Office 1. As to his Person There we must consider the Original Holyness of his Natures Divine and Humane Divine he is called Isa. 45.21 A just God and a Saviour Humane he was wholly free from that Original Contagion wherewith others that come of Adam are defiled Luke 1.35 That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Now add to this his perfect Actual Obedience to God both in Heart and Life and this either to the Common Law of Duty that lyeth upon all Mankind for it became him to fulfil all righteousness Matth. 3.15 Or that particular Law of Mediation which was proper to himself Heb. 5.8 Though he were a Son yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered by which he answered the end of the Law which we have broken and was also the meritorious cause of the Covenant of Grace by which all Blessings are conveyed to us 2 Cor. 5.21 For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Well then his Personal Holyness did make him acceptable to God and should make him amiable to us He loved righteousness and hated iniquity Adam in the state of Innocency did perfectly love Righteousness and hate Sin but not constantly for he soon fell Believers in the state of Regeneration love Righteousness and hate Iniquity sincerely and constantly but not perfectly but Christ when he assumed our Nature did love righteousness and hate Iniquity both perfectly and constantly in Heart and Practice and this even to the Death This qualified him for his Office of Prophet Priest and King As a Prophet who is so fit to teach the World Holyness as one that hath a perfect love to Holyness and hatred of Sin and this manifested in our Nature Angels are Holy and Righteous but not so as Christ who besides the Essential Purity and Holyness of the God-head hath also assumed our Nature and preserved it in Purity and Innocency And therefore his Nature and Practice agreeth with his design 1 Iohn 3.5 He was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin So as a Priest his Holyness gave a value both to the Merit of his Sacrifice and Intercession Heb. 7.25 26. Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them For such an high priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Here was a pure unspotted Sacrifice offered up to God here upon Earth and pleaded and represented in Heaven He that was to satisfie in the behalf of others needed to be free from the defilement of Sin himself that he might be not only our Ransome but our Patterne Then as a King this Purity and Holyness is necessary not only that he might powerfully Effect but also Favour and Patronize all that is good Holy and Just in the World For Prov. 15.9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness The one are the Objects of his Abomination the other of his love The Wicked are for a while prosperous and successful therefore they think God loveth them but they are an abomination to him into whose hands all Judgment is put They cannot collect or conclude his approbation from his forbearance no nor any neglect of Humane Affairs as if they were left to their own Chance and Arbitrement No all that can be gathered from hence is his great forbearance and Mercy to the worst while he is inviting them to Repentance On the other side you have the disposition of the Regenerate set forth who do not perfunctorily and by the bye do that which is Holy and Righteous but set their whole Heart and Desire to it They follow after Righteousness their business is to be eminently Holy and surely they are loved by Christ For he that hateth Iniquity and loveth Righteousness will love those that follow after it than which nothing more sweet honourable and blessed can be thought of by us than to be loved by our Redeemer To have a Prince love us or a Wise or Learned Man love us we highly value it What is it then to have Christ love us This will not be a barren or an empty Love Well then he is fit to be the King of the World 2. All this while we have spoken of his Personal Holyness which maketh him acceptable to God and amiable to us and qualifieth him for his Office Now let us see how he sheweth this love to Holyness and hatred to Iniquity in his Office as well as in his Person The general terme whereby this Office is expressed is Mediator The Three particular Functions are those of Prophet Priest and King 1. As to the general terme Mediator whose work it is to bring Heaven and Earth to kiss each other or to make Peace between God and Man God offended and Man guilty All that he did herein was out of his Love love to Righteousness and hatred of Iniquity which was the great Make-bate between God and us therefore surely his chief design was to destroy Sin and to promote Holyness So much we are told Dan. 9.24 That the Messiah shall come to finish transgressions and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophesie and to anoint the most holy The great business for which the Mediator came into the World was to destroy the Reign and Power of Sin and to advance the practice of all goodness and Holyness and to recover the lost World to God Now because his Heart was so much set upon this God anointed him with the oyl of gladness above his fellows 2. Come we to those Three particular Functions wherein this Office is exercised those of Prophet Priest and King 1. As a Prophet by his Doctrine he sheweth that he loveth Righteousness and hateth Iniquity for the whole frame of it discovereth and breatheth out nothing else but an hatred against Sin and a Love to Holyness Iohn 17.17 Sanctifie them through the truth thy word is truth Psalm 119.140 Thy word is very pure All the Histories Misteries Precepts Promises Threatnings aim at this one business that Sin may be subdued in us and brought into disrepute and disesteem in the world The Histories are certain Patterns and Example of Holyness and those taken from Men and Women that had not devested themselves of the Interests and Concernments of Flesh and Blood no more than we have and yet pleased and served God in their several Generations to excite us to like diligence and Self-Denyal Heb. 6.12 Be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises The Misteries are not only to raise our wonder but breed a true Spirit of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the mistery of
Objects of Pity and Compassion rather than of Passion and Anger Eph. 1.32 Be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Consider what God hath done to you that you may do the same to them Secondly The next consideration of this Prayer of Christ is as a Tast and Pledge of his Mediation and Intercession So it is Prophecied Isa. 53.12 He was numbred with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors Christ was placed in the midst of Thieves as the first Clause is explained Mark 15.28 and he made Intercession that is prayed for his Persecutors The whole Chapter is a Prophetical Narration of the Acts and Sorrows of Christ upon the Cross. In this publick Sense and Consideration let us see what may be gathered out of the Clause Father forgive them 1. It is an Instance of Christ's Love and Bowels to Sinners he loved Mankind so well that he Prayed for them that Crucified him Look on the Lord Jesus as Praying and Dying for Enemies and improve it as a ground of Confidence Upon the Cross he would give us an Instance of his Efficacy in converting the Thief and of his Affection in praying for his Persecutors We were as great Enemies to Christ and as deep in the Guilt of his Passion as they Rom. 5.10 When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son The Enemies of his Kingdom are every way as bad as the Enemies of his Person if Christ did not say Father forgive what would become of us You will say we are Christians But scandalous Sinners renew his Sufferings and put him to an open shame Heb. 6.6 Oh! let us Adore God for these Experiences it is a mighty ground of Hope that Christ hath put in for a Pardon he would not die till he had expressed his Reconciliation with his Enemies 2. See what is the Voice and Merit of his Sufferings Father forgive them This is the Speech that Christ uttered when he was laid on the Cross. The Apostle compareth Christ's Blood and the Blood of Abel Heb. 12.24 And to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel Abel's Blood was clamorous in the Ears of God Gen. 4.10 The voice of thy brothers blood crieth to me from the ground And so in the Conscience of Cain it crieth Avenge Avenge me Christ's Blood hath another Voice it speaketh to God to pacifie his Wrath and to Pardon us if penitent and believing Sinners it speaketh to Conscience to be quiet God hath found out a Ransom The Blood of Christ may speak against us as well as against the Iews for by our Sins we made Christ to die Oh! be not quiet till it speak Peace in your Consciences Christ's Blood was spilt in Malice as Abel's was and might have cried for Vengeance on the Actors who were not only the Iews but we and it yet speaketh as Abel's did Heb. 11.4 By it he being dead yet speaketh It is a speaking Blood and is yet speaking The speaking of the Blood is interpreted according to the Words in their Mouth wherewith they died Mat. 23.35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zecharias the son of Barachias whom ye slew between the porch and the altar Our Lord gathers it from Zecharias his saying The Lord look upon it and require it 2 Chron. 24.22 So the Words of Christ interpret his Death 3. In the Mediatory Consideration it hinteth the coupling of his Intercession with his Satisfaction On the Cross there he dieth and there he prayeth he was both Priest and Sacrifice The High-Priest under the Law was not only to slay the Sacrifice but to intercede for the People first the Beast was slain without the Camp and then the Blood was carried into the Holy of Holies and there Prayer was made with Incense but before that Aaron when he was going into the holy Place before the Lord was to cause the sound of his Golden Bells to be heard under pain of Death Exod. 28.35 To this I parallel this Action of Christ upon the Cross. This Prayer was as the sound of the Golden Bells he would make his Voice to be heard by Prayer and then he goes into the Holy of Holies the Lord Jesus Christ when he shed his Blood before the Tribunal of God he sendeth forth a Prayer God would have our Salvation carried on in a way of Mercy and Justice and Christ was to mingle Intreaty with Satisfaction as Lev. 16.14 the High-Priest was to bring the Blood within the Vail and to sprinkle it upon the Mercy-Seat He must satisfie Justice and make an Address to Mercy that we that have sinned with both hands may take hold of God with both hands Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ it is freely and yet through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ these two sweetly accord 4. This is a Pledge of his constant Intercession in Heaven The Ceremonies of the Old Law were not only Types of Christ but his visible Actions were a kind of Types and Pledges of his Spiritual Actions 1 Iohn 2.1 If any man sin we have an advocate with the father Iesus Christ the righteous He that could pray for Enemies will pray for Friends and he that got our Pardon by his Intercession will promote our Salvation Certainly Christ's Glorified Soul looseth no Affection he is as earnest with the Father for his Friends as ever he was upon the Cross for his Persecutors Heb. 9.24 For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Christ doth appear as our Advocate in Court not only in our Name but in our stead 5. It shews the Nature of his Intercession It not only implies the everlastingness of his Merit that his Blood doth continue to deserve such things at the hands of God as we stand in need of but it is a continual representation of his Merit it is not a Metaphor but a solemn Act of his Priesthood Again it is not by Verbal Expressions such as he used here upon Earth Father forgive them this became the state of his Humiliation but now he intercedes Non voce sed miseratione Not by Voice but by Pity What is it then Partly his appearing in Heaven as God in our Nature Heb. 9.24 Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands c. but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us He is said to appear before God for us as the High-Priest came and presented himself before God with the Names of the twelve Tribes engraven on his Breast-plate Partly in his expressing an actual Willingness or the
of the Saints to shew that now they do but begin in the Work which they shall compleat hereafter 7. The Scriptures do plainly express that our Service is not ended with our Lives but as we still stand in the Relation of Creatures to God so we still glorify him and serve him Rev. 7.14 15 16. And he said unto me These are they which came out of great Tribulation and have washed their Râbes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb Therefore they are before the Throne of God and serve him Day and Night in the Temple And he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them and they shall hunger no more nor thirst any more c. There is the Explanation of the Mystery of being washed in Christ's Blood and made Kings and Priests unto God This Office they chiefly perform when they come to enjoy their Happiness before the Throne of God and in the heavenly Temple And what is the Work there They serve him Day and Night They do not their Service then by Fits and Starts but constantly A Type whereof were the Priests under the Law who in their Courses were admitted Day and Night to be in the Temple Psal. 134.1 Bless ye the Lord all ye Servants of the Lord which by Night stand in the House of the Lord. But what was done by many in their turns is now done by the same Persons continually for they are never weary and there is no Intermission in their Service And God always dwelleth amongst them they shall not be at a distance from God nor he at a distance from them but they shall still enjoy his Company as dwelling in one House with him For there shall not be Sin nor Sorrow any more and then shall they praise God chearfully This will be our Work when we are admitted into the most holy Place 8. As Heaven hath the Notion of a Place a Temple so our Estate in Heaven hath the Notion of a Day or Time wherein our Priesthood is to be solemnly exercised For it is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Sabbath or Rest Heb. 4.9 There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God A Sabbath is for holy Rest not a time of Idleness but to be religiously imployed So this glorious eternal Rest which is prepared for and promised to Believers is not passed over in Ease and Idleness but in Acts of Worship and Adoration It is a Rest from Toil and Labour but not from Work and Service On the Sabbath-day the Sacrifices were doubled the Priest had more to do upon that Day than any other So in our everlasting Sabbatism we serve God after a more perfect manner than now we do On the Sabbath a special Delight and Rejoycing in God was to be raised Isai. 58.13 14. If thou turn away thy Foot from the Sabbath from doing thy Pleasure on my Holy-Day and call the Sabbath a Delight the Holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own Ways nor finding thine own Pleasure nor speaking thine own Words Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high Places of the Earth and feed thee with the Heritage of Jacob thy Father for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it So in our eternal Rest shall we delight our selves in his Presence Vse 1. It informeth us 1. That our Service is an Honour and Worship a Privilege for it is not only a Way to Heaven but a Beginning of Heaven Our Work there is a part of our Reward The Priestly Ministration is so the Work of Heaven that it is also a Reward for our present Diligence Well then it is the most blessed Life we can live upon Earth to be serving God and ministring before the Lord and to be imployed in any Nearness about him his People desire no sweeter Work Alas what is the Work of all the World to this but a toilsom Drudgery or base Servility Go to the brutish World what is the Work of the Drunkard Glutton Gamester or Fornicator compared with that of the Spiritual Priest They are Priests to feed the Belly that base Dunghil-God Phil. 3.19 Whose God is their Belly Their Business is to provide for and please the Flesh. Nay go to the more refined part of the World The Covetous and Ambitious Worldlings they aim at nothing beyond this Life but the Spiritual Priest continueth for ever his Service is begun and will ever last his Work is his Wages 2. That it is no easy matter to be familiar with God and to draw nigh to him in Worship We are stupid and therefore not sensible of it You see what Distance God kept under the Law and what Distance he yet keepeth as to his immediate Presence Surely God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints and to be had in Reverence of all that are about him Psal. 89.7 The Redeemed are honoured to have Access to God with Boldness yet they ought to be humbly sensible of the Privilege Every nearer Approach to God is an Enlargement of Honour We must keep an even hand between natural Bondage and Irreverence Natural Bondage We are sometimes afraid to come into God's Presence and doubt of Access being so unworthy to come before the Lord but we are privileged by our Calling Christ by his Death hath made us Kings and Priests The Priests were sanctified to draw nearer unto God than the common People and to be imployed in his most Holy Service So if we be cleansed by the Blood of Christ we are separated from the ungodly World and may acquaint him with all our Desires Griefs and Fears On the other side against Irreverence It is no easy matter to come before the Lord as we ought to do and we must be sure to bless and thank the Redeemer for this Favour that we are made Priests of God and Christ that we are freed from the Fears of the second Death Rev. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no Power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and we may hope for a more solemn Service Vse 2. To exhort the Children of God First To long and hope for the time of their Ministration in the heavenly Temple When the time of our Consecration is finished then we shall be admitted into this blessed Estate O comfort your selves with the Fore-thought of it There are many Reasons to induce us 1. Because then we shall see him whom we worship and stand before his Throne This is often promised Psal. 17.15 As for me I shall behold thy Face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy Likeness 1 John 3.2 When he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is So 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a Glass darkly but then Face to Face John 17.24 Father I will that
to live righteously towards all Men giving to all their Due in all Relations Superiours Inferiours and Equals owing nothing to any Man but Love a Debt which we must always pay and always owe That we may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things ver 10. This is that which recommends Religion to the Sons of Men 't is this Well-doing which puts to silence the Ignorance of foolish Men 1 Pet. 2.15 For Men are not much concern'd what we are to God if we be unjust false treacherous unfaithful and over-reaching towards our Neighbour And thirdly that we demean our selves in all the Turnings of our Conversation holily towards God Let our conscientious discharge of First-Table-Duties be the Test of our Uprightness in those of the Second Let our Honesty and Sincerity in those of the Second evidence our Holiness in those of the First 2. Come we now to that pleasing View of the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Where we find a twofold Design of Christ in his Death and Sufferings 1. He had a noble Design for us he dealt with God gave himself for us to him 2. He had a Design upon us too that he might purify us to himself He redeems us from this present World as well as from Wrath to come Gal. 1.4 Redeems us from our selves as well as from Sin and Satan Takes us not only out of the Hands of the Law and Iustice but out of our own That they who live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5.15 Secondly Because Faith is a Grace that has always the labouring Oar a Grace that bears the Heat and Burden of the Day that has the World and the evil One to overcome and that it may be victorious over those must first learn to lay hold on God's own Strength and overcome him too And because this Grace unites us to Christ and then draws Virtue from Christ to maintain that Union and support the spiritual Life and because it ventures far flies high and runs great Risques and has therefore great need of good Security let us again read our Author 's glorious Discourses upon Heb. 6.18 That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have strong Consolation who have fled for Refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before us A Word from a God that cannot lie is a sufficient Security for Faith to rest upon Upon this single Security we might safely venture the Weight of all our Souls the stress of all our Concerns 'T is upon this alone the Apostle Titus 1.1 2. encourages us to lay the Hope of eternal Life even upon the Promise of him that cannot lie But our gracious God knowing the weakness of our Faith the Fears and Iealousies of guilty Souls has added his Oath to his Word that from such double Security we might have strong Consolation O happy Souls for whose sakes God will vouchsafe to swear O miserable Sinners who will not give credence to a swearing God! a God that swears by Himself because he has no greater thing to swear by Had he sworn by the Heavens and Earth they shall perish and with them the Security had perish'd but he swears by Himself As I live saith the Lord And Faith having got this Ground to place its Engine upon is able to overturn the World What has it not been able to suffer when Divine Truth is its Warrant What has it not been able to do when the same Truth is its Security It has subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises stopped the Mouths of Lions quenched the Violence of Fire escaped the Edg of the Sword grew strong out of Weakness waxed valiant in Fight and turned to flight the Armies of Aliens Heb. 11.33 34. I will add it has routed Legions of Devils triumph'd over Death the Grave and Hell challeng'd the whole World to come in and lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect for it has a God to justify the believing Sinner a Christ that died for the Sinner once and lives for ever at the Right Hand of God to make Intercession for him Rom. 8.33 34. Now then let Faith know its Security The Oath of Man when yet every Man is a Liar puts an end to all Controversies amongst Men Let the Oath of God who can no more lâe than he can die put an end to our slavish Fears perplexing Doubts all our suspicious of God and his Word and let the Soul return to its Rest for God has dealt graciously with it But I have forgot my self and wrong'd thee too Christian Reader whilst we wander and lose our selves in these pleasing Anticipations For more abundant Satisfaction in these and many important Truths I refer thee to the following Discourses only have Patience to be advertised of two or three smaller Matters 1. Rest fully assured that though these Pieces are Posthumous Births they are not Spurious but the Legitimate and Genuine Offspring of the same Father with those that were first born They carry the Lineaments the Signature the Image of their Elder Brother and have been compared Line by Line Word by Word with the Author's Manuscripts by an unquestionable Voucher 2. Let it not offend thee that the same Truths and perhaps in the same Words are repeated which frequently happens in the Course of any Man's Ministry when the same Subject has been formerly handled and yet Care has been taken as much as could possibly be to prevent all Nauseousness yet sometimes it could not be done without disjointing and mangling the Sermons 3. Be so just as not to impute the Crimes of the Printer to the Author or Publisher which yet are such as an ordinary Charity may pardon or a small Ingenuity correct The rest is only to commit thee Reader and these Discourses to the Blessing of our gracious God with whom remember Thy unworthy Servant in the Service of the Gospel VIN ALSOP Jan. 17. 169â Books wrote by Dr. Manton and printed since his Death THE first Volume of Sermons on the 119 th Psalm The second Volume of Sermons on Matthew the 25 th Iohn the 17 th Romans the 6 th and the 8 th and the 5 th of the second Epistle to the Corinthians The third Volume of Sermons on the 11 th of the Hebrews with a Treatise of Self-denial and several Sermons on the Sacrament and other Occasions Twenty select Sermons in quarto An Exposition on the Lord's Prayer in 80. Several Sermons on the Rise Growth and Fall of Antichrist on 2 Thess. 2. Several Discourses tending to promote Peace and Holiness among Christians Sermons on Christ's Temptations and Transfiguration Wâth Christ's Eternal Existency and the Dignity of his Person asserted against the Socinians Most of the Author's Works are to
Salvation is not only privative but positive Christ doth not only deliver us from Evil from Sin from the Wrath of God the Accusations of the Law and eternal Death but positively he gives us Grace and Righteousness and everlasting Life he is not only a Saviour to defend us but a Saviour to bless us a Sun and Shield Psal. 84.11 not only a Shield to keep from Danger but a Sun who is the Fountain and Cause of Vegitation and Life it is not Preservation meerly but Preferment If Christ had only delivered us from Wrath to come and been a Saviour privatively it had been more than we could expect or if he had procured some place where we might have been unacquainted with Pain or Trouble yet then he had been a Saviour but here is not only a Ransom and Deliverance but an Inheritance an Exaltation Heaven and everlasting Glory are included in this Salvation Instead of Horror and Howlings here are everlasting Joys and we shall ever be with God praising his Grace in the midst of all his Saints The Blessing is so excellent that we cannot neglect it without great danger Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation For what can we expect but that God's Mercy and Patience abused should be turned into Wrath and Fury and we cannot despise it without a great deal of Sin and Profaneness Heb. 12.16 Lest there be any profane Person as Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birthright The Birthright was a Pledg of the Blessing and a right of Priesthood and Ministration before the Lord depended upon it This was Esau's by Birth and he is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a profane Man for parting with it at so low a rate and thinking so meanly of spiritual Priviledges O but what Profaneness is this to despise the great Salvation that will cause us ever to be before the Lord and minister in his Presence We count him a profane Man that is guilty of Murder Theft Adultery Perjury because those Sins bring publick Shame and Contempt and because these Sins are most destructive to human Society But he is a profane Man indeed that despiseth the Gospel because it offereth such an excellent Salvation that is Profaneness to slight God's best Provision to scorn his Bowels and when the Lord hath made the Bait an Allurement so strong to gain Man's Heart yet to turn his back upon it 2. Consider the Compleatness of the Saviour Jesus Christ is so by Merit and by Efficacy and Power and so every way fitted to do us good He doth something for us and something in us Look as in the Gospel there is the History of Salvation and there Christ doth all he is a Saviour by Merit and there is the Counsel of Salvation and there he is a Saviour by Power he helps us to do the Duty on our part We have the Merit of his Humiliation and the Power of his Exaltation for us he prevails by the Merit of his Death and in us by the Efficacy of his Spirit When Christ was to save us there were several Hinderances one on God's part and another on ours there was Hinderance put in by God's Justice and a Hinderance by our Unbelief Justice requires Merit and Unbelief Power Christ was a Saviour both ways Again there are different Enemies to our Salvation which were of several Qualities God and the Law and Sin and Death and Satan and the World Now God and the Law are to be considered in a distinct rank from Sin and Death from Satan and the World God was an Enemy that could not be overcome therefore must be reconciled The Law was an Enemy that was not to be disanulled and destroyed but to be satisfied the Precepts of it were not to be relaxed or repealed but fulfilled the Curses of it were not to fall to the ground some must be made a Curse that the Authority of it might be kept up Now Jesus Christ he is made a Curse for us and by his Merit he satisfies the Law and the Justice of God Then among the other Enemies look to Satan he is not only a Tempter but an Accuser as he is a Tempter so Christ is to overcome him by his Power as he is an Accuser so Christ is to overcome him by his Merit Certainly so far as Satan is an Enemy so far must Christ be a Saviour that the Plaister may be as broad as the Sore and therefore against the Accusations of Satan he interposeth as our Advocate by representing his Merit and by bringing his Blood unto the Mercy-Seat Once again consider that our Comfort may be full Christ saves us by Merit and by Power By his Obedience and Merit he gives us jus ad rem a Right and Title to Salvation but by his Efficacy and Power he gives us Possession jus in re he was first to buy our Peace our Comfort our Grace our Glory of God and then to see that we be possessed of it and therefore we are said to be reconciled by his Death and saved by his Life He died that we might rely on his Merit and Ransom and Blood which was a Price to reconcile us to God and he lives that we might wait for his Power and so be saved by his Life 3. Consider As the Greatness of the Salvation and the Compleatness of the Saviour so the Excellency of the Gospel how it manifests and sets out this Saviour not in Shadows and Types but with clear and express Explication God bestowed many Benefits upon the Old Church which were great Enforcements to Godliness but not so powerful and effectual because they were but Shadows of Salvation Things that grow in the Shade come not to such Perfection as Things that grow in the Sun In the Old Testament they had many Blessings but they were Typical Ones and lasted but for a while they had many Saviours that delivered them from the House of Bondage led them through the Red Sea and through the Desart into Canaan delivered them from their Enemies destroyed the Nations round about them But now these were Shadows of good Things to come the New Testament shews what is the meaning of all these that we are delivered from the Devil and led into Heaven and brought to the possession of Eternal Life by Jesus Christ. The Old Testament speaketh of calling Abraham out of Ur of the Caldees and separating his Seed as a People to God we can speak of Election that we may obtain the Adoption of Sons The Old Testament speaks of multiplying the Seed of the Iews as the Sand of the Sea The New Testament speaks of the multitude of Converts a great Number which none can number The Old Testament speaks of the bringing out of Egypt the New of bringing Sinners out of the Power of Darkness The Old Testament mentions the Red Sea the New the Grace of Baptism or Red Sea of Christ's Blood The Old Testament speaks of God's
Providence in the Wilderness how the People of Israel were led up and down for forty Years and fed and clothed and delivered The New Testament speaks of God's Providence over his Church during the whole State of the present World How he guides us by his Counsel till he brings us to his Glory Psal. 73.14 Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterwards receive me to Glory They were led into the Land of Canaan by Iordan and we have entrance into Heaven by Death They could speak of Judges and Kings that were glorious and did worthily in their Generations but the New Testament shews all that have an Interest in Christ shall judg the World together with Christ at the last Day 2 Cor. 6.2 Do ye not know that the Saints shall judg the World and as Kings shall reign with Christ for evermore and be far more glorious than Solomon in all his Glory Their Piety was like a Plant that grows in the Shade now the Sun is risen which scattereth his Light Heat and Influences 4. Consider what should be God's Aim in the Designation of his Providence that he hath brought it and laid it before you Acts 13.26 To you is the Word of this Salvation sent The Apostle doth not say we have brought it to you but God sent it God hath a special hand in bringing the Gospel if you accept it it will be God's Token sent to you in Love for the present it is God's Message sent for your trial There 's a mighty Providence that accompanieth the preaching of the Gospel You will find the Journies of the Apostles were ordered by the Spirit as well as their Doctrine as Acts 8.26 The Angel of the Lord said to Philip Arise go towards the South unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza which is desert If they went North or South it was not by their own good Affection or by the Inclination and Judgment of their own Reason but by the Direction of the Spirit So Acts 16.7 They assayed to go into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not They were not left to their own Guidance and Direction but still they were carried up and down by the Spirit As Prophecy came not in old time by the Will of Man but Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 So also the delivery of it to what People it should be disclosed was not by the direction of Men but by the Holy Ghost The Apostles had not only their Commission what they should do but where they should preach it If God send a Minister to you to preach this Grace that bringeth Salvation do not look upon it as a thing of Chance The Gospel doth not run by Chance and meerly according to the Intention and Designment of Men nor in an orderly stated Course as the Sun but by the special Direction of God You would stand admiring and think it a special Benefit in a time of Drought if the Rain should fall on your Garden and upon none else as it did upon Gideon's Fleece or if the Sun should be shut up to others and shine in your Horizon as it did in Goshen such a Distinction hath God made in sending of the Gospel it is Darkness to others but a Sun to you God hath a special hand in the progress of the Gospel certainly the preaching of it in Power there is much of God in it the Word goes from Place to Place if you accept it not God will go to another When the Jews refused the Salvation of God it is sent to the Gentiles Acts 28.28 The Salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and they will hear it It is not tendered unto you out of Necessity but by way of Trial out of God's Choice God cannot want Clients when you your selves are thrust out others may get in You may want Salvation but God cannot want Guests at the Feast he hath prepared 5. Consider of the great Judgment that will light upon them that despise an Offer of Salvation That which by its natural tendency is a Grace bringing Salvation by your neglect may bring certain Condemnation and Ruin Observe God did never utterly cast off the People of the Jews for contempt of the Law but when once they came to despise the Gospel God would have no more to do with them Indeed for the contempt of the Law the Jews were punished they went into Captivity but still a Stock did remain and it budded again But when those glorious appearances of Grace were discovered to them and they despised them then the Wrath of God came unto them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the uttermost 1 Thess. 2.16 When Salvation it self cannot save them Condemnation must needs take place and so Persons perish upon a double ground as guilty Sinners and as despisers of the Remedy As a Man that is deadly sick and will not take Physick perisheth both as he is sick and as he will not take Physick Or as a Man condemn'd by the Law and being repriev'd for a short time yet neglects to sue out his Pardon But you will say Who are those Contemners of this Salvation offered in the Gospel The Gospel is the Remedy and contemning the Gospel may be explained by refusing the Counsels of Physicians You know some are utter Enemies to Physick and cannot endure any thing that is bitter and tart and so Carnal Men given up to Pleasure cannot endure the Severities of the Gospel which are God's Counsels and Receipts for sick Souls if a few good Hopes and Wishes will carry them to Heaven that 's all they mind Some see that the Endeavours of Physicians do not always succeed and that there is great uncertainty in that Art therefore slight all Thus do Men slight the Gospel out of pure Unbelief Every one that hears the Word are not saved there are but few to whom it is manifested in Power and so they contemn it having no such high Thoughts of the Word of God Some out of Pride refuse Physick they know as much as the Physician and so they throw away themselves by depending upon their own Counsel So some out of meer Pride and Conceit slight the Gospel they know as much as can be taught them they think themselves alive and need nothing when they are stark dead Others out of negligence they are sick but are not at leisure to take Physick do not mind the Condition of their Body till it proves deadly Thus it is in the sickness of the Soul some are slighters Matth. 22.5 They made light of it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã others distrust others cannot endure God's Terms others are self-conceited but all neglect this great Salvation and contemn the greatest Gift God ever offered to Men therefore they shall meet with the greatest Judgment 6. Besides the wrong done to God and your selves consider the wrong you do to God's Messengers This is the spiritual Honour God hath put
and Grace they will lose their Savour and Relish of these things It is an ill Sign when we have not lost our Savour and Taste of carnal things it is a Sign we are not much acquainted with Christ. It is no wonder for a Man that knows no better Fare to love coarse Diet and so it is no wonder that one that never tasted of the Sweetness of hidden Manna should long for the Garlick and Flesh-Pots of Egypt 2. Grace goes to work by way of Opposition it planteth opposite Principles in the Heart and maketh Use of an opposite Power It planteth opposite Principles We have a new Divine Nature and so escape the Corruptions of the World through Lust 2 Pet. 1.4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these ye might be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruptions that are in the World through Lust. Lusts follow the Nature as the Nature is so are the Desires The Old Man is full of deceitful and carnal Lusts and the New Man is full of spiritual and heavenly Desires then it makes Use of an opposite Power of the Help and Supply of the Spirit of God Gal. 5.16 Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh. There are two Principles Flesh and Spirit that are always warring one upon another and that weaken one another The Spirit as a never-failing Spring of holy Thoughts Desires and Endeavours doth dry up the contrary Issue and Spring of Corruption So Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live The mortifying of the Body of Sin must be done through the Spirit a natural Man may see better but without the Spirit 's Help he can do nothing All the Reason in the World will not tame Lust We may declaim against it but nothing in Heaven or Earth will change our Dispositions or work out our Corruptions but only the Spirit of God We have by the Spirit not only Direction but a continued Influence and Supply of Power 3. Grace goes to work by way of Argument and Perswasion Grace out-reasons and out-pleads Lust and so it cannot obtain a Grant from the Soul but is denied The chief Argument which Grace urgeth is the Unsuitableness of Lust to our Condition that so it may shame the Soul Those things that become us while we are Children as Toys and Rattles will not become us when we are Men so certainly those things that suited well enough with us while we were mere Men become us not when we are Christians 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3. He that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the Flesh to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God For the time past of our Life may suffice us to have wrought the VVill of the Gentiles when we walked in Lasciviousness Lusts Excess of VVine Revellings Banquettings and abominable Idolatries Rom. 13.11 And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of Sleep It is high time to leave worldly Lusts. For a Man after Grace to be addicted to Lusts it is a Relapse into a spiritual Disease and in all Diseases Relapses you know are dangerous as a Man that falls into a distempered Heat is recovered out of a Feaver 1 Pet. 1.14 As obedient Children not fashioning your selves according to the former Lusts in your Ignorance These were your former Lusts when you were under spiritual Distempers and were only fit for you then But how are they unseemly and unsuitable to our Condition 1. They are unsuitable to our Privileges and to our Interest in the Death of Christ Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to Sin live any longer therein He argues not ab impossibili but ab incongruo it is an unfit thing for such to live in Sin We disparage the Death of Christ when we are not the better but the worse for it Hath he redeemed us from Sin that we might yet serve it Did he humble himself for our sakes that we should be proud Did he put such Contempt on the World that we should loosen the Reins to worldly Lusts Was he at all this Pains to make us worse You hereby put a Contumely and Reproach upon Christ's Death and disparage his Purchase 2. It is contrary to the Example of his Life We do not worship the God of this World nor Mammon but Christ Christ by his own choice hath put a Disgrace on the World he chose a mean Estate not out of Necessity but Design He came not in worldly Pomp Matth. 8.20 The Foxes have Holes and the Birds of the Air have Nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head John 18.36 My Kingdom is not of this VVorld Who is more able to judg what is best We or Christ Iohn 17.14 They are not of the VVorld even as I am not of the VVorld Who is fitter to chuse or wiser to chuse Christ or We Who is in an Error Christ or We If there was so much in the World as we fancy Christ was in an Error to despise it 3. It is contrary to our Hopes we look for better things It is a most lamentable thing to see a Christian that professeth the Assurance of a better Life to lie digging like a Mole in the Earth 1 Pet. 2.11 Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul Worldly Men are fastned to things present but the Children of God do bend and tend to things to come Worldly Men do not look for better things and therefore they are more to be excused We have Cause to blush every time we think of our Condition What are you Whence came you Whither are you going You are Passengers to Heaven why do you stick and linger by the way Something we may take for our Refreshment as Men that pass through a Field of Corn rub the Ears as they go As the Angel roused Elijah 2 Kings 19.7 Arise and eat for the Iourney is too great for thee You that affect to tarry in a foreign Country have you a Father in Heaven Would a Traveller hang his Room in an Inn Will he buy such things as he cannot carry with him Such things as we can carry with us to Heaven should take up our Time and Thoughts Piety out-lives the Grave but Honour and Wealth must be left behind us 4. It is contrary to our Vows We renounced them in Baptism In Baptism there is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an Answer to God's Questions Believest thou with all thy Heart Renouncest thou with all thy Heart 1 Pet. 3.20 Baptism saves not the putting away of the Filth of the Flesh but the Answer of a good Conscience towards God You break your baptismal Vows if you do not deny worldly Lusts. Christ doth not only call us off from Sin but from the
other Sins or to feed a Lust and therefore we had need to deny it as it is Lust. 2 dly You should deny them as worldly Lusts so you must abstain from them not serve them as they are stirred up by worldly Objects they keep us from better Employment and therefore Grace teacheth us to deny them as they tend only to such a vile purpose Many Arguments there are 1. Whatever is for this World must be left on this side the Grave Pomp Pleasure and Estate must be left behind us Job 1.21 Naked came I out of my Mother's Womb and naked must I return thither There is no carnal Pomp and Pleasure in the next World Here we bustle for Greatness but Death ends the Quarrel Like foolish Birds we seek to build strong Nests when to morrow we must be gone Open the Grave and look upon the Reliques of Man's Mortality thou canst not discern between the Rich and the Poor the King and the Peasant all are alike obnoxious to Stench and Rottenness Those Desires that carry you out to the World must be mortified A Mill-wheel runs round all the Day and at Night it is in the same place So whatever we gain and purchase in the World it must be left at Night when we go to Bed when Death finds us and in the same place at Death we are as naked as we came into the World 1 Tim. 6.7 For we brought nothing into the World and it is certain we can carry nothing out A Man's Wealth doth not follow him but his Sins do his Iniquity will find him out Consider at Birth a Man is contented with a Cradle and at Death with a Grave yet here we join House to House and Field to Field Isa. 5.8 as if the whole World could not contain us 2. As they are only for this World so our abode here is but short and uncertain and therefore if it be worldly Lust it should be less prized for it lasts but for a time Within a very little while those that are most potent powerful and shining in the Splendor of the World shall be turned to Dust and Ashes God hath made Life short for many wise and merciful Reasons that the time of our Labour might not last too long He hath made us to enjoy himself and because he loveth the Saints he would have them the sooner with himself and would not be long without their Company and that we might love eternal Life therefore this Life is short and that he might gratify the Saints for he that hath a Journey to go would pass it over as soon as he can God makes their Journey as short as is convenient for his Glory and to shame wicked Men because they delight in that which is but of a short continuance but their Torment is Eternal The Pleasure of Sin is but for a Season but the Torments of Sin are for ever and ever therefore this should put a check to your Desires it is only for a World that passeth away nay the Lusts of this World pass away 1 Iohn 2.17 The World passeth away and the Lusts thereof The time will come when we shall have no lusts to these things it begins at Sickness but at the Day of Judgment we shall have no relish of these things and when the whole World is burnt up it will be our torment that we have prostituted our Affections to such low and unbeseeming things we shall see the Vanity when it is too late Men will have little love to the World then 3. If they be but worldly Lusts they should not be cherished were they never so durable Why Because this is not our Happiness and our Rest. Carnal Men have more of the World Christ committed his Purse to the worst of his Disciples Of the other he saith They are not of the World even as I am not of the World John 17.16 In this World God is most liberal to the worst therefore here we should not set up our Rest. Look as it is said of Abraham Gen. 25.6 that he gave Gifts to Ishmael and to the Sons of Keturah but he gave the Inheritance to Isaac Wicked Men have their Portion but not the Inheritance God will not be in their Debt therefore they have Gifts Therefore saith a Christian Why should I cherish these worldly Lusts this is not my Portion but the Portion of others From Men of the World which have their Portion in this Life Psal. 17.14 The World is Satan's Circuit he compasseth the Earth It is the Saints Slaughter-house they shed the Blood of Saints and Prophets Rev. 16.6 It is the place where God is dishonoured They are favoured and loved most by the World whom Christ hath rejected and past by 4. Worldly Lusts do hinder us from our Work We were made for another World and this Life is lent us for a while to look after Heaven We cannot drive on those two Cares at once for the World and Heaven too as a Man cannot look with one Eye to Heaven and with another to the Earth therefore why should we indulge worldly Lusts Who would lose a Crown to be owner of a Dunghil And will you forfeit Heaven and the Joys of God's Presence for worldly Conveniences Lust hinders your care of Heaven It is true a temperate and religious use of the World furthereth it but worldly Lust doth take off your Heart from God and Heaven and unfits it for it so that your Heavenly Desires are hindered 5. In a sense worldly Lusts do hinder us of the Comfort of this World Want encreaseth with Enjoyment as the Fire encreaseth by laying on more Fuel The more we enjoy the more we desire so we do not enjoy what we do possess The more we have the more we want so that a covetous Man neither enjoys this World nor the World to come 6. If it be worldly Lust then take heed of it for thou art as thy Love is If thou lovest this World thou art a worldly Man if thou lovest God thou art a godly Man if thou lovest Heaven thou art a heavenly Man A Man is not as his Opinion is but as his Affections are A bad Man may be of a good Opinion but a bad Man can never have good Affections The Soul as Wax receives the Impression from the Object Thou art a Person of the World if thou lovest the World Take a Looking-glass and put it towards Heaven there you shall see the Figure of Heaven the Clouds and things above put it downward towards the Earth you shall see the Figure of the Earth Trees Meadows Fruits So doth the Soul receive a Figure from the things to which it is set if the Heart be set towards Heaven that puts thee into a heavenly Frame if thou appliest it to earthly Objects thou art a Man of the Earth 7. The more we mortify these worldly Lusts the more we prevent Affliction We might prevent the bitterness of the Cross if we would
