4. Christ doth this so as that he doth not overturn their nature ; he worketh by natural and necessary causes necessarily, with voluntary causes voluntarily. He that enlighteneth the world by the sun, causes man to discourse and reason ; the sun would not shine if Christ were not the light of it, nor man discourse if he did not con- tinue the faculty : John i. 4, ' In him was life, and this life was the light of man.' It is man seeth, man heareth, man talketh, man acteth, but yet ' the seeing eye, and hearing ear, is of the Lord,' Prov.
VOL. L 2 F
450 PRE-EXISTENCE OF CHRIST BEFORE ALL THINGS. [SeR. IV.
XX. 12. As God hath made both, so he sustaineth both in their opera- tion and exercise. All that we do naturally and spiritually we have from Christ.
5. He is not the bare instrument of God in sustaining the crea- ture, but as a co-equal agent. As he made the world, and with the Father created all things, so he doth support and order all things. It is as well the work of the Son as of the Father, for he is God, equal with him in glory and power : John v. 17, ' My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.' And he hath a command of all the creatures, that they can do nothing without him, how much soever they attempt to do against him.
Secondly, Let me give you the reasons of this, why all things must subsist by him.
1. Because preservation is but a kind of continued creation, or a continuance of the being which God hath caused. God's will in creation maketh a thing to be, his will in preservation maketh it con- tinue to be. The same omnipotency and efficacy of God is necessary to sustain our beings as at first to create them. Therefore, it is said, Ps. civ. 2, ' Thou stretchest out the heavens like a curtain,' which noteth a continued act. God erected them at first, and still sustaineth them by his secret power in this posture ; so that, with respect to God, it is the same action to conserve as to create. That the creature may have a being, the influence of God is necessary to produce it ; that the creature may continue its being, it is necessary that God should not break off that influence, or forsake the creature so made ; for the being of the creature doth so wholly depend on the will of God, that it can- not subsist without him. Nothing can be without the will of God, which is the cause both of the being and existence of all creatures. Therefore their being cannot be continued unless God will ; therefore it belongeth to the same power to make anything out of nothing, and to keep anything that is made from returning to its first nothing.
2. It is impossible to cut off the dependence of the creature upon the first cause, for no creature hath a self-sufficiency to maintain and support itself. Things of art may subsist without the artificer, as a carpenter maketh a house, and then leaveth it to stand of itself, the shipwright maketh a ship, and then leaveth it to the pilot to guide it ; but all things of nature depend upon God that made them, because they have their whole being from him, matter, and form, which he continueth no longer than he pleaseth, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven, visible or invisible. No impression of the agent remaineth in the effect when his action ceaseth ; when the effect wholly dependeth on the cause, as when the air is enlightened which receiveth light from the sun, but when the sun is gone the light ceases : so when God withdraws the creature vanishes, for they have no other being than God is pleased to bestow upon them.
3. If it were not so, many absurdities would follow ; as, for instance — [1.] If things do subsist by themselves, then they would always be ;
for nothing would destroy itself.
[2.] Then the creature would be independent, and whether God will or no they would conserve their being ; and then how should God
Col. I. 17.] pre-existence of chuist before all things. 451
govern the world ? Therefore it undeniably foUoweth, ' Thou hast made all things, and thou preservest them all.'
4. It would destroy all worship, and our piety and respect to God would be cold and languid. The service we owe to God is reducible to these four heads : —
[1.] Adoration of his excellent nature above all other things.
[2.] Affiance in his goodness, with expectation of relief from him.
[3.] Thankfulness for his benefits.
[4.] Obedience to his precepts and commands.
Now, unless we acknowledge his intimate presence with and pre- servation of all things, these necessary duties will either be quite abolished, or degenerate into a vain and needless superstition.
[1.] The adoration we owe to his excellent nature, above all other things in the universe. Alas ! we see how little reverence and respect we have for the great potentates of the earth, whose fame we hear of indeed, but are not concerned in their favour or frowns, or have no dependence on them at all. The least justice of peace or constable in our neighbourhood is more to us than. all these mighty foreign princes, with whom we have nothing to do but only to hear and read the reports of their greatness, when we have no other business to divert us. So cold and careless would be our respect to God if we did not depend on him every moment, and were neither concerned in his wrath nor love. Those practical atheists that were settled on their lees, and lived in a secure neglect of God, they fostered it by this presumption — ' Tush ! he will neither do good nor evil,' Zeph. i. 13. Fine things may be told us of the excellency of his nature, but what is that to us ? He hath so shut up himself within the curtain of the heavens, that he takes no notice or care of things here below. How soon would such a conceit dispirit all religion, and take away the life and vigour of it ! But if you would plant a reverence and due veneration of God, you must do it by this principle, ' In his hands is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." No creature can subsist with- out him for a moment. Now this respect is due not only to God the Father, but our Lord Jesus Christ.