God, we ought to fix this as the main and fundamental rule of our thoughts, that he hath no will to choose, or power to act, but what are in perfect subjection to infinite wisdom, and justice, and goodness; and this will secure our minds from all those rigid and sour apprehensions of him, which by reflecting on his moral perfections do him the greatest dishonour, and represent him the most disadvantageously to mankind.

VI. And lastly, it is also necessary that in conceiving of the perfections of God, we always suppose them exactly harmonious and consistent with each other. For all perfections of being, so far forth as they are perfections, are consistent with each other, and, like straight lines drawn from the same centre, run on together without crossing or interfering. For there is nothing contrary to perfection but imperfection, and there is no disagreement but what arises from contrariety. When therefore we conceive of the perfections of God, we must so conceive of them, as that there may be no manner of inconsistency or disagreement between them, otherwise we must admit into our conceptions of them something or other that is defective or imperfect. As for instance, in God there is infinite wisdom and infinite justice, infinite goodness and infinite mercy; wherefore, if we would conceive aright of these his glorious perfections, we must take care not to admit any notion of any one of them that renders it repugnant to any other, but so to conceive of them all together as that they may mutually accord and agree with each other. For while we apprehend his goodness to be such as that it will not accord with his wisdom, we must either suppose his wisdom to be craft,

or his goodness to be folly; and whilst we apprehend his mercy to be such as that it will not agree with his justice, we must either suppose his justice to be cruelty, or his mercy to be blind pity and fondness: and it is certain, that that goodness cannot be a perfection which exceeds the measures of wisdom, nor that mercy neither which transgresses the bounds of justice; and so on the contrary. For if either God's goodness excludes his wisdom, or his wisdom his goodness, if either his mercy swallow up his justice, or his justice his mercy, there is an apparent repugnance and contrariety between them; and where there is a contrariety there must be imperfection in one or the other, or both.

Wherefore, if we would apprehend them all together, as they truly are in God, that is, under the notion of perfections, we must so conceive of them as that in all respects they may be perfectly consistent and harmonious; as that his wisdom may not clash with his goodness, nor his goodness with his wisdom; as that his mercy may not justle with his justice, nor his justice with his mercy: that is, we must conceive him to be as wise as he can be with infinite goodness, as good as he can be with infinite wisdom, as just as he can be with infinite mercy, and as merciful as he can be with infinite justice; which is to be wise, and good, and just, and merciful, so far as it is a perfection to be so. For to be wise beyond what is good, is craft; to be good beyond what is wise, is dotage; to be just beyond what is merciful, is rigour; to be merciful beyond what is just, is easiness; that is, they are all imperfection, so far as they are beyond what is perfect. Wherefore we ought to be very careful not to represent

these his moral perfections as running atilt at one another, but to conceive of them all together as one entire perfection, which though, like the centre of a circle, it hath many lines drawn from it round about, and so is looked upon sometimes as the term of this line, and sometimes of that, yet is but one common and undivided term to them all: or, to speak more plainly, though it exerts itself in different ways and actions, and operates diversely, according to the diversities of its objects, and accordingly admits of divers names, such as wisdom, goodness, justice, and mercy; yet is in itself but one simple and indivisible principle of action, all whose operations, how diverse soever, are such as perfectly accord with each other, whose acts of wisdom are all infinitely good, whose acts of goodness are all infinitely wise, whose acts of justice are infinitely merciful, and whose acts of mercy are infinitely just; so that in this, as well as in their extension and degrees, they are all most perfect, viz. that they always operate with mutual consent and in perfect harmony. And while we thus conceive of the divine perfections, our minds will be mightily secured against all those false apprehensions of God which lead to superstition and presumption; for we shall so apprehend his wisdom and justice as not to be superstitiously afraid; and so apprehend his goodness and mercy as not to be presumptuously secure; and as on the one hand his justice will protect his mercy from being abused by our wanton security, so on the other hand his goodness will protect his wisdom from being misrepresented by our anxious suspicion. For while we consider his mercy thus tempered with his justice, and his wisdom with his goodness, we can neither expect

impunity from the one, if we continue wicked, nor yet suspect any ill design against us in the other, if we return from our evil ways, and persevere in well-doing.

SECT. III.

Of the causes of our misapprehensions of God.

I NOW proceed to the last thing I proposed, which

was to assign and remove the causes of men's misapprehensions of God; many of which are so secret and obscure, so peculiar to the frame and temper of men's brains, so interwoven with the infinite varieties of human constitutions, that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to trace them so as to make an exact enumeration of them all; and therefore I shall only assign the most common and visible causes by which the generality of men are misled in their apprehensions of the divine nature, which are reducible to these six heads:

First, Ignorance of what is the true perfection of

our own nature.

Secondly, Framing our notions of God according to the model of our own humour and temper.

Thirdly, Obstinate partiality to our own sinful lusts and affections.

Fourthly, Measuring God's nature by particular providences.

Fifthly, Taking up our notions of God from the obscure and particular passages, and not from the plain and general current of scripture.

Sixthly, Indevotion.

I. One great cause of our misapprehensions of God is, ignorance of what is the true perfection of our own natures. For, as I shewed before, in con

ceiving of the perfections of God, we must take our rise from those perfections that we behold in his creatures; and particularly in our own natures, wherein there is a composition of all created perfections: so that while we are ignorant of what is the true perfection of our own natures, our thoughts can have no rule or aim whereby to judge of God's. That he hath all those perfections in himself which he hath derived to us, is the fundamental maxim upon which we are to erect our notions of him; and therefore, unless we know what those perfections are which he hath derived to us, and wherein they consist, our mind hath no footing or foundation whereon to raise any certain idea of him. For since we have no other way to conceive of his affectionsb but by our own, how is it possible that while we are ignorant of our own, we should ever conceive aright of his? This therefore is one great reason why men do so grossly misconceive of God, because they have no true notion of their own perfection, by which they are to form their conceptions of his.

For whereas the true perfection of human nature consists in moral goodness, or an universal compliance of its will, affections, and actions, with those everlasting laws of righteousness which right reason prescribes, how many are there that look upon this as a very mean and carnal accomplishment, and place all their perfection in things of a quite different nature, viz. in the ebbs and flows of their sensitive passions, and the extraordinary fermentations of their blood and spirits; that is to say, in unaccountable dejections and exaltations of mind, in vehement impressions of fancy, and mechanical movements of affection, in raptures and ecstasies, and hyb Query perfections.