Classic Audiobook Collection - The Incomparableness of God by George Swinnock ~ Full Audiobook [religion]

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

The Incomparableness of God by George Swinnock audiobook. Genre: religion In The Incomparableness of God, Puritan pastor George Swinnock unfolds Psalm 89:6 as a searching meditation on the question, Who can be compared to the Lord? With pastoral warmth and careful reasoning, Swinnock leads the listener through a sustained exploration of Gods unmatched being, his glorious attributes, his mighty works, and his authoritative word. He lingers over Gods self-existence and independence, his perfection and unchangeableness, and his infinity beyond all creaturely limits. From there he turns to the moral beauty of Gods holiness, the steadiness of his faithfulness, and the tenderness of his mercy and patience, pressing each truth from the mind down into daily life. Swinnock also considers Gods works in creation and providence, and the wonder of redemption, showing how divine greatness is displayed not only in power but in wisdom and purpose. Throughout, the book confronts the seriousness of sin as contempt toward an incomparable God, while offering strong comfort to those who seek communion with him and learn to love him above all else. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:11:52) Chapter 01 (00:23:02) Chapter 02 (00:30:21) Chapter 03 (00:38:43) Chapter 04 (00:51:32) Chapter 05 (00:59:38) Chapter 06 (01:12:33) Chapter 07 (01:43:39) Chapter 08 (01:57:56) Chapter 09 (02:11:47) Chapter 10 (02:19:21) Chapter 11 (02:40:12) Chapter 12 (02:50:49) Chapter 13 (03:00:22) Chapter 14 (03:14:25) Chapter 15 (03:26:48) Chapter 16 (03:37:10) Chapter 17 (03:46:11) Chapter 18 (04:00:49) Chapter 19 (04:19:22) Chapter 20 (04:28:57) Chapter 21 (04:52:54) Chapter 22 (05:14:19) Chapter 23 (05:26:19) Chapter 24 (05:41:42) Chapter 25 (06:04:14) Chapter 26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The incomparableness of God by George Swinick. To the worshipful Henry Ashurst, Jr. Asquire, and to the Honourable Lady Diana Ashurst, his religious consort. Such is the excellency of the soul of man that the very heathen, whose souls were almost wholly immersed in Greece and sensuality, and served but as salt to preserve their bodies for a time from putrefaction, according to the opinion of one of the most ingenious among them, have acknowledged it a divine plant,

a drop of the ocean of being, a ray of a deity, and the body but the case or cabinet of this jewel. The dim rush-light of nature hath enabled some of them to discern the spirituality, quick, comprehensive, self-reflective motions, and immortality of their specific forms, as they called their souls, and thence to conclude their worth and nobleness, but the clear sunlight of Scripture advantageseth unto a fuller discovery of its excellency. It shows us its original that it is of celestial extraction created immediately by the Father of Lights, a beam of the Son of righteousness, a bubble of the fountain of life, of a much higher descent than the house of clay and earthly tabernacle the body, Genesis 2 verse 7, Hebrews 12 verse 9,

Zechariah 12 verse 1. It acquaints us with its duration that it runs parallel with the line of eternity and swallows up years and ages and generations and thousands of thousands and millions of millions, as small drops and minutes and nothings in the bottomless ocean and endlessness of its abode and continuance. When the body like the sacrifice falleth to the earth and is turned into ashes, the soul like the flame aspires and ascendeth to God. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7, Philippians 1 verse 23, Matthew 10, verse 28, chapter 22 versus 31 and 32. It manifesteth the soul's capacity, how no being is accepted from its consideration, all are within its compass and horizon, it can view every being with its intellectual

eye. It is not bounded with corporeal beings, nor limited with material objects, nor circumscribed with created essences, but is capable of apprehending the first cause, the being of beings, the original of all things. It is able not only to retrospect upon its own motions, and to survey the several parts and ranks and orders and rarities and delicacies and excellencies of the earth and this sublunary world, but also to ascend to the highest heavens, and behold the beautiful face of the blessed God, till it hath looked itself into the very likeness, and thereby rendered itself fit and meet for his dearest love, and thereby rendered itself fit and meet for his dearest love and eternal embraces.

The Excellency of Our Souls Doth eminently appear in its receptiveness of the divine image Great princes do not stamp their image on mean things As brass and pewter But on the most excellent metals as silver and gold Ephesians 4 verses 23 and 24 Colossians 3 verse 10 Genesis 1 verse 26

And its capableness of enjoying immediately the blessed God To stand before kings Doth both speak and make a person honorable and worthy Proverbs 22 verse 29 God alone is the fountain of honour and the standard of excellency Isaiah 43 verse 5 Every being is his coin

And he stamberth on it The rate it shall go at The holiness and happiness Of the rational creature Consisteth in these two His holiness in conformity to God His happiness in communion with him And these two have a dependence

On each other They only who are like him Can enjoy him If we say we have fellowship with him And walk in darkness we lie and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1.1. 6. Holiness or the image of God is not only an indispensable condition, without which no man shall enjoy God. Hebrews 12, verse 14, John 3, 3, but with all an absolutely necessary disposition, without which no man can enjoy God.

Colossians 1 verse 12, 2 Corinthians 5. And as conformity disposeth for communion, so communion increases conformity. Vision causeth assimilation in nature. Genesis 31, 1 verses 38 and 39, grace, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18, and Glory, 1 John 3 verse 2. Though the motions of the understanding and will are in some respect circular, yet the understanding is the first mover and the leading faculty, and so the knowledge of the blessed God is both antecedent too and productive of this image. Though the knowledge of creatures puffeth up, polluteth and so debaseth and destroyeth the soul, sinking at the deeper into hell as a vessel laden with silver and gold and the most

precious commodities. When it miscarrieth, sinketh the deeper for its weight and burden. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1, Luke 12, verses 47 and 48. Yet the knowledge of God is humbling, advancing, purifying, and saving. Job chapter 42, 2 Peter 3, verse 18. John 17 verse 3. The incomparable excellency of the boundless, blessed God is the subject of this treatise, which I present to you both as a testimony of the honour and service I owe to you, and of my desire to be instrumental for your spiritual and eternal good. The subject is the highest imaginable, and though the manner of handling it be plain and ordinary, and infinitely below and unbecoming the divine majesty, for who can express his noble acts, or display all his praise, Psalm 106 verse 2, yet the matter of it

doth deserve and may prevail for your acceptance of it. If knowledge be the excellency of a man, and differenceeth him from a beast. Surely then, divine knowledge, or the knowledge of God in Christ, is the excellency of a Christian, and differenceeth him from other men. Our oar of, love to, and trust in the divine majesty are founded in the right knowledge of him. Creatures, the more they are known, the less they are esteemed, but the more the blessed God is known, the more he is prized, desired, and obeyed. Psalm 73, verse 25, Psalm 76, verse 7, Psalm 90 verse 11, Psalm 9 verse 10 Our hatred of sin and contempt of the world

proceed from our acquaintance with God He only hath hateful thoughts of sin And self-loathing apprehensions because of it Who hath seen the great and glorious The good and gracious God Whose authority is contempt Whose law is violated Whose name is dishonored

Whose image is defaced And whose love is abused by it Job 42 verse 6 Isaiah 6 verse 5 He only lives above this present evil world and all the riches and honours and pleasures thereof, who can look beyond it to the infinite God, and those unsearchable riches and weights of glory,

and rivers of pleasures that are in and with him. That which was rich and glorious and pleasant to a soul before, hath now no worth, no glory, no pleasure, by reason of that wealth and glory and pleasure, which doth so infinitely exceed. When the God of Glory appeared to Abraham, he quickly and quietly left his country and kindred, and followed God, not knowing whether he went,

Genesis 12 verses 1 and 2 Acts 7 verse 3 If the glory of God appear to your souls You will soon wink upon these withering vanities Broken cisterns and gilded nothings And count them all but dung and dross For the excellency of the knowledge of Him in Christ You have begun well Go on and persevere in well-doing

I shall give you the same counsel Which the Holy Apostle giveth to those Of whom he was persuaded That they had those things which accompanied salvation Hebrews 6 verse 9 Take heed Lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief whereby ye should depart away from the living God

Hebrews 3 verse 12 Look diligently, lest you should fail of the grace of God Hebrews 12 verse 15 When false coin is common abroad We are the more careful what money we take When much false grace is up and down amongst us And so many please themselves with their profession Or spiritual privileges or sacred performances

or siding with this or that party and form of worship, or the respect and repute they have with others, it concerns you to be the more suspicious of yourselves, lest you should fail of that grace of God which conformeth the heart to the nature and the life to the will and law of God. Sir, you are descended of a worthy, ancient and religious family. Your grandfather, as I have heard, was eminent for holiness. Your father is noted and honoured for one that feareth God above many. you have hereby the more encouragement, advantage and engagement to exercise yourself to godliness. Tamerlane made it his practice to read often the heroic deeds of his progenitors,

not as proud of them or boasting in them, but as glorious patterns, to inflame his soul with a love of their virtues. Man is a creature that is led more by the eye than the ear, by patterns than by precepts, and no patterns are more prevalent than those whom nature and grace oblige us to esteem and effect. These examples, above all others, as flaming beacons on a hill, call us to a stout defense of virtue when it is invaded by its enemies. Alexander, finding one of his name cowardly, charged him to change his name or to become valiant. When one of the Sisypos, descended of Sissopo Afrikanus, became dissolute, the Roman Senate ordered him to put off that ring which he wore as a badge of his noble family, because by his vicious life he was a reproach to it. The truth is, a wicked son of a godly father as Uriah carries letters of his own condemnation about him,

causing the patterns and precepts of his family to be auxiliaries to his own reproach and infamy, whilst the light and lustre of his ancestors renders his works of darkness the more gross and palpable. I mention not these things as suspecting your integrity, but to provoke and quicken you to the greater care and circumspection in your carriage and conversation. Madam, your both is honourable, but such honour without holiness extends not beyond the meridian of this world. Grace only is eternal glory. That honour which is woven in the finest tapestries of earthly privileges will lose colour and fade away, but the knowledge of God is a possession for ever.

Nobility by parents is but nobility by parchment, and that is but skin deep at most, and will waste with time. Godliness alone is that nobility which no age, can consume, and which will run parallel with the line of eternity. The whole earth hath not a pleasanter sight than greatness, joined with goodness. Greatness itself is venerable, but goodness joined with it, addeth a new splendor and lustre to it, as a sparkling diamond set in a gold ring. It attracteth the eyes, and challengeth a greater reverence and respect from all. Evil greatness is a swelling dropsy, a disease of the body politic, as intolerable a burden as the earth groans under. But grace and virtue are the

more excellent and amiable by the greatness of the person in whom they dwell. It will be your crown and credit to prefer God before the world to esteem holiness as the only beauty and a title to the covenant as the only riches of your immortal soul. You have both near and dear relations whose hearts will rejoice in your perseverance and progress in the ways of God's commandments. That you may be helps to each other in the best things, provoke one another to love and to good works, live long together on earth, and forever together in heaven is the prayer of your servant in the Lord, George Swinick. End of the Epistle Dedicatory. Chapter 1 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevonk's recording is in the public domain. The preface and meaning of the text.

The incomparableness of God in his being attributes works and word. For who in the the heavens can be compared to the Lord, who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord. Psalm 89 verse 6. It is certain that our happiness in the other world will consist in part in our perfect knowledge of the blessed and boundless God. When we shall know him as we are known of him, we shall be blessed as he is, and when we shall see him as he is, we shall be like him in purity and felicity. We shall be fully satisfied with his likeness and his love. rich must be the delight which the most large and noble faculty of man his understanding shall receive in its intimate acquaintance with and clear and full apprehension of the highest truth and it is as certain that our holiness in this world doth not a little depend upon the knowledge of him whose name alone is excellent none wander from him prefer the flesh and world before him and in their whole lives walk contrary to him but from their ignorance of him

They are estranged from the life of God, i.e. a spiritual heavenly conversation, through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts, Ephesians 4 verse 18. Dark corners of a house are filled with dust, dark cellars with vermin, and dark hearts with cursed lusts. None are enlarged in desires after God, or ravished with delight in God, or can cast their souls and all their concerns on God, but those that are acquainted with him. They who know his beauty and bounty cannot but love him, and they who know his power and faithfulness cannot but trust him. They who know thy name will put their trust in thee, Psalm 9 verse 10.

Whence comes it to pass that believers can trample on the riches and treasures and wealth of this beggarly world, that they can lay their white and yellow earth, their silver and gold at the apostles' feet, that they can suffer the spoiling of their goods, not only patiently but joyfully, Hebrews 10 verse 34. but from the knowledge of him whose true riches, Luke 16 verse 11, substance, Proverbs 8, verse 21, an enduring substance, Job 10 verse 34, a bottomless mine of unsearchable riches, Ephesians 3 verse 8. Whence is it that they can refuse to be called the sons of king's daughters, that they can contem honours and performance, spurn crowns and sceptres under their feet,

but from the knowledge of him who is their crown of glory, their diadem of renown, and the praise of all his saints, Hebrews 11, verses 24 and 25. That which to the sensual worldling is so glorious, hath no glory in the believers' eye, by reason of the Lord of Glory, who doth so infinitely excel. Whence is it, that they can hate father, mother, wife, child, liberty, yea, life itself, and leave all at the call and command of their maker, but from the knowledge of him who is, as Elkanah said to Hannah,

better to them than ten sons than all relations than the whole creation. Those stars vanish and disappear when once the son of righteousness ariseeth. How quickly, how quietly, without any hesitancy, will Abraham leave his country and kindred and father's house when once the god of glory appeareth to him, Acts 9 verses 2 to 4? In a word, whence is it that they escape the pollutions of the world, in which others are mired, drowned and destroyed, but through the knowledge. of God to Peter 2 verse 20. Well, may our Lord Jesus

say, it is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. To know God affectionately, as our chiefest good, so as to give him our superlative esteem and intensest love is spiritual life here in the habit or principle

as also in the act and exercise of it, and it is the beginning, seed, preparation and way of our eternal life hereafter. But who can know that being? which infinitely passeth all knowledge. He that would know God fully must be God himself, and he who would tell you what God is, in any measure answerable to His Excellency, at need to know him as he is known of him. And supposing I were able to speak of the perfection

of God is one that, like the great apostle, had been caught up into the third heavens, I question whether if I had a tongue to speak of him after that manner, ye had ears to hear of him, or hearts to understand what I should speak. But though I am not able to speak, nor you to hear of God according to his perfection, yet through the assistance of the Holy Ghost, so much may be spoken and heard of him, as may tend to our present sanctification and future salvation, though we cannot see him as he is, yet we may see him as he is not. Though the height of his being be above the reach of our understandings, we may get somewhat nearer to him, and indeed we have no other way while we are here than by climbing upon the

shoulders of all created excellencies, and they are proclaiming, that none in the heavens is to be compared to the Lord, that none among the sons of the mighty is like unto the Lord. In the words, the psalmist compareth God with, and prefereth God before, the highest, the greatest in heaven and earth. In the words, we have a comparison and a prelation. One, a comparison, and this is between God and those that are most excellent in heaven and the mightiest on earth. Two, a prelation, or preferring God before. whatsoever is excellent in heaven or earth. The interrogation is a strong negation, as is frequent in scripture. Proverbs 20 verse 9, who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin,

i.e. none can say, I have made my heart clean, or am pure from my sin. So, Exodus 15, verse 11, Who is like to thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like to thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. That is none is like thee among the gods. None is so glorious in holiness, so fearful in praises, such a wonder-working God as thou art. Thus the psalmist understandeth the text, for who in the heavens is to be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord, i.e. none in the heavens, none among the sons of the mighty on earth, is comparable to Jehovah. I shall first give you the meaning of the words, and then lay down the doctrine, which will be the foundation of my discourse on the subject.

4. This causal particle gives the reason why saints and angels should join together in the praise of God. The heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints, for who in the heavens is to be compared to the Lord, verse 5. By the heavens, Calvin understandeth the holy angels who rejoice in the church's welfare and bless God for preserving his people and performing his promises to them. and it is apparent by the Apostle that angels are present in the congregation of the saints on Corinthians 11 verse 11 and so this text addeth another ground for their admiration of the great God viz his incomparable excellency his high and matchless perfections call for high and matchless

praises others take the text as a ground for the confirmation of the psalmist's faith in the covenant God made with him mentioned verse 3 and 4 namely God's superiority over angels in heaven and men on earth, therefore they cannot hinder him in the accomplishment of his word being infinitely inferior to him. Who in the heavens? Who in the sky? Ainsworth reads it. In the clouds, in nubibus, o'e quabitur.

It is to be equaled, saith Calvin, to Jehovah. Quis enim in the superiore nube par oestim metor, Jehovah. Who in the higher clouds is equal to Jehovah, so Tremel reads it. Who in the heaven. i.e. say some in the starry heavens, among the celestial bodies, sun, moon or stars, which were adored as gods not only by the Persians, but also by some idolatrous Jews, because of their brightness and beauty, their luster and glory. Which of all those famous lamps and heavenly luminaries is to be compared with the Father of Lights and Son of righteousness. They may glister like

glowworms in the night of paganism, among them who are covered with the mantle of darkness, but when this sun arises and day appeareth they all vanish and disappear. Who in the heavens, i.e. say others, in the heaven of heavens, the highest, the third heavens, among the celestial spirits, cherubims and seraphims, angels and archangels, principalities and powers, thrones and dominions, who among the innumerable company of angels, who among those pure, those perfect spirits, who are the ancientest, the honourablest house of the creation, is to be compared to the father of spirits. Though angels are glorious creatures considered simply and in themselves, in respect to their power, wisdom, purity and beauty, yet if they be considered comparatively with the blessed God, I may say of them as the apostle doth of the Jewish worship, which was glorious, by reason of its divine institution, in comparison with the Christian worship, to Corinthians 3 verse 10, even that which was glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth.

is to be compared to Jehovah, is to be likened to Jehovah, is to be equaled to Jehovah, is to be put in the scales and worthy to be weighed with Jehovah, that being of beings, that God of gods. To Jehovah, this name Jehovah is the chief and most proper name of God. It is derived from Haidae, fuid, and signifeth that being which was is to come, which is always the same and the cause of all other beings, Revelation 1.5. 1 verses 4 and 6, Psalm 102 verse 28, Acts 17 verse 28, and which gives a being to his word and promises. In heaven there is among glorious angels no such being. Who among the sons of the mighty?

Indair filios fortium. Who among the sons of the strong, Junius reads it. Among the sons of the gods, saith Calvin, so the 70 read it, and understand with the Caldi paraphrase, angels who are called sons of God. Job 1 verse 6, chapter 38 verse 7. But we, having understood angels, the best and highest in heaven by the first interrogation, who in the heavens is to be compared to the Lord, it may be most convenient to understand in this place by sons of the mighty, the best and highest on earth, the greatest and most gracious

princes and potentates, which are higher by head and shoulders than others. These are called gods and sons of the most high or almighty, Psalm 82 verse 6, and hereby the prophet challengeeth both worlds heaven and earth to bring forth any that may equal or compare with Jehovah. Can be likened to the Lord. Is such a being as he is, can speak or act as he doth, is in any respect worthy to be named with him. End of chapter 1.

Chapter 2 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevalk's recording is in the public domain. God is incomparable, one in his being. The doctrine which I shall raise out of the words is this, that God is incomparable, or that there is none among the highest, the holiest in heaven or earth, like unto Jehovah. Take the greatest, the most excellent of beings in this or the other world, yet they come infinitely short of this being of beings. Psalm 86-8, among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord.

Mark the Samest doth not choose a weak adversary for God to contend with and conquer, but the strongest. He doth not compare God with the meanest and lowest, but even with the highest, and prefers God before them. Among the gods there is none like unto thee a Lord. One, among those that are called gods by unjust usurpation, as evil angels are, who are called the princes of the powers of the air, Ephesians 2 verse 2, and the gods of this world, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4, or as Antichrist, who exalteth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped, so that he, as God siteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, to Thessalonians 2 verse 4.

Among these there is none like unto thee, O Lord. These unclean beasts are unworthy to be mentioned with the High, the Holy God. 2. Among those that are gods by men's erroneous persuasions and opinions as idols, and those deities which the heathen worship, there is none like to thee, O Lord. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands, They have mouth, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see not.

They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they through their throats. Psalm 115 verses 4 to 7. Idels are the work of the creatures, and their makers are infinitely below the creator. Therefore they themselves are much more.

We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one, 1 Corinthians 8 verse 4. Though an idol be somewhat materially, yet it is nothing formally, as to the intent or purpose for which it is worshipped. 3. Among those that are guards by divine ordination as angels, Psalm 8 verse 5, magistrates, Psalm 82 verse 6, who have the image of a deity stamped on them in their authority and

dominion over others, none is to be compared to Jehovah. These are gods by derivation, by deputation, as subordinate magistrates are commissioned are commissionedated by the supreme and have a beam of his power communicated to them, but still remain weak creatures, limited by his precepts and liable to his judgment. So angels and kings have some impression of a deity on them, but their power is derivative from God and limited by his will. Yea, their essence is from him, their subsistence is by him, and their dependence is every moment upon him.

Hence he is called the Most High, Psalm 112 verse 1, O thou most high. Kings and princes are high, angels and archangels are higher, but Jehovah only is the most high. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 8. He that is higher than the highest considereth. For the explication of this doctrine, the truth of it will be evident if we consider the true God and compare him with the highest and most excellent in heaven and earth. One in his being, two in his attributes, three in his works, four in his word. 1. God is incomparable in his being. God hath not only a being but an excellency in his being. Therefore he is called His excellency. Should not His excellency make you afraid? Job 13, verse 11. And he has said alone to be excellent. Thy name alone is excellent. Psalm 148 verse 13. By name is meant sometimes anything whereby God makes himself known, Exodus 20 verse 7. But here, the being of God or God himself as provoste. verbs 18 verse 10, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, i.e. God himself is a strong tower. Psalm 76 verse 1. His name is great in Israel, i.e. the being of the great God is magnified in his church, or among his chosen. Now his being alone is excellent because there is no such being as his, there is no such being excellent besides his, because there is no being excellent like his. He is excellent in all, above all and beyond all. His being is such a being. He is such a being.

that he alone is, and all besides, are non-entities, and no beings in comparison of him. His name speaks the incomparable nature of his being, and God said unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent thee. I am, I, being that really is, beside whom there is none, hath sent thee. What prince, what potentate, can say I am, what angel, what archangel can say I am. No, this is the proper name of Jehovah. Therefore, when he promiseth himself to be the reward of his people, he doth promise himself under the notion of essence, being, substance, in opposition to all others, which are but shadows

and nothings to him. Proverbs 2 verse 7, he layeth up sound wisdom. Hebrew Essentium, essence, for the righteous. Proverbs 8, verse 21, I will cause them that love me to inherit substance. Junius reads it, Oth posidant, it cost es. I will cause them that love me to possess that which is. God is and all other beings are not in comparison of him. Daniel 4 verse 35, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. God is and all others are nothing, yea, if it were possible to apprehend it, less than nothing. It is a notable expression of the Holy Ghost to set forth the excellency of God's being

and the pitifulness, meanness, and nothingness of all other beings. Isaiah 40, verse 15 to 17. behold a note of attention and admiration the nations the chaldeans that are our lords and masters or all nations of the world be they never so high great strong or glorious are as the drop of a bucket which falleth from the bucket or hangeth on it when the water is poured out yet diminishes not the measure and the small dust of the balance which cleaveth to the scales when the spices put out yet altareth not the weight it is so little behold wonder be amazed at he taketh up the isles, the great, large, vast islands of the world, as a very little thing, as poor, small, inconsiderable things. All nations before him are as nothing. Not only the great islands, but also the continents, with the several innumerable creatures in them, are not only little to this God, but as nothing, as no being to his being, and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. Put them in the scales with God, and they are not only light, and without any

wait, nothing at all, but if men were capable of conceiving anything less than nothing, such were all the world to God. Though the world be absolutely somewhat, yea, very great, yet comparatively to God it is nothing, less than nothing and vanity. End of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevonk's recording is in the public domain. The incomparableness of God in his being. It is from itself. for itself and wholly independent. The incomparableness of the divine being will appear in several particulars.

One, his being is from himself. No being in the world beside his is its own cause or original. Angels, men, the highest, yea the lowest creatures are derivative beings. They have what they are from another, even from God. They are drops that flow from the ocean of all beings. They are rays derived from the sun,

the fountain of light and entity. The Apostle tells us that men are beholden to God for their beings, Acts 17, verse 28. In him we have our beings. They were nothing till he spake them into something. He formed and fashioned their bodies, Psalm 139 verses 13 to 15. He created and infused their souls. He put that heaven-born inhabitant into the house of clay. Genesis 2 verse 7, Job 10, verses 11 and 12.

The whole visible world is his workmanship, Acts 17 verse 24. God that made the world and all things therein, the invisible world, are also the effects of his powerful word. Angels as well as men may thank him for what they are. The greatest angel is as much bound to him for his being as the smallest atom. Colossians 1 verse 16, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. But God is beholden to none for his being. He was when none else was, even from eternity.

Psalm 110 verse 1. Therefore none could contribute the least to his being. I am Jehovah and there is none else besides me, Isaiah 45 verses 5 and 6. I am he that giveth a being to himself, that am what I am from myself and of myself, and there is no such being beside me. 2. God is being and that for himself. As he is his own first cause, so he is his own last end. As he is holy from himself, so he is holy for himself.

All other beings are not for themselves but for another. All things were created by him and for him, Colossians 1 verse 16. Since all are from God, it is but reason that all should be for God. The rivers that run from the sea return to the sea again, owning and acknowledging their original. Ecclesiastes 1 verse 7. Good men are for God.

None of us liveth to himself or dieth to himself, but whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die we die unto the Lord, and whether we live or die we are the Lord's. Romans 14 verse 7. Good angels are for God for His glory. Isaiah 6 verse 3. Evil men, evil angels are for God,

though not in their intentions and purposes, yet in his intention and by his wise, powerful government of them and their practices. Proverbs 16 verse 4. The Lord made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of slaughter. Good beings are for him intentionally and evil beings are for him eventually. Nay, all beings are for him, of him and through him, and for him are all things. Romans 11 verse 36. But God is altogether for himself, and God is altogether for himself, and,

as his highest end and not for any others. He is his own end as well as his own beginning. Who never had a beginning nor shall ever have an end, Revelation 1 verse 8. As all God doth is for himself, Revelation 4 verse 11, thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. So all God is is for himself. He is infinite, wise, almighty, everlasting, unchangeable, holy, righteous, faithful being, is for himself. It is the profaneness of some men to be somewhat for God,

more for the world, and most of all, for their carnal selves. But it is the perfection of God to be somewhat for the world in general, more for his elect in special, and most of all for himself. Nay, in all that he is for the world, or his elect, he is still most for himself. It is the excellency and purity of saints and angels to be what they are, and to do what they do, for God, to make him who is the efficient, the final cause of their beings and actions, but it is the excellency and purity of God to be what he is, and to do what he doth for himself. He, who is his own happiness, must be his own end. Three, his being is an independent being.

He is by himself, as well as from and for himself. None ever in heaven or earth contributed the least towards the maintenance or continuance of his being. neither the creature's goodness nor their goods do him the least good. Not their goodness. Men may be advantaged by the goodness of men, but God cannot. My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are on earth. Psalm 16 verse 3. Not their goods.

He is the lord proprietor of the whole world, and if he wanted anything, he would not ask the leave of any, for all is his own, but he is above all want. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fullness thereof. Psalm 50 verse 12, i.e., I declare to the world that I am incapable of the least want, or, if I needed a meal's meat, I would scorn to go to the creature's door to beg it.

I could supply myself out of my own store if there were need, but there is no need at all. He challengeth all the world to produce any being that ever obliged or engaged him in the least, who hath prevented me that I may repay him. Job 41 verse 11 Where is the man, where is the angel, where is the creature that can say He ever did me the least kindness That hath been beforehand with me in courtesy To whom I am the least in debt for my subsistence

I am here ready to make him amends Who hath prevented me that I may repay him But all other beings are dependent The highest, the strongest of them Are not able to bear their own weight But like the hop or ivy, must have somewhat to lean upon. By him all things subsist. Colossians 1 verse 17. He preserves them in their being and in their motions. In him we live and move and have our beings,

Acts 17 verse 28. As the beams depend on the sun and the streams on the fountain, so do the creatures for their beings and actions depend on God. He upholdeth all things, as the foundation the building, by the word of his power. Hebrews 1 verse 3, he is the atlas that bears up the whole world, without whom it would fall to nothing. Thou preservest man and beast. Psalm 36 verse 6. Dependencia est their Essentia cretore.

God is to the world as the soul to the body. He animates and actuates everything in it, and enableth his several creatures to all their motions. men are apt to think that fire can burn of itself, it being so natural to the fire to burn, yet if God do but suspend his influence, actum secundum, as they speak, a furnace heated seven times hotter than usual burns no more than water, Daniel 3 verse 27. We are ready to conceive that it is easy for a man to see, when the organ is rightly disposed, there is a fit medium and a due distance of the organ from the object,

but yet if God deny his concurrence, though there are these three requisites to cite, a man can see no more than if he was stuck blind. Genesis 19 verse 11, 2 Kings 6 verse 18. Angels themselves must have their maker for their mover, or as active spirits as they are, they must stand still. End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevolx recording is a record.

in the public domain. God incomparable in his being, as he is absolutely perfect, universal, and unchangeable. Four, he is an absolutely perfect being. There is a twofold perfection compatible to beings. Some are perfect in their kind, that is, have all things requisite to that species of which they are. So we say the world is perfect because it hath all things needful to a world. A man is a perfect man that hath a body with all its parts and members, and a soul with all its powers and faculties. But secondly, a being is absolutely perfect when nothing can be added to it or taken from it, when it is incapable of the least accession or diminution. Now such a being is God and none but God. As the sun gets nothing by the shining of the moon and the stars, neither

loseeth anything by their eclipses or withdrawing. So the self-sufficient God gains nothing by all the sweets and services, prayers and praises of his creatures. Neither looseth anything by their neglect of their duties. He is above the influence of all our performances. Our holiness addeth not the least to his happiness. Can a man be profitable to God? As he that is wise may be profitable to himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous, or is it gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect? Job 22 verses 2 and 3. He is beyond the malice of sin. All holiness doth not help him, so the sin of his creatures doth not hurt him.

All those darts of sin which the wicked shoot up against heaven fall short and fall down upon their own heads. If thou are sinest, what dost thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what dost thou unto him? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him, or what receiveth he of thine hand? Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteousness may profit the sons of men. Job 35 v. 6 to 8.

Flesh and blood may be injured and pierced by the weapons of unrighteousness, but not the rock of ages. That is impenetrable. They who are of the same make and mould with ourselves may be advantaged by our blessings and praises, but not he who is above all blessings and praises. What doth the great light of the world get by the Persians' admiration and adoration of it? What is a fountain the better if men drink of its water and commend it,

or the worse if men pass by and despise it? What would God get if he should make millions of worlds to lord and magnify him, or what would God lose if there were no world, no creature at all? Who hath given to him, and it shall be recompensed again? Romans 11 verse 35 He hath given to all Whatever they are or have But none ever gave to him

They who give to him Their love and fear and trust And names and estates Give nothing to him We can give nothing to him To whom we owe all Besides all we have and are And do and suffer for him

Addeth nothing to him His declarative glory may But his essential glory Or glorious essence Admits not in the least Of any increase or decrease but no other being is absolutely perfect. Men are exceeding imperfect since their fall.

They are so far from being above all additions that they stand in continual need of additions. They need the air to breathe in, the earth to bear them, food to strengthen them, raiment to cover them, fire to warm them, sleep to refresh them. They want righteousness to justify them,

the Holy Ghost to sanctify them, love to comfort them and mercy to save them. Man is an heap of infirmities and hospital of diseases and a bundle of imperfections. He is so far from being absolutely perfect that in a moral consideration, since his apostasy,

he is not perfect in his kind. And though angels are more perfect than men, yet they are imperfect to God. Angels, it is true, are perfect in their kind, but not perfect in all kinds. Something may be added to them, something may be taken from them.

The highest angel may be higher, the holiest angel may be holier, and the best of them may be better. though the stars differ from each other in brightness and glory, yet none of them is a sun. Though angels differ from men and each from others in honour and excellency, yet none of them is a God, none of them is absolutely perfect. Five, God is an universal being. He hath all good eminently and virtually in himself. Whatsoever excellencies are scattered and dispersed among the creatures in heaven or in earth, they are all united in and centered after an infinite manner in the Creator.

It is a true rule in philosophy. Quod efficit d'ale is magnest d'a. Whatsoever good is in the effect is more abundantly in the cause. Now God, being the principle and cause of all the good and excellency that is in every creature, it must of necessity be more abundantly in him. As some potions have the quintessence of many herbs, many drugs in them, so God hath the quintessence of all creatures and infinitely more in him. For this cause he is called,

and compared to whatsoever is good and answerable either to necessity, convenience, or delight. Sometimes to that good which is necessary as to life, John 1 verse 4, to the fountain of life, Psalm 36, verse 9, to light, John 1 verse 9, to the Father of Lights, James 1 verse 19, to food as to bread, yea living bread. John 6 verse 51, to water, yea living water, John 4 verse 10, to rest, return to thy rest, O my son.

soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Psalm 116 verse 7. He is the only ark wherein alone the dove, we read about the waters of this world, can find rest. Sometimes he is compared to that good which is convenient as to a habitation, Psalm 90 verses 9 and 10, O Lord, that has been our dwelling place from all generations. To health, Psalm 42 verses 11 to 17, to peace, to Corinthians 13 verse 11 to protection or defense as a shield which defends the body from the shot or thrusts of men Genesis 15 verse 1 to a wall which defends the traveller from the fury of beasts Zechariah 2 verse 5 to a refuge which secures the army when it is foiled by the enemy Psalm 57 verse 1 to a rock a fortress a high tower Psalm 18 verse 2

sometimes he is compared to that good which is delightful as to rich Job 22, verse 24 and 25, to Unsearchable Riches, Ephesians 3, verse 8, Durable riches, Proverbs 8, verse 18, to honour and glory as a royal diadem. He is called a glorious Lord, Isaiah 33, verse 21, said to be the glory in the midst of his people, Zechariah 2 verse 5, to joy and pleasure, Psalm 43, verse 4, to relations, he is a father, 2 Corinthians 6, verse 18, and husband, Josea 2 verse 19, to a feast of of fat things, of marrow and fatness, of wine, of wine on the leaves well refined. Isaiah 25, verse 6, which are the delight of the palate.

To beauty, which is the delight of the eyes, canticles 5, verses 10 to 16. To sweet smells, which are the delight of the nostrils, Canticles 4 verse 10, and chapter 1 verse 3. To the most harmonious music, which is the delight of the ears. His mouth is most sweet or sweetnesses, canticles 5 verse 16. My soul faileth when he spake, so ravishing was his voice, canticles 5 verse 6, to truth, which is the delight of the understanding. Psalm 31 verse 5, John 14, verse 6, to good which is the delight of the will, Matthew 19, verse 17. Thus God is not one good but all good.

