14 Of the Creaturer, and the Condition --~----------~------- ~So as indeed we lhould lofe a piece of our Religion, if we do not attend to BooK I. this, and I will here fuppofe my felf to have a Congregation of Adams and ~Evts, Men aAd-Women in that pure and firfl: efl:ate; yea, and I will take the Angels inalfo before they fell; and fome Angels are here at prefeilt this day; but if all were here in their original eitate; or thofe that are now in' their con– firmed efl:ate, I might preach thi~ Sermon to them, reminding rhein of their eitate by Creation , to humble them as they are Creatures in that efiate. · . . .. , And to inforce this the more, I take in that additional to ,my Text, Pfal. 1 q. 5· 6. Who is like unto theLordourGod whodwellethonhigh?[WHO HVMBLETH HIMSELF TO BEHOLD) the things that are in Hta– ven, a11d i11 the Earth? He reprefents him as fo great a God, as it is an bttm61i~tg to him, fo much as toca!t an eye upon any Creature now he bath made it ; and yet he were not God, if he did not behold the leafi motion of every Creature, to the falling of a Sparrow to the grotmd ·without his cog– nifance. Further obferve it; It is not only fpoken of thi11gs on earth, but of things in heaven; his befl: Saints, and Angels , or whatever tha.t high and' holy place is furnifht with. Now my Inference is, That if it be an humbling to GQd to behold the befl: of thefe; it may much more be an humbling to us when we appear before this God. And that we may do fo, let us take thefe Conf1derarions, J, Whereas God had the Idea's of infinite Worlds, he could h~ve n\ad'e, and_fo of Creatures reafonable, which lay before his eternal Counfels,as Can– didates, and as fair to have been made Exinent, as we that are made: (For . not only all things were once nothing, (that will afford a fecond Confidoqti· on) but there was yet an higher remotenefs from nothing, and that is, of t hings poilible to be, which in refped: of G.od's not willing to create them, never did, nor ever tbai! come into being, although, when tbcy lbould have done.fo, it would have been out of nothing) yet God faid of us, Stand you forth, I decree and w•ll you to exifl: afore me, whenas an infinite number of like Creature• Jlcpt fl:ill, and to Eternity lballllcep in darknefs, and Non-ex· iftence. · 2. After God had decreed to make thee, and to give thee an cxifience and actual being, yet thou wert in reality fiill nothing, pure nothing in entity. Thy Pedigree is from nothing; thy Ancefiry, and that not far removed, is nothing. Job in the view ofhis own rottennefs and corruption, humbles him– felf, Chap. 17. '4· I havt faid to Corr11ption, thot~ art my Fathu; to thr Worm, 1hou art my Mother ami my Sifter: But in rehearling thy Original from whence thou cameft, I may fay that nothing, pure nothing, was thy great Grand-mother : Thy body was immediately made of duft; that was thy nextMother by thatLine;but thatDu!t was made of the firft rudeEarth,witbout form, and that was thy Grandmother; but that Earth was made purely of nothing; fo then nothing was thy great Grand-mother. Thus of thy Bo– dy : Then for thy Soul, that was immediately created by God out of no· thing , and fo'by that line thy next Mother was nothing: And what was thy Soul twenty, thirty, or forty years ago, and fo many years upwards? Plain nothing: It is obfcrvable how in the Scriptures, when God's confound– ing the Creatures is expre!Ted, the Threatning runs in thefe terms, a bringing them to nothing. So in 1 Cor, 1. 28, he takes pM ~.,. , Things that are not, (that is, are as if they were not, as to fuch an effect as God ufeth them for) even to bring to naught things that are, that is, to nothing, as the oppofi– tion !hews : In thcfe terms the Sentence of Confufion, and the de!lruction of things that are, is penned ; as thereby reminding them, how that their firfl: root and original was nothing; and fo does fpeak in a way of rellexion upon what once they were: Even as when he threamed Adam to turn hip> to duft, Omof d11jl thou camefl, fays he; in a way of debalingof him, minds him of his defcenc and original. And in like Phrafe of Speec!l 'job utters their de· firuction, abmnt in nihilum, they go away, or vafl_ilh to nothing; that 1>,
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