of expression there 's an inlargement of common natural affection these are the better gifts But then again there 's a spirit of Adoption there 's a crying of Abba Father there 's a childlike and a filial boldness and closing with God in the duty There 's a making known of our requests to God as the Scripture calls it Phil. 4.6 that 's the more excellent way So in like manner take it in Preaching There 's a good invention and a good composure and a good memory and a voluble tongue and a pleasing delivery c. These are the better gifts but then there 's a word in season there 's a speaking to the conscience there 's a savory spirit there 's an heart transform'd into he nature and power of those things which are utter'd and deliver'd by the mouth that 's the most excellent way And so I might likewise instance in divers others of the same nature with them There are gifts and there are graces both which are ingredients unto them as a Religious duty as a means to salvation and such Considerations of it as these c. and that which concerns us is not only to look after the former but also the latter and to the latter more than the former In all performances of this nature whatsoever we undertake we should make it our chiefest study and business to excell in the most excellent way and to abound in those gifts especially above all other which do savour most and come nearest to Religion and the truth of Grace wrought in the heart And we should not satisfie our selves in the one without the other Again yet further which is also pertinent and proper to the matter in hand we should be careful so to order and dispose of our gifts for the getting and improving of them as that withal we do not prejudice our Graces and hinder and obstruct them we should take heed of losing our selves in our Studies as concerning the frame and temper of our be arts For this is that by the way which we may take notice of and shall find to be most true by certain experience that though there be no kind of learning which considered simply in it self does carry an absolute repugnancy and opposition and contradiction to the work of Grace in the Soul but such as is very well consistent and agreeable with it in the thing and that also in some measure and degree yet there are some kind of studies especially above the rest which by too much intention upon them and not watching over the heart in them may much indispose the Soul to that gracious and heavenly disposition and present frame of heart which is desirable in it in regard of the subject This is too clear and evident by divers instances of it in sundry particulars some by too much ingagement in Controversies and Philosophical disputes others by too much ingagement in Criticisms and Rabbinical observations others by too much ingagement in Histories and Chronologies and the like are not only oftentimes lost to the World and to civil converse amongst men but are likewise much lost to Heaven and to spiritual communion with Christ This proceeds not from the things themselves which are all of them as I said before very good in their several kinds and agree well together but only from our corruption and the weakness of our nature which cannot so easily in an high degree attend two things at once in diverso genere At least it proceeds from our carelesness and non-attendancy and inconsiderateness in not carrying such a narrow watch and circumspection over our own souls as indeed it becomes us to do Like Martha we are troubled about many things and neglect that one thing which is needful and the choosing of that better part which shall not be taken away from us for there may be a kind of worldliness and covetousness to excess as I may so call it even in our professions and callings as well as in other mens although it be of a little finer nature than the others are Therefore we should here look to our selves Covet earnestly the best gifts and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way Labour to advance in Learning but still remember to keep up in Grace And here I might take occasion again to commend the work of Preaching unto you upon another ground and consideration than as yet I have mentioned and spoken of and that is as it is so much the freer of all other works from this danger nay as it is a good remedy and prevention against it which being performed so it should be as a great help and advantage to the heart to bring it and keep it in frame and to fit it for communion with God to sanctisie a Sabbath and to dispose us to all the duties of Religion according to that expression in Psal 23.23 He maketh me to lye down in green pastures He leadeth me beside the still waters He restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his names sake Lastly This excellent way it does not only refer to the getting of Grace our selves but likewise to the promoting of it in others And this was that which the Apostle Paul in this place did seem especially to aim at in these Corinthians they were of that humour and disposition at least for a great many amongst them that they looked more after the credit and honour of their gifts and such gifts as were of greatest applause than they did after the good and benefit of their gifts and such Gifts as were of greatest profit Now this is that therefore which he does occasionally propound and commend unto them not only a simple qualification but likewise a concomitant edification not only to have better Gifts but also to do more good with them this is the most excellent way Humility and Thankfulness in the injoyment of Gifts and charity and faithfulness in the improvement of Gifts is the most excellent way in order to the Gifts themselves This is that which St. Paul as he does especially intend in this Text so he does also further urge and prosecute in the following Chapter and that particularly from his own example in the 14th chapter of this Epistle the 18 and 19 verses where he speaks to this purpose I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all Yet in the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue Where ye may observe that he still principally drives at edification with those Gifts which he partaked to have spoken ten thousand words in an unknown tongue that had been more for his own credit and admiration and applause in the world yea but to speak but five words with his understanding that by his voyce he might teach others also That was more for the good of the Church And he made choice of this
and in all the expressions and accomplishments of either and we shall find him to be very fitly set forth to us by this resemblance in the Text whether as to the steps of the Ladder or to the terms of it The terms of it of Heaven and Earth And the steps of it in the Pasages betwixt either They are such as are very remarkable in Christ in all the works and performances of his Mediatorship from his Conception to his Ascension it self In them all he reach'd from Earth to Heaven as he testifies of himself Joh. 16 28. I came forth from the Father and am come into the World And again I leave the World and go to the Father And so Eph. 4 10. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all Heavens that he might fill all things It is that which is observable and considerable in every Mistery in his Birth in his Passion in his Ascention and what not There was somewhat of Earth in Each and somewhat of Heaven and he was a Ladder set up betwixt both in the undergoing of them And so much may be spoken of this Ladder here in the Text in the primary and Principal notion of it viz. As it referrs to Christ The Second is the Secundary and Subordinate as it refers to the Church of Christ and every particular part and member of it The Church is either Collectively taken or distributively Collectively in the whole Company of Believers or Distributively in every single and distinct Christian This Ladder it was a Representation in part of Jacob himself and that both Mystically and Personally Mystically as he was a tipe of the whole Church at large And Personally as he was such a man in particular First Wee 'l take it in the first Sense for the Church of God considered at large that is established in Scripture called by the name of Jacob and may very well have the Notion of this Ladder fasten'd upon it for it reaches also from Earth to Heaven in the militant part and the triumphant the body on Earth and the head in Heaven The Church it is Earth as it were removed and transplanted into Heaven Believers they are taken out of the World and they are first sent into that before they are taken into a better place Born first from Below and then Born from Above This is the State and condition of the Church in regard whereof this expression does sute unto it Secondly Take it more restrainedly for every particular Christian and so it agrees with Jacob personally as this Ladder which is here intended in the occasional Scope of it The Lord by this Vision of the Angels of God ascending and descending upon this Ladder and himself standing above it would signify to Jacob his special Providence and care of him in his Journey And so upon this account Jacob must be the Ladder himself in the next and immediate Sense though not in the cheif and Principal And thus indeed also is every true Believer he is one consisting both of Earth and Heaven His Body from Earth his Soul from Heaven his aboad upon Earth his Heart in Heaven His Pilgrimage upon Earth his treasure and his Inheritance in Heaven Heaven and Earth they do devide every Christian And so I have done with the first branch of this Vision here before us and this is the Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven which is Primarily to be understood of Christ and Secondly to be understood of Christians that is Jacob both Mystically and Personally The Second Branch of this Vision is of the Angels of God ascending and descending upon this Ladder wherein again are two particulars more First The Persons mentioned and Secondly the Motion of those Persons The Persons mentioned they are the Angels of God The Motion of these Persons that is that they ascended and descended Reciprocally First For the Persons themselves These are here exprest to be the Angels of God which they are called upon a threefold Account First From their Creation as made by God Secondly From their Qualification as being made like unto God holy Angels And Thirdly from their Imployment and specially Ministry as being continually in Attendance upon God and standing in his Presence expecting their Commands from him and yeilding all ready and chearful Obedience to him These are the Persons here mention'd Now Secondly For the Motion whereby is attributed and ascribed to these Persons it is of Ascent and Descent reciprocally They ascended and descended upon the Ladder whereby in one word is signified their special attendance upon Christ and the Church and the discharge of their Ministry towards them Wee 'l take them both together and in their order as they lie before us in reference to the Expression above mention'd First Take it of Christ himself And so this ascending and descending of the Angels upon this Ladder it does intimate and declare unto us their special regard and respect to Him which is very eminent in them These Blessed and Glorious Spirits are very remarkable in their observation of Christ It is that which we may take notice of in every Mistery and Passage concerning him how the Angels were still imployed about him and subservient to him upon all occasions whatsoever For his Conception an Angel foretels it to the blessed Virgin Luk. 1 31. Behold thou shalt Conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus An Angel declares it to Joseph Matth. 1 20. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a Dream saying Joseph thou Son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy Wife For that which is conceived in her is of the holy Ghost For his Birth an Angel publishes it to the Shepherds with a Glorious Hymn which they Sung saying Glory be to God on High on Earth peace and good will towards Men in Luke 2 14. And when he comes into the World All the Angels of God worship him in Hebr. 1 v. 6. c. In his Temptations in the Wilderness the Angels came and ministred unto him in Matth. 4 11. In his Agony in the Garden an Angel was sent to Comfort him in Luke 22 vers 43. At his Resurrection the Angel roll'd the Stone from the Sepulchre and brought the tidings of it to the Women that sought for Him In his Ascnesion the Angels attended upon him and informed the Desciples concerning him And at his Comming at last to Judgment the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels Thus take him which way you will whether in his State of Abasement and Humiliation or in his State of Advancement and Exaltation do those blessed Creatures still Minister unto him According to either Motion of Christ is the Motion of Angels If Christ be pleased to descend in his State of Abasement the Angels descend with him If Christ again be pleased to ascend in his State of Advancement the Angels they ascend with him Thus do
they both ascend and descend upon the Son of Man This they do as we may conceive of it upon a twofold Account First in point of Affection and singular Love to Christ Secondly in point of Duty and special obligation to Christ In point of Affection First of all and singular love to Christ The Angels they waite upon him for that as delighting to be imployed about him Ther 's no such service as the service of Love this has the excellence and preheminence of all other service whatsoever And this is the service of the Angels to Christ they are very well pleased and satisfied to be exercised and taken up in it It is very Natural and agreeable to them from their Affection towards him Secondly In point of Ingagement As he is the Lord and head of Angels and so he is called Col. 2 10. The head of all principality and Power And the Angels do receive special benefit and Advantage by Christ though not as to matter of Reconciliation yet as to matter of Confirmation and Preservation in that happy State and Condition in which they are this Benefit they owe to Christ That whereas being Creatures of their own Nature they might fall away as well as the rest of their Fellows and might leave their first Estate and Habitation now they are setled and Established in it this they injoy from the Grace of the Redeemer And while they do so they have very great cause to be observant of him and to yeild all homage unto him which accordingly they do That 's the first Reference of this their Motion here in the Text namely as to Christ himself The Second is to the Church of Christ and every particular member of Christ First For the Church at large the Ministry of the Angels is very eminent in reference to this and great things are still upon occasion done by them for it in their attendance upon it The Angels have a double Ministry wherein they are imployed A Superiour and an Inferiour answerable to their double Motion which is here mention'd in the Text of ascending and descending This Superior Ministry that is to attend upon Christ and therein as we may say they do ascend And this inferiour Ministry that is to attend upon the Church of Christ and therein they do also descend The latter is that which we are now at this present speaking unto in this particular And this latter is to be taken as depending upon the former as the Ground and foundation of it Therefore do the Angels Minister to the Church from that relation which the Church has to Christ as his Body and Spouse That respect which is given to the head is in part given to the Members and that honour which is given to the King it does reflect also upon the Queen who is honoured the more for his sake This is the Case and Condition in this business And accordingly we have it shadowed out to us under the old Testament in two Instances refering to one another The one is of the Cherubims looking with their faces upon each other and with their wings covering the Mercy seat Exod. 25 17. These Cherubims are the Angels and this Mercy-seat it is Christ who is the true Propitiator These they look upon him with a Reverence and adoration of him The other is of the Vayle of the Tabernacle with the Pictures of Cherubims round about it in Exod. 26 32. Whereby is signified the variety of Angels attending upon the Church This they are willing to do and it is no disparagement at all to them to do it thugh it be upon Creatures inferiour to themselves because herein they are subservient to Christ whose the Church is And they delight to do it for that reason The same Love as I shew'd before that made them to serve Christ makes them also to serve the Church for his sake and whilst they love him they cannot but love her as related to him and also to themselves as Fellow-members And then again further for their own Advantage likewise For they themselves gain by this Ministry and are much improved from it as from hence occasionally they are instructed in the knowledg of such Mysteries which before they were unacquainted withall Thus 1 Pet. 1 12. While the Apostle mentions the Evangelical Doctrines he says this of them That they are such things as the very Angels desire to look into them namely for the Excellency of them And again St. Paul Eph. 3 10. To the intent that unto Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God This incourages them in this their Attendance And makes them willing to be ministring Spirits for the Salvation of the Elect as they are said to be Heb. 1 14. But besides as to the Churches in General so also to every particular Member as to Jacob here in the Text. Not only Mystically considered but Personally Their 's not the poorest Christian that is but he has a guard of Angels attending upon him as there 's occasion for them not onely one particular Angel as some would have it for a particular Person as assigned and appropriated to him but a multitude and variety of Angels as Jacob here had We shall find if we look into Scripture how serviceable the Angels have been to the particular persons of God's Servants as they have had need and use for them Elijah was destitute of Meat and the Angels fed him Daniel was cast into the Den of Lyons and the Angels preserv'd him Peter was put into Prison and the Angels rescu'd him Elisha was pursued by the Syrians and the Angels incompass him Jacob was alone in his Journey and the Angels accompany and conduct him He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes They shall bear the up in their hands that thou dash not thy foot against a stone as it is Psal 91.11 12. There is vey great Benefit from the Angels in their Ministry and attendance upon the Saints Indeed we do not discern them nor take so sensible a notice of them They are about us but they are about us Invisibly The Manifestation of Christ in the flesh who is the Lord of Angels hath taken away the Manifestation of Angels in a Corporeal Discovery and hath reduced the Administration of his Kingdom to a more Spiritual forme But this does not take away from their real presence with us and attendance upon us They are with us and assistant to us after an invisible manner and that to very good purposes which if we had time we might inlarge upon unto you And especially as to the resistance of evil Angels and their attempts upon us Look what ever mischeif the Devils can work against God's Servants the contrary good can the good Angels observe for them and accordingly they do as there is need and occasion for it In the protection of their Persons in the assistance of their
spoken of thee O thou City of God It is spoken of the Church The Land of Vprightness Secondly It is a word of Forecast or Providence He Cares for it that is he Looks after it and inquires into the State of it so indeed the word here used in the Text does properly signify The Hebrew word is Darash which signifies properly to seek or inquire But it is here Translated Care by a Metonymy of the Cause for the Effect as it is also Psal 142.4 Because those things which men do care for they are Commonly inquisitive about them and desirous to learn and to understand how it faires with them thus it is now with God towards his Church he cares for it so as he he is mindful of the State and condition of it and accordingly does order and dispose of things sutable and agreeable thereunto He Cast's about what may be best and most Convenient for it and answerably does bring it about Thirdly It is a word of Sollicitude and Perplexity He cares for it that is he is Anxious about it This is not properly incident to the Lord who is not capable of such Passions as those are from his Transcendency but yet he is pleased now and then to take them upon himself and accordingly they are attributed to him as spoken after the manner of men Thus he grieves and fears and cares for his People His Bowelsyearn his Heart is turned within him his Repentings are Kindled together as it is in Hose 11. vers 8. Ther 's no man can express more Assection in any thing whereof he is Sollicitous as to the welfare of it then God does express towards his Church as there is Occasion for it It is the Land which the Lord cares for in the full Extent and Latitude of Care Whether of Respect or of Forecast or of Sollicitue Now as ther 's a threefold Expression of the care of God for his Church so there is a threefold Account also which may be given to us of this Care as from whence it does proceed in him And we may take it briefly thus First From his Relation Secondly From his Covenant Thirdly From his Interest First From his Relation The Church it is the Land which the Lord God careth for because it is the Land which he does properly take for his own All Lands are God's upon the account of common Creation the whole Earth and the fulness of it Yea but the Church is his Land by special purchase and Redemption and so he takes care of it more particularly in that Respect It is the Property of Good husbands to care for their own Land what ever Land they care for besides And ther 's no such Good husbands as God in all particulars What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Esa 5.4 It is his Vineyard and therefore he will take care of it to do all that may influence it He that cares not for his Own says the Apostle he is worse then an Insidel Now God will never be charged with this miscarriage He cares for his Church from his Relation Secondly From his Covenant It is the Land that he cares for upon this Consideration also Because he has bound and ingaged himself hereto Those that promise to take care of any whether Person or things they are concern'd to do so for their Ingagement though there be nothing else besides in it And so is God to do for his Church whether he has made a Covenant with all to this Purpose It was so with God Especially as to this People of Israel and in particular as to this Land of Canaan so it is also to the whole Church in General and to that Land which hath his Church in it He takes Care of it from his Covenant with it Thirdly From his Interest and more peculiar Concernment The Lord takes care of his Church as that which he receives the greatest Benefit and Advantage from any other besides not in a strict Sense but in a qualified and as he is pleased to account it God cannot be profited by Man nor by any thing which comes from him in a precise acception But yet so far forth as any places doe more advance his Worship and Name and Honour so far forthe he reckons himself to be advantaged by them And as they are careful of him so is he careful of them also by way of requital and compensation We see how it is amongst men they do not so much care for the Barren Wilderness and for that Land which is Fruitless and unprofitable but for that rather which makes good Returns unto them And so likewise does God himself The Land that the Lord God cares for is like the Land of Canaan it self which flowed with Milk and Hony This likewise the Church of God does as we may so express it therefore he careth for it The use of this Point to our selves comes to this purpose First as it serves to inform us and to satisfy us in the Truth of this point which we have now before us that we believe it and be perswaded of it It is that which we are ready sometimes to doubt of and to call in question whether God cares for his Church or no. Especially according to the Circumstances wherein it may be as Gideon sometimes reason'd with the Angel Judg. 6.13 If the Lord be with us why then is all this befaln us And so if the Lord take care of us why is it thus and thus with us This is that which we are now and then ready to reason and argue with our selves The Troubles of the Church cause the Church sometimes to question Gods care of it yea sometimes to Conclude against it and to determine the Contrary as Sion sometimes did The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Esay 49.14 Well but for all that this Truth holds good notwithstanding concerning the Church That it is the Land which the Lord cares for This Proposition which we are now upon it hath both an Inclusive Emphasis and an Exclusive It has an Inclusive Emphasis in it as it does signify that God does indeed take care of his Church and Land An Exclusive Emphasis as it does signify that he does take care of it both in the Denyal of others care for it and in his own Denyal of Care for others First I say It has an Inclusive Emphasis as it does signify how God does indeed take care of it He careth for it God has a common and ordinary care which he does exercise about all his Creatures as he is the maker and Governour of them to keep them and preserve them in that Being which he hath bestowed upon them but this is not all which he expresses towards his Church He has another manner of Care for that then this comes to And he does manifest another kind of Love and Affection and tenderness towards it in his caring for it In being a
