are likely to be Cruel because Profane When the Fear of God is layed aside and all respect to his Word there is nothing to be expected but the worst of Evils They mind not thy Law therefore care not what Mischief they do me 2. To increase his Confidence of help For God will not favour a Corrupt Party Psal. 139. 19. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked O God Psal. 94. 10. The throne of wickedness hath no fellowship with thee Doctrine The iniquity of Persecutors is some matter of Confidence to the Oppressed As David from those that drew near to mischief him conceiveth some incouragement Because they were far from Gods Law There are several Considerations 1. Usually the Servants of God have been most hated and troubled by the worst of Men so it usually falls out that the worst and most virulent Enemies of Religion are those that are infamous for other Crimes They have the greatest pike against them because they cannot endure the Righteousness of Gods Image on them Psal. 38. 20. They are my Adversaries because I follow the thing that good is So Ioh. 7. 7. The world cannot hate you but me it hateth because I testifie of it that the works thereof are evil 2. You may take notice of this wickedness and represent it so to God For he is the Judge of the World and it concerneth him to cut short their power to do mischief that have such a ready principle to act it and are likely to have no other restraints than God layeth upon them by his Providence and the Interest of their Affairs But of this before about aggravating the Danger 3. When we do so be sure the thing be true That they are not only injurious to us but open Enemies to God and Godliness before we speak thus of those that hate us or work any Trouble to us in the World As long as the Cause will admit of a favourable Construction we should take heed of such Suggestions I observe this the rather because man is so partial to himself that whosoever are Enemies to him he presently thinketh they are enemies to Godliness And therefore when we pass our Judgment on any Person and Cause it had need be conformed to Truth for otherwise it argueth great irreverence towards God to make him Conscious to our Revenges and private Passions Psal. 139. 21 22 23 24. We had need try our Cause when Gods quarrel and our interest are joyned that there be not some dregs of private Spleen and rash Censurings mixed therewith and that Passion doth not rule us but Duty in these Complaints and that it is not our own Interest but Gods Quarrel they being open Enemies to him And therefore we must be confident that such as we pray against are in a wicked condition and ingaged in an evil Course 4. When this is clear there is some Comfort and Confidence in the badness of our Enemies 1. Because God and we are ingaged in a common Cause for our Adversaries are against God as well as against us Now it is better to be afflicted by them than to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness or to cry up a confederacy with them that cry up a confederacy against God Psal. 139. 22. 2. 'T is a great satisfaction to us to be opposed by evil Men or common Enemies of the power of Godliness Certainly it would be more grievous to us to be oppressed by them that have a show of Godliness than the openly profane Psal. 55. 12 13. the worst that a professed enemy can do is more tolerable than the injury of a Friend It importeth a dishonour to be opposed by the good as having an ill Cause in hand or unworthy to be assisted but it helpeth to make the Cause more clear when we see what kind of Persons we have to do withal such as we cannot but count wicked because they have no regard to Gods Law Our Cause would not be so clear if it were with them that fear God 3. The more wicked they are the more ripe for Judgment especially if they be a corrupt party in the Visible Church For where we perceive wickedness to Reign there we may be sure Destruction will follow Use. Well then when ever this falleth out mind God of it and be not discouraged An ill Cause will not always prevail Only let us be prepared for Deliverance as they are ripe for Destruction Otherwise none so bad but good enough to make a Rod to scourge Gods Children And then have Patience such are our Enemies as are Gods also they are far from Obedience to Gods Law SERMON CLXIX PSALM CXIX VER 151. Thou art near O Lord and all thy Commandments are truth IN the former Verse the Enemies are represented as near and near to do Mischief but far from the Law of God Here in the Text there is somewhat put in opposition to both 1. For their nearness to do Mischief God is near to help 2. They are far off from the Law the Man of God asserteth that God's Commandments are Truth All their contempt of the Law did not abate and lessen his Esteem of it so that the summ of the Verse is That the Enemies cannot be so ready to hurt as God is to help and deliver they cannot go about to defeat Promises as God will go about to fulfil them Mark he compareth the readiness of wicked men to hurt with the readiness of God their Contempt of the Word with the Truth of the Word or God's Justification of it In short in the Verse we may observe two branches I. Something spoken of God And II. Something of his Law I. That which is spoken of God is That he is near a present help to those that persist in the Obedience of his Will for nearness doth not only import his favour or Inclination to help them but that he will not delay his help too long his help is at hand therefore called a present help in trouble Psal. 46. 1. and the Lord is at my right hand Psal. 16. 8. Ready as our Second in all Conflicts to stand by us support and comfort us in our Troubles yea to deliver us that is the Notion of nearness in the Text near as the Enemies are near onely he is near to defend as they are near to destroy when to appearance Danger is nearest at the same time help and salvation is nearest also and this doth allay all our Cares and Fears Phil. 4. 5 6. The Lord is at hand therefore be careful for nothing Still present by his Providence or hastening his second coming Rev. 22. 20. I come quickly I rather quote that place for the Septuagint have it here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore he bids us be careful for nothing certainly the belief of God's nearness should incourage us 2. That which is said of his Word and Law is Thy Commandments are Truth one would think it had been more
compared with Wealth p. 489 490 491 619 It teaches many excellent Lessons p. 592 593 It deserves Love for the Author Matter Use p. 622 It 's a full Declaration of Gods mind p. 8 153 It 's a certain Declaration of his Mind and Will p. 8 It declares 1. what we must do 2. whether we do it or no 3. what we may expect from God p. 9 It is self-evidencing p. 9 It will excuse or accuse in the day of Judgment p. 6 It 's not only a Direction but an Injunction p. 24 349 It 's a Light by day a Lamp by night p. 687 688 why 689 It s a rule and an Instrument p 53 688 In it we are to consider 1. the Authority 2. the Ministry of it p. 488 892 It 's a Glass to shew us our spots and water to wash them away p. 54 Three main uses of the Word of God p. 491 It 's 1. the Sts. Direction 2. their Support 3. their Charter p. 97 491 619 866 867 It makes rich and happy p. 86 488 489 490 It is an Antidote against sin and a Cordial against sorrow p. 120 151 152 688 359 333 It is Comfort in two Respects p. 688 354 359 It is Bread and Water p. 124 126 How we are to be affected towards the Word p. 620 It is pure in many Respects 1. in it self 2. it makes the Soul pure and that 1. as 't is the appointed Instrument of the spirit 2. as 't is a proper Instrument for Purification 3. as it proposes Precepts Examples and other helps for Purity p. 857 858 It is Righteousness all Righteousness c. p. 1068 It ought to be our Meditation p. 576 It 's a Light proved from 1. the Autâ—…or 2. Instruments 3. the ends of it p. 690 691 It is our Comfort in the day of outward Trouble and inward Anguish It gives these Comforts 1. the Priviledges of the afflicted 2. the blessedness of another World acceptation with God p. 887 619 v. Commandements Believers may humbly challenge God upon his word p. 324 It may be hidden in two Respects 1. in respect of the outward Administration 2. in respect of the inward Influence and Efficacy p. 151 152 It is as good as Gods actual Performance or Deed p. 444 There are wonders in Gods word to be seen when God opens the Eye p. 112 880 881 882 What Gods opening the eyes contributes to the sight of them p. 112 Words idle words weigh heavy in Gods Ballance p. 39 Words are the Female Issue of the Soul Works the Male Issue p. 89 Works Covenants of Grace and Works wherein they agree and wherein they differ p. 906 907 908 909 Word of God upon the Soul may be mentioned before him and pleaded to him in Prayer and how p. 60 61 When God intends to work he sets Prayer on work p. 860 Work of God in what respects and sense ascribed to the Creature and why p. 751 God is always at work for us p. 340 World not our home not to be abused p. 117 It is preserved for the Elects sake p. 859 The spirit of this World p. 572 The spirit of God and the spirit of this World differ p. 478 Love of worldly things two great causes of it 1. A distrust of Gods Care 2. discontent with Gods allowance p. 255 present world p. 1089 Worship false worship severely punished p. 39 Worship of God his Interest therein p. 852 True Zeal appears for purity of Worship and against the corruption of it p. 852 Worship corrupted by Papists p. 205 206 False Worship makes men 1. subtle 2. cruel p. 739 Wounding and healing Gods Praerogative p. 511 Wrath of God They that walk closely with God are discharged from it p. 7 Y. YOkâ—… of Afflictions to be born from the youth p. 883 Young and raw Christians have much Zeal little Knowledge p. 452 Young Christians may have more true Wisdom than aged Persons p. 653 654 Young Men exhorted to beware of evil Company as the Pest and Bane of Youth p. 776 Young men not to be discouraged nor despised p. 654 655 Encouragement to Youth and to those that educate them p. 655 Youth regardless of serious work p. 52 God must be remembred in youth Reasons of it p. 52 53 Youth is tainted with sin p. 52 How a young man may cleanse his ways p. 55 Advantages of remembring God in Youth p. 397 Z. ZEal for false Worship quenches the fire of real Godliness p. 5 It is a high degree of Love It consumes the natural Spirits p. 849 Zeal great and pure becomes those that have any Affection for the ways and word of God p. 650 It is hottest in cold times p. 865 Zeal Spiritual and Carnal their differences Carnal Zeal is faulty in the 1. Cause 2. the Object 3. Measure p. 850 Zeal spiritual described 1. by its Causes 2. Object 3. Effects 4. usefulness to publick Reformation 5. use in private Christian Exercises p. 851 852 Blind Zeal a cause of Persecution p. 144 Iâ—… makes a man a prey for the Devil p. 685 Young Christians have much Zeal but little Knowledge p. 452 Zeal shews it self for purity of worship p. 852 Zeal now is less when there 's more light p. 657 Zion Mourners in Zion and Sinners in Zion p. 929 FINIS
that goeth about with Spices to sell thence the word is used for one that wandreth from place to place uttering slanders as wares These Pedlars will always be opening their Packs Men fill up time by tatling and medling with others Thus have I heard of such or such an one 4. Or our discourse is wholly of worldly business not a word of God They are of the earth and speak of the earth Joh. 3. 31. The habituating our selves to worldly discourse together without interposing something of God it is a great disadvantage 5. Or vain jangling if we speak of any thing that hath an aspect upon Religion we turn it into a meer dispute about opinion we do not use Conferences as helps to gracious affections How many are there sick of Questions as the Apostle saith and dote upon strife of words 1 Tim. 6. 4. Thus if we did put our selves to question at night What have I spoken What good have I done What good have I received from such company it would make the Word more sensible and active upon our souls Use 2. To press us to holy Conference both Occasional and Set. 1. Occasional We are not left at random in our ordinary discourse to speak as we will but at all times and with all persons we should have an eye to the good of those with whom we speak Col. 4. 6. Let your speech be alway with grace seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man In Visits Walks Journeys let your speech be always with grace we should ever be drawing to good discourse as remembring we must give account Iam. 2. 12. So speak as those that shall be judged by the law of liberty Certainly a gracious heart will thus do He that doth not want a heart will not want an occasion of interposing somewhat for God This was Christs manner Luk. 14. 15. when he was eating bread in the Pharisees house he discourseth Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God There will be a feast in Heaven when we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of God So when Christ was at Iacob's Well Ioh. 4. 14. he discourseth of the Well of living waters which springeth up to eternal life still he draweth towards some gracious improvement of the occasion So Ioh. 7. 37. when he was at the Feast of Tabernacles and it was the custom there to fetch water from Siloa and pour it out upon the Altar of Burnt-offerings they were to make a flood of it Christ improves it If any man will come to me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water He spiritualizeth the occasion If our hearts were as they ought to be we would have a gracious word more ready we would either be beginning or carrying on good conference where ever we come But Christians are to seek either through barrenness or leanness of soul they have not that good treasure or stock of knowledg in them or through the custom of vain speech And the great cause of all is the prevalency of an unsanctified and worldly heart this hindreth us from being more fruitful in our converse 2. It should press us to holy Conferences set There may be and should be some set time for mutual edification It is not the duty only of Ministers but also of private Christians keeping within the bounds of their station and the measures of their knowledg to teach and to instruct one another The Scriptures are full for this Col. 3. 6. Col. 1. 5 11. Heb. 3. 13. Iucle v. 20. Christians should often meet together for prayer and spiritual edification So Heb. 10. 24 25. Rom. 15. 14. I heap up these places because of the error of the Papists who will not have the Laity speak of Scripture or things pertaining to Scripture Whereas you see these injunctions are plain and clear and it is a great part of that holy Communion that should pass between Saints this mutual exhorting quickning and strengthning one anothers hands in the work of the Lord. These places are not to be understood of publick Communion of Church-societies but of private conferences by way of interchangeable discourse and mutual edification It is not necessary these Set-conferences should be always and all the members of the Church meet and confer together but a company of savoury Christians whose spirits suit best in commerce and most likely to help one another Though I am to love all the brotherhood and carry a respect to all in relation to me yet I am to single out for my advantage some of the most eminent or the most suitable for great regard is to be had to that Christ made a distinction in his little flock in his family shall I call it some he singleth out for more immediate converses as Peter Iames and Iohn in his Transfiguration in Mat. 17. 1. and in his Agonies these were the flowr the choice that he singled out for his special converse I speak not of publick meetings in publick societies but set conferences with gracious Christians with whom our spirits suit best and are likely to be of greatest help in maintaining of the spiritual life These set times the people of God have ever made conscience of It is a great comfort and refreshing to be conscious to the exercise of each others grace Rom. 1. 12. That I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me And it is a mighty strengthning in evil times Mal. 3. 16. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkned and heard it And you will find the benefit of the manifold graces of God that what one wants will be supplied by the help of another God doth not so give his gifts to one but that he needs others help Paul calls Aquila and Priscilla Fellows or helpers in Christ Iesus And Apollo a mighty man in the Scriptures had a great deal of help by Aquila and Priscilla Rom. 16. 3. 1 Cor. 12. 21. The eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor the head to the feet I have no need of you The meanest have their use quickning and strengthning one another This mutual edification differeth from Ministerial or Church-society because the one is an act of Authority the other of charity the one in the face of the congregation the other by a few Christians in private and it may be improved to awaken each other to consider of God of the ways of God the word of God the works of Creation and Providence Redemption the Judgments he executes in the world mercies towards his people the experiments and proofs of his grace in your Christian warfare Psal. 66. 16. Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. Ferus speaks of some old Monks Conveniebant in unum audiebatur verbum Dei c. they were wont
