needy was not this to know me saith the Lord That is true Knowledge that produceth its Effect So Iames 2. 23. By works faith is made perfect Faith hath produced its End So Love is perfected in keeping the Commandments 1 Iohn 2. 5. Whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected as all things are perfect when they attain their End and their consummate estate The Plant is perfect when it riseth up into Stalk and Flower and Seed so these Graces 4. The Person or Christian is judged not onely by what is believed but what is done not by what is approved but what is practised Many profess Faith and Love but if it be not verified in Practice they are not accepted with God 1 Pet. 1. 17. If ye call on the father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work And Rev. 20. 12. I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works God will judge Men according to their Works and what they have done in the Flesh whether it be good or evil Iohn 5. 29. They that have done good shall rise to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation The Redeemed Sinner shall have his Tryal and Judgment Use 1. Is for the disproof of two sorts Preachers and Professors 1. Preachers if they be strict in Doctrine and loose in Practice do they lift their hands to God's Commandments No they are like the Pharisees who bind heavy burdens upon others and do not touch them with their own little finger Matt. 23. 4. It is not enough to lift up our voice in recommending but we must lift up our hands in practising lest like a Mark-stone they shew others the way to Heaven but walk not in it themselves and contribute nothing of help by their Examples 2. Professors 1. That approve the Word onely There may be an idle naked Approbation Rom. 2. 18. Thou knowest his will and approvest the things that are most excellent being instructed out of the law Video meliora probóque They esteem these things better but their hearts incline them to what is evil and their Reason is a slave to Appetite 2. That commend as well as approve Rom. 2. 20. Who hast a form of knowledge and of the truth in the law but without Action and Practice Have many good words their voice Iacob's but their hands Esau's Psal. 50. 16 17. What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or to take my covenant in thy mouth since thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee It pertaineth not to thee to profess Religion since thou dost not practise it to commend the Law which thou observest not or to profess love to what thou dost not obey Use 2. Is to press you to lift up your hands and to obey and do the things which God hath prescribed in his Word Do not rest in the Notional part of Religion That which will approve you to God is not a sharp Wit or a firm Memory or a nimble Tongue but a ready Practice God expecteth to be glorified by his Creatures both in Word and Deed and therefore Heart and Tongue and Hand and all should be imployed I will urge you with but two Reasons 1. How easie it is to deceive our selves with a fond Love a naked Approbation or good Words without bringing things to this real Proof Whether the Truth that we approve esteem and commend have a real dominion over and influence upon our Practice 1 Iohn 2. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him James 1. 22. Be ye doers of the word not hearers onely deceiving your own souls Respect to God and his Word is a true Evidence of a Gracious Heart Now how shall we know this Respect is real but by our constant and uniform Practice 2. That it is not so easie to deceive God He cannot be mocked with a vain shew sor he looketh to the bottom and spring of all things 1 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts He searcheth our Hearts knoweth our inward Disposition whether firm strong or productive of Obedience Now to him you are to approve your selves and he will not be mocked with lying pretences and excuses Gal. 6. 7. Be not deceived God is not mocked The all-seeing God cannot be blinded he knoweth our thoughts afar off and seeth all things in their Causes much more can he judge of Effects Therefore whatsoever Illuminations we pretend unto if we do not live in the Obedience of the Commands of Self-denial Humility Justice Patience Faith and Love he can soon find us out If our Actions do not correspond to our Profession it is a practical Lye which the Lord can easily find out 2 Doct. Whosoever would lift up his hands to God's Commandments and seriously address himself to a course of Obedience must use much Study and Meditation On the one side Non-advertency to Heavenly Doctrine is the bane of many Mat. 13. 19. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non advertit animum then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart And so Iames 1. 23 24. If any be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was God's great complaint of his People is that they will not consider Isa. 1. 3. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider So Ier. 8. 6. I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done The Heathens have commended such Recollection On the other side the Scripture recommendeth Meditation as one great help to Obedience Lydia's Conversion is described by Attendency Acts 16. 14. The Lord opened her heart that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul because that is the first step to it minding chusing prosecuting So the Man that will benefit by the Word of God is he Iames 1. 25. that looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein that is abideth in the view of these Truths for a glance never converted nor warmed the heart of any Man This man being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word this man shall be blessed in his end Now more particularly Why Meditation is
sent Samuel to anoint David Samuel said How can I go if Saul hear it he will kill me And the Lord said Take an heifer with thee and say I am come to sacrifice to the Lord That was a truth but not the whole truth Obj. But you will say Will not this justifie Mental reservation and Jesuitical Equivocation I answer There are two sorts of Reservations I may reserve part of the truth in my mind But the mental reservations the Jesuits plead for is this When that which is spoken is a lye if abstracted from that which is in the mind for instance If a Magistrate say Art thou a Priest no meaning not after the order of Baal So that which is spoken is a lye But if it be spoken with truth we may reserve part of it That in Samuel was not an untruth but concealing some part of the truth not fit to be discovered So Ier. 38. 24. to 27. Then said Zedekiah unto Ieremiah Let no man know of these words and thou shalt not dye But if the Princes hear that I have talked with thee and they shall come unto thee and say unto thee Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the King hide it not from us and we will not put thee to death also what the King said unto thee Then thou shalt say unto them I presented my supplication before the King that he would not cause me to return to Ionathans house to dye there Then came all the Princes unto Ieremiah and asked him and he told them according to all these words that the King had commanded so they left off speaking with him for the matter was not perceived 2dly We now come to the Blessing asked Grant me thy law graciously Where first the benefit it self Grant me thy law Secondly The terms upon which it is asked implied in the word Graciously 1. The benefit asked Grant me thy law David had the book of the Law already every King was to have a copy of it written before him but he understandeth it not of the law written in a book but of the law written upon his heart which is a priviledge of the Covenant of grace Heb. 8. 10. For this is the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel in those days saith the Lord I will put my laws in their minds and write them in their hearts c. Doct. 1. Then is the Law granted to us when it is written upon our minds and hearts that is when we understand it and our hearts are framed to the love and obedience of it otherwise it is only granted to the Church in general but it is not granted to us in particular We may have some common priviledge of being trained up in the knowledge of Gods Will but we have not the personal and particular benefits of the Covenant of Grace till we find it imprinted upon our hearts Well then 1. Press God about this not only to grant his Word unto the Church but to grant it unto you unto your persons To reveal his Son in me Gal. 1. 16. There is a general benefit He hath shewed his word unto Iacob and his statutes unto Israel Psal. 147. 19. And there is a particular benefit Grant me thy law graciously The whole Church may be under a Covenant of grace and some particular members of it may be all that while under a Covenant of Works if they have only an external Law without to shew them what is good but not a Law within to urge and inable them to do it Lex jubet gratia juvat litteral instruction belongeth only to the first Covenant but when the word is made ours that 's a priviledge of the second Covenant The ingrafted word that is able to save our souls Jam. 1. 21. When it is received in our hearts and doth prosper there and fructifie unto holiness when it is written over again by the finger of the Spirit 2. See if this effect be accomplished if the law be granted to you It is so 1. When you have a sense and conscience of it and you own it as your rule for the governing of your own heart and life Psal. 37. 37. The law of God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide It is not in his book only but in his heart to guide all his actions 2dly It is so when you have some ability and strength to perform it Their hearts carry them to it as Psal. 40. 8. I delight to do thy will O God yea thy law is in my heart They have not only a sense and conscience of their rule but a ready spirit to perform it and set about this work cheerfully and heartily A ready and cheerful obedience to Gods Will is the surest note that the Law is given to us when the study and practice of it is the great employment and pleasure of our lives Doct. 2. The Law that is odious to the flesh is acceptable to a gracious heart What others count a restraint they count a great benefit and favour Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be They shun all means of searching and knowing themselves wishing such things were not sins or not desiring to know them to be so therefore hate the law and will not come to the light 3 Joh. 20. For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved As a man that hath light ware is loth to come to the ballance or Counterfeit-coin to the touch-stone or as a bankrupt is loth to cast up his estate They hate the directions and injunctions of the word as contrary to their lusts 1 King 22. 8. He doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil said wicked Ahab and therefore would not hear him and yet he was the Prophet of the Lord They are loth to understand their duty are willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 3. 5. For this they are willingly ignorant of c. But now a gracious heart desireth nothing more than the knowledge of Gods Will how contrary soever to their lusts they approve it Rom. 7. 12. Wherefore the law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good The Law and Commandment that which wrought such tragical effects in his heart Therefore they desire the knowledge of it above all things Psal. 119. 72. The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver more than all earthly riches whatsoever it is the best thing they can enjoy to have a full direction in obedience 2dly The practice is welcome to their souls 1 John 5. 3. His commandments are not grievous They are to others not to them because of the suitableness of their hearts to a galled shoulder the least burden is irksome but to a sound back it is nothing love sweetens all USE Do you count the Law an enemy or a friend
raise our Bodies after eaten out by Worms and turned into dust Matters of Faith being chiefly or mainly future and to come and difficult to be performed therefore an express belief of God's Power is necessary To convert such an obstinate and to sanctifie such a sinful creature and to raise the dead are no slight things 2. The Emblem of this immutable constancy 't is setled in the Heavens it is not measured by the sloating estate of things here upon Earth but by the perfection of the Heavens which are free from all changes and chances 1. They are fit Emblems of the stability of the Word for they continue to be what his Word once made them to be There is no justling among the Stars but all obey God's Word and Law Psal. 148. 4 5 6. Praise him ye heavens of heavens and waters that be above the heavens Let them praise the Name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created He hath also established them for ever and ever he hath made a decree which shall not pass So that when a Believer looketh up to Heaven there he seeth the Book of the Creatures opened wherein he beholdeth God's constancy and certainty written in indelible characters God's powerful voice did first separate the waters from the waters and those celestial Bodies move in that order wherein God hath set them Now is not this an help to us when we open the Book of Scriptures and compare the one with the other how the stated course of Nature and the stated course of Grace agree with his Power For as long as you trust God's Word you can never fail for both Heaven and Earth are sustained by it Heb. 1. 3. He upholdeth all things by the word of his power All is easie to God for he preserveth the Heavens in that estate wherein they are governed and can preserve his people in the most difficult cases 2. God's Constancy and Truth doth appear in the Heavens also there is a witness there of his Eternal Truth for when he had once said Let there be Heavens c. they presently were and ever since have kept one constant tenour and course yea Heaven shall sooner fail than God's Word fail he will not retract what he hath once said and therefore his Word is more firm and stable than the Frame of Heaven and Earth Mat. 5. 18. Till heaven and earth pass not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled Mat. 24. 30. Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away So that God's Word is more stable than Heaven and Earth 3. The profit of this Meditation 1. That we may set the sureness of this Word against the diffidence and distrustfulness of our own hearts Luk. 24. 25. Slow of heart to believe Though God hath so firmly bound himself to the Creature by his own Word yet the Promise to us seemeth doubtful and uncertain especially when men are clouded with Troubles and Temptations for we look only to present sense and would not be put on any tryal Now it is comfortable to remember that the order and course of Nature is not so setled as the Grace of the Covenant is Let it have its course resolved and patient obedience will at length end in eternal happiness and therefore we should build surely upon a firm foundation that we may not stagger through unbelief but give glory to God Rom. 4. 20. 2. To comfort us when our hopes are delayed in due time the promise cannot want the effect Heb. 6. 12. There will be day and night summer and winter in their season therefore as in the night we wait for day and in the winter for summer so must we wait for our eternal consolation 3. To support us against the various changes in the state of worldly things Many things fall out in this world that breed trouble in us therefore if we should only look to the present state of things our hearts would float up and down but we must look to the immutable constancy of God's Word that 's a sure Rock for the anchor of hope to take hold on There is a sure Rule to walk by sure Promises to build upon if we would be everlastingly happy There are the sure mercies of David Isa. 55 3. The changes of this world perplex our Faith therefore we should not look to the instability of things below wherein there are continual vicissitudes but to the sure Covenant 4. Not only when our hopes are delayed and obscured by the changes and chances of this world but contradicted by contrary appearances God seemeth to cast us off to have no pleasure in us Now to bear up our Faith in the hardest condition that we may say Iob 13. 15. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him and believe in hope against hope we should remember the setledness and constancy of his Word The Promises stand firm in Heaven when they seem to fail on Earth God may cover himself with frowns and his dispensations may seem contrary to his intention as Ioseph spake roughly to his Brethren when he meant to discover himself to them or as Christ dealt with the woman of Canaan Mat. 15. But when there seemeth to be such a contradiction between the word and works of God when his voice is sweet like Iacob's and his hand rough like Esau's we must remember that the smart Rod is consistent with Covenant love Psal. 89. 32. And we must not interpret the Promise of God by his providential dealing with us but rather his dealing by his promises his promise being as the light part of the Cloud and his dealing as the dark part of it God is fulfilling promises by hard dispensations and sharp afflictions belong to his faithfulness Psal. 119. 75. Many times that is best for us not what we think best but what God thinks best The buffetings of Satan and oppositions of the world may be most wholsom to us though not most pleasing to the flesh 5. To wean us from the fading vanities of the world Isa. 40. 8. and 1 Pet. 1. 24. There is nothing firm and lasting in this world till we lift up our eyes to Heaven and seek an happiness in the promises 1 Iohn 2. 17. Our happiness lieth not in the present life but in the everlasting enjoyment of God In the Covenant all is setled and sure but in the world all is unstable and uncertain God's Covenant provideth for us eternal joy and bliss USE 1. To shew what contrary and different Conclusions the Carnal and Spiritual will draw from the same principles The Scoffers said 2 Pet. 3. 4. Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning â—…f the Creation Because the whole Frame of Nature had kept one constant tenour and course they plead for the Eternity of the World and the Falshood of the Promises Now David reasoneth
the severe lashes of envy and malice those fiends that haunt all things and persons excellent he must have expected a snarle from the Wolf 's black mouth or a kick from the dull Asse's hoof yet on his behalf I demand this justice that he be not condemn'd for the Printers crimes Their Venial Errors will receive a pardon of course from the Ingenuous Reader and for their mortal transgressions whereof they are sometimes guilty either clouding altering or perverting the scope of the Author enjoin them Gentle Reader a moderate penance and then receive them to full absolution who have voluntarily offered themselves to confession Thus much Christian Reader it was thy interest and mine to have spoken the rest must be to the God of all Grace that he would give thee and this Book his blessing which is the prayer of Decemb. 13th 1680. Thy affectionate Friend and faithful Servant in our Lord Jesus V. A. SEVERAL SERMONS UPON THE CXIX PSALM SERMON I. PSAL. CXIX 1. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. THIS Psalm is a choice piece of Scripture In the Hebrew there is much exactness of composure to be observed It is divided into Twenty two parts according to the number of the Hebrew Letters every part containeth eight Verses all beginning with one and the same Letter in which I should think there is nothing of mystery intended only an help to attention and memory I shall go over the several Verses in their order the Lord giving life and assistance And because the same matter will be of frequent recourse I shall endeavour to discuss each Verse in a Sermon The Psalmist beginneth with a description of the way to true Blessedness as Christ began his Sermon on the Mount and as the whole Book of Psalms is elsewhere begun Blessedness is that which we all aim at only we are either ignorant or wretchless of the way that leadeth to it therefore the holy Psalmist would first set us right in the true notion of a blessed man Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. In the words you have 1. The Priviledg Blessed 2. The manner and form of its consideration not so much in the nature and formality of it as the way that leadeth to it Or First Here is a way spoken of in the general Secondly This way specified The law of the Lord. Thirdly The qualification of the persons sincerity the undefiled and constancy who walk 1. Point That it standeth us much upon to have a true notion of Blessedness and Blessed men David beginneth with that I. All desire it Christians Pagans all agree in this When Paul was dealing with the Heathens he urgeth two notions wherein God might be taken up That of a first Cause Acts 14. 16 17. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness And a chief Good Acts 17. 27. As in the one place there must be a cause of showers of rain and fruitful seasons so in the other there must be an universal Good or else the inclinations of nature were in vain Among Christians the good and bad that do so seldom agree in any thing yet agree in this every man would be happy and not miserable Psal. 4. 6. There be many that say who will shew us any good Good good is the cry of the world it is intended in the very nature of desire for every thing that is desired is desired as good sub ratione boni As God implanted in us affections of aversation to avoid what is evil so affections of choice and pursuit to follow after what is good Well then out of a principle of self-love all would be happy they would have good and they would have it for ever Inanimate creatures are by the guidance and direction of Providence carried to the place of their perfection the bruit Beasts seek the preservation and perfection of that life which they have so do all men hunt about for contentment and satisfaction To ask whether men would be happy or no is to ask whether they love themselves yea or no but whether Holy is another thing II. All without grace are much mistaken in it 1. Some mistake in the end they desire good in common not that which is indeed the true good they seek happiness in Riches Honours Pleasures and so they flye from that which they seek whilst they seek it They intend happiness but chuse misery Luke 16. 25. Thy good things and Psal. 4. 7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and wine increased Their Corn Wine and Oyl not only possessed by them but chosen by them as their felicity and portion 2. They fail in the means they know them not like them not or else faint in the prosecution of the end by them they discern them but weakly as a Spire at a distance they see it so as they know not whether they see it yea or no as the blind man saw men walking as trees The light of nature being so dim they consider them but weakly the mind being diverted by other objects they desire them but weakly the affections being prepossessed and intercepted by things that come next to hand Velleities and cold inclinations they may have but no serious volition or firm bent of heart Or Suppose a man under some conviction both as to the end and means yet his endeavours are very cold and slack they do not pursue it with that earnestness exactness and uniformity of endeavour which is requisite to obtain their happiness They are like Children that seem to desire a thing passionately but are soon out of humour The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing for his hands refuse to labour When true happiness is sufficiently revealed we like it not upon Gods terms Ioh. 6. 34. the Iews when our Saviour told them of the Bread of God that came down from Heaven to give life to the world said unto him Lord evermore give us of this bread But 't is said upon hearing the conditions of obtaining it Verse 66. they murmured went back and walked no more with him All would live for ever but when they must follow a despised Christ up and down the world and incur censures and dangers they like none of that Psal. 106. 24. Yea they despised the pleasant land and believed not his word The Land was a good Land but the way to it was through an howling wilderness When they heard of the strength and stature of the men their fortifications they fell into passion and murmur and gave over the pursuit of Canaan Heaven is a good place but men must get to it with such difficulty therefore they are loth to be at the cost Men would be happy with that kind of happiness which is true happiness but not in