before him Take care that it may not be an indifferent thing with God what becomes of us for if it be so we shall prove to be but in a very sad and lamentable Condition Woe unto them sayes the Lord when I depart from them Hos 9.12 And so likewise when he care not for them For when ever it proves to be so they are from hence exposed to all kind of Evils and mischeifs which they are any way capable of whether from Satan the great Enemy of all who from hence will have advantage against them or from any other Enemies and Adversaries whatsoever besides God's Care for a Land is that which is the greatest Safegard and Security to it and on the other side the with-holding of this Care is the greatst Misery and Unhappiness of it as that which is indeed the Ground and occasion of all other Miseries and Calmityes besides Therefore I beseech ye let us take heed of forfeiting Gods care for us by any uncomely Carriage or behaviour towards him and study rather to be such as he may take special pleasure and Delight in and may be acceptable and well pleasing in his sight That he may continue still to be amongst us and to bless us and to follow us with his Blessings from one Age and Generation to another That we may be a People all Righteous and which shall inherit the Land for ever The Branch of his Planting the work of his hands that we may be Glorified as it is in Esay 60.21 And so now I have done with the first General part of the Text which is the Interest this Land here had in God's Affection exprest to us in these words The Land which the Lord thy God Careth for The Second is the Interest which it hath in God's Inspection in these words The Eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it from the beginning of c. Wherein again we have two Branches more First The Priviledge it self and that is of being under the Eyes of God the Eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it Secondly The Continuation of this Priviledge and that is exprest in two words more First In the word of Perpetuity and that is always Secondly In the words of Extent From the Beginning of the year to the End of the year First Wee 'l take notice of the Former viz. The Priviledge it self here mentioned And that is of being under God's Eye The Eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it We use to say Vbi amor ibi Oculus That where the Heart is the Eye is also And so it happens to be here in this present place where it having been said of this Land that it was the Land which the Lord Cared for it follows presently hereupon that his Eyes were upon it as an Effect and Demonstraion of that Care God hath no Eyes properly no more then he hath Care but this is spoken after the manner of Men and accordingly is now at this time to be understood by us as denoting Especially that Providence which he hath over his Church Thus Psal 33.18 Behold the Eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him and upon them that hope in his Mercy And in Psal 34.15 It is said That the Eyes of the Lord are upon the Righteous And the same is likewise quoted and repeated by the Apostle Peter in 2 Pet. 3.12 Thus it may for orders sake be reduced to sundry Particulars by way of Explication First An Eye of Observation that 's one which God hath upon his Church he does mark and mind and take notice of the State and Condition in which it is His Eyes are upon it to observe it Ther 's nothing which can befal the Church but God is Sensible and Apprehensive of it and sees what it is in Psal 16.14 Thou hast seen for thou beholdest Mischief and spite to requite it with thine hand And Exod. 3.7 I have surely seen the Afflictions of my People which are in Egypt and I know their Sorrows It is a great satisfaction in Affiction to be regarded and taken notice of in it Now this is that which the Church does pertake off in all the Evils that happen unto it yea thugh sometimes they may be carried with the greatest subtilty and secrecy that may be yet his Eyes are upon it for all that for he has piercing and searching Eyes and therefore sometimes compared to a flame of fire for the Clearness which is in them His Eyes behold and his Eye-lids try the Children of men as itis in Psal 114. Though men may think sometimes they do not and say as those Atheists sometimes did The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it How doth God know Can he judge through the dark Clouds c ye he sees for all that and will shew and declare that he does see He has an Eye upon his Church that is first of all an Eye of Observation Secondly An Eye of Compassion He has an Eye upon it to pity it and to Comfort it in the State in which it is Ther 's no Evil which befals the Church but God looks upon it as in a manner his owne and is accordingly affected with it when no other Eye besides pitties it as himself expresses it himself does it We know with what Compassion our Blessed Saviour looked upon Jerusalem when he came near it and wept over it his Eyes they were weeping Eyes which he did cast towards it and so they are proportionably the same towards his Church still where ever it is while he layes to heart the Afflictions which are upon them Thirdly An Eye of Direction a Teaching Eye God has such an Eye as this which he does sometimes vouchsafe his Church Ther 's a great matter in the Eye to such a purpose as this is and it is here considerable of us as we have it in Psal 32.8 I will Instruct thee and teach thee in the way in which thou shalt go I will guide thee by mine Eye Christ looked upon Peter and Admonished him His very Eyes was a Document to Him Gods Providences they are Teaching Providences to those who observe them and that know how to make use of them in every particular whether prosperous or otherwise Fourthly An Eye of Protection and Preservation and Authority His Eyes are upon his Land so as to maintain it and to bestow himself for it Thus we have it expresly 2. Chro. 16.9 The Eyes of the Lord run too and fro through the whole Earth or through the whole Land to shem himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him God does not look onely to look but to Act answerably to his looks and his Hands they follow his Eyes in this particular And that in all kind of Actions wherein they may seem to stand in need of them For the preventing of Evil that it may not touch them for the restraining of Evil that it may
not greive them for the removal of Evil that it may not undoe them for the sanctifying of Evil to them and the supporting of them under Evil that it may not discourage them Thus every way are God's Eyes upon his People as to matter of Protection and Preservation And so much may suffice to have been spoken of the first Particular here observable of us to wit The Priviledge it self here mentioned in these words The Eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it That is his Providence Now for the Second which is the Continuation of this Priviledge that 's Exhibited to us in two Expressions more First In the word of Constancy or Perpetuity And that is always Secondly In the words of Extent or Production From the Beginning of the year to the End of the year First We may take notice of the Continuance of the Priviledge here mentioned in the word of Constancy or Perpetuity And that is Always That Eye which God casts upon his Church and that Land which he takes for his own is not onely once and away but it is continually upon it It hath three Properties in it which are here particularly Considerable of us First It is a Quick-Eye there are many Persons which see a thing at last but it is a great while first before they come to do so yea but God sees and beholds his Church and the State and Condition of it as soon as ever ther 's need for him to see it Now that which any see presently they are said so far forth to see it always as they are not long without seeing of it But take it at the first ground and occasion which is greater for it This is that which God does and therefore his Eyes are said to run too and fro in this particular Secondly It is a fixt-Eye there are many who sometimes look but they doe it at leasure gives a cast with their Eye and no more look slightly and easily Superficially as the Priest and Levite in the Gospel looked upon the man that sell among Thieves It is said that as they came by they saw him but passed by on the other side that is they saw him but they saw him impersectly but did not very much minde or regard him yea but when t is said on the contray of the Lord that his Eyes are always upon his Land ther is hereby noted the fixedness and Stability of his looks he looks upon it as if he would in a manner look through it and pierce it with his Eyes Thirdly It is a Frequent Eye His Eyes are always upon it that is his Eyes are never off of it but he is constantly poreing upon it and looking after it Ther 's this also in it and ther 's a twofold Account which may be given hereof unto us The one is taken from the Delight and Contentment which he has in it And the other is taken from the Fear and Jealousy which he has for it First From the great Delight and Contentment which he takes in it Those things which are very pleasing and Amiable they do not only for the most part draw mens Eyes to them but they do also fix and fasten upon them and they do feed as as it were their Eyes with them Even so it is with God towards his Church and that Land which he owns for his he is very much pleased with it and therefore he Constantly and Continually beholds it in Esay 5.7 The Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant Plant. It is the Plant of his Pleasures and therefore it is the Object of his Eyes Ther 's no Garden or Orchard or Vineyard or Place of Delight which any have Planted or provided for himself which is more pleasingly looked upon by them then God's Church is looked upon by him as that which is the work of his own Plantation As from hence he Cares for it so from hence also are his Eyes always upon it Secondly As from his Delight in it so also from his Jealousy over it and Sollicitude for it As Love it fastens the Eye so also does Fear There where any are Jealous or Suspicious of Danger they never take off their Eye but turn it continually Even so now does God towards his Church in regard of the many Dangers and Hazards which it is exposed unto And which if he should not always Tend it and Watch over it would be apt to Surprize it He is Jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great Jealousy Zach. 1.14 And this his Jealousy makes him to be thus Vigilant and Diligent for it According to that of the Prophet Esay speaking of his Vineyard I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment least any hurt it I will keep it Night and Day Esay 27.3 And so much may suffice to have spoken of the fist Branch of the Continuance of Gods Inspection over his Church In the word of Constancy or Assiduity Always The Second is the words of Extent or Production From the Beginning of the Year to the End of the Year Where there are three Points or Periods as I may so all them of the Care and Providence of God towards his Land and People Ther 's the Initial and the Intermediate and the Final The Initial that 's in the Beginning of the Year The Intermediate that 's in the Rising or Progress of the Year The Final that 's in the Close or Conclusion First Her 's the Initial point of God's Providence taking its rise from the Beginning of the Year Thus it signifies to us God's Earliness and Readiness and Forwardness in his goodness towards his People that he takes the very first Season and Opportunity that is afforded unto him for the hastning of his Favours upon them He does not stay till the Year be far spent much less till it is quite Ended before he manifests his Care of them No! but as soone as ever the Year Begins so soon begins his Goodness to them and the Expressions of it as soon as ever we stand in need of Kindness and as soon as we are Capable of Kindness so soon does he shew Kindness to us Secondly Here 's the Intermediate point in the Rising or Progress of the Year that 's also included as Joyning both terms together God is not onely kind a little at first when the Year begins and so making a good Entrance but he holds on and proceeds in his goodness as the Year it self Rises and gets up This is Gods manner of dealing not onely like some Misers perhaps to make a Feast for a time and once a Year but like a Liberal and Free-harted Person that keeps open-House all the Year long from the beginning of the Year to the end of the Year It is that which he is able to do in regard of his Plenty and that which he is willing to do in regard of his Bounty The Third is the
young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them and beareth them so the Lord alone did lead him c. There is a wonderful great tenderness which God expresses to his people so that when men are most cruel against them He himself is most merciful to them and expresses the greatest kindness towards them That 's for the first Expression here used in reference to their deliverance He hath taken you The second is Hath brought you and this as well as the other hath a double force in it First an Emphasis of Power brought you forth with a strong hand Secondly An Emphasis of Solemnity Brought you forth with a stretched out Arm. First There is power in it Bring you forth That is forced you forth whether your enemies would or no. Thus did God to Israel He made Pharaoh and the Egyptians to give them up whether they would or not yea as the Apostle tells us He would tells us he therefore for this purpose raised them up that he might shew his power in them Rom. 9.17 There 's no standing against the Lord when he has a mind to deliver His people He will bring them forth maugre all opposition in despite of all the powers either of Earth or Hell it self Secondly There 's also solemnity in it He brought them forth i. e. in triumph As with a strong-hand so with a stretched-out arm as the Scripture also expresses it Deut. 5.15 Stand still saith Moses and ye shall see the salvation of the Lord Exod. 14.13 Yea and not onely you shall see it but likewise others Psal 98.23 The Lord hath made known His salvation his righteousness hath He openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen He hath remembred His mercy and truth c. And all the ends of the Earth have seen the salvation of our God Now from both these expressions together Hath taken you and hath brought you forth we see the thing it self sufficiently declared unto us that God did at last deliver His people out of this Captivity under which they were He removed his shoulder from the burden and his hands were delivered from the pots as it is in Psal 81.6 8 13. Though ye have lien among the pots c. And so he does likewise with many more with them Though God suffers His servants sometimes to fall into the hand of their enemies yet he does at length free them from them This he doth upon divers considerations First out of His own bowels and compassion He will not alwayes chide neither keepeth He his anger for ever Psal 103.9 And Isa 57.16 He will not contend for ever neither will he be alwayes wroth for the spirit should fail before Him and the souls which he had made Secondly Out of respect to his People least they should be discouraged and provoked to evil Psal 125.3 The rod of the ungodly shall not lye upon the lot of the Righteous least the righteous put forth their hand unto iniquity The Lord will not too much draw out the corruptions and infirmities of His servants And then Thirdly Out of Regard to the enemies least they should insult Deut. 32 26 27. I said I would scatter them into Corners c. were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy least their adversaries should behave themselves strangely c. Let this therefore be the use which we make of it to our selves First to Expect it whereas yet it is not Secondly To acknowledge it and to improve it there where it is First I say to expect it where it is not It is that which God will do it is that which he has already done to our hands in this example before us we are ready when we fall into any trouble to think that we shall never come out of it and that there is no redemption from it well but see here the contrary in this instance of the Israelites brought out of Egypt and delivered from the Iron-furnace which though it threatned them with perpetual bondage yet we see at last had an end and consummation of it God took them and brought them forth Secondly As where it is not yet we should yet expect it so where it is we should improve it and that to several purposes First to thankfulness in acknowledging it The Spirit of God by Moses does often put them in mind of this Deliverance to draw thankfulness from them And if God's mercies have not this efficacy upon us we are then indeed very unworthy of them Secondly To Obedience which is the best expression of thankfulness Thus this Deliverance likewise is urged there in Jer. 11.4 For obeying the words of the Covenant which God commanded their fathers when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt from the Iron-furnace Thirdly To Dependence upon God and prevailing with him against another time That He which hath done so much for them already would be still pleased to do more As we find Solomon using that Argument in 1 King 8.52 For they be thy people which thou hast brought out of Egypt c. And so much may suffice to have spoken of the first General part of the Text viz. The Deliverance it self The second is the End or Consequent of this Deliverance and that we have in these words To be unto him a People of Inheritance as ye are this day In which passage we have again two particulars First The Design it self And Secondly The Amplification of it The Design it self To be unto him a people of inheritance The Amplification of it As ye are this day I begin with the first viz. The Design it self To be unto Him a people of Inheritance This is that which God aymed at concerning Israel Now this may again admit of a double Interpretation Either so as for Him to be their Inheritance or else so as for them to be His. The Scripture makes mention of either in sundry places First For Him to be theirs This is the Priviledge of God's People That the Lord himself is their portion and Inheritance and so expresses Himself to be to them Thus Psal 16.5 David speaking of himself The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest the Lot And so of Levi it is said That the Lord is his Inheritance Deut. 10.9 And the Church Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my Portion c. This is a great comfort to the Godly and to those which are most destitute amongst them to live upon the power of this truth what though they have none of the great Inheritance of the world yet as long as they have a portion in God they have that which may abundantly satisfie them and keep them from dejection forasmuch as from henceforth no good thing shall be wanting unto them He that overcometh shall inherit all things How so It follows in the next words And I will be his God c. Rev. 21.7 He that hath God for his God shall inherit all things he shall have a sufficient
God a people of Inheritance As we should serve God in our own Generation so we should take care that others may likewise serve him in theirs and thereby propagate Religion in the World Thus we have seen the end of Gods delivering of his People That they might be to him a people of Inheritance Now further we may look upon it also as a Consequent and so see the Connexion of these two both together How did God bringing his People forth out of Egypt make them to be to him a people of Inheritance Namely thus far as they had now larger Opportunities for the serving of him afforded unto them while they were in Egypt they were there restrained in regard of the Idolatrous people which they were mingled withall but now being escaped they were more at liberty This therefore is the Advantage which we should still make of such opportunities That being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies we may serve him without fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our life as it is there in Zacharys song Luk. 1. vers 74.75 And so much of the first Particular observable in this second General viz. The design it self to be c. The Second is the Amplification of it That we have in those words As ye are this day In which clause we have three things especially hinted to us concerning God First the Accomplishment of his purposes Secondly The Certainty of his promises Thirdly The Continuance of his performances The Accomplishment of his purposes God does whatsoever he decrees and propounds to himself He had propounded this to make Israel a peculiar people to himself and he had now at this day performed it and brought it to pass so that we see how there is nothing stands in his way for the hindering of what he has a mind to He spake and it was done He commanded and it stood fast Psal 33.9 Our God is in Heaven and doth whatsoever he pleaseth Psal 115. vers 3. This should satisfy us and incourage us as to our Expectations for the good of the Church that all Gods thoughts of peace towards it shall be accomplished and brought to pass and are sure as if we see them done already before our Eyes wheresoever he intends good unto them their good shall not be kept from them but shall certainly be Effected and brought to pass and all the attempts to the contrary they prove in vain As for Pharaoh and the Egyptians they were both to part with Israel and to let them go out of their Land having a desire to keep them in Bondage and Service still and they thought they dealt very wisely in so contriving as we may see in Exod. 1. vers 10.4.5 But yet for all that they mist of their mark and their aim as it appeared in the Event and as it was now at this present day with them That 's the first Accomplishment of Gods purposes The Second is the Certainty of his promises as to the performance and effecting of them also As ye are at this day We see how punctual God is with them to a day he keeps his time to a moment and as he had long ago promised that he would bring his people out of that land so he now effected it and brought it to pass All Gods promises they are Yea and Amen God is not a man that he should lye nor the Son of man that he should repent Hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good as it is Numb 23.19 Therefore let us rest upon his promises where-ever he does vouchsafe them to us and comfort and incourage ourselves by them and make use of this point as to Corporal Deliverance so to Spiritual He promises for treading down Sin and Satan and Death and all the Enemies of our Salvation and bringing us out of the Thraldome and Captivity of them which he will surely do for us The third and last is the continuance of His performances As ye are this day Namely in the fruit and efficacy of it This was performed fourty years ago for the thing it self but yet Moses speaks of it as done at that day to wit in regard of the benefit which thereby did redound unto them God's mercies they are mercies of extent which do not only reach to the present times in which they were first wought but also to many succeeding Generations Now from hence will follow another point as our Duty which is here also to be observed and that is that we are accordingly to remember them and call them to our mindes and so from thence make them fresh unto us as if done at this present time It is that which Moses indeavours to make these Israelites to do here In the Text who minds them of a mercy which was done many years ago for them as if it had been done for them just at that time This is the scope of this narration and this also hath been the practise of the Saints of God in other places Thus Psal 78.1.6 Give ear O my people to my law encline your ears to the words of my mouth I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings of old Which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us We will not hide them from their children shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children That the generation to come might know them even the children which should be born who should arise and declare them to their children c. Thus there 's very good ground for First Because the mercy in its own nature is still one and the same and Time does not take away from the greatness or largeness of it That which was done so many years ago is as great a Mercy as if done at this day 3dly because one Age alone is not sufficient to praise God for them therefore posterity must take notice of them for them The children must herein help the fathers to publish and set forth Gods praises for the mercies bestowed upon them This therefore should be our own particular practise as we have any occasion afforded us for it Not content our selves to take notice of those mercies which are bestowed upon us at present but which have a long time been bestowed upon one to another that have been before us or upon our selves though for many years past To conclude our Meditations on this Text we may here take notice of two things more with which I will shut up First The Inlargements of God towards his people We see here in how many particulars he expresses Himself towards them First In that He brings them out of that sad condition in which they were though in
Where speaking of the Devils The Angels that kept not their first Estate it is said that they are reserved in Everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the Judgment of the great Day So then they shall be silent in Darkness is as much as they shall be Continued in Darkness and does denote the Immoveableness and Irrecoverableness of their miserable Condition being such as from which they shall never be freed or delivered which Exposition is sutable to that of Moses in his song speaking of the Enemies of the Church to wit the Egyptians Exod. 15.16 Fear and Dread shall fall upon them by the greatness of thine Arme they shall be still as a Stone In the Hebrew it is ijdhmou that is they shall be silent Tacuerint tanquam lapis fuerint the Chalde Paraphrast Thus we see how as the Wicked are in Darkness So in what sense also they are said to be silent in it Now to joyn them both together they are such as doe very fitly agree to such kind of persons Both Darkness and also silence in it are very sutable to wicked men First the Darkness of Condition answerable to the darkness of sin Wicked men they abhorre the light because their deeds are evil They delight in works of darkness and now that light is come into the world yet they love darkness rather then light as it is in the Gospel Joh. 3.19 And therefore it is very sitting that Darkness should be inflicted upon them That their punishment may be answerable to their disposition Seing they delight in darkness there 's good reason that they should have enough of it and so they have sit in darkness and in the shadow of death Secondly Silence in evil answerable to silence from good Wicked men they care not to speak any thing which may be to the Honour of God They are silent as to prayers and praises and good speeches which should come from them They have a driness and barreness and dumbness and speechlesness here and accordingly they are made silent as to affliction and the sad effects and consequences which that does cause and occasion to them They are silent in Darkness There 's one thing more which we have not yet mention'd which yet may be very proper and pertinent to the scope of the place and that is the wicked's uncertainty and want of due advice and resolution what to doe in those conditions of perplexity in which they are They shall be silent as to the giving of Counsel either to others or else to themselves as being non-plust and at a stand from that dubiousness and ambiguity of affairs which are upon them This is a sense which will very wellhold and it is a case which does oftentimes fall out that whereas the Saints and servants of God He keeps their feet for them And gives light to them that sit in Darkness and the shaddow of Death yea and also guides their feet in the way of peace as it is in Luk. 1.79 The wicked on the otherside they shall reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and be at their wits end as the Scripture sometimes expresses it they shall not see their way before them nor yet know what course is best to be taken by them That 's the second Branch here considerable to wit the state of the wicked in opposition and contradistinction to the Godly and so the first General part of the Text which is the condition of two ranks of persons good and bad He shall keep the feet of the Saints But the wicked shall be silent in Darkness The second General is the Reason or Account which is given of both That we have in the last words For by strength shall no man prevail This refers to both precedent clauses of the former General in the conditions both of good and bad therefore doe's God keep the feet of His Saints because there 's no strength prevailing without Him And therefore again shall the wicked also be silent in darkness because there 's no strength prevailing against him so it holds strong as a very good reason in either reference We begin with the first viz. As it refers to the first clause He shall keep the feet of His Saints That is by taking it exclusively He and He alone There 's no man prevails without God by any strength which is in Himself And therefore our old Translation expresses it so By his own strength shall no man prevail This is true according to the Notion and Acceptation of strength in the full latitude and extent of it whatever strength there 's of a man 's own it is such as whereby He shall be never able to prevail unless he have another and better strength joyn'd together with it Wee 'l reduce it briefly to three Heads First The strength of Body and Humane power with the appurtenances thereof Secondly The strength of Parts and the improvements of wit and understanding The strength of Grace in the meer purpose of it First I say not by the strength of Body and Humane Power with the Appurtenances thereof there 's no man shall prevail by this not by strength of outward force and arms and such helps as these These have a strength in them and such an one as one would think to be very prevalent but it is not this simply consider'd which carries the business And the Scripture does accordingly so set it and represent it unto us Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts Zech. 4.6 It is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel So Eccles 9.11 The race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong And Psal 44.3 They got not the land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arm save them but thy right hand and thine arms and the light of thy countenance because thou hadst a favour to them There 's the resolution of all not into man's strength so much as into God's There are divers instances and examples of those which have had little or no strength of their own and yet have much prevailed again their are instances of those which have not prevailed where they have had strength in great abundance And the Lord delights to have it so that so His own strength and power and glory may the more appear and that all Nations and People and Persons may acknowledge him in the Government of the world who is the Blessed and onely Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lord's as the Apostle Paul declares him in 1 Tim. 6.15 Therefore As the Prophet Jeremy makes Application of it to our hand Let not the strong man glory in his strength Jer. 9.23 We see hence what little cause we have to put our confidence in man or to make flesh our arm as the same Prophet likewise intimates and pronounces a curse upon such persons as are guilty of so doing Jer. 17.5 Ther 's not the Greatest Humane strength which of it self