18. And ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles It is for a testimony and that should comfort them in all their sufferings Mark 14. 9. Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her The testimony is more valid as being confirmed by their Courage in troubles they are Principles that they will suffer for which as it is a warning to the professors of Religion that they should own no principles in a time of peace but what they would confirm by their avowed testimony in the extremity of trials so also it should convince their enemies in case they be put upon this exercise It is needful that every truth should have a sealed testimony that is we should not only vent opinions but be willing to suffer for them if God should call us out so to do God hath been ever tender of imposing upon the world without sufficient evidence and therefore would not have his people stand upon their lives and temporal concernments that thereby they may give greater satisfaction to the world concerning the weight of those truths which they do profess Secondly On the Persecutors part or the persons molesting so the causes are 1. Their ignorance and blind zeal Joh. 16. 2. They shall put you out of their synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that they do God good service They think it to be an acceptable service to God to molest and trouble those that are indeed his people Those Princes that sate and spake against David were not Pagans and men of another Religion but of Israel and it is often the lot of Gods people to be persecuted not only by Pagans and openly prophane men but even by men that profess the true Religion Pseudo-Christians Rev. 14. 13. those that pretend they are for God and his cause and seem to be carried on with a great zeal and do not oppose truth as truth but their quarrel is coloured by specious pretences 2. Their prejudices lightly taken up against the people of God Satan is first a lyar and then a murderer Joh. 8. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it By lyes he bringeth about his bloody design Christ was first called a Samaritan and one that had a Devil and then they did persecute him as such an one And as was observed before as Christians of old were covered with the skins of wild beasts that Dogs and Lyons might tear them the more speedily so by odious imputations Gods people are brought into distast with the world and then molested and troubled represented as a company of hypocrites and unjust dealers and under that cloak true Religion is undermined Now in the Persecutor this is faulty because they lightly take up every false suggestion and so Christians are condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Iustin Martyr complained because of the common reproach without any distinct inquiry into their way and practice Nolunt audire quod auditum damnare non possunt 3. Their erroneous Principle in Civil Policy That Christs Kingdom and the freedom of his worshippers is not consistent with Civil Interests Whatever hath been the matter worldly Rulers have been jealous of Christs Interest and Kingdom as if it could not consist with publick safety and the civil interests of that State and Nation where it is admitted and suggestions of this kind do easily prevail with them Esther 3. 8. It is not for the Kings profit to suffer them and John 11. 48. If we let him alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and Nation Reason of State is an ancient plea against the interest of Religion In the Roman Empire though the Christians were inconsiderable as to any publick charge yet they had a jealous eye upon them Iustin Martyr sheweth the reason of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they were often speaking of a Kingdom though they meant it of the Kingdom of heaven and were far enough from all Rebellion USE 1. It informeth us that we should not measure the verity of Religion by the greatness of those that are with it or against it This was one of the Pharisees arguments Do any of the rulers believe in him Joh. 7. 48. but this people that know not the law are accursed Alas men of Authority and great place may be often against Gods Interest James 2. 1. Have not the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ the Lord of glory in respect of persons Mark that title that is given to Christ the Lord of glory he is able to put glory enough upon his worshippers though they have nothing of outward pomp and splendor and not many mighty are called 1 Cor. 1. 26. Many will say they have none of quality to join with them none but ignorant people If a man had judged so in the first times when the Gospel came first abroad in the world would not Christianity it self have seemed a very contemptible thing Therefore a simple plain-hearted love to Christ and his Truth whether Powers be averse or friendly is that which is required of us 2. It reproveth those who are soon discouraged even with the reproach which base people cast upon the ways of God David stood both in the one temptation and in the other the reproach and contempt of the Vulgar and also when Princes sate and spake against him But to these we may say as Jer. 12. 5. If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee then how wilt thou contend with horses If we be such tender milk-sops that we cannot suffer a disgraceful word from the basest of the people what shall we do when we meet with other manner of conflicts and oppositions in the farther progress of our duty to God If we are tired out with the disgrace and affronts of these mean ones and cannot put up a scornful word at their hands without disorder what shall we do when we are to contest for Gods Interest with those great and masterly ones that are armed with Power and Authority and it may be the advantage of Laws against us Scommata nostra ferre non potes said the Antiochians to Iulian in another case quomodo feres Persarum tela Gods servants do often receive discouragement from the people and from Authority but the goodness of their Cause and the favour of God makes them joyfully persevere 3. It teacheth us what to do when this is not our case I have treated as this Scripture hath led me of the oppositions of Princes and worldly
necessity of divine grace but when this proud doctrine found little countenance he called Nature by the name of Grace and when that deceit was discovered he acknowledged no other grace but outward instruction or the benefit of external revelation that a man might by the word of God know and be put in mind of his duty Being yet driven further he acknowledged the grace of pardon and before a man could do any thing acceptably there was a necessity of the remission of sin and then he might obey God perfectly But that not sufficing he acknowledged another grace the Example of Christ which doth both secure our rule and encourage our practice and so made the grace of Christ to consist not in the secret efficacy of his Spirit but only in the example of Christ. But being driven further to acknowledg the same internal grace I mean his followers they made it to consist in some illumination of the understanding or some moral perswasion by probable argument to excite the will and this not absolutely necessary but only for facilitation as a horse to a journey which otherwise a man might go on foot I but the law was impossible through our flesh Rom. 8. 3. But all this is short of that divine grace that is necessary Now there are others grant the secret influences of God's grace but make the will of man to be a co-ordinate cause with God namely that God doth propound the object hold forth inducing considerations give some remote power and assistance but still there 's an indifferency in the will of man to accept and refuse as liketh him best Besides all this there is a prevailing efficacy or a real influence from the Spirit of God on the will whereby it is moved infallibly and certainly to close with those things which God propounds unto him God worketh efficaciously and determinately not leaving it to the liberty of man's will to chuse or refuse it but man is determined inclined and actually poised by the grace of God to that which is good USE 2. To press you to lay to heart these things 1. Be sensible of the strength and sway of thy affections to temporal objects there the work begins And till we have a sight of the disease we are not careful after a remedy David though regenerate took notice of some worldly tendencies in his heart and if we observe our hearts we shall find so Paul groaned under the reliques of the flesh and so should we under our bondage by sin And then 2. bewail it to the Lord I am as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke Jer. 31. 14. to bewail this stiffness of heart and the treachery of sin whereby we are inchanted wholly bent to that which is evil And 3. observe the abating of this strength of affection and weaning of thy soul from such desires for then the work of grace goes on when we begin to savour other things and have inclinations of soul towards that which is heavenly and spiritual They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh and they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit And then 4. to press you to perpetual watchfulness over your own hearts that you do not return to your old bent and biass again for certainly thus they will do if we do not keep a severe hand over them and be lifting up our affections to things that are above where God is and Christ at the right hand of God SERMON XLI PSAL. CXIX 36. And not unto covetousness DOCTRINE 2. THAT covetousness or an inordinate desire of worldly things is the great lett or hindrance of complying with Gods testimonies By way of proof I need to produce but that Scripture 1 John 5. 3 4. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world The reason implies that if we had a greater conquest over worldly affections it would not be so grievous to us to keep Gods Commandments For the Apostles argument is built upon this supposition that God's commands are only burdensome to them that lye under the power of carnal affections All the difficulty in obedience cometh from our temptations to the contrary Now all or most temptations from Satan and our own flesh have their strength from the World and its suitableness to our affections Master your love to the World and temptations lose their strength To make this more clear let us see 1. What is covetousness 2. How it hindreth from complying with Gods testimonies First What is covetousness I shall give the nature the causes the discoveries of it First The nature of it It is an inordinate desire of having more wealth than the Lord alloweth in the fair course of his Providence and a delight in worldly things as our chiefest good 1. There is an unsatisfied desire of having more We may desire temporal good things for necessity and service We carry about earthly tabernacles that must be supported with earthly things and therefore God alloweth us to seek them in a moderate way But now when these desires grow vehement and impatient of check and by an immodest importunity are still craveing for more it is an evil disease and it must be looked unto in time or it will prove baneful to the soul. There is a vital heat necessary to our preservation and there are unnatural praedatorious heats which argue a distemper See how this desire is exprest in Scripture 1 Tim. 6. 10. He that will be rich falls into temptation and a snare c. He doth not say he that is rich but he that will be rich he that hath fixed that as his scope and makes that his business For the will is known by fixedness of intention and earnestness of prosecution he that makes it his work to grow great in the world So Prov. 15. 27. He that is greedy of gain troubles his own house Desires are the vigorous motions of the will when they are eager impatient and immoderate then they discover this evil inclination of soul. So Eccles. 5. 10. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with encrease This is also vanity There is a spiritual Dropsie when our desires grow the more the more we receive and enjoy as fire by the addition of new fuel grows more fierce the more the flame increaseth The contrary to this is exprest by Agur and should be the temper of every gracious heart Prov. 30. 8. Give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me As to worldly things we should be indifferent and refer our selves to the fair allowance of God's Providence that he might carve out our portion and do by us according to his own pleasure 2. Not only this greedy thirst discovereth covetousness but a complacency delight and acquiescency of soul in worldly enjoyments So Christ Jesus in his Parable
according to the Analogy of Faith and there is not a more powerful incentive of Duty Psal. 130. 5. There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Jer. 2. 11 12. The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable Service This is true Divinity The flesh deviseth another Doctrine let us Sin that Grace may abound to make a carnal Pillow of Gods Mercy that they may sleep securely in sin yea a Dung-cart to carry away their filth God is Merciful but to those that count sin a burden and misery God is slow to Anger but yet angry when provoked abused Patience kindleth into Fury as water when the mouth of the Fountain or course of the River is stopped breaketh out with more violence God hath his Arrows of Displeasure to shoot at the wicked you must not fancy a God all Honey all sweetness He is the Father of Mercies but so that he is also a God of Vengeance Psal. 68. 19 20. Blessed be the Lord who daily leadeth us with Benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from Death But God shall wound the hairy scalpe of his Enemies the mercy of God is large and free if men do not make themselves uncapable by their Impenitency 4. We must beg 1. The Application of these to me also We have heard that the Kings of Israel are merciful Kings 1 Kings 20. 31. Now we would feel it 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a Faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief Wind in our selves within the Covert of a Promise enter at the back door of a Promise there comes Virtue from Christ if but touched the Woman came behind him and touched the hem of his garment so we must seek the Application of this Vertue 2. Effectual Application Let it come unto me Mercy cometh unto us or we shall never come unto it 1 Pet. 1. 10. The Grace that cometh to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace which is brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ Gods Grace is brought home to our doors we seek not after it but it seeketh after us Salvation is gone forth saith the Prophet to find out lost sinners Wisdom hath sent forth her Maidens she crieth upon the high places of the City whoso is simple let him turn in hither Prov. 9. 3 4. God sends the Gospel up and down the Worldto offer his Grace to men it worketh out its way Use. Here is Incouragement and Direction to poor Creatures how to obtain Gods Mercy for their Comfort 1. Incouragement Mercy doth all with God it is the first cause that setteth every thing awork 1. Mercy is natural to God 2 Cor. 1. 3. Father of Mercies God is not merciful by Accident but by Nature the Sun doth not more naturally shine nor Fire more naturally burn nor Water more naturally flow than God doth naturally shew Mercy 2. It is pleasing to him Micah 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee that Pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the remnant of his Heritage he retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Judgment is called his Strange work Isa. 28. 21. That he may do his work his strange work and bring to pass his Act his strange Act. Primitive Acts he is forced to but he rejoyceth to do good as Life-Honey droppeth of its own accord 3. It is plentiful in God he is rich in Mercy abundant in Goodness and Truth thy sins are like a spark of Fire that falleth into the Ocean it is quenched presently so are all thy sins in the Ocean of Gods Mercy there is not more water in the Sea than there is Mercy in God 4. It is the great wonder of the Divine Nature Every thing in God is wonderful especially his pardoning Mercy It is no such great wonder in God that he stretcheth out the Heavens like a Curtain since he is Omnipotent that he formed the Earth or the Waters since he is strong that he distinguished Times adorned the Heavens with so many Stars decked the Earth with such variety of Plants and Herbs since he is Wise that he hath set Bounds to the Sea Governeth the Waters since he is Lord of all that he made Man a living Creature since he is the Fountain of Life but that he can be Merciful to Sinners infinitely Merciful when infinitely Just. There is a conflict in the Attributes about us but Mercy rejoyceth over Iudgment Iames 2. 13. That he is so Gracious and condescending when his first Covenant seemed to bind him to destroy us that he that hateth sin is so ready to forgive it pardoneth it so often and punisheth it so seldom 5. He is Communicative it is over all his Works Psal. 145. 9. Not a Creature but subsisteth by Gods Mercy he loveth Man and Beast Psal. 36. 6. and 1 Tim. 4. 10. He is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe the whole Earth is full of his goodness Lord shew it to me also he heareth the cry of Ravens 2. To direct us how to sue for it in a broken hearted manner there are two Exreams Self-confidence and Desperation Self-confidence challengeth a Debt and Despair shutteth out hopes of Mercy a proud Pharisee pleads his Works Luke 18. 11. Kain saith Gen. 4. 13. My Punishment is greater then I can bear The middle between both is the penitent Publican Luke 18. 13. He stood afar off and would not lift up so much as his eyes to Heaven but smote on his Breast saying God be merciful to me a Sinner Go to him that which with men is the worst Plea with God is the best SERMON XLVIII PSALM CXIX Verse 42. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that Reproacheth me for I trust in thy Word IN the former Verse we saw the man of God begging for Deliverance or Temporal Salvation from the Mercies of God according to his Word Salvation belongeth to the Lord and his Mercy can pardon great sins and fetch us off from great extremities and that according to the Word of God he had boasted of this there is his Request here is his Argument from the use and fruit of his Deliverance he should have something to reply to the Scoffs and Mocks of wicked men who insulted over him in his Distress and Calamity he had spoken of great things or the Promise and now desireth the Promise to be made good that he might have an Answer ready against their Reproaches So shall I have wherewith to answer him that
