here a duty which is to be performed and put in practice by all other sinners besides and that is to labour to work themselves to such a shame as this is That which is here spoken of these Romans it is not spoken of them only in a way of simple Narration as signifying how they were affected but also in a way of tacite commendation as praising them for being affected in that manner and so it does implicitly exhibit a duty to us that we should labour to be so our selves Next to the shunning and avoiding of sin is to be ashamed and grieved for committing it Now this does justly come home to the Consciences of abundance in the world there are many which are perfrictae frontis of a bold and hardened forehead which have no shame nor relenting in them at all which can sin one sin after another in the highest and hainousest manner that can be and yet never be once wrought upon for it or ashamed of it the unjust knows no shame as it is Zephan 3.5 The Heathen could say he was lost that had no shame The Prophet Jeremy has set forth such as these in their colours to us Jer. 6.15 Were they ashamed says he when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush c. This is the exact temper and disposition even of many in these days and in this land in which we live which are past all shame whatsoever they have no shame at all in them never more of the occasion and never less of the affection And I speak not only of that spiritual shame and holy blushing which belongs to Religion and is within the compass of Christianity it self which is taken from religious Grounds and spiritual Arguments and Considerations but I speak now of that natural shame which God has planted in all men by Creation an is not lost but in the height of wickedness and abomination it self This is that which many Monsters in this age are devoid and destitute of both men and women I should be exceeding sorry if I should have need to say much of it here in this place only I cannot but by the way take notice of it that I may testifie and bear witness against it as that which I look upon as one of the saddest symptoms of Gods wrath and indignation against us and if it be not timely prevented by those whom it concerns to reform it will not only be reckoned by God as the sin of some particular persons but also of the whole Nation it self which will be charged with it That impudence and boldness and undauntedness in sinful courses which many people are come unto which are so far from being ashamed of sin as that they rather boast of it and as the Apostle speaks glory in their shame This is the humour of too many in the world that which should most humble them and abase them and cast them down and lay them low in the sight of God and men and themselves is that which commonly most exalts them and swells them and puffs them with pride so far are they from this temper of the Romans of being ashamed And so now ye have the second particular for the Expression of sins inconvenience taken from the dishonourableness of it Whereof ye are now ashamed The third and last is taken from its perniciousness For the end of those things is death This is that which hits the nail on the head and brings all here indeed and 't is that which is very considerable forasmuch as the end is all in all and such an end as this which is here spoken of so more especially if the other two evils had been spared yet this alone were enough to deter us though there were some gain and honour in sin as we have shewed there is none yet whiles there 's death in it that 's enough against it and that there is The end of those things is death This Death here is to be taken by us in the latitude namely in each kind of it whether natural or else spiritual and eternal First For natural death which we call the death of the body that 's the end of sin and that which sin procures though not that which the sinner intends By sin death came into the world as the Apostle speaks Rom. 5.12 This is so in a double Explication First In the nature of the thing and as the effect immediately flowing from the cause And secondly by the just judgment of God who in his Providence does so order and dispose it and himself does inflict death for it First It is so in God's Pvovidence and Judgment How many do we read of in Scripture whom God himself has in an extraordinary manner stricken dead for their sins Er and Onan and Nadab and Abihu and such as these the end of of their ways was death and that in a more eminent manner There are some more gross and notorious sinners which God has not patience to suffer them and let them alone here in this world but to prevent Atheism and contempt of his Majesty will be presently avenged upon them Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days says the Prophet David Psal 55.23 and Eccles 7.17 Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou dye before thy time Intimating and implying thus much that such courses and ways as those do provoke God many times so to do Again secondly In the nature of the thing it self and as the effect immediately issuing from the cause Sin it ends in death so as we see by daily and common experience How many are there which by their passion intemperance lasciviousness uncleanness and such courses as these are hasten their own end and not only hazard their souls but likewise expose their lives and so in that regard are no better than self-murtherers It is true they do not always think so nor as I said intend it but yet it is that which follows upon it and in the event is consequent there unto there 's many which might have lived longer if they had lived better and had had a comfortable old age in conclusion if they had not had a dissolute youth going before The end of those things is death if we take it but for natural death the death of the body But secondly It is true also and especially of spiritual death the death of the soul and eternal death the death of soul and body for ever in Hell This is that death which is the wages of sin more particularly for spiritual death Sin it defaces God's Image in us it alienates us from the life of God And whatever Grace is already wrought in us if it does not kill it actually yet it tends to the killing of it and destroys it all it can it takes away a Christians vigor that liveliness and loveliness which should be in him and makes him little better than a
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
man can possibly shew to himself then by thus doing The mercies of the wicked are cruelties as Solomon tells us Prov. 12.10 As it is true in other respects so amongst the rest it is true in this whiles he is merciful and indulgent to his sins and sparing of them he is in the mean while cruel to his soul which occasionally suffers from it yea indeed to his whole man in the full extent of it And that 's also the Third Particular in the Disposition of a wicked man to sin His favourableness towards it The Fourth and Last is his Thraldom to it exprest in these words He keeps it still within his mouth Betek kikko in the midst of his palate He does not onely forbear to hurt it which we had in the words before but he does moreover make much of it as a thing which is very precious and useful to him which he cannot be without This keeping of it still within his mouth it does imply these things in it First His carrying it in his Mind and Thoughts and Contemplation a wicked man he does rowl his sin much about in his soul and his Meditations in it are pleasing as a man that hath Sugar in his mouth he holds it there and lets it melt in it even so does a sinner with his sin There 's a great deal of Contemplative wickedness which is exercised and acted in the world And the Fansie and Imagination it hath a great stroke in the promoting of sin and especially in such cases where men are restrain'd from the commissions themselves Secondly It implyes his cherishing and nourishing of it in his heart sinners they do not onely think of sin and ruminate and meditate upon it and so make it a matter of speculation but they do likewise imbrace it and hug it in themselves and so make it a matter of Affection And they take all the wayes that may be for the strengthening and confirming of themselves in such principles as these are Thirdly It implies Constancy and Perseverance and continuance in it and so is a further addition to what he had said of not forsaking it and an Explication of it He does not forsake it but still keeps it as that which he is unwilling to part with All together serve to signisie unto us his Thraldom and Addictedness to sin which makes up to us the Fourth particular And so I have done with the First General part of the Text which is the Disposion of a wicked man to sin in the words which I have now open'd and explain'd Sweet in the mouth hid under his Tongue c. The Second General consists of the Effect of sin to a wicked man and that is exprest in these words Yet his meat in his Bowels c. we have the like expression to this in Ezek. 3.3 Speaking of the Rowl that was given him I did eat it and it was in my mouth as Honey for sweetness And so again in Rev. 10.9 10. St. John speaking of the little Book that was given him It was in my mouth sweet as Honey and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter Thus now here in the Text Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth yet his meat within his bowels is turn'd it is the gall c. The scope and drift of the Place is to shew and declare unto us the difference of sin after Commission in respect of what it is in Commission And it is laid down here in the Text two manner of wayes First In the General Proposition And Secondly in the Particular For the General it is this That his meat within his bowels is turn'd For the Particular It is this That it is the gall of Aspes within him First For the General His meat within his Bowels is turned that is the case is altered with Him over what it was before so that that which He thought to be his Advantage it is proved contrary to him As when a man takes food to nourish him and it proves in Conclusion to kill him and to make an end of him This is very sad and Lamentable yet this now is the Condition of a Wicked man delighting in Sin at the last he finds no such cause or matter of Delight to Him from it as a man that Eates any thing which is Unwholsome though it be sweet and pleasing in the Eating yet his Stomack being over-charged with it it proves Loathsome and Burthensome to Him even so does Sin to a wicked Person when he commits it perhaps it delights Him but after Commission it is Greiveous to Him and he then wishes with all his Heart that he had never medled at all with it Thus the Scripture sets it forth to us in sundry places as Prov. 20.17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with Gravel And so again Prov. 9.17.18 Stoln Waters are sweet and Bread eaten in secret is pleasant but he knoweth not that the Dead are there and that her Guests are in the Depths of Hell He speaks it of Sinners of Wantonness and Uncleanness which are acted in secret And so of the rest Again in like manner of Drunkenness and Intemperance Prov. 23.31.32 Look not thou upon the Wine when it is red when it giveth his colour in the Cup when it sparkels and moveth it self aright At the last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth as a Cockatrice The Reason of this change of the Condition of a wicked man after Sin committed is First Because the Pleasure and sweetness of Sin is now spent and wasted and Consum'd The delight which a Sinner has in his Wickedness it is but of small and short Continuance and when that 's gone there 's an end of all with them and so the Spirit of God represents it Therefore they are called the Pleasure of Sin but for a season 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.25 And so Job 20.5 The Tryumphing of the Wicked is short and the joy of the Hypocrites is but for a moment Eccl. 7.6 As the crackling of thornes under a Pot so is the laughter of a Fool. They make a great blaze for a while but quickly done A man presently comes to the bottom of all the Contentment that he takes in Sin the Guilt of it that 's lasting but the Pleasure of it is but of short Continuance and when this is once over and gone there is nothing left behind but Misery and Sorrow and Grief Secondly Another Ground of this Change is that Conscience is sometimes now awaked when the Honey is gone the Sting that comes after it The horrour of Conscience succeeds pleasure in Sin When men have had their fill of their Lusts and Glutted and satisfied themselves with the Commissions of them they begin now to be at Leasure to consider of their Madness and Folly which before they did not mind out of the eager pursuit of their Lusts Now when they have nothing else to do
to prevent them from Sin by his Counsell To restrain them in sin by his Admonition To Expiate their sins by his Prayers To bewail their sins in his reflexions c. So did Job here And so should every one else do besides upon the like occasion And that upon sundry Considerations First Out of respect to the Honour and Glory of God which should be near and dear unto us The more that others sin the more is God dishonoured and we are Concern'd in that Dishonour to lay it to Heart It is an Argument we bear little Affection to his Name when we are not toucht with sins against him Secondly Out of respect to the Souls of our Brethren which should be dear unto us likewise it was the prophane Question of Cain which he made to God Am I my Brothers keeper yes he was so and so is every one of us also to one another in this particular God has intrusted us with one anothers Souls for the Salvation of them Thirdly Out of respect to our selves which from hence may be in some Danger The sins of others bring Judgments oftentimes upon the places where those sins are committed and are offensive to the whole Community in regard whereof there is cause to be shy about them Therefore this justly meets with the Neglect which is in many in this particular There are many as they lay not to Heart their own Sins so much less the Sins of others but as the Cheif Priests rather to Judas when he complained and told them that he had Sinned they returned him this answer What 's that to us Look thou to that in Matth. 