ship God, and pray to him, and not believe munion with God; let us labour to recover this lost interest, and pronounce this Shibboleth, My God,' Ps. xliii. 5. It is little comfort to know there is a God, unless he be ours; God offers himself to be our God, Jer. xxxi. 33, "I will be their God." And faith catcheth hold of the offer; it appropriates God, and makes all that is in him over to us to be ours,-his wisdom to be ours, to teach us, Use 6. Seeing there is a God, let us serve and worship him as God. It was an indictment brought in against them, Rom. i. 21, "They glorified him not as God." 1. Let us pray to him as to God. Pray with fervency, James v. 16, "An effectual fervent prayer availeth much." This is both the fire and the incense; without fervency it is no prayer.-2. Love him as God. Deut. vi. 5, there is a God, is to put a high scorn and contempt upon God. Believe that God is the only true God; such a God as he hath revealed himself in his word, "A lover of righteousness, and hater of wickedness," Ps. xlv. 7. The real belief of a Deity gives life to all religious worship; the more we believe the truth and infiniteness of God, the more holy and angelical we are in our lives.-his holiness ours, to sanctify us,-his Spirit Whether we are alone, or in company, God ours, to comfort us, his mercy ours, to save sees us; he is the heart-searcher; the belief us. To be able to say, God is mine, is more of this would make us live always under than to have all the mines of gold and silver. God's eye, Ps. xvi. 8, "I have set the Lord always before me.' The belief of a Deity would be a bridle to sin, a spur to duty; it would add wings to prayer, and oil to the lamp of our devotion. The belief of a Deity would cause dependence upon God in all our straits and exigencies. Gen. xvii. 1, "I am God all-sufficient," '—a God that can supply all your wants, scatter all your fears, resolve all your doubts, conquer all your temp-"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all tations; the arm of God's power can never be shrunk; he can create mercy for us, and therefore can help and not be beholden to the creature. Did we believe there is a God, we should so depend on his providence as not to use any indirect means; we should not run ourselves into sin to rid ourselves out of trouble: 2 Kings i. 3, "Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of 3. Obey him as God. All creatures obey Beelzebub the god of Ekron?" When men run to sinful shifts, is it not because they do not believe there is a God, or that he is allsufficient? Use 5. Seeing there is a God, let us labour to get an interest in him, Ps. xlviii. 14, "This God is our God." Two things will comfort us,-Deity and property. Since the fall we have lost likeness to God, and com thy heart." To love him with all thy heart, him: the stars fight his battles,-the wind and sea obey him, Mark iv. 41,-much more should man whom God hath endued with a principle of reason. He is God, and hath a sovereignty over us; therefore, as we received life from him, so we must receive a law from him, and submit to his will in all things. This is to kiss him with a kiss of loyalty, and it is to glorify him as God. without all extension of parts. The body is a dreggish thing: the more spiritual God's essence is, the more noble and excellent. The spirits are the more refined part of the wine. Q. Wherein doth God differ from other spirits? 1. The angels are spirits. A. It is contrary to the nature of a spirit to have a corporeal substance: Luke xxiv. 39, "Handle me, and see me: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me | have.” Bodily members are ascribed to God, not properly, but metaphorically, and in a borrowed sense; he is only set out to our capacity; by the right hand of the Lord is meant his power; by the eyes of the Lord is meant his wisdom. Now that A. We must distinguish of spirits. 1. The angels are created, God is a spirit uncreated.-2. The angels are spirits, but they are finite, and capable of being anni-God is a spirit, and is not capable of bodily hilated; the same power which made them, is able to reduce them to their first nothing; but God is an infinite spirit.-3. The angels are confined spirits; they cannot be duobus locis simul, they are confined to a place; but God is an immense spirit, and cannot be confined, being in all places at once.-4. The angels, though they are spirits, yet they are but ministering spirits, Heb. i. 14. Though they are spirits, yet are they servants. God is a super-excellent spirit, "the Father of spirits," Heb. xii. 9. 