welcome at the House so when God is gone what comfort can they take in their Portion Many will say why are you pensive and sad you have a great many Friends a great Estate O you doe not know the wound of a gracious Heart and how little these things are in comparison of the Favour of God 2. They manifest it in this their contentedness with Him though they are kept low and bare in outward things Psal. 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy Face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness It 's enough for them to have the Face of God though they do not flourish in worldly plenty as others do when in the exercise of Grace they can finde God propitious behold his Face in Righteousness If they have not the Candle they have the Sun If they goe to God they are welcome upon all occasions If the World frown upon them God doth not so they are beloved of him and in Favour with him and that satisfieth them What may be the reasons why the Children of God so prize his Favour 1. The worth of the thing it self Psal. 63. 3. Thy Favour is better than Life better than all Comforts better in its Self for this is that which we are never weary of A man may be weary of all outward Comforts Dayes may come wherein there is no pleasure Eccl. 12. At that time the soul abhors dainty Food Job 33. Pleasure nay Life it self may be a burden but none ever was weary of the Love of God that cannot be a burden This doth not fatiate and cloy us Again the Love of God cannot be supplied and recompensed by other things when a man looseth other things it may be made up in better If a man be poor in this World God hath chosen him to be rich in Faith If afflicted and destitute of outward Provisions yet they have inward Comforts and Graces and they will supply and make up this loss But the loss of Gods Favour cannot be supplied when that departs from you and a man looseth the hope he seemeth to have what a sorry comfort is it having forfeited the Love of God to seek our amends in the Creature Then this is a more durable than the present life Other Comforts fail but the Love of God never fails This is the Original of all other Comforts Psal. 30. 7. By thy Favour thou hast made my Mountain to stand strong and Psal. 44. 3. Their own Arm did not save them but the light of thy Countenance because thou hadst a Favour unto them Sure it is better to drink of the Fountain than of the Stream all is from the Favour of God In short it is the Vitality and the cause of Life and the cause of all Comfort This is better than Life 2. They are affected with that which is their true Misery therefore they most importunately begg the Favour of God Every man prays according to the sense that he hath according to that which he counts his Misery He that hath a sense of no other Calamity but to be poor scorned or exposed to contempt or the absence of the Creature prays accordingly sometimes he houls like a dogg in pain or Beasts that want Food Hos. 7. 14. But he that hath a deeper sense of his greatest necessities he is affected with sin which is the cause of all trouble therefore he must have the Favour of God and the Grace of God A godly and a carnal Man differ as a Child and a Man in their Apprehensions about pain and trouble A Child is sick and would be eased of its present smart and pain looks to nothing but that but an understanding Man knows the cause must be taken away a Child speaks according to the sense and apprehension it hath take away his aking head or burning heat but the understanding Man looks not onely after present ease but health that the root of the Distemper may be removed So a worldly Man would have affliction gone and looks no further but a godly Man hath a deeper sense he must have the Favour of God therefore his heart works painfully within him till this be obtained 3. They intreat the Favour of God with all their hearts because their business lies mainly with God Their work is to walk closely with God and keep up a strict Communion with him A carnal Man's business lies with God sometimes in his Trouble but when he licks himself whole and is at ease he can live without it But a godly Mans business is always with God for God is always with him in Trouble and out of Trouble Therefore that 's a notable Speech Psal. 91. 9. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge even the most High thy habitation A Refuge that 's a place of retreat in time of War A Habitation there 's our residence in time of Peace when every one sits under his own Vine and Fig-tree Now a godly Man makes God not onely his Refuge but his Habitation therefore it concerns him to prize the Favour of God and keep in with him for he is otherwise at an utter loss therefore he must study to get all clear if God be angry with him his business is at a stand and he cannot walk chearfully with him from whom he expects all Use 1. To reprove those that are indifferent whether they enjoy God's Favour yea or no so they may enjoy the Creature they are satisfied Surely God is not these Mens Portion for their onely care is what they shall eat how they may be cloathed how to live well in the World but were never acquainted with this kind of trouble about God's Favour Psal. 10. 4. It is said The Wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts He never troubles himself how to keep in with God it never goes to his Heart He is such an one as can bring to pass whatever he projecteth and desireth without troubling himself with the Fetters of Religion and the care of a strict Duty he can live at large and yet obtain his Hearts desire and thinketh them the onely Wise men fit for his imitation that can increase in worldly Injoyments without troubling themselves with such niceties as perplex others he scorneth to trouble himself with Prayer and the observances which are necessary to waiting upon God Again it reproves those that lie stupid and senseless under God's active Displeasure These are not as gross as the former but make some profession of respect to God but have not yet a tender sense of God's accesses and recesses his comings and goings when the Lord hides himself from their Prayers and doth not give out the wonted influences of his Grace and Comfort they mind it not do not with earnestness seek to recover it again If you did make this your business without interruption when you have not the smiles of God the want of this
God to command and how reasonable it is that we should obey the supreme being His will is the Reason of all things and who should give Laws to the world but the universal Sovereign who made all things out of nothing Whatsoever you are you received it from the Lord and therefore whatsoever a Reasonable Creature can doe you owe it to him you are in continual dependance upon him For in him you live and move and have your being Acts 17. 28. And he hath redeemed you called you to life by Christ 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's You owe all your time and strength and service unto him and therefore you should still be doing his will and abounding in his work 3. He injoyneth nothing but what is good Deuter. 5. 29. Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always that it might be well with them and with their children for ever Deuter. 6. 24. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always that he might preserve us alive as it is at this day God hath tempered his sovereignty towards the Reasonable Creature and ruleth us not with a rod of Iron but with a Scepter of Love He draweth us with the Cords of a man Hos. 11. 4. That is with Reasons and Arguments taken from our own happiness Man being a rational and free Agent he would lead and quicken us to our duty by the consideration of our own benefit and when he might say only Thus shall ye doe I am the Lord yet he is pleased to exhort and perswade us not to forsake our own Mercies or to turn back upon our own happiness and to propound rewards that we may be encouraged to seek after him in that way of duty which he hath prescribed to us The reward is everlasting glory with the mercies of this life in order to it Heb. 11. 6. God is and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him 4. How indispensibly Obedience to his Commandments is required of us As long as the heart is left loose and arbitrary such is the unruliness and self-willedness of mans nature Rom. 8. 7. The Carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be The Carnallist will not be held to his duty but leave that which is honest for that which is pleasing and be governed by his Appetite rather than his Reason therefore Faith hedgeth up his way sheweth him that without holiness it is impossible to see God Heb. 12. 14. That there is no coming to the End unless we take the way that there is no hope of Exemption or excuse for the breaches of his Law allowed but the plea of the Gospel which doth not evacuate but establish Obedience to God's Commands requireth a renouncing of our former conrse and a hearty Resolution To serve God in holiness and righteousness all our days Luke 1. 74 75. Our duty is the end of our deliverance In the Kingdom of Grace we are not our own Masters or at liberty to do what we will Christ came not only as a saviour but as a lawgiver he hath his Laws to try our obedience Heb. 5. 9. And being made perfect he became the Authour of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him He came not to lessen God's Sovereignty or Man's Duty but to put us into a greater Capacity to serve God he came to deliver us from the curse and indispensible rigours of the Law upon every failing not from our Duty nor that we might not serve God but serve him without fear with Peace of Conscience and joy of Heart and requireth such a degree of Grace as is inconsistent with any predominant Lust and Affection 5. That God loveth those that obey his Law and hateth those that despise it without respect of persons Acts 10. 35. In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Psalm 5. 5. Thou hatest all the workers of Iniquity Prov. 11. 20. They that are of a froward heart are an Abomination to the Lord but such as are upright in their way are his delight The more obedient the more God loveth us the less obedient the less God loveth us Therefore unless we love what God loveth and hate what God hateth doe his commands carefully and avoid the contrary we cannot be acceptable with him for God would not make a Law in vain but order his Providence accordingly 6. That one day we shall be called to an account for our conformity and inconformity to God's law There are two parts of Government Legislation and Execution the one belongeth to God as King the other as Judge Laws are but a shadow and the sanction a Mockery unless there shall be a day when those that are subject to them shall be called to an account and reckoning His threatnings are not a vain Scare-Crow nor his Promises a golden Dream therefore he will appoint a day when the Truth of the one and the other shall be fully made good and therefore Faith enliveneth the sense of God's Authority with the remembrance of this day when he will judge the World in Righteousness II. The Necessity 1. The Precepts are a part of the Divine Revelation the object of Faith is the whole Word of God and every part of divinely inspired Truth is worthy of all belief and reverence The word worketh not unless it be received as the Word of God 1 Thess. 2. 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of Men but as it is in Truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe Now we cannot receive the Word as the word of God unless we receive all there are the same reasons to receive one as the other therefore if any part take good rooting the whole is received There may be a superficial affection to one part more than another but if there be a right Faith we receive all 'T is the engrafted Word that is effectual to the saving of our Souls Iames 1. 21. if we would ingraft the Word the Precepts must stir up answerable Affections as well as the Promises Every part must affect us and stir up Dispositions in us which that part is apt to produce if the Promises stir up Joy and Trust the Precepts must stir up Love Fear and Obedience The same Word which calleth upon us to believe the free Pardon of our Sins doth also call upon us to believe the Commandments of God for the regulating and
the bonds of Christ's Communion are the Essentials of Religion If they fear God and hope in his Word though Christians may be distinguished by several denominations yet an angry Brother cannot cast us out of our Fathers family We set up walls of partition between Christian and Christian but God will not measure his Fold by our inclosure Lingua Petiliani non est ventilabrum Christi 't is well Petilian's tongue is not Christs fan surely when we meet with our everlasting companions they should be dear to us and for some private differences we should not omit the necessary duties of Christianity this mutual and cordial respect we should have for one another 3. It informs us of the mischief and evil of a private Spirit which doth not take notice of the Favours of God done to others nor is affected with others Mercies Most men seek their own things Phil. 2. 21. Nature is sensible of nothing but natural bonds the lines of its Communication are too narrow either their own flesh the smart and ease of their own bodies or their own Kindred now the Saints have a more diffusive Love they can strive with God earnestly in prayer for those whose face they never saw in the flesh Col. 2. and can be thankfull for their Mercies as far as they come to their notice All Christians are not onely of the same kind but of the same body though they have not a private benefit by the Mercy yet they can heartily praise God for it the Angels praise God for us Luke 2. for his good will to men they are onely spectators not the parties interessed When the Lord set a-foot that blessed design 't was good will to men yet the multitude of the Heavenly host rejoyced and praised God We had both honour and benefit by Christ's incarnation So to praise God for the good of others argueth a good Spirit like the Angels but to envy the good of another and be grieved thereat is Devilish like the spirit of the Devil In Heaven we shall not onely rejoyce in our own but in one anothers Salvation because there shall be no envy no privateness of affection why are we so selfish and senseless now who is afflicted and I mourn not said Paul Now to those that mourned for others calamity their deliverance is a kind of relief Will you lose your evidence of being in the body for want of rejoycing in their Mercies Gifts and Deliverances 4. It informeth us how much it concerneth us to preserve an interest in the hearts of God's people and to behave our selves so that they that fear God may be glad of our Mercies and bless God for them the Communion of Saints is a sweet thing we must not forfeit this privilege by our inordinate walking Pride Contention sowrness and bitterness of Spirit unusefulness to the Church as having an Interest divided from the Church Those whose Mercies are apprehended as a publick benefit are the strictly conscientious those that fear God and hope in his Word who labour to keep themselves from the snares of the present world and look for the happiness of the world to come the one is the fruit of fearing God the other of hoping in his word the tender Conscience and the Heavenly minded Christian. Partly because they are our everlasting companions we shall live for ever with them they were chosen from all eternity to be heirs of the same grace together with us therefore 't is sweet to praise God for any good that befalleth them Psal. 66. 18. Come near all ye that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for my Soul Psal. 22. 22. I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren but when a man walketh questionably he obscureth the life of God in himself or like a string that is out of tune spoileth the harmony The Saints may mourn for the wicked but they cannot so easily bring their hearts to rejoyce with them they may give thanks for their Mercies 't is true 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. but not with that cheerfullness with that sense The Conscience of our duty ingageth us to bless God that he hath spared them reprieved them a little longer given them more time to repent and correct their errors but 't is very sweet to joyn with them who are our Brethren and Companions not onely now but to all eternity And partly because our Mercies proceed from the Covenant upon which is built all our hope and all our desire and so we are edified by the support and help which God affordeth to them that fear him and hope in his word thereby we see that they that wait long wait not in vain on the word of Gods promise and so learn to wait with patience our selves because those who depended on his promised assistance are then answered and supported yea 't is a ground of hope to all that so many will be gratified by the deliverance of one when we so work for the deliverance of one that at length both he and others will have cause to be glad 2. Another thing is it doth incourage others Prayers and Praises for us when we are usefull and profitable and bring in that supply to the Body which may be justly expected from us according to the measure of that part which we sustain in the Body Look as in the natural Body the Blood and the Life passeth two and fro there is a giving and receiving between all the Members that live in the communion of it so mutual obligations pass between the Children of God Many are interessed in their mercies that are of use in the Church Rom. 5. 7. For a good Man some would even dare to die such as David or Paul yet this is no discouragement to the meanest or weakest for they have their honour and use when ye fail they shall receive you Luke 16. 9. they have their Ministry and Service Now the head cannot say to the foot I have no need of thee 1 Cor. 12. 21. 3. The humble and the meek for the proud procure their own just dislike and disappointment Solomon telleth us onely by pride cometh contention Prov. 13. 10. pride is the great impediment and lett to all Christian offices We cannot so heartily pray for one another nor praise God for one another when pride and contention prevaileth We should overcome this Stomach and Spleen bless them that curse you As David fasted for his Enemies when they sought his life Psal. 35. 12. You should not lay this stumbling-block in the way of their duty 't is a great discouragement 5. It informeth us how comfortable and how pleasant the converse and conference of godly persons is and how much it excelleth the merriest meetings of the carnall The special love which the godly have to one another doth exceedingly sweeten their converse for the very presence of those we most dearly love is a pleasure to us to see but much more their holy conference When Christians meet
