wee But the creatures are of great moment, experience thewes them to be fomething: for, who lives without them? Againe, are wee not commanded to pray for outward bleffings? and are not to pray for that which is nothing. Again, doth not the Scripture reckon them for they are things for which we must be thankfull, and the want of them doth afflict us,and we muft efteem it as a chaftifement. Now, no man will be thankfull,or afflit himfelfe for that which is nothing, and therefore there is fomething in the creature, it is not altogether nothing or vanity. To this we will give a three-fold anfwer: Though the creature is fomething, yet its efficacic is not from it felfe,but from the Lord. An horfe is able to doe fomething, but to fave a man it is avaine thing; the Builder builds, but it is nothing; and the watch-men watch in vaine, without the Lord, the efficacy that they have to do us hurt or good, is from him, and not from themfelves: If God will fay to the creature; Goe, and doe fuch a man good,it will doc it,because there goes a concourfe of efficacy from him to doe it: So if hee fay to a creature, Goe to such a man, and affli&t him, it will doe it, though it be never fo fmall and meane a creature; therefore of themfelves they neither doe good nor hurt, the efficacic that they have is from him, and not from themselves: they are meere inftruments; and if Gedwithdraw his bleffing and curfing, they can doc us neither good nor hurt. We say that they are nothing,because they are at Anfw. a. They are at his command. Prov. 23. Simile. nuance. at his command; if he would doe us good, hee never wants one to fend of his errand, if hee will make a man rich,he wants not wealth, it is at his command; if he will give a man friends, he can fetch them againe, if all thy friends be prefent, yet they stirre not unleffe he command. The rich and the poore, they meet together but the LORD makes them both. And in this regard, riches are said to be nothing,Prou.23. Riches take to themselves wings, and flye away; And why dost thou set thy heart upon that which is nothing that is, they goe and come at his command, and therefore they are to bee counted as nothing. If a man fee a flocke of the best wild Fowle on his Land, hee lookes upon them as nothing to him,because they have wings and will flye away; fo you should thinke of all things elfe, they have wings, they goe and come at his command, they are nothing, because they are nothing to you. Answ. 3: They are nothing because as they can doe but They can doe little good; fo that which they doe, is of no conlittle good at beft, and that tinuance, and therefore they are faid to be vaniwhich they do ty. So that put the cafe that they have fome effiis of no conti-cacie in them, (when yet they are acted by the Lord;) yea, put the cafe that they were at their owne command (as they were not) yet they can doe but little good,and that is of no fhort continuance, and therefore they are vanity, they are nothing, because they are little more than nothing; as Salomon calleth them; All things under: the Sunne are vanity, they are empty things; and that which is under the Sun cannot reach above the the Sunne; and therefore they are faid to be vanitie. But if you fay, that they are great things,and Object. therefore you fee how the Prophets did magnific them, and did set forth the greatneffe of afflictions, in the want of them. I answer, that they are of use indeed,in regard Afwi of the weakeneffe of the creature, and the continuance of this life; but if they be compared to eternitie,they are nothing: and againe,if the Lord bewith us in the want of them,they are nothing; if the Lord fend us afflictions,and give us his favour, and the light of his countenance, all is nothing; if he fend us into Prifon, if he be with us, it will be nothing: As, on the contrarie, if a man bad a brave Palace, and God were not with bim, if he did withdraw his favour from him, it were nothing. The The fecond God is the firft Revel, 1,8. Revel 3.14 Ifai. 44. 6. Rom, 11.36. Reason 1. Elle fomthing fhould be be fore the Lord. The fecond Attribute of Gop. T He next Attribute,which likewife may be .drawne from this place, is this: That God is the first without all causes, having his being and beginning from himselfe. This I finde fet downe in Revel. 1. 8. Iam ALPNs and OMEGA, the beginning and the ending, faith the LORD, which is, which was, and which is to come, the Almightie; that is, what Alpha and Omega are in the letters,that I am to the creatures: I am the first, and the laft; that is, if I fhould fuffer the creatures to fall, then I fhould be the last, and I am He they would returne unto, Rev.3.14. Chrift according to his God-head, is faid to be the beginning of the creation of GOD, Ifai. 44. 6. I am the firft, and laft: The meaning of it is, that hee is without all caufes, that he is from himselfe, and by himselfe, and of himselfe, and for himselfe, Rom. 11. 36. that is, hee is the first, hee never had any efficient caufe, as all the creatures have; that which hath no efficient caufe, hath no end; that which hath no end,hath no forme; (for the forme doth but ferve to carry a thing to fuch an end) that which hath no forme, hath no matter, for the matter is dependent on the forme; and fo confequently, he is without all caufe. But wee will fhew you the grounds of this,they are thefe three: II. He is without all caufe; for if there were any caufe of him, that caufe muft needs bee caused, either from fome other,or from it felfe: not from any other, for then there fhould be fomething that is before theLord that is better than he,from whom he receives all things, but that cannot be, for then it should be God, and not the Lord; and it is not from it felfe, because nothing is the caufe of it felfe, for then it fhould be before it felfe, and it should be better than it felfe; for the caufe, though it give the fame that is in it felfe, to the effect, as the father to the fonne; yet the cause is better, because that which gives is better than that which receives. Againe, it should be different from it felfe,for the cause is different from the effect: therefore it muft needs be,that he is without all caufe,and the firft, and the beginning of all the creatures of God. Wherefoever you fee any thing,that hath but Reafon 1. a part of another, it muft needs receive it from fome whole; and if it doth receive it from that which is but a part; yet by degrees it must come to fome whole as to the fountaine ; as for example, if iron or wood be on fire,&c.they have but a part of that element, which argues that there is fomewhole. Burit may be faid,it hath that part of it felfe Object. originally. That cannot be, because whatsoever hath any Anfw.. thing originally, must have the whole and not a part as the Sun,because it hath the light originally,therefore it hath nota part, but the whole, though afterward it gives light to many; fo a fountaine, |