chastning for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Afflictions are spiritual Physick Now Physick we know at present often discomposeth and disturbs Nature and puts the whole Body out of Frame it makes the Patient sick before it cures him And so it is with the Physick of the Soul you cannot discern the Benefit of it till it hath done working It makes you sick for the present but afterwards you come to see it was a good Sickness that made way for Health and ended therein 7. In the mean time that you see not that you in some measure profit by your Afflictions and that they are by degrees doing you good is very much your own Fault 1. You have a Prejudice against your Afflictions you have an ill Opinion of those Courses which God takes with you for your Good and this much hinders the kindly Operation of them upon you as an ill Opinion of your Physician or his Prescriptions hinders the working of your Physick and deprives you of much of the Benefit thereof 2. While you are under these Prejudices and perverse Misapprehensions you do not apply your self to endeavour to profit by your Afflictions improving God 's Providences and doing what in you lies to further the Success of the Means which he applies and makes use of for the Cure of your Soul While your Prejudices continue and you are thereupon still sluggish and unactive how can you expect to be sensible of the Benefit of your Afflictions Cast off your Prejudices have good Thoughts of God's Methods of Cure firmly believe that the Course which he takes with you is the best and fittest to do you good arise and be doing what you can towards the promoting of God's Design in afflicting you search your Heart try your Ways endeavour to get a Sight of your Sins a true Hatred of them serious and firm Resolutions to forsake them renew these your Resolutions often still endeavour to confirm and strengthen them more and more and above all be earnest and uncessant in Prayer to God that he would be pleased to bless your Endeavours and then say if you see any Cause of complaining that your Afflictions are such as can never do you any Good The Ninth Sermon LAM 3.40 Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. I Am now fallen upon the second part of the Text setting before us our Duty in time of Affliction Let us search and try our VVays and turn again to the Lord. The Duty is twofold First That we search and try our VVays And secondly That we turn unto the Lord. The former of these Duties as 't is first in the Order of the Text so 't is in Nature We must search after our Sins find them out and discover them and then turn away from them 'T is impossible that we should forsake them until we have a sight of them He who sees not his Sins what should he else do but still go on boldly and fearlesly in the practice of them What hath he to hinder him or reduce him I shall speak something of both these Duties and first of that which hath the first place in the Text. But before I come to speak of the Duty it self of searching and trying our Ways in time of Affliction in order to the finding out of those our Sins for which God hath laid his Hand upon us I shall speak a little in a more general way of that which is near of kin unto the Duty of the Text I mean of Self-reflection or a looking back upon our selves and a reviewing and consideration of our Thoughts Words and Ways And that which I shall say concerning it shall be touching the Excellency and great Usefulness thereof and touching the Mischiefs of the neglect of it I. As touching the Excellency of Self-reflection or reviewing of our Thoughts Words and Actions I need say no more than that 't is a Perfection which only Men and Angels are capable of All other Creatures even those of them which are most perfect in their Kind and seem to have as it were some Shadow and Resemblance of Reason in them yet fall short of this excellent Perfection They cannot review what they have done or take into consideration the Quality of their past Actions they cannot reckon with themselves and call themselves to an account of them And indeed they need not do it for they are under no other Rule or Law beside that of their Nature and those natural Instincts which God hath put into them by these they are ruled and swayed and according to these they act They are under the Command of no moral Law and consequently their Actions are not capable of moral Good or Evil. But Man being under a moral Law and accountable to his Creator for the Breaches thereof for the better regulating and ordering of his Thoughts Words and Actions according to the Prescriptions of that Law God hath endowed him with a Faculty of reviewing his Actions and of considering them with relation to the Rule to the end that where he finds he hath done well he may be comforted and encouraged and where he hath done ill he may be humbled and reformed Thus hath he a Tribunal within his own Breast before which he can as often as he pleaseth summon himself to appear demand an account of all that hath been done by himself whether good or evil At this Tribunal he can judg and pass Sentence acquit or condemn himself according to the moral Nature and Quality of his Actions Here he can rebuke and admonish as there shall be cause recal and reduce himself where he hath gone astray and lay stricter and severer Charges and Injunctions on himself of greater Care and Watchfulness for the future as in respect of his former Negligence and Remissness shall be necessary A most excellent and never-sufficiently-admired Faculty of Man's Soul What a rich Treasure have we herein if we knew how to value it and make use of it But alas how little Improvement do we make to our selves of this noble Faculty And this brings me to the second thing the great Usefulness of Self-reflection I have already in what hath been spoken on the former Head said something of the Usefulness of it in general I shall now descend to some Particulars and speak briefly to them 1st By reflecting on our selves and taking a view of our past Actions we come to know our selves We understand the State and Condition of our Souls what Case we are in and what Opinion we ought to have of our selves Hereby we come to be acquainted with our spiritual Concernments whether we be in the State of Nature or in the State of Grace whether we be in the Way to Heaven or in the Way to Hell Hereby we come to know what our Declinings and Decays what our Advances and Improvements in
must not expect that patience and forbearance at his hands which he was pleased to exercise towards those who lived in darker Ages and times of Ignorance Barren Trees might long stand before Mat 3.10 but now the Ax is laid to the root of the tree and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen down and cast into the fire The main Errand and Design of the Gospel is that men be turned from darkness to light Acts 26.18 and from the power of Satan unto God To this purpose is that of the Apostle Rom. 13.12 13 14. The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof And again Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present sent world 2 Tim. 2 19. And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity But this is that which the corrupt Heart of man can least of all endure Men are unwilling to see their sins but much more unwilling to forsake them Whence else are those excuses which many frame when they are invited to come unto Christ One is ingaged in this business and it must be dispatched he must be dispensed with till it be over Another is ingaged in that Affair Luke 14.18 19 20. and he is not at leisure Whence else are those downright and peremptory Refusals Joh. 5.40 Ye will not come to me that ye might have life Yea you would not be gained and prevailed with to come by the largest Proffers by the most rich and excellent Promises The greatest Love and Tenderness the most Compassionate Solicitations and Importunities are not able to overcome them into a willingness what to do To be undone No to be made for ever to be gathered under the Wings of Christ's most tender Care and Love that they might be everlastingly Happy in the Fruition of him That sin is the cause of this peremptory refusal cannot be denied for nothing but sin could so bewitch and transport them that they should with so much obstinacy stand in their own light wilfully thrust away from themselves Everlasting Life and forsake their own Mercies 'T is agreed on that all men naturally desire happiness 't is Nature's Language Who will shew us any good Psal 4.6 Could men therefore reject Eternal Happiness and Glory upon any other Consideration than that the Terms on which 't is offered seem to be too hard They must part with their sins if they will be happy and O how hard a saying is this to Flesh and Blood The Friendship which is between the heart of man and sin being so strict and entire can that light of the Gospel be welcome to him whose Errand from Heaven is to make an everlasting separation between him and his sins Most clear it is that wicked men while such cannot abide the light and that however they may endeavour to cover over their Enmity against it with other pretensions yet the true reason why they hate it is the wickedness of their hearts and lives they therefore hate it because their deeds are evil as our Saviour gives us an account of the ground of their hatred thereof But it may here be objected That the Holy Scriptures elsewhere seem to give other reasons of mens not entertaining the light of the Gospel Sometimes they seem to impute it to the sublimity and to the mysterious Nature of the great Truths contained in the Gospel 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Sometimes the Scriptures impute it to the subtilty and malice of Satan darkening the minds of men 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them And lastly otherwhile the Scriptures speak of God's concealing the Mysteries of the Gospel from some men so our Saviour speaking to his Father saith Mat. 11.25 Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent There being also these other reasons of mens not embracing the light of the Gospel how is it that our Saviour seems to lay the whole stress of this matter upon this that mens deeds are evil To this I answer 1. That it is not necessary that we should so understand our Saviour as if he intended to make man's sin the sole or only cause why he hates the light but one principal cause And that 't is a principal cause thereof hath already appeared from what hath been spoken and will yet more fully appear by what shall be further spoken in answer to the Objections Wherefore 2. Though there may be some other causes of mens hating the light and preferring darkness before it yet they may for the most part be some way or other resolved into this which our Saviour here mentioneth Other things may concur sometimes but there is scarce any thing that hath so general and almost so perpetual an influence upon mens hating declining running away from opposing and rejecting the light as mans sin That mostly all other causes may be resolved into this I shall endeavour to shew in answer to the forementioned Objections As to the first of them 't is most true that in Spiritual things there is a great disproportion between the Intellective Faculty as now 't is since the Fall and the Object The Mysteries of the Gospel are high and sublime our understanding is dark weak and shallow But 1. Whence came this disproportion Was it not very much from the sin of man at first who put out his own Eyes wounded his Intellectuals and weakened his natural Powers It cannot be denied but that Adam in the state of Innocency and Integrity though he could not have found out those deep Mysteries of the Gospel concerning our Redemption by Christ and the things relating thereunto they being things that have no natural cause from whence the highest created reason might deduce or collect them and many of them being things above Nature and such as depend meerly upon the good pleasure of God unknown to us until by himself revealed I say though Adam could not by the strength of his Reason and Natural Abilities have found out these deep things yet it cannot be denied but that if these things had been propounded to Adam to be assented to and believed