preparing us for this delightfull course of holiness Heb. 10. 16 17. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Tit. 3. 4 5. 3. This comfortable sense of Gods mercy should induce us to this by way of argument 1 Ioh. 4. 19. We love him because he first loved us 1 Cor. 5. 14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead And that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again And Gal. 5. 6. In Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love And then by way of gratitude we ought to bend all the powers of our Souls to holiness and obedience and lay out our care and labour upon it 4. Consider the more holiness and obedience any one hath the more acceptable to God An Holy soul is an object capable of Gods love the holy God delighteth in holiness as well as the mercifull God pityeth misery The more holy we are the more God loves us Let us not make wounds for God to cure As we increase in holiness we increase in favour with God This is true of Christ who never had any defect of holiness but onely was to increase in the exercise of it 5. Consider how just it is with God to refuse our cryes for mercy when we despised His precepts for duty besiege your hearts with these considerations and press them daily upon you We are marvellous apt to please our selves with some loose apprehensions of mercy without bending our selves to our duty 6. Consider How reasonable it is that when mercy hath taken us with all our faults at our first entrance into Covenant with God we should afterwards study to please and make it our delight so to doe 7. Consider How impossible it is to cherish a sense of his mercy and love to us while we neglect duty The soul hath Two sentiments of Religion which can never be defaced a desire of happiness and subjection to God ut anima sit subjecta Deo pacata in se as we love our own comfort so we will be troubled about our duty the Soul will not sit easy Comfort follows holiness as light doth fire and sin will cause trouble as the prick of a needle doth pain The Soul cannot be serious and mind things but it will be so Indeed at some times by carelessness our sense of the necessity of obedience is extinguished and then a little serveth turn to keep the conscience quiet or stupid but it will return again Never leave till holiness and obedience be your delight as well as your care 3. Use Is to press us to be earnestly dealing with this mercifull God for comfort We need it now in a time of Judgment when delivered over to Judgments Hosea 11. 8. as sometimes to sins so to plagues When God opens the floudgates le ts out Judgments upon a people without restraint I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be Deut. 32. 20. So also the 30th Their Rock sold them and the Lord hath shut them up Mercy can put a stop but that will interpose no more Again when the people of God are much hated and maligned now 2 Cor. 4. 8. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed perplexed but not in despair 1. If it be Gods nature to be mercifull and kind why should we be discouraged Mercy is free favour is shewed to a miserable person Mercy can recall the punishments due to us and mitigate corrections and sweeten our comforts 2. But then you must be content that mercy should issue out in its own way and order First giving us principal mercies then necessary first sanctifying and then comforting saving us by washing us in the laver of regeneration 3. Reckon your comfort more by a sense of Gods care than by removing temporal trouble Spiritual comfort is more excellent than bodily 4. You must sue it out by prayer wherein first it must be with brokenness of heart Let true Spiritual misery be discerned and complained of Let us lay our sins and sores before his pity Secondly with Faith for here is the word mentioned Why are we so disconsolate is there no balm in Gilead It is our usual sault we pore too much upon our Troubles There is a God of comfort who answereth his name every way and will keep his word with his people Let us come to him in all our wants Thirdly with resolution of more faithfull obedience for Gods servants are onely capable renew your Covenant of serving God 5. The Godly have common comforts What will serve ones turn will serve anothers also They have all the same fundamental work of grace in their hearts They are all born of God have his Image stamped on them have the same Redeemer The same Spirit worketh in all And the promises are made alike unto all not upon personal considerations SERMON LXXXVI PSAL. CXIX VER 78. Let the proud be ashamed for they dealt perversly with me without a cause but I will meditate in thy precepts IN these words you have I. David's PRAYER II. David's RESOLUTION I. David's Prayer And there take notice of first the Petition it self Let the proud be ashamed 2dly the Reason For they dealt perversly with me without a cause In the Prayer he beggeth the repression of his Enemies There take notice of 1. The Notion by which they are described The Proud 2. The event or effect of God's Providence desired concerning them Let them be ashamed 1 The Notion is considerable The wicked especially the Persecutors of God's People are usually characteriz'd by this term in this Psalm The Proud ver 51 69 122. And will give us this Note DOCT. That Pride puts wicked men upon being troublesom and injurious to the People of God But why are the Persecutors and the Injurious called the Proud Ans. 1. Because wicked men shake off the yoke of God and will not be subject to their Maker and therefore desist not from troubling his People Exod. 5. 2. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go What was in his tongue is in all mens hearts they contemn God and his Laws Every Sin hath a degree of Pride and a Depretiation of God included in it 2 Sam. 12. 9. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight There is a slighting of God's Authority and a lifting up our will against the Will of God 2. Because they are drunk with worldly Felicity and never think of changes Psal. 123. 4. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud When men go on prosperously they are apt wrongfully to trouble others and then to flout at them in their misery and to despise the person and cause of God's People which
for ever I shall illustrate this Proposition by these Considerations 1. That God's Children are sometimes under deadness 2. That in such deadness the Word of God is the onely means to quicken them 3. Though the Word be quick and lively and powerful yet it is God that must bless it that must make it a support to the Soul 4. That whenever we have received these Comforts Quicknings and Supports from him they should ever be recorded and treasured up in the Registers of a thankful memory for the great uses of Christianity I. First God's Children are under deadness sometimes which hapneth to them for many causes 1. By reason of some Sin committed and not repented of or not fully repented of God smites them with deadness and hardness of heart and the spiritual life for awhile is greatly obstructed and impaired that it cannot discover itself and they have not those lively influences of grace as formerly Thus it was with David when he had strayed so greatly from God and begs God not to cast him off Psal. 51. 11. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me As a wound in the body lets out the life blood and the spirits so these grievous sins are as a wound in the soul Sin against the conscience of a renewed man defaceth the work of the holy Spirit so that for a while he seems to be shut out from God's favor and his gracious abilitie are lessened and impaired he is like a wounded man till he be cured and made whole again The Spirit being grieved and resisted withdraws and the strength of the Soul is wasted and therefore be very tender stand in awe not only of greater but smaller sins 2. By reason of some good omitted especially neglect of the means whereby we may be kept alive fresh and lively in God's service Lazy fits of indisposition and omissions of duty do more frequently steal in upon Believers than positive out-breakings and commissions of sin and they are more ready to please themselves in them and lie still under them and so by this means contract much deadness of heart As a Lute that is not play'd upon but hangs by the wall and not used it soon grows out of keller for want of use so if we do not diligently and constantly exercise our selves in godliness our hearts grow dead and vain It is the complaint of the Church Isa. 64. 7. There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee If we do not stir up our selves to keep on a constant commerce with God and respect to God alas deadness creeps upon the heart unawares and we are commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1. 6. To stir up the gift of God which is in us Surely a sloathful servant will soon become an evil servant Mat. 25. 26. Thou evil and sloathful servant Therefore our sinful sluggishness is one cause of our deadness for he that doth not trade with his Talents will necessarily become poor and if we do not continue this holy attendance upon God the heart suffers loss 1 Thess. 5. 19 20. Despise not prophesie quench not the Spirit The coupling of these two things together shews that if we despise Prophesie we quench the Spirit as fire goes out not only by pouring on water but by not stirring and blowing it up To expect help from God when we are sluggish is to tempt Christ and put him still upon a miraculous way to heal and cure our distempers Who will bring bread and meat to a Sluggard's Bed who will not arise to labor for it oâ—… will not rise at least to fetch it Therefore if we will not attend upon God in the means of grace he will not bring us that help comfort and supply that otherwise we might have God worketh but so that we work also 2 Phil. 12. 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling For it is God that worketh c. God's working is not a ground of laziness but for more strict observance Since all depends upon God therefore take heed you do not offend God and provoke him to suspend his grace We must not lie upon a Bed of ease and cry Christ must do all for this is to abuse the power of grace to laziness It is notable that God bids his people do that which he promiseth to give them Psal. 31. 24. Psal. 27. 14. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart As if he had said strengthen thine heart and he will strengthen thy heart The courage of Faith is both commanded and promised why God by this would shew how we should shake our selves out of our laziness and idleness that though God gives us grace and power yet he will have us to work as a Father that lifts up his childs arm to a burden and bids him lift it up Usually we complain of deadness with a reflection upon God he quickens the dead and therefore I am dead ay but what hast thou done to quicken thy self for grace was never intended that we might be idle you must complain of your selves as the moral faulty cause God is the efficient cause you do not meditate pray draw life out of the precious promises when the Spouse sleeps and keeps her Bed then Christ withdraws Cant. 5. 6. 3. Another cause is unthankfulness for Benefits received especially spiritual Benefits for God loves to have his grace acknowledged He stops his hand and suspends the influences of his grace when the creature doth not acknowledge his bounty Col. 2. 7. Be stablished and rooted in the faith abounding therein with thanksgiving The way to grow in Faith and get by Faith is to be thankful for what we have received that 's an effectual means both to keep it and to get more Therefore if we be always querulous and do not give thanks for the goodness of God to us for what he hath already vouchsafed to us in Christ no wonder that deadness and discouragement creeps upon our hearts 4. Pride in Gifts for we are told Iam. 4. 6. God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble The Garland we put on our own heads soon withers and those Gifts which we are pusst up with are presently blasted and have deadness upon them for he will teach us to ascribe all to himself 5. Some great and heavy Troubles We read ver 107. of this Psalm I am afflicted very much quicken me O Lord according unto thy Word O! when we are afflicted sore there 's a deadness upon the heart the spiritual life clogged with what alacrity did they go about good things before but then there 's a damp worldly sorrow deadens the spirit as godly sorrow quickens it and is a means to keep us alive to God 6. Another cause is Carnal liberty or intermedling with worldly vanities So much we may learn from that Prayer Psal. 119. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou
with the wise God which is the ready and compendious way to success whereas secular wisdom takes a long way about and must work through many mediums and subordinate causes before the intended effect can be brought about Psal. 37. 12 13. The wicked plotteth against the just God is the other Party The Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is coming He doth not say the just counterbalance the wicked or strains his wit to match his Enemy with craft but God hath a providence and love ever waking on his behalf therefore it lies not between Policy and Piety but between Men's craft and God's wisdom Then he hath the power of God on his fide and therefore he is wiser than his Enemies he is of the stronger side Gen. 17. 1. I am God all-sufficient walk before me and be thou perfect All warping comes from doubting of God's All-sufficiency evidenced by our carnal fear and our distrustful care what shall become of us and how we shall do to live Certainly if God be able we need not doubt or run to indirect courses Again he hath him of his side who hath dominion over all Events Carnal Policy is full of jealousies they know not what will succeed they have no sure bottom to stand upon they are not sure of Events when their business is never so well laid But now a Child of God is wiser and hath much the more comfortable course as well as successful he can do his duty and leave the event to God when a business is never so well and cunningly laid yet God loves to dispose of Events and to take the wise in their own craft Job 5. 12 13. They are out-witted and they outreach themselves that so Christ may as it were get upon the Devil's shoulders and even be beholden to his Enemies never are they such Fools as when they seem to say things wisely against God and his People Carnal wisdom is the greatest folly it brought Moses to the flags but Pharaoh to the bottom of the Sea The Devil was the first Fool of all the Creation and ever since his first attempts against his God he hath been playing the Fool for these thousand of years The tempting our first Parents seemed a Master-piece of wit but it was indeed the ruine of his Kingdom So in the attempts of wicked Men against his People God still disposeth of the event contrary to their aim 2. As long as God hath work for him to do he will maintain him and bear him out in the midst of all dangers that 's certain as he did David in the very face of Saul There is an invisible Guard set upon plain-hearted and zealous Christians every day they do as it were by their pleading against the corruptions of wicked Men exasperate them they are in the secret of God's presence and are kept none knows how none so nigh to dangers yet none so free from them in the Lyon's mouth yet preserved As Christ lived in the midst of his Enemies yet they could not touch him till his hour was come John 11. 8 9 10. Christ had work to do in Iudea Master say the Disciples the Iews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again And Iesus answered Are there not twelve hours in the day If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him In the Disciples question is bewray'd the true genius of carnal fear O Men say Why will you go run your self into the mouth of danger They think the discharge of duty will cost them their utter ruine Master the Iews sought to kill thee Now Christ's answer sheweth that Men should not chuse their way according to their apprehensions of danger and safety but as God cleareth a call to them he answers by a similitude taken from God's order in the course of nature God made the day for work and the night for rest and sleep Now as long as Men have day-light they will not stumble but if they set forth in the night then they would stumble the meaning is as long as a Man hath a clear call from God for a call from God is compar'd to the day and can say This is a duty God hath put upon me he hath day-light he shall not stumble though he doth come and go in the face and teeth of Enemies on God's cause and pleads against their corruptions and base miscarriages he shall not stumble Indeed when a Man is in the dark and knows not what God's mind is then he is ever and anon stumbling A Christian is to study his duty rather than his danger and then leave the care of all Events to God he is in a safe course when he is in God's way and shall not be interrupted till he have finished his work Luke 13. 31 32. The Pharisees said unto him Get thee out and depart hence for Herod will kill thee And he said Go tell that Fox Behold I cast out Devils and I do Cures to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfected If he cast himself into troubles he is sure they are not sinfully procured but Men that run on danger without a calling may meet with many a snare or he that doth not observe his call meet with more difficulties than ever he thought of 1 Pet. 3. 13. And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good The best way to eschew trouble is to adhere closely to what is right in the sight of God he can allay their fury putting convictions upon their conscience A Man would think to stand nicely upon terms of duty is to run in harms way and there are none so much harmed maligned and opposed in the World as those that follow that which is good as those that will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but will reprove them rather possibly they may hate and malign you if you keep to that which is good they cannot harm your consciences God can allay the rage of Men by putting convictions upon their Conscience evidencing your sincerity as the History saith when the Arians persecuted the Orthodox Christians they durst not meddle with Paulinus out of reverence therefore who will harm you if you be followers of that which is good 2 In case things succeed ill with him and contrary to his expectation yet they are wiser than their Enemies can be because they have provided for the worst Carnal Policy it is but wisdom in opinion for a time not always while they have matter to work upon in the World but these always in Prosperity and Adversity 1. Because he hath secur'd his great interest which lies in the favor of God and in hopes of eternal life God by his Commandment hath taught him this wisdom to make sure of the Kingdom of
