particular antipathy against and refuse others But the Lord will not be so served As he will not share with the world and divide the Soul and service of man with Creatures so as Mâ—mmon should get part and he his part No if we choose the one we must refuse the other for so will he not suffer his Word and Commands to be divided There must be some universality in respect of the Gospel and the Law and a conjunction of these two or we cannot please him If Religion do not include the Gospel we are yet upon the old Covenant of Works according to which none can be justified If it do not include the Law in the Hands of a Mediator then we turn the Grace of god unto wantonness If it shut out Jesus Christ and have no use of him how can either we or our performances stand or be accepted before his holy eyes If it exclude the Law that Christ came to establish how can he be pleased with our religion Both of these offer an indignity to the Son of God The Sum then of Christian Religion is Believing and Sanctification of the spirit unto obedience that is the root and fountain this is the fruit and stream Justification of our persons and sanctification of our lives and hearts This is pure Religion and undefiled And therefore Isaiah sayes Wash you make you clean Cleanse in the only true fountain of Christs blood It is not your purifications of the Law your many washings with water and hysope It is not the blood of buls and goats can purge your consciences from dead works they do but purify your flesh but cannot wash your souls worse defiled This blood of Jâ—sus Christ is that clean water that he must sprinkle on you if you would be clean If you take any other water any other righteousness but his and wash thy self therewith suppose it be snow water that washeth cleanest thy most exact conversation yet he will plunge thee in the mire till thy own cloaths abhore thee Job 9. 30 31. Now when ye have washed your persons ye need not save to wash your feet sayes Christ your dayly conversation reform it in the vertue of that blood for we are not called to uncleanness but unto holiness And therefore Put away the evil of yoor doings c. God hath put away the guilt of your doings by Justification now put ye away the evil of your doings by Sanctification c. And if ye would know what Sanctification is Cease to do evil do not return to the old puddle to wallow in it Ye that are cleansed by this blood O! think how unbeseeming it is to you to defile your selves again with these things ye are cleansed from But now learn to do well ye are given up to Christ ye must be his Disciples and he will teach you Learn of me sayes Christ you need no other law almost but his example he is a visible and speaking law yet seek Judgement As ye ought to look on my example so especially ponder that word and rule of practice and behaviour that I have left behind me and given out as the law-giver of the redeemed have I redeemed you And should not I be the redeemmed and ransomed ones King Is there any society in the world wants a law order and government neither must ye who are delivered from bondage enfranchised and made free indeed Now ye should of all men most live by a law And when ye know that rule then apply it to your several vocations and callings let the Magistrat act according to it and every man according to it Religion consists not in a general notion but condescends to our particular practice to reform it You see then what we would presse upon your Consciences It is true religion that we would have you perswaded unto All men have some kind of Religion even Heathens who worship Idols but the true religion respects the true and living God Now what is it to worship the true and living God what is the service of him that may be called Religion indeed Should we be the prescrivers of it No certainly he must carve solely in that or else it cannot please him Therefore To the Law and to the Testemony if ye speak not according to this and worship not according to this word of God it is because there is no light into you Ye may have a religion before men pure and undefiled but if it be not so before God and the father I pray you to what purpose is it I am sure it is all lost labour nay it is labour with loss instead of gain O that ye were perswaded to look and search the Scriptures Think ye to have eternal life out of them and think ye to have eternal life by them who do not labour to know the way of it set down there Every on of you have a different model of religion according to your fancies and breedings according as your lusts will suffer you The rule that the most part walk by is the course and example of the world Is not this darknesse and grosse darkness Others model their duties according to their ability they will do all they can do with ease and without troubling themselves and they think God may be well pleased with that I pray you consider and hear the word of the Lord and Law of your God hath he set down here the rule and perfect patern of true Religion and will ye never so much own it as to examine yours according to it the scriptures are the touch-stone If you would not have a counterfeit Religion deceiving you in the end when ye have trusted to it I pray you try it by the word of God Oh that this principle were once sunk into your hearts I may not walk at randome if I please my self and satisfy my own will if that be not also Gods will I shall have neither gain nor comfort of it his will is manifested in his word I will search and find what God hath required of me for if I be not certain of his will I may be doing all my dayes and sweating out my life and yet losse my pains and oyl I say this word of the Lord that Isaiah calls to the people to hear V. 10. will at length judge you Your Religion will be tryed in the day of accompts according to it not according to your rules and methods ye have prescribed unto your selves Now if ye in the mean time shall judge your selves according to another rule and abâ—olve your selves and in the end God shall judge you according to this word and condemn you were ye not fools in neglecting this word The whole will of God concerning your duty may be summed up in two John hath one of them 1 Jo. 3. 23. And this is his Commandment that we shoud believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment And Paul hath another to