Wisdom and strength he hath Counsel and Vnderstanding as it is in Job 12.13 And this strength of his he does purposely improve against those which are his Enemies as it follows in the next vers to the Text vers 10. of this Chapter The Adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to peeces c. These words By strength shall no man prevail being taken in reference to the Wicked And the Second Clause in the verse where 't is said The Wicked shall be silent in Darkness It may hold good in a double way of Explication First As to the saving of themselves And Secondly As to the offending of others the Saints and Servants of God which are better then themselves Their strength it shall not prevail in them to either purpose First As to the saving of themselves it shall not serve them for that but they shall certainly and irrecoverably be destroyed God will be sure to be avenged upon all those which are Evil doers and they shall not Escape none shall deliver them out of his hand As we have it at large exprest unto us in Amos 2. vers 14.15.16 The Flight shall perish from the Swift and the Strength shall not strengthen his Force neither shall the Mighty deliver himself neither shall he stand that handleth the Bow and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself neither shall he that Rideth the Horse deliver Himself and he that is Couragious among the Mighty shall flee away naked in that day saith the Lord. Where the Prophets cuts of hope of Escape from wicked men in the greatest Advantages which seem to be upon them This is matter of great Awakening and Astonishment to all wicked men and may teach them to look about them to Consider what ever it be which they look upon as their strength and Excellency that it is not that which will secure them against Divine Vengance but it will pursue them and overtake them notwithstanding so that they shall not Escape And therefore hence to be perswaded to Repentance and Reformation and amendment of life There is no way whereby to prevail upon God but by his own strength that is by strength which is Communicated from Him the strength of Faith and Prayer and Supplications and Turning to him For any way else it will not do But Secondly As this holds in their insufficiency as to the saving of themselves so likewise as to the offending of others by making those words the wicked shall be silent in Darkness an Expression of their Weakness and inability of attempts upon the Church they shall not know here what to do nor what to say against the people of God but shall be as those which are Amased and Astonish't and Damp't and put to Silence in themselves This the Holy Ghost here amplifies by adding this Clause to it For by strength shall no man prevail If the matter went by outward strength always Gods people might perhaps go by the worse and their Adversaries might prevail against them and insult and triumph over them but this it does not do There is Greater strength which is Acting and Moving and stirring for them and such as the other is unable to resist This it hath a double Improvement which does follow from it First Of Confusion to the Wicked and those which are the Churches Enemies whilst they shall consider that all their attempts and undertakings are in vain to this purpose and that they shall not prevail in them There 's nothing which does usually more confound men then unlikelyhood of success in that which they set their hands unto This is the Case and Condition of such as these towards the Servants of God as it is in Psal 129.1.2.3.4 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel say many a time have they afflicted me from my youth but they have not prevailed against me The Plowers plowed upon my back they made long their furrows The righteous Lord hath Cut asunder the Cords of the Wicked So Esay 8.9.10 Associate your selves O ye people and give ear O ye of all Nations gird your selves and ye shall be broken in peices gird your selves and ye shall be broken in peices take Council together and it shall come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us Thus seems Emanuel God with us in our Nature and so with the Persons he shall disappoint you Secondly This is a matter of Confusion and Discouragement to the Enemy so of Comfort and Consolation to the Church The people of God are oftentimes as Agur says of the Conyes a feeble folk such as have no strength in them yea but they make their nest in the Rock even the Rock of Ages in which is Everlasting strength as the Prophet speaks Esay 26.4 And this is that which may support them in all the Assaults which are made upon them whether Corporal or Spiritual thus as on the one hand The Lord shall keep the feet of his Saints so also on the other hand That the wicked shall be silent in Darkness aad that by strength shall no man prevail This is that which we have here made good unto us in this present Occasion with the Circumstances of it Here 's an Instance of what hath hitherto been deliver'd in all Particulars both as to the different State and Condition of different Persons and the same Account which is given of Each As for the different State and Condition of different Persons we have that here in both the Branches of it Both as to the keeping of the feet of the Saints and as to the Wicked's Silence in Darkness The former in God's Gracious Preservation of those who were then the Members of both Houses of Parliament and in them of the whole State and Church of God in this Nation from the Effects of that Hellish Conspiracy of the Gunpowder Treason attempted by the Papists against them in the year 1605 on the first day of November A Providence which is never to be forgotten by us in this Kingdom but to be transmitted to all Posterity we may here say with a witness that God hath kept the feet of his Saints in that he hath not suffered them to be takeniâ— the Snare of the Wicked Our Soul is Escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowler the snare is broken and we are delivered as the Psalmist speaks in the like case of Israel Psal 124.7 Thus it Concerns us not onely barely to take notice of but to take notice of with Advantage and Improvement and that Especially to a threefold particular First To Thankfulness and Acknowledgment of the Great Mercy and goodness of God to us in this particular I say of his Goodness to us for our particular Persons who are interested and concern'd in it either as these who had it taken effect might either have not been or have been destroyed and so thereby prevented from those Mercies which have been
crak't Consciences in time of some special affliction and distress they will reflect most uncomfortably Thus it was with Joseph's brethren when they were once in distress themselves they thought of their former unkindness towards their brother many years past Gen. 42.21 They said one to another we are very guilty concerning our brother c. And so the widdow of Sarepta when her child was taken away from her she reflects upon some former miscarriage 1 Kings 17.18 O thou man of God art thou come to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my son The slaying of her son put her in remembrance of her sin which had hitherto been forgotten by her and so it is with many others besides in the like cases Affliction itrubs up sins past even the sins of youth which shall not go unpunished as has been hitherto declared And as in other Punishments so amongst the rest within the compass of themselves even spiritual Judgements which are the worst and heaviest of all even with sin it self in a greater measure and further improvement of it which may be also further signified and intimated in this expression in the Text His bones are full of the sin c. That is sin it does still yet stick and adhere and cleave unto them So it does even to the best that are in the General corruption of Nature but not alwayes in the actual improvements Sin in the Regenerate is Mortified and quel'd and subdued and has its deaths-wound But in wicked men it is predominant and in its full force their bones are full of it and that which is thus bred in the bone it will not easily out of the the flesh Wicked men when they are in years and in age Their Bones are full of the sins of their youth that is as we may also further expound it they have hankerings and propensities and inclinations and desires after them when as to the accomplishment of these desires they are it may be restrain'd And this they are so much the rather as they have been any thing longer accustomed unto them Those which begin betimes in evil they do not easily get ridd of it or fall into a contrary course as the Prophet Jeremy hath signified to us in Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good which are accustomed or taught to doe evil The last Use and Application of this Point is from hence to take up a General Lamentation of the great exorbitancies and irregularities of youth especially in these present dayes in which we now live The more that God will account for such sins as these are as we have hitherto shewn the sadder is our condition in this age in this particular when we look about us and consider the great miscarriages of them and how they grow exceedingly upon us in every place in all manner of wickedness In idleness in prophaness disobedience in luxury in lasciviousness in pride in vanity in cozenage in all manner of debauchedness tainting and leavening and corrupting and entising one another into all manner of evil Beloved we do not think of these things and it may be doe not love to hear of them but we have very great cause to be affected with them and to lay them to heart and so indeavour all we can in our several places and opportunities to put a stop and obstruction to them which if it be not speedily done can threaten nothing but ruine it self When a man looks upon his garden and sees his young plants to wither it is a great disheartning and discouragement to him and what is it then in these spiritual blossoms we now speak of when they shall be nipt and blasted and withered before our eyes What hope can there be of Posterity and of a succeeding Generation in the Church when those which should lay the grounds and foundations to it do oftentimes thus miserably miscarry Therefore let us consider of it and I say be affected with it and do all we can to prevent it by prayer and education and instruction and seasonable restraint and all means that can be used otherwise it wil be so much the worse both for us and them too who shall hereafter certainly find and feel the misery of it as is here declared in this present Scripture And so I have done with the first General part of the Text which is the state or condition it self of a wicked man consisting both of the sin and punishment His bones are full of the sins of his youth The second is the Extent or Amplification of the condition in these words which shall lye down with him in the dust This it doth especially denote the continuance of a wicked man's sin it begins with him betimes for it is the sin of his youth and it lasts with him a long while for it follows him even into another world it lies down with him in the grave it is not buried with him that 's not the meaning of it which is the advantage of a Godly man that there is a period to his sin with his life He will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea as it is Mic. 7.19 but it goes with him even to Hell it self and there abides and continues with him when he dyes and goes out of the world and lies down in the dust as at last he must do then his sin as the shaddow to the Body is accompanying of him A wicked man whiles he lives sin lies before the door as we find that expression used in Gen. 4.7 It is a band-dog ready to surprize him and to pull him by the throat when he dyes it does not now leave him but adheres unto him There 's two manner of wayes in which sin is said to lye down in the dust which follows wicked men even to Hell it self whither at last without repentance they goe First in regard of the stain of it and Secondly in regard of the guilt of it They shall loose their Comforts but they shall not loose their Lusts Their Riches and Honours and pleasures they shall be gone but their sins they shall stay still behind even for ever and ever Their Glory shall not descend after them but there 's an exchange c. shame shall c. Psal 49 87. First For the stain and pollution His sin That is The habit and vicious principle of sin which in this life was predominant in him after this life it shall be adherent to Him Wicked men when they dye they leave every thing behind them but their sins and those they carry along with them they lye down with them in the dust And that first in the Defilement of them nay in this respect it is inlarged and increased in them Look on the other side gracious persons which were Godly and Holy here they become more godly and holy when they come to Heaven their Graces
express it some their measure is larger and some their measure is smaller yet Cups they are notwithstanding and so God makes them to be both to his Servants and other People The use which we are to make of it is accordingly thus to look upon it we should observe and take notice of the Providence of God in this particular and be answerably affected therewith we should take heed of provoking the Lord by any Sin or Miscarriage whatsoever as knowing that in so doing we do but prepare as it were a Cup for our selves and treasure up wrath as the Apostle speaks against the day of Wrath. in Rom. 2.5 And let us not give our selves Liberty in any unwarrantable course or take Courage to our selves in sinning from any present impunity or forbearance because all this while the Cup is as it were but a filling and making up There is a Cup in framing and fashioning though it be not already brought out When we speak of a cup we know it has commonly a two-fold notion in it either a Good or a bad There 's a Cup of Physick a Medicinal Cup and theirs a Cup of Poyson a destructive Cup. Now in the hand of the Lord there is a Cup to either of these purposes and that also as to the same ingredients God makes the same providences to be a Cup of Physick to his children for the healing and recovering of them of their spiritual infirmities and a Cup of Poyson to his enmies for the killing and destroying of them in the midst of their sins And according to either of these senses may we take it here in this place That 's the first particular considerable in this Metaphorical Description namely the Vessel of Reception It is a Cup. The second Particular is the liquor which is contained in it This Cup it is not an Empty Cup a Cup of State and onely for fashion and no more but so a meer standing Cup but it is a Cup of Infusion and what it is we have here exprest unto us in two particulars First In the simple nature of it The wine is red And secondly in the Composition of it It is full of mixture These two branches make up the fillings and ingredients of it First The wine is red or troubled as some translate it Chamar There 's the kind or nature of this wine and hereunto do agree all those phrases and expressions of Scripture which we mentioned before of fury and trembling and astonishment and such as these whereby we are to understand the grievousness of the Judgement it self Red wine in Scripture is sometimes used in a way of commendation as Isa 27.2 Speaking of the Church of God In that day sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine Here 't is used in a way of disparagement and aggravation of the Judgements of God as carrying a great deal of sadness and terribleness in them and all little enough to make us to tremble at them at least afore-hand before they fall upon our heads This is the usual manner of Scripture to lay forth such things as these are under the greatest affrightings as Joel 2.2 Speaking of the day of the Lord. A day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness c. And so Amos 5.18 The day of the Lord is darkness and not light And again Zeph. 1.15 That day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of wastness and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness Still in terms expressions of astonishment thereby to sink so much the more into the minds and hearts of those whom they are uttered unto Here for the particular notion of it it is call'd red wine as the embleme of a bloody destruction which is very fitly resembled by it there being nothing more like to blood then such wine as this is It is like it for the substance of it as it is Wine and it is like it for the colour of it as it is red wine The Analogy and proportion holds very well in either of these considerations in which it is here exhibited unto us This then is that which is here intimated that there is a Cup of Blood which is prepared for the inhabitants of the world as an expression of Gods Vengeance upon them This is the Red wine here in the Text and it is that which is often mentioned elsewhere in holy Scripture as Deut. 32.42 I will make mine arrows drunk with blood So Isa 34.5 6. The sword of the Lord is bathed in heaven and filled with blood And again in ver 7. Their land shall be soaked with blood and many such places as these are still there 's made mention of blood If we should ask why it pleases God to take such a course as this is The answer is easie and obvious that the remedy may be sutable to the disease and the punishment to the sin Sanguinem sitisti Sanguinem vitis as he once said Thou hast thirsted after blood and blood thou shalt drink Because men delight in blood therefore blood shall be poured out unto them yea their own blood shall be poured out This is the way of Gods Providence and the manner of his dealings in the world which because it is fill'd with cruelty shall be therefore fill'd with blood And so as for cruelty so for luxury and intemperance and drunkenness such sins as these The punishment holds good in the Analogy and Metaphor and resemblance it self Those that look upon the wine while it is red and whiles it gives its colour in the cup as Solomon speaks Those that tarry long at the wine and go to seek for mixt wine as it is in the same place Prov. 23.30 31. Such as these they shall have a cup of red wine prepared for them and such as is full of mixture as it is here in the Text. Here 's by the way a good item for drunkards and such brutish and beastly kind of persons as these are And thus much of this liquor consider'd in the simple nature of it The wine is red We may further here look upon it secondly in the its Composition It is full of mixture This is an amplification of the former and which adds somewhat unto it but yet such as we find in Scripture to be a different and contrary sense and signification for sometimes it is taken in a good sense and in a way of Mollification Sometimes again in a bad and in a way of aggravation First I say in a mitigated and good sense this phrase of a Cup full of mixture is now and then taken so as making it a kind of Qualification and Diminution of the Punishment and therefore the contrary is threatned for a Judgment Revel 14.10 The Wrath of God powred out without mixture But here now Secondly It is taken in a bad sense where the aggravation is made to be this that it
to it how can they expect to be in good terms with God to whom Sin is so Loathsom and Abominable and Odious as nothing more it cannot be These do thwart and contradict one another as we have it most clearly there in that Scripture Psal 54.5 Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in Wickedness neither shall Evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of Iniquity God will not favour those that favour themselves in any Evil or sinful course Secondly We must also walk fruitfully in regard of Performances it is not enough for us to eschew Evil but we must also do Good and that good which God requires at our hands we see how it is amongst men that they keep up their terms of favour and respect by Obsequiousness to one another and so we likewise in our dealings with God as we would preserve our selves in good terms with him be active in our Duties but so much may suffice to have spoken of Gods Loving-kindness in the first Notion or Acceptation of it as it may be taken Secundum Affectum as an eminent Act in Himself the Loving-kindness of Affection The Second is as it may be taken Secundum Affectum as it is a Transient act upon us the Loving-kindness of Expression How Excellent is thy Loving-kindness O God That is how Excellent art thou O God in thy favourable Manisestations of thy self towards thy People So that the Psalmist blesses God in this sense for his Activity of Goodness to his Church for that Loving-kindness which does put it self forth in his proceedings and Dispensations to them Now this also as well as the former is very Excellent and that in these regards First In regard of the Substance of it and the Materials whereof it consists which are sundry and various God has shewn his Loving-kindness to his Church in divers Expressions First In giving them his Son for their Redemption and Reconciliation to Himself how Excellent is his Loving-kindness here in that he spared not him for our sakes but delivered him to Death for us as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8.32 This was certainly a great piece of favour especially if we shall consider what a kind of Son this was and the great Benefits which are purchased by Him The Apostle reckons them up 1 Cor. 1.30 Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Christ is of God made these unto us look what excellency there is in any of these there is answerable excellency in Christ and look what excellency there is in Christ himself there is answerable excellency in that loving-kindness which hath bestowed Christ upon us Secondly Gods loving-kindness is excellent in the Ordinances and means of Grace which he hath also given for the furtherance of our acquaintance and communion with Christ the Gospel it is a great part of Gods good-will and loving-kindness not onely in the matter of it which is Christ himself but in the Ministery of it which is the discovery of Christ and the Publication of these glad tidings to the world Therefore we shall find the Angel to Proclaim upon this first occasion Luk. 2.14 Glory to God on the Highest on earth peace Good will unto men God does as a special piece of favour if we could think it so to vouchsafe us the Ministery of his word and those Heavenly Doctrines which are contained in the Dispensation of it as being such as the very Angels themselves desire to peep and look into 1 Pet. 1.12 And the Ministers themselves in a diversity of gifts and Ministerial qualifications but upon some in one kind and some in another which by the way should make us so much the more carefuller to attend hereupon That we may not despise the loving-kindness of the Lord what does God in so much love and bowels as indeed he does afford us his Word and Ordinances and shall we in the mean time slight them and make nothing of them oh by all means take heed of that It is a dangerous thing to trespass upon so much favour Sins against loving-kindness do provoke the greater judgements and in nothing more then that of loving-kindness which God hath shewn in his Word and Ministery Thirdly Gods loving-kindness is excellent towards his Church in his Spirit and the workings thereof whereby His Ordinances and Ministery are made effectual to those which injoy them and this indeed is that wherein it does chiefly shew it self Here 's the heigth and breadth and depth of Gods favour and loving-kindness towards us in shewing us the wretchedness and miserableness of our natural condition and in bringing us out of the same by the powerful work of his Spirit changing and altering our natures and putting another and new frame and disposition of heart into us Oh how excellent is this loving-kindness if we do but duely and thoroughly consider it for God to open our eyes to turn us from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God as it is in Act. 26.18 And so as for the Graces of the Spirit so for the Comforts of the Spirit likewise Gods loving-kindness is wonderfull here in the for-tastes and first-fruits of the Spirit which the Servants of God do here injoy and partake of even in this present life as a pledge of what they shall have more of hereafter These are so many love tokens from God which he gives us to satisfie us withall whiles we are here below Lastly Gods loving-kindness is excellent towards his Church in his care of it and Providence towards it in reference to this present world and this is that which not excluding the former seems here principally to be understood by the Psalmist in this present place who having in the verses before spoken of Gods General Providence over all his creatures preserving man and beast Here in this present Text before us does more particularly apply himself to Gods special Providence over His Church where he breaks forth into this expression of admiration How excellent is thy Loving-kindness O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings Gods dispensations here are very admirable and much to be observed in this Protection and Defence of His Church in the midst of so many enemies which it is incompast about with that all the power of Hell and darkness cannot prevail against it nor be able by any means to extinguish it Secondly Gods Loving-kindness to His Church is excellent in regard of the extent of it inlarging and diffusing it self It is manifold-wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is manifold loving-kindness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint Translation reads it How hast thou multiplyed thy loving-kindness O God! It is multiplyed in regard of the parts of it as I shewed in the Illustration before and it is multiplyed also in regard of the persons which are made partakers of it being now under the Gospel more inlarged It is not now as
