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Queft. 2. Is there nothing but what God can do? 1. Nothing but what implies a Contradiction. Either,

1. Directly, as for a Thing to have been, and not to have been.

2. Indirectly or confequentially, as that one Body fhould be in Two Places, or Two Bodies in one Place at the fame time.

So to Lie, Tit. i. 2. Heb. vi. 18. To deny himfelf, 2 Tim. ii. 13. To Sin, Hab. i. 13. where tho' the Words be not Contradictory, the Senfe is. For to fay, God lies, c. is as much as to fay, God is not God; for these are all Imperfections.

2. Though God cannot do what implies a Contradiction, yet he is truly faid to be able to do all Things, for that is not properly Doing,but fuffering; to Lie, to Die, &c. is to Suffer. And again, One Part of a Contradiction is always falfe: And therefore fhould God do that, he would fuffer himself to be destroyed, he being Truth it felf. A

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Deus dicitur omnipotens faciendo quod vult, non patiendo quod non vult. Aug.

3. He is not the lefs Omnipotent because he cannot do fuch Things, for he therefore cannot do them because he is Omnipotent: So that the doing of them, would argue Impotence; the not being able to do them, argues his Omnipotence.

Multa non poteft & omnipotens eft, & ideo omnipotens quia ifta non poteft. Aug.

Queft. 3

Queft. 3. What Ufe are we to make of this? Is GOD Almighty?

1. Then fubmit to his Will and Pleasure, Ifa. xlv. 9. Pfal.xxxix. 9.

2. Fear him, fer. v. 22. Matt. X. 28. Remember the Old World, the Egyptians, Corah, Dathan and Abiram, Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's Wife, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Herod; and fear none but him.

3. Then truft on him, and in these Promises he hath made unto us, Rom. iv. 20, 21. 2 Tim. i. 12.

Remember Noah, Jofeph, the Ifraelites at the Red Sea, and in the Wilderness, the Three Children, Daniel in the Den, Jonah, Peter. 4. This fhould excite and encourage us to pray continually unto God, as one who is able to fupply all our Wants, and to do whatsoever we defire, yea, and infinitely more too, Eph. iii. 20.

5. Is God Almighty? Then walk before him, and be perfect, or fincere, Don, Fac. iv. 12,

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Creation is a great Article of Faith, Heb. xi. 3.

I. Here is the Agent or Efficient Caufe, God, D, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

Father, 1 Cor. viii. 6.

Son, 1 Cor. viii. 6. Job. xiii. 10. Col. i. 16,
Heb. i. 2, 10.

Holy Ghoft, Pfal. xxxiii. 6: '121.
Fob xxvi. 13. Gen. i. 2.

II. The Object: Heaven and Earth. That is, All the World, or all Things that had any Beginning; as Col. i. 16,

So

So the Phrase, Heaven and Earth, is always ufed in Scripture, there being no one Word in the Hebrew that fignifies the World.

is rendred World. Ifa.38. 11hn 1 by, but there the Targue hath it, y, the Inhabitants of the Earth, as the Place alfo requires it fhould be tranflared.

Son is never any more then in, the habitable World.

So it is rendred by the LXX, in Pfal. ix. 8. where also the Targue hath NN, the Arabick the fame, and amongst the Greeks too till Pythagoras.

Πυθαγόρας πρῶτος ἀνόμασε τον κ ὅλων πειοχών κόσμον, ἐκ δ' ἐν αὐτῷ τάξεως. Plutarch. Hence Mundus.

III. The A&: He Created. That is, Made all Things of Nothing. Though the Word N doth not evince this, yet it being ordinarily in Scripture joined with oy and 10; yet,

This is plain from the Manner of the Crea tion, because it was by his Word fpeaking, Gen. i. 3, &c. So Rom. iv. 17. Heb. ii. 3. 2. For the Word N, in the Beginning; For if in the Beginning then before any Thing was begun, or had any Being our of which the World could be produced. To fay God made all Things of fomething, is a Contradiction.

IV. The Time when. In the Beginning of all Time, before which there was nothing but Eternity,

V. The End. For the Glory of God the Creator, Prov, xvi. 4,

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He

He in the Creation fhewed forth the Glory of his Wisdom, Power and Goodness, Jer. x. 12. 1. The Glory of his Power, Rom. i 20. 1. In making all Things of Nothing. 2. In making Day before the Sun, which was made the Fourth Day, Gen. i. 14. Herbs, Plants and Trees, before the Sun," Moon and Stars, even the Third Day,

ver. II.

2. The Glory of his Wifdom.

In that he first made fimple Elements, then mixed or compound Bodies.

As alfo, firft, Such Things as had Being, but without Life; as inanimate Things, as Light, the Firmament, and dry Ground.

Then fuch as had Being and Life, without Senfe; as Herbs, Plants, Trees, the Third Day.

Then fuch as had Being, Life and Senfe, but without Reafon; as Brutes, the Fifth Day. Then laft of all, fuch as had Being, Life, Senfe and Reafon; as Man.

So that we may fay, as Pfal. civ. 24. Jer, li

15.

3. The Glory of his Goodness.

In that he made Habitations before Inhabi

tants.

Food before them that were to eat it.

And all Things that Man was to make use of, before Man that was to make use of them. He made all Things good, Gen. i. ult. His Goodness he communicated; especially, 1. To Angels; Which were created by God,

Col. i. 16, 17. Pfal. civ. 4. Heb. i. 7. 14. And that the First Day, Job xxxviii. 6, 7.

They

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