2. The soul is a spirit: Eccles. xii. 7, "The spirit shall return unto God that gave it." shape or substance, is clear. 1. A body is visible, but God is invisible; therefore he is a spirit, 1 Tim. vi. 16, "whom no man hath seen, nor can see;" not by an eye of sense.-2. A body is terminated; can be but in one place at once; but God is every where, in all places at once; therefore he is a spirit, Ps. cxxxix. 7, 8. "God's centre is every where, and his circumference is nowhere.-3. A body being compounded of integral parts may be dissolved, quicquid divisible est corruptibile; but the Godhead is not capable of dissolution; he can have no end, from whom all things have their beginning. So that it clearly appears that God Q. How doth God, being a spirit, differ is a spirit, which adds to the perfection of from the soul? his nature. Servetus and Osiander thought, that the soul being infused did convey into man the very spirit and substance of God; an absurd opinion, for the essence of God is incommunicable. Use 1. If God be a spirit, then he is impassible,--he is not capable of being hurt. Wicked men set up their banners, and bend their forces against God; they are said to fight against God, Acts v. 39. But A. Therefore, when it is said, the soul what will this fighting avail? What hurt is a spirit, it is meant God hath made it in-can they do to the Deity? God is a spirit, telligent, and hath stamped upon it his like- and therefore cannot receive any hurtful ness, not his essence. impression; wicked men may imagine evil Q. But is it not said, that we are made against the Lord, Nahum. i. 9, “What do partakers of the divine nature? A. By divine nature there, is meant divine qualities, 2 Pet. i. 4. We are made partakers of the divine nature, not by identity or union with the divine essence, but by a transformation into the divine likeness. Thus you see how God differs from other spirits, angels and souls of men. He is a spirit of transcendent excellency, "the Father of spirits." OBJ. Against this Vorstius and the Anthropomorphites object, that, in scripture, a human shape and figure is given to God; he is said to have eyes and hands. ye imagine against the Lord?" But God, He ship God, and pray to him, and not believe munion with God; let us labour to recover there is a God, is to put a high scorn and this lost interest, and pronounce this Shibbocontempt upon God. Believe that God is the leth, My God,' Ps. xliii. 5. It is little comonly true God; such a God as he hath re- fort to know there is a God, unless he be vealed himself in his word, "A lover of ours; God offers himself to be our God, Jer. righteousness, and hater of wickedness," | xxxi. 33, "I will be their God." And faith Ps. xlv. 7. The real belief of a Deity gives catcheth hold of the offer; it appropriates life to all religious worship; the more we be- God, and makes all that is in him over to us lieve the truth and infiniteness of God, the to be ours,-his wisdom to be ours, to teach us, more holy and angelical we are in our lives.-his holiness ours, to sanctify us,-his Spirit Whether we are alone, or in company, God ours, to comfort us,-his mercy ours, to save sees us; he is the heart-searcher; the belief us. To be able to say, God is mine, is more of this would make us live always under than to have all the mines of gold and silver. God's eye, Ps. xvi. 8, "I have set the Lord always before me." The belief of a Deity would be a bridle to sin, a spur to duty; it would add wings to prayer, and oil to the lamp of our devotion. The belief of a Deity would cause dependence upon God in all our straits and exigencies. Gen. xvii. 1, I am God all-sufficient,"'—a God that can supply all your wants, scatter all your fears, resolve all your doubts, conquer all your temptations; the arm of God's power can never be shrunk; he can create mercy for us, and therefore can help and not be beholden to the creature. Did we believe there is a God, we should so depend on his providence as not to use any indirect means; we should not run ourselves into sin to rid ourselves out of trouble: 2 Kings i. 3, "Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of 3. Obey him as God. All creatures obey Beelzebub the god of Ekron?" When men run to sinful shifts, is it not because they do not believe there is a God, or that he is allsufficient? 66 Use 5. Seeing there is a God, let us labour to get an interest in him, Ps. xlviii. 