speaking went all away from Christ If they had been called to fire from Christ it had been something but he saith no more but you must eat my flesh and drink my blood and they all went away Yet the Disciples there was twelve then saith Christ Will ye go away also Lord whether shall we go saith Peter thou hast the words of eternall life so they abode with him and clave to him Saith Barnabas with full purpose of heart that is you must not cleave as Iudas for Iudas did then cleave to Christ when all but the Apostles left him that we read of but with full purpose of heart the Greek word signifies with full decree of heart such as the Medes and Persians had when they decreed to cast Daniel into prison though the King were otherwise minded and had seen his errour yet they told him a decree of the Medes and Persians cannot be broken it must be kept the Apostle alludes to that there must be such a decree in the soul of sticking to Christ and cleaving to God notwithstanding all tribulations and persecutions and shame and reproach and trouble whatsoever that befalls that you may as soon break the lawes of the Medes and Persians as bring the soul from that decree As one said of old they might as soon stop the Sun in the firmament as hinder that godly man in his course of holinesse So let me intreat and exhort you in the exhortation of Barnabas that you would cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart There are two great times in generall when people 2. Speciall times of cleaving to God 1. In a generall deluge of sin leave God and then you must be sure to cleave to him that is First when a generall time of sin comes up among you as this of Baal peor there were twenty four thousand slaine for their sin at Baal-peor sin when it comes up once is like a streame truly the course of the world is but the streame of sin in the world and worldly men Therefore you shall see that sins in Nations though they begin from little see how men are carried away with them when once they are grown strong when once people begin to be proud and high and set themselves up every one shall be so I shall be laughed at if I do not spend my money in vaine things to maintaine my servants my coate my garb and Coach and the like This pride is grown to a streame in the world and so for swearing and so for drunkennesse and every other sin Now I say when sin doth in this manner break out and thou seest others carried with it more and more then take heed then be sure thou cleave to God Nay there are more spirituall sins then these as it is said Barnabas was carried away with the dissimulation When thou seest generall dissimulation in a Kingdom to call darknesse light and light darknesse and good evil and evil good to call good men treacherous and treacherous men good to call blinde base superstitious men Orthodox and Orthodox men superstitious take heed then that thou cleave to the Lord. Then secondly when persecutions and sufferings 2. In times of persecution come few men make account of it we cannot make people sensible of it what they must suffer they have false hopes they think that though people suffered in Queen Maryes time and others may after yet they shall go in peace We must suffer talk of Reformation and what you will all honest hearts inevitably shall have tribulation Therefore let this word abide with you that it be your study and earnest prayer to the Lord when you see others run into sin and are carried away for fear of this trouble and that crosse and the other shame that then you abide with the Lord as Iudah Though Israel play the harlot yet let Iudah be faithfull with his God Though such a man dissemble yet why should I do so though such a one go against his own light and conscience yet why should not I cleave to Christ That is one exhortation that you would cleave to the Lord. Expositions and Observations on PSALM 83. 1 Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God 2 For lo thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have list up the head c. THis Psalm containes in it a grievous complaint of the prophet to God against the enemies of his Son and of his people Some do conceive that it was not the prophet David but Isaiah or some of the prophets in the time of Hezekiah when Zenecharib and other Nations that were confederate with him were coming up against Israel But however a confederacie there was of the wicked against the godly and the prophet whosoever he was here complaines to God and doth as it were First awaken God to hearken to his complaint The parts of the Psalm Keep not silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still Secondly he layes down the matter of the complaint which was the crafty counsell and the conspiracie of divers wicked people yea of Nations some ten Nations against the people of God the Israelites and he lays down in particular who they were Then thirdly he doth pray or prophesie for most of the prayers of the prophets were prophesies also he not onely prayed that it might be so but prophesied that it should be so that they should be as a wheel that they should be as fire in the wood or as a flame of fire upon the mountains Lastly he lays down the end why he so prayed or prephesied to wit that his enemies might be filled with shame that they might seek the name of the Lord that they might be brought home to God Or if they will go on and perish that others may know the name of the Lord that they may know that thou whose name is Iehovah art most high over all the earth And though their faces being filled with shame they will not fear the Lord yet doubtlesse others will and when God shall bring confusion on his enemies others will acknewledge the name of the Lord Iehovah and that there is no other in the whole earth This is the sum and substance of the Psalm I shall endeavour to open the meaning of it a little in particular First concerning the prophets complaint the prophets waking of God as it were in those his complaints Keep not silence O God hold not thy peace be not still Or as the Septuagint renders it O Lord say they who is like to thee keep not silence O God hold not thy peace be not still And you must take notice and it is worth observing that when the prophet saith here O God he means Iesus Christ That whereas ordinarily in the old Testament especially in the book of Psalms when you hear the prophet mention God or Iehovah or the Lord you think of God naturally out of