and you and your Hearts be together you sin against God Job 21.13 They spend their Days in Wealth and in a moment go down to the Grave It is dangerous to employ your whole Time in Mirth and in Visits and in Company that should be spent in examining your Hearts humbling your Souls and seeking the Face of God so that your Hearts grow dead and barren Helps to Sobriety are two to consider the Preciousness of Time and the Vileness and Danger of Pleasure First The Preciousness of Time that will appear in sundry Considerations 1. Time is short We have a great deal of Work to do and but little Time therefore we should redeem it from Pleasure and rather incroach upon our Recreation and spend it in Matters that most concern us All complain of the shortness of Time and yet every one hath more Time than he useth well We should rather complain of the Loss of Time than of the Shortness of Time as Seneca said Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus nec inopes Temporis sed prodigi sumus We make our Lives far more short than otherwise they would be and we do not want Time but waste it We spend it freely upon Mirth and vain Pleasures as if we had more than we could well tell what to do withal Life is short and yet we throw it away as if we had not such great work to do as to mortify Corruptions and to make our Peace with God as if that Eternity which cannot be exhausted in our Thoughts did not depend upon this Moment When Men are writing of a Sermon and have but little Paper left they write close O consider our Work lies upon our Hands and therefore the Acts of Duty should be more close and thick The Sun is even going down we know not how soon Day may be over 2. Too much Time hath been spent already so will all the Godly-wise judg 1 Pet. 4.3 For the Time past of our Life may suffice us to have wrought the Will of the Gentiles Rom. 13.12 The Night is far spent the Day is at hand And there 's but little left to express your Love and Thankfulness in glorifying God Our Infancy was spent in Ease and Youth in Sin and Age in Business Certainly that part of your Lives was merely lost which was spent in an unregenerate Condition Saith Austin Perdit quod vivit qui te non diligit He loseth that Time which he lives that doth not love the Lord. Properly we are not said to live till we live in Christ. A Man may be long at Sea tossed to and fro upon the Waves and yet be but little from his Port and cannot be said to have made a long Voyage so a Man may abide long in the World but cannot be said to live long if he doth not live in Christ. Reflect this Truth upon thy Heart Alas my Life hitherto hath been a Death rather than a Life useless and lost to all spiritual Purposes and shall I still waste my Time and spend my Days in Ease and Idleness Travellers that have tarried long in their Inn mend their Pace and ride as much in an Hour as before they did in many so we have staid too long O let us now mend our Pace Say I have lived thus long vainly sinfully carnally in an earthly manner I have little thought of God and treasuring up for Heaven or providing for my latter End O how rich might I have been if I had been a good Merchant for my Soul How am I now outâtripp'd by many my Equals my Youngers in Age but Seniors in Grace They are in Christ before me O why doth God spare me but to recover that which is lost 3. Consider it is uncertain how long thou shalt enjoy the Season the present time is always best and shall we waste it vainly We have not a Lease of our Lives Ludovicus Capellus tells of a Rabbin that being asked When was the fittest time for a Man to repent he answered him One day before he dies meaning presently for this may be your last day We know not how soon God may call us to himself In an Orchard some Fruits are pluck'd green few are left to rot upon the Tree Mariners that have not the Wind in a Bottle are ready to tackle the first Gale We shall never have a better opportunity to consider our ways in Youth we want Wisdom and Zeal and in Age Strength in the midst of Business we want Leisure and in the midst of Leisure we want a Heart There is not more Efficacy in the latter season than in the former Do not think that Sickness and old Age will help you more in the work of Repentance than Youth Moral Arguments work not without Evangelical Grace The bad Thief had one foot in Hell and yet he blasphemed There will be more Difficulty in old Age but no Help Sickness and Age needs a Cordial and not Work and therefore no Season like the present 4. They that have lost Time know the worth of it O if they might have the happiness to live again that are now in Hell would they waste their precious hours so wantonly and lavishly as you do Dying Men that are afrighted in Conscience discover to us the Passions of the Damned they would give all the World for one Year or one Month to repent He that so passionately begged for a drop to cool his Tongue how would he have indented with God for a Year's Respite from Torment In the day of Death all the Wealth of the World will not purchase one day longer We never know what we lose in losing Time till it be too late It is better to be sensible of the worth of Time in Earth than in Hell Knowledg of things that are evil and bitter is more easily gained by Teaching than by Experience and Feeling But we do not lay these things to Heart Christ mourned over Ierusalem because she lost her day Luke 19.42 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy Peace but now they are hid from thine Eyes 5. We must give an account for Time and therefore let not Pleasure engross and take up too much of it Whenever God comes to reckon with his People the great thing for which he calls them to an account is their Time he keeps an exact reckoning of the Years of his Patience Psal. 95.10 Forty Years long was I grieved with this Generation I have given them thirty forty fifty Years Respite to think of their Sins and apply their Hearts to be wise for Eternity So of the Times and Seasons of Grace and Methods and Dispensations of Mercy Luke 13.7 Behold these three Years came I seeking Fruit of this Fig-tree and find none by which is meant the three Years of Christ's Ministry with the Jews for he was then entring on his last half-year When the Scripture speaks in a round number there 's
I shall I. Draw forth the Force of the Expression II. Give you the Reasons of it I. The Force of the Expression In this present World It implies three things timely Beginning zealous Discharge and final Perseverance Whatever we are to do upon the teaching of Grace we are to do it speedily earnestly constantly Speedily now or never take hold of the present Occasion Earnestly it is the Work of our Lives wherefore we are sent into the World and Constantly that is all the time of our living here 1. Speedily Now or never must it be done We must set upon this Work speedily upon two Grounds because time to come is uncertain and it is not fit to neglect it 1. Time to come is uncertain We have nothing to command but this Instant that which is to come is not in our Power One being invited to a Feast the next Day made Answer Ego à multis annis crastinum non habui For these many Years I never had a to Morrow The present Time is put into thy Hands thou hast no Security for the next Day but thy own Word and how is he the better assured that is Security to himself When you promise your selves many Years you are liberal upon another Man's Goods and it is the Fashion of Mad-men to reckon other Mens Estates to be theirs The Father hath reserved Times and Seasons in his own Power and taken them into his own Hands We are not Masters of a Day therefore now or never must we set upon this Work of living soberly righteously godly O how sad is it to be surprized and Death to find us unprovided 2 Pet. 3.14 Wherefore Beloved seeing that ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace This is the great Business of our Lives to be found in a Condition pleasing to God A Man should live every Day as he would be found of God for usually Death comes by way of Surprize it finds us before we look for it and steals upon us e're we are aware 2. Because it is not fit to neglect it till Death and to provide Work for that time when we need Cordials the Infirmities of Age and Sickness need Supports and not Work O how sad is this that many times we are going out of the World before we begin to think why we came into it Our great Business here is to save our Souls and when Time is gone then we begin to think of it He is a foolish Traveller that would set out at Night and begin his Journey when the Sun is setting and the Darkness of the Night is coming on so when Time appointed is gone then to think of saving our Souls It is too late to be sparing when we have spent all upon Prodigality The foolish Virgins came to buy Oil too late Who would expect to conquer then when his Enemy is strongest and himself weakest or purposely delay it till such a time If you do not presently set about the Work you do but provide Grief and Sorrow for your last Age when you are least able to bear it 2. Earnestly It is the Reason why we are sent into the present World It is the Work of our Lives We were not put into the World as Leviathan was put into the Sea to take our fill of Pleasure but we were sent into the World for our Trial and for our Exercise For this End was Life given us not to get Wealth and Honour and great Estates or only to eat drink and sleep and so live as if we were never to die and then die as if we were never to live more such lose the End of their Lives God hath appointed a Time for every thing under the Sun and the Time of Life is appointed to work out our Salvation and therefore it is but reason that our best Business should have the greatest Share of our Time and Strength and that this Work should go forward according to our Years still should you increase and be bettering your selves in the great Business of your Lives It is some Work of Grace to raise the Soul to desire Things within the Vail it is more to hope for them it is more to seize upon them as our Right and Portion and lay hold of eternal Life 1 Tim. 6.19 This is the great Work of our Lives first to raise up the Soul and carry it within the Vail to be always increasing our Assurance of Heaven and looking after a better Life Iohn 9.4 I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is Day the Night cometh when no Man can work Hereafter there is no Prophecy nor Labour nor Faith nor Repentance We have a little Time and a great deal of Work and a great many Temptations It 's a great Work to get out of a State of Nature into a State of Grace to fit our selves for a better World Now because we have no long Continuance here we should be doing it with all our Might Therefore let us not forget the main thing that which is the Business and Imployment of our Lives let not your Time pass unfruitfully for the Night cometh wherein no Man can work 3. Constantly It is in the present World as long as we are here without any Limitation and therefore it hints final Perseverance without which as good we had never begun It is notable that under the Law the Nazarite if he had made a Vow he should touch no Wine or any thing that was forbidden for so many Days or Months but if he had defiled himself before the Days of his Purification were accomplished he was to begin again Numb 6.12 The Days that were before shall be lost because his Separation was defiled So when we have renounced the Vanities and Delights of the World and given our selves to God all is lost when we turn Apostates and go off from a Course of Godliness Ezek. 18.24 But when the Righteous turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the Abominations that the wicked Man doth shall he live all his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his Trespass that he hath trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die As good never have begun if we fall off and tire before we come to the End nay in some respect it would have been better if we had never begun than not to have continued for it is said the latter End is worse with them than the beginning 2 Pet. 2.20 A Malefactor who hath made an Escape out of Prison if he be taken again he is loaded with Chains and Irons So when any have made some shew of Escape out of the Devil's Clutches by keeping a constant Course of Duty and Communion with God and then turns and breaks off again none in such Bondage and Slavery as they Nay and this Apostacy is a mighty Dishonour to Christ as well as a
Disadvantage to your selves for a Man that hath begun to be strict and careful and holy and righteous and profess himself to be taken out of the Kingdom of Darkness and made experience of the Ways of Christ yet if he falls off he doth as it were after Trial pronounce to the World that Satan's Service is better than Christ's As Iacob kept wrestling till Day-light appeared and would not let go his hold-fast so till the Morning of Glory come still keep on and continue your Courage Or as Elisha would not leave his Master till he was taken from him into Heaven so be constant to the last let the World know you see no cause to leave Christ or to be weary of his Service and to begrudg the Strictness of Religion Matth. 20. you read some were called into the Vine-yard sooner some later but they all kept working to the End and Close of the Day There 's a different time of Calling some begin with God in Infancy some in riper Age but none must be weary of well-doing But how apt are we to turn aside from God Our Righteousness must be as the Morning Light that always increaseth till High-noon but our Righteousness is like the Morning-Dew it is gone as soon as the Sun breaks out in Strength and Power We have a great many Resolutions when we begin a Course of Godliness but soon grow weary Look as a tired Horse is ready to turn in at every Inn so upon every Occasion and Temptation we are ready to turn away from God but it is not enough to begin to live godly strictly righteously but while Life lasteth you must hold on in God's ways it must be during your whole present State and Abode here in the World II. The Reasons why this Duty of our heavenly Calling must be in the present World 1. Because this is the Time of Grace There is no other Time to get the Favour of God and an Interest in Heaven but here upon Earth Now we have the Means hereafter the Recompences Now Christ saith Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Matth. 11.28 Hereafter he will say Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Mat. 25.34 Now he calls us to receive Grace hereafter we must receive either Vengeance or Glory In the Angels Song we find Luke 2.14 Peace upon Earth Here God proclaims Tidings of Peace and Reconciliation to the Creature if it will submit to God Now the Golden Scepter is held out and you will have no more such a Season This is God the Father's God the Son 's and God the Spirit 's Time but after this Life you shall have it no more It is the Time of God the Father's Patience and these are the Days of the Gospel when God the Son is offered to us and now we have the Advantage of the Spirit 's Impulses and his Convictions upon our Hearts But after this Life there 's neither Prophecy nor Gospel nor Conviction nor Means offered any more then comes Recompence and Retribution Zanchy speaks of some which had a Fancy that the Gospel should be preached hereafter in the other World to those that never heard of Christ in this World as to Children to Turks and Pagans to justify this Conceit they alledg that Place 1 Pet. 3.19 By which he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison But that 's a clear Mistake The Apostle speaks there how the Spirit of God went forth by Noah's Preaching in warm Conviction upon the Hearts of those that are now in Prison that were sometimes disobedient to the Warnings of Noah and are now held with Chains of Darkness in the Prison of Hell But however there is nothing to this World Now you have the Means and God's golden Scepter is held out Now Christ saith Come but if you refuse hereafter he will say Depart Now is the accepted Time now is the Day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6.1 2. This is the Time of our Exercise and Trial. 1. There must be this Exercise before we come to Heaven We do not leap into Heaven without any Preparation The Vessels of Glory must first be seasoned with Grace Col. 1.12 Who hath made us meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light First we are qualified and seasoned then filled brim-full As when the Virgins were chosen for Ahasuerus they were to accomplish their Months of Purification so we must have a Time of purifying and cleansing from Corruption before we can get to Heaven Balaam would die the Death of the Righteous but not live his Life Numb 23.10 Let me die the Death of the Righteous and let my last End be like his As it is said of the Snake that when it is stricken with Death stretcheth out it self straight though crooked before at oportuit sic vixisse you should have so lived You should be sober righteous and godly Enoch before his Translation had this Testimony that he pleased God Heb. 11.5 Some-thing must be done here there is no Triumph without a Warfare 2 Tim. 2.5 If a Man strive for Masteries yet is he not crowned unless he strive lawfully that is according to the Laws of the Race or Exercise so we cannot expect to die in the Lord unless we live in the Lord Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them Your Works die not when you die Eccles. 11.3 If the Tree fall toward the South or toward the North in the Place where the Tree falleth there it shall be In the time of the Law there was nothing to be gathered upon the Sabbath-Day but a double Portion to be gathered before those that provide nothing on the sixth Day had nothing on the Sabbath-Day The Sabbath is a Figure of Heaven of that eternal Rest we shall have there if we do not make Provision during the time of Life there can be nothing done afterwards 2. It is only here this is the fittest Place for Exercise Here are Difficulties Snares and Temptations and these serve to discover the Glory of Grace and this makes it worthy of Praise that we can act for God in the present World where so many miscarry 2 Tim. 4.10 Demas hath forsaken us having loved this present World Here is the fit Place for our Trial where we have so many Difficulties Snares Baits Avocations and Scandals to take us off from performing the Duty of our Heavenly Calling As Death leaves us so Judgment finds us Upon our Behaviour in the present Life both our everlasting Woe or Weal depends Hereafter is not a time of Labour but of Reward and Punishment there is no room for Exercise and Trial there no Snares in the next World Grace cannot be found worthy of Praise there for that is God's Day called the Day of the Lord 2 Pet. 3.10
will be little enough to repent the loss of that which is past Consider a Man can never come soon enough into the Arms of Mercy nor soon enough out of the Power of Satan Present Necessity admits of no Deliberation therefore charge your selves to be more solid and serious Sin if you let it alone will gather more Strength Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots then may ye also do Good that are accustomed to do Evil. When a Stick hath been long bent it will hardly ever be set right again Some that have been late converted have much bewailed their Disadvantage their standing out so long till their Inclinations were fixed and that they have got a stubborn Nature so strong and ever apt to recoil upon them Consider we would not have God to put us off when we come for Mercy and are in present need and shall we put off God We would count a Delay to be as bad as a Denial therefore take heed of Delays in this kind for if ever you be called to Grace you will smart for it soundly Christ waited upon the Spouse for Entrance Cant. 5.2 My Head is filled with Dew and my Locks with the drops of the Night and then the Spouse waited for Comfort ver 6. I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone my Soul failed when he spake I sought him but I could not find him I called him but he gave me no Answer What is the Reason when the Work is begun and the first stroke is given to Sin that Christians walk so mournfully for a great while O they have made God wait long and stood out many a Call therefore the Lord exerciseth them with waiting Let all this work thee to comply with the Importunity of the present Conviction of the Holy Ghost Vse 2. Is to reclaim us when we are greedily set upon other Businesses and Projects than the great Business of our Lives as to get Wealth Honour and great Estates Remember what is thy Duty and Work in this present World Consider 1. The shortness of Life We have a great deal of Work to do in a little time therefore we should not waste it every day we are nearer to the Grave We are sensible of the Decays of others but not of our own thou seest others wax old and die remember thou thy self art going that way When two Ships meet one another in the Sea the other Ship seems to fail faster than yours tho both pass away alike because you are not sensible or do not observe your own Motion We see others are mortal but do not number our own Days This is a Point of Prudence Psal. 90.12 So teach us to number our Days that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom A Man would think of all Points that were plainest and soonest learned yet it is very hard to learn the lesson of our own Frailty I mean to learn it by Heart to learn it practically 2. The Uncertainty of Life We know not when Death will surprize us it is ill to be taken unprovided when Death comes to say Hast thou found me O my Enemy Every day we have cause to look to it more are mistaken in reckoning upon Life than upon Death Thou art asleep in the Wolf's Mouth there is no Remedy but imploring the Shepherd's Help A Carnal Man that goeth on in Sin provoketh God to his Face and trieth whether he will cut him off yea or no. We are sure to live to enjoy what we provide for Heaven but we are not sure to live to enjoy what we provide for the World A Man may not rost what he took in hunting but when he cometh to enjoy his Estate God cutteth him off Luke 12.20 Thou Fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided And shall my Master come and find me idle 3. After Death followeth Eternity the great Amazement of the Soul Now if Death find you at Peace with God Eternity will be comfortable and Death sweet Body and Soul part but God and the Soul meet When we can see Angels ready to do their Office and Conscience becometh our Compurgator I bear you witness you have spent your time in this World in obeying and serving God and then Body and Soul take leave of one another it is a blessed parting But now when you have not regarded your Work you are then delivered up to Satan by such an Excommunication as shall never be reversed Accursed till the Lord come and then Body and Soul meet to be tormented for ever It is a sad parting when Conscience falls a raving and we curse our selves and the day of our Birth O that ever such a Creature were born O that I had been stifled in the Womb and never seen the Light 4. The necessity of working out our own Salvation God's Stipulation with Mankind is not made up all of Promises something is required Holiness is the way to Salvation Men that live as they list can claim nothing The World is a common Inn for Sons and Bastards in the time of God's Patience he keeps open House for just and unjust but no unclean thing entreth into Heaven At the great Rendezvouz God maketh a Separation Psal. 1.5 The Vngodly shall not stand in the Iudgment nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous The wicked shall not be able to look Christ in the Face nor vail themselves in the glorious Assembly 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor abusers of themselves with Mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Our Desires settle into Opinions we think God will not damn his own Creatures and an universal Hope is natural 5. The Folly of not doing our Business To get bodily Supports is but our Errand by the by these Souls were not given us to scrape up Wealth and only to provide and purvey for the Body Let us use them to the end that God gave them to think of Eternity Luke 10.41 42. Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her Martha was careful to entertain Christ in her House but Mary to entertain him in her Heart The one thing needful is the Care which every one ought to have of his own Salvation Every thing is best that helpeth us on towards Heaven and that is evil that hindreth us in our pursuit of Heaven This will appear to be the greatest Wisdom at length and not to spend your Lives in getting Honours or Pleasures or screwing your selves into the Favour of great Personages It is commonly said of a Man that hath gotten an Estate that he
of Confidence but in the Clearness of your Ground and Warrant In Matth. 7. latter end the Scripture takes notice of two Builders the foolish and the wise there was no difference in the Building it self both might raise a Structure equally âair but the difference lay in the Ground-work and Foundation the one built upon the Sand the other upon a Rock therefore you are not to look so much to the Strength of your Hope as to the Evidence the Ground the Foundation of it Do you know what you do when you so confidently believe your Salvation Presumption grows upon Men they know not how it is not an Act of Advice and Consideration and therefore will leave us to Shame A Man had need have good grounds for his Hope True Hope is a serious Act arising from Grace longing after its Perfection and therefore we are said to be begotten to a lively Hope 1 Pet. 1.3 Seed desireth Growth every thing aimeth at Perfection when Grace is infused presently there is a Tendency and Motion this way Others may have strength of Confidence though a weak Foundation whereon to build it therefore their Hope comes to nothing but Shame and the greater Confusion Iob 8.14 the Hope of the Hypocrite is compared to a Spider's Web O what a curious Web doth she spin out of her own Bowels but assoon as the Besom comes down goes the Spider and the Web too both are swept away and trodden under foot So it is with Hypocrites they spin a fine Web out of their own Bowels conceive rash but strong Hope a Hope of their own forming and making but when Death comes the Man dies and his Hopes die with him So Prov. 11.7 When a wicked Man dies his Expectation shall perish and the Hope of the unjust Man perisheth It is not meant only of his worldly Expectations tho that is true he that aspired to be great and to feather his Nest and excel in the World when he dies all his Plots and Projects die with him but it is meant of his heavenly Hopes when they come to enter upon their everlasting State then they are sensible of their Mistake We are more sensible of what is near at hand than what is at a distance Men grow wise when they come to die Eternity is near at hand and Men begin to awake as out of their Dream and lose all their Confidence and when they thought they were full they find themselves hungry Again the Hope of the Hypocrite is compared to the giving up of the Ghost Iob 11.20 Their Hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost When the Frame of Nature is dissolved it is done with bitter Gripes and Pain the Soul in a Moment takes an everlasting Farewel of the Body so all the Hopes of the Wicked vanish and are lost in an Instant and they are full of Horrour and sad Despair It is the greatest Evil that can befal you to lose all your Hopes in an Instant Well then this looking for the blessed Hope is not a slender Imagination an unadvised rash Confidence such as is lost whenever we begin to be serious either by the conviction of the Word or the approaches of Death 2. It is not some Glances upon Heaven such as are found in worldly and sensual Persons Sometimes worldly Men have their lucida intervalla their good Moods and now and then have some sober Thoughts of Heaven that rush into their Mind Balaam had his Wishes Numb 23.10 Let me die the Death of the Righteous and let my last End be like his And the Apostle speaks of some that had a Taste Heb. 6.4 snatch now and then some savour of the Sweetness of Heaven and spiritual Comforts A wretched Worldling in whose Fancy the World plays all the day riseth with him goeth to Bed with him yet now and then hath his Wishes and some sudden Raptures of Soul some Flashes and Motions but alas this is not the looking for the blessed Hope for that is a constant viewing of Happiness to come Sudden Motions are not operative they come but now and then and leave no Warmth upon the Soul as Fruit is not ripened that hath but a glance of the Sun and you know a sudden Light rather blinds a Man than shews him his way so these sudden Flashes Enlightnings and heavenly Thoughts vanish and leave a Man never the better 3. It is not a loose Hope a possible Salvation that can have such an Efficacy upon the Soul to urge and incline it to the spiritual Life James 1.8 A double-minded Man is unstable in all his Ways When a Man is double-minded divided and distracted between Hopes and Fears there will be much Irregularity and Unevenness in his Conversation he will be off and on with God As their Hearts are up and down and divided because the Success is doubtful so also is their care of Strictness weakned and broken 1 Cor. 9.26 I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the Air. He alludes to the Istmich Games In an ordinary Race a Man might run and be out-stripp'd the Event was very uncertain he might miss of the Goal if the other sensibly got ground then he was discouraged and began to slack his pace as out of hope but saith the Apostle I run not as one that is uncertain here we are all sure to obtain tho we cannot keep pace with the foremost And this is that which quickens Industry and stirs up those holy Endeavours The surer your Hope is the greater Strength you find and the greater Power upon your Conversation Thus it is not a blind Hope or some Glances upon Heaven and the blessed Things to come that rush into the Mind of a cursed Worldling nor a loose Hope and bare Conjecture a possible Salvation hath not such Efficacy and Power upon the Soul Secondly Positively what this Expectation is of Blessedness to come It is an earnest and lively Hope a solid Expectation of Blessedness to come and it bewrays it self by three things serious Thoughts earnest Groans and lively Tastes 1. By frequent and serious Thoughts Thoughts are the Spies and Messengers of Hope sent into the promised Land to bring the Soul Tidings of what is to come It is impossible for a Man to hope for any thing but his Mind will run upon it and he will be thinking of it We find it in all earthly Matters that Hope sets the Mind on work and so we preoccupy and forestal the Contentments that we expect we enjoy them before they come by serious Contemplation feasting the Soul with Images and Suppositions of the Happiness we shall have when we come to Fruition Contemplation of Heaven is the Feast of the Soul Hope brings in the Image and Suppositions of what is to come as if it were already present Certainly where-ever the Treasure is the Heart the Thoughts will be there Hope carries the Mind above the Clouds in the midst
Interest and are drawn with the Cords of a Man as first the Fire is kindled and then it sendeth forth much Smoak afterwards we love God out of pure Affection at length as the new Nature gathers Strength and Perfection Men rejoice in God's Glory as much as in their own Salvation it is a simple Act of Adoration in Heaven it will be so we shall rejoice in God's Glory as much as in our own Interest and Profit 2. It informs us of the Reason why the World and Sin have such a Power over Men why they lie under the Power of present things we do not awaken our Hopes and consider Blessedness to come so much as we should It is not only a difference between Sinners and Saints but between Christian and Christian one is more heavenly than another As there is a difference between ordinary Subjects and Courtiers those that are always in their Princes Eye and Company are more polite in their Manners than others so the oftner the Soul is in God's Court the more holy our Hopes will have an Influence upon our Practice It is Hope that carries the Soul aloft out of the reach of Temptation as Birds when flying on high in the Air need not fear Nets nor Snares nor the Crafts of the Fowler Keep Hope alive and then a Christian cannot fail Heb. 3.6 Whose House we are if we hold fast the Confidence and the rejoycing of Hope firm unto the end If a Man had such a lively Hope and some taste and feeling of Heaven and Blessedness to come and a constant groaning after them if we could but glory in our Hopes as much as if we had present Possession then we need not fear miscarrying 3. It informs us that it is a false Hope that doth not urge to Practice and Strictness of Life Some Men make full account to go to Heaven but make no preparation for it their Course is another way there is not only an Unsutableness to their Hopes but a Contrariety If there were only an Unsutableness it were enough to discover the Cheat for we are to be made meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 and to walk worthy of God who hath called us to his Kingdom and Glory 1 Thess. 2.12 and to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called Ephes. 4.1 There is a Sutableness between a Man and his great Hopes When David was a Shepherd he spent his time in keeping his Father's Sheep and had the Heart of a Shepherd but when he was called to be King then he behaved himself like a King like a Shepherd of the People So a Christian discovers his Hopes in his Disposition and in his Practice and doth walk as an Heir of the Grace of Life There may be a slight Hope which hath no Efficacy but those serious Sighs and hearty Groans I speak of certainly they will work a Sutableness in the Temper of our Hearts and the Constitution of our Souls and we shall be more holy there will be more worthy walking more Detestation of Sin more Contempt of the World more Diligence in the Spiritual Life When you walk as if your Hopes were altogether in this World when Princes in Scarlet embrace a Dunghil when those that are called to great and glorious Hopes live as if their Happiness were only here below heaping up Wealth Treasure and Worldly Conveniences to themselves it is a Lamentation If you saw a Man labouring in filthy Ditches and sullying himself as poor Men do with Mire and Dirt who would believe he were an Heir apparent to a Crown and called to inherit a Kingdom So when we live as Men of the World when there is an Unsutableness between us and our Hopes how do we walk as the Heirs of Grace But now when there is not only an Unsutableness but an open Contrariety in their Practice and yet they think to go to Heaven it is as if a Man whose Journey lay North should travel just South Can that Man look to be filled up with God when God is not in all his Thoughts Can he long for the Company of Christ that slights his Ordinances Can he prize the Communion of Saints to whom good Company is a Prison Can he look for an immaculate and sinless State to whom Purity is an Eye-sore and who hates the Power of Godliness Yet many such deceive themselves with false Hopes when there is not only Unsutableness but a plain Contrariety 4. It informs us That an assured Interest in Heaven is no Ground of Loosness or Laziness Comfort serves to quicken but not to slacken our Endeavours The more we look for Heaven the more it engageth us to Strictness of Life The Apostle after he had professed his Assurance We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 What then v. 9. Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him Here is a sure Recompence our great Care is that we may live and die in his Grace because we are confident we shall live with the Lord when we depart from the Body Jude 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto Eternal Life When God is so gracious in Christ providing such great things for such unworthy Creatures as Eternal Life and we come to receive Glory out of the hands of Mercy what a mighty Engagement is this to make us watch against all Decays and Coolings of Love Vse 2. To exhort us to this Expectation or looking for the blessed Hope The method and way is first to believe then to apply then to expect 1. Believe it that there is such a Happiness reserved for the Children of God Next to God's Being we are bound to believe his Bounty Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him These two Principles that God is and that he is a Rewarder are the Fundamental Notions that keep up all Religion There is a Mist upon Eternity to a carnal Heart they are led by Sense and believe no more than they see Heb. 11.1 Faith is the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen Fancy and Nature cannot out-see Time and look beyond Death Faith holdeth the Candle to Hope and then we are able to look into the other World and to see a happy State to come Now because Faith is weak in most and we waver more in the Belief of God's Bounty than of his Being his Godhead is manifested by present sensible Effects but we scruple his Rewards which are wholly to come therefore let us strengthen and help Faith as much as we can The Word is clear in this Point Now God hath been true in all things Fidelis in omnibus in ultimo non deficiet He that hath been faithful in
Intercession for us By his Merit our Right to Heaven is purchased and by his Intercession it is maintained for us SERMON XIV TITUS II. 13 That Blessed Hope c. Doct. II. THE Hope of Christians is a blessed Hope Hope is here put for the thing hoped for as Col. 1.5 For the Hope that is laid up for you in Heaven Where Hope is put for the Object of Hope Now this Matter or Object of our Hope is sometimes called Life sometimes Glory sometimes Joy and Pleasure It is a Life that never shall be quenched or put out Iude 21. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal Life It is a Glory that is Eternal for Duration 2 Cor. 4.17 it is called a far more exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory for the measure of it it is above our Conceit and Expression as much as a Creature can bear It is Joy and Pleasure without Mixture and without End Psal. 16.11 In thy Presence is Fulness of Ioy at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore Now this Hope is said to be blessed because it puts us into the Fruition of absolute Blessedness We cannot conceive of it now to the full when we come to injoy it we shall find it above all that ever we could conceive or hear of it As much as we see and know of it sheweth it is a blessed thing but we shall understand it best when we hear the great Voice calling us Come up and see But a little to set it before you In Blessedness there must be a Removal of all Evil and a Coacervation and compleat Presence of all that is Good As long as the least Evil continueth a Man is not blessed only he is less miserable If a Man had all things that Heart could wish for what would it avail him as Haman when he wanted Mordecai's Knee Esther 5.13 All this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Iew sitting at the King's Gate Ahab had the Kingdom of Israel but yet he fell sick for want of Naboth's Vineyard If a Man were never so well fitted for a Journey a little Gravel in his Shoe would founder him As in Carriages of War though there be a great Train yet if one Peg be missing or out of Order all stoppeth Or in the Body if one Humour be out of Order or one Joint broken it is enough to make us sick or ill at Ease though all the rest be sound and whole so if there be the least Evil a Man cannot be a compleat happy Man Complaining will not suit with Blessedness Now First In the Hope that we look for there is a Removal of all Evil. Evil is twofold either of Sin or of Punishment and in Heaven there is neither Sin nor Misery 1. To begin with Sin that is the worst Evil. Affliction is Evil but it is not Evil in it self but only in our Sense and Feeling if a Man had a Dedolency it is no Pain to a benummed Joint to be scourged But Sin is evil whether we feel it or no but it is worst when we feel it not Certainly that is Evil which separateth from the chiefest Good Affliction doth not separate from God it is a means and an Occasion to make us draw nigh to him many had never been acquainted with God but for their Afflictions but Sin separateth us from God Isa. 59.2 Your Iniquities have separated between you and your God and your Sins have hid his Face from you that he will not hear Let a Man be never so loathsome yet if he be in a State of Grace he is dear to God the Lord taketh Pleasure in him though rough-cast with Ulcers and Sores and thrown into a Prison yet God will kiss him with the Kisses of his Mouth There is nothing so loathsome and odious to God as Sin This grieveth the Saints most Rom. 7.24 O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death If any Man had Cause to complain of Afflictions Paul had he was often in Perils whipped imprisoned stoned but he doth not cry out When shall I be delivered from these Afflictions O but this Body of Death was worst of all Lusts troubled him more than Scourges and his Captivity to the Law of Sin more than Chains and Prisons This is the Disposition of the Saints they are weary of the World because they are sinning here whilst others are glorifying God not only that they are suffering here whilst others are injoying God A Beast will forsake the Place where he hath neither Meat nor Rest. Carnal Men when they are beaten out of the World have a Fancy to Heaven as a Place of Retreat but that which troubles Godly Men is their Sin Well but in Heaven there is no Sin Eph. 5.27 That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without Blemish There is neither Spot nor Wrinkle upon the Face of the glorified Saints Their Faces were once as black as yours but now Christ presenteth them to God as a Proof of the cleansing Virtue of his Blood And how pure and clean they are without Spot or Wrinkle the Apostle's Words that he might present it imply as if Christ did glory and rejoice in their Purity as the Fruits of his Purchase There you are freed from all Sins With much ado we mortify one Lust but Nature recoileth as Ivy in the Wall if you cut it down it breaketh out again It is much here if the Dominion of Sin be taken away there the being of it is abolished in Heaven it is not at all you will displease God no more and are freed from all the immediate and inseparable Consequences of Original Sin detraction in Duty and the like Here is no perfect Love and therefore the Soul cannot be fixed in the Contemplation of God that 's the Reason of wandring Thoughts but there the Heart cleaves to God without stragling In Heaven we shall be freed from Pride which lasts as long as Life therefore called Pride of Life 1 John 2.16 We cannot have a Revelation now but we grow proud of it 2 Cor. 12.7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations there was given to me a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure Nor can there be an Influence of Grace but we are apt to be proud of it There is a Worm in Manna but then we are most high and most humble because most holy O Christians is not this a blessed Hope that telleth you of a sinless State of being like Christ in Purity and Holiness 1 Iohn 3.2 Beloved now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is What is it
the Fruit of his Sufferings When Christ was about to die he made his last Will and Testament Heaven was his by Purchase to bestow upon all his Heirs He had bought it at a dear Rate therefore now he shews what he would do with it Iohn 17.24 Father I will that those whom thou hast given me may be where I am that they may behold my Glory And then he is gone to Heaven again as our Harbinger to prepare a Place for us Ioh. 14.2 I go to prepare a Place for you to take up Mansions and Rooms for us in his Father's Palace He is gone as a Guardian or Feoffee in trust to seize upon Heaven in our Right to keep it during our Non-age and he will come again in Person as the Husband of the Church to bring us into his Father's House with Triumph therefore it is said Rev. 4.10 That the Elders did cast their Crowns before the Throne not as despising their Glory but as professing their Homage and Dependance and Rev. 5.8 9. The four Beasts and four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb c. saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood His Abasement was for our Preferment and therefore even here upon Earth may we bless God for the Elders represent the Church upon Earth for his great Mercy to us in Christ. 3. Consider how much we are engaged to God the Spirit who fits and prepares us for this happy State and seals up our Interest to us therefore it is called the Earnest of the Spirit Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given to us the Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5.5 The Holy Ghost shapes and fashions all the Vessels of Glory fits and prepares them for Heaven It is the Spirit of God dwelling in us that wrought us and fits us for this great and blessed Hope therefore when-ever you think of it your Hearts should be raised in Thanksgiving It is not only their Duty to praise God that are in actual possession of Glory but ours also to whom these Hopes are revealed Rev. 5.8 There was a mixture of Harps and Vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of all Saints Compare this with Vers. 11. And I beheld and heard the Voice of many Angels round about the Throne and the Beasts and Elders Not only Angels and blessed Spirits but Saints on Earth all join in Consort praising the Lamb. We must praise the Lord in the time of our Pilgrimage for this great Estate reserved for us in Heaven 3. It informs us how desperately wicked the Hearts of sinful Men are that can run the hazard of eternal Death and forfeit this blessed Hope of eternal Life for a little carnal Satisfaction Survey all the Temptations of the World how much they come short of it If the Heart were not desperately wicked we would not be carried out to these things What is Vain Glory to Eternal Glory What are a few dreggy Delights to those Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore What are the Riches of the World to our glorious Inheritance You would count him a mad Gamester that would throw away whole Lordships and Mannors at every Cast. A Sinner forfeits a blessed Hope that is above all the Kingdoms and Possessions of the World It is for this you will be the Scorn of Angels at the last Day Psal. 52.7 Lo this is the Man that made not God his Strength but trusted in the abundance of his Riches and strengthned himself in his Wickedness This will make you ashamed in the great Congregation that you were so foolishly bent to your own Ruin Nay this will torment you for ever nothing torments Men more than their foolish Choice Conscience will for ever tell them with what disadvantage they have forsaken God for a thing of nought Disappointment to a reasonable Creature is the worst vexation and what Disappointment is more than to be disappointed of our glorious Hopes and that for Trifles and a little carnal Satisfaction This will be our Shame and Torment to all Eternity We may guess at the gnawings of Conscience in the Damned by the Horrors of carnal Men when they come to die O then how do they bewail the Folly of their Choice O that they had been as mindful to serve God as to provide for the World as careful to satisfy the Motions of the Holy Ghost as to satisfy a Lust and carnal Desire When they are on a Death-bed and upon the Confines of Eternity then all worldly Comforts cease and there is a real confutation of the folly of their Choice a Sting then begins that never ceaseth Jer. 17.11 At his End he shall be a Fool. When he comes to die his Conscience will rage and call him Fool Beast and Mad-man for hazarding such eternal Joys for a Trifle 4. It informs us of the Excellency of the Gospel or Christian Profession Wisdom should be justified by her Children And all that do profess Religion should see the Excellency of it what there is in their Beloved more than in another Beloved Cant. 5.9 This there is in the Christian Religion there are purity of Precepts Psal. 19.7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the Heart the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the Eyes Then there is sureness of Principles of Trust and Dependance established between us and God that we may depend upon God with Comfort and Satisfaction there do you find rest for the Soul Ier. 6.16 Stand ye in the Ways and see and ask for the old Paths where is the good Way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your Souls Then there are no such Rewards any where as in the Christian Profession 2 Tim. 1.10 Life and Immortality are brought to Light by the Gospel The Heathens had Dreams of Elizium Fields and Mahomet tells his Followers of a sensual Paradise but Life and Immortality is a Revelation proper and peculiar only to the Gospel The Heathens were at a loss for the Reward of Vertue Austin out of Varro gives us an account of 288 Opinions concerning Happiness and the chief Good of Man but now here is all brought to Light we may look beyond the Grave now and there is not such a Mist and Darkness upon Things to come God having acquainted us with the Gospel Nay there 's more revealed than was in the time of the Law If God had still kept this Secret in his own Bosom what a Support should we have wanted in our Trouble what Encouragement to the practice of Holiness O therefore prize the Gospel it is the Charter of your blessed Hope 5. It informs us what little cause we have to be slack in God's Work or to
the Sons of God All now is under a Vail your Christ your Life your Glory is hid Our Persons are hid under Obscurity and Abasement Col. 3.3 4. Your Life is hid with Christ in God but when Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory Look as Moses told those Rebels when they would level the Officers of the Church Numb 16.5 To Morrow the Lord will shew who are his So when once the Night of Death is past over to Morrow when we awake out of the Dust of the Grave then Christ the natural Son will appear in all his Royalty and Glory as the great God and Saviour of the World and then also the adopted Sons shall be manifested we shall put on our best Robes and be apparell'd with Glory even as Christ is In Winter the Tree appears not what it is the Life and Sap is hid in the Root but when Summer comes all is discovered So now a Christian he is under a Vail but in this great Day all shall be manifested 2. It is a Day of Perfection Every thing tends to its perfect State and so doth Grace We see the little Seed that lies under Ground breaks through the Clods and works its way farther because it is not come to the Flower and Perfection So Grace still tends and longs for Perfection then we shall have perfect Holiness and perfect Freedom Christ to the glorified Saints will be a perfect Saviour Death which is a Fruit of Sin is still continued upon the Body therefore Christ is but a Saviour in part to the Spirits of just Men made perfect but then the Body and Soul shall be united and perfectly glorified that we might praise God in the Heavens Christ's Coming is to make an End of his Redemption of what he hath begun At first he came to redeem our Souls and break the Power of Sin but then he comes to redeem our Bodies from the Hand of the Grave and from the Power of Corruption the one is done by Humiliation and Abasement the other by Power The Scripture speaks as if all our Privileges in Christ were imperfect till that Day Regeneration Adoption Union with Christ they suffer a kind of Imperfection till then Regeneration the Day of Judgment is called by that Name Matth. 19.28 In the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the Throne of his Glory Then all things are made new Heaven and Earth is new Bodies new Souls new Then Adoption is perfect Rom. 8.23 Waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies What is the meaning of the Apostle's Expression As soon as we are planted into Christ are we not the Sons of God Yes now we are Sons but the Heir is handled as a Servant during his Non-age 1 Iohn 3.2 Beloved now we are the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be we wait for the Adoption Justification that is perfect then Acts 3.19 Repent therefore and be converted that your Sins may be blotted out when the times of Refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord Then our Pardon shall be proclaimed in the Ears of all the World and we shall have Absolution out of Christ's own Mouth then shall we come to understand what it is that the Lord saith I will remember your Sins no more and your Iniquity shall be blotted out Then for Redemption Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the Day of Redemption Luke 21.28 Look up and lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh O how doth the Captive long for his Liberty so should we long for that Day for it is the Day of our Redemption Now the Body is a Captive and when the Soul is set at Liberty the Body is held under the Chains of Death Ay but then Christ comes to loosen the Bands and Shackles of the Grave and free the Bodies of the Saints Look as the Butler was not afraid when he was sent for by Pharaoh because Ioseph had assured him he should be set at Liberty So Christ comes to set you fully at Liberty not only the Soul but the Body Therefore to think and speak of that Day with Horror doth ill become them that expect such Perfection of Privileges to be acquitted before all the World and to be crowned with Christ's own Hands 3. It is a Day of Congregation or gathering together The Saints are now scattered they live in divers Countries Towns and Houses and cannot have the Comfort of one another's Society But then all shall meet in one Assembly and Congregation It is said Psal. 1.5 The Vngodly shall not stand in Iudgment nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous There will be a time when Christ's Church shall be gathered all together into one Place As the Stars do not shine in a Cluster but are dispersed throughout the Firmament for the Comfort and Light of the World so are the Saints scattered up and down in the World according as they may be useful for God but then when the four Winds shall give up their Dead and the Saints shall be gathered from all the Corners of the World this shall be the great Rendezvouz Look as the Wicked shall be herded together as Straw and Sticks are bound in a Bundle that they may set one another a fire Drunkards with Drunkards Adulterers with Adulterers and Thieves with Thieves Matth. 13.40 41 42. As therefore the Tares are gathered and burnt in the Fire so shall it be in the End of the World The Son of Man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do Iniquity And shall cast them into a Furnace of Fire there shall be Wailing and gnashing of Teeth The Wicked shall be sorted with Men like themselves and so increase one another's Torment so shall all the World of the Godly meet in one Assembly and Congregation and never separate more In this Life we cannot injoy one another's Fellowship for divers Reasons God hath Service for us in divers Countries but such a happy time shall come when we shall all make but one Body therefore the Saints are still groaning and longing for that happy Day we for them and they for us not only the Saints upon Earth that are left to conflict with Sin and Misery but the Saints in Heaven are still groaning as the Souls under the Altar Rev. 6.9 10. How long O Lord Holy and True Look as those in a Ship-wrack that have gotten to the Shore stand longing and looking for their Companions So glorified Saints that have gotten safe to Shore still they are longing and looking when the Body of Christ shall be made perfect and all the Saints shall meet in one solemn Assembly This is the Communion between us and the Saints departed they long for our Company as we do for theirs Here the Tares are