and Consolation As the Sun it does not onely dispell Darkness but likewise brings in a Glorious light in the stead of it Who would not then by all means keep Close to such Comforts as these are and labour to have such an Interest in them as might be both Satisfactory and delightful to them in their greatest Distress Look how far short we are of Spiritual Comforts so far short also of true Pleasure and Delight And this is the first thing here observable to wit the Act. They do Delight The Second is the Object and that is my Soul We showed before know the Grief was in the mind and therefore the Comfort must be so also that the Remedy may answer the Malady Bodily-Pleasures will not satisfie for Mind-Distractions nothing will ease the Soul but such Comforts as are agreeable to it self and such are these present Comforts of God they delight the Soul and so by consequence the whole man For if that be well all will be well with it Bodily Comforts will not allay Spiritual Troubles but Spiritual Comforts will make a very great amends in Bodily Infirmities A good Heart it will do good as a Medicine as Solomon speaks and it will give Marrow and Fatness to the Bones What may we think then of those who undervalue such things as these are and will hazard the Perplexity of their Souls for the Injoyment of some few Bodily-pleasures which are no way answerable and sutable hereunto certainly such as those do not know what they do in so doing And so much also for that second particular to wit the Operation of the Physick as also the second General in the Text to wit the Remedy as also the whole Text it self Now to sum up all in a word which hath been spoken and to bring it briefly to an Head we have heard that there are many thoughts which many People are exercised withall thoughts of Perplexities and Distractions and that even to the Servants of God as concerning their own particulars as concerning the Good of the Publique and Church of God and that these are Comforts from God which do not onely satisfie but also delight in such conditions Now what remains to our selves but that we observe and take notice of these truthes and improve them to own best advantage We see here our Duty and priviledge both at once and the one following from the other Forasmuch as there is comfort from God to his Servants in their greatest uncertainties and destractions of thoughts therefore it lies upon us so to carry and to demean our selves as that we may be made partakers of this Comfort And there are two things especially which do much conduce and tend to this purpose The one is the improving and laying out our thoughts for God And the other is the referring and committing of our thoughts to Him in the practise of either of these rules and observations still we find this truth made good unto us That in the Multitude of thoughts within us his Comforts delight my soul First we must be careful to lay out our thoughts for God we must remember this as we desire to have thoughts of Comfort so we must be carefull to have thoughts of improvement which will reflect so much the more sweetly upon us Alas what are these what are we able to think of for him who of our selves can think nothing or if we could what need we to do it He is absolute and All-sufficient in himself It is true he is pleased to desire thus much from us which we should not think much to yield unto him As God has given us this advantage in our natures above all these inferiour Creatures that we are able to think and contrive so we should use and improve our thoughts for his Glory and according to the Abilities which he furnishes us withall and the opportunities which he puts into our hands The greater the Sphere is we move in the larger should be our thoughts to God as to Activity in it The more that God has done for us and the more that God has done by us the more should we still be careful to do for Him and set our thoughts on work how to be useful and servicable to Him in the place in which he sets us And that so much the rather as his thoughts are so strongly exercised about our selves whether as considered in our own Persons or in reference to the Land and Nation in which we live whereunto I may fitly apply that place of the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts that I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of Peace and not of Evil to give you an Expected end God has manifested these thoughts to us in a peculiar manner which should accordingly workupon us and prevail with us especially if we shall further consider them in the Circumstances of them As First In the Antiquity of them it is that which every good Christian which has the Evidence of Gods Grace in his own Heart is particular of even the thoughts of God for him from all Eternity He thought of us before we were or had any being in Nature it self Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever the Earth was formed c. And Secondly The constancy of them he always thinks upon us No Father more naturally and readily thinks of his Children then God thinks of his he thinks of us when we do not think of him nor think of his thinking of us nay sometimes when we have thoughts against him or not every way so full for him All this should perswade us and ingage us in this directing of our thoughts to him whereof we now speak and that in order to the Composing and setling of thoughts in our selves which is so much the sooner done for us Turn holy Meditations into holy Resolutions and those into holy Practises And know this to set it on further that not a thought of ours to this purpose shall be lost or fall to the Ground we have a notable instance and proof of this in King David who bearing it but in his thoughts to build God an House the Lord took it so well from him that he built an House for him 1 King 8.18 Whereas it was in thine Heart to build an House unto my Name thou didst well that it was in thine Heart Mark thou didst well that it was in thine Heart God judges of Hearty purposes and Intentions as of Practises and accordingly likewise rewards them as 2 Sam. 7.11 Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an House When we shall take care of Gods Interest he will then take care of ours and requites us in the same kind wherein we are thoughtfull or active for Him But Secondly As we settle our thoughts by laying them out for God so likewise by commiting them to him and his Comforts do delight our Souls in this Concern Thus Prov. 16.3 Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy
of them And what ever they do for Him it is pleasing and acceptable to him As for wicked men God loathes all that comes from them He does not take it kindly at their hands but rather quarrels and findes fault with it and excepts against it as we find often in Scripture Should I accept this from you Mal. 1.13 And who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Isa 1.12 He takes no pleasure in fools as it is Eccles 5.4 But for His Servants He is pleased to imploy them and He is pleased also with their Imployment Thus we see how in all these respects and Considerations which we have now mentioned the Lord takes pleasure in those that are his In their Persons and in their Graces and their Prayers and all their Services All which together make it up that He takes pleasure in them themselves as is here declared Now for the amplifying and further illustrating of this present Point before us This Delight which God takes in his people is considerable in these following Circumstances 1. As Free 2. As Lasting 3. As Operative and Efficacious First of all It is Free and Originated in Himself The Reason why men doe Delight and take pleasure in one another it is for the most part from some excellency in the Object moving them and inclining them thereunto from some sutableness to the Person delighted in and the Person that does Delight in him But in Gods delighting in His people there 's no such matter It is all here of Free Grace and Favour His taking Pleasure it does proceed from his Good-pleasure And there 's no other Account which can be given of it but His own Will As Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord loved you because He loved you that is His love it is best resolved into Himself as the proper cause and spring of it This is a very great Inlargement and Amplification of it unto us We count it a great piece of Favour especially in Great Persons to own Worth where they find it and to Delight in men there where they have somewhat amiable and delightful in them But to delight in any of their own accord and purely from the Goodness of their own nature without any thing worthy in the Person this is reckon'd a great Favour indeed why this is the case of Gods Delight and pleasure-taking in his servants It is there where they have nothing to move him or provoke him to it at least but what he himself first puts into them They are Comely with his Comeliness which he hath put upon them and from thence amiable to Him Secondly This Complacency and delight which God takes in his people it is lasting and Continuing As for the pleasure of men it is very uncertain and mutable they may delight in one at one time and disrelish him again at another as there are frequent experiences of it But the delight which God takes in his servants it is of a fixed and continued Nature and whom he loves he loves to the end The gists and calling of God are without Repentance This proceeds not onely from the Vnchangeableness which is in Himself but also from the Consideration of that Person through whom he is pleased with them and does accept of them this as I shewed before is Jesus Christ the Son of his Love forasmuch as God's love to Beleivers it is laid and founded in Christ therefore so long as he delights and takes pleasure in Christ he will do so in them also and his love can no more fail to them then to Christ Himself in whom he loves them Thirdly This Delight of God's it is Operative and Efficacious it is such as makes us to delight in God again and so it is mutual and Reciprocall Men they do sometimes delight and take pleasure in such kind of Persons as do not again delight in them but with God now it is otherwise where he is pleased at any time to fasten his Love and Affection upon any person he does cause him to make answerable returns in some degree of love unto him We love him says St. John because he first loved us not only as meriting it for us but as working it in us and not onely as the motive of our Love but also as the Efficient Therefore from hence by the way may we make a discovery to our selves of Gods delight in our selves namely according to this answerable Effect which it hath upon our own Hearts If so be he delights in us we shall also delight in Him and we may know the one by the other Those that shall say unto God depart from us for we desire not the knowledg of thy ways Those that care not to approach to God nor to injoy any Communion with him they may from thence very easily conclude that God does not delight in them forasmuch as this Delight it is operative and Efficacious And those are the several Amplifications of this Delight which is here mentioned to us Now this point thus illustrated to us it may be fruitful in sundry Inferences and deductions which may be drawn from it by way of Improvement and Application First In a way of Comfort and Consolation to the servants of God here 's matter of great Incouragement to them that God himself does take pleasure in in them and thus it is so in sundry respects First In point of Honour it is a great Dignity and Advancement to them We know in the affaires of the world that every one is so far Honourable as he is respected by persons of Honour those who have men of Quality to own them and to take delight in them they have so far forth a great deal of Excellency and Renown put upon them Now thus it is with all those who are true Beleivers and members of Christ they have the great God of Heaven and Earth himself takeing pleasure in them which is the highest Promotion of them Since thou wast precious in my sight thou wast Honourable because I have loved thee says God to Israel in Esay 43.4 And so it hold good of every Christian and Beleiver whatsoever He is so far forth Honourable as he is in favour with God Himself as well-pleased with Him Secondly In point of Safety it holds good in that respect likewise because God delights in his servants he will therefore protect them every one is Chary of that wherein they take pleasure for the keeping and preserving of it and as near as he can will not suffer any Evil to befall it Why thus now it is with God to his people He that toucheth them toucheth the Apple of their Eye as he has exprest it about them Zach. 2.8 So Esay 27.3 Speaking of his Vineyard that is his Church I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment least any hurt it I will keep it Night and Day Men care not what becomes of the Wilderness of dry and barren Ground because they have no pleasure
this Mercy and that we are inabled so to do it is that which every one cannot do even there where there is Mercy fitted and prepared and provided for him go praise God for that Thirdly That God accepts of this Hope from us and is so well pleased with it in us we have cause to praise him likewise for this to say the Lord be magnified as who rejoyces in the Prosperity so takes pleasure in the Graces of his Servants and that even at such times as he neglects the great thins of the World and in a sort despises them That the Bones of the mighty are oftentimes broken while they that stumbled are girt with strength as Hannah in her Song expresses it 1 Samuel 2.4 And so I have done with these words as in their absolute Consideration so in their Comparative and so with the whole Text it self The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his Mercy SERMON XXIX Prov. 3.17 Her wayes are wayes of Pleasantness and all her paths are Peace It is the Nature and Disposition of Artists and those which are of any Mystery or Profession as much as they can to extoll and advance that Profession which they are off and to Commend it to the Consideration of others As Paul of the Ministry of the Gentiles I magnifie mine own Office Rom. 11.13 Every one is ready to magnifie that way which he takes up to Himself above all others whatsover and this as it is observable in other things so amongst the rest especially in Religion and the wayes of Godliness Those which are the Professors of this they desire as much as may be to Commend it and set it forth to the view of other men Wisdom is justified of her Children as our Saviour tells us Thus we may observe it to be here in this Scripture which we have now before us in the Example of the wise man Solomon who being a Son of Wisdome and of special Wisdom especially that is Grace and Holiness and Religion which he here speaks off does in divers Chapters together applaud it and praise it all he can that so thereby he may invite others unto it IN these words we have described unto us the Excellency of Godliness and Religion in two particulars which may serve to make up unto us the parts of the Text. First From it's Pleasure and delight Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness Secondly From it's Tranquility and Quiet And all her paths are peace We begin First of all with the former to wit the description of Godliness from the pleasure and delight which is in it The wayes of Godliness and Religion are exceeding pleasing and delightful wayes they carry a great deal of sweetness and Contentment and pleasantness in them This is the point which is here exhibited unto us and it dâ—â—â— appear out of other places of Scripture likewise as Psal 36.8 David speaking of the Church and members of it sayes That they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Gods House and that he would make them to drink of the Rivers of his pleasures And Psal 118.15 The voyce of joy and Salvaton is sayd to be in the Tabernacles of the Righteousness So Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in Heart Esay 51.11 The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their Head they shall obtain gladness and joy and Sorrow and Mourning shall flee away Esay 64.5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh Righteousness where you see they are both joyned together And Galat. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is joy Now this Truth it may be further amplyfied and made good to us in sundry particulars which do prove and confirm it unto us There is a great deal of pleasure in Religion in sundry respects Wee 'l take them in that order as they do offer and present themselves to our thoughts As First of all In the work of Grace and Regeneration wrought in the heart All the several Graces of the Spirit and the habits of Sanctification which are in us they do reflect very sweetly upon us and there is a great deal of delight and Contentment to the Soul which does see them in it self Take a man which is full of Lusts and Corruptions which bear sway in him and he is a loathsome and abominable Creature sometimes even in his own Apprehensions A wicked and ungodly man he is in some manner odious to himself and is overcome as I may say now and then even with his own stench like a man which is in filthy Rags and torn and uncomely Garments he does not like himself in them But now on the otherside a good Christian which has the Grace of the Spirit of God in him and the work of the New Creature in his Soul he is so far forth pleasing to himself Grace is a very sweet and odoriferous Qualification as it casts a sweet savor into the Nostrils of all others that stand by it so especially as I may say into the Nostrils of all those that partake of it That Soul which is indued with it is like one that has roll'd himself in a Bed of Spices who is all over sweet and delightful I might set it forth to you in all the resemblances of Comfort and Contentment look whatever it be which in the discovery and discerning of it does usually afford delight to our selves the same may be applyed to the Graces of Gods Spirit and the sanctifying Qualities which are in us not onely as odoures and sweet spices to the smell it 's pleasing to be sensible of them But likewise further as Treasures of Gold and Silver there are many which much delight in them The Rich man when he looks in to his Coffers how much contentment does he take in them even there where others deride him and laughed at him Populus mei sibilat c. Yea but now a Godly man recounting the Graces which are in him has more true comfort and content by far And that 's the First particular wherein Godliness proves so delightful In the work of Regeneration and the habits of the Spirit of God in us Secondly As there 's a sweetness in reflecting upon Grace in the having of it so especially in the Exercise of it Every Grace the more it is improveed carries a delight and pleasurableness in it in what kind soever Therefore the Psalmist tells us that in keeping of Gods Commandments there is great Reward Mark not onely for the keeping but in the keeping be-shomran Psal 19.11 There 's Praemium ante Praemium A reward before the reward even in the thing it self Sutable to the nature of the Grace is the Exhibition of the comfort yea the very Heathen and Moralists themselves so far forth as they exercised vertue and practised that natural goodness which was in them they had some kind of comfort and contentment
There are many devices in the heart of man The Second is the Qualification of this Propostion or the Check as I may so call it which is put upon it in these words Nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand Wherein again two Branches more First The simple Assertion Secondly The Additional Opposition The Simple Assertion that is in these words The counsel of the Lord that shall stand The Additional Opposition or Correction that is in the word Nevertheless We begin with the former viz. The Simple Assertion The counsel of the Lord that shall stand The Counsel of God in Scripture as before the Devices of Man does admit of a Double Acception and Interpretation in which it is taken Either First For the Word and Truth of God Or Secondly For the Purpose and Decree of God Now according to either of these Notions does it hold good that God's Counsel shall stand And that also as pertinent to this Scripture First For God's Word and Truth This is sometimes called his counsel Act. 20.27 I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God says St. Paul to the Ephesians And Luk. 7.30 The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves where the same word also is used and that likewise to the same effect as applyed to God's Word and Truth which is called his Counsel as depending much upon his Counsel for the discovery and manifestation of it As Ephes 3.9 10 11. speaking concerning the Gospel The Mystery which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God but now made known by the Church According to the Eternal Purpose which he Purposed in himself This Counsel of God taken for his Doctrine and Truth it shall be sure to stand and that in Opposition to all the Fansies and Devices of men which labor to obscure and pervert it Veritas magna est prevalebit The Truth is great and so shall prevail as it is commonly declared Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one Jot or Tittle of God Word shall pass away The Reason of it is this because it is an Emanation of himself As God himself is so is his Word All flesh is grass and all the glory thereof is as the flower of the field The grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever And this is the Word which by the Gospel is Preached unto you says the Apostle Peter in 2 Pet. 1.24 25. And so the Apostle Paul to the like purpose 2 Cor. 1.18 As God is true our word towards you was not yea and nay but in him was yea For all the Promises of God in Him i.e. in Christ are yea and Amen c. Therefore let us stand for this Truth and hold to it all that may be which the more we stand by it the more it will stand by us yea and make us our selves to stand at another Day Humane Error it shall fall before Divine Truth as Dagan sometime before the Ark. And so it needs must in regard of the different basis and Foundation on which each of them stand Look what difference there is betwixt God Himself and man the same difference is there also betwixt mans Conceits and Devices and betwixt Gods own Counsels and Discoveries which should teach us therefore to hearken unto these rather than unto them And so for Gods Doctrinal Counsel and that Truth which he propounds to be beleived So for his Praeceptive Counsel likewise and that Law which he propounds to be obeyed This may be referred to this Head also of the Counsel of his Word and has the Name given unto it As Prov. 1.25 Ye have set at naught all my Counsel and would have none of my Reproof And so Jer. 23.22 If they had stood in my Counsel In his Counsel that is in his Commandments As God will make good the Counsel of his Truth against mens Errors and Corrupt Devices So he will make good also the Counsel of his Commands against mens Lusts and Corrupt Practises And thus much for his Counsel in the First Notion as it may be taken for the Counsel of his Word either in its Propositions or Injunctions either of which are in Scripture called his Counsel and said also to stand The next and which I conceive is more agreeable to the Scope of the Text which therefore I will insist upon though the other is not to be excluded is the Counsel of Gods Purpose and Decree and which most usually and commonly is exprest by this Appellation The Counsel of his Will as it is called in Eph. 1.11 This especially is sure to stand indeed And so the Scripture does signifie to us in sundry places of it as to instance in one or two amongst the rest Thus Psal 33.12 The Counsel of the Lord stands for ever the thoughts of his heart to all Generations Esai 46.10 11. My Counsel shall stand and I will fulfill all my Pleasure I have spoken it I will also bring it to pass I have purposed it I will also do it In Job 23.13 He is in one mind who can turn him And what his soul desireth even that he doth And Psal 115.3 Our God is in Heaven he hath done whatsoever he pleased And again in Psal 135.6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased that he hath done in Heaven and in Earth in the Seas and in all deep places Thus is the Scripture sufficiently pregnant in the Assertion of this Point before us This is a General Truth and may be extended to two Particular Heads Either First As to matter of Predestination and the Concernments of the Life to come Or else Secondly As to matter of Providence and the Transactions of this Life Present If we take it in either of these References The Point holds good as a clear and undenyable Truth That the Counsel of the Lord shall stand First In matter of Predestination Gods Counsel it shall stand here in Rom. 9.11 That the Purpose of God according to Election might stand And 2 Tim. 1.19 The foundation of the Lord standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knows them that are his Ephes 2.11 In whom also we have obtained an Inheritance being Predestinated according to the Purpose of him that worketh all things after the Counsell of his own Will In Rom. 11.7 The Election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded This is a Point which I shall not stand long upon at this time as being not the main drift of the Text although it be not excluded neither yet I cannot but give an hint of it It is that which we should hold fast and keep close to notwithstanding the many Devices which are in the heart of man to frustrate it and bring it to nothing We should cherish it as our great Comfort and Support in Spiritual Desertion and the many faylings which are in our selves whilst bewayled and striven against our uncertainty and infirmity and
Language is expressed by the name of Peace According to the Specifical sence So it does denote in particular a Tranquility whether of Mind or Condition as we have formerly explained it Now which way soever we take it it is here denyed to wicked men as not belonging unto them And in the later Exception more directly And this is true also whether we take it upon a National Account or upon a Personal First Take it upon a National No peace to the wicked here as that which may be matter of Amazement and Astonishment to them We know how sensible we have been of late of the Miseries and Extremities of War and so consequently how desirous of Peace and glad for it But alas if we go on in our Wickedness as there is little appearance to the contrary all the Peace which at present we enjoy will signifie but very little unto us or nothing at all For either the same Evil will break out again or else some other as bad or worse will come in the stead of it Where there is not Peace in the Foundation of it there can never be Peace in the Superstructure And where there is War in the Causes of it there will be at last War in the Consequents What is the Foundation of Peace It is as I said before Righteousness and Justice and Piety and the Fear of God What is the Cause of War It is Sin and Wickedness and Prophaneness and Debauchery of Conversation This the Apostle James has expresly declared unto us Jam. 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not from hence even from your lusts that war in your members Lust is the Cause of War both in reference to Man and to God In reference to Man as managing it and in reference to God as provoking it Therefore it is that God sends War upon People for the Wickedness and Sinfulness which is amongst them And accordingly Peace can no further be expected by them than this Wickedness is removed from them But Secondly Take it also upon a Personal Account And so No peace to the wicked Neither so as a Judgment upon them Where God vouchsafes Peace to a Nation yet if such and such particular Persons be wicked and sinful in that â—â—tion it shall be no Peace to them Look as in matter of common and publick Judgments God is able to secure and preserve his Servants in the midst of General Calamities So that though they be Judgments to others yet they shall cease to be Judgments to them So likewise in matter of common and publick Mercies God is able to declare and exclude his Enemies So that though they be Mercies to others yet they shall not be Mercies to them There shall be no peace to the wicked even then when there is Peace to all men else which are round about them Peace is no Peace unto them because it tends to the further hardening and confirming of them in their sinful Courses makes them more secure and presumptuous and so a great deal nearer to Ruin and Destruction than ever before This is the fruit of it to them This therefore in the Second place and as a further Improvement of this present Observation by us serves to shew us the difference betwixt the Wicked and the Righteous betwixt those which are the Children of God and those which are not As for those who are God's Children and such as fear him there is great peace belonging unto them For as much as they are the Children of God they are consequently the Children of Peace which is their proper Portion and Inheritance And so the Scripture it self signifies to us in other places Thus Psal 119.165 Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing 〈◊〉 â—â—end them So Isa 54.15 Speaking to the true Church of God All thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 And Isa 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee This is the Condition of the Saints and Servants of God But now as for the Wicked they have nothing at all to do with Peace as the Scripture sometimes expresses it in 2 King 10.18 19. And the reason of it is that which is given concerning Jerusalem Because they know not the things that belong anto their Peace therefore is Peace hidden from them and they become Strangers to it This will appear to be so especially in the time of any Trouble or Affliction which happens unto them or in the Hour of Death and Dissolution Then there will be a difference and distinction betwixt true Peace and False betwixt that which is real and sincere and betwixt that which is feigned and counterfeit When it will be no longer time for any only to put a good face upon matters to put the best side outwards when their Consciences within them upbraid them and fly in their faces as they will be ready to do at such times Therefore Thirdly Let Men take heed of flattering either themselves or others in this particular especially those who are Ministers and by their Office Publishers of Peace Let them take heed of crying Peace Peace where there is no Peace and healing the Daughter of God's People lightly and sowing of pillows under their elbows as the Scripture expresses it Where they see any to be wicked let them take heed of speaking Peace unto them in such a condition for there 〈◊〉 Peace for them And God himself as we shewed before has put another kind of Message into their mouths as it is here in the Text There is no peace to them saith my God And where God speaks not Peace to any yea rather speaks the contrary there is no Peace to be spoken by them And here by the way also we have a Discharge of all faithful Monitors whether Ministers or others from that Envy and Hatred and Reproach which is cast upon them for the performance of their Duties in this Particular When Ministers and the Servants of God come and tell men of their wicked Courses and declare God's Judgments against their Sins Men are apt hereupon to lay Load and Imputation upon the Messengers as if the fault and mischief were theirs As Ahab calling Micaiah I hate him because he never prophesied good unto me But see here now what is our Warrant and Apology in this Particular Namely it is Thus saith the Lord There is no peace to the wicked saith my God We speak not of our selves in this particular but we speak from him who says it himself and commands us likewise to say it from him and in his Name As Balaam sometime said to Balack though he did not every way observe it We cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord our God to say less or more Numb 22.18 Fourthly Here is a Remedy