27. vers 4. But Secondly We may Consider Job here in his Relation considered as a Father and so as sollicitous about his Children It may be that my Sons have Sinned Where we see what was the cheifest care and thoughtfulness of this Holy man about them It was this least they should offend God upon occasion of these their meetings together with one another He did not mislike the meeting and occasion it self but he feared the Circumstances of it The meeting and occasion it self it was in it's own Nature lawful and Commendable and to very good purpose for Brethren and Sisters to come sometimes together in Love and to injoy a free use of the Creatures in a way of Joy and thankfulness there may be no hurt in that nay their may be very good use of it which God does allow But there may be sometimes according as it may fall out ill attendances and Concomitants of it And this was that which Job was affraid of when he says It may be they have Sinned We will First Observe what it was that Job did not suspect or complain of And Secondly What it was that he did First Then I say he did not find fault with the meeting it self That was rather matter of Joy and Comfort to Him to see that accord and agreement which was betwixt his Children that they were willing to meet that there was no difference nor Heart-burnings betwixt them but that they could come together Secondly He does not complain neither of the Charge or Cost which this their meeting might come unto and perhaps to Himself Some Covetous and Worldly-minded Person would have been most Sollicitous and careful about that and have been ready to grudge at it It may be my Children are too Prodigal and too Lavish in their Entertainments if they do thus while I am living what will they do when I am gone I am affraid I shall have a back Reckoning for this their meeting afterwards and my Purse will be likely to pay for it What needs all this cost He does not say so though in some Cases and according to some Persons such things might be feared yet this was not the fear of Job at this present time Thirdly He does not think much neither that Himself was not call'd or invited amongst them some man would have been ready to have said so and quarrelled at that my Sons and my Daughters they can Feast and Banquet and make much of one another but in the mean time neglect their Father and desire not his presence amongst them He complains not I say of this which perhaps might be no argument at all of disrespect in them but not so convenient for some other reasons And therefore Job being a Wise man and a Tender and Loving Father would not take much Exception at that but pass it over These were not the things that troubled him No but this was that which most disquieted Him for fear least his Children should offend and trespass upon God not so much that they should forget himself as that they should forget the Lord and not be mindful of Him in their meeting It may be my Children have sinned and have Cursed God in their Hearts This as I said is laid down two manner of ways First In the General Proposition It may be they have Sinned Secondly In the Particular Instance and have Cursed God in their Hearts Wee 'll begin with the First viz. Their Miscarriages Generally propounded It may be they have sinned Job was Sollicitous about the Sins of his Children This was that which was principally in his thoughts and care concerning them and so it is likewise in all other Godly and Religious Parents besides especially when their Children are absent and at a Distance from them for fear they should sin There are other Occasions of Fear now and then administred as to their bodies and outward man and dangers in that respect which they are exposed unto Oh but the cheif and main is their Souls least some Evil should happen unto them in regard of him Monica the Mother of St. Austin she said she travailed twice with her Children and her last was more greivous then her first wherein she was in fear of them as to the miscarriage of their Souls And so it is likewise with other good Parents as St. Paul in his ministerial Relation to the Galathians My little Children of whom I travail in Birth again c. Gal. 4.19 The reason of it is this Because this is the greatest matter of Concernment Parents that love their Children they desire to Express their love to them in those things which are of Greatest moment now such is their Spiritual welfare and the good of their Souls that they may not miscarry in that which is a Miscarriage to all Eternity And then As I said before of other men their own good or ill is wrapt up and involv'd in it Parents they oftentimes suffer for their Childrens enormities especially where they are not themselves affected as they should be with them as we may see in Eli and David and some others And therefore least my sons have sinned Therefore this justly comes home to the neglect of many Parents in this particular There 's many Parents in the world that all there care about their children is how to keep them from outward
although in Him they live move and have their being Yet they do not alwayes consider it which makes them thus affected towards him and neglectful of Him not seeking after Him Secondly It proceeds also from Ignorance That 's another cause usually of contempt Men slight those persons and things commonly which they do not understand They that know not the worth of any person they are apt to contemn him and so indeed it is in regard of God Therefore do the wicked contemn Him because they do not know Him And accordingly are so described in Scripture by such as have not the knowledge of him They know not the Lord. Familiarity it breeds contempt and so it is here Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self sayes God to the wicked man in Ps 50.21 Wicked men have very strange notions and conceits and apprehensions of God in His Attributes especially as to His Justice and severity and omniscience and Omnipresence and the like And because they have such strange Apprehensions they have answerably as strange affections Therefore are they so contemptuous and scornful and rebellious towards Him The Proper use which is to be made of this point and observation before us is by way of Information and Conviction of mens mindes in this particular It is a thing which all men will not presently believe and assent unto Take the wickedest men almost that are and tell them that they contemn God and they will be ready to deny and disclaim it yea and abominate all such persons as shall go about to charge them with it But yet we see here what is intimated concerning them in this passage which we have here before us Wherefore do they contemn him Therefore contemn him they do This is here implyed and supposed and taken for granted And therefore let them think of themselves what they please this is that which doth belong unto them whiles they contemn such things as belong to God and which he is interested and concern'd in His Ordinances and Providences and Servants they contemn even God himself He is indeed of no reckoning or account or esteem with them and that must needs argue a great deal of wickedness which is indeed in them Yea is the cause and occasion of all the wickedness which does proceed from them Therefore it is that men do as they do in all kindes of sins which are committed by them because indeed they contemn God and have not the fear of God before their eyes as the Scripture else-where expresses it If it were not for this they would be more restrained from some works of wickedness and ashamed The Second is that which is exprest That they have no cause or ground so to do the Absurdity and unreasonableness of such a temper as this is It is such as there is no good account can be given of it Therefore it is propounded here by way of question or expostulation Wherefore does he do so as having no satisfactory answer at all to it There 's no man in the world can tell or imagine why he should do so but only the naughtiness and corruption of his own heart For the better opening of this point unto us we will resolve it in two particulars First By shewing the Inequality of it And Secondly By shewing the danger of it It is unequal in reference to God who does not deserve to be contemned And it is dangerous in reference to men who cannot escape in their contemning of him but shall be sure to pay for it sooner or later First From the Inequality of it in reference to God He does not deserve it There are many persons who sometimes are contemned and they may thank themselves for it as giving too much ground and occasion for it from their own behaviour There is that in their own Persons and carriage which do expose them and lay them open to contempt But there 's no such thing in God in any hand to be supposed or imagin'd He hath no such things upon him as amongst men are occasions of contempt As undertaking more then he can do assuming more then belongs unto him injoying more then he can mannage partaking of more then he deserves These are such things as render men contemptible But for God there is no shadow or appearance at all of these in Him and so there is no ground for the contemning of Him Secondly As it is very unequal so it is also very unsafe There 's a great deal of Danger in it For those that contemn him he will contemn them again and he evens with them for their contemnings according as he tells Eli 1 Sam. 2.30 Those that honour me I will honour but those that despise me shall be lighty esteemed The proud he knoweth a far off in Psal 138.6 With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward Psal 18.26 And if ye will walk contrary unto me I will walk contrary unto you Levit. 26.27 Their soul abhorred me and my soul loathed them Zach. 12.8 Here 's contemning answerable to contemning yea and that which makes it to be so much the more considerable as carrying some special efficacy with it There 's a great deal of difference in wicked men's contemning of God and Gods contemning of them For there contemning of him it does not at all reach unto him as to any disparagement or inconvenience but returns and rest wholly in themselves who are the worse for it But his contemning of them has a further matter in it then so His Contemning is followed with his Condemning and those whom he despises he destroyes And this indeed he does withall obstinate and incorrigible sinners which refuse to be reclaimed and to be reform'd he thinks meanly and scornfully of them and accordingly carries himself under them He will not honour them nor own them nor regard them at another day when they shall wish and desire most of all to be owned and regarded by him but will say unto them as it is in the Gospel I know you not and what follows thereupon but bind them hand and foot and cast them into utter darkness c. All this may serve to deter and affright them from such a course as this is Take heed by all means of despising and contemning of God and that in any of those wayes which we have formerly mentioned because it is that which is not onely very unequal but very unsafe and in both respects and from both together very unreasonable shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him He that contemneth God let him answer it in Job 40.3 And so I have done with the first General part of the Text which is the Question or Expostulation propounded in these words Wherein doth the wicked contemn God wherein we have had two particulars First somewhat imploy'd That the wicked do contemn God And Secondly somewhat exprest That it is very unreasonable for them to do so Wherefore do they contemn c. The Second is
Mortification in them This General work of the new creature is necessary to all the actions of new obedience in us whether as to the doing of that which is good or the abstaining from that which is evil in that manner as it ought to be abstained from Therefore this must be laid as a ground-work and foundation to us in this particular and the reason why many fail in it is for want of this What 's the cause that many think with themselves oh they will certainly abstain from such sins and yet fall again in with them why it is because they never throughly hated them nor had their spirits set against them Therefore look first of all to that Secondly Stop the beginnings as we desire not to go on in trespasses let us not at first venture upon them for it is like the letting out of waters as Solomon speaks of strife which a man knows not where it will end He that will give himself liberty to begin he shall go on whether he will or no. Therefore take heed of the very first entrance and initiation in evil for these will draw on more with them take heed of the occasions of sin and of the edges and branches and brinks of spiritual danger as we love our own souls and the salvation of them See that we hate even the garment spotted with the flesh Thirdly Have daily and continual and fresh and actual apprehensions in us of the filthiness and dangerousness of it It is not some habitual prejudices against sin which will secure us from it unless we do also actually consider and reflect upon it and have things green in our memory especially at such time as temptations shall offer themselves here we must set one against the other The remembrance of the evil against the strength of the allurement and provocation to it As a man that thinks there is danger in such a way he will be sure to decline it Lastly Beg the assistance of Gods Spirit and fetch power still from Christ and be careful to walk in wayes well-pleasing to Him It is Gods enemies as I shewed before which go on in their Trespasses When men will be sinful they shall be so and the more that they give way to corruption the more it shall abound in them but it concerns all good Christians to have that nearer watch over themselves as that the Lord may not be provoked to give them over hereunto but to keep and restrain them from it This for helps and directions What remains to us but that we be careful to put them in practise as we have occasion for them we have as inpart hinted before many curbs and restraints upon us The Counsels of friends the Admonitions of the Ministery the Danger set before us and experience of Gods Judgements upon others in such and such evil courses Now if we will go on for all this we are in a most desperate condition indeed For this purpose we must further know thus much that nothing less will serve our turn then real and through amendment and reformation and turning to God and turning from our evil wayes It is not all the promises we can make all the fair pretences to betterment or all the counterfeit expressions of relenting whether in words or tears or the like as some will sometimes reach so far unto No as long as they still go on in their sins these will nothing avail them As if a man has some disease upon him Gout or stone or the like let him use all the Physick that may be yet if he goes on in the use of that dyet which feeds those evil humours in him which are the grounds and causes of his Distempers he will never be freed from it so long as he lives even so is it here to this purpose in Spirituals while men go on in their Trespasses and favour and allow themselves in them all the Duties and Exercises of Religion which are acted and performed by them will in this Case be but in vain unto them Perseverance in Duty is no Protection or Priviledg to any with perseverance in Sin but the one hinders the other That goes on still in his Trespasses This if we please may be further taken by us in a narrower and more restrain'd Sense then as yet we have taken it not so at large for all kind of Sins wherein it holds as a very good Caution but in particular for that sin of Enmity and opposition of the Church of God God will wound the head of his Enemies and the Hairy Scalp of such an one as goes on still in his Trespasses That is who notwithstanding Gods frustrating and disappointing of God in his Assaults which he makes upon it does yet attempt further against it such an one as goes on here God will certainly be avenged upon him Thus was it with Balah and Balant as to the cursing of Israel who though they saw they did but labour in vain yet still went on in their Trespasses And thus now the point will be thus that as all obstinate Sinners in General so all pertinacious Enemies the Church in particular shall especially be punished and destroyed if they are not careful what they can to prevent it Thus Esay 8.9.10 Associate your selves O ye People Gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces c. And wee see it in Pharoah and the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites how going on in it they were overthrown by it God thinks it enough at first for his Enemies to disappoint them but then afterwards when they are not diverted by it he thinks fit to destroy them and to punish them so much the more Therefore let all those which are such be hereby restrained and taken off from it Saul Sau why persecutest thou me says Christ to Him when he was going to Damascus with letters against the Church It is in vain for thee to kick against the Pricks As who should say if thou goest on thou art lost and undone by it God will be sure to have the better of his Enemies let them take what course they please against Him What a madness then is it for mens malice so far to transport them as to go on for all this that those they know labour to no purpose because no Weapon that 's firm'd against the Church shall ever prosper yet they cannot but persist in such attempts as these are as many do and will by no means be taken off from it To set whom all this the more Effectually there is a particle in the beginning of the Text which we translate but but according to the Hebrew it is surely Ak which has a good Emphasis in it to put it out of doubt with us that we might not make any question of it The Spirit of God does meet with mens Infidelity in this regard who do not so easily believe it and give Credit to it but think they may go on and proceed for all that