shining into the Soul that hath cleared them but their perpetual darknesse that blindeth them I say then in the Name of Jesus Christ that ye never knew the peace of God who knew not warr with God Ye know not love who have not known anger But this is the Souls true peace and tranquillity when it is once awakened to see its misery and danger How many Clouds overspread it what Tempests blow what Waves of Displeasure go over its head But when that peace which is made in the High Places breaketh thorow the Cloud with a Voice Son be of good comfort thy sins be forgiven thee when that Voice of the Spirit is uttered presently at its command the Wind and Waves obey the Soul is calmed as the Sea after a Storm It is not only untroubled but it is peaceable upon solid grounds because of the word which speaks peace in Christ The peace of the most of you is such as ye were born and Educated withal It is not a created peace a spoken peace the fruit of the lips and so no true peace Ye had not your peace from the word but ye brought it to the word Yâ— have no peace after trouble and so it is not the Lords peace The Christian may have peace in regard of his own Salvation and eternal things and in regard of all things that befalleth in â—ime The first is when the Conscience is sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus Christ and getteth a good answer to all the challenges and accusations of Conscience and of the Law and Justice 1 Pet. 3. 21. when the Spirit of God shines into the Soul with a new Light to discover these things that are freely given 1 Cor. 2. 12. And this is the Sealing of the Spirit after believing Eph. 1. 13. When a Soul hath put to its Seal by believing Gods word and hath acknowledged Gods Truth and Faithfulnesse in his word the Spirit Sealeth mutually the Believers Faith both by more Holinesse and the knowledge of it And how great peace is this when a Soul can look upon all its iniquities when they compasse about a man and outward trouble sharpeneth and setteth on edge inward challenges and yet the Soul will not fear it hath answers to them all in Christs Blood Psal 49. 5. This is a greater word then all the world can say Many mens fearlesnesse proceedeth from ignorance of sin their iniquities were never set in order before them but if once they compassed them about and wrath like a fiery wall compasse them about also so that there were no escaping Oh it would be more terrible then all the Armies of the world Ye would account little of a Kingdom ye would exchange it for such a word as David hath upon good grounds Now I say again the Soul that hath thus committed it self to him as a faithful keeper may have peace in all Estates and Conditions And this peace floweth from that other peace There is a peace which guards the heart and mind Phil. 4. 6 7. Opposed to carefulnesse and anxiety and this Paul is Examplar for I have learned in every estate therewith to be content to want and abound c. vers 11. The Soul of a Believer may be in an equal even Tenur and Disposition in all conditions It may possesse it self in patience Impatience and Anxiety makes a man not his own man he is not himself he injoys not himself he is a burden to himself and is his own tormenter But if Souls were stayed upon God certainly they would possesse themselves dwell securely within their own breasts We may find that the most part of men are exposed to all the floods and waves of the times They move inwardly as things are troubled outwardly Every thing addeth moment to their grief or joy Any Dispensation casteth the Ballance and either weights them down with discouragement or lifteth them up with vanity and lightnesse of mind But the Believers priviledge is to be unmoved in the midst of all the Tossings and Confusions of the times Psal 128. 1 2. Ye would be as Mount Zion if ye trusted in God No Dispensation should enter into the Soul to cast the Ballance upon you Ye might stand upon your Rock Jesus Christ and look about the Estates Persons Affairs and Minds of men as a troubled Sea fleeting tossed up and down and ye stand and not be moved or not greatly moved Ps 62. 2. And this is to be wise indeed If I would describe a wise man I would say he is one man beside him no man is one with himself but various inconstant changeable He is unwise who is unlike himself who changeth Persons according to Dispensations Wisdom is the stability of thy times and Faith is Wisdom it Establisheth as Mount Zion so as a man cometh out still one in prosperity not exalted in adversity not cast down in every Estate content and this is the man who is blessed indeed This werâ— wisdom to will the same thing and nill the same thing Semper idem velle atque idem nolle I need not saith Seneca add that exception that it be right which you desire for no one thing can universally and always please if it be not good and right So I say he were both wise and happy who had but one grief and one joy Should not a Believers mind be calm and â—erene seing the true Light hath shined it should be as the upper world where no blasts no storms or clouds are to ecclips the Sun or cloud it while our peace and tranquillity is borrowed from outward things certainly it must change But a Belâ—evers peace and tranquillity of mind having its rise from above from the unchangeable word of the Lord it needeth not to change according to the vicissitudes of Providence He needeth not to care before hand because there is one who careth for him And what needeth both to care He needeth not be disquieted or troubled after because it shall turn about to his good All things shall do so Rom. 8. 