ingagement to all men which are in such an estate to get out of it as soon as it is possible Secondly Here 's matter also of thankfulness to all those whom God has freed from this condition and brought into a better estate by Christ as these Romans here were they have great cause of praising and blessing God who hath dealt thus graciously with them who whiles before they were unfruitful and disgraceful and dead and lyable to destruction are now freed from all these and have the contrary qualities put upon them And as a special Testimony of our thankfulness indeed we should endeavour especially to live accordingly and to shew forth the praises or vertues of him that has call'd us out of darkness into his marvellous hight as St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. 2.9 This is the proper use which the Apostle Paul himself seems to make of it in the very next Chapter Rom. 7.5 6. When we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter This is that which we should all labour after whom it hath pleased God to deal thus withal as he had here done with these Romans before us And thus I have done with the third particular inconvenience of sin and so also with this whole Text in hand What fruit had ye them in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for c. SERMON XXXIX Gal. 4.19 My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you It is the manner of all those which are exact and accurate work-men not to rest themselves satisfied at any time with any thing which is done by them till they have brought it to some perfection and accomplishment but where they essay any present flawes or defects in any of their work to return to it and come ouer it again for the rectifying of it And this is that which me may here observe in the carriage of the Apostle Paul to these Galatians to whom he here writes he had taken a great deal of pains with them to convert them and to bring them to the Faith and to acquaint them with the knowledg of Christ as we may see in the former part of the Epistle but they partly through their own negligence and non-attendency partly through Satans malice and the seducement of false-teachers amongst them were much apostatized and departed from the Truth in intermingling the Gospel of Christ with the Law and Ceremonies of Moses from whence the very Characters of Christ were as it were defaced and and obliterated in them Now St. Paul in this Scripture besore us does here signifie his endeavours towards them for the reducement and recovery of them and the restoring of this Image of Christ in them My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you This is the scope of the Text. IN the Text it self we have three General Parts considerable of us First The Compellation which the Apostle puts upon the Galatians and that is little children Secondly The Condition in which he stands in reference to them and that is that he travelleth in birth Thirdly The extent of this condition and that is till Christ be formed in them To begin with the first viz. The Compellation My little children Now this it hath a double notion or Emphasis which may be fastened upon it First An Emphasis of Affection And secondly an Emphasis of Diminution There 's love and disparagement both in this manner of Expression First There 's affection in it even the affection of a Father to his Children or a Mother to the fruit of her Womb which is also in a good Minister towards his People he tenders them even as his own bowels Thus did Paul these present Galatians Therefore as before in ver 12. he call'd them Brethren so here now in this 19th verse he calls them little Children The same affection does he likewise express towards some others in other places as 1 Thes 2.7 8. We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth her children So being affectiontely desirous of you we were willing to have imparted unto you not the Gospel of God only but also our own souls because ye were dear unto us So likewise the Apostle John often in his Epistles uses this phrase to Believers of little children all to express his good-will and affection towards them and that 's one thing which we may observe in it here Secondly As it has in it the Emphasis of affection as shewing the greatness of his love so it has also the Emphasis of diminution as shewing the tenderness of their growth and proficiency in Religion who were now but of a low stature and degree in Christianity Thus the word sometimes is taken also in Scripture as 1 Cor. 3.1 And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ So Heb. 5.12 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of rightenusness for he is a babe In which places and the like a weaker Christian is set forth by the name of a babe or little child And so here now in this Text before us We shall see the Resemblance made good in sundry particulars First From that which I mentioned before the smallness of their growth Little children they are but mean of stature and far short of manly perfections and so are weaker Christians and young beginners as to matter of Religion they are but infants and little children in comparison and therefore are to be perswaded to attend upon the means of growth not to stand always at a stay but to put on and to drive forward to perfection as the Apostle Paul professes of himself that he was careful to do Phil. 3.12 13. Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus c. The contrary hereunto is that which is much to be bewail'd in divers Christians there are many which are well-grown and old men in reference to the world which yet are but babes and little children in Christ such as the Apostle complains of to the Hebrews chap. 5. vers 12. Who when as for the time they might have been teachers of others one had need to teach them again what be the first principles of the Oracles of God c. Nay we may go a little further than so not only which for the time may be teachers but which for the thing will be teachers and take upon them so weighty a work as that is who it they were well sifted and exawined and call'd to account would be found short in the common Articles
rash censures c. now here he adds and do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh that is such lusts as these are this may accordingly so teach us how to understand the language of the Holy Ghost both here and in other places of Scripture when it makes mention of the lusts of the flesh not to limit and confine it with the Papists only to the sins of the outward man as if there were no other lust or flesh but that but to take in the miscarriages of spirit and mind together with them as those which are in their kind and degree as abominable to God as any other This may be useful both to order our life as also to regulate our repentance and humiliations of our selves in Gods sight that we may not think we have presently done our duty or put in practise this counsel of the Apostle when we have abstained from Corporal defilements but also when we have been careful to preserve in us a purity of spirit Let a man be never so innocent as to the former yet if he be not wary and fearful also of the latter he is a carnal person for all that Those that nourish in themselves vile affections of wrath and hatred and malice and bitterness of spirit and the like they do fulfill the lusts of the flesh though they be otherwise never so temperate and free from gross and scandalous offences and so will God one day account them and deal with them at another day Thus Jam. 3.14 15. This we may further gather from the Apostle himself here in this very Chapter in hand who is his own best Interpreter and therefore when he would explain himself to us and tell us what he means by these lusts of the flesh which he had here mentioned see what kind of sins he does enumerate and reckon up to us amongst the rest Hatred variance emulations wrath heresies and he tells us that they that do such things as these shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And that 's the first term here considerable what we are to understand by the lusts of the flesh The second is what is here meant by the accomplishing or fulfilling of them Non persicietis do not fulfill And here there are two things prohibited First the simple acting of lust do not fulfill it i.e. do not perform it Secondly The further progress in lust do not fulfill it i.e. do not perfect it or go on in the performing of it First This non perficietis it does restrain us from the simple act and execution of lust in our selves that we come not to that He does not say have not lust or flesh at all in you though that also sometimes be said by God himself he has forbidden us the very first motions and inclinations to sin in us and concupiscence no more but so it is a breach of his Divine Law But I say this is not that which the Apostle does make mention of in this place he knew that as long as they lived here in the body they would have the stirrings of corruption in them as it is Rom. 7.5 which he does therefore here suppose But he desires that whiles these were in them yet they should not favour them or give way unto them but withdraw themselves from them Though the Principles he in you yet as neer as may be suppress the actions and the working out of those Principles in you with the commissions themselves do not do the works of the flesh though ye have the lusts of it remaining in you And there 's a double reason why the Apostle should prohibit this viz. the acting of lusts by us First Because these act do increase the guilt of sin Secondly Because these acts do increase the habit of sin in us First I say they do increase the guilt the more a man is engaged in any sinful or unlawful course the more does he bring guilt and condemnation upon his own soul and expose himself to the judgment of God It is true he does it simply by having in him no more but the desires and propensities and inclinations to sin but he does it more by putting them into act For every acting of sin it is a kind of an interpretative allowance and justification of sin in us And we do thereby seem further to approve of those corrupt and vicious affections which we are already prepossest withal Secondly As these actings of sin do increase the guilt of sin in us so they do also increase the habit and they make lust to be so much the more violent and predominant in us The more that any man sins the more will he desire to sin and the more will he be carried in his affections and inclinations to sin The sinful habit will be intended by the sinful act which is another consideration to make the act so much the more odious and hateful to us and for which as we may conceive the Apostle Paul does here prohibit it in this present place Do not fulfill c. But then secondly He does here also prohibit the further progress and perseverance in sin Do not fulfill that is do not perfect it or go on in the performance of it for there 's perfectio corruption in mato even in evil And it is a if the Apostle should have exprest himself thus unto them Beloved I could wish with all mine heart that ye had no motions or stirrings of lust or sin at all in you but seeing ye are not free from them yet be careful as much as may be to abstain from the acts if by chance ye fall into them at first yet do not continue and persevere in them but put a stop to them our selves This is that which we are here prohibited in this second place a continuance in sin where through infirmity we have at any time slipt and fallen into it at first Thus the Apostle Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then shall we continue in sin God forbid And Jam. 1.15 We find the method which is there set with the character upon it Then lust when it hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished or perfected brings forth death There 's the mischief of all when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ends in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ends in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when lust in the conception is followed with sin in the consummation and the bringing forth of sin is followed with the bringing forth of death Thus it happens to be where there is this fulfilling of the lusts of the flesh and therefore we should by all means possibly avoid it and take heed of it Let not sin raign in your mortal bodies as in the place before cited Let us not make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 He that committeth sin is of the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh 3.8 It is sometimes the suggestion of Satan and the
their Sin comes to their remembrance and Vexes and Torments their Soul Thirdly Now and then likewise the Hand of God falls heavy upon them in some Eminent and Notorious Judgment as a plain Punishment of their former Miscarriages Though this be not done always for God reserves the Wicked to the day of Judgment to be punished as the Apostle Peter speaks 2 Pet. 2.7 Yet sometimes it is so that the Case is hence altered with them and their Meat is now turned There comes Want and Sickness and Death And now what hath the Hypocrite gained when God shall take away his Soul Job 27.8 Thou Fool this night thy Soul shall be taken away from thee and then where c. Luk. 12.20 And so much for the Proposition in General His meat in his Bowels is turned The Second is the Explication in Particular It is the gall of Asps within him Where there are two things again Considerable First The Bitterness of Sin in that it is compared to Gall which is Eminent in that Qualification Secondly The Perniciousness of Sin in that it is compared to the Gall of Asps which hath a Poysonsomeness and Deadliness in it above any thing else First The Bitterness of it His meat that is his Lust and Sin it is turned to this It was sweet and delicious before pleasant in his mouth but it makes his Belly bitter as was said before of the Rowl that is he has now â—ther apprehensions of it then formerly he had and so indeed it will be Prov. 5.4 Speaking of the Harlot Her end is bitter as Wormwood And Eccl. 7.26 I find more bitter then Death the Woman whose Heart is snares c. speaking concerning the Adultress And Jer. 2.19 Know therefore and see that it is an Evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord God of Hosts Sin as he said of War It will be bitterness in the latter end 2 Sam. 2.26 It is like a Pill wrap't up in Sugar which when the Sugar which was over it is melted then the bitterness of the Pill does discover and shew it self so when the pleasure of Sin as I said is wasted and worne away then the Sorrows of it does appear Secondly As it is Distasteful so it is Pernicious There are many things which are bitter but they are Wholsome and do carry a Medicinal quality and property along with them But this of Sin is otherwise as it is bitter so it is Destructive it has a Poysonous and Venomous nature which is adherent to it as the Gall of Asps This is a frequent Expression in Scripture applyed to Wicked men to compare them to Aspes or to such Creatures as those are Job 20.16 He shall suck the Poyson of Asps And so Rom. 3.13 The Poyson of Asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of Cursing and bitterness The Poyson of Asps is notorious in a threefold respect in regared whereof it is a very fit resemblance of Sin First In that it kills Secretly Secondly In that it kills Suddenly Thirdly In that it kills Irresistibly First Secretly In that the Mischeif which comes by it it is not easily found out and Discern'd that 's a great Aggravation of any Mischeif because prevents all Remedies which might be administred for the Cure of it And so is it with this of Sin it kills thus it has a secret Malignity in it which goes to the Heart Undiscern'd and those which are infected with it they do not easily perceive it to be so It is a sweet kind of Poyson which kills there where it is not suspected nor thought that ever it would do so Secondly Suddenly in a very little time That is still the more horrible and dreadful for men to be surprised unawares and to be taken away in a moment it is that which all men tremble at Now Sin it has this Effect in it it destroys as soon as it is taken or at least does leave that behind it which does infallibly tend to Destruction if it be not the better prevented Thirdly It kills meerly and Irresistably Thus does the Poyson of Asps The Naturalliss and those that write the story of it affirm that there is no Antidote against it The Poyson of it it is so strong that cannot be over come by any Physick And so in some cases is Sin there 's nothing which will Cure it but the Blood of Jesus Christ and there is one Sin which is not Cured by that and therefore justly câ—ll'd a Sin unto Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Joh. 5.10 The Sin against the Holy Ghost which is a Sin of inveterate malice and despite and universal opposition against the Truth which is known and acknowledged even because it is the Truth This is absolutely unpardonable And thus we have seen how the Metaphor holds good in all the parts of it that as Sin is meat to Wicked men in regard of the present seeming sweetness and pleasure which they take in it yet it is also Poyson and Venom in the Conclusion in regard of the bitterness and perniciousness that follows upon it This meat in their Bowels is turned and as the gall of Aspes within them Now the Vse and Improvement of all comes to this First That we take heed of being taken with any sinful way or Course whatsoever from the seeming sweetness and Pleasantness which is in it Do not make that an Argument for thy Sin whosoever thou art because for the present it is sweet unto thee for it is no good Argument neither on thy part nor yet on Sinn it neither shews thee to be better nor yet it to be better for all that not thee for the sweeter it is to thee the more is it a sign of thy naughty Heart which does so far Close and Comply with it as sutable and agreeable to it Not Sin to be better for though at present be sweet to thy mouth yet hereafter it will be turned in thy Bowels and will be as the Gall of Aspes within thee It is good for the to think of Sin now as thou art likely to think of it hereafter when it shall appear in its true Colours unto thee Secondly Do not please thy self neither in the Covering and Concealing of Sin nor in the hiding of it under thy Tongue for though it be hidden and Concealed for the present yet hereafter it shall be more fully discovered when it shall pain the Bowels and wring the Belly and offend the Stomack that is the Conscieuce as at last it will doe then all thy Wickedness will come out and Disclose and manifest it self and thee also together with it Thirdly Do not please thy self neither in thine own Security and presumption upon Sin from the present escape and avoyding of Punishment for it will assuredly come at last and so as thou shalt not be able to avoid it As the Lord there threatens Babylon for
handled this Proposition consisting of two Branches that where God will give peace to a Kingdom none shall hinder it Where he will deny the same peace none can procure it We took this Proposition asunder and handled each Branch by it self c. THe Second reference of these words is as they respect a particular Person a man onely and so are to be considered of us at this present time and accordingly they have this proposition which is exhibited in them That when God will give a man quietness none can trouble him when God will hide his face from him none can uphold him where we see that the Proposition in this reference as well as that which we had before consists of two Branches and so together with that is distinctly to be handled by us Wee 'l begin in order with the former and that 's this That where God gives a man Quietness none can make him Trouble And this again may have a double sense in it either First Thus where God gives inward and Spiritual peace a man shall suffer no great inconvenience from outward trouble Or Secondly thus Where God gives inward and Spiritual peace a man shall there be kept and preserv'd from inward Trouble either of these may be here understood First I say where God gives inward and Spiritual peace a man shall suffer no great inconvenience from outward Trouble that which seems troublesome to others and also is so in the nature of the thing yet shall not be troublesome and molesting to such a Person Trouble to speak properly of it is not so much from the Condition as the Affection It is not so much from the State as the mind we see in ordinary Experience that one and the self same thing which one man makes a great deal of stur with another is not troubled at all with it So then this is the result of this Busines That no Condition shall be troublesome to that Person which is in favour and peace with God When he gives quietness c. Where a man has peace and quietness of Conscience he is so far forth provided against all trouble and disturbance whatsoever whether Publique or Private This the Scripture does abundantly reach forth to us in several places As Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear none Evil for thou art with me thy Rod and thy Staff they comfort me And Psal 27.1 c. The Lord is my Light and my Salvation whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my Life of whom shall I be affraid Though an Host should Encamp c. So Psal 46.1.2 God is our refuge and strength a very present help in Trouble Therefore will we not fear though the Earth be removed and though the mountains be Exalted into the midst of the Sea And Psal 112.7.8 Speaking of a Godly and Righteous man Surely he shall not be moved for ever c. He shall not be affraid of Evil Tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. His heart is Established he shall not be affraid untill he sees his desire upon his Enemies These and the like Testimonies there are to make this truth good unto us And the Grounds of it are these First Because he which has peace and atonement with God he has that within him oftentimes which does swallow all outward sadness and trouble whatsoever Those which are full of Comfort a little trouble is not troublesom to them but is easily swallowed up in them and they do not regard it Now thus is it with those which have this inward and Spiritual peace they are so exceedingly ravish't and transported with joy that lesser Evils are in a manner and in Comparison nothing with them Look as it is on the otherside in the terror and trouble of Conscience those which lye under the pressures thereof and have the Arrows of the Almighty sticking in them they take but little Content or delight in any outward refreshment Those things which others are taken with they are all nothing to them even so is it also here in peace and quietness of Conscience those which have the sweetness of this it makes them to forget and to despise any outward trouble whatsoever This Comfort of a good Conscience is like the Wine which has wont in times past to be given to Malefactors when they were going to Execution Prov. 31.6.7 Give strong Drink to him that are ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy Hearts Let him drink and forget his Poverty and remember his misery no more Even thus is it with this wine of the Spirit it causes a forgetfulness of those Evils which are upon us Thus it was with the Martyrs in former days they needed not Cordials and comforting Potions to sustain them and chear them in those Conditions No but they had that within them which was Enough to do it alone even the peace and Comfort and Tranquility of their own Consciences this was to them as a continual Feast and which made them to forget that Misery which their Enemies and Persecutors cast upon them And so it is still to the Saints of God in those Conditions which they now fall into They have so much joy and Comfort within doores as it makes them slight all the Trouble without Si fractum c. Secondly He which has peace with God there is nothing which is able to trouble him because that which is the main ground and Occasion and Foundation of trouble is removed and taken away from him And that in one word is Sin and guilt and the anger of God Affections are not so far forth troublesome to speak off as they are displeasing to Nature or rather as they are reflecting upon Conscience The Sting of Death says the Apostle is Sin and that which he says of Death is also true of every other affliction which is tending thereunto It is Sin which puts a bitterness and Malignity into it Now where God is pleased to give quietness this is removed I say and taken away that is to say in regard of the guilt and condemning power of it Thirdly Where God gives this Quietness and Peace whereof we speak there is also an intimation and assurance of all those Evils and outward Calamities as working and making for our good Though they take impression upon us according to the apprehension which we have of them and as we may conceive and imagine either good or evil comming to us from them we make a great deal of difference in our selves detwixt the wounds which are made by a Souldier and the wounds which are made by a Chyrurgian Because the one we know strikes to Kill whereas the other strikes to Cure Evils are there less troublesome to us when we look upon them as meanes and Conducements to further good Now thus does a person reconciled upon all the troubles and Miseryes and Calamities which he meets with here below he looks
greater Guilt upon them and a secret Curse also cleaving to them for their abuse and perverting of thess Mercies And so much of the thing it self here signified for the main Gods Deliverance and preservation of David He hath not c. Now we may further here take notice of the Phrase and Expression which is here used He hath not given me over to Death It is not simply he hath not killed me or taken away my life from me though that be principally intended But he hath not given me over to Death This is true of the Servants of God even there where Death seases upon them yet they are not under the power of it It does not at last prevail upon them which holds true in a twofold regard First Not under the Curse of it it being sanctified to them for their Good Death to the servants of God is a Conquered Enemy it is a Serpent without a sting O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory The sting of Death is Sin the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ as St. Paul in his Heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15.55.56 God hath not given his Children over to Death but rather hath given Death over to his Children therefore Death is said to be theirs not they to be Death's 1 Cor. 3.21.22 All things are yours and amongst the rest even Death it self Death is under the power of the Church and in a sort at her Command forher Benefit and Advantage as an Entrance for her into Eternal Glory To me to live is Christ and to Die is gain says the Blessed Apostle of Himself Phil. 1.21 Which is true also of any other Beleiver Christ has redeemed us from Death as it is a Curse the Saints they are not under that Secondly As the Saints are not under the Curse of Death so neither under the Contrivances of it and so in that respect not given over to it as being at last made partakers of a blessed and Joyful Resurrection As our blessed Saviour Christ Himself who seems also to be tipified in this Psalm it is noted of him Acts 2.24 That God raised him up from the Dead having loosed the pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it As it was not possible for him so neither is it possible for any of his Members it was not possible for him to be detained many days Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy one to see Corruption For it is not possible for his Members to be absolutely and always detained but shall at last be loosed from it As Death had no dominion over him so neither over them This Corruption shall put on Incorruption and this Mortal shall put on Immortality and Death it self shall be swallowed up into Victory as the Apostle has it 1 Cor. 15.45 This is a point of singular Comfort to the Children of God and that which may satisfy them in the thoughts and Meditation of their Mortality that though they may and shall die at last yet they shall not be given over to Death It shall not tyrannize nor Dominear over them Indeed it is the Happy advantage of people that they are given over to no Evil whatsoever whether Spiritual or Temporal neither to the Evil of Sin nor to the Evil of Punishment though they be Capable and sensible of both and liable to them First Not to the Evil of Sin and Satan not given over to that As for wicked and ungodly persons it is their Misey to be so Satan rules in them God gives them over to sinful Courses as it is noted of the Gentiles thrice together in one Chapter the First of the Romans God gave them over He gave them over to Vncleanness and he gave them over to vile Affections and he gave them over to a reprobate Mind still he gave them over But he does not so with his own servants though for just and holy reasons he suffers them to be troubled with Sins while they live here below in the world yet he does not give them over to it Sin shall not raign in their mortal Bodies Iniquity shall not have Dominion over tkem nor presumptuous Sins especially shall not prevail upon them nor given over to the Evil of sin No nor Secondly To the Evil of Punishment neither not given over to that and in particular to this of Death As for wicked men and such as are none of Gods Children It is said they are like Sheep laid in the Grave and Death shall feed on them Psal 49.14 Death shall feed on them that is have it's fill and glut of them and shall do what it list unto them Yea but with the servants of God it shall be otherwise as David there makes the opposition in his own Person but God will redeem my Soul from the power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah He was not given over to the power of Death And as not of Death Temporal so especially not of Eternal neither God did not give him over to this of any other whatsoever could be thought off God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 5.9 God will be sure to keep his Children from this and does order all things to them in reference hereunto even Corrections and Afflictions themselves as I in part hinted before Chastens them here that he may not Damn them hereafter so that the Connexion holds very well here in this sense which we have now before us The Lord hath Chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to Death as a Mercy consequent to this his Chastening and Correcting of me And so we have done with both the parts of the Text The Condition and the Qualification of that Condition to him in this whole verse The Lord hath Chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to Death SERMON XXVI Psal 133.1 Behold how Good and Pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity It is the great advantage of Vertue that it carries it's Evidence within it self whereby it becomes lovely and amiable in the eyes of all that observe it and behold it and take notice of it And as other Vertues and Graces besides so amongst the rest the Grace of Love and peaceableness and Unity and brotherly concord It is such as is very eminent and illustrious and which commends it self to all mens Consciences in the sight of God This is that which is here exhibited to us in this present Scripture before us in the Testimony of the Prophet David wherein we have a lively representation set before us of the Benefit of the Communion of Saints which is a main and Principle Article of our Belief and Christian Faith And so an argument very sutable and agreeable to the present occasion of our Assembling and coming
are two Phrases and Expressions which are used both together in the Text A Wilderness and a Land of Darkness and the Lord does deny himself to be guilty of either of these to his people He has neither been one nor t'other to them Not a Wilderness which is an expression of unprofitableness Not a Land of Darkness which is an expression of uncomfortableness In a word he does here plainly profess that he hath been no way wanting in any supply which might be requisite or necessary for them neither have they served him for nought or to no purpose in all their attendances upon him This is the Point here before us That God's people they do not serve him in vain and for no profit neither are they any loosers at all by their servings of him He is not one that is defective in the rewarding or recompensing of them for whatsoever they do upon his account Thus we have it in Mal. 1.10 Who is there among you that would shut the doors for nought neither do ye kindle a fire upon mine Altar for nought He speaks it to his own people and it is that which is evident and manifest from daily experience and observation so to be And it is founded upon God's Nobleness and Royalty and Magnificence Generous and magnanimous persons they do not love to be in any mans debt that they should do them service and not to pay them for it no but will recompence and requite them to the full They think their own honour is much ingaged and concerned in it and therefore they will not here be defective or wanting to themselves And so it is here with God Therefore accordingly it concerns us to be right opinionated of God and to be well perswaded of him to this purpose It is that which a great many are not as even the Scripture it self informs us which say What is the Almighty that we should serve him And what profit should we have if we prayed unto him Job 21.15 And so again Ye have said It is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts Mal. 3.14 Such people as these they make as if God were a Wilderness and a Land of Darkness to his servants but indeed it is no such matter and they are convinced of the contrary from God's own Declaration and Protestation here in this Text which we have now before us That which makes them to be so perswaded is First Because God is pleased sometimes to suspend and delay the expressions of his goodness to them Because he does not reward them presently therefore they think he will not reward them at all Because they do not see the fruit of their labours out of hand therefore they imagine as if God would be altogether barren to them But this is a very great Errour and mistake in them For the Lord he does every thing in the best and fittest season and the longer that he stayes before he rewards them the more does he reward them at last so that they shall have no cause in conclusion to complain of him Secondly Because God does not alwaies reward them in that way and kind as they desire and expect from him It may be he may heap upon them Spiritual blessings but he does not so follow them with Temporals or it may be with Temporals in such a kind but not with Temporals in another And this through their perverseness they judge to be as good as nothing at all But those who are Experienced Christians they should learn to be of another mind as it is here propounded to them And from hence to take heed of being disheartened and discouraged in God's service which Satan their Spiritual Enemy does endeavour all he can to do with them being as the Accuser of the Brethren to God so the Accuser also of God to the Brethren we should not be in this case ignorant of his devices nor unwary of his suggestions but rather arm and strengthen ourselves against them all we can and beg of God himself to strengthen us There is no unprofitableness in the service of God but there is unprofitableness in the service of Satan and in the service of Sin This will be sure to be a Wilderness to us yielding us nothing but bryers and thorns And this will be a Land of Darkness to us Will the Son of Jesse give them Vineyards c carrying us even into utter Darkness if we take not heed of it What fruit had ye saies the Apostle in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death that 's the wages and reward of sin Rom. 6.21 23. But being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life c. And that 's the first Emphasis which is considerable of us in this expression namely as it hath the force of a self-acquittance or Justification wherein God does clear himself of all suspicion of unfruitfulness or unkindness towards his people Have I been a Wilderness or a Land of Darkness to Israel That is indeed I have not been I disclaim it The Second is as it hath the force of a Remembrance or seasonable Intimation Have I been a Wilderness c Nay rather indeed I have been the quite contrary I have in reality been a Paradise It is a kind of an Ironical Speech wherein the contrary is intended to whatâ—s exprest and that for the greater conviction of the persons to whom it is spoken It serves to declare unto us the great goodness and overflowing bounty of God towards his people who is so far from being wanting to them in any thing which is necessary as that he does oftentimes abound to them in all things which can be desired of them There are some of his servants more especially amongst the rest who have large experiences of his provision for them in all particulars in blessings of Heaven above and in blessings of the Earth beneath whom he does daily load with his Benefits as the Psalmist expresseth it Psal 68.29 And they are to him as a watred Garden This it proceeds in him from his own free love and grace Bounty and liberality it needs no other motive than it self for the expressing and manifesting of it He has mercy upon whom he will have mercy and he has bounty for whom he will have bounty and he takes delight in making some persons more than others to be the ubjects and objects of it And to make known the riches of his Bounty upon the vessels of mercy Rom. 9.23 As we see it is sometimes in the world with great and wealthy persons they now and then take some content in it to make others partakers of their Beneficence Even so does this great and mighty God in his
