Aiis. Avoiding all scholastical discourses, as unsuited to the work of this day, I shall briefly give in unto you, how
192 RIGHTKOUS ZEAL ENCOTRAGED
this is a sinful thing, yet sinners given up unto it, without the least extenuation of their guilt, or colour for charge on the justice and goodness of God.
(1.) Then to give up men unto a thing in itself sinful, is no more, but so to dispose and order things, that sinners may exercise and draw out their sinful principles in such a way. This that the Lord doth, the Scripture is full of ex- amples, and hath testimonies innumerable. That herein the Holy One of Israel is no ways co-partner with the guilt of the sons of men, will appear by observing the difference of these several agents in these four things : [l.J The principle by which they work. [2.] The rule by which they proceed. [3.] The means which they use. [4.] The end at which they aim.
[1.] The principle of operation in God is bis own sove- reign will, and good pleasure. ' He doth whatsoever he pleas- eth;' Psal. cxv. 3. 'He saith his purpose shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure ;' Isa. xlvi. 10. * He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth ;' Rom.ix. 13. 'Giving no account of his matters;' Job. xxxiii. 18. This our Saviour rendereth the only principle and rea- son of his hidden operations : ' O Father, so it seemed good in thy sight ;' Matt. xi. 26. His sovereignty in doing what he will with his own, as the potter with his clay, is the rise of his operations. So that whatever he doth, 'who can say unto him, what doest thou?' Job ix. 12. 'Shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it. Why hast thou made me thus?' Rom. ix. 20. And hence two things will follow :
1st. That what he doth is just and righteous; for so must all acts of supreme and absolute dominion be.
2dly. That he can be author of nothing, but what hath existence and being itself; for he works as the fountain of beings. This sin hath not. So that though every action, whether good or bad, receives its specification from the work- ing of providence, and to that is their existence, in their se- veral kinds, to be ascribed; yet an evil action, in the evil- ness of it, depends not upon divine concourse and influence; for good and evil make not sundry kinds of actions, but only a distinction of a subject in respect of its adjuncts and accidents.
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But now the principle of operation in man is nature vi- tiated and corrupted: I say nature, not that he worketh naturally, being a free agent, but that these faculties, will, and understanding, which are the principles of operation, are in nature corrupted, and from thence can nothing flow but evil. ' An evil- tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Men do not gather figs from thistles. A bitter fountain sends not forth sweet waters. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?' If the fountain be poisoned, can the streams be wholesome ? What can you expect of light and truth from a mind possessed with vanity and darkness? what from a will averted from the chiefest good, and fixed upon present ap- pearances? what from a heart, the figment of whose imagi- nation is only evil?
[2.] Consider the difference in the rule of operation. Every thing that works hath a rule to work by, this is called a law. In that thing which to man is sinful, God worketh as it is a thing only, man as it is a sinful thing. And how so? Why every one's sin is his aberration from his rule of operation or working. 'AfxapTaveiv is, ' aberrare d scopo :' to sin is, not to collime aright at the end proposed : ?j a/xap- Tia iaTiv v avof.ua, is a most exact definition of it ; irregu- larity is its form, if it may be said to have a form ; a priva- tion's form is deformity. Look then in any action, wherein an agent exorbitates from its rule, that is sin. Now what is God's rule in operation? His own infinite wise will alone : he takes neither motive, rise, nor occasion for any internal acts, from anything without himself; 'he doth whatever he pleaseth;' Psal. cxv. 3. ' He worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will;' Eph. i. 11. That is his own law of operation, and the rule of righteousness unto others: working them agreeably to his own will, which he always must do, he is free from the obliquity of any action. What now is the rule of the sons of men? Why, the revealed will of God : ' Revealed things belong to us that we may do them ;' Deut. xxix. 29. God's revealed will is the rule of our walking, our working ; whatever suits not, answers not this, is evil. ' Sin is the transgression of the law ;' 1 John iii. 4. Here then conies in the deformity, the obliquity, the ataxy of any thing ; God works, and man worketh ; those agents have several rules. God works according to his rule, hence