a Pit to take me they have hid snares for my feet Secretly conspir'd and practis'd his destruction And David Psal. 140. 5. The proud have hid a snare for me and cords they have spread a net by the ways side and set gins for my feet Selah Hunters and Fowlers did never go more cunningly to work to catch the Prey than those proud men had laid their design to bring his life under their power And in Psal. 35. 7. For without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul. And Psal. 57. 6. They have prepared a net for my steps my soul is bowed down they have digged a pit for me into the midst whereof they are fall'n themselves Selah Now of this sort are St. Bartholomew's Mattens and the Plot and Contrivance to out the Protestants in France when they were invited to a Wedding that they might destroy them and of this nature was the Gunpowder Treason there was a snare laid When Orestes had plotted Clytemnestra's Death Euripides expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She fitly cometh into the snare 3. Of a mixt nature both to entice by endangering and endanger by enticing 1. As when they put them upon such conditions as may tempt them to Folly and Sin some think the Text verifi'd in David at that time when he said 1 Sam 26. 19. They have driven me out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying Go serve other gods Meaning they excited Saul to pursue him and persecute him and forc'd him to flee into an Idolatrous Countrey and so a snare laid to endanger his stedfastness in the true faith 'T is a great Temptation Necessitas cogit ad turpia Necessity is but an evil Counsellor and this joined with the other Temptation of bad company Psal. 120. 5. Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar 2. When they Enact a Law or Statute whereby to force them to sin or trouble as they had a Plot against Daniel either to make him neglect his God or render him obnoxious to Authority Dan. 6. 7 8. When they burden them with such Laws and Statutes as the godly cannot obey without sin or refuse without danger they have their ends either to draw them to sin or suffer Now Snares are laid by the wicked 1. Because usually they excel in Policy Craftiness and worldly Wit are superior to God's children therein their whole hearts run that way and their principle is intire and unbroken and therefore our Lord Christ telleth us Luke 16. 8. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light They applaud themselves in their Artifices Idolize their Wit Habak 1. 16. Sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag therefore use it to the Saints destruction 2. Because they are acted by Satan who will ever be doing against the Church though to little purpose Luke 22. 3. The Devil enter'd into Iudas when he plotted against Christ. They learn their Wiles from Satan and conceive mischief by copulation with the great Incubus of Hell 3. Their own hatred and malice against the People of God Malice is a laying snares Anger vents its self in a storm of words or in some sudden violent Action but hatred lurketh in the soul and puts them that harbor it upon Plots and Contrivances of revenge The Historian observeth of Tiberius In malitiam statim invectus est c. When Absalom hated Amnon because he forced his sister he plotteth how to take away his life 2 Sam. 13. 22. Now whence cometh this malice against the Children of God Either by envy at their Interests or hatred at their Holiness 1. Envy at their Interests their Esteem and Respect in the World when they come to be of any regard among men Esther 5. 9. Haman plotteth against Mordecai because he sate in the King's gate Psal. 112. 9 10. His horn shall be exalted with honour the wicked shall see it and he grieved and gnash with their teeth When the Gospel was like to get credit Acts 17. 5. the envious Iews raised an uproar Pride is loth to stoop to see opposites in glory and power whets their malice and they contrive how to root them out Every man would have himself and his own Faction admir'd and magnifi'd The Pharisees conspir'd to take Christ Iohn 12. 19. All the world is gone after him When Religion prevaileth and groweth in credit and fashion it is deeply resented by naughty men 2. Hatred at their Holiness Men cannot endure to be outstript in Religion and therefore hate what they will not imitate Hatred is quick-sighted in Revenge full of Plots and Contrivances and tickleth the soul with a delight in them but especially Religious Hatred when a man hateth another for his Godliness when Religion instead of a Party becomes a Judge that which should restrain our Passions feeds them no Hatred so great as that against the power of Godliness Cain when he saw Abel so punctual in God's service he plotteth to draw him into the Field 1 Iohn 3. 12. and beginneth a Discourse with him about Providence and Judgment to come and Rewards and Punishments and while Abel maintained God's part Cain fell upon him and slew him To apply this As these Snares tend to our temporal destruction so there is a double use to be made of them 1. To trust God with our safety in the midst of so many snares What shall we do Whatever remedy we have against violence no man by his own foresight can find out all the snares that are laid for him therefore commit your safety spiritual and temporal to the Lord go to him and say Psal. 141. 9. Keep me from the snare they have laid for me and the grins of the workers of iniquity Constant dependance upon God is necessary for there can be no snare hidden from him who watcheth over us and our safety by night and by day There is a double Arguâ—…ent why we should trust God with our safety because of his wisdom and because of his watchful providence Because of his wisdom Alas we are foolish and simple and often betray our selves into an evil condition but God is wise for them that are foolish Psal. 37. 12 13. The wicked plotteth against the just and guasheth upon him with his teeth the Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is coming There is a wise God acting for a foolish People I tell you the wisdom of God for us is much greater than the wisdom of God in us where Enemies deal proudly God is above them where they deal craftily God is beyond them The wisdom of God for us is greater than the wisdom of any against us And also because of his watchful Providence he hath a waking love and care of us night and day Psal. 121. 4. Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep He
with a stranger thou art snared with the words of thy mouth Prov. 11. 15. He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it Prov. 17. 18. A man void of understanding striketh hands and becometh surety in the presence of his friend Prov. 20. 16. Take his Garment that is surety for a stranger Prov. 22. 26 27. Be not thou one of them that strike hands or of them that are sureties for debts if thou hast nothing to pay why should he take the bed from under thee And in other places Our pity is stirred towards a man that is like to be undone and ruined therefore there is such disswading from suretiship and hath not God a greater pity over the afflictions of his people He pities the afflictions of them that suffer most justly yea far below their desert Iudg. 10. 16. His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel 2 Kings 14. 26. For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter for there was not any shut up nor any left nor any helper for Israel How much more will he pity them that are unjustly oppressed of men Acts 7. 34. I have seen the afflictions of my people which is in Egypt and have heard their groanings and am come down to deliver them His bowels worketh God loveth his people better than they love themselves fide-jube Domine pro servo 3. Our relation to him I am thy servant and I know thou art a good Master and he is our Sovereign Lord and therefore hath undertaken to provide for us the master was to be the servants Patronus God hath found us work and he will find us defence This is the Argument of the Text Be Surety for thy Servant We are employed in his work engaged in his Cause If a rich man set a poor man at work as to dig such a Ditch if he be afterward troubled for it the rich man is concerned to bear him out Psal. 116. 16. O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy Handmaid Whilest we are engaged about our masters business and in his work he is engaged to protect us and bear us out in it 4. Our very running to him and committing our selves into his hands is an engaging God Psal. 86. 2. Preserve my soul for I am holy O thou my God save thy servant that trusteth in thee Psal. 10. 14. The poor committeth himself unto thee thou art the helper of the fatherless Employ God and find him work he will not fail to do what he is entrusted with Psal. 57. 1. Be merciful unto me O God be merciful unto me for my soul trusteth in thee yea in the shadow of thy wing will I make my refuge until these calamities be over-past God taketh it well that we should make bold with him in this kind and tell him how we trust him and expect relief from him Nothing is so dishonourable to God nor vexatious to us as the disappointment of trust An ingenuous man will not fail his friend that doth trust and rely upon him much less will a faithful God fail those that look to him and depend upon him for help Use Is advice to us what we should do in our deep distresses and troubles when able to do nothing for our selves God will be Surety that is make our Cause his own 1. As your matters depend in an higher Court and with respect to your own guilt and sin which hath cast you into these troubles acknowledge your debt but look upon Christ as your Surety who gave himself a ransome for us The Controversie between God and us must be taken up by submission on our parts for God is an enemy that cannot be overcome but must be reconciled The way is not to persist in the Contest and stand it out but beg terms of peace for Christs sake 2 Chron. 6. 38 39. If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul then hear thou from the Heavens even from thy dwelling place their prayers and supplications and maintain their Cause and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee Job 5. 8. I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my Cause 2. As your danger lyeth with men acknowledge your impotency but consider who is your Surety and will take your part against the instruments that have had a hand in your trouble First God who hath such a pity over his suffering servants is ready ever to do them good Psal. 35. 1. Plead my Cause O Lord with them that strive with me fight against them that fight against me He is in such full relation and so fast bound to them that they may not be weary and impatient and swallowed up of despair he will interpose God seeth our sufferings heareth our groans suffereth together with us and is afflicted in all our afflictions believe it assuredly that he will take the matter into his own hand and be the party responsible Psal. 140. 12. I know that the Lord will maintain the Cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor Wo be to them that would not have God for their party joined in the Cause of the afflicted God hath given assurance of his protection not by words only but by deeds Prov. 22. 23. The Lord will plead their Cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them He hath past his word and he will do it Prov. 23. 11. For their redeemer is mighty he shall plead their Cause with thee 'T is his title Isai. 51. 22. Thus saith thy Lord the Lord and thy God that pleadeth the Cause of his people not by a verbal or local but a real and active Plea Ezek. 38. 22. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood and I will rain upon him and upon his bands and the people that are with him an overflowing rain and great hail-stones fire and brimstone And Isai. 40. 8. He is near that justifieth me who will contend with me let us stand together who is mine adversary let him come near to me that is let him join issue with me commence his Suit in Law We should be confident upon Gods undertaking Ier. 50. 34. Their redeemer is strong the Lord of Host is his name he shall thoroughly plead their Cause that he may give rest to the land 'T is a great ease in affliction to commit our Cause unto God and put our affairs into his hand 2. God who hath such power we need not fear any opposite if God be our Surety Psal. 27. 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid Psal. 46. 1 2. God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore will not we fear though the Earth be removed and the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea a resolution to adhere to God and his truth
blind guesses Promises are the eruptions and overflows of Gods love he cannot stay till accomplishment but will tell us aforehand what he is about to do for us that we may know how to look for it Use 2. Is to exhort us to rest contented with Gods word and to take his promises as sure ground of hope I shall shew you how you should count it a word of righteousness what is your Duty and that first you are to delight in the promise though the performance be not yet nor like to be for a good while Heb. 11. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being perswaded of them they embraced them Oh how they hugged the promises at a distance and said in their hearts O blessed promise this will in time yield a Mâ—…siah Iohn 8. 56. Your father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and saw it and was glad Yâ—… hold the blessing by the root this will in time yield deliverance Heb. 6. 18. not only yield comfort but prove comfortable Psal. 119. 111. Thy testimonies I have taken fâ—… an heritage for they are the rejoycing of my heart For your Duty Secondly You are to rest confident of the truth of what God hath promised and be assured that the performance will in time be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11. 13. Faith is not a failable Conjecture but a sure and certain Grace Rom. 8. 28. We know that all things shall work together for good to them that love God So Psal. 140. 12. I know that God will maintain the Cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor There is a firm perswasion I know I shall find this to be a truth Men who are conscionable and faithful in keeping their word are believed yet being men they may lye Rom. 3. 4. Let God be true and every man a liar Every man is or may be a liar because of the mutableness of his Nature from interest he will not lye but he can lye If we receive the testimony of men the testimony of God is greater Surely God cannot deceive or be deceived He never yet was worse than his word Thirdly You are to take the naked promise for the ground of your hope however it seem to be contradicted in the course of Gods Providence when 't is neither performed nor likely to be performed 't is his word you go by whatsoever his dispensations be Many times there are no apparent evidences of Gods doing what he hath said yea strong probabilities to the contrary 'T is said Rom. 4. 18. That Abraham against hope believed in hope 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham had the promise of a Son in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed but there was no appearance of this in Nature or natural hope of a Child both he and Sarah being old yet he believed 'T is an Antanaclasis an elegant Figure having the form of a contradiction he goeth upon Gods naked word Then Faith standeth upon its own Basis and Legs which is not probabilities but his word of promise Every thing is strongest upon its own Basis which God and Nature have appointed For as the Earth hangeth on nothing in the midst of the Air but there is its place Faith is seated most firmly on the word of God who is able to perform what he saith Fourthly This Faith must conquer our fears and cares and troubles Psal. 112. 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. He must fix the heart without wavering Psal. 56. 