A treatise of the incomparableness of God in his being, attributes, works and word…

CHAP. VII. God incomparable in his Attributes, in his Holiness and Wisdom.

II. 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 (i. e. Attributes) because they are attributed to him for our sakes; though they are not in him as they are in Men or Angels. Vocantur Attributa quia ea sibi attribuit Deus nostra causa, Zanch. de Attribut. lib. 2. cap. 12. Attributa Dei dicuntur quae Deo adscribuntur in Scripturis sacris, ⟨p. 52⟩non tam ad essentiam naturamque Dei explicandam, quam ad declarandum nobis aliquo modo pro nostro captu illud quod de ipso a nobis cognosci potest, Polan. Syntag. lib. 2. cap. 6. There are some Attributes of God, which the School-men call Incommunicable, (which I have spoken of under the former Head) because the Creature, as a Creature, is uncapable of them, and therefore they cannot be attributed to Man or Angels. It's impossible for a Creature to be independent, self-sufficient, eternal in a strict sense, infinite, &c. so that all will acknowledge God incomparable in those excellencies. There are other Attributes of God which are called Communicable, viz. His Power, Holiness, Wisdom, Faithfulness, &c. 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 ⟨p. 53⟩would have cut off the Entail, and have held all of themselves, as their own Lords and Masters): And the Prince of Tyre, Ezek. 28.6. is indicted by God of inexpiable arrogancy, That he durst set his heart as the heart of God: Yet it is the only godliness of the Creatures to be like God, in those Attributes of his which are communicable: The new man is after God, Ephes. 1.24. The re-impression of his Image on the Creature. David is therefore called a man after Gods own heart, because he was a man after Gods own Holiness; yea, 'tis the perfection and felicity of the intellectual World,