3 1 Love multiplying itself into innumerable Reprefentations and Reflections of itself, that it may contemplate, poffefs and delight itself infinitely within itfelf, and in all its Works there is no Succeffion or Divifion of Acts in God, in him one Act comprehends all Acts; we indeed give feveral Names to God's Act, according to our partial and imperfect Confideration of him; but one Act of his fwallows up all our Words, and anfwers to all our Names, and he is but one pure and perfect A&t, and this pure and perfect Act is the Juftice, the Holiness, the Power, the Wifdom, the Sovereignty, the Oneness, the Unchangeableness, the Purity, the Simplicity, the Unity, the Infinitenefs and Eternity of his Love; thus, as hath been faid, all his Attributes are the Attributes of his Love, fo many feveral Names, Expreffions, Glories, and -Triumphs of that Love which is himfelf. Thus Love is the Moral Goodness of God himself and all his Excellencies, the Univerfal Perfection of the Deity, that Perfection in which all his other Per.. fections are united and concentred, they all centre in this Divine Love, which is the Band of Perfection. 3 I CHA P. XXIII. Being a Warning to Sinners. Cannot leave this Difcourfe without an Alarm to Sinners. Though God be Love, all Love to Saints and Sinners, yet he love Sin hor can n take the Sinner into his Bofom, into the Eternal Embraces of his Love, until he hath confumed Sin. Do not then, from what you have read, be en encouraged to trifle with, and flight the Anger of a God. There is no Anger fo great, fo terrible as that which flows from Love, finally abúfed and provoked by us. There is no Anger like the Anger of the Lamb, the meekeft of all Creatures. You may read the terribleness of that Anger, Rev. vi. It is dreadful Scripture, Sinners, that tells you exprefsly, John iii. laft, that the Wrath of God abideth on you. I believe, through the Light that God hath given me, and the Love I have for you, it fhall not always abide upon you; but when it will cease who can tell? I know not the Season of the general Vifitation, tho' I believe it; fure I am, the Fire of that Anger and Wrath will never go out until the Fuel is burnt up. rescue the That it fhall at last be so, over and above the reafons in this Difcourfe, I conclude, because we all, one as well as another, are by Nature Children of Wrath; and yet the Apostle faith of the Firstfruits, Eph. ii. We who were fometimes Children of Wrath bath be reconciled. This gives a firm Hope that the fame Love and Kindness will Children of Wrath in the whole lump. But whilst I am writing of this univerfal Love, let me admonish you what a fearful and dreadful State it is to lie under the Wrath of God, to be a Child of this Wrath, which is beyond all Expreffion terrible. Mofes cries out, Pf. xc. 11. Who knows the Power of thine Anger, even according to thy Fear, fo is thy Wrath. If none can know it, who can tell it, who can bear it, who then will yet dare to try it? Let me give thefe two hints as I pafs on. 1. The Power of all Evil lies in the Wrath of God as in its Root. The Wrath of God is the Root, the Treafury, the Store-Houfe, the Power of all Evils, all the Evils which are fcattered thro' the Earth and Hell, lie wrap'd and fumin'd up together here. Who knows the Power of thy Wrath, who knows thefe Evils beyond every Name Name of Evil, that is named in this Life of Sicknefs, Melancholy, and Horrors, which the anger of God is able to bring forth, as twenty feveral Shillings lye together with Advantage in one twen-, ty Shilling Piece of Gold, and that in a more precious Metal, fo all particular Evils that are scattered thro' Earth and Hell, they all lie wrapt up together, fumm'd up in one Head, in the Wrath of God, and that in a more eminent way, in an high er Nature. 2dly. There is an immediate, a naked Prefence in the Wrath of God, to give a weight to it; fome Divines, as I remember, exprefs Hell after this manner, all Difeafes, Pains, Griefs; here are Evils by a weak Tincture only of Divine Wrath, a little Drop of Wrath mingling itfelf with them; Hell is pure Wrath. Hell is the Abstract of Wrath, the Evil of Difeafes, Pains, and Griefs abftracted from them and heightened to the utmost. I have no Curiofity about this Matter, but as all the Joys in the Creatures are a weak Tincture, a weak glance of Divine Love, like the Sun fhining upon the Water, a weak touch of Divine Love, like the Rays of the Sun-Beams reflected in a burning Glafs, as the fame Perfon expreffes