's a calling of them to an account for their desire What end have you for it Secondly it is a discovering to them the fruitlesness of their desire What good have you by it The former in the notion of an Expostulation The latter of a Conviction First To look upon it in the former notion and that is by way of Expostulation What end have you for it or in it namely in this desire of yours for the coming of the day of the Lord. The Prophet Amos here calls them to an account for this desire which was in them From whence there 's this general truth to be observed by us That our desires should be still such as are rational and well-grounded in us Those that desire any thing they should know for what end they desire it or else it should not be desired by them To what end is it for you says the Lord here to this people namely when he speaks here of something which was desired by them The reason of it is this Because we are rational our selves at least in our principles we are so as men but we 〈◊〉 â—o more especially as Christians and therefore should every thing be rational that comes from us Loose and unreasonable desires do not become reasonable creatures Those who have light in their understandings by nature and this also elevated and enlarged by Grace for the guiding and directing of them they should be very much ordered and regulated in this particular Therefore let us by the way learn from hence a good rule for our practice to this purpose We may not think that we may desire what we please indefinitely or without any restraint that quicquid libet licet that whatever we have a mind to it may be pursued by us no but we must rather first see what ground and reason we have in us for such desires and restrain and bound our selves by such arguments and considerations as these In all inordinacy of appetite or desires which rises up in us put to our selves this question which the Prophet Amos puts to this people To what end is it for you to desire it And this will be an happy means for the ordering and regulating of it Our desires and affections and inclinations they are such things as for which we are accountable both to God and our selves So much for that as this passage carries in it the force of an Expostulation To what end is it for you i.e. To what end is this desire for you The Second is as it has the force of a Conviction To what end is it for you that is To what end is this day for you which you seem to desire There 's no good or advantage at all which can come to such as you by it by laying an emphasis especially upon the persons And so there 's this in it That the day of the Lord however it may prove to others yet it is no way desirable of wicked and ungodly people and such persons as live in their sins For you says the Prophet that walk in ways of sinfulness and opposition and rebellion against God for you to desire that day wherein he will call all men to account for that which hath been done by them here The day of Judgment and the second coming of Christ it is very sad and ridiculous in you This will the better appear unto us by considering what those things are which do especially make this day desirable of those who do rationally desire it the Saints and Servants of God We may reduce them to three Heads First as it is a day of Absolution Secondly as it is a day of Redemption And Thirdly as it is a day of Salvation for each of these it is to all good Christians and Believers First It is a day of Absolution wherein they shall be quitted and discharged of any thing which shall be laid against them Christ who is their Judge shall be also their Advocate and plead their cause for them and pass a sentence of discharge upon them Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect in that day This now makes it ery desirable to those who have an interest in it But wicked people have not this interest it belongs not to them They have no share in pardon or absolution and consequently have no ground to wish for that day when absolution shall be granted which themselves have no share or interest in No more than Malefactors have cause to wish for the day of Assizes and the coming of the Judge to sit upon them which being duly considered makes nothing at all indeed for them Secondly As it is a day of Redemption it is to God's children desirable so and they are call'd upon in that respect to desire it Luke 21.28 Lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh The day of the Lord is such a day as this is wherein those who are true Believers shall be redeemed from all those evils which here they were encompast withal And especially from the greatest evil of all which is the evil of sin which did here so much trouble and disturb them and makes them to cry out with the Apostle Oh wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death This day it is desirable of God's children in reference to this as a blessed day indeed unto them when as the fetters and shackles of sin shall be knocked off from them But now as for carnal and profane persons To what end is it for them to desire it What should they desire the day of the Lord that do not care for the fear of the Lord What should they desire that day which is a day of redemption from sin whose desire all their life-time is rather to continue in sin and to have all advantages and opportunities afforded them for the committing and following of sin Thirdly As it is a day of Salvation and the accomplishment of universal happiness it is upon this account also desirable of the Servants of God The day wherein God himself shall be glorified in his Saints because indeed the day wherein his Saints shall be glorified by him But what 's this now to those which walk in ways of sinfulness and impenitency What have they to do to desire to be glorified by God that do not care for glorifying of God Or what have they to do to partake of the life of Glory that are strangers to the life of Grace or to what purpose should they desire the end that despise the means and the ways that tend to that end So much for that And so I have done also with the Second General Part of the Text which is the convincing Expostulation laid down in these words To what end is it for you The Third and last is the express conclusion or determination in these The day of the Lord is darkness and not light which is to be understood by us of the day of death and
besides If Heaven were a meer Fancy if Glory were no more but an Imagination it the state and condition of Believers hereafter were but an empty dream if there were not such glorious Mansions provided for us as are sometimes hinted to us certainly we should have been acquainted with it from Christ himself If it were not so I would have told you That 's the second General viz. The Rational Illustration The third and last is the Additional Encouragement in those words I go to prepare a place for you This is a very comfortable passage and such as deserves very much to be regarded and taken notie of by us as giving us an account of Christs departure and removal to Heaven now at this time it was for the god and benefit of his Church that he might promote their intererest and do that which was most expedient for them We see here where Christs chiefest thoughts were when he was now leaving the world they were not so much upon Himself as upon his poor Disciples how to comfort and encourage them and how to cast and provide for them that it might be well with them however it went with him They were loth now to part with him and were much troubled at the thoughts of it and now he satisfies them and pacifies them with this That he went away for their sakes He did not go away first to take away the place from them and to prevent them by going before no but to take up the place for them and to make room for them against they came themselves There were three special acts of Christ whereby he might be said to prepare a place in Heaven for Believers by his Death by his Ascension and by his Intercession First by his Death he prepared for them by that so far forth as the merit of that did reach and extend hereunto Christ by suffering of death and therein satisfying the Justice of God did obtain unto all his Members a right unto everlisting Life and Glory Thus 1 Pet. 3.18 it is said that Christ hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the spirit Bring us to God how is that namely by reconciling us and re-joyning us to him again and so giving us an entrance into his glory according to that in Heb. 2.20 It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings And so likewise in Heb. 9.11 12 15. Christ being become an high Priest of good things to come not by the bloud of goats and calves but by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtain'd eternal redemption for us And for this cause is he the Mediator of the new testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first testament they that are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance that is the eternal inheritance which was promised From these and the like places it is clear that Christ by his death did prepare Heaven for his people But if this be so it may be demanded What one may think of the Fathers that lived under the Old Testament and before he coming of Christ into the World If Christ by dying did prepare Heaven for Believers in what place were they who left the World before the death of Christ The Papists in answer hereunto tell us that they were in Limbo a place distinct from Heaven and in the confines of Hell which they have intended and devis'd for them But there 's no need at all for such a Device or Imagination as this is We say that they were even then in Heaven and that also by vertue of the Merit and Efficacy of the death of Christ which is of an infinite and eternal extent and reaching both forward and backward Forward to the salvation of all Believers that came after it backward to the salvation of all Believers that went before it Hence is Christ sometimes said in Scripture to be a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world not as to actual accomplishment which was perform'd in the fulness of time but as to virtual efficacy and extent as reflecting upon all Ages and Generations indefinitely and redounding to the special good and benefit of them as many as believed in them This is that which hath prepared a place in Heaven for all Believers under Both Testaments even the Death and Bloud of Christ According to that again of the Apostle Heb. 10.19 20. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a true and living way which he hath consecrated for us that is to say through the veil of his flesh and having an high Priest over the house of God let us draw near c. This serves so much the more to magnifie and advance the great love and kindness of Christ unto us that was pleased to take such a course as this was for us that he might procure and promote our happiness that was willing himself to die that we might live and to be crowned with a Crown of Thorns that we might be crowned with a Crown of Glory He went to prepare a place for us Went that is went unto the Cross And went that is went into the Grave he prepared it by his death and sufferings and the Virtue and Merit thereof That was the first way of his Preparation Scondly By his Resurrection and Ascension He prepared Heaven for us by going into Heaven before us After going to his Cross so also by going to his Grave When he had overcome the sharpness of death when he had by himself purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 he did open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Opened it by himself entring into it There was the opening of Heaven Christs Personal taking possession of it And it was the opening of it for us also who are said upon that account to be our selves already entred into it namely in Him who is our Head and hath entred into it afore us and in our behalf according to that of the Apostle in Ephes 2.6 He bath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ This was that whereby our Saviour desired at this time to satisfie the minds of his Disciples as concerning his departure and present going away from them that it was in order to their greater good He left Earth that so he might go to Heaven and he went to Heaven that so they might come to Heaven after him and come to Heaven by him as he signifies in the verse immediately following And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also
Christ crucified But why Christ crucified rather than Christ exhibited in some other consideration why not rather Christ incarnate forasmuch as that was the first news of him or why not Christ risen again or Christ ascended which was a great deal more glorious Why does the Apostle fasten upon this mystery in Religion and Christianity above the rest Christ crucified Surely there 's very good reason to be given for it First because he would give them the worst of Christ at first that he might shew he was not ashamed of him nor of that Gospel which made him known but that hereby he might the better prepare them for other Truths and make them the welcomer to them Christs Cross is the first letter of all in a Christians Alphabet and they that can take out this lesson they will learn the other fast enough Gods beginnings with us are commonly most tedious His conclusions and closings are for the most part very sweet and comfortable and so here Secondly Because Christ crucified it is vertually and implicitly all the rest For why was Christ Incarnate it was for this end that he might be crucified therefore he was born that he might die and therefore he took flesh upon him that he might lay it down again after he had taken it Again when Christ was risen and ascended what were the terms which he was risen from was it not from death and the grave his Resurrection it pointed at his suffering and death which were conquered by him So that all upon the point is Christ crucified Thirdly This was that Mystery which did most concern us for the good and benefit which comes by it as we shall hear afterwards his death was that which pacified Gods wrath and paid the debt which was due for our sins And therefore the Apostle instances in that rather than any other Lastly Christ crucified because this was that which these people had a particular hand in as instrumental hereunto they had been active in the crucifying of Christ themselves and therefore it was most fit that they should hear of Christ crucified to chuse of any thing else Therefore accordingly we shall find that this was the practise of the Apostles in the whole course and way of their Ministry still to urge and inculcate this upon those whom they Preached unto As soon as ever they had received the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost they presently fall upon this as it was that which Christ himself much spoke of That the son of man must suffer many things so it was that which the Apostles of Christ much urged as Peter in his first Sermon Act. 2.23 this was that which he inforced upon them their crucifying of Christ This was that also which he preached so boldly in the Temple Act. 5.28 insomuch as the Council told him that they intended to bring the blood of that man upon them And Act. 8.32 the Providence of God directs them to a Scripture to this purpose out of Isa 53.7 8. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before the shearer so opened be not his mouth Thus was Christ crucified the chief point which they still urged in their Ministry And so it is that which is the chief work of ours it is the Doctrine which is to be chiefly preached by us and that upon these following Considerations First As it is a Doctrine of the greatest Humiliation it is an humbling and convincing Doctrine every Evangelical Truth being set on by the Spirit of God concurring and going along with it has an answerable work upon the conscience to bring it into a spiritual frame the Incarnation to work in us desires and affections after the new Birth the Resurrection to raise us up to new activity in holy duties c. the Ascension to carry us up to Heaven and Heavenly things and so the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ to humble us and to crucifie us for sin This Doctrine rightly preached and understood and believed and imbraced has a might power and efficacy in it for Conviction and Humiliation and to cast down th strong-holds of Sin and Satan in us This you shall see in the effect which it had upon the Apostle himself Gal. 6.14 God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of the Lord Jesus whereby the world is crucified to me and I unto the world By the death of Christ was the world crucified to the Apostle And so St. Peter's Auditors Act. 2.37 When they heard this namely of Christ crucified then they were pricked at their hearts This same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was that which pierced them to the soul their piercing of Christ And so the Disciples which went to Emaus this made their hearts burn If we ask how this is done I answer by an Act of Reflection and special Consideration to this purpose namely as from hence taking notice of this grievous and odious nature of sin those which make nothing of sin in the commission of it and when they are set violently upon it in the strength of their lusts and temptations they may here see what it is now in the price which was paid for it and the pain which was endured to expiate it in Christ crucified And those which make a mock of a sin and sometimes of those which warn them of it they see how sad it is in those effects which it had upon the Redeemer and this is to be a means to humble them and lay them low in themselves Every nail which was struck into his Blessed Body it is here a piercing of our hearts every thorn which stuck in that opprobrous Crown it is a thorn in our sides every drop of blood which issued out of his sides it should fetch buckets of tears from us if we had not hearts harder than the flints This Doctrine of Christs Passion it is thus in this way of Proceeding a Doctrine of Humiliation and therefore fittest to be urged in the course of our Ministry And that because this is a main part of our Ministry to humble men and convince them of sin sutable and answerable to the work of the Spirit of God upon the Conscience for that 's a main work likewise of that The Spirit when he comes he shall convince the world of sin Joh. 16.9 Now thus it should be with Preaching which is a special conveyance of the Spirit the work of this is not to sooth men up to flatter them to give them scope to sin no but rather to humble them for it Secondly This Doctrine of Christ crucified as it has cause to be the chief work of our Ministry forasmuch as it is an humbling Doctrine so it has cause likewise to be so too because it is a comforting Doctrine and a Doctrine of the greatest comfort that can be We which are Ministers we are made to be the helpers of the joy of Gods people as we are called 2 Cor. 1. ult Now
therefore we should do all we can which may be useful and successful hereunto this we may be according as we do more effectually set home this point which indeed has so much comfort in it as in the place before-cited the Apostle gloried in nothing more than he did in this as being that indeed which is the chiefest matter of glorying and which does contain the greatest sweetness and comfort in it and that may be laid open to us in sundry respects First As keeps Christs death us from the wrath of God and purchases peace to us with God the Father for that it does as we may see in Col. 1.19 20. It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell And making peace through the blood of his Cross to reconcile all things to himself c. So Isa 53.5 6. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed Again Rom. 5.10 we are said to bereconciled unto God by the death of his Son what greater happiness can befall us than for God and us to become friends who were once at variance one with another this is purchased by Christ crucified and we have now boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus as it is in Heb. 10.19 and Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth as a Propitiation through faith in his blood c. Secondly It obtains to us peace with Angels and all other Creatures besides whether in Heaven or Earth whiles we remain in a condition of sin as God himself is our enemy so every thing else besides is ready to take up his quarrel against us and all the Creatures have hence an enmity to us but now by the Blood of Christ there is peace made for us with these also as we may see in that place above alledged It pleased the Father by the blood of Christ to reconcile all things both in heaven and in earth This makes us to be at league with the stones of the earth and with the beasts of the field c. as it is in Job 5.23 c. Thy Tabernacle shall be in peace c. Thirdly It frees us from the power and dominion of sin The Blood of Christ purgeth us from all sin not only from the guilt but the stain 1 Joh. 1.7 Christ by his death hath weakened and debilitated sin in us that it should not now have that strength in us This the Apostle hath fully intimated unto us Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucisied with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that we henceforth should not serve sin There is a power in Christ crucified to crucifie and kill sin in us Now therefore look what comfort there is in this as there 's a great deal to those who are sensible what sin is the same comfort is there in such a Doctrine as this which does mention and declare this unto us Fourthly It frees us from the power and tyranny of Satan He has hereby spoiled principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in his Cross Col. 2.15 The Papists put a great deal of efficacy in the Material Cross and the signing of their selves with the figure of it as if that had such a power in it for the driving away of unclean spirits nay but this rather invites them they laugh at such a foppery as this That which terrifies them indeed is the vertue and power of the Cross and that conquest which Christ by his death hath obtained over them so that now Satan himself is but a vanquished enemy Indeed he may for a while molest them for their exercise and trial in the world and therefore we are still said to fight against Principalities and Powers but as for excluding them from eternal salvation this he is not able to do God shall tread him under our feet Rom. 16.20 c. Fifthly From bondage and thraldom to the Ceremonial Law Christ crucified frees us from hence Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances c. Col. 2.14 And again that no man may judg us for meats c. So Act. 15.28 We have nothing now but necessary things upon us and such burdens as these are are taken off from our shoulder Sixthly It frees us from the inordinate fears of death and final dissolution thus 1 Cor. 15.55 Oh death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ c. And again Heb. 2.14 He hath destroyed him that had the power of death the Devil and delivered them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage c. Christ has taken out the sting of this Serpent and drunk the dregs of this cup. Now this Doctrine containing so much sweetness and comfortableness in it what does from hence follow but that accordingly it should be a principal part of our Ministry to dispense it The Apostles still aimed at the joy and comfort of Gods people 1 Joh. 1.4 These things I write unto you that your joy may be full And my joy is the joy of you all 2 Cor. 2.3 c. And that 's the second Consideration as it is a Doctrine of the greatest comfort Thirdly As it is a Doctrine of the richest and most abundant Grace for it contains in it the exceeding love of God towards mankind and the hight of his mercy towards us In Christ crucified there 's a combination of all the riches and mysteries of the Gospel it was his love to be incarnate to be tempted to be persecuted for us yea but his Passion it was the accomplishment and perfection of all the rest Greater love than this hath no man that he should lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 There was never any thing wherein God more magnified his love and pity towards the sons of men than in giving of his Son to death for them Hence the Apostle to the Romans Chap. 5.8 God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us And 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us And Joh. 3.16 So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten son for the redemption of it Thus we see it carries in it the riches of Gods Grace Now therefore accordingly it is the main work of our Ministry which the Apostle Paul calls the Ministry of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.20 And this as a third Consideration For the Application of the Point reflects first upon us which are Ministers and Teachers as our duty in this particular for the ordering and disposing of our Doctrine Desire to know nothing amongst our people but Jesus Christ and him crucised But what 's the meaning of this must nothing else be Preached but one point what is it then to Preach Christ crucified For answer hereunto we must know thus much That the meaning hereof is not
regard of the world of no great descent so likewise for his conversation in the world it was after a poor and mean fashion Foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests but the son of man knew not where to lay his head This was another thing which made them to forsake him and to withdraw from him Those which are worldly-minded themselves they look at nothing else in others but worldly accomplishments Thirdly His Company and Converse that was another thing which rendred him offensive that he had society with Publicans and Sinners whereas indeed he had it for no other end but only for their good not as delighting in their sinfulness but rather as taking occasion to take them off from it But lastly and especially which is that that is here mentioned in the Text he was offensive in regard of his Death Christ crucified was an offence unto them that he who was called the Saviour of the World should suffer death from the hands of men this they looked upon as a contemptible business and they now began to scorn that Doctrine which brought such tidings unto them This we see made good in the mockings which they cast upon him on the Cross it self If thou be the Son of God save thy self c. And thus we see how Christ was a stumbling-block or scandal in point of Cavil or Exception Secondly He was so likewise in point of Temptation he was a scandal or stumbling-block to the Jews as he was an occasion of sin unto them and this he was as Christ crucified also an occasion not as given by him but as made and taken by them First as being themselves instrumental in the very act of his Crucifying for so some of the Jews had been Their wicked hands as the Apostle Peter plainly and roundly tells them had crucified him and put him to death And was he not then truly a stumbling-block and a scandal unto them in this regard what greater sin could there be than the crucifying of the Lord of Glory and the putting of the Son of God to an open shame why this now some of them did and so fell into a grievous sin But then secondly that was not all that they were active themselves in crucifying him but further in that being crucified they took occasion from hence to abhor him and so much the more to withdraw from him so that now he is indeed a stone of stumbling to them and they stumble at this chief corner-stone as the Scripture speaks This is the great misery and wretchedness of wicked men that they are so far from being the better as that they are the worse for the Mysteries of Salvation and their hearts are now so much the more hardened as these things are tendered and exhibited unto them As the Apostle observes of the Law it was an occasion of sin unto him Rom. 7.10 Thus he was a scandal also in point of Temptation Thirdly A scandal also in point of Destruction Christ crucified and the preaching of him was to the Jews an occasion of ruin and plunged them so much the deeper as it fell out in condemnation And that because they rejected this means of Salvation which was now offered unto them this the Apostle himself signifies unto us in Rom. 9.31 32 33. Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness Wherefore Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone as it is written Behold I lay c. And so the Apostle Peter again 1 Pet. 2.7 8. A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to them which are disobedient This was Christ crucified to the Jews He was through their own sin and corruption instead of a Saviour a Destroyer and instead of a means of recovery an occasion of great mischief and ruin Now what 's the Moral of all this to us For I suppose the Spirit of God intends somewhat more than the bare history and narration and what is written before in this kind it is written for our learning There is somewhat which we may take notice of as profitable for our own instruction from this of the Jews and that 's this That the means of Grace and Salvation are to corrupt and perverse hearts the occasions of greater ruin and destruction Christ who by Gods appointment was a precious and chief corner-stone is to the Jews a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence They break their shinns at this stone and are bruised by it This is a truth in sundry Particulars wherein it is made good take it in what you will almost and so you shall find it This very Doctrine it self of Christ crucified It is such as by many persons is wrested to their own perdition and destruction For what do divers sorts of people conclude from hence why that therefore they may live as they list and give no account of their carriage Christ died and therefore they think that hereby themslves are discharged upon what terms and conditions they please This is the Cross of Christ a stumbling to them they are ruined and undone by it and occasionally more involved in condemnation And so as for the Death of Christ so also for the Remembrance of this death which is exhibited to us in the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper which we are now to approach to Those which are yet in their sins even this is also a stumbling-block to them He that eats and drinks unworthily he eats and drinks damnation to himself not discerning the Lords-body as the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 11.29 The word in the Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies judgment and it respects either temporal or eternal it being in a sense true of both First Temporal judgment forasmuch as in the profaning of this Ordinance he provokes God to inflict many temporal evils upon him For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep as it is vers 30. Profanation of the Ordinances is an occasion of many corporal diseases But then se condly also spiritual and eternal there are such evils as these which are oftentimes consequent hereupon and I join them both together as relating one to the other First Spiritual and that even here in this present life in a judgment upon the soul and spirit Careless and unworthy Communicants they do much prejudice themselves here both in reference to Grace and Comfort for Grace instead of improving in this they improve more in sin and their corruptions encrease more upon them than they did before When a man comes conscionably to this Ordinance and receives it so as he should do it is a means through the Blessing of God for the weakening of corruption in him and for the strengthening of the Graces of Gods Spirit but when he comes carelesly and hand over head it proves the contrary to him Let a man have any Grace
