general, Two ways; either by adoration, or else by declaration.

(1) We ought to glorify God by a most humble and devout Adoration of his infinite attributes and perfections.

Seriously to ponder them in our hearts, to consider their beauty and excellency, to admire those expressions of them which God is pleased to vouchsafe us; and, when we see any notable instance, either of the divine power, or wisdom, or goodness, or justice in the dispensations of his providence, then to prostrate ourselves in the most humble veneration of our souls, and ascribe it unto God, acknowledging that his perfections are gloriously discovered in those effects, and with ravished and inflamed hearts singing unto him the song of Moses and the Lamb, Rev. 15:3. Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty: just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: this is to glorify God. And, not only thus to observe and to acknowledge the appearance of God's attributes, but to have our affections likewise suited and proportioned to them; as, when God displays his dread justice and severity, either against ourselves or others, then to fear and tremble before him; when he magnifies the riches of his mercy and goodness, to rejoice and praise his holy name; and so, in the like instances, which I intend more particularly to prosecute hereafter: this reverend observing of the manifestations of God's attributes and conforming our affections proportionably unto them, is one chief spiritual method of glorifying God, whereby we do secretly, yet effectually, advance his honour in the inmost retirements and recesses of a devout soul.

But,

(2) There is another way of glorifying God; and that is, by Declaration of his infinite perfections.

And this is Twofold; either by our Words, or by our Works.

[1] We ought to glorify God, by declaring his attributes in our Words and Discourses; setting forth his holiness, wisdom, power, justice, in the most serious and affecting manner that we are able, so as to beget a high and honourable esteem of them in those that hear us.

And, therefore, 1 Pet. 4:11. the Apostle exhorts us, but especially ministers, If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.… that God, in all things, may be glorified. Hence, David often calls his tongue his glory: Ps. 57:8. Awake up, my glory: awake, psaltery and harp: and, Ps. 108:1. I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. And why is this member especially called our glory, but because it is the fittest instrument for our glorifying of God? Therewith bless we God, even the Father, saith the Apostle: James 3:9.

And this, indeed, is the glory of our glory, and the crown of our excellency, when we employ so noble a part in so noble a work; still to be celebrating his name, and setting forth his praise. And, indeed, what more excellent theme can there be for our discourse, than God? a theme, that will more adorn and beautify our language, than that can adorn and extol him: a theme, that can never be exhausted; but, the more we speak of God, still the more we may, new discoveries still emerging and rising up to our admiring view. And, whilst we affectionately endeavour to exalt the majesty, power, wisdom, and goodness of God in our discourses, if we speak not more elegantly, yet certainly we shall speak more pertinently and to the purpose, than the most florid trifler that abuseth a great deal of wit and rhetoric about toys and nothings. This kind of holy and serious speech will advance us as much above the common rank and pitch of other men, as speech itself doth advance men above the condition of brute beasts.

And yet, alas! how many are there, that turn this their glory into shame; whose tongues are rather spunges to wipe out and deface the glory of God, than pencils to delineate and express it! who scarce ever speak of God, but in an oath; nor make mention of his name, but when they curse and ban by it! Their black mouths are full of the soot of hell, and their tongues set on fire of those infernal flames. They seem to have already learnt the language of hell; and are well fitted, for ever to converse with those damned wretches, who have no other use of God, but only to blaspheme and curse him. And, to their own shall they go: and, for ever blaspheme, out of the exquisite anguish of their torments; as here they did, out of mere gallantry and humour.

Others, again, though they neither whet nor draw their tongues against God, yet are they very shy of speaking either of him or for him; and would rather make any thing the subject of their discourse, than that God, who hath endowed them with so excellent a faculty. Hence, how much time, how much converse is lost among men; whilst idle tales and raillery, and such like unconcerning vanities, busy their minds and tongues: and no man thinks or speaks of that God, who is intimately present with them, and one of the company! So that we may very justly take up that complaint of the Psalmist, Ps. 12:2. They speak vanity, every one with his neighbour.

There is, indeed, a great deal of Christian prudence and discretion requisite in this particular. For, as the amiableness of all duties consists in the right timing and placing of them, so especially of this holy and spiritual discourse. And, therefore, the Wise Man tells us, Prov. 25:11. that a word, fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver: and, there is a time when the prudent should keep silence: Amos 5:13. Indeed, the mention of the Great God ought not to be trivially ingested; nor, by an imprudent zeal, importunely and abruptly crowded in, when we may rationally conclude it will be so far from glorifying of God, as only to create a contempt and nauseating in the hearers.

But yet a man, that is spiritually skilful in this affair, will watch his opportunities: and, if he hath been exercised in this holy art, it is very seldom, that, in a long converse, he should fail of a fit cue pertinently to wind in and insinuate heavenly discourse; and make that which began, perhaps, about poor earthly affairs, yet to end in God, and the contemplations and praises of his eternal attributes: for somewhat of God is considerable in every thing that we can speak of, either his power, or wisdom, or goodness. It should be our care, not to lodge, but only to bait our thoughts and our discoures at creatures, and so quickly pass through them unto God: only let the hints be taken wisely and seasonably. Indeed our discourses should be like Jacob's ladder: though the bottom of them stand upon the earth, yet the top of them should reach into heaven. We find our Saviour very frequent in this practice, still taking occasion from the things of this world to waft over his discourse to things of another world: what a most excellent spiritual discourse doth he draw out of Jacob's well, John 4! and, now again, by a miracle of his wisdom, as once before by a miracle of his power, he turns water into wine: so, from common and ordinary bread, he takes occasion to set before them, and to break unto them the bread of life: John 6. And herein every true Christian should be piously ingenious; to take his advantage from earthly occurrences, to transfer his thoughts and discourse to those attributes of God, which appear most conspicuous and illustrious in them. Thus, if any discourse happen concerning any wonderful revolutions in the affairs of the world, how easy and how natural is it to slide off from this, into the serious consideration of the infinite wisdom and sovereignty of God, in guiding and governing all things here below, according to his eternal and immutable counsels! If it be concerning any remarkable and exemplary plague brought upon a wicked person or people, doth not this naturally prompt us to speak of the divine justice and the strict severity of God, who will certainly cause men's sins to find them out? If it be of any prosperous success or blessing bestowed upon his Church, or any particular person who is a sincere and upright servant of God, doth not this administer to us a fair and pertinent occasion to magnify the infinite mercy of God, who will not suffer virtue and piety to lie always unregarded, but sometimes will as conspicuously own it in this world, as he will gloriously crown it in the world to come? So, I say, there is scarce any thing we can discourse of, but the divine attributes are so interwoven and appear so plainly in it, that we may thence take very obvious hints to raise our meditations and discourses unto heavenly objects.

That is the First way of glorifying God, by declaring his glory in our Words and Discourses.

[2] There is another way of glorifying him; and that is, by our Works and Actions.

And, indeed, this is the chief and principal way of glorifying God; and that, which is the most free from suspicion of guilt and hypocrisy. We may flourish over the attributes of God, with many excellent notions and expressions of them: yet all other expressions may prove deceitful; but those, which are made in men's lives. Hence it is, that our Saviour instructs us in the most effectual course to promote the glory of God: Mat 5:16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven: and, John 15:8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. Many empty, talkative professors there may possibly be, who would fain pass for trees of righteousness and plants of renown; and yet bear nothing but leaves, an external show and a flourishing outside: these they wear for their own ostentation and glory; but are wholly deficient in that, which is most conducing to the glory of God, the fruits of the Spirit, the fruits of righteousness, which the Apostle tells us are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God: Phil. 1:11.

This, therefore, being the chief way of glorifying God, setting forth and declaring his attributes by our Works and Actions, I shall the more largely insist on it.

Now there are Two ways, in the general, to glorify the Divine Attributes by our Actions.

First. By conforming ourselves to the likeness and similitude of them.

And this we ought to do, in respect of the communicable attributes of God's nature: such as his holiness, and mercy, and justice, and wisdom, and truth. These are called communicable attributes, because they may be, in some respect and measure, found also in the creatures. And, to endeavour a resemblance with God in these, is the tendency of grace in us, and the effect of the Spirit of God, making us in this sense partakers of the divine nature. And, the more perfectly we transcribe our original, the more lively these lineaments of God are pourtrayed upon the soul, the more do we thereby glorify him: for it is his honour to be imitated, in what is imitable by us. Certainly, it is a sign that we love and esteem whatsoever we strive and endeavour to resemble; and count that excellent and perfect, which we would have found in ourselves: and, therefore, as it is a pleasure to any man, to observe others how they eye and imitate his actions, because it is a testimony of honour and respect which they give him; so is it a delight to God, to observe the endeavours of a holy soul in imitating his perfections, for this is a sign and evidence that they do highly venerate them. And,

Secondly. We glorify God, by performing those duties which his attributes oblige us unto.

For there are many incommunicable attributes of God, which it were impiety or folly for us to attempt the imitation of. Such are his absolute eternity, both before and after all time: his infiniteness and immensity, filling all places, yea infinitely exceeding all: the perfect simplicity and incomposition of his nature, his immutability and unchangeableness, and his independency and self-sufficiency. In none of these, can we be like unto God. But yet these proper and incommunicable attributes enforce and lay upon us many duties, by the conscientious performance of which we ought to glorify God: for we are bound to glorify him, not only in his holiness, and justice, and goodness; but in his eternity, unchangeableness, omnipotence, and omniscience, although indeed in a different manner. The former we ought to glorify, by conforming ourselves to them: the latter we ought to glorify, by performing the duties which they oblige us unto.

Let us therefore consider, in particular, how we ought to glorify God in several of his attributes.

1st. I shall begin with his Holiness and Purity.

This is an attribute, than which none is more frequently ascribed unto God in Scripture: The Holy God, and The Holy One of Israel. Yea it is spoken of, as if all the rays of God's glory were contracted into this one attribute: glorious in holiness: Exod. 15:11. And, therefore, if God accounts his holiness his most shining and illustrious attribute, it is but reason that we should glorify him in that, wherein he esteems himself most glorious: for what is it to glorify God, but to express how glorious he is? and shall we not therefore especially glorify him in that, wherein he is most glorious?

If, then, you would glorify God in his holiness, you must do it by being conformable to it. This is no arrogance, nor proud presumption; but your stated duty: for God hath prefixed his holiness, as the example and motive of yours. So we have it, Lev. 11:44. Ye shall be holy, for I am holy: which is again repeated and pressed upon them, chap. 19:2 and chap. 20:7. Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy: which the Apostle likewise quotes and transcribes, 1 Pet. 1:15, 16. As he, which hath called you, is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation: As it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

(1st) Now the true notion of Holiness, is, a Separation from all Sin and Impurity.

This is the holiness of God; in whose most pure essence there is not the least shadow of any thing that is culpable, nor can there be. And this holiness thou oughtest to glorify, by resembling it as perfectly as thy finite human nature can bear so bright an impress.

For, consider,

[1st] Other of God's attributes may be glorified, whether thou wilt or no.

He hath glorified his Almighty Power, in creating this great world out of a huge nothing. He hath glorified his Wisdom, in the beautiful order and harmonious government of the world; conducting all things sweetly and powerfully, by his own counsels, to his own ends. He hath glorified his Goodness, by spreading a bountiful table for all living things, and richly providing for all their necessities. These and other of his attributes he hath abundantly glorified: and he might have so done, although mankind had never been created; but the earth had been only filled with brute creatures, and heaven with angels to I observe them. But, there is no method to glorify his Holiness here below, which he accounts the chiefest part of his glory, and the most precious jewel in his diadem; no method I say to glorify this, but only by our being holy and pure, in conformity to his holiness. And, what! wilt thou suffer God's chief glory to lie obscure and neglected? Shall he be glorified in every attribute and perfection of his nature, but only that wherein he is most transcendently glorious?

Consider, again,

[2dly] Thou ownest and acknowledgest thyself to be God's: at least I am sure thou wouldest willingly be found so at the Last and Great Day.

And, what! dost thou think that God will claim thee to be his, when thou wearest the Devil's mark and brand upon thee? Whose image and superscription dost thou bear? God's image, by which he knows his own, is Holiness stamped upon them. God doth, as it were, strike a tally, when he sanctifies any soul: he communicates his holiness to it; and, in that, his image and similitude: nor will he own that person, at the Last Day, who cannot produce this tessera, this tally, and prove himself to be God's by his conformity unto him. Now, O Sinner, thou, that wallowest in the filth of all manner of pollutions, canst thou ever hope to be owned by God, as one of his, when thou retainest all the characters of the Devil deeply imprinted on thee? What badge, what cognizance hast thou, to make it known that thou art God's? a human nature, gospel ordinances and privileges? and so have thousands had, who are now in hell, Wherein is thy likeness and similitude unto God? possibly, thou resemblest him in thy knowledge and understanding; and hast a great measure of wisdom and prudence bestowed upon thee: possibly, thou resemblest him in power and authority; and he hath stamped that part of his image upon thee, exalting thee in dignity and honour above others: possibly, thou resemblest him likewise in thy beneficence; and art kind and charitable, and helpful to those who stand in need of thee. It is well. But, yet, this is not that image, that God will own thee by. He requires a nearer resemblance of himself, in thy holiness and purity; and, whatsoever else thou mayest think to produce will stand thee in no stead; for, without holiness, no man shall see God.

(2dly) Now, holiness and purity expresseth itself against sin Two ways: in the Hatred, and in the Flight of it.

[1st] Therefore glorify God in his holiness, abhorring and hating every sin. Hate it, wheresoever it is found; but, especially, in thyself. Hate it, in others: hate their vices, but yet love their persons; both which thou wilt best perform, if thou labourest by rebukes, exhortations, admonitions, and counsels, to destroy sin in them. But, especially, hate it in thyself: for, certainly, if thou hatest a toad or a serpent wherever it be, thou hast more reason to hate it crawling in thine own bosom. And,

[2dly] Eschew and avoid all sin for the future; yea, all the appearances, and all the occasions of it. Dread nothing so much as a polluted, defiled conscience.

And, whilst thou thus sincerely endeavourest to keep thy soul pure and spotless, thou mayest, with unspeakable joy, expect that God will glorify his mercy upon thee, who thus glorifiest his holiness in thyself.

2dly. Another attribute of God, which we ought especially to glorify, is his Mercy and Goodness.

Indeed, these two words, of Mercy and Goodness, are often promiscuously used, to signify one and the same gracious disposition of God towards his creatures. Yet, if we more accurately consider it, there seems to be this difference between them; that goodness is of a much larger extent and latitude than mercy. For mercy, properly, connotes misery in the object towards which it is expressed: but goodness may be as well expressed towards the happy, as towards the wretched and miserable. It was an effect of God's infinite goodness, to create the world; to continue the glorious angels in that blessed estate, in which they now stand; to preserve the frame of nature in its course, and every creature in its being: but this is not properly called mercy; because it doth not suppose any precedent misery, from which it frees and rescues them. Briefly, therefore, those free and gratuitous favours, which God bestows upon his creatures, if they were wretched before, are an expression of his mercy; if they were not wretched, are an expression of his goodness: and therefore our creation and preservation is properly an effect of the divine goodness, because these benefits do not suppose us lying under any misery, nor deliver us out of it; but our redemption and salvation are an effect of the divine mercy properly so called, because these are conferred upon us when we were lost, ruined, and undone, with a purpose to deliver us from that abyss of woe and misery into which we had plunged ourselves. But, because the acts, both of God's mercy and goodness, are one and the same, but are only modified according to the divers considerations of their objects, therefore we may well treat of them as one and the same attribute in the divine nature.

Now this merciful goodness of God is one of the most radiant and sparkling gems in his crown: and, when God would be seen by us in all his state and splendour, he arrays himself with this attribute. And, therefore, when Moses had attained such holy freedom with God, as to entreat him to shew him his glory, Exod. 33:18. it is remarkable that God condescends to his request, and tells him, v. 19. I will make all my goodness pass before thee: he grants his petition; but withal informs him, that he could not see his essential glory, for that is too dazzling an object for frail and mortal eyes to bear: Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live: v. 20. But, yet, when God would shew himself in the brightest and most illustrious glory that a mortal man can behold, he selects out and puts on this attribute of his goodness: and, accordingly, ch. 34:6. he passeth by in pomp, and magnificently proclaims his name, The Lord, the Lord God: what! The Lord God great and terrible, that formed all things by the word of his mouth, and can destroy all things by the breath of his nostrils? that rides upon the wings of the wind, and makes the clouds the dust of his feet? that rends the mountains in sunder, and makes the hills shrink from his presence? that overturneth kingdoms, and brings decreed destruction upon all the beauty and stability of mundane affairs? No: though God be very glorious in these expressions of his power and majesty; yet this is not that name, which he chiefly delights to honour: but, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; Keeping mercy for thousands; forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.

Thus you see God owns his mercy and goodness, as his dearest attribute and his peculiar glory: he seems, as it were, to esteem and value himself upon it: and therefore, certainly, we ought to glorify him in that, wherein he accounts himself so glorious.

But how may we glorify God in his mercy and goodness?

I answer, these Four Ways.

(1st) By endeavouring to Assimilate Ourselves unto it; labouring after an universal goodness, in all our converse and demeanour.

Then is God's goodness glorified, when we endeavour to transcribe and copy it forth in ourselves. Every true Christian ought to be so deeply tinctured with the serious consideration of the mercy and goodness of God, till he is transformed into the very image and likeness of it. This will render it visible and conspicuous unto men. How should we know that the sun is so bright and glorious a creature, if the air were not all strewed and powdered with its light? our eyes discern the light of the sun, by the light of the air through which it diffuses and scatters its rays, and turns all that vast body into light and splendour.

And so, truly, when thou thyself art turned into mercy and goodness, others will behold the mercy and goodness of God shining forth in thee, and be induced to give God the glory. And that, upon a double account:

First. Whilst thou art beneficent and good to others, they cannot but gratefully acknowledge the mercy of God, in so sweetly disposing and inclining thy heart to those actions of love and kindness towards them.

And, indeed, this thou oughtest to propound to thyself as thy utmost end, in all the offices of charity and humanity that thou dost unto others, that God may have the praise and glory of all. And, therefore, if thou relievest the poor, or rescuest the oppressed, or remittest thy due to those whom a rigorous exacting of it would ruin, and dost it with an intent that thou thyself mayest be praised and extolled for it, and not God; this is so far from being charity, that it is sacrilege: for all mercy and compassion in us, is but the mercy of God communicating itself to others through us; as all light in the air, is but the light of the sun shining through it. And, therefore, all the good thou dost or canst do, thou dost it upon God's stock: and, certainly, if thou employest his stock, it is but reason that he should have the interest; which if thou withholdest from him, and assumest to thyself, thou robbest God of his right; and, whilst thou art bountiful in communicating his goodness unto others, thou art likewise unjust in taking his praise and glory to thyself. It is a most commendable piety in those, who, when they have given alms to relieve the bodily necessities of the poor, have likewise given a better alms to their souls, in exhorting them not so much to thank them but God, who hath both enabled and inclined them to do it. And, indeed, though we are bound to acknowledge and respect those, who have been kind and munificent to us; yet we ought especially to bless and praise God, who hath inspired and moved them to those actions, and derived his universal and extended goodness through them unto us: this is the way to make their goodness glorify God's goodness, when we take notice how the mercy of God appears in their mercy to us: and therefore it is remarkable, when Jacob addresseth himself unto Esau, and had found favour in his sight, he tells him, Gen. 33:10. I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me: that is, in the courteous and reconciled countenance of his brother, he discerned the favour and gracious dealing of God with him. So should we say, when we partake of any benefit or goodness from men: "In such a one's goodness, I have seen the goodness of God: in his bounty, I have seen the bounty of God." And thus, by assimilating ourselves unto God in this attribute, we shall give occasion to grateful and considerative persons frequently to make such reflections, which will highly conduce to his praise and glory.

Secondly. The shewing of mercy and doing of good unto others will glorify God, as it may cause them to reflect, that, if there be so much goodness in a creature, how infinitely more is there then in the Creator.

This is a rational and easy inference, which those, who are any way ingenuous, cannot fail to make when they behold that benevolence, and bounty, and readiness to help and assist others, which appears in you. And, therefore, saith our Saviour, Mat. 5:16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. We shall thus glorify him, by giving others a happy occasion to conclude, that, if there be so much mercy and goodness in the creature, then certainly there is infinitely more in God himself: if a river pours forth such abundance of waters to refresh the dry and parched earth, how boundless must the treasury of the great deep be, from whence, as Solomon tells us, they are all supplied! Now think with thyself, O Christian! what a vast sum and revenue of glory will come in to God, when, by thy beneficence and liberality, thou shalt give a worthy occasion of extolling his; and, though thou canst resemble it but in part, according to the stinted measures of thy finite nature and ability, yet shalt glorify it entirely, by causing others to adore the infinite riches of it in the divine nature.

Now, that our mercy and goodness may be like unto God's, it must have in it these Four qualifications.

[1st] It must be a General goodness, universally respecting all.

For God's is so. Ps. 145:16. Thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. He spreadeth his cherishing wings over all the creation; and, with his rich bounty, rejoiceth all the works of his hands. And, if thou wilt glorify him, thou must act proportionably within thy sphere; and do good unto all, according to the opportunities and abilities that God hath bestowed upon thee: thy mercy is not like God's, if thou sufferest any, who make their applications to thee, and whom thou canst relieve, to go away with the pressure of their wants and necessities upon them. And, as though this field were not large enough for the exercise of our mercy, and mankind were too few for us to do good unto, God hath required that we should shew mercy and goodness to the very beasts: Prov. 12:10. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. And, so far doth he esteem of this sweet and compassionate temper in us, that he rather chooseth to dispense with his own immediate service and worship, than to hinder us from any opportunities of doing good to any creature: still preferring mercy before sacrifice; and accounting the life of one beast saved, a more acceptable service, than the death of many beasts sacrificed.

