Providence His special goodness in the channel of Redemption and Renovation by Christ. 1. He is a Benefactor to all Men he hath given them an immortal spirit that shall abide for evermore Eccles. 12. 7. The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the spirit to Godthat gave it There is an immortal Soul that dwelleth in a mortal Body The Body was made of corruptible Principles was Dust in its composition 't is true God can annihilate it but the Soul as it is a Spirit hath no corruptible Principles in it it is a thing that cannot be killed or destroyed by any created power Now this divine spark which cannot be quenched is a pledge and effect of God's Eternity for he that giveth Immortality certainly is Immortal himself Nothing can give what it hath not And besides because our Souls are immersed and sunk into matter and forget their divine original therefore God by the blessings of his Providence seeks to raise them up to look after this supreme and spiritual Being and giveth us all kind of comforts and mercies whose creatures we are that we may seek the Lord if haply we may feel after him and find him Acts 17. 27. That we may own him as the first Cause or Father of Lights by whom this spark was kindled in us or seek him as the chief good in whom alone this restless soul of ours can find contentment and satisfaction 2. He is a Benefactor in a way of grace and recovery by Christ. This also sets forth his Eternity the first rise and bottom cause of all this grace and favor that stirred and set all the causes on work which concurred to it was God's everlasting love Iohn 3. 16. And Christ saith Prov. 8. 31. I was set up from everlasting and this grace was given us in Christ before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9. Before the foundation of the world was laid this business was transacted with Christ for our benefit and then the way how 't was brought about it was by an everlasting Redemption Heb. 9. 12. of an eternal force value and efficacy and the grace wrought in us 't is called incorruptible seed 1 Pet. 1. 23. There is an eternal principle in our hearts and that is the reason why a Believer is so often said to have eternal life abiding in him because of the beginning seed and principle of it that is sown in his heart and the comfort and fruit of it that we have here is called everlasting consolation 2 Thes. 2. 16. He hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope thorough grace 'T is not bottomed on any poor fading thing but on matters of an eternal Duration the happiness itself is the eternal fruition of the ever blessed God 1 Thess. 4. 17. We shall be ever with the Lord. So that we are made eternal also both in body and soul whence you see how abundantly God discovereth his Eternal Being in all his gifts and graces by Christ. 5 When the Creatures are spoken of as eternal it must be understood it is a communicated dependant half-eternity and so no derogation to this perfection which is proper to God First 'T is communicated to us for originally God only hath Immortality 1 Tim. 6. 16. We have it by derivation God hath it originally in himself and from himself God dispenseth and measureth out the duration and continuance of all other things their Races and Stages when they shall begin and when they shall end And that Immortality which the Angels and the Souls of Men have 't is ascribed to us by participation we have it from God because he was pleased to give it to us 2dly 'T is a dependant Eternity for every moment we depend upon God if he take away his Spirit we are gone Man or Angel We assert the Immortality of the Soul because it hath not the principles of corruption in it as the body hath but yet we cannot must not cut off the dependance upon the first Cause Fountain of Being in his hand is the breath of all living and he is often called the God of your life and the God of the spirits of all flesh 'T is but an half-eternity we sometimes were not God is from everlasting to everlasting but we are appointed to eternal life and time was when we lay in the womb of nothing we are but of yesterday poor upstarts that had but an existence and a new Being given us of God if he will lengthen it out and continue it to all eternity 't is not such an eternity as he hath but an half-eternity not an eternity without beginning but only without ending 6. This Eternity of God is not seriously and sufficiently enough thought of and improved till it lessen all other things in our opinion and estimation of them and affection to them Two things should especially be lessened the time we spend in the world and the things that we enjoy in the world First The time we spend in the world Alas what is this to God's Eternity Psal. 39. 5. Behold thou hast made my days as an hand breadth and mine age is nothing before thee Whether our days be spent in prosperity or adversity they are but short an hand breadth a meer nothing compared with God's Eternity Psal. 90. 4. A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past or as a watch in the night A thousand years compared to Eternity are but as a drop spilt and left in the Ocean or as time insensibly past over in sleep Forty Fifty or Seventy years seemeth a great time with us yet with God who is infinite Ten thousand years is no considerable space but a very short and small duration 2dly As time so the things of the world 2 Cor. 4. 18. The things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal They are short as to continuance and use As to continuance he calleth the honours and delight of Pharaoh's Court. Heb. 11. 25. The pleasures of sin for a season Whatsoever is temporal a Man may see the end of it be it evil a Man in the deep waters is not discouraged as long as he can see banks but in Eternity there are neither banks nor bottom if good Psal. 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection The most shining glory will shortly be burnt out to a snuff it wasts every day Eternity maketh good things infinitely good and evil things infinitely evil If it be temporal whatever paineth us is but a flea-biting to eternal torments Whatever pleaseth or delights 't is but a may game to eternal joys so for use too 't is but for a season Deut. 23. 24. the Law gave an indulgence to eat of his Neighbors grapes for refreshment but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel 1 Tim. 6. 7. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out The Manna was
things The pleasures of the mind are far more pure and defaeeate than those of the body so that if a man would have pleasures let him look after the chiefest of the kind He spoke like a beast rather than like a man that said Eat drink and be merry thou hast goods laid up for many years Luk. 12. 19. That is the most that worldly things can afford us a little bodily cheer Psal. 17. 14. Thou hast filled their bellies with hid treasures there is the poor happiness of a rich Worldling He may have a belly full and fare at a better rate than others do Hab. 1. 16. Their portion is made fat and their meat plenteous When men have troubled themselves and the world to make themselves great it is but for a little belly-cheer which may be wanted as well as enjoyed a modest temperance and mean fare yieldeth more pleasure But what is this to the delights of the mind A Sensualist is a fool that runneth to such dreggy and carnal delights Noble and sublime thoughts breed a greater pleasure What pleasure do some take in finding out a Philosophical Verity the man rejoyceth the senses are only tickled in the other Of all pleasures of the mind those of the spiritual life are the highest for then our natural faculties are quickned and heightned by the spirit The reasonable nature hath a greater joy than the sensitive and the spiritual divine nature hath more than the meer rational There is not only an higher object the Love of God but an higher cause the Spirit of God who elevateth the faculty to an higher manner of sense and perception Therefore both the good and evil of the spiritual life is greater than the good and evil of the rational The evil of the spiritual is greatest a wounded spirit who can bear And the good of the spiritual life is greatest Ioy unspeakable and glorious The higher the life the greater the feeling groans not uttered peace passing all understanding though it maketh no loud noise yet it dissuseth a solid contentment throughout the soul. All this is spoken because the way of Gods Testimonies is looked upon as a dark and gloomy course by carnal men yet it is the life of the blessed God himself Eph. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart And surely he wants no true joy and pleasure that lives such a life USE 1. Here is an invitation to men to acquaint themselves more with the way of Gods Testimonies that they may find this rejoycing above all riches It is hard to pleasant natures to abjure accustomed delights and carnal men picture Religion with a sowr austere face We shall never see cheerful day more if we are strict in Religion Oh consider your delight is not abrogated but perfected you shall find a rejoycing more intimate than in all pleasures Cyprian saith he could hardly get over this prejudice in his Epistle to Donatus Austin thirty years old parted with his carnal delights and found another sweetness Quà m suave mihi subito factum est It is your disease maketh you carnal when freed from the fervours of lust these things will have no relish with you If it seem laborious at first it will be more joyful than all riches The root is bitter but the fruit sweet At first it is bitter to nature which loveth carnal liberty to render it self captive to the word but after a little pains and when the heart is once subdued to God it will be sweet and comfortable Ask of the Spies that have been in this good Land if it be not a Land flowing with Milk and Honey David tells you In the way of thy testimonies This way would be more trodden if men would believe this if you will not believe make trial if Christs yoke seem burdensome it is to a galled neck USE 2. Trial. 1. Have we a delight in obedience to Gods Precepts Psal. 112. 1. They that fear God delight greatly in his commandments It is not enough to serve God but we must serve him delightfully for he is a good Master and his work hath wages in the mouth of it 'T is a sign you are acquainted with the word of God when the obedience which it requireth is not a burden but a delight to you Alas with many it is otherwise How tedious do their hours run in Gods service no time seemeth long but that which is spent in Divine Worship Do you count the clock at a Feast And are you so provident of time when about your sports Are you afraid that the lean kine will devour the fat when you are about your worldly business What causeth your rejoycing the encrease of Wealth or Grace 2. Is this the Supreme delight of the soul It is seen not so much by the sensible expression as by the serious constitution of the soul and the solid effects of it 1. Doth it draw you off from worldly vanities to the study of the word what are your conceptions of it What do you count your riches to grow in grace or to thrive in the world to grow rich towards God or to heap up treasures to your selves Is it your greatest care to maintain a carnal happiness 2. Doth it support you in troubles and worldly losses and bear you out in temporal adversities You cannot be merry unless you have riches and wealth and worldly accommodations then soul eat drink and be merry 3. Doth it sweeten duties the way of Gods commandments is your way home A beast will go home cheerfully you are going home to rest Let the joy of the Lord be your strength Certainly you will think no labour too great to get thither whither the word directs you As one life exceedeth another so there is more sensibleness in it A Beast is more sensible of wrong and hurt and of pleasure than a Plant and as the life of a man exceedeth the life of a beast so is he more capable of joy and grief And as the life of Grace exceedeth the life of a meer man so its joys are greater its griefs greater There are no hardships to which we are exposed for Religion but the Reward attending it will make us to overcome SERMON XVI PSAL. CXIX 15. I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways ALL along David had shewed what he had done now what he will do V. 10. I have sought V. 11. I have hid V. 13. I have declared V. 14. I have rejoyced Now in the two following Verses he doth engage himself to set his mark towards God for time to come I will meditate in thy precepts c. We should not rest upon any thing already done and past but continue the same diligence unto the end Here is David's hearty resolution and purpose to go on for time to come Many will say Thus I have done when I was
the letting in of inward comfort and spiritual reviving from the sense of Gods love so Psal. 80. 18 19. Quicken us and we will call upon thy name Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved The shining of Gods face or the sense of Gods love is the reviving of afflicted spirits 2. The actuation of grace there may be life where there is no vigor Now when we are stirred up to be lively in Gods service we are said to be quickned as in the 19. verse of the Psalm before quoted and often it is thus used in this Psalm as verse the 37. Quicken thou me in thy way The Point is this That Gods children need often to go to God for quickning because they often lye under deadness of heart and therefore should desire God who is the fountain of Grace to emit and send forth his influence They need this quickning 1. By reason of their constant weakness 2. Their frequent indispositions and distempers of soul. 1. Their constant weakness in this world 1. By reason of their inclination to sin 2. The imperfection of their motions towards that which is good 1. By reason of their inclination to sin Carnal concupiscence draweth us aside from God to sensual objects James 1. 14. A man is drawn away by his own lust There is a strong biass of corruption drawing us from Christ to present things Heb. 12. 1. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us There is a carnal affection or corrupt inclination which carrieth us out inordinately to things lawful or too often to things unlawful this hangeth as a weight retarding us in all our heavenly flights and motions The love and care of the world which is apt to press down the soul and doth twine about us and insinuate with us the Apostle calleth it a law in his members Rom. 7. 23. a warning to us how when the flesh draweth us off so strongly one way to implore the Divine grace to draw us more strongly to the other 2. Because of the imperfection of their motions to that which is good though there be a purpose bent of heart and inclination that way Our gives are still about us we feel the old maim Grace is like a spark in wet wood that needs continual blowing 2. Their frequent indispositions and distempers of soul. Sometimes they feel a lothness in their souls and a shiness of Gods presence their hearts hang off the spirit indeed is willing but some fleshly thought or carnal excuse checketh the motion It is God alone that can make the soul willing he giveth both will and deed God bendeth the unwilling will as well as helpeth the fainting affections Again sometimes they find a great deadness there is no vigour or liveliness in their affections and they cannot follow after God with such zeal and earnestness though there be not a formal deadness such as usually is in the duties of hypocrites yet there is not always the same strength and agility of grace in the children of God their souls do not so earnestly reach after Christ. Now what can help but divine quickning therefore go to God for it We should rouse and stir up our selves God giveth out influences according to his will or pleasure but we must still stsr up our selves But to answer a case of conscience Whether we are to do duty in case of deadness and indisposition c. 1. The influence of grace is not the warrant of duty but the help 't is the efficient assisting cause not the ground or rule we are to do all acts of obedience on the account of Gods command Luke 5. 5. Simon answering said unto him Master we have toiled all the night nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net God is Soveraign and we are bound to obey whether disposed or indisposed Should the Husbandman never plow but when disposed to plow 2. Our sinful indisposition cannot excuse us In sins of commission our weakness to resist temptation is no excuse So also in sins of omission we cannot be allowed to say it was the Lord suffered me to sin No more will this plea be allowed The Lord did not quicken me to duty Grace is as necessary to prevent sin as to perform duty Gods suspension was no excuse to Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32. 31. Howbeit in the business of the Ambassadors of the Princes of Babylon who sent to him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart This complaint of weakness hath an ill aspect complaining without labouring is rather a taxing of God But 3. Natural men are bound to pray and perform duties therefore renewed men That natural men are bound see Acts 8. 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee And Psal. 14. 2. The Lord looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did understand and seek God It is charged as a crime that they did not but much more the renewed for to whom more is given of them more is required It is another talent wherewith they are entrusted Grace is not only donum but talentum Grace is not given as a piece of money to a child to play withal but as we give money to Factors to trade withal for us Now a renewed man should do more being capable of more 4. The outward act of a duty is commanded as well as the inward though they come not up to the nature of a perfect duty there is somewhat of the Ordinance of Christ in them Hos. 14. 2. Take with you words and turn unto the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips Though I cannot do all I must do as much as I can 5. We are to wait humbly in the use of means for the power of his grace When the door is shut knocking is the only way to get it open I will go and offer my self to God and see what he will do for me which is Gods usual way and to be used with the more caution and diligence because God doth all Phil. 2. 12 13. Wherefore my beloved as ye have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Seamen by tacking about get wind so far as you use the means you comply with Gods end A sad threatning there is to those that neglect the use of means that shut the dore upon themselves or if God withdraws are willing he should keep away 6. Acting in spiritual duties fits us for them Iter ad pietatem est intra pietatem Praying fits for praying
Some to revive the pristine Purity others the old peaceable Spirit God hath so counterballanced all Parties that they may be mutually helpful But not that we despise and contemn any other and seek to destroy and subvert another and so make way for great mischiefs Every one hath enough to humble him and enough to render him useful to humane Society Therefore we must not set at nought our brother Rom. 14. 10. God hath made him something which thou art not and given him an ability to do something thou canst not do or wouldst not submit unto Contempt is the fruit of Pride there are none but deserve some respect Scorn is the bane of humane Society Secondly It betrayeth it self in contention with Equals Wrath and contention cometh by pride Prov. 13. 10. Every one seeks to be eminent and would excel Not in graces and gifts that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy emulation but in rank and place We set too high a price upon our selves and when others will not come up to our price we are troubled We ascribe too much to our selves and when we meet not with that respect and honour which we affect we fall into contention and break out into strifes supposing our selves neglected We see it often what a make-bait this is in the world if others do not accommodate themselves to our sense if they approve not all things we say if their Opinion differeth a little or it may be nothing from ours Men pertinaciously obstinate in their Preconceptions will not change Opinion upon apparent evidence But now humble men are always peaceable they can better give and take these respects which are done to one another than others can The Apostle saith Ephes. 5. 21. Submit your selves to one another in the fear of God There is a service of love which every one oweth to another for their mutual good and advantage and is called Submission though it be to Equals because our proud and lofty spirits look upon it as below us There are none living whom God alloweth to live only to themselves Now that there may be an equality we are to stoop and condescend to one another others are to live to us and we to them 1 Pet. 5. 5. Be subject one to another and be cloathed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble This mutual subjection to another in the duties of love can never be obtained till we learn to moderate our esteem of our selves and heighten our esteem of others we can neither advise nor instruct nor esteem one another nor maintain peace in our Relations and perform all Christian offices to each other till this spirit prevail with us Thirdly By undutifulness to Superiors or those that are preferred in honour before our selves Proud men would be admired of all well thought of and spoken of by all and preferred above all and if it be not so they are discontented and a secret enmity and malignity invadeth their spirits and setleth it self there it is an apparent fruit of natural corruption Iam. 4. 5. The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy Men cannot endure either the real or reputed excellency of others The proud creature would shine alone Therefore we are secretly nibling at the credit of others blasting their reputation and desire by all means to lessen them or that they should be lessened and where this disposition prevaileth into any degree of strength and tyranny it groweth outragious Prov. 27. 4. Wrath is cruel and anger is outragious but who is able to stand before envy For when we are grieved at the prosperity and excellency of others we seek to undermine them by all the means we can devise As when the Brothers of Ioseph sought to put him out of the way And when Saul envied David he was still plotting his destruction So when the Pharisees envied Christ If we let him alone all men will run after him This brought them to crucifie the Lord of glory Anger venteth it self in sudden flashes and Wrath in some present act of violence but Envy is injurious and treacherous Anger and Wrath suppose some offence but Envy is troubled at the goodness and excellency of others Anger and Wrath are assuaged by degrees and when the raging Billows and Tempest ceaseth there is a Calm but this groweth by time and is exasperated more and more the longer those whom we envy are in good condition Now this affection reigned in us in our natural estate Tit. 3. 3. and remaineth in some degree in the best 4. Another expression of Pride is impatiency of Admonitions and Reproofs that is the cause of the wickeds hatred of the Godly because their lives are a real reproof Ioh. 7. 7. The world hateth me because I testifie of it that the works thereof are evil Heb. 11. 7. But surely it argueth a proud spirit when men cannot endure friendly counsel and will not have their privy sores touched but they grow fierce and outragious especially when they excel others in Rank and Power As when the Prophet reproved Amaziah 2 Chron. 25. 16. Art thou made of the King's Counsel forbear why shouldst thou be smitten so 2 Chron. 18. 23. He smote him on the cheek and said When went the spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee So the Pharisees hated Christ because of his free Reproofs Ioh. 9. 40. Are we blind also They cannot endure to hear of their faults especially from one in an inferiour condition and think every reproof to be a reproach though never so wisely and compassionately managed and that it is beneath their rank to stoop to it though Iob despised not the cause of his maid-servants Job 31. if they had any thing to say against him And David stopped upon Abigails motion 1 Sam. 25. 26. 5. Take heed of building too securely upon earthly enjoyments as if your Estate were so firm and secure that it could not be altered because you are high and great in Wealth Power Honour and Esteem Confidence in our outward Estate is a sure note of Pride Psal. 10. 4 5. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts His ways are always grievous thy judgments are far above out of his sight as for all his enemies he puffeth at them He hath said in his heart I shall not be moved I shall not be in adversity There the Psalmist chargeth Pride on the wicked and such a Pride as ariseth from confidence in outward prosperity and mentioneth a double effect not only slighting their Adversaries but God himself 'T is no matter for any terms of peace or moderation towards their Adversaries his ways are always grievous Therefore are they violent fierce and high and severe towards them do not need the protection of God therefore cold flat negligent in Prayer yea scorn to implore God by Prayer for any Blessing They are so high in Place and Power
him but when his heart was upheld in the ways of God So Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God They had a life visible as other men had but your life that which you chiefly esteem and indeed count to be your life is a hidden thing Here I shall enquire 1. What is this spiritual life 2. Shew that there is a spiritual life distinct from the natural 3. The excellency of the one above the other 4. When this spiritual life is in good plight 1. What is meant by spiritual life 'T is threefold a life of justification and sanctification and glorification First The life of justification We are all dead by the merit of sin When a man is cast at law we say he is a dead man Through one mans offence all were dead Rom. 5. 5. We are sensible of it when the Law cometh in with power Rom. 7. 9. we begin to awaken out of our dead sleep Gods first work is to awaken him and open his eyes that he may see he is a Child of wrath a condemned person undone without a pardon when the Law came sin revived and I died before he thought himself a living man in as good an estate as the best but when he was enlightned to see the true meaning of the Law he found himself no better than a dead man Now when justified the sinner is translated from a sentence of death to a sentence of life passed in his favour and therefore it is called justification of life Rom. 5. 18. and Ioh. 5. 29. He that believeth shall not enter into condemnation but hath passed from death to life that is is acquitted from the sentence of death and condemnation passed on him by the Law Secondly The life of sanctification which lyes in a Conjunction of the soul with the spirit of God even as the natural life is a Conjunction of the body with the soul. Adam though his body was organized and formed was but a dead lump till God breathed the soul into him so till our union with Christ by the communion of his spirit we are dead and unable to every good work But the Holy Ghost puts us into a living condition Ephes. 2. 4 5. We were dead in trespasses and sins yet now hath he quickned us There is a new manner of being which we have upon the receiving of Grace Thirdly Life eternal or the life of Glory which is the final result and consummation of both the former For justification and sanctification are but the beginnings of our happy estate justification is the cause and foundation and sanctification is an introduction or entrance into that life that we shall ever live with God 2. Now this life is distinct from life natural for it hath a distinct principle which is the spirit of God the other a reasonable soul 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first man Adam was made a living soul the last Adam was made a quickning spirit Parents are but instruments of Gods Providence to unite body and soul together but here we live by the spirit or by Christ Gal. 2. 20. God and we are united together Then we live when joined to God as the fountain of life whence the soul is quickned by the spirit of Grace This is to live indeed 'T is called the life of God Ephes. 4. 18. not by common influence of his Providence but by special influences of his Grace Secondly It is distinct in its operations Unumquodque operatur secundum suam formam as things that move upward and downward according to their form so the new Nature carrieth men out to their own natural motion and tendency Walking as men 1 Cor. 3. 3. and walking as Christians are two distinct things The natural and humane life is nothing else but the orderly use of sense and reason but the Divine and spiritual life is the acting of Grace in order to communion with God as if another Soul dwelt in the same Body Ego non sum ego Old lusts old acquaintance old temptations knock at the same door but there is another Inhabitant Thirdly Distinct in supports Hidden Manna Meat indeed Drink indeed Ioh. 6. 55. There is an outward man and an inward man the inward man hath its life as well as the outward And as life so taste omnis vita gustu ducitur The hidden man must be fed with hidden Manna meat and drink that the world knows not of its comforts are never higher than in decays of the body 1 Cor. 4. 16. A man is as his delight and pleasure is it must have something agreeable Fourthly Distinct in ends The aim and tendency of the new Nature is to God 't is from God and therefore to him Gal. 2. 19. 'T is a life whereby a man is enabled to move and act towards God as his utmost end to glorifie him or to enjoy him A carnal man's personal contentment is his highest aim water riseth not beyond its fountain But a gracious man doth all to please God Col. 1. 11. to glorifie God 1 Cor. 10. 31. And this not only from his obligations Rom. 14. 7 8. but from his being that principle of life that is within him Ephes. 1. 12. A man that hath a new principle cannot live without God his great purpose and desire is to enjoy more of him 3. The excellency of the one above the other There is life carnal life natural and life spiritual Life carnal as much as it glittereth and maketh a noise in the world 't is but a death in comparison of the life of Grace 1 Tim. 5. 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead whilst she liveth and let the dead bury their dead Luke 9. 60. and dead in trespasses and sins None seem to make so much of their lives as they yet dead as to any true life and sincere comfort So life natural 't is but a vapour a wind and a little puff of wind that is soon gone take it in the best Nature is but a continued sickness our food is a constant medicine to remedy the decays of Nature most men use it so alimenta sunt medicamenta But more particularly First Life natural is a common thing to Devils Reprobates Beasts Worms Trees and Plants but this is the peculiar priviledge of the Children of God 1 Iohn 4. 13. Therefore Gods Children think they have no life unless they have this life If we think we have a life because we see and hear so do the Worms and smallest Flyes if we think we are alive because we eat drink and sleep so do the Beasts and Cattel if we think we live because we reason and conferr so do the Heathens and Men that shall never see God if we think we have life because we grow well and wax strong proceeding to Old Age so do the Plants and Trees of the Field Nay we have not only this in common with them but in this kind of life other Creatures excel Man The Trees excel us for