the course of this present Text and Scripture which we have now read unto you where the Apostle gives us an account of the deliverance of him with his company from a great danger which happened unto them and therein expresses his thankefulness and holy rejoicing as also gives us an hint of expectation of further deliverance from the like dangers that might happen unto them and therein expresses his hope and most holy faith Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust also c. This passage it relates to a story which we meet withal in Act. 19.29 30. which we may read at our leisure though I suppose that most of us are already sufficiently skilled in it and acquainted with it So that I need not now rehearse it or declare it unto you IN this present Verse before us we have three General Parts considerable of us First The Commemoration of a Deliverance past Secondly The signification of a Deliverance present Thirdly The prognostication of a Deliverance to come The Commemoration of a Deliverance past Who delivered us from so great a Death The signification of a Deliverance present And doth deliver us The Prognostication of a Deliverance to come In whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Here 's all that we can possibly desire for all the limits and periods of time whether past or present or future This Deliverance it is extended to each here 's matter of thankfulness and matter of joy-fulness and matter of hope We begin in order with the first viz. The Commemoration of the Deliverance past Who delivered us from so great a death Wherein again we may take notice of two Particulars more First the terms of the Deliverance or the evil it self delivered from and that is here exprest to be so great a death Secondly the Deliverance it self or the time for the vouchsafing of it Who hath delivered us First We have here the terms of the Deliverance or the thing delivered from so great a death For the evil it self death and for the aggravation of it a great death it is a deliverance from both Chrysostom together with some others gives it in the Plural number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so great deaths And indeed there are more deaths than one which God does undertake to deliver his servants from and from which he delivered St. Paul with his Brethren and Companions amongst the rest And which it may not be amiss for our selves at this time by the way to take notice of though I shall insist chiefly upon that which is here chiefly intended and is most agreeable both to the scope of the Text and the present occasion First From spiritual death the death of sin that 's a very great death it puts a man into a state of death not only as exposing to wrath and future condemnation but likewise as disabling to the actions of Grace and Holiness alienating us and depriving us of that life of God which should be in us Ephes 4.18 For as there is a life of grace distinguisht from the life of glory so there 's likewise a death of sin distinguisht from the death of condemnation And this death of sin it is such as is to be numbered among great deaths and the deliverance from it reckoned among great deliverances Indeed it is not always counted so at least by the generality of the world they for the most part are ready to make nothing of it a light and small matter as for the death of the body do all they can to shun that but as for this body of death which the Apostle Paul so much complain'd of and blest God for deliverance from it this is such a thing as they are little troubled or solicitous about Well but every good Christian who has the eyes of his understanding inlightned and his heart truly sanctified with grace he looks upon this as a very grievous and fearful death and accordingly blesses Gods for his deliverance and redempton from it Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.24 25. Secondly Eternal death the death of wrath and condemnation that 's another great death also and such as follows likewise upon the former without recovery from it He that 's finally dead in sin he shall be certainly dead in judgment the death of sentence and condemnation follows upon the death of spirit and disposition This God has also delivered us from He hath delivered us from wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 And we are saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.9 This is a great death among other Considerations in this respect forasmuch as it required so great a death for the expiating of it which was the death of no other than of the Son of God himself who therefore tasted of this death for the kind of it that he might free us from it We are reconciled unto God says the Apostle by the death of his Son What a sweet and blessed Saviour have we that cares not how great a death he dyes himself that so he might free us from death for whom he dyed We should take all occasions that may be to celebrate our deliverance from this which I am therefore so much the willinger to mention upon this phrase which I now here meet withal in the Text though it is not that which I desire to insist or stand upon I come to that which is more pertinent The third and that which is here particularly aim'd at is Temporal Death which though it be the least Death of all compared with the former yet it is great considered simply in it self and so much the greater according to the several circumstances and aggravations which it may be cloathed withal Which we may take in these following particulars First From the nature and kind of it A violent Death not a natural This is a great death and so consequently a great mercy to be delivered from it to be kept from accidents and casualties and mischances which we are subject unto when the Candle is not put out but goes out when our life is not taken away from us but ends of it self This is a Temporal Blessing and such as when it is granted to the Children of God is granted in love and answerably to be looked upon by them as a merciful dispensation which they are to be thankful for As for wicked men it is threatned as a judgment upon them Joh 27.20 That a Tempest shall steal them away and a storm shall hurl them out of their places and they shall lye down and not be gathered and such was this God thrusts them and turns them out of doors like a company of disorderly persons whom he will no longer have patience with but now as for the godly and righteous there 's an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair and kindly death which so far forth as they have an
Christians as they are Members one of another so they rejoyce in one anothers mutual life and preservation and count their own deliverance to be still so much the greater as it has their brethrens involved with it not only we but us And then what kind of us were they Take in secondly the Quality of persons such as were especially serviceable and useful an Apostle and the Ministers of Christ for these to be delivered from death it was to be delivered from a great death The death of none is to be slighted though never so mean The life of the poorest and simplest man in the world it is precious as the life of a man no more but so but the death of such persons as for their gifts and graces are eminent and for their places and improvements are useful this it is such as is very choice and much to be set by and such was this which the Apostle here speaks of in this present Text It was so great a death c. Sixthly A great death in regard of the proximity and neerness of the evil it self It was as it were at the very next door A great death that is indeed a great danger so some read the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De tantis periculis Though Chrysostom does not so well approve of it surely it carries the sense very well though it answers not the word for if we speak properly the Apostle was not delivered from death but from danger from that which tended and inclined to death and would have proved so if it had not been prevented This is called death both here and in other places as when 't is said by the same Apostle of himself that he was in deaths oft 2 Cor. 11.23 In deaths that is in dangers of death so here from a great death that is from a great danger of death every deliverance is so much the greate as the danger is so much the nearer Lastly A great death also in regard of the apprehensions of those which were in danger of it Conceit and apprehension it does set an aggravation upon danger and does make it to be so much the greater That which is great in our thoughts and in our opinions to us it is great And so was this here to the Apostle Paul and his Company as we may see in the Verse before the Text We had the sentence of death in our selves that is we gave our selves for dead men Men that do not see their danger they do not so easily fee their deliverance nor so much take notice of Gods goodness in vouchsafing it unto them but when they are made sensible of the one they are likewise made sensible of the other If ever we would get our hearts enlarged in thankfulness afterwards we must be apprehensive of danger before For a secure spirit in danger will be an unthankful spirit in deliverance and preservation and so for the contrary So great a death Y◠here 's now the nature of Thankfulness to extend the meroies of God and to make them as great as may be It is of an amplifing and enlarging dispostion as an humble heart puts an aggravation upon sin that it may put an enlargement upon pardon so a thankeful heart puts an aggravation upon danger that it may put an amplification upon deliverance It thinks those mercies to be great which are bestowed upon it because it 's small in its own eyes and looks upon it self as less than the least of all the morcies of God Yea and that which is also further here observable when the danger it self is past and the worst is over There are many which can see it to be a great death when 't is coming and approaching and ready to surprize them when evils are present as near unto them Oh then they are great indeed yea but when they are once gone and removed then they are small or none at all The Plague when it does not spread it was not the Plague This is commonly in mens dispositions yea but with Paul it is not so he counts it a great death even now when it was past and gone It was great to his apprehensions and so great in that regard also thus now have I done with the first Particular in this first General viz. the terms of deliverance or thing c. so great a death The second Particular is the Preservation or Deliverance it self And doth deliver c. And here again take notice of two things more First The thing it self simply and absolutely propounded Secondly The Apostles acknowledgment and manifestation of it in the reflection The thing it self That God had delivered him His acknowledgment in that he blesses God for it and makes mention of it here to the Corinthians First For the thing it self this is that which we may here observe how ready God is to deliver his people from death and from great death that which the Apostle speaks of himself and those which were with him it is appliable to many others besides it is a piece of Providence which the children of God do partake of in frequent experiences and they are able to say it of themselves as so with them It is that which David does often as Psal 57.13 Thou hast delivered my soul from death Again Psal 116.8 My soul from death mine eyes from tears my feet from falling And so likewise Psal 118.18 The Lord hath chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to death And so in like manner other of the Sains There are many gracious Promises to this purpose as Job 5.20 He shall redeem thy soul from death And Psal 72.14 He shall redeem their soul from violence and precious shall their blood be in his sight So Psal 116.15 it is said That precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints The Lord does not at any time cast away the lives of his servants but though he may seem now and then indifferently and promiscuously to take them away yet he does it not without special heed and regard had unto them He is very careful so far forth as may consist with their greatest advantage and the promotion of his own gracious ends and purposes and glory which it is very fitting all this should stoop unto to keep them and to deliver them from death First Out of pity and compassion towards them the Lord has bowels of tenderness towards his people And deliverance from death it is an act of mercy In Phil. 2.27 it is said concerning Epaphroditus that God had mercy on him when he brought him from the gates of death Look how much sweetness there is in life so much mercy in preservation from death which is a privation of life And God he is full and abundant in mercy as being the God and Father of it as he stiles himself and properly to those which are his children Secondly He has work for them to do and some service which he requites
sure not to want it God does either actually and absolutely deliver from the evil or else so sanctifie and dispose his Providence towards them as that it shall be either as good or rather indeed better than the deliverance from the evil it self to them And this is that which may abundantly satisfie their minds both as to the truth of this Point as also as to contentation in a mean condition And thus now this Point may be improved to particular persons So likewise in the second place we may also carry it as more pertinent to the occasion to the Church and State in general and reason so for that He has delivered and does deliver and we trust that he will yet deliver us It is an observation which is sometimes made concerning some kind of men and persons that they are Homines boni pedis happy and successful men which prosper in whatsoever they undertake whom God does in a special manner delight to make the objects of his mercy and goodness as Jacob and Joseph c. Now as it is thus with private persons so we may conceive it to be so with whole Nations and people at large Thus 't is noted of Israel Happy art thou O Israel who is like unto thee O people saved by the Lord c. Deut. 33.29 the Epithet there given unto them And thus as it has been with Israel so we may observe it to have been with England with us of these fortunate Islands we have been the admiration of all the world for happiness and blessing never any Nation partaked of such mercies and deliverances as we have done It is true that God is not tyed to Countries nor places nor people any further than he is pleased to tye and engage himself out of his own free goodness and bounty But it is a great advantage if we do not forfeit it to be under such a Providence as this is and to be the ancient objects of Gods favour and miraculous dispensations yea which is now the improvement of this Doctrine in hand a great argument to trust and depend upon him for his goodness God has done many great and wonderful things for his people of this Land and Nation even of latter years and that within the cognizance and observation even of other people Then they said among the Heathen The Lord has done great things for them And we may eccho it back again unto them as the Church does there in that Psalm The Lord has done great things for us whereof we are glad But has he done all he means to do for us or which we may expect and look for from him sure I hope he has not but that he has more and greater blessings in store and reservation for us unless we by our unthankfulness frowardness wickedness and abuse of his blessings and mercies do for time to come deprive our selves of them surely if we do not very much provoke him God will not unravel that thread which has been of his own spinning which is the work of his own hands but will rather perfect that which concerns us as the Psalmist speaks It was good Logick that of Manoahs wife which she read to her Husband and as good Divinity in Judg. 13.23 If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would he as at this time have told us such things as these And it was as good also that of Hamans wife to him in Esth 6.13 If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevail against him but shalt surely fall before him God does not do things all at once but by time and leisure and degrees he makes one thing a preparation to another and a ground and argument for the expectation of it and so as we may in a manner see his footsteps in it This is the Improvement which we are now to make of the mercy of this present day we do not sufficiently or as we should improve it when as we only take notice of it in it self but when-as we make it a ground and argument and reason for the expectation of more and further acts from him This is one of our standing mercies and deliverances which in our discouragements and faintings of heart we should still have recourse unto for the quickning and reviving of us and putting us in heart again He that has delivered us from the Gunpowder-Treason what will he not now do for us and what will he not deliver us from Which as in matter of humiliation it is good to reflect upon some special sin or the original corruption of nature which is the greatest and chiefest of all thereby to work us to repentance and contrition of spirit So likewise in matter of Thanksgiving it is good to reflect upon some special mercy and extraordinary providence of God towards us thereby to work our hearts to answerable thankfulness for all the rest This is the proper Application of this present Point both for the General and also the particular Some of us have been under great sicknesses and God has freed us from them and some of us in other great troubles and exigencies and God has brought us out of them What 's the use which we should now make of all to our selves but what the Apostle here dictates unto us and gives us a pattern of in his own example speaking of God Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust also that he will yet deliver us SERMON XXXV 2 Cor. 13.8 For we can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth There are two things especially which either are or ought to be in the care and principal study of every true Minister of Christ the one is the Truth of God and the other is the Church of God The Dignity and Authority of his Ministry and the souls and welfare of his people and these two in a mutual compliance and subordination of one to the other so to assert his ministerial authority as not to prejudice his peoples comfort and so to tender the peace of his people as that the Name of God and his Doctrine may not be blasphemed Now both of these very eminently concur in the practice of the Apostle Paul through the whole course of his Ministry and did more particularly shew themselves in him in the course of this present Epistle and Scripture which we have here before us Wherein he seems not so much to stand upon his own private honour and reputation as rather upon the improvement of the Corinthians and the Dignity and Authority of the Ordinances and Truths of Christ amongst them that they might receive no violation or diminution of them Not that we says he should appear approved but that ye may do that which is honest though we be as
general and ordinary dispensation And especially be careful not to improve them to security and presumption and sinning so much the more as God does any thing spare thee and forbear to proceed against thee for this will increase thy guilt so much the more and make more for thy condemnation This sinning upon mercy received as it is laid here in the Text has a double iniquity in it First As it is a trespass against God in despising of his goodness And secondly as it is a trespass against our selves in the neglecting of our own salvation so far forth as it is a neglect of repentance in the mean which tend unto it and so in either respects is to be shun'd and avoided by us And this for our own particulars Now secondly also in reference to the Community as we are parts and members of that the Exhortation will prove very seasonable and pertinent here likewise that we despise not the riches of Gods goodness and forbearance and long-suffering but know that this goodness of his it does lead us and invite us to repentance and that in all relations and capacities in which we are considerable This Nation this City this Company this Parish and Congregation I might very well enlarge it and carry it down to all these Particulars and the rather out of the particular interest which my self hath in them all I might I say improve this admonition to each of these and shew you the engagements which we all have from the goodness of God But I will especially at this time insist upon the two first an commend them to your serious consideration and so conclude And that is this Nation and this City England and London in England it lyes upon us more especially For the Nation first what great things has God been pleased to do for us in all times and ages of the world from one generation to another As Moses sometime of the Israelites What Nation is there so great who heath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for How wonderfully hath God bestirred himself for our Deliverance and Preservation from time to time How many blessings in all kinds have we partaked of from him And how to this very day have we a sense of his miraculous Love and Providence over us in that Peace which at present we enjoy even to admiration From the Nation in general come down to the City in particular and look upon that and tell me what one under Heaven has the like mercies that we enjoy and that in all sorts and varieties whether Spiritual or Temporal For Temporal let me mind you of one amongst the rest which can never be sufficiently minded and laid to heart and that is the abundance of Health which is continued still amongst us notwithstanding the multitude of Inhabitants that increase upon us that whereas in former times that sad Plague of the Pestilence was ever and anon almost breaking in upon us of late we have not known what it meant but have been wonderously preserved from it And for Spiritual mercies how many and great here How much of the Gospel and Word and Ordinances above all other places Now what does all this speak unto us What to be so much the more secure and hardened and presumptuous and full of provocations to be so much the more peccant as God is any thing indulgent and favourable to us Oh no take heed of that by all means but rather be more watchful and careful and fruitful than ever we have been before to repent of those sad abominations which are every where amongst us and to eject them and cast them out from us As Bradford that Holy Martyr when he was imbracing the Stake and fire Repent O England and London Repent repent This is that which we should do ad this is that which we are called upon to do from these Divine Dispensations and which also we are admonisht to do from this present Scripture Not to despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance SERMON XXXVIII Rom. 6.21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death There 's nothing more useful and necessary for Christians after conversion than sometimes to be put in mind of their condition before conversion and to be compared in what they are with what they have been And it is useful to divers purposes and effects First to make them more humble in the reflexion upon their former miscarriages Secondly to make them more thankful in the consideration of that blessed change which God has graciously wrought in them Thirdly to make them more fearful and careful and wary in themselves of returning back again to that condition in which they were on at least of doing any thing which might be suitable and agreeable thereunto For these and the like Considerations and especially the last which I have named does the Apostle Paul here in this Scripture and Text which I have now read unto you apply himself after this manner to these faithful and believing Romans to whom he here writes wherein he does expostulate with them about the vanity and misery and unsatisfactoriness of their former courses whiles they remained in their estate by nature and before the time of their conversion to Christ What fruit had ye c. IN this present Verse before us the Apostle Paul lays down unto us the inconvenience of the ways of sin which he does in these Particulars First In their unprofitableness What fruit had ye then Secondly In their Dishonourableness Whereof ye are now ashamed And thirdly in their perniciousness For the end of those things is death There are three things which men commonly most look after their profit and their honour and their ease and pleasure and safety now sin it disappoints them in them all Here 's sin in all the periods of time and still with a disadvantage upon it for time past for time present and for time to come For time past there 's damage and loss no fruit for time present there 's a blot and disgrace now ashamed and for time to come there 's destruction the end of those things death We 'l begin in order with the first viz. Sin in its unprofitableness for time past What fruit had ye then The Apostle here appeals to these Romans themselves for their own particular as such persons which were now able to speak out of experience they had been some of them before their conversion great and notorious sinners and had walked in the ways of vanity and ungodliness with a great deal of liberty and freedom of mind now since that they were brought home to God he bids them speak what great profit or benefit or advantage they got by those ways It is a kind of triumphing and insulting expression wherein knowing he was
here a duty which is to be performed and put in practice by all other sinners besides and that is to labour to work themselves to such a shame as this is That which is here spoken of these Romans it is not spoken of them only in a way of simple Narration as signifying how they were affected but also in a way of tacite commendation as praising them for being affected in that manner and so it does implicitly exhibit a duty to us that we should labour to be so our selves Next to the shunning and avoiding of sin is to be ashamed and grieved for committing it Now this does justly come home to the Consciences of abundance in the world there are many which are perfrictae frontis of a bold and hardened forehead which have no shame nor relenting in them at all which can sin one sin after another in the highest and hainousest manner that can be and yet never be once wrought upon for it or ashamed of it the unjust knows no shame as it is Zephan 3.5 The Heathen could say he was lost that had no shame The Prophet Jeremy has set forth such as these in their colours to us Jer. 6.15 Were they ashamed says he when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush c. This is the exact temper and disposition even of many in these days and in this land in which we live which are past all shame whatsoever they have no shame at all in them never more of the occasion and never less of the affection And I speak not only of that spiritual shame and holy blushing which belongs to Religion and is within the compass of Christianity it self which is taken from religious Grounds and spiritual Arguments and Considerations but I speak now of that natural shame which God has planted in all men by Creation an is not lost but in the height of wickedness and abomination it self This is that which many Monsters in this age are devoid and destitute of both men and women I should be exceeding sorry if I should have need to say much of it here in this place only I cannot but by the way take notice of it that I may testifie and bear witness against it as that which I look upon as one of the saddest symptoms of Gods wrath and indignation against us and if it be not timely prevented by those whom it concerns to reform it will not only be reckoned by God as the sin of some particular persons but also of the whole Nation it self which will be charged with it That impudence and boldness and undauntedness in sinful courses which many people are come unto which are so far from being ashamed of sin as that they rather boast of it and as the Apostle speaks glory in their shame This is the humour of too many in the world that which should most humble them and abase them and cast them down and lay them low in the sight of God and men and themselves is that which commonly most exalts them and swells them and puffs them with pride so far are they from this temper of the Romans of being ashamed And so now ye have the second particular for the Expression of sins inconvenience taken from the dishonourableness of it Whereof ye are now ashamed The third and last is taken from its perniciousness For the end of those things is death This is that which hits the nail on the head and brings all here indeed and 't is that which is very considerable forasmuch as the end is all in all and such an end as this which is here spoken of so more especially if the other two evils had been spared yet this alone were enough to deter us though there were some gain and honour in sin as we have shewed there is none yet whiles there 's death in it that 's enough against it and that there is The end of those things is death This Death here is to be taken by us in the latitude namely in each kind of it whether natural or else spiritual and eternal First For natural death which we call the death of the body that 's the end of sin and that which sin procures though not that which the sinner intends By sin death came into the world as the Apostle speaks Rom. 5.12 This is so in a double Explication First In the nature of the thing and as the effect immediately flowing from the cause And secondly by the just judgment of God who in his Providence does so order and dispose it and himself does inflict death for it First It is so in God's Pvovidence and Judgment How many do we read of in Scripture whom God himself has in an extraordinary manner stricken dead for their sins Er and Onan and Nadab and Abihu and such as these the end of of their ways was death and that in a more eminent manner There are some more gross and notorious sinners which God has not patience to suffer them and let them alone here in this world but to prevent Atheism and contempt of his Majesty will be presently avenged upon them Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days says the Prophet David Psal 55.23 and Eccles 7.17 Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou dye before thy time Intimating and implying thus much that such courses and ways as those do provoke God many times so to do Again secondly In the nature of the thing it self and as the effect immediately issuing from the cause Sin it ends in death so as we see by daily and common experience How many are there which by their passion intemperance lasciviousness uncleanness and such courses as these are hasten their own end and not only hazard their souls but likewise expose their lives and so in that regard are no better than self-murtherers It is true they do not always think so nor as I said intend it but yet it is that which follows upon it and in the event is consequent there unto there 's many which might have lived longer if they had lived better and had had a comfortable old age in conclusion if they had not had a dissolute youth going before The end of those things is death if we take it but for natural death the death of the body But secondly It is true also and especially of spiritual death the death of the soul and eternal death the death of soul and body for ever in Hell This is that death which is the wages of sin more particularly for spiritual death Sin it defaces God's Image in us it alienates us from the life of God And whatever Grace is already wrought in us if it does not kill it actually yet it tends to the killing of it and destroys it all it can it takes away a Christians vigor that liveliness and loveliness which should be in him and makes him little better than a
a state of Subjection and Obedience to Him And for Heaven He is likewise the head of all Principalities and Powers Col. 2 10. And Angels and Authorities and Powers are made subject unto him 2 Pet. 3 22. This for his Kingly Office Secondly Take it for his Priestly Office And here he is likewise like Jacobs Ladder in the work of Atonement and Reconciliation as bringing Heaven and Earth together Thus Col. 1 20. It pleased the Father by him to reconcile all things to himself whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven And so likewise in Eph. 1 20. That in the Dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth Even in Him Take us what we are in our selves and there is a Disproportion betwixt God and us we are not onely Strangers but Enemies to him And he to us But now in Christ this Enmity is removed and taken away and there is perfect peace wrought according to that againe of the Apostle Col. 1 21. You that were sometimes alienated and Enemies in your minde by wicked works Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his Flesh through Death c. And again Rom. 5 10. When we were Enemies we were reconciled unto God by the Death of his Son And not onely so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom we have now received the Atonement Christ hath made God and us Friends And then again as for Reconciliation so also for Access which is the Fruit and Effect of it It is by Christ that we come unto God and have Admission unto the Throne of Grace As we have the Benefit of his Satisfaction so likewise of his Intercession and both of them consider'd as our high Priest Thus the Apostle seats it Eph. 2 18. Speaking of Jew and Gentile Through him we both have an Access by one Spirit unto the Father And so Chap. 3 12. In whome we have boldness and Access with confidence through the Faith of Him What ever intercourse there passes at any time betwixt God and us it is in all the Covenant of Grace and as it is obtained and procured by Christ And it is he alone that does effect it for us and that brings it to pass And therefore upon this Ground are we still incouraged to have recourse unto God and to perfect our Communion with him as Heb. 4 14. Seeing then that we have a great High Preist that'is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need And so again Heb. 10.19 c. Having therefore boldness to enter into the Holyest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vayl that is to say his Flesh And having an high Preist over the House of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith And Rom. 5 1 2. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have Access 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence has he in Scripture such Names and Titles put upon him as doe import thus much when he is called the Door whereby we Enter and the Key whereby we Open and the Rock whereby we Climbe and the Ladder whereby we Ascend as it is here in the Text. A twofold Ladder as I may so express it which he hath set up for us The Ladder of his Flesh and the Ladder of his Cross both together make that New and living way for us which was mentioned in the foregoing Scripture Christ is our Conveyance to God and He alone as the Scripture again inform's us Joh. 14 6. I am the way the Truth and the Life No man Cometh unto the Father but by me As no Man come's to Christ except the Father draws him so no Man com's to the Father except Christ brings him Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved Acts 4 12. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself 2 Cor 5 19. Therefore this by the way shews the Vanity of all such Persons which dream of any other way or Conveyance besides whether of Angels or Saints or their own Free-will and the like that neglect and lay aside Christ as in a manner Needless and Superfluous in this great Work of Salvation surely such as those they are exceedingly deceived and mistaken These that throw down the Ladder they will never be able to get up to Heaven by all the Ropes they can hoyse up to themselves He that hath the Son hath Life but he that hath not the Son hath not Life 1 Joh. 5 12. And so as for final Salvation So for Intermediate Communion likewise It is that which we partake off through Christ and him alone we cannot come into the presence of God nor offer up a Prayer before him which may be acceptable to him but through his Mediation By the Mediation of his Spirit as inabling us and by the Mediation of his Blood as purchasing acceptance for us He is the Angel namely the Angel of the Covenant who offers up the Prayers of all the Saints upon the Golden Altar is before the Throne as it is in Revel 8 v. 3. And what ever are presented otherwise they are of no Force or Validitie at all Thus is Christ our Ladder that reaches from Earth to Heaven in the Consideration of his Preistly Office in both the parts of it whether of Satisfaction or Intercession Thirdly For his Prophetical Office if we take it there also we shall finde that Christ has the notion of a Ladder And as he conveys out Prayers and Desires to God so he does likewise carrye God's words and will to us Joh. 1 18. No man hath seen God at any time The onely begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him And again Joh. 3 13. No man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven Even the Son of man which is in Heaven He speaks concerning the knowledge of heavenly Mysteries and the Communication of them which did belong onely to Christ who though then upon Earth as Man Yet as to his Godhead was still residing in Heaven having the same Essence and Glory with the Father Matth. 11 27. All things are delivered unto me from my Father and no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son And he to whom the Son will reveale him It is Christ that brings Heaven down to Earth in regard of discoveries And thus a Ladder in his prophetical Office also To draw up this Point to an head Take Christ in his full extent whether of Nature or Offices
