life hath been vile and prophane a blasphemer a contemner of grace and godlinesse an unclean person a drunkard c. and see some strange judgment of God upon upon him to die some cursed and miserable death we may say of them thus Surely this is the just judgment of God upon him for his sin as Moses sometimes spake of Corah Dathan and Abiram Num. 16. If these men die the common death of all men then hath the Lord not spoken So as when they saw them swallowed up of the earth for their rebellion against Moses and Aaron they surely might say Heâ—e is a spectacle of Gods judgments for their sins And it is good for us to observe Gods dealing amongst our selves that we might learn to fear him lest we be made spectacles of his wrath as others have been By thy anger by thy hot anger Text. BUt what Quest is the Lord subject to these passions to be angry and wroth Surely nothing lesse Ans neither are we to think that there is any such passion in God or that he is subject to these alterations and changes for then he should not be God But the Scriptures thus speak that God is angry and wrathfull full of displeasure c. for our understanding as when the Lord doth that which men do when they are angry then God seems to be angry As when men be angry they throw about them lay on load smite hard c. So when the Lord smites men laies blow after blow plague after plague stroke after stroke then he seems to be angry when he seemes not to spare but one judgment overtakes another Now by Gods anger in the Scripture Gods anger what we are to understand three things First his just will and purpose to punish sin either by temporall judgments here or by eternall hereafter and so that place is to be understood He that believeth not in the Son Iohn 3.36 the anger of God abideth on him that is Gods inward displeasure against the sin of unbeliefe with his purpose to punish it Secondly by the anger of God is understood those menaces and threatnings of punishment against sin either immediately by Himselfe or mediately by his Prophets and Ministers as Hos 11.9 Psal 6.1 Es 63.6 I will execute upon Ephraim the fiercenesse of my wrath That is that anger and wrath that I have threatned Thirdly by the anger of God is signified the effects of his anger which appears in sundry punishments and judgments and so that place is to be understood Eph. 5.6 For such sins comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience that is sundry judgments and punishments seize upon men for such sins And in this third sence and signification is the anger of God and his wrath to be taken here When Moses complains that they were consumed in his anger he means by those fearfull effects of his anger as the Plague Pestilence and the other judgments of God upon them for their sins Hence we may observe Doct. 4 the wonderfull blockishnesse and stupiditie that is in all men by nature Mans ignorance of God great who are no whit moved with such speeches as are agreeable to Gods nature as to say the Lord is just or the Lord will punish or the like But he must take upon him such passions as be in our nature as to say He is angry wrathfull full of displeasure and indignation and all too little to move hard-hearted sinners to fear before him This shewes our grosse ignorance and stupidity in the things of God that he is fain to descend so low as to speak thus to our capacities and understandings as that he is angry wrathfull and full of indignation otherwise we should understand little of God This proceeds from that bitter root of Adam's sin Reas 1 who having in his Creation a clear knowledge of God so far as the Creature was capable of and not contenting himselfe with that excellent knowledge Gen. 3.6 given him in his Creation but aspiring to be like unto God lost his knowledge of his Maker and brought this ignorance upon himselfe in his own understanding and upon all his posterity so that now we are without God in the world Eph. 2.12 strangers from the life of God through that ignorance that is in us Secondly Reas 2 this depravitie in our understanding is holp on by Sathan who hath blinded our mindes that we know not God nor his waies till we come to recover our selves out of the snares of the Devill 2 Tim. 2.26 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient as of our selves to think any thing as of our selves Which may serve to teach us hence Use 1 to wonder at that great ignorance that is in many Congregations Families and Persons at this day that are so ignorant of God and those glorious attributes of his but conceive of God as a man and call God a good man have very low and mean thoughts of God consider him not as Omnipotent Omniscient Omnipresent the searcher of the heart a consuming fire c. O did we but truly know God it would make us lay our selves low before him when we come into his presence as Abraham did Behold Lord I that am but dust and ashes and to cry out with the Prophet I am undone I am a man of polluted lips Secondly this blindnesse and ignorance of God that is in us by nature Use 2 should minde us of the necessity of an able Ministry in every Congregation whereby we may be taught to know God and have this blindnesse and blockishnesse of our nature cured in us Such set themselves against God and open their mouths against Heaven that oppose the Ministry of the Word and cry it down as many do at this day that think of all callings amongst us the Ministry may best be spared And indeed never was there greater affronts or more disgrace offered to their Calling then there hath been of late daies Whereas there is no Calling the Magistracy excepted whereby a Church or State receiveth more benefit then by a faithfull learned and painfull Ministry they are the strength of a Nation the Chariots and Horsmen of Israel they manifest Gods presence to a Land and Nation and when they are discountenanced silenced and forced to depart God usually is not far off with some fearfull judgment We are consumed in thy anger THe Lord being provoked against this people by their sins His anger could not be appeased but by their destruction Note hence That when Gods anger is once kindled against sin Doct. 5 Gods anger once kindled consumes to destruction it consumeth to destruction We are consumed in thy anger It is true the Lords patience towards sinners is great and he suffereth long the Vessells of wrath He is a a God of mercy and is not easily provoked to strike Psal 2. But as the Psalmist saith If his wrath be kindled but a little it
the day with a cloud in the night with a Pillar of fire He clave the Rock in the Wildernesse and gave them drink And so goes on in that Psalm to set forth the great deliverances that God from time to time shewed unto his people But here was their sin For all this they believed not his wondrous works but limited the holy one of Israel And therefore this made way for his anger and he spared not their souls from death but gave their life to the pestilence This sin above all others provokes to wrath This sin of calling Gods power and goodnesse into question Reas 2 by such as have had experience of the same is quite contrary to the nature and being of Faith in the soul We can in nothing more glorifie God then by living the life of Faith Heb. 2.4 The just shall live by faith And this was the commendation of Abrahams faith that he staggered not at the promise of God through unbeliefe Rom. 4.20 So on the contrary part no sin doth more dishonour God as when we limit the holy one of Israel and dares not trust him in times of straights Joh. 5.10 He that believeth not hath made him a lyar And what greater disgrace can be cast upon any than to give him the lie Serves to admonish us by their sin Use 1 and the judgment of God upon them to take heed that we commit not the like but learn by the experience of Gods former mercies to be encouraged to rely upon our gracious God for time to come And if the Lord should be pleased to bring us into tryall by one means or another let the remembrance of Gods former love and mercy arme us against doubtings and distrust This consideration was that which armed David when he was to go out against Goliah The Lord hath delivered me from the Lyon and the Bear so shall he deal with this Philistine How comes David to conclude so confidently against Goliah Surely it was the experience he had of Gods former goodnesse and mercy towards him And this serves likewise to admonish us Use 2 in a speciall manner to take notice of those speciall and distinct acts of Gods providence goodnesse and mercy from time to time to wards us to the end we may have boldnesse and confidence in time of need Experience saith the Apostle breedeth Ro. 5.4 hope Upon this we may stay our hearts and comfort our selves in time of need He hath delivered us and he will deliver us O let us take heed that we despair not of Gods mercy and so murmur against the Lord lest thereby we provoke him to anger as this people did 1 Cor. 10.10 Neither murmur ye as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Hitherto of the occasion of this Psalm A Prayer of Moses the man of God BEfore we come to the Psalm it selfe we are to speak of the Title or inscription which is part of it and is of no lesse authority then the Psalm it selfe and ought to be read together with the Psalm A Prayer of Moses the man of God In this Inscription we have 1. The person Moses 2 His praise The man of God 3. His practice He prayeth for the Church 4. The time when When the Church of God was in great affliction and distresse Moses the man of God 1 The Person or a worthy Prophet and servant of God And thus were the Prophets of old called a man of God or a servant of God a man inspired and guided by the Spirit of God He is the Pen-man of this excellent Psalm a man highly honoured of God if we look upon his Birth his Life his Death In all these God takes speciall care of Moses and his speciall providence is seen â—n them all First for his Birth 1 For Moses Birth Exod. 1.15 that he should be born at such a time wherein it was death to be born for now had Pharaoh published that bloody Edict that the Midwives of Egypt should destroy all the male-children of the Israelites Yet notwithstanding that the Lord should preserve him at such a time and cause him to be nursed up under the nose of that bloody Tyrant as the reputed Son of Pharaoh's Daughter This thing could not but clear the speciall care that God had of him and that he intended him for some speciall service in his Church Secondly 2 For Moses Life as in his Birth so in his Life Gods speciall providence still goes along with him in directing him to be an instrumentall Saviour unto his people and a great Prophet in his Church and to that end preserved him in the midst of many dangers when it was even death for him to come into Pharaohs presence Exod. 10.28 Thirdly 3 For Moses Death as God takes care of Moses in his Birth and in his Life so also for his Death and Buriall God disposeth of all these according to the good pleasure of his own will for the time When the place Where and the manner How as it is recorded that Moses the servant of the Lord dyed in the land of Moab Deut. 34.5 according to the Word of the Lord. This is that Moses that is the Pen-man of this Psalm a man highly beloved of God and so familiar with his Maker that the Lord was pleased so to manifest himselfe unto him that we never read of the like for the Lord talked with him as one man talks with another A man so powerfull with God in prayer and so full of such rare zeale in prayer wherein hee had such a notable dexterity and gift that we doe not read that God denied him any thing that hee sought at his hands especially for the Church He is the penman of that Psalme Which should teach us highly to esteeme this Psalm as an excellent prayer of his Vse The writings and speeches of great men and learned men that are in great esteeme in the World are highly esteemed and looked upon by us and we listen much unto them Loe we have here a psalm and prayer of a great Prophet a man highly in Gods favour how ought it to be highly esteemed of us For his praise 2 His praise he is here stiled A man of God which is his compellation or Title given him by the spirit of God The man of God Where Note That Moses Name is not barely set downe but with an Appendix or Attribute of Honour and such an honour then the which none can be greater The man of God From whence we learne Doct. 2 to be stiled A man of God The greatest honour to be called a Man of God or a Servant of God is the highest pitch of honour that can be given to the Sons of men As it is a great comfort in life so it is a high honour in death to be a Man of God This is an honour that remaineth to posterity a pretious name that
will not perish This honour the Spirit of God giveth to Moses here Josu 1.2 Moses the man of God and else where The servant of the Lord. Heb. 3.2 Moses my servant And he is called A faithfull servant in Gods house Heb. 11.24 Yea Moses himselfe preferrs this service before the pleasures in Pharaohs Court This was it that David so much gloried in Behold Lord I am thy servant Jude 1. This was it that Paul gloried in Paul a servant of Jesus Christ and Jude a servant of Jesus Christ And of those Primitive Fathers it is said Through faith they all received a good report Heb. 11. Thus Noahs commendation rests upon record That he was a Preacher of Righteousnesse and Lot is called a just man And thus good King Asa hath left a name behind him That his heart was upright with the Lord all his dayes 1 Reg. 15.14 Num. 25.8 And thus Phineas zeale in executing judgement upon Zimri and Cosbi remaines as a pretious oyntment to his name Yea this is in a speciall manner to be marked and observed That in what vertue or grace soever his servants have most of all honoured and glorified God withall in life for the same God vouchsafeth unto them titles of honour after death As we may see in those godly Kings of Judah and Israel that were zealous for the glory of God in plucking downe the high places and suppressing Idolaty and advanced Gods pure worship these have left behind them an honorable memory a name that shall not be forgotten or blotted out Whereas others that matched with the daughters of a strange God which drew them to Idolatry and were remisse and negligent in advancing of Religion and seâ— up and countenanced Idolatry the Lord hath left a brand upon their names that shall not bee wiped out As Jeroboam which mingled his owne devises with the worship of God he hath this brand set upon him to the perpetuall infamy of his name 〈◊〉 10. Jereboam the Son of Nebat that made Israel to sin So true is that of Solomon The memory of the Righteous is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot And the reasons â—e That herein and hereby Reas 1 the world may see what an honorable esteeme God hath of his Servants Now what esteeme God hath of them may appeare by those honorable titles God vouchsafeth into them They are called sonnes 〈◊〉 hold what love the Father hath â—â—stowed upon us 1 Ioh. 3.1 that wee should be â—â—lled the sonnes of God They are called Friends Mat. 12.50 you I have called friends Brethren and Sisters c. Heires of God Rom. 8.17 Temples of the Holy Ghost Gods peculiar people Vessells of mercies Children of the marriage chamber c. And thus the Lord dignifies his servants with honorable titles to shew the high esteeme that hee hath of such though in the eyes of the world they are esteemed but the of scouring of the earth who only see the vessell but not the treasure in it Yet God honoreth them according to the graces given and his owne Image restored in them Secondly because grace and glory Reas 2 are inseparable companions 1 Sam. 2.30 I will honour them that honour me saith the Lord then those that dishonour him he will dishonour As the sinnes of wicked men testifie to their faces what they are so their names to posterity shal publish their shame Pro. 10.7 The memory of the righteous shall be blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot What got the foolish Virgins by their Hypocrisie holding forth the Lamps of an outward profession when they wanted the oyle of grace in their hearts and wanted truth in their inward parts Mat. 23 but a blot that shall never bee wiped out foolish virgins Whereas the godly wise that laboured for grace and to be in truth that they made profession of their names stand upon record to posterity for wise virgins Let us apply this This sheweth the vanity of the men Use 1 of the world that seeke to perpetuate unto themselves a name but begin not at this Gods service such do but build a Babel unto themselves Esay 65.15 ye shall leave your name a curse unto my chosen And if we had no example in the booke of God experience proves it that if this testimony of Moses follow them not when they are dead gone The man of God and the servant of the Lord they doe and will leave their names a curse to their houses and families We have seen the sumptuous funeralls of many great men in their Haralds and Hearses decked and adorned with the Scutchions Armes and other Ensignes of honour much good may they doe them we envie them not I doubt not but that it may stand with Religion that such as have beene truly honorable in life should have all due honour done to them in death But if they have not this testimony pinn'd upon their Hearse The man of God or the servant of the Lord their Armes and Scutchions and other Ensignes of honour shall moulder to dust when this shall remaine as an indeleble testimony to their names houses and posterities that shall not perish with time Moses the man of God Secondly Use 2 seeing it is such a comfort in life and such a high honour in death to be a man of God wee are taught hence how to get a good name a name that shall not rot namely that we lay the foundation of it in Religion and in the service of God Godlinesse saith the Apostle hath the promise of this life and the life to come 1 Sam. 2.30 And he that honoreth me I will honour How preposterous then are the waies and courses of the greatest part of the men of the world Every man for the most part desires a good name and divers men have propounded divers waies to themselves to get themselves a name Some run to Court some to the Campe some to Schoole Absaelom will have his pillar and some have not stuck to lay the foundation of their names and houses in blood Alas what of all these when men begin not at this in their waies and services of God what is become of Nabuchadnezers Babell Achitophells wisedome and deepe policy Herods applause Jezabels craft to make Ahabs house great Hamans high favour with his Prince and Senacheribs vaine gloryings hath not God left their names a curse to his chosen for ever Whereas Phineas his zeale Maries box of oyntment and the widdowes mites are kept in record never to bee forgotten A holy life a sincere conversation raiseth a good name and a good report upon such a sure foundation that cannot be shaken And this serveth for the just reproofe of the greatest sort of men at this day Vse 3 who ordinarily esteeme of men not as they goe before others in Religion in grace and godlinesse but as they goe before others in Riches