4. In God I will praise his word in God have I put my trust I will not fear what man can do unto me The force of Faith is seen in calming our passions and sinful fears which otherwise would weaken our reverence and respect to God Fifthly Above all this you are to glorifie God publickly not only in the quiet of your hearts but by your carriage before others Iohn 3. 33. Put to his Seal that God is true 't is not said Believed or professed but put to his Seal We seal the truth of God as his Witnesses when we confirm others in the faith and belief of the promises by our joyfulness in all conditions patience under crosses diligence in holiness hope and comfort in great streights Numb 20. 12. God was angry with Moses and Aaron because ye believe not to sanctifie me in the eyes of the Children of Israel We are not only to believe God our selves but to sanctifie him in the eyes of others as when the Thessalonians had received the word in much assurance in much affliction and much joy in the Holy Ghost The Apostle telleth them They were examples to all that believed in Achaia and Macedonia 1 Thess. 1. 5. The worthiness and generousness of our Faith should be a confutation of our base fears but a confirmation of the Gospel But we are so far from confirming the weak that we offend the strong and instead of being a confirmation to the Gospel we are a confutation of it Use 3. Is reproof to us that we do no more build upon this word of righteousness 1. Some count these vain words and the comforts thence deduced fanatical illusions and hopes and joys phantastical impressions Psal. 22. 7 8. All they that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the Lip they shake the head saying He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him Nothing so ridiculous in the worlds eye as trust or dependance or unseen comforts Ungodly Wits make the life of Faith a sport and matter of laughter 2. Some though not so bad as the former they may have more modesty yet as little Faith since they are all for the present world present delights present temptations With many one thing in hand is more than the greatest promises of better things to come 2 Tim. 4. 10. they have no patience Afflictions are smart for the present Heb. 12. 11. No affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grievous Yea they do not deal equally with God and man If a man promise they reckon much of that Qui petat accipiet c. They can tarry upon mans security but count Gods nothing worth They can trade with a Factor beyond Seas and trust all their Estates in a mans hand whom they have never seen and yet the word of the infallible God is of little regard and respect with them 3. The best build too weakly on the promises as appeareth by the prevalency of our cares and fears If we did take God at his word we would not be so soon mated with every difficulty Heb. 13. 5 6. Let your conversations be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man can do unto me There would be more resolution in trials more hardness
when in hand and in present expectation work far otherwise than they do when they are considered at a distance So when the effects of sin are looked upon as near at hand when faith makes them present then they stir up these affections in the soul. Fifthly A fifth cause is from their publick Spirit and tender respect to the common good When they wisely foresee approaching dangers they are moved with the love and care of their Countrey and this melteth them They know sin is of a destroying nature that one sinner destroyeth much good Eccl. 9. 18. One sinner may do his Countrey a great deal of mischief an open bold fac'd Sinner Achan troubled the whole Camp Iosh. 7. 11 12. much more when a multitude of Sinners are encreased therefore they sigh and mourn Godly men are the truest friends to their native soil they are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel Those that plead with God stand in the Gap keep off Judgments and have the most publick spirit therefore the least they can do is to sigh for it and to plead with wicked men as Tertullian Si non vis tibi parcere parce Carthagini If thou wilt go on with thy soul-destroying course and wilt not spare thy self yet spare Carthage This will be bitterness in the issue The Children of God are always of a publick Spirit David fasted for his enemies Psal. 35. Abraham prayed to God for Sodom a neighbour Countrey the godly Israelites were good friends to Babylon in their Captivity Ier. 29. 11. Seek the peace of the City whither I have caused you to be carried captive and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace If nothing but their interest and share in the common rest and quietness Passengers are concerned in the welfare of the Vessel wherein they are imbarked Babylon fared the better for the Jews prayers Now more especially are their hearts carried out with a respect to their native Soil and dearest comforts therefore this melteth them to see the Land defiled with sins and ready for Judgments SERMON CLII. PSAL. CXIX VER 136. Rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law USE 1. For reproof of two sorts of persons 1. Those that do not lay to heart their own sins Usually men make their affections to prescribe to their judgment and cavil at the fervorous exercises of Religion because unpleasant to flesh and blood To humble our selves before the Lord with a pressing sorrow seriously and indeed to rend our hearts and not our garments In this wanton and delicate Age men are apt to think I speak of a Theam obsolete and out of date as calculated for former times when men were more tender hearted if we could awaken some of the old godly professors out of their Graves as the Prophet calleth up Rachel to weep in Ramah for her Children Ier. 31. 15. then we might hope to prevail Alas to plead now for mourning over the sins of others when men think it a crime to mourn for their own this is like to be lost labour Were this the humour only of ungodly Wretches it might be born with silence and patience but those that would be taken for Christians of the highest form are altogether prejudiced against such Doctrines as this Men would be honeyed and oyled with Grace and distaste the wholesome discipline of repentance as too severe They cry out we are legal How may the poor Ministers of the Gospel go to God and say as Moses did Exod. 6. 12. The Children of Israel have not hearkened unto me how then shall Pharaoh hear me The Professors of Religion will not brook such Doctrine and how shall we hope to prevail with the poor blind carnal world To scoff at Doctrines of repentance and humiliation was once a badg of prophaneness many now adopt it into their Religion But be not deceived the Gospel doth not take away the Conscience of sin It may take away the fear of Hell and damnation upon right terms The heart of flesh is a promise and the spirit of Grace is a promise or mourning apart is a promise You that say that justified persons must no more mourn for sin you may as well say they shall no longer have an heart of flesh or a spirit of Grace and supplications that they shall no longer have a tender Conscience Be not deceived there must be some time to weep for your own sins as Peter went out and wept bitterly Sorrow must have its turn in the Christian life I would press it upon you by this Argument You cannot be sorrowful for others sins unless you be first sorrowful for your own sins Grief must begin at home there where you have the advantage of Conscience and inward remorse 'T is hypocrisie to pitch upon other mens sins and neglect our own as some will zealously declaim against publick disorders yet neglect their own hearts as the crafty Lapwing will go up and down fluttering and crying to draw the Fowler from her own Nest. We have a nest of sin of our own and we are loth it should be rifled and exposed to publick view 2. It reproveth them that in times of publick defection never take care to mourn over Gods dishonour We complain and murmure under our Judgments but do not weep over our sins every person and family apart Whether it be out of negligence and carnal security or out of distaste and displeasure against the conduct of present affairs we seem to have lost our publick affections and can only wonder at the Children of God in former times since they were so broken and tender To many that would now go for Professors this Doctrine seemeth a Riddle a mere strain of wit and fancy like a precept wire-drawn or elevated beyond its pitch and tenour But in the fear of God consider what hath been spoken There are many abuses in our reflections upon the sins of others Wicked men are quite otherwise disposed they do not only do evil themselves but take pleasure in those that do so Rom. 1. 32. would be glad that sin were more common that it might be less odious and then there would be none to put them to the blush Prov. 2. 14. It is said they rejoyce to do evil and delight in the frowardness of the wicked So the Prophet speaks of some corrupt men in the Priesthood They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity Hos. 4. 8. God had appointed those that served at the Altar should live of the Altar have a proportion of those Offerings Now they flattered them in their sins so they might have meat and get a portion of the Sacrifices Many that would be accounted Ministers care not for the sins of the people but think the less serious men are in Religion the better they can work them to their private advantages and have more respect among them Then there are some
Psal. 94. 15. Iudgment shall return unto righteousness and all the upright in heart shall follow it Sometimes they are asunder Earthly Judges may refuse the justice of righteousness a Judg may suspend the act of his own judgment but they shall not long be severed God will bring forth his righteous Judgment Zach. 8. 17. These things I hate saith the Lord. And then in regard of his Providence God will not be unmindful of his promise Psal. 9. 7 8 9. He hath prepared his Throne for judgment and he shall judge the world in righteousness he shall minister judgment to his people in uprightness Courts of Justice among men are not always open they have Term-time but God is always ready to hear Paintiffs They make Complaints amongst men and they are delayed so much and so long that they are discouraged But we have a friend that is always ready to hear Psal. 48. 10. Thy right hand is full of righteousness for defending his people and punishing his enemies Use 3. To press us to acknowledge this Justice of God that he governeth all things righteously especially when you are under his mighty hand The Lord takes it ill when you question any of his Providences Ezek. 18. 25. Are not my ways equal He will be clear when he judgeth Psal. 51. 4. God will be justified in all that he hath done or shall do for the punishment of sin and therefore when the hand of God is upon you take heed you do not reproach God When his hand is smart and heavy upon you remember affliction opens the eyes of the worst men Nebuchadnezzar that knew no God but himself no happiness but in pleasing his own humour yet when he was whipped and scourged hear him speak Dan. 4. 37. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven all whose works are truth and his ways judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase Pharaoh Exod. 2 27. The Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked These Acknowledgments and Confessions come from wicked men as Water out of a Still forced by the fire But if affliction opens the eyes of wicked men surely when we are under Gods afflicting hand we should give him the glory of his Justice and acknowledge that he is clear in all that he brings upon us He takes it ill when we murmure and tax his Judgment Mic. 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me And Lam. 1. 18. The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his Commandment And when we submissively stoop and accept of the punishment of our sin after he hath been provoked then God will plead for us Lev. 26. 41. When we stoop humbly under Gods correcting hand and bear it patiently and say God is just in all this then it will succeed well Observe the Justice of God especially his remarkable Judgments upon others The Church is brought in acknowledging of it Rev. 15. 3. Iust and true are thy ways thou King of Saints And Rev. 19. 3. True and righteous are his Iudgments Not that we should sit Crowners upon other mens souls and judge their spiritual condition and misinterpret Providence I look upon it as a great sin of a faction and perverse humors But clearly when mens sins are so great that the Judgments of God have overtaken them we ought to say Iust and true art thou O Lord and just in all thy Iudgments I might shew here is much to keep the Children of God in awe the Lord is a righteous God though they have found mercy and taken sanctuary at his Grace the Lord is impartial in his Justice God that did not spare the Angels when they sinned nor his Son when he was a Sinner by imputation will not spare you though you are the dearly Beloved of his soul Prov. 11. 31. The sinful courses of Gods Children occasion bitterness enough they never venture upon sin but with great loss If Paul give way to a little pride God will humble him If any give way to sin their Pilgrimage will be made uncomfortable Gods hand may be smart and dismal Eli for negligence and indulgence there 's the Ark of God taken his two Sons slain in battel his Daughter in Law dies he himself breaks his Neck O the wonderful Tragedies that sin works in the houses of the Children of God! And David when he intermedled with forbidden fruit was driven from his Palace his Concubines defiled his own Son slain a great many calamities did light upon him Therefore the Children of God have cause to fear for the Lord is a just God and they will find it so here upon earth he hath reserved liberty to visit their iniquity with Rods and their transgression with Scourges I might press you to imitate Gods righteousness 1 Iohn 2. 29. If ye know that he is righteous ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of God You have a righteous God and here 's the thing you should copy out SERMON CLV PSAL. CXIX VER 138. Thy Testimonies which thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful IN the former Verse the Prophet had spoken of the righteousness of God now God is essentially righteous and therefore all that proceedeth from him is righteous A Carpenter that hath a Rule without him and a Line to measure his work by may sometimes hit and sometimes miss but if you could suppose a Carpenter the motion of whose hand were his Rule he could never chop amiss So must we conceive of God his Act is his Rule Holiness is his Essence not a superadded quality his righteousness is himself therefore from this righteous God there proceedeth nothing but righteousness and from this faithful God nothing but faith He discovereth his Nature both in the Acts of his Providence and the Institutions of his Word We cannot reason so concerning men that because they are righteous nothing cometh from them but what is righteous because righteousness is not their nature but an adventitious quality therefore good men may make ill Laws for though they be meant for good they may be deceived And sometimes wicked men may make good Laws to ingratiate themselves and for the interest of their affairs but God being essentially necessarily good holy and righteous his Laws are also good holy and true Thy Testimonies which thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful In the Words observe I. That there is a Revelation of Gods Will in his Word Thy Testimonies II. The Authority wherewith his Revelation is backed Which thou hast commanded III. The intrinsick worth and excellency of these Testimonies it is double They are 1. Righteous 2. Very faithful In the Hebrew righteousness and faithfulness that is very right and very faithful the one word is referred to the Agenda in Religion the other to the Credenda they are worthy to be obeyed
