endless darkness Lastly By way of extent or explication to shew unto us the full nature of this business wherein it does consist There are two Branches of the sentence of condemnation and which the judgment of the great day does extend unto The one is positive to the punishment of sense and the enduring of exquisite torments and so in that consideration it is called darkness The other is privative in the punishment of loss and expulsion from God's glorious presence and the comfort of his countenance and so in that consideration it is said to be no light And thus we have seen this passage in each expression of it both Affirmative and Negative darkness and not light And so much may be also spoken of it as consider'd simply and absolutely in its general Proposition We may further Secondly look upon it relatively and in its particular scope as directed more especially to the persons above mentioned who desired this day of the Lord. To these the Prophet Amos here declares that this day it is darkness and not light And here again in this reference it carries a threefold force or emphasis with it First an emphasis of Information to those which were ignorant and did not know that this day was Secondly an emphasis of Conviction to those which were obstinate and would not know what this day was Thirdly an emphasis of Astonishment to those which were desperate which knew it but laid aside the thoughts and considerations of it and would put it to the venture First I say This expression The day of the Lord is darkness and not light it has an emphasis of information to those who were ignorant and which did not know it as if he had said thus unto them You seem to desire the coming of the day of the Lord as if thereby you should get some great good to your selves but alas as the case stands with you you have no cause at all to do so for there will be no advantage from it to you The proper object of desire it is good and not evil it is light and not darkness But this day of the Lord as it is circumstanced it is that which is quite contrary it is evil and not good it is darkness and not light that ye may rightly understand it The world has other notions commonly of death and judgment than those which they should have but the Scripture and word of God is the best instructer of them in this particular and that gives them a true account and estimate of such things as these are if they will hearken unto it Secondly An emphasis of Conviction to those which were obstinate and would not know it Profane persons as I shewed before they laugh'd at those things thought there was no such thing indeed as the day of the Lord and therefore scoffingly and in scorn call'd for it Well let it come We would fain see this day that you speak of and threaten us withal Well says the Prophet to these ye have no great cause to be so full of this confidence and security if ye consider all for I can tell you there is somewhat more in this day than you are aware of there 's no playing or jesting with it This day of the Lord it is darkness and not light what ever you may think of it it is so and so you will find it The word of God is powerful sharper than a two-edged Sword and the threatenings of the word having the spirit of God going along with them and setting them home upon the conscience have an ability in them to conquer and confound the most impartial mockers Thirdly An emphasis of Astonishment to those which were desperate and though they knew and in some sort believed such a day as this was yet did not fear it but were hardened in their hearts against it To such as these the Prophet here declares the horridness and unsupportableness of it That though they may think they could grapple with it and hold out against the extremities of it yet in conclusion and when it comes to the trial they will find it to be too heavy for them and above their strength whether the day of common and publick calamity or the day of trial and general judgment Who may abide the day of his coming or who shall stand when he shall appear as it is Mal. 3.2 And again Rev. 6.16 17. They shall call to the mountains to hide them from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Take this day in reference to the Jews for their particular and it was full of astonishment in each acception whether we take it for the day of their Captivity or for the day of their Messias The day of their Captivity it was a doleful day unto them insomuch as the Prophet Jeremy made it the sole matter of his Book of Lamentations And the day of the Messias that was an heavy day like wise that it proved their final rejection for since that time they are mark'd out to the world for a persidious people and hardly known for a people The Vse of all to our selves and so to draw to a conclusion comes to this We have heard how the day of the Lord is darkness and not light that is terrible and full of horror in the whole latitude and extent of it whether we take it for the day of death and general judgment or whether we take it for the day of captivity and National visitation Now what remains but that accordingly we should be sensible and apprehensive of it in this representation and from thence to prevent the terribleness of it to our selves For this is the nature of such things as these are that the terribleness of them encreases with the security about them and the less grievous they are thought to be afore-hand the more heavy are they when they happen and come to pass And on the other side preparations for them do take off from the dreadfulness of them We should therefore labour to get a stock of Grace against such times as these are and in this day of the Lord's mercy and respite and intermission prepare for the day of his wrath and judgment and visitation We should labour and endeavour to make our peace with God in Christ who alone can take off the terribleness of that day from us and make it of a day of darkness to be a day of light We should cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light in the abandoning of all wicked and sinful courses and in the practice of all spiritual and heavenly Graces We should walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof as
the Apostle advises us in Rom. 13.13 14. Take heed of having too easy and favourable thoughts and apprehensions of such things as these are of death and judgment and calamity as if they had no great matter in them for it will not appear to be so when they shall come in good earnest Wo unto you that in this sense desire that is diminish and despise and disregard the day of the Lord which is a kind of desire interpretatively as being next to it for you have no ground or cause for it The day of the Lord being dark and not light yea very dark and no brightness in it as it is here exprest And further here consider the great difference which is betwixt man and man in this particular for whiles this day of the Lord is said to be thus and thus it is still to be taken in a variety of Emphasis according to the variety of Persons which are concern'd in it The same day being occasionally and respectively either one or t'other unusquisque sibi est aut tenebrae aut lumen says St. Austin Every one is to himself either darkness or light Si pius lumen si impius tenebrae Those which are gracious and truly religious to such the day of the Lord whether in death or judgment it is a day of light and joy and of comfort in death as it translates them to Glory and in Judgment as it finishes Glory to them On the other side to those which are wicked and ungodly and profane and atheistical to them it is a day of darkness and horror As the cloud which we read of in Exod. 14.20 It was light to the Israelites whiles it was darkness at the same time to the Egyptians A direction to one and an obstruction to the t'other Where by the way take notice of the unhappiness of all wicked and ungodly persons in the perverting of those things which in themselves have the greatest excellency by making a contrary use and improvement of them There 's nothing which wicked men partake of but it 's either the worse for them or they for it The Word of the Lord and the Table of the Lord and the Temple of the Lord and the Day of the Lord. The Word of the Lord they make it reproachful and instead of the savour of life to them to be the savour of death The Table of the Lord they make it to be vain and contemptible and instead of discerning the Lord's body eat and drink to themselves their own damnation The Temple of the Lord they make it execrable and instead of the house of Prayer a den of thieves The Day of the Lord they make it terrible and instead of a day of light a day of darkness As they profane the day of the Lord as it is taken for a day of devotion so they contemn the day of the Lord as it is taken for a day of judgment and visitation So much for that and so much also of the whole Text. SEVERAL SELECT SERMONS Upon Various Texts out of the NEW TESTAMENT Sermon I. MATTHEW 5.20 That except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It was that which was laid to the charge of our Blessed Saviour whilst he converst here upon Earth as is also since to some of his servants in conformity to him that whiles he preacht the Doctrine of the Gospel he did nullifie the vigour of the Law and the Precepts of it That which the Pharisees were more especially guilty of themselves which was to make the Commandment of God of none effect by their Traditions they most falsly and injuriously and unhappily object to Christ as if he came into the world for this purpose to destroy the Law and the Prophets Now therefore did it very much concern him to clear himself of this accusation which we find him to do in this present Scripture by shewing that he was so far from nullifying or destroying the Law as that he did so much the rather strengthen it and confirm it and further inforce it by the sense which he put upon it as leading men to a stricter and exacter observation of it than as yet they had been acquainted withall and this is the scope in particular of this Text which we have now in hand Our Saviour had for the general profest it in the 17th verse of this Chapter Think not saith he I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil Now in this verse before us he proves and demonstrates what he there profest For I say unto you That except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness c. IN the Text it self there are two general Parts First The Preface or Introduction Secondly The Doctrine or principal matter which is delivered in it The Introductory Preface that 's exprest in these words For I say unto you The Truth and Doctrine which is delivered in these words Except your Righteousness c. We shall a little invert the Order of these words in the handling and begin first of all with the second Branch of them as that which is principally intended and that is the Doctrine or Truth it self which is here propounded and delivered to us Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees c. Wherein we have a disparagement of the Righteousness of such and such persons in order to Eternal Salvation so as that these who do partake of no more but only that shall never partake of this The word Scribes is the name of an Office amongst the Jews who were noted especially for their Learning and Knowledge in the Law The word Pharisees that is the name of a Sect who were noted especially for their life and conversation Now the Righteousness of either or both together is here declared to be very defective And the point which arises from hence is briefly this That Pharisaical Righteousness is unsufficient to bring a man to Heaven If a man have no more Righteousness in him than of the Scribes and Pharisees he shall never enter into the Kingdom of God For the better opening of the present point unto us there are two things to be done by us First To shew what this Pharisaical Righteousness is and wherein it consists Secondly To shew the Defectiveness and Insufficiency of this Righteousness in reference to Eternal Salvation and what it is which makes it so to be as is here by our Blessed Saviour declared concerning it First What this Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was or is which is thus insufficient Now this may be reduced to these two heads either first the matter and substance of their Righteousness or secondly the manner and circumstances Their Righteousness it was observable and remarkable in either of these particulars but yet defective in each First For the matter and substance of their Righteousness it
most suitable to this present occasion hereby to take off our minds from such extravagances as they are apt to fasten upon and to keep them within the bounds of temperance and sobriety and moderation of Spirit From this answer which our Blessed Saviour makes to his Beloved Disciples upon the question which they put unto him about the time of his coming in Glory and restoring the Kingdom to Israel It is not for you says he to know the times and seasons which the Father c. IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First here 's somewhat which is implyed Secondly here 's somewhat which is exprest That which is implyed is this That there are certain times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power That which is exprest is this That it is not for you to know them We begin with the first of these parts viz. That which is implyed or supposed that there are certain times and seasons which God hath put in his own power Put in his own power that is which he hath appropriated to himself both to order and to dispose them as also to know them and to make them known This is that which is here I say implyed and taken for granted that such times and seasons there are And we may reduce them to a threefold head or specification First the times and seasons of the whole World consider'd in general Secondly the times and seasons of such and such Kingdoms and States in particular Thirdly the times and seasons of such and such men and persons in the individual The times and seasons of all and each of these the Lord as we have nâ—â—â—xplain'd it hath put them all in his own power In his own power to order them and in his own power to discover them and to reveal them as himself pleaseth First the times and seasons of the whole world consider'd in general God hath assumed them and appropriated them to himself in this behalf As it is he that first made the world so it is he alone also that governs it and that provides for the administration of it He set a time for the beginning of it and he hath set a time also for the ending of it and for a period to be set unto it And he orders and disposes of all the affairs and the transactions of it Thus Acts 17.24 26. God that made the World and all the things therein seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth and hath made of one blood all Nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth he hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation And again in ver 31 of the same Chapter it is said that he hath appointed the day wherein he will judg the World in righteousness c. Seconly The times and seasons of such and such Kingdoms and States in particular these are also set and appointed by God himself It is he that gives being to them it is he that gives them abidance and continuance and it is he that determines them as he sees cause for it He encreaseth the Nations and he destroyeth them he enlargeth the Nations and straitneth them again as it is in Job 12.23 In Deut. 32.8 It is said that the most High divided to the Nations their inheritance he separated the sous of Adam and set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel In Dan. 2.20 21. Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever for wisdom and might are his and he changeth the times and seasons c. And again in Dan. 4.17 25 32. That thou mayst know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men and orders them and disposes them as he pleaseth Take the most slourishing Kingdoms and Empires that have been ever in the World and they have had their period set them by him and the date of them hath continued no longer than he hath pleased to continue it to them neither their wisdom nor riches nor power nor any thing which hath been eminent in them hath been able any further to uphold them and to sustain them and to keep them in being than as God himself hath been willing to support them and keep them up When he has once written vanity upon them they have diminished and come to nothing Thirdly The times and seasons of such and such men and persons in the individual these are determined by God likewise and he hath set them in his own power My times are in thy hand says David Psal 31.15 And therefore he goes to God alone for the discovering of them to him Lord do thou make me to know my end and the number of my days that I may be certified how long I have to live or that I may know what time I have here in Psal 39.4 He goeth to God who had set his time As it is also in Job 14 5. As for man his days are determined the number of his mouths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass All mens times are put in God's own power This they are both in regard of the space of them as also of the quality of them whether good or bad whether prosperous or afflicted whether days of rejoycing or days of mourning they have all of them their condition set them by God himself who has the regulating of them All this comes to this purpose to shew us what great cause we have to wait upon God and to have recourse still to him upon all occasions to stand in awe of him and to fear and tremble before him as upon whom we mainly and chiefly depend for what we are in all considerations we are not at our own disposing nor can we command one minute to our selves if we would never so fain These are such things as God takes to himself as his own peculiar and prerogative to dispose of and therefore it concerns us especially to own and to acknowledg him in them as the orderer of them whether as to the World in general or as to the Land in special or as to our selves and our own persons in particular to see and take notice that the times of all are set by him and therefore we have need of his favour in reference to them He who is the Lord of our times he should have the command of our services That 's the First Part of the Text which is considerable of us namely that which is implyed or supposed That there are certain times and seasons which God hath put in his own power The Second is that which is exprest and that 's this That it is not for you to know these times and seasons It is not for you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This it may admit of a threefold sense or explication First it is not proper for you it is not your business Secondly it is not profitable for you it is not
Again secondly which is another thing very considerable in it it is likewise a fruit and an effect of Christs Ascension and that expression and token of his love which he would leave behind him when he left the world as we may see in Eph. 4.8 When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men and what those are are afterwards exprest And for what end For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ The Ministry it is a fruit of Christs love And we are said to be manifest to him that is allowed and approved of by him in this respect so far forth as we do indeed partake of a Manifestation from him as the Ministerial Gifts are there intituled 1. Cor. 12.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every one to profit withal But secondly That 's not all there 's another manifestation than all this which the Apostle seems to aim at in his present Text and that is not only a manifestation of calling and gifts which must likewise be premised that we be such whom God may approve of as fit to do him service in this work but likewise moreover a manifestation of performances as to the exercise and improvement of those gifts which God has bestowed We are manifest to God says the Apostle that is the Lord sees and knows our faithfulness and integrity in this business which is upon us and we are careful to approve our hearts and consciences to him above any thing else And the Apostle seems to make mention of this here in this place for a threefold purpose First as his duty in regard of his endeavour Secondly as his happiness in regard of his condition Thirdly as his comfort in regard of his reflexion First As his Duty in regard of his endeavour we are manifest to God and it is that which lyes upon us so to be we could not satisfie our selves if we did not do so Here 's that which is now the concernment of all those which are the Ministers of the Gospel to study and seek after this that they may be manifest and approved unto God As it is that which lyes upon all other Christians besides in the whole course of Christianity to labour and to be ambitions as the word properly signifies to be accepted of him as ye have it in the ninth verse of this present Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. so it does especially lye upon us which are Ministers in the work of our Ministery It is not so much how men may approve of us and how we may be manifest to them which yet is that which too many do mainly look after but how the Lord himself may approve us and we may be made manifest to them This is that which does principally concern us and the Apostle Paul does here intimate unto us making mention of it as his Duty Secondly He makes mention of it as his happiness or priviledg as it was his duty to endeavour it so it was likewise his happiness to obtain it and that 's another thing in it There are a great many people in the world which do strive and endeavour after that which they shall never partake of but St. Paul here did not so As he did desire to approve himself to God in his work of the Ministry so actually he did attain unto it and God did abundantly witness and testifie unto it he did even himself manifest this manifestation wherein the Apostle had a very great advantage over the false teachers which did so vaunt themselves as we may see in 2 Cor. 10.12 17 18. We dare not make our selves of the number or compare our selves with some that commend themselves c. And again He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. For not be that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth This was the Apostles excellency above them that he did not nor did not need to commend himself as one who was approved and commended by God himself The Lord bears witness to those which are his faithful servants as he did sometime to Moses Num. 12.7 My servant Moses is faithful in all mine house This was likewise the happiness and priviledg of Paul and of the rest of the Apostles Thirdly Here 's also his comfort and satisfaction of mind in the reflexion he is very well pleased in himself when he thinks upon it and he sets it against all the non-attendances and neglects and contempts of men What says he though we should not be taken notice of by men of the world that though they should not see or regard what is done by us Well but we are manifest to God for all that he sees us and knows what we are and with what sincerity we discharge this work and task which is now upon us And this is enough to content us this seems to be the main drift of the words here in this present Text. This it carries comfort in it according to either notion of the word manifestation which I toucht upon before Whether ye take it in a way of discovery or else in a way of approbation take it in either of these ways and it is comfortable to be made manifest to God Even then when there is a restraint of it as concerning manifestation to men that is either when men do not behold us and we are not manifest to them so or else when men do not regard us and we are not manifest unto them so In the want and denial of either of these manifestations is it comfortable to be manifest to God First I say in case of concealment and retiredness and disappearance which carries an opposition with it to the manifestation of knowledge and discovery it is a comfort to be made manifest to God and to be known to him where we are manifest no where else so it be not affected The world is very much for the most part for applause and a glorious outside to be admired and cried up and pointed at digito monsirari dicier hic est as the Pharisees that loved greetings and salutations in the market-place but a good heart can be satisfied in its appearance and discovery to God that he sees it in secret who will one day reward it in open As where there is guiltiness before God there is cause of shame and blushing though no eye of man bbehold it so on the other side where there is goodness before him there is cause of rejoicing and glorying though no man be privy unto it This was the case here of the Aposle in regard of the Corinthians As for the false Apostles and false Teachers they made a great noise amongst them and carried it with their outward pomp and magnificence and vain-glorious ostentations But this was St. Paul's comfort that God himself knew what he was and his own Conscience in reference to
his God so long both are implyed in this Thou art my God from my Mothers Belly First He here blesses God for being his God so Early My God from my Mothers Belly That is as soon as I had any being in the World He might have if he had pleased fetch 't it higher if we speak of Gods Decree in Election and have said from the beginning of the World Yea before the Foundations of the World were ever laid As Psal 90.2 But he speaks here rather of the Execution and Manifestation of this his Decree God is then our God properly when he manifests Himself to be our God by some special work of Grace in our Souls and by giving Himself unto us And so he is pleased to do to divers in the very first dawnings of nature in them The Prophet Jeremiah he was Sanctifyed in the womb Jer. 1.5 Before I formed thee in thee Belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the Womb I Sanctifyed thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations And so likewise John the Baptist he had the same Grace and Favour also Timothy It is said that from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 And Obadiah 1 Kings 18.12 I thy Servant do fear the Lord from my Youth This is the goodness of God to many persons to be early in his beginning of Grace which he works in them Thus there can be no other ground or reason assigned of it but onely his own free-Grace and good Pleasure and will towards them who as he is free in the thing it self so also in the time of Dispensation And there is a double use which we may make of this Observation First To inform and satisfy us as concerning the time of Conversion and beginning of the work of Grace which is a Question which does many times trouble and perplex many a Soul to know the distinct reason when God first brought him home to Himself For this It is not in all kind of Persons discernable by them Eccl. 11.5 As thou knowest not which is the way of the Spirit nor how the bones do grow in the Womb of her that is with Child so thou knowest not the work of God who maketh all Indeed for those who have a great part of their time lived profanely or a meer civil life in them because the change is more Eminent the time is more Conspicuous too but for those whom it hath pleased God to Sanctify in their Infancy and tender years and to carry them on sweetly imperceptibly in the tract of a godly and Religious Education all their Life in these it is not so easily distinguished neither should it trouble them when it is not If the time be up it is no matter when it is first begun It is not the change of a mans Course but the change of his Nature which is here required And that is done in those to whom God is a God from the womb Their Nature is changed in them though their Course it may be has been the same all their days to wit godly and Religious nay it is so far from being a Cause of trouble as that indeed it is rather an argument of greater comfort to them that God has loved them so soon Secondly Another use is Ingagement to all such in a special manner to love God so much the more And so much for that He blesses God for being his God so Early Secondly He Blesses God for being his God so long This is also implyed in this Expression Thou art my God from c. That is thou art my God still from whence we may note thus much That those whom God is a God too once he is a God too them always Those whom he takes into his Care and Tuition and Custody at first those he also preserves to the End There is no time wherein he Ceases to be a God unto them And therefore t is here without any sign of time Eliattah Thou my God that hast been and art and wilt be through all Generations This God is our God for ever and ever Psal 48.14 So Psal 71.6 By thee have I been holden up from the Womb c. The Ground of this in God is First His Vnchangeable Nature who is Yesterday and to Day and the same for ever If God were Alterable and subject to Varying he should then love us one Day and hate us the next to it For I am the Lord I change not Therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed Secondly His Free-Grace who shews Mercy where he will If Gods Goodness were founded in us then he should Change and Vary as we do but this it is not There is nothing moves Him to be our God but onely because he will be so Thirdly His Exactness in all he does who loves to finish there where he has begun Ye know how it is with Exact men when they have begun a thing they love to perfect it and so here This should stir us up to the Observation and Acknowledgment of Gods goodness in this particular He has the perfection of all Love in him for he begins betimes and he Continues long and what could we desire more There are many which are good friends at last but they are a great while a comming on and before they can be perswaded to it There are others which are good for a while but they quickly give over But now the Lord he fails us in neither He is our God from our Mothers Womb. Even all our following and succeeding days And this it should teach us proportionably in the Second place to keep close to Him and as he continues constant to us so for us also to persevere to Him and to walk in the Constant ways of thankfulness and Obedience to Him And thus have I after somewhat long Travel brought this Child with Gods gracious Assistance at length to the Birth And have shown you here the several particulars in which David tenders his Acknowledgment and Sacrifice of Thansgiving to God For the Blessings of the Womb for the Blessing of the Breast for the Blessing of the Cradle and for the Blessings of the Covenant That is for common Mercies for ancient Mercies and for primitive Mercies and for constant Mercies Consider what I have said And the Lord give you understanding in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XVI Psal 10.13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God He hath said in his heart thou wilt not require it Their cannot be a better Evidence of a Good and a Gracious heart then to be tender and sensible of Gods Dishonour and having first of all sufficiently bewayled its own Distempers and Infirmities to lay to heart the Enormities and Miscarriages of other men Like Righteous Lot whose Soul was vexed with the filthy Conversation of the wicked while he dwelt amongst them seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds as the
and favour towards them and comfortable presence with them then they have done in their saddest Conditions and when it has been worst with them in regard of the World then has he most tender'd and regarded them and come into them And Supt with them and they with him as we meet with that Expression there in that place in Rev. 3.20 And that 's the Third Explication the Loving-kindness of God is most Excellent in regard of its Efficacy Fourthly It is Excellent also for its Freeness and Impartiality It s Loving-kindness originated in Himself and not in any merit or desert of the Persons whom it is fastened upon men in the placing of their Affections they have somewhat for the most part in the object which is attractive and persuasive hereunto but in God it is not so Those whom he loves he loves freely out of his own propensity and gracious Inclination independently upon the persons themselves and what an excellent thing is this And then which is Pertinent hereunto his Impartiality also in this Business that he is no respecter of Persons as the Scripture proclames it of him Gods favour is not carried towards any for any worldly Eminencies in them Either of Birth or Estate or Pars or any such Induements from whence he does respect one man above another or disrespect those which are difficient in either of these particulars as it is commonly amongst men No but those which have true Grace in their Hearts and hath his Image instampt upon them they are acceptable and well-pleasing to Hin in the meanest Condition that may be which makes his favour to be so much the more Excellent Lastly to add no more at this time it is Excellent also for its Continuance and Duration It s such as cast's and abides There 's a Constancy and Perpetuity in it whom he loves he loves to the End The favour of men it is oftentimes very uncertain according to the Subject of it which is mutable and exposed to Change but the favour of God is otherwise It is such as does not cease to those which are once partakers of it as we have still signified to us in Scripture Thus we find it said expresly of Solomon Psal 89.33 If his Children forsake my Law I will Visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquities with stripes Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail God may sometimes correct his Children but he does not in the mean time forsake them He may hide his face from them but he does not remit of his favour towards them he may withdraw his Countenance but he will not take away his loving-kindness this is still one and the same Therefore his Loving-kindness is called Everlasting Loving-kindness Esay 54.8 With Everlasting-kindness will I gather thee And it is set forth by such like sutable Expressions from the waters of Noah Thus we see in all these particulars how excellent the Loving-kindness of God is said to be Now the Improvement of all this to our selves may be to this purpose First We see from hence what great cause we have to pursue it and to seek after it Seeing it is every way so Excellent it is not then good for us to want it or to be destitute of it we see how ambitious many are sometimes of the favour of Men Especially which are great in the World and how much they will adventure for it and what a shame is it then for them to neglect the favour of God which has so much Eminency and Transcendency in it This was that which our Saviour laid sometimes to the charge of the Jewes That they Received Honour one of another and sought not the Honour that cometh from God onely John 5.44 And again John 12.43 That they loved the Praise of Men more then the Praise of God This is that which too many still do to this present day which is very unsutable and Disconsonant to the present Truth which we have now in hand If Gods Loving-kindness be so excellent why then certainly it is worth the regarding and looking after we should give no rest to our Eyes nor sleep to our Eye-lids till we have in some manner assured and made this Condition good to our selves that it is so with us for our particulars as to be Subjects hereof And further Secondly Let us take heed of forfeiting it or doing any thing which may hazard it to us let us take heed of doing any thing whereby we may incur Gods displeasure or provoke him if not to take away his favour absolutely in it self yet any expression or sense of it in our selves By how much more excellent it is in its own Nature by so much more chary and tender should we be of it to take heed of the doing of such things as may any way rob or deprive us of it But by all means keep up in our selves a perfect feeling and apprehension of it This we should do Especially upon a two-fold Consideration First In order to Comfort And Secondly In order to Duty That we may be more chearful and also more Servicable in our present Pilgrimage First In order to comfort to make us more cheerful there 's nothing more becomes Christians then a chearfullness and pleasantness of conversation as much as may be for their own greater contentment and the honour also of Religion it self Now this can be no further expected from them then as they walk in the light of Gods Countenance and the expression of this excellent loving-kindness the want of this puts men into darkness and sadness and blackness of spirit it self and fills them with horror and confusion Secondly This is also further requisite in order to Duty to make us so much the more serviceable The Apprehension of Gods favour and loving-kindness is a great quickning to us in His work to make us to undertake it and to dispatch it with the more alacrity and intention of mind then otherwise we should when a servant is perswaded of his Masters favour it does much hearten him and incourage him in his work The Joy of the Lord is here our Strength which puts nimbleness and activity into us in all our performances Now If we would further know how this might be done by us how we might keep and preserve our selves still in such a Condition I answer by walking warily and fruitfully in our whole course that 's the best and readiest way hereunto warily in regard of Miscarriages take heed of doing any thing amiss and Fruitfully in regard of Performances Take heed of omitting any thing which should be done these two are especially necessary for the keeping up of Gods favour towards us in the Vigor of it First I say we must walk warily in regard of Miscarriages we must be suspicious and Jealous over our selves that God himself may not be jealous towards us they that make no bones of any Sin or the tendencies
Judgments are right and that in Faithfulness thou hast Afflicted me For indeed he does wonderfully moderate Himself in these his Corrections He punishes us less then our Iniquities deserves as Ezra makes Confession in Ezra 9.13 And although we do not always think so yet he always Corrects us in measure as himself declares unto us in Scripture thus in Esay 27.8 speaking concerning his Vineyard that is his Church In measure when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it he stayeth his rough Winds in the day of his East-winds And Jer. 30.11 I am with thee saith the Lord to save thee though I make a full end of all Nations whether I have scattered thee yet I will not make a full end of thee but I will Correct thee in measure and will not altogether leave thee Vnpunished Mark how these two are very happily joyned together I will not altogether leave thee unpunished and yet I will correct the in measure God will not leave his people altogether unpunished that he may the better rule them and keep them in awe and yet he will punish them and correct in measure that so he may keep them from Discouragement and Dispondency and dejection of Spirit Therefore I say let us observe Gods dealings in this particular and acknowledg his goodness in them It should teach us to entertain good thoughts of God and to look for such dealings from him as for time past it should draw out our thankfulness and so for time present it should strengthen our Patience and so for time to come incourage our Faith and Hope and Expectation That he that hath delivered will deliver and though he may Chasten sore yet will still mitigate his Chastenings to us that they shall not altogether overwhelm us and swallow us up but that we shall finde relief in them Indeed we cannot always expect it in the letter of the Text as to an absolute Freedom from Dissolution for that must come and will come at last after all our preservations from it upon such and such particular occasions Recovery is at the best but a Repreive and so must be accounted by us and what ever Evils we do escape there 's no escape of this comming to Death but yet under this phrase here we have signified Gods General inclination for the mitigating of his Corrections to us And therefore Secondly it teaches us also Bowels and Compassions in our selves in imitation of this goodness of God There are some kind of people in the world whom nothing will serve their turn but absolute ruine and destruction Like those two fierce Disciples in the Gospel presently calling for fire from Heaven or like the children of Edom in the Psalm concerning Jerusalem Raze it raze it to the foundation down with it down with it to the ground yea but these are taught better here from the Example of God himself who does hold and restrain his hand in the chastisements and corrections of his people This is still his manner of dealings especially where there 's any hope of proficiency for time to come He will not there presently make an utter end but spare them in much mercy As in Isa 65.8 When the new wine is found in the cluster oh destroy it not for there 's a blessing in it so will I doe for my servants sake c. And so much may be spoken of these words consider'd in their connexion The first part of the verse with the second as qualifying of it Now Secondly let us look upon them in their absolute consideration the latter clause of the verse distinctly and alone by it self He hath not given me over unto death We see here how God does graciously preserve his servants from Death and destruction he keeps and maintains their lives This David often makes mention of in other places of the Psalms besides As Psal 30.3 Oh Lord thou hast brought up my soul from the Grave Thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the Pit So Psal 116.8 Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears my feet from falling This the Lord is pleased to doe upon sundry considerations First out of his Goodness and Mercy and Love unto them thus David sets it forth in that place Psal 116.5 6. Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is mercifull And what follows hereupon The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me So in verse 15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints And Psal 72.14 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence and precious shall their blood be in his sight It is not an indifferent matter with God the death of his Servants neither does he lightly take away their lives but where there 's good cause and reason for it and in order to some greater good to them Secondly Because he hath work and service for them to do In death no man shall praise thee and who shall give thee thanks in the pit Psal 6.5 And Again Isa 38.18 19. The Grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee The living the living he shall praise thee As long as God has any work for any man to do so long he is sure to live and abide in the world Here 's a double goodness of God manifested to us First In designing us to service and the work it self And Secondly In preâ—erving our lives that so we may serve him and doe the work he has design'd us to This should so much the more incourage us in fruitfulness before him we cannot take a more expedient way to prolong our lives than by doing as much good as we can in them Useless and unprofitable persons which live idly and out of any imployment they doe but stand in the room of those which would do better then themselves and they provoke God oftentimes in Judgement to remove them and to take them away As the barren Figtree in the Gospel it was cut down that it might not cumber the ground But those that are active and serviceable they are a great delight and content to him and he takes a great deal of delight in thinking upon them as himself also expresses it in Malach. 3.16 17. They shall be mine sayes the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him A man loves all his children as children and from his Relation to them Oh but those who are of his Trade and which work to him those he loves and tenders more especially and would be lothest to part with them of any other besides and so is it here with God his sons that serve him their death is more precious with him of all the rest neither will he easily give them over to it Not that he simply needs any work or service of ours who when we have done all we can are at the best but unprofitable
