A modell of divinitie, catechistically composed. Wherein is delivered the matter and method of religion, according to the creed, ten Commandements, Lords Prayer, and the Sacraments. By Iohn Yates, Bachelour in Diuinitie, and minister of Gods word in St Andrewes in Norvvich.

CHAPTER VI. Of the Greatnesse of God.

Question.

VVHat Attributes shew his Greatnesse?

Answere.

His vnitie, in regard of quantitie discret, Infinitenesse and eter∣nitie, in regard of quantitie continued: such is his Greatnesse, that he is that one most infinite and eternall. See now, that I, euen I am he, and there is no God with me;* 1.1 I lift vp my hand to heauen, and say, I liue for ever. In matter of life and death there is none comparable to the Almighty; all are but cyphers, that stand for a number with him, whose value and account is to be reckoned for nought. Let all proud Herods take heed, how they admit but the voyce of a God.* 1.2 As no wrong can escape him; so least of all those which are offred to his Maiesty: he that made the eare, needs no intelligence of the tongue. All haue to doe with a God, that is light of hearing; men cannot whisper any evill so secretly, that he should not cry out of noyse: and what

needs any other evidence, when the Iudge is the witnesse? And though some sinnes doe not ever looke the same way they moue; yet this single eyed God can easily distin∣guish betwixt the visor of actions, and the face: he there∣fore cannot want honour and patronage, that seekes the honour of this God.

Q. What is Gods Vnitie?

A. Whereby he being one in essence, is also one in number. Vnto thee it was shewed,* 1.3 that thou mightest know, that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him. Thou hast said the truth: for there is one God, and there is no other but he. Though many are called Gods, yet to vs there is but one God. Hence it follow∣eth that we need not be distracted in the worship of this our God. Let him carry vs which way hee will, make the passages never so troublesome and perillous, yet the same hand that makes them hard will make them sure, and if we be faithfull to him, he will master all difficulties for vs. O God as wee haue trusted thee with the beginning, so will wee trust thee with the finishing of our glory. And though never so many or maine hinderances of our saluation offer themselues, and after all our hopes, threaten to defeat vs, yet faithfull art thou that hast promised, which wilt also doe it. For how shouldst thou that art one in number and essence, be otherwise then thy selfe. All things doe turne vpon this poynt, and hasten to this center: if it were not for vnitie, multiplicitie would destroy it selfe. Nature will runne out of it selfe to doe homage to this vniforme crea∣tor. What ayled thee O Sea, that thou fleddest, and thou Iordan, that thou wast driuen backe? yee mountaines that yee leaped like Rammes, and yee little hills like Lombes? Surely, the earth trembled at thy presence O Lord; at the presence of the God of Iacob. It is naturall for the preservation of vnitie, for waight it selfe to ascend: how observant therefore ought all creatures be to him that made them? Alas, how could the rebellious Canaanites stand out against him, or his people, who the Seas and rivers gaue way vnto? With what ioy might Gods people trample vpon the dry chan∣nel

of Iordan, seeing behind them, Aegypt, the Sea, and wildernesse overcome, and before them the promised land so ready to entertaine them, that the very waters being glad of their comming, ranne backe to welcome them in∣to Canaan? O Lord, if thus thou be one, that all must yeeld, how great is this vnitie, making and comprehending all others? What a rowe of creatures follow thee, and what an Army doest thou lead? In spite of all Atheists, vnitie will Marshall all vnder thy colours; and let them die by Marshall law that dare once breake this ranke, and rebel∣liously set themselues against thee. There were no num∣bers if thou wert not first, and if there be many, thou art a God: No A theist in the world shall be able to phillip off this authoritie with disdaine. God is the first, because in nature one is before two, and must begin in the order of computation. Account the times, and tell mee who hath multiplied them? Thinke on the creatures, and shew me their beginning. I deeme, all dayes and deeds in their suc∣cession, will either proue nature a God, or a God of na∣ture. And if euery grape must haue his bush, and each suspi∣tion his prevention, let the Atheist take this answere. Na∣ture is res nata, a thing bred and borne of, or by another. Who is then this grand Parent of Nature? Your owne Poets haue told you, wee are his off-spring.* 1.4 The head of na∣ture is God, who of his owne will, of nothing begate all things: I say of his will, not of himselfe; for, so should he and all his creatures be simply one. And so wee should need no other reckoning, the number would be soone told. But he must be sedulous that will learne this secret, and by telling a multitude, or an heape of vnities, finde out one simply first. But why say I so, seeing two will proue one? let him then finde any number in being, and it will proue a God.