[2dly] It must be a Free, Undeserved goodness, to be like unto God's.

For his is so. Yea, so undeserved, that he lays it forth upon those, who have deserved his wrath and vengeance: He maketh his sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust: Mat 5:45. And, if we would glorify God by our likeness to him in this attribute, our goodness must proceed by the same measures. Possibly, some have abused and affronted us; and now it is in our power to revenge ourselves upon them: but know, that the Divine Providence hath given thee an opportunity for revenge; yet the Divine Mercy requires that thou shouldst not only forgive the injury, but requite it with courtesies and kind offices: thou oughtest not to diminish the least part of that good, which thou canst do them; upon consideration of wrongs and contumelies, which thou hast received from them. This, indeed, is a high and transcendent pitch of goodness; yet this is but that, which our Saviour very instantly presseth upon his disciples, as the very mark and badge by which they may be known to be the children of God: Mat. 5 from 5:44, to the end: I say unto you, Love your enemies: bless them, that curse you: do good to them, that hate you: and pray for them, that despitefully use you and persecute you: That ye may be the children of your Father, which is in heaven: and so, again, Luke 6. from 5:27 to 37. this important and difficult duty is most earnestly inculcated: If ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye?.… But, love ye your enemies; and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again.… and ye shall be, that is, ye shall appear and be known to be, the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

[3dly] Our goodness, that it may be like unto God's, must be wholly disinterested.

We must not carry on any selfish designs by it; nor seem to do others good, but really intend only our own advantage: this is but to make a benefit a bait, which whilst others take, they are themselves taken. God's goodness is more generous; expecting no recompence to be made: for how can we be profitable to him? or what can we return him, that is not his own? And, although his favours towards us be many and great, yet he is pleased to reckon that we acquit ourselves of our obligations, if we return him but acknowledgment and praise. And, if we would glorify God, such must our goodness be. Our Saviour hath taught us to scorn that sordid way of laying snares for other men's courtesies, by ours to them: Luke 14:12, 13. When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not.… thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and so a recompence be made thee. And, whosoever he be, that is good and bountiful to others upon such a mean design, he doth but barter and truck benefits, not bestow them.

[4thly] Our goodness must be Discreet, likewise; and, though it ought to be universal, it must be Discriminating too: for even God's is so.

He doth good unto all; yet not equally. Some there are, who pass only under the general influences of his common bounty; and, though he give a liberal allowance to these, yet he bestows the treasures of his grace and mercy and the inheritance of his glory on those, who are the excellent ones, and whom he hath made worthy: hence God is said to be the saviour of all men, especially of those that believe: 1 Tim. 4:10. And, if we would glorify God, we must imitate him in this particular also. Though our goodness ought to be general; and, so far as we are able, we should tread where God hath passed on before us: yet we ought, likewise, to put a difference, as he hath done; and to make a deeper impression of our charity and goodness upon some, than upon others. Hence the Apostle exhorts us, Gal. 6:10. As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. All, that are in want, challenge relief from thee, according to thine ability: but, seest thou any, that are poor in outward respects, but yet rich in faith? thou art obliged, under a double bond, to supply and provide for them; both as they are partakers of the same common human nature, and much more as they are partakers of the divine and heavenly nature. And fear not, lest such an enlarged bounty and goodness, as I have described to you, should inevitably ruin and beggar you; for Christian prudence must here dictate to you the measures which your ability can extend unto: the only danger is, lest you should take them too short. Nor is it to imitate God, if, by some few profuse acts of charity, (for there may be Iavishness even in this) I say, it is not to imitate God, if, by some few acts of charity, you render yourselves incapable of doing more: for God is good unto us; yet so, as he still keeps the stock in his own hands, and doth not exhaust himself to replenish us: but sit down, and impartially consider what is necessary for thyself and thine, in the rank and station in which the providence of God hath set thee; and, whatsoever abounds, thou oughtest not to look upon as thine, but as God's and the poor's: thou only art a trustee for their use; and, if thou withholdest it from them, thou art no better than a thief and a robber, and stealest even that which the law of man calls thine. Indeed, it were very strange, if the most of us could not cut off some superfluous and unnecessary expences, and lay them up into a treasury for good works: we see how sparing and thrifty some men's covetousness is; who will pare away the very edges of decency and fitness, only that they may amass their sordid sums together, when all the use they can make of their wealth is but to look upon it: and why should not piety and charity teach us as much thrift, as vice and covetousness? but only that men are grossly foolish in this particular; looking upon whatsoever is laid out this way, as lost, and no longer theirs; whereas, indeed, had they but faith, and half that religion which they may pretend unto, they would know, that, that only is lost which is unduly kept, and that safest laid up which is well laid out. And, if thou canst but purchase the glory of God, though by the greatest expence, either by relieving or encouraging his servants, know it is the most gainful bargain that ever thou madest: and faith will tell thee, that thou hast but remitted thy wealth to heaven, where it shall be punctually paid thee with abundant interest; and, in the meanwhile, God hath given thee as many bonds, as he hath made promises, to secure thee.

This, therefore, is the First way of glorifying God's mercy and Goodness, by our resemblance to it; cherishing in ourselves a generous, free, disinterested, and discreet goodness towards others.

I have the longer insisted upon this, because I see it woefully neglected amongst Christians; who fall so infinitely short of imitating God in the mercifulness and goodness of his nature, that they look upon it as a piece of religion to be sour, morose, and supercilious, and too frequently proud despisers of others. Some are unjust in their dealings, and take all advantages to defraud and circumvent their brethren; and are so far from doing what love and charity require, that they answer not the rules of law and equity. Some, if they seek not the ruin of others, yet are ready to rejoice at it; and, with a devilish kind of delight, please themselves, either with the miscarriages or mishaps of their brethren. Others, again, love to sow discords, and to stir up strife between brethren; that, when they are all in a flame and combustion, they may sit by and warm themselves. What shall I say concerning these? is this to imitate God? is this to copy forth his universal goodness? or do they not rather give a sad occasion to others, to open their black mouths, and to blaspheme God; imputing all their cruelty, injustice, and unmercifulness, to their profession, and to their religion; than which there is no one thing that doth more contradict it? If, therefore, you have any respect, any tenderness for the glory of God, I beseech and charge you, O Christians, by your beneficence, charity, and prone goodness, to redeem the honour of God, which hath deeply suffered through your defaults; and to stop the mouths of those, to whom religion is odious enough by nature, but rendered despicable, as well as odious; and to whom the name of a saint and a professor is made a by-word, only to denote a covetous, niggardly, cruel, and oppressive person, by the lives of too many who walk quite contrary to their rule and to their great exemplar. For, in this, God hath set you no lower a pattern than himself: Luke 6:36. Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

And, so much, for the First and great way of glorifying the Mercy and Goodness of God.

(2dly) We ought to glorify the mercy of God, by endeavouring to render ourselves Fit Objects for his mercy to be laid out upon.

Certainly, he little honours the mercy of a prince, who will not render himself capable of it. And, let me tell you, it is the greatest scorn and contempt you can cast upon the rich and free mercy of God, that, when he hath so gloriously proclaimed it and told you upon what terms you may be made partakers of it, you should refuse to come up to those terms, as if it were not so much worth, as the price at which God offers it. What is it, that God expects from you? it is but repentance, and reformation of life; a sincere and universal obedience to his laws: upon the performance of this, his mercy, his Christ, himself, his heaven, his all, are yours: Prov. 28:13. He, that confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy. And, what! wilt thou stick at this? If God had required some great thing of you, the utter ruin and impoverishing of your estates, the macerating and torturing of your bodies, the plucking out of your right eyes and cutting off your right hands, even in a literal sense, would you not have done it, that you might obtain mercy and salvation at the last? See what terms those, who were convinced of their misery, and of their absolute need of mercy to save them, do of themselves voluntarily offer unto God; far more grievous and extreme than any which he hath required: Micah 6:6, 7. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God?.… Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? certainly, these seem to value mercy, when they bid so high for it, though they were ignorant of the right way of obtaining it. And, now, when God shall inform us, that all he requires of us is but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with him, it is a most heinous affront and disparagement to his mercy, if we will not come up to these terms, which are so easy and equitable; yea, and have enough in themselves to recommend them to us, although there were no farther benefit to be expected by the performance of them. Be persuaded, therefore, O Christians, to glorify the mercy of God by repentance, obedience, and a holy life. Declare to all the world, that you have a high valuation and esteem of the infinite mercy of God, by being willing to perform that for the obtaining of it, which others detract and refuse. They must needs have very slight and undervaluing thoughts of mercy, who will not be prevailed with to mortify one sin, to deny themselves in any of their secular advantages and concerns, to suffer a scoff or a jeer for that holiness and piety which alone can bring them within the reach and under the influences of mercy: but he, that can with a bold and generous resolution break through all these little difficulties, that can suffer whatsoever God lays upon him, and do whatsoever God requires from him, he it is, that glorifies mercy; because by this he demonstrates, that he thinks it worth the having, at what price and rate soever it be set. Clemens Alexandrinus hath an excellent passage in his Protreptick: "The Lord," saith he, "shews us mercy and saves us, τουτο μονον απολαυων ἡμων ὁ σωζωμεθα, as though he could make no other use nor advantage of us, than as he doth save us:" now thou, who wilt not glorify the mercy of God, endeavouring by a holy and obedient life to promote thine own salvation, what dost thou but frustrate the great end for which he hath made thee, which is the glory of his mercy; and therefore dost, in a high measure, affront and dishonour him?

(3dly) When thou art thus fitted and prepared for mercy, then glorify it by a Confident and Hardy Reliance upon it.

To venture upon the mercy of God, whilst thou yet continuest impenitent in thy sins, is a most bold and desperate presumption: but, to venture thy soul and thy eternal salvation upon his mere goodness and mercy, whilst thou art careful to lead a holy, pious, and obedient life, is so far from being presumption, that it is the best and most effectual way to glorify it. And therefore thou, O Soul, who fearest the Lord, and desirest to approve thyself unto him in uprightness and sincerity, why walkest thou with such a drooping and dejected countenance? why sufferest thou thy conscience to be clouded with fears and racked with horrors? Is it not an infinite disparagement to the rich mercy of God, to fear that he will damn thee, whilst thou fearest to provoke him? Who would think that thou servest a merciful and gracious God, when they see thee solicitous to perform thy duty to him; and yet anxious and distrustful concerning the acceptance of it? These thy perplexities and despondencies do highly dishonour God, fright men from his service, and do little less than brand him with the black and odious note of cruelty and tyranny. Is this the way to allure men to the profession and practice of holiness, when they see that verified in thee, the suspicion of which hath so often scared them from it, viz. that they must for ever quit all their pleasant days, and be eaten up with dismal discontents and the rust of melancholy? Let those thus slavishly fear God and despair of his mercy, whose sins, and impenitence in them, fit them for nothing but wrath and destruction: but, for a holy, pious Christian, the desires of whose soul are towards God, and his endeavours correspondent to his desires, for such an one to despond of mercy, is the greatest disgrace and dishonour that he can cast upon God: for, if there be any such attribute belonging unto his nature as mercy, it is certainly thine; and, if there be not, think then what a God dost thou serve! Clear up, therefore, O Christian: scatter all thy dark and gloomy thoughts: smooth out thy wrinkled conscience: and, whilst thou perseverest in a careful and sincere obedience unto his commands, cast thyself boldly upon his mercy; and, believe it, it will never sink under thee, nor suffer thee to sink into that hell which thou now fearest. Doubt nothing: thou canst not perish, so long as the mercy of God endureth. And, whilst thou thus, with an humble confidence, layest the whole weight and stress of thy soul upon it, thou dost more glorify God, than those doubting and perplexed souls, who always serve him suspiciously, and dare scarce approach near him lest he should devour them: certainly, this is so contrary to the nature of God, who is love and goodness itself to those that serve him, that he cannot but take it ill, when they seem to account of him no otherwise than an ireful and ravenous deity. Fear not: this is no presumption, but a holy faith, a filial freedom of spirit, which is most acceptable unto God. He delights in the services of those, who address themselves unto him with an open heart and a cheerful soul: Ps. 147:11. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

(4thly) Another way by which we ought to glorify the mercy and goodness of God, is, by Praising him for all the Effects and Expressions of it.

Ps. 50:23. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. Praise is God's tribute; the only impost, that he lays upon all his benefits: it is all the return, that he expects from us. Certainly, they are guilty of foul and black ingratitude, who would defraud God even of this small acknowledgment. Our whole lives are thick set with mercies: wheresoever we turn, we find ourselves encompassed and surrounded with blessings. Now what canst thou do less than lift up thy heart and thy voice to God, and give him thanks? this God is pleased to account a glorifying of him, because it owneth his free goodness to be the original of all: and, therefore, when the ten lepers were cleansed, and only one of them returned to return thanks for his cure, our Saviour, Luke 17:18. saith, There are not found, that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. Reflect now upon the sum and stock of thy mercies. Hast thou riches, or health, or repute, or friends, or all of these? ascribe it to the mercy of God, which hath so plentifully furnished thee with all these mercies: say, "Lord, I have received them all from thy bounty, and I desire to return the thankful acknowledgment of all to thy glory. Accept of that share, which alone is worthy of thee; even my humble thanks and praise for them." Whilst thou thus praisest God for his goodness, thou payest him his tribute: all the rest is thine; which thou mayest enjoy and use with comfort.

And thus I have, at large, shewn you how you ought to glorify God in his Mercy and Goodness: viz. by your conformity unto it; preparing yourselves to be fit vessels of it; trusting and relying upon it; and blessing and praising him for it.

3dly. Another attribute, which we are to glorify, is the divine Immensity and Omnipresence.

That this is an essential attribute and property of the divine nature, both Scripture and Reason do abundantly testify. He pervades all beings, is excluded out of none, neither included in any: 1 Kings 8:27. Behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; and, certainly, if God cannot be contained in them, but his essence dilates and expands itself infinitely beyond and above them, into that endless and unwearied space in which never any thing was created nor doth exist but God only, much less then can he be contained within the compass of any other finite and created being.

Now we ought to glorify this attribute of God's omnipresence,

(1st) By our Reliance and Dependance upon him, in all our fears and dangers.

Art thou surrounded with dangers on every side, and in the very jaws of death and destruction? yet then consider, that thy God, who is every where present, is likewise present with thee there; and there is no danger so great nor imminent, that can fright him from thee: he, who hath been a sun to thee in thy prosperity, will now be a shield to thee in thine adversity. Indeed, we ought not rashly to run headlong upon dangers, when we have no call to expose ourselves to them: this is not to trust God, but to tempt him: and therefore our Saviour well answered the Devil, when he impudently bid him cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, for that God would give his angels charge to bear him up in their hands that he should not dash his foot against a stone, It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God; for it is a tempting of God, when we rely upon his presence and protection to preserve us from those dangers, into which upon that presumption we voluntarily and needlessly precipitate ourselves. But yet, if, either in the way of thy ordinary employment or else in some special and extraordinary cases, thou art called to do that, which perhaps may be attended with danger and hazard, refuse it not; but glorify the omnipresence of God and his power, by depending upon him, who will always be nearer unto thee than dangers can be. We shew ourselves to be very irrational and childish, in being secure and confident in some places and at some times, but timorous and fearful at others: as if to be alone or in the dark were more justly dreadful, than to be in the company of our friends at noon-day: is not God every where present, at all times? God beholds us clearly in the most gloomy night: Darkness and light are both alike to him: neither can any evil have power over us, one time more than another, without his permission; and why then should our fears? Isa. 41:10. Fear thou not; for I am with thee: he not dismayed; for I am thy God.… yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness: and, again, 5:14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob.… I will help thee, saith the Lord, and no foot of violence shall crush thee: so, again, Isa. 43:2. When thou passest.… through the fire.… and through the waters, I will be with thee. And, in the confidence of this omnipresence of God, the Psalmist resolves not to be terrified with the most dreadful shapes and apparitions of danger: Ps. 23:4. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, though death and danger should meet me full in their most dismal shapes, yet I will fear no evil: for thou art with me. A great reason why we are so frequently overtaken with these low and unbecoming fears, is, because we do not sufficiently steep our thoughts in the consideration of this attribute of God's omnipresence; and so we sculk, and tremble, and bewray a great deal of base and degenerous fear: as though we lived without a God in the world, and there were no supreme mind present with us to help and relieve us; but we were left wholly to shift for ourselves. It is the observation of a heathen philosopher (and I think it is Plutarch) That if brute beasts be animated and encouraged by the presence of a man, because he is of a superior nature to them; how much more should man himself be encouraged by the presence of the Great God with him! Glorify him, therefore, by a bold and courageous encountering of all dangers, that his Providence or his Law shall call thee to: and let it appear, that thou canst despise all those Mormos and hideous spectres of dangers, which affright others; because God is present with thee, and he is able to deliver thee.

(2dly) We ought to glorify this attribute of God's omnipresence, by our constant maintaining Communion and Fellowship with him.

Thou canst not say, "Alas! God is in heaven above, and I am here upon the earth; and what converse or intercourse can I maintain with his Divine Majesty?" no: believe it, God is present with thee wheresoever thou art, and as much within thee as thy soul is in thy body. He is not a God afar off; but he is near unto thee, even in thy heart, and in the very centre of thy being: and therefore thou mayest converse with him, by the silent whispers of thy thoughts. When the heart doth but breathe and pant towards God, when it conceives thoughts too big and quick to be uttered, thoughts which dart themselves like lightning out of our bosom into his; even this is, in the account of God, as truly solid and substantial communion with him, as the performance of the more solemn and conspicuous duties of religion. This is converse with God; a converse, which no place, no employment, no condition of life can possibly hinder. Be your affairs never so weighty and urgent, it is impossible that they should crowd so close together, as to leave no room for heavenly thoughts to come in between them. Be you in what company you will, if you cannot turn the discourse heavenward, yet you may well turn your thoughts thither. For ejaculations are winged messengers: or, if they were not, yet God is always present with us, and lays his ear to our very hearts; and hears the voice of our thoughts more distinctly, than we can hear the voice of one another's words.

(3dly) Glorify God's omnipresence, by demeaning yourselves with an humble and reverential Fear continually before him.

Wheresoever you are, imprint this consideration chiefly upon your hearts: "Now I am with God: he is present with me, in the city, in the field, in the room, in the congregation, in my closet, in all my ways and converse in the world. And, what can I be vain, and frothy, and light, when I am before so great and glorious a majesty? If the presence of some earthly prince strike an awe and reverence into us when we come before him, how much more ought the consideration of God's presence, in comparison with whom all the glory of the greatest monarchs upon earth is but a silly piece of pageantry!" Now those, who would express honour towards another, will not willingly do any thing that is distasteful to him, or unworthy of his presence. And, let me tell you, that there is only one thing unworthy of the presence of God; and that is, sin: though thou art poor, or diseased, and the most despicable creature among the sons of men, so that they account it a kind of disparagement to them to be present with thee; yet God is present with thee, and thinks it no dishonour, for there is nothing in this unworthy of his glory: but, if thou art a sinful, lewd, debauched, and vicious wretch, thereby indeed thou dishonourest the presence of God, and dost that which is unworthy for him to behold; for God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity, as the Prophet speaks, Hab. 1:13. If, therefore, you would glorify this attribute of God, let your conversation be always as in his sight and under his eye, with all gravity and seriousness, with all reverence and submission, with all purity and holiness. And those, who so honour his common presence with them here on earth, he will honour with his glorious presence in heaven.

4thly. Another attribute, that we are to glorify, is the Wisdom and Omniscience of God.

Indeed, his wisdom and omniscience do somewhat differ. For omniscience respects only the bare act of God's intention, whereby he knows and sees all things: but wisdom is a practical knowledge; and connotes counsel, in the government and guidance of all things to his own prefixed and fore-ordained ends. But, yet, because they are so near alike, I shall speak of them together.

Now God's wisdom and knowledge may be glorified by us, many ways.

(1st) By our endeavours to increase in wisdom and knowledge.

All wisdom is a bright ray of the deity darted down into the soul: it is the light of a rational creature, and doth mightily assimilate us unto God, for God, saith the Apostle, is light; and the more light we have beaming into our understandings, the more expressly we do bear the resemblance and image of God. Certainly, a dark and ignorant soul can never glorify God: for, as light is necessarily required to all reflections; so, here, there can be no representation of the glory of God made in that soul, that is clouded over and smutted with ignorance and error. Yea, indeed, knowledge is necessary, not only to our glorifying God in this attribute, but in all the rest: for, as an ignorant man cannot extol the wisdom of God, because he is not capable of perceiving the glorious discoveries thereof, either in the methods of his grace or providence, (and, therefore, when the Psalmist had spoken with admiration of the works and counsels of God, he tells us, Ps. 92:6. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this;) so neither can he adore the goodness, power, or mercy of God, because he observes not those effects of them in which they are to be venerated and adored: a blind man may as aptly commend the brightness of the sun, the beauty and variety of colours, the orderly and regular motion of the stars and planets, as an ignorant man declare the glory of God's attributes which he could never observe; for what blindness is to the eye, the same is ignorance to the soul.