upon the Authority of God revealing them he both could and would most readily have assented to them because he had both a power and a readiness of mind to believe whatsoever truth God should reveal And this is all that in these matters God requires of us The deep things of the Gospel are not propounded to us to be perfectly understood and comprehended by us but they being unfathomable by the longest Line of our Reason all that God expects from us is that we give our assent to them and believe them and this only because he who can neither be deceived nor deceive hath revealed them But as the case now stands with us since the Fall though these things are most clearly revealed and as such propounded to us yet we will not believe them they are foolishness to us as the Apostle speaks So miserably are our Minds taken up and prepossessed with a proud and fond Opinion of our selves of our own natural Ability to judge of these things with false Principles with inveterate Prejudices and rank Enmity against the Truth and what not that we shut out the light and forbid it entertainment with us 2. Add hereunto that the perverseness and stubbornness of the Will the irregularity the inordinate propensions and impetuous motions of the Affections and sensual Appetite do not a little hinder the reception of Spiritual Truths into the Understanding For as bad Meats as crude and inconcocted Humours in the Stomach send up noisom Vapours into the Head clouding the Mind discomposing the Brain and disturbing the Fancy so the sinful Distempers the inordinate Passions the unruly and rebellious disorders of the inferior Faculties send up such fumes into the higher Region of the Soul as darken the Understanding as incline and dispose the Mind to embrace what is most sutable to the corrupt bent of the Will and Affections and to reject the contrary Aristotle's censure of young Men as incompetent Auditors of the Precepts of Moral Philosophy hath more reason in it than at first appears The strength of their Lusts and Passions doth not only make them unwilling to come under the severity of Moral Precepts in their Practice and Conversation but likewise much obstruct the passage of those severer Truths into their Understandings 'T is no easie matter to gain the assent of the Understanding to those practical Truths which a man hath no mind to be ordered by Men will be very ingenious to invent and very facil and easie to be prevailed with to entertain reasons against that which in respect of the contrary byas of their Wills they would not have to be truth As 't is most true on the one side Quod nimis miseri volumus hoc facile credimus A weak and dark Argument shall have strength and evidence enough to persuade us of the truth of that which we have a mind to believe So on the other side the most clear and demonstrative Arguments in the World shall not easily persuade us where we are unwilling to be persuaded Neither is it thus only in matters of Morality but much more in spiritual things as the corrupt Heart of man is naturally at a far greater remoteness and distance from them Upon this ground it seems to be that Solomon who could best speak to that Argument tells us That the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1.7 When a man's heart is seasoned with the fear of God and in some measure purged from corrupt Affections when 't is subdued unto God and made yielding and pliable to his Will then is a man fit to receive the Law from his mouth and then is the Heart a meet Vessel to receive the rich and invaluable treasure of heavenly Wisdom And so much in answer to the first Objection I go on to the second That our not entertaining the light seems to be put upon Satan's score And here though Satan's malice and guilt be nothing the less 't is apparent that this cause may also in great part be resolved into man's sin and wickedness How comes it to pass that Satan hath such advantage against man in this matter whence is it that he can so easily befool men prejudice them against the light of the Gospel keep them in darkness and lead them blindfold to Hell as the Prophet led the Army of the Syrians into Samaria Is it not because he finds them preingaged in sinful Courses from which they cannot endure to be taken off Is it not because he finds them resolved to comply with their Lusts and corrupt Affections the gratifying of which is not to be gainsayed they cannot bear it were it not that he finds in mens hearts such fit matter to work upon laid in before and prepared to his hands he could not so easily delude and blind them to their ruine Satan had as much malice against Christ and did with the greatest rage and violence assault him and endeavour to break in upon him but he could not do it as finding nothing within to bid him welcome The Prince of this world cometh Joh. 14.31 saith he and findeth nothing in me Nihil sui operis suique vestigii saith St. Hierom in his Epistle to Algasia nothing of his own Work no impressions which he himself hath made no footsteps which he himself hath left behind him nothing at all on which to ground an Accusation or to fasten a Temptation The words may comprehend both tho indeed the former seems to be in that place chiefly intended Let Satan come to any of us when he will he is sure to find something of his own something of his own work something of his own image which he hath stampt upon us something that he may lay claim to as his something of his party that will own him and side with him Hence the different issue of Christ's Temptations and ours When Satan came to assault him he found his Soul as an impregnable Castle well fortified on every quarter clear and heavenly light without any mixture of darkness in the Understanding perfect holiness in the Will exact regularity and composedness in the Affections all of one accord within to make resistance so as it was impossible for him to get possession When he comes to us he finds the Soul as a city that is broken down Prov. 25.28 and without walls as Solomon speaks And he finds a treacherous party within that is ready to invite him that would gladly set open the Gates to him and betray all into his hands were the Soul otherwise never so well fortified And thus we see how far all the mischief that Satan doth us may be resolved into our own sin 'T is true he blinds us but 't is because we have no mind to see he closeth our eyes against the light of the Gospel but he finds us endeavouring to close our own eyes and glad of any assistance from him to do it more effectually In a word he shuts out the
early and before longer Custom in Sin hath produced those confirmed radicated and obstinate habits of Sin which cannot easily be removed God is very gracious to some this way he takes them up sharply and chastens them severely betimes They no sooner enter upon the ways of Sin but he opposeth himself against them and hedgeth up their way with Thorns This is very grievous and afflicting to our corrupt Nature which can endure no restraint But we little consider or understand how much we are obliged to God for his Care of us herein How many others are there whom he suffers to go on in their Sins without check or controul till they contract those strong habits of Sin which they are never rid of as long as they live Do you think your self hardly dealt with that God doth not suffer you also to take your course and make your self as vile here and as miserable hereafter as others 'T is God's exceeding great kindness to you that he imbitters unto you the beginnings of Sin and strews the first entrance into sinful ways with Briars and Prickles so that you cannot go on but you must hurt your self It seems you would have liked it better if the way to Hell had been strewed with Roses for you Beware you do not misinterpret God's Providence If he be pleased to use seasonable means to make you weary of the ways of Sin before you are more hardened in them count it a singular favour and an effect of that his gracious care of you for which you can never be enough thankful VSE 3. This discovers the folly and danger of deferring Repentance and especially of putting it off till the time of Sickness or till our Deathbed The longer we defer Repentance the more difficult will the business be through so long custom in Sin If you find it hard at present to think of leaving your Sins what will it be hereafter when they will have taken deeper root in you and when your habitual Inclinations to them will be stronger And as for putting off Repentance till the time of Sickness or Death what wise Man would put off a work of the greatest Importance and the most difficult work and a work that will be still more difficult every day the longer 't is put off I say what wise Man would put off such a work till that time when he will be weakest and most unable to undertake it and go thorough with it Are the infirmities of Sickness are the pains and languishings of a Death-bed likely to make you stronger and abler for this work Is that a fit season to be chosen beforehand for beginning to break and subdue those inveterate Corruptions in you that have been gathering strength all your days Your greatest and most implacable Enemy the Devil himself could not direct you to the choice of a more unfit season for that business And yet besides who knows whether or no you shall then have any opportunity of endeavouring to do any thing in that great work which you put off till then as if it were of all other the fittest season for it Who can tell you but you may be so suddenly and violently surprized with Sickness and cut off that you may have no time to bestow one serious Thought upon that Business which is of no less Concernment to you than your Souls Eternal Happiness or Misery Or if you should not be so quickly taken away yet who can tell but you may then be deprived of the use of Reason and what then will become of this great business which being put off till that time must be then dispatch'd or never VSE 4. This should admonish the younger sort to remember their Creator in the days of their youth Eccl. 12.1 as Solomon counsels them To consecrate their tender years to God before custom of sin hath strengthened vicious Inclinations in them and hardened their hearts against God As 't is much more acceptable to God when we give him the First-fruits when we offer up to him the flower of our age so 't is much more easie and comfortable for us For hereby we prevent those habits