a good look yet this is our disposition if the Saints do not observe us if one go by and do not observe us in the street and put not off his hat and speak and give us idle visitations when he knows not what to do he loves us not It is a great deal if a Saint do but come over the threshold or look upon me in the street This is that that breeds endless quarrels for they are here put together Strife and Vain glory and the like for thou wilt be alway like the Salamander feeding upon some quarrel for every man naturally hath some one thing that he feeds on principally children feed on one cate more then another and so do men some upon Husbandry some upon Navigation some upon Policy every one upon one thing or other All men have some one thing that carries the stream of their hearts some Professors the very stream of their spirits goes in quarrelling with others they no sooner end a quarrel with one Saint but they begin another they can no more live without jangling and quarrelling and strife then the Salamander can live without fire This is the reason a proud heart therefore can never close with the Saints it cannot be content with a little measure of love from the Saints A Saint if he be as he should be can love though he be not loved and can rejoyce wonderfully if he have the least measure of love from others The Lord make this short word spiritual and powerful to thee and me If this lesson were rightly learned a world of division among the Saints would cease Expositions and Observations on HEBREWES 12. 18 19 20 c. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest And the sound of a trumpet and the voyce of words which voyce they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touch the mountaine it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels To the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and the spirits of just men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven THe Apostle in these words doth compare The old and new Testament compared the old Testament the old Covenant with the new or if you will the estate of the Saints under the old Covenant of Sinai with the glorious estate of the Saints under the new Covenant Therefore he tells them Ye are not come to that mountaine that burned with fire that mountain that might be touched you are not set under the old Covenant that was terrible in which there was nothing but that that was terrible that brought horror upon all that feared God in it but ye are Come to mount Sion to the glorious state in the new Testament and there is nothing but what is amiable and what is beautiful for that is it that I mean to pitch on you shall observe in the description of the Saints in the old Testament under the old Covenant I mean not the Books of the old Testament I suppose you know what I mean in that Proposition I say there was nothing in all Gods administration with them but it was full of terror it was terrible it begat horror in them and there is nothing in the state of a Saint that is rightly setled in the Gospel but what is throughly amiable and beautiful and therefore you shall see how the Apostle reckons them First for the old he saith they were come but to a Mount that might be touched that is an earthly mountain a mountain or hill as one of our hills And that burned with fire that was terrible And there was blackness and darkness and storm and tempest covering the heavens and the hill this was terrible And there was the sound of a Trumpet you know that signifies war And there was a terrible voyce of words also and so terrible that they that heard it intreated that they might hear it no more And the Lord was so strict that if but a beast touch but the hill that was black and dark he was to be stoned or thrust through with a dart he was to be killed nay Moses himself that was to be the Mediator of the people in that Testament he did exceedingly fear and quake So that there is nothing in that old Covenant of works that God saith is done away Heb. 8. there was nothing in the old Testament but what was terrible and full of horror To come a little more particular there is nothing in the state of a Professor who is yet on Mount Sinai as many Professors are who are not yet dead but alive to the Law they are not free-men they are not sons and daughters they have not the principles of the Gospel clearly wrought in them I say those people take them in the bulk and frame of their profession there is nothing in their whole life in all the course of their profession but what is ful of horror and terror If they look upon God they see him more or less as an angry Iudg ready to stand at the catch to consume them If they look on grace in them that is so little that they continually conclude that they are hypocrites If they look on sin they look every moment when God will be avenged on them because of it If they look on affliction they say Now God hath found me out I knew it would be so that the wrath of God would be on me If they look on Christ saith he He doth not belong to me and the Promises are not mine A man that is a Professor on Mount Sinai as far as he walks in the Covenant of works or as it were by the Covenant of works so far of necessity his soul within is as Mount Sinai was without that is full of blackness and darkness and storms and tempest inevitably and unavoidably it will be so Therefore clearly this is the reason of all the troubles and horrors and terrors and uncomfortableness of your spirits because you have one foot on Mount Sinai you are not come up to Pauls pitch I through the Law am dead to the Law you are not dead to the Law you are not delivered from it I mean the Law as it is a Covenant of