of neither have entred into the heart of man to conceive Therefore the word hath a notable instrumentality that way 3. The Doctrine of the Scripture holds out the remedy and means of cleansing Christs blood which is not only an argument or motive to move us to it So it is urged 1 Pet. 1. 18. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable c. It presseth holiness upon this argument why God hath been at great cost to bring it about therefore we must not content our selves with some smooth morality which might have been whether Christ had been yea or no. Again the word propounds it as a purchase whereby grace is procured for us so it is said 1 Ioh. 1. 7. He hath purchased the spirit to bless us and turn us from our sins And it exciteth faith to apply and improve this remedy and so conveyeth the power of God into the soul Act. 15. 9. Purifying their hearts by faith 2. The manner how the word is applied and made use of If he take heed thereunto according to thy word This implieth a studying of the word and the tendency and importance of it which is necessary if the young man would have benefit by it David calleth the statutes of God the men of his counsel Young men that are taken with other books if they neglect the word of God that book that should do the cure upon the heart and mind they are with all their knowledg miserable Psal. 1. 2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night If men would grow wise to Salvation and get any skill in the practice of godliness they must be much in this blessed book of God which is given us for direction 1 Ioh. 2. 14. I have written unto you young men because ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one It is not a slight acquaintance with the word that will make a young man so successful as to defeat the temptations of Satan and be too hard for his own lust it is not a little notional irradiation but to have the word dwell in you and abide in you richly The way to destroy ill weeds is to plant good herbs that are contrary We suck in carnal principles with our milk and therefore we are said to speak lies from the womb A kind of a riddle before we are able to speak we speak lyes namely as we are prone to error and all manner of carnal fancies by the natural temper and frame of our hearts Isa. 58. 2. And therefore from our very tender and Infant-age we should be acquainted with the word of God 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures It may be children by reading the word get nothing but a little memorative knowledg but yet it is good to plant the field of the memory in time they will soak into the judgment and conscience and thence into the heart and affections 2. It implieth a care and watchfulness over our hearts and ways that our will and actions be conformed to the word This must be the young mans daily prayer and care that there be a conformity between his will and the word that he may be a walking Bible Christs living Epistle copy out the word in his life that the truths of it may appear plainly in his conversation All that I have said issueth it self into three Points 1. That the great Duty of Youth assoon as they come to the full use of reason is to enquire and study how they may cleanse their hearts and ways from sin 2. That the Word of God is the only rule sufficient and effectual to accomplish this work 3. If we would have this efficacy there is required much care and watchfulness that we come to the direction of the Word in every tittle not a loose and unattentive reflection upon the Word careless inconsiderateness but a taking heed thereunto Now why in youth and as soon as we come to the use of reason we should mind the work of cleansing our way 1. Consider how reasonable this is It is fit that God should have our first and our best It is fit he should have our first because he minded us before we were born His love to us is an eternal and an everlasting love and shall we put off God to old age shall we thrust him into a corner Surely God that loved us so early it is but reason he should have our first and also our best for we have all from him Under the Law the first-fruits was Gods to shew the first and best was his portion All the Sacrifices that were offered to him they were in their strength and young Levit. 2. 14. And if thou offer a meat-offering of thy first-fruits unto the Lord thou shalt offer for the meat-offering of thy first-fruits green ears of corn dried by the fire even corn beaten out of full ears God would not stay till ripened God will not be long kept out of his portion Youth it is our best time Mal. 1. 13. when they brought a weak and sickly offering should I accept this of your hand saith the Lord The health strength quickness of spirit and vigour is in youth Shall our health and strength be for the Devils use and shall we put off God with the dregs of time Shall Satan feast upon the flower of our youth and fresh time and God only have the scraps and fragments of the Devils Table When wit is dulled the ears heavy the body weak and affections are spent is this a fit present for God 2. Consider the necessity of it 1. Because of the heat of youth the passions and lusts are very strong 2 Tim. 2. 22. Fly also youthful lusts Men are most incident in that age to pride and self-conceit to strong affections inordinate and excessive love of liberty 1 Tim. 3. 6. Not a Novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil A man may make tame fierce creatures Lyons and Tygers and the fury of youth needs to be tempered and bridled by the word It is much for the glory of Grace that this heat and violence is broken when the subject is least of all disposed and prepared 2. Because none are tempted so much as they Children cannot be serviceable to the Devil and old men are spent and have chosen their way but youths who have a sharpness of understanding and the stoutest and most stirring spirits the Devil loveth to make use of such 1 Joh. 2. 13. I write unto you young men because ye have overcome the wicked one They are most assaulted but it is for the honour of grace when they overcome when their fervency and strength is employed not in satisfying lusts but in the service of God and fighting against Satan Therefore
well with you for the present but matters to come are put off little cared for Amos 6. 3. 2. In Hearing do not hear slightly but hide the Word in your heart that it be not imbezilled by thy own negligence forgetfulness running into carnal distractions that it be not purloined by Satan that he may not snatch away the good seed out of thy soul. When the Word is preached there is more company present than is visible there are Angels and Devils in the Assembly When ever the Sons of God meet together Satan is present with them The Devil is present to divert the mind by wandring thoughts by raising prejudices that we may cast out the Word or by excuses delays evasions putting it off to others when we begin to have some sensibleness of our sin and danger The Devil is loth to let us go too far lest Christ get a subject into his Kingdom Oh therefore labour to get something into thy heart by every Sermon some fresh notion or consideration is given out to set you a work in the spiritual life A conscientious waiting upon God will find something every time It is sad to consider how many have heard much and laid up little or nothing at all it may be they have laid it up in their note-Note-books but not laid up the word in their hearts 3. For Meditation Meditate upon the Word do not study the Word in a cursory manner or content your selves with a slight taste or a little volatile affection but ponder it seriously that it may enter into your very heart Hasty and perfunctory thoughts work nothing Meat must be well chewed and digested if you would have it turn into good blood and spirits you must follow it close till it settle into some affection So much for David's practice I have hid thy word in my heart The second thing is the aim and end of it That I may not sin against thee Doct. 2. In hiding the word in our hearts there must be a right end our knowledg of it and delight in it must be directed to practice 1. We must not study the Word meerly out of curiosity that we may know what is said there as men will pry into Civil Art and Discipline so the Athenians flocked about Paul Act. 17. 18 19 20 21. so for novelty sake men may have an affection and a delight in the Word Ioh. 5. 35. Ye rejoiced in his light for a season There are certain Adulterous affections we have to the Word when it is new and fresh but when it grows stale we loath it This affection to the Word is soon spent 2. We must not hide the Word in our heart meerly that we may be able to teach others that we may make a gainful trade of it Alas a man may teach others and be himself a cast-away Look as in coyning of money an iron-stamp may impress the character and print upon a piece of gold and silver so God may use the gifts and knowledg of some men to beget faith in others and perish themselves Mat. 7. 21. We haue prophesied in thy name yet depart from me I know you not 3. This must not be our end neither not meerly for delight Largeness of knowledg brings a content with it as it is an addition to our perfection Truth is the object of our understanding and may please an unsanctified mind not meerly out of subserviency to some base and inferiour ends that we may get esteem in the world or the repute of knowing persons but as it is an elevation of the understanding Every delight in truth is not a delight in God There is a natural oblectation we have in the contemplation of any sublime truth this is meerly a delight in the work of our own faculties when the affections are terminated in bare knowledg as it is a high and mysterious truth as it is a delectation to the understanding 4. We are not meerly to study the Word for the comfortableness of it and the suitableness to the Conscience As man is a reasonable creature he will delight in knowledg and as he hath a Conscience presageous of death and judgment to come he may delight in the comfort of it Many search out Promises that do not affect precepts The stony-ground seemed to have a joy they may delight in the comfortable part of Religion but this joy comes to nothing this gladsome forward spring is no sure Prognostication of a plentiful harvest Then do we receive the word a right when we look to the holy part and mortifie our natural desires and affections Many deal with the word as Great men do with fleshly companions are willing to entertain them at their Tables to hear their Discourse because of the pleasantness of their mirth but to enter into bonds for them and discharge them from debt or better their fortunes that they will not do So many will give Christ and the Word and the comfortable part of it entertainment but they are loth to take the duty of the Gospel upon themselves Therefore it is not enough to study the word meerly that we may cherish our own persons with the comfortable part of it but we must also study the holy part of it and that which doth require our duty Let us labour to hide the word in our hearts as David did I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee SERMON XIII PSAL. CXIX 12. Blessed art thou O Lord teach me thy statutes IN these words you have 1. A Compellation Blessed art thou O Lord. 2. A Supplication Teach me thy statutes 1. Branch The Compellation carrieth the force of an argument Because thou art blessed O Lord therefore teach me And therefore I shall open the sense of this title that is here given to God so as I may still make good the argument For the sense God may be said to be blessed objectivè or subjectivè First Objectively as he is the Object of our blessedness it is our blessedness to enjoy God Psal. 144. 15. Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. That is our blessedness to have God for our portion As soon as we are admitted into Covenant with God we have a right to him I am thy God and we have the full consummation of it when we enter into heaven there we have the highest enjoyment of God that we are capable of We have many fruitless and unquiet cares to enjoy the creatures which are neither blessed in themselves nor can make us blessed But now God is our summum bonum our chief good The enjoyment of him is the chiefest good Still we are capable of a higher happiness until we enjoy God In other things we can neither have satisfaction nor security the creature cannot satisfie nor yet secure us in the enjoyment of it self In this sense the argument will hold good Blessed art thou O Lord that is Thou art the object of my blessedness my blessedness lyeth
have hidden thy word in my heart and then with my lips have I declared c. And as it must be first in the heart so next in the tongue Joh. 7. 38. Christ speaks of him that believeth in him that out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water By the belly is meant the heart when there is true grace in the heart the sweet influences thereof will flow forth in their common discourse for the refreshing of others as a spring sendeth forth the streams to water the ground about it If the heart be full the tongue will drop what is savoury I say certainly if it be within it vvill break out The Word is to be hid but not like a Talent in a Napkin but like Gold in a Treasury to be laid out upon all meet occasions Thus referring it to the 11th Verse there may be a fair connexion Or if you refer it to the 12th Verse Blessed art thou O Lord teach me thy statutes teach me that I may teach others Our requests for knowledg are like to speed when we are willing to exercise this knowledg for the glory of God and the good of others Talents thrive by their use To him that hath shall be given Mat. 25. 29. that is to him that useth his talents Trading brings encrease and so it may be used as an argument to back that Petition Lord teach me for I have been ever declaring with my lips all the judgments of thy mouth Again none can speak of God with such savour and affection as he that is taught by God Teach me and I have or will declare it may be read either way all the judgments of thy mouth A Heathen could say Non loquendum de Deo sine lumine We must not speak of God without light The things of God are best represented with the light of his own grace David shews that he would perform the duty of a good disciple that he would teach others if God should teach him In the words two things are to be explained 1. What he will declare All the Iudgments of thy mouth 2. In what sense he will declare them First What he will declare Gods will revealed in the Scripture is called the judgments of his mouth His judgments I have shewed that v. 7. at large Briefly now I will add two Reasons First because it is the Rule according to which we must judg of all spiritual truth Isa. 8. 20. To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Secondly it is the rule according to which we must look to be judged both here and hereafter Here I will chastise them or judg them as their congregation hath heard According to the sentence of the word so will the course of his Providence be and according to which we shall be judged hereafter John 12. 48. The word that I have spoken the same shall judg him in the last day Gods Providences are a comment upon the Scriptures The Scripture is not only a Record of what is past but a Calender and Prognostication of what is to come you may read your doom your judgment there for the statutes of the Lord are all called Judgments because of an answerable proceeding in the course of Gods Providence if men escape here they will not escape the judgment of the last day when the sentence of that God shall infallibly be made good Now the verdict of the word it is called the judgments of his mouth as if God himself had pronounced by Oracle and judged from heaven in the case and these judgments of his mouth the Psalmist saith shall be the matter of his discourse and conference with others Secondly In what sense it is said that he will declare all the judgments of his mouth In this speech David may be considered as a King as a Prophet or as a private believer 1. As a King so some conceive that whenever he judged or gave sentence upon the throne he would declare the judgments of Gods mouth that is decree in the case according to the sentence of the Law In favour of this sense it may be alledged 1. That certainly the King was bound to study the Law of God as you shall see Deut. 17. 18 19. When he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life Every King was bound to have a copy of the Law the Rabbies say written with his own hand carried about with him wheresoever he went in City or Camp 2. That the Kings of Iudah were bound up by the Judicials of Moses out of that which is before the Priests and Levites that is according to thy Iudicial Laws so will I pass sentence upon Malefactors 3. That proceeding according to this Rule their declarations in Court were the Judgments of Gods mouth 2 Chron. 19. 6. He said to the Iudges Take heed what ye do for ye judg not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment If this sense did prevail we might observe hence That a godly man useth the word to season the duties of all his relations And again That a good Magistrate is so to judg upon the Throne that his Sentences there may be as the Judgments of Gods own mouth But that which caused this misconceit was the word Iudgments which is not of such a limited import and signification as those that pitched upon this Interpretation did conceive and therefore mistook the meaning of this place 2. David may be considered here as a Prophet and so as a pattern of all Teachers He asserts his sincerity in two respects 1. As to the matter of his doctrine it should be the judgments of Gods mouth such as he had received from God 2. As to the extent that he would declare all the judgments of his mouth 1. As to the matter of his doctrine it should be the judgments of his mouth That which should be declared and taught in the Church should not be our own opinions and fancies but the pure word of God not the vanity of our thoughts but the verity of his Revelations otherwise we neither discharge our duty to God nor to the children of God Not to God when we come in his name without his message Jer. 4. 10. Ah Lord thou hast greatly deceived this people saith the Prophet Ieremiah to God Thou thou hast done it because the false prophets had done it in his name The dishonour reflects upon him when his Ordinance is abused to countenance the fancies of our own brain Nor to the children of God whose appetite carrieth them to pure unmixed milk 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