's a calling of them to an account for their desire What end have you for it Secondly it is a discovering to them the fruitlesness of their desire What good have you by it The former in the notion of an Expostulation The latter of a Conviction First To look upon it in the former notion and that is by way of Expostulation What end have you for it or in it namely in this desire of yours for the coming of the day of the Lord. The Prophet Amos here calls them to an account for this desire which was in them From whence there 's this general truth to be observed by us That our desires should be still such as are rational and well-grounded in us Those that desire any thing they should know for what end they desire it or else it should not be desired by them To what end is it for you says the Lord here to this people namely when he speaks here of something which was desired by them The reason of it is this Because we are rational our selves at least in our principles we are so as men but we 〈◊〉 â—o more especially as Christians and therefore should every thing be rational that comes from us Loose and unreasonable desires do not become reasonable creatures Those who have light in their understandings by nature and this also elevated and enlarged by Grace for the guiding and directing of them they should be very much ordered and regulated in this particular Therefore let us by the way learn from hence a good rule for our practice to this purpose We may not think that we may desire what we please indefinitely or without any restraint that quicquid libet licet that whatever we have a mind to it may be pursued by us no but we must rather first see what ground and reason we have in us for such desires and restrain and bound our selves by such arguments and considerations as these In all inordinacy of appetite or desires which rises up in us put to our selves this question which the Prophet Amos puts to this people To what end is it for you to desire it And this will be an happy means for the ordering and regulating of it Our desires and affections and inclinations they are such things as for which we are accountable both to God and our selves So much for that as this passage carries in it the force of an Expostulation To what end is it for you i.e. To what end is this desire for you The Second is as it has the force of a Conviction To what end is it for you that is To what end is this day for you which you seem to desire There 's no good or advantage at all which can come to such as you by it by laying an emphasis especially upon the persons And so there 's this in it That the day of the Lord however it may prove to others yet it is no way desirable of wicked and ungodly people and such persons as live in their sins For you says the Prophet that walk in ways of sinfulness and opposition and rebellion against God for you to desire that day wherein he will call all men to account for that which hath been done by them here The day of Judgment and the second coming of Christ it is very sad and ridiculous in you This will the better appear unto us by considering what those things are which do especially make this day desirable of those who do rationally desire it the Saints and Servants of God We may reduce them to three Heads First as it is a day of Absolution Secondly as it is a day of Redemption And Thirdly as it is a day of Salvation for each of these it is to all good Christians and Believers First It is a day of Absolution wherein they shall be quitted and discharged of any thing which shall be laid against them Christ who is their Judge shall be also their Advocate and plead their cause for them and pass a sentence of discharge upon them Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect in that day This now makes it ery desirable to those who have an interest in it But wicked people have not this interest it belongs not to them They have no share in pardon or absolution and consequently have no ground to wish for that day when absolution shall be granted which themselves have no share or interest in No more than Malefactors have cause to wish for the day of Assizes and the coming of the Judge to sit upon them which being duly considered makes nothing at all indeed for them Secondly As it is a day of Redemption it is to God's children desirable so and they are call'd upon in that respect to desire it Luke 21.28 Lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh The day of the Lord is such a day as this is wherein those who are true Believers shall be redeemed from all those evils which here they were encompast withal And especially from the greatest evil of all which is the evil of sin which did here so much trouble and disturb them and makes them to cry out with the Apostle Oh wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death This day it is desirable of God's children in reference to this as a blessed day indeed unto them when as the fetters and shackles of sin shall be knocked off from them But now as for carnal and profane persons To what end is it for them to desire it What should they desire the day of the Lord that do not care for the fear of the Lord What should they desire that day which is a day of redemption from sin whose desire all their life-time is rather to continue in sin and to have all advantages and opportunities afforded them for the committing and following of sin Thirdly As it is a day of Salvation and the accomplishment of universal happiness it is upon this account also desirable of the Servants of God The day wherein God himself shall be glorified in his Saints because indeed the day wherein his Saints shall be glorified by him But what 's this now to those which walk in ways of sinfulness and impenitency What have they to do to desire to be glorified by God that do not care for glorifying of God Or what have they to do to partake of the life of Glory that are strangers to the life of Grace or to what purpose should they desire the end that despise the means and the ways that tend to that end So much for that And so I have done also with the Second General Part of the Text which is the convincing Expostulation laid down in these words To what end is it for you The Third and last is the express conclusion or determination in these The day of the Lord is darkness and not light which is to be understood by us of the day of death and
and over-whelm'd in her business and domestical distractions that she wanted a little quickening and exciting and stirring up that so she might the better heed and give care to that which was spoken and this Christ is not wanting in to her Whence by the way we may observe thus much That in our teaching and admonishing of others we must apply our selves carefully to the temper and disposition of their spirits Those which are more tender and apprehensive they will need less stirring and provoking Those which are more heedless and negligent and minding of other things as Martha here was they need a little rouzing and awakening and stirring up like those which are fast a-sleep Martha Martha This the Apostle Jude presses to Jude ep 22.23 And of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire i. e. in great haste And the ground hereof is this because the manner and carriage of the business has a very great influence and efficacy upon the success of the thing it self Our counsel and admonition does so far forth prevail or miscarry as we in the administration of it have a respect to the condition of the parties we deal withal That wind which would but cherish some fruits it would nip and blast others And those expressions which would quite deject and discourage some kind of spirits for others are no more but necessary which they cannot well miss or be without This should therefore very much guide us and sway us in this particular But to come closer to the Text it self Martha Martha c. Here are two things briefly observable and considerable of us First his reprehension it self which he does here exhibit to her He does here gently check her And Secondly the ground and cause of it thou art cumbred c. First Here 's the reprehension it self he checks and reproves Martha and thus it may be amplified to us according to a various and different apprehension and notion in which we may here look upon her and that especially three-fold First as she was a good and godly woman And Secondly as she was a kind and friendly woman Thirdly as a woman beloved First She was good and yet Christ reproves her and checks her where she was now amiss Martha c. Though she failed in this particular yet she was otherwise a godly woman as well as her Sister Mary perhaps not inferior to her in that particular But though she was godly yet she was not to be let alone in her miscarriage Whence we note that even those which are good are to be reproved when they do that which is evil Thus it was here in the Text and thus also in other places Peter a good man yet Christ reprov'd him when he did that which was faulty and call'd him Satan Matth. 16. verse 23. Get thee behind me Satan for thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but the things that be of men c. And so Paul reprov'd him also because he was to be blamed Gal. 2.4 And so David a good man but the Prophet Nathan came and told him his own when he fell into sin c. And so Sarah a good woman but she was reproved as we read when she had offended and many such like instances besides And good reason for it For First The goodness of the person does not change the nature of the action Sin is no better than sin whosoever they be that commit it Evil and corrupt acts they cast a blemish upon the person but good and holy persons do not take off a tainture from these acts There 's a deep dye and stain in sin which pollutes and defiles and mars all that comes near it and which have any thing to do with it and it is the same where-ever it is found though in the best and holiest person that is which does not change the nature of it Secondly The goodness of the person sometimes makes the action worse The better any man is the worse is sin when it comes and proceeds from him It 's worse in regard of its appearance as carrying a greater ugliness and deformity in it like a spot in a fair face And it 's worse in regard of its influence as doing more hurt abroad and mischief to other men Good men are the rather to be reprov'd that others may not become the worse for their sakes Thirdly Those which are good may be better and this is a means so to make them therefore the rather to be reproved in this regard Wise and seasonable reprehension is a means which God has sanctified and appointed for this purpose let us take it from the mouth of a good man himself David in Psal 141.5 Let the righteous smite me and it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me and it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head c. Thus then it shews the weakness of those which except against the just reprehensions of such as these as now in these days we live in We have many good people in the World that is which are so in the general and which there is cause to hope well of which yet abound with many strange humors and extravagancies and also sometimes even in order to Religion it self which they are given over to What! shall these now be let alone and have nothing at all said to them but to run on in such kind of ways Soft not so by no means There is a just and due censure and reproof which belongs unto them All that good people do is not a piece of goodness in them which accordingly they ought to suffer that so corruption may not proceed in them nor proceed from them And it is a piece of love to do it as it should be Peter was more reproved than Judas by Christ himself Indeed in the reproof of good persons there are some cautions which are sit to be observed First That we be sure to reprove them for that which is evil and no other we must take heed of censuring them for goodness This Eli did to Hannah 1 Sam. 1.14 Secondly we must do it with another kind of spirit than those which are commonly profane persons looking upon them as Brethren and Sisters in Christ Thirdly So order the business as neer as we can that our reproof of good persons may not reflect upon goodness it self And so much for that notion Martha consider'd as a good woman Secondly We may look upon her as a friendly woman She was one that entertain'd Christ took him into her house made much of him was very careful of him and respectful towards him yet for all this he checks her and reproves her there where she was in fault Whence we note that the receiving of courtesies from any persons does not discharge us from our duty towards them where by our place and occasions we are call'd to the
it and till then I shall be unable to do it There 's no teaching or converting of others till we are first wrought upon and converted our selves He that is otherwise he cannot do it Cannot do it in regard of Performance That 's the first Secondly Cannot do it in regard of Acceptance God will not take it so well from him in his mking and pretending to do it neither is it altogether so satisfactory to men To hear a man speaking against such and such corruptions in others which he does indulge in himself it has not that comeliness in it neither does God himself so approve it in him What hast thou to do to take my words into thy mouth c. Psal 50.16 when thou hatest to be reform'd Isaiah durst not go on God's message whiles he was a man of unclean lips And Paul was a chosen Vessel to God before a Vessel to bear his name before the Gentiles A Vessel of Election before a Vessel of Honour and fit for the Master's use and prepared unto every good work And so are all others else to be according to that of the Apostle 2 Tim. 2.21 Thirdly Cannot in regard of Success He that 's himself unconverted and unexperienced in his own heart he cannot speak so profitably to others and to the good of their Souls Nothing goes to the heart so much as that which comes from it When the Spirit of the Teacher goes along with his words and speeches then they are likely to be most effectual How coldly do words of consolation come from an uncomfortable spirit or words of confirmation from an unsetled spirit or words of correction from a licentious How forcible are right words says Job 6.25 And then are words right when the heart is right from whence they come Therefore this teaches us what in this case is to be done by us We see what cause Christians have among many other reasons besides to look to the frame and temper of their hearts even to the good and advantage of others among whom they live and converse withal That from hence they may be so much the more useful and beneficial in the communion of Saints and have greater success in the application of themselves to their Brethren whether as Ministers or other men For though God may sometimes do some good even by those who are themselves unconverted yet it is not so natural nor usual God first converts Peter before he strengthens others by Peter And Jeremiah must first return to God before he stand before God as serviceable to him Jer. 15.19 And when this is done then this effect follows upon it When Peter is converted then his Brethren also shall be strengthened which is another sense may be fastened upon the words by taking the Imperative for the Future which is also common and ordinary in Scripture And so here 's again not only a duty but a mercy and a priviledg which our Saviour does intimate and exhibit unto us The conversion of one Christian it is a strengthening and corroboration to the rest God's Grace and goodness to some of his Servants is an heartening and encouraging to their Brethren Thus St. Paul 1 Tim. 1.16 For this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life God's mercy to the Apostle it was an embleme of the like mercy to be shewn to all other Believers And David Psal 34.4 5. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears And what follows They looked unto him and were lightned and their faces were not ashamed They i. e. they which stood by which were strangers but yet observers of God's dealings and carriages to me And so again in that place before alledged which may serve as a kind of parallel to this Psal 51.12 David signifies that when God had restored to him the joy of his Salvation and had stablish'd him with his free Spirit that then as he in regard of endeavour would teach sâ—iâ—ers so then also in regard of success in all likelihood and probability of dispensation sinners should be converted unto him The Use of all comes to this namely to teach us accordingly to improve the examples which are set before us in this particular The examples of our Brethren falling and overcome with temptation should make us so much the warier and more shy of being tempted our selves To be strengthened that is strengthened with Grace and ability of resistance And the examples of our Brethren rising again and recovering from temptation should make us also to be so much the cheerfuller and more hopeful of being supported our selves Strengthened that is strengthened with comfort and expectation of subsistence And in both together shall we close with God's ends in such Providences as these are before us I have done now with the Third General Head which is a Christian's Duty and so also with the whole Text it self SERMON XII JOH 3.8 The Winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hsarest the sound thereof but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit There is nothing which is harder to deal withal than a carnal and unregenerate heart which will still have somewhat to cavil at and to object against the Truths of Christ even there where they have the greatest evidence and infallibility in them and are least of all to be questioned of all other Points besides An instance whereof we have here in this Scripture which we have now before us and the coherence of it in the discourse of our Saviour Christ with Nicodemus a Ruler of the Jews This person was somewhat convinced of the worth and excellency that was in Jesus and therefore betakes himself to him and yet he was afraid or ashamed openly to confess him and therefore comes to him by night in a private acknowledgment of him Now our Saviour presently saw what he wanted as the ground of this carriage in him and that was a serious work of the saving Grace of God upon his heart which might make him to close with him in good earnest and therefore takes occasion to discourse of this Point unto him Of the necessity of being regenerated and born again But Nicodemus understands not what he means or at least is not willing to understand it and therefore makes an exception against it from the absurdity and impossibility of it and wonders at it how it should be so Now this Text which I have here read unto you is a taking off of this wonder from him by a further discovery and explication of this Doctrine to him Marvel not says he that I said unto thee ye must be born again The winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest c. THis present Verse before is nothing else as I may say but a description of the work of Regeneration or of
for that Again secondly observe this That all men by nature have some quarrel or exception or other against the Word of God and some pretence to put it off from them The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom neither of them were every way right and so as they should be So that betwixt both it's sure to be the foolishness of Preaching all this while This is that which has always been in all ages and times of the Church as 't is easie to note we see how it was so in the time of John the Baptist and Christ when John preached He was a little too harsh and they said He had a Devil there was no enduring such a man as he was he came too close and near to the Conscience And when Christ preached He was too familiar and mild a friend of Publicans and sinnes Some think the Preacher too plain and others think the Preacher too learned some would fain have this and others would fain have that the reason is because the Word meets with mens lusts This is the common disposition of our natures as concerning the receiving of the Gospel this shews us why 't is no more entertained we see then what an hard task we have who are Preachers And this is a second Observation which we may gather in General Thirdly Observe in General this That it 's a great matter for the entertainment of any Ministry what people have been formerly used and accustomed unto that has commonly a great sway with them For see here in this present Scripture how it was now with these two sorts of people the Jews and the Gentiles The Jews they had been used to signs heretosore under Moses and the Prophets and therefore nothing would serve their turn now but signs still And the Gentiles they had been used to their Philosophy and Rhetorick and Scholastical Disputations and therefore nothing would serve them neither but wisdom also what they had been used unto formerly that they desire to partake of still The reason hereof is this because custome is a second nature as we use to speak and look what rellish a vessel is seasoned withal atthe first the same 't is likely to hold a great while after Quo semel est imbuta recens c. If men have been formerly used to sound and who some Doctrine and to savoury Truths which serve to establish their heart why then such as these will be pleasing and acceptable to them if again they have been used to nothing but froth then 't is frothy stuff which will delight them most still For mens affections in this particular are still proportioned according to use and custom with them This shews us what cause we have therefore as to be careful of what Principles we admit at any time of our selves so to bless God that he has any time in his Providence heretofore so well ordered it to us it is a great mercy when we fall under good Education and good instruction in our younger years for this is subject in all likelihood most to last and continue with us and to stick by us another day The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom thus much of the words jointly and in general I come now to them more distinctly in particular to look upon them in their several Propositions to wit the Demand of the Jews by it self and the Pursuit of the Gentiles again by it self First For the Demand of the Jews The Jews require a sign this the Apostle speaks of as some kind of weakness and viciousness in them and so indeed it was as may appear in these Particulars First It does denote unto us that sottishness and stupidity which was in them A sign it is a thing which is accommodated to the outward sense and ordained for the teaching of those which are of mean and low understandings and which cannot attain to the spirituality of Divine Mysteries now thus it was here with these Jews they were a dull and carnal people and rested themselves in outward matters but were not sensible of the inward power of Religion and therefore their minds went an hankering forsooth after signs and God was fain for a while in his Providence thus to deal with them to teach them by such visible things as these are By ceremonies and beggarly elements and wonders and signs Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe our Saviour himself upbraids them with it in Joh. 4.48 And this is the disposition of most men else by nature to be thus affected in themselves Thus it was with the Apostle Thomas at Christs Resurrection Joh. 20.25 Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe He must have a sign here or else no believing at all to be expected from him so addicted was he to sense And is it not just so with many others besides what 's the humour in Popery but still to run after signs they must have somewhat presented to their eyes or else all 's not well with them They are for Images and Pictures and the like and signs and wonders There 's hardly any point of Controversie betwixt them and us but they had rather prove it by signs a great deal than any thing else Bring them to the Scriptures and written word of God here they do not care to deal with you But what then why miracles and strange kind of practices which they have coined and devised as a confirmation of those things which are held by them these are those things which they look after Thus 't is said of Antichrist That his coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness c. 2 Thes 2.9 This is a sure and certain rule That the more carnal any people are the more they are carried away after such matters and do not rest themselves satisfied in that evidence which the Scripture holds out unto them and it proceeds from hence because they have not their senses exercised to discern of things that differ Heb. 5. ult And that 's the first thing here in their demand viz. their stupidity Secondly Here was also their infidelity and unbelief that is likewise implied in this that they askt a sign Signs says the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 14.22 they are not for them that believe but for them which believe not and accordingly they have been still used as we shall find upon such occasions as these are either to begin faith where it has been wanting or to strengthen it where it has been weak they are an argument of unbelief where they are given but especially they are so where they are required Whiles the Jews demand â— sign they shew their infidelity indeed that they are as yet in a state of unbelieving This was that which was very notorious and infamous in this people as they
Christ which is the greatest knowledg We have perswasions for those which are young men and we have perswasions also for those which are old as the Apostle John had before us as ye may see there in his writings 1 Joh. 2.12 c. I write unto you little children and I write unto you fathers and I write unto you young men still as there were any difference of men and ages amongst them so had St. John a lesson for them and so have we as also John the Baptist for all sorts and conditions of men the People the Publicans the Soldiers he had somewhat for them all Luk. 3.10 c. So we perswade men that 's the Object Indeed in one place of Scripture this seems to be set somewhat contrary where it is said We do not perswade men Gal. 1.10 Dost yet perswade men or God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do I that is I do not But we must understand in what sense it is spoken and so exprest by him which is not of the persons whom his Doctrine is preached unto but of the matter wherein it consists it is not an Humane Doctrine but a Divine that 's the meaning of it But for the persons it is not God but men as here in the Text We perswade men First of all by taking men in opposition to God himself who needs not to be perswaded And secondly in opposition to Angels The third thing here pertinently considerable is what we perswade unto This is not directly expounded but it is intimated and implyed unto us in the scope and drift of the words out of which we may fetch and extract it especially by looking back to the 9th verse of this Chapter where we are called upon to labour that we may be blessed of God What this is in particular will be the better made known unto us according to the consideration of the persons whom we deal withal c. which we may look upon under a double notion either of such as are not yet converted or else such as are converted already one perswasion is here different according to the different state and condition of either of these persons in this estate 1. If they be as yet unconverted in their natural and unregenerate estate then we perswade them to believe to come out of that wretched condition in which they are and to accept of salvation upon these terms in which 't is offered to you And so Beza sets it who instead of suademns gives it Homines ad fidem adducimus As the Lord sometimes to his people by his Prophet Ezekiel Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why should ye dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Or as the Prophet Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come unto the waters c. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn unto the Lord and he will have compassion upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon or as Peter Act. 2.40 Save your selves from this untoward generation These are the things which we perswade men to which are as yet unconverted to repent and to believe and to work out their salvation with fear and trembling For it is God which worketh in them both to will and to do c. Phil. 2.12 23. And this is that which will one day aggravate mens judgment and condemnation at another day that it is thus with them especially such as live under the Gospel and dispensations of the Ministry in any degree more aboundant than others such as these will have the more to answer for when God shall hereafter call them to account that they have not wanted perswasions to be administred unto them God has knock't at the doors of their hearts and has call'd upon them in the labours of his servants and has perswaded them if so be that they themselves would have been perswaded by him They cannot say that they have wanted excitement and provocation and quickning hereunto for this has been our work to perswade them Again 2. As for those which are Believers and converted already this perswasion reaches to them likewise we perswade men that is we perswade good men also One perswasion reaches to such as these amongst other men that they would walk answerable to their profession and principles and graces which God has indu'd them and inrich't them withal that they would shew out of a good conversation their works with meekness of wisdom Jam. 3.13 That they would adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things and take care that the Name of God and his truth might not be blasphemed In a word that their conversation might be as becometh the Gospel Phil. 1.27 So again That they would continue and persist and persevere and hold out to the end that they would abound more and more go from strength to strength and proceed from one degree of grace and holiness to another that they would be fruitful in every good work and that they would labour by good example and good discourse and frequent admonition both to build up one another in goodness and likewise to draw on others which are as yet strangers to the ways of Godliness and Religion into the same happy estate and rank and condition together with themselves This is that which we perswade such men as are good already and at present converted unto even to go on and proceeed in goodness And this is the third thing to wit To what as well as to whom this perswasion of the Ministry does extend The fourth and last is upon what ground and that is hinted unto us from the coherence in the words that went before Knowing the terror of the Lord. This is not the only argument whereupon we may deal with them but it is that only which is here exprest yea that which is most of all available to most men in our first dealings with them as I hinted before Indeed there are very melting Considerations to work and win upon mens souls and to perswade them to goodness from some other heads besides as the love of God and the bowels of Christ and the excellency and dignity and sweetness which is in Goodness and Religion it self but that which the Apostle thinks fit to press upon them rather in this place is the terror of the Lord and the consideration of that strict account which they must one day give of themselves at the judgment-seat of Christ Knowing this says he we perswade them so that we see there is sometimes use and need of such kind of points and Doctrines as these are and we have good cause sometimes to hear of them and to be remembred of them There are some which must be saved with fear pulling them out of the fire as St. Jude speaks Jude 1.5 As in the Ministry there are diversities of gifts which are occasionally to be improved some being Sons of Thunder and other Sons of consolations so there
ONE HUNDRED SELECT SERMONS UPON SEVERAL TEXTS FIFTY upon the OLD TESTAMENT And FIFTY on the NEW By the Reverend and Learned THO. HORTON D.D. late Minister of Great St. Hellens London Left perfected for the press under his own hand Hebr. 11.4 He being dead yet speaks 2 Thes 2.5 Remember ye not when I was yet with you I told you of these things Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel MDCLXXIX To the Reader Chirstian Reader OF the Author of these Sermons I may truly say though not in so eminent a degree what St. Paul intimates of himself 2 Cor. 3.1 That he needeth not as some others Epistles of Commendation at leastwise not to those who had the Happiness to Hear or will take the pains to Read his Sermons The person being so well known and his manner of Preaching that they are not likely to receive much advantage by my Recommendation His Birth and first Education was in the City of London He was Son to Mr. Laurence Horton Merchant one of the Company of Mercers The first time I had the opportunity of knowing Him was about the year 1632 when he was fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridg in which Colledg I had the Honour and Happiness of receiving the first of my Academical Education and for some part of it under his Tuition which Colledg had at that time as great a reputation for serious Piety solid Learning and sober Conversation as any House in the University and had as little either of Duncery or Debauchery considering the number of Students in it wherein it was at that time scarce inferior to any as any Colledg there In the year 1637 he was made University-Preacher About the year 1638 he was called back to the City of London to Exercise his Ministry there in St. Mary Cole-Church where I remember to have observed the Reverend and Learned Bishop Brownrigg when in London to be a very frequent if not his Constant Auditor even though he did not lodg in those parts of the Town He was Preacher to the Honorable Society of Grays-Inn admitted also a Member of that Society He removed from the Parish of St. Mary Cole-Church to Great St. Hellens in the same City of London where in the year 1672 3 he finisht his life in the work of the Ministry But what most concerns the present business he was a pious and learned man a hard Student a sound Divine a good Textuary very well skill'd in the Original Languages very well accomplished for the work of a Minister and very conscientious in the discharge of it He made the Ministry his whole Business and as David said of himself on another occasion he did not serve God with that which Cost him nothing being very industrious in his preparations ver sedulous diligent and constant in the Exercise of it and did very rarely unless upon urgent occasions or by some eminent person supply his place by a Deputy He wanted not variety of Learning to embelish and trim up a Sermon if he had so pleased But he contented himself with sound Doctrine Scripture-language and such as might be understood by his Auditory rather than admired as best conducing to perswade men to the practice of those duties he did recommend For matters of Wit though at the first hearing they may please the Ear and tickle the Fancy yet have not that awe upon the Conscience nor make those lasting impressions which sound Doctrine plainly delivered with clear evidence from the word of God is known to do And Sermons so Composed are like to be of more lasting use than others accommodated to what the present Age calls Wit For witty expressions pass for such but while that way of Wit is in fashion but upon a second hearing or when that fashion of Wit alters which alters like that of clothes that which is now thought witty will then seem flat if not unsavory But sound Reason will be sound reason in all Ages and as cogent at the Second and Third reading as at the First And sure that 's the best Rhetorick and perswades most which moves by strength of Argument and plain evidence rather than what depends only on what they call Ornament and a pleasing sound of words and that Langnage is most fit for business which is not either slovenly so as to make it unsavory or affectedly Trimmed so as to divert the mind from the sense of what is said and make it dwell on the words only Two Volumes of his Sermons have already seen the light and been received with good approbation the one upon the whole Eight Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans the other upon some of the Psalms the fourth the two and fortieth the one and fiftieth and the sixty third and we have no cause to think but those of this third Volume being Select Sermons preached on special occasions were penned with as great care as those in his ordinary course of Preaching And there is yet a fourth Volume which I should be glad to see abroad also on the whole Seventeenth Chapter of St. John's Gospel which were Preach'd not long since and by himself revised a little before his death and two other Volumes One Sacramental Sermons and another Funeral In the mean time what is here prepared for thy use if thou read with the same seriousness and consideration with which it was written thou wilt receive the benefit of his labours and of thine own Thine in the Lord JOHN WALLIS Oxon. Sept. 28. 1678. The various Texts and Subjects contained in this Volume of Sermons with the Page directed to The Texts of the Old Testament-Sermons Sermons I. GEn. 28.12 13. Jacobs Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven Page 1 Sermons II. Deut. 8.18 To remember God is the way to get wealth Page 9 Sermons III. Deut. 11.12 Gods care for his Church and People in all Ages Page 17 Sermons IV. 2 King 5.26 God sees and knows what is in the heart of man Page 24 Sermons V. 2 Chron. 4.10 Jabez Prayer to God for his Blessing Page 30 Sermons VI. 2 Chron. 4.10 Second Sermon on Jabez's Prayer Page 38 Sermons VII Deut. 4.20 Gods Deliverance of Israel out of the Iron Furnace A fifth of November Sermon Page 45 Sermons VIII 1 Sam. 2.9 The Custody of God over his People Page 54 Sermons IX Job 20.11 Sins of Youth cause great sorrows in old Age. Page 64 Sermons X. Job 20.12 13 14. The seeming sweetness and real bitterness of Sin Page 71 Sermons XI Job 1.5 Job 's Care for his Childrens welfare lest they should sin against God Page 77 Sermons XII Job 34.29 When God gives Quietness to a person or people none can give trouble Page 83 Sermons XIII Job 34.29 A second Sermon Page 89 Sermons VIV 2 King 7.2 A peremptory Answer to a
does also require of us When any thing is to be done by us or for us that we be sure to call upon God himself for the Prospering of it to us Prov. 3.5.6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy Pathes when we neglect to seek to God in Prayers we are so far-forth said to forget him and to be unmindful of him but when we pray to him then we remember him and it concerns us so to do A good Christan should go about nothing Especially of any Consequence or Concernment but he should be sure still to remember to seek to God for his Assistance in it and Blessing upon it Lastly And more especially as the sense and meaning of this place in point of Thankfulness and acknowledgement we are then said to remember God when we owne him in all the Mercies which we injoy from him when we do not onely as the brute Beasts take such things as are convenient for us but together with them look up to the Hand which bestows them upon us This is truely and indeed to remember him to be thank ful to him and of we ought to do Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God thus and thus Especially This is the proper Scope and drift of this present Scripture before us as we may see by the very Context and Coherence of it In vers 10.11 c. of this Chapter When thou hast Eaten and art full thou shalt Bless the Lord thy God for the good Land which he hath given thee Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments and his Judgments c. Because indeed it is that which we are Naturally and Commonly too Prone and subject unto When we have received Mercies from God not to Consider from whom we have received them and so as it becomes us to return thanks for them therefore does the Lord himself remember us and put us in minde of it that we should be careful to do it as some kind of remembrance of himself Now this point thus Explain'd unto us calls for our Answerable Observation and performance of it we should be careful all of us to remember the Lord our God where me thinks in the very words themselves there are two Arguments couch'd and imply'd for the inferring of it upon us The one is from the word of Sovereignty that he is the Lord God And the other is from the word of Propriety that he is our God Each of these they do in a special manner call for our remembrance of him First From his Soveraignty that he is the Lord we should remember him for that and accordingly yeild all respect and Acknowledgement to him Great and Eminent Persons they are such usually as are remembred by us who ever are else now therefore the Lord for his Greatness though there were nothing else in it it does require it and call for it at our hands Secondly From the word of Propriety and that Interest which he has in us and we in Him Thy God This latter joyn'd with the former makes it Compleat in Deut. 28.58 We find this Expression there used That thou mayest fear this Glorious and fearful name THE LORD THY GOD. What he says there of Fearing him we may say of remembring him that also upon the same Ground and for the same Reason and in particular for our Relation to him Relations they are such as of all others should be remembred by us and if we have any good Nature in us they commonly are so and how much then does it become us to remember the Lord our God that ownes us and takes us for his and whom we our selves have own'd surely it concerns us to remember Him of any other besides And that also in all Conditions whatsoever we may light into and the better so much the more As it is intimated here in this Scripture When thou art full and art Prosperous c. Then remember the Lord thy God Prosperity it often makes men forgetful both of themselves and others yea which is so much the more Abominable often times even of God himself But it is that which it should not do We should remember the Lord our God in Prosperity and in the full Injoyment of all things Yea then Especially as the Author and Bestower of all these things which we injoy upon us To set home this point so much the more Effectually upon us and to perswade us to the practise of this Duty let us Consider this with our selves First The Great need which we have of God's remembring of us and of thinking upon us There 's a time a coming when we shall all be desirous of it and seeking for it Remember me O my God for good and think upon me which was the prayer of Nehemiah It will be likewise in time all our prayers and there will be cause for it Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome And when I my self desire to come into it likewise There are certain Times and Seasons which are incident and Happening to us wherein God's remembrance of us will be of great Concernment and consequence to us And that a great deale more then all the world besides Now as we desire that he should remember us then let us remember him now And take the first occasion and opportunity for the doing of it which in his Providence is afforded unto us Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth as the Preacher advises Before the evil days come c. Eccle. 12. There are many who think sometimes of remembring of God but it is then when as their memory is lost to every thing else when their senses and memories fail them and are departed from them then they think they will remember God and have some thoughts of him But alas it is many times too late to do it then If ever we will remember him to purpose we must remember him before And that so much the rather as we shall desire then that he would remember us Secondly Let us Consider the great Evil of Forgetfulness of him It is that which we find in Scripture to be very much threatned and punished by God This was the great Sin of the Israelites and which was so much laid to their Charge which God Plagued them and punished them so much for That they forgat the works of the Lord and remembered not the things which he had done for them As we may see at large in the 78. Psal And so also the Prophet Esay says in Esay 17.10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy Salvation and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength therefore thou shalt plant pleasant Plants and shalt set it with strange slips There is nothing which God does take worse from his People then to be forgotten and neglected by them And therefore accordingly does so bemoane it