mingled with the Wheat and besides the Persecutions of the Wicked their very Company is a Burden Iacob's Cattle and Laban's are together but then they shall be separated and the Saints shall be gathered together and sit as Judges of them giving their Vote with Christ in their Condemnation 4. It is a Day of Glorification to Christ and therefore the Saints long for it a Day when Christ shall be honoured and get to himself a glorious Name God got himself a great Name when he drowned Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Sea O what will it be when he shall cast all the Wicked into Hell Now Christ will come to shew the Fulness of his Majesty the Terror of his Wrath and to glorify his Justice upon wicked Men. Christ sheweth his Majesty every day but we have not Eyes to see it our Eyes are dazled with Worldly Splendor but then all Mists shall vanish The Saints that love the Glory of God must needs long for that time when Christ shall be seen in all his Glory when God shall be dishonoured no more and the Kingdom of Sin and Satan have an end and wicked Men shut up under their everlasting State And then from the Saints God hath perfect Glory in them and from them here God hath not his perfect Glory from us nor in us This is the Comfort of God's Children that God is glorified in their Glory that they may live to praise him for ever without Weakness and Distraction and that 's the reason of those Expressions To whom be Glory for ever and ever They delight in their own glorious Estate because they shall ever be in a Capacity to bring Glory to God Nay then God shall be glorified in all his Counsels and Decrees in the Wisdom of his Providence and in the course of his Judgments for in the Day of Judgment the full History of the World shall be brought before the Saints whereas now we see it but by pieces 4. Why the Saints look for Christ's Appearing is the Profit of this Expectation which they shall receive partly as it engageth to a heavenly Conversation Phil. 3.20 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour Where should we converse most but where Christ is Now where is Christ but in Heaven and therefore our Minds should be ever running upon it our Eyes ever looking that way and our Hearts ever longing for him Partly as it engageth us to Faithfulness in our Relations there is a Day coming when we shall give an account for the Duties of our Relations because that is the particular Sphear of our Activity 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus who shall judg the Quick and the Dead at his Appearing and his Kingdom Paul there presseth Timothy to discharge the Duty of a Minister and so for a Master of a Family and for a Servant Your Relations are not things of chance but they fall under the special Care of God's Providence and therefore you must be accountable for them here God hath confined you by the Wisdom of his Providence to serve the great Ends of your Creation therefore whatever is omitted you are to give an account of your Relations Magistrates Ministers Masters Servants all of their several Relations Partly as it calms the Heart against the Injuries and Molestations of the present Life 1 Pet. 2.23 our Lord Christ when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judged righteously So you must learn of him when you meet with Trouble and hard Usage and unworthy dealing in the World commit your selves to God the Judg is at the Door and he will review all things again Look as Paschalus a Minister of the Albigenses when he was burnt at Rome cited the Pope and his Cardinals before the Tribunal of the Lamb thus do you Partly as it engages to Perseverance If a Man hath followed a distressed and afflicted Party for a long time if nothing comes of it he tires but remember if we follow Christ here all our Pains will be recompensed to us 1 Iohn 2.28 Abide in him that when he shall appear we may have Confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming Christ will come and that with Salvation to them that look for him therefore let me be faithful in my Duty Obj. 1. But how can we look for it when we know there are some Signs that precede the Coming of Christ therefore certainly he is not like to come in our days Will he alter the prefix'd time of his Approach and change the Jacets of that great Journey Answ. 1. Tho Christ keepeth his pace yet it is good for us to alter ours tho we cannot hasten his coming yet let us be always ready 2 Pet. 3.12 Looking for and hastning unto the coming of the Day of God It is good for us to get ground upon our Fears and our Sins and to declare our readiness to meet with Christ every day we live in the World is a day lost in Heaven 2. If any Age had cause to think Christ would come certainly we have It was not far off in the Apostles days they were called the last days but ours are the very Dregs of Time When we see an old Man weak and feeble Aches and Diseases of the present Life encrease upon him we say certainly he cannot live long So if we look upon the Temper of the World sure it cannot endure long Christ will come to set all things at rights One Forerunner of Christ's coming are the Dreams and Delusions that are abroad Mundus senescens patitur phantasias as the World grows old it is much given to Fancies as old Men are to Dotage and Dreams 3. If Christ come not in our days yet Death is at hand Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto Men once to die and after that the Iudgment Every Man 's particular Judgment follows upon his departure out of the World and then the general Judgment follows as Death finds him either among the Sheep or Goats Iudas died sixteen hundred Years ago yet as he died so shall he be found After Death there 's no change of State therefore your business is always to be ready to depart in Peace and hasten to an eternal State Obj. 2. How can this be the Property of God's Children to desire his coming Are they always in this Temper and Frame many weak ones tremble at the thought of it for want of assurance of God's Love it is the Terror and Bondage of their Lives to think of Christ's coming and sometimes the Saints do not actually feel such an Inclination and Strength of Desire Answ. 1. The meanest Saint hath some Inclination this way Can a Man desire that Christ may come into his Heart and will there not be such Desires that he may come to Judgment since Comfort and Reward is more naturally embraced than Duty The very first Work of
Grace is to raise and beget this Hope 1 Pet. 1.3 Who hath begotten us again unto a lively Hope 2. There may be sometimes a Drousiness and Indisposition when their Lamps are not kept burning Luke 12.36 And be ye always ready as those that wait for their Lord. When they are fallen asleep they may for the present wish that Christ may not come and take them in this condition As the wise Virgins slept as well as the foolish so God's own Children many times find themselves indisposed for his coming careless Carriage weakens their Hope and the Remisness of their Watch yet in all there is a Spirit this way which beginneth with the new Birth A Wife desires her Husband 's coming home but it may be all things are not ready and in so good order as they should So all Christians desire the coming of Christ but sometimes they are not so exact and watchful and therefore their Affections are not so lively Drousiness creeps upon their Hearts and then God rouzeth them by Afflictions Obj. 3. But is this the Property of God's Children when we see carnal Men sometimes out of Weariness of the present Life and Trouble of the World will even long for his coming and wish for Death Answ. That is an Offer of Nature after Ease this is a Desire stirred up by the Spirit Sometimes God's Children in their Passions desire to be taken out of the World as Ionah 4.8 He fainted and wished in himself to die and said It is better for me to die than to live And Elijah 1 King 19.4 He requested for himself that he might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my Life for I am not better than my Fathers But this is but a shameful Retreat from Duty and the Heat and Burden of the Day and the Labours of the present Life these are froward Thoughts not sanctified Desires Words of a feaverish Distemper not of Affection but it comes from the Sickness and Weakness of their Souls But this I speak of is a solid looking for desire and longing for the glorious Appearing of Jesus Christ. Vse 1. It sheweth what they are who wish that it may never come Some would be glad in their Hearts to hear such News that Christ's Coming would never be it is their Burden and Torment to think of it as Felix trembled when he heard of Judgment to come These Men have the Spirit of the Devil in them if they had the Spirit of God in them would it be so Surely no. A carnal Man cannot say the Lord's-Prayer for he is afraid he shall be heard Optas ut veniat quem times ne adveniat saith Austin How canst thou say Thy Kingdom come when thou art afraid lest God should come Vse 2. To press us to this earnest Looking Christ looketh he is not slack 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise If all things were ready he would come presently Before he came in the Flesh his Delights were with us Prov. 8.31 Rejoycing in the habitable Parts of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. And he longeth now he is in Heaven Rev. 22.12 Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me The Angels expect it they would not be found Liars they told us of it Acts 1.11 This same Iesus that is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven The Saints groan How long O Lord how long Devils tremble at the thoughts of it Mat. 8.29 Art thou come hither to torment us before the time The Creatures expect it in their kind Rom. 8.19 For the earnest Expectation of the Creature waiteth for the Manifestation of the Sons of God All things by a natural Instinct are carried to their Perfection Evil Men cannot endure to think of it as Felix trembled at the thoughts of Judgment to come Let not the Saints stand out but expect it earnestly How much was the first coming of Christ wished for and desired Abraham rejoiced at the thoughts of it Iohn 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad Kings and Prophets desired to see these things Luke 10.24 For I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them Old Simeon Luke 2.25 was just and devout waiting for the Consolation of Israel yet then he was a Child in the Cradle now in Glory riding on the Clouds then he came in the Similitude of sinful Flesh Rom. 8.3 God sent his own Son in the likeness of Sinful Flesh but now he shall appear without Sin Heb. 9.28 Vnto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without Sin unto Salvation This earnest looking implieth strong Faith longing Desires frequent Thoughts 1. Strong Faith Reason saith it may be Faith saith it shall be Divine Justice must have a solemn Triumph Conscience is afraid of it Our Reward may be delayed but it cannot stand with the Justice of God that it should be abolished and taken away There is Confusion in the World Dives flowed with Ease and Plenty when Lazarus was rough-cast with Sores We need to be awed with Shame as well as Fear Faith saith he will come we have his Word for it as unlikely things have come to pass that have been foretold Were the old Believers deceived that expected his coming in the Flesh That a few Fishermen should preach the Gospel to all Nations this is already done Christ is contracted with us now he will come to marry us he went not away upon Discontent He that loved us so as to as to come from Heaven to Earth to take our Nature will he not come in Glory We have of his Spirit and we enjoy his Ordinances as a Memorial till he comes and we have many Love-tokens sent us as a Pledg that he will come 2. Longing Desires Our Hearts should even spring and leap within us when we hear of Christ's coming Thus the Believers of the Old Testament how did they rejoice to hear of a Messiah to come Iohn 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad Abraham rejoiced to think that a Son should come of his Loins in whom all the World should be blessed Heb. 11.13 These all died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them How did the Patriarchs hug the Promises O sweet Promise this will yield a Messiah a Christ to the World 3. There should be frequent Thoughts of his coming as if you always heard the Trumpet Every time thou lookest to Heaven think I have a Christ there a rich Jewel kept safe and when ever you see the Clouds think of Christ's coming and going These Clouds were Chariots by which Christ
the part of Physician not of a Judg he burneth us cutteth us puts us to pain but not to do us hurt not to satisfy Vengeance but to better our Hearts Hic ure hic seca Domine modo parcas in aeternum Our Afflictions are troublesome to the Flesh as Punishments are we cannot expect full Security or total Exemption from them Again they come not by chance Affliction doth not spring out of the Dust but they come by special Dispensation as Punishments also they do not come by chance Sin is for the most part the occasion of them God chasteneth them because they have sinned as we quench a Brand plucked out of the Burning or he warneth them that they may not sin again The Chastisements of the Godly serve for Examples as well as the Punishments of the Wicked But they are not properly Judicial Acts to satisfy the Law as a Judg taketh no notice of the Repentance of the Delinquent but of his Fault They are Acts of Love and a part of God's Family-Discipline Brambles are not pruned but Vines Heb. 12.6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Bastards are leftto live more at large Again they are for the exercise of Grace not for the destruction of our Persons A Judg doth not punish Offenders because he loveth them but because the Law requireth it If Corrections were Punishments wicked Men should have the greatest share Heb. 12.10 He chasteneth us for our Profit that we might be Partakers of his Holiness A Judg looketh to the Good of the Common-wealth to keep Authority and the Majesty of Government not the Benefit of the Malefactor 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World The Godly are punished here that they may not be condemned hereafter The Scripture every-where maketh it a part of our Blessedness Iames 1.12 Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation Phil. 1.29 Vnto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They are Dispensations of Love Answ. 2. For Death This was the primary Effect of Sin yet it remaineth Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die But the Curse of the Law is become a Blessing of the Gospel Death is ours 1 Cor. 3.22 Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the World or Life or Death c. all are yours Adam might have lived here happily for ever but Christ hath provided a better place for us there is a deep Gulf which cannot be passed but by Death our present Earthly Nature is not fit for that happy State 1 Cor. 15.50 Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption If Christ could have contented himself with giving us an Earthly Paradise Death had not been necessary That State in the Garden was an innocent and happy but an Earthly State These Bodies of ours that need Meat and Sleep would have sufficed for the Earthly Garden but we expect a greater Benefit and therefore we must be contented with the Way and Passage Sense and Reason telleth us that these Bodies which we now carry up and down are not fit for that State we must lay what we received from Adam in the Grave that when it is purged and renewed we may be like to Christ. The Grain liveth not except it die the Shed and old House is pulled down that God may raise a more glorious Structure If all Believers should be wrap'd up into Heaven and changed Miracles would be multiplied without need It is no Punishment to lose our Corruption and Mortality 3. The next Proposition is this That the fairest part of this Redemption is hereafter then our Happiness in Christ is perfect Luke 21.28 When these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the Day of Redemption Then we are past Gun-shot and out of Harm's way We are fully redeemed from the Guilt of Sin when there is no Monument of God's Displeasure left We must be like our Head in all Conditions We are not fully freed from the Relicks of Sin till the Resurrection that we may have new Matter to glorify God when we come to Heaven Old Adam is not quite abolished till God be all in all Secondly He hath delivered us from the Power of Sin He paid the Price on the Cross therefore it is said Rom. 6.6 Our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve Sin When Christ lay a dying Sin lay a dying and bled with him on the Cross then was Grace purchased and therefore Faith should look upon Sin as dead and actually crucified it is done in the Mystery And then he ascended and poured out the Spirit now to accomplish this Work God is satisfied and Christ's Work lieth now with Satan and our own Hearts 1. For Satan He is dispossessed and cast out at Conversion Luk. 11.21 22. When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace his Goods are in Safety But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and divideth his Spoils Then Christ taketh away the Prey The Devil may trouble us but he is but a Tyrant cast out he can no more reign And by preserving Grace he keepeth possession Christ will not lose Ground when once he hath got Footing Rom. 16.20 The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly As Ioshua called unto his Companions chap. 10.24 Come near put your Feet upon the Necks of these Kings 2. As for our own Hearts He breaketh the Yoke and sets the Will at Liberty and maketh us free for God Rom. 6.17 But God be thanked ye were the Servants of Sin but ye have obeyed from the Heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered to you It was a willing Bondage but now we are made a willing People then our Consent was voluntary now our Resignation is so too There are indeed some Relicks of Corruption and Opposition left there are inward Monuments of the Fall as well as outward as there are some grudgings of a Disease after a Cure but in Heaven all is perfect and even now there is not a willing Subjection but a Resistance made to Sin Vse 1. To exhort us to Thankfulness to our Redeemer Remember your former Bondage it is a woful Captivity to be under Sin Those that are under Sin are under the Curse of the Law and the Tyranny of the Devil we could have no boldness with God as a Father nor look him in the Face the Law is against us God is the Judg Satan the Jaylor our own Consciences an under-Keeper Our Fears of Death
3.33 He that hath received his Testimony hath set to his Seal that God is true It is a great Dishonour to God not to receive God's Testimony you put the Lie upon him and so make him to be no God You would not do so to your Equals A Lie is the greatest Reproach it rendreth a Man unfit for Society and Commerce It is a fearful thing to make the God of Truth a Father of Lies When God hath given his Word and Oath and Seals all this while shall he not be believed God never gave us cause to distrust him he never failed in one Promise all that have had to do with him have found him a faithful God Nebuchadnezzar doth him this Honour and Right after he had tasted of the Whip and was again restored to the Use of Reason Dan. 4.37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of Heaven all whose Works are Truth not only Justice but Truth not only as I deserved but as he foretold It is a Shame that you have made no Observations upon Providence that you may give it under Hand and Seal that God is true and faithful God expecteth such a Testimony from his People all that have long had to do with him have found him a true God both in a way of Justice and Mercy that he ever stood to his Word God cannot lie Tit. 1.2 In Hope of eternal Life which God that cannot lie promised before the World began God can do all things that argue Power and Perfection of Nature but he cannot lie for that argueth Weakness and Impotency 2 Tim. 2.13 If we believe not yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself he should then cease to be God He is Truth it self the primitive and supream Truth the Original Author of all Truth If he should not be true who should be so But is any so impudent as to put the Lie upon God I answer Yes 1 Iohn 5.10 He that believeth not God hath made him a Liar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son We accuse him not only of a Lie but of Perjury 1. By our Carelesness and the little Regard we have to those great and precious Promises that he has given us Great things are offered and you look upon them as Notions and Fancies It was otherwise with the Patriarchs of old Heb. 11.13 All these died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar of and were perswaded of them and imbraced them We cast off the Tenders of Grace as Matters of which we never made any great Account We grasp after the World and let Heaven go when we mind it not we believe it not A Man toileth hard all Day for a small Piece of Silver do we seek Heaven with a like Earnestness How many Adventures do Merchants run when the Gain is uncertain but we are not uncertain of our Reward 1 Cor. 15.58 Forasmuch as ye know that your Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Did we more stedfastly believe this we should not be so cold in Duties and so bold in Sinning 2. By our Despondencies in all cross Providences We have a sure Word and why are we up and down and so full of Distractions and Unquietness of Soul Iames 1.8 A double-minded Man is unstable in all his Ways unsetled in all his Thoughts uneven in all his Ways raised up and cast down with contrary Hopes and Fears off and on as worldly things ebb and flow We shall never want Discouragements if we live upon Sense but if we could live upon the Promises we should not be at such a Loss The Fruit of Faith in the Promises is strong Consolation too strong to be overcome by Sin Death or Hell A Believer is content with the Promises though all the World say No 2 Cor. 1.20 For all the Promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen Yea to our Hopes Amen to our Desires Whatever Changes happen the Promises are the same upon Desire of such a thing Amen saith the Promise upon Hope of such a thing Yea saith the Promise In difficult Cases you ask of the Creatures they say No but the Promise saith Yea. 3. When we will venture nothing on the Promises Christ told the young Man of Treasure in Heaven and he went away sad he doth not like such a Bargain Luke 18.22 23. Sell all that thou hast and distribute to the Poor and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven and come follow me And when he had heard this he was very sorrowful for he was very rich Thus God dealeth with us Prov. 19.17 He that hath pity upon the Poor lendeth to the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again Eccles. 11.1 Cast thy Bread upon the Waters for thou shalt find it after many Days But the Words and Engagements of Men that deceive and are deceived are esteemed above them We would trust a Man of Sufficiency upon his Bond with Hundreds and Thousands if we have his Hand and Seal to shew for it but we refuse God's Assurance Who is careful to provide Bags that wax not old and to draw over his Estate into the other World Luke 12.33 Sell that ye have and give Alms provide your selves Bags that wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens that faileth not where no Thief approacheth neither Moth corrupteth What Adventures do you make upon God's Bond or Bill Do you account no Estate so sure as that which is adventured in Christ's Hands Can we believe the Promises and part with nothing for them with neither our Lusts nor our Interests 4. When temporal things work far more than eternal things visible things than invisible If we had such Promises from Men we would be more chearful If a Beggar did hear of a great Inheritance fallen to him he would often think of it rejoice in it long to go see it We have a Promise of eternal Life who thinks of it or puts in for a Share of it We are contented with any slight Assurance in matters of such Weight Men love great Earnest and great Assurance in temporal Affairs but any slight Hope serves the turn in spiritual Affairs Why do we so little rejoice in it If the Reversion of an earthly Estate be passed over to us how are we contented with such a Conveyance but God hath made over Pardon and Grace and we are not satisfied 5. Our Confidence bewrayeth it The pretended Strength of our Faith about Christ and Hopes of Glory sheweth the Weakness of it and that it is but a slight overly Apprehension Most Men will pretend to be able to trust God for Pardon of Sin and Heaven and yet cannot trust God for daily Bread they find it difficult to believe in Temporals and yet very easy in Spirituals and Eternals What should be the Reason Heaven and things to come are greater Mercies the way of bringing them about more difficult if Conscience
The Lord God is a Sun and a Shield We are not only pardoned but restored to Favours and Friendship It is much to us to be delivered from the Terrors of Hell but more to be made Heirs of Eternal Life The Prodigal only looked for a Pardon Luke 15. 19. Make me as one of thy hired Servants and the Father bringeth forth the Robe the Ring and the fatted Calf O that we that have deserved to be in the bottom of Hell should find a place in the Heart and Bosom of God! Let us enlarge our Expectations according to the Extent of Christ's Mercy Here is Pardon and Glory Heaven is more credible than Pardon Rom. 5.10 Much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life It is harder to get a guilty Sinner pardoned than a pardoned Sinner glorified And let us answer the Divine Mercy to be not only negative but positive in our Obedience Many please themselves in an Abstinence from gross Sins but do not care to maintain Communion with God Psal. 1.1 2. Blessed is the Man that walketh not in the Counsel of the ungodly nor sitteth in the Seat of the scornful But his Delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate Day and Night They are not Scorners wicked Enemies and Drunkards but there is no Savour of Religion upon their Hearts Do they delight in the Law of the Lord Do they meditate on it and make it their Study To leave Sin is but the first degree there must be something more 2 dly Why is this Hope said to be set before us I answer 1. To note the Divine Institution of this Reward it is not devised by our selves but appointed by God The Hypocrite's Hope is compared to the Spider's Web Iob 8.14 which is a poor slender thing woven out of her own Bowels and it is gone by the first turn of a Besom so is the Hypocrite's Hope a Fancy a slender Imagination or a rash and unadvised Confidence which comes to nothing 2. It is proposed and set before us for our Encouragement As it is said of Christ Heb. 12.2 For the Ioy that was set before him he endured the Cross and despised the Shame that is for the Joy that was propounded to him Well then it is a real Hope and a Hope offered to us and laid before us 3. What is it to run to take hold of the Hope set before us Sometimes it implieth a challenging it as ours as 1 Tim. 6.19 That they may lay hold on Eternal Life Here it signifies holding fast never to let this Hope go It implieth Diligence of Pursuit Perseverance to the end and all this upon Christian Encouragement 1. Diligence in Pursuit of Eternal Life in the Heirs of Promise It is express'd by working out our Salvation making it our business Phil. 2.12 Work out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling Most Men make a Jest of it or a thing of course but when it must be made the main Work the great Pursuit and thing in Chase as the obtaining the Prize in a Race and not only a Business but that which is first and chief Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof And a Business that must be earnestly prosecuted and well followed and that notwithstanding Discouragements Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the Violent take it by Force When Men press through and will not be kept out there must be earnestness in the Matter and this not only for a fit and for a little while until they have made some progress but there must be a getting ground daily I press toward the Mark for the Prize of the high Calling of God in Christ Iesus Phil. 3.14 getting nearer and nearer making for Heaven apace to be established in the Hopes of eternal Life When we will not be put off with any thing else but have Heaven or nothing this is to seek Heaven in good earnest 2. This flying to take hold of the Hope set before us importeth Perseverance in well-doing notwithstanding the Difficulties in the way to Heaven The Israelites way to Canaan lay through a howling Wilderness So we have many Inconveniences and Discouragements in our way to Heaven but we are born up with this Hope that the Promise will make amends for all and so we go on in our course till we come to our Journey 's end And the Apostle speaking how Christ as Judg of the World will distribute eternal Rewards describeth those that shall inherit eternal Life Rom. 2.7 Those that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality It is not a Description of our first Address to Christ and taking comfort in his Merit no that consists in a broken-hearted acknowledgment of our Sins and a desire to be found in Christ depending upon his Merits and Righteousness to free us from the Wrath of God But the Apostle is not describing our coming to Christ but our coming to Heaven and the manner how Justified Persons look for their eternal Reward by patient continuance in well-doing they seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Though we are justified and have the Right of Sons yet we shall not have the Possession of the Inheritance until we are exercised in well-doing therefore we must wait God's leisure and persevere in Obedience And 3. All this upon Christian Encouragements for the Hope that is before them A Man may know much of his Spirit by what bears him up and what is the Comfort and Solace of his Soul Titus 2.13 Looking for the blessed Hope When a Man is born up by invisible Comforts and upon the Hopes of an invisible Inheritance kept for him in Heaven A wicked Man's Hope lies within the Compass of the World therefore it may perish and die before he dies Prov. 11.7 When the wicked Man dies his Expectation shall perish and the Hope of unjust Men perisheth or at least it ends at Death Prov. 14.32 The Wicked is driven away in his Wickedness He would fain stay longer in the World but he is arrested by Death in the Name of the great God of Heaven and driven into the other World there to be responsible to God but the Righteous hath hope in his Death then his Hope beginneth APPLICATION Vse 1. Comfort to those that can apply it even to those who are thus qualified that are driven and drawn to Christ and then go on chearfully with the Work of Obedience waiting for their Inheritance in Heaven Now that you may take in this Comfort examine your selves 1. Have you ever felt any Law work Were you ever driven to Christ Were you ever startled and rowzed out of your Sins and made sensible of the Displeasure of God and forced to sit alone and complain over a naughty Heart Have you Paul's Experience Rom. 7.24 O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Have you been awakened Ephes.
only looketh to the present State of things and if we have not all things which we affect under the View of Sense Trouble filleth our Hearts Heb. 12.11 No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous There are two emphatical Words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the present and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã seemeth they both intimate the Causes of our Trouble present Sense and false Appearance Of the latter I shall speak in the next Head the former is to our purpose now All Affliction is ungrateful to Flesh and Blood and so cannot but be troublesome to us if we look only to the present but then in the End it giveth us a full Recompence for all our Patience namely such an Increase of Grace as bringeth Peace along with it 3. Fancy Vain conceit and false Appearance And so we are often troubled at what may afford Joy The sad Point which the Disciples could not digest was Christ's Departure yet our Lord telleth them how necessary it was for his own Honour and their Comfort His Honour Iohn 14.28 Ye have heard how I said unto you I go away and come again to you If ye loved me ye would rejoice because I go to the Father for my Father is greater than I. If ye were kind to me ye would have looked upon it with Joy because his going to the Father was the advancing him to an higher Condition than that in which he was now the ignominious Cross was the way to Dignity and Honour Again it was for their Comfort Iohn 16.7 It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you They were full of Sadness at the Thought of his Departure as if it were their utter Ruine and Undoing But the coming of the Holy Ghost would be of more Advantage to them than his staying with them it was for his Glory and their Benefit Thus we often misinterpret God's Dispensations those hard Trials which are ordered for our Comfort and Peace increase our Troubles and Perplexities We judg according to Appearance and therefore do not judg righteous Judgment So we wound our selves by our own Fancies and make our Evils much worse than they are by our vain Conceit All these concurred in the present Case They had Dreams of sharing Honours in Christ's Kingdom all which would be disappointed by his ignominious Death And they looked to the present Face of things and so could not see Glory in this Shame And besides they did quite mistake the Dispensation Secondly The Nature of this Trouble wherein it consisteth In three things 1. A Fear of Danger or Evils to come 2. Sorrow for Evils present 3. A fretting Indignation or Dislike of God's Dispensations It is Distrust to be troubled about what is to come Despondency or uncomely Dejection to be troubled about what is present Impatiency and Murmuring to dislike God's way of dealing All these constitute that Trouble of Heart from which Christ dissuadeth his Disciples 1. There was Fear in it of approaching Dangers Christ was to depart and they were to be left to an unquiet World Iohn 14.27 Let not your Heart be troubled neither let it be afraid They were afraid what should befal themselves when their Master and Guide was gone from whose Direction and Protection they promised themselves so much Comfort and Safety Future things are to be left to God's Providence Every Day that bringeth its Cares and Difficulties bringeth also its incident Comforts Matth. 6.34 Take no Thought for the Morrow for the Morrow shall take Thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the Day is the Evil thereof We must not be over sollicitous about future Contingencies nor be anxious for that to Day which may be soon enough cared for to Morrow But we usually anticipate our Troubles and make our present Condition more grievous by hearing the Charge and Burden of the future also and so by our Cares and Fears about Futurity oppress and so both overwhelm our selves and take God's Work out of his Hands 2. This Trouble did arise from Sorrow and immoderate Dejection because of the loss of Christ's bodily Presence Iohn 16 6. Because I have said these things unto you Sorrow hath filled your Hearts Usually upon the Loss or Absence of some prized Comfort we let loose the Reins of our Affections and keep no Moderation in our Sorrow and Grief as if God could not supply the Loss of the Creature by the Presence of his Spirit 3. Indignation or a fretting Dislike of God's Dispensations That this was a part of the Disciples Trouble appeareth from Christ's whole Discourse with them The bodily Presence of Christ was comfortable to them upon a spiritual Account as they injoyed many a sweet Instruction by it but they also looked for great things in the World and were confounded with the Disappointment of their Expectations The temporal Kingdom ran in their Minds and therefore the News of his ignominious Death was so afflictive to them Our Lord taxeth them for this but in a gentle condescending manner that for want of Faith and Love they were so unsatisfied with God's Design which was so expedient and useful for them and the World Now this is the usual Ground of our Troubles we set up an Anti-providence in our Hearts and obtrude some Model and Scheme of our own upon God which if he doth not comply with we are troubled But God's Way is more for our real Good though our own Way suteth better with our Fancy and vain Opinion II. Why Christians should not let their Hearts be troubled 1 st It is very incident to us We have somewhat within us and without us which will always be an occasion of Trouble There is Corruption within and an evil World without A Believer is not to become as a Stock or Stone or cease to be a Man our Flesh is not as the Strength of Brass nor are our Sinews Iron Our Saviour himself was troubled Iohn 12.27 Now is my Soul troubled But his Trouble was like the shaking of pure Water in a chrystal Glass there was no Mud at bottom Certainly it is lawful and requisite to be sensible and to be affected with our Condition but we are apt to exceed in our Fear and Grief and so it becometh a Fault There is a Dejection and Discouragement which cloggeth us in our Duty and causeth sinful Negligence and Deadness of Heart This is a Distemper which we should oppose by all spiritual means 2 dly This is contrary to our Duty and Obedience which consisteth partly in a Subjection to God's governing Will revealed in his Laws partly in a Submission to his disposing Will discovered in his Providence 1. For the first The Case is clear there if God hath forbidden Cares and Fears and immoderate Sorrows if he hath said Be careful for nothing Phil. 4.6 and fear them not therefore Matth. 10.26
1 Cor. 7.30 And they that weep as tho they wept not and they that rejoice as tho they rejoiced not and they that buy as tho they possessed not 2 Cor. 6.7 By the Word of Truth by the Power of God by the Armour of Righteousness on the right-hand and on the left by Honour and Dishonour by evil Report and good Report Phil. 4.12 I know how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need A Man must learn both Lessons or he learneth neither The Prevalency of any Earthly Love will always expose us to Disquiets and we should have more in God if we looked for less in the Creature but whilst we dote upon these things we are more sollicitous about getting or keeping and troubled at the want or loss of them 3. The great care is in the Text about the exercise of Faith on God and Christ Ye believe in God believe also in me Sense is the cause of Trouble Faith of Comfort Christ who is the true Physician of Souls knoweth what Cure is proper to the Disease Mountebanks would prescribe another Cure spare the Flesh or feed Men with carnal Hopes No ye believe in God believe also in me Tho God should not prevent the Evil feared or remove the Affliction yet if we can believe we are well enough Faith represents more Grounds of Comfort than Sense can of Trouble whilst it carrieth off the Heart from things seen to things unseen from things present to things future from the Creature to God who can give better things than the World can give or take from us Here are two Objects of Faith God and Christ 1 Cor. 8.6 To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Iesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him One supream God from whom we derive all our Graces and to whom we direct all our Services and one Mediator by whom as a golden Pipe all our Mercies are conveyed to us and by whom also we have access to God for all that we stand in need of 4. Let us labour to keep our Consciences pure if we would not have our Hearts troubled Sin will bring on Trouble both inward and outward for it is the cause of Sufferings and it maketh them more grievous as we shall always walk in Pain till the Thorn be pulled out of our Foot Righteousness bringeth Peace and the Oil of Grace maketh way for the Oil of Gladness the Apostle bringeth this out of Melchisedec's Name and Title Heb. 7.2 First being by Interpretation King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem which is King of Peace Elsewhere the Scripture doth attest it Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God And 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoicing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World David interposeth a Caution Psal. 85.8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak Peace unto his People and to his Saints but let them not turn again to Folly 5. There are certain Ordinances appointed to fortify us against Soul-trouble The Word Psal. 119.50 This is my Comfort in mine Affliction for thy Word hath quickened me There are the fixed Grounds of that Hope and Comfort which will support and enliven us in the greatest Pressures God's Covenant and promised Mercies are Portion enough what Distresses soever he sendeth So Prayer if it be ingenuous thankful Prayer Phil. 4.6 Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your Requests be made known unto God The Lord's-Supper it is our Viaticum non morientium not when we come to die Papists think so and therefore thrust the Sacrament into the Mouths of those that die if this be neglected they almost despair of their Salvation But it is Viaticum viventium of those that live Death is not a Journey but the end of a Journey a Passage in a Moment a Cessation from our Journey in this World which needeth no Viaticum a going out of the World like the putting out of a Lamp in a moment as the Lamp needeth no more Oil when it is to be extinguished We need this for our Journey in the World not our departure out of the World Acts 8.39 He went on his way rejoicing As it is our Antidote against the Corruption that is in the World through Lust so it is our Cordial against the Troubles of the World to give us more Joy of Faith more sense of God's Love It is the Feast provided for the refreshing of the weary and cherishing of the mournful Soul SERMON II. JOHN XIV 1 Let not your Heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me Doct. II. ONE great Means of easing our Hearts from Trouble is believing in God and Christ. To evidence this I shall consider I. The Act. II. The Object which is double 1. One part taken for granted Ye believe in God 2. The other part of the Object they were now invited and recommended unto Believe also in me I. For the Act. Faith in the general hath a comforting Property and a Power to allay Trouble As here the Disciples being in Trouble are exhorted by Christ to believe that is to renew their Faith David felt a blustering in his Spirit and how doth he allay the Storms Psal. 42.5 Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God There is no such ready way to still unquiet Thoughts as to set Faith on work and to cast Anchor within the Vail hoping for and expecting Relief from God So the Primitive Christians when they were under great Heaviness in divers Trials how did they get any Comfort to keep themselves alive 1 Pet. 1.8 In whom tho now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoice with Ioy unspeakable and full of Glory A lively Exercise of Faith will bring in much Joy to the Soul in hard Times and under sore Trials and not only keep it alive as Habak 2.4 The Iust shall live by Faith or make a Believer not barely to subsist but he fareth high and liveth at a wonderful rate of Comfort such as is for nature and kind tho not degree somewhat like the Joy of the Blessed Look into the Book of God and you shall find that all our Fears and Troubles are for want of Faith As for Instance Peter when he walked to Christ upon the Waters his Feet never sunk till his Faith failed Mat. 14.31 O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt The Wind was boisterous but there was Christ at hand He looketh at the Wind too much
Fathers were Idols and not Gods But how can it stand with the Providence of the true God to permit it and forsake Mankind so long Those Times of Ignorance God over-looked sent them no Means nor Messengers then but now he doth And so he teacheth them and us that it is not sufficient to follow the Religion of our Fore-fathers unless they had followed the Will of God If God over-looked them and vouchsafeth you more Grace you must not be prejudiced by the Tradition but improve the present Advantage 2. He as much as in him lieth taketh off the Prejudice of the Practice of former Times by a prudent and self-censure As also elsewhere 1 Cor. 2.8 Which none of the Princes of this World knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory 3. He insinuateth that Ignorance doth not wholly excuse those that err but rather commendeth the Lord's Patience Secondly The Duty of the present Time 1. The Duty pressed is Repentance The word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Repentance is a returning to our Wits again We were sometimes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã foolish Tit. 3.3 When the Conversion of the Nations is spoken of it is said Psal. 22.27 All the ends of World shall remember and turn unto the Lord as if they were asleep distracted or out of their Wits before the Light of Christ's Gospel shined into their Hearts not making use of common Reason We never act wisely nor with a Condecency to our reasonable Nature till we return to the Love and Obedience of God 2. This is here represented not as an indifferent and arbitrary thing but as expresly and absolutely commanded God's Authority is absolute if he hath commanded any thing Contradiction must be silent Hesitation satisfied all Cavils laid aside and we must address our selves to the Work speedily and seriously without delaying or disputing or murmuring God doth not advise or intreat only but commandeth or interposeth his Authority Now to break a known Command especially of such weight and moment is very dangerous Luke 12.47 That Servant which knew his Lord's Will and prepared not himself neither did according to his Will shall be beaten with many Stripes James 4.17 To him that knoweth to do Good and doth it not to him it is Sin A Man in the dark may easily err and go astray but while we know better and what is the express Will of God concerning us we must set our selves to do it 3. As universally required all Men every where not only Iews but Gentiles and not some sort of Gentiles but all you Athenians and all the World this universally bindeth Some must turn from their Idols but all from their sinful Ways Whosoever will not repent when God calleth for Repentance they smart the more for it Impenitency under the Means is the worst sort of Impenitency I may say as Christ Luke 13.5 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish II. The Argument or Motive Which we considered 1. As propounded 2. As confirmed First As propounded Where note 1 st The Time He hath appointed a Day wherein he will judg the World 2 dly The manner in Righteousness 3 dly The Person By that Man whom he hath ordained These Circumstances must be opened and then we must consider how they make an Argument For opening the Circumstances 1 st The Time appointed but not revealed He hath appointed a Day The word Day is not taken strictly for such a space of Time as is usually signified by that Notion but it is put for a certain fixed space of Time The Work cannot well be dispatched in twenty four hours There is Iudicium discussionis Iudicium retributionis a Judgment of Search or Trial and a Judgment of Retribution Tho by the absolute Power of God they may be commanded into their everlasting Estate in an instant yet the Causes of the whole World cannot be discussed in an instant especially when God designeth the full Revelation of his Justice in all his Proceedings with Men. Therefore the Apostle calleth that Day the Day of the Revelation of the righteous Iudgment of God Rom. 2.5 When this time will be we cannot tell for God hath not revealed it Mat. 24.36 But of that day and hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels in Heaven but my Father only And therefore it is Curiosity to enquire and Rashness to determine Acts 1.7 It is not for you to know the Times or the Seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power It is enough for us to believe the thing which is not strange to Reason that God should call his Creatures to an account Natural Conscience is terrified with the hearing of it Acts 24.25 As Paul reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Iudgment to come Felix trembled And the same guilty Fears are incident to all Mankind Rom. 1.32 Knowing the Iudgment of God they know also that they who have done such things as they have done are worthy of Death That we are God's Subjects is evident to Reason because we depend upon him for Life Being and all things that we have failed in our Subjection to God in denying the Obedience due to him is evident by the universal daily and sad Experience of the whole World that Error and Sin will not take place to all Eternity but that there must be some time when the Disorders of the World shall be rectified is a Truth that easily maketh its own way into the Consciences of Men but is fully determined by the Gospel 2 dly For the manner He will judg the World in Righteousness that is then the whole World shall receive the fruit of their Doings whether they be good or evil But doth God ever judg the World otherwise than in Righteousness I cannot say that for far be it from the Iudg of all the Earth not to do right Gen. 18.25 He never doth any thing unjustly or unrighteously now but then he will fully manifest his Righteousness He now judgeth the World in Patience but then in Righteousness There is a difference between a defect of Justice and a Transgression of the Rules of Justice There is no Injustice in God's Dispensations of present Providence but yet there is a Defect or not a full measure or manifest Demonstration of his Justice shewed now on the godly or the wicked Therefore it is said Eccles. 8.14 There be just Men to whom it happeneth according to the Work of the Wicked and again there be wicked Men to whom it happeneth according to the Work of the Righteous He doth not pass this Censure upon the wise and righteous Providence of God but either speaketh according to the Judgment of Flesh and Blood which is apt to judg hardly of so strange a Distribution or according to the visible Appearance of things when evil things happen to good Men or good things to evil Men. For outward things being not absolutely good and evil are dispensed promiscuously and in the day