The truth is, all the good, all the excellencies that are in men or angels are not worthy to be a shadow or foiled to set off those excellencies that are in God. All good is in one God, Mark 10, verses 29 and 30. But creatures are but particular beings. Man is but a particular being, a low, limited being. What is man? That is a worm, or the son of man that is a worm. Job 25 verse 6. There is some good in one man and some good in another man, but not all good in any man.

No, not in all men. Angels are but particular beings, little beings. One angel is one drop, another angel, another drop, a third end. angel, a third drop. Everyone is but a drop. None of them is an ocean as God is, which containeth all those drops and infinitely more. Six. God is an unchangeable being, not only without, but incapable of the least alteration. He is the same yesterday, today, today and forever. Hebrews 13 verse 8. He is what he was and what he will be eternally. He is the same since the world was made that he was before the world,

and that he will be when this world shall be no more. With him is not the least variation or shadow of terming, James 1 verse 17, no parallelness. It is an astronomical word taken from the heavenly bodies which suffer many declensions and revolutions, which they call parallaxes. Though those heavenly lights are variable, have their increases and decreases,

their times of rising and setting, yet our father of lights is not variable. He knoweth no rising or setting, No increasing or decreasing, but shineth always with the same light and lustre, with the same beauty and brightness, nor shadow of turning. Tropes aposkiasma. The lesser luminaries or stars, according to their different postures, have diverse shadowings or ambrations, according to their nearness to or distance from the sun. Their shadows are greater or lesser, but our sun is still the same, knowing no clouding, no shadowing, no eclipsing. When God hates those angels as apostates

Whom first he loved As created pure and holy He is still the same The change is not in God but in them Bring clay to the sun It hardens it Bring wax to the sun With the same influence it softens it

Without any alteration in the sun When God punisheth a man that is wicked And prospereth the same man Becoming a penitent He is still the same If a man walk on one side of a church The pillars are on his left hand if on the other side on his right hand

the pillars remain where they were the motion or changes in the man but creatures are all mutable the heavens seem constant but it is in inconstancy their perpetual motion speaks their perpetual alteration Psalm 102 versus 26 and 27 they shall perish but thou shalt endure

they shall wax old as a garment that is wearing out and wasting every day as a vesture thou shalt change them and they shall be changed, but thou, Lord, art the same forever. The old heavens will pass away, and new ones succeed in their room at the general conflagration, but the God of heaven will never pass away. Man is ever in motion from one condition to another. His body changeth in its age, constitution, temper, at last into rottenness, dust and

corruption. I have said to corruption, thou art my father, and to the worms, ye are my brother and sister. Job 17 verse 14. His soul changeth in its passions, affections. Love, hatred, delights, desires, his whole man changeth in its place, company, carriage, conversation. He hath no consistency while he is. He continueth not what he was. Job 14 verses 2 and 3.

Angels are changeable, even the good angels, though not as men, yet as creatures. As perfect as they are, they have this imperfection. One, they are who once were not, and in regard of themselves have a possibility not to be 2. Angels may lose what they have and attain what they have not. 3. Angels are mutable in regard of place, sometimes in heaven, sometimes on earth. What little changeableness is in angels is derivative. God is the original of it. Their immutability at most is but from their creation. I suppose, sometimes since, for the good angels, as well as bad, were created mutable,

but God's immutability is from eternity. The whole world, indeed, is a sea of glass. Revelation 4 verse 6 Always ebbing and flowing Never at a stay But the maker of the world May well say I the Lord change not

Malachi 3 verse 6 End of chapter 4 Chapter 5 of the incomparableness of God By George Swinick This the bravox recording is in the public domain God incomparable in his being As it is eternal and without composition 7

God is an eternal being and none is eternal but he. Time which hath a beginning and end is compatible to men and other visible creatures in the world. A of eternity which hath a beginning and no end is compatible to good and evil angels and to the souls of men, but eternity which hath no beginning,

succession or end, belongs only to God. One, God hath no beginning. He who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth could have no beginning himself. Genesis 1 verse 1. before the mountains were brought forth, wherever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Psalm 90, verse 2. God is eternal. A parte ante, and puzzleth most enlarged understanding to conceive his duration. Behold, he is great, and we know him not. Neither can the number of his years be searched out. Job 36, verse 26. Psalm 93 verse 2.

2. God hath no succession in his duration. He dwelleth in one indivisible point of eternity. He is what he is in one infinite moment of being. His duration knoweth nothing of former or latter, past or to come. His essence is not bounded by those hedges, but he enjoeth his whole eternity every moment. Hence he has said to inhabit eternity to be fixed always in eternity. Isaiah 57 verse 15. Time is nunk fluence, but eternity is nunk stanz. One day with him is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2 Peter 3 verse 8.

He inhabits a million of years in a moment, and each moment to him is as a million of years. He hath not the least added to his duration since the world was, though it hath been near 6,000 years. It is not proper to say of him he was, for none of his duration is ever passed with him, Or he shall be, for none of his duration is ever to come, but he is, his full eternity is always present. Hence his name is I am, Exodus 3 verse 14. Not I was or shall be, and Christ tells the Jews, before Abraham was, I am, John 8, verse 58. It seems false grammar, but it is the most proper true divinity.

Indeed, had Adam been then alive, it had been proper for him to have said, before Abraham was, I was, or if an angel had spoken, it had been proper for him to have said, before Abraham was, I was, because men and angels enjoy their being by peacemales, now a little and then a little, somewhat of their duration is gone, and somewhat to come. But it was most proper for him that was God, to say, before Abraham was I am, because his duration is without all succession, the whole of it is ever present. The psalmist further clears this. Thou art my son, this day, have I begotten thee.

Psalm 2 verse 7, which words are interpreted of the eternal generation of the sun before all worlds, and also of his resurrection in time, which was to be some hundreds of years after, as the apostle either expounds it or alludes to it, Acts 13 verse 33. But it is all one, for both are today. That which was from eternity, and that which was to be many hundreds of years after, are both with him present this day. Past or future is all present this day. That was not passed to God which never had beginning, his son's eternal generation, nor was that to come to God, which was always before him,

his son's temporal resurrection. It is still, this day have I begotten the millions of years, yea, of ages, add not the least moment to his duration. 3. God hath no ending. As he is from, so he is too everlasting. Psalm 90 verse 2, without beginning or end of days, some 102 verse 27, but thou art the same and thy years never end. O what an excellent being is this eternal being. He only hath immortality, 1 Timothy 6 verse 16, and he is eternity itself, 1 Samuel 15 verse 29. Eternitas Israelis, June. The eternity of Israel cannot lie.

But are men or angels? compatible to God in this. Surely no. As for man, he is a bird of time, here today and gone tomorrow. Job 14, verse 1. Of few days. As for man, his days are as grass. Psalm 103, verse 15, now flourishing, but quickly perishing. Man hath a beginning, succession and ending. There was a time when man was not. Man enjoyeth his time by parts and parcels, and man ere long shall be no more. all men in this are alike, high or low, good or bad. There is a vast difference between God and all men in their duration. Are thy days as the days of man?

Are thy years as man's years? Job 10 verse 5. No, in no respect. Man's days begin, succeed and end, not so God's days. Well, might David say, though he had lived as long as Methuselah, Mine age is nothing unto thee. Psalm 39 verse 5, and truly as men are far from being comparable to God, so are angels. Angels had a beginning. Colossians 1 verse 16.

Angels have a succession in their duration. They enjoy part today, part tomorrow, part the next day. Every moment addeth to their duration. What is past, they do not enjoy, nor what is to come, but only what is present, and thus it is also with the souls of saints in heaven. 8. God is a simple being. In this I take simplicity, not as opposed to wisdom, for in him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Colossians 2 verse 9, but as simplicity as opposed to mixture and composition. Thus there is a simplicity in the gospel, 2 Corinthians 12 verse 3. So anything, the more simple it is, the more excellent it is. God is a most pure, simple, unmixed, indivisible essence. He is incapable of the least composition and therefore of the least

division. He is one most pure without all parts, members, accidents, and qualities. whatsoever is in him is himself, his very being. Therefore, that which is a quality in a man or angel is attributed to God in the abstract. Men and angels are wise, but God is wisdom. Proverbs 9 verse 1. Men and angels are holy, but God is holiness. Isaiah 63 verse 15. God is all essence, all being, and nothing else.

But how unlike are men or angels to God in this? Man is a grossly compounded being, he is compounded of a body, and a soul, Genesis 2 verse 7. His body is compounded of members and parts. His members and parts are compounded of bones and blood and flesh and skin and sinuous. Job 10 verse 11. His soul is compounded and so are the highest angels, of substance and accidents, of essence and faculties.

The substance of man's soul and of angels, and their qualities are distinct things. Their wisdom is one thing, their power, another thing, their holiness, the third thing, and all distinct from their essence. An angel may be an angel, and a man may be a true man, and yet be foolish, weak, and wicked. Their understanding differeth from their wills. Their wills differ from their affections. Their affections differ from both, and all from their beings. But in God all these are one indivisible essence. To will and to understand, and to love, and to hate, and to be, are all the same and one in God.

End of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 of The Incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. God incomparable in his being, as it is infinite and incomprehensible. 9. God is an infinite being. He is a being that knoweth no bounds, no limits. His being is without all measure, all degrees and determinations. His understanding, i.e. himself, who is all understanding, is infinite.

Psalm 147 verse 5. God is a sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. Behold the heavens, and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built. One king's eight verse 27. The starry heavens, or firmament, is large. It compasseth the whole earth and ocean. This terrestrial world is about a point to it,

but the heaven of heavens or the imperial heaven is larger. It containeth the lower heaven, but cannot contain the god of heaven. No Ubi, no place can define or circumscribe him. He is neither shut up in any place nor shut out of any place. He is above place, without place, yet in all places. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, heaven and hell are most opposite places. Behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand

shall hold me. Psalm 139, verses 7 to 10. God is in heaven, earth, sea, hell, and infinitely more, where there is neither heaven nor earth, nor sea, nor hell. Oh, what a being is the blessed God who is boundless, not only in his duration, of which we have spoken before, and in all his perfections and attributes of which we shall speak hereafter, but also in his essence and being. No place can circumscribe him, and no Ubi can define him. He is over all creatures by his power and dominion, in you all by his essence and influence, and through all by his providence. Ephesians 4 verse 6.

He is everywhere not only virtually as the sun by his beams, nor authoritatively as a king by subordinate officers, not at all by multiplication as the loaves filled that place, which they did not before the miracle, or by extension as the rational creature filleth that place when a man which he did not when an infant, nor by local motion from one place to another, as all bodily animate creatures, or by division, as our bodies are part in one place and part in another, or by commiction as the air mingleth itself with the terrestrial world, but essentially after an unspeakable manner. As philosophers say of the soul, it is whole in the whole body and whole in every part of the body, so I may say of God he is whole in the whole world, and whole in every

part of the world. Yay, if he should please to make ten thousand worlds he would fill all, and his whole essence be in every part of each world, and yet without the least extension or multiplication or motion. But are men or angels like to God in this? Alas, they are finite limited beings less than drops to this ocean. Man is in a small place so as to fill it up by commensuration of parts, and to exclude all other bodies but himself is circumscribed in it. Angels, though they are not in a place, so as to exclude bodies, yet they are in an ubi or space, so as to conclude themselves therein. They are in a finite compass, beyond which their being extendeth not. They are so here that they are not there, so in heaven that they are not on earth at the same time.

but God is everywhere in his whole essence every moment. He filleth all in all, Ephesians 1 verse 23. 10. God is an incomprehensible being, such a being as no creature whether man or angel can comprehend or perfectly understand. This floweth from the former. If he be infinite, he must of necessity be incomprehensible, for a finite being, as all are beside himself, can never comprehend what is infinite. There is no proportion between a boundless being, and a bounded understanding. But there must be a proportion between the mind of the creature and that object which is

fully understood by it. The sun may be contained in a small chink, and the sea in a nutshell. Sooner than God can be contained in the limited understanding of men or angels. Job 26 verse 14. Lo, these are parts of his ways, viz, hell is naked before him, verse six. He hangeth the oath upon nothing, verse seven. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the, cloud is not rent under them, verse 8. He hath compassed the water with bounds, verse 10,

the pillars of heaven tremble at his reproof, verse 11, etc. But how little a portion is heard of him. The vulgar read it, how little a drop, others a whisper or smallest part of a voice, that which is known of God, to that which God is in God, is but like a drop to the vast ocean and a whisper to a loud, terrible thunder. How little a portion is heard of him. Surely much is heard of him from the voice of his almighty works of creation and providence, and especially from the voice of his word and his own mouth in the Holy Scriptures, but how little is heard of him in comparison of that immense excellency which is in him and which he is. Heathens hear somewhat of him, Romans 1 verses 20 and 21,

His saints on earth hear much more of him, Psalm 63 verses 3 to 6, Perfect spirits in heaven hear most of all of him 2 Corinthians 12 verses 3 and 4 1 Corinthians 13 verse 12 Yet by all these a very little portion is heard of him The being of God is like the peace of God Which passeth all understanding Philippians 4 verse 7 And like the lover of Christ which passeth all knowledge

Ephesians 3 verse 19 This only can be known of God That he can never be known fully And this only can be comprehended of him that he cannot be comprehended. Canst thou by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do?

Deeper than hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. Job 11, verse 8 and 9. Canst thou by searching, find out God? It is a strong negation, i.e., it is impossible by all the help and advantage of nature and art, and grace and diligence, yea, and perfect glory too, to find out God fully.

Dost thou a poor, mean, vile man, saith Zofah, think to contain and comprehend him whom the heavens and heaven of heaven cannot contain or comprehend? Are thou so silly as to conceive that the short line of thy understanding should fathom his bottomless being? It is not in vain for thee to seek him, but it is altogether in vain for thee to search him. Though he be not far from thee, yet is he far above thee, and far beyond thee, far above thy thoughts and beyond thy conceptions. He dwelleth in that light that is inaccessible, whom no man hath seen nor can see,

1 Timothy 6 verse 16. They who see him face to face, are ye most clearly and fully, see but a little of him. Clouds and darkness are in this sense ever about him. As in a dark day we see the beams but not the body of the sun. Even so in heaven the highest angels rather see his rays and beams than his infinite being. Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? Men who seek God may find him. Proverbs 8 verse 17, Matthew 7 verse 7, but they cannot find him to perfection.

The word for perfection signifieth the height or utmost accomplishment of a thing. Somewhat of God may be known, but not all. They who find out most are far from finding out the utmost of him. The sun and all the celestial lights may sooner be grasped in the hollow of man's hand, and the vast hills and mountains weighed in a pair of common scales than the Almighty found out to perfection. Natural questions soon pose the most learned men, the forms even of inanimate creatures are riddles to most. How frequently do the greatest scholars betake themselves to secret sympathies and antipathies, and occult qualities as the cloak and cover of their ignorance?

Ecclesiastes 11 verse 5. Canst thou know how the bones grow of her that is with child? O how much more must divine questions exceed human understanding? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? It is as the highnesses of heaven. Take all the heights and elevations, all the spheres and altitudes of heaven, and try if thou canst reach them with thy short arm. Yea, climb up the highest stories, the loftiest pinnacles.

Touch if thou canst the several orbs. Yet the knowledge of this God, or this God, the object of knowledge, is above and beyond all. What a fool would he be thought who should undertake to ascend the starry heavens, yet he who would find out God to perfection must climb much higher. The heavens are famous for their height, yea, the starry heavens, that some wonder that the eyes of man are not tired before they reach them. Proverbs 25 verse 3, the heavens for height and the earth for depth,

yet the third heavens are much higher than they, but the most high God is far deeper than the highest heavens. Deeper than hell, what canst thou know, heaven and hell are at the greatest distance and are most remote from our apprehensions. Who knoweth what is done in heaven, what in hell, what is enjoyed in the one and suffered in the other? No more can any know what God is. Who knoweth the nature, number, order, motions, influence of the heavenly bodies? Something is conjecturally delivered about them, nothing certain.

Much less doth any know the number, nature, order, wonder, worship of the celestial courtiers in the third heavens. of the thousand thousands that are before God, the ten thousand times ten thousand that minister to him, least of all can any know that being that made all these, that preserveseth all these, that ordereth and governeth, animateth and actuates all these, that gives them all that they are, and enableth them to all that they do. Deeper than hell what canst thou know? Who knoweth the mines and minerals which lie in the bosom in the bowels of the earth? Who knoweth the place of sapphires, the corals,

the pools and the precious onyx. Job 28 verses 5 to 8, out of the earth cometh bread, etc. The stones of it are the place of sapphires, and it hath dust of gold. There is a path which no foul knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen. The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. Much less doth any know the miseries of the damned, the extremity, universality, eternity of their torments. Whoever returned from that place to tell us what they suffered there, or if they had whose understanding is large enough to conceive them, who knoweth the power of thine anger, according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. Psalm 90, verse 11.

Least of all can any know that God who setteth an end to darkness and searcheth out all perfection, the stones of darkness and the shadow of death, Job 28 verse 3, before whom hell and destruction are naked and open, who formeth the costly jewels, secret from the eyes of covetous mortals, who layeth the dark vault of hell and storeth it with fire and brimstone and gnawing worms and blackness of darkness and all the instruments of eternal death. The measure thereof is longer than the earth. The earth is long from one end of it to another. Mathematicians tell us from east to west, it is twenty-two thousand miles, but the knowledge of God is much longer. The measure thereof is beyond all measure. And broader than the sea,

The ocean is exceeding broad, it seems to them that sail on it to be without banks or bounds. Hence we read at the arms of the sea, Daniel 11 verse 22, because of its breadth, and David calls it, Psalm 104 verse 25, a great and wide sea. So is this great and wide sea wherein are things innumerable, both small and great. But the knowledge of the great God is far greater and wider. How are the dimensions of height, depth, length and breadth in their greatest extent and dimensions, obvious to human understandings. The heavens are high, yet their height is finite.

Hell is deep, yet its depth is determined. The earth is long, yet its length is limited. The sea is broad, yet its breadth is bounded. But God is infinite, boundless, and beyond all these. End of Chapter 6. Chapter 7 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinnick. This Librevolk's recording is in the public domain. God incomparable in his attributes, in his holyness,

and wisdom. 11. God is incomparable, as in his being, so in his attributes. The attributes of God are those perfections in the divine nature which are ascribed to him that we might the better understand him. They are so called, are he attributes, because they are attributed to him for our sakes, though they are not in him as they are in men or angels. Vokantor attributa, which he as siibi attribuit.

Deus Nostra cause, Zank the attribute, Libert Chu, caput 12. Attributa, dey, decuntur, coe deo

ad-scripuntur in scriptures sacris, non-tam at essenceia, natural, que dey explicandam, quam,

as declarandum nobis aliquo modu to our Nostro kaput, ilut, co, Ipso, a nobis, cogniscipotest.

Poland, Sintag. Liber two, Caput, six. There are some attributes of God which the schoolman call incommunicable, which I have spoken of under the former head, because the creature, as a creature, is incapable of them, and therefore they cannot be attributed to man or angels.

It is impossible for a creature to be independent, self-sufficient, eternal, a strict sense, infinite, etc., so that all will acknowledge God incomparable in those excellencies. There are other attributes of God which are called communicable, fears his power, holiness, wisdom, faithfulness, etc., because they are communicated by him to his rational creatures, and there is some show or shadow of them in men and angels. For though it was the horrible pride and monstrous presumption of evil angels and Adam

at first to rival God in his properties that were incommunicable, to aspire to be like him in his independency and sovereignty, for their sin was that they would have cast off the entail and have held all of themselves as their own lords and masters, and the Prince of Taya, Ezekiel 28-6, is indicted by God of inexpeable arrogance, that he does set his heart as the heart of God. Yet it is the only godliness of the creature to be like God

in those attributes of his which are communicable. The new man is after God, Ephesians 4 verse 24, the re-impression of his image on the creature. David is therefore called a man after God's own heart because he was a man after God's own holiness. Yea, it is the perfection and felicity of the intellectual world, Psalm 17 verse 15, 1 John 3 versus 3 and 4 in heaven. But even in these properties, wherein man resembleth his maker, he is exceedingly unlike him, and falls infinitely short of him. that God is incomparable in his communicable attributes I shall discover, one, more generally, two more specially.

One more generally, and here I shall enumerate some of those attributes wherein men and angels are conformable to God, and in each of them show that in those in which they come nearest to him they come far behind. One, he is incomparable in his holiness. Holiness in general is the moral goodness of a thing, or its conveniency, or agreement with its rule. Holiness in the creature is their conformity to the will of their creator in the principle, rule, and end of their actions and motions. Holiness in God is that excellency of the divine nature by which he acteth from himself, for himself, and according to his own will.

God is the Holy One, Hosea 11, verse 9, by way of eminency and excellency, because he surpasseth all others in holiness. He is the Holy One of Jacob, Isaiah 49, verse 23, the Holy One of Israel, Isaiah 14th. 23 verse 14 because of their special interest and propriety in the excellent being. He is holy, holy, holy, Isaiah 6 verse 3, Revelation 4 verse 8. His nature is the only pattern of holiness, therefore he commands us to look on him as our example. Be ye holy as I am holy, 1 Peter 1 verse 15 and 16. Man was made holy, Ecclesiastes 7 verse 29, i.e. according to the image of God. Genesis 1 verse 26, Ephesians 4 verse 24.

His will is the only rule of holiness. Hence, our holiness is called a proving his good and perfect and acceptable will, Romans 12 verse 2, and Our Fulfilling the Will of God, Acts 13, and a walking according to his word, which is his revealed will as our rule. Galatians 6 verse 16. He is universally holy in his name, Luke 1, verse 49. In his nature, Psalm 5, verses 5 and 6, Habakkuk 1, verse 13. in his works, Psalm 145 verse 17, in his word, Romans 7 verse 12, Psalm 119 verse 140.

He is the original of all holiness in men or angels. They are beholden to him that they are not as unholy as the damned as the devils. James 1 verse 17, Ezekiel 37 verse 28 and 38 verse 26 and 27, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23. Now what man or angel is comparable to him in holiness, may I not with Moses make a challenge, who is a godlike unto thee, glorious in holiness? Exodus 15 verse 11. Are the men holy as he is holy? Nay, are the spirits of just men made perfect, and angels equal to him in holiness. Behold, he puteth no trust in his saints, the best on earth. The heavens, the holiest there, are unclean in his sight.

Job 15, verses 15 and 16. As for man, he is a sink of sin, a sty of filth, overspread from head to foot with the leprosy of sin. Genesis 6 verse 5, and therefore, instead of comparing with God for holiness, is bound to abhor himself for his unholliness. Yea, angels who have nothing amiss in their natures, who never took one step awry in their lives, who have ever continued God's loyal subjects and faithful servants, observant of all his calls and obedient to all his commands, whose obedience to him and observance of him is made the copy for us to write after Matthew 6 verse 10 are yet unholy in comparison of God. The heavens are unclean in his sight.

The heavens, not only the place which hath a relative holiness in regard to God's special presence, but even the persons in heaven, perfect spirits who have no blemish in their beings or disorder in their motions are unholy to him and unclean in his sight. The holiness of angels is but the holiness of His angels is but the holiness of His beings, who have nobushes in their beings, who have. obeying a law. Psalm 103, verse 20 and 21. The holiness of God is the holiness of being a law. On Thesslonians 4 verse 3. The holiness of angels is but a conformity to the pattern set them. The holiness of God is the holiness of setting them a pattern and of being their pattern. The holiness of angels is about a derivative. God's is an original holiness.

God is so incomparable in holiness that it is said he only or solely is holy. Revelation 15 verse 4, Who will not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy. None is holy besides him, because none is holy like him. 1 Samuel 2, verse 2, there is none holy as the Lord, therefore none holy but the Lord. Saints are holy, 1 Peter 2 verse 9, angels are holy. Mark 8 verse 38, but they are not holy as the Lord is holy. Without question, the heavenly host who see him face to face,

and are satisfied with his likeness are glorious in holiness, shine brightly with those perfect beams, and that pure light which they borrow from the Son of righteousness, but truly they are poor glow-worms to the Father of Lights. Even that grace, that holiness, that glory of saints and angels, which infinitely surpass the natural heavens in all their beauty and brightness, is no grace, no holiness, no glory in this respect, by reason of that grace and holiness and glory in God,

which doth so infinitely excel. Second, God is incomparable in his wisdom. I shall not stand upon the critical distinctions which some give between understanding, prudence, and wisdom. Wisdom, in general, is a right understanding of things and the ordering ourselves and actions suitable to that understanding. It appears chiefly in these three acts, one in the discerning the nature, causes, effects,

contraries, and consequence of things, of which we shall speak hereafter, and this we call science. Two, in propounding the best and highest and noblest end to ourselves in our actions and undertakings, and this is called understanding. Three, in suiting and fitting and ordering the most proper means, as may be best for the attaining our ends, and this is called prudence, which, as the rudder of the ship,

steers and directs and governs all. In all these respects God is incomparable in wisdom. He is wise in heart, Job 9 verse 4, i.e. most wise, for the heart is the seat of wisdom, and to be foolish and without an heart is all one. Ephraim is a silly dove without her heart, Hesaiah 7 verse 11. There are in God all the treasures of wisdom, Colossians 1 verse 19. A treasure denotes one, preciousness. A heap of dust or coals is not a treasure but of silver and gold.

Two, plenty. One or two pieces of things that are precious will not make a treasure. there must be a heap or some quantity. In God there is the most precious wisdom, therefore called counsel, the effect of serious and mature deliberation. He is called the mighty counsellor, Ephesians 1 verse 11, Isaiah 9 verse 6.

In God there is plenty of it, treasures. A treasure denotes abundance, but treasures speak superabundance, a redundance. In God are all the treasures, all kinds, all sorts of wisdom. Toll puke-loss, sophia, manifold wisdom. Ephesians 3 verse 10,

embroidered wisdom wherein is all variety of rich and curious contrivances. These are all in God. He engrosseth them all in himself. Therefore you read, with him is wisdom and understanding, Job 12 verse 13, with him as with its master and sovereign lord, with him as with its sole owner and proprietor. Some men are wise, light and understanding and excellent wisdom was found in Daniel, Daniel 5 verse 14. David was very wise, wiser than his teachers, than his enemies, than the ancient. Psalm 119.19, verses 97 to 99. Solomon was a wise man. He exceeded in wisdom, all that were

before and all that came after him. And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, exceeding much and largeness of heart, even as the sand on the seashore, and Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the wisdom of all the children of the East country, and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men than Ethan and Heiman, etc. 1 Kings 4 verses 29 to 31. But was Solomon comparable to God in wisdom? Truly, he that was wiser than all men was a stark fool to God. The wisdom of man is foolishness with God, 1 Corinthians 3 verse 19. The subtlety of the heathen, and I may say the greatest understanding of the Christian is folly with God. The foolishness of God is wiser than man. on Corinthians 1 verse 25.

If it were possible that there should be anything in God which might look like folly, or if it were lawful for us to conceive any action of gods, which, compared with his deeper contrivances, might have a show of foolishness, yet even this were wiser than the greatest wisdom of man. Angels are wiser than men. When the woman would speak David to be very wise above the rate of mortals, she saith, my lord is wise as an angel of God. To Samuel 14 verse 20.

The excellency of their natures speaks the excellency of their wisdom, for it is the understanding that is the chief distinguishing faculty. But are angels like God in wisdom? No, they are fools to him. Behold, he puteth no trust in his servants. He chargeth his angels with folly. Job 4 verse 18. Though they never thwarted the divine pleasure, nor in any action manifested the least imprudence,

yet before him they are indicted of folly, and to him will be proved guilty of though they are not chargeable with actual, yet they are with potential folly, though God doth not indict them of absolute, yet he doth of comparative folly. God doth so far exceed angels and men in wisdom that he is said only to be wise. To the only wise God, one Timothy 1 verse 17, to God only wise, Romans 16 verse 27. None are wise beside him, because none are wise to him. Daniel 5 verse 20 Wisdom is his, his peculiar, his prerogative,

His holy, his only, So his that it is none but his. The wisest men and angels stand in need of a master to teach them And a tutor to instruct them, And were it not for the only wise God, They would be as unwise as the wild asses called, As foolish as idiots. Psalm 94 verse 10

But God is above all teachers, all tutors, Job 21 verse 22, shall any teach God knowledge? Some persons are incapable of teaching because of their extreme weakness. Ex Cuovis Ligno non fit Mercurius. Their parts are so very low and mean that they cannot be taught, but God is incapable of teaching because of his immense wisdom. His abilities are so high that they are above and beyond all instruction. Isaiah 40 verses 13 and 14,

who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor, hath taught him. The wise Solomon had his privy counsellors, the wisest princes and states have their council tables, and there is reason enough for it, because two heads are better than one, as we say, and two eyes see more than one. Two are better than one, Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9,

and in many counsellors there is safety. But God, who is all head, all eye, all understanding, needs none to advise or counsel him. Two candles, indeed, are better than one, because the light of each is little and small, and capable of increase, but one sun is better than a million of candles, because its light is, after a sort, boundless and incapable of the least addition or increase by millions of candles. Verse 14, with whom took he counsel, with what angel, with what man, with what politician did he ever

consult, who instructed him in the paths of judgment, taught him what was just, what was unjust, what to do, what to forbear, how to govern and order the affairs of the world, In what manner and measure to cut out and carve everyone's portion? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? Where is the creature that can say he obliged God by giving him directions in any case? Where is the man, the angel, that can speak it, that he ever taught God one lesson or told him one letter? If any such be, God will pay him well for his learning. Romans 11 verses 34 and 35, Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor,

who hath given to him and it shall be recompensed to him again. We may know the mind of God for our instruction, but we can never know the mind of God for his instruction. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 16. Third, God is incomparable in his power. Power is that ability or force by which we act. Power in God is that attribute by which he affecteth whatsoever he pleaseth. In this he hath no equal.

Who is a strong God like unto thee? Psalm 89 verse 8 Where is the being that is like him in strength? God is not only strong but mighty in strength Job 9 verse 4 Not only powerful but excellent in power Job 37 verse 23 Job hath a notable expression

Chapter 9 verse 19 if I speak of strength Low he is strong i e as it is ordinary with us When we would lift a man up To the height of praise for any quality in him To say If you speak of wealth, there is a rich man. If you speak of learning, there is a scholar for you.

So here saith Job, if I speak of strength, lo, he is strong. And if I speak of strength and ability to contend and fight, lo, behold wonder, here is one that is strong indeed, that never contendeth, but he prevaileth, who never combats but he conquers. He is strong indeed, he is strong to purpose with effect. He can offend, and there is no standing before him. Daniel 4 verse 35, he doth whatsoever he will, and none can stay his hand.

He can stop the motion of the strongest creature in its fullest, swiftest career, but none can stop or stay him in his actions. Many have presumption enough to oppose him, but none have power enough to overcome him. He can defend, and there is no striving with him. Isaiah 43, verse 3, when thou passest through the waters, be they never so boisterous, so tempestuous, so deep, so dangerous, I will be with thee, and they shall not overflow thee. The floods of the ungodly may be very fierce and violent,

but they shall never overflow or overcome those whom God is pleased to protect. It must be a strange and strong arrow that can pierce such a shield of defence, Genesis 15 verse 1. David tells us, God hath spoken once, yea twice have I heard thee. Psalm 62 verse 11. It was some special extraordinary thing, certainly, that David, David ushers in with such a preface that God spake so solemnly and he heard so attentively, but what was it? That power belongs to God, as his proper, peculiar excellency, as his crown

and scepter. God is not only mighty but almighty, not only the mighty God, Isaiah 9 verse 6, but the almighty God, 2 Corinthians 6 verse 18. He is a god that never met with a difficulty, much less with an impossibility. Nothing is too hard for God, Genesis 18 verse 14. All things are hard to men and many things too hard for men or angels, but nothing is too hard for God. I know that thou canst do all things. Job 42, verse 2. Men are strong. They may have a natural strength as men, a civil strength as magistrates.

They may be too strong in themselves for other persons, and too strong in their armies and militias for other kingdoms and countries, but are they strong enough for God? Surely no, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 25, the weakness of the weakness of of God is stronger than man. Ubi Deus vertutem Suam occultando infirmiter agere

vitetur robustio damen ila cuoeoe invasilitas coavis hominum virtue Calvin in Corinthians

not that there is any weakness in God for should any think so he ungods him but in those actions wherein God is pleased to conceal his power and seemeth to act infirmly. Even that seeming infirmity excels all human power and strength. Hence it is that God

throweth down the gauntlet to Job. Job 40, verse 9, hast thou an arm like God? By arm is meant power and strength, because the arm is that member of man by which he exerteth and exerciseth, that power and strength which he hath. So Job 35 verse 9, i.e. Job, though thou hast had a strong natural arm and a strong civil arm as the greatest man in the east and a king in the army, Job 1 verse 3, chapter 29 verse 25, yet hast thou an arm like God? Canst thou make and unmake, kill and make alive, cast down and lift up at thy pleasure as I do? Is thine arm as long to reach all thine enemies and as strong to break and bruise them in pieces with a blow, hast thou an arm like God? Canst thou brandish and wield the sword with thine arm to the terror and horror, to the confusion and destruction of all that oppose thee.

God hath a mighty arm, strong as his hand, high as his right hand. Psalm 89, verse 13. Angels are stronger than men. The evil angel is called the strong man. Luke 11, verse 21. They are styled principalities and powers. Ephesians 6 verse 12, roaring lions. 1. Peter 5, verse 8.

Red dragons. Revelation 12 verse 9, which denote their power. to be far superior to man's. The devil is the prince of the powers of the air. Ephesians 2 verse 2 can command storms and tempests, and with a puff of his mouth blow down houses and cities. Good angels probably are stronger. One of them in a night destroyeth 184,000 men. They are so strong that they are said to excel in strength, Psalm 103 verse 20, and indeed the spirituality and purity of their natures speaks their power. weakness is partly from his flesh, which is a phrase whereby the prophet describes the impotency

of the creature. They are men and their horses are flesh and not spirit. Isaiah 31, verse 3. And when the Holy Ghost would describe the strength of a thing, he opposeth it to the flesh. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4, our weapons are not fleshly or carnal, but mighty, partly from his moral filthiness, his sin, which, being a real disease, doth debilitate and weaken the powers of man. Hence, to be a sinner and to be without strength is all one, Romans 5 verses 6 and 8, and holiness is called the strength of man, Revelation 3 verse 9, but angels are spirits, not flesh. He maketh his angels' spirits, Psalm 104 verse 4, and good angels are free from sin, therefore called holy angels, Mark 8, verse 38. Yet notwithstanding all their power as spirits, as sinless spirits,

they are weakness to God. As it is said of Leviathan, he esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood. Job 41, verse 27, so I may say of God, he esteemeth the strength of evil angels as straw and of good angels as rotten wood. Evil angels are fettered wherever they go in the chains of his anger and his power,

which they cannot break asunder, but must bear as intolerable as they are. And good angels own and acknowledge his might and strength above all other, Revelation 4 v. 8 and 11, The power of God hath no fellow, no parallel. There is no rock, i.e. no strength. Rocks being strong, natural fortifications. Vidae 1 Samuel 14 verse 4, Judges 6 verse 16,

Like our God, 1 Samuel 2 verse 2. 4th, God is incomparable in his justice. Justice in general is the giving everyone there due. In God, it is that attribute whereby he disposes all things according to the rule of equity. Deuteronomy 32 verse 4, Psalm 11 verse 5, and rendroth to every man according to his works, without respect of persons. Psalm 62 verse 12, Job 34 versus 11 and 19, Galatians 6 versus 6 and 7. God is positively, or affirmatively just. Zefaniah 3 verse 5, the just Lord is in the midst thereof, he will not do iniquity. He is eminently the just one,

Acts 7 verse 52, he is superlatively most just. Job 34 verse 17. Will thou condemn him that is most just? All together just, or as some read it, justice, justice, without the least mixture, tincture, or shadow of injustice, all over, just and justice. He is most just, just in the highest degree, just beyond all degrees. He giveth to all their due without fear of evil. He standeth in awe of none for their power or greatness. His day of vengeance is against the the cedars of Lebanon and the oaks of Bashan, and all the high mountains. Isaiah 2, verses 13 and 14, without hope of gain, men are unjust for bribes. Josea 4 verse 14, and love with shame give ye, but riches prevail not in the day of his wrath.