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
so much also of the second particular here observable viz. The Amplification of the evil multitude of thoughts The Third is the Subject of this Grief and Distemper and that is David Himself My thoughts David an Holy Person a Prophet of God a man after Gods own Heart Even he was exercised and afflicted and troubled with this variety of distracting thoughts from whence observe thus much that even the Children of God themselves they are sometimes troubled with anxious and sollicitous thoughts and that also in a very great multitude and plurality of them In the multitude of my thoughts says David It were an Infinite thing to run over the several particulars and therefore we must of necessity fasten upon some General heads which we may take for orders sake these following Explications First Multitude of thoughts concerning their own Salvation and State in Grace Secondly Multitude of thoughts concerning their own Preservation and Provision and State always in the world Thirdly Multitude of thoughts concerning the publique State and Condition of the Church of God and the Common-wealth All these several Heads do make up this multitude of thoughts in the Church of God First I say They have Multitude of thoughts as concerning their own Salvation and State and Grace The Children of God themselves they have now and then very great Doubtings and Distractions and perplexities in their own minds in reference to this They are sometimes at a loss with themselves as concerning the Apprehension of Gods love and favour towards them and their own Interest in Grace and future Glory thus it was with this very person before us David himself as we may gather from his own Complaints and Requests to this purpose in many places of the Psalmes more particularly Psal 13.1 c. How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for Ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me How long shall I take Counsell in my Soul having Sorrow in my Heart c. And so Psal 42.5 Why art thou cast down O my Soul And why art thou disquieted within me c. And Psal 51.8 c. Make me to hear Joy and Gladness that the Bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Hide thy face from my Sins and blot out all mine Iniquities c. This shews us what Condition he was in and so as David Himself so likewise others together with him This was also the Condition of Job he was troubled with multitude of such thoughts too as he oftentimes complains in his Book that God hid his face from him held him as an Enemy writ bitter things against him put his feet into the Stocks and set a print upon his heeles scared him with Dreams and terrified him with Visions and many such like Expressions of disquietness as these are And so likewise that Goodly man Heman Psal 88.14.15 This was his case likewise Lord why castest thou off my Soul While I suffer thy Terrours I am Distracted Afunah Anius pendeo I am in agreat doubting and know not which way to turn me This is that which God sometimes in his providence suffers and orders so to be upon very good Ground As namely thereby to humble them and keep them low The Children of God themselves are too subject now and then to be exalted and lifted up in themselves when all goes well with them and therefore to subdue or prevent this Distemper in them does God exercise them with Spiritual Disertions and sad thoughts This we may see for an Instance in St. Paul who least he should be Exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations had therefore a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him and this as Irksome and troublesome to him as a thorn in the Flesh When the Child begins to grow wanton the Father hides his face from him that so by this means he may bring him into a better order and frame again And so does God deal with his Children in his Dispensations and Carriage towards them he has the like oeconomie likewise Some times he does it to shew his own Liberty and Prerogative as the case seems to have been with Job though more frequently this does proceed from the Miscarriages of Gods Children themselves who cause more troublesome thoughts to themselves then otherwise they need to do onely from their own Sin and default That which we may gather from this present Observation to our selves for our own Improvement is from hence to take heed of over charging and laying too hard censure and load upon those whom we see sometimes to be in such Conditions as these are giving them over as none of the Children and People of God It is that which the world is too ready and forward to do when they observe any persons to be followed with troublesome and disquieting thoughts and especially in reference to their Salvation and the assurance of Gods love unto them to conclude them in a bad Condition and not that which they ought to be but they do offend in so doing And they do offend also as David expresses it in another place Against the Generation of his Children Psal 73.15 We see here how David Himself though a man of those high Qualifications and peculiar Interest in God yet he was not freed from these troubles nor the variety and plurality of them In the multitude of my thoughts That is in this first Explication of thoughts concerning his own Salvation and State in Grace The Second is with thoughts in reference to his own Provision and Preservation and affair in the World There is a multitude of thoughts in this particular which both David and the rest of Gods people are oftentimes subject unto First For Provision What they shall Eate and what they shall Drink and what they shall put On Many thoughts of Distraction about this I say thoughts of Distraction For as for thoughts of Providence and Sober and careful contrivance they are such as are no other then sutable and agreeable to them and are very warrantable in them But I say Distracting and Perplexing thoughts these are such as are very Irregular and hurtful to them they may be very well brought within the compass of these bough-like thoughts and they are such as are in the Language of Scripture exprest and set forth unto us by the name of Thornes which Choak the word that it becometh unfruitful Matth. 13.22 These were such as our Saviour did so labour to pluck up out of the minds of his Disciples and in them of all of us Matth. 6.31 Therefore take no thought saying What shall we Eat or what shall we Drink or wherewithall shall we be Cloathed And he uses many arguments to that purpose in regard of that great proneness which is in us thereunto This proceeds from want of due considering of the providence of God himself for us and our Relation to him as may appear by the meanes whereby he labours to settle our thoughts in this particular verse 32.
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
of Gods servants in this regard who dare not trust him with their lives and the preservation of them notwithstanding so many Gracious Promises and experiences which they have received from him As David he was but just before delivered out of his enemies hands and he presently cryes I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul even so it is with many others besides who as the Apostle speaks through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage Heb 2.15 Now for such as these they may be here said from this passage before us though God may bring them to danger yet as he sees cause he will deliver them from it as he did here with this servant David The Lord hath chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to death Secondly Where we partake of this mercy let us acknowlelge it with all thankfulness Thus does David do here we are to take notice not onely of his words but also of his Affection which is signified in them and the Spirit from whence they came from him he utters them with a great deal of feeling and sensibleness of Gods goodness to him And so they are not onely a narration of his present condition but an acknowledgement of Gods favour to himself to an answerable temper and disposition which he does here Express by the words which came from Him He hath not given me over to Death They are not words of Boasting and Vanity and Ostentation and Carnal Rejoyceing but the words of Soberness and Piety and Discretion And there are divers things intended by them First He would make it an Argument for Patience The escaping greater Evils should breed Contentation under less That as God afflicts us below our Deserts so also below our Capacities that he does not afflict us in the utmost Extremity and so to this purpose should we argue and reason with our selves he has taken away my Health but he hath not taken away my Life He hath exercised me in my Body but he has spared my Soul He hath deprived me of Earthly Comforts but he hath not deprived me of Heavenly of the Graces of his Spirit of the assurance of his Love of the Communion with himself of his own blessed and Gracious presence these he hath not denyed me but continued them still in the midst of all other Discouragements Secondly He would hereby silence the false rumours which were to the Contrary and the Insultations of his Enemies from them for their mouthes were full to this purpose and delighted to be so as these which spake according as they would have it as in the place before alledged Psal 41.6.7 And if he come to see me he speaketh Vanity his Heart gathereth Iniquity to it self when he goeth abroad he telleth it all that hate me whisper together against me against me do they devise my hurt This was the Condition of David in regard of his Enemies They Tryumpht before the Victory and pleased themselves both in the thoughts and speeches of his supposed Ruine and Destruction now by this Expression here in the Text he does in an holy and Humble manner signifie their Mistake and Disappointment as if he had said unto them it is not so bad as ye thought it nor so bad as ye hoped it nor so bad as ye talked it I am through Gods goodness alive still for all the surmises The Lord hath Chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to Death Thirdly Which is here namely Considerable David I say would hereby express his Thankfulness to God for this Mercy they are words of Praise and spiritual Rejoyceing as appears by those that follow in the 19 verse of this Psalm Open to me the Gates of Righteousness and I will go into them and will praise the Lord namely for this his Goodness to me This is that which we all should do as we have occasion for it and indeed there 's none of us all but have so one way or other though some more then other either by way of prevention in keeping of Evils from us or by way of recovery in delivering us out of those Evils and especially in these late Distempers which have been so rife and frequent amongst us for this year now last past wherein Death hath come up into our Windows as the Scripture speaks that we should not be given over to it is matter of due praise unto us and to be acknowledged by us And we cannot better nenew the year unto us then by such performances as these are And further stir up others to do so occasionally from our Example which is another thing here intended by David in this Expression he does not onely hereby signify his own Thankfulness but also excite and stir up others to praise God both for him and themselves upon the like occasion as we find him in another place Psal 34.2.3 My Soul shall make her boast of God the humble shall hear thereof and be glad O magnify the Lord with me and let us Exalt his name together But especially as a third Improvement of this point let us be careful to use our lives well which God has given us to his Glory and so give them back to him again who has first given them too us Life it is a Blessing as it used and ordered by us For men to live onely a Natural Life here in the word to Eat and Drink and take their pleasures like brute Beasts Alas what a poor thing is that for men to live onely for such a purpose as this is to fiill up the measure of their Sins and to aggravate their Account at another Day by thinking that they are delivered to commit such and such Abominations this is very sad and Miserable but then is Life indeed when it is improved to Gods Glory The doing of good in our several Opportunities the Furtherance both of our own and others Salvation and laying up in store a good Foundation against the time to come laying hold on Eternal Life Therefore I beseech ye let us be careful especially to look to this and that likewise those which are in the prime of their Years and Health and Strength let them not neglect so Blessed an Opportunity as that is those that are past it let them indeavour to redeem it for time to Come We should labour to find our lives given us and continued to us in Mercy and Love which we may know to be no otherwise then accordingly as we have hearts given us with them for the improvement of them as we may do any other Mercy besides where it has the stamp of Gods love upon it it makes us to serve him better with it and our selves to be really and indeed so much the better for it whereas when it is otherwise it is a fign it is in wrath and to harden us so much the more in Evil There 's none are so bad as those who are bad after Mercies Received both as having
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
Language is expressed by the name of Peace According to the Specifical sence So it does denote in particular a Tranquility whether of Mind or Condition as we have formerly explained it Now which way soever we take it it is here denyed to wicked men as not belonging unto them And in the later Exception more directly And this is true also whether we take it upon a National Account or upon a Personal First Take it upon a National No peace to the wicked here as that which may be matter of Amazement and Astonishment to them We know how sensible we have been of late of the Miseries and Extremities of War and so consequently how desirous of Peace and glad for it But alas if we go on in our Wickedness as there is little appearance to the contrary all the Peace which at present we enjoy will signifie but very little unto us or nothing at all For either the same Evil will break out again or else some other as bad or worse will come in the stead of it Where there is not Peace in the Foundation of it there can never be Peace in the Superstructure And where there is War in the Causes of it there will be at last War in the Consequents What is the Foundation of Peace It is as I said before Righteousness and Justice and Piety and the Fear of God What is the Cause of War It is Sin and Wickedness and Prophaneness and Debauchery of Conversation This the Apostle James has expresly declared unto us Jam. 