with an humble thankfulness, wonder that God fhould regard fuch inconfiderable nothings as we are. Pfal. viii. 1.3.4. O Lord our God, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who haft fet thy glory above the heavens! When, I confider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the ftars which thou haft ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? or the fon of man, that thou vi-· fiteft him? He that confiders the glory of God, and the greatnefs of his works, will think fo meanly of himself, that he will be astonished that God fhould mind him or vifit him. This is a noble strain of humility in David, by which he acknowledgeth that the greatest King of the earth, how confiderable foever he may be in respect of men, is but a pitiful thing to God. When we speak to God, we should do it with great humility. Ecclef. v. 2. 3. Let thy words be few, for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. We fhould fay to God, Job xxxvii. 19. Teach us what we shall fay unto thee, for we cannot order our Speech by reason of darkness. And when we think or fpeak of him, we hould do it with great modefty; we should not rafhly pronounce or determine any thing concerning God. Simonides being asked what God was, defired one day's time to consider; then he desired two, and then four. The more we think of God, the lefs peremptory fhall we be in defining him. He that confiders that God is incomprehenfible, will not pretend to know all the ways of infinite knowledge, and the utmost of infinite power, and all the reafons of God's ways and providences. He that rightly values his own fhort underftanding, and the unlimited perfections of God, will not be apt to say, this God cannot do, this he cannot know, fuch ways are not agreeable to his wifdom. He that knows God and himfelf, will be modeft in these cafes, he will exew, abftain from all peremptory pronouncing in these matters; he confiders that one man many times differs fo much from another in knowledge and skill of working, that he can do those things which another believes impoffible: but we have pitiful thoughts of God, if we think the difference between one man and another, is any thing to the vast diftance that is between the divine understanding and our ignorance, the divine power and our weakness, the wisdom of God and the folly of men. 3. The incomprehenfiblenefs of God's perfections calls for the highest degree of our affection. How fhould we fear this great glorious God! Pfal. xc. 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, fo is thy wrath. Fear is the most infinite of all our paffions, and fills us with the moft endless jealousy and fufpicions: God's wrath is greater than our fear; according to thy fear, fo is thy wrath. How fhould we love him, when we are aftonished with admiration of God's goodnefs, and fay, How great is thy goodness, and how great is thy beauty? Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us! How great should our love be to him! what manner of love fhould we return to him! With This calls for the highest degree of our faith. what confidence should we rely upon him, who is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think! To conclude. This requires the highest degree of our fervice: how fhould our hearts be enlarged to run the way of his commandments, who hath laid up for us fuch things, that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man? SER MO N CLVII. God the firft caufe, and laft end. ROM. xi. 36. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things; to whom be glory for ever. H Amen. Aving confidered the more eminent and abfolute perfections of the divine nature, as also that which refults from the infinite excellency and perfection of God, compared with the imperfection of our understandings, I come in the last place to treat of fuch as are merely and purely relative; as that he is the the firft caufe, and the last end of all things; to which purpose I have chofen these words of the Apostle for the fubject of my present discourse, For of him, and through him, &c. The dependence of these words upon the former is briefly this. The Apoftle had been speaking before, in this chapter, feveral things that might tend to raife us to an admiration of the wifdom, and goodness, and mercy of God in the difpenfation of his grace for the falvation of men, both Jews and Gentiles, and therefore would have us afcribe this work wholly to God; the contrivance of it to his wifdom, and not to our own counfels, ver. 34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? and who hath been his counsellor? and the beftowing this grace to his free goodness and mercy, and not to any defert of ours, ver. 35. Or who bath firft given to him, and it fhall be recompenfed to him again? Yea, and not only in the difpenfation of grace, but of all good things; not only in this work of redemption, but alfo of creation, God is the fountain and original, and firft caufe, from whence every thing proceeds; and the last end, to which every thing is to be referred. For of him, &c. dvrou, from him, the efficient caufe producing all things; i dvrou, by or through him, as the efficient conferving caufe of all things; nai es durov, and to him, as the final cause of all things, and the end for which they were made. The propofition I fhall speak to, is, that God is the firft caufe, and last end. 1. I fhall a little explain the terms. 