God and the everlasting Fruition of Him By a wonderful Exchange he taketh our evil things upon Himself that he might bestow his good things upon us and took from us Misery that he might convey to us Felicity Application First by way of Information 1. How different are they from the Spirit of Christ that can brook God's Absence without any remorse or complaint Christ cried with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou forsaken me These go on securely never observe God's Accesses and Recesses when the Comforts of his Spirit and the Communications of his Grace are wholly suspended and with-holden from them they never lay it t Heart Stupid and insensible Creatures It is all one to them whether God go or come whether He manifest Himself propitious to them or his Face be hidden from them They take up with the vain delights of the present World Micah shewed more respect to his Idols than they do to God Iudg. 18. 24. Ye have taken away my Gods and what have I more And do you ask What aileth thee When God is gone they are not troubled The Christians wept when Paul said Ye shall see my Face no more Acts 20. 25. And will ye not mourn and lament your Loss when God hideth his Face and shutteth up Himself in a Vail and Cloud of Displeasure Much of serious Christianity lies in an Observation of God's coming and going and a sutable Carriage Mat. 9. 15. A serious Christian will be affected with the Loss of comfort and quickning and lament after a withdrawn God 2. It informeth us of the Grievousness of Sin It is no easy matter to reconcile Sinners to God It cost Christ a Life of Sorrows and afterwards a painful and an accursed Death and in that Death Loss of actual Comfort and an amazing Sense of the Wrath of God We make a Mock of Sin jest and sport away our Souls but Christ found it hard Work to save them and recover them to God When you make Sin a light matter you slight the Sufferings of Christ. O therefore take heed you do not break with God for every Trifle 3. The Greatness of our Obligation to Christ who omitted no kind of Sufferings which might conduce to the Expiation of Sin He exchanged his Heaven for a kind of Hell to do you good the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily and therefore he had a Heaven upon Earth If one could say Anima iusti Coelum est because Heaven is begun there in Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost How was it with Christ This Heaven he wanted for a while felt no Comfort yea he was amazed at the sence of God's Wrath due to Sinners therefore it was said in the Type of him The pains of Hell got hold upon me Psal. 116. 3. Oh let this excite us to love Christ that you may count nothing too dear for him 4. The Infiniteness of God's Mercy who appointed such a degree of Christ's Sufferings as in it he gives us the greatest ground of Hopes to invite us the more to submit to his Terms There is nothing standeth in the way but our own impenitence and unbelief Now God is so amply satisfied shall we deprive our selves of Eternal Blessedness This is the worst Cruelty and Hatred to our own Souls SERMON X. ROM 1. part of the 29th and 30th Verses Whisperers Backbiters THe Context sheweth how corrupt and miserable Man's Nature is without Christ his Heart was first withdrawn from God and then became a Sink of loathsom Sins and Vices Therefore the Apostle telleth us how after Men were false to God how little they were true to themselves whether considered singly and apart or as to Commerce and Society singly and apart defiling themselves with uncleanness of all sorts as to Commerce and Humane Society full of Malice and Contention which sometimes goeth as far as Blood at other times sheweth it self in falseness and baseness of Disposition generally in Self-Love and Detraction from others Of all Judgments Spiritual Judgments are the sorest When God leaveth Mankind to its own degeneracy and corruption and one great Branch of this corruption is Detraction which venteth it self either by Whispering or Backbiting So it is in the Text Whisperers Backbiters These two words agree that they both wound the Fame of our Neighbour and they both do it behind his Back or in his absence But they differ 1. In that whispering doth it secretly and closely but backbiting openly The one being privy the other open Defamation and are like Theft and Rapine what Theft and Robbing are to our Goods the same are Whispering and Backbiting to our good Names 2. Whispering tendeth to breed strife among our Friends or to disgrace us to some who are well conceited of us but backbiting to our general disgrace before all the World or amongst whomsoever The one seeketh to deprive us of the good will of our Friends the other to destroy our Service But however they agree and differ they are often conjoyned in Scripture 2 Cor. 12. 