Where speaking of the Devils The Angels that kept not their first Estate it is said that they are reserved in Everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the Judgment of the great Day So then they shall be silent in Darkness is as much as they shall be Continued in Darkness and does denote the Immoveableness and Irrecoverableness of their miserable Condition being such as from which they shall never be freed or delivered which Exposition is sutable to that of Moses in his song speaking of the Enemies of the Church to wit the Egyptians Exod. 15.16 Fear and Dread shall fall upon them by the greatness of thine Arme they shall be still as a Stone In the Hebrew it is ijdhmou that is they shall be silent Tacuerint tanquam lapis fuerint the Chalde Paraphrast Thus we see how as the Wicked are in Darkness So in what sense also they are said to be silent in it Now to joyn them both together they are such as doe very fitly agree to such kind of persons Both Darkness and also silence in it are very sutable to wicked men First the Darkness of Condition answerable to the darkness of sin Wicked men they abhorre the light because their deeds are evil They delight in works of darkness and now that light is come into the world yet they love darkness rather then light as it is in the Gospel Joh. 3.19 And therefore it is very sitting that Darkness should be inflicted upon them That their punishment may be answerable to their disposition Seing they delight in darkness there 's good reason that they should have enough of it and so they have sit in darkness and in the shadow of death Secondly Silence in evil answerable to silence from good Wicked men they care not to speak any thing which may be to the Honour of God They are silent as to prayers and praises and good speeches which should come from them They have a driness and barreness and dumbness and speechlesness here and accordingly they are made silent as to affliction and the sad effects and consequences which that does cause and occasion to them They are silent in Darkness There 's one thing more which we have not yet mention'd which yet may be very proper and pertinent to the scope of the place and that is the wicked's uncertainty and want of due advice and resolution what to doe in those conditions of perplexity in which they are They shall be silent as to the giving of Counsel either to others or else to themselves as being non-plust and at a stand from that dubiousness and ambiguity of affairs which are upon them This is a sense which will very wellhold and it is a case which does oftentimes fall out that whereas the Saints and servants of God He keeps their feet for them And gives light to them that sit in Darkness and the shaddow of Death yea and also guides their feet in the way of peace as it is in Luk. 1.79 The wicked on the otherside they shall reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and be at their wits end as the Scripture sometimes expresses it they shall not see their way before them nor yet know what course is best to be taken by them That 's the second Branch here considerable to wit the state of the wicked in opposition and contradistinction to the Godly and so the first General part of the Text which is the condition of two ranks of persons good and bad He shall keep the feet of the Saints But the wicked shall be silent in Darkness The second General is the Reason or Account which is given of both That we have in the last words For by strength shall no man prevail This refers to both precedent clauses of the former General in the conditions both of good and bad therefore doe's God keep the feet of His Saints because there 's no strength prevailing without Him And therefore again shall the wicked also be silent in darkness because there 's no strength prevailing against him so it holds strong as a very good reason in either reference We begin with the first viz. As it refers to the first clause He shall keep the feet of His Saints That is by taking it exclusively He and He alone There 's no man prevails without God by any strength which is in Himself And therefore our old Translation expresses it so By his own strength shall no man prevail This is true according to the Notion and Acceptation of strength in the full latitude and extent of it whatever strength there 's of a man 's own it is such as whereby He shall be never able to prevail unless he have another and better strength joyn'd together with it Wee 'l reduce it briefly to three Heads First The strength of Body and Humane power with the appurtenances thereof Secondly The strength of Parts and the improvements of wit and understanding The strength of Grace in the meer purpose of it First I say not by the strength of Body and Humane Power with the Appurtenances thereof there 's no man shall prevail by this not by strength of outward force and arms and such helps as these These have a strength in them and such an one as one would think to be very prevalent but it is not this simply consider'd which carries the business And the Scripture does accordingly so set it and represent it unto us Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts Zech. 4.6 It is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel So Eccles 9.11 The race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong And Psal 44.3 They got not the land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arm save them but thy right hand and thine arms and the light of thy countenance because thou hadst a favour to them There 's the resolution of all not into man's strength so much as into God's There are divers instances and examples of those which have had little or no strength of their own and yet have much prevailed again their are instances of those which have not prevailed where they have had strength in great abundance And the Lord delights to have it so that so His own strength and power and glory may the more appear and that all Nations and People and Persons may acknowledge him in the Government of the world who is the Blessed and onely Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lord's as the Apostle Paul declares him in 1 Tim. 6.15 Therefore As the Prophet Jeremy makes Application of it to our hand Let not the strong man glory in his strength Jer. 9.23 We see hence what little cause we have to put our confidence in man or to make flesh our arm as the same Prophet likewise intimates and pronounces a curse upon such persons as are guilty of so doing Jer. 17.5 Ther 's not the Greatest Humane strength which of it self
Jobs Fearand Suspicion The Second is his Practise in order to his Fear Thus did Job Continually What did he do This refers to that before He offered up Sacrifice for them Prayers must be joyned with Fears the more Jealous and Suspicious we are of any the more need and cause have we to pray to God in their behalf and to seek to him for them Thus Job is said to be continually that is upon all occasions either every day or all day all the days of their Feasting while his Children were a Playing he was a Praying while they were Feasting he was Fasting and Humbling himself before God for them and so he had heed Parents have cause to Pray always for their Children and upon all occasions but they have never more need to do so then at such time as they are in Places or performances of Liberty and Sport and recreations Then to follow God with Prayer for them Continually so much for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XII Job 34.29 When he gives quietness who then can make trouble and when he hides his face who then can behold him c. There 's many a good and true saying which may be utter'd upon a false foundation and a misapplying of it to that party to whom it is directed And so it falls out with many speeches which we here meet with in this book of Job in the discourse which his friends had with him They were very grave and serious animadversions but they did very little concern tht person whom they aym'd at of all others besides Like good matter which is nothing to the Text and subject in hand We shall finde in the beginning of this book and so through the whole current of it that Job had three friends especially which entertain'd conference with him which were all very harsh against him In conclusion towards the latter end there steps in a fourth which serves to moderate the business with them but yet upon the point does also miscarry in the same prejudice as they did And that is Elihu the son of Barachel the Burite of the kindred of Cham. These words which I have now read unto you are a part of his discourse but still mistaking Job's condition and imagining him to suffer for his miscarriages and breaking with God As among other passages we may judge from this place in hand THe Text for the Parts of it consists of a double Question and a double reference The question is in these words When he gives quietness who then can make trouble when he hides his face who then can behold him The reference is to a double subject an whole Kingdom or a particular person whether it be done against c. Affirmative questions are equivolent to absolute negations and so here who can is as much as none can And thus we have two Propositions in brief exhibited to us First when God will give peace to any Kingdom none shall interrupt or hinder it when he will deny the same peace none shall be able to work or procure it Secondly When God will give peace to any person none shall there be able to trouble him when God will withdraw peace from him none shall then be able to comfort him We begin with the first of these Propositions with the second as we shall see in its due place which together consists of two branches First That when God will give peace to a Kingdom none can hinder it Secondly When God will deny the same peace to a Kingdom none can procure it when the Lord is peremptory and absolute and resolv'd upon either of these two there is no crossing of him First wee 'l look upon the first Branch When God will give peace to a Kingdom none can hinder it when he gives quietness who can make trouble We have divers instances in this observation in common experience both in other people of old and also of our selves in former times whom when God in his providence was so pleased as to crown with the blessing of peace none was able to make a disturbance And the Ground of it is clear First because all these things are in a subjection to his disposing As for example Men's Purposes and Counsels they are all guided by him The peace and welfare of any State does very much rest and depend upon the contrivances which are carried on for it and the disappointments of those conspiracies which are laid against it subject and subordinate to Divine dispensation It is a most true speech that of Solomon Pro. 21.30 There is no wisdom nor counsel nor understanding against the Lord. And that again of the Psalmist in Psal 33.11 The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever the thoughts of his heart to all generations And that further of the Prophet His Counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure Isa 46.10 He regulates all the Counsels and Contrivances which are stirring in the world Again As he orders mens heads so he also orders their hands As there is no Counsel which he is not privy to so there 's no enterprise which he does not over-rule And as men cannot think without him so neither can they act without him He disappointeth the devises of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise Iob 5.12 When the enemies of a State and people have done all that they can possibly against it yet it is still in his power to frustrate it No weapon that 's formed against them shall prosper as it in Isa 54.17 He breaketh the bow and knappeth the spear in sunder and burneth the chariot in the fire And lastly which must be added to the other he hath the hearts of all in his disposing also He that can command affections he may also command peace because the being of want of peace does much depend hereupon Now thus are all the hearts of all men in the world The hearts of Princes and other men with them they are all in his hand and he turneth them whithersoever he pleaseth even as the rivers of waters Therefore if he will but please to give peace and quietness to any Kingdom or Nation there 's none whosoever they be which shall be able to molest or disturb it And that may serve as the first account of this point Secondly When God will give quietness none shall be able to make trouble because that trouble which is at any time made it is in reference to God himself and for the avenging of his quarrel upon people There are divers and sundry occasions of wars and tumults in such a Kingdom some grounded upon one cause and some grounded upon another but yet the main and chief of all is the displeasure of an offended God He hath not been so well used as he hath deserv'd to have been in such and such places and therefore he suffers differences and divisions to grow amongst them In Iob 19.29 Be ye afraid of the sword for wrath bringeth the
or wearying out of him that he should give over Hee 'l make us weary of sinning before we shall make him weary of punishing Secondly Another occasion of escape in a multitude of delinquents amongst men is their exceeding great power and strength that they prove to hard for them which should judge them and call them to an account But this will not serve the turn against God when he shall come to punish them When the Lord shall stretch out his hand both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is holpen shall fall down and they shall all fail together as it is Isa 31.3 Thus much as it is terrible to wicked men Secondly This makes also very much for the comfort of the people of God in regard of their conflict which they sustain with great and potent Enemies and the multitudes of them They are such as prove oftentimes too hard and strong for them as the sons of Zerviah did for David but the Lord can tame them well enough whether a Nation or a man onely there 's no rescue out of his hands that he should not destroy them This was that whereby the Prophet Elisha comforted his servant in 2 King 6.16 Fear not says he for they that be with us are more than they that be with them And so Hezekiah to his Captains of war in 2 Chron. 32.7 Be strong and couragious be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria nor for all the multitude that is with him for there be more with us then with him with him is an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battels The Lord will one day tread all our enemies under our feet Again Further whether it be done against a Nation or against a man onely we learn another observation from this conjunction and that 's this That the sins of one Particular Person as well as of an whole Nation may provoke the Lord to the execution of judgement and punishment upon such and such places Elihu is here indifferent in his expressions whether one or to'ther That 's a true word of the Preacher That one sinner destroyes much good Eccles 9. ult Thus we see how the sin of one Achan put an whole army of Israelites to flight Josh 7.12 Thus we see how the sin of one Saul was an occasion of three years famine in the land 2 Sam. 21.1 Thus we see how the sin of one David caused a Pestilence from Dan to Beersheba 2 Sam. 24.15 Thus as he said Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi The ground of this point is taken from the filthy nature of sin it self and the odiousness therein which is so hateful and detestable to God that it makes him afflict those occasionally for it which were not immediately active in it Thus he has threatned to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth Generation Look as we see amongst men the whole stock and family is tainted for the treason of one member of it even so also in the dealings of God some whole Land and Nation may be defiled and involved for the sin of one man in it Secondly Because it is hard and rare for one notorious sinner to be in a Kingdom but the whole Kingdom more or less does partake of his guilt and wickedness in some one kind or other And a participation in sinning calls for a participation in punishing Hence may God easily be provoked and in good justice proceed to scourging of a Nation with a particular reference to a man onely This serve 's first of all to excite us to search and examine our selves now that Gods judgements are abroad in the land to see whether we or no for our particulars may not be the causes of them or if not of the first inflicting them yet at least of the further continuance of them and in that height that they are now upon us we are all ready in such cases to reflect upon the general Abominations and the Miscarriages of the Land in gross or it may be of such publique States and Conditions belonging to the Lands as the Magistrates and the Ministers and the like but we are here now call'd to search and inquire into our private and personal Faylings whether there may not be somewhat arising from them Secondly We see here what cause there is when God's Judgments are at any time upon a Kingdom that those which have the Government of it should proceed to the Execution of Justice upon notorious Offenders Forasmuch as but one of these for ought any one can say to the Contrary might be an occasion of wrath upon the Land and so accordingly the punishing of such an one might divert Wrath from it we see a plain and notable instance of this in the example of Phineas of whom it is said That when he stood up and Executed Judgment the Plague stayed Psal 106.30 Thirdly By the Rule of Contraryes as the Sin of one man may bring Judgment so the Righteousness of one man also may remove it and therefore we should all be here incouraged for the rectifying and reforming of our own wayes let the Nation do what it will There is a notable and excellent place to this purpose in this Book of Job Chap. 22. vers 29.30 Speaks there to a Godly man and one that delights himself in the Almighty When men are cast down then thou shalt say there is lifting up and he shall save the humble Person He shall deliver the Hand of the Innocent and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands So go through Jerusalem and find me a man that executeth Judgment c. Jerem. 5.1 And so much of these words also in their Connexion there remains to speak of them in their Second reference distinctly Trouble and Peace as it relates to a Private person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XIII Job 34.29 And when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be against a Nation or against a man onely This Scripture which I have here again read unto you it carryes a verygood complyance and Correspondency with the present times and seasons which are now fallen upon us for which cause I have the rather chosen it at this time to be handled by us It makes mention of those two things which take up the greatest part of our thoughts Trouble and Quietness The one is in our thoughts to Bewayl it and the other is in our thoughts to desire it The one we have in our Experience and the other in our Expectation and both we have also here Exhibited in that reference in which our selves look up it to wit in Generall to an whole Kingdom and in Particular to every Person to a Nation and to a man onely And this double reference of it does serve to make up unto us the two particulars of the Text. In the Morning we spake to the former where we
instance we may see in Job whom when the Devil labor'd to traduce and slander he could do no mischief against him forasmuch as the Lord himself had acquitted him and set him free Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in all the Earth a perfect and an upright man c. Job 1.8 Secondly Men shall not be able to disturb nor cause trouble neither though they may indeavour bereunto And for instance here Job's friends they laid heavy charges against him as an Hypocrite and a desembler and I know not what but yet for all that they could not quite shake him of from his Confidence he appeals to God in these their censures of him Job 16.19.20 My witness is in Heaven and my record is on High my friends scorn me but mine Eyes powreth out tears unto God Job he had comfort in God even then when his friends spake against him and past hard sentences upon him And we see afterwards how the Lord acquitted him even to the shame of those his false accusers And thus will he likewise do upon occasion with others of his servants All the unreasonable suspicions and all the uncharitable opinions and all the hard censures which are at any time cast upon them shall not be able to prevail against them where God acquits a man it is no matter who speaks against him When he gives quietness none then can make trouble Thirdly Not a mans own misgiving and scrupulous Conscience that shall not cause trouble neither Where God himself will vouchsafe peace the Children of God sometimes through that weakness and infirmity which is in them are now and then false accusers of themselves and are ready to judge themselves to be in a worse Condition then they are as the generality and greatest sort of People offend in a way of self Presumption so there are some though not so many which also offend in a way of self suspition which lay hard inditements against themselves and their own Souls as Hypocrites as reprobates as such as have no truth or reality of Grace in them But now where God is pleased at any time to come in with a message and Testimony of Reconcilement all these doubts and fears and misgivings do presently vanish away When God will give quietness a man shall be freed from trouble from himself and his own Spirits If our Heart condemn us falsely God is greater then our Hearts and knows all things as it is said in another case Fourthly Not the Law of God that shall not cause trouble neither where it pleases God to give us his peace the Law that accuses and denounces also Joh. 5.45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust Moses that is the Law written by Moses c. And how does that pronounce sentence See in Galat. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Here is the hard rigor of the Law But his now shall be able to do no hurt where God himself will give peace forasmuch as Christ hath freed them from the condemning Power of it Galat. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us He hath not freed us from the Authority of the Law that power which it hath over us to command us and to be a rule unto us but he hath freed us from the rigor of the Law that power which it would have over us to condemn us and to inflict punishment upon us Christ hath so freed and exempted us from the Law by dying for us as that it shall be no longer troublesome to us in this sense and consideration There is no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 Thus in all these several particulars is that Soul sure to be free from trouble which has once made its peace with God Neither Satan nor the World nor their own Conscience nor the Law of God it self shall be able to molest them that is so as any thing to prevayle or get the mastery of them So that we must still remember as an Explication of this present point that we take this trouble here as a trouble of Efficacy and Success not for a trouble of indeavour These may now go about to trouble such as those which are at peace with God but they shall not prevail against them no not the very gates of Hell it self The Ground of this truth is this namely because God is in those relations as must needs assure those of peace and Satisfaction whom he is at peace withall and that may be further declared in these particulars First It is he who is the Plantiff and the Party wronged and which enters the Action If any one should make a Christian trouble in regard of his Spiritual Estate it must be such an one whom a Christian has wronged and offended and trespassed against if he be satisfied and well-pleased who has any thing more to say against him why now this is the case here when God gives Spiritual quietness none is there able to make trouble Because the party offended is satisfied and he to whom the injury was done is now contented to take it up as you know Christ said in the Gospel to that woman which the Pharisees brought to him having taken her in the fact Joh 8 10.11 Woman sayes He where are those thine accusers Hath no man condemn'd thee She said No man Lord. And Jesus said unto her neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more When Christ himself did not condemn her none was able to lay any thing to her Because if any one had to do in forgiving her or accusing her it was he most of all who was God against whom she had sinned till she had received absolution from him she could not go away in quiet and when she had so it was no great matter what any other might say against her If God himself speak peace all is well in this regard and upon this consideration because he is the party most concern'd in the trespass it self Therefore David speaking of himself in Psal 51.4 He speaks after this manner Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest David had sinned against others also against Bathsheba and Vrijah against the rest of the people of God whom he had scandalized by his ill example But he sayes he had sin'd onely against God so as to call him to an account for this transgression at Gods tribunal and in his own Conscience He had sinned against God chiefly and he had sinned against God principally and he had sinned against God so as from him to beg and expect the perfect pardon and forgiveness of his sins this belong'd to God alone forasmuch as he was
understand his Providence and Fatherly Protection which is compared to the shadow for the Safety and Security of it and the refreshment which comes by it That as in a shade men are defended from the Heat so in this from these showers and Heates of Afflictions and Persecutions which they are subject unto God is said sometimes to hide us himself and sometimes we our selves hide our selves flying and repâ—â—ring to him for shelter and defence of us We have often mention made of this in Scripture Psal 17.8 Keep me as the Apple of thine Eye hide me under the shadow of thy Wings And Psal 57.1 In the shaddows of thy wings will I make my refuge untill these Calamities be over past And Psal 94.4 He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust So again there are other phrases and Expressions also answerable hereunto As Esay 49.2 In the shadow of his hand hath he hid us And Psal 31.20 The secret of his presence and secretly in a Pavilion and the like When t is said here that the Righteous which are the Sons of men do put their trust under the shadow of Gods wings which is his Providence and Fatherly protection There are two things especially signified in this Expression First Their Expectation and dependance as to matter of Practise they do repair and betake themselves to him Secondly Their Satisfaction and Security as to matter of Success or Priviledg they do rest and quiet themselves in Him First I say here 's their Expectation and dependance as to point of Duties Gods Children still in every Condition especially of Perplexity and Distress do betake themselves to him for Safeguard and Defence and Protection of them They come under the shadow of his wings This is grounded in their Relation to him because they are his Children Whether should Children go for refuge but to their Father This interest puts them hereupen Oh! it it is a blessed thing to have such a share and propriety in God Especially in sad and Evil times And it concerns us to make sure our interest in him for this purpose and that before such times as these shall come upon us If ever we desire with comfort to repair to God in danger for Protection we must repair to him before danger for Love and out of Obedience to him otherwise we may doubt and question with our selves whether he will shelter and protect us or no. The practise here of Gods people does condemn the contrary in many others besides who least think of God of any thing else in all the world when Danger or Trouble is near unto them There are a great many shadows which men trust in at such times and truly they are but shadows indeed and shadows in the worst notion and sense of it as it is a diminitive word and expression in opposition to substance and reality The shadow of Wit and the shadow of Wealth and the shadow of Friends and the shadow of Strength and outward Power and the like these are the shadows which they rely upon but the shadow of Gods wings is a business which is quite out of their minds they think not at all of it But the Godly here do give us a better example in this Text by repairing to God as their Duty Secondly Here 's their priviledge and Success they trust that is they rest and quiet themselves There 's a great deal of Serenity and Tranquillity in a faithful reliance upon God Now Secondly For the Ground of Inference or Connexion of these words with the former Therefore do the Sons of men c. Therefore wherefore why because thy Loving-kindness is so excellent So then according to the several notions of Loving-kindness which I mentioned before here is a double Improvement observable First Here 's the Improvement of the Nature of God and what he is in his Disposition or Affection because thy Loving-kindness is so excellent that is because thou bearest such favour to thy People And Secondly Here 's the Improvement of the Providence of God and what he is in his works and Performances Because thy Loving-kindness is Excellent that is because thou hast done so much for them already therefore do they trust thee further And so here are two Propositions or Conclusions which do arise from these words First That we have great cause to trust God for his Attributes and the Goodness which is in Him Secondly That we have great cause to trust God for his Performances and the Experience which we have of him this same therefore it hath both these in it First I say we have cause to trust him for his Attributes and the Goodness which is in him They that know thy Name will trust in thee Psal 9.10 Thy Name that is thy Nature wherein thou art always like to thy self Secondly We have cause to trust him for his Performances and the Experiences of him thus also in the next words in the same verse For thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee That is thy Loving-kindness hath been Excellent Love it ingages to trust the more Affection still the more Confidence in the party which is Affected Now the use of all this to our selves is to stir us up still upon occasion to improve these both to our own advantage for the quickning and strengthning of our Faith Especially in great Difficulties which may at any time happen unto us let us remember still to oppose to them and set against them the excellency and infiniteness and admirableness of Gods Loving-kindness Thus now we have the Second General also dispatcht and so with it the whole Text it self which I have at this time undertaken How Excellent is thy Loving-kindness O God therefore the Children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XXI Psal 84.11 For the Lord God is a Sun and shield The Lord will give Grace and Glory No good thing will be withhold from them that walk uprightly There is nothing which is more necessary for us then to have Good thoughts and apprehensions of God It is necessary both in point of Duty and in Point of Comfort In point of Duty it is necessary thereby to work us so much the more to obedience and Complyance with Gods Commands for what can be done too much for Him who has so much worth and Excellency in Himself And it is necessary in point of Comfort thereby to work us so much the more to Contentment and submission to Gods Dispensations For what can come amiss from Him who is so Good and Gracious to us and especially when we our selves do apprehend and believe him to be so Therefore this is that which we have here exhibited to us in this Scripture which we have here before us from the Mouth or Pen of the Psalmist as a satisfaction and refreshment to himself in his present condition The Lord God is a Sun and shield The Lord
Solomon tells us and Peter councels Simon Magus to repent of his wicked thought that it might be forgiven unto him we have cause to take care of our thoughts that they may not be otherwise then such as are agreeable to the rule of God's Law Take heed of spiritual sins and such as are more appropriated to the mind or of Corporal sins made Spiritual by Fancy and Speculation Speculative revenge and Speculative uncleanness and Speculative Theft which consists in Covetous and unlawful Desires We should use our phansies and thoughts purely that so while they are not to us instruments and means of sin they may not be to us neither instruments or means of Affliction that we may not have troublesome and disquieting thoughts it concerns us to have innocent thoughts and thoughts as near as we can free from guilt and that in all the Improvements and Activities of them In matter of Judgement to have sound and sober opinions In matter of reflection to have holy and Sanctified Meditations In matter of Counsel to have honest and faithful Contrivances Every way and in every thing to submit our thoughts to the blessed guidance of the Holy Spirit of God and in a Gracious Captivity and subjection to the Obedience of Christ Thus shall we have less trouble from our thoughts then otherways we should And as this does concern all men whatsoever so more especially does it concern those whose excellency lies in their thoughts Schollers and men of parts and understanding forasmuch as these are most subject to such kind of evils as these are in the greatest Aggravations The finest wits are liable to the greatest Distractions and the more advantages any have of doing Evil the more occasions have they likewise of suffering Evil as the mind is capable of the greater Comfort and Contentment so it is also of the greatest trouble and look as it is in the body that the most exquisite Constitutions are liable to the greatest pains so in the Soul the most sublime and raised parts ar exposed to the most disquieting thoughts Thus God is pleased now and then to afford sad instances and Expressions off that others may take heed but so much for the first particular to wit the grief or evil it self which is here mentioned And that is thoughts The Second is the Amplification of this Evil and that is from the Number Multitude of thoughts Thoughts crowding and thrusting in themselves in a Violent and confused manner one upon another Que catervatim se proruunt as Austin speaks in another case such thoughts as these does he here speak off All Evils do still receive an Intention and Aggavation of themselves from the plurality and multiplicity of them And so likewise here one troublesome and molesting thought it may breed a great deale of Grief and Distraction and such as a man would fain be rid off and shake off from Himself what he could But where there are many this is so much the more Intollerable Now this is that which we have here in this place exhibited to us David had many rugged thoughts which he was perplext and troubled withall and which occasion'd so much grief unto Him It was Multitudo Cogitationum and this is that which many others besides are subject unto There are many devises in the Heart of a man as Solomon speaks Prov. 19.21 And again in Eccl. 7.29 God made man Righteous but they sought out many Inventions Many Devises and many Inventions and many Thoughts are men troubled withall There 's a variety and diversity of them This to give you some account of it from whence it does proceed is founded upon these following Considerations First The nature of the mind of man consider'd simply in it self that lays Ground for this Multiplication Man's Soul it is full of Nimbleness and Activity and Fruitfulness upon all occasions It is that which is still working and beating out somewhat or other without any Intermission And because it is also full of Inconstancy and unsettledness by reason of Sin therefore it is apt to produce a variety and abundance of thoughts It goes from one thing to another like a Bee in the change of Flowers and is never at rest and this is a part of that Vanity which is upon it this Infirmity is seen in nothing more then it is in the performance of good Duties Prayer and hearing of the word and such Religious Exercises as these wherein this multitude of thoughts does in a special manner discover it self How hard and difficult is it without a great deal of carefulness and watchfulness and preparation and circumspection for the mind to keep it self close to that one thing which is necessary and not to be called away to a variety and multiplicity of Distractions at such times as those are The Holiest men that ever have been they have much complained of this weakness in themselves as St. Austin and St. Basil c. Secondly Another Cause and Ground of this multitude of thoughts may be taken from the mutability of Conditions and variety of Objects and occasions which we meet withall in this world Our thoughts are for the most part answerable to the Estate in which we are and the occasions which are presented unto us Now forasmuch as there 's an alteration in them there 's a diversity also in these which are sutable and agreeable thereunto This is our Condition in this World that it is subject to an abundance of change sometimes things go well with us and sometimes they go another way at least we are ready to think so let them go how they will There are occasions from our selves there are occasions from our Relations there are occasions from the Church and publique Estates And this does produce Plurality and variety of thoughts in us Thirdly There is also some cause from this now and then likewise from others according as thoughts are suggested and presented and offered to the mind and this is seen in nothing more then in the Temptations of Satan who being Himself a Spirit has thereby a very great advantage over our Spirits and does sometimes put thoughts into us of his own accord and which otherwise we should never think off Yea there are some whom he does in a manner force and impose thoughts upon them against their will in his violent suggestions Thoughts of Atheism and thoughts of Blasphemy and thoughts against the very Light and dictates of Nature it self these may be said to be our thoughts so far forth as we are the Subjects recipient of them and in a passive sense but otherwise they are none of ours neither shall they be put upon our score or laid to our charge while we do abhor and reverence them no more then the words of any Blasphemer or prophane person which we hear against our minds and which we shut our Ears against yet these they are many times in great multitudes and do make up this present number in the Text. And
by us First Take it in the first sense according to our last English Translation and as we have handled it all this while for Divine Contemplation The Meditation on God is sweet And the sweetness of it should stir us up to the putting of it in Practise We have very great cause to be careful what we Meditate and pitch upon in our thoughts which are of great Importance and Concernment to us and that as they are a very great Discovery of the Frame and Temper of our hearts as I in part hinted before There 's nothing which does more shew what men like then their Meditations Flittering and Transitory Thoughts which do pass through the mind but do not stick they are not such an infallible discovery because they may not have that Tincture and impression of the soul upon them But Meditations they have much of the Will in them and are carried with more deliberation attending upon them And therefore it concerns us to look to them and to see what they be in us and of this nature that we now speak of we should cherish in our selves as much as may be these Holy and heavenly Meditations which are of God and things belonging to Him as we have hitherto declared as being such as He takes special notice and observation of in us He declares to man what 's his Thoughts Mah secho that is what 's his Meditation his fixed and settled thoughts as the Prophet tells us in Amos 4.13 And therefore we should take care that they may be such thoughts as be approvable to him How far are those from such as these as Meditate nothing but that which is evil and the accomplishment of their base lusts Their filthiness and their ambition and their covetousness and their revenge and the like which devise mischief upon their beds and set themselves in a way that is not good as the Psalmist speaks Psal 36.4 Oh there are abundance of such Meditations as these are in the world which are of the Devil and not of God nor can we say that these are sweet Oh no in any true notion of sweetness indeed they are for the present sweet to a naughty and corrupt heart which seems to take great delight in them But they will be bitterness in the latter end like the sweetness to a distemper'd palate As for our selves we should all labour to be wedded to good and holy Meditations and to have our souls fixed and fasten'd upon heavenly and Divine Objects we should not think our thoughts to be free but be careful where they are pitch'd even upon God and Christ and Heaven and the glory to be revealed The Benefit hereof will be this that it will keep us in a right course and regulate our whole Conversation For as mens thoughts are so are their lives and their Affections are for the most part answerable to their Contemplations I have set the Lord alwayes before me sayes the Psalmist and what then Therefore I shall not be moved Meditation upon God will keep us from swarving from him This is that which we should do at all times especially as we have the larger and greater opportunities for it In our Solitariness in our Retirements when we are withdrawn and alone by our selves Oh then to meditate upon God and his Free-Grace and love in Christ the Covenant of Grace and the like these are fitting thoughts for us when we are freed from our hard and worldly Distractions and which the Servants of God have still upon occasion taken up to themselves They have been careful still to improve such opportunities as these are Thus the Prophet David for an instance he gives us Counsel to this purpose Psal 4.4 Stand in awe and sin not Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still And as he Counsell'd it so also he Practised it Psal 63.6 When I remember thee upon my bed and Meditate on thee in the night-watches And again Psal 119.148 Mine eyes prevent the Night-watches that I Meditate upon thy Word And Psal 139.18 How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the Sum of them If I should count them they are more in number then the sand when I awake I am still with thee Thy thoughts that is indeed the thoughts of thee by taking it not subjectively but rather Objectively The Thoughts which David did conceive in himself concerning God by Meditating and Contemplating upon him they were very precious to him and he found a great deal of sweetness and Contentment in them from whence he took all occasion that might be for the exercising of them and that even at Midnight it self and when deprived of his Natural rest With my soul have I desired thee in the night season Isa 26.9 To set home this still a little further let us consider this with our selves That this Duty of Meditation it will out-last all other Duties and performances of Christianity besides and will stick longest by us There are many other performances besides which a Christian by many accidents and occasions may be taken off from by sickness by Age by Exile by imprisonment and the like Oh but he cannot be taken from that He cannot it may be alwayes read hear or confer or frequent the Publick Assemblies Oh but he can Meditate alwayes and have his thoughts imploy'd about God when his tongue cannot express it self to Him His Meditation of Him shall yet be sweet That which is said of the heart it self in a way of Nature that it is primum vivens ultimum moriens The first part that lives and the last part that dyes the same may be said of Meditation in a way of Grace It is the first Duty and Performance that appears and the last duty that remains in us it survives and out-lives all the rest Now this that we may do the more successefully it will be our wisdom to attend upon such means as are Introductive and preparatory hereunto such as are reading and hearing of the word These are such as do dispose to Meditation and without which it oftentimes proves either unprofitable or erroneous This was that which Gods servants still observ'd in such performances as these are as David and Joshua and Timothy such as these the latter of them especially in 1 Tim. 4.13 14. First give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine and then Meditate upon these things And so much of the first Notion of this word which is here used in the Text as it denotes Divine Contemplation and Meditation on the things of God there 's a great deal of sweetness first in this The second is as it denotes Converse and Communion with God in Prayer for so the Hebrew word is sometimes taken and so some have interpreted it Gen. 24.63 which some read to pray and thus here My Converse and Communion with God is very sweet namely in Prayer and my addresses to Him Prayer is nothing else but a familiar Colloquy
