unto God the Father Revel 1. 6. They are a chosen generation a royal priesthood 1 Pet. 2. 9. how despicable soever to the World This is their dignity The Lord is their crown and diadem he subdues their Lust and makes them Kings over their own Affections and more than â—onquerors over all Troubles and Persecutions whereas carnal Men are continually hurried like Slaves unto base employments still kept toyling in the ignoble service of their own Lusts. They think indeed it is their Liberty but that 's a baseness of Spirit that complies so well with so Vile and Servile a condition And whereas they judge the godly to be the refuse and dross of the Earth and the proper objects of Contempt this is because this their Crown though most glorious is invisible to the Eye of Nature The Lord is a Crown If they knew what this is they would see enough in it to countervail their outward meanness and the reproaches the World casts on them as the Apostle St. Peter hath it 1 Ep. cap. 4. 14. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of Glory and of God resteth on you He is their Crown And observe how this Crown is opposed to that blasted glory and fading Crown of pride spoken of in the former verses Who is there that sees not in daily Experience the Vanity and Inconstancy of worldly glory and yet how few are there that wean themselves from it and learn to disdain it Still men dote upon that which is not upon a shadow a nothing But would you have a Glory that fadeth not a Garland that cannot wither make the Lord your Crown and your Glory and if he be so glory in him and in nothing else Let not the wise man glory c. but let c. Jer. 9. 23. You that are Noble aspire to this Crown as being so far above your perishing Honours and bounded Powers and you that are outwardly meaner and lower see how little cause you have to complain of your condition seeing you are not debarred from this best and greatest honour And that you may discern it aright what it is know that it consists in the renovation of God's Image within you which is in Holiness and Righteousness So the Lord becomes your Crown in the Kingdom of Grace and by this you may discover whether or no you have attained it if you can yet delight to wallow in the puddle and pleasures of Sin you are far from this royal condition but if you find your Soul possessed with the love of Holiness and that you are trampling upon prophane delights this may perswade you that God hath enabled you and crowned you with his Grace and will crown you with Glory Again try it by this if the Lord is become your Crown and your Glory you will glory in him and in nothing else Though you be Wise you will not glory in your Wisdom nor in Strength nor in Riches nor Honours though you had them all but if you glory you will glory in the Lord. And withal your highest joy will be to see the advancement of his Glory and if you can to be any way serviceable to the advancing of it And a spirit of Judgment c. Both to these that sit in Judgment and to the People for Justice is the strongest Base and Establishment of Authority and withal the influence of it is most sweet and comfortable to these that are under Authority and where it is wanting that order and relation of Superiours and Inferiours which God hath appointed in the Societies of Men for their good tends exceedingly to the damage of both And therefore where God intendeth to continue the Peace and Welfare of a People he is liberal in pouring out much of this Spirit of Judgment on these that sit in Judgment On the contrary it is for a heavy punishment when he withdraws his Spirit from Rulers and leaves them wholly to the Corruption and Vanity of their own Spirits That sit in Judgment To all that are in place of Authority and Judicature from the Supream to the lowest Magistrate for this concerns them all for they be all raised in their Subordination and several places above the people for the benefit and good of the people as the Stars that be set so high yet are placed there to be useful and beneficial to the Inferiour World Now this Spirit of Judgment comprehends in it both due Wisdom and Prudence for the trial and right judging of affairs and for the discerning betwixt sound and perverse Counsel and withal a judgment practically good that cannot be byass'd from the straight line of Equity and Justice by any sinister respect Now seeing the Spirit of Judgment is from the Lord yea he is this Spirit it ought to perswade those that sit in Judgment to entreat and pray for this and to depend upon it and beware of Self-confidence Trust in the Lord saith Solomon and lean not to thine own understanding if you do it will prove but a broken Reed And as they that sit in Judgment should intreat his Spirit by Prayer so generally all must share with them in this duty and make supplication for all that are in Authority over them especially in extraordinary times Truly we have matter of thankfulness that the Lord hath in some measure inclined the Royal Heart of our Sovereign to the desires of his People and ought still to pray That the Lord would give the King his Judgments And then as the Psalmist adds The Mountains shall bring peace to the people and the little Hills by righteousness Psal. 72. 3. And for this end let all that wish the publick yea their own good pray much for abundance of this Spirit of Judgment to be conferred on them your eyes and expectations are upon them If you would enjoy the Lamp you must pour in Oyl This Spirit indeed you cannot pour upon them but if you pour out many Prayers you may draw it from above he will give it who here promises to be a Spirit of Judgment And strength Observe the way to be powerful and successful against Foreign Enemies is To have Religion and Justice flourishing at home and truly if it please our God to answer the desires of his People at this time it may so unite the affection and strength of the two Kingdoms the Lord of Hosts being their strength as to make them a Terror to their Enemies whereas they were become a scorn and derision to them For your particular Labour to make the Lord your Glory to have Christ made unto you as the Apostle speaks both wisdom and righteousness and sanctification which are the glory and beauty of the Soul and redemption from your Spiritual Enemies draw strength from him to fight and prevail against them till after the short Combat of this life you obtain the Crown and dwell in his presence where you shall fear no more assaults neither of Sin nor