2. Confirm the propofition. 3. Apply it. Firft, For the explication of the terms. 11. Negatively, that he had no caufe, did not derive his being from any other, or does depend upon any other being; but that he was always, and eternally of himself. 2. Pofitively, that he is the cause of all things befides himself, the fountain and original of all created beings, from whom all things proceed, and upon whom all things depend; or, that I may ufe the expreffion of St. John, John i. 3. which I know is appropriated to the Q3 fecond fecond perfon in the Trinity, By him all things were made, and without him was nothing made that was made. So that when we attribute to God, that he is the first, we mean, that there was nothing before him, and that he was before all things, and that all things are by him. II. The Jaft end, that is, that all things refer to him; that is, the defign and aim of all things that are made, is the illuftration of God's glory fome way or other, and the manifeftation of his perfections. Secondly, For the confirmation, I shall briefly, according to my ufual method, attempt it thefe two ways. 1. By natural light. The notion of a God contains in it all poffible perfection. Now the utmost perfection we can imagine, is, for a being to be always of itself, before all other beings; and not only fo, but to be the caufe of all other beings; that is, that there should be nothing but what derives its being from him, and continually depends upon him; from whence follows, that all things must refer to him as their laft end. For every wife agent acts with defign, and in order to an end. Now the end is that which is beft, which is moft worthy the attaining, and that is God himself. Now, his being and perfections are already; and the best, next to existence of his being and perfections, is the manifeftation of them, which is called God's glory; and this is the highest end that we can imagine, to which all the effects of the divine power, and goodness, and wifdom do refer. And that thefe titles are to be attributed to God, is not only reasonable, when it is revealed and discover ed, but was difcovered by the natural light of the Heathens. Hence it was that Ariftotle gave God those titles of the first being, the firft caufe, and the first mover; and his master Plato calls God" the author and parent of all things, the maker and architect of the "world, and of all creatures; the fountain and original "of all things." Porphyry calls him 7 p7, the first; from whence he reafons, to this fenfe, that " he "is the ultimate end, and that all things move to"wards God; that all motions center in him ;, because, "faith he, it is molt proper and natural for things to re"fer to their original, and to refer all to him from "whom they receive all." Antoninus, the Emperor and and Philofopher, fpeaking of nature (which with the Stoicks fignifies God) had these words, which are fo very like thefe of the Apoftle, that they may feem to be taken from him; ἐκ σοῦ πάντα, ἐν σοὶ πάντα, εἰς σὲ πάντα; "Of thee are all things, in thee are all things, to "thee are all things." 2. From fcripture. Hither belong all thofe places where he declares himfelf to be the firft and the laft. Ifa. xli. 4. Who bath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? 1, the Lord, the firft, and with the laft, I am he. Ifa. xliii. 10. Before me there was no God formed, or as it is in the margin, there was nothing formed of God, neither hall there be after me. Ifa. xliv. 6. I am the firft, and I am the last, and befides me there is no God. Ifa. xlviii. 12. 13. I am the firft; I am alf the laft; my hand hath laid the foundation of the earth; my right hand hath fpread the heavens; which is as much as to fay, he hath made the world, and was the firft caufe of all things. Rev. i. 8. I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, faith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come. ~ But more exprefly, 1 Cor. viii. 6. But to us there is but one God, the father, of whom are all things, and we by him, nai nusis es durov, and we to him, and for him. Acts xvii. 24. God that made the world, and all things therein; ver. 25. He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; ver. 28. In him we live, and move, and have our being; ver. 29. Forafmuch then as we are the offspring of God. Hither we may refer thofe texts which attribute the fame to the fecond perfon in the Trinity, as the eternal wifdom and word of God, whereby all things were made. John i. 3. All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made that was made; ver. 10. And the world was made by him. 1 Cor. viii. 6. And one Lord Jesus Chrift, by whom are all things, and we by him. Eph. ii. 9. God, who created all things by Jefus Chrift. Col. i. 16. By him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invifible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him, and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things confift. Heb. i. 2. By whom alfo he made |