vate man, as to come to actions, though he, in a rectified conscience, apprehend, that God's cause might be advantaged by those actions of his. For matter of action requires public warrant, and is not safely grounded upon private zeal. When Peter, out of his own zeal, drew his sword for Christ, Nondum manifeste conceperat evangelium patientia", He was not yet well instructed in the patience of the Gospel; nay, he was submitted to the sentence of the law, out of the mouth of the supreme Judge, All they that take the sword (that take it before it be given them by authority) shall perish by the sword. The first law, that was given to the new world, after the flood, was against the eating of blood. God would not have man so familiar with blood. And the second commandment, was against the shedding of blood, (Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.) Nay, not only where Peter was over-forward of himself, to defend Christ by arms, but where John and James were too vehement, and importunate upon Christ, to give them leave to revenge the wrong done to him upon the Samaritans, (Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them 20?) Christ rebukes them, and tells them, They knew not of what spirit they were; that is, of what spirit they ought to be. They knew, says St. Hierome, they had no power of their own; they go to him who had; and they do not say, Domine jube, Lord do thou do it; but, thou shalt never appear in it, never be seen in it, only let us alone, and we will revenge thee, and consume them. Though they went no farther than this, yet this rash, and precipitate importunity in James and John, as well as that hasty coming to action in Peter, was displeasing to Christ; Dicite, speak; so far goes the duty of this text; speak by way of counsel, you that are counsellors to princes, and, by way of exhortation, you that are preachers to the people; but leave the facite, matter of action, to them in whose hearts, and by whose hands, and through whose commandments God works.

We are yet in our first, in our historical part, commemoration; and there we made it, (in our distribution and paraphrase) our next step, what we are to commemorate, to employ this dicite,

17 Origen.

19 Gen. ix. 4.

18 Matt. xxvi. 52.

20 Luke ix. 54,

this speaking upon; and it is upon God's works; (Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works!) So that the subject of our speech, (let it be in holy conferences, and discourses, let it be in God's ordinance, preaching) is not to speak of the unrevealed decrees of God, of his internal, and eternal purposes in himself, but of his works, of those things in which he hath declared, and manifested himself to us. God gave not always to his church, the manifestation of the pillar of fire, but a pillar of cloud too; and, though it were a cloud, yet it was a pillar; in a holy, and devout, and modest ignorance of those things which God hath not revealed to us, we are better settled, and supported by a better pillar, than in an over-curious, and impertinent inquisition of things reserved to God himself, or shut up in their breasts, of whom God hath said, Ye are gods. God would not show all himself to Moses, as well as he loved him, and as freely as he conversed with him, he showed him but his hinder parts. Let that be his decrees then, when in his due time they came to execution; for then, and not till then, they are works. And God would not suffer Moses's body to be seen, when it was dead", because then it could not speak to them, it could not instruct them, it could not direct them in any duty, if they transgressed from any. God himself would not be spoken to by us, but as he speaks of himself; and he speaks in his works. And as among men, some may build, and some may write, and we call both by one name, (we call his buildings, and we call his books, his works) so if we will speak of God, this world which he hath built, and these Scriptures which he hath written, are his works, and we speak of God in his works, (which is the commandment of this text) when we speak of him so, as he hath manifested himself in his miracles, and as he hath declared himself in his Scriptures; for both these are his works. There are decrees in God, but we can take out no copies of them, till God himself exemplify them, in the execution of them; the accomplishing of the decree is the best publishing, the best notifying of the decree. But of his works we can take copies; for his Scriptures are his works, and we have them by translations and illustrations, made appliable to every understanding; all the promises of his Scrip

21 Exod. xxxiii. 23.

3 Deut. xxxiv. 6.

tures belong to all. And for his miracles, (his miracles are also his works) we have an assurance, that whatsoever God hath done for any, he will do again for us.

It is then his works upon which we fix this commemoration, and this glorifying of God; but so, as that we determine not upon the work itself, but God in the work, (Say unto God, (to him) how terrible art thou, (that God) in thy works?) It may be of use to you, to receive this note, then when it is said in this Psalm, Come, and see the works of God, and after, Come, and hear all ye that fear God", in both places it is not, venite, but ite, it is lechu, not come, but go, go out, go forth, abroad, to consider God in his works; go as far as you can, stop not in yourselves, nor stop not in any other, till you come to God himself. If you consider the Scriptures to be his works, make not Scriptures of your own; which you do, if you make them subject to your private interpretation. My soul speaks in my tongue, else I could make no sound; my tongue speaks in English, else I should not be understood by the congregation. So God speaks by his Son, in the Gospel; but then, the Gospel speaks in the church, that every man may hear. Ite, go forth, stay not in yourselves, if you will hear him. And so, for matter of action, and protection, come not home to yourselves, stay not in yourselves, not in a confidence in your own power, and wisdom, but ite, go forth, go forth into Egypt, go forth into Babylon, and look who delivered your predecessors, (predecessors in affliction, predecessors in mercy) and that God, who is yesterday, and to-day, and the same for ever2, shall do the same things, which he did yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Turn always to the commemoration of works, but not your own; ite, go forth, go farther than that, than yourselves, farther than the angels, and saints in heaven; that when you commemorate your deliverance from an invasion, and your deliverance from the vault, you do not ascribe these deliverances to those saints, upon whose days they were wrought; in all your commemorations (and commemorations are prayers, and God receives that which we offer for a thanksgiving for former benefits, as a prayer for future) ite, go forth, by the river to the spring, by the branch to the root, by the work to God himself, and dicite, 24 Heb. xiii. 8.

