For he that cometh to God - I opened this in the former verse. Coming to God principally noteth an aim at communion and fellowship with him. It is the same with faith: John vi. 35, 'He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst;' where coming and believing are all one; it is the lowest degree of faith; the next degree is seeking diligently - it is walking with God here, and living with him for ever. The note is this -
Doct. That it is the nature of faith to make a man come towards God, and to get communion with him through Christ.
I shall show -
(1.) What it is to come to God; (2.) That there is no coming to God but by Christ.
1. What it is to come to God. Coming to God notes three things, for it is a duty always in progress.
[1.] The first address of faith. To come to God is to desire to be in his favour and covenant - to be partakers of his blessings in this life and of salvation in the life to come Heb. vii. 25, 'He is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him,' that is, those that in and through him desire to enjoy friendship and communion with God.
[2.] Our constant communion with him in holy duties - coming to him 'as to a living stone,' 1 Peter ii. 4. In all exercises of religion we renew our access to Christ, and by Christ to God; in hearing, as a teacher; in prayer, as an advocate for necessary help and supply; in the Lord's supper, as the master of the feast: Prov. ix. 2, 'Wisdom hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine, she hath also furnished her table;' Mat. xxii. 4, ' I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready.'
[3.] Our entrance into glory: Mat. xxv. 34, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' We have not complete communion with Christ till we are raised from the dead, and by him presented to the Father; then do we indeed come to God by him.
2. There is no coming to God but by Christ: John x. 9, 'I am the door;' there is no entrance but through him: John xiv. 6, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.' Now we are said to come to God by Christ in a twofold respect, - (1.) By his merit; (2.) By his grace.
[1.] By his merit. As paradise was kept by a flaming sword, so all access to God is fenced and closed up by his justice and wrath; there was no pressing in till Christ opened the way, God became man, drawing near to us by the veil of his flesh: Heb. x. 19, 20, 'Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;' so by his sufferings: 1 Peter iii. 18, 'For Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.' Now, as in all acts of religion we are coming to God, so we must still hold on by Christ till we come to our journey's end, and use him as our continual mediator and advocate, carry our petitions in all our addresses, and make our moan to him.
[2.] By his grace. Christ carries us home on his shoulders rejoicing; as a man when he had found his lost sheep, Luke xv. 5. None can come to the Father but by him: John vi. 44, 'No man can come to me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him' - none can come without a divine power.
Use. Admire the privilege, that we may come to God. We of ourselves are inclined to stand off. Peter speaketh what is the disposition of all sinners - 'Depart from me;' we cannot endure God's company; we lost his image and fellowship with him. If we worship, we would be like the Israelites, every man in his tent-door. But now we have free leave to come to the throne of grace: Heb. x. 19, 'Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.' Whilst on earth we have free trade unto heaven; we need not change place, but affections. When thou art dealing with God in prayer, this liberty was purchased for thee by the blood of Jesus, None but the high priest might enter into the sanctum sanctorum; but this privilege we have, and it will stand, for it was dearly bought: Heb. iv. 16, 'Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.' God hath now laid aside the terror and rigour of his justice, that we may open our case to God; oh, let us make use of our liberty!
Must believe that he is, &c. As if the apostle had said, At least, there must be this faith; he must be persuaded first of the truth of God's being; secondly, of the certainty of his bounty, and doing good unto those that come to him. Here are two articles mentioned - God's being, and God's bounty; 'He is,' and 'He is a rewarder,' &c. The apostle saith that this must be believed if we would please God; he doth not say, This is all that must be believed; but this certainly must be believed. For these are the general truths which are the foundation of all that which is called religion in the world - that there is a God, and that he takes notice of human affairs. None would seek the favour of God unless he did believe his being and bounty; and no man will be touched with any care of religion unless he doth assent to these supreme truths; yet there is a God, and that he hath such respect to human affairs, as that he will reward the obedient and revenge the disobedient. These are principles that are evident by the light of nature; and they are mentioned, because therein the faith of the patriarchs was most exercised, and because these are the foundations of all religion. The main work of religion is to bring our souls to God, and the main ground and reason is the truth of his being and recompenses. If there is a God, there are everlasting recompenses - rewards for the good, punishments for the wicked. Rewards are only mentioned as suiting more with God's goodness, and as being more proper objects for faith; the other, for fear. And therefore he that would come to God; that is, he that would maintain friendship and communion with him, and seek his favour (for he speaks of Enoch's pleasing God), must firmly believe these things; or, if you take coming to God for our address and approaches to God in holy duties, still these two principles are of use to us. Every time we come to God we must revive this thought upon our hearts, - Surely there is a God, and it will not be in vain to inquire after him; for this puts life and strength and quickening into our duties,
The point I shall now discuss is this -
Doct. That the first point of faith, if we would have anything to do with God, is to believe that there is a God.
