he who said If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal 102. 3. never thought that himself should 2. Secondly Therefore this Righteousness of Sanctification is taken in an Evangelical sense and so it signifies 1. That universal habit of holiness of which the child of God is possessed teaching him to hate and strive against every sin to love and to press after every good work and to endeavour to do the whole will of God though it may be in many things he doth offend and this is that Righteousness which the most solid Interpreters judge here to be chiefly intended that which the holy Psalmist elsewhere calleth a respect to all Gods Commandments Psal 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed when I shall have respect to all thy Commandments I will not restrain the text to this but this doubtless is a great part of Davids meaning I will live an holy and righteous conversation having a due regard to all thy Commandments and keeping up in my soul a true hatred of every sin and of every false way Though I want the fulness which sinful men have though I be in a sad and afflicted condition though I be in the dark and cannot behold the light of thy countenance though my oppressors and my enemies be many and cruel and bloody yet will I not live like wicked and ungodly men who live more at case and have a greater degree of fulness but I will keep on the course of an holy life and conversation and then I shall behold thy face either here or hereafter either before I fall asleep in death or when I shall awake in the resurrection This righteousness then is the righteousness of a good conscience that which Saint Paul calls a living in a good conscience before God And again he tells us herein he did exercise Acts 23. 1. himself to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men The Chaldee Paraphrast reads it Truth In truth will I behold thy face Truth is opposed to Hypocrisie and to all falshood of conversation And indeed none can without presumption hope to see God but he who looks to behold his face in the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to him 2. In the righteousness of an holy life and conversation Without holiness saith the Apostle none shall see God 3. But there is yet a third thing which some understand by righteousness in this place Alii per justitiam intelligunt innocentiam versus hostes Lor. and in other texts is most certainly understood by it It is the particular habit of Justice and Innocency i. e. having an innocent heart and a righteous cause against unrighteous men I will come to thee O God who art a God of Justice and a Protector of innocent persons Holy David at this time was afflicted either by the persecution of Saul as some think or the rebellion of Absolom as others judge both of them rose up against him without a cause on their part not for my wickedness nor for my sin as he elsewhere saith Now saith David though my enemies be many and great and cruel yet I have done them no harm I have as to them a righteous heart and against them a righteous cause I will bring this righteous cause before thee This is the righteousness of which he speaketh v. 3. Let thine eyes behold the thing that is equal thou hast proved mine heart thou hast visited me in the night thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing So probably v. 1. he prayes Hear the right O Lord where the same word is used This sense will afford us this note Those who make their appeal to God in any cause and seck his face hoping to behold his face directing countenancing or assiting them must be sure their cause be a righteous cause One of the Hebrew Writers reads I will behold thy face for Alms the Rabbies so interpret the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they say to give Alms is both a piece of righteousness and a fign of it Indeed whosoever goes to God goes for Alms. But I shall discourse no more as to this term In Righteousness 1. In the Righteousness of my Lord the Mediatour 2. In the Righteousness of an holy conversation 3. In the Justice Innocency and Righteousness of my cause This is all comprehended in the term Righteousness I now proceed Will I or shall I behold thy face The word indifferently signifies the act of the body and of the mind Psal 58. 10. The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance that is when he shall with his bodily eyes see the righteous God revenging him upon sinful men Exod. 18. 21. Thou shalt provide there it doubtless implieth an act of Moses his mind weighing and considering what persons were fittest for Magistrates 2. But it sometimes signifies not a bare intuition but a most curious careful scrutiny or beholding It signifieth to contemplate Now when a man contemplates he doth not barely look upon a thing but he sixeth his eyes and thoughts and studies upon it from this word Prophets we are called Seers and it is a word often applied to their vision in which their minds were wholly taken up and their souls as it were wrapt up in exrasies Star-gazers from this word had their name in Hebrew And Criticks tell us our English word Gaze hath its original from it Now you know we use that word Gaze to express the action of them who are a long time looking upon a thing fully steadily and busily Further yet the word sometimes signifies to behold with delight and Pleasure To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple Psal 27. 4. That was a pleasant sight Psal 84. 1. I will behold thy face in righteousness that is with the eye of my body or mind or both I will diligently constantly earnestly behold I will take pleasure in beholding Thy face The word used here signifies any outward superficies or exterior countenance of a thing being applied to God it signifies the manifestations of divine love whether in the gracious issues of providence or in the more inward influences of divine love God hath neither essential nor integral parts as we have he hath no head no hands no face these things only agree to God by analogy The face is the more noble outward part of as man most conspicuous and by which he is most known in which more than by any part else a mans temper and particular inclination and disposition to us is known So the face of God signifies 1. The favour of God in the sensible manifestations of it When we are angry we turn away our faces from our neighbours and being reconciled again to them we again look upon them So is the Lord in Scripture set out to us Psal 13. How long wilt thou hide Psal 13. thy face So when God is expressed as in favour with and reconciled to