disobedience Surely there is no doubt in all this because they are revealed by God who is the supreme and original Truth and who neither is nor can be deceived for Gods understanding is the rule and measure of all other truths nothing is true but what is constant to his knowledge And he cannot deceive us that will not agree with the goodness of his Nature and love to Mankind therefore he is called God that cannot lie Tit. 1. 2. Secondly In making good God hath given us the most solemn assurance Heb. 6. 17 18. God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation He hath demitted himself to the terms of a Covenant given us a Seal Rom. 4. 11. And he received the sign of Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith Pledge 2 Cor. 1. 22. Who hath also sealed us and given the Earnest of his Spirit in our hearts He hath stood upon his truth above all things Psal. 138. 2. I will worship towards thy holy Temple and praise thy Name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name One part of the Word verifieth another in one part you have the promise in another the accomplishment the great promise of sending Christ Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a Body hast thou prepared me In burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure then said I Lo I come to do thy will O God He would not go back being willing to keep the promise afoot It was on our part a hand Writing against us in testification of our guilt and need of expiation but on Gods part an Obligation of Debt to pay our ransome Still he accomplisheth promises in the return of prayers and though the great payment be in the other World yet here God remembreth us still accomplishing the intervening promises and giving proof of his truth So that they that are acquainted with his Name will never distrust him Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee They that have known his way and the course of his dealings will have a confidence in him Prop. 5. They that would receive the Word as the Word of God must be soundly convinced of and seriously consider this righteousness and faithfulness in the Testimonies which he hath commanded for till then the Word worketh not on them 1 Thess. 2. 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe And till then they are but customary Christians and can never rightly believe nor obey Iohn 4. 42. Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know That this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world First their Faith depends on the common Tradition or the testimony of the Church afterwards on the sure ground of the Word it self in which they find such clearness and efficacy that they cannot but yield to God The authority of man is nothing to it when our Faith is bottomed on a surer ground the authority of God speaking in his Word 1. There must be sound conviction or belief of this This is called The acknowledgment of the truth Tit. 1. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Col. 2. 2. The riches of the assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. An assurance that God will keep touch with me that he will not delude me in the terms propounded in the Gospel This full perswasion of the truth of Gods Testimonies we must all aim at and seek after The assurance of my interest and my salvation is another thing and yet that I am not to neglect but with this I am to begin 2. There must be serious Consideration for that improveth all truths and maketh them active and effectual Gods Complaint of his people is That they will not consider Isai. 1. 3. The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider They do not lay truths in the view of Conscience Food without mastication and chewing nourisheth not A thing not considered doth profit as little as if not believed as a forgetting God is a kind of denying of him Seriously then debate it with your selves You must consider the authority of God Authority is that right which a Superior hath to prescribe to such as are under him Doth God usurp upon you when he giveth you a Law or hath he left you in the dark that you do not know whether this be his Law yea or no Are there no strictures of his Majesty in the very oeconomy and frame of it Can any but a God speak at such a rate And for his Justice hath he commanded any thing to your hurt No it is all for thy good Deut. 6. 24. And the Lord commanded us to do all these Statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always And for his Truth Men may deceive and be deceived and though they often speak truth they do not always so but God seeth by his own light not by discourse but vision Truth is his Nature from which he can no more swerve than from himself and what need he court a Worm and flatter us Thus should we urge our hearts Use 1. Let us owne and improve the Word as a righteous and faithful Word which God hath commanded for our good 1. Owne the authority of it It is not an arbitrary thing the Truths revealed imply a command to believe them the Duties required imply a command to obey them Mat. 17. 5. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him God hath commanded us to hear Christ to believe in his name to love one another 1 Iohn 3. 23. And this is his Commandment That we should believe in the name of his Son Iesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment As we value his Word and would one day see his face with comfort we should bind his precepts upon our hearts Say to thy soul As thou wilt answer it to God another day take care of this 2. Owne and improve the righteousness of his Testimonies Man having a total and absolute dependance upon God God might govern us in what manner it pleased him for it is just That one may do with his own what he will Matth. 20. 15. But what hath the Lord required of thee but to love him
are my Meditation We see things in transitu and know them only by hear-say without Meditation To move the Will we had need deal seriously with our own hearts e're we can gain them to a Consent Thoughts are the spokesmen that make up the Match between the Soul and the Temptation they were given for the like office in good things they are the first Acts of the Soul to set a-work all the rest Things lye by till we take them into our Thoughts and Consideration at leisure that we may know what is their tendency and how they concern us You cannot Imagine the Gospel should work as a Charm and Convert us we know not how before Consent and Choice There is a propounding and debating of terms the greatest matters will not work on him that doth not think of them God and Christ and Heaven and Salvation are looked upon in a cold and remiss manner without this serious Consideration And to excite and quicken and stir our Affections Meditation is useful We complain of deadness and we our selves are the Cause because we do not rouse up our selves excite and compel our selves expostulate with our selves Isa. 64. 7. And there is none that calleth upon thy name and stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Man hath a power to whet Truths upon his own heart and if he will not make use of it and reason for God with our selves we are justly left under the power of deadness and stupidness of Spirit 2. 'T is a great help to our Graces Faith takes root by Meditation Matth. 13. 5. The seed forthwith sprang up because it had no deepness of earth A careless slight heart is no fit soil for Faith to grow in 2. Hope is made lively by Consideration of the thing hoped for 3. Charity is inflamed by the sight and frequent view of Divine Objects in their Beauty and Amiableness 3. The Duties of Religion Reading and Hearing are effectual by Meditation The Use is for Exhortation to press you to Meditation 't is the Mother and Nurse of Knowledge and Godlinss the great instrument in all the Offices of Grace otherwise we take up things by hear-say this digests them and maketh them our own 1. It preventeth vain thoughts both as it stocketh the heart with Truth for good seed thick set and well rooted destroyeth the weeds and as it seasoneth the heart with a Gracious disposition and inureth it more to holy thoughts whereas those that do not use to Meditate how are their Minds pestered with swarms of vain thoughts which wholly divert it and turn it aside from God Man is mindless of holy things and if they turn into the heart by accident their entertainment is cold and careless as a man would be used that cometh into an house full of enemies 2. How great an affront is it to God to omit this part of Communion with him it is irkesome to think of him Saints find it otherwise Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet Some God is said to be near in their Mouth and far from their Reins Ier. 12. 2. frequently spoken of but seldom considered by them That soul that hath a sincere and unfeigned love to him will take some time to solace itself with him alone to be sure God taketh it kindly at our hands Mal. 3. 16. A book of remembrance was written for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name that have frequent and high thoughts of God in their hearts without which Love will presently languish and grow cold 3. What a neglect it is of Gods Messages of Love that you will not consider them Matth. 21. 5. And they made light of it And Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation He hath laid out all his Eternal thoughts upon a way of Salvation and manifested it to you and you entertain it with so much scorn that you will not set your minds to it and think it worthy a few sad and sober thoughts What Is it so tedious to think a thought of your own greatest Concernments Surely Man is strangely deprav'd to refuse this 4. What a likely means Meditation is to do you good I know 't is the Lord inclineth the Heart and our Thoughts work no further than God is in them yea he giveth us to think 2 Cor. 3. 5. But as it is our Duty so 't is a very proper means to improve our Graces and our Comfort for a constant steady continued view of truth surely will work more than a glance A transient view cannot leave such an impression upon us as a steady view We taste things better when they are chewed than when they are swallowed whole Meditation goeth over things again and again and pryeth into every part And as 't is a constant light so 't is an argumentative Consideration of things When one scale is not heavy enough we put in weight after weight till we gain our point bring off the Heart from such a vanity ingage it to such a pursuit by our own arguings with our selves Prov. 12. 14. A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his own mouth Acts 17. 11 12. And these were more noble then they of Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so Therefore many believed because they had searched with all readiness of Mind 5. This is an Argument should prevail with Gods Children that we may know our growth in Grace by the frequency continuance and efficacy of holy thoughts At first good thoughts are few and rare the heart is so crouded with vanity that there is no room for God or his Word for these things keep their interest in the heart and draw the mind after them so that dayes pass over our heads and we forget God Psal. 10. 11. Or if they arise in our minds they find little entertainment there but are gone as soon as they come 'T is the Policy of the Enemy of our Salvation to draw our minds from one thing to another that good thoughts may pass over without fruit and benefit Or if we force our selves to continue they do not warm the heart only weary the brain But now when truths are ever with us they improve us Psal. 119. 98. Thou through thy Commandments hast made me wiser then my Enemies for they are ever with me Prov. 6. 22. When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou wakest it shall talk with thee We have them always ready and at hand They that are sound at heart can pause with delight on heavenly things 'T is a good note of some progress 't is a sign the heart is heavenly carried out with a strong and prevailing love to heavenly things that earthly profits and vain pleasures have not such a hand over us as they were wont to have You have gotten the mastery
when he taketh away when he emptieth and when he filleth us with Blessings a Child of God is of a strange temper he can fear him for his Mercies Hosea 3. 5. and praise him for his Judgments as in the Text it argueth a great measure of Grace to give Thanks to God at all times and for all things 1 Thes. 5. 17 18. Rejoyce ever more pray without ceasing in every thing give thanks Simply we cannot give thanks for Afflictions as Afflictions as we cannot pray for them nor joy in them but as they are a means of good to us A thankful frame of Heart bringeth meat out of the Eater incouragement out of the saddest Providences and taketh occasion to lift up it self in the praises of God even from those things which are matter of greatest discouragement and heartless dejection to others It seeth the hand of God working for good to him And then on the other side an Unthankful Repining Murmuring Spirit sowereth all our Comforts is ever querulous whether crossed or pleased it entertaineth Crosses with Anger and Blessings with Disdain 'T is hard to be in any Condition on this side Hell wherein we have not cause to praise God even in great Calamities either for their fruit and issue as our Souls are bettered and humbled by them Psalm 119. 65. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant according to thy word Wherein In giving him Faith and sensible and seasonable Correction Verse 67. and presently thou art good and dost good Verse 68. Or else for their Mitigation as to deem them not insupportable 1 Corinth 10. 13. That we are not Consumed Lament 3. 22. That not to the full merit of our Sins Ezra 9. 13. Thou hast punished us less then we have deserved That Comforts come along with them That our Afflictions do not exceed the measure of our Comforts 2 Corinth 1. 5. That we have a good God still who knoweth how to turn all to our Advantage Let us be perswaded he is well affected to us in Christ and we will take any thing kindly at his hand All this is spoken that poor murmuring Souls may not set out from so blessed a Work yea when other Arguments fail we may see the Wisdom Justice and Faithfulness of God in his sharpest Corrections Psalm 119. 75. I know that thy Iudgments are right and in Faithfulness thou hast afflicted me 'T is a great honour to God to speak good of his name when his hand is smart upon us Use. Let me press you now to three things First To the Work Secondly Frequency and Constancy herein Thirdly To suit often God's Word and Works together First To the work of praising God many are often complaining or begging but seldom praising or giving thanks Oh surely this should be more regarded not always taken up with complaints against our selves and supplications for Mercies but should sometime give Thanks and praise the Lord 't is the Noblest part of our work 't is nearest the work of Heaven As Love is the Grace of Heaven so Praise is the Duty then in Season 't is good to be preparing setting our Hearts in order for our eternal Estate 't is the work of Angels when we praise God we do the work of Angels The Angels according to the opinion of the Ancient Hebrews do every day sing praises to God and that in the Morning which they gather because the Angel said to Iacob Gen. 32. 26. Let me go for the day breaketh which place the Targum of Ierusalem thus explaineth Let me go for the Pillar of the Morning ascendeth and behold the hour approacheth that the Angels are to sing however that opinion be sure we are that the Angels ever bless God and laud his holy Name Isaiah 6. 1 2 3. The Angels cryed one to another holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory They were blessing God for Creation then the Morning Stars sang for Joy Iob 38. 4 5 6. For the Nativity of Christ Luk. 2. 13 14. They apprehend more of Gods Excellency and Perfection in himself and in his Works than we do and are more sensible of his Benefits than we are Now if this be the work of Angels the highest and greatest of them surely this work should be more prized by us 't is Nobler than other Duties we serve God in our Callings but this work is a part of our Misery this Burden was laid upon Adam after his Fall that in the sweat of his Brows he should eat his Bread Gen. 3. 19. Though honest Labour be a part of our Obedience yet 't is also a part of our Trouble and Exercise There are Works of Righteousness as to give every Man his due these are Good Works but they concern the benefit of Man the good of Humane Society Whereas Praise is more immediately directed to the Honour of God There are Works of Mercy to relieve the Poor to help the Distressed to support the Weak to comfort the Afflicted these are good Works indeed and a very noble part of our service to be reckoned to our Thank-offerings as praise Heb. 13. 15 16. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name but to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is wellpleased 'T is Godlike to do Good and a more blessed thing to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. As God giveth to all and receiveth of none but still this redoundeth to Men. There are opera cultus the fourth sort of Works Works of Worship Internal as humbling our Soul repenting of our Sins and asking Pardon these are good Works indeed but such as imply our Misery and Imperfection External as Prayer Hearing and Reading and other Acts of Communion with God but when we give Thanks this is more Noble In other Duties God is bestowing something on us but here in our way we bestow something upon God In Prayer as Beggars in Hearing as Scholars and Disciples we come to expect something from him here we come to put Honour upon God in our way 't is a kind of Recompence or paying our Debts to him by Word or Deed. Now the Reasons why Men are so backward to this Work are I. Because we have so little of the Love of God Self-love puts us upon Supplication but the Love of God upon Praise and Thanksgiving 'T is a Token of great Love to Praise God without Ceasing We are eager to have Blessings and then forget to return and give God the Glory II. And partly Neglect of Observation We do not gather up Matter of Thanksgiving Colos. 2. 4. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving We should continually observe Gods Answers and Visits of Love Manifestations of himself to the World The Reason then why we have no more pleasure in Praising God is because we observe not so heedfully as we
