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but we cannot meditate on them! Say nos fo left your prove your felves perfons without grace, Pfalme 78. it is inade the note of a wretch, and of one whofe dayes God will confume in forrow to forget the works of God; and of a brutish perfon, Pfal.92. not to confider thems and if you cannot finde a heart to wonder at Hiny,and his wayes, as an occafion of praife', take heed he fhew not himselfe wonderfull in your confufione Wherfore have we our reafon and tongues,butto obferve, and speak of these things think we to live with the Saints, and glorify Chrift in Heaven, and not have difpofitions fram'd to give him all the glory we can, while we live here on earth??, which we can not doe, if we obferve not these things. I know that there is a dulneffe and aukneffe in the fpirits of the best, yet godly hearts will endeavour to overcome it: Pfal.107.43. He that is wife,will ponder theft things,will fet his heart totaske in these ftudies, and that not as to an unpleafing drudgery, but as to an employment, Divine and Angelicall, moft pleafing and delightfull: My medita Pfal. 104.ult. tion of Him fhall be sweet. And for your better quickning to this duty, confider,

Motives.

I.

2.

First, that this is the only way to make us Heavenly and spiritual, by feeding on fuch matters of wonderment, The object about which we are converfant, gives a tincture to our spirit, naturally fuch as our fpirits are, fuch are our fludies, pueri crepundia geftant, children play with rattles, and morallyour fpirits are moulded into the studies we are accustomed to.odia

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Secondly, this will make us ever fit for Gods fervice: This our Lord will be ferved with reverence and feare, and what begets that, but a knowledge of our distance, upon the confideration of His great

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neffe, from his wonderfull workest all bafe and low conceits will then vanifh: all fociety and communion among men is maintain'd by a knowledge of inequa lity, when we fee more eminency in men for their gifts, and graces and places, it strikes a reverence, and trengthens the bands of love and respect, much more Atrongly doth the ferious and deep beholding ofthe unparallel'd perfections and excellencies of God,fhining in his wonderfull works, captivate the foule and lay it low before him: but of this more in the fecond ufe.

Thirdly, this is the way to make us prefit and grow up in grace, when God fees us humble admirers of his greatneffe, and diligent fearchers into his good. neffe, he will reveals himselfe yet more and more to us, as Christ said to Nathaniel, Because I said this unto thee, beleevest thou? thou shalt fee greater things then John 1.50.thefe or the Lord to the Prophet, I will shew thee great jer.33.3. * and mighty things which thou knowest nopsaatler

Fourthly, as a further motive and help, be tho roughly acquainted with thine own condition, really fenfible of thine own vileneffe, wants, and basenesse of all kindes,take the dimenfions of thy corruptions, the height, length, and depth of them, confider that thou art inthy felf a vaffall of Satan, a veffel of wrath, dead in nature and difpofition to good, dead in Sin, pofting to eternall deftruction, and then every thing of Chrift thy Saviour will be wonderful unto thee.

Fifthly, and lastly,confider thy relations to Chrift, He is thy head, thy King, thy Lord, thy Husband, thy brother,&e withall thy intereft in all his works,they are all done for thes; then haft apart in every deliverance, (they are thy enemies that fall, upon the pouring out

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of every viall) a fhare in every mercy, and our intereft in any thing, fets it off the better to our affections, & makes us with unwearied diligence to fearch out, whatsoever is fcibile in it; much more fhould it here, where the more we fhall ftudy, the more we shall. wonder, and the more we wonder, the more fhall we honour God, and better our felves; the more we chew thefe cordialls, the more sweetneß fhall we draw from them.