young or had more leisure and rest In that I have meditated and conferred You must continue still in a holy course To begin to build and leave unfinished is an argument of folly There is always the same reason for going on that there was for beginning both for necessity profit and sweetness We have no licence to slack and give over till all be finished Phil. 2. 12. Work out your own salvation otherwise all you do is in vain yet not in vain Gal. 3. 4. in vain as to final reward yet not in vain as to encrease of punishment You lose your cost your watchings striving prayings but you will gain a more heavy punishment so that it had been better you had never begun 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them You bring an ill report upon God your sense of the worth of heavenly things must needs be greater for your making trial and therefore your punishment for neglect the greater Into the Vineyard they came at several hours but all tarried till the close of the day Some called sooner some later but all held out till the end Heb. 6. 10 11. You have ministred and must minister you have prayed and must pray you have heard the word with gladness and must hear still Many in youth are zealous but when their first heats are spent grow worldly careless and ready to sound a retreat from God The fire of the Altar was never to go out so should the life and warmth and vigour of our affections to the word of God be ever preserved God is the same still and so is the word and therefore we should ever be the same in our respects to it The Devil in policy lets men alone for a while to manifest some respect to the ways of God that they may after do Religion a They are full of zeal strict holy diligent in attendance upon Ordinances he never troubleth them but is at truce with them all this while till they get some name for the profession of godliness and then he knoweth their fall will be the more scandalous and ignominious not only to themselves but to their profession They are forward and hot men a while till they have run themselves out of breath and then by a notable defection shame themselves and harden others 2. Compare it with the 13th verse I have declared now I will meditate To be warm and affectionate in our expressions of respect to the Word before others and to slight it in our own hearts argueth gross hypocrisie Therefore David would not only confer but meditate Many talk with others but not with their own soul. Commune with your hearts and be still True zeal is uniform when there is no witness but God it acts alike 3. Refer it to the 14th Verse David had spoken of his delight in the Law now that he would meditate therein in both not to boast but to excite others by his example that is to be understood all along when he speaketh of his diligence in and about the Law of God But mark first the word was his delight and then his meditation Delight causeth meditation and meditation encreaseth delight Psal. 1. 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night A man that delighteth in the Law of God will exercise his mind therein Our thoughts follow our affections It is tedious and irksome to the flesh to meditate but delight will carry us out The smallest actions when we have no delight in them seem tedious and burdensome It was no great matter for Haman to lead Mordecai's Horse yet a burdensome offensive service because it was against his will The difficulty that we find in holy duties lyeth not in the duties themselves but in the awkwardness of our affections Many think they have no parts and therefore they cannot meditate He that findeth an heart to this work will find an head Delight will set the mind a-work for we are apt to muse and pause upon that which is pleasing to us Why are not holy thoughts as natural and as kindly to us as carnal The defect is in the heart I have rejoyced in thy testimonies saith David and therefore I will meditate in thy statutes In the words there is a double expression of Davids love to the Law of God 1. I will meditate in thy precepts 2. I will have respect to thy ways Concerning which observe 1. In both the notion by which the word of God is expressed and diversified Precepts Ways The word precepts implieth Gods Authority by which the counsels of the word are ratified Ways implieth a certain direction for our walk to heaven There are Gods ways to us declared in his Promises so it is said Psal. 25. 10. All the paths of God are mercy and truth Our ways to God ver 4. of that Psalm Shew me thy ways teach me thy paths These are his precepts 2. Observe the one is the fruit of the other I will meditate and then I will have respect Meditation is in order to practice and if it be right it will beget a respect to the ways of God We do not meditate that we may rest in contemplation but in order to obedience Joshua 1. 8. Thou shalt meditate in the book of the law day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein So Phil. 4. 8 9. Think of these things do these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when you cast up your accounts and consider what God hath required of you it is that you may set upon the work Meditation is not a flourishing of the wit that we may please the fancy by playing with divine truths Sense is diseased that must be fed with quails but a serious inculcation of them upon the heart that we may urge it to practice Nor yet an acquainting our selves with the word that we may speak of it in company Conference is for others Meditation for our selves when we are alone Words are but the female issue of our thoughts works the male Nor meerly to store our selves with curious notions and subtil inquiries study searcheth out a truth but Meditation improveth it for practical use it is better to be sincere than subtil 3. Observe this practical obedience is expressed by having respect unto the ways of God To respect Gods ways is to take heed that we do not turn out of them to regard them and our selves observe to do them Josh. 1. 8. and it is called elsewhere pondering our path Prov. 4. 26. ponder the path of thy feet that we
may not mistake our way nor wander out of it Respect to Gods word was opened V. 6. and 9. The main Point is this That one great duty of the Saints is meditating on the word of God and such matters as are contained therein 1. Let us enquire what Meditation is because the practice and knowledg of the duty is almost become a stranger to us Before I can define I must distinguish it Meditation is 1. Occasional 2. Set and Solemn 1. Occasional Meditation is an act by which the soul spiritualizeth every object about which it is conversant A gracious heart is like an Alembick it can distill useful thoughts out of all things that it meeteth with Look as it seeth all things in God so it seeth God in all things Thus Christ at Iacobs Well discourseth of the Well of Life Ioh. 4. at the Miracle of the Loaves discourseth of Manna Ioh. 6. and Ioh. 7. at the Feast of Tabernacles of living waters at the Pharisees Supper discourseth of eating bread in the Kingdom of God Luke 14. 15. There is an holy Chymistry and Art that a Christian hath to turn water into wine brass into gold to make earthly occasions and objects to minister spiritual and heavenly thoughts God trained up the old Church by types and ceremonies that the things they ordinarily conversed with might put them in mind of God and Christ their duties and dangers and sins And our Lord in the New Testament taught by parables and similitudes taken from ordinary functions and offices amongst men that in every Trade and Calling we might be imployed in our worldly business with an heavenly mind that whether in the Shop or at the Loom or in the Field we might still think of Christ and Grace and Heaven There is a parable of the Merchant-man a parable of the Sower a parable of the man calling his servants to an account c. that upon all these occasions we might wind up our minds and extract some spiritual use from our common affairs Thus the creatures lift up our minds to the Creator David had his night-meditation Psal. 8. 3. When I consider the heavens the work of thy hands the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained c. the Sun is not mentioned When he was gone abroad in the night his heart was set on work presently And Psal. 19. 5. there is a morning-meditation for he seemeth to describe the Sun coming out of his Chambers in the East and displaying his beams like a cloath of gold upon the world An holy heart cannot want an object to lead him to the meditation of Gods Power and Goodness and Glory and wise Providence who hath made and doth order all things according to the counsel of his will There is a great deal of practical Divinity in the very bosome of Nature if we had the skill to find it out Iob biddeth us Ask the beasts and they shall teach thee and the fowls of the air and they shall tell thee or speak to the earth and it shall teach thee and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee They speak by our thoughts 2. There is Set and Solemn Meditation Now this is of several sorts or rather they are several parts of the same exercise 1. There is a Reflexive Meditation which is nothing but a solemn parley between a man and his own heart Psal. 4. 4. Commune with your own heart and be still When we have withdrawn our selves from company that the mind may return upon it self to consider what we are what we have been what streights and temptations we have passed through how we overcame them how we passed from death to life this is a necessary part of meditation but very difficult What can be more against self-love and carnal ease than for a man to be his own accuser and judg All our shifts are to avoid our own company and to run away from our selves The Basilisk dyeth by seeing himself in a Mirrour and a guilty man cannot endure to see his own natural face in the glass of the word The worldly man choaketh his soul with business lest for want of work the mind like a Mill should fall upon it self The Voluptuous person melteth away his days in pleasure and charmeth his soul into a deep sleep with the potion of outward delights lest it should awake and talk with him Well then it is necessary that you should take some time to discourse with your selves to ask of your souls what you have been what you are what you have done what shall become of you to all eternity Jer. 8. 6. No man asketh of himself What have I done You would think it strange of two men that conversed every day for forty or fifty years and yet all this while they did not know one another Now this is the case between us and our own souls we live a long time in the World and yet are strangers to our selves 2. There is a Meditation which is more direct when we exercise our minds in the Word of God and the matters contained therein This is twofold 1. Dogmatical or the searching out of a Truth in order to knowledg proving what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God Rom. 12. 2. This is study and differeth from meditation in the object and supposeth the matter we search after to be unknown either in whole or in part whereas practical Meditation is the inculcation or whetting of a known truth upon the soul and it differs in the end the end of Study is Information and the end of Meditation is Practice or a work upon the affections Study is like a Winter-Sun that shineth but warmeth not but Meditation is like blowing up the fire where we do not mind the blaze but the heat The end of study is to hoard up Truth but of Meditation to lay it forth in Conference or holy Conversation In Study we are rather like Vintners that take in Wine to store themselves for sale in Meditation like those that buy Wine for their own use and comfort A Vintners Cellar may be better stored than a Noble-mans The Student may have more of notion and knowledg but the practical Christian hath more of taste and refreshment 2. Practical and Applicative This we now speak of and it is that duty and exercise of Religion whereby the mind is applied to the serious and solemn consideration and improvement of the truths which we understand and believe for practical uses and purposes Not like a man that soweth and never reapeth or a woman that often conceives but never brings forth living children 1. It is a duty for it is commanded Josh. 1. 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein As the promise is general I will not leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. so is the
are some that a man had need teach them as he teacheth little children letter after letter and line after line little good done 2. In others there is a Grammatical knowledg but not a spiritual a repeating things by rote a talking of all that a Christian enjoyeth 3. Besides the Grammatical knowledg there is a Dogmatical knowledg when the truths of the word are not only understood but begin to settle into an opinion that we bustle for in the world An opinionative receiving of the truth is different from a saving receiving of the truth Many are Orthodox or have so much judgment and knowledg as to hold the Truth strictly but the heart is not possessed with the life and power of it Those are intended in Rom. 2. 20. An instructer of the foolish a teacher of babes which have the form of knowledg and of the truth in the law And such are described 2 Tim. 3. 8. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof It is not to be imagined that this is always in design though many times carnal men swim with the stream and take up with the opinions that are currant in their age but also out of conviction of judgment there is somewhat of conscience in it A sound judgment is a different thing from a sound heart The truths of God have great evidence with them and therefore a rational man being helped with some common work of the Spirit may close with them though they have no experience of the power and prevailing influence of them 4. Besides this Dogmatical knowledg by which we see round about the compass of Truths revealed in the word there is a gracious illumination when men are taught so as drawn to God Iohn 6. 44 45. and they do so understand Christs Doctrine as to apply and make a right use of it such a knowledg as is called not only sight but taste 1 Pet. 2. 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious and a feeling of what we understand Phil. 1. 9. And this I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledg and in all judgment This sense and experimental knowledg is that which the Saints seek after 2. The Uses of this spiritual illumination And 1. To give us a clear sight of the Truths of God 2. An applicative sight 3. An affective sight 4. A transforming sight 5. Such a sense of the Truth as is prevalent over lusts and interests 1. A clear sight of the Truths of God Others have but an hear-say-knowledg gathered out of Books and Sermons and the common report which is made of Christ but he that is divinely enlightned drinks of the Fountain and so his draught is more fresh and sweet they do not talk of things by rote after others but it is written upon their hearts Heb. 8. 10. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and so groweth more intimate and satisfactory and moving upon them 2. An Applicative sight not only knowledg but prudence Prov. 8. 12. I Wisdom dwell with Prudence Wisdom is the knowledg of Principles Prudence is an ability to apply them to our comfort and use that we may know it for our good Iob 5. 28. Many are right in generals but the Spirit doth not only reveal the Truths of the Gospel but applieth those Truths to awaken the conscience that was asleep in sin Many men that are unrenewed may be stored with general truths concerning the misery of man redemption by Christ the priviledges of a Christian but they do not reflect the light of these truths upon themselves so as to consider their own case and so it serveth rather for matter of opinion and discourse than for life and conversation it is not directive 3. An Affective sight Prov. 2. 10. When wisdom entreth upon thy heart which is the seat of affections it stirs up in the soul answerable motions to every truth Whereas when truths rest in empty barren notions without feeling and an answerable touch upon the heart the knowledg of them is like a Winters Sun that shineth but warmeth not the misery of man is not affective and Doctrines of Redemption by Christ are apprehended without any joy and relish 4. A Transforming sight 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It is a Light that is both Directive and Persuasive A man may hear the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is only known as a rule not as a means to convey the Spirit whereas a believer hears the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle preferreth the Gospel above the Law in the forementioned place for comfortableness perspicuity efficacy c. 5. It is a Light that prevaileth over our lusts and interests such a Light as hath fire in it to destroy lusts 1 John 2. 3 4. He that saith I know him and doth not keep his commandments is a lyar A true knowledg and sight of God is able to bridle lusts and purifie the conscience Therefore it is said He that doth evil hath not seen God Eph. 3. 11. hath not a true sight whatever speculations he may have about the nature of God Other light doth not check and controul vicious desires Reason is not restored to its dominion Rom. 1. 18. the reputed wise men of the world held the truth in unrighteousness Truth may talk its fill but can do nothing as a man that is bound hand and foot may rave and evaporate his passions but cannot relieve himself from the oppressor or the force that he is under II. Reasons that shew the necessity of this work 1. Spiritual blindness is natural to us as that man that was blind from his birth Iohn 9. 1. We are not all born blind in body but all in mind By tasting the tree of knowledg all Adam's sons have lost their knowledg Satan hath brought a greater shame upon us than Nahash the Ammonite would have brought upon the men of Iabesh Gilead in putting out their right eyes The eye of the soul is put out so as we cannot see the light that shineth in the word By the Fall we lost the true and perfect light of Reason but retain the pride of Reason It is no small part of our blindness that we cannot endure to hear of it Rev. 3. 17. Thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Man desireth to be thought sinful rather than weak and will sooner own a wickedness in Morals than a weakness in Intellectuals Men are dishonest out of choice and therefore think there is more of liberty and bravery in it but to be simple argueth imperfection Job 11. 12. Vain man would be accounted wise though man be born like a
shall a poor sinner do This is the duty exacted 2. The penalty that shall be inflicted Cursed is every one that continueth not in the words of this law to do it The Law hath a mouth that speaketh terrible things Cursed it is but one word but it may be spread abroad into very large considerations In one place it is said The Lord will not spare him All the curses that are written in this book of this law shall light upon him Deut. 29. 20. The book of the Law is full of curses and all together they show you what is the portion of an impenitent sinner In another place it is said Every curse and every plague which is not written in the book of this law will the Lord bring upon thee Deut. 28. 61. Mark though it be not specified in the Law God hath threatned sundty sorts of punishments yet he hath many plagues in store which are not committed to record or writing therefore whatever is written or unwritten revealed in the word or dispensed in Providence by way of plague and misery it is but the interpretation of this one word Cursed is he that continueth not c. However because particulars are most affective I will name some parts of the Curse 1. This is one part of the cursed condition of a sinner that is under the Law that the knowledg of his duty doth but the more irritate corruption Rom. 7. 9. The commandment came and sin revived The more we understand of the necessity of our subjection to God the more is the soul opposite to God Sin takes occasion by the Commandment as oppositions do more exasperate and enrage a waspish spirit 2. This exaction of duty doth either terrifie or stupifie the conscience he that escapeth the one suffereth the other Either men are terrified indeed all sinners are liable to it the conscience of a sinner is a sore place and the Apostle saith they are liable to bondage all their days Heb. 2. 14. as Belshazzar trembled to see the hand-writing upon the wall and Felix trembled to hear of Judgment to come so a carnal man is afraid to think of his condition and some are actually under horror and wherever they go as the Devils do they carry their own hell about them Or if conscience be not terrified then it is stupified they grow sensless of their misery and are past feeling Eph. 4. 19. and that 's a very sad estate and dangerous temper of soul when men have outgrown all feelings of conscience and worn out the prints of conviction These are the two extremes that all Christless persons are incident unto 3. There 's a curse upon all that a man hath as long as he continues in his rebellion and obstinacy against God He is cursed in his basket and store in his going out and coming in c. Deut. 28. 15 16 17. A man is cursed in his Table that becomes a snare his afflictions are but beginnings of sorrows It is a miserable thing to lye in such an estate If the curse do not break out so visibly sensibly it is because now it is the day of Gods patience and he waits for our return But mark Gods spiritual providence is the more dreadful when God rains snares upon men all the seeming-comforts which they have do but harden them in an evil course and hold them the faster in the bonds of iniquity 4. There 's a curse upon all he doth his duties are lost his prayers are turned into sin his hearing is the savour of daath unto death whilst he remaineth in his impenitency It is said Prov. 21. 27. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind Though he should come in the best manner he can with his flocks and herds yet all will be to no purpose it is an abomination to God 5. Impenitency binds over a man body and soul to everlasting torment in time it will come to that Go ye cursed c. Mat. 25. 41. They are only continued until they have filled up their measure and are ripened for hell and then they lye eternally under the wrath of God Look as it is sweet to hear Come ye blessed c. so dreadful in that day to hear Go ye cursed c. Thus are the proud cursed that is obstinate impenitent sinners while they stand off from God Secondly Let me examine upon what score they are cursed 1. Every man by Nature is under the Curse for until they are in Christ they are under Adams Covenant and Adams Covenant will yield no blessing to the fallen creature Gal. 3. 10. As many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse c. Mark every man that remains under the Law that hath not gotten an interest in Christ the curse of the first Covenant remains upon him and accordingly at the last day he shall have judgment without mercy he shall be judged according to the terms of that Covenant for there are but two states under the Law or under Grace therefore while they are in a state of Nature they must needs be under wrath So John 3. 18. He that believeth not is condemned already that is in the sentence of the Law there is a curse gone out against him the man is gone lost condemned already 2. This curse abideth upon us until we believe in Christ. The Sentence of the Law is not repealed John 3. 36. He that believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us c. 3. When Christ is tendered and finally refused then the sentence of the Law is ratified in the Gospel or the Court of mercy A Court of Chancery God hath set up in the Gospel for penitent sinners but then it follows This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men choose darkness c. When God shall tender men better conditions by Christ and they turn their backs upon it then is this curse confirmed USE 1. Consider how matters stand between God and us examine how it is with you Here let me lay down these propositions by way of trial 1. Every man by nature is in a cursed condition Eph. 2. 3. every man is liable to Adam's forfeiture and breach the elect children of God as well as others are liable to the curse 2. There is no way to escape this curse but by flying to Christ for refuge Heb. 6. 18. As a man would flye from the Avenger of blood so should we flye from the curse of the Law that is at our heels Wrath is abroad seeking out sinners now saith the Apostle O that I might be found in him 3. A sense of this benefit we have by Christ will necessarily beget an unfeigned love to him else we can have no evidence but the curse doth still remain and therefore it is said 1 Cor. 16.