tribulation hee knew God to be the Lord and humbled himselfe greatly before him Thus David in all times of his distresse had still recourse to God Ps 18.3 4. The Lord is my strength in whom I trust my shield my salvation and my refuge Thus Paul buffited by Sathan 1 Cor. 12 prayes three times So that the point is clear and plain that the only refuge of Gods Church and people in time of affliction and distresse hath ever been Gods bosome as a sure refuge And great Reason Because it is the Lord that hath the principal hand in all the tryalls afflictions of his people Reas 1 Now who can cure the wound better than he that gave it Deut. 32.39 Hos 6.1 It is he that killeth and maketh alive He woundeth and he healeth When we are judged we are chastned of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11.32 And he is said to be the God that heareth prayers and therefore to him shall all flesh come Secondly Reas 2 affliction bringeth men to a more clear certain and experimentall knowledge of God and of our selves 1. 2 Chron. 33.13 Of God as Manasses by his affliction knew that God was the Lord. 2. Of our selves for now the Lord awakens conscience and brings our former sins to remembrance that we had forgotten as Job hath it If they be bound with fetters Job 36.8 9. and holden with the cords of affliction then he sheweth them their works and their transgressions that they have exceeded When sicknesse comes and affliction seize upon us that we know not which way to turn our selves then if ever we begin to look up to God the thoughts of death and the thoughts of eternity will make the most desperate and hard-hearted sinner to look about him Object But do we not see Object that many that have been under Gods hand have had piercing sorrowes and sore afflictions and yet have not been humbled nor brought nearer to God but are as Ahaz that in time of his distresse 2 Chron. 28.22 he sinned yet more against the Lord. Answ 'T is true Answ this is not true of all neither doth affliction in its own nature drive us to God But this comes only from God who sanctifies affliction for the good of his chosen To wicked men they are the beginning of sorrowes and tend to their further ruine as they were to Pharaoh but they tend to the great benefit to such as love and fear God Rom. 8.28 to whom all things work for their best Is the time of affliction the time that God is to be sought unto by prayer Use 1 then let this minde us of our duty whether our afflictions be Nationall or personall to flye unto God as our only refuge There is a strange expression of the Prophet Hear the rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6.9 Hear the rod What is that Why all Gods rods are speaking rods all Gods rods utter a voice or a cry and therefore must be hearkned unto Lam. 3.39 Man suffereth for his sin Our sufferings then do tell us of our sins and the Lord saith I will plead against them by the pestilence and by blood Afflictions are Gods messengers and alwaies come with a message from God that is that we finde out in our selves the cause of Gods displeasure and that we speedily meet the Lord by repentance And when Gods hand is upon us in what kind soever every soule should make this application to himself Jer. 2 1â— as to say Hast thou not procured this unto thy selfe in asmuch as thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Surely it was a sad complaint that the Lord takes up I have corrected them but they have not been humbled The Lord help us to finde out the plague of our own hearts wherefore the hand of God is gone out this day against the Land so many waies And yet O the cursed Atheisme of our hearts that lay no more Gods judgments to heart the Pestilence hath spoken aloud to us the sword hath spoken aloud and this strange sicknesse and visitation that hath swept away so many hath spoken aloud all calling upon this Land and Nation for speedy repentance But we have not laid Gods judgments to heart we have not been humbled to this day Secondly Use 2 seeing the bosome of the Lord is the best refuge to flye unto in times of distresse we may see the happy estate and condition of Gods children above all the wicked in the world in their greatest miseries they are never left without comfort whereas wicked and ungodly ones God hears them not in the time of distresse 'T is true in time of misery wicked men wil cry call but God hears them not nor regards their cries They cried not to me when they howled upon their beds Hos 7.14 O when the Lord shall make no more account of our prayers then the very howlings of a Dogg who is able to put to silence the voice of desperation But now for the godly the Lord doth not only give them free liberty to come to the Throne of grace in times of misery but doth give them a comfortable assurance that they shall be heard Mat. 7. Ask and ye shall have And if earthly Fathers can give unto their children good things much more will our heavenly Father give not only what we ask but more abundantly Ephes 3.20 Above all that we are able to ask or think Enemies Tyrants Death Devills cannot make a true believer miserable that hath such a God to flye unto Thirdly Use 3 seeing the Lord hath recorded in his Word the prayers of his servants we may take notice of the great mercy of God towards us in this age of the world for whereas we are ignorant and know not how to pray the Lord hath provided for our weaknesse and ignorance and hath left us patterns of prayers that were made by the holy servants of God that so we might use them in the like case as Psalm 92. A Psalm for the Sabbath as most proper for that day So here A Prayer of Moses when the Church was in great affliction and distresse Dan. 9. So the Prayer of Daniel Nehemiah David c. which we may use in the like case as they did So that there is none in the Church that can plead ignorance but they may learn out of Gods Book how to pray The Lord deals with his people as a Father with his child bids him say after him Thus doth the Lord with his people Take unto you words Hos 14.3 and say thus Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously and so will we render the calves of our lips And the Lord foretells by his Prophet that he will powre upon every member of his Church this Spirit of supplication and of prayer Zach. 12.10 But may set forms of prayer be used Quest or may this Psalm of Moses be used in the
And welfare those afflictions that send us home to God By this dealing of the Lord with a Nation and with a people Reas 3 by sharp and sore afflictions the Lord is pleased to humble them and thereby to fit them for mercy and deliverance And this is no other thing then what the Lord himself hath promised If a Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their wickednesse Ier. 18.5 I will repent of the plague that I thought to have brought upon them Thus Niniveh prevented her Judgement And this is the right way to stop the breach of Gods wrath and to call in his Judgements when they are gone out against us This serves to shew the monstrous impiety and prophanesse of this age Use 1 and time wherein we live that do not thus mark and observe the dealing of God with us We have seen the hand of God in a grievous manner upon the Land in generall The Lord hath rode Circuit amongst us and what Country nay what Family hath not suffered in these times the sword hath been in the bowells of this Nation and hath drunk much blood The Lord hath likewise sent forth other messengers of his anger against us as unseasonable years at one time making the fruits of the earth dung for the earth at another time making the Heavens as Brasse and the Earth as Iron that the Creature hath mourned to teach us to mourn and now again by an universall sicknesse and disease the like whereof no age can remember when so many are sick and weak and taken away by death Yet who makes this use of it as Moses and the people of God here who is humbled under Gods hand who mournes for sin the cause of all No no we can be content to passe over the Lords dealing thus with the Land as if these Judgements concerned us not we lay them not to heart Surely it is to be feared that the Lord wil come nearer unto us yet in the end Take we heed that it be not found true of us which the Lord speaketh I called for sackcloath and fasting Esa 22.13 14. but behold mirth eating and drinking c. when was there ever the like excesse of drinking then at this day but what saith the Lord This inquity shall not be purged untill ye die Secondly Use 2 this Doctrine serves to direct us what we ought to do and how wee ought to carry our selves in times of Common Calamitie Not to be gazers and lookers on of Gods Judgements But to search and try our waies to discover the sins of the Land and the evills of the times which should thus provoke the Lord to punish us in a different manner then our Forefathers in former ages as Moses here Surely it is a dangerous fin heedlesly to passe by Gods dealing with us at this time from former times How can we be humbled aright for our present miseries if we do not consider hiâ— former mercies This were to deprive God of his glory and our selves of confidence and comfort Lord thou hast been our dwelling place WE are farther to observe in this prayer of Moses Text. how they begin their prayer viz. with putting the Lord in mind of his former mercies shewed unto their Forefathers in times past and in former generations Thou hast been a Covert unto our Forefathers and good unto them guiding directing and protecting them Note hence That it is a speciall motive and reason to plead in prayer Doct. 3 To plead Gods former mercies a good Motive for futute to move the Lord to pitty and compassion to put him in mind of his former mercies and deliverances bestowed either upon us or our Forefathers The Prophet out of experience of former mercies prayeth for the continuance thereof Lord thou hast been favourable to the Land Ps 85.2 3 4. thou hast brought back the captivitie of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their sinne Thou hast taken away all thy wrath thou hast turned thy self from the fiercenesse of thine anger c. And hence he grounds his request to God Turn us O God of our salvation Ver. 4 and cause thine anger towards us to cease And thus do Nehemiah and Daniel begin their prayers for the Church Nehc. 1. Dan. 9. they mind the Lord of his Covenant and mercifull promise to his people And thus David persecuted by Saul hee pleads his cause with God thus Ps 4.1 Hear me O God of my righteousnesse thou hast set me at liberty c. Hee minds God of his former mercies and deliverances and thereby is confimed in his faith and confidence that God would not now leave him at this time of distresse And so when he was to go out against Goliah 1 Sam. 17.34 hee calls to minde the Lords mercifull deliverance from the Lyon and the Bear and grounds his hope of successe at this time also upon it And this hath been the care of Gods people to keep a Catalogue of Gods mercies and deliverances to strengthen Ps 22.21 their prayers in the like time of danger yea so carefull have the people of God been to keep in memory former mercies and deliverances that they have raised up monuments and given name to prisons times and places for perpetuall records of mercies and deliverances as Jehosophat called the place wherein the Lord had given him the victory 2 Chron. 20.26 to be called the valley of Beracha and the Jewes it is thought have their Purim to this day This is to give the Lord the honour and glory of his works Reas 1 when they are kept in remembrance 1 Sam. 12.24 Consider how great things God hath done for you saith Samuel to the people that his glorious works might be kept in remembrance amongst them Yea this is such a duty that we are often to presse upon our hearts Ps 103.2 as David did Blesse the Lord O my soul and for get not his benefits We cannot honour God more then to mind him of his former mercies and deliverances This makes a believer bold with God as we are with a trusty friend that we have had experience of It serves to strengthen our faith to quel our doubts and fears and causeth us with much confidence to rely on him Besides Reas 2 it is one of the greatest comforts in times of extreamities and dangers the experience we have had of Gods goodnesse and mercy Experience saith the Apostle worketh hope God being the same ever to his people In him is no variablenesse Jam. 1.17 nor shadow of change And hence it is that the godly in times of adversity can hold up their heads with comfort when wicked men are at their witts end and many times overwhelmed with sorrow This serves for our Direction Use 1 how to begin our prayers unto God the better to move him to pitty and to have compassion upon us viz. to remember the former mercies of
God for protection For let men seek what shifts they can and use all the means they can to winde themselves out of misery yet unlesse the Lord keep them unlesse they seek unto him by repentance and prayer they shall be but as the bird in the net strive and struggle but shall never be able to get out but the more she strives the more she is intangled So the wicked the more they seek to avoid Gods judgments by their shifts and devices the more they are ensuared in them Unlesse the Lord be our habitation and dwelling place to protect and defend us by his owne power and providence Thirdly Use 3 the consideration hereof that God is our habitation and dwelling place to hide and shelter us when stormes and tempests are up and ready to annoy us The consideration hereof should serve to arme Christians with a holy resolution to keep in with God to obey him and to go on in a godly course and not to fear the threats and terrours of men or what man can do unto us Hath God undertaken to protect us and to be a habitation unto us to be our shield and buckler our defence and hiding place Whom then should we fear 'T is true Gods servants whilst they are here are subject to a world of dangers inward and outward But why should we fear when the Lord hath undertaken to be a buckler a shield a shadow and a hiding place unto us How oft doth David the to this Psal 18. in times of danger I love the Lord my buckler my shiâ—â—d and defence q. d. What though my troubles are many and my enemies are mighty yet I have at hand a buckler and a shield that will keep off all dangers He is my buckler my shield and my defence What a comfort was it to Jonas when scorched with heat God so seasonably provided the Gourd to spring up that refreshed him from the scorching beams of the Sun this God provided for him and thus will the Lord provide a shadow and shelter for us in times of danger What comforts have we here that may not fitly be resembled to Jonas Gourd riches honour power c. These may yield a shadow for a time but then comes the Sun shine the East-wind or the worm that nips them and they are gone Who would then trust to such shadows as these are the daies and times that we have lived to see hath declared this unto us that all earthly things are meer shadowes How is the Crown it selfe withered how many noble families and houses are now laid in the dust and what is it that we do enjoy that we can promise to our selves any certainty in at the best they are but weak helps But saith David The Lord liveth and blessed be my strong help If God be a dwelling place to his people Use 4 and that they are so safe under his wings whose faithfulnesse and truth shall be their shield and Bucker Then how fearfull is the condition of those that walk not in his waies and live not under his protection that have not God for their Habitation these lie open to all stormes and Tempests of Sathans temptations and all such miseries that a poor Creature can be subject unto Howsoever God may feed them and fill their bellies with the good things of this lise yet what comfort can they have in the evil day when conscience is let loose to speak terrible things to the soule and Sathan shall cast his fiery darts against them such must needs be at their wits end that have not a God to fly unto Doth not carnal policy teach us thus much to get into some Noble mans or some great mans Family and then we think our selves highly priviledged and wee looke for protection under them O where are our hearts Christians and where is that spiritual wisdom that ought to be in us that look no more after Gods service whose service is perfect freedom and which brings with it so much safety and security And the last is Use 5 that seeing wee may say as Moses here Lord thou hast been our dwelling place our Covert and defence in dangers thou hast protected and covered us by thy hand thou hast kept us in these contagious times wherein many have been sick many weak and many taken away by death Lord thou hast given us health after sicknesse deliverance from dangers consolation after all our sorrows and afflictions thou hast been our defence and protection Thou hast been a cover unto us or else wee had long a go perished O what shall we render to the Lord for all these benefits what rent do wee owe unto God for our Habitation and safe protection If we should finde this favour at any mans hand that he would let us have a dwelling place fit and needfull for us to defend us from storms and tempests and that for seaven years or twenty years together will he not look for some rent or service at our hands but the Lord hath been our dwelling place twenty thirty forty years from time to time unto this day Now wil not the Lord look for some Rent and service at our hands even the Rent and service of obedience and thankfulnesse that wee should not displease our Landlord that we should not grieve him or provoke him to anger but keep his favour and good will and please him in all things this Rent of obedience and thankfulnesse doth the Lord require at our hands But alas how few do pay the Lord this Rent and perform this service who albeit they receive daily from him many benefits and mercies few with that Leper in the Gospell remember to return thanks From generation to generation Text. MOses doth not here speak in the present tense that God was their Habitation But that he was the same to their Forefathers Abraham Isaack and Jacob long before even from Generation to Generation Hence wee learn that the Church in all ages is one and the same Doct. 5 The Church is ever one and the same since the first Creation God hath ever had his Church and so from Generation to Generation God hath continued his Church in the world and ever will to the end 'T is true it was sometimes limited to one Nation as to the Jews He shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and judgements to Israel He hath not done so with any Nation Io. 4.22 and Salvation is of the Jews But now in the times of the Gospell since the comming of Christ that Wall of separation is plucked up and Japhet is perswaded to dwell in the Tencs of Sem. Cant. 6.8 My Dove my undefiled is but one she is the onely one of her Mother And this is testified by that of Paul 1 Cor. 12.12 As there are many members but yet but one body so we being many are one in Christ And this doth our Saviour make clear and plain unto us Io. 10.16 when he saith