of Trial God hath his end in these things for humbling and exercising the good and hardning the wicked But in the day of Recompence then it shall be only ill with them that do Evil and well with them that do Good and the Retributions of his Justice shall be fully evidenced 3 dly The Person By that Man whom he hath ordained meaning thereby Christ. But why doth he call Christ Man rather than God 1. Partly with respect to the Gentiles Incapacity to apprehend the Mystery of the Trinity or the Incarnation of the Son of God and it concerneth us to dispense Truths as People are able to bear them as Christ taught ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as they were able to bear it Mark 4.33 Therefore Paul would not offend them by Doctrines which they could not yet understand You will say the Resurrection was as offensive Answ. That was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã one of the first Points of the Apostolical Catechism Heb. 6.1 2. Therefore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto Perfection not laying again the Foundation of Repentance from dead Works and of Faith towards God of the Doctrine of Baptism and of laying on of Hands and of the Resurrection of the dead and of eternal Iudgment So that the Apostle could not preach the very Rudiments of Christianity if he had not mentioned that 2. Christ is to discharge this Office in the visible Appearance of Man As the Judgment was to be visible so the Judg. The Judgment is not to be acted by the Father or the Spirit but by Christ in the Human Nature Therefore his coming is called an Appearance Tit. 2.13 Looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. And 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Iudg shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them that love his Appearance And when the Judgment is spoken of Christ is often designed by this Expression the Son of Man Mat. 24.30 They shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory And Mat. 16.27 For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works He is the visible Actor in the Judgment sitting on a visible Throne that he may be seen and heard of all and the Godhead doth most gloriously manifest it self by the Perfections of his Human Nature 3. This Power is given to Christ as a Recompence of his Humiliation For therefore hath God highly exalted him and given him a Name above every Name That at the Name of Iesus every Knee shall bow of things in Heaven and things iâ Earth and things under the Earth Phil. 2.9 10. which is at the day of Judgment Rom. 14.10 11. We shall all stand before the Iudgment-seat of Christ. For it is written As I live saith the Lord every Knee shall bow to me Then all Creatures in Heaven Earth and Hell are to own the Soveraign Power and Empire of the Crucified Saviour Some do it willingly as the elect Angels and Men others do it by constraint as the Reprobate and evil Angels when they are forced to stand before the Tribunal of Christ to receive their final Doom and Sentence This is the last Act of his Kingly Office and the Fruit and Consequent of his Humiliation Therefore this Christ spake of when he stood before the Tribunals of Men Mat. 26.64 Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the Right-hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven The despised Man who was before them as a Criminal in their repute summoneth them to answer before his Tribunal at that Day when his Shame shall be turned into Glory and the Scandal of his first Estate shall be fully taken off and those that despised him as Man shall be forced to acknowledge him as God Secondly The Subsequent Proof Whereof he hath given assurance to all Men in that he hath raised him from the Dead I hat is a sufficient Testimony to convince the whole World The Resurrection is a Certain Proof and Argument of the Dignity both of Christ's Person and Office It is an Attestation to his Person Rom. 1.4 Declared to be the Son of God with Power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead To his Office and Doctrine Iohn 5.27 28 29. And hath given him Authority to execute Iudgment also because he is the Son of Man Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done well unto the Resurrection of Life and they have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation How doth this make Faith to all the World for that is the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Answ. God hath not given Faith to all Men but he hath given an Argument to all Men that is a ground of Faith from whence Faith may evidently conclude that Christ is our Judg for he hath raised him from the Dead Where is the force of this Demonstration Others were raised from the Dead as Lazarus and the like and yet they are not Judges of the World I answer Christ died in the repute of Men as a Malefactor but God justified him when he would not leave him under the Power of Death but raised him up and assumed him into Glory thereby visibly declaring unto the World that the Judgment passed upon him was not right but that he was indeed what he gave out himself to be the Son of God and the Judg of the World to whom Power is given over all Flesh to save or destroy them If he live with the Father in Glory and Majesty it will necessarily follow that he was not a Seducer but that Holy and Righteous One by whom God will execute his Judgment Secondly What Influence this hath upon Repentance 1. The very Day appointed inferreth a necessity of Change both of Heart and Life For how else shall we stand in the Judgment who have broken God's Laws and are obnoxious to his Wrath and Displeasure If we should never be called to an account for what we have been and done here in the World we might then freely indulge our selves in all fleshly Delights and do what we please But this is a Principle of Fear and Restraint that for all these things God will bring thee into the Judgment Eccles. 11.9 Rejoice O young Man in thy Youth and let thy Heart chear thee in the days of thy Youth and walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Iudgment None of us can hide or withdraw our selves from that great Tribunal before which we are to give an
account of what we have done and received in the Body And therefore it is best while we are in the way to make our Peace with God and to break off our Sins by Repentance Otherwise what Quiet can we have in our selves or how can we keep our selves when we are serious from trembling at Wrath to come We may smother Conscience and baffle all Convictions for the present but Christians you and I must be judged Now when God riseth up to the Judgment what shall we answer him Iob 31.14 What then shall I do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what shall I answer him That must be thought on before-hand If we have no Answer which will satisfy now much less then 2. From the manner or strictness of that Day 's Account he will judg the World in Righteousness Eccles. 12.14 God shall bring every Work into Iudgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Hypocrisy shall be disclosed Sincerity shall be rewarded nothing shall be hidden from God's Search no Person shall be exempted no Work either open or secret but God will bring it into Judgment His infinite Wisdom knoweth all and his infinite Justice will give due Recompence to all The Businesses of all Nations and Persons shall be openly examined What then is our Duty but to exercise our selves both in Faith and Repentance that our Judg may be our Saviour and it may go well with us when this Search is made 3. Chiefly from the Person sufficiently attested by the Miracles of his Life and Resurrection from Death God hath determined and ordained the Person by whom the whole World shall be judged And from thence we may judg of the Rule it is by his Doctrine and by our receiving or not receiving Christ. Surely it is our Interest to be in with him who will cite us before his Tribunal To accept his Person as our Lord and Saviour Iohn 1.12 To as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God To believe and entertain his Doctrine as the Message of God Iohn 5.24 He that heareth my Word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death to Life To imitate his Example 1 Iohn 4.17 Herein is our Love made perfect that we may have Boldness in the Day of Iudgment because as he is so are we in this World To trust in his Merit Psal. 2.12 Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his Wrath is kindled but a little Blessed are all they that put their Trust in him To love him and live to him 1 Cor. 16.22 If any Man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha If he say Come ye Blessed or Go ye Cursed we must abide by it to all Eternity Wo to them that neglect his Offers contemn his Ways oppose his Interest oppress his Servants But blessed are they whose Redeemer is their Judg he who shed his Blood for them must pass the Sentence on them and one that is Flesh of our Flesh and Bone of our Bone is the final Judg between us and God Will he be harsh to his sincere Disciples But to say all in a word Surely this Consideration should do the Work effectually because his Gospel and Covenant is nothing else but a free Promise of Pardon upon Condition of Repentance Luke 24.47 That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations And to this end the Apostles were to preach that Christ is Judg Acts 10.42 43. He hath commanded us to preach unto the People and to testify that it is he who was ordained of God to be the Iudg of Quick and Dead To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins Nothing sheweth the necessity of Remission of Sins so much as the Judgment and the necessity of Repentance to Remission so much as the Judg who in his Covenant hath made this Condition Nothing doth befriend the great Discovery of the Gospel which is free Pardon of Sin by Christ upon Repentance so much as the sound Belief of this Truth that Christ is Judg. Doct. That the great Purpose and Drift of the Gospel where it is sent and preached is to invite Men to Repentance This appeareth abundantly by the Scripture that Repentance is one of the first and chief Lessons which the Gospel teacheth When the Gospel-Kingdom was to be erected or set up Iohn the Baptist crieth Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 3.2 So when Jesus himself began to preach his Note is the same Mat. 4.17 He began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand His Doctrine and the Doctrine of the Baptist is all one in substance and necessarily it must be so The Gospel findeth Men under the Tyranny of Sathan and offereth to bring them into the Kingdom of God So when he sent abroad his Disciples first to the Iews Matth. 10. and afterwards to the World Luk. 24.47 That Repentance and remission of Sins should be preached in his Name The Disciples were faithful to their Commission Acts 2.38 Peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins But to give you some Reasons of it I shall 1. Enquire what is Repentance 2. What the Gospel doth to promote it 3. How convenient and necessary this is for all those that are willing to come out of the Apostacy of Mankind and to return to their Obedience to God First What is Repentance Sometimes it is taken largely for our whole Conversion to God through the Faith of Christ as in the Text He commandeth all men to repent that is to turn from their Sins and believe the Gospel 2 Tim. 2.25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth Where the owning of the Christian Faith is called Repentance Sometimes strictly as opposed to or rather distinguished from Faith as Acts 20.21 Testifying both to the Iews and also to the Greeks Repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Iesus Christ. Where Repentance is said to be towards God as the End as Faith is conversant about Christ as the Means And there it signifieth a return to the Love and Obedience of our Creator which was our Primitive Duty before the Fall as Faith implyeth all the Duties that belong to our recovery by Christ. In short in the strict sense there is not only a Sorrow for what is past which is a beginning and help to the other part for 2 Cor. 7.10 Godly sorrow working repentance unto Salvation not to be repented of but also a full purpose of Heart to live unto God Gal. 2.19 I through the Law am dead to
in God The Soul of Man should be justly poysed and at a Point of Indifferency to worldly things to get or keep to want or have as God will Until our Resolutions be as easily cast the one way as the other we shall never be said to be wholly free from this Sin of trusting in Riches But certainly we are deeply tainted with it when we are so over dejected with worldly Losses 1 Cor. 7.31 They that mourn as if they mourned not And 2 Pet. 1.5 Add to Temperance Patience If there were a Moderation in the use of worldly things it would make way for Patience Gregory saith Iob lost his Estate without grief because he possess'd it without Love But it is a sign we love them too much when we murmur against God and the Heart is so depressed when they are taken away by God's Providence as if all our Happiness were gone certainly Riches are too highly prized and the World too impatiently desired when they are so deeply lamented if when they take wings and are gone they bewail it as if their God were gone Iudges 18.24 Ye have taken away my gods which I made and the Priest and are gone away and what have I more and what is this that ye say unto me What aileth thee Thence ariseth their Trouble Grief and Sorrow of Heart IV. For the Remedies against this Secret and great Mischief of putting our Confidence in Earthly things First By way of Consideration 1. Consider the Uncertainty of Riches should check our trust in them 1 Tim. 6.17 That they trust not in uncertain Riches What depends upon more Uncertainty than our outward Estates and will you trust in them Who would trust another that is sure to fail him at his greatest need Prov. 23.5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not for Riches certainly make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven A Man is not better and more sufficiently provided for his Dinner because there is a Flock of Wild fowl now pitched upon his Fields they may soon fly away Riches are like winged Creatures compared to Eagles which fly away towards Heaven how are they gone How many ways may the Lord take them away from us There is the Fire the Thief fraudulent Bargains vexatious Law-suits publick Judgments the Displeasure of the Times Many are the wings that Riches have and therefore unless a Man hath a Mind to be deceived why should he trust in them This should be deeply thought of in our greatest Prosperity especially when we have many Instances before our Eyes Alas how many are there that have laid out all their Wit and Labour nay and venture Conscience to get an Estate and all is gone in an instant and they have Heirs that they never thought of and yet the World is as greedy upon these things as ever 2. Consider None ever trusted to the World but they have Cause to complain in the Issue We think Wealth can do great things for us and stand us instead beyond any other thing to make us happy but we shall find it otherwise God is jealous of our Trust and the Creature that is of it self vain is made more vain by our Dependance upon it God will set himself to disappoint a Carnal Trust Prov. 11.28 He that trusteth in his Riches shall fall 3. Consider The more Wealth many times the more Danger therefore shall we trust in this In a Net when great Fishes are taken the lesser make their escape A great Tree by the largeness and thickness of its Boughs provoketh others to Lop it or it falleth by its own weight Nebuchadnezzar led the Princes and Nobles Captive when the poor were left in the Land As many times Thieves and Robbers cut off the Finger for the Ring 's sake when they cannot otherwise pluck it off so is a Man destroyed and made a Prey for his Wealth 's sake 4. Consider the Unprofitableness of Wealth without God it cannot make you Contented and Safe and Happy and Comfortable Luke 12.15 A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth A Man doth not live upon his Wealth not by Bread alone Mat. 4.4 but by the Providence of God I do not only say they cannot make you happy and wise certainly they cannot do that but they cannot make you more healthful chearful and comfortable So that whether you will or no at length you are brought to depend upon God but especially is their unprofitableness seen in the Day of Death and in the Day of Wrath In the Day of Death when a Man must shoot the Gulph of Eternity and launch out into the Deep Ocean of the other World Iob 27.8 What is the hope of the Hypocrite thô he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul When you must dye and nothing shall remain with you but the bitter remembrance of an Estate either ill got or ill spent for it is all one O how bitter and grievous will this be to you to call to Mind the Iniquity of Traffick to remember the cries of the Oppressed Widow or Orphans or neglected Poor or your Pride and Luxury and sowing to the Flesh when God comes to take away the Soul Or else in the Day of Wrath Prov. 11.4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath Of Internal Wrath when a Spark of God's Anger lights upon the Conscience and our Thoughts are awakened against us and fall as a heavy Burden upon us O what will all Riches do To allude to that Prov. 6.35 He will not regard any ransom neither will he rest content thô thou givest many gifts Justice will not be bribed neither will all the Money you have buy you a Pardon And in the Day of External Wrath Zephan 1.18 Neither their Silver nor their Gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath As Absalom's Mule left him hanging by the hair of the Head so will Riches leave and forsake you in all your misery 5. Think seriously of this That God is the Author of all Wealth and the Soveraign Disposer of it and therefore whether we have it or have it not we must trust in God If Wealth fails that we have it not then it is manifest it is not to be trusted in If it should encrease yet it should occasion us to trust in God who gives us what we have by what Means soever it comes to our hands it is his Gift It is the blessing of the Lord that maketh rich Prov. 10.22 If Riches come to you by Inheritance from your Ancestors it was by the Providence of God that you were Born of Rich and Noble Friends and not of Beggars If it come by Gift it is God that made them that gave it you able and willing If it comes by Industry and Skill it is God that gives the Faculty the Use and the Success So that still God is to be trusted in not in the Creature for he hath
next World but to carry us thither with Comfort supplying us in a way most conducible to his Glory and our Welfare Psal. 84.11 The Lord is a Sun and Shield the Lord will give Grace and Glory no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly All things are yours Ordinances Providences 1 Cor. 3.21 For all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is God's 2. Hereafter That Christ will give us Eternal Glory and Happiness in the other World 1 Tim. 1.16 For this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe in him to life everlasting And Iohn 20.31 These are written that ye might believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name This is the main Blessing which Faith aimeth at 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your Faith even the salvation of your Souls By this all Temptations of Sense are defeated Now if you would know whether your Faith groweth or no you must discover it by the Firmness of your Assent or the Resolvedness of your Consent or the Peace and Confidence of your Relyance 1. For Assent If you believe the Word of Gâd especially the Gospel part with an Assent so strong that you can resolve to venture your whole Happiness in this bottom and let go all that you may obtain the Hopes which the Gospel offereth to you certainly he hath a strong Faith who taketh Gods Promises for his whole Felicity and God's Word for his only Security he needeth no more nor no better Thing nor surer Conveyance to engage him to hazard all that he hath when the Enjoyment of it is inconsistent with his Fidelity to Christ. 2. Your Consent A full entire Hearty Consent to resign your Selves to Christ not a feeble Consent such as is contradicted by every foolish and hurtful Lust but a prevalent Consent such as can maintain it self notwithstanding Difficulties Temptations and Oppositions of the Flesh and controll all other Desires and Delights whatsoever 3. For Relyance When you can trust him for deliverance from the Guilt Power and Punishment of Sin and to quicken strengthen and preserve Grace in you to everlasting Life You trust him in all his Offices as a Priest when you believe his Merits and Sacrifice and Comfort your selves with his Gracious Promises and Covenant and come to God with more boldness and Hope of Mercy upon the account of his Intercession especially in all Extremities and Necessities Heb. 4.14 15 16. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens Iesus the Son of God Let us hold fast our Profession for we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need You trust him as a Prophet when you give up your selves as his Disciples to the Conduct of his Word and Spirit being parswaded that he will infallibly teach you the way to true Happiness Ioh. 6.68 Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life You trust him as a King when you become his Subjects and are perswaded that he will Govern you in Truth and Righteousness in order to your Salvation and defend you by his mighty Power from all your Enemies 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day And 2 Tim. 4.18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdom To whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen SERMON III. ON 2 THESS I. v. 3. Your Faith groweth exceedingly and the Charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth THE Growth and Encrease of Faith may be Judged of 1. By the Nature of Faith 2. The Properties of it 3. The Examples and Instances of great Faith in Scripture We are now upon the Second Thing the Properties 1. A Dependance upon God for something that lyeth out of Sight That this is an Essential Property of Faith appeareth by the Description of it Heb. 11.1 The Evidence of things not seen that is not seen by Sense and Reason Some things are invisible by reason of their Nature as God for no man hath seen God at any time Joh. 1.18 And therefore he is called the Invisible God Col. 1.15 And some things by reason of their Distance because they are Absent and Future as the Glory of the World to come and therefore 't is an Object of Faith and Hope Rom. 8.24 For hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for it Vision and Possession exclude Hope and leave no room and place for it Now without Faith a Man can have no sight of these things 2 Pet. 1.9 He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off There is a mist upon Eternity and we cannot look beyond the Clouds of this lower World unless we have the Eagle-eye of Faith but by Faith we can see them so as to frame our Lives accordingly 2 Cor. 5.7 For we walk by Faith and not by Sight By Sense we see what is pleasing or displeasing to the Flesh but by Faith what conduceth to the saving or losing of the Soul Faith being very much like Sight and serving us for the Government of the Soul as Sight doth for the Body it may much be explained by it Now to Bodily Sight there must be an Object a Medium to make the Object conspicuous and a Faculty or Organ 1. The Great Object of Faith is Eternal Life as procured by Christ and promised in the Gospel There is no use of Sight where nothing is to be seen therefore the Object is set before us in the view of Faith in the Promises of the Gospel Heb. 6.18 and Heb. 12.2 God's Truth is as certain as Sight it self can be in it we see all things promised as sure and near 2. The Medium As we see Colours in the Light of the Air so these Spiritual and heavenly things in the Light of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.11 12. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God 3. The Eye or Visive Power A Blind Man cannot see at Noon-day nor the sharpest Sight at Midnight Now this
hath revealed because he hath revealed them therefore the Divine Revelation must be conveyed to them by some means or other The Third There is no Hearing without a Preacher some Messenger or Interpreter that may bring Tydings of Pardon and Life by Christ. Then for the Fourth Branch How shall they Preach except they be sent that is come with Authority Evidence and Power whereby it may be known that he is a Messenger authorized and sent by God that the things propounded may be received as a certain Truth of God's own Revelation that we may depend upon the Credit of his Word and that with such a lively and effectual Belief as may prevail with us to Assent unto it and embrace it notwithstanding all Difficulties and Objections to the contrary Now such is the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ which Inviteth us to call upon his Name or Name our selves by the Name of Christ because we may Believe in him and run all Hazards for him 2 Tim. 1.12 Why Because we have heard of him the Fame of his Doctrine so suitable to the Glory of God and the Necessities of Mankind and the Fame of his Miracles especially his Death and Resurrection and that by Authentick Preachers or Faithful Men authorized by God and sufficiently owned by him as those that are Commissioned to Instruct the World and to Teach them the way of Salvation So that the Word is the great Means to work Faith 2. 'T is the Warrant of Faith which stateth the Laws of Commerce between us and God which sheweth how far God hath Obliged himself and we may depend upon him as appeareth by the Words of Christ Ioh. 17.20 Neither pray I for these alone but for them also that shall believe in me through their word The Principal Object of Faith is Christ we believe in him and the Warrant of Faith is the Word that is the Doctrine which by the Apostles is consigned to the use of the Church For these and no other Christ Prayeth and according to this way or Law of Grace God offereth himself to be reconciled to his Creatures So that here you may hold him to his Covenant the Word is gone out of his Lips and without this you make Promises to your selves which God will not stand unto 3. 'T is the Object of Faith or the thing which we do believe Acts 24.14 I believe all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets and add to that in the Writings of the Apostles to make the Object of the Christian Faith compleat take in also what is written in the Apostles for We are built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone Eph. 2.20 That is the Doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ being the chief summe and scope of it who is to be accepted of as he is revealed and offered in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament betwixt which there is a sweet Harmony and Agreement But because this is too bulky and large for us to manage at one time let us consider the summe of the Scriptures in the Method wherein God hath put it and that is the Covenant of Grace ratified by the Blood of Christ which is the most glorious Discovery whereby God hath made known himself to his Creatures Psal. 138.2 I will praise thy Name for thy loving kindness and thy truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name There we see that God's Word is the chiefest Discovery that he hath made of himself to the Creature for 't is magnified above all his Name that is it doth set forth God above all that is named famed spoken or believed or known or understood of God And what is the Matter of his Word his loving Kindness and his Truth that is in the Word there are contained Admirable Promises which God will certainly perform to the utmost Importance of them There we see his Mercy and loving Kindness in making such great Promises The Promises of the New Covenant are beyond all Expression great and precious 2 Pet. 1.4 they contain as much as the Heart of Man can desire all Spiritual and eternal Riches Pardon of Sin taking away the Stony Heart Eternal Life these are offered to Men to Believe And then his Truth and Fidelity in performing these Promises most punctually to all those that do Believe and will accept the Pardon Grace and Blessedness offered and behave themselves accordingly Well then God's Mercies in Christ to them that Repent Believe and Obey God are the Matter and Object of our Faith 4. The Word is the Security and Strength of our Faith 1. As it puts God's Grace into the way of a Promise 2. As this Promise is the Promise of God First We have much Advantage in Believing by the Formality of a Promise A Promise is more than a Purpose more than a Doctrinal Declaration more than a Prediction or Prophecy 1. More than a Purpose A Purpose is only the Thought of the Heart a thing secret and hidden but a Promise is open and manifest A Purpose is the Intention of a Person a Promise is his Intention revealed whereby we have a Knowledge of the good intended to us If God had only purposed to give us Eternal Life we might at last have enjoyed it but we could not have known it before hand It would have been as an hidden Treasure Promises are the Eruptions and Over-flows of God's Love to us his Heart is so big with Kindness and Designs of Goodness that it cannot stay 'till the accomplishment of things Isa. 42.9 Before they spring forth I tell you of them God's Purposes are a Sealed Fountain but his Promises are a Fountain broken open bubling forth He might have done us good and given us no Notice but Love concealed would not be so much for our Comfort Besides they are Obligations which God taketh upon himself Promittendi se fecit debitorem So far as God hath Promised so far he hath made himself a Debtor God's Purposes are unchangeable but his Promises are a Security put into our Hands so that we have a greater Hold fast upon God now the Word is gone out of his Lips Psal. 89.34 We may put the Bond in suit throw him in his Hand-writing Psal. 119.49 Remember thy word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope We have the Pawn of the thing Promised which we must hold fast 'till Performance cometh His Truth and Holiness lye at stake and are as it were impawned with the Creature 2. 'T is more than a Doctrinal Declaration 'T is one thing to reveal a thing another to Promise it A Doctrine maketh a thing known but a Promise maketh a thing sure A Doctrine giveth us Notice but a Promise giveth us Right and Interest if we be qualified Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Doctrine of the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 But he hath not only manifested
Faith and wherein the greatness of it lay 2. How this Faith was bred and begotten in him 3. The Effects and Fruits of it or how it discovered its self I. The Nature of his Faith It was a firm Perswasion that all Power and Authority was eminently in Christ and that he could do what he pleased The great End of Christ in all his Miracles was to discover himself to be the Son of God and one in whom the Divine Nature and Power resided and so by consequence that true Messiah and Saviour of the World This was Peter's Confession of Faith Matth. 16.16 Thou art Christ the Son of the living God The Promised Messiah the anointed Saviour of the World And with Peter all the rest of the Disciples join Iohn 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God This the Samaritans being Convinced and Converted confessed also Ioh. 4.42 We know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the World This Martha acknowledges Ioh. 11.27 She saith unto him yea Lord I believe that thou art the Christ the Son of God that should come into the VVorld This was it which the Apostles preached Acts 13.23 Of this Man's seed hath God according to his Promise raised unto Israel a Saviour Iesus This they required of all whom they Converted to the Christian Faith Acts 8.37 I believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God Now this the Centurion cometh off roundly with being firmly perswaded of a Divine Power and Authority in Christ for he ascribeth an Omnipotency to his Word and reasoneth it out notably Speak but the word and my Servant shall be healed Ver. 8 9. For I am a Man under Authority having Souldiers under me and I say to this man goe and he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my Servant do this and he doeth it Here then was the greatness of his Faith Objection You will say then all have great Faith for all the Christian World professeth this truth that Jesus is the Son of God Papists and Protestants Carnal and Renewed the rabble of Nominal Christians as well as the seriously Godly are of this Opinion that Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of the World Answer 1. Distinguere Tempora You must distinguish of the times In that Age there was no humane reason to believe this Truth Antiquity was against it and therefore when Paul preached Jesus they said He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods Acts 17.18 Authority was against it 1 Cor. 2.8 Which none of the Princes of this World knew for had they known it they would not have Crucifyed the Lord of glory Authority not only Civil but Ecclesiastical was against it Acts 4.11 This is the Stone which was set at nought of you builders The universal Consent of the habitable World was against it Only a small handfull of contemptible People owned him Luk. 12.32 Fear not little Flock ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã At that time it was the Critical Point the hated Truth that the Carpenter's Son should be owned as the Son of God Those bleak Winds that blew in our Backs and thrust us onward to Believe blew in their Faces and drove them from it Those very Reasons which move us to own Christ moved them to reject him For many Ages the Name of Christ hath been in Request and Honour but then it was a despised way For Men to lay aside their old Religion and Temples and Altars and Ceremonies and Rights of Worship for the new way of Jesus of Nazareth never heard of before born of a Jewish Woman living in a mean way Crucifyed like a Malefactor and dead and buried that he should be owned as the Son of God and the Saviour of the World what could be to appearance more unreasonable Alas what should we have done if we had been put to encounter with these Difficulties and Prejudices and no sooner did any Man own this truth but he was presently exposed to all manner of Troubles and Persecutions brought before Magistrates tortured murthered by all the Cruel Deaths that could be devised and all this to be endured upon the hopes of an unseen World Therefore then it was an undoubted Truth 1 Iohn 5.1 Whosoever believeth that Iesus is the Son of God is born of God And 1 Iohn 4.2 Every Spirit that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God Nay somewhat less than Faith and great Faith At his first appearance a certain perswasion impressed upon the Soul by the Spirit of God of the Divine Power and Alsufficiency of Christ so as to repair to him for help was Faith and great Faith when the vail of his Humane Nature and Infirmities did not keep the Eye of Faith from seeing him to have a Divine Power thô they could not unriddle all the Mysteries about his Person and Office this was accepted for Saving Faith 2. The Speculative Belief of this Truth was not sufficient then no more than it is now but the Practical Improvement Grant that Truth that Jesus is the Son of God and other things will follow as that we must obey his Laws and depend upon his Promises and make use of his Power and trust our selves in his hands otherwise the bare acknowledgment was not sufficient If a Man had at that time with some kind of Belief owned Christ as the Son of God and yet could not overcome the shame and fear of the World he would not have been accepted for it is said 1 Iohn 5.5 Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Iesus is the Son of God Unless that effect followed the Belief was vain Therefore it is said Iohn 2.23 24 25. Many believed in his Name when they saw the Miracles which he did But Iesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men And needed not that any should testifie of man for he knew what was in Man Christ knew the inside of Men and therefore knew this Faith was unlikely to bear any stress or hold out against Temptations Men might be convinced of some Excellency and Divine Power in Christ and yet remain unconverted So Acts 8. Simon Magus believed in Christ yet remained in the gall of bitterness and bond of Iniquity So we read again Iohn 8.30 31. As he spake these words many believed on him Then said Iesus to those Iews which believed on him if ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed Some are his Disciples in shew not truly and really being not settled and rooted in the Faith So it is noted Iohn 12.42 43. Nevertheless among the chief Rulers also many believed on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God They had Faith but it was too weak to encounter Temptations they were too
is that which the Apostle calleth the Power of Death and the Terrors which follow upon it Heb. 2.14 15. That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to Bondage The Devil hath no Power as a Judg to condemn Sinners He is not Dominus Mortis the Lord of Death but Minister Mortis the Minister of Death For being condemned of God the poor Sinner is put into his Hand that he may either terrify or stupify him and so more and more involve him in the Curse of God's broken Law and also he may hasten his Death and everlasting Destruction 2. Satan hath a Tyrannical Usurped Power So the Devils are called Rulers of the Darkness of this VVorld Ephes. 6.12 the blind idolatrous superstitious World And Satan is called the Prince of this VVorld John 14.30 And the God of this World 2 Cor. 4.4 God made him an Executioner but we make him a Prince a Ruler and a God Now Christ as a Priest disannulleth his legal Power by his Death and the Merit of his Sacrifice And Christ as the true King and Head both of Men and Angels pulls down Satan as an Usurper delivers the poor captive Souls out of his Power And as a Prophet he discovereth his Cheats and Delusions 2. His Works There is a twofold Work of Satan the Work of the Devil without us or the Work of the Devil within us 1. The Work of the Devil without us is a false Religion or those Idolatries and Superstitions by which Satan's Reign and Empire is upheld in the World This is destroyed by the Doctrine of the Gospel accompanied with the all-powerful Spirit of God And therefore when the Gospel was first preach'd by Christ's Messengers the Devil fell from that great and unlimited Power which he had before in the World Luke 10.18 I beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven 'T is an Allusion to his first Fall as Lightning flasheth and vanisheth and never recollecteth it self again So Iohn 12.31 Now shall the Prince of this VVorld be cast out When Christ did first set upon the Redemption of Mankind the Apostles went abroad to beat the Devil and hunt him out of his Territories and they did it with great Effect Therefore this is made one Argument by which the Spirit doth convince us of the Truth of the Gospel John 16.11 He shall convince the VVorld of Iudgment because the Prince of this VVorld is judged The silencing of his Oracles the suppressing of his Superstitions the destroying of the Kingdom of Wickedness and Darkness was an apparent Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel The old Religion by which the Devil's Kingdom was supported every-where went to wrack no more the same Temples the same Rites the same Gods all was made to stoop and bow before God as worshipped in Christ. 2. There is the Work of the Devil within us This concerneth the recovering particular Persons out of the Snare of the Devil who were taken captive by him at his Will and Pleasure Here we must distinguish between the Purchase and Application The Purchase was made when Christ died Col. 2.15 Having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a Shew of them openly triumphing over them in it that is on his Cross. Christ's Death was Satan's Overthrow then was the deadly Blow given to his Power and Kingdom This was the Price given for our Ransom and the great means of disannulling all that Power Satan had before The Application is begun in our Conversion for then we are said to be turned from Satan unto God Acts 26.18 To open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Then we are rescued out of the Devil's Clutches and adopted into God's Family that being made Children we may have a Child's Portion III. That in this Conflict his Heel was wounded bitten or bruised by the Serpent 1. Certain it is that Christ was bruised in the Enterprize Which sheweth how much we should value our Salvation since it costs so dear as the precious Blood of the Son of God incarnate 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold c. but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot He thought not his whole Humiliation from first to last too much for the overthrowing of the Devil's Kingdom nor any Price too dear to redeem poor captive Souls 2. But how was he bruised by the Serpent Certainly on the one hand Christ's Sufferings were the Effects of Man's Sin and God's Hatred against Sin and his governing Justice for it is said Isa. 53.10 It pleased the Father to bruise him Unless it had pleased the Lord to bruise him Satan could never have bruised him On the other side they were also the Effects of the Malice and Rage of the Devil and his Instruments who was now with the Sword's-point and closing Stroke with Christ and doing the worst he could against him In his whole Life he indured many outward Troubles from Satan's Instruments for all his Life long he was a Man of Sorrows wounded and bruised by Satan and his Instruments Iohn 8.44 Ye are of your Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father ye will do he was a Murderer from the beginning and abode not in the Truth because there is no Truth in him But the closing Stroke was at last then did the Serpent most eminently bruise his Heel When Iudas contrived the Plot it is said the Devil entred into him Luke 22.3 Then entred Satan into Judas Iscariot being one of the Twelve When the High Priest's Servants come to take him he telleth them Luke 22.53 This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness The Power of Darkness at length did prevail so far as to cause his shameful Death This was their Day 3. It was only his Heel that was bruised It could go no further for tho his bodily Life was taken away yet his Head and Mediatory Power was not touched Acts 2.36 This same Iesus whom ye have crucified God hath made both Lord and Christ. Again his bodily Life was taken away but for a while God would not leave his Soul in the Grave Psal. 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see Corruption The Counsel and Purpose of God concerning Man's Redemption had then been wholly frustrated For if Christ be not risen your Faith is vain ye are yet in your Sins 1 Cor. 15.17 Once more tho Christ was bruised yet he was not conquered When the Jews and Roman Souldiers were spoiling him and parting his Garments then was he spoiling Principalities and Powers And when Satan and his Instruments were triumphing over the Son of God then was he triumphing over all the Devils in Hell for by Death he
without some Remark and Observation Isaac goeth to meet with God and he meeteth with God and Rebekah too Godliness hath the promises of this Life and that which is to come there is nothing lost by Duty and Acts of Piety and Worship Seneca said The Iews were an unhappy People because they lost the Seventh part of their Lives meaning the time spent in the Sabbath This is the Sense of Nature to think all lost that is bestowed on God Flesh and Blood snuffeth and cryeth What a weariness is it And what need all this waste Oh let me tell you by serving God you drive on two cares at once Worldly Interests many times are cast into the way of Religion and besides the main design these things are added to us Wonderful are the Providences of God in and about Duties of Worship some have gone aside to pray and escaped such as lay in wait to destroy them and Luther tells a story of one that balked a Duty and fell into a danger passed by a Sermon and was presently surprized by Thieves Others there are that thought of nothing but meeting God in his Worship and God hath made their Duties an occasion of advancing their outward Comforts Certainly it is good to obey all impulses of the Spirit there may be somewhat of Providence as well as Grace in it Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide and he lift up his eyes and saw and behold the camels were coming In the Words you have several Circumstances The Person Isaac his Work he went out to meditate the Place in the Field the Time at even-tide 1. For the Person Isaac I need not say much because I would not digress He was Abraham's Son and God said of Abraham Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him Good Education leaveth a Savour and Tincture upon the Spirit at least an Awe and a Care of Duties and Exercises of Religion and therefore it is no wonder to hear of Abrahams Son that had been trained up in the way of the Lord to go out to meditate it is a Seal of the Blessing of Education Again Isaac was now in his Youth certainly he could not be very old Sarah was Ninety years old when the Promise was first made to her of a Son Gen. 17.17 Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old And shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear Now Sarah was but One Hundred Twenty Seven old years when she dyed Gen. 23.1 And this Match was immediately after her Death for just as he received Rebekah he left off his Mourning for Sarah Gen. 24.67 And Isaac brought her into his Mother Sarahs tent and took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her And Isaac was comforted after his mothers death Probably Isaac now was a little above Thirty Isaac a Young Man that was now entring into the World goeth out to meditate Usually we make Religious Exercises the Work of Gray Hairs and after we have spent the heat and flower of our Spirits in the vanities of the World we hope to make amends for all by a Severe and Devout Retirement Young and Green Heads look upon Meditation as a dull melancholly work fit only for the phlegme and decay of Old Age vigorous and eager Spirits are more for Action than Thoughts and their Work lyeth so much with others that they have no time to descend into themselves But the Elder World was more Innocent the Exercises of Isaacs Youth were pious he went out into the Fields to meditate 2. To open his Work to you to meditate or as it is in the Margin to pray ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Word used in the Original is indifferent to both Senses it properly signifies muttering or an imperfect and suppressed sound the Septuagint sometimes renders it by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to sing but here they render it by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies to exercise himself and most properly a Sportive Exercise as if his going abroad had been only to sport and recreate himself after the toyl of the day But that is not so probable the Holy Ghost would not put such a Mark upon such a Circumstance Therefore I suppose the Septuagints word must be taken more largely to comprise also a Religious Exercise But how is it To Pray or Meditate I would not recede from our own Translation without weighty Cause most other Translations look that way Symachus renders it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to speak Aquila ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to discourse as with others that is with God and his own Soul and so it suiteth with the force of the Original Word which properly signifies to mutter or such a speaking as is between Thoughts and Words So that the meaning is he went aside privately to discourse of God and the Promises and of Heavenly Things 3. The Place in the field Partly for Privacy deep Thoughts require a Retirement Many of Davids Psalms were penned in the Wilderness He that would have the Company of God and his own Thoughts had need go aside from other Company and be alone that he may not be alone that the Mind being sequestred from all Distractions may solace it self the more freely in these Heavenly Thoughts Exod. 3.1 Moses led the flock to the back-side of the desert and came to the mountain of God even to Horeb. He goeth aside from the other Shepherds that he might converse with the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls and there he seeth the Vision of the burning Bush. When God would communicate his Loves to the Church he inviteth her into the Wilderness Hosea 2.14 Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her The most familiar and intimate Converses between God and the Church are in private So the Spouse inviteth the Bridegroom Cant. 7.11 Come my beloved let us go forth into the field let us lodge in the villages In these Solitary and Heavenly Retirements to which no Eyes are conscious and privy we have most Experience of God and of our selves Duties done in Company are more easie by ends and Mans Eye and Observance may have an influence upon our Worship and therefore Meditation is difficult and tedious because it is a work of Retirement that hath approbation from none but our Father that seeth in Secret Partly because the Field is an help to Meditation fancy and invention being elevated and raised by the sweetness variety and pleasure of it there being on every side so many Objects and lively Memorials of God However in this sense the Circumstance is not binding some do better in a Closet than in a
