as at first, all of them agreed to make to God only, excluding the Son, and Holy Ghoft; or when they hear of three Perfons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, they ftraightway divide their Worfhip and imagine a Trinity of Guds; And, I fear, thofe of us who know moft, use not to worship God as he hath revealed Himfelf, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and yet one God: Our Minds are reduced to fuch a simple Unity, as we think upon one of them alone, or elfe diftracted and divided into fuch a Plurality, that we worfhip in a manner three Gods instead of one. It is a great Mystery to keep the Man, Let us make Man: So again, they agree to make him again, to reftore him to Life in the fecond Adam. Who ever thou be that wouldft flee to God for Mercy, do it in Confidence, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, are ready to welcome thee, all of one Mind to fhut out none, to caft out none. But to fpeak properly, it is but one Love; one Will, one Council, and Purpofe in the Father, Son, and Spirit, for these three are One, and not only agree in one, they are One, and what one loves or purposes, all love and purposes. I would conclude this Mat-right middle Way. Learn, I beseech you, ter with a Word of Direction how to worship God, which I cannot exprefs in fitter Terms than thefe of Nazianzen. I cannot think upon one, but by and by I am compaffed about with the Brightnefs of three, and I cannot diftinguish three, but I am fuddenly driven back unto one: There is great Ignorance and Miftake of this even amongst the beft Chriftians, the groffer Sort when they hear of one God only, think Chrift but fome eminent Man, and fo direct their Prayers fo to conceive of God, and so to acknowledge Him, and pray to Him, as you may do it in the Name of Jesus Christ, that all the Perfons may have equal Honour, and all of them one Honour; that while you confider one God, you may adore that facred and bleffed Trinity, and while you worship that Holy Trinity, you may ftraight way be reduced to an Unity. To this wonderful and Holy One, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, be all Praise and Glory. Eph. i. 11. latter Part. Who worketh all Things after the Counsel of His own Will. Job xxiii. 13. He is in one Mind, and who can turn Him, &c? HAving fpoken fomething before of God, in His Nature, and Being, and Properties, we come in the next Place to confider His glorious Majefty as He flands in fome nearer Relation to His Creatures, the Work of his Hands: For we must conceive the firft Rife of all Things in the World, to be in this Selfbeing, the firft Conception of them to be in the Womb of God's everlafting Pur pofe and Decree, which, in due Time, according to His Appointment, brings forth the Child of the Creature to the Light of actual Exiftence and Being: It is certain, that His Majefty might have endured for ever, and poffeffed Himself without any of thefe Things: If He had never refolved to create any Thing with out Himfelf, He had been blessed then, as now, because of His full and abfolute Self fufficient fufficient Perfection. His purpofing to make a World, and His doing of it, adds nothing to His inward Blessedness and Contentment; this glorious and Holy One, inclofes within His own Being, all ima ginable Perfections, in an infinite and tranfcendant Manner; that if you remove all created ones, you diminish nothing, if you add them all, you encrease nothing. Therefore it was the Superabundance of His Perfection, that He refolved to fhew His Glory thus in the World. It is the Creature's Indigence and limited Condition, which maketh it needful to go without its own Compafs, for the Happiness of its own Being: Man cannot be happy in loving Himself, He is not fatisfied with His own intrinfick Perfections, but He muft diffufe Himself by His Affections and Defires, and Endeavours, and, as it were, walk abroad upon thefe Legs, to fetch in Supply from the Creatures or Creator: The Creature is conftrained out of fome Neceffity thus to go out of it felf, which speaks much Indigence and Want within it felf: But it is not fo with His Majefty. His own glorious Being contents Him, His Happiness is to know that, and delight in it, because it comprehends in it felf all, that is at all poffible, in the moft excellent and perfect Manner that is conceivable; nay infinitely beyond what can be conceived by any but Himfelf; fo He needs not go without Himself to feek Love or Delight, for it is all within Him, and it cannot be without His own Being,unless it flow from within Him, therefore ye may find in Scripture what Complacency God hath in Himself, and the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father: We find, Prov. viii. how the Wisdom of God, our Lord Jefus, was the Father's Delight from all Eternity, and the Father again His Delight, for He rejoiced always before Him, Ver. 30. And this was an all-fufficient Poffeffion that one had of another, Ver. 22. the Love between the Father and the Son is holden out as the firft Pattern of all Loves and Delights, John xvii. 23, 24. This then flows from the infinite Exces of Perfection and Exundance of Self-being, that His Majefty is pleased to come with out Himhfelf, to manifeft His own Glory in the Works of His Hands, to decree and appoint other Things befide Himfelf, and to execute that Decree. We may confider in thefe Words fome Particulars for our Edification, 1. That the Lord hath from Eternity purpofed within Himself, and decreed to manifeft His own Glory in the making and ruling of the World, that there is a Counfel and Purpose of His Will which reaches all Things, which have been, are now, or are to be after this. This is clear, for He works all Things according to the Counsel of His own Will. 2. That his Mind and Purpose is one Mind, one Counfel: I mean not only One for ever, that is, perpetual, and unchangeable, as the Words fpeak, but alfo One for all; that is, with one fumple Act or Refolution of His holy Will He hath determined, all thefe feveral Things, all their Times, their Conditions, their Circumstances. 