fire kindles his sacrifice with the flames of Hell for so S. James does call those heats He that gives God any of his performances and hath a naughty Heart like Nadab and Abihu he presents his offering in an unhallowed Censer and all his holy worship will get nothing else from Heaven for him but a consuming fire as theirs did He that will offer any thing to God must take a care it be not tainted with such mixtures which spoil all the Religion making it not sincere and also spoil the Heart by making it not clean and undefiled The last remaining sense A Clean and undefiled Heart Of those things which our Saviour sayes defile the man some are meerly sins of the Heart such as may be consummated within the Soul and for the perpetration of which a spirit is sufficient to it self such are Pride especially spiritual pride the sin of those that think none holy as themselves and cast the black doom of Reprobation upon all that do not comply with their opinions and interests such also are uncontentednesse with our estates inward repinings at the dispositions of Providence concerning us black malice bitter envyings Now in these as the mind does need no outward members to consummate them requires no accessary organs to work them out so neither does it require any outward accessary guilt to make them liable to condemnation we know 't was one sin of the spirit onely that made Angels Devils If a foul body be abominable to the Lord shall a foul spirit be less odious he that defiles his Soul offends God in a much neerer concern of his because that speaks neerer relation to him then the body this was only his workmanship made out of Earth the Spirit was created out of himself a foul body is but filthy Clay but he that does pollute his Soul does putrefie the Breath of God and stains a beam of the Divinity The other sort of things that are said to come from the Heart and to Defile are those which S. Paul calls works of the Flesh such as if they be committed must be committed outwardly Murders Drunkennesse Revellings Revenge Wrath and Contentions Seditions Factions Schismes all Uncleannesses c. In these indeed the Heart can be but partiall Actor the utmost it can do is to desire and to intend them and to contrive and manage the designs of compassing them which yet Providence or the Innocence of others may put out of the reach of mans power or his own temporal fears may make him not dare to set upon them though he do cherish the desires Now if they beobstructed from committing most men use to conclude gently of their guilts while they do keep within the Heart the Execution of them is the onely thing that does look mortal and till the sin be perfected there is no death in it And truly I confesse that as it happens many times on a sudden surprize of soul when a bright gilded temptation strikes the heart and dazles the mind we see that the Will rushes on it instantly consents and wishes heartily yet within a while the Spirit does recover out of the surprize puts by the thrusts of fancy and the stabs of the temptation and that Will languishes and dies like a velleity as if it had been nothing but a woulding and now the man would not by any means consent to the commission In this case though there be a guilt to be repented of and cleansed with many tears yet this is Innocence in the comparison but if the Will purpose contrive and do its utmost it is the same to the man as if he had committed T were easie to demonstrate this that whatsoever evill thing a man intends and does fixedly resolve he is guilty of though he do nothing or though the thing he chance to do be never so much lawful Those sayings of S. Paul I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus that there is no meat unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean Rom. 14. 14. and he that doubteth is damned if he eat v. 23. These could have no truth in them unlesse the heart by choosing and pursuing to the utmost any thing that it does judge unlawful incurr'd the guilt of that unlawfulness even to Damnation and all that meerly by it self without the Action which in that case had nothing sinful in it A weight that is upheld by a mans hand and otherwise would rush down to the earth does surely gravitate as much it is as heavy though it do not fall quite down as if it did and were it let alone it would A settled tendency a resolv'd inclination to sin that presseth with its utmost agitation is that weight which though it may perchance be stopt in its career yet it tends to the Abysse its center and will not rest but in that Pit that hath nor rest nor bottome the Heart in this case is as liable as it can be because here it hath done its worst and such a will shall be imputed to it self And now I need not tell those who are still designing sin or mischief in the heart although it never dares come out of those recesses how far they are removed from the goodnesse of God to Israel A Father finds a way to prove such souls have larger doses of Gods Vengeance who when he had asserted that the soul does not dye with the body and then was askt what it did in that long interval for sure it is not reasonable that it should be affected with any anticipations of the future Judgment because the business of the day of Judgment should be reserved to its own day without all prelibation of the sentence and the restitution of the Flesh is to be waited for that so both soul and body may go hand in hand in their Recompences as they did in their demerits joynt partners in the Wages as they were in the Works To this he answers The Soul does not divide all its operations with the Body some things it acts alone and if there were no other cause it were most just the Soul should there receive without the Body the dues of that which here it did commit without the Body That 's for the former sort of sins those meerly of the Heart And for the latter sort the Soul is first engaged in the commission that does conceive the sin layes the design of compassing and does contrive and carry on the machination and then why should not that be first in Punishment which is the first in the Offence Go now and reckon that thy outward grosse transgressions are the only dangerous and guilty ones and slight thy sins of Heart but know that while thy flesh is sleeping in the quiet Grave at rest and ease thy Spirit then 's in Torments for thy Fleshes sins and feels a far severer Worm than that which gnaws thy Body Poor Soul Eternity of Hell from Resurrection to For-ever