mouth to receive it an appetite to be carryed to it and a stomach to entertain and digestit Even so the Word of God is not a perfect blessing neither except there be an Ear to hearken to it a spiritual taste to relish it and an heart to receive and digest it and to close and comply with it Now this is that which God does here in this place I say promise to his People when he says Their ears shall hear Not only a simple Partaking of the word Preacht but also an attendance upon it and obedience to it Hearing in the Language of Scripture being put for Obeying without which it is all in vain This was that Hearing which was in Lydia Act. 16.14 whose heart the Lord opened unto the things which were spoken by Paul The Things were spoken by Paul There was the word behind her Aud she attended to those things which were spoken There were her Ears hearing this word and both together made it to be a perfect and compleat blessing to her as it is also to any one else Let us therefore accordingly indeavour to find this made good in ourselves That we be hearers of that word which God does afford and vouchsafe untous And that not only with our outward ears although it were well if some would do that but also moreover with our inward affections and attentions to that which we hear seeing God follows us day after day and time after time with these advantages and opportunities which he offers unto us let not us be so far neglectfull either of him or of our own good as to divert our minds from them Considering what Solomon hath told us to this purppse Prov. 28.9 He that turns away his ear from hearing the Law even his Prayers shall be an abomination And so much of these words in their first Acceptation as they may be taken properly and in the Letter Thine Ears shall hear a word behind thee As relating to the Word of the Ministery and the Continuance of such opportunities as theâ—e are The Second is as they may be taken Metaphorically as relating to the word within us The inward Motions and Suggestions of the Spirit and the Dictates thereof This may be very well meant hereby likewise and as the other is not excluded So perhaps this is principally intended here in this place when it is said Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee speaking Gods Spirit speaking to our Spirit This is such as God does vouchsafe in his Church as well as the other As they have the word sounding in their Ears So they have the Spirit also whispering in their Consciences and stirring and moving in their Hearts Those that live in the Bosom of the Church within the pales and compass of it they have many such advantages and opportunities as these are which are vouchsafed and afforded unto them This as well as the former is very fitly called a word behind thee not only in all these respects which I mentioned in reference thereunto as a word pursuing recalling and provoking All which it is but also which we may moreover here take notice of in these two regards First In regard of the Privacy and Secrecy of it Look as that which is behind us we do not so easily see and discern no more do we many times so readily perceive such motions as these are God speaks once yea twice but man perceives it not as it is in Job 33.14 Hence it is called a secret word Davar laat Job 15.11 Are the Consolations of God small with thee or is there any secret word with thee And a stollen word as it is in the Hebrew Text Davar jegunnav Job 4.12 Now a word was secretly brought unto us and mine ear received a little thereof Whereby are signified the secret whisperings and murmurings of the Spirit of God in us Secondly As it is a word behind us in regard of the Seâ—resie and privateness of it Likewise in regard of the Proximity and Nearness The word is nigh thec as it said in another case It is but looking behind us and we have it It accompanies us and goes along with us as the shaddow with the Body That 's another thing here considerable and that in this expression of being behind Here 's the Constancy of these motions which God follows his People withall without intermission They are never free and exempt from them but they are still about them and stirring them where ever they are and whatever they are doing upon all occasions as I shall shew more anon in the following part and close of the Text. Behold I stand at the door and knock as it is in Revel 3.20 He stands which is a Posture of Perseverance This is a very great Favour as well as the Former It is not only a mercy that God gives us his word without us in the Dispensations of the Ministery but likewise his word without us in the Dispensations of the Ministery But likewise his word within us in the Dispensations of his Spirit And this is that which he annexes and joyns together with that in the promise of it This we find mention made of here in some other places of Scripture likewise These Dictates and Suggestions of the Spirit 1 Joh. 2.20 Ye have an Vnction from the Holy One and ye know all things So again in ver 27. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and teacheth you all things So Joh. 14.26 The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance c. Again Joh. 16.13 When the Spirit of Faith is come he will guide you into all truth c. Still there 's mention of these Suggestions of the Spirit The Use which we are to make of it is accordingly to bless God for it that affords these things unto us We see here the happiness of being brought forth within the compass of the Church where such means as these are vouchsafed and we should acknowledge Gods Goodness to us in this particular for though there be the stirrings of Conscience sometimes even in Civil Men in Heathens and such as these are yet these Motions of the Holy Ghost they are more proper and peculiar to the Church where there is the Ministers and Ordinances and Means of Grace in the Dispensation of them And we should not think it a small matter for our selves to enjoy them Next to God's giving of his Son to us is his giving of his Spirit and his continual Application of himself to our Hearts and Consciences But so much for that I have done now with the first General which is the Monitor here signified unto us in these words thine ears shall hear a word behind thee Understood either properly of the Word of the Ministry or metaphorically of the Suggestion of the Spirit I come now to the Second which is the matter
seemed to be guilty of and to be charged withal from God himself But they are reducible to two main heads The one is in the denial of their address And the other is in the discontinuance of it The denial of their address was this That they would not simply come unto God The discontinuance of their address was this That they would no more come unto him First Their simple denial of address We will not come unto thee There was a great matter of iniquity and miscarriage in them as to this That they refused to do thus First their disrespect and want of due affection to God The want of address is usually interpreted the want of observance And so it is in men to God when they come not at him it is a sign they do not love him nor regard him so as they should do This is that which is justly chargable upon all profane and atheistical persons that live without God in the world that never call upon him never pray unto him never exercise any communion with him it is an argument that they have not any respect or affection for him for if they had they would have more delight in his company and converse with him than commonly they have We will not come unto thee It had the guilt of disrespect Secondly their ingratitude and unthankfulness God had done very much for them he had not been a barren wilderness to them and yet they would not come unto him God charges them also with this God deserves to be sought to for himself and those excellencies which are in his own Blessed Majesty one would come unto him for this though there were nothing else But now when moreover we shall consider the good things which he does for us and which we daily receive from him this is a further engagement upon us and makes the sin to be so much the greater when we neglect to do so And this was the case of this people which made the Lord so much to wonder at them and to be offended with them For a child not to come at his Father or a servant at his Master upon the account of his meer relation it is a thing which is not justifiable but not to come to them when they are used kindly by them and when they receive so many courtesies from them this is very abominable God's mercies should be great provocations of our attendance upon him Thirdly their stubbornness and obstinacy We would not come unto thee No not even then when thou callest us and envitest us this sets it on a little more You know how ill Ahasuerus took it when he call'd for Vashti to come to him and she refused And how may the Lord then take it when his people refuse to come to him upon his invitation when he calls to them in the ministry of his Word in the dispensations of his Providence in the voice of his Spirit speaking not only to their ears but also to their hearts and consciences and for all that they hold off from him How can he possibly take this well at their hands and not be avenged upon them for it And that 's the First thing here considerable to wit Their denial of address The Second is their discontinuance of address We will come no more unto thee This is another thing wherewith they are charged and there are two things further included in this First their self-sufficiency and confidence in their own present condition Secondly their apostacy and declining and falling off from God and their former carriage First Here was their self-sufficiency and carnal confidence they said We are Lords that is we are able now to shift for our selves and so we will come no longer to thee for supplies from thee This is the temper and disposition of most kind of people besides As long as they think they can any thing subsist without God they never care for coming unto him Thus it was here with these Israelites God had heaped many mercies upon them and blest them on every side And this was the use which they now made of it even to neglect him so much the more that had done thus much for them To forsake the Fountain of living waters and to seek to themselves broken and empty Cisterns which would hold no water as he tells them in the 12th verse of this present Chapter Thus as it was with the Prodigal in the Gospel who so long as he was any thing well abroad never cared to come home to his Father's house Even so is it also with many more As it was with the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3.17 18. Which said she was full and encreased with goods and had need of nothing not knowing that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and had need to come to Christ and to buy of him Gold and white Rayment and Ointment and such things as these The temper and disposition in God's people is that which oftentimes provokes him to take such a course with them as he does for the bringing of them home to him And that is to exercise them with various crosses and afflictions to convince them of their own insufficiency and of their necessary dependance upon him Thus he speaks of his Church there in Hosea in chap. 2. ver 6 7. That he would hedg up her way with thorns and make a wall that she should not find her paths Then shall she say I will go and return to my first Husband for then it was better with me than now God would make her come again unto him though she thought to have come to him no more as being able to shift well enough without him Oh 't is good for every one to live in a constant dependance upon God and to see their need and necessity of him in whom they live move and have their being They that do otherwise God will take some course or other whereby to reduce them and to bring them again unto him as without whom they cannot be able to subsist or hold out That 's the first thing implyed in this expression No more to wit their self-sufficiency Though formerly we came to thee when we had some need of thee yet now we are able to shift for our selves The Second is their Apostacy and falling off from God This was another thing which he took so ill from them that though they had come to him heretofore yet now they would do so no longer This was that which was most odious to God of any thing else a cooling of their affections towards him and an intermission of their servings of him as it is in any other besides It is that as I have shewn you of late which God did so much lay to the charge of the Galatians and reproach them for it That having begun in the Spirit they should end in the Flesh that is that having formerly come to him they should now in the words of the Text
may not think it needless or superfluous First We may see here how God need not go far for the punishment of wicked men for he can do it from within themselves out of their own heart and belly and bowels when he pleases they carry the matter of their judgment about them and in their own breasts that so they may so much the more tremble and stand in awe of him and take heed of provoking him Who would not fear this great God and beware of doing any thing which might offend him who is able to do thus with them who can send the plague into their bowels not onely in a bodily sense as it has been of late here in this Land and City but in a spiritual which is far worse who can punish a man with his own affections and with the very thoughts which do arise and proceed out of his own mind though there were nothing else besides Secondly We see here also what good cause we have to order and regulate our affections and to keep them within their proper bounds to take heed of Extravagancy and Extremity in any particular forasmuch as we know not what at last it may come to we know not where we shall stop and stay if we look not to our selves nor what inconveniences may follow upon it Passionate and violent persons they are the greatest enemies and adversaries to themselves if they rightly consider it neither do they need any others to torment than their own bowels Therefore let us here watch over our selves and desire of God himself to watch over us and to take care of us to quiet and pacifie and compose us and keep us in frame that so we may have a perpetual Sabbath and tranquillity in our spirits and have nothing at all exceedingly to disquiet us or put us out of that temper in which we should be So much also of the second Particular which is the grief of these parts thus affected both in the kinds and effects of it The third is the Passage or Vent I cannot hold my peace Passion where ever it is it will make way and force it self forth and so it did here in the Prophet Jeremy in speech and outward expression he spake and he could do no otherwise he was not able to be silent in the condition in which he now was This was true of him according to a double explication either first of all of the speech of discovery I cannot hold my peace that is I cannot chuse but publish it Or else secondly of the speech of lamentation I cannot hold my peace that is I cannot chuse but bemoan it and bewail it and make complaint of it Each of these is in it First the speech of descovery I cannot hold my peace that is I cannot chuse but I must publish it and declare it and signifie it abroad I find these workings in my own spirit and I cannot but I must acquaint you with them I must reveal them and make them known unto you And thus the Prophet Jeremy speaks as a Minister of the Lord and as one that was intrusted with Gods people committed unto him Those which are the Servants of God in the Ministery they find sometimes a necessity in themselves for the discovery of their own thoughts to their people and that now and then even almost whether they will or no this we find once to have been the case of this very Prophet here now before us in another place he had in a manner resolv'd in himself that he would trouble himself no more with them that he would keep his own thoughts to himself in his own mind and breast Well but see what came on 't Jer. 20.8 9. Because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me and a derision daily Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay Thus it proves likewise to be the case of many other of Gods Servants besides they are necessitated in this particular and that upon sundry considerations First from the strength of that conviction and the evidence of the things themselves to their minds whereof they are to speak Thus it was with Peter and the rest of the Apostles Acts 4.20 when the Priests and Elders there forbad them to preach any more in the name of Christ they made this return unto them We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard that is we have such manifest convictions of them and such impressions upon our spirits to declare them as that we cannot refrain and hold our peace we should herein be injurious to our selves if we should offer to do it And so Elihu in Job there is such an expression as this is from him Job 32.7 8. I said Days should speak and the multitude of years should teach wisdom But there is a spirit in man and and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding And again more fully in vers 17 c. of the same chapter I said I will answer also my part I will shew mine opinion I am full of matter the spirit within me constraineth me Behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles I will speak that I may be refreshed c. Secondly as they are necessitated to speak sometimes from the strength of their Conviction so moreover from the strength of their Affection their love constrains them hereunto and in particular their love to the people whom they speak unto that so they may not hide or conceal from them what is fitting to be made known unto them Thus St. Paul professes of himself to the Church of Ephesus that he had kept back nothing from them which was profitable to them but he had shewed it and taught it them And again that he had not shunn'd to declare unto them the whole counsel of God And speaking elsewhere to the Corinthians he tells them that there was a necessity upon him and wo unto him if he preached not the Gospel So Ezekiel God told him that he should speak and be no more dumb and that he had made him a sign unto the people so that his weeping and mourning it should be as it were a fore-runner of theirs c. 24. Where we have also a third account of it and that is the consideration of their Calling and the Office which they sustain they are Watchmen and Shepherds and Guides as ye heard in the morning and so not onely to give warnings of sin but likewise of judgment and not onely of spiritual danger but corporal and they should betray not only the souls but the lives also of the people of God if they should be silent and dumb in this respect Thus we see now how upon all these considerations there 's this necessity which we now speak
and mourning or them and lamenting over them That 's the second emphasis in this expression Thirdly It is a note of displeasure and indignation So it is used also sometimes in Scripture Thus Jer. 21.10 I have set my face against this City for evil and not for good So Ezek. 25.2 Set thy face against the Ammonites And Ezek. 28.21 Set thy face against Zidon and prophecy against it And Ezek. 29.2 Set thy face against Pharaoh c. So here now Set thy face towards Jerusalem that is as expressing thy displeasure and distaste against it This is another thing which does also very well become those which are Ministers to testify against sin in their very countenance where they see any thing which is unworthy or unfitting to be done by any even to discountenance it and frown upon it and discourage it all that may be This is that which is here commanded Ezekiel And so much may be spoken of the first clause of judgment which is here specified to be denounced namely in reference to the City Set thy face towards Jerusalem the State Civil The Second is in reference to the Church or State Ecclesiastical And drop thy word towards the holy places This it respects the Temple which is exprest by the plural number in regard of the chief and principal parts of it Here 's God's judgment denounced against this the Lord's Sanctuary Now this as well as the former has two things considerable in it The place which is aim'd at and that is the place of holiness the Temple and house of God Secondly the carriage which is required of the Prophet towards it and that is to drop his word upon it and drop towards the holy places For the first the place it is the Church and house of God Here 's God's vengeance threaten'd against that as to the destruction of it This is worse than the former by how much spirituals are better than temporals and any prejudice to our souls worse than to our outward estates yet this is that which God here threatens by his Prophet Ezekiel when he will have him to proclaim against the Sanctuary It is a judgment in spirituals The Sanctuary here in this Text must be taken in the full extent and latitude of it and then it does imply three things in it which are here threaten'd First the place Secondly the persons Thirdly the performances The place that was the Temple The persons they were the Priests and Ministers in it The performances they were the Ordinances All these have their several judgment and punishment denounced against them in this dropping upon the holy places First Here 's a threatening of the place the Temple it self which was afterwards verified and made good in the destruction and rendition of that Not one stone left upon another as our Saviour likewise speaks of it God threatens to take away that visible token of his presence from amongst them which was one step of this punishment Secondly Here 's a threatening of the persons the Priests and Ministers there 's an heavy judgment belonging to them sorasmuch as they had corrupted themselves and others with them It is a judgment upon the Church of God when God's wrath is any thing poured upon those which are Ministers about it and employed in the services of it The Temple and Sanctuary suffer in this dispensation As to instance in some particulars First In the removing of their persons When God shall once begin to do this as in Isa 3.2 The Lord there threatens to take away the Prophet This was a great judgment when those which are Watchmen and should give warning of the dangers which are approaching are taken from any people this is a great evil to them As Psal 74.9 We see not our signs there is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long It is that which God has done very lately amongst our selves many Ministers in divers places of the Land have been taken away which certainly is a very sad affliction if it be thoroughly consider'd and which has more evil attending it than it self Secondly the taking off their hearts and affections that 's another thing A discouraging of them in their spirits that 's in effect as bad as the other and in some respects worse if it be duly laid to heart when they shall not have that freedom and cheerfulness and alacrity in their work and employment as formerly they have had Thirdly the restraining of their Gifts or the exercise and improvement of them As Acts 16.7 The Spirit suffered them not These and the like are a judgment upon the Sanctuary in respect of the persons the Prophets the Priests and Ministers In the third place in reference to the performances The Ordinances and Ministerial dispensations God drops upon the Sanctuary when he threatens to suspend these as oftentimes he does when he sends a famine of his word as he speaks in Amos chap. 8. ver 11. I will send a famine of hearing of the words of the Lord This is a very great evil and none like it and it is that which the Lord is sometimes provoked unto Especially when his Ordinances are neglected and laid aside when there 's no heed or regard unto them in such cases as these does God remove them and otherwise bestow them neither is there any thing here which shall stand in the way of his judgments It might seem a strange kind of business that God's wrath should be upon the holy places of all other places besides For what should exempt from judgment if holiness could not nay but even this will not suffice or serve the turn where sin once gets into them It is not holiness of profession which is able to make amends for unholiness of conversation These holy places are called so in regard of their dedication the use which they were at first appointed and ordained unto but now being employed to another purpose we see here what 's their destiny which is even to be destroyed When Bethel shall once be turned into Beth-aven the house of God into the house of sin and vanity there can nothing else now be expected but misery and ruine and destruction attending thereupon nay here rather than any-where else Let this be the use then which we make of this observation not to trust and rest our selves in such refuges as these are not in the strength of our Walls or our Towers or warlike preparations sor God sâ—ts his face against Jerusalem which was a great and fenced City even the City of the Great King as it is sometimes calâ—ed No nor yet to trust in our Temples that is to say in our profession of Religion To cry the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are we as they did in Jer. 7.4 For see here how God's wrath 's upon the Sanctuary and the holy places It will be no booty to us to keep us from
