Sermon 5

Isaiah 46:9. Remember the former things of old; for I am GOD, and there is none else; I am GOD, and there is none like me.

The third thing which remains, is this, that there is no other GOD; and it is an argument which is often used in Scripture, to prove that the Lord is God, because there is none besides him; for so you are to understand it: I am GOD; because there is no other; this particle is so used many times (Isaiah 45:22): I am GOD, and there is none else, there is none beside me; and this shows the falseness of all other gods, and all other religions; and the argument stands thus; That if you look to all former times, you shall see that there was never any other God, or any other religion but this, which we profess. There are two arguments set down in the text:

1 Remember the former times, and you shall always find it thus, that there is none besides me.

2 There is none like me, says the Lord; take all other gods, and there is a wonderful great difference between them and the God whom we profess; there is none like him. So that the point to be delivered hence is this;

It is a great argument to prove the Deity, that there is none besides the Lord.

To open this to you; I will show you;

1 What reasons the Scripture uses to prove, that there is none besides him.

2 We will show you in some instances of it.

3 We will make some uses of it.

For the first, you shall find in the Scripture these five arguments, to show that there is no other God, but that the LORD is GOD alone, and that there is none besides him.

From the greatness of God's Majesty, and the immensity of his works, and that is the reason of the words here annexed; there is none like him: as in verse 5 of this chapter you shall see it more plainly. So, Among the gods, there is none like to you, O Lord, neither are there any works like your works. Where you see that they are both put together; there is none like to him for the greatness of his Majesty, nor for the immensity of his works. More particularly, first, in regard of the greatness of his Majesty, there is none like him; Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he takes up the isles as a very little thing; and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering; All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity: that is, let a man look on the greatness of God, and compare him with all the things that are in the world, and you shall find a great disproportion between them; they are but as the drop of the bucket. A bucket, of itself, holds but little water, but yet that is for some use; but the drops that fall from the bucket, when it comes out of the well, they are so small, as we make no account of them; and yet all the world is not so much to the Lord, as these small drops. And if that similitude will not serve, there is another; They are as the dust of the balance: if it were but as the dust of the earth, it were but small, but as for the dust of the balance, it is so small, that it cannot weigh the balance this way, or that way; and yet the whole world is not so much to the Lord, as the dust of the balance.

Again, a third expression he uses, and that is taken from the manner of his worship: for some might here object; If he be so great, how short then do we come of worshipping him, and of giving him that honor which we owe to him? Says he; it is true, for all the beasts of Lebanon are not sufficient for a burnt offering: nay, all the wood of Lebanon is not enough to kindle the burnt offering. And take all the gods of the Gentiles, they were but men, and their temples, and all the glory of them, they are nothing to the Lord: See another description of this in verse 25. And as, thus in regard of the greatness of him, there is none like him; so likewise in regard of the greatness of his works; verse 12: Who has measured out the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? That is, look upon the great building of heaven and earth, and consider what went to these buildings, what might and power he must have to handle such things as these; as the vast mountains, the huge earth, the wind, and the seas; and consider, what a hand and arm he must have, that must do such things. And also consider the wisdom of God, that went to this work, and he did it alone; he had none to help him; take a man, let him set up a building, and he cannot do it of himself, but he needs somebody to help him; but the Lord did all this alone: therefore he concludes, verse 18, that there is none like to him; as if it were his scope and intention in that place.

It appears hence, that they are not gods, from their newness, they had a beginning, and they have an end; but God is from everlasting, I am the first and last (Isaiah 41:4, Isaiah 44:6, and Isaiah 43:10). The meaning is, all the other gods had a beginning, we know when they began, and their own historians have related it; but I was before them all, says the Lord, and they have all vanished away, even in your own sight.

Their ignorance and want of knowledge, and his omniscience, is another argument, which you have used in (Isaiah 41:22-23) and (Isaiah 44:7-8): Let them bring them forth, and show what will happen, let them show the former things, what they be, etc. that we may know that you are gods. The meaning is this; that there are no other gods, that do declare former things, that tell of the beginning of the world, or of the creation, nor can declare things to come; I only can do it, I have not spoken in secret, but my prophecies are plain and open, I have spoken it, and I will bring it to pass. Therefore, I say, his omniscience and showing future things, does testify, that there are no other gods besides him, seeing no other has been able so to do.