Q. What is Gods infinitenesse?

A. Whereby he is without all limits of essence. As Gods e∣ternitie riseth from this, that hee hath neither beginning nor ending: so his infinitenesse from this, that he hath nei∣ther

matter nor forme, which are the proper limites of essence; as being most essentiall to euery finite being. In∣deed the limitation of any cause, makes the effect finite. Gen. 1.2. the earth is said to be voyd and without forme. It was of nothing for matter, and it was all things for forme: yet wanting both these it was finite, as hauing his beginning and ending from God, who alone sits vpon the circle of it. Isa. 40.22. and aboue it stretcheth the heavens, inclosing both, being inclosed by neither. Psal. 147.5. The Lord is of great power, his vnderstanding is infinite. And here may we ever be striuing to perfection; and as the kine of the Philistimes, which drew the Arke of God, though they were milch, and had calues at home; the one to weaken them, the other to withdraw them: yet without turning to the right hand, or the left, they kept on their way, till they came to Bethshemesh: so, hauing once ioy∣ned our selues to the yoake of Christ, and drawing for∣ward towards this infinite essence, and the fruition of our blisse in him, let vs chearefully beare the Arke of his Law vpon our shoulders, in the way of holinesse, and in spite of all hinderances, keepe on in our tract, till wee bee gotten where our everlasting house and mansion is provided for vs, and that by the hands of this vnlimited God.

Q. What followes from hence?

A. First, The Immensitie of God, whereby he is without all dimensions, that is, of length, breadth, or thicknesse. Hee is higher then heaven, deeper then hell, longer then the earth, broader then the Sea, &c. Iob 11.8.9. Isa. 40.12. Ier. 23.23. A God at hand and a God a farre off. He that is freed from dimensions, may pierce and penetrate, enter and passe whither he pleaseth without probabilitie, or possibilitie of resistence. A sonne feeling the loue of his father, creepes neerer vnder his wings, or elbow: how easie is it for God to enter our stony and steely hearts, and draw them after him? They that resist the holy Ghost, doe it by gain-saying his word, not by frustrating his worke; for hee shall con∣uince the world. Io. 16.8. either to conversion, or confusion.

The altitude of pride, longitude of power, and profundi∣tie of policie are trampled vpon by God. Proud Belshaz∣zar (Dan. 5.27.) was weighed and found too light; Gods wand soone found him wanting; and alas, how easily did God penetrate the hard walls of his heart, to the horrour of his whole soule, and hastning of his death? Now as a Ship in the midst of a storme, tossed with tempests, and beaten on every side, with windes and waues, and dange∣rously driuen, not by direction of the Master, but by the fury of vnbridled violence; so, in this extraordinary agi∣tation, Reason, which is the Pilote, could beare no Rule; but affection and affliction, as a storme, tosse and driue him to vtter despaire. Thus all the wicked, whose hearts the Lord doth not pearse and boare by his word, he enters by force to stirre vp that raging Sea, whose waters foame no∣thing but mire and gravell. Isa. 57.20.

Q. What in the second place may be obserued?

A. His incomprehensiblenesse, whereby hee is without all li∣mits of place, and from this flowes his omnipresence, or vbi∣quitie, whereby he is wholly without and within all and e∣uery place, no where included, no where excluded; and that without all locall motion, or mutation of place. Hee fils al places without compression, or straitning of another, or the contraction, extension, condensation, or rarefaction of himselfe. A Candle may bee contracted for his light within the hand, or hatte, & extended to a whole roome. A spunge may be thrust into a narrow compasse, and yet by swelling fill a larger space. But God neither moues to come into any place as doe the Angels, or standing still, fills it by thrusting out another, as liquor into a vessell; or else in larging and contracting himselfe like light; or by any thickning or thinning of pores, and parts, as Ice and wa∣ter, &c. but purely, and simply, by his essence and presence is euery where. 1. Ksng. 8.27. Psal. 139.7. Isa. 66.1. Ier. 23.23.24. Act. 17.27. By this it appeares, that no place can hinder God from doing vs good. Distance, or difficultie may be impediments to all the creatures to stay their helpe,

but God at a blush fills all places, to comfort or confound, as it pleaseth him. He moueth, or changeth all things, without eyther motion, or change in himselfe; who is in euery place present, in euery place intire; within all things, and contained in nothing; without all things, and sustained by nothing; but containeth, sustaineth, and maintaineth all things. O infinite goodnesse, passing all humane both search and sight; thou both fillest and includest all things; thou art in euery place present, without either seat, or mo∣tion. Giue me therefore grace, that in all places I may both feare, and feele thy power.