but Gods They were in an high pang of Zeâl when they offered so freely to the Service of the House of God but David prayes 2 Chron. 29.28 Oh Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel our fathers keep this for ever in the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart of thy people and prepare their hearts to seek thee Our Motions are fleeting and vanishing God must preserve in us these Resolutions of consecrating our selves and all that is ours to him SERMON III. GENESIS xxvi 63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide IV. MY Work now is to handle the Letts or Hindrances of Meditation together with the helps and means that may quicken you to the performance of it The Letts may be sooner discovered then remedyed as the Nature of many Diseases is better known than the Cures and therefore they are called Opprobria Medicorum the Disgrace of the Physitians skill So these remain as Marks and Memorials of the Fall Intire and uninterrupted Visions are the Priviledges of Heaven we must be contented with our broken and imperfect Measures it is enough that we have Doves Eyes Cant. 4.1 That we can peck and look upward and enjoy some temperate glances on the Glory of our Hopes though we be not transported with the ravishments of a constant and steady Vision We cannot expect to be absolute we shall still have cause to be humbled it is enough if we can be encouraged against despair for many find themselves so unfit that they have not hopes enough to attempt the Duty To these I shall speak chiefly in this Discourse I had thought to have handled the Letts severally and then the helps but I think it would be better to suit each discouragement with its proper helps The Letts and Hindrances are of several sorts some common to this with other Duties and others more peculiar to the Duty of Meditation First I begin with the first sort such Hindrances as are common to other Duties and they are Four Sloath Love of Pleasure a Guilty Conscience and an unwieldy Mind 1. There is a Spiritual Sloathfulness Men lye upon the Bed of Ease and are loath in good earnest to apply themselves to what is painful and difficult If Grace would drop to them out of the Clouds or God would be contented with some faint lazy wishes or some cold and yawning Expressions of a drowsie Devotion they would be Religious but where Duties must cost labour and self-denyal and put them to pains Men withdraw the Shoulder and hang off Therefore Solomon saith Prov. 21.25 The desire of the sloathful killeth him for his hands refuse to labour They would fain have Grace and performe what God requires but are loath to take pains Now as this is a Prejudice against all other Duties so especially against the Duty of Meditation partly because of all Duties it is most difficult and tedious to the Flesh it is a Duty lying within the Soul we cannot so easily command our own thoughts now inward Duties are the most difficult because we cannot alwayes exercise a Dominion over our own Spirits Partly because it is a Private Duty to which God alone is conscious In Publick Duties Secular Interests and Ends have a great constraint and therefore we excite the Heart to be more intent and serious We see by-ends make Men deny themselves but where there is not this to prompt them they either omit the Work or turn it into a slight and idle practice How shall we do to shake off this Spiritual Sloath I Answer 1. You must consider that a lazy Spirit is most unfit for Christianity The whole Christian Life is carryed on with much Labour and Diligence you were as good never look after Christ and Heaven as refuse Labour There is nothing required in the whole compass of Religion but what will cost you a great deal of pains Faith is a work Iohn 6.29 That is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent It is not a barren idle speculation nor a naked apprehension but a matter of difficulty and diligence to bring Christ and the Soul together and to lodge the Soul in the bosom of Christ. Love is Labour Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love It is not a Naked Profession but there is Labour in it take it either for Love to God or Men for Love to God that is not a fellow-like familiarity but a laying out our selves in his Service or for Love to Men that doth not consist in a few good words Debts are not paid with a noise of Money you do not satisfie the Commandment by saying Depart in peace be ye warmed be ye filled if you give them not those things which are needful to the body Iames 2.16 So for Obedience it is expressed by a constant course of Work and Labâur 1 Cor. 15.58 Be ye stedfast and unmovable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Religion is but a constant Exercise there are no Loyterers in Heaven Gods Work must not be followed with a faint wish and a slack hand Men mistake Religion if they think it a broad and easie way where Men may live at large no the Gate is narrow and the Path is streight and few there be that find it it is a Work not a Sport and Play and Men had as good lay all thoughts of God and Christ aside as to resolve upon an easie course and flatter themselves with an expectation that they shall go to Heaven with a lazy wish and fancy such a short cut and passage to Heaven as will cost no pains 2. It is better to take pains than to suffer pains and to be bound with the Cords of Duty than with the Chains of Darkness The Bonds of Duty are not Gives but Ornaments for Duty is the greatest Freedom Psal. 119.45 I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts You will never be more free then when you once make Experience of Gods Service How sad is it to see Men prejudiced against such pains as yield Freedom and Comfort for the present and Glory for the future and take pains for that for which they shall suffer Eternal pains Isa. 5.18 Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with cart ropes They moyl and toyl in the work of Satan as a Horse in a Mill and labour for their own destruction Consider the Devils Work is Drudgery and his Reward is Death yet such is the wretchedness of Man that he accounteth nothing toilsome but God's Work and nothing pleasant but the Accomplishment of his own Lusts to be Lusts Vassal and Prides Slave and to be at the command of every Covetous and Unclean Desire How do Men toyl in the World go to Bed late rise early eat the Bread of Sorrows exhaust and waste their Strength
more urge us to do a thing than Love or to forbear it than hatred These were Christs Motives to undertake the Redemption of Sinners Now we should love what he loveth and hate what he hateth Rev. 2.6 Thou hatest the deeds of the Nicholaitans which I also hate Prov. 8.13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate But there is more in the Argument than so This was the design of our Redeemer 1 Iohn 3.8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Now it doth not become Christians to contradict the designed end of their Redeemer But this is not all it is to slight the price of our Redemption as if there were no such great Mystery in it that the Son of God should dye for if we slight the benefits we slight the ransom 1 Pet. 1.18 Yea there is this further in it we neglect the Grace that may be had upon such easie terms Surely the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ did somewhat shorten the Power of Sin or else he came in vain he obtained the Grace he purchased Iohn 12.31 Now is the judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out These are the glorious Fruits and Effects of his Death that it shall tend to the Glory of God and the bringing down the Kingdom of Sin and Sathan in the World They to whom this purchase is revealed and yet reject the offer are guilty of sluggish Cowardise and if they be not delivered from the Power of the Devil and restored to a life of Holyness their Condemnation is just In our Natural Estate by the fall of Adam we were all corrupted and out of frame but the Second Adam came to restore things that were in Confusion and out of frame to their Right and Primitive Order Man hath faln from Holiness and Happiness Sin and Sathan have reigned and raged in this World the Children of this World have blessed themselves in their bad condition and delighted in their slavery and bondage Now if Christ come to make an end of Sin and bring in Everlasting Righteousness shall it be so still as it was before Shall the disordered World go on in its ancient wont Surely there should be more visible fruits of his coming seen among us If Men should lye in Wickedness still and turn their backs upon God after whose Image they were created and Sin and Sathan rule them at their pleasure how are things put in frame that were out of course What hath the Son of God done by all his Holy Life and Bloody Sufferings Surely either the Purchase is not so Great and Glorious or we make but little use of it and so are quite Strangers in Gods Israel I have not done with the Argument yet We have no Communion with Christ yea we renounce it if we continue to be so unlike him 1 Iohn 1.6 7 8. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light then have we fellowship one with another and the blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Such a solemne Preface introduceth that truth to shew that if we live in our Sins we shall dye in our Sins and then farewel all Happiness 2. To look after more of this Unction He is Christ the anointed of God we must be Christians Acts 11.26 The disciples were called christians first in Antioch anointed with the Holy Ghost and with Power that we may understand the mind of God consecrate our selves to him work his work and ingage in his Warfare fighting against the Devil the World and the Flesh till we triumph with Christ in Heaven All must be anointed 1. This is the fruit of Christs Exaltation to send and shed abroad the Spirit There are Effects of Christs Humiliation and Effects of Christ's Exaltation The Effects of Christs Humiliation are taking away the Curse of the Law pacifying Gods Wrath satisfying his Justice the Annihilation of the Right which the Devil had over Sinners a Right to return to God and injoy Eternal Life The Exaltation of Christ also hath its effects the application of this Grace and the execution of this Right by quickning us who were dead in Trespasses and Sins and pardoning our Transgressions and putting us into the way Everlasting Now we should seek in Christ not only the force of satisfaction but the force of Regeneration and his efficacious Grace to apply what he hath purchased for us that he may be made sanctification to us as well as Righteousness 1 Cor. 11.30 Since Christ is so able and willing to dispense this Grace freely and abundantly into Mens hearts surely it should not be neglected 2. Consider the necessity of this Grace Our love to Righteousness and hatred of Iniquity is the fruit of this Unction for Affections follow the Nature When we live in the Spirit we shall walk in the Spirit Psal. 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil All that pretend to return to God must show the reality of it this way Therefore as you would be pleasing to Christ do not neglect this Grace 3. Consider the Utility and Profit It is for our Comfort The Spirit is called the oil of gladness because the benefits whereof we are Partakers are matters of great joy Acts 13.52 The disciples were filled with joy and with the holy Ghost Acts 8.39 He went on his way rejoycing Acts 16.34 He rejoyced believing in God with all hts house It is for our Honour we are dignified above others the more we are made partakers of the Spirit 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people A SERMON On ACTS xxiv 14 15 16. Believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets And have hope towards God which they themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust And herein do I exercise my self to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man THESE words are part of Pauls Apology against the Accusation of Tertullus Among other things he chargeth him to be an Heretick or an Apostate from the Iewish Religion When the Romans had conquered the Iews they submitted upon this Condition that they should innovate and change nothing in their Religion but defend it against the disturbers of it Now the Christians being accused of innovation and disturbance of such a Religion as was under the caution of the Roman Laws before a Roman Tribunal it concerned them to shew the Harmony and Agreement of both Religions as to the substance This is Pauls business and therefore he giveth an account of his Faith
thee pray to God for us that he take away the fiery serpents In Adversity Men will own the faithful Servants of God against whom they have murmured when all is well Moses forgetteth the injury and prayeth to God for them and God though he doth not take away the Serpents yet he provideth a Remedy unlikely in appearance a Brazen Serpent to cure the bites of Living Serpents but Divine Institution conveyeth a Blessing The word of Command is that they should look upon the brazen serpent and the word of Promise is that they should be healed Numb 21.8 Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that every one when he is bitten that looketh upon it shall live This is in short the History Secondly The Mistery or Typical use of the Brazen Serpent The chief things represented in it are Sin Christ and Faith the deadliness of Sin the manner of our deliverance by Christ and the Nature of Faith 1. Israelites deadly Sin and Misery occasioned the setting up of the Brazen Serpent so the occasion of Christs sending into the World was Mans Sin and Misery we being all bitten by the old Serpent and so liable to the Curse The Devil is called the old serpent Rev. 12.9 And in the appearance of a Serpent he deceived our first Parents Therefore we read that the serpent beguiled Eve 2 Cor. 11.3 Humane Nature was then stung to Death by Sathan and the Venome dispersed its self throughout the whole Race of Mankind Among the Israelites there were but a few stung here all there their Bodies here the Soul there Temporal Death followed here Eternal In the Sting of these fiery Serpents two things representeth our Misery by Sin 1. It is painful 2. Deadly 1. This Sting is painful The bitings did presently cause pains and an intolerable thirst and burning which was very grievous to them so the sting of Sin is painful not alwaies felt but soon awakened In Spiritual things we are more stupid and are not so sensible of the Maladies of the Soul as they were of the pains of the Body We are subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 Though we do not alwaies feel actual horrour There is a fire smothering in our Bosoms though it be not blown up into a Flame One of our Spiritual Diseases is a Lethargy and it is a great part of our Misery not to know our Misery If Conscience were not lulled asleep we would be more sensible Surely Sathans bites are more painful than those of these Serpents his Darts are called fiery darts Eph. 6.16 His Darts are dipt in the gall of Asps and Vipers Boiling Lusts will in time awaken raging Fears and Despair O what horrour and torment will Sin procure to us if it be not speedily cured Sin is an Evil and a Mischief whether we feel it yea or no but we shall soon feel it an Evil as the stung Israelites felt the biting of the Serpents Sin in the Life will make Hell in the Conscience it seemeth a sweet draught while we are taking it down but there is rank poison at the bottom A wounded Spirit findeth it now Prov. 18.14 A wounded spirit who can bear Horrour and anguish of Conscience is insupportable ask any Man whose Heart is well awakened and he will tell you that the sense of the guilt of Sin is more bitter to the Soul than the gall of Asps no terrour comparable to the terror and sting of an accusing Conscience Gods terrors are compared to a Fire that drinketh up the Blood and Spirits Iob 6.4 The arrows of the almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me No poison more burning than Sin in an awakened Conscience it may lie asleep till you come to dye in Sin stupid and benummed Creatures But then the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 Death is made terrible by those sad horrors and apprehensions which Sin raiseth in us 2. This Sting is deadly As the biting of the Fiery Serpents could not be cured but was present Death till God found out a Remedy so this sting of Sin is deadly Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye dying thou die Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death Death Temporal Eternal Thou art a dead Man lost for ever if thou art not cured Those who were not solicitous about their Cure are a figure of the impenitent who obstinately continue in their Sins though they bring destruction upon them Not only Death Temporal which consists in the separation of the Soul from the Body but Death Spiritual which consists in an estrangement from God as Author of the Life of Grace yea Death Eternal which consists in a separation both of Body and Soul from the presence of God for evermore and is a perpetual living to deadly pain and torment This Second Death is set forth by two solemn Notions the worm that never dyeth and the fire that shall never be quenched Mark 9.44 By which is meant the Sting of Conscience and the Wrath of God Prov. 8.36 All they that hate me love death 2. Christ is set forth by the Brazen Serpent Here I shall shew you 1. The Resemblances 2. The Superexcellency of Christ above this and all the Shadows and Types of him 1. The Resemblance between Christ and the Brazen Serpent 1. The Brazen Serpent was a Remedy of Gods own prescribing out of his great Mercy So is this Remedy for lost Sinners the meer Fruit of Gods Love Iohn 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son the causa ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Occasion or outward moving Cause was our Misery the causa ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the inward impulsive Cause was his own love and pity to lapsed Mankind God found out the Remedy we neither plotted it nor asked it he saw the world of Mankind was perishing and involved in Eternal Ruine and because there was no Intercessor therefore his own Arm wrought out Salvation Herein the Antitype differeth from the Type The stung Israelites having Death in their bosoms go to Moses Moses goeth to God for he saw there could be no help elsewhere then God said Make thee a brazen serpent The motion came from them first but here it is quite otherwise God is the offended Party yet he maketh the first motion 1 Iohn 4.19 We love him because he loved us first There God found out the Remedy but here his meer love began the whole business and did set at work all the Causes that did concur to our Salvation we neither minded our Danger nor asked our Remedy 2. The conveniency of this Type to set out the low Estate and Humiliation of Christ. The form of a Serpent was chosen to shew
they visited thee The keeping up of this Acquaintance is necessary both to our present Comfort and future Acceptance 1. For our present Comfort it giveth you boldness to come to God in all your necessities and streights if you daily wait upon him Frequency of Converse begets familiarity and familiarity begets confidence When God and you grow strange you cannot come with that freedom to ask his help as those that familiarly converse with him do Eph. 3.12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him A Child is not afraid to go to his Father nor a Man unto his Friend to pour out his complaint into his bosom nor a Servant of daily attendance to open his Suit to his Master they know his name Psalm 9.10 and are acquainted with him 2. For our future acceptance Luke 21.36 Watch ye therefore and pray alwaies that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of man viz. at his coming They that are constant in Prayer make up their Accounts with God daily and so may with the better confidence attend his coming When you have been frequently with him frequently entertained by him and accepted with him had your Prayers heard and Desires granted it is a great incouragement in the hour of Death when you are to leave the World and come immediately before him On the other side for Men to appear before a God whom they never knew nor heartily loved and with whom they were never acquainted as to any intimate Communion and Converse this is a sad case Alas at the best it is to an unknown Friend but indeed it is to a certain Enemy they never had experience of his kindness which they would own nor interest in his Love and now are forced into his Presence against their Will Alas how soon will the time come when Men would fain set about Prayer but it is too late they have then neither Treasure nor skill to pray and the Prayers they then make are not the Fruits of Faith and Love but of Despair and Horrour they cry Lord Lord but Christ saith I know you not ye are workers of iniquity But on the other side they are fitted for Everlasting Communion with God who are acquainted with him already and when they come to be translated they do but change Place not Company Heaven is an access to God and the Throne of Grace is the Porch of Heaven We begin the Heavenly Life here by these frequent converses with God and our access to him now 3. With respect to the New Nature or the Temper and Disposition of the Saints Prayer is the cry of the New Creature a work natural and kindly to the Saints Zech. 12.10 I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications A Spirit of Grace will soon break out into supplications and vent it self that way Acts 9.11 Behold he prayeth Zeph. 3.9 I will turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one consent In the Margin it is a pure lip Gods true Children are carryed to him by a kind of Natural Motion as light Bodies move upward they are a sort of Men that are seeking after God Psalm 24.6 This is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face O Iacob Selah Therefore we should quite check and cross the bent and inclination of the New Nature unless we be much in Prayer and often with God 4. With respect to the necessities of the Saints Our wants are continual as well in Spiritual as in Temporal things That we need daily Bread is evident to Sense and that we need daily Pardon and daily Strength against Temptations should be as evident to Faith The Soul hath its necessities as well as the Body yea they are greater and of a more dangerous Nature Sometimes we lack Wisdom and who shall give it us but God Iames 1.5 If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him Sometimes we lack Strength and that is to be sought in Prayer Eph. 3.10 That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with all might by his spirit in the inner man Sometimes we lack life and quickning and to whom should we go but to the live-making Spirit to him who quickneth all things In short the Throne of Grace was set up for a time of need and therefore when our necessities drive us to it we should not hang off Heb. 4.16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need We alwaies need to be delivered from evil we alwaies need to be established in good sometimes we need a Blessing on what we have that our Comforts may be sanctified to us sometimes a Blessing on what we do that we may begin it and end it in God All our Relations increase our necessities so do all our injoyments new Mercies occasion new Necessities And in the variety of our Afflictions we have still somewhat to do with God The receipt of one Mercy discovereth the need of another 5. With respect to the utility and profit of it It is endless to instance in all things I shall confine the Discourse to Spiritual profit and there 1. The Three Radical Graces Faith Hope and Love are acted and increased in Prayer Iude 20 21. But ye beloved building up your selves in your most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercies of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal life Mark there praying in the Holy Ghost is to be referred in common to them all to building up your selves in your most Holy Faith to keeping your selves in the Love of God to looking for the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life Surely frequent Prayer keepeth every Grace active and more ready than if it were seldom used 1. For Faith in this Duty the Misteries of our most Holy Faith are reduced to practice even that great Mistery of the Trinity and their distinct personal Operations we find the benefit of it in Prayer Eph. 2.18 For through him we both have an access by one spirit unto the Father To the Father as an All-sufficient Fountain of Grace Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God By Christ who hath purchased leave welcome and audience Heb. 10.19 By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh And by the Spirit who hath given us an Heart to come inspiring us with Holy Motions enlivening our Affections Rom. 8.26 Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities That we may open our Hearts to God If Prayer be Prayer indeed
be vexed by Sathan for his Tryal Iob 1.12 And Paul had his Messenger of Sathan to try him to see what shift he could make with sufficient internal Grace against outward and vexatious evils 2 Cor. 12.7 8. Now it is better to undergo the fiery Tryal than the fiery Torment Tryed we are then but not destroyed Yea sometimes hurried to Death and yet we overcome Revel 12.11 Christ doth prevail upon opposition and by opposition When Sathans Instruments were killing Christians they were pulling down Sathans Throne and advancing Christs and when they were butchered and slaughtered yet they multiplyed 4. The Means and Manner of Victory is to be considered 1. Christ overcometh this Enmity by taking our Nature He might have destroyed him by his Divine Power but the Conquerer is the Seed of the Woman or the Son of God incarnate He conquered in the same Nature that was so lately foiled and thereby Sathans main design is crossed and counter-worked which was double Partly to make Man jealous of God as if he were envious of our Happiness and by this false representation to alienate our hearts and make a breach between us and him Gen. 3.5 God knoweth that in the day ye eat thereof ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil This way would he weaken the esteem of God in our Hearts but hereby we have a fuller manifestation of his love to make him the more amiable to us Rom. 5.8 But God commended his love to us that when we were sinners Christ dyed for us And Iohn 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And 1 Iohn 4.9 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins We would be as God and Christ would be as Man Partly to depress the Nature of Man which in Innocency stood so near to God that was the end of his malicious suggestion But now 't is advanced and set up far above the Angelical Nature and admitted to dwell with God in a Personal Union Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham The Nature of Man being only assumed by Christ the Angels are not concerned in it immediately Man had the benefit and honour put upon him especially in his glorified Estate Eph. 1.20 21. 2. By his Passion or Death on the Cross Heb. 2.14 For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is is the Devil Christ would not only take our Nature but also suffer in it so to frustrate and make void the Devils design which was to keep Men for ever under the power of Death wherein he had involved him He had brought Sin upon us and by Sin Death and in this Condition as the Executioner of Gods Curse he would still have held us but that Christ came to put us into a Condition of Holiness and Happiness and so make us capable of Eternal Life The Devil did not conquer Christ by Death but Christ did conquer the Devil When the Roman Soldiers were parting and spoiling his Garments he was spoiling Principalities and Powers 3. By his Resurrection and Ascension After he had been a Sacrifice for Sin by his Resurrection he overcame Death Hell and Sin and soon after he ascended into Heaven that he might triumph over the Devil and lead Captivity Captive Eph. 4.8 His Enemies were foiled upon the Cross but his Triumph over them was at his Ascension whereby he hath assured the World of his Conquest that he hath carried the day and gained an absolute and compleat Victory for our Lord in Heaven is out of the reach of Enemies as having done his work we are only left behind to scatter the Relicks of the Battle 4. By his sitting at the Right Hand of God he doth two things 1. He poureth out the Spirit endowing his Messengers with all Gifts and Graces ordinary and extraordinary to preach the Gospel to the Heathen World whereby the Old Religion by which the Devils Kingdom was supported went to wrack every where his Oracles were silenced his Superstitions suppressed No more the same Temples the same Rites the same Gods all fell before God as worshipped in Christ Iohn 16.11 The spirit shall convince the world of judgment because the prince of this world is judged 'T is true in some parts of the World Sathan yet reigneth where Christ hath not pursued him with his Gospel or withdrawn his Gospel for the ingratitude of Men but where it cometh it prevaileth mightily and the World cannot resist its convincing power 2. By his Secret and Invisible Providence he defendeth his People and stilleth the Enemy and Avenger Christ as God incarnate having the grant of a Kingdom is every way furnished with power to maintain it by Means proper to the mediatory Dispensation by his Word Spirit and Providence this last we are upon All Judgment is put into his hands Iohn 5.22 Though there be many vicissitudes and changes in the outward Condition of the Church yet by invisible wayes God doth notably defeat Sathan and his Instruments And though there be ebbings and flowings of the two Kingdoms yet we have much experience that Christ is upon the Throne by his protecting strengthning and assisting his faithful People and prospering their just endeavours for the advancing of his Kingdom Sometimes he destroyeth Enemies Isa. 27.4 Who would set the briers and thornes against me in battle I would go through them and burn them together Sometimes he infatuateth their Counsels Iob 5.12 13. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot performe their enterprize He taketh the wise in his own craftiness and the counsel of the froward is carried head-long Sometimes he hideth his People in the secret of his Presence Psalm 31.20 Sometimes he blasts all their prosperity by an invisible Curse Iob 20.26 A fire not blown shall consume them Or else he divides them as you may read in 2 Chron. 20. Chapter 5. The Degree of the success How far is the Enemy and Avenger stilled I Answer 1. Non ratione essentiae not to take away his Life and Being No there is a Devil still and shall be when the whole work of Christs Redemption is finished for it is said of that time Revel 20.10 That the Devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and for ever So Matth. 25.41 Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels Then Eternal Judgment is executed on the
I will give them an Everlasting Name that shall not be cut off 2. In Framing the Child in the Womb. It is not the Parents but God The Parents cannot tell whether it be Male or Female Beautiful or deformed they know not the number of the Veins and Arteries Bones and Muscles See Psal. 139.13 14 15 16. For thou hast possessed my Reins thou hast covered me in my Mothers Womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my Soul knoweth right well My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Larth Thine Eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect and in thy Book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them There is a great deal of Work-man ship in the Body of Man it is a curious piece of Embroidery Angels sang at Mans Creation Iob 38.7 When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy and they admire at his Resurrection What is God about to do 3. In giving Strength to bring forth The Heathens had a Goddess which presided over this work His Providence reacheth to the Beasts It is by the Lord that Hinds do calve Psal. 29.9 The Voice of the Lord maketh the Hinds to calve and there is a Promise to them that fear him 1 Tim. 2.15 She shall be saved in Child-bearing if they continue in Faith and Charity and Holiness with Sobriety It must be understood as all temporal Promises are with the exception of his Will but thus much we gather that it is a Blessing which falleth under the care of his Providence and that by Promise so far as God seeth fit to make it good Rachel died in this Case every godly Woman hath not this deliverance So did Phinehas his Wife 1 Sam. 4. latter end God might have taken this advantage against you to have cut you off If deliverance were not so ordinary it would be accounted miraculous The Sorrows and Pains of Travel are a Monument of Gods displeasure Gen. 3.16 Vnto the Woman he said I will greatly multiply thy Sorrow and thy Conception in Sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children Womens Pains are more grievous than the Females of any kind to preserve a weak Vessel in great danger and for the Child a Sentence of Death way-laid it as it was coming into the World 4 The Circumstances of Deliverance In every Birth there are some new Circumstances to awaken our Stupid Thoughts to consider the Work of God For God doth all his works with some variety lest we should be cloyed with the commonness of them 2. They are a great Blessing in themselves and the more of them the greater Blessing and therefore should they be acknowledged and improved as Blessings Certainly there is a more special favour shewed us in our Relations than in our Possessions Prov. 19.14 House and Riches are the Inheritance of Fathers âut a good Wife is from the Lord. So for Children By them the Parent is continued and multiplied They are a part of himself and in them he liveth when âe is dead and gone It is a shadow of Eternity nodosa Eternitas therefore the outward appurtenances of Life are not so valuable as Children Besides they are capable of the Image of God By them the World is Replenished the Church multiplied a people continued to know love and serve God when we are dead and gone We read of Christ's rejoicing in the habitable parts of the Earth and his delights were with the Sons of Men. Prov. 8.31 In the habitable parts of the World there are great Whales but Men were Christs delight Especially to Gods Confederates or Parents in Covenant with God are Children a greater Mercy David was such an one these are Sons and Daughters born to him Ezek. 16.20 These are visibly the Children of God and in a most proper sense an heritage from the Lord. It is said Gen. 6.12 The Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair and they took them Wives of all which they chose Seth begat Sons and Daughters to God See Gen. 10.21 Vnto Shem also the Father of the Children of Eber the Brother of Japhet the Elder even to him were born Children The Persians Lydians Assyrians Syrians these who were possessed of the Empire of the World and all the rich Spices and Treasures of the East he hath not his denomination from them but from the Children of Eber a people a long time kept under before they could grow into a Nation but they were the People of God who retained his true Worship Their's were the Promises the Adoption and the Glory See that place 1 Cor. 7.14 For the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children unholy but now are they holy Reasons are à notioribus from some things plainer than the things they are to prove The scope of it is to hold forth some priviledge to Believers not common to others who are Infidels for it is for the Believers sake that the other is sanctified If it were a common priviledge the unbelieving Husband had been as much sanctified in himself as in his Wife Well then it is some special priviledge not common to the Marriage of an unbelieving couple Agaân whatever this priviledge be it is something of importance for therefore is it mentioned negatively and positively which the Holy Ghost useth not to do but in weighty cases negatively they are not as other Children unclean but positively they are holy Again mark the gradation The unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children unholy but now are they Holy To be sanctified is more than to be lawful and to be holy is more than to be sanctified All things as Meats Drink Marriage Estate are lawful to an Infidel but not sanctified for they are sanctified by the Word and Prayer and many things are sanctified which are not holy as Gold Silver Goats Hair when they were dedicated to God they were changed in use not in nature The unbelieving Husband to whom all things are impure he is sanctified that is set apart to serve God's providence to this holy end and use that the believing Wife may bring forth Children to God As a Nobleman Marrying a Begger conveyeth Nobility to the Children Now having laid this foundation let us see what is the meaning of not being unclean but holy The unclean under the Law were those that might not come into the Sanctuary or into the Temple Holiness qualified for worship and made capable of Ordinances What God hath cleansed call not thou common or unclean Act. 10.15 saith God to Peter speaking of the Gentiles as capable of Gospel Priviledges And so we have found out the sense the Children
worldy Spirit we are not fit for Christ 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have not received the Spirit of the World but the Spirit of God So much as the Spirit of the World is deadned in us so far doth Christ prevail upon us So for the Flesh Men are given up to their own Hearts Lusts till God changeth them and care not for God nor Christ and his Salvation bruitish Appetite and Sense governeth them But what will be the issue of these things see Rom. 8 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die Well then to bring us back again to God that we may totally resign up our selves to him you see what a power is necessary to vanquish the Devil and save us from the World and change our own Flesh by his Spirit 4. It informeth us of the reason why so many Nations shut the Door against Christ or else grow weary of him you see frequently Men can bear any Religion rather than Christianity in its power sottish superstitions such as were practised and in vogue among the Gentiles Popery which is palliated Atheism or Gentilism trick'd up in a Christian dress and form half Christianity the form not the power priviledges not the duties The World disputeth it with Christ by inches what 's the reason His Spiritual Kingdom which is not calculated for the interest of the Carnal World and altogether draweth us to an Heavenly Life and State those that submit to it or would speak of it exasperate the World against them as upbraiding their course of Life 5. It informeth us how ill they deal with Christ who have only notional opinions about his Authority but never practically submit to it Many will say we must receive Christ as a King as well as a Priest and Prophet but do we live accordingly Luke 6.46 why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Professed opinions unless followed with suitable actions are but a mockage of Christ and a cheat and fallacy that we put upon our selves A mockage of Christ Cui res nomini subjecta negatur is nomine illuditur He that wants the thing signified by the name is deceived by the name They did little honour to Christ who Buffeted Him and Spit upon him and all the while cried Hail King of the Iews so whilest we call him Lord and King but make little Conscience of his Precepts we deny him the honour in deeds which in words we ascribe to him So that a practical sense of Christs Authority and Right to Govern should be deeply impressed upon our Hearts When is it practical when it breedeâh an awe upon us and checketh sin As the Rechabites were afraid to transgress the commandment of their Father Ier. 35.6 They said We will Drink no Wine for Jonadab the Son of Rechab our Father commanded us saying Ye shall Drink no Wine neither ye nor your Sons for ever So Ioseph Gen. 39.9 when Tempted by his Mistress to lye with Her he repels the Temptation saying How can I do this great Wickedness and Sin against God So all that have a reverence of their supream Lord you shall find that it works upon all occasions if tempted to Fleshly Lusts do this to please thy Flesh They answer as the Apostle Paul Rom. 8.12 We are debtors not to the Flesh to live after the Flesh. If they be assaulted by the Persecutions of the World still they have the authority of the Great Lord If threatned for speaking in his Name and commanded not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus as the Apostles Peter and Iohn answered Acts 4.19 Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God Iudge ye so I dare not obey the Wills of Men or the Inclinations of the Flesh but my Great Lord. If Satan would draw you to any Inconvenience answer as Christ Himself did to Peter dissuading Him from suffering Mat. 16.23 Get thee behind me Satan for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of Men. When there is something that doth constrain within us and urgeth us to a constant obedience For Christ that requireth us to die unto sin doth also require us to live unto Righteousness When the sense of this becomes as an Habit or new Nature in us or the principle of our course of living it puts the Soul upon obedience it constraineth us most powerfully to live in him and to him Col. 2.6 and 10. verse the 6th As ye have therefore received Christ Iesus the Lord so walk ye in him ver 10. ye are compleat in Him and Rom. 6.16 Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his Servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of Sin unto Death or of Obedience unto Righteousness Vse 2. is Exhortation If we would distinguish our selves from the Carnal World let us resolve upon a thorough course of Christianity owning Christs authority in all things 1. If we be to begin and have hitherto stood against Christ Oh let us repent and reform and return to our Obedience Mât. 18.3 Except ye be Converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2. Remember that Faith is a great part of your works from first to last Iohn 6.27 Iesus answered and said unto them This is the Work of God that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent All the Grace and Mercy of the new Covenant it is begun kept up and carried on by Faith we are sincerely to believe on Him before we can rightly obey him 3. Your obedience must be delightful and such as cometh from love 1 Ioh. 5.3 For this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments Believers are not called to the Obedience of Slaves nor to be acted only by the fear of Hell but to the Obedience of Sons and Children that you may obey with love and delight Forced motives endure not long fears will abate and then your duty be neglected Love should be as a new Nature and the habitual constitution of our Souls and you should act not as driven to Obedience but as inclined to it and delighted in it Psal. 40.8 I delight to do thy Will O God for this is a Soveraignty not forced upon us âut consented unto 4. Your Obedience must be very circumspect and accurate Heb. 12.28 Having received a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace that we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and Godly Fear A Kingdom may be received either by a King to Govern or Subjects to be Governed a King to Govern Luke 19.12 A certain Nobleman went into a far Country to receive a Kingdom Or Subjects to be governed when we submit to the Sovereign to injoy the priviledges which belong to that Kingdom So we must serve him with Reverence and Godly Fear For boldness in Sinning and coldness in Duty is a depreciation of his Majesty He is
that But so as first that which is necessary to be done by his Man-hood be done for us first the merit of his humiliation was to be interposed before we could be acquainted with the power of his exaltation God took this way partly because we were to be restored in a way contrary to that by which we fell We fell by Pride and we must be restored by humility We would be as God not in a way of blessed conformity but cursed self-sufficiency therefore to expiate this pride God must become like Man take our Nature and suffer in it Once Man in the pride of his Heart attempted to be like God and God by a Mystery of humility became like Man that he might bring Man into a nearer degree of likeness to God Partly because the honour of his justice required it Reconciliation supposeth satisfaction for we are not at peace with God till his justice be appeased And the Spirit of God had not been sent if God had not been at peace with us for this is the token of his friendship And till the Spirit be given to change both our Natures and Estate we have no title to the pardon of sin and Eternal Life Therefore the Merit of Christ's humiliation is at the bottom of all the good we expect from God Partly because he delighteth to carry on our Salvation by contraries Christ emptied himself to fill all things became poor that we might be rich brought life out of death covered his glory wherewith he would inrich the World under shame and disgrace In the same way that Christ purchased it we obtain it a Christian is tossed with Tempests and yet the peace of God preserveth his Heart He hath nothing and yet hath all things was disgraced in the World and yet approved of God There was nothing stronger than Christs seeming weakness in his lowest abasement he discovered the greatest power of his God-head He satisfied the Justice of God overcame Death and his Fathers wrath triumphed over Satan crushed his Head when he bruised his Heel The Apostle telleth us 1 Cor. 1.25 The foolishness of God is wiser than Men and the weakness of God is stronger than Men. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The foolish part and the weak part that which in Mans opinion hath least Wisdom or strength in it Nothing is such a glorious act of Wisdom and Power as Salvation by Christ dying Christ abased as also to bring a Christian to Heaven by Afflictions rather than to suffer him to be prosperous in the World 2 ây way of Pattern and Example Christ that came to set open the way to Heaven would also teach us the way to Heaven not only by his Doctrine but Example Christ made himself of no reputation and therefore we should be dead to the reputation and grandeur of the World which is the great diversion and hinderance to the Heavenly Life The Apostle when he bringeth this instance he saith Let the same mind be in you that was also in Christ Iesus Phil. 2.5 This very thing is propounded to our imitation The Son of God had wisdom to chuse right to injoy power to procure the best condition which the World affordeth but yet he chose a mean state of life subject to many afflictions and sorrows Here I shall shew 1. The power of Christ's example in the general 2. What he teacheth us by emptying himself or making himself of no reputation 1. All example hath an alluring power or great force in moving this is the example not of an equal or inferiour but of a great person one far above us This great person is Jesus Christ our Lord the great Messenger of the God of Heaven who came to reclaim Mankind from their vain courses and to instruct them in the way ãâã Life His example is a perfect and unerring Pattern for his Life is Religion exemplified a visible Commentary on God's Word He came not only to restore us to God's favour by his merit but to set us an example 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ. Then you cannot err if you follow Christ in his imitable actions 2. It is an ingaging pattern Christs submission to a duty should make it lovely to us The Disciple is not above his Lord nor the Servant above his Master If I then you Lord and Master have washed your Feet ye also ought to wash one anothers Feet Iohn 13.14 Shall we decline to follow such a Leader 1 Ioh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked Alexander Conqueror of the World atchieved most of his great exploits by his example when hardly beset he would make the first in every danger and desperate action when his Army grew sluggish as laden with spoils of their Enemies he commanded all his Carriages to be fired and when they saw their King devote his rich treasures to the Flame they could not murmur if their mite and pittance were consumed also If Christ had only taught us contempt of the World and not given us an instance of it his Doctrine would be less powerful 3. It is an effectual pattern The Spirit of Christ goeth along with it as well as his Doctrine 2 Cor. 3.18 We are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. His steps drop fatness He hath left a blessing behind in all the way that he hath trodden before us and sanctified it to us that we may follow after him with comfort 4. It is a very incouraging pattern For he sympathizeth with us in all our difficulties having intendered his own Heart by experience Heb. 2.18 In that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Heb. 4.15 We have not an High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are He knoweth the weaknesses and reluctancies of humane Nature in our hardest duties and will pity and pardon our infirmities 5. The example of Christ will be Armour of Proof against all Temptations The Apostle saith here ver 5. Let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Iesus And in 1 Pet 4.1 For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the Flesh Arm your selves also with the same mind If this mind be in you temptations will have little force upon you 2. What he teacheth us hereby 1. Patience under all the indignities we undergo for God's sake in the course of our Pilgrimage 1 Pet. 2.21 It is said Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps So Heb. 12.2 Looking to Iesus the Author and fiâisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame Let us be contented to be abased for him He descended from Heaven to the Grave as low as he could for us therefore let us
submit to any condition for his glory Some that profess his name will suffer nothing for him If they may injoy him or his ways in peace and quietness well and good but if trouble arise for the Gospel's sake immediately they fall off The most yea the best have a secret lothness and unwillingness to condescend to a condition of trouble and distress for the Gospel Now to these I will but propound these three considerations 1. If Christ had been unwilling to die for us and suffer for us if the same mind had been in Christ what had been our estate and condition to all Eternity without his sufferings we should have suffered eternal misery If you would not have Christ of another Mind let the same Mind be in you 2. We cannot lose for him as much as he hath done for us 2 Cor. 8.9 Ye know the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich 3. We are gainers by him if we part with all the World for his sake Mark 10.29 30. There is no Man that hath left House or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my sake and the Gospel but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time Houses and Brethren and Sisters and Mothers and Children and Lands with Persecutions and in the World to come Eternal Life Oh then do not stand upon terms The same Mind or Spirit answerable to Christ was that of David 2 Sam. 6.22 I will be yet more vile than thus Christ became vile for us made himself of no reputation and shall we be flouted out of our Religion If he had disdained to indure grief and sorrows and stood upon befitting terms what had become of us 2. Humility We are far inferiour to Christ and shall we stand so much upon our reputation Mat. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart Learn of me not to make Worlds or work Miracles but to be contented with the lowest place the meanest service to be any thing and do any thing to bring glory to God and that not out of necessity but choice Mat. 20.28 Even as the Son of Man came not to be Ministred unto but to Minister It is brought to check aspiring or affecting domination in the Church They that love the preheminence would be great and high seem to dislike Christs proceeding especially those that rend and tear all to advance themselves or to grow greater in the World See that magnificent preface to the History of Christ's washing his Disciples Feet Iohn 13.3 Iesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God Poor Worms that are but three degrees distant from dust and nothing how do we stand upon our terms Christ when his own thoughts were most filled with his own glory doth the meanest office Surely considering Christ's humility we should no more over-value our selves nor desire high esteem with others nor affect preheminence nor undervalue and despise others 3. More exact obedience Christs condescention was a special act of Grace and Love but it was also a signal act of obedience It is so called in the 8th verse He humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross. It was done in pursuance of the Fathers command and elsewhere Heb. 5.8 9. Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered And being made perfect he became the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him By the multiplicity of his sufferings he learned obedience and the impression is according to the Stamp and Seal Christ came to be the Leader of an obeying People 4. Self-denial as well as obedience Preferring a publick Interest the glory of God and the good of Souls before his own glory as God and the Interests of that natural Life that he assumed Rom. 15.3 Christ pleased not himself and Iohn 12.27 28. Now is my Soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour Father glorifie thy name That was enough if God was glorified Every Christian should be thus affected Phil. 1.20 That Christ may be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death 5 The last lesson is contempt of the World and all the glory thereof Christ teacheth us this lesson by making himself of no reputation two ways 1. The example of his own choice The Lord of Heaven and Earth despised and neglected the glory and riches of this World He passed through the World to sanctifie it as a place of service but chose not pomp of living nor the happiness of it lest we should chuse it as our rest and portion They are not of the World as I am not of the World Iohn 17.16 Those that are dearest unto God must look by crosses and trials to be fitted for another World If a Man say never so much for contempt of the World yet live in the love of it his saying is nothing But Christ would be a pattern of his own doctrine Contempt of the World is a lesson of great consequence Salvation lieth upon it 1 Iohn 2.15 16 17. Love not the World neither the things that are in the World if any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the World And the World passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the Will of God abideth for ever Whether we are high or low full or kept bare it concerneth us all to learn it Though we flow in wealth we should be as having nothing and sit loose from the Creature If we are poor we must count grace a preferment Jam. 1.9 10. Let the brother of low degree rejoyce in that he is exalted But the rich in that he is made low because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away There is required of all an hearty preparation for when they are not called to a patient enduring of afflictions for Christs Name Phil. 4.12 I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need This is of an hard digestion to a Natural Man Now Christs example is a great help to us to check our worldly desires let us not affect greater eminency in the World than Christ had And to check the vanity of fulness or our carnal complacency that it may not be a snare to us 1 Tim. 5.6 The Woman that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth Christ was a Man of sorrows do you Profess Christ and yet are