The greatness of his power put forth in the continual passages of his providence, and their want of power; which is another argument used in (Isaiah 41:23): Behold, you are nothing, and your works are of nothing; that is, you are not able to do anything, either good or hurt to the sons of men, and therefore you are no gods, you are but vanity, and of no value: which argument you have often repeated; as also the great changes, that God works on the sons of men, which Idols cannot do (Isaiah 40:23-24). He brings the Princes to nothing, etc.; that is, he is able to set up whom he will, and pull them down again; and he gives instance in the greatest Princes, that thought themselves best rooted, says he, when I do but blow upon them, when I blast them, they are, as if they never had been planted, as if they had been never sown, but they are, as if they had took no root in all the earth. So (Psalm 107:33-34): He turns a desert into a fruitful land; and a fruitful land he turns into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein; making changes of men, and things, which no Idols could do.

They are such as are dead men, and have no life in them. This is an argument that the Apostle Paul uses (Acts 14:15), that they should turn to the living God (Psalm 115). It is true of all other gods, they are dead vanities, they are Idols, and have no life in them; only God is living, he only has life in himself, and gives life to all other things in the world. Therefore, there is none other god besides him.

Now we come to particulars. Take all the religions that ever have been in the world, besides that which we profess; take all the gods, that have been set up by others; they are divided into two times, either before, or since Christ; before, and they are either those gods, that were worshipped by the Greeks and the Romans, the wisest of the Heathens, or else those that were worshipped by the Barbarians. Now, they worshipped the Sun, and Moon, and four-footed beasts (Romans 1). If there be question of any, it is of those among the Romans; such as were Saturn, and Jupiter, and [reconstructed: Juno], etc., which are now altogether exploded; and there is enough said against them, even by their own writers.

1. They were men, and therefore not gods; this was the argument that Tertullian and Justin Martyr used to convince those, among whom they lived, that Juno, Jupiter, Neptune, etc. were Saturn's offspring, and therefore they were men; and if men, then born of men, and their genealogies are recorded by their own writers.

2. And as they were men, so they were the worst of men, given to the grossest vices, as adultery, theft, murder, etc.

Objection: And if it be objected, as it was to Lactantius, that these are only fictions of Poets.

Answer: I answer, that the Poets were their Prophets, as the Apostle says, 'One of your Prophets says so'; and they did but give light to the picture; and all their own writers agree, as Cicero and Varro, that they were subject to those vices that we named.

3. They did die, and therefore were not gods; and therefore they would in one place show you a sepulchre, and in another place a temple erected to the same god, which is an extreme contradiction; yet this was acknowledged even by them that worshipped them: and as for Tully, we cannot have more against him, than he himself confesses in his Tractate, De natura deorum; as one says, Re tollit deos, sed oratione reliquit; He took away their gods in deed, though not in word: and himself says, Utinam tam facile veram religionem invenire possim, quam falsam convincere: I would I could as well find out the truth of true religion, as the falseness of the other. All which are disputed at large by Tertullian, and Augustine De civitate Dei, and Clemens Alexandrinus, who lived in those days; which we speak the more of, because it was that, which did spread itself even over the whole world for many ages together. And as for the gods that are worshipped by the Chaldeans, and the Syrians, as the Sun and Moon, they are not worth the naming.

There is another religion that has grown up since Christ, the religion of Mahomet, which has spread over the most part of the world, for if that computation be true, that is lately given, they have fourteen times as much as any other has; and they arose about six hundred years after Christ, and therefore they have continued a long time. I speak not this, because I think that any here had need to be dissuaded from it, but to show that there was never any verisimilitude of it, but that God was always God alone. Therefore against it, I will use four arguments:

1. Mahomet did fully acknowledge the truth of the Old Testament, and of the New; yet the things which he delivers, are contrary to both; which confirms our religion, and shows the falseness of theirs; for he did acknowledge, that Moses received the Old Testament from God, and so did the Prophets, and he repeats most of the story; he acknowledges the creation of Adam, and the eating of the forbidden fruit, and the whole story of Abraham, and his calling, and the offering of his son Isaac; and also, he acknowledges the whole history of Moses, how God appeared to him, and how he went into Egypt, and of the ten plagues that he sent upon the Egyptians, and the wonders that he wrought going down into Canaan; and so of all the rest, naming the book of Psalms, and quoting things out of it; and of Deuteronomy, acknowledging many of the Prophets, as Elijah, Samuel, Job and Jonah; and he confesses that there were many more, which he did not name: and so he acknowledges the New Testament likewise; he acknowledges that Christ was born of a Virgin, and that by the mighty power of God, without man; that he healed diseases; and that he received the Gospel from God himself; and that God gave power to him more than to all the Prophets that were before him, and that he was the word and power of God, and that all, that do believe in him, shall be saved; and they shall follow him in white garments, and that he, which believes it not, shall be damned; and he acknowledges the New Testament to bear witness to the Old; and he acknowledges the resurrection, the coming of John the Baptist; and he speaks very honorably of Christ, except only in two things:

1. He took up the opinion of the Arians, to deny his divinity.

2. And also, he denied that he was crucified, but that somebody was crucified for him.

He brought in a new religion, and yet he professes, that he had no miracles, or predictions of things to come. Now, when religion is not confirmed by miracles, or predictions of things to come, or holiness of life, it is a token that there is no truth in it.