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not from hence even from your lusts that war in your members Lust is the Cause of War both in reference to Man and to God In reference to Man as managing it and in reference to God as provoking it Therefore it is that God sends War upon People for the Wickedness and Sinfulness which is amongst them And accordingly Peace can no further be expected by them than this Wickedness is removed from them But Secondly Take it also upon a Personal Account And so No peace to the wicked Neither so as a Judgment upon them Where God vouchsafes Peace to a Nation yet if such and such particular Persons be wicked and sinful in that â—â—tion it shall be no Peace to them Look as in matter of common and publick Judgments God is able to secure and preserve his Servants in the midst of General Calamities So that though they be Judgments to others yet they shall cease to be Judgments to them So likewise in matter of common and publick Mercies God is able to declare and exclude his Enemies So that though they be Mercies to others yet they shall not be Mercies to them There shall be no peace to the wicked even then when there is Peace to all men else which are round about them Peace is no Peace unto them because it tends to the further hardening and confirming of them in their sinful Courses makes them more secure and presumptuous and so a great deal nearer to Ruin and Destruction than ever before This is the fruit of it to them This therefore in the Second place and as a further Improvement of this present Observation by us serves to shew us the difference betwixt the Wicked and the Righteous betwixt those which are the Children of God and those which are not As for those who are God's Children and such as fear him there is great peace belonging unto them For as much as they are the Children of God they are consequently the Children of Peace which is their proper Portion and Inheritance And so the Scripture it self signifies to us in other places Thus Psal 119.165 Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing 〈◊〉 â—â—end them So Isa 54.15 Speaking to the true Church of God All thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 And Isa 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee This is the Condition of the Saints and Servants of God But now as for the Wicked they have nothing at all to do with Peace as the Scripture sometimes expresses it in 2 King 10.18 19. And the reason of it is that which is given concerning Jerusalem Because they know not the things that belong anto their Peace therefore is Peace hidden from them and they become Strangers to it This will appear to be so especially in the time of any Trouble or Affliction which happens unto them or in the Hour of Death and Dissolution Then there will be a difference and distinction betwixt true Peace and False betwixt that which is real and sincere and betwixt that which is feigned and counterfeit When it will be no longer time for any only to put a good face upon matters to put the best side outwards when their Consciences within them upbraid them and fly in their faces as they will be ready to do at such times Therefore Thirdly Let Men take heed of flattering either themselves or others in this particular especially those who are Ministers and by their Office Publishers of Peace Let them take heed of crying Peace Peace where there is no Peace and healing the Daughter of God's People lightly and sowing of pillows under their elbows as the Scripture expresses it Where they see any to be wicked let them take heed of speaking Peace unto them in such a condition for there 〈◊〉 Peace for them And God himself as we shewed before has put another kind of Message into their mouths as it is here in the Text There is no peace to them saith my God And where God speaks not Peace to any yea rather speaks the contrary there is no Peace to be spoken by them And here by the way also we have a Discharge of all faithful Monitors whether Ministers or others from that Envy and Hatred and Reproach which is cast upon them for the performance of their Duties in this Particular When Ministers and the Servants of God come and tell men of their wicked Courses and declare God's Judgments against their Sins Men are apt hereupon to lay Load and Imputation upon the Messengers as if the fault and mischief were theirs As Ahab calling Micaiah I hate him because he never prophesied good unto me But see here now what is our Warrant and Apology in this Particular Namely it is Thus saith the Lord There is no peace to the wicked saith my God We speak not of our selves in this particular but we speak from him who says it himself and commands us likewise to say it from him and in his Name As Balaam sometime said to Balack though he did not every way observe it We cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord our God to say less or more Numb 22.18 Fourthly Here is a Remedy
against Envy in God's Children against wicked Men. It is that which sometimes they are subject unto through the Corruption of Nature which is in them As David confesses of himself Psal 73.3 I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked He was ready to think that they were in a better condition than he But how does he cure himself of this Distemper and correct this Mistake in him Namely by a due Consideration of this Point in the Text that There is no peace to the wicked No Peace in conclusion whatever there might seem to be for the present When he went into the Sanctuary then he understood their end That God did set them in slippery places and cast them down to destruction That they were brought to desolation in a moment and utterly consumed with terrors Psal 73.17 18 19. And so Psal 92.6 7. A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a ful understand this When the wicked spring as the grâ—ss and all the workers of iniquity flourish it is that they should be destroyed for ever Lastly Let this be an Argument to disswade men from the ways of Wickedness and to perswade them to take such Courses as may best tend and conduce unto Peace Seeing There is no peace to the wicked who would then willingly remain in the number of such persons as these and not rather depart from them and forsake them as soon as might be That which causes men commonly to make too bold with Sin as sometimes they do is because they do not think of the Evil and mischief which attends upon such Courses But as it is noted of that insolent and presumptuous Peson in Deutrinomy They bless themselves saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine own hevrt in adding drunkenness to thirsh Deut. 29.19 Now such as these they are here better informed from this Passage before us and that even from the Mouth and Determination of God himself which should have an answerable Influence upon them Seeing there is no peace to such persons therefore they should take heed of having to do with such ways The miserableness of the Condition should be a means to restrain them from the sinfulness of the Conversation Which is the End that God aims at in the delivering and propounding of such Truths as these are unto them And further It should teach us all to look after true Peace indeed and in that way wherein it is to be purchased and obtained by us How may we say is that Namely thus First By looking to see our misery and the true Ground of Trouble to us and to be attended with that True Peace it is a Consequent of fore-going Trouble Those who are simply at Peace in themselves and never saw what reason they had of Trouble thay have not that Peace which will afford true Contentment to them The Peace of God it is such a Peace as follows Commotion for the most part It is a Calm that comes after a Storm and is thereby distinguished Secondly Let us be careful to go to Christ and close with him it is he that is our Peace and our Peace must be founded in him or else it will be to no purpose It is he that must pay our Debts must quit our Arrears must satisfie God's Justice in our behalf and thereby procure our Peace And we accordingly must fasten upon him that he may do all this for us Being justiffed by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 Here is the true Account of it why there is no Peace to the Wicked because there is no Christ to the Wicked they are not Members of Christ Wicked Men and therefore they are not Children of Peace which is layed wholly in him So then as I said the way to Peace is by Faith to stick close to him Labour to get into Christ and to be incorporate Members of his Body and then Peace will surely follow thereupon as the proper effect and result of it And further Thirdly Being made Members of Christ let us labour to walk worthy of him and answerable to him that so we may the better keep up and preserve this Peace in our selves For as there is no Peace or Safety to those who are absolutely wicked so there is no Peace neither in its Perfection in a degree to those who are but remisly good There is no such way to Peace as Vigilancy and a narrow Watch over our Hearts and Lives This will keep us in Peace and this Peace will keep us again as the Apostle intimates as much to us in Philip. 4.7 The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Whereas on the other side if we walk loosely we shall walk uncomfortably and have Peace in neither of those Exceptions which I have formerly mentioned Neither outward Peace nor inward Peace neither National Peace nor Personal Peace neither Peace of State nor Peace of Mind neither Peace with God nor Peace with Men nor Peace with the Creatures nor Peace with our selves This is that which is declared to us as a most certain and undenyable Truth to be received by us With which I will conclude as I begun There is no peace to the wicked saith my God SERMON XXXVII Psal 9.17 The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God Ther 's nothing which to most kind of Persons is a greater Restraint to sin than the Apprehension of Punishment Those that look upon themselves as safe and secure from all kind of dangers they do usually give themselves liberty in all kind of evil But those who are duly sensible of the mischief and inconveniences of such Courses they are so much the more easily and readily taken off from them IN the Text it self there are Two General Parts Considerable First The Place or State it self here mentioned Secondly The Persons Adjudg'd and Condemn'd to this Place or State The place or State it self that is here signified to be Hell The Persons adjudged to this place they are the Wicked and all the Nations that forget God We begin first of all with the First of these Parts viz. The Place or State it self which is here signifi'd to be Hell The Hebrew word sheol which is here translated Hell it is sometimes put for the Grave and so very frequently used in other places of Scripture but here in this present Text it cannot be so understood of us forasmuch as what is here spoken it is declared as proper and peculiar to wicked men for the punishment of them whereas the Grave it is common to all persons indifinitely whether good or bad Therefore taking it as our own Translation does here render it and that 's in Hell we shall so take notice of it According to which notion of it it does signifie the Place or State of the Damned whether devils or men that is to say
is not enough neither to purpose and resolve against Sin for time to come and to lay strong Engagements upon one's self no more to commit it This is another thing which some also will do and when they have done so satisfie themselves in it But it will not serve the turn Yea sometimes if there be nothing more done it does but so much the more entangle them because where there is the greater Restraint there is often times the greater Inclination and Desire after that which is evil And Sin from the Prohibition takes an occasion to be exceeding sinful Neither of these Particulars now mentioned come up to this Forsaking here required Not mere Confession of sin not mere Lamentation over it nor mere Purpose and Resolution against it What may some say then is that which reaches to it and wherein consists it We may reduce it to two Heads especially The one in regard of the Activity of Sin and the other in regard of the Affection The Forsaking of it it contains and comprehends each of these in it First The Practice or Activity of it To forsake Sin is no more to commit it or to be overtaken with it This is one thing which is pertinent hereunto and it is not compleatly performed without it Let men pretend to what they will otherwise yet if they return again to the Commission of their Sins they cannot be said properly to forsake them Forsaking is exclusive of the Acts of it But Secondly That is not all the abstaining from the outward Performances There is many an one who thus forsakes his sin because his sin forsakes him He wants it may be an occasion and opportunity as formerly he has had and therefore good cause he should leave it because he knows not how to commit it There are divers and sundry sins of this nature which men cannot always act though they would and have desire good enough towards them This seems now to be a forsaking but yet it comes short of it and is defective of that which is here required And therefore we must add hereunto a forsaking of it as to the Affection and Love of it Then a man truly forsakes his sin when his heart and spirit is set against it when he forbears it not only from the power of Restraining Grace but from the Principles of renewing Grace and the Work it self Denyal and Mortification wrought in his heart Then we forsake sin indeed when we loath it and hate it and detest it and are out of love with it As a man is said to forsake his Meat not when he cannot get it or come by it but when he has no Stomach to it So is a Man said also to forsake his Lust not when he has no opportunity but when he has an affection for it not when he does simply abstain from the Actual Commission of it but when he has an Habitual Enmity against it And which I must also add hereunto founded in the nature of sin it self and the iniquity of it For a man may sometimes dislike his sin so far forth as he has some dammage by it when as notwithstanding he has otherwise affection good enough for it He may be angry with his sin when he does not hate it But he forsakes it then when he hates it And when he hates it upon the Account of that intrinsecal evil which is in it That is the first Term which is here to be explained namely the word Forsaking The Second is the word Way which takes in Sin in the full Latitude and Extent of a Man's Life and Coversation It is not enough to Repentance or New Obedience for Men to reform in some Particulars either as to the abstaining from some few sins or to the performance of some few Duties but there must be a care of a man's whole Course In all a man's Stations and Relations and Capacities wherein he is considerable If in any of these he has been exorbitant he must forsake the Miscarriages of them Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments says David Psal 119.6 Ye shall have many People sometimes who are content it may be to forsake some sins but they desire to retain others or to reform in some part of their lives but in the rest to give themselves liberty This is not to forsake their Wicked Way which is of a more large and general Extent and Consideration and is diffusive through their whole life And so much may be spoken of the first Reference of this Act of Aversion namely as it respects and relates to a Man's Course Let the wicked forfake his ways The Second is as it reaches to a Man's Mind And the unrighteous man his thoughts That which is here translated Vnrighteous man is in the Hebrew Ishuven that is The Man of Iniquity a Title which belongs to Antichrist Who is accordingly so styled by the Apostle Paul The man of sin 2 Thes 2.3 Here in this present Text it seems to be little different from that which was mentioned before Rashang The Wicked Man unless we shall restrain the former to the Breach of the first Table and the later to the Breach of the Second But I rather incline to think them to be Synonymous and that they are both of the like Extent The Wicked Man and the Man of Iniquity Vnrighteous Man they are both one and the same for their signification That which is here required of them is as before to forsake their way so here now to forsake their Thoughts This is another thing pertinent to true Repentance yea indeed the very proper root and ground of it It is not enough for us to change our ways except also we change our hearts Nor to alter our Conversations unless withall we alter our Affections This is that which is here observable of us that Religion it reaches it self to the heart and inward man we are accountable to God even for our Thoughts which where they are evil are to be left by us And so the Scripture intimates to us in sundry places of it thus Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou maist be saved How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee So Peter to Simon Magus Thy heart is not right in this matter Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven unto thee Act. 8.20 21. And Jam. 2.4 Are ye not Partial in your selves and become Judges of Evil thoughts c. Now there 's a various account which may be given hereof unto us First Because the Law of God does reach and extend to our Thoughts for the ordering and regulating of them Our Obedience and Reformation must be sutable and agreeable to Gods Law Now this I say it reaches to these and is possible to be transgressed by them The very thought of Sin is Foolishness says Solomon Prov. 24.9 Not only the practise