happiness will never attain to true peace and sound satisfaction of conscience nor to true grace or an hearty subjection to God but by consulting with the Word No other rule and direction will serve the turn 1. It is the only rule to teach us how to obtain true peace of conscience The whole world is become obnoxious to God and held under the awe of Divine Justice This bondage is natural and the great inquiry is how his anger shall be appeased Micah 6. 6 7 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Now here is no tolerable satisfaction offered no plaister for the wounds of conscience no way to compromise and take up the controversie between us and God but by the Propitiation which the Gospel holdeth forth all this is effected The Gentiles were at a loss the Iews rested in the Sacrifices Which yet could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience Heb. 9. 9. Therefore they fled to barbarous and sinfully cruel customs offering their first-born c. There was no course to recover men from their intanglements and perplexities of soul how to pacifie God for sin but they were still left in a floating uncertainty till God revealed himself as reconciling the world to himself in Christ. Now no Doctrine doth propound the way of reconciliation with God and redemption from those fears of his angry Justice which are so natural to us with such rational advantages and claimeth such a just title to humane belief as the Doctrine of the Gospel Oh then if the young man would cleanse his conscience and quiet and calm his own spirit he must of necessity take up with the Word as his sure direction in the case Look abroad where will you find rest for your souls in this business of attonement and reconciliation with God What strange horrible fruits and effects have mens contrivances on this account produced What have they not invented what have they not done what not suffered upon this account and yet continued in dread and bondage all their days Now what a glorious soul-appeasing light doth the Doctrine of satisfaction and attonement by the blood of Christ the Son of God cause to break in upon the hearts of men The testimony of blood in the conscience is one of the witnesses the believer hath in himself 1 Joh. 5. 8. And there are three that bear witness on earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood And vers 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself 2. It is the only rule of true Holiness Never was it stated and brought to such a pitch as it is in the Scriptures nor enforced by such arguments as are found there it requireth such an holiness as standeth in conformity to God and is determined by his will Now it is but reason that he that is the supreme Being should be the rule of all the rest It is an holiness of another rate than the blind heart could find out not an external devotion nor a civil course but such as transformeth the heart and subdueth it to the will of God Rom. 2. 15. If a man would attain to the highest exactness that a rational creature is capable of not to moral vertue only but a true genuine respect to God and man he must regard and love the Law of God that is pure A man that would be holy had need of an exact rule for to be sure his practice will come short of his rule and therefore if the rule it self be short there will no due provision be made for respects to God or man But now this is a rule that reacheth not only to the way but the thoughts That converteth the soul Psal. 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. Take the fairest draughts of that moral perfection which yet is of humane recommendation and you will find it defective and maimed in some parts either as to God or men It is inferioris Hemisphaerii as not reaching to the full subjection of the soul to God There is some dead fly in their box of ointment either for manner or end 2. The Word is considerable as an instrument which God maketh use of to cleanse the heart of man It will not be amiss a little to shew the instrumentality of the Word to this blessed end and purpose It is the glass that discovereth sin and the water that washeth it away 1 It is the glass wherein to see our corruption The first step to the cure is a knowledg of the disease it is a glass wherein to see our natural face Iam. 1. 23. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass c. In the Word we see Gods Image and our own It is the copy of Gods Holiness and the representation of our natural faces Rom. 7. 9. What fond conceits have we of our own spiritual beauty but there we may see the leprous spots that are upon us 2 It sets us a work to see it purged it is the water to wash it out The word of command presseth the duty 't is indispensibly required What doth every command sound in our ears But wash you make you clean This is indispensibly required 1 Ioh. 3. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure And Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Some things God may dispense with but this is never dispensed with Many things are ornamental that are not absolutely necessary as wealth riches Wisdom with an inheritance is good so learning Many have gone to heaven that were never learned but never any without holiness 3 The word of promise incourageth it 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God And 2 Pet. 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust God might have required it upon the account of his Soveraignty we being his creatures especially this being the perfection of our natures and rather a priviledg than a burden but God would not rule us with a rod of iron but deal with rational creatures rationally by promises and threatnings On the one side he telleth us of a pit without a bottom on the other of blessed and glorious promises Things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard
glances and imperfect knowledg of our estate and so are not affected as we should a particular view of things most works with us Look as Christ the more particularly he is set forth the more taking is the object when the lump of sweetness is dissolved then it is tasted The more particularly we pry into our estate the more we are affected and the more we shall see of the deceitfulness of our own hearts When every one shall know his own sore and grief 2 Chron. 8. 29. 4. It will be of great advantage in the spiritual life to declare often our whole estate to God for the more men know themselves the more they mind God and their heavenly calling Those men that make conscience of declaring themselves to God will ever find lusts to be mortified doubts to be resolved graces to be strengthned A man that doth not look after his estate it runs into decay insensibly before he is aware So when men grow negligent of their hearts and never think of giving an account to God all runs to wast in the soul. Searching and self-examining Christians will be the most serious Christians for as they have a more distinct affective sense of their condition so they always find more work to do in the spiritual life They come to know what are their sins and assaults and conflicts and what further strength they may have in the way of holiness and by this account they are engaged to walk more exactly that they may not provide matter against themselves 1 Pet. 3. 7. that their prayers be not hindred that they may look God in the face with more confidence USE 1. Let us clearly and openly declare our condition to the Lord our griefs and sorrows and so our sins First Our griefs and sorrows Two things will quicken you to this 1. The inconvenience of any other way What will you do If you swallow your griefs that will oppress the heart The more we unbosome our selves to a friend the more we find ease vent and utterance doth lessen our passion An Oven stopt up is hotter within so the more close we are the more we keep our own counsel the greater is our burden Look as wind when it is imprisoned in the caverns of the earth it causeth violent Convulsions and Earthquakes but if it find vent all is quiet so it is with the heart when troubles are kept close then they become the greater burden they make the heart stormy full of discontent but when we open our selves as Hannah did her case to God 1 Sam. 1. 8. we are no more sad or if we go to any thing on this side God our troubles encrease When a man hath sorrow upon his heart it is not the next ditch will yield him refreshing and comfort but he must go to the fountain of living water If we be afraid of an enemy without our business is to strike in with God Prov. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him God hath the command of all things he is first to be treated with then there is hope and relief in God When we are humble and tractable in our affliction when we come and represent our case to him the very thing gives us some hope for the Lord doth all out of mercy Therefore the very representing our misery as David Psal. 69. 29. But I am poor and sorrowful that we are in a miserable forlorn condition if you have nothing else to plead this is that which moves God and works upon his bowels Look as beggars to move pity will uncover their sores that as it were by a silent Oratory they may extort and draw forth relief from you so go to the Lord and acquaint him with your condition some hope will arise hence Lord I am weak and poor deliver me that 's all the argument 2. As to sins let me tell you Go to God with clearness and openness reveal your whole state tell him what are your temptations and conflicts and how your heart works Though he knows it already by his own Omnisciency yet let him know it by your own acknowledgments Let him not know it as a Judg take notice of it so as to punish you but go deal plainly and confess your sins To this end 1. There will be need of light that you may be able to judg of things Heb. 5. 14. They have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil When a man hath not only a speculative knowledg but hath his senses exercised able to judg of the workings of his own heart he can discern what 's of flesh and what 's of spirit and so can give an account to God When we have not only some naked Theory we shall be able to see what 's a temptation where our help and where our weakness lyes 2. There needs observation of the workings of our own hearts A man that would give an account to God need to observe himself narrowly and keep his heart above all keepings David that saith here I declared my ways saith elsewhere I considered my ways It is but a formal account we can give without serious consideration We must therefore keep our hearts with all diligence Prov. 4. 23. 3. There needs in many cases a serious search for instance in deep desertion when God withdraws the light of his countenance and men have not those wonted influences of grace those glimpses of favour and quicknings of spirit and enlargings of heart Psal. 77. 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search When under any despair of soul trace it to its original cause wherein I have grieved the Spirit of God So Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our ways There needs a very distinct and serious enquiry into the state of our souls that we may deal ingenuously with God and lay open our selves before him II. The second clause And the Lord heard me Doct. After an ingenuous and open declaration of our selves to God we find audience with him So did David and so do all the Saints He was never yet wanting to his people that deal sincerely with him in prayer How doth God manifest his audience either inwardly by the Spirit or outwardly by Providence First Inwardly by his Spirit when he begets a perswasion of their acceptance with God leaves an impression of confidence upon their hearts and a quietness in looking for the thing they had asked Before they have an answer of Providence they have a perswasion of heart that their Prayer hath been accepted There 's a great deal of difference between accepting a Prayer and granting a Prayer Gods acceptance is as soon as we Pray but the thing we beg for is another thing and distinct 1 John 5. 14 15. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his Will he
and so do the beasts yea many of the beasts excell us in the perfection of that kind of life Lions excell in strength Roes in swiftness Eagles in long age none of their pleasures are soured with remorse of conscience But the inward Spiritual life is called the life of God Ephes. 4. 18. 6. The inward life is the beginning of our life in heaven A glorified Saint and a Saint militant upon earth they both live the life of God and the life of grace is the same life for kind though not for degree and one that is glorified and one here upon earth differ but as a child and a man But now the life of sense and the life of grace differ as a Toad and a man not only in degree but also in kind 7. Yet further this is that great thing which God hath been at such great expence about to raise the being of the new creature John 6. 51. This is my flesh which I give for the life of the world The supports the strength of the inward man cost dearer than all other comforts whatsoever it must have nobler supports it must have the blood of Christ daily supplies from heaven but the other life is called the life of our hands Isa. 57. 10. We patch up to ourselves some conveniencies for the sensible life by labour and service here in the world Well then this is that which the children of God do mostly look after that the inward life may be kept free from annoyance and fit for the purposes of grace USE The Use of this is to chek our carnal and preposterous care for the outward man to the neglect of the inward How much are we for the outward man that it may be well fed and well cloathed well at ease as for the present life there 's all our care but not so careful to get the soul furnished with grace and strengthened and renewed by continued influences from Christ. Certainly if men did look after soul strength they would be more careful to wait upon God for his blessing You may know the disproportion of your care for outward things and for the inward man by these Questions 1. How much do you prize Gods day the means of grace opportunities of worship that are for the inward man The Sabbath day is a feast day for souls Now when men are weary of it it 's the most burdensome day of all the week round Amos 8. 5. When will the Sabbath be gone that we may set forth wheat It is a sign they are carnal when men count that day the only lost day as Seneca saith of the Jews they lost the full seventh of their lives speaking of the Sabbath day so carnal men think it is a lost day to them they look upon the Sabbath as a melancholy interruption of their affairs and business The Apostle Iames saith of those that are begotten by God Chap. 1. 9. that they are swift to hear certainly they that have an inward man to maintain another life than an outward and animal life must have the supply and will look after the comforts of it 2. Consider how differently we are concerned with bodily and soul concernments If the body be but a little diseased if we want an appetite to a meal or a little sleep in the night we complain of it presently we enquire what 's the cause and look for a remedy but what a wonderfull disproportion is there as to the soul 'T is a strange expression that 3 Epist. John 2. I wish that thy body prosper as thy soul prospers Alas we may say of the most O that their souls did prosper as their bodies as they flourish in the conveniencies of the outward man 3. What care have you for the inward man to adorn the soul to beautify it with grace that it may be of price and esteem with God or to fortify it with grace Now when all our strength and travel is laid out for that which doth not conduce to the inward life Isa. 55. 2. and we lay out our money for that which is not bread it is a sign we are wholly carnal We read in Ecclesiastical story of one that wept when he saw a wanton woman decking her self with a great deal of care to please her lovers saith he Have I been so careful to deck my soul for Christ Iesus 4. Do you take in spiritual refreshments even when afflictions abound 2 Cor. 1. 5. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ then you are affected as the children of God whose heart and care runs out mainly for the inward man This in general Doct. 2. Secondly more especially observe He goes to God for strength Let me shew 1. What is this Spiritual strength 2. How it is given out 3. How God is concerned in it David goes to God Lord strengthen me First What Spiritual strength is It is Gods perfecting of his work Strength supposeth life therefore in general it is God's renewed influence when he hath planted habits of grace he comes and strengthens There is gratia praeveniens operans co-operans there is preventing-grace working-grace and co-working-grace Preventing-grace that is when God converts us when the Lord turns us to himself and doth plant grace in the soul at first Working grace that is when God strengthens the habit Co-working grace when God stirs up the act and helps us in the exercise of the grace we have First He plants grace into the heart then there 's a constant influence as the two Olive-trees in Zechariah were always dropping into the Lamps and then by excitation and co-operation he stirs it up Saith Austin Unless God gives us the faculties and unless he gives us the will we can do nothing and unless he concurs with the exercise of these faculties still we cannot work in the spiritual life as we ought to do and therefore first God infuseth grace and then strengthens grace first he worketh in us then by us First we are objects of his work then instruments To shew wherein the strength of the soul lies 1. There are planted in the soul habits of grace There are not only high operations of grace but permanent and fixed habits the seed of God that remaineth within us 1 Ioh. 3. 9. which cannot be the in-dwelling of the Spirit for this seed of God is some created thing Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean heart O God and it is something that grows 2 Pet. 3. 6. Grow in grace And therefore 't is evident there are habits of grace planted in the soul a good stock that we have from God at first called the good treasure of the heart Matth. 12. these habits of grace are called armour of God the shield of faith the helmet of salvation This is the strength of the soul. 2. But besides this there 's a continuance and an increase of these graces when the Lord confirms his work and perfects what
only rejoyce in things for a season Iohn 6. 35. There are many that look for all their vertue and their experience from their notions in Religion Thus they run from doctrine to doctrine from way to way so remain unmortified Thirdly Take heed of the first decays and look often into the state of your hearts A man that never casts up his estate is undone insensibly therefore look often into the state of your hearts whether you encrease in your affections to God in the power of holiness or whether you go backward It is the Devil's policy when once we are declining to humble us further and further still as a stone that runs down the hill therefore take heed look to the first declinings A gap once made in the conscience grows wider and wider every day and the first declinings are the cause of all the rest Evil is best stopt in the beginning And therefore when you begin to be cold careless in the profession of godliness and not to have the like savour as you were wont to have take heed A heavy body moving downward still gets more strength it goes down and moves faster still O therefore stay at first The first remitting of your watch and spiritual fervor is that which is the cause of all the mischief that comes upon many so that they are given up to vile affections and lying errors It is easier to crush the egg than kill the serpent He that keeps his house in constant repair prevents the fall of it therefore look to your hearts still Our first declinings though never so small are very dangerous Pliny speaks of the Lioness lib. 8. cap. 16. first she brings forth five Lions then four then three then two then one and forever afterward is barren Thus we first begin to remit of our diligence in holy things and are not so frequent in acts of communion then this and that goes off till we have but little left us and then all is gone and men grow worse and worse I may resemble it to Nebuchadnezzar's Image the head of gold the breasts of silver the thighs of brass the feet of iron and clay still worse and worse So men are imbasing by degrees and fall off from God and their savour of the ways of God Fourthly Often review your first grounds and compare them with your after-experiences and what fresh tasts you had then of the love of God to your souls Heb. 3. 14. We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end The first rejoycing of faith the sweet sense that you had O how precious was Christ to you then when first you came out of your fears Revive this upon your heart this will stir you up to be faithful to God When the love of Christ was fresh upon your hearts your motions were earnest Many begin like a Tree full of blossoms give great hope of fruit We should labour to keep up this affection and that a cursed satiety may not creep upon us USE 2. If those that have chosen the way of God and begin to conform their practice ought with all constancy to persevere then it reproveth 1. Those that take up Religion only by way of essay to try how it will suit with them they do not intirely and by a resolute fixed purpose give up themselves to the Lord. You should resolve upon all hazards Not take up Religion for a walk but for a journey Not like going to sea for pleasure if they see a storm coming presently to shore again but for a voyage to ride out all weathers Thus you should do stick to the ways of God and at first make God a good allowance that neither tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword nor any thing may separate you from Christ Rom. 8. 35. We should count all charges and resolve upon the worst 2. It reproves Aguish Christians whose purity and devotion comes upon them by fits Hos. 6. 4. Their righteousness is as the morning-dew The morning-dew that cannot endure the rising sun it is soon wasted and spent when the sun ariseth with his heat and strength whereas our righteousness should not be like the morning-dew but like the morning-light 3. It reproves them that are only swayed by temporal advantages that are off and on As the Samaritans when the Iews were favoured by Alexander and other Princes then they would deny the Temple that was upon Mount Gerizim and say that they were brethren to the Iews but when the Iews were in danger then they would disclaim them Thus many are swayed by temporal advantages either intending or omitting the conscience of their duty as they are favoured by men But we are to stick to God's testimonies II. Let us come to David's prayer O Lord put me not to shame It is in the nature of a deprecation or a prayer for the prevention of evil The evil deprecated is shame By shame some understand the reproaches of wicked men Lord let me not suffer their reproach for I have stuck unto thy testimonies A man that doth not stick to God's testimonies that is not zealous and constant will be put to shame before God and man and made a scorn by them and lie under great reproach therefore Lord prevent this reproach These reproaches are grievous to be born It is against the spirit of man to be contemned especially when he doth well But certainly this cannot be meant he would not so earnestly deprecate this I should think at least not in such an expression O Lord put me not to shame He speaks of such a shame wherein God had a great hand It is true God may suffer this in his Providence Well then this shame may be supposed to result either from his sin or from his sufferings First From sin I have stuck unto thy testimonies O suffer me not to fall into any such sinful course as may expose me to shame and make me become a reproach to Religion Observe Doct. The fruit of sin is shame Shame is a trouble of mind about such evils as tend to our infamy and disgrace Loss of life is matter of fear loss of goods is matter of grief and sorrow but loss of name and credit is matter of shame and therefore it is a trouble of mind that doth arise about such evils as tend to our infamy and disgrace Now this infamy and disgrace is the proper fruit of sin To prove it by Scripture Reason and Experience To prove it by Scripture Shame entred into the world by sin though they were naked yet till they had sinned they were not asham'd Gen. 2. 25. with Gen. 3. 10. there was verecundia an awful Majesty or an holy bashfulness in innocency but not pudor A fear of reproach and infamy that came in by the fall To prove it by Reason There are two things in sin folly and filthiness and both cause shame it is an
not a waste either God is there framing gracious operations or the Devil who worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes. 2. 2. will you give them to God to be saved or to the Devil to be damned Whos 's they are now they are for ever 5ly If you love any you give him the heart and you are wont to wish that there were windows in your bodies that they might see the sincerity of your hearts towards them Surely if you have cause to love any you have much more cause to love God No such friend as he no such benefactor as he if you consider what he hath done for us what blessings he hath bestowed internal external temporal eternal He hath given his Son the great instance of love Ioh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life His Gospel that his love might be preached to us His Spirit that not only sounded in our ears but is shed abroad in our hearts Rom. 5. 5. His Christ to save us his word to enlighten us his Spirit to guide and direct us till we come to Heaven where he will give himself to us an eternal inheritance Certainly unless void of all sense and common ingenuity thou wilt say as the Psalmist Psal. 116. 12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me What indeed wilt thou render to him love will tell thee but lest thou shouldst miss God himself hath told thee Prov. 23. 26. My Son give me thine heart There is no need to wish for windows in thy body He searcheth the heart and trieth the reins Psal. 7. 9. The righteous God trieth the hearts and reins And 1 King 8. 39. Thou knowest the hearts of all the children of men The whole world is to him as a sea of glass He knoweth how much thou esteemest and honourest him If thou givest him the whole world and dost not give him thy heart thou dishonourest him and settest something else before him 6ly This is that all may give him if God should require costly sacrifices rivers of oyl thousands of rams then none but the rich would serve him and he would require nothing but what many Hypocrites would give him Then the poor would be ashamed and discouraged not being able to comply with the command Yea then God would not act like the true God Who accepteth not the person of Princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor for they are all the work of his hands Job 34. 19. Say not Mica 6. 6 7 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul But go to God and give him thy heart this will make thy mite more acceptable than the great treasures of the wicked Luk. 21. 1 2 3 4 And he looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury and he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites and he said Of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all for all these have of their abundance cast unto the offerings of God but of her penury she hath cast in all the living that she had We read in Pagan-story of one that when many rich Scholars gave gifts to Socrates every one according to his birth and fortunes a poor young man came to him and said I have nothing worthy of thee to bestow upon thee but that which I have I give and that is my self others that have given to thee have left more to themselves but I have given all that I have and have nothing left me I give thee my self The Philosopher answered Thou hast given me a gift indeed and therefore it shall be my care to return thee to thy self better than I found thee So come to God he needeth us not but 't is for our benefit we should give our hearts and selves to him He knoweth how much it is for our advantage that he should have our hearts to make them better to sanctifie and save them 2ly The whole heart Here I shall shew you 1. what it is to keep the Law with the whole heart 2. Why we must keep the Law with our whole heart 1. What it is to keep the Law with the whole heart It is taken Legally or Evangelically as a man is bound or as God will accept what is required in justice or what is accepted in mercy 1st According to the rigor of the Law The Law requireth exact conformity without the least motion to the contrary either in thought or destre a full obedience to the Law with all the powers of the whole man This is in force still as to our rule but not as to the condition of our acceptance with God This without any defect and imperfection like mans love to God in innocency since the fall is no where found but in Christ Jesus who alone is harmless and undefiled and will never thus be fulfilled by us till we come to Heaven For here all is but in part but then that which is in part shall be done away Then will there be light without darkness knowledg without ignorance faith without unbelief hope without despair love without defect and mixture of carnal inclinations All good motions without distraction Here is folly and confusion here flesh lusteth against the Spirit in the best Gal. 5. 17. They have a double principle though not a double heart 2ly In an Evangelical sense according to the moderation of the second Covenant and so God out of his love and mercy in Christ Jesus accepts of such a measure of love and obedience as answereth to the measure of Sanctification received When God sanctifieth a man he sanctifieth him as to all the parts and faculties of body and soul inlightneth the understanding with the knowledg of his will inclineth the heart to obedience circumciseth the affection filleth us with the love of God himself and holy things But being a voluntary agent he doth not this as to perfection of degrees all at once but successively and by little and little Therefore as long as we are in the world there is somewhat of ignorance in the understanding perversity in the will fleshliness and impurity in the affections flesh and spirit in every faculty like water and wine in the same cup but so as the gift of grace doth more and more prevail over the corruption of nature light upon darkness holiness upon sin and heavenliness upon our inclinations to worldly vanities As the Sun upon the shadow of the night till it groweth into perfect day Prov. 4. 18. The path of the