of compassion and would be glad if they were converted and saved And he considers every Man as his Brother and therefore is sorrowful to see him run the hazard of perishing in sin The former sympathy whereby the Godly man tenders the Glory of God is from his Piety This latter whereby he pities the misery of Man is from his Charity and from these flow the Rivers that run down his eyes To be too sensible of worldly crosses and prodigal of tears upon such slight occasions is little better than Childish or Womanish but these tears that flow from love to God and grief for Sin have neither uncomliness nor excess in them abundance of them will beseem any Man that is a Christian. Let profane men judge it a weakness to weep for Sin yet we see David do it Men of Arms and Valour need not fear disparagement by weeping thus it is the truest Magnanimity to be sensible of the point of Gods honour which is injured by Sin Again The consideration of this truth will discover the World guilty of very much Ingratitude to Godly men it hath always been the custom of profane Persons to seek to brand Religion and Godliness with disloyalty and turbulency and to make it pass for an enemy to the peace and prosperity of States and Kingdoms You see clearly with what affection Religion furnishes men towards the publick causing them to mourn for common sins and so to prevent as far as in them lies common Calamities And this is oâ— no little consequence for truly it is not Foreign Power so much as Sin at home that ruines Kingdoms all the Winds that blow without the Earth be they never so violent stir it not only that which is within its own bowels makes an Earthquake It was a grave answer of Epaminondas being asked what he was doing solitary and pensive in the time of solemn mirth and feasting While my Country men says he are so peaceably Feasting I am thinking on the best means to preserve that peace to them that it may continue which a little altered is applicable to the Godly They are oftentimes mourning for the sins and praying for the peace of the places where they live when in the mean time the greatest part are multiplying sin and so forfeiting their peace Rivers of Waters This is a mournful melancholy life that these Precisians lead says the Worldling yes truly if there were no more in it than what he can perceive and judge of But besides the full joy laid up for them and the beginnings of it here there is even in this mourning an unknown sweetness and delight The Philosopher says even of common tears that there is some kind of pleasure in them as some things please the taste by their very tartness But of these tears they that know them know it to be eminently true That â—hey are pleasant But be this exercise as sad as the profane call it yet why observe they not that they themselves are much the cause of it as they may read here Because they keep not Gods Law But to pass by divers Inferences that the words afford let us take notice of the duty heâ—e practised and how much we are all obliged to the present practice of it Who will deny that we have too much matter and occasions of it Besides the sorrow of Sion and particularly the blood-shedding and distress of our Brethren and our own danger what corner of the Land what rank or condition of people is there that abounds not in gross and heinous violation of Gods Law They keep not thy Law Magistrates and Judges turning Judgment into Gall and Wormwood Ministers remiss in that great care the care of Souls people wallowing in Ungodliness and Uncleanness Swearing c. The greater oppressing the less and the less defrauding and wronging the greater No sensible and notable work of conversion almost to be seen or heard of amongst us the Lord absenting himself from his Ordinances O that he would dwell in his House and fill it with a Cloud of his Glory What vile uncleanness and wantonness What shameful drunkenness and excess And some so far from mourning for others guiltiness of this sin that they glory in making others guilty of it and count it a pastime to make others Drunk and this is a far greater sin than drunkenness it self for these men while they make Beasts of their Companions they make Devils of themselves becoming tempters and provokers to Sin If any such be here either tremble at the Woe that the Prophet Habakkuk chap. 2. denounceth or confess that you believe not the Scriptures Woe to him that gives his neighbour drink and puts the bottle to him to make him drunken The cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned to thee it is full of heavy vengeance There is a Cup if you like it to pay you home the Cups you give to others Again How is the Land filled with Oaths and Cursings How are your Streets and almost all Companies where a man can come defiled partly with tearing the Precious Name of God partly with calling on the Devil There would be no end of reckoning up all particulars Sabbath breaking Fraud and Covetousness Pride and Malice and Envyings one of another and the rest But the summ is this An Universal want of the fear of God and his Law And the cause of this is in a great part Ignorance of God and of his Law and truly it is wonderful under so much Light and such plentiful Preaching to find so much darkness not only in the skirts and remote places but even in the prime parts of this Land Multitudes that are strangers to the very principles and fundamentals of that Religion which they profess and they that have knowledge abusing it and sinning against it continuing in profaneness and without this true Religion it is as impossible to have renewed hearts and lives as to have a House without a Foundation or as we say a Castle in the Air. And this Atheism and Ignorance amongst people is in a great part to be imputed to the corruption and sloth of Ministers and would to God there were not many Congregations not only altogether destitute but such as are freezing under a cold and lifeless Ministry You see then we want not causes of mourning and humiliation on all hands but our want is inward of that due disposition for it Softness of heart and that love to God which should melt and mollifie the heart Let us then stir up our selves and one another to this godly sorrow for the sins of the Land there is need of Rivers of Tears for these heaps of Sin as they tell of his letting in a River to that monstruous Stable of Augias that could not otherwise have been cleansed in the time allotted him And truly as the duty lies upon all the faithful the Ministers of the Word ought to be most eminent in it the chief mourners the Precentors to take
