&eri i.'CIII. The Incomprehenfablenefs of God. 767 tÌis Love, fo that we think we comprehend it and know it, it pa_Teth knowledgé ; yea, the Effets of God's Power and Love which he manifefts in Believers are upTpeàkable ; for he is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think, according to the power which worketh in us, Eph. 3. ao. The Peace which guar"ds`their fouls paffeth all underflanding, Phil. q. y. Thofe goys which fill their hearts are not to be exprefid, I Peter a. 8. We 'read of goy unfpeakable and full of glory. The happinefs which they hope for is inconceivable , 'tis that which eye bath not feen, nor ear heard, nor bath entred into the heart of man , which God bath laid up for W. The Ways of God's Providence, they are not to be traced, Pfal. 77, 59. Thy way is in the fea, aid thy paths in the great waters, and thy footJleps are not known: EcckkC 3. r I. No man can findout the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. We are but of yeflerday, and know nothing. When we look upon God's Providence , we take a part from the whole , and confider it by it fel without relation to the whole feriesof hisDifpenfation; we cannot fee the whole ofGod's Providence at one view , and never fee from the beginning of the Works of God to the end ; therefore our knowledge of them mutt needs be ve- ry imperfet, and full of miflakes, and false judgments of things ; we cannot by our petty and, short-fighted defigns , judge okthe Works of God, and the Designs of Providence ; for our ways are not as his ways , nor our thoughts as his thoughts butas the heavens are highdove the earth, fo are his ways above our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts, Ifa. SS. 8, 9. The ways of God's Mercy, Pfal. aoJ. As the heavens are high above the earth , fogreat is God's mercy. Pfal. r 39. 17, 18. How precious are thy thoughts unto me ? howgreat is thefum of them? If IJhouldcount them , they are more in number than the fand. And the ways of God's Judgments ; the feveritÿ and greatnefs of his Judgment is not known, Pfal. 9o. Who knoweth thepower of thy anger ? Andwho mayfland before thee when thou art angry ? And the Reafons of his Judgments are unfearchable, Pfal. 36. 6. thy 5udgments are a great deep. Rom. II. 35. How unfearchable are hisyudgments, and his ways pall finding out ! Thefe are the Inftances on the part of the Ob- jell. a. On the part of the Subjeíl, or the Perlons capable of knowingGod in any meafure. The perfet Knowledge of God is above a finite Creature's Underftand- ing. Wicked Men they are ignorant of God, and full of false apprehenfions of him ; the Scripture gives this description of them ; they are thole that know not God, a Theft r. Wicked Men are fo far from knowing God to Perfetion, that they have hardly any true knowledge of him ; for as the Man himfelf is, fo will God feem to be tohim ; the Idea and Notions which Men have of God, is but the piture of their own complexion. To a true knowledge there is required likenefs ; a Man's mind mutt be like the thing he would underhand ; therefore the Apoftle tells us, the natural, or animal man, doth not receive the thingsof God, he is not capable of them, becaufe his mind is unsuitable to them, he is wrhiipns Cwros, full of body, and he cannot relifh fpiritual things ; even thofé natu- ral notions which wicked Men have ofGod, they are strangely tintur'd and ob- fcured by the temper of the Man ; they are lint fepulta . in opacdmateriel, light bu- ried and hid in matter and darknefs, in the blacknefs of a foul and impure heart ; fo that there is no question of them , whether they comprehend God or not. But good Men they cannot find out God, they have fome false apprehenfions of' him ; all their apprehenfions are dark, have much of obfcurity in them ; they know God to Salvation, but not to Perfellion : In this life we do but knowGod in part, that is, in comparison of the knowledge which our Natures are capa- ble of. But I will inflance yet higher ; the Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfet, tho' they have true apprehenfions of God, yet they do not arrive toper- fell knowledge of him, they cannot pervejligare ultimo , know the utmofl of God ; the Cherubims themselves are continually looking at the Mercy Seat. To which the Apoftre alludes, i Peter r. ra. when he tells us, the Myftery of God's Mer- cy
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