servants but because he will so far gratifie us as to be served by us And then take occasion from thence so much the more to reward us where the goodness of God to his people is observable in two contrary dispensations both in preserving their lives to them and in taking of their lives from them As long as they have any work to do he preserves their lives to them that they may do their work and when that work is done he takes away their lives from them that may they may receive their wages I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord in ver 17. of this present Psalm Thirdly for the good and comfort of others which are their Christian Friends and especially Ministers for the good of their people Thus St. Paul takes notice of it in himself in respect of the Philippians Phil. 2.23 24. I am in a straight betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better nevertheless for me to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you And having this confidence I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for the furtherance and joy of your Faith That your rejoycing may be more abundant in Christ Jesus for me by my coming to you again The Apostle it had been better for himself to have left the world That so he might have had his Crown and his reward and have been with Christ Oh but the Church of God could not spare him The Philippians they could not be without him but needed such a faithful Moniter to be continued to them and to abide still amongst them and for their sakes did he so order it to them as one who intends the end does fit the means sutable to them And so as it is in Ministers to their people so in one Minister to another and one friend to another As we live one in another so we live one for another and are preserved in reference hereunto Thus St. Paul notes it of Epaphroditus Philip. 1.26 27. He longed after you all and was full of heaviness because that ye had heard that he had been sick for indeed he was sick nigh unto Death but God had mercy on him and not on him onely but on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow In which passage of Scripture there are divers things observable of us to our present purpose First Here 's Epaphroditus's Danger and the extremity which he had been in He was sick nigh unto death which is that which God does often bring his servants to for sundry reasons Partly thereby to awaken them and to make them to clear up their accounts partly thereby to try them and to see the frame and temper in which they are partly to try the good-will and affection of others towards them for these and the like considerations does he sometimes bring them to the pits mouth when as yet he does not take them away as he did here with Epaphroditus Secondly Here was his recovery and preservation from that death which he was so nigh unto The providence which is here celebrated in the Text by the Prophet David and this has its Character put upon it as a Dispensation of mercy But God had mercy on him for so it is in his own nature and simply considered Thirdly Here 's the extent of the mercy not to Epaphroditus onely but to St. Paul not on him onely but on me also On thee as a friend it is a mercy to have our friends continued on me as a Minister it is a mercy to have our fellow-laboures continued On me also as a Believer It is a mercy to have our Christian Brethren continued as members of the same body with us Then last of all Here 's the end and motive of all this lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow why sorrow upon sorrow why because the Apostle was now in bonds and under many afflictions besides in which cases Friends are alwayes most pleasing and acceptable to us A Friend is born for adversity now to have lost such a friend as this had been a very great loss indeed and God was tender and shy of it so far to press upon his heart and to lay too heavy a load upon him Thus some of the afflictions of God's people are assured to them against others who otherwise would happen to them They should suffer more if they did not suffer so much already Where we may observe a difference betwixt God and men men they oftentimes delight to add affliction to affliction where they see any under sorrow to increase their sorrow upon them and to make it more as the Lord himself complains of the Heathen in their carriage towards his people Zech. 1.15 I am very sore displeased with the Heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased namely with my people and they helped forward the affliction Men they help forward the Affliction but God he does not love to do so He will not add sorrow to sorrow Fourthly God does also sometimes preserve the lives of his servants and not deliver them up to death for the greater Disappointment of enemies and persons ill-affected to them who hope and wait for their death God loves to cross and frustrate base and vile affections and in his Providence to go contrary to them Many an one had been dead if they had not been wisht to dye the ambition and covetousness and sometimes malice of some kind of persons in the world have kept many a man alive who had been otherwise in his grave God will not so far gratifie sinfull and unworthy desires as in such cases to comply with them but rather by their mis-carriage and dissappointment in the event shew them the vanity of them This David takes notice of himself in another place upon this occasion in Psal 41.5 Mine enemies speak evil of me when shall he dye and his name perish an evil disease say they cleaves unto him and now that he lyeth down he shall rise up no more but thou O Lord art merciful unto me And then it follows verse 11. By this I know that thou favourest me because mine enemy doth not triumph over me Thus we see how upon several considerations God keeps his servants from coming to their death This is first of all matter of incouragement to the servants of God and may hearten them and strengthen them in his service and keep them from perplexity and disquiet forasmuch as there is such a carefull Providence watching over them and preserving of them it should shut out all needless fears and distractions in them which in some cases they are subject unto and especially in some difficult enterprises whereunto now and then they may be called to comfort themselves in this consideration That God will not lightly and easily and for no cause give them over to death There 's a great deal of mistrustfulness oftentimes in the best
of them And what ever they do for Him it is pleasing and acceptable to him As for wicked men God loathes all that comes from them He does not take it kindly at their hands but rather quarrels and findes fault with it and excepts against it as we find often in Scripture Should I accept this from you Mal. 1.13 And who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Isa 1.12 He takes no pleasure in fools as it is Eccles 5.4 But for His Servants He is pleased to imploy them and He is pleased also with their Imployment Thus we see how in all these respects and Considerations which we have now mentioned the Lord takes pleasure in those that are his In their Persons and in their Graces and their Prayers and all their Services All which together make it up that He takes pleasure in them themselves as is here declared Now for the amplifying and further illustrating of this present Point before us This Delight which God takes in his people is considerable in these following Circumstances 1. As Free 2. As Lasting 3. As Operative and Efficacious First of all It is Free and Originated in Himself The Reason why men doe Delight and take pleasure in one another it is for the most part from some excellency in the Object moving them and inclining them thereunto from some sutableness to the Person delighted in and the Person that does Delight in him But in Gods delighting in His people there 's no such matter It is all here of Free Grace and Favour His taking Pleasure it does proceed from his Good-pleasure And there 's no other Account which can be given of it but His own Will As Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord loved you because He loved you that is His love it is best resolved into Himself as the proper cause and spring of it This is a very great Inlargement and Amplification of it unto us We count it a great piece of Favour especially in Great Persons to own Worth where they find it and to Delight in men there where they have somewhat amiable and delightful in them But to delight in any of their own accord and purely from the Goodness of their own nature without any thing worthy in the Person this is reckon'd a great Favour indeed why this is the case of Gods Delight and pleasure-taking in his servants It is there where they have nothing to move him or provoke him to it at least but what he himself first puts into them They are Comely with his Comeliness which he hath put upon them and from thence amiable to Him Secondly This Complacency and delight which God takes in his people it is lasting and Continuing As for the pleasure of men it is very uncertain and mutable they may delight in one at one time and disrelish him again at another as there are frequent experiences of it But the delight which God takes in his servants it is of a fixed and continued Nature and whom he loves he loves to the end The gists and calling of God are without Repentance This proceeds not onely from the Vnchangeableness which is in Himself but also from the Consideration of that Person through whom he is pleased with them and does accept of them this as I shewed before is Jesus Christ the Son of his Love forasmuch as God's love to Beleivers it is laid and founded in Christ therefore so long as he delights and takes pleasure in Christ he will do so in them also and his love can no more fail to them then to Christ Himself in whom he loves them Thirdly This Delight of God's it is Operative and Efficacious it is such as makes us to delight in God again and so it is mutual and Reciprocall Men they do sometimes delight and take pleasure in such kind of Persons as do not again delight in them but with God now it is otherwise where he is pleased at any time to fasten his Love and Affection upon any person he does cause him to make answerable returns in some degree of love unto him We love him says St. John because he first loved us not only as meriting it for us but as working it in us and not onely as the motive of our Love but also as the Efficient Therefore from hence by the way may we make a discovery to our selves of Gods delight in our selves namely according to this answerable Effect which it hath upon our own Hearts If so be he delights in us we shall also delight in Him and we may know the one by the other Those that shall say unto God depart from us for we desire not the knowledg of thy ways Those that care not to approach to God nor to injoy any Communion with him they may from thence very easily conclude that God does not delight in them forasmuch as this Delight it is operative and Efficacious And those are the several Amplifications of this Delight which is here mentioned to us Now this point thus illustrated to us it may be fruitful in sundry Inferences and deductions which may be drawn from it by way of Improvement and Application First In a way of Comfort and Consolation to the servants of God here 's matter of great Incouragement to them that God himself does take pleasure in in them and thus it is so in sundry respects First In point of Honour it is a great Dignity and Advancement to them We know in the affaires of the world that every one is so far Honourable as he is respected by persons of Honour those who have men of Quality to own them and to take delight in them they have so far forth a great deal of Excellency and Renown put upon them Now thus it is with all those who are true Beleivers and members of Christ they have the great God of Heaven and Earth himself takeing pleasure in them which is the highest Promotion of them Since thou wast precious in my sight thou wast Honourable because I have loved thee says God to Israel in Esay 43.4 And so it hold good of every Christian and Beleiver whatsoever He is so far forth Honourable as he is in favour with God Himself as well-pleased with Him Secondly In point of Safety it holds good in that respect likewise because God delights in his servants he will therefore protect them every one is Chary of that wherein they take pleasure for the keeping and preserving of it and as near as he can will not suffer any Evil to befall it Why thus now it is with God to his people He that toucheth them toucheth the Apple of their Eye as he has exprest it about them Zach. 2.8 So Esay 27.3 Speaking of his Vineyard that is his Church I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment least any hurt it I will keep it Night and Day Men care not what becomes of the Wilderness of dry and barren Ground because they have no pleasure
this Mercy and that we are inabled so to do it is that which every one cannot do even there where there is Mercy fitted and prepared and provided for him go praise God for that Thirdly That God accepts of this Hope from us and is so well pleased with it in us we have cause to praise him likewise for this to say the Lord be magnified as who rejoyces in the Prosperity so takes pleasure in the Graces of his Servants and that even at such times as he neglects the great thins of the World and in a sort despises them That the Bones of the mighty are oftentimes broken while they that stumbled are girt with strength as Hannah in her Song expresses it 1 Samuel 2.4 And so I have done with these words as in their absolute Consideration so in their Comparative and so with the whole Text it self The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his Mercy SERMON XXIX Prov. 3.17 Her wayes are wayes of Pleasantness and all her paths are Peace It is the Nature and Disposition of Artists and those which are of any Mystery or Profession as much as they can to extoll and advance that Profession which they are off and to Commend it to the Consideration of others As Paul of the Ministry of the Gentiles I magnifie mine own Office Rom. 11.13 Every one is ready to magnifie that way which he takes up to Himself above all others whatsover and this as it is observable in other things so amongst the rest especially in Religion and the wayes of Godliness Those which are the Professors of this they desire as much as may be to Commend it and set it forth to the view of other men Wisdom is justified of her Children as our Saviour tells us Thus we may observe it to be here in this Scripture which we have now before us in the Example of the wise man Solomon who being a Son of Wisdome and of special Wisdom especially that is Grace and Holiness and Religion which he here speaks off does in divers Chapters together applaud it and praise it all he can that so thereby he may invite others unto it IN these words we have described unto us the Excellency of Godliness and Religion in two particulars which may serve to make up unto us the parts of the Text. First From it's Pleasure and delight Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness Secondly From it's Tranquility and Quiet And all her paths are peace We begin First of all with the former to wit the description of Godliness from the pleasure and delight which is in it The wayes of Godliness and Religion are exceeding pleasing and delightful wayes they carry a great deal of sweetness and Contentment and pleasantness in them This is the point which is here exhibited unto us and it dâ—â—â— appear out of other places of Scripture likewise as Psal 36.8 David speaking of the Church and members of it sayes That they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Gods House and that he would make them to drink of the Rivers of his pleasures And Psal 118.15 The voyce of joy and Salvaton is sayd to be in the Tabernacles of the Righteousness So Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in Heart Esay 51.11 The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their Head they shall obtain gladness and joy and Sorrow and Mourning shall flee away Esay 64.5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh Righteousness where you see they are both joyned together And Galat. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is joy Now this Truth it may be further amplyfied and made good to us in sundry particulars which do prove and confirm it unto us There is a great deal of pleasure in Religion in sundry respects Wee 'l take them in that order as they do offer and present themselves to our thoughts As First of all In the work of Grace and Regeneration wrought in the heart All the several Graces of the Spirit and the habits of Sanctification which are in us they do reflect very sweetly upon us and there is a great deal of delight and Contentment to the Soul which does see them in it self Take a man which is full of Lusts and Corruptions which bear sway in him and he is a loathsome and abominable Creature sometimes even in his own Apprehensions A wicked and ungodly man he is in some manner odious to himself and is overcome as I may say now and then even with his own stench like a man which is in filthy Rags and torn and uncomely Garments he does not like himself in them But now on the otherside a good Christian which has the Grace of the Spirit of God in him and the work of the New Creature in his Soul he is so far forth pleasing to himself Grace is a very sweet and odoriferous Qualification as it casts a sweet savor into the Nostrils of all others that stand by it so especially as I may say into the Nostrils of all those that partake of it That Soul which is indued with it is like one that has roll'd himself in a Bed of Spices who is all over sweet and delightful I might set it forth to you in all the resemblances of Comfort and Contentment look whatever it be which in the discovery and discerning of it does usually afford delight to our selves the same may be applyed to the Graces of Gods Spirit and the sanctifying Qualities which are in us not onely as odoures and sweet spices to the smell it 's pleasing to be sensible of them But likewise further as Treasures of Gold and Silver there are many which much delight in them The Rich man when he looks in to his Coffers how much contentment does he take in them even there where others deride him and laughed at him Populus mei sibilat c. Yea but now a Godly man recounting the Graces which are in him has more true comfort and content by far And that 's the First particular wherein Godliness proves so delightful In the work of Regeneration and the habits of the Spirit of God in us Secondly As there 's a sweetness in reflecting upon Grace in the having of it so especially in the Exercise of it Every Grace the more it is improveed carries a delight and pleasurableness in it in what kind soever Therefore the Psalmist tells us that in keeping of Gods Commandments there is great Reward Mark not onely for the keeping but in the keeping be-shomran Psal 19.11 There 's Praemium ante Praemium A reward before the reward even in the thing it self Sutable to the nature of the Grace is the Exhibition of the comfort yea the very Heathen and Moralists themselves so far forth as they exercised vertue and practised that natural goodness which was in them they had some kind of comfort and contentment
as these seriously think and consider with themselves what we have hitherto treated of and be admonished and advised by it The simple pass on and are punished It is only the Prudent which foresees the evil and hides himself who does escape the Judgment And when we speak here of the Prudent and Simple we may if we please take it here a little narrower than hitherto we have taken it Not only hereby understanding Godly and Ungodly Men the Righteous and the Wicked who do differ toto genere but also as well Christians and Professors of Religion in a different frame and temper of Spirit which is considerable in them There are some Christians which are more watchful and vigilant and circumspect of themselves These are the Wise and Prudent Again There are others which though perhaps they may have some truth of Grace in them and good Principles at the bottom yet are a little more careless and remiss and negligent not so careful as they should be to stir up that good which is in them These may also be called Simple and Foolish And we see here what belongs unto them as the Doom which is past upon them They pass on and are punished That Christian that walks carelesly and securely and does not look to his Watch he does thereby ensnare himself It is not only the lot of those which are absolutely wicked and profane but even of the Servants of God themselves now and then which are not more careful of themselves for their simplicity and security to be punished So I have done with both parts of the Text and with the whole Verse it self SERMON XXXV Esaiah 9.14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail branch and Rush in one day Though God considered in himself in his own Blessed Majesty be altogether absolute and unaccomptable and need to give no reason at all of any thing which is done by him his own Will being the best and highest Reason that can possibly be given Yet he is pleased out of his Grace and Goodness so far oftentimes to condescend to the Sons of men as to give them some account of those Actions which are done by him Especially which do any thing more than ordinarily concern themselves as to their suffering from him And this is that which we may observe him to do in this Scripture which we have now before us where intending a great desolution of this People which he had to deal withal the People of Israel and the sending of a sweeping Judgement amongst them He here gives them a reason of so much sharpness and severity to them as proceeding not so much from himself but rather from them not from himself so much as unmercifully disposed towards them or set against them But from themselves rather who had neglected his mercy and goodness to them IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First The Ground or Occasion of the Judgment that 's in the Particle Therefore which relates to that which went before in the 13th Verse the Judgment it self that 's exprest in these words The Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail c. We begin with the First of these Parts viz. The Ground or Occasion of the Judgment in the particle Therefore Therefore Wherefore Why namely because this People did not turn unto him that had smitten them neither did seek the Lord of hosts as is exprest in the Verse immediately preceeding Therefore will the Lord do thus and thus with them where the Cause which is here exprest may be conceived to proceed in the way of a threefold Gradation First Of their simple Impiety Secondly Of their Additional Impenitency Thirdly Of their continued Obstinacy There was their Simple Impiety in provoking of God by their sin and miscarriage at first There was their additional Impenitency in that they did not turn from their sin to him that smote them There was their continued Obstinacy in that they would not in all this so much as seek to the Lord of hosts First Here was their Simple Impiety and sinning of theirs against God at first as a Ground and occasion of Gods Judgment to be inflicted upon them This was that which was in the bottom of it Israel had sinned and therefore now Israel was to be punished in reference to their sin This is that which is pertinently to be observed in all proceedings of this nature sin it is the meritorious cause of all punishment and that which lays a ground for it Where ever there is sin there will be Punishment sooner or later And where once there is Punishment there has been sin greater or smaller and so the Scripture still intimates and declares unto us as 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak c. There is always a cause and a particular cause of Judgment and his proceeding to Punishment Sin and Punishment they are relatives and have a mutual dependance upon each other And that especially in regard of the Justice which is in God He cannot indure to behold sin and iniquity and therefore must needs punish it and be avenged upon it The wages of sin is Death and God is a true Paymaster who will not withhold their wages from such Persons to whom it is due nor yet on the other side will he give such wages to such Persons to whom it is not due Therefore we should justifie God in all his dealings with us to this purpose when his hand does at any time lye more than ordinarily heavy upon us it is good for us to search our hearts and ways in this particular and to consider how it is with us Gods quarrel is not against our Persons but against our Sins and therefore let us reflect upon them and lay the cause where it is to be laid indeed Why doth a living man complain or man for the Punishment of his Sin Let us search and try our hearts and turn unto the Lord our God as the Prophet Jeremy advises Lam. 3.31 We should for the most part suspect our sins as the causes of any Judgment which is upon us And accordingly look to find out that particular sin which may have more especial influence hereupon But Secondly As here was their Simple Impiety so also their Additional Impenitency as a further Cause of this Judgment Those that sin perhaps at first and so throughly provoke God's anger against themselves yet by Repentance and turning from their sins may happily divert it and appease it But those People here in the Text they did not so they turned not to him that smote them And this made their Judgment to be so much the furer to them than otherwise it would have been Where men repent of sinning God repents of punishing and of that Evil which he thought to bring upon them as we may see in the Ninevites But where they do not he does not neither That Punishment which is slow of it self Impenitence hastens it
And that Punishment which is light of it self Impenitency aggravates it And that Punishment which is passive of it self Impentence stays it Impenitency is the Cause and Ground and Occasion of the greatest and heaviest Judgments that are And the reason of it is this Because it does seem in a manner to own and justifie sin and stand in the Commission of it Where People sin of Infirmity but yet repent they do thereby in a sort and interpretatively undo what has been done by them And though the Acts of it cannot be recalled by them yet the Guilt of it is in some manner quallified by a contrary frame and temper of spirit and consequent departing from it But Impenitency does as it were repeat and renew the former miscarriage even there where for a time there may be an Actual Abstinency from it He that does not repent of Sin he commits it even then when he refrains it as to the Actual Condition of it Again further Thus is this also in Impenitency that it does in a manner trespass upon all the Attributes of God which it either questions or else vilifies and makes nothing at all of them The Omniscience of God as to the deserts of Sin Psal 94.7 Tush the Lord doth not see neither doth the God of Jacob regard it The Truth of God as to the Threats of Sin 2 Pet. 3.4 Where is the promise of his coming for since the father fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation The Justice of God as to the punishing of Sin Considering God to be all Mercy and Pitty and Indulgence c. The Power of God as to the executing of Judgment As thinking that his hands cannot reach them nor that he is able especially in some cases to be avenged upon it or to do what he threatens against it Yea the Mercy and Goodness of God which it abuses to a further Continuance and Persistency in Evil. Thus trespassing upon all God's Attributes it must needs especially draw down God's Judgments The Third and Last thing observeable in this Passage for the ground and occasion of Judgment whereupon it proceeds is their Continued Obstinacy This was that which was the unhappiness of this People here in the Text as it is also sometimes of divers others besides not only that they did not repent but moreover that they would not there was not only their Negative Remorselesness but also their Positive Perverseness Far as they did not turn to him that smote them so neither did they seek the Lord of hosts They were now so settled upon their Lees and confirmed in their wicked and sinful Courses as that they were wholly and absolutely incorrigible And this must needs now introduce and hasten and hale and pull the Judgments of God down upon our heads Therefore and therefore with a witness will God now proceed to the punishing of them The Consideration of these things should makes us so much the more wary of our selves in this Particular As we desire to avoid Punishment so to be careful to abstain from sin and to take heed of that And especially to take heed of Impenitency and persistence and abiding in sin If by chance we should fall into it not to stay and rest in it Shall we continue in sin saith the Apostle God forbid And so long as we do not repent of it God makes account that we do continue in it which we should be heedful and wary of And more especially above all of Obstinacy and Perverseness of Spirit It is bad enough to sin at first and after that to forbear to repent but to sin and to refuse to repent that is a great deal worse by far and so most of all to be declined by us And so near I have done with the First General Part of the Text which is the Ground or Occasion of God's Judgments threatned against this People included in the Particle Therefore as relating to what went before Therefore because of their impiety and Therefore because of the impenitency and Therefore because of their obstinacy The Second is The Judgment it self in these words The Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail branch and rush in one day Wherein again we have three Branches more First The Denuntiation of the Judgment Secondly The Extent of it And Thirdly The Time The Denuntiation of it The Lord will cut off from Israel The Extent of it Head and tail The Time or Season of it In one day First To speak of the former viz. The Denuntiation of the Judgment The Lord will cut off from Israel Wherein again take notice of three things further First The Author of it and that is the Lord. Secondly The Matter of it and that is Cutting off Thirdly The Subject of it or the Persons and People which are more particularly involved in it and that is Israel For the First The Author of this Judgment which is here mentioned it is expressed to be the Lord. The Expression of it is to be referred to such as themselves who took Samaria and led Israel Captive to Assyria 2 King 17.23 But the Infliction of it is to be referred to the Lord as sole in it Whoever may be the Instrument it is God alone who is the Author of Judgment The Lord will cut off take notice of that This is that which the Scripture does every where declare unto us as Isa 42.24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the Robbers did not I the Lord He against whom ye have sinned And so Isa 45.7 Saith the Lord of himself I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things And so Isa 10.5 6. O Assyrian the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is my indignation I will send him against an hypocritical Nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire in the streets There is no evil in the City that is of punishment and the Lord hath not done it This holds good especially upon a twofold Consideration First Of the Sovereignty and Power of God It is he only that is able to punish It is he alone that hath all Men and Creatures under his Command Men are sometimes out of the reach one of another And though they have now and then a mind to punish yet they have not always an Ability or Opportunity But as for the Lord he is able and powerful As he is mighty to save where he will deliver so he is mighty to punish where he will destroy And then Secondly Upon the Account of the Holiness and Purity which is in God There are none which are so fit to punish others as those who are innocent Persons Guilty and Obnoxious Persons although sometimes they are prevailed to punish in regard of others miscarriages And although
own infinite Majesty and Glory what are all Nations and Kingdoms of the World Surely as the Prophet Isaiah speaks of it Isa 40.21 Behold the Nations are as the drop of a bucket and are accounted as the small dust of the ballance Behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing The Lord is high above all Nations and his Glory above the Heavens Psal 113.4 He encreaseth the Nations and destroyeth them he enlargeth the Nations and straitneth them again Job 12.23 Who smote great Nations and slew mighty Kings Psal 135.10 Secondly The Importunity of Sin and Guilt that makes for this likewise Nahum 1.12 Though they be quiet and likewise many yet thus shall they be cut down when he shall pass through says the Lord there by his Prophet because their Sins call for Vengeance As we see it was with the Sodomites and tâ—â— Cities round about them whilst the Cry of their Wickedness ascended and came up to Heaven in their committing of Fornication and going after strange Flesh it is said That even they suffered the vengeance of eternal fire And so the Cananites and the rest of the Nations which opposed and fought against Gods People we hear what a quick and speedy riddance the Lord made of them for it in their Universal overthrow and ruine and destruction And so he is ready to do with many more in the like circumstances Who would not fear thee O King of Nations as it is in Jer. 10.7 What cause have all the People and Kingdoms of the Earth to tremble before this great God who is able thus to crush them in peices and to destroy them even in Hell it self if they provoke him as he here threatens them We should here learn to satisfie our selves in this great Mystery both of Prudence and Religion It seems to be a strange thing to reason that God should damn whole Nations And therefore such Persons as make Reason to be the Rule of Faith they do much doubt of it and call it into Question For which purpose they have found out salvation even for the Heathen that know not God nor ever heard word of Christ But we see here how the Scripture it self expresses it self in this particular whereby it tells us that whole Nations shall be turned into Hell That so we may not be wiser or mercifuller than God himself But submit our own reason and the Dictates of our own understanding to his Discoveries and Proposals And in the mean time bless God our selves if he hath exempted us out of the number of those Nations which shall be thus dealt withal by a more peculiar manifestation and dispensation of himself unto us Thus for the Subjects here mentioned in reference to this Punishment All the Nations The Second is the guilt which is fustned upon those Subjects as the Ground and Foundation of this Punishment and that is Forgetting of God This now does a little qualifie it and restrain it and take it in It is not all Nations Absolutely and Indefinitely and without exception howsoever qualified but under this Notion of Impiety God does not in this case proceed in a way of Soveraignty but in a way of Justice It is true he might if he pleased do the former forasmuch as all the Nations of the World they are his own Creatures and the Workmanship of his own hands therefore if he saw good he might deal with them as the Potter with his vessel And no man might say unto them what dost thou But he has thought fitting to take another course than this with them and that is by proceeding upon the account of their own guilt as it is here declared unto us Therefore this Punishment and Destruction it is here limited and restrained to Sinners And so we find it to be also in other places as Psal 79.6 Pour out thine indignation upon the Heathen that have not known thee and upon the Kingdoms that have not called upon thy name Not upon the Heathen considered Absolutely nor upon the Kingdoms considered Indefinitely But upon those Heathens and Kingdoms which have not known God Nor called upon him And so likewise here in the Text All the Nations that forget God This is a Particular Character whereby a wicked People are distinguisht viz. Forgetfullness of God as that which carries the very root of all wickedness in it For hence it is that any Persons do make so bold with God as commonly they do by offending him and rebelling against him because indeed they are such as do forget him and think not of him This forgetfulness of God which wicked men are thus guilty of to explain it a little to you it extends to Sundry Particulars First To the Essence of God They forget God that is they forget that there is a God They have heard of it it may be and have seen Habitual Notions of it yea but in such and such cases and circumstances they do it or reflect upon it They do not Actually mind or consider it which makes them so to carry it as if indeed they did not beleive it Secondly To the Nature of God They forget God that is they forget who or what manner of one God is They forget him in his Properties and Attributes and such Expressions of him as whereby he has revealed and made himself known In his Holiness and Justice and Power and Omniscience and Omnipresence and the like In these they do not remember him but plainly forget him Wicked Men they frame to themselves such a God as is suitable to themselves and their own Fancies and Imaginations As he tells that wicked Man in the Psalm 50.21 Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self As if that which pleased them it were pleasing to him also Thirdly To the Word of God They forget God that is They forget what God does command or commend unto them They forget his Instructions and they forget his Injunctions and so in that respect they forget God himself for as much as he accounts himself interested and concerned in such things as these are as a Prince in his Laws David resolved with himself that he would never forget God's Precepts But this is that which such Persons as these do continually though they may seem to remember God Notionally yet they forget him Practically And though they profess that they know him yet in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1.16 Lastly To the Providence of God They forget God that is They forget what God has done and brought to pass in the World As it is charged upon the Israelites that they forgat the works of the Lord aad the wonders that he had shewed them Psal 78.11 His Works of Mercy they forgat them They remembred not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the Enemy Psal 78.42 They forgat God their Saviour which had done great things for them in Egypt Psal 106.21 And
nore unto thee judge ye also of the equity of that And now this to bring all to some use is very applyable to our own condition of this Land and Nation To whom these words of the Text may be very well sitted and suited in all particulars And therefore O Generation see ye the word of the Lord. Let us think and consider with our selves how God has been pleased to carry himself to us from one Generation to another Has he been indeed a wilderness to us or a land of darkness Let us but a little look back and reflect upon the mercies of this very day as I mentioned it to you in the forenoon and had occasion as I then told you I had to do from a Sermon given to that purpose The seventeenth day of November which laid the ground work and foundation of so many mercies unto us which followed upon it In the breaking forth of the Gospel amongst us and many other blessings besides which we have enjoyed with it Peace and Plenty and Prosperity and Honour and Renown We have been a wonder to all Nations round about us for the great and remarkable favours which God hath been pleased from time to time to heap upon us Then they said amongst the Heathen the Lord hath done great things for them The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we rejoyce Psal 126.2 But have we made answerable returns to God's goodness and loving-kindness towards us Let us but see and consider that a little and seriously think of it What improvement have we made of the Gospel which we have so long time enjoyed to faithfulness and fruitfulness and heavenliness and holiness of conversation God has not been a wilderness to us have not we been so to him He has not been a land of darkness to us neither as opposite to the light of knowledg and information the darkness of error and ignorance nor as opposite to the light of comfort and consolation the darkness of misery and affliction God has been light unto us and in him is no darkness at all But whether have we walked in the light and not in darkness in reference to him This were worth the due scrutiny and enquiry by us Have we not wax'd proud and wanton and secure and presumptuous under all his dispensations towards us And so trusted to our own present welfare as that we have in a manner despised him and said with these people in the Text here before us We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Certainly the great abominations which do now in these days abound and increase still amongst us they do speak no less of us Well if it be thus with us we have great cause to be affected with it and to lay it to heart as that which is most absurd and unreasonable as it is here presented to us And to close at last with God's excitements and invitations of us to repentance and amendment of life This is that which we have an example of given us in this very people here before us the people as we may see in the following Chapter Jer. 3.22 Who when God had first himself said thus unto them Return ye backsliding children and I will heal your backsliding they presently make this answer and return unto him again Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God And so much may serve for this time SERMON XLIII JER 4.19 My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my Soul the sound of the Trumpet the alarm of War This Text in the first reading or hearing of it one would be ready almost to think to be the speech of some travelling woman which were now in pain to be delivered and bringing forth a child into the world or which had miscarried through some fright or evil accident which had hapned unto her for it carries with it such expressions as are suitable to such conditions of bowels working and heart panting and spirit fainting and tongue crying aloud But yet if we look into the Context the Connexion and Coherence of it we shall find no such matter which makes it to be a business of so much the more wonderment and admiration so that we may justly upon occasion of it take up that inquiry of this very Prophet Jeremy himself in another place of his Prophecy and use the same words with him there in chap 30.6 Ask now and see whether a man doth travel with child wherefore do I see a man with his hands upon his loins like a woman in travel and his face turn'd into paleness And if we shall so ask we shall easily have an answer given us That so it is indeed and has cause to be so Here 's the Prophet himself travelling with the miseries and calamities of his people which now like so many pangs and throws came upon him and drew forth this bemoaning from him which he does express so much the rather that so he might draw on them to the same affections and dispositions with him who were now wholly swollen up with security and presumption and carnal confidence in their present condition not considering the sad and grievous estate which now they were in It is a Scripture which follows very pertinently upon that which we lately handled the last Sabbath day in this place and this time of the day for which cause I have fastned upon it that so though we change our Texts for the more variety and edification yet we might still hold our argument and keep to the main business it self which we drive at in this performance of awakening you and preparing you for God's judgments which hang over your heads and are threaten'd against you if we have eyes and hearts to see it and to be affected with it IN the Text it self we have two General Parts considerable of us First the Prophets Complaint or Lamentation it self Secondly the ground or occasion of this his Lamentation His Complaint or Lamentation that we have laid down in those words My bowels my bowels c. The Ground or Occasion of it in those Because thou hast heard O my Soul c. We begin with the first viz. his Complaint it self wherein again we have these particulars further observable First the parts affected Secondly the grief of those parts Thirdly the passage or vent of that grief The parts affected are described or exprest two manner of ways First in their simple proposition Secondly in their additional reduplication Their simple Proposition My bowels my heart Their additional Reduplication My bowels my bowels my heart my heart The grief of these parts is amplified from a double consideration First from the quality of it my heart is pained Secondly from the effect of it my heart makes a noise The passage or vent of this grief is again two ways considerable First as a matter of choice in
