did warn thee and my Messengers call'd to thee yet I hardly expect that thou shouldst hear those whispers with all those Voices I did scarce break silence but now I will reprove thee and thou shalt hear the rod or hear thy own groans under it For that we may be sure to hear this Voice God does by it open the ear Job xxxiii 14 15 16. God speaks once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not in a dream and in a vision then he opens the ears of men by Chastisements as it follows in four Verses full of them 91 20 21 22. and sealeth his instruction that he may withdraw Man from his purpose i. e. that he may make him cease from sin It seems the place of Dragons is Gods chiefest School of Repentance and we may have a clearer sight of him in the dimness of anguish than Vision it self does give When men did not perceive that saith Job yet this open'd the Ear and so God sealeth the Instruction And truly when the Soul dissolves in Tears and when as David words it The heart in the midst of the body is even like melting wax then only 't is susceptible of Impression then is the time for sealing the Instruction Nor does Chastisement open the Ear only but the Vnderstanding also I will give her trouble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will take her into the Wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he and speak unto her Heart There is convincing Experience of all this Pharaoh that was an Atheist in Prosperity does beg for Prayers in Adversity before he suffers Pharaoh says Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Exod. v. v. 2. but yet Thunder preaches obedience into him and Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said I have sinned the Lord is righteous and I and my People are wicked intreat the Lord that there be no more mighty Thundrings no more Voices of God the Hebrew words it and I will let you go Exod. ix 27. And in the Book of Judges you will find that whole Age was nothing but a vicissitude of sinning and suffering divided betwixt Idolatry and Calamity When Gods hand was not on them they ran after other Gods as if to be freed from Oppression had been to be set free from Gods Worship and Service but when he did return to slay them then they sought him and they returned to enquire early after God and they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God was their Redeemer Psal. lxxviii 34 35. So that from such induction the Prophet might pronounce that when Gods Judgments are in the Earth the Inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness Esay xxvi 9. and S. Peter in the Text they that have suffered in the flesh have ceased from sin Which calls me to my second Task 2. To shew first by what arts the flesh engages men into courses of sin and by what methods it does work them up to the heights of it That I may Secondly declare how sufferings blast those methods and make all the arts of flesh either unpracticable or too weak 1. That the carnal appetite should reach after and give up it self to sensual delights is so far from strange that it is its nature 't is the Law of the members the very signature of flesh and inclination imprinted into it of which it can no more divest it self than the heated Deer can restrain it self from thirsting and panting after water-brooks But when Reason and Religion have set bounds to this appetite for it to scorn these mounds for that Law in the members to fight with and prevail against the Law in the mind those original dictates born in it and Christian Principles infused into it this is the Fleshes aim and sin Now this it does by exciting to ill actions as being sauc'd with pleasures and contents and by indisposing to good actions as being troublesom or not at all delightful to the sense and as for all other delights it hath no apprehension of but indisposeth for them perfectly So that this it does it engages too much in Pleasures here and it takes off all cares or thoughts of any joys hereafter both these I will shew you and thus it works 1. It prevails with us to indulge our selves the full use of lawful pleasures and for this the Flesh will urge it is the end of their Creation to do otherwise were to evacuate Gods purpose in the making Did he give us good things not to enjoy them Thus every sort of sin insinuates it self at first Youth will not deny it self converses with temptations although he have reason to fear they will commit a rape upon his warmer passions which are chafed by such encounters But God has not forbid him Conversation and why should he be an Anchoret and recluse in the throngs of Cities and of Courts Another that would not by any means be luxurious or intemperate yet goes as near them as he can and contrives to enjoy all those delights that do indeed but sauce Intemperance and make Excess palatable And truly why should he restrain himself from meats and drinks and be a Jew again All these believe they live righteously soberly and godly enough This resolution works in every recreation pleasure honour and advantage of this World men are content to make as near approaches to the Sin as they can and indeed believe they have no reason to be morose unto themselves I will deny my self nothing that God hath not denied me but enjoy as far as possibly and lawfully I may But then by doing thus it Secondly does oft take in somewhat of the immoderate and unlawful which cannot be avoided both because it is hard to set the exact bounds and limits of what is lawful The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Line