I remember it is a saying of Salvian Repugnanti corporis valetudine quae optamus facere non facimus many a time the want of strength and health in our bodies hindreth us from doing that sin which we have a mind to commit The great enjoyments of the world are not only the things which make men unwilling to die but both they and the great businesses and employments of the world are those things which keep Christians fettered they cannot pray they cannot wait upon God in ordinances they cannot fast they cannot solemnly worship God as others less intangled can amongst other advantages therefore of a poor and afflicted state an ingenious Author reckons this for one he saith it is puritatis condimentum the pickle of purity and holiness They are the very salt of the Earth without which the best of men would putrify in their full enjoyment They are you know sharp and acrimonious things that are the Enemies to putrefaction salt seasoneth things vinegar makes a good pickle preservative of things Sugar quickly corrupteth It is true there are too too many that have little enough of these things and as little of any gracious habits poverty and afflictions will not give grace but that is a rare Christian that abounds with the affluences of this life and yet keepeth his integrity is as pure as holy as full of duty as others who have less of this worlds goods they are no fountains of grace but they are great preservatives of it 2. Nay this is not all in the second place they conduce much to the improvements of grace especially of faith and patience They are two habits of grace that like Solomons brother and friend are made for adversity Tribulatio patientiae Robur operatur patientia fidei probationem parit Tribulation addeth to the strength of patience and patience bringeth forth the tryal of Faith If the people of God never met with affliction how should the trial of their faith appear more pretious than that of Gold which perisheth How should their patience have its perfect work Faith is never seen till we be out of sight of the thing which we pretend to trust God for Hope which is seen is no hope but if we hope for that which we see not then do we with patience wait for it Job's faith in God and love to God was seen in his trusting in him and adhering to him while God seemed to be killing of him Practical habits are improved by exercise The Souls of the Saints ordinarily come out of their trials more strong in faith more confirmed in hope more exercised in patience more flaming in love to God how then shall we call those things evils which instead of depraving the Soul and making it worse do tend to the improvement of the Soul and making of it better 3. Lastly the highest good which the Soul is capable of is the beatifical vision and enjoyment of God to all Eternity To this the low estate of the people of God doth exceedingly conduce 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Those who shall sit with God upon thrones are those which continue with him in tribulations The great multitude which St. John saw Rev. 7.9 10 11 12 13. which no man could number of all Nations kindreds people and tongues which stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands upon inquiry were found to be those who came out of great tribulation and had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb v. 14. Our sufferings in this life do not merit glory alas there is no perfection in our suffering and sufferings are but our duty nor is there any proportion betwixt light and momentany afflictions and a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory but they work for us a far more exceeding weight of glory Thou art mistaken then O Christian in thy Judgment God doth not as thou dreamest distribute good things to his Enemies nor yet evil things to his friends the business is no more than this Deus per ficta mala punit suos per larvata bona impios remunerat Nierem God indeed by things in appearance good rewardeth wicked men and by things in appearance evil he punisheth those that are his own people Nor let any one think to quibble here as if God mocked either the one or the other for although these things which the wicked enjoy are not real and substantial good things yet as they are the things which they desire delight in which they chuse above other things more solidly and substantially good they are to them really good and they have a tendency to make them better and the afflictions of the people of God as they have in them an enmity to their flesh and are ingrateful to their senses so they have something of real evil in them but comparatively with other evils or the greater good things which God hath prepared for his people they have nothing of evil in them In short every observing man discerneth the difference betwixt the love of an indulgent cockering mother and a wise and prudent father The father sheweth his love to the Child by fitting it to live in the world another day learning it to be a man to know the world and to converse with it to this purpose he inureth it to hardship he sends it to school and keepeth it under a severe discipline thus he sheweth his love to his Child and when the Child cometh to years of discretion the Child thanks him for it though under the discipline of its youth possibly the Child thinks the father its worst enemy The mother possibly sheweth her love by cockering the Child dandling it upon her knee providing fine clothes for it giving it sweet-meats c. Which things indeed have nothing of true love in them and do only tend to emasculate the Child and make it of an effeminate temper and more unfit to converse with or live in the world another day Patrium Deus habet in bonos animum saith an ingenious Author God loves good people not like a mother but like a father whom he loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every Child whom he receiveth he keeps them at the school of affliction and educateth them under the discipline of the rods and ferulaes of many trials and afflictions he suffereth not the world which is their natural mother according to the flesh to hug them in her bosom nor to dandle them upon her knees he chasteneth them that they might not be condemned with the wicked he hath said blessed is he whom thou chasteneth and teachest him out of thy Law This is but a fatherly dealing of God with his people God thus fitteth them for Heaven polisheth them for shafts in his own quiver by this darkness makes them fit for the Saints in light Why