what is the only folly to speak of that is in the world which is as I have hitherto shewn the neglect of a man 's own soul Neglect of a man's soul may some say yea but who is guilty of that is any man such a fool to do so that lives within the Church that is in the sound and noise of the Ordinances That comes to the hearing of the Word and partakes of the outward means of Salvation and Grace How can he be said to neglect his own soul that is careful to make use of these It is true he cannot be said so that makes use of them so as he should and is conscionable in them But it is an easie matter any man to rest himself contented in the means and yet to have none of that comfort and benefit which he should draw from them Nay let me add and put in this to the rest by way of aggravation that none do more prejudice their souls many times than such as these I mean them which have blessed opportunities and take not the advantages of them nor improve them to the utmost that enjoy the Means of Salvation but do not use them as the means from whence Salvation should be had that hear but hear carelesly that pray but pray superficially that come to the Lord's Table but partake of it without preparation or discerning the Lord's body These they do procure to themselves the greater damnation and so consequently do incur the censure of the greatest folly which do not so befall any man that is out of the reach of any comfort against his will that would have it but cannot no we rather pity and bemoan him But a man that will voluntarily deprive himself of it when it 's ready at his hand or neglects to use it as he should it is he which most properly deserves the name of any other The second general Observable is the disgraceful Compellation Thou Fool 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was a round salutation fool at first word and especially to a man who was so well opinionated of himself Call an humble man fool and he thinks ye tell him no news he is ready himself to profess it before you can say it But this man here in the Text was one who applauded himself in his own projects and thought highly of that which he had done and yet the Lord calls him fool The Observation from hence may be this That wordly and carnal minded men which give themselves wholly to the earth and earthly meditations however they may think of themselves or however others may flatter them yet in truth in God's account and estimation they are no better than fools But God said unto him Thou Fool c. When we say that God saies it it is as much as if we said thus much that they are absolute fools indeed God's understanding it is the direct rule of Truth whatever he speaks he thinks and whatever he thinks it is so as he thinks it therefore God's appellatio non c. dicit ' Deus stulte quomodo homo dicit God calls not fool as man calls Austin makes it all one with reality Men may call fool in jest nay more they may call fool in passion and fury and unadvised anger there 's a great deal of rashness and ignorance and pride and prejudice in their calling fool because they are fools themselves And sometimes there is no great heed nor regard to be had unto it but for the great God himself to call fool he who is Wisdom and Truth I can tell ye 't is more than if all the men and Angels in the world had done it besides And it makes a man a fool eo nomine It was an excellent speech of Socrates an Heathen Philosopher which I cannot but name to the shame of many Christians It 's no matter how many call us but how one calls us Why thus now are all worldly men muck-worms and toilers in the earth they are fools in God's account and so ye shall find them set out divers times in Scripture We meet with one which has this name given him on purpose in 1 Sam. 25.25 Nabal is his name and folly is with him He was called fool 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Indeed his manner and his carriage imported as much And so indeed are all other worldly men of the stamp with him The Scripture calls them fools O ye fools when will ye learn wisdom I said unto the fools deal not so foolishly O ye fools and blind and such phrases as these are we meet with them almost in every page and line And I need not stand heaping up instances and quotations unto you they do so often every where occur This they are among others which might be named upon a twofold consideration First Because they think themselves otherwise Rom. 1.22 Professing themselves to be wise they became fools Every man is so much a fool as he thinks himself a wise man for it is a part of wisdom to be sensible of a man 's own folly and to see when a man is at the best that he is then but imperfect Why thus it is with worldly-minded men they think themselves wonderful wise and that none are so wise as they The rich man's wealth saies Solomon is his strong Tower It is that which he betakes himself to and repairs to in any distress and wherein he principally glories Thus ye may see it was here with this man in this present Scripture Soul thou hast goods laid up fo thee for many years eat drink and be merry as if he should have said Thou hast provided well for one and therefore now mayest be quiet there 's no more for thee to look after This is the humour of such people they pride themselves in their worldly projects As we have it signified unto us in Psal 49.18 Whiles he lived he blest himself speaking of the wicked rich man he blest himself that is in his own thoughts and apprehensions and estimations It 's a wonderful thing to consider what a great deal of vanity and folly there is in the minds of many men in this particular How they applaud themselves in the abundance of their wealth and how scornfully they account of all other people that want it They think all men fools which go not that pernicious way which they with so much vehemency pursue and walk in It cannot be thought and imagin'd but that they now and then express it what low and undervaluing thoughts many carnal wretches in the world have of grace and of the waies of godliness and what fools they think them to be which are earnest and forward in those waies The greatest fools in their opinion that are in the world Well but see what God thinks of them now for their labour as it is in Psal 49.13 This their way is their folly though their posterity approve their saying Those which came after them may commend them because
sure and his counsel it must needs stand and the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Such Points and Doctrines as these do we meet withall in Scripture which all hang together and have a dependance one upon another and concur to the making good of this Conclusion which we have here now before us All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me The improvement which we may make of this Point to our selves is manifold and various First we see here against the Arminians that Election it is peremptory and irreversible there is no deseating or frustrating of it for whosoever is given shall come Christ shall lose none of those which are câ—nferr'd upon him but they shall be certainly and without all doubt brought home unto him Not onely Glory but Grace it is the fruit and effect of Gods Decree and accordingly shall be sure to obtain its effect in us Therefore we see how may which have for a long time gone on in sinful courses yet at last they have been wrought upon and reduced Why how has this come bout namely as the fruit of Gods good-will and purpose concerning them Thus Ephes 1.4 5. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will And Rom. 8.28 The called according to his purpose Secondly we have here also an account of the continuance still of the world and the procrastination of the day of Judgment which is namely for this reason that so those who are clected may have a time and season to be converted that all which the Father has given Christ may by this means come in unto him This is plainly signisied unto us by the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Not any that is not any of his Elect whom he hath appointed and set apart to salvation these he is not willing they should perish for want of space and time of repentance and conversion to God but that they should have a full and large opportunity in this particular afforded unto them that 's the meaning of it Thirdly We learn from hence likewise how to make our Calling and Election sure which the Apostle Peter does advise us unto and that is by making sure our closing with the conditions of the Gospel We may know whether we are given unto Christ by considering whether or no we are come to him forasmuch as all which are given to him they come If any of us shall hang off from him and resuse to close with him we cannot for the present conclude that we are in the number of his Elect Children which is known to us no otherwise than by the effects of our Conversion and turning to him and by these is known certainly Whosoever of us can find in his heart a willingness to accept of Christ we may be sure that we are given unto Christ and that we are in the number of those which shall hereafter be saved by Christ But against this which hath been said may be objected that which our Saviour himself has of Judas Joh. 17.12 Those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of is them lost but the son of perdition The son of perdition is given to Christ and yet lost therefore all which are given to him do not come or at least come in good earnest but in such a sort as they may depart from him again which is as good as nothing What shall we say to his To this we answer That we must here distinguish of being given to Christ There is a giving to him to be a Member and there is a giving to him to be a Minister Those which are given to Christ in the first sense they shall certainly stick by him and cleave unto him and never depart but those which are given to him onely in the second sense they may be lost and fall away from him Now in the number of this last was Judas he was given to Christ for an Aposile one of his Family and external Society but as a Believer so he was not given He was not a vessel of Election but a son of perdition and being so he might very well be lost and so he was though given to Christ According to that of the Apostle John also in another place 1 Joh. 2.19 They went out from us speaking of seducers and false teachers which were externally joyned to the Church because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have no doubt continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us So much for that Point by taking the words in a way of Latitude All that are Elected shall be Converted Secondly They may be likewise taken in a way of Restriction All that the Father hath given me as excluding any other besides from this Condition There 's none can come to Christ but those which are given to Christ Take notice of this Thus expresly in Joh. 6.44 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him c. And 2 Cor. 3.5 Our sufficiency is of God And Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Would we know the true ground and reason of it why none can come to Christ but those whom God does give to come to him we may take it thus First because all others they are quite ignorant of him without the knowledge of Christ there 's no coming to Christ The fick man dares not go to that Physician whom he does not know Now Christ he is unknown to the world and none is able to reveal him to it but God alone Matth. 11.27 No man knoweth the Son but the Father And because no man does so therefore either he must reveal him or none will come to him This is clear from the reply of Christ himself to Simon Peter there in that place Matth. 16.16 17. when Peter had made there a glorious confession of him Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Jesus answered and said unto him Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven There is naturally a blindness in mens minds and understandings whence they know not Christ unless the Father reveal him And then secondly there 's a perversness also in their Wills and their Affections that though they know him yet they hang off from him Light is come into the world men loved darkness rather than light c. Joh. 3.19 To make men come to
This is the scope and drift of this Text. IN the Text it self there are three general Parts considerable First a seasonable Information Secondly a rational Illustration Thirdly an additional Encouragement The Information that 's in those words In my Father's house are many mansions The Illustration in those If it were not so I would have told you The Incouragement in those I go to prepare c. We begin with the first of these Parts viz. the Seasonable Information or discovery which is here made of the future Estate In my Father's house are many mansions which is nothing else as I may so call it but a Prophesie and description of Heaven wherein there are two Particulars considerable of us First the Title and Appellation which is put upon it Secondly the Conveniences or Accommodations which are belonging unto it The Title which is put upon it that is My Fathers house The Conveniencies belonging unto it that is there are many mansions First To speak a little of the Title or Appellation which is put upon it My Fathers house They are the words of Christ in reference to God whom he calls his Father and Heaven as belonging to Him Heaven it is the House of God and so it is here denominated as being so after a more peculiar manner The whole world is Gods house in some sort as wherein he manifests his wisdom and power But the Church is so more especially and that in the full latitude and extent of it whether the Church Militant or Triumphant The Militant Church as that wherein he manifests his Grace and the Triumphant as wherein he manifests his Glory As for the former of these Houses to wit the Church Militant here upon Earth that we have spoken to very lately upon another Scripture and shewn you how Judgment begins at this house of God 1 Pet. 4.17 The latter to wit the Church Triumphant which is above in Heaven this is that which we are now to speak of at this present time and is out of the reach of any Judgment as lighting upon it This is the House of God emphatically and so to be understood by us as intended here in this Text where it is so called and it is so upon a double account First as he is the Maker of it and Secondly as he is the Possessor of it First He is the Maker of it Heaven it is the House of God so Heb. 11.10 Whose builder and maker is God And Heb. 1.10 The heavens are the work of thy hands 2 Cor. 5.1 A building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Every house that is every earthly house is builded by some man says the Apostle Heb. 3.4 but he that hath built this heavenly house is God And so his house more especially But secondly as he is the Maker so he is the Owner and Possessor of it likewise And it is so his house also Every one that builds an house does not own it nor dwell in it But Heaven it is the place of God's abode not as confined to it whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain but as manifesting his special presence and glory in it Thus Psal 11.4 The Lord is in his holy Temple the Lords Throne is in Heaven And Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens c. Heaven it is the house of God but here it is exprest in the Text by the Relative Denomination My Fathers house namely with respect to Christ whose Father he is said to be not onely here but in divers other places The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ It is an ordinary expression in Scripture And likewise with respect to the Disciples and all other Believers whose Father God is also upon the account of his being the Father of Christ I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Joh. 20.17 Because God is the Father of Christ who is the Son by nature he is Father consequently of all the Members of Christ who are his sons by Grace and spiritual Adoption And so he would have them here to understand it in this expression in the Text and we are also to understand it so with them In mine and your Fathers house there are many mansions This is that which every Christian and true Believer may say of Heaven as Christ does here before him It is my Fathers house And it is very sweet and comfortable to him so to think and consider with himself When Gods Children leave the world and depart and go out of these places here below they do but go home as it were to their Fathers their being here in the world is no more but a kind of sojourning and pilgrimage and they live but as it were in the house of strangers But when they go hence they go home to their nearest and chiefest Relations As that blessed Martyr of Christ Dr. Rowland Taylor when he was drawing near to the Town of Hadley in Suffolk where he had been Minister and was now going to be burnt in Queen Maries days for the profession of the Gospel being ask'd how he did answer'd Never better for now I know that I am almost at home I lack not above two styles to go over and I am even at my Fathers house Such apprehensions have Gods Children of Heaven that they look upon it as their proper home and from hence are the more easily perswaded to leave the world when they are called so to do even upon this consideration as it was also here with Christ himself And this is that also which contents them and satisfies them whiles they are here in the world with all the ill usage and harsh dealing which they meet withall here The Children of God whiles they abide here upon earth they meet with many a coarse entertainment from earthly and worldly persons whom they are strangers as it were unto and they are willing so much the rather to put it up because they know they shall be recompenced when they come home what-ever dealings they meet withall abroad they shall have them all made up unto them when they come home to their Fathers house But so much of the first particular observable in this first General viz. the Title or Appellation which is here put upon Heaven and that is My Fathers house the house of God who is the Father of Christ and in him of all Christians The second is the Conveniencies or Accommodations belonging hereunto and that is that in it there are many mansions whiles it is said that there are many mansions in Heaven there are three things which seem to be impli'd in this exprossion First Reception Secondly Duration Thirdly Variety There 's room and place of entertainment there 's continuance and time of abode and there 's likewise choice and store of it First There 's room and place of reception and entertainment there 's opportunity of dwelling and habitation God house is large
which are more useful and necessary for us to be known by us which we should labour to know The naughtiness and deceitfulness of our own hearts the depths and decrees of Satan the will and pleasure of the Lord and what is acceptable to him To know God and to know our selves and to know the things that concern our everlasting peace and salvation But to know the times and seasons in this sense as we have explicated it it does not concern us to know them nor to labour or endeavour to know them and to be acquainted with them And that so much the rather upon this account that so we may the more vigorously apply our selves to those other things which I have now mentioned as are more needful to be known by us For this we may observe in daily experience that superfluities and impertinencies they do usually expel necessaries whiles mens time and days is employed in those things which are of less consequence they commonly omit and neglect those things that are of greater importance And so amongst the rest it it here in this particular which is one main reason as we may conceive why Satan does oftentimes put men and fasten them hereupon that so whiles their minds are taken up about enquiries after the time they may the more easily neglect the thing and the business which the time it self does especially refer to Therefore we should from hence be awakened from the prevention of this curiosity in us and what God would not have us to know And that may be one improvement Secondly As it meets with mens curiosity so it also meets with their presumption As with their curiosity in enquiring so especially with their presumption in resolving and concluding hereupon It is not for you to know it therefore it is not for you to determine it There are a great many persons sometimes who do not only make a search into this mystery but also now and then do absolutely and positively fix it and set it to such a particular time and year of the world As to some to four some to five hundred years after Christ some to the six-thousandth year of the World and some also to this present year of sixteen hundred sixty-six after Christ And there are divers that do fasten it here but all both in one and t'other speak by rote and have no solid ground making for them It was a Point which the Church of God was troubled withal by some kind of persons even in the Apostle Paul's time as we may see by what he writes to the Thessalonians in 2 Ep. 2. ver 2. Where he beseeches them that they would not be soon shaken in their minds either by word or by spirit or by letter as from him as if the day of Christ were at hand for it was not so Where we see how both some did then suggest it as also how the minds of Believers were troubled at it And he gives them a reason against it and that was because the man of sin that is Antichrist was not yet revealed as we may see in the following verses of the Chapter Now as there were reasons against that time so there are also as good reasons against this As then that the man of sin was not yet revealed so now that he is not yet destroyed There are divers passages and providences which are necessarily antecedent to Christ's coming which are not yet accomplish'd as the fall of Antichrist the calling of the Jews the fulness of the Gentiles and the Preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom in all places of the world These and the like considerations do make against the fixing of it to this particular time And therefore it should take us off as from all curious inquisitions so all peremptery determinations Because as it is here exhibited to us It is not for us to know the times and seasons c. But yet that we may still further understand our selves in this present business It will not be amiss for us to take in these further hints and animadversions with us First It is not for you to know but it is for you to believe not to know the time but yet to believe the thing to believe that this day will come though we know not when it will come There are abundance of people in the world who are so far from fastening upon any particular time for Christ's coming to judgment as that they are ready to think with themselves that there is no time for it at all that because he is not come yet that he will come never Thus the Apostle Peter foretells us of the scoffers that should be in the last days walking after their own lusts who should say where is now the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation 2 Pet. 3.3 4. And too many such scoffers as these there are in these days of ours who do not believe any such thing as this is nor are really perswaded of it but we must take heed of such a mind as that is It is not for you to know but 't is for you to believe Secondly It is not for you to know but it is for you to expect not to know justly when it will be but to wait the time for the being of it And because we do not know therefore to wait to be always upon our watch and in readiness against the coming of our Master Watch therefore because ye know not in what hour the Lord will come and ye know not the times and seasons of being called to a final account whether he will come at evening or at midnight or at morning Especially which is here very considerable as to any man's particular time and season for that cannot belong to any man whosoever he be That 's the end of the World to such a person which is the end of his particular life in it And therefore let the general day of Judgment be where it will be he may be sure the day of his particular judgment cannot be very far off And it concerns him to be always in a waiting and expectation of it As Job resolved for his part All the days of my appointed time says he will I wait till my change cometh Job 14.14 It is not for you to know when it will be but it is for you to live as if it should be out of hand This present year which is now upon us we should so order and dispose of as to our lives and conversations as if we did verily and assuredly know that Christ would this year come to judgment This Doctrine of the uncertainty of his coming is not to cherish our security but rather to provoke our affection It is to be supposed and taken for granted that he will come at last and therefore what manner of persons ought ye to be in all manner of conversation and godliness looking for and
Common-Wealth and indeed in any kind whatsoever is but a Candle lighted at his Torch It is a beam of that wisdom which is in God And that we may use it the more for him and acknowledg it the more thankfully from him it is indeed originally his thus Artaxerxes speaks to Ezra Ezr. 7.25 And thou Ezra after the wisdom of thy God that is in thine hand set Magistrates and Judges which may judg all the people in the Land The wisdom of thy God! To Joseph it is said The Spirit of God was in him in regard of his wisdom Gen. 41.38 39. And Daniel it is said of him that he was a man in whom the Spirit of the Holy Gods and wisdom like the wisdom of the Gods was found in him Dan. 5.11 Fourthly The wisdom of God is sometimes taken for the Scripture and word of God As Luke 11.49 therefore also to be said the wisdom of God I will send them Prophets and Apostles and some of them they shall slay c. The wisdom of God that is the Scripture wherein this will of God is so declared Fifthly The wisdom of God is taken more restrainedly for the Doctrine of the Gospel and the great Mysteries which are contained in that Thus 1 Cor. 2.7 We speak the wisdom of God in a Mystery And Eph. 3.10 That to Principalities and Powers might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God That is that great plot and design of saving the World by the death of Christ wherein God shewed his infinite wisdom Lastly The wisdom of God is taken for the Creation of the World that wisdom which does shine forth in the Creature and the works of God in that respect And so 't is particularly to be understood here in this place When 't is said That the world knew not God in the wisdom of God the meaning is this that they did not so improve that advantage for theknowledg of God by the Creation as indeed it became them to do This work of the Creation is fitly called the wisdom of God because the wisdom of God does therein very much appear to all such persons as will take notice of it Thus Rom. 1.20 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 All the several Attributes and Excellencies and Perfections which are in God they do hereby discover themselves And amongst the rest his admirable wisdom this shews it self in the frame of Heaven and Earth Thus Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all And so Psal 136.5 To him that by wisdom made the Heavens And as the Heavens so the Earth and all things in it whether we look upon the House it self or the Furniture or the Inhabitants all are the effects of wisdom Hence it is that the Psalmist breaks so forth into the Admiration of them in another place Psal 8.1 c. O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the earth And why Because he considered the Heavens the work of Gods fingers the Moon and the Stars which he had ordained c. As it follows in Verse 3. c. And again Psal 19.1 The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shews his handy-work c. Surely when we look upon the Creation and consider the usefulness of the Creatures in regard of their ends and the subordination of them one to another in regard of their dependence and the exquisiteness and curiousness of them in regard of their frame and constitution we cannot but be forced to acknowledge an incomprehensible wisdom which had an hand in the disposing of these things even no other than the wisdom of God And so much for the first term The second is what 's meant by the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And surely here as in the first term was understood the world for the frame of it so also in this second Term is understood the world for the Inhabitants of it the men that dwell in the world and have their abode here below upon earth by a Metonymie of the Subject for the Adjunct These are in this place the world and yet not all of these neither although I may say almost all And that 's the worst part of them By the world we are here to understand the wicked of the world Mundus impiorum The world of the ungodly as they are stiled 2 Pet. 2.5 There 's a world taken out of the world and that 's the world of the Elect which is commonly called the Church a people called out from the rest that live in the world But they are not those which are meant here in this place No but meer carnal and natural men considered in their unregenerate condition and that the best of them even their learnedest and greatest Philosophers That world which is opposed to the Church and shut out of the prayer of Christ when he says I pray not for the world these are the world which the Apostle Paul points here unto in sundry respects 1. Because they are most of the world in regard of their number 2. Most in the world in regard of their interest 3. Most in regard of their affections Now these are called the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First In regard of their Multitude because they are the greatest part of the World Denominatio sumitur a majori parte And so indeed it is here the greatest number of people in the World they are such as are void of true Religion and the knowledg of God the Church of Christ it is a little flock and the least society that is in the World There 's but a few to speak of of this number There 's but a little inclosure all the rest is wast and wild ground The waters where the whore sits are Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues as it is in Rev. 17.15 That is almost all the World if we divide the World into parts Christendom has the least share in it and for Christendom true and right Christians indeed have the least share in that also Universality is no note of the true Church This is one great Mistery and depth which we are unable to dive into that the greatest part of people in the world they are the least part of those which are good and which are acquainted with God the most of them they never heard of God at least to purpose and if they have yet have not closed with it the greater is Gods goodness to those with whom 't is otherwise But that 's one respect in which the wicked are called the world because they most fill the world Secondly Because they have most of the world they have their share and portion in the world and they are hereby described as Psal 17.14 Deliver me O Lord from men of the world which have their portion in this life whose
