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SERM. have offended God, to divert his Anger by a fincere Repentance. Without doing thus, our Belief in God cannot be called Faith; for Infidelity, of fome Sort or other, is at the Bottom of every Sin; and, in every wilful Tranfgreffion of the Law of God, either Affent or Perfuafion are wanting, or else they are very weak and imperfect, or, however, not actually exercised at that Inftant in which we do amifs. For, when Men are once duly informed of the Truth, they muft needs affent to it; and, when they fincerely affent to it, it will bend their Wills, and derive an effectual Influence upon their Powers of Acting. To believe, therefore, in God, in its utmost Latitude, imports to understand what the Holy Scriptures have revealed concerning him, firmly to affent to what we underftand, and to act according to this Belief: Which leads me to fhew,

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III. WHAT it is we muft believe concerning God; or, what thofe Propofitions are which we are obliged to affent to, concerning this Divine Being. And,

1. WE must believe that there is such a Being as a God (i. e.) the first Cause and Beginning of all Things, who contains all thofe Perfections in himself, which he is pleased to bestow upon created

Beings.

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Beings. And this may be clearly proved SE RM. from the Works of God, i. e. thale Effects which we fee produced in the World, which can proceed from no other Cause, but an infinite Mind, who contains all Manner of Perfection in himself, and derives the Rays of his Goodness upon all inferior Creatures. There is no Perfon who confiders the wonderful Order and Beauty of the World; the Subferviency there is in every Part to produce the Good of the Whole; and that in thefe numerous Parts there is nothing monstrous, nothing either wanting or abounding; but he must needs conclude, that it is the admirable Contrivance of fome infinitely wife Mind, fome Being whofe Skill infinitely tranfcends our weak Capacities; nay, there is no Part of the Creation fo mean as to be imitated by the Art and Wit of Man; we cannot make fo much as one of the Hairs of our Head, or form one of the Nails of our Fingers. And whereas, by the Help of Glaffes, we may obferve Unevennefs and Irregularity in the Point of the finest and sharpeft Needle, yet every Thorn in the Hedge is formed without any of thefe Bunglings; which plainly proves how fhort Art falls in its Imitation of Nature, and that the Works

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SERM. Works of God tranfcend the Works of I. Men, as far as his Thoughts do our Thoughts. And, what is ftill more admirable, Man cannot perform the ordinary Actions of irrational Beings, or of the meanest Infect; all the Wit and Art in the World cannot build that Neft which every poor Bird makes, or fet it in Order, when once it is pulled in Pieces. I would fain fee the wifeft or wittiest Atheist in the World, even fuch an one as fhall pretend to make the World better and more uniform than it is; I fay, I would fain fee him but weave fuch a Web as every Spider makes without Thinking or Forefight, which, if he cannot perform, it is plain, that these irrational Creatures are directed by a fuperior Hand and Mind, who, having made this World, orders and governs it with infinite Wisdom and Conduct; and, in fhort, that there is fuch a Being as a God.

2. WE must believe that there is and can be but one God, for tho' the Scripture teaches us, that there are Lords many, and Gods many, yet this must be understood in a limited Senfe; as is plain by this one Argument, that, fince our natural Notion of a God is this, that he is a Being who contains in himself all poffible Perfection,

there

there can be but one who is infinitely per- SERM, fect; for, if all Perfection is comprehend- I. ed in one Being, there can be no Perfection but what is derived from him, what came from him as its Source and flows to him again. But yet, we must not fo conceive God to be one, as to exclude the Trinity of Perfons, which, though not discoverable by the Light of Nature, is plainly taught us in the Holy Scripture, and abfolutely neceffary to be believed, in order to the understanding the Oeconomy of Man's Salvation, and the wonderful Work of our Redemption by a Saviour. It is evident, that it doth not imply any Contradiction, that one may be Three, and Three One, in different Refpects. And therefore, fince the Holy Scripture has told us, that the Divine Nature is fo, it is highly reasonable, that we should acquiefce in those Discoveries which God has been pleased to make of himself to us, without prying too curiously into thofe Things which are concealed from us. For, fince we understand fo little of our own Natures, how can we imagine that we should be able to comprehend an infinite Being, in our finite Understandings. Nay, it is fo agreeable to Reafon, that the Nature of God should be incomprehenfible, that

no

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SERM. no wife Man would own fuch a God, as could be comprehended. It would be a much more useful Enquiry to confider, what those particular Excellencies of the Divine Nature are, which God has difcovered to us in the Holy Scriptures.

1. IF we fearch them, we fhall find that he who believes in God, must believe, First, that he is a Spirit, which, though it is the best and highest Name that we can describe God by, yet it is fuch as is infinitely unworthy his moft excellent Being; and therefore when we fay, God is a Spirit, we do not mean, that he is fuch a Being as Angels and the Souls of Men are; but only that, being of a spiritual Nature, he tranfcends the Excellency of Angelic Natures and created Spirits, much more than they do the corporeal World. When, therefore, we fay, that God is a Spirit, we mean these three Things (1.) That God is a Being who has no Extenfion of Parts, no corporeal Bulk, no bodily Members. (2.) That he is an intellectual Being, fuch a Being as is endowed with infinite Power, Wisdom, and Activity. And (3.) That he is such a Being as far excels all those other spiritual Beings we are acquainted with, and that there is a much greater Distance between the spi