of sin which time and custom would beget to our far greater trouble afterwards Those Vices which in younger years discover themselves are more easily pluck'd up as young Weeds out of the Soil in which they have not as yet taken any deep root Old habits of sin so close do they stick to us so deeply are they rooted in us and so strongly and intricately are their Roots twisted together with our Nature that the plucking of them up is as the rooting up of a great Oke that hath the advantage of many years growth to settle it self in the ground You who are young if you be wise create not so much trouble to your selves as to let sin grow old and strong in you before you break it off or pluck it up by repentance VSE 5. This should also prevail with Parents to be very careful of their Childrens Education beginning to restrain and beat down sin in them in season that so custom in sin and all the sad effects thereof may be prevented How happy had it been both for many Parents and Children if seasonable Restraints and Chastisements had been applied before the customary practice of sin had made them obstinate and incorrigible The neglect whereof how much sorrow and heart-breaking doth it occasion to Parents and how much sin and misery to Children Nothing is more ordinary than to hear the sad Complaints that Parents make of the stubbornness and untractableness of their Children and of those sinful courses which they addict themselves unto and cannot be drawn off from by all the means they can think of to reclaim them But whom may too many Parents thank for it rather than themselves whose indulgence to them or neglect of them in their tender years hath been the cause They would not begin with them in season while they were tender and pliable and now they are by long practice of sin become stubborn and refractory then they would not restrain them and now they cannot do it And what greater mischief can Parents do their Children than by giving them the head and laying the Reins on their neck when they are young whereby they come to be irreclaimably and desperately hardened in sin when they grow up While Parents complain of Children may not Children as justly complain of Parents that have by their neglect of them betrayed them to sin and Satan Many such Children when by their sins they have come to shameful ends have most passionately cried out against their Parents whose ill Example or neglect to correct them had brought them to that misery and could we listen to the Language of those who are in Hell there is no doubt but our ears would tingle to hear the lamentable Outcries and curses of the Souls of undone Children against those whose Parental Relation should have ingaged them to have left
keep a more narrow and constant watch over our selves and to take better heed to our ways than we have done Now though all are concerned highly concerned to walk circumspectly yet are some in a special manner concerned to do it above others As 1. They who in respect of their Rank and Quality their Acquaintance and Alliances their Callings and Imployments are exposed to most Temptations They who necessarily meet with many Temptations cannot but often offend unless they be very circumspect 2. It concerns them above others to be circumspect who have formerly most offended through their carelesness their heedlesness and their want of more circumspection How often have you been overtaken with sin in one kind or other which you might easily have avoided if you had been circumspect 'T is high time for you to resolve to be more circumspect for the future who have already contracted so much guilt through your carelesness and especially if you have also smarted for your careless and regardless walking 3. It concerns them above others to be circumspect who in respect of their Places and Stations ought to be Examples to others These are so much the more obliged to walk circumspectly because else they become ill patterns to those whose Eyes are upon them and occasions of much sin and guilt to them 4. It behoves them above others to walk circumspectly who are drawing near the end of their walk who are not far from their long home and have little time left them to correct the manifold Errors of their Life past 5. It behoves them above others to walk circumspectly who after more strictness formerly have for some time now last past taken more liberty and walked more loosly and carelesly For 1. If these give not all dilgence to recover themselves and regain what they have lost they will still grow more remiss and careless 2. It would be a very sad thing if their last ways should be their worst and if death should surprize them in a declining condition 6. It behoves them above others to walk circumspectly who having been often convinced of the necessity and comforts of circumspect walking and having often resolved on it could never yet put their Resolutions in practice or at least with any constancy go on therein The Convictions and Resolutions of these Persons as they do much aggravate and heighten their sin so they will much heighten and inflame their reckoning when God shall call them to an account Now in the further prosecution of this Use I shall offer some Directions for walking circumspectly give some Cautions about it and lastly answer such Objections as may be made against it By way of Direction for walking circumspectly I shall only mention these few things 1. Keep your heart with all diligence As the frame of your heart is so for the most part are your actions Prov. 4.23 From the heart are the issues of life Your circumspection in the course of your Life hath its rise from your keeping your heart He that neglects his heart will never be able to order and frame his words and actions according to the rule Wherefore be sure that you lay the Foundation of all your circumspection in the heeding of your heart and in keeping it under Government Govern your heart well and you govern your Tongue and rule your hand and the whole Man Let the heart be once out of order and the effects of it will soon appear in the unruliness of the Tongue and the irregularity of your Actions Whatsoever else is out of order to be sure the heart was first out of order O how easie a task would it be to order all the rest if the heart were well ordered O let 's begin there keeping a strict and constant guard over it 2. Set God always before your Eyes and labour to keep up lively Apprehensions of his Presence and Omniscience How awful and circumspect would this make you How solicitous would you be of pleasing him and how much afraid of offending him This constant sense of God's presence and awe of his All-seeing Eye upon our hearts no man that hath not had some Experience of it can easily conceive what an influence it would have upon us to beget in us this holy circumspection 'T is our unmindfulness of God's Eye and Presence that makes us so heedless and unwatchful 3. Consider all your ways and ponder your paths as Solomon's counsel is Weigh your words and actions in the ballance of the sanctuary Prov. 4.26 examine them by the rule But let this be done most carefully and exactly when any matter of great and weighty consequence lies before you Then be sure that you do nothing but upon sound and mature deliberation and upon clear satisfaction that what you do is agreeable to the rule and suitable to the principles of good conscience How often doth mens precipitancy and rashness hurry them into those sins which afterwards occasion much anguish and horror of Conscience to them So what is rashly done in a quarter of an hour lies grating upon their Consciences many years after it may be they are never fully eased of the burthen of it as long as they live 4. Take heed of being swayed and overruled by the judgment and practice of others to a compliance with them in what your own Conscience is not satisfied to do The Opinion and Practice of the multitude is a deceitful and crooked Rule What the generality cry up approve of and applaud concur and agree in may be extremely evil what is highly esteemed among men may be abomination in the sight of God Luk. 16.15 And again What men cry down and vilify what they make to be matter of reproach and contumely that may be in such account with God as it may be highly accepted and rewarded And yet so it is that we are apt to place very much in the opinion and example of a multitude What many or most do what the generality of Town and Country do that we stick not to do Weak Arguments shall be strong enough to prevail with us to be of the stronger side and to concur with the multitude Wherefore it was not without great cause that God gave his People a special caution against this weak and sinful compliance Exod. 23.2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment God saw our proneness to be influenced and swayed by the multitude and to go non quà eundum sed quà itur not in that path in which we should go but in which the greater part go If in any thing therefore our circumspection be necessary it is when we are assaulted with the temptation to warp and turn aside out of the right way 5. Be careful to keep at a distance from all temptations to sin as far as you are able Where you foresee they are making towards you avoid them run away
stable of all earthly things uncertain Do they not suddenly make them wings and flee away as an Eagle towards heaven 4. Though there were the richest confluence of them and though a man did even wallow in them would they ever be able to make his Life comfortable truely comfortable without the favour of God and peace of Conscience Hath not Solomon who knew how to estimate them Eccl. 1.2 Ver. 14. pronounced them all Vanity vanity of vanities yea vanity and vexation of spirit Instead of making men truly happy do they not wound and pierce them through with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6.10 who greedily covet after them and set their hearts upon them 5. Can they stand you in any stead in an evil day Solomon again tells you Riches profit not in the day of wrath Prov. 11.4 6. However it be though these things should still continue with you yet you cannot always continue with them to enjoy them though they should not leave you yet you must shortly leave them be rent away from them all Job 1.20 and go naked out of the world And so much may suffice to have been spoken to these three sorts of people that so ill bestow their time which ought to have been redeemed for better purposes such as spend their time wickedly such as spend it vainly and such as suffer the World to swallow it up and devour it VSE 4. Now in the last place let us all labour to be humbled for the loss of our time and be careful to husband it better for the future 1. Let us labour to be humbled for the loss of our time And O how much time have we all lost even those of us who seem to have been most careful to improve it 1. How much time hath been spent idlely How much hath run out fruitlesly while we yielded to and gratified our lazy and slothful Nature 2. How much in impertinent and unprofitable Visits that signified nothing that were not in the least improved to the benefit of our own or other mens Souls or to any other real advantage of our selves or them 3. How much in dressing and adorning the Body in decking and beautifying that corruptible part which must shortly be Meat for Worms 4. How