since through means of that deliverance vouchsafed unto us I say it behoves us to provoke our selves to all kind of Thankfulness in this regard and to take advantage of this Annavasary Commemoration which is appointed to this purpose That it may not be onely a matter of Course and Formality which we cannot well decline but may have a real Influence and Impression upon us to raise our Hearts in the praysing of that God who hath done so great things for us Secondly As to matter of Faith we are to improve it to that likewise having had Experience of God's Goodness hitherto to be ready to expect as much from him for time to come That he that hath kept the feet of his Saints will do so still Sutable to the manner and Carriage of the expression here in the Text which is not in the time past but in the Future Not he hath kept onely but he will and therefore will because he hath experience of former Mercies should teach us to trust and to depend upon God for following as 2 Cor. 1.10 Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver In whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Thirdly and Especially To Fruitfulness and Obedience God having done so great things for us we should indeavour to do somewhat for him And being thus Delivered out of the hands of our Enemies should study to serve him as now without Fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our Life And this for the keeping of the feet of his Saints In the deliverance of his people Now further Secondly For the Wicked's silence in Darkness in the Disappointment of his Enemies we may observe the Parallel in this also Here was both Darkness and silence in Darkness Darkness there was in the very Letter It was a work in the Dark And that both as to Place and Time in which it was wrought There was Darkness in the Place For where did these Wicked Conspirators prepare their Devices Surely it was in the Seller and in the Vault which they had fitted to that purpose They dig'd deep to hide their Counsell from the Lord and their work was in the Dark saying who seeth us and who knoweth us as the Prophet speakes in Esay 29.15 And there was Darkness likewise in the Time For it was the Night which they chiefly made choyce of for the carrying on of their wicked Designes A time and place of Darkness sutable to a work of Darkness And then there was Silence as to this Darkness When they were Discovered they were in a manner Confounded and knew not what to say for themselves As others were silent in a way of Astonishment at the Horridness and Strangeness of the Fact so were themselves silent in a way of Confusion being Prevented and Disappointed of it and as a Reproach not onely to their Persons but also to their Religion the Principles whereof led them and carryed them thereunto in the full extent and improvement of it But that which made them chiefly to be so was the last thing of all And that is That by their strength they could not prevail Neither by the strength of their interest and Combination Nor by the strength of their Wit and Conspiracy God infatuated their Counsels and turned all their Wisdom into Foolishness And in the things wherein they dealt proudly he was above them Their strength it was proved to be Weakness both ways both to the hurting and spoyling of us And as to the helping and securing of themselves as sayling in either I will Conclude all at this time with these words of the Prophet David in the name of the People of Israel which are applyable likewise to our selves Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with Benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from Death SERMON IX Job 20.11 His bones are full of the Sins of his youth which shall lie down with him in the dust The Scope of this present Scripture which we have here in hand is to set forth to us the miserable Estate of an Ungodly Person And for sureness sake it takes him in his full Latitude and Compass from his Youth to his riper Years from the Beginning of his Life to the end of it wherein the Evil of his sinful Courses does continually pinch upon him His bones are full of the Sins c. IN the Text it self there are two General parts observable First The State or Condition of a Wicked man Secondly The Extent or Amplification of this his Condition His State that 's exprest in these words His bones are full of the Sins of his youth The Amplification or extent of it in these Which shall lye down with him in the Dust We begin with the first General viz. The State or Condition His bones are full of c. Wherein again two Particulars more First The Sin and Secondly The Punishment of the Sin The Sin That is Youthfulness in the Miscarriage of it The Sin of his youth The Punishment of his Sin that is Exprest in this that his Bones are said to be full of it First For the Sin here mentioned It is the Sin of the youth The word in the Hebrew Text is Gnalumaw which signifies properly his Youths and being applyed to a matter of Guilt Youthful prankes These are things which are laid to the Charge of evil men By Sins of youth for the better opening of this passage to us we may understand two things Especially either the kinds of Sin or the time of Sin The kinds of Sin that is such Sins as are more Especially proper and incident to that particular Age and Condition of Life to wit his youth The time of Sin that is such Sins as are indifferent to any Age but which for the Commission of them have been Acted very Early and betimes First The Sins of youth it does denote the kinds of Sins by way of Specification and does signify such kind of Sins as are more proper and peculiar to that Age as some Sins there are Corrupt Nature though it cleave to all Conditions of Life in the whole latitude and Extent of it yet it does not Act and put forth it self alike in all but as is it varies to other things besides In Constitution in Improvement in Place and the like so amongst the rest in matter of Age and the periods of Life There are the Sins of Elder years and there are the Sins also of Youth which are to be observed and taken notice of by us and to be understood and avoyded Thus 2 Tim. 2.22 Fly Youthful Lusts Such Lusts namely as Youth is more Especially subject unto St. Paul would have Tymothy a Young man Especially to take heed of those These they are of divers sorts ' I le instance briefly in some few of the Cheifest of them which may give us an hint of the rest
day of our Visitation lasts and continues to us And more particularly that we may speak still to the Scope and Sense of the Text and my Drift and End in the undertaking and handling of it in the Time of Youth and tender years That so hereafter we may reap the fruit of a timely and early conversion in a sweet and comfortable old Age. That we may end our dayes in peace which at length must be ended and having been long acquainted with God may be the more willing to go to Him and to resign our Souls into His hands as into the Hands of a Faithful Creatour So much may suffice to have spoken of the second General part of the Text viz. The condition in the Extent of it And so likewise both of this whole verse and for this present time His Bones are full of the sins of his youth which shall shall lye down with him in the dust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SERMON X. Job 20.12 13.14 Though Wickedness be sweet in his mouth though he hide it under his Tongue Though he spare it and forsake it not but keep it still within his mouth Yet his meat in his Bowels is turned it is the gall of Asps within him There can never be said too much nor enough against the ways of Sin whether we look upon it in it own Nature and Consider the Miseries which are in it or whether we look upon it in our Nature and consider the propensities which are to it When one would think we had said all we can and almost all we need there is still somewhat yet remaining behind as very pertinent and sutable hereunto The last day wee took occasion to speak of the Sins of Youth and the Impressions which they made upon Age and riper Years and the Extent of them even to Death it self and after Death out of the 11th vers of this Chap. where Zapher describing the Estate of an ungodly Person gives the Character of it That his Bones are full of the sins of his Youth which shall lye c. Now in these following verses before us he does further proceed in the Amplification of this Argument to us by preventing of an Objection which might be made by the Patrons of Wickedness as to the Heartning and Incouraging both of themselves and others to it and that as taken from the present sweetness and Contentment in it and the cunning Carriage and Contrivance of it which he removes and takes away by shewing the sad Effects which notwithstanding are consequent upon it Though wickedness be sweet c. IN this present Text before us there are two General parts considerable of us First The Disposition of a Wicked man in regard of sin Secondly The Effect of Sin to a Wicked man The Disposition of a Wicked man in regard of sin that is laid down in verses 12.13 Though Wickedness c. The Effect of sin to a Wicked man that 's exprest in vers 14. His meat c. We begin with the First viz. A Wicked man's Disposition in regard of sin and that is here Exhibited to us in four particular Branches First His Complacency in it It is sweet to his mouth Secondly His Concealment of it he hides it under his Tongue Thirdly His Favourableness towards it He spares it c. Lastly His Thraldom to it He keeps it c. First This is Considerable in the Disposition of a Wicked man to sin his Delight and Complacency in it Wickedness it is sweet to his mouth This Expression together with the rest is a Metaphor taken from Natural and Corporal Food which is pleasing and delightful to the taste which is seated in the Mouth or Palate as the proper Organ or Subject of it so is sin to a carnal Heart it is very sweet and relishing to it Especially in the first imbracing and entertaining of it There is no Glutton or Master of Appetite as he is called there by Solomon in Prov. 23.2 Bagnal Nefesh Which takes more Contentment in his Delicacyes and Corporal Daintyes then a Carnal and unregenerate Person takes in his Lust It is sweeter to Him then Honey it self as the Philosopher speaks of Revenge to a Malicious man It is so with all kind of sin whatsoever to those which are addicted to it it has a kind of false sweetness with it in regard whereof we read in Scripture of the pleasures of sin The Ground hereof is this Because it is sutable and Connatural to Him Delight it is founded in Convenience and an Agreeableness of the Faculty with the Object And so it is here with a Wicked man in regard of his Lust he has an Heart fitted to it That which is in the Temptation without Him it is in the Spirit within Him and the one it is the Counterpain of the other as the Wax answering to the Seal We may judg of the Delight which a Wicked Person has in Sin according to the Proportion of a Gracious Person delighting in Goodness what is the reason that those which are Godly delight in the ways of Godliness and look upon them still as those which are ways of Pleasantness How sweet is thy word unto my mouth even as Honey unto my taste It is because they have a renewed Spirit which is fitted and qualified thereunto I delight to do thy will O my God and thy Law is within my Heart Psal 40.8 While God's Law is in our Hearts our delight will be in God's will and his Commandments will not be grievous to us but exceeding pleasant and so it is also on the Contrary in regard of Sin And then again Satan who is the great promoter of sin he inlarges and advances things to them and makes them seem greater then they are The Pleasure of Sin and the delight which is taken in that it is for the most part a matter of Fancy and Imagination Now the Devil he has a very Great stroke in working upon that He presents things more Amiable then they are and thereby does intangle and insnare foolish men and make them to be pleased with those things which have little pleasingness in them The Desires of People to sins they are Diseases rather then Desires they are Extravagances and Distempers in them and do proceed from somewhat which is amiss in the Frame and Disposition of their Spirits as we see it is in the Body what 's the reason here that some delight in Coles and Ashes and Walls and such trash as that Why it is because they have a distempered palate and a distempered Stomack and they are under the power of a Disease this makes those things sweet unto them which another Body cannot indure even so it also with the Souls of Wicked men they take pleasure in Sin which is odius to a Gracious Heart because they are overtaken with Lust and have a Spiritual Distemper upon them The Consideration of this point may serve to give us an account of the Difficulty of
they do improve their wickedness as much as they are able to their own Contentment and Satisfaction or advantage and they suck all the pleasures out of it that they can perfectly find and meet withall in it Thus they do and they have a particular Art and skill and Ability in them to this purpose Look as Godly men do with a promise and some parcel of the word of God or as they do with a gracious Frame and Temper of Spirit when they have found it they preserve it all they can and make much of it Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people and prepare their heart unto thee 1 Chron. 29.18 Even so do wicked men with their sins when it is said here they spare it we must understand it n that sense it is spoken which is not as to matter of commission but rather as to matter of Mortification a covetous man spares his money but he does not spare his sin They do not spare to act it but they spare to kill it and to crucifie it and to subdue it in themselves As to the Acting and exercising of it this they do and do not spare but lay on as much as they can like some hunger-starved person at a feast they feed and do not spare they commit all uncleanness with greediness as the Apostle speaks in Eph. 4.18 But they spare it as to the resisting of it and as to the doing of any hurt unto it A wicked man spares his lusts as Saul did the cattel of the Amalekites which he reserved for himself 1 Sam. 15.9 or as David spared rebellious Absalom whom he desired should be dealt tenderly withall Deal Gently with the young man Absalom for my sake this he gave in command to Joab the Captain of the Host 2 Sam. 18.5 Even so do such men say in their hearts as to their sins To Governours and Friends and Ministers O spare my lusts deal gently with such a sin and corruption for my sake Therefore sparing and not forsaking are very pertinently joyn'd together in the Text the one explaining the other He spares it and does not forsake it that is he spares to forsake it sake it He does favour and allow and indulge corruption and sin in himself This a wicked man does And it is here made to be a property so to do of him But because there are two several words which are here used sparing and not forsaking we will therefore take them asunder and consider them severally and distinctly And first of sparing which as in part I hinted before does imply that Indulgence which such persons give to their corruptions shewing them all the favour that may be And it is exprest in these particulars First As to matter of search and inquiry into them A wicked man he spares his sins thus so as to examine his heart about them David sayes He communed with his own heart and his spirit made dilligent search Psal 77.6 And he perswades others to do so likewise Psal 4.4 Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own heart and be still But men commonly delight not so to do which have any guilt lying upon them They do not love to to look much into it or to be inquisitive what it is Bad Husbands they do not love to cast up their accounts nor to see what their estate is because they are afraid they shall meet with somewhat which will be displeasing to them And so it is also with bad hearts and false spirits in Religion they do not love to consider their wayes for fear their sins should fly in their faces and gall them for them They spare their sins that so their sins may spare them Spare their sins to search them that so their sins may spare them to torment them and to vex them for them Secondly As this sparing is observable as to matter of inquiry so also as to matter of resistance and opposition they are very sparing in this likewise they do as little as may be to restrain and hinder sin in the onsets of it Take a Godly man and one whose heart is taken off from sin and he hath no mercy at all for it but deals as boysterously with it as may be he desires to shew it no favour or kindness or respect at all but is most cross and opposite to it Whereas now on the otherside a wicked man he is tender of making any resistance but gives way to it as much as may be and so he spares it Thirdly As to matter of Expulsion and Ejection and Mortification they spare it so The Scripture requires men to pluck out their right eyes to cut off their right hands c. that is to destroy their dearest lusts and those corruptions which are nearest to them Now an Hypocrite he will not do this by any means perhaps he will be content to part with somewhat which he does not much care for and be willing to abstain from it but his Absaloms and Dalilahs and his Herodiasses and such sins as these Oh by all means let them alone destroy them not for there 's some sweetness to be found in them Thus he is said to spare it which is the first expression which is here considerable Secondly He does not forsake it he doth not leave it nor bid adieu unto it he never forsakes his sin till his sin forsake him and he can keep it no longer as sometimes it does in age and sickness and death Men have not then those opportunities of sin which they have had at other times for the acting and committing of them and so they forsake them But otherwise as to the Heart and Affection they forsake them never As friends they may be kept from one another by violence though never so dear but yet their spirits are still the same to each other and so it is with a sinner to his lusts he bears the same affection to them now in his restraint from them as he did before in his injoyment of them and what he cannot attain in Accomplishment he makes up in desire There 's no man can be said to forsake any sin in particular which does not forsake the way of sin for the General That is which is not converted and regulated and brought home to God As for another man let his condition be what it will be yet his corruption is still the same he is prodigal in a poor estate and he is proud in a low estate and he is Lascivious in a decrepit estate when his body withers yet his lusts flourishes and he never forsakes his sin till he forsakes himself and has any Being continued to him Now to lay both these together a sinners not forsaking but rather sparing sin in himself as we have hitherto heard and consider'd how much it makes to the aggravation of his sinful condition and misery likewise attending thereupon There 's no Greater mischief or cruelty which a
of Gods servants in this regard who dare not trust him with their lives and the preservation of them notwithstanding so many Gracious Promises and experiences which they have received from him As David he was but just before delivered out of his enemies hands and he presently cryes I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul even so it is with many others besides who as the Apostle speaks through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage Heb 2.15 Now for such as these they may be here said from this passage before us though God may bring them to danger yet as he sees cause he will deliver them from it as he did here with this servant David The Lord hath chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to death Secondly Where we partake of this mercy let us acknowlelge it with all thankfulness Thus does David do here we are to take notice not onely of his words but also of his Affection which is signified in them and the Spirit from whence they came from him he utters them with a great deal of feeling and sensibleness of Gods goodness to him And so they are not onely a narration of his present condition but an acknowledgement of Gods favour to himself to an answerable temper and disposition which he does here Express by the words which came from Him He hath not given me over to Death They are not words of Boasting and Vanity and Ostentation and Carnal Rejoyceing but the words of Soberness and Piety and Discretion And there are divers things intended by them First He would make it an Argument for Patience The escaping greater Evils should breed Contentation under less That as God afflicts us below our Deserts so also below our Capacities that he does not afflict us in the utmost Extremity and so to this purpose should we argue and reason with our selves he has taken away my Health but he hath not taken away my Life He hath exercised me in my Body but he has spared my Soul He hath deprived me of Earthly Comforts but he hath not deprived me of Heavenly of the Graces of his Spirit of the assurance of his Love of the Communion with himself of his own blessed and Gracious presence these he hath not denyed me but continued them still in the midst of all other Discouragements Secondly He would hereby silence the false rumours which were to the Contrary and the Insultations of his Enemies from them for their mouthes were full to this purpose and delighted to be so as these which spake according as they would have it as in the place before alledged Psal 41.6.7 And if he come to see me he speaketh Vanity his Heart gathereth Iniquity to it self when he goeth abroad he telleth it all that hate me whisper together against me against me do they devise my hurt This was the Condition of David in regard of his Enemies They Tryumpht before the Victory and pleased themselves both in the thoughts and speeches of his supposed Ruine and Destruction now by this Expression here in the Text he does in an holy and Humble manner signifie their Mistake and Disappointment as if he had said unto them it is not so bad as ye thought it nor so bad as ye hoped it nor so bad as ye talked it I am through Gods goodness alive still for all the surmises The Lord hath Chastened me sore but he hath not given me over to Death Thirdly Which is here namely Considerable David I say would hereby express his Thankfulness to God for this Mercy they are words of Praise and spiritual Rejoyceing as appears by those that follow in the 19 verse of this Psalm Open to me the Gates of Righteousness and I will go into them and will praise the Lord namely for this his Goodness to me This is that which we all should do as we have occasion for it and indeed there 's none of us all but have so one way or other though some more then other either by way of prevention in keeping of Evils from us or by way of recovery in delivering us out of those Evils and especially in these late Distempers which have been so rife and frequent amongst us for this year now last past wherein Death hath come up into our Windows as the Scripture speaks that we should not be given over to it is matter of due praise unto us and to be acknowledged by us And we cannot better nenew the year unto us then by such performances as these are And further stir up others to do so occasionally from our Example which is another thing here intended by David in this Expression he does not onely hereby signify his own Thankfulness but also excite and stir up others to praise God both for him and themselves upon the like occasion as we find him in another place Psal 34.2.3 My Soul shall make her boast of God the humble shall hear thereof and be glad O magnify the Lord with me and let us Exalt his name together But especially as a third Improvement of this point let us be careful to use our lives well which God has given us to his Glory and so give them back to him again who has first given them too us Life it is a Blessing as it used and ordered by us For men to live onely a Natural Life here in the word to Eat and Drink and take their pleasures like brute Beasts Alas what a poor thing is that for men to live onely for such a purpose as this is to fiill up the measure of their Sins and to aggravate their Account at another Day by thinking that they are delivered to commit such and such Abominations this is very sad and Miserable but then is Life indeed when it is improved to Gods Glory The doing of good in our several Opportunities the Furtherance both of our own and others Salvation and laying up in store a good Foundation against the time to come laying hold on Eternal Life Therefore I beseech ye let us be careful especially to look to this and that likewise those which are in the prime of their Years and Health and Strength let them not neglect so Blessed an Opportunity as that is those that are past it let them indeavour to redeem it for time to Come We should labour to find our lives given us and continued to us in Mercy and Love which we may know to be no otherwise then accordingly as we have hearts given us with them for the improvement of them as we may do any other Mercy besides where it has the stamp of Gods love upon it it makes us to serve him better with it and our selves to be really and indeed so much the better for it whereas when it is otherwise it is a fign it is in wrath and to harden us so much the more in Evil There 's none are so bad as those who are bad after Mercies Received both as having
in Out Cryes in Robberies in Fires and the like in what ever Calamities we can think off as tending upon the Night How Comfortable I say is this to a Beleiving Soul in such cases as these are to be with God still when he awakes This is the priviledg which belongs to such Persons as we have it further declared unto us in Psal 91.5 Where speaking to a man that maintaines Communion with God and that dwels in the secret of the most High he has this Expression about him Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by Night nor for the Arrow that flieth by day Nor for the Pestilence that walketh in Darkness Nor for the Destruction that wasteth at noon day A thousand shall sall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand But it shall not come nigh thee Hence he says again of himself Psal 23.4 Though I should walk in the Valley of the shadaw of Death I will fear no Evil for thou art with me Thy Rod and thy Staff they Comfort me In the Valley of the shadow of Death that is as we may explain it in the Night For as Sleep is the shadow of Death so is the Night the Valley of that Shadow When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid yea thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet Be not afraid of sudden fear neither of the Desolation of the Wicked when it cometh For the Lord shall be thy Confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken Secondly It quickens to Duty This waking with God in the Morning it keeps the heart in an holy frame and temper all the day after It makes us so much the fitter for those holy Exercises which are to be performed by us Yea indeed for any thing The Duties of our or ordinary Callings and Common and Domestick affairs they come off much the roundlier from us as we make Introductions to them by Communion first with God Thirdly It prevents from sin and Temptation at the least the prevalencies of it when a man shall neglect God at any time in the opening and Begining of the Day God many gives him over to the Power and malice of Satan and the Corruption of his own heart in the following part of it But now when he shall close with him betimes He will be watchful over him to preserve him And the Peace of God which passeth understanding shall keep his heart and mind through Christ Jesus Phil. 4.7 And thus we see the several Priviledges and Benefits that do attend upon this Practise The Vse of all comes to this even to excite us and provoke us and perswade us hereunto all that may be as that which is not onely our Duty but also our Advantage and confirmed to us by the Practise and Experience of all the Saints we should be much in this heavenly course of retiring to God upon all occasions and specially when we first awake to be still with Him in all the sences which I have now given of it We should wake our selves and also wake him as the Scripture sometimes advises us and gives us an Example in the Person of the Church Awake Lord why sleepest thou Arise cast us not off for ever as it is in Psal 44.23 I have set watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem which shall not hold their peace day nor night Ye which are the Lords Remembrancers keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth Isa 62.6 7. Whatever we be mindfull else of in any of our Addresses to God we should be still mindfull of the Good of the Church and put himself in mind of it not give sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our eye-lids till he have in some sort prevailed with him for it There 's a special Emphasis in the words if ye observe them and take notice of them in that it is sayd I am still with thee which denotes Continuance and Perseverance It is not enough to have sudden flashes and stirrings of good thoughts in us when we awake in the Night or in the Morning or at any other time of Contemplation No but we must abide and fasten upon them I am still with thee that is as the word properly signifies I am yet with thee Gnoâ—hi gnimal Yet and yet and yet Like Friends that are like to depart and leave one another I am so with thee as that I know not how to get from thee we should please and delight our selves in such a blessed course as this is And that I say especially in the Morning and upon our first Awakening as indeed all the day long we should be still sucking and drawing from Him In set and limited times of Duty there may be sometimes if we look not better to it much of Custom and Formality and the doing of things as a tush c. But the keeping of the heart in a continued frame of Piety and inclinations towards God is most satisfactory and acceptable and hath a better Evidence with it Though the other likewise in its place is not to be neglected And as on all other dayes whatsoever so on the Lords day more especially we should be carefull to wake with God Then we should still with him and with him indeed As our Blessed Lord himself rose in the Morning of it whereby he did in some manner sanctifie it and set it apart for us so should we then be careful especially to rise in our thoughts and affections and meditations As he then awaked from Death so should we at such times especially awake both from sleep and sin and be watchfull in all the Duties of Religion Awake my Glory awake psaltery and harp I my self will awake right early Psal 57.8 Read Psal 92. to this purpose which is a Psalm penn'd for this occasion It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto his Name O most High To shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night Vpon an instrument of ten strings and upon the psaltery upon the harp with solemn sound For thou Lord hast made me glad through thy work I will triumph in the works of thy hands O Lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this c. Now if ye shall ask how we may attain to this blessed Condition whereof we now speak when we awake to be thus still with God I answer briefly in the Observation of these following Directions as pertinent hereunto First Walk with God in the day The Duties of Religion are link'd and chain'd together and come off more easily in the Conjunctive performance of each other Thus Reading and Hearing and Meditation and Communion of Saints Conscionably and Religiously perform'd do so much the better dispose to more immediate Communion with God And the Actions of the Day have
of Christ's Satisfaction Therefore will God abundantly pardon because Christ has abundantly satisfied and payed the Debt which was required at our hands If we have no more to say for our selves than God's Nature and the Infiniteness of that it will not serve our turn for as God is infinite in Mercy to pardon us so he is infinite in Justice to punish us And where are we then But now in Christ his Justice is fully answered and there is an opportutunity for the Expression of his Mercy together with it This is that which is our great releif and accordingly we should make much of it for our great Comfort and Consolation that God hath set him for a Propitiation for our sins Christ has payed a Ransom which is sufficient for the taking away of the greatest sins that may be and therefore will God also pardon those greatest sins God's mercy must needs reach as far as Christ's death Now this takes away all sins whatsoever The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin He is a Physician that is able to cure all Diseases What matter what the Disease be whilst the Physitian has skill to remove it and to cure it and to take it away Or what matter what the Debt be where the Surety has already payed it and made satisfaction for it Christ has satisfied for great sins and God forgives great sins yea the greater the sins are the more does he delight to manifest his Goodness in the Forgiveness of them That where sin abounds Grace may much more abound as the Apostle expresses it in Rom. 5.20 The Consideration of this Point is matter of singular Comfort to all such Persons as are humbled and broken in heart and lie under the burthen of their sins and are willing to leave and forsake them and in good earnest to quit themselves of them Here is Grace and Mercy and Reconciliation offered unto them if they will accept it upon those Terms and Conditions whereupon it is offered And therefore let none reject it or refuse it or put it away from themselves Take heed of denying or diminishing this Free Grace of God which is thus richly tendered in the Gospel as there are some kinds of persons are now and then apt to do There are some sullen Spirits in the World which will be damned as we may say whether God will or no that will have none of that Mercy which God offers and holds out unto them that cry out with desperate Cain My sin is greater than can be forgiven Oh take heed of that It is not the greatness of thy sin but the greatness of thy stomach and the pride of thine own corrupt heart that lies in thy way Thou wouldst fain stand upon thine own bottom and be justified from thy self and go to Heaven through thine own Righteousness and art loath to be beholden to God for such a favour as Pardon is and therefore it is that thou opposest it and standest out against it Or it may be thou hast a false heart and art willing to keep thy Lusts still and not to come up to God's Conditions But do not thou any longer nourish such a corrupt disposition in thy self as being that which is very odious and abominable in the sight of God Despair is in a manner the greatest sin of all a devillish and hellish sin and such as is worse than any other which is there made the occasion of it because it is a sin against the sweet Bowels of God and the Riches of his Mercy in the Gospel which he desires to extol and magnifie above all other things in the World Therefore by all means take heed of it and withdraw from it Remember to observe the Condition and thou mayest undoubtedly expect the Promise to be accomplished and made good unto thee Though thy sins be many though they be great though they be repeated again and again yet at last wholly left and renounced there is mercy for them God looks not so much at the greatness of thy sin in its own nature as rather at thine affection to it That sin which is not too great to be forsaken it is not too great to be forgiven A great sin being left shall be pardoned whereas a smaller sin being returned shall plunge thee into Everlasting Death and Condemnation And so much may be spoken of the Word of Promise or Encouragement here mentioned He will abundantly pardon Now the Second is the word Motive or Inforcement in the Counsel For For he will abundantly pardon Because God will abundantly pardon therefore let the wicked forsake his evil ways And so there is this in it That God's Mercy is a special Argument and Motive for Man's Reformation Because he is so ready to forgive sin therefore we should be as ready to forsake it Thus the Scripture still sets it as in Psal 130.4 And it holds upon this account because here now we see that our labour is not in vain If a man might repent and turn to God and for all that God would shew him no mercy he were still but in the same case as before and might be ready to think with himself that he had as good go on in his sins still and enjoy the present delight and sweetness of them But now when he hears that upon his Repentance God will forgive him this Carnal Objection is removed and taken off from him And then it holds also in a way of Thankfulness and Ingenuity in answer to God's goodness Seeing God is ready to do so much for us as to pardon our sins so we should be ready to do so much for him as to remove our sins from us Therefore let us accordingly make this Use and Improvement of it Let us take heed of abusing such a sweet Truth as this and so turning God's Grace into wantonness as many sometimes are subject to do for God will be sure not to hold us guiltless if we do so Whosoever shall commit any sin with these thoughts of presuming on God's mercy without Repentance he does so far forth deptive himself of the comfort of this present Doctrine which still supposes the Renouncing of sin as the Condition annexed to the Promise Carnal and corrupt persons they pull this Text asunder which is to be taken still in its Connexion They are for the latter part of it only where it is said God will have mercy and will abundantly pardon But they are not for the formre part of it where the wicked is required to forsake his evil ways Now the one is of noforce without the other that so as men may not despair so they may not presume and as they may not deny God's Mercy so they may not retain their own Iniquity but rather search and examine their hearts in such cases as these are and observe God's dealings with them who oftentimes suffers them to fall into great sins for the punishing of their neglect of smaller And that also occasionally