no hope c. which is differently rendred by Interpreters we shall take notice of that which is most probable our own Translators give it according to the Reading which I have made of it Desperatio est No hope Now this may be explicated by us according to a threefold reference which may be made of it for it seems to respect three sorts of persons either first themselves or secondly the Prophet or thirdly God Themselves thus There is no hope i. e. there is no hope of us our lusts do so far take with us and prevail with us that there is no hope we should ever get the mastery or victory over them The Prophet thus There is no hope i. e. there is no hope in regard of thee and thy Ministery amongst us thou maist for thy part put up thy pipes and hold thy tongue and save thy breath and spare thy pains for we tell thee thus much thou art not likely to do any good upon us God himself thus There is no hope i. e. no hope of favour from him though we should haply change our course and amend our lives and reform our ways as he desires us to do yet we should be still where we are there is no likelihood or probability that we should be ever the better for it or that he notwithstanding all this would shew any mercy to us or divert his judgments from us This word and expression before us it has the force and emphasis of all these senses with it First in reference to themselves to begin with that There is no hope in regard of us that we should ever get the better of those lusts and corruptions in us or that we should ever return to God we have no heart or mind at all to it nay we are utterly averse from it and find our spirits and inclinations against it with despair in this point of our selves as to our amendment and and reformation This is the state and condition of many Persons and People in the world that they are desperate in this regard And there are two things which do make up this unto them and seem to be involv'd in this distemper First an absolute indisposition and aversness to all kind of good Secondly an absolute thraldom and subjection to all kind of evil First an indisposition and aversness to good There is no hope as if they had said We have no heart or affection in us at all to God and to his ways we cannot love him or close with him Thus the Chaldee Paraphrase expounds it Aversi sumus a cultu tuo We are averse from thy Worship and all Religion And another Translation Expectoratum est We are heartless and our minds are off from them This is the sad condition which many sinners are brought unto to have their hearts quite taken off from all that is good and to have no savour or relish or sense of Religion in them yea sometimes though they have formerly made some shew and profession of it This is the complaint of these people here of themselves upon their own experience they know not what 's the matter with them but they wish the Almighty to depart from them for they desire not the knowledge of his ways Job 21.11 This distemper it hath sundry grounds and causes of it from whence it proceeds as First A neglect and intermission of the Duties and Exercises of Religion or of the powerful and fervent acting and performing of them Christian and Religious Exercises they are great means to keep up the heart in a gracious and holy frame and to dispose the Soul to God in a blessed course of communion with him But now when these are intermitted or are carelesly and negligently per formed without any life or power or zeal there does from thence for the most part grow a deadness and awkness upon the mind and listnesness to that which is good men from hence grow strangers to God and he to them and as strangers in regard of communion so likewise in regard of affection and spirit which may dispose thereunto So dangerous a thing it is for any to be guilty in this particular of neglecting Prayer or neglecting Hearing or neglecting the search of their hearts Meditation and communion with Saints and such things as these are This neglect it breeds aversness Secondly A persisting and wallowing in some base and filthy course of life This it doth also wonderfully take off mens hearts from God and all favour of goodness that they have no contentment nor delight in it or in those things which tend unto it Hos 4.11 it is said That whoredom and wine and new wine they take away the heart Fornication and Drunkenness and such courses as those are which are more scandalous and notoricus they make sad impressions upon the Soul in this particular they do enervate it and take away the strength and sinews of it A lustful heart will always be an unsavoury heart so far forth as lust is predominant and prevailing in it We may see it even in David himself who whilst he lay under those grievous miscarriages his heart was very much taken off from God and he found a wonderful alteration in him over what he was before which made him so to pray for the creating of a clean heart and the renewal of a right spirit in him and the bestowing of a free spirit upon him Psal 51.10 Thirdly A walking contrary to light and knowledge and conviction and the dictates of Conscience a quenching of the motions of Gods Spirit and suggestions to the heart This does very much take off the heart also and cause a flatness of spirit upon it For it is a grieving of the Spirit of God himself and it provokes him to withdraw his help and assistance which being done there can be no good temper expected in any whatsoever Lastly Worldliness and too deep an implunging in earthly and secular affairs Those whole hearts are full of the world they are for the most part empty of God and of such thoughts and affections and dispositions as do tend unto him There is a great deal of danger in such a course as this is Ye cannot serve God and Mammon both at once These and the like are the occasions of this heartlesness and indisposition to God which is one thing here considerable Another thing here impli'd is a thraldom and subjection to evil from whence men come to despair of ever getting the mastery of their lusts and the corruptions which are in them There are some kind of people in the world their sins and and impieties do at the present so prevail upon them as that they are quite out of hope of ever getting the better of them they now begin to lay down the buckler and to think it is in vain for them to resist them and to set themselves against them they say There is no hope This is that which in a special manner seems to be intended here
in Hell it self and be tormented before their time Thus is it against our selves Secondly it is also most against God of any thing else Despair it is the sin which does oppose him in his main design and project in the promulgation of the Gospel What 's God's design in the Gospel and the promulgation of it it is to advance the free riches of his Grace and mercy in his Son Jesus Christ to set forth the exceeding bowels of his love in him 1 Tim. 1.14 Now Despair and saying There is no hope it quashes this and makes this of none effect at all All this laid together should I say take us off from this desperate disposition and teach us to trust perfectly to the grace that is brought unto us by Jesus Christ as the Apostle Peter advises us 1 Pet. 1.13 We should believe the Promises of the Gospel which are made to poor sinners upon their Repentance and turning to God and draw out the comfort of them to our selves as we have occasion for them and never suffer our selves to be undone and to perish eternally with saying There is no hope as the desperate wretches in the Text are imply'd to do That 's the third sense of the Expression as it refers to God in calling to question his Goodness and Truth And so I have done with the first General part of the Text which I propounded to be considered viz. The Desperate Conclusion There is no hope The Second is the Peremptory Resolution or Determination taken up thereupon in these words But we will walk after our own devices and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart Which passage is considerable of us two manner of waies First of all simply and absolutely in the thing it self Secondly Reflexively or Derivatively as coming from these particular persons First Take it simply and absolutely in the thing it self This is that which is here declared by these people That they will walk after their own devices c. In which expression there are divers things considerable First as implyed That the nature of man is very prone and subject to devices This is that which is here implyed and supposed your own Devices And it is agreeable to other places of Scripture as Eccles 7.20 God made man righteous but they have sought out many inventions So Prov. 19.21 Many devices are in the heart of a man nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand Devices and many Devices This is that which the nature of man is very subject unto Full of projects and devices and contrivances which they apply themselves to By Devices we are to understand evil Devices especially such Devices as tend to evil and to the promoting of it These are the Devices and Imaginations which are here meant Mans brain it is fruitful and copious And being by nature sinful and corrupt is from hence fruitful in evil and copious in devising and contriving of that which is naught every imagination or purpose and desire Col jesser the whole frame of the thoughts of his heart is only evil and that continually or every day Col ha-jom as the Lord himself declares concerning it speaking of it in Gen. 6.5 This is the difference betwixt the servants of God and other men When a man begins once to be good and to have his heart changed by grace and to become a new creature his thoughts and contrivances and devices are from hence tending to Goodness The liberal man deviseth liberal things and by liberal things he shall stand Isa 33.8 But till this good work be wrought in him he has other devices with him as it is here also exprest in ver 6 7. His heart will work iniquity And he deviseth wicked devices c. Thus it is said of the Gentiles among other sins which were raigning in them That they were inventers of evil things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.30 They were not content to take evil as they found it as it was offered and brought to their hands No but moreover they invented it and found it out and studied to do so This is that which we should all in a special manner be wary of If we will needs devise let us devise how to be good and how to be better how to be more useful and serviceable in the places wherein God has set us how now to promote his glory and to advance our own salvation and the salvation of others with whom we live These are things which are worth our thoughts and which deserve to be devised by us But as for evil and wicked devices it becomes us to be far from them whether considered as men or as Christians and who have the Image of God stampt upon us Our wits should be used to better purpose as being ordained to a better End in the first conferring and bestowing of them upon us But that 's that which we may here first observe from this expression in the Text That mans nature is prone to these devices as that which is implyed and supposed Now further there is here also exprest the Affection which is in many people in reference hereunto We will walk c. And here are divers things one after another First Their obstinacy and perverseness We will walk after our own devices c. This is that which is observable in the disposition of carnal men even a peremptoriness and wilfulness of Resolution Whatever can be said to them they are resolved and determined in themselves to do that which is evil This was the case of this people And so it is of many more of the same mind with them They are still roving in the world Thus in that place before cited Jer. 44.17 We will certainly do whatever goeth forth out of our own mouth And so the place cited before in this Book Jer. 2.25 Thou saidst There is no hope no for I have loved strangers and after them I will go As who should say none shall restrain us This is a sure Rule in matter of evil That the more there is of the Will in it so much the greater sin And thus it was here in this place These people they do not plead ignorance nor they do not excuse themselves as they did in the Gospel for their not coming to the marriage-supper from such and such hinderances and avocations no but they understood themsleves well enough and yet would venture upon it There was malice and wilfulness in them They would do evil because they would do it This is that I say which is observable in many more and that from these Causes First From the Connaturalness which is betwixt them and their lusts Thus lusts are seemingly sweet and pleasing to them and therefore they are bent upon them and will not by any means be withdrawn or taken off from them but are carried after them with a great deal of violence and importunity of spirit Thus in Jer. 8.6 No man repented him of his
word or two unto them And first to begin with the former namely that of Doctrine and Instruction which are taught to do evil so this is properly teaching and has therefore the name of it put upon it and 't is appliable to this business of sin There is a great deal of such teaching as this is oftentimes in the world a Talmnd as to matter of iniquity Thus in Matth. 5.19 Whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandments and teach men so to do he shall be call'd the least in the kingdom of heaven So Tit. 1.11 Teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake And Mark 7.7 Teaching for Doctrine the commandments of men There is a great deal of ill teaching in the world now and then and ill-learning also following thereupon people are here very quickly taught so capable and apprehensive are they yea they seek to themselves teachers to this purpose and Lessons also as we have it in 2 Tim. 4.3.4 The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and be turn'd into a fable Teachers after their own lusts that is such Teachers as by their Doctrine do nourish and strengthen their lusts in them as many Teachers and Doctrines do There are divers and sundry Teners and Opinions which have very great influence upon the life for the perverting and corrupting of it and those which are tainted with them do much miscarry in that particular yea indeed they cannot well do otherwise as it is here implied in the Text. Those which are thus taught to do evil cannot do good there is an impoiency and there is an indisposition upon them to all good and proneness to all manner of evil This is the condition with them There is nothing more leading and conducing to a vitious life than is the infusion of unsound Principles and the sucking in of erroneous Opinions especially such as they may be for the nature and kind of them As in Popery and Pelagianism and Antinomianism and such as these Those which are taught and principled thus they must needs miscarry If they do not always actually break forth into the very enormities themselves yet they have that within them which does carry them to them and whensoever they have an opportunity for them they are in great hazard and danger of them This shews what great cause we have to be advis'd and take heed hereunto to be careful what we teach and what we learn especially we which live in these places of Teaching and Learning the Schools of the Prophets It is a matter of great concernment both to our selves and others as to the regulating of our lives and conversations How can ye which are taught to do evil do good that is taught in a way of Doctrine and Instruction That 's the first Explication Secondly In a way of Pattern and Example Which are taught so Such a kind of teaching as this is there is also sometimes yea and that no less effectual than the other if it be not more That which men see to be done and practised before their eyes they do the more easily fall into to do it and in nothing sooner than in sin Here wickedness is taught There where it is seen not onely as acted upon the Theatre but especially as acted in the life which has been the reason why some of the very Heathen have withdrawn their children from beholding the miscarriages of their servants lest seeing them they should be tainted with them It is a dangerous thing to converse in places of scandal and ill example and to be present in evil society Here sin is quickly learnt and 't is not easily un-learnt where it is so it is a very hard and difficult matter to escape the temptations of it and not before one's aware to be involved in it How can ye which are taught to do evil do the thing that is good that is taught by evil patterns and examples That 's the second Explication The third is by Practise and Vse which are taught so that is as 't is here in our own Translation Which are accustomed unto it Use it makes perfect and as in other things so also in sin which the more that any are exercised unto the more prompt and ready they are in it There is an Art even in wickedness it self although a bad one and therefore we read of some who are wise to do evil This as others is got much by practise those which are but young beginners they are Bunglers as it were at it and they go about it with some kind of awkness and difficulty and aversness unto it especially as their education at any time has been better and more Religious than others when such as these do first of all enter upon sinful courses they are not so expert and expedite in them as one would think they should be but do a little stop at them Swearing and Drinking and Gaming and such sins as these they do some what stick with those sometimes who have been better taught but now after a little while when they have been used and accustomed unto them they now grow experienced in them and are carried to them with a great deal of violence and importunity of affection They drink in iniquity as water and they draw on iniquity as with cart-ropes and they commit all uncleanness with greediness and they do evil with both hands earnestly they turn unto their course as the horse rusheth into the battel c. These are the phrases and expressions which the Scripture puts upon them Here in the Text it is said of them that being so accustomed to do evil they now cannot do good This for the Qualification of the Persons Which leads me now to the second thing considerable here in this passage namely the Invincible necessity which follows upon custom in sin those which are used unto it they know not how to free themselves from it Ye may as soon wash a Black-moor white or scrape off the spots of a Leopard which are expressions of Labour in vain as ye may reduce an habituated sinner To open this Invincible Necessity and Tyranny of accustomed sin so much the better unto us we may take notice of it in two particulars whereof it consists First in an impotency to good And secondly in a precipitancy unto evil Each of these are here implied though but one exprest Custom in sinning it is both obstructive and likewise provocative it hinders men and takes men off from good that they cannot do that and so it also furthers men and puts men on to evil that they can do nothing but that Each of these are the inconveniences of evil custom and accordingly to be considered by us First Impotency to good that is here exprest in the Text which it is said that such as these they
such places especially when they come to be common and general and universal then they bespeak speedy destruction That which many people take as an excuse and shelter to them in in that is indeed if it be duly thought of the greatest matter of affrightment and aggravation which is this that it is usual and ordinary and that more are guilty of it for then it is an argument that sin is shameless and impudent and incorrigible and in a manner desperate and that there 's nothing almost to be expected but ruine and desolation And is not this then just matter and ground for mourning to all such persons as understand themselves Lastly The servants of God have herein also a respect to others even sometimes to wicked men themselves whom considered as men they lament and mourn for whiles they are guilty of such and such miscarriages Those that cannot mourn for themselves through the obstinacy and hardness of themselves yet they have in those cases others better than themselves to mourn for them Thus we see what grounds there are for Gods childrens mourning in this particular for their sighing and crying for the abominations which are done in the places in which they converse Therefore this may very much satisfie us when we observe it at any time to be so when we see any to be thus affected that we may not think it a superfluous business or more than needs for there is very great causes and reasons for it And accordingly it does condemn the contrary neglect which is in many persons There are a great many of people in the world who as they lay not to heart the afflictions of other men in a way of compassion so they lay not to heart the abominations of other men neither in a way of compunction As they are not humbled for their own sins so neither for the sins of others whom they converse withall Yea but now those that belong to God they are careful to do this as it is here intimated to us in the Text. And so accordingly should we all labour and endeavour to do likewise we should labour to get such a publickness of spirit such an hatred and detestation of sin such a love to God and zeal for his glory as to lament and bewail mens sins and miscarriages wheresoever we find them and to be really affected with them some persons there are that do so and we our selves should be careful to be of this number As for spreading judgments and calamities men are perhaps a little sensible of them and may now and then so long as they are upon them express some kind of sorrow for them But who takes notice of the sins and iniquities which are the causes of these judgments This were well to be thought on by us as being that which the Lord does require and expect from us Surely some there are that do so as it is here signified to us though in comparison but very few For the better opening of this passage we may here pertinently take notice of the several expressions which are here used and there are three things here considerable First the expressions of sorrow that sigh and cry Secondly the occasion of this sorrow and that is the abominations that are committed Thirdly the extent of those abominations for the acting and committing of them that are done in the midst of the City First Here are the expressions of sorrow and they are two sighing and crying In the Hebrew Text they are very emphatical as carrying an elegant Parekaa or Paronomasia with them Hanneenwchim ve-hanneanckom both of them terms of sadness The first which is sighing that signifies such a mourning as is more secret and retired in it self The second which is crying that signifies such a mourning as is more open and exposed to observation Both of them such as are agreeable to the occasion and business here in hand Those that are the servants of God they do both of them upon these occasions they do both inwardly conceive grief and also they do outwardly express it First They conceive it inwardly and that is here signified in sighing and it is all that sometimes they can do to any purpose When they see wickedness to abound in any place as now and then they do they have no remedy left them but sighing and bewailing it in their own breasts betwixt God and themselves As in the place before cited out of Jeremy Their souls weep in secret which is the best and truest weeping of all This is that which they may do this is that which they ought to do as the least and sometimes the most which in some cases especially can be done by them It may so fall out sometimes with the Servants of God in regard of the manifold abominations that are committed in the places wherein they live that they can neither complain of them nor redress them neither openly testifie against them nor yet actually resorm or amend them yea but in the mean time they may sigh for them for all that and this is that which is required of them and which is here commended in them First I say it may so sall out that they can not openly complain of them that is either with safety or success not with safety because men are apt in such cases to rise against them and as it were to trample them under their feet as our Saviour speaks Wicked and profane persons they do not love to hear of their abominations though they love to commit them and therefore they are ready ever and anon to flee in the faces of them that reprove them for them and bear witness against them As St. Paul was the Galatians enemy because he shewed them the truth He that rebuketh a scorner begetteth to himself a blot as Solomon tells us Well but there is no danger in sighing and in secret mourning all this while this may be done very quietly and safely and accordingly it is wisdom to do it and God's Servants are careful of it they put up many a sigh to God and she many a tear before him for those sins and abominations which otherwise they could not safely complain of Again As not with safety so not with success they may be likely to do little good by open complaining of them For those which are guilty of them may be so far interessed and engaged as that they would hear no complaints which should be made against them There is that obstinacy in many people's hearts that the more sometimes they hear of their wickedness the more resolv'd and bent they are upon it which harden their necks being often reproved as the Wise-man speaks Now to what purpose is complaining here Yea but sighing may be to very good purpose sighing to God may there be very profitable where complaints to men may be ineffectual we may sigh where we cannot complain either safely or else sufficiently So again we may sigh where we cannot redress This is
in its severity and unsupportableness IN the Text it self there are three general Parts considerable First an awakening Commination Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. Secondly a convincing Expostulation To what end is it for you Thirdly an express Conclusion or Determination The day of the Lord is darkness and not light We begin with the first of these Parts viz. The Commination in these words Woe unto you c. In which passage there are two terms to be explain'd by us First what is here meant by the day of the Lord. Secondly what is here meant by the desiring of this day of the Lord which is here censured and threaten'd in this people For the former the day of the Lord Jom Jehovah it may be here reduced to a threefold explication First to the day of death or personal dissolution Secondly to the day of captivity or National dissolution Thirdly to the day of Judgment or general Account Each of these are the day of the Lord and may promiscuously one with the other be understood of us here in this Scripture Now Secondly for the other term which is the desiring of this day and as it is here censured and threaten'd in this people this it may be taken three manner of ways First for their desiring of it rashly because they did not consider it Secondly for their desiring it scoffingly because they did not believe it Thirdly for their desiring it desperately because they did not fear it All these kinds of desire in reference to this day of the Lord in either of the fore-mentioned considerations are here condemned in them First Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it rashly and foolishly because ye do not consider it Such desires as these of this day there are sometimes to be found in the world whether in reference to death and judgment or in reference to common and publick calamity First take it in reference to death and judgment There are divers persons sometimes which we meet withal who do seem very much to desire the day of the Lord in this sense though in the mean time if they duly consider it they have little cause or ground to do so Such as Job sometimes speaks of that long for death whiles it cometh not and dig for as more than for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Job 3.21 22. Indeed there is a desire of such a day as this which in the right constitution of it is very noble and commendable and is sometimes made the character of the true servants of God to breathe after death and departure out of the world and to wait and long for the coming of Christ to Judgment Thus old Simeon when he had seen Christ come in the flesh and now had him in his arms he sings his nunc dimittas Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luke 2.29 30. And St. Paul he desired to depart and to be with Christ as in it self much better than to abide here in the flesh Phil. 1.23 And the Prophet Elijah as some interpret it out of an holy zeal he cryes out It is enough now Lord take away my life first for I am not better than my Fathers 1 King 19.4 Thus have the servants of God sometimes desired the day of the Lord as it concerned their own death and dissolution And this desire of theirs has been looked upon as very warrantable and commendable in them So likewise as it has concerned the last and general day of account they have desired this day of the Lord also And it hath been remarkable in them so to do Look as it was the character of the Servants of God in the days before Christ to desire and wait for his first coming his coming in the flesh Therefore Abraham is said to have seen his day and to have rejoyced and Simeon before-mentioned to have waited for the consolation of Israel So it is also now the character of God's servants in these days since Christ to desire and wait for his second coming his coming to Judgment These are compared to faithful Servants that wait for the coming of their Master and that with desire Thus Rev. 22.17 The Spirit and the Bride say come come Lord Jesus come quickly And the souls under the Altar they hasten his coming also Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth Rev. 6.10 So St. Paul tells us that Christ will give a Crown of righteousness to him and not unto him only but also to all them that love and desire his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 So that it seems such persons as these are there have sometimes been and are still in the world which do desire this day of the Lord and that as having no woe belonging to them neither for so doing but rather the contrary which have not been threaten'd but rather encouraged for such desires as have been in them to this purpose But yet these here in the Text they have a woe denoune'd against them for their desire of the day of the Lord and so have many others besides as those who desire it rashly and foolishly as not considering for what end they do so We may reduce it for methods sake to three Heads First from discontentedness in their own condition Secondly from presumption of their own innocency Thirdly from ignorance or misapprehension of the nature of the thing it self These people here in the Text they seemed to desire the day of the Lord thus and so are condemn'd and declared against for their desiring of it as that which is unwarrantable and unjustifiable for any to do so First They desired the day of the Lord that is the day either of death or judgment and in particular of their own personal and present departure out of a principle of discontentedness in their own conditions Because they had not all things to their mind and just as they would have therefore forsooth they would presently be gone and leave the world they wish for death and departure hence out of a spirit of impatience Thus it hath been sometimes even with some of God's Servants themselves when he has left them to themselves such fits of distemper as these have now and then discovered themselves in them Thus some have suspected it of Elijah in the place before alledged when he prayed to God to take him out of this present life it was out of the rediousness which he did conceive from Ahab and Jezebel's persecutions So Job though at other times noted for his admirable patience yet for the time he was surprized with this distemper Chap. 6.8 9. Oh that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let
as the other A meer civil man he is only propior a salute he is neerer from Salvation but for to it that he is not And that 's the second Explication of this Proposition which we are now upon Now these things being thus premised we do yet say notwithstanding that as to God's ordinary and more usual dispensations of himself so a man that lives civilly is in a more likelihood and fairer way for conversion than a man that lives profanely there is more hope of the one than there is of the other of the former than there is of the latter So to him that hath shall be given as our Blessed Saviour speaks in the Gospel To open this a little further to us we yet say two things more First that God does not always and infallibly go by this rule without exception that is to give his Grace to a civil man when he denies it to a profane nay he many times does the contrary he oftentimes leaves a meer moral man in his sins when as yet he is pleased to draw and pull a profane man out of them He is found of them that sought him not he is manifest to them which ask'd not after him Isa 65.1 The Corinthians and Ephesians and Colossians before their conversion they were most grievous and notorious offenders And so it has been with many others which are now converted and brought home to God so that I say he does not absolutely and indefinitely bind himself to it As he is not bound to it from any congruous disposition in a civil person himself so neither from his own Divine purpose or resolution God is and will be free in all these things Nor yet Secondly do we say that it is easier in regard of God himself to do it There is nothing more or less hard to All-sufficiency and Omnipotency it self God's Grace being of an infinite power every thing is alike easy to it It is as easy for him if he pleases to convert the most obstinate sinner as it is the most ingenuous natur'd man as it is as easy for him to create a thousand worlds as one leaf or spire of grass There 's neither magis nor minus in infinito but yet in regard of the things themselves here there 's a very great difference God does exert and put forth more power in the conversion of a notorious offender than he does of a civil man because here there 's greater reluctancy and opposition made against him He does tollere majorem resistentiam and he does emollere majorem duritiem and he does edomare majorem ferocitatem He takes away greater resistance and he softens greater hardness and he suppresses greater untamedness in the one than he does in the other this is the distance and difference betwixt them God's Grace working upon a civil man is like fire in the consuming of dry wood but God's Grace working upon a wicked man is like fire in the consuming of green wood where both of them are burnt up but one of them with the greater opposition and repugnancy in the fewel it self to the burning of it And so answerably for the most part is conversion in such as these more difficult in regard of themselves and with greater trouble and affliction to them There 's more of the broken bones of the terrors and bruisings of the Almighty in the conversion of scandalous sinners and those who have liv'd wickedly and debauchedly than there is in the conversion of those who have been more free from such kind of offences as these are Thus we se what cause there is for men to be encouraged in ways of civility and to take heed of ways of looseness and profaneness not only as hereby avoiding the greater condemnation and as having less punishment attending thereupon but likewise as being not so far though far enough from a state of conversion A state of civility is not so far from the Kingdom of God as a state of profaneness But yet this again will admit of a further Explication of it still to bring it home to the full and that 's this That though a state of civility be not so far from the Kingdom of God as a state of profaneness simply and absolutely consider'd yet occasionally and accidentally it may be farther A civil man in some cases may be further off from conversion than a profane yea and oftentimes is Though not further off in regard of the terms yet further off in regard of the event and actual accomplishment And the reason of it is this because a profane person which commits such gross sins as are odious to the light of nature such an one is easily convinced of the wickedness and vileness of his ways from whence he is drawn to close with Christ upon his own conditions out of the necessity which he apprehends he has of him whereas on the other side a civil person which is guilty of none of those crimes he is apt to be so far opinionated and conceited of his own civil righteousness and that goodness which he has already in himself as to think that he has no need at all of Christ but may do very well without him and so perishes for want of that remedy which otherwise he might be supplied withal As it is sometimes in the body those which have great sicknesses they many times get up and recover whiles those which have some smaller distemper do perhaps dye under it What 's the reason of it and how comes it about why the one thinking himself to be in danger goes to the Physician the other being more secure neglects him and looks not after him Thus it is with men also in Religion Civility trusted in is further off from conversion than profaneness in the effects and consequents of it This was the case of the Jews in comparison of the Gentiles The Gentiles simply consider'd were far greater sinners than they yet in this event sav'd before them as the Apostle expresses it in Rom. 9.30 31. What shall we say them That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attain'd to righteousness even the righteousness which is of Faith but Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not atttain'd to the law of righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the law c. So again Rom. 10.3 They being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God where we see that mens own righteousness is occasionally an hindrance to them of their looking after the righteousness of Christ This was likewise the case of the Scribes and Pharisees in comparison with the Publicans and Harlots Mat. 21.31 Our Saviour there tells them that the Publicans and Harlots went into the Kingdom of God before themselves The Scribes and Pharisees were persons of a strict conversation as I shew'd before The Publicans and