This is the primitive and supreme truth, therefore let me discuss it a little; the argument is not needless.
1. Partly because the most universal and incurable disease of the world is atheism; it is disguised under several shapes, but atheism it is that lies at the root, and blasts and destroys all practice and good conscience; and therefore it is good to deal upon this argument, and to reflect the light of this truth upon our conscience, and to take all occasions to batter down that atheism that is in our hearts. I know to chop logic with a sturdy settled atheist will be to little purpose. General maxims can hardly be proved by truths more clear and evident than themselves, and it is not good to loosen foundation stones. We cannot guard them so much by argument, as they are guarded by their own light and the sense which nature hath of them; and therefore Aristotle said, That they are rather to be confuted with blows than arguments that will deny there is a God; as Gideon taught the men of Succoth with briars and thorns. Protagoras was banished by the Athenians for denying this truth. But it is not for their sakes, but because such kind of surmises are wont to arise in the hearts. of men, where they do not grow into settled atheism, even in the hearts of all unrenewed men, that there is no God; therefore it is good to speak to this argument: Ps. xiv. 1, 'The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,' &c; and it is quoted by Paul, Rom. iii. 10, to prove the degeneration of all men. Every natural unrenewed man is a kind of atheist; though he dare not lisp out such conceptions, yet he hath it in his heart; there is something there that is ever rising up against the being of God; nay, such a thought may come by fits and glances into the hearts of good men. Privy atheism is in the hearts of all men, and therefore it is good sometimes to settle the belief of this supreme truth, to stand upon our guard, and in defiance of such thoughts, that the heart will ever and anon be casting up, to call to the help of reason.
2. Because supreme truths should be laid up with the greatest certainty and assurance. Christians are mistaken very much, if they think all the difficulty of religion lies in affiance, and taking out their own comfort, and in clearing up their own particular interest. Oh, no; a great deal of it lies in assent; there is privy atheism at the root, and therefore doth the work of God go on so untowardly with us - therefore have we such doubtings and so many deformities of life and conversation. If the fire were once well kindled, it would of its own accord burst out into a flame, and burn clear; so if assent were firmly rooted, if we were once settled under the power and dominion of this truth, confidence would follow of its own accord, and the whole business of religion, both as to comfort and practice, would be far more easy to us. All our doubts come from want of a firm assent to the being of God, and to the word of God. Indeed, at first, while we are learners of religion, it becomes us to drink in these principles and maxims of religion without discussion; we take them in as men do pills; we do not chew them, but swallow them; and it is fit it should be. so. Oportet discentem credere, a learner must believe, but afterward we must inquire into the reason of these things; nay, when a man is first converted, and begins to be serious in religion, when a man is touched in conscience, his will is more exercised than his understanding; he needs Christ, and all the endeavours and resolutions of the soul are to get an interest in him. And he doth not so much debate the mystery of religion as his own particular case; his heart is carried out after comfort, and he seems mainly to desire some satisfaction; but he doth not look into the grounds from whence this doth arise. As men in a deep thirst swallow their drink before they know the nature of it, or discern the taste of it; so when we are under a great thirst, or under great famishment as to spiritual comfort, and have great troubles upon us, we take up with the comfortable notions of Christ and salvation by him, and easily drink in these and other truths; we catch at them without looking into the grounds or reasons of them, but afterwards we see this needs to be the care and labour of the soul, to strengthen our assent and fortify ourselves against those doubts of mind which shake us, and to settle the heart in those supreme truths which in our necessity we took in without discussion.