for hearing the Word of God at her Ladiships charge But she according to the will of God had with David served her generation and her time now was come when she must fall asleep It must and may be owned for she judged it no blot upon her honour that she was a Non-conformist as to some Modes of Worship in present use as well as to some Doctrines more now in credit than formerly for the latter she was beholden to her Noble Father who as it was said before early prejudiced her against the Arminian principles and for the former she was wont to acknowledge it to those who had the charge of her tender years who sowed those seeds which afterwards brought forth this fruit indeed nothing so prejudiced her against forms of Prayer as her own experience of them For the two or three last years of her life therefore she restrained her self to those exercises of Religion which were performed within her own walls or in some other places not so publick As to which she yet injoyed a great liberty by reason of that honour which persons of all perswasions had for her It was not the will of God she should long survive that liberty which was so precious to her The Lords day next preceding the time when the Act restraining religious meetings took place was if I remember right the last time she went down her stairs I remember while I helped her in going up the stairs from her Chappell to her Chamber that night she told me The Act would do her no prejudice for she should never go down more This as I remember was about the latter end of June or beginning of July 1664. The Dropsie her fatal disease had three or four moneths before seized upon her but death by it made such gradual approaches that till that time she was able without much disturbance to walk up and down That very night as I remember was the first time that she complained of her leggs failing her to that degree yet was her life lengthened out till the latter end of November following Indeed her whole life was a time of Afflictions through the valetudinarious condition of her Noble Husband the loss of Children and her own subjection to distempers through stubborn splenetick obstructions Nor was she for some years before without some prospect of the death by which she should dye though it was a kind of death which she above all others dreaded and would often say concerning it Father if it be possible let that Cup pass from me The time of her last sickness presented us with no great variety of temper in her as to her spiritual condition 〈…〉 kept on her course of Religious Duties in her House and Chamber as formerly Her work was done both as to this and as to another life her House and her Soul was set in order so as she had little to do but to sit still and wait for the salvation of God all the remaining dayes of her appointed time till her great change came I do not remember that during her long sickness she more than twice discovered to me any conflicts in her Spirit though I constantly attended upon her and as constantly inquired upon the frame of her spirit She had sown in tears before and had now nothing to doe but to reap in joy Her death was a long time both by her self and us foreseen in its causes but as to the particular time we were a little surprized when she thought the day of her change in probability at some distance she lost her senses and speech and after two or three dayes quietly fell asleep in the Evening upon the Lords day Nov. 27. 1664. Thus lived thus dyed this twice noble Excellent Lady about the 61 year of her Age. Possibly the Noblest Example of Piety and truest Pattern of Honour Liberality Temperance Humility and Courtesie which it hath pleased God in this last Age to shew upon the stage where he had fixed her A Woman indeed not without her infirmities to assert that were to discharge her of her relation to Humane Nature but as they were of no scandalous magnitude and the products of Natural Temperature not of Vitious Habits so they were so much out-shined by her eminent Graces and Vertues as a curious eye would hardly take notice of them In short None ever lived more desired nor died more universally lamented by all sober persons in that City to which she related She was buried in a Vault belonging to the Family of her Dear and Noble Husband at Blicklin in Norfolk Decemb. 1. 1664. therein paying her deceased Husband a last Obedience who as I have often heard her pleasantly say made it his first request to her upon her Marriage-day PROV 31. V. 29 30 31. Many daughters have done vertuously but thou hast excelled them all Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates OVT of the abundance of the heart saith our Saviour the mouth speaketh which argues every man in the best capacity to discourse upon such Subjects which have had the latest and fullest possession of his thoughts you know I suppose what hath made the latest and deepest impression on my thoughts I think I may say upon yours also I mean the severe dispensation of God to us all in taking from us to use Solomon's expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A noble vertuous woman An elect Lady to use the Apostles phrase A great mother in our Israel Upon whose separation from us who is there amongst us fearing the Lord that is not crying out Ah? my mother my mother The Chariots of Norwich and the horsemen thereof I have therefore resolved to make an Excellent woman the subject of my discourse upon this occasion you have had her pattern in that noble example whom now the Providence of God hath taken from us you have her description in the text A woman fearing the Lord while I am discoursing the Excellency of the woman in the text both absolutely as considered in her self and comparatively as weighed with others in the ballances of Religion and Reason I shall satisfie my self that as to our deceased friend I shall fulfill the will of God in the close of my text Giving of her the fruits of her hands and causing her own works to praise her in the gates We reade of Solomon 1 Kings 4. 32. that he spake three thousand Proverbs Some of the principal of which are doubtless recorded in this excellent portion of holy writ The notion of Proverbs must not be taken so strictly as we usually take it but in a further latitude of sense as comprehending all figurative speeches especially such as have in them ought of a similitude Nomine He. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significatur omnis sermo figuratus Mercer of which sort are many of these
ease The prudent man is not wise enough to remove the distemper nor yet under it to comfort himself None of them by their knowledge learning wisdom can save themselves from death nor redeem their souls from the pit As dieth the fool so also dieth the prudent man leave this life and what profit hath the poor creature of all those fine things which before differenced him from his neighbour wherein doth he now differ he is alike laid in the grave with him But in these hours the fear of the Lord is excellent and of infinite advantage to the soul that is blessed with it 1. In a day of Affliction It is true grace and the fear of the Lord doth not deliver a man from the common incidents of that mortal condition into which sin hath brought us it doth neither free us from troubles without nor yet from fears within but it giveth the soul comfort and satisfaction in this hour Lord remember saith Hezekiah how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart A man fearing God in an hour of affliction is quite another man from one under the same kind and degree of affliction that he is fuller of strength fuller of comfort more satisfied with his condition 2. In the day of Death It is true the first curse must have its verification We have sinned and we must die But dieth the child of God as a fool dieth dieth a man fearing the Lord as the man who hath no fear of God in his heart surely there is a great difference in their latter end Even Balaam had some