can it do If the Jewish Child had dyed before the 8th day its want of circumcision doubtless did not endanger its salvation but the deferring it beyond that time might for ought I know endanger the wrath of God upon the Parent and that wrath might be executed in cutting off the Child I take the case to be much the same under the Gospel I am sure the Covenant is the same take heed of neglecting to instruct your Children betimes or to reprove and admonish them God may cut them off betimes and then your neglects will be a grief of heart to you Finally This calleth to all young ones not to neglect the remembrance of their creator in the days of their youth O let your tender years be no temptation to you to put off your duty towards God and your own souls in the morning of your life be plowing up the fallow ground of your hearts and sowing the seed of righteousness indeed in the evening our hands should not be slack but who knoweth whether he shall see an evening yea or no SERMON XLI Rom. I. 26. For this Cause God gave them up to vile Affections MY business is to clear up the equity of the Lord in the ways of his Actual Providence and to vindicate the justice and holiness of God from those who by the Sophistry of their humane wisdom seek to darken Divine knowledg I am resolving the difficulties relating to the motions of Divine Providence in punitive dispensations I have shewed you how just and reasonable it is that God should be the Author of the evil of punishment And that 1. to his own people notwithstanding the satisfaction of Christ accepted for them and the remission of their sins as to eternal punishment 2. As to those whom yet he knows to be such as will be worse for their afflictions and not better 3. As to children who have not been guilty of actual sins I proceed now a step further God doth not only punish sin with smart with pain diseases crosses c. but he sometimes punisheth sin with sin for sin giving men up to be led captive by their lusts The Text speaketh of such a Providence It relateth to the Heathens of whom the Apostle had been before speaking vers 19 20 he had been declaring what means they had to know God they had not indeed the light of the Gospel but they had the light of nature That which might be known of God was manifest in them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Then he sheweth how they abused and misimproved these means for v. 21 when they knew God in some measure as the light of nature and works of creation would discover him to them they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man to birds to four-footed-beasts and creeping things The business was this The Heathens had indeed but an imperfect knowledge of God no more than the light of nature and the works of God in nature shewed them but yet this was enough to have let them know that God could not be like a man or a beast or a creeping thing yet such images and representations of God they made and worshipped wherefore saith the Apostle vers 24. God also gave them up to lusts of uncleanness c. and so again in my Text vers 26. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections and so again vers 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are inconvenient Being filled with all unrighteousness c. Now the Question is Quest How it can consist with the holiness and purity of God thus to punish sin with sin for their committing of some sins to give them up to commit others The difficulty is because it is hard to conceive how God should do this without a willing of sin Although therefore it is plain enough in the Text and twice more repeated in the Chapter it be said God gave them up to uncleanness and God gave them up to a reprobate mind yet it will not be amiss for us from other Scriptures to take some auxiliary help for the proving of this That there hath been and doubtless are still such dispensations of God Then I shall attempt to reconcile these Providences to the justice holiness and goodness of God after that I shall make some application of my Discourse upon this Argument It is a known Text which you have Isaiah 6.9 10. Go and tell this people hear you indeed but understand not and see you indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed It is a Text which you find quoted six times in the New-Testament Mat. 13.14 Mar. 4.12 Luk. 8.10 Joh. 12.40 Act. 28.26 Rom. 11.8 In the first place Mat. 13. it is said that in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaias By hearing you shall hear and not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive For this peoples heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing c. That Text plainly makes it out that Gods judicial giving them over to their blindness was consequent to their sinful stopping of their ears and shutting of their eyes But Christ there saith that for this he spake to them in parables Mat. 13.13 but Rom. 11.8 it is said God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear and certain it is Isaiah had Gods commission chap. 6. and Acts 28.26 Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaias the Prophet to our Fathers saying Go unto this people and say Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive For the heart of this people is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed By all which it clearly appears that God punished the former sins of the Jews in their wilful shutting their eyes and stopping their ears against the revelation of the Divine will by a judicial giving them up to a blindness of mind and hardness of heart To this purpose is that 2 Thess 2.11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye for what cause vers 10. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Many other texts there are speaking of Gods hardning the heart of Pharaoh and the hearts of others but
them This is no observing of them Observing them argues a fixing of the eye of the mind as well as the body upon them without which a transient view of them is of very little significancy and import unto men 2. In a diligent reposing them in our minds this is that which we call a remembring of them The Lord doth his great work to be had in remembrance This is a consequent of the other we remember little of those things we only cursorily view as they come before us but when we six our eyes upon them and apply our minds to the knowledg of them then we remember them 3. In a continued and repeated view of them and reflexion upon them That man that suffereth not the great and daily workings of Divine Providence to pass by his eyes as a tale passeth through his ears which he heedeth not nor applieth his mind unto but fixeth his eye and mind upon them lodgeth them in his memory frequently reflecteth upon them repeateth and re-considereth them in his thoughts that is a wise man and he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord And that brings me to the second Question in the Explication of the Proposition Quest 2. How is he wise how is it an argument of wisdom and doth he appear to be a wise man who observeth these workings of Providence Wisdom is sometimes taken in a larger sense so a knowing understanding man is a wise man sometimes in a stricter sense as it signifieth a practical habit directing the life and conversation sometimes as comprehending both and so I shall take it in the Proposition He is a wise man he will have more knowledg and understanding than another man and will know better how to order and direct himself in the several parts of his Conversation 1. He will be a more knowing and understanding man We use to say Experience is the mistris of fools Experience maketh a fool wise and indeed without it notions give little wisdom we speak in the commendation of the ablest persons in any art or profession such a one is an experienced man and the more experienced any one is in his art or course the better you account him in it Nothing is so well learned by rule and precept as by example and president