20. I fear lest when I come among you I shall not find you such as I would and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not lest there be Debates Envyings Wraths Strifes Backbitings Whisperings Swellings Tumults The Apostle foresaw it as too probable that neither of them would be much pleased with their meeting together nor he with the Corinthians when he should find them corrupted with Partialities and Divisions nor the Corinthians with him when he should be forced to inflict censures upon them for their Factions and Emulations too much bewrayed by their backbitings and whisperings against each other So here in the Text they are conjoyned Whisperers Backbiters when the Apostle speaketh of the reigning Sins among the Gentiles Doct. One great Sin wherein the corruption of Humane Nature bewrayeth it self is Detraction or depriving others of a good Repute Here I shall shew I. What is Detraction II. The Hainousness of the Sin I. What it is 1. The Nature of it 2. The Kinds of it First The Nature of it in general It is an unjust violation of an others Fame Reputation or that good Report which is due to him God that hath bidden me to love my Neighbour as my self doth therein bid me to be tender not only of his Person and Goods but of his good Name And indeed one Precept is a Guard and Fence to another I cannot be tender of his Person and Goods unless I be tender of his Fame For every Man liveth by his Credit and therefore certainly this is 1. A Sin against God 2. A wrong to Men. 3. It proceedeth from evil Causes 1. It is a Sin against God who hath forbidden us to bear false Witness against our Neighbour and to speak evil of others without a cause Eph. 4. 31. Let all evil speaking be far from you by evil speaking is meant there disgraceful and contumelious Speeches whereby we seek
God for the clear and open Discovery of this Truth and free Offer of Grace by Jesus Christ. The 2d Use is to quicken us to put in for a Share in this blessed Priviledge I have spent my time in presenting to you what a blessed thing it is to have our Sins pardoned Christians A Man that flows in Wealth and Honour till he be pardoned is not a happy Man A Man that lives afflicted contemned not taken notice of in the World if he be a pardoned Sinner O the Blessedness of that Man They are not happy that have least Trouble but they that have least Cause not they that have a benummed Conscience but they that have a Conscience sound established and setled in the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and bottom'd upon his holy Covenant and that Peace and Grace he offers to us this is the happy Man By these and such like Arguments I would have you put in for a Share of this Priviledge But what must be required I would fain send you away with some Directions Let me intreat you if this be such a blessed thing to make it your daily your earnest your hearty Prayer to God that your Sins may be pardoned Mat. 6. 12. Our Lord hath taught us to pray for we make but too much work for pardoning Mercy every day Every day forgive us our Trespasses To day in one of the Petitions is common to all that follow as we beg daily Bread we must beg daily Pardon daily Grace against Temptations Under the Law they had a Lamb every Morning and every Evening offered to God for a daily Sacrifice Numb 28. 4 5 6. We are all invited to look to the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Surely we have as much need as they more Cause than they because now all is clear and openly made known unto us God came to Adam in the cool of the Day he would not let him sleep in his Sins before Night came he comes and rouseth his Conscience and then gives out the Promise of the Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpent's Head In Reconciliation with God let not the Sun go down upon God's Wrath Eph. 4. 26. A Man should not sleep in his Anger nor out of Charity with Man surely we should make our Peace with God every day If a Man under the Law had contracted any Uncleanness he was to wash his Cloaths before Evening that he might notly a Night in his Uncleanness We should daily earnestly come to God with this Request Lord pardon our Sins But what must those that are already adopted into God's Family and taken into his Grace and Favour daily pray for Pardon of Sin Though upon our first Faith our State be changed and we are indeed made Children of God and Heirs of Eternal Life by Faith in Christ Jesus yet he that is clean need wash his Feet We contract a great deal of sinful defilement and pollution by walking up and down here in a dirty World and we must every day be cleansing our Consciences before God and begging that we may be made Partakers of this Benefit The Lord may for our unthankfulness our negligence our stupid security revive the memory of old Sins and make us look into the Debt-book that