Proverbs 9 verse 4, Ezekiel 7 verse 19. He is no taker of gifts, two chronicles 19 verse 7, and without respect to any for their nearness or relation to him, or honors or outward excellencies. Jeremiah 22 verse 24. He will pluck the signet from his right hand in the day of his justice. Israel were a people near to him. Deuteronomy 4 verse 7, Psalm 147, yet he doth not spare them when they rebel against him. Psalm 44 verses 10 to 15, Jeremiah 7 verse 12. Read the lamentations of Jeremiah and you will find his severity to them, notwithstanding their near relation to him. Adam and angels were great and excellent beings, yet when they sinned, he made them to suffer.

He accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor, Job 34, verse 19. He acteth according to law most exactly, and according to a law published, and according to a most righteous and just law, Romans 2, verses 12 and 13, verses 15 and 16, and chapter 7 verse 12, and therefore is most just. surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice. Job 34 verse 12. Surely the Almighty cannot do wickedly, neither can God pervert justice. Men may do justly, God must do justly.

He cannot but do justly, and that because his will is his law, and the most exact platform and rule of all justice and righteousness. Whatsoever he doth is just, because he doth it, who is the great sovereign and supreme of the world, Job 34 verses 12 and 13. The actions of God are often mysterious but ever righteous. Psalm 145 verse 17, the Lord is holy in all his ways and righteous in all his works. When his paths are in the seas and his goings in deep waters. Psalm 77 verse 19, that none can fathom them or find out the reason of them,

even then all his ways are judgment. Deuteronomy 32 verse 4. not as judgment is opposed to mercy but as judgment is opposed to injustice. When clouds and darkness are before him, i.e. when his providence are such hard texts that none can expound them, and such dark riddles that none can unfold them. Even then, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Psalm 99, verse 2. His disposing and distributive power moves always within the sphere of righteousness. Men may be just, Matthew 1 verse 19, Joseph was a just man, Noah, Genesis 6 verse 9, John, Mark 6 verse 20, Cornelius, Acts 10, verse 22,

but shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall man be more pure than his maker, Job 4 verse 17? The expression is a denial of all comparison between God and man. It is the highest presumption for man to prefer himself before God. Isaiah 14 versus 13 and 14, yea, it is monstrous impudency for man to compare him to with God. We say amongst men that comparisons are odious, but this is the most odious comparison of all, for Enoch, a weak, frail creature to compare with Ilkar, the mighty almighty creator, for crookedness to compare with straightness and darkness to compare with light. The most just man

compared with God is unjust. His righteousness is as a filthy rag. In his sight can no flesh be justified. Psalm 143 verse 2. though in the sight of men a man may be just yet in the sight of God he is unjust compare a star with a candle and it is somewhat but compare it with the sun and it is nothing it must hide its head for shame compare a godly man with a wicked man or one not so good as himself and he is somebody but compare him with an angel he is nobody What is he, then, if he be compared with a God? Job 9 verses 2 and 3. How should man be just with God? Speak the way, declare the means, the manner how man should be righteous before God. If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.

Not to one question of a thousand which God can put to him, not for one action of a thousand which himself hath wrought. Alas, is he just who is so far from ability to justify all he doth, that he cannot justify one act of a thousand that he doth. Angels are just, they are righteous in their natures, have no spot in their lives, have no error. Psalm 103, verse 20, but are they righteous to God or before God? No, Job 4 verses 16 to 18. Angels are nothing injustice to God, though they are just to man, they are unjust to God.

They are in a possibility considered in themselves of actual injustice, which God is not. He is incapable of being unjust. Again, the law or rule of angels' righteousness is without them, and distinct from them, and thereby they are the more capable of swerving from it. But the law or rule of God's justice is within him. Yea, it is himself. He is his own law, his own rule, and therefore it is impossible for him to recede or err from it. When the workmen and his rule are different, there may be fear of wandering from his rule,

for though the rule be straight, yet the man may, through the mistake of his eye, or shaking of his hand draw a crooked line, but when the workmen and his rule are the same there is no fear. God's will, that acteth all things, is the rule by which he acteth, and therefore every line must be straight and every action just. He can never err in anything he doth, whose will is the rule of all he doth, nay, whose actions are their own rule, such as the creature's weakness that he may wander out of his way, but such as the creator's power and perfection that he cannot possibly wander, because he is his own rule. And he is his own way. Daniel 4, verse 35. I, Nibikaneza, bless the Most High, who doth according to his will in the

army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, observe, who doth according to his will, that is his essential eternal rule. God doth so much surpass men and angels in justice, that he is said to be the habitation of justice. Jeremiah 50, verse 7, they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, as if justice dwelt nowhere, had no abode, in him and with him. End of chapter 7. Chapter 8 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Libreval's recording is in the public domain.

God incomparable in his attributes, in his knowledge and faithfulness. Fifth, God is incomparable in his knowledge. Knowledge is that attribute of God whereby he understandeth all things in and of himself. He is styled in the scriptures, 1 Samuel 2 verse 3, a God of knowledge. The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. As Christ is called a man of sorrows, Isaiah 53 verse 3, to express the greatness of his griefs, to denote him one made up of sorrow, little else than sorrow, so God is called a God of knowledge to express the greatness of his knowledge, as if he were holy and only knowledge.

Hence he hath eyes and ears attributed to him because he knoweth all that is done as an eyewitness, and whatsoever is spoken as an ear witness. To Chronicles 16 verse 9, Psalm 11 verse 7. The understanding of God is like himself infinite, without bounds or limits. Psalm 147 verse 5. His understanding is infinite. He has said, Job 37 verse 16, to be perfect in knowledge, not only comparatively as one man may be in respect of another

or as an angel may be in respect of man, but absolutely. To his knowledge, nothing can be given or added. From his knowledge, nothing can be taken. His knowledge is so perfect that it admits not of an increase or decrease. Men are knowing, Solomon was famous for knowledge. One chronicles 1 verse 12, he could speak of the nature of all plants from the cedar to the hyssop. 1 Kings 4 verse 33. The Romans are said to be filled with all knowledge.

Romans 15 verse 14. angels are more knowing than men. Flesh is dull-sighted and of dim understanding. Spirits have sharper wits and quicker apprehensions. The devil, though a fallen angel, hath one of his names, demon, from his knowledge. Elect angels surely know much more than devils, for they always behold the face of their father, and in that face, as in a glass, behold more than human eyes can discern, or evil angels conceive. The spirits of just men in heaven see face. to face and know as they are known, understand very much more than they could here below. But angels, as their understandings are of larger capacity and their nature's more excellent, must needs no more than men. But do men or angels know as God? Can it be said of any man, of any angel, he is perfect in knowledge? His knowledge is incapable of addition or diminution. Can it be said of any man or angel, his knowledge is infinite? Man's knowledge in this world is in comparison of what it shall be, yea, nothing. We are but of yesterday and know nothing,

Job 8 verse 3. He is but of small continuance here, and hath but little experience, and therefore must have but little knowledge, yea, so little that it is called nothing. Yay, the knowledge of men and angels in the other world will be so little, though enough for their perfection and satisfaction, that it will be nothing in comparison of the knowledge of God. Finite knowledge is nothing compared with that knowledge which is infinite. Whether you consider the matter or object of God's knowledge or the manner or way of it, he is incomparable in it. 1. If you consider the matter or object of his knowledge, God knoweth all things.

John 21 verse 17, Lord, thou knowest all things. 1. John 3 verse 20, God is greater than our hearts, for he knoweth all things. He knoweth whatsoever hath been, whatsoever is, whatsoever shall be, whatsoever can be, whatsoever cannot be. He knoweth all substances, accidents, necessary, contingent things. He makes all, upholds all, governs all, and discerneth all. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. Two Chronicles 16 verse 9. He knoweth those things that are most hidden, most secret, the hearts, the thoughts, the most close retired motions of the spirit of man. One Corinthians two verse 11, what man knoweth the things of a man but the spirit of a man that is in him. Ye, what angel

knoweth the things of a man, but God doth. Hell and destruction are before the Lord, how much more the hearts of the children of men. Proverbs 15 verse 11. Hell seems to be far from his sight and very remote from heaven his seat. The hearts of the children of men seem to be unsociable, so deep that none can fathom them, but he hath a line that will sound these depths. He knoweth the spirit of man better than man knoweth himself. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who knoweth it. No man, no angel knoweth it. I, the Lord, search the heart. Jeremiah 17, verses 9 and 10.

And none knoweth it but he, therefore he is incomparable therein. For thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of the children of men. 1 Kings 8 verse 39. It is his sole prerogative. Men and angels may see the skins and colors and lineaments and proportions, and faces and garments or outsides of things. But God seeth the insides, he prieth in. into the very bowels of things.

1 Samuel 16 verse 7. All things are naked and dissected and anatomized before him. Hebrews 4 verse 13. 1 chronicles 28 verse 9. Psalm 7 verse 10, Jeremiah 11 verse 20. He knoweth what is future

as well as what is past and present. Thou knowest my thoughts are far off. Psalm 139 verse 2. Long before I think them, they are in thy thoughts, before they are in my heart. man knoweth not what a day is big with or may bring forth Proverbs 17 verse 1 nor angels neither but God knoweth what is in the womb of eternity what all ages and generations shall produce

he declares the end from the beginning and from ancient time the things that are not yet done Isaiah 46 verse 10 and tells us this is proper to himself let them declare the gods that shall come to pass, that we may know that they are gods. Isaiah 51, verse 23. Let them foretell what is future, and we will believe their deity. Predictions are Arcana Imperi, those secret things that belong only to God. Deuteronomy 29 verse 29, Isaiah 41 versus 22, 23 and 26. 2. He is incomparable in the manner of his knowledge. God knoweth all things fully and perfectly. Men and angels know, what they do know, but imperfectly, and by halves. They know but part of what is knowable, and they know this but in part.

God beholds everything thoroughly, as if, like a well-drawn picture he beheld that alone and none but that. Two chronicles sixteen verse nine. His eyelids try the children of men, Psalm 11 verse 5, i.e. he hath a distinct, certain, critical, thorough knowledge of them. God knoweth all things immediately, by immediate intuition, not by species. men know things either by the senses, the eyes, ears or tastes, or by species taken in by the sense and imprinted on the fantasy, which are thence offered to the understanding,

or else by faith and the report of others, or by discourse and rationsation. He knoweth one thing by another, the conclusion by mediums and premises, the causes by the effects and the consequence by the antecedents. Saints and angels in heaven know things in God, not in themselves. God knoweth all things in themselves and seeth all things in himself as in a glass. Man in this world must have a twofold light to see by, a light in his eye and a light in the

air, but the father of lights needs no light to see by. Darkness and light are both alike to him. Psalm 139 verse 12. His eyes are as a flame of fire. He seeth in the dark. Revelation 1 verse 14. God knoweth all things at once, One actu et one ectu, as they say. Creatures know one thing by another and one thing after another. Their understandings are unable to take in many objects at once, much less able to take in all objects at once, but God seeth all things at one view.

The Lord looketh down from heaven, he beholdeth all the children of men. From the place of his habitation, he beholdeth all the inhabitants of the oath. Psalm 33 verses 13 and 14. The eye of man may see many things at once as a hive of bees, but if it will see other things, it must remove the sight. Though the mind of man can take in more than the eye, as a whole country or world at once,

yet it is only the lump or gross. If it would take the distinct knowledge of them, it must remove from thought to thought, but God takes all distinctly, particularly at once. God knoweth all things from everlasting, before ever the world had a being. men and angels may know what is, when it is, but cannot know it as God doth before it was. Acts 15 verse 18, known to God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Before he erected the curious frame of the world, he knew all the rooms and furniture in it, all the motions and actions of all the inhabitants of it.

He doth by one pure, simple, undivided eternal act of his understanding, know all things perfectly, immediately, distinctly every moment. 6th, God is incomparable in his truth and faithfulness. Truth is that attribute in God whereby he is in himself as he reveals himself to be, and in his sayings and doings as he speaketh and acteth. God is truth in himself and truth towards his creatures. He is truth in himself, one as he truly is and really existeth. Hence he is styled the true God, Jeremiah 10 verse 10, John 17 verse 3,

in opposition to idols or false gods, one Thessalonians 1 verse 9 So is he truly infinite, truly all sufficient, truly eternal, truly immutable, etc. 2. As he is the unchangeable archetype and idea of all true things without himself, so all created things are true as they answer their patterns in his mind. 3. In his imminent actions as his decrees and eternal resolutions are all certain and attain a punctual accomplishment. Psalm 33 verse 11. He is never done.

deceived nor disappointed in his purposes. God is truth towards his creatures, one, in his works, as all his actions of creation, preservation, government, redemption are real, and not chimeras or appearances, Revelation 15 verse 3, Psalm 111 verse 7, Deuteronomy 32 verse 4, Psalm 25 verse 10. 2. In his words, all he saith is truth. His precepts are true, a perfect rule of holiness without any defect. Psalm 119, verse 86, all thy commandments are faithfulness. Verse 142, thy law is the truth. All his promises are true and shall be performed. Not one good thing faileth of all that the Lord our God hath promised. Joshua 23, verse 14. Hence the gospel, the compendium of all the promises, is often called the Word of Truth, James 1, verse 18, and the covenant of grace is called

sure mercies, Isaiah 45, verse 3. All his predictions are true and come to pass in their season, Habakkuk 2 verse 3, Revelation 22 versus 6 and 7. These are true and faithful sayings, Genesis 49, verse 10. His threatenings are true and fail not of their accomplishment, 2 Kings 9 verses 26 and 36, Romans 2 verse 2. He is truth itself. John 14 verse 6 and chapter 17 verse 6, abundant in truth. Exodus 34 verse 6, truth, truth, the Lord God of truth, Psalm 31 verse 5, a God that cannot lie, Titus 1 verse 2. All lying ariseeth either from forgetfulness, men break their word because their memories are slippery, but oblivion non-cadit in Deum. He is ever mindful of his word, Luke 1 verse 72, to remember his holy covenant.

Psalm 106 verse 46 and 111 verse 5, he would ever be mindful of his covenant. Or from weakness some would, but want power to make good their promises, though they were able when they promised, yet they are by some providence or other disabled before the day of performance comes. But the strength of Israel cannot lie. On Samuel 15 verse 29, the rock, the eternity of Israel cannot lie. Or from wickedness, some can but will not. make good their words, but God cannot be charged with any wickedness. Psalm 92

verse 15, there is no unrighteousness in Him. One king's 22 verse 23, Ezekiel 14 verse 9. Men may be true, Psalm 15 verse 4, angels are true, but neither men nor angels are true as God is. Let them be put in the scales with God. And men of high degree are vanity, and angels of the highest degree are a lie to be laid in the balance. They are altogether lighter than vanity. Psalm 62, verse 9. Read over God's truth in himself, and you will see how far angels come short thereof. Are they the exemplar of all things? Are all things true as they agree with the ideas in their minds? Consider his truth towards his creatures. Can it be said of an angel as of God, the angel that cannot lie hath promised? Titus 1 verse 2. Are they under an absolute impossibility

of deceiving? Surely, if they be considered in themselves, it was as possible for them to lie as for the father of lies. It is said of God it is impossible for him to lie. Hebrews 6 verse 18. But this cannot be spoken of elect angels considered in themselves. God is so true that he only is true. All to him are liars. Romans 3 verse 4, Revelation 3 verses 7 and 14.

End of chapter 8. Chapter 9 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevonk's recording is in the public domain. God incomparable in his mercy and patience. Seventh, God is incomparable in his mercy. Mercy is an attribute of God whereby he piteeth and relieveth his creature in misery. It is an attribute which relateeth to the creature only. God knoweth himself and loveth himself and glorifieth himself, but he is not merciful

to himself. It is an attribute that relateeth to the creature in misery. Justice seeks a worthy object. Grace is exercised towards an unworthy object, but mercy looks out for a needy. an indigent object. God is bountiful and gracious to elect angels because they could not deserve that perfection and happiness which they enjoy. But he is not merciful to them, for they were never miserable. Fallen man is the proper object of mercy, as being not only undeserving of the least good, but as also having plunged himself into all evil. Mercy is an attribute whereby he piteeth

his creature in misery. Hence he has said in scripture, after the manner of men, to have tender mercies, 25 verse 6 and bowels of mercy, Luke 1 verse 58, and to be afflicted in the afflictions of his people, Isaiah 63 verse 9, and to have his soul grieved for the miseries of Israel. Judges 10 versus 15 and 16, as tender parents are extremely troubled for the afflictions of their children. Psalm 103 versus 12 and 13, so his bowels are turned within him, his repentings are kindled together, Jose 11 verses 8 and 9. Mercy doth not a the pity but also relieve the afflicted. It hath a hand to supply, as well as a heart to pity those that are in distress. As are 34 verse 18, Genesis 19, verse 16. The attribute of mercy is that

which God glorieth in, and boasteth of. Exodus 33, verse 19, Psalm 103 verse 8. Noble and heroic spirits are ever gentle and merciful. The basest minds are most cruel and farthest from mercy. God saith, fury is not in him. Isaiah 27, verse 4. Judgment is his strange work. Isaiah 28, verse 21. He doth not afflict willingly. Lamentations 3 verse 33, but delighteth in the prosperity of his servants.

Psalm 35, verse 27. It is not his nature to disturb and destroy men. It is their sin that fortheth thunderbolts into his hands. Isaiah 54, verse 22. His delight is in mercy. Micah 7 verse 18 The blessed God hath multitude of mercies

Psalm 51 verse 1 To answer the multitude of the creature's miseries Abundant mercy 1 Peter 1 verse 3 He is said to be rich in mercy Ephesians 2 verse 4 Exceeding abundant rich in mercy Ephesians 2 verse 7

His mercy as oil swims on the top of all his attributes Is his delight Jeremiah 32 verse 41 I will rejoice over them to do them good His mercy as gold being most excellent, overlayeth all his works. Psalm 145, verse 7. His tender mercy is over all his works. His mercy is to all admiration. Oh, how excellent is thy loving kindness. Psalm 36,

7. Oh, how great is thy goodness. Psalm 31, verse 19. His mercy is beyond all apprehension. Thy mercy reacheth to the heavens. Psalm 108, verse 4. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9. He has styled the Father of mercies 1 Corinthians 1 verse 3, not the father of justice or fury. Mercy is the joy and pleasure of God. Hence he is said to have a mercy seat and to have a throne of grace. Hebrews 9 verse 5. Sitting is a posture of ease and rest, but he riseth to execute justice. Psalm 68 verse 1. He doth rest in his love, Zefaniah 3 verse 17. Mercy is the glory and honor of God. When Moses desired to see the glory of God, Exodus 33 verse 18, the Lord proclaims,

the Lord God, gracious, merciful. Exodus 34, verse 6 and 7, when God promises us to do great things for his people, that he will give them health, abundance of peace, cleanse them from all their filthiness, and pardon all their iniquities. Jeremiah 33, verses 7 to 9. He gives us the fruit of it, verse 9,

and it shall be to me, for a name of joy, a praise and glory before all nations. His mercy is, his riches, his treasure, Hence he is said to be rich in mercy, Ephesians 2 verse 4. God is merciful in all he doth, universally merciful. All his ways are mercy and truth. Psalm 25 verse 10, the whole world is a volume written within and without the characters of mercy. He is merciful to all men.

Psalm 145 verse 9. Shoth mercy to thousands, Exodus 20 verse 6 and Chapter 34 verse 7, Matthew 5, 5, verses 45 and 46. He is merciful at all times. His mercy endureth forever. Psalm 118 verse 1, and Psalm 136 versus 1 to 3. He is merciful in all respects. He giveth all sorts of mercies.

1 Timothy 6 verse 13. Ephesians 1 verse 3, 2 Peter 1 verses 3 and 4. May now merciful, Proverbs 11 verse 17, Psalm 37 verse 26. So are angels in a sense, but none of them comparable to God. The tender mercies of the wicked, yea of the righteous men, yea of angels, are cruelties to the mercies of God. Have they such pity, such bowels for miserable creatures as God hath? Have they such power, such ability to relieve afflicted ones as God hath? Can they afford preserving, protecting mercy as God?

Job 10, verse 12, pardoning and forgiving mercy. Micah 7 verse 18. Purifying and renewing mercy? Ephesians 2 verse 4. Saving and eternal mercy. Titus 3 v. 5 and 6. Oh, how infinitely short do they come of him. He is so incomparable in mercy that mercy is said to belong only to him.

Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. Psalm 62, verse 10, unto thee and none but thee. He is so merciful that when his bowels conflict with justice on the behalf of sinners and get the upper hand he rejoiceth in the victory. Mercy rejoiceth against judgment. James 2 verse 14. He is so merciful that he dispenseth with his own institutions for the sake of it. Hosea 6 verse 6, Matthew 9 verse 13, with chapter 12 verse 7.

Once more, he is so merciful that he is upbraided with it, as if he were too fond of that attribute and loved it overmuch, Jonah 4 verse 2, was not this my saying in my own country, for I knew that thou wast merciful. Thou did send me to preach destruction and desolation to Ninevehay, but when I received the message I knew all would be prevented by mercy, and that to preach such a threatening was but to disgrace and dishonour myself as a false prophet before the men of Nineveh,

for I thought then what is now come to pass, that notwithstanding the preemptoriness of the message, mercy would interpose and prove me false. Eighth, God is incomparable in his patience. Patience is that attribute in God whereby he beareth with sinners and forbears or defers their punishment, or that whereby he expecteth, and waiteth long for their conversion. He is a God slow to anger. Psalm 103, verse 8. He waiteth on men to do them good. Isaiah 30, verse 18. He is long suffering, 2 Peter 3 verses 7 and 9.

Nay, he endureth with much long suffering, the vessels of wrath. Romans 9 verse 22. He is the God of Patience, Romans 15 verse 5. The Patience of God is the more admirable if we consider one, how perfectly he hateth sin. Psalm 5. Verse 4, Habakkuk 1 verse 13. Proverbs 6 verse 16. And how offensive it is to him, it grieveth him. Ephes 4 verse 30. It presseth him as sheaves press a cart. Amos 2.13. He is broken with their hoorish hearts, Ezekiel 6 verse 9. Though he be so infinitely perfect that no sin can be hurtful to him, yet he is so infinitely pure that all sin is hateful to him. 2. What an affront sin is to him? A contempt.

of his authority, therefore called a despising him. 1 Samuel 2, verse 30, an eclipsing his honour, therefore called a dishonouring him, Romans 2, verse 23, a contention with him for mastery, therefore called a fighting against him, Acts 5, verse 39, Job 15, verse 25, a violation of his commands, therefore called a transgression of the law, 1 John 3, verse 4. It affronts his wisdom, therefore called folly, 2 Samuel 24 verse 10, his justice, therefore called unrespected, righteousness, 1 John 1, verse 6 and 7, His patience, therefore called a despising his long-suffering, Romans 2 verse 4. His mercy, therefore called a turning his grace into wantonness, Jude 4. His truth, therefore called a lie. Isaiah 44 verse 20.

It must be infinite patience to bear with that which is the object of infinite hatred. 3. Who they are, who thus dare and provoke him. They are his creatures, Psalm 100, verse 2, whom he hath infinitely obliged. Lamentations 3, verses 22 and 23, and laden with innumerable blessings, Psalm 116 verse 12, and loved inconceivably, John 3, verse 16, and seeks daily to overcome with his kindness, Psalm 130 verse 5, Josea 11 verse 1. Yet these turn rebels and traitors devise and endeavor his ruin and join. with Satan, his arch-enemy. In order thereunto, Ephesians 2 versus 2 and 3, Job 15,

verses 25 and 26. 4. That he knoweth all men's sins, the number of them, the nature of them, all the aggravation they admit of. He knoweth their thoughts, words, actions, some 139. I know all their wickedness and all their sins. Amos 5 verse 12, Ezekiel 11 verse 5. 5. That he hath power in his hands to avenge himself, he pleaseth, he can look, speak, think his creature into hellfire. Here is the miracle. He that is great in power is slow to anger. Nam 1 verse 3. 6, that he is the more provoked because of his patience. The revenues of heaven are at present impaired by it. Good men hereby question and quarrel with his providence. Psalm 73 verses 2 to 4, Jeremiah 12 verses 1 to 3.

Bad men hereby are encouraged to continue in sin and to judge him and abettor of their profaneness. Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11, Psalm 50 verse 21. 7. That he beareth, notwithstanding all this, year after year, many years. 40 years with the Jews. Psalm 95 verse 10, with the whole world 120 years. Genesis 6 verse 3, with the Amorites 400 years. Genesis 15 verses 13 and 14.

8. That he doth not only forbear them, but also do them good. He continueth life and health and food and raiment and friends and relations, nay the gospel and salvation, and seasons of grace and tenders of his love and favor, and of everlasting life. Acts 17 versus 17 and 18, verses 27 and 28. Luke 19 verse 41, Job 21 versus 14 to 16. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 19 and 20. men are patient Moses was the meekest man on earth

Numbers 12 verse 12 but could he bear as God? No. When the Israelites provoked him he was impatient. Psalm 106 verse 33. They provoked his spirit that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. The apostles were good men, yet upon a little affront they call for fire from heaven. Luke 9 verse 54, if God should be as impatient towards the most patient men as they are towards others, woe would be to them that ever they were born. But though men come short, yet are not angels as patient as God? Surely no, angels cannot bear like God with such a froid peevish peace as man is.

The Lord told Moses that he would not go up in the midst of them lest he should consume them for their sins, but he would send an angel before them to drive out the Canaanites. Exodus 33 verse 2. Yet, verse 4, when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no man put on his ornaments. What evil tidings. One, they should have an angel for their guide and guard. That was both stronger and wiser than any man. Two, an angel that should drive out their enemies.

God undertaketh for that, and bring them into the best country under heaven. Three, God gives them the reason why he declines their immediate conduct, lest their stubbornness should provoke him to destroy them. Yet they weep and mourn at these tidings. Alas, they knew if God could not bear with their provocations, much less good angels, and therefore if angels be their guides, they must perish. If they could tire out infinite forbearance and drain an ocean, they must needs quickly tire out finite patience, and drain a little stream. How soon would limited forbearance and a drop of patience be spent. God is so incomparable in his patience that he is called the God of all patience, not only because he hath all manner of patience in him, but because he hath engrossed it all to himself. End of Chapter 9. Chapter 10 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. God incomparable in his attributes, as they are from him, as they are in his essence,

as they are all one in him, as they are in him in an infinite manner. Two, I shall show more specially the difference between God and his creatures in reference to these communicable attributes. 1. These attributes are all essential to God. They are from God as well as in God. He is their author as well as their subject. But in men and angels they are all derivative. Though truth and justice and holiness may be in them, yet they are not from them but from God. God is not obliged to any but himself for them. He can thank only himself that he hath them, but angels and men are not obliged to themselves, but to him for them. When the high guard would lay Job low by manifesting the vast

difference between himself and Job, he bids Job be obliged to himself for his excellency. Job 40 verse 10, deck thyself with majesty and excellency, array thyself with glory and beauty. To be decked and arrayed with majesty and excellency, notes one, the extend and abundance of it, the whole man is covered with raiment. To be clothed with shame is to be extremely reproached. Psalm 35 verse 26. To be arrayed with humility is to be very humble, lowly in an extraordinary degree, one Peter five, verse five. Two, the publicness of it. Our deckings and raiments are visible.

We cannot go abroad, but all see our clothes. God speaks to Job to this purpose. Job, thou hast talked very presumptuously, and carried thyself, as if there were no great distance or difference between me and thyself, as if thou wert like me and equal to me. If thou art, let me see it. Deck thyself with majesty and excellency. Array thyself with glory and beauty.

I can deck myself and array myself with all these in the highest degree it will not be beholden to any others for their help. I am clothed with majesty, but no creature lent a hand for the making up or putting on those clothes. Psalm 104 verse 1. I have covered myself with light as a garment. Psalm 104 verse 2. but neither man nor angel afforded me the least assistance therein do thou as much for thyself as i have done for myself and then indeed thou mayst compare with me god might make the same offer to angels which he doth to job and none of them would or could accept it dependence is of their essence as they are creatures and they can no more be separated from it than from themselves

2. These attributes are the very essence of God, not qualities or properties, as in men or angels. The holiness of God is the holy God. Once have I sworn by my holiness, Psalm 89 verse 36, i.e. by myself, that I will not lie unto David. For Hebrews 6 verse 13, God having no greater to swear by, swore by himself. The power of God is the powerful God, the truth of God is the true God, the wisdom of God is the wise God. All his attributes, are himself, his essence. In men and angels, their wisdom and power and justice and truth are accidents, and differ from their substances, and this is apparent because angels and men may be and are without these attributes as devils and wicked men. In them these properties are one thing,

and their essence is another thing, so that they may be separated. An angel may be an angel, and not holy, nor wise, nor just, etc. A man may be a man, and not powerful, nor patient, nor merciful, and the reason is because these properties are really distinct from the essence of men or angels. But in God they are his very being and essence. They are himself and can no way be separated from him, no more than he can be separated from himself. God could not be God if he would not most wise, most holy, most just, most patient, etc. God's attributes are one most pure essence diversely apprehended by us,

as it is diversely manifested to us. God's punishing the wicked is his justice, God's performing his promises is his faithfulness, his relieving the miserable is his mercy, his bearing with the guilty is his patience, so are all his essence himself. Three, those attributes are all one in God. His justice is his mercy, and his wisdom is his patience, and his knowledge is his faithfulness, and his mercy is his justice, etc. Though they are distinguished in regard to their objects, and in regard to our apprehensions of them, and in regard of their effects, yet they are all one in themselves, and this

floweth from the former head because they are the essence of God, and his essence is a pure, undivided being. In men and angels, these attributes or perfections are different and several, for they may have one without the other. Their righteousness is one thing, and their power is another thing, and their truth is a third thing, for we see in angels some that are strong and powerful, that are not righteous or faithful, and among men, some have one of these perfections who have not another. Yea, though in good men, all these perfections are in some degree, yet all are not in anyone in the same degree. There is scarce any saint who is not more eminent for some spiritual excellency than for

others, but in God they are all one and the same. As when the sunbeams shine through a yellow glass they are yellow, a green glass they are green, a red glass they are red, and yet all the while the beams are the same, or as when the sun shines on clay it hardens it, on wax it softens it, on sweet flowers it draweth out their frequency, on dung-hill hills and ditches, it draweth out their ill savers, yet still it is the same son and the same influences, the difference lieth in the objects, and the effects. So the great God, who is always working in the world, when he worketh towards the wicked in punishing, he is righteous, towards the godly, in saving them, he is merciful, yet still the same immutable God.

4. All these attributes are in God in the highest degree, yea beyond all degrees. These communicable attributes which are in angels and men in degrees and limited, for a finite substance will not admit of an infinite property, are in God infinitely. Immensity, like a golden thread, runs through all his communicable properties. His understanding is infinite, Psalm 147 verse 5, so his justice is infinite, his mercy is infinite, and all the rest. They have no bounds, no limits, but his own will and pleasure. He never acted to the utmost in any of them. He never put forth so much power, but he could put forth more if he pleased. He never exercised so much patience, but he could exercise more if he would.

Hence it is that in Scripture, they are affirmed of God not only in the concrete but also in the abstract. He is not only loving but love. God is love. 1 John 4 verse 7. He is not only wise but wisdom. Proverbs 9 verse 1, wisdom hath built her house. He is not only good but goodness.

I will make all my goodness, i.e. my soul. pass before the Exodus 33 verse 19, he is not only holy but holiness. Look down from heaven the habitation where thy holiness dwelleth. Isaiah 63 verse 15. Therefore these attributes of God must be boundless because they are his being himself. End of chapter 10. Chapter 11 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick.

This Librevonk's recording is in the public domain. God incomparable in his works, creation and providence. Thirdly, God is incomparable in his works as well as in his being and attributes. Nothing hath such a strong hand, such a stretched out arm, or can do like him. O Lord, saith Moses, thou hast begun to show to thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand. For what God is there in heaven or on earth that can do according to thy works? Deuteronomy 3 verse 24. a God doing wonders, Exodus 15, verse 11. His doings are like his being. He works like a God.

Isaiah 28, verse 29. He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. His works are all wonderful. Psalm 86, verse 10. Thou dost marvelous things, thou art God alone. He doth Miranda Stupenda, so that it is said of him, Numbers 23, verse 23, what hath God wrought? His works are great, Joel 2 verse 21 Honorable and glorious Psalm 1111 verse 3 Perfect Deuteronmi 32 verse 4

God thundroth marvelously With his voice Great things doeth he Which we cannot comprehend Job 37 verse 5 The works of men and angels are little Small Some mean things they do by divine

Concurrents but his works are great and unsearchable Which we cannot comprehend If creatures do great things in a sense, or comparatively, yet they may be found out. Their fellow creatures have a clue which will lead them into all their labyrinths, and a line which will sound the bottom of all their actions. But God's works cannot be comprehended by the understandings of any creature.

O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his ways and doings past finding out? Romans 11, verse 33. His footsteps are not known. Psalm 77 verse 19. yea, he doth great things and unsearchable and marvellous things without number, Job 5 verse 9, till there be no number. If creatures do great things and marvellous and unsearchable,

yet you might soon reckon up all such works of theirs. One great, marvellous, unsearchable thing were enough for the whole creation, but God doth great things and unsearchable, yea, marvellous things without number. His ways are not as man's ways. As far as the heavens are higher than the earth, so far are his ways above the ways of man. Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9. No ways like his among all the gods, there is none like unto him.

