and they carry us down with their Force, yet He abides the fame for ever; even the Earth that is eftablished to fure, and the Heavens that are fuppofed to be incorruptible, yet they wax old as doth a Garment, but He is the fame, and bis Years bave no End, Pfal. cii. 26, 27. Sine principio principium, abfque fine finis, cui prateritum non abit, baud adit futurum, ante omnia, poft omnia, totus, unus ipfe. He is the Beginning without any Beginning, the End without ⚫ an End, there is nothing by-past to him, and nothing to come, fed uno mentis cernit in ictu, quæ funt, quæ erunt, quæ •fuerantque, He is one that is all, before all, after all, and in all; He beholds out of the exalted and fupereminent Tower of Eternity, all the Succeffions and Changes of the Creatures, and there is no Succef fion, no Mutation in his Knowledge, as in ours, Known to bim are all bis Works, from the Beginning. He can declare the End before the Beginning, for he knows the End of all Things, before he gives them Beginning: Therefore he is never driven to any Confultation upon any E mergent, or Incident, as the wifeft of Men are, who could not foresee all Accidents and Events, but He is in one mind, faith Job, and that one Mind and one Purpofe is one for all, one concerning all; He had it from everlafting, and who can turn bim? For He will accomplish bat bis Soul defires. Now, canft thou by Searching find out God? Canft thou a poor mortal Creature, either afcend up unto the Heighth of Heaven, or defcend down into the Depths of Hell? Canft thou travell abroad, and compass all the Sea and dry Land, by its Longitude and Latitude? Would any mortal Creature undertake fuch a Voyage, to compass the Universe? Nay, not only fo, but to fearch into every Cor 45 it was done, he commanded, and it food faft. Cant thou by fearching find him out? And yet thou must search him, not fo much out of Curiofity to know what he is, for be dwells in inacceffible Light, which no Man bath feen, and no Mancan fee, 1 Tim. vi. 16. Not fo much to find him, as to be found of him, or to find what we cannot know when we have found; Hic eft qui nunquam quæri fruftra poteft, cum tamen inveniri non poteft; you may feek him, but though you never find him, yet ye shall not seek him in vain, for ye fhall find Bleffednefs in him: Though you find him, yet can you search him out unto Perfection? Then what you have found were not God? How is it poffible for fuch narrow Hearts to frame an Apprehenfion, or receive an Impreffion of fuch an immenfe Greatnefs, and eternal. Goodnefs? Will not a Soul lofe its Power of thinking, and speaking, because there is fo much to be thought and fpoken; and it fo transcends all that it can think or speak? Silence then must be the best Rhetorick; and the fweeteft Eloquence, when Eloquence it felf must become dumb and lent; it is the Abundance and Excefs of that inacceffible Light, that hath no Proportion to our Understandings, that ftrikes us as blind as in the Darkness the want of Light: All that we can fay of God is, that whatfoever we can think or conceive, he is not that, because he hath not entred into the Heart of Man to conceive, and that he is not like any of thefe Things which we know, unto which if he be not like, we cannot frame any Similitude or Likeness of Him in our Knowledge? What fhall We then do? Seek Him, and fearch Him indeed; but, if we cannot know Him, to reverence and fear and adore what we know: So much of Him may be known, as may teach us our Duty, and fhew uns to us our Bleffednefs; let then all our Inquiries of Him have a special Relation to this End, that we may out of Love and Fear of fuch a glorious and good God, wor fhip and ferve Him, and compofe our feives according to his Will, and wholly to his Pleasure: What ever thou knows of God, or fearches of Him, it is but a vain Speculation, and a Work of Curiofity, if t it do not lead to this End, to frame and fashion thy Soul to an Union and Communion with Him in Love; if it do not discover thy felf unto thy felf, that in that Light of God's glorious Majefty thou may diftinctly behold thy own Vileness, and wretched Mifery, thy Darkness, and Deadnefs, and utter Impotency. The Angels that Isaiah faw attending God in the Temple, had Wings covering their Faces, and Wings covering their Feet: Thofe excellent Spirits who must cover their Feer from us, becaufe we cannot behold their Glory, as Mofes behooved to be vailed; yet they cannot behold his Glory, but muft cover their Face from the radiant and fhining Brightness of his Majefty, yer they have other two Wings to flee with; and being thus compofed in Reverence and Fear to God, they are ready to execute his Commands willingly and fwiftly, Ifa. vi. 1, 2, 3, &c. But what is the Ufe Ifaiah makes of all this glorious Sight? Wo is me, I am a Man of polluted Lips, &c. Ob, all is unclean, People, and Paftor: He had known, doubtlefs, fomething of it before,but now he fees it of new, as if he had never feen it: The Glory of God thining on him, doth not puff him up in Arrogancy