disposition of Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.11 that being past feeling ye shall work all uncleannesse with greedinesse if wee shall thus out dare God in his threatnings and like that Behemoth esteem those iron weapons as straw or as they say of the old Italians shoot off our great Ordnance and Ring our bells to drown the noise of Heaven's thunder if wee thus presume Deut. 29.20 God will not spare us but the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoake against us c. remember that saying Eccl. 8.12 Though a Sinner do evil an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged yet surely it shall bee well with them that seare the Lord. This is a dangerous and common rock upon which many a poor soul splits it self and the more common it is the more let it bee your care to avoid it The other is in the excesse and that is a servile infernal fear of God as a Judge or Tyrant whence arise in the soul hard thoughts of God Quos mctacule odcrint hatred of him a secret rising up against him a wishing there were no God and the like This is that great Engine wherewith Satan labours to batter our faith when he cannot robb you of grace and make you wicked he will endeavour to robb you of comfort and bring you to despaire make you miserable Hee will assault you with doubts and feares touching your Election conversion adoption perseverance with the greatnesse and number of your sins with the Curse and horror of the Law the Majesty and Justice of an offended God who is a consuming fire In all these and such like temptations let your eyes ever be fixed upon Christ and his blood the satisfaction given to the Justice of God by his death that redemption from the Curse of the Law himself being made a curse for us then will your souls say Let the Lord live then will your desires be to the remembrance of his name then will your hearts love him and say I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me Psalm 23.6 This is the foundation against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail when there is no light nor issue nor possibility to esdape here will a doo of deliverance flie open to you Remember this also I pray you if once you come to slight or undervalue this great mercy to tread under foot the Son of God there remains no more no other sacrifice for you you may as much offend God by despairing as by presuming of his mercy Heb. 10.29 both are destructive to the true fear of God lay these things up in your hearts the Lord of his mercy blesse them to you To all you that thus fear the Lord Mal. 4.2 shall the Sun of righteousnesse arise with healing under his wings joy in that day when all the Elect shall behold their King and Redeemer in his Majesty and Glory For all those that thus fear the Lord there is a book of remembrance written It is said of Tamerlane the Scythian that he had alwaies by him a Catalogue of the names and good deserts of his servants which he dayly perused and whom he duly rewarded Mal. 3.16 how much more shal the Lord who bottles up the tears of his people puts their Prayers as upon the File and records all their devotions All those that thus fear the Lord he will own in that day when he makes up his Jewels makes them up for himself and takes them away from the misusages and malignities of the World When one desired to see Alexanders Treasure shew him said he to his Servant not my Gold or Monies Plate or Jewels but my friends Henceforth says Christ I call you not servants but friends John 15.15 These are Gods Jewels his dearest friends his chief Treasure none can plunder or pluck them out of his hands They are called the dearly beloved of his Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 12.7 the LXX read it his dearly beloved Soul noting Gods Saints to be as dear to him as a mans life or his Soul is All these and these only wil the Lord pity and spare at that day as a father spareth his own son that serveth him I have now done both with the Text and the Times I have presented you with a New-years-gift of an inestimable value and worth All I require from you is but this That I may see you wear it that as great Personages are known by their Rings and rich Jewels so you may be by the fear of the Lord This Ring truly worn will seal to your souls assurance of salvation in this life and be to every one of you at your death a wedding Ring to marry you to the Lamb for evermore Your tears at this time sufficiently witnesse how sadly you receive it from my hands God wil I hope put your tears into his bottle and that Fountain which he hath opened in your eys this day shall swell into Rivers of comfort and salvation at that day when God shall wipe away all tears from your eys All I can do is to pray for you since I must no longer Preach to you I pray God blesse his Church I pray God blesse you all and that God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory and honour now and evermore FINIS
unexpressible Mercy Psal 61 2. When my soul was over-whelmed he laid my hands upon a Rock a Rock that was higher then I. The more my persecutions grew the more did the hand of the Lord appear in with and for me when the wickedness of my Persecutors grew so high and their sin so shameless that they durst appear like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those Noon-day-Divels and declare their sin as Sodom when they durst come into Bethel it self a House of Prayer a place set a part for divine Worship and there with faces harder then flint out-dare the God and Master of that House and being Whores to out face Angels the Attendants of that Place when neither the sacrednesse nor dreadfulness of the place nor my own performance of publique Duties could safe-guard me from their hellish practises whose only capacity is like Machiavels undertakers to be wicked enough even then the Angel of the Covenant whose I am and whom I serve stood by me Then was the grace of the Lord with me to uphold and support me What shall I render to my God for these his mercies I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord The third Mercy to be remembred by us is the continuance of mutual love betwixt Minister and People a Divine love doubtless because lasting unto the end The reproaches and scandals dayly heaped upon me could never alienate the heart of any one of my hearers so far as to a desertion of me Must we not needs say this was the work of God Love built upon human foundation is as the foundation it self changeable But here was more then the work of man God himself herein owning my integrity and approving my Doctrine I look upon all this as a fruit of that Sacramental love wherein our foundation was laid at my first coming to you I cannot as I have desired longer serve you in my Preaching yet my Prayers shall never be wanting for you to that God who is love that for those Bowels of love wherewith you have refreshed me you may finde mercy in that day when you shall most stand in need of it But I must to my Text My first entrance to you was in love and the main end of my undertaking here was this That among this great people I might be an Instrument of gaining some poor souls to God God is my Record I lye not I cannot say but there were some other Considerations went along with it but they were all subservient to this How far I was from that sin of Covetousness wherewith the people too much brand the Clergy and sometimes deservedly I appeal to your selves I never made any Compact or Covenant with you upon that account your offerings have been of free will and God hath blessed them What my Conversation and Deportment hath been amongst you notwithstanding the many provocations I have had I refer to you all I have not made the Pulpit where the glory of God and the riches of Christ and the salvation of poor souls is concerned a Stage or Theater to act my own parts and passions in I have endeavoured to walk inoffensively towards God and towards man This also was the Lords work Such was my Entrance and such hath my progress been your Tears do abundantly witness this day the sad parting of a Minister and his people God forgive them if at least it be lawful to pray for them who have robbed us one of another where there was so much love and so much delight in each other that we have found God delighting in us all to do us good We are now come to the Conclusion and to that purpose I have made choice of a plain Text and I shall speak to it with as much plainness You have it ECCLES 12.13 Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments this is the whole duty of man THat Solomon the Son of David was the Penman of this Book I think is without dispute the Style is his and there was no other Son of David King in Jerusalem but he The dispute is of the Title Choheleth which the Lxx. render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We the Preacher and concerning that there is a double Query First Why it is used in the Feminine Gender some say the word Nephesh is to be understood and so it must signifie a Preaching soul but how that can hold it being a proper name and never used but in this Book as Drusius observes upon the place I see not Others tell us it is usual with the Hebrews to put Feminines names upon men so the Gospel Preachers are called Mebaseroth Psal 68.11 The Lord spake the words great was the company of Preachers or Publishers Annunciatricum But whether they did this to set forth the purity of the Preachers of Christ Prov. 9.3 Where they are called Wisdomes Maids or those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which the Apostle relates Gal. 4.19 thereby making out not only the great Throws but the tender and motherly affection of a faithful Preacher to his people I shall not now stand to enquire But the second and main Query is why it is called Sepher Choheleth a Book of Gatherings or Congregations Some will have it to be one of the names of Solomon as Jedidiah or Lemuel Some say because it was publiquely delivered by Solomon himself to the Congregation and so it is in his Fathers stile giving God the glory in the great Congregation Psal 40.10 We read of his blessings prayers and sacrifices 1 Reg. 8. here of his preaching Petagl upon the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thus Schindler seems to expound it of a gathering of men Others will have it so called from Solomons being gathered or re-uniting himself after his foul Idolatry and Apostacy from the Church and the Book to be the words of a soul or person brought back to the unity of the Church or Congregation of the Saints But I rather think without any straining of the words it relates to the subject or matter of the Book It is a Book of Observations experimentally gathered from Natural Moral Political Domestical and Divine things Wisdome is the souls great Endowment nothing more precious more sweet more coveted Read Eccl. cap. 2. especially such as Solomon's was it pursueth such high objects as may improve and not vitiate the intelectuals yet he tells us what the fruit of of it frequently is hellish policy pride violence oppression and cruelty wisedom to do evil Pleasures suite well with the inferiour and brutish part of man but in the exact enjoyment of them there is a mixture either of folly or want they grow in time loathsome and tedious to the possessors he tells you of buildings and Vineyards and Orchards and Fish-Ponds and Musick Vocal and Instrumental and he concludes upon the survey all is vanity Riches the great Idol of the world the Gold and Silver the