sleight and not so pressing But should it come to this pinch once that she must straight resolve to part with one of these however close her Arms would grasp her Child to rescue him to force whom thence were like the tearing of her bowells from her yet would she give those bowells to redeem her bosom guest the husband would be the Choyce so that although the other inclinations were more expressive these are the stronger and the better setled So it may happen we may be more sensibly affected to some dear things here below our thoughts and Eyes and our embraces cling and fasten more to these but if it come to this that we must leave one break with the Duty or the Passion if we resolve however not to part with God but lay hold there and let the other go then our affections are not only regular when we desire nothing in comparison with him but our desires are enjoyments seize and take possession of him and we have him So my Text implies here Whom have I in Heaven but thee importing that we have him Which brings me to the other parts that yet remain to be discourst of Three things are here to be considered 1. That Heaven is the place of Possessions in opposition to this Land of Desires 2. That God is the possession there 3. That the Pious man hath this possession in present The first of these is so much common place I shall not stay upon it those onely qualities that make this World to be a Land of Desires have no place there to wit the instability and emptinesse of all things in it he that lays hold on them does but grasp Mercury which the more he clasps the more he forces it to slip away and he retains onely the soyle and the defilement of it like Lightning which but passes by stayes not to cherish onely dazels and it may be scorches So the shine of Earthly glorys startles the mind amuses us inflames desires of them and goes out But then above the tenure is Eternity and that assures immutability yea if it be nunc stans an indivisible Infinity of permanent duration whose every poynt does coexist to every poynt a perfect and entire possession all at once of an interminable life that never can be all possest then nothing can passe by us or cease from us but we shall alwayes every moment have what we shall have in every any moment Our enjoyment also being like him that we enjoy all in the whole and all in every part being not onely endlesse in the mass but every moment of it is immortal And then there can be nothing but enjoyment no place for desire there where there is nothing absent where all past and all futurity is alwayes present and where also the Infinite and all sufficient God is the Possession which is my next Proposition and that God himself affirms Gen. 15. 1. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Yea this he hath present possession of which my third Proposition and my Text asserts in saying Whom have I in Heaven but thee importing thee I have The things we call most our possessions here both personal and real are our portions and inheritances Now David claims God under both these dues Thou art my portion O Lord and the lot of mine Inheritance as other men maintain themselves by these so I live upon thee And that we may not think that God is such but in Reversion those are present possessions which men reap the uses of in present to themselves Now what is there of God the Pious man hath not the present uses off His Eyes are over him and his Ears are open to his Prayers watch to attend each motion of his heart and underneath him are the everlasting Arms to carry and sustain him his right hand wears him as his signet and his left hand pours down Blessings on him his wings are spread for him to nestle in that warm security and hide him in the shadow of his bowels sound and turn within him with compassion over him and himself is about his Bed and about all his paths not so much to spy out his wayes as to preserve him in them all and he waits that he may be gracious In a word all the Securitys that Gods Preserving Mercies signifie the watches of his Providence the Blessings that fulfil his Attributes of goodnesse all are exerted upon his occasions are made the present objects and the satisfactions of his nearest senses and he may taste and see how gracious God is And then give me O Lord seizin of this the Pious man's Estate I shall not envy other mens possessions though one lay House to House and Land to Land till he become the Lord of his Horizon and his Eyes cannot travel out of his Demesne For notwithstanding that we may have known ill Courses or ill Accidents consume all this or Force throw him out of all and that great Lord have no House but a Goal nor Land enough to make a Grave But sure I am that I shall be provided for in all necessities unless there happen such a one for which there 's no relief in God nor can I be disseis'd they must void Heaven e're they can disfurnish me For thee I have in Heaven But yet though chance nor violence cannot put me out yet I may forfeit this Possession too for sin will separate betwixt me and my God cast me out of his presence and enjoyments as sure as it did Adaâ— out of Paradise And then alas if I had none but him in Heaven he is now become my Adversary holds possession against me as he did that of Paradise with flames so he does Rain sâ—ares fire and brimstone thence and this is all the Sinner's portion Psal. 11. All that I am like to get unless I have a person that will arbitrate the cause or mediate there is no hopes of a recovery for me if I have none in Heaven but thee Now here my last Consideration will come in If while my Soul lyes grovling under fearful Apprehensions of its Forfeiture casting about for help and finding none upon the Earth if it look upwards and enquire Whom have I in Heauen have I none there but my offended Adversary God it may resolve it self with comfort he hath other interests there For First I have an Intercessor there Rom. 8. 34. a Master of Requests one that will not onely hand in my Petitions get accesse for my Prayers and my tears to God but will make them effectual For saith S. Paul Seeing we have a great High Priest that 's passed into the Heavens let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace in time of need Heb. 4. 14. 16. For though my supplications have not strength nor ardour that can mount them into Heaven and are too impure however washt in my repenting Tears