them one by one by degrees He hath brought us from repetition of the word and from singing of Psalms and many from baptizing of the infants of the godly and divers from the supper of the Lord and from hearing the word of God preached and now he comes and begins to bring people from praying or calling upon the name of the Lord therefore let us do as Rehoboam did when he had lost Ten Tribes he went and strengthened the two that remained Beloved there are but a few ordinances that remaine and they are almost gone too therefore let us do our best to keep those One is praying or calling upon God which our Lord Christ divers ways by precept and example and parables c. doth exhort his Disciples to to pray alway and not to faint So that this is it that you should do well to consider that Prayer or calling upon the name of God in Christ is an ordinance and a perpetuall ordinance of God And though it may be many of you do not doubt of it and therefore you think why should I speak of it Truly no more did not I doubt of it yet I have had many thoughts of it and though we doubt not of it yet the considering of it out of the word may stir us up to do it more then we do for I am afraid though many of you doubt not of it yet many of you are slack and though you believe not what the others say yet you hearken so much to them as to slacken of what the old Saints did and of what your selves did before you do not set your selves so earnestly and so frequently and follow God so hard in prayer as you have done this I greatly fear For I find many times that the devill plays a double game that when he comes to take away an ordinance from people to cheat them of it he knowes that some are so giddy that he can gull and cheat them clearly and he knows this that those that he cannot cheat yet he can cast them into a kinde of remisnesse As for instance he hath taken away from many singing of Psalms prasing God according to that manner that the Saints have had for divers ages whereas there is no particular manner in the scriptures for the outward thing now as he hath brought many that they will not sing at all so there are many that are indifferent and so for baptising the infants of the godly and so for hearing the Word and so for praying The devil hath a dilemma if you will do so so it is or else do this so I say while some giddy heads or hearts are throwing away the Ordinance of prayer I am afraid there is a general remisness or carelesness growing upon your hearts therefore I shall shew these two things concerning prayer First I shall shew you that it is an Ordinance of God Prayer an Ordinance of God Prayer a perpetual duty that it is a duty that it is the duty of a Saint Secondly I shall shew you that it is a lasting duty a duty to be performed in all ages untill the coming of Christ and that briefly and plainly For the first That it is a duty consider any duty in the world and whatsoever you would have to prove it a duty I dare say it is clear in the Word concerning this duty of Prayer that and much more you cannot name any duty in the Book of God any external duty that is underpropped that hath such foundations such clear ground-works for it as the duty of Prayer There are four main grounds of duty and one of Four main grounds of dutie them many times is a sufficient ground for any one as First that it is a thing that the law of Nature hath 1. The 〈◊〉 of Nature written in the heart of man to call upon God it was written in the Creation There are many duties among us that are not so under the Gospel especially Now that you see in all ages all kinde of people call upon the name of their God As in the ship where Jonah was the Heathens by the dictates of Nature they awake Ionah to call on his God and they were calling on their god it is a thing in the law of Nature And by the By that is the reason why we may pray with carnal men though we may not receive the Lords Supper because the Supper of the Lord is an Ordinance by institution the other is a natural Ordinance or duty Now when a man doth a Natural duty it is supposed that it is in the heart of a wicked man and he doth but what he ought when he doth it A carnal man when he prays he sins not in that he prays much less do I sin in doing the duty with him in doing what he ought But wherein doth he sin In the maner that he prays without faith it is his fault and not mine and so an hypocrite that prayeth without faith when I do the duty I look that the thing be good but for the maner of his heart and spirit that is for him to look to So a man may pray with carnal people though he may not receive the Supper of the Lord because that is an Ordinance by institution and is onely for the Saints That by the by Secondly There is this ground for it for prayer 2. Command of the Word we have more precepts then for any other dutie Christ Jesus saith here Pray always And the Apostle 1 Thes 5. he bids us pray evermore pray alway I need not stand to prove this Then you have also presidents for it almost in every 3. President and Example Saint in the Book of God you seldom hear of a Saint but he was a praying Saint And let me tell you this that Saints and Churches or Assemblies for so the Greek word is indifferently and people that call on God with a pure heart they are Synonomies Sometimes Paul saith Grace mercy and peace to the Saints sometimes to the Churches and sometimes to those that pray and call on the name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. 1. 1. It is a thing so proper to a Saint that it is usually taken for the description of a Saint Therefore in Zech. 12. where there is a Prophesie concerning the conversion of the Iews saith God I will poure on them the Spirit of Grace and Supplication What is that That is they shall be converted To have a spirit of Supplication a praying heart is the same as conversion to convert the Iews is to give them a spirit of Grace and Supplication As soon as Paul was converted Act. 9. when Ananias inquired of him he was praying therefore you have examples enow 4. Promises entailed on it Psalm 50. And then you have Precepts for it and Promises to it all along in the Book of God Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee So in the new Testament