which is required to such a work as that is If ye ask what is required else I answer a competent understanding in the whole Body of Divinity and Religion a Genius which I know not how to express to you a particular faculty for the understanding and interpreting of Scripture a Theological and Ministerial frame and disposition of mind a spirit of discerning in reference both to persons and truths together with a mind wholly imployed and taken up in such things as these are and given up altogether to them The whole frame and bent of a mans course is to be inclined and carried on this way and dedicated to it an ability rightly to divide the word of truth and to give every one his portion in due season as Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. 4.15 Meditate on these things give thy self wholly to them that thy preaching may appear unto all or in all things as some interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be in them wholly The work of the Ministry is such as it requires the whole man and all his time to be taken up in it or else in such things as do border and confine upon it and belong unto it at least not such as are alterius generis or do divert from it This in other and private Christians of other callings is not nor cannot be which yet is necessary to be And this we speak of the intrinsecal and immediate qualifications hereunto Besides all this to say nothing now at this time of the setting apart hereunto by the Church if there be any which have real gifts for it and approved of though of other callings I should not be sorry but close with you with all my heart but this is sooner presumed than to be hoped But so much for that And so now I have done with the first General part of the Text viz. the Counsel or Exhortation which is here given by the Apostle Covet earnestly the best gifts The second is the Additional Regulation of the said counsel and yet here the Apostle raises his note a little higher than in the former he had done He would not have the Corinthians rest in the common gifts of the Spirit of God and to content themselves only with them but to proceed somewhat further than so as he does here intimate and imply unto them that it was possible for them to do In this second Branch of the Text we have two parts more considerable First The thing propounded The more excellent may Secondly The Proposition of it I shew it unto you We have each of these observable of us First Here 's the thing it self propounded The more excellent way The more excellent way what way do ye call that why surely that will quickly appear if we do but read on to the following Chapter which there are some Interpreters of very good note that would make these words of the Text to be the beginning of And there we shall find charity to be especially commended unto us Charity it is a large word of large extent as large as the whole Decalogue no less than so It is as the Apostle calls it the fulfulling of the Law whatever we can imagine as required in Gods Commandments we have it epitomized and comprehended unto us in this one word of Charity or Love love to God and love to our neighbour and our selves in a due manner and in reference to God this is Charity And so indeed and in effect and conclusion the more excellent way it is nothing else but Piety and Religion Grace and Holiness and Goodness the sanctifying and saving gifts of Gods Spirit both for the habit and operation of them in us these are that excellent way which the Holy Ghost by this advice to the Corinthians does commend unto us There are three points especially which are here observable of us First That Religion it is a Way Secondly That it is an excellent way and more excellent than all other ways and abilities and accomplishments besides Thirdly That it is such a way as we are to pursue and follow after in the most principal manner First I say Religion it is a way and so it is here represented unto us This distinguishes it from a mere sitt or some transient act and no more which abides only for some particular time True Grace and Holiness it is not so it is not only the doing of one or two good Duties and away and for such a season as we may judg most expedient but it is a fixt and setled course through the whole time of our lives Therefore we may from hence judg and conclude of our selves what we are examine what our course is and what it is that we do for the most part apply and bend our selves to and how one part of our lives is suitable and agreeable to the other This is the best discovery of us Even Saul himself may be sometimes among the Prophets and there is not the worst man that is but he may be now and then found in a good action But this is not his way and course and so from thence he cannot be concluded to be good It is the question which Job puts about the Hypocrite Will he delight himself in the Almighty will be always call upon God no he will not in Job 27.10 Secondly As Godliness and Religion is a way so it is the most excellent way of all others it is via per eminentiam as it is here exprest unto us it 's via Regia although it be not via publica a way which has a transcendency in it above any other So the Arabick Interpreter another way which is more excellent One would have thought that when the Apostle had made mention of the best gists he could now have gone no higher for what can be the better than the best But yet he does for all that here 's a superlative beyond a superlative and that 's the most excellent way which belongs to Religion True Grace and Holiness it has an excellency and transcendency in it above all learning and common Gifts whatsoever This will be easily cleared unto us upon this account First Because it is that which does bringus into a nearer likeness and similitude to God himself that 's undoubtedly the most excellent way and carries he preheminence to all other which does make us most conformable to him who is the chiefest excellency Now this we are not so much by our gifts and parts and such accomplishments as those as we are by the work of Grace in our bearts The most exact Image of God it does consist in righteousness and true holiness as the Scripture expresses it to us Indeed it is true that we are made like unto God in some sort in the natural faculties and powers of our Soul our Reason and Understanding c. But this is not all nor the chiefest no but so far forth as we are new created and made over again by the sanctifying work
God our rejoicing is this or our glorying the testimony of conscience So then that which was others mens misery was his glory The unhappiness of many men is this that they are manifest to God however they they carry it with men but for the Apostle Paul and such as he was it was his greatest rejoicing Again secondly It is comfortable likewise as in mens ignorance so likewise in their neglects by taking the word manifestation by way of allowance We are manifest to God says the Apostle that is we are approved of him this was that which comforted him even then when it was not so with him in regard of men This is another thing which is very comfortable and satisfactory to the Ministers of Christ in all that slighting and neglect and contempt which they suffer from the world especially in such days and times as these are in which we live Well we are manifest to God for all this let us be as low as we can be in the thoughts and apprehensions of men let them count us and call us what they please and cary themselves as they list toward us yet the foundation of God stands sure notwithstanding this And even in this sense likewise The Lord knoweth who are his God knows the works and labours and endeavours of his faithful servants as he sometimes speaks to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus And he knows them likewise affectionately which is that knowledg which we are here to understand They are manifest to him so as one day to be rewarded by him and to have a recompense return'd upon them for them According to that of the Prophet Isaiah in Isa 49.4 I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought and in vain yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work or the reward of my work is with my God This is that which is very comfortable to us and ought to be so we are much to improve it and to be strengthened and encouraged by it As a servant if his master like him and commend him and be pleased with what he does he does not care what an hundred other men shall say of it or of himself about it We are manifest to God says the Apostle and he speaks it by way of encouragement And then withal ye may add one thing more to it by the way I 'le but touch it and that 's this To God not only as an approver but likewise to God as an avenger too we are manifest to God so not only as beholding our integrity and so accepting of us but likewise as beholding our wrongs and ill-handlings and avenging it upon others There 's no wrong or injury whatsoever which any of Christs servants suffer whether in their persons or their good names or in their estates or whatever it be but they are manifest to him in them and he will one day require it for them we are made manifest to God thus What is said of the oppressed in general is true of these amongst the rest in particular Thou hast seem it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand The poor committeth himself to thee Thou art the helper of the fatherless Psal 10.14 Look but into Numb 12.2 8. and see how God takes notice but of an ill word spoken against Moses and calls the speakers of it Aaron and his sister Miriam to an account about it Wherefore were ye not afraid says he to speak against my servant Moses So tender is God of his servants as that he will not allow of an ill word spoken against them but will call to reckoning for it and how much more then for any thing else which is of greater consequence and concernment to them for any wronging or defrauding of them or restraining from them that which is theirs which too many now in these days in many places are guilty of this is manifest to him their labours here will cry and their crys will enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath Jam. 5.4 But so much for that And so you have the first part of this Acceptance as it refers to God But we are made manifest to God The second is as it refers to the Corinthians And I trust also are made manifest in your Consciences This likewise as well as the other is added by way of Anticipation and to prevent and objection for here some might have been ready to have replied You talk how you are manifested to God and that you approve your selves to him please your selves with that your inward and secret goodness because you think here none can confute or contradict you well but what are you to the eyes of men and what satisfaction do you give to them This would a little be enquired into by you To this now he answers here thus much And I trust also are made manifest in your Consciences Wherein again for methods sake take notice of two things more First the thing it self which he does assert and that is that we are made manifest in your Consciences Secondly the word of Transition or Introduction hereunto and that is I trust or hope so of it First For the thing it self We are made manifest in your Consciences Where for the better opening of this present passage unto us we must again distinguish of this word manifestation which here in this place may be taken again two manner of ways in which as yet we have not taken it the one is in a way of efficacy and the other is in a way of conviction We are manifest in your Consciences that is by that success which our Ministry hath found upon them And we are manifest in your Conscience that is by that approbation which our Ministry hath found with you Both these may be here understood First In a way of Efficacy from that success which our Ministry hath found upon them This is one way of manifestation The faith and graces of the Corinthians were a sufficient commendation and testimony to the Apostles Ministry This is that which he also signifies in other places as 1 Cor. 9.1 2 c. Am I not an Apostle am I not free have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord are not you my work in the Lord If I be not an Apostle to others yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord. The seal of it How was that namely in regard of that efficacy which it hath upon them for their conversion And so again 2 Cor. 3.1 2. c. Do we begin again to commend our selves or need we as some others Epistles of commendation to you of letters of commendation form you ye are our Epistle written in our hearts known and read of all men Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshy
answerable and correspondent thereunto According to either of these Explications does God deliver even after delivarance and he that has delivered formerly may be said to deliver still First I say God does still deliver so far forth as he does confirm and make good his former deliverance God when he delivers his People he does not only deliver and preserve them for that present streight and exigent and distress wherein they were and so let them go no but he still follows them and pursues them with his deliverance further He compasses them about as it is said with songs of deliverance look as 't is on the other side with their Enemies they usually pursue an advantage and where they have them at a dead lift they make the most of it that possibly they can even so does God also with his People he pursues adeliverance and preservation he loads us daily with his benefits It is with the Lord in delivering from temporal destruction as it is with him in delivering from spiritual in his delivering of them from death as in his delivering of them from sin and the corruption of nature where he does not only begin but continue As there 's preventing and antecedent grace so there 's following and subsequent grace And as there 's the grace of conversion so there 's likewise the grace of confirmation As the putting of gracious principles into us so the strengthning of those which we have and so also here in Temporals God does not only deliver at first in the present act but also afterwards in making good of that act and in giving of a further fruit and efficacy and benefit of that deliverance which was given at the first Thus for example when God delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians at the Red Sea What did he only deliver them then in that juncture of time no but even all the time after they did reap the fruit and comfort of that deliverance which they partaked of before In the Wilderness and so all along till they came to Canaan so likewise here for this instance in the Text The Apostles deliverance from his great danger in Asia He says that God still deliver'd him even now when he had deliver'd him How was that namely as he gave him now the fruit and comfort of that deliverance Whiles Paul had his life at this present and this liberty to write to the Corinthians and to go on in his Ministry for their good he was at present even still delivered as he here expresses it And thus now in like manner to bring it home to our own particulars in the present occasion as for the deliverance which we now commemorate this day from that Popish and Hellish Conspiracy Though for the thing and act of it it was vouchsafed many years ago yet for the efficacy of it it is a present deliverance and he that has deliver'd does deliver The present enjoyment of our Religion the present enjoyment of our lives the present enjoyment of these opportunities which God does now afford unto us of meeting together to praise and bless his Name for what we do enjoy they are a fruit and effect and consequent of that days preservation and deliverance which was first acted so many years since For had that plot taken and succeeded as it was near to have done we had never been capable of these mercies which since that time have been upon us and which by the goodness of God still are So that that now may be one Explication how God does deliver after he has delivered namely virtualiter by way of settlement and confirmation as he does continue still upon us the fruit and benefit of former deliverances Secondly God does deliver even after that he has delivered already Analogice specificative In renewing upon us the like mercies again and in vouchsafing the same deliverances for kind as he has formerly done Look what God has done for his Church in times past the same he does also still and look what God has done for us in times past the same he does also still He is yesterday and to day and the same for ever Take an instance still but in that which we are now at present upon the Gunpowder-Treason God delivers us from that even at this present not only as I shewed before in the fruit and efficacy of it which we still to this day enjoy but likwise in the similitude and suitableness of it in many other deliverances besides which are agreeable thereunto As there 's a correspondency of Enemies the same spirits and dispositions as then and as there 's a correspondency of attempts the same plots and conspiracies as then so there 's likewise a correspondency of disappointments the same deliverances and preservations as then the same for kind and resemblance and proportion and so he that has delivered does deliver This may serve in the first place to take off all Enemies of the Church and to restrain them in their attempts against it they think that when God has delivered his people once that that 's all he can do as when he has punish'd themselves once that he has done punishing so when he has delivered his Church once that he has done delivering no but it is not so neither in the one nor the other and so will they at last find if they observe it and put it to the tryal where God has the same provocations to wrath he will inflict the same judgments and where he has the same grounds and occasions for mercy he will shew the same goodness and tenderness again and again This we may see in the story of Balack and Balaam Gods carriage to his People in that ye see how often Balack attempted it the cursing of Israel and how often he put Balaam upon it from one place to another Come curse them me here and come curse them me here and curse them me here yet all would not do the deed he blesses them notwithstanding in all and there was no hindring or preventing of it even as Balaam himself is forced to profess and acknowledg Numb 23.23 Surely there is no inchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel What hath God wrought So likwise in Isa 8.9 10. See there how the Church hereupon is bold to challenge and dare her Enemies out of her confidence in this respect Associate your selves O ye people and ye shall be broken in pieces and give ear O ye of far countrys gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsel together and it shall come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us Thus does this renewing of God's deliverance serve to take off the Enemies of the Church for the renewing of their attempts And so secondly does it also incourage the Church it self to renew
read these their doom in Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels Mark not only ashamed of me but ashamed of my words that is of my Doctine and Truth and the profession of it He that 's ashamed of these of him also will Christ be ashamed when he will wish to be owned by him Again Others there are who though they own Truth yet will do little for it as to the defence and preservation of it though as a ravish't Virgin it crys out for their aid and relief yet they refuse to be helpful to it but are content to see it even undone before their eyes There are few which have tender bowels towards truth or active hands for the promoting of it Now this is that which the Apostle takes upon him here in this Text in the behalf not only of himself but also of his fellow-labourers and brethren that they were such as did not only declare all actings against it but close with all opportunities for it Not any thing against the Truth but for the Truth Nay further which seems also to be included their necessary inclinations hereunto for so we must likewise take it We can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth that is we cannot but do for the Truth as there 's an Impotency to opposition so there 's an impotency likewise to neutrality and remisness and indifferency of spirit According to that of the Apostles Peter and John in their reply to the Priests and Elders which prohibits them to Preach any more in the Name of Jesus We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Act. 4.20 This is the temper of a gracious heart that it 's all inflamed with a love to Truth and cannot as there 's occasion and opportunity administred to it but express and shew it self for it as it was sometimes with the Prophet Jeremy Jer. 20.9 His word was in his heart as a burning-fire shut up in his bones he was weary with forbearing and could not stay or as it was with the Apostle Paul when he came sometime to Athens and saw the City wholly given to Idolatry It is said his spirit was stirred in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was put as it were into a Fit of a Feaver through his zeal and ardency of affection upon that occasion This has been the condition of Gods Servants in such cases as these are as we may see especially in the story of the Martyrs they could not withhold but they must shew themselves for truth sometimes even in the greatest dangers and hazards which were incident unto them from that rooting and settlement and foundation which it had in their hearts But so much for that and so I have done with the Affirmative Proposition likewise But for the Truth And now that I have seemed to go through the whole Text. I might very well begin it again and make a new Sermon upon it For the Truth of it is we are not yet come to the point nor to the scope of the Holy Ghost in this place We have hitherto handled the words absolutely and in the general notion of them but there is a Relative Consideration of them which is to be observed and taken notice of by us which is yet behind and intimated in the Connexive for as to the joyning of this Verse and the former both together and to make them dependant upon one another he had said in the Verse before Now I pray to God that ye do no evil not that we should appear approved but that ye should do that which is honest though we be as reprobates Now he adds For we cannot c. He speaks it of the exercise of his ministerial authority amongst them which he signifies to be in him not for himself so much as for them nor for his own respect and advancement but for the glory of God the good of the Church and the advancement of the Truth which is chiefly and especially and principally regarded by him And therefore if at any time he were more sharp and severe with them whether in the reproving or punishing of offenders he did still desire herein to approve himself as one that aimed at Justice and Piety and Vertue in that Administration as the main ground and end for which that Power was indeed bestowed upon him This is the proper and genuine and direct sense of these words as they here lye before us We can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth which are nothing else but a limitation of the Apostolical and Ministerial Power And that again twofold First As considered in the office and Ministry it self And secondly As considered in the persons namely himself and his fellow-Apostles and Ministers which were then the subjects of it For the first viz. The office and Ministry it self There is here in these words a limitation fastened upon that whiles it is said We can do nothing c. and thereby signified thus much That Ministerial Authority is not extended beyond Christian Edification The Apostles could do nothing but what was consonant and consistent with Religiou whether consider'd in the Doctrine of it or the practice This is that which is here exhibited to us and it is agreeable likewise to other places of Scripture as in 2 Cor. 10.8 For though I should boast more of our Authority which the Lora hath given us for edification and not for your destruction This was the end for which that Authority which he had was ordained and whereunto it did tend not destruction but edification so 1 Pet. 5.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as Lords over Gods Heritage or over ruling your several lots and divisions but as ensamples to the flock that is not for our own private advantage but for the good and benefit of the Church This is true as to either parts of the Ministry whether of Doctrine or Censure First If we take it of Doctrine that is limited and bounded by this Ministers they have a Didactical Authority and authority of teaching God has committed this unto them and to them alone there 's none have authority of dispensing the Mysteries of Faith and Religion but those only who are especially called and designed thereunto But yet this Authority even to such and such persons it is limited and restrained to the Truth We can here do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth Ministers have not power to impose any Doctrine or Maxim whatsoever upon the people to be believed by them but what is agreeable to the Word of God and the Will of God laid down in the Scripture they may not make any new Article of Faith or require assent unto it Thus we have it also in 2 Cor. 1. 24. Not that we have dominion over your faith