much hath been spent in vain thoughts idle phansies fruitless projectings distrustful cares How much of our time by day and by night have these impertinencies eaten up and devoured 5. How much of our time hath passed away in unprofitable talk in empty and frothy discourses and too often in unsavoury and corrupt communication 6. How much hath been spent in Gaming and Pastimes in needless Recreations and Divertisements 7. How much in pampering the Body and gratifying the Flesh with sensual Pleasures 8. How much of that part of our time which we think to have been best imployed I say how much of that hath been laid out on things of less concernment to us while our highest concernments have been shamefully neglected How careful have many of us been about our worldly business that no time or opportunities for temporal advantages might be lost while the one thing needful hath been least minded O how few hours in a Week or perhaps in a Month have we redeemed for secret Prayer Self-examination and communing with our own hearts for stating matters aright between God and our own Souls How few hours have we redeemed for seeking God and making Intercession for a sinful Nation How few for turning away the wrath of God that hangs over our heads and for averting of those heavy Judgments which our horrid provocations deserve and daily threaten us with I say we have all very much cause to be humbled that while we have suffered poor and inconsiderable things to steal away and to inhance so much of our time these great and important matters have had so small a share of it 2. Let us all be stirred up to improve our time better for the future redeeming as much of it as we can for the purposes before-mentioned relating to the good of our own and other mens Souls and to the present sad condition of the Kingdom And the more effectually to provoke us hereunto let us 1. Lay before us that which hath been last spoken of let us consider how much time we have already mis-spent some in one kind and some in another I scarce know what stronger motive can be made use of to prevail with us to redeem the time than this Having mis-spent and lost so much time already doth it not highly concern us to make better use of what remains Especially if we likewise consider that as we have mis-spent much time already so we know not how little remains to be better imployed 2. Consider that when you have been as good an husband of your time as 't is possible yet it cannot be but that much of it must have been lost notwithstanding all the care that hath been taken to prevent the loss of it Much of our time runs out in sleep much in eating and drinking and other ways of necessary refreshing much in those unavoidable divertisements which every day we meet with How much of our time do these things take up Certainly the far greater part of every four and twenty hours is thus imployed unless we be more provident than most men are yea unless we be extraordinary husbands of time and rare patterns of the well-managing and improving thereof 3. Hereunto add the motive in the Text Let us redeem the time because the days are evil And evil they are both in respect of the evil of Sin and the many Temptations thereunto and in respect of the evil of Affliction and Punishment which our Sins either have already brought upon us or threaten us with 1. The days are evil in respect of Sin and the many Temptations thereunto Never did as I think Sin more abound than in these our days never was it more shameless and impudent never was there I think a greater deluge of wickedness in City and Country considering what means there are to prevent it And never were there so many temptations to Sin what by Seducers that compass Sea and Land to make Proselytes Proselytes to Rome and Proselytes to I know not how many pernicious Sects in great part created and fomented by Factors for Rome and set a work and imployed by them and what by other Instruments which the Devil hath in all places to debauch men and make them Atheists in Opinion or in Life and Conversation either practical or speculative Atheists or both Was there ever such an Atheistical Age as ours is when so many espouse and avow Atheism when they blush not openly to profess it when they plead for it when they dispute for it when they do all they can to spread and propagate it and when so many more live like perfect Atheists frame their lives no otherwise than they would or could do if they verily believed that there is
That when other Means prove ineffectual for the reclaiming of impenitent and obstinate Sinners God is pleased to make use of Afflictions 'T is true God can effectually reclaim and convert the most stubborn and obstinate the most obdurate and hard-hearted Sinners without Afflictions He needs not take the Rod in hand to do his Work upon them He that made Hearts can remake them he can change and renew them when he pleaseth and how he pleaseth He can do it by Means and he can do it without Means He can create and infuse Grace in an Instant he can in the twinkling of an Eye without the Intervention or Service of any created Instrument transform the filthiest the most loathsom and abominable Sinner into a Saint a Devil into an Angel of Light There is nothing too hard for him who being Omnipotent can do whatsoever he pleaseth But yet however ordinarily he makes use of Afflictions for humbling and reclaiming obstinate Sinners when other Means prevail not And seeing he doth make use of Afflictions we must conclude that he judgeth that the best and fittest Course for otherwise he would not make choice of it We may perhaps in favour to our selves be apt to think this great Work might be much better effected without Afflictions Our carnal Wisdom may apprehend that it would more conduce to the exalting and magnifying of God's Power and Goodness if this great Work of changing and renewing the Hearts of obstinate Sinners were effected by the immediate Hand of God and the powerful Operation of his Spirit on the Heart without the Suffering the Smart or Durance of the Sinner But alas who are we that we should presume to oppose our foolish Reasonings against his Infinite Wisdom Whatever our dark selfish and partial Reason may suggest to the contrary that must needs be the best and fittest Course that could be taken which God hath pitched on no better Course could be thought on no wiser Method could be devised for bringing Sinners to Repentance and for working a Change in them than that which he hath made choice of When we have considered the Matter this we must of necessity grant unless we will make our selves wiser than God unless we will take upon us to dictate and prescribe to him a better way than he hath contrived Now for the Proof and Confirmation of this Point that God is pleased to make use of Afflictions for the reclaiming of obstinate Sinners when other Means prevail not I need not say much our own Experience is a sufficient Confirmation thereof There is no Man that hath observed God's Dealings with the Sons of Men but must have taken notice that nothing is more ordinary in the Course of God's Providence than to bring them home to himself by Afflictions who will not otherwise be reduced from the Error of their ways And as he takes this Course with wicked Men to convert them so he takes the same Course with his Children to recal them and to bring them into the right way again when they have gone astray This was the Course which he took with David as he himself acknowledgeth Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep thy Word And again Ver. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes He means that he might so learn God's Statutes as to practise them and frame his Life and Conversation according to them Now to apply this Truth briefly Vse 1. If God be pleased to make use of Afflictions for reclaiming and reducing Sinners when other Means will not prevail then if Men be wise and if they would prevent and keep off Afflictions it concerns them to improve those other Means which God makes use of I mean Instructions Admonitions Reproofs and Warnings humbling themselves for their Sins and reforming their Lives that so God may not bring those Afflictions upon them which will be grievous to them What Folly and Madness is it when Men will put God to lay sore and grievous things upon them because they will not be wrought upon by gentler Means Solomon saith Prov. 17.10 A Reproof entreth more into a wise Man than an hundred Stripes into a Fool. So then in the Judgment of Solomon he is a wise Man into whom a Reproof enters that is on whom it makes Impressions and by whom it is entertained and improved Prov. 12.1 but he that hateth Reproof is brutish He is so far from being a wise Man that he is scarce a Man he is more like a Brute than a Man he understands not his own Interest which is to take Reproofs to Heart to be affected with them and to make a good Use of them and not by rejecting them to draw those Evils upon himself which he might avoid if he would Consider this you that are now admonished reproved and warned but will not hearken Do you know what you do As much as in you lies you put the Rod into God's Hand to correct you severely and to make you smart sorely to try if that Course may not take better Effect upon you than those milder Courses which he hath hitherto taken with you Why should you consult and procure Sorrow Sufferings and Smart to your self How much better had it been for Manasseh to have hearkned to the Message of the Lord brought to him by the Prophets and not by his Disobedience and Obstinacy to have procured the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria to be sent against him to bind him with Fetters and carry him to Babylon When we suffer for our Sins then we condemn and cry out against our selves that we should be so foolishly obstinate as not to hearken to good Counsel when time was whereby we might have prevented our Sufferings But so it is that in things of this Nature we seldom learn Wit till we have bought it and paid dearly for it Vse 2. If God be pleased to make use of Afflictions to reclaim and reduce Sinners when other Means will not prevail then let such as are afflicted be careful that they do not impatiently murmur and fret against the Lord who correcteth them For 1. They may thank themselves that they are corrected they have been the Authors and Procurers of their own Sufferings If they would have been humbled and reformed by gentler Means there would have been no need of those severer Courses which now are taken with them God is not forward to correct he takes no such Delight in correcting as to take the Rod in Hand when there is no need of it He doth not afflict willingly he never doth it but when there is great Cause for it and our obstinate Perseverance in our Sins against all other Means makes Correction necessary 2. They have so little Reason to fret and murmur against God for correcting them that they have great Cause to be thankful to God for his Care of them and that he doth not
