death. He asserts it of himself, which must be true, and may be depended on; I lift up my hand, and say, I live forever, Deut. xxxii. 40. yea, it is an oath of his affirming the same, and it is the common form of swearing with him, As I live, saith the Lord; and which is very frequently used by him, see Numb. xiv. 28. and this is no other than swearing by his life, which is himself; "for when he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself."

II. God is life eternally, without beginning, succession or end; he is without beginning of life or end of days, and with out any variableness; "the same to-day, yesterday, and forever; he that is the true God, is also eternal life, 1 John v. 20. God is a simple and uncompounded Being, and therefore must live for ever; he has no cause prior to him, from whom he has received his life, that can take away his life from him. There is no change, nor shadow of change, in him; and yet, if his life was not eternal, he must be subject to the greatest of changes, death. The same arguments which prove his eternity, must prove also that he lives for ever; he is the true God. the living God, and an everlasting King, Jer. x. 10. Aristotle has this remarkable observation, "The energy, act, or operation of God, is immortality, this is everlasting life; wherefore there must needs be perpetual motion in God." Our God, the true God, is he who only hath immortality, 1 Tim. vi. 16, that is, who hath it in and of himself, and gives it to others.

III. God is life efficiently, the source and spring, the author and giver of life to others; With thee is the fountain of life, Psal. xxxvi. 9. God is the author and giver of life, from the lowest to the highest degree of it. The vegetative life, that is in herbs, plants, and trees, is from him, Gen. 1. 11, 12. The life of all animals, of the fishes in the sea, the fowl of the air, and the beasts of the field; and he gives them life and breath; and when he takes it away, they die, and return to the dust, Gen. 1. 20-25. The rational life in angels and men, is from him. No creature can give real life; men may paint to the life, as we say, but they cannot give life: no man can make a

living fly; he may as soon make a world. The spiritual life that is in any of the sons of men, is from God. And eternal life, so often spoken of in scripture, as what the saints shall enjoy for evermore, is of God; it flows from his free favour and good will, through Christ, Acts xiii. 48. Tit. i. 2. Rom. vi. 23. Now God must have life in the highest degree of it, as explained; even essentially, originally, infinitely, and perfectly; or he could never give life in every sense unto his creatures; and he must live for ever, to continue eternal life, particularly to his people, and preserve them in it.

OF THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD.

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OMNIPOTENCE is essential to God, it is his nature; a weak Deity is an absurdity to the human mind: the very heathens suppose their gods to be omnipotent, though without reason; but we have reason sufficient to believe that the Lord our God, who is the true God, is Almighty. All spirits are powerful, our own spirits are endowed with the power and faculties of understanding, willing, reasoning, choosing, and refusing, loving and hating, &c. Angelic spirits are more powerful still, they excel in strength, and are called mighty angels, Psal. ciii. 20. One of them slew in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand men, 2 Kings xix. 35. and what then cannot God, the uncreated and infinite Spirit, do? This be inferred from his infinity. God is an infinite Being, and so is every perfection of his; his understanding is infinite, and such is his power. The omnipotence of God may be argued from his independency; all creatures depends on him, but he depends on none. Moreover, this attribute of God may be confirmed by his perfection; God is a most perfect being, but that he would not be if any thing was wanting in him; want of power in a creature is an imperfection; but he is " able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think," Eph. i. 19. and iii. 20. And this may be strengthened yet more by observing, the uselessness of many other perfections. without it. What dependence can there be upon his faithful

ness in his promises, if he is not able also to perform? and of what use is his goodness, or an inclination and disposition in him to do good, if he cannot do it? or where is his justice in rendering to every man according to his works, if he cannot execute it? So that power belongs to God, Psal. lxii. 11. In all the doxologies or ascriptions of glory to God, by angels and men, power or might is put into them, Rev. iv. 10, 11. and v. 13. and vii. 11, 12. The power of God reaches to all things, and therefore is, with propriety, called Omnipotence; all things are possible with God, and nothing impossible; Luke i. 37. Mark xiv. 36. He stopped the sun in its course, in the times of Joshua; made iron to swim by the hands of the prophet Elisha; and suffered not fire to burn in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. There are some things, indeed, which God cannot do, he cannot deny himself, 2 Tim. ii. 13.; he cannot make another God, Deut. vi. 4.; he cannot make a finite creature infinite; he cannot raise a creature to such dignity as to have divine perfections ascribed to it; he cannot make contradictions true; a thing to be, and not to be at the same time; or make a thing not to have been that has been ; but then these are no prejudices to his omnipotence, nor proofs of weakness; they arise only out of the abundance and fulness of his power. The power of God may be considered as absolute, and as actual or ordinate. According to his absolute power, he can do all things which are not contrary to his nature and perfections; but the power of God has never been exerted to its utmost; it is sufficient to entitle him to omnipotence, that he has done, and does, whatsoever he pleases, and that whatsoever is made, is made, is made by him, and nothing without him; which is what may be called, his ordinate and actual power.