necessities of their Souls no time for God no heart for God and so the most necessary work is justled out of doors viz. the one thing necessary They should first seek the Kingdom of God and they do not seek it at all at least not with that zeal and liveliness as they should II. The Danger is represented 1. That they fall into Temptation The Devil hath them upon the hip and is ready to give them a fall Though a man's intentions should be never so innocent at first yet they lye obvious to a Temptation Now we pray daily against Temptation therefore we should not come into the mouth of it Certainly he that will ride into the Enemies Camp and Quarters cannot long be safe When the mind is set upon the getting of wealth and inchanted with the savour of worldly greatness he runneth into the Devil's Quarters and doth but bespeak a Temptation for he is prepared and ready for every carnal suggestion Many had no thought at first to be so bad as afterward they prove but they give the Devil an advantage Iudas loved the Bag Iohn 12.6 and then Satan entred into him and then he betrayed his Master 2. And a Snare The Devil hath them where he would have them He observeth which way the Tree leaneth and so presseth it downward While they are only liable to Temptation the Devil is out of sight but when they are caught in the Snare then he appeareth in his own colours Many think no harm at first but their hearts are set upon the World then tempted and afterwards snared and so deeply intangled that they know not how to get out again As in Uncleanness many have no impure thoughts at first but they delight to be with Women whilst they play about the Temptation they are taken captive by Satan and after drawn into filthiness So many would have a little more of the World that they may serve God without distraction and if they had but such a proportion they would care for no more But if their desires be granted then they find themselves intangled and their hearts deceived and still they must have more and more and so settle in a worldly love and a worldly course As a River the greater it groweth by receiving in little Brooks the wider and deeper it weareth the Channel So outward things the more they increase the more they inlarge our desires according to their own proportion This is an usual experiment of the deceitfulness of riches men would be a little higher in the World a little better accommodated but when they have that they must have a little more and then a little more and so seize on all things within their grasp and reach joyning field to field and house to house Isa. 5.8 Then they are past the Devil's Temptation and are gotten into the Devil's Snare III. The Danger is represented by the nature of the Snare Many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction 1. The number many lusts There is none cometh unkindly to a worldly heart Titus 3.3 Serving divers lusts and pleasures Quot habet Dominos qui unum habere non vult He that forsaketh the Lord and is given up to his own lusts hath many Masters to please sometimes Riot sometimes Pride sometimes Contempt of God or Oppression of the Poor It is the Opinion of some that there are several Devils that have as it were their several Wards and Quarters as the Heathens had several Gods which were indeed Devils Bacchus the God of Riot or Good-fellowship Venus a Patroness of Love and Wantonness Mars of Revengeful Angry Spirits Mammon of Wealth The Devils have as it were several Quarters some to humour the Proud or intice the Wanton or draw men to Drunkenness as Agents in Taverns and Tipling-houses others lay Liegers about the Revengeful In the same heart sins take the Throne by turns No lust cometh unwelcome to a carnal Heart as the posture of their Interests and Temptations lieth Yea one lust giveth way to another as some Weeds and Vermine destroy others and Devils go out by Compact But many evils are incident to the worldly their heart is a rank Soil capable of any seed but that which is good which is soon choaked there 2. Their Quality 1. Foolish lusts Every carnal man is a fool 1. He is so in the judgment of God Psal 49.13 This their way is folly And he will be so in the judgment of his own heart when he is serious In two cases a man is serious When convinced by the Spirit 1 Cor. 3.18 Let him become a fool that he may be wise The first thing the Spirât of God doth is to shew us our folly in forsaking the Fountain of Living Waters A Child of God that recovereth out of a Temptation is sensible of his folly Psal. 73.22 So foolish was I and ignorant Titus 3.3 We our selves also were sometimes foolish ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã When he cometh to die Thou fool this night shall thy Soul be required of thee Luke 12.20 Then he finds himself a fool because every thing is provided for but that which should be most provided for his precious Soul Ier. 17.11 At his end shall be a fool Death bloweth away our vain conceits and fancies for then our Carnal projects leave us in the dirt How will you value the World when it is parting from you and you parting from it When no hope of Life oh vain deceitful World Then you cry out ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã What is all this to me that am presently to leave all things and to appear before God Iob 27.8 What is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul Man in Innocency was a wise Creature but then he hearkened to the Devil and so became a fool 2. He is so by plain demonstration in respect of his Choice A wise Merchant selleth all for the Pearl of price Matth. 13. But these part with Heaven for trifles prefer an Apple or a Rattle before a Jewel Certainly they that prefer a particular good before a general a temporal before an eternal that which is superfluous before that which is necessary they are fools but so do all worldly and carnal men therefore their lusts are foolish lusts They that are careless in matters of greatest danger and make no provision for that World wherein we live longest They that dig for Iron with Mattocks of Gold that forfeit their Souls for the World that disquiet themselves for a vain show Psal. 39.6 that neglect the substance to hunt after the shadow that toil themselves for they know not who All these are points of folly 2. Hurtful lusts The hurt they do for the present concerneth either the peaceable or gracious frame and estate of our Souls 1. Hurtful as they destroy our Peace They pierce through themselves with many sorrows verse 10. and so macerate and waste their strength Who liveth the noble
and comfortable life above all changes but the heavenly-minded and mortified Man But others to what biting cares are they exposed How do they rack their spirits vex their brains and weary their minds and waste the body Psal. 127.2 It is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrow and so but intangle themselves in a life of misery and labours Who fret at their own disappointments are eaten out with envy at the advancement of others afflicted overmuch with losses and wrongs There is no end of all their labours some have died of it others been distracted and put out of their wits So that you are never like to see good days as long as you cherish the love of the World but will still lye under self tormenting care and trouble of mind by which a man grateth on his own flesh 2. Hurtful as to Grace The Spirit is debased by a carnal aim and made a slave to all sort of sins The love of money is the root of all evil verse 10. Nothing breedeth baseness of mind so much as the love of money Those that make their belly their God are men of an abject spirit such a person can never act with resolution Yet of the two the covetous is the more vile and serveth the baser God Phil. 3.19 Whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things For the life and belly for which food is necessary are better than food and yet food for the belly is the best part of riches and that which alone Adam in Innocency stood in need of So that serving so base a God they cannot but be of a base low spirit and so can do nothing worthily in their generation To provide for the Body above the Soul is but to over-value the appendages of a worldly life 3. The result and final tendency of these lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition By destruction is meant death temporal By perdition death eternal Ruine in this World and hereafter eternal damnation drown men as a Mill-stone about his neck 1. Destruction or ruine in this World How many lose their lives to have wherewith to live and live poor that they may die rich Others by aspiring Projects lose all their designed advantages and come to utter ruine The love of the World brought Iudas first to the Halter and then to his own place 2. Perdition or eternal damnation Matth. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul The Soul is lost not in a natural sense so as to be no more heard of but lost in a legal sense A wicked man said He that will not venture his Body is never valiant He that will not venture his Soul never rich But it is a sad venture to give the Soul for a little temporal pelf which we must leave we know not to whom Use 1. It informeth us of a twofold deceitfulness of heart that men are conscious unto The first is this many think they will follow the World as hard as they can for a while and then dream of a devout retirement Thus foolishly do men presume first upon life and then upon grace both which are in God's hands whereas they shorten their days by their inordinate cares and intangle their hearts so that they are in over head and ears in the World drowned in noisom and hurtful lusts that they cannot easily get out again Alas the World is a very deceitful thing if once we are taken in the love of it more and more it will get in with us and steal away our hearts ere we can think of it 2. The next deceit of the heart a-kin to the former is this That if men had such a proportion of estate they should be content with their portion and serve God chearfully Alas when you have it the lust will grow with the possession Covetousness is a fire that encreaseth the more wood you put thereon Eccles. 5.10 He that loveth silver will never be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with encrease And therefore we should rather seek to bring our minds to our estates than our estates to our minds Be content now with such things as ye have or else ye will not be content hereafter Non augendae res sed minuendae cupiditates We should not seek so much to encrease our estates as to abate our desires We go the wrong way when we think more estate would do it if grace doth not do it As in some diseases non opus habent impletione sed purgatione A man is still hungry though he has eaten enough and still thirsty though drunk enough As in the Bulimy and Dropsie purging is better than impletion in an ordinary Feaver we are not to quench the burning thirst by filling the Patients belly full of drink but to better the heat by purging and opening a Vein So it is not wealth but grace the way is not to encrease our substance but moderate our desires As long as Love terminateth on outward things we shall never be satisfied but still exercised with foolish and hurtful lusts Contentment cometh not from the things but the mind a little grace would shew us that we had enough already to be better satisfied Use 2. This Point will give us satisfaction as to that question Whether we may pray for and desire Riches or any thing beyond Food and Rayment I answer 1. By distinction Outward things are either necessary or sufficient or superfluous The first degree of Riches is to have what is necessary the next to have what is enough the next above that what is more than enough I. Necessary Necessity is either natural civil or religious 1. Natural That which will barely suffice nature and support life tho' meanly hardly These necessities are easily supplied Though our fare be hard and our raiment course yet we may make a hard shift to preserve life This certainly we may desire and labour after For every man must maintain himself as an Instrument of Providence and to see that he be not chargeable to others And if in a fair way of Providence we can get no more we must be content verse 8. Having food and raiment let us be therewith content Though we be but a degree above beggery and extream want it 's more than God owes us and it 's enough to sustain life whilst we lay a Foundation for Eternity 2. Civil Two things are here to be considered 1. Our Estate and Calling An honourable Calling requireth a fuller supply of temporal blessings than a private and inferiour a King than a Subject a Noble-man than one of an inferiour rank Though quoad necessitates naturae they are equal yet quod decentiam status they are unequal Prov. 30.8 Give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me 2. Our Charge A Master of a
it is that the Apostle speaketh to Christians reckoneth himself in that number Is long-suffering towards us Now all these are not born at once nor converted at once If the judgment should be hastened many of the Elect would be found in their natural condition Now God would have none of these to perish but that all in their time should by congruous means be brought to Repentance All things are for the Elects sake if their number were compleated time would be no more and the present state of things would be dissolved 3. The third answer is by distinguishing a twofold Will in God There is voluntas signi voluntas beneplaciti The will of his good pleasure and his Will declared by some sign command decree The one concerneth our duty the other the event It is all Mens duty to Repent 1 Tim. 24 Who will have all Men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth Not as to the event God doth not Will it so as it shall fall out so but this is their duty His approving Will is meant Some scoff at this distinction but the thing is as evident as day light It is one thing to Will that this thing shall be or not be Another thing this is good or evil one respects existence the other moral regulation The one sheweth what shall be the other what should be The one what God will do the other what we should do His command must be distinguished from his decree some things are willed only by one not both as the selling of Ioseph the crucifying of Christ God willed them voluntate bene-placiti but not signi he declared no such Will as a rule to the Creatures Some things he willeth voluntate signi not bene placiti as the conversion of all that live within the hearing of the Gospel He doth not purpose it in his decree Sometimes he willeth the same things by both as the conversion of the Gentiles to the Faith of Christ God purposed it in his Decree and required it in the Gospel This is a truth applicable to other Scriptures and in part to this But I stick to the former answers by his secret and everlasting decree he chuseth whom he thinketh good and appoints the preaching of the Gospel by which all are invited God would not have any one to perish by his directive and approving Will Ezek. 33.11 I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turn ye c. Yet will not have all to be saved not all by his secret and appointing Will. Doct. The great end of Gods continuing the World and the present State of things is to bring Men to Repentance I shall not handle curious questions Therefore I shall shew you 1 What is Repentance 2. That this is God's end in continuing the World and the present state of things 3. What encouragement there is from Gods long-suffering to induce Men to Repentance I. What is Repentance It lieth in three things 1. A sensible sight of sin and deserved wrath There must be a sight of sin for it is sinners only who are called to Repentance Mat. 9.13 I came to call sinners to Repentance Those who know themselves to be so and feel themselves to be so These are most ready to correct their errours and to unravel that Web which they have been weaving for a snare to themselves Others carry it as though they needed no Repentance And also a sight of wrath for repentance is a flight from wrath a turning from God angry to God reconciled As appeareth by Mat. 3.7 Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come Who will take care to run into his City of Refuge who hath not an Avenger of Blood at his Heels Heb. 6.18 That by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Therefore Gods first work is to awaken the stupid and careless sinner and to make him see his sinful and lost condition 2. Such an apprehension of Gods Mercy in Christ as maketh them turn to him The apprehension of Gods Mercy is the great inducement to Repentance Ioel 2.13 Turn to the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful The former branch ariseth from apprehended future wrath this from the hope of future Mercy Indeed there is a continued Repentance which followeth pardon a melting of Heart and self-loathing that floweth from felt love As Luk. 7.47 The Woman wept much because she loved much and she loved much because much was forgiven her Ezek. 16.63 That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Ezek. 36.31 Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations But the first Repentance floweth not from felt received Mercy but from mercy hoped for Act. 2.38 39. Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost For the promise is unto you and to your children c. A desire and love of the Grace which we expect from God putteth us upon this Repentance 3. In a grieving for and forsaking of our sins and giving up our selves to his service Grief for sin there will be for 2 Cor. 7.10 Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto Salvation not to be repented of This is necessary to check the sensitive inclination or the love of pleasure which is the root of sin Not only a grieving for but a forsaking of our sins Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find Mercy It is but a brabble with sin not a Repentance unless the love and power of it be weakened in the Heart And therefore repentance is not to be judged by the horrour the sorrow the grief but by the change it worketh in Heart and Life If sin becometh hateful if the person be humbled in himself if he be brought to esteem of and put a price upon Gods Grace in Jesus Christ if it be his constant care and study to please God and he getteth some victory over the sins he repenteth of And after all this there is a devotedness to God or a living to his Glory and Service called often in Scripture a living to God or a bringing forth Fruit unto God II. That this is Gods End in continuing the World and the present State of things This I shall prove 1. By removing false Causes To appearance there is a slackness Whence cometh it 1. It is not want of kindness or backwardness to our good that he doth delay our reward and the introduction of the everlasting estate A man may defer and not be slack He is
Verse 8th The word is nigh thee even in thy Mouth and in thy Heart It 's in the Mouth to know it and speak of it it 's in the Heart as written there by the Spirit that we may do the duty it requireth of us with ease and sweetness 'T is in thy Mouth to Confess and in thy Heart to Believe and Practise VVhen the New Covenant is spoken of as opposite to the Covenant made with them when they came out of Egypt it is said sometimes to be put into the Mouth and sometimes in the Heart The words are Isa. 59.21 As for me This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my VVords which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy seed nor out of the Mouth of thy seed's seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Meaning thereby That his Spirit and Word shall continue with them as a Church to direct them in all necessary things This for the Mouth Now for the Heart see another Promise Jer. 31.33 And this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their Hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my People Well then The Excellency of the Gospel-dispensation is set forth by Two things 1. It 's more easie to be known and understood and carried in the Memory for the Word is nigh thee even in thy Mouth The drift of Moses his Speech tendeth to shew that they should have a New Covenant the Tenour of which was known and easie to be expressed by all those who were acquainted with it 2. It 's more easie to be practised 'T is not in our Mouths onely but in our Hearts which are inclined by the Holy Spirit to obey it so that the New Creature may undertake the duty it requireth of us by the assistance of God and do it sincerely though not exactly Secondly The sense of what it saith 't is explained and exemplified 1. Explained Verse 8. This is the word which we preach namely the Doctrine of Repentance and Remission of sins by Jesus Christ. 2. Exemplified Verse 9th That if thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Confession with the Mouth there answers to the Word is in thy Mouth believe with thine heart that implieth Faith And Christ's being raised from the Dead is instanced in rather than any other Article of Faith because that proveth all the rest and is the great evidence of the truth of Christianity Doctrine That the way of acceptance with God or obtaining Salvation is so clearly stated in the Gospel that we need not be in doubtful suspence or seek out another Religion wherein to find it or other satisfaction than God hath given us in his Word The sense of this Point I shall give you in these Propositions First That it is the weightiest matter in the VVorld to know how to be accepted with God as to pardon and life Man being a guilty Creature needeth pardon and the Soul dying not with the Body we desire to know the way of life or what shall become of us when this frail life is at an end Certain it is that we are haunted with guilty fears for we are through the fear of death all our life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 There are some troubles of Mind in all of us about our acceptance with God not always felt indeed but soon awakened Trembling Souls who know what God is and what themselves are and are conscious to former guilt and present unworthiness cannot easily settle in a confidence of God's Mercy to them especially when they come to die The fear of death raised our trouble before but when death cometh indeed these stings are increased 1 Cor. 15.56 The Sting of Death is sin and these stings of Conscience are justified by the highest reason which is the Law of God not occasioned by our melancholy conceits only It 's an Amazing consideration to us to think of entering into an unknown World and to stand before the righteous bar of an impartial Judge That it is very hard to undergo death with a steady confidence and to incourage our fearful and doubtful Minds to lanch out into Eternity common experience verifieth I pray consider Christians that our present condition is a state of darkness and fear and these fears are caused by sin and justified by the Law of God and revived by death and the thoughts of the other World And therefore there is not a weightier business than to establish our fearful and doubtful Minds in Peace that we may comfortably wait for the Mercy of God unto Eternal Life Secondly That is the best Religion which doth most provide for this Peace and Rest of Soul So that if a man were at liberty to choose and were consulting what Religion he should choose this Consideration must guide him where he can find true Peace and Rest for his Anxious Soul So the Prophet directeth them Ier. 6.16 Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your Souls And by this Argument Christ inviteth us to himself Mat. 11.28 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoak upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls And the Apostle commendeth the Gospel upon this account Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Iesus It is easie to lull Conscience asleep for a while either 1. By Carnal Pleasures Prov. 9.17 Stolen Waters are sweet and Bread eaten in secret is pleasant For a while they seem so but the vertue of that Opium is soon spent Or 2. By a false Religion but within a while we shall soon find that is so far from being our cure that it is a great part of our disease no false Religion is consistent with right Thoughts of God Therefore the Woman of Samaria assoon as she began to have an awakened Conscience enquires after the true Religion Iohn 4.20 Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship An awakened Conscience will be careful to lay the ground-work of Religion sure A false way of Religion always breedeth scruples and is accompanied with no sound Peace Or 3. In the superficial observances of a true Religion Mat. 19.20 All these things have I kept from my Youth up what lack I yet A false Righteousness will not give true quietness to the Conscience there is something lacking and the Soul sits uneasie Therefore nothing but coming under the Power of the
for God First Let us open this looking First It implieth Faith or a believing the reality of these Invisible things That there are eternal and glorious things to be enjoy'd after this life Certainly an Object though never so glorious cannot be seen without eyes Now Faith is the eye of the Soul without which we can have no prospect of the World to come Therefore Faith is defined to be Heb. 11.1 The substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Without Faith Reason is short sighted and there is a deep mist upon Eternity 2 Pet. 1.9 Reason is acute enough in discerning what is noxious and comfortable to the present life Good for Back and Belly but it seeth little of any thing beyond this present World so as to quicken us to make any preparation for Death and Eternity The Mind hath no eyes to look beyond the mists and clouds of this lower World but such as the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation is pleased to give us and cannot believe the reality of the unseen glory 'till in his light we see light Ephes. 1.17 18. Alass The wisest part of Mankind are taken up with Toys and Childish Trifles in comparison of these Invisible things The sweetness of Honour VVealth and Pleasure is known easily by feeling and therefore known easily and known by all but few can see the reality and worth of these unseen things Though Heaven and Glory be talked of in their hearing yet they know it not 'T is quite another thing when it is represented to us in the light of the Spirit None discern the worth of these things but those that have the Eagle-eye of Faith that can pierce above the Clouds to the Seat of the Blessed Faith is like a Prospective-glass by which we see things at a distance Others onely mind things at hand things that may be seen and felt Compare Lumen Fidei the light of Faith with the light of Sense That one degree of light the light of Sense can onely discern things near us present with us and before our eyes Those things which lie out of the view of Sense make no Impression upon them They see nothing but these corporeal things which even Dogs and Horses see as well as they As for Instance That it is good to eat well and drink well and sleep well To be at liberty and enjoy our pleasure or mind our business here in the World and thrive and prosper and do well according to hearts desire But the light of Faith will discover that there is no such danger as perishing for ever no such worth in any thing as there is in Salvation by Christ no such business of Importance as seeking after Eternal Life That all the gay things of Sense are but as so many May games to this happiness All the terrible things in the VVorld but as a Flea-biting All the business of the VVorld but as a little Childish sport at Push-pin in comparison of working out our Salvation with fear and trembling Much of Christianity lieth in opening the eye of Faith and shutting that of Sense Faith can look through all the clouds and changes of this VVorld To those eternal perpetual solid good things which God hath prepared for them that love him and so can the better contemn all those perishing vanities which the VVorld doteth upon This is that which is called in the Text looking and not looking c. The next degree of light is Lumen Rationis Reason can onely guess at future contingencies or at best see things in their causes and that it is probable if nothing letteth that such and such things will fall out but Faith can look through all distance both of time and place and the mist of contrary appearances to things promised with such certainty and sure perswasion as if the things we are perswaded of were at hand Heb. 11.13 These all died in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth John 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Still it can believe in hope against hope and see Sun-shine at the back of the Storm and Heaven and Happiness in the midst of deep Afflictions Compare the Lumen Fidei with the Lumen Prophetiae Rev. 20.12 They agree in the common object such things as are revealed by God They agree in the same common nature That they see things future and to come with such clearness and certainty as if they were in being They differ because Faith goeth upon the common Revelation which God hath made to all the Saints in Scripture The other some special Revelation made to certain chosen persons The light of Faith affects the Heart with great joy and comfort The other is usually accompanied with rapture and extasie Yea let us compare it with Lumen Gloriae The Beatifical Vision that worketh a change in Body and Soul 1 Iohn 3.2 This in Soul 2 Cor. 3.18 There we see him Face to Face 1 Cor. 13.12 Here as in a Glass Though we are not so higly affected with the light of Faith yet as truly That nullifieth all sin and misery This exasperateth the Heart against sin and fortifieth it against misery Though the light of Faith giveth not as full an enjoyment of God yet as sure and proportionably affecteth the Heart as if we saw Christ in the midst of his Holiness and Paul with his Crown of Righteousness It puts the Believers Head above the Clouds in the midst of the glory of the World to come Once more this Lumen Fidei is somewhat like that sight which God hath of things Scientia Visionis simplicis Intelligentiae God seeth all things that may be in his own All-sufficiency all things in his own Decree Faith acts proportionably It sheweth all things that may be in the All-sufficiency of God and though it be not sure of the event yet our God is able Dan. 3.17 18. It seeth all things that shall be in the Promises of the Gospel wherein his Decree is manifested it realizeth them as if they were already They have a pledge of the Blessing when they have the Promise Now if we had such a Faith could thus look to things unseen it would produce notable effects A Man would be another manner of Christian Secondly It implieth an earnest Hope as well as a lively Faith Hope implieth Two things First A frequent Meditation Secondly A desirous Expectation 1 Frequent Meditation For Faith is acted by serious Thoughts Carnal Men are described to be those who mind earthly things Phil. 3.19 And again Who mind the things of the flesh Rom. 8.5 As a Man is in the constitution of his Heart so are his musings and meditations For thoughts being the genuine birth and immediate off-spring of the Soul do discover the temper of it But those that
best known by those eternal Torments which are appointed for the punishment thereof Present punishments do somewhat discover it Now know that it is an evil thing and a bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Ier. 2.19 Briars and Thorns and sensible smart will teach us that which bare contemplation doth not But if the Temporal punishment maketh us know What an evil thing and a bitter it is What will Eternal do Go ask the Damned in Hell whether it be a light thing to Sin against God Mark 9.44 Where their Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched Here is the great aggravation of Sin that for Temporal Trifles they have lost Eternal Joys and run the hazard of Eternal Pains for the ease mirth and pleasure of a Moment And then for things evil in opinion it sheweth how falsely we are deluded As Afflictions Sufferings and Losses for Christ Death c. It much concerneth us to have a true notion of these things For Afflictions It sheweth that they are not so bad as the World taketh them to be They are tedious for the present but 't is but for a season 1 Pet. 1.6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold Temptations All things are lessened by having eternity in our minds the delights of the World and the sorrows of the World 1 Cor. 7.29 Since the World passeth away and the fashion thereof we should rejoice as if we rejoyced not mourn as if we mourned not the good and evil will be soon over We cry out How long but 't is not for ever 'T is grievous but 't is not Eternal 't is not Hell yea they may be good Psal. 119.71 It is good for me that I have been Afflicted that I might learn thy statutes All things are good as they help on a blessed eternity so Afflictions may be good that part of the World that is led by sense will never endure this but that part which is led by Faith will easily assent to it the World that is led by sense say to a Covetous Man that the loss of an Estate is good to a Worldly Rich Man that Poverty is good to an Ambitious Man that it is good to be despised and contemned to Voluptuous Man that it is good to be in Pain to Afflict the Body for the good of the Soul they will never believe you But go to them that measure all things by Eternity and they will tell you that Poverty maketh way for the true Riches Mourning for the true Glory Want for fulness of Pleasure at Gods Right Hand That misery mortifieth sin 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World Sufferings for Christ If we win Eternity with the loss of all the World we are no losers For the World passeth away and the Lusts thereof but he that doth the Will of God abideth for ever 1 Iohn 2.17 But on the contrary 't is a sorry bargain to lose Eternity for the injoyment of all the World Mat. 16.26 For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul And then Death the King of Terrors yet 't is not feared by a Christian because it is an entrance into Eternal Life when he dieth then shall he live Iohn 11.25 26. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall be live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Believest thou this If we have a sense of this why should we be troubled to be uncloathed that we may be cloathed upon with Immortality and Glory It separateth us from our Worldly Friends and Benefits but bringeth us to God with whom we shall abide for ever it puts an end to time that we may enter into Eternity so that death is ours 1 Cor. 3.22 A Friend not an Enemy It maketh an end of Sin and Sorrow to make way for Blessedness and Glory For things Good Good seeming or Good real Good seeming There are many things which the vain deceived World doteth upon which are impertinencies to our great end As Foolish Sports and Recreations Eccles. 2.2 I said of Laughter It is Mad and of Mirth What doth it There are other things which are meer inconsistencies As many evils which we commit for a little Temporal happiness Then real good things Duties Ordinances Graces Christ the Favour of God We know how to value these things by looking to Eternity The good things of this World are not valuable only upon a natural account but as they are helps to Heaven If they be diversions from eternity they are the worst things that can befal us to be condemned to this kind of felicity is a part of Gods Curse Ier. 17.13 They that forsake thee shall be written in the Earth On the contrary to have our names written in Heaven is a great Blessing Luke 10.20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoice because your names are written in Heaven It is better to injoy a little as an help to Heaven than a great deal as an hindrance to it oh Blessed is the Man that taketh no farther content in the comforts of this life than they may further his Soul to Eternity If an Estate increase upon you 't is most valuable as you may be rich in good works and take hold of Eternal Life 1 Tim. 6.18 When your Hearts rest in them without subordination to Eternal things your estate becometh a Snare whatever the Heart is set upon if it be not in order to this end and scope 't is cursed to thee The Spiritual Blessing of all our natural comforts is in order to this last end But then for Duties time spent with God in order to Eternity is the best part of your lives Acts 26.7 When we are imployed in the World we make provision but for a few Months or Days it may be Hours But in converse with God you lay up for everlasting the Throne of Grace will be the more sweet because 't is the Porch of Heaven Ordinances and publick means of Grace A Child of God valueth them more than the greatest Worldly advantages Psal. 84.12 One day in thy Courts is better than a Thousand I had rather be a Door-Keeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the Tents of Wickedness But why Because there is trading for Eternity there he gets a prospect into Heaven and heareth news of his Long-home And then Graces they are glorious things because they are the seed and earnest of eternal glory 'T is called Immortal Seed 1 Pet. 1.23 When this state is begun it cannot be dissolved and it is called the Earnest of the Spirit Graces as well as comforts are his Earnest By all these things the Holy
may have Heaven at last The trial will rather lie here for here it pincheth the sorest if you can sell all for the Pearl of Price Matth. 13.44 If you can take joyfully the spoiling of your goods Heb. 10.34 If you faint not but bear up with hope and patience under all pressures and afflictions 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For this cause we faint not but though our outward Man perish yet the inward Man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal You can be contented and choose rather to suffer affliction with the People of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25 God puts us sensibly to the trial which are our good things the recompence of reward or our present interests III. The misery is great before Death at Death and after Death First Before Death upon a Two-fold account First Because of the uncertainty of their happiness Prov. 23.5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings they flee away as an Eagle towards Heaven They may be gone or we may be gone Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee They are called uncertain riches 1 Tim. 6.17 A Man can never dwell securely in an house built upon the Ice and he that hath not made sure of a better portion than the World can yield to him he is upon the brink of Hell and everlasting destruction In short a broken Cistern will soon fail and deceive those that look for refreshment in it Death and the Grave will soon put an end to all their happiness if it should continue with them so long They are posting apace to their eternal misery and one moment puts an end to all their joy for ever Secondly Because Prosperity is a Plague and a snare to a wicked Man and the greater his prosperity is his snare is the greater Psal. 69.22 Let their Table become a snare before them and that which should have been for their welfare let it become a trap When God suffereth Mens corrupt affections and suitable Temptations and Objects to meet it is a snare to them as Iudas that was a Thief had the bag Iohn 12.6 The carnal heart is the more intangled and besotted the less they are restrained from the desire of their hearts As the Sea turneth all things that fall or flow into it into salt-water so do they make all their Mercies an occasion unto the flesh So that in the very heighth of their prosperity they are but miserable as sin is the worst misery of all It is worse to be Nebuchadnezzar among the Beasts than to be Daniel in the Lion's Den the one was the fruit of his own madness the other of the violence of others Elijah was poor and Ahab was rich Who was the more miserable Man So Paul that Holy Man was in prison and Nero at the same time Emperour of the World Who was the happier Man think you And in whose case would you be of Nero the Emperour or Paul the Prisoner Christ that gave his Spirit to the rest of the Apostles gave the Bag to Iudas Riches and the Bag are not in such esteem with Christ but that the basest of his followers may have them in keeping and under their power Now whose lot would you choose that of Iudas or of the rest of the Apostles Nay Jesus Christ himself that had the Spirit without measure chose a poor Estate he that made a Fish pay him Tribute could as well have made Men do so he that Multiplied the Five Loaves could have increased his stock at pleasure He that built the World could have built himself stately Palaces but when he was rich he became poor for our sakes 2 Cor. 8 9. That he might sanctifie holy Poverty in his own Person and honour it by his own example and teach us that sin is misery but grace is happiness and preferment whatever our external condition be And therefore he usually cuts his own People short that he may prevent their snares and impediments when wicked Men live in plenty but certainly the Rich wicked Man is in a worse condition than the Godly Man who is kept low and bare as a Child may be strictly dieted for his health while the Servants are left to a freer and larger allowance More particularly 1. Riches are apt to breed Atheism and Contempt of God 2. They are not so broken-hearted as others to see their need of Christ. 3. If they take to the serious Profession of Religion they cannot hold it 4. It makes Men apt to take up their rest here 5. They are apt to wax proud and scornful and impatient of Reproof 6. They grow wanton and sensual 7. The more rich they are the more they are wedded to a worldly Prosecution See Sermon on Mark 10.23 in this Volume Secondly At Death The Approach of it openeth our eyes and maketh our vain conceits vanish Our imaginary happiness is soon at an end and as we are entering into the other world our Mirth beginneth to be Marred and though formerly we onely thought these to be the good things and desired these things and delighted in these things and placed all our confidence in these things yet we now see they cannot stead us in our extremity All our worldly advantages will afford us no solid hope when death cometh upon us Job 27.8 What is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul If the carnal designs of wicked Men succeed and God answers them according to the Idol of their hearts whatever presumptuous dreams they had before approaching death is the great Touchstone of Mens hopes He is not really willing to die but God taketh away his Soul by force Luke 12.20 This night thy Soul shall be required of thee Jer. 17.11 He that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days and at his end shall be a fool That is he shall appear to be so in the judgment of his own heart VVell then if you choose wealth ease pleasure credit for your portion and happiness you are not sure to get it but if you do get it you are sure to leave it All that the VVorld can afford you shall be taken from you you must go naked out of the VVorld as you came naked into it The VVorld will cast you off in your extremity and the despairing Soul must bid a sad farewel to all the comforts you doated upon and laboured for and delighted in All your cup of pleasures is now drunk up and there is no more left Honour and Company and Sports and Pomps
are all gone and you must fall into the hands of an unreconciled God to Answer for the abuse of these things 3. After Death then the Misery will appear indeed If you have gotten so much hardness of heart that you did not apprehend God's Anger against you nor see any hazard upon the back of Death yet then you enter into your eternal Misery and one moment puts an end to all your joy for ever VVhen the Saints who having chosen God for their Portion are comforted you are tormented Their condition may be sad here in the world but yours is sad for ever Three things torment the wicked and they are all in this Parable First There is Memoria praeteritorum the remembrance of our former good Estate in the World and the ill use we made of it Son Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things VVhere are now his fine Garments stately Houses the sweet Odour of his fragrant Ointments his Lustful Meats and Dainty Rich and Sprightly Wines and Artificial Sauces with all the costly accommodations of his Pomp and Pleasure The things are gone but the remembrance of them is a a sting to his Soul for ever 2. There is sensus praesentium a sense of his present misery v. 25. I am tormented in this flame There is a bitter sense of the Wrath of God and nothing to allay it or divert the mind from it 3. There is Metus futurorum a fear of what is to come v. 26. Between us and you there is a great Gulph fixed They are in termino in their final state and there must abide there is no passing from death to life more nothing remaineth but a fearful looking for of Iudgment and fiery Indignation Heb. 10.27 Vse I. Information to teach us 1. What litâle reason the People of God have to envy wicked Men their Portion We should rather pity them alass this is all they get they have this and no more this and everlasting destruction at the back of it God suffereth them to clamber up to the height of Wealth and Honour that their fall may be the more terrible Worldly Wealth and Prosperity is not of so much worth and excellency as many think If it were the conduit wherein God conveyeth his special love it were an other matter though we should be satisfied in God's ordering but it is not so if it were so it would be dispensed otherwise than it is the wicked would not have so much of it nor the Godly want it so much The Godly want it the rather because they think so highly of it and God is more gracious than to give it to them when they are in a frame so ready to abuse it 2. How contented the People of God should be in a mean condition if God reduce them thereunto See Sermon on Mark 10.23 Vse II. Is Caution to us all Now we must turn Abraham's Memento remember into a Cave beware Beware that you do not receive your good things in this Life I must turn the exprobration into Counsel and Admonition Prevention is better than remembrance 1. Be satisfied with nothing which may stand with the hatred of an Eternal God The enjoyment of all the VVorld may but Sanctifying Grace cannot The highest worldly happiness may consist with God's hatred and the greatest adversity of the Saints with his love The first is verified in Christs supposition Mat. 16.24 If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me And the latter is verified by that of the Apostle Rom. 8.35 36 37 38 39. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine Nakedness or Peril or Sword As it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as Sheep for the Slaughter Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us For I am persuaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things Present nor things to Come nor Heighth nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. A Man may rejoice in the Love of Christ in the want of other things 2. Be satisfied with nothing but what will stead thee and serve thy turn in the other VVorld for all must be measured with respect to Eternity 1 Tim. 6.19 Laying up in store a good foundation for themselves against the time to come that they may lay hold on Eternal Life And Mat. 6.19 20 21. Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon Earth where Moth and Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves break through and Steal But lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through nor Steal For where your Treasure is there will your Heart be also A Sermon on 1 Cor. xiii 4 5 6 7 8. Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envyeth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up Doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil Rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Charity never faileth but whether there be prophecies they shall fail whether there be tongues they shall cease whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away I Have a long time had a desire to open the Nature of this Divine and Heavenly Grace of Charity I know not how the Argument will relish with you but my aim is rather to profit than to please We are defective in our Duties to God the Lord knoweth But what and if I shew that we are as defective in our Duties to Man wherein we think Natural Conscience is a sufficient Guide to us A little serious Reflection upon this Scripture will discover it In the Context observe I. The Excellency and Necessity of Charity above all other Gifts II. The Nature and Properties of it 1. For the Excellency and Necessity of Charity Gifts are of several sorts as on the same Tree grow Leaves Flowers Fruit None ad Pompam for show but all ad Usum for use But in the Gifts for use some make us profitable others acceptable Though they have their use yet they profit not to Salvation Though I speak with the Tongue of Men and Angels and have not Charity I am become as a sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal And though I have the Gift of Prophesie and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge and though I have Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing And though I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor and though I give my Body to be burnt and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing A Man may sacrifice a stout Body to a stubborn Mind yet if it be not for God's Glory and to