that meres out Vertue from its Neighbour Vice is not so plain in every place as to chalk out exactly to this point thou mayst come and no farther hence the man sometimes mistakes himself into a fault however the extremity of Lawful is we know the confines and very edge of Vice And then to him that plays upon the brink of sin it is a very easie step into it and indeed unavoidable when a man is rusht and hurried on not only by his inward stings and inclinations but by the practice of the World which makes use of that holy Name of Friendship to bring Vice into our acquaintance and to befriend us into everlasting Death of such Friends I can have legions in Hell and the God of this World will serve me upon this account to procure for my Sin and my Destruction but howsoever when the Appetite is heated they are not to be denied Thirdly this happening therefore sometimes proves a Snare and bait still to go on both as it takes away the horrour and the aversation of the sins which at the first seem
next Enter thou into thy chambers Whence we did observe that in times of storm and calamity the onely way to withdraw our selves from the violences of discontents and troubles is to retire to Praiers and Closet exercises of Devotion If I should go to prove this I might read you the whole book of Psalms the Psalter being but Davids Liturgy in time of sadness the service and the refreshments of his sorrows To tell you that he says In my trouble I will go call upon the Lord Psal. 18. 6. and when I was in trouble I called upon the Lord Psal. 120. 1. or again for the love that I bear unto them they take now my contrary part but I give my self unto praier Psal. 109. 4. this would be to no purpose for the whole book is but doing this And indeed to do it is the best counsel God himself do's give 't is that he do's invite us to in such a discourse come my people enter And for the comforts of it I shall enclose them in the application which shall pass by that strange mistake that is in some men who seek to quench the sorrows of calamity by the entertainments of sin to divert sad thoughts by vicious company to refresh themselves with the jollities of iniquity to choak the remembrance of their afflictions with riot and drown it in excesses Alas 't is not go abroad unto the open lodgings of intemperance and to the Inns of pleasure but come and enter thou into thy chambers And secondly it shall omit that very near as great mistake of them who in times of impending calamity busy themselves with the cares of the world whose hearts are then especially set on thriving and they immerse themselves in the wayes of gain looking on that as the thing that is to be their great security and that they shall provide against all sad events by that Strange that in the time of pungent troubles when they are encompassed with misery to run into the thorns and briars as our Savior calls them should be our onely hopeful refuge and retiring place that men should be then most griping after that the cares of keeping which and the fears of loosing it are the onely great things that make calamity grievous He who then makes himself Master of possessions gives pledges to Affliction Shall I then put my self further out into the world when Gods discretion bids me enter thou into thy chambers But thirdly I apply directly to the calamitous however destitute and unhappy When thou art brought at once low enough for pity but so unhappy as to be scorn'd ruin'd and contemn'd too come here and pour out thy soul into the bosom of him who thou art sure will not refuse thee nor turn away his face from thee but stands here to invite thee with all the compellations of love Here thou mayst lay open thy case to him that had so much kindness to thee as to die for thee and mingle thy own tears with the bloud of God that was shed for thee To have any friend whom to impart thy griefs to is in good measure to unlade and emty thy self of them thou hast here the most faithful bosom of thy Savior whom thou mayst behold in the same postures of affliction that thou thy self art in out of affection to thee and suffering for thee in Agonies of one and the other sweating as much with heats of love to thee as of pain for thee hanging down his head upon the cross with languishments of kindness and of weakness and his arms stretch'd into the posture of receiving thee to his embraces and his side open'd not onely to shed bloud and water for thee but to receive thy tears and give thee passage to his very heart Come then my People come to me if thy sad expectations be like plummets at thy heart and weigh it down yet lift up thy heart together with thy hands in assur'd confidence that that kindness which did thus express it self will never fail thee If notwithstanding this the pressure make thy thoughts to sink and thy soul to grovel let it be but a bowing down in submission to my will who certainly know what is best for thee come then and give thy self up into my hands as into the hands of a faithful Redeemer Now the devout soul doing so by often betaking himself to God upon these occasions becomes acquainted with his Maker and in all discontents he will strait run to his Acquaintance there to disburden himself and in all fears thither he hasts for shelter with the very same complacencies that our Savior says the young one does to the wings of the hen at the approach of danger there the soul nestles and is hugely pleas'd with the apprehensions of its comfortable warm security By frequent converses of this kind and other