Though we may in some Cases take the Liberty of humble and reverent Expostulation with God yet we must take heed of any unmeet Reflections upon his Justice or Goodness and still remember our Distance from him that God is in Heaven and we are upon Earth as Solomon speaks Eccles 5.2 And that he giveth not account of any of his Matters as Elihu excellently represents him to Job chap. 33.13 So then all these sorts of Complaints being allowed us the Complaint condemned in the Text is that which either proceeds from or is joined with Impatience under God's Hand and Discontent with his Providence 't is the Complaint of an unquiet and sinfully disturbed Spirit which the Scripture sometimes expresseth by murmuring so here the Word in the Original may properly enough be translated and so the same Word is rendred Numb 11.1 Now the Evil and Unreasonableness of this kind of Complaint under the Hand of God may appear several ways 1. 'T is long before God takes the Rod in Hand to correct he bears long even with the vilest of Sinners and exerciseth much Patience towards them He is slow to Anger and of great Mercy Psal 145.8 He is merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness Exod. 34.6 He takes no Delight in Severity further than we provoke him thereunto He doth noâ— afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men Lam. 3.33 And should noâ— this Consideration be of Force to suppress all our discontented Complainings and Murmurings that God is so unwilling to use Severity against us that he is so hardly drawn on to chaster us and that he never doth it till we have given him much Cause so to handle us 2. When we by our many Provocations have put the Rod into his Hand he is soon prevailed with to lay it aside again He is not of that implacable Temper that he can never be reconciled to those against whom he hath once taken up any Displeasure Upon our humble Submission to his Corrections and sincere Resolutions and Endeavours to reform what hath been amiss he is graciously inclined to lay aside his Displeasure He is ready to forgive Psal 86.5 most ready to shew Mercy as soon as we are in any measure fit for Mercy He doth not always chide Psal 103.9 nor keep his Anger for ever Was this only David's particular Experience and is it not ours also Do not we find how easy he is to be entreated and how ready to pardon Have we not had manifold Experiments thereof in the Course of our Lives And should not this perswade us quietly and patiently to submit to his Corrections while he is pleased to keep us under his chastning Hand 3. While he judgeth it fit to correct us he lays no more upon us than our Sins deserve When we are most severely handled and are apt to complain we have hard measure yet even then do not his Severities in the least exceed the Demerits of our Sins God doth us no wrong nor is it possible that he should for his Will is the Rule and Measure of Righteousness The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his VVorks Psal 145.17 The just Lord will not do Iniquity Zeph. 3.5 What Cause then is there or can there be of complaining where no Wrong is done With this the Church of God silenceth her self and stops her own Mouth when under the most dreadful Effects of God's Displeasure Lam. 1.18 The Lord is righteous saith she for I have rebelled against his Commandments And with this God stoppeth the Mouth of his People VVhy criest thou for thine Afflictions Jer. 30.15 Because thy Sins were increased have I done these things unto thee 4. When God afflicts most grievously his Severities are far short of what our Sins deserve Under the heaviest Weight of Punishment Ezra's Acknowledgment in the Name of the Church must be ours Ezra 9.13 VVe are punished less than our Iniquities deserve Our Sins deserve not only all the temporal Plagues and Judgments which we are capable of undergoing but Hell the unutterable and endless Torments of the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone Wherefore whatever our Sufferings be in this World so long as we are on this side Hell so little Cause have we to complain that we have great Cause to be thankful that it is not far worse with us than it is 5. How much soever God is pleased to afflict us yet still we enjoy many Mercies in the mean time by which the Bitterness of our Afflictions is much allayed and the Smart of them much abated For one or two Crosses we are compassed about with Variety of Blessings In Sickness we have the Pity and Compassion of Friends and Acquaintance we have all that Service and Assistance that many Hands about us can afford us we have all those Means of Relief that either Love or Art can supply us with And all this besides those inward and powerful Supports which we have more immediately from God Again if it so be that God afflicts us in one of our Relations we have Matter of Comfort in divers others of them If we have Losses in our temporal Estate yet our spiritual and better Concernments are safe and untouched If Man be at Variance with us yet we have Peace with God How sadly soever we may in our Afflictions represent things to our selves God never stirs up all his Wrath against us at once nor suffers his whole Displeasure to arise God never so mingles the Cup which he puts into our Hands but that there are some Ingredients of a benign and friendly Nature to qualify the Malignity of the rest The Malignity did I say There is indeed no real Malignity in any of the Ingredients of that spiritual Physick which God administers to his All things have a kind and beneficial Influence for promoting our Good and furthering our highest Interest And where now is there any Place left for complaining Amidst so many Mercies can we yet find in our Hearts to complain Be it so that some things are not only unacceptable but very grievous to us Shall we receive Good at the Hands of God and shall we not receive Evil Shall we bear nothing at the Hands of him who is so good and gracious so kind and bountiful to us many other ways Let us not suffer two or three Afflictions so to imbitter our Spirits and vitiate our Palats as that we should not relish the Sweetness of any of those Mercies which in our most afflicted Condition we still enjoy 6. Add to all this that God hath a Sovereignty of Power and Dominion over his Creatures by virtue whereof he may deal with them as he pleaseth According to this his absolute Power though the Creature had never sinned yet God might expose it to such Miseries as exceed not the Benefit of that Being he has given it He that made the Creature out of nothing as he might turn it into
nothing again if he pleased so continuing it in being he might lay any such Pain or Anguish upon it without relation to Sin We see what Anguish the unreasonable Creatures endure which yet are not capable of Sin And why might not God inflict the like on any rational Creature though no Sin had occasioned it or made way for it It is not easy to give a Reason why he might not for even an innocent Creature being a Creature however must of necessity be in Subjection to the Power and Dominion of the Creator from whom it received its Being 'T is true such Evils could not then have the Nature of Punishment because Punishment properly so called hath relation to Sin but yet there could be no Injustice in such a Dispensation no more than when by many tormenting and lingring Pains God takes away the Lives of brute Beasts whose Nature is not a Subject capable of Sin or moral Evil. Now in such a Case the Creature would have no just Cause to complain or murmur because no Injury could possibly be done it by God's using that just and rightful Power and Dominion which he hath over the Work of his Hands Whence we may thus argue to our present Purpose If God's absolute Power over the Work of his Hands be such as calls for humble Submission to his Providence and silent bearing of whatever he inflicts how much more should his Justice strike us dumb and effectually restrain us from all murmuring or muttering against him If we ought not to complain or murmur though we had no Sin how much less reason have we to do it when we have so much Upon this Consideration it was that the Church took up her Resolutions of patient Submission to the Hand of God Micah 7.9 I will bear the Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Now I come to apply what hath been spoken Vse 1. Let us in all our Afflictions observe the Frame of our Hearts and be humbled for all the secret Grudgings and Risings of our Spirits against the Providence of God And especially if the inward Distempers of our Souls should be at any time so great as to break forth and vent themselves in any unmeet Language if our inward Discontents and Heart-burnings should discover themselves by complaining and murmuring against God and by making such Representations of him to others as if he had dealt hardly with us and as if we might have expected other measure at his Hands This is a Miscarriage which we are very apt to run into when our Afflictions are severe and lasting when they smart much and continue long But however it fare with us the Sinfulness of our murmuring against God is so great that no Circumstance of our Sufferings can render it excusable and therefore we cannot be sufficiently humbled for it To the end we may the better discover the Evil of it and see what reason there is why we should be humbled for it let us first look upon it in its Cause and the Root whence it springs then let us behold it as it is in it self and consider it in its formal Nature And lastly let us view it in its Effects and Consequents 1. Let us look upon it in its Root We loath and abhor some things the more when we know whence they are and what gave Birth to them the wicked Offspring for the cursed Mother that bare it and brought it forth Now the Root of our murmuring is our Pride we have entertained too good an Opinion of our selves we think we have deserved better things at the Hands of God and therefore we murmur and complain as if we were injured Were we throughly sensible of our Sinfulness were we convinced that we are worthy of far sorer Evils than those which we groan under instead of murmuring we would not only accept of the Punishment of our Sins as the Phrase is Levit. 26.41 take in good part meekly and patiently bear whatsoever God lays on us but from our Hearts acknowledg that we are mercifully and kindly dealt with in that no more is inflicted on us 2. If we behold it as it is in it self and consider the formal Nature of it our murmuring is in effect nothing else but a Degree of Insurrection and Rebellion against God As discontented Subjects or mutinous Souldiers sharpen their Tongues against their Prince or General and thereby heighten their own and other Mens Discontents to dispose them to make Resistance So when we murmur against God we set our Mouths against Heaven doing what in us lies to strengthen in our selves and instil into others Principles of Disaffection against the highest Majesty and to withdraw them with whom we converse from their Obedience and Loyalty 3. Let us view it in the Effects and Consequents of it We are so far from easing our selves by murmuring that it both increaseth and prolongeth our Afflictions 1st It increaseth them for our Unquietness and Stubborness under God's Hand provokes him to lay more Load upon us that is all we gain by our Untowardness as the Child that struggles swells and murmurs when he is corrected doth but thereby procure to himself the more Stripes Besides our fretting and murmuring doth of it self make those our Afflictions much more grievous which might be undergone with Ease if with humble Silence and Patience we submitted our selves to the Chastisement of our heavenly Father 2dly It also prolongs our Afflictions for our murmuring diverts us and takes us off from applying our selves to that Course which if any thing would put a speedy End to our Troubles And that is the Course which we are put upon in the Text namely a serious Reflection upon our selves and a diligent Search and Enquiry after the Sins which have procured our Afflictions and a turning from them unto God whom we have forsaken As long as we are taken up in murmuring this Work is not minded and so our Afflictions are protracted and drawn out to a greater length than they should have been if in stead of murmuring against God we had seasonably and narrowly searched into our Hearts and Ways found out our Sins judged our selves for them and forsaken them Thus we see what Reason we have to be humbled for this Sin But though in these Respects all that are guilty of it have Cause to be humbled yet have they most reason to be humbled for murmuring who have least reason to murmur such as are 1. Great and notorious Sinners whose Offences and Enormities have been such that whatsoever they suffer unless they be wilfully blind or strangely partial to themselves they must be inforced to confess that they suffer justly Should they complain of hard measure who are so bad that no Punishment is severe enough for them And yet these are oft-times as ready to complain as any else 2. Those who have drawn such Afflictions upon themselves as in which they may plainly read their Sin written in legible Characters