28. He needeth not be Anxious about future Events because he hath all his burden cast upon another by prayer and supplication VVhat needeth he then take a needlesse burden Prayer will do that which Care pretends and cannot do and that without trouble He needeth not be troubled when things are present for he cannot by his thought either add or diminish take away or prevent There is one good and necessary thing that his heart is upon and that cannot be taken from him And therefore all things else are indifferent and of small concernment to him Now what wanteth such a man of perfect peace who is reconciled to God and at peace within himself VVhen peace guardeth the Heart and Mind within compasseth it as a Castle or Garison to hold out all the vain Alarms of External things May not all the world be troubled about him VVhat though the Floods lift up their Voice if they come not into the
but fall into the Lake that is below us if we were to aim so high But the Lord hath been pleased to descend to us in our mean capacity in the Flesh and fill up that immensurable gulfe of Justice by the infinite merits and sufferrings of his Son in our Flesh And now he invites us be requests us to come to him in his Son and have life VVe are not come to Mount Sinai that might not be touched that burnt with Fire and Tempest where there were terrible sights and intollerable noises I say such a God we might have had to do with â— consuming fire instead of instructing light A devouring fire instead of a healing Sun of Righteousnesse considering that there is nothing in us which is not fit and prepared fuel for everlasting burnings But we are come and that is the eternal wonder of Angels unto Mounâ— Sion to be Citizens in the City of God and fellow citizens with blessed Angels and glorified Spirits to Peace and Reconciliation with him who was our Judge And if you ask how this may be I answer because we have one Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant tâ— come to whose Blood cryeth louder for pardon of sinners then all mens transgression can cry for punishment of sinners Heb. 12. 18 19. 20. c. Let us then Consider the first step and deareâ— of Union with God it consists in Faith in Jesus Christ This is the first motion of the Souâ— in drawing near to God For as there is nâ— remission without Blood So no accesse to Goâ— without a Mediator For if you consider whaâ— is in Jesus Christ you will find that which wilâ— engage the desire of the heart as also thaâ— which will give boldnesse and confidence to acâ— that desire Eternal Life is promised and proposed in him he offers rest to weary souls anâ— hath it to give That which we ignorantly anâ—vainly seek elswhere here it is to be found For Personal Excellencies he is the chief infinitely beyond comparison And for Sutablenesse to us and our necessities all the Gospel an expression of it So that he is presented the most attractive drawing manner that can be imagined And then when the desires are inflamed yet if there be no Oyl of hope to feed it it will soon cool again Therefore take a view again and you may have boldnesse to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus There was some kind of distance kept in the Old Testament none but the High Priest might enter into the Holiest Place But the entry of our High Priest into it that is into Heaven hath made it patent to all that come to him and apply his Blood There is a new and living way by the holy flesh of Christ consecrated and made of infinite value and use by the Divinity of his Person And therefore having such a one of our kindred so great with God we may draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith having our consciences sprinkled c. Heb. 10 18. 19 20. c. Now since the way is made plain to you and the entry is opened up in the Gospel Do you not find your hearts stir with in you to draw near to him Do you not find a necessity of making peace by such a Mediator O! that you knew the great distance between God and your Natures and what the hazard is Loe they that are far from thee shall perish Then certainly you would take hold of this invitation and be easily drawn unto Jesus Christ But unto you who have adventured to draw near for pardon of sin in Christ I would recommend unto you that you would draw yet nearer to God After that the partition wall of wrath and condemnation is removed yet there is much darknesse in your minds and corruption in our natures that separats from him I mean intercepts and disturbs that blessed communion you are called unto Therefore I would exhort you as James draw near to God and he will draw near to you ch 4. 8. And that wherein this most consists is in studying that purification of our natures that cleansing of our hearts from guile and our hands from offences by which our Souls may draw towards a resemblance of God This accesse and drawing near to God in assimilation and conformity of nature is the great designe of the Gospel Be ye holy for I am holy Now ye are agreed walk with him Amos 3. 