practices of Devotion and Meditations on the mercies of his providence and his protecting kindnesses besides the glories of his Preparations towards his future Estate the soul mounts up to great degrees of confidence and familiaritie with God and God does use when a heart does thus ply and follow him and become intimate with him to reveal himself also to that heart in the midst of his devotions when he is conversing with the Lord he will breathe into him the inspirations of Heaven and with soft whispers speak peace close to his heart break in upon him with flashes of joy warm him with gleams of comfort which ravish the soul with delight in the emploiment Hence grow strange intercourses betwixt them the Lord pours in of his Holy Spirit that bond and ligament of God and the soul that maintains perpetual commerce between them they do nothing but close and mingle as it were till the heart mount up to those extasies that we read of in devout persons that entertain themselves to miracle in the enjoyment of those Contemplations which these exercises do afford them The heart then melts no longer in the tears and sorrows of affliction but with the dissolvings of love when thro excess of complacency in God and in his joys the soul hath a kind of impotency of Spirit so as it cannot contain it self within it self but as a liquid thing hath its overflowings and is poured out into the bosom of the beloved and by an outgoing faints from it self into an union with the Object of its affections And the Soul that by the practices of Devotion is brought to be thus affected hath not onely fulfill'd the counsel of the Text retir'd into his chambers but is also brought into Gods chambers so the Spouse in the Canticles expresses c. 1. 4. The King hath brought me into his chambers and c. 2. 4. He brought me into his banquetting house and his banner over me was love and in c. 3. 10. she describ'd the bed-chamber whether she was brought the midst whereof was pav'd with love and all this means but the entertainments of devout Contemplations And Christ in
and also promise that by the grace of God they will evermore endeavor themselves faithfully to observe and keep them which they do there upon their knees whereupon that grace is pray'd for for them and they blest by those whom God hath appointed to bless in his name that so they who just then are grown able to be taught all the debaucheries of youth warm'd into the desires and the strengths of vice might have not only this check of their own vows fresh upon them but the effusions of the H. Spirit those living Rivers in the inwards as St John expresses that may quench and wash away those unclean heats 3. To express more the inviolable Sacredness of those obligations which in Baptism were entred and to let us see they were baptiz'd into the Death of Christ from the first times they did immediatly make them that were baptiz'd partakers of the Symbols of that Death For from that Sacrament they proceeded directly to the other the Lord's Supper of those that were baptiz'd after they were of age we can derive that practice quite from Justin Martyr which being don so universally to them no question gave occasion to the doing it to Infants after Baptism and then they found a text for it and made that universal also But tho that be justly chang'd yet after Confirmation we proceed to that and often we repeat the use of it now that we renew in the Lord's Supper what we did engage in Baptism when we entred the new Covenant is evident Christ calls the cup there in St Luke the new Covenant in his blood and in St Mark this is my blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that blood of the new Covenant The words relate to those Exod. 24. 8. where it is also said this is the blood of the Covenant for God dd seal his Covenants still with blood Whereupon neither was the first Covenant dedicated without blood Heb. 9. 18. that was its Sanction Now the Sanction of a Covenant is some Rite which being celebrated in the name of those that covenant does oblige them to stand to not to rescind the agreement which that Rite was contriv'd to do supposing that the most effectual way by imprecating mischief on the person that did break it The usual way was either killing of a beast the blood of which they pour'd out or in some Nations drank or else they did dissect and tear the victime and either swear over or pass thro between the parts by one of these significative Ceremonies implying a severe commination So be it don to him that breaks this vow And all these the Heathen who are full of the Examples seem to have deriv'd from Gods own practice who appointed Abraham to do so when he went to make a Covenant with him Gen. 15. and his meaning in such Rites he hath reveled by Jer. 34. 18 19. the men that have transgressed my Covenant even the Princes Priests and all the People that have past between the parts of the Calf 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will make those men that Calf or as that Calf which they did cut in twain and pass between the parts thereof i. e. I will divide and separate them among the Nations For the wishes of all this that Ceremony did import But more expresly there in Exod. 24. 6. And Moses took the half of the blood and put it in the Basins for the Peoples part and half of the blood he sprinkled on the Altar as on Gods part and then he took the book of the Covenant v. 7. and read it in the audience of the People Now that Book especially in the four foregoing chapters said on Gods part what he requir'd of them and what he would do for them and the People said on their part All that the Lord hath said we will do and be obedient v. 7. Upon which undertaking on both sides Moses took the blood and sprinkled both the book and all the people Heb. 9. 