Other sheep I have which are not of this Fold them also must I bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one Fold and one Shepheard And the Church is figured by one woman Rev. 12 And this woman hath Christ married to himself which shewes the unity of the Church in all ages Hos 2.19 'T is true this one Church of Christ may have many parts as the Sea hath many Chanells and is called by the name of the Country by the which it runs as the Germ an Sea the Baltique Sea c. so the Church of France the Church of England the Church of Scotland c. yet the Church of God is but one Militant Church upon the face of the whole Earth Reas And the Reason is because it hath but one Head As we account that but one Common-wealth that is under one King and governed by one and the same Lawes and is under one Government So is the Church of Christ one professing one and the same faith hath one and the same hope and Baptised into the same spirit and reserved unto one and the same glorious inheritance is but one This quite overthrows the Church Use 1 of Rome as no true Church of Christ who quite overthrow the Nature of the Church Catholick thus inlarged by God and confine the same to Rome What is Catholick but Universall And to speak in their language The Catholick Roman Church is as much as to say the Universall Church which must needs sound in the ears of any reasonable man to be most absurd Gods Church is not tyed to any one time much lesse to any one place but in respect of time and place is Catholick and Universall Secondly Vse 2 is this so that the Church of God is one and the same from generation to generation This may serve to unite the hearts of believers together in unity and peace The Unity and Onenesse of the Church should teach unity and concord amongst those that professe themselves members of this Church We are all of one house and habitation have one Father one Christ one Spirit one Bread one board one Bread to feed upon one Cup to drink on so should we be of one minde and of one heart Christians should cleave together and hold together If one member suffer all should suffer with it 1 Pet. 4.10 if one member be in honour all should rejoyce at it As every man hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another Those that are of the family of the Devill will do so Drunkards have a league amongst themselves what a shame then is it for Christians that professe themselves of the houshold of God to rent asunder the seamlesse Coat of Christ Surely the sad divisions that are in England this day like the divisions of Ruben cause great thoughts of heart and frustrates all our hopes of our desired peace O what a shame is it that there should be strife and dissention in that family where the Father is the God of peace and the son is the Prince of peace What an excellent Church and house of God was it in the Apostles time when the multitude of believers were of one heart and of one minde Such therefore as make these rents and divisions in the Church as too many do in these daies shew apparently that they are not of Gods houshold See that place of Paul Now I beseech you brethren Rom. 16.17.18 mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have received and avoid them for they are such as serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Ver. 2. Before the mountains were made or ever thou hadst for med the earth or the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God IN this second Verse Moses prevents an objection and removes a doubt that might arise in the minds of the people who might think thus Surely though the Lord did deliver our fore-fathers by his mighty power and defended and protected them in all dangers and straights yet now his power being not put forth for our succour and defence that are their posterity he is not now so able to save and deliver us No saith Moses that cannot be for the Lord is that mighty God from all eternity he is that eternall God and therefore cannot lose any of his power or strength but is now as able every way to save us as our fore fathers of old inasmuch as he doth continue the mighty God from all eternity from generation to generation thou art God Hence we may see what is the corrupt nature of man Doct. 1 In times of distress we are ready to uestion Gods power when we have not that we desire and when it goes not with us as we wish we are ready to question Gods power and to put off the cause from our selves and to lay the same upon God And hence is it that the Lord expostulateth the case with his people thus Es 50.2 Is my hand shortned at all that it cannot redeem or have I not power to deliver Behold at my rehuke I drie up the sea I make Rivers a wildernesse And again Es 59.1 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear But your iniquities have separated betwixt you and your God How did the people provoke the Lord to wrath against them Psal 78.19 20. when they said Can God prepare a table in the Wildernesse can he provide flesh for his people This the Lord was angry at Therefore the Lord was angry and the fire was kindled in Jacob Ver. 21. and wrath came also upon I srael And the reason is given because they believed not in God Ver. 22. and trusted not in his help And whereas God sware unto their fathers that he would give them the Land of Canaan to them their seed after them yet the Holy Ghost saith Heb. 3.19 They could not enter in because of unbeliefe This was the sin of the Prince of Israel that when the Prophet had told him of the great plenty that should be in the gate of Samaria 2 Reg. 7. To morrow this time he doubted of it and concludes against the words of the Prophet that it could not possibly be Though the Lord should open the windowes of heaven Ver. 20. But he saw it with his eyes but did not eat of it for the people trode him to death in the gate of the City Yea the Lord hath severely punished this sin in his own servants themselves that have been guilty of it as we may see in Moses the man of God Num. 20.8 12. that shut him out of the Land of Canaan And the Lord was so highly displeased with Zachary Luke 1.20 otherwise a good man who doubted of the
hereof Vse 2 that God hath a speciall hand in all our sufferings and still ordereth and disposeth of the same Ro. 8.28 that they shall work for the best to them that love and fear him what a ground of patience may this be unto us under the crosse whensoever the Lord shall be pleased to humble us by any affliction whatsoever that with patience and meeknesse we submit thereunto I was dumb Ps 39.9 and opened not my mouth because it was thy doing saith David And Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 â— Sam. 15.26 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good to him And Here I am let him do to me as seemeth good to him And this may serve for the just reproofe of those Vse 3 who in times of misery and distresse never look to the hand of God they look upon secondary causes and instruments but over-look God Such do seldome seek to God for delivery Job was of another mind he looks not so much upon the Caldeans and Sabeans that plundered him of his goods and cattle but he looks up unto God and acknowledgeth his hand in all So David when Shimei cursed him It may be the Lord bad him to curse me Vse 4 And last of all this lets us see that when the Lord hath been pleased to come in with any Nationall or personall deliverance where to returne thanks even to him that first smoâ—e us and who it is that hath healed us Thus the Church in all ages when the Lord was pleased to come in with any singular deliverance Exod. 15. 2 Chron. 20. Jud. 5. kept their solemn daies of praise and thanksgiving unto God Thou turnest man to destruction THat is at thy pleasure are our lives and being here we live at thy allowance and appointment when thou wilt thou turnest them to breaking and crushing even to dust Hence observe Doct. 2 That our life and being here is uncertain Our lives are in Gods hand it is in Gods hand and power we live at his appointment at his pleasure he can and doth turn man to destruction to breaking and crushing Thou hast bruised my bones Esay 38. saith Hezechiah Thou hast set me as a mark to shoot at saith Job Thy arrowes stick fast in me saith David If the Lord do but say Return ye sons of Adam we shall return again to the dust and away we must The voice of the Lord is a powerfull voice he did create all things by his voice and by his word and at the same voice and word of his he can turn all things to powder No man though never so great or mighty wise or politique can resist or withstand the commanding and powerfull voice of God but when death is sent and God gives his call they must return again to dust Death knocks with authority at the dore of the rich man and Palace of Princes as at the poor and all must obey and return to the dust from whence they came Moses this Man of God that was a man so familiar with his Maker a man so holy so meek so mercifull who was indeed a compound of vertues who had fed many thousands when they were ready to die with hunger who had refreshed many thousands when they were ready to perish with thirst yet must himselfe at last yeeld to the stroke of death and say to corruption thou art my Father and to the worm thou art my Mother Psal 89.48 What man is there living that shall not see death and shall deliver his soul from the pit One dyeth in his full strength saith Job whose breasts are full of milk Iob 21.23 and bones are full of marrow Another dyeth in the bitternesse of his soul they shall lie down alike in the dust and the wormes shall cover them We stand not at a stay but in the midst of life we are in death the very meat we put into our bellies and the cloaths we put upon our backs all declare unto us that dye we must and return again to the dust And the Reasons are First Reas 1 if we do but consider the matter whereof these bodies of ours are composed which is of the dust of the earth this shewes a necessity of their returning again to dust they are made of a frail brittle and corruptible matter and long they cannot stand Dust thou art Gen. 3.19 and into dust shalt thou return again And as the Prophet saith All flesh is grasse and the glory of man as the flower of grasse As the point of the Marriners needle doth never stand till it attain the North Pole Such an instinct there is in these bodies of ours they still bend themselves downward towards the earth from whence they came And as the nearer the Center the swifter the motion so is man towards his end every day winds off something of the threed of our life and return we must There is a necessity of our returning again to dust Reas 2 if we do but consider the nature of sin the wages whereof is death and indeed there can be no divorce sued out betwixt sin and death Gen. 20. As the Lord said to Abimelech Thou art but a dead man because of his sin And this was Gods own decree at first Gen. 2.17 The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Now Alam eating of the forbidden fruit brought in death to all his posterity for so saith the Apostle By one man sin entred into the world Ro. 5.12 and death by sin And inasmuch as all have sinned all must die the death Besides Reas 3 there is a necessity that all should die because by death we must enter into life death is the gate of life ordinarily none entred into life but by death death is a guide to bring us into Heaven though a churlish guide yet a sure guide to bring us into blisse Seeing the Lord at his pleasure turns man to destruction Use 1 to breaking and crushing sends long and tedious sicknesse and griefe of body whereby men are much deformed and weakned in their bodies and turned to dust This should teach us patience in times of misery and distresse when the Lord shall seem thus to crush us and break us to powder we should with patience bear his correcting hand be it never so sharp and grievous even to crush us to pieces and to grinde us to powder in regard it is the Lord that doth it Thus David I was dumb and opened not my lips Ps 39.5 because it was thy doing There is no sicknesse or disease lamenesse or blindnesse or any other affliction whereby we come to have our bones crushed and we brought to destruction but all is of the Lord He turneth man to breakings and destruction and it is the want of the knowledge of this that is the cause that men do sometimes murmur against Gods dealings and are not humbled for their sins as they ought to be we consider
This was that comfort that Christ gave to his Disciples Mat. 20.19 when he spake of his owne death The Son of man shall be delivered to the chiefe Priests and Scribes and they shall condemne him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to be Crucified but the third day he shall rise againe Now that which was Christs comfort may be ours also Thirdly there is comfort in it in regard of our friends that die in the Lord that though death may separate us asunder for a time yet we shall meet again If a man take a long journey his wife friends do not weep lament as if they should never see him again So a man that dies in Christ though he take a long journey yet we should not mourn as those which have no hope we shall meet again And lastly this may also comfort us in regard of the present infirmities of our bodies blindnesse lamenesse crookednesse and other deformities that we are subject unto here In the Resurrection we shall leave all these behinde us in the grave and our bodies shall rise again glorious bodies and incorruptible bodies As those two godly Martyrs going to the stake the one blinde the other lame comforted each other Be of good cheer Brother my Lord of London will this day cure thee of blindnesse and me of my lamenesse Thus will death do and in the Resurrection these imperfections shall be done away So that the comforts are great which flow from this Doctrine of the Resurrection But as this Doctrine serves for matter of comfort and consolation to the godly Use 3 so it serves for matter of terrour fear and astonishment unto all wicked and unregenerate men that are out of Christ that as they live so die in a naturall estate 'T is true these also shall partake of this Resurrection and shall rise again at last but in a sarre different manner from the godly The bodies of believers shall arise by vertue of that union they have with Jesus Christ as members of that mysticall body of his whereof Christ is the head so shall he at last draw his members to himselfe But now all wicked and ungodly men they shall arise by the power of Christ at the voice of the Arch-Angel at the sound of the Trump for as the Apostle saith the Trump shall sound 1 Cor. 15 And these shall arise out of their graves as out of a Prison and that to go to the place of execution These shall no sooner put their heads out of their graves and behold the Lord Jesus comming in his glory That Christ whom they have crucified by their sins that Christ whom they have persecuted in his members that Christ whose blood they have trampled under their feet but they could wish that they had never seen his face O thinks a wicked man that I were in my grave again O that this filthy and polluted carcase of mine had never been made alive again but as it tasted of corruption it might for ever have perished there And it is not impossible but they that at the last shall cry to the mountains to fall upon them Rev. 6. and the hills to cover them but they may seek to hide themselves in their graves from the presence of Christ As the bodies of believers shall arise glorified bodies the bodies of the wicked shall arise most black ugly and deformed bodies black faces gastly countenances more like Devills than Men and Women ugly as Toads hatefull to themselves and others Thus shall they arise at last they shall arise out of their graves quaking and trembling wishing that they had never been born or born Toads or Serpents rather than Men and Women O the horrour and terrour that shall seize upon the wicked at that day no heart is able to conceive or tongue able to expresse When the Lord delivered the Law to the people upon Mount Sinai when the Trumpet sounded how did the people quake and tremble Exod. 19 How terrible then will his appearance be at the last day when he shall come to exact vengeance upon the transgressors of this Law O consider this ye that now forget God you that will not now be wrought upon by the sound of the Word to be raised from the death of sin to the life of righteousnesse How will you endure at this day the voice of the Arch-Angell and the sound of this Trumpet Arise ye dead and come unto judgment And last of all Use 4 seeing these bodies of ours that now go to their graves shall return again and rise again how carefull should we be to keep our bodies clean and pure and undefiled and every member of the same The Apostle Saint Paul exhorts us unto this 2 Thess 4.4 To possesse our Vessells in holinesse and honour If death leave thee a drunkard an unclean person a swearer a worldling a vile and prophane wretch in a naturall condition in the same condition shalt thou be haled to judgment when that wretched body and that wofull soul of thine that have been a Simeon and Levi brethren together in sin shall now for ever share alike in punishment and torment When a man hath done some foul and shamefull fact we use to say of such a man he will never be able to shew his face again How then will many a vile and desperate sinner shew his face before God at that day How carefull then ought we to be to keep our Vessells in holinesse and honour This is that very Use the Apostle Peter makes of this Doctrine of our Resurrection Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be Paul professing the hope of the Resurrection I exercise my selfe saith he to have a clear conscience before God and all men Acts 24. voide of offence And of Jerome it is said that whatsoever he did he thought he heard this voice Arise ye dead and come to judgment Return again ye sons of Adam Text. MOSES as he hath shewed be fore that our lives are in Gods hand and at his disposing and that at his will and pleasure he can turn man to destruction to dust and rottennesse He adds also another cause of mans frailty and mortality and that is the nature composition and frame of mans body which is of it selfe very frail and brittle subject to mortality For the first word Man thou turnest Man to destruction signifies a man full of misery full of sicknesses and infirmities a miserable man Enosh And the other word here used in the end of the verse signifies a man made of Clay or of the very slime of the earth From hence we learn what is the nature of all men Doct. 4 Man a piece of living clay of all the sons of Adam viz. A piece of living Clay a little piece of red Earth And besides that man is subject to breaking and crushing every way a miserable man so is he of a brittle
