the only true God ; sucli a God as he hath levealod himself in his word, " A lover of righteousness, and hater of wickedness." Ps. xlv. 7. The real helief of a Deity gives life to all religious worship; the more we believe tlie truth and infiniteness of God, tlie more holy and angelical we are in our lives. Whether we are alone, or in com- pany, God sees us ; he is the heart-search- er; the belief of this would make us live always under God's eye, Ps. xvi. 8., " I have set the Lord always !)ef()re m(s" The belief of a Deity would be a bridle to sin, a spur to duty; it would ad<l wings to prayer, and oil to the lamp of our devotion. The belief of a Deity would cause depcndance upon God in all our straits and exigencies. Gen. xvii. 1., " I am God all-sufticient," — a God that can sujtply all your wants, scat- ter all your fears, resolve all your doubts, conquer all your temptations; the arm of God's power can never be shrunk ; he can create mercy for us, and therefore can help and not be beholden to the creature. Did we believe there is a God, we should so depend on his providence as not to use any indirect means ; we should not run our- selves into sin to rid ourselves out of trou- ble : 2 Kings i. 3,, " Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Beelzebub the God of Ekron ?" \^lien men run to sinful shifts, is it not because they do not believe there is a God, or that he is all-sufficient?
Use. 5. Seeing there is a God, let us la- bour to get an interest in him, Ps. xlviii. 14'., " This God is our God." Two things will comfort us, — Deity and property. Since the fall we have lost likeness to God, and communion with God ; let us labour to recover this lost interest, and pronounce this Shibboleth, ' My God,' Ps. xliii. 5.
It is little comfort to know there is a God, unless he be ours ; God offers him- self to be our God, Jcr. xxxi. 33., " I will be their God." And faith catchcth hold of the offer ; it a])pro])riates God, and makes all that is in him over to us to be ours, — his wisdom to be ours, to teach us, — his holiness ours, to sanctify us, — his Spirit ours, to comfort us, — his mercy ours, to save us. To be able to say, God is mine, is more than to have all the mines of gold and silver.
Use 6. Seeing there is a God, let us serve and worship him as God. It was an indictment brought in against them, Rom. i. 21., " They glorified him not as God." 1 . Let us pr.ay to him as to God. Pray with fervency, James v. 1(5., " An effectual fer- vent prayer availeth much." '1 his is both the fire and the incense ; without fervency it is no prayer. — 2. Love him as God, Deut. vi. 5., " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." To love him with all thy heart, is to give him a precedency in our love : desire to let him have the cream of our affections, — to love him not only appreciatively, but intensive- ly, as much as we can. As the sunbeams united in a burning glass, burn the hotter, so all our affections should be united, that our love to God may be more ardent. — 3. Obey him as God. All creatures obey him : the stars fight his battles, — the ^\and and sea obey him, Mark iv. 41., — much more should man whom God hath endued with a principle of reason. He is God, and hath a sovereignty over us ; therefore, as we received life from him, so we must receive a law from him, and submit to his will in all things. This is to kiss him with a kiss of loyalty, and it is to glorify him as God.
GOD IS A SPIRIT.
Quest. IV. WIIATis Godf
Aks. God is a Spirit.
2d. The thing exj)ressed, John iv. St., " God is a spirit." (iod is essentia sjnrit'i- alissima. Z'vnch.
Q. What do you mean when you say, God is a Spirtt ?
A. By a sjnrit I mean, God is an im- material substance, of a pure, subtile, im- ' mixed essence, not conijiounded of body
GOD IS A SPIRIT.
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and soul, without all extension of parts. The body is a di'eggish thing : the more spiritual God's essence is, the more noble and excellent. The spirits are the more refined part of the wine.
Q. Wherein doth God differ from other spirits ?
1. The angels are spirits.
A. We must distinguish of spirits. 1. The angels are created, God is a spirit un- created.— 2. The angels are spirits, but they are finite, and capable of being anni- hilated ; the same power which made them, is able to reduce them to their first no- thing ; but God is an infinine spirit. — 3. The angels ih-e confined spirits ; they can- not be duohus locis siinid, they are confined to a place ; but God is an immense spirit, and cannot be confined, being in all places at once. — 4-. The angels, though they are spirits, yet they aro but ministering spirits, Heb. i. 14. Though they are spirits, yet are they servants. God is a super-excellent spirit, " the Father of spirits," Heb. xii . 9.
2. Tlie soul is a spirit : Eccles, xii. 7., " The spirit shall return unto God that gave it."
Q. How doth Gody being a spirit, differ from the soul ?