3. As Enoch walked with God Gen. 5. 24. That is labour in all your conversation to set him before your eyes and to study to be well pleased with him in all things and to please him in all to conform your selves to his pleasure in every thing And this Communion in walking especially consists in that Communication of the Spirit with God in prayer This is the nearest and sweatest approach when the Soul is lifted up to God and is almost out of it self in him And this being the ordinary exercise and motion of the Soul it exceedingly advances in the first point of nearnesse that is in conformity with God Drawing often near in Communion with him in prayer makes the Souldraw towards his likenesse even as much converse of men together will make them like one another Now for the commendation of this It is good What greater evil can be imagined then separation from the greatest Good And what greater good then accession to the greatest Good Every thing is in so far happy and well as it is joyned with and enjoyeth that which is convenient for it Light is the perfection of the Earth remove it and what a disconsolat and unpleasant thing is it Now truely there is nothing suitable to the immortal Spirit of man but God And therefore all its happinesse or misery must be measured by the accesse or recesse Nearnesse or distance of that infinite Goodnesse Therefore is it any wonder that all they that go a whoring from him perish as every mans heart doeth For we are infinitly bound by Creation by many other bonds stronger then wedlock to consecrat and devote our selves wholly to God but this is treacherously broken Every man turns aside to vanity and lies and is guilty of heart whoredome from God and spiritual idolatry because the Affection that should be preserved chast for him is prostitute to every base object So then this divorcement of the Soul from God cannot but follow thereupon even an eternal ecclipse of true and real life and comfort And whoever draw back from the Fountain of Life and Salvation cannot but find elsewhere perdition and destruction Heb. 10. ult My beloved let us set this aside all other things which are the pursuites and endeavours of the most part of men Mens natural desires are carried towards Health Food Raiment Life and Liberty Peace and such like But the more rational sort of men seek after some shadow of Wisdom and Virtue Yet the generality of men both high and low have extravagant
is a through and intire change It is like a new Creation that must destroy the first Subject to get place for that which is to come It is a putting off old Garments to put one new The putting off an old form and engraven Image to make place for a new engraving Men do not put a Seal above a Seal but deface the old and so put on the new Men do not put new Cloaths upon the old but put the old off and so they have place for the new Religion must have a naked man Godlinesse is a new Suit that will not go on upon so many Lusts No no it is more meet and more conformed unto the inwards of the Soul then so The cold must go out as the heat comes in Many men do not change their Garments but mends them puts some new pieces into them They retain their old lusts their heart idols and they will add unto these a patch of some External Obedience But alas is this godlinesse Hypocrisie will be content of a mixture sin is the harlot whose heart could endure to see the Child parted It can give God a part to get leave to brook the most part Sin will give God liberty to take some of the outward man if it keep the heart and soul But God will not reckon on these terms he will have all the man or nothing for he is the Righteous Owner True godlinesse cannot mix so but false and counterfeit may do it well Other men again possibly uncloaths themselves of some practices but they put on no new cloathing They reform some passages for fear of censure or shame or such like They are found it may be blamelesse either because so Educated or their Disposition is against particular grosse sins But they are not cloathed upon with Holinesse and well doing and so they are but naked and bare in Gods sight not beautiful They have sweept their house and some Devil put out or kept out but because the good Spirit enters not ordinarily seven worse enter again into-such men There is a great moment of perswasion in this order of the Exhortation Wash you and then put away the evil of your doings and cease to do evil Do not continue in your former customs It is strange how contrary our hearts are to God We use to turn Grace unto wantonnesse We use to take more liberty to sin when we conceive we are pardoned But I do not know any more strong and constraining perswasion to forsake sin then the consideration of the forgiving of it might yeild Oh what an inducement and grand Argument to renouncing of evils is the consideration of the remission of them This is even that ye are now called unto who have fled to Jesus to escape Wrath What should ye be taken up with in all the World but this to live to him henceforth who died for us To forsake our own old way and that from the constraining principle of Love to him 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Oh that ye would enforce your own hearts with such a thought when there are any solicitations to sin to former lusts Should I that am dead to sin lâ—ve any longer therein Rom. 6. Should I who am washed from such pollutions return again to the pollutions of the World Should I again defile my self who am cleansed by so precious Blood And forget