and accordingly they tell us, that they delivered unto us what they received from the Lord; and commanded us not to be wise above what is written. Therefore to add any thing in the worship of God to the laws of the church, is to exercise authority and dominion over its faith; and to pretend that this "world to come," this blessed gospel church-state is put in subjection "unto them," although it be not so to angels. A vain and proud pretence! His own authority, and that alone, should immediately affect the soul and conscience of every believer. He that subjects himself aright to them, doth it not upon the authority of the church by whom they are taught, but upon the authority of Christ by whom they are enacted.

3. As he is our only head, so he is our immediate head. We have our immediate dependence upon him, and our access to him is also immediate. He hath, indeed, appointed means for communicating his grace, and for exercising his authority; but this belongs only to the way of our dependence, and hinders not but that our dependence is immediately on himself, he being the immediate object of our faith and love.

$10. This privilege is greatly augmented, in that he will assuredly take care of all its concernments, seeing unto him only doth it betake itself. The church made it of old part of her plea, that she was as one "fatherless," Hos. xiv, 3, that is, every way helpless, one that had none to succor, none to relieve her. And Christ giveth this as a reason why he stirreth up himself to the assistance of his people, because "there was no man that appeared for their help, no intercessor to interpose for them," Isaiah lix, 16. Now God having

placed the church in this condition, so as to be ofttimes altogether orphans in this world, to have none to give

them the least countenance or assistance, and the church itself choosing this condition, to renounce all hopes and expectations from any else, betaking itself to the power, grace, and faithfulness of the Lord Christ alone, he will most certainly take care of it, and provide for it at all times infallibly. They are members of his body, and he alone is their head; they are subjects of his kingdom, and he alone is their king; they are children and servants in his family, and he alone is their father, Lord, and master; and can he forget them, can he disregard them? Had they been committed to the care of men, it may be some of them would have fought and contended for them; though their faithfulness is always to be suspected, and their strength is as a “thing of nought." Had they been put in subjection to angels, they would have watched for their good, though their wisdom and ability be greatly limited; and shall not the Lord Jesus Christ, now they are made his special care, whose power and faithfulness are infinitely above those of any other mere creatures, excel them also in care and watchfulness for our good? And this should teach us,

$11. The equity and necessity of our universal obedience to God in Christ. He hath freed us from "subjection" to men and angels, that we might serve him, and live unto him. He hath taken us to be his peculiar ones, his lot and portion, from whom he expects all his revenue of glory out of this world. And he hath left us no excuse, no pretence, for the neglect of any duties of obedience that he requireth of us. We cannot plead that we have other work to do, other lords and masters to serve; he hath set us free from them all, that we might be his. If a king take a servant into his family, and thereby free and discharge him

from being liable to any other duty or service, may he not justly expect that such a one will be diligent in observing all his commands; especially considering also the honor and advantage that he hath by being taken near to his royal master, and employed in his affairs? And shall not God much more expect the like from us, considering how exceedingly the privilege we have by this relation unto him surpasseth all that men can obtain by the favor of earthly princes? And if we will choose other lords of our own to serve, if we are so regardless of ourselves as that we will serve our lusts and the world, when God hath such a respect for us, as that he would not suffer us to be made subject to the angels of heaven, how inexcusable shall we be in our sin and folly? You shall be for me, saith God, and not for any other whatever. And are we not miserable if we like not this agreement?

§12. Obs. 2. The consideration of the infinitely glorious excellencies of the nature of God, manifesting themselves in his works, doth greatly set out his condescension and grace, in his regard and respect to mankind. The heavenly bodies which we behold are indeed in themselves exceedingly glorious. Their frame, greatness, beauty, order, course, and usefulness, bespeak them admirable and glorious: the naked view of them is enough to fill the mind of man with admiration and astonishment. And the more we contemplate them, the more skilful we are in the consideration of their nature, order, and use, the more excellent they appear; and yet it is but a small part of their greatness and beautiful arrangement that we can attain a certain knowledge of; so that they still remain more the objects of our admiration and wonder, than of our science. Hence the wisest among the heathens who were destitute of

the teachings of the word and spirit of the Lord, worshipped them as gods.*

The more we consider them, the more will their glory and greatness appear to us. As the children of Israel said of the sons of Anak, "We were before them in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." May we not much more say concerning ourselves, compared with these glorious works of the Most High, we are all but as grasshoppers in comparison of them? And whence is it, that God should set his heart upon us? That he hath made them so beautiful, so glorious, so excellent, and that out of nothing; doth it not declare his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness? Do they not lead us to the contemplation of his infinite excellencies? And whence is it, that he who made all these things of nothing, should have such regard to the weak frail nature of man?

§13. To illustrate the Divine condescension, behold the greatness of God! "The heaven of heavens," saith Solomon, "cannot contain him," 1 Kings viii, 18. Our thoughts of greatness are apt to consist in adding one thing to another, until the object be extended to the utmost of our imagination. But this hath no relation to the immensity of God; which is not his fill

Hence the very name of God in the Greek language (5) is taken (according to some) from (9ɛ) to run, which they derive from the constant course of the heavenly bodies. They saw with their eyes how glorious they were; they found by rea son their greatness and dreadful motion; experience taught them their use, as the immediate fountains of light, warmth, atmospherical moisture and rain, and so consequently of life, growth, and all useful things. It may be they had some tradition of that dominion which was at first allotted to the sun and moon over day and night; Gen. i, 16. On these and the like accounts, having lost the knowledge of the true and only God they knew not so well whither to turn themselves for a Deity, as to those things which they saw so full of glory, and which they found to be of so universal and communicative a goodness and usefulness. And in them did all the idolatry in the world begin.

ing of all imaginary places or space, but an infinite existence in an infinite being; so that as he is present with or indistant from the whole creation; for saith he, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" Jer. xxiii, 24. So is he no less present, where there is no part of the creation. And if he should produce thousands of worlds, which he can do by his power, he would be no less present in them all. And this not by extending his essence and greatness, but by the infiniteness of his being. Neither are there parts in this immensity; for that which hath parts cannot be infinite or immense. God is wholly present every where. And thus far reason will go; it will assent to the truth of that which it cannot comprehend, because it is convinced that it cannot be otherwise. What remains, it leaves to faith and reverential adoration. Who can sufficiently admire this excellency of the nature of God? How astonishing this greatness! How are all the nations of the world, as the drop of a bucket, as the dust of a balance, as vanity, as nothing before him! What is a little dust to the immensity of being? To that whose greatness we cannot measure, whose nature we cannot comprehend, whose glory we can only adore? What is a poor worm to him who is every where, and who is every where filled with his own excellencies and blessedness! "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured out the heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balances. Behold he taketh up the isles as a very lit tle thing; all nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted unto him less than nothing and vanity," Isaiah xl, 12—17.

VOL. II.

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