mighty Herds of Cattel which himself possessed in abundance he tells us they are but Snares and Thorns either to entangle or torment us gotten with labour kept with fear and lost with sorrow All external forms of worship where Christ is not in the heart or not met with in the Ordinance is no more then a fools Sacrifice or as the word carrys it the service of hypocritical light and unconstant men These and many other gatherings he makes out from his own experience After these discoveries he prescribes many excellent rules for the settlement of the soul in reference both to its present and future good An humble acknowledgment under and dependance upon the providence of God in all events singleness and sincerity of heart in his worship and service The right use of wisedom in discerning times and judgments contentednesse and sweet reposedness of soul in every condition of life Obedience and Loyalty to Superiors Conscientious walking in our particular Callings Preparedness of spirit against all tryals and afflictions Moderation in the use of comforts in this life and preparation through the fear of God and obedience for death and judgment in the words of my Text Hence he may well be stiled a Gatherer and his Book a Book of gatherings The grand enquiry of the whole Book is that Summum Bonum that puzzled all our blind Philosophers The Preacher here discovers that Stone that turns all things into Gold which they have long tired themselves in seeking for and could never finde to this day Observe I pray you how he begins this Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how he ends it He begins it with Vanity of vanities All is vanity Idols light vile things of naught as the breath of ones mouth or the bubble in the water vapours soon vanishing Vanity of vanities vain vanity or extream superlative vanity This our first Parents saw and therefore called their second Son Hebel or vanity David confirms it Psal 144 4 Adam is as Abel or man is like to vanity there is an Allusion in the Original to both their names And herein he makes out the insufficiency and disability of the Creature to confer any true happinesse upon the Soul And secondly observe how he ends his book Fear God and keep his Commandments methinks it is not much unlike to that of Christ to Martha thou art troubled about many things Luke 10.41 42. but one thing is needfull Mary hath chosen the good part c. He begins you see with nothing he ends with all things he shews us what our first estate is an observance of lying vanities and forsaking our own mercies he shews us what our best estate is Fear God c. We begin at Idols and vanity and never know what our beginning was till we come to this end never know that we are vain till we arrive at the true fear of God My dear people whom I love and must ever love in the bowels of Christ Jesus and must ever call you so though now unhappily torn from you let not my words this day fall to the ground lay them up in your hearts let it suffice that you have spent your time past in vanities and Idols things of emptiness and torment let us not be like the people of those countries that whatsoever they chance to see first every morning they worship solemnly all the day after if sin have had the morning let the evening be Gods it is time we should come home to that only true happiness the Lord Jesus Christ Content not your selves with any outward blessings til you be sure you injoy him to the Salvation of your souls other excellencies may set you out in the eys of men generosity obligingnesse wisedom learning valour c. every one of these is sufficient to be a sober mans Idol render a man praise worthy but it is Christ only that makes us blessed other blessings you may injoy and perish with them but he that injoys Christ by true faith Ioh. 3.16 shall never perish but hath everlasting life The Text is Solomons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after a solicitous inquiry or the treasure of true happinesse discovered it is in it self an exhortation or a duty you may call it whether you please the substance is the same There is not any thing remarkable in the Preface save that in the Original it begins with a Capital Letter as pointing out some high subject and stirring up the more serious attention to the matter in hand which indeed rightly weighed is an Epitome of the whole Gospel Would you know after my long observations what you are to trust to What is the sum and substance of the whole matter Where true and durable felicity may be found It is in this Fear God and keep his Commandments without this man is but as one calls him praestantissimum brutum which puts me in mind of that saying Job 28.28 where the holy man concludes his speech as the Preacher here doth his book Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisedom and to depart from evil is understanding man then becomes wise when he fears God when Christ the wisedom of the fatheres dwels in him We shall not need neither did I ever love to name a Text the conclusion riseth plainly and naturally from it To fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of man or as it is in the Hebrew the whole man and so the LXX render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the true fear of God is once planted it carries the whole man with it spirit soul and body guides and directs the whole man rectifies and reforms the whole man it is all in all and through all sets a price and worth upon the whole man in this life and crowns and glorifies the whole man in the life to come There is a natural fear arising from the sense of humane weaknesse which is not in it self sinfull we have examples of it in the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and in Christ himself Mat. 26.38 Heb. 5.7 he was heard in that he feared which though the Rhemists translate for his reverence and charge us with the corrupting of the Text contrary to the version and sense of Antiquity and the ordinary use of the Greek words yet I find it signifying as well a natural as a pious fear Acts 23.10 where a commotion being raised the chief Captain or Tribune is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afraid lest Paul should be torn in pieces which could not be a pious fear in him that was a Pagan but a natural civil fear lest a Roman a Prisoner and under his present charge should have been violently and tumultuously murthered between the Pharisees and the Sadduces 2. There is a carnal fear I may call it a fear of diffidence because arising from unbelief Apoc. 21.8 They are liable to the second death and joined with unbeleevers the Apostles are called 〈◊〉