done by a man 's own skill and power it is a work of Heaven Secondly Can he do it i. e. can he easily do it It is not done with a meer sleight or turn of the hand it is a work of difficulty Each of these limitations are implyed And First of the former He cannot do it that is he cannot do it of himself An unregenerate person or such an one as is accustomed to evil he cannot alter his own heart or course This is one thing here implyed as the same Prophet also else-where O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps Jer. 10.23 We see here the impotency of nature and the inability of free-will to the doing of any thing which is good It is possible for the heart to be chang'd but this is not within its own power Therefore it is worth our observing that it is not said here Can the Ethiopian's skin be changed in a passive expression but can the Ethiopian change his skin in an active that is can he do it himself and by his own power No he cannot do it We are not able to think any thing of our selves our sufficiency is of God in 2 Cor. 3.5 And it is he which worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 We can no more alter our corrupted nature than we can our created no more make our selves of bad good than we can of men Angels We can no more convert our selves than we can create our selves give our selves a spiritual being than we can a natural nor raise our selves from the death of sin than we can from the death of the grave That 's the first limitation Secondly He cannot do it that is he cannot easily do it it is a business of some work and labour and which carries some difficulty in it the reclaiming of such an one which is used and accustomed to any sin yea and that even there where there is some work of Grace wrought in the heart and so some ability conferr'd and bestowed in order hereunto yet the thing is not so easily brought to pass Those that let themselves loose to any evil or vitious custom it costs them a great deal of pains with their hearts ere they recover and get up again Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurret Still there will somewhat arise and bubble up of the old corruption in them The ground of this difficulty if we would know it lies in this First because Satan will be very busy in the presenting of his temptations where he has a long time conquered and prevailed he will not easily there go over his hold but will keep his ground as long as he can and will not endure to be dispossest without a great deal of trouble Secondly Lust in the heart of man will also have its course and vent and being unhappily wrought into the soul will work forth and shew it self as there is any occasion for it so to do especially when the object is strong and enticing which is propounded unto it The flesh lusts against the spirit c. says the Apostle Gal. 5.17 Thirdly Grace is oftentimes asleep which should suppress and keep sin down and restrain it from breaking forth And when that is so sin and the flesh takes occasion to work in the room and place of it These are the reasons why sin where 't is rooted and habituated is not so easily removed And thus much of those Points and Doctrines which are mainly intended as the chief scope of the Text. Now besides these there are divers others which are collaterally observable from it and which do also implicitly lye in it As to instance in one or two of them First observe here thus much that it is not enough for us to abstain from evil but we must likewise do good This we may gather from the manner of the expression here before us According to the proper manner of speaking the words should have run thus How then can those which are accustomed to do evil cease to do evil but the Holy Ghost was not content with that to say no more but so and therefore he adds likewise further to do good why and upon what account namely that hence he might teach us what is required and expected from us This we shall find also in other Scriptures as Psal 34.14 Depart from evil and do good c. Isa 16.17 Cease to do evil learn to do well Rom. 12.9 Abhor that which is evil cleave to that which is good c. Still we are put upon this practice of vertue as well as upon the abstaining from vice and doing good as avoiding of evil Therefore this meets with your negative Christians which are always harping upon this that they are inoffensive and do no no hurt like the Pharisee there in the Gospel that he was not as other men no Extortioner no Thief no Adulterer nor even as the Publican Well but what are they in the mean time and what good do they do according to those abilities and opportunities which are afforded unto them This would be demanded of them as being that which God himself does look for That 's one thing which we may here observe by the way Again Secondly observe thus much That sins of commission they have sins of omission in them They that do that which they should not they neglect to do that which they should This is also in the Text for ye see here that they which are accustomed to do evil they are taken off from doing good the one it still follows upon the other and ye shall always observe it And that upon a threefold account which may be rendred as an occasion of it First they want the opportunity Secondly they lose the ability Thirdly they betray the assistance They want the opportunity First we may observe that Those which are much in sin they have little leisure to any thing else they are so addicted and given to their vile and vicious courses that they have no time for any thing besides they are so hot in the pursuit of their lusts that they cannot mind those things which are better and contrary to them Hence it is that evil men do so delay and put off their repentance or any other good work which is to be done by them Secondly They lose the ability If they had time and leisure for good yet they have little strength or power unto it which is eaten out by the strength and prevalency of lust and corruption in them as I in part intimated in a point before Every new sin as it encreases the habit of evil so it weakens the habit of good in us Thirdly They betray their assistance for God himself in such cases does withdraw his Grace from them which should be helpful to them in that which they undertake The Spirit of God being grieved by them
loose his hand and cut me off And so the Prophet Jonah because his message was crost which he had delivered concerning Nineveh therefore he desires to live no longer in the world Therefore now O Lord says he I beseech thee take away my life from me for it is better for me than to live in Jonah 4.3 In others of worse principles it is commonly more frequent and ordinary but it is such as is very grievous and dangerous in them Those that with for death lightly and rashly and discontentedly they know not what they wish for as having not leisure to recollect themselves To wish for it as an opportunity of nearer and fuller and closer communion with Christ and enjoyment of him as a cessation and period to sin as an exemption from temptation this is very good and praise worthy and such as the Scripture leads us unto But to wish for it out of murmuring and impatience and discontent it is no way allowable especially according to the circumstances which such persons may possibly be in which is of strangeness and unacquaintedness with God and unpreparedness for another world Oh! it is a mad thing indeed to desire death in such a case as this is let their condition here in the world be otherwise never so lamentable because that then they do change but out of one bad condition into another yea out of a less evil into a greater as it follows after in the next verse to the Text. As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand upon the wall and a Serpent bit him such is the fruit of such desires as these And that 's one expression of this rash and unadvised desiring of the day of the Lord in those who do so desire it as proceeding from a principle of discontentedness in their own condition Secondly from a principle of presumption of their own innocence This is that which hypocrites sometimes do They seem to desire the day of the Lord as if they were ready in a manner to try it out with the Lord and to justify themselves at his Tribunal There are some persons that are so full of carnal confidence and conceited of their own righteousness as that they dare even to plead and contend with God himself and think to do well enough with him Such an one as this was that young man in the Gospel that said he had kept all God's Commandments from his youth upward and such an one also was the Pharisee that thanked God he was not like other men And such also were the people of the Jews that stood upon their own righteousness Now such as these might well have a woe to be denounc'd against them Woe unto him that strives with his maker as the Prophet Isaiah sometimes expresses it It was that which Job in all his innocency durst not do as himself professes Job 9.15 Whom though I were righteous yet would I not answer but would make supplication to my Judge This is that which these considerate persons will not vouchsafe to do but rather think to carry it out by the strength of their own deserts as having nothing which might be charged upon them Thirdly From a principle of ignorance of the nature of the thing it self They know not what death is in the properties and consequences of it nor they know not what judgment is in the strictness and severity of it And therefore it is that at a distance they think favourably both of the one and the other and seem as if they were desirous of them Which is a very sad case to be so Thus do they desire the day of the Lord without understanding either the day of death or general or particular judgment Again further Take this day of the Lord in the other sense for the day of captivity and National desolation as it may be also taken And so there is a woe likewise belonging to those which do desire it or at least which so carry themselves as if they were little affected with it Thus it was with some of the Jews at this present time they were so far from being humbled under the predictions and prognostications of this condition which was threaten'd to them as that they were in a manner at a point about it and did in some sort wish for it so it happens to be sometimes with divers others of the like temper and disposition with them They do sometimes according to the discontents which may be upon them wish for war and wish for calamity and wish for confusion it self as conceiving that such extremities may be some kind of help and relief unto them But alas they do not know what they wish for in so wishing Such desires as these are rash and unadvised in them and have a woe attending upon them as it is here exprest It is not safe to give way but to the first beginning and entring of Judgment because we know not where they will stop or stay when we once dye I have not desired the woful day thou knowest it as Jeremy speaks in another case So it concerns all persons in this case to be able to say in this particular Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it rashly or foolishly because ye do not consider it or attend to the circumstances of it That 's the first explication Secondly Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord that is that desire it scoffingly and scornfully because ye do not believe it This is another sense which may be founded upon this expression Desiring it in their mouthes but not in their hearts and so desiring that it might come as yet thinking it would not come and therefore mocking at the coming of it Such persons as these there are also sometimes in the world the Prophet Esay makes mention of them to us Isa 5.19 They say Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Therefore as they laugh at the Day of the Lord so accordingly they laugh at the Word of the Lord and his Message concerning that day as the Prophet Jeremy has it in Jer. 17.15 Behold they say unto me Where is the word of the Lord let it come now That is Where is that which the Word of the Lord has so much threatned and spoken of as that which shall come to pass Not onely scoffing at Judgment it self but likewise at all the fore-runnings and monitions of it This is an high piece of wickedness and impiety indeed yet such as the sons of men are now and then subject unto Where they have not so much grace as to avoid Judgment they have at least so much vileness as to despise it and to make a mock and derision of it and of those that proclaim it They desire it
the Apostle advises us in Rom. 13.13 14. Take heed of having too easy and favourable thoughts and apprehensions of such things as these are of death and judgment and calamity as if they had no great matter in them for it will not appear to be so when they shall come in good earnest Wo unto you that in this sense desire that is diminish and despise and disregard the day of the Lord which is a kind of desire interpretatively as being next to it for you have no ground or cause for it The day of the Lord being dark and not light yea very dark and no brightness in it as it is here exprest And further here consider the great difference which is betwixt man and man in this particular for whiles this day of the Lord is said to be thus and thus it is still to be taken in a variety of Emphasis according to the variety of Persons which are concern'd in it The same day being occasionally and respectively either one or t'other unusquisque sibi est aut tenebrae aut lumen says St. Austin Every one is to himself either darkness or light Si pius lumen si impius tenebrae Those which are gracious and truly religious to such the day of the Lord whether in death or judgment it is a day of light and joy and of comfort in death as it translates them to Glory and in Judgment as it finishes Glory to them On the other side to those which are wicked and ungodly and profane and atheistical to them it is a day of darkness and horror As the cloud which we read of in Exod. 14.20 It was light to the Israelites whiles it was darkness at the same time to the Egyptians A direction to one and an obstruction to the t'other Where by the way take notice of the unhappiness of all wicked and ungodly persons in the perverting of those things which in themselves have the greatest excellency by making a contrary use and improvement of them There 's nothing which wicked men partake of but it 's either the worse for them or they for it The Word of the Lord and the Table of the Lord and the Temple of the Lord and the Day of the Lord. The Word of the Lord they make it reproachful and instead of the savour of life to them to be the savour of death The Table of the Lord they make it to be vain and contemptible and instead of discerning the Lord's body eat and drink to themselves their own damnation The Temple of the Lord they make it execrable and instead of the house of Prayer a den of thieves The Day of the Lord they make it terrible and instead of a day of light a day of darkness As they profane the day of the Lord as it is taken for a day of devotion so they contemn the day of the Lord as it is taken for a day of judgment and visitation So much for that and so much also of the whole Text. SEVERAL SELECT SERMONS Upon Various Texts out of the NEW TESTAMENT Sermon I. MATTHEW 5.20 That except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It was that which was laid to the charge of our Blessed Saviour whilst he converst here upon Earth as is also since to some of his servants in conformity to him that whiles he preacht the Doctrine of the Gospel he did nullifie the vigour of the Law and the Precepts of it That which the Pharisees were more especially guilty of themselves which was to make the Commandment of God of none effect by their Traditions they most falsly and injuriously and unhappily object to Christ as if he came into the world for this purpose to destroy the Law and the Prophets Now therefore did it very much concern him to clear himself of this accusation which we find him to do in this present Scripture by shewing that he was so far from nullifying or destroying the Law as that he did so much the rather strengthen it and confirm it and further inforce it by the sense which he put upon it as leading men to a stricter and exacter observation of it than as yet they had been acquainted withall and this is the scope in particular of this Text which we have now in hand Our Saviour had for the general profest it in the 17th verse of this Chapter Think not saith he I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil Now in this verse before us he proves and demonstrates what he there profest For I say unto you That except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness c. IN the Text it self there are two general Parts First The Preface or Introduction Secondly The Doctrine or principal matter which is delivered in it The Introductory Preface that 's exprest in these words For I say unto you The Truth and Doctrine which is delivered in these words Except your Righteousness c. We shall a little invert the Order of these words in the handling and begin first of all with the second Branch of them as that which is principally intended and that is the Doctrine or Truth it self which is here propounded and delivered to us Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees c. Wherein we have a disparagement of the Righteousness of such and such persons in order to Eternal Salvation so as that these who do partake of no more but only that shall never partake of this The word Scribes is the name of an Office amongst the Jews who were noted especially for their Learning and Knowledge in the Law The word Pharisees that is the name of a Sect who were noted especially for their life and conversation Now the Righteousness of either or both together is here declared to be very defective And the point which arises from hence is briefly this That Pharisaical Righteousness is unsufficient to bring a man to Heaven If a man have no more Righteousness in him than of the Scribes and Pharisees he shall never enter into the Kingdom of God For the better opening of the present point unto us there are two things to be done by us First To shew what this Pharisaical Righteousness is and wherein it consists Secondly To shew the Defectiveness and Insufficiency of this Righteousness in reference to Eternal Salvation and what it is which makes it so to be as is here by our Blessed Saviour declared concerning it First What this Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was or is which is thus insufficient Now this may be reduced to these two heads either first the matter and substance of their Righteousness or secondly the manner and circumstances Their Righteousness it was observable and remarkable in either of these particulars but yet defective in each First For the matter and substance of their Righteousness it
him with the brightness of his coming And so he shall and all such persons as do adhere unto him The Spirit of Christ shall scatter the spirit of Antichrist and the wind of the Holy Spirit shall confound the wind of the evil Spirit and what ever is attempted by it This is a very comfortable point in all the assaults and temptations of Satan and his endeavours either against the Church in general or against any particular member of it Every Christian is thus far secure and in good condition as he has this Wind as I may so say for him which is sure to blow him nothing but good The Reason of it is this Because he is one that belongs to Christ and has an interest in him and so consequently has an interest in the Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ and so all the motions of it subordinate and subservient to him and disposed of according to his pleasure There are different and various winds which blow now and then both upon the Church and likewise upon the Soul but they are all ordered and regulated by him Therefore we find in the Canticles how it is Christ himself that stirs up his Spirit for the good of his Spouse Awake O North-wind and come thou South and blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out The Spirit it blows where it lists and it lists there where Christ lists too which is very satisfactory for all those that seek unto him And so I have done with the first part of the Text as to the resemblance betwixt the Spirit and the Wind in the work of Regeneration and that is the Quality of the Maker The Wind bloweth c. The Second is the Sensibleness of its effects in those words And thou hearest the sound thereof The wind it comes with a Sound and so does the Spirit of God It did so in its first coming of all when it came upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost There came suddenly a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting Acts 2.4 And so it is still to this present day in a proportion It has a sound and such as may be heard Now thus it is in a two fold consideration The one is the sound of it in the Ear and the other is the sound of it in the Conscience First There is the sound of the Spirit in the Ear and that is in the external Preaching of the Word and Ministerial Dispensation where this is performed as it should be it is no other than the sound of the Spirit and the voice of the Holy Ghost himself speaking to us Their sound is gone forth into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Rom. 10.18 This is such a sound as may be heard and it is a mercy to hear it and to be made partakers of it and that in regard of the virtue and benefit which by the blessing of God is conveyed by it for Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God as the Apostle there tells us Rom. 10.17 Therefore accordingly we should prize it and esteem of it and apply our selves to it as that which is appointed for our good If we look upon Preaching onely as the work of men so there is but little in it and it may be rather matter of contempt in regard of the meanness of it But when we shall consider that it is the Ordinance of God and the voice and sound of the Spirit here 's that in it which commands our regard and attention to it And we should be glad of all opportunities which are at any time afforded unto us for the partaking of it that we may hear the sound of this wind blowing upon us That 's the first The sound in the Ear. But secondly that 's not all there is moreover the sound in the Conscience which is the main and chiefest of all This is that which comes home to the heart of a Christian for his conversion and the raising him from the death of sin under which he was held Like the voice of Christ to Lazarus when he bad him come forth of the grave This is that which is heard also by those persons whom it pleases God to vouchsafe it unto according to that of our blessed Saviour in Joh. 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Thus we shall find it was with the Disciples going to Emaus Luke 24.32 They said one to another Did not our bearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and whiles he opened to us the Scripture There was a special efficacy went with his word to the hearts of his hearers And so it was with St. Peter's Converts Acts 2.37 When they heard these words they were pricked at their hearts And the Jaylor Acts 16.33 he heard not onely the sound of the wind but the sound of the Spirit and this sound of it whereof we now speak in the heart-quake as well as the earth quake which he was sensible of upon that occasion And so it has been with many more and still is they daily hear this sound made unto them they have strong and strange impressions upon their hearts and spirits to this purpose which they cannot but hear in several kinds sometimes checking them for sin and sometimes restraining them from it sometimes exciting them to good and sometimes encouraging them in it The Spirit of God in their hearts and consciences deals diversly and variously with them and it is their duty and wisdom accordingly to attend unto him They that hear thus they shall hear that is they shall hear effectually as it is intimated in the place before cited And therefore it concerns us to regard it and to give heed unto it all that possible may be There are a great many people in the world who though this sound which we now speak of in both the branches of it be continually exhibited unto them and such as may be heard yet they do not or at least will not hear it who like the deaf Adder stop their ears and will not hear the voice of the charmers charm they never so wisely as the Prophet David speaks of them in Psal 68.4 5. Now what do such as these but as much as in themselves lies hinder their own conversion and regeneration and the work of grace in their hearts which is accomplished by such ways and means as these And besides after a great indignity and disrespect to the holy Ghost himself as the Apostle Paul signifies to us in 1 Thess 4.8 He that despiseth despiseth not man but God who hath also given us his holy Spirit Whose voice as it is sensible to be heard so it ought to be heard by us as we have occasion for it And so
it is a converting and saving Doctrine it is such as in the nature of it is apt to work upon the hearts of those which are acquainted with it As he spake this they believed on him So it was in the fore-named Auditors of St. Peter Acts 2.37 When they heard this then c. Therefore it is that the Apostle Paul stands so much hereupon in all his Ministery 1 Cor. 1.22 23. The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness But unto them that are called both Jews and Gentiles Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God Christ crucified is God's wisdom and power Hence it was that the same Apostle made this the chief work of his Ministery 1 Cor. 3.2 I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified This is the Doctrine which is most useful First as it implies in it the greatness of mans misery by reason of sin Those Doctrines are most effectual to conversion which do most discover a man to himself shew him his ill condition by Nature now such does this implicitely it discovers the grievous nature of sin which nothing would expiate but the precious Blood of the Son of God himself it shews us what we did deserve by that which He did actually endure Secondly it is the most mollifying Doctrine as it implies in it the great love and bowels of God in Christ towards us Greater love hath no man than this to lay down his life And how much is there in this to melt us and to work upon us What should we now do for him who hath done so much for us and how should we love and embrace him and entertain him with all affection that may be by way of requital Thirdly It is the most Reforming Doctrine it carries amendment it self in the very bowels of it yea it instructs us and directs us to it Christs dying for us teaches us to kill sin in our selves and to mortifie our strongest corruptions by a power fetch'd and derived from his death According to that of the Apostle in Rom 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin Therefore we should study this Doctrine and be well verst and acquainted with it Ministers we should much inculcate it and People we should very much hearken and attend unto it And that was one branch of these words to wit Christs death and sufferings His lifting up c. The second was his Calling and Authority in the next words I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things and he that sent me is with me Whence we learn That the Authority and Calling of the Minister is a special ground for the success of his Doctrine When these Jews heard and heard it demonstrated that Christ came by the designation of his Father who knew him and was conversant with him now they presently believed on him Therefore we see what those who take upon them the Ministery should especially look unto viz. That they find it to be thus with themselves that they are such whom God himself does imploy and send about this work otherwise they can never expect assistance in their work nor yet success upon it Whereas thus being they may look for both And so much for the second thing the Determination of the Doctrine As he spake these words The third and last is the Determination of the Time As he spake that is in his very speaking inter loquendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is another thing observable of us as to the efficacy of the Ministery that though not always yet oftentimes it proves effectual in the very dispensation This preaching of the Word and the success of it they now and then go both together so they did here and so likewise in some other places as to take one for all Acts 10.44 While Peter spake these words the holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word There 's two things at once in this passage First the suddenness of this success and secondly the seasonableness The suddenness of it that it took presently The seasonableness just in the very speaking First Here 's the Suddenness presently all upon the sudden Here 's the Return as soon as the Venture Christ did no sooner preach than the Jews did believe This is one thing which God is pleased sometimes to order to give speedy success upon endeavours in the work of the Ministery Generatio fit in instanti it is so not onely in Nature but in Grace In Regeneration and the work of the New-creature nay 't is here more especially wherein many at once and without succession or leasure are brought home to God and have his image stampt upon them all in a moment Secondly Here 's the Seasonableness of this success just in the very speaking This is not so always but sometimes it pleases God now and then to concur with our Ministery in the very time and moment of its execution Look as it is on the other side in Prayer and our speaking to God God answers us whiles we are speaking to him nay in some manner before as it is exprest in Isa 5.24 And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer and whiles they are yet speaking I will hear So is it likewise in Gods speaking to us he makes it to be so also with our selves that we shall hear whilst he is speaking to us His Word and his Spirit go together and the latter to put an efficacy in the former This should make us all with so much the more diligence to attend these Means of Ministerial Dispensations for they are the gales and breathings of the holy Ghost who delights for the most part to convey and communicate himself in them both in regard of his first entrance and slipping into us as also to his further progress and perseverance in us Both the beginnings and confirmations of Grace are upon such occasions So much for that And so I have done also with the second General Part of the Text which is the Occasion or Season of the success of Christs Doctrine upon these Jews in these words As he spake those words So much for this whole Verse SERMON XIV JOH 8.31 Then said Jesus to those Jems which believed on him If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed There is nothing commonly more suspitious than sudden changes from evil to good which have usually this disparagement upon them that they are not for the most part so lasting and of so long continuance But as they are fruit which are quickly blossom'd so they are likewise as quickly blasted and come to decay It is so both in Temporal and Spiritual in
advantage of them so that where they will be troubled they shall be And where he at any time discerns any proneness or inclination in them to it he is ready as much as may be to promote it and set it on further that they may be troubled more He loves to fish in troubled waters and to add sorrow to sorrow for the greater perplexity of Gods People Hence he raises a great many fears and jealousies and suspitions in them whereby the more to afflict them Thirdly From the weakness of Grace Therefore it is that Gods Children are apt and subject now and then to be inordinately troubled in themselves because Grace is but weak in them We see how it is in the Body that those who are but of weak constitutions as Children and such as they a little matter troubles them and proves offensive unto them And so it is likewise in the Soul and Spirit and inward man Where Christians are but weak they will be disquieted and easily upon every turn put out of frame Thus it was now at this present with the Disciples of Christ They were as yet but weak Christians in regard whereof he tells them elsewhere that he forbore to speak of some things unto them This is the case also with many others They are but Children and Babes in Christ and therefore apt to be troubled Nay even those who have Grace in the greatest measure if we take it comparatively yet their Grace is but weak and slender in them here in this life as a ground of this perplexity in them Their Faith and their Love and their Heavenly-mindedness and their Zeal and their Patience all in a manner but weak and therefore are their Hearts full of fears and perplexities and disquietings in themselves as a consequent of it The use which we are to make of it is accordingly to take notice of it both in our selves and others that so we may be both humbled for it and prepared against it For it is that which the best that are they are prone to if they do not the better look to themselves It is that which we have dayly and continual experience of every moment How soon we are dejected and cast down and out of heart in our selves upon any occasion such a tenderness and moleities and softness and delicateness there is upon us as that the least thing that is it troubles us and fils us with disquietness And that 's the first thing here observable from these words viz. A Christians Disposition He is apt and subject to be troubled as appears from this Caution or Prohibition of Christ to his Disciples The Second is his Duty and that is not to be troubled or afraid Christians they should by all means shun and take heed of this trouble in themselves Let not your Heart be troubled neither let it be afraid Not troubled for the evil which is present and already upon you not afraid for the evil which is expected or looked for for time to come Here 's a Caveat both against Grief and against Fear Each of which are such Passions as in the miscarriage and exorbitancy of them have much evil and sinfulness in them We 'l joyn them both together in the handling of them as coming both to one and the same effect Where that we may rightly understand the Point we may not conceive as if our Saviour did here plead for a Stoical apathy or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a senselessness and stupidity of Disposition from whence men are altogether mindless and regardless of the condition in which they are This is so far from the mind of Christ as that he does rather exceedingly abhor it and abominate it in those it is in We see how even He himself sometimes was troubled as he consesses and acknowledges it of Himself And he did so far forth express his participation of our Humane Nature in Him Therefore it is not Trouble simply which he here prohibits but the inordinacy of it which therefore we should avoid For the better opening and prosecuting of this Point which we have now before us there are two things which we shall do with Gods assistance First shew how far we may or ought to be troubled Secondly shew how far we may not or ought not to be troubled for there is somewhat considerable as to both First then how far we may and ought There are two things which are the proper objects of Trouble which it is exercised and conversant about Sin and Misery And accordingly it is not unlawful but very requisite and warrantable for a Christian in a due manner and measure to be troubled for either of these as he hath occasion for it First A Christian may be very well troubled in point of sin yea and ought so to be That which troubles all the World as to the ground and matter of trouble as sins does it ought not to be slighted by a Christian but he is much to be affected with it Whether in himself or in other men as he does discern and observe it to be in them For himself first That which He is guilty of for his own particular it ought to go very near unto him It is that which the Servants of God in Scripture have been very much troubled for when they have considered it and reflected upon it as we may see in divers instances and examples David Psal 38.3 4 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin for mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Peter Math. 27.75 When he had deny'd his Master and remembred the words of Jesus unto him He went out and wept bitterly Paul Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Thus have the Servants of God been much troubled when they have thought of their sin First As a dishonour in reference to God and a grief unto him whose Glory is or should be very dear unto them Through breaking of the Law thou dishonourest God Rom. 2.23 And by this deed thou hast made the Enemies of the Lord to blaspheme 2 Sam. 12.14 This it should go very near to a Christian Heart If I be a father where is mine honour Can we call our selves the Children of God and have no sense of the honour of God surely this is very unsuitable No it becomes us to be much troubled for sin so far forth as it is a dishonour to God as his Name is occasionally reproach'd and blasphemed by it And then not only as a dishonour to him but likewise as a grieving of him for so it is Isa 63.10 They rebelled and vexed his holy spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed c. Eph. 4.30 Shall sin grieve God and shall it not grieve us