19. saying this is the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning these words i. e. thus both parts of you oblige your selves in figure to make good your Articles In shedding this blood on the Book the Lords indenture he for whom it is impossible to fail his word yet condescends to use this rite by which those men that covenant devote their own blood to be shed if they should fail and in its sprinkling on you all you also wish if you perform not your part which you promis'd that your own be so poured out This is shed as your type and 't is your giving earnest that your own is forfeit when you fail in your Conditions For that these wishes were imply'd all in that Ceremony and not only at the first sealing of the Covenant but meer Repetition of it when 't was only read again before and to them and their children Moses tells them All you are here this day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pass alluding to divided Sacrifices to pass I say into the Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and into the execratory oath into the imprecations which are signified in those divided Sacrifices and that Blood-shedding the Sanctions of that Covenant Now what that Blood and those divided Sacrifices were to that Covenant that Christ sacrificed his body broken and his blood shed was to ours and is therefore call'd Heb. c. 10. the Blood of the Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with which it was ratified and hallowed God no more engaged in faint types in the blood of goats and calves but in the blood of God with that he ratified hallowed the new Covenant And when our Savior calls the Sacramental cup the new Covenant in his blood and the blood of the new Covenant it must have the like importance the broken bread must be as the divided Sacrifice the wine poured out the Covenant Blood by taking which we much more properly may be said to pass into the Covenant and into the oath and curses of it then the Jews were said by Moses to do so at the meer Repetition of theirs or indeed at the first making For that blood was not sprinkled on us as theirs was but drunk in we thus by our own act and deed devoting our selves to those curses if we fail yea taking earnest of them into us The sum is this Our Saviors words of this cup being the very same with those in Exodus demonstrate that this Sacrament is a renewing of our Gospel Covenant with Sacrifice The doing that is the assuming to endeavor to observe all the conditions of that Covenant with a most solemn vow or oath and under curses the tenor of those curses is Let that light on me if I fail which was inflicted on the federal Sacrifice Now that Sacrifice was Christ himself the ceremony of it was his body torn and his blood poured out in a word all those bitter agonies which we there commemorate and which that Sacrament does
and if God himself knew the best way to keep off his Indignation from us then here it is for he prescribes Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast Before I do divide the Text I shall tell you in what sense I interpret those words Enter thou into thy chamber and shut the doors about thee which if it be not according to the immediat and literal importance of them is yet such as is justified by a parallel place of Scripture dictated by our Savior himself and will afford us most wholesom observations I take them in the sense they have Matt. 6. 6. But thou when thou praiest enter into thy chamber and shut thy door so that here they will be the form of prescribing praier in dangerous and sad times when if thou look unto the earth thou shalt behold nothing but trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish why then lift up thine eyes to Heaven go to thy Praiers in times of change when thou knowest not which way to betake thy self go to the Closet of thy devotions take off thy thoughts from these sad objects here below and fix them on the comforts of Religion divert thy thoughts from the occasions of discontent and employ them in meditations upon God in converses with him in contemplations of his Promises and joys in one word spend thy time in Praiers and Devotions That 's the sense the parts are 1. A perswading invitation come my people wherein are the persons invited my people secondly the invitation come 2. Here is that they are invited to set down by way of counsel and that hath several branches 1. Enter thou into thy chambers 2. Shut thy doors about thee 3. Hide thy self with the duration of it as it were for a little moment and secondly the end of this and all the rest that the Indignation may pass over them until the Indignation be overpast In the handling of them I shall take this course first from the first general I shall speak somwhat of the persons invited that have this compellation my people and giving you some reasons of it From the second I shall observe that in times of storm or any sadness the onely way to withdraw our selves from the violences of discontents and troubles is to retire to praiers and the onely comfort then is in the Closet-exercises of Devotion 3. From the next part hide thy self that Praiers are in sad daies the onely great security and the devotion-chamber a sure hiding place from Indignation 4. From the duration that the