ready to make Profession 1 Pet. 3. 5. bids us do it with meekness and fear Meekness respects Men Fear a care to approve our selves to God The Fear of Men is checked by the Fear of God Isa. 8. 12 13. Neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Luke 12. 4 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell An holy Impression of God's Excellency and Greatness left upon the Heart is this Fear that carrieth the Cause clearly for God And as one Nail driveth out another the Fear of Men banisheth the Fear of God out of our Hearts We are obliged to none so as to God who hath the power of Eternal Life and Eternal Death What is a Prison to Hell a little vain Glory to Eternal Glory the Creature to God! 4. A deep sense of the other World When we translate the Scene from Earth to Heaven from this World to the next and consider who is scorned there received there or rejected there the Temptation is lessened The Apostle sheweth that a Spirit of Faith is at the bottom of Confession with the mouth 2 Cor. 4. 13. We having the same spirit of faith believe and therefore speak He that believeth another World and hopeth for it will never be cowardly and bashful but will confidently confess Christ and own him both in Worship and Conversation A Spirit of Faith cannot be suppressed but will break out and shew it self and not be ashamed of Christ his Truth and Ways Well then Christians should be ashamed of that Spirit of Fear Bashfulness and Inconfidence which keeps us from confessing Christ and owning his Ways Kings are more formidable by their Place and Power than the rest of the World but alas we give place to the meanest Men and the smallest opposition maketh us give out 2 Tim. 1. 7. We have not the spirit of fear but the spirit of love power and a sound mind The Christian Spirit is a sober Spirit that valueth all things according to their weight but not a dastardly Spirit a Spirit of Love and Power that owneth Christ with meekness and a due respect to earthly Tribunals and yet with courage as looking higher to the Throne of God 2. We must not be ashamed to own the Testimonies and Ways of God before any sort of Men in the World The Apostle telleth us Rom. 1. 16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Iesus Christ. The Gospel is such a pure sure Rule and offereth us such glorious Hopes that we should be ready to profess it without being ashamed of it So he bids Timothy 2 Tim. 1. 11. Be not ashamed of the testimony of the Lord nor of me his prisoner neither of the Profession nor of our Companions in the Profession when they are under the greatest disgrace So again 1 Pet. 4. 16. If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but glorifie God in this behalf It is matter of Thanksgiving not of shame David is an Instance when Michol scoffed at him I will yet be more vile 2 Sam. 6. 22. It is an honour to be dishonoured for Christ. The Primitive Christians when the Heathens reproched them Art thou not ashamed to believe in him that was crucified The Answer was I am ashamed to believe in him that committed Adultery meaning the Heathen Iupiter Affliction is no disgrace but Sin is But what danger is there of being ashamed of the Gospel since Christianity is in fashion Answ. 1. Sometimes the Simplicity of the Gospel is contemned by the Wits of the World and therefore they either muster up the Oppositions of Science falsly so called or else droll upon Religion and make it the common Jest and By-word 2. The stricter Profession of the Ways of God is under reproch Though the nominal Christian and the serious Christian have the same Bible and believe the same Creed and are baptized into one and the same Profession yet those that are false to their Religion will hate and scorn those that are true to it and among the carnal it will be matter of reproch to be serious and diligent Now though a gracious Heart can be vile for God yet others are afraid they shall be marked and accounted Precise or Puritans and so by resisting an imaginary Shame they fall into an eternal Reproch 3. It may be the strict sort of Christians are the poorer sort and though they be precious in the eyes of God yet they are despised by Men Iohn 7. 49. This people that knoweth not the law are accursed Have any of the Pharisees believed in him any People of Quality They shall be accounted People of no Port and Breeding if they are strictly Christian. Quantus in Christiano populo honor Christi est ubi Religio ignobilem facit coguntur esse viles ne mali videantur Religion is too mean a thing for Persons of Quality of their Rank Thus with many God's Image is made a scorn and the Devil's Image had in honour and serious Godliness is made a By-word Now to fortifie you against being ashamed of God and his Ways take these Considerations 1. The short continuance of this Worlds Glory Within a while we shall be levelled with the lowest and our Dust mixed with common Earth And shall we love the praise of Men more than the praise of God This corruptible Flesh must turn into a loathsom rottenness though now it looketh high and sets forth it self and would be brave and Lordly but the spirit must return to God that gave it to be commanded into unseen and unknown Regions 1 Pet. 1. 21. All flesh is grass and the glory of man as the flower of grass 2. God is the Fountain of Honour all Things and Persons receive an Honour by having relation to him Iames 2. 1. Have not the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ the Lord of glory in respect of persons Services mean in themselves are accounted honourable with respect to Princes The Reproch of Christ is enough to weigh down all the Honours in the World Heb. 11. 26. Esteeming the reproch of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt 3. If your hearts be sincere with God you will not be ashamed of his Ways For Wisdom is justified of her children In Luke it is All her children Luke 7. 35. They that have a Faith which is the fruit of Conviction onely may be ashamed Iohn 12. 42 43. Among the rulers also many believed on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God But that Faith which is the fruit of Conversion will make us courageous in God's Cause
it is exercised about noble Objects the Favour of God Reconciliation with him and the Hope of Eternal Life all these as belonging to us and it is excited by an higher Cause the Spirit of God and lastly it giveth us a sense of what we had but a guess before We know the grace of God in truth Col. 1. 6. we know it so as to taste of it 3. The fundamental or bottom Cause of this Delight is exprest which I have loved There is a precedent Love of the Object before there can be any Delight in it Love is the Complacency and Propension of the Soul toward that which is good absolutely considered abstracting both from Presence and Absence Desire regardeth the Absence and Futurition of a Good Delight the Presence and Fruition of it It is impossible any thing can be delighted in but it must be first loved and desired None can truly delight in Obedience but such as desire it By nature we were otherwise affected counted his Commands burdensom because contrary to the desires of the Flesh Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be But when the Heart is renewed by Grace then we have another Love and another Bias upon our Affections 1 Iohn 5. 3. This is love to keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous To others they are against the bent and the hair and too tedious but Love maketh way for Delight II. Reasons why a gracious Heart doth love and delight in the Commandments of God 1. The Matter of these Commandments sheweth how much they deserve our love and delight The Matter respects either Law or Gospel 1. That which is strictly called the Moral Law is the Decalogue a fit Rule for a Wise God to give or a Rational Creature to receive a just and due Admeasurement of our Duty to God and Man The World cannot be without it To God that we should love him serve him depend upon him delight in him that we may be at length happy in his Love The Law is holy just and good not burdensom to the Reasonable Nature but perfective Surely to know God to love him and fear him and trust and repose our Souls on him and to worship him at the time in the way and manner appointed is a delightful thing and should be more delightful to us than our necessary and appointed Food To Man Justice Charity Micah 6. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy Hos. 12. 6. Keep mercy and judgment Now all kind of Justice should not be grievous either Political Justice between the Magistrates and People How should we live else This maintaineth the Order of the World Private Justice between Man and Man Mat. 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them Family-Justice between Husband and Wife Parents and Children Masters and Servants how else can a Man have any tolerable degree of safety and comfort 1 Pet. 3. 7. Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge Then for Mercy there is not a pleasanter Work in the World than to do good it is God-like A Man is as an earthly God to comfort and supply others Acts 20. 35. It is a more blessed thing to give than to receive And Blessedness is not tedious the Work rewards it self The satisfaction is so great of doing good and being helpful to others that certainly this is not tedious 2. The Gospel it offereth such a sutable Remedy to Mankind that the Duties of it should be as pleasant and welcom to us as the Counsel of a Friend for our recovery out of a great Misery into which we had plunged our selves In the Law God acteth more as a Commander and Governour in the Gospel as a Friend and Counsellor Surely to those that have any feeling of their Sins or fears of the Wrath of God what can be more welcom than the way of a Pardon and Reconciliation with God whom his Word and Providence and the fears of a guilty Conscience represent as an Enemy to us Surely this should be more pleasant than all the Lust Sport and Honours and Pleasures of the World Here is the Foundation laid of Everlasting Joy a sufficient answer to the Terrors of the Law and the Accusations of a guilty Conscience which is the greatest Misery can befal Mankind In short That the Matter of God's Commands deserves our Delight and Esteem is evident 1. Because those that are unwilling to submit to them count them good and acceptable Laws When their particular Practice and sinful Customs have made them incompetent Judges of what is fittest for themselves in their health and strength yet their Conscience judgeth it a more excellent and honourable thing in others if they can deny the Pleasures of the Flesh and overcome the Temptations of the World and deny themselves the Comforts of the present Life out of the hopes of that which is to come Such are accounted a more excellent and better sort of Men Prov. 12. 26. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour He hath more of God and of a Man than others as he hath a freer use of Reason and a greater command of his own Lusts and Passions There is a Reverence of such darted into the Consciences of wicked Men Mark 6. 20. Herod feared Iohn knowing that he was a just and holy man and observed him 2. Because of the Sentiments which Men have of a holy sober godly Life when they come to die and the disallowance of a dissolute carnal Life Iob 27. 8. What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Psal. 37. 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace When Men are entring upon the Confines of Eternity they are wiser the fumes of Lust are then blown over their Joys or Fears are then Testimonies to God's Law 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law It is not from the Fancy or Melancholy of the dying Person nor his Distemper that his Fears are awakened but his Reason If it did onely proceed from his Distemper Men would be rather troubled for leaving Worldly Comforts than for Sin No it is the apprehension of God's Justice by reason of Sin who will proceed according to his Law which the guilty Person hath so often and so much violated and broken They are not the ravings of a Fever nor the fruits of natural Weakness and Credulity no these Troubles are justified by the Law of God or the highest Reason 3. By supposing the contrary of all which God hath commanded concerning the embracing of Vertue shunning of Vice If God should free us from these Laws leave us to our own choice
day against the Lord that to morrow he will be wroth with the whole Congregation of Israel Afflictions also should stir up in us heavenly Thoughts heavenly Desires and more lively diligence in the exercise of those Graces which before lay dormant in us through our neglect Onely I must tell you that sometimes the Affliction may be merely for prevention and may goe before Sin God hath always a Cause but he doth not always suppose a fault in act but sometimes in possibility looking into thy Actions or thy Temper what thou hast done or wouldst doe to cure or prevent a distemper in thy Spirit as well as a disorder in thy Conversation 2. Let us not faint When the Afflictions sit close and near then we are apt to fall into the other extream to be dejected out of measure An over-sense worketh on our Anger and then it is Fretting or on our Sorrow and then it is Fainting The former is the worse of the two for that is to set up an Anti-Providence or a being displeased with God's Government a practical disowning of his Greatness and Justice all men will acknowledge God is great yet what Worm is there will submit to him any further than themselves please We say we deserve nothing but evil from his hands but yet are madded like wild Bulls in a Net when the Goad is in our Sides We say any other Cross but this We do not dislike Trial but this Trial that is upon us God thought this fittest for us our murmuring will not ease our trouble but increase and continue it Certainly without submission Troubles will doe us no good Patience worketh Experience Rom. 5. 4. Fainting properly so taken is when we look upon God's Work through a false Glass and misexpound his Dispensation God puts forth his hand not to thrust us off but pull us to himself Hosea 5. 15. I will goe and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their Affliction they will seek me early The very Affliction giveth us hope that he will not let us goe on securely in our Sins It is not our being afflicted and made miserable by trouble which God aimeth at Lament 3. 33. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men. Nor is it that which we should chiefly be affected with under Afflictions We should mind another Lesson taught by it which if we neglect our sense of Trouble will be but perplexing It is to subdue Sin to make us more mindfull of heavenly Things to have our hearts humbled No Affliction should be counted intolerable which helpeth to purge our Sin We evidence our love to Sin if we are overmuch troubled at it or peevishly quarrel with God Fainting sheweth our weakness Prov. 24. 10. If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small Use 2. Something concerning the Profit of it value it observe it 1. Value it What do you count a Profit or Benefit to slow in Wealth or excel in Grace to live in Ease or to be kept in a holy heavenly and humble Frame Heb. 12. 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Not that we might have the Pelf of this World but that we might be partakers of his Holiness it is better to have Holiness than to have Health Wealth and Honour the sanctification of an Affliction is better than to have deliverance out of it Deliverance taketh away malum naturale some penal Evil which God bringeth upon us Sanctification malum morale the greatest Evil which is Sin I am sure this is that which we should look after Deliverance is God's Work the Improvement of the Trouble is our Duty do you mind your Work and God will not be wanting to doe his Part. 2. Observe it and see how the Rod worketh what Thoughts it begets in you what Resolutions it stirreth up what Solaces you run to and seek after to this end 1. In what temper and frame of heart you were when the Affliction surprized you Usually Affliction treadeth upon the heels of some Sin if it be open and in our practice it discovereth it self if secret and in the frame of our hearts it must be searched after Usually it is some slightness and carelesness of spiritual and heavenly Things your hearts were grown in love with the World you began to neglect your Souls grew more cold in the Love of God more formal in Prayer and indifferent as to your spiritual Estate you did not watch over your hearts therefore the holy and jealous God cometh and awakeneth you by his smarting Scourge the foregoing Distemper observed will help you to state your Profit 2. How that is cured by God's Discipline or what benefit you have gotten by it You are more diligent in your Duty carefull in your Preparations for a better State A Christian should be able to give an account of the Methods by which God bringeth him to Heaven David could give an account as here Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy Word and verse 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes not good that I should be as accepting the Punishment but that I have been as owning the Profit SERMON LXXVII PSAL. CXIX 68. Thou art good and dost good teach me thy Statutes THE Psalmist in the first Verse of this Portion had expressed himself in a way of Thankfulness to God for his Goodness verse 65. then interrupteth his Thanksgiving a little and beggeth the continuance of the same Goodness verse 66. and after that returneth again to shew how this good came by means of Affliction vers 67. and therefore once more praiseth God for his Goodness and reneweth his Suite God is ever good to his People but most sensibly they have proof of it in their Afflictions when to appearance he seemeth to deale hardly with them yet all that while he doth them good Sanctification of Afflictions is a greater mercy than deliverance out of them We may learn our Duty by the Discipline of a smart Rod Thou dealest well with thy Servant For Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy Word And then he falleth into Thanksgiving and Prayer again Thou art good and dost good teach me thy Statutes Here is 1. A Compellation and Confession of God's Goodness both in his Nature and Actions 2. A Petition for Grace Teach me thy Statutes First The Compellation used to God Thou art good and dost good Divers have been the glosses of Interpreters upon these Words Aben Ezra bonus est non petenti benefacit petenti thou art good to them that ask not but surely dost good to them that ask Others Thou art good in this World dost good in the World to come Others better God is good of himself and doth good to us Goodness
here they would be incouraged by his Example cheerfully to expect the same deliverance from God In the Example of one sufferer there is a pawn given to all the rest 't is for the Edification and Encouragement of others to be acquainted with our Experiences of God's Mercy to us Psalm 66. 16. Come near all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul all are concerned for they have the same necessities have interest in the same God the same Promises the same Mediator and the same Covenant so that to be acquainted with the passages of Divine Providence towards others is a great help to teach us more of God that we may learn to magnisy his Power And partly by this means their hearts are more knit to one another in Spiritual Love when they pray for one another as for their own Souls and rejoyce as in their own deliverance it maintaineth Unity among us God loveth to pleasure many of his Children at once and to interest them in the same Mercy and so we receive the Mercy others intercede for and give thanks for it Love in the Spirit is seen in praying and Praising God for one another And partly too because it doth oblige us to more frequent acts of Worship we can never want an errand to the Throne of Grace or an opportunity of Worship for our selves or others to Pray with them or to offer Praise with them and for them 4. Joy is Communicative Mourning apart is good Peter went out and wept bitterly Matth. 26. 75. And Ieremiah saith when he would weep for the People Ier. 13. 17. My Soul shall weep in secret places for your Pride And Zach. 12. 12 13. They shall mourn every Family apart the Family of the house of David apart and their Wives apart c. Sorrow affecteth Solitude and retiredness where no Eye seeth but God's but joy doth best in Company and in Consort as the Woman called her Neighbours to rejoyce with her Luke 15. Because she had found the lost Groat So we must stir up one another to rejoyce in God Besides Mercies may be told to many but not our griefs therefore the Godly will be flocking together to help them in Praises as well as Prayers 'T is not onely commendable to beg their help in Prayer but we should call upon them to Praise God with us Psalm 34. 3. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together We are bound to be witnesses of one anothers thankfulness and to assist one another in the Praises of God Use is Information of Five things 1. It sheweth us the Lawfulness yea the Conveniency yea in some sort the Necessity of Publick Thanksgiving for Private Mercies 'T is Lawfull we read of paying Vows in the great Congregation Psalm 22. 22. Psalm 40. 9. 'T is highly convenient and usefull partly that the People of God may flock together and make a Crown of Praise for God Psalm 22. 3. He inhabiteth the Praises of Israel he delighteth to be in the midst of his People when they Praise him And partly that by the thankfulness of others we may be quickened to remember our own Mercies as one Bird sets all the Flock a cherping And partly that we may quicken others by our help And partly to shew a Christ-like Love to them by being affected with their Miseries and rejoycing in their Mercies Well these things should quicken us to joyn with others in their thanksgiving for their private Mercies so to raise a spirituall affection in us in the performance of those duties And as 't is Lawfull so 't is Necessary other men's Mercies may be our Mercies as well as theirs you are concerned in the Mercy if you have Prayed for it We are to love God for hearing our Prayers for others as well as for our selves Eli gave thanks and solemnly worshipped God for Hannah's sake because he had before prayed for her and therefore Praised God for her who had heard his Prayers in her behalf Compare 1 Sam. 1. 28. when Hannah told him what the Lord had done Eli falls a worshipping the Lord he had prayed for her before in the 17 verse The Lord grant thee thy Petition which thou askest of him Every answer of Prayer is a new proof or fresh experience of God's Love and special Respect to us 't is a sign that God regardeth us and is mindfull of us nay 't is a sign of God's Favour when he will not onely hear us for our selves but for others also If a man come to a King he will say if you had asked for your self I would have granted you 't is a special honour to interceed for others which God putteth upon his choice Servants Gen. 20. 7. Abraham shall pray for thee and thou shalt live Job 42. 8. My Servant Iob shall pray for you and him will I accept God will hear his Servants for others when he will not hear them for themselves If our Prayers had returned into our own Bosoms as David's for his Enemies Psalm 35. 13. if God as an answer had given you onely the comfort of the discharge of your duty Luke 10. 6. If they be not worthy your peace shall return to you again This were matter of Praise much more now the Mercy is obtained All this is spoken to shew that there should be more Life and Spiritual affection in those Duties which we perform in the behalf of others 2. It informeth us of the excellency of Communion of Saints there is such a Fellowship and Communion between all the Members of Christ's mystical Body that they Mourn together and Rejoyce together the Grace vouchsafed to one is cause of rejoycing to all the rest they drive on a joint trade for Heaven and rejoyce in one anothers Comforts as if they were their own in one anothers Gifts and Graces as if they were their own in one anothers Supports and Deliverances as if they were their own We read of Joy in Heaven at the conversion of Sinners they rejoyce at our welfare praising and lauding God so there is also Joy on Earth when any spiritual Benefit is imparted if any be gotten to a God like Nature they give thanks to God They that fear thee will be glad when they see me Acts 4. 32. The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one Soul there was a great multitude many thousand Souls here was the primitive simplicity the Christians were so united as if they had but one Heart and Soul among them and it was an usual saying Aspice ut se mutuo diligunt Christiani see how the Christians love one another 't was otherwise afterwards no wild Beasts are so fierce to one another as one Christian has been to another Surely it concerneth all that fear God and hope in his Word to be of one Heart and of one Mind as much as may be Lesser differences should not make void this Christ-like Love
that they are able to oppress their Underlings and so think they can bring to pass what they would have to be done in despight of God Now somewhat of this may be found in the People of God Psal. 30. 6 7. In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved They drink in some of this poyson are apt to rest and sleep on a carnal Pillow By this you may see that none of us have perfectly put off this sin Plato saith A man doth put it off as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it groweth out of the conquest of other sins But if we would not be proud 1. Let us pray often For in Prayer we profess our subjection and dependance Where Prayers are servent earnest frequent it argueth great humility Where rare cold unfrequent little Humility Where none no humility Seeking to God who is so excellent mindeth us of our own baseness Seeking his daily relief and succor mindeth us of the changeableness of all worldly things and the several vicissitudes of this life Psal. 10. 4. A man serious in Prayer living in a constant dependance upon God must needs be an humble man 2. Let us be contented with a little and not seek great things for our selves for Interest is the great make-bait I am sure a worldly Portion is the usual sewel of â—…ride A Worm may grow in Manna but usually 't is some worldly excellency which giveth us such great advantages here below which puffeth us up If Riches increase by the fair allowance of God's Providence we are not to grow proud of them 1 Tim. 6. 17. Charge them that are rich in the world that they be not high minded Moses saith Deut. 8. 12 13 14. Take heed when thou hast eaten and art full and thy gold and silver is multiplied lest thy heart be lifted up Our hearts are mighty apt to be lifted up by a full estate 3. If we excel in gifts and graces double caution is necessary this is a real excellency 2 Cor. 12. 7. Pride maketh us not only unthankful to God but perverse to men Prov. 21. 24. Proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath Men conceited of their gifts make their own fancy and conceit their Rule and if any thing be done that pleaseth not them they rend and tear all and trample upon the unquestionable interest of Jesus Christ to wreak their spleen It is a question Whether real Grace may make men proud Gifts to be sure may Knowledge puffeth up yea Grace through Corruption They need caution that have the great presence of God with them as to success when eminently employed in God's service Credit by worldly eminency and esteem falleth in with their services and secretly insinuates high thoughts of their own excellencies 4. Consider how much Pride hath cost us They that are proud and burdensom to other People God will pull down their Pride Isa. 13. 11. And I will punish the world for their evil and the wicked for their iniquity and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible 'T is spoken of the Chaldeans who in a bravery and force offered violence to others God loveth to pull down the Pride and Insolency of Roysters that have been formidable and burdensom to other People The Lord of Hosts hath purposed to stain the Pride of all glory and to bring into contempt the Honourable of the Earth what hath God been a doing not in former but latter times 5. Consider That Christianity was sent into the world not to set up a Kingdom of power but patience Matth. 18. 4. Whosoever therefore shall be humble as this little child the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven Luke 1. 51 52 53. He hath shewed strength with his arm he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away 6. Who made us differ 1 Cor. 4. 7. For who made thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou hast not received now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it Who would be proud of a borrowed Garment he becometh the more in debt Nothing is ours but sin all other things are the free gift of God Shall the Wall boast it self because the Sun shines upon it or the Pen arrogate the praise of fair Writing The more we have received from God the more we are obliged to acknowledge his goodness and confess our own unworthiness 2 The Event or effect of God's Providence desired together with the reason of it That which he desired was that they might be ashamed The reason because they have dealt perversly without a cause Let us explain both 1. The Event of God's Providence prayed for That they may be ashamed that is that they may not prosper and succeed in their attempts For men are ashamed when they are disappointed and all their endeavors for the extirpation of God's People are vain and fruitless and those things which they have subtlely devised have not that effect which they propounded unto themselves Psal. 70. 3. Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame which say Aha 2. The Reason urged For they dealt perversly with me without a cause The Septuagint have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unjustly Ainsworth readeth With falshood they have depraved me It implieth two things first that they pretended a cause but 2dly David avoucheth his innocency to God and so without any guilt of his they accused defamed condemned his actions as is usual in like cases elsewhere he complaineth Psal. 56. 5. They every day wrest my words and their thoughts are against me for evil They condemned him for wicked perverted his sayings and doings Men pretend causes of their Oppression Heresie Schism Rebellion but meer malice and perversness of spirit inclines them to seek the destruction of the People of God DOCT. That when the Proud are troublesom and injurious to God's People they may boldly commend their Cause to God The Reasons 1. The Effects of their Pride are grievous to be born Now 't is well when any grief findeth a spiritual vent when it puts the Godly upon praying Philip. 4. 6. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God Jer. 20. 12. O Lord of hosts that triest the righteous and seest the reins and the heart let me see thy vengeance on them for unto thee have I opened my cause We may exhibit our Bill of complaint at God's Tribunal carry the Fact thither 2. The Lord may be appealed unto upon a double account Partly as he is an Enemy to the Proud and as a Friend to the Humble Iames 4. 6. God resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the humble And Psal. 138.