23 Psalm Lxvi. 5, and 16.

say unto him, say of him, Quam terribilis tu in tuis, which sets us up another step in this part, to consider what this terribleness is, that God expresses in his works.

Though there be a difference between timor, and terror, (fear and terror) yet the difference is not so great, but that both may fall upon a good man; not only a fear of God must, but a terror of God may fall upon the best. When God talked with Abraham, A horror of great darkness fell upon him 25, says that text. The Father of lights, and the God of all comfort present, and present in an action of mercy, and yet, a horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham. When God talked personally, and presentially with Moses, Moses Hid his face, for (says the text) he was afraid to look upon God". When I look upon God, as I am bid to do in this text, in those terrible judgments, which he hath executed upon some men, and see that there is nothing between me and the same judgment, (for I have sinned the same sins, and God is the same God) I am not able of myself to dye that glass, that spectacle, through which I look upon this God, in what colour I will; whether this glass shall be black, through my despair, and so I shall see God in the cloud of my sins, or red in the blood of Christ Jesus, and I shall see God in a bath of the blood of his Son, whether I shall see God as a dove with an olive branch, (peace to my soul) or as an eagle, a vulture to prey, and to prey everlastingly upon me, whether in the deep floods of tribulation, spiritual or temporal, I shall see God as an ark to take me in, or as a whale to swallow me; and if his whale do swallow me, (the tribulation devour me) whether his purpose be to restore me, or to consume me, I, I of myself cannot tell. I cannot look upon God, in what line I will, nor take hold of God, by what handle I will; he is a terrible God, I take him so; and then I cannot discontinue, I cannot break off this terribleness, and say, he hath been terrible to that man, and there is an end of his terror; it reaches not to me. Why not to me? In me there is no merit, nor shadow of merit; in God there is no change, nor shadow of change. I am the same sinner, he is the same God; still the same desperate sinner, still the same terrible God.

But Terrible in his works, says our text; terrible so, as he hath

23 Gen. xv. 12.

26 Exod. iii. 6.

declared himself to be in his works. His works are, as we said before, his actions, and his Scriptures. In his actions we see him terrible upon disobedient resisters of his graces, and despisers of the means thereof, not upon others, we have no examples of that. In his word, we accept this word in which he hath been pleased to express himself, Norah, which is rather reverendus, than terribilis, as that word is used, I gave him life and peace, for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my namea. So that this terribleness, which we are called upon to profess of God, is a reverential, a majestical, not a tyrannical terribleness. And therefore he that conceives a God, that hath made man of flesh and blood, and yet exacts that purity of an angel in that flesh, a God that would provide himself no better glory, than to damn man, a God who lest he should love man, and be reconciled to man, hath enwrapped him in an inevitable necessity of sinning, a God who hath received enough, and enough for the satisfaction of all men, and yet, (not in consideration of their future sins, but merely because he hated them before they were sinners, or before they were any thing) hath made it impossible, for the greatest part of men, to have any benefit of that large satisfaction. This is not such a terribleness as arises out of his works, (his actions, or his Scriptures) for God hath never said, never done any such thing, as should make us lodge such conceptions of God in ourselves, or lay such imputations upon him.

The true fear of God is true wisdom. It is true joy; Rejoice in trembling, saith David28; there is no rejoicing without this fear; there is no riches without it; reverentia Jehova, the fear of the Lord is his treasure, and that is the best treasure. Thus far we are to go; Let us serve God with reverence, and godly fear2, (godly fear is but a reverence, it is not a jealousy, a suspicion of God.) And let us do it upon the reason that follows in the same place, For our God is a consuming fire, there is all his terribleness; he is a consuming fire to his enemies, but he is our God; and God is love: and therefore to conceive a cruel God, a God that hated us, even to damnation, before we were, (as some, who have departed from the sense and modesty of the ancients, have adventured to say) or to conceive a God so cruel, as that at our

27 Mal. ii. 5.

28 Psalm ii. 11.

29 Heb. xii. 28.