mould a piece of red clay that hath in it for a time a living soul which must return to God that gave it and the body this piece of earth return to the earth from whence it came And if we had no Scripture at all to prove this daily experience before our eyes makes it clear how all men even the wisest the strongest the greatest and the mightiest Monarchs and Princes in the world be but miserable men made of red earth and quickly turn again to dust In his first Creation Gen. 27. God made man of the dust of the earth And this is it the Lord pronounced of all mankinde Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return This Job knew well and therefore said I shall say to corruption thou art my Father and to the worm thou art my Mother And to this agreeth that of the Psalmist Psal 49.19 Man shall enter into the generation of his fathers and they shall not live for ever Psal 89. And What man liveth and shall not see death And Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave And How dyeth the wise man as the fool Eccles 2.16 q.d. They are both made of one matter and are both subject to death alike Deut. 34. And Moses the servant of the Lord died in the land of Moab according to the Word of the Lord. It was not Moses greatnesse nor Moses goodnesse that could free him from the stroke of death For the Reasons see the second Doctrine of this Verse The Uses follow Seeing this is the estate of all the sons of Adam subject to misery Use 1 diseases sicknesses breakings and crushings whereby our bodies are not only deformed our beauty and strength abated and blasted but at last even brought to the dust What madnesse and folly then is it to make such account of this poor earthly Tabernacle as though it should last for ever which at the best is but an earthly Pitcher which though it go often to the water yet at last comes broken home a House made up of mud-walls which daily threatens ruine This shewes the fondnesse the vanity and folly that is in men and women that bestow so much time in painting in decking and trimming this poor carcase of clay that we know not how soon will to the dust Let such proud Peacocks and painted Tombs know they are at the best but a piece of red clay subject dayly to breaking and crushing An howers ficknesse will shake the Walls of thy House turn thy beauty into deformity and thy strength into weaknesse But rather let us deck our inward man with the graces of the Spirit because that beauty will last for ever that beauty cannot fade with years or sicknesse or miseries in the world but will endure for ever in life and death Secondly Use 2 seeing these bodies of ours are but a plece of living clay a little piece of red earth and we do not know how soon this brittle frail bodie of ours shall return to the earth again This may teach us to make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it for who will bestow much cost upon that he shall enjoy but a short time Will a Tenant for a yeer build and plant and lay out much cost and be it much pains upon that he must so suddenly part withall No he will provide for a more certain term Where are our hearts Christians and where are our thoughts that we mind no more our short stay here in this world and provide no better for an everlasting habitation We cannot assure our selves to continue here a year but are at an hours warning nay it may be not so much Whensoever it pleaseth the King to bid them stay that run at Tilt either in the entrance or at the middle of the race then he must come again Even so it is with us we have a short race to run here and when the Lord shall say Return thou son of Adam we must yield and away we must And therefore seeing that we are at this passe it stands us in hand to be prepared and to be in a continuall readinesse lest death take us tardy and so as death leaves us so shall the last judgment finde us If a man be charged to be ready for any service upon pain of death at an houres warning he will be sure not to be out of the way but alwaies in treadinesse Well let us know we are at lesse than an houres warning for whensoever the Lord shall but say Return away we must whether prepared or not prepared death will not stay O that men were wise Deut. 32.29 then would they remember their latter end that when the Lord comes whether at midnight or at the Cock-crowing or in the dawning of the day he may finde us so doing Ver. 4. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past as a Watch in the Night IN this Verse Moses proceeds to a farther description of the frailty of mans life And whereas our corrupt nature is such that we are ready to think we shall never die or not yet or not for many years though we see daily before our eyes such as are young and strong go before us yet cannot men easily be perswaded that their life is so short as indeed it is Now Moses comes to shew that even the longest life any man lives or yeares that he can attain unto is but a short life and very uncertain He supposeth thus Suppose that a man should attain to live a Thousand years which no man ever did as yet attain unto no the longest life that we read of in the Word is but nine hundred sixtie nine years that Methusalah lived But suppose saith he Gen. 5.27 that a man might live a thousand yeeres alas what is the space of a thousand yeers if we compare it to the eternity of God it is but as a day when it is past Now by this proportion let us mark how short the life of man is A thousand yeeres is but as a day then what is the ordinary life of man which is but sixty yeeres or eighty years surely it is not an houre a poor time to brag of as many do And in the end of this Verse as though Moses had said too much and pointed our the life of man too long he seemes to correct himselfe q. d. What said I that the life of man is as yesterday when it is past Nay I say It is but as a watch in the night Now a Watch was but the space of three houres Luk. 12.38 the night being divided into four Watches every Watch had three houres but a short time And thus Moses to beat down the pride of our hearts and those over-weaning thoughts of long life leads us to God the number of whose years saith Job cannot be known Job 36.26 That when we consider that eternity tâ—aâ—
suddenly have been brought to ruine and tumbled down How merry were the Sons and Daughters of Job Iob 1.18 feasting together in their elder Brothers house which in a moment were slain and not one escaped It is wonderfull to think how exceedingly men cark and care for the world and seek to joyne house to house and land to land and never think they have enough O did these men but consider that mans life is short that we have but our being here as a Guest in his Inn for a night and in the morning must away again then would we not have our hearts so taken up for this short frail and brittle life and be so carelesse for Eternity As lastly since our life is so short Use 2 but for a day as yesterday that is past this should perswade us to a constant preparation for death for men shall hardly die well that be not prepared for death before death come It was the great commendation of Joseph of Arimathea Joh. 19.42 that was so mindfull of his end that he had his Tomb ready in his Garden And why in his Garden but that in the midst of all his pleasure and delight he might be put in mind of his end And the people when they ate the Passeover Exod. 12.11 they must have their loyns girt their shooes on their feet c. and why so but that they should be in a continuall readinesse when God should call them to passe out of Aegypt to go into the land of Canaan And this spirituall use ought every man to make thereof alwaies to be in a readinesse for our passage into our Celestiall Canaan Ver. 5 6. Thou carriest them away as with a flood they are as sleep in the morning they are as grasse which groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth IN this Verse likewise Moses proceeds to set out before our eyes the frailty of mans life And this he doth by sundry borrowed speeches and similitudes 1. He saith the Lord comes by death as it were by a mighty Flood that sweeps away all before it 2. As a Dream that is quickly gone and forgotten 3. He compares mans life to the Grasse and shewes that as the Grasse hath a time of growing so hath it a time of withering So man when he is young and lusty it is the best time of grouth yet it must have a time of withering when age comes and God cuts them down by the sith of death Thou carriest them away as with a flood Text. HEre Moses first of all sheweth that the Lord comes many times by death as a Flood or as the Sea when it breaks through the banks And herein will teach us two things 1. That death is inevitable there is no resisting of it no more then a man can stop the course of the Sea 2. That death many times comes suddainly as the breakings in of the Sea when men are not ware or think least of it Thou carriest them away as with a flood NO we hence That death Doct. 1 is 〈…〉 Death is 〈◊〉 the Sea there is no withstanding of it or stopping the course of it so there is no weapon can defend a man from the stroak of death And this Flood sooner or latter overflowes all men without exception as Noah's flood overflowed the whole earth It is appointed for all men once to die Heb. 9.27 daily experience makes it clear the mighty Captains and noble Warriours yea those famous Kings and greatest Monarchs that have been in the world even those that lived longest as Methuselah that lived nine hundred sixty nine yeeres Gen. 5.27 yet at last were overflowed with this Flood of death This is the way of all flesh all the sons of Adam must tack about and winde and come into this Haven the Port of death Let men use all the skill they can take the best Physick they can get use the sparest dyet and surest waies and means of preserving health and lengthning out their life and daies Death at last overflowes them all How violently doth Death as a Flood break in upon us sometimes by violent Fevers which many times cause distractions and frenzies sometimes by the Stranguary sometimes by one violent disease and sometimes by another that like a violent Flood breaks in upon us that overflowes Nature and sweeps us away As it is with the fruits of the earth so it is with men some of a harder kinde will tarry till winter Others fall sooner some stay till the frost of olde age nip them David and Ichosophat died full of daies And some againe Death nips them as it were in the blossome as Davids Child borne of her that was the wife of Vriah yet at last Death sweeps all away And the Reason seemes to be laid downe in that confession of the lamenting Church Reas Lam. 3.43 44. we have sinned and thou hast not spared thou hast Covered us with thy wrath thou hast slaine and not spared The Church acknowledgeth there that it was by reason of their sins that Gods hand was thus upon them And Death the Apostle makes the wages and stipend of sin Ro. 6.23 The wages of sin is Death And the Appostle reproving the Corinthians for divers abuses crept in about the Sacrament 1 Cor. 11.30 Ps 38.3 saith for this cause some are sick and some ar◠weake amongst you and some are taken away by Death Seeing Death comes many times thus like a violent flood Use 1 and breaks in up on men and women somtimes by one violent disease and somtimes by another we are taught hence to take heed how we censure any when the hand of God lies upon them in this kinde It is a dangerous thing to judge of men by the effects of some violent disease there are many diseases that cause distraction as some Fevers convulsions c. bereaves men for a time of the use of reason and put them into strange behaviour which may be the condition of the best and as Solomon saith All thinges happen alike to all Eccles 9.1 2. And No man knoweth love or hatred of all that is before them There is no judging then of mens estate by these things Death comes many times violently and sweeps us away as with a Flood Seeing that Death many times like a violent Flood breakes in upon us Use 2 violently unresistably what cause then have any to be proud of any outward excellency of body or mind that is subiect dayly to such a change as Riches Beautie Strength honour Authority c. Especially if we doe but consider that the foundation of that Excellency is but dust a fraile body subiect dayly to mutabilitie change that we have no assurance to jnioy no not an howers space How suddainly may this Flood break in upon us and what becoms of them then Doth not Experience teach us how few there are that passe through this pilgrimage of theirs but
meet with unexpected accidents in their way our life being like a lighted candle which wasts with the winde and is often blowen out before it be burned How many griefs and how many cares and feares are we daily pestered withall that help to waste the spirits of mer we are like unto him that stept upon the stage and presently went downe againe as if he came thither of purpose to shew himselfe and no more so many steps upon the stage of this worlde and act litle but downe againe And though men should be so happie as to be freed from outward Miseries which fewe are Yet we continually carry death in our Bosoms for look how many infirmities this frail Natures of ours are subiect unto so many secret Enemies we harbour within us to provide for Death yea every crum of bread that goes awrie is ready to make a breach for Death to enter in at In a word be we at sea or on land be we in Citty or Country at home or abroad waking or sleeping we are still in danger that Death like a violent Flood may break in upon us we are here never at one stay but in the midst of life we be in Death So oft then as this Corrupt nature of ours shall stir us up to pride because of Beauty Riches strength c. O let these thoughts humble us these flowers every day wither apace The root is dead already The body is dead because of Sin There is a worme at the roote as there was at the roote of Jonahs Gourd all our earthly felicities are feeding a pace we know not how soone Death like a violent Flood will breake in upon us and put an end to them all Thus for the first that Death is inevitable there is no resisting of it it breakes in upon us as a violent Flood Thou Carriest them away as with a Flood MOses in these wordes will likewise intimate unto us that as Death comes violently and unresistably as a Flood Doct. 2 So Death comes Suddainly unexpectedly as a Flood Death comes suddenly Many times when men are not aware nor thinke not of it then Death coms and takes them tardy And no doubt this was Christs intent and meaning when he saith Mat. 25.6 At midnight there was a cry made to shew unto the world that his coming by Death and judgment will be in an Houre when men will not think of it that so we might expect him every day and every hour You know not the day nor the hour Maâ— 24.42 when the Son of man cometh It is sufficient for us to know that come he will and that his coming shall be at such a time when men least of all expect it Mat. 24.26 and as he saith In the houre that ye think not will the Son of man come And upon this very ground the uncertaintie of the time when Christ shall call us is that watch-word given what J say unto you I say unto al watch Mat. 13. And Behold I come as a theefe in the Night Rev. 16.15 Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments I confesse these places of Scripture are principally meant of Christs second comming to judgment yet are they true also in this sence of his comming by death When a Thiefe hath a purpose to do mischiefe he makes choice of the night when men are asleep and so comes unawares when men are not prepared for resistance Such will the time of Death and the last judgment be And upon this ground Christ grounds that exhortation of his to have our loynes girded and our light burning that we may be alwaies ready And certainly when men are most secure then is death nearest at hand as it was with that rich man that promised to himselfe many years Luke 12. had that night his soul taken from him And when men shall say peace peace then shall suddain destruction shall come upon them And besides these clear examples and testimonies in the Word that shew the comming of death to be suddain and unexpected our own experience and observation daily before our eyes doth declare this truth How many have gone well to bed at night that have been dead ere the morning some at bed and some at board some at home and some abroad death hath met them and suddainly surprised them and when he comes he will have no nay The point then is clear and plain that as death comes as a Flood and there is no resistance so as a Flood death comes suddainly when men think least of it But why will the Lord have the time of death thus uncertain to us Quest Many may be the Reasons wherefore God will not have this day and time known unto us Ans That not knowing the set day and houre Reas 1 we might be prepared for every day and every houre Watch saith Christ for you know not what houre the Master of the house commeth whether at midnight c. Secondly Reas 2 that herein and hereby the Lord might exercise the faith patience hope and other graces in the hearts of his servants all which are now exercised and set on work whilst we know not the time when the Lord will call us hence And this serves for the just reproofe of the great security Use 1 wherein so many are so fast asleep that notwithstanding they hear clearly from the Word and see daily by experience before their eyes the sudden comming of death as a flood rushing in upon them yet put the thoughts of death far from them O the security and dead heartednesse that is in many that having so many caveats watchwords and warnings from God besides their own daily experience yet never minde their own latter end nor deaths sudden comming This was the sin of the old world in the daies of Noah that were so drowned in their own pleasures that they would not believe a drowning by a flood till the flood came and swept them clean away And this is the great sin of this world and times wherein we live upon whom the ends of the world are come The deadnesse of heart and carnall security the little laying of Gods judgments to heart the overflowings of sin in all sorts and conditions of men are certain precursors and forerunners that the Lord is at hand either with some sorer vengeance to awake us or by putting a speedy end to all things But the main use that we are to make of this Point Use 2 that death comes many times so suddainly rushing in upon us as a violent Flood It should teach us this wisdome at all times to be in a readinesse and prepared when death comes Upon this ground Christ admonisheth his Disciples and us all to watchfulnesse because the day and hour knoweth no man But I hope I shall have time to prepare for death Object 1 I am yet young and strong c. Herein men blesse themselves and flatter themselves that howsoever they