3. I would handle this argument - That there is a God, because it is good to detain the heart a little in the view of this truth, and to revive it in our souls. There is a double reading of that place: Ps. x. 4, 'God is not in all his thoughts;' or else, all his thoughts are that there is no God; the one makes way for the other. It is a great evil, when we cannot endure to think of God, and to fasten our meditations upon his being and the perfections of his nature, for by degrees his memory is defaced and blotted out of our minds; therefore a forgetfulness of God. is a kind of denial of him: Ps. ix. 17, 'The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.' Mark, not only they that deny God, but forget God; that is the portion of them that do not mind nor regard him and his judgments; and therefore we should often meditate of God, and think of him, not by starts and sudden glances, but have deliberate thoughts of him. And therefore, that you may have some hints of meditation whereby to enlarge yourselves in the thoughts of God, and to give us some help to hold our minds in the view of it, it is of great use in the spiritual life to prosecute this argument.
Having premised these things concerning the usefulness of such a discourse, I shall speak to this point, to prove that there is a God.
Here we may appeal not only to scripture, but to nature. We say that principles can only be demonstrated testimoniis, effectis et absurdis: principles, when we would come to demonstrate them, must be proved by testimonies, by effects, and by showing the absurdities of the contrary; and such kind of arguments I shall produce.
[1.] That there is a God may be proved by conscience, which is as a thousand witnesses. The heathens, which never heard of scripture, yet had a conscience that did accuse and excuse - metaxu allèloon - by turns, Rom. ii. 15. There is something within men that will chide them for sin; yea, for secret sins, to which none are privy but themselves. Wicked men seek to blot out these feelings of conscience, but can never wholly extinguish them - 'The sinners in Sion are afraid,' Isa. xxxiii. 14. Wicked men are without faith, yet they are never without fear. There is a conscience in men that appals the stoutest sinner, after the commitment of any gross evil; though it be secret and beyond the cognisance and vengeance of man, yet conscience will be smiting him, his heart will reproach him for it, therefore surely there is a God. You shall see the Holy Ghost, when he lays down the atheism of men, yet he observes this order, Ps. liii. 1, 'The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' Now, how doth he prove, there is a God? It follows, ver. 5, 'There were they in great fear where no fear was;' that is, where there was no outward cause of fear, where none sought to hurt them, yet were they under a fear; he speaks of those that live most atheistically. This appears by the instance of Joseph's brethren, accusing themselves when none else could accuse them: Gen. xlii. 21, 'We are verily guilty concerning our brother's blood;' conscience began to accuse them. Though a man should hide himself from all the world, he cannot hide himself from himself; his heart will pursue him, and represent his guilt. Now that there is such a hidden fear in men's hearts after sinning, that the heart will smite us for evil when the crime is secret, this argues there is a God; yea, there is a fear to be found in the most obstinate sinners, and those that are of greatest power and place in the world, that can carry on their wickedness without control, as the most powerful princes. Caligula, it is noted of him that he would sometimes counterfeit the thunder, yet when it thundered indeed, how was he terrified and afraid! Those that would study to cast away all conceit of God, yet they have this fear upon them. And it is not a fear that they may be found out by man, and punished by man; for sometimes this fear prevails so far, as they would have counted man's punishment a favour, and therefore have sought it, or else have laid violent hands upon themselves. What should be the reason of all this, but that they have a fear of an avenger and judge that will call them to an account; and therefore they cannot prevent or dissemble their gripes, so greatly have these fears of conscience been increased upon them - 'They know the judgment of God,' as the apostle speaks of the heathens, Rom. i. 28; that is, they have a sense that there is a just avenger of sin, and that therefore they are liable to judgment; yea, those that have been professed atheists, yet have been smitten with these horrors of conscience. Affirmant interdiu, noctu tamen dubitant, saith Seneca - Though they will speak with confidence against God in the day, yet in the darkness of the night they are in doubt. Especially, in distress and trouble, then are these notions revived. As another heathen observes, When it thunders, then