strength that is he observes all our temptations our conflicts how weak we are and he intercedes with God night and day he stands at God's right hand to get out this strength and the Holy Ghost applies it to our heart in the Ordinances for so it is said Eph. 3. 16. To be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man USE To press us to be dealing with God for this strength what shall we do 1. Be weak in your own sense and feeling The way to be strong is to be weak 2 Cor. 12. 10. When I am weak then am I strong The Bucket if we would have it fill'd with the Ocean must first be empty Saith Austin Nemo erit à Deo firmus nisi qui seipsum sentit infirmum God strengthneth those that are weak in their own feeling and sense of their own nothingness Heb. 11. 34. Out of weakness they were made strong out of weakness felt and apprehended 2. There must be a full reliance upon God's strength alone Psal. 71. 16. I will go forth in the strength of the Lord God And Eph. 6. 10. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might And 2 Tim. 2. 5. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Iesus Whatever is in God and in Christ is for our use it is forth-coming for our encouragement and help We have firm grounds for this reliance the infinite power of God and the merit of Christ which is of infinite value What cannot the power of God do the strength of God is ingaged for our relief and succour 3. Use the power that you have and then it will be increased upon you The right arm is bigger than the left why because of Exercise it 's fuller of spirits and strength To him that hath shall be given Mat. 13. 12. and he shall have abundance The more we exercise grace the more we shall have of it Prov. 10. 29. The way of the Lord is strength to the upright The more we walk with God the more strength 4. Use the means for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength Isa. 40. 31. Because God doth all O it 's the greatest engagement that can be to wait upon God in the use of means that we may draw out treasures of grace in Gods way Phil. 2. 12. Work out your salvation for it is God that worketh in you c. See that you keep not off from God why for he doth all 5. Avoid sin that lets out your strength as bleeding lets out the spirits of the body When you grieve the Spirit of Christ which is to strengthen you you cast away your strength from you Let us then wait upon God for help for when all things fail God faileth not II. I now come to the Argument Strengthen me according to thy word Gods word binds him to relieve his people in distress There are two promises one is 1 Cor. 10. 13. God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able A good man would not over-burden his beast certainly the gracious God will not suffer temptations to lye upon us above measure Another promise is in Isa. 57. 15 16 17. To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones He hath promised comfort and relief to poor broken-hearted sinners you are called by name in the promise it is spoken to people in your case Again Upon such a word and promise of God is Davids prayer grounded A Prayer grounded upon a promise is like to prevail you may put an humble challenge upon God plead his Word to him It is strange fire else you put in the censer when you beg that which God never undertook to grant David often saith according to thy word Again The word of God is the only cure and relief for a fainting soul. When David was languishing away under deep sorrow then Lord thy word did bring strength 1. This is the proper cure Natural means cannot be a remedy to a spiritual distemper no more than a fine suit of apparel to a sick man or a posy of flowers to a condemned man Natural comforts carry no proportion with a spiritual disease nothing but grace pardon strength and acceptance from God can remove it They that seek to quench their sorrows in excess and merry company take a bruitish remedy for soul-diseases Oh foolish creatures that think to sport away or drink down their troubles it is as foolish a course as to think that to sew up a rent in the garment will cure a wound in their body And 2. it is an universal cure we have from the word life comfort strength It is the word that must guide us and keep us from fainting quicken us and keep us from dying This is a full remedy in conjunction with the power of God and makes the sore joyful in the midst of outward troubles Psal. 56. 10. I will rejoyce in God because of his word Lastly This word must be applied to the conscience by God himself Strengthen thou me according to thy word He goes to God that he would apply his word that it might be for his strength for we can neither apprehend nor apply it further than we receive grace from God The word is Gods instrument and worketh not without the principal Agent SERMON XXX PSALM CXIX 29. Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy Law graciously THERE are two Parts of Christianity destructive and adstructive the destructive part consists in a removing of sin the adstructive part makes way for the Plantation of Grace there 's eschewing evil and doing good We are carried on in a forward earnestness in the way of sin but there 's a great backwardness and restraint upon our hearts as to that which is good The one is necessary to the other we must come out of the ways of sin before we can walk in the ways of God In this prayer David respects both 1. In the first he instanceth in one sin the way of lying not only lying but the way of lying as being conscious to himself of his too often sinning in this kind Now he would not have this setled into a course or way therefore he beggeth remove it the guilt the fault of it 2. As to the adstructive part for the regulating of his conversation he begs the favour and grant of the Law and that upon terms of grace David had ever the book of the Law for every King of Israel was to have it always by him and the Rabbies say written with his own hand But grant me thy law graciously that is he desires he might have it not only written by him but upon him to have it imprinted upon his heart that he might have a heart to observe and keep it That 's the blessing he begs for the Law and this is begged graciously or upon terms of grace meerly according to thine own favour and good pleasure
whatever it cost us 5. It reproves those that think to reserve their hearts notwithstanding outward compliance the way of truth being chosen is to be owned 2 Cor. 7. 1. the outward profession is required as well as the inward belief Rom. 10. 10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation A man that should list himself among the enemies of his countrey and fight with them and say I reserve my heart for my countrey this is a mockage As if a Wife that prostitutes her body to another should tell her Husband she reserveth her heart for him Satan would have outward prostration he did not ask the heart but fall down and worship me USE 2. To press us to chuse the way of truth Take it up upon evidence and cleave to it with all the heart First Take it up upon evidence the evidence of Reason Scripture and the Spirit Reason will lead us to the Scripture the Scripture will lead us to the Spirit so we come to have a knowledg of the truth 1. Reason that 's preparative light and will lead the soul thus far It 's a thousand to one but Christianity is the way of God it will see much of God in this representation and if you should go on carnally carelesly neglecting Heaven and Christ Reason will tell you you run upon a thousand hazards that there are far more against you than for you in your sinful courses Stand upon the way Where may you find such likelihood of satisfaction or probability of salvation as in the Religion we have Either this is true or there is none That you should venture your souls rather here than elsewhere and at least that you should profess the Christian Religion as men go to a Lottery Reason will tell you thus A man that comes to a Lottery it is uncertain whether he shall have a Prize or no but it is but venturing a shilling possibly he may have a prize so Reason will tell you if it be uncertain whether there be a Heaven or a Hell yet it is a thousand to one there are both I may have a Prize and it 's but venturing the quitting of a few lusts that are not worth the keeping There are some Truths above reason but none contrary to it for grace is not contrary to nature but perfects it therefore there is nothing in the Gospel but what is agreeable to sound reason Reason will tell us there is no doctrine agreeth so much with the wisdom power goodness justice truth and the honour of God as that doctrine revealed in the Scripture 2. When Reason hath thus brought you to the Scripture there 's the great warrant of faith John 17. 20. They that believe in me through their word And Isa. 8. 20. To the law and to the testimony else there is no light in them That 's the sacred standard by which we should measure all doctrines and these will make wise the simple Psal. 19. The plainest meanest simplest man may find out the right way to heaven if he will consult with God's book diligently there he may become wise to salvation the veriest fool and simple man may be taught how to walk directly and safely this is the clue which brings us through all the labyrinths and perplexing debates in the world to consult with the word of God that we may not receive the truth upon man's credit but see the grounds of it with our own eyes He that finds the pearl of price must dig for it Matt. 13. 44. he must read the Scriptures be much in the study of God's book 3. The Scripture leads us to the Spirit because there are many mysteries in the Gospel difficultly known that will not be taken up by a sure faith without illumination from above Besides there are so many various artifices used by men to disguise the truth Eph. 4. 14. And besides there 's a connate blindness and hatred of truth which is natural to men and therefore it 's the Spirit of God must help us to make a wise choice Look as in practical things we shall never chuse the way of truth in opposition to the falsity of worldly enjoyments without the light of the Spirit therefore it is said Prov. 23. 4. Labour not to be rich cease from thine own wisdom If a man be guided by his own understanding he will chuse riches so also in matter of opinion when we lean to our own understanding we shall chuse amiss Iohn 16. 13. It is the Spirit of God that must guide us into all truth therefore you must beg his direction for if we that are so blind of heart be left to our own mistakes or the deceits of others left to the direction of our selves how easily shall we err Say Lord send out thy light and thy truth to lead me to thy holy hill Secondly As we should chuse the way of truth so cleave to it with all firmness and perseverance without seeking out any other way Iohn 6. 67 68. If you turn away from Christ where will you get a better Master change where you will you will change for the worse you will turn your back upon true comfort and true happiness for he hath all this So much for the first part the rightness of David's choice I have chosen the way of truth In the latter clause there you have his diligence and accuracy in walking according to the tenour of the true Religion Thy judgments have I laid before me By judgments is meant the precepts and directions of the word as invested with threatnings and promises for so the word contains every man's doom Not only the execution of God's Providence but the word shews what will become of a man Now these I have laid before me that is propounded them as the Rule of my life as the King was to have the Book of the Law always before him Deut. 17. 19. Doct. 2. When we have chosen the way of truth or taken up the profession of the true Religion the rules of it should be ever before us Three Reasons for this 1. To have a holy Rule and not a holy Life is altogether inconsistent A Christian should be a lively transcript of that Religion he doth profess A Christian should be Christ's Epistle 2 Cor. 3. a walking-Bible 2 Cor. 15. 16. shining as lights holding forth the word of life How not in doctrine but in practice A sutable practice joined with profession puts a majesty and splendor upon the truth If there are many doubts about the true Religion why they are occasioned by the scandalous lives of professors we reason from the Artist to the Art it self Look as there is a correspondence between the stamp and the impress the seal and the thing sealed so should there be between a Christian's life and a Christian's belief the stamp should be upon his own heart upon his life and actions his action should discover his
2. Providences these do more awaken us God's daily Benefits should bring him to our Remembrance Acts 14. 17. Nevertheless he left not himself without Witness in that he did good and gave us rain from Heaven and fruitfull Seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Deut. 8. 18. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for he it is that giveth thee power to get Wealth especially the sanctified Remembrance of God's dealing with his People is the way to keep the heart in the Faith Love and Fear of God and the forgetting his Works is the cause of all Defection and falling off to carnal Courses and Confidences Psal. 78. 11. They forgat his Works and Wonders that he shewed them Psal. 106. 21. They forgat God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt Judges 8. 34. And the Children of Israel remembred not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hands of their Enemies on every side It is a base Ingratitude not to remember prize and esteem God for all this 3. Ordinances Ministry was instituted to put you in Remembrance and give you still new and fresh Occasions to think of God 2 Pet. 1. 12. I will not be negligent to put you always in Remembrance our business is not always to inform you of what you know not but to inculcate and revive known Truths there being much Forgetfulness Stupidness and Senselesness upon our Spirits 2 Pet. 3. 1. That I may stir up your minds by way of Remembrance The Impressions of God on our Minds are soon defaced we need to quicken and awaken your Affections and Resolutions to choose and cleave to God 1 Tim. 4. 6. If thou put the Brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good Minister of Iesus Christ. So Sacraments are instituted to bring God to Remembrance 1 Cor. 11. 24. This doe in Remembrance of me that we may remember his Love and our covenanted Duty The Sabbath was instituted for a Remembrance and Memorial of his creating redeeming Goodness 4. The great office and work of the Spirit is to bring to Remembrance Iohn 14. 26. He shall bring all things to your Remembrance We are apt to forget God and Instructions and Rebukes in their Season the Holy Ghost is our Monitor 3. God will not forget them that remember him he will remember them at every turn Mal. 3. 16. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord harkned and heard it and a book of Remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his Name if he do not openly reward you with temporal Deliverances yet he taketh notice of every thought and every word you speak for him and taketh pleasure in you It is upon Record if you have not the comfort of it now you shall have it in a little time because they thought of him they spake of him and owned him in an evil time and therefore God is represented as hearing and booking and the books shall one day be opened and then you shall have your publick reward 2. Doctr. God is best Remembred when his Name is studied 1. When is his Name studied In the general when we look upon him as he hath manifed himself in his Word and Works More particularly God is discovered sometimes by the Name of his Essence sometimes by his Attributes 1. By the Name of his Essence When Moses was very inquisitive to know his Name and God can best tell his own Name let us see what answer was made him Exod. 3. 12 13. When they shall say unto me What is his Name and God said I Am that I Am. God was sending Moses upon a strange Message he was giving him Commission to go and speak to a King to dismiss and let go six hundred thousand of his Subjects to lead them to a place which God should shew now Moses thought for such a Message he had need have good Authority therefore desireth a significant Name I Am that I Am the form of the words sheweth it was a wonderfull incomprehensible Name Ask not my Name for it is Wonderfull Judg. 13. 18. This is enough to satisfie sober Inquiry though not wanton Curiosity enough for Faith to work upon the great I Am hath sent me It sheweth his unsearchableness It is our manner of speech when we would cover any thing and not answer distinctly we say It is what it is I have said what I have said Finite understandings cannot comprehend him that is Infinite no more than you can empty the Sea with a Cockle-shell 2. He is the great and onely Being in comparison of which all else is nothing Isa. 40. 19. All Nations before him are nothing they are counted less than nothing and vanity You have not a true and full Notion of God if you conceive him onely as the most eminent of all Beings no Being must appear as Being in his sight and in comparison of him As long as you onely conceive God to be the best you still attribute something to the Creature for all Comparatives include the Positive The Creature is nothing in comparison with God all the Glory Perfection and Excellency of the whole World do not amount to the value of an unite in regard of God's Attributes join never so many of them together they cannot make up one number they are nothing in his regard and less than nothing All created Beings must utterly vanish out of sight when we think of God As the Sun doth not annihilate the Stars and make them nothing yet it annihilates their Appearance to our sight some are of the first magnitude some of the second some of the third but in the Day-time all are alike all are darkned by the Sun's glory so it is here there are degrees of Perfection and Excellency if we compare one Creature with another but let once the glorious brightness of God shine upon the Soul and in that light all their differences are unobserved Angels Men Worms they are all nothing less than nothing to be set up against God this magnificent Title I Am darkneth all as if nothing else were God did not tell Moses that he was the best the highest and the most glorious but I Am and there is none else besides me nothing that hath its Being of it self nothing that can be properly called their own thus the incomprehensible Self-existence of God puts Man into his Original nothing none but God can say I Am because all things else are but borrowed drops of this Self-sufficient Fountain other things are near to nothing God most properly is who never was nothing never shall be nothing who may always in all difference of Time say I Am and nothing else but God can say so The Heaven and Earth for six thousand years ago could not say We are Adam could once have said I am as to his existence in the compounded nature of Man but now he cannot say
