that thou thoughtest the word and will of man | profess that he sought not his own will, but his Father's, and that he came not to do his own will, but his that sent him;' should it not be our resolution, whose wills are so misguided and corrupt?

are angry with your withdrawing, murmuring | continuance of the beings which God hath caused flesh till you are ashamed of your unwilling- God then is the first efficient cause of all the ness to be with God, and till you can calmly creatures, from the greatest to the least. And look in the face of death, and contentedly hear easily did he make them, for he spake but the the message that is posting towards you, that word, and they were created: they are the proyou must presently come away to God. Your ducts of his power, wisdom and goodness. He natural birth-day brought you into a better place commanded and they were created. He still than the womb; and your gracious birth-day produces all things that in the course of nature brought you into a far better state than your are brought forth. Thou sendest forth thy former sinful, miserable captivity; and will not Spirit; they are created; thou renewest the face your glorious birth-day put you into a better of the earth.' From hence these following imhabitation than this world? O know, choose, pressions must be made upon the considering seek, and live to the infinite good, and then it soul. may be your greatest joy when you are called to

him.

CHAP. X.

Having spoken of these three great attributes of God, I must needs speak of those three great relations of God to man, and of those three works in which they are founded, which have flowed from these attributes.

1. If all things be from God as the creator and preserver, then we must be deeply possessed with this truth, that all things are for God as their ultimate end. For he that is the beginning and first cause of all things, must needs be the end of all. His will produced them, and the pleasure of his will is the end for which he did produce them. I have created him for my glory.

The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.' I think the Chaldee paraphrase, the Syriac and Arabic, give us the true meaning of this, who concord

This one God in three persons, hath created man and all things, which before were not; hath redeemed man when he was lost by sin; and sanctifies those that shall be saved by redemp-antly translate it, 'the wicked is kept for the tion. Though the external works of the trinity are undivided, yet not indistinct, as to the order of working, and a special interest that each person hath in each of these works. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost did create the world; and they also did redeem us, and sanctify us; but so as that creation is in a special sort ascribed to the Father, redemption to the Son, and sanctification to the Holy Spirit; not only because of the order of operation, agreeably to the order of subsisting; for then the Father would be as properly said to be incarnate, or to die for us, or mediate, as the Son to create us-which is not to be said for he created the world by his Word, or Son, and Spirit, and he redeemed it by his Son, and sanctifies it by his Spirit. But scripture assures us that the Son alone was incarnate for us, and died and rose again, and not the Father or the Spirit ; and so that the human nature is peculiarly united to the second person in glory; and so that each person hath a peculiar interest in these several works, the reason of which is much above our reach.

The first of these relations of God to man, which we are to consider of, is, that he is our Creator; it is he that giveth being to us and all things; and that gives us all our faculties or powers. Under this, for brevity, we shall speak of him also as he is our preserver; because preservation is but a kind of continued creation, or a

day of evil;' as Job hath it, 'the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. To reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished.' God made not the wicked as wicked, or to be wicked; but he that gave them their being and continues it, will not be a loser by his creation or preservation, but will have the glory of his justice by them in the day of wrath or evil, for which he keeps them, and till which he bears with them, because they would not obediently give him he glory of his holiness and mercy. So it is said of Christ, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible; all things were created by him and for him.' If they are by him, they must needs be for him.-So' thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.' This pleasure of God's will is the end of all things; and therefore it is certain that he will see that all things shall accomplish that end, and his will shall be pleased. We have all in few words; for of him, and through him, and to him are all things; to whom be glory for ever, Amen.' Of him, as the first efficient that gives them their beings and through him, as the preserver, disposer and conductor of them to their end: and to him, as the ultimate end.