behind him that 's another thing in it It is a mercy to have some strength yet left but here all is laid hands on Thirdly there 's also speed and hastiness in it as we shewed heretofore a cake not turned which would not stay but snap it up presently This again is in devouring we have a full place to this purpose in Hab. 1.8 9 They shall fly as the Eagle that hasteth to eat They shall come all for violence their faces shall sup up as the East-wind and they shall gather the captivity as the sand And so much of that first Branch to wit Ephraim's miserable captivity in these words Strangers have devoured his strength The Second is his symptoms of ruine approaching Gray hairs are here and there upon him It is not said he is gray all over but gray hairs are here and there upon him In the Original it is sprinkled upon him Seva zarkah bo which by the way is an expression suits very well with the vanity of these present times in that ridiculous powdering of the hair both in men and women it is enough only to name it and almost too much that This sprinkling here in the Text does imply some beginnings of wrath which were towards this people Gray hairs are here and there upon him that is he is in a state of declining and tendency to ruine He is not yet quite in his grave no nor in absolute decrepit old age but is making forward and coming to it This in a word is the sense of the Prophet that Ephraim had now some tokens and signs of manifest undoing and destruction upon him Gray hairs are here and there scattered Look as except in some special cases gray hairs are usually and for the most part the symptoms and concomitants of old age and of life declining so the circumstances which were at this time upon Ephraim they were the fore-runners of a period to him Now there are many of this nature which accordingly may be taken notice of by us The symtoms of ruine to a Nation First unfruitfulness under powerful means and dispensations of Grace amongst them This is one of the gray hairs bespeaking destruction The earth which bears thorns and briars is rejected and nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Heb. 6.8 If we look into Scripture we shall still find how this has been made a fore-runner of perdition in sundry places As the barren Fig-tree was commanded to be cut down that it might not cumber the ground Luke 13.7 And the unfruitful Vine cast into the fire Ezek. 14.4 So that Nation which brings not forth fruit has the Gospel taken away from it and given to those who will do it God will by no means bear with barrenness in his Garden and Orchard but in such a case root it up Secondly Strange sins which do abound and increase in it This is another symptom to this purpose when the foundations are as it were destroyed there the house is not likely to stand long The foundations of Piety and Religion in the common principles thereof and the foundations also of Nature and Civility in the common principles thereof when these things which are the very sinnews of a Nation shall once begin to shrink or be cut asunder it is too evident an argument of no long continuance for it What 's any Nation whatsoever but the several states and conditions of it and ranks and orders of men in it Now when these shall once begin to fail what will become of it when Magistracy shall be slighted and contemn'd and trampled under feet when Ministry shall be scorn'd and revil'd and reproach'd and ignominiously handled when Piety and Learning and Righteousness and Justice shall be supprest and instead of these wickedness and ignorance and barbarism and oppression shall take place When the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honourable as it is there in Isa 3.5 What 's the meaning of all this if it be well and throroughly look'd into but so many gray hairs which are sprinkled upon that Nation and People which are guilty of them and plainly foretelling nothing else consider'd in the causes but destruction to them Add to all this in the third place not only sins but plagues likewise There are some kinds of judgments which usher in others and are as it were preparatory to the absolute and final destruction Thus before the destruction of Jerusalem there were many calamities antecedent to it And so our Saviour tells us there shall be also before the final destruction of the world Wars and rumors of wars and famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places There 's a sprinkling of judgment before it comes down in its full showers and inundations and streams and these bespeak it before it comes in good carnest There are not more evident symproms to a body natural of natural death than there are also in their kind to a body politick of civil destruction And this is that which is here signified to us Gray hairs are here and there upon him And so now I have done with the First General Part of the Text which is Ephraim's confidence in the simple consideration of it both in his miserable captivity as also symptoms of ruine approaching Strangers have devoured his strength and gray hairs are here and there scattered or sprinkled upon him Now the Second is the aggravation of all this from his senslesness in it He knoweth it not And which is further also amplified from the repetition and ingemination of the words He knoweth it not This now follows to be consider'd of by us And here besides the certainty of the thing it self which is implyed in the doubling of the phrase it may carry a double reference with it either to their sin or to their misery He is in a sinful and a deluded condition and knows not that And he is in a woful and destroyed condition and yet knows not that neither Wicked men they have neither right apprehensions of sin nor punishment they neither see their wickedness nor yet do they take notice of their danger in the very jaws of mischief and ruine yet do not observe it Yet this is not all which is intimated to us in this expression though somewhat it be These words And he knows it not may admit of a various explication and there are divers things pointed out in it First that which we now mention'd and instane'd in their simple ignorance and want of apprehension He knows it not i.e. he does not discern it This is the case and condition of sinful persons that they are worse many times than they think for or than they judg of themselves In the very gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity and yet do not know it This was the state of the Church of Laodicea in Revel 3.17 a people of Ephraim's temper neither hot nor cold a Cake not turned We shall hear
in this Scripture And there are divers grounds of this also as well as of the other First a piece of spiritual laziness and sluggishness which is in them There is a mollities and softness upon some spirits which makes them impatient of resistance and fighting against sin who rather than they will endure the conslicts and combats of it do rather yield the cause they find temptations so strong and violent and frequent upon them and their corruptions so fiercely to beset them that they think they had as good now give up and so they do Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin says the Apostle in Heb. 12.4 Nay they give themselves over to lasciviousness to commit all uncleanness with greediness Ephes 4.19 Secondly Men come to despair of conquering their lusts and corruptions from Infidelity which prevails in them because they believe not those blessed and gracious promises which God has made to this purpose This is that which sometimes even the servants of God themselves are too much guilty of who are ready to conclude in this case that they shall one day perish by the hand of Saul not considering what God has promised for their encouragement that he will subdue their iniquities for them and that he will put his Spirit within them and that he will cause them to walk in his statutes c. This Infidelity it breeds Despair and the want of Faith it is the cause of the want of Hope with it therefore there is so little of the one because there is so little or none of the other there is a questioning of God in his Promises Thirdly Carnal confidence and reliance upon mens own strength By his own strength shall no man prevail 1 Sam. 2.9 those that think to do so may be disappointed and so they will be Now this is that which most men do and are thereby at last driven to despair Men go about the conquering of their lusts by their own strength and neglect Christ and so it is no wonder if they be at last out of hope Alas what hope is there in our selves I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me that was the conclusion of the Apostle and so it must be of every one of us we must use our own endeavours and do all we can for the resisting of sin in us but in them all depend still upon Christ and fetch strength from him which not doing we shall quickly be out of heart It is not the strength of Natural Reason it is not the peremptoriness of Vows and Resolutions it is not fear or poenal restraints which will be able to mortifie sin though there be also use of these but the grace and power of Christ My grace is sufficient for thee as the Lord said to Paul 2 Cor. 12.9 Fourthly Another thing which makes men to despair of being better and of getting victory over their temptations is because indeed they have false hearts and have no good mind to the thing it self Those who are resolved are courageous and where they have a mind any thing should be done they do not question the doing of it But it is otherwise here with men in this particular there is no hope they should be better because indeed they are well contented with their present naughtiness that they are so bad as they are as it was here with these people before us in this present Text. The use which we our selves are to make of this Observation is as much as may be to free our selves from this miscarriage and to prevent this distemper i us Let us take heed of giving so much advantage either to Satan or to our own evil hearts as to lie under the power of our corruptions and to yield our selves up unto them Oh by all means take heed of that take heed of base despair and infidelity and hardness of heart to say ye shall never be able to overcome such and such sins It is that sluggishness and softness and falsness which makes you to say so because ye are indeed willing to be overcome by them As there is no evil whatsoever which is above the Bloud of Christ as to matter of pardon and remission of it so there is no defilement whatsoever which is above the Spirit of Christ as to matter of power and Dominion over it There is enough in the grace of Christ to mollifie the stoutest heart and to purge away the greatest corruption and therefore make use of that upon all occasions First labour to be in Christ and to be at first incorporated into him by a Faith of Vnion And then be daily fetching strength from Christ for the subduing of corruptions in thee by a Faith of Communion But to despair and to cast off all hope it is to betray thy Soul into the hands of Satan himself and to shut thy self out of Heaven it self in the conclusion of all What was that which lost the Israelites their earthly Canaan a great many of them Why it was their Despair and Infidelity they were afraid of the Sons of Anak those mighty Gtants which were in the Land and whom they thought they should never be able to conquer Numb 13.33 and they doubted of the power of God for them It is said They could not enter in because of unbelief Heb. 3. And so it is that which will hazard the loss of the Heavenly Canaan too if we look not to it for which cause we should beware of it And that 's the first reference of this expression here in the Text namely to the People themselves There is no hope in regard of us that we for our parts should ever be better or get the victory over our present corruptions The second is in reference to the Prophet Jeremy There is no hope namely of Thee that thou shouldst ever be able to do any good upon us by all thy arguings and reasonings with us or preaching or discoursing to us thou dost but spend thy labour to no purpose for we are resolved and determined in this business what to do This is agreeable to some other Translations of the Text. The Septuagint reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We 'll play the men the Arabick and Syriack Let us take heart and courage to our selves namely as these who will not be beaten off from our own devices This is another description of the temper of evil and sinful persons to labour to discourage even the endeavours of the Ministery amongst them if it will be discouraged by them that those who should heal and recover them may have no hope of them Of this we shall find an express instance in another place of this Prophecy in Jer. 44.16 Then all the men c. answered Jeremiah faying As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee There they tell him as much to his face The People that Ezekiel had to do withall they
us hence learn to judg of them and to discern them what they are What though they do not say so in plain terms and with open mouth It may be fear and shame and hypocrisy may restrain them from that But as long as they do so they say so whiles they come to the preaching of the Word are made partakers of these divine admonitions hear their sins protested against and laid before them and yet for all that still go on and persist in them and it may be worse than ever before which is commonly the effect of such courses to be worse by means of betterment As long I say as they do thus they do as good as speak it and profess it with their lips Now therefore it concerns them very much to be humbled and abased hereupon as those who hereby add to their iniquity and so consequently to their condemnation Those sins which are but single only before admonition they come to be double afterwards and the judgment is so much the greater which waits upon them If I had not come and spoken unto them they had had no sin says our Saviour that is not so much and so deeply aggravated But now they have no excuse for their sin Joh. 15.22 After so many Lessons and Instructions and Sermons which have been preached to you to this purpose still to go on unreform'd and to keep your old ways and evil courses it is a thing which will admit no excuse or apology at all for it And therefore look to it lest it bring judgment with it at he heels The Sword of Jehu comes after the Sword of Elisha I have hewn them by my Prophets and I have slain them by the words of my mouth says God there of them Hos 6.5 And when this would not do he proceeded to judgment against them and so he will do still if he be not prevented Eluam a me hanc picem gladio I will wash off this pitch with the Sword as the Arabians speak in their Proverb So will God indeed do if he be provoked unto it We know what this is already and therefore should so much the more shun it and those things which are the causes of it So much for that And also of this whole verse before us And they said There is no hope c. SERMON XLVII JER 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil There are two things especially which the Prophet Jerremy in the course of this Chapter and Scripture which we have here before us does undertake to shew and declare to these People whom he had to deal withall The one is the sad Judgments and Afflictions which were coming upon them And the other is the Cause and Ground and Reason of these Afflictions For though there be nothing more clear and manifest to an impartial eye than that Sin is the occasion of Judgment yet such