sorrows of the afflictions which God does suffer to fall upon his own devout People they last but for a little moment 5. From the last there is none of Gods Indignation in them all that overpasses them First of the compellation my People come my People Now God may speak to those here for two reasons first to shew us that in the times of storm and of the breakings out of indignation God invites none to courses of security puts none upon ways of safety do's not take care of any but those that are his People and those in whom his People are concern'd as Kings who are the nursing Fathers of his Church as for others let them take their own courses look to themselves but come ye come my People My People is a word that includes relation and wherein it do's consist you will find from the correlative set together with it in the very making of the Covenant I will be their God and they shall be my People they who take God to be their Lord and assume to become his obedient liege People such have indeed a right and title to his Protections to provide for and take care of them it is his office he undertook it in his Covenant and not to do it were to renounce his compact which he bound himself to with an Oath which 't is impossible for him to do But as for others they have no plea to these Can Rebels claim protection and such who renounce relations that put themselves off from being his People expect that he should look after and take care of them be their Guardian and Security The different condition of these two sorts of People in relation to Gods caring for them in time of judgment you will find Mal 3. 16 17 18. In the times of undisturb'd abundance and of full prosperity when the God of this World is good to them that serve him when the Lord lets men alone and the ungodly thrive then indeed his protections are not much regarded but wickedness wealth seem the strongest security but when God sends his Indignation abroad and when his Judgments sweep away those confidences then this will be a comfortable consideration come what will come I have one that hath writ me in his note-book in his Book of Remembrance to put him in mind that he is to provide for me and when the most florishing ungodly shall be stript of all his hopes and trusts no least relief from them nor can he look for any from the Lord God hath not so much as directions for him here he hath no part not in his perswasions is not invited to his Counâ—els then have I one that will make me up amongst his Jewels have the same cares of me as of his peculiar precious treasures and calls me to security Come my People Or secondly my People to let us see what arts of invitation God does use to perswade us to take good counsel he gives us all the compellations of kindness and speaks us as fair as possibly not to do him a courtesy but to be kind to our selves In other places when he hath no design upon them then he cries to Moses thou and thy People Exod. 32. 7. but when he would do good unto us when he would entice us to be safe then come my People So he does elsewhere use all the titles of love and cloths his invitations with the wordings of our most known Courtships that that which useth to prevail with us may do his work upon us So in the Canticles 5. 2. Open to me my love my dove my spouse my undefiled and the whole book is but the Arts of Divine wooing Strange that the heavenly Bridegroom must court so much to be receiv'd by his Spouse Good God! that thou must be forc'd to give us good words to prevail with us to be good unto our selves that we must be sooth'd temted and flatter'd into preservations and mercies that we should refuse remedy and Antidote unless it be guilded that to lie hid in times of Judgment and to escape Indignation is not motive enough to us but we must be woo'd to do so safety it self must speak us fair or we will none of it and God must flatter us into the places of security Come my People enter into thy chambers the
commandment begets sin but how it makes sin condemning begets death and therefore I believe they are mistaken who expound sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence as if it meant the Law onely prohibiting but not quelling sin in me the more it was restrain'd the more it wrought all manner of concupiscence in me especially since there was no punishment assign'd to that sin in the Law it took advantage thence more powerfully to engage me in the pursuit of all my lusts since thence I might have hop't without any fear of punishment to pursue them For this seems perfectly to thwart his aim which was to shew us how the Law wrought condemnation and inflicted death by threatning it It seems to mean I had not onely not known sin to be so dangerous but I had not known some things to be sins and by consequence condemning things but by the Law particularly I had not known concupiscence to be so had not the Law said thou shalt not covet The next words do not seem intended to declare how the Commandment work sin that being brought in by the by as it were thus but sin the corruption of my nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had wrought in me all manner of concupiscence all actual lusts and wickednesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 got advantage over me or strength against me by the Law which he there proves for without the law sin is dead not as to stirring in us by its sinful motions sure corruption would not fail to do that and more if there were no check but dead had no strength nor power to condemn me For it follows