to make the Captain of our Salvation perfect through sufferings Our sins had wholly obstructed and stopp'd up the way to Heaven and made it unpassable to us now Christ by his death hath opened it and made way for us The Blood of Jesus Christ hath cleansed us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 Having taken our nature upon him and in that nature suffer'd in our behalf he hath now made us capable of partaking of eternal happiness This is that new and living-way which we find mention made of by the Apostle in Heb. 10.19 20. Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh And having an High Priest over the house of God Let us draw near c. This is the benefit which we have by Christ's death and the satisfaction of God's Justice for our sakes not only that our sins are pardoned but also that we have favour and grace to be entituled to eteral life This in the discharge of Christ's office of Priesthood He is the way first of all so The Second is in discharge of his Prophetical Office He may be said to be the way also thus so far forth as he hath revealed and made known this way unto us which he hath done for us This he did in his own person whiles he was here upon earth He went about teaching in the Synagogues and preaching the Kingdom of God as we may see in divers places of the Gospel Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time The only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him He hath declared him he hath declared God himself and he hath declared the way of coming to God as being privy to God's mind in this particular This he did whiles he lived here in the World And since that he is gone up into Heaven he hath done it also and still does it by his Ministers and Embassadors whom he hath sent to this purpose to prepare the way of the Lord and to make his paths known The Preaching of the Gospel it is no other than the way of Christ which he hath consecrated for us as a means to bring us to Heaven and Christ himself may be said to be the way in reference to it Thirdly As to his Kingly Office he is the way to Heaven also thus He is Via Regia so far forth as he does cause this way to be laid out for us and does order us and regulate us in it When we have found out the right way to Heaven yet being left to our selves we are apt to stagger and stumble in it and ever and anon to be wandring and running out of it Now this is a part of Christ's Government which he does exercise over his chosen to reduce them and keep them right To make strait paths for our feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way and that it be rather healed as it is in Heb. 12.13 And then also by the same Kingly Power he does likewise remove and take away any thing that may hinder and obstruct us herein Oh there are a great many difficulties in our passage to Heaven which are hindrances and impediments to us many lusts and temptations and afflictions and enemies of all sorts as so many Pyrats and Robbers which we are to grapple withal Therefore Christ is fain to be our way as to the removal of these difficulties from us which he does as our King To all this we may further add his conduct and guidance of us by his own pattern and example He is thus far the way to Heaven as himself hath walked in that way in the tenour of an holy conversation So the Apostle Peter expresses it 1 Pet. 2.21 22. Christ hath left us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth Our Saviour's life whiles he was ere upon earth it was an heavenly life and favour'd of that blessed place which he was tending and going to and thereby shewed us what ours should be too He chalk'd out the way to Heaven for us for the direction of us And therefore the Scripture still calls us to the following and imitation of him and walking in his ways Thus Matth. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly c. Joh. 13.15 I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you Phil. 2.5 Let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus And 1 Joh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked Thus still is Christ himself propounded as a Guide and Conduct to us And thus in all these respects is he very fitly and properly termed the way This is a Point of great comfort and satisfaction to us that there is such a way as this is which is found out for us to everlasting Salvation which whiles we are careful to enter into and to persevere and hold on in we may at last come to the enjoyment of it That it is not only provided for us but also discovered to us as it is now here in this present Scripture That Christ himself who is it is pleased to shew it and to acquaint us with it as here he does Every man by nature is a stragler and has lost his way We all like sheep have gone astray and have turn'd every one to his own way as the Prophet makes complaint Isa 53.6 But here there is a way opened for us which it concerns us therefore to attend unto and not to depart from it This is the way walk ye in it It is our concernment so to do especially if we shall consider the divers properties and excellencies which are in it There is nothing which is desirable in any way but it is to be found and observed in this way whereof we now speak As to instance in some sew particulars First it is a true way A way that comes perfectly home to the journeys end And therefore as I hinted in the beginning some have thought the word Truth to be added in the Text. by way of special denomination He is the way and the truth That is he is the true way There There are a great many ways which men sometimes do dream of in the World as whereby to come to happiness but they all fall short of home and do not attain it yea but Christ he is the way indeed so as those that lay hold on him shall be sure never to miss Our way to happiness when time was lay in another tract to wit in our selves when Adam was entrusted with it for himself and all his posterity But that we parted withal of our own accord But now there 's a new and living way provided for us which is a great deal better and that is
as he is God but as he is God-Man as he is the Mediator and Head of the Church in which sense we are here to understand it And so he is variously exprest in Scripture as the Tree of Life as the Bread of Life as the Water of Life Christ he is every way and in all respects Life unto us both in reference to Grace and Glory I am come says he that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly Joh. 10.10 Christ he is both the Author of our life and the matter of our life too He is the root and spring of it in whom it is and from whom it slows unto us And he is the substance of it in whom it consisteth because he only is the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.2 He is our life as that which we feed on and are sustained and nourished by as a man is by his natural food in the life of nature His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and conveys life indeed by it There 's a threefold life which Christ does convey to all those who are true Believers First the life of Justification Secondly the life of Sanctification And Thirdly the life of Glory And in the conveyance of each of these unto them he is said to be emphatically the life as also in another place The life was manifested and we have seen it in 1 Joh. 1.2 First Christ is the life of Justification as to the pardon and forgiveness of our sins Persons that are condemned they are so far forth said to be dead namely as they are appointed to death they are dead in Law And this is the state and condition of us all by nature by reason of our first transgression there was a sentence of death past upon us and we were adjudg'd thereunto In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 3.17 Now Christ he hath reverst this sentence and removed this death from us by dying for us By his obedience and suffering he hath satisfied the Justice of his Father and thereby hath reconciled us and put us into a state of life again Thus Col. 2.13 You being dead in your sins and the circumcision of your flesh hath he quickned together with him having forgiven you all trespasses Mark He hath quickned you by forgiving you I orgiving it is a kind of quickning because it makes a man a child of life who was before a child of death And this is that which Christ hath done for us he hath quickned us thus so far forth as he hath absolved us and set us free from condemnation by taking our guilt upon himself and that 's called a Justification of life Rom. 13.18 Now this it hath another life which is pertinent and belonging hereunto and consequent from it which therefore we may look upon under the same head with it And this is a life of peace and spiritual comfort For as by reason of sin we are plainly and absolutely dead and have a sentence of condemnation past upon us So from hence where it is discovered to us and we are made sensible of it we come to be dejected and cast down in our selves We are not only all dead but we are all a mort likewise Therefore as answerable to one death of sentence we have need of a life of absolution So answerable to the death of despair which is apt to follow upon that death of sentence where it does not appear to be remitted we have need of a life of consolation to be bestow'd upon us And this is Christ also unto us He is our Peace as the Scipture stiles him not only in the thing it self but also in our own consciences not only as to our state but as to our spirit not only as to our state to make it justifiable but as to our spirit to make it comfortable And in that respect also our life Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoyce c. in Rom. 5.1 c. Secondly As Christ is the life of Justification so he is the life of Sanctification likewise When God pardoned our sins through the Blood of Christ he gives us Grace and Holiness from the Spirit of Christ as a fruit and consequent of that pardon and reconciliation And Christ himself does impart and communicate his Spirit unto us for this purpose He is of God made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Not only from the law of death as to matter of guilt and condemnation but also from the law of sin as to matter of filth and pollution and hath put a new and another law into me which is the law of Grace and holiness of the Spirit This is the method wherein we partake of this spiritual life that it is first of all subjected in Christ and from him derived unto us The Spirit of God first sanctifies the humane nature of Christ and from thence sanctifies us and conveys a new nature unto us Christ lives in us by his Spirit Gal. 2.20 And therefore call'd a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 This Life is further considerable not only in the principle of it but in the activity of it not only as that whereby we are simply enabled and made capable of doing our duty but also are made vigorous in it Christ is our life so far forth as we have a livelihood in any thing which is good And thus also the life of Sanctification Thirdly The life of Glory Christ is that likewise so far forth as he makes all his Servants to be partakers of it For so he does he raises up their bodies from the grave and he possesses both body and soul with eternal happiness And so the Scripture informs us Thus Joh. 11.25 Jesus said unto Martha 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 c. Christ is the life of the resurrection forasmuch as his resurrection hath an insluence and effect upon ours and is the cause of it Whatsoever is done to us it is done first of all to him He lives and we live in him He is risen again and we shall rise again by him and from him According to that of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 6.14 God hath raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power And again 2 Cor. 4.14 Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you And again Phil. 3.22 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Thus is Christ the life
saving Grace but also a contrary principle of death that is of sin dwelling in him whereby the sinner is both habitually turn'd from God as also habitually turn'd to the creature and carried contrary to the Law of God The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be The Third Proposition All the works which are wrought by any man before the Grace of Christ and the Spirit of God changing his heart they have in them the nature of sin As for example the vertues of many of the Heathen Aristides Socrates Scipio and the rest although they might be called civil vertues and so far forth as they were thereby useful and serviceable to humane society they might deserve to be commended yet forasmuch as they were defective of such conditions as in the Law of God are required to the making of good actions for the subject a sanctified heart for the end the glory of God and for the principle Faith working by love however in regard of the matter they may be accounted good yet for the manner they must be esteem'd vicious as deprivations of good works rather than as performances of them The Fourth is this That forasmuch as man in the state of nature is so miserably depraved and prone to all manner of evil and indisposed to any thing which is truly and spiritually good we conclude that as to the first work of conversion and actions of the like nature with it man is meerly passive and receptive not active or operative that is that he hath no free-will or power working with God but is a meer subject receiving the mighty work of God upon his soul According to that of St. Bernard which is very full and express to this purpose Deus est Author salutis liberum arbitrium tantum capax nec dare eam nisi Deus nec capere eam valet nisi liberum arbitrium God is the Author of Salvation free-will is only the receiver neither can any give it but God neither can any take it but free-will Which yet notwithstanding is not so to be understood by us as if in the workings of Grace the mind and will of man did not at all move themselves but were only moved as inanimate instruments as the hand moving the hatchet or the like this we do not say But thus That God in the work of conversion does by his regenerating Spirit so reform the will of man as that the natural power thereof which before did carry and apply it self to evil it does now carry and apply it self to good Wherein the act of willing is indeed from the will it self as the proper subject of that action but the supernatural goodness of this act is wholly from God who does use to work suitably and agreeably to the nature of the creature The will of man in his regeneration is not as a meer stock or stone or forced to Faith and conversion against the created properties of it but naturae voluntatis congruentes suitable to the nature of the will For besides that passive power which is in the will of man to God which is not in a stock or stone God does moreover in conversion not violently force the will but sweetly drive it with the reserving of those properties to it which were bestowed upon it in its creation The last Proposition is this That for the conversion of man in the state of nature and the performing of any good work by him it is not sufficient to have his will only excited and assisted by extrinsecal and additional Grace but it is also necessary to be healed and quickned by intrinsecal and renewing Grace and to have new qualities and principles and dispositions put into it That life which was not before is to be newly created not that life which was before to be newly excited This Grace of God in conversion it is not only a moral suasion or indifferent influx which it is in the power of men to assent or not assent unto but a strong and effectual motion as whereby he raised Jesus Christ from the dead Eph. 1.19.20 The Grace of God I say in conversion is not a meer moral suasion or indifferent influx which it is in the power of man to assent or not to assent unto As a Guest which stands without doors which a man may either take in or keep out as himself pleases but it is a strong and efficatious motion whereby God according to his mighty power raised Jesus Christ from the dead doth quicken a man which is dead in sin makes him a new creature and works in him not only a power of willing but even to will it self According to that of the Apostle Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Mark he does not only excite but work which hath some efficacy with it And these now are the Propositions which do serve to clear this Ponint unto us From all which thus laid together both the consent and dissent of adversaries together with the explication of the terms the whole matter in hand comes to this result and conclusion viz. That man being fallen in Adam not as recovered and restored by Grace but as still abiding in this his lapst condition hath not free-will not understanding it of the nature of the will but of the power of it And of the power of it not in a passive sense but in an active Not with Grace but without Grace And Grace not only exciting and moving and assisting but also changing and healing and quickening to a good work not which is good only Philosophically but good Theologically And for the doing of this work not only as to the substance of the action but also as to the manner of the performance the end and principle and all requisite circumstances And these circumstances consider'd not only according to the rules of morality and which are to be sound even in Heathen Authors but according to the principles of Religion and which are derived from the holy Scriptures I say A man that is at present out of Christ and so still continuing in this his state of nature hath not any freedom of will thus explained remaining in him to any thing which is good And so this speech of our Blessed Saviour truly fulfilled Without me ye can do nothing This we shall now labour to evince by these following Arguments First From the general and universal corruption of our whole nature where the principles are corrupted the actions which slow from those principles must of necessity be corrupted likewise As the spiring and fountain is so are the streams that issue from it Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean says Job not one in Job 14.4 Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles says our Saviour A corrupt tree must needs bring forth evil fruit Matth. 7.16 17. Now all the principles of
to help us and that 's one encouragement so he hath likewise Will and that 's another For to be told that we are able to do nothing without such an ones assistance and withall to hear that it were such an one as had no good will or affection for us nor any mind at all to help us this would be little comfort to us But now this is here such encouragement that we do not more need his help than he is willing to send his help unto us and to concur with us that so we may be the more effectually perswaded to have recourse to him for it This is done in the exercise of two Graces more especially in us to wit of Humility and Faith First Humility whereby we are emptied of our selves and any conceits of our own sufficiency Those that think they can do well enough by any power of their own they will never once look after Christ for such is that desperate pride and stubbornness which is in our hearts by nature that we care not to be beholding to Christ more than needs if we can any thing shift without him we never care to come to him But when we see that without him we are lost and that there is no help for us this will make us to apply our selves to him as much as we can Lay this then for a ground which is here the Doctrine of this Text That without Christ we can do nothing Secondly The Grace of Faith let us also stir up that in us which is that whereby we suck and draw from Christ that which is in him and apply it and bring it home to our selves Without Christ we can do nothing and without Faith we can do nothing neither even there where Christ of himself is both able and willing also to do any thing for us This is that which like the Womans touch of the them of his garment draws forth strength and virtue out of him both for the stopping of the issue of sin and for the walking in the ways of Piety Therefore let us be sure to exercise and set this on work and that according to those two great Mysteries which are eminent in him his Death and his Resurrection Fetch by Faith power from Christ's Death for the mortifying and killing of sin in us which is very agreeable and appliable to this purpose And fetch by Faith also power from his Resurreâ—â—on in the raising up to newness of life and to the practise of all the works of new obedience which are to be performed by us Now further that we may still do it more successfully let us be advised on this which is much conducing and tending hereto and that is That we be careful to keep in good terms with Christ and to walk in all well pleasing to him forasmuch as without him we can do nothing It concerns us very much to take heed that we be no ways offensive to him or do any thing which may alienate his affections from us which is the ground of his assistance of us We see how it is ordinary in the affairs here of the world such persons as men do absolutely depend upon for all that is to be done by them such without whom they are able to do nothing which is of any concernment to them they will not offer to displease them of all other persons besides but labour and endeavour to give all the satisfaction to them that possibly they can give Even so should it now also be with us in reference to Christ we should take heed of grieving him because we do all things by him and are able to do nothing without him The more dependant we are upon him the more serviceable should we be to him And especially take heed of presumption and rebellion against him to take heed of quenching the motions of his Spirit of turning his grace into wantonness of rejecting or refusing that help which he does at any time offer unto us either for the shuning and avoiding of evil or for the doing and working of good for then we provoke him to withdraw his assistance from us and to give us up to the power of Satan and the vanity of our evil hearts When Christ shall offer to heal men and they will not be healed to help men and they will not be helped this does sadly provoke him even to deny his help unto them at such time as they shall most of all desire it and stand in need of it This is a very lamentable condition if it be duly thought of when Christ shall at any time deny men the benefit of his assistance either the benefit of his Intercession and speaking a good word for them without which they can obtain nothing in matter of request or the benefit of his co-operating grace and effectual winning of them without which they can do nothing neither in a way of Christian and Spiritual performance Either of these cases are very sad and such as are to be shunn'd by us by giving all content to Christ And so now I have done with these words in both the senses and acceptions of them whether as to matter of Interest or Influence Without me that is without union to me and Without me that is without assistance from me and dependance upon me can ye be able to do any thing which is good SERMON XXV ACTS 1.7 It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power We are now this very day by the good hand and providence of God according to the common style and computation of time amongst us entred upon another new year And that after all the fears and dangers and hazards and calamities which have been upon us both in the City and divers places of the Kingdom for the year now past we have arrived to that year which hath been so much spoken of before-hand a great while ere the coming of it 1666. Many Prognostications there have been in the World concerning it many Characters and Significancies put upon it and many strange surmises and expectations have been had of it and what may be in the bosome or bowels of it we cannot tell We hear of wars and rumors of wars we hear of plagues and pestilences we have heard also of earthquakes and tempests and strange commotions These are such as do shew the World to be in a fading and declining condition and do bespeak the consummation of it But yet they are such as do not amount or come up to a full determination nor give us any warrant to make any absolute judgment or conclusion upon it They serve to awaken and humble us but they do not serve to dishearten or discourage us nor especially to take us off from that work which is to be done by us but rather so much the more eagerly and earnestly to put us upon it And therefore I have made choice of this Text at this present time as
unprofitable And is not this then foolish dealing Is not he a fool that crosses himself of his main intention and of that end which he propounds to himself in such an undertaking why even thus 't is here Preaching if men understand themselves in it it is ordained for the discovery and clearing of Divine Truths for the making men to know themselves and their own condition by nature to lay open the Excellencies of Christ and the unsearchable riches of the Gospel to change and reform the heart and at last to save the soul Now when none of these things shall be done in such performances as these are but rather the contrary as it is in this which we speak of what 's this but the foolishness of Preaching And who would not think Preaching to be foolishness if there were no other preaching but this Thus do men come so to esteem it as occasion is given from others in regard of their carriage Secondly Originally from themselves in regard of their own perverse reasonings And here there are sundry things which they do misconster and falsly reason upon As first They think meanly of Preaching from the nature and condition of the Instruments which are imployed and improved in it poor frail and weak men like themselves which have this treasure in earthen Vessels If an Angel might be the dispenser of it then it may be they would have some high thoughts of it but now that it comes down to them in flesh this is that which is offensive unto them Secondly In regard of the matter of it and the subject which it is conversant about And that is Christ crucified this is the foolishness of Preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only the Ordinance but the Doctrine and not only the Preaching but the thing preached about Preaching handles such matters as natural men account foolishness for it tells them of a Crucified Saviour of God to become mortal of life to be subject to death of righteousness to be in the likeness of sin of blessing to be subject to a curse These are such strange contradictions as natural reason is presently apt to deride And so not only in the Narrative but in the Hortatory part of it when it perswades men to deny themselves to cross their sweetest lusts and to leave their closest corruptions to forsake friends and life it self for Christ and to become a fool that so they may be wise These are such gross absurdities and mistakes to a carnal heart which is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason that he counts the work it self to be foolishness Thirdly In regard of the manner of it and way of proceeding in it That it comes not so much with reason and demonstration as rather simple Propositions It does nakedly and barely propound things expecting an assent unto them from the evidence of the things themselves and the authority of the principal speaker which is God himself but it does not so much stand upon it to satisfie mens wit and reason This is another thing which makes it thought to be foolishness Fourth From defect mingled with pride Scientia neminem habet inimicum praeter ignorantem c. And so much of that first viz. the Denomination of the Ordinance as it is here stiled The foolishness of Preaching The second is the Means and Ordinance it self simply considered and that is Preaching this is the means of working Salvation God saves Believers by Preaching First By Preaching he makes them Believers and then being Believers he bestows salvation upon them as we shall see afterward This is the order and method that God uses But that which is here observable in this part is the former That Preaching makes men Believers And the Apostle adds unto it the disparaging Denomination of foolishness thereby the more to advance it and set it up As who should say That poor and mean Ordinance which the world thinks so scornfully of and counts no better than foolishness yet it has this excellency and advantage with it that it is a means to bring men to Heaven and God is pleased to use it to this purpose If it be foolishness it is a saving foolishness and that 's a great deal better than a destructive wisdom Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God preached as it is in Rom. 10.17 And how prevalent Preaching has been to this intent we are not without divers instances and examples which make it good Thus St. Peter's Auditors whereof some of them were active in Christs death when they heard they were pricked at their hearts So the Eunuch and the Jaylor and Lydia and divers others besides they have known what this meant For the better handling of this present point there are two particulars which may here profitably be considered by us First What this Preaching is And secondly What may be the ground of the power and efficaciousness of it For the first What Preaching is It is not meerly to speak somewhat of Religion to take a Text and only descant and flourish upon it and there 's an end to make a rambling and roving discourse and nothing to the purpose But Preaching is a Ministerial and Authoritative improvement of the Truths and Doctrines of the Scriptures to the good and benefit of mens souls and the procurement of their eternal Salvation It is by a special gift of the Spirit of God bestowed upon certain persons to that purpose to lay open the Mysteries of Christ with all those points which pertain thereunto and to apply them and bring them hom to the Conscience of every hearer It is to break the box of precious ointment that so the smell and savour of it may be diffused all the house over There are two main subjects and arguments which come within the compass of Preaching The Law and the Gospel The Law to shew men the Disease and the Gospel to shew men the Remedy and the one in order to the other And the skilful handling and performing of each of these two does makes up this work unto us The shewing men o their misery by nature and the benefit which they may have by Christ with the appurtenances thereunto this in a word is Preaching Now further for the efficacy of this Ordinance and whence it comes to be thus powerful this is meerly from the Ordinance of God As it is his institution who has ordained and appointed it to be so This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the Text it pleased him there 's an account of the business indeed Alas Preaching considered in it self is a poor and empty voice and were able to do no great matter at all neither is there any thing belonging unto it which of it self is efficacious It is not the gifts of the Preacher it is not the nature of the Argument it is not the strength of the matter it is not the sweetness of the
is that which we have here before us Christ is to them which are called both the wisdom and power of God By Christ here we are not to understand Christ essentially and in reference to his Person although that be also a truth but Christ Ministerially and by way of Dispensation that is Christ here in this place and he is so the wisdom of God Christ in the work of his Mediatorship and Christ in the Dispensation of his Ordinances he is the wisdom and power of God to them which are called And here again there are two things more in it First That Christ is so absolutely and considered simply in himself he is the power and wisdom of God that 's here implied So secondly that Christ is so Relatively with respect had to them which are Believers to them which are called he is the wisdom and power of God more especially we may see it in both and both are here exhibited to us in this expression here in the Text. First He is so absolutely and considered simply in himself in the whole office of his Mediatorship It was falsly and injuriously attributed to Simon Magus when he gave himself out to be some great one They all gave heed unto him from the least unto the greatest saying This man is the great power of God But it is true of the Son of God indeed and particularly as the Saviour of the world Here the power and wisdom of God did abundantly shew forth it self in him and that in all the parts of it For the power of God first this shewed it self First In his Incarnation when he was born of a pure Virgin what a mighty power was this tha could so trespass upon the rules of nature for the bringing about of his purpose it was such as the Virgin Mary her self when it was first propounded could not apprehend How shall this thing be says she seeing I know not a man Luk. 1.34 Secondly In his Crucifixion and Death there was the power of God in that also which sustained him and held him up without sinking under the heavy burden of the wrath of God which was laid upon him for our sins To which we may likewise add the attendants and concomitants of his Death the vail of the Temple torn from the top to the bottom the Earth quaking the Rocks rent the Graves opened the dead appearing the Thief repenting the Centurion admiring what were all these but so many evident and underiable effects of the Power of God Thirdly In his Resurrection Christ was the Power of God there also Rom. 1.4 Declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the dead So 2 Cor. 13.4 Though he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God Fourthly In his Ascension and coming to Judgment Mark 14.62 And Mat. 24.30 Lastly As in that which was done opon him so also which was done by him in his working of Miracles Preaching sending his Disciples abroad into the world All power is given me both in Heaven and Earth c. Mat. 28.18 Thus was Christ the Power of God Secondly He was the wisdom of God as God in him did shew forth his wisdom and as in him were hid all the treasures both of wisdom and knowledg Col. 2.3 And here Christ was the wisdom of God in divers Explications As First In chusing such a fit and accommodate means for the reconciling of his Justice and Mercy both Secondly In chusing such an unlikely and unexpected means and thereby confounding the wisdom of the world Gods wisdom was much seen in that Thirdly In furnishing of Christ with all such Gifts as were fitting him to perform that office which he had laid upon him Christ was the wisdom of God also thus And thus was Christ both Gods Power and Wisdom considered absolutely in his own Office Secondly He was so also Relatively in order and reference to Believers To them which were called he was the power and wisdom of God This is somewhat more Now this again Christ was said to be in a double Explication First He was so to them Estimative in the Apprehensions which they had of him in their minds they reckoned him and accounted him and esteemed him to be Gods wisdom and power Secondly He was so to them Effectivè in the influence which he had upon them for their persons He was in all his gracious operations effectual to these purposes unto them First I say he was so Estimativè in the apprehensions and opinions which they had of him they counted him to be both the wisdom and power of God where we may observe the different apprehensions which before conversion and after conversion people have of the ways of God The Jews which were not as yet called to them Christ was a stumbling-block that is they looked upon him as weakness and the Greeks which were not yet converted to them Christ was foolishness they looked upon the Gospel as a fond and silly business But now those which were called or as some would have it the same being called Eisdem vocatis so Erasmus c. To them he is wisdom and power This I say affords us this lesson That those which are called and converted they have honourable appehensions and estimations of the things of God and Religion and do think otherwise of them than they did in their unregenerate condition So the Apostle Paul himself Act. 26.9 Gal. 1.15 Phil. 3.7 8. The reason of this Difference is this Because that now after conversion men have a new understanding put into them and see things with other eyes than they did before they have the spirit of God to enlighten them and to reveal those things unto them which others are insensible of This may therefore teach men not to be too peremptory in their contempts of the Gospel never to wonder too much at those which have other thoughts of it if ever they be that which they should be it will be so likewise with them Christ to them which are called is the power and wisdom of God Estimativè Secondly He is so to them which are called Effectivè in that he has an answerable influence upon their persons and that in each particular First He is the power of God to them 2 Cor. 13.3 Mighty in you And that again in sundry respects First In his Death the mortifying of their lusts and the crucifying of their corruptions in them by vertue of Christs Death and Crucifixion Thus Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ c. And Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him c. It is the observation of Chrysostom to this purpose that what was done in Christ by nature the same is done in us by analogy As therefore Christ died and was crucified himself so by the vertue and power of this his death is sin crucified in us not only meritoriously but effectively in that his death