(2dly) Thou oughtest to glorify the wisdom of God, by relying upon it when thou art in straits and difficulties, and canst find no way to extricate thyself.

When thine affairs are so entangled, that thou canst get no end to unravel them by, then especially commit thyself to that sovereign wisdom before which all difficulties shall vanish, and whatsoever seemed most intricate and perplexed shall become most plain and open. And, therefore, when affairs seem to run quite contrary both to your hopes and to all probability of success, glorify then the wisdom of God by intrusting him with the conduct of all, and quietly and contentedly wait the issue. There are some links in the chain of providence, that seem not well to hang together; and yet even these are so ordered by the Great Artificer, that they most forcibly draw in one the other. And, as we see the wheels of a clock or watch move all with contrary motions to each other, and yet by these contrary motions they make it go right: so, likewise, all the contrary motions and revolutions, that we see in these inferior engines, are so wisely contrived by the first cause and mover of them all, that, however odd and perplexed they may appear, yet they are all subservient to each other and to the regular proceeding of God's design: the great machine of the world would not go right, if they should move any otherwise. What could seem more directly to thwart Joseph's advancement, and the fulfilling of those prophetic dreams which presaged him so much honour, than to be sold for a slave, and imprisoned for a malefactor? but, yet, upon these strange occurrences was built the whole fabric of his advancement. Certainly, Providence hath secret methods of its own, which we cannot trace. And therefore let us glorify God, by relying on his wisdom in the worst of events, when our own cannot direct us; because we know not but that these things may tend to our good and advantage. And, when our hopes and designs seem dead; withered, and dried, past all semblance and human probability of reviving; yet if then our faith should be questioned, as the Prophet was, Ezek. 37:3. Son of man, can these bones live? we ought to return the same answer that he doth, O Lord God, thou knowest.

(3dly) We ought to glorify the omniscience of God, by the sincerity of all our ends and actions.

God inspects our very hearts, and distinctly sees the first fluttering and hovering of our thoughts and desires: if there be but the thinnest film or shadow of an imagination flitting there, his all-seeing eye seizeth on it: the divine knowledge pierceth into the darkest corners and most secret recesses of the soul; and looks through that obscure vault, where all our callow thoughts lie confusedly tumbling one upon another: he sees thy thoughts, that lie sleeping in the abyss and centre of thy soul, long before they begin to heave and emerge to the top and surface of it: Thou under standest my thought, saith the Psalmist, afar off, Ps. 139:2. Now if thou wouldst glorify this searching and comprehensive omniscience, be careful to approve all thy thoughts, and desires, and designs, in uprightness and integrity, unto God: then is it a sign that thou dost believe him to be an all-knowing God, when thou darest not to dally with thy lascivious fancy, nor suffer any impure, covetous, malicious thoughts and affections so much as once to breathe upon thy soul; when thou darest not commit any sin in secret, although the thickest curtains of night and darkness be drawn about thee; when thou darest not perform holy duties in a cold and heartless manner, and, with bended knees and elevated hands and all seemingly devout postures, solemnly mock the Great God, whilst thy mind all the while wanders after vanity, and nothing is less heeded by thee in thy duties than that God to whom thou wouldst be thought to perform them. In these three things, doth the sincerity of a true Christian most of all appear: viz. in not daring to allow himself in Sinful Thoughts; in not daring to allow himself in Secret Sins; in not daring to perform Holy Duties slightly and superficially. Now what other reason can there be, why he should so carefully abstain from these sins, which if he did indulge he might yet carry a fair shew and be well reputed of by men, but only that he knows God seeth not as men see? they can but look upon the outward features of religion, and, if they be comely and well complexioned, ought in charity to judge the best: but God looks into the very vitals of the soul; and discovers hypocritical professors to be like hectical persons, rotten and unsound within, when outwardly they appear healthy and well coloured. Indeed, every hypocrite doth most heinously disparage this attribute: for, were he verily persuaded that he hath to do with an all-seeing and an all-knowing God, would he dare any more to harbour unclean, sensual, and revengeful thoughts and affections, than to perpetrate those sins in act to which these tend? would he dare suffer his heart to run over with gall and bitterness, and think all well, whilst his tongue dropped honey? would he dare sin in secret, though he could lock himself up in the centre of the earth, and wrap himself in impenetrable darkness, any more than in the sight of the sun, and the confluence of people? would he dare offer unto God the husk and shell of a duty; and, in the mean time, whilst perhaps he is praying, his heart and soul, which God chiefly regards, shall be engaged in deep discourse and communication with the Devil? did he believe, that he is always under the eye of an all-knowing God; a God, who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins; a God, that looks through our souls more clearly than we can through the air, and accurately discerns and observes every mote and atom stirring there; could he be so grossly foolish as to think, that he would be put off with such mimical and apish shows, instead of solid, real, and substantial piety, consisting chiefly in the conformity of the soul and affections unto the divine purity? But the truth is, every hypocrite is an atheist: and though, for some sordid ends, he may fawn upon God and flatter him, yet he disbelieves his glorious attributes, and none more than this of his omniscience; and, in his heart, speaks the same blasphemy with those wretches, Ps. 73:11. How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? and therefore satisfies himself with plausible shows and fair pretences, and seeks to hide his nakedness under the fig-leaves of an external and counterfeit sanctity; and all his religion and devotion is indeed but putting tricks upon God, whom he thinks it is as easy to delude, as to juggle with men. If, then, you would glorify the omniscience of God, let all your thoughts, and affections, and desires, and ends, every motion both of your outward and inward man, be ordered as in his sight and under his observation. Say with thyself, "How shall I allow such vain and foolish surmises? How can I yield to this temptation, though it offer me all the advantages of secresy and retirement? How can I content myself to make the service of God only a lip-labour, or a bodily exercise? No: my God looks upon me, and ponders my heart and my ways: that God, whose eye is more effectual to deter me from any sinful and unworthy act, than if the eyes of all the angels in heaven or of men on earth were fixed upon me. My God and my conscience are a theatre to me: they are more than if all the world besides saw me; and, in comparison with these, to sin in the open view of all the world is but to sin in secret." Such reflections as these declare that thou dost highly adore and honour the omniscience of God, when thou art thus careful to approve thyself, in all thy cogitations and actions, to his all-seeing eye.

(4thly) Another way to glorify the omniscience of God, is, by a frequent and conscientious performance of duties in secret.

When there is no other witness to behold thee but God and thine own soul, then do thou pour out thy heart and unbosom all thy wants and desires before him. And indeed that Christian, who hath deeply imprinted this attribute upon his thoughts, will find it a most powerful and effectual means, as to keep him from sinning in secret, so to quicken him to pray in secret. Hypocrites will often be very pompous and splendid in the performance of public duties, where they have a ring of people to admire and celebrate their gifts, and from whom they may think to raise a reputation for their parts and piety: this will make them to expatiate and pour forth such a torrent of raptures and heavenly expressions, that they themselves may seem to be ravished with spiritual joy and sweetness, and their auditors may be really so: but all this may be only ostentation, not devotion; not because God observes them, but because men observe them: and therefore our Saviour makes it the proper character of a pharisaical hypocrite, to pray only in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, (as the custom was in those days) that they might be seen of men: Mat. 6:5: they made a mere stage-play of religion; and then acted best, when they were most crowded with spectators: but follow these men home to their houses, to their closets; and, if we had but a cranny to behold them in their retirements, how seldom or never addressing themselves to God, and praying unto him in secret, when they think no eye sees them but God's! for they pray, not so much that God may hear them, as men; and, whatsoever they seem with so much earnestness and importunity to beg of him, yet indeed the only thing they pray for is, that they may be admired and applauded. But, a truly pious and sincere Christian is not only zealous and affectionate in public duties in the congregation, and in private duties in his own family, where he hath witnesses of his devotion; but he considers that he prays to God and not to men: and, therefore, when he is withdrawn from the sight and notice of others, he applies himself unto God with the same zeal and fervency of spirit as before; well knowing, that, in duties performed unto God, the secresy or publicness of them ought to make no difference in our affections. And therefore observe, that, so much as thou dost abate of thy holy warmth and fervency in secret duties, which used to carry thee out with great enlargement and vigour when thou hast joined with others; so much of hypocrisy is mingled with thy serving of God. Our Saviour hath given us our rule: Mat. 6:6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Let me, therefore, O Christians, persuade you to a more constant and zealous performance of secret duties; for this is certainly one of the most infallible marks of a sincere heart, that can be given. That Christian cannot be a hypocrite, that is but careful to keep up a lively and vigorous communion with God in secret: whereas, let thy duties else be what they will, never so many and never so gaudy, if they be only performed in the view and sight of others, and thou art not frequent in addressing thyself to God in secret, let me tell thee, it is very possible, yea and very suspicious too, that thou art but a painted hypocrite, a mere blistered professor; that outwardly lookest smooth and shining, but inwardly art full of nothing but corruption and purulency. Go home, therefore, O Christian: enter into thy closet; and, there, when none but thou and thy God are together, freely unlock thy heart, and pour out thy soul before him. What! hast thou no sins to confess, no wants to be supplied, no mercies to beg, no complaints to make, no tears to shed, but what it is fit others should be privy to? certainly, if thou hast not, it is a sign, that thou art but too much a stranger at home, and very little conversant with thine own soul. However, do it that thou mayest glorify God: for he is thy Father, which seeth in secret; and thou canst by no way more honour his omniscience, than by thus acknowledging that he sees and hears thee, when there is no one else that can see and hear thee.

(5thly) Thou glorifiest the omniscience of God, when, under lying slanders and false accusations, thou canst command and calm all the turbulencies of thy passions, by appealing to the all-seeing eye of God, who knoweth the innocence of thy soul.

Indeed, this is the great support of a true Christian when he is wrongfully aspersed, that he can retire inwardly into the retreat of a clear conscience; that he can remit his cause to God, and leave his vindication to him, who knows how he is traduced and wronged. It will be a greater comfort to us, that God knows us innocent; than a trouble and vexation, that wicked men conspire together to report us guilty. Indeed, if they could persuade God to believe them too, it might be just cause of grief and disquiet: but what great matter is it, though a company of vain, giddy, and unreasonable men take up and spread abroad lying rumours concerning us? thou art not to stand or fall, according to their votes: and, though their slanderous tongues may blot out thy good name here on earth, yet they can never blot thy name out of the book of life. And, therefore, herein honour the omniscience of God, by bearing up cheerfully and boldly; and, if they will cast dirt upon thee, let it be their own, and not thine: this, though it may make thee look more unlovely in the eyes of men, yet it will not do so in the eyes of God. Shew, by thy generous despising of all their malicious censures and reproaches, that thou dost more respect and value the omniscience of God, who knows thee innocent; than all the slanders of men, who report thee guilty. Thus Jeremiah appeals unto God: Jer. 20:10, 12. I heard the defaming of many.… Report, say they, and we will report it.… But, O Lord of Hosts, thou that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart.… unto thee have I opened my cause.

And thus I have shewed you, in these Five particulars, how you ought to glorify the infinite Wisdom and Knowledge of God.

5thly. Another attribute of God, which we are to glorify, is his Truth and Veracity.

This is an essential property of the divine nature; and therefore he is stiled a God of Truth: Ps. 31:5 and a God, that cannot lie: Tit. 1:2 and, Heb. 6:18 it is said it is impossible for God to lie.

Truth, or veracity, is nothing else but the conformity of our speeches to the being of things: as, when we affirm that which is, or deny that which is not, then are our speeches true. And, therefore, it is impossible for God to lie; for he cannot speak things otherwise than they be, who speaks them into being.

Now the first and general way of glorifying the truth of God, is, by imitating him in this attribute, and speaking truth one to another. St. Peter hath given us a rule, which, though in a more restrained and appropriate sense, it may especially concern the ministers of the gospel, the dispensers of the word of truth; yet I see not but that it may properly appertain unto all men: 1 Pet. 4:11. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.… that God, in all things, may be glorified, through Jesus Christ: that is, let his speeches be as true and certain, as if they were divine oracles. Many indeed there are, who speak like the oracles of Apollo; ambiguously, equivocally, and falsely: but, to speak like the oracles of God, is to declare things as they are, simply and nakedly. And, if thou either knowest not the things in question, or upon some prudential considerations art unwilling to disclose them, either an acknowledgment thereof or a modest silence must be chosen by thee, without any crafty or guileful windings and ambages prejudicial to the truth. By this means, saith the Apostle, God will be glorified: as indeed he is, whensoever we endeavour to imitate him in his communicable attributes and perfections.

But, more particularly, God's truth is especially seen in Three things. In his

Predictions,

Promises, and

Threatenings.

All which we ought to glorify.

(1st) Glorify the truth and veracity of God in his Predictions, by adoring his faithfulness in the wonderful accomplishment of those many prophecies, which have already been exactly and punctually fulfilled.

And, indeed, when we consider those prophetical passages in the Old Testament concerning Christ; the whole history of whose birth, the whole course of whose life, and the whole tragedy of whose death, were, so many ages before, clearly foretold, some declared by express prophecy, some signified by typical prefigurations; we cannot but admire the wonderful exactness of divine veracity, in so critically accomplishing every particular of what he had so long before declared should come to pass. And, truly, it is one, among many other excellencies of the Gospel of St. Matthew, that he doth so plainly accommodate the historical passages concerning our Saviour's birth, life, and death, to the prophetical predictions of them in the Old Testament: his birth, by a virgin: Isa. 7:14. the place of it, Bethlehem: Micah 5:2. God's calling him back out of Egypt: Hos. 11:1 the bloody massacre of the infants: Jer. 31:15 the actions of his prodromus or fore-runner, John the Baptist: Isa. 40:3 his dwelling in Capernaum: Isa. 9:1, 2: and so, throughout the whole contexture of the history of Christ, the Evangelist compares the prophecies with the actual accomplishment of them, for the firmer establishing of our faith; and the clearer evidence that he was the true Messiah, whom that God, who cannot lie, had foretold should come in the fulness of time. As for those predictions concerning the state of the Church here on earth, which have not as yet received their accomplishment, and therefore are the more dark and obscure unto us, many of which are contained in the Revelations, we ought to glorify the truth and veracity of God, by an unwavering belief, that they also shall be punctually fulfilled in their due season, and that not a word which he hath spoken shall fall to the ground in vain.

(2dly) Glorify the truth and faithfulness of God in his Promises, by a confident expecting of those blessings, which he hath engaged himself to bestow upon us, if we be careful to perform the conditions upon which his promises are made.

If the condition be fulfilled on our part, the promise shall certainly be fulfilled on God's. Hath he promised eternal life to those who believe? assure thyself, that, if thou believest, thou shalt as certainly inherit it, as if thou wert even now glorified: for it is eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, hath promised. Or, hath he promised any temporal mercy and good things? that he will provide for thee, and protect thee? even these promises are conditional also, if so be they may be for thy good and his glory, which if he who is the all-wise God sees, thou shalt infallibly obtain whatsoever thou desirest; if not, thou mayest very well be contented, for thou dost but desire a harm and damage to thyself. Here, then, glorify God, by resting thy soul and casting all thine affairs upon his promises. Thou hast his truth and veracity bound to make them good; and that, certainly, is such a precious pawn, as that he never hath nor ever will forfeit it.

(3dly) Glorify God's veracity in his Threatenings; trembling at the dreadful denunciations of his judgments, both temporal and eternal, against obstinate and impenitent sinners.

Which if thou dost in truth and sincerity of heart, this will fright thee from the commission of those sins, against which those heavy plagues and judgments are threatened: for, let him pretend what he will, that man doth not believe that God is true in all his threatenings, who yet will dare to continue one day or hour longer in his sins impenitently. If neither the mercies nor the terrors of the Lord can persuade us to a holy life, we do but virtually and interpretatively give God the lie; and do not believe, that he is either faithful to his promises, or just and true to his threatenings.

6thly. Another attribute in God, which we ought to glorify, is his Almighty Power and Sovereignty.

Indeed, there is a difference between these two. For,

First. Power connotes only a natural strength and ability to do a thing; but Sovereignty includes in it a legal right and authority. And,

Secondly. Power may be found separate from Authority. And so, indeed, it is in the greatest princes and potentates on earth; all whose might and strength above other men consists, not in their natural, but only in their civil and political power and jurisdiction. And so, likewise, in God, his Power and his Sovereignty bear not the same date, neither are they of equal duration: for God was infinite in Power eternally before the creation of the world; and, had he never exerted his power in any of those wonderful effects of it which we behold, yet he had been for ever the same Almighty God that now he is: but Sovereignty and Dominion are ascribed unto him, in time; and, in the very notion of them, do necessarily presuppose the being of some subjects, over which he is the Sovereign Lord. Again,

Thirdly. God's Power is of a much larger extent than his Sovereignty. For his Power extends unto all things possible; since he is able to create many more worlds, and far more noble and excellent creatures in this, than he hath done: but his Sovereignty extends only to things actual. Whence our Saviour argues, Luke 20:38. God is not the God of the dead: i.e. those, who so die as utterly to perish and come to nothing, as the Sadducees thought the souls of men did, but he is the God of the living. Briefly,

The Power of God is an absolute essential attribute of the divine nature; for ever invariably appertaining to him, whether he express it in any acts of creation and providence or no: but Sovereignty is a relative denomination, resulting from God's temporal acts of disposing and governing his creatures, according to the counsels of his own will and the rule of his immutable justice. But, because these two are so near allied, his sovereignty being founded upon his power, and his power expressed in the acts of his sovereignty and dominion, I shall therefore consider them together.

That God is glorious in this attribute of his power, the Scripture doth every where abundantly attest; stiling him the Almighty God, and ascribing strength and power unto him. Yea, and that he accounts it a very considerable part of his glory, see Ps. 62:11. God hath spoken once, yea twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God: and Ps. 29:1. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength: as if he had said, You, that are the great and mighty ones upon earth, who make whole nations obedient to your beck and tremble at your frown, yet boast not yourselves of the greatness of your power: there is a Supreme God above, who if you speak of strength, lo, he is strong: Job 9:19: a God, whose hand and whose voice can shake both heaven and earth out of their place, and make the haughtiest potentates lick the dust before him. Ascribe, therefore, unto him praise and glory, by ascribing unto him might and power; not only that stinted and limited power which you, who are but his under officers, are invested with; but a strength and power infinitely surmounting yours, who conceit yourselves so mighty. For your power can come into no comparison with God's power; no, nor hold out against that which is accounted his very weakness: 1 Cor. 1:25. The weakness of God is stronger than men.

How then shall we glorify this Almighty Power of the Great God?

(1st) By an humble and awful adoration of it; in all those wonderful effects, whereby God hath expressed the infinite greatness of his power.

And, here, thou canst not want objects, if thou hast but an affection and piety to venerate God in them. The whole world, and every creature in it, is a most evident demonstration of the divine power: His eternal power and godhead, saith the Apostle, are clearly seen.… by the things that are made: Rom. 1:20. Cast but thine eyes to that vast expansion of the heavens, what a beautiful canopy dost thou there behold; all studded with gems: and almost every star in that general muster of the heavenly host, far greater than the whole earth! Consider this solid and massy globe on which we live, how it hangs immoveably in the midst of an ocean of soft and yielding air, through which all other bodies easily cut their passage: what foundations, what pillars hath it to rest upon; but only that almighty word, which first fixed it, and still preserves it in its place and station? Consider the various kinds of creatures, that God hath breathed forth upon the face of the earth in divers shapes and sizes; some voluminous, some contracted; in both which his power is equally seen, but his art and skill rather glorious in the latter. Whence is all this frame and compounded machine of the world, made up of so many different parts, and yet all set together in such an admirable order and harmony? if we run it up to its first original, we shall find all things to have been once a mere nothing. And was it not infinite power, that could constrain nothing to yield so many, and such beautiful beings? that the heavens should, out of nothing, spread abroad their liquid crystals? which Job* therefore most elegantly and naturally compares to a molten looking-glass: Job 37:18 that the earth should, out of nothing, gather all its thick parts together; and, as the sediment of the world, compact and settle itself in the centre of the universe? certainly these, and infinite others, are most stupendous demonstrations of his infinite power. Nay, not only these great things, but the smallest and most despised works of God, declare that he is almighty: Magnus in magnis, nec minor in minimis: there is not the least spire of grass, that sprouts out of the earth; not the least fly, that is animated by the sun; but it may be a sufficient conviction of the folly of atheism, and cause us to fall down and adore that God, who created and formed it. Glorify, therefore, the power of God, by a serious and pious contemplation of these his wonderful works. Wheresoever you go, and whatsoever you see and converse with, you have this book open before you, wherein you may read enough to admonish and instruct you in this attribute. It is time well spent, and thought well employed, when, from the works of creation and providence, from the frame of the world and the government of it, the various kinds of creatures which ye behold and the various revolutions of affair which ye hear of abroad, you return into your own hearts, and season them with awful thoughts and reflections on the almighty power of the Great God.

(2dly) Glorify the power and sovereignty of God, by using that power and authority, which he hath given you, in subordination unto his.

Art thou a magistrate or a parent, or master of a family? exercise thine authority, as one, that is entrusted with it by the Great Sovereign of Heaven and Earth. Exercise it so as thou wouldest suppose God himself would do, were he immediately to govern those, whom he hath now committed to thy charge: for God hath given thee authority, that thou shouldest rule in his stead: thou art deputed, under him, in the place wherein he hath set thee. And, certainly, it is a great dishonour and disparagement to the sovereignty of God, if thou, who art entrusted with the management of it, shouldest use it to quite contrary purposes to what God himself would do. If thou either encouragest sin and wickedness, or connivest at it in those who are subject to thee; what is this, but, by a practical kind of blasphemy, to make God's authority patronize what it would punish?