is that self-love and blindness which is for the most part in our hearts that where we most feel the one yet we least suspect the other but are ready a great deal rather to fret and murmur against God than to censure and condemn our selves as we ought to do Therefore does the Prophet here chiefly apply himself to this purpose to prevent and correct the distempers of this People in this particular He had from the 15. verse and so forward given them warning of the evils themselves and told them what should happen unto them And in the verse before the Text supposes this Question coming from them Wherefore came these things upon me which accordingly he presently answers to be for the greatness of their iniquity for this were their skirts discovered and their heels made bare Now because that they might haply have replied that their iniquity was no great matter or if it were would have gone away of it self he does therefore here shew them the setledness and incorrigibleness of it Can the Ethiopian c. This is the Coherence of the words IN this present Verse before us we have exhibited and laid forth unto us the miserable condition of sin which we may take notice of in two Branches as may serve to make up to us the parts of the Text First in its Defilement And secondly in its Intanglement The Defilement of sin that we have here propounded unto us from a double Resemblance the blackness of the Ethiopian and the spots of the Leopard The Intanglement of sin that we have exprest from the unmoveableness and unchangeableness of either of these it being as hard and difficult and impossible to do the one as it is to do the other as hard for those to do good which are accustomed to do evil as it is for the Ethiopian to change his skin or for the Leopard to change his spots We begin in order with the first of these parts viz. the Defilement of sin in the resemblance of the Ethiopian and Leopard that it is of a polluting and of a deforming nature it makes the person in which it is who is fill'd and overgrown with it ugly and very unlovely so indeed as nothing else does in all the world There is nothing which does so ill become a man nor render him so full of ignominy and reproach as sin it self does there is no Ethiopian or Black-moor which is so unamiable in reference to the Body as a sinner is in reference to the Soul and that though ye take and consider him under never so many excellencies and perfections besides whether Corporal or Spiritual Let it be beauty of Body sin it will take off from that and cause a loathsomness and disdainfulness notwithstanding It is like a jewel of gold says Solomon in a swines snout where there is beauty void of grace and fairness of skin without understanding of the things of God Those therefore that take pride and prank up themselves in the one without the other they do exceedingly deceive themselves as being indeed most unlovely and deformed So again let it be beauty of mind that is of wit and natural parts taking the mind of man so yet this sin it will discolour that and cast a disparagement upon it and very frequently does so How odious and abominable is a great and prodigious Wit with a loose and scandalous conversation like a dead flie which makes the oyntment of the Apothecary to cast out a stinking savour so is a little folly in him that is in reputation for great wisdom says the Preacher Eccles 10.1 Great and raging lusts they cast a shadow upon great parts and take off from the comeliness of them Let men be what they will be or what they can be yet if defiled with sin they are so far forth very unlovely Indeed they are not so it may be in their own apprehension and to the judgment of a carnal eye that can see no such ugliness and deformity and filthiness in
miseries of it Especially if we shall also further consider that in this case it proves a great deal worse than it was before for so it does Those which are any thing accustomed to do evil they are in great bondage but those which are so after some freedom from it are in the greatest thraldom and bondage that may be and the case is a great deal worse with them than it was before those that have broke themselves of some custom and do again fall into it they are for the most part very miserably intangled with it as the Apostle Peter hints unto us in 2 Pet. 2.20 c. If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ they are again intangled and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning c. Satan and their own lusts do in such cases set more violently upon them than ever they did and driving them headlong into perdition it self So dangerous is any evil custom re-assum'd and taken up again and the habits of sin return'd to and revived in us for which cause we are to take heed of it But when is sin come to an habit or how may this be discern'd by us so to be In brief we may know it by the consideration of three particulars which makes it up First Frequency Secondly Facility Thirdly Delight These three are considerable in an Habit which when sin is once come unto it is then discovered to be habitual The First I say is Frequency when it is often and familiarly committed then there is an habit of it contracted This is properly and in the first acceptation custom in sinning when men act it again and again and renew the commissions of it time after time This is that which many do and they that do so are hardly taken off from it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Philosopher That which is often is next to that which is always and it very suddenly falls into it Those therefore that find themselves thus yea though onely in desire and inclination their corruption does so far forth proceed from an habit in them The second is Facility An habit as it makes a man to do any thing again and again so it makes one expedite in the doing of it to do it with a sleight When therefore it is thus with men in sin they are habitual in it In 1 Joh. 3.9 it is said of him that is born of God that he doth not commit sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he does not make a trade of it he does not do it as his proper work or that which he is train'd up unto because he is born of God that is has another principle in him which does dispose him and incline him and carry him another way and does indispose him hereunto But now with an unregenerate heart it is far otherwise such an one as this is he has learned the art and trade as I may so call it he is very prompt and ready at it The third is Complacency and Delight Those that work out of an habit they work with a great deal of pleasure and contentment in that which they are about And thus it is likewise with an habituated sinner there is nothing which is more pleasing to him than sin is They count it pleasure to riot in the day-time 2 Pet. 2.13 And They delight in lies Psal 62.4 When wickedness comes once to this height it is then come up to a sad condition in those who are corrupted with it and it then proves very hard and difficult to wean them or reclaim them from it And so much therefore for that point to wit the Invincible Necessity which lies upon an accustomed sinner But now for the further unfolding of this Text still unto us it may not be amiss for us to consider how far forth this is true for this at the first hearing seems to be a very uncomfortable Doctrine that an accustomed sinner is unreclaimable and seems to carry a great deal of disheartning and discouragement in it For what shall then become of all those who have been any thing enured to sin and for a while persisted therein what are they altogether lost and is there no hope of recovery of them but to remain still as they are What may we think of such a point as this is For answer hereunto therefore we must know how this is to be understood that we may rightly conceive of it and that is that it be not taken absolutely and peremptorily but with due limitation If we speak of it simply and strictly so indeed it is not altogether impossible It is a thing which in it self may be done and there is one that can do it that can reduce and reform and reclaim even an habituated offender Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean says Job surely not one That is not one man yea but there is one God that can do it and can do it effectually As Matth. 19.26 With men this is impossible but with God all things are possible The Lord when he sets in by his powerful and converting Grace he is able to bring all these things in frame and rights again He can change the skin of the Ethiopian and take away the spots of the Leopard and make the most notorious sinner if he so please to be a very good Christian He stands not upon the Countrey but can remove the disparagements of that nor he stands not upon the nature but can take away the stubbornness of that And there are instances and examples enow of his power to this purpose In Manasses in Paul in the Jaylor in Mary Magdalen c. He can turn an Ethiopian into an Israelite and a Leopard into a very Lamb and he has done so many a time In Isa 11.6 7. It 's made the consequence and effect of Christ's Kingdom and the preaching and dispensation of the Gospel That the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lye down with the kid And in Psal 68.31 Princes shall come out of Egypt Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God If ye look but into the 8th of the Acts ver 27. ye shall there find a plain and remarkable instance of it of an Ethiopian changing his skin upon occasion of the preaching of Philip and many more there are of that nature So that the thing it self is not I say altogether impossible but done it may be The Lord is able by his Almighty power to bring it to pass who therefore may very confidently and comfortably be repaired unto for it as any have occasion to do it for those whom they are interested in and do belong unto them in any condition or relation whatsoever But when 't is exprest here under such repugnances as these are we must take it with this explication First Can he do it i. e. can he of himself do it it is not
onely see that such things are done but also see the great evil in doing them and the mischief that will likely follow upon them Thirdly Let us get into our hearts the love of God and a tenderness of his Honour We that love the Lord hate evil says the Psalmist in Psal 97.10 The more we take delight in him the more we shall lament any thing that is opposite and contrary to him as I in part hinted before Those that can see sin and not bewail it or 〈◊〉 affected with it they shew that they have not the love of God in them as our Saviour says of the Jews Joh. 5.42 The way then to attain to the one is to labour for the other That we may cry for these abominations get in us this love of God To perswade us so much the rather hereunto let us but consider the great benefit which hereby is likely to come to us as it is here set before us Even to have a mark set upon our foreheads and to be kept from the stroke of the destroying Angel in the midst of Jerusalem We would all of us fain be priviledged and secured in these dangerous times of infection and common contagion Now therefore let us not neglect the means and course which God has prescribed for it let us every one humble our selves seriously in his sight because of our own and others sins and do all we can for the amendment and reforming of our lives If we will not do it now when will we do it Now that the wrath of God is from Heaven revealed against us and does vent it self as we see it does amongst us Oh Beloved I beseech you by all means let us now labour to get an interest in Christ and to be reconciled to God through him that so he may set his mark of favour and protection upon us in the evil day and may say These are mine whom I own and take especial care of Especially that he may mark us out for salvation and eternal life what-ever becomes of us here The foundation of the Lord standeth sure and he knows them that are his and will know them effectually and distinctly own them from all other men It is a sad and miserable case for any one to be out of Christ at any time even in the best and healthfullest times that are and when the Land is clearest and freest from judgments or the appearances of them But what to be out of Christ now and not to have his stamp and impression upon us at such a time as this is in a plague and a time of common mortality What a fearful what a desperate thing is this Who that rightly considers of any thing would wilfully suffer himself to continue in such a condition No but rather make all the haste that may be to know him and to close with him and to lie down before him Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish out of the way If his wrath be kindled yea but a little Blessed are all they that trust in him Psal 2.12 As for this business of mourning and lamenting of sin in particular we have so much the greater cause to apply our selves to it as God is willing to accept it at our hands Who would not then be safe where a little crying yea sighing would save him being done in truth and sincerity as it is here intimated that it will do Had we not better cry for sin than cry for punishment Cry by way of prevenâ—â—on than cry then when-as all the crying we can make will do us no good Oh let us learn to be wise betime and to close with the first occasions and opportunities of mercy Where we cannot do what we would do let us do what we can There are many abominations abroad in the world that it may be we cannot remove them yea but yet for all that we can bewail them we can lament them and mourn for them and that at least is required of us and to be performed by us It is the great goodness of God to his poor servants that he takes delight in the reality of their affections and good desires where they have nothing more in their power and counts them not so much by what they are as what they would be Where they strive against sin they would be Where they strive against sin they want it where they hate it they are free from it where they grieve and mourn for it they are freed from the imputations of it And why should we not then all that may be endeavour to nourish and cherish such affections as these in our hearts Seeing God himself has such regard to the persons in whom they are we our selvâ—â— should not be wanting to them in these occasions which are now upon us but desire the Lord himself who alone is able to do it to bestow them and work them in us who bestows the spirit of mourning and lamentation upon whom he pleases So much may satisfie to have spoken of the second General part of the Text and so of the whole Text it self in the words which I have now explained Go through the midst of the City c. and set a mark upon the forehead of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof SERMON L. AMOS 5.18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord To what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light It is the manner and practice of carnal and presumptuous persons either to expect an absolute freedom and exemption from the judgments of God for coming upon them or else at least very much to mitigate and extenuate those judgments to themselves for their suffering of them That is either to nullify the day of the Lord in hope to escape it or else to mollify the day of the Lord in hope to endure it Now accordingly does there a double work lye upon the Servants of God the Prophets and Ministers of the Church in the course of their Ministry in order to the suppressing and subduing of this presumption in them The one is to declare the certainty of this day as unavoidable And the other is to declare the misery of this day as unsupportable The former was that which we have had exhibited to us the last day out of these words of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail c. and they shall not escape it There we have the day of the Lord in its certainty and unavoidableness The latter is that which we have now before us at this present time in the words of the Prophet Amos to the people of Israel Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord To what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light And here now we have the day of the Lord