they wax pale and are affrighted. Diagoras, an atheist among the heathens, denied there was a God; yet when he was troubled with a strangury, he acknowledged a deity, Calvin, in his comment upon the 115th Psalm, gives us a story of a scoffing atheist, a merry fellow, whom he met with in an inn, that would talk very slightly and contemptuously of God and of religion, and dropping out his atheism upon all occasions, and jeering. When Calvin reproved him for it, he would put him off with this, Cælum cæli Domino - 'The heavens of heavens was the Lord's;' God must content himself with heaven, 'but he hath given the earth to the children of men:' here we may do what we please; God was shut up in the heavens, and he had no care nor sense of things below. But before they parted, this man was exceedingly gripped with the colic, and twinged with his pain; then he would be crying out - O Deus, O Deus - O God, O God! Now, saith Calvin, the heaven of heavens is the Lord's, and the earth belongeth to the children of men. When God doth awaken conscience by any sickness or trouble, they are arrested by conscience in the name of the great God whom they deny. Belshazaar seemed a jovial fellow, and a man of great confidence and bravery, but when he was besieged by a great army of Persians, and danger was at his doors, he falls a quaffing and carousing, as if he would out-laugh his danger; and not only so, but bids a defiance to the God of heaven, and he doth it in the vessels of the temple. But see how soon God takes off the edge of his spirit! Dan. v.; a trembling doth seize upon him, and a few letters upon the wall make his knees smite one against the other for fear. So how merrily soever these men do carry it for a while, and how much they may seem to smother their fears while they wallow in their sins; yet when the Lord stings them with his hornet, and puts them to pain; when he casts them into sickness, or when they are solitary, then there is a hidden fear in their heart, and they are haunted with these pangs of conscience, and are sensible of an avenger and a judge. And this proves plainly that there is a God; as they say things written with the juice of a lemon appear not till the paper he brought to the fire, then all is legible; so such characters of a God are there engraven upon the hearts of men, that when they are sick and ready to die, when they are upon the confines of eternity, as they begin to have a sense of the torments of hell for sin, their notions of a God revive, and fear seizeth upon them, and the most sturdy atheists then have been forced to acknowledge a God. Thus you have the testimony of conscience to prove it.
[2.] As conscience shows it, so the consent of all nations. There are none so barbarous, but they worship some God. Aristotle saith, in his book de Cælo, 'That all men, how brutish soever they were, yet have a notion of a deity impressed upon them, which they cannot wear out.' All nations rather than they would have no God, will have a false god: some worship the stars, some the stones, some the beasts, or a piece of wood, - anything they met first in the morning. Though they differed concerning the number and nature of their gods, and the manner and rites of worship, yet they all agreed in this, that there was a God, who ought to be worshipped and respected by men. Certainly there is somewhat in this; for either this must come from some instinct of nature, or from tradition; both prove the truth we have in hand. If you refer it to the instinct of nature, that doth not carry us to falsehood, but truth; if to tradition, it must have a beginning, and therefore the very idolatry of the heathens is, saith Calvin, 'A pregnant instance and apparent evidence of this natural truth, that there is a God.' There were none so barbarous but they worshipped some god, as the pagan mariners: Jonah i. 5, 'They cried every one to his god;' yea, those that are most estranged from human society, that have lived in deserts without law or government, yet have been touched with the sense of a deity, which must needs arise from a natural instinct; they would rather worship anything, yea, the very devil, than have no god, - a piece of wood or stone; as the prophet takes notice of such brutishness in those that would burn one piece, and make an idol of the other, and worship it; Isa. xliv. 15 - 17. Now this general consent of nations cannot be any deceit or imposition of fancy, by virtue of long custom or tradition, because it is found in people most barbarous and free from all traffic and commerce, and because falsehood cannot be so universal and so long-lived as the conceit of a deity. Besides, though they do what they can to blot out these notions and instincts of conscience, yet still they remain with them; an invention so contrary to nature would long ere this have been worn out of the minds of men, therefore this general consent of nations proves that 'there is a God.'