(3dly) Glorify the power of God, by relying on him for safeguard, and deliverance out of all thy dangers.

When Nebuchadnezzar threatened those three heroes with his burning furnace, unless they would fall down and worship his golden image, see with what an undaunted courage they answer the menaces of the enraged king: Dan. 3:16. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. Whence this confidence, to despise the threats of so great a king, and the terrors of so cruel a death; but only that they glorified the infinite power of God, who could preserve them, either from the flames or in them? v. 17. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. So, likewise, in all the dangers to which you can be exposed for the sake of God and of a good conscience, glorify his almighty power, who is able to deliver in the greatest extremities, and will (if it be best) find a way for you to escape.

(4thly) Glorify the almighty power of God, by fearing to provoke his wrath against you.

For who knoweth the power of his wrath? as the Psalmist speaks, Ps. 90:11. Indeed, a weak impotent anger, that can only vent itself in exclamations and railings, is justly ridiculous and contemptible: but who would not tremble to provoke that God, whose anger, as it is always just, so it is almighty, and able to wreak its revenge upon the stoutest sinners in their eternal ruin and destruction? It is a most desperate folly to incense that God, whom we cannot withstand: therefore the Apostle expostulates, 1 Cor. 10:21. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he? as if he should say, "Indeed, if thou canst try it out with the Almighty, if thou canst wrest the sword of his justice out of his hands, if thou canst dash thyself against the Rock of Ages and be not broken in pieces, then thou mayest go on boldly in thy sins, and prosper: but, alas! for thee, a weak, feeble creature, who art crushed before the moth, as Job speaks, whose life is but a vapour, a poor thing who art just not nothing only by the creating word of God; it is a most deplorable madness for thee to muster up thy forces, and set thyself in battle-array against that Great God, who can look thee dead and speak thee into hell. And, yet, such is our wretched stupidity, that we dare this great and mighty God to the combat, every day and hour: every sin we commit is a challenge and defiance sent to heaven: we defy his power and wrath, and dare the Almighty to do his worst. Certainly, did sinners but seriously consider the infinite power of God, would they not fear lest the very next sin they commit, some remarkable vengeance should be inflicted upon them? lest God should suddenly smite them through; cause the earth to open its mouth, and swallow them up quick into hell; and make them know, by their own woeful experience, that dread power and justice, which they now so vilify and despise? Be persuaded, therefore, O Christians, to glorify this power of the Great God, by your holy fear and caution not to provoke and arm it against yourselves. It is our Saviour's counsel, Mat. 10:28. Fear him, which is able to destroy bath body and soul in hell: yea, I say unto you, fear him. Know, that, when thou makest light of sin, thou dost but contemn the power and wrath of God: so often as thou swearest, or liest, or committest any other known wickedness so often thou openly declarest that thou accountest of the wrath of God, hell, and everlasting torments but as a trifle, not worth the regard of a generous and daring sinner. And thou, who perhaps art scared from the commission of many a sin, through fear of the magistrate's power to punish thee, but boldly committest others which cannot fall under his power or cognizance, what else dost thou, but openly testify that the power of God is not so tremendous and dreadful, as the power of a weak worm like thyself? and what a scorn and reproach dost thou hereby cast upon that glorious attribute! But, if thou wouldest glorify it, declare to all the world, that thou ownest his infinite power, which is able to destroy, to damn thee every moment, by thy holy fear to offend so great and so terrible a God.

(5thly) Glorify the power and sovereignty of God, by a constant and conscientious obedience to all his laws.

He, who is the great Sovereign of the World, must needs have prescribed us some rules to direct us in our obedience. And this he hath done in his word, which is the statute-book of his kingdom: in the Scriptures, is contained the whole body and system of those laws, which our Great King hath enacted. Now the best way for us to acknowledge the sovereignty of God, is, by yielding all ready and cheerful obedience to those laws, which he hath imposed on us. Then do we indeed declare that we own him for our sovereign, when we resign up ourselves in an universal obedience unto him, and are careful to perform whatsoever he hath enjoined us; as well those duties which immediately concern the service of our Lord and Master, as those which concern our fellow-subjects and servants: but, if we willingly fail in the observance of any of these, we shake his yoke from off our necks, and withdraw ourselves from under his jurisdiction and command. And thou, who thus disownest him from being thy Sovereign Lord, wilt at last find him to be thy Severe Judge; and, although thou now refusest to submit thyself to the power of his grace, thou shalt be forced to bow, and sink, and eternally perish under the power of his wrath.

6thly. Another (and it is the last that I shall speak of) attribute of the divine essence, which we ought to glorify, is his Justice and Equity.

Now, although there be no other attribute more conversant with mankind than this of the divine justice, yet neither is there any that is of a more abstruse speculation, or more entangled with perplexed doubts and difficulties, whensoever we attempt a scholastical disquisition of it. It is like the sun, nothing more seen than its light, nothing less seen than itself: the most apparent, and yet the most hidden; the most obvious, and yet the most abstruse perfection of the divine nature.

It is not pertinent to my present design, to engage in those many critical distinctions and disputes, which are by divers diversely given us concerning the justice of God: my work id more immediately practical.

(1st) Yet because we ought to have right apprehensions of that object, which we are to glorify; and we cannot glorify God as a just God, unless we have beforehand conceived some proper notions what this justice is; therefore take notice briefly, that the justice of God is Twofold.

[1st] His Essential Justice; which is nothing else but the infinite rectitude of his nature, according to his own eternal ideas of himself.

This is not that, which we are now taking into consideration. For as, among men, that, which Aristotle, Eth. l, v, c. 1 lit. F. calls the νομιμον δικαιοσυνην, an universal justice respecting the conformity of every action of our lives to law and reason, is not so much any one virtue, as all; so, likewise, this essential and absolute justice of God is not so much any one attribute of the divine nature, as a complexion of them all: for it is the due habitude and proportion of God's infinite perfections to the only rule of them, which is himself.

[2dly] There is a Moral, or Relative Justice in God, which respects his transactions and dealings with his creatures.

Now as, among men, justice is that virtue, which habitually sways them to render to every one his own; so, likewise, in God towards men, that disposition, which, if we may so speak, inclines him to render to every one his own, is that which we call the justice of God.

Here, Two things are to be observed.

That the Foundation of the divine Justice is the Divine Sapience and Will.

That the Rule of his Justice is his Word.

a. The Foundation of his Justice is his Sapience and Will.

For God lies under no obligation to his creatures, antecedent to the free determinations of his own will. It is just with God, to punish some men with eternal torments: why? because they are sinners, and punishment is their due; and, therefore, in inflicting it, be doth but render unto them what is their own. But, if you ask farther, whence it proceeds that wrath and punishment should be their due, we can give no other answer to this, but only because the will of God hath so constituted and ordained it, as a congruous reward for such actions. So that whatsoever God wills is just and equal; not simply as he wills it only, but as his will is guided by his infinite wisdom, which dictates such proceedings to be fitting and condecent to the divine nature; and therefore God wills them as just. For, because the divine wisdom sees it congruous that obstinate and impenitent sinners should be eternally punished, therefore the divine will determines to punish them, and their punishment is an act of justice.

b. The Rule of Divine Justice is his Word.

For God proceeds according to this word, in all his dealings with us. His word contains in it both promises and threatenings: and, to the fulfilling of both, God hath obliged himself by his truth and veracity. And, consequently, either the mercy promised or the punishment threatened is our due, according as we either obey or transgress his word: and, these being our due, it is but justice in God to render them unto us according as our works have been. Indeed, the Schools have well determined, that there can be no commutative justice in God: i.e. such justice, as consists in an equal exchange of things between party and party, giving and taking a like value: for the Apostle hath told us, Rom. 11:35. Who hath first given to him? and it shall be recompensed unto him again. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.

But there is a distributive justice in God, whereby, as a judge, he recompenseth us proportionably to our actions; which justice is regulated by the promises and threatenings of his word.

And it is twofold:

Remunerative Justice, which assigns us a blessed reward, according to our faith and obedience. And

Punitive or Vindictive Justice, which inflicts upon us eternal and insupportable punishments, according to our impenitency and rebellions.

And both these the Apostle mentions together, 2 Thess, 1:6, 7. It is a righteous, or a just thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you: And to you, who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven.

And thus I have, as plainly as I could with so much brevity, shewn you what this attribute of the divine justice is.

(2dly) Let us next consider how it ought to be glorified by us.

[1st] The first and chiefest way, is, by our Conformity to it.

For justice and equity is a communicable attribute of the divine nature: and the best way to glorify such, is not only to represent them to ourselves, by admiring and adoring them; but to represent them in ourselves, by transcribing and imitating them. Then dost thou glorify the justice of God, when thou endeavourest, within thy sphere and according to thy proportion, to be thyself just. God is just in rendering to every man his own; whether it be his own by merit, or by mercy, by desert, or by promise: He renders, saith the Apostle, to every man according to his deeds: Rom. 2:6: according to the merit of their deeds: so, he renders indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, to every soul of man that doeth evil: and, according to the mercy of his promise, he renders glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good. Imitate God, in rendering to every one their own: keep nothing from them which is their due, except it be the retribution of evil for evil; for this recompence God hath reserved to himself.

Now that is said to be another man's, to which he hath a title. And, if the title remain in him, but the possession in thee, so long thou art unjust, and dishonoured God, as well as wrongest thy brother; as thou detainest from him what is rightfully his, contrary to his will and desire.

There are two things, that give a man a title to any possession; law, and conscience.

First. Human Laws.

God's laws are the rule of his justice towards men, and men's laws are the rule of their justice one towards another. These set bounds to our property, and determine what is ours, and what not: and, whosoever he be, that breaks through this fence, and either violently or fraudulently seizes upon that, which the laws under which he lives hath assigned to his brother, he is an unjust person, and transgresseth not only the laws of men, but that sovereign law of God, Thou shalt not steal. God's law commands us not to take what is another's; but man's law shews us what is another's: man's law makes property, and God's law secures it: else, why may not any enter into your houses, and take thence what best likes them? for what makes it yours, more than theirs? is it, that you have acquired it? by the same reason it will be as rightfully theirs, when they have gotten it: and so the whole earth would be filled with violence, and rapine, and confusion, did not laws determine what is yours, and what not; and parcel out the common goods of nature, assigning to every one his share, which for another to invade and take from him, is rapine or deceit. And, therefore, it is an unjust thing, to alienate any possession of another, upon pretence that it is superfluous, or may be employed to better uses, or that the owners are wicked and undeserving: for, be the persons never so wicked, their estates never so redundant or misemployed, what they hold is as much their own, as those few things which perhaps thou art owner of, and are barely necessary for the sustentation of thy life: and, if thou shouldest attempt to deprive them of any part thereof, it is as much injustice, as if any should attempt to take from thee the only piece of bread by which thou livest. Indeed, the laws, under which we live, may and often do alter the property: so that what was mine before, ceaseth to be so when the law hath assigned it to another; and I am unjust and guilty of theft, if I detain it from him: it is no longer mine, but his, when the same authority, that gave me title to it before, hath now transferred that title from me to him: hence we have that exhortation of the Apostle, an exhortation very needful to be pressed upon us in these unjust days, wherein men are utterly unwilling to be guided by any laws besides their self-will and self-interest, Rom. 13:7. Render, therefore, to all their dues; tribute, to whom tribute is due; custom, to whom custom; fear, to whom fear; honour, to whom honour. You see here, that tribute and custom are called Dues: and what else makes them due, but only the law of man? and, certainly, if the law of man can make a tribute out of mine estate, or a custom out of my goods, to be due to another, suppose the prince or any other magistrate, am not I guilty of injustice and theft, if I detain it from him; yea, altogether as much as if I should steal from him, what already he hath in his possession? Thus you see how human laws confer right and title; and, therefore, we are bound in justice, to render to every one according to their prescription.

Secondly. But, there may be several cases, which the law cannot particularly reach unto, wherein we may be unjust towards others. For, not only the law, but Conscience may confer a title upon others: and this ought to oblige us, when, many times, the law cannot.

Thus, what thou hast promised to another, thou standest bound to perform, although possibly he cannot prove that promise by any other witnesses, than those thousand of thine own conscience. And many other such like instances may be made, wherein conscience and equity require thee to render that unto another, which, perhaps, law and judicial process cannot compel thee to do: but, yet, if thou art in thine own conscience persuaded, that thy brother hath a better right and title to what thou possessest than thyself, although possibly he knows not of it, or could never recover it by a legal course, yet justice binds thee to render it to him: it is his; and the proper office and effect of justice is, to render to every one his own.

Let us now proceed to consider the kinds of justice; which are two, commutative or distributive.

a. We ought to glorify God by a Commutative Justice; rendering to every one his due, in our bargains, sales, and commerce: wherein we ought to observe an exact equality, between what we give, and what we take; otherwise we cannot but be unjust, and wrong either ourselves or others.

This is a duty, which the very light of nature and the dictates of reason enforce upon us; that, upon which the frame of all correspondence and transactions in the world doth depend: and, whosoever he be, that openly transgresseth the rules of this justice, is looked upon as an infamous person; shunned and avoided by all, as one not fit for human conversation: neither, indeed, is he; for this kind of injustice, if it were grown into common practice, would soon turn the world into a wilderness, and men into savage beasts, ravening and preying one upon another; and nothing, that we possessed, could be secured from violence or fraud. Neither is this justice only a dictate of the law and light of nature, but God hath added many sanctions to it by his express commands; especially that serious and weighty one, 1 Thess. 4:6. Let no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all such. And indeed there is scarce any one sin that is more injurious unto God, as well as unto men, than this of fraud and injustice: it wrongs him in many of his attributes: it heinously affronts his Sovereignty; when a little inconsiderable gain shall tempt us to violate his laws, and despise his authority, and hearken to the imperious commands of our own base and sordid covetousness, rather than to the commands of the Great God: it calls in question his Fidelity, nay rather, it plainly demonstrates that we do utterly disbelieve it; for, did we think that there were any truth, either in his threatenings or his promises, should we be so foolish, as, for a present petty gain, to forfeit the hopes of a future inheritance and inexhaustible treasures in heaven? or to incur the certain danger of eternal destruction in hell, where we shall woefully refund all that we have either gotten or kept unjustly? it directly contradicts the Mercy and Goodness of God, which teacheth and obligeth us to be so far from wronging of others, as to be bountiful and beneficent to them: and, therefore, in all respects, injustice towards men is a high injury done against God himself. And, yet, how common a sin is this in the world! are not all places filled with sad complaints of wrong, violence, and oppression: each snatching what they can from others; and taking all advantages, either from the weakness or inadvertency of their brethren, to over-reach and defraud them? A sin, shall I say unworthy of Christians? yea, unworthy of men; contrary to the very constitution of civil societies: but infinitely shameful and opprobrious in those that profess the Gospel, who, by this means, bring an indelible blot and reproach upon religion; and, by their extortion, oppression, and injustice, open the mouths of too many to blaspheme the holy name of God, whilst they look upon an eminent and glorious profession only as a more cleanly art to cheat and cozen. Be persuaded, therefore, O Christians, to glorify the justice of God, by the justice and equity of your dealings with men. Let it appear by all your actions, that you do acknowledge there is a just God in heaven; a God, who critically observeth all that you do, and who will render unto you according to your works: and that, for the awe and reverence of his impartial justice, you dare not do any thing that is unjust towards men. This is the way to glorify him, far more effectually than by all the encomiums and verbal representations, which thou canst make of his justice: for, how can others be persuaded that thou dost believe there is a just God, whilst thou thyself, notwithstanding all thy professions, art unjust, cruel, covetous, taking or detaining from others what is their due, as if the only reward thou expectedst were to live upon the spoil? are these proper actions to convince them, that there is a just God, or that thou dost think him so? nay, rather, will it not prove a strong temptation to them, to call the justice of God into question, when they see thee so long escape unpunished; and to conclude, as many upon the like account have done, that certainly the world is not guided by sovereign justice and equity, but only by mere chance and casualty? The only way to work a venerable esteem of the justice of God in the minds of men, is, to be as punctual in our dealings with them, as we would desire they should be with us; yea, to be as just to them, as we would desire God should be merciful to us: this will convince the world, that certainly there is a supreme justice that overawes us, that we dare not take those advantages, which the ignorance or oversight of others puts into our hands to defraud them; and that we do indeed believe, that there is a day coming, wherein a thousand witnesses shall be produced to testify what agreements and compacts we have made, where the false weights shall be themselves weighed, and the scanty measures themselves meted by a standard that is infallibly true, and all the controversies of right and equity shall be decided to the eternal shame and horror of those who have done the wrong.

That is one way of glorifying the justice of God.

b. We ought to glorify the justice of God by our Distributive Justice; rendering unto all men the rewards and punishments, that are due unto their actions.

This part of justice belongs not to private Christians, but only to the magistrate: for he is God's justicier; and rewards and punishments are consigned over unto him: Rom. 13:3, 4. If thou dost well, he is the minister of God to thee for good: but, if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God; a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Indeed a magistrate's office should be a clear type and representation of the justice of God, and human judicatories an emblem of the great and last assize; and the administration of justice here should bear an exact proportion to that strict justice which God will execute, when all the world shall appear before him to receive their doom. There should not an offender escape deserved punishment, especially those, who are presumptuous and peremptory upon their greatness and the eminency of their quality, who make it their sport to baffle the law and outface justice. God's justice is impartial; and spares neither the poor for pity, nor the rich for feat: but will eternally retribute to every one, according to what he has done. And if thou, to whom he hath committed the administration of his justice, shalt dispense it with respect of persons; either moved with commiseration, or interest, or base fear, or any other by or sinister end; thou highly dishonourest him, distributing that for the justice of God, which is but the injustice and partiality of man. It hath been an old complaint, that laws were but like cobwebs; which served indeed, to hamper the smaller flies, whilst the greater and stronger securely break through them. Let it be your care and endeavour to remove this obloquy; and, by a severe animadversion, not only on poor trembling offenders, but on haughty and audacious criminals, who think to outbrave authority with their greatness, make it appear that you look upon yourselves as the dispensers of God's justice, which respects them no more than the most contemptible wretch that lives upon the face of the earth.

And thus I have shewn you how you ought to glorify the justice of God, by Imitation: in our Commutative Justice, by rendering to every one his own, which appertains to every private Christian to perform; and, in Distributive Justice, rendering to every one the due desert of his actions, which belongs not to private Christians, but to magistrates and those in authority.

[2dly] When the divine justice hath found thee out, then thou oughtest to glorify it, by a free and full Confession of thine offences.

Now there are Two ways, in which the justice of God doth find out sinners:

Sometimes, by Inflicting remarkable Plagues and Judgments upon them: plagues, that carry in them a great correspondence and alliance to the sins they have committed, so that they cannot but read their very crimes in their punishments. And,

Sometimes, by Detecting their Crimes which they thought were committed in secret, and bringing them to condign punishment for them. And, indeed, strange are the instances, that might be given, of God's marvellous providence in this particular; especially in bringing murder and bloodshed to light.

Now, one or other of these ways, men's sins and God's justice will usually find them out. Be sure, saith Moses, Numb. 32:23 that your sin will find you out. And, therefore, in these cases, glorify the justice of God, by a free and full Confession of thy guilt.

a. If God lay any sore plague and judgment upon thee, go and humble thyself and confess thy sin unto him in secret; and pray unto him, chiefly that he would take away thy sin, and then thy punishment.

Or, if this will not give sufficient case to thine afflicted conscience, take unto thee some serious, prudent Christian: inform him how the case stands, between God and thy soul: beg the assistance of his advice and prayers. This is the Apostle's direction, James 5:16. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. This is the way to give God the glory of his justice, when thou shalt fall down and acknowledge, that what he hath brought upon thee is just and righteous, and the due reward of thy sins. And, indeed, God doth many times inflict such peculiar punishments upon us, which do indigitate and point out our sins; as it were on purpose to extort his glory from us, in our confession of his justice. Sometimes, he punisheth us after the same manner, in which we have offended him: we have a famous instance for this in Adonibezek, Judges 1:7. Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table; and he, suffering the like from the Israelites, acknowledgeth the justice of God in thus repaying his cruelty; as I have done, so God hath requited me: thus God dealt with the Egyptians: they cruelly murder the male children of the Israelites; and, therefore, God slays all their first-born. And, sometimes again, judgments carry a likeness unto the sin, though not in the very same thing, yet in many circumstances of it: as when God smites men in the same subject, object, time, instruments, or members of sinning: thus David grows proud of the number of his subjects; and, therefore, God sweeps them away by a pestilence, and makes him substract threescore and ten thousand from the account: he dotes on Absalom, and God ordains Absalom to rebel against and endeavour to dethrone him: so, that very hand, which Jeroboam stretched forth to lay hold on the prophet, God withers and dries up. Now if any such judgment hath befallen you, that carries on it the very stamp and impression of the sin for which God inflicts it, adore and glorify his justice; fall down before him, and confess that he is righteous and holy in all that he hath brought upon you.

b. If the divine justice hath so found thee out, as to detect thee, and bring thee to temporal punishment for thy crimes, then glorify it, by a free and public confession of them to all the world.