O therefore, that Chrift would open our eyes, that we might fee his wonders in their just dimensi ons, in the wisdome, power, faithfulnesse, greatnesse, justice, and truth, fhining in them, that thofe things might be glorious, and excellent in our eyes, which are mean and common in the eyes of others, that wee might be able to answer fuch as fee no such thing in them, (with the Painter, who being much taken with a piece, though feeming plain, yet of excellent workmanship, to one ignorantly asking him, what worth he faw in that poor peece) o friend, couldft thou fee with my eyes, thou wouldst be ravished with it. And that our mouths might be filled with praises all the day long, efpecially upon this day, purposely fet apart by us, thankfully to record the great and won derfull works, the true and righteous judgements, of our King of Saints; In delivering us from the hurtfull sword, in being on our fide, when men rofe up against us, in caufing our foul to escape, as a bird out of the snare of the fowler, making their mischief to return upon their own head, causing them to fink down in the pit which they made, in the net which they hid, is their own foot taken. And fo much for the firft Ufe, the Use of Admiration, salacqua and bare

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The second use the Church makes here of the 2. Use of works of Chrift, is to provoke and quicken them- Exhortation. felves up to fear him, and glorifie him; Who would not fear thee,and glorifie thy Name? for thou onely art boly Lord, who can understand these works of thine, thus great and marvellous, thus juft and true, and not ac knowledge thee to be the onely holy One? Let me preffe it, by way of exhortation, to provoke you to the fame duty: Where first, I must open what is meant by fearing, and glorifying his Name, and that which is made the ground of this fear, and glory, because thon onely art holy, and firft, of his holineffe. Holineffe, whatever it is predicated of, is nothing but a fepa ration of the thing from common ufes; and to fan &tifie,is to refpect it according to fuch feparation, or as becomes its holineffe: and holineffe in God, is no thing but the incommunicable Eminency of the Divine Majefty, exalted above all other eminences whatsoever. So that to be haly alone, or to be the holy one, (in Scripture fignification) and to be God, is all one, Hab. 1. 12. Art not thou from everlasting, my Lord, my God, my boly One? Ifai. 17.7. At that day, a man shall look to his Maker, and his eye fhall have respect to the ho ly One of Ifrael, that is, unto God. Pfal. 89. 18. The holy One of Ifrael is our King, that is, Iehovah is our King. Amos 4. 2. The Lord hath (worn by his holi neffe, that is, the Lord hath fworn by himself. So then, for thou onely art holy, is as much as to fay, Thou onely art God; thefe works of thine, thus great and marvellous, thus juft and true, fufficiently fpeak, or prove thee, O King of Saints, to be the Lord God Almighty. Secondly, [fear:] who would not fear thee? To fear in this fenfe, and in this place, is to...

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give that awfull refpect unto Chrift, as becommeth his Excellency; to ferve him with a fingular, feparate, incommunicable fervice, and is fo commonly in the Scripture taken for the whole duty, which we owe unto him; thus to fear God, and to take him for our God alone, is all one, Gen. 31.53. Iacob fware by the fear of his father Ifaac, that is, by the God of his father Ifaac. Ifai. 8. 12, 13. Neither fear ye their fear, that is, ferve not their gods, fanctifie the Lord of Hoafts, and let him be your fear, that is, let him be your God alone. And glorifie thy Name, ]thy Name, that is, thy felf, thy Divine Majefty; and to glorifie this holy One,is not meant by making him glorious, or by adding luftre, or excellency to him, which be fore he had not, for who ever hath given unto him? But to glorifie him is, to acknowledge his excellency, and glory, to do unto him, what may become his glorie, to fet up and exalt his glory. To fear him (then) and glorifie his Name, as the holy One, is to acknowledge his Divinity, to own him as their onely Lord and King, and renouncing all other falfe Chrifts, and Mediatours) to devote themselves to ferve him alone, and worship him with a fingular,feparate, incommunicated worship, (his jealoufie admitting no Corrivall, there is none holy as the Lord, neither fhall any partake with him in his glory) abfolutely, eminently, to do to him themselves, and to provoke others to do, as becommeth his Excellency. This is the duty which the Church here engageth her felf unto, and is in truth, the whole of Chriftianity, the fumme of Revel.14.6. that everlafting Gofpel, which the Angel flying tho row the midft of heaven, was to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred,

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