we may die for them But when our Bibles have gone through the hands of Papists so many hundered yeers when a man shall come to die for it he is afraid that such a thing may be crept into the text a thousand such thoughts of Athiesme will come upon a man but when a man can say this is Christ crucified and Christ pouring out of his spirit let the particles and the words run as they will this is the maine that will hold As the Gospell was intended and designed for simple men more then others so with reverence the Gospell is a more simple plain thing then most men in the world conceive The Gospell needs not the thousand part of the distinctions and definitions that the schoolmen have and that men multiply It is a simple story concerning Christ crucified and how the Holy Ghost was poured upon men and this was preached by fishermen as God gave them utterance and it was prophesied of before If Religion be a simple thing taught by fisher-men with the pouring out of the Spirit then there need not all those disputes concerning the Arts c. For my part I think learning to be a very good thing to perfect a mans naturalls but I think on the other side that a man that savingly and clearly knows Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit he is the fittest man in the world to be a preacher We should know things a thousand fold better and clearer then we do if we would judg of things as God judgeth of them if we would use the language of the Scripture and the notions of the holy spirit in the Scripture If we would know a Saint from a sinner as I said a man that is the Lords and another that is not this is the maine way the chief essentiall difference the one hath the spirit the other hath not It is not so much whether yonder man pray or fast or preach or repeat or whether he doth many good outward morall things but whether he hath the spirit of God though it be now almost a ridiculous thing to name the spirit of God We should I say distinguish man from man by the spirit And labour in a speciall manner to assure our selves that we have the spirit of God We should not rest in this that I have left such sins or I do such duties but go on still till I come up to this that with all humility and thankfulnesse I may say God hath given to me of his holy spirit the spirit of Jesus Christ dwells in my heart Paul was humble and modest enough in his expressions yet he could boldly say he had the spirit We have the earnest of the spirit And Iohn could say so of other Saints Ye have an unction or an annointing 1 Iohn 2. and that was the blessed spirit Truly beloved it is a comfortable thing in respect of himself for a poor creature to see many stumble at the word of God whereas if we would resolve to be wise in the wisdom of God and to speak of things as the Scripture speaks to look on things as the Scripture looks on them to use those phrases and expressions and those notions we should understand many mysteries in godlinesse which now are little lesse then stumbling blocks to us because there is a kind of thwarting wisdom in us that is crosse to that God is now I told you about to exalt the spirit yet not in a way contrary to the Scripture but the spirit in the Scripture I mean Therefore learn this lesson to strive for this as the chief thing to finde the spirit of God in you dwelling and working in you because as in the Old Testament there was one great promise to wit of the Messias the Lord Jesus that was the great promise and all other promises belonged to that So in the New Testament there is but one great promise the promise of the father as Christ calls it and that is the pouring out of the Spirit Therefore as the Lord hath been teaching us of late yeers to know his Son Christ crucified the doctrine of justification where our righteousnesse lies c. So let us not think these speculations enough but take the other maine thing that is as great as this the doctrine of the spirit That I may as well finde the spirit working in me as to know without that Jesus Christ died for me If Religion were stated aright I mean Christianity Christian Religion under the New Testament not in books but the life of Christianty it would be to know Christ crucified and to enjoy the spirit of Christ that when we read the New Testament and cast up the bill of account when we have done there is the sum of all the two hinges that all goes on Therefore take heed of being deceived by notionall knowledge of things onely without you though it be never so glorious For if thou be a Saint thou hast the Spirit of God really dwelling in thee in its measure as truly as in the Lord Iesus Christ as it is in Ephes 1. the latter end the spirit that works in them that believe O the spirit of God is a glorious thing It is that that not only makes the grand difference between a Saint and a sinner but even in a godly man the spirit is all in all in Religion Let the spirit but stir in him though he be never so dark yet all is light before him Let the spirit come and comfort him though he be in chains of Iron though he be in the greatest misery in this world yet he can sing Psalms Let the spirit be given him and then not only faith and the promises but graces and common providences every thing speaks the love of God to his soul But let the spirit withdraw from him if the Lord take away his spirit but for a moment even from the best Saint his body and his soul are no better If I may speake it then a meer carrion I allude to that of Iames The body without the soul is dead So take the body and soul without the spirit of God it is dead Dead What is that Thus take a living body that I may follow the comparison a little there is no living body but he can do something though some can do more then others yet every living body can do something he can sit or walk or talk c. And as he can do some good so he can resist some evil If a man be dying almost if you go to poure water in his throat he can turn his head aside But let the soul be away he can neither do any good I speak now of naturall civill good or resist evil So it is with the soul let the Lord take away his spirit and we are quite flat Let the Lord propose any good work to do let any part of the will of God be presented there is no stirring at all in the soul