when the commandment came sin reviv'd got strength to do that and I died was sentenc'd to death by it and the commandment which was ordain'd to life could I have obey'd it I found to be unto death by condemning me to death for my transgression of it For sin by the Commandment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 getting advantage over me slew me not onely made me liable to death but by its guilt envenoming that death for the sting of death is sin which that it is and how it is so is the second thing I am to speak to Sin is the sting of death which I could make appear two manner of ways in relation to two senses that may be given to the words both pertinent and the one but the Anticipation of the other The first is this Sin is the sting of death 't is Sin makes the thoughts of death pungent and stinging the wicked man cannot think of his last dying day without horrors the onely imagination of a sickness stings him because he is conscious to himself of sin and he knows that that after Death cometh the Judgment and he dares not think of beholding the face of his Judg with his guilt upon him To prove this to you I shall not need to fetch any heathen Testimonies that call the Conscience of Sin a whip a sting a goad a lancing knife things that gash and prick and gall and fret all words of all kinds of terrifying punishment but if there be any gross customary Sinner that now hears me I shall need no other way of proof but by appealing to his own conscience whether when he comes hot from his iniquity he dares entertain the thought of dying And why not Alas he is too deep in arrears to venture upon account with so impartial a Judg books must be laid open if he come there the closet curtain sins nay the bosom villanies must be displaied and every one receive his doom he hath heard that all the refuge of a deplored Sinner at that great and terrible Day of the Lord is but to fly unto the Mountains to cover him and to the Rocks to hide him A wretched hope for how shall the Hills hide him whose iniquities are like Mountains or how shall the rocks cover him whose rebellions are like the great deep as the Scripture words it To such a person Death and Judgment are words of too dangerous a sense and it 's easier for him as many do to resolve there is no such thing as one of them than to think of them and go merrily on in sinning For tell me what is the design of that variety of iniquities in which thou dost ingulf thy self that circle of sins wherein one relieves and succeeds another Sure by such a perpetuity of diversified delights to stave off those severer thoughts which if there were an intermission of sinning or a nauseating of one sin for want of variety would creep in the noise of our riots is not to please the ear but to drown the barking of our consciences When the Sinner's candle is put out if weariness in wickedness do not at once close up his eyes and thoughts if the dark solitary night do but suggest some melancholly thoughts into him how do's he tumble up and down as if he thought to role away from his imagination and he do's ransack his fancy and call up the memory of his past sins about him to entertain himself with all and keep out the torturing remembrance of that sad Day which the Scripture calls putting far from them the evil day for the truth is he dares not give it place least it should happen to him as to a man upon a pointed precipice as himself is indeed situated to whom the apprehension would be as mortal as the danger and he would tumble down for fear of falling So here his sin adds such sharps to the imagination of death that he dares not entertain the thought And if Sin be such a sting in the onely thought of death that the mere remembrance of it is insupportable the use is very natural by the frequent calling of death to mind to stop the current of sin For if the wicked cannot endure to think of death he that does think on it cannot well go on to be wicked Remember thy latter end and thou shalt not do amiss I would give this counsel Think thou art to die while doing it The original of the Turks Turbant which was but by continual wearing of his winding sheet by wrapping his head in his grave-cloaths to have always a shrowd and death upon his thoughts and the Philosophers defining their wisdom to be but contemplatio mortis are not such pregnant inforcers of this use as this practical apprehension of it The man that liv'd among the Tombs tho he had a legion of Devils in him yet when he saw Jesus afar off he ran and worshipped him Mark 5. 6. The sight of graves and conversation with monuments will make even Demoniacks Religious and is so far from thrusting Praiers out of the Liturgy of Burial that it brings the very Devils on their knees But there is yet another and a fuller sense of these words which St Paul repeats out of the LXX translation of Hosea 13. 14. tho not verbatim for there insteed of 〈◊〉