it for every thing which hath passed his hand carrieth God's Signature and Mark It sheweth that it came from a Being of Infinite power and Wisdome and Goodness but Man hath his Image and Likeness stamped upon him there you may discern God's tract and footprint but here his very Face In his first moulding of him he would plainly and visibly discover himself So again when this making of Man is explained Gen. 2. 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Before we read that Man was created here we see in what sort his Body was framed with great Art though of base Materials a handfull of dust did God inliven and formed into a beautifull Frame But for the Frame within he had a more excellent and perfect Soul than God gave to any other Creature by the union of both these man became a living Soul Heaven and Earth were married in his Person the dust of the Earth and an immortal Spirit which is called the breath of God were sweetly linked and joyned together with a disposition and inclination to one another the Soul to the Body and the Body to the Soul When he had raised the Walls of the Flesh and built the House of the Body with all its Rooms then he puts in a noble and divine Guest to dwell in it and both make up one Man 2. The making of Man now is the work of God as well as the making of the first Man was God's hands did not onely make and fashion Adam but David he saith Thy hands have made me and fashioned me The Body of Man is of God's framing Psal. 139. 15 16. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy book all my Members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them Our Bodies you see there though the Matter were propagated by our Parents yet his hands made them and fashioned them God is more our Father than our natural Parents are our Parents know not whether the Child will be male or female beautifull or deformed cannot tell the number of the Bones Muscles Veins Arteries this God appointeth and frameth with curious Artifice so that of all visible Creatures there is none in any sort equalleth Man in the curious Composition of his Body whether we look upon the beauty and majesty of his Person or take notice of the variety nature and use of his several Parts with their Composition and framing them together with a wonderfull order and correspondence one to another as if they had been described by a Model and Platform set down in a Book So secretly and curiously was the Matter framed in passing through all the changes in the Womb till it came to a perfect formation Then for the Soul God infuseth that Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall our dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit to God that gave it God gave the Body too but especially the Spirit because there he worketh singly and immediately therefore he is called the Father of Spirits they do not run in the Channel of carnal generation or fleshly descent Heb. 12. 9. So Zedekiah swore by the God that made his Soul So Zech. 12. He formed the spirit of man within him The Parent doth instrumentally produce Man in respect of his Body yet the Soul is from God and immediately created and infused into the Body by him and being put into that dead lump of Clay doth animate and quicken it for the most excellent Imployment 3. Man that was created by God was created to serve him He formed us from the Womb to be his Servants as well as the first Man Isa. 49. 5. Adam indeed was appointed for this use all other Creatures were made to serve God but Man especially by the design of his Creation other things ultimately and terminatively but Man immediately and nextly God made all things for himself Prov. 16. 4. and Rom. 11. 36. For of him and through him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Man is the Mouth of the Creation surely 't is but reason that God should have the use of all that he gave us that the Authour of Life and Being should have some glory by them that he should dwell in the House he hath set up he that made it hath most right to use it that we should glorify him with our Bodies and Souls which are his 1 Cor. 6. 20. Man is designed ingaged by greater Mercies furnished with great Abilities as at first endowed with God's Image he hath Faculties and Capacities to know and glorify his Creatour There are natural Instincts given to other things or Inclinations to those things which are convenient to their own Nature but none of them are in a capacity to know what they are and have and where they are they cannot frame a Notion of him who gave them a Being Man is the Mouth of the Creation to speak for them Psalm 145. 10. All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints bless thee He was made to love and serve and glorify God The divine Image inclined him to Obedience at first 4. We are not now what God made us at first but are strangely disabled to serve him and please him Eccles. 7. 29. God made man upright but they have sought out many inventions There is man's original and his degeneration what he was once made and how far now unmade and departed from his primitive Estate his perfection by Creation and defection by Sin first made in a state of Righteousness without Sin and now in a state of Sin and Misery without Grace was created with an holy Disposition to inable and incline him to love please and obey God but now hath found out many Inventions put to his shifts Man was not contented to be at God's finding but would take his own course and hath miserably shifted ever since to patch up a sorry Happiness So Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and are come short of the glory of God by glory of God is not meant his glorious Reward but his glorious Image Image is called glory 1 Cor. 11. 7. 'T is said of the Man That he is the image and glory of God as the Woman is the glory of the Man So compare 2 Cor. 3. 18. We beholding the glory of the Lord in a glass c. so here We are come short of the glory of God that is his glorious Image Hence it is that all our Faculties are perverted the Mind is become blind and vain the Will stubborn and perverse Conscience stupid the Affections preoccupied and intangled and we find a manifest disproportion in all our Faculties to things carnal and spiritual sinfull and holy In the Understanding there is a
do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly God delighteth not in dealing harshly with his People The Rod is not that he taketh pleasure in if our case doth not call for it Lam. 3. 33. He afflicts not willingly We provoke him to it And shall we grow weary of his service because we suffer justly for our sins There is reason indeed why we should grow weary of sin Ier. 2. 19. we find the bitterness of it But no reason why we should grow weary of Duty Sin less and suffer less Provoke not God and nothing will proceed from him but what is good and comfortable he doth not punish or chasten men for holiness and well-doing no 't is for want of holiness Shall the Physician be blamed for the trouble of Physic when the Patient hath contracted a Surfeit that makes it necessary 'T was sin in general brought us into a state of suffering and particular errors that actually bring it on Secondly The benefits and fruit of Afflictions should allay and abundantly recompence the trouble of them that they should not be an hinderance or a snare but an help to Godliness They prevent our surfeit of wordly Prosperity which would cost us dearer than all the troubles of the Flesh which we meet with Alas what sad work doth Honour and Wealth and Power make in the world Blessed be God that he keepeth us under low humble and contemned like bottles in the smoke Shall a little affliction which saveth us from these opportunities of discovering our corruption be so resented by us as that we should wax weary of God and forget his Precepts Great and long Prosperity would be a sorer temptation to us than sharp and tedious Affliction the one keepeth us modest and humble whereas the other would make us vain and proud and wanton When Iesurun waxed fat he kicked Deut. 32. 15. He forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation Slighted God and grew cold in duty ready to sin As a rank Soil breedeth weeds a pleasant Estate doth but fill us with vanity and folly Thirdly God in good time will send help and deliverance If we remember to plead the Promise God will remember to fulfil the Promise And those who are not unmindful of their duty God will not be unmindful of their safety Mal. 3. 16. The Lord hearkned and heard and a book of remembrance was written before him for those that feared the Lord and thought upon his Name You see there that God will not forget those that forget not his Word Those that keep their feet in the worst times when others reel and stagger God hath a great care of them Every word you speak for God every inconvenience you suffer for him every duty you perform to him 't is all upon Record Fourthly We may with the more confidence recommend our case to God Psal. 119. 153. Consider mine affliction and deliver me for I do not forget thy law They that do not make haste to deliver themselves God will deliver them The same God that requireth duty doth assure them of comfort SERMON XCII On the Fifth of November 1668. PSAL. CXIX VER 85. The proud have digged pits for me which are not after thy law THis Verse containeth a Complaint against his Enemies whereas most of the other Verses express his affection to the Law of God Yea this Verse strongly implieth it for he censureth and condemneth his Enemies mainly upon this ground because they did what they please without any regard to that Law which he himself took to be the Rule of his Duty and the Charter of his Hopes and Happiness Observe three things 1. The Character of David's Enemies The Proud 2. Their Practice or subtile and treacherous dealing with him They have digged pits for me 3. David's Censure of that Practice or their manifest Iniquity Which are not after thy law Let us Explain the Words The Proud In the Scripture it signifieth 1 either the Wicked in general Psal. 119. 21. Thou hast rebuked the proud which are cursed which do err from thy commandments 'T is an horrible arrogancy to oppose God's Laws and Interests in the World 2 more particularly such as are puffed up with worldly happiness and success and so either Saul's or Absolom's Counsellors may be intended Have digged pits for me A metaphorical Phrase usual in Scripture to represent the secret Plots and treacherous dealings of wicked Enemies an Allusion to them who digged Pits to take wild Beasts In the Greek 't is They have told me Tales Though this rendring was occasioned by a mistake of the word yet it agreeth well enough with the sense for this digging of Pits by false pretences and ensnaring counsels Prov. 16. 27. An ungodly man diggeth up evil and in his lips there is as a burning fire But let us keep to the Translation we have The manner of Toyls among the Iews was digging Pits and covering them over and hiding snares in them That as the Beast prest the clod and fell therein he might be caught and kept from getting out again Therefore David saith Psal. 35. 7. Without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul. Which are not after thy law Hebr. Not after thy law It may refer to the Men or the Practice who walk not according to thy Law or which fraudulent practices of theirs are not agreeable to thy Law The Law of God condemned Pits for tame Beasts Exod. 21. 33 34. If a man open a pit or dig a pit and not cover it and an ox or ass fall therein The owner of the pit shall make it good and give money to the owners of them Though it was lawful for Hunters to take wild Beasts yet they were to take heed that a tame Beast fell not therein at their peril Yet not for Men innocent and holy Men. But there is a Litotes in the words That is said not to be good or well done which is extremely evil very contrary to thy Law Thus we are wont to speak of a thing horrid in terms of extenuation As when we speak of a Fact it is not very commendable when we mean it is extremely abominable So crafty and subtile dealing consenteth not with the truth of God's Word that is it is extremely opposite to it This is produced by David as a ground of his confidence why he hoped he should not be taken in these Pits These practices were not only injurious to himself but contemptuous of the Law of God He layeth forth his Enemies carriage before God Note I. That secret Plottings against the Interests of God and his People in the world are an ancient practice II. That these Plots usually begin in Pride III. That God can when he will and usually doth protect his People against the Plots of the Proud or the Fraud as well as the Violence of Enemies IV. That God's Law forbiddeth all
fulfilled on earth but decreed in Heaven fixed and setled there by God's unalterable Purpose and Will 2. That in Heaven there is an Emblem of it 'T is usual in Scripture to set forth the stability and constancy of God's Word by this similitude as Psal. 89. 2. Mercy shall be built up for ever thy faithfulness hast thou established in the very heavens So when 't is compared with the Covenant of day and night Jer. 33. 20 21. Thus saith the Lord if you can break my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night that there should not be day and night in their seasons Then may also my Covenant be broken with David my servant So Ier. 31. 35 36 37. This sense I incline to because in the next Verse 't is compared with the stability of the earth Well then his Word is setled in Heaven partly because the Heavens stand fast by the same Word by which they were first made Gen. 1. 3 6. And God said Let there be light and there was light Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and divide the waters from the waters and it was so So Midrash Tillim And partly because the Being and Order of Heaven sheweth the setledness of God's Word as the Heavens were created and setled in a course which they constantly observe in their motions and this duration and equability in the motion is so exact that men can foresee Eclipses long before they happen therefore the Psaâ—…st saith Psal. 114 19. The Sun knoweth his going down that is keepeth so to the just Poâ—…ts of his Compass as if he were an intelligent Agent and knew the exact time when to set and rise Now when we lift up our eyes to Heaven and see how punctually and exactly the Order is observed which is once setled by God's Will even from the beginning of the world to this day no remarkable change hath been observed the heavenly bodies keep their tenour and course and by their constant motions distribute their light and influence to the world and this from their first Creation and all because he hath said It shall be so in the strength of his Word they abide This continuance of the Heavens sheweth the permanency of his Word DOCT. That God's Word is of an Eternal Truth and Immutable Constancy By his Word is principally meant the Gospel Covenant It is said by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 40. ver 8. The grass withereth and the flower fadeth but the word of our God shall stand for ever And the Apostle Peter quoting and improving the same place saith The word of God is the Gospel preached unto you 1 Pet. 1. 24 25. And more especially the promise of eternal life for that is opposite to the fading glory of the present life and is the eternal effect of the Word of God abiding in our hearts when all other things fade and decay this blessed estate offered in and conveyed by the Gospel will not fail us 1. I shall give you the Reasons 2. The Emblem and Representation 3. The Profit and Usefulness of this Meditation 1. The Reasons In every Promise that it be certain and firm three things are required First That it may be made seriously and heartily with a purpose to perform it Secondly That he that hath promised continue in his purpose without change of mind Thirdly That it be in the power of him that promiseth to perform what he hath so promised Now of all these things there can be no doubt 1. Certainly God meaneth as he speaketh when he promiseth to give eternal life to those that believe and obey the Gospel There is no question but he is so minded when he hath written a Book to assure the world of it for what need God to courâ—… the Creature with an imaginary happiness or to tell them of a glorious Estate which he never meant to bestow upon them Yea why should Amen the faithful Witness come from Heaven farther to assure us of it by his Doctrine dye the death to purchase it for us and afterward rise again and enter into that happiness which he spake of That our faith and hope may be in God 1 Pet. 1. 21. Why should he as soon as he was ascended give gifts unto men send forth messengers into the world to preach this doctrine and give notice of this blessed Estate to be had upon these terms and attest it by divers signs and wonders partly to alarum the drowsie world to regard it and assure the incredulous world of the truth of this salvation Heb. 2. 3 4. Not to believe that God is serious in all this is to make him a Lyar indeed yea to establish a Lye and Falshood with great Solemnity 2. That God doth continue his purpose is no doubt if we consider his eternal and unchangeable Nature Mal. 3. 6. For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Iacob are not consumed And James 1. 17. With him is neither variableness nor shadow of turning And what should alter his purpose Doth he meet with any thing that he foresaw not and knew not before God doth never repent and call back his Grant that he hath by this Act of Grace ensured Eternal Happiness to the Saints on such terms 1 Sam. 15. 29. For the strength of Israel will not lye nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent Psal. 110. 4. I have sworn and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Christ is instated in full power of entertaining and blessing his faithful Servants which shall never be retracted To take off all doubt he hath given us double assurance his Word and his Oath Heb. 6. 17 18. God being willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath That by two immutable things wherein it was impossible for God to lye we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge c. God hath ever been tender of his Word above all that is famed or believed of God this is most conspicuous Psal. 138. 2. Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name Now this needed not for an Oath is interposed in a doubtful matter but it sheweth God's extraordinary care for our satisfaction his good will is seen in the Promise his solicitude in the Oath In short God would never be so fast bound but that he doth continue his purpose 3. That he is able to perform it Mat. 19. 26. With God all things are possible Rom. 4. 21. Being fully persuaded that what God had promised he was able to perform Phil. 3. 21. According to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself He is able to find out a way whereby sinners may be reconciled sanctified subdued by his Spirit whereby his Interests may be preserved in them against the assaults of the Devil the World and the Flesh finally able to