have not always the strength of Faith and therefore faint and are ready to perish I said in my haste I am cut off Psal. 31. 22. 4. Religion itself intendereth the heart a Father's anger is no slight thing to a gracious soul. When we are afflicted and God is angry the trouble is the more grievous and it is hard to steer right between the two Rocks of slighting and fainting well then pity poor creatures under their burden and help them but censure them not 3. His Remedy God's Word there is the Paradise of delights and the onely Requies to allay the bitter sense of all our troubles why First As to the main blessings there is represented to us the true Fountain of all comfort who is God the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 13. who distributeth comfort when and where and to whom he pleaseth 2dly There is discovered to us the meritorious and procuring cause who is Jesus Christ Who hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace 2 Thess. 2. 16. 3dly The Spirit who is the applier of all comfort therefore called the Comforter and he giveth us peace and joy in believing Rom. 15. 13. 4thly The true instrument means or condition whereby we receive comfort and that is Faith Iohn 14. 1. 5thly The true matter of comfort and that is pardon and life 1. Pardon and Reconciliation with God Rom. 5. 10. no solid cause of rejoycing till then when reconciled to God then true peace and peace that passeth all understanding which will guard both heart and mind Phil. 4. 7. then all miseries are unstinged Solid pâ—…e of Conscience is your best support and comfort under afflictions the intrinsic evil of afflictions is then taken away Lam. 3. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins While sin remaineth unpardoned the thorn still remaineth in the sore 2. The promise of eternal life Rom. 5. 2. There is the Crown set against the Cross heavenly comforts against earthly afflictions the afflictions of God's children comparatively are light and short 2 Cor. 4. 17. This light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Nothing should be grievous to them that know a world to come where all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and we shall enjoy fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore 6thly It sheweth us who are the Parties capable the renewed or sanctified Ps. 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart To all Christ's sincere faithful and obedient servants these promises are matter of abundant joy As to particular comforts concerning afflictions it is endless to instance in all but take a few instances 1. The Word of God teaches us not only how to bear them but how to improve them as it teaches us how to bear them it breedeth quietness and submission but as it teaches us how to improve them it breedeth peace and joy To bear Micah 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness To improve them Heb. 12. 11. Righteousness brings peace along with it The fruit is better than the deliverance as we get spiritual advantage by them as they promote Repentance purge out Sin bring us home to God They rid us of the matter of our trouble and bring us to the center of our rest 2. The Word teaches to depend upon God for the moderating of them and deliverance from them 1 Cor. 10. 13. Before he giveth a passage out of our pressures he vouchsafeth present support to us and will not permit his servants to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear 3. His people have most experience of God under the Cross they have a more peculiar allowance from God for sufferings than for ordinary services Paul was most strong when weak 2 Cor. 12. 9 10. The greater pressures the more sensible the divine assistance And when ordinary means fail and they are pressed above their own strength the more visible the proof of God's help When they are most apt to have jealousies of God's love they have had the highest manifestations of it never more liberty than in the house of bondage Most of God's smiles when all things seem to frown upon them In short have had more understanding not only of God's Word but his Love 4. God's governing all things for the benefit of his people Rom 8. 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God sure then afflictions Now they submitting and being exercised under sharp dispensations may find it verified to them many things seem for our hurt intendedly many thought so by our selves but God knoweth how to bring good out of them Cant. 4. 16. 4. David saith my delights They that seek their solace and delight in the Word shall find it there It is an excellent frame of heart to be satisfied with the comforts which the Word offereth every one cannot be thus affected to raise this delight 1. Faith is necessary for the comforts of the Word are received and improved by Faith unless we expect the sure accomplishment of God's promises how can we be supported by them Psal. 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living That is without a full assent to the promises which God had made him of his Restauration for he had particular assurance of the Kingdom as we have of the Kingdom of Heaven so for the consent as well as assent to take the happiness contained in the promises as our whole felicity Psal. 119. 111. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever they are the rejoicing of my heart There is heritage and portion rich enough in God's promises and this breedeth joy in all afflictions 2. Meditation is necessary for thereby the sweetness of the Word is perceived and tasted and the promises laid before us it is the fruit of delight Psal. 1. 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night And it is the cause of it Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. They who delight in a thing will often view it and consider it and thereby their delight is increased the most lively truths work not on us for want of serious consideration 3. There must be Mortification and Self-denial or prizing spiritual Favors before temporal Benefits The Cross will not be grievous to a mortified spirit when they compare their gain with their loss 2 Cor. 4. 16. To others we speak in vain whose hearts are set upon worldly advantages but they
who value all things in order to the chief good and have weaned their hearts from the false happiness they have their end if they be brought nearer to God though by a bitter and sharp means First Use Is Reproof to four sorts 1. To those that know no comfort but what ariseth from the enjoyments of sense Alas these comforts are dreggy and base and leave a taint upon the soul Iude 19. Again they leave us destitute when we most need comfort Iob 27. 8. When other comforts forsake us and have spent their allowance the comforts of the Word abide with us Again these comforts increase our grief though for a time they seem to mitigate and allay it They are like strong waters that warm the stomach for the present but destroy the true temper and natural heat of it and leave it the colder afterwards they chear us a little but the end of that mirth is heaviness Oh! how much better are the comforts of God's Word which giveth us matter of joy in the saddest condition and do not only save us from desperation in troubles but make us rejoice in tribulation and can bring pleasure to us in our bitterest afflictions there are breasts of consolation for every distressed creature to suck at and be saved 2. It reproves them that think Philosophy as good or a better Institution than Christianity Certainly we should own the wisdom of God by what hand soever it is conveyed to us as Elijah refused not his meat though brought by Ravens But when this is done by men of a profane wit in a contempt of God we must convince them of their dangerous error and mistake and shew how compleat we are in Christ that we be not spoiled by the Rudiments of vain Wisdom or Philosophy Col. 2. 8. Surely God's comforts have greatest authority over the Conscience to silence all our murmurings Psal. 94. 19. Man speaks to us by the evidence of Reason but in Scripture God himself speaks to us and impawneth his Truth with us to do us good they knew not the true cause of trouble sin nor the true remedy Jesus Christ And surely those great mysteries of Christ as Procurer of Comfort the Spirit as the Applier Heaven as the Matter the Word as the Warrant Faith as the Means to receive all these are a more accommodate means to settle the Conscience than those little glimmerings of light which refined nature discovered They speak of submitting out of necessity little of reducing the heart to God and their very Doctrines for comfort were rather a Libel against Providence than a sure ground of peace and tranquility of mind and they taught men to eradicate the affections rather than to govern and quiet them and therefore keep up your Reverence to the Scriptures A Seneca may speak things more neatly and to the gust of carnal fancy but not with greater power and efficacy this is reserved for the Word 3. It reproves them that undervalue the consolations laid down in the Word as if they were but slender empty and unsatisfactory and would have some singular and extraordinary way of getting comfort Iob 15. 11. Are the consolations of God small with thee Is there any secret thing with thee God's ordinary way is the sure way the other layeth us open to a snare therefore they who undervalue the ordinary comforts of the Word obtained in a way of Faith and Repentance and close walking with God as Naaman undervalued the waters of Iordan and would have signs and wonders to comfort them they may long sit in darkness because if God comfort them not in their way they will not be comforted at all Now though God hath sometimes in condescension to his people granted them their desires as to Thomas yet it is with an upbraiding of their weakness and unbelief Iohn 20. 28. We should acquiesce in the common allowance of God's people lest we seem to reflect on the wisdom and goodness of God and lay open our selves to some false consolation and dream of comfort while we affect new means without the compass of the Word especially when we find not our expectations there speedily answered like hasty Patients readier to tamper with every new Medicine they hear of than submit to a regular course of Physick Gregory tells us of a Lady of the Emperor's Court that never ceased importuning of him to seek from God a Revelation from Heaven that she should be saved He answers Rem difficilem inutilem postulas It was a thing difficult and unprofitable difficult for him to obtain unprofitable for her to ask having a surer way by the Scriptures 2 Pet. 1. 19. than Oracles the adhering of the Soul to the promises is the unquestionable way to obtain a sound peace Luther as he confesseth was often tempted to ask a sign of the pardon of his sins or some special Revelation he tells also how strongly he withstood these Temptations Pactum feci cum Domino meo ne mihi mittat visiones vel somnia vel etiam angelos contentus enim sum hoc dono quod habeo Scripturam sanctam quae abunde docet suppeditat omnia quae necessaria sunt tam ad hanc vitam tam ad futuram I indented with the Lord my God that he would never send me dreams and visions I am well contented with the gift of the Scriptures 4. It shews how much they are to blame that are under a Scripture institution and do so little honour it by their patience or comfort under Troubles Wherefore were the great Mysteries of Godliness made known to us and the promises of the world to come and all the directions concerning the subjection of the Soul to God and those blessed priviledges we enjoy by Christ if they all be not able to satisfie and stay your heart and compose it to a quiet submission to God when it is his pleasure to take away his comforts from you Is there no Balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there Will not the whole Word of God yield you a Cordial or a Cure It is a disparagement to the provision Christ hath made for our comfort 1. Surely this comes either from ignorance or forgetfulness you do not meditate in the Word or study the grounds of comfort and remember them Heb. 12. 5. Have you forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children Hagar had a Well of comfort nigh at hand yet ready to dye for thirst 2. You indulge a distemper and the obstinacy and peevishness of grief Ier. 31. 15. A voice was heard in Rama lamentation and bitter weeping Rachel weeping for her children and refused to be comforted Certainly you do not expostulate with your selves and cite your Passions before the Tribunal of Reason Psal. 42. 5. or else look altogether to the grievance not to the comfort aggravate the grievances extenuate the comforts you pitch too much upon temporal happiness would have God maintain you at your own rate Heb.
for ever I shall illustrate this Proposition by these Considerations 1. That God's Children are sometimes under deadness 2. That in such deadness the Word of God is the onely means to quicken them 3. Though the Word be quick and lively and powerful yet it is God that must bless it that must make it a support to the Soul 4. That whenever we have received these Comforts Quicknings and Supports from him they should ever be recorded and treasured up in the Registers of a thankful memory for the great uses of Christianity I. First God's Children are under deadness sometimes which hapneth to them for many causes 1. By reason of some Sin committed and not repented of or not fully repented of God smites them with deadness and hardness of heart and the spiritual life for awhile is greatly obstructed and impaired that it cannot discover itself and they have not those lively influences of grace as formerly Thus it was with David when he had strayed so greatly from God and begs God not to cast him off Psal. 51. 11. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me As a wound in the body lets out the life blood and the spirits so these grievous sins are as a wound in the soul Sin against the conscience of a renewed man defaceth the work of the holy Spirit so that for a while he seems to be shut out from God's favor and his gracious abilitie are lessened and impaired he is like a wounded man till he be cured and made whole again The Spirit being grieved and resisted withdraws and the strength of the Soul is wasted and therefore be very tender stand in awe not only of greater but smaller sins 2. By reason of some good omitted especially neglect of the means whereby we may be kept alive fresh and lively in God's service Lazy fits of indisposition and omissions of duty do more frequently steal in upon Believers than positive out-breakings and commissions of sin and they are more ready to please themselves in them and lie still under them and so by this means contract much deadness of heart As a Lute that is not play'd upon but hangs by the wall and not used it soon grows out of keller for want of use so if we do not diligently and constantly exercise our selves in godliness our hearts grow dead and vain It is the complaint of the Church Isa. 64. 7. There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee If we do not stir up our selves to keep on a constant commerce with God and respect to God alas deadness creeps upon the heart unawares and we are commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1. 6. To stir up the gift of God which is in us Surely a sloathful servant will soon become an evil servant Mat. 25. 26. Thou evil and sloathful servant Therefore our sinful sluggishness is one cause of our deadness for he that doth not trade with his Talents will necessarily become poor and if we do not continue this holy attendance upon God the heart suffers loss 1 Thess. 5. 19 20. Despise not prophesie quench not the Spirit The coupling of these two things together shews that if we despise Prophesie we quench the Spirit as fire goes out not only by pouring on water but by not stirring and blowing it up To expect help from God when we are sluggish is to tempt Christ and put him still upon a miraculous way to heal and cure our distempers Who will bring bread and meat to a Sluggard's Bed who will not arise to labor for it oâ—… will not rise at least to fetch it Therefore if we will not attend upon God in the means of grace he will not bring us that help comfort and supply that otherwise we might have God worketh but so that we work also 2 Phil. 12. 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling For it is God that worketh c. God's working is not a ground of laziness but for more strict observance Since all depends upon God therefore take heed you do not offend God and provoke him to suspend his grace We must not lie upon a Bed of ease and cry Christ must do all for this is to abuse the power of grace to laziness It is notable that God bids his people do that which he promiseth to give them Psal. 31. 24. Psal. 27. 14. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart As if he had said strengthen thine heart and he will strengthen thy heart The courage of Faith is both commanded and promised why God by this would shew how we should shake our selves out of our laziness and idleness that though God gives us grace and power yet he will have us to work as a Father that lifts up his childs arm to a burden and bids him lift it up Usually we complain of deadness with a reflection upon God he quickens the dead and therefore I am dead ay but what hast thou done to quicken thy self for grace was never intended that we might be idle you must complain of your selves as the moral faulty cause God is the efficient cause you do not meditate pray draw life out of the precious promises when the Spouse sleeps and keeps her Bed then Christ withdraws Cant. 5. 6. 3. Another cause is unthankfulness for Benefits received especially spiritual Benefits for God loves to have his grace acknowledged He stops his hand and suspends the influences of his grace when the creature doth not acknowledge his bounty Col. 2. 7. Be stablished and rooted in the faith abounding therein with thanksgiving The way to grow in Faith and get by Faith is to be thankful for what we have received that 's an effectual means both to keep it and to get more Therefore if we be always querulous and do not give thanks for the goodness of God to us for what he hath already vouchsafed to us in Christ no wonder that deadness and discouragement creeps upon our hearts 4. Pride in Gifts for we are told Iam. 4. 6. God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble The Garland we put on our own heads soon withers and those Gifts which we are pusst up with are presently blasted and have deadness upon them for he will teach us to ascribe all to himself 5. Some great and heavy Troubles We read ver 107. of this Psalm I am afflicted very much quicken me O Lord according unto thy Word O! when we are afflicted sore there 's a deadness upon the heart the spiritual life clogged with what alacrity did they go about good things before but then there 's a damp worldly sorrow deadens the spirit as godly sorrow quickens it and is a means to keep us alive to God 6. Another cause is Carnal liberty or intermedling with worldly vanities So much we may learn from that Prayer Psal. 119. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou
me in thy way O! when the children of God let loose their minds to vanity and take immoderate liberty in the delights of the flesh there 's a deadness comes upon them for therefore he goes to the cause Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity Immoderate liberty in earthly things or in gratifying the flesh brings on a deadness upon the heart The Spirit withdraws when the soul is taken off from other comforts and is more addicted to vain pleasures Iude v. 19. Sensual not having the Spirit As we are enlarged to the flesh we are straitned to the Spirit As sensuality encreaseth so the life and vitality of grace decays II. Secondly In such Cases the Word of God is the onely means to quicken us Why the Word For two Reasons 1. Because the Word contains the most quickning considerations and the affections are wrought upon by serious and ponderous thoughts for there God interposeth in the way of the highest authority straitly charging and commanding us under pain of his displeasure and there he reasons with us again in the most potent and strong way of Argumentation from the excellency of his commands their suitableness to us as we are reasonable creatures from his great love to us in Christ whom he hath given to dye for us from the danger if we refuse him which is no less than everlasting torment from the benefit and happiness in complying with his motions which is no less than eternal and compleat blessedness both for our bodies and souls and all this is bound upon us by a strict day of impartial accounts O! what a company of quickning considerations are there to set us a work with life vigor and seriousness when we are to answer for our neglects or else to receive the reward of our diligence now what will quicken us if this will not If the high and glorious authority of the supreme Lawgiver awe us not if the reasonableness of God's commands invite us not if the wonderful love of God in Christ constrain us not if the joys of Heaven do not allure us and the horrors of everlasting darkness do not preserve upon us a lively sense of our duty what will work upon us if this do not and gain us to a constant diligent care and serious preparation for our own happiness and salvation Out of what Rock was the heart of man hewen that all this shall be brought to him in the most persuasive way as it is in the Word of God and will not work upon him Again If the deadness should arise from our negligence in our duty the Word of God how powerfully doth it quicken us But if the deadness should arise from sorrow and discomfort is not the Word as powerful to raise and quicken the soul to a delight in God as to inforce our duty What puts a damp upon us Is it fury of men we have a living God to trust to who will remain when they are gone who will pardon our sins help us in all our straits who will lay upon us no more than we are able to bear who will never leave us utterly destitute but will sanctifie all and make all work together for the best for our everlasting salvation and finally bring us into his glorious presence that we may live for ever with him Here 's comfort enough whatever our heaviness be such a powerful God to stand by us in all our troubles and make all work for good that at length we may be brought home to God If this Word did but dwell richly in our souls it would keep us fresh and lively and we need not fear Man or Devil Col. 3. 16. Again 1 Iohn 2. 14. The Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one We need fear nothing for whoever trouble us they are something under God Whatever is our misery and whatever befalls us it is something less than Hell which we have escaped by Christ and will all be made up in Heaven The first sight of God and the first glimpse of everlasting glory will recompence all the sorrows of the present life and as soon as we step into Heaven all shall be forgotten In short God's particular Providence Fatherly love and care the example of Christ the promise of the comforting Spirit the hopes of Glory should revive us in all our languishings So that if deadness comes from backwardness and slowness in our duty in the Word there are most quickning considerations or if from troubles we have enough in God Christ the Covenant the promise of eternal life to support us This is the first Reason the Word of God is the onely means to comfort us because it contains proper quickning considerations that may keep life and vigor in us if either carnal distemper invade the heart or worldly sorrow and fear which is apt to perplex us 2. The quickning Spirit delights to work by this means The ordinary Chariot that carrieth the influences of Grace is the Word of Grace The Spirit that speaks in the Word speaks his own lively comforts to us Alas they are but cold comforts we can find elsewhere The Spirit of God rides most triumphantly in his own Chariot The Word and the Spirit are often associated to shew they go together The Word goes with the Spirit Isa. 59. 21. My Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart c. Isa. 30. 20. When God promiseth Their eyes shall see their Teachers it is promised also They should hear a voice behind them saying This is the way God would afford the Word and Spirit in times of their affliction The Spirit works still in concomitancy with the Word that it may the better be known to be a Revelation from God If God will set up a Word and Revelation of his mind distinct from the light of nature it is fit it should be owned and that 's done by a concomitancy of his grace and powerful operations of his Spirit that goes along with his Word Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth We find the Word to be truth because it 's associated and accompanied with the operations of the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit The Spirit still goes along with the truth of the Gospel and with God's Word His Word 't is the Sword of the Spirit God will not bless any other Doctrine so much as the Word to quicken revive and comfort the soul and therefore here we should busie our selves for it contains the surest grounds of Comfort and the Spirit is associated with it and goes along with it to bless it to our souls III. Thirdly Though the Word be the means yet the benefit comes from God For with them thou hast quickned me Life comes from the fountain of life The Gospel is a sovereign Plaister but it is God's hand that must apply it and
Law but the doctrine of the Gospel As if he had said Stick to that Doctrine where you have been quickned comforted revived and your hearts setled for God hath owned that doctrine He appeals to their own conscience and to their own known experience that they should not quit the doctrine of Faith but prize and keep close to it for surely that which hath been a means of begetting grace in our souls that should be highly prized by us If God hath wrought grace and any comfort and peace stick there and own God there and be not easily moved from thence Another Apostle reasons Iam. 1. 18 19. God hath begotten us by the word of truth wherefore be swift to hear that is O! do not neglect hearing take heed of forsaking or neglecting the Word for then you go against your own known experience you know here you had your life quickning comfort strength and will you be turned off from this for many times a Seducer may turn off a Believer from the Word which hath given him his first knowledge of Christ. There are three Causes which carry Saints to the Word and other Ordinances viz. Necessity Natural Appetite and inward Inclination and Experience Necessity they cannot live without the Word Natural Appetite and inward Inclination they have hearts suited to this work the Spirit which wrought in the heart hath put a nature in them sutable to the work And Experience they have found benefit by it These are the three grand Causes of respect to the Word and they are all implied or exprest in that 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born Babes desire the sincere milk of the Word there 's natural appetite for the Word we have them come as new born Babes and there 's necessity you cannot live nor keep nor increase what you have unless you keep to the Word and there 's Experience if so be you have tasted you have had powerful impressions and quicknings by this Word We should engage our hearts upon experience the comfort life and light that we have had by the Word of God 3d Reason Our own spiritual Estate will sooner be discerned by these Experiences the comfort and quickning received from the Word in the way of duty for experience worketh hope Rom. 5. 4. If your experiences be observed and regarded this works a hopeful dependance upon God for everlasting glory your evidences will be more ready and sooner come to hand The motions of our souls are various and through corruption very confused and dark and this is that which makes it so difficult upon actual search to dâ—…cern how it stands between us and God it 's for want of observation But now if there be constant observation of what passeth between us and God how he hath quickned comforted and owned us in our attendance upon him and what he hath done to bring on our souls in the way of life these will make up an evidence and will abundantly conduce to the quickning and comforting of our hearts Use I. For Information It shews us 1. The Reason why so many neglect and contemn God's Word because they never gâ—… benefit by it they find no life in it therefore no delight in it Those that are quickned 〈◊〉 knowledge the mercy and improve it they esteem the Word and have a greater câ—…science of their duty It is not enough to find truth in truth not to be able to contradâ—… it but you must find life then we will prize and esteem it when it hath been lively in its operations to our souls 2. It shews the Reason why so many forget the Word because they are not quickned You would remember it by a good token if there were a powerful impression left upon your souls and the reason is because you do not meditate upon it that you may receive this lively influence of the Spirit For a Sermon would not be forgotten if it had left any lively impression upon your souls 3. If we want quickning we must go to God for it and God works powerfully by the influence of his grace and so he quickens us by his Spirit and he works morally by the Word both by the Promises and Threatnings thereof and so if you would be quickned you must use the means attend upon Reading and Preaching and meditating upon the Word As he works powerfully with respect to himself so morally by reasonings Use II. By way of Reflection upon our selves Have we had any of these Experiences David found life in God's Word therefore resolves never to forego it or forget it Therefore what experience have you had of the Word of God surely at least at first conversion there was the work of Faith and Repentance at first you will have this experience How were you brought home to God what have you had no quickning from the Word of God Case But here 's a Case of Conscience Doth every one know their Conversion or way of their own Conversion Christians are usually sensible of this first work There is so much bitter sorrow and afterwards so much rejoycing of hope which doth accompany that surely this should not be strange But though you have not been so wary to mark God's dealings with you and the particular quicknings of your souls yet at least when the Lord raised you out of your security and brought you home to himself you should have remembred it 1 Thess. 1. 9. They themselves shew of us what manner of entring we had unto you The entrance usually is known though afterward the work be carried on with less observation Growth is not so sensible as the first change God's first work is most powerful meets with greater opposition and so leaves a greater feeling upon us and therefore it were strange if we were brought home to Christ and no way privy and conscious to the way of it as if all were done in our sleep I say to think so were to give security a soft Pillow to rest on And therefore what quicknings had you then Can you say Well I shall never forget this happy season and occasion when God first awakened me to look after himself Many of God's Children cannot trace the particular Footsteps of their Conversion and mark out all the Stages of Christ's Journey and approach to their Souls 〈◊〉 are not alike thus troubled But yet that men may not please themselves with the 〈◊〉 position of imaginary grace wrought in them without their privity and knowledge let â—…e speak to this grand Case this manner of entrance of Christ into our souls how we are quickned from the dead and made living 1. None are converted but are first convinced of their danger and evil estate God's first work is upon their understandings Ier. 31. 19. After I was instructed I smote upon the thigh c. There is some light breaks in upon the Soul which sets them seriously a considering What am I Whither am I going What will become of me And Rom. 7. 9. When the