hath been cancelled with horrour and make us possess the Sins of our Youth An old Bruise is felt upon every Change of Weather When we prove unthankful and careless and stupid and negligent and do not keep our watch the Lord may suffer these things to return upon our Consciences with great amazement Guilt raked out of its Grave is more frightful than a Ghost or one risen from the dead Few Believers have upon right terms the Assurance of their own Sincerity and though God may blot Sins out of the Book of his Remembrance yet he will not blot them out of our Consciences The Worm of Conscience is killed still by the Application of the Blood of Christ and the Spirit This short Exhortation I would give you the other would take up too much time SERMON II. PSAL. 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven whose Sin is covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile IN this Text I observed That it is a great degree and step towards yea a considerable part of our Blessedness to obtain pardon of our Sins upon the account of Christ's Righteousness I shewed the necessity which lies upon Men who are all become guilty before God to look after this Pardon And thereupon took occasion to represent the Excellency of the Christian Religion that hath provided a Salve for the great Sore that runs upon all Mankind above that of the Pagans and also that of the Jews to whom this Mystery was but darkly revealed To proceed to another use To exhort you to put in for a share in this Blessedness To perswade you to it let me use a few Motives 1. Till you are pardoned you are never blessed there is an obstacle and impediment in the way hinders your Blessedness What though you flow in Wealth Ease and Plenty yet as long as this black Storm hangs over your head and you know not how soon it will drop upon you you cannot be accounted happy Men. Do you account him an happy Man who is condemned to die because he hath a plentifull allowance till his Execution Or him an happy Man that makes a fair shew abroad and puts a good face upon his ruinous and breaking Condition but at home is pinch'd with want and misery which is ready to come upon him like an Armed-Man Or him an happy Man that revels it out in all manner of pleasure but is to die at night Then those that remain in the guilt of their Sins may be happy But now on the other side a pardoned Sinner is blessed whatever befals him If he be afflicted the sting of his Affliction is gone that is Sin If he be prosperous the curse of his Blessings is taken away the Wrath of God is appeased and so every Condition is made tolerable or comfortable to him 2. Nothing less than a Pardon will serve the turn Not Forbearance on God's side nor Forgetfulness on ours 1. It is not a Forbearance of the Punishment on God's part but a dissolving the Obligation to the Punishment God may be angry with us when he doth not actually strike us As the Psalmist says Psal. 7. 11 12 13. God is angry with the Wicked every day If he turn not he will whet his Sword he hath bent his Bow and made it ready He hath also prepared for him the Instruments of Death he ordaineth his Arrows against the Persecutors In the day of his Patience he doth for a while spare but God is ready to deal with them hand to hand for he is sharpning his Sword at a distance he is bending his Bow the Arrow is
our carnal Love 2. If Love be not acted and kept at work carnal Love will prevail The Soul of Man cannot lye idle especially our Affections cannot either they are carried out to God or they will leak out to Worldly things When our Love ceaseth yet concupiscence ceaseth not and the Love of the World will soon grow Superiour in the Soul for the neglected Principle languisheth whilst the other Principle gets strength and secures its Interest to God The 3d. Is The Benefit we have by keeping Love in Act. This makes us more sincere and to act purely for God 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constrains us for we thus judg that they that live should no more live to themselves but to him that died for them and rose again The constraining Influence of Love is that that keeps us from living to our selves And this makes us more diligent Labour and Love are often coupled in the Scripture Knowing your labour of love the work of Faith and Patience of Hope And God is not unrightoeus to forget your labour of Love The Church of Ephesus lost her first Love she left her first work Rev. 2. 4 5. Use. Oh then let us seek this Benefit from God that our Hearts may be directed into his Love 1. The sanctifying Spirit is given us for this end to stir up love to God Joh. 41. 4. The Water I will give him shall be a Well of Water always springing up unto eternal Life 'T is not in the Heart a dead Pool but a living Spring And the same is intimated Joh. 7. 