Neither are there any works like unto his works, Psalm 86 verse 8, whether you consider the matter of his works and the works themselves or his manner of working. One, his works themselves, and therein I shall pass by his internal works, both personal and effectual, and mention only his external works, and mention only his external works. He is incomparable in what works he is pleased to do or hath done. First, creation. Herein he is incomparable. Creatura non potes creaere, the creature cannot create. Ex nielo nil fit with them. Man may do something towards the emendation of the form, but he cannot produce matter, no, nor mend it when it is before him. A goldsmith may make a sparkling jewel, but then you must

give him gold and precious stones to make it of. He can put the matter into a better form, but he is so far from making matter, where there is none, that he cannot mend the matter which you give him. He cannot make gold of silver, nor diamonds of common stones. Man's work may exceed the matter, but man's work cannot make the matter exceed itself. But God can not only make the matter to exceed itself, as in man who is formed of the dust of the earth, he hath such curious parts, veins, sinews, arteries, etc., such members, eyes, cheeks, ears, etc., such characters of beauty on the whole, that he looks nothing like his parent earth, the matter of which he was made, but also make matter, he hath brought something, nay, all things out of nothing.

All the angels and men cannot create one grain of corn, one pile of grass, one mote of dust, but the great God hath erected the stately fabric of heaven and the earth, with the curious steps and stories thereof, and the various creatures and furniture therein of nothing. Hereby he proves himself the true God. The living God that made heaven and earth and all things therein, Acts 14 verse 15. He proves his deity hereby, Jeremiah 10 v. 10 to 12. The gods that have not made the heavens on the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.

He hath made the earth by his power. He hath established the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his discretion, i.e. can you be so foolish and sottish as to imagine that blind, dumb, deaf, dead idols can compare with him who created you and all things beside? When God would proclaim his sovereignty and incomparable excellency, he challengeth Job. Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding? Who hath laid the measures thereof, or stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon are the foundations thereof set, or who laid the cornerstone thereof? Job 38, verses 4 and 5. God would here denote the exactness and accurateness of his works, and so he alludes to men, who, when they would set up a strong, stately, neat, compact dwelling, lay the foundations and cornerstones, and all the rest by line and measure. But that which God would principally intimate here is his own omnipotency and man's impotency. Where was thou when I laid the foundation of the earth, etc.? Didst thou then lend me a helping head how to do it, or a helping hand in the doing of it? Surely no, I did all myself.

Those innumerable beings which are on earth and in the ocean, yea, that are included within the vast circumference of the highest heavens, are all made by him out of nothing. Through faith we believe that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things that do appear. Hebrews 11 verse 3. The great God had no materials to make the great house with. He did not frame it off his own essence or any pre-existent matter,

Isaiah 45 verse 12. Yet such admirable qualities are everywhere intermixed, matter and form, subject and accidents, power and goodness, wisdom and order, a rare symmetry, exact proportion and beauty on the whole, a dependent subordination and useful subserviency in every part, so equally poised that it is hard to determine which bears the greatest weight in the mighty work, and gives abundant cause to cry out with the psalmist, O Lord, how marvellous are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all, Psalm 104, 14.

Second, he is incomparable in regard of providence. One, for preservation none is like him, nay, none besides him, doth this. O thou preserver of men, Job 7, verse 20. Thy visitation preserveth my spirit, Job 10, verse 12. God is unlike to men. the carpenters or masons build houses and then leave them to the care and charge of others, but God keeps up what he sets up. His providence succeedeth creation, and is indeed a continual creation. Thou preservest man and beast, Psalm 36 verse 6. Not food or air or sleep, but thou preservest man and beast, and not only men and beasts, but all things subsist by him. Colossians 1 verse 17. That hand alone which made all can maintain all.

and that power only which produced out of nothing must preserve from nothing. Acts 17 verse 28. In him we live and move and have our beings. That being which gave us our beings must uphold us in our beings. Hebrews 1 verse 3, he upholdeth all things by the word of his power. One, sustenendo, as a pillar or sure foundation upon which they stand. The air which surrounds the earth and ocean cannot bear a feather, yet in it hangeth the massy weight of earth and sea. Job 26 verse 7. He hangeth the earth, i.e. earth and sea the terrestrial globe upon

nothing. His power is the only pillar that bears them up. 2. Influendo, as a fountain from which they derive all their virtue and operations, the beings and motions of all his creatures depend wholly upon his concurrence. If he suspend his influence, coactum secondum, according to the schoolman, the fire will not Boone, Daniel 3 verse 27. Neither can the best eyes see, though the faculty be well disposed, and the object be coloured, and at a good distance. Genesis 19, verse 7, as hath been hinted before. It is natural to the sun to run his race strongly and swiftly, yet if he doth not concur, as swift as the sun is, he cannot creep a snail's pace. He standeth still in Ghibea,

Joshua 10 verse 13, Job 9, verse 7. 3. Constringendo as a sovereign bond and ligature by which the parts of all things hold together and are kept as water in a vessel, from flowing abroad to their disillusion. No man, no angel, can bear its own weight, much less the weight of another creature. Every creature is like a glass without a bottom, which cannot stand alone, but must always be in hand. It is impossible for the creation or any part of it to bear up a moment if God should forget it. and deny his actual concurrence to it. It doth constantly depend on God as the figure of the seal imprinted on the water, which, being withdrawn, the impression is instantly defaced. God is to the

world as the soul to the body, which alone can actuate and move it, without which it cannot stir at all, but is as a dead corpse. Two, for governation, he governeth all, and neither men nor angels can govern themselves. The great family of the world would soon lose its beauty, yea, its being, if he did not maintain its harmony and concord, by guiding them in their motions, keeping them in their several stations, and directing them to their ends. The Lord hath established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Psalm 103, verse 19. One creature would most cruelly devour another. Beasts would pray upon men. All creatures would become their own enemies and executioners.

The whole earth would be turned into an Aseldomer and a Golgotha, a field of blood and a place of skulls, yea, into a hell if he did not order and guide and govern all. Treasons, incest, slaughters, parasites would overwhelm the whole world, pervote the order of nature, turn all into confusion and destruction if he did not keep the reins in his own hand, and govern all things, in every of their actions, every moment. He governeth the highest even the governors themselves on earth that seem to be above all government. Kings and princes seem to be absolute and wholly at their own disposal. Who may say to a king what dost thou?

Many will tell us that their hands are their own, to do what they please, but more will acknowledge that their hearts are their own, to think as they please. But alas, they cannot command their hands to do what they will. Their hands are ruled and overruled by him. Acts 4 verse 28. Herod and Pontius Pilate were gathered together to do what thy hand determined to be done. In like manner, their hearts are not in their own hands, to think as they will, but in God's hand to think what he will. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord,

and he turneth it as the rivers of water which way he pleaseth. Proverbs 21 verse 1. As the husbandman turneth the sluces into his ground, this way or that way, into this channel or that channel, as he thinks best for his own advantage. So God turneth the hearts of kings this way or that way, which way he seeth most for his glory. Proverbs 16 verse 9. A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directed his steps. No man is master of himself so much as of his thoughts. That heart that deviseth its way is directed in those devices by God. The sun is higher than an earthly prince and seems to be his own guide. He acteth naturally and so necessarily, but if he speak to the sun it riseth not

and he sealeth up the stars, Job 9 verse 9. He hath a negative voice upon the motion of all beings. He governeth the lowest as well as the highest, as none are so high as to be above for his precepts, so none are so low as to be below his providence. The highest must remember him, and he doth not forget the lowest. Are not two sparrows sold for a fathering, yet not one of them falls to the ground without your father's providence, Matthew 10 verse 29. Sparrows seem to fly at liberty and to fall casually, but even their flight is directed by God, and their fall ordered by him. They neither fly nor fall accidentally, but providentially. He governeth the most stubborn creatures, those which seem wholly ungovernable. The winds, the high winds, whirlwinds, seem to cast off

and scorn all rule and government, but these winds are at his will. Stormy winds fulfill his word. Psalm 148 verse 8. When they rush forth with such irresistible force that neither men nor trees nor horses can stand before them, he rideth on their wings, and hath them more at command than a skillful rider hath a horse, to turn this way or that way at his pleasure. Psalm 104 verse 3 and Psalm 18 verse 10. They are all at his back. He causeth them to blow. Psalm 147 verse 18 and ceaseth them.

Matthew 9 verse 26. The wise man tells us that he hath them in his fist. Proverbs 30 verse 4. He can hold them fast or let them loose as a man what he hath in his fist. The waves seem rougher than the winds. The waters are moist bodies that are with much difficulty containing. in their own bounds, especially when the winds cross them and contend with them, but he sitteth on the floods, Psalm 29 verse 11 as a prince on his throne, enjoining, enforcing obedience and

submission. He bindeth the waters in a garment, Proverbs 30 verse 4, as women there sucking infants in mantles with swaddling bans, which they cannot get out of. Though the sea be such a giant, such a monster, that it swalloweth up thousands and burieth them in its belly, that it maketh all to shake, and tremble when it roareth and rageth, yet to God it is but a little infant, which he ordereth as he pleaseth, and can lay to sleep or make quiet in an instant, when it is never so tempestuous. When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness its swaddling band, Job 38, verse 9. Some earthly princes heated with passion and drunk with pride have cast shackles into the sea, threatening it with bondage if it did not obey them.

Zorxes commanded so many strokes to be given the sea as a punishment of its rebellion against his will, but such actions are the highest folly and madness. Many have had great command at sea, but none ever had the command of the sea save God. As tempestuous and outrageous as it is, it is his quiet prisoner, and stirs not without his leave, nor otherwise than he lengthens its chain. I set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shall thou come, and no farther, and here shall thy proud wave, be stayed, Job 38, verse 10 and 11. It may easily be proved that the sea is higher than the earth,

and why then doth it not overflow it and drown its inhabitants? Surely no reason can be given by the command of the great God hath over it, Psalm 104 v. 6 to 9. The waters stood above the mountains, at thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains, they go down by the valleys, unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set abound that they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth. The waters did once cover the earth, till God broke up for them his decreed place, Job 38 verse 10, and commanded them into their appointed channels. They have a propensity and inclination still to cover the earth again.

What doth their constant beating upon their banks with rage and fury, and now and then encroaching upon the earth and getting ground of it signify but their desire and longing to beat down all before them and turn the dry land into a sea. The only reason why they do not accomplish their ends is because the great governor of the world hath set them their bounds which they cannot pass. Some men are extreme stubborn and refractory, as immovable as rocks, resolved and fixed for their own wills and ways, but even these God ordereth at his pleasure. The king of Babylon seemed an untamable beast. He had foraged many countries and kingdoms and trampled on many idols and false gods, and he cometh in a full career against the people of God, like a lion greedy of his prey, no way doubting but to tear them in pieces and devour them, as you may read in the 37th and 38th chapters of Isaiah. But mark how God governs this wild ass,

and hath this monster at command. Isaiah 38, verse 29, I will put my hook into thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. I will put my hook into thy nose, an allusion either to a fisher, when he hath the fish fast on his hook, draweth it which way he will. Job 41, verse 1, or to such rings as men put into the noses of bears to keep them in and govern them with. My bridle into thy lips, Ezekiel 19 v. 4 and 9, my bit in thy mouth, and my curb about thy jaws, and not. allusion to them that ride horses, who with bridle and bit, rain and restrain them, and keep them within compass.

Psalm 32 verse 9, James 3 verse 3, as if God had said, Because thou ravest and ragesst, like some huge, unruly fish, or some fierce wild beast, I will take thee with my hook, and I will ring thee, and curb thee, and lead thee, and draw thee whither I list. The devils are more untractable than winds and waves and men. They have great power, hence called U.S. The strong man, Luke 11, verse 21, and powers. Ephesians 6 verse 12.

Their union doth much increase their strength, vis unita for theor. They are so much one in their confederacies and all their conspiracies that they are called the evil one, the wicked one, Matthew 13, verse 28. The devil, 1 Peter 5 verse 8, because, though there are many thousands, yet they agree and unite against God, as if they were all but one. They have much knowledge, subtlety and policy to direct their power,

vis concili ex-peres, etc. Their excellent natures, their great observation of persons and actions, their long experience of some thousands of years in the world, must need speak their wisdom or rather craftiness to be great. And to these, their innate implacable hatred of God, which makes them employ all their power and improve all their policy to offend and displease him, to break from under his yoke and subjection,

Yet, in spite of all their might, their craft, their malice, He governeth them as a man doth his prisoners, whom he hath in fetters. He hath reserved them in chains of darkness, Jude 6. He hath them ever in the chains, one of their own terrifying, affrighting consciences, which allow them no rest day or night. Indeed, all time is a dark, dreadful time to them, and all places are dark, dismal places to them. They are wherever they go as prisoners, with fetters upon them.

yea such shackles as enter into and pierce their spirits in chains of darkness two in chains of divine providence god governeth their persons and all their motions they go no whither but as he pleaseth though they go up and down in the earth as subtle a spirit as the devil is he cannot touch job job one verse twelve no nor the swine without god's leave matthew eight verse thirty one he that would read more of the incomparableness of god in his providence may see it incomparably set forth by God's own mouth in the 37th, 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st chapters of Job. End of Chapter 11 Chapter 12 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librival's recording is in the public domain. God incomparable in the work of redemption, he can do all things. Three, he is incomparable in the work of redemption, and truly this work is his masterpiece.

pure workmanship, and indeed all his works of creation and providence are subordinate to this. All his attributes sparkle most gloriously in this. Psalm 102, verse 16. All his angels in heaven admire and adore him for this, Revelation 4 verses 10 and 11. This is the work of all his works, which he is so mightily pleased with, and reapeth so much glory and praise from. Isaiah 42 verse 1 and chapter 43 verse 21. No angels, no men, no, not altogether, could with all their united worthiness redeem one's soul. None of them can redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him.

For the redemption of the soul is precious, it ceases forever. Psalm 49 verses 9 and 10. None beside God had pity enough for man's misery or wisdom enough to find out a remedy or power enough for his recovery. None had pity enough for man's misery. Boundless misery called for boundless mercy, one deep for another, but where is such mercy to be found among the creatures? Man was a child of wrath, had plunged himself into an ocean of evils and fury, and this required an ocean of love and pity, but creatures and most had but drops. But the Creator had infinite grace for infinite guilt, and infinite mercy for infinite misery. Ezekiel 16, verses 4 to 6. In the day of thy nativity, thou wast cast out, to the loathing

of thy person. Thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou salted with salt, nor washed with water. Here is misery indeed, but what help or compassion from creatures? Truly none. No, I pitied thee, to do any of these things unto thee. Who then had pity enough? Then I passed by thee, and saw thee in thy blood. Then was my time. time of love, and I bid thee live. Yea, when thou wast in thy blood, I said unto thee live. God hath great mercy for great misery. Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5.

Abundant mercy for abundant misery. 1. Peter 1.1.3, a plaster altogether as broad and as large as the sore. John 3 verse 16. 1.4 verse 9. Ephesians 3 verse 19. Therefore the Holy Ghost observes. Luke 1 verse 78. In the work of redemption, the tender mercy of the power of the sinter mercy of our God from on high hath visited us. None had wisdom enough to find out a remedy. Had the creatures had pity enough and kindness enough, they had not wisdom enough to make justice and mercy

meet together, and righteousness and grace kiss each other, if God should have offered man his pardon and life, upon condition that he with angels should consult, and find out some way to satisfy his infinite justice that was offended by sin, alas, poor man must of necessity have perished. creature was able to undertake the satisfaction of infinite justice, it would have bankrupt them all to satisfy for one of the smallest sins. And who could have thought of God, the creator, to undertake it, who dost have presumed to entertain such emotion in his heart? Could it have entered into the mind of men or angels that the law might be fulfilled in its commands and curse? The glory of divine justice and holiness salv'd, and miserable man eternally saved. No creature could

have thought of a way to reconcile the justice and mercy of God. No creature could have thought of any way for it. Nay, no creature dost have thought of such a way as God have found out. No, he that made the world by his wisdom, Psalm 104 verse 24, when it had unmade itself, made it new by his wisdom. Hence the redemption of man is called Tolo Puylos Sophia, the manifold, the curious, the embroidered wisdom of God. Such wisdom, as past the knowledge of angels, Ephesians 3 verse 10, and the Redeemer is called the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 24. In this work is infinite wisdom, because in this work, infinite justice and infinite mercy do meet. Romans 3, verses 24 and 25. Ephesians 2 versus 5 and 7, 1 John 4

versus 9 and 10. Again, none had power to have gone through with the work if they had had wisdom to have found out a way. There was so much to be done in order. to man's recovery that it would have undone all the world if they had undertaken it. The powers of hell must be overcome, the curse of the law and wrath of the lawgiver must be born. Sin that was so strong and fast in the heart of man must be subdued. Grace and holiness, against which man had an enmity, must be infused, and what power less than omnipotent could affect either of these. God, who discovered great power in creating the world of nothing, discovered much greater in redeeming the world when it was worse than nothing.

In the former he had no opposition. In the latter his law, justice, the devils of hell, nay man himself, did resist and oppose him. It had been impossible for the mediator to have borne up and held out under all those contests with the powers of darkness, the malediction of the law, the fury of his father, if the almighty everlasting arms had not been under him. Isaiah 42 verse 1, behold my servant whom I uphold. Isaiah 49 Verse 8 and 9 Therefore you read of power

Great power Mighty power Greatness of power Exceeding greatness of power Put forth in the work of redemption Ephesians 1 1 verses 19 and 20 And what is the exceeding

greatness of his power To Usward who believe According to the working Of the mighty power Which he wrought in Christ When he raised him from the dead And the Redeemer is called The power of God

1 Corinthians 1 verse 24 The Arm of the Lord Isaiah 53 verse 1 His strength, Isaiah 27 verse 5. Once more we read, Thy Redeemer is mighty, the Lord of hosts is his name. Jeremiah 50 verse 34. 2.

He is incomparable, not only in what he hath done, but also in what he can do. He can do what he will, nay, he can do much more than he will do. He can do what he will. His arm is as large as his mind and his hand equal to his heart. His will and pleasure is the only boundary of his strength and power. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in heaven and earth, and the seas and in all deep places, Psalm 135 verse 6 and 115 verse 3.

Can this be said of men or angels? Can they do what they please? Surely no, but the Lord doth what he hath a mind to do. He is of one mind and who can turn him, and what his soul desireth that he doth. Job 23 verse 13. His heart only can limit his soul. hands, and his strength is determined by nothing but his will. It was the picture of a prince that he could bear a circle about his head, meaning his crown, but he could not bear a circle about his feet.

He would go and come at his own pleasure, and do what he thought fit. But all the princes in the world have fetters about their feet, and chains about their hands. They cannot go whether they please, Isaiah 37 versus 33 and 34. Senacrab, Woodneeds go up to Jerusalem, and bringeth an army against it for that end, but his feet were fettered. Thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city by the way that he came, by the same shall he return. Neither can they do what they please, as they go, not whither they will, but whither God pleaseth. So they do, not what they will, but what God pleaseth. Acts 4, verses 27 and 28. It is God's incomparable prerogative to go whither and do what he will. God doth not do,

many things that he can, but he doth all things that he will. He can do more than he will. He cannot do what is sinful. He cannot lie. Titus 1.1.2. 2.2. 2.2, 2.2, verse 3. He cannot do that which implies a contradiction. He cannot make himself a creature, or make a creature a God, because the doing of these things speak weakness and imperfection. But whatsoever specketh power, or perfection, that he can do. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Ephesians 3 verse 20. A man may ask much, this world, the other world, a thousand worlds after them, millions of worlds after those, better worlds, greater worlds, the sovereignty and dominion over them, the command and rule of them for ages, for generations forever. A man may conceive more than he can ask.

The mind of man is much larger than his tongue. His apprehension doth far exceed his experience. expressions, especially of such a man whose mind is enlightened and enlarged, for of such the apostle speaks, and not contracted and narrowed to some lunar essential objects, but God can do much more than we are able to ask or think, yea, abundantly more, so much more that we cannot think how much more, nay exceedingly abundantly more. Is anything impossible to God? Luke 1 verse 37. With God all things are possible. Matthew 19 verse 26. He is good at everything that is good. Men are good, some at one thing, some at another thing. So are angels, but no man, no angel is good at all things.

God only can do everything, as God only can be everything. He only that is universal in his being is universal in his doings. He can make millions of worlds in a moment and unmake them again as soon. He can kill and make alive in the twinkling of an eye. He can build up and pluck down, take nature of its hinges and set it on again, make the waters, when they run never so violently, to stand still, stop the sun in its full career, keep the hottest fire from burning, or so much as singing a hair. Shall the sun go backwards, saith he, ten degrees, or forward? Two kings twenty versus nine and ten.

Take either, it is all one to me, choose which thou likeest best, to me both are equally easy. End of chapter 12. Chapter 13 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. God incomparable in the manner of his working, he worketh irresistibly arbitrarily. Two, if you consider the manner of his working,

he is incomparable therein also. One, he worketh irresistibly. He worketh so as none can hinder him. All the united wisdom, power of men, of angels cannot stop him at his work. The mighty king Nebuchadnezzar was taught this truth when he was grazing among the beasts, Daniel 4 verse 35. He doth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand. Mark, he doth what he will, and none can stay his hand.

The prayers of his people have sometimes stayed his hand when he was going to slay and destroy, but it was because, out of his grace, he stayed. it himself. Alas, what creature can see or know or reach his hand that is invisible and omnipresent. Isaiah 48, verse 10, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. The councils of men do not always stand. He makes them to fail and fall. He bringseth the councils of the heathen to nought, and maketh the devices of the people of none effect. Psalm 33 verse 10. But none can make his counsel void or his devices invalid. What he will do he doth, and there is no withstanding him.

If he will bring an enemy against a nation, none can prevent their coming. Calling the ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country, Cyrus that should seize on Babylon as a ravenous bird on his prey. Yea, I have spoken it, and I will bring it to pass. Let me see who shall hinder it. I have purposed it, and I will do it. I would see who dares undertake to oppose it, Isaiah 45

verse 11 and 12 If he will deprive men of their honours and grandeur Of their estates and treasures Of their might and power There is no contending with him It must be done Job 9 verse 12

Behold he taketh away Who can hinder him If he will take away Nothing shall stand in his way The four great strong monarchies Of the world That successively were the dread And terror of the earth

Were taken away by him And who hindered him All their policy and power could not prevent him or hinder their ruin. Daniel 2 verse 44. God hath a negative voice upon the motions of all the creatures. Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass if the Lord commandeth it not? Lamentations 3 verse 27. They who reckon without him must reckon again, they must ask his leave as well as have his assistance or sit still and do nothing. Their wheels, though never so well oiled, stand still or go backward. If he say nay to their motion forward,

He speaketh to the sun and it riseth not and sealeth up the stars. Job 9 verse 5. No day, not the least light in the heavens at night, without his leave. But no creature hath a negative voice upon the least of his actions. What he will do he doth, and never asketh men or angels leave. Nay, challengeeth them to hinder him if they can. Isaiah 43 verse 13, I will work, who shall let it? Observe his resolution, I will work.

He speaks like one in authority That is above all checks and controls That can make good what he purposeth In spite of all opposition I will work Observe also his challenge Who shall let it Would I could see the man

The angel that does stand in the way of my motions The Jews might think Babylon Will let I saith God have sent to Babylon And destroyed all their princes I have broken in pieces Those iron bars There is no fear

That they should hinder my entrance Into their city He can give a superesedias to the highest attempts and strongest designs of creatures. He can blow on them, and they are soon blasted. All their politic conceptions prove abortive. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught. Isaiah 8, verse 10. Their most powerful engines prove ineffectual, verse 9.

Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Some of them talked at a great, at a high rate. We will go up against Judah and destroy it. and set a king in the midst thereof, even the son of Taubeil. But they speak beyond their strength, and reckon, as we say, without their host. Thus saith the Lord God, it shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass, Isaiah 7 verses 6 and 7, but none can give a super sedias to the least of his attempts. Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built up again.

He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. Job 12 verse 14. 2. He worketh arbitrarily, according to, his own will. He doth what he will, and he alone may do what he will. It is argued by many that some princes are not accountable for what they do to any man, but all hold they are accountable to God. They are his stewards and deputies, and must give an account to him of their stewardship. They are his creatures, and are, or ought to be, limited by his laws, and so must be responsible to him for their carriages and government. No king is absolute or arbitrary in his governments,

because all kings are his subjects and owe allegiance to his majesty and obedience to his commands. But God is absolute and arbitrary and may do what he will. Everything that he doth is just because he doth it. He doth what he will in heaven and earth, and none can say unto him, What dost thou? Daniel 4 verse 35. He is responsible to none for any of his actions. None may question him, much less quarrel with him for what he doth.

Angels are far from being arbitrary, his will, not their own. own is their rule. Psalm 103, verse 20, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. He only that is above all law, is above all transgression, one John three, verse four, and he whose will is the only rule of rectitude and righteousness may well do what he will, Romans 12 verse 2. He hath an absolute, illimited propriety in all the works of his hands. He is the great proprietor of all the world, and therefore may dispose of all at his pleasure. Psalm 24 verse 1, Matthew 20, 20, verses 13 and 15, may I not do what I will with mine own? Friend, I do thee no wrong.

Though men may have a civil right to their estates, and a natural right to themselves and their children, yet the original in all is still gods, he divests himself of nothing by lending anything to us or trusting us with it, and therefore he may use what is his own at his own liberty and pleasure, and none may question or quarrel with him for it. Again he is supreme, and so above all answering or accounting for anything he doth, the most high, Psalm 92, verse 1. It is no disparagement to men or angels to be under a law, nay, it is essential to them, as they are creatures, but he is that supreme, and giveth all laws to others, is under no law himself. Indeed, if he had a superior, he might be called to

account by him. But why strivest thou against him? He giveth no account of any of his matters. Job 33, verse 13. Why strivest thou against him? Not by open force, but secret murmurings and logical arguings against his providential dispensations. It is vain, for he giveth no account of any of his matters. He is not bound to tell thee what he doth, or why he doth it. He hath received nothing from thee, and so not bound to account to thee. Romans 11 verse 35. Thou hast no authority to call him to account, what man or angel hath power to call him to account. In the next chapter the Holy Ghost Doth fully speak for our purpose, Job 34, v. 10, 12, and 13, far be it from God that he should do wickedly, and from the Almighty that

he should pervert judgment. Who hath given him a charge of the earth, whose deputy is he in the government of the world? If he be a deputy or viceroy to any superior power, then he must keep close to the instructions and act according to the commission he receiveth from them, or be accountable for his wanderings and deviations. But who hath given him a charge over the earth. What man? What angel? Where is he? What, or who is he that hath given him a charge? If there were one higher than God to give him a rule, then, if he swerved from it, he were faulty, but because he is higher than the highest of beings and his own law. Therefore he may do what he will without blame. Who hath enjoined him his way, or can say unto God, thou hast wrought

iniquity. Job 36, verse 23. God's way is his method of working, his manner of governing the world. Now saith the Holy Ghost, who hath any authority over him to enjoin him his way of working, the path in which he should walk, that in case he stepped aside he might say unto him, thou hast wrought iniquity? No, not any, and therefore it is desperate presumption, for any to complain of him what he doth. Who art thou that repliest against God? Romans 9 verse 20. He is a bold man indeed that will contend with his maker. Who art thou? What manner of man, what monster of men? Who thou, a clod of clay, a lump of earth, a sink of sin, a firebrand of hill, that thou dearest chop logic with God. For shame, sit still, lay thy hand on thy mouth, and be silent.

End of chapter 13. Chapter 14 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevon's recording is in the public domain. God incomparable in his working, he doth the greatest things with ease and without any help. 3. He worketh at all times without weariness, and doth the greatest things with ease. As there is nothing too hard for God, so there is nothing hard to God. He doth the hardest things that are with the greatest ease. Indeed, the great God doth the greatest and hardest things with the same ease that he doth the least things. It is all one to him, whether his work be small or great, easy or hard to others. All is easy alike to him. In the creation, though the

building be large and vast, yet with what ease did he set it up? He did not blow or sweat, no, nor so much as stir at his work. The whole world consisteth of the celestial and terrestrial globe, and both were the product of his word. For the heavens, Psalm 33, verse 6, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and all the host thereof by the breath of his mouth. It was but a word, a breath, that produced that vast circumference of the heavens, and all those great luminaries there. So for the earth, he spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast, verse nine. He only spake the word, and even non-entities obeyed, and became beings. Therefore, in the story of the creation, Genesis 1, we find in every day's work, God only commanding,

and immediately all things concurring, verses three, nine, and twelve. In his works of providence, he doth all things with inconceivable ease. If he destroy and pull down, it is done with ease. They are crushed as a moth, Job 4 verse 19. How easily doth a man crush a moth between his fingers? With more ease doth God crush his stoutest enemies. He destroyeth the highest, the greatest, the strongest, the lions, young lions with a breath with a blast. By the blast of God they perish, by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed.

Job 4 v.9 and 10. By a blast, a breath, it is easy to breathe, to send forth a blast for a man, but much easier for God, who breathed into man the breath of life. This can put him to no pain, no toil, no trouble at all. Sir Naccharob comes against Jerusalem with a great army of warriors, and had, as he saith, counsel and strength for war. God undertakes to deal with him on the behalf of his own people and to destroy him,

but see with what ease God doth it. To kings 19 verse 17, I will send a blast upon him. I will never trouble myself to use my artillery, or draw out my great ordinance of heaven, my thunders and lightnings against so many soldiers, and will only blow upon them, that shall be all. He destroyeth with a word. If he do but speak, it is done.

His saying is doing. At what time I speak concerning a nation to pull down and to destroy, Jeremiah 18-7, when the prophet would speak the certain ruin of the Philistines, he dothed in this manner. Woe to the inhabitants of the sea-coasts, the word of the Lord is against you. Zephaniah 2 verse 5, i.e. the cases. woeful your condition is desperate, the whole world cannot save you, for the word of the Lord is against you. Men may talk and boast and threaten what they will do, when all the while their words are but wind, and their threatened folk live long, but the word of God, like lightning

or mildew, blasteth wherever it goes, and burns up to the very root. Julia Caesar told Meletus, when he would have prevented his robbing the Roman treasury, young man, be quiet, or I will lay thee dead at my feet, and then to magnify his own power, addeth, it is harder for me to speak it than to do it. But this is certain it is as easy for God to do anything as to speak of it, yea, he doth what he will with a word. Now, how easy it is to speak, he destroyeth with a look, with a glance of his eye, and surely that is easy to him, that is all I, that made the eye. In the morning watch the Lord looked through the pillar of fire on the host of the Egyptians and troubled them. Exodus 14, verse 24. He darts out beams of death from his eyes. One look from God

will take away the life of the greatest of his adversaries. He destroyeth with a hiss. Oh, how little, how easier a thing is hissing. Isaiah 7, verse 18, I will hiss for the flies of Egypt and the bees of Assyria, and they shall come, etc. He destroyeth with a turn of his hand. Psalm 81 versus 13 and 14, I would soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against them that hated them. A turn of his hand would have subdued the proudest enemies of Israel and have stabbed them to the heart. He delivereth his people with the greatest ease. Whatsoever their straits be, though various and difficult, yet he helpeth them out with ease. When they were in captivity, scattered up and down as exiles out of their own country, he bringeth them home. But how?

Truly, he saith to the north, give up, and to the south, keep not back, etc. As I have forty-three verse 6, and both hearken to his word that his sons come from far and his daughters from the ends of the earth. When the prophet would beg of him to help his afflicted people, he only desires him to command deliverance for Jacob. Psalm 44 verse 4. If he will and command it, the work is done. He succeedeth his ordinances and maketh them effectual for enlightening the blind and enlivening the dead, great works, with ease. He saith live and the dead sinner liveth, John 5, verse 24. He commandeth success and ordinances are effectual. There the Lord commandeth his blessing, even life forevermore. Psalm 133, verse 3.

Yea, the ocean, that is such a frightful monster, which makes such a horrible noise and openeth its mouth, roaring and raging, as if it would certainly devour us, is quelled and quieted with ease by him, Job 38-8-11. When the sea was tempestuous and frighted the disciples that they awake the Lord Jesus, with what ease, doth he cause a calm, peace be still, Matthew 8 verse 27, as a mother would still a crying child. Hush, be quiet, peace, no more be still. And immediately there was a calm. For, he worketh holy by his own power, without the least help from any other.

Creatures are all instruments and act in the virtue of the principal efficient. Agents and men act not in their own but in the strength of God. They have not some help from God, but all the power by which they work from God. But God acteth holy in his own strength. He never had nor desired a helping hand from any of his creatures. In the work of creation he erected this curious large fabric without any tool or instrument. Isaiah 44 verse 24, I am the Lord that made all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.

Mark, he made the heavens alone, had none with him to assist. him, and he made the earth by himself, called none from heaven to his aid. As he said to Job, where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding, Job 38, verse 4. Thou wast far enough off from giving any help. So, he may say to angels, where were ye when I stretched out the heavens? Declare if ye have understanding. Some give that reason why they are not mentioned in the creation of the world in the first of

Genesis to assure us that God did not use their help in his work. The heavens are compared to a curtain, Psalm 104, and to a tent, Isaiah 40, verse 22. Now we know that when curtains or tents that are very large are to be stretched out, as the phrase is in that Isaiah 44 verse 24, there needs many hands to do it, one hand will not do it, many pairs of hands must be put to it, but God spreadeth out those wide, large curtains of heaven alone, Job 9 verse 8. He, he, borrowed not one hand to it, as thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong as a molten-looking glass, Job 37, verse 18, was God beholden to thee for affording him thine arms in the unfolding and spreading that broad, vast peace? In works of providence, he doth some great things alone by

himself. Job 36, verse 7, he hangeth the earth on nothing, without an atlas to bear it up, and he preserves Moses forty days without food, Exodus 32, and he doth all things without the help of his creatures, even there and then when he makes the most use of his creatures. He useth angels and men in the government of the world. He useth many means as food and raiment and physic and sleep for the preservation of our health and lives. But he doth all as much and as surely as if he made not use of any means at all. He is the soul of the world that actuates everything in it. Hence we read that instruments are called his sword. Psalm 17 verse 14, his rod, Isaiah 10, verse 5,

what can the sword or the rod do without a hand to cut or scourge with them? Therefore, when his rod boasteth, as if it could scourge of itself, Isaiah 10 verses 12 and 13, and as if it were the hand too, by the strength of my hand have I done it, I have removed the bounds of the people and robbed their treasure. God quickly contradicts such vain babbling, and confutes such vain-glorious boasting. Verse 15, shall the axe boast against,

him that heweth therewith, or the sore magnify itself against him that shaketh it? Thou poor, proud, vain-glorious wretch, thou art a mere axe, a sore, and canst no more move or cut of thyself than a saw or an axe that lie from the ground, which no man medleth with. Thou talkest arrogantly and sorcery, as if thou didst all when thou didst nothing. I did all, thou wast all the while but the axe and sore in my hand which I made use of. one whether god have little or great means means or no means it is all one to him there is not a pin to choose as we say for he doth as much when he hath means as when he hath none two chronicles fourteen verse eleven it is all one with thee to help with many or with them that have no power it is not the least difference to him it is not so much as the smallest dust in the balance to turn the scale of victory whether god have many or few any or none on his side god never made him use of any creatures because he had the least need of them or the least help by them, but partly

because it is his pleasure. He useth them because he will use them. It is his pleasure by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, one Corinthians 1 verse 21, not that he hath the least aid from preachers. So it is his pleasure by food and sleep to preserve man's life, not that he hath any help from them. Thy visitation preserves my spirit. Job 10, verse 12. Partly from his own honour, Hereby he magnifyeth his sovereignty and showeth his dominion over all his creatures, that they are all at his beck, and he can with a stamp of his foot, or a glance of his eye, or a hiss of his mouth, call them from the uttermost parts of the world, to execute his command. My hand hath laid the foundations of the earth, my right hand hath spanned the heavens. When I call they stand up together. Isaiah 48 verse 13.