sight of this when he desired that he might die the death of the righteous that his latter end might be like his See that famous instance of David a man indeed according to Gods own heart yet you know how he failed both in the matter of Bathsheba and Vriah He comes 1 Sam. 23. to his death bed and the Scripture recordeth his last words He considereth the Rule which God had set him that he who ruled over men should be just ruling them in the fear of the Lord that his light should be like the light of the morning c. He considers again that his house had not been so with God as it ought to have been what comforts him Thou hast saith he made a Covenant with me well ordered and sâ—re in all things c. This and this alone is that which in these hours of distress can relieve a poor creature and the worst of men will give in their evidence to this They will at their dying hour and when they lie upon beds of sickness cry out Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain They will then agree with Solomon to warn their friends to fear God and keep his Commandments telling them this is the end of all This now is sufficient to have spoken in the Explication or evidence of the point which may all be summed up in this one Argument Whoso is possessed of that quality which both in it self considered absolutely and in respect of all circumstances is the most excellent person But that man or woman in whom the true fear of the Lord is and dwelleth most eminently is possessed of the most excellent habit whether it be considered in it self more absolutely or with respect to circumstances Therefore that person is the most excellent person I come now to the Application of the Point In the first place what you have heard Use 1 may serve to evince the vulgar mistake concerning the excellent of the earth and also to abate those high conceits which men ordinarily have of themselves who in the little things of the world differ a little from their neighbours The world if this Doctrine be true is greatly mistaken both in their judgements concerning the most excellent things and concerning the most excellent persons 1. I say first in their judgements as to the things that differ and are more excellent than other If you should run to and fro the streets of your City and ask every one whom you meet Friend let me have your opinion what do you judge the most excellent thing in the world it is very like they would not all agree in their answers some would say Pleasures and a satisfaction of their lusts Others would say Riches if a man had as much money as he could spend a plentiful estate to live on Others would say Honour and Favour if a man be great at Court a favourite to Princes they will judge him the happiest man alive It may be others would judge Learning and Knowledge is most excellent or Moral Vertue is the most excellent but where shall we find a person who would say The fear of the Lord is the most excellent thing Some rare person possibly might be found who would say with David There be many that say who will shew us any Psal 4. good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Or with Solomon after he had tasted of all those sweet things which the world affords Eccles 12. 13. Hear the conclusion of all Fear God and keep his Commandments But the most of men would neither like David's nor Solomon's judgement in the case Nay even of those who would say Grace is the most excellent thing how few are they whose practice would not condemn them in what they speak with their mouths Man naturally loves desires valueth chuseth approveth the things which he judgeth most excellent The low opinion which the most men have of Religion and the fear of the Lord their little endeavours for it and pursuit after it are plain instances let men say what they will that they judge other things more excellent Yet could you meet with any who had the sentence of death in himself any strong apprehensions that he must in a short time go down to the pit and upon whom the terrours of Hell had seized this man would tell you that of all things the fear of the Lord is most excellent which is enough to evince the truth of the thing and that nothing but the violence of temptations and prevalence of corruptions makes men to judge otherwise 2. As what you have heard leadeth you to judge truly concerning the best things so it leadeth you also to a true judgement concerning the best persons What the Prophet complained in his time is true in our time We call the proud happy We judge them the best that are the richest the most honourable and who are dignified with the greatest titles Thus oft-times we call a covetous worldling a griping Vsurer or Extortioner a swinish drunkard a sordid unclean person a prophane swearer a blasphemous curser one that rends the sacred Name of God with unheard of oaths revilings blasphemies The best men in our Cities in our Parishes and yet we contend our Parishes to be particular Churches and these the members of them Away with such more than Pagan Non-sense The Heathens would not
King 21. 19 20 21. to tell him in short that God would ruine him and his family and all that belonged to him v. 27. Ahab hears those words he rends his cloths puts sackcloth upon his flesh fasteth lyeth in sackcloth and goes softly Here 's the best of a carnal man if his dread of God in his Judgements worketh thus far and to a temporary abstaining from some gross sins it is all you read not a word of Ahabs tending to inquire of the Lord not a word of any cordial humiliation or resolved reformation 2 King 22. 11. Josiah findeth the Book of the Law and heareth there of the wrath of God he rends his cloths so did Ahab but he resteth not here v. 13. He tends to inquire of the Lord for him and for the people and for all Judah c. was this all No chap. 23. He sets upon a real and effectual reformation with all his might Thus you see how the dread and awe of God upon the heart of a child of God doth not drive him from God but unto him it doth not stupifie but quicken him it doth not put him upon a formal temporary particular reformation but upon a fixed real general reformation Pharaohs fear flartled him and put him upon sending to Moses to pray for him and put him upon some good thoughts and resolutions at present but yet Pharaoh notwithstanding this was one who feared not the Lord. But thus much may serve to have spoken to this branch of Application I come now to the last branch I will shut up this discourse with a few words of Exhortation I will reduce all to three particulars 1. To such as have not this fear of God in Exhort their hearts to perswade them to labour for it 2. To such as have this fear of God to perswade them 1. To labour to grow in this habit and exercise 2. To live like excellent persons and to shew they have this excellent blessing 3. Lastly To the men of the world in general to perswade them 1. To an undervaluing of all other excellencies 2. To a true value of this excellent thing and these excellent persons 3. To give them of the fruit of their hands and to suffer their works to praise them in the gates In the first place let me press a word of 1 Branch Exhortation upon such as yet fear not Goâ— to perswade them to it It is a frequent precept in holy Writ Levit. 19. 