ill-beseems a Christian more than any in what-ever business he undertakes and therefore should wrestle with it c. For this purpose it may be very pertinent to consider both the Causes and Remedies of this distemper and the one will very fitly and pertinently follow upon the other The Causes of it are partly these First sometimes a dependence too much upon outward means He which trusts to outward means will be distracted because these they oftentimes fail and give a man the slip There 's nothing does more perplex than frustration and disappointment and this he shall be sure to meet with who does rely upon the stay of the creature and outward things Secondly A limiting of God's providence to such a particular way This is another thing which causes distraction When we conclude that such and such things must be brought about after this manner and find it otherwise this will distract It is said of the Israelites that they limited the Holy One of Israel Psal 78.41 This is the fault of many others besides which in conclusion does much perplex them Thridly An over-prizing and over-valuing such a project and design Our distractions are often-times according to our estimations where we make too much of any thing it will be sure to trouble us when it falls contrary to us and we shall have so much the more trouble in disappointment as we promised our selves happiness in the enjoyment Lastly A special cause of distraction is a special sickness which is upon the soul in this regard weak things are apt to be unquiet and frowardness it causes trouble Now this is that which all men by nature have abiding in them a spirit of frowardness and discontent more or less except it be those whose Grace does qualify it and subdue it in them And thus much for the causes of distraction whereupon it is founded Now the remedies against distraction are likewise these First a commending of our selves and our ways to God by prayer Phil. 4.6 Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God So 1 Pet. 5.7 Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you Cares which are divided are lessened as we see in friends one to another And so is it betwixt God and Believers they make themselves so much the less as they cast the more trouble upon him Secondly A consideration of our Call to such and such businesses and ways which we fall into It is a great quieting in business when we shall consider it is that which God himself calls unto for then we are most likely to meet with his assistance in it Thirdly A meditation on the promises which God has made in such and such conditions There 's no such cure of care as Faith and this it is founded upon the promise God has given us many comfortable intimations to encourage and hold up our spirits and to keep us from fainting And thus much of the Third thing here reprovable viz. Martha's distraction And so I have done with the First particular considerable in the Second General of the Text and that is Christ's Reprehension of Martha Martha Martha Thou are careful and troubled about many things The next is his instruction of her But one thing is needful But c. SERMON VII LUKE 10.42 But one thing is necessary or needful It is a very hard and difficult matter for us to do that which we should do And yet withal together with it not to do more than we should Such is the corruption cleaving to our natures as that the best performances that may be are very easily defiled in us And we have cause to be check'd and reprov'd at least for the circumstances of those actions for which we are ready to think that we deserve the greatest applause There could not be a more commendable business consider'd in its own nature than the courteous entertainment of Christ which Martha a gracious woman and one that was a friend of Christ did upon occasion with her Sister Mary vouchsafe unto him But yet she so handles the matter by her over-doing and sollicitude about it as that she receives a rebuke from him And he thinks it no incivility to be at once both a Guest and a Reprover Martha Martha Thou art careful and troubled about many things in the verse before the Text. But as those Reproofs are commonly best that have instruction going along with them The reproofs of instruction are the way of life Prov. 6.23 So it is that which we may here observe to be practised by our Blessed Saviour in his carriage to this holy woman He does so tell her of her infirmity as that withal he admonishes her of her duty and puts her in mind of that which was chiefly to be minded by her which he does here suggest unto her But one thing is needful c. THis Text which we have here before us in one distinct and entire Proposition which will need no division of it but is to be handled alone by it self It is in it self a compleat Doctrine and accordingly shall we now at this time with God's Assistance take notice of it Which that we may do it so much the better it is requisite that we should first of all explain it and discover the proper sense and meaning of it This depends upon one word and that is one thing What are we to understand by this Some would have it to be one dish as restraining Martha's excess in her entertainment of Christ at her Table and reducing her to some kind of moderation in that particular unum ferculum est necessarium But this though it hath some Philosophy and speciousness with it yet seems not to be altogether so probable nor that which is so much intended as may appear by that which follows afterwards in the same verse therefore I take it rather to be understood in a spiritual sense This one thing which our Saviour here means is Religion and the fear of God with all the appendices and appurtenances of it To glorify God in the working out of our own Salvation This is the one thing which is necessary And here there are two things further to be explain'd First how this is said to be one thing And Secondly how this alone is said to be necessary as if none were so but this First How it is said to be but one For if we speak of spiritual matters we know that there are divers and sundry things of this nature and they have their varieties in them There are the Graces of God and there are the Ordinances of God there 's the Spirit of God and there 's the Kingdom of God These they are not one but many in the kinds and in the operations of them To this we answer That these all they come to one and tend to one purpose in conclusion The Spirit of God in the use of the Ordinances working Grace in
within their own line Secret things belong to God and revealed to us and to our children as Moses tells the Israelites in Deut. 29.29 Lastly Sometimes in a way of Discipline to correct some miscarriage in them or to prevent it for time to come whether pride or security or carnal confidence or whatever it be The Lord was afraid of Paul lest he should be too much exalted in himself through the abundance of the revelations and therfore when he had discovered great matters to him and made him hear unspeakable words which it was not possible or lawful for a man to utter he sent him a thoâ—n in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him lest he should be exalted above measure as himself gives an account of it 2 Cor. 12.7 So ill is God pleased with such distempers as these in his people as that either he keeps such discoveries wholly from them or else does very much allay and qualify them to them but usually the former and that whereof we now speak Those who are light-headed they do best to be kept in the dark And so as to these spiritual dispensations when men shall abuse that knowledg which God bestows upon them to arrogancy and wantonness and conceitedness and despising of others God does in such cases as these are restrain them from knowing more and perhaps sometimes of such things which otherwise it would concern them to know He leaves them in these cases to themselves and to the vanity of their own imaginations that so they may by experience see what it is to abuse his loving kindness and to turn his Grace into wantonness Sometimes God in judgment surprises men and brings upon them evils unawares because they would not know the time of their own visitation when they might have known it nor seasonably see when his band was lifted up against them as the Prophet speaks Thus we see the manifold account of this Point and Observation before us That even the servants of God do not presently see what he does The consideration of this Point is thus far useful to us as from hence to satisfy and inform us in this particular That we may not think either of our selves or others more highly than we ought to think as the Apostle advises We see what little ground any have too peremptorily to take upon them the fore-telling of future events or to conclude of things afore-hand which is the prerogative of God alone and of such as are more immediately inspired by him We must be wary and cautious in such matters as these are and keep within our own compass Remember still that of our Saviour which I mention'd before It is not for you to know the times c. Indeed there is a knowledg of the times which is both possible and commendable for us as it is recorded of the children of Issachar 1 Chron. 12.32 That they had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do That it concerns every Christian to know in his place and capacity so to understand the genius and frame of the times in which he lives as to order his life accordingly and so to be able to foresee the inclinations of them as whereby to steer his Christian course but as for absolute determining of them or of what will be done in them this is a thing which is to be left alone to God himself and is a matter of delay and expectation What I do thou knowest not now That 's the First General viz. The Simple Proposition wherein our Saviour denies in Peter a perfect knowledg of what he did The Second is the Additional Qualification of the foregoing Proposition But thou shalt know hereafter This is that which is here signified by Christ to Peter upon this particular occasion And it holds good as well as the former in regard of God's general Providence That though his Servants do not presently apprehend or understand what is done by him yet in time they shall In this passage there are two distinct Branches First the discovery it self Thou shalt know it And Secondly the time of this discovery It is future Thou shalt know it hereafter First Here 's the discovery it self Thou shalt know it Though God's actions are for a while in the dark and are not presently made known yet there will a time come for the clearing and evidencing of them and they shall be seen what they are and laid open This is an high piece of Grace and condescension in him For as God is absolute in his actions themselves and may do what he pleases so he is absolute also as to the approving of his actions and may choose whether or no he will discover them He need give no account of his matters as Elihu speaks in Job 33.13 He needs not but yet he does for all that At least he will do at one time or other so that his people may know them This will he do to sundry purposes and according to several explications in which we may take it First He will discover them in the justice and equity and uprightness of them What I do thou shalt know hereafter that is Thou shalt know that I have been just and righteous in doing of it That the Judge of all the World has done no more than that which is equal Bold and presumptuous persons are apt now and then to challenge God in this particular and to bring him to their tribunal for that which he does whether in regard of themselves or others to think that God's dispensations are very unjust and unequal The Prophet Jeremiah himself though otherwise a good man was once upon that Point in Jer. 12.1 Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments or let me reason the case with thee as the words will bear it Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are they happy that deal very treacherously Habakkuk he was upon the like expostulations in Hab. 2.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he And so 't is with many others besides who are ready to quarrel at God's Providence and to think he deals unequally with them But he will one day shew the contrary he will manifest that there was very great cause for what he did that he was just in all his ways and righteous in all his works In Ezek. 18.29 The House of Israel said The way of the Lord is not equal But what says God to them again Oh House of Israel Are not my ways equal are not your ways unequal There 's none which are apt sooner to complain of God than those who are obnoxious to him nor there 's none which are so ready to think that he deals worse with them than those that deal worst with him Those which are
shall it trouble his Spirit and shall it not trouble ours What an inconsistent thing is this Surely if there were nothing in it but this that it is a dishonour and grief to God we had great cause to be troubled with it and for it But then Secondly In reference to our selves there 's great matter of trouble in it so as a wounding of our consciences and a breaking of our peace and a darkening of our assurance and an hazarding of our salvation and a great interruption of our converse and communion with God When we shall but sit down and consider with our selves the sad effects and consequents of sin in all particulars which it does create and produce to those who make bold with it and that take scope and liberty in it we have very great reason to be very much troubled for it Thirdly In reference to our Brethren who sometimes suffer from it and are the worse for it The sins of Christians are not only terminated in themselves and rest in those who are the immediate subjects of them but extend themselves also to others who are infected with them And this is also a matter of trouble to those who are guilty in this respect when men shall consider that they make others the Children of Hell as well as themselves and sometimes more according to the improvement which may be made of it this should go very near unto them and affect them and be very irksom to them in the reflexions upon it especially as they may stand in nearer Relation to them as Children or Brethren or Servants or Friends c. Thus may and ought Christians to be troubled for their own sins and miscarriages And so likewise which is here pertinent hereunto with the sins of others a gracious heart will be much troubled for these when it takes notice of them As just Lot he was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked Sodomites That Righteons man dwelling amongst them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds As the Apostle Peter records it of him 2 Pet. 2.7 8. Though he was clear himself he was troubled for them And so Paul when he came to Athens Act. 17.16 His spirit was stirred in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put into a paroxysm when he saw the City there to be wholly given to Idolatry David Psal 119.158 I beheld the Transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word And v. 136. of the same Psalm Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Laws Sin it is very just cause and ground and occasion of trouble to us whether our own or other mens Secondly As sin so also misery and affliction and calamity This is an occasion of it likewise Our strength is not the strength of stones nor our flesh of brass as Job says of himself in Job 6.12 We have sense and feeling in us as men and so accordingly may be very well troubled with that which is offensive thereunto There is no chastening of it self which is joyous but grievous Heb. 12.11 neither did our Saviour here expect that his Disciples should be altogether unsensible of their present condition which was now exceeding sad in regard that himself was departing and going away from them I might very well take occasion from hence to speak of afflictions at large how far forth they may be just grounds of trouble to Christians But I will confine my self only to the Text and that which is implyed in that as an occasion of present trouble to the Disciples to wit the taking away of Christ from them It was that which they not only might but ought to be troubled for And that in three respects especially which we may here take notice of First as it was the loss of a good Man Secondly as it was the loss of a good Friend Thirdly as it was the loss of a good Master First As it was the loss of a good Man They had great cause to be affected with that and in a sort troubled at it that they were likely to lose such a man as Christ was The loss of good men in the world is a thing which should very much affect us when it falls out to us Help Lord for the godly man ceases for the faithful fail among the children of men It was the complaint of the Prophet David Psal 12.1 And the Prophet Isaiah complains of it that there is no more trouble of mind for it Isa 57.1 The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart And merciful men are taken away none considering that c. There 's a Stake out of the Hedge a Stone out of the Building a Pearl out of the Chain For godly men and righteous men to be removed and taken away whatever the world may think of it and may sometimes rejoyce at it through the madness of it yet it is a great affliction and misery to it and such as it has cause to be much grieved and troubled at For such as these they are fences and hedges and pillars and bulwarks to the places where they are Secondly As a good Friend there was another notion of Christ to them As one whom they had special acquaintance and converse withal and interest in Goodness at a distance and in some remoteness it is not so much observed or regarded but when it comes nearer us in a companion and associate here we are commonly more sensible of it both in the enjoyment as also the deprivation As there 's no need of losing godly men so there 's no need of losing friendly men especially in a world of ungodliness and an unfriendly age and generation The loss of such it was ever troublesome and still is so even to this present day Thirdly As the loss of a good Master and Teacher and Instructer of them That dropt very sweetly upon them upon all occasions A resolver of their doubts a remover of their scruples an informer of their ignorance a comforter of their dejections to lose and let go and part with such a one as this was as Christ was now unto them It was matter of trouble indeed it was the loss and departure of Christ signanter emphatice which had the stang and grievousness and aggravation of this same trouble in it And here I might now very seasonably take an occasion to speak of desertions and the withdrawings of Christ from a Peliever what a sad condition it is and how just a ground and occasion of trouble and disquiet unto him in the thing it self simply considered In Joh. 20.13 When the Angels at the Sepulcher said to Mary Magdalen Woman why weepest thou She saith unto them Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him As who should say Have I not think ye cause to weep when-as Christ himself is taken away from me yes indeed and so she had and so hath
any one else in such a condition As Micah said to the Danites Judg. 28.24 Ye have taken away my Gods and do ye ask me what ayles me That Christian from whom Christ is departed hath very great cause and occasion of trouble upon him As we may see by the complaint which the Spouse her self makes of it Cant. 3.9 And Cant. 5.6 Thus have Christians cause to be troubled for the miseries and afflictions which are upon them And so as for their own miseries so for the miseries and afflictions of the Church which are either felt at any time or seared They have great cause to be troubled for these likewise By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembred thee O Sion c. And Neh. 1.3 4 c. When he heard of the captivity of his brethren he sat down and wept and mourned certain days Yea even Artaxerxes the King himself took notice of it in the sadness of his countenance Neh. 2.2 The Prophet Jeremy wish'd his head were waters and his eyes a fountain of tears that he might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of his people in Jer. 9.1 c. So far have the Servants of God been troubled for the troubles of their brethren and it has become them so to be And thus far as we have now explain'd it is it both lawful and necessary likewise for Christians to be troubled in case both of their own and others sins and miseries which is the first thing here considerable The next is how far it is unlawful and prohibited to them as it is here in the Text Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid As there is a trouble and fear allowed so there is also the same forbidden unto them Now this trouble which is prohibited and forbidden for the better explaining of it to us is considerable three manner of ways First in the measure of it Secondly in the manner of it Thirdly in its effects For the measure of it First Then trouble is inordinate when it is excessive and immoderate and beyond the nature and quality of the thing it self which it is exercised about The rule of all affections is to be suitable and proportionable to the objects which they are carried unto now when this rule is not observed by us in matter of grief or fear or trouble or any such thing it is then otherwise than it should be and to be restrained in us Thus David for his Absalom he was greatly moved 2 King 18.33 And Rachel for her children She refused to be comforted Jer. 31.15 And Hannah for her barrenness She was in bitterness and heaviness of spirit 1 Sam. 1.15 When men are troubled and know no bounds for their trouble then their trouble is inordinate in them Secondly As for the measure so for the manner and circumstance of it When trouble is joyn'd with distrustfulness and despair and questioning of God's attributes whether his Goodness or Truth or Wisdom or Power or All-sufficiency then it is inordinate Thus we may be troubled for sin yea and ought so to be But we must be troubled for it in God's way troubled for it so as to loath it and hate it and abhor it and to depart from it Not troubled for it so as to deny the free Grace of God in Christ and God's readiness to forgive and pardon all those who in truth of heart turn unto him We may be troubled for it but not as Cain was troubled who said his sin was greater than could be forgiven And we may be troubled for it but not as Judas was troubled who run himself upon desperate courses upon the apprehensions of it To be troubled thus is unagreeable to a Christian and gives further occasion of trouble where it is well considered and thought upon So again As for sin so for misery and affliction either our own or the Churches we may as I said be troubled for them and we are accountable there where we are not We ought to be affected and to lay to heart the dispensations of God in the world and his chastising providences to us Shall a Trumpet be blown in the City and the people not be afraid Shall the Lion roar and the beasts of the I orrest not tremble Shall God threaten a Nation at any time either with sword or with samine or with pestilence or with any token of his displeasure and shall not they in the mean time be sensible and apprehensive of it Yes by all means it becomes them to be so God expects it and looks for it from them Whether in regard of publick calamities or in regard of mens private afflictions they may be justly troubled at them But this trouble it must be qualified with Grace and submitted to that with saith and patience and contentation and self-resignation and submission still to God's will in all conditions We may not be so troubled for the World as to think God does not govern the World nor takes no care at all of it Nor we may not be so troubled for the Church as to think God has forsaken the Church and has no further affection to it As Sion sometimes foolishly and pettishly complain'd The Lord has forsaken me and my God has forgotten me c. Isa 49.14 Can a woman forget her sucking-child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yes she may yet will not I forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands c. We may be troubled and grieved in our selves for the troubles and afflictions of the Church but it must be still with these qualifications and concomitances joyn'd unto it First that we do acknowledg God's Justice and Righteousness in that which he does that God afflicts it not without very great cause and provocation of himself thereunto As Ezra 9.13 After all that is come upon us thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities Secondly that we acknowledg God's Wisdom as one that knows what is best for his Church and what condition is most expedient for it or for any part or member of it Thirdly that we acknowledg God's Goodness and Love and Good-will to his Church as being a great deal more tender of it than we can be that knows its frame and remembers its mould c. Lastly that we acknowledg God's Power and Ability to help his Church and to save it in time of need And so mourn but not without hope Thirdly This inordinacy of trouble is considerable in its consequents and effects which it does work and produce in us As First when it makes us impatient and fretful under the hand of God Thus it has done sometimes with some persons as Jehoram 2 King 6.33 Behold this evil is of the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer And Isa 8.21 They shall fret themselves c. Thus Jeremy and Jonah who were otherwise holy Prophets they were
Secondly Positively By taking of such courses and using of such kind of means as may scatter and remove it First There is a prevention of this inordinate trouble Negatively By withdrawing from such ways as may either occasion or foment it There are many who are full of Trouble and Perplexity and they may sometimes thank themselves for it as who willingly bring it upon themselves not only by provoking God to administer such occasions to them but likewise when they are administred already by prosecuting them and following them too far There are many that love to seed and nourish those humours in them when at any time they fall upon them and will be troubled because they will be There 's a piece of sullenness and pride oftentimes upon the Heart of the Sons of men from whence they think much to stoop to the providence of God upon them and so moulder away in discontent and peevishness of spirit as thinking themselves too good to luster for Him Again There are others likewise which from the same Principle of Pride in them though differently expressing it self think sometimes to bite in their Grief and to carry it outwardly to the World as being loth to own and acknowledge Gods hand upon them from whence as a Fire burning inward their Grief is so much the more increased and for want of a seasonable vent their Trouble is enlarged unto them Now we must take heed of either of these as we desire to have our Hearts in a quietness and tranquillity of temper Neither affectedly following Grief nor affectedly neither suppressing it This is a prevention of it Negatively in withdrawing from the Means of Advancement The second way of doing it is Positively in the taking of such courses with our selves and in the use of such kind of means as may properly from such kind of distempers as First by studying of the Word and psamises of God in His Word Psal 119.50 This is my comfort in my affliction thy word hath quickned me And Ver. 92. Vnless thy Law had been my delight I should then have perished in mine affliction We should be well acquainted with the Promises whether general as to all estates and conditions or particular in such particular circumstances and we should bring them home to our own cases and circumstances as we have occasion for them The comfort of a promise lies in the due and just application of it which accordingly we should be careful of Secondly Study the Attributes of God There is much sweetness to be found in them The Lord gracious and merciful abundant in goodness and truth c. Oh get a sweet taste and relish of these Taste and see that the Lord is good and gracious c. It is our ignorance concerning God which makes us oftentimes so full of perplexity They that know thy name will trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee And to his Attributes joyn his Providence and expressions of himself in that Consider what God has done in former times and consider what he does still and see what a sweet connexion and agreement there is betwixt them He is still the same that ever he has been and what he has done heretofore for his Church he is ready to do the like still and for every particular person and member of it The Lords hand is not shortened that he cannot save Thirdly Let us betake our selves to Christ and shrowd our selves under his wings they are safe which are kept by Him and they have no cause to be troubled or dismayed There was a special emphasis in the Persons whom our Saviour here speaks unto which were his own Disciples Let not your Heart be troubled Those who have an interest in Christ they are in safe hands There are two things here to be done by us The one is to make good our interest and the other is to improve it We must make good our interest that we are indeed such as do belong to Christ and are indeed members of Him And we must improve our interest by having continual recourse unto Him Lastly We shall hereby keep our selves from this inordinate trouble and fear seizing upon us by labouring for a special measure and exercise of several Graces of Gods Spirit in us as tending and conducing hereunto I 'le instance in some of them as more remarkable First Meekness and Humility and sense of our own unworthiness and ill-deservings There 's no Creature so full of Trouble and distraction as a pround and haughty person such an one when any evil befalls him he is like a wild Bull in a Net or like a Bear robb'd of her Whelps as the Scripture sometimes uses such expressions as these are full of rage and fury and swelling and horrour and confusion Like the raging Sea casting forth mire and dirt as the Prophet Esay hath it Esay 57.20 But now on the other side humility and lowliness of Spirit it meets an affliction half way and so as I may say takes off the violence of it It closeth with God and his Providence and so thereby does very much lessen its own grief and perplexity when we shall consider we deserve more evil we shall be less troubled with that which we endure when we shall consider the grievousness of sin and how we trouble God with that we shall be better satisfied in the suffering of affliction and of Gods troubling of us with that where sin lies heavy affliction commonly lies light and is better sustain'd Secondly Faith and Dependance upon God this is a setling and quieting Grace which lifts the Soul upon its hinges again and puts it in frame Therefore let us labour for that and improve it and put it in practise It is not Faith so much in the Habit which does quiet and settle the Heart as Faith rather in the act and exercise of it Therefore set Faith on work and draw it forth all that may be by resting our selves upon God and relying upon his Power and Goodness and Truth which he has manifested to us I had fainted unless I had believed says David Therefore wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart Wait I say on the Lord as he there infers upon it in Psal 27.13 14. And to encourage us further herein consider that the more we do so the more we may do so and the more cause we shall have to do so Faith helps it self by the Acts of it And God himself also rewards the Acts of it by giving further encouragements to it therefore determine and resolve upon it and that also in the greatest straits and difficulties that may be Although the Fig-Tree blossom not nor Fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail c. Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord c. Faith it sticks at nothing because it is founded upon the Power of God himself with whom nothing is impossible Thirdly Innocency and
and his whole life was no other than a continual Document to them and Pattern which he set before them Now it could not but be very grievous to them likewise to be destitute and fall short of this which they did by his going away from them In all these respects were the Disciples now likely to be comfortless and afterwards proved so occasionally from Christs departure from them as to the withdrawing of his corporal presence They were sad as those that had lost a most sweet and useful Friend and one that was every way profitable and beneficial to them sor instruction for direction for imitation and every thing which was lovely And so it may be likewise with any other which are still in the like condition The likest that is to it of any thing is the deprival of the outward Ordinances and Means of Salvation and of those that should dispense them to us This according as they may be especially is in a sort and in a manner to be deprived even of the presence of Christ which is especially considerable in these matters Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me says the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 13.3 and it is Christ that walks in the midst of the golden Candlesticks Rev. 1.13 The dispensation of the Ordinances it is the presentment and manifestation of Christ to such persons as are made partakers of it And on the other side the want of them is the withdrawing as it were of his presence Now this to bring it home to the Text it is a very sad and uncomfortable business where it happens so to be even as of Children destitute of their Parents it is not onely as of Sheep without a Shepherd but also as Orphans without a Father as it is here exprest unto us and not onely here also but elfewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we find the word used 1 Thess 2.17 Now the sum of all is this That we now for our particulars should accordingly be affected with it and lay it to heart thus the Disciples were here when they were deprived of Christs bodily presence and it became them to be so As their condition was now comfortless so to be sensible and apprehensive of it and to mourn under it This is that which they did this is that which was sitting for them to do though our Saviour did labour to pacifie them and to comfort them in it it was their duty to be troubled for it where yet it was possible for them to fail in the manner and circumstances of that duty And so here as to this particular business whereof we now speak it is likewise the duty of all such as are under the want and deprivation of those spiritual opportunities to make the best improvement of it that possibly they can First by inquiring into the cause and occasion of it as near as we can what it is which may move God to take such a course as this with us which is in it self a very great affliction and not lightly to be past over by us And the finding out of the cause of it may be a great tendency and inducement to the remedy and recovery of it Now of this there are divers occasions which are to be thought on and considered by us God does sometimes for sundry reasons out short and deprive a people of those means and instruments of their salvation which they have formerly enjoy'd First Vnthankfulness and want of prising of such a Blessing as this is whiles we enjoy it God's word and the labours of his Servants are things which are so precious with him and which be sets at so high a rate that sooner or later he will be sure to have them valued there where they are bestowed and where they are not so he will now and then remove them and take them away that so that which is not known in the enjoyment it may at least be understood by the loss and privation of it It was reasonable it might be so with the Disciples now at this time as to Christs personal presence with them they might not it may be have esteemed it so much as they should and therefore though there were other ends for the withdrawing of it yet it might also have this influence upon them so as to humble them for their former neglect that they might bewail their ingratitude and unthankfulness for so great a favour as the presence of so gracions a Master And so in this particular which we now speak of God does oftentimes take away such opportunities that men may reflect upon their former senslesness and inapprehensiveness of the mercies which they did enjoy and accordingly be assected with it as it becomes them to be Secondly As unthankfulness so also which is annex'd to it unfruitfulness and unprofitableness under such means God never appointed his Ministery as a Complement and business of State which men should have here by them onely for fashion and never to do any good with it but for improvement and edification The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all as that they should profit others who are endued with it so that they should be profited by it for whose sake also it is given Now therefore where it ceases to be so he is very much displeased and because he is so now and then withdraws the exercise of it God will not have such precious liquor as this is to run waste but be gathered up and made use of And where it is otherwise himself will restrain it and deny it and keep it up Thirdly Spiritual Wantonness and Curiosity and Affectation When God shall afford us the gifts and pains of his Servants and we are continually excepting against them and quarrelling with them and diminishing from them this does provoke God exceedingly in this particular When we have good and wholesome food provided for us and we loath it and scorn it and despise it as the Israelites did their Quails and Manna this light bread as they call'd it God will then in such cases as those are make them to know what it is as children when they begin to paly with their victuals their Parents then take it away from them These and the like miscarriages which we may think of are the causes and occasions of such dealings from God in this business And that 's the first use of this Observation by inquiring into the occasions Secondly Seeing the deprival of the means of Salvation is so sad and comfortless a condition therefore we should the more carefully improve them at such time as we are partakers of them and prevent and thereby keep off such a condition as this is from our selves We should so order and dispose of our carriage as that Christ may delight to be with us and to reside and continue amongst us and not to remove or to depart from us And so much may suffice briefly to have spoken of
thou Simon Bar-jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven Flesh and blood is no revealer of Christ nor of the Mysteries which belong unto him And so 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receives not the things of the spirit for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned And so in the place before cited 1 Cor. 2.8 Which none of the Princes of the world knew The Princes of the world who are they these are not as I conceive only those which are properly so call'd earthly Kings and Potentates and the like for but few of them had an hand in the actual crucifying of Christ but by the Princes of the world we are to understand rather the great Rabbies and Doctors of the world which were as it were Princes for learning and humane knowledg which did Dominari in Scholis The Scribes and Pharisees the Philosophers and Naturalists and the like these were Principes seculi hujus and which notwithstanding were wholly ignorant of Christ So that we see how men may much abound in worldly wisdom and yet fall short of Evangelical knowledg First Because this Mystery of the Gospel it is a thing which is meerly dependant upon the will and counsel of God himself that which has its sole ground work and foundation in the wisdom of God that cannot be discovered or discerned by the meer wit and wisdom of man now thus it is with the Doctrine of the Gospel and the way to Salvation by Christ it is a thing purely dependant upon Gods Wisdom and Decree for the accomplishment and revelation of it Hence it is said in Scripture to be the Wisdom of God in a mystery and the hidden Wisdom which God had before the world ordained to our glory 1 Cor. 2.7 Again it is said to be hid in God Eph. 3.9 that is in the secret of his own purpose and eternal counsel This makes it to be such as is beyond the reach not only of the wisest men in the world but likewise without particular revelation of the Angels themselves Secondly As it is hid in God so it is also hid by God and that of purpose oftentimes from those which are otherwise the wisest men in the world thus we have it in that acknowledgment of our Saviours Mat. 11.25 I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Even so O Father because it seemed good in thy sight God does think fitting sometimes in his infinite and unsearchable wisdom to conceal and hide from the great ones and Rabbies of the world those things as concerning Religion which yet he discovers to mean persons And so if we will we may apply the phrase in the Text in another sense than as yet we have taken it In the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God namely by taking this Wisdom of God Oeconomicè as well as Objectivè God did so order it dispense it in his Providence and unsearchable Wisdom that the world by all their wisdom should not attain to the right knowledg of him Thirdly The world by the strength of natural wisdom is not able to know God in Christ in regard of the disproportion betwixt the faculty and the object the knowledg of Christ being of a far different and contrary nature and condition hereunto We know that no faculty can act beyond its own sphere nor reach an object which is above it self As bodily eyes cannot see spiritual substances no more can wit and natural sagacity be able to reach the knowledg of God in Christ which is an object transcendent unto it The improvement of this Point to our selves is not as some would make it to be from hence to cast a reproach and disparagement upon Wit and Parts and humane learning simply considered it is not in the sense of the times at least of many foolish people in them to cry down Schools and Colledges and Universities and such places of Learning and Education as these are nor to diminish or take off from those which are eminent in such kind of perfections humane wisdom and wit and skill in Philosophy and sagacity they are singular gifts and endowments which proceed from God himself and God does highly honour those persons whom he does bestow them upon for which reason we are to honour them also and whosoever speaks against them they speak evil of the things which they know not as the Apostle speaks It may be requisite for us therefore to consider the right sense and meaning of these things that we may not mistake There 's a threefold disparagement especially if so be I may call it a disparagement which we do justly and most deservedly cast upon humane learning and the wisdom of the world First Comparative and Exclusive we do disparage it and diminish from it so Humane learning if we compare it with Divine and worldly wisdom with the wisdom from above here it is as good as nothing a very poor and mean business For a man to know all kind of things in the world and in the mean time to be ignorant of Christ and those things which concern his soul this knowledg will in effect profit him nothing and he is but a very Ignoramus There 's no comparison to be made betwixt them we see how the Apostle himself sets it when he speaks to this point Phil. 3.8 I count all things says he but dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord c. Saint Paul was a very learned man and that in the Mysteries of humane learning a great and deep Scholar yet when he compared his knowledg here with the knowledg of Christ and the Gospel here he set it at a very low rate and so indeed it was to be set and is so still to be by all others whatsoever Thus far now we disparage humane wisdom as we do dross by setting it below Gold not absolutely but only by comparison And that 's the first Explication Secondly We do disparage Humane wisdom Vt fundamentum superbiae carnalis confidentiae as a ground or argument of pride and boasting and carnal confidence wit and learning and parts and the wisdom of the world they are very noble and excellent qualifications but yet they are such as none have cause to be proud of or lifted up with whosoever they are There 's no man who has any of these things in the greatest measure that can be who has any reason to swell in himself for the enjoyment of them If he considers either how he comes by them which is only by gift or if he considers how easily he may lose them and may have them taken away from him or if he considers how they are such gifts as may be bestowed even upon enemies and wicked men these are enough to