The flies, caterpillars, locusts, stars in their courses, etc. all come at his call. Hereby he magnifies his power that can do such great things by weak means. He got himself glory on Pharaoh when he made pitiful, contemptible creatures as lice and flies, such plagues to him. And by opening the eyes of the blind and quickening the dead by such weak, poor instruments as men are, his strength is exceedingly exalted. We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be of God, to Corinthians four verse seven. Hereby he magnifies his wisdom, viz, in discovering the fitness and aptitude of his creatures to those ends and purposes for which they were created. The use of a tool discovers its worth by discovering its serviceableness to that for which it was made, partly to endear creatures one to another.

Their mutual serviceableness each to other causes the great amity and unity between them. 1 Corinthians 12 v. 21 to 23. In spiritual things also God worketh alone, even when he hath many orders. and ministers to serve him. Thou workest all our works in us and for us, Isaiah 26 verse 12. Not any visions or prophets or industry of our own, but thou workest all.

What is Paul, what is Apollus? Paul plundeth, Apollus watereth, but God giveth the increase. So then, observe, He that planteth is, A great apostle? No, nothing. And he that watereth is,

An eloquent, excellent person? No, nothing. But God that giveth the increase, 1 Corinthians 3 v. 5 to 7. God doth not use preachers because they help him in the conversion of souls, but, as I said before, because it is his pleasure. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 21, and he turneth it to his honour. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 7, therefore it is often seen that ministers of the largest gifts

of the greatest grace are not often the most successful in their labours because God would have us know that it is not the parts or piety of the preacher, but his grace and spirit that doth the work. They are nothing, he is all in all. He made light the first day of the creation, and not the sun or stars till the fourth, to tell the world that he can enlighten it without the sun. It is a great honour to God that he hath so many millions of creatures at his will and pleasure, that he hath so many eyes to see for him, and so many ears to hear for him,

and so many hands to work for him, but it is a greater honour to him that he needeth none of them. He can do all without them, that though they are serviceable to him, yet they are not necessary to him, for God and all his creatures do no more, can do no more than God without any of his creatures. End of Chapter 14. Chapter 15 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevalk's recording is in the public domain. God is incomparable in his word.

He speaketh with incomparable authority, condescension, and efficacy. Fourthly, God is incomparable in his word. He speaketh after an unspeakable manner. never man spake like him no nor angels his enemies themselves being judges john seven verse 46 men may speak high and speak holyly angels may speak higher and holier but neither speak like god behold he exalteth by his power who teacheth like him job thirty six verse twenty two behold wonder at it he exalteth by his power is good at acting who teacheth like him is good at instructing and best at both and beyond all that ever were who teacheth like him. The words are a challenge to the whole world. Bring forth the man, let me see the angel that can speak or teach like God. He doth not say, who teacheth beside God? There are many teachers beside God. The inanimate creatures are teachers. The heavens by their constant regular motion, the earth by its fecundity and fruitfulness, according to the law of their

creation, teach man obedience and proficiency. Isaiah 48, verse 13. The irrational creatures are teachers. man is sent to school to the ant and swallow, and ox and ass to the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air to learn providence and prudence, to learn wisdom, to discern and improve his opportunities, and gratitude to his father and benefactor. Proverbs 6 verse 6, Jeremiah 7, verse 7 and 8, Isaiah 1 verse 5, Job 12, verses 8 and 9. Men are teachers one to another. Parents and ministers do or should teach those that are committed to their charge or trust. Proverbs 22 verse 6, Ephesians 4 verse 6.

Angels are teachers, the angel taught Daniel and helped him to understand. Daniel 10 verse 14, and surely, of all finite, they are the most learned and able masters, but he saith who teacheth like him? Though many teach beside God, yet none teacheth like God, none speaketh like him, whether you consider the manner, the matter, or the effect of his speech. One, he is incomparable in the manner of his speaking. one he speaketh authoritatively and in his own name good men and good angels may command but it must be as subordinate magistrates in the name and authority of their prince and sovereign but god commandeth

in his own name and authority god gives authenticity to whatever he speaks and he speaks with authority when he speaks god speaks as one that hath right and power to command and as one that upon his own account expecteth to be obeyed i am the lord is enough to warrant obedience to the whole Deccalogue. Thou shalt have no other God. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, etc. For I am the Lord thy God. His authority is the highest, the greatest reason of any precept, and the strongest warrant for obedience. Therefore, thou shalt not swear by my name falsely. Why, I am the Lord? Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor lay a stumbling block before the blind. Why not? The deaf cannot hear if I do curse them, nor the blind see if I do lay a

stumbling block before them, I am the Lord, etc. Leviticus 19 verse 12, etc. It is said of Christ, he taught as one having authority and not as the scribes. Matthew 7, verse 29. He did not beg attention but enjoin it, nor beseech obedience but command it. As when princes enact laws, they do not entreat, but require obedience at the peril of their subjects. This is the word of the Lord, and thus saith the Lord, and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, is sufficient to awe and require subjection from all that hear it. God is his own authority, not so men or angels. They speak from God, but he from none but himself. His word is a light, Psalm 119, verses 104 and 105, that discovers itself, therefore

it is called the testimony of the Lord, Psalm 19, verse 7, because it beareth witness to itself and needeth not testimony from men or angels. What the essential words speaketh, may be spoken of the declarative word, it receiveth not testimony from man, John 5, verse 35. Men need grounds and reasons and witnesses, too, to prove and vouch what they say to be true, and to be so as they speak, but the word of God is a sufficient authentic testimony to itself. It is his own proof, because what truth itself speaks must of necessity be true. Two, he speaketh condescendingly to the condition and understanding of those to whom he speaketh. He considereth the natures and tempers and capacities of his hearers, and accordingly speaks to them.

He doth not, as some ministers, speak in an unknown tongue, or saw into the clouds, exceed the capacities of his hearers that he might be wondered at, not understood, but he observeth their weakness and infirmities, yea, their dullness and incapacity, and teacheth them as they are able to hear him. There are depths in his word for elephants to swim in To tell the world what and how he could speak To exercise our industry and prevent our contempt of it for its plainness And there are shallows for lambs to wade through That none might be discouraged Christ is our priest And the priest's lips teach knowledge

And he is a merciful priest Hebrews 2 verse 16 Condescending in what he teacheth And in the way of his teaching To the capacities of his hearers In what he teacheth How chary was Christ of charging his disciples with anything that they could not brook. John 17 verse 12, I have many things to say unto you,

but ye cannot hear them now. I have some harder lessons to teach you, but ye are young scholars and not able yet to learn them, till ye have been longer in my school and have attained more rightness of understanding. Therefore I will not trouble you now with them, but leave them to my spirit, who shall prepare you for them and enable you to learn them. Your stomachs are weak, and yet must have that only which is of light digestion, milk. not strong meat, one Corinthians three verse two. Your backs are not strong and therefore I will lay on you, none but light burdens. But you cannot bear them now, and therefore you shall not hear them now, lest ye should be offended and discouraged at them. When the Jews inquired of Christ why his

disciples did not fast often, as well as the disciples of John and the Pharisees, observe the reason our tender-hearted Lord gives, Matthew 9, verse 16 and 17, no man saith he puts new wine into old bottles, lest the wine burst the bottles, or soweth an old garment to new cloth, lest the rent be worse. Alas, saith he, my disciples are young beginners, babes in me at best, but little children, not strong men or fathers, and therefore they must not be called presently to the austerities or severities of religion, lest they, poor souls, should be discouraged in their work and faint under it. I must proportion their burden to their backs, and lead them their own pace as they are able to go at present. Hereafter, indeed, they shall be called to suffer great things for my namesake.

They shall be hated and persecuted of all men, but then they shall be fitted for those severities and undergo them with courage, but yet such deep points and obscure notions must not be offered to novices. In the way of his teaching, he is very tender and condescending. He accommodates his discourse to their apprehension, Mark 4 verse 33. He spake as they were able to bear it, not as he was able to speak. He was able to read lectures above the capacity. of angels, but as they were able to bear it. Therefore, he spake so much to them in parables,

because they might the better understand him. For though a parable would make truth more obscure, and so parables and dark sayings are conjoined, Psalm 78, verse 2, and to speak in parables as opposed to speaking plainly, John 16, v. 25, and 29. Yet a parable revealed, unveiled, as Christ did usually to his disciples, Matthew 13, verses 17, and 37, makes truth more clear. It gives us the advantage of viewing heavenly truth in earthly glasses, the species and reflections of which we are most able to conceive. Therefore, our Savior says, if I have told you earthly things and he believe not, or cannot understand, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly? John 3, verse 12. The instructions of Christ were like water, Deuteronomy 32 verse 2, which he poured out into those

narrow-mouthed vessels by little and little, as they were able to receive it, or as rain which he distilled on his hearers as rain on the moan grass by drops and drop after drop to refresh them, not by floods to drown them. Jacob considered the children were young, and the cattle were with young, therefore drove gently, lest by overdriving he should wrong them. Genesis 33, verse 13. So our Lord Jesus considereth what men are, how impotent and infirm, and will not overdrive, overdue, lest he should undo them. Isaiah 28 verse 10, he gives precept upon precept, line upon line, Hear a little, they're a little. Will men or angels teach with such compassion, with such condescension? It is a rule of one of the ancients that he who will teach children must himself be a child.

He must frame and fashion himself to them, and be as one of them, or else he will never teach them. How soon would the dullness and untowardness of man tire out the patience of men and angels, and provoke them to give over teaching them? God's incomparableness herein is fully proved in the incomparableness of God in his patience, in chapter 10. 3. He speaks effectually. As he hath power to command us, so he hath power to enable us to obey his commands. Men and angels may tell men their duty, but they cannot teach men their duty.

They cannot strengthen them or empower them to obey. He speaketh so as men hear and believe and live. He that heard and learnt of the Father cometh unto me, John 6 verse 45. We have a saying, ex coovis lignon on fit mercurius every man will not make a mercury some so dull and blockish that none can improve them or do good upon them isaiah thirty-two verse four i e no creature can but god can make thee dull the blind the most ignorant to conceive and consider and apprehend and understand the darkest and most difficult points by speaking to them isaiah forty eight verse seventeen he teacheth to profit there is a power that accompanies his teaching that doth the work When he saith, let there be light in a dark mind, there is light, it is so. He is a God that commandeth light to shine out of darkness. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6.

When he saith, let there be life in that dead soul there is life. It is so, John 5 verse 24. Men and angels may call long enough to the blind to see, and the dead to live and all in vain. But if a god, say to a sinner, that lath rotting in the grave, almost eaten up of the vermin of lusts, unsavory and stinking in the eyes of all, men. Lazarus, sinner, come forth of thy cursed colonel condition. The man that was bound, hand and foot, manacled and fettered by the devil, his jailer, comes forth, is loosed of his bonds and lives forever. As the mariners said of Christ, he speaketh with authority, and commandeth the winds and seas,

and they obey him. What manner of man is this? Matthew 8, verse 27, so I may say, oh, what manner of God is this, for he speaks with authority, and the high winds of violent passions, and the fierce waters of boisterous corruptions, and they obey him. They fly, they fall before him. Can men or angels speak at this rate? Will sin die at their word? Will the soul live at their command? How long may they call to sinners to arise from the dead before they will, before they can answer their call? But if God speaks, the most obstinate, hardened sinner obeyeth his voice, submiteth to his will, and yieldeth himself up to his word. Nay, the very devils are forced to leave their beloved mansions, the souls of men, and to seek and settle their habitations elsewhere.

He commandeth, and the unclean spirits come out of men, Matthew 8 verse 32. If he please but to say, get thee behind me, Satan, that prince of the powers of the air, that God of the world, who crows so much on his own dunghill, the hearts of the unregenerate, sneaks away like a coward, and must in spite of his teeth obey his command. Matthew 4 verses 10 and 11. Yea, God ejecteth him with a word speaking, out of his strongest holds, the souls of old, senseless seared sinners and leads captivity captive and makes this jailer who laid so many in irons his prisoner and captive. End of Chapter 15. Chapter 16 of the incomparableness of God by

George Swinick. This Librevon's recording is in the public domain. God is incomparable in his word in its purity, mysteries, prophecies. Two, God is incomparable in the matter of his speech, as well as in his manner of speaking. If you consider the purity, mysteries, or predictions thereof. One, the purity of its precepts. His word is the most pure, perfect, exact rule of righteousness that is imaginable. It commandeth good, nothing but good and all good at all times. It forbiddeth evil, all evil, and nothing but evil and always. The commandment is holy and the law is holy, just and good. Romans 7 verse 12. Holy, as it is a copy of. the divine will, just as it is correspondent to the highest reason, good as it is most beneficial to

the rational creature, it is holy as it relates to our duty to God, just as it respects our duty to our neighbours, good as it concerns our duty towards ourselves, it is holy as consecrated to the service of God, just as a transcript of the pure law of nature, good as it is the measure and standard of all goodness in the creatures. It is holy in what it enjoins us to do, just in what it forbids us to do and good in both. What laws in the world are in any degree comparable to the laws of God? The Mohammedan laws, which have gained so much credit in the greatest part, almost of the known world, are impure laws, allowing revenge, polygamy, and commanding slaughters, oppressions, etc., for the propagation of their religion. The laws of the severest heathen, Lycurgus, etc., contained by

the carcass and body of purity had nothing of the soul and life thereof. How many sins against the very law of nature did that Lacedaemonian lawgiver allow of? And where he or any of the rest did forbid sin, it was in the outward actions, not in the inward affections. Their laws did rather command the covering of sin that it might not appear abroad than the killing of sin that it might not be at all. Their laws were defective as to persons. Some men were usually privileged and not bound to them.

As to the parts of men they gave the inward man liberty, though they restrained the outward as to punishments. The greatest penalty they could think of or impose was a temporal death. They never dreamt of a hell in another world. But oh, how pure, how perfect is the law of God. Thy word is very pure, saith David, Psalm 119. So pure that there is not the least mixture, falsehood or error in it. It commands all and nothing but conformity to the mind of the great sovereign and lord of all things.

The law of the Lord is perfect. Psalm 19 verse 7. So perfect that it is not deficient in anything. It commandeth purity in the whole man, in every faculty of the soul, in every member of the body. It commandeth purity in this whole man at all times, in all companies, in all conditions, in all relations, in all manner of conversation. 1 Peter 1 verse 15 and 16 Psalm 1119 verses 1 and 2 It is apparent to common sense that fallen man could never dream of such strict exact precepts No, he is so far from it that he is wholly contrary thereunto

Romans 8 verse 7 And angels could not imagine them unless God had signified his mind to them For all holiness being a conformity to the will of the most high God They could not discern what was holy, what was unholy any further than they could discover the will of this incomparable God. 2. The mystery of its doctrines. It containeth such depths, such bottomless profundities, that could not possibly have been

imagined by men or angels, had not God revealed them. It acquainteth us with things far above the reach of created reason, though not contrary, yet being told us are so correspondent that there is no ground left for the questioning them. What the great apostle saith upon occasion of one mystery we may say upon the whole, O the depth, O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God, Romans 11 verse 33, O the depth of the Holy Scriptures, there is a depth in them that none can fathom because a depth in them that hath no bottom. Great is the mystery of the Bible. Who could think of a woman's coming into the world without a woman as Eve, of a man's coming into the world without a man, as the son of man,

nay, without man or woman as Adam, who could think that the same woman should be a mother and a virgin, but these are small mysteries, who could think that many thousands, millions, living many miles and ages distant, should be fellow members and be truly one body, sympathizing with serviceable to, rejoicing in the welfare of each other, and all be united unto, receive influence from, and live wholly by one head. As far from them as heaven is from the earth, Ephesians 5 versus 27 to 30, Colossians 2 verse 19 Who could have thought that three really and personally distinct

Should be equal and one in nature and essence 1 John 5 verse 7 Who could have imagined that God should become man Infinite become finite, the creator a creature The father of spirits become flesh and the Lord of Life be put to death Who could conceive that he who made all things of nothing should be made himself of a woman made by him. That he whom the heavens and heaven of heavens cannot contain

should be contained in the narrow womb of a woman. That the only bread of life should be hungry, the only water of life be thirsty, the only rest be weary, the only ease be pained, and the only joy and consolation be sorrowful and exceeding sorrowful under death. Who could have imagined that one, yea millions, should be rich by another's poverty,

filled by another's emptiness, be exalted by another's disgrace, healed by another's wounds, eased by another's pains, be absolved by another's condemnation, and live eternally by another's temporal death. Who could have imagined that infinite justice and infinite mercy should be made fast friends, and fully satisfied by one and the same action, that the greatest fury and the greatest favor, the greatest hatred and the greatest love, should concur in and be manifested by one and the same thing? Could men or angels speak such mysteries?

Surely no. Several mysteries in the scriptures were hid from whole ages and generations of men, which in former ages was not made known to the children of men, Ephesians 3 verse 5, no, nor to angels either, verse 10, to the intent that now unto principalities and powers might be made known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. 3. The prophecies and predictions of the word.

Neither men nor angels can foretell those things, which depend not on natural causes or which may not be deduced from moral or political grounds. And even in such things as these are, they may be, and have been deceived. Therefore, it was the subtlety of the old serpent to deliver his oracles,

often in ambiguous words, and in deceitful speeches, that whatsoever happened, his credit might be saved, as his Ayote, eh, Ayakida,

Romanos vincere Posse, and Ibis eredipis, nun quam per bella peripis, etc. But God foretells what hath no print of any footing in nature, what neither moral nor political principles can direct unto, and never fails in his predictions. He foretells the both of Cyrus 100 years before he was born,

Isaiah 48 verse 28, the birth of Josiah 200 years, on King's 13 verse 2, the conversion of the Gentiles and falling off of the Jews, above 2,000 years before it came to pass, Genesis 9 verse 27, Isaiah 49 verse 6, and chapter 54 v. 9 and 10. He foretells the birth of Christ near 4,000 years before he came into the world, Genesis 3 verse 15, and it is very observable how punctual and particular he is herein, as knowing how much the welfare of the world did depend upon the knowledge of the true Messiah. He tells you long beforehand of what tribe he should come, of Judah, of Judah,

of what family, Davids, of what person, a virgin, where he should be born in Bethlehem, whence he must be called, out of Egypt, what his condition should be in general, full of sorrows and griefs, in particular, that he should be disgraced and reviled, tempted, betrayed, apprehended, deserted by his father and brethren, that he should die, be pierced, not have a bone broken, be buried, make his grave with the rich and the wicked, and rise again from the dead and reap the fruit of all his passion to his full satisfaction. He hath foretold the state of the world and the church in the revelation, from the primitive times to the disillusion of the world, though it is written in shorthand and in dark characters.

And can any men or angels foretell such things? God challengeth all the gods to do this, show the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that he are gods. Isaiah 41 verses 21 to 23. The certain prediction of future contingence is such an inseparable prerogative of the deity and such a special privilege of the original of all things, that he engages to own their supremacy and acknowledge their sovereignty who can do it. It is such a jewel in his crown that none ever shared in it. I have declared the former things from the beginning. I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. I have, even from the beginning, declared it to the, before it came to pass,

I showed it to the Isaiah 48 verses 3 and 5. It is peculiar to him who worketh all in all to foreknow and for till whatsoever shall come to pass. Acts 15 verse 18. Known to God are all his works from the beginning of the world, yea, from all eternity, for he stood on the high mountain of eternity, and thence had a full view of all that his will would produce, and whatsoever should come to pass. End of Chapter 16. Chapter 17 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevolk's recording is in the public domain. God incomparable in his word, as it is converting, affrighting, and comforting. 3. God is incomparable in the effects of his word.

His words are works. They are operative, as well as declarative of his pleasure. What he speaketh hath power and virtue in it, as well as weight and value. One, it is efficacious in converting the soul. The word of God can stop the tide of nature when it runeth with the greatest violence, yea, it can turn it the quite contrary way. Let a man be in the height of his strength, in the heat of his youth. ruffling and bustling among the sparks of the times, taking a large draught of carnal pleasures,

and having a full gust of sensual delights, making his whole life but a diversion from one pleasure to another, as if he were sent into the earth, as Leviathan into the waters only to play and sport there. When this man is in his best estate, in the zenith of health and strength, in the meridian of his age, promising himself a long day of life, and putting the day of death far from him, and thereby giving himself the more liberty to the service of his lusts. Yet if the word of God come to this man, who sucketh in wind as the wild asses cold, it makes him pluck in his plumes, bid adieu to his foolish pleasures, leave his most beloved lusts, loathe himself for ever loving them.

It alters the man's palate. That is bitter now which was sweet before, and he cannot savour what formerly was his heaven and happiness. It changeth the bent and frame of his heart, that now he forsaketh with detestation. what formerly he followed after as his only felicity and chiefest joy. The wild man is tame, the obstinate man is pliable, and the distracted man is recovered to his wits. Psalm 119, verse 9.

Men and angels may persuade, but God only can prevail. The words of creatures may work for an outward reformation, but the word of God alone for an inward renovation. He only that made the heart can mend it. Human councils may do somewhat towards the hiding of the corrupting. of nature, but divine instructions are only effectual for the healing of corrupted nature. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Psalm 19 verse 7. Converting the soul, the law of man may bind the body to its good behavior, but the

law of God alone can bring the soul to its good behavior. To turn a lion into a lamb, darkness into light, stone into flesh, death into life, all which is done in conversion can be effected by the word of none but God. Isaiah 11 verse 8 to 10 Ephesians 5 verse 8 Ezekiel 26

Ephesians 2 1 and 5 No word but his can take the Cyan off from its own natural stock and engrafted into a new stock Romans 11 verse 17 James 1 verse 21

2 Corinthians 10 verse 4 Acts 2 verse 41 and chapter 4 2 It is efficacious in affrighting the sinner He speaks not as men or angels to the ears only, but to the hidden man of the heart, and shatters it in pieces. He plants his batteries of threatenings and terrors and curses against the inward man of the conscience,

and puts it into an argue of trembling and shaking fits. As we see in Herod, Acts 24, verse 27, and levels it to the ground. This word in the mouth of a poor prisoner at the bar frightes the proud, sturdy judge on the bench. When God speaks, he makes the best people afraid and cry out, let not God speak to us lest we die, and the best of that people, exceedingly to quake and fear. Exodus 19, verse 19, Hebrews 12, verse 21. The voice of the Lord is terrible, it shaketh the cedars of Lebanon, it shattereth the oaks of Bashan. Psalm 29.

Those that were monsters of mankind for cruelty and barbarousness, for stupidity and searedness, by his word have been terrified in their spirits, wounded in their consciences, cut to the heart and forced to call out, "'Sir's, what shall we do to be saved?' "'Acts 2 verse 37. "'The most stubborn, senseless sinner, "'whom neither mercies nor miseries could move or melt, "'whom mocked at the curses of the law and the wrath of the Lord, "'and as Leviathan laughed at the shaking of those spears,

"'whom, as the man possessed with the devil, "'no cords could hold, no chains could fasten, "'but he burst all asunder, "'when the word of the Lord hath been spoken to him "'instead of flying in his face, as formerly, "'when men have spoken to him, He hath fallen down at his feet, Been filled with fears and frights,

Felt the very fire of hell flaming in his conscience, and become a very magor, misabib, Fear or terror to himself round about. The word of God hath stuck in his heart As the arrow in the side of the buck, Allowing no ease whithersoever he hath gone. In the night, scaring him with dreams And terrifying him with visions,

In the day admitting no rest in his flesh, Nor quietness in his bones, forcing him in all places and in all companies still to carry his jailer, his tormentor, his executioner along with him, and at last that he might escape a partial and temporal to leap into a total and eternal hell. Ah, who knoweth the power of his anger, of his angry word, or is able to fear him according to his wrath? Psalm 90 verse 11, I may challenge every man, every angel, as God himself doth Job, hast thou an arm like God, canst thou thundereth. with thy voice like him. Job 40 verse 9. If he utter his word of fury, the rocks are rent in pieces,

the most stony hearts are melted, the mountains are moved, the highest and firmliest seated sinners are shaken out of their places and senses, the foundations of the world tremble and quake, the strongest pillars are troubled, the whole frame and body of nature is affected with a palsy. Psalm 18 verse 13, the Lord thundroth in the heavens, the highest gave forth his voice. with, hailstones and coals of fire. 3. It is efficacious in healing the wounded spirit. When God takes the sword of the spirit into his own hand and wields it with his own arm, it makes work, it makes wounds to purpose in the consciences of men.

The sleepy soul is now awakened, the secure soul is now affrighted, the senseless soul is now affected with his sins and misery. Acts 2 verse 37, the man tasteth the bitterness of his original and actual corruptions, feeleth the weight of divine fury and indignation, findeth the poison to work in his bowels and racking him with extremity of pain. There is no rest in his flesh because of God's anger, nor quiet in his bones because of his sins. The arrows of the Almighty are within him, and his terrors set themselves in a ray against him. Psalm 38 verse 4, Job 6.10. The unquenchable fire flasheth in his face, and destruction in his thoughts, is ready to lay hold of him.

condition he knoweth not what to do, for a wounded spirit who can bear. Proverbs 18 verse 14, He triath creatures, but they can afford him no ease. Miserable comforters are they all to him, and physicians of no value. It is the same hand that wounded, that alone can cure him, it is the same word that bruised him that must bind him up. Let God but speak to this soul, that is thus sunk down into hill, and it will be lifted up to heaven. Fools, because of their Iniquities and transgressions are afflicted, their soul abhoreth all manner of meat. They are so sick that they can relish, take down nothing. And they draw near to the gates of death.

They are almost in. They are on the brink of hell. What course must be used for their cure? Truly this. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. Psalm 107 v. 17 to 20. No herb in the garden of the whole world can do these distressed creatures the least good.

friends may speak and ministers may speak, yea, angels may speak, and yet all in vain. The wounds are incurable for all their words. But if God pleased to speak, the dying soul reviveth. His word is the only balm that can cure the wounded conscience. He sendeth his word and healeth them. Conscience is God's prisoner. He claps it in whole, he layeth it in fetters, that the iron enters the very soul. This he doth by his word, and truly, he only who shuts up can let out.

all the world cannot open the iron gate, knock off the shackles, and set the poor prisoner at liberty, till God speak the word. David professed, he had quite fainted, had it not been for this aqua vita, this cordial water. I had perished in my affliction, but thy word comforted me. Psalm 119 verse 92. The boisterous billows went over my soul, and I had sunk in those deep waters, had not thy word borne me up. End of Chapter 17 Chapter 18 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick This Librevonk's recording is in the public domain

If God be incomparable, one, how great is the malignity of sin Which contemeth, dishonoureth and opposeth this God I come now to make some application of this great and weighty truth It may be useful by way of information, counsel and comfort First, by way of information If God be so incomparable that there is none on earth, none in heaven comparable to him, it may inform us, one of the great venom and malignity of sin, because it is an injury to so great, so glorious, so incomparable a being.

The higher and better any object is, the baser and the worse is that action which is injurious to it. To throw dirt on sackcloth is not so bad as to throw dirt on scarlet or fine linen. To make a floor in a pebble or common stone is nothing to the making of a floor in a diamond or precious stone, those opprobrious speeches or injurious actions against an ordinary person, which are but a breach of the good behaviour, and bear about a common action at law, if against a prince may be high treason because of the excellency of his place and majesty of his person. The worth and dignity of the object doth exceedingly heighten and aggravate the offence. How horrid then is sin, and of how heinous a nature, when it offendeth and opposeth not kings,

the highest of men, not angels, the highest of creatures, but God, the highest of beings, the incomparable God to whom kings and angels, yea, the whole creation is less than nothing. We take the size of sin too low, and short and wrong, when we measure it by the wrong it doth to ourselves, or our families, or our neighbours, or the nation wherein we live, indeed herein somewhat of its evil and mischief doth appear. But to take its full length and proportion we must consider the wrong it doth to this great, this glorious, this incomparable God. Sin is incomparably malignant, because the God, principally injured by it, is incomparably excellent. It is one thing to displease and offend

man, a poor, slimy womb, a mean shallow creature of the same make and mold with ourselves, and another thing to displease and offend God, that unconceivable immense being. If one man's sin against another, the judge shall judge him. A human judge may undertake to determine and comprise offences between them that stand upon the same level. But if a man stand against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? 1 Samuel 2 verse 25. Here the case is altered. Here is a pitiful, finite creature offending an infinite creator.

What man dares arbitrate this difference, nay, who can intercede and interpose between these two. Hence, hence it is, that there is no less than an infinite demerit in sin, because it is an injury to an infinite majesty. Nothing discovers sin to be so great and evil As its opposition to so vast, so matchless, So great a good, so incomparable a God. The evil of sin

Appearth somewhat in the injury it doth to our estates. The drunkard and glutton shall come to poverty And idleness shall clothe a man with rags. Proverbs 23 verse 21. To our names. The name of the wicked shall rot. Proverbs 11 verse 7. To our families.

A wicked man troubleth his own house. Proverbs 15 verse 27 and chapter 3 verse 33 To our neighbours One sinner destroyeth much good Ecclesiastes 3 verse 18 To our nation Jeremiah 18 verses 7 and 8 Psalm 107 verse 34

He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness For the wickedness of them that dwell therein To our bodies Who hath woe, who hath sorrow Who hath wounds without cause They that tarry long at the wine Proverbs 23 verses 29 and 30 and chapter 5 verse 11 To our souls

He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul Proverbs 8 verse 36 But all this discovers nothing of sins evil To that which is discovered by the injury at Doth To the incomparable God Because our estates our names our families Our neighbors our nations our bodies our souls Are all nothing

infinitely less than nothing to the great God The incomparable This this is the only glass that discovers the horrid, ugly features, the monstrous, frightful deformities of sin's face, that it is a wrong to the blessed God, to him who is the high and lofty one, Isaiah 57, verse 15. 1. In that sin is a breach of this incomparable God's law, a violation of his command, a contradiction of his will. Whosoever sinneth transgresseth the law, for sin is a transgression of the law. 1 John 3, verse 4. Neither the greatness nor smallness of our

obedience or disobedience is to be valued according to the greatness or smallness of the thing commanded or forbidden, nor according to the greatness or smallness of the good or hurt done to man by it, but according to the greatness of the person who commandeth or forbiddeth. 2. In that it is a contempt of this incomparable God's authority, a slighting his dominion, a denying his sovereignty. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? Exodus 5 verse 2 is the voice of every sinner.

We are our own, say they, who is Lord over us, Psalm 12, verse 4. They know no maker and therefore own no master. For this cause, the sinner is said to cast the incomparable God behind his back, as not worth minding or regarding 1 Kings 14 verse 9, and to despise him as some mean inconsiderable being, 1 Samuel 2 verse 30, 2 Samuel 12, verses 9 and 10. 3. In that it is a dishonouring this incomparable God,

whose name alone is excellent. It layeth him low, who is the most high. Psalm 92 verse 1. Through breaking the Lord dishonest thou God, Romans 2 verses 23 and 24. It is ill to reproach a common man worse to reproach a nobleman or prince. But oh, how bad is it to reproach the great God, to blaspheme that worthy name. Sin layeth the honour of this incomparable God, which is more worth than millions of worlds, in the dust and trampleth on it. The Romans, when they would mark one ignominy and brand him with reproach, would put him out of their senate or any place of credit in which he was, and pull down his statue or monument, if any, were erected to his honour. Sin degrades and dethrones God. It will not allow him to be the Lord and supreme of the world,

and it defeceth his image, wherever it finds it, as one contrary expels another. It disgraceth his justice, thence is called unrighteousness. 1 John 1.1.6, his wisdom, thence is called folly. Proverbs 5 verse 23. His patience, thence, is called murmuring, Jude 16. His power, thence is called weakness. Romans 5, verse 8. His mercy thence is called unthankfulness. Luke 6 verse 35. His knowledge, thence is called ignorance and a work of darkness. 1. Peter 1 verse 14. Ephesians 5 verse 8. His truth, thence is called a lie and lying vanity. Psalm 58 verse 2, Jonah 2 verse 8. In all these and every way, it disgraceth his holiness which is his glory, and the glory of all his attributes, Exodus 15 verse 11, thence is called filthiness, two Corinthians 7 verse 1, Uncleanness, Romans 1 verse 24.

4, in that it is a fighting with and, to its power, a destroying this incomparable God. The murder of any man is heinous, it is horrid, it is against nature, and it is the extremest mischief that one creature can do to another. Genesis 4 verse 10, Matthew 10, verse 28. murder of a father or a sovereign is far more heinous as being more against nature, and against more engagements to the contrary. He is cursed that mocketh his father, and his heart smote him, who did but cut off the skirt of the king's garment, though his enemy. What a monster, then, is he that kills either. But, oh, what a monster, what a devil, is that which destroyeth, as far as it is able, the good, the gracious, the great, the glorious, the incomparable God.

truly sin is such a monster such a devil that were its power equal to its spite and its strength answerable to its malice the living god should not live a moment omne pecatum is the isidium all sin is god murder the sinner hates god Romans 1 verse 30 and hatred ever wisheth and as it is able worketh the destruction of its object the fool hath said in his heart there is no god psal 14 verse 1 i.e it is a pleasing thought to him to suppose there were no God, as to guilty prisoners to imagine there were no judge to arraign and condemn them. Whom we fear as hurtful to us we hate and wish he were taken out of the way. In order hereunto the sinner strives with God and contendeth with him, Job 34 verse 7,

fighteth against him, Acts 5 verse 39. He stretcheth out his hand against God and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty. He puts forth all his force and venteth all his strength. Runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers, runs upon him as one enemy upon another, furiously without fear, and as he is able, gets him down, sets his feet upon his neck, trampleth on him, and crusheth him. Job 15, v. 25 and 26. Oh, how odious, how loathsome, how abominable is sin, that breaks the law, slights the authority, dishonours the name, and to its utmost dethrones and destroys the being

of this incomparable God, this self-sufficient, independent, absolutely perfect, eternal, incomprehensible, infinite being, which alone deserves the name of being, and to which all other beings are no beings? Reader, should this God of glory appear to thee as ones to Abraham, and show thee a glimpse of his excellent glory that is above the heavens, should he discover to thee but a little of that greatness which the heavens and heaven of heavens cannot contain, of that duration which had no beginning, hath no succession, knoweth no ending, of those perfections that admit of no bounds, no limits, that are incapable of the least

addition or accession to them, and then should say unto thee, as when he appeared to Saul, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Man, man, why despisest thou my commands? Why despisest thou my authority? Sinner, how darest thou dishonour my name and seek my destruction? What wouldst thou then think of sin? Or, what wouldst thou then think of thyself for thy sins? Shouldst thou not have other thoughts of sin and of thyself for sin than ever yet thou hast had?