14. Fear thy God I am the Lord ch 25. v. 17. 43. Eccles 5. 7. Matth. 10. 28. 1 Pet. 2. 17. Rev. 14. 7. Eccles 12. 13. God calls to you Fear God Solomon calls to you Fear God Our Saviour calls to you Fear him that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire The Angels in Heaven call to you Fear God All the Prophets and Apostles call to you unâvoce and this is that which they say Fear God The meaning of this you have heard Not only dread the great and living God in the secrets of your hearts but let all your conversation savour of this fear so comport your selves in your whole carriage both towards God and towards your neighbours as you may evidence to the world not only that you have a natural sense of that infinite distance which is between your Creatour and you and the power that he hath over you but that you may shew that you have this gracious habit of fear wrought in you and that you fear God in the Scripture phrase You see this is a great picce of the will of God concerning you pressed upon you again and again in holy Writ Give me leave to inlarge a little in pressing it upon you I shall first give you some Arguments Secondly I shall offer you some directions in the case from the text And what I have said furnisheth me with two great Arguments 1. This is Wisdom This is Grace Job 28. 28. â—â—e fear of the Lord that is wisdom Prov. 1. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge That man who hath nothing of the fear of God in him hath nothing of God nothing of the Grace of God in him On the other side that person who hath in him the fear of God hath all that is an holy that is a gracious man There can be no more said of any than that he or she are persons not fearing God Nor can there be better said of any that he or she is a person fearing God 2. Secondly You have heard a person fearing God is the most excellent person in the world Favour is deceitful Beauty is vain but a woman fearing the Lord she shall be praised Others may call themselves excellent and the men of the world may call the proud happy but the truly happy the truly excellent person is one fearing God I might add a third 3. This is the only person who deserveth to be praised and whose works will truly praise him Let others be commended and admired for beauty for riches and honour and another for learning as the end of all is to fear God and keep his Commandments So that person that truly answereth this end and doth fear God and keep his Commandments will upon the best evidence which is that of Scripture and reason appear to be the person that is most worthy of praise and commendation Now if I could say no more than this to engage any to this study yet in other things this would be enough Every one naturally desireth the things that are excellent and is naturally covetous of honour and praise Would you have that which is in it self most excellent that which will make you above all others excellent that which most truly deserveth praise and will make you the truest objects of praise Oh get this fear of the Lord Give me leave to add another Argument or two 4. In the fourth place Consider the many Promises made in Scripture to the fear of the Lord Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth daies Prov. 14. 26 27. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death Prov. 15. 16. Little with the fear of the Lord is great gain v. 33. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom Prov. 19. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life ch 22. 4. By the fear of the Lord are riches Psal 112. Psal 128. are full of Promises to the man that feareth God The things promised in these and those many other Promises annexed to the fear of the Lord are such as every one defireth Who would not have long life riches and honour Either you believe the Scriptures or you do not believe them if you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God you must assent to whatsoever Propositions are revealed in them as Propofitions of eternal and
betraies your intellectuals as want of judgement in things that differ and your judgement cannot but be erroneous where it is contrary to the judgement of God and of holy men who spake in Scripture as they were inspired by God 2. Let what you have heard bespeak a due value in you both of the fear of the Lord as the best thingâ— and persons fearing the Lord as the most excellent persons Certainly it is but reasonable that we should judge of persons and things as God judgeth of them as Solomon and David and those great Worthies we find recorded in Scripture have judged David Psal 16. calleth the people of God The excellent of the Earth Solomon tells you here that Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain but a woman fearing the Lord she shall be praised Though many Daughters have done vertuously yet she hath ascended above them all Oh let us thus iudge Regard not what vain men talk of people fearing God they speak after their Father whose works they do they do but disgorge the prophaneness filth and malice of their own hearts They have hated Christ and no wonder if they hate all those who bear any thing of the Image and superscription Let not the railings of these men let not their hard speeches and bitter censures and more bitter dealings guide your judgement You will one day find that the men whom they thus abuse are no Reprobates Men in power and authority one day will know that these are not these evil doers to whom they should be a terrour Ministers will know that they have abused their texts to turn the drift of them against persons fearing the Lord under the disguise of Schismaticks Fanaticks c. terms which many use in these daies not understanding what they mean If it be some mens worldly interest to do these things yet my Brethren take you heed of treading their steps Let who will revile and curse and blaspheme God hath blessed the persons that fear him and you shall one day see they shall be blessed Behold the Lord cometh saith the Apostle Jude with ten thousand Jude v. 13. of his Saints to execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly amongst them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Lastly Are persons fearing the Lord the most excellent persons give them then the fruit of their hands and let their own works praise them in the gates It is Solomons improvement of this notion in the words following my text Certainly there is nothing more reasonable than this is if it were give such persons as these the fruit of your hands it were but according to the manner of men who use to give Presents to Princes Favourites It were but to make friends of your Mammon of unrighteousness that when these things fail you may be received into everlasting habitations But I say no more than give them the fruit of their hands do not defraud abuse them give them that honour that room in the world which they deserve which they labour for and let their own works praise them in the gates Envy them not the praise of their own labours the honour which their own works purchase for them This brings me â—o my last part of my work that I may fulfil my text upon this Noble person for whom we are all mourners But I shall reserve that to a more full and particular discourse LIGHT IN DARKNESS OR A twofold Fountain of Comfort and Satisfaction to those who walking with God yet live and may die unsatisfied as to the sensible manifestations of DIVINE LOVE Discovered In a Discourse first Preached at the Funerals of the Right Honourable the Lady Catharine Courten late Wife to William Courten Esq and since inlarged for more publick profit By John Collinges late Preacher of the Gospel in Norwich Isaiah 50. 