Strive not to cover the sore, which God lays open; but take to thyself the shame of thine iniquities, and give God the glory of his justice, by acknowledging thy guilt, and admiring his most wise and righteous methods in discovering thee, when thou thoughtest thy wickedness had been hid in darkness and secrecy: so that others may hear; and fear to offend that God, who can, by such unknown ways of his providence, bring to light the hidden things of darkness. Thus, when Achan was miraculously discovered by lot, Joshua exhorts him, chap. 7:19. My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done: hide it not from me: which accordingly we find he did, and we may therefore hope well of his pardon. It is a most desperate folly of many stupid wretches, to persist obstinately in denying those crimes of which they are evidently convicted; and, that their names may escape the infamy, bind the guilt of them fast upon their souls for ever.

That is, therefore, a Second way of glorifying the justice of God, by a free and full confession of our sins, when his vengeance hath found us out.

[3dly] If thou art unjustly wronged and oppressed by others, glorify the justice of God, in committing thy Vindication to him.

Seek not to revenge thyself; for, by so doing, thou dost but take thy cause out of God's hands, who is better able to plead it for thee. If thou studiest how to recompense evil for evil, thou disparagest the justice of God, and suspectest that it will not do thee right; and, therefore, thou wilt seek to carve out to thyself what amends thou canst. Certainly, he doth most of all honour the justice of God, who, when he hath suffered wrongfully, doth, without any farther care or solicitude, recommend his cause to God. Nor can I approve those, who, when they are injured, do indeed betake them to God; but it is with bitter curses and direful imprecations against those, who have injured them, praying for wrath and vengeance to fall upon them: what! think we that the wrath of God must take fire at ours; and that he must dart down his thunderbolts, according to the guidance and direction of our passions? this were to make the justice of God servile to our affections, and an instrument for our revenge. Indeed, we do often meet in Scripture with such dreadful imprecations, where the saints of God devote his and their implacable enemies to utter ruin and destruction: yet this is no warrant for us to use them too. For, as our Saviour Christ rebuked his disciples who were vexed at the affront they received from a village that would not entertain them, and therefore entreated him to call for fire, as Elias did, to come down and consume them, (their zeal was all in a ferment, and presently boiled up to an intemperate feverish heat) but our Saviour checks them, and tells them, Luke 9:55. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of: intimating that Elijah prayed for fire to come down upon those captains and their companies that were sent to take him, from some extraordinary spirit, and by the mighty guidance and impulse of the Holy Ghost; but they did it only from a private spirit of revenge: so I may say, that those examples, which we have in Scripture, especially in the Psalms, of saints and holy men of God devoting their enemies to ruin, were from the impulse and direction of an extraordinary spirit, which we cannot pretend unto; and, therefore, for us to imitate them, would not be zeal, but wildfire. Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who suffered infinitely greater indignities than any that we can, hath set us another example, when, amidst the rage and insultings of his most bitter enemies, he prays, Luke 23:34. Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And his holy martyr St. Stephen, who was the first that followed our Saviour in the track of his blood, follows him likewise as closely in his example; and, when the stones flew thick about him from their malicious hands, it is said, Acts 7:60 that he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Indeed, though it may seem a paradox, yet it is a stated and measured truth, that then thou dost most of all glorify the justice of God, when thou implorest mercy for those who have wronged and injured thee, that God would forgive them and turn their hearts: for, in so praying, what dost thou else, but pray that God's justice may be cleared in clearing thy innocence? if thou canst but pray down mercy upon them, thou wilt also pray down repentance into them; and then thou hast gained the most noble and Christian-like revenge that can be desired.

[4thly] Glorify the justice of God, by endeavouring to make thyself worthy to escape the direful and destructive effects of it.

Thou hast been told how severe and tremendous this justice is. All the astonishing judgments, that have ever befallen any of the sons of men in this life, are but small preludiums of it; in comparison with those massy and solid plagues, that are laid up in store to be inflicted on impenitent sinners hereafter in hell: that is the proper region and sphere of justice, where wrath and woe for ever triumph, without mixture or abatement. Well now, O Soul, is there a way for thee to escape this terrible justice of the Great God; and wilt thou not, with the dearest affections of thy heart, close with it and embrace it? what is this, but to slight and disparage the wrath and justice of God? He hath but required faith and obedience from thee; and, upon these, hath promised, that thou shalt never fall a sacrifice to his justice, but be set up a trophy of his grace and mercy: and, certainly, if thou wilt not come up to these terms, it is too evident a sign, that thou despisest his justice, and thinkest it not worth the fearing.

And thus I have, at large, shewn you how you ought to glorify God in these seven attributes; his Holiness, his Mercy and Goodness, his Omnipresence, his Omniscience, his Veracity, his Power, and his Justice.

Indeed, there are several other attributes and perfections of the Divine Nature, which ought also to be glorified by us: but these, that I have already insisted upon, are the principal; and most frequently occur in the course of our lives, to be observed and imitated by us.

From what hath been said of our glorifying God, I shall deduce this short Inference and Corollary.

See here, then, what a Christian's life ought to be; only a representation of God.

The divine perfections should shine through all our actions; and whatsoever we do ought to be, either a resemblance of the divine nature, or a declaration of it. We have no other work nor business to do in the world, but to live according to the attributes of God, and to express his life in ours. For what is it to be godly, but to be like unto God? that, whilst the children of the Devil are like unto their father, and declare his hellish nature in their hellish lives; all, that are the children of God should be like unto their Heavenly Father, and express the virtues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light: as the Apostle speaks, 1 Pet 2:9. And, to conclude this, those Christians, who thus make it their constant employment to live on earth as God himself lives in heaven, may, with assured hope and unspeakable comfort, expect to live for ever with the Lord.

We have thus considered the Duty, to which we are here exhorted, even the great and most comprehensive duty of a Christian's whole life; and have shewn you what it is to glorify God. We have considered the Object of this duty; God, in all his attributes, both communicable and incommunicable: and have shewn you how they ought particularly to be glorified by us.

3. Let us now consider what the Apostle adds farther in the text, Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, Εν τῳ σωματι και τῳ πνευματι: that is, in your body, and in your soul.

For, by the word spirit the soul of man is here to be understood; as, likewise, in many other places of Scripture: and this, to denote that it is of a refined, incorporeal substance. Sometimes, indeed, the spirit of a man is mentioned in contradistinction, as well to his soul as to his body: so, in that prayer of the Apostle, 1 Thess. 5:23. I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless. But, here, it must not be understood, as if it were a third essential part of man: but either, according to St. Austin, de Animâ: tom. 3. lib. 4, c. 22, 23. these words, Soul and Spirit, are but exegetical one of the other, and signify both the same thing; or, else, by Spirit is meant only the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, which St. Paul prays might be preserved entire and blameless in the Thessalonians, as Chrysostom interprets those words (Chrys. in loc.) or, else, according to others (Zanch. in loc.) by Spirit is meant the superior faculties of the mind, reason and understanding; and, by Soul, the inferior faculties, of will, affections, and desires. But, when the Scripture speaks of the spirit of a man in distinction only to his body, as it doth in my text, it means nothing else but the soul: as including in it, both the superior faculties of the mind, reason and understanding; and the inferior faculties of the will, appetite and affections. So that, to glorify God in our spirit and in our body, is, to glorify him in our whole man, and all the powers and faculties that we are endowed with. For we are a middle sort of creatures: neither pure intellectual spirits, as the angels are; nor mere corporeal beings, as inanimate things: but God hath tacked these two extremes together, and made them meet in man; who, by his soul, holds hands with angels, and, by his body, with material creatures.

Hence we may observe, that the whole man, both soul and body, ought to be employed as the instruments of promoting God's honour and glory.

For the clearer prosecution of this, note,

First. That, when we speak of glorifying God in our whole man, both soul and body, this phrase comprehends under it all those accessary good things, which appertain to either.

Some things are reckoned the natural goods of the soul: such are prudence, sagacity, wit, learning, judgment, &c. Some things are reckoned the natural goods of the body: such are health, liberty, food, raiment, riches, &c. And some things belong neither properly to the soul, nor to the body; but to the whole compositum, or man, consisting of both united together: and such are credit and reputation, honour and dignity, dominion and authority, &c. Now, in all these things, God is to be glorified by us.

Secondly. When we say God is to be glorified by us in our whole man, we must know that there are Two ways of glorifying him: either actively, by fulfilling the Will of his Precepts; or passively, by suffering the Will of his Purpose.

(1) I shall first speak of glorifying God Actively in our body and in our spirit, by doing his will.

[l] First, then, every duty of God's immediate service and worship, wherein we draw nigh unto him, requires a joint Concurrence both of Soul and Body to glorify him in it.

Our Saviour Christ calls his service a yoke: Mat. 11. And, certainly, it is a yoke, wherein both soul and body must be coupled, and draw together: the soul, indispensably: the body, with a dispensation; but that dispensation granted only in case of mercy or necessity.

1st. In all the duties wherein we address ourselves to God, we ought to glorify him in our Souls and Spirits.

God is a spirit, yea the God of the spirits of all flesh; and they, that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth, as our Saviour speaks, John 4:24. And this God hath, with the greatest instance, required of you, Prov. 23:26. My son, give me thy heart: whatsoever else we tender unto God, if this be wanting, it is but the carcase of a duty. And as, of old, all sacrifices were accounted direful and unacceptable, if the heart could not be found in the slain beast, or any of the inwards were wanting, or tainted, or misplaced: so all thy sacrifices, which thou offerest up to God, are monstrous and unacceptable to him, if the heart be not found in them, and the inwards sound and entire. Thou dealest with God, as he in the Apologue with Hercules; who, having vowed to him the one half of what he should find that day, himself eat the kernels, and offered up only the shells of the nuts he found to his deity: so thou dost indeed offer up one half of thyself in the service of God; but it is only thy body, the husk and shell, whilst vain thoughts, or worldly cares, or wicked lusts prey upon and devour thy heart and soul. Thinkest thou, that thy God is such an idol God to be contented with such a part, or that he will be put off with shews and outward appearances? If he knows not thy heart, and the intentions and desires of, thy soul, to what purpose dost thou worship him? what do those humble and devout postures signify to him, who, if he sees not deeper and farther than these, sees nothing? Or, if he doth thoroughly discern and accurately scan every the least motion of thy thoughts and affections, woe unto thee, who shalt dare to make religion a piece of stage-play; and, by thy personating and counterfeiting of the saint, think to impose upon the omniscient God, and to pass for such an one indeed in his account. Indeed, hypocrisy is a mere mimical folly; and hypocrites are but like your Neurospasts, or little images, that move their eyes and bodies, not from any vital principle within them, but only as they are acted by wires and engines without: so the hypocrite twines his body into many flexible postures of seeming piety and devotion, not from any living principle of grace within, but only as he is moved by some outward wires of advantage or applause. Is this a serving and glorifying of God? Or, rather, is it not a mocking and flouting of him to his very face? The Jews never more cruelly mocked our Saviour Jesus Christ, than when they bowed the knee before him, and bid him Hail, king of the Jews: so, believe it, God will interpret all thy officious gestures, when thou fallest on thy knees, and stylest him Lord and King; he will interpret all to be but a solemn mockery, if thy soul fall not as prostrate before him as thy body, and if thy affections be not elevated unto heaven as well as thy hands and eyes. And, as these hypocritical mimics, who thus pretend to glorify God, do yet really scorn and vilify him more than any: so again, on the other hand, God doth most of all scorn and detest them, and looks upon them as the most loathsome and ridiculous wicked wretches that are: for, we may observe, that where imitation falls short, the partial defect is worse than a total privation: what beast more deformed in his shape, or more ridiculous in his actions, than a marmoset or ape! and yet none approacheth in a nearer resemblance in both unto man, who is the crown and glory of the visible creation: so, truly, a Hypocrite is but the ape of a true Christian, and all his devotion is but an apish imitation of the external acts of piety; which, because they proceed not from an inward participation of the divine nature, are most despicable and deformed in God's account: let them squeeze and writhe their faces into as many forms as they please, and when they fast or pray put on what countenance they will; yet, if their hearts and affections correspond not with their outward semblances, they do but play the antics, they do but grin and make mouths at God. But, yet, alas! who is there among us, that can wholly acquit himself of this? Some, that they might not be thought hypocritical worshippers of God, run into another extreme, and demean themselves rudely and irreverently in his presence: they will not shew any devotion, that it might be thought they have the more: but, yet, take them in their most careless and unseemly postures, and is it not hypocritical that they present their bodies and their outward man before the Lord, when their hearts and affections are with the eyes of the fools in the ends of the earth? what is the end of thy coming hither? is it not to serve and glorify God? if it be not, thy very coming is hypocritical: if it be, all thy wandering thoughts, thy vain and worldly imaginations, thy drowsiness, thy want of attention and affection, is all from the bitter root of thy natural hypocrisy: in prayer, thou ownest the duty by being present at it; and, if thou dost not cordially close with every petition, and, as soon as it comes from the minister's mouth, send it up to heaven from thy very heart, whatsoever thy posture be, thou playest the hypocrite: in hearing, if thou dost not diligently attend to the truths that are delivered, and submit thy will, prejudices, and interests unto the evidence of it, thou hearest hypocritically: and, whatsoever other duty thou performest by thyself, or joinest in with others, so long as thy mind hath been diverted unto other objects, and thy thoughts scattered by other cares, so long hast thou been a hypocrite in that duty; for thou makest an outward shew of what is not in thy heart or affections. Well, then, if you would glorify God, fix and engage your spirits in all the duties you perform to him: in prayer, let zeal and affection warm your hearts, and offer up that spiritual sacrifice with that heavenly fire; think of nothing, but that God to whom you pray, and those blessings you pray for: hear the truth with as much attention and reverence, as if God were himself speaking to you with his own voice; and mind nothing but how you may understand it for the present, and practise it for the future. In all your duties, bend every power and faculty of your souls to the utmost tension: command them to regard nothing else, for that time: and, if the fowls of the air, thy flying and roving thoughts, will yet come down upon thy sacrifice, let it be thy care, as it was Abraham's, speedily to drive them away; for, by their touch they defile it, but by their stay they would devour it.

2dly. In all the duties of worship which we perform unto God, we ought to glorify him not in our spirits only, but in our Bodies.

As, on the one hand, it is gross hypocrisy and dissimulation, if we present our bodies only before the Lord, with all the shews of a real affection and devotion, whilst yet the heart is far estranged from him; so again, on the other hand, it is a saucy irreverence and profane rudeness, to pretend to worship God in the spirit, when we pay him no respect or observance with our bodies. Certainly, he hath created both soul and body; and he is the Sovereign Lord of both, and expects that tribute and homage should be rendered him from both. Some men have driven all their religion so far inward, that it is become altogether invisible; and, because God is a spirit, they serve him as if they were spirits too, and had nothing to do with the body: they have heard that bodily exercise profiteth little; nor indeed doth it, where the heart and soul do not both excite and accompany it: and, because it is an empty piece of formality and pageantry to worship God only with the body, they will not worship him with the body at all, but only with the spirit; and so unyoke these two, which God hath made to draw together. How many have we seen affect irreverence, as a part or sign of spiritualness; and choose the most unseemly postures they could, only that it might appear they did not flatter nor compliment with God! It is a weakness, hugely incident to human nature, and that I think with which the world was never more tainted than in these our days, to cure extremes by extremes: because hypocrites worship God only with the outward man, and content themselves only with the pomp and ostentation of an external devotion, therefore do so many think it a demonstration of sincerity to discharge the body utterly from bearing any part in their worship: they despise reverence as a piece of formality, and make communion with God to consist in a familiar rudeness. Certainly, not your souls only, but your bodies also were made for the Lord, as the Apostle speaks, v. 6. He expects his tribute of glory from it, although it cannot pay it in so high and refined a manner as the soul: and, though its actions be but gross and inconsiderable, in comparison with the pure and sprightly operations of the mind; yet they are not so inconsiderable, but that God absolutely requires them from us: and if we be not careful to honour him with our bodies, we rob him, if not of part of his service, yet of his servant. I would not insist so pressingly on this, did I not observe that outward reverence is not only grown into disuse, but into contempt among us; and he is accounted God's best friend and intimate, that keeps the least distance: hence proceed those unwieldy gestures, that argue nothing but either a slighting or wearisomeness of the service you are engaged in. Believe it, God is a Great King; and, in his service, he expects as humble expressions of your reverence, as any you can think due to the greatest monarchs of the world. What saith the Lord, concerning those, who offered the lame and the maimed for sacrifice, Mal. 1:8? Offer it now unto your governor: see whether he would be pleased and contented with such a present: and, if an earthly prince would look upon it as an affront rather than a gift, think you that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will account such a lame and imperfect offering worthy of his acceptance? certainly, that is not fit for God, which is not so much as fit and decent for man. And, though God looks especially at the soul, and the inward affections of the heart; yet he also expects that his offering should be entire, not lame and maimed of one half. He requires from you that outward reverence, that is necessary to testify a due sense of his glorious presence: he requires that you should sacrifice yourselves entirely to him, your bodies upon the altar of your hearts and affections; and both soul and body upon that altar, which alone can make both acceptable, even the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now in all the duties which we perform immediately unto God, we are to glorify him in our bodies Two ways:

By making them the Instruments of his service.

By making them the Witnesses and Testimonies of our respect and reverence.

(1st) Our bodies must be employed as the Instruments of God's service.

And, here, the tongue is the chief member; which, by the Psalmist, is oftentimes called his glory, because it is a principal organ of glorifying God. Herewith we bless God for mercies, already received; and herewith we pray unto God for mercies, which we yet need. And, though praise and prayer be chiefly the work and employment of the heart, and God can distinctly read what is printed there; yet this sufficeth not, if the voice too bear not its part, where it may be done with conveniency and decency.

(2dly) We ought to glorify God in our body, by testifying all lowly Respect and Reverence in those duties which we perform unto him.

Whatsoever liberty the wantonness of our late times hath indulged; yet certainly we ought, in all our addresses unto the Great God of Heaven, to compose ourselves in such an humble and reverential posture, as may testify that our souls are deeply affected with the awe and dread of that Great Majesty before whom we appear. Wherefore serve the gestures of the body, but to signify the respect of the mind? and, therefore, if we ought to demean ourselves lowlily in the presence of our superiors, only to testify the inward veneration and esteem which we bear towards them; should we not much more do so, in the presence of the Great God? And, if some have falsely and hypocritically made use of this sign, when they have pretended a great deal of zeal and affection in their outward comportment, though inwardly they have been full of all manner of wickedness; yet this should be no argument to us to neglect it: but, first, we should labour to have deep impressions of awe and reverence made upon our spirits; and, then, express that reverence in the most significant and humble deportment of our bodies. This is to glorify God in our spirit and in our body. And, therefore, doth the Scripture every where abound, both in giving us directions and examples of outward reverence in the worship of God.

In Prayer, we find the holy men of old frequently used Three several postures; all of them expressive of a deep humility.

Prostration, or a falling flat on the ground. Thus it is said of Job, that he fell down upon the ground, and worshipped: Job. 1:20.

Kneeling, which is most often mentioned: yea, and because it was the common gesture in this duty, it is of itself mentioned as a periphrasis of prayer by St. Paul, Eph. 3:14. For this cause I bow my knees: i.e. for this cause I pray unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Standing. So it is said, 2 Chron. 6:12 that Solomon stood upon the brazen scaffold, and spread forth his hands and prayed: and, chap. 20:5 that Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation and prayed.

Either of these is a fit posture for prayer; but, especially, kneeling: and they all express that reverence and humility, which our souls ought to be possessed with, when we appear in the presence of the great and glorious God. But, for other gestures, which either pride, contradiction, or laziness has introduced, they are altogether unfit for this duty; and, whatsoever inward affection and zeal men may pretend to, yet certainly they give but very little demonstrations of it outwardly.

Then, again, for Hearing the Word, we should do it with a composed gravity and seriousness; shewing the fixedness of our minds, by the fixedness of our bodies. Consider, that the great King of Heaven speaks to you: he speaks by his ambassador: and, the same attention and reverence, that you would shew to your prince, were he speaking unto you; the same, yea and much greater, ought you certainly to shew to your God. Concerning particulars, I leave it to your Christian prudence to judge what is most expressive of reverence towards men; which, though perhaps it be no part of the worship of God, yet he expects and requires as a befitting circumstance: yea, and a circumstance so considerable, that it is almost all that your bodies can do in his service. And judge, I pray, whether it be any less than a slighting of God, that you should declare more respect and reverence to your superiors, which are but mortal frail men like yourselves, than to him, who is the immortal and most high God, blessed for evermore.

The Apostle is somewhat large in giving directions to the Church of Corinth, concerning their outward demeanour in the public worship of God, 1 Cor. 11:4. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. That this is spoken, not only of the preacher, but of the hearers, appears plainly by the following verse: Every woman, that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head. Now, certain it is, that women were not to pray or to prophesy in the Church, as teachers; for it was not permitted them to speak: they prayed, therefore, as joining in prayer; and prophesied, as attending upon prophesying, that is, upon preaching the word. And so, in like manner, the whole assembly of men are said to pray and prophesy; that is, to join in prayer, and to hear the word of God preached. But he, that doth this, saith the Apostle, with his head covered, dishonoured his head. And so, again, v. 10. The woman ought to have power over her head; that is, a veil, or covering, so called, because it betokened her subjection to the power of her husband: she ought to wear this veil because of the angels; that is, that the angels, who are ministering spirits and present in the assemblies of the faithful, joying to behold the order, reverence, and affection of our worship, might see nothing indecent and uncomely.