up the Tune of these Thenes Joel 2. 17. And all that wish the good of Church and Kingdom ought to bear a part in them according to their measure Have we not much need to intreat reconcilement with God that he prove not our enemy Yes surely and were we reconciled with him we would have little need to fear the power of Man Now they that would be profitable mourners for others sins by all means must have these two conditions I mention'd to be careful observers of the Law themselves and to mourn for their own failing and breaking of it Now to the observing of the Law it is absolutely needful to know and understand it and that not only in the Letter and Superfice but according to the Spiritual sense and meaning of it for without this knowledge a man may light upon some Duty by guess as it were in the dark but observe the Law he cannot They are not only reproveable that glory in their own sins and make sport of the sins of others but they mistake it much that think it enough to consider their own with grief and judge the sins of others an impertinency for them to think on they mourn not right for others that begin not at themselves so they mourn never aright for themselves that end in themselves He that here thus weeps for others made his Bed to swim with these Rivers for his own sin Psal. 6. 2 As a man must know this Law so he must be inwardly convinced and perswaded of the Divinity of it that it's God's Law 3 He must have a deep apprehension of the Majesty and Authority of the Law-giver to work Reverence and of his goodness to beget Love and the due mixture of these two will both strongly command and sweeten obedience to his Commandments And this obedience though it be not an absolute and perfect fulfilling of any one of the Commandments yet it is a respect to them all as this Psalm hath it which is so to speak an imperfect kind of perfection And from this respect to the Law which is the observing of it will â—low that other condition of grieving when we break it And besides all other things that should make a Christians own sin grievous to him there is one thing cannot but move him much The consideration of the sorrow and sufferings of Christ. To view the bleedings of the Lord Jesus cannot chuse but pierce a Believing Soul and make it say Did my Redeemer shed his Blood for my sins and shall not I my self shed tears for them I know the natural Constitution of some denies them tears but if it do so to any make up that want with sence of inward grief and it is well enough the Eye of God can discern that as well as the other but truly where men have tears for lighter causes for all other causes are lighter and none for this they feel not yet the weight of sin except that want be through the deepness of sorrow which sometimes will stop the current of tears though it used to run at other times as they say Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent But this is a rare and happy impediment And to answer another doubt If you find sometimes worldly griefs stir you more violently yet let this Godly sorrow affect you more constantly that it may have the advantage in continuance if it fall short in the degree But as this grief must begin at home as they say of Charity it must not be so selfish as to rest there and truly where it comes in that order it may be some way a stronger Evidence of sincerity to mourn for others sins than for our own for there seems to be more of God in it because there is less in it of our selves and own particular interest Now you will possibly think it but an unpleasant Duty that you have heard urged all this while but look forward and consider the issue of it That which Christ speaks in particular to his Disciples is generally true in all Christians Jo. 16. 20. Ye shall weep and lament says he but the World shall rejoyce ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned or made into Joy The Water of those tears shall be turned into Wine of Consolation The Traffick of these Rivers is gainful they export Grief and import Joy When these tears are called Seed the Harvest crop is called Joy They that sow in tears shall reap in Joy They are here called Rivers and they are answered with a River Psal. 86. 8. for which they shall in end be perfectly exchanged Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures And Revel 7. 17. The Lamb shall feed them and lead them unto living fountains of waters Here they run down the eyes and water the cheeks and there you read that God shall wipe them away from their eyes Who would not be content to weep to have God wipe away their tears with his own hand Be ambitious then to be found amongst the mourners in Sion and when ye remove from this Valley of tears God shall at once fully wipe away all the stain of Sin from your Souls and all Tears for it from your Eyes And as he shall wipe away the Tears with the one hand he will set the Crown upon your Heads with the other SERMON VIII PREFACE BBessed are they that dwell in thy House saith the Psalmist and he adds this reason They will be still praising thee There is indeed always in God's House both fit opportunity and plentiful matter of his praises But the greatest number of those that frequent his House do not dwell in it their delight and affection is not there Therefore they cannot praise him they come in as strangers and have no skill of the Songs of praise yea and the very Children of the Family that Worship in Spirit and in Truth find their instruments their hearts very often quite out of tune for praises and sometimes most of all when praises are requisite They find still such abundant cause of complaint in themselves weighing down their Spirits that they can hardly at all wind them up to magnifie that God of our mercy which is far more abundant If we would take a reflex view and look back upon our carriage this day in the presence of our God who is among us that would not find much work for sad thoughts Would not one find that he had a hard and stony heart another a light unconstant wandring heart to complain of A third and unbelieving heart and some all of these And they if such there be that have both deeply sorrowed and been largely comforted will possibly for all that upon former sad experience be full of Fears and Jealousies that this sweet temper will not be of long continuance that ere long the World or some Lust will find or make a way to creep in and banish those Heavenly thoughts and trouble that Peace and Joy