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Vol. I. Defence; and after all, all this should

be but the foretafts of a more blessed

State, and our Canaan but a Pledge of Heaven. Happy are the People that are in such a cafe, yea bleffed are the People who have the Lord for their God, Pjal. 144. 15.

Now to God the Father, &c,

The

197 Serm. 7.

The Incomprehenfibleness of GOD.

JOB XI. 7.

Canft thou by fearching find out God? Canft thou find out the Almighty unto Perfection?

J

OB in the foregoing Chapter, carried the Juftification of his Integrity fo far, that he feem'd to entrench fomewhat rudely on the Justice of Providence : Zopbar therefore to reprefs this Infolence, and vindicate the Divine Honour, lays before him the Incomprehenfibleness and Majefty of God. That this is a proper Topick to awe the Rafhnefs, and to chaftife the Pride of Man, is evident from hence, that God himself makes use of it to this End, Chap. 38. Then God answered Job out of the whirlwind,and faid,Who is this that darkeneth Counsel by words without knowledge? where waft thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth? &c.

And if ever it were neceffary to poffefs our Minds with a due Senfe of the Meannefs of Man, and the Majefty of God, 'tis now; now, when Luxury and Hypocri

Vol. I. fie, Looseness and Corruption do not more openly infult and affront the Morals, than Atheism and Infidelity the Faith of Christianity; now, when Scepticism, Herefie and Impiety affault our Religion with all the Artillery of Judaifm, Arrianifm, Photinianifm, Turcifm: now, when bold Men trample under foot all Myfteries, and under colour of advancing free and impartial Reafon, do in effect calhier Revelation. Never therefore was it more neceffary than now to put the Question

in

my Text, and to invite the World to confider the Confequences naturally flowing from it. 'Tis a Question which implies its own Anfwer, Canft thou by Searching find out God? Canft thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? i. e.'Tis paft all Controverfie thou canst not. The Senfe then of the Words is eafily refolved into this Propofition: That God is Incomprehenfible. I will therefore,

1. Affert and illuftrate this Doctrine in my Text, and then

2. Make two or three Inferences from it.

1. That God is incomprehenfible. This. is an Article of the Athanafian Creed; and if universal Tradition may be allowed to weigh any thing, there is no Doctrine in our Religion can lay a fairer Claim to it;

but

but it needs derive no Strength from Hu- Serm. 7. man Authority, being afferted in almost fo many Words in my Text, and either in express Terms, or immediate, neceffary, and obvious Confequence, in innumerable others; and I think all Men who have not abandon'd their Modesty, with their Faith, must confess, that with respect to human Capacity, infinite and incomprehenfible are Terms almoft equivalent, and confequently whoever attributes the one to God, muft be obliged not to deny the other. All this being clear, I fhall not fo much labour to prove, as to illuftrate, and unfold this Doctrine.

The Heathens painted their Demiurgus, to whom they affign'd Eternity, for a Companion in pitchy Darkness, retired within a Cave, which their Poets thus describe:

Eft ignota procul mentique impervia noftræ
Vix adeunda Diis

Not intimating by this, that they had no knowledge at all of God amongft' em, but that the Perfections of the Divine Nature, were too vaft, too high, too deep, what fhall I fay, too mysterious for human Minds; nay, for Angels to fearch out. 'Twas this notion made the Philofopher exact fo much Modefty and Reverence in all Difcourfes on Divine

Things,

Vol. I. Things, which Seneca commends as á wife and great Thought.

Now all this was probably borrowed from Mofes and the Prophets, how near foever God was to Ifrael, yet would not he endure that they should approach too near to Mount Sinai to gaze, Exod. xix 21. And how familiarly foever God would be confulted by Mofes, yet when he defired to fee his Glory, Chap. 33. God faid unto him, Verse 20. thou canst not fee my face. And Verfe 23. Thou shalt fee my back parts but my face shall not be feen. To the fame purpofe is that of the Prophet, Verily thou art a God that hidest thy felf, O God of Ifrael our Saviour, Ifai. xlv. 15. and that of Solomon, the Lord faid that he would dwell in the thick darkness, 1 Kings viii. 12. Under the Gospel indeed the fon of God is faid to have revealed God to us, John 1. 18. but yet even this Revelation muft not be fuppofed to have exhaufted all the Depths and Mysteries of the God-head; for notwithftanding this Revelation, we as yet fee but as through a Glass darkly, we know "but in part, and prophefie in part, 1 Cor. 13. 9. He is reveal'd to us, as he was in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire to Ifrael, to guide our feet into Canaan, not to entertain our Curiosity; that is, he is fufficiently revealed in order to Holiness and Worship, but no further?

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