Hence it is a common maxim of these times That the study of books accomplisheth none so much as the study of men doth Knowledg is much increased by experimental observation By this Much of the knowledg of God will be let into the soul We cannot see God as he is in his own light we must behold him in his word and in his works From the Word of God we get a great knowledg of God what he is as to his Divine Being and in his glorious Attributes but the knowledg which we have of God from his Word is both confirmed in us and increased by his works of Providence and our observation of them as well as of his great work of Creation And that 1. As they establish the Proposition of the word and confirm our faith in it Psal 48.8 As we have heard so haeve we seen in the city of our God God will establish it for ever Demonstration confirms us in our notions The Church had before learned it that God would establish his Church but now they were confirmed in it when they had seen it in the Works of Providence what they had before heard from the mouth of Gods Prophets and Messengers indeed a notion is but a probationer in our souls until we come to have it established by Faith and Demonstration 2. An observation of Providence doth also increase knowledg as it expounds to us the word of God and giveth us a more certain clear and distinct knowledg of the revelations of it We do not know how to expound some words of God but as we are taught the meaning of them by his Providential Dispensations in the fulfilling of it Gods dispensations in the world both toward his Church and the enemies and persecutors help us to understand both his promises and his threatnings 2. He who observeth the motions of Divine Providence will also know better how to order and direct his life I told you that Wisdom strictly taken is a practical habit directing this He that thus observeth will best know how to order his Conversation But will some say Is not this to make Providence our rule I answer It is one thing to make the Providence of God an argument to justifie our actions which the word condemneth Another thing to take occasions from Providence for the performance of our duty Providence alone is no rule of our actions but the word which is the rule of our actions is more sealed and confirmed to us by Providence Though Providences give no rule yet they wonderfully confirm and establish a rule when what we have read and heard in the word we see in the dealings of God it giveth a new life and makes a new impression of the rule upon our hearts God hath said Blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days and honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God give thee Now when we see God cutting off cruel and bloody men in the strength of their years or cutting off a stubborn and rebellious Child in his youth it wonderfully confirmeth the word to us and helpeth us to guide our Conversation so as we may not tread in their steps and be partakers of their Judgments 2. Again Though Providence be no rule as to particular actions yet it is a great help to us as to the three great principles of all our spiritual actions which are Faith Fear Love It is true the Proposition of the word is the object of our Faith when a soul giveth assent to the Proposition of the word because of the Authority of God who hath revealed it and this is the reason why wicked men though they have the Scriptures as well as others yet walk not in the light of them because they believe them not they assent not to the Propositions of Truth that are revealed in them but either say in their heart That it is but the fancy and invention of men or else flatter themselves with the hopes of impunity saying with those in Deuteronomy That they shall have peace although they walk according to the imaginations of their own hearts But now when a man observeth the Providence of God exemplifying and verifying the Word of God it much helps his faith in the word especially as to those in whose heart God hath wrought a previous habit of Faith It is true in this case the Providences of God will do little alone we have the words of Christ They have Moses and the Prophets if they will not believe they will not believe if one should rise from the dead But where a soul is first taught of God to give
was corrected and which when he was a child he deprecated and would gladly have cut in pieces Let me shew you a little that these things which we disgrace with the name of Evils and of which the holy and gracious God is not ashamed to be the Author are not Evils but such as deserve a better name and such good things as are some of the greatest goods the child of God meets with on this side of Heaven To this purpose we will consider them 1. As they contribute to the Predication of the Holiness and Justice of God and the making him to be feared and adored in the world 2. As they many ways contribute to the happiness of those that shall be saved 1. I say first as they predicate the glory of Gods Justice and Holiness Justice and Holiness are two eminent Attributes of the Divine Being so essential unto it as if he should not be just and holy he could not be God Now the Holiness and Justice of God could never be so known in the world but for the afflictions troubles and punishments which are abroad in it God is infinitely removed from our senses we can only read him in his word and in his works The word of God evidenceth these two Attributes to us by faith for the word is the object of faith and faith is the evidence of things not seen The word of God speaketh God a just and holy God and therefore we believe it but as in a State the Justice of the Magistrates would never be seen in making good Laws and discoursing just things if he never put them in execution so neither should we ever have any demonstration of the Justice and Holiness of God if it were not for those afflictions and punishments of sinners by which he declareth to the world his abhorrence of sin and the exactness of his Justice I remember the Apostle Rom. 3.25 telleth us That Christ was set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare Gods righteousness and God being about to destroy Pharaoh saith I will get me honour upon Pharaoh What honour the honour of his Justice and Righteousness It is the great interest of God to declare unto the world his Justice and Holiness How else should he have the revenue of his glory from these Attributes Now I say Evils of punishment are upon this account great goods and were necessary if they were causative of no other than this good If God obtained no more from them than the Proclamation of his Holiness and Predication of his Justice and Righteousness yet this were enough and thus much he gains from his punishment of the worst of men if they be not made better by them yet God is by them made more glorious and declareth his righteousness The argument is this Those things cannot be evil however we may miscall them which immediately tend to make God more glorious in the eyes of the world but this all Evils of punishment do they speak God a pure and holy God and a just and righteous God But there is much more to be said than this is 2. They very much contribute to the good of such as shall be saved 