and Conceit of the Knowledge of fuch profound Mysteries, but he is more abased in himself by it, it fhines into his Heart, and whole Man, and lets him fee all unclean within and without; and fo it was with Job, Job xlii xlii. 5, 6. I have heard of thee by the bearing of the Ear, but as long as it was Hearfay, I thought my felf fomething; I often reflected upon my self and Actions, with a kind of Self-complacency and Delight: But now, faith he, fince I bave feen thee by the feeing of the Eye, I abbor my felf in Duft and Afbes, I cannot look upon my felf with Patience, with out Abhorrency and Detestation; Self-love made me loath other Mens Sins more than mine own, and Self-love did cover mine own Sins from me, it prefented me to my felf in a feigned Likeness, but now I fee my felfin my true Shape, and all Co-wicked tyrannical King, into another Naverings ftripped off. Thy Light hath pierced into my Soul, and behold, I cannot endure to look upon my felf: Here now is the true Knowledge of God's Majefty, which discovers within thee a Myftery of Iniquity; and here is the Knowledge of God indeed, which abafes all Things befide God, not only in Opinion, but in Affection, that auracts and unites thy Soul to God, and draws it from thy felf and all created Things: This is a right Discovery of Divine Purity and Glory, that spots even the Cleannefs of Angels, and ftains the Pride of all Glory, much more will it reprefent Filthinefs, as Filthinefs, without a Covering. It's Know-lieved that it were He indeed, the Lord ledge and Science (falfly fo called) that puffeth up, for true Knowledge emptieth a Soul of it felf, and humbleth a Soul in it felf, that it may be full of God. He that thinks he knows any thing, he knows nothing as he ought to know: " Scripture, answerable to our feveral Ne. ceffities, and Difficulties, that he might make known to us how All-fufficient he is, that fo we may turn our Eyes and Hearts towards him: This was the Intent of this Name, I am, that Mofes might have a Support of his Faith; for if he had looked to outward Appearance, was it not almost a ridiculous Thing, and like a vain Fancy, for a poor inconfiderable Man to go to a King with fuch a Meffage, that he would difmifs fo many Subjects? And was it not an Attempt of fome mad Man to go about to lead fo many Thousands from a This then is the firft Property or Mark of the faving Knowledge of God, it removes all Grounds of vain Confidence, that a Soul cannot truft unto itself; and then the very proper Intent of it is, that a Soul may truft in God, and depend on him in all Things: For this Purpose the Lord bath called himself by fo many Names in tion? Well, faith the Lord, I am; 1, Jehovah, how would we be comforted? How would we praise Him by His Name JAH? How would we ftoop unto Him, and fubmit unto His bleffed Will? If we believed this, would we not be as dependent on Him as if we had no Being in our felves? Would we not make Him our Habitation and Dwelling-place ? conclude our own Stability, and the Stability of his Church from his unvariable Eter nity, as the Pfalmift, Pfal. xcix. 1. and Pfal. cii. ult. How can we think of fuch a Fountain-being, but we must withall acknowledge our felves to be Shadows of And his Goodness, and that we owe to Him Waters fhall not fail, we hall never be awhat we are, and fo confecrate and dedi- thamed of any Hope we have in him. cate our felves to his Glory? How can There is nothing elfe you trust in, but, we confider fuch a Self-being, indepen- undoubtedly, it fhall prove your Shame dent, and creating Goodnefs, but we muft and Confufion in Sum; whatever you hear have fome Defire to cleave to him, and or know of God, know that it is vain and .fome Confidence to trust in Him? Now, empty, unless it defcend down into the This is to know Him. When we think on Heart to fashion it to his Fear and Love, his Unchangeablenefs, let us confider our and extend unto the outward Man to conown Vanity, whofe Glory and Perfecti- form it to Obedience; you are but vain on is like a Summer Flower, or like a Va- in your Imaginations, and your foolish pour afcending for a little Time, whofe Hearts are darkned, while when you . best Estate is altogether Vanity: Our Pur-know God, you glorifie Him not as God; poses are foon broken off, and made of none if that be not the Fruit and End of KnowEffect; our Refolutions change. This is a Character of Mortality, we are not always alike, Non fibi conftare, nec ubique & Semper fibi parem eundemque effe. To be now one Thing, and then another Thing, is a Property of finful and wretched Man; therefore let us ceafe from Man whofe Breath is in bis Noftrils, and not rruft in Princes who fhall die, far lefs in our felves who are lefs than the leaft of Men: But let us put our Trust in God, who changes not, and we shall not be confumed; our ledge, that Knowledge fhall be worfe to thee than Ignorance, for both it brings on judicial Hardning here, and will be thy folemn Accufer and Witness against thee hereafter, Rom. i. 21, 24. The