Wouldst thou not even loathe thyself for being so base, so vile, so unworthy, yea, so mad as to offend and affront, and fight against such a God? Wouldst thou not cry out as Job, I have sinned against thee, and what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Job 7 verse 20. I have sinned against thee an incomparable, infinite, inconceivable being. I have wronged thee, the Most High, the Most Holy, Most Blessed God. And what shall I do unto thee?

What amends shall I make thee? What reparation shall I give thee? It is impossible for me, should I weep and wail and lament and grieve millions of ages To make the least satisfaction for the injury I have done to such a majesty? Or wouldst thou not say as he in another place, Lord, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, But now mine eyes see thee, wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42, verse 5 and 6.

Lord, I have heard of thee somewhat by thy word and by thy works. They have told me somewhat of thy beauty and glory and excellency. Howbeit I believe them not. But now mine eyes have seen thy majesty and royalty and sovereignty, wherefore I abhor myself, that ever I should transgress thy godly will, that ever I should blaspheme thy great name, that ever I should despise thy supremacy and fight against thy majesty. Ah, I reprobate, turn away mine eyes from myself.

cannot endure to behold myself my stomach is turned against myself i loathe myself that ever i should presume and dare to contest and contend with to wrong and injure thine excellency I recant all that I have been, all that I have done against thee, and repent, am unfaindedly grieved for it, heartily wish I had never been so, never done so. But since what is past cannot be recalled, I will, as far as I can be revenged on myself, for my impudency and distraction. I will lie in the dust, lick the dust, own myself to be much baser and viler than the dust. I will abhor myself in dust and ashes. This, this is the venom, the malignity of sin, that it is opposite and contrary, offensive,

and injurious to the incomparable God. This is the consideration which should humble us most for our sins. This was the weight that pressed David down most and laid him so low in the day of his repentance. Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done evil in thy sight, Psalm 51 verse 4. Though he had sinned against the enemies of God in occasioning their blasphemies, against the friends of God in grieving their spirits, against his whole kingdom in provoking God to plague them, though he had sinned against Bathsheba in defiling her body and soul, against Uriah both in the matter of his wife and life, and against his own body and soul, yet he looks upon these, though great in themselves, yet little,

nothing comparatively. The head of the arrow that pierced his heart was this, I have sinned against the Lord, to Samuel 12 verse 13. Against thee, the only have I sinned. The injury which he did to himself and others was so inconsiderable in comparison of the injury he did to God, that he passeth it quite by, in his penitential sum, and sticks wholly upon this, against thee, thee only have I sinned. This is the strongest, the weightiest argument to drive and dissuade from sin. None is like it. When Moses would couch all arguments in one, he useth this instead of all.

Numbers 32 verse 23, but if he will not do so, i.e. perform your promise. to assist your brethren till they have conquered their enemies and are settled in their possessions, what then, what great harm if they do not? Is it not that they sin against their brethren and wrong their own souls? No, but behold, mark it, it is worthy your attention and most serious consideration. You have sinned against the Lord, the great, the mighty, the almighty, the incomparable God. End of Chapter 18. Chapter 19 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinnick. This 's recording is in the public domain. If God be incomparable, how great is the madness and misery of impenitent sinners? Use two. Secondly, if God be such an incomparable God, it informeth us

of the madness and misery of sinners. One, of their madness in daring to offend him and to contend with him. Two, in willfully losing this incomparable God. One, how great is their madness in daring to offend him, yea, in daring him to his face? if thou should see a man without any cause striking with a whole army, hacking and hewing and provoking them to kill him, you would think, surely the man is mad. Otherwise, he would never thus willfully run himself into a certain ruin. I tell thee every time thou wilfully breakest his laws, thou actest more like a distracted man, for thou fightest against that God who is stronger than millions of armies, who is almighty, and thou provokest him to destroy thee, who can wink thee

into the other world, and look thee into the eternal lake, and hiss thee into hill flames. Man, art thou God's match that thou offerest to enter the list with him? Do ye, saith the apostle, provoke the Lord to anger? Are ye stronger than he? 1 Corinthians 10 verse 22. It is one thing to provoke men to anger, and another thing to provoke the Lord to anger. Man hath but a little heart and a small hand. His anger and power cannot at utmost exceed finite, but God's heart and hand, his anger and power, are both infinite. If the wrath of a king be a messenger of death, what, thinkest thou, is the wrath of immensity and the stroke of omnipotency? What then is the wrath of a God? Sinner, dost thou know

what thou doest when thou breakest his laws, slightest his love, dishonest his name, grievous his spirit? I tell thee, thou provokest a God who is incomparable in holiness, and hath threatened thy destruction, who is incomparable in power and can accomplish what he hath threatened, and who is incomparable in truth, and cannot but make good with his arm what he hath spoken with his mouth. Woe be to him that striveth with his maker. Let the potchards strive with the potchards of the earth. Isaiah 45 verse 1.

God is a god of peace. He hates strife, but if men will be striving, he wisheth them rather to meddle with those that are their matches, poor silly worms like themselves, and not to strive with their maker, who is infinitely their superior in authority and power, and every perfection. Here is sauciness indeed for a pitiful nothing to challenge all mightiness to battle. Who, in his wits, in his senses, that were not quite distracted, would set briars and thorns against me in battle. I would go through them, I would burn them up altogether, Isaiah 27 verse 4.

Briars and thorns are not matched to a fire. How easily, how speedily, how certainly, do the fire consume them, as soon as it layeth hold of them. How much less is weak man a match for God, who is a consuming fire? When the Roman poet was desired to make verses against his emperor, he answered, Nolo in eum scriberae, qui potest proscriber. I will not jeer and jest with him that can kill me in earnest. Our saviour tells us what king going to war against another, siteth not down first, and consulteth, whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand, or else, while the other is a great way off, sendeth to him

ambassadors, and desirth conditions of peace. Luke 14 v. 31 and 32. Oh, that when the devil and flesh entice the sinner to sport with and make a mock of sin, Proverbs 10 verse 23, he would but consider it is ill-gesting with edged tools, it is ill-gesting with unquenchable burnings. For how can his heart endure or his hands be strong in the day that the great God shall deal with him, Ezekiel 22 verse 14. 2. Again, how great is there madness who will venture the eternal loss of this God, this incomparable God, for every base lust? What a madman is he who will stake a million against a might,

a crown against a crumb, substance against shadows, all things against nothing, the blessed boundless God, against a moment's sensual delight? Was not Shime, bereft of his wits to hazard his life for a little uncertain worldly prophet by his servant, the Lord Jesus doth most fitly call him a fool who would hazard and lose the incomparable God for a little corruptible gold.

Luke 12, verse 20. The spirit of God speaks the prodigal to be beside himself when he left bread, bread enough, bred enough in his father's house, for husks, and not a bellyful neither, and among swine, Luke 15 versus 18 to 20. And when he came to himself,

he considered what a madman he was, to wallow among swine, it feed on such brutish fare which could never fill his belly, when he might have been feasting among the children of God in his father's house, with plenty of what is bred indeed, able to satisfy a capacious heaven-born soul. Friend, think of it seriously the next time thou art tempted to sin. Will this oath, or this cup, or this theft, or this wantonness, or this neglect of duty, balance the everlasting loss of the incomparable God?

Will this lust, this moment's pleasure, make amends for the loss of him who is eternal life, and a river of unconceivable and unchangeable pleasures, shall I be sober, sotted, bewitched, distracted, as to lose real mercies for lying vanities, the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns, the food of angels for the world's scraps, a precious soul, an inestimable saviour,

an incomparable guard for a toy, a trifle, a poor, empty gilded nothing? Did ever any in bedlam buy so dear or sell so cheap, or manifest the like madness? 2. Of the misery of sinners, they shall lose this incomparable God for ever, nay, they must have him for their everlasting enemy. 1. Their misery consisteth partly in this, that they must depart forever from this incomparable God. Matthew 7 verse 23, depart from me ye workers of iniquity. Matthew 25 verse 41, depart from me ye cursed.

Oh, how dreadful a sound will the word depart make in the sinner's ears, yea, what a deep wound will it make in his heart? Depart from me. Whither do they go that go from God? To depart from riches and honours and carnal comforts forever will affect and afflict him to purpose who places his happiness in them. To lose health and liberty and friends and relations forever is no inconsiderable loss to him that knoweth not where to have them made up. To lose the ordinances of God, seasons of grace, the tenders, entreaties, invitations of the gospel forever, is such a loss that a sensualist is incapable of conceiving the greatness of.

To lose the communion of perfect spirits, the company of glorious angels, the blessed exercises of the heavenly host forever, will not a little affright and amaze and vex and terrify the wicked when they once come to have their eyes opened, and their consciences awakened in the other world. But to depart from the incomparable God forever, to lose the only paradise of pleasures, the only fountain of living waters,

the only author of true felicity, to lose the unsearchable mind of riches, the inexhaustible well of salvation, the inestimable son of righteousness, to lose the dearest father, the wisest guide, the strongest shield, the sweetest love, the closest friend, the tenderest mercy, the richest grace, the highest honour, the only happiness, to lose the Lord of Life, the Lord of Glory, the Lord of Lords, to lose the God of hope, the God of all grace, the God of all consolation, the God of peace, the God of gods, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the incomparable God, and to lose him totally and forever, is the loss of all losses, is such a loss as no tongue can

declare, no mind can conceive, is such a loss, as never was the like before it, nor shall, nor can be the like after it. He that hath lost God hath nothing left that is good, he hath lost all that was worth having or saving. Lord, whither shall we go, if we go from thee? thou hast the words of eternal life, John 6 verse 68. Reader, how great is the sinner's loss in the other world, how great soever his gain is in this? Ah, where is his hope, though he hath gained, when God shall take away his soul? Job 27 verse 8. Can the greatest gain counterbalance the loss of him to whom the whole world,

yea millions of worlds, are trash and trifles? The greatness of any loss is to be measured by the excellency and value of that which we lose. Therefore if God be so incomparable in all perfections, the loss of sinners who lose this God totally and eternally must be an incomparable loss. As there is no gain equal to the gain of a God, all other gains are but painted baubles or butterflies to this. So there is no loss equal to the loss of a God. All other losses are but bugbears to fright children with to this.

This is a loss with a witness, a loss which nothing can countervail, supply or make up, in which all that is good is gone forever. As Micah said to the Israelites, when they asked him what he ailed, to cry out so, ye have taken away my God, and what have I more? Judges 18, verse 22, so will the sinner in the other world screech horribly, and complain heavily of his deceitful flesh,

which now he makes such provision for. Thou hast taken away my God, and what have I more? I am poor, a beggar, nothing worth, worse than naught, wholly ruined, utterly undone by thee, I have lost my God and with him all that is good. Reader, if thou livest without God, ponder, oh ponder in the midst of all thy gettings, what thou art losing, yea, what thou shalt lose, if thou dost not return for ever and ever. Did the disciples weep and wail, that they should see the face of a good man no more on earth?

Sorrowing most of all, for the words that he spake unto them, that they should see his face no more, Acts 20, verse 38. And dost thou think it will not fill thy heart with sorrow, and cut it with anguish to hear the blessed God, the incomparable God, say to thee, sinner, farewell, farewell forever. Thou shalt see my face no more forever. Believe it, those words will sound more dolefully in thine ears

than thou art now aware of. There will be a passing bell to all thy hopes and joys and comforts and delights. They will be a knell to toll the death and burial of whatsoever may be refreshing and reviving to thee, of all thine ease and rest and liberty, and peace and health and strength and friends and relations, and all that may in the least conduce to thy comfort or happiness. Now possibly thou canst be merry enough without God,

thou hadst rather have his room than his company, preferest a life without him before a life with him, and sayest unto him, depart from me, I desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Job 21 verse 14, and the reason of this atheism and profan, profaneness is thine ignorance. Thou knowest not what a fountain of life, what bowels of love, what a hive of sweetness, what an ocean of happiness the blessed, incomparable God is.

Neither believest what scripture speaks hereof, but when once thou interest into the other world and hast lost this God irrecoverably, thou shalt know what thou hast lost. But then, if ever, that saying of the wise man will be verified, he that increaseth knowledge, increaseseth sorrow. Ecclesiastes 1 verse 18. And then thou shalt believe the truth of the glass of Scripture in its representations of the beautiful face of God, though thy faith will be the faith of a devil to thy terror and torment. Our sinner, when thou shalt know and believe what a vast treasure, what a river of pleasure, what a perfect good, what fullness of joy, what solid comfort, what real satisfaction, what a weight of glory thou hast lost forever,

without the least hopes and possibility of regaining, and lost for base, vile, sordid lusts, for a little foolish, brutish momentary pleasure. What thoughts thinkest thou will then seize thee? What anguish and remorse surprise thee? Ah, how wilt thou loathe and hate and curse thyself for thy folly and madness? Thou wilt gnash thy teeth for envy at them that sit at heaven's table, feasting with the fruit of the tree of life, and drinking of the pure rivers of water,

which flow from the throne of God and the lamb? And thou wilt weep and wail for thy own distraction, that thou shouldst refuse the offers of all those dainties and delicates and delights, when they were made to thee in the day of thy life, that thou shouldst shut thy mouth and willfully refuse all those rich and costly cordials, and shut the door of heaven and happiness against thee with thine own hands. Ah, sinner, little dost thou know at the present what it is to lose this God. Other losses may be corrective, but this is destructive.

God whips in others, but he executes in this. Other losses may be the part of his children, but this is the portion of devils. All joy or comfort is stamped to the heart, pierced through, the heartblood of it is let out with this one word, sharper than any two-edged sword, depart. Write this man comfortless, as it was said of one, Jeremiah 22 verse 30, a man that shall not prosper all his days. write this poor soul comfortless A soul that shall not have a bit of bread A drop of water, a glimpse of light A moment's ease, a crumb of comfort

All the long day of eternity Our friend think of it betimes Woe be to thee If God depart from thee Hosea 9 verse 12 2. Their misery consisteth in this also That they shall have this incomparable God for their enemy As there is no friend like God

And therefore their privative misery Must be great, exceeding great, inconceivably great, so there is no enemy like God, and therefore the positive misery of sinners must be matchless and beyond all comparisons. The greater anyone's power and anger are, the greater their misery is who fall under the stroke of that power and the force of that anger. God is incomparable in power, he worketh arbitrarily, irresistibly omnipotently. He hath a mighty and an almighty arm. God is incomparable in anger, his anger roots up, pulls down, kills, makes horrid slaughters,

removeth the mountains, shaketh the foundations of the earth, is a consuming fire, burning and wasting all that comes near it. Thou, even thou art to be feared, for none may stand when thou art angry. Psalm 76, verse 7. Woe, therefore, to them that have this God for their enemy.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Hebrews 10, verse 31. David chose rather to fall into the hands of God than men. 2 Samuel 24 verse 14. because he was a child of God, though afflicted sharply by him, for love can consist with anger, though not with hatred, and therefore desired, since he must be scourged, to be whipped by a loving father, who would consider his strength what he could bear, as well as his fault and offence, and accordingly use his rod rather than by a cruel enemy who hated him, and had not the least

mercy or pity for him. Besides, this world is the stage whereon the mercy of God acteth its part. justice must have its course and solemn triumph in the other world. He is here good to all. His sun shineth and rain falleth upon the just and unjust. Psalm 145 verse 9, Matthew 5 verse 45. Therefore it is better for any man upon oath to fall into the hands of God than the best friend or nearest relation in the world. But the sinner is the object only of God's wrath, of his hatred, of his abhorrency after death. God then puts off all pity, all tenderness all bowels towards him, and the other world is the place where in his justice that is now clouded and eclipsed shall shine forth in its full force and strength and appear in all its beauty and brightness, and therefore it must of necessity be a fearful thing for a poor creature to fall into the hands of the living God, to have nothing but his naked flesh, his own weak soul, to bear the stroke of infinite power, set on and urged to strike home by infinite anger,

and that forever. All the rackings and torturings, the extreme pains and aches, the violent convolutions and consternations, the dreadful horror and anguish, the everlasting chains of darkness, the never-dying womb, and the fire that never goeth out, of the devils and damned,

are but the expressions and fruits of that matchless power and anger of this incomparable God. Therefore they are called wrath, Romans 2 verse 5, the wrath of God, John 3 verse 36, and the wrath to come, 1 Thesslonians 1 verse 10. Reader think of it, if the wrath of a king, a man like thyself,

though clothed with more civil power and strength, be as the roaring of a lion, Proverbs 19 verse 12, which makes all the beasts of the forest to quake and tremble, Amos 3 verse 6, what then is the wrath of an almighty infinite God? If he wound his friends, the objects of his eternal choice, the travail of his beloved son's soul, those on whom he intendeth to glorify the riches of his love and grace for in the day of his anger for their disobedience, with the wound of an enemy, yea, with the wounds of a cruel one, Jeremiah 30 verse 14, if he break their bones and cause the arrow of his quiver to enter into their reins,

if he fill their souls with bitterness, and make them drunk with wormwood, if he makes them water their couches with tears and go mourning all the day long, if his anger causes them to roar incessantly, and his terrors make them distracted, if he be to them as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places, how will he wound thee his enemy? How will he deal with thee whom he infinitely hateth? What a bear, what a lion, what a fire will he be to thee? How unable wilt thou be to stand under, and yet how impossible to avoid the weight of his omnipotent arm and infinite anger? Lair to heart timely and make thy peace with him through his son that thou mayst prevented. Sure I am, thou wouldst not fry in flames or boil alive in a furnace of scolding

lead a thousand years, for this whole world's command ten thousand years. Ah, why then shouldst thou, for a little profit, a little pleasure, a little honour for a few days, for thy life is but a vapour, bring thyself under a necessity of frying in the flames and boiling in the furnace of the almighty God's anger for ever and ever? O friend, be wise on this side the other world. End of chapter 19. Chapter 20 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librivolk's recording is in the public domain. If God be incomparable, how monstrous is their pride who compare themselves to the incomparable God?

Thirdly, if God be such an incomparable God, it informeth us what abominable pride and desperate presumption they are guilty of who compare with and prefer themselves before this God. If he be so transcendently excellent in his being, attributes, words, words, and works, how desperately saucy and impudent are they who put themselves in the balance with God. Behold all nations to me are as nothing, yea, less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken me, or to what will ye compare me, as I forty verses seventeen and eighteen. To liken God to any is the grossest idolatry, and to liken any to God is the highest arrogance. Babylon, that sets herself in the throne of God, and exulteth herself above all that is called God,

is the mystery of iniquity, the man of sin in truth, the dregs of the very devil. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 9. It is a debasing God not to adore him and admire him according to his excellent majesty and vast immensity. What a debasing then is it of God to compare him to poor, pitiful nothings, as all men and angels are to him. He debaseth himself to open his eyes upon men, upon angels, to behold things that are done in heaven and earth. Psalm 113 verse 5,

But he will not debase himself To compare with men and angels, He scorneth to put himself into the scales with them. He is infinitely above and beyond all comparatives, All superlatives. Comparisons we say are odious, But no comparison that ever was, Hath in the least degree that odiousness,

Which this hath, For a man or an angel to compare with their maker. The slime and clay and earth May very much better compare with the potter, Both are narrow, limited beings, both are earth and clay, yet the potter would think it a great dishonour to him, who hath a body curiously wrought, and a heaven-born spiritual immortal soul, and desperate arrogancey in the clay and dirt which he trampleth on to compare with him. And is it not great a pride in man to compare with God, when there is an infinite distance

between them in all things? Yet so ambitious and arrogant is man that he dares to do this. angels and Adam both aspired to equal their maker. They would needs be independent and self-sufficient. They endeavored to cut off the entail and to hold holy and only of themselves, but they ruined themselves and made themselves baser than beasts, by aspiring thus to raise themselves to that impossible pitch of a partnership with God. It is a favour that men and angels may be like God in some rays and beams of his holiness and purity,

but it is impossible for men or angels to be like God in the rich jewels of his crown, his independency, absolute perfection, self-sufficiency, infiniteness, and supremacy. He stamped some impressions of himself upon his creatures, but he took no impressions of his creatures upon himself. If they were made in his likeness, he was not made in their likeness. It is devilish impudency and blasphemy for the highest creature to weigh with the Creator. This was Lucifer's pride. ascend into heaven, I will exult my throne above the stars, I will be like the most high,

Isaiah 14 verses 13 and 14. But his pride got a fool, and a shrewd one too. God cannot brook a rival, he cannot bear an equal. There must be but one son in the heavens. A prince may take it kindly from his subjects if they endeavour to imitate him in his mercy, justice, temperance, chastity, and in those things that are general and common to him and them, because hereby his subjects honour him, for by their imitation of him they acknowledge excellency in him. But if his subjects shall undertake to imitate him in his regalia, those things that are proper to him as a king, should they aspire to make laws, to make peace and war, to wear the crown,

sway the sceptre and ascend the throne, he could not bear it, but would judge them rebels, guilty of high treason and worthy of death, because hereby they extremely dishonour him. viz, in making themselves equal to him, and robbing him of the superiority which God hath given him. So God is pleased and delighted that men and angels should resemble him and those perfections of his that are common and communicable, as to be patient and meek and loving and righteous and heavenly and holy, because hereby they glorify him, Matthew 5 verse 16. But if the creatures should go about to be like him in the peculiar cognizances of the deity, his self-sufficiency,

independency, governing others at their will, enacting laws to oblige the consciences of others, exacting worship from their fellow creatures. So God cannot, God will not suffer it, for hereby they go about to rob him of his supremacy, to dethrone and unguard him. How often doth God tell us in Scripture

to quell such presumptuous thoughts that he is not a man's fellow, man's familiar? God is not a man, Numbers 23 verse 19. I am God and not man, Josea 11 verse 9. He is not a man as I am, saith Job, chapter 9 verse 32,

though God was pleased out of his infinite grace to become man, that man might once more be like God in those communicable properties forementioned. Yet he will not permit it, nay, it is altogether impossible for man to become God, and to be like him in the special prerogatives of the deity. There is still an infinite distance

between the divine and the human nature. they who prayed of being godded and turned into the essence of the deity, as some have impotently and blasphemously written, are either intolerably weak or devilishly wicked or both. Now, because many are guilty of the strange presumption to compare with God who little think it, I shall very briefly name two or three sorts of men. One such as quarrel with the precepts of God, as if they were too strict, too precise, too pure, and that God commanded more than was needful, some too too. 2 verse 2 Romans 8 verse 7. This is a comparing with God, yea, a preferring ourselves before God,

and such speak as if they would be in God's throne to make laws, and as if they would enact better laws, more conducing to and convenient for the welfare of mankind, because man hath vitiated his nature and distempered all his faculties. He is angry at God for enjoining him a strict diet, and forbidding him what would feed his disease. A foul stomach loveth the wholesomest food. 2. When men question the providences of God, as if they were not good and wise and righteous, these compare, yea, prefer themselves before God. Their voices like Absoloms, oh, that I would judge.

Things should not go thus at six and sevens. See, here is none to do justice to you. Oh, that I govern the world! There should be no such disorders as now are, no such inequality amongst men. The righteous should not perish, nor the wicked flourish as they do. these ways are not equal. Ezekiel 33 verses 17 and 20. These men contend with God for sovereignty. Why strivest thou with him? Job 33 verse 13. These men accuse God of folly and think themselves wiser. But shall he that contendeth with God instruct him? Job 40 verse 2. He that complains of God's dealings

undertakes to teach God in what manner and by what means the world should be better governed. These men compare with God for justice, nay, condemn him or of injustice. Job 40, verse 8, wilt thou condemn me that thou mayest be righteous? God's ways are often secret, his paths are in the seas, and his goings in deep waters. Psalm 77, verse 19, and because men cannot fathom them, therefore they find fault with them. He writes his mind often in shorthand in dark characters, and because poor blind man cannot read them, therefore he wrangleth with them. Thy judgments are a great deep. Psalm 36 verse 6. 3. When men tax the decrees of God as if they were unrighteous, partial and ordered with

respect of persons, they then compare with God as if, in case they had been at Heaven's council table, when all things were debated and concluded, there should have been more mild and moderate, more just and righteous resolves and conclusions. These men think and speak evil of the things they understand not, and it would become them better to mind faith and repentance, and to ensure their effectual calling than pry into or meddle with those, secrets of heaven. No man hath a line long enough to measure God by, His eternal works and ways are beyond all our understandings and apprehensions,

and so much fitter for our admiration than curious disquisition, Romans 9 verses 17 to 24. 4. Once more, those princes or masters or parents which command what God forbids, or forbid what God commands, compare with God and usurp his authority, for their power to command and right to be obeyed, must in their conceits be equal. to gods, or else why do they give laws in opposition to his, or how can they expect to be obeyed?

They who command divine worship to bread and wine and places, or any creature, compare with and prefer themselves before God, which is desperate pride and presumption. 1 Kings 21 v. 9 to 11 to Samuel 13 verse 28. End of Chapter 20. Chapter 21 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. If God be incomparable, then incomparable service and worship is due to him. Fourthly, if God be an incomparable God, then incomparable service and worship is due to him.

All service must be suitable to its object. The higher the prince, the higher honour he doth and may expect. The heathen were sensible of this, that such worship must be given to their deities as were suitable to them. Therefore the Persians who worshipped the sun offered to him a flying horse, noting strength and swiftness because the sun was strong to run his race. God is a great God and therefore must have great worship. Solomon gives this reason why the temple the place of God's worship must be great. 2 Chronicles 2 verse 5.

The house which I build is great. Why, for great is our God above all gods? A great palace is most suitable and becoming a great prince. It reflects upon God, it is a slighting hymn, to give him anything that is ordinary, as it is to a king to be put off, with common entertainment at the houses of his subjects. As he is the best, so he will be served with the best. Cursed be the deceiver who hath in his flock a male and offerth to the Lord a corrupt thing. Why, what is the matter that there must be such care about and choice of his sacrifices?

For God himself gives you the reason and a good reason for it, for I am a great king saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen Malachi 1 verse 14. Pettie princes may be owned and served with petty presence, but a great king, a great sovereign, must have great sacrifices. When the prophet had described the incomparable excellency of God, how all nations were to him as the least drop in a bucket to the ocean, and the small dust in the balance to the whole earth, as nothing and less than nothing, he presently infers Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor all the beasts thereof for a burnt offering, Isaiah 40, verses 15 to 17. Lebanon abounded in all spices for incense and perfumes and in cattle for sacrifices and burnt offerings,

but all the spices and perfumes there, all the beasts and cattle there, were below and insufficient for so incomparable a being. He is so great that no service can be great enough for him. One, this incomparable guard calls for incomparable awe and reverence. Excellency commandeth awe, should not His excellency make you afraid and his dread fall upon you? Job 13 verse 11 Should not the vastness of his perfections provoke you to awfulness in your conversations? His name alone is excellent

Psalm 148 verse 13 The greater distance between any persons The greater reverence is expected The husband is the head of the wife Therefore she is commanded to reverence her husband 1 Corinthians 7 Ephesians 5 verse 33 There is a great civil distance between masters and servants

therefore the command runs servants be obedient to your masters with fear and trembling Ephesians 6 verse 5 but now between God and us there is an infinite distance and therefore there ought to be if it were possible infinite reverence he is so vastly above and beyond all others in excellency that he alone deserves the name of excellency therefore his name is holy and reverend psal 111 verse 9 and he is to be greatly feared The greatest excellency calleth for the greatest reverence. God is the Lord and greatly to be praised.

He is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 96 verse 4. This use David makes of God's incomparableness, who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? What then, what followeth on this? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about him, Psalm 89 verses 6 and 7,

because in our whole conversations we must walk with God, therefore we are commanded to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long, Proverbs 23 verse 17, but because in ordinances we have more immediately and specially to do with him, then we are said to appear before him, Psalm 42 verse 2, therefore we are bound therein to be most awful and reverential. Subjects show most reverence in the presence chamber of their sovereign. O with what awe and dread should mortals appear in the presence of him who in habiteth eternity, should dust and ashes draw nigh to the mighty possessor of heaven and earth, Ecclesiastes five, verses one and two,

Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, And be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, Be not rash with thy mouth, let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. But why all this care and caution? For God is in heaven, and thou art on earth. His incomparable majesty calleth for incomparable reverence. Majesty is dreadful. He is clothed with majesty. Psalm 93 verse 1. All over majesty. Therefore, let all the earth stand in awe of him. He is adorned, surrounded with majesty. Therefore,

we must be filled with the awe of him. Isaiah 2 verses 10, 19 and 20. Fear and majesty are three times conjoined. His incomparable power calls for incomparable reverence. Power is awful, and the greater the power is, the greater awe is required. Matthew 10, Verse 28. Fear not them that can kill the body and can do no more, but fear him who is able to cast soul and body into hell. As if Christ had said, I know you are of timorous spirits and men of fearful tempers. Ye are apt to tremble and to be frightened at everything. Well, I will direct you how you may make this passion advantageous to you, viz, by turning the stream into its proper channel, by placing your fear on its proper object. I will tell you of one worthy of your fear

Who deserveth to be feared So Luke 12 Verse 4 and 5 I will forewarn you whom you shall fear I will offer you an object meat for your fear Fear him who After he hath killed Hath power to cast into hell

Yea I say unto you fear him You are apt like children To be frightened with bug bears And to dread them That can only raise the skin and pinch the flesh And at the most can but take from you A life that will fall of itself within a few days. Well, I will advise you whom to stand in awe of, fear him that can kill you

and to damn you, that can send your bodies into the grave and your souls to unquenchable flames. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Two, this incomparable God calls for incomparable humility and loneliness of spirit from us. The height of God must lay man low, and the matchless excellency of God make him base in his own eyes. When we behold ourselves in the glass of those that have little or nothing that is good or praiseworthy, or that have less than ourselves, then we spread out our plumes, and are puffed up with pride and judge ourselves comely creatures. But if we would behold ourselves in the glass of the incomparable God, in whose sight the heavens are unclean, in whose presence angels veil their faces, to whom ten thousand suns are perfect darkness,

and all the world less than nothing, how should we pluck in our plumes and abhor ourselves for our pride. Man never comes to a right knowledge of himself, what a pitiful, abominable wretch he is, till he comes to a right knowledge of God, what an excellent, incomparable majesty he is. As when men stand high and look downward on those below them, that are meaner and viler than themselves, their heads are giddy and swim with conceitedness, they then are somebody in their own opinions, but when they look upwards to the great God, the sun, the soul, the substance of all worth and excellency, that megrim or high-mindedness is prevented. The best men, upon a sight of God, the incomparable God, though the more excellent he is,

the more cause they have of joy in having so rich a portion, yet instead of loving, have loathed themselves, and instead of admiring, have abhorred themselves. When Isaiah saw the God of glory sitting on his throne in his brightness and beauty, encircled with millions of celestial courteous covering their faces, as ashamed of their drops in the presence of the ocean, and crying holy, holy, as apprehending his purity, beyond all their expressions, and his perfections exceeding all their apprehensions, what thoughts had he of himself?

Or what a poor, pitiful, contemptible creature did he think himself, yea, what an uncomely, loathsome, abominable creature was he in his own eye. Woe to me, saith he, I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts, as I six verses four and five. 3. This incomparable God calls for incomparable love, the top, the cream of our affections. Good is the object of love. Amor is the complaisencia borni. According to the moralists, the greater, therefore, the good is the greater love it requirth. And God, being the greatest good, must have the greatest love.

This is the great and first command, Matthew 22, verse 37. This is, as I may say, the only command, Deuteronomy 10 verse 10. 12. This is all the commands in one, Romans 13, verse 10. Love is the Decaologue contracted, and the Deca log contracted, and the Decolog is love opened and explained. Thou shalt love, the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind, Matthew 22, verse 37. God being the greatest perfection must have the greatest affection. The greatest love, for God is love, 1 John 4, verse 8, calls for the greatest love. He deserves the greatest extensively, the heart, soul, mind, strength, the greatest intensively, all the heart,

all the soul, all the mind, all the strength. Reader, thy love to him, must be so great that thy love to thy father, mother, wife, child, house, land, and life, must be hatred in comparison of it, and in competition with it. Luke 14 verse 26. The truth is, there is nothing worthy of our love like God. Nay, there is nothing worthy of our love besides God. All our friends and relations and estates and worldly blessings are nothing lovely, but as they are his creatures, his comforts, instruments for his glory, and as they have relation to him. Nay, Sabbaths, sacraments, seasons of grace are no more lovely than as they are his institutes and means of communion with his majesty. I love the habitation of thy house. Why?

because it is the place where thine honour dwelleth. Psalm 26 verse 8. Once more, grace itself is not lovely, but as it is the image and conformity unto, the pleasure and delight of, that which fitteth and maketh meat for the love, embraces and fruition of this incomparable God. Desire and delight are the two acts of love, distinguished only by the absence or presence of the object. When the object beloved is absent, the soul acts towards it in desire, when the object is present, the soul acteth towards it in delight.

The former is the motion, the latter, the rest and repose of the soul. Now the incomparable God must have incomparable desires, panting. Psalm 42 verse 1, longing, yea fainting out of vehemency of desire. Psalm 119 verses 20, 40 and 81. God must be desired above all. Psalm 73 verse 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire. desire beside thee. The incomparable God must have incomparable delight. I will go to the altar of

God, my joy, of God, my exceeding joy. Psalm 43 verse 4. The soul must be ravished, ecstasyed in the presence and enjoyment of God. Canticles 2 verse 4. 4. The incomparable God must have incomparable trust. The more able and faithful any person is, the more firmly we trust him. Now God is incomparable in power, he hath an almighty arm, incomparable in faithfulness he cannot lie. Titus 1 verse 2. It is impossible for him to lie. Hebrews 6 verse 18. Therefore God must have our surest love and firmest faith. Hebrews 6 verse 18, Romans 4 verse 20. We must esteem his words as good as deeds and rely on all he promises as if it were already performed. We must not stagger or waver but draw nigh to him with full assurance of faith, Hebrews 10 verse 22. His bonds must be looked upon for they are as good

as ready money, and we must rejoice in hope of the good things promised, as if we had them in hand. Romans 5 verses 2 and 3. 5. This incomparable God must have incomparable obedience in the whole course of our lives. The more virtuous or gracious or honorable or excellent the person is with whom we walk, the more we weigh our words and ponder the paths of our feet and watch over ourselves. God is incomparable in purity, in jealousy, in majesty, in excellency. Therefore, they who are ever under his eye and in his presence, and who walk with him, must walk not as they do when with ordinary persons, carelessly and negligently, but circumspectly, accurately, exactly, to a hair's breath, as on a ridge.

Akri-voz, Ephesians 5 verse 15. His law must be kept to a titul in every punctilio as the apple of the eye, Proverbs 7 verse 2, which is offended with the least mote of dust, and this obedience must be not only at some seasons and in some actions, but always and in all things. As he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, 1 Peter 1 verse 15. All our service to this incomparable God must be incomparable. little service is unsuitable to a great God. One chronicles 29 verses 1 and 2.