Indeed, this outward reverence should be used, not only in respect of the attending angels; but in respect both of ourselves and others, as it may excite and help both our and their inward zeal and affection.

First. It will tend to quicken and stir up thine own devotion.

For, if thou prostratest thyself before God, will not this put thee in mind what thou art doing; and shame thee if thou findest thy thoughts and thy affections wandering, and wholly incongruous to thy bodily deportment? Whilst thou bowest thy knees, and spreadest forth thy hands towards heaven, canst thou, without blushing, suffer thy thoughts and thy affections to gad abroad, and stray from the work which thou so solemnly makest shew of? This will oblige thee, if thou hast any ingenuity, to call them home, and fix them upon what thou art doing. And,

Secondly. It will much tend to excite and quicken the affections of others, who shall behold thy grave and reverend demeanour.

For the expression of our affection is naturally apt to imprint the same, on those, that shall observe us. When we see them signify so much awe and humility, it will put us in mind to whom they do it, in whose presence both they and we are: and as, in water, face answereth to face, so doth the heart of man to man; and, therefore, it will be very rare, if those affections, which we see lively stirring in others, do not beget in us also some resemblance and similitude of them.

Indeed, there is no stated universal measure for outward reverence: for that, which is accounted a sign of reverence in these nations, as uncovering of the head, &c. in other places is the greatest affront and scorn, that can be offered. But this, notwithstanding, we may take for a sure and infallible rule. That those actions, which are commonly used to express reverence to others, according to the custom of the countries where they are observed, ought much more to be used to express reverence to God in his worship and service. This I suppose is clear; and I am sure it is as necessary, as it is much neglected and slighted among us. I know nothing, that can dispense with us; but only mercy, or necessity: if thou canst not shew thy outward reverence without endangering thy health, or tormenting or paining thy body; in this case, he will have mercy, and not sacrifice: but, in all other cases, where it is left free for thee to do it, and thou mayest so provide that by doing it thou mayest suffer no injury nor considerable detriment to thy body, God doth absolutely require it of thee: for it is almost the only way how thou canst, in any part of his immediate worship, glorify him in thy body.

That therefore is the First Proposition, that we ought, in all the duties of God's immediate worship and service, to glorify him by a joint Concurrence both of our Body and our Spirit. To present the body only, without the soul, is but hypocrisy; and, to worship God, without a due reverence expressed by the body, is but a saucy rudeness.

[2] We ought to glorify God in our Spirit and in our Body, in those things which Peculiarly and Properly belong to Each of them.

And here, should I branch this out into all its particulars, the work would be altogether endless; and we might sooner expect to be glorified with God, than finish the particular consideration of all the actions both of our souls and bodies, whereby we ought to glorify God. I shall, therefore, only touch upon some of the most remarkable things, and so close up this head.

1st. Therefore, as for the Soul, we may consider it in its three great faculties of Understanding, Will, and Affections: in all which we ought to glorify God.

(1st) To glorify him in our Reason and Understanding.

This the Wise Man calls the candle of the Lord: Prov. 20:27. And this candle we ought to light at God's lamp; for so David calls the word of God, Psal. 119:105.

[1st] Then we glorify God by our reason and understanding, when, we employ it in finding out the Truth; and, by a diligent perusal and comparing of Scripture with Scripture, rationally search out, without prejudice or partiality, what the mind of the Spirit is.

This is the noblest work that the mind of man can be busied about. And, if their industry be commendable, who turn over the monuments of learned men, to inform their understandings only in natural and human knowledge; how much more excellent is it, to revolve that only book which God hath written, to instruct thee in much deeper mysteries than any that all the learning in the world besides can teach thee? Whilst thou art thus careful to inform thine understanding, in the doctrines of religion and duties of obedience, in what God hath propounded to thee to believe and to practise, thou dost more perfect and advance thy reason, than all those great masters of wit and reason have done, who rested in those glimmering discoveries.

[2dly] We glorify God by our reason, when we subjugate and bring it under the Obedience of Faith.

There are many sublime mysteries in our faith, which reason alone could never have revealed unto us; yea which, now that they are revealed, it cannot fathom: as, that Three Persons should be One God; two Natures in Christ, one Person; that he should be born of a virgin, who was before all time; that he should die, who hath life and immortality dwelling in himself; that, being truly dead, he should by his own power raise himself again: these things, and many more, unsanctified and untamed reason will still be quarrelling at. Now if thou wouldest glorify God, bring thy reason to submit to the authority of faith: urge it with a scriptum est: "It is thus written," and therefore I thus believe. And, indeed, by thus doing, you do not contradict, but only perfect your reason: for there is infinitely more reason to believe what God hath so plainly testified in his word, than to believe the truth of what we see with our very eyes; since our senses themselves cannot be so infallible a proof of verity, as God's testimony. And therefore St. Peter, speaking of the heavenly voice, which he himself heard in the Transfiguration of our Saviour Christ, yet tells us, 2 Pet. 1:19. We have a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed: intimating to us, that the testimony of Scripture is more certain than a voice from heaven. And, therefore, let the truths revealed seem never so repugnant to corrupt reason; yet we ought to acquiesce in the authority and revelation of that God, who is truth itself. In such mysterious depths, I much please myself with that odd saying of Tertullian, Sepultus resurrexit: certum est, quia impossibile est: "Christ rose again from the dead: it is certain, because it is impossible." Now glorify God by resigning up your reason and apprehension of things wholly to his teaching and instruction. Say, "Lord, thy word hath taught me many mysteries, which my weak and short-sighted reason cannot comprehend: but I desire to sit at thy feet: thy word shall be my reason. This I understand, that thou, who art Truth itself, canst neither deceive, nor be deceived: and therefore I find infinitely more reason, to believe any thing upon thy testimony, than to disbelieve it upon its own seeming impossibility. Since thou hast spoken it, I fully assent; and deliver up all the petulancy of my reason, to be chastised and tutored by faith."

(2dly) Glorify God in your Wills, by bringing them into a perfect compliance with his holy and sovereign will.

This, indeed, is the hardest and most difficult task, which we have to do. The old contest between God and man, ever since the Fall, hath only been whose will shall stand, either his or ours.

And there is a twofold will of God, which our corrupt wills are still opposing; the Will of his Command, and the Will of his Providence; of his Precept, and of his Purpose.

We naturally reject his precepts, and murmur at his providences. Now glorify God by submitting thy will unto his in both.

[1st] Submit thy will unto the Authority of his Commands.

And, though the duties that are enjoined be many of them very difficult, and all contrary to the inclinations of flesh and blood, and it may be to thy secular interests and advantages; yet bridle the reluctances and rebellions of thy will, and set up thy fixed resolution, "This God hath commanded, and this I will do in his strength, whatsoever shame, or dangers, or sufferings I may meet with in the way of my obedience." This highly tends to glorify the authority and sovereignty that God hath over thee, when thou art ready to sacrifice thy corrupt muttering will, and all thy interests, to the commands, of thy God.

[2dly] Submit thy will to the overruling Will of God's Purpose.

Whatsoever God doth to thee or brings upon thee, sit down; and, with a contented patience, say, Not my will, but thine be done.

But concerning this I shall speak more largely hereafter, when I come to shew you how we ought to glorify God passively.

(3dly) Glorify God in thy Affections: and that must be done, by bringing them to a conformity with God's.

This conformity must be twofold; as to the object, and as to the motive of them.

As to the object, see that thy affections be set upon those things, on which God's are.

As to the motive, see that they be set on them, upon that very account.

As, for instance, thou oughtest to glorify God in thy love, by loving what he loves, himself, his ways, his people, and his ordinances; and that, because he loves them: in thy hatred, by hating what God hates, sin and wickedness; and that, because God hates them: in thy joy and delight, by delighting in what God delights, that is in himself and his own infinite perfections, and his image; and that, because he rejoiceth in them. And so, of the rest.

And thus you see, in brief, how you ought to glorify God in the several faculties of your souls.

2dly. You ought also to glorify God in those things, which appertain peculiarly to the Body.

And this is chiefly done, by keeping it pure and undefiled. There are two things, which defile the body, intemperance and incontinence. And the Apostle expressly commands us to glorify God in our body, by flying both these polluting sins. As for intemperance, we are commanded, 1 Cor. 10:31 that whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we should do all to the glory of God: that is, we ought to make use of the comforts of life with such moderation, as may best fit us for the service of God; and so, as no occasion may be given to blaspheme our holy profession by our riot and excess. And, concerning incontinence, the Apostle hath told us in this chapter, that our bodies are the members of Christ: Shall we then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid: and, upon this, he infers the exhortation, Glorify God in your body; that is, glorify him by a chaste and modest conversation.

[3] I shall not farther expatiate, in giving you rules how you should make use of other particular advantages for the glory of God. As of health and strength; by blessing God for it, and employing it in the duties both of thy general and particular calling: of riches and estate; by laying it out in refreshing the bowels of the poor, and the maintenance and encouragement of God's worship and service: of thy credit and reputation; by making it subservient to repair the broken and sunk credit of true and real piety. Innumerable are the particulars, wherein God requires to be glorified by us: yea, there is not any one action of our whole lives, but it must be directed to this, as to its last and ultimate, end; for we are commanded, that, whatsoever we do, we should do it to the glory of God.

Therefore, in the general, I shall only add this, that there are Two things which make all we do, whether they be actions of greater or less importance, to be a glorifying of God.

When they are done from heavenly and spiritual Principles.

When they are done to heavenly and spiritual Ends.

1st. When they are done from Heavenly Principles.

Many are these heavenly principles, which ennoble the meanest actions we can perform, and make them a glorifying of God. I shall name only these Two.

(1st) The Love and Fear of God.

I name these two sister-graces together, because they are never found separate: and, indeed, a true filial fear is but an awful love; and, wherever there is a sincere love to God, there will be a fear to offend him. These two are necessary ingredients into every good action; and, wheresoever they are found, they ennoble what we do, and make the common and ordinary actions of our lives to be spiritual and divine. For what is done from the love and fear of God, is done for God's sake: and, certainly, we cannot more glorify God, than by concerning him in all our actions; for this dedicates all we do, and makes it holy and sacred.

(2dly) Obedience to the Commands of God:

Who hath enjoined us the works of our particular callings in our several stations, no less strictly and indispensibly, than the duties of his own immediate worship and service. And, whatsoever common, if lawful, action of our lives we do out of conscience to God, and that we may thereby obey his will and precept, it is of water made wine: it is as truly glorifying him, as the most pompous and solemn worship, we can perform. By this holy artifice, we make the necessities or employments of this life become subject and tributary to heaven: and, what we thus do upon God's account, he will certainly reward.

2dly. When we do any action unto Spiritual and Heavenly Ends, then we glorify God by it.

As when we act, not for vain-glory, or only secular advantages; but to give a good example to others, or to fit ourselves the more vigorously to serve God, or to be beneficial to others, &c.

We have thus seen how we ought to glorify God Actively, both in our bodies and in our spirits, by doing the Will of his Precept.

(2) The next thing in order, is to shew you how we ought, to glorify him Passively in both, by suffering the Will of his Purpose.

Indeed, the best and perhaps the greatest part of a Christian's life is spent in sufferings. When we lie long fallow in a continued prosperity, not ploughed up by any afflictions, our hearts are apt, like rank soil, to spend themselves in unprofitable weeds: our corruptions and vanities will overtop and eat out the very heart of our graces; so that God sees it necessary sometimes to plough us up, and make long furrows upon our backs. And, as husbandmen use to lop off the superfluous excrescences of their trees, to make them the more fruitful: so, that we may become the more fruitful to his praise and glory, the methods of his wisdom and goodness engage him to use the discipline of his pruning-knife; to cut off from us those luxuriances, which, although they may seem to add to our flourishing, yet hinder our fruitfulness.

Now all our sufferings do either respect our bodies, or our spirits; either the outward state of this present life, or else the inward and spiritual state of the soul.

The former may well be divided into Two kinds: for they are either,

First. Simply, Afflictions; brought upon us by the hand and providence of God, without respecting any other cause but only God's good pleasure and our own evil demerits. Or, else,

Secondly. They are Persecutions; brought upon us by the wicked rage of men, for righteousness' sake, and the testimony of a good conscience.

Those sufferings, which concern the spirit and the inward state of the soul, may likewise be well reduced unto Two heads: for, usually, they are either temptations or desertions. In the one, we suffer from Satan; in the other, from God.

In all these various kinds of sufferings, some of which fall to the lot of every true Christian, and all of them lie very hard upon some, God ought to be glorified by us.

Indeed our way to heaven is set all along with thorns: troubles and sorrows are thick strewed in it. He is a fool, that sits not down and computes what his religion will cost him. It may be, troubles without, and terrors within; poverty, reproach, bonds; yea, and it may be death itself: besides many sharp agonies and conflicts of the soul; many dark and gloomy seasons, wherein neither sun nor stars may appear to him for divers days: his outward comforts may be to him all sequestered by the rage of men, and his inward by the wrath of God: on which side soever he looks, he may behold nothing but sorrow and anguish; heaven covered with clouds, and the earth with storms. This hath been the portion of many of God's dearest children; and we must make our account that it shall certainly, more or less, be ours. The Apostle hath forewarned us, Heb. 12:6. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth: this is the proof of our legitimation, v. 8. If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye has tards, and not the genuine sons of God. We know not what particular trials shall befal us, saving that God hath every where testified that afflictions and tribulations abide us. This is the highway to the heavenly city: the cross is our mark; and, if we frequently meet not with this, we may certainly conclude that we have mistaken our road, and shall fall short of our journey's end. And, therefore, St. Paul speaks of it as a case of necessity, Acts 14:22. We must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. Indeed, as we are men, we are born to trouble as naturally as the sparks fly upwards: and, therefore, although we may well conclude negatively, that certainly we are not travelling towards heaven if we meet with no rubs nor difficulties in our way; yet we cannot conclude in the affirmative, that, if we now suffer, we shall hereafter be glorified, unless we be careful to glorify God by our present sufferings.

Our sufferings, then, being so great and considerable a part of our lives, let us see how we may glorify God in this fire.

[1] I shall begin with those, which concern the Body, and the outward state of this present life.

And here I shall give you several rules, some of which shall be Cautionary, and some Directive.

1st. For Cautionary Rules,

(1st) The first shall be this: If thou wouldst glorify God by thy sufferings, beware that thou dost not rashly and unwarrantably precipitate thyself into them.

By those sufferings, wherein thou thyself canst have no comfort, God can have no glory. Now consider what small ground for comfort thou canst have, when thou thou needlessly bringest afflictions upon thyself; and entanglest thyself in those troubles, which either piety or prudence would have taught thee to avoid. These sparks will fly about thee fast enough of themselves: thou needest not blow the coals: but, if thou dost, and art burnt by them, thou hast nothing to complain of, but thine own folly; nor to comfort thee, but that it was thine own choice and resoluteness.

There be Two things, that make sufferings rash and unwarrantable.

When thou sufferest, what thou hast deserved.

When thou sufferest, what thou mightest have avoided.

[1st] Thou rashly and unwarrantably plungest thyself into troubles, when thou sufferest what thy vices have deserved.

How many such wretched creatures are there, who have no other hope nor plea for future happiness, but that they are extremely miserable here! and yet all their sufferings are nothing else, but the just revenge that their own lusts and vices take upon them. It is an old maxim, Non pœna, sed causa facit martyrem: "Not the punishment, but the cause makes a martyr." It is not so much what we suffer, as wherefore, by which God is glorified. What saith the Apostle, 1 Pet. 4:14, 15? If ye be reproached for the name Christ, happy are ye.… on their part, he is evil spoken of; but, on your part, he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busy-body in other men's matters: for, thus to suffer, is a dishonour to the name of God, and to the profession of the Christian Religion. Hast thou, by an idle and dissolute life, brought thyself to want and poverty? or, by intemperance and luxury, exhausted thy body, and dishonoured it with diseases as noisome as they are painful? or, by enormous and flagitious crimes, exposed thyself to the censure and penalty of the law? what comfort canst thou take in this suffering, the shame and infamy of which will be a sad accruement to the affliction? Never think that such sufferings can bring any honour to God, when the cause of them was the dishonouring of him. In these, thou art not his, but only the Devil's, confessor and martyr.

[2dly] Thou rashly and unwarrantably castest thyself into trouble, when thou sufferest what thou mightest lawfully have avoided.

Be the cause never so good and glorious, yet if we suffer for it needlessly, we can have but little comfort, and God but little glory by such sufferings. It was a strange frenzy in the Circumcellions, a sect of heretical Christians in St. Austin's time, who ambitiously affected martyrdom when there was no persecution: and would forcibly compel others to lay violent hands on them; or, if they failed of that, would lay violent hands upon themselves; glorying in this, as martyrdom and suffering for the sake and testimony of Jesus. And, before these, the Montanists also were very fond and eager of suffering: who, though they did not invite and court it, yet thought it a base and carnal cowardice to use any means to escape it; yea, even that, which our Saviour Christ hath prescribed, Mat. 10:23. When they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another: and therefore Tertullian, misled by that erroneous spirit, hath written a whole treatise against flight in persecution. This is a strong kind of supererogation, when men shall undergo more for Christ's sake, than he himself is willing to have them. These are not his martyrs, but martyrs to their own vain-glory, and sacrifice themselves to their own fancies and self-will. And so, again, whosoever he be, that chooseth the greater suffering, rather than the less; as death before imprisonment, or imprisonment before a small mulct; let his cause be what it will, though really as glorious and excellent as he himself conceits it: yet be suffers rashly for it; and, when he comes to present himself before God, all scourged, and maimed, and famished, and bloody, expecting to receive the crown of glory, he may possibly receive no other guerdon, but that cutting reproof, Who hath required these things at your hands? As it is not true courage and fortitude to rush headlong into dangers, when we have no call nor warrant to engage us; so neither is it any true Christian valour to affect dangers and sufferings: we ought not to seek them out, and challenge the combat: it is enough, if we cannot escape them without sordid and sinful courses, bravely to bear their shock, and sustain their onset. That Christian doth sufficiently discharge his duty, who is first careful to avoid dangers; but, if he cannot do this, without making use of unlawful shifts, denying the faith and betraying his own conscience, suffers them without shrinking: but those, who wilfully expose themselves to sufferings, either by doing what they need not, or by not avoiding what they may, let them not think that they glorify God by such sufferings; for they suffer not according to his will, but their own: and we may take up the same lamentation concerning them, that David did concerning Abner; Died Abner as a fool dieth? so suffer these, die these, as a fool suffers and dies, when it was in their own power to prevent those troubles and afflictions, into which they fall, nay into which they precipitate themselves.

But you will say, "How is it then, that the Apostle so highly extols the heroic fortitude of those martyrs of which he tells us, Heb. 11:35 who, when they were tortured, would not accept of deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection? It seems, by their example, that God may be glorified by a voluntary and arbitrary suffering."

To this I answer, That, if they had refused deliverance offered to them upon conditions that had been righteous and lawful, their refusal of it had been utterly sinful and unlawful, and the Apostle would never have strewed flowers upon their hearses; for they had not been martyrs, but self-murderers: but, if we consult the story to which this passage relates, as it is at large described, 2 Mac. 7. which, though it be not Canonical Scripture, yet gives us a good account of the Jewish affairs under the Grecian Empire; we shall find that the Apostle commends their faith and patience, because they would not accept of deliverance upon unworthy and sinful terms: they were indeed offered freedom and safety, yea honour and rewards by Antiochus, if so be they would eat swine's flesh, and things offered to idols, contrary to the commands of the Law: but, upon such conditions as these, they refused to accept of deliveranee; expecting, as they professed and the Apostle testifies, a better resurrection; and esteeming it infinitely more eligible, to sacrifice their lives for the glory of the true God, than to save their lives by sacrificing to false and idol gods. This instance, therefore, makes nothing in favour of those, who rashly thrust themselves into dangers, when they have neither call nor necessity to encounter them; and, then, either complain, or glory, that they are persecuted. This is not to glorify God: for he would have none of his champions come forth to combat, till he himself gives the signal; which he never doth, until his providence brings us into such circumstances, that we must necessarily either sin or suffer, and no way is left open for us to avoid this dilemma. Then, indeed, when we are thus necessitated, if we choose affliction rather than sin, if we take up the cross rather than stumble and fall at it, if we are willing to undergo the sorest temporal evils that can befal us rather than dishonour God and pollute our own consciences, we do sufficiently declare that we are faithful and courageous soldiers of Jesus Christ, the Captain of our Salvation; and, if we thus suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him; as the Apostle speaks, Rom. 8:17.

This is the First Cautionary Rule: If thou wouldest glorify God by thy sufferings, beware that thou dost not rashly and unwarrantably precipitate thyself into them.

(2dly) Another Rule is this: If thou wouldest glorify God under sufferings, beware that thou attempt not to free thyself from them by any unlawful means.