1. They contribute to make us better while we live here and 2. To make us eternally happy hereafter It is only the foolish child that as I said before quarrelleth at the rods and ferula's that correct the wildness and wantonness of its youth The grown man blesseth God and thanks his master for them He that spareth the rod saith Solomon hateth the child but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes Prov. 13.24 and advising Parents again saith Prov. 23.13 14. Withhold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not dye thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell In short 1. By afflictions Souls ordained to life are kept from hell 2. By afflictions such souls are fitted for the Kingdom of Heaven 1. I say first By afflictions as by a divine sacred means the souls of such as are ordained unto life are saved from hell If mans rod may be a means to such a blessed end Gods rod will certainly do much more the rod and reproof give wisdom Prov. 29.15 Solomon tells us That foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him Prov. 22.15 It is as true as to the Children of God as it is with reference to the Children of men Have not you observed a tender Mother sometimes seeing a foolish child too busie with the fire or candle taking the childs hand or finger and holding it so near that it scalds or burns it self so learning the burnt child to dread the fire God hath never a child but is too too ready to be playing with hell-fire playing over the hole of the Asp and den of the Cockatrice God takes his childrens fingers and scalds them a little with the fire of Hell in their Consciences making them to be a continual terror instead of a continual feast or with the Candles of Afflictions and outward trials and thus they are delivered from Hell Adam had never seen death he had only heard of it in the threatning in case he did eat of the Tree that stood in the midst of the Garden he put out his hand and took of the fruit and did eat his posterity shall now see and feel death they shall be in deaths often and have leisure to think if the torments of the stone or the gout be so great what will the torments of Hell be If I am not able to stand under the terrors of an affrighted Conscience for a few months how shall I abide everlasting wrath That so he may be more wary and afraid Demonstrations of the truth of the word have a great force with our unbelieving hearts God hath therefore in infinite wisdom and goodness so ordered it that one while his people shall be in the fire of a Fever another while in the darkness of a divine desertion By the first they shall learn to conclude how hot the fire of Hell must be by the later how dreadful that utter darkness shall be which shall be the impenitent sinners portion what it is to be forsaken of God for ever upon the hearing that dreadful sentence Depart from me you cursed into everlasting burnings prepared for the Devil and his Angels They shall sometimes find Satan at their right hand to learn them what it is to be with the Devils to all eternity they shall sometimes want bread to eat and water to quench their thirst and left from thence to conclude what the condition of a Dives is that would in those flames be glad of a cup of cold water to cool his tongue they shall have extremities of pains for a little time in some particular joynts and limbs and thence gather what the torments of the whole body
and sicknesses of little ones all are warned to be continually upon their watch not knowing when the Lord will call for them every little Bell that telleth us a child is gone soundeth to us would we but understand it Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil days come Further yet God by this dispensation in which as you have heard he is just doth mind all of the duty they owe unto their children to bring them up in the knowledge of the Scriptures in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and particularly not to defer the ordinance of Baptism beyond a reasonable time It is doubtless Gods ordinance as to children not only a sign of Gods Covenant but a medium in order to salvation though efficacious only when God is pleased to make it so not ex opere operato upon the work done I have now shewed you the equity of God in this particular way of his Providence Vse It is a dispensation under which there are few Parents that are not brought Let me therefore enlarge a little upon some practical Application of this Discourse shewing you what may be our duty reasonably concluded from this dispensation I shall open to you something of it in three or four particulars 1. It is doubtless our duty yea the duty of all flesh To be silent before the Lord under such Providences The loss of a child especially if it be a first-born or an only child sometimes goeth very near us But oh let us not be tempted from it to open our mouths against the God of Heaven nor to entertain a thought in our souls derogatory to the justice and goodness of God Our children are sinners and obnoxious to the justice of God God may in justice punish them for their own sins or for our sins I hinted to you before that it was a beam of Arminius his new light that none should be condemned for original sin only and he is followed in it by all the Remonstrants in their Confessions Apologies as also by others of that tribe Socinus also and his followers shake hands with them in that notion Yet Arminins answering Mr. Perkins who to disprove Arminius his doctrine of Gods rejection of any because he foresaw they would reject the grace of the Gospel had pinched him telling him this could be no cause of the rejection of infants out of the pale of the Church God could not foresee they would reject the Gospel who he foresaw should never have the Gospel preached or tendred to them answereth him thus At inquam ego in parentibus abavis avis atavis tritavis evangelii gratiam repudiarunt quo actu meruerunt ut a Deo deserantur That is But I say saith he they rejected the Gospel in their Parents their Grandfathers their great Grandfathers or former Progenitors Now how this is consistent with his other doctrine I cannot understand for certainly if God may be justified in rejecting the souls of some infants from eternity because he foresaw that their Great-Grandfathers would reject and refuse the Gospel when-as they by no personal act should do any such thing he may be justified even in the eternal condemnation of children for the sin of Adam or the personal obliquity and corruption of their natures and so it is not unrighteous with God eternally to condemn a child for its original corruption only But we are not now speaking of eternal condemnation but of bodily and temporal yea and temporary punishments which may very well consist with the eternal salvation of the soul and it is very absurd for us to think that for such punishments the infant may not be punished without the impeaching of the justice of God though it hath been guilty of no actual sin deserving so early a chastisement of it Oh therefore suffer not in such cases your hearts or lips to transgress God may do it in righteousness He may thus justly punish original sin in the child he may justly punish our sins upon the backs of our