Knowledge of Jefus Chrift, truly fo called, is neither barren nor unfruitful, for out of its Root and Sap fprings out Humility, Self-abafing, Confidence in God, Patience in Tribulations, Meeknefs in Provocations, Temperance and Sobriety in lawful Things, &c. 2 Pet. i. 5, 6, 7, 8. Exod. xxiv. 5,6,7, 8. The Lord, the Lord God, Merciful and Gracious,&c. THe Here is nothing can feparate between, God and a People but Iniquity, and yet he is very loath to feparate even for that; he makes many Shews of departing, that fo we may hold him faft; and indeed he is not difficult to be holden. He threatens often to remove his Prefence from a Perfon, or Nation; and he threatens, that he may not indeed remove, but that they may entreat him to ftay, and he is not hard to be entreated: Who is a God like unto him, flow to Anger, and of great Mercy? He is lang of being provokad, and not long provoked; for it is like the Anger of a Parent's Love: Love takes on Anger, as the laft Remedy, and if it prevail, it is as glad to put it off, as it was unwilling to take it on. You may fee a lively Picture of this in God's dealing with Mofes and this People in the preceeding Chapter. He had long endured this rebellious and obftinate People, had often threatned to cut them off, and yet, as it were, loath to do it, and repenting of it, he fuffers himself to be entreated for them; but all in vain to them, they corrupted their Way ftill more: And in the xxxii, Chap. Chap. falls in grofs Idolatry, the great ers both, and draws away thefe Holy Trefpafs that he had given them fo fo- Things from the Contagion of a prophane lemn warning of often, whereupon great People: But yet all is not gone; he goes Wrath is conceived. And the Lord, Chap. far off, but not out of Sight, that you may xxxiii. 2. threatens to depart from them; always follow Him, and if you follow, Go your Way, faith he to Canaan, but He will stand ftill; He is never without I will not go with you; take your Venture the Reach of crying, though we do not of any Judgments, and the People of the perceive Him. Now, in this fad Cafe Land's Cruelty: Here is a fad Farewell to you may have a Trial who is Godly: Ifrael, and who would think he could be de- Every one that feeks the Lord will separate tained after all that? Who would think that from the unholy Congregation, and folhe could be entreated? And yet he is not low the Tabernacle; and this affects the entreated, he is not requested before he gives whole People much, that they all worship fome Ground of it, and before he first in the Tent-doors. Now, in the mean condefcends; go, faith he, and put off thy Time God admits Mofes to fpeak with Ornaments from thee, that I may know Him; though He will not fpeak to the what to do unto thee. Will he then ac- People, yet He will speak with their Mecept a repenting People, and is there yet diator, a typical Mediator, to fhew Hope of Mercy? Should he that is going us that God is well pleafed in Chri: away fhew us the Way to keep him ftill? and fo all Chrift's Interceffions and ReAnd he that flees from us, will he ftrength-quefts for us will get a Hearing: en us to pursue and follow after him? This is not after the Manner of Men, it is true, whofe Compaffions fail, when their Passion ariseth, but this is the Manner and Method of Grace; or of him who waits to be gracious: He flees fo as he would have a Follower; yea, while he feems to go away, he draws the Soul that it may run after him; hence is that Word, Pfal. lxiii. 8. My Soul follows bard after thee; thy right Hand upholds me. Well, the People mourns and puts off their Ornaments in Sign of Humiliation and Abasement, but all this doth not paci-fo with us. His great Requeft is, That fy and quench the Flame that was kindled: Mofes takes the Tabernacle out of the Camp, the Place of Judgment where God fpake with the People; and the Cloud, the Sign of God's Prefence, removes: In a Word, the Signs of God's loving and kind Prefence depart from them, to fignify, that they were divorced from God, and, in a Manner, the Lord by Mofes excommunicates all the People, and Rul when they are come once in talking. the Business is taken up, for He is not foon angry, and never implacably angry, flow to Anger, and keeps it not long: Mofes falling familiar with God, not only obtains his Requeft for the People, but becomes more bold in a Request for his own Satisfaction and Confirmation: He could not endure to lead that People, except God went with him; and having the Promife of his going with them, he cannot endure Dif tance with him, but afpires to the nearest Communion that may be : Oh,that it wer● the Lord would thew him his Glory; had he not feen much of this already? And more than any Man ever faw, when he fpake in the Mount with God, Ee?· Nay, but he would fee more,' for there is always more to be seen, and there is in a godly Soul always more Defire to fee it; the more is feen, the more is loved and defired; tafting of it only begets a kindly Appetite after it, and the more tafted, ftill H 2 the |