in reference thereunto If we speak of the persons themselves they are not always such as in every thing can be approved of we are men subject to the like infirmities and affections with other men though it would very much become us to have as few of them as needs must and a great deal fewer of them than any other besides yet notwithstanding so it is with us through the corruptions of nature which is in us we have our faults as well as you and it may be sometimes the more for your sakes If you were that which you should be we should be better than we are God may perhaps humble us now and then for your defects But that 's not that which we stand upon now in this point it is not the persons so much as the office which I now plead for the calling and profession it self though that also subjected and terminated in such and such persons as it was here in the persons of St. Paul and the rest of the Ministers This it was made manifest in their Conscices at least of those which were godly and gracioso amongst them And so likewise will be to the end of the world as long as there are any which have any saving work in their hearts their Ministry shall be sure to find acceptance and approbation notwithstanding all opposition And so much of the first particular viz. the thing it self which is asserted We are made manifest in you c. The second is the word of Transition or Introduction I trust or hope We may take notice also of this and it carries a double notion in it first of Endeavour and Desire and secondly of Confidence and Expectation it was that which he wisht it might be and it was that which he was perswaded it was First There was his Desire in it as he wisht it might be he desired to approve his Ministry and himself in the execution of his Ministry to the hearts and consciences of those which were faithful that they might be sure to close with him This should likewise be the desire and ambition of all others besides to be made manifest in the consciences of those which are the people of God whether in regard of their Doctrine or their life to deliver such Truths as are made good in their experience and to lead such lives as are suitable and agreeable to their principles and the practise of them Those men that walk not in the ways of good men they may well think they step aside and so are opposite to our Doctrine Those Points and Doctrines in Divinity are very questionable and suspicious and do expose the teachers of them to a great deal of just censure and exception which do thwart and cross and contradict the common sense and feeling and experiments of those which are most godly and religious and have the work of saving Grace in their hearts such are those points in particular of Free-will of Universal Redemption of uncertainty of Salvation the resistibility of Conversion of falling from Grace of conditional Election and the like they are such as do not only swerve from the plain Doctrine of the Scriptures but likewise do very much fall short of the experiences of the servants of God who need no other arguments against them than what they find in their own hearts and consciences as fighting with them So those which are the teachers of them as therein they are not manifest to God so neither are they manifested in the consciences of godly men which it would well become them to be for their own greater satisfaction as well as others and which St. Paul here seemed so to desire Secondly As there was his Desire in it so there was also his confidence and Expectation I hope or trust that is I believe and make account of it It is a word of Triumphant expression as you have another of the like nature with it 1 Cor. 7.6 I think also c. The Apostle was perswaded of it that so it was with him That he was made manifest in their Consciences And this again he was upon a double motive or consideration First from his own Integrity And secondly from their Ingenuity He knew that himself did deserve and he knew likewise that they were of themselves ready to imbrace it First I say he knew his own integrity that himself did deserve it The best way for any one to expect to be made manifest to others is first to be made manifest to himself and that he may be approved of in others Consciences to be approved of first in his own They whos 's own hearts condemn and upon a just examination of them do bear witness against them they may be very well afraid of others and think that they will not have that opinion of them as perhaps they could desire they might have Secondly As the Apostle concluded it from his own integrity so likewise from the ingenuity of the persons which he had to deal withal If a man be never so upright and sincere in his own heart and never so careful to approve what he does to his own Conscience yet if he be to deal with captious persons and those which have a mind to wrangle and contest and pick a quarrel with him he shall never approve himself to those for all this But these Corinthians were not so especially those which were the gravest and godliest amongst them which the Apostle does here principally intend these they had other kind of minds and dispositions in them which was that which made him to be so confident and perswaded of them I trust we are made manifest in your consciences There 's an Emphasis in both of the words whether in consciences or in yours and accordingly we may take notice of it To your consciences not to your fancies to your consciences not to your humours to your consciences not to your lusts And then to your consciences not to the consciences of strangers to Religion to your consciences not to the consciences of enemies to Religion to your consciences not to the consciences of the false teachers and false Apostles amongst you which labour all they can to pervert and entice and corrupt you in your consciences we are made manifest and desire and rejoice so to be So much also for the second General SERMON XXXIV 2 Cor. 1.10 Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us There are two Graces especially which do serve very much to amplifie and enlarge Gods mercies towards us the one is the Grace of Thankfulness and spiritual joy and the other is the Grace of Faith and spiritual trust joy that enlarges them to others and disperses and scatters them abroad to those persons with whom we converse and faith that enlarges them to our selves and makes them so much the greater to our own minds and expectations Now each of these we may here take notice of in
interest in any outward and worldly blessing is belonging unto them It is true that they cannot absolutely and peremptorily conclude upon it no more than upon any other outward comfort of the same nature with it for all things fall alike unto all here in this life to the good and to the bad to the just and to the unjust c. as the Preacher speaks but yet they may more certainly expect it than any other besides may and they have a promise made of it to them so far forth as is requisite for them and may most consist with the glory of God which all things are to be subservient unto Job 5.26 Among other Blessings of the same condition with it this is reckoned as one pertaining to those which are faithful That they shall come to their grave in peace like a shock of corn in its season This was that kind of death which the Apostle here was delivered from in this danger which he speaks of in Asia as we may see if we look into the story where we shall find that he was ready to be pull'd in pieces in the tumult which was there made and therefore his friends intreated him that he would not adventure himself upon the Theatre namely to the rage and fury of his Enemies which were there met in a cobustion together This is a part of the aggravation of the miseries and calamities of War The difference betwixt a fever and a sword betwixt dying by the hand of an enemy and dying by the stroke of a disease The end and conclusion is all one and the same only there 's some difference in the conveyance when as the soul does not so much take its leave as it is rather driven out of its lodging This is that which nature shrinks at even there where grace has learn't in some degree to submit unto it And that 's the first aggravation which is implyed in this expression so great a Death namely from the nature and kind of it a violent death not a natural The second is from the Quality and manner of it a painful death not a gentle and easie Death it is unpleasing in it self considered as a meer dissolution and separation of two loving friends and companions the soul and body from each other but when to this we shall add pain and torture this makes it to be so much the more This was that which many of the Godly Martyrs suffer'd and indur'd They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were killed they were slain with the sword Heb. 11.35 Deaths full of torment and pain and so great there are likewise such kind of Deaths in a natural way also Sone and Gout c. I need not name them some are afflicted with them and if we be delivered from them we have cause to bless God for it for delivering us from such great Deaths or Diseases as those as namely are painful and tormenting which makes up the second Aggravation Thirdly Take in another from the coming and proceeding of it A sudden death and not an expected This is another aggravation of Temporal Death which the Apostle seems here to allude to in his danger in Asia It was such as he did not look for and in that regard it was great indeed to speak properly Death is not altogether sudden to the Children of God because they are still more or less in the expectation of it and in some sort prepared for it but yet comparatively some is suddener than other and that which is so has the aggravation of a great death in it We find David cry in Psal 39. ult Oh spare me a little before I go hence c. that I may recover my self A Christian though he be able to give some good account of himself whensoever God shall call him as desiring always to live in such a constant frame and temper of spirit as from whence he may be fit to leave the world yet he desires to have some time to make his accounts up and to have them in a more perfect readiness than at all times else he has in which regard it is lawful for him with a submission to the good will of God to desire to be kept and preserved from a sudden stroke that so he may the better be able to reflect and recollect himself to consider what he is and what he has been and what he has done and whither he is going c. which in these sudden surprisals he is not so well able to do Fourthly From the time and season of it when it is an hastened death not a mature one in Eccles 7.17 it is there the counsel and advice of the Preacher Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldst thou dye before thy time And Psal 55.23 It is said of bloody and deceitful men that they shall not live out half their days For men to dye before their time and not to live out half their days it is reckoned in the Catalogue and account of great Deaths Now death may be said to be untimely in a twofold Consideration Either First of all in a way of Nature Or else secondly in a way of Providence First In a way of Nature When one dyes in infancy or youth or such time as he is not come to full age and it is a mercy to escape this God gives us great occasion of thankfulness when he sets us to run out our time here in the world when he cracks not the hour-glass before all the sand be spent or when the glass is but newly turn'd up as sometimes he does This is an untimely death in a way of Nature Secondly There 's an untimely Death also in a way of Providence When a man is at any time taken out of the world ere he has done his work and before he has accomplish't that business which in all likelihood he was to perform which is the very life of life it self Thus had this Death in the Text been a great Death to St. Paul because it had taken him off from that service which he was to have done for the Church and so consequently it was a great deliverance to be freed from it that he might now glory as afterwards he did before his departure that he had sought a good fight that he had finished his course c. 2 Tim. 4.7 Fifthly The greatness of Death has an aggravation of it from its latitude and extent When it is a death involving and including such and such persons in it As first for the number of the persons the death of many the death of a great many that 's a great death that 's a great death which does devour multitudes and swarms at once Thus had this death been in Asia not only Paul himself but his companions more had been taken away besides him in this violence he here speaks of And this is another thing which would have made it to have been so great a death
answerable and correspondent thereunto According to either of these Explications does God deliver even after delivarance and he that has delivered formerly may be said to deliver still First I say God does still deliver so far forth as he does confirm and make good his former deliverance God when he delivers his People he does not only deliver and preserve them for that present streight and exigent and distress wherein they were and so let them go no but he still follows them and pursues them with his deliverance further He compasses them about as it is said with songs of deliverance look as 't is on the other side with their Enemies they usually pursue an advantage and where they have them at a dead lift they make the most of it that possibly they can even so does God also with his People he pursues adeliverance and preservation he loads us daily with his benefits It is with the Lord in delivering from temporal destruction as it is with him in delivering from spiritual in his delivering of them from death as in his delivering of them from sin and the corruption of nature where he does not only begin but continue As there 's preventing and antecedent grace so there 's following and subsequent grace And as there 's the grace of conversion so there 's likewise the grace of confirmation As the putting of gracious principles into us so the strengthning of those which we have and so also here in Temporals God does not only deliver at first in the present act but also afterwards in making good of that act and in giving of a further fruit and efficacy and benefit of that deliverance which was given at the first Thus for example when God delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians at the Red Sea What did he only deliver them then in that juncture of time no but even all the time after they did reap the fruit and comfort of that deliverance which they partaked of before In the Wilderness and so all along till they came to Canaan so likewise here for this instance in the Text The Apostles deliverance from his great danger in Asia He says that God still deliver'd him even now when he had deliver'd him How was that namely as he gave him now the fruit and comfort of that deliverance Whiles Paul had his life at this present and this liberty to write to the Corinthians and to go on in his Ministry for their good he was at present even still delivered as he here expresses it And thus now in like manner to bring it home to our own particulars in the present occasion as for the deliverance which we now commemorate this day from that Popish and Hellish Conspiracy Though for the thing and act of it it was vouchsafed many years ago yet for the efficacy of it it is a present deliverance and he that has deliver'd does deliver The present enjoyment of our Religion the present enjoyment of our lives the present enjoyment of these opportunities which God does now afford unto us of meeting together to praise and bless his Name for what we do enjoy they are a fruit and effect and consequent of that days preservation and deliverance which was first acted so many years since For had that plot taken and succeeded as it was near to have done we had never been capable of these mercies which since that time have been upon us and which by the goodness of God still are So that that now may be one Explication how God does deliver after he has delivered namely virtualiter by way of settlement and confirmation as he does continue still upon us the fruit and benefit of former deliverances Secondly God does deliver even after that he has delivered already Analogice specificative In renewing upon us the like mercies again and in vouchsafing the same deliverances for kind as he has formerly done Look what God has done for his Church in times past the same he does also still and look what God has done for us in times past the same he does also still He is yesterday and to day and the same for ever Take an instance still but in that which we are now at present upon the Gunpowder-Treason God delivers us from that even at this present not only as I shewed before in the fruit and efficacy of it which we still to this day enjoy but likwise in the similitude and suitableness of it in many other deliverances besides which are agreeable thereunto As there 's a correspondency of Enemies the same spirits and dispositions as then and as there 's a correspondency of attempts the same plots and conspiracies as then so there 's likewise a correspondency of disappointments the same deliverances and preservations as then the same for kind and resemblance and proportion and so he that has delivered does deliver This may serve in the first place to take off all Enemies of the Church and to restrain them in their attempts against it they think that when God has delivered his people once that that 's all he can do as when he has punish'd themselves once that he has done punishing so when he has delivered his Church once that he has done delivering no but it is not so neither in the one nor the other and so will they at last find if they observe it and put it to the tryal where God has the same provocations to wrath he will inflict the same judgments and where he has the same grounds and occasions for mercy he will shew the same goodness and tenderness again and again This we may see in the story of Balack and Balaam Gods carriage to his People in that ye see how often Balack attempted it the cursing of Israel and how often he put Balaam upon it from one place to another Come curse them me here and come curse them me here and curse them me here yet all would not do the deed he blesses them notwithstanding in all and there was no hindring or preventing of it even as Balaam himself is forced to profess and acknowledg Numb 23.23 Surely there is no inchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel What hath God wrought So likwise in Isa 8.9 10. See there how the Church hereupon is bold to challenge and dare her Enemies out of her confidence in this respect Associate your selves O ye people and ye shall be broken in pieces and give ear O ye of far countrys gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsel together and it shall come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us Thus does this renewing of God's deliverance serve to take off the Enemies of the Church for the renewing of their attempts And so secondly does it also incourage the Church it self to renew
carkass and as a body without soul This for spiritual death And then for Eternal which is damnation it self that 's clearly the end of all such courses It is so demeritoriously to all who thereby ate made lyable thereunto In the day that thou eatest c. thou shalt surely dye and it is so actually to all such as by repentance and faith in Christ are not freed from the execution of this sentence This is the plain and constant Doctrine of the Scripture that the wages of sin are wages of damnation both as to poena damni the loss of Gods gracious Presence and poena sensus the enduring everlasting torment c. This is that which the Apostle still is so careful to perswade and fasten upon those to whom he writes in divers places Phil. 3.19 Whose end is damnation whose glory is in their shame c. and 1 Cor. 11.29 Drinketh damnation And 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God Be not deceived c. and Gal. 5.21 speaking of the works of the flesh Of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Therefore let us labour more to be perswaded of these things and have serlous apprehensions of them let us look upon sin in its colours and in the true shape and representation of it as that which has Death and Hell at the end of it that so we may the better be kept and preserved from it We should make use of this present Doctrine now in all suggestions and temptations to sin which we are at any time put upon Think not upon sin in the profit of it or in the pleasure of it which is but a meer fancy though it usually shews it self so but think of it in the end of it and in the concomitants of it and in the sad and pernicious effects which is death and damnation it self which though men perceive not presently yet at last they shall find to their cost if they take not better care to prevent it as the Apostle Peter speaks of them their judgment now of a long time lingers not and their damnation slumbers not Let us not look upon these things as words and notions and expressions as bug-bears to scare Children but as realities and unquestionable truths and let us labour to find the Power and Efficacy of them upon our own hearts It being better to hear of them than to feel them and to feel them now in the conscience by being affected and wrought upon by them than to feel them hereafter after another manner as all such shall which now make nothing of them let all which hath been said make us so much the more out of love with sin and if one argument alone will not do it let us take them all together as the Holy Ghost does here offer them to us Here 's a threesold Cord which theresore is not easily broken and if one or two should fail yet the other would make amends for the rest Those which have a mind to sin yet if it appears to be any prejudice to their profit that they get no good nor benefit by it it may be here they would be restrained Now for this consider says the Apostle that there 's no such sad fruit in it others there are which do not stand upon their prosit but their honour that goes near unto them and they are loth to forfeit their credit and reputation Now for this consider that these things bring shame whereof ye are now ashamed A third there are which are not moved yet They care neither for profit no honour so they may have their pleasure and safety and ease but their skin that a little affects them and their life goes to their heart and is very dear unto them all they have they would part with for this Now therefore consider here further that it is death and if there be any that stick not at this yet if they have any care but of their own souls consider further that it is damnation not only natural the death of the body but spriritual the death of the soul yea eternal the death of both and as wisdom speaks of her self Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul all that hate me love death There 's but one thing more which I will here name and so end We may here from this Text further take notice not only of the wretchedness of sin considered in the streams and actions of it but also the wretchedness of nature and an unregenerate nondition as the fountain and spring which these issue from Here 's not only a Censure upon the performances What fruit had ye in those things c. But here is also a Censure upon the state What fruit had ye then Then when ye were unregenerate then ye were in your natural condition then when ye were at the present unconverted and as yet not brought home to God What fruit had ye then Whatever has been said of sin it may be applied in this An unregenerate condition is an unfruitful condition a shameful condition a dead and mortal condition All the time that any man spends and lives only in that he does but lose his time and run further upon the score with God for a back-reckoning hereafter We are all by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2.3 What 's the improvement which is to be made of this point and observation But first for all those which are yet but in the state of nature to labour to bear it and to come out of it as soon as may be and not to content themselves with it Let us not think too well of nature and our condition from that as many persons are ready to do both for themselves and others For our selves if we have no better Principles in us than we brought with us at first into the world we are but in a sad an miserable condition although perhaps we should abound in some kind of outward and moral actions which might have some lustre and splendor upon them as the Heathem had What fruit had ye in those We may say it not only of those actions which are plain sins in their nature but in a sense also of those which for the matter of them are duties themselves yet not done in a right manner and from a right principle What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed The sacrifice of the wicked says Solomon is an abomination to the Lord how much more when he brings it with a wicked mind Prov. 21.27 All the time that a man remains unregenerate he is unprofitable as to matter of duty as well as provoking as to matter of sin and let us take heed of being too well perswaded of the Heathem Philosophers rather make our own salvation than destruction This is a great
and Points of Religion especially such as do more concern Christ himself And not only to be acquainted with them but also changed into them which is a further thing here considerable of us to make up to us this forming of Christ so as all the several Doctrines of Christianity they may have a work upon our Hearts and Affections answerable and suitable to the nature of the Doctrines themselves Thus Rom. 6.17 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which was delivered unto you In the Greek it is into which ye were delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was the commendation of the Romans that as the Evangelical Doctrine was delivered to them so they also were delivered to it that is changed and transformed into the nature and condition of it and closing and complying with it This is the duty of all others besides We should not only hear the word to hear it and notionally to discourse of it but we should hear it that we may obey it and practically conform our selves unto it That 's the first Explication of this forming of Christ in us as it does relate to the Doctrine of Christ The second is as it does relate to the Spirit of Christ Till Christ be formed in you that is till ye are made conformable to Christ having the same mind and spirit in you which was first in him This is another thing which the Scripture urges upon us and makes mention of to us as Rom. 8.29 For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son Christians they must be conformed to Christ and made like unto him this is to have him formed in them Now this conformity it is of two sorts as the Scripture exhibits it First A conformity of disposition and secondly Of conversation First Of Disposition That we be like affected as he was Let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus Phil. 2.5 So 1 Cor. 2. ult We have the word of Christ Christ he is to have an influence upon the framing and fashioning of our spirits And that again in two Particulars First In a conformity to his Death and secondly in a conformity to his Resurrection In a conformity to his Death so we have it in Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death How are we made conformable to his Death when as namely his Death proves effectual to the killing of sin in us and the mortifying of corrupt affections in our hearts Thus also Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin Then for the conformity to his Resurrection that is when we do partake of a quickening power from Christ to enliven us in all holy performances Thus Rom. 6.4 5. Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection So much of the first conformity to Christ viz. the conformity of Disposition The 2d is the conformity of conversation to others when as we walk as Christ also walked 1 Joh. 2.6 And Christ is formed in our course that is made conspicuous to others from our carriage and behaviour What the carriage and behaviour of Christ was we have at large laid down to us in the Gospel which is the History of his whole Life declaring how he still went about doing good where ever he came how full he was of meekness and sweetness and gentleness and compassion and yet with it an holy zeal also against sin and sinful persons Now what 's the result of all to us as we should improve it but that accordingly in our several opportunities we should conform unto it that as he became like to us so we also should be made like unto him If we would know how this may be done by us I know no better way for it than by looking upon Christ as he is there represented unto us We know what a force there is in sight to work upon the imagination as in cattel when they conceived upon the beholding of the party coloured rods and had lambs suitable thereunto But there 's a stronger power in the eye of faith beholding Christ as he is propounded in the Gospel to change us and to make us like unto him Therefore says the Apostle elsewhere We all beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 The sight of Christ in the Gospel is transforming and has a power to change and assimilate those that exercise it suitably unto it This is the forming of Christ in us in reference to his Spirit which is that that is chiefly here intended in this Text. Now the Use and Improvement which we are to make of all this to our selves is to labour to find that this be so indeed with us that is that Christ be truly formed in us that we partake of his blessed Image upon us and his living Spirit in us are one with him and incorporated into him as considering that nothing less will serve our turn this is absolutely necessary for us as to all purposes and conditions whatsoever without this we can do nothing which is spiritual or in a spiritual manner we cannot please God or be accepted of him at another day He will no further own us than as he sees Christ instampt upon us Therefore let us look to this above any thing else let us not rest our selves in a bare outward profession and form of Religion which has no life nor power at all in it but let us endeavour that the life of Jesus may be manifested in us and his Spirit wrought into us or else there 's nothing in Religion will do us any good We may talk and discourse of Christs Birth and Death and Resurrection and such great Mysteries as these but alas they will be all nothing to us unless we for our particulars have a share and interest in his Person What is it for Christ to be born into the world except he be born in us to be conceived and formed and fashioned in the womb of his mother except he be also formed and fashioned in our hearts and we our selves made conformable to him as we have hitherto shewn This is that which we should principally look to Not as if there were no other forming of him but only this as some would go about to perswade us but this is chiefly to be minded by us ut quod in Christo factum est per naturam in nobis