though we do not find that done yet vve do find his piety and his uprightness made the standard by vvhich that of his Successors is meted Of one 't is said he walked in the waies of David his father of another he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not like unto David his father And because David vvent aside and vvas upright vvith an Exception once therefore it is said The Lord was with Iehoâ—haphat because he walkt in the first â— ayes of his father David But besides this his very name is given to two Zorobabel and the Messiah both vvhich vvere to be the restorers of their people the one from Sin and Hell to re-establish the Kingdome of heaven it self the other to deliver his people from Babel and to repair a broken Nation and demolish'd Temple And for this vvork God bids them seek David their King The vvaies from Babel to Ierusalem from the Confusion of a people to a City that is at unity in it self the City of God where he appears in perfect beauty and where the throne of the house of David is must be the first vvaies of David in those he vvalk'd to Sion and did invest his people in God's promises the vvhole land of Canaan In those Zorobabel brought them back to that land and Sion And in these our Messiah leads us to Mount Sion that is above to the celestial Ierusalem does build an universal Church and Heaven it self And all that have the like to do must vvalk in those first waies fulfill that part of David and must copy Christ. Such the repairers of great breaches must be these are the vvaies to settle Thrones the only vvaies in vvhich vve may find the goodness of the Lord vvhich to fear is the third direction and my last part They shall fear the Lord and his goodness 3. That Israel vvho came but now out of the furnate should fear the Lord vvhose vvrath did kindle it vvhose justice they had found such a consuming fire as to make the Temple it self a Sacrifice and the vvhole Nation a burnt-offering is reasonable to expect but vvhen his goodness had repair'd all this to require them to fear that does seem hard That that goodness vvhich vvhen it is once apprehended does commit a rape upon our faculties and being tasted melts the heart and causes dissolution of soul through swoons of complacency that this should be received vvith dread and treâ—bling is most strange Indeed the Psalmist saies There is mercy with God that he may be feared for vvere there not vve should grow desperate but how to fear those mercies is not easie 'T is true when God made his goodness pass before Moscs shewed him the glory of it as he saies in those most comfortable attributes the sight of vvhich is beatiâ—ick Vision Exod. 34. 6 c. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin if that vvhich follows there be part of it and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers up on the children unto the third and fourth generation if this be one ray of the glory of goodness if it dart out such beams alas 't is as devouring as the lake of fire his very goodness stabs vvhole successions at once and the guilty may tremble at it for themselves and their posterity But if those vvords do mean as vve translate those very vvords Jer. 46. 28. I vvill not leave thee altogether unpunish'd yet will not utterly cut off not make a full end of the guilty vvhen I visit iniquities upon the children but vvill leave them a remnant still then there is nothing dreadful in â—t but those very visitations have kindness in them and his rod comforts and this issue of his goodness also is not terrible but lovely To fear God's goodness therefore is to revere it to entertain it vvith a pious â—stonishment acknowledging themselves unworthy of the crums of it especially not daring to provoke it by surfeting or by presuming on it or by abusing it to serve ill ends or any other than God sent it for those of piety and obedience not to comply vvith vvhich is to defeat God's kindness and the designs of it If vvhen they sought the Lord he vvas found of them and came to his dwelling place onely to be forc'd thence again by their abominations if vvhen his goodness had restor'd all to them they had David their King but to conspire against an Altar onely to pollute and a Temple to separate from as Manasses the Priest Sanballat's son in law vvith his accomplices did doe this vvere both to affront and to renounce that goodness vvhich above all things they must dread the doing for if this be offended too ruine is irreversible thoâ—e is no other attribute in God a sinner can fly to vvith any hope His Holiness cannot behold iniquity his Iustice speaks nothing but condemnation to guilt his Power vvithout kindness is but omnipotent destruction but if vve have his Goodness on our side vve have an Advocate in his own bosome that vvill bear up against the rest for his mercy is over all his attributes as vvell as vvorks but if this also be exasperated and kindness grow severe there is no refuge in the Lord no shadow of him to take Sanctuary under for there is nothing to allay the anger of his Compassion and Bounty This sure is the extreamest terrour we are to dread his kindness more than his severity and wrath we have an antidote a buckler against these but none against the other if it be provok'd and if the heats of love take fire and rise into indignation 't is unquenchable flame and everlasting burning Therefore when God hath done all things that he can do or they can wish then most of all they must fear the Lord and his goodness My Text and I have spoke all this vvhile to the Iews nor do I know vvhether I need to address any other vvay all this did so directly point at us The glories of this day need not the foil of those calamities from vvhich this day redeem'd to set them off Or you may read them in my Prophet here and our own guilts will make too sad a Comment on his Text who were more barbarous Assyrians to our selves We also were without a Prince and without Sacrifice had neither King nor Church nor Offices because we our selves had destroy'd them and that we might not have them had engag'd or covenanted against them ty'd to our miseries so that without perjury we could neither be without them nor yet have them As we had broke through all our sacred oaths to invade and usurp calamity and guilt so neither could we repent without breach of Vows If â—â— is were not enough to make us be without a God too then to drive him away vve