wait and still our Expectations are frustrated but our long waiting shall turn to our greater Advantage in the end and we shall then see that if we had obtained our Mercies sooner we should have had less Mercy in them God's Mercies are then most sweet and yield most full Content and Satisfaction when they are fully ripe and come in their proper Season 'T is with them as with Fruit if it be plucked before it be ripe it 's either wholly unsavory or much less acceptable We lose much of the Comfort of our Mercies unless we can be contented to wait for them till they come to Maturity Object 4. Though my Afflictions be very sharp saith another and such as would try the Patience of any Man yet I think I could bear them without much complaining if the Instruments of my Sufferings were any other than such as they are To suffer by the Hands of such base and unworthy Persons is a Circumstance which I cannot think of without Indignation Answ But 1. This hath oft-times been the Lot of the best Men. No worse Man than David complained that he was the Song of the Drunkards Psal 69.12 and that the Abjects gathered themselves together against him Psal 35.15 And Job said that those had him in derision whose Fathers he would have disdained to have set with the Dogs of his Flock chap. 30.1 We are not better than these holy Men who met with this Measure in the World 2. God may take what Instruments he pleaseth to correct you with Is it meet the Child should chuse the Rod with which the Father should chasten him 3. 'T is not to be doubted but that he makes use of the fittest Instruments Should the Vessel that needs scouring complain against him that scoureth it that he useth such filthy rough and grating Materials rather than some clean near smooth and gentle thing If he should make use of such Materials as these they would do no good He knows those other are fittest to get off the Dirt and Filth which stick so fast that gentle Means will not remove them So God on purpose makes use of foul and rugged Instruments as fittest to rub off that sinful Corruption and Filth that cleaveth so fast unto our Nature To be short if we might be allowed to chuse the Instruments by which God should chasten us we would be sure to chuse those from whose Hands we might smart least and who would consequently do us least Good 'T is well for us if we can think it so that when God sees cause to correct us he hath a right to chuse his Rod. But here some might say The Baseness of the abject and contemptible Condition of the Persons from whom I suffer doth not so much trouble me as that they are those from whom I deserved better things I have obliged them by whatever Kindnesses I was capable of conferring on them and when they have served themselves of me they kick at me 'T is not what I suffer from them but their Ingratitude that I am impatient of enduring Answ Ingratitude indeed is an odious Sin in whomsoever 't is found and usually God some time or other meets with the ungrateful Person and pays him in his own Coin Whoso rewardeth Evil for Good Pro. 17.13 Evil shall not depart from his House 'T is seldom seen but that first or last he that hath been notoriously ungrateful to his Benefactors hath the same Measure returned into his Bosom by those who have received Kindnesses from him But however such odious Persons as these God makes use of and many times he makes them the Instruments of his Corrections rather than others because he sees no other so fit for his Purpose 1. It may be sometimes in the good Offices we do others we look more upon Man than upon God we look more after Mens due Resentment of our Kindnesses and their thankful Acknowledgments of them and the answerable Returns they should make us than after God's Acceptance of us therein Were our Eyes more upon God and less upon Men did we shew Kindness and perform Offices of Love to Man in obedience to God and satisfy our selves with his Acceptance for the present and encourage our selves with the Expectation of those Rewards of our sincere Obedience which he hath promised hereafter we should neither be so often disappointed of those Returns which we expect from Men neither should we be so much troubled at Disappointments in that kind when we meet with them If Men prove thankful we should take it well and bless God for it if they prove unthankful we should quiet our selves in God's Acceptance of what we have done as the chief thing which we looked after 2. God may sometimes correct us by the Ingratitude of Men that he may thereby mind us of our Ingratitude towards himself Wherefore when Man's Ingratitude is so grievous and afflicting to us let us reflect upon our selves and think how much more displeasing our Ingratitude must needs be unto God who hath done a thousand times more for us than ever we did for any Person living whom we look upon as most obliged by us If we therefore think we have just cause to complain of Man's Ingratitude towards us how much greater cause hath God to complain of our Ingratitude towards him in whom we live and move and have our being and from whose sole Bounty we have received whatever good thing we have at any time enjoyed or do enjoy And yet notwithstanding all these Obligations what hath our whole Life been but one continued Course of Provocations and an uninterrupted Series of those many ill Requitals which we have made him If we justify our selves and say we cannot be justly charged with Unthankfulness towards God we hereby plainly discover that we have never taken a just Account either of our Receipts from him or of the Returns which he hath had from us Object 5. But I have a continual Succession and Series of Afflictions God followeth me with one Trial after another VVhen one Affliction is but just over presently another is in a readiness to seize upon me I have no sooner obtained a little time to recover Breath but I am again alarmed to prepare my self for a new Conflict This is that which tireth out my Patience and makes me even weary of my self Answ 1. 'T is possible that former Afflictions tho many and great have not sufficiently humbled you nor mortified Sin in you Tho something may have been done upon you yet God hath not accomplished his whole Work upon you so that what hath been begun by former Trials he sees good to carry on yet further by what he still further exerciseth you with 2. 'T is possible that by your unmeet and sinful Carriage and the stirrings and breaking forth of Corruption in your Afflictions you may have given God just occasion of bringing other Afflictions upon you When being under God's Hand he expects we should be humbled
Grace are whether we go forward or backward whether it be better with us to day than 't was yesterday and this Week than 't was last Week or worse Hereby we come to know the Sins that most prevail in us and where our Weakness principally lies Hereby we come to know our Wants and Defects our Emptiness and Poverty in spiritual Things And of how great Concernment and Advantage is it to know our selves And how little will it avail us to know much abroad while we are Strangers at home To understand the World and to be thorowly conversant in all the Matters of it perfectly acquainted with all the Affairs and Transactions thereof To know all the Secrets of Nature and to have exactly dived into and found out all the hidden Causes of Things To have made such successful Inquiries into Divine Truths as to be able to discourse of them to Admiration and to give an account of all the profound and deep Mysteries of our Religion What would all this signify if after a Man hath attained to know all other things he should be ignorant of himself unacquainted with the spiritual Affairs of his own Soul which he is infinitely more concerned to understand Surely whatsoever else a Man hath attained to know if he knows not himself he knows nothing to any purpose And he that knows himself as he ought to know need not be much troubled at it though he know but little else 2dly By reflection on our selves we come to have the Comfort of our Estate and of all our good Actions 1. We hereby come to have the Comfort of our spiritual Estate Tho we should be in the State of Grace and Salvation in the Favour of God and in the Way that will undoubtedly bring us to Heaven yet if we know it not how can we take Comfort in it And how can we ever know it without Reflection on our selves and a narrow Inspection into our Hearts and Ways Some doubtful Conjectures we may make some dark Guesses there may be concerning our Estate but we can never come to attain any certain Knowledg any clear distinct and well-grounded Satisfaction touching our Condition without a serious Reflection on our Souls and a due search into and consideration of our Hearts and Ways And indeed this is one great Cause among others of the small Comfort that many true Believers have in their Estate They seldom reflect to any purpose on themselves they seldom take any pains by diligent search and inquiry to satisfy themselves touching their Condition hence it comes to pass that tho they be sound for the main tho they be in the right Way to Heaven and are still going on in it slowly and leisurely yet they are full of Fears Doubtings and Dissatisfactions and if they have sometimes a little Comfort in their Estate yet they presently lose it again But now frequent and serious Reflections on themselves and an exact Inquiry into their Estate and a reviewing of Matters as they stand within them and a taking an account of themselves how would it after some time by degrees so clear up their Condition to them as all their Fears would be banished all the Cloudiness and Darkness of their Minds would be scattered and their Doubtings and Dissatisfactions vanish For we must take it for granted that though there may be many great Weaknesses in Believers and frequent Relapses into Sin