Doctrine of the Resurrection by comparing death to a Flood whereby men are over-whelmed in the Grave In these words he mitigates that speech in comparing Death to a Sleep that even as a man lying down to sleep though he seemes to be dead for the present yet ere it be long awakes again Even so though death seems as a Flood to over-whelm us and drown us in the Grave yet ere it be long at the day of Judgment we shall awake and rise again From this allusion the point observable is That death is a sleep Doct. 3 or to die is but to sleep Death is a sleep Es 57.2 And thus the Scriptures resemble the Grave to a Bed and Death to a Sleep He shall enter into peace and they shall rest in their beds every one that walketh before the Lord in righteousnesse And this thing holy Job speaks of himselfe Job 7.21 Now I shall sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shal not be And this is said of David 1 Reg. 2.10 that he slept with his Fathers And thus Daniel speaking of the last judgment Dan. 12.2 Many that sleep in the dust shall awake to life eternall And this Christ saith of Lazarus Ioh. 11. Mat. 9.24 Lazarus is not dead but sleepeth And Paul comforting the Thessalonians for their dead saith 1 Thes 4.13 Brethren I would not have you ignorant concerning those that sleep in the Lord. So that you see the phrase is very usuall in the Scripture to compare death to a sleep And the Reasons of this resemblance may be these The first may be taken from the nature of sleep Reas 1 which is indeed a binding up of the senses for a time till sleep again be dissolved at which time the senses have again their naturall power restored to return into the members of the body whereby they act afresh Thus is it with the sleep of death hereby the bodies and minds of men are set free from cares fears distempers and molestations for such rest from their labours Both the souls and bodies of the Saints by death are set free from them all Rev. 14.13 Secondly Reas 2 as sleep doth give much refreshment to the bodies and mindes of men being wearied with labour and pains in the day time O how sweet is sleep to a labouring man and how comfortable is rest to a weary traveller No lesse sweet and comfortable is the grave to the bodies of the Saints these rest in peace as on a bed of down such sleep sweetly and safely untill the morning of the Resurrection when they shall arise again Psal 17.15 When I awake up saith David I shall be refreshed with thy Image Thirdly Reas 3 as those that are asleep may easily be awaked and raised up again by some sound in their ears or stirring of their bodies or the like So easie will it be with the Lord at the last day when he comes to judgment by the voice of the Arch-Angell and sound of the Trumpet when this voice shall be heard of all Arise ye dead and come unto judgment to raise up the dead that are asleep in their graves This may serve for matter of singular comfort and consolation unto the godly all believers Use 1 that Job calls the King of fear and the Grave which is the chamber and house of death dreadfull in their own nature should thus have their nature altered and changed that they should become so comfortable and beneficiall unto them to become a place of sweet repose and rest That soul that hath made its peace with God may with much comfort look death in the face and say with Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Such blessed souls rest with God and die in peace and may commend their souls to God as to a faithfull Creator See the boldnesse and confidence of the blessed Apostle 1 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought the good fight I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnesse But whence have the godly this boldnesse and confidence in death Quest was not death threatned as a curse and inflicted as a curse how came the nature of death thus to be altered and changed This thing so comes to passe through the death of Christ Ans 1 who was himselfe in the state of the dead and was himselfe in the grave and hath triumphed over death and hell and the grave and hath removed the curse and plucked out the sting of them 1 Cor. 15.54 Heb. 2.14 15. Death is swallowed up of victory And that by death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devill and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage So that death as a curse was laid upon Christ that our death might be blessed unto us So that it is by Christ and his death that the sting of death is plucked out and that our Graves become a bed of rest unto us Secondly every true believer is a member of Christs body and hence it comes to passe Ro. 14.8 That whether we live or die we are the Lords Secondly this lets us see the misery of all wicked and ungodly men Use 2 from whom the curse of Death and of the Grave is not removed As in Death their bodies return to the Grave so their souls go immediately to Hell their bedies go to their Graves as to a stinking and loathsome Prison a Dungeon of darknesse from whence they shall arise in the morning of the Resurrection to be joyned again to their souls that both together may be sent into utter darknesse The godly and wicked in death may well be resembled to Pharaoh's Butler and Baker Both go to Prison one is restored to serve his Master the other reserved for execution Is death a sleep Use 3 and do the bodies of the Saints rest in their Graves as in a Bed and their Spirits return to God that gave them How fond and vain then is the conceit of those that say that dead bodies walk after their death the ground I suppose of this superstitious speech so frequent with many God rest his soul and Gods peace be with him c. a grosse absurditie and howsoever a common conceit in time of Popery and times of ignorance yet in the times of the Cospell utterly to be abandoned And last of all Use 4 since death is a sleep This should teach us not to mourn as those that have no hope for the departure of our Friends Husbands Wives Iohn 11. Parents Children c. Thy Brother saith Christ to Mary shall rise again So shall they What though they tast of corruption they shall not perish in corruption They go to their graves but as to a bed there to rest for a time till the morning of the Resurrection come Now who would not be glad of rest after
hundred thousand besides Children they dyed all in the Wildernesse all save Joshuah and Caleb above the age of twenty years some by the Pestilence some by sudden and fearfull fire from Heaven some swallowed up of the earth as Corah Dathan some killed by fiery Serpents and Scorpions and the greatest part by the Plague and Pestilence so that in the space of forty years they were almost all of them consumed This example of it selfe were sufficient to clear this truth that whereas the life of man is short of it selfe yet our sins many times makes it shorter as we may see in the old World drowned in the Flood Corah Dathan and Abiram smallowed up of the earth Herod eaten up of wormes Saul Judas the Children that mocked the Prophet Besides the experience we have in our daies of Drunkards Whormasters Theeves and Traitors who by their sins draw down Gods judgments upon their heads and shorten their daies As we see the Grasse though it be left to grow yet in time will wither of it selfe but if suddainly cut down with a Sith it sooner decayes A Leafe though it hang long on the Tree yet in the end it will fall of it selfe but by a storm is suddenly shaken down Thus it is with men 'T is true the sinner in committing of sin doth neither see nor perceive this being blinder then Balaam that saw not the sword drawn before him But Sathan that malitious enemy of mans Soul like deceitfull Laban that gave Jacob Leab instead of Rachel So doth Sathan deal with the sinner instead of profit and pleasure payes the sinner at last with some shamefull death the just wages and stipend of sin Because Reas 1 that all our sufferings are for the most part the fruit and stipend of sin Lam. 3.39 Man suffereth for his sin As the Lord said to Abimelech Thou art but a dead man because of this sin Gen. 20.3 the taking of Abraham's wife The wages of sin is death both Temporall and Eternall God hath joyned them both together The soul that sinneth shall die the death Ro. 6.23 Secondly long life is promised as the wages of obedience If ye be willing and obedient Es 1.19 ye shall eat the good things of the Land And on the contrary God often cuts off the wicked for their disobedience As a wise Parent will not correct his child where there is no fault so will he not spare when he is provoked Loathsome sicknesses foul diseases and sudden death are often Gods revengfull rods upon vile and wretched sinners Seeing the life of man Use 1 that is so short of it selfe yet is made far shorter by reason of sin this serves to justifie the Lords hand and righteous judgment upon the Land this day in his generall visitation by this unwonted sicknesse and suddain death of so many amongst us Is not England become the sinke of all those Sects and Heresies that ever crept into the Church And as if these were not enough to pull down Gods wrath the Land is guilty of Blood of Swearing of Lying of Whoring Sabbath-breaking contempt of the Word and Ordinances of Christ with these and the like abominations the Land is defiled and the Land shall mourn Hos 4.3 What hope have we to avoide our present judgments this day and yet live in those sins that cause them And how can we think to escape any Plague so long as we are guilty of the Plague of sin Secondly Use 2 since by our sins our daies are often shortned and cut off it shall then be our wisdome to discern betwixt the pleasures of sin and the miseries that accompany the sinner Sathan promised our first Parents that they should be like unto God but it was to make them miserable as himselfe How many a wretched man by his Drunkennesse Uncleannesse and other distempers shortens his own daies as the Prophet saith The wicked shall not live out halfe his daies which otherwise in the course of Nature they might attain unto But all those miseries whereunto we are subject by reason of sin in this life are no way to be compared to those fearfull punishments whereunto the wicked are reserved after this life for it is sin that shall shut them for ever out of heaven Rev. 22.15 Without shall be Dogs c. And They that commit such things shall never inherit the Kingdome of Heaven 1 Pet. 2.12 Which made the Apostle so earnestly exhort us I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which sight against the soul But we are consumed in thy anger IN these words Moses sets down the cause why they were thus hastily wasted and consumed in the Wildernesse which he confesseth here to be double 1. The more remote and improper cause and that was Gods anger in this verse 2. The neerer and more proper cause and that was their sins verse 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee c. First cause was Gods Anger Cause Gods anger which is described by the degrees of it 1. Anger 2. Hot anger 3. Sore displeasure But how do Moses and the people gather that God was so exceedingly angry with them But by that manner of death that they were so suddenly wasted and consumed with the Pestilence Hence we may observe Doct. 3 That great and extraordinary judgments and calamities Extraordinary judgments are arguments of Gods anger do argue the greatnesse of Gods Anger For Moses here inferrs and concludes the greatnesse of Gods anger and displeasure by the greatnesse of their punishment that seeing they were so miserably consumed and so fearfully plagued it must needs shew the Lord exceedingly provoked by their sins And this is that very use the Apostle makes of this their sudden destruction that came upon this people an argument to prove that God was displeased with them 1 Cor. 10.5 With many of them God was not well pleased In all extraordinary and strange judgments which the Lord brings upon us it is safe to say to our hearts as the people of God said Deut. 31.47 Are not all these troubles come upon us because God is not with us Ruth 1.13 This use could Naomi make of the death of her two Sons That the hand of God was gone out against her And this the very Barbarians could conclude of Paul Act. 28.4 when the Viper hung on his hand No doubt this man is a murtherer They conclude that it must needs be some great sin that Paul was guilty of that did cause that so sore a judgment It was a strange hand of God upon old Eli 1 Sam. 4.18 that he should fall and break his neck And no doubt his indulgency towards his children in their prophanenesse was the cause of it It was no ordinary death that of the young Prophet 1 Reg. 13.24 certainly his sin was the cause of it That Moses himselfe must not come into the Land of Canaan
but only see it and die in the Land of Moah surely Moses his sin shut him out And of all that great number that came out of the Land of Aegypt even six hundred thousand that all above twenty years should perish in the Wildernesse was an undoubted argument they were guilty of some great sin that caused the Lord to be thus angry with them Object If this be so that extraordinary judgments are arguments of Gods anger how was it said of the blind man that lay under such an extraordinary judgment as to be born blind that neither this man sinned nor his Parents The meaning is not Answ that neither He nor his Parents were without sin no not such sins as might have justly brought that punishment upon them But neither the Mans sins nor his Parents were the cause why the Lord smote him with blindnesse John 9. but that the work of God might be made manifest in him Job though he were a a godly man indeed yet Job's sins might justly deserve all his miseries but God did not so much look upon his sins but that he might be a pattern and example of Faith Patience and of other Graces to his Church for ever Besides there be many grounds and causes wherefore the Lord is pleased many times to lay his hand and that heavy too upon his own Children and such as are both neer and dear unto him 1. As the exercise of their graces of Faith Patience Hope c. 2. To wean them them from the world whereunto our hearts are too much addicted 3. To quicken Prayer 4. To chasten us for our sins past and to make us more watchfull for the time to come c. But since the Lord in his Word hath denounced these judgments against us for our sins and doth not reveal unto us when he is pleased thus to try us his secret will and pleasure therein We are not to pry into his hidden counsells but into his will revealed which is that Man suffereth for his sin And howsoever we may erre in respect of Gods secret purpose in sending afflictions yet we shall profit thereby to humble our selves to justifie God as righteous to renew our repentance and hereby become fit for mercy and deliverance Whereas in times of affliction and distresse to look upon any other cause then sin may hinder our repentance and cause us to continue in our wickednesse Now that great and extraordinary ludgments and afflictions do argue Gods high displeasure these Reasons shew Reas 1 Because he is most just and righteous in his judgments as Abraham said to God Gen. 18.25 It is far from the Judge of all the World to deal unrighteously The Lord is ever most clear in himselfe from the least stain or mixture of iniustice in any of his judgments inflicted upon men Ps 119.137 Righteous art thou O Lord and true are thy judgments Reas 2 The second may be taken from that neer union and inseparable affinity that is betwixt Gods anger and sin Man suffereth for his sin Lam. 3.39 Miseries and afflictions yea all kind of iudgments spirituall and temporall are but the sinners harvest that he must look to reap by sowing the seeds of sin Pro 22.8 He that soweth iniquity shall reap affliction and the rod of his anger shall fail Let us apply this to our selves Use 1 Did Moses well to gather and conclude the exceeding anger displeasure of God against them by the greatnesse and grievousnesse of their punishment that they were thus hastily and fearfully wasted and consumed Alas then what may we think of our selves how hath the hand of God laine heavie upon us in this Nation In these later daies the sword hath been in the Bowels of the land and hath drunk much blood in every corner of it we have had the pestilence amongst us what Country hath been free we have had cleannesse of teeth when many have perished in the open fields and by the way side for want of bread The Lord hath made the Heavens as Brasse and the Earth as Iron that the like yeares have not been known Besides this strange sicknesse that hath been amongst us whereof fewe Families have escaped but some have been either sick or weake or suddainly taken away by Death that fewe that are living have knowne the like time of sicknesse and mortalitie Now what can we think by all these messengers of his Anger and wrath but that God is exceedingly angry and displeasedwith us Certainely the sins of this Nation the innocent blood that hath been shed the high contempt of the Gospel and Miâ—listers therof the great securitie unfruitfullnesse and unthankfullnesse of all sorts may mind us of some farther judgments yet at hand And yet alas who laies the Lords dealings to heart to take notice of Gods Anger and make but light account of judgments None consider in heart that the greatnesse of Gods judgments is an argument of the greatnesse of our sins It shall be our wisdom to lay Gods judgments to heart and to meet the Lord by unfained Repentance lest worser judgments overtake us at last Use 2 Secondly this serves to admonish us that according to the greatnesse of Gods judgments to increase our sorrow and Repentance for great anger argues great sins and great sins must have great Sorrow and great Repentance Quest 1 But is it an Argument that God is Angry when he takes men away by Death No it is not alwayes so Ans that the Lord is Angry when he takes men away by Death But when he takes them away by such a manner of Death as this people here with some strange kinde of Death horrible and fearefull for some sin as these people for their infidelitie murmuring Rebellion and despising of his mercy this is a token of Gods Anger 1 Cor. 10.10 Neither murmur ye as some of them murmured and were destroyed with the Destroyer Quest 2 But is it a token of Gods Anger for men to dy suddainly or by some strange kind of Death of the plague pestilence c No. Ans It is not alwaies a token of Gods Anger for men to dy suddainly or by some strange kinde of Death Pilate to make the Jewes odious and their religion hatefull mingled the blood of certaine Galileans with their Sacrifices here was an unwonted kind of Death And so those eighteene upon whom the tower of Silo fell these dyed not an ordinary kind of Death And yet Christ saith that they were not greater sinners then other men And many of Gods dear children and faithfull servants have dyed strange kinds of death and none more then the Son of God himselfe And therefore we may not judge a man out of Gods favour by the suddennesse or strangenesse of his death if his life hath been good his death cannot be bad Eccles 9.11 for as Solomon saith All things happen alike to all But now when we shall see a Man or Woman whose