Shall that miscarry that is a part of thy custody and care a part of thy possession and inheritance for all this is implied in that challenge my God For they whose God he is they are his People that is the correlation Now that means a special People Deut. 7. 6. a peculiar People 1 Pet. 2. 9. a peculiar Treasure Exod. 19. 5. his People of inheritance Deut. 4. 20. his Jewels Mal. 3. 17. the Jewels of his Crown Zach. 9. 16. If I am his I am so under all these precious notions and then how dear how valuable am I to my God who make up his inheritance who do enrich his treasury who give a lustre to his Diadem of glory and am a Jewel in his Crown How secure may I be For will God wretchlesly lose his inheritance or will he not take care of his especial things or will he throw away his treasure or will he throw his own Crown to the ground so to dash off the Jewels of it That place of Malachy expresses the different condition of those that are God's People from the others that have no relation to him in respect of God's carings and protection Mal. 3. 14 15 16 17 18. Ye have said it is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts And now we call the proud happy yea they that work wickedness are set up yea they that temt God are even delivered Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not In times of undisturbed abundance and of full prosperity when the God of this World is good to them that serve him when the Lord lets men alone and the ungodly thrive then indeed his protections are not much regarded but wickedness and wealth do seem the strong securities But when God sends his indignation abroad and when his judgments sweep away those confidences then this will be a comfortable consideration Come what will come I have one that will care for me one that hath writ me in his note book his book of remembrance to put him in mind that he is to provide for me and when the most florishing ungodly man shall be stript of all his hopes and trusts so that there remains no least relief from them nor can he look for any from the Lord he is not of his People then have I one that will make me up amongst his Jewels have the same care of me as of his precious and peculiar treasures I have a right and title to his protections to provide for and to take care of me it is his office he undertook it in his Covenant and not to do it were to break his compact which he hath bound himself to with an oath For I am his therefore I can with confidence go to him I am thine save me Therefore the words afford me greater grounds of confidence when they give me autority to challenge him and tell him Thou art mine my God All the securities that his preserving mercies signify all the watches of his providence all the blessings that fulfil his Attributes as goodness they are all mine for he is mine Can I fear the malice of Adversaries shall I doubt the fury of that spoiler that even robs necessity will rob me even to a perfect desolation Ah my poor soul Nunquid sibi Christianum I am sure it cannot take all from me it must void Heaven before it can disfurnish me of all it must commit a rape upon my Jesus for while they leave him I have my God Can I want any thing for this life or the life to come if there be a supply in Christ I may be sure to have it if his Divinity can effect it I need not want for I have right to him he is my God What one thought can afflict or trouble me long unless it be such an one for which there is no help for in God If such a one indeed do seize me there is danger but till that happen why art thou so troubled O my soul why art thou so disquieted within me O put thy trust in God in Christ for he is my God Can I desire indeed when I have him Sure I am strangely greedy if the Almighty be not enough for me more unsatisfied than Hell if Christ that is God cannot suffice me if I am not content when he is my God O my soul Christ never failed to pay his debts he is a happy Creditor to whom he owes especially where he owes that debt and where he owes himself Now if thou be a faithful and Religious Soul he is thy debt as due to thee as thy own portion Thou art my portion O Lord saith David thou hast as great a right to him as thy inheritance Thou art the lot of my inheritance saith he again as St Thomas here He is my God But never hath a faithful Soul more right to lay this claim than at the Sacrament to both the claims that I have treated of 1. To be his Treasure his peculiar Treasure for the Church tells us If with a penitent and true heart we receive that holy Sacrament then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his bloud then we dwell in him and Christ in us we be one with Christ and Christ with us an Union which fulfils what Christ hath praied for John 17. 21 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one with us Here 's Unions and interests enough and all cemented and assured by the worthy receiving of this Sacrament I am certainly his if I be made one with him and dearer than his Jewels and more peculiar to him than his Treasure for I am him himself And the same thing will prove that he is mine for certainly if I have a title to him ascertain'd if I be made one with him I may well call that mine to which I am united So when he dwells and is in me then I may say He is my Christ my God And then he that there faithfully performs worship and service to him and so does take him for his God then if his God be his inheritance there he does make his entry if his God be his portion there he receives his portion The Priest there gave thee if thou wast a good Communicant the Body and Bloud of Christ and