If you say, but how is the pleasure of God's | could; so God doth simply and properly will will attained from the wicked that break his some things, that is, the things which he decrees laws, and displease his will? shall come to pass: but we must after our manuer conceive and say, that there are other things which he wills but only so far as to make it man's duty to perform it, and persuade him to the doing of that duty, and give him such a measure of help, as leaves him without any just excuse, if he do it not; and so far he wills the salvation of such, as to promise or offer it them on such terms: and no further doth he will the obedience or salvation which never comes to pass, but leaves it here to the will of man. For if he simply willed that every duty should be eventually done, it would be done; and if he simply willed that all men should be actually saved, they would be saved. And that he simply wills their duty or obligation, and likewise so far, doth will the event of their obedience and salvation, as this comes to, as aforesaid, is certain, and in this we are all agreed; and I am not so well skilled in dividing, as to understand where the real difference lies between the parties that here most contend: but about the bare name I know they differ, some thinking that this last is not to be named an act of God's will, or a willing of man's obedience or salvation, and some thinking that it is so to be named: who doubtless are in the right; nor is there room for controversies, while we confess the impropriety of this and all our speeches of God, as speaking after the manner of men; and while scripture, that must teach us how to speak of God, doth frequently so speak before us.

I answer: understand but how his will is crossed or accomplished, pleased or displeased, and you will see, that his will is always done and pleased, even by them that displease him in violating his will. For God's will hath two sorts of objects or products, which must be still distinguished: 1. He wills what shall be due from us to him, and from him to us. 2. He wills entities and events, or what shall actually be, or come to pass. Strictly both these acts of God's will, perform the things willed, and so are not without their proper effect. God, as the cause and disposer of all things, attains his will concerning events: all things shall come to pass which he absolutely wills shall come to pass. He is not frustrated of his will herein, being neither unwise, nor impotent, nor unhappy. Whatsoever pleased the Lord, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the sea and in the depths. Our God is in heaven, he hath done whatsoever he pleased.' As God as our governor, doth by his laws oblige man to his duty, his will hath its effect a command doth but make the thing commanded to be our duty, and our duty it is: and so this act of the will of God is not in vain. Thus far he hath his will. By his promises he makes the reward to be due to all, on condition they perform the duty on which he hath suspended it, and to be actually due to those only that perform the condition and all this is accomplished. Heaven is conditionally offered to all, and actually given to the faithful only. So that what God wills to be due as a lawgiver, is accordingly due; and what he actually wills shall come to pass, verily shall come to pass according to his will.

But perhaps you will say, he doth not will that all men shall eventually obey his laws, but only that it shall be their duty.

I answer, our speeches of God being borrowed from man, who is one of the glasses in which he is here seen by us; especially the manhood of Jesus Christ. We must accordingly conceive and say, acknowledging still the improprieties and imperfections of our conceptions and expressions, that as man doth simply and most properly will the event of some things, which he absolutely desires should come to pass, and doth not simply will some other things, but only in tantum; he so far wills them, that he wills and resolves to do such and such things as have a tendency thereto, and to go no farther, and do no more for the attaining of them, though he

2. God being the maker and first cause of all things, that is, of all substantial beings, commonly creatures, we must conclude that sin is no such being, because it is most certain that he is not the Creator or the cause of it. Scripture assures us, and all Christians are agreed, that God is not the cause or author of sin. How odious then should that be to us, that is so bad as not to come from God? If God disclaim it, let us disclaim it. Let us abhor that it should come from us, seeing God abhors that it should come from him. Own not that which hath nothing of God upon it.

If you say, that it is an accident though no a substance, and therefore it must needs come from God, because even accidents have their being.