him that washed me Should I return with the dog to the vomit and with the sow to the puddle God forbid I pray you consider if you be Christians indeed give a proof of it What hath Jesus Christ done for you He hath given himself his own precious Blood a Ransom for us will ye not give up your selves to him Will not ye give him your sins and lusts which are not your self but enemies to your self Will not ye put away these ills that he came in this world to destroy Art thou a Christian and are there yet so many sins and works of the Devil raigning in thee and set up in Gods sight VVhat an inconsistency is this If thou be his follower thou must put these away Give them a bill of divorcement never to turn again Many a man parts with his sin because it leaves him he puts it not away Temptation goes and occasion goes away but the root of it abids within him Many men have particular jarrs with their corruptions but they reconcile again as differences between married persons They do not arise to hate their sin in its sinful Nature But if thou hate it then put it away And who would not hate it that Christ so hated that he came to destroy it 1 Jo. 3. 5. What a great indignity must it be to the Gospel to make that the ground of living in sin which is pressed in it as the grand perswasion to forsake it Seing we are washed from the guilt of it Oh let us not love to keep the stain and filth of it Why are we washen Was it not Christs great intendment and purpose to purifie to himself a Holy People We are washen from the guilt of our sins and is it to defile again Is it not rather to keep our selves henceforth clean that we may be presented holy and unblameable in his sight That we may seek to be al 's like Heaven as may be But who ceases to do these evils that he says are pardoned Who puts away the evils of these doings the guilt whereof he thinks God hath put away Could ye find in your hearts to intertain those evils so familiarly to pour out your Souls unto them if that Peace of God were indeed spoken unto you Would not he reflex of his Love prove more constraining on your hears Were it possible that if ye did indeed consider that your lusts cost Christ a dear price to shed his Blood that your pleasures made his Soul heavy to death and that he hath laid down his Life to Ransom you from Hell were it possible I say that ye would live still in these lusts and choose these pleasurs of sin which were so bitter to our Lord Jesus I beseech you be not deceived if ye love the puddle still that ye cannot live out of it do not say that ye are washed Ye may have washen your selves with Sope and Nitre but the Blood of Christ hath not cleansed For if that Blood sprinkled your Conscience once to give you an answer to all challenges it could not but send forth Streams to purifie the heart and so the whole man The Blood and VVater might be joyned the Justifying Saviour and the Sanctifying Spirit For both these are in this Gospel washing 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 Jo 5. 6. This is be that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and blood Not by water only but by blood also and I say not by blood only but by water also The very purpose of forgivenesse is not to lay a foundation for more sin but that men
peace within you and say that ye have peace with God Yet certainly the Lord thy God is against thee and will not spare thee Deut. 29. 19. Many of you blesse your selves in your own hearts when ye hear the Curse and Threatning of the Law ye say God forbid or all that were true Well thus saith the Lord all these Curses that are written in this book shall ly upon thee and the Lord shall separate thee unto evil because ye take not with your enimity there can be no treaty a Mediator can have no imployment from you How shall the breach of peace be made up Since the first Covenant cannot be made up again where shall the remedy be found God is just and righteous Men are rebellious and sinful Can these meet and the one not be consumed Will not God be a consuming Fire and men as Stubble before the Lords presence Therefore there must be a Mediator between them a Peace-maker to make of two one to take up the difference And this Mediator must be like both and yet neither wholly the one nor the other He must therefore be God and Man that he may be a fit Days man betwixt God and man And this is our Lord Jesus Christ In his Divinity he comes near to God in his Humanity he comes near to man In his Person he is between both and he is fit to make peace And therefore he is a Prince of Peace Isa 9. 6. And that he may be a Prince of Peace he must be both An Everlasting Father like God and a young Child like unto man God to prevail with God and a man to engage for man And therefore he is called our Peace Eph. 2. 14. Our Lord Jesus Christ enters in a Covenant with the Father wherein he undertakes to bear our Curse and the chastisement of our Peace he is content to be dealt with as the Rebel upon me upon me be the iniquity and so there comes an interruption as it were of that blessed peace he had with the Father he is content that there should be a Covering of Wrath spread over the Fathers Love that he should handle the Son as an Enemy And therefore it is that sinners are admitted as Friends his Obedience takes away our Rebellion The Cloud of the Lords Displeasure powers down upon him that it might be fair weather to us The Armies of Curses that were against us Encounter him and he by being overcome overcometh By being slain by Justice Satan and Sin overcometh all those and killeth the enmity on the cross making peace by his Blood Col. 2. 