children Speak not a word against God in this Providence 2. Do what in thee lyeth secondly to find out the cause When the Jews queried our Saviour concerning the man that was born blind for whose sin it was whether his or his parents Our Saviour answereth them that it was neither for his sin nor yet for his Parents but that the glory of God might appear in that famous miracle which our Saviour wrought in restoring him to his sight It is an hard thing to find out Gods ends in his dispensations of punitive Providence God may sometimes afflict and take away little ones for their own sins for the sin of Adam for the iniquity in which they were conceived and the sin in which they were brought forth God may sometimes do it for the Parents sins Sometimes he may do it principally neither for the one nor for the other of these ends but for the good of the Parents or for the good of the Children you have heard that this motion of Divine Providence is highly reasonable upon more then one account But yet when we feel the smart of such a dispensation we know not how to look upon it otherwise than as a punishment but now our business under such providences is to enquire what sin in us God doth in that manner revenge The Scripture will guide us a little in the finding out of this and we may possibly find out some other helps to make us understand these dispensations It was threatned to David 2 Sam. 12. For his sins in the matter of Vriah and his wife and for that by them he had given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme It is one of those common scourges with which God chastiseth some Parents for their sinful lives and whoso is conscious to himself of a sinful course of life need not enquire much for what cause God brings him under such dispensations It is matter of more narrow enquiry why God thus chasteneth his own people Possibly if they will search narrowly under such a Providence they may find if not the very sin for which God contendeth with them yet some laps of their lives of that nature as may give them a just ground of jealousy and suspicion that that is the sin for which God so troubleth them I shall not be positive in this determination lest I seem too boldly to inquire into the secret counsels of God men should do well under these Providences to listen to their own consciences which oft times tell them the truth in such cases But let me ask of thee or rather desire thee to ask thy self these two or three following Questions 1. Didst thou never sinfully distrust the Providence of God concerning thy Children And secretly repine at Gods bounty to thee in them this is now a temptation incident to such as are of meaner condition in the world and not so able as others to maintain their Families God promiseth the
and in the same Nation where the Gospel is preached some have a sound and little more Preachers in some places in stead of preaching the Gospel Preach human Philosophy or the lusts of their own hearts In other places the Word of God is preached faithfully and powerfully so that the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Men are compelled to come in This difference in the external ministration which let me tell you hath no small influence upon the eternal concern and interest of men for God doth not ordinarily work by way of miracle and heal the eyes of the blind with Clay and Spittle is fountain'd only in the free-will and Grace of God Vse 2. But I trust I speak to some who have tasted further of the mercy and Grace of God than receiving the general Dispensation of the Gospel with their outward ears God hath by his holy Spirit upon the preaching of the Gospel effectually moved their hearts and conquered their Souls into a subjection to Christ They have embraced the Lord Jesus Christ by a Gospel-faith they are brought by a mighty hand out of darkness into marvelous Light and translated out of this Kingdom of Sin and Satan into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus I have this day been discovering to you the Fountain of this Grace of which God hath made you partakers you have heard that it is the will of God only which hath distinguished betwixt you and others It is not because you were more nobly born than others nor because you were more rich more honourable or by nature better complexioned than others God saw no more goodness in your natures than in the natures of others you were all the same flesh he infused into all Souls of the same nature and species only he hath willed rather to shew mercy unto your Souls than to the Souls of others because he hath set his love upon you There are three duties that hence lie very obvious 1. The First is Praise Thankfulness and Admiration Certainly every such Soul stands highly obliged with the Psalmist to cry out Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits If free Grace will not affect our hearts and fill our mouths with a new Song nothing will It must certainly be an amazing consideration for a Soul to sit down and think I was in the same mass and lump of lost man-kind that others are I was by Nature a Child of wrath as much as any my Childhood and Youth were Vanity as much as any others I was grinding at the same Mill it may be in actual sins I outstripped many others Now that the Lord should look upon me and pluck me as a brand out of the Fire that God should open my eyes and change my heart What did God see in me Possibly my more external circumstances were far less and more unvaluable than those of thousands of others my House was of small account and little esteem there are many more great and noble more wise and prudent than I am many who in all appearance so far as man can judg might have been more serviceable to God than I am or am ever like to be now that the Lord should pass them over and shew mercy to me certainly no Soul can seriously think of these things but must be ravished with the apprehensions of the inaccountable love of God in these things and say What shall I render unto thee O Lard what shall I render unto thee 2. This notion of Gods Soveraignty freedom and inaccountbleness in the dispensations of his Grace should teach every Soul that hath been or shall be made a partaker of it the great lesson of humility The Apostle Rom. 3.27 giveth this as the reason why God hath setled the justification of a Sinner upon a bottom of free Grace and hath excluded works that he might also exclude boasting and teach those who glory to glory in the Lord upon this Argument the Apostle exhorteth the Gentiles not to boast against the Jews Rom. 11.22 Behold the goodness and the severity of God saith he to those who abide in their unbelief severity to thee goodness Pride is a sinful habit disposing the Soul to swell in the opinion of some excellency in it self and a little thing will swell our corrupt hearts The Apostle propoundeth this very consideration as a cure for that tumour in the Souls of Christians 1 Cor. 4.7 For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou which thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it It is nothing but the will of God that hath made a difference betwixt thee and the vilest Sinner breathing betwixt thee and the most filthy Drunkard the most furious Persecutor