[3.] It may be evident also by the book of the creatures. Surely there is a God, because these things are made in such exactness and order. There is a description of God, Zech. xii. 1, 'Thus saith the Lord, that stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundations of the earth, and formeth the spirit of a man within him.' Should we take this method, the heavens, the earth, the souls of men, which are the work of God, they all proclaim that there is a God! Man could never raise such a roof as heaven, nor lay such a floor as earth, nor form himself. The world and all those things that are made, must be from some cause; for nothing could make itself, nor can be its own cause; and these things, they could not come together by chance, because of the perfection that is in all things in themselves, and their mutual subserviency and relation to one another, and their inclination to certain ends. There is an order in everything for the beauty and conservation of the whole; all things are under a law and course - 'He appointeth the moon for seasons, the sun knows its going down,' Ps. civ. 19. The sun and moon keep at a due distance for the use of the world, and still observe the just points of the compass, and set and rise at such an hour; therefore certainly this was not done by chance, and it could not be made by man. He could not make great things, for he cannot make the least; he cannot make a lily, or a pile of grass, and therefore certainly he cannot produce such a beautiful fabric as this is. And, as Tully makes the comparison, a man coming into a house where there are no living creatures but weasels, rats and mice, and seeth a fair structure, he could not conceive the house could make itself, or had no other maker but the creatures he finds there - 'Every house is builded by some man,' as the apostle reasons, Heb. iii. 4; 'but he that built. all things is God.' Now when a man considers all things are managed with wisdom, he must needs conclude there must be some cause of all these things - some wise creator of them. Man could not make the world; man cannot form himself; he doth not know the number of his muscles and bones; he cannot restore any one of his joints which are lost; and therefore it must be made by God.
This was that which puzzled the heathens to find out prooton aition - the first cause of the world, and all the order that is therein. Plutarch disputes it, which could be first, the egg before the hen, or the hen before the egg; the acorn, before the oak, or the oak before the acorn. Such an uncertainty will there be in an all debates till we come to this supreme truth, and to determine upon a first cause, which Anaxagoras and others were necessitated and driven to acknowledge at last; and therefore surely he that looks upon the world, and upon all the order therein, he will see that 'there is a God.'
The world is sometimes compared to a book, sometimes to a preacher. To a book; the book of the creature is a large volume wherein God would set forth himself; the diversity of creatures are as so many letters out of which we may spell his name; the most excellent creatures are capital letters, and the lower creatures lesser letters; so that a man may plainly see God in all those things that are before his eyes. If you cannot read yourselves, the very beasts will teach you; nay, go to the mute fishes, that can hardly make any sound, yet they have voice enough to proclaim their creator: Job. xii. 7 - 9, 'Ask of them and they will tell thee;' that is, go, look upon them; consider them in their number and in their variety and different kinds; their frame and make, and how they are wonderfully preserved; they all proclaim some wise creator which made them.
Look upon the glorious bodies that are above, the constancy of their motion, their admirable beauty, their variety, their regularity; as to the general ends of their creation, this cannot be from itself, but there must be some supreme and infinite cause. Look upon the sun, that representative of a God, the brightness of whose beams will speak out an infinite majesty that made it, and the extent. of his influence - 'Nothing is hid from the heat thereof,' Ps. xix. 6. That will speak him omnipresent God, and the indefatigableness of his motion, an infinite God. The sun, moon, and stars in the heavens, they go abroad into all lands, and speak to every people in their own tongue - English to the English; to other nations, in their own tongue - that there is one infinite, eternal power, which made me and all things else. Nay, let man but look upon himself; let him but consider the flights, and traverses of reason, the wonderful workings of his own soul, the admirable structure of his body, the symmetry of all the parts, the different faces that are in several sorts of men, though there be so many millions in the world, yet not one like another in the compass of the face - all which proclaims a wise creator, who made all things.
And again, look upon nature, and you will find an order, an ascending proportion still lifting you up to something that is more excellent; for there is always a gradation in the creatures.
In the general, there are elements, metals, plants, living creatures, and then living creatures of a higher and lower rank, still leading to something that is more perfect.
In metals, there are some more base, and others more noble, to lead you higher and higher; there is iron, lead, tin, brass, silver, gold.
In plants, some bear leaves, others flowers, others fruits, others aromatical gums and spices.
There is a progress in nature in all kinds of creatures, to lead up man still to something more excellent; especially in living creatures, there is an ascending proportion which leads them up to God, and more especially in man.