Consider, that God hath thee now in his hands; and, if thou seekest violently to wrest thyself out of them, thou wilt certainly fall into worse. And yet, alas! what is more ordinary in the world than this? some renounce the faith, which they formerly owned; yea, and after they have endured many hardships and tribulations for it, fall away only for fear of, worse to come: others betake themselves to wicked arts; and, because they are weary of the discipline of God, seek to the Devil to deliver them from it: thus Saul consults a witch, and Ahaziah, Beelzebub the god of Ekron: and, indeed, the whole world is full of such practices; and, by stealing and lying and forswearing, men seek to deliver themselves from the troubles lying upon them; and, so they can but get free from the chastisements of God, they care not though they fall into the torments of the Devil. Beware, therefore, whenever God brings any affliction upon thee, that thou use no indirect and unlawful means to escape it. It is better to keep thy trouble with thy God, than to lose thy God with thy trouble. And, know this, that, if thou violatest thy conscience to preserve thy body or thy estate, the wound, which thou makest there, will be far more insupportable than any temporal affliction that can befall thee: he, that buys off punishment with sin, makes a most sad and miserable exchange of a temporal for an eternal torment. Beware, therefore, how you thus traffic with the Devil: say unto him, when he presents thee with any such unlawful means to rid thee of thy sorrows and sufferings, "No: I am now under the hand of God, and his corrections are infinitely better than thy relief. I will never destroy my soul, to deliver my body; nor run into hell, to get out of prison; nor wound my soul, to cure my body; nor renounce my God and faith, to keep my estate and goods; nor burn in eternal flames, to escape a stake and faggot. Far be such a thought for ever from me. My God is able to deliver me; and he also will deliver me: but, if not, I will not, to save a poor vile wretched carcase, ruin my precious and immortal soul." Certainly, whosoever thinks to save himself from troubles and afflictions by any sinful means, is as foolish as that mariner, who, to lighten his vessel in a storm and save it from shipwreck, should tear up the very planks of it, and cast them into the sea.

(3dly) Beware that your sufferings and afflictions do not exasperate your spirits, and embitter your hearts against God; that the more he smites you, the more you should revolt from him.

By so doing, possibly the plague may be removed; but, certainty, the curse will be redoubled: and God may take away a judgment in more wrath and displeasure, than ever be first inflicted it: Isa. 1:5. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more. It oftentimes so falls out, that they, who are incorrigible under punishments, sin themselves into impunity. But, believe it, this is the most desperate course ye can take: for, if temporal judgments harden us in sin, God may remove them as ineffectual; but then, assuredly, he will break us with eternal. It was a most cursed speech of that impious king, 2 Kings 6:33. This evil is of the Lord: why should I wait upon the Lord any longer? If God command not deliverance at our prefixed time, We are apt to grow enraged at our sufferings, and to revenge ourselves upon the Almighty by our sins: we read of Ahaz, 2 Chron. 28:22 that, in the time of his distress, he did trespass yet more against the Lord; and God sets a brand upon him for it, and makes him a notorious emphatical sinner for it: This is that king Ahaz. Beware, therefore, when God afflicts you, that you suffer not your hearts to rise in any mutinous thoughts or passions against him. How much gall and wormwood soever be mingled in the cup which your Father gives you to drink, let it not embitter your hearts: and, though he may mark you out, for afflictions; yet beware that you give no provocation to set his black mark upon you, for obstinacy and rebellion. Certainly, such sufferings as leave a rancour and spleen in the heart against God, are but the prelodiums of hell torments: for, there, the damned for ever fret under the acrimony of their punishments; and foam out blasphemies and curses against that God, whose dread justice and infinite power eternally triumph over them in their ruin and destruction. And, if thy sufferings do thus exasperate thee against God, know, that thou makest that a kind of damnation to thyself, which he made but an affliction; and fear, lest that, which doth so near resemble the torments of hell, do at last end in them.

And thus I have given you these Three Cautionary Rules; If you would glorify God, do not unwarrantably rush into sufferings; use no unlawful means to free thyself from them; and, lastly, be not exasperated and embittered by them.

2dly. The next thing is to give you some Directive Rules how you ought to glorify God in an afflicted and suffering condition.

(1st) You ought to glorify God, by a meek patience, and humble submission unto his good will and pleasure.

Those, who murmur and tumultuate under afflictions, accuse God of injustice, and carry themselves as if he had done them wrong, and they suffered undeservedly. And therefore the Prophet Jeremiah expostulates with us the unreasonableness of this sin of repining, upon the consideration of God's justice: Lam. 3:39. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

And there be Three considerations exhibited to us in this Scripture, that tend mightily to confirm our patience under the sharpest afflictions which we can suffer in this life.

[1st] That there is no affliction, but it is mingled and sweetened with a great deal of mercy.

Why doth a living man complain? Possibly, thou art racked with torturing pains, or consumest away in lingering diseases, reduced to extreme necessity and pinching want: yet, still, thou art a living man; and life itself is such a vast blessing, that all miseries and afflictions compared to it, are but drops to the ocean.

[2dly] Consider, that thou art but a man: Why doth a living man complain, a man, &c.? a frail, feeble, creature; naturally subject to many miseries sorrows?

Thou hast received thy being sub hoc onere, with this burden affixed to it, quietly to bear all the various accidents and troubles, which the wisdom of God shall see good to bring upon thee.

[3dly] Consider what thou hast deserved; and this will be a most effectual means to teach thee patience under what thou feelest. A man for the punishment of his sins.

If God should mix together all the bitter ingredients, all the stings and venom in the world, and compound of them all one unexampled affliction, and lay that upon thee all the days of thy life; yet this were nothing, to what thou hast deserved; this were nothing, to one gripe of hell torments; how much less is it nothing, to an eternity of them! This, thy sins have demerited: and why then should a living man complain for the punishment of his iniquities? When thou liest under any pain or sickness, or whatsoever thy affliction be, think with thyself "How happy is it for me, that I am not now in hell! God hath cast me here, indeed, upon my bed; but it is mercy, that he hath not cast me into eternal flames. If I now find so much pain, when I am but lightly touched by his hand; oh, what intolerable anguish should I feel, were I now under the unrebated strokes of his almighty arm! and shall I howl, and fret, and be impatient; when I have infinitely more reason to bless God, that it is not worse with me, than to complain that it is thus? Whatsoever is short of hell, is mercy to such a wretch as I am; who have ten thousand times deserved to be scourged with scorpions, whereas may gracious Father only chastiseth me with rods."

Thus, I say, under all your sufferings glorify God, by a patient submission to his good will and providence: and let it appear, by the meek and calm resignation of yourselves to him in the saddest circumstances of your lives, that you think him neither unjust nor cruel.

(2dly) Glorify God in your sufferings, by a patient expectation of a happy deliverance out of them.

Wait upon God, in the way of his judgments: firmly rely upon his power and his goodness to release you. And, although he may hot presently answer your expectations, nor fulfil your desires, yet still continue waiting: for the Lord knoweth how to deliver the righteous out of temptation, and he will do it in the fittest and best season. And therefore we have that expression, Isa. 24:15. Glorify ye the Lord in the fires: i.e. in the most scorching afflictions that happen, depend upon him for deliverance, either from or by them.

(3dly) Glorify God in your sufferings, by putting good constructions and interpretations upon them.

Be not witty to torment yourselves beyond what God intends, by the afflictions which you endure. Do not conclude that he is casting you off, or become your enemy, or that they are only the pledges and foretastes of eternal sufferings and torments in hell: but reckon that all the afflictions, which he brings upon you, are only for your good; that they are corrections, not curses; and that the issue of them shall be joy and peace. Judge so justly and kindly of God, that he takes no pleasure in the woes and tortures of his creatures; that he chastiseth us only if need be, and corrects us here that he may not punish us hereafter. When we can thus look upon God, and bless him that he is pleased to take so much notice of us as to discipline us, this will be a most effectual means to glorify his mercy and goodness; and to make even a chastising God the object, not only of our fear, but of our love.

(4thly) Glorify God in thy sufferings, by bearing them not only with patience; but, if they be for righteousness' sake, with joy and triumph.

Be not ashamed of the cross of Christ, but glory in it as the greatest honour and ornament of thy profession. So saith the Apostle, 1 Pet. 4:16. If any man suffer as a Christian, i.e. suffer upon the account of his being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. Indeed the sufferings and martyrdom of the saints reflect a great deal of honour upon God, in that it shews they prize him above all the world; and account no torments, no sufferings so considerable, as the loss of his love and favour. And therefore it is said, John 21:19. when Jesus had foretold to St. Peter somewhat obscurely what should befal him, that be spake this, signifying by what death he should glorify God.

Thus I have shewn you how you ought to glorify God under outward sufferings, whether they be afflictions from God, or persecutions from men.

[2] Let us, in the next place, consider how we ought to glorify him under inward sufferings, which concern the soul.

And these are reducible to Two heads: for they are either

Temptations, which we suffer from Satan; or

Desertions, which we suffer from God.

1st. As for Temptations.

That they are great spiritual afflictions, ask but those, who have stood exposed to these fiery darts; and they will readily confess, that, next to the unspeakable regret they feel for sometimes yielding to temptations, the greatest burden and trouble of their lives is the continual labour and difficulty of resisting them. For what can be imagined more irksome to an ingenuous Christian, than to be restlessly importuned to do that, which he is assured will be to his own wound and ruin, and to the dishonour of that God whose glory he prefers above his chief joy? and when they are haunted with direful injections, and blasphemous thoughts cast into their minds by the Devil; thoughts, contrary to the fundamentals of religion, and the common sentiments of natural reason; how could they even shrink from themselves, and abandon their own beings, rather than be forced to hear those horrid suggestions, which their great enemy, the Devil, is still impudently whispering unto them!

It is, therefore, of concern to enquire how we may, when we are thus grievously pestered with these hellish injections, glorify God under so great an affliction.

To this I answer, in the general, If thou wouldst glorify God under temptations, be sure still to maintain a most vigorous and resolved resistance against their assaults: for, by this means, thou wilt glorify God, especially in two of his attributes, his Power and his Truth.

(1st) By resisting temptations, thou glorifiest the Almighty Power of God.

Thou fightest his battles, not only against thine, but his great enemy, the Devil. And, as the honour of a prince is engaged in the valour and resolution of his soldiers; so God hath, as it were, pawned his honour upon thy courage: thou art his champion, chosen and selected out by him purposely for the combat. Now if thou basely yield, thou leavest not only thine own soul, but God's honour bleeding upon the place: thy conscience becomes a spoil to the Devil, and thy name a reproach to religion. Certainly, God intended to make the almighty power of his grace exceeding glorious, by making use of such inconsiderable instruments as you are; instruments, like Gideon's pitchers, frail earthen vessels, but yet such as have the lamp of divine grace burning in them, to rout and put to flight all the legions and black musters of hell. See how God exults in the victorious constancy of his servant Job; and upbraids the Devil, that, though he had with his utmost malice assaulted him, yet he still persisted in his integrity, and defeated all the attempts of his impotent malice: Job 2:3. Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in all the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity; yea, although thou movest me against him, to destroy him without cause: God speaks of him with delight, and glories in him as a heroic champion. And, if you set yourselves vigorously to oppose the temptations of the Devil, God will likewise glory in you; and triumph over Satan to his utter shame, that such weak and feeble creatures should, through the assistance of his grace, be able to subdue all the power, that hell can arm against them. And this will, to his infinite regret, make that proud and cursed spirit know how utterly in vain all his raging attempts are against their Almighty Lord and Master; since he cannot turn away the fade of one of the least of his servants. And, therefore, when St. Paul had prayed thrice, i.e. often, that God would remove that temptation and messenger of Satan which buffeted him, he receives this answer, 2 Cor. 12:9. My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness: not that God's strength, which is infinite, can receive any addition of perfection from our weakness; but only it is declared and demonstrated to be infinitely perfect and infinitely powerful, when, by such contemptible instruments, it can overthrow all the powers of hell.

(2dly) By resisting temptations, thou glorifiest the Truth and Veracity of God.

For both God and Satan deal with the soul in somewhat a like way, though to different ends. They both urge promises and threatenings, as motives to induce us to their obedience. Satan's are all for the present; present gain and present pleasure, if we consent to his solicitations: but God's promises and threatenings are chiefly for the future. Indeed, we shall here enjoy so much peace of conscience, such a sweet calm and tranquillity of mind, such inward satisfaction in our self-reflections, that, were there nothing else propounded to us, yet even this alone were there nothing else propounded to us, yet even this alone were enough with rational and considerate men to outbid all that Satan can offer: but yet God chiefly insists upon the consideration of those things, which shall be accomplished hereafter; and represents unto us eternal rewards and eternal punishments, the one to allure us to duty, the other to deter us from sin; and both to deliver us from the snare of the Devil, and that ruin into Which we should else precipitate ourselves.

Now consider when you are tempted, whose promises or whose threatenings prevail most with you, God's or Satan's. If you yield to the temptation, it is plain that you prefer Satan's before God's. And this reflects a mighty dishonour upon him, either,

That what he promiseth is not valuable. Or,

That it is not so certain as what the Devil promiseth.

But, the common sense and first notions of all mankind must needs agree in this, that what God promiseth is infinitely more valuable, and what he threatens is infinitely more dreadful, than what can be promised or threatened in a temptation; inasmuch as eternal joys do vastly transcend momentary and impure pleasures, which die in their very birth, and leave nothing but a sting and torment in the conscience: and those light afflictions, which the Devil tempts us to avoid by sinning, are poor inconsiderable nothings, in comparison with that eternal anguish and horror, which God threatens to inflict on us for sinning.

What is it then, that makes the temptations of the Devil so prevalent and effectual with most men in the world? Is it not because they do not believe him, who is truth itself, in what he promises and threatens; but assent to the false promises of him, who is a liar from the beginning? There is no man, that yields unto a temptation, but it is because he believes Satan rather than God. Infidelity is the root of all sin; and, by this, they cast a high disparagement and dishonour upon his truth and veracity. Did we but believe that heaven is so inconceivably glorious, a place where joy and bliss keep their eternal residence, and where we shall for ever live in the smiles and love of God, if now for a few short years we endeavour to our utmost to live holy and obedient lives; did we but believe that the crown of glory is so massy, and all the gems of it so bright and orient; that we shall there bathe in rivers of pleasure, and for ever feel and enjoy more satisfaction than we can now conceive: did we but believe these things as the Scripture hath revealed them to us, without diffidence or hesitation; nay, did we but believe them as probable and likely enough to come to pass, should we so cheaply forfeit the hopes of these things, for the impure and vanishing delights of sin? We find that the promise of some temporal reward from men, is of force enough to allure us to very hard tasks and difficult enterprises: how far will many venture, and how much pains and labour will they take to obtain it! and yet the promises, that God himself hath made of eternal glory, in comparison with which to promise sceptres and kingdoms is but to promise trifles and gewgaws, have so little effect upon the generality of mankind to win them to a holy and obedient life! Whence is this, but that there is a great deal of atheism and infidelity secretly lurking in men's souls, which never more discovers itself, than when we suffer ourselves to be hurried away by temptations, against all those considerations, which the Scripture hath propounded to us of eternal rewards and punishments. Did we but believe that there is a day of reckoning to come, when we must stand before a righteous and impartial judge, to give a strict and narrow account of all out actions, and receive our doom from his mouth according to what we have done; did we but believe the intolerable wrath of God, the fire and darkness, woe and anguish, and all those racks and engines of torture that are prepared for the damned; who of us would ever again hearken unto a temptation, which only bids us plunge ourselves headlong into such an abyss of miseries? we should no more dare to commit the least sin against God, than to be damned, and run into the flames of hell with our eyes open, and seeing our destruction evidently before us. But the truth is, we are credulous towards the Devil, and infidels towards God; and most gross and deplored fools, in both. Satan labours most to weaken our faith; for he knows, if he can but once beat us from that guard, all his temptations will certainly prove effectual and do execution upon us. And, therefore, our Saviour tells Peter, Luke 22:31, 32. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: teaching us, that there is no such sure defence against the temptations of the Devil, as the strong and vigorous actings of faith: while we believe what God hath spoken, we shall never be allured by whatsoever the Devil can suggest. And, therefore, also the Apostle, when he gives us the panoply and complete armour of a Christian, exhorts us, Eph. 6:16. Above all, to take the shield of faith, wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Above all: i.e. either chiefly look that your faith be strong: or, else, as the shield was used to be a defence not only unto the body, but to the rest of the armour likewise; so, above all, or over all the other pieces of your spiritual armour, take the shield of faith, for this will be a defence not only to your souls, but to your other graces, to keep them from being bruised and battered by the temptations of the Wicked One.

And thus you have seen how we ought to glorify God under this first spiritual suffering, which is by Temptations, by a strong and vigorous resistance made against them; for, in so doing, we glorify both the power of divine grace, in preserving us from the commission of those sins unto which we are tempted; and likewise the truth and veracity of God, in his promises and threatenings.

2dly. The second spiritual suffering is Desertion, wherein we suffer from God.

And this is a very heavy affliction to that soul, who ever knew what the presence, and favour, and the comfortable and reviving influences of the love of God mean. When a pious Christian hath once fixed God as his chief and only good, and taken the measures of all his joy and content from his union to and communion with that sovereign good, how infinitely cutting must it needs be for God to absent and withdraw himself, and leave him under dark and gloomy apprehensions that he is rejected and cast out of favour, and disinherited by his Heavenly Father!

Now, in this doleful condition, when God hath eclipsed the light of his countenance, and withdrawn from us the comforts of his free Spirit, how shall we demean ourselves, so as to glorify him?

To this I answer: In this case, which is confessedly very sad and disconsolate observe these following directions.

(1st) If you would glorify God under desertions, still stay yourselves upon him, though you cannot see him.

Though you cannot see his face, yet lay hold on his arm. See that most comfortable place, Isa. 1:10. Who is there among you, that feareth the Lord, and obeyeth the voice of his prophet, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? here is a holy soul described in its worst estate; enveloped in thick darkness, as dark as the confused heap and rubbish of the first chaos; not having the least gleam of light breaking in upon it, either from the face of God, or the reflection of its own graces. Now what must this dark soul do, in this dark condition? Let him, saith the Prophet, trust in the name of the Lord, and stay himself upon his God. Now this staying upon God, in a time of darkness and desertion, implies, that, although we have no evidence, no light, nor knowledge that we are his, and that he is our God in covenant with us; yet, that we have fixed our firm and settled resolutions, to devolve and roll the eternal concernments of our precious souls upon his mere mercy and free grace through the merits of Jesus Christ. Now what a vast revenue of glory will this bring in to God, when we thus lay ourselves at his feet; when we thus hang and clasp about him; and resolve, with holy Job, chap. 13:15. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him! So when, after the various tossings and tumults of our unquiet thoughts, we can rest upon this, "Possibly, God will destroy me; but I am not certain: yet I will cleave unto him: I will venture my everlasting state and my immortal soul, merely upon his mercy, in the ways of duty and obedience. If God will shake off such a viper as I am into hell-fire; yet he shall shake me off his arm: on that, I will depend: by that, I will hold: if I perish, I perish. Sure I am, that, by continuing in my sins, I shall unavoidably perish; but, if I yield myself to him, and humbly crave his mercy and grace, I can but perish, but, possibly, may live." Thus to resolve, and thus to act, doth exceedingly glorify the rich and sovereign mercy of God; when, in all the storms and fluctuations of a troubled spirit, we cast out this as our sheet anchor; and commit the eternal interests of our souls only to this security.

(2dly) If you would glorify God under desertion, encourage yourselves that he will again return unto you, and clear up his loving-kindness and favour unto your souls.

Think not thyself past hope, because, for the present, thou art without comfort. Never judge so hardly of God, that, every time he hides his face, he intends likewise to take away his mercy from thee. Though the clouds be never so thick gathered, yet he is able to shine through them all: he is able to scatter and dissipate them; and to make a day arise upon thy soul, by so much the more glorious, by how much the night and darkness hath been more obscure and dismal. Be assured that God can, and hope that he will, lead you through this valley of the shadow of death; and bring you into an estate made glorious and full of beauty, by the light and smiles of his loving countenance.

(3dly) Call then to remembrance thy former experiences of the mercy and goodness of God to thy soul.

And though now, for the present, God seems to write only bitter things against thee: yet, as absent friends use to read over former letters, and solace themselves with the review of those expressions of kindness which they had formerly received; so, now that the commerce between heaven and thy soul seems to be interrupted, and thou canst receive nothing from thence to comfort and revive thee, yet read over thy former evidences, review the former letters and tokens of his love to thee: for, though he hath withdrawn the fresh supplies of comfort, yet he hath still left thee a stock in thy hands, enough, at least, to keep thee alive, and to support thee from sinking into utter despair. See Asaph's case, Ps. 77 where we have a most doleful complaint of a poor deserted soul: verses 7, 8, 9. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? you see that he all along seems to lay the very accent of damnation upon his desertion; for ever! for ever! but consider, then, how he supports himself, v. 10. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right-hand of the Most High. The years of the right-hand of the Most High: i.e. I will recal to mind former times, wherein God bestowed upon me the blessings of his right-hand; and, in this present dearth, live upon what I laid up in the years of plenty and abundance. So, in your desertions, do you glorify God; by recalling to mind former mercies, and former discoveries of his special grace and love to your souls. Can none of you remember, when you would have ventured your souls upon the truth of those joys and comforts which you have felt? when you were willing to depart out of this world, and to be found of God in no other estate than you knew yourselves to be then in? And, what! can you so suddenly be at a loss for comfort enough to keep you alive, who, but a while since, had so much as to make you hope and wish for death? whence proceeds this unhappy change? is God unfaithful? is his love fickle? are his promise and covenant reversible; that you are so soon cast down from assurance to doubtings, and from doubtings to despondency? If not, but that there is the same merit in the blood of Christ, the same efficacy in his intercession, the same stability in the purpose of God, and the same fidelity in his promises now as there was in your highest joys, what reason have you to dishonour him by those distracting fears, doubts, and jealousies which torment you? Be persuaded, therefore, to glorify the truth and faithfulness of all these, by encouraging yourselves in the same hopes, though it may be they flourish not into such rich assurance as formerly.