such points whosoever they are First Because they are such points which are indeed if we rightly consider them of a very deep reach in Religion though God in his Providence has brought it down to the capacity of the meanest yet in that it is such a Doctrine as does sute with the learning of the greatest and such as the greatest wits in the world may not scorn to search into What do we speak of the world and men when the very Angels themselves admire it and bow down to peep into it as the Apostle Peter tells us 1 Pet. 1.22 If they are such Mysteries as are high enough for Angels surely men have no cause to disdain them or scorn them or be weary of them though never so fully accomplished in regard of humane wisdom and learning here 's that which will hold them tack whosoever they be Secondly The wisest and learnedst that are such points as these may very well become them forasmuch as they are necessary points and such as tend to Salvation it self If wise men will be saved they must be glad to hear of saving truths there being but one way to Salvation for them and all others besides Those who have the greatest skill in Physick they are glad to take the same potions for their health which others take and so those which are the most famous for wisdom they may be glad also to partake of the same truths for their spiritual edification which others do of meaner parts Thirdly Again there is this besides considerable in it That there 's an infinite depth in these matters which we can never sufficiently reach or dive into and those that knew never so much of them yet they are still capable of knowing more and every new discourse about them it still adds somewhat unto them as every time that we read the Scripture we may still gain some new knowledg by it Besides further That we need affections even there where we need not information This is a special ground for the Preaching of plain Truths to great Wits thereby to work upon their hearts and to draw their love and affection to them There are many which know a great deal but their knowledg is very cold and dead and heartless in them and therefore to put some fire into them it is necessary to inculcate and preach these points upon them as men eat not only to take away hunger but also to gain spirits not only to satisfie their appetites but likewise to encrease their strength and corporal vigor This may then teach all such persons with patience to submit to such Truths and Points as these are and to receive with meekness that word which is able to save their souls as the Apostle James speaks Chap. 1. v. 21. Let us not disdain the common Doctrines of Religion nor think them too low for us which as no man is too good to preach of so no man is too good to hear nor to have imparted and communicated unto them And that 's a third thing here in the Apostles carriage his faithfulness and indifferency of mind The same Truths to Jews and Gentiles Fourthly There is here one thing more in his practise and that 's this namely his wisdom and discretion in the course which he here took for the curing and removing of the distempers of these Jews and Gentiles in reference to Preaching and that is by the very exercise of Preaching it self They counted it the foolishness of Preaching Well how does the Apostle now go about to free them and deliver them from this mistake why he does it no other way than indeed by preaching to them The way to bring men in love with Preaching is to use Preaching amongst them diligence in the performance will make them to affect the ordinance One would have though when the Apostle had perceived what mean apprehensions these people had of Preaching he should have now forborn Preaching amongst them and resolved as Jeremy once did that he would never preach more I said I will not make mention of him nor preach no more in his name Jer. 20.9 But St. Paul does not so he now Preaches so much the rather and falls to his work so much the faster We preach Christ crucified And this there 's good cause for First Because a great occasion of peoples prejudice against Preaching is because indeed they are unacquainted with it they speak evil of that they do not know whereas if they knew it better they would be more in love with it Now the use of it does discover this to them this shews them that worth which is in it which otherwise they do not so well discern as it is in other matters the strangeness which is betwixt friends is cause from want of converse c. so here Secondly Because there 's an authority in Preaching and an effcacy which goes along with it which does command respect unto it it is not in mens power and liberty whether they will honour Preaching or no they shall do it by meer force and as it were against their wills whether they will or no as Physick makes men in love with Physick This therefore is first a good Item to Ministers what to do in such cases to do as the Apostle here do's And secondly we see here how to cure this distemper in many places in the Country namely by sending Preachers amongst them And so for the curing also of an itch in hearing the way is to preach sound and powerful Doctrine to them But so much of the first Particular viz. The Apostles carriage as concerning the ordering of his Ministry which we have seen in four several Instances The second is the Apostles Doctrine for the points delivered by him and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ crucified This was the string which the Apostle here harped upon and the lesson which he principally taught from whence we may observe thus much That Christ crucified is the main object and matter of our Preaching the chief work and imployment which lyes upon us in our Evangelical Dispensations is to lay open the Cross of Christ The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified In the second Chapter of this present Epistle and the second verse the Apostle professes that for his part he determined to know nothing else I determined to know nothing amongst you save Jesus Christ and him crucified I determined the word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I judged not only in a way of resolution I purposed to know nothing else but also in a way of approbation I esteemed nothing else besides so fitting to be known To know amongst you what 's that that is indeed to make known A Minister knows no more in this sense than he publishes and declares to others and makes them know as well as himself Now this was that which the Apostle was resolved on especially to beat upon in his Ministry
Christ crucified But why Christ crucified rather than Christ exhibited in some other consideration why not rather Christ incarnate forasmuch as that was the first news of him or why not Christ risen again or Christ ascended which was a great deal more glorious Why does the Apostle fasten upon this mystery in Religion and Christianity above the rest Christ crucified Surely there 's very good reason to be given for it First because he would give them the worst of Christ at first that he might shew he was not ashamed of him nor of that Gospel which made him known but that hereby he might the better prepare them for other Truths and make them the welcomer to them Christs Cross is the first letter of all in a Christians Alphabet and they that can take out this lesson they will learn the other fast enough Gods beginnings with us are commonly most tedious His conclusions and closings are for the most part very sweet and comfortable and so here Secondly Because Christ crucified it is vertually and implicitly all the rest For why was Christ Incarnate it was for this end that he might be crucified therefore he was born that he might die and therefore he took flesh upon him that he might lay it down again after he had taken it Again when Christ was risen and ascended what were the terms which he was risen from was it not from death and the grave his Resurrection it pointed at his suffering and death which were conquered by him So that all upon the point is Christ crucified Thirdly This was that Mystery which did most concern us for the good and benefit which comes by it as we shall hear afterwards his death was that which pacified Gods wrath and paid the debt which was due for our sins And therefore the Apostle instances in that rather than any other Lastly Christ crucified because this was that which these people had a particular hand in as instrumental hereunto they had been active in the crucifying of Christ themselves and therefore it was most fit that they should hear of Christ crucified to chuse of any thing else Therefore accordingly we shall find that this was the practise of the Apostles in the whole course and way of their Ministry still to urge and inculcate this upon those whom they Preached unto As soon as ever they had received the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost they presently fall upon this as it was that which Christ himself much spoke of That the son of man must suffer many things so it was that which the Apostles of Christ much urged as Peter in his first Sermon Act. 2.23 this was that which he inforced upon them their crucifying of Christ This was that also which he preached so boldly in the Temple Act. 5.28 insomuch as the Council told him that they intended to bring the blood of that man upon them And Act. 8.32 the Providence of God directs them to a Scripture to this purpose out of Isa 53.7 8. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before the shearer so opened be not his mouth Thus was Christ crucified the chief point which they still urged in their Ministry And so it is that which is the chief work of ours it is the Doctrine which is to be chiefly preached by us and that upon these following Considerations First As it is a Doctrine of the greatest Humiliation it is an humbling and convincing Doctrine every Evangelical Truth being set on by the Spirit of God concurring and going along with it has an answerable work upon the conscience to bring it into a spiritual frame the Incarnation to work in us desires and affections after the new Birth the Resurrection to raise us up to new activity in holy duties c. the Ascension to carry us up to Heaven and Heavenly things and so the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ to humble us and to crucifie us for sin This Doctrine rightly preached and understood and believed and imbraced has a might power and efficacy in it for Conviction and Humiliation and to cast down th strong-holds of Sin and Satan in us This you shall see in the effect which it had upon the Apostle himself Gal. 6.14 God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of the Lord Jesus whereby the world is crucified to me and I unto the world By the death of Christ was the world crucified to the Apostle And so St. Peter's Auditors Act. 2.37 When they heard this namely of Christ crucified then they were pricked at their hearts This same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was that which pierced them to the soul their piercing of Christ And so the Disciples which went to Emaus this made their hearts burn If we ask how this is done I answer by an Act of Reflection and special Consideration to this purpose namely as from hence taking notice of this grievous and odious nature of sin those which make nothing of sin in the commission of it and when they are set violently upon it in the strength of their lusts and temptations they may here see what it is now in the price which was paid for it and the pain which was endured to expiate it in Christ crucified And those which make a mock of a sin and sometimes of those which warn them of it they see how sad it is in those effects which it had upon the Redeemer and this is to be a means to humble them and lay them low in themselves Every nail which was struck into his Blessed Body it is here a piercing of our hearts every thorn which stuck in that opprobrous Crown it is a thorn in our sides every drop of blood which issued out of his sides it should fetch buckets of tears from us if we had not hearts harder than the flints This Doctrine of Christs Passion it is thus in this way of Proceeding a Doctrine of Humiliation and therefore fittest to be urged in the course of our Ministry And that because this is a main part of our Ministry to humble men and convince them of sin sutable and answerable to the work of the Spirit of God upon the Conscience for that 's a main work likewise of that The Spirit when he comes he shall convince the world of sin Joh. 16.9 Now thus it should be with Preaching which is a special conveyance of the Spirit the work of this is not to sooth men up to flatter them to give them scope to sin no but rather to humble them for it Secondly This Doctrine of Christ crucified as it has cause to be the chief work of our Ministry forasmuch as it is an humbling Doctrine so it has cause likewise to be so too because it is a comforting Doctrine and a Doctrine of the greatest comfort that can be We which are Ministers we are made to be the helpers of the joy of Gods people as we are called 2 Cor. 1. ult Now
we do not live answerably unto Those whose lives are cross to their Doctrine they pull down that with one hand which they seem to build up with another and those which destroy that which they build as well as those which build that which they destroy they do thereby make themselves to be Transgressors Gal. 2.18 This they are guilty in which shew and shew and shew much by their proposals but shew little or nothing by their examples which discourse of the excellent way but do not walk in that way themselves In the last place and so to conclude one word here more from the connexion and conjunction of these two parts of the Text here both together Covet earnestly the best gifts and withall I yet shew unto you a more excellent way We see here that these two are consistent and do hold together very well Parts and Grace both A man may be a good Christian and withal a good Scholar too a man may be a good Scholar and withal a good Christian too This the Apostle does here suppose and take for granted whiles he superinduces the one upon the other yet I shew unto you It is not Tamen as if there were some disparity but Adhuc as implying an agreement This takes off the conceits of all such as do imagine these two to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and inconsistent together that if men be good Christians they must needs be dullards and dunces Again That if they be good Scholars they cannot be godly men This is a fond and foolish imagination and is quite stricken off by this concomitancy and connexion which we meet withal in this present Text. Indeed I must withal add this That these two in regard of the event are oftentimes separated from each others more than might be wish't There are many of great abilities for Learning which yet have but graceless hearts and again there are as many of very gracious qualifications which ye have no great depth of Learning or Scholarship in them but yet these two principles in themselves they do not simply and absolutely cross or thwart one another but may very well meet and sometimes do in one and the same subject The better gifts do oftentimes fall into the more excellent way This is a good incouragement to us for the following and prosecution of either both of parts and grace too The possibility of their division and separation fo one from the others calls us to an holy jealousie and watchfulness over our selves and may serve t humble and abase us And the possibility of their consistency and conjunction of one with another calls us to an holy zeal and intention in our selves and may serve to comfort and incourage us It is not the having of either alone which does excuse or discharge us from indeavour after either in the conjunction And thus now as briefly as I could have I dispatcht with Gods gracious assistance this whole Text. Covet earnestly the best gifts and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way SERMON XXXIII 2 Cor. 5.11 Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences There is nothing which does so much justifie the importunities of a faithful Monitor as the conseration of the present danger The approach of the enemy makes for the alarm of the Watchman and the increasing of the distemper calls for the advice of the Physician and as it is thus in temporal so is it likewise in spiritual dispensations where the danger that people are in in regard of their souls and the strictness of that account which they are one day to make to God of them lays a ground for our special excitements and awakenings in the work of our Ministry that they may not be thought to be needless and superfluous and without any cause but very requisite and to very good purpose This is the scope of this Text which we have now before us in connexion with that whichwe handled the last day out of the verse preceding In the Verse immediately going before the 1 st Verse of this Chapter the Apostle Paul had there declared that we must all appear before the judgment-feat of Christ c. And from hence in this Verse which we have in hand does he shew what reason he had to be so earnest with those whom he dealt with in provoking them to a regard of themselves Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men c. In this Verse we have an account given us of the Ministerial dispensations and that as laid down especially in two distinct branches which may serve to make up to us the parts of the Text First In reference to the performance And Secondly In reference to the acceptance The performance that we have in these words Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men The acceptance that we have in these but we are made manifest c. We begin in order with the first viz. The Ministerial performance wherein again two Branches more First The work it self and that is to perswade men Secondly The ground and principle of this working or the motive that puts them upon it Knowing the terror of the Lord. Before we come to speak of these parts distinctly and by themselves it is requisite that we should first of all look upon them in their connexion and reference to one another wherein we have a double account given us of the Apostle Paul and the rest of his Brethren as to the work of their Ministry First An account of their knowledg what they did with that and that was by improving of it to the good of others Secondly An account of their practice what put them upon that and that was that knowledg which they did partake of in their own persons First Here 's an account of their knowledg what they did with that that 's in these words we perswade men we know he terror of the Lord. And this knowledg we do not keep to our selves or lock it up in our own breasts no but we bring it forth and impart it and communicate it to others that they may know it as well as our selves as we know so also we persade and as we learn so likewise we teach And indeed this is one thing which lies upon such kind of persons as these are those whom God has at any time furnished with more than ordinary knowledg and insight into the things of Gods it concerns them not to keep it to themselves to conceal it or to hide their talent in a Napkin but to improve it and to make discovery of it according to the place and calling in which God has set them and the abilities which he has bestowed upon them Every scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man which is an housholder that bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
interest in any outward and worldly blessing is belonging unto them It is true that they cannot absolutely and peremptorily conclude upon it no more than upon any other outward comfort of the same nature with it for all things fall alike unto all here in this life to the good and to the bad to the just and to the unjust c. as the Preacher speaks but yet they may more certainly expect it than any other besides may and they have a promise made of it to them so far forth as is requisite for them and may most consist with the glory of God which all things are to be subservient unto Job 5.26 Among other Blessings of the same condition with it this is reckoned as one pertaining to those which are faithful That they shall come to their grave in peace like a shock of corn in its season This was that kind of death which the Apostle here was delivered from in this danger which he speaks of in Asia as we may see if we look into the story where we shall find that he was ready to be pull'd in pieces in the tumult which was there made and therefore his friends intreated him that he would not adventure himself upon the Theatre namely to the rage and fury of his Enemies which were there met in a cobustion together This is a part of the aggravation of the miseries and calamities of War The difference betwixt a fever and a sword betwixt dying by the hand of an enemy and dying by the stroke of a disease The end and conclusion is all one and the same only there 's some difference in the conveyance when as the soul does not so much take its leave as it is rather driven out of its lodging This is that which nature shrinks at even there where grace has learn't in some degree to submit unto it And that 's the first aggravation which is implyed in this expression so great a Death namely from the nature and kind of it a violent death not a natural The second is from the Quality and manner of it a painful death not a gentle and easie Death it is unpleasing in it self considered as a meer dissolution and separation of two loving friends and companions the soul and body from each other but when to this we shall add pain and torture this makes it to be so much the more This was that which many of the Godly Martyrs suffer'd and indur'd They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were killed they were slain with the sword Heb. 11.35 Deaths full of torment and pain and so great there are likewise such kind of Deaths in a natural way also Sone and Gout c. I need not name them some are afflicted with them and if we be delivered from them we have cause to bless God for it for delivering us from such great Deaths or Diseases as those as namely are painful and tormenting which makes up the second Aggravation Thirdly Take in another from the coming and proceeding of it A sudden death and not an expected This is another aggravation of Temporal Death which the Apostle seems here to allude to in his danger in Asia It was such as he did not look for and in that regard it was great indeed to speak properly Death is not altogether sudden to the Children of God because they are still more or less in the expectation of it and in some sort prepared for it but yet comparatively some is suddener than other and that which is so has the aggravation of a great death in it We find David cry in Psal 39. ult Oh spare me a little before I go hence c. that I may recover my self A Christian though he be able to give some good account of himself whensoever God shall call him as desiring always to live in such a constant frame and temper of spirit as from whence he may be fit to leave the world yet he desires to have some time to make his accounts up and to have them in a more perfect readiness than at all times else he has in which regard it is lawful for him with a submission to the good will of God to desire to be kept and preserved from a sudden stroke that so he may the better be able to reflect and recollect himself to consider what he is and what he has been and what he has done and whither he is going c. which in these sudden surprisals he is not so well able to do Fourthly From the time and season of it when it is an hastened death not a mature one in Eccles 7.17 it is there the counsel and advice of the Preacher Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou dye before thy time And Psal 55.23 It is said of bloody and deceitful men that they shall not live out half their days For men to dye before their time and not to live out half their days it is reckoned in the Catalogue and account of great Deaths Now death may be said to be untimely in a twofold Consideration Either First of all in a way of Nature Or else secondly in a way of Providence First In a way of Nature When one dyes in infancy or youth or such time as he is not come to full age and it is a mercy to escape this God gives us great occasion of thankfulness when he sets us to run out our time here in the world when he cracks not the hour-glass before all the sand be spent or when the glass is but newly turn'd up as sometimes he does This is an untimely death in a way of Nature Secondly There 's an untimely Death also in a way of Providence When a man is at any time taken out of the world ere he has done his work and before he has accomplish't that business which in all likelihood he was to perform which is the very life of life it self Thus had this Death in the Text been a great Death to St. Paul because it had taken him off from that service which he was to have done for the Church and so consequently it was a great deliverance to be freed from it that he might now glory as afterwards he did before his departure that he had sought a good fight that he had finished his course c. 2 Tim. 4.7 Fifthly The greatness of Death has an aggravation of it from its latitude and extent When it is a death involving and including such and such persons in it As first for the number of the persons the death of many the death of a great many that 's a great death that 's a great death which does devour multitudes and swarms at once Thus had this death been in Asia not only Paul himself but his companions more had been taken away besides him in this violence he here speaks of And this is another thing which would have made it to have been so great a death
from them thus it was here with Paul and the rest they were to be imployed by him in the work of the Ministry and he had business wherein to use them therefore he would save and deliver them God stands not in need of our service simply considered nor of any thing which can be done by us but yet so far forth as he is pleased of his free Graceto imploy us so far forth will he be careful to preserve us in order and reference hereunto In Mal. 3.17 it is spoken there of the children of God that a book of remembrance was written before him in their behalf and that he would spare them when he made up his Jewels as a man spares his own son that serves him There 's two arguments in one for Gods indulgence there mentioned First their relation his son and secondly their imployment that serves him a man will spare his son in reference to his bowels and he will spare his servant in reference to his work and the latter of these is that which is here exhibited unto us God takes a special care of his working servants This is a certain truth that as long as God has any work and business for any man to do for him so long he will keep and preserve him and deliver him from death and he may with confidence depend upon him for it which by the way teaches us how in some manner to preserve our lives and keep our selves from hazards and danger as we do any thing desire it namely by being careful to be exercised and well-imployed in the doing of that which God requires of us When we put our selves out of service we put our selves out of protection When we lay our selves aside as to our work we do in a manner hasten our end and ring our own passing-bell as I may so express it but when we are careful as much as we can to serve God in our generation and to be useful and profitable to the time and places wherein we live we do hereby very much provide for our own safety and preservation and in a manner engage God himself thereunto who is very tender of his working-servants as here of Paul The way to secure our lives is not so much to spare our selves to study our own ease to make much of one no he that saves his life so is most likely to lose it but rather accoding to that strength and ability which God affords unto us to do him all the service we can Thirdly God does further delight to frustrate the attempts of enemies and those that plot and conspire and contrive the death of his servants and for this cause will deliver them from it as here again 't was with Paul God fears the wrath of his Adversaries lest they should behave themselves strangely and say Our hand is high c. The consideration of this Point is a great encouragement to all those that fear God against the inordinate fear of death That the Lord has a special care of them and regard unto them in such dispensations at least so as to keep them from the evil and hurtfulness of it He hath delivered us from so great a death And this for the thing it self here propounded in the absolute consideration of it We may in the second place look upon it in the reflection as coming from the Apostle God had delivered him and he did not now let it pass without any notice taken of it but he observes it and likewise acknowledges it This is a duty which lyes upon us to take notice of those mercies and deliverances which God at any time has vouchsafed unto us thus does the Apostle here and also elsewhere and teaches us to do the same likewise He makes mention of mercies and deliverances which were past sometime since and not only makes mention of them but gives thanks for them it is not a bare and simple narration but with some acknowledgment annext unto it We would not have you ignorant says he of our trouble that came to us in Asia c. Why would he not have them ignorant of his trouble because he would have them thankful for his deliverance and to join with him in the blessing and praising of God for it who had so graciously shewn himself in his behalf Thankfulness and acknowledgment is the least which we can return upon God for deliverance and preservation This is that which we our selves are now called to this present day wherein we celebrate Gods goodness to us in our Deliverance from the Gunpowder-Treason a Deliverance which in regard of the thing it self was vouchsafed many years past five and forty years ago but the remembrance of it should be still green and fresh and flourishing with us We may very well express it in all the words of this present clause That God has delivered delivered us and from a great death First For the Person delivering it was God He that delivered Paul and his Company delivered us He that delivered them from the great danger in Asia the same has delivered us from the great danger in England He that raised from the dead as it is said in the verse before it is he that has kept and preserved from death here It was he that discovered the Plot. It was he that prevented it or otherwise we had been utterly destroyed and overwhelmed in it If the Lord had not been on our side may England now say if the Lord had not been on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us It is true God had his means and instruments which he was pleased to imploy and improve in this business but the main of it must be resolved into himself It was he who delivered us c. Secondly For the Persons delivered we may add also us it is we which are delivered The deliverance of others has cause in its place to affect us and we ought to be very much taken with joy for it But when our selves are interested in any deliverance for our own particular this should more work upon us and so it was here There 's none of us all but had a share and propriety in it some of us in regard of our Persons and others of us in regard of our Relations either in our selves or else in our Friends and Country which should be dear unto us We were either delivered from death or from Non-entity which you will Those which were then born they were delivered in a way of preservation those which were not born then they were delivered in a way of anticipation So that the Deliverance comes home to our doors one way or other do what we can and he has delivered us Thirdly For the terms also of Deliverance so great a death so great as it is hard to express and declare how great it was it was great in the consideration of all or most of those several
circumstances and aggravations which I have now mentioned First For the nature and kind of it it was a death of violence it was a forced and unnatural death Unnatural indeed it was in a double consideration First It was unnatural actively in regard of those which complotted it and desired to inflict it For who I beseech you were they but those of our own Country Englishmen and bred at home The nearer at any time the relation the more unnatural still the rebellion Englishmen to destroy Englishmen as it has been in these latter times especially a most fearful and unnatural destruction contrary to the common principles of nature and that affection which God hath put into Heathen and strangers which never head of Religion This death which we now speak of it was such an one as this contrived and conspired by those which were of our own Land and Nation and came as it were out of our own bowels And then again it was unnatural passively as all deaths of violence especially are a taking away of mens lives from them and turning them out of the world a death of greater pain and reluctancy and indisposition and so it was great Secondly It was a great death if it had taken in regard of the suddenness it was the taking away of men without any warning or preparation at all the cruellest thing that could be in reference to the Patients and the cowardliest thing that could be in reference to the Instruments The manner and carriage and contrivance of it had the aggravations of a great death in it and made it more remarkable First I say it was cruel and very grievous in reference to the Patients or those which were designed to be so To come upon men on a sudden without any warning or preparation at all when they should neither settle their Temporal estates for this life nor yet which is more their spiriritual or eternal for a better what an unmerciful thing was this How great was that death wherein men should had no warning given them of avoiding everlasting death but have been in danger as much as men could make them of perishing both ways at once in body and soul And then besides how cowardly and unmanly also for those that acted it How unsuitable to the Principles of an Heroical and magnanimous spirit There was no skill in it but only violence no art at all but the black art no mystery but the mystery of iniquity It savoured and smelt of no other than Hell it self it was treachery and conspiracy and falshood the basest kind of killing of all as David said once of Abner 2 Sam. 3.33 c. Died Abner as a fool dieth thy hands were not bound nor thy feet put into fetters As a man falleth before wicked men so sellest thou So had these Worthies died if they had been taken away as a man falleth before wicked men basely cowardly injuriously without any provocation for no cause for no wrong for no offence but only their goodness they had not died as sools had died Not by their own carelesness not by their own wickedness not by their own rashness not by any default of their own but only by the mischief of those which were the children of iniquity not by the hands of law and iustice their hands nor feet had not been bound but only by the hands of cruelty and rebellion Thus had they been taken away thus had they fallen at this time and had not this been a great deliverance Thirdly It was likewise great in regard of the untimeliness and immaturity of it it was the taking of Persons away before their time many in their very youth and many in their riper years and many in the midst of their hopes in the fulness of their strength for their bodies and in the height of their parts for their minds and in the midst of their counsels for their imployment It was the barbarousness of that Soldier in Syracuse that killed the Mathematician in his study and whiles he was drawing his lines even so as I may say it had been here men in the midst of their very work And what work was it to not a work of ordinary concernment neither but the setling of the affairs of the Kingdom in Church and State the establishing of good and wholsome Laws this was the work which stuck so much in their stomacks and which provoked them to this means of interrupting it as it was the reason which some of them gave for the choice of the place Fourthly It was great also in regard of the extent of it here it was great indeed First for the number and plurality of the persons how many had been involved in this death even the whole State it self the Representative Body of the Kingdom assembled in Parliament As he that wisht he could cut off Rome at one blow what a sweeping death had this been which had carried away so many at once And what an unmerciful conspiracy that had bowels left for none We see how unlimited and unbounded malice is that nothing will serve its turn but the ruining and undoing of all friend and foe hopeful and desperate one as well as another all should have gone to the pot without any difference These are the Principles of such kind of persons All 's fish with them that comes to net Secondly For the condition and quality of the Persons consider that to make it somewhat more a multitude of mean rank and condition they are more easily spared but the loss of those which are of greater worth and eminency for their parts and place this is more to be lamented The death of great men it is no other than a great death It was that which grieved David so much in the aforenamed slaughter of Abner not only the wrongfulness of the cause but the eminency of the person Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel 2 Sam. 3.33 If David made such a matter of it the death but of one great person what had been the death of so many great ones at once King and Prince and Nobles and all the Peers of the Land to have been taken away in one moment Head and Tail Branch and root in one day the stay and the staff the mighty man and the man of War the Judg and the Prophet the Prudent and the Ancient the Honourable man and the Counseller the cunning Artificer and the eloquent Orator this had been the case here and how great had this death been Thirdly Look upon this extent likewise yet further in that which they principally aimed at and propounded to themselves herein which was not only the ruining of persons but also the ruining of Doctrines and the faith and truth of Christ it self the death of he Gospel and the death of the Ordinances and the death of Religion and the death of our own precious and immortal souls And now tell me whether
this was not a great death indeed If we lose our lives yet if we can recover our souls our loss will not be so considerable And if we part with many other things which are near and dear unto us yet after all this if notwithstanding we can hold fast our faith and profession without wavering we may do pretty well But this was the mischief of these enemies that they did then hast to spoil us of these It was not so much other matters which they had an eye to life and liberty and estates though that were somewhat but even Grace and Truth Piety Salvation it self that we might not see our signs not there might not be a Prophet amongst us as the Psalmist speaks This was that which they principally aim'd at as it is said of the Adulteress that she hunts for the precious soul Prov. 6.26 even so it may be said of such as these And thus ye see how it was a great deliveran Fourthly Namely in regard of the extent both to the persons and cause Fifthly From the neerness and approximation of the danger It was great so also for it was even almot come to the execution of it we were even upon the very point and brim of destruction in this design as it was with Paul in this present Text indeed we thus sar differed from him that we knew not what danger we were in which he did we had not the sentence of death in our selves but we had the sentence of death in our conspiracies they had give in and past us for dead and had made as full account of it as might be they made no question at all of it but so it would be The plot discovered but the very night before God brought it to the very extremity it was seen in the minute he manifested himself graciously in our preservation when there was death at the very doors Thus it was here 6. It was great also in regard of the mischievousness of the contrivers it was carried with great wickedness as could be possibly imagined all the strength even of Hell it self here was ingratitude hypocrisie cruelty unnatural affection what not yea here was moreover which made it so much the more hainous the taking of the blessed Sacrament upon it consider that A setting of Gods Seal to their own wicked Counsels an eatin and drinking of damnation to themselves whiles they vowed and conspired and indeavoured destruction to others What an horrible and fearful thing was this to all the rest What wonder that they should make nothing of the death of others which made nothing of the blood of the Lord Lastly A great death in regard of what it should now be to all of us for our apprehension and acknowledgment we should make a great matter of it and so account it And for this purpose lay before us all the aggravations which I have now named to work it upon our selves Narrow capacities have commonly but streightened affections therefore let us help the one by inlarging the other let us labour to raise our hearts to a right frame and pitch of thankfulness this present day and all the days of our lives And let us not have these things only in our fancies and take them as rhetorical expressions but let us labour to get them into our affections and to have impressions of them upon our spirits let us look upon the greatness of this danger even at this distance and remoteness of it which in it self consider'd is still the same as it is with sins which are long ago committed and examine our hearts how indeed we are affected in this particular Whereby we may have some discovery of our selves what we are likely to befor future deliverances if God should vouchsafe them We are all ready to think with our selves that if God would now but give us peace and free us from those fears and distractions under which we lye and settle things quietly amongst us both in Church and State Oh how thankful we would then be to him for it Why what are we now at present for that which he has already done for us What are we for the deliverance of this day from the Gunpowder Treason He that will not be thankful for this he would not be thankful for that neither if God should please in his Providence to grant it He that will not pay the Arrears neither would he pay the new debt It is but the falseness and deceitfulness of our hearts that here cosens us and therefore let us look to our selves and quicken our felves more in this business to be sensible and apprehensive of it and to have answerable enlargements upon it And to the advantage take in all other mercies and deliverances besides with it whether national or personal as in a day of general humiliation we are to be humbled for personal miscarriages so in a day of general and publick Thanksgiving we are to acknowledg personal mercies and personal deliverances And so now I have done with the first General Part of the Text And that is the commemoration of a deliverance past who deliver'd us from so great a death The second now follows and that is the signification of a deliverance present in these words And doth deliver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that hath delivered does deliver It is very fitly and properly put in the present tense and also indefinitely because it is that which is always in being or acting and never otherwise God is never out of this work of deliverance and preservation of us He delivers us daily look how many are the evils and dangers which we are subject unto so many are the deliverances which we partake of in the eating of our meat in the travelling on our way in the lying down on our beds in the going about in our imployments where-ever at any time we go or whatever at any time we are about we have still experiences given us of Gods gracious deliverance of us At home or abroad at work or at play a sleep or awake still in all and either of these does Goddeliver and we have good cause still to acknowledg it but we are to take it here in the Text and so likewise in the occasion in a more limited and restrained signification namely in reference to the business in hand and the particular danger now mentioned and remembred The Apostle here tells us how God had delivered him from the late danger in Asia and to amplisie and extend it further he adds also this That he does still deliver namely in a reference to that particular deliverance before spoken of He delivers with a respect had to that This may be made good unto us according to a twofold Explication First In the continuation of that deliverance which he has formerly given and vouchsafing a further fruit and benefit and efficacy of it Secondly In the multiplication or renewing of the like deliverance and vouchsafing other deliverances which are