14 15. Eph. 2 15. And it is this Sacrifice that hath pacified Heaven the sweet smell of it hath gone above and made peace in the High places Here then is the priviledge of a Believer to be at peace with God to be one with him And this indeed is Life Eternal to be united unto the Fountain of Life in whose favour is Life and whose loving kindnesse is better then Life Is not this a blessed Estate Whatever a man hath done against God it is all forgiven and forgotten shall never come in remembrance Are not Angels blessed who are friends with God Such is the Soul whose sins are pardoned through Christ their sins are as if they never had been The Soul is not only escaped that terrible wrath of God but being at peace with God all the goodnesse that is communicable to Creatures it shall partake of That they may be one as we are one that they may be perfect in one Joh. 17. This Christ prayed for and this was the end of his Death to make of two one So then the Glory that Christ is partaker of with the Father we must be partakers of with him and all this by vertue of that peace with God by him Oh if ye knew what enimity with God is how would it indear and make precious peace with him The one engageth all that is in God to be against a man the other engageth all that is in him to be for a man And is not he then a great One whither he be a Friend or an Enemy Is he not the best Friend and worst Enemy Who hath most power yea all power to employ for whom he will and against whom he will What a blessed change is it to have God of a consuming Fire made a Sun with Healing and Consolation That the Righteous Holy and Just God before whom no flesh can stand should accept so rebellious sinners and dwell among them He had not only power to destroy but Law against us also What a perfect peace is it then that the Judge becometh a merciful Father and the Law of Ordinances is cancelled and that power imployed to keep Salvation to us and us to Salvation Ye who have made Peace and Atonement through Christs Blood rejoyce in the Hope of the Glory of God There wants nothing to make you compleatly blessed but the clear and perfect sight and knowledge of your Estate before God Now when this peace which is made up in Heaven is intimated unto the Conscience then all the Tempests and Clouds of it evanish and this is the peace of believing which is the Souls resting and quieting it self upon the believed favour of God There may be a great Calm above goodwill in God tomards men and yet great Tempests in this lower Region no peace on earth There is a peace of Conscience which is a disease of Conscience a benumednesse of Conscience or a sleep of Conscience when men walk in the imagination of their own hearts and flatter themselves in their own eyes will not trouble themselves with the apprehension of the wrath of God when Souls will not suffer their sin or the curse to enter in This is that no peace which the Lord speaks often of it is but a dream and when a man awaketh alas what a dreadful sight meets he with first sudden destruction Sin enters in the Conscience and the Law the strength of sin and so that peace endeth in an eternal disquietnesse But what is the reason that notwithstanding of Gods Justice and mens Sins so many are not affraid of him so many passe the time without fear of Wrath and Hell Is it not because they have taken hold of his Strength and made peace with him No indeed but because they know not the power of his Anger to fear him according to his Wrath Who will spend one hour in the examination of his own ways in searching out sins in counting his debt till he find it past payment No men intertain the thoughts of sin and hell and wrath as if it were coals in their bosom they shake them out they like and love any diversion from them Oh ignorance maketh much peace I would say security which is so much worse then fear because it is so far from the remedy that it knoweth not the evil and danger It is not the rising of the Sun of Righteousnesse
his hope he hath no reason to change his hope The Lord hath often done things we looked not for but we never looked for any thing according to the grounds of the word but it was done or a better then it He doth not always answer our limitations but if he give Gold when we sought Silver are we not answered Are we disappoynted There are three things that use most to disquiet and toss mens spirits sin and wrath future events and present calamities Faith establisheth the Soul on God in all these and suffereth it not to be driven to and fro with these winds It finds a harbour and refuge in God from all these If he be pursued by the avenger of blood Gods Wrath and Justice here is an open City of Refuge that he may run to and be safe If iniquities compass me about yet I will not fear but oppose unto that great company the many sufferings and obedience of Jesus Christ My coâ—science challengeth and writteth bitter things against me yet I have an answer in that blood that speaketh better things nor Abels If sinns prevail he will purge them away His Mercy is above all my â—â—n and his Vertue and Power is above my sin He hath promised and will he not do it Oftimes mens Souls are perplexed and tossed about future Events careful for to morrow this is a great torment of spirit it cutteth and divideth it putteth a man to his own providence as if there were no God But he that trusteth in God is established in this his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord he hath commited his Soul to him and why may he not his body He hath nothing but his promise for eternal Salvation and may not that same suffice for temporal He