c. It was not for any worth any goodness or holiness which the Lord saw in thee but of his meer free will and Grace God hath shewed mercy to thy Soul what hast thou now of thy own to boast or glory in Thou hast indeed reason to glory and to make thy boast in the Lord and to bless God for what he hath done for thy Soul more than for a thousand others but there is no thanks to thee his will his own will was the fountain of his Grace extended to thee God hath had mercy upon thy Soul only because he would have mercy O therefore be not high-minded but fear and walk humbly before God 3. Lastly this calleth upon all of you who have tasted of this free and unaccountable Grace to live a distinguishing life and conversation There is a Generation that fancyeth that the Doctrine of Free-Grace opens a door to Liberty It is but the old Cavil in Saint Pauls time there were those that thus accused the Doctrine of Free-Grace as if it gave men a liberty to go on in sin as appeareth by the Apostles anticipation of that Cavil Rom. 6.1 What saith he shall we then continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid and so he goeth on shewing that any such conclusion from his principles was unreasonable How shall we saith the Apostle who are dead unto sin live any longer therein Special distinguishing Free-Grace both deadneth the Soul to Sin and inflameth the Soul with a love to God who hath made the Soul to differ so as that Soul cannot live as other men the love of God constraineth him he must apprehend himself obliged to do more for God than others because God hath shewen more mercy to him than unto others and that meerly because he would shew mercy What can possibly be imagined to have a greater and lay an higher obligation upon the Soul to all manner of holiness in conversation to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord as the Apostle speaketh SERMON L. Hosea XIII 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but
Jeroboam that he only of the house of Jeroboam went to his grave in peace because there was some good thing found in him Sometimes and most ordinarily God worketh upon peoples hearts in their riper state of which are the most plentiful instances in Scripture You read of the thief upon the Cross converted in the last day of his life and what we find in Scripture we find God still doing in the dispensations of his Providence The age in which we have lived hath afforded many instances of children whose hearts we may charitably judg from the accounts we have had of them God had in their very childhood Regenerated and Sanctified them Blessed be God we are not without some instances of persons and those not a few whom God hath wrought upon in their more adult estate and some also in their old age though Examples of that still are and ever were very rare This is the first variety obvious to every Eye 2. A second variety observable is in the means which God is pleased to make use of For these God never tied himself to the same means The preaching of the Gospel was always made use of by God as the most ordinary means It was at the preaching of Peter that Three Thousand Souls were in one day converted and the Apostle telleth us that it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believed 1 Cor. 1.21 And the Apostle tells us that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God But yet God hath made use though more rarely of other means the means which God first used to the Eunuch seems to be his reading in the Prophet Isaiah Sometimes God made use of Providences you read of many converted and induced to believe in Christ upon the account of his Miracles and still God is pleased to use the same variety of means Generally indeed God maketh use of the preaching of the Gospel sometimes he sanctifieth the reading of the word sometimes he maketh use of Providences I think I have sometimes read concerning Waldus the Father of those ancient Protestants called the Waldenses that the seeing of one of his companions suddenly drop down dead was the first means of his conversion we read of a great dread that fell upon People upon the sudden death of Ananias and Saphirah My self have known one that would acknowledg that his hearing of Bells Ring for persons dead was a great means to beget serious thoughts in him First of turning unto God It pleased God to make use of Manasses his Chains to turn his heart and the imprisonment of Paul Acts 16. to convert the Goaler and his whole Family Sometimes God useth the instructions of Parents sometimes one means sometimes another as it pleaseth him 3. A third observable variety respecteth The manner of Gods working upon Souls It is true in some especially two respects God dealeth a-like withal 1. He forceth no Soul he indeed maketh it willing and giveth to will but the Soul in its conversion to God moveth willingly and freely 2. Secondly He putteth forth an Almighty power as to every Soul that is converted The Soul is made willing but it is in the day of the Lords power Psal 110.3 But yet the effects of this power are not always the same all are not drawn in the like manner some are drawn by a Silken Thred others by Iron-Fetters some God works upon in a more rough way some in a more soft and gentle way Some are a little or not at all under the Spirit of bondage others are Months and Years under it they are filled with the Lords terrors and cry unto him out of the belly of Hell before he heareth them some are drawn with the Cords of love only others with the Chains of fears Some are as it were insensibly drawn and the Spirit of God as it were slippeth into their Souls without any noise they become Temples of the Holy Ghost and there is neither the noise of Ax nor Hammer heard about the Spiritual building others are terrified like the Jaylor Acts 16. cast down to the Earth like Paul both in order to conversion and their reception of converting Grace 2. Secondly You shall observe That God sometimes makes his way to the heart by the head sometimes he begins at the heart and by that maketh his way to the head my meaning is sometimes God begins his work upon knowing persons who have been Catechised out of the Law and from Children have had a knowledg of the Holy Scriptures sanctifying their first Principles to them and reflecting upon their Hearts and Consciences the notions of truth which they have been bred up in the Holy Spirit bringing to their remembrance what of God they have formerly heard from Ministers Parents or Goverours As to others God maketh his way from the heart to the head They have great degrees of ignorance as to the truths of God but God blesseth his word so far as that they can apprehend they are in a lost condition and must look for another righteousness besides their own and take up a new course of life they hear of a Saviour come into the World of a fulness in him and a readiness to save unto the utmost those who by faith come unto him this makes them to inquire return and come to seek for Spiritual knowledg as for Silver and to dig for it as for hidden treasure and by following on to know the Lord they came to know him But this is enough to have hinted you as to the varieties to be observed in Gods methods of working in the conversion of