teaching and is always at hand to guide us and give counsel to us which is cause of our standing We need this continual teaching to keep us mindful that we may not forget things known The Spirit puts us in remembrance because of the decay of fervency and dulness of spirit that groweth upon us therefore are truths revived to keep us fresh and lively that we may not neglect our duty because of incogitancy and heedlesness we mistake our way and are apt to run into sin in the time of trial and temptation Therefore we need a Monitor on all occasions Isa. 30. 31. that we may not be carried away with the corrupt bent of our own hearts Well then this abiding in us is the cause of perseverance 1 Iohn 2. 27. Use. To shew the reason of mens fickleness and unconstancy both in opinion and practice He that is led by man unto man both as to opinion and practice may be led off by man again when we take up Truth upon Tradition and Humane Recommendation Oh seek it of God! Isa 48. 17. I am the Lord your God that teacheth you to profit Not our own ability but the light of the Holy Ghost wait upon God learn something of him every day and give God all the glory SERMON CIX PSAL. CXIX VER 103. How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than honey to my mouth IN this Verse you have another evidence of David's affection to the Word and that is the incomparable delight which he found therein as being suitable to his taste and spiritual appetite This pleasure and delight he found in the Word is propounded 1 By way of Interrogation or Admiration How sweet are thy words unto my taste As if he had said so sweet that I am not able to express it 2 By way of Comparison Yea sweeter than honey to my mouth To external sense nothing is sweeter than honey honey is not so sweet to the mouth and palat as the Word of God is to the soul. It is usual to express the affections of the mind by words proper to the bodily senses as taste is put here for delight and elsewhere eating is put for believing and digesting the truth Thy Word was sweet and I did eat it Jer. 15. 8. Again in all kind of Writers both prophane and sacred it is usual to compare the Excellency of Speech to Honey The Poet describes an Elegant man That his Speech flow'd from him sweeter than Honey And the like we may observe in Scripture Prov. 16. 24. Pleasant words are as an honey comb sweet to the soul and health to the bones He means words of wisdom such words as come from a pure heart now these are sweeter than Honey So the Spouse because of her gracious doctrine it is said Cant. 4. 11. Thy lips O my Spouse drop as the honey-comb And Psal. 19. 10. More to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb For Profit he esteemed them more than Gold for Pleasure more than Honey or the Honey-comb and David saith here Thy words are sweet unto my taste He doth not say in general They are sweet unto the taste but sweet unto my taste Holy men that have much communion with God such as David was they that have his Spirit find this delight in the Word of God nothing so sweet or so full of pleasure to the soul. Two Points 1. That there is such a thing as spiritual taste 2. That to a spiritual taste the Word of God is sweeter than all pleasures and delights whatsoever Doct. 1. That there is such a thing as spiritual taste 1 I shall shew that it is and what it is The use of it and what is requisite to it 1. It appears that there is such a thing the soul hath its senses as well as the body We do not only know but feel things to be either hurtful or comfortable to us so the new nature doth not only know it but doth seem to feel it that some things are hurtful and others are comfortable to it and hence the Apostle's expression Heb. 5. 14. Such have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Christians If there be such a thing as spiritual life certainly there must be spiritual sense for all life is accompanied with a sense of what is good or evil for that life and the higher the life the greater the sense Beasts feel more than a Plant when hurt is done to them because they have a nobler life and a Man than a Beast and the life of Grace being above the life of Reason there 's a higher sense join'd with it and therefore the pain and pleasure of that life is greater than the pain or pleasure of any other life for spiritual things as they are greater in themselves so they do more affect us than bodily A wounded Conscience who can bear it Prov. 18. 4. What a sense doth the evil of the spiritual life leave upon the soul And then for the comforts of the spiritual life the joys and pleasures of it are unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1. 8. such joy as no tongue or words can sufficiently express A taste of the first-fruits of Glory how sweet is it Briefly let me tell you there are three internal Senses spoken of in Scripture Seeing Tasting and Feeling Sight implies Faith Iohn 8. 56. Abraham rejoiced to see my day And Heb. 11. 27. By faith Moses saw him that was invisible There is a seeing not only with the eyes of the body but with the eyes of the mind things that cannot be seen with the outward sense Abraham saw my day at so great a distance As there is sight so also taste which if we refer it to good is nothing else but spiritual experience of the sweetness of God in Christ and the benefits which flow from communion with him Psal. 34. 8. O come taste and see that the Lord is gracious Do not only come and see but come and taste The third sense is feeling or touch that relates to the power of grace Phil. 3. 10. That I might know him and the power of his resurrection c. There is a sense that a Christian hath of the power of grace and of Christ upon his soul so 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof When men resist the force and vertue of that Religion which they profess then they are said to deny the power of those Principles Well then there are spiritual senses 2. Now that we might know what they are let me shew 1. How these spiritual senses differ from the external 2. That in some sense they differ from the understanding 1 These spiritual senses differ from the external sense that I shall prove by three Arguments 1. Because in those things that are liable to external sense a man may have an outward sense of them when he hath not an inward
his Justice is the same that ever it was and his power the same and therefore in all his dispensations he is one that is ever like himself is as ready to take vengeance of the insolencies of men now as before and keepeth a proportion in his proceedings he is of one mind and who can turn him 2. Because of the suitableness between Judgment and sin They trample all that is holy and sacred under their feet therefore God treadeth them under foot they despise God therefore are despised 1 Sam. 2. 30. they trample upon the Grace of God in Christ therefore are said Heb. 10. 29. to tread the bloud of the Covenant under foot they trample upon the Law of God Amos. 2. 4. I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have despised my Law they trample upon all godly admonitions and reproofs Mat. 7. 6. Cast not your pearls before Swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rent you and they trample the servants of God under foot and make his Saints bow down for them to go over Isai. 51. 23. and therefore are they themselves trodden under foot They despise God and therefore he despiseth them and poureth contempt upon them and the more they esteem themselves of the less reckoning are they with God 3. For the undeceiving the world who usually look to sensible things While their ways are prosperous we make another manner of Judgment upon them than we do when they are under contempt and disgrace Mal. 3. 15. We call the proud happy yea they that work wickedness are set up and they that tempt God are even delivered We dote too much upon outward things insomuch that things wicked if prosperous seem good and holy Our affections bribe our judgments and those things that we would otherwise loath have a fair gloss and varnish put upon them 'T is a mighty temptation even to good men and they begin to have other thoughts of things when to appearance they are befriended by Gods Providence and succeed beyond expectation Therefore God will tread them down 4. To undeceive Sinners themselves that are hardened by their own prosperity and success and make Gods Providence and forbearing punishment to be an approbation of their actions against his Law So Psal. 50. 21. These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self but I will reprove thee God may for a long time endure very horrible provocationss without any act or mark of vengeance till sinners flatter themselves that the things they do are pleasing to God but they shall find they have erred when they read their sins in their punishment Mal. 2. 9. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as ye have not kept my ways but have been partial in the Law The great God aims at the repentance of men both in his forbearance and his punishment In his forbearance Rom. 2. 4. Not knowing that the forbearance of God leadeth to repentance He is pleased to suffer them that offend him grievously to taste the goodness of his Providence and have their turn in this worlds felicity to see if that will better them if not then he poureth contempt and shame upon them that by his frowns he may further their Conviction When prosperity is a temptation God will change the dispensation and instead of general favour and respect they meet with shame and disestimation and disgrace This is the punishment of those that are partial in his Law It is true this is not to be taken singly without the foregoing provocation It was the lot of Christ and his Prophets and Apostles to be disrespected in a wicked world and such a tryal may befal his faithful messengers Yet when this is the fruit of foregoing unfaithfulness and men that had nothing to commend them to the world but their height and grandeur that only had a testimony in mens carnal affections because of their greatness and not a testimony in mens consciences because of their purity and holiness and good fruits as good men have been in the consciences of those that hate them it is to them a Judgment But however when those that in the main are faithful are by a righteous Providence exposed to ignominy and contempt they ought the more to search their Wayes and to see whether they have been throughout with God in the Conscience of their Duty to him and whether some neglect and partiality of theirs hath not brought this Judgment upon them 5. To give a check to the insolency of men who abuse their power and think they may do what they please when they have no hindrance and rub in the way Mic. 2. 1. They do evil because it is in the power of their hands Restraints of Conscience prevail not with many but only restraints of Providence 'T is no thanks to them if they are not worse than they are it is not because they want will but because they want power Therefore God cuts them short and treads them down like mire Use 1. A warning to them that are in prosperity that they do not carry it proudly against God his ways and people God hath unhorsed many that have held their heads very high therefore let none presume to do evil because they are high and exalted There is a foolish and mad confidence which wicked men have in their prosperity as if they were above the reach of Providence and therefore abuse their greatness to contempt and oppression When men are up they know nothing moderate Former Judgments upon the proud and disobedient that contemn God his people and ways should a little check them God that hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts Luke 1. 51. can do it again and will when men will not take warning As Nazianzen when his heart was like to be corrupted and grow wanton with ease and prosperity I thought saith he of reading the Lamentations of Ieremiah and of the doleful condition of the Church in former times This means he took to reduce himself to a holy sobriety This is the thing God aimed at in the Ceremonial Law In the Thank-offerings Levened Bread was required which was allowed in no other Sacrifice thereby shewing We should not so surfeit and run riot with our mercies as to forget the bitterness of former afflictions together with the causes of them Use 2. Not to be dismayed at the prosperity of the wicked so as to be troubled either about your own persons or about the cause of God or to cry up a confederacy with them that erre from Gods Statutes when uppermost Wicked men are here supposed to be in power height and pride of Spirit but God treadeth them down And to be full of craft and subtilty but their deceit is falshood that is for all their might and subtilty they are not able to resist God David was shaken with this
little patience will discover it As poysonous Ingredients in a Medicine take them singly and they are destructive but as tempered with other things by the hands of a skilful Physician so they are wholesome and useful Heb. 12. 11. No affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grievous The Rod is a sowre thing for the present but wait a little this bitter root may yield sweet fruit God can so over-rule it in his Providence So Psal. 119. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Ask a man under the Cross Is it good to feel the lashes of Gods correcting hand No but when he hath been exercised and found lust mortified the world crucified and gotten evidences of Gods favour then it is good that I have been afflicted 4. This good is not to be determined by feeling but by Faith Psal. 73. 1. Yet God is good to Israel and to such as are of a clean heart God is good to his people however he seem to deal hardly with them sence judgeth it ill but faith saith it is good it seeth a great deal of love in pain and smart There is such a difference between faith and sense as there was between Elisha and his Servant 2 King 6. 15 16. the Servant saw the Host of the enemies but he did not see the fiery Chariots and Horsemen that were for his help Elisha saw both so Believers see not only the bitterness that is in Gods chastenings but the sweet fruits in the issue Faith can look at the pride and power of wicked men as a vain thing when they are in the height of their power and greatness Iob 5 3. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation that is prophetically not passionately foretelling evil not wishing it When they were taking root as themselves and other worldly men thought I judged him unhappy foretold his end and destruction There is much of the spirit of prophecy in faith When others applaud make little gods of them he looketh through all their beauty riches and honour Psal. 92. 7. When the wicked spring as the Grass and all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever Grass will wither and dry up of its own accord especially when there is a Worm at the root Their very prosperity as it ferments their lusts and hardeneth their hearts is a means to draw on their destruction Psal. 39. 5. Man in his best estate is vanity Then when they seem to have all things under their feet who could harm them So that none dare open the mouth move the wing or peep yet God can easily blast and whip them with an unseen scourge 5. Good is of several sorts temporal spiritual eternal First Temporal Good Cross accidents conduce to that Gen. 50. 20. Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day and to save much people alive The Egyptians and themselves had wanted a preserver if Ioseph had not been sold and sent into Egypt If a man were to go to Sea in a voyage upon which his heart was much set but the ship is gone before he cometh but after he heareth that all that were in the ship are drowned then he would say This disappointment was for good As Crassus's Rival in the Parthian War was intercepted and cut off by the craft of the Barbarians had no reason to stomach his being refused Many of us have cause to say Periissem nisi periissem we had suffered more if we had suffered less In the Story of Ioseph there is a notable scheme and draught of Providence He is cast into a Pit thence drawn forth and sold to the Ishmaelites by them sold into Egypt and sold again what doth God mean to do with poor Ioseph He is tempted to Adultery refusing the temptation he is falsly accused kept for a long time in ward and duress All this is against him who would have thought that in the issue this should be turned to his good that the prison had been the way to preferment and that by the pit he should come to the Palace of the King of Egypt and exchange his particoloured Coat for a Royal Robe Thus in temporal things we get by our losses and God chuseth better for us than we could have chosen for our selves Let God alone to his undertaking and he will manage our affairs better than we looked for Secondly Good spiritual Heb. 12. 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness What do we call profit The good things of this World and the great Mammon which so many worship No some better thing some spiritual and Divine benefit a participation of Gods holiness Then we profit when we grow in Grace and are more god-like when we are more concerned as a soul than a body It is a good exchange to part with outward Comforts for inward holiness If God take away our peace and give us peace of Conscience we have no cause to complain If our outward wants be recompensed with the abundance of inward Grace 1 Cor. 4. 10. and we have less of the World that we may have the more of God and be kept poor that we may be rich in faith Iam. 2. 5 6. if we have a healthy soul in a sickly body as Gaius had 3 Iohn 2. if an aking head maketh way for a better heart doth not God deal graciously and lovingly with us Thirdly Our eternal Good Heaven will make amends for all that we endure here This mainly is intended in Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God And then in the 29 th and 30 th Verses he presently bringeth in the golden Chain Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called he justified and those whom he justified them he also glorified So 2 Cor. 4. 17. This light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory it shall either hasten or secure our glorious estate A man may lose ground by a temptation his external good may be weakned his soul suffereth loss but this warneth him of his weakness and quickeneth him to stand upon his watch and to look up more to Christ for strength against it Or it may be cut off and perish in the affliction but then his glorious estate cometh in possession 6. That may be good for the Glory of God which doth not conduce to our personal benefit and the Glory of God is our great interest Iohn 11. 27 28. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this Cause came I unto this hour father to glorifie thy name Then there came a voice from Heaven saying I have both
himself and intrust us with a stock of Grace but after he hath done that we 〈◊〉 are faulting and sinning Rom. 8. 1. Yet now there is no condemnation to them that are 〈◊〉 Christ notwithstanding the reliques of corruption and its breaking out 4. From the temper of the Saints their humility None have such a sight and sense of sin as they have because their eyes are anointed with spiritual eye-salve They have a clearer insight into the Law Ier. 31. 19. After I was instructed I smote upon my thigh They are enlightened by Gods Spirit the least Mote is espied in a Glass of clear Water None are so acquainted with their own hearts and ways as they who often commune with their own hearts and use self-reflection Others that live carelesly do not mind their offences but they that set themselves do more consider their ways none have a more tender sense of the heinousness of sin She loved much wept much because much was forgiven her Luke 7. Some are of a more delicate constitution the back of a Slave is not so sensible of stripes as they that have been more tenderly brought up The Beams of the Sun shining into a house we see the Dust and Motes in the Sun-Beams which we saw not before They profess as Iacob I am not worthy of all the mercy and truth thou hast shewed me They groan as Saint Paul Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Use 1. Is information We learn hence that we should not be discouraged when our hearts are touched with a deep remorse and sense of our failings and are desirous to break off our sins by repentance that mercy which is freely vouchsafed in the Covenant which all Gods servants have so often experienced which the best make their only plea and ground of hope will find out a remedy for us If you have an heart to give up your selves to Gods service and so to get an interest in the promises and blessings of the Covenant you may come and sue out this mercy for God desireth to exalt his Grace God saith Return to the Lord your God and I will heal your backslidings and love you freely Hos. 14. 'T is the delight of Grace to do good notwithstanding unworthiness The worst of sins do not hinder Gods help are not above his cure There is hope for such as are convinced and see no worth in themselves why God should do them any good God needs not will not be hired by the Creatures to do it Use 2. How inexcusable those are that reject the offers of Grace If they have any liking to the blessings of the Covenant they have no ground to quarrel and differ with God about the price Isai. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth let him come to the Waters and drink freely without money and without price You have no cloak for your sin if you will not deal with God upon these terms Nothing keepeth you from him but your own perverse will Use 3. What reason there is the best of Gods servants should carry it thankfully all their days From first to last the mercy of God is your only plea and claim No flesh hath cause to glory in his presence there being no meritorious cause in the Covenant of Grace no moving and inducing cause no co-ordinate working cause Not for your sakes do I this Ezek. 36. 32. And in the 1 Cor. 7. 4. 't is said Who maketh thee to differ We paid nothing for Gods love nothing for Christ the Son of his love nothing for his Spirit the fruit of his love nothing for sanctifying Grace and Faith the effects of his Spirit dwelling and working in our hearts nothing for pardon we have all freely nothing for daily bread protection maintenance and shall pay nothing for Glory when we come to receive it Iude 21. Looking for the mercy of God unto eternal life 'T is all without our merit and against merit we should regard this especially when we are apt to say in our hearts This is for our righteousness as Haman thought none so fit for honour and preferment as himself Esth. 6. 6. Haman thought so in his heart So proud-hearted self-conceited Sinners say in their hearts God seeth more in them than in others Alas you are not only unworthy of Christ the Spirit Grace and Glory but the Air you breathe in and the Ground you tread upon What did the Lord see in you to judge you meet for such an Estate Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and all thy truth Did not you slight Grace neglect Christ as well as others and doth not sin break out and make a forfeiture every day Use 4. That we should carry it humbly as well as thankfully The best of Gods Children should most admire Grace and glorifie Mercy set the Crown on Mercies head Consider First What was the first rise of all Gods love what set all a stirring in Gods bosom Iohn 3. 16. There was no cause beyond this In other things we may rise higher from his Power and Wisdom to his Love but why did he love us There is no other cause to be given he loved us because he loved us 'T was love first moved the business in the ancient counsel of Gods will Gods love is the measure of its self Secondly When he came to apply it he found us in our blood 'T was a great mercy that God would take us into his service with all our faults We were his Creatures but quite marr'd not as he made us We are not what we were when first his as we came out of his hands we were pure and holy but since the Fall quite spoiled Ier. 2. 21. I had planted thee a noble Vine wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me Strangely changed and altered If a Servant run from his Master and is become altogether blind deformed and diseased will his Master look after him or care for him or take him again This was our case Thirdly What is spoken already is common to others you your selves knew what you were Tit. 3. 3. Every man is soundly affected more sensible of his own case seeth particular reasons why God should refuse him yet you are as brands plucked out of the burning who did resist such powerful means such fair advantages you dallied with God You know the case of others by ghess your own by feeling You lay not only in the common polluted Mass but had your particular offences Fourthly When taken in a fault that God will pity our weakness and infirmities in his service Mal. 3. 17. I will spare them as a man spareth his Son that serveth him that is he will continue his favour and good-will to them that serve him So surely they that have a Conscience and are privy to their manifold infirmities and failings will admire this Fifthly