I answer, that among the most subtle disputers it is granted, that it hath no created being, or no being that is caused by God; of this they are agreed. It is granted by all Christians that sin hath no other kind of being, but what the will of

man can cause. And if that be so, the philoso- | a preserver, in maintaining that power, and as phical trifling controversy whether it be only a an universal cause concurring to all acts in genere, privation, or a relation, or modus entis, which as the sun doth shine on the dunghill and the the will thus causes, must be handled as philo- flowers: and that he also do the part of a just sophical, and valued but as it deserves: for governor in prohibiting, dissuading, and threatthis is all the controversy that here remains. If ening sinners. the form be relative, and the foundation be but a mere privation, the disconformity being founded in a defect, then the case is soon resolved, as to the rest. He that errs, understands amiss: that he understands is of God: that he errs, that is, is defective, and so false in his understanding, is of himself: that he wills when he chooses sin, is of God the universal cause: but that he wills a forbidden object, rather than the contrary, and fails in his understanding and his will, this is not of God, but of himself. If others say that the very foundation of that disconformity which is the form of sin, is sometimes an act, they must also say that it is not an act as such, but this act comparatively considered, or as circumstantiated, or as exercised on the forbidden object rather than another, or a volition instead of a nolition, and choosing that which should be refused, or a refusing that which should be chosen and whether this be a privation, or a mode, is a philosophical controversy; and in philosophy, and not in theology, is the difficulty; divines being agreed as aforesaid, that whatever you name it, being, or privation, or mode, it is but such as must be resolved ultimately into the will of man as its original, or first cause, supposing God to be the Creator and conserver of that free power that is able to choose or to refuse, and as an universal cause to concur with the agent to the act as such. But philosophers indeed are at a loss, and are desirous to tell us of privations, modes, relations, denominations, entia rationis, and I know not what, that they say are neither beings nor nothing, but between both they know not what! The nature of things, in the utmost extremities of the branches, being spun with so fine a thread, that the understanding is not subtle enough to discern them. And shall this disturb us in divinity, or be imputed to it?

Object. But how can sin eventually be, if God decree it not, seeing all events are from his will?

I answer, 1. We are agreed that he causes it not. 2. That he doth not so much as will the event of sin as sin. 3. That he willingly permits what is by him permitted. 4. And that sin is such a thing as may be brought forth by a bare permission, if there be no positive decree for the event. As a negative in the effects, requires not a positive cause, so neither a positive will for its production. There are millions of millions of worlds, and individual creatures, and species possible, that shall never be and it is audaciousness to assert, that there must be millions of millions of positive decrees, that such worlds or creatures shall not be. 5. Nor is it any dishonour to God, if he have not a positive decree or will about every negation, as that all the men in the world shall not be called by a thousand possible names rather than their own, &c.

These things being all certain, I add, 1. Let them dispute that dare, that yet indeed God doth positively will the events of all privations or negations of acts. 2. But when men are once habitually wicked, and bent to evil, it is just with him, if he permit them to follow their own lusts, and if he leaves before them such mercies as he foreknows they will wilfully make occasions of their sin; and if he resolve to make use of the sin which he knows they will commit, for his church's good, and for his glory.

Object. But doth not God will that sin eventually shall not be ?

Answ. Even as I before said, he wills that obedience eventually shall be. If sin come to pass, it is certain that God did not simply will that it should not come to pass: for then he must be conquered and unhappy by every sin

If you say, that the will of God is the cause but he wills simply that it shall be the duty of of all things, and therefore of sin.

I answer, if you call sin nothing, as a shadow, darkness, death, &c. are nothing, for all that we abhor them, then you answer yourselves; if you call it something, we are all agreed, that it is but such a something as man can cause without God's first causing it: it suffices that God do the part of a Creator in giving man the free power of choosing or refusing; and the part of

man to avoid it; and he may be said to disallow the event so far as that he will forbid it, threaten, and dissuade the sinner, and give him the helps, that shall leave him inexcusable if he sin, and so leave it to his will. Thus far he may be said to will that sin eventually shall not be; but not simply.

Though these things are not obvious to vulgar capacities, yet they are such, as the subject in

'hand, viz. God's first causation and creation, to- service. But to love them for God, and not for gether with the weight of them, and the conten- themselves, O how hard is it! To keep pure tions of the world about them, have made need-affections towards them, and a spiritual delight ful.