to Duty and the doing of that which God requires of them in their several places Great and strong lusts are hinderances to any noble performances and high atchievements which are to be undertaken by us The Apostle tells us in the verse immediately following to the Text vers 17. of this Chapter that from the flesh lusting against the spirit the Galatians were disinabled from doing the things which they would and so they were and all others with them whereas on the other side where these are kept down there is strength and ability thereunto namely to serve God with so much the more strength All these laid together do shew us the happiness of this particular condition and the truth of this point in hand to wit the benefit and advantage of not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh Again further we may here also take notice that as it is a benefit in it self simply considered so it is such as is apprehended and counted so by all those which have the Spirit of God in them Those which are the true children of God they look upon this as one of the greatest mercies which can happen unto them to be freed from the power of their lusts This is also implied in the Text it was not only so in the thoughts of the Apostle but also in the thoughts of the Galatians to whom he here wrote or else he had said nothing to the purpose and it had been to no end to signifie as much unto them that by walking in the spirit they should have this benefit confer'd upon them if they had not thought it to be a benefit indeed But now he uses argumentum ad homines and speaks to them in their own Element to their heart as the Hebrew phrase hath it He knew he should now please them and bring that which would be acceptable to them when he should tell them of being freed from their lusts and so he did A good and a gracious heart looks upon this as the greatest mercy and priviledg in the world which he longs for and most eagerly desires as the Apostle Paul Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord which is such as makes him willing to desire even death it self where in he shall indeed partake of this priviledg Again Moreover observe this as another thing implied in these words That the reward of Religion lyes within the compass of Religion The Apostle had stir'd up these Galatians and in them all other Christians to an holy Life and spiritual Conversation to walking in the spirit Now what does he here for their encouragement signifie to be the reward and recompence hereof unto them Why namely this that they should not fulfil the lusts of the flesh He does not say ye shall have such and such outward comforts heaped upon you riches and honours and the like nor he does not say ye shall have Heaven at last given you and ye shall be free from condemnation though this also be true no but ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh If we had no other recompence of a godly life but only that which is emergent from it and immediate to it yet this were enough to satisfie us in it and to perswade us to the leading of it And so much for that which is here supposed and implied in this expression I come now in the second place to that which is exprest which is the words of the Text And ye shall not fulfil c. This for the right handling of it we must take in its conjunction and connexion with the words before and as dependent thereupon Walk in the spirit and so ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh the one prevents the remedy against the other the more spiritual any are the less carnal and the more we are guided by the spirit the less we shall yield to the flesh This truth and expression may be made good to us according to a various explication which may be given of it First Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is ye shall not have so great a mind and desire to fulfil them ye shall be restrained in regard of inclination though Grace and the exercise of it does not as I said before wholly extirpate all cortuption out of us and make it cease to be whiles we live here in this world yet it does qualify the dominion of it and makes it cease to be in that measure and degree wherein it was in us before And as sinful acts do increase the habit of sin in us as we have formerly shewn in the point above so the other side do gracious acts dminish this habit and make it less It is the avantage of that man who is imploy'd and taken up in well-doing that he has not that lust and propensity in him to that which is evil as another has Godliness it puts our mouths out of taste to the pleasures of sin as on the other side sin does make goodness to be disrelish't by us Look therefore how far a man is freed from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh by having little or no desire unto them so far is he freed from them also by this course of walking in the spirit which is advantageous and effectual to this purpose to mitigate the desire of sin in them Secondly Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is ye shall not have temptation to fulfil them ye shall be kept from lustful and sinful suggestions and provocations The reason why many fall into sin now and then is because they have strong temptations and instigations to it because the Devil is very busie with them and it pleases God someimes in his Providence to give them up into Satans hands But now when men are careful to walk in the spirit they do very much provide for themselves in this particular Satan has not that power over them and advantage which otherwise he would have in the neglect of it nor they are not so much under the power of temptations as they would be if they did not thus walk This is true upon a ouble account both on Gods part and on Satans on Gods part who in this case does not so much give them over to temptation and on Satans who in this case has not that incouragement to fasten his temptation upon them First I say on Gods part who in this case does not so much give them over to Satan to be tempted Take a man that neglects his daily walk and converse with God that does not look so strictly and narrowly to his steps as it becomes him to do it pleases God now and then for his exercise and tryal and partly his correction to let Satan loose upon him and to suffer him to molest and trouble him with sad temptations not only for sin
tremble and quake at this coming and at the thoughts of it as malefactors at the coming of the Judg They desire that Christ would not come and where he gives any symptoms of it they cry out with the unclean spirit in the Gospel What have we to do with thee thou Son of God art thou come to torment us before our time A guilty and defiled conscience it abhors the coming of Christ and withdraws from it if it were possible it would altogether shun it and never have it to come to pass and when it does come it is matter of the greatest terror and astonishment to it that can be Therefore it is said of such persons at such a time That they shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and shall say unto the mountains and rocks Fall upon us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Rev. 6.15 16 17. The ungodly shall not stand in judgment Psal 1.5 Not stand that is not stand upright but fall down before it and accordingly shall do all they can to avoid it Whereas on the other side the Children of God shall be well-pleased with it and hearty and couragious in it and very freely and cheerfully entertain it When he shall appear they shall have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming 1 Joh. 2.28 Indeed there are some cases and circumstances and times wherein the Spouse of Christ her self may not be always in such a present frame and disposition of spirit as to utter this speech here before us and to say Come even in this sense which we now speak of even the servants of God themselves may at least for such a particular season have an indisposedness upon them hereunto As namely when they have not finished their work or got their businesses ready about them but yet they have always a general and habitual preparation for it in them As a steward that is for the main faithful yet he may not always have his accounts made up and in that regard may not yet wish for the Audit And a Spouse that has a good affection for her Beloved yet may not presently have all her Ornaments upon her and in that Consideration may sometimes wish for the delay of his coming This is tha which is here chiefly considerable that God's Children they do still labour to frame themselves to an entertainment of Christ at his coming And that 's the first notion of this Expression as it may be taken for a word of simple acceptance or entertainment Come that is thou mayst come if thou so pleasest and shalt be welcom to me The second is as it may be taken as a word of desire or invitation Come that is I pray come it is my earnest suit and request that thou would'st come And here now we have a further inlargement and improvement of Grace in a Christian which is not only to be content with Christs coming and submitting unto it but also to be desirous of it and longing after it This is the temper and disposition of a good and of a gracious heart to pant and breathe and thirst for the second coming of Christ and not to be satisfied in it self till it does come The Spirit and the Bride say Come that is they say it importunately and earnestly with a great deal of affection This desire whereof we now speak it is laid and founded in sundry Considerations which do make for it As first in reference to the world it self in the present frame and constitution of it The world is at present in that condition as that the coming of Christ if very desirable in that regard And there are two particulars especially which do make up this unto us First In point of sin and wickedness And secondly in point of misery and affliction Both these two taken together do cast a disparagement upon the world and do therefore make Christians to desire the destruction of it First As it is a wicked and sinful world The world taken at the best was never over-good since it first began to be bad even presently upon the Creation of it Sin made an entrance upon it and got possession of it and not long after the whole earth had soon corrupted it self as the Scripture tells us but now as it 's grown any thing older and of longer standing so its sinfulness is so much the more improved and it grows worse every day than other The very times themselves we live in are a sufficient demonstration of it to us and we find it so by sad experience as being such wherein iniquity abounds more than ever and wicked men grow worse and worse as the Apostle speaks In these latter days and times of the world more especially as the spirit has foretold it there are the greatest incursions of wickedness of any other and that in all the kinds and degrees of it Now this is that which makes a gracious heart so to long for this second coming of Christ that so thereby he may put a period to these days of sin that God may be no longer dishonoured his Name may be no longer blasphemed his Laws may be no longer transgressed his Ordinances may be no longer despised his Spirit may be no longer grieved A good Christian has such an enmity and antipathy against sin as that he cannot but be very desirous of that which is destructive of it as the coming of Christ is not his first only but his second For this end will the Son of God be manifest that he may destroy the works of the Devil And for this end also do the Children of God so much desire the manifestation of him that so by this means sin may be destroyed and have a period and end put unto it And that both in others and also in themselves The Children of God they are both scandalized and offended at others abominations and likewise they are burdened and overprest with their own corruption and in each respect do desire that Christ would come for the remedying of either that their righteous souls with Lot's may be no longer vexed with the Conversation of the wicked and that themselves also with Paul may be delivered from the body of death that is the body of sin as we shall hear more anon in the following Explication But secondly As there is the world in the sinfulness and wickedness of it so there is the world also in the misery and afflictiveness of it which does make for this desire in them also that exceeding vanity which is upon the creature and those manifold calamities which do attend upon humane Life This is another thing here considerable in the world which does put the Church upon this Prayer for Christs coming that as God has promised he may wipe away all tears from
to themselves Yea but now your simple and obstinate sinners and such persons as Solomon here speaks of they pass on for all this from childhood to youth from youth to ripers years from maturity to old age and never mend all this while they are as vain and licentious and resolute and peremptory in sins as ever they were This is a fearfull Aggravation That when God time and space of repentance yet they are never the gives men better for it Secondly In the Ministerial Excitements and Awakening of them pass on notwithstanding these How many people are there that dayly hear of the sins which are upon them in the Preaching and Ministery of the Word who notwithstanding persist in them and resolve to do so still This is a very sad condition when as Admonition and Warning does not mend us Yet this is the case with abundance of persons though they hear of their sins dayly and of the dangers which belongs unto them yet for all that they pass on Is not this now a piece of wonderful sottishness and stupidity in them Yet thus it is Who hath believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed as the Prophet Isaiah speaks of himself with complaint and of other Prophets with him If men give us the hearing yet that is all not bettered at all by it Thirdly In the threatnings of Providence They pass on notwithstanding this also though God's Judgments hang over their heads Iye at their doors yea come up into their Windows yet for all this they continue in their sinful Provocations of God's Majesty and Wrath against them Was it not a great Aggravation of Wickedness and Sinfulness in the old World that as Noah's preaching did not reform them so neither did the beginning of the Deluge it self but they passed on still in their Abominations till the Flood came and carried them all away Even so is it still the case of men now to this very present day for They pass on and are punished So they are punished and yet still they pass on No amendment or Reformation at all notwithstanding God's Judgments both threatned against them and likewise in part executed and fulfilled upon them and yet still as bad as ever they were And their wickedness remaining in them as much as ever before Yea even there where there are some pretences of Reformation and profers towards it Covenants and Engagements to it yet it is not really and thoroughly effected Men perhaps abstain for a while and some short time from their sinful Courses but then they return to them and come on to them again like the Dog to his Vomit And what is the reason of all this But because there is no inward change wrought in their hearts That is the reason why wicked men pass on and continue still in sin without little amendment because they have no contrary principle curbing them and restraining them and putting a check upon them as to the pursuit of them Till this be once wrought in them all without them will do them no good whether of Mercies or Judgments or Corrections or Instructions or Examples or whatever it be but still they will be where they are That is one thing implyed in this expression to wit Constancy and Persevering in sinning passing no so The Second is Increasing and adding to it They pass on that is grow worse and worse Look as on the other side a good Christian he is still the better by all God's dealings towards him at least labours and endeavours to be so to pass on from strength to strength and to go from one measure and degree of Grace to another So a wicked man he is still the worse every day he is more hardened and confirmed in sin than he is at another He does not only continue in sin but improve and promote it The Ground hereof is this First The seeming sweetness of Sin which he hath already tasted and been partakers of this still tickles him and perswades him and draws him on further Sin is very deceitful and hardening Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin says the Apostle to the Hebrews Heb. 3.13 It was a Caution which had some bottom and foundation for it For Sin has that property with it to those which are not better principled even to harden and deceive them and by steps and degrees to draw them on further and further to the embracement and commission of it Secondly Which is also mentioned in that place An unbelieving heart in departing from the Living God Men do not believe the Word of God nor his threatnings which he has denounced against such courses And this makes them to proceed in them which otherwise they would be much restrained from Thirdly Present Impunity and freedom from Punishment Because they are not punished yet therefore they think they shall not be punished at all as it is in Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil doer is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil They pass on till they be punished as we shall now see in the Branch that follows So much for the first Particular to wit these men's Carriage and Disposition The simple pass on The Second is their Miscarriage or ill Condition which is consequent hereunto and are punisht This it carries a reference with it to all that went before concerning wicked men whether their sin or progress in it or their Presumption and Security upon it They have each by the just Judgment of God corrected and punisht in them Their simple iniquity their continuance and improvement of it and likewise their stupidity and senselesness in the condition in which they are But for Brevity sake we will reduce them to two Heads Their Sin and Security Their Sin in the word Simple implies as I shewed in the beginning wicked and ungodly men And their Security in the word passing-on implying a non-attendancy or heedlesness to any evil or danger which is near unto them First of all this word they are punished it does refer to their first sin it self and that iniquity which is in it whether of Principles or Conversation This is sure to be punished sooner or later And because it is so the Holy Ghost does therefore give it us in the present expression They are punisht as who will be out of question It is true they are not always in Act God is a great while indulgent towards them and is full of patience and forbearance towards them but yet at last he meets with them They pass on and are punished Sin and Judgment they are Relatives and do infer one the other and that by order and vertue of God's Justice which does require it and call for it And God's Sentence which he has past upon it upon the first coming of it By Sin came Death and so also all other Punishments which lead and tend unto it It is
that which cannot be avoided at least any other way than by turning from it Sin without this shall be punished that is determined and resolved upon And because it is so indeed therefore here spoken of as if it were done already especially Progress in time increasing and adding to it which is here also further implyed Wicked men shall be punished for their Wickedness simply considered but their continuance and improvement in it shall both increase and hasten their Punishment so much the more when they pass on then punished especially because the further they run in debt the more they provoke the Creditor to exact that which is his own The Use which we are to make of it is to believe it and to tremble at it And upon this Consideration so much the rather to take heed of Sin and the Aggravations of it forasmuch as we see here the End and Conclusion of it and that is Punishment either now or hereafter either here or in a worse place And we should lay these Considerations before us in all tempations and provocations to sin what ever they be There is reason to take us off from it and to keep us from the committing of it if we do but consider the vileness and filthiness of it in its own nature how unworthy it is of our Profession how unanswerable to the goodness of God and his gracious dealings with us But if all this will not serve to restrain us and to prevail upon us here is further to perswade us the Punishment which is attendant thereupon Pass on and are punished And thus much as this Word they are punished does refer to their first Sin it self and the iniquity which is in them Secondly It may refer also to their Security They pass on and are punished that is they are punished because they pass on And so it has this in it that Security is a great promoter of Punishment The more secure that any are in Sin the more likely to be punished for Sin Their Punishment does now advance and does come on so much the faster upon them as that which they shall not escape This there is a double Ground and Reason for the one in the Nature of the Thing the other in the Justice of God First In the Nature of the Thing in self It must needs be so He that sees not the Pit but passes on he must needs fall into it This is the Case of a Secure Person Punishment and Judgment is before him and yet he sees it not He promises himself Peace and Safety even when Ruin and Destruction is upon him And then Secondly In the Justice of God Who thinks himself in this Case engaged to proceed to Punishment so much the rather as being by this temper more discredited and contemned in his Proceedings For the Secure Person does despise all God's Threatnings and Warnings and beginnings of Judgment upon him And this is that which God will not endure but will most certainly call to an Account and Reckoning for Now let us lay all these things together and for the right Use and Improvement of them let us consider how far we are interessed and concerned in them how far we do partake of the Prudent Man and how far we do take share with the Simple Let us search and examine our hearts in each Particular and see whether or no in this respect we may not justly take up a Complaint against our selves The names of Wise and Foolish are such Titles as we commonly look upon with a great deal of Affection There is nothing which men do more abhor and disdain than to be accounted Fools nor affect than to be reckoned and esteemed as Wise Men. Now see how far we do indeed prove to be so upon this Discovery of it It is a Point which is here determined to us by God himself who is the Wise God and so best able to judge and to discern either of Folly or Wisdom And we see here how he brings it to this issue for the Proofs of either accordingly as we stand affected towards his Judgments and Executious upon Sin Now therefore by this Touch-stone let us prove and make tryal of our selves what kind of Persons indeed we are First As to the Fore-sight of Evil what share we have in that Whether or no are our Wits about us in this Particular to apprehend Gods threatning of us and expressing himself to be against us by his proceedings towards us Surely if this be the Property of Prudent Men the greatest number will appear to be simple who for the most part are very stupid and senseless in this particular Most men are as St. Peter expresses it Blind and which cannot see afar off 2 Pet. 1.9 Afar off Nay indeed near at hand and in the very Approaches of Judgment Which put far away from them the evil day as it is said of them in the Prophet Amos 6.3 And again in the Prophet Micah Is not the Lord among us no evil can come upon us Mic. 3.11 Now how far then are these here from Solomon's Wise and Prudent Man which foreseeth the evil Again Secondly As to Amendment and Reformation and Self-hiding How far are many from this also Though God's Judgments are not only threatned but also inflicted whether or no is there any turning to him all this while Surely no doubt but some there are which are to be found so doing which tremble at God's Word and at God's Judgments which foresee the evil and hide themselves and so in that respect do deserve the name of Prudent Persons But they are not many which are of this number The Generality of the World they sin and pass on and are punished or at least will be as taking such ways and courses which do threaten as much unto them Let us but look a little abroad into the World and see how it is there with us whether sin does not as much abound in the Land and in this City as ever it did notwithsanding all God's Judgments upon us both inflicted and threatned By Error in Judgment Corruption in Practice Licentiousness of Conversation Pride Luxury Wantonness Excess in Apparel Immodest and Lascivious Attire or rather indeed Want of Attire Laying open their own Shame and Nakedness in a most uncivil manner Such a Miscarriage which I am ashamed almost to speak of in a Christian Congregation In their Breasts in their Necks nay their Shoulders principally and where next And that not only in such Persons as are not so well instructed but even in those which are better taught and should be Examples to others Professors of Godliness and Religion they are oftentimes too shamefully guilty of Exorbitancy in this Particular both to the scandal of Religion it self and to the furtherance of God's Plagues and Judgments upon the places where they live I know you will give me the hearing but do as you list and it is somewhat to have been admonished Now let all such
discovery and knowledge of God whom he declares unto us and whom he declares also still with advantage as reconciled in himself for that 's also pertinent to the right knowledge and discovery of him To declare God absolutely considered that has but little contentment in it but to declare him to purpose is to declare him as pacified in his Son in whom he is well pleased And this is that which is here done even by the Son himself which should accordingly engage us in all acknowledgments and thankfulness to him Secondly We learn from hence also to yield all Honour and Service and Worship and Obedience to God that possibly we can who is thus manifested and made known unto us We cannot now plead ignorance for an excuse or defence of our selves for he is now here declared and that also by such a Person as is able to declare him unto us If the Gentiles be so liable to condemnation for not living answerably to that knowledge of God which they have by Nature what shall be their condemnation that improve not that knowledge which they have of him by such special and particular revelation as is imparted to them by Christ Thirdly We see here the excellency of Christianity above all other Arts and Mysteries whatsoever besides in the world wherein we meet with such excellent Points and Truths communicated to us as we have here now before us and those are concerning God himself who herein is made known unto us and whom to know and His Son Jesus Christ is even eternal life it self as himself has told us in Joh. 17.3 If there be any felicity or contentment in Speculation and Knowledge and the like here is that which transcends and carries it above any Art or Science whatsoever And so I have done with the Second General Part of the Text which is the Supply of the Defect premised and so with this whole Verse in the words which I have now handled and finished No man hath seen God at any time The onely begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath revealed him SERMON XXI JOH 14.6 I am the Way and the Truth and the Life No man cometh unto the Father but by me There is nothing which makes us more willing to part at any time with our Friends upon any journey to be taken by them than first of all to consider That they are likely to come to us again And then to consider that our parting with them for a time makes for our own greater advantage When-as we know whither they go And when-as we know how our selves are to go after them and to them Each of which considerations are propounded by our Blessed Saviour to his Beloved Disciples to satisfy them and comfort them in his own departure from them out of the World and going to his Father as we may see in the beginning of this Chapter I go says he to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also And whither I go ye know and the way ye know Now Thomas one of the Twelve makes a little pause and exception in part to this our Saviour's discourse Lord says he we know not whither thou goest and how should we know the way But our Saviour does sufficiently answer him in this Verse which I have now read unto you by assuring him that himself is not only the Traveller but the way and only means of conveyance to Heaven I am the Way and the Truth and the Life No man cometh c. IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First the Simple Proposition Secondly the Additional Amplification The Proposition that we have in these words I am the Way and the Truth and the Life The Amplification in these No man cometh unto the Father but by me We begin with the First of these Parts viz. The Simple Proposition Wherein we have a description to us of the person of Christ according to a threefold distinct notion of him wherein he is considerable First as the Way Secondly as the Truth And Thirdly as the Life Where every particular word has its particular article prefixt unto it to make it more emphatical We 'll take each of them in that order in which they lye before us in the Text and begin with the First I am the Way This is one thing which is here declared of him and attributed to him We are to take it with respect to what was mentioned in the Verses before where Christ had spoken of his going to Heaven and of the way to that place Now here he signifies that himself is that way Christ is the proper way that leads to eternal Happiness and Salvation And so if we take the words in their conjunction we may interpret them thus He is the Way and the Truth and the Rise that is he is the true way that leads unto life But we will take it rather as it is here rendred distinctly though still with this reference Jesus Christ he is the way to Heaven That 's the Point which we have now before us We have it out of his own mouth who as he tells us is Truth it self and so therefore we may believe it A way in the proper notion of it is that space wherein and whereby one passeth from one place to another And this is Christ to Believers from Earth to Heaven or from a state of misery to happiness c. If we take Heaven for an House so Christ is call'd a Door or entrance into it Joh. 10.7 If we take Heaven for a journeys end so Christ is call'd a way or passage towards it And thus here in this place This he is said to be in the discharge of his threefold Office as a Priest as a Prophet and as a King In each of these respects he is very fitly and properly denominated the way to Heaven First He is so as a Priest by the merit of Death and Passion He did not hereby make way for himself but he made way for us As for Christ himself Heaven was due unto him from the very first moment of his Incarnation by vertue of the Union of the Humane Nature with the Divine but he had need to make way for us and that he did by his Blood Take him consider'd as our Surety and as carrying the guilt of our sins upon his shoulders so he had no way to come to Glory but by suffering And so the Scripture still sets it Thus Heb. 9.12 By his own Blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained redemption for us Luke 24.26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and then to enter into his Glory Phil. 2.8 9. He humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the Cross wherefore God hath highly exalted him c. And again Heb. 2.10 It pleased him c.
did deserve so much from God the killing of sin In that by a reflexion on Christs hanging on the Cross our corruption is mortified to us who-ever are true members of his body this is sealed to us in our Baptism Rom. 6.3 and Col. 2.12 Secondly In his Resurrection for the raising them up again First Corporally in their Bodies 1 Cor. 6.14 He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise up us by his own power Secondly Spiritually in their souls Col. 2.12 In whom also ye are risen c. Hence Paul desires to feel the power of Christs Resurrection This is done three ways 1. Meritoriè 2. Exemplariter 3. Efficienter Thirdly Christ is powerful in Believers for the conquering and overcoming of Temptations and fighting against Principalities and Powers Eph. 6.10 11 c. Fourthly In enduring of afflictions which without this power they could never sustain it is not their own power but the power of Christ Lastly In final perseverance who are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 And Jude v. 24. To him that is able to keep you c. Thus is Christ the power of God to them Secondly He is the Wisdom of God to them also in sundry respects likewise First In revealing to them the mind and will of God in those things which concern their Salvation Christ is made unto us wisdom 1 Cor. 1.30 Secondly In giving them discretion to walk worthy of their Heavenly calling and to honour Religion by their conversation Thirdly In giving them a spirit of discerning to judg aright of persons and times and things Lastly In teaching them to number their days and to consider their latter end Deut. 32.29 and Psal 90.12 Thus is Christ to them which are called both the Wisdom and Power of God Effectivè And so I have done with the second General in the Text likewise to wit the entertainment of the Gospel in a good way as it was a Doctrine of acceptance and success But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God So much for this Time and Text both SERMON XXXII 1 Cor. 12.31 But covet earnestly the best gifts and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way There is nothing almost wherein Satan has more advantage against the sons of men than by those things which considered in themselves are of the greatest worth and dignity That which is any man's excellency is for the most part the matter of his temptation and that wherein God does lay the foundation of greater thankfulness and improvement therein does the Devil lay the foundation of more destruction and ruin It is observable in nothing more than in the excellencies and perfections of the mind Wit and Parts and Learning and such Spiritual Endowments where it is hard and rare for any very much to abound in them and not occasionally from them to be drawn aside from better things Therefore the Apostle Paul in the course of this present Scripture being to deal with a learned people the people of Corinth a people that stood very much upon their parts and gifts and wisdom and eloquence and the like like a wise and cunning Crafts-master he does accordingly apply himself to them with Doctrine sutable hereunto where we may observe he does not go about to take away their learning from them or to abridg them and cut them short of those Perfections which were eminent in them only he takes occasion to commend an higher kind of learning to them from whence that which they had already might be more profitable both to others and themselves He does not here stop the fountain or dry the spring it self up only he cuts out another channel as it were for these waters to run in and to disperse themselves with more advantage he bids them to covet earnestly the best gifts and yet he shews unto them a more excellent way IN this present Verse before us we have two General Parts especially observable of us First A Counsel or Exhortation Secondly An Additional Regulation of the said Counsel The former we have in those words Covet earnestly the best gifts The latter in these And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way We begin in order with the former viz. The Counsel or Exhortation Covet earnestly c. Wherein again we have three Particulars more First The object propounded and that is Gifts Secondly The Comparative qualification of this object and that is the best or better Gifts Thirdly The Intensive Affection which is required to the attaining of them and that is Zeal Covet earnestly For the first The Object propounded it is here said to be Gifts By Gifts here we are to understand Spiritual gifts the same which we find to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 14.1 Desire spiritual gifts These were such as he had mentioned in the foregoing part of the Chapter Wisdom Knowledg Judgment Vtterance Languages and the like these were of the nature of those Gifts which the Apostle Paul does here in this place commend to the Affections and Endeavours of these Corinthians to whom he here writes and from them to us And there are two things which are here considerable of us First The Phrase or Expression And secondly The Matter or thing it self which under this phrase is signified and propounded to be regarded by us First For the Phrase or expression it is as you see gifts This is the nature and condition of all those endowments and qualifications which any are furnisht withal in order to any performance and service whether of Church or State all abilities and faculties whatsoever they are no other than gifts Gifts they are and so they are here rendred to be in our English Bibles but yet if we thoroughly examine it this is a little too narrow and straitned and expression for them neither does it seem so fully to come home either to the word or scope of the Text for it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a gift only but a free gift not a gift which has somewhat antecedent to provoke it or to merit at Gods hands but a free gift which proceeds from pure and undeserved love It is Donum Gratuitum and it is Gratia gratis data which is here pointed out unto us Thus I say are all those abilities which any in any kind whatsoever or to any purpose are endowed withal This it is thus far useful to us as it serves to ingender all meekness and humility in us to keep us from swelling and puffing up which any in any excellency are at any time subject unto It is the very improvement which the Apostle Paul himself seems to make of this observation 1 Cor. 4.6 7. That ye might learn not to think of men above that which is written that no one of you be puffed up for one against another For who maketh thee to differ