38. He that believes in me out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of living Water this he spake of the Spirit 2. The Ordinances were appointed for this End The Word to represent God amiable to us both for the goodness in him and the goodness proceeding from him especially in our Redemption by Christ and also for those rich preparations of Grace he hath made for us in another World to blow up this holy Fire And this is the end of the Sacrament All the Dainties that are set before us in the Lord's Supper do all taste and savour of Love Our Meat is seasoned with Love and our Drink flows into our Cup out of the Wine-press of Love Why do we eat of the Crucified Body of Christ but that we may remember Iesus who loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2. 20. And also the Drink that is provided for us at this Feast is the Blood of Christ. Rev. 1. 5. Who loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood 3. All the Providences of God tend to this End that we may love God All God's Mercies are as new Fewel to keep in this Fire I will love the Lord because he has heard the Voice of my Supplication Psal. 116. 1. And thou shalt love the Lord who is the strength of thy Life and the length of thy Days Deut. 30. 20. All the Mercy we have from God is to refresh and revive our Love that it may not languish and die nay all the sharp corrections God sends are to recover our Love to God Isa. 26. 9. My Soul hath desired thee in the Night saith the Prophet and early have I sought thee and when was that when thy Iudgments were abroad in the World when great and sharp afflictions were upon them SERMON VII 2 THESS 3. 5. And into the patient waiting for Christ. THe Words are a Prayer and the Apostle prays here for those things which are most necessary to Christians Love to God and patient waiting for Christ. I come now to handle the second Branch The Point is this Doct. That when the Heart is bent by love to God we need also the direction of his Grace to keep it intent upon the coming of Christ. Four things I must speak to I. What this patient waiting for Christ is II. The Connection between it and the Love of God III. That it hath a great influence upon the spiritual Life or keeps Religion alive in the Soul IV. The Necessity of God's concurrence hereto the Lord direct your Hearts into the patient waiting for Christ. I. What is this patient waiting for Christ I answer it is the Grace of Hope fortifying our resolutions for God and the World to come that we may continue in our Duty till our work be finished and our warfare ended The Act of Hope is three ways exprest Sometimes by Looking which notes a certain expectation Tit. 2. 13. Looking for the blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Sometimes by Loving or Longing which notes a desirous and earnest expectation 2 Tim. 4. 8. Not to me only but to all that love his appearing Sometimes by Waiting which notes a patient Expectation 1 Thess. 10. He makes it there the Fruit of our Conversion He saith we are turned to God that we may wait for his Son from Heaven This last Notion is expresly mentioned in the Text the other are implied as looking there can be no waiting for that we do not look for and longing for delay is only troublesome to them that earnestly desire his coming and build their Hopes upon it Faith adds certainty and Love earnestness and both give strength to Patience Let us open all these things As 1. Looking for the coming of Christ. Phil. 3. 20. Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. It is not a matter of conjecture but of Faith Reason saith he may come but Faith saith he will come Nature will teach us it is very likely for a guilty Conscience fears the Judg and the course of things is so disordered in the World that there needs a review But Scripture tells us it is very certain that he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10. 37. Therefore in the Eye of Faith it is sure and near As Rebecca spied Isaac at a distance so Faith looks upon Christ as if he had begun his Journey and were now upon the way and makes the Believer stand ready to meet him and welcome him Though it come not to pass presently the thing is promised and the time certainly determined in God's external purpose which is enough for Faith 2. There is a Longing or a desirous Expectation 2 Pet. 3. 12. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God It is good to observe how differently this Coming of Christ is entertain'd in the World It is questioned by the Atheist it is dreaded by the Wicked and Impenitent but it is longingly expected by the Godly 1. For the first sort 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming They would eternally enjoy the Pleasures of the present World and therefore labour to dash all thoughts of this great Day out of their Hearts and take up all obvious