ye eat this bread and drink this cup. It is Sacriledge to defraud the People of the communion of the Cup and to separate what God hath joyned 2. The End declared Where what and how long 1. What is the end To annunciate or shew forth the Lord's death It may be read Indicatively or Imperatively ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They come to the same effect Annuntiare debetis Ye ought to shew forth So Vatablus 2. How long this Rite must be observed to this end Till He come that is to judgment Which implieth that this is a standing Ordinance or means to keep his Death in perpetual remembrance till we have no more need of Memorials because Christ is come in Person Doctr. The Lord's Supper is a solemn Commemoration of the Death and Passion of our Lord Iesus Christ. 1. By way of Illustration 2. By way of Confirmation I. By way of Illustration I shall explain both the Object and the Act. The Object is the Lord's death The Act is Annunciation or shewing forth First The Object Which I shall open in three Propositions 1. That the Sacraments do chiefly relate to Christ's death For Baptism Rom. 6.3 Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death The Lord's Supper in the Text. Both Sacraments represent him dead they do not represent him Glorified but Crucified They were Instituted in favour of Men and for the benefit of Man more directly and immediately than for the honour of Christ exalted In these Duties he representeth himself rather as one that procured the Glory of others than as one that is possessed of Glory himself and would have us consider his Death rather than his present Exaltation His Death is wholly for us but his Glory is for himself and us too Only we must distinguish between what is Primarily represented in the Sacrament and what is Secondarily and Consequentially It is true the consideration of his Humiliation excludeth not that of his Exaltation but leadeth us to it But primarily and properly Christ's Death is here represented and consequentially his Resurrection and Intercession as these Acts of his Mediation receive value from his Death We remember his Death as the Meritorious Cause of our Justification and Sanctification his Resurrection as the Publick Evidence Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification Namely as his Resurrection sheweth his Satisfaction is perfect God requireth no more for the Atonement of the World His Intercession is nothing else but a representation of the Merit of his Sacrifice and receiveth its value from his Death Heb. 9.12 By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us That is by his own Bloud he entered into Heaven having purchased Redemption for us from the Guilt and Power of Sin Well then it appeareth from the nature of the thing and the Rites here used that Christ's Body is represented to us as dead and broken and so proper Food for our Souls And his Blood as shed or poured out for the expiation of our Sins that we might obtain pardon and peace Eph. 1.7 In whom we have Redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of Sins according to the riches of his grace Luke 22.20 This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood which is shed for you 2. That we do not Commemorate Christ's death as a Tragical Story but as a Mystery of Godliness Many when they come to these Duties look upon Christ as an innocent Person unworthily handled and so make a Tragedy of his passion for the entertainment of their fancies and the lighter part of their affections rather than for their Faith to work upon their desire joy and thankfullness or to stir up any deep Repentance in them This remembrance produceth either Compassion or Indignation against the Jews 1. Compassion Alas the History of Christ's Passion will work no more upon us than the sad preparation of Abraham when he went to Sacrifice his Son Isaac or the Crys of Ioseph in the Pit or the pittiful words of Iacob when they told him that some Beast had devoured him or than the Sacking of Ierusalem by the Babylonians or how they handled that miserable King Zedekiah when they put out his Eyes or the moans of Dido for Aeneas Austin instanced in that living in that Country Quid miserius homine flente Didonis mortem non misâriam suam All these things though they be not of such importance as the sufferings of the Son of God will draw tears from us and passionately affect us for the time Christ seemeth to disprove this fond Compassion as it is acted and exercised towards himself Luke 23.28 to 31. Iesus turning unto them said Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your Children For behold the days are coming in the which they shall say Blessed are the Barren and the Womb that never bare and the Paps which never gave suck Then shall they begin to say to the Mountains fall on us and to the Hills cover us For if they do these things in a green Tree what shall be done in the dry The Gospel doth not propound the death of Christ as a Spectacle of humane Calamity No it is a point of higher consideration and God looketh for more inward and Spiritual motions than this passionate condoling 2. So for indignation against the Iews It is no more pleasing to Christ than the other Many Christians think it a piece of high Devotion to execrate the Memory of Iudas and the other Iews who were accessory to Christ's Death but this or somewhat like it is disproved too Peter was in a rage against Christ's Adversaries and therefore out of bravery draweth his Sword against a whole Troop or Band of Men that came to attacque him in the Garden But Christ saith Iohn 18.11 Put up thy Sword into the Sheath the Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it No question but great Injustice was shewed to Christ the Iews fact was odious Iudas his treason Execrable but as our pity should be turned upon our selves so must our exasperation also The Gospel calleth for deeper consideration of this Mystery than what is Historical Namely such as is Evangelical and may suit with God's ends in it and our Faith in the Mediator and Saviour of the World Namely the horror of our Sins that they may become odious to us the Terror of God's impartial Justice that we may never think a light thought of it more the inestimableness of God's Love that we may have more admiring thoughts of the wonders of this Condescending Grace in giving his Son to die for us and of the unspeakable benefit and the joy of Salvation which is derived thence to us These are the true reflections on the Death of Christ and best serve for the improvement of it Namely to raise our hopes of Mercy
ingage our Thankfullness and increase our Hatred of Sin In short two affections are most proper and seasonable Mourning for Sin and Rejoycing in Christ. 1. Mourning for Sin When we call to remembrance the Death of Christ the anguish of his Soul the bruises of his Body the effusion of his Blood these are all occasions of Godly sorrow For he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows and he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the Chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed Isai. 53.4 5. Therefore godly sorrow is seasonable so far as it is a means part of Repentance The Iews on the Solemn day of attonement used to afflict their Souls on that Day as you may read Levit. 23.27 28 29. On the Tenth day of the seventh Month it shall be a day of Attonement it shall be an holy Convocation unto you and ye shall afflict your Souls and offer an offering made by Fire unto the Lord. And ye shall do no work on that day for it is a day of Attonement to make an Attonement for you before the Lord your God For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day he shall be cut off from among his people Mark when this should be at the day of Expiation or Attonement and Solemn Reconciliation with God that they might have forgiveness of all their Sins Affliction of Soul or Humiliation is inward by Godly sorrow for Sin which worketh repentance unto Salvation not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 It is done by judging and loathing our selves for the Evils we have committed outwardly by Fasting and Abstinence from all fleshly Delights which the Iews observed with great rigour I press it only as it was a sign of Repentance Then we best remember Christ Crucified when we are Crucified with him Gal. 2.20 I am Crucified with Christ. When the Sensual Inclination is mortified and the Heart deadned to the pleasures of Sin which are but for a Season 2. Rejoycing in Christ Jesus The other tendeth to this as a preparation to the Solemn effect And to Repentance there must be joyned Faith which is an acceptance and acknowledgment of the benefits procured and offered to us by Christ. Therefore we cannot receive them so sealed confirmed and applied as they are in the Lord's Supper without joy We are invited to the Lord's Table as to a Feast and joy doth best become an Holy Feast This Ordinance was instituted for our Consolation as being one of those Solemn assutances given to the Heirs of Promise And their nature and use is to beget Strong Consolation Heb. 6.18 It is true we come to it with remorse but that by way of preparation and for the quickening of our appetite But the proper act wherein consisteth our Communion with Christ and his Body and Blood is the joy and contentment that the Soul received in that Christ dyed for us Christ is not only propounded as dead but as dead for us that his Death may be our Life and a fountain of everlasting comfort to us When we come to God's Table we Eat and Drink in his presence as those that are agreed with him and reconciled to him by Jesus Christ. And then Rom. 5.11 We joy in God through our Lord Iesus Christ as those that have received the attonement So Psal. 22.26 The meek shall Eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord that seek him your Heart shall live for ever That is the poor humble Christian is revived and comforted by the Eucharistical Spiritual Food and the vital effects thereof of which by Faith they are made partakers He speaketh there of paying his vows and alludeth to the Peace-offerings when they feasted with their Friends Which is fulfilled in the Eucharist or Commemorative Feast which we observe in the remembrance of Christ's Death These are the Spiritual Affections we come with brokenness of Heart and go away with Joy Act. 8.39 And when they were come up out of the Water the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip and the Eunuch saw him no more and be went on his way rejoycing 3. The Commemoration of Christ's Death as a Mystery of Godliness is done by a due consideration or reflection on the cause occasion and benefits of it 1. The first inward moving cause of all is the great love and mercy of God to us Iohn 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life And 1 Iohn 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins This must not be overlooked partly because this is commended to us Rom. 5.8 But God commendeth his love to us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us Some things may be told us but this is commended that we may be sure not to forget it This was the great thing propounded to our thoughts this gracious act and expression of God's mercy and bounty carried on in the most astonishing way far beyond what we could conceive or imagine And partly because this calleth for thankfulness the great principle of Gospel-Obedience 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead And that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again Yea the Life and Soul of every Duty the very design and tenor of the Gospel and the way of Salvation by a Redeemer is so ordered by God as to raise the highest Thankfulness in Man and that we might be deeply possessed with his Love Thankfulness is the great Duty of the Gospel and which containeth and animateth all the rest For the Gospel from first to last is a benefit 1 Tim. 6.2 Partakers of the Benefit And therefore to be received with Thankfulness for what obedience is to a meer Law that is Thankfulness to a Benefit This Duty is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or an Eucharist The Lord Jesus hath gone before us as a pattern 1 Cor. 11.24 When he had given Thanks he brake it and Verse 25. After the same manner he took the cup that is giving Thanks as Matth. 26.27 He took the cup and gave thanks And all because of that Grace and Bounty of God which he came to discover to Mankind and would Seal with his Blood Well then this Grace Love and Goodâess of God in giving his Son to dye for our Sins should never be over-looked by us That all our Acts may be Acts of Thankfulness our Repentance may be a thankful Repentance our Love may most affect the Heart with Sin Ezek. 16.63 Thou mayst remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified
respect to our selves to raise our Faith in the Crucified Saviour For God hath set him forth to be a propitiation for our sins through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 We believe that by this means the Favour of God may be recovered his Image restored Eternal Life obtained and all the Mercy offered in the new Covenant bestowed upon us according to the Gracious terms thereof II. With respect to others We annunciate it as we make publick profession of this Faith that we are not ashamed of Christ Crucified but rather glory in it and in the Blessed Effects of his death Gal. 6.14 God forbid that I should Glory save in the cross of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I unto the world We glory in this that we are his peculiar People distinguished from the perishing world as Goshen from Aegypt or those in the Ark from those who perished in the waters or as Gideon's Fleece wet with the Dew from all the rest of the ground or as Rahab's House from the rest of Iericho We own Christ and Christ will own us You will say What great matter is there in this profession where all are Christians among whom Christ's name is had in Honour and Esteem I Answer 1. Never was it so well with the World but that somewhat of Christ was called in question and so the profession of his intire Truth may be dangerous and costly Sometimes this Truth and sometimes that is contradicted and opposed And so it cometh to pass that Self-denial is a standing Rule never out of season And therefore we still fortifie our Selves by this Duty to own the present Truth how much soever it be spoken against Thus Paul Gloried in Christ in opposition to the carnal policy of the false Apostles who gloried in the flesh the riches pomp and favour of the World which ran of their side But we remember the Cross of Christ to deaden our Affections to the glory and applause of the world II. This profession must be not in Word only but Deed also We profess our selves to be a peculiar People redeemed from all iniquity by Christ to live to God and serve God Now if our conversation be not answerable we do not remember the Blood of the Covenant with Honour but spill it on the ground and trample it under our feet Heb. 10.29 and destroy our profession by our conversation As we destroy our profession of God Tit. 1.16 They profess that they know God but in works they deny him So of Christ 1 Tim. 5 8. If any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an Infidel A merciless Man hath denied the Faith And Ier. 9.25 26. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord So that our Lives must be an Hymn to Christ or a constant glorying in him Great things are expected of the peculiar people 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light Well then this annunciating the death of Christ before many witnesses is useful to us in times of trouble that we may be faithful to his Interest and in times of Peace that we may be the more bound to all Holy Conversation and Godliness III. We profess also our selves to be parrtakers of the benefits of Christ's death by a lively Faith For the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 10.21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils Ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils In the Lord's Supper we profess to be partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ that is the benefits of his death And he had said before of the Iews ver 18. They which eat of the sacrifices are partakers of the Altar they Eat and Drink with God at the Altar So eating and drinking at the Lord's Table is a sign of communion with Christ and that we rejoyce in this that we are admitted into the participation of the benefits and efficacy of his death If we be unqualified and unprepared to Receive them we mock God and dishonor Christ. 3. We annunciate it to God This we do two ways 1. In a way of Prayer Pleading before him the value of this Sacrifice with Humility and Affiance expecting the benefits thereof Christ's Blood is pleaded by him in Heaven by his constant intercession and by us upon Earth in Prayer when we shew the Father that Sacrifice once made by him In which we trust and for which we expect Mercy and Grace to help us As the Apostle beggeth Grace through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 21. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Iesus Christ that great shepheard of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant Make ye perfect in every work to do his Will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen And we sue out our Pardon and beg the Gift of the Spirit in the name of our Mediator and Advocate 2. In Thanksgiving and Praise to God for Jesus Christ and his benefits Eph. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Looking upon all Blessings as streaming to us in his Blood and the fruits of his Mediatorial Administration 2. With respect to the Properties and manner how it is to be annunciated 1. It must be serious In Spiritual things the Heart is not soon wrought upon or else the Sacred Impressions are easily defaced Glances have no Fruit and Efficacy to warm the Heart As Birds that often straggle from their Nests suffer their Eggs to grow chill and cold but when they sit long the Brood is hatched So by a constant Incubation we profit most and these things sink deeper into our Hearts It is true the things represented are great things and so force their way into our Minds whether we will or no but yet they are Spiritual and depend on Faith therefore some Entertainment and serious Consideration is necessary Heb. 3.1 Wherefore holy Brethren partakers of the heavenly Calling consider the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Christ Iesus The Heart of Man catcheth like Tinder at every Spark when Sin is represented but it is otherwise in Holy and Heavenly Things They that do not use to command their Thoughts make less Earnings
afraid to be damned it is not God's displeasure they care for but their own safety The youngman went away sad and was grieved for he had great possessions Mark 10.22 Because he could not reconcile his Covetous mind with Christ's Institutes So Felix trembled being convinced of Sins which he was loath to discontinue and break off 3. They differ in their effects many men tremble at the word of God coming in upon their Hearts with power but this awakning worketh diversly Sometimes to a solicitous Anxiousness about the way of Salvation and then it is good as those Acts 2.37 And when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do That was a kindly work to desire to be further instructed and directed into the way of Life and Peace Sometimes to rage Acts 7.54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth they were vexed at the galling truths which Stephen delivered and the conviction that was upon them kindled their rage against him Sometimes it produceth nothing but dilatory excuses as here in Felix go thy way for this time when I have a more convenient season I will send for thee II. The cause of this trouble and Agony was the word wherein the matter and the manner is considerable 1. The matter is to be considered both generally and particularly 1. Generally the word of God or the Doctrine of Faith in Christ. It hath a convincing power 1 Partly because of its Author the impress of God is upon it it partaketh of his Properties Heb. 4.12 13. For the word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper than any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Neither is there any Creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the Eyes of him with whom we have to do God searcheth the Heart and the word searcheth the Heart God is powerful and his word is powerful in discovering a Sinner to himself and bringing a Sinner out of his lurking Holes and taking off all disguises 2 Partly because of its clearness and evidence to a natural Conscience if it be not strangely stupified and blinded by fleshly Lusts 2 Cor. 4.2 3 4. By manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every Man's Conscience in the sight of God But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them that believe not lest the light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them This Scripture sheweth that the Gospel is light which will discover its self if Men do not shut their Eyes And if men refuse the Converting power they cannot withstand the Convincing power of it for the work of bringing home Souls to God lyeth more with their Lusts than with their Consciences 3 And chiefly because of the Concomitant Blessing God hath appointed the Word to be the great Instrument of Convincing and Converting the World and doth accompany it with his Grace and Spirit sometimes to one effect sometimes to another To Convincing Iohn 16.8 The Spirit shall convince the World of Sin and of Righteousness and of Iudgment If it doth no more it shall leave them under a conviction of the truth Sometimes to Conversion as 2 Cor. 4.6 God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. God concurreth with his own ordinance by his omnipotent and creating power 2. Particularly the Day of Judgment is to be insisted upon in our Ministry The Apostles in planting the Faith observeth this point of Wisdom to insist much upon the Judgment Day Acts 10.42 43. And he commanded us to preach unto the the people and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of Quick and Dead And to him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of Sins This was the great point which his chosen Witnesses were to insist upon So also Acts 17.30 31. But now commandâth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead The Apostles observed the Tempers of those they dealt with when with the brutish multitude they invite them by Arguments of Providence Acts 14.15 16 17. Sirs Why do ye these things We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God which made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all that are therein Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our Hearts with food and gladness When with the Learned he speaks of the first Cause and chief Good Acts 17.28 For in him we live move and have our being And binds all by his coming to Judgment ver 31. So he deals with Felix here he urges principles of known Dignity and Sobriety from the day of Judgment See also 2 Cor. 5.10 11. For we must all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in the Body according to that he hath done whether good or evil Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men This was their great and powerful Argument Reasons 1. Because this made their access into the Hearts and Consciences of Men more easie because of its suitableness to natural Light That Man is God's Creature and therefore his Subject is evident by Reasons drawn from our dependance on the first Cause and Fountain of all Being That Man hath failed in his Subjection to his Creator and Lord is evident by daily experience that therefore God may call him to an account and Man should fear his wrath is a principle as evident as the former and justified by the guilty fears incident to Mankind because of their offences Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death Divine Justice must once publickly appear and rectifie the disorders of the World Now because of the sentiments of Nature the Doctrine of the final Judgment doth easily enter into the Thoughts and Conscienâces of Men. 2. This doth most befriend the great discovery of the Gospel which is justification by Christ and pardon of Sin by submitting to his instruction If
own rather than chuse that which is good Therefore that Men may understand that the Good and Evil of the World is not our last reward or punishment our greatest Happiness or greatest Misery God doth not always comfort the Just with these good things nor punish the Wicked with the contrary Evils On the one side if Good Men were always miserable what a grievous Temptation would this be to the weak we should then think I have cleansed my hands in vain Therefore God mixeth the Dispensation of these outward things Though Piety be the only way to obtain them and to have them by Promise and with satisfaction and a Blessing yet sometimes he giveth to his Enemies that which he denieth to his Children that he may exercise our Faith and Patience and sometimes he punisheth the Wicked and delivereth the Godly that he may shew his Providence Well then a right judgment about Providence would much stay our Hearts Two-things you may be confident of First That no evil can befall you without God's Hand and Counsel It must first pass through the Hands of God before it can reach you For as nothing can be done against his Will so nothing without his Will The hairs of your head are numbred Matth. 10.30 The Divel asked leave to go into the Herd of Swine Now this is a great comfort that you do not fear the Sword if you do not fear him that weareth the Sword God can stop all evil and will when 't is for our Profit and his Glory For he loveth us more than a Mother her only Child If thou hadst an Enemy that hath a purpose to take thee away by poison and he could not any ways do it but by telling thy Parents of his purpose and asking their leave yea and must have the Poison given them by them wouldest thou be troubled and perplexed For how could it be that thy Parents would conspire with thine Enemy to thy death This is the case God loveth his People gave his only begotten Son for them neither Men nor Divels can do any thing against them without God's leave Secondly God being Just Wise and Good doth dispense all Humane Affairs with great Wisdom Sweetness and Equity The Judges of this World when they have the Guilty in their hands do not presently pass Sentence but proceed Gravely and with mature Advice examine Witnesses consider the Cause seek to draw out the Truth by Confession and then afterwards at a certain Day pass Sentence So God now heareth Accusations divers Complaints examineth Witnesses prepareth all for Judgment and in time all things that seem to be in trouble and confusion are put into an orderly frame A Sermon on PROV X. 20 The tongue of the just is as choice silver the heart of the wicked is little worth THere are three Operations of Man his Thoughts Speeches and Actions by these we are discovered and these we should make Conscience of Two of them are represented in this Scripture Words and Thoughts and we cannot make Conscience of the one unless we make Conscience of the other for the Tongue will follow the constitution of the Heart The tongue of the just is as choice silver the heart of the wicked is little worth In the words observe I. The Things opposed The tongue of the just and The heart of the wicked II. The Price and Value of each Choice Silver and Little worth 1. For the first we must enquire why Tongue and Heart are opposed Because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Matth. 12.34 So that if we would prevent the Evils of Speech we must cleanse the Heart The Tap runneth according to the Liquor wherewith the Vessel is filled if the Heart be little worth the Speech will be vain and frothy 2. The Value and Worth the one is as choice refined Silver the other is little worth This Metaphor sheweth that an unsanctified Heart is a drossy Heart there is a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Expression it doth a great deal of hurt I begin with the first part The tongue of the just That is the Words and Speeches which he uttereth with his Tongue And more particularly it is opposed to a flattering Tongue Vers. 18. He that hideth hatred with lying lips A detracting Tongue to him that uttereth a Slander to a prattling Tongue Vers. 19. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but now The tongue of the just is when a just Man speaketh like a just Man Then the Predicate it is as choice Silver both for internal Purity and external Profit and Use Prov. 8.19 My fruit is better than gold yea than fine gold and my Revenue than choice silver It is refined and worthy to be attended unto and embraced and in this sense 't is true Verba valent sicut nummus its Acceptableness Value and Profit is intimated in this Similitude Doctr. That a good Man speaking or behaving himself as a good Man will and should confer and discourse with others to Edification I shall prove it I. From the quality of the Person here described it is a just Man By that Term is meant 1. A renewed Man for naturally our Lips are polluted Isa. 6.5 Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips Sin in the Tongue is most frequent and that not without difficulty avoided It proceedeth from the corruption of the Heart and discovereth the Pollution which lyeth hid there and by venting increaseth it The Orator said of some body Nullum unquam verbum quod revocare vellet eum emisisse That he never uttered a word that he desired to retract But surely he meant it of the Art of Speaking not of the Grace of Speaking at best it was but a false flattery The Corruption of Men by Nature is otherwise described by the Apostle Rom. 3.13 Their throat is an open sâpulchre with their tongues have they used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips This is Man's true Character as he is in his natural Estate and whatever Gifts of Eloquence and plausible Speech they are indowed with yet this doth but hide Corruption not cure and mortifie it The pure Lip is the fruit of God's converting Grace Zeph. 3.9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent And as the powerful Change which Grace worketh in us is shewed in other things so in the Tongue also 2. A Man furnished with knowledge of the Things which concern his Duty for every renewed Man is an inlightned Man For it is said Prov. 15.2 The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness Unless a Man understand his Duty how shall he speak of it So Prov. 17.7 Excellent speech becometh not a fool in the Hebrew it is The Lip of Excellency Ignorant
Alnis Luke 6.38 Give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom for with the same measure that ye meet withall it shall be measured to you again To Ordinances So here in the Text as you deal with God so will he deal with you Look what measure of Diligence and Conscionable Care is in you to hear the Word the like measure of Spiritual Fruit and Profit shall you reap by the Blessing of God 2. A Promise grounded upon a Proverb and unto you that hear shall more be given Those that make use of what is said to them that mark diligently and practice accordingly more Knowledge and Grace is increased This is built on a Proverb habenti dabitur for he that hath to him shall be given To have doth not only signifie the Possession of a thing but the use which is the end of Possession So he that hath is he that hath to purpose that occupieth the Gift and Grace received A Man that useth and employeth that which he hath and so maketh it to appear to the World that he hath such a Talent from God for in Scripture we are said to have that we make use of To him shall be given He shall increase his stock He shall be having and having and having till he come to a glorious Estate in all Spiritual Riches Knowledge Love Humility Zeal Temperance and Patience and all manner of Grace That the expression is Proverbial is out of Question with the Learned for it is an assertion verified in all Ages and Places That the Rich have many friends and he that hath much shall have more Every one will be giving to them and they have greater advantages of improving themselves than others Upon this occasion were the words first used which our Saviour is pleased to translate and apply to his own purpose of growth in Grace by a diligent use of the means Doct. That a serious attention to the Doctrine of the Gospel is the means appointed for the attaining of saving Grace and a plentiful increase therein In stating this point let me observe to you 1. That in the Communication of Grace as well as Nature God observeth the order of means Because he dealeth with us as reasonable Creatures and this becometh the Wisdom of his Government and so he meeteth with us in our way and we meet with him in his way So Christ is the principal means and called therefore the way to the Father Iohn 14.8 Other Subordinate means are instituted by him 2. That among the Subordinate means the principle is the Word called therefore the power of God unto Salvation Rom. 1.16 All the parts of it are fitted to their Sanctifying use His Doctrine to teach and fill us with due Conceptions and Apprehensions of God Threatnings to drive Promises to draw Examples to move and all these formed into a Covenant strongly to ingage us to God 3. This word that it may profit us must be diligently attended unto For this is Christ's Admonition in the Text Take heed what you hear The Gospel deserveth it our profiting requireth it 1 The Gospel deserveth it partly for the sublimity and excellency of the Mysteries therein contained which are enough to ravish the thoughts of Angels 1 Pet. 1.12 Therefore we cannot conceive of them without much consideration Great and Excellent things do even force their way into our Minds Now all other things are but Toys and Trifles to this What is a greater speculation than God made accessible to us in Christ as he was manifested in the Flesh than God reconciled by the propitiatory sacrifice of his Death What is all the Glory of the World to Everlasting Communion with God These things are a feast to the Minds of all wise and rational Men. And partly because of their profit they are things that nearly concern us Needless speculations we may well spare or other Mens matters but surely we should mind their own things What doth more nearly concern us than to have God for our God and Christ for our Saviour and Redeemer and the Spirit for our Sanctifier and Comforter This is life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Iohn 17.3 And partly their Necessity We are undone for ever if ignorant of these things Acts 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we can be saved And Condemned by the Gospel if we make light of them Iohn 3.19 This is the Condemnation that light is come into the World and Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Not to think that worthy of a serious thought which was brought about with so much ado Matth. 22.5 And they made light of it This is not only vile ingratitude but obstinate contempt of Grace which will cost us dear 2. Our profiting by the Gospel requireth it for otherwise How can we have a sufficient understanding of those Mysteries if we content our selves with a few cursory and âareless Thoughts 2 Tim. 2.7 Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things Lay this to thy Heart and God give thee a right use of it or a judgment to do all things which belong to thee 2. That we may feel the force and power of it Acts 16.14 And a certain woman named Lidia a seller of purple of the City of Thyatira which worshipped God heard us whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul without attendency the Truth is lost and doth us no good There must be Attention and Intention before there can be choice or pursuit For the Gospel doth not work like a charme as if we could find the efficacy of it whither sleeping or waking 3. To move the Soul to Obedience For Take heed what you hear is as much as See you practice what you have heard that you bring forth the fruit accordingly He that heareth my sayings and doth them I will liken him to a wise builder Matth. 7.24 Hearing tendeth to Practice Knowledge to Practice Faith to Practice Affection to Practice without which our Hearing is but a bodily Task our Knowledge but an empty Speculation Faith a dead Opinion Affection but a vanishing Impression These things do not attain their consummate and proper effect 4. This diligent attention consisteth in three things Sound Belief Serious Consideration and close Application Sound Belief 1 Thess. 2.13 For this cause we thank God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe Serious Consideration Deut. 32.46 And he said unto them Set your hearts unto all the words which I testiste among you this day which
times ye people pour out your hearts before him On the other side when we omit Prayer or perform it coldly or cursorily surely there is a defect in their Faith Love or Hope A defect of Faith they do not believe God's Being and Providence and the Promises of God's holy Covenant Psal. 14.1 The fool hath said in his heart there is no God And Vers. 4. They call not upon the Lord. The Practical Atheist is one that doth not pray at all times nor much nor often call upon God Mal. 3.14 Ye have said it is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts Or if they do not soundly believe his Covenant Rom. 10.14 How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed How can they address themselves to God in Christ if they are not rooted in the Faith of the Gospel Or sometimes a defect in their Love to God because they have no delight in him Iob 27.10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty Will he always call upon God Isa. 43.22 But thou hast not called upon me O Iacob But thou hast been weary of me O Israel They are glutted with worldly Happiness and so God is neglected Ier. 2.31 32. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel A land of darkness Wherefore say my people we are Lords we will come no more unto thee Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire Yet my people have forgotten me days without number Or a defect in their Hope they despair either of Assistance or Acceptance with God David when he had lost his Peace by some wounding Sin he had not the heart to go to God Psal. 32.3 I kept silence 1 John 3.21 If our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God Sin represents God as an angry Judge God is terrible to a guilty Conscience we inherit this as coming from Adam Gen. 3.8 Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden 5. We are not prepared for Death and Judgment without Faith Hope and Love but either of these Days will be terrible to us 1. Death Take either Grace Faith Hope or Love Faith first we live by Faith and afterwards we dye by Faith Heb. 11.13 These all dyed in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them The intervening Promises are most questioned in the present Life because of the urgency of present Necessities but the great Promise is questioned hereafter When we are to lanch out into Eternity it is a hard matter to look with a steady confidence into the other World when the Soul must flit out of the Body to see Heaven open to receive it needs a strong Faith Iohn 11.25 26. I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye believest thou this So for Love that is necessary that we may be willing to go home to our Father who hath admitted us into his Family pardoned our Sins and relieved our Souls And it is a great encouragement in the hour of Death when we are to leave the World and come immediately into his Presence who hath done such great things for us and is now about to do more But in what a woful case are they who must appear before a God whom they never knew nor heartily loved and with whom they never had communion and acquaintance they never had experience of his Kindness nor interest in his Love and now are forced into his Presence against their will Certainly it is Faith and Love must smooth and sweeten our Passage into the other World and make it comfortable to us Love overcometh our natural loathness to quit the Body 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. To enjoy Christ's Presence we can part with what is nearest and dearest to us So for Hope in what a lamentable case are Men when they come to dye if they are without Hope Iob 27.8 What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul They are full of Presumption and blind Confidence now while they swim in the full stream of Worldly Comforts and Advantages but when this Dotage is over they have no solid Comfort but either dye senseless and stupid or are filled with Horror and Despair and their hopes fail them when they have most need of them 2. So for the Judgment For the Context speaketh of the day of the Lord which cometh unexpectedly on the Sensual and Careless and is matter of Terror to them but it is welcom to the Godly who are upon their guard and have long-looked and prepared for it Now what is the due preparation for Judgment but furnishing our selves with Faith Love and Hope For these Graces do both put us on that Spiritual Care which is necessary for waiting for it and also fill us with Confidence and Comfort Faith 2 Thess. 1.10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day Love is necessary 1 Iohn 1.17 18. Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love Hope Heb. 9.28 And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation 1. Use Is to perswade us to get these Graces all of them partly because without them the new Creature is not perfect You will want Sight Life or strength either an Eye or an Heart or a Power to act And partly because they have a mutual Influence one upon another Faith and Hope upon Love for Faith looketh backward to the Wonders of God's Love shewed in our Redemption by Christ Hope looketh forward to the state of Glory and Blessedless prepared for us And both excite our Love to God and thankful Obedience to him Again Faith and Love breed Hope for they that believe and love Christ's appearing will wait for it and not think of it with Perplexity and Fear but with Comfort and Delight There is a great deal of Grace then to be brought to us Well then labour to get all these Graces To this end 1. Remove the Impediment that is a careless vanity of Mind which groweth upon us through an Indulgence to the Delights of the Flesh so that either we have none or seldom and cursory Thoughts of God or Christ or the World to come Let us be sober as in the Text
ever we think of it When this Lamb of God was killing the Creatures were all in amazement the Earth trembled the Rocks rent the Sun was eclipsed Oh how great is the stupidity and dullness of our Hearts that we can no more seriously think of it Heb. 3.1 Wherefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the Apostle and High-priest of our Profession Iesus Christ. Serious Meditation is like the Concoction of Meat in the Stomach 2. Behold him with Application Iob 5.27 Hear it and know thou it for thy good Rom. 8.31 What shall we then say to these things Excite thine own Heart surely this was for my Sins if I have an Heart to receive Christ and make use of him for this End and Purpose Gal. 2.20 Who loved me and gave himself for me And 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you 3. Behold him with an Eye of Faith Isa. 45.22 Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Iesus Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced Faith gets such a clear sight of things as if we had been by when he suffered and paid this Ransom 4. Behold him with an Eye of Repentance and brokeness of Heart Zech. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born It was thy Sins that pierced him therefore behold him and mourn 5. Behold him with an Eye of Thankfulness as the great Instance of God's Love who would by so costly a Remedy procure our Pardon and Happiness 1 Iohn 4.9 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the prâpitiation for our sins 6. Behold your Suffering and Crucified Saviour with an Eye of Love so as to love him the more O ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã My Love is Crucified Ignatius quò vilior eò charior The more vile and humble he was the more dear he should be to you Let it perswade us to a real Love to allow him a Dominion and Lordship in our Hearts that is real Love to obey God Rom. 5.8 God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us This Love must beget Love 1 Use. To press you to behold the Lamb of God behold him as a Sacrifice for Sin whose Blood applied doth quiet the Conscience and turn away the Curse These Words present the more glorious Spectacle and Object not to your Sight but to your Faith not to your Senses but to your most serious and intimate Consideration The Object is Christ Crucified the only true propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin the chief Point of Christian Knowledge and the most powerful Means of the Creatures Good Oh behold him look not at Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper but at the Lamb of God 2 Use. To press you to take and eat Christ and receive him out of God's hands by Faith He is the Lamb of God God designed him for this Work when Man had no way to help himself 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world God tendreth him to you now Take and Eat God the Party offended hath authorized Christ to be a Mediator say then Lord thou hast appointed thy Son and sent him into the World to be a Ransom for our Souls he is now offered to me Lord I come to eat his Flesh and drink his Blood We must eat him so as to feel the Virtue of both changing our Hearts and comforting our Consciences changing our Hearts other Food is changed into our Substance this changeth us 2 Cor. 5.17 He that is in Christ is a new Creature Comforting our Consciences Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Is God unwilling to give Christ Or is Christ unable to do his Work A Second Sermon on JOHN i. 29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the World Doctrine 2. THE great Work of Christ the Lamb of God is to take away the Sins of the World 1. What is meant by the World 2. In what manner Christ taketh away the Sins of the World 3. That this is the great End Work and Scope of Christ's coming into the World I. What is meant by the World Why is there such a capacious and comprehensive Word used Since it is clear that all the World have not benefit by Christ for many of them die in their Sins Answ. 1. To shew the difference between the Lamb of God and the Sacrifices of the Law the old Sacrifices were only offered for the People of Israel but Christ's Death hath a larger Extent to People of all places Iews and Gentiles 1 Iohn 2.2 And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world And in all Ages from the beginning of the World to the end Rev. 13.8 He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world The Lamb of God is of an universal and perpetual Use. 2. To shew the sufficiency of this Mediatorial Sacrifice it is of such a full and overflowing Merit that it becometh a Foundation for a tendry of Grace to every Creature Here is a Ground-work and Foundation laid for the truth of this Proposition Mark 16.16 That whosoever believeth shall be saved So that here is a great Invitation and Incouragement for every oppressed Soul if Christ taketh away the Sins of the World put in for a share thou art a Member of the World Paul creepeth in at the back Door of the Promise 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief Christ would not have Sinners exclude themselves but attend upon him for this Benefit Therefore he would have his Grace set forth in the most comprehensive Terms that all that find themselves Sinners may stir up themselves to find benefit by him 3. Those Elect ones who have actual Benefit by this Sacrifice may be called The World partly because of their Number take them all together and they are many and therefore called World Rev. 7.9 I beheld a great multitude which no man could number c. And partly in regard of God's Estimation though they are few they are as good as all the World to him And partly because they will one day be set apart from the rest of Mankind and make a peculiar World of themselves II. In what manner doth Christ take away the Sins
Person and Sacrifice was approved of God is evident not only as he appointed it and surely he will Accept what he hath Appointed not only also by the Miracles which he wrought when alive which evidenced his Commission Acts 2.22 Iesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you but chiefly by the Resurrection of Christ which was not only a Testimony of the Truth and Dignity of his Person Rom. 1.4 And declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead but it was a clear Argument of the perfectness of his Satisfaction For unless he had abundantly satisfied God how could God who as a just Judge had appointed him to die for our Sins raise him up from the Dead Would an upright Judge deliver a Debtor or his Surety from Prison unless first full Payment had been made Would God shew himself willing to be Reconciled to us if yet there remained any Wrath to be appeased any farther Ransom necessary to be paid for us Now in the Scripture Christ is sometimes said to rise from the Dead to shew his Divine Power sometimes to be raised by God to shew the Fulness of his Satisfaction Acts 2.24 Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of them When Christ was raised our Surety was let out of Prison And the Scripture hath delivered it to us under that Notion Isa. 53.8 He was taken from Prison and from judgment and who shall declare his Generation For he was cut off from the land of the Living for the transgression of my people was he stricken The Lord sent an Angel to remove his Grave-stone not to supply any lack of Power in Christ but to shew he was fully Appeased and Satisfied Therefore it is said Heb. 13.20 Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Iesus that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant Mark through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant he is become the God of Peace through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant he brought Christ from the Dead He doth not only do us good but le ts go our Surety through the Virtue of that Blood The Phrase of Bringing again from the Dead is Emphatical Christ did not break Prison but was brought forth as the Apostles Acts 16.39 The Magistrates came to the Prison and brought them out Christ rose not only by his own Power but by the Father's Authority If our Surety had perished in Prison we could have no Assurance or if he had continued still under Death the World could have no Discharge But Christ rose again and is not only taken out of Prison but carried up to God in Glory and Honour 1 Tim. 3.16 Received up into glory It is not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Actively he Ascended but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Passively he was Raised up God hath Rewarded him And therefore he hath perfectly done his Work God hath not only taken him out of the Grave but taken him up to Glory Certainly God is well pleased since he hath given him not only a Discharge but a Reward Christ undertaking for us is somewhat like that of Reuben for Benjamin Gen. 43.9 I will be surety for him of my hand shalt thou require him if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee then let me bear the blame for ever Let me see thy Face no more Christ undertook to carry it through and failed not in the Enterprize III. What Comfort is this to poor Sinners since though there be a full Satisfaction Conditions are required which we are not able to perform e're we can have Benefit and we find Sin remaining in us so that it is finished and unfinished as to us I answer There is great Comfort in God's general Grace before it be particularly applied and exhibited to us in the Effects and Sense thereof A sufficient Sacrifice and Ransom given for you is the Foundation of all solid Peace for it is the Foundation of the Gospel or of the Covenant of Grace I shall prove it by these Reasons 1. Because this answereth the grand Scruple which haunteth the Creature and is at the bottom of all our Fears namely how God's Justice shall be appeased Micah 6.6 7. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings with calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oyl Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul The way of appeasing God's Anger hath been an old Controversie that hath troubled all Nations and till it be answered and fully determined Man is not perfect as appertaining to the Conscience Heb. 9.9 Though God be infinitely Merciful yet he is infinitely Just and we can expect no more from his Mercy than we may fear from his Justice Guilty Nature still presageth Evil to us till there be something Penal endured and something of Price and Value given to appease Justice 2. That God now looketh for no Satisfaction at your hand it is all done perfectly by Christ all is finished he satisfied for us that we might not be obliged to satisfie in our own Persons Heb. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Isa. 53.5 By his stripes we are healed It was at his Cost that our Recovery was brought about 3. In this Provision we see the Will of God putting forth it self for our help in the most astonishing way that could be imagined 1 Tim. 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh 1 John 4.10 Herein was love not that we loved God but God loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins This is such an unusual expression of Love such an engaging Instance so much surpassing our Thoughts that we cannot sufficiently admire it When God laid such a broad Foundation surely he intended some notable Grace to us 4. Here is a full Answer to those usual Objections which are raised by broken Hearts as the number and greatness and heinousness of our Sins for as such they shall not be your Ruine As great as they are God can with honour pardon them for barely to plead the number of Sins or greatness of Sins is to lessen the Price The Messiah came Dan. 9.24 To finish transgression and to make an end of sin and to bring in everlasting Righteousness There is no Sin so great but the Redeemer's Merit can countervail it And no Man shall perish for the want of the Payment of his Ransom or an Expiatory Sacrifice for his Sins He may