3. If God be the Creator and the cause of all, then we must remember that all his works are good and therefore nothing must be hated by us that he hath made, considered in his native goodness. God hates sin, and so must we: for that he made it not, and he hates all the workers of iniquity as such, and so must we; but we must love all of God that is in them, and love them for it. There is somewhat good and amiable in every creature; yea all of it, that is of God. Though some insects are odious to us, because they are hurtful, and seem deformed in themselves, yet are they good in themselves, and not deformed as parts of the universe, but good unto the common end. The wants in the wheels of your watch are as useful to the motion as the solid parts. The night is part of the useful order | of the creation, as well as the day. The vacant interspace in your writing, is needful as well as the words: every letter should not be a vowel, nor every character a capital; every member should not be a heart, or head, or eye: nor should every one in a commonwealth be a king, or lord: so in the creation the parts that seem base, are useful in their places, and good unto their ends. Let us not therefore vilify or detest the works of God, but study the excellencies of them, and see, admire, and love them as they are of God. It is one of the hardest practical points before us, to know how to estimate all the creatures, and to use them without running into one extreme. At the same time to love the world, and not to love it; to honour it, and despise it; to exalt it, and to tread it under our feet; to mind it, use it with delight, and yet to be weaned from it as those that mind it not. And yet a great part of our Christian duty lies in the doing of this difficult work. As the world is the devil's bait, and the flesher's idol, set up against God, and would entice us from him, or hinder us in his service, and either be our carnal end and happiness, or a means thereto, so we must make it the care of our hearts to hate it, despise it, neglect it, and tread it under foot; and the labour of our lives to conquer it.

But the same creatures must be admired, studied, loved, honoured, delighted in, and daily used, as they are the excellent work of the almighty God, and reveal to us his attributes or will, being the glass in which we must see him while we are in the flesh; and as they lead us to God, and strengthen, furnish or help us in his

in them, that shall not degenerate into a carnal delight, is a task for the holiest saint on earth, to labour in with all his care and power, as long as he here liveth. Yet this must be done; and the soul that hath obtained true self-denial, and is dead to the world, devoted and alive to God, is able in some good measure to perform it. To love the world for itself, and make the creature our chief delight, and live to it as our end, and idol, this is the common damning course. To cast away our possessions, and put our talents into our fellow-servants' hands, and to withdraw ourselves as it were out of the world into solitude, as monks or hermits do, this is too like the hiding of our talents, and a dangerous course of unfaithfulness and unprofitableness, unless in some extraordinary case; and is at best the too easy way of cowards that will be soldiers only out of the army, or where there is but little danger of the enemy: but to keep our stations, and take honours, and riches as our master's talents, as a burden that we must honour him by bearing, and the instruments by which we must laboriously do him service; and to see and love him in every creature, and study him in it, and sanctify it to his use; and to see that our lust get no advantage by it, and feed not on it; but that we tame our bodies, and have all that we have for God, and not for our flesh; this is the hard, but the excellent, most acceptable course of living in this world.

And it is not only other creatures, but ourselves also, that we must thus admire, love, and use for God, while we abase ourselves, as to ourselves, and deny ourselves, and use not ourselves for ourselves, but as we stand in due subordination to him. Abase yourselves as sinful, and abhor that which is your own, and not the Lord's; but vilify not your nature in itself, nor any thing in you that is the work of God. Pretend not humility for the dishonouring of your maker. Reason and natural freedom of the will, are God's work, and not yours, and therefore must be honoured, and not scorned and reviled; but the blindness and error of your reason, and the bad inclinations and actions of your free-wills, these are your own, and therefore vilify them, hate them, and spare not. And when you lament the smallness of your graces, deny them not; and slight not, but magnify the preciousness of that little that you have, while you mourn for the imperfection. And when men offend you, or prove your enemies, forget not to value