all. The work of redemption; in this there fhines forth fuch wisdom, mercy, and love, as our understandings cannot reach. This work is called the wisdom of God in a mystery! hidden wifdom, σoxía dronexpurnon, 1 Cor. ii. 7. The mercy, and grace, and love of it is called, the riches of God's mercy, the exceeding riches of his grace, Eph. ii. 4. 7. Now riches is, when you cannot tell the utmost of them; pauperis eft numerare) Eph. iii. 18. 19. That ye may be able to comprehend with all faints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. When we have the largest apprehenfions of this love, fo that we think we comprehend it and know it, it paffeth knowledge; yea, the effects of God's power and love, which he manifefts in believers, are unspeakable; for he is able to do for us exceeding abundantly, above what we can afkor think, according to the power which worketh in us, Eph. iii. 20. The peace which guards their fouls paffeth all understanding, Phil. iv. 7. Thofe joys which fill their hearts are not to be expreffed, 1 Pet. i. 8. We read of joy unfpeakable and full of glory. The happiness which they hope for is inconceivable; it is that which eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man, which God hath laid up for us.

The ways of God's providence are not to be traced. Pfal. Ixxvii. 19. Thy way is in the fea, and thy paths in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Ecclef. ir. No man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. We are but of ye fterday, and know nothing. When we look upon God's providence, we take a part from the whole, and confider it by itself, without relation to the whole feries of his difpenfation; we cannot fee the whole of God's pro vidence at one view, and never fee from the beginning of the works of God to the end; therefore our knowledge of them muft needs be very imperfect, and full of miftakes, and falfe judgments of things; we cannot, by our petty and fhort-fighted defigns, judge of the works of God, and the defigns of providence; for our ways are not as his ways, nor our thoughts as his thoughts; but as the heavens are high above the earth, Jo are his ways at bove our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts, Ifa.

Iv. 8.19. The ways of God's mercy, Pfal. ciii. As the heavens are high above the earth, fo great is God's mercy. -Pfal. cxxxix. 17. 18. How precious are thy thoughts unto me? how great is the fum of them? If I fhould count them, they are more in number than the fand. And the ways of God's judgments, the severity and greatnefs of his judgment is not known. Pfal. XC. II. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? and who may stand before thee when thou art angry? And the reafons of his judgments are unfearchable. Pfal. xxxvi. 6. Thy judgments are a great deep. Rom. xi. 35. How unfearchable are his judgments, and his ways paft finding out! These are the inftances on the part of the object.

On the part of the fubject, or the perfons capable of knowing God in any measure. The perfect knowledge of God is above a finite creature's understanding. Wicked men are ignorant of God, and full of falfe apprehenfions of him: The fcripture gives this defcriiption of them; they are thofe that know not God, 2 Theff. i. 8. Wicked men are so far from knowing God to perfection, that they have hardly any true knowledge of him; for, as the man himself is, fo will God seem to be to him; the idea and notions which men have of God, is but the picture of their own complexion. To a true knowledge there is required likenefs; a man's -mind must be like the thing he would understand; therefore the Apostle tells us, the natural, or animal man, doth not receive the things of God, he is not capable of them, because his mind is unfuitable to them; he is Apus T oparos, "full of body," and he cannot relish fpiritual σώματος, things; even thofe natural notions which wicked men have of God, are ftrangely tinctured and obfcured by the temper of the man; they are lux fepulta in opaca materia, "light buried and hid in matter and darkness,” in the blackness of a foul and impure heart; fo'that there is no question of them, whether they comprehend God

'or not.

But good men cannot find out God; they have fome falfe apprehenfions of him; all their apprehenfions are dark, have much of obfcurity in them; they know God to falvation, but not to perfection. In this life we do

but

but know God in part, that is, in comparison of the knowledge which our natures are capable of.

But I will inftance yet higher; the angels and the fpirits of just men made perfect, though they have true apprehenfions of God, yet they do not arrive to perfect knowledge of him, they cannot perveftigare ultima, "know the utmost of God;" the cherubims themselves are continually looking at the mercy-feat. To which the Apostle alludes, 1 Pet. i. 12. when he tells us the mystery of God's mercy in the gofpel was a thing which the angels defired to pry into. In heaven, that which is in part fhall be done away; that is, our knowledge shall be as perfect as our natures are capable; but it fhall be finite. When we fhall fee God face to face; that is, have an immediate vifion of him, and fee him as he is; that is, not having our understandings tinctured by any lust or paffion that may darken our mind, or mifreprefent the object; for the Apoftle tells us, we fhall fee him, becaufe we fhall be like him; yet then we fhall have fhort and unadequate apprehenfions of him, we shall still retain our limited natures and finite understandings.