as others but they have a being in the world to come and therefore the Word of God is called the Word of eternal life John 6. 68. that is the end and use of it it maketh them capable of eternal life that obey it So 1 Pet. 1. 25. The Word of God abideth and continueth for ever 'T is the seed and principle of eternal life 't is the Charter of their everlasting priviledges they shall enjoy in the world to come But how doth the Word endure for ever 'T is not meant subjectively but effectively because it assures us of eternal life upon obeying it and threatens eternal death to all that reject it Use 1. Oh then let us be much in hearing reading studying and obeying this Word that makes us everlastingly happy if the commandment be so exceeding broad why do we make no more use of it 1. Let our hearts be more taken up about it that should be our main care wherein to busie our selves day and night Psal. 1. 1. Our delight should not be in vain Books and empty Histories but in the Law of God we should often look into the Charter of our great hopes 2. Be directed by the Word of God 't will direct you in every business Psal. 119. 105. Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path Here is direction for you in prosperity and adversity 3. Study it that you may be sanctified by it Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth This is the great benefit that we have by the Word 't is the instrument of sanctification 4. Be much in the study of the Word that you may be assured by it that you may make out your own qualification to the Kingdom of Heaven Acts 13. 46. Since you put away the Word of God from you you judge your selves unworthy of eternal life When you let God's Book lie by neglected and never hear it nor read it nor mediate on it the thing is past all question you judge your selves unworthy of eternal life Use 2. Let this commend the Word of God to us that eternal life is in it other writings and discourses may tickle the ears with some pleasing eloquence but that is vanishing like a Musician's voice other writings may represent some petty and momentary advantage but how soon shall an end be put to all that so that within a little time the advantage of all these Books shall be gone The Statutes and Laws of Kings and Parliaments can reach no farther than some temporal reward or punishment their highest pain is killing of the body their highest reward is some vanishing and fading honour or perishing riches but God's Word concerning our everlasting estate our eternal well or ill being eternal life and death is wrapt up in these Laws and Commandments these are rewards and punishments suitable to the Eternal Majesty of the Lawgiver Here is life and immortality brought to light and offered to them who have so miserably lost it and involved their souls in an eternal death therefore let us have a precious esteem of the Scripture which shews us the way of escaping that misery into which we have plunged our selves and a way of obtaining eternal blessedness Do not then go to a wrong Guide and Rule nothing more necessary to be known than what our End is and the way that leadeth to that End The most part of men walk at random and run an uncertain Race they have neither a certain scope nor a sure way Mens particular inclinations and humors are an ill ill Guide for they incline us to please the flesh and so we shall miss of everlasting blessedness and wander in a bie-path that leadeth to destruction Naturally Man is more addicted to temporal things than spiritual and to worldly vanities than to spiritual enjoyments and it is in vain to persuade Men to look after better things till the carnal affections be mortified and one way and great means to mortifie carnal affections and inclinations is to consider the vanity of the Creature and when our affections are weaned from the world we must look after some better things to set our hearts upon That good which satisfieth all the desires and capacities of Man had need to be an infinite and an eternal good Now these better things are only discovered in the Word of God the Word of God discovers that there is such an estate as everlasting glory and blessedness The Word telleth us plainly and peremptorily who shall go to Heaven and who to Hell well then if you would have this comfort you must see whether you have embraced it with that reverence faith and obedience which the importance of it doth require SERMON CI. PSAL. CXIX VER 97. O how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day IN this Psalm you have a perfect character of a Regenerate Man what he is and what he ought to be in his Meditations his Exercises his Affections and all this recommended to us from the frame of David's heart and example and course of his way Men of spiritual experience can best judge of these affections for as face answereth face in a glass so doth the heart of one Believer to another In these words you have 1 His love asserted 2 Demonstrated from the effect 1. His love asserted O how love I thy Law 2. Demonstrated from the effect of it It is my meditation all the day This is an effect for we are wont to muse upon what we love therefore David loving the Law of God is always thinking of it First For the Assertion Observe the matter asserted and the vehemency of the Assertion The matter asserted is love to the Law The vehemency of the Assertion O how I love thy Law It is an Admiration with an Exclamation David is not contented with a naked affirmation I love thy Law but useth a pathetical protestation of it How love I thy Law The Interrogation expresseth wonder How I love thy Law And the Exclamation O how that gives vent to strong affection as if he had said It is more than I am able to express The Law is taken for the whole Scripture as often in this Psalm Secondly For the demonstration of this affection It is my meditation all the day that is I do often meditate thereof and can spend whole days therein The words may signifie frequency of such thoughts they were not such as did come now and then but all the day his heart was working on holy things as the blessed Man is described Psal. 1. 2. that is every day he is working something out of the Word of God Or 't is my meditation all the day it may note the depth and ponderousness of these thoughts his mind did not run out upon the Law with slighty sallies but he had such thoughts as were solid and serious and did abide with him The Points from hence are two 1. That God's People have a great love to his
quickned me O! when a child of God is even dead and hath many damps and discouragements upon his heart when he goes to the Word there he hath quickning reviving and is encouraged to wait upon God again All our discomfort comes from forgetting what God hath spoken in his Word Heb. 12. 5. Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children There 's abundant consolation in the Word but we forget it and do not carry it always in our mind and then we lie under much dejection of heart if we do not study it discomfort will come upon us In the Word there 's a remedy for every malady and an ease for every smart and therefore this is that which makes it precious to the children of God II. Secondly The Saints readily yield this love to the Word Why 1. Because their hearts are suited to the Word The Word is every way suited to the sanctified nature and the sanctified nature is suited to it for that which is written in God's Book is written over again upon their hearts by the finger of the Spirit while we are in our natural state there is an enmity to the Law of God For we are not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Rom 8. 7. I but when they come to be written upon the heart and mind then our affections are suited to the Word Carnal men do not love the Word why because it is contrary to them as Micaiah to Ahab He prophesieth nothing but evil to me it only rubs their sores and discovers their spots to them and that 's grievous and proud spirits think it to be a simple plain doctrine Worldly spirits love it not for it draweth them off wholly to think of things to come but they whose hearts are suited to it they have a mighty love to it 2. They have tasted the goodness of the Word therefore they love it 2 Pet. 2. 3. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word why If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious if you have felt any benefit Ier. 15. 16. Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of mine heart When they come to taste digest and have experience of the benefit in comforting changing supporting their own hearts then they love the Word of God that hath been the instrument of it Iam. 1. 18. He hath begotten us by the word of truth then what follows Be swift to hear If a man be begotten if he hath felt the benefit of the Word then he will be taking all occasions to delight himself and refresh his soul in the VVord of God in reading hearing meditating because he hath found sensible benefit Use 1. To shame and humble us that we are so cold in our love It is an admirable and an incredible affection David here speaks Consider who it was that speaks thus David he that was incumbred with the employments of a Kingdom he that had so many Courtly pleasures so many great businesses to divert and draw him aside yet all his employment could not with-hold him from delighting himself in the VVord of God It was David that was a King and mark how he doth express himself he doth not say I endeavor to keep thy Word but I love thy Word Nay he saith more he speaks of it as a thing he could not express How I love thy Law No great wonder that we cannot express the excellency of the Word but that our affections which are so finite that these should not be exprest this is wonderful Then he speaks of it with Exclamation too O how I love thy Law and he speaks this to God the Septuagint read it Lord how have I loved thy Law He makes God himself to be Judge not only of the truth of his love as Peter makes Christ the Judge of the truth of his love I have many failings I have fallen foully of late but Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest I love thee but he makes God the Judge of the strength of his love Lord how do I love thy Law Have we any thing answerable Heart should answer heart Are there such affections wrought in us as David expresseth to be in himself This should shame us for we have more reason there is more of the VVord of God revealed to us more of the counsel of God discover'd the Canon of Scripture being enlarged more discover'd than ever was to David yet our affections so cold SERMON CII PSAL. CXIX VER 97. Oh how love I thy Law c. I Come now to a second Use. To press us to get this Love Take three Arguments 1. This will wean us from sinful delight that is apt to insinuate with us and take our hearts it will draw us off from carnal pastimes curious studies vain pamphlets if you had this Love here would be your recreation in the word of God Castae deliciae meae sunt Scripturae tuae saith Austin here are my chaste delights thy holy Scripture to be ruminating and meditating there Here you will be employing your time and strength of your thoughts There are two things mightily concern us to make Religion our business and recreation our business in regard of the seriousness and our recreation and delight in regard of the sweetness Now if you have a word from God here will be your delight you will be exercising your selves contemplating the height depth and breadth of God's Love in Christ Jesus and turning over this blessed book Iob 23. 12. I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food Your very food for sustentation of your bodies will not be so sweet to you as the word of God for the comfort and refreshing of the Soul when the promises are as dry breasts and withered flowers when men have little or no feeling of the power of it upon their hearts no wonder they are besotted with the pleasures of sin Mans mind must have some pleasure and oblectation but their harts are chained to carnal delights so that they cannot mind the business of their souls 2. Your hearts will be more stable and upright with God more constant in the profession of godliness when you come to love the word and love the truth for the truths sake 2 Thes. 2. 12. Because they received not the truth in the Love of it therefore God gave them up to strong delusions that they might believe lyes The Lord hath seen it sit ever to continue this dispensation in the course of his Providence to suffer seducing spirits to go forth to try how we have received the truth whether only in the bare profession of it or received it in the Love of it Many have received the truth in the light of it that is compelled by Conscience and by humane tradition and currant opinions and custom of the country to profess it but they do not love it therefore they
honours and pleasures and are notable in this kind of skill in promoting their secular ends in these things A child of God may be a Fool to them for this kind of wisdom for it is our Saviour's observation Luke 16. 8. The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light Though David was wiser than his Enemies yet the children of this world are wiser in their Generations that is as to carnal fetches and devices to accomplish their worldly purposes In their Generation that is about the course of their affairs Thus David is not wiser than his Enemies 3. It is not great skill in Arts and Civil Discipline This is indeed a gift of God but given promiscuously sometimes to the good and sometimes to the bad sometimes to the good for Solomon could unravel all the secrets of nature and dispute of every thing from the cedar to the hysop 1 Kings 4. 23 29 30 31. and sometimes to the bad as the Heathen Philosophers many of whom knew all things almost within the circuit of the world yet how little this wisdom is to be valued in regard of that wisdom which we get by God's Commandments God hath in some short shew'd in that he hath suffered those Books which Solomon writ concerning Trees Plants Beasts to be lost whereas to this day the writings of the Heathens are preserved as Aristotle's Book de Animalibus c. But now those Books in which Solomon taught the fear of God and true wisdom which is godliness are by the singular care of God's Providence conserved for our use and benefit God hath herein shew'd that we might want those other Books without the loss of true wisdom but those Books that indeed make us wise to salvation those are kept Learning is a glorious endowment indeed but God would give us that gift by the writings of Heathens but grace which is true wisdom he would give us that by the holy Scripture A Man may excel in learning yet after all the profound researches and enquiries of his high flown reason into the mysteries of nature he may be a very Fool and be damned for ever for Paul saith of the Philosophers Rom. 1. 22. Professing to be wise they became fools since they had not the true knowledge of God and the way of salvation 4. 'T is not a bare knowledge of God's will but wisdom Knowledge is one thing and wisdom another I wisdom dwell with prudence Prov. 8. 12. Many are knowing men well skill'd with notions but they want prudence or practical direction for the governing of their hearts and ordering of their ways In the Scripture you shall find Faith is not only opposed to ignorance but to folly Luke 24. 25. O ye fools and slow of heart to believe Every natural Man is a Fool Tit. 3. 3. though never so notionally wise and skill'd in the theory of divine knowledge Prov. 14. 8. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way Not to soar aloft in speculation abstract from practice and remote from spiritual influence but to direct his course so as he may attain to the chiefest good not only to know what is to be done but to do what is to be known Carnal men they have great knowledge and yet are spiritual Fools for all that they may lick the glass and never taste the honey or like Negroes that dig in Mines of knowledge while others enjoy the gold they may search out the mysteries of that Religion which the godly man lives upon dispute of Heaven while others surprize it and take it by force or like the Lark soar high but fall into the Net of the Fowler A careful strict walking that 's the true wisdom and thus we have stated the Benefit II. Secondly Here 's the Author of this Benefit which is God Thou through thy Commandments which I note not only to shew to whom we must go for this wisdom If any man lack wisdom let him ask it of God Jam. 1. 5. Nor to shew to whom we must ascribe the glory of it if we get any benefit by the Word praise belongeth to God who is the Father of lights from whom cometh every good and perfect gift Jam. 1. 17. All Candles are lighted at his Torch and all the Stars owe their brightness to this Sun to the Father of lights we owe all the light wisdom and direction that we have I say not only for these ends do I note it but to shew the main and principal reason why a Child of God is far more safe by his godly wisdom than their Enemies by all their worldly policy why God is of his side counselling directing and instructing him what to do whereas they are acted and influenced by Satan Psal. 37. 12 13. The wicked plotteth against the just the Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is coming The wicked plotteth against him but there 's a wise God that acts for him He doth not say the just countermineth the wicked and strains himself to match his Enemy with policy and craft but God watcheth for him If it were only this Policy against Piety it were not so much but it is Mens craft against God's wisdom Prov. 21. 30. There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. These three words express the sum and heighth of all natural abilities Wisdom notes a quick apprehension Understanding a wise foresight grounded upon experience Counsel a designation of some rare artifice and device now neither Wisdom nor Understanding nor Counsel none of these can stand against the Lord. God's Children are sometimes dismay'd when they consider the advantages of their Enemies their wisdom learning malice experience But here 's their comfort that they may set God against all these God who is the Fountain of wisdom for he is interested in their cause his wisdom against their craft and so having the direction of the mighty Counsellor they are safe III. Thirdly Here is the means Through thy Commandments or through the directions of the Word You will say What can we learn from the Word to match our Enemies in Policy What wisdom will that teach us for our safety and preservation against the malice of our wicked Enemies There is our Rule and the more close and punctual we are in the observance of it the more safe we are A double wisdom we learn from the Word of God which is our security against the malice and craft of our Enemies 1. This wisdom we get by the Commandment it directs us how to keep in with God which is our great wisdom this is to stop danger at the fountain head Prov. 16. 7. When a man's ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him The way to get peace and safety in evil times is not to comply with Enemies but to comply with God All our danger lies in his anger not in their wrath and rage for God can
they could not clearly discern the meaning of that Type but now all things are open we can behold the Lamb of God therefore must be often with God suing out our pardon in the Name of Christ. 2. The Sacrifice of Praise It is notable when the Apostle had spoken of Christ as a sin-offering he mentions this as the main thing in the Gospel Heb. 13. 15. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually Praise it ought continually frequently and upon all occasions to be offer'd to God for this is a more noble duty than Prayer Self-love may put us upon Prayer but love to God puts us upon praise and thanksgiving we pray because we need God and we praise because we love him In Prayer we become Beggars that God would bestow something upon us but in praise we come according to poor creatures to bestow something upon God even to give him the glory due to his Name and tell him what he hath done for our poor souls This is the most noble among all the parts of Christian Worship We have more cause to give thanks than to pray for we have many things more to praise God for than to pray to him for There are many favors which go before all thought of desert and many favors still bestow'd upon us beyond what we can either ask or think Doct. 2. Secondly These spiritual offerings must be free-will offerings to God This expression is often spoken of in the Law Lev. 22. 18. Numb 29. 39. 2 Chron. 31. 14. Amos 4. 5. What are these free will-offerings They are distinguish'd from God's stated Worship and distinguish'd from that service which fell under a Vow Besides the stated Peace offerings there were certain Sacrifices perform'd upon certain occasions to testifie God's general goodness and upon receipts of some special mercy and you will find these Sacrifices to be expresly distinguish'd from such services as men bound themselves â—…o â—…y vow Lev. 7. 16. What is there that answers now to these free-will-offerings Certainly this is not spoken to this use that a man should devise any part of worship of his own â—…ad whatever pretence of zeal he hath but they serve to teach us two things 1. They are to teach us how ready we should be to take all occasions of thankfulness and spiritual worship for besides their vowed services and instituted services they had daily Sacrifices and set Feasts commanded by God they had their free-will offerings offer'd to God in thankfulness for some special blessing received or deliverance from danger 2. It shews with what voluntariness and chearfulness we should go about God's worship in the Gospel and what a free disposition of heart there should be and edge upon our affections in all things that we offer to God and in this latter sense I shall speak that our offerings to God Prayer and Praise should be free-will-offerings come from us not like water out of a Still forc'd by the Fire but like water out of a Fountain with native freeness readily and freely 1. God loves a chearful Giver constrained service is of no value and respect with him Under the Law when Sacrifice of Beasts were in fashion wherefore did God chuse the purest and fattest of every thing offer'd to him but as a testimony of a willing mind and still he looks to the affections rather than the action God weighs the Spirit Prov. 16. 2. When God comes to put them into the balance of the Sanctuary what doth he weigh External circumstances of duty or the pomp and appearance wherein men go No but he considers with what kind of heart it is done and the love of sin God takes notice of that as well as the practice of sin So in our duties God takes notice of the love the inclination of our souls as well as the outward service therefore our offerings must be free and voluntary 2. God deserves it he doth us good with all his heart and all his givings come to us from his love Why did he give Christ for us and to us He loved us Why gave he him for us God so loved the world John 3. 16. Why doth he give Christ to us Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ. That which moved God to bestow his saving grace upon us was his great love and all the good we receive from him why mercy pleaseth him and I will rejoice over them to do them good If he deliver us out of any danger he hath loved us from the grave Isa. 38. 7. Now love should season all our services to God 3. Where a day of grace hath past upon our hearts so it will be the soul will come off readily and freely to the duties God hath requir'd of us Psal. 110. 3. Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power We are naturally backward slow of heart to do any thing that is good hang off from God will not be subject to him but when the day of his power passeth upon us then we are a willing People we are more delighted in communion with God less averse from him the bent of our hearts is altered and the stream of our affections is turnâ—…d another way and our converses with God are more delightful and we are as earnest in serving God as before we were in serving sin Use. To press us to serve God with a perfect heart and with a willing mind 1 Chron. 29. 9. Thus when we give God any spiritual Sacrifice when we pray or praise him we should do it willingly not customarily or by constraint or for by-ends nor by the compulsion of a natural Conscience and when we feel as we shall now and then any tediousness and irksomness in Prayer we should quicken our selves by this motive Christ Jesus who was our sin offering he willingly offer'd up himself upon the service of our salvation I might urge other Arguments as the nobleness of our service the greatness of our reward the many sweet Experiences we shall gain in our converse with God but this should be as the Reason of Reasons and instead of all Christ Jesus did not grudgingly go about the work of our salvation but willingly offer'd himself Psal. 40. 8. I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart When God would have no more legal sin offerings but the great sin-offering of the Gospel was to be produc'd and brought forth in the view of the world Lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me Now our thank-offering should be carried on with the same willingness Christ will be served now out of gratitude and therefore his love should constrain us Surely if we believe this great mystery of Christ that he did willingly offer himself upon the service of our souls and