careth for me saith Faith why then should we both care about one thing He hath given his Son for me the most precious gift which the world cannot match and will he not with him give all these lesser things And thus the Believer incloseth himself within the fathers love and providence and iâ— fixed not fearing evil tidings For what tydings can be evil seing our Father hath the Soveraign disposing of all Affairs and knoweth what is best for us Present dispensations often shake men and driveth them to and fro their feet slip and are not established thou bid thy face and I was troubled But if you trusted in God and considered what is in him to oppose to all difficulties and calamities you would say I shall not be moved though the floods lift up their voice If you believed his love would not this sweetten all his dealing He maketh all work together for good Soveraignty Righteousness and Mercy are sure and firm ground to stand upon in all storms You may cast Anchor at any of those and ly secure It is the Lord let him do what be pleaseth This was enough to quiet the saints in old times Should he give account of his matters to us Sball the clay say to the potter why is it thus His absolute right by Creation maketh him beyond all exception do what he please But beside this he is pleased and condescendeth to reason with us and give account of his matters to testify to our Conscience that he is righteous in all his ways It was the ground of Jeremiahs setling Lam. 3. It is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed It should have allayed and stayed Job know this thou art punished lesse then thy iniquities deserve who will set a time to plead with him Shall any be found righteous before him And this might stop all mens mouths and put them in the dust to keep silence seing he hath Law to do infinitely more then he doth why should not we rather proclaim his Clemency then argue him so very hard If to both those you shall add the consideration of his Mercy that all his pathâ— are Mercy and Truth unto you even when he correcteth most severely so that you may blesse him as well for Rods as for Meat and Cloathing and count your self blessed when you are taught by the Rod and the Word the one speaking to the other aâ— the other sealing its instruction If you believâ— that it were a fruit of his Love He chasteneth â—very son whom he loveth that because he will nâ— let you depart from him will not let you settâ— upon a present world and forget your Countreâ— above therefore he compasseth you about witâ— Hedges of Thorns to keep in your way And therefore he maketh this world bitter and unpleasant that you may have no continuing City If all this were believed would not the soul triumph with Paul What can separat me from thâ— love of God not past things for all my sins are blotted out and shall be remembered no more not present things for they work to good and are a fruit of his Love not things to come for that is to come which shall more declare his love then what is past Would not a Soul sleep securely within the compass of this Power this Love and Faithfulness of God without fear of dashing or sinking Now judge whither a perfect peace may not flow from all this may it not be a perfect calm when the Mountains that inviron go up to Heaven Not only doth the Soul trust in God but God keepeth the trusting Soul in peace He is the creator of peace and the preservator of it I creat peace I keep him in peace The same power and vertue is required to the preserving of a thing and the first beeing of it Our Faith and Hope in God is too weak an Anchor to abide all storms Our cords would break our hands faint and weary but he is the everlasting God who failâ—â—â— not and â—â—arieth not he holdeth an invisible grip of us we are kept by his power to salvation and we are kept by his power in peace Thy right band holdeth me saith David and this helpeth me to pursue thee What maketh believers inexpugnable impregnable is it their strength No indeed but salvation will God appoynt for walls and bulwarks Almighty Power is a strong wall though invisible this power worketh in us and about us Now Believers pity the world about you that knoweth not this peace when they ly secure and cry peace peace Alas they are a City open without walls as the plain field there is no keeper there nothing to hold off destruction Entertain your own peace do not grieve the Spirit who hath sealed it If you return to folly after he hath spoken peace to you I perswade you you shall not maintain this peace there may be peace with God but no peace in thy Conscience as long as the whoredoms of thy heart are to the fore Thou may be secure but security is worse then fear Know this that continuing in a course of sin entertaining any known sin shall trouble thy peace If God have spoken peace to thee thou shalt not lodge that enemy