other Branch And I hate every false way Where we have The Act Hate the Object False way the Extent Every Whatsoever is contrary to the purity of Gods Word Doctr. That 't is a good note of a renewed and obedient heart to hate every false way This will appear from 1. The sorts and kinds of hatred 2. The causes 3. The effects or the comparison of hatred with anger 1. From the sorts and kinds of hatred which are reckoned up to be two First Odium abominationis Secondly Odium inimicitiae First Odium abominationis an hatred of flight and aversation called by some Odiuni offensionis the hatred of offence 'T is defined by Aquinas to be Dissonantia quaedam appetitûs ad id quod apprehenditur ut repugnans c. 'T is a repugnancy of the appetite to what is apprehended as contrary and prejudicial to it Such there is in the will of the regenerate for they apprehend sin as repugnant and contrary to their renewed will to the unregenerate 't is agreeable and suitable as Draff to the appetite of a Swine or Grass and Hay to a Bullock or Horse Now this hatred is a good sign that cannot be found in another that is not born of God The mortification of sin standeth principally in the hatred of it Sin dyeth when it dyeth in the affections When we look upon it as an offence to us destructive to our happiness and as it is truly grieved for and hated by us The unregenerate may hate sin materially considered that is the thing which is a sin but they cannot hate it formally considered as sin under the notion of a sin for then they would hate all sin à quatenus ad omne valet consequentia As for instance thus A covetous man hateth prodigal and riotous Courses not as they are sinful and contrary to Gods Law but as contrary to his humour and covetous will Secondly Odium inimicitiae or the hatred of enmity This enmity is nothing else but a willing of evil or mischief to the thing or person hated and that out of mere displicency dislike or distaste of the person hated This is a sure note the regenerate hate their sins in that they would have them arraigned crucified mortified they would fain see the heart-blood of sin let out therefore they oppose watch against and resist it as their mortal deadly enemy When a man pursues sin would have the life of it this enmity cannot be quiet 't is an active enmity diligent in praying mourning watching striving using all holy means to get it out of our hearts wishing groaning waiting complaining that we may get rid of it Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death They follow their work hard 2. The Causes of this hatred There are three causes of it First Spiritual knowledge and illumination that is one cause of hatred Psal. 119. 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way When the heart is thick set and well fraughted with Divine knowledge a man cannot sin freely Those that are exercised in the word of God find some consideration or other to quicken to the hatred of sin The Word is a proper instrument to destroy sin Psal. 119. 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee Ephes. 6. 13. Our affections follow our apprehensions We come to the heart by the mind Ier. 31. 19. After I was instructed I smote upon my thigh In the word of God are the most proper Reasons and Arguments to kill sin Secondly The love of God Psas. 97. 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil He doth not say forbear it but hate it The cause of hatred is the love of that good unto which the thing or person hated is contrary and repugnant Love to the chiefest good is accompanied with hatred of sin which is the chiefest evil The one is as natural to Grace as the other The new Nature hath its flight and aversation as well as its choice and prosecution to things that are hurtful to it as well as good and profitable Thirnly A filial fear of God Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate Certainly this is to fear God to hate what God hateth and as God hateth and because God hateth Now God hateth all sin pride and arrogancy that is sins of thought which put us upon vain and foolish musings And then the sins of the tongue are expressed by froward mouth Nothing so natural to us as filthy and evil speaking And then the sins of practice the evil way They that fear God will hate all these sins These Graces are Strangers to unrenewed hearts It argueth a Divine Nature when we hate when what and as and because God hates it Eadem velle nolle est summa amicitia 3. A third Argument is from the comparison of hatred with anger Unregenerate men may be angry with sin because anger is consistent with love One may be angry with his Wife Children Friends where yet he tenderly affects First Anger is a sudden and short hatred a lasting and durable passion Anger is furor brevis curable by time hatred incurable by the greatest tract of time The Unregenerate are displeased with their sins for a spurt but the regenerate constantly disaffected towards them There is 1 Iohn 3. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a constant principle of resistance in the renewed heart passion is a casual dislike but the new Nature a rooted enmity an habitual aversation to what is evil Secondly Anger is only against singulars but hatred is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the whole kind Thus we hate every Wolf and every Serpent every Thief and every Calumniator So is this universal it respects sin as sin and hateth all sin though never so profitable and pleasant Not upon foreign and accidental reasons as Esther 3. 16. Haman thought scorn to lay hands upon Mordecai alone but sought the destruction of all the Jews The same reasons that encline us to hate one sin encline us to hate all sin The violation of Gods Law is a contempt of Gods Authority a breach of spiritual friendship one grieveth the spirit of God as well as the other Every sin is hateful to God so 't is to those that are made partakers of the Divine Nature Thirdly Anger may be pacified or appeased with the sufferings of the thing or person with which we are angry but hatred is implacable nothing can content and satisfie it but the ruine or not being of the thing and party hated David was angry with Absolom but loth to have him destroyed only corrected and reduced when he sent out Forces against him Deal gently with the young man So many deal with their sins we reason pray strive complain but 't is but an angry fit we are displeased with
house as he that hath none If the Spirit of God be thy master thou shalt learn though never so blockish 3. Wisdom stands upon the Threshold or at the Door of Gods Word as ready to open the treasures of knowledge The entrance of thy word giveth light No sooner is a Soul entred into the Spirits School but he becometh a Proficient on first acquaintance with Scriptures he seeth great light Yea she sendeth abroad to invite Comers Prov. 9. 3 4 5. She hath sent forth her maidens she crieth upon the highest places of the City Whoso is simple let him come in hither as for him that wanteth understanding she saith to him Come eat of my Bread and drink of the Wine which I have mingled Therefore go on with thy Duty He that sent an Interpreter to the Eunuch to guide him when reading part of Isaiah's Prophecy which he understood not will direct and guide thee in the knowledge of all necessary truths Psal. 25. 8 9. Prov. 2. 2 3 4 5. 4. It is a good advantage to be sensible of our blindness Rev. 3. 17 18. Because thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and stand in need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be cloathed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see The first thing a man seeth is his own blindness nakedness and wretchedness Iohn 9. 39. And Iesus said For judgment I am come into the world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind Many times they which conceitedly think they see are made blind Those that are ignorant and humbled under the sense thereof Christ will open their eyes but they that are conceited of their own parts and knowledge their hearts are darkened more and more and they are given up to follow their own fancies The simple may see further than others because they swell not with the presumption of their own wit Surgunt indocti rapiunt Coelum cùm nos Doctrinâ nostrâ detrudimur in Gehennam Sometimes simple people are more forward and earnest than others and men of weak parts and small breeding may have strong affections A blunt Iron when heated may enter deeper into a board than a sharp Tool when cold Great Doctors and Rabbies are proud and careless and poor broken-hearted sinners are warm and serious Your labour will not be in vain SERMON CXLIV PSAL. CXIX VER 131. I opened my mouth and panted for I longed for thy Commandments HERE is the use that the Psalmist maketh of the former commendation of the Word it is wonderful and mysterious clear and perspicuous now he declareth his great affection to it These words were used by Nazianzen when his Father committed to him the care of the Church of Nazianzum he beginneth his Speech with it Orat. 8. as being a word of more than ordinary comfort and Grace and direction David was in a fainting condition through the passionateness of his desire I longed and that longing caused a languor as all strong desires do His affection wrought upon his Body or else affected his Soul as bodily refreshments desired and wanted do the Body I opened my mouth and panted for I longed for thy Commandments In the Words there are I. The vehemency of his passion I opened my mouth and panted II. The reason or cause of it For I longed for thy Commandments 1. I opened my mouth and panted A Metaphor taken from men scorched and sweltred with heat or from those that have run themselves out of breath in following after the thing which they would overtake The former Metaphor expressed the vehemency of his love the other the earnestness of his pursuit he was like a man gasping for breath and sucking in the cool Air. Iudaea was an hot Countrey and therefore such expressions are frequent The like expressions that come somewhat near it are those 2 Cor. 6. 11. O ye Corinthians our mouth is opened to you our heart is enlarged When he did vehemently desire their profit And Iob saith They waited for my speech as the rain they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain Iob 29. 22. A vehement passionate desire affects the mind as an insatiate thirst the Body Thus will they be affected that are sensible of the wonders of the Law and enlightened by it The reason of this passion I longed noteth an high degree of desire What did he long for Gods Commandments that is the saving knowledge of the Doctrine of salvation or to find the use benefit light comfort and power of the word of God Doctr. That Gods Children have strong and vehement affections and desires after the comfort and benefit of the word of God Here is 1. Opening the mouth and 2. Panting as for fresh Air and 3. Longing for the Commandments All three expressions imply an intensiveness of affection Surely David prized holiness at a greater rate than we do or else he would not use expressions so strange to us See the like Psal. 119. 20. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath unto thy judgments at all times Desire is the stretching forth of the soul to the thing desired Now his soul did so stretch towards these spiritual comforts that it did even break and crack again in the stretching So Psal. 42. 1. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God Harts are thirsty Creatures especially when chased or having eaten Serpents Considerations First The soul never worketh better than in the strength of some eminent affection In all things that we take in hand we do but so so act but chilly and weakly while we have a listless and remiss will but when the force of affection is upon us the soul is carried on strongly either in abomination or prosecution for affections are the forcible and vigorous motions of the will Now the soul never doth well but under such an affection Were it not for affections our Nature would be sluggish and idle as Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a Pilot at Sea without a Wind. The Ship moveth slowly when there are no Winds stirring to fill the Sails Or like a Chariot without Wheels or Horses or a Bird when her Wings are clipped They spur us on to what we affect Men are heavy and lazy because they have no affection Exod. 36. 2. And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab and every wise-hearted man in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it Man findeth a force within himself his heart maketh him willing the stronger the affections the better the man acteth with greater strength and vivacity for they are the vigorous motions of the will
their power or change their hearts or determine their interests because the Omnisciency of God is a great Deep 't is a great relief to the soul to consider the several ways that God hath to right us either by changing the hearts of the Persecutors and Oppressors Acts 9. 31. Then had the Churches rest throughout all Iudea Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Ghost were multiplied They had nothing to do but to build up one another When was that when Paul was converted he was an active instrument against the Church and God turned his heart then had the Churches rest Or else the Lord may do it by determining their interests that they shall shew favour to his people though their hearts be not changed Prov. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him Enemies while enemies may be at peace with us please men and you cannot say God is your friend but please God and he maketh your enemies at peace with you There is much in the secret Chain of Providence Dan. 1. 9. Now the Lord brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the Prince of the Eunuchs What was that favour To wink at him for doing that which was contrary to the Law of their Religion Or else he can break the yoke by some apparent ruining Judgments by which he will defeat all their advantages either by power or law rescuing his people out of their hands Isai. 49. 24 25. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the lawful Captive delivered But thus saith the Lord The Captains of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered He will contend with him that contendeth with thee and will save thy Children Whether they plead might or right when God goeth that way to work nothing shall lett no power shall be able to detain what God will have delivered and restored Or it may be by some secret ways God will bring on some Judgment Iob 20. 26. A fire not blown shall consume him that is the Oppressor a curse not invented by those he hath wronged or any man else but sent immediately by God It shall come no body knoweth how Therefore we should not be discouraged with unlikelihoods when we go to God who hath many ways which poor short-sighted Creatures cannot foresee Secondly He is ready The love which the Lord hath for his afflicted people will not suffer his Justice to be long at quiet That God is ready to help and deliver three things will evidence First 'T is his Nature to pity and shew mercy to the Oppressed and to revenge the Oppressor He pitieth the afflictions of them that suffer most justly and far beneath their desert from his own hand Iudg. 10. 16. And they put away the strange Gods from among them and served the Lord and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel And 2 Kings 14. 26. For the Lord saw the exceeding bitter affliction of Israel how much more will he pity them that are unworthily oppressed Isai. 63. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted Acts 7. 34. I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt and have heard their groaning c. And the Lords pitiful Nature doth incline him to deliver his people And when the oppressed cry I will hear them for I am gracious Exod. 22. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27. Secondly 'T is his usual practice and custome Psal. 103. 6. The Lord executeth judgment and righteousness for all that are oppressed If for all surely for his people He sits in Heaven on purpose to rectifie the disorders of men So Psal. 34. 19. Many are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of them all God hath a Plaister for every wound Gods people plunge themselves into trouble and his mercy delivereth them out of it Thirdly 'T is his Office as Judge of the world Psal. 94. 2. Lift up thy self thou Iudg of the Earth render a reward to the proud Shall not the Iudg of the Earth do right Look upon him only in that Notion according to our natural Conceptions as the supreme Cause and Judg of all things Again his Office as Protector of his people he is in Covenant with them he is their Sun and Shield he is the refuge of the oppressed his peoples refuge in time of trouble Psal. 9. 9. When they have none else to fly to he will be their refuge Thirdly He will do it when 't is good and necessary For God hath made promises and repeated promises of deliverance and surely these are not in vain If God had spoken but once we had no reason to doubt but he telleth us over and over again we should cast our care upon him and referr all things to him without despondency and distraction of mind Psal. 9. 18. For the needy shall not always be forgotten the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever Use. Is instruction to teach us what to do when we are oppressed 1. Patience 'T is the lot of Gods Children to be often troubled by the world and hardly used Satan is the Ruler of the darkness of this World the blind carnal malicious superstitious part of the World and they cannot away with those that would overturn Satans Kingdome The good are fewest and therefore we must look to be opprest if there be any breathing time 't is a mercy 2 Tim. 3. 12. Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution Gal. 4. 29. For as he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now and will be so we should want our way-mark without it 2. Let us be prepared to commend our Cause to God Psal. 10. 17 18. Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine ear to hear to judge the fatherless and the oppressed that the man of the earth may no more oppress God prepares the hearts of the humble How so The trouble continueth till we are sensible of the misery of the sin of the Cause Hos. 5. 15. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offences and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early 'T is a long time before men can be sensible of the hand of God upon them slight spirits are not grieved but Iull themselves asleep Ier. 5. 3. If they have a natural sense of the Judgment they have no sense of sin as the cause then they fly to humane help to be eased of the trouble Ier. 4. 14. Wash thy heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee When past humane help then seek the favour of God to take up the Controversie 2 Chron. 7. 14. When driven
by mourning for this Carnal men are hot in their own cause cold in Gods Gods Children are quite otherwise cold in their own cause and hot in Gods Therefore they are deeply sensible when Gods honour is weakned Moses was the meekest man upon Earth yet he brake the Tables How doth this agree The injuries that were done to himself he could look upon with a meek quiet spirit easily put them up but when he saw the people bring dishonour to the name of God then he hath a high and deep affection They cry out Iosh. 7. 9. Lord what wilt thou do for thy great name So Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory They go to God not to advance our faction and interest we are brought very low yet the wrath of man shall praise thee Thy name is dear and precious they are sorry to see any prophane it God hath abundantly provided for their respect he hath bid all men love them when he bid us love one another So that in effect all the respects of the world are devolved upon one person And they would have all men love God and honour God Secondly It comes from their compassion and pity and love to men O it grieves them to see so many that do not grieve for themselves and their eyes are wet because yours are always dry I tell you weeping saith Paul Phil. 3. 18. Compassion over the miserable estate of such Teachers and those that are led by them they and whole Droves run after fancies that endanger their souls False Teachers and their Proselytes should not only fall under our indignation but our pity They are Monsters in nature that want Bowels much more in Grace Religion doth not harden the heart but mollifie it Jesus Christ was made up of compassion and all Christians partake of Christs spirit Phil. 1. 8. God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Iesus Christ. Pray mark Paul had got some of Christs bowels and let me tell you they were tender ones Compassion towards others and weeping over their sins is somewhat like the love of Jesus Christ. He would take our burthen upon himself when he was not interested so the spirit of Christ worketh in all his Members he hath distributed his bowels among them and therefore they cannot but long for the salvation of others yea their heart is broken and mollified with Christs compassion to them and therefore long for fellows in the same Grace Though they have received personal and private injuries yet they pity their case and mourn for them 'T is matter of humiliation and lamentation 2 Cor. 12. 21. When I come again I fear my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the fornication uncleanness lasciviousness which they have committed It is matter of grief to see so many thousands perish or in a perishing condition Thirdly This disposition cometh from the antipathy and zealous displeasure that is in their hearts against sin They know what sin is the greatest enemy that God and Christ and their own souls have in the world It was sin that made Angels become Devils it was sin that blew up the sparks of Hell fire it was sin that opposed God that crucified Christ it is sin that grieves the Spirit of God and therefore they mourn when sin gets Proselytes A man cannot endure to see a Toad or Viper near him your hearts rise when you see them creep upon another so do the hearts of the Children of God rise that their enemy and Gods should find such respect and entertainment in the world It is said of the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. 2. That she could not bear those which were wicked And David saith Ps. 101. 3. I hate the works of them that turn aside They know this will grieve the spirit of God that this will press him as a Cart is pressed with sheaves and shall God be pressed and burthened and they not troubled It cannot be They that love the Lord will hate evil Psal. 97. 10. both in themselves and others Fourthly This disposition comes out of a sagacity of faith and serious foresight of the effects of sin They know what sin will come to and what is the danger of it therefore when they see sin encreasing Rivers of water run down their eyes Wicked men tremble only at the Judgment of God but good men tremble at his Word and therefore they mourn when others fall into danger of the threatning When Ezra plucked his beard and was in such a zealous indignation against the sins of the people bewailing them before the Lord Ezr. 9. 4. Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel At fasts others are sleight and obdurate they look on threatning as a little mock Thunder they are not sensible of the danger I may set forth this by that allusion 2 Kings 8. 11. The Prophet Elisha wept when he saw Hazael that he looked wishly on his face till he blushed The man of God wept and Hazael said Why weepeth my Lord And he answered Because I know the evil thou wilt do unto the Children of Israel their strong holds wilt thou set on fire and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword and wilt dash their Children and rip up their women with child and Hazael said But what is thy servant a Dog c. So when the Children of God look upon sin they know by the complexion of it what will be the dreadful effects This will be bitterness in the issue in time this will produce pestilences famine fire sword and all other mischiefs and judgments and expressions of the angry indignation of the Lord. They foresee a Storm when the Clouds are but a gathering therefore they tremble when they see them This is the sagacity of faith Now carnal men on the other side look upon the threatnings of Scripture but as words of course used as in way of policy that God only would awe and scare them but doth not purpose to condemn them But Faith is sagacious Look as to the promises Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen So as to the threatnings the same evidence of things not seen The Apostle doth not only instance when he had given the general description of the objects of hope for the recompence of reward but he instances in the threatnings Noah being moved with fear prepared an Ark c. They know however men sleight the word of God one day it will be found true and therefore when they see men add sin to sin they are troubled The Word is as sure as execution and works upon them accordingly They have all things in a near view the nearer the objects of our faith are in our view the more they stir up our affections Dangers and death
when in hand and in present expectation work far otherwise than they do when they are considered at a distance So when the effects of sin are looked upon as near at hand when faith makes them present then they stir up these affections in the soul. Fifthly A fifth cause is from their publick Spirit and tender respect to the common good When they wisely foresee approaching dangers they are moved with the love and care of their Countrey and this melteth them They know sin is of a destroying nature that one sinner destroyeth much good Eccl. 9. 18. One sinner may do his Countrey a great deal of mischief an open bold fac'd Sinner Achan troubled the whole Camp Iosh. 7. 11 12. much more when a multitude of Sinners are encreased therefore they sigh and mourn Godly men are the truest friends to their native soil they are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel Those that plead with God stand in the Gap keep off Judgments and have the most publick spirit therefore the least they can do is to sigh for it and to plead with wicked men as Tertullian Si non vis tibi parcere parce Carthagini If thou wilt go on with thy soul-destroying course and wilt not spare thy self yet spare Carthage This will be bitterness in the issue The Children of God are always of a publick Spirit David fasted for his enemies Psal. 35. Abraham prayed to God for Sodom a neighbour Countrey the godly Israelites were good friends to Babylon in their Captivity Ier. 29. 11. Seek the peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carried captive and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace If nothing but their interest and share in the common rest and quietness Passengers are concerned in the welfare of the Vessel wherein they are imbarked Babylon fared the better for the Jews prayers Now more especially are their hearts carried out with a respect to their native Soil and dearest comforts therefore this melteth them to see the Land defiled with sins and ready for Judgments SERMON CLII. PSAL. CXIX VER 136. Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law USE 1. For reproof of two sorts of persons 1. Those that do not lay to heart their own sins Usually men make their affections to prescribe to their judgment and cavil at the fervorous exercises of Religion because unpleasant to flesh and blood To humble our selves before the Lord with a pressing sorrow seriously and indeed to rend our hearts and not our garments In this wanton and delicate Age men are apt to think I speak of a Theam obsolete and out of date as calculated for former times when men were more tender hearted if we could awaken some of the old godly professors out of their Graves as the Prophet calleth up Rachel to weep in Ramah for her Children Ier. 31. 15. then we might hope to prevail Alas to plead now for mourning over the sins of others when men think it a crime to mourn for their own this is like to be lost labour Were this the humour only of ungodly Wretches it might be born with silence and patience but those that would be taken for Christians of the highest form are altogether prejudiced against such Doctrines as this Men would be honeyed and oyled with Grace and distaste the wholesome discipline of repentance as too severe They cry out we are legal How may the poor Ministers of the Gospel go to God and say as Moses did Exod. 6. 12. The Children of Israel have not hearkened unto me how then shall Pharaoh hear me The Professors of Religion will not brook such Doctrine and how shall we hope to prevail with the poor blind carnal world To scoff at Doctrines of repentance and humiliation was once a badg of prophaneness many now adopt it into their Religion But be not deceived the Gospel doth not take away the Conscience of sin It may take away the fear of Hell and damnation upon right terms The heart of flesh is a promise and the spirit of Grace is a promise or mourning apart is a promise You that say that justified persons must no more mourn for sin you may as well say they shall no longer have an heart of flesh or a spirit of Grace and supplications that they shall no longer have a tender Conscience Be not deceived there must be some time to weep for your own sins as Peter went out and wept bitterly Sorrow must have its turn in the Christian life I would press it upon you by this Argument You cannot be sorrowful for others sins unless you be first sorrowful for your own sins Grief must begin at home there where you have the advantage of Conscience and inward remorse 'T is hypocrisie to pitch upon other mens sins and neglect our own as some will zealously declaim against publick disorders yet neglect their own hearts as the crafty Lapwing will go up and down fluttering and crying to draw the Fowler from her own Nest. We have a nest of sin of our own and we are loth it should be rifled and exposed to publick view 2. It reproveth them that in times of publick defection never take care to mourn over Gods dishonour We complain and murmure under our Judgments but do not weep over our sins every person and family apart Whether it be out of negligence and carnal security or out of distaste and displeasure against the conduct of present affairs we seem to have lost our publick affections and can only wonder at the Children of God in former times since they were so broken and tender To many that would now go for Professors this Doctrine seemeth a Riddle a mere strain of wit and fancy like a precept wire-drawn or elevated beyond its pitch and tenour But in the fear of God consider what hath been spoken There are many abuses in our reflections upon the sins of others Wicked men are quite otherwise disposed they do not only do evil themselves but take pleasure in those that do so Rom. 1. 32. would be glad that sin were more common that it might be less odious and then there would be none to put them to the blush Prov. 2. 14. It is said they rejoyce to do evil and delight in the frowardness of the wicked So the Prophet speaks of some corrupt men in the Priesthood They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity Hos. 4. 8. God had appointed those that served at the Altar should live of the Altar have a proportion of those Offerings Now they flattered them in their sins so they might have meat and get a portion of the Sacrifices Many that would be accounted Ministers care not for the sins of the people but think the less serious men are in Religion the better they can work them to their private advantages and have more respect among them Then there are some