the Scriptures were written not for Ministers or professed Students God speaketh to all sorts of men in the Scripture and therefore would have all understand them He wrote the Scripture that it might be read of all young and old Deut. 30. 11 12. This Commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee neither is it far off It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it c. Rich and poor the King was to read in it all the days of his life Deut. 17. 18 19. It shall be that when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom he shall write him a Copy in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life Every good man is to meditate in it Psal. 1. 2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night Deut. 6. 6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up The Apostles wrote Epistles to the whole Church spake to old men youth little Children 1 Iohn 2. 13. I write unto you Fathers because ye have known him that is from the beginning I write unto you young men because ye have overcome the wicked one I write unto you little Children because ye have known the Father To Kings Judges Men Women Husbands Wives Fathers Children Masters Servants was it written for their use nor must it be taken out of their hands nor is it above their reach 3. The end why it was written to be a sure and infallible direction to guide us to eternal life and make us wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus Not only so but it is our food and means of growth 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born Babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Every life hath food convenient for it It is our weapon in temptation Ephes. 6. 17. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God To be read by all in this spiritual warfare they are all engaged in It is Gods testament therefore should be viewed by his Children the Epistle of the Creator to his Creatures therefore to be read by them to whom it is sent Gods Letter must not be intercepted upon all these reasons There is enough to make wise the simple in Scriptures But is there nothing difficult in Scriptures Answ. Yes to subdue the pride of mans wit to quicken us to wait and depend upon him for knowledge to prevent contempt to exercise our industry and diligence and to fasten truths on our minds There is some difficulty but not such difficulty as that the people neither can nor ought to read them with profit which is the dispute between us and Papists There is no difficulty but what is conquerable by that Grace that God ordinarily dispenseth and the means of explaining or applying not a whole loaf but a dimensum his share for it distributes to every man his portion Use 1. For the confutation of them that forbid the simple the use of the word The Papists say Gods Word is dark and hard to be understood therefore they lock it up from the people in an unknown tongue as if none could profit by it but the learned sort Yea many among us are ready to say What should simple men do with Scripture and think all the confusions and troubles of the world come from giving people this liberty Answ. Though in the word there are mysteries to exercise the greatest Wits yet there are plain truths to edifie the simple This Text is a notable proof against them It is good to have a Text against every errour of theirs They are injurious to God as if he had revealed his mind so darkly or his word that it were so doubtful and harmful that there were danger in reading it injurious to the Scriptures while they tax them with obscurity injurious to the people of God while they despise those whom the Lord inviteth with their Pharisaical pride Iohn 7. 49. But this people who know not the Law are cursed hinder them of their comfort The simple have souls to save therefore have need to see with their own eyes to consider Gods Charter They pretend they do it in mercy to the people lest by their mistakes they should ruine themselves and introduce confusion into the world They should as well say All must be starved and deny meat and drink because some surfeit But certainly they do it for their own interest they have false Wares to vend and to keep the people from discovering the errours they impose upon them they would conceal the Scriptures from them Ignorance is a friend to the Devils Kingdom The blind go as they are led They are afraid of the Scriptures as a Thief of a Candle or the light which would discover his villany and hinder his design Iohn 3. 20. Use 2. Of encouragement to poor Christians that have a sense of weakness Before Plato's School was written Let none but the learned come in hither but Christ inviteth the simple that none might be discouraged he speaketh to all sorts Prov. 8. 4 5. Unto you O men I call and my voice is to the sons of men O ye simple understand wisdom and ye fools be of an understanding heart That which is spoken to all is thought to be spoken for none Christ speaketh to men under their several distinctions noble base young or old rich or poor If any earthly profit be offered to any that will take it who will exempt themselves None are so modest But in spiritual things persons are more stupid Let none be discouraged by weakness of parts all are invited to learn and here they may be taught of any capacity Oh! but how many will say I am so weak of understanding that I shall make no work of such deep mysteries as are contained in the Scriptures Answ. 1. Many times this objection cometh from a sluggish heart to ease themselves of the trouble of a duty as meditation or prayer they pretend weakness they would have a rule that would make knowledge 2. If it be serious God is able to interpret his own Book unto thee He must indeed open the door or we cannot get into the knowledge of truths there If you had better parts you would be but groping about the door He that hath not the right Key is as far from entring the
are my Meditation We see things in transitu and know them only by hear-say without Meditation To move the Will we had need deal seriously with our own hearts e're we can gain them to a Consent Thoughts are the spokesmen that make up the Match between the Soul and the Temptation they were given for the like office in good things they are the first Acts of the Soul to set a-work all the rest Things lye by till we take them into our Thoughts and Consideration at leisure that we may know what is their tendency and how they concern us You cannot Imagine the Gospel should work as a Charm and Convert us we know not how before Consent and Choice There is a propounding and debating of terms the greatest matters will not work on him that doth not think of them God and Christ and Heaven and Salvation are looked upon in a cold and remiss manner without this serious Consideration And to excite and quicken and stir our Affections Meditation is useful We complain of deadness and we our selves are the Cause because we do not rouse up our selves excite and compel our selves expostulate with our selves Isa. 64. 7. And there is none that calleth upon thy name and stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Man hath a power to whet Truths upon his own heart and if he will not make use of it and reason for God with our selves we are justly left under the power of deadness and stupidness of Spirit 2. 'T is a great help to our Graces Faith takes root by Meditation Matth. 13. 5. The seed forthwith sprang up because it had no deepness of earth A careless slight heart is no fit soil for Faith to grow in 2. Hope is made lively by Consideration of the thing hoped for 3. Charity is inflamed by the sight and frequent view of Divine Objects in their Beauty and Amiableness 3. The Duties of Religion Reading and Hearing are effectual by Meditation The Use is for Exhortation to press you to Meditation 't is the Mother and Nurse of Knowledge and Godlinss the great instrument in all the Offices of Grace otherwise we take up things by hear-say this digests them and maketh them our own 1. It preventeth vain thoughts both as it stocketh the heart with Truth for good seed thick set and well rooted destroyeth the weeds and as it seasoneth the heart with a Gracious disposition and inureth it more to holy thoughts whereas those that do not use to Meditate how are their Minds pestered with swarms of vain thoughts which wholly divert it and turn it aside from God Man is mindless of holy things and if they turn into the heart by accident their entertainment is cold and careless as a man would be used that cometh into an house full of enemies 2. How great an affront is it to God to omit this part of Communion with him it is irkesome to think of him Saints find it otherwise Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet Some God is said to be near in their Mouth and far from their Reins Ier. 12. 2. frequently spoken of but seldom considered by them That soul that hath a sincere and unfeigned love to him will take some time to solace itself with him alone to be sure God taketh it kindly at our hands Mal. 3. 16. A book of remembrance was written for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name that have frequent and high thoughts of God in their hearts without which Love will presently languish and grow cold 3. What a neglect it is of Gods Messages of Love that you will not consider them Matth. 21. 5. And they made light of it And Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation He hath laid out all his Eternal thoughts upon a way of Salvation and manifested it to you and you entertain it with so much scorn that you will not set your minds to it and think it worthy a few sad and sober thoughts What Is it so tedious to think a thought of your own greatest Concernments Surely Man is strangely deprav'd to refuse this 4. What a likely means Meditation is to do you good I know 't is the Lord inclineth the Heart and our Thoughts work no further than God is in them yea he giveth us to think 2 Cor. 3. 5. But as it is our Duty so 't is a very proper means to improve our Graces and our Comfort for a constant steady continued view of truth surely will work more than a glance A transient view cannot leave such an impression upon us as a steady view We taste things better when they are chewed than when they are swallowed whole Meditation goeth over things again and again and pryeth into every part And as 't is a constant light so 't is an argumentative Consideration of things When one scale is not heavy enough we put in weight after weight till we gain our point bring off the Heart from such a vanity ingage it to such a pursuit by our own arguings with our selves Prov. 12. 14. A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his own mouth Acts 17. 11 12. And these were more noble then they of Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so Therefore many believed because they had searched with all readiness of Mind 5. This is an Argument should prevail with Gods Children that we may know our growth in Grace by the frequency continuance and efficacy of holy thoughts At first good thoughts are few and rare the heart is so crouded with vanity that there is no room for God or his Word for these things keep their interest in the heart and draw the mind after them so that dayes pass over our heads and we forget God Psal. 10. 11. Or if they arise in our minds they find little entertainment there but are gone as soon as they come 'T is the Policy of the Enemy of our Salvation to draw our minds from one thing to another that good thoughts may pass over without fruit and benefit Or if we force our selves to continue they do not warm the heart only weary the brain But now when truths are ever with us they improve us Psal. 119. 98. Thou through thy Commandments hast made me wiser then my Enemies for they are ever with me Prov. 6. 22. When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou wakest it shall talk with thee We have them always ready and at hand They that are sound at heart can pause with delight on heavenly things 'T is a good note of some progress 't is a sign the heart is heavenly carried out with a strong and prevailing love to heavenly things that earthly profits and vain pleasures have not such a hand over us as they were wont to have You have gotten the mastery
hearts towards spiritual and heavenly things Ioh. 6 45. They shall all be taught of God 1 Thes. 4. 10. Ye your selves are taught of God to love one another 1 Ioh. 2. 27. The anointing teacheth you all things As the Heathen Cato would have none to teach his Son but himself for he said that Instruction was such a benefit that he would not have his Son beholding to none for it but himself Oh 't is a blessed priviledge to be taught of God! to be made wise to Salvation and not only to get an ear to hear but an heart to understand and learn by hearing not only the power to Believe but the very Act of Faith itself Gods teaching is always effectual not only directive but perswasive inlightening the mind to know and inclining the Will and Affections to imbrace what we know he writeth the truth upon the heart and puts it into the mind Heb. 8. 10. He sufficiently propoundeth the Object and rectifieth the Faculty imprints the Truth upon the very Soul But how doth God teach in the very place where Christ speaketh of our being taught of God he presently addeth Ioh. 6. 46. Not that any man hath seen the Father Gods teaching doth not import that any man must see God and immediately Converse with him and talk with God and so be taught by him no God teacheth externally by his Word and internally by the Spirit but yet so powerfully and effectually that the Lesson is learned and deeply imprinted upon our Souls this teaching is often expressed by seeing now to a clear sight three things concur an Object conspicuous a perspicuous Medium and a well disposed Organ or clear Eye in Gods teaching there is all these The Object to be seen plainly in the Scriptures are the things of God not Fancies but Realities and by the light of the Spirit represented to us and the Eye of the Mind opened A blind man cannot see at mid-day nor the most clear-sighted at midnight when objects lye hidden under a vail of darkness the object must be revealed and brought nigh to us in a due light and God secretly openeth the eye of the Soul that we see heavenly things with Life and Affection The Author then sheweth the Mercy when God will not only teach us by Men but by his Spirit II. The Objects known the highest and most important matters in the World the gracious Soul is savingly acquainted with 't is more to have the knowledge of the profoundest Sciences then of some poor and low employment as Themistocles said to know a little of true Philosophy is more than to know how to play upon a fiddle But now to have the saving knowledge of God and of the life to come is more than to have the most admired Wisdom of the Flesh than all the Common Learning in the World and therefore how much are we bound to praise God if he will teach us his Statutes more than if we knew how to govern Kingdoms and Common-wealths and to do the greatest business upon Earth Two things do commend the object of this knowledge 1. It is conversant about the most high and excellent things 2. The most necessary and useful things 1. Things of so high a nature as to know God who is the cause of all things and Jesus Christ who is the restorer of all things and the Spirit who cherisheth and preserveth all things especially to know his heavenly operations and the nature and acting of his several Graces Ier. 9. 24. Let him that glorieth glory in this that he knoweth me saith the Lord. There is the excellency of a man to know God to conceive aright of his Nature Attributes and Works so as to Love Trust Reverence and Serve him Alas all other knowledge is a poor low thing to this God hath written a book to us of himself as Caesar wrote his own Commentaries and by Histories and Prophesies hath set forth himself to us to be the Creatures Creator Preserver Deliverer and Glorifier This is the Knowledge we should seek after common Craft teach us how to get bread but this book teacheth us how to get the Kingdom of heaven to get the bread of Life the meat that perisheth not Law preserveth the Estates and Testaments of Men but this the Testament of God the Charter of our eternal Inheritance Physick cureth the Diseases of the Body this afflicted Minds and distempered Hearts Natural Philosophy raiseth up men to the contemplation of Nature this of the Maker of all things and Author of Nature History the Rise and Ruine of Kingdoms States and Cities this the Creation and Consummation of the World Rhetorick to stir the Affection this to inkindle Divine Love Poetry moveth natural delight here Psalms that we may delight in God These are the only true and sublime things as Light is pleasant to the Eye so is Knowledge to the Mind but where have you the knowledge of such high things what are the mysteries of Nature to the mysteries of Godliness to know the Almighty living God and to behold his Wisdom Goodness and Power in all his Works surely this is a sweet and pleasant thing to a gracious soul but especially to know him in Christ to know the Mistery of the Incarnation Person Natures and Mediation of Christ. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the mistery of Godliness This is a mistery without Controversie great to know the Law and Covenant of God Deut. 4. 6. This is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations who shall hear these statutes And the sanctifying work of the Holy-Ghost by which we are wrought and prepared for everlasting Life 2. So necessary and useful to know the way of Salvation the Disease and Remedy of our Souls our Danger and the Cure our Work and our Wages the business of Life and our End what is to be believed and practiced what we are to enjoy and do these are the things which concern us all other knowledge is but curious and speculative and hath more of pleasure than of Profit To know our own Affairs our greatest and most necessary Affairs these are the things we should busie our selves about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One thing is necessary Luk. 10. 42. Other things we may well spare Now what is necessary but to know our Misery that we may prevent it our Remedy that we may look after it in time our Work and Business that we may perform it our End that we intend it and be incouraged by it What course we must take that we may be everlastingly happy Well then if God will shew us what is good Mich. 6. 8. and teach us what is good that we may know whither we are a going and which way we must go if he will give us Counsel in our reins to choose him for our portion Psal. 16. 5. We ought to bless his name So the 11th Verse Thou wilt shew me the path of Life though ignorant of other things we are