Souls Let me in the next place shew the reasonableness of the Divine workings in this great work 1. And first as to the variety observed in point of time 1. Some are converted young Possibly God may do it that he may Crown the indeavours of Parents Governours and thereby engage others to take care of the Souls of their Correlations committed to their charge Some Parents are very solicitous for the Spiritual good of their children whetting upon them their lost condition by Nature often minding them of Eternity and calling upon them to remember their Creator in the days of their youth now where any will do this God takes notice of it and will often Crown those Domestick labours with a desired success for the encouragement of others God gives in to their prayers the Souls of their Children oft-times while yet they are Children It is said of Monica the Mother of Augustine that she was a woman of many tears and prayers for her Son and Ambrose was wont to comfort her telling her that it was impossible that a Child of so many tears should perish It is not impossible indeed that some should perish who have been Children of many tears and prayers for whom godly Mothers have travailed in pain again till Christ should be formed in them there is no merit in our prayers and tears neither hath
the incouragement of all persons set in relation to others to a faithful performance of their duties and a watching over and for souls committed to their trusts It discourageth all sorts of labours when we see nothing of that fruit from it which we expected or intended But of this I have spoke before Further yet to shew you the reasonableness of the variety of Providence in the manner of converting and bringing home of souls unto himself I noted it to you in Two things 1. God sometimes makes his way by the head to the heart sometimes by the heart to the head This appears exceeding reasonable 1. That God may commend knowledg of spiritual things to us and as I said before encourage duty We are persons whose understandings are pittifully imperfect in the things of God and are very prone to take up false notions and measures and because the influx and operation of the Spirit of God is by all men of sound judgment in the things of God determined necessary to conversion we are apt to think that we have nothing to do with our children and servants but only to wait until God shall move the waters I mean change their hearts and all Instruction and Catechising is needless and that bringing up youth to a knowledg of the form of sound words is only to learn them to be Hypocrites c. God therefore to shew us the advantage of spiritual knowledg and to mind us of and encourage us to our spiritual duty is pleased sometimes to make his way to the head by the heart reflecting the notions of truth which have been instilled into us while we are young upon our consciences making that knowledg instrumental to our conversion and eternal Salvation and so letting the governours of others know that they have not laboured in vain with the souls committed to their charge 2. On the other side God sometimes making his way by the heart to the head making impressions upon the hearts of some poor blind ignorant Souls and setting them on work to inquire after Salvation lets us know that the conversion of a Sinner is a work of grace and divine power not a meer rational effect of notions imprinted upon the understanding nor of moral Suasion alas these poor creatures possibly are not fit objects for such a thing but the finger of God is in it who hath the hearts of all men in his hand and turneth them as it pleaseth him thus by this variety of his Providence he doth both honour his own ordinance and shew the profit and usefulness of means and also the mighty power that is put forth in the changing of the heart by effectual grace both which it is necessary the World should be convinced of And this is enough for a reasonable account of the second variety The last variety which I observed was Gods keeping some Souls a longer time under the Spirit of bondage than others Some he is pleased to draw to himself more sweetly rather by arguments of love than terrors and arguments of wrath others he is pleased more to fill with terrors yea and to keep their Souls a long time under them and this we find by experience is oftimes matter of some trouble to others whom God hath dealt more gently with they begin to doubt and suspect whether God hath wrought any real change in them because they have not been in the belly of Hell as others have been now there may be a reasonable account also given of this difference though we must not pretend to find out the bottome of the Divine counsels in this dispensation of his Providence I shall say little of the difference of Natural complexions and constitutions which is not inconsiderable in this case He is little read in men and women in the World who doth not observe that as in the earth of which man is made there is a great difference of Soil that one Soil doth more easily suck up a showre of Rain and digest it than others So in man there are some complexions that are far more tenacious of grief and impressive by fear than others are such are chiefly Melancholick and some Flegmatick complextons Now it is true God in his work of conversion could cure this but he ordinarily doth not work miraculously and where God begins a work upon the Souls of any who have bodies which they inform of these sad and dark constitutions it is not at all to be wondered they being Naturally more prone to fears and jealousies to doubts and suspicions and more tenacious of grief and sorrow if by the working the Natural working of these passions to which their Natural complexion and constitution more fully subjecteth them if they be longer under the Spirit of bondage than others You will see at the same case with them in other things exciting those passions and unless you would suppose that God in the conversion of such should work miraculously and alter their natural complexion and constitution it is not reasonable to suppose that it should be otherwise it is but according to the natural workings of their Spirits who can get off no occasions of sorrow and trouble so soon as others can who are of more airy chearly constitutions 2. But a Second reason of this variety may reasonably be conceived to arise from a difference of guilt It is true every sin deserved the Eternal and utmost wrath of God Every sin is against an infinite God and hath a kind of infinity and unmeasurableness of guilt in it but it is as true that every sin doth not lay a like load and burthen upon the conscience nor is every sin equally hainous in the sight of God but is very much varied by the circumstances of it both by the circumstances of the fact and of the persons that commit it Some sins do more Vastare onerare conscientiam and consequently a Christian finds it an harder matter to persuade himself that God will forgive him than others and hence it is not at all to be wondered that when God cometh to call home such a Soul a Manasses a Saul a Mary Magdalen c. He makes them to feel more of his power and terrors and keeps them at a longer distance from any apprehensions of his love they have more highly provoked him and possibly been a more eminent scandal and it is but a righteous thing with God to make them feel the smart of it 3. A third thing which may make this variety of God Providential dealings appear unto us not unreasonable may be The design which God hath upon such a converted Soul and that either with respect unto others or with respect to the carrying on of his work in his own Soul 1. With respect unto others when God hath a design to make some Soul eminently useful to the Souls of others The Apostle tells us Heb. 2.18 That Christ was himself tempted that he might be able to succour those that are tempted