make this Petition to God to beg his watchful Providence and Shepherd-like care over us and we may do it with Encouragement to be heard of God if our Hearts are unfeignedly set to keep his Law that God will hear us and keep us from our wandring Doctrine That a Christian that is obedient for the main yet may run into many Faylings and Errors of Life David was right for the main course of his Life he professeth here he did not forget Gods Precepts he did not cast off the Yoak of his Law but yet in particular acts he acknowledgeth he did erre and fail and went astray like a lost Sheep And so many who are Gods own Servants that do not forget his Precepts may thus erre and go astray First In our Natural Estate man is of a straying nature apt to turn out of the way that leadeth to God and true happiness The Holy Ghost sets forth the Degeneration of Man-kind by the similitude and embleme of a strayed or lost Sheep Luke 15. and Isa. 53. 6. All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way Mark he speaks of our Estate by Nature Collectively and Distributively Collectively and in Common All we like Sheep have gone astray And distributively Every man to his own way We all agree in forsaking the right way of pleasing and enjoying God but we disagree as each one hath a by-path of his own Some are running after this Lust Some after that and so are not only divided from God but divided from one another whilst every one makes his own Will his Law quiequid velit licet As the Channel is cut so corrupt Nature in every one finds an Issue and Passage Psal. 14. 3. They are all gone aside they are altogether become Filthy there is none that doth good no not one Some run this way some that way some are enslaved by Pleasures others are captivated by the Honours of the present World and some are opprest by the Cares of this Life Every man hath his way of sinning and running away from God But however the Emblem and Similitude of the Holy Ghost is to be considered that our departing from God and his ways is like the straying of a sheep what doth that note 1. In general it implies this that we are brutish in our sin and defection from God led by sense fancy and appetite and therefore our Condition could not be exprest but by a Comparison fetched from the Beasts Silly Sheep are carried away by their fancy and appetite from the Flock Psal. 49. 12. Man being in Honour abideth not he is like the Beasts that perish that is he abode not in the Honour of his Creation some would render it for a Night Adam abode not for a Night What we translate Man is Adam the excellency and dignity wherein God had set us he became like a Beast How is man like a Beast we are governed by our Sences and lower Appetites The Sences are grown masterly and inordinate so eagerly set upon their Objects that they will not be reclaimed and mans Life just like that of the Bruits it is things of the same nature we value and adhere unto Terrene and Earthly things the Comforts of the Animal Life and as we have the same objects so the same ends to enjoy our sensual pleasures and satisfy our Fleshly Minds as long as we may now what is this but to suffer the Beast to ride the Man to put Reason and Conscience in Vassallage and Subjection to Sense and Appetite 2. This Similitude is used to shew our proneness to erre There is no Creature more prone to wander and lose its way without a Shepherd then the Sheep Sheep are Creatures subject to straying if they be not kept in the Pasture so all Men are obnoxious to Erring and Straying Ier. 14. 10. They love to wander it s a delight to us to be pleasing our Flesh and gratifying our Carnal Senses So Psal. 95. 10. It s a People that do erre in their Hearts We do nor only erre in our Minds but erre in our Hearts To erre in our Mind is to erre out of Ignorance but to erre in our Heart is to erre out of Sensual Obstinacy so are we carryed away with the Desires of the Flesh think our selves never better then when we run away from God Ah the best of us is soon out of the way If God takes off his Guidance and leaves us to our selves we are apt to Transgress the Bounds wherewith God hath hedged up our way and make it our Business still to be running away from the Chief Good into the Bushes and Thickets of Carnal Error wherein we are entangled 3. Our inability to return and set our selves into the Right Way again for we stray like Sheep not like Swine and Dogs Swine and Dogs though they wander they will find the way home again but a Sheep is irrecoverably lost without the Shepherds Diligence and Care Ier. 50. 6. My People hath been lost they have gone from Mountain to Mountain they have forgotten their resting Place So should we run and keep running away from and forget our Resting Place I remember Austin in his Meditations hath this Passage Domine errare potui redire non potui Lord I could go astray by my self but I cannot return of my self The sheep easily straggle but it is the Shepherd must bring home the lost Sheep upon his own Shoulders Luke 15. 5. And to this we may apply that of the Prophet Hosea 13. 9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help We could destroy and ruine our selves but we cannot recover and save our selves The shiftless Infant can defile himself but 't is the Nurse must cleanse it and we our selves can fall from God but to recover us to God that 's the Shepherds Care 4. It shews our readiness to follow evil Example A Sheep is animal sequax a Creature that runs after the Drove they run out of the Gap one after another and one Stragler draws away the whole Flock When the Apostle speaks of the sinful state of Man-kind Eph. 2. 2 3. He reckons up Example as one walking according to the Course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air the spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience In that place there 's the Devil the World and the Flesh. There 's the Prince of the Power of the Air and there 's the Course of this World that I quote it for now there 's Satan Corrupt Example and Evil Inclination all which are Depravers of Man-kind and all concurr to our ruine and destruction we easily swim with the Stream and the Torrent of Common Example do as others do and so mutually propagate and receive taint from one another Imitation is not the Whole Cause of Sin but Propagation and Inclination of Nature yet Imitation and Example doth much to the perverting of the World
and increasing Wickedness and Fleshly Mindedness makes us addicted to Worldly Vanities and so we run with the Fowl into the Snare walking according to the Course of this World Eph. 2. 2. Isa. 6. 6. I am a man of Polluted Lips and I dwell among a People of Polluted Lips We have Sin within but it is mightily encreased by Example without by dwelling among those that are Polluted we are more defiled we catch sickness one of another we do not get Health one from another As in the Law by touching an unclean thing a Man was made unclean but not on the contrary we being Polluted our selves are more defiled by others by conversing with them We live among them that are Neglectfull of God and unmindfull of Heavenly Things and we come also to grow more so ourselves 5. To Represent the Danger of straying Sheep when they are out of the Pasture are in harms-way exposed to a Thousand Dangers Ier. 50. 7. All that find them have devoured them So are we in danger to become a Prey to the roaring Lyon who goes about seeking whom he may devour and to the Dogs and Wolves that are abroad In his sinful State man is a Sheep whom no man taketh up out of Gods Protection and a ready Prey for Satan taken Captive by him at his Pleasure 2 Tim. 2. 26. Till the Lord recover him by Repentance Thus God forms represents and points out our Condition before Conversion certainly before we were converted to God we were as Sheep wandring in our Ignorance and sinful ways to our own Destruction and in hazard to be prey'd upon continually by the roaring Lyon Secondly See if it be better with us after Conversion For here 's a Man of God he saith I have gone astray like a lost Sheep Now after Grace received though our Heart was set to walk with God for the main yet we often swerve from our Rule through Ignorance or through inadvertency and sometimes are blinded by Worldly Desires and Fleshly Lusts and so transgress our Bounds and neglect our Duty Psal. 19. 12. Who can understand his Errors Our Errors are so many who can bear them all in mind who can know and remember them all I say even the best who are tender of displeasing and dishonouring God by Sin they have their Errors yea and sometimes too their foul Faults Let me a little shew this 1. There are some unavoydable infirmities and frailties which we cannot get rid of though we fainwould as Rom. 7. 15. What I hate that do I and verse 19. The good that I would that I do not and the evil that I would not that do I. And Gal. 5. 17. The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that ye cannot do the things that ye would A true Christian would love God more perfectly delight in him more abundantly and bring every thought into Subjection to his will He would get rid of the Fountain of Sin of Natural Concupiscence and all the stirrings of Envy Lust Pride Anger but alas the Spirit that worketh in us Lusteth to envy and bewrayeth it self in these Carnal Affections these are aberrations from the strict Law which God hath given to us but such as men are subject unto in this state of Frailty Though they be hated resisted though they be restrained in a great measure that they do not break out into gross act yet a Child of God cannot get rid of them though this Fire is not blown up but smothered yet in some degree it burns in our Bosoms there is Life in it still 2. There are other things which they might get rid of if they would and yet they are not always so happy as to withstand it certain sins that are avoidable by the ordinary assistances of Grace which God vouchsafes to his People yet a Believer may relaps into them many times Men are not always so watchful nor is the bent of their Hearts so strongly fixed in them and there is very much security in the Saints and they run into the Snare till they be awakened either by some powerful Convictions or some smart affliction as David saith Psal. 119. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray The best of Gods Children many times in their peace and prosperity they fall asleep and forget themselves and so let some Infirmity still be upon them before God doth awaken them and bring them to themselves again Hezekiah was no sooner setled in a peacefull Estate but presently he forgets himself and suffers Pride to steal upon his Heart till the Lord humbled him for the Pride of his Heart 2 Chron. 32. 25 26. When all things went happily with him he was recovered out of his sickness and had congratulatory Messages from the Princes of the Nations round about him and lived in great Prosperity then his Heart was lifted up Some Carnal Distemper may grow upon us or evil practice we may fall into David when he had gotten a carnal Pillow under his Head he lay down and slept and dreamt of nothing but Prosperitie a perpetual uninterrupted temporal happiness Psal. 30. 6. He was full of carnal complacency untill God made him look about him Thus by our carelesness do we often provoke God to use sharp Remedies There are some are not avoidable but left for Humiliation but those that are avoidable by such ordinary assistances of Gods Grace to his People yet many times through our folly and inadvertency and sleepiness of Conscience we run into them Having shewed the kinds of these Sins let me now shew the Causes why many times those whose hearts are right with God that do not forget his Precepts yet they go astray like lost Sheep The 1. Cause is their present imperfection Though Grace doth heal all the faculties yet it doth not totally heal them or wholly overcome the weakness which is in them God promiseth to put his Law into their hearts and minds yet both the understanding and will and all the inferiour faculties they are but in part sanctified You know our Soul is divided into two parts into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the faculties which should command and direct and into the faculties which should be commanded and directed The commanding faculties are called Spirit and the faculties which should be commanded are called Soul The reason or the incitation the affections the dispositions which inclines us to things good for us there is a weakness in all these Whence comes all the Weaknesses and Errors of the Saints There 's a defect in the leading or commanding part of the Soul which is the Understanding and the Will in the Understanding is the Directive Counsel and in the Will is the Imperial Power Now the Understanding which should direct and guide us is blind and Sleepy and not so Vigilant and Watchful as it should be and so in many cases it proves but a dark and imperfect Guide and Director to us and so we erre
then soon cool in their desires such are slothful Professors p. 2 Children of God desire to be taught of God p. 230 Reasons why they desire it p. 230 231. They long for Eternal Salvation p. 1087 Choice of Gods Testimonies gives us a Right to them p. 742 After enquiry into the way of Truth we must come to the choice of it p. 197. What it is to choose them p. 1071 To do good out of Choice the Character of a good Man p. 1070 1071. Causes of a right choice p. 1078 Effects of a right choice p. 1079 Christ our Surety p. 820 821. By way of Caution and by way of Satisfaction ibid. Christ the object and end of worship p. 12 Christ uses subordinate Teachers not out of Indigence but Indulgence p. 41. Christ a tender Shepherd p. 1107 Christ. All Sin a great injury 1. To his Merit 2. To his Example p. 20 21. Christ's undertaking the end of it to make us blessed in the enjoyment of God p. 72. Vid. Blessedness Christianity is not to be judged by Nominal Professors p. 1069 Christianity its design not to set up a Kingdom of Power but Patience p. 522. Vid. Conditions of Christianity It hath 2 parts 1. Destructive 2. Adstructive p. 184 Christian Religion onely worthy our choice p. 197. Reas. ibid. Church is Christ's School p. 41 Church true and false their difference p. 518 False Church hath usually the advantage of worldly Power above the true Church p. 518 Chusing Gods Precepts what it is why they must be chosen p. 1071. Motives to chuse them p. 177 Directions how to chuse them p. 1378 Civil Policy and Interest not opposed by Religion p. 144 Circumstances in our obedience much insisted on by God p. 26 27. Great prudence in applying Circumstances p. 449 Claim to Comfort from Gods Tender Mercies p. 516 Cold Prayer teaches God to deny p. 121 Comfort denotes two things p. 513. 'T is the Souls strength p. 513 Comfort in all its Causes matter of Comfort p. 592 Comfort right when according to the Tenour of the Word p. 40 Comfort Spiritual Eternal Temporal 551. All to be ascribed to God p. 552 513 Comfort in death from the everlastingness of Gods Testimonies p. 892. When we beg Comfort we must beg Grace to serve the God of our Comforts p. 927 928 Comfort in Afflictions may be askt from Gods Mercy p. 511 Comfort from Gods Word which teacheth us 1. To look off from Men to God 2. From Providences to Promises p. 147 591 629 329 Comfort under Afflictions 1 From God the Author of them 2 From the necessity of Affliction 3 The manner of Gods Afflicting 4 His helps to bear them p. 150 151. False Comforts p. 334 No comforts in Afflictions like those that are fetcht in from Gods Word p. 329. For 1 The quality of those comforts are Excellent 2 The provision he has made for our comfort are great 3 The manner is sweet p. 329 330 331 332 333. Commandements are exceeding broad 1 In respect of their uses 2 Of their duration p. 619 Command of God to be feared as well as the penalty p. 25 Commandments of God called his Ways why p. 22 Commandments of God excellent in their Matter p. 315 Commandments of God above the power of Corrupt Nature why p. 28. Great and small must be obeyed and why p. 33 They make us wiser than our Enemies how?-p 638 Commands for publick and private Duties relating to the outward and inner Man p. 33. To God and Man p. 34 Commandments have 1 God for their Author 2 God in giving them to be considered as a Lawgiver 3 They are holy just and good p. 455 456 Commerce with God Vid. communion Common Favours not to be rested in p. 912 113 Communion of Saints its excellency p. 504 Communion with God makes blessed p. 11. No communion with him without obedience to him ibid. Communion with God discovers his gloriousness and our vileness p. 61 Communion with God in Donatives and Duties p. 951 952 Company of wicked Men how far to be shunned 1. As to Familiarity with them 2. Durable Relation to them 3. Compliance with them in their Sins p. 773 774. Vid. carnal compliance reproof to such p. 353 Company Observations and Directions about it p. 776 777 It is to be kept with those that are gracious Reasons p. 430 431. Complaints under Affliction what they usually are p. 713 714 Complain we may complain to God not of God p. 551 Compliance with God our safety p. 637 Condescension of God in arguing with us p. 877 Condescension of God in using his Supremacy over us 1. In making overtures of Peace 2. In seeking to reclaim us by Mercies p. 131 Condition of him that falleth off from God worse then his that never begun p. 342 Conditions of professing Christianity and of enjoying outward things p. 415 Conduct of the Spirit necessary p. 170 Conference Religious either stated or occasional-p 81 82 Confession of sin with a broken heart argues one sincere p. 1106 Confession of the Truth gives inward Liberty when it brings us into outward Bonds p. 301 Confession of the Truth hindred by 1 Carnal Fear 2 Carnal Shame p. 306 309 331 332 Confession of Sin its Usefulness p. 164 Not enough to believe the Word with the Heart unless wee confess it with our Mouths p. 330. Reasons p. 330 331. Vid. Profession Confidence in Death and in the day of Judgment-p 30 37. Confirmation in the belief of Gods Word a matter of very great Moment p. 285 286 Congruity of choosing Gods Precepts p. 1073 Conscience Erroneons will mislead us p. 4 Conscience hath no Lawgiver but God p. 878 A good Conscience Comfort against reproach p. 301 Conscience must be the Lords as well as our Afflictions p. 15 Conscience its Light not to be opposed p. 21 26. It takes notice of thoughts as well as Actions p. 33 It is a bridle to restrain from Sin and a whip to lash us for sin p. 532. A great Comfort under and against Reproach p. 141 A good Conscience gives Encouragement to come to God p. 1079 Conscience when it works Christ knocks p. 412 Conscience to be kept necessary why How it may be kept p. 417 418 We must have a good Conscience as well as a good cause p. 977 978 Consent of every individual Person to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace necessary to partake of its benefit p. 909 910. Consideration of our ways makes way for Conversion p. 395 Consideration fit matter of it 1 Who made thee 2 Why did God make thee 3 Hast thou answered the End of his making thee 4 What unkindness not to remember him that made thee c. p. 397 398 399 225. Gods Considering our Afflictions what it signifies p. 969 Consideration of Gods Judgments what and how p. 346 Consolation for the afflicted from Gods Word p. 591 Vid. Comfort from Gods Word Constancy in Gods ways a great Duty p. 210. Motives