break from us that is unseemly Secondly We come to the Reason For all thy Commandments are Righteousness The Doctrine is Doctrine There is Righteousness nothing but Righteousness all Righteousness to be found in the Word of God 1. There is a perfect Uprightness in all Gods Promises They are sure Principles of Trust and Dependance upon God Psal. 18. 30. The word of the Lord is tried he is a buckler to all those that trust in him He is most Just and Faithful and his Promises without all deceit or possibility of failing and will certainly protect all those that rely and depend upon him 2. As to his Precepts nothing is approved in them or recommended to us but what is Holy Just and Good There is no Vertue which it Commendeth not no Duty which it Commandeth not no Vice which is not Condemned therein nor Sin which is not Forbidden I shall prove the Doctrine by three things I. By the sufficient Provision that is made for mans Duty in a Moral Consideration there are but three Beings God Neighbours and Self Pauls three Adverbs are suited to these Tit. 2. 12. Soberly Righteously Godly 1. For Self-Government or living Soberly in the present World nothing conduceth to that more than Gods Precepts the whole drift of his Word is to check Self-pleasing and Sense-pleasing and to condemn all excess of Meat Drink or Apparel left our Hearts be besotted and overcharged and by indulging Sensuality diverted from spiritual and heavenly things 2. For Carriage to our Neighbour What Religion provideth so amply as the Word of God doth against all fraud and Violence requireth us in all things to do as as we would be done by yea it not only inforceth Justice but Charity and to love our Neighbour as our selves and to account his welfare our own and rejoyce in his good and mourn for his evil as for our own 3. For the third Godliness God is no where represented and discovered so much as in his Word nor a way of Commerce between him and us any where else so clearly Established nor what kind of Worship we should give unto him both for Matter and Manner In short the Scripture is written to teach us how to love him and entertain Communion with him and to serve him in Holiness and Righteousness all our dayes and maketh our daily Converse with God in Holiness our great work and business II. It appeareth by the Connaturallity and Suitableness which they have to the best and holiest Psal. 119. 140. Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it 'T is written in our hearts as well as in Gods Book and there is some thing in the one akin to the other Heb. 8. 10. I will write my law in their hearts and minds On the contrary so far a man is depraved so far he hateth it Rom. 8. 7. yea the more he feareth it Ioh 3. 20 21. He that dothevil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved III. The Event sheweth it for the more the Word of God is preached the more is Righteousness spread in the World and men grow wiser and better Banish the Word of God or discourage the Preachers of it and there followeth nothing but Confusion of Manners and Corruption in Religion The Word then is the only means of Reforming the World and curing the Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men Where either the Word hath not been received as among the Pagans or where it hath been restrained as in Popery Scriptures locked up in an unknown Tongue or where neglected or sleepily urged as in Churches that have left their first Love there is a greater overflow of Wickedness Their Ignorance hath caused a great part of them to degenerate into a more sensual sottish sort of People Quest. But are not People very bad that have the Scriptures do not we our selves complain of a flood of Wickedness Answ. 1. Christianity must not be judged by the rabble of Nominal Litteral Christians no more than we will judge of the cleanness of a Street by the soulness of a Sink or Kennel or of the sound Grapes in the Bunch by the rotten ones or of the Fidelity of Subjects by the Rebellion of Traytors or the honesty and justice of a Nation by a crew of Thieves and Robbers nor of the Civility of a Nation by the Rusticity of Plowmen or Carters Those who are serious in their Religion are the best men and of the choicest and most excellent Spirits in the World the scandals and wickedness of others do not Impeach their Rule 2. The strictly Religious must not be judged by the Revellings of the Carnal who are their Enemies Ignorant and ungodly men will blast them 1 Pet. 4. 4 5. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you who shall give account to him that is ready to Iudge the quick and the dead 3. Neither is the State of Religion to be judged by the Complaints of Friends hating the least evil ashamed of mens unthankfulness Light maketh it odious as bad as we are 'T is worse where the Word is not Preached in a lively manner Use. I. Let us approve of those things which God hath bound us to believe and practice they being all suitable to the Nature of God and Man The first ground of Obedience is Consent and Approbation I consent to the law that it is good Rom. 7. 16. So to the Gospel 'T is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 15. II. Let us answer this Word let the of the Spirit fruit be in us all Righteousness Goodness and Truth The Stamp is answerable to the Seal this is the genuine result of the Doctrine we Profess SERM. CLXXXVI PSALM CXIX VER 173. Let thine hand help me for I have chosen thy Precepts THE two first Verses shew the drift of this Portion He begs two benefits Instruction and Deliverance His first Request for Instruction is enforced by a Promise of Praise Ver. 171. My lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me thy Statutes In Ver. 172. Of Conferrence or holy Discourse whereby others may be edified My mouth shall speak of thy Word Now he comes to enforce the second Request for Deliverance by an Argument of his ready Obedience Let thy hand help me for I have chosen thy Precepts Observe here First The Petition Let thine hand help me Secondly The Argument or Reason to enforce it for I have chosen thy Precepts First For the Petition Let thy hand help me Hand is put for Power let thy Power Preserve me and Defend me and Help is sometimes put for Assistance and sometimes for Deliverance God may be said to help us when he doth assist us and support us in Troubles or when he doth deliver us from Troubles This latter acceptation suits with this place and it is equivalent with what he said before Ver. 170. Let my
Flames for a little contentment here in the World for a little ease and delight here given to your carnal Nature Is an Earthly Life that you cannot long hold more valuable then an Eternal Heaven you shall enjoy for ever no let us go to heaven though we get thither with many pains and sufferings If you forsake all not only in Vow and Purpose but Actually and in Deed yet still you have something better you shall be no looser in the end you shall so choose the blessed God and live with him for evermore and be fill'd with his Love as full as you can hold and be employed in his service and all this in an Eternal Perfection and glorified Estate 4. Motive Choose for you will never have cause to repent of your choice The Lord stands upon his Justification is very tender of giving his People any Cause to repent of his service Micah 6. 3. O my people what have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me Pray what hurt hath Holiness done you Who was ever the better for sinning or who was the worse for Holiness There was none that ever made a carnal choice but first or last they had cause to repent of it either they repent of it in a kindly manner while they may mend the matter or else they shall repent for ever in Misery but who ever repented of his Repentance or cursed the day of his new Birth To whom ever was it any grief of heart that they were acquainted with God and Christ or the way that leadeth unto life who dieth the sweeter death or who repents of their choice then the serious or the carnal Oh they that have chosen the World they cry out how the World hath deceived them but never any repented of choosing God and the wayes of God Let these things perswade you to choose his Precepts Secondly For Directions 1. In Choosing the Object is to be regarded Gods Precepts indefinitely all of them not one excepted the smallest as well as the greatest the troublesome as well as the easie the most neglected as well as the most observed we must choose all Gods Precepts not abate any thing but especially the main or the essential Precepts of Christianity or the Fundamental points of the Covenant Now the Question is What 's the Fundamental Point of the Covenant Truly that 's known by the form of Baptisme Baptisme is the solemn Seal of entring into Covenant with God it 's the Seal of our initiation or first entrance into Covenant with God Mat. 28. 19. Now what is it to be Baptised in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost when you first choose the ways of God here you must begin you must close with Father Son and Holy Ghost heartily take them to be your God that is you must close with God the Father as your All-sufficient Portion or chiefest happiness to be loved above all and also as your highest Lord that he may be served pleased and obeyed above all Well and in the name of the Son that is Jesus Christ he must be taken as your Saviour and Redeemer to bring you to God and to reconcile you to him And to be Baptised in the name of the Holy Ghost is this to take him as your Sanctifier Guide and Comforter to make you a holy people to God to cleanse your hearts from sin to write all Gods Laws upon your Hearts and put them into your Minds and to guide you by the Word and Ordinances to everlasting Life This is the main thing that is first to be minded because it contains all and doth necessarily infer the rest for otherwise to be resolute in some by-point of Religion though it be right this is but the Obstinacy of a Faction not the constancy of a Christian Zeal 2. As you must look to the Object of this choice so to the Causes of it and what are they An Enlightned Mind a renewed Heart a Love to God and then the Spirit of God enlightning and inclining our Hearts 1. An Enlightned Mind is a cause of choosing the ways of God when the Lord hath taught us his Precepts an enlightned mind discovers a beauty and amiableness in the ways of God Psal. 119. 128. I esteem all thy Precepts to be right and they are the rejoycing of my soul. 2. A Renewed Heart wherein all the precepts of God are written over again They were written upon our Hearts in Innocency but that 's a blurred Manuscript therefore in Regeneration they are written over again God writes his Law in our hearts and puts them in our inward parts Heb. 8. 10. and then the Law within suits with the Law without for the new Creature is created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness In true Holiness which relates to the first Table of the Law and Righteousness which relates to the second Table of the Law the renewed heart that hath this inclination and propension is carried out to them 3. Love to God for that 's implied in the choice Iohn 14. 21. He that hath my Commandements and keeps them he it is that loves me and he that loves me hath my Commandements and keeps them It follows the other way where there is love to God there will be choosing of his ways 4. Gods Spirit the Lord Enlightning and Inclining our Hearts to this choice God Enlightens for he teacheth us the way that we shall choose and when we see these things in the light of the Spirit then we see the Beauty of them Psal. 25. 12. It holds good as to the path of Life and in particular cases but chiefly in the main case God teacheth him the way that he shall choose And the Spirit of God enclines the Heart too as well as enlightens the Mind 1 Pet. 1. 22. Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit 3. There are the Effects of this Choice What are they Delight Diligence and Patience 1. Delight Psal. 40. 8. I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy law is within my heart When the Law is not only written in the Book but written in the heart then there 's a Delight a ready and willing Obedience It is spoken first of Christ of David it was said in Type it 's true also of all Believers for they have the Spirit of Christ and the same also is exprest of the People of God Psal. 112. 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandments When a man hath chosen the precepts of God and bound himself in this way then his heart is taken with a delight 2. Diligence Gods Precepts are the great business and employment of our lives and then there 's a constant study to please him Col. 1. 9 10. Filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing We must do Gods Will and
inconsistent with an unholy life p. 207 Rule must always be set before us p. 208 why ibid. Bless God for a Rule and walk exactly by the Rule p. 807 698 Enemies to the word as a Rule 1 they that set up Reason instead of the word 2 Passions and Lusts 3 Example 4 they that go to Witches c. 5. they that expect new Revelations p. 698 Rulers when religious a signal Blessing to a people p. 145 560 Rulers are not to be provoked p. 996 Running the ways of Gods Commandments what it imports p. 225 S. SAcrament what it signifies p. 699 Saints love the word 1 because their hearts are suited to it 2 they have tasted its goodness p 627 Sacrifices three things required in them p. 722 Safety none in Apostacy from the truth but Perseverance in it p. 788 637 It lies in two things p. 642 Sanctification of Afflictions a greater mercy thanDeliverance outof them p 470 592 it hath 2 parts p. 1040 Sanction of the Law inPromises and Threatnings p. 350 Salvation the word variously taken in Scripture p. 536 537. Temporal and eternal p. 1035. 314 It denotes sometimes temporal deliverance p. 830 Salvation is far from the wicked p. 980. both in a temporal and eternal Notion ibid. 1081 1087 Salvation is the fruit of mercy p. 314. 315 Satisfaction in Gods providential government p. 542 It is not to be had without enjoyment of God p. 13. 386. Qn. what it is that will satisfie and content our Souls p. 926 Satans design in afflicting Gods people p. 538 He is subtle and diligent in tempting p. 1105 Satans baits are Profit and Pleasure p. 85 Satan resembled by lying p. 188 Scandalous Terms put upon the best parts of Religion p. 337 Scandals given either by word or deed p. â—…030 Scandals never fall out in the Church but some notable woe follows p. 867 Scandals an enemy to Perseverance p. 212 Scandal is either Active or Passive p. 1022. 1029 Schism a great evil p. 201 Protestants not guilty of schism in separating from Papists and Popery p. 201. 202. Scorns and scoffs must not draw us from Obedience p 337 why Religion is scorned p. 338 Scorn a grievous Temptation p 339 vid. Contempt Scripture reveals 1 Reconciliation 2 eternal Life not elsewhere revealed p 624 625 Scripture is the Churches Book p 41 It is to be highly prized p 645 In opposition to 1 Tradition 2 carnal Reason p 41 It s Excellency p 66 67 It is a Record and a Calendar p 77 Qu. how we know the Scriptures to be Gods word p. 960 961 vid. word of God It gives directions in all Cases p. 153 It is for the strong as well as for the weak p. 697 Scripture before it was compleat as now yet had promises for support of the Soul p. 181 Scripture Truths of two sorts p. 888 Scripture affords 1 true Doctrine 2 true Piety 3 true Consolation p 879 622 Four main ends of Gods giving the Scripture 1 to secure the Truth 2 that it might last to all Ages 3 for converting sinners 4 for trial of Faith and Manners p. 694 6â—…2 Seasons of mercy neither too soon nor too late p. 551 Seasons when God eminently calls to consider our ways p. 401 Seasons for particular duties p. 445 637 638 925 374 Sealing to Gods Truth as Witnesses what it is p. 832 832 Searching the heart a mark of one that hath Respect to all Gods Commandements p. 36 Seventimes denotes many times Numerus definitus pro indefinito p. 1013 Secret Prayer as well as publick a Duty p. 904 021 It hath Promises of Reward p. 921 Arguments to press to secret Prayer p. 922 Secret Duties argue sincerity p. 374 Security carnal will leave us ashamed at last p. 786 It is a note of pride p. 521 It 's a cause of delaying Repentance p. 408 Seducers the most dangerous Company p. 777 See a man may see and yet be blind p. 617 Seeds two seeds at enmity from the beginning p 414 326 Seeking God implies that God is not wholly gone p 927 Seeking God arises from a sence of the want of God p 11 When we find not God in one Ordinance we must seek him in others p. 12 It 's the end of our Creation ibid. To seek any thing from God above God more than God or not for God is brutish p. 13 It is a mark of election to seek God p. 14 It 's not in vain to seek God p. 13 how to seek him p. 927 Six Arguments to move us to seek God p. 14 Encouragements to seek Gods Favour p. 927 Directions for a due seeking of God p. 14 Seeking God the last way of seeking our selves p. 14 Gods Children are a Generation of seekers p. 57 58 59 922 Self-Conceit p. 296 Self-denial a main part of wisdom p. 641 Self self-fulness leaves no room for Grace p. 29 Self-seeking argues false Zeal p. 856 Self-Confidence a Reason of Apostacy p. 213 Sense of Gods goodness what it is why we must keep a sense of it p. 472 473 474 Sense and Faith are opposed p. 546 Sense of sin renders Gods Mercies exceeding great p. 994 Comforts from Sense are base and dreggy p. 593 Outward Senses betray the heart p. 278 Sense discovers the vanity of created Excellency p. 616 Senses spiritual what they are p. 671 672 How they differ from the natural Senses p. 672 673 Sentence of our State and Actions is by the judgment of the word p. 38 39 Servant of God who he is p. 289 a good Argument p. 289 Servant of God A good Plea for Deliverance why p. 610 846 611 Arguments to perswade us to clear up this Relation p. 612 637 638 Characters of Gods Servants 846 847 851 514 Shame two fold p. 36 it entred with sin p. 37â—… 214 215 Shame is caused by Disappointments p. 522 785 215 216 Shame is a fear of just Reproof p. 534 We may be ashamed either before our own selves or others p. 534 and that upon the account either 1. of Scandal or 2. of punishment ibid. Sheep are creatures subject to stray p. 1099 Man compared to a sheep in several Respects p. 1101 Christ a tender Shepherd of straying sheep p. 1107 Shield God is the Shield of his people and what that imports p. 766 Sight of God to walk as in Gods sight a rule of sincerity p. 1051 It is a good means for keeping Gods Precepts ibid. Sight of Believers and Unbelievers how they differ p. 617 Sight spiritual denotes Faith p. 672 Simple Simplicity in a good or evil Sense p. 889 Sin is not imputed to the renewed p. 17 Sins incident to a condition of trouble p. 843 Sin separates from God p. 18 It is contrary to the blessed Trinity p. 20 Contrary to the New-Nature p. 21 It is of an encroaching Nature p. 21 In sin three things 1. the Fault 2. the Guilt 3. the Blot p. 21 185 Sin never goes single p. 317. v. other mens sins Sin