David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work, i.e. of building the temple is great, for the palace is not for man but for the Lord God. Now I have prepared, with all my might, for the house of my God, etc. Fifthly, if God be an incomparable God, it informeth us of his infinite grace and condescension to take so much notice of and do so much for man. The height of the person that bestoweth a favour,

and the meanness and unworthiness of the object on whom it is bestowed, doth exceeding the advance and heighten the grace and goodness of him that doth it. O what grace is it, then, for the most high, the god of heaven, the god whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, to manifest such respect to vile, sinful dust and ashes, yea to them that are rebels and traitors against His Majesty, and thereby worthy of hell. David admires it and is amazed at it.

Psalm 8 verse 1. O Lord, our God, how excellent is thy name in all the oath, and thy glory is above the heavens. What followeth? What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? That God, the excellent God, the God famous in all the earth,

the God glorious above the heavens, should mind man, poor, silly, simple man, weak, frail, dying man, sinful, filthy, polluted man, lost, wretched, miserable man, could not but affect the heart of David with admiration and astonishment. What is man that thou art mindful of him? He is altogether below thy thoughts, and unworthy to be a moment in thy mind. Or, the son of man that thou visitest him. He doth not deserve to be visited by the beasts of the earth, much less to be visited by the angels of heaven, at least of all by the God of heaven. He may well say, as the centurion,

Lord, I am unworthy that thou shouldst come under my roof. Neither thought I am myself worthy to come unto thee, Matthew 8 verse 8. David wonders that God should mind man so much as to make the heavens and those glorious lamps there for his use and comfort. When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast made, what is man that thou art mindful of him? But how much more cause had he to wonder that the heaven of heavens, the God of heaven, the son of righteousness, the light of lights, should do so much and be so much himself for the good

and comfort of man. God doth manifest much grace and condescension in taking such care of men's bodies and outward concerns. You would think it a great grace and condescension in a king to take care, night and day of a poor beggar, to see to it himself, and not to leave it to servants or any others, that he have food and raiment and liberty, and peace and safety every day, that his bed be made well and easy for him every night, that when he is sick he have physic and cordials and tendons, and should constantly visit him himself in person, that in all his wants he be supplied, in all his weaknesses supported, in all his dangers defended, and in all his distresses delivered. If this king should never stir from this beggar,

but do all this in his own person, if he himself should spread his table and provide his food, and be at the sole charge of his garments, and put them on and make his bed, and stand by him all night as he slept, to prevent any evil that might befall him, and go up and down with him all day to protect him, and counsel him, and relieve him, as occasion required. You would be amazed at the favour and kindness and condescension of this prince. Believe it, reader, surely seeing is believing, the king of kings and lord of lords, he whose name is I am, he to whom all the kings and princes and potentates of the world, thou dross and dirt and dung, the incomparable guard, doth more than all this, very much more,

for thee every day and every night, and that in his own person. He sendeth thee all thy bread and drink and clothes, and makes them refreshing to thee. He provides thy habitation and lodging, and commandeth sleep for thee. He is with thee continually in all thy outgoings, in comings, to preserve thee alive, to enable thee to thy motions, to succeed thy lawful undertakings, to relieve thee and thy necessities, and to defend thee from all thine adversaries, and is not this condescension worthy of all admiration? Or what grace is it, that the incomparable God, who hath millions of glorious angels, waiting on him, and ten thousand times ten thousand always ministering to him, should thus wait on and watch over poor crawling worms night and day for good?

Acts 7 verse 2 Job 7 verse 20 Psalm 4 verse 8 Hoseer 2 verse 8 Genesis 32 versus 9 to 11 Psalm 34 versus 3 to 5 Hebrews 1 verse 3 Psalm 14 and 45 versus 5 and 7 Job wonders that God should condescend to correct man for his faults What is man that thou dost magnify him, that thou settest thine heart upon him, that thou visitest him every morning, etc. Job 7 verses 17 and 18. How much then doth God condescend to be his constant guide and guard, to keep him night and day lest any hurt him? O the grace of this God, this incomparable God,

doth much more magnify his grace and condescension in the care he is pleased to take of men's precious souls. Herein he showeth the riches of his mercy, the exceeding abundant riches of his grace, Ephesians 2 v. 5 and 7. Reader, is it not condescending grace in the highest degree, nay beyond all degrees for this self-sufficient, absolutely perfect, incomparable God, when the soul of man lay naked, starving, restless, encompassed with enemies,

unpityed of all creatures, weltering in its blood, gasping for breath, ready every moment to fetch its last, and to be seized on by devils, dragged to their dungeon of darkness, there to fry in untolerable flames forever, for him to look on man in this loathsome condition with an eye of favour and love, to clothe it with the righteousness of a god, to feed it with that flesh which is meat indeed, and with that blood which is drink indeed, to give it rest in his own bowels and bosom, to bind up its wounds, and raise it from the dead, and make it free from the slavery of Satan

and his bondage to sin and death and hell, and to adopt it for his own child, accept it as perfectly righteous, marry it to his only begotten, the air of all things, dwell in it by his own blessed spirit and carry it on eagle's wings, and conduct it safe through the wilderness of the world, and in spite of all the lions and wolves and serpents and adders, and giants and Anakim's and Canaanites that opposed it, to bring it to a heavenly Canaan, to fullness of joy, and rivers of pleasures, and crowns of life and weights of glory, there to reign in and with his own incomparable majesty for ages, generations, millions of years, yea, unto all eternity.

friend, friend, what is condescending grace if this be not? Alas, the incomparable God had no obligation to man. He stood in no way need of man. He is incapable of the least good by man. He would have been as happy as he is at present if the race of mankind had been ruined and had perished. Besides, he was infinitely disobligeed by man and had all the reason in the world to destroy him,

and yet he is pleased to be as studious of man's welfare and as solicitous about it, as if it had been his unobligeed by man's, own. Abigail wondered that David, anointed to a kingdom, should take her to be his wife. She scarce judged herself worthy to wash the feet of his servants. 1 Samuel 25 verse 41. Mayest not thou wonder more that the incomparable God should marry thee to himself, who art unworthy to be his servant? David admired that God should do so much for him. Has thou not caused to say as he did, Lord, what am I and what is my father's house, that thou hast brought me up hitherto, pardoned, instructed, renewed me, taken me into thine own family.

And yet, as if this were a small thing in thy sight, thou speakest of thy servant's house for a great while to come. Thou art pleased to speak of thy servant for an everlasting kingdom of honour and pleasure. To Samuel 7 verse 18. And this condescending grace, or gracious condescension, is much the more admirable, if we consider thee means by which this great work of man's recovery was affected. The incomparable God that is so great, so high, without all bounds, beyond all understanding, becomes a weak, weary, hungry, contemptible man. Reader, here is amazing condescension.

The Lord of all becomes a servant, the Lord of Glory becomes of no reputation, the bread of life is hungry, and the only rest is weary, and the prince of life is put to death. This is that which angels pry into with such astonishing pleasure, that God should become man, the lawgiver be made under the law, He that tempteth no man to evil, neither can be tempted to evil, should be violently tempted many days together by all the powers of darkness, the only blessing should be made a curse, that liberty should be in bonds, and truth itself belied, and justice condemned, and heaven be laid in the belly of the earth.

This is marvellous grace indeed, such as passeth all knowledge, Ephesians 3 v. 18 and 19. If all the glorious cherubims and seraphims, angels and archangels had condescended to have been turned into toads and serpents, it had not been by the thousandth part so great a condescension as for the incomparable God to become man, for those heavenly spirits and toads and serpents, to converine in aliquottercio, meet in the genus of creatures, there is but a finite difference between the former and the latter, but God and man meet in no third in no genus, between them there is an infinite distance there never was, they never shall be, they never can be, the like condescension.

End of chapter 21. Chapter 22 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevon's recording is in the public domain. Labour for acquaintance with the incomparable God, motives to it. The knowledge of God is sanctifying, satisfying, saving. Secondly, this doctrine may be useful by way of counsel. One, study the knowledge of this God who is so incomparable. We are all ambitious to be

acquainted with persons that are imminent and excellent in place or power or parts or piety, and judge at our interest and an honour to us so to be. If we could hear of one as strong as Samson whom no cords could hold, who could slay hundreds with a jawbone, or of one as old as Methuselah, who could tell us what was done in many centuries of years, or of one as wise as Solomon, who could speak to the nature of all creatures and answer the hardest questions we could put to him, or of one as holy as Adam in innocency, or the elect angels, who never broke the law of their maker, but were as pure and perfect as when they came immediately out of his hands. How should we throng and thrust and crowd to such men?

What pains should we take? What cost should we be at to obtain the favour and honour of their acquaintance? Surely we should think we could never view them enough or value, them enough or know them enough or discourse enough with them. But alas, what are such men, if we could find them in the world, to the blessed God? What moats, what drops, what poor, pitiful nothings? What is a strong Samson to the Almighty God? But as straw, as chaff, as rotten wood, as all weakness? What is the age of Methuselah, to the duration of the eternal God? To whose age, millions of years, add not a moment, but as a minute as nothing. Psalm 39 verse 5. What is the wisdom of Solomon to all

the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which are in the only wise God, but a curious web of folly. Colossians 2 verse 9. What is the holiness of an angel to the holiness of God, but as a candle to the sun, yea, as perfect night and darkness to the noonday. O therefore, how shouldst thou labour to know this God, how industrious should thou be, to be acquainted with him? When the Queen of Sheba had heard of the extraordinary knowledge and abilities of Solomon, she came from the utmost parts of the earth to see his person and to hear his,

his wisdom, but behold, reader, a greater than Solomon is here. Solomon was an idiot and innocent to this object which I request thee to know. The understanding of God is infinite. Psalm 147 verse 5. There is no searching of his understanding. Isaiah 40, verse 28. Indeed, it is bottomless and therefore can never be found out. His knowledge can never be known fully. No, not by angels themselves. Do men beat their brains and consume their bodies and waste their estates and deny themselves the pleasures of the flesh, as many heathen have done? For the knowledge of nature, of the heavenly bodies and their motions, of the sea and its ebbing and flowing, of the earth and the creatures thereon, when, after all their search, they were still at a loss, and for all the knowledge they attained, they proved but learned dunces. What wouldst thou then do for the knowledge of the God of nature, of the mighty possessor of heaven and earth,

of whom, to whom all things are less than nothing, of him, the knowledge of whom will make thee wise to salvation. O friend, this is the only knowledge worth seeking, worth getting, worth prising, worth glorying in, Jeremiah 9, verses 23 and 24. Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, nor the rich man glory in his riches. Worldly knowledge, strength, wealth are not worth glorying in. What then is? The next verse tells you,

But let him that glorieth, glory in this, in what, That he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, etc. This is a jewel that a man may boast of and glory in, That he knoweth me that I am the Lord. There is an excellency in all knowledge. Knowledge is the eye of the soul to direct it in its motions. It is the lamp, the light of the soul set up by God himself to guide it in its actions. The understanding of man is the candle of the Lord.

Proverbs 20 verse 27. Without knowledge, the soul is but a dungeon of darkness and blackness, full of confusion and terror, but there is an incomparable excellency in the knowledge of this incomparable God. The object doth elevate and heighten the act. There is a vast difference between the knowledge of earthly things and heavenly things, between the knowledge of wise, strong, faithful, merciful, just, holy men, and the only wise, omnipotent, unchangeable, righteous, most holy God.

Only, before I proceed to the urging this use, I would desire the reader to take notice what knowledge of God it is which I am pressing thee to labour for. It is not a mere not a mere notional speculative knowledge, though a knowledge of apprehension is a duty and necessary, Ephesians 5 verse 17, Psalm 143 verse 8, Hebrews 8, verses 9 and 10, but an experimental knowledge, thou hast made me to know wisdom in my secret parts. Psalm 51 verse 6. The heart is called the secret part because known only to God.

1 Kings 8 verse 39. Such a knowledge as affecteth the heart with love to him and fear of him, and hatred of what is contrary to him. True knowledge takes the heart as well as takes the head. Psalm 1 verse 6, 1 Kings 8 verse 38, Philippians 3 verse 10, and influenceeth the life, 1 John 2 verse 4. He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Colossians 1 v. 9 and 10. John 10, verse 4 and 5.

Right knowledge, though it begin at the head, doth not end there but falls down upon the heart to affect that, and floweth out in the life to order and regulate that. Colossians 1 verse 10, we pray for you, that he might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, for what end and to what purpose, that he might walk worthy, of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. To enforce this use, I shall give thee two or three motives and as many means. To encourage thee to study the knowledge of this God, consider these three properties of it. One, the true knowledge of this God will be a sanctifying knowledge. If thou hast anything of a man, I mean of reason in thee, holiness, which was thy primitive perfection, which is the image of the incomparable God, and will fit thee for his special love and eternal embraces will be a strong and cogent argument with thee. Now this knowledge of God

will conformly to God, render the like unto Him who is the pattern and standard of all Excellency. As I said before, knowledge is the eye by which we see God, and the vision of God causeth an assimilation to Him. But we all with open face, beholding, as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of our God. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18. The blackamore that often looked on beautiful pictures brought forth a beautiful sun. We are often changed into the postures and fashions, yea, and dispositions of those whom we much converse with on earth.

Surely then, acquaintance with the gracious and holy God will make us in some measure to resemble him. Other knowledge pollutes and defiles the soul. Oftentimes the more men pick the lock of nature's cabinet and look into her riches and treasury, her secrets and mysteries, the more atheistical they are, and forgetful of the god of nature. Hence, religio medici is irreligion. They see so much of the operations of nature that they ascribe the principal efficiency to the instrument.

And hence the wisdom of the philosophers counted the wisest men in the world is folly, one Corinthians three verse 19, and though they professed themselves to be wise, yet they became fools and were guilty of all manner of wickedness. Romans 1, verse 22, to the end. And what was the reason but this? They knew not God with all their knowledge. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 21. Ignorant heads are ever accompanied with irreligious hearts,

and both are attended with atheistical lives, Ephesians 4 verse 18. The apostle tells us of the heathen that they were estranged from the life of God, a holy life through the ignorance that was in them because of the blindness of their hearts. So, Josea 4 verses 1 to 4. but the knowledge of God purifieth the soul.

As the sun conveyseth heat along with its light, so grace is multiplied through the knowledge of God, 2 Peter 1 verse 2. When Moses had conversed with God in the mount, his face shone, that the Jews could not behold him. When a soul hath once acquainted himself with the blessed God, his life will shine with holiness, therefore David counselleth his son Solomon to know the God of his fathers,

and to serve him with a perfect heart and willing mind. first to know him, then to serve him. One chronicles 28 verse 9, this knowledge must needs be a sanctifying knowledge because it renders sin abominable, the world contemptible, God honorable, and the soul the more humble. The knowledge of God will render sin most abominable in the soul, it renders sin to be exceeding sinful. The miseries that befal us in our estates, names, bodies, souls, nay, all the curses of the lore and torments of the damned, do not discover the ugly, loathsome features, the monstrous deformed nature of sin, like the knowledge of this incomparable God.

Job confesseth his sin, chapter 42 verse 2, I uttered things that I understood not. Nay, he abhorreth himself for his sin, verse 5. But whence came he, who sometimes justified himself too much, now to abhor himself. He gives us the reason or cause of it. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. I had some knowledge of thee before, but now mine eyes see thee. I now have a clearer and fuller knowledge. knowledge of thee, wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. The more we know the

greatest good, the more we shall hate the greatest evil. The knowledge of God will render the world contemptible to a Christian. None undervalue the creature but those who have had a sight of the creator. Neither can any trample on the riches, honors, and pleasures of this world but those who know him who is the riches and honors and pleasures of the other world. They who never saw the son wonder at a candle, and they who never knew the blessed God wander at and are fond of poor low things mean small, pitiful things on earth, but the whole world with all its crowns and sceptres and diadems and delights is but a dunghill to him that hath seen the incomparable god. Moses could refuse the honour of being the adopted child of a king's heir,

reject the pleasures of Pharaoh's court, and prefer the reproaches of Christ before all the treasures of Egypt, when he had once got a sight of the incomparable God. Hebrews 11, verses 25 to 27, for he saw him that was invisible. The knowledge of God will render God more honorable in our esteems. The more we know of many things and persons, the more we slight and despise them. The more we know sin, the more we loathe, the more we know ourselves, the more we abhor ourselves. But the more we know God, the more we love him, and the more we admire him. The reason of all the contempt and affronts which we offer to God is our ignorance of him. The whole world lieth in wickedness as a beast in its dung or vermin in their slime. 1 John 5 verse 19, but the

reason is what Christ speaks. John 17 verse 25, Father, the world hath not known thee. For the apostles saith, had they known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 8. They who know God cannot but see infinite reason why they should love and fear and honor and please him all their days. Why do you think is God so much wondered at and worshipped in his church, more than in other parts of the world? Why doth he inhabit their highest praises? Psalm 22 verse 3, and greatest blessings and thanksgivings,

but because he is known more there than in other parts of the world. In Judah, is God known, therefore his name is great, his name alone is excellent in Israel, Psalm 76 verse 1. The knowledge of God makes us humble. We never are so low in our own eyes as when we see the most high God. The more we know of men that are more vain and foolish and wicked than ourselves, the more we are exalted and puffed up. But the more we know of God, of the great God, the incomparable God, the most holy God,

to whom we are as nothing, less than nothing, worse than nothing, the more we abase ourselves. When David is acquainted with the excellency of God, O Lord, my Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the oath, and thy glory, is above the heavens. Psalm 8 verse 1. What low little diminutive thoughts he hath of himself and others verse 4. What is man or what is the son of man? What a poor, pitiful, contemptible thing is man? What a vain, empty, insignificant, nothing is the son of man. We are ashamed of our rush candles or glowworms and hide our heads in the presence of the sun. The holiest man abhors himself for his unholiness before the most holy God. So Job 25 verse 2,

Dominion and fear are with him. Verse three, there is no number of his armies. Verse five, behold, even to the moon, and it shineth not, and the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm. Verse six. A worm is the most despicable, contemptible creature. Every beast trampleth on it. Such a creature is man in his own apprehensions when he once understandeth the incomparable God. When Isaiah had seen the Lord of hosts, though he were a holy man he crieth out, I am undone, I'm a man of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts. Isaiah 6 verses 3 and 4.

He never saw so much of his own uncleanness as when he saw him in whose presence the heavens are unclean. Other knowledge, like wind in a bladder, puffeth up. 1 Corinthians 8 verse 2, but the knowledge of God, as fire nigh the bladder shrinks and shrivels it up to nothing. Two, the knowledge of God is a satisfying knowledge. A man may know much of creatures, a man may know much of creatures, and the more he knoweth, the more unquiet and restless he is. His knowledge, as wind to the stomach, may fill and pain and trouble him, but cannot satisfy him, for creatures are not that savoury meat which the heaven-born spiritual immortal soul

of man would have, and must have, if ever it be contented. The greatest students, who have wearied and tired out their brains and bodies in the search of nature's secrets have found by experience that they spend their strength for what is not bread and their labour for what will not satisfy, and they have known the truth of the wise man saying, he that increaseth knowledge, increases sorrow, Ecclesiastes 1 verse 18. That knowledge which satisfieth must be of an object that is suitable in its spirituality to the nature of the soul, in its all-sufficiency to the manifold necessities of the soul, and in its immortality to the duration of the soul. If either of these be wanting in it, the soul cannot

receive satisfaction by it, because without all these the soul cannot be perfectly happy, and till it find that which can make it perfectly happy, it will be restless. If it meet with an object that is suitable to its nature, yet if it be not answerable to all its wants, it will still be complaining, wherein it is unsupplied and so unquiet. If it meet with an object that is suitable to its nature, and responsible to all its wants, yet if it be not eternal, it must needs be full of fears and troubles, in the forethoughts of its omission of so great a good, which would embitter the present possession of it, for the soul being incorruptible and immortal itself, cannot but desire that good,

which will run parallel with its own life. And if it desire it, nothing will fully satisfy it till it obtain such a good. Now nothing in this world is suitable to the soul's nature, the soul is spiritual, the things of this world are carnal, nor answerable to the various indigencies of the soul. The soul's wants are many, and in a manner infinite, besides they are spiritual, as pardon of sin, peace with God, peace of conscience, etc. When the good things of this life are particular, finite and bodily, nor equal to the soul's duration, the soul will abide and continue after millions of ages and generations, forever and ever. But this world passeth away, and all the good things thereof. But this

God whom I am persuading thee, reader, to know and acquaint thyself with, is in all these respects perfect, and so will satisfy thy soul. God is a spiritual good, a spirit, John 4 verse 23, the father of spirits, and so suitable to the nature of thy soul. He is a universal good, all good, and so answerable to the many wants of thy soul. He is an eternal good, a good that never dieth, never fadeth, a good that only hath immortality, and so is equal to thy soul's duration, therefore the disciple crieth out to Christ. Show us the Father, and it sufficeeth. John 14, verse 8, and David tells us that he is fully pleased in having God for his portion, Psalm 14 verses 5 and 6. Give any man both that which he would have and that which he should have,

and he is contented. If indeed you give a man what he would have, supposing it be that which he should not have, his desires being depraved and vitiated, he cannot be contented when he hath what he desired because lusts are unsatiable and sinful desires never satisfied. Hence the heathen emperors had their inventors of new pleasures, and possibly that may be the meaning of that place Romans 1 verse 28. The heathen, we read with common, invented unnatural delights, but give a man what he would have, suppose it be what he should have, his desires being rectified, and he is then at ease and rest.

He who knoweth God aright is fully satisfied in him, when he once drinketh of the fountain of living waters, he thirsteth no more after other objects. Job 4 verse 14, though the soul still desireth to know more of God, till it come to that place where it shall know as it is known, as David, though satisfied with his portion, Psalm 16 versus four and five, yet thirsted after more of it. Psalm 63 versus one and two, yet it is quiet and contented in God, and indeed the sweetness which it tasteth in acquaintance with the incomparable God, makes it long after nearer and fuller acquaintance with him. When Moses was once acquainted with God, he begs that he might see and know more of his glory, and the reason is because while God is the object, there can be no satiety,

he being the God of all joy and consolation. Neither can they be such a full acquaintance as to cease desires after further acquaintance, he being an object still too great for the faculties to comprehend. The desires of the glorified are without anxiety because they are satisfied in the object of their desires, and their satisfaction or enjoyment is without satiety or loathing, because they see still infinite cause to desire him. When the soul once comes to no God, as the needle touched with the loathstone, when it turns to the north, it is then quiet, though before like the dove it hovered up and down over the waters of this world and could find no rest.

This knowledge, if right, diffuseth into the soul a sweet tranquility, silent peace, secret settled calmness, besides a ravishing prevision and blessed for fruition of its fuller acquaintance in the other life. Three, the knowledge of God is a saving knowledge. Many perish for all their great knowledge of creatures. Their knowledge may light them to the more dismal chambers of death, of blackness of darkness forever. Job 15 verse 24, and indeed their knowledge, like many pigs of silver, in a vessel sinking,

presseth them the deeper into hell, but the knowledge of God is saving. God will know him in the other world who knows him in this. He will be so far from knowing them hereafter who are ignorant of him here, that he will come in flaming fire to render vengeance on them that know not God, two Thessalonians 1 v. 7 and 8. But he will own them and take acquaintance with them then, that own him and are acquainted with him now. Psalm 91 verse 14,

I will set him on high because he hath known my name. God will set him as high as heaven who knoweth his name on earth. Reader, it is as much worth as heaven to thee to know this incomparable God. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. John 17 verse 3. It is the morning, though not the meridian of heaven. It is the bud, though not the ripe fruit of glory. It is the seed, though not the harvest of the inheritance above,

to know the true God and Jesus Christ. This knowledge is of the same nature, though not of the same measure, with that in the other world. Ephesians 4 verse 13 Now the Christian knoweth as a child Then he shall know as a man Now he sees God as it were at a distance Through the prospective glass of faith But then he shall see God face to face

Now we see through a glass darkly But then face to face Now we know in part But then we shall know as we are known 1 Corinthians 13 verse 12 End of chapter 22 Chapter 23 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. The means of acquaintance

with God, a sense of our ignorance, attendance on the word, fervent prayer. The means which I shall offer as helpful to the attainment of this knowledge of God are these. One, be sensible of thine ignorance of him. A conceited scholar is no good learner. He that thinks he knoweth enough already will never be beholden to a master to teach him more. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him. Proverbs 26 verse 12. This is that which locked up the Pharisees in the dark dungeon of ignorance. They are blind. Truth itself called them blind. Matthew 22, verses 16 and 17. But they conceded their eyes were good and so neglected the means of curing them. Ye say, ye see. I do not say ye see, but ye concede so, therefore your sin

remaineth. John 9 verses 40 and 41. Therefore your ignorance. Ignorance continueth. When ignorance and confidence, which are often twins, go together, the condition of a man is helpless, partly because such a person will not take that pains in reading and praying and conference and meditation, without which the knowledge of God cannot be had. Daniel 12, verse 4, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. It is an allusion to merchants that run to this and that port to sell out and take in commodities, or to a tradesman that runs to this and that mart, or place to buy and sell whereby their stocks are increased. But a conceited man will never labour thus for that which he thinks he hath already. If thou digest as for silver and searchest as for hid treasure, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and attain the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2 verses 4 and 5. Men count digging hard work and will sweat at it when they dig for silver.

Such diligence must they use who will get the knowledge of God. But though poor men who are sensible are their want of the knowledge of God, and of their woeful condition thereby, will work to preserve themselves from perishing, yet rich men, who think they can do well enough without it, will spare their pains, partly because all knowledge must be obtained from God by fervent prayer, and a conceited man will neither be instant with God for it, nor will God give it to him. God is the God of knowledge, one Samuel two verse two, and from him all true saving knowledge comeeth. Proverbs 2 verse 6, the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth, cometh knowledge and understanding.

As none can see the sun by candlelight, but by its own light, so none can know God savingly by the light of nature, but by light derived from himself. Now a conceited person will not go to God for knowledge. What need I thinks he I have enough already, poverty is a friend to prayer. The poor useth entreaties. Proverbs 18 verse 23, but pride. or conceitedness is an enemy to prayer. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. Psalm 10, verse 4, who will beg that of his neighbor, which he is confident he hath at home. Neither will God undertake the instruction of proud scholars, the humble he will teach,

the meek he will guide in judgment, Psalm 25 verse 9. Such as are willing to be taught will be thankful for their learning and are fitted for guidance and direction, but conceited persons are quite contrary. Therefore, reader, beware in this mist in which many must carry. He that thinketh he knoweth anything, knoweth nothing, as he ought to know. 1 Corinthians 8 verse 2, but labor to get thine heart affected with thine ignorance and the woeful consequence of it. Psalm 95 verses 10 and 11. This will be a good step to knowledge.

The apostle gives the same direction, 1 Corinthians 3 verse 18. If any man seemed to be wise, let him become a fool that he may be wise. If thou seemest to be knowing, be ignorant in thy own sense and feeling and apprehension that thou mayest be knowing. Our Lord Jesus gave the same counsel to the sick and dying Laocene's, Revelation 3, verse 17 and 18, and acquaints her that her ignorance of her ignorance, and conceitedness of her knowledge was the great hindrance of her recovery. 2. Study much the works and especially the word of God. The works of God are a book wherein you may read of him, and by which you may hear of him.

The heavens declare his glory, Psalm 19 verse 1, the earth is full of his goodness, Psalm 33 verse 5. As the shadow hath some proportion to the body to which it relates, so the works of God are some representation of the wise, powerful, gracious God to whom they belong. Romans 1 v. 19 and 21. The invisible things of God are seen by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, therefore consider the works of the Lord and the operations of his hands. The Word of God is a glass wherein thou mayst see his beauty and grace and glory,

and so see him as to be transformed into his likeness. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18. In the works of God you may see his steps, the prince of his feet. They are therefore called his paths and his goings. Psalm 77 verse 19. But in his word we may see his face, the comeliness of his countenance, how lovely and amiable he is. Therefore it is called a glass. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18, so that as the sight of a man's face helpeth and conduceth more to our knowledge of him than the sight of his steps,

so the Word of God is a far greater means of our acquaintance with him than the works of creation and providence. Therefore I say, study especially the Word of God. The scripture is the key of knowledge, Luke 11 verse 52, and unlocks the mysteries which were kept hid from ages and generations, and opens the secrets of heaven to thy soul. It is therefore called Light, Psalm 119 verse 105, and a lamp, Proverbs 6 verse 23, because it discovers hidden things, helps thee to see what thou canst not without it, and directs thee in thy motions and actions. David had more knowledge than his enemies, and they were subtle, than his teachers, and they were no dwarfs in knowledge, such as Gad and Nathan, than the ancient, and with the ancient his wisdom and in length of days his understanding, Job 12, verses 12 and 13. But what was the means of it? For thy testimonies are my meditation, Psalm 119, verses 97 to 99. The gospel is the eye salve by which the blind come to see.

Psalm 19 verse 7. The fragrancey and attractiveness of the incomparable God increases up and down in the world as the gospel is propagated. Thanks be to God who maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge. The knowledge of God, like a rich perfume, causeth and leaveth a fragrant, odiferous scent wherever it comes. By us, the ministers of the gospel as the instruments hereof in every place, 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14. The ministry of the word is the chariot of the son of righteousness, whereby he conveys the light of the knowledge of God to the world, therefore attend on preaching and give diligence to reading. Search the scriptures for they are they that testify of me, John 5 verse 39.

3. Be frequent and fervent with God to give thee the knowledge of himself. There is a twofold light requisite to bodily vision, a light in the eye, a blind man cannot see at noonday, and a light in the air. The best eye cannot see in the dark. So there is a twofold light requisite to the effectual sight of God. Viz the light of the word and the light of the spirit. The word cannot do it without the spirit, and the spirit will not do it without the word. where the word is afforded both are needful. There is a spirit in man, a passive receptiveness as a capable subject,

but the inspiration of the Almighty giveeth understanding. Job 32 verse 8. All natural abilities, all acquired endowments, all the reading and learning, all the teachers and tutors in the world, cannot help one poor soul to the saving knowledge of God. It is God that teacheth man knowledge. Psalm 94 verse 10, He who made light in the first creation only can cause love.

light in the new creation, two Corinthians four verse six, but God, who caused light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He, that at first said, let there be light when darkness cover the face of the world, and there was light, a corporeal light, can command spiritual light and the knowledge of his glory in the face of Christ, who is the express image of his person. Therefore the apostle betakes himself to God for the gift, praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ would give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, etc. Ephesians 1, verse 17 and 18. So David often, Psalm 119, verses 18, 34, 35, 125, 143, 144, Revelation 3,

verse 18. Reader, art thou blind, take the counsel of thy saviour, go to him for I salve that thou mayest see, and be confident he that bids thee come to him for that will bid thee welcome when thou comest. Revelation 3 verse 18 None knoweth the father but the son And he to whom the sun will reveal him Matthew 11 verse 27 Therefore whoever thou art That sittest in darkness and in the shadow of death

Go to the sun for light Go to the son of righteousness In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Colossians 2 verse 9 For the light of the knowledge of God Dost thou not know the sinfulness and misery Of a blind dark state That vengeance is the fruit of this ignorance

Psalm 79, verse 6, that God will pour out his wrath upon them that do not know him. Go therefore as the blind man to the Lord Jesus Christ, cry, sigh, mourn, pray. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Though he hear not presently, hold on, continue instant in prayer. Though the devil and flesh rebuke thee as the multitude hymn, yet hold on, call louder, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Mark 10, verse 47. Lord, that I might receive my sight.

Verse 51, and doubt not, but he will have pity on thee, as he had on him and touch thine eye, and give thee to see thee things of thy peace, for thine encouragement, thou hast his promise. Jeremiah 24, verse 7, I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord. Jeremiah 31 verse 34, they shall all know me from the least to the greatest. So James 1, verse 6, Hoseer 2, verse 20, Hebrews 8, verses 8 and 9, or with what hope mayest thou sue these bonds and plead these promises when he that made them is a god that cannot lie Titus 1 verse 2 and therefore cannot but perform them

Again observe how kindly he took it of Solomon When he bid Solomon ask what he would That he asked wisdom To chronicles 1 verse 10 Give me wisdom and knowledge saith Solomon And the thing which Solomon asked please the Lord One king's 3 verse 10 And the Lord said unto Solomon because this was in thine heart

because thou hast not asked riches nor honour nor the life of thine enemies, nor long life, wisdom and knowledge is granted to thee, and I will give thee wealth and honour, verse 11. When a poor creature, sensible of its blindness and darkness, lieth at the feet of God, begging spiritual light and sight, the heart of the Redeemer is taken with such a request, and subscribes the petition with wisdom and knowledge is granted to thee, be but diligent reader in the use of these means, and thou mayest be confident of success. If thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding,

if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hidden treasure, then shall thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God, for the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2 verses 3 to 6. End of chapter 23. Chapter 24 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevalk's recording is in the public domain. exhortation to choose this incomparable God for our portion with some motives thereunto.

2. If this God be such an incomparable God, then choose this God for thy portion and take him for thy happiness. Is it possible for thee to read so much of the incomparableness of God in his being, attributes, works, and word, and not desire him? Thou canst hardly see an excellent person but thou wishing him for thy friend, thy companion, nor an excellent estate, but thou art wishing it were thine inheritance, thy portion, and canst thou hear of him who is excellency itself originally? Job 13, verse 11. The spring and standard of all excellency in others, whose name alone is excellent, Psalm 148 verse 13, and not wish, or that this incomparable God were my friend, my father, my head,

my husband, my lot, my portion, who will give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem? Oh, who will help me to drink of the well of salvation, of the fountain of living waters of the pure a river that floweth from the throne of God and the Lamb? Canst thou hear so much of his worth, though infinitely short and not desire him? Is it possible for a rational creature to read of such a bottomless treasure, of such boundless pleasure, of such an infinite, inconceivable good, and not covet the enjoyment of it? O man, where are thy wits? Whitha art thou fallen, art thou a man or a beast?

Ah, didst thou know the gift of God, and what it is that is offered thee, thou would scorn the highest honours, sweetest carnal delights, greatest riches, yea trample upon all the crowns and kingdoms of this world for it. It is an ineffable privilege that thou art a creature capable of so vast a happiness. It is a special favour that thou hast leave to aspire after such an immense inheritance. And when it is tendered to thee, wilt thou refuse it? Will thou neglect it? Oh, wilt thou not give it all acceptation? Having spoken in another treatise to this particular, I shall hear, only offer two or three things to thy se. serious thoughts, and proceed to a third exhortation.

One, consider what is offered thee, when the incomparable God is offered thee for thy portion. And truly, to explain this head fully, would require the pen, yea, exceed the skill of an angel. None can tell what God is but God himself. All the sheets in the explication of the doctrine speak somewhat of him, but not the thousand-thousandth part of that excellency that is in him. Reader, I may tell thee, when God is offered thee, the greatest good that ever was, that ever will be, that ever can be, is offered thee. They never was, or can be, the like offered thee.