thing that crosseth it But Gods anger and wrath is ever at sin which is so contrary to that holy and pure nature of his that he will not fail to correct even in his own children O how happy were we if we could bring our hearts to this to be angry Eph 4.26 and sin not to make sin the object of our anger and wrath in our selves and others As Moses though he were the meekest man living yet when the people had made the golden Calfe he caused the same to be grownd to powder and made the people in a holy anger and indignation to lick up the dust thereof Thus was the zeal of Phineas kindled against Zimri and Cosbi and executing judgment upon them Gods wrath was appeased Secondly Use 2 seeing the effects of Gods wrath for sin are so terrible what then is sin the cause of Gods displeasure In all diseases we say the cause is worse then the effect Now all the plagues and judgments that God executeth in the World are but the effects of sin We have seen in our times the great alterations that have been in Church and State the Crown it selfe is withered many Noble Families and Houses brought down and laid in the dust Inheritances translated to others the Sword hath begot a new tenure confusion in the Church Sects and Heresies abound in every corner the Ordinances of God contemned and despised the Ministry slighted and disesteemed as if it were uselesse and might be spared never more open prophanenesse nor aparent signes of Gods anger and wrath against a people then God hath manifested against us with his unwonted judgmeÌ„ts and strange visitations by unwonted sicknesses and diseases Surely in the midst of them all we are to justifie God since England's sin hath caused all our plagues upon us this day and we are to confesse with the lamenting Church that it is the Lords mercy we are not quite laid wast That it might be said of England that we were a people that kept not Covenant with God And when we shall see Religion advanced discipline and order in our Church Sects and Heresies discountenanced Piety encouraged and Prophanenesse suppressed then and not till then may we hope that God will remove his wrath and turn away his anger from us And last of all Vse 3 this may serve for Exhortation to admonish all to take heed of sin we shall never escape Gods anger nor displeasure whilst we are guilty of sin sin laies us naked and open to all judgments But especially this concerns Magistrates that as they desire to keep off Gods judgments from a Land and Nation that they see that sin be duly punished When Phineas executed judgment the Plague ceased And this care ought Parents and Heads of Families to have that as they desire protection from God and to see his blessing upon their Families that they suffer not an Achan under their roof Ps 101. Zach. 5.4 Pr. 3.33 but purge their house as David did his For certain it is the curse of God is up-the habitation of the wicked whereas the habitation of the righteous shall prosper There is one thing more to be observed that as the effects of Gods anger and wrath are terrible So it is the sight of sin Doct. 4 Sight of sin and sense of Gods displeasure for sin ground of repentance and â—â—â—ious consideration of Gods anger and displeasure against sin that is the ground-work and foundation of true repentance There are many excellent fruits of godly sorrow and true repentance manifested by this people from verse 12. to the end yet if we observe well these two verses 8 9. we shall see it was the sight of their sins and the apprehension of Gods anger and displeasure for sin that set them upon their repentance The fight of sin and the apprehension of Gods anger and displeasure for sin ever goes before true repentance This Church and people acknowledge that God had set their their iniquities before him c. And withall had a deep sense of Gods anger and displeasure before they addresse themselves for pardon And surely this is Gods order of working in the great work of Repentance and Salvation first to cast down through the sight of sin and apprehension of Gods displeasure for sin and then to raise up in the apprehension of mercy in Christ Never did any truly repent but first apprehended the curse and Gods indignation against sin before Let this be duly thought upon as a most certain ground of truth that those whom the Lord intends to save he will first discover unto them their sin and Gods wrath due unto them even the curse of the Law which is eternal death of Soul and Body for ever before he ever give them the sweet apprehension of his favour and love in Christ The Scriptures are clear and plain in this point Come let us return unto the Lord Hos 6.1 for he hath wounded us Where we see the Lords order first to wound and then to binde up Thus dealt he with those Jewes Act. 2.37 who had imbrued their hands in the blood of the Lord Jesus they were first brought to see their sins by the Ministry of Peter and apprehend Gods wrath due for the same and then they cry out to the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved The Lord deals with a pure soul whom he intends to save as he said to Moses Deut. 28.66 Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night Now it is with a soul in this plight as it was with Balshazar in his cups Dan. 5. when he saw the hand writing the joynts of his knees smote together thus doth the Lord strike the soul with amazement and fear whilest he shall see before him nothing but death hell and condemnation thus the Lord ordinarily breaks the heart and humbles the â—oul before he fills it with mercy Baloved let us not flatter our selves to think that repentance and reconciliation with God were a matter so easily got No no the Lord will have us into the furnace first and the Lord will make us to see our sins and to feel the waight and burthen of them Mat. 9.13 Es 55.1 Joh. 7.37 with the sence of his anger and wrath against sin before we can look for mercy The Scriptures are full in this particular And the Reasons are God hath so appointed it Reas 1 that all the Elect should thus be brought home to him Ioh. 16.8 I will send you the Comforter saith Christ and he shall rebuke the world of sin and of righteousnesse First of sin unto condemnation and then of righteousnesse viz. the righteousnesse of Christ unto salvation And thus the Prophet brings in Christ speaking thus Es 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is on me and the Lord hath annointed me and sent me to preach good tidings to the poor to binde up the broken
and Peer rich and poor one and all there is no estate but hath misery enough attending upon it Who is there living amongst all mankind that is so happy and profperous in the world who if they should compare their comforts with their Crosses but must acknowledge that mans life is full of labour and sorrow No not the greatest Prince and Monarch in the world that is free from cares fears and troubles as we may see in David who was a man of trouble all his daies exercised sometimes by forraigne enemies sometimes by his own Courtiers yea by Absalom his darling son Their Crownes are continually attended with cares and fears of treasons and they are still filled with the cares and troubles of the Common-weal they are set over and are to look unto And those who have been highly advanced to honour and dignity as who but they waited upon by a great and sumptuous train in all glory and honour yet have suddainly been thrown down to the lowest degree of shame and dishonour And the like may be said of all ranks and conditions of men what with cares fears discontents crosses losses and dayly vexations and molestations we are incident unto and daily meet withall it is not the least of our misery to live long to bear them So that it may be said of man as it was said of the Angeil of Lavdicea Rev. 3.17 He knew not that he was wretched and poor and blind and naked Here is our case in the midst of all our pomp and glory and outward felicities in this world we are ignorant of what miseries daily attend us for what have we here that is not got with labour kept with care and fear and parted withall with griefâ— and sorrow so that in the getting enjoying and parting with what we enjoy here below we may say with the Prophet Hab. 2.13 The people shall even weary thomselves for every vanitle Like little children we sweat again in catching Butter-flies whilest in the mean time we neglect the true treasure of life and glory Besides the spirituall evills of this life as ignorance unbeliefe pride hypocrisy hardnesse of heart and the like these so pester and annoy even the best of Gods servants Ro. 7.24 that they often complain with Paul O wretched man that I am c. and with the father of the child Mar. 9.24 I believe Lord help my unbeliefe as Bradford that blessed Martyr of God was wont to do so that we have cause continually to groan under the burthen of our miseries here and subscribe this truth of Moses that our most happy and flourishing estate in this world is but labour and sorrow That herein and hereby the Lord might exercise our spirituall armour Reas 1 wherewith he hath furnished us to wit the shield of Faith the helmet of Salvation the breast-plate of Righteousnesse and the sword of the Spirit For wherefore should all these parts of our spirituall armour be provided us of God but that we must look daily to have them exercised Secondly Reas 2 to wean us from the world whose practise is to mingle our sweet with soure And lastly Reas 3 to make us long after a better life where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes and sin from our soâ—ls Seeing this is so Vse 1 that our chiefest strength our best time and the most excellent and principall part of our life is not freed from labour and sorrow cares fears vexations and molestations but that our whole life is full of labour and sorrow As this should wean us from the world and put us out of love of all things here below so it should stir us up to seek that life where all these miseries shall be taken away where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes Rev. 21.4 and where there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain but pleasure without pain and fullnesse of joy at his right hand for evermore Our best estate here is mixed with griefe sorrow care and trouble But happy and thrice happy are they which shall be judged worthy to inherit that life which shall last for ever and that without all cares fears labour and sorrow Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord they rest from their labours Secondly Vse 2 seeing no estate of our life is free from sundry sorrowes and miseries troubles cares and fears it may serve to admonish us all to bear them patiently and not to forsake our callings and places wherein the Lord hath set us because of them For here we see that in this short life of ours the most excellent part thereof is not free from labour and sorrow There is no calling or condition of life but hath miseries enough attending upon it to make them wretched that live in it if they want patience to bear them And those that seem most happy and we look upon them as most free from those miseries themselves many times could wish rather to be any other then that they are and if we could change our estates with theirs it is possible we should wish to take our own again Why then should we be weary of those callings wherein the Lord hath set us but rather undergo the same and arme our selves against these troubles and sorowes and not to use unlawfull means to escape them for that will but encrease our sorrowes and make our selves more miserable For it is soon cut off and we fly away MOSES in the former part of this verse having shewed the miseries sorrowes and troubles incident to the best and flourishing estate of mankinde in generall in the latter part of this verse applies it to the state and condition of the Church and people of God in the Wildernesse and shewes But for us saith he our time is cut off swiftly and we flie away For so I take it it makes the sense plain though it seemes to be read otherwise in our common translation yet if we mark the scope of the Holy Ghost which is to shew that their estate in the Wildernesse was far worse then other peoples were Thus though the ordinary time of mans life be seventie years or eightie years yet we are otherwise dealt withall our life is neither so long nor yet so free from labour and sorrow as other men are because we are cut off suddenly in the turning of an hand we flie away and are gone Hence we may see and take notice of the hainousnesse of sin Doct. 4 Sin causeth many times suddain death and especially of the sin of Infidelity and murmuring against God it made the Lord to cut down his people confusedly and hastily even as a man by his Syth sweepeth down his grasse Even so the Lord is here said to cut down his people with the sharp Syth of his judgment as it had been grasse And surely amongst other sins wherefore the Lord even in
I may know how fraile I am And indeed we have manifold examples in the word that let us see that naturally we do the cleane contrary viz. forget our latter end and put the thoughts of death far from us and what shall become of our soules at last that Rich man that was so wise for the world yet was a starke foole in this knowledge he could number his Riches his Gold and his silver His Sheepe and his herds of cattle but had no Skill at all to Number his dayes But reckoned them up by the grosse summ even many yeares to come And yet alas poore man he lived not one day But even that night had his soule taken from him and was sent to hell So that ungratious servant Luk. 12 that thought his Master would not come yet but fell to eating drinking and beating his fellowes was suddainly taken tardy Mat. 24.49 50. and what shall I say of those foolish virgins who never thought of providing of oyle but slumbred and slept and at midnight the Bridegrome came and then it was too late to cry and call Lord Lord Mat. 25. open unto us so that you see that naturally we are ready to forget the Numbring of our dayes and are not easily brought to consider the shortnesse and uncertainty of our life Besides experience makes this cleare for what man is there amongst us though he have lived threescore or fourescore years which doth not flatter himselfe to thinke that hee may rub out yet another yeare and so another to that so that you see it is naturally given to us to be ignorant of this knowledge that Moses prayes for unlesse we are taught of God neither nature learning nor dayly experience can teach us this lesson that our life is short It is God onely that must teach us this wisedome Reas 1 in regard it is not the pregnancy of naturall wit not the ripenesse of years neither is it common to gray haires to be perswaded of the shortnesse of life and to prepare for Death Iob. 32. But as Job sayth It is the inspiration of the Almighty that giveth understanding till we come to be weaned from the world and have our eyes set upon more glorious things thou are here below our hearts will bâ— bound up from this wisedome Because none can teach the heart Reas 2 but he that made the heart A man may search the register and know his age and by Arithmetique number his dayes and howers that he hath lived and yet be ignorant of this wisedome to esteeme of every day as his last day and so to live as if every day were his dying day God alone must teach this wisedom well then seeing Moses and the people of of God acknowledge their ignorance and forgetfulnesse in this poynt and withall pray to God that he would give them wisedome to number their dayes then let us lay this Doctrine to heart let us try and examin our selves whether we be not as forgetful of this poynt do promise long life to our selves If this be our case let us likewise intreate the Lord to give us this wisedome and to teach us and perswade us of the exceeding shortnesse of our life that we might apply our hearts to this wisedome of learning to dye for till the Lord od open our eyes become our Schoole-master we shall never come truely to know it nor to make that right use of it as we ought to doe Secondly Use 2 this shewes the extreame folly of the greatest part of the world who think it so easie a matter to number their dayes Moses was a wise man yet as not sufficiently instructed in this poynt he humbly intreats the Lord to teach him this knowledge that he might number his dayes aright this is that David doth so earnestly beg for at Gods hand Psal 39.4 Lord make me to know my end and the measure of my dayes that I may know how fraile I am And therefore seeing it is so hard a lesson to be learned and of so great use being attayned let us intreat the Lord to teach it us To number our dayes But may not this seeme strange that Moses should so beg for this Quest Did not Moses know how to number his dayes He could number Adams dayes and set downe how long he lived Hee could number Enoch his dayes and set downe how long he lived Methusala Abraham Izack Jaacob and all the. patriarks dayes and how long they lived and could not Moses number his own dayes this may seeme strnage we see a child of ten or twelve years old can by arithmetike quickly tell you how many days he hath lived yea how many howres and minuts I answer that neither Moses Ans nor the wisest man living though he may be never so expert in all kind of Arithmeticke and humane learning so as he knowes the nature of the Stars their distances motions longitudes latitudes altitudes c. can skill of this numbring unlesse the spirit of God be his Schoole-master unlesse God give him wisedome and grace from above to perswade us of the shortnesse of our time and of the suddain and speedy coming of Death can truly learne this lesson to number his dayes aright but it must be the Lord that must teach it us Hence we learne Doct. 2 that it should be our chiefest care and study Wee ought to esteem of every day as our last day Deut. 32.29 to practise that which they so earnestly prayed for viz that upon the same grounds that they were moved withall that we learne to number our dayes aright and make account of every day as our last day O that men were wise sayth Moses that they would consider their latter end True wisedome consists in this in the continuall meditation of the shortnesse of our life when we arise in the morning to thinke that we may be dead ere night and every night to thinke this may be my last Many men thinke to what end is this who knoweth not that our life is short uncertaine who knoweth not this But it is not for naught that the spirit of God in the scripture beats so much upon this poynt and puts us so often in remembrance of it would men be so carefull for the world and so carelesse for heaven and eternitie did we truly know and were perswaded of the frailty and uncertainty of our being here Surely if we could but reckon our life and dayes as Moses doth all along in this Psalme that it is but as vesterday nay not so long but rather as a watch in the night the space of three howers that death comes as a flood that our life is but as a sleepe or a Dream suddainly vanishing away that it is but as grasse And all the excellencies of man as Beauty Honour riches strength pleasures c. but as the flower of grasse and that our dayes are but as a taâ—e that is told were these