Some creatures have only being; others besides being, have life others, besides life, have sense; others, besides sense, have reason and understanding; and man is in a lower sphere of understanding than the angels, and the angels than God. And so we may come up to the most perfect and the highest of all beings; for instance, a stone hath not life, that grows not as a plant; a plant hath life, but feels not as a beast who hath sense; a beast who hath sense, discourseth not as a man who hath reason; and man's reason is lower than that of the angels, because it needs the ministry of fancy and imagination; fancy needs outward sense, which an angel needeth not; and an angel he is lower than God, because angels, that they may know anything, need either the presence of the object, or some revelation (if it be to come) concerning it. Therefore they are said to know the wisdom of God by what he hath revealed to the church: Eph. iii. 10, 'To the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.' But now, God's understanding is a pure act, who knoweth all things past, present, and to come; who needs nothing without himself; neither organ, imagination, nor presence of the object; he knows all things that may be, or can be, by his own all-sufficiency, and all things that shall be by his wise purpose and decree. Thus the creatures discover a God. (Note: See this head of the Creation more fully handled in the third verse)
[4.] As creation, so also providence discovers a God. All natural things work for an end, and therefore they are governed by the counsel of some wise ruler; for all things that work for an end, it must either be by their own choice or by the government of another. Many things cannot do so by their own choice, because they have no knowledge, yet they have a clear and certain inclination to some end; therefore this bespeaks the wise governor of the world, that sways all things. The parts of the world being disposed into such an order, and the sweet harmony and agreement of things, which are of such different and destructive natures, show there is a wise God that guideth all things to a certain end; all would run into disorder and confusion, if it were not poised with the art and care of providence. Many times, when we are stupid, and do not mind these things, then God discovers the sway of his providence more sensibly. God will awaken us by more notable effects: sometimes by miracles, exceeding the force of all natural causes; sometimes by sudden and unexpected strokes in the rescue of the good and destruction of the wicked, especially of the atheists, few or none of which have escaped without some remarkable token of divine vengeance: Ps. ix. 16, 'The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth; the wicked is snared in the works of his own hands;' and Ps. lviii. 10, 11, 'The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily, there is a reward for the righteous; verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth.' God doth so sensibly interpose in the eyes of men to those that discern his dealings, that they are even forced to say, 'Verily, there is a reward for the righteous,' &c.
[5.]' That there is a God, appeareth by several experiences. By the power of his word breaking in upon the consciences of men: 1 Cor. xiv. 25, 'And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.' Surely there is some God guides these men. I might instance, in the prediction of things to come, which could never be foreseen by any created mind hundreds of years before they came to pass. Cyrus was named a hundred years before he was born, Isa. xlv. 1; and hundreds of years before Josiah was born, it was prophesied of him, 1 Kings xiii. 2, 'Behold a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places,' &c. And the building of Jericho was foretold five hundred years before it was re-edified, Joshua vi. 26, compared with 1 Kings xvi. 34. There were many prophecies of things long before ever they came to pass, and they had their certain and effectual accomplishment. To instance, in those general prophecies of the rejection and casting off of the Jews and the calling of the gentiles, which were prophesied of long before they were brought about; but all that was foretold was accomplished. The devils may guess at things, but they cannot certainly and infallibly know them; God avoucheth it as his own prerogative, and he puts his godhead upon the trial: Isa. xli. 21 - 23, 'Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the king of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.' God puts it to the decision and trial. These predictions certainly were, and, as certainly, were accomplished, which shows there is a God. There are devils, and they would undo all things, were they not bound up by the chains of an irresistible providence. God suffers them now and then to discover their malice, that we may know by whose goodness we subsist. Plutarch speaketh of some that by seeing of ghosts believed there was a God. There are virtues and vices, therefore there is a God; there is a distinction between good and evil, therefore there is a God. For good is not by the appointment of man's will, for then every thing that man wills would be good; it cannot be out of any eternal reason which is in the things themselves. What should differ the conjugal act from adultery, or the process of a magistrate from that of an assassinate? No, it is from a proportion and conformity to some supreme being, that doth interpose by a law that makes those things good, and these evil. Thus you have the arguments to refresh your souls, with the reviving of the sense of his being upon your hearts.
Hebrews
contents
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