which accordingly may be appliedby us to this present Verse here before us which is the Sum as it were and Reversion of that which went before and has been hitherto handled by us Wherein the Apostles going over the same thing once again was not frivolous or superfluous in him but to very good purpose There are three things especially which are pertinently considerable in it First His confidence and firm perswasion of the Truth which he had taught and delivered It is a sign he was no Sceptick in his Religion nor yet in his Ministry but was well assured of that which he both belived and imbraced himself as also preacht and commended to others Those things whichmen are doubtful of they think it is enough to speak but once and hardly that It sticks for the most part in their teeth and comes difficultly from them they do but whisper it or lisp it out as well as they can but where they are certain here they are more free and bold in the uttering of it And so it was here with St. Paul he was confident and therefore he stuck not again to repeat it And we see from hence what it becomes every one else to be upon the like occasion Those which are Preachers and Teachers of others they had need to be well assured of the Truth of that which they preach and vent in their Ministry not to speak things at random or at a venture they care not how but deliberately and upon grounds of confidence First Because they deal in matters of great importance and the highest concernment As it is in the affairs of the world where men speak upon life and death they had need to be sure what they speak forasmuch as otherwise their miscarriage will be such as is irrecoverable Even so it is likewise in these spiritual matters and the subjects of the Ministerial Dispensations because they are such as concern mens souls and their well or ill being to all eternity therefore we had need so much the rather to take heed what we say To say no more than we are able to prove and make good if we should be questioned about it especially if we shall add the threatnings which they join with it as here Let him be accurst He that curses another for not being of his opinion had need to be sure of that opinion Secondly Because there are many more whose judgments do depend upon it If a Minister or Preacher mistake many others mistake with him It is not a single miscarriage but a multiplied for which cause it concerns him to have good ground for that which comes from him For if the blind lead the blind they shall loth fall into the ditch as our Saviour himself has told us Thirdly For the better inforcing of the Truth and Doctrine it self The confidence of the Preacher stirs up belief in the Hearer and makes him so much the more ready to assent to the things which are propounded As we see Agrippa to Paul Almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian Perswaded him how did he so namely from that confidence and resolution which he did discern to be in him Whereas now on the other side as he that asks coldly we use to say teaches to deny so he that teaches coldly he does in like manner teach to mistrust and makes men to call in question the truth of that which is taught by him This the Apostle Paul here in this Scripture did not do but the contrary by that confidence which he exprest in himself Indeed this Point which we are now upon it both may be and often s abused by some kind of persons for we shall find by daily experience that there are none which are more confident than those which are most ignorant Truth it is for the most part modest and ready to suspect it self whereas error is bold and dark There are some kind of people in the world which are as stiff and resolute and peremptory in the assents of their private fancies and the imaginations of their own brain as if they were Divine Oracles and the very Articles of Faith it self neither Paul nor an Angel from Heaven could take them off from them The Devil the God of this world does two things with them first blinds their eyes from seeing the truth and their ears from hearing the errors and mistakes about it But what shall we now commend or imitate such a confidence as this no in no hand at all Neither is this that which was here observable in the Apostle this confidence of his it was of another strain and tincture which was in it It was not a confidence of presumption but a confidence of well grounded knowledg It was not a confidence of fancy or conceit but a confidence of assurance He knew and understood what he said and because he did so was therefore confident about it He that heareth speaketh constantly Prov. 21.28 And this Confidence is such as is commendable in any other besides when first of all we labour to be satisfied and well-grounded in the Truths of Religion and then keep our selves to them and stand stiffly and resolutely upon them in this case we should not cast away our Confidence which hath great recompence of reward as it is Heb. 10.35 Whether private Christians or Ministers private Christians as concerns the imbracing of the Truth and Ministers as concerns the spreading of it we should both of us so order our selves in this business as that nothing may be able to unsettle us or divert us from that which we have undertaken or discourage us in the prosecution of it For though some as I said are confident causelesly yet it is not so therefore with all There is a great deal of difference in reality between a presumptuous confidence and a rational as between one which is asleep and which is awake Both persons seem alike assured but in the thing there 's a wide distance betwixt them even so it is here But that 's the first Particular here considerable namely the Apostles confidence he was well perswaded of what he delivered The second is the Apostles zeal in the cause and truth of Christ There was a great deal of earnestness which was here exprest by him not only in the expression which he used in the simple Proposition Though we or an angel from heaven mentioned in the eighth verse but also in the additional repetition of it here again in the ninth verse What we said before c. that which men often speak of and repeat their affection is much in it and that which mens affection is much in they can never have done with it and so it was here with this blessed Apostle and holy man of God his heart it was very much raised and transported now in him when he considered how the Truth of God was now in danger to be impair'd on the one side and when he considered how the people of God were now in danger
think to escape neither And therefore ye may again take notice of it that it is not only said Besides what we have Preached but what ye have received The receiver is as bad as the thief in this particular And as it is a cursed thing to scatter Error so it is as cursed a thing to take it up and carry it home and keep it by us or nourish it with us which therefore we should now all be perswaded in the fear of God to avoid and shun what we can It is a Caution and Admonition which is not needless to us or superfluous but very necessary and seasonable especially in these days wherein we live wherein so many and never more Errors abounded than now there do to take heed and look to our selves that we be not seduced and led away with them especially in those points which are of so great concernment to us The Authority of the Scriptures The Corruption of Nature The necessity of Regeneration The freeness of Gods Grace in Conversion The Perseverance of the Saints and the like Points which have again and again been inculcated to us and from time to time through several hands delivered unto us which therefore it concerns us to hold and keep our selves to as much as we can Especially you of this City that I may bring it a little nearer to you it behoves you especially above all other places of the Nation to be mindful of this Admonition as those who have been made partakers of the Truth in a more large and ample manner than any other else besides you cannot pretend the want of Preachers as having had more in this kind than any other City in the world not only us but Angels from Heaven as I may so express it which have come to you from all quarters and dispenst the Gospel unto you in the clearness and pureness of it yea and you have received it too which is somewhat more that is welcom'd it and imbraced it and given entertainment to it and exprest your affections to those who have been the Ministers of it both in former times and of late For which cause there are great ingagements upon you to stick close unto it and not to suffer your selves by any means to be taken off from it but earnestly to contend for that faith which hath been once delivered unto you It is a dangerous thing movere terminos to remove the bounds whether in civil affairs or in spiritual but in spiritual especially Here the Apostles rule elsewhere is seasonable for us To hold fast the form of sound words c. to keep that good thing which is committed unto us and to stand fast inone spirit with one mind and to strive together for the faith of the Gospel Gregory Nazianzene tells us of Constantine that when he drew near to his end of the three things which troubled his spirit this was one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he had made an innovation in Religion and the Doctrine of Christ The same will likewise any other which shall in like manner be guilty of it when they come duly to reflect upon it Let us for our parts be careful to maintain the Truth which for a recompence will maintain us and let us take heed of all such Doctrines and ways which are opposite and contrary hereunto Especially which now in these days do so much prevail and take place amongst us Socinianism Pelagianism Antinomianism Libertinism and the like And especially which is fittest to take in all the rest into it Popery and the abominations of Rome Le ts us take heed of that we may perhaps be secure in this matter and think we are now least in danger of this of all others but we are not for all that and our danger is the greater for our security the mystery of iniquity works and works now and all other Errors besides they do but usher and lead on to this and make way for it if we be not the more wary and watchful over our selves The Devil knows how to go backward that he may fetch the greater leap and have us at the long run and it is wisdom for us not to be ignorant of his devices This being the great design and project which he does now lay to himself for the undermining of poor souls I shall for this purpose and all other but refer you to what hath been formerly delivered unto you which you have heard and learnt and received and had confirmed amongst you from the mouths and pens of your forefathers and Blood of the Martyrs and conclude here as I began in the words of the Apostle Paul in this present Text Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel to you than what we have preached unto you let him be accursed As we said before so c. SERMON XXXVII Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not known that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance It is a part of the Corruption of Nature and of the misery of Man through his fall to make his remedy to be his poyson and that which should be the greatest restraint and prohibition to him from sin to make it the greatest argument and enconragement to him for it namely the grace and goodness and patience and long-suffering of God This is that which the Apostle Paul does in a special manner meet withal and fall upon in this present Scripture where having in the foregoing Chapter inveighed agains the sins of the Gentiles and the compliance of others with them occasionally from Gods goodness to them doeshere in this particular Text which we have now before us set himself with a great deal of vehemency against this distemper and as it were taking them out man by man does expostulate it and reason it with them in the former part of this present Chapter for divers and sundry verses together Our business at present is with the fourth verse of it which is more full and close than all the rest Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering c. IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First The simple Expostulation And secondly The aggravating Amplification The simple Expostulation that ye have in these words Despisest thou the riches of his goodness c. The aggravating Amplification in those Not knowing c. We begin with the former viz. The simple Expostulation Despisest thou c. Wherein again we have three Particulars more First The carriage and behaviour of God towards wicked and worldly men and that is much patience and indulgence and kindness to them The riches of c. Secondly The miscarriage and unanswerable returns of wicked men back again to God and that is in much frowardness and perversness and contempt they despise this his Goodness to them Thirdly The accountableness in which they stand to God for this miscarriage of theirs Doest thou despise
of Faith There are many which reckon themselves in the highest form of Divinity which are in the lowest form of Christianity as having little of the true knowledg of Christ abiding in them Secondly Weaker Christians are compared to little Children as for the smallness of their growth so for the shallowness of their understanding and the weakness and feebleness of their digestion Little children they cannot digest strong meats as is before implied no more can weaker Christians stronger or higher truths There are some Truths in Religion which weaker minds are apt to abuse and to pervert to their own perdition as the Apostle Peter tells us some did with those hard things in Pauls Epistles 2 Pet. 3.16 They are too strong and difficult for them 1 Cor. 3.1 Thirdly Little children they are froward and apt to be complaining in regard of the tenderness which is in them a small matter troubles them and so it is with weak Christians there 's a peevishness and morosity upon them from whence a little thing molests them and soon puts them out of frame Fourthly and lastly as most pertinent to the Text. Little children they are not long in a mind they quickly change and alter their opinions and so it is with weaker Christians It was so in particular with these Galatians for which the Apostle indeed does here call them little children they were soon removed from him that had called them c. chap. 14. Upon this account does the Apostle also express himself after this manner to the Ephesians That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine Take little children and ye may turn them which way ye will and that which to day they play with to morrow they are ready to cast away The same desposition is there in weaker Christians both in regard of Teachers and Doctrines those Teachers which for the time they admire within a while they have enough of them and those Doctrines which now they imbrace ere long they 'l be of a contrary mind and judgment to them But so much of the first thing here considerable which is the Title or Compellation Little children c. The second is the condition in which he stood in reference to them and that we have in these words of whom I travel in birth again Wherein two particulars more First The simple Proposition of it I travel in birth Secondly The additional Reiteration I travel in birth again For the first The simple Proposition The Apostle says he travels in birth with these Galatians where having before call'd them little children he still continues the metaphor about them by resembling and comparing himself to a travelling woman and so upon occasion he is made all things to the people of God sometimes a spokes-man to betratb them 2 Cor. 11.2 I have espoused you to one husband that I might present you a chast virgin to Christ sometimes a Father to beget them 1 Cor. 4.15 For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel sometimes a Nurse to cherish them 1 Thes 2.7 We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth c. sometimes a Mother to bear them My little children of whom I travel in birth And this latter is that which we are now to consider of at this present time Here 's that wonder which the Prophet Jeremy speaks of of a man travailing with child in Jer. 30.6 The Apostle Paul here assumes it to himself but he does not restrain it to himself he does by this expression signifie the condition of the Ministerial employment especially in the hands of those which are faithsul in it it is like the travel of a woman in child-birth of whom I travel in birth There are three things especially which are observable in a travailing woman and each of them appliable to a Minister and Pastor of souls First Sense of pain Secondly Desire of delivery Thirdly Fear of miscarriage First sense of pain There 's pain amd labour in travel so great as that other things which were painful are set forth and resembled by it in Scripture and a woman when she is in traved we say she is in labour as if there were no labour to speak of but only that Now this is also considerable of us in the work of the Ministry howsoever some may count it and others may make it yet in it self and in the conscionable discharge of it it is a laborious work And accordingly we shall find it in Scripture exprest in so many terms 1 Cor. 3.9 We are labourers together with God 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured more abundantly than they all 1 Tim. 5.17 They that labour in the word and doctrine Still the work of the Ministry is represented and exhibited to us as a business of pains and labour and so indeed it is Indeed it is so differently to a difference and variety of persons as it is in the other kind of travel and bodily child-birth some have an easier pull of it than others accordingly as it please God to be assistant to them as it is noted of the Hebrew-women Exod. 1.19 So here in this spiritual travel according to different gifts and inablements the labour is different but yet all who are that which they should be have their share in this pain and labour This as it is a good Meditation to Ministers themselves to teach them with what thoughts to enter upon so weighty an employment so it is also a good item to people how to carry themselves towards them even by knowing them that labour amongst them and admonish them and to esteem them very highly in love for their works-sake as the Apostle Paul makes that use himself of it to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5.12 13. We see what cause we have to bear a tender affection to the true Ministers of Christ to pity them and to pray for them even as we would for a woman which is drawing near the time of her travel so should we for those which are understanding such a great work as this is even seek to God earnestly for them especially considering that it is for our sakes and in reference to our good that it is undertaken by them That 's one thing which is considerable in this resemblance of the work of the Ministry to travel viz. sense of pain The second is desire of delivery A travelling-woman she longs to be eased of her burden with which she goes and waits for the times of her redemption and freedom from it and she has a great desire to bring forth what she carries into the world So also had the Apostle here of doing good to these Galatians he was with child till he had wrought some what upon them and brought them into a good temper of spirit This is another thing observable in a good Minister from whence he is said to travel in child for those which are committed unto him Thus Rom. 1.11 I
To lose such a work as this is the work of the Ministry this is no ordinary business nor so to be accounted Thirdly Add to this the extent of it and that which goes along with it for if we lose our work there is somewhat more lost besides that as is imply'd afterwards and that is of your selves It is unprofitable for you Heb. 13.17 Alas if it were only our labour it may be it would be no great matter at least for us to speak of or if it were only the work it self abstractly considered but now that it is of such consequence to you this improves it and sets it on And the rather upon this added still to it that it is irrecoverable for so it is If the work of the Ministry take not there 's nothing hereafter to be expected like a miscarriage in War if we once lose it we know not how to make it up again and to find our bottom Upon these and the like Considerations may ye see the Ground of this Caution That we lose not the things which we have wrought And thus much of the first Part or Branch of it as exprest in the Negative The second is the Affirmative But that ye or we receive a full reward Here 's another piece of a Motive why Believers should look to themselves not only that they might not lose but that moreover they might gain and their Teachers gain with them We 'l take notice of both First Take it as to themselves That ye may receive a full reward We see here by the way first of all That it is lawful to have an eye in our working to such things as these are Christians they may look at the reward as a spur to provoke them to Duty for ye see it is here made to be an argument whereby the Apostle would perswade these Believers to attention and regard to themselves and that which God at any time makes an Argument we may undoubtedly make a Motive that whereby he indeavours to perswade us we may there sufter our selves to be perswaded by it Thus we know it was with Moses Heb. 11.26 it is said He had respect unto the recompence of the reward It is true indeed we have other things to move us even the Excellency which is in Goodness it self and that example which we have of it in God and regard to Him that requires it of us But yet moreover we may take in this with it that recompence which it brings in with it in a better world When God will render unto every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life as it is Rom. 2.6 7. That take notice of only by the way that the reward it may be look'd after by us Secondly Observe this That perseverance in Goodness hath its reward belonging to it Be not weary in well-oing for in due season ye shall reap if ye faint not Gal. 6.9 What shall we reap life everlasting as it is exprest in the verse before God will not forget the pains and labour and industry which any have taken for his names-sake but will abundantly requite it there 's no man serves God for nought who is a free and bountiful pay-master When we hear of reward we may not dream of merit as if there were any proportion betwixt that which comes from us in a way of service and that which comes from God in a way of incouragement but only a comfortable Consideration of the works which are done by us It is a reward not of debt but of grace But Thirdly which seems here chiefly to be stood upon here 's the word of Amplification a full reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is added either Denominatively or emphatically Denominatively as by a Periphrasis expressing to us the nature of Heaven and the condition of Glory to come which is a full reward Emphatically as implying that that is a partial and but imperfect reward which does attend upon inconstancy in Religion First I say take it Denominatively as a description of Heaven and the condition of Glory to come it is a full reward it is that which will make sufficient recompence for whatsoever is either done or suffer'd by us here in this life it has the fulness of a reward in all the several Explications of it First A fulness of sufficiency There 's nothing which is in any way desirable but it is to be found in this reward Take the best things of this life and they have an emptiness and vacuity in them they are not sufficient there is a great deal wanting in them of what might be desired But for this heavenly reward it is otherwise In thy presence is fulness of joy Psal 16.11 And I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Psal 17.15 There is nothing which any soul can desire but it has here answer'd and made up unto it in the full and perfect accomplishment Good measure pressed down shaken together and running over as it is Luk. 6.38 Secondly A fulness of expectation Whatever can be look'd for shall be injoy'd if we speak of the rewards of this life men look for more many time than they meet with they have high and raised expectations where they have but short and shallow injoyments but in this reward which we now speak of it is otherwise it satisfies all the hopes which are had of it yea it far exceeds and goes beyond them Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 Thirdly A fulness of Compensation Here is in this reward that which makes amends for all which has been undergone in reference to it The wages is not here short of the work but infinitely transcendent There 's no man which will have here cause to complain that he is opprest or hardly dealt with but shall be forced to acknowledg that God has dealt very liberally with him and bestowed a great deal more upon him than he could ever have either expected or else deserved God's rewards they are payments with advantage This shews the vanity and fondness of those therefore which will deprive themselves of it seeing it is a full reward who would then not be partaker of it and especially lose it for the want of a little care and heedfulness about it We see how 't is with men in the world that they are not willing to lose any thing which has but the sound of reward in it although but short and imperfect but when it shall prove a good bargain indeed here they are hot and eager upon it very zealous in the pursuit of it and never at rest with themselves till they come to injoy it Why this now is that which should be effectual to perswade and prevail with men in this business we now speak of that
alledged Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come unto the waters well and what then come buy and eat There must be buying and eating join'd to community So Cant. 5.1 Eat O Friends drink yea drink abundantly O beloved c. So again in Isa 12.3 With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation To come to the Wells of Salvation and not to draw water out of them there where we do come it is in so doing to mock God and also our selves and a very unworthy carriage in us Thirdly Here 's the bounty of the Giver which is also in this expression Let him take as it is a word of latitude and comprehension This taking it does take in with it all things which are pertinent hereunto even tasting and drinking and carrying home and bearing away with him let him take it and make as much as he can of it It is not only let him take of it but let him take it all and never spare let him take it and enjoy it and possess it and appropriate it as his own Here 's all the heartening and encouragement that may be of such persons as are willing to come to Christ But here now it may be seasonably demanded what this taking indeed is and what is meant and intended by it now this is nothing else but that which in other places is call'd believing He that believes on me says Christ out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Joh. 7.38 To believe in Christ is to take him and that Salvation which is tender'd in him and all the benefits and comforts that come by him As many as received him to them he gave power or priviledg to be the sons of God even to them that believed on his name 1 Joh. 1.12 When we are perswaded that Christ is both able and willing to save us in our understandings and are likewise our selves content to submit to his terms an conditions of saving of us as to our wills then are we said indeed to believe in him and consequently to take and receive him And that 's the first thing here considerable to wit the word of conveyance let him take The second is the word of qualification freely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This exclusive of any worth or dignity or desert in our selves as may provoke God to give it unto us which in another place is said to be without money and without price Eternal life it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a free gift as the word properly signifies Rom. 6.23 And accordingly we are to look upon it and to apply our selves to the obtaining of it This must needs be so upon a twofold Consideration the one is Gods royalty and the other is our insufficiency he scorns to demand any thing for it and we are unable to give it and so it must needs be fre upon either respect First Gods royalty and munificence he is the God of Grace and so he gives freely Princes they do not use to sell their favours but to bestow them and so does God he gives to all men freely and upbraideth them not and nothing more free than Grace nay it cannot be properly Grace unless it be free Gratia non est gratia nisi sit omni modo grauita as St. Bernard hath well exprest it And St. Paul to the like effect To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of debt Rom. 4.4 And Rom. 11.6 If by grace then no more of work otherwise grace is no more grace c. Grace and work they do herein oppose and contradict one another The merit of works is opposite to the freeness of Grace which God delights to manifest in this business Secondly There 's our insufficiency we are unable of our selves to do any thing which might deserve or be any thing meritorious of this water of life if God himself should upon these terms offer it or tender it unto us There 's nothing which can come from us as proportionable to so great a reward as that is And therefore it must needs be given us freely upon that consideration likewise This for the right understanding and apprehending of this Point now before us is not so to be taken as exclusive of all endeavour on our part and use of means for that is still required here of us This freely is not a freedom from condition but a freedom from merit If I promise to give a man an hundred pound if he will come and fetch it I promise to give it him freely though I promise to give it him conditionally because it is upon such a condition as does imply no interest at all to be paid for it or any thing done in love of it And so it is here betwixt God and us in this tender of salvation it is required that we should come unto him that we may take the water of life and yet we are said to take the water of life freely because this water of life is given us not for our coming meritoriously but upon our coming conditionally the argument that moves God to give it us is his free Grace but the condition which he requires of us in order to the receiving of it is that we should come unto him for it The proper improvement and application of this Doctrine to our selves is the scope an drift of it self and that is from hence to perswade all such persons as are in their natural condition and sensible of that miserable estate in which they are to come in and to accept of that reconciliation which is wrought by Christ and that salvation which in his name is tender'd unto them Let him that 's athirst now come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely here 's a Proclamation of general pardon to all those that are willing to imbrace it and make advantage and benefit of it And therefore let none be so wilful or desperate as to deprive themselves of that mercy which is in it Here are three words of very great Emphasis which are all join'd together so much the more to inforee the Incitation Whosoever and that Wills and Freely He that finds in him the second has no cause to call in question either the first or the third If he be willing to take this water of life he may have it whosoever he be and cost him nothing So that here now there are two great blocks and impediments taken out of the way which many are ready to object against themselves as excluding them from mercy the one is the meanness of their condition and the other is the sinfulness First There are some who are ready to object the meanness that they are so and so in regard of the world of a lower and inferiour rank in this particular either for Country or Estate or Parts or such things as these they are apt now and then to think that the Priviledges of Grace do not reach such persons as
Admonition or Instruction it self both absolutely propounded as also comparatively illustrated We ought to give the more earnest heed c. The second is the Inforcement of its observation by way of Argument and this is twofold First From the equity of it in the word of connexion therefore Secondly From the danger of the contrary in the close and conclusion of the verse Lest at any time we should fail or let them slip First Here 's an Argument from the equity of it which relates to what he had said before in the precedent Chapter wherein he had fully set forth the Dignity both of Christs Office and Person which the Doctrine of the Gospel does treat of and discourse about upon those promises he does infer this conclusion therefore To speak distinctly of it there are three special Arguments which this Exhortation is founded upon why we ought more abundantly to give heed to this Doctrine of the Gospel in comparison with the Doctr. of the Law First The Authority of the speaker and minister of it which is Christ the Son of God whereas the other was Angels and men Thus in v. 2. of this Chap. it is call'd the word spoken by Angels the Law Whereas the other to wit the Gospel is said to be first of all spoken by the Lord that is Christ himself And again Chap. 1. v. 1 2. God who at sundry times c. where the Apostle lays a very great stress upon this as to the Ministry of the Gospel that it is dispenst through the hans of Christ First For the Dignity of his Person so excellent simply in himself the more eminent the Person is that speaks to us the more cause and reason we have to heed the things which are spoken for the Persons sake it being a piece of great indignity to stop our ears to any one of worth speaking to us such an one is the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory and therefore see that ye refuse not him that speaketh as it followeth also in Heb. 12.25 But then secondly There 's not only his person but also his relation that 's another thing in it which the Apostle seems to stand upon and is to be refer'd hereunto There are many eminent persons considered simply in themselves but all their eminency it is within themselves and in the compass of those persons of theirs such as they are yea but this person now which speaks to us in the Ministry of the Gospel He is not only eminent for his person but also for his relation for he is the son of God himself and so much better than the Angels even in that consideration also For unto which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee c. Heb. 1.5 Then thirdly There is also his estate there 's a great matter in that likewise we respect men much according to that if a man speak to us which is a great heir who has many lands and possessions which belong to him we are apt to give heed unto him Now for this it is also observable in Christ who speaks to us in the Gospel for he is appointed heir of all things and hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than Angels The Apostle lays a force upon that in the place before cited which is thereforemuch considerable in this business Lastly His activity for us there 's much likewise in that We have great cause to respect a Benefactor one that has done us great courtesies and favours when he speaks to us he should be hearkened to by us Now this is also remarkable in Christ for he hath himself purged our sins and upon this account to manifest the certainty and and fulness of it is set down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 So then that 's the first ground of this Attendance implied in this Therefore viz. the authority of the speaker The Lord Jesus Christ himself eminent for his 1. Person 2. for his relation 3. for his estate 4. for his activity for us The second is the excellency of the things themselves which are spoken of that 's another thing which calls for attention yea not only invites it but commands it If a man of worth shall speak to us yet if he shall not speak to us like to himself speak but of slight and trivial matters we regard him not for all that nor give heed unto him a speech is commendable not only from the speaker but the matter and in this the Gospel carries it likewise Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life say the Apostles Joh. 6.68 The Gospel it treats of such points as no other word does besides as containing very great and admirable mysteries in it which we have join'd all together there in one chain 1 Tim. 3.16 God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angelâ— preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up unto glory What rare and admirable Doctrines and Dispensations these are such things as the very Angels desire to peep into 1 Pet. 1.12 If we look no further than the height and sublimity and transcendency of the points themselves they are such as may well command our heedfulness and attention to them even in that respect alone and nothing besides with it But then thirdly If we shall add to all this the circumstances attending upon it as the profitableness and advantagiousness of this Doctrine the interest which our selves have in it the sweetness which is in the observation of it this will now set it on so much the more and put an edg upon this therefore indeed to make it effectual to purpose let points be never so excellent considered simply in their own nature yet if they have not a tang of some profit or benefit in them there are some people which will never regard them What does a Merchant or Tradesman care for a discourse of Metaphysicks Very fine notions indeed and speculations which tickle the fancy yeâ— but they have no gain or profit in them Dic aliquid tandem de tribus capellis as he said speak somewhat which tends to our advantage Why this now is the commendation of the Gospel that it treats not only of things which are excellent but of things which are profitable for it is the ministration of righteousness the Doctrine of Reconciliation the glad tydings of peace There is life and immortality which is brought to light by it as the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Tim. 1.10 Look then as any would give heed when any thing is spoken of which has any profit in it in the like manner should they give heed to the Gospel which is a Doctrine so far esteemed even upon this consideration But then further there 's our own interest in it likewise that 's somewhat more profit if it belongs not to us is no such pleasing theme to hear of but
can do any good nor may expect any great matter from it those that doe so will be disappointed and so much the sooner because they doe so The strength of man and outward Power it is but weak of it's own nature but when it begins once to be trusted in it becomes weaker then it was before because that then it is God's Rival and comes as it were into competition with himself Now he is a jealous God and will not indure any thing to trespass and intrench on his Prerogative It is true that in outward strength somewhat there is which accordingly is to be looked upon as a means tending to such an end but the efficacy of it is from an Higher and it is no otherwise actually successeful then it pleases him to concur with it The bars of the Mighty are Broken and they that stumbled are girt with strength as it is in Ezekiel God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong and things despised to bring to nought things that are how little do they think of this which are puft up and swollen and as I may in a manner say intoxicated with the apprehensions of any thing in themselves to this purpose who glory in their great strength and the advantages whereof they partake in this particular Alas what a poor thing it is if they consider all and what little cause and ground have they for it even the strongest that are How often does the Lord in his providence confute them and convince them of the contrary and shew them that it is not in themselves We should here for our parts observe it and take notice of it that for the first Head here considerable By his own strength no man shall prevail that is by strength of Body or Arms or outward force in any kind whatsoever Secondly Not by strength of wit or parts and improv'd understanding There 's a strength which belongs to this also but it will not prevail neither considered in it self God confounds the wisdom of the wise and brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent 1 Cor. 1.19 Men of strong heads and brains and parts and of a deep and subtile reach in matters of Policy yet they are not alwayes infallibly successful He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong And the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain 1 Cor. 3.20 And Job 5.12 13. Even this strength it is many times no more but weakness neither In Eccles 9.11 the place before alleadged we have the insufficiency of such a strength as this is laid forth in three several expressions Bread is not to the wise nor Riches to men of understanding Nor favour to men of skill The meaning whereof is not this That they are to none of these at all but that they are to none of these infallibly and in such a sort as never to be otherwise Wise men may sometimes get bread that is such things as are of use to the supportment of this humane life but they do not get it purely by their wisdom And understanding men may sometimes get Riches and attain to a great estate in the world but they doe not get it by their understanding alone And skilful men they may purchase favour and credit and esteem and reputation but it is not their skill which does certainly interest them in it No but their is a line and thred of Providence which runs along in all these Dispensations These Abilities and Qualifications are no further successeful then as it pleases God himself to concurre and appear in them Thirdly To carry it still a little higher and it may be closer to the scope of the Text by his own strength shall no man prevail that is not by the strength of his own habitual Grace It is no question a very great advantage which a Saint and servant of God has over another man that he hath a principle of something and saving Grace in his heart which doth still combat and conflict and wrestle with corruption in him and also dispose and encline him to that which is good whereas a carnal and unregenerate person is swayed by nothing but his own lusts and ruled by that spirit which works in the children of Disobedience yea but this Grace now in a Christian when it comes to the Tryal and Improvement it will not hold without somewhat else A Beleever stands not so much by the Grace within Him the Grace of Inherence that Grace which is in Himself as by that which is his Support or rather by the Grace without him The Grace of Assistance The Grace that is the favourand good will and Mercy of God Himself who sustaines Him and keeps up It is he that keeps the feet of his Saints and none but He. Even in this sense also And it is not by their own but by this strength that they shall prevail Therefore let none trust to this whosoever they be Those who have never so much of it and the greatest share in it for it will not serve the turn We should still be begging of God to perfit his own work in us And when he has given us Grace for the Principal to draw it out also for the Exercise and Activity of it not to rest our selves in good Habits or in good Purposes or in good Motions ond Beginnings in us but to depend further upon the Spirit of God for his Accomplishment and Consummation of them And that also upon every new occasion which is Administred to us we need the Assisting and strengthning Grace of God in every Action and Moment of our lives and whatsoever we set our selves to and therefore let us still ever and anon have recourse unto it and make our Confidence in that alone Least with Peter while we trust in our selves and our own Grace which at present we partake off we miscarry and fall into Temptation It is one of the main Reasons in Providence why God has sometimes suffered men of Great and Eminent Graces to slip fouly and scandalously in their times that so they might learn themselves and others might learn by their Dismal Examples that they do not stand by any strength of their own but by the Grace of God whensoever they do stand By his own strength shall no man prevail That is not by any strength without God That 's the first Explication Secondly Not by strength against Him in reference especially to the Second Clause The Wicked shall be silent in Darkness Vngodly men shall not escape Punishment because they cannot be too strong for God who is a God of Power and might and is able to Crush them in pieces whensoever he pleases Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy Are we stronger then He says the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.22 Surely no we are not With him is