(4thly) The last direction shall be this: If you would glorify God under desertions, be sure that want of comfort cause you not to forsake duty.

Though thou mayest come sad to duty, and depart sad from it; though the ordinances may be to thee but empty dry breasts, and thou canst find no refreshment, no sweetness in them: yet this is the greatest commendation of a true Christian, a certain sign of the sincerity of his obedience, and a high credit and honour unto God, that he will be constant in his service and attendance, though he hath no present wages given him. Yea, and in this course thou art most likely to regain thy lost comforts. Thou wilt at last receive thy dole, if thou keep constantly attending at Wisdom's gates. Howsoever, God and his ordinances are hereby highly honoured, when the consolations, which thou hast formerly found in them, have left such a deep impression on thee, as to make thee resolve to attend on them as long as thou livest.

Thus have we dispatched the Two former Heads of the General Proposition: and shewed you what it is to glorify God; and, likewise, how we ought to glorify him.

iii. The Third still remains: and that is, to shew you WHAT FORCE AND INFLUENCE THE CONSIDERATION OF OUR REDEMPTION OUGHT TO HAVE UPON US, TO OBLIGE US THUS TO GLORIFY GOD.

The truth is, as I have at the entrance of this subject opened it at large to you, God hath many ties and obligations upon us; as he is our almighty Creator, our merciful Preserver, our all-wise Governor, our bountiful Benefactor, &c. upon all which accounts, we ought entirely to devote ourselves unto his service. But, yet, the strongest bond of all, which nothing can violate but the foulest disingenuity and the blackest ingratitude in the world, is that soft and easy one of being our Saviour and Redeemer. This is a relation overflowing with love and sweetness: but yet such a sweetness, as hath an efficacious strength in it: such a love, as lays a holy violence upon the ravished soul; and, by a free constraint and a willing force, makes it surrender up itself wholly and unreservedly unto its gracious God, who hath not only required it as a gift, but bought it as a purchase. To which purpose the Apostle speaks most fully, 2 Cor. 5:14, 15. The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

For the prosecution of this, we may observe that there are, in the general, Three strong obligations, which our redemption lays upon us to glorify God.

In point of Justice and Equity.

In point of Gratitude and Ingenuity.

In point of Interest and Advantage.

1. We are bought with a price, and therefore it is but Justice and Equity to serve and glorify that God, who hath purchased us to himself.

For, in these words, the Apostle alludes to the custom, that was common in his days, of selling and buying slaves for money; who generally were such as were taken captives in their wars, and all the posterity of such captives. These were absolutely under the power of their masters that had bought them, and to be disposed and employed as they thought fit; called, therefore, by Aristotle, εμψυχα οργανα "living instruments" or "animate utensils" to serve their pleasure. Such we ought to be towards God: for, man rebelling against his Maker, God declares war against him, and makes him captive to his dread justice; but, not willing utterly to destroy him, sells him to his own Son, who pays down a full price for us, and vindicates us to himself, that we might become his servants, subject unto his will, and employed in his work: which if we refuse or detract, we are guilty of injustice in depriving him of his right; and may well fear, lest he should, according to his compact with his Father, turn us back upon the hands of justice as unprofitable servants, to be punished and destroyed by him.

(1) Consider, the price, that he paid down, doth infinitely outbid the purchase, and exceed the value of all that thou art and hast.

Thy Saviour hath told down the inestimable treasures of his own merits: he hath taken upon him our nature, and with it our griefs and sorrows; suffered all the indignities, that insulting rage and spite could put upon him; waded first through his own tears, and then through his blood, and every drop of both is infinitely more worth than thou and all the world. He stood not to beat down the price, but readily gave for thee whatsoever was demanded: yea, his very life and soul; a price, so exceedingly precious, that, were we far more considerable creatures than we are, yea more excellent than the highest order of angels, it must needs leave us under the confusion of shame and blushing, to think that ever we should be so much over-valued. And wherefore was this, but that we might be solely and entirely his? that none might have any claim to us but himself? And, what! Shall the Great God give his Only Begotten Son in exchange for a servant; and yet wretched thou refuse his service? shall the Son so highly esteem of the glory, that such poor vile nothings as we are can bring him, as to divest himself of that glory, which he had with the Father before the world began; and yet fall short of this too? wilt thou defeat him of his bargain, when he and justice are fully agreed; and all the right and title, that the wrath of God had to thee formerly, is now made over to the Son of his Love?

(2) Consider, that all the use, which thy Saviour can make of thee, is only that thou shouldest glorify him; and, by obedience and a holy life and conversation, shouldest serve to the setting forth of his praise.

This is the very end, for which he hath redeemed thee. What saith the Apostle, Tit. 2:14? He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. This is the end why he died for thee; and this is all the service he expects from thee, though he hath bought thee at so dear a rate. And, what! shall so rich a price then be cast away in vain? shall it be in vain, that thy Saviour hath lived, that he hath died, that he hath risen again, and is now interceding at the right-hand of the majesty on high? as he hath lost his life for thee, shall he also lose his very death too? lay out so much to purchase thee, and all be lost? shall his blood run waste; and so rich a stock be spent upon so poor and wretched a thing as thou art, and not obtain that neither?

(3) Consider: If thou livest not to thy Saviour, who hath died for thee, and by his death bought and purchased thee to himself, thou art guilty of robbery; of sacrilege, which is the worst robbery and most branded injustice in the world.

For thou robbest thy God; and stealest away a servant, even thyself, from him: for thou art his, by the right of purchase and redemption; and, so much of thyself, of thy time, of thy strength, of thy parts, of thy soul and affections, as is not employed in his work and service, so much is purloined from him. And, if God justly complains of the Jews, Mal. 3:8. as guilty of heinous robbery and sacrilege, because they defrauded his servants the priests of their tithes and offerings, of brute or inanimate creatures; how much more heinous is it to defraud him of his servant, who ought to be a priest unto him, and continually to offer up the sacrifices of praise and obedience, which he more values than whole hecatombs of slain beasts?

(4) Consider, again: If, instead of glorifying him by thy obedience, thou dishonourest him by thy rebellions and impieties, thou not only defraudest him of his servant, but, what is infinitely worse, of the very price that he paid.

Thou defraudest him of his sufferings, of his death, of his most precious blood. Yea, thou dost, in a sense, most sacrilegiously rob him of himself: Christ had never abased himself from the glory of heaven, but to be glorified here upon earth: he never had taken upon him the form of a servant, but that he might here have a seed to serve him: and, so far forth as we refuse this, so far do we make frustrate and to no purpose all that he hath either done, or suffered, or been, for our sakes. And, therefore, if thou wouldst not be unjust to thy Saviour, who hath been so merciful to thee; if thou wouldst not rob him of what he hath so dearly bought, and so highly values; look upon thyself as obliged, by all the bonds of equity and honesty, to live to his glory, who hath redeemed thee to this very end and purpose, that thou shouldst glorify him.

But then, again,

2. We are bound, not only in justice and equity, but, in Ingenuity and Gratitude, to glorify God, upon the account of our redemption.

Ye are bought with a price; and, therefore, if there be but any the least remainders of modesty and bashfulness left in you, you cannot but look upon yourselves as obliged to serve and honour that gracious God, who hath been pleased freely to bestow so great and inconceivable a mercy upon you.

For, consider,

(1) What it is you are redeemed from.

And that is all the woe and misery, that the heart of man can conceive, or the nature of man endure; all the rankest poison, that ever was wrapped up in the bowels of the most direful and comprehensive curse. To speak out a few syllables of it, it is the wrath of God, the torments of hell, everlasting burnings; a state so infinitely miserable, that the very malice of the Devil himself will be satisfied upon us when he hath brought us into it. Indeed, it is utterly impossible to declare the wretchedness of that estate to the full; unless we could speak flames, and put a whole eternal damnation into words and phrases. But from this wrath, which is both unutterable and intolerable, hath the mercy of our Gracious Saviour redeemed us.

And consider,

(2) With what price he hath bought us.

A price of infinite value and worth. He hath given himself for us, laid down his life, and shed his most precious blood as the price of our redemption. Yea, so earnestly did his love engage him to free us from that woeful condition into which we had brought ourselves, that he voluntarily puts himself into it, to rescue us; and is made a curse, that he might redeem us from the curse: he interposes between the wrath of God and our souls; and receives into his own body all those envenomed arrows, that were shot at us. And, as if the mercy of our redemption alone were not considerable enough to recommend his love to us, he abases himself, that he might exalt us; takes upon him our sins, that he might bear our punishment; and lays himself under all the load and burden of his Father's wrath, which pressed him so hard as to wring from him clots of blood in the garden, and rivers of blood on the cross, and to force him in the dolefullest passion of an afflicted soul to cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? whilst we, in the mean time, whose proper portion and desert all this was, who should ourselves have been dragged forth to execution, and made the subjects and trophies of God's wrath and vengeance, we are the darlings and favourites of heaven, courted and caressed by his choicest love: we live in the smiles of God: every day is a festival with us. And how seldom is it, that we so much as look out to consider what our Blessed Redeemer hath done and suffered for us! Or, if we do, do we not behold him the most perfect map of sorrow and misery, that ever was represented to the world? did ever grief and sorrow so perfectly triumph over any, as over our Blessed Saviour? all our private and personal sorrows are but partial: still there is some remnant of us that escapes: but, here, both the wrath of God, and the rage of men, and, as it was in the great and universal deluge, the windows of heaven above and the fountains and bars of the deep beneath, are all opened, and pour out their store of floods upon him. He was afflicted, and he was oppressed; a man acquainted with grîef, intimate and familiar with sufferings.

And, now, what doth thy Dear Redeemer require at thy hands, in lieu of all that he hath done and suffered for thee, but only that thou shouldst live to him, who hath both lived and died for thee? that thou shouldst yield up thy life in obedience to him, who hath been obedient for thee to the very death? an expectation infinitely rational; and which thou canst not have the face to deny, unless all modesty and ingenuity are perished from thee.

For, consider,

[1] If God had put the terms of thy redemption into thy own hands, couldst thou have offered less for the ransom of thy soul?

Thou art forfeited to justice, and standest liable to everlasting death and damnation. Suppose that the adored design of saving sinners by Jesus Christ had never entered into the eternal counsel of God, but he had resolved to transact the whole affair with thyself; and, on the one hand, had evidently set before thy face all the horrors and torments of hell, if thou hadst seen whole seas of burning brimstone come rolling towards thee, and some waves of them had broke and dashed upon thee; and, on the other hand, had propounded the most rigid observances and macerating penances, all that is here grievous and irksome, not only to thy corrupt will and humour, but also to human nature itself to undergo, as the only price and condition of escaping this so evident and so imminent a destruction: which wouldst thou have chosen? wouldst not thou, upon thy bended knees, have accepted of the hardest terms that could be offered thee, to spend all thy days in sighs and tears, and at last to offer up thyself a burnt-sacrifice to God, rather than to fall into that abyss of woes and torments, in comparison with which, all that we can suffer in this life is but pleasure? This, certainly, would be thy choice. And, what! when thy Saviour hath already taken all the hard terms upon himself, and left nothing for thee to do, but only to shew a testimony of thy grateful acceptance of it; when he hath compounded for thee, satisfied all the demands of justice, left nothing for thee to pay, besides a small acknowledgment of his infinite mercy: with what face canst thou deny him this? he only requires that thou shouldst serve and glorify him, by living according to the rules of true reason and religion: he expects no torments, no sufferings from thee, nothing expiatory for thy sins; but only that thou sin no more: and, if thou refuse him this, pity it is that ever so great love should be laid out upon such disingenuous and ungrateful wretches. Possibly, thy sloth, and the Devil joining in with it, may persuade thee that it is a hard saying and a grievous imposition to glorify God, to live by rule, and to direct all thy actions to his honour and praise: but think also with thyself, that, if God should release any damned soul, who hath sadly felt how infinitely stinging and intolerable eternal torments, fire and brimstone, and the never-dying worm are; if God should release such an one from hell, and promise him for ever to escape it upon the same terms as he hath promised us, how rigorously careful and circumspect would he be in all things to please his great and terrible God, whose justice he hath already felt, and whose mercy he now may hope for! yea, were the conditions of his salvation to be damned yet a thousand years longer, how joyfully would be lie down in his flames, court and invite those torments that would thus deliver him from the everlasting residue of them! What sense and experience would work upon such an one, that let faith and gratitude work upon thee: love and serve thou that Redeemer, who hath delivered thee from that woe, which thou never yet feltest; who hath borne all himself, and hath left thee nothing to do, but what thou art absolutely obliged to as a creature, whether he had redeemed thee or no, even to love, serve, and fear thy great and glorious God.

Consider,

[2] That thy Lord Jesus Christ hath infinitely abased himself to procure thy redemption; and therefore, at least, ingenuity and gratitude should engage thee to exalt and glorify him.

He emptied himself, saith the Scripture, and made himseff of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant: Phil 2:7. He had no form nor comeliness; and when they saw him, there was no beauty that they should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men: Isa. 53:2, 3. And, what! can thy ingenuity, O Christian, suffer that he should remain still vile, who was thus vilified and humbled for thy sake? wilt thou not repair his honour? and, seeing he was pleased to lay aside his glory, to veil and eclipse himself in our flesh, only that he might accomplish the arduous work of our redemption, how can we but account ourselves obliged by the strongest bonds of gratitude and thankfulness to celebrate his praise, and endeavour that his glory may be as much promoted by us, as it was lessened and obscured for us?

And thus you see what engagements lie upon us, from the consideration of our redemption, to glorify God and our Saviour, both upon the account of Justice and Gratitude.

3. In point of Interest and Advantage.

Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God, because, without this, you can never reap any fruit, any benefit by your redemption. It is only a holy and obedient life, that brings glory to God, and that can possibly bring you unto glory. It is true, Christ hath died and risen again for you: he hath borne the whole load of wrath, that was due to you for your sins. But, yet, boast not of this; for it will ail signify nothing unto you: without a strict, pious, and godly life, redemption, yea salvation itself, cannot save you. The terms are immutably fixed: Christ is the author of eternal salvation only to those that obey him. And, therefore, as ever thou hopest to have any benefit by the redemption of Christ Jesus; as thou wouldst not have his blood shed in vain, and spilt as water upon the ground that cannot be gathered up; as ever thou hopest to see the face of thy God and thy Saviour with joy and comfort in endless glory: so endeavour, by a holy, pure, and spotless life, to glorify him here on earth: for without holiness, saith the Apostle, no man shall see God: Heb. 12:14. And think with thyself, O Sinner, how justly dreadful it will be to thee, at the Last Day, to be brought into the presence of thy Blessed Redeemer: when thou shalt see that body, that was buffeted, crucified, pierced, that bled, and died for thee; and be upbraided by thy ireful God, that all those pains, and sorrows, and agonies were sustained for thee, and yet all in vain, because of thy wilful unbelief and impenitence: where wilt thou hide thy shame? or how many stories of rocks and mountains, heaped one upon another, will suffice to cover thee from the wrath of that God, whose love and mercy thou hast so woefully abused? It must needs redound to thy eternal horror and confusion, that ever thou shouldst so slight the fearful wrath of God, as to neglect and despise the redemption that Christ Jesus hath purchased from it, so ignominiously as not to accept of it when it was offered, when all the charges of it were borne and defrayed by himself; but only an acknowledgment of the kindness required from thee.

And thus I have done with this Third and last General Head; and, with it, have finished the Doctrinal part of this subject.

IV. I shall be very brief in the APPLICATORY, having already treated of very many things at large, which are wholly practical.

And, therefore, the only Use that I shall make of it, and so close up this whole subject, shall be to exhort you to a constant care and endeavour to glorify God.

Consider,

i. It is THE GREAT END OF OUR BEINGS; and, indeed, the noblest and highest end that we could be created for.

Indeed, all things were made, as by God, so for God: he is the first cause, and the last end of all. But, yet, there is a difference according to the order of beings. For irrational creatures were made to glorify God, only objectively; as they represent unto us many evident footsteps of God's most glorious attributes and perfections: thus the heavens are said to declare the glory of God, only because their amplitude, beauty, and order do set forth, to all considerate beholders, the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness of the Great Artificer; who, by his word, framed such vast orbs, and imprinted on them such an impetus of various and yet regular motions. But man was created to glorify God, actively and intentionally; by the choice of his deliberate judgment, to fix God as the end of all his actions: and, if he falls short of this, he falls short of his very reason and nature, and is created in vain. Thinkest thou, O Man, that God hath created thee only to shew what an excellent piece of work his power and wisdom can achieve? this he hath sufficiently done, in breathing forth upon the face of the earth so many other creatures, which are all fearfully and wonderfully made as well as thyself: he need not to have framed thee, if he had intended only a specimen and essay of what his Almighty power could do: no; but, whereas the innumerable kinds of other creatures serve to glorify God after this manner, reflecting back all their perfections obliquely upon God, thou wert formed to glorify him more directly and immediately: that is the ultimate end, to which they are all overruled; but this is the end, which thou oughtest to propound unto thyself.

And, if thou dost otherwise,

1. Thou degradest thyself from the rank and dignity of thine own being, and herdest thyself among brute beasts.

It is not so much reason and discourse, that make a difference between beasts and men, as religion. We see many strange and wonderful operations of those, which we call irrational creatures; of which we can give no account, unless they do in their sphere partake some glimmerings of reason, which we usually ascribe wholly to ourselves: but none at all of any religion, or notion, or adoration of a deity. This is the crown and perfection of thy nature: it is that incommunicable property, that separates us from beasts. And, therefore, if thou servest, if thou glorifiest not thy God, thou dost but debase and disparage thyself, and art made a man in vain. Thou, who abandonest thyself over to any way of wickedness, whose intemperance burdens thy nature with surfeits as much as thy conscience with sin and guilt; thou, who wallowest in impure lusts, and makest thy body a brothel, and thy soul a prostitute; thou, who, by lying, and swearing, and stealing, declarest evidently that thou fearest neither God nor man; wherefore wert thou made a man? hadst thou been a brute or an inanimate creature, thou wouldst as much have glorified the attributes of God as now thou dost, and much less dishonoured him: yea, thou now dishonourest him, which they do not; inasmuch as thou sinkest below the rank of thine own nature, and turnest recreant to the principles of thine own being.

2. Thou not only degradest thyself, but degradest God too, and exaltest something above him.

For every wicked person dethrones the true, and sets up a false god in his stead. It is the nature of man, to seek and serve something, as its ultimate and highest end. And whatsoever we propound to ourselves as our utmost end, that we make our god. Now thou, who refusest to glorify God, whom is it that thou glorifiest? Is it not thyself? Thou settest up thyself as thy idol, and art thine own idolater. Either thou makest thy profit, or thy pleasure, or thy humour thy god: this thou seekest, and this thou servest, to this all thy actions tend and are directed. That is every man's god, which he most seeks to please and to serve. And what a horrible affront is this to the most high and only true God, that thou, whom he made for his servant, shouldst become his rival; and what he intended for himself, should be set up for a deity against him!

That is the First Motive: the glorifying of God is the great and only end of our beings.

ii. Consider, that GOD WILL CERTAINLY HAVE HIS GLORY OUT OF THEE.

If thou wilt not glorify his holiness by thy obedience, thou shalt glorify his justice by thy perdition. He will not lose by thee: but thou, who hast extravagantly lived without and beside the order of thy reason as a man, and of thy religion as a Christian, shalt be compelled and brought into the order of his subjects as a damned wretch and rebel. But this will be sadly to thy cost: and when thou liest stretched out and racked with the extremity of thy torments, thou wilt then too late reflect on thy gross and desperate folly; that ever thou shouldst refuse to glorify that God voluntarily by thy obedience and submission, who now forceth thee to glorify him, whether thou wilt or no, by thy intolerable and eternal tortures.

iii. Consider, that, BY GLORIFYING GOD, WE DO INDEED BUT GLORIFY OURSELVES.

For he hath been pleased so graciously to intwist his glory and ours together, that, whilst we endeavour to promote the one, we do but indeed promote the other. Them, that honour me, saith God, I will honour: 1 Sam. 2:30. And what a vast encouragement is this to the cheerful performance of all the duties that God requires at our hands, how hard and difficult soever they may seem, to consider that this, that God commands of me, is no barren piece of service! Possibly, I may lose my reputation, I may lose my estate, or I may lose my life by it; but, yet, if it bring glory to God, it will certainly bring abundant reward to me. And, though I see nothing spring up of it here on earth, but thorns and briars to rend and pierce me through with many sorrows: yet, doubtless, my reward is with my God; and heaven shall repay with interest all that glory which I have brought unto him, by crowning me with glory, immortality, and eternal life. Oh, how happy and blessed a thing is it, when we come to breathe out our souls into the arms of God, then to be able to reflect back upon a well-spent life: and to recommend our flying souls to our gracious God, as our Saviour did, John 17:4, 5. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work, which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with that glory which thou hast prepared for me before the world was. Unto the which glory, God of his infinite mercy bring us, through the merits of Jesus Christ: to whom, &c.

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On Glorifying God in His Attributes, by Ezekiel Hopkins Copyright © 2021

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Table of Contents

The PROPOSITION, Ye are not your own

II. The next thing to be considered is the REASON: For ye are bought with a price.

III. The Doctrine, and the Reason of it.

IV. Application