that it may live and not dye God calleth into his Vineyard at several hours some he calleth at the Sixth some at the Nineth some at the Eleventh hour Happy thrice happy are they whom God findeth at the Sixth hour in their youth and persuadeth to go into his Vineyard they ordinarily find not so hard a labour of the new-birth they have the priviledg of a longer familiarity and acquaintance with God they have more opportunities of doing God service God often honoreth them to do him some more eminent service but if you have slipped that hour if it be the Ninth hour nay if it be in the wane of your life if it be towards Evening with you that you have nothing to do but to repent and dye singing the Song of old Simeon Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation yet thou hast no cause to discourage thy self God doth not work upon all Souls at one and the same period of time Great sinners have no reason to discourage themselves the gate to Heaven may appear something straiter to you than unto others you may have an harder work of it it is an hard thing for those that are accustomed to do evil to do well but yet if God will give you an heart to repent if the Lord shall change your hearts and incline you to turn unto him there is mercy with God even for you God can men make to bring forth fruit in their old age Vse 3. Lastly and with that I shall shut up this discourse This speaketh aloud unto all such as have the charge of others as Parents Masters Tutors and Governours to be daily labouring with them for the good of their Souls using all possible means to bring them unto God It is Solomons advice Ecc. 11.6 In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening let not thy hand be slack for thou knowest not which shall prosper this or that or whether both shall be alike good you that are Parents of Children Masters of Servants in any relation Governours of youth see what an ingagement lyeth upon you to bring up your Children to Reading the word Catechizing to bring them to hear faithful Preachers sow the seeds of Spiritual learning and instruction in them in the Morning of their lives hearken not to those who would perswade you that Catechizing in your families is useless and that a Notional knowledg signifieth nothing until God come to work in their hearts that is true but ill applyed when used as a discouragement to the use of the means of knowledg God doth his work by the use of means on our parts and Preaching is not the only means God sometimes in the conversion of sinners maketh his way to their hearts by their heads sanctifying notions of truth dropt into Souls of persons in their tender years and reflecting them many years after upon the conscience you know not which shall prosper this or that use them to read the Scriptures to be examined questioned and catechised out of the Scriptures to hear lively and powerful preaching you know not which shall prosper in order to the conversion of their Souls and turning them to God this or that whether reading or preaching or Family-instruction God that can work without means useth as you have heard a variety of means and doth not limit himself to this or that Or whether both may not prove alike good God may use one means to begin another to perfect one to plant another to water one for laying the foundation another for building thereon and laying the corner-stone and yet when the building is finished you shall see reason enough to cry Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy name be given the glory to cry Grace Grace unto it The Knowing person when converted hath usually if not guilty of notorious sins against his light the easiest new-birth and the most quiet and peaceable life Many more doubts and fears trouble those that are more imperfect in their knowledg of the things of God than trouble others O let it not be said of you as it was said of Herod upon occasion of the killing of his own Child amongst the rest of the Infants That it was better to be Herods Hog than his Child Let it not be said of any of you that it is better to be your Horse or Swine or other Beast than your Child or Servant or Scholar For your Beasts you provide all things sutable to their Natures and capacities O remember your Children have Spiritual beings and are born into the World with a capacity of Eternity nay under a certain ordination to a miserable or blessed Eternity SERMON LIII Isaiah 28.29 This also cometh from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working THE Particle This in the front of my Text is relative to what went before where the Prophet had been speaking of some works of Divine Providence and those but of an inferiour Nature if compared with others the discretion by which men having divers sorts of Grain and Seeds are taught to get them out of their husks and ears by instruments not always the same but suted to the respective Grain or Seed they intend to get out Of this it is that the Text speaks This discretion and saith it cometh from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel So that I desire you to observe that my following discourses which I shall bottom on this Text are not founded on the first words and the relative Particle This but upon the latter where Gods wonderfulness in Counsel and excellency in working are join'd together Gods excellency in the workings of Providence floweth from his wonderful Counsel and if such little instincts as the foregoing verses speak of be from the Lord the Lords workings and from a wonderful Counsel an easie argumentation will conclude that Gods dispensations of special grace by the hand of his Providence must needs be the effects of infinite wisdom and proceed from the Lord who is wonderful in Councel which is the point I have in hand and to vindicate Divine wisdom from our exceptions against it because of the variety which God useth in his dispensations of it and the inequal distributions of it to the Children of men I have spoken already to the varieties of Providence in the dispensations of the first grace by which a Soul is converted and turned from sin unto God in which work the Soul is meerly passive I come now to speak to those dispensations of Spiritual grace wherein the Soul is not meerly passive but active as to these also we shall observe a great variety in the motions of Divine Providence and a great inequality in the distributions of it of which I shall give you some account and then shut up the discourse To this inequality of distribution good Christians often find it an hard thing to reconcile their thoughts and although God must be allowed to have