to you but that may be the occasion Zacb. 10. 3. My anger was kindled against the Shepherds and I punished the Goats So Prov. 28. 2. For the transgression of a people many are the rulers thereof The peoples sins may make great changes and alterations of Government Thirdly You are one Body with them Nations are one political Body Churches one political Body In Gods Plea about Sodom with Abraham ten righteous persons have an influence to save or ruine it The sins of one Generation may be the cause of another It 's said God turned not from the fierceness of his anger that was kindled against Iudah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal Manasseh was dead thirty or forty years before Manasseh had repented and Iosiah was a great Reformer none like him You see God may punish their sins many years after nay in the process of vengeance the whole lump is involved as being one body So all Israel were troubled for one Achan Do not tax Gods dispensation of severity and rigour for 't is the condescension and art of Divine mercy by this means to prevent publick ruine and you are involved in their portion that every man in his place may study the prevention of sin and ruine So Churches are one lesser Body one root of bitterness defileth many Heb. 12. 15. not only by the contagion of the sin but also by imputation of guilt So at Corinth 1 Cor. 5. 6. A little leven leveneth the whole lump So also in Housholds and Families which are one lesser Body Fourthly Many of their sins may be thine 'T is a good prayer though it be a harsh expression to desire God to be delivered from our other mens sins Ab alieno libera me Domine They have sinned the more because thou hast been wanting as a Magistrate as a Minister as a Neighbour a Fellow-member as a private Christian. As a Magistrate A negligent Prince all the sin is put upon him Eli was an High Priest and was a Judg in that case and therefore though he were innocent God saith he would cut off his house for the iniquity of his Sons 1 Sam. 3. 17. Because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not When Magistrates suffer all things to run at randome in Religion instead of Gods Ministers they prove the Devils Agents though they be holy for their persons yet there is a great guilt lyeth upon them So for Ministers We are to watch as those that must give an account Heb. 13. 17. I will require him at thy hands c. He may be a good man yet not a good Minister when he is not so diligent in inspection so faithful to his trust as he should be so frequent in exhortation prayer mourning care of the flock much hurt cometh by our connivence So for private Christians they are bound to watch over one another It may be you do not look after them Heb. 3. 13. You suffer hardness to grow upon them and would not warn them Ye are Witnesses from God to the people of Israel You may be guilty of much evil example and unwary carriage Heb. 11. 7. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world and became Heir of the righteousness that is by faith And Ezek. 16. 51 52. Thou hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done Thou also which hast judged thy sisters bear thine own shame for the sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they they are more righteous than thou yea be thou confounded also and bear thy shame in that thou hast justified thy sisters You either justifie or condemn the world So that in effect they may be your sins you are sensual vain We easily catch a Disease from one another but do not get health Nature is more susceptible of evil than of Grace Fifthly By seeing of their sins Conscience may awaken and thou mayest remember thy own as Pharaoh's Butler said I remember my faults this day Their lives are but a Glass of the deformity of our Natures There are many Iudas's many Cains in thy nature I was in times past as bad as any as bold with sin and as notorious a Sinner Every sin therefore should be a fresh bleeding wound in our own souls They are but the picture of thy natural face Tit. 3. 3. We in times past were foolish disobedient deceiving and being deceived Thou seest them given up to vain pleasure remember how it was with thee before Conversion and let this humble thee Sixthly If all this do not work consider the holy Angels that are no way interested but as it conduceth to Gods Glory that do not communicate with us in nature and blood how they rejoyce at the welfare of man As when the World was made Iob 38. 7. When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy So when Christ came and assumed humane Nature at his birth Luke 2. 14. Suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men And when the Creature repenteth Luke 15. 7. I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one Sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance So should we mourn over them to God who are our Flesh our Neighbours united in the bonds of Duty and Neighbourhood it may be Church Relation Seventhly I might tell of the fruits of mourning The greater party of Mourners the more hope of preservation We have complained of drought we have dry Bottles Judgments are kept off as long as there is a sighing party you are preserved Ezek 9. 4. as Lot out of Sodom But if the righteous God see not this fit and a godly man may be swept away as two dry Sticks burn a green one yet you shall laugh when others mourn in Heaven there will be joy enough This is the Valley of tears Wicked men though now they are dry Wood yet they are fit Fuel for Hell Consider of these things 'T is a difficult work to soften the heart and you have need of all the help that may be First Consider the compassion of Christ to thee If he had not mourned and sighed in the Garden and sweat drops of blood where had thy soul been Thou wert in thy blood when free Grace went a sighing after thee in the Ministry of the Word Ezek. 16. 6. I said unto thee when thou wert in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wert in thy blood Live These are intending Considerations 1 Tim. 1. 13. Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I had not been all to be bowelled and all to be mercied
charity Phil. 4. 5. Let your moderation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be known unto all men whether it be fear or honour that be due Rom. 13. 7. Render therefore to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custome fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Or good will ver 8. Owe no man any thing but to love one another Secondly For truth You are to adhere to the truth not to be carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love ye may grow up unto him in all things which is the head even Christ Ephes. 4. 14 15. To speak nothing but truth in your ordinary communication Ephes. 4. 25. Wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his Neighbour To perform what you promise though to your loss Psal. 15. 4. He sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not Thus should the whole course of our lives express the properties of the Word Use 3. To shew the reason why men are so backward in obedience so prone to what is evil so uncomfortable in trouble We do not believe that the testimony of God is righteous and true very true every tittle of it but we are slow of heart to believe therefore is the faithfulness and truth of the Word inculcated Christ saith Believest thou this John 11. 25. Could we believe the word more what advantage should we have in the spiritual life what fear of God what joy of faith what readiness of obedience But we cannot depend upon Gods word and therefore are easily shaken in mind Our hearts are like a Sea one Wave riseth up after another We must be fed with sense and God must do all immediately or else we are apt to sink under our discouragements SERMON CLVI PSALM CXIX VER Cxxxix My zeal hath consumed me because mine Enemies have forgotten thy Words IN these words you may observe 1. Two different persons 2. A different carriage mentioned 1. Two different persons are spoken of David and his Enemies By Enemies is not to be understood those only that were troublesome to himself but those who were an opposite party to God who opposed themselves against God and Godliness these without any breach of the Law of love may be counted Enemies Ps. 139. 21 22. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine Enemies It is a comfort and satisfaction to the godly to have no enemies to themselves but such as are enemies to God also such as rise up against God 2. There 's a different carriage mentioned and asscribed to these two parties on the one side Oblivion and Forgetfulness of Gods Law on the other side zeal 1. On the Enemies part oblivion and forgetfulness of Gods Word The Word of God is not effectual usually but where it is hid in recent memory They have forgotten thy Word a proper phrase to set forth them in the bosom of the visible Church who do not wholly deny and reject the Word and Rule of Scripture but yet live as though they had forgotten it they do not observe it as if God had never spoken any such thing or given them any such Rule They that reject and contemn such things as thy Word enforceth surely do not remember to do them 2. On David's part here is mentioned zeal or a flagrant affection which is set forth 1. By the vehemency of it 2. By the cause of it 1. By the vehemency of it my zeal hath consumed me It was no small zeal that David had but a consuming zeal Vehement affections exhaust and consume the vital Spirits and wast the body The like expression is used Ps. 69. 9. The zeal of thy House hath eaten me up Strength of Holy Affections works many times upon the Body as well as the Soul especially zeal which is a high degree of Love and vents it self by a mixture of grief and anger What a man loves he would have it respected and is grieved when it is dishonoured and under disrepute Both have an influence upon this consuming this wasting of the Spirits that is spoken of in the text because they had lessened and obscured the Glory of God and violated his Law and there was in him a holy care ardour and earnest endeavour to rectifie this abuse and awaken them out of their security and reduce them to their duty 2. Here was the Cause of it Why was David so much wasted pined consumed and troubled Because they have forgotten Thy Word the contempt of God and the offence of God sate nearest his heart as if he had said I should more patiently bear the injury done to my self but I cannot be coldly affected where thy glory O Lord is concerned since I have had a tast of thy grace and felt the benefit of thy Word I cannot endure it should be contemned and it much moves me to see Creatures so mad upon their own Destruction and to make so light of thy Salvation Thus was David consumed not at the sight of his own but at other mens sins and not at others in general but them his enemies that they should make void the Law of God Such was his love to the Word that he could not endure the contempt and violation of it and such was his Compassion to the souls of men that it grieved him exceedingly to see any of the workmanship of God to perish to be captivated to the World to be made Factors for the Devil and fuel for hell fire and to be so violent for their own Destruction Doctrine That Great and Pure Zeal becomes those that have any affection for the Word and for the Ways of God Here is a great zeal for David saith my zeal hath consumed me it prey'd upon his spirit And here 's a pure zeal for he mentions not personal injuries but disrespect to Gods Word when the same men are our Enemies and Gods Enemies we should be more zealous for Gods cause then our own Now both the greatness and purity of his zeal did arise from his love to the Word as appears from the precedent and subsequent verses in the precedent verses he had told them just and upright are thy testimonies and very faithful therefore zeal hath consumed me because this Word should be slighted and contemned And it appears also from the following verse thy Word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it He was troubled to see such a holy and pure Word to be trampled under foot and especially that those seem to disown it he doth not say they deny it who had generally profest to live under this rule that they made light and disregarded the precepts in which I found so much comfort and delight In the prosecution of this point I shall 1. Shew what is true Zeal
2. Why all that love the Word they should have this Great and Pure Zeal I. What is true Zeal There is a carnal zeal and there 's a spiritual zeal First The carnal zeal to begin with that is Threefold 1. That which comes from an ill cause and produceth ill effects An ill cause as hatred of mens persons or envy at their Gifts and Excellencies or their success and happiness in the World Iam. 3. 14. If ye have bitter envying in your hearts it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you have bitter zeal in your hearts There is a kind of bitter zeal and malignity at their excellency whether Gifts Graces Rank Dignity in the World And ver 16. he tells us this bitter zeal produceth confusion and every evil work To be consumed and eaten out with envy is little commendable This is not the zeal of the Text With this zeal were the chief Priests filled when they saw that the Gospel came into some reputation and that the people do what they could did haunt and frequent it we read Acts 5. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we render it they were filled with indignation it is in the Greek and in the Margin they were filled with zeal with this bitter zeal malignity envy indignation they would bestir themselves to suppress the growing Gospel by all the means that possibly they could 2. There 's an other sort of carnal zeal which hath an ill Object though it may be a good Cause from whence it proceeds such as an ignorant zeal which proceeds from some love to that which men call Religion but falsly and so the Apostle saith Rom. 10. 2. I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge and such a zeal had Paul when he was a Pharisee he gives us an account of it Gal. 1. 12 14. How that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God being more exceedingly zealous of the Traditions of my Fathers Paul was a man that never acted against his Conscience no not when he was a Pharisee he still acted according to his Light but when he was blinded with Pharasaical prejudices he wasted the Church of God and was exceedingly zealous for a false Religion This is such a zeal as possibly might have a tolerable Cause but it had a bad Object a zeal about the Dictates of a deluded Conscience and this zeal perniciosior est quo flagrantior is the more pernicious the more earnest it is it hath often raised confusions in the Church when men are led with a blind zeal they think for God if they be under then they make divisions if they get a top then they are persecuting and oppressing this is the zeal of a deluded Conscience In short zeal must have a right object otherwise it may be great but cannot be Good Pure and Holy 3. An other false zeal is when it hath no ill Object but it exceeds in the measure and degree and is far beyond the weight of the thing that it is laid out upon this is a superstitious a tristing zeal which runs out to Externals and is altogether employed about lesser things of Religion as the Pharisees Math. 23. 23. That made a great business about a small matter Titheing Mint and Anise and Cummin but neglected weighty Duties Faith Judgment Righteousness and the great things of the Kingdom of God The Apostle tells us Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink in being of this party and that Many all their care and strength of their souls runs out in matters of less importance and keeping up a Party and Faction in Religion we should first make Conscience of principal matters Superstitious scupulosity is always damagefull like those that come into a shop to buy a penny-worth of a Commodity and steal a pounds-worth O! they have a great zeal for lesser things when it runs out mightily about outward things either for that or against that and in the mean time they cherish the World Pride Envy carnal evil Affections that are destructive to and the bane of Godliness Secondly There 's a spiritual holy zeal which we may describe 1. By it's Cause 2. By it's Object 3. By it's Effects 4. By it's Use as to publick Reformation 5. As to it's Use as to Christians private Exercises to carry on the spiritual Life with fervour warmth and vigour 1. I am to speak of the Cause of it The true Cause of holy zeal is Love to God and what belongs to God Zeal is ferventis amoris gradus a higher degree of Love it is the fervor of Divine Charity We should mark still what spirit enflames the zeal that we have Every man is eaten up with one kind of zeal or another The zeal of the World eats up many Ps. 127. 2. They bereave their souls of good and all for a little pelf they work in the Fires they load themselves with thick clay The zeal of the Flesh inflames many they are mad upon carnal delights can let go all considerations so as they may fulfil their lusts they are consumed with these kind of zeales Another spirit should be working in us a zeal for God and that comes from an entire Love to God When the soul doth heartily and earnestly love God above all then there 's a strong desire of promoting Gods glory and interest there should be that spirit which breathes in our zeal and with this zeal should we be eaten up and spent Now they that love God will love all them which belong to God Friends have all things Common so it is between us and God the injuries done to him will be as grievous to us as if they were done to our selves Psal. 69. 9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me and the glory that comes to them is as acceptable as if some great benefit had come to us Act 15. 3. Declaring the Conversion of the Gentiles and they caused great joy unto all the Brethren O! this is great joy to a gratious soul when Gods interest thrives in the world O! this is that they would willingly hear spoken of their hearts are upon it when Gods interest stands or falls such an earnest desire of the glory of God which is the highest degree and measure of Love to God! 2. Let us speak of the Object of zeal In three things Gods interest lies in the World viz. His Truth His Worship and His Servants Now it is not enough to have zeal that we do not oppose any of these but they must be tenderly regarded and looked after and we must be affected with these things as we would with our own concernments When wrongs are offered to any of these either to Gods Truth his Worship or his Servants they must go more nearly to our hearts then any personal injuries done to our selves What we cannot remedy we must mourn for All these
nest it is all but the deceit of the heart and usually we find it to be so in the world Most men are better acquainted with other mens duties rather then their own with the Magistrates duties more than their own and so other mens sins more then their own But it is not so where zeal is unfeigned there it begins at home they will allow nothing in their own hearts that may be contraryto Gods interest and to the soveraignty of his spirit 2. Also in perfecting Holiness The whole business of the spiritual Life must be carried on in warmth and vigor Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seething hot in spirit Nothing done for God should be done negligently but affectionately To be luke-warm and key-cold that makes no work in Religion But when a man hath a great zeal for God O! then he profits and gets ground then sin decays grace is strengthned love is more rooted in his Heart every day and he doth more for God Paul profited in the Jewish Religion Gal. 1. 14. Why Because he was more zealous then others This is the man that will be the honour of Gods Ordinances that man that will shew forth the vertue and power of Religion when his heart grows warm for God and zealous for God II. Why we ought to look after a great and pure zeal if we have any Love to God and the Law of God and his Ways 1. Why a great zeal 1. Because it is not zeal else if it be not in some good degree for zeal is a great fire and a vehement flame not only Love but vehement Love it must needs be great Cant. 8. 6 7. For Love is as strong as death jealousie is cruel as the Grave Zeal is cruel as the grave read it so many waters cannot quench Love c. Mark our love to the ways of God should be of such a nature such a warm and zealous working of heart towards God that many floods cannot quench it that nothing can bribe it Surely the best things deserve the best affections therefore what ever we do in Religion and for God we should do it with all our might Eccl. 9. 10. 2. Otherwise it will not do the work Such as encreaseth with opposition as fire when you put on more fuel it grows more vehement so unless it be a zeal that grows earnest with discouragement alas it will soon be quenched We shall meet with many discouragements from within and without but when we can resolve with David the more they scoffed and opposed him he would be yet more vile 2 Sam. 6. 22. So the more trouble they meet with in the ways of God the more they will cleave to him and will please God though with the displeasure of men True zeal is enflamed with difficulties As Lime the more water they pour on the more it burns as Nehemiah's Courage it sparkled the more the more it was opposed should such a man as I flee Should I betray the Cause of God This is the true zeal when it sparkles by opposition As Paul the more they perswaded him the more he seemed to be bound in spirit to go to Ierusalem Acts 21. 13. Though they did even break his heart they could not break his purpose Such a zeal as is quenched with every drop of water and goes out with every flout and scorn will never do it therefore we had need have a great zeal that we may harden our selves against all oppositions we meet with in the way 2. It needs to be pure too such a fervent affection had need be right for since it makes men so active and resolute certainly it should go upon clear grounds I shewed before nothing hath done more mischief in the world than wild zeal it is like fire out of its place that sets all the House in a flame it doth not comfort and refresh those that have it but it destroys and consumes all But why must we have pure zeal 1. Because there is a false zeal and a self-seeking zeal which men have while they pretend much Love to God and good of souls but are really hunting after their own interest Gal. 4. 17. They zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that ye might affect them that is they sought to rend their affections from Paul and from their faithful Pastors that they might affect them so he tells us Phil. 1. 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of Envy and Strife There may be a zeal that comes meerly out of Envy and Strife Iehu could say come see my zeal for the Lord 2 Kings 10. 16. 2. This false zeal doth a great deal of mischief It 's a dishonour to God to pretend to him and to put the varnish of our Cause upon God God himself is involved in the deceit Ier. 4. 10. It 's a strange expression to be used to God Ah Lord God surely thou hast greatly deceived this People the false Prophets did it in his name And it divides the Church as well as dishonours God Gal. 4. 17. They would exclude you that ye might affect them The meaning is they would rend you from the Body of the Christian Church and alienate the minds of Gods People so as to devote them to a Faction Phil. 1. 16. They preach Christ of Contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds And it hardens the Persons themselves as Iehu boasted of his zeal and it was only self-seeking and the Lord counts it Murder Hosea 1. 4. Use. Have we this Pure zeal such a zeal as David speaks of There are many Notes by which it may be discerned as 1. When injuries done to God and Religion affect us more then injuries done personally to our selves when we carry our selves in an indifferency in our own Cause but not in Gods compare Numb 12. 13. with Exod. 32. 19. Moses could with a Meek Spirit bear all the injuries done to himself but could not contain himself when he saw injury done to God but breaks the Tables 2. When the same Enemies are Gods Enemies and ours David was sensible not of the inhumanity of his Enemies but that which most troubled him was because they were Gods Enemies and forsook his words David was not so much troubled at Absaloms Rebellion as dying in his sins 3. When there 's a Compassion mingled with our Zeal Fleshly Anger is all for destruction holy Anger is for Conversion when they grieve and seek to redress the matter 4. True zeal is Universal it is most against their own sins and the sins of those that are nearest and runs out upon weighty things But those that Tithe Mint and Cummin and neglect weighty things they have not true zeal There are many instances of this false disproportionate zeal of a Conscience taken up for a turn when there 's a partial Conscience in some things men are mighty scrupulous and strain at a Gnat