yet the constant Bent unfeigned Desires and serious Endeavours of the Soul are in all things to please God Now wheresoever this is and indeed without this there is no true Grace I say wheresoever this is a diligent and frequent Inquiry into our selves will discover it and discover it so clearly as a Man cannot but own it and readily acknowledg that amid many and great Weaknesses there hath been all along some sincere and unfeigned Desire and Endeavour to please God in all things Whence we may conclude that as it cannot easily be but that a sound and sincere Christian who makes frequent Reflections on and Inquiries into himself should evidently discern his own Sincerity so having discerned it he cannot but have Comfort in it at least according to the measure of the clearness of his discovery of it Wherefore I say it again one great Cause why many true Believers have so little Comfort in their Estates is this That they so seldom have any serious Reflections on themselves or apply themselves to make a diligent Inquiry into their Estate This this is a great Reason why they walk so heavily and uncomfortably why they are so often overwhelmed with Fears and Perplexities why instead of continual Thanksgivings unto God for his rich Grace and unspeakable Mercy vouchsafed them their Mouths are full of Complaints and their Discourses made up of little else than sad discoveries of their inward Troubles and Dissatisfactions and the Conflicts they continually have with Doubting and Unbelief How much sound Comforts and Refreshings do we lose by being such Strangers at home What Peace and Joy in believing what increases of Faith and further degrees of Establishment might we attain if we were better acquainted with and more conversant in this Self-reflection 2. We hereby come to have the Comfort of all our good Actions There is an inward Peace Joy Content and Satisfaction which usually attends sincere Obedience notwithstanding the Infirmities accompanying us in the Performance thereof and the manifold Imperfections of it But much of this Comfort is lost for want of looking back and reviewing what we have done and in what manner with what sincere Desires to be accepted with God therein with what Sense of and mourning over the Corruption cleaving to our best Actions though we cannot be rid of it With what Watchfulness and Opposition made against the Sin that dwelleth in us which would interpose and mingle it self with every good thing we take in hand with every Duty we perform These things more or less are to be found and may be observed in every sound Christian and Matter of very great Comfort they are to him who can discover them in himself But alas neglecting to review our Actions when they are over instead of the Comforts we might have in ways of Obedience too often nothing but Trouble and inward Regret follows When we have done our best we question our Sincerity in all that we have done for the Workings of our corrupt Nature and the sinful Imperfections of our Services come to our Remembrance and are fresh in our Memories but the Opposition we made against them is either hid from our Eyes or forgotten And all this for want of a serious Reflection on what hath past and a careful reviewing of our Actions together with the manner of them and all their concomitant Circumstances As reflecting on our Ways and reviewing our Actions we never want Matter of Humiliation so the upright and sound Christian never wants Matter of Comfort also in the Sincerity of his Heart These two
But this by the way In the Words that I have read which are a part of Ezra's Address unto God by humble and affectionate Confession of their Sin he spreads and lays open the Aggravations of it together with the Danger and sad Issues of it if they should still continue in it The Aggravations thereof are these three 1. The great Severity that God had formerly shewed against them for their Sins which is set forth and express'd in the first Words After all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass 2. The merciful Tenderness and Compassion that God however even in that Severity was pleased to manifest towards them in the next Words Seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve 3. The singular Favour God had shewed them in rescuing them from under those Calamities which their Sins had brought upon them in the Clause following And hast given us such a Deliverance as this These were the things by which their Sin would be greatly heightned after so much Severity Compassion and Kindness to have returned to Folly and to have broken God's Commandments again was to have done as bad as they could as the Prophet speaks and to have given their Sins all the Aggravations that they were capable of Then as for the Danger they exposed themselves to that was no less than utter Ruine and Destruction After this Mixture of severe and merciful Providences should we again break thy Commandments wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no Remnant nor Escaping They had indeed already broken God's Commandment in a grievous manner and sinned against him with an high Hand by those unlawful Marriages His meaning therefore is should we again break thy Commandment as we have done Should we still continue in our Sin and obstinately refuse to be reduced to Obedience If we should still perversly and irreclaimably go on in our Trespasses wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us Of these Particulars in order as they lie in the Text. I begin with the Aggravations of their Sin the first of which is the great Severity God had formerly shewed against them for their past Transgressions After all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass should we again break thy Commandments Here divers things are observable 1. That Ezra and all those who joined with him in this Confession of their Sins did endeavour to aggravate their Sins by calling in and laying together all those Circumstances by which the Hainousness of them might the better appear And this they did to the end their Hearts might be the more affected with them and the more soundly humbled for them as also that they might be the more willing to forsake them And this is the Property of all true Penitents they ever desire to be throughly apprehensive of the Evil of their Sins and therefore they aggravate them to the utmost in their Confessions charging themselves fully with them and laying as much Load upon themselves as they can They think they can never speak enough against themselves nor sufficiently discover and represent the Evil of their Ways insomuch that sometimes they rather exceed than come short herein charging themselves more heavily than there was cause for But Hypocrites unhumbled and impenitent Sinners are of a different temper these instead of aggravating their Sins are wont to extenuate and palliate them If they be forced to confess them 't is for the most part but by halves that they do it If they cannot but acknowledg they have offended yet they will do it with an Apology or with an Addition of something that may qualify and lessen their Sin They are indeed sometimes overtaken but 't is very rarely 't is when they are drawn aside by ill Company or overpower'd by the Strength of Temptation that they are not the only Persons that are faulty in that kind that some others that would be esteemed much better than themselves are much more blame-worthy that there is no Man but must have his Allowances and that it would go hard with us all if all our Actions should be narrowly scanned and the like These and such like are the Excuses which they plead and the Defences they make for themselves when they should take shame to themselves and own their Excesses and Exorbitances in their full Magnitude judging themselves that they might not be judged of the Lord. These partial and favourable lame and imperfect Confessions of Sin when some little Part is owned but much more is denied when Fig-leaves and specious Pretences are studiously sought out to cover as much of a Man's Shame as is possible are ever an infallible Argument that the Sinner was never duly humbled for that Sin for which he hath still so much Kindness and Affection 2. Another thing observable is that Ezra and those other holy Men that together with him made this Confession did impute all those Miseries and Calamities which they had suffered in the Captivity unto their Sins they did own their Sufferings as the Fruit of their Sins and acknowledg their Transgressions to have been the meritorious Cause and Procurers of their Afflictions After all say they that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass They were convinced and did yield and assent that God's Intentions in bringing those Evils upon them were to punish them for their Sins This Conviction and Acknowledgment was necessary for them and is for us all in reference to our Afflictions and yet 't is very difficult to attain it 'T is necessary because without it we can neither be patient under our Afflictions nor profit by them nor rationally expect a good Issue out of them 1st Unless we be convinced that our Sufferings have relation to our Sins and own them as the Fruits of our Sins we shall hardly be able to undergo with Patience what is inflicted on us To be sure we shall want one of the most effectual Arguments to work Patience in us 'T is the Sense of our Sins deserving whatsoever is come upon us and an Acknowledgment of the righteous Hand of God in bringing such Afflictions on us for our Sins that humbles and subdues our Hearts to God composeth and quieteth our tumultuous Spirits and gives check to all the Risings of our rebellious Nature against God's Providence It was the Sense that Eli had of his own Guilt and of the just Desert of his own Sin and the Sins of his Family that made him so patient quiet and silent when that heavy Sentence was by Samuel pronounced against him and his as that he had not a Word to say more than only to profess his humble and meek Submission to the good Pleasure of God It is the Lord saith he 1 Sam. 3.18 let him do what seemeth him good And this is that which the Spirit