also must preserve Religion to us The certain and the onely way to keep Religion is to practise it it is impossible that they can take it from us while we live it and without that no Religion however current can be useful to us But this must secure our Faith here and secure us of the end of our Faith the Salvation of our Souls SERMON XVI OF THE EVIDENCE of Faith 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed THE words do need no other explication than the reading the whole verse it runs thus For which cause for the Gospel's sake I also suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Let those that suffer for ill doing be abashed and troubled at it I am neither asham'd of the Gospel nor the least discourag'd by my sufferings how great and ignominious soever for its sake and for doing my duty in relation and obedience to it for I trust and depend on one that will secure me and will bless and crown my labors That he wills and intends it I am sure for he hath promis'd and in what he hath promis'd I know he is faithful and he is also able above all that I can ask or think and consequently whatever in pursuance of his promise is entrusted to him must be safe in his hands I am sure for I know whom I have believed So that the words direct us how to quiet and secure our selves in what estate soever affairs whether publick or our own are namely in a close dependance upon God and in the handling them I have but these three things to speak to 1. Who this I is I know and in what respect qualified for such secure dependance 2. What those cases are wherein dependance do's admit such confident assurance as is here express'd by the word know I know 3. Who this is on whom the person that is qualified thus does so depend and upon what account especially in relation to him hath the man that does depend upon him such assurance that he can profess I know whom I believe to all which I shall make plain answers and shall onely give you God's word for them 1. Who this I here is I know and in what respect and how qualified This I here is St Paul whom I do not mean to speak of in that narrow notion as an Apostle but as one in such circumstances as do make him fit to represent the state of any one that is qualified to commit all his concerns into God's hands with a perfect resignation and with full assurance Now as to this first it is certain every person is not qualified for such dependance cannot trust on God rely upon his promise as not having any right that it should be fulfilled to him No not where the promise being general for example made to the whole present body of a Nation by consequence concerns most of the individual persons of that Nation even there it may not be sure to them and of this we have a pregnant instance Num. 14. 30. Doubtless ye shall not come into the Land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein and ye shall know my breach of promise v. 34. And that very justly they first having broke with him for there being some at least tacit condition still implied in all such promises as well as threatnings therefore as to one and the other God sets this down as a general rule in his proceedings and not onely with particular persons but with Nations Jer. 18. 7 8 9 10. as at what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation or concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them so whenever I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them that is will not do it And accordingly the Prophet Daniel tho it be said c. 9. 2. He understood by books the number of years that God would after seventy years restore Jerusalem yet saith Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not stand still and expect the fulfilling of God's promise of it but v. 3. sets his face to the Lord God to seek by praiers and supplications with fasting and sackloth and ashes as knowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tho he had promis'd it a thousand times if we render our selves unworthy of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we put a bar against God's performance do not suffer him to make it good and in those solemn supplications and addresses to Almighty God thus he bespeaks him v. 4. O Lord the great and dreadful God keeping covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments whereupon St Jerom saith non ergo quod pollicetur Deus statim futurum est sed in eos sua promissa implet qui custodiunt mandata illius what God does promise any is not therefore sure to be fulfilled those are they whom he performs with who keep his Commandments With the rest that do not but transgress the Prophet Zachary in an emblem shews God's way of dealing c. 11. 10. And I took my staff even beauty and cut it asunder that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people and we see the real practice with that Nation for their wickednesses Neh. 9. from the 30th verse Now this being thus in general declar'd that all men cannot trust God we are therefore as to this particular person this I here to find out how he was qualified for this dependance It is certain first that St Paul had bin a great Sinner a Blasphemer Persecutor and injurious person 't is true he says 1 Tim. 1. 13. he was so ignorantly out of unbelief he knew not nor believ'd that he did ill in doing what he did yea more he said that he liv'd in all good Conscience before God all that time also had don nothing which he was not perswaded in his conscience that he ought to do But altho this good conscience might prepare him for a readier and more sound conversion than profane presumtuous habitual Sinners are dispos'd for for the will of such a one is true to God and right already and you have but to remove the ignorance of his Understanding a little better information must reform him and will turn his persecuting and whatever other factious or injurious heats into true zeal holy devout warmths as it did in him yet while he was mistaken that his good but erring conscience could not possibly excuse much less could it sanctify his actions 't was injury 't was