3. That whatsoever He hath from all Eternitý purpofed, He in Time practiseth it, and comes to Execution and working, fo that there is an exact Correspondence betwixt His Will and His Work, His Mind and His Hand, He works according to the Counsel of His Will, and whatfoever His Soul defireth, that He doth. 4. That His Purpose and Performance, is infallible, irrefiftible by any created Power, Himfelf will not change it, for He is in one Mind, and nope elfe' can hinder it, for who can turn Him? He defireth M 2 and and He doth it, as in the Original, there is nothing intervenes between the Defire and the Doing, that can hinder the Meeting of these two. He could in no ways have formed an Image in His Mind of all thofe Different kinds of Creatures. Creatures must have some Example and Copy to look to; but what was His Pattern? Who bath been His Counsel lour to teach Him? Rom. xi. 34. Who gave Him the firft Rudiments or Principles of that Art? Surely none. He had no Pattern given Him,not the leaft Idea of any of thefe Things furnished Him, burit is abfolutely and folely His own wife Contri The first is the conftant Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, of which ye fhould confider four Things, 1. That His Purpofe and Decree is moft wife; therefore Paul cries out upon fuch a Subject, O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wf dom and Knowledge of God, Rom. xi. 33. His Will is always one with Wif-vance. dom, therefore you have the Purpose of His Will mentioned thus the Counsel of bis Will, for His Will (as it were) takes Counsel and Advice of Wisdom, and difcerns according to the Depth and Riches of His Knowledge and Underftanding. We fee among Men these are feparated often, and there is nothing in the World fo diforderly, fo unruly and uncomely, as when Will is divided from Wisdom; when Men follow their own Will and Lufts as a Law, against their Confcience, that is monstrous: The Understanding and Reafon are the Eyes of the Will, if thefe be put out, or if a Man leave them behind him, he cannot but fall into a Pit. But the Purposes of God's Will are Depths of Wisdom, nay, His very Will is a fufficient Rule and Law; so that it may be well used of Him, ftat pro ratione voluntas, Rom. ix. 13, 14. If we confider the glorious Fabrick of the World, the Order established in it, the sweet Harmony keepeth in all its Motions and Succef tions: O it must be a wife Mind and Counfel contrived it. Man now having the Idea of this World in his Mind, might fancy and imagine many other Worlds, bearing fome Proportion and Refemblance to this: But if He had never feen nor known this World, He could never have imagined the thoufand Part of this World, no 2. This Purpose of God is most free and abfolute, there is no Caufe, Reafon why He hath thus difpofed alfTM Things, and not otherwife, as He might have done, but His own good Will and Pleasure. If it be fo in a Matter of deepest. Concerment, Rom. ix. 18. it must be fo alfo in all other Things; we may find indeed many inferior Caufes, many peculiar Reafons for fuch and fuch a way of Administration, many Ends and Ufes for which they ferve, for there is nothing that His Majefty hath appointed, but it is for fome Ufe and Reafon, yet we must. rife above all these, and afcend into the Tower of His most high Will and Plea fure, which is founded on a Depth of Wif dom, and from thence we fhall behold all the Order, Administration and Ufe of the Creatures to depend. And herein is a great Difference between His Majefty's Purposes and ours; you know there is ftill fomething prefented under the Notion of good and convenient, that moves our Will, and inclines us for its own. Goodness to seek after it, and fo to fall upon the Means to compafs it; therefore the End which we propofe to our felves hath its Influence upon our Purposes, and pleasures them, fo that from it the Motion feems to proceed first, and not. so much from within; but there is no created Thing can thus deter mine His Majefty, Himself, His own Glory ! Glory is the great End, which he loves for it felf, and for which He loves other Things: But among other Things, though there be many of them ordained one for another's Ufe, yet His Will and Pleafure is the Original of that Order; He doth not find it, but makes it: You fee all the Creatures below are appointed for Man, as their immediate and next End, for His Ufe and Service; but was it Man his Goodnefs and Perfection which did move, and incline His Majefty to this Appointment? No indeed, but of His own good Will He makes fuch Things ferve Man, that all of them together may be for His own Glory. 