it; but in God, in Chrift, all Good, all Beauty, all Sweetness is to be found in an Infinite Purity without being alloyed, or limited by any mixture. In fuch a manner may all Evil be in the Wrath of God. They tell us again, that God puts forth his Strength to uphold the miferable Wretches in Hell under their Torments, elfe they were unable to bear them. Admitting the one, the other muft betrue. That God himself puts forth himself immediately and naked upon them, at once to torment them, and alfo to fuftain them for their Torments, I understood no more of this, but in order to a Refining, and let God take his own Methods for doing that, I am fure the Almightinefs of Love and Goodnefs cannot eternally exact fuch an Infi nite Power to fuftain his own Offspring in Eternal Torments. We read, If. xxx. 33. Tophet is prepared of old, &c. The Breath of the Lord, like a Stream of Brimftone doth kindle it; the Breath or the Spirit of the Lord is the Lord in his fpiritual and naked Appearance, coming forth in that Appearance to torment a Soul. This gives me a purer Notion than the vulgar ones of the torments of Hell; and this gives me alfo a Hope that that Breath which kindles that Torment will blow it out. When an Angel only appeared as a Friend and to a great Prophet, to the Prophet Daniel, yet he was not able to bear the Prefence. O! Whither, Poor Sinner, wilt thou fink, what will become of thee, when God himself fhall appear nakedly, and immediately upon thee, in the fulness of his Godhead, and that as an Enemy in the greateft contrariety to thee, at the higheft enmity against thee as can be? O! Who can exprefs the riches of the Joy and Glory of those Spirits, upon whom God fhall appear immediately and nakedly as a Friend, as a Lover in Union with them? And who can exprefs thofe Pangs, thofe Horrors, thofe unfpeakable and nameless things which that poor Soul muft then fink under, upon whom the fame God fhall appear with the fame nakednefs of his God-head, in a direct contrariety to it, making his Glory itself a Fire upon it. The fame Principle and Power which in Heavenly Bodies is a glorious Light, in earthly Bodies is a raging confuming Fire; fo is the God-head a delightful Light in itself, and to all good Spirits, but to finful Man a devouring Fire. O Sinner, what will become of thee, when God fhall thus break forth upon thee in the naked appearance of his Wrath, and what a dreadful Eftate art thou in, whilft in thy Natural State; thou art but as fo much Fuel, fo much dry Stubble for this Wrath to kindle upon thee, and confume thee; O fly from this Wrath: that Love, that pure Love which kindles kindles this Wrath at laft upon thy final provoking it, is every Moment ready to receive thee, and prevent it. Obj. But Sinners may fay to me, What do you mean to terrify us thus, by telling us we are in a State of Wrath, and that the Wrath of God abides in us, for our parts, we feel nothing of all this you have faid, and will not trouble ourselves about fuch Bugbears and Hobgoblins as you have been endeavouring to fright us with. And indeed, who is there among all the Natural and Carnal Men in the World that will believe this Report before they feel it, and how few are there that feel it before it be too late? Take therefore thefe few Accounts of their infenfibleness. 1. You read in 1 Sam. xvi. 23. That when David took his Harp and played upon it, Saul had fome eafe from that Evil Spirit which tormented him. Thy Life in this World is an Harp, which, while it is played upon, it entertains thee, diverts thee, and takes off from thee the Senfe of that Wrath which thou lieft under, and which abides upon thy Soul. But alas, for all this, thy Condition in this refpect is no better than the Devil's; for altho he be bound up in Chains of Darkness, yet hath he leave to go up and down upon the Face of this Earth, carrying his Chains with him: He hath Liberty to enjoy the Light of this World, and this is fome mitigation to his Torment, and therefore in the Story of the poffeffed Man, when Chrift came to difpoffefs him, the Devil firft cries out, Art thou come to torment us before our Time, to caft us from the Face of the Earth, where we have fome Relief to our Torments, and fo fhut us up in the Bottomless Pit, Mat. viii. 29. before the great and the laft Day; and the fame Devil befeeches Jefus Chrift that he would not fend them out of the Country, but that he would let them enter into the Swine, rather than not live upon the Earth at all. Thus Q3 thou |