all forgiven it is all expiated by my Merit 2 Use. This affords much comfort to humbled Sinners Take Christ as freely as he freely offereth himself for you he resigned up himself to Death and will not you resign up your selves by Faith He poured out his Soul to Death and will not you pour out your Souls into his Bosom Consider all the Persons of the Trinity are willing and wiâl not you The Father gave him Iohn 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Christ gave himself Gal. 2.20 Who loved me and gave himself for me The Spirit is willing he is grieved with your neglect and refusal Mat. 23.37 How often would I have gathered thy children together as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings but ye would not Oh! pour out your Souls in Faith and Prayer as Christ did his upon the Cross. 3 Use. Let us learn to imitate Christ at the close of his Life he said It is finished and so bowed the Head and gave up the Ghost Believers have a Joy set before them as well as Christ it is not so with wicked Men they cannot say that with them it is begun their Heaven endeth when they come to die but God's People should take Death chearfully if they can say as Christ Iohn 17.4 Father I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the work that thou gavâst me to do Let the Death be violent or natural it is aâl one whether we are a Peace-Offering or a Burnt-Offering there is more of Man's Maâice in a vioâent Death but it cannot hurt us But alas Men generally do not live as if they did look to die and therefore they do not die as if they did look to live and so here they would not dâe and there they would not live A SERMON UPON ECCLES VII 29 But they sought out many Inventions THERE are two things in this Scripture 1. The Righteousness of God in his Work about Men God made Man upright 2. Man's perverse Subtilty in inventing Ways of Backsliding and Apostacy from God But they sought out many Inventions From this latter part observe Doct. That Man fell from the Integrity of his first Estate and is ever since full of evil and fruitless Inventions I. I shall speak to this Point as it is represented in the Text. II. Give some Considerations as to the general Case 1. The Persons they the Expression was singular before God made Adam upright but now plural not only to include both our first Parents but all their Posterity Adam had his Invention and all his Posterity theirs The Devil inspired Adam with a sad and doleful Invention to go about to find out another Happiness than God had appointed Adam could not content himself with this kind of Happiness but fancied to himself an higher Perfection and yielded to follow these new-devised Ways of Blessedness which Satan and his own deceived Heart did suggest to him And this Invention hath invented and found out all the Sin and Misery under which the World groaneth As Adam had his Invention so all his Posterity theirs We are inventing still to make our selves more miserable The least Ebolitions of Sin are expressed in the Old Testament by Imaginations in the New by Lusts. In the Old Testament by Imaginations Jer. 18.12 And they said There is no Hope but we will walk after our own Devices and we will every one do the Imagination of his evil Heart Gen. 6.5 And God saw that the Wickedness of Man was great in the Earth and that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually In the New by Lusts James 1.14 But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own Lust and enticed Titus 3.3 For we our selves also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers Lusts. Not only the desiring but the understanding Faculty is corrupt Therefore 't is said Prov. 1.31 They shall eat the Fruit of their own Way and be filled with their own Devices Jer. 6.19 Behold I will bring upon this People even the Fruit of their Thoughts Meaning the Evil which their own Devices and Practices had procured to themselves Every one of us have our Devices Ways and Haunts of Sin whereby we make our selves more wretched and sinful 2. Their Act They sought out that sheweth the Voluntariness and Studiousness of Man's Defection it is their own Act and Deed and their Hearts are set upon it It is said Ionah 2.8 They that observe lying Vanities forsake their own Mercies They set their Minds a-work prostitute their Reason to their Senses All Mens Projects what do they tend to but the Satisfaction of their own Lusts to cater for the Body and gratify the Animal Life Making Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 Taking thought what they shall eat or what they shall drink Mat. 6.25 Their Care is about the base and brutish Part more than about the Soul how to adorn the Body and gratify the Body and for this the Soul must be made a Slave There is a perverse Diligence in Men to corrupt themselves 3. The Object with its Number Many Inventions There is some difference in the Translations Ludovicââ de Dieâ because the Word for many signifieth also great and mighty rendreth it Ipsi autem quâsiverunt cogitationes magnatum meaning by the Mighty the Angels who were not contented with their own Station but forsook it Iude v. 6. Certain it is the Devil's first Temptation was Gen. 3.5 Ye shall be as Gods that is advance into a more honourable and noble Condition than now you are in These Thoughts being suggested by Satan they ambitiously entertained them The Vulgar readeth it Se infinâtis miscuit quaestionibus Adam at first out of Curiosity would know Good and Evil and ever since we have been sick of Questions questioning this and questioning that and have no clear Light to guide us The Septuagint render it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they sought out many Ratiocinations We grope in a maze of Uncertainties and so intangle our selves the more Our Heavenly Wisdom is lost by our Sin and Rebellion and instead thereof we have gotten a false Carnal Wisdom which is Enmity to God Rom. 8.7 and only inclineth us to a false Happiness Iames 3.15 to the Pleasures Honours and Profits of the present World and so are given up to an injudicious Mind and are left in the Hands of our own Counsel which is the heaviest Plague that can light upon a reasonable Creature Psal. 81.11 12. But my People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would none of me so I gave them up unto their own Hearts Lusts and they walked in their own Counsels For our own Wisdom is an ill Guide and Counsellor and will never guide us aright in the Way to true Happiness but lead us into âogs and Pits and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts. But keeping more closely to
another and do not firmly adhere to God being weaned from the Vanities of the World they are carried hither and thither by their perverse Affections sometimes to one thing sometimes to another 3. With respect to that one Object who alone was sufficient for us They that have left God and would find Happiness in the Creatures need many Creatures before they can patch up any sorry tolerable Happiness to themselves One broken Cistern can yield but little Refreshing Ier. 2.13 So many Disappointments make them look more about God made Man for himself capable to enjoy him now he is an infinite Eternal Good We desire an infinite Eternal Good still such as may quiet and satisfy us therefore Man being made capable of enjoying God who is infinite and finding himself not satisfied with a few or many things always seeketh after new things Here is his Error that he seeketh after that which is infinite among those things which are finite and so wandreth up and down groping for an Eternal Good Acts 17.26 27. And hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men for to dwell on the Face of the Earth and determined the Times before appointed and the Bounds of their Habitations That they should seek the Lord if hapây they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us As we depart from God we are gone from Unity and are left distracted and confounded in the Multitude of the Creatures Quaerunt in varietate Creaturarum quod amiserunt in unitate Creatoris They seek in the variety of the Creatures what they have lost in the one God Vse 1. Is to represent the Misery of fallen Man that we may take up a Lamentation for him and bewail our Departure from Life and Blessedness and forsaking it for Sin and Misery They have cast off God and set at nought his Counsel and given themselves over to many fruitless and hurtful Inventions For alas Man being left to the Counsel of his own desperately wicked and deceitful Heart what doth he look after What may be expected from him but that all his Thoughts and Projects should be for the satisfaction of his Lusts to serve his Pride Avarice Revenge Pomp Pleasure and Vanity God is not in all his Thoughts he cares not whether he be pleased or displeased honoured or dishonoured Here consider the Disorder and Danger of this State 1 st The Disorder introduced hereby 1. The Creature is preferred before God For all their Projects are how to live at ease in the World not how to please and enjoy God and so they forsake their own Mercies for observing lying Vanities Jonah 2.8 They seek an Happiness apart from God who is their own Mercy that is they might have had from him all that which the Mercy of an Al-sufficient God can afford And for what do they forsake him for lying Vanities in regard of their Emptiness they are Vanities and in regard of their disappointing our Expectations lying Vanities They do deceive us with a vain Shew and in the issue miserable Disappointments And mark these must be observed followed after with a great Sollicitude and Care whereas the other is freely offered to us it is our own in the Offer and it is our own Fault if it be not our own in the Choice So Ier. 2.13 My People have committed two Evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of living Waters and have hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that will hold no Water God is the Well-spring of all manner of Good a Fountain that runneth constantly and never faileth and such would he have been to us if we had continued loyal and dutiful to him Besides the leaving of the everliving alsufficient and ever-flowing Fountain of all Good they have betaken themselves to poor paltry Vanities that will yield them no real and solid Refreshment 2. The Body is preferred before the Soul For all our Inventions run upon the Body and the pleasing the Flesh Rom. 13.14 And make not Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof But the precious and immortal Soul is little thought of and cared for They sit down well appaid with carnal Contentments Luke 12.19 Soul take thine Ease eat drink and be merry thou hast much Goods laid up for many Years They do not rise to any Thoughts of an higher Life never think of that immortal Soul they carry about with them but only use it to cater for the Body that the Body may be well fed and clothed and adorned Our business is to seek Rest for our Souls if we would invent and consider we should look after that Ier. 6.16 Ask for the old Paths where is the good Way and walk therein and ye shall find Rest for your Souls We are never in our Wits again till this be the Project and Design we travel with But alas this is not thought of the neglected Soul may easily complain of hard Usage What are our Thoughts but what shall we eat and what shall we drink and how shall we make a fair Shew in the Flesh If we look after the Soul it is to adorn it with secular Learning and Wisdom which is but to serve the Flesh in a more cleanly manner and to gratify our worldly Ends our Pride or our Interests We look after Flowers rather than Fruit those Adornments of the Soul which are for Pomp rather than Life and for present Use rather than Eternal Benefit 3. They prefer Earth before Heaven and Time before Eternity All their business is rather to make sure of the Prosperity of the Body than the Salvation of the Soul And though it is plain and they do or may know and see that this will not cure their Diseases nor ease their Pain nor save them from the Grave nor Hell yet because Riches will help them to live in Pleasure and Reputation with the World and in Plenty of all things and to have their Will as long as they live that 's enough for them for they care not for the Pleasures and Happiness which is to be enjoyed in the other World Though Death and the Grave may put an end to all they have here much sooner than they imagined yet their Minds and Hearts are set upon these things as their Happiness and will not be diverted from them they have their Portion in this World Psal. 17.14 From Men which are thy Hand O Lord from Men of the World which have their Portion in this Life and whose Belly thou fillest with thy hid Treasure they are full of Children and leave the rest of their Substance to their Babes 2 dly The Danger As it is a base thing to act so disproportionably to the Light of Reason so within a little while it will be a bitter thing Ier. 2.19 Thine own Wickedness shall correct thee and thy Backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy
supposeth a Sanction both of Reward and Punishment and a Sanction a Judg to whom a Man is accountable And if Man were but an higher and wiser sort of Beast he would but differ gradually from a Dog or a Swine Now no Man would be used as a Beast and made a Slave to any one that can master and tame him and sold in the Market as a Beast if this be his Lot by his Infelicity in the World he would look upon it as an uncouth thing and that it would be to sin before God to use him so Therefore there is a Distinction between Men and Beasts Men die not as the Beasts die 3. They are capable of the Knowledg of Immortality and can frame curious Disputes and accurate Debates thereof which sheweth they are not altogether uncapable of the thing it self for the Beasts know no other Life beyond what they injoy and mind no other and care for no other and therefore the Estate of Man will be different from theirs 4. Man is capable of knowing God and his Attributes which the Beasts are not because they were never made to injoy him He hath given us an Vnderstanding that we may know him that is true 1 John 5.20 They are capable of knowing their Relation to God as his Creatures and Subjects and so are obnoxious to his Judgment and that nothing here can make them happy and that God alone can do it Psal. 4.6 7. There be many that say VVho will shew unto us any Good Lord lift thou up the Light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put Gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their VVine increased That Happiness lieth not in what Men ordinarily seek it Riches Honours and Pleasures but in the Favour of God That here we do not injoy him to the full and that therefore we must seek after another Life here we seek God in the World to come we find him and therefore cannot rest in this partial Injoyment Man is ever seeking after an immortal Blessedness now this Capacity is not in vain the Soul is restless till it find him 5. Man is capable of a Divine Nature which consists not only in the bare Knowledg but Love of God 2 Pet. 1.4 VVhereby are given to us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be Partakers of the Divine Nature He is capable of the Image of God Epes 4.24 And that ye put on the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness 6. Man is capable of a sweet familiar Communion with God and Friendship with him 1 Iohn 1.3 And truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. Therefore the State of Man dying must needs be different from that of a Beast who hath no Knowledg no Desire no Love to God no Capacity of Communion with him unless it be in respect of receiving the Effects and Bounty of his common Providence 2 dly The Dignity of Man God made him a little lower than the Angels and crowned him with Glory and Honour Psal. 8.5 Now if he were not immortal he would be of all Creatures most miserable his Reason only would serve to make him capable and apprehensive of the greater Calamity and Trouble Sure it is that Man is the Master-piece of this visible World in respect of the Majesty of his Person the Abilities of his Mind and his Soveraignty over all the Works of God's Hands all which are Marks of special Favour of the Creator to Man above other Creatures Now if God hath given to Man the next Place in order of Dignity to the Angels above other his Creatures what would his Love signify if he be in a worse Condition than the Beasts and liable to so many Cares Incumbrances Grief and Remorse of Conscience which the Beasts are freed from Alas considering the Calamities of his Life Infirmities of his Body Perplexities of his Mind his Reason is a sad Privilege to him and his Torment rather than his Blessedness whilst it only giveth him a doleful Remembrance of what is past a Care about what is present and awakens Fears of what is to come The Beasts indeed have a Sense of what is present but no Remorse for what is past no Presage of what is to come but Man hath all these a bitter Remembrance of Sins past and for present Evils they are more than those of the Beasts such as Poverty Banishment Imprisonment Slavery Loss of Estate sundry Sicknesses and Diseases and Man hath a more bitter Sense and Apprehension of them And for time to come he hath a Fore-sight of the End which the Beasts have not So that we have twenty-fold more Cares and Labours than they have who live in Tranquillity and Liberty and free from those Disquiets which vex Mankind and have no Remorse to sowr their Pleasures either from the afflictive Remembrance of what is past or Solicitude about what is to come Therefore if our Happiness were here only Man would be less happy than the Beasts many of whose Lives are longer and sweeter who have a more sincere Use of bodily Pleasures But here is their Happiness God had provided some better thing for them to be injoyed in the other World It cannot be imagined that he hath made his noblest Creature in the World with a Nature that should be a necessary Misery and Vexation to it self above the Calamities incident to the rest of the Creatures The very Apprehensions and Desires that a Man hath of an higher Good would be a Torment and Burden to him if there were no Calamity else for he seeth a better Estate which he cannot injoy as an Horse tied up from the Provender which is near unto him and cannot reach it Our Nature inclineth us to know and love that we cannot obtain We can think afore-hand of our Death and Abode in Darkness which Beasts cannot for they are not troubled with these Thoughts Yea we fear Miseries after Death and know not how to be exempted from them Now it is incredible that God should make his noblest Creature most miserable by setting before his Eyes a certain Death and possible Torments and Miseries after Death and provide no Remedy against these things 3 dly God governeth Men by the Hopes and Fears of another Life and therefore such a Life there is and so the Souls of Men are immortal The Reason is because God needeth not to govern the World by Deceit and Lying This would be against his Holiness and Benignity and would destroy the very Government he would establish for it would tempt us to Insincerity and to cheating and deceiving others for Men are no better than their Religion it were well if they were as good The Foolish Bad and Ignorant may use such Arts but the Wise Holy and Good would not In ludicrous things we fright our Children with Bug-bears and Names but in such a serious thing as the Government of
Body nothing would be so dear to us but we would part with it to keep off the Death of the Body for then there would be an end of us Death would be the chiefest Evil we could suffer and that which would deprive us of all other good nothing should be feared and abhorred like Death and we should lie forswear or do any thing to avoid it But this Principle would not only destroy all generous Actions but introduce all Dishonesty and Sin into the World for as we should never venture our Lives upon any Reason and Inducement though never so just so we should stick at no Evil to preserve Life and the Conveniencies which belong thereunto 5. The Desires wrought in us by the Spirit of God to see and enjoy God argue the Immortality of the Soul Rom. 8.23 And not only they but our selves also which have the First-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies 2 Cor. 5.2 For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven We prove another Life not only by the Inclination Instinct and Disposition of Nature towards Happiness in general the universal Desire of all Mankind is to be everlastingly happy this proveth it for this Desire being universal and natural is not frustrate Nature doth nothing in vain but the Desires and Groans of the Sanctified do much more prove it for they do more forcibly direct and carry our Hearts to a certain Scope and End and they are excited by the Holy Spirit for he imprinteth a firm Perswasion of this Happiness and stirreth up these Desires after it and that in our sober and severest Moods when we are solemnly conversing with God in his holy Worship in the Word Prayer Meditation and the Lord's Supper and all other holy Duties then he most raiseth these Affections towards heavenly Things and also he leaveth this heavenly Relish upon our Hearts at other times as the Reward of our eminent Obedience to God and the more serious and holy any are the more do they feel of this Now these Desires being of God's own infusing they will not be disappointed therefore those who make the Hopes of the World to come their Happiness Desire and Joy will one day be Partakers of the Blessedness of it Their Groaning Seeking and Longing will not be in vain for God will give the Satisfaction where he giveth the Desire Vse 1. Is Terror to the Wicked and Ungodly Your Souls die not with the Body but must enter into endless Torments the Body perisheth but the immortal Substance will for ever subsist in a State of Wo or Weal Now how brutishly and much beneath a Man do they live who wholly give up themselves to carnal Pleasures and worldly Pursuits that live as if their Souls did die with their Bodies and they should never hear of them more they make no Provision for their everlasting Estate Three Evils I charge upon these Men. 1. These Men do not believe that which Scripture and Reason sheweth to be certainly true and so do not shew themselves either Christians or Men. The great Design of Scripture is to give them a Prospect of another World and to assure them of a Life after Death And will you not receive God's Testimony Are God's Threatnings a vain Scarcrow Are the Promises a golden Dream Go and reason if the Soul abideth not after it flitteth out of the Body it is either because it cannot be or act or because God will not suffer it to be or act or hath not clearly declared it shall be so so that no certainty can be had thereof or hath declared or expressed himself to the contrary Now none of these are true 1. Not the first The Nature of the Soul is such that it sheweth plainly that it can live without the Body a Spirit can subsist by it self that which God hath fitted to endure for ever he hath designed it to endure for ever Now the Soul as a Spirit is fitted to live for ever and it can live without the Body for it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it doth of it self move it self Is it the Body that supports the Soul or the Soul that supports the Body Heathens have thought so upon this Argument and will not you Cum venerit ille dies qui mixtum hoc divini humanique secernat corpus hîc ubi inveni relinquam ipse me Diis redeam When that Day shall come when the divine Spirit shall be severed from the human Body I shall leave the Body where I found it and yield up my Spirit to the Gods 2. Is it because God will not permit it to be or act without the Body Whence doth that appear To us Christians he hath appointed a Mediator to receive our Souls 3. Or is it because he hath doubtfully expressed his Mind You are not sure there is no such Life it is impossible you should know or prove the contrary The Question between the Infidel and the Christian is not Whether there be a a World to come but whether he can prove there is none You cannot prove the Falsity of the Christian Hope by any sound Argument that there is no Heaven not Hell for ought you can say or know there are both and it were best to take the surer side In a Lottery Men will venture some small matter Some of the Heathens that disputed against it or doubted of it yet acknowledged it to be a Supposition conducing to Vertue and Goodness 4. God hath not declared his Mind to the contrary but plainly told us that it is so It is easy to presume that a thousand to one but it is so Natural Reason Consent of Nations Fears of a guilty Conscience or Presages of eternal Punishment the whole Drift of the Christian Religion the Example of Christ all prove it Those Wretches that out-face Religion accuse Christ of a Lie and the wisest Men of the World of Folly their own Consciences of imposing a Cheat upon them to check their vain Pleasures and in defiance of Light within and without smother all Conceits of a World to come 2. They do not consider these things and weigh them that they may come to understand what is their end and business here Alas are we so near everlasting Joy or Misery and yet neglect it yea it may be scorn and oppose those that make it their chiefest Care and Labour to prepare for it How long have you lived in the World and scarce ever asked the question or thought seriously What shall I do to be saved you are desirous to give full and ample Satisfaction to your dying Part yea have pampered it and over-clogg'd it but your business is not to pamper the Body but to save your Souls Now you should shew your selves Men Isa. 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves Men bring it again to mind O ye Transgressors Think aforehand
with the Blessing of eternal Life His Priestly Actions after the Order of Aaron were his Consecration to his everlasting blessed Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedeck Without these Sufferings he could neither be a faithful nor a merciful high Priest nor satisfy his Father's Justice nor have a full feeling from Experience of the Creatures Misery Well then as Christ was consecrated at his Death so is a Christian who runneth Parallel with Christ in all his Offices As Christ had an Inauguration into that Priesthood he executed upon Earth at his Baptism So hath a Christian for his spiritual Priesthood as soon as washed in the Laver of Regeneration but for his everlasting Priesthood at Death 2. My next Argument is This suteth with the other Privilege of Kings We are made Kings as well as Priests Now as our Kingly Office is not perfect till we come to Heaven so neither our Priestly and therefore it mainly respecteth our Ministration in the heavenly Temple How is a poor Christian a King here unless in a Riddle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as he vanquisheth the Devil the World and the Flesh As it is a Princely thing to be above inferiour things and to trample them under our Feet The Heathen could say Rex est qui metuit nihil Rex est qui cupit nihil He is a King that is above the Hopes and Fears of the World that feareth nothing and desireth nothing This is indeed in a Metaphor a Kingly Spirit to have our Hearts in Heaven and to look upon all sublunary things as beneath our Care and Affections Christ's Kingdom is not of this World neither is a Believer's Here upon Earth we reign only in a spiritual way But the Privilege cometh fully to be verified when we tread Satan under our Feet and triumph over Enemies and reign visibly and gloriously sitting upon Thrones with Christ at his Coming judging the World and Angels themselves Matth. 19.28 Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the Throne of his Glory ye shall also sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Luke 22.29 30. I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me That ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom and sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Psal. 49.14 The upright shall have Dominion over them in the Morning And 1 Cor. 6.2 Know ye not that we shall judg the World And ver 3. Know ye not that we shall judg Angels Neither will this Kingdom be terminated and ended at the Day of Judgment but they shall be Kings eternal in Heaven Luke 12.32 Fear not little Flock it is your Father's good Pleasure to give you the Kingdom 2 Tim 2.12 If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him that is in Heaven With respect to this Title Right and Interest we are said to be made Kings Now proportionably the other Privilege of being made Priests must be expounded also We are spiritual Priests upon Earth we have our Sacrifices of Prayers Praises and Alms and devoting our selves to God But this Office is not compleated till we come to Heaven and do immediately minister before the Lord. Then we have Entrance into the holiest Heb. 10.19 Having therefore Brethren Boldness to enter into the holiest by the Blood of Iesus Not in Spirit but in Person For if the chief Part of our Kingly Office be yet behind why not the chief Part of our Priestly Office also 3. Then we are qualified and prepared Sanctification must go before Consecration and the more sanctified the more consecrated And when our Sanctification is finished then our Consecration is consummated and not till then Now in this World our Justification and Sanctification is imperfect we are not got above our legal Fears and Grace is very weak in us You know before we can serve the living God our Consciences must be purged from dead Works Heb. 9.14 As the High Priest was not to approach God without his Washings lest he die And we are bidden to draw nigh to God with a true Heart in full Assurance of Faith having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water Heb. 10.22 If we have the Privilege of Priests we must perform the Duties of Priests Now we are not perfect as appertaining to the Conscience nor are we fully cleansed and sanctified till the Vail of the Flesh be removed and we be presented to God without Spot and Wrinkle Somewhat is begun indeed that will tend to and end in perfect Sanctification enough to qualify us for our Ministration at this Distance from God There is enough done on Christ's Part by way of Impetration and Merit Heb. 10.14 For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified or consecrated he hath payed the Price but as to the Application that is by Degrees The Priest under the Law was seven Days in consecrating this figured all the time that interveneth before we enter upon the everlasting Sabbath Our whole Life is the time of Consecration which goeth on by Degrees and will be made compleat both for Body and Soul at the Resurrection for then shall we be made fit to approach the Throne of Glory and serve our God in a perfect manner in the eternal Temple of Heaven In this Life our Consecration is not yet finished we cannot come so near God we are qualified indeed to come to the Throne of Grace but not qualified to come to the Throne of Glory But the Work is a-doing and in time it will be accomplished 4. We have not the full Privileges of Priests till then which is Intimacy full Communion Nearness of Access to God and Ministration before him This is the Privilege we have as Priests The Apostle telleth us Heb. 9.8 The Holy Ghost signifieth that the way to the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing How did the Holy Ghost signify this I answer by the whole Oeconomy and Frame of that Dispensation God kept State and Majesty then and his People must not come too near him The common Israelite must not come too near the Sanctuary they were not to camp or pitch their Tents round about it but only the Levites lest they die Numb 1.52 53. And the Children of Israel shall pitch their Tents every Man by his own Camp and every Man by his own Standard throughout the Host. But the Levites shall pitch round about the Tabernacle of Testimony that there be no Wrath upon the Congregation of the Children of Israel It was a dangerous thing for the common Israelites to be too near the Symbols of God's Presence to teach us the Distance between God and Men and their Unworthiness to come near him and his holy things But though the Levites might encamp near it yet none but the Priests must
its present Estate Therefore every Man if there be not a Life after Death is bound to seek the Preservation and Continuance of this Life above all things in the World besides and to do that no Device would be dishonest or Practice amiss But all they that have ever heard of the Name of Vertue abhor this Principle as base and odious That a Man should make what shift he can though never so base and wicked to maintain and save his Life no Means used to this end are to be accounted foul for nothing is so ill as Death nothing so good as Life But if this would destroy all Honesty and Vertue then certainly we have Hopes and Fears of another Life If you will say No Vertue is a sufficient Recompence to it self at what rate soever it be purchased and maintained yet what is there to countervail all the Losses and Grievances it exposeth us unto such as the loss of Life and Limbs Vertue is a sufficient Reward to it self Spe non Re in Hope not in the Thing it self but so far as 't is the only way to everlasting Communion with God who is our exceeding great Reward or so far as the assured Hope of a better Life after Death is inseparably connexed to the constant Practice of Godliness in this Life And to do Good merely for Goodness sake without any Eye or Respect to the Reward is a Strain of Devotion contrary to that Doctrine which is taught us by Christ and his Apostles 3. With respect to Man's Comfort and Solace in his Troubles which ariseth from reflecting on our future Reward when all things go across to us here Comfort one another with these Words saith the Apostle 1 Thess. 4.18 Now what Words were those The Belief of a blessed Resurrection of those that died in or for the Lord that is by occasion of the Faith of Christ he thought that Consideration sufficient to yield Matter of Comfort or Support to them These are Consolations proper to Christians because they are sure as depending upon Christ's Word and they are congruous and sutable because their Hearts are set upon these things not upon a vain World but a blessed and glorious Estate that Christ hath offered and himself is entred into and when we get thither our Affections will be satisfied Desires granted and Hopes fulfilled So that still the Apostle's Reasoning is strong If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable For our Consolations which are fetched from the other World are our proper Consolations 4. With respect to the Credit and Esteem of God's Servants in the World It is neither for the Glory of God nor the Safety of his People that the most eminent Vertue and Goodness should lie under perpetual Infamy God's Servants do not only suffer hard things but their Names are cast forth as evil Now this is not for the Honour of God because it reflects upon him when the Children of Wisdom are represented as Sons of Folly in checking their Lusts venturing their Interests and renouncing their All for their Fidelity to Christ as if they did foolishly in running into such Inconveniences when they might spare themselves and sleep in a whole Skin Now it is a great Dishonour to God that his wisest and most faithful Servants should be accounted Fools and an humorous odd sort of Men that needlesly trouble themselves and others This hardneth the World in Sin and would quench and destroy all Zeal for God if there were not a time coming when the Wisdom of the World shall be seen to be the greatest Folly and that there are no such Fools as those that imploy their greatest Abilities in attaining present Pleasure Profit and Preferment but those are the wisest Adventurers who have sold all to promote the Glory of God and gain Christ who look not upon things as they appear now to the sensual and deluded World but as they will be found at the last Day when all things shall be seen in their own proper Colours Neither is it for the Safety of the Saints who though they seek nothing but the Publick Good are traduced as the Troublers of Israel and their Way condemned as factious Singularity Therefore it is a great Satisfaction that we have hopes that things shall be reviewed and that which is good be restored to its publick Honour and the Godly who prize a good Name above all earthly Interests shall have their Faith found to Praise and Honour and Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 That the Trial of your Faith being much more precious than of Gold that perisheth though it be tried with Fire might be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the Appearing of Iesus Christ. Vse 1. It sheweth us how much it concerneth us to be assured of the future Estate It is the Life of our Religion it bindeth our Duty upon us by the strictest Tie and doth also establish our true and proper Comfort If we may have hope of better things from Christ in another World not only in our Calamities but by our Calamities we should not have such dark and doubtful Thoughts about Eternal Blessedness but live more in the clear Foresight of it by Faith and the Foretaste of it by Hope especially should this support us in two Cases in sharp Afflictions and in Death 1. In sharp Afflictions We are apt to take scandal and offence at the Sufferings that befal us for Righteousness sake but consider not only the Promises of Christ but that our very Persecution is an Argument of our final Deliverance The opposition of ungodly and unrighteous Adversaries is to them an evident Token of Perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God Phil. 1.28 That they are wretched and obdurate People and run on to their own Destruction but that you are sincere and penitent Believers who are not drawn away from your Fidelity to Christ by any Terrors whatsoever It is not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not only an Argument to confirm the Hopes of the Gospel but a Mark and Token of your Sincerity it confirmeth your Right Well then though our Afflictions be smart and grievous let us comfort our selves with these Hopes You are not to look to present things but future not to what is applauded in the World but what Opinion Christ will have of them at the last not to what you feel now but what you shall enjoy hereafter Though all things appear with Pomp and Glory on the World's side and Terror to the Saints yet this Scene is soon withdrawn and present Time is quickly past like a Dream or piece of Phantastry and then there is an utter Inversion of things Shame is on the Wickeds side and Honour put upon the Saints and the Shame and Glory are both eternal and when they enter into everlasting Torments we enter into our Master's Joy and the Children of God that are derided and vilified in the World are then approved and justified
Sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord Acts 3.19 Then it is of Use to make you constant in walking in the Fear of the Lord Eccles. 12.13 14. Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole Duty of Man For God shall bring every Work into Iudgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Especially it is an Engagement to Faithfulness in your Calling especially Ministers 2 Cor. 5.9 Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him Again it urgeth you to keep the Commandments Christ will bear you out Keep this Commandment without Spot unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Tim. 6.14 And then it presseth to Diligence He comes with Crowns in his Hands to reward all that are faithful to him 1 Pet. 5.4 And when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead at his Appearance and his Kingdom 1 Thess. 2. â9 For what is our Hope or Ioy or Crown of rejoicing Are not even ye in the Presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his Coming The Day of Judgment respects our Callings especially as Ministers Christ's Officers must give an Account and in whatever Condition God hath set us in wherein he expects a Trial of our Faithfulness we are to consider what we must do SERMON XVIII TITUS II. 13 Of the Great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. I Come to the Description of the Person who shall appear who is described by a Title of Power and a Title of Mercy and Love because in Christ's Person there is Greatness and Goodness mixt for he is called the great God there is his Attribute of Power and Majesty and then there is a comfortable Name and Title Our Saviour That both these Titles do belong to the same Person the Fathers have abundantly proved against the Arians In the Original there is but one Article ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that greaâ God and our Saviour We have just such another Expression 1 Cor. 15.24 He shall deliver up the Kingdom to that God and Father ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to God even the Father So here the great God and Saviour that is the God that is the Saviour Besides there is another Argument that the Words must be referred to the same Person because it is never said any where the Father doth appear but only Jesus Christ and therefore the Appearance of the great God must needs be applied to Jesus Christ. I shall handle these Titles conjunctly and severally I. Look upon them conjunctly and together and there you may observe the mingling of Words of Power and Words of Goodness and Mercy in Christ's Stile and Title I observe it the rather because it is often found in Scripture But for what Reasons are these Titles of Mercy and Power thus mingled and coupled together 1. For the Comfort of the Saints to shew that Christ in all his Glory will not forget himself to be a Saviour At the Day of Judgment when he comes forth like the great God with all his Heavenly Train then he will own us and will be as tender of us as he was upon the Cross. The Butler in his Advancement when he was at Court and well at Ease forgot Ioseph in Prison but Christ in his Advancement doth not grow shy and stately We may have Boldness in the great Day for he will not only come as the great God but also as our Saviour We have the like Expression Heb. 8.1 2. We have such an high Priest who is set on the right Hand of the Throne of Majesty in the Heavens And what follows a Minister of the Sanctuary Jesus Christ certainly had a gracious Welcome into Heaven and was exalted by the Father but even now he is our faithful Agent in Heaven This is made to be the Excellency and Height of his Condescention that he came in the Form of a Servant in the Fashion of an ordinary Man poor and despicable then he came to do the Church Service and now he is gone to Heaven in all his Glory still he is there as a Servant as one that is to negotiate with God for holy things to tender our Prayers to the Lord and to pass out Blessings to us this is Christ's Imployment in Heaven 2. To shew the Mystery of Christ's Person in whom the two Natures meet there is not only the Majesty of the God-head but also the humane Nature by which he claims Kin of us I observe it because the Scripture takes notice of it Isa. 9.6 To us a Child is born to us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his Shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace What a Mixture of Titles is here He is called a Child yet the everlasting Father Wonderful yet the Counsellor one that is intimate with his People he gives sweet Counsel to them He is called the mighty God and then presently the Prince of Peace Christ's Person is the greatest Mystery and Riddle in the World he is God and yet Man He is as the Apostle saith Heb. 7.3 Without Father and without Mother as Melchisedec yet he had both Father and Mother a Father in Heaven and a Mother upon Earth He was without Mother as to his Divinity and without Father as to his Manhood Another Place where the same Method is observed Zech. 13.7 Awake O Sword against my Shepherd and against the Man that is my Fellow He is called the Man but yet God calls him his Fellow our Brother and God's Son There are so many Mysteries that meet in Christ's Person that under the Law he could not be figured and represented by one Sacrifice Levit. 16.15 21. There were two Sacrifices chosen to represent Christ there was the Goat to be slain for the Sin-Offering and then the Scape-Goat one was not enough because there are in Christ two Natures a God that could not die and a Man that could not overcome Death The Goat that was slain shewed he was crucified in the Flesh and the Goat that was let go shewed that he did yet live by the Power of God 2 Cor. 13.4 For though he was crucified through Weakness yet he liveth by the Power of God Or as another Apostle hath it 1 Pet. 3.18 Being put to Death in the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit There was his humane Nature as he was Man that he might die to answer the Goat that was slain then his Divine Nature that he might live and overcome Death 3. To compare his two Comings and to show that Christ doth not forget his old Work His first Coming was in Humility to save not to judg Iohn 12.47 I
came not to judg the World but to save the World So 1 Iohn 4.14 We have seen and do testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the World But then his second Coming is in more Majesty then he comes as a God to judg To consider him as a severe Judg that would make our Heart tremble but to consider him as a Saviour that 's comfortable then he remembers his old Relation for the Elect's sake In short he is the great God and our Saviour to shew his double Work and Office at the last Day he is a Saviour to his own People when he comes to shew himself to be the great God to punish the Wicked that would not accept of Grace and Salvation 4. To give us a Taste and Pledg both of his Willingness and Ability to do us good He is a mighty God and yet a Saviour Certainly there is a Difference between God and Man If we pardon and do good it is out of need because we dare not do otherwise but Jesus Christ is the mighty God strong enough to revenge yet our Saviour gracious enough to save and pardon The coupling of these Words shew that Christ is not a Saviour out of Necessity but good Will Men forbear their Enemies out of Policy not Pity 2 Sam. 3.19 These Men the Sons of Zerviah are too hard for me Power makes us cruel Who finds his Enemy and slays him not If a Man find his Enemy will he let him go well away 1 Sam. 24.19 Among Men observe it and you will find the weakest are most pitiful and merciful Why because they need Pity and Commiseration themselves from others But now Jesus Christ that hath the greatest Power hath also the greatest Mercy and the greatest Love he is the mighty God but yet the Prince of Peace He will be a mighty God rather in saving than in destroying though he hath all Power in his Hands yet he will exercise it in Acts of Mercy We abuse our Power to Acts of Oppression and Violence O when shall we learn of Christ to be mighty and yet saving There cannot be a happier Conjunction than when Greatness and Goodness Power and good Will are met together Remember Power is only given us to do good with it and to do good is some Resemblance of Christ. What a Comfort is this to the Faithful that Christ is the great God and also a Saviour both able and willing to do them good and to bestow abundance of Grace upon them 5. To shew what Christ is to the Saints wherever he shews himself a Saviour there he doth also shew himself to be a mighty God Together with Acts of Grace and Favour there are issued out Acts of Power and Strength there 's a concomitant Operation of Power together with an Act of Pardon and Grace I find the Scripture speaking of this he pardoneth as a strong God Mich. 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee pardoning Iniquity c. In the Original who is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifies a strong God like unto thee And so Iunius renders it So Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the strong God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Moses plainly alludes to it Numb 14.17 18. Now I beseech thee let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken saying The Lord is long-suffering and of great Mercy forgiving Iniquity and Transgression Whenever God shews Grace in pardoning Sin he shews Power also in subduing Sin So Psal. 62.11 God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that Power belongs to God And presently ver 12. Also unto thee O Lord belongeth Mercy Both these are dispensed together Those that come to God for Relief are under a double Trouble distemper'd Affections as well as a guilty Conscience therefore know for your Comfort Mercy and Power belong to God and in the Dispensation they usually go together 2 Pet. 1.3 According as his Divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain to Life and Godliness Christians if you go to God aright you go to him not only for Life that you may be respited from Destruction but for Godliness not only for Acts of Grace but for Acts of Power as Wrath and Power are suted to the Reprobate so Mercy and Power to the Godly 6. To shew that Christ is not only a desirable Friend but a dreadful Adversary You must close with him as a Saviour or else you shall find him to your cost to be a mighty God you must submit to him or be destroyed you must accept of Mercy or feel the Power of his Wrath. And thus in Scripture Christ is represented with a golden Scepter and with an Iron Mace to dash his Enemies in Pieces like a Potâeâââ Vessel you must touch his golden Scepter or feel the Weight of his Iron Rod He that saveth can punish and crush as well as comfort Again we read of a Banner of Love and of a flying Roll of Curses and therefore as there is Mercy and Sweetness in Christ so he is represented as a dreadful Adversary Usually we presume on God's Mercy and fear Man's Power but this should not be so O! observe the Counsel the Lord gives Isa. 27.5 Let him take hold of my Strength that he may make Peace with me Blessed God! who is able to grapple and deal with thee in thy Strength but we overcome by yielding Let us humble our selves betimes that 's taking hold of his Strength and making Power our Friend It is an Allusion not to a Wrestler for so how can our Hands be strong and our Heart indure in the Day he shall deal with us but to a Suppliant when a Parent or Master is ready to strike the Child takes hold of his Arm and seeks terms of Peace and intreats him to pacify his Wrath So saith the Lord make Strength your Friend then his Power which otherwise would be your Enemy is ingaged to you 7. To preserve that mix'd Affection which best becomes the present State we are in Our State is mix'd and we act best under a mix'd Affection God would have us not only love him but fear him And therefore he is represented as a mighty God as well as a gracious Saviour that we may come to him with Reverence and yet with Confidence That 's the proper temper of a gracious Spirit in all our Addresses to God Psal. 2.10 Serve the Lord with Fear and rejoice with Trembling Fear mix'd and temper'd with Love is most regular so is Love that is guided with Fear Therefore when you pray to him and worship him and serve him remember he is the great God but lest that should breed Bondage and Dejection in your Spirits remember he is also our Saviour How sweet would this be if we could but make use of both these Titles