Quickning David ever and anon reneweth his request and he is loth to be denied and therefore before he saith Quicken me he saith Hear my Voice Doctrine II. The main Argument which Gods Children have to plead in Prayer is his own favour and Loving-kindness That 's David ' s Argument in the Text Hear my voice according to thy loving-kindness Doctrine III. The Mercy and Loving-kindness of God manifested and impledged in the Promises of the Gospel doth notably incourage us to ask help from him For David doth not only say according to thy Loving-kindness but according to thy Judgment For the first Point One Blessing which the Children of God do see a need often and earnestly to ask of God is Quickening Here I shall inquire 1. What is Quickening 2. Give you some Reasons why the Children of God do see a need so often and earnestly to ask it of God I. What is Quickening 1. By Quickening some understand restitution to Happiness for a Calamitous man is as one dead and buried under deep and heavy Troubles and their recovery is a life from the Dead or a reviving from the Grave so Quickning seemeth to be taken Psal. 71. 20. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore Troubles shalt quicken me again and bring me up from the depths of the Earth 2. Othersunderstand by Quickning the renewing and increasing in him the Vigour of his Spiritual Life That he beggeth that God would revive increase and preserve that Life which he had already given that it might be perfected and consummated in Glory That he might be ever ready to bring forth the habits of Grace into Acts. The Use which we should make of it is to press you 1. To be sensible of the temper of your Hearts and see whether you want Quickning yea or no The feeling of spiritual deadness argueth some life and sense yet left You have attained to so much of life and do retain it in such a measure as to be able to bemoan your selves to God Most observe their bodies but very few their souls if their Bodies be ill at ease or out of order they complain Men that go on in a Track of Customary Duties see no need of quickning therefore this humble sense is a good sign Matins and Vespers coldly run over never put us upon the feeling of indispositions but onely Duties done with some spirit and life As a Smith blows not the Bellows on cold iron or a dead Coal Who would seek quickning when not serious in the work They that go on in the cold wont of Duties never regard the frame of their Hearts 2. When you want quickning ask it of God He brought us into the state of Life at first and therefore every moment we must beg of him that he would quicken us that he would continue it and perfect his own work Cant. 1. 4. Draw me we will run after thee There is no running no preserving the Vitality of Grace without his renewed influence Psal. 22. 29. None can keep alive his own Soul Therefore when we find this deadness or decay of Life to whom should we go but to the fountain of Life to repair it no Creature doth subsist of itself or act of itself 3. Ask it earnestly David prefaceth a general Prayer before this request and saith hear my voice as loth to be denied Many ask it of Course rather use it as a mannerly form when they are entring upon holy Duties than a broken-hearted request See you desire it heartily Psal 119. 40. Behold I have longed after thy precepts quicken thou me in thy righteousness A mans heart is set upon it and will not sit down with the distemper as contented and satisfied with a dead frame of Heart quickning is for longing Souls that would fain do the work of God with a more perfect Heart 4. Expect this Grace in and through Jesus Christ who came down from Heaven for this end Ioh. 10. 10. I am come that they might have life and might have it more abundantly That was his end in coming into the World to procure life for his People and not only bare life but liveliness and comfort yea glory hereafter He died to purchase it for us Ioh. 6. 51. This is my flesh which I give for the life of the world His Incarnation and taking on him our Nature is the Channel and Conduit through which the quickning virtue that is in the Godhead is conveyed to us And his offering up himself in that nature by his Eternal Spirit doth purchase and merit the Application and Anâ—…unciation of this his quickning virtue to our souls and prepareth him to be fit meat for souls That same Flesh and Humane Nature of Christ that is offered up a Ransom to Justice is also the Bread of Life for souls to feed upon Souls are fed with Meditations upon his Death and Sufferings the Bread which he giveth by way of Application is his Flesh which he gave by way of Ransom every renewed act of Faith draweth an increase of Life from him 5. Consider how God worketh it in us The Father of Spirits loveth to work with his own tools These three agree in one The Spirit the Word and the renewed Heart The one is the Author the other the Instrument and the last the Object There is the Spirit acting and the Habit of Grace acted upon and the Word and Sacraments are the instruments and means For God will do it rationally and by a lively light God forceth not the nature of second causes against their own inclination 't is pleasing to him when we desire him to renew his work and to bring forth the actings of Grace out of his own seed and to blow with the wind the breath of his Spirit on the Gardens that the spices may flow out Cant. 4. 15. if one of these be wanting there can be no quickning Not the Spirit for he applyeth all and doth all in the Heart of Believers 't is from him that we have the new life of Grace and all the activity of it Gal. 5. 25. If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit Then there must be a renewed Heart for God doth first infuse the principles of the new Life and gracious habits and power into the soul. Next he doth actuate those powers or stir them up to do what is good otherwise we do but blow to a dead Coal Then the Word and Sacraments come as Gods means which are fitted to work upon the New Creature These are full of spiritual Reason and suited to the sanctified understandings of Men and Women 6. Consider Gods loving-kindness how ready he is to grant this He will not deny the gift of the Holy Ghost to them that ask him Luk. 11. 13. 'T is an Argument not a Pari but a minore ad majus God is more able and willing to give than earthly Parents who are but half Fathers This is a spiritual and necessary Blessing
God 3. We shall never have such great and large thoughts of Gods tender mercy as when they arise from our own Experience and particular Observation to know God by hear-say will not work upon you as when we have seen him our selves as they said unto the Woman Iohn 4. 42. Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world We do not speak or think of God with any Sense and Life Affection and Admiration till we have studied his Nature and observed his Wayes otherwise we speak by Rote when we praise him for his mercies and 't is but an empty Complement Psal. 103. 1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits whoforgiveth all thy iniquities and healeth all thy diseases c. 4. Then will our own Experience inform us of the greatness and tenderness of mercy when we are sensible of our sins and miseries when a man seeth his Sins great his Dangers great then he will see Gods mercies towards him great also Psal. 86. 13. For great is thy mercy towards me for thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell We do not know the greatness of the Pardon but by the greatness of the Debt nor the greatness of our Protection and Deliverance but by the greatness of the Danger God continueth trouble upon his People that they may be sensible of the sweetness of the mercy and his help in their Deliverance Rom. 5. 8. But herein God commended his love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us 5. When our sense of sins and miseries hath most recommended mercy to us we should magnifie it both with respect to Supplication and Gratulation 1. With respect to Supplication when we are under Fears and Discouragements we should oppose and set these great and tender mercies in the Balance against our doubts and fears Our Sins are many our Troubles great yet let us not be discouraged from Praying and making our supplication to God for God will pardon a penitent People and help a sensible Supplicant The more sensible of our misery the fitter Objects for mercy What is it that troubleth us fear of not speeding with God in Prayer you hear how soon he Relenteth when you Relent and lye at his feet for to what use doth pardoning mercy serve but to incourage broken-hearted sinners We have heard that the Kings of Israel are merciful Kings Benhadad having lost the day and in great fear of losing his life with his Kingdom his Friends comforted him with the Fame they had heard of Israels Kings 1 Kings 20. 31. We know most certainly 't is hard to raise up truly poor down-lost sinners how presumptuous soever they have been before God would have these by all means to be incouraged So that though you have many Objections from your unworthiness the multitude and greatness of your sins or is it the power of men and difficulty of our deliverance Gods mercy is beyond the proportion of their Cruelty The more violent and ungodly our Oppressors are the more hope of Gods pity towards us Psal. 86. 14 15. O God the proud are risen against me and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul and have not set thee before them but thou O Lord art a God full of compassion and gracious long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth 2. Let us magnifie it as to Gratulation Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of all the mercy c. Less than the least of all thy mercies Let us consider our unworthiness that God may have all the Glory Use. II. Is to press us to be Merciful we should be like God let us put on Bowels of mercy Col. 3. 12. Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering Luke 6. 36. Be ye therefore merciful as your heavenly father also is merciful SERMON CLXXV PSALM CXIX VER 161. Princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart standeth in awe of thy Word IN this Verse we have First Davids Temptation Secondly The Godly Frame of his Spirit First In Davids Temptation take notice of 1. The Nature of it 't was a Persecution 2. The Instruments of it Saul and the Chief men about him Princes 3. The Malice and Groundlesness of it without a Cause Secondly The Godly Frame of his Heart but my heart c. And there we have 1. The Seat of his Affection my heart 2. The Kind of the Affection standeth in awe 3. The Object of it the Word of God First With Davids Temptation I will not meddle any further than an Introduction or the necessity of an Exposition enforceth me a little to reflect upon And 1. From the Nature of it Persecution is one of the ordinary Trials of Gods Children As God Chasteneth them because they are no better Isa. 27. 9. so the World Persecuteth them because they are so good Iohn 15. 19. This ever hath been and ever will be the Lot of Gods Children while there are two seeds in the World Gen. 3. 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed And the Apostle saith Gal. 4. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh â—…uted him that was born after the spirit so 't is now The first place speaketh of the Antipathy between the Church and it 's open Opposites the second was in Abrahams Family and 't is brought to Comfort the true Members of the Christian Church against those Persecutions which they sustained from the false Apostles and such as adhered to the Iewish Synagogue Isaac was begotten by the Power of Gods Spirit according to the Tenour of the Promise Ishmael by the ordinary strength of Nature a Figure of the Regenerate and Unregenerate Iohn 1. 13. Persecution is a thing common to the Church in all Ages then and now therefore as they grow worse let us grow better and let us be content to take the ordinary way by the Cross to come to the Crown 2. The Instruments of his Trouble were Saul and his Chief men about him The man of God had said Many are my Persecutors Verse 157. now he sheweth they were not mean ones and of the inferiour sort but such as by their Power were able to crush him such as by their place should be a Refuge to him I observe the Trial is the sorer when our trouble cometh not only from the basest of the People but from the Rulers themselves No doubt a great part of the People followed Saul in his persecuting of David yet the Nobles most troubled him In the Primitive times lapidibus nos invadit inimicum vulgus the base Rif-raffe were most ready to stone the Christians but this was meer Brutish Rage a
callings here is great joy but this is nothing to the knowledge of Gods will Thirdly Every Christian is a Warriour against Sathan the World and the Flesh so 't is a fit similitude for them victory over sin and satan is above all the Conquests in the World this is a part of the good news the Word bringeth to us Col. 2. 14 15. Iohn 16. 33. Now observe In the former verse David had expressed his Reverence to the Word now his Delight First Our trembling at the Word doth not hinder our delight in it none more cheary then the awful soul Acts 9. 31 They walked in the Fear of God and comfort of the Holy Ghost And Psal 112. 1. Blessed is the man that Feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandements Those who are most observant of Gods will and careful to follow it have the greatest contentment in their souls Secondly Joy should be mingled with Reverence lest it degenerate into slavery and a scrupulous Fear Doctrine That Gods People do greatly Rejoice in his Word 1. 'T is not an ordinary delight which is here set forth but such as is high and intense such joy as the richest and most gainful victory can raise in any worldly man 'T is incredible and cannot be expressed how much joy and comfort the Word of God yieldeth to good men Therefore so many similitudes used More then in all Riches Psal. 119. 14. ver 103. Sweeter than Honey and the Honey Comb. I love it above Gold and above fine Gold 127. ver A joy greater than the joy of worldly men 2dly 'T is not a light flash or a phantastical impression but a solid consolation such as is affliction proof and death proof when the strength of this joy cometh to be tryed and assaulted by deep afflictions Therefore the heirs of promise are said to have strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. So verse 50. of this Psalm This is my Comfort in mine affliction thy Word hath quickned me 3dly This joy which is the mark of a sound believer is delighting to know believe and obey Gods Word For 't is in the way of his Testimonies Psalm 119. 14. 'T is in his Commandements they delight greatly Study and Contemplation breedeth a pleasure but nothing like practice The pleasures and delights of the mind do certainly exceed those of the Body for the more noble the faculty is the more capable of delight A man in study hath a truer pleasure than the greatest Epicure in the most exquisite enjoyments of sense Now moral delights exceed those which are the meér result of Contemplation as they give us a more intimate feeling of the worth of things Again those delights which are supernatural and come from the Spirit as the pleasures of Faith and Obedience do exceed those of the natural mind as much as those do bodily pleasures as being exercised about nobler Objects which are the sence of the Favour of God and Reconciliation with him and the hopes of Eternal Life And as coming from an higher cause the Spirit of God Therefore upon the whole there is no true delight and contentment but what proceedeth from a careful performance of Gods Commands strictly abstaining from what may displease him and chearfully practising all that he requireth of us Truly the present gratefulness of such an employment and the succeeding comforts of such practices are a continual Feast all other Pleasures to this are nothing worth The Obedience of Faith to a Believer is more than any worldly advantage 'T is a sweet thing to be exercised in the Word of God in Reading and Hearing it with serious Meditation but much more to be brought under the Power and Practice of it Reasons 1. The Godly find glad tydings in the Word suitable to their souls necessities and therefore rejoyce in it For the object of delight is bonum conveniens sufficiens here is enough to content them and it is very suitable There is pardon of sins and that is ground of Joy Matth. 9. 2. Be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee there we hear of a Saviour 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the world to save Sinners When the Gospel was Preached at Samaria Acts 8. 8. There was great joy in that City Zacheus received Christ joyfully for he brought Salvation to his House Luke 19. 6. There iâ—… the true way of mortifying sin and sanctifying the Heart Psal. 19. 8. The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the soul the Commandement of the Lord is pure inlightning the Eyes There we are told of the joys of the World to come 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him We should exult for joy to hear of those things Thus you see the Word of God affordeth such comforts such matter of rejoycing as cannot be parallel'd A poor man when he findeth a treasure receiveth it with a joyful Heart Oh! What inestimable treasure do we find in the Word of God! the way of Eternal Salvation is there made manifest 2. The Saints have felt benefit by it They have been renewed and sanctified by it therefore they prize it Iames 1. 18 19. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures Therefore be swift to hear There they have found powerful heavenly Truths by which their souls are made new they have tasted Gods Love in the Doctrines and promises thereof and against a tast there is no disputing 1 Pet. 2. 2 3. Experimented sweetness is beyond all arguments they have been revived and comforted by it in their Troubles as at the 93d verse of this Psalm more largely I will never forget thy Word for by them thou hast quickned me God hath done their souls good by it 'T is the charter of their hopes verse 111 of this Psalm What ever Calamities they meet with in the World there they see ground of Peace and composedness in their soul. 3dly They love God and they hear more of him in the Word than they can elsewhere The soul that loveth God heareth and seeth his Blessed name in every leaf they find the effects of his Goodness in Creation some fruits and pledges of his love in daily Providence but there they find his great eternal and wonderful love in Christ there they know Gods will and 't is their desire to be subject to it and therefore value it not onely as the Charter of their hopes but as the Rule of their Duty Use I. To condemn them First That find no sweetness in the Word of God they do not mind the business of Salvation and then no wonder if they have a slight and mean esteem of the Word Two reasons of this Contempt 1. Their Scope is not fixed All means are regarded with
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
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
Pressures 1. The Suitableness they are suited to this happiness wrought for this very thing 2 Cor. 5. 5. Every thing hath a propension to the place for which God framed it 't is the Wisdom of God to put all things in their proper places as every Creature is placed in that element which is suitable and answerable to its Composition and Frame as Fishes in Water Fowles in the Air. Gods Children are framed for this very thing therefore have an inclination and a tendency thither As Heaven is prepared for them so in some measure they for it Rom. 9. 24. aforehand prepared unto Glory And Col. 1. 12. Made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light They grow more dead every day to the Interests and Concernments of the Animal Life and have a greater agreeableness to this happiness 2. Experience Rom. 8. 23. We that have the first fruits of the Spirit groan wit hin our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our body A Christian here is unsatisfied and longeth for a better and purer state of Bliss and Immortality Light Life Peace Joy one dram of Grace is more precious than all the World but yet it setteth them a longing for more the first fruits sheweth us what the Harvest will be and a tast what the Feast will prove here we get a little knowledge of God a sight of him in the Ordinances a Twi-light discovery of Christ a Look through the Lattice Cant. 2. 9. a little Glance of his Face when neither doth he let the Believers in to him nor doth he come out to them this Glance maketh them long for more So that in effect they send up the same Message to Christ which his Mother and Brethren did because of the press thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to see thee Tell him thou standest here without but desirest to see him So for the Communion we have with Christ 't is but a tast 1 Pet. 2. 3. If so be ye have tasted the Lord is gracious but that tast is very ravishing and delightful Here we get a little from him in an Ordinance but that little is as much as we can hold but there he is all in all here our holiness is not perfect the seed of God remaineth in us but there it groweth up to perfection as every spark of Fire tendeth to the Element of Fire 3. Our Pressures and the Miseries of the present Life 2 Cor. 5. 4. Being burdened we groan We are pressed under an heavy weight burdened both with Sin and Misery and both set us a groaning and a longing as men in a Tempest would fain be set ashoar as soon as they can 1. Sin to a waking Conscience and a tender Gracious Heart is one of the greatest burdens that can be felt Rom. 7. 24. Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death If any had cause to complain of Afflictions Paul much more he was Whipped Imprisoned Stoned in perils by Land and Sea but Afflictions did not sit so close to him as sins the body of Death was his greatest burden and therefore did he long for Deliverance If others go away silently under their load the Children of God cannot as light and love increaseth so sin groweth a greater burden to us They cannot get rid of this cursed inmate and therefore are longing for their final Estate when sin shall gaspe its last they long for the parting day when by putting off the Flesh they shall put off sin and dwell with God 2. Miseries the Children of God have not divested themselves of the feelings of Nature are not grown sensless as stocks and stones The Apostle telleth us Rom. 8. 20 21 22. that the whole Creation groaneth because 't is under Misery and Vanity 'T is a groaning World and Gods Children bear a part of the Consort they groan and desire earnestly their full Deliverance Few and evil are the days of the years of my Pilgrimage said holy Iacob Gen. 47. 9. Our dayes are Evil therefore 't is well they are but few that in this Shipwrack of mans Felicity we can see Banks and Shores and a landing place where we may be safe here is our Travail but there is our repose we would sleep too much here and take up our rest if sometimes we did not meet with Thorns in our bed III. Reason The End and Use of this Longing and Desiring 1. 'T is an earnest Desire it maketh us industrious and stirreth up and keepeth up our endeavours after another World Phil. 3. 20 21. But our Conversation is in heaven from whence we look for a Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Where there is a lively expectation there men drive on a Trade for another Country Desire is the Vigorous bent of the Soul and so beareth us out under all the difficulties of Obedience If we do not desire we will not labour nor seek it in the first place and if our desires be weak and feeble they are controled by every Lust abated upon every difficulty whatever gets your heart that will command your endeavours for as a mans desire is so is he 2. To make us Constant notwithstanding Troubles Reproaches Persecutions Matth 11. 12. The violent take it by force They will have no nay they must have it whatever it cost them though sore Troubles and Persecutions yet if we may get Heaven and Glory at last 't is enough but where a thing is coldly and carelesly desired every thing puts us out of the humour IV. The State and Condition of the present World 't is called Gal. 1. 4. The present World The Pleasures of it are meer dreams and shadows and the Evils of it are many and real Gods Children are Pilgrimes here and hardly get leave to pass thorough as Israel could not get leave to pass through Edom Sometimes they meet with such bitter and grievous Persecutions which make them weary of their lives as Elijah requested for himself that he might die 1 King 9. 4. or as the Spirits of the Israelites were filled with Anguish because of their hard task Masters God will give his People Rest hereafter but before the Rest cometh they are sorely Troubled 1 Thes. 1. 6 7. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much Affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia Nay the Company that we go with to Heaven are apt to fall out by the way and to deal perversly one with another Unministering Unchurching Unchristianing one another Impaling inclosing the Common Salvation and justleing one another out of the way to Heaven so that the Church which should be Terrible like an Army with Banners Marching to
them p. 185 Augustus Caesar his way to prevent hasty and rash judgment p. 410 Avoiding evil company not enough except we chuse good p. 777 Authority of God the Reason of our Obedience p. 23 24 Authority of God to be eyed in our Obedience and why p. 24 25. God urges his authority p. 26. 35 Authority and Power might and right in God p. 584 Authority of God speaking in his word p. 939-940 Awakening of holy desires means to obtain it p. 309 310 Awakening of Prayer by suspending mercy p 548. Awakening of God by Prayer p. 860 Awe standing in awe of Gods word a mark of Gods Children p. 997. VVhat is it to stand in awe VVhy we must stand in awe of Gods VVord p. 997 998 Awe of Gods word twofold p. 998 999. Reasons p. 1008 B. BAck-sliding Causes of it 1. From without 1. Errors 2. Persecutions 3. Scandals 2. From within 1. Ungrounded assent 2. Ungrounded Profession 3. Unmortifyed Lusts. 4. Easiness of temper 5. Self-confidence p. 343 Baites and Snares in all Conditions p. 780 Baptism the answer of a good Conscience p. 45 Begin with God early p. 763 Beginnings of sin to be suppressed p. 344 Begging grace to Obey a sign that the Commandement is not greivous but our lust p. 29 Behold A note 1. Of admiration 1. Demonstration p. 302 Beleivers only take Gods Testimonies for their heritage p. 743 Beleivers are Princes in disguise p. 743. They are Heirs of the World ibid. They have a Covenant right to all their outward mercies ibid. Beleiving with the whole heart what it is p. 15 Beleiving falls under a Command p. 24 Beleiving gives us hold of God p 544 Benefactor God is so 1. To all 2. To his own p. 569 Benefits of God are all for our profit and Gods glory p. 1093 Bent of the Heart p. 122. Vid. frame of the Heart Blamelessness required in those that reprove others p. 855 Blessed man his Characters 1. Keeping Gods Testimonys 2. Seeking God with the whole heart p 8 Blessed or Cursed whom Christ pronounces such in the last day p. 10 Blessedness the Aim of all rational Creatures Pagans Christians good men evil men p. 1. 224 Blessedness a true notion of it necessary to be got by all men p. 1. We may be right in the Doctrine when we are erroneous in the Practise of blessedness p. 3. Sincere Constant Uniform Obedience the way to blessedness p. 3 Blessedness lies in the enjoyment of God p. 69. Gods blessedness is in himself what it is p. 69 Blessedness in this life annext to sincere Obedience p. 7 Blessings spiritual flow from special love p. 42 Blessings to be expected according to the Tenor of the Covenant p. 788. 317 Blessings Temporal not absolutely to be expected p 317 Blessing God respects his benefits to us p. 42 Blessing God for mercy the way to have more p. 422 Blindness spiritual is natural to every man p. 110 It is worse then natural blindness ibid. It is our great misery p. 852 Blind obedience of Papists to their Superiours p 26 Blood and VVater how they bear Witness p. 9 Body God must be served with the soul as well as with the body Reasons p. 1043 1044 Boldness grounded in innocency p. 36. Boldness in Duties Distresses Death p. 36 Boldness in Confessing and Professing Gods ways an excellent gift of God p. 309. Causes of it p. 310 1. Faith 2. Love to God 3. Fear of God 4. A sense of the other World ibid Bond upon man to God threefold 1. Natural 2. Voluntary 3. Sacramental p. 701 Born again Vid. Regeneration Bountifulness of God to all his Creatures especially to his Saints p. 70 Bounty and Mercy of God a great encouragement to ask any spiritual gifts p. 437. How they differ ibid. Breast-plate of a Christian is Righteousness p. 818 Brethren love of the Brethren a duty p. 1032 Broken heart in confession of sin argues one right in the main p. 1106 Building on the Righteousness of Gods Word what p. 832 Reproof to them that do not build on Gods faithfulness p. 833 Business They that would be blessed must make it their business sincerely to seek after God p. 11 Business discovers the man p. 18. They are blessed that make it their business to avoid all sin ibid. Mark of one that makes Religion his business ibid In all business God must be sought to 1. For his leave 2. His Counsel 3. His blessing p. 58 Prayer is made our Business 1. When it is secret 2. Early 3. Vehement and earnest p. 921 C. CAll of God to be observed p. 412 Calling general and particular they help one another p. 847 Calumniatory discourses forbidden p. 1064 Calumnies against Religion will not long prevail with Rational men p. 339 Comforts against them p. 301 Cares of the World drive out duty p. 32 Carriage we must glorify God before others by it p. 1086 Carelessness in Prayer The Reasons of it p 900 901 Care ess walking Cured by Reproach p. 296 Casc of Conscience p 603. Two great Cases p. 222 Cases of Conscience about Confessing lesser Truths p. 1011 Case how its lawful to rejoyce in Gods Judgements p. 347 Carnal pleasures nothing to Spiritual p. 313 Carnal and spiritual sorrow their difference p. 177 Carnal love to spiritual things p. 863 Carnal Principles what they are p. 235 Carnal and spiritual hearts argue contrarily from one and the same principle p. 757 576 577 Carnal walking cured by Reproach p. 139 Carnal Compliance p. 542. 713. 774 Carnal fear and Carnal Policy p. 644 645 Carnal affections are heady and hasty p. 836 Cause A good Cause well managed may expect Gods protection p. 813. 818. Causeless persecution p. 996 Cause that comes in debate threefold 1. Inter hominem hominem 2. Inter hominem diabolum 3. Inter hominem Deum p. 972. 973. Caution to Magistrates p. 146 Cautions about speedy setting upon duty p. 411 412 Caution against murmuring under affliction p. 485 Against carnal fear and carnal policy p. 644 Caution needful that we be not carried away by example p. 866 Censures of the Church separate the dross from the Gold p. 804 Censuring cured by Reproach p. 139. 297 Censure of mens persons under Gods judgments evil p. 796 Change of exercise good not change of affection p. 95 Change of State may be without change of affection p. 156 Changes 1. In Mens affections 2. In Gods dispensations are ballanced by the Comforts of Gods unchangable Word p. 892 Changes are to be expected in our lives p. 3 Chastening whether in anger or no p. 486 Chearful service to God What it is p. 753 Charity to be maintained toward those that differ from us in lesser matters p. 200 Child of God known by two marks p. 870 Children of God such as fear God and hope in his Word p. 501 Vid. Heirs of Promise Children Why threatned in the second Commandment p. 852 Children desire things passionately and