More than heaven and earth, than both worlds, than millions of worlds, is offered thee. This God, who has offered thee, is the king of kings, the Lord of Lords, the God of of gods, the blessed and glorious potentate. The first cause, the original being, self-sufficient, all-sufficient, absolutely perfect, incapable of any addition or diminution. This God who is offered thee is the high and lofty one, that inhabiteth eternity every moment, to whom a thousand years,

yea millions of ages are but as one day, as one moment, whose duration is incapable of the least accession, who is boundless in his being, omnipotent in his power, unsearchable in his wisdom, inconceivable in his grace, and infinite in all his perfections.

He dwelleth in that light that is inaccessible Before him angels The highest of creatures veil their faces To him the whole creation is less than nothing and vanity This God who is offered thee Made all things of nothing Supports all things Influenceth all things

And is all things And infinitely more than all things He is so needful a good That thou art undone without him This was the misery of the heathen on earth Ephesians 2 verse 12 and of the damned in hell Matthew 25 verse 41, the very hell of hell. He is so plentiful a good that thou art perfectly happy in him. Psalm 144 verse 15, thou needest no more.

He is the heaven of heavens. Psalm 16 verse 11, the safest refuge. O friend, what dost thou think of having this God for thy portion? Is it not worth the while to have this God for thy God? Will thou not say, for as much as there is none like, Come to thee, O Lord, thou art great, and thy name is great. Who would not fear thee, O King of Nations? Jeremiah 10, verse 6 and 7.

Again, the God who has offered thee is the well of salvation, the Lord of Life, the God of all consolation, a hive of sweetness, a paradise of pleasure, a heaven of joy. He is the richest grace, the dearest love, the surest friend, the highest honour, the vastest treasure, the exactest beauty, the chiefest good, and the fullest felicity. He is one that can enlarge and suit all thy faculties, relieve and answer all thy necessities,

fill up and satisfy all the capacities of thy heaven-born soul. God is a good which Christ died to purchase for the Ephesians 2 verse 13, 1 Peter 3 verse 18, and surely if Christ thought him worth his blood, he is worthy thine acceptance. God is a comprehensive universal good, not one but all good, riches, honors, pleasures, friends, relations, health,

Life, earth, heaven, this world, the other world, all the good of both worlds, and infinitely more. And thou art not covetous of such wealth that is better worth than both worlds. Ephesians 4 verse 19, Psalm 23 verse 1. Genesis 17 verse 1. God is an everlasting good, a good that will stand by thee and abide with thee when all other good things shall fail thee. 1 Timothy 6 verse 7, Psalm 73 verse 25. He is that good which thou wouldst have if thou art well in thy wits. He is that good which thou shouldst have if thou answerest the end of thy creation. He is that good which thou must have if thou art not eternally miserable.

He is the only suitable satisfying good which hits the nature and fits the desire of the rational creature. O reader, I say again, what dost thou think of having this incomparable God for thy God? Surely by this time thy heart may well melt into astonishment. that he will allow thee to seek so matchless a portion. Well, what sayest thou to him? Is it not worth the while to have him for thine, to whom thou wilt call in the day of distress,

to whom thou wilt cry in a dying hour, when thy soul stands quivering on thy lips, ready to take its flight into the unknown regions of the other world, when devils will be waiting to seize it, as soon as ever it leaves the body, to hail it to the unquenchable flames of hell, when thy friends and relations shall be weeping and wailing by thee, but unable to afford thy dying body the least cordial,

or thy departing soul the least comfort? Our friend, what wilt thou do in such an hour which is hastening on thee without the incomparable God? Believe it, though thou mayest live without him, thou canst not die without an infinite horror without him. Is it not worth the while to have him for thine, to whom thou must stand or fall forever, from whose mouth thy sentence of eternal absolution or condemnation must come, and who shall judge thee to thine unchangeable state of life or death?

Though thou mayest think thou canst do well enough at this day, with the world for thy portion, yet what will thou do at that day when the world shall be in a flame, if God be not thy portion? Art thou willing or not to have this God for thine? What sayest thou? Canst thou find in thine heart to deprive thy precious soul of such an inestimable treasure, and to leave it naked in the other world to the cruelty of devils and the dreadful curses of the law.

Methinks, though I have spoken little, yet I have said enough to one that will but let his reason, judge, to draw out thy most earnest desires after this incomparable God. Two, consider upon what terms thou mayest have this guard for thy God. You may possibly think that so boundless a good must cost you very dear, and the price must be vast of a pearl that is so matchless, but load thy comfort, all the condition which God requirth of thee is only to accept him heartily and thankfully in his son. Canst thou have anything cheaper? Wouldst thou desire him in his terms to fall lower? Nay, is it possible so to do and make thee happy? Nor can he be thine, unless thou receivest him for thine.

It is a poor favour that is not worth acceptance. Do but take him for your happiness, and you shall have him for your happiness. Thou givest more for thy bread, thy clothes, thy house, for the needful comforts that are the support of thy frail body than thou needest give for the great, glorious, incomprehensible, incomparable God. Thou payest money for them, but thou mayst have him without money and without price. One would think that the equity of the condition should both amaze thee and allure thee. Consider, I say, God doth not require of thee things impossible to thee.

He doth not say if thou wilt remove mountains, dry up oceans, stop the course of nature, create worlds, I will then be thine as great as I am. He doth not say, if thou wilt satisfy my justice, answer the demands of my law, merit my love and favour, then I will be thy God. No, he himself hath done all this for thee by the death of his son. All he desireth is that thou wouldst accept him, in his son for thy God. Nay, he doth not require of thee anything that is barbarous or cruel, as the heathen deities did, by the devil of their worshippers. He doth not say if you will lance and mangle your bodies as bal's priests did, if you will go barefoot in sackcloth long and tedious pilgrimages as the

papists do. If he will offer your children in the fire and give the fruit of your bodies for the sins of your souls as some did, then I will be your God. Again he doth not require of thee things that are chargeable to offer the best and chief of thy flock daily in sacrifice to him, nor, as he once did of the young man, to sell all that thou hast and give it to the poor, nor as idolaters to lay down such a part of thy state for thy pardon, but he only requires that thou wouldst take the Lord for thy God, and wilt thou not do it? Canst thou deny him and thy poor soul so reasonable, so equitable a request? As the servant said to Naiman, if the prophet had commanded thee some great thing,

wouldst not thou have done it? How much more, then, when he only saith washeth wash, and be clean. So say I to thee, if God had commanded the greatest things imaginable, wouldst thou not to thy power have done them, that thou mightest enjoy the blessed God for thy eternal portion. How much more then, when he only saith, thou shalt have no other God before me? O reader, do but observe that first command, which contains thee some both of thy duty and felicity, and thou art made, thou art a blessed man forever. Take the true God in Jesus Christ for thy God, prize him as thy God, love him as thy God, honour him as thy God, and obey him as

thy God, and he will be thy God for thy God for the true God as the covetous man doth for his wealth, which is His God, as the intemperate man for his belly, which is his God. They give their highest esteem, their choicest affections, and their greatest service to that which they take for their God. And surely the true God is more worthy hereof, and will requite the best for them. 3. Consider for what end God offereth himself to thee. I would not have the mistake because God, out of his infinite pity to his miserable creatures, is instant and urgent with them to accept of him, to think, therefore, that God hath any need of thee, or seeketh his own happiness

therein. I tell thee, if thou hadst no more need of God than he hath of thee, thou mayest let him alone. No, it is purely for thy good, for thy real and eternal good, that he offereth himself to thee. He needeth thy service no more than he doth the service of the damned, of the devils, and he knoweth how to make use of thee for his own glory, as he doth of them, if thou foolishly rejectest his offer of himself. Thy righteousness will not help him. Job 22 verses 2 and 3, nor thy wickedness hurt him, Job 35 verse 2. He offereth himself to thee, not that he may be blessed by thee, but that he may be bountiful to thee. It is thy good not his own, that he is, thy good not his own, looks at, the felicity of accepting him is thine own, and the misery of neglecting him is thine own.

Proverbs 9 verse 12. Men call customers to them, press them with many arguments and entreaties to buy, that they may enrich themselves by their customers, but God calls men to buy of him not to enrich himself. He is as rich and perfect and happy as can be, but to enrich themselves. I counsel thee, saith Christ, to his lukewarm church, to buy of me gold. Why? That he may get somewhat by her and enrich himself? No, that thou mayst be rich, that thou, not I, mayst be rich. Now, reader, ponder it seriously, it is holy for thy own good,

that thou mayst escape wrath and death and attain heaven and life, that God is pleased, once more to offer himself to thee. What is thy mind about his offer? Will thou have him for thy portion or no? Is there anything unreasonable in his desire or demands? Doth not thy eternal felicity depend on thine acceptance of him. What sayest thou? Will thou have God for thy portion, or will thou have the devil for thy portion? Thou shalt have an eternal portion, good or bad. The worldling's portion of good things is but for this world, and the godly man's portion of evil things is but for this world. Both have immortal souls, which will abide in the other world forever, and their souls must have immortal portions to abide with them there

forever. Therefore, reader, consider what thou doest. Either thou must take God in and through Christ for thy portion forever, or hell and death and wrath and devils for thy portion forever. One of the two is the portion of all the sons and daughters of Adam. If thou wilt still prefer the world before God and love the creature above God and please thy flesh more than God, when once thou appearest in the other world, God will reign on the firing brimstone and a horrible tempest, this will be the portion of thy cup. Psalm 11 verse 6. But if now thou acceptest him in his son, for there is no making God thy friend but by Christ, for thy chiefest good and happiness, when all thy friends shall leave thee, and dearest relations forsake thee, yea, when thy flesh and thy heart shall

fail thee, God will be the strength of thine heart and thy portion forever. O friend, consider what I have said in this use, and the Lord give thee understanding that thou mayest know, When thou art well offered, and be wise on this side the other world. End of Chapter 24. Chapter 25 of the incomparableness of God by George Swinick. This Librevalch's recording is in the public domain. Exortation to give God the glory of His incomparable Excellency, with some considerations to enforce it.

If God be such an incomparable God, give him the glory and honor of his incomparable excellencies. His incomparable perfections must have incomparable praises. Praise him, saith the psalmist, according to his excellent greatness. Psalm 150, verse 2. But alas, what tongue, what understanding of men or angels can do it, can praise him according to his excellent greatness. But though we cannot praise him according to the utmost of his excellencies, we must praise him according to the utmost of our abilities. The highest God, Psalm 92 verse 1, must have the highest praises. Psalm 149 verse 6, the high praises of God are in their mouths. The greatest God, Psalm 145 verse 3, must have our greatest praises, great as the Lord and greatly

to be praised. Lo, little praises are a dispraise to one so eminently, so infinitely, high and great. Ordinary commendations of an extraordinary person are a discommendation to him. according to thy name so o lord is thy praise to the end of the earth Psalm 48 verse 10 therefore his name alone being excellent Psalm 158 verse 13 his praise alone must be excellent David tells God I will praise thee yet more and more Psalm 71 verse 14 he had already praised him much but he would endeavour to praise him more

and when he had done so he would praise him more and still more We read of Songs of Degrees, Psalm 120 and 121. We should ascend in our praises of God by a holy climax till we come to the highest degree that is possible and screw up our faculties herein to the utmost pitch that they are capable of. Praise him for the incomparableness of his being, that he is an independent, all-sufficient, absolutely perfect, incomprehensible, omnipresent, eternal, infinite being,

should much affect our hearts. Praise ye the Lord, praise him, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised. Why? The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens, who is like to the Lord our God who dwelleth on high, Psalm 113 verses 1 to 5. Praise him for his incomparableness in his attributes,

for the incomparableness of his power O Lord God of hosts Who is a strong lord like unto thee Psalm 89 verse 8 For the incomparableness of his holiness Who is a god like unto thee Glorious in holiness Exodus 15 verse 11

For the incomparableness of his mercy Who is a godlike unto thee Pardoning iniquity And passing by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage Because he delighteth in mercy Praise him for the incomparableness of his words O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

Psalm 107 v. 8, 15, 21, 31, Psalm 72 verse 18, and Psalm 136 verse 4. Praise him for the work of creation. Psalm 1114 versus 1 to 5, Job 38, verse 4 to 6. Praise him for his works of Providence. Psalm 97 versus 8 and 9. Psalm 136 throughout and Psalm 107 praise him especially for the work of redemption Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath visited and redeemed his people Luke 1 verse 68 Psalm 9 verse 1 Revelation 15 verse 3 praise him for the incomparableness of his word

Wonderful are thy testimonies Psalm 119 verse 128 How often doth the sweet singer of Israel praise God for them as a singular kindness? Psalm 147 last two verses. He gave his statutes to Moses, his laws and commandments to Jacob. He hath not dealt so with every nation. Praise ye the Lord. Praise him by admiring him. Wonder at his being as they of Christ.

What manner of man is this that he wins and sees obey him? Matthew 8 verse 27. What manner of God is this who knoweth no bounds, no beginning, no succession, no addition? An amazing admiration of him is a high commendation of him. And indeed our silent wandering at his perfections is almost all the worship we can give him. Psalm 65 verse 1, praise waiteth for thee, O God in Zion. Hebrew praise is silent for thee, O God in Zion, not that praise was dumb or tongue-tied in Zion, for praise in no part of the world speaks higher or louder than in Zion.

but to show that when the people of God set themselves to praise, they are struck with amazement and wonder at his matchless being and beauty, at his infinite excellencies and perfections, and wanting words to express them, they sit down in a silent admiration of them. Thou wouldst wonder at Adam, if he were now alive, for his age, or wonder at him that is from everlasting to everlasting, that is the cause and original of all things,

that is what he is, that is, and nothing else is, That is all he is in one indivisible point of eternity. Wonder at his attributes. Admire his holiness. Behold, he puteth no trust in his servants. He chargeteth the angels with folly. Job 4 verse 18. Behold, wonder at it.

Again, behold, he putth no trust in his saints. The heavens are not clean in his sight. Job 15 verse 15. Admiar his wisdom. Cry out with the apostle. O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God, Romans 11, verse 33. Admire his love. Behold, what manner of love hath the father loved us with, 1 John 3, verse 1. Admire his power that he can do what he will do, who is a strong

lord like unto thee, Psalm 89, verse 8. Wander at his works. Thou art ready to wander at the rare works of some curious artist. Alas, all their works are toys to the works of the mighty creator and possessor of heaven and earth. O Lord, how marvellous are thy works, Psalm 104, verse 24. His work is honorable and glorious, Psalm 111 verse 3, and worthy thy greatest wonder. What a peace is the creation, how marvelous, how mysterious, Psalm 8 verses 1 to 5. The heavens declare his glory, Psalm 19 verse 1, and the earth is full of his goodness. Psalm 104 verse 24.

work is providence. Read Psalm 104 and Psalm 107. How many rarities, curiosities, mysteries are wrapped up in it, which are only seen in the other world. Psalm 77, verse 19. What man is this, say they, for he commandeth with authority, and the unclean spirits come out of men. Mark 1, verse 27. What a masterpiece, what rare workmanship indeed is redemption, a work that the angels are always prying into and wondering at. Ephesians 3 verse 8 1 Peter 1 verse 10. Wander at his word. When thou hearest it, dost thou not perceive a majesty and authority oaring thy conscience accompanying it?

And they were all amazed and astonished at his doctrine. Luke 4 verse 32, the very officers who were sent to apprehend Christ could not but wonder at his works and returned to them who set them a work. Never man spoke as he spake, John 7 verse 47. There are great things in the law of God, Hosea 8 verse 12, things that are wonderful, Psalm 119 verse 18, which may well be wondered at, and all saith the evangelist bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,

Luke 4 verse 22. Praise him by speaking always highly and honorably of him. If his name alone be excellent, take heed that thou does not take heed, that thou does not take his excellent name in vain. Thy apprehensions of him must be ever high, and thy expressions of him honourable. Thy tongue is therefore called thy glory, because therewith thou mayst glorify thy God. Psalm 57 verse 8. Never speak of God rashly or at random, without a serious consideration of whom thou speakest,

and let thy expressions of him and to him be becoming his vast perfections. Ascribe greatness to our God, Deuteronomy 32, verse 3. Speak honorably of his being. So Moses, Exodus 14, verse 11, who is a God like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises. So Solomon, one kings eight, verse 23. Lord God of Israel, there is no God like unto thee in heaven above or in the earth beneath. So David, one chronicles 29 verse 11. Speak honorably of his attributes. Psalm 68, verse 34, of his power, mercy, truth, justice, wisdom, and holiness. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.

Isaiah 6, verse 3. Speak honorably of his works. Psalm 86, verse 8. Among all the gods, there is none like unto thee. Neither are there any works like unto thy works. Psalm 145 verse 10. Speak honorably of his word. The commandments of the Lord are pure.

Psalm 19 verse 7. Thy word is very pure. The statutes of the Lord are right. Psalm 19 verse 10. The law is holy, just and good, Romans 7, verse 12. Though Paul's corruption took occasion by the law's prohibitions to become the most unruly, as the water at a bridge roars the more for the stop, yet he dares not lay the least fault upon the law, but layeth all upon himself.

Was the law sin? God forbid, verse 7, far be it from me to have the least such thought. No, the law is holy, but I am carnal sold under sin, verse 14. so when he speaketh of the gospel how honourably doth he speak of it sometimes he calls it the glorious gospel two Corinthians four verse four the mysteries of the gospel Ephesians 6 verse 19 the word of truth Colossians 1 verse 5 praise him by walking circumspectly and closely with him live always as one that believeth he hath at all times to do with this incomparable god and is created and preserved and redeemed to show forth the praise of this god when the psalmas

had admired the incomparableness of this God in his being and doings. Psalm 86, verse 8, he presently subjoins, verse 9. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and glorify thy name and worship before thee, for thou art great and dost wondrous things. Thou art God alone. O friend, this incomparable God must have incomparable obedience. Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46 verse 10, Be still, be quiet, a sinner, cease, forbear any further to offend me. and know that I am God, incomparable in knowledge, acquainted with all thy ways and works, inward, outward, secret, private, public, incomparable in holiness, and perfectly hate all thy wickedness, incomparable in power, able to revenge myself on thee every moment, to turn the body and soul into hell,

incomparable in justice and will by no means clear the guilty, yet incomparable in mercy and will accept and receive prodigals, that, sensible of their folly and filthiness, return home to me, their father, in the son of my love. Be still, sinner, know this, that I am God and obey my laws, but I have spoken more fully of this in the informations. Only remember that the praise of thy life is the life of thy praise, because hereby thou dost in some measure represent the excellencies of this incomparable God, visible to the world. One Peter 2 verse 9, Matthew 5, verse 18. offering praise and ordering the conversation aright are joined together by God himself and let not us part them asunder Psalm 50 verse 23

To help thee a little that thou mayst give God the praise of incomparable perfections Consider one this God is excellency itself He is not only excellent Psalm 8 verse 1 and alone excellent Psalm 148 verse 13 but excellency Job 13 verse 11 should not His Excellency make thee afraid. Nay, here's greatness of Excellency. Exodus 15 verse 7.

Nothing but Excellency. 1 John 1.6. Now think with thyself what honour is due to one that is excellent, alone excellent, Excellency itself, and nothing but excellency. Can thy highest honour be high enough, or thy most excellent praises be excellent enough for such an excellency? 2. This God is the standard of all excellency.

Nothing is excellent. but because of its relational likeness to him. Everything is more or less excellent, as it is more or less related or conformable to him. Saints are the excellent of the earth, Psalm 16 verse 3, more excellent than their neighbours. Proverbs 12 verse 26, but it is because of his affection to them,

since thou art precious in my sight, thou art honourable, Isaiah 43 verse 4, and because of their relation and the likeness to him, Deuteronomy 33 verse 29, 1 Peter 2 verse 9 Psalm 48 verses 2 and 3 These scriptures are the most excellent of books None like them I have written unto the excellent things

Proverbs 22 verse 20 But what is the reason Surely because they are the word of God Ephesians 3 verse 16 His mind 2 Corinthians 2 verse 17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God 2 Timothy 3 verse 16

The Sabbath is the most excellent of days, the queen of days, the golden spot of the week, because it is his day set apart by him and devoted to him. My holy day, the holy of the Lord, honorable, Isaiah 58, verse 13. Grace is excellent, the beauty and glory of the creature. Proverbs 4 verse 7, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18. More excellent than gold or fine gold than rubies or pearls, Proverbs 3 verses 14 and 15. But why? Because it is his image, it is a conformity to his nature. 2 Peter 1, verse 4, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18.

When the Holy Ghost would render anything excellent, he mentions it with relation to God. The cedars of God, the city of God, the trees of God, the mountains of God, etc. That is the most excellent cedars, cities, trees and mountains. Three, he is so excellent that even angels veil their faces in his presence. The excellent cherubims and seraphims who are spotless in their natures and faultless in their lives, who are the highest and honourblest, and ancientest house of the creation, who, as his special friends and favourites,

are allowed to wait on him continually, to behold him face to face, and to enjoy him fully and perfectly. Yet these angels veil their faces before him, as it were, ashamed of their starlight in the presence of the sun, and their drops in the presence of the ocean, Isaiah 6 verses 1 to 3 I saw the Lord sitting on a throne High and lifted up

About it stood the seraphims Each had six wings With twain did he fly With twain he covered his feet With twain he covered his face To cover the face is a sign Or fruit of bashfulness As in Rebecca

Genesis 24 verse 65 The face of an angel Is void of all spots and wrinkles It is full of beauty and brightness A most excellent face and all the counsel looking steadfastly on him beheld his face as if it had been the face of an angel, Acts 6 verse 15. Yet this face, as excellent as it is, they cover as it were, ashamed of it before that God who alone is excellent. For, he is so incomparably excellent that he humblet himself to take notice of his perfect spirits,

his heavenly host, and their perfect service in heaven. It is not only great and infinite condescension with him to observe the highest persons on earth, as kings and princes and the holiest persons on earth, as the most eminent saints, and the highest and holiest performances of these saints. But it is boundless humiliation in him to look upon, with the least respect, the perfect spirits of just men, the principalities and powers that are in heaven, and their pure, perfect worship and service. Psalm 113, verses 5 and 6, who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven. 5. He is so incomparably excellent that he is above the highest adoration and worship of his creatures. Worship is the most high and honorable of all our works. Blessing and praising God is the most high and honorable act of worship.

Therefore, this is that part of worship which suits the highest and honorable estate of the creature in heaven and must continue forever. As all our graces, of faith and hope and patience, etc., shall ere long be melted into love and joy and delight, So all our duties of confession, petition, hearing and reading the word, receiving the sacraments, shall all be melted into praise and thanksgiving, Revelation 7, verses 11 and 12. And the angels and elders that stood about the throne fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped, saying, Amen, blessing and honour and thanksgiving be unto our God forever. And therefore David calls upon angels and the heavenly host to praise God. Psalm 148 verses 2 and 3

But this incomparably excellent God Is above all this worship This highest worship Though he be not above it So as to despise it Psalm 50 versus 15 and 23 Yet he is above it So as to exceed it

That his saints and angels Though their powers are enlarged to the uttermost Though the strings of their faculties are wound And screwed up to the highest pitch and pig To sound forth his praise Even then they will fall infinitely short of praising and blessing him according to his deserts. Nehemiah 9 verse 5.

Blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise. He doth not say the name of God is exalted about the blessing and praise of men, of saints on earth in their imperfect state. Nor above the blessing and praise of spirits of just men in heaven made perfect, but above all blessing and praise, above the blessing and praise of men, of angels, of the holiest men, of the highest angels, above all blessing and praise whatsoever, and of whomsoever,

and of whomesoever. 6. He is so incomparably excellent that his excellencies are beyond the understanding and apprehension of men and angels. The excellency of God is not only beyond all our expressions, verbal in our words, vital or real in our lives, but also beyond all our apprehensions. A fluent tongue may speak much of the excellency of God, an enlarged rational understanding can apprehend much more.

The mind of man is much wider than his mouth, but the excellence of God is infinitely beyond all our apprehensions of him. His works are unsearchable. Romans 11, verse 33. Lo, he goeth by me and I see him not. He passeth on and I perceive him not. Job 9, verse 11. He goeth by me in his works. He passeth by me in the operations of his hands, and I perceive him not. There are such motions of God in the heavenly bodies, earthly plants, ordinary providences, the growth of a child in the womb, etc. that men are nonplussed at them. They are at a about the nature, reason and mode or gradual progressions of them, how much more is his being unsearchable and his essence past finding out? If his footsteps are inconceivable and invisible,

much more is his face. If his works cannot be apprehended, much less can his nature, because his works are in some respects finite, as they are terminated on limited beings, and they are also many of them visible, and so obvious to our senses. But his essence is holy and altogether, and he is, in all respects infinite, and is no way visible or liable to apprehension by our senses, one Timothy 6 verse 16, who dwelleth in that light that is inaccessible. As no mortal eye can behold the sun in its full strength, the attempt of which, according to some, hath struck the adventurer's blind, so no creature whatsoever can apprehend the incomparable God in his full beauty and brightness, in his boundless excellency and perfection.

It is the voice of God to Moses. thou can's not see my face, for no man can see me and live. Exodus 33, verse 20. No man clothed with a mortal body, or in this estate of imperfection, can behold an extraordinary, created appearance of God. But he is thereat filled with fears and frights. Job 4, verses 12 to 15, and chapter 21 verse 22. Daniel 10, verses 8, 16, and 17. Habakkuk 3, verse 16.

No man, no, nor angel can behold God in his infinite essence to the utmost of his perfections, but would be thereat crumbled into nothing. Reader, if God be thus incomparably excellent, that His excellency itself, the standard of all excellency, that angels hide their heads as ashamed of themselves before him, that he condescendeth to show the least respect to his high and perfect host in heaven, that he is infinitely above all their blessings and praises, all their conceptions, and apprehensions, what praise, what honour, what glory shouldst thou give to this God. Though thou art unable to give him all the glory that is due to his name, yea, the thousandth-thous

part thereof, yet do thou give him all the glory thy mind, will, heart, affections, all thy faculties united together, and enlarge to the utmost can possibly give him. Say to thy soul, bless the Lord, o my soul, and all within me praise his holy name. Psalm 103 verse 1 1 End of chapter 25 Chapter 26 of the incomparableness of God

by George Swinick This Librevark's recording is in the public domain Comfort to them that have the incomparable God for their portion Thirdly this doctrine may be useful by way of comfort To all the people of God If God be an incomparable God Then they are incomparably blessed Who take him for their God

Who have him for their happiness Every person or people is happy or miserable as the God is whom they serve, as that is in which they place their felicity, for nothing can give out more happiness to another than it hath in itself. That good must of necessity be first in the cause, either eminently or formally, which is conveyed from it to the effect. Those who serve the flesh as their God and chief good must needs be miserable. Philippians 3 verse 18, Romans 16 verse 18, because the flesh is the flesh is is a base and vile. Psalm 49, verse 20, a weak and impotent. Isaiah 31, verse 3, a fraudulent and deceitful, Jeremiah 17, verse 9, a fading and transitory god. Psalm 73 verse 25, 1 Corinthians 6 23. So they who own and prize and love the world as their god and chief good, of such we read, the covetous man is called an idolater and covetousness idolatry. Ephesians 5 verse 5, are miserable because their god is vain and empty. Ecclesiastes 1.2 and 3. Piercing and vexatious. 1 Timothy 6 versus 9 and 10. Uncertain and unsatisfying. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 10. 1 Timothy 6 verse 17. Frail and not lasting 1 Corinthians 7 versus 29 and 30. Proverbs 23 verse 5.

Thus they who have idols for their gods are miserable because their gods are poor, bitterful, blind, deaf and impetive. and deities. They have eyes and see not the wants of their worshippers, they have ears and hear not the supplications of their suppliants, they have hands and work not for the relief of their servants' necessities, or their deliverance out of their distresses, and thence the prophet infers the misery of their makers and adoress, all that make them are like unto them, blind and deaf and impotent as they are, falsehood and a lie and vanity and nothing as they are. 1 Corinthians 8 verse 4 1 Samuel 12 verse 24

And so is everyone that trusteth in them Psalm 115 verses 5 to 9 But the person who through Christ Have an interest in this great God The Almighty, all wise, all sufficient God Is happy Happy is the people whose God is the Lord Psalm 144 verse 15

And incomparably happy Because that God who is his portion And happiness is an incomparable God Therefore, as the scripture mentions God to be incomparable in excellency, it also mentions his people to be incomparable in felicity, and infers their incomparableness from his incomparableness who is their God. The Holy Ghost tells us none is like God. He hath no equal in worth and perfection.

Who is a God like unto thee? Exodus 15 verse 11. Among all the gods there is none like to thee. Psalm 86 verse 6. And the Holy Ghost tells us also that no people. is like the people of God, and that, because God is theirs, happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee? Why, whence comes their incomparable happiness, truly from the incomparable God, saved by the Lord who is the shield of thine help, and the sword of thine excellency.

Again, what nation is so great which hath God so nigh unto them? Deuteronomy 4 verse 7, Israel, at this time, to flesh and since, seemed their most unhappy people. They were in a barren and howling wilderness, without a house to hide their heads in, without food, but what a miracle sent them in, without raiment, but what was on their backs, without any dealings or converse with other people, nay, in the midst of cruel and potent enemies. They must fight their way to Canaan against walled towns and sturdy giants, and yet even in this plight, they are the happiest people under the cope of heaven, because the god of heaven, the incomparable god, was nigh to them. David asserts God's incomparable majesty, and thence Israel's incomparable felicity,

to Samuel 7, verses 22 and 23, wherefore thou art great, O Lord, there is none like thee. What followeth thence, and what nation at this day is like unto thy people, even like Israel? Reader, if thou art once effectually called, if thou art a regenerated, sanctified person, know to thy comfort and rejoice therein that this incomparable God is thine. 2. That all his incomparable excellencies are thine. 3. That this incomparable God with all his incomparable perfections will be thine for ever. 1. This incomparable God is thine. That God who hath no superior, no equal, no fellow is thine. He that is, and there is none else. Isaiah 46 verse 9 is thine. He that is that he is. Exodus 3 verse 14 is thine.

thou hast a propriety in him and a title to him. This is the great privilege of heaven's favourites. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and he will be their God. Revelation 21, verse 3. This is the great promise, the sum, the substance of all the promises. I will be their God, and they shall be my people, Jeremiah 31, verse 33. This is the great prayer of all that know how to pray or what to pray for. Psalm 80 verse 12, and Psalm 4 verse 6, Exodus 33 verse 15, Jeremiah 14 verse 8. This is the great potse of the son of God. 1 Peter 3 verse 18. His name is therefore Emmanuel God with us. This is heaven itself, the very heaven of heavens, for it is not the place but his presence which makes heaven to be heaven.

In thy presence is fullness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for ever more. Psalm 16 verse 11. Once more, this is the highest, the chiefest. the greatest gift which the infinite God can give to thee. When he giveth the riches and honours and friends and relations, he can give the greater things. When he giveth the sacraments and sabbaths and seasons of grace, he can give the greater things. When he giveth the pardon of sin, peace of conscience,

the graces of his spirit, he giveth the great things. But yet he can give thee greater. But when he giveth thee himself, he giveth the greatest gift that himself, though infinite in bounty can give. Oh, how sweet is that term of propriety, my God, my God. The Redeemer himself rolled it in his mouth over and over, as if he could never suck out the sweetness in it.

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the house of my God, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is the New Jerusalem, which cometh down from my God. Revelation 3 verse 12. David dwells on it as one unwilling to leave it, Psalm 18 verses 1 and 2. Reader, or what cause hast thou to triumph in thy happiness, that the infinite God is thine? Fear not I am thine, Isaiah 41. Scepters and kingdoms and honours and possessions and friends and relations and liberty and peace and health and strength are not thine possibly, but God is thine. He that is all these and more than these is thine. He is thine own God, even mark, our own God shall bless us.

Psalm 67 verse 6. Thou canst not call anything outward thine own Thy estate is not thine own I will take away my corn and my wine and my oil Hosea 2 verse 9 Hagi 2 verse 8 Thy relations are not thine own Ezekiel 16 verses 20 and 21

My children which thou hast borne to me Thy credit is not thine own No thy very graces are not thine own Canticles 4 verse 16 Nay thou thyself art not thine own 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20 ye are not your own. Thy body is not thine own. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 16, nor your souls. Ezekiel 18 verse 3 and 4. All souls are mine. But God is thy own God, thy own glory, thy own exceeding joy.

Psalm 43 verse 4. 2. All the incomparable excellencies of this God, his incomparable word and works are thine. As all he is is thine, so all he hath is thine, all he can be is thine, all he hath done is thine, He can do is thine. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 22, all is thine. All his incomparable attributes are thine. His incomparable power is thine to protect thee. Genesis 15 versus 1 and 2. Exodus 15 15 verse 12. His incomparable wisdom is thine to direct thee. Psalm 73 verse 23. His incomparable mercy is thine to pity and relieve thee in thy miseries. Judges 10 verse 16. His incomparable grace is thine to pardon all thine iniquities. Micah 7 verse 18, Exodus 34,

6 and 7. His incomparable love is thine to refresh and delight thy soul. Psalm 21, verses 5 and 6. His incomparable justice is thine to accept thee as righteous for the sake of his son. Romans 3 verse 24. His incomparable faithfulness is thine

to fulfill all the gracious promises which he hath made to thee. Psalm 89 versus 33 and 34. His incomparable majesty and beauty and glory are thine to make thee great and render the comely and glorious forever. Ezekiel 16 verse 14, Isaiah 43 verse 4. His incomparable joys and pleasures are thine to feed on and be filled with. Psalm 36 verse 8, Matthew 25 verse 21. His incomparable works are thine, his works of creation.

Psalm 37 verse 11, Matthew 5 verse 4. His works of Providence, Romans 8 verse 28. For your sakes I have sent to Babylon. Isaiah 43, verse 14, and chapter 43 verse 4. His work of redemption is yours. John 10, verse 15, Galatians 2 verse 20, Revelation 1, verse 5 and 6. His incomparable word is thine. Indicted for thee, sanctified to thee, made thee wise to salvation.

It is therefore called their word. The word of their testimony, Revelation 12 verse 11. Whatsoever things were written were written for our instruction, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. Romans 15 verse 4. 3. This incomparable God, and all his incomparable excellencies, will be thine his incomparable eternity will be thine, and so long as he is God, he will be thy God. When the essentialist's God is gone, thy God will remain. When the worldlings God fails him, thy God will not forsake thee. When all thine honors, riches, friends, relations, leave thee,

thy God will abide with thee. This God is our God for ever and ever, some 48 verse 4.5. 14, not for a day or week or month or year or age, but for ever, not for a thousand years, or a thousand generations, or millions of millions of generations, but forever and ever. Not for as many millions of ages as there are stars in heaven, drops in the sea, creatures great and small in both worlds, but forever. Oh, happy conjunction of propriety with eternity, this God is our God for ever and ever. Thine immortal soul hath an immortal God, an immortal good. Thou shalt ever be with this incomparable Lord, comfort thy soul in the midst of all the persecutions and afflictions that befall thee in this world with these words,

1 Thesslonians 4 verses 16 to 18, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, wherefore comfort one another with these words. End of Chapter 26. End of the incomparableness of God by George Swinnick.