We may perceive it by the writing of the Alcoran; It is so barbarous, that there is no sense in it; and they say, that he could neither write nor read; and so the writing shows, that it was by one, that was an ignorant man, that had no skill; and those stories that are alleged out of the Scripture, have much falsehood mixed with them; which is a sign that he never read them himself, but that he had them by relation; but only he speaking to a very ignorant people, they received it of him; and having enlarged themselves by the sword; and so they continue to this day.

The impurity of his doctrine, he cut off what was hard to be believed, and whatever was difficult to practice, and he propounded that to the people, wherein there was no hardness, no difficulty, promising them a paradise, wherein they should have all pleasures, and should enjoy women; and also they should have meat, drink, apparel, and fruits of all sorts; as also, they should have silken, and purple carpets to lie upon, &c. and also he professes that he had a license given him from God, to know what women he would, and to put them away when he would; which license was given to him and to no other. All which arguments are enough to show the vanity and falsehood of this their religion.

Use 1 Seeing there is none other god besides the Lord, we should fix this principle in us, and labor to strengthen it by this other medium also. When more candles are brought into a place, the light is greater, and you may see the objects the better. Therefore, add this to the other, that there is no other god; for this expresses not only that the Lord is God, but that it is he whom we worship: for if there be a God that made Heaven and Earth, he would have revealed himself to the sons of men, but there has never been any other revealed. Remember the former things, and you shall see that there was never any other. Make this chain, and every link of it is exceeding strong: see if ever there has been any god besides him: For, if there was ever any God revealed to the sons of men, it was the God of the Jews, that was revealed by Moses, and the Prophets. For all the dunghill gods of the Gentiles, they were but vanity, and they appeared to be so; and if it was the God of the Jews, then of the Christians, (because the New Testament is built upon the Old;) and then surely, he is that God, whom the Protestants worship, and not whom the Papists worship. For, if you take all those things, wherein they differ from us; as in their worshipping of Images, their Purgatory, their Indulgences, their Prayers to, and for the dead; their Prayers in an unknown tongue, and so all other points of difference, and you shall find that they were added, and taken in, in continuance of time, now one, then another; and there are many that have taken pains to show the pedigree of them, when they came in; and therefore they that have not seduced hearts, whose eyes the god of this world has not blinded, may see, that what our devices cut off, is nothing but that which they have added before; the Papists agree in all with what we teach, only the difference is between the additions which have come in from time to time. Therefore you must learn from hence to confirm your faith, by that argument which Peter uses (John 6:68): Where shall we go, you have the words of eternal life. There are two things which make us cleave to any thing:

1 The firmness of the thing.

2 When we can go nowhere else. So that look to any time or place, and consider that all other gods they are but vanity. For, look upon the world, and the creatures, and they have no bottom to stand on, they have no state to hold by. Therefore, let this teach us to cleave to him without separation: look upon every side, as David did, to the right hand, and to the left, and you shall see that there was no other god. Only here the soul has sure footing; therefore say, that if the dissolution of all things should come, as death and martyrdom, (as we know not how soon they may) yet God shall be our God, we will forsake all to follow him. Consider the present time of the Church, consider how soon the times may come upon us, when we shall be put to it; for now things are in praecipitio; hastening down to the bottom of the hill; and we know not how near we are to that hour of temptation, spoken of in the Revelation; when it shall be as it was in Isaiah's time (2 Chronicles 15:6): Nation shall rise against nation. These times are growing, and gathering strength more and more; therefore let us strengthen our faith, and prepare for a trial. Until now religion and peace have walked together in one path; but when they shall go in different paths, it will appear then, whose servants we are. So when the times of trial come, it will be a great matter to have this principle laid. If you should come to suffer death, and to lose your lives, it will be a great matter, to be rooted and grounded in the faith: for there is a great difference between those that have much earth, and between those that are not well rooted, that have not received this anointing, that teaches us these things.