thoughts throughly imprinted in our hearts they would dam all our pleasures and cause us to thinke more of Death then we doe Could we reckon our days upon our fingers ends as we can other things and withall the great work that God hath sent us into this world to doe and how prodigally we have mispent our time how little we have done and how much is yet to doe when we are ready to drop into our graves could we I say thus number our life and dayes we would never live as we doe so carefull for this life and so carelesse for Heaven We see that those that shoot at Buts they pricke their arrowes sometimes here and sometimes there round about the marke at last they hit the white thus doth Death cast his Darts sometimes a friend is taken away sometimes a kinsman sometimes he comes nearer and takes a Husband wife child at last we our selves are struck with death and away we must Though we see this daily before our eyes and see coarses daily carried upon mens shoulders to the grave◠yet who layes it to heart and considers that the feete of these that carried them may carry us to our long home ere long we passe not away one minute of our life but we have taken one slep more towards the grave to day wee heare that A. B. is dead to morrow we may heare that C. D. is dead shortly you shall here that S S. is dead It is noted for the great commendations of Joseph of Arimathea Jo. 19. who whilst he was in health made his tombe in his garden and why in his garden No doubt to put him in mind continually of his Death and that in the midst of all his delights and pleasures he might think on his latter end Thus it is said of that godly Father St. Jerom that he thought with himselfe that whether he did eat or drink or whatsoever he did he thought he heard that voice Arise yee dead and come vnto Judgement Now that we ought thus to make accompt of every day as our last day let this reason perswade Because of that inevitable necessitie that lies upon all Adams posterity that dye we must Reas 1 as the woman of Tekoah said to David that mourned so excessively for the death of Absalom We must all dye And as the Psalmist hath it Ps 89.48 Ps 49.19 Heb. 9.27 What man liveth and shall not see death and shall hee deliver his Soule from the hand of the grave Againe Man shall enter into the generation of their Fathers and shall not live for ever And It is appointed for all men once to dye The consideration where of may put us in mind of our duty to be in a continuall readinesse for death We ought to make accompt of every day as our last day Reas 2 because we cannot sever our life and death but such as our life hath beene such will our death be for albeit that all must dye and sleep in the dust yet there is a great difference betwixt the godly and the wicked in death They that dye in the Lord are blessed Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord and these at last shall rise againe to life and glory but as for the wicked it is not so with them for they enter by death into everlasting paine where the worme dyeth not and the fire shall never be quenched so that our weale or woe for ever doth depend vpon that short inch of time that is allotted unto us here which also should put us upon this duty to be in a continuall readiness when death comes This serves to instruct us in the necessity of learning this lesson well Vse 1 of the measuring out the length of our time and the numbring of our dayes aright There is a great deale of art and skill to doe this This is the best Arithmetick whē we know how to number our dayes aright the numbring of our acres of land the numbring of our sheep and cattel is nothing to the numbring of our dayes Quest But what is it to number our dayes Answ It consist principally in these things First in Accompting every day as our last day and so to live as if every day we were to dye now what would we do if we were sure to dye ere night if you were sure that this were your last sabbath this were your last Sermon that ever you should heare you would not need to be warned of sleeping you would not willingly have death to take you tardy we would that rather death should take us upon our knees then upon our Ale-bench To number our dayes aright is to dye daily 1 Cor. 15. this was the care of the blessed Apostle I protest by our reioycing which I haue in Christ Iesus our 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 dye dayly that is by the continuall thoughts and meditation of death inure our selves by litle and litle whilest we are here of the art of dying well before we come to dye indeed Paul dyed daily because he knew not the day and time when God would call him away by death the more we fit and prepare our selves for death the lesse terrible will death this King of feare be unto us when it cometh Thirdly to number our dayes aright and to be prepared for death is to pluck out the sting of death now the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15 56. the sting being taken out death cannot hurt The Philistimes were so wise as to discover wherein the strength of Sampson lay Iud. 16.5 And therein they prevailed it shall be our wisdom to repent us of our sins for therein lyes the strength of death And last of all if we desire to live for ever in the kingdom of glory that we begin it here that we lay a good foundation for the time to come Those virgins that still expected the coming of the Bridgroome and had their lamps stored with oyle hereby merited the name of wise Virgins and entred into the marriage chamber whilst those foolish Virgins that were carelesse of the bridgrooms coming and rested themselves with the bare name of Virgins and with the bearing the Lamps of an outward profession without the oyle of grace in their hearts were for ever shut out This serveth to discover unto us the reason why sin doth so abound Use 2 drunkenesse swearing uncleannesse prophanesse and all other abominations in the lives of men It is because men have not learned this heavenly Arithmetick to number their dayes and to esteeme of every day as their last day This was the reason of that damnable securitie in that rich man Luk. 12.37 That bad his soule to take her fill of all pleasures and delights little thinking that that night his soul should be haled from him And this is the reason why men powre out their hearts to all manner of sins abominations they never consider the shortness uncertaintie of their
lives Is there any so vile or so wretched that if they were perswaded that they should dye this night before to morrow would they deck and trim paint and pounce and pamper those bodyes of theirs that so suddenly must feed the worms no no if men made this accompt of their life as at an howers warning they would provide better for that life that shall last for ever This was the reason why that evill servant fell to eating and drinking and beating his fellow servant Mat. 24.48 he thought his master would be long a coming A contrary example we have in Moses this man of God that albeit he might have inioyed the pleasures of Pharaohs Court with honour wealth and what not yet refused them all upon this accompt that they were but for a season All the pleasures comforts contentments and outward felicities that the world can afford us are but for a season short and momentany and must have an end And the end of a wicked mans pleasures ends in paine Son remember that thou in thy lif time Luk. 16. c. when one howers torment in hell will make the wicked forget all their pleasures on earth And therefore this should serve in the last place for Exhortation That we alwayes have death before our eyes and to think upon it to accompt of the present time and day as our last and so to live as if every day we should dye that we may be in a continuall readinesse for our dissolution and change when we shall goe hence and be no more There can be no worse deceipt then when a man deceives himselfe in this reckoning Vse 2 Luk. 12.37 He was worthily called a foole that said Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry And since it is the Lord that must teach us this wisdome we must pray unto him to teach us this lesson to number our dayes aright for till God teach us this wisdom we shall never repent forsake the world and seek for a better life And therfore I earnestly commend this duty to you and it is my desire to presse it upon my self that we all reckon this with our selves as though this day should be our last day and this nigh our last night that when the Lord shal call us hence he might find us so doing hitherto of the petition Lord teach us to c. That we may apply our hearts to wisdom HEre we have the second part at first propounded Part. 2 And that is the end of this petition or the use of this request viz. that we may apply our hearts c. These words may be taken in a double sence That we may apply our hearts to wisdom That is that seeing our life is so short here and so uncertaine we may no longer live in sin as we have done but may truly repent Doct. 3 live more wisely and circumspectly feare thy anger Men are never truly wise till they accompt of every day as their last day and be afraid to provoke thee by our sins as we have done this Moses accompts true wisdom And the words being taken in this sence the doctrine is That men are never truly wise till they accompt of every day as their last day Herein lyes true wisdom O that men were wise Deut. 32 29. then would they remember their latter end As if men were never truly wise till then There is nothing more naturall unto us then to perswade our selves of long life And that we shall still continue in a happie and flourishing estate It was Davids case to be thus lifted up in times of prosperitie I said saith he I shall neve be removed Psal 30.6 thou Lord of thy goodnesse hast made my hill so strong When God had setled David in his Kingdom had made him to prosper and given him the upper hand of his enemies He was ready to fall asleep and to make his reckoning that he should ever continue thus happie That his good dayes should last for ever and his prosperitie should never faile And this was the case of Iob that holy man In the time of his prosperitie he had such thoughts as these I said I shall dye in my nest Iob 19.18 and I shall multiply my dayes as the sand And againe my glory shal be renewed ver 28 and my bowe shall be strengthned in my hand What is this but to reckon without our host when we shall thus flatter our selves that we shall continue in our state whereas our very lives and being here with whatsoever we have and enjoy is only at his pleasure we have nothing soe intayl'd upon us here that we injoy in life and death but the Lord when it pleaseth him can either take us from it or it from us It is wisdom then to provide for our change before the evill day come upon us this is Solomons advice Eccle. 12.1 Remember thy creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evill dayes come not nor the yeares of affliction wherein thou shalt say I have noe pleasure in them q. d. certainly the time of sicknes and death will come when all these earthly comforts will fly away A man never comes to be truly wise till he thus comes to esteeme of his life and to provide for his change And indeed what man will have his evidence then to seek when his cause comes to be tryed In the matters of this world men are so wise in summer to provide for winter in health to provide forsickness We will count but such a one a foole that will then goe to sowe when other men goe to reape O where are our hearts that we are noe more spiritually wise for our souls Pro. 10.14 Wise men sayth Solomon lay up knowledg before hand And such prove themselves fooles at last With those foolish virgins that have not the oyle of grace in readiness when death comes Seeing that herein lyes true wisdom Vse 1 to be in a continuall readiness for our change this shewes that the wisdom of the world is but foolishness to God 1 Cor. 1. for whom doe men commonly judge to be wise men but such as have reaching heades to buy and to sell that can tell how to purchase lands and livings and grow rich in the world and grow great and mighty here All this wisdom comes from nature and may have nothing in it but nature If this be not guided by the word you shall see what reckoning and accompt the Lord makes of it When he saith they have rejected the word of the Lord Ier. 8.9 and what wisdom is in them what greater folly can there be in the world then for these vaine and foolish trifles the pleasures of sin that are but for a season to lose for ever a mans most pretions soul to passe away for earthly things with Esau the birth-right of our inheritance which such do that are not wise
be stiled by this very name to be the God that heareth prayer O thou that hearest prayers to thee shall all flesh come Thus Hezekiah when that mighty Host of Senacherih was ready to fall upon him and his people Hee made the Lord his only Rock and Defence 2 Reg. 20.1 2. to fly unto And when he received in himself the Sentence of death still he flyes to God Ionas 2.1 2. And that fugitive Prophet Jonas Out of the belly of Hell cryed I and thou heardst my voice And great reason For This is one principall end Reas 1 wherefore the Lord correcteth his Children to make them fly into his arms for help and succour and to let us see how vain and helplesse all earthly helps and comforts are without him And this very end the Lord himself expresseth Hos 5.14 when he saith I will be unto Ephraim as a Lyon c. till they acknowledge their offences and seek me diligently Secondly Reas 2 in times of misery and distresse God only is to be sought unto Because the time of misery is the fittest and opportunest time of seeking God 14. Ps 50.51 Call upon me in the time of trouble c. There is indeed no time to the time of affliction either for us to pray or for God to hear prayer for now if ever the heart is in a right frame and temper of seeking God If there be any zeal and affection at all in the heart times of affliction and adversity draw them out and lay them out in seeking of God when the rod is upon us What a stay and comfort have the godly then to lean and rest upon Vse 2 in their greatest straights that they have still a God to fly unto The Lord doth never leave his Children comfortlesse whilst he affords them thus the means of comfort and deliverance This Honour have all the Saints Whereas wicked and ungodly men here is their misery they are destitute of the very means of deliverance they cannot pray Let them perform this duty Pro. 15.8.28.9 at any time God shuts out their prayers they are abomination to the Lord. Io. 9.21 God heareth not sinners If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not hear me Es 1.15 How doth the Lord protest against the Jews that though they should stretch forth their hands to him he would hide his eyes from them and though they should make many prayers he would not hear because their hands were full of blood O the misery of wicked men that whereas their only refuge is to fly unto God in times of misery and distresse that the Lord should not only shut out their prayers but that the same should become abomination in his sight who can put to silence the voice of Desperation But God doth somtimes hear the wicked Object 1 did not the Lord hear Ahab when he humbled himself 1 Reg. 21. and sate in ashes I answer Ans 1 It is not in mercy at any time that God hears the prayers of a wicked man no not when the Lord seems to grant them the things that they pray for for commonly they are temporall things not spirituall graces God bestows these indeed many times upon wicked men as gifts of his left hand rather in wrath then in mercy Whatsoever God bestows in love and mercy flows ever from Christ and from some promise made unto us in him But as for wicked men as they are not in Christ so have they no promise For all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ But do we not see that many times the godly themselves pray Obj. 2 and God seems not to hear them did not David himself complain Ps 22.2 O my God I cry by day but thou hearest not and by night but have no audience And David prayed most earnestly for the life of the child 2 Sam. 12.14 and yet the child died God did not answer him according to his prayer God many times delaies his children Ans 1 when hee doth not deny to answer them for now is the time when the Lord is pleased to exercise his graces in the hearts of his servants as faith hope patience c. For what would become of these graces if there were no more but ask and have No doubt Christ heard the request of the poor Canaanitish woman at first but it was after many requests that hee answered her delighting in her often calling upon him Josias Jesus mercy mercy Secondly there may be some sin or other even in the godly themselves undiscovered and unrepented of that for the present may cloud their prayers and which may lie as a bar in their way that God doth not by and by return them an answer which when they have discovered and by true repentance have removed then God will not fail to return them a gracious answer Thirdly God many times denies this own servants in the particular thing desired As Paul that would have had the Buffettings of Sathan removed 2 Cor. 12. But the Lord answered him in another kind giving grace in the stead thereof to support him My grace saith he is sufficient for thee Thus doth God many times when wee ask for Silver give us gold Somthing or other equivalent thereto as when wee ask for Earthly blessings if hee give us Heavenly hee is not behind-hand with us Thus long life is promised as a blessing in the keeping of the fift Commandment to children that obey their Parents yet we know that many obedient children die young as Jesus did yet the Lord makes good his promise in giving them a better life Yea Christ himself when he prayed that the cup might passe from him yet did he drink of it yet was heard in his prayer when God gave him strength to bear it and withall an Angel to comfort him And last of all in all our prayers and requests that we put unto God we are tyed to certain conditions which not performed wee must not look to speed As first that all our petitions be according to his will If we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us All our petitions must bee put up in faith Iam. 1. Pray in Faith and waver not As wee aske good things at Gods hand so wee must ask them to a good end if our end be evill our prayers can not be good as Saint James hath it Ye ask and receive not Iam. 4.3 because you ask amisse that ye may spend them upon your lusts Let us apply this Seeing Moses and the people here Vse 1 having provoked Gods anger and displeasure against them by their sins do now fly unto him beg reconciliation again with him We are taught now at this time that Gods hand lies so heavy upon this Land so many waies to go unto him likewise and pray Return O Lord How long that he would bee pleased again to be reconciled unto us and receive us into