1. These visible works of creation, are proofs of the invisible attributes of God, and particularly of his eternal power, Acts iv. 24. Rom. i. 20. Creation is making something out of nothing; which none but omnipotence can effect; see Heb. xi. 3. no artificer, though ever so expert, can work without ma

terials; but God created the first matter out of which all things are made. God can work without instruments, as he did in creation; it was only by his all-commanding word that every thing sprung into being, Gen. i. . &c. Psal. xxxvi. 9. and every thing created was done at once. The works of creation were done without weariness: no labour of men is free from it: if it be the work of the brain, the fruit of close reasoning, reading, meditation, and study; much study, the wise man says, is a weariness of the flesh, Eccles, xii. 12. or if it be manual operation, it is labour and fatigue ; but the everlasting God fainteth not, neither is weary, Isai. xl. 28. he is said to rest on the seventh day, not on account of fatigue but to denote he had finished his work.

11. Omnipotence appears in the sustentation and support of all his creatures; "he upholds all things by the word of his power;" the heavens, the earth, and the pillars thereof, Acts xvii. 28. see Job xxvi. 7,8. & xxxviii. 10–26. Acts xiv. 17. But what hand can do all these but an almighty one? Wonderful events in rovidence can only be accounted for by recurring to omnipotence, and to supernatural power and aid; as the drowning of the whole world; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain; the removing of mountains, shaking the earth, and the pillars of it, commanding the sun not to rise, and sealing up the stars, Job ix. 5, &c.

III. The omnipotence of God may be seen in the redemp. tion of men by Christ, in things leading to it, and in the completion of it. Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power, Eph. i. 19. Rom. ix. 4.

IV. Almighty power may be discerned in the conversion of sinners; that is a creation, which is an act of omnipotence, as has been proved. Men, in conversion, are "created in Christ and after the image of God;" conversion is a resurrection, and that requires almighty power. And if we consider the means of it, generally speaking, "the foolishness of preaching." And also the great opposition made to this work, through the en. mity and lusts of men's hearts, the malice of Satan, willing to

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keep possession; the snares of the world, and the influence of wicked companions; it cannot be thought that the rise, progress, and finishing of it, are not by might and power of men, but by the mighty, efficacious, and all-powerful grace of God, 2 Thess. i. 11. Zech. iv. 6.

V.

That the Lord God is omnipotent, may be evinced from the rise and progress of christianity, the success of the gospel, in the first times of it, and the continuance of it notwithstanding the opposition of men and devils. The interest of Christ in the world rose from small beginnings, by means of the preaching of the gospel; and that by men illiterate, mean, and contemptible, who were opposed by Jewish Rabbins, and hea then philosophers, by monarchs, kings, and emperors, and by the whole world; yet these were made to triumph every where, in a short time the universal monarchy of the earth became nominally christian.

VI. The final perseverance of every particular believer, in grace and holiness, is a proof of the divine omnipotence; he is kept by the power of God, the mighty power of God, as in a garrison, through faith unto salvation, 1 Pet. i. 5.

VII. The almighty power of God will be displayed in the resurrection of the dead. What else but his almighty power can gather all nations before him? And what but his vengeful arm of omnipotence, can execute the sentence on millions and millions of devils and wicked men, in all the height of wrath, rage, fury, and rebellion? see Phil. iii. 21. John v. 28, 29. Matt. xxv. 32-46. Rev. xx-8-10.!

OF THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD.

GOD is said to have a mind and understanding, Rom. xi. 34. Is.i. xi. 28. to which may be referred, the attributes of knowledge and wisdom, which go together, Rom. xi. 33. I shall begin with the first of these. And prove,

I: That knowledge belongs to God. In all rational creatures there is knowledge; there is much in angels, and in man. Now, if there is knowledge in any of the creatures of God, then much more in God himself. Besides, all that knowledge