it Zech. 13. 1. We all c. Mark Secondly sin hath gone over us all and made all mankind unclean Rom. 3. 22. and 10. Every one of Adams posterity is born unclean For who can bring an clean thing out of an unclean Job 14. 4 Consider first how sin defaced innocent Adam how one sin made him so vile and spoyled him of the Divine Nature and so the root was made unclean and the branches must follow the root and so are we all born and conceived in sin Plal. 51. 5. We carry in us Original Corruption flowing from the first actual sin of Adam and this maketh poor Children before they do good or evil to be abominably vile in Gods sight even as the Child is set out Ezek. 16. Every one cometh of evil Parents all come of Adam the Rebel What a loathsome sight would a Child be to us so described cast out in the open field to the loathing of its person in the day it is born And what must it all be before God who is of purer eyes then to behold sin Secondly Unto all this we have added innumâ—rable actual transgressions as so many filthy streams flowing out at the menbers from the inward puddle of Original Corruption And so how much more vile are we all nor infants can be or Adam was in the day he was cast out of Paradise And thus Rom. 3. from vers 10. are the Branches set down in Word Thought and Deed so that all the Incliâ—ations and Motions and Actions of the man are only evil continually Every man shall find his Compt past counting One days faults would weary you but what will your whole life do Known sins are innumerable what must unknown be Every mans heart is like the troubled Sea that casteth up mire and dirt dayly and cannot be at rest The heart is dayly flowing and ebbing in this Corruption it cometh out dayly to the borders of all the Members And there are some high spring Tides when sin aboundeth more When in one Member of the Tongue a world of evil is What can be in all the Members And what in the Soul that is more capable then all the world Well then every man hath sinned in Adam and hath sinned also in his own person and sealed Adams first rebellion by so many thousand Actions like it Every man hath approven the sin that first ruined man and made himself much more loathsome nor Adam was Therefore all mankind may say we all are as an unclean thing Now from all this we we would gladly discover unto you what yoâ— condition is by sin If the Lord would shinâ— how vile would you be Always we mâ—st declare this unto you in the Lords name you aâ— all unclean not only born in sin and iniquitâ— not only have you a body of Death Within youâ— that hath all the Members but all these Members have one time or other acted and brougâ— forth fruit unto Death How vile then muâ— you be in Gods sight It is a strange love thâ— you have to your selves that you cannot apprehend how God can hate you But if hâ— find sin in you wonder rather how he can looâ— upon you We would then have you to knoâ— this that there can be no fellowship betweeâ— God and you in your Natural Estaâ—e Amen cannot inhabit a vile persons house â— more can God enter in your Souls There is aâ— absolute necessity of washing before you can â—â— his House and Temple Hath that one sin oâ— Adam made that Glorious Person so deformed that he could not look on himself buâ— cover himself And hath it been of so defiling a Nature that it hath redounded in all thâ— Posterity And as unclean things under thâ— Law defiled all they touched so hath thaâ— sin subjected all the Creatures to Corruption O then imagine what an unspeakeablâ— defilement must be on us all who are noâ— only guilty of Adams sin but of many thousands beside If one sin have so much loathsomnese in it what must so many out â—â— number united in one person even as in uâ— all No unclean thing can enter in Heaven above Know this for a truth you cannot see Godâ— Face in the case you are born into You know nothing of sin who wonder that any should go to Hell No if you knew any thing of sin you would wonder that ever God should look on such cast out in the open Field in their blood Next You must know the insufficiency of all things imaginable to wash away sins filthinesse except the Blood of Christ Since you are unclean do you not ask how shall we be washed Indeed many have an easy answer and passe it lighty The multitude know no way to cleanse in but the Tears of Repentance and Mourning And so many think themselves clean when they run and pour out a Tear as Esaw did for the blessing But what saith the Lord Though thou wash the with Nitre and take thee much Sope yet thine iniquity is marked Can such an ingrained uncleannesse can such an infinite spot in the immortal Soul be so lightly dashed out Many think Baptism cleanseth them but was not this people Circumcised as ye are baptized And Peter tells us it is not the washing of Water 1 Pet. 3 21. Sacrifice and Offering will not do it This people thought sure they had satisfied God when they brought a Lamb c. but all this is abomination Would not many of you think your selves cleansed from sin if you offered all your Substance and the Fruit of your Body for the sin of your Soul Nay but you must see an absolute necessity of the opened Fountain of Christs Blood that cleanseth from all sin Then we would have you abhorre youâ— selves in Dust and Ashes see nothing in all the Creation so vile as you Look oâ— sin in the sight of Gods Face and how unholy will it appear There are many sins little ones that in our practice passe for venial and uncontrolled But look on the filthy loathsome Nature of all sin and hate the least offence for it hath a kind of infinitnesse in it and blotteth the Soul defileth the person How great a necessity is there of continual application to the Fountain of dwelling beside it that you may wash dayly Davids so often repeated and inculcated prayer Wash me cleanse me c. Psal 51. Declareth that he hath apprehended much uncleannesse in sin that it needeth so many applications of the precious Blood And you who have come to Jesus and are clean O how much owe you to free Grace that past by you in your blood and said Live it is a time of love How strange is it that Glorious Majesty cometh to own Deformity and cometh to cloath it with his own Garments Praise the vertue of that Blood that is more precious nor the Blood of Bulls and Goats that can so throughly purge as you shall have no more Conscience of sin Unclean sinners wash you make