no desire of mercy and these the Lord sends away emptie O fill us with thy mercy THey crave not here a small pittance or a light tast of Gods mercy but even to have their hungry souls filled and satisfied with mercy Hence we see Doct. 3 We should labour for a plentiful sense of Gods mercy that it is not enough for us to have some light tast of Gods mercy in Christ for the pardon of our sins but we must labour to have it in a plentifull measure To be filled with the fulnesse of God and the feeling of his love The Lord is a bottomlesse Sea of mercy able to fill every soule that comes unto him but we are like a vessell that hath a narrow neck which if it be cast into the Sea yet is not quickly filled but by degrees Even so the mercy of God is as the bottomlesse Sea able to fill every soul that hungers and thirsts after mercy Whence then is the cause that we are not filled with mercy Surely in our selves our Faith which is the mouth of the soul is so narrow that though the Lord be able and willing to powre his graces and mercies into our souls yet we cannot receive but drop after drop one drop after another And hence it is that in a long time we receive but a small measure of grace and mercy because the Lord must distill it into our hearts as we are capable to receive it now a little and then a little Es 28.9 10. precept upon precept and line upon line here a little and there a little It was only true of Christ Ps 45.7 that he received not the spirit by measure He was annoynted with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellowes But as for us we receive grace by measure Whilst we are here We know but in part 1 Cor. 13.9 And according to our knowledge so are our other graces proportionable Gods children in this life have not fulnesse or perfection of any grace but only so much as the Lord in his wisdome sees meet for them and we are still to be adding grace to grace Grow in grace saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby And the Apostle exhorts us to joyne to our vertue faith and to faith knowledge c. So that it is not enough for us to have some light tast of Gods love or of the graces of his Spirit but we must labour to have them in a plentifull measure to be filled therewith The best of Gods Saints in this life Reas 1 have no grace in perfection we are not capable of fulnesse of grace in this life but must pray still Lord increase our faith and with the Church here Lord fill us with thy mercy And Christ teacheth us daily to pray Thy Kingdome come The Lord is pleased thus to exercise his people with many wants and imperfections in his graces given them here Reas 2 to humble them and to keepe down the pride that so naturally is ready to rise in our hearts especially in spirituall gifts Paul lest he should be lifted up with the abundance of Revelations had that prick in the flesh that he should not be exalted above measure 2 Cor. 12.8 Thus many times are the godly kept low in their own eyes that they might walk the more humbly with God Seeing then Use 1 that it is not enough for us to have some light tast of Gods love in Christ for the pardon of sin but we must labour to be filled with the feeling of his love This serves to condemn the greatest part of the world even Professors themselves that when they have got a little tast and feeling of Gods love and of the work of grace in theirsouls have a little measure of knowledge of faith and other graces content themselves and think they have enough But this ought not to be If ever thou hadst any true tast of Gods mercy in Christ it will make thee hunger and thirst after more and therefore the Apostle Exhorts 2 Pet. 1.2 that As new born babes we should desire the sincere milk of the Word that we might grow thereby He adds If you have tasted how sweet the Lord is intimating thus much that untill such time as we truly tast how sweet the Lord is we shall never truly desire the sincere milk of the Word Seeing the cause why we are not filled with the mercy of God Use 2 even at our first conversion is not in God but in our selves even in the want of Faith which is the inlet of all grace into the soul It is our duty to encrease in Faith in knowledge repentance and obedience for as these graces grow and encrease in us so will the feeling of Gods mercy and love towards us in Christ encrease in us Such as have a great measure of Faith there will be a great measure of the feeling of Gods love Fill their Sacks saith Joseph Scanty sacks could not carry away any plentifull store of provision where Faith is weak the neck of the soul narrow and streight there will be but a little measure of the feeling of Gods mercy which should stir us up to grow in Faith because as our Faith grows so our feeling of Gods mercy grows Satisfie us early or in the Morning THat is with speed they that lust for a thing cannot indure to be delaied It is death to a thirsty man to belongwithout drink So they that have their Soules scorched with the sense of Gods anger O it is mercy they long for And such a Soul thinks every hour ten and every day a year till they be refreshed with Gods mercy All delaies to such distressed soules is death it self Hear me speedily O Lord saith David My Spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into the â—it Satisfie us early or in the Morning q. d. Lord let us not lye any longer soaking in extream miseries lest we be even swallowed up in desperation but make speed to take pitty upon us The like we have by that of David Ps 5.3 Hear my prayer in the Morning where David intreats the Lord not to defer his mercy but to to make speed to his help So Moses here intreats the Lord to hear them in the Morning That is with speed that hee would not deferre to hear them but with speed to take pitty on their miseries and troubles Now when Moses and the people of God pray thus that God would not defer to help them they do not this with impatient minds but partly in regard of their own frailty lest if the Lord should suffer them to lie longer in misery their faith should fail them in their expectation of Deliverance Doct. 4 And partly to shew their hearty Only Gods favour refresheth a distressed Soul and longing desire and comfort and feeling of
their harps to their pipes and to their pots and to merry company c. of whom it may be said Es 55.2 They lay out their labour for that which satisfieth not A poor comfort to give a Malefactor a cup of sack when he is going to execution The case of such miserable creatures is well desuibed by the Prophet Es 29.8 A man dreameth and lo he drinketh but when he awaketh behold he is faint and his soul longeth This Doctrine shall hold when all the seeming joyes of the wicked shall vanish away that the fountain of all true comfort is our peace with God when we come to be reconciled to him in Christ Because sin breeds enmity Reas 1 and sets God and men at odds and whilst this enmity continueth this mans person and actions are hatefull to God minde conscience and all is defiled Now what true comfort can such a one have whilst he abides in such a condition all the curses that are written in the book of the Law do wait upon him hardnesse of heart blindnesse of minde searednesse of conscience a continuall fear of hell Gods wrath and damnation to come all these doth the guilt of sin contract and draw upon us the misery whereof we shall never be set free from but by our reconciliation to God in Jesus Christ The Lord crowns all the sorrowes of his servants all their tears Reas 2 and pangs of their new birth whilst Christ is a forming in them with joy and comfort and all to provoke them to come in to God and to encourage them in prayer and seeking of him I love the Lord Ps 116.1 because he hath heard the voice of my weeping If the husbandman should alwaies think on his seed-time and of his labour and pains and never think of the harvest who would be a husbandman And what would become of the Christian in the midst of all his watchings fastings and temptations which here he undergoes were it not for this harvest of comfort at last Seeing then that all sound comfort flowes from our peace and reconciliation with God Use 1 this shewes that the doctrine of the Church of Rome is most vile hellish and uncomfortable who affirme that no man in this life can know or be assured whether God loves him or no and that no man can know whether his sins be pardoned and whether he be reconciled to God yea or no I will say to them as Job somtimes said to his friends Miserable comforters are ye Alas what comfort can a poor sinner have or what joy if it arise not from Gods mercy in the pardon of sin What is this but to set up a gibbet to torture distressed souls How can a poor creature have any comfort in the service of God in prayer hearing receiving c. whilst he cannot tell whether the Lord loves him or hates him We utterly renounce that cursed Doctrine and believe this to be the truth of God that all sound comfort stands in the feeling of Gods love towards us in Christ and in the pardon of our sins and we should never rest till we be able in some measure to say with Paul Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded c. This will make us cheerfull in prayer and in all other duties of his worship and service Seeing all sound and solid comfort ariseth from our reconciliation with God and untill then Use 2 there can be no sound or lasting comfort What mad men are they then that take a preposterous course to raise their comfort that have the Creator blessed for ever and flie to the Creature run to cards dice and merry company c. as if a man to escape a burning feavour should leap into the fire whereas there is no sound comfort to be looked for but only from God in Christ Poor soul go thou to him confesse thy sins to him beg for pardon as for life and death intreat the Lord that he would according to the multitude of his mercies do away thy offences that he would be a reconciled God again unto thee that he would lay aside his displeasure and give thee the feeling of his favour and love again there is no other way to procure sound comfort to thy soul Comfort us THe Lord before had exercised this people with pressing sorrowes and sore afflictions both in Aegypt a long time and after that in the wildernesse and now they beg for comfort Doct. 2 Hence we may observe what is the outward estate of Gods children in this life The outward estate of Gods children subject to alterations and changes it is subject to such alterations and changes that they are sometimes up and sometimes down sometimes full of sorrow at another time filled with comfort Here Moses and the people of God pray for comfort being for the present comfortlesse perplexed and much distressed the Lord trieth humbleth and proveth this people here in the Wildernesse That he might do them good at their latter end Deut. 8.16 look we upon the estate of the Church in generall and upon the particular members of the same and we shall finde that our condition here is like the daies of the year sometimes winter sometimes summer sometimes fair sometimes foul What a long night of affliction did this Church and people of God endure in Aegypt for the space of four hundred and thirty years yet at the last the Lord raised them up saviours Moses and Aaron by whom he brought deliverance unto his people What a condition was the Church in in Hesters time when all the Jewes were appointed as sheep to the slaughter yet God laughed the counsell of Haman to scorn delivered his people and brought ruine and destruction to their enemies What a condition was the Church in in Jezebels time that slew the prophets of the Lord insomuch that Elias thought himselfe alone yet what a suddain alteration was there when Eliah slew the Prophets of Baal and restored religion again How was the Church of God in Christs time pestered by the High Priests who had given commission unto Saul to binde and to deliver bound at Jerusalem all that made profession of Christ yet at another time had the Churches peace and multiplyed So changable hath the estate and condition of the Church of God been in all ages and times of it And if we look into particular examples we shall also finde it true that the estate and condition of the best of Gods children hath been subject to diversities of alterations and changes Joseph one while hated of his brethren at another time advanced under Pharaoh at one time cast into Prison at another time made ruler over the Princes Jacob one while wrestling with the Angell at another time going away with the blessing David one while persecuted by Saul at another time swaying the Scepter Job Job 42. at one time plundered out of all at another time as wealthy as before Thus God is pleased in his wise
when he injoyed his Rachel they seemed unto him but a few dayes Which should serve for our instruction Vse that if the Lord lay many and great afflictions upon us and that a long time together to consider that the Lord might have laid a thousand times more for our sins and the joyes of their life to come will quickly swallow up the remembrance of them all so as we are with one eye to looke unto Gods mercy that our afflictions are no sorer and that our comforts at last will surmount them all as with the other eye to looke upon our present sufferings how bitter soever And the yeares wherein we have seene evill No doubt herein Moses had respect to the time of their affliction in Egypt Exod. 1. wherein passed many yeares even foure hundred and thirtie and now againe for the space of fourty yeares in the wildernesse q.d. O Lord we have been a long time in misery and sore affliction we beseech thee now at last let us receive comfort proportionable and answerable thereto Doct. 5 Whence we may further observe We may pray for mercy answerable to our misery that we may and ought to pray that God would bestow mercy answerable to our misery As we see a man that hath a great wound in his body the plaster must be made as large as the wound or rather broader so must we crave at Gods hand that our comforts may be not onely as great as our miseries but if the will of God be more plentifull A man that hath beene many yeares in misery and affliction had need of a great measure of comfort as a man that hath beene made weake by long sicknesse so as his strength is much decayed he must have a time answerable to recover his strength againe So here a child of God that hath beene long humbled and afflicted by Gods hand such stand in need of a great measure of comfort to recover the health of their Souls againe ver 16. Let thy worke appeare unto thy servants and thy glory unto their children IN this verse we have the fourth petition which Moses and the people of God do make unto God And the thing they here beg and crave at Gods hand is protection which they acknowledge to be the proper work of God And this protection of his they crave not onely for themselves but also for their posterity after them Let thy work HEre by the work of God we are to understand some speciall and singular work of God towards them in their protection safety and deliverance And for this they use a double Reason 1. Drawne from the end of their protection viz. the glory of God because this glory of God would appeare in protecting them from their enemies the cursed Canaanites whose country they were now going to inhabite 2. That so it might fare well with the Church of God after them And that the promise of God made unto their forefathers Abraham Izaac and Jacob might not be frustrate but the Lord would give them and their posterity after them the land of Canaan to inherit Let thy work appeare SEing Moses and the people of God crave protection at Gods hand and this they acknowledge to be a work of God We learne Doct. 1 from whom to seeke for protection in times of danger God the protector of his people and in times of distresse viz of the Lord. Because all our help comfort and protection comes from him He is the Lord high Protector of his Church and people Thou art the God of my salvation saith David Ps 15.5 on thee do I wait all the day He lookes not to men or Angels but unto God alone to be his Saviour and Protector Salvation saith he belongeth unto the Lord. Psal 3.8 Whatsoever the Instrument be that God useth in the deliverance of his Church and people it is not in their Horses and Chariots but God onely that saves Thus Jehosaphat and the men of Judah 2 Chron. 20. when they were at that great straight that they knew not what to do Our eyes say they are toward thee And hence is it that David was so confident and held himselfe so safe in danger that he rested upon Gods protection Psa 23.4 Though I walke throughout the valley of the shadow of Death I wil feaâ—e no evill for thou art with me And againe The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I feare The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid what became of Pharaohs plots from time to time against the Church did not God disappoint them and still delivered his people what became of Hamans plot Achitophels counsell And those that vowed they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul Acts 23.10 Was not the Lord their Protector And hence is it that he is calld the God of patience the God of Consolation and the God of comfort By whose power assisting us and Spirit inabling us we who can neither do nor suffer any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 1.4 Rom. 15.5 are able to do al things thorough Christ Now the Reasons why we must only seek for protection comfort and deliverance in times of distresse only from God are Reas 1 It is his commandment that in the time of misery and distresse we should still have recourse unto him Ps 50.15 Jam. 5.13 Call upon me in the time of trouble c. Is any be aflicted let him pray And thus when the Lord hath foretold the great afflictions that should betide the Church the Lord directs them to this way of their deliverance take unto you words Hos 14.23 and turne unto the Lord. Yea hee prescribes unto them the very forme of words how they are to seeke him Take away our iniquities and receive vs gratiously Secondly this is our maine end Reas 2 wherefore the Lord many times doth humble his people and bring them low that we might fly unto him for help and succour this honour God gaineth by our afflictions to drive us home to him as it is said in their afflictions they will seeke me diligently Esa 26.16 Thirdly God only is to be sought unto for protection in times of danger because the power of all creatures is but finite and they are but servants to his hand of providence but it is he that is the great Lord Protector of heaven and earth And without him neither Satan nor his instruments have power so much as over one haire of our heads and therefore the Apostle exhorts us To goe boldly to the throne of grace Heb. 4.16 that we may receive mercy and finde grace to help in time of need Seeing all protection and safegard is from God Vse 1 it is his worke How may this condemne the preposterous course of many in these dayes that in times of misery and distresse seeke any where even every where rather then unto God for help and