14, "This God is our God." Two things will comfort us,-Deity and property. Since the fall we have lost likeness to God, and com Use 6. Seeing there is a God, let us serve and worship him as God. It was an indictment brought in against them, Rom. i. 21, "They glorified him not as God." 1. Let us pray to him as to God. Pray with fervency, James v. 16, "An effectual fervent prayer availeth much." This is both the fire and the incense; without fervency it is no prayer.-2. Love him as God. Deut. vi. 5, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." To love him with all thy heart, is to give him a precedency in our love: desire to let him have the cream of our affections, to love him not only appreciatively, but intensively, as much as we can. sunbeams united in a burning glass, burn the hotter, so all our affections should be united, that our love to God may be more ardent.— 66 As the him: the stars fight his battles, the wind and sea obey him, Mark iv. 41,-much more should man whom God hath endued with a principle of reason. He is God, and hath a sovereignty over us; therefore, as we received life from him, so we must receive a law from him, and submit to his will in all things. This is to kiss him with a kiss of loyalty, and it is to glorify him as God. QUEST. IV. GOD IS A SPIRIT. WHAT is God? ANS. God is a Spirit. 2d. The thing expressed, John iv. 24, Q. What do you mean when you say, God is a Spirit? A. By a spirit I mean, God is an immate "God is a spirit." God is essentia spiritual-rial substance, of a pure, subtile, unmixed issima. ZANCH. essence, not compounded of body and soul, without all extension of parts. The body is a dreggish thing: the more spiritual God's essence is, the more noble and excellent. The spirits are the more refined part of the wine. Q. Wherein doth God differ from other spirits? 1. The angels are spirits. A. It is contrary to the nature of a spirit to have a corporeal substance: Luke xxiv. 39, "Handle me, and see me for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Bodily members are ascribed to God, not properly, but metaphorically, and in a borrowed sense; he is only set out to our capacity; by the right hand of the Lord is meant his power; by the eyes of the Lord is meant his wisdom. Now that God is a spirit, and is not capable of bodily shape or substance, is clear. 1. A body is visible, but God is invisible; therefore he is a spirit, 1 Tim. vi. 16, "whom no man hath seen, nor can see;" not by an eye of sense.-2. A body is terminated; can be but in one place at once; but God is every where, in all places at once; therefore he is a spirit, Ps. cxxxix. 7, 8. "God's centre is every where, and his circumference is nowhere.-3. A body being compounded of integral parts may be dissolved,-quicquid | divisible est corruptibile; but the Godhead is not capable of dissolution; he can have no end, from whom all things have their beginning. So that it clearly appears that God Q. How doth God, being a spirit, differ is a spirit, which adds to the perfection of from the soul? his nature. A. We must distinguish of spirits. 1. The angels are created, God is a spirit uncreated.-2. The angels are spirits, but they are finite, and capable of being annihilated; the same power which made them, is able to reduce them to their first nothing; but God is an infinite spirit.-3. The angels are confined spirits; they cannot be duobus locis simul, they are confined to a place; but God is an immense spirit, and cannot be confined, being in all places at once.-4. The angels, though they are spirits, yet they are but ministering spirits, Heb. i. 14. Though they are spirits, yet are they servants. God is a super-excellent spirit, "the Father of spirits," Heb. xii. 9. 2. The soul is a spirit: Eccles. xii. 7, "The spirit shall return unto God that gave it." Servetus and Osiander thought, that the soul being infused did convey into man the very spirit and substance of God; an absurd opinion, for the essence of God is incommunicable. Use 1. If God be a spirit, then he is impassible, he is not capable of being hurt. Wicked men set up their banners, and bend their forces against God; they are said to fight against God, Acts v. 39. But A. Therefore, when it is said, the soul what will this fighting avail? What hurt is a spirit, it is meant God hath made it in-can they do to the Deity? God is a spirit, telligent, and hath stamped upon it his like-and therefore cannot receive any hurtful ness, not his essence. impression; wicked men may imagine evil Q. But is it not said, that we are made against