20. Who is amongst you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and seeth no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God LONDON Printed in the year 1669. To His Worthy and Honoured Friend WILLIAM COURTEN Esq Sir WHen I had once resolved to joyn these Sheets long since drawn up and in the hands of some of your noble friends in one Book with those relating to your Noble Aunt I had no great dispute with my self to whom according to the usual custom I should inscribe them You are the only Male Branch of this excellent Root the Heir of her Religion Vertue and Honour you were while she lived next to your dear Father the great object of her Love Care and Pious Sollitude For you it was that she so often so passionately even in her greatest Agonies begg'd our prayers she had you only and your sister to pour out sighs and tears to God for that you might be found constant and walking in the truth You alone can lay a just claim to her picture and these other Papers devoted to a memorial of her You are fittest to undertake the Patronage of her Honourable and Precious Name against such as to justifie others would fasten a Debauchery in Religion upon her Urn after fifteen or sixteen years rest in which since her death it might prescribe for the Faith in which she not only truly died but in so eminent a Profession and such particular Declarations of it as are not ordinary Alas Dear Sir for the sad occasion of this so late an impudent a slander but the judgements of God are a great deep You Sir since her death have been visiting the seat of iniquity the Country of the great Whore which hath made so many drunk and is yet by parcels intoxicating souls with her superstitious and idolatrous abominations you went not out of curiosity but upon a just call and to pay a duty to your Fathers Sepulchre Had your rare Mother lived till you took that Journey she would have cryed out with another kind of Devotion than Horace for his friend Virgil. Sic te cunctipotens Dues Sic pelagi Dominus Ventorumque regat Pater Obstrictis aliis praeter Naves quae tibi creditum Debes finibus Italis Reddas incolumem precor Et serves animae dimidium meae But it pleased God by death seven years before to deliver her from those fears in which your two years absence would have kept her and though she lived not so long as to attend you with her fervent prayers yet Sir I can tell you she had treasured up a large stock of prayers for you and she had begg'd a moving stock which was working for you when she ceased to be and by the infinite goodness of God hearing those prayers you were preserved both in your going and coming in the perils you ran by Land and by Sea Yea and preserved also free from those sensual and superstitious tinctures which too too many bring home with
We translate it when I shall awake there 's no material difference I will begin with the first which is something different from our English I shall be satisfied in watching or while I watch for thy likeness Thus this very word is translated Ezek. 7. 6. An end is come it watcheth for thee I confess I am loth to exclude this sense of the words I' shall be satisfied in watching for thy likeness Watching is but an empty hungry action and gives the soul no satisfaction but here 's the difference betwixt watching for the world and watching for God As to worldly things Hope deferred makes the heart sick as to God it is not so A watching and waiting for God brings a proportionable satisfaction It ought in a great measure to satisfie a gracious soul in his hours of darkness if he doth but find God inabling him to watch for his likeness 2. But the word is otherwise translated and properly enough in waking or when I shall awake or be made to awake Thus the word is often translated in Scripture Psal 3. 6. and in many other texts Psal 3. 6. 1. Some apply this to God as if it should be when thou awakest Indeed the Hebrew is no more than in awaking or in being made to awake When thy faithfulness shall awake V. Vicars ad locum say they I shall be satisfied with thy likeness Indeed when God seemeth to us not to take care and regard his people he is said to sleep by a figure for he neither slumbereth nor sleepeth and the holy Psalmist calleth to him as to one asleep Awake why Psa 44. 23. sleepest thou O Lord God is said to sleep when according to humane sense and apprehension he carrieth himself toward his people like a man that is asleep and in a conformity of phrase when he turns his hand and appears for his people then he is said to awake and when God thus awakes his people use to be satisfied with his appearances for them But though there be a truth in this yet I do not think it the sense of the text 2. Others as I noted before making the words to be the words of Christ understand them of his Resurrection Our Saviour knew that when he by death had satisfied Divine Justice by the accursed death and born the brunt of his Fathers wrath he should awake the third day by a glorious Resurrection and having conquered death and satisfied justice he should again behold his Fathers face clear from all clouds and frowns ascending up on high and sitting on the right hand of God This is Hierom's notion of the text but doubtless the text is not to be so restrained 3. I agree therefore with those who make these words the words of holy David promising himself satisfaction with the image or likeness of God when he should awake 1. By his awaking I find some understanding his recovery and deliverance from that afflicted state in which at present he was Indeed the time of affliction is a time of night and often in Scripture is expressed under the notion of darkness which gives advantage to this interpretation which both Calvin and Mollerus favour thinking it by others applied to the Resurrection argutè magis quà m propriè more subtilly than properly According to them the sense is this At present it is night with me and I am as it were asleep and in a bed of trial and affliction but I know that this shall not be to me a dead sleep Though I am fallen yet I shall rise again though I be asleep I shall awake again and when Gods time cometh I shall be satisfied with the manifestations of his love and the evidences of his favour to me But with all due respect to those Interpreters whom this sense pleaseth I rather incline to those who interpret this awaking of the Resurrection To make it clear 1. It is plain it is a figurative expression Waking you know hath a reserence to sleeping Now sleep in Scripture is taken literally so it signifieth the locking or binding up of the exteriour senses and waking is the freeing of the senses in which sense it cannot be taken here though I meet with some who think that David here speaketh as a Prophet expecting the visions of the morning 2. Or else it is taken figuratively so it is very often used to express death Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Joh. 11. 