of the parts themselves is still one and the same And so much of the first Expression besides what we have Preached in this eighth verse We may in the second place take in the other besides what you have received in the ninth which though it seems to be much at one yet has somewhat further implied in it for Preaching is one thing and receiving of what is preacht is another At least in the Apostles sense and as he intended it who means not only a true hearing of it and receiving it with their outward ears but likewise moreover an accepting of it and imbracing it with their minds and affections and so there 's an Argument taken from themselves as well as from the Apostles It being a great piece of levity in them to depart from that Doctrine which they had received and a great piece of wickedness in others to go about to divert them from it and to snatch it as it were out of their hands The like expression to this we shall find in another place as 1 Cor. 15.1 I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you which also you have received and wherein you stand For those which never heard of any other to have a new Gospel to be preached unto them it might not be so bad but for those who have been instructed in the Truth and trained up to the Doctrine of Christ to have another Gospel imposed upon them this was gross and unsufferable and the Apostle could not bitterly enough express himself in terms against it There 's a great engagement upon Christian to keep close to those Truths which they have received and not to swerve from them But why then does he say in another place If he that cometh preacheth to you another Jesus whom we have not preached or if ye receive another Spirit which ye have not received or another Gospel which you have not accepted 2 Cor. 11.4 ye might well bear with him This seems at the first hearing to warrant both the preaching and receiving of another Gospel and that he might be born withal whoever he were that should undertake to do it which seems contrary to this before-mentioned For answer hereunto we must know thus much That another Gospel here in the Galatians is different from another Gospel in the Corinthians in this respect forasmuch as here in the Text it is taken absolutely but there in that other place only upon supposition and the Apostles meaning there is no more but this If he that cometh prophesie to you another that is a better Gospel or the Gospel in a better manner than we have preached as I am sure he cannot do why then so and so which does not imply that there can be indeed another Gospel but by way of ironic does imply rather the contrary it being a kind of triumphing speech in St. Paul whereby he does insult over the presumptions of the false Apostles amongst them But so much for that I have one now with the first branch in this Verse viz. the Miscarriage supposed If any man preach The second is the Cantion or Denunciation of Punishment inferred upon it Let him be accursed The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek is of various signification it denotes two things especially either first of all somewhat which is consecrated and devoted to God himself which it was not lawful to put to any other use besides Hence the Vessels of the Temple were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vessels of special Dedication Or secondly it signifies somewhat which is appointed and designed to destruction And so it is exprest by Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the same in force and congruity of speech with the Hebrew word Cherem coming from the root Charam which signifies both to devote and to cut off or destroy forasmuch as that which is devoted perishes to him who usurps it and unjustly possesses it and through the judgment of God proves oftentimes a destruction to him both in himself and also in his Relations Upon this account of the word there are two things especially which the Apostle Paul seems here in the Text to wish to the false Apostles in Galatia the one is destruction from God that he would deal severely with them and proceed in judgment against them the other is separation from the Church that they would altogether abhor them and proceed in censure upon them Take it which way you will as either way you may take it it is a very grievous and heavy denunciation Only there are two things which here stand in the way to be explicated and unfolded by us First The Apostles Authority Quo jure how he could do this Curse and Anathematize Angels which were in a rank and degree above him Cum par in parem multo minus in majorem non habent authoritatem Forasmuch as an Equal has not power over an Equal and much less over a superiour Seconly The Apostles Charity Quo corde why he would do this upon supposition that he might devote both men and Angels to destruction To these we answer in one word that the Apostle Paul is not here to be lookt upon as a private person acting either upon his own authority or in his own cause but in the nam and cause of God and the whole Church In which respect all Creatures whatsoever were nothing to him so that as he did it with very good warrant so he might also do it with very good affection and no breach of charity at all in him This does not give allowance to others lightly and upon no occasion and from a private spirit to be full of imprecations as we shall sometimes observe some to be wherein as they do sometimes lose their labour in that the curse causlessshall not come as Solomon speaks so now and then also provide ill for themselves but it does only warrant the right use of Church-censures in those hands which are intrusted with them Again neither does this allow a Church it self to use such a power as this is in re levi in a matter of higher moment and consequence much less which is unjust and unequal as the Papists in their Bruta Fulmina their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Bulls and Curses and Execrations an Anathema's which they daily send forth against the Saints and servants of Christ but upon good ground an cause for it then it may be as lawful to inflict it as it is sad and lamentable to bear it And so now I have done with this Protestation simply propounded in the eighth verse of this Chapter Though we c. The second i as it is Emphatically repeated in the ninth As we said before so say I now again if any one c. In sacrâ Scripturâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Holy Scripture the rehearsing of the same thing is no vain repetition or tautologie It is a Rule in Divinity
away from us A Christian when he does at any time find himself in any cheerful and comfortable frame of spirit he should endeavour to keep it up and maintain it allhe can as that which is of very great consequence and importance to him not only for the sweetness and pleasingness of the condition it self but also in reference to that duty which is to be performed by him yea we must know that it is also more pleasing to God himself that his Children upon good and right grounds should walk comfortably and cheerfully before him and rather to close with the Consolations of his spirit than to lye down under the suggestions of Satan or the false and dark representations of their own sad and mis giving hearts therefore walk in the spirit also in this sense that is in the comforts and encouragements of the spirit And so much may suffice of the first term in these words to be explained by us namely what is meant by the spirit which we have shewn in a twofold Explication In the spirit that is in his Graces and Principles as subjected and radicated in us walk in the spirit that is walk after a spiritual manner and in the spirit that is according to his motions and suggestions as objected and propounded to us walk in the spirit i. e. walk according to the guidance and moderation of the Spirit of God The second Term here to be considered is walking and what is meant by that Now in this there are three particulars which seem to be intimated and implied First Here 's implied activity in opposition to bare speculation or profession or idleness in Religion Walking it is a business of motion he that walks he does not stand still Secondly Here 's implied strength in opposition to faintness or remisness he that walks he moves strongly Thirdly Here 's implied perseverance in opposition to declining or giving out he that walks he moves constantly All these particulars are in walking and so appliable to our Conversation in the spirit First Here 's implied activity in opposition to bare speculation or profession or idleness in Religion he that walks he moves himself and does not stand still And thus must it be with us in Religion an the ways of God We must be active and put forward in them it is not only have the spirit or understand it or pretend to it no but walk in it that is be careful to improve the Doctrines and Principles of it in the activity and fervency of a godly and holy Conversation This is that which is in a special manner required of us as Christians and accordingly we shall find t preach'd and urg'd upon us As in vers 25. of this present Chapter If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit that is if we have a principle of spiritual life in us let us carry our selves answerably thereunto Look as the soul in the body it is not there after an idle manner but it does distribute motion and vigor to the several parts and members of it even so should it be with grace in the soul it should not nor will not be there to no purpose but so as to make the man of God perfect and ready to every good work that I may use the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Tim. 3. ult And so the Apostle Peter also signifies unto us in 2 Pet. 1.8 When he had spoken of the several graces of the spirit in the words before If these things says he be in you and abound they will make you that ye shall not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ This life of the spirit in us should work in us a walking up to it and whiles it is said here walking we may take notice of the variation of the phrase in the Original Text for it is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which latter signifies a regular and orderly walking a walking by rule so it becomes us to walk who live in the spirit so to walk as not turning either to the right hand or to the left not carried by our own corrupt lusts nor yet overswayed by the mis-guidings of others but led by the sweet conduct and inclinations of the Spirit of God in us and doing that which he requires of us In a word This is that which is commended to us in this Text that our conversation be answerable to our principles and that as we make any claim to Religion more than others so we should behave our selves suitably thereunto It is not leaves that God stands upon but fruit it is not profession but action it is not only the principles which are in us but the works and duties which come from us in a correspondency and agreement to those Principles Not every onethat saith Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven says our blessed Saviour but he that doeth the will of my father which is in Heaven Matth. 7.21 It is doing that God does principally look after And this it does sadly come home to the consciences of many people in the world which are very guilty in this particular which have a name that they live but are dead as was said of the Church of Sardis which talk much of the spirit and the gifts and graces of it but in the mean time shew but little power and efficacy of it upon their hearts by framing of their lives thereafter as it becomes them to do such as these can have but little comfort whiles they live here in the world or hope and expectation when they go out of it so remaining We see how the Scripture puâ—s all still upon action If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them John 13.17 And then are ye my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15.14 And he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever 1 John 2.17 and many more places besides tending to this purpose Therefore we should not content our selves with any thing below this whatsoever it be First Not with agreat measure of knowledg only no more but so let not that satisfie or content us the devils themselves have this in great abundance and yet but miserable creatures they know and believe and tremble as the Apostle James speaks of them And there were many in this Church of Galatia to whom St. Paul here writes his Epistle which were very knowing and intelligent persons as to the Doctrine of Religion and Christianity which yet for all that the Apostle seems not to be satisfied with Therefore we may observe that he does not say Spiritually understand the law but walk in the spirit There have been some who have so supersticiously sought after and urged the former as that they have laid all the stress of Piety and true Religion wholly thereupon and counted them the only spiritual men which were exercised therein namely in finding out the
not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing c. Where wholesome words and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to godliness are made to be synonymous to each other and to signifie still one and the same According to the second sense of the phrase so here is the like Censure of all unsoundness and averseness whatsoever from Evangelical Truth more especially The Doctrine of Christ that is that Doctrine which treats of Christ in his nature and person and offices and such as these either of these have one and the same Character fastned upon them and sentence pronounced against them and that is that they have not God Our business at this time will lye chiefly inthe latter of these as I conceive more especially aim'd at and intended by the Apostle and that is the Censure of such persons as do trespass upon the Doctrine of Christ as it is taken specifically for the Doctrine of salvation by Christ And that first of all in the simple denial and rejection of it Whosoever transgresseth i. e. transgresseth this Doctrine and transgresses it so notoriously with a special Emphasis considerable in it as denying or opposing himself to it suchan one hath not God It is not every transgression at large which is here intended as excluding those from having God which are guilty of it for then we were all of us in a very sad and miserable condition there being none of us but have enough ofthis in us and more than we should Our transgressions are multiplied upon us as David speaks But we must take it in reference still to the matter in hand the Doctrine of Christ whosoever transgresses this that contradicts it as the Arabique reads it or that sets against it as the Ethiopick carries it such an one comes under this censure Whosoever either on the one hand think Christ to be needless and superfluous that he might well enough be spared or on the other hand thinks Christ to be imperfect and insufficient that there is not enough in him either of these transgresses the Doctrine of Christ In one word Whosoever they be that do lessen and diminish from Christ as the Mediatour and Saviour of the Church and as the Scripture propounds him to us to be received and entertained by us such as these they have not God He that is not a Christian he is an Atheist and he that isnot a Christian in the true notion and sense of Christianity he is no Christian at all and as the Gospel does exhibit it tous let his name and profession and appearance be what it will be Thus 1 Joh. 2.23 Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father not only because that the Father and the Son are one simple pure and indivisible essence but also because the Father doth not manifest himself to salvation but only by his Son as we shall see more anon Therefore further in Ephes 2.12 The Ephesians at what time they were without Christ at the same time they are said to be without God which two expressions are both joyn'd together there in that place Wherefore remember that ye being in time passed Gentiles c. That at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Common wealth of Israel and strungers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world without Christ and without God they infer one the other And so now here in the Text He that transgresses the Doctrine of Christ he hath not God This may be said ofhim divers manner of ways First In point of Knowledg they have not the right notion and apprehension and understanding of God The Apostle Paul speaks of some in the Church of Corinth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have not the knowledg of God 1 Cor. 15.34 And he speaks this to their shame the same may be said of those which receive not the Doctrine of Christ they have not the knowledg of God neither they are ignorant of God and if they be such as live in places and under means of knowledg it is so with them upon the same terms of sham and disgrace unto them In 1 Thes 4.5 It is made a description of the Heathen which were persons living without Christ The Gentiles that know not God And in 1 Cor. 1.21 it is said That the world by wisdom knew not God It is true indeed some kind of knowledg of God they had even by the light of nature and therefore we read in Rom. 1.19 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that which may be known of God as manifest in them for God hath shewn it unto them they knew that there was a God but who this God was they did not know nor in the way of his most considerable and comfortable manifestations of himself There is no true knowledg of God indeed and such as will give satisfaction but as he is revealed in Christ who is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person as we find him call'd Heb. 1.3 Therefore 2 Cor. 4.6 it is said That God who commandeth the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ In the face of Jesus Christ there we have the knowledg of the glory of God as who otherwise is a light whom none can approach unto therefore he is said to be the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 Why of the invisibel God not only as invisible to the eyes of the body which is true of every spirit but likewise to the eyes of the mind it self also out of Christ God without Christ is imperceptible and altogether undiscernable of us we cannot possibly each to any competent knowledg of him There 's no Knowledg of God without Christ nor there 's no Knowledg of God out of Christ no knowledg of God without Christ because it is he that declares him no knowledg of God out of Christ because it is he that resembles him and represents him and exhibits him to us First I say no knowledg of God without Christ because it is he that manifests him Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him It i Christ only that gives the kowledg of God Therefore in Matth. 11.27 we find this expression That no man knoweth the son but the father neither knoweth any man the father save the son and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him Secondly No knowledg of God neither out of Christ because it is he that represents him As we cannot look upon the Sun directly but in its reflexion so neither can we see God in His Majesty and as considered absolutely in himself but as his Glory shines
concerning her and the Church of Christ and every Member of it is known by this name both here and in other places of Scripture and especially in the Canticles She is called it is the Spouse and Bride of Christ Thus I say we find her to be called in sundry places as Isa 62.5 As the bridegroom rejoyceth over the bride so thy God rejoyceth over thee It is spoken of God's affection to his Church And in Rev. 21.2 I saw the holy City the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband And I have espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ says St. Paul of the Church of Corinth in 2 Cor. 11.2 There 's a special Covenant and Contract drawn betwixt Christ and every true Believer which does justly fasten this Title and Denomination of a Spouse upon him every faithful soul is Christ's Bride and accordingly it concerns him to reserve his affections for him and for him alone and for none but him There 's nothing more uncomely in a Spouse than to have her eyes and heart fastned upon any other besides her beloved and so there is nothing more uncomely for a Christian than to have his heart upon any other than Christ Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee says the Prophet David Psal 73.25 Whosoever is otherwise is not Christ's Spouse but an Adulteress is not the Bride but the Harlot Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the love of the world is enmity with God says St. James in Jam. 4.4 And that is the first notion of this expression The Bride as it is a word of Excellency in opposition to an Harlot The second is as it is a word of Extenuation in opposition to a married person Thus is the Church and every Christian-soul whiles it is here in the world she is a bride and not a wife it is but the Contract only in this world the marriage it is to be consummate in another viz. in Heaven Indeed in one place it is called the bride the Lambs wife Rev. 21.9 and both titles are joyned together but that is to be understood as signifying rather what she shall be than what she is already for as for the present she is no more but contracted and in that regard in an unperfect condition which makes her here in the Text so much to long for the perfection of it when she calls to Christ to come Indeed she is not far from it as seems also to be intimated in this expression again of a bride which is a person near to marriage though short of it and so seems to be in a middle condition betwixt a simple Spouse and a Wife for in a Wife the wedding-day is past and in a simple Spouse the wedding-day is not come but a Bride is a Spouse in the confines and borders of marriage A spouse upon the wedding-day and such an one in a sort is the Church in this latter age and period of the world It is not only a simple Spouse but a Bride in the approaches of conjugal solemnity It will not be over-long ere Christ and his Church which are now but as it were only contracted shall be fully and compleatly married and in the perfect enjoyment and fruition one of another And so now I have done with the first General Part of the Text which is the persons themselves here mentioned in Conjunction one with the other and they are the spirit and the bride The second is the Action which is here attributed to these persons and that is of calling after Christ they say unto him Come Here 's the speech that comes from these speakers Now this again as it lyes in the Text may admit of a twofold Emphasis or qualification which may be fastned upon it the one as it is a word of entertainment or contentation the other as it is a word of desire or invitation Come that is thou mayest come if thou so pleasest and shalt be welcom to me I am content and well-pleased with thy coming or come that is thou must come and there 's no remedy I am impatient and unsatisfied without thy coming There is each of these impressions in it First Take it in the first sense as it is a word of simple acceptance or admission and entertainment Come that is thou mayst come as signifying the Churches willingness and contentedness to have Christ come unto her upon his own offer and tender of himself and so it is a Relative expression Christ had in the verse before to wit the seventh verse of this Chapter said of himself Behold I come quickly Now hereupon says the Church to him Come that is thou hast leave and liberty to do so I am contented with it come if thou pleasest and welcom it has a passive or permissive Emphasis with it This is one step of grace and of sincere affection to Christ to reach even to this though it is true as we shall hear afterwards it is not all which is required of us nor which the true Spouse of Christ does for her particular attain unto yet somewhat and a great matter it is And accordingly that which all Christians should labour for and endeavour after to be willing for the coming of Christ at such time as he shall please to come when he shall say I come for them to answer And Lord come To have their hearts and affections so far weaned and loosned from this present world and the things of it as to admit of Christs coming to you This is one thing here considerable By this coming of Christ here we must still remember what coming is meant namely the second coming his coming to judgment with the preparatories of it to judgment whether particular or general though the General be that which is here principally to be understood by us Christ's coming to judg the quick and the dead at the last day This is that coming which the Spirit and the Bride here aim at when they say Come and this coming in the full latitude and extent and comprehensiveness of it is that first which every Christian does desire to submit unto and could be well content to have it accomplished A good and a gracious heart does not decline this coming of Christ or wish to be exempted from it but does very really and heartily and cordially close with it This is grounded upon another coming of Christ first which it has already submitted unto which is his coming in a way of Conversion and Regeneration Those that have first admitted of Christ in his Ordinances and the effectual work of Grace upon their hearts they will not stand out against this coming whereof we now speak but very readily yield unto it And this is the difference now betwixt the Children of God and other men As for wicked and ungodly persons they
the Election of Grace Now therefore come Lord Jesus and make way for thy last coming by this preparation Whiles the Church desires Christ would come she supposes other things as antecedent and preparatory hereunto before the full accomplishment of that coming and so in desiring his coming it self she does implicitly desire all those things which make way for it and which are sure to be there when he does come and such is this which we now speak of the hastening of the number of Converts and the bringing in the full number of the Elect. We are to take this Prayer in the full latitude and extent and comprehensiveness of it and so as including this in it amongst the rest which is in a special manner considerable of us as pertinent to this purpose Those that are good themselves they desire that as many others as may be may be good with them besides themselves and partake of the same happiness that they do partake of Therefore come in reference to this for the Conversion of the Jews and for the accomplishment of the fulness of the Gentiles which whensoever thou meanest to come are both of them sure to be effected aforehand And then further which is also pertinent hereunto for the speedier meeting of all the Saints together which have ever been in the world from they very first beginning of it As Christians desire to have a full enjoyment of Christ himself which is the main and chiefest of all so they desire likewise to have an enjoyment one of another Now this is that which shall follow upon Christs coming there shall be a general and universal meeting and gathering together of all the Members of Christ in all ages and generations whatsoever He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe at that day 2 Thes 1.10 Christian friends they are now separated and scattered one from another some in this place fo the world and some in another some are yet remaining alive and others are taken away by death but then when Christ shall come to judgment they shall all meet and never part When they shall meet the Lord in the air they shall likewise meet one with another The ascending of Believers to Christ it shall not be personal only but collective in a body and community and in a way of mutual society and communication And so the Scripture it self seems to carry it as 2 Cor. 4.14 He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you With you not only as to your conditions but also as to your persons not only as to the likeness and participation of the same blessed state and heavenly life but likewise as to the enjoyment and possession of the same blessed place and heavenly communion we and you shall be present together And so in 2 Thes 2.1 We beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him Mark the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our own gathering together the one inferring the other When our Lord Jesus Christ shall once come all his Members shall be then gathered together both to him and one another Heb. 12.22 Tou are come unto Mount Sion the city of the living God c. This will be a blessed and glorious time when-ever it shall happen and his coming so much the more desirable and to be longed after in this particular Especially if we shall further add the circumstances and qualifications that shall attend it which shall be with al lthe sweetness and amiableness and loveliness that can possibly be imagined The Servants of God here in the world they do not meet many times when they do meet though they come together in their persons yet they do not always come together in their affections through the reliques of corruption which is in them and the imperfection of Grace There are oftentimes many jealousies and prejudices and censures and misconstructions amongst them which makes even the Communion of Saints it self to be less pleasing and acceptable But now when Christ himself shall come all these evils shall be taken away and removed there shall be a perfect accord and agreement and correspondency of one with another and a perfect delight and contentment and complacency of one in another And therefore in this regard also does the Church here say Come that is come to reconcile us and unite us and to make us friends one with another which here in this present world and before thou doest come we are so much averse to This is a third account of this Prayer and Petition here before us in this present Text. Fourthly For the execution of justice and vengeance upon wicked and ungodly men and especially such persons as do please themselves in their present impunity which grow bold and impudent in sinning occasionally from God's temporary indulgence and sparing of them who because judgment is not executed speedily therefore have their hearts fully set in them to do evil as the Preacher speaks which think they may speak what they list their tongues are their own and think they may do what they list and no body restrain them because that vengeance does not presently fall upon them Come and come in reference to those come to assert thy Soveraignty to manifest thy Power to make good thy Truth to testifie thy just Wrath and Indignation and severity against sin Come as thou hast threatned to do with ten thousand of thy Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly amongst men of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him as it is Jude 14 15. This is another reference which we may conceive of in this Word of Invitation The Church desires that Christ would come for the destruction of Antichrist and of all her implacable Adversaries and Enemies whatsoever This shall be effected when-ever Christ does come That wicked one and Man of sin with all his adherents for so we must take it the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming as the Apostle Paul tells us 2 Thes 2.8 and his coming is desirable for it The servants of God are thus far impatient in the delay of God's just executions and therefore hasten them and call for them and seem to be weary of Gods forbearance Thus Rev. 6.9 10 11. The souls under the Altar that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony that they held and they cryed with a loud voice How long O Lord holy and true doest thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth and white robes were given to every one of them and it was said unto them That they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and