the Lord, Nahum. i. 9, partakers of the divine nature? ness. “What do ye imagine against the Lord?" But God, A. By divine nature there, is meant divine qualities, 2 Pet. i. 4. We are made partakers of the divine nature, not by identity or union with the divine essence, but but they cannot hurt him. by a transformation into the divine like-throw up his dagger into the air against Thus you see how God differs from heaven, but could not touch the Deity. other spirits, angels and souls of men. He God is a spirit, invisible. How can the is a spirit of transcendent excellency, "the wicked with all their forces hurt him, when Father of spirits." they cannot see him? Hence all the attempts of the wicked against God are foolish, and prove abortive: Ps. ii. 2, 4, "The kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. OBJ. Against this Vorstius and the Anthropomorphites object, that, in scripture, a human shape and figure is given to God; he is said to have eyes and hands. He Use 6. Seeing there is a God, let us serve and worship him as God. It was an indictment brought in against them, Rom. i. 21, "They glorified him not as God." 1. Let us pray to him as to God. Pray with fervency, James v. 16, "An effectual fervent prayer availeth much." This is both the fire and the incense; without fervency it is no prayer.-2. Love him as God. Deut. vi. 5, ship God, and pray to him, and not believe munion with God; let us labour to recover there is a God, is to put a high scorn and this lost interest, and pronounce this Shibbocontempt upon God. Believe that God is the leth, My God,' Ps. xliii. 5. It is little comonly true God; such a God as he hath re- fort to know there is a God, unless he be vealed himself in his word, "A lover of ours; God offers himself to be our God, Jer. righteousness, and hater of wickedness," | xxxi. 33, "I will be their God." And faith Ps. xlv. 7. The real belief of a Deity gives catcheth hold of the offer; it appropriates life to all religious worship; the more we be- God, and makes all that is in him over to us lieve the truth and infiniteness of God, the to be ours,-his wisdom to be ours, to teach us, more holy and angelical we are in our lives.his holiness ours, to sanctify us,-his Spirit Whether we are alone, or in company, God ours, to comfort us,-his mercy ours, to save sees us; he is the heart-searcher; the belief us. To be able to say, God is mine, is more of this would make us live always under than to have all the mines of gold and silver. God's eye, Ps. xvi. 8, "I have set the Lord always before me." The belief of a Deity would be a bridle to sin, a spur to duty; it would add wings to prayer, and oil to the lamp of our devotion. The belief of a Deity would cause dependence upon God in all our straits and exigencies. Gen. xvii. 1, " I am God all-sufficient," a God that can supply all your wants, scatter all your fears, resolve all your doubts, conquer all your temp-"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all tations; the arm of God's power can never be shrunk; he can create mercy for us, and therefore can help and not be beholden to the creature. Did we believe there is a God, we should so depend on his providence as not to use any indirect means; we should not run ourselves into sin to rid ourselves out of trouble: 2 Kings i. 3, "Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of 3. Obey him as God. All creatures obey Beelzebub the god of Ekron?" When men run to sinful shifts, is it not because they do not believe there is a God, or that he is allsufficient? Use 5. Seeing there is a God, let us labour to get an interest in him, Ps. xlviii. 14, "This God is our God." Two things will comfort us,-Deity and property. Since the fall we have lost likeness to God, and com thy heart." To love him with all thy heart, him: the stars fight his battles, the wind and sea obey him, Mark iv. 41,—much more should man whom God hath endued with a principle of reason. He is God, and hath a sovereignty over us; therefore, as we received life from him, so we must receive a law from him, and submit to his will in all things. This is to kiss him with a kiss of loyalty, and it is to glorify him as God. QUEST. IV. GOD IS A SPIRIT. WHAT is God? ANS. God is a Spirit. 2d. The thing expressed, John iv. 24, Q. What do you mean when you say, God is a Spirit? A. By a spirit I mean, God is an immate 'God is a spirit." God is essentia spiritual-rial substance, of a pure, subtile, unmixed issima. ZANCH. essence, not compounded of body and soul, |