11. The Maid saith our Saviour is not dead but sleepeth And when Stephen died it is said he fell asleep I find this very word used to express an awaking from the sleep of death 2 King 4. 31. The child is not awaked meaning that it was dead Isa 26. 19. Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust But further yet the awaking here spoken of relates to David Now hearken what the Scripture saith of Davids sleeping Acts 13. 36. After that he had Act. 13. 36. according to the will of God served he fell V. Piscal Ames Engl. Annot. Diodate Ainsworth ad loc asleep What 's the meaning of that is it not that he died Now what is the awaking related to this sleep but the Resurrection and in this sense I find many eminent Expositors agreed The Learned de Muiâ— hath another interpretation in which I find none going along with him When I awake that is saith he when I shall dye while the soul is in the body it sleeps when it leaves the body it awakes Quum expergefactia fuerit anima mea De Muis ad locum de corpore in quo velut sepulta jacet evolaverit anima mea ad imaginem tuam creata To justifie this his notion he quoteth Jer. 51. 30. where the souls of the wicked are said to sleep a perpetual sleep In opposition to this he saith the souls of the Saints when they die are said to awake Indeed if we conâ—â—der sleep as it is the binding up of the exteriour senses and an hinderance to them in their operations and then reflect upon the soul while tied to the body how much it is hindered in the freedom of its communion with God There is some analogy betwixt the case of a soul in a state of conjunction with the body and sleep And it is true that in death the soul is restored to a greater freedom for communion with God But I do not think this the sense nor is this the usage of the metaphor I think to be justified by parallel Scriptures One thing I must further observe as to the form of the Hebrew word Grammarians observe that the conjugation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hiphil in which the word is found adds facio to the original signisication of a verb which if it hath place here it properly sigfies in being made to watch or being made to awake denoting to us the necessity of a divine influence both to uphold our souls in watching and waiting for God when we do not
and think that the asserting of it derogateth from Christs plenary satisfaction which indeed would have something of truth in it had not God in that Covenant reserved himself this liberty If Psa 89. 31 32 33 34. they break my Statutes and keep not all my Commandments then will I visit their iniquity with a rod and their transgressions with stripes Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips By vertue of Gods Covenant with Christ for us their earnest salvation and the welfare of their souls for ever is secured Nay more afflictions as they are tokens of divine wrath and legal demands of satisfaction to Gods Justice cannot fall upon Gods people but he hath reserved to himself the liberty of a Father in love and kindness to chastise his people with rods The people of God therefore should not think it strange if they meet with these dark issues of divine providence nor should any entring into the waies of God promise himself a freedom from afflictions and trials of this nature Christ hath secured us eternal salvation and all necessary means and influences of grace in order to it but he hath not totally exempted us from the rod of affliction But this is not all The second Proposition speaketh yet more The Child of God may not only live but may 2 Prop. also die and fall asleep unsatisfied as to the likeness of God This is true both as to the likeness of God in them and the manifestations of God unto them 1. As to Gods Image in them this lies in the perfection of holiness and is so far true that it is hard to find a child of God whoever as to this died satisfied what Christian on his death-bed ever said he had faith enough or love enough or holiness enough David cryes out Although my house be not so with God And where is the soul that departing to eternity sees not reason to complain that his heart hath not been so with God as it ought to have been The best of men sinneth seven times in a day 2. But it is true also as to the apprehensions of divine love not being able when they die to say assuredly My Beloved is mine and I am his What shall we say to the great example of our Lord and Saviour It is true he knew he was the eternal Son of God that after his resurrection he should be glorified with that glory which he had with his Father from all eternity and in this respect might differ from some of his children who dying may want that certainty and only die with a good hope through grace yet in this dying hour he cryes out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Nor can we well understand how he should for us die under the curse and sensible feelings of divine wrath unless we grant that he died under the withdrawings of the sensible manifestations of divine love and certainly the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. Our own experience also proves it have not we known some persons of whom while they went in and out with us could say These are the anointed of the Lord we saw them walking closely with God fearing every sin making conscience of every duty serving the Lord so far as we could judge in spirit and truth and this not in a fit but constantly yet when they came to die their Candles went out in obscurity We have not seen them in that triumph of faith that fulness of joy and peace which it may be we did expect Not able to say with Job In Job 19. 26. Rom. 8 38. my flesh I shall see God nor with Paul I am perswaded that neither life nor death shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Nor is there any thing in spiritual reason to hinder it Sensible manifestations are none of our necessaries God hath no where promised that they shall not fail the soul in death Mr. Rutherford I remember propounds this to be observed Whether usually when in the time of their life the Saints of God have felt many reflexions of divine love many sensible consolations God hath not left them to die in the dark And on the contrary when any of his children have in the time of their life been full of fear and dejections c. God hath not usually in their sick and dying hours shined upon them with visions of peace It is not to be fixed as a standing Rule for the Almighty is neither to be limited nor tracked in his goings but it may be worthy of our observation Now this seemeth a very hard dispensation Gods people oft-times know not how to live without sensible manifestations of his love but they are much more at loss how to satisfie themselves to die without it May we therefore in any degree of humility guess at some reasons of so sad a divine dispensation 1. In the first place it is enough to a modest soul inquisitive in this particular to say Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee God will have us to know that the wind bloweth both where it listeth and when it listeth and that his Spirit is not less free We shall not know the hour when he will visit his peoples souls nor will he