Only this I will say to you in the second place to comfort you, though you see the Lord laying the churches waste, so that they are wallowing in their blood, and yet that you might hold up your heads; consider that he is God alone, and therefore will rouse up himself in due time; for, He will not give his glory to another: therefore though you see all the churches in Christendom laid waste, yet the Lord will raise them up again, and the ground of it is in (Isaiah 48:11) For my own sake, even for my own sake will I do it: for, how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory to another; speaking there to the churches in that time, says the LORD, I have refined them, but not with silver, I have chosen them in the furnace of affliction; that is, I have thus and thus dealt with them, yet will I not cast them off, though they be sinful, yet will I not put them away, for my own sake; for my name should be polluted, if I should suffer them to lie thus: It should be thought that the other religion was true, and so I should lose my glory. And again, will God now say, I will not do so; for, should Antichrist prevail, it would be an argument that they had the truth, and not we. So (Isaiah 42:8). I am the LORD, that is my name; and my glory will not I give to another, neither my praise to graven images. As the graven images there should have had the praise, so should the Papists now, if God should suffer his Church to be so, but for his own sake he will not suffer it. Let this encourage you then to be earnest with him in prayer; for the time will come, when he will turn his head, when the just period is come, he will be seen in the Mount.

Use 3. If there be no other God, then let us be careful to keep our hearts from all kind of idolatry, not to set up any other in our heart or affections. For there are two kinds of idolatry:

1. One is gross, as the worshipping of Baal, Mahomet, etc. and that you are free from, because there is light enough in the Church to see the vanity of them.

2. There is another kind of idolatry, which Saint James speaks of (James 4). You adulterers, and adulteresses, you make riches your god, and honor, and your belly, your god; and when you sacrifice to your own nets, that is, to outward and secondary means, or when we join any other thing with God; now this is idolatry, which is common among us. Our nature is as prone to idolatry as any, though not in that kind: for man is a weak creature, and therefore he seeks something to repose himself upon; and because they find not any one thing sufficient; therefore they put their confidence in many (Romans 1). For all idolatry is upon one of these three grounds:

1. They worship them for gods, whom they saw excellent men, that had something in them above themselves; such as were strong men, as Hercules; and those that were law-givers, and princes, as Saturn, and Jupiter; and they did worship virtues likewise; and they did build a temple to virtue itself; and to justice, and patience.

2. Those, that brought any special help, and comfort to the lives of men; as they that did invent useful arts, as Bacchus, Ceres, Vulcan, Aesculapius; and also they worshipped the creatures themselves, as the Sun, and Moon, and Oxen, and the like.

3. They worshipped for god, that which was stronger than themselves; therefore Tully says, we build a temple to fevers, to diseases, because they were stronger than they, they could kill men when they did seize upon them: so they did build a temple to Fortune. Now to translate this to ourselves, see if we have not the same ground with us; see if the things that have any excellence among men; if the things that are profitable to us, and things that exceed us in strength, and over-power us, whether they are not ready to be set up as gods; when men spend themselves upon their pleasure, and are afraid of men, what is this, but to set up another god? We do the same, though not in the same manner that the Heathens did. Now, for the worshipping the creatures; we are not to do it: there is no creature in the world that can do either good or hurt, as it was said of Idols. But when our affections are so inordinately carried to them, we set them up for gods, though we observe it not. It is God's prerogative royal, and it belongs only to him, to do good or evil; whatever is either good or evil, he is the Author of it; he makes men's lives comfortable, or uncomfortable, at his pleasure; for he disposes of things, giving them, and taking them from whom he will. Therefore, why is he forgotten? And why do men join other things with him? So far, as men see not the vanity of all things, and so far, as their affections are taken up with these outward things, so much idolatry there is in their hearts. Therefore you must take heed that you give not God's glory to another.

Take heed of idolatry; in your opinions give not the glory of God to riches; for that which a man's mind is set most upon, and which he looks for comfort from, in time of need, this they count as God: so that, whatever it be, riches, or the favor of men, if you set your mind upon it, you make it as God, and it is to give the glory of God to another.

We must not trust in them (Psalm 115:9). but trust in GOD; O Israel trust in the LORD, he is their help and their shield. Now then, we exalt him, when we trust only in him, when we trust not in any of these outward things, when we think not ourselves any whit the better, the more riches or friends we have: for so far we trust in the creatures, so far we commit idolatry with them: but he that thinks himself safe, because he has the Lord for his God, and because he is his Shield, he does exalt the Lord, and this is to put this in practice which is here spoken of; I am God, and there is none like me.