of God calls the accepting of the Punishment of our Sins Lev. 26.41 But if the Sinner be not convinced that he suffers for his Sins and that his Transgressions have been the Procurers of his Afflictions it cannot easily be but that his corrupt Nature should rebel against God and impatiently rise up against his Providence as unequal too rigorous severe 2dly Neither can a Man profit by his Afflictions unless he be convinced that his Sins have been the Cause of them and that God strikes at them in his Sufferings Who can think himself concerned to amend and reform that upon the account of his Afflictions which he never discerned to be the Cause of them nor can be convinced that they have any relation to it But let a Man once be throughly apprehensive of the Displeasure of God against him for his particular Sins and see the Hand of God in his Afflictions striking at those Sins and then he will soon think himself highly concerned to rectify or remove out of the way that which hath done him so much Mischief He will think he cannot make too much haste to quit and be rid of that for which he sorely smarts already and may yet smart more unless by his speedy Reformation he prevent it When God had sent a Plague among the Israelites for their murmuring Moses being deeply sensible of the fierce Wrath of God against them for that Sin saith to Aaron Numb 16.46 Take a Censer and put Fire therein from off the Altar and put on Incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an Atonement for them for there is Wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun Go quickly saith he for Wrath is gone out from the Lord. A lively Sense of the Anger and Displeasure of God in your Afflictions for your Sins will speed and quicken your Endeavours to make your Peace with God by answering the End of his Corrections 3dly Neither can you rationally expect to be freed from your Afflictions in a way of Mercy until they bring you to the Sight of your Sins and you look upon them as the Punishment of Sin For till that be done upon you your Afflictions are wholly fruitless as having done no part of that Work for effecting of which God sent them To understand why you are afflicted and to see the Sins which God strikes at in your Afflictions is the first Step towards God's attaining his End in afflicting you If this be not done upon you nothing is done And therefore you have no Reason to expect the Removal of them unless it be to make way for some other more smarting Rod which may effectually work that in you which God intended But though in these Respects it be most necessary to see and own our Sins as the Cause and Procurers of our Sufferings yet to do it is as difficult as 't is necessary For such is the Pride and Stubbornness of our Hearts that we are not easily brought to take Shame to our selves and to acknowledg our own particular Sins to have been the Cause of our Sufferings saying to our selves as God saith to Jerusalem Jer. 4.18 Thy VVay and thy Doings have procured these things unto thee We are very unwilling to acknowledg our own Guilt and would much rather lay the Cause of our Sufferings at any other Door than our own And this we are especially apt to do in publick and common Calamities These we ascribe 1. To Chance or common Providence in which we do not think our selves particularly touch'd or concern'd 2. To the Wickedness of some malicious and mischievous Instruments that were the Contrivers and Causers of our Sufferings 3. To the Sins of others The Provocations of such and such profligate and abominable Persons drew down the Judgments of God upon the Place and not our own Offences As for our selves we suffered only in the Croud and because we were found among those who were to be punished Or 4. If we acknowledg our Sins in the general to have been the meritorious Cause of our Sufferings yet we descend not to Particulars we charge not our selves with such and such Sins for which God hath been angry with us And so our owning our Sin only in general as the Cause of our Sufferings is but a formal thing with which we are little affected 'T is little better than if we had said We believe indeed that we have deserved all that is come upon us but we know not how nor wherein Ezra no doubt went a great deal further 't is not to be questioned but that he had in his most passionate Confessions an Eye upon the particular Sins for which they suffered in Babylon We may be sure they were not Generalities only that so deeply affected him he had upon his Heart the particular Instances of their vile Provocations together with the Circumstances of them and so must we if we desire to be affected with God's terrible Providences as we ought and to take them to Heart in a right manner Though what I am now speaking concerns us all yet there may be those amongst us who may think themselves very little concerned therein 1. Those who though they have been Sufferers together with others yet have been free from all those foul and enormous Offences and high Provocations which many others have been guilty of and possibly over and above their being free from the Guilt and Stain of fouler Sins they have been such as have made a stricter Profession of Religion than most others These Persons may be very inclinable to think that God did not particularly intend the correcting of them for their Sins in the common Judgment that lighted upon the Place but that they suffer rather upon their Neighbours Account than their own 2. Of the same Opinion perhaps may they be tempted to be who seem even as to outward things to have gained by their Afflictions and to be in a better Condition as to Trade than they were in before 'T is easy for such if any such be to entertain themselves with a pleasant Dream that God only emptied them to the end he might fill them fuller than they were before and that he had no other Design in pulling down their Houses than that he might build them up fairer But let neither the one nor the other deceive themselves They would but flatter themselves if they should think that God did not aim at their Sins in his severe Providences as well as at the Sins of their Neighbours As for the former of these though they may have been free from the fouler Abominations and crying Sins of the Place and though they may have made a strict and high Profession of Religion yet even such may have been tainted with the Pollution of many Sins which may have had no small Influence in procuring the heavy Judgments of God upon the Town And their Sins in respect of their nearer relation to God and stricter Profession
after the sharp and bitter Persecutions under the Reign of Queen Mary followed that blessed Sunshine of the Gospel and the peaceable and undisturbed Enjoyment thereof throughout all the long and prosperous or rather glorious Reign of Queen Elizabeth and the continuance of it to us ever since even to this day notwithstanding all the destructive Machinations wicked Plots and restless Attempts of the Enemy to deprive us of it and to put out our light in obscure darkness Now some of the reasons of this method of Divine Providence are these 1. It conduceth very much to the displaying and illustrating of the glory of God's Wisdom Power and Goodness who can so wonderfully change the most dark and dismal state of things who creates darkness and forms light Isa 45.7 Who turns the shadow of death into the morning as the Prophet speaks Amos 5.8 Who turns a Town into Ashes and Rubbish in the space of few Hours making it a place meet for Zim and Okim to take up their abode in the merciless Element where it raged scarce leaving a Lintel for the Cormorant or Bittern to lodge in or the remainders of a scorched Window to sing in And then again within the space of few years out of the Dust and Ashes to raise up a Town for the Accommodation of men and a Church for the Service of God and both with the addition of that beauty and lustre which had never been unless God had laid the Foundations of that change for the better in ruin and desolation All Beholders must needs acknowledge such admirable turns and vicissitudes of things to be the operation of his Hands who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working 2. By dark Providences by Troubles and Afflictions God fits and prepares us for Mercies Our Afflictions when sanctified humble us lay us low make us reflect upon our selves and consider our ways make us repent reform and turn to him that smiteth us and all this tends to the rendring us meet to be partakers of the Mercies which God hath in store for us For while we go on impenitently in a course of Sin blessings would be cursed to us and abuse of Mercies would increase our misery 3. Afflictions commend God's after-mercies and make them more sweet and acceptable to us as the darkness of the Night commends the light of the Morning A quiet and calm Season after a Storm how welcome how pleasant and delightsome is it Such is the unspeakable goodness of God that he so much consults our comfort as to order and dispose of the circumstances of our Mercies so as they may afford us most content and satisfaction 4. Great Troubles and Afflictions going before great Mercies dispose our Hearts to greater thankfulness for them When Mercies come in upon us in such a season and with such circumstances they greatly affect us and make deep impressions on our Hearts so as we think we can never be thankful enough we can never bless God sufficiently for them Now to apply this briefly The consideration of what hath been said concerning this method of God's Providence and the Reasons of it should perswade us and prevail with us to bear Afflictions meekly quietly and patiently and with that composedness calmness and evenness of Spirit which becomes Christians who are no strangers to the usual ways of God's Providence neither fretting against the Lord nor desponding or casting away our confidence in him Though it be night with you at present yet you may hope it will not be so always the day will return There is an interchangeable vicissitude of these Providences after darkness light breaks forth and the longer your night hath been the nearer are the approaches of the day wherefore in the most dark and disconsolate condition say with the Church of God Mic. 7.7 8 9. I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation Rejoice not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me 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 So I have done with the first thing the Prediction of great concussions and shakings in the World before the coming of the Messiah 2. I come now to the second Particular The Promise of his coming And the desire of all nations shall come The Desire of all Nations that is Christ the object of the desire of all Nations or whom all Nations shall desire But then this must be understood of some of all Nations of as many out of all Nations as are disposed to receive him though others perhaps the generality of some Nations may be so far from desiring him that they may hate him blaspheme his Name and persecute to the Death all that acknowledge him for their Saviour But if this sense be judged too strait then by the desire of all Nations we may understand the desireable of all Nations or he who hath that in him which should render him lovely and desirable to all Nations and in respect whereof all Nations may and should desire him and so far as they know him and understand their own interest will desire him This description or character of Christ is agreeable to what the Scriptures elsewhere say concerning him The Spouse having described him and set forth his Perfections and Excellencies saith He is the thiefest among ten thousand Cant. 5.10 And altogether lovely ver 16. And Jacob Prophetically speaking of him under the Name of Shiloh saith To him shall the gathering of the people be Gen. 49.10 That is all People and Nations out of an high esteem of him and an earnest desire after him shall flow in to him So God speaking of the coming in of the Gentiles to the Church in the Times of the Gospel and under the Kingdom of the Messiah saith Behold I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders Isa 49.22 In that day there shall be a root of Jesseâ— which shall stand for an ensign to the people to it shall the Gentiles seek Isa 11.10 Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles I will give him for a Covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles Isa 42.1 It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth Isa 49.6 Hence it is that the Church gathered out of all Nations is represented to St.