constantly come in at the same hour that he might assert his own liberty to us this may be one and indeed it is the great reason to be assigned of this dispensation 2. The Lord may have a design by it to make a trial of his servants faith It is a good faith that will long maintain a living Saint without sight but it must be a strong faith which will maintain a Christian in his dying hour without it This was the faith of Job Though he kills me yet I will trust in him This is a faith which holds out to the end and shall have the Crown of life which God hath promised It is the last act of faith to serve a departing soul Love goes with the soul into another world Faith parts with it at the gates of death the vision of faith is then changed for the beatifical vision What a man seeth how doth he hope for That faith that seeth Christ through a glass darkly hath its eyes in death quite out The soul comes with open face to behold the glory of God It argues a great spirit in a souldier to fight to his last breath And it speaks a couragious strong faith for a Christian to die believing dying hope is a good hope therefore it is given as the character of a righteous man that he hath hope in death And of the Hypocrite it is said Where is the hope of an Hypocrite when God takes away his soul Job saith that his hope shall be like the giving up of the Ghost Look as dying
men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhereâ—â—e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives â—s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of
earned hath he not given you the penny you contracted with him for why are you angry then why discontented why lift you up your voice against Heaven 2. Again How many thousands are there in the world who have as creatures as much claim to God as you for whom the Lord hath not done so much for as he hath done for you He hath given them portions in this life and hath sent them away they have pleasure riches honours c. but no faith no hope nothing of grace no interest in Christ they are dead in trespasses and sins perishing to all eternity You only want a spiritual banquet the most want spiritual bread yet creatures under the same natural capacity that you are 3. Though in one sense you be not sealed yet in another sense you are sealed You read in Scripture of the sealing of the Spirit Ephes 1. 13. chap. 4. 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. Eph. 1. 13. 4. 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. We usually interpret those texts of Assurance because seals are used for confirmation But possibly there is another sense as agreeable to the mind of the Holy Ghost A seal you know leaveth the signature or impression of it upon the wax the wax hath the image of the seal upon it The Lords renewing and stamping his Image upon the soul is a sealing of it to the day of Adoption There is a seal of Regeneration and Sanctification as well as a seal of Assurance and though the latter sealing be infinitely sweet and pleasant to the soul yet the former is that which fitteth us for the Kingdom of Heaven Without holiness no man can see God Is there not as much think you of the operation of the Spirit seen in sanctifying quickening strengthening a soul as in comforting it and assuring it of salvation Is it our great mistake that we will look upon nothing as the fruit of the Spirit but joy and peace certainly the renewing and sanctifying of the soul is as much the operation of the Spirit and the strengthening and quickening of the soul in the performance of duty or in the resistance of corruption is as much the fruit of the Spirit in the soul as comforting and refreshing the soul is 4. If God hath thus far inabled you viz. to behold his face in righteousness and to watch for his likeness he hath given you the necessaries of salvation the things which accompany salvation What you want is only what a soul may want and yet get to Heaven Faith and Holiness they are the necessaries to salvation a soul may go to Heaven without Joy and Peace without Faith and Holiness there is no salvation When God hath given you the bread of life have you not reason to be satisfied Though you want that banquet with which he sometimes is pleased to entertain the souls of his people The Example of this rare and eminent servant of God might have at once as to this thing have instructed and reproved many unthankful discontented and repining Christians It had pleased the Lord to strip her naked of most of her creature comforts he had sent such messengers as he sent to Job to her one after another till at last death came to assure her all as to this life was gone she was under a sad and inexpressible trial of affliction It is true in this sad and afflicted state as to her outward concerns she had her lived intervals some glimmerings of divine light sometimes Joy came over night but sorrow came again in the morning the clouds returned after rain That word Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of Glory often refreshed her but her adversary was busie her comforts inconstant her assurance little yet she lived in hope and blessed God and was thankful she endured violent pains and in her suffering acted a strong saith and in the saddest distempers would cry out Oh Sir Satan would have me let go my hold on Christ but I will trust in God till I die Though he kills me yet I will trust in him tell me I pray Sir may I not She died in hope her very last words were I hope I hope to make good that of the wise man that the righteous man hath hope in his death and by hope I doubt not but she is saved and now seeing what she hoped and with so great patience waited for Heark and be ashamed thou murmuring and unthankful Christian that art not so much as she disadvantaged from the providence of God yet canst not tell how to be silent because thou wantest consolatory manifestations Vse 3. In the third place What you have heard in this discourse may be useful to us for Consolation 1. On our own behalf 2. On the behalf of others 1. As to our selves concerning our dark hours The people of God are ordinarily very jeolous of their Saviours love and very suspicious of their own sincerity they know not how to trust as the one nor be confident as to the other without the incouragement of comfortable reflections nor how to believe they shall go to Heaven if they go not to it in the fight of it The wise man saith a man knoweth not love nor hatred by all that is before him in this life so that none ought to determine of himself in this case from any external dispensatious of providence A Christian may be poor and afflicted and yet a favourite of God and as he ought not to judge himself from these more external dispensations so neither ought he to judge himself from the want of sensible manifestations to his inward man The child of God may walk in darkness Job David Heman Asaph all had their dark hours if therefore that be our lot yet this is no ground of discouragement to us no ground for any sad conclusion against our souls as to their best interests 2. Again what we have heard affords us a great comfort against the fear of death The Scripture calleth death The King of terrours Job 18. 14. And the Apostle saith that even Gods people through the fear of it are all their life time Heb. 2. 14. subject to bondage It is the common portion of all the Sons of men It is appointed for all men once to die and it is our great interest to arm our selves against the fears of it you have heard from the former discourse 1. That death is but a sleep 2. That it is not a perpetual sleep but a sleep from which we shall awake 3. That at our awaking out of that sleep we shall be satisfied with Gods likeness 1. I say first death is but a sleep It is not an annihilation of a man that misapprehensions of it make it terrible to a man in his natural capacity It is not to the child of God the securing of a person to the Judgement of the great day In this notion unbelievers have reason to consider it what is it then It is but a sleep This gentle notion