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
inconstancy nor God will not have us to be peremptory there where we are meetly dependant We are but tenants at will and so we must carry our selves to this great and mighty Landlord of Heaven and Earth This the Apostle James enforces and sets on upon us in Jam. 4.13 14. Go to now ye that say to day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it's even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away For that ye ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that Thus in every particular we must be dependant still upon the Lord the preserver of our lives And thus as it must be in our lives so also in every thing else friends husbands wives children and the like The more men make account of them the less hold they have of them and they are then taken away when they are most of all expected to remain God loves to discover to us what vain creatures we are and how our whole subsistence is in him This is the Second Proposition The Third has some affinity with it and that 's this Thirdly The life of man lies open to innumerable hazards they shall take away thy soul we in our translation read it passively Thy soul shall be required of thee but in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is impersonable and also indefinite to signify to us how many things are able to do it They cannot be numbred and therefore they cannot be named They that 's indeed All there 's nothing whatsoever but is here at God's command Where then are those which boast in their youth and their health and their strength and their vigorous constitution as if nothing could mar them but a disease or old age Alas there are an hundred thousand things besides They shall take away thy soul If men could covenant with sickness yet they cannot covenant with chance and casualty and unexpected accidents there are more of these than diseases This should teach us therefore to be always in readiness and preparation seeing eternity depends upon our lives and our lives are so full of hazard how should we then be careful to look to our selves A Christian with the Apostle Paul should dye daily and look upon every day as that which might be his last for ought himself knew And for this purpose be often in converse and communion with God that so that which is so obvious when it comes may not be tedious not a strange and uncouth thing It will be no such difficult matter for that man to go to God at his last day who converses with God every day Seeing life lies open to so many evils and dangers it should teach us to be more in preparation and disposition for our departure Further we may here see what a little distance there is betwixt wicked men and hell They use to put away from them the evil day and to think it a great way off and far from them but ye see they are neer it as they are subject to so many casualties This should frighten men out of their natural condition and perswade them to make their calling and election sure who would be uncertain of his salvation so long as he is uncertain of his life who would not labour to find himself to be a Christian who considers himself to be one Oh the madness and folly of men in this particular methinks we should not sleep quietly nor eat nor walk about the streets whiles they remain in their unregenerate estate because that wheresoever they go or whatsoever they set themselves about they go not only in danger of their lives but likewise in danger of their souls they are not only exposed to death but exposed to damnation if they should dye in that condition Again we here see how much we are bound to the providence and goodness of God towards us and what cause we have to be thankful that seeing so many things might take us away yet so few things do Oh! we little think what an eye waits over us and rescues us from many evils which we were subject and liable to in our infancy and in our childhood when we were unable to help our selves how God protected us and kept us and gone along with us and how have we cause to bless and praise his name for it This is the Third Proposition Fourthly Ungodly men their souls are taken from them by force It shall be required of thee that is it shall be drawn by compulsion The children of God although they have the reluctancies of nature which others have yet they sweetly resign their souls into the hands of the Lord as our Blessed Saviour for a pattern Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And the Apostle Peter to this purpose in 1 Pet. 4.19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator This is the excellency of the Saints that they can commit their souls to God and deposite them with him as a man does any thing of value and esteem with some special and some faithful friend Thus the Apostle Paul in 2 Tim. 1 12. I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Thus I say 't is with believers and the children of God but for the wicked their souls are forced from them they are pull'd and haled out of the world whether they will or no. Not as if any one were to hasten his own death himself we mean not so but wicked and ungodly men God in a manner turns them out of doors and bids them be gone His own children when they perceive their lives once out they give up their lease themselves upon his intimation without any more ado But men of the world they stand out till they have a writ of Ejection They shall take thy soul from thee For this we have a notable place in Job 27.19 c. The rich man shall lye down but he shall not be gathered he openeth his eyes and he is not Terrors take hold on him as waters and a tempest stealeth him away in the night The East-wind carrieth him away and he departeth and as a stone hurleth him out of his place And this is the Third General The threatning and menacing tidings This night thy soul shall be required of thee The last General Head is the expostulatory inference Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Which words contain in them a double signification First a note of resolution and Secondly a note of ambiguity whose shall these be That is first of all they shall not be thine that 's once take that for granted
we find the truth of it in our own experience When we give God the honour of his Providence he will give us the comfort of it and make good all that to us in the event which we before by a Spirit of Faith did expect from him There 's nothing lost by self-resignation and submission to God in any thing whether inward or outward together with the appurtenances of them Nay we cannot engage God more than by seriousness in this particular And if we are not satisfied with that which God does for us here and this small pittance of time here in the world which indeed is but very narrow and short yet let us think of the advantages which he has for us in eternity and in the extent of our being He has there and then scope enough for the gratifying of us Hereafter if we take it in this sense 〈◊〉 I shewed before it might be taken it has enough in it to make us amends and to compensate all our expectations God will justify himself at the length that we may be sure of and it is enough for us that he will so though he should not do it so soon as we might desire or look for it from him and expect it at his hands This Text which we are now upon it serves so prevent a double distemper in us both our Curiosity and our Impatience Our Curiosity in the First Part What I do thou knowest not now no nor art not able to know it therefore do not too curiously and affectedly pry into it as being a thing above thy reach It is a wise and safe ignorance to know no more than God will have us to know Our Impatience in the Second Part But thou shalt know it hereafter Therefore be not too forward nor hasty nor eager for the present be content to stay God's leasure and time for the discovery of it which is always the best I will hut up all with the words of the wise man Solomon Prov. 3.5 6. Trust in the Lord with all shine heart and lean not to thine own understanding In all thy ways acknowledg him and he shall direct thy paths SERMON XVII JOH 14.27 Let not your Heart be troubled neither let it be afraid There is nothing more necessary for a Christian than a Calmness and Tranquillity of Mind And there is nothing more conducing hereunto than the Principles of Christianity it self Especially drawn forth into Exercise and Improvement of Religion as it is good for many other things besides so amongst the rest to keep up the Heart and to preserve the Spirit from Dejection Not onely to bring us to Heaven and to lodge us safely there but likewise to sustain us upon Earth and to carry us with the greatest Grace and Comfort and Facility and Contentment in the mean time through the World Therefore in these times of cruelty and distraction which are now upon us in regard of what may happen to us from future Events we cannot better provide for our selves and our own Security and Contentation than by recourse to such helps and means as these are especially as exhibited and tender'd in the Word of God and the Ministery and Dispensation of it which will still be that which it is after all our thoughts about it And for which purpose I have made choice of this Text which I have now read unto you being the last Advice and Counsel of our Blessed Lord and Saviour and given by him to his Disciples upon the saddest occasion that ever befell them in this World which was his own Departure from them Though the occasion was very lamentable and remarkable and their Condition very sad yet he would not have them to be discouraged or put out of Heart for it but to hold up and to be contented notwithstanding Let not your Heart be troubled neither let it be afraid IN the Text it self there are three General Parts considerable First a Christians Disposition Secondly a Christians Duty Thirdly A Christians Security or Happiness or Priviledge The Disposition of Christians That is to be very much troubled and full of fears The Duty of Christians that is not to be troubled or to have fears prevail upon them The Priviledge or Security of Christians is to have Christ taking care for the prevention of fear and trouble in them First For a Christians Disposition it is this to be very much troubled and full of fears This is here implyed and supposed in this Caution of our Saviour which he gives to his Disciples whiles he wishes them that their Heart might not be troubled he does intimate that it was subject to be troubled as when Joseph admonishes his Brethren that they would not fall out by the way he does signifie his suspicion that they were likely to fall out by the way And indeed this is the Case of the best of Gods Servants that are Even the Disciples of Christ Himself they were not free from it but very apt and subject unto it Especially now upon his removal and departure from them to be very full of sollicitude and distraction And the like disposition upon occasion has also discover'd it self in divers others of God's People beside Now there 's a various Ground which may be given hereof unto us why God's Servants here in this life are subject to inordinate Troubles and Fear and Anxiety in them First from the Reliques of Corruption Secondly from the strength of Temptation Thirdly from the weakness of Grace First From the Reliques of Corruption It is sin which is the cause of Trouble not only in the Condition but in the Spirit And this is that which Gods Servants have in them as still cleaving and adhering to them They have corruption and so have distraction as attendant and consequent thereupon And especially such sins and corruptions as do more immediately tend hereunto as diffidence and distrust and worldymindedness and inordinate affection to these things here below These where-ever they are they will cause trouble and fear And they are in part even in the best of Gods Servants There 's a double kind of Trouble which the Servants of God are subject to here in this World There 's the trouble of State and the trouble of Mind The former is not that which we now speak of as being not matter of Sin but of Affliction But the latter is that which our Discourse tends unto and which our Saviour here intends in this place now before us This is that which God's Children are prone to from the Corruption which is remaining in them They are apt to be much troubled in their Spirit from any thing which falls cross unto them And that because they are Flesh and Blood and have sin still more or less cleaving unto them Secondly As from the remainders of corruption so also from the strength of Temptation and the violence of Spiritual Assaults which are made upon them Satan he is an Enemy to them and loves to make his
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
After that c. it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe SERMON XXVIII 1 Cor. 1.22 For the Jews rewquire a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom There 's no better Argument to convince us of the excellency and dignity of the Gospel and Ministry and Preaching of the Word than to consider the admirable effects which are wrought and produced by it That which can do such great things as Preaching can is certainly a very powerful Ordinance let the world think of it what it will And this is that which the Apostle undertakes to make good unto us in this Scripture which we have still before us whiles he shews that by this service God is pleased to bring men to Heaven and to deliver them from future wrath By the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe It is better to be saved by foolishness than to go to Hell by wisdom if that may be called wisdom which does at last bring men to Hell or if that may be called foolishness which does at last bring men to Salvation But the wonderful goodness and power of God in this Dispensation in taking such a course and way as this is I have the last day shewn unto you out of the 21 verse of this Chapter I come now with Gods assistance to that which follows in the 22d verse here before us For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom IN this Verse the Apostle illustrates and confirms that expression which had past from him in the verse before concerning the foolishness of Preaching He had therein intimated and signified unto us That Preaching was no better than folly and madness in the account of the world and here now he makes it good by shewing how it was received and entertained by the world The world did consist but of two sorts of Jews and Gentiles of those which were the proper people of God by special Covenant and those which were strangers to him Now both and either of these did look upon it as the foolishness of Preaching not all particulars amongst them the Apostle does not say so that were too harsh and heavy an aspersion nay he says the flat contrary for he tells us in a verse a little after that there were those which were called and converted both of Jews and Gentiles God had his lot and number amongst both but it is to be understood of a great number of them from whom it might be well applied to each kinds and truly said that it was thus with them Now St. Paul does make this good in two Particulars which may make up the parts of the Text First in the demand of the Jews and secondly in the pursuit of the Gentiles The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom First we 'l speak of them jointly as they agree in one notion and then severally in what is proper to each First Jointly where we must know thus much the demand of the Jews The Jews require a sign as to that which follows afterwards concerning the pursuit of the Gentiles to be understood by the Apostle not only as simply relating it but likewise as secretly taxing it and finding fault with it The Jews require a sign as a thing which was blame worthy in them and the Greeks seek after wisdom as that which was a fault so to