II. By way of conviction. Doft thou know perfectly the nature of a finite fpirit, the perfection and the power of an angel, how, being immaterial, they can act upon matter, and move that which can make no resistance to a fpirit? Doft thou know how they can move themfelves to a great distance in a moment, and dart themfelves from one part of the world to another? Dost thou know how man is formed in the lowest parts of the earth, as the Pfalmift expreffeth it, and the curious frame of our bodies is wrought from fuch rude principles in fo dark a fhop? Canft thou give an account how the foul is united to the body, by what bands or holds a fpirit is fo closely and intimately conjoined to matter? Doft thou know how thyfelf understandeft any thing, and canft retain the diftinct ideas and notions of fo many objects without confufion? Doft thou know the leaft parts of matter, how they are knit together; and by what cement they cleave fo faft to one another, that they can hardly be feparated?

Now, if the creatures be fo unfearchable, and the knowledge of these be too hard for thee, is not the

Creator

Creator of them much more incomprehenfible, who poffefleth all these perfections which he communicates, and many which cannot be communicated to a creature? If in natural and fenfible things, maxima pars eorum quæ fcimus, eft minima pars eorum quæ nefcimus; how much more is it true of God, that " our ignorance is more "than our knowledge," when the whole earth, and all the creatures bear no proportion to him? Ifa. xl. 15. 17. Behold, all the nations of the earth are as the drop of the bucket, and as the fmall duft of the balance; all nations before him are nothing, and are accounted to him less than nothing.

III. By fhewing you the clear reafon of it, which is this, the difproportion between the faculty and the object, the finitenefs of our underftandings, and the infiniteness of the divine nature and perfections. God is greater than our hearts; and therefore as he knows more than we do, as the Apoftle reafons, 1 John iii. 20. so he is more than can be known by us; he is too vast an object for our understanding to entertain, for our minds to receive. Thou mayst as well mete out the heaven with a fpan, and measure the waters in the hollow of thy hand, and comprehend the dust of the earth in a little urn, and weigh the mountains in fcales, and the hills in a little balance, as think to circumfcribe God in the narrow limits of thy thoughts, or to bring that which is infinite within the compass of that which is finite.

And there is not only the vastnefs and greatness of the object, but the glory and refplendency of it does fo dazzle our fight, that we cannot perfectly fee it, 2 Tim. vi. 16. He dwelleth in light, which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath feen, nor can fee. As God is too big, fo he is too bright an object for our understandings; the prefence of his glory overpowers our minds, and bears down our faculties, and conquers our understandings.

I come now to apply this doctrine of the incomprehenfibleness of the divine nature. If the nature, and perfections, and ways, and works of God be incomprehenfible, and paft finding out; Q

VOL. VII.

1. It

1. It calls for our admiration, and veneration, and reverence. These are the best apprehensions of him that is incomprehenfible; a filent veneration of his excellencies is the best acknowledgment of them. We must admire what we cannot apprehend or exprefs. Zach. ix. 17. How great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty? The best way to celebrate the praifes of God, is that which Nehemiah ufeth, Neh. ix. 5. And bleed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Whenever we speak or think of God, we neceffarily detract from his perfections; but even this neceffity is glorious to him, and this fpeaks his perfection, that the highest finite understanding must have imperfect thoughts

of him.

We should make up in reverence and veneration what we fall fhort of in knowledge. Reverence is an acknowledgment of diftance; by our reverence of the divine Majefty, we should beft awe our hearts, in a sense of the distance which is between his infinite nature and perfection, and our finite apprehenfions. Worldly greatnefs will caufe wonder, the thoughts of earthly majesty will compofe us to reverence; how much more fhould thofe excellencies which are beyond what we can imagine. Ifa. vi. you have there God represented fitting upon his throne, and the feraphims about him, which are defcribed to us as having each fix wings, and with twain they cover their faces. Creatures of the brightest understanding, and the most exalted purity and holiness, cover their faces in the prefence of God's glory; they chufe rather to venerate God, than look upon him.

2. This calls for humility and modefty. The confideration of God's unfearchable perfections fhould make the haughtiness of man to ftoop and bring down his proud looks, and God alone fhould be exalted. The thought of God's excellency fhould abafe us, and make us vilė in our own eyes; it fhould make all thofe petty excellencies that we pride ourselves in to vanish and disappear Thofe treasures of wisdom and knowledge which are in God fhould hide pride from man: it fhould hide those little parts and gifts which we are so apt to glory in, as the fun hides the ftars. When we confider God, we fhould be fo far from admiring ourselves, that we fhould,