destroyed her That her dulness was no more to holy duties than to any thing else and as I conceived wholly occasioned through these natural causes 4. Lastly I told her it was manifest that God had not wholly withdrawn his quickening grace from her from her sense of her present distemperature and the quickening of her soul to the duty though she did not find such quickening in the duty as she desired she might truly say I sleep but my heart waketh Her heart was awake to a sense of her infirmity though she slept in respect of so full an ability to perform the duty with that life and chearfulness which she desired and had formerly experienced I further told her that Gods dearest servants under sad afflictions or partial desertions had wanted degrees of quickening grace How often doth David cry out Lord quicken me Psal 119. 25 88 154 107. Psal 143 11 c. It was some time before she could be convinced of this that it was an evidence of quickening grace for her soul under its heaviness to be kept awake with the sense of her duty and labour under the burthen of its infirmity but at last she was as to this also in some measure satisfied And now her adversary was inforced in a great measure to quit all his strong holds Some of these temptations returned but her judgement was established her faith strengthened and she was never after kept long in bondage to any of them for an hour or two or for a night she might be in captivity to some of them but one might easily discern from her adversaries shifting from one temptation to another that his strength was tired and he about to leave her soul 7 Tempt Yet after this could one have thought that her adversary should have offered any suggestion to her to have destroyed her self But as to this temptation to which her spiritual adversary had a great advantage from the inexpressible torturing pains which she felt she was not with more advantage violence and subtilty moved than through grace strengthened in the resisting and repelling of it she was not wont to parley with her adversary not affected to keep his counsels once and again she was thus solicited But as God inabled her with indignation to say Get thee behind me Satan so he gâ—ve her wisdom to discover it to her dearest friends and he quickly gave over this temptation For some time before the Lord translated this servant of his he had prepared her for her dissolution by creating in her strong desires to be dissolved that she might be with Christ She was much prone to suspect her own sincerity and would tell me That she sometimes feared lest she should desire death only to be freed from her pain but she hoped she did not desire it upon that account For some weeks before she died she had many fainting and Convulsion fits in every one almost of which we expected her change when she recovered out of any of them she would be almost angry at her souls recovery and usally her first word was Must I yet live longer I remember above six months before her death I being in Essex wrote a censolatory Letter to her Ladiship in which I had this passage amongst others Madam if ever we come in Heaven possibly we have many months or years Journey thither through this wilderness your Ladiship probably may be there in twelve months to that purpose when I returned her Ladiship thankâ— me for my Letter and told me it much refreshed her but she was troubled that I should think she had yet twelie months Journey to Heaven she chearsully told me she hoped she had a shorter voyage When the adversary of her salvation perceived he could not baffle her hope nor make the hand of her faith to shake but still she was resolved to keep her hold on Christ and that her soul was willing yea desirous to be dissolved and to be with Christ 8 Tempt He once more attempts to spoil her comfort and molests her with extreme fears of a bitter death and that her saith would then fail and her courage abate This I think was his last assault discerned by us her Ladiship was pleased to impart her fears to me I humbly besought her Honour that now she had prevailed against Satans horsemen she would not suffer her self to be trampled by his footmen I told her Ladiship 1. That it was probable that God would give her whom he had made a combatant with so long and sharp an affliction at last to depart in peace 2. That it was not probable that her dying pangs would be more sharp and violent than what she had already indured and was yet induring 3. That she had no reason to distrust that God who had strengthened her in so many hours and nights and daies of torturing pain for his assistance in the last hour which if it had more of weight and bitterness yet would have less in length 4. That he in whom she had trusted the Lord Jesus Christ had taken away the bitterness of death and payed a price for his Saints perseverance in it so that never any held out to the end who at last was left and failed in it 5. I defired her Ladiship to digest that text Heb. 2. 14 15. For as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also took part with them of the same that through death be might destroy him that had the power of death even the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-me subject to bondage Soon after this her distemperature yet heightened her pains grew exceeding great and so continued for some daies till about 4 daies before her death which yet it pleased God to inable her to endure with an admirable patience still she kept her hold fast in God professing to me even in her highest fits of distemper that the Lord was her hope and she had an hold on him and would not let it go let God do what he pleased with her and Satan suggest what he could unto her Some sour daies before her death it pleased God that her pains were in some degrees abated and now by this experience of Gods supportation of her in her last sad râ—turn of pain she grew confident that she should be able to stand in the hour of death The day before she died was to her a day of great reviving she had not of many weeks before been so chearful and free from pain At noon coming in as I was wont to pray with her I found her even ravished with the apprehensions of Gods goodness to her giving her some relaxation from pain and I hope I shall not forget how earnest she was in pressing me to praise the Lord with her and for her After prayer she continued very chearful yet on the sudden she laid hold on my hand and drew me to her so as I perceived she would whisper something in