do in that sense and manner as afterwards God willing we shall explain it Here was an error and miscarriage in both as concerning their receiving and entertaining of the Gospel of Christ whence I say we may observe somewhat in General before we come to the particular Meditation In General then First this That the corruption of nature does act and improve it self differently in different ranks and conditions of persons Here are Jews and Gentiles both people of a several temper and frame yet both of them have their censure and imputation which is here laid to their charge the one in the requiring of a sign and the other in the seeking after wisdom which how far they were justly taxable we shall discover this is enough for the present and which we here take notice of that both of them in a several kind of nature had their weaknesses and failings and though they differed in the particular yet in the main did both agree This various working of corruption according to the subject wherein it is may be variously accounted unto us as proceeding from various causes and occasions of it As first sometimes from the difference of age and constitution of body there are some sins which are more proper to one age and temper and others which are more proper to another There are the sins of childhood and youth and there are the sins of manhood and old-age and men proceed from one to the other if they be not more careful and wary over themselves sins which still have a party in them whatever their condition here be and will always bring forth some fruit or other Again secondly sometimes it proceeds from a difference of assault and temptation as there are several tempers and constitutions in regard of men themselves so there 's several drawing out of these constitutions in regard of Satans improving of them And God does sometimes give the Devil more power over mens constitutions in one sin than in another some he tempts to covetousness and others he tempts to lust and others he tempts to pride c. accordingly as they are variously and differently inclined Thirdly It proceeds from a difference of imployment and education and particular calling wherein men are set For sin it hath tainted all unto us and made all things an occasion of stumbling in the Magistracy and in the Ministry in the Church and in the Commonwealth First That we should not from hence at any time be secure and presumptuous in our selves from our freedom from any particular sin or infâ—mity whatsoever though thou art not guilty of such a sin yet it may be thou maist be guilty of another which in its kind may be as bad And therefore be not high-minded but fear And labour to watch over thine heart especially in respect of those sins which in regard of thy particular condition thou art most apt and subject unto Remember that Jews here have their sins and wickedness and the Gentiles again have theirs And so it is answerably in all sorts of people There are sins of several ranks and conditions the Court have their sins and the City have theirs the Country have their sins and the Vniversity have theirs There are sins of the Rich and of the Poor of the Learned and of the Unlearned and so several Nations are noted for their sins Non comedis Germane c. That is of the Jews and of the Gentiles there is not a more variety of fashions than there is of sins that 's one thing which we may here note in the General But so much briefly
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
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
his Works of Judgment How he made a way to his Anger spared not their souls from death but gave their life over to the destruction Psal 18.50 Thus do the Nations forget God according to each of these Explications and are here threatned with Punishment for it And so we have these persons here adjudged in each Description and Representation of them whether Comprehensive or Emphatical The Wicked and all the Nations that forget God And so much for the Point it self Now that which remains in breif is the Use and special Improvement which is to bemade of it First We see here what 's the Doom and Sentence which is past upon all such Persons as we have hitherto described Yet not only upon Persons considered distinctly but upon whole Nations considered joyntly That being wicked and Forgetfull of God They shall be turned into Hell That is both for ever be deprived of Gods Glorious and Beatifical Presence and also filled with unspeakable torment both in Body and Soul Now therefore let this serve for the Terror of all such Persons as these are By considering what a sad condition does Betide them and belong unto them whilst they remain and continue in such a State as this is What is it for People to injoy a little seeming pleasure here but for a moment and to be condemned to infinite misery to all eternity Now this is that which is here discovered and declared unto us Wicked men after all their jollity and vanity and temporary prosperity which they have here partaked of in the World they shall all in a little while and space of time be for ever adjudged to Hell This is that which the Holy Ghost himself does here expresly assure them of if they will take notice of it And it is not amiss by the way to observe the Phrase and manner of Expression where it is said of such Persons as these That they shall be turned into Hell which is very Emphatical in several regards First They shall be so forcibly and irresistably whether they will or no. Turning It is a word of Violence Secondly They shall be so tumultuously and promiscuously without any order Turning it is a word of Confusion They shall be turn'd that is they shall be hurried Thirdly They shall be so justly and regularly upon the account of their demerits and as an effect of that Righteous sentence which is past upon them Turning it is a word of Execution They shall be turned that is they shall be returned as the Hebrew word Jathuvou properly signifies And as they came from Hell in their Principles so they shall return to Hell in their Punishment To the place whence they came as the Place of Sin to that which is the place both of Prison and of Execution This is that which is here Emphatically signified These are dreadfull and fearfull things and which accordingly should have answerable influences upon Peoples Affections in the receiving and entertaining of them The thoughts of no more but Death it self they are Awaking thoughts and such as should be effectual with them But when Judgment and wrath is joyned with it and accompanying of it this serves so much the more to aggravate it And I looked and behold a pale Horse and his name that sat on him was Death and hell followed with him and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the Earth to kill with sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the Earth Rev. 6.8 Where Death shall go before and Hell shall follow after But Secondly It may serve also for a use of Caution and Admonition to prevent us from coming into such a Place and State as this is by taking heed of such ways and courses as these are which lead thereunto and by labouring to be so qualified and disposed as may keep us therefrom There 's a possibility of keeping from it though not of coming out of it Where there are two things which are pertinently to be commended unto us The one is that we look to our general State and Condition And the other is that we look to our particular Lives and Conversations First As we desire to be kept from this dreadfull place which is here mentioned It will concern us to look to our General State and Condition in Grace That we be such as are truly in Covenant with God in Christ and by Faith united to Him For whosoever are not members of Christ they are children of Hell and Heirs of Damnation whosoever are so they are delivered from it and made Heirs of eternal Salvation He that beleiveth on the Son hath everlasting Life and he that beleiveth not the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him as it is expresly told us in Joh. 3.36 And again the verse before the 18th verse of that Chapter He that beleiveth on him is not condemned but he that beleiveth not is condemned already because he hath not beleived in the name of the only begotten Son of God This is the first thing to look to our General State and Condition The Second is To our particular Life and Conversation For as there is a State of Wrath so there is a Curse of Wrath also and that is a Course of Sin and wilfully proceeding in it It is said of the Harlot that Her house is the way to hell going down to the Chambers of death Prov. 7.27 And that Her guests are in the depths of hell in Prov. 9.28 And so it is likewise with many other Examples besides and with all such persons as give themselves liberty in sinful and wicked Courses They are in the High Way to Hell and their end is Destruction Therefore the way to be kept from that is to keep from these and to take heed of them And if any be for the present surprized in due time to withdraw and to put a check upon themselves The Wicked are turned into Hell that is which remain and continue still to be so But if any shall in due time consider and repent and recollect themselves If the wicked shall forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and shall turn unto the Lord he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon Isa 55.7 And so as for Particular Persons so for General and whole Nations here 's an Item which reaches to them also for reformation and amendment of Life And especially to us of this Nation amongst the rest in the midst of that great wickedness which does dayly grow upon us in all Particulars To take heed of any farther progress and proceeding in it but rather seasonably and speedily to restrain it and to depart from it We have cause to do it for the preventing of Temporal Judgments and those Calamities which in that respect do hang over our heads but we have cause to do it for prevention of Eternal Judgments especially the Judgment of Hell which is
in case of final impenitency and continuance in sin are here threatned to whole Nations themselves To indeavour to keep not only our selves but our Relations and Children and Servants and Friends from being in Hell c. And remember farther how it is here set and expressed The Nations that forget God as having still a greater inforcement and aggravation with it It is more for a People to forget God than it is to be simply ignorant of him Those that never knew what God was nor never had any experience of him they might be more tolerable in their sinnings against him But those that forget him are inexcusable being such as do wilfully neglect and despise that Goodness which is in him Therefore let all all such as these take heed more especially Consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you as the Psalmist there expresses it in Psal 50.22 So much for that And so I have done with the whole present Text before us in both the parts of it The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God So much for this Text and Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON XXXVIII Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon There is nothing wherein the Love of God towards Man is more discovered than in his Seasonable Invitation of him to Repentance and Conversion to himself Which hath this further End and Design attending upon it even the promoting of Man's Salvation and Eternal Welfare And this is that which we have here propounded unto us in this Scripture which we have now before us wherein the Prophet proclaims an Offer of Mercy and Pardon upon such a condition IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First A Counsel or Precept Secondly A Promise or Argument for the urging and enforcing of it The Counsel that we have in these words Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. The Promise in these And he shall have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon We begin with the first of these Parts viz. The Counsel or Precept which is to Amendment and Reformation of Life And it is here again layed forth in two Branches whereof it consists First Of the Act of Aversion Secondly Of the Act of Conversion The Act of Aversion in these Words Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts The Act of Conversion in these words And let him return unto the Lord. First To speak of the former viz. The Act of Aversion as to matter of Evil. And that again in its double Reference First To a Man's Course And Secondly To a Man's Mind To a Man's Course And so to the forsaking of his way And to a Man's Mind and so to the forsaking of his thoughts First For his Course Let the wicked forsake his way This is one thing wherein true Repentance and Reformation indeed does consist to wit the altering and changing of a Man's Course from Evil to Good It is that which we may observe and take notice of all along in Scripture Thus it was with the Apostle Paul when he was converted he forsook his old way Gal. 1.23 He which persecuted the Church in time past he now preached the Faith which once he destroyed So the converted Colossians Cap. 3.7 the Apostle having spoken of some more grievous and notorious Sins he adds In which ye also walked sometimes when ye live in them but now ye put off all these things anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth So 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin That he no longer shall live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God For the time past of our life may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquettings and abominable idolartries There are two Terms in this Passage to be opened and explained by us for the better declaring of this present Truth unto us The one is the word Forsaking And the other is the word Way First The word Forsaking What we are to understand by that Let the wicked forsake his may This must be taken in the strictness and exactness of it so as excluding and rejecting every thing as insufficient which does not come up hereunto Therefore first of all It is not enough for us to confess the evil of our ways and barely to signifie and acknowledge our Guiltiness before God This is somewhat and a pretty good step to Repentance but it is not enough Ye shall have many who sometimes will reckon up large Catalogues of their sins to God and be very full in the Confession of them to him but yet in the mean time hold them fast and keep them close in their hearts Sin and Confess and Confess and Sin And so run in a Circle But what do we think that this alone will serve to approve us to God Surely Nothing less Nay indeed If we go no further it will make but so much the more against us for where there is Confession there is supposed to be Conviction He that acknowledges Sin he is so far forth perswaded against it Now to commit Sin when we are at any time convinced of the sinfulness of it it carries so much the greater Evil and Iniquity in it Therefore Solomon has set this very well for us Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Mark how he lays the Opposition He says not only He that confesseth them as contrary to Covering but moreover He that forsakes them as contrary to Committing And thus according to this Qualification are we to understand that of the Apostle John If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness in 1 Joh. 1.9 Secondly As it is not enough to confess our sins so neither is it enough only to condemn them and simply to bewail them in themselves This is a step a little further than the former Ye shall have some kind of People in the World who will not only acknowledge their Guiltiness and Miscarriage but also seem to be very sorry for it and now and then express it by tears and weeping it self And yet when they have fresh Occasions and Opportunities administred unto them they fall to them as eagerly and earnestly as ever before These now they do likewise come short of this Repentance and Reformation which is here required in the Text. Forsaking it is somewhat more than so Thirdly It