Q. What is Gods eternitie?

A. That whereby he is before and after all, not beings: that is, not onely the world, but the very nothing of it. Reason will teach me that nothing was before the world, and that nothing may be after it: but it cannot teach mee any such apprehension before or after God. For I cannot so much as conceiue a nothing, before an absolute being: the rea∣son is because nothing is apprehended by way of contra∣rietie to something. Psal. 90.2. Before the mountaines were made, &c. God is not onely before the creature, but the making of it, and that from an everlasting before it, to an everlasting after it. Psal. 139.16. God sees the creature in his non entitie, or nothing. Isa. 57.15. He inhabiteth eterni∣tie. 1. Tim. 1.17. The King of ages. Heb. 1.2. The maker of times. The Hebrew word comes of a roote, to he hid, because there is no knowledge where to beginne or end. Alas, how doe wee affect a thousand things that cannot be effected; miserably afflicting the soule because they are wanting. And of all things wee doe obtaine, the pleasure doth forth with eyther vanish, or cloy; they doe no more satisfie the appetite, then salt water quencheth thirst. One∣ly this eternall God giues it all contentment. Eternitie is eyther an admirable blessing, or a miserable curse. If all the punishments of hell were no greater then the stinging of Gnatts, perpetuity is enough to make them intolerable. Oh, how grievous shall it bee to the damned, to thinke,

that after millions of ages, the shall bee so farre eyther from end, or from ease, as they were the first day of their beginning. In life there is some ease, and in death an end: but here the wicked shall neither haue end, nor ease. So long as God shall liue, so long shall the damned die; and when he shall cease to be happy, then shall they also cease to bee miserable.

Q. What followes from hence?

A. That God is without all limites of time past, present,* 1.5 or to come. And yet he is at all times, but without respect of time. And therefore cannot be subiect to any mutation, or alte∣ration of time, as to be young, or old; but is an everlasting and immortall God before, and after all times, and in all times, for ever and ever. Iob 36.26. Psal. 92.7.8. and 102.26.27 Isa. 41.4. and 43.10.11. Ier. 10.10.1. Tim. 1.17. Some things haue no beginning, and yet an end, as Gods decrees. Some-things a beginning, and no ending, as An∣gels; some things both beginning and ending, as all sub∣lunary creatures: God alone hath neither beginning nor ending. All creatures haue a lasting: Angels an out-lasting; God an ever-lasting. O that true loue like a strong streame, which the further it is from this head of eternitie, would runne vnto it with greater violence. Alas, that ever so ma∣ny cold windes of temptation, should blow betwixt God and our hearts, to make our affections cooler vnto him. What dull mettall is this wee are made of? Wee haue the fountaine of felicitie and eternitie, and yet complaine of want and wearinesse. Doe wee freeze in the fire, and starue at a feast? Haue wee God to enioy, and yet pine and hang downe the head? Let me die if ever I envie their happines that ioy in red and whie Crosses, a vaine title, daintie dishes. Gold is that which the basest elements yeelds, the most savage Indians get; servile Apprentises worke, Mi∣dianitish Camels carry, miserable worldlings admire, cove∣tous Iewes swallow, vnthriftie Ruffians spend. Let me haue my God, and let me never want him, till I envie them. So shall my ioyes be lasting, when this transitory trash

shall leaue them. Goe then thou miscreant, that can take more pleasure in a kite, a dogge, a boune and base compa∣nion, then in the liuing God. An Hauke becomes thy fist better then a Bible, and euery dung hill trifle, then this du∣ring Deitie. O the vnsavory foode of fooles, to the taste of any wise man: I can but wonder how any should be so idle, hauing so fayre meanes to purchase better things: but I must conclude them amongst Salomons fooles, who hauing a price in their hands, haue no hearts to get wisedome.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Deut. 32.39.
• * 1.2

  Act 12.22.23.
• * 1.3

  Deut. 4.35. Mar. 12.32. 1. Cor. 8.4.5.6.
• * 1.4

  Act. 17.28.
• * 1.5

  Rev. 1.8. 2. Pot. 3.8.