3. The Lord's Decree is the firft Rife of all Things that are, or have been, or are to come; This is the firft Original of them all, to which they must be reduced as their Spring and Fountain. All of you may understand that there are many Things poffible, which yet actually will never be; The Lord's Power and Omnipotency is of a further Extent than His Decree and Purpofe; His Power is Natural and Effental to His Being. His Decree is of choice and voluntary: The Father could have fent a Legion of Angels to have delivered His Son, the Son could have asked them, but neither of them would do it, Mat. xxvi. 53. The Lord could have raised up Children to Abraham out of Stones, but He would not, Mat. ii. His Power then comprehends within its Reach all poffible Things which do not in their own Nature, and proper Conception, imply a Contradiction, so that infinite Worlds of Creatures more perfect than this, Numbers of Angels and Men above thefe, and Creatures in Glory furpaffing them. again, are within the Compafs of the boundlefs Power, and Omnipotency of God: But yet for all this it might have fallen But, that nothing should actually and really have been, unlefs His Majefty had of His own free Will decreed what is, or hath been, or is to be. His Will determines His Power, and, as it were, puts it in the nearest Capacity to act, and exercise it felf: Here then we muft look for the first Beginning of all Things that are; they are conceived in the Womb of the Lord's everlafting Purpose: As he speaks, Zepb. ii. 2. the Decree is, as it were, with Child of Beings, Ifa. xliv. 7. It's God's Royal Prerogative to appoint Things to come, and none can fhare with him in it: From whence is it, I pray you, that of fo many Worlds which His Power could have framed, this one is brought to Light? Is it not because this one was formed (as it were) in the Belly of His eternal Coun fel and Will? From whence is it that fo many Men are, and no more? That our Lord Jefus was flain, when the Power of God. might have kept Him alive? That thofe Men, Judas, &c. were the Doers of it, when others might have done it? From whence are all thofe ActionsGood or Evil under the Sun, which He might have prevented? But from His good Will and Pleasure, from His determinate Counsel, Acts iv. 28, Cần you find the Original of these in the Crea-ture, why it is thus, and why not otherwife? Can you conceive why, of all the infinite Numbers of poffible Beings, these are, and no other? And, what hath tranflated that Number of Creatures, which is, from the State of pure Poffibili ty to Futurition or actual Being, but the decifive Vote of God's everlafting Pur pofe and Counfel? Therefore we should always conceive, that the Creatures, and all their Actions, which have, or will have any Being in the World, have first had a Being in the Womb of God's Eternal Counfel, and that His Will and Pleafure hath hath paft upon all Things that are, and are not; His Counfel has concluded of Things that have been, or will be, that thus they fhall be; and His Counfel has determined of all other Things which are alfo poffible, that they shall never come forth into the Light of the World, but remain in the dark Bowels of Omnipotency, that fo we may give Him the Glory of all Things that are not, and that are at all. Then 4. We fhould confider the Extent of His Decree, and Counfel, it's paft upon all Things, it's univerfal, reaching every Being or Action of the Univerfe. This is the Strain of the whole Scripture. He did not (as fome dream) once create the Creatures in a good State, and put them in Capacity henceforth to preferve themselves, or exercife their own Vertue and Power, without Dependance on Him: As an Artificer makes an Horologe, and orders it in all Things, that it may do its Business without Him; He is not only a general Original of Action and Motion, as if He would command a River to flow by His appointed Channels; as if he did only work, and rule the World by Attorneys and Ambassadors; that is the Weakness and Infirmity of earthly Kings, that they muft fubftitute Deputies for themfelyes; But this King appoints all immediately, and difpofes upon all the particular Actions of His Creatures good or evil, and fo He is univerfal abfolute Lord of the Creature, of its Being and Doing. It were a long Work to rehearse what the Scripture fpeaks of this Kind; but O that ye would read them ofiner, and ponder them better, how there is nothing in this World (which may feem to fall out by Chance to you, that you know not how it is come to pafs, and can fee no Caufe nor Reafon of it) but it falls out by the Holy Will of our bleffed Father: Be it of greater or lefs Moment, or be it a Hair of thy Head fallen, or thy Head cut off; the moft cafual and contingent Thing, though it furprifed the whole World of Men and Angels, that they fhould wonder from whence it did proceed, it is no Surprifal to Him, for He not only knew it, but appointed it; the moft certain and neceffary Thing, according to the Courfe of Nature, it hath no Certainty, but from His Appoinsment, who hath established fuch a Course in the Creatures, and which He can fulpend when He pleafeth: Be it the Sin of Men and Devils, which feems moft oppofite to His Holiness, yet even that cannot appear in the World of Beings, if it were not, in a holy, righteous, and permiflive Way, firft conceived in the Womb of His Eternal Counsel, and if it were not determined by Him for Holy and juft Ends, Acts iv. 28. The fecond Thing propounded is, that His Mind and Counsel is one; one and the fame, Yefterday, and To-day, and for ever; therefore the Apoftle fpeaks of God, That there is no Shadow of Change or turning in Him. Jam. i. 17. He is not a Man that He should lie, or the Son of Man that He bould repent: Will He say, and not do it? Num. xxii. 19. And fhall He decree, and not ex ecute it? Shall he purpose, and not per form it? I am God and change not; that is His Name, Mal. iii. 6. The Counfel of the Lord fhall ftand, and the Thoughts of His Heart to all Generations, Pfal. xxxiii. 11. Men change their Mind oftner than their Garments; poor vain Man, even in his best Eftate, is Changeableness, and Viciffitude it felf, altogether Vanity; and this arifeth, partly from the Imperfection of his Underftanding, and his Ignorance, because he does not underftand what may fall out; there are many |