abate and yet Noah by faith knew he should see them quite down at length though long first And surely through his faith these waters hasted away to their proper places for in the last day they abated eleven Cubits which abated but one in four Days before By this which hath been said we see that Faith looketh through matters temporal though never so dark and difficult Secondly Faith looketh through matters spiritual though never so dark and difficult As the power of natural corruption the sense of God's wrath c. Faith can look through the power of natural corruption than which what is a greater Mountain in the eye of an enlighten'd Soul O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.24 25. Faith hath a strong and clear eye that can look through such a big and black Mountain as the body of death is Satan and corrupt nature are called the strong man and his goods Mat. 12.29 and Christ spoils them both and this faith seeth when both natural corruption and Satan are at strongest But I see another Law in my members willing against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members O wretched man what a wretched state am I in And who can or who will deliver me out of this slavery and faith answers this hard question I thank God Christ can and will he that is mighty to save on whom help for me is laid To this may properly be added Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye your selves also to be dead indeed to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Faith doth reckon the body of fin dead and all the Powers of it because that is done by Christ's death to procure it a Cure that never failed What shall we then say if God be for us who can be against us or what can be against us But God be thanked ye were the servants of fin but now ye have obeyed from the heart the forme of Doctrin into which ye were delivered Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother warm me behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in that inward hidden part thou shalt make me to understand wisdome that is experience the power of grace for by wisdom is meant grace Psal 51 5.6 By wisdom is meant grace and by knowing of wisdom means experiencing of grace Which sheweth to us that he by faith saw thorow the power of natural corruption and all the grieving operations and prevalencies of it and that the state of his inward man which was so ungracious and which had so deceived him and betrayed him in that matter of Vriah should notwithstanding be brought to a better and a more sincere frame for time to come Hence it is likewise that the Apostle Paul speaks of the work of Mortification as done which yet is still but a doing as long as we are on this side Heaven as seeing by faith every accursed thing in his heart slain They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts That is certainly they shall The Beasts of the Field shall honor me the Dragons and Owles because I give this and that in the Wildeâ—ness Isa 43.20 That is Creatures by Nature as blind as Owles and yet as confident and fiery as Dragons these shall see and become as tame that a little Child may lead them Jacob blessed Ruben that went up to his Fathers Bed and Simeon and Levy which had been such Brethren in evil and this he did by faith saith the Author to the Hebrews which sheweth that he saw thorow those corruptions wherwith they were over-taken the one with lightness the other with passion and fury and that God would change all their hearts both of the one and of the other and make them gracious and doubtless in his light the Children come at length to see light and by his faith were helped to believe Secondly Faith looketh thorow the sense of God's wrath which is he darkest and most dreadful thing or all Christ did so and he did it by faith when he cryed My God my God c. David's sin in the matter of Bathsheba as much clouded his Soul as any thing and filled his soul with the sense of Gods displeasure and yet he saw thorow that dark Cloud by faith as you may see 2 Sam. 12.23 But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me By faith he saw God reconciled as to this foul business yea reconciled to the Childe that was smitten dead or else he would not have wiped his eyes and have said I shall go to him but would have continued weeping and after the death of the Child most of all as he did for Absalom whom he gave up for a castaway They made the figure or the Sun upon Joshua's Tomb to preserve the Memorial of that great Miracle of causing the Sun to stand still Therfore also the place of his dwelling was called Timnath Serath or Here 's which witâ— some Letters transpos'd is as you should say the sign of the Sun upon the Tomb of a believer you may make the figure of Gods face and favour for when he is in the belly of Hell as Jona yet from thence he espies a reconciled God and his own everlasting mercies sure though these here be all uncertain Wilt thou be angry with us for ever wilt thou draw out thy wrath to all generations wilt thou not revive us again that thy People may rejoyce in thee I will hear what the Lord God will say for he will speak peace to his People and to his Saints but let them not return again to folly Psal 85.8 The People of God were very low at this time even as in their Graves and Tombes and yet there is the figure of Gods countenance even on their Graves they saw peace when there was nothing but War Who will bring me into the strong City Who will bring me into Edom Wilt not thou O God which hadst cast us off and thou O Lord which didst not go forth with our Armies Psal 60.10 Thirdly Faith looks thorow matters National as well as Personal though never so dark and difficult Thou will save the affâ—â—â—cted People but wilt bring down high looks for thou wilt light my Candle the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness for by thee I have ran thorow a Troop Psal 18.27 This Esaluâ— was made saith the Title when David was deliver'd out of the hands of all his Enemies and out of the hands of Saul so that it hath a National reference and respect David saw thorow all National conflicts as to the godly that how much distressed soever they were yet that God would own them and save them For thou wilt save the afflicted People
this glory a defence will make States and Nations blessed Surely if we the Lord's People were but as zealous to use liberty and priviledge well as we are to have it it would come faster than it doth Let us look more into our selves and more up to God as the readiest way to all good These are the thoughts desires and prayers of Him who is Yours ever in the Lord. N. L. Rom. vii xxiv O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this Death THe great weight of sin and misery and the want of one to remove well both is the cause of this dolefull complaint O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this death or from this body of death as it is put in the Margent The weight of sin is groaned under in this terme of my Text body which is a word of quantity nomen quanâ—itatis and means the corruption of our nature to be a very extensive thing that the whole state of man in all the powers of his Soul and Body is depraved and vitiated and made utterly unfit to serve God and most fit to serve sin and Satan with all Organs and Instruments within and without Secondly This terme in my Text body is also Nomen qualitatis a word of quality that means the naturalness of this general pravity to us it lay with us as Mr. Rutherford saith in our Mothers Womb as Twins as one body lieth with another It took us fast by the heel in the Womb and we could never kick it off since And Thirdly For as much as there is this Epethite given to this Body calling it a Body of Death and a Body of this Death it notes not only the weight of sin but also of misery death being here put to signifie guilt and punishment Our depraved condition casteth us under all guilt and under all punishment that is actually under much misery and lyable every moment to all misery in Soul and Body in this World and in the World to come not only liable to death as 't is a dissolution of Soul and Body and all the sicknesses and diseases which prepare unto it but liable to this death that is a separation of both Soul and Body from God for ever Now to deliver us from the Body of this death a Body of corruption which exposeth us to such a death as this There no Man nor Angel is able no all the Angels did they joyn to do us service in this thing to change our natures to take off guilt to rectifie the Image of God which we have lost they cannot stir this Body as to any of these in the least nor any member of it they are not able to remove one sin or satisfie for the guilt of it nor draw one line an eye or an eye-brow or one finger of the new man This great weight of sin and misery and this utter impotency of all created strength to help out of it maketh the Apostle to cry out thus O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. There be several things very profitable to be observed in these words as First this That every one is in a wretched and miserable condition by nature Depraved in all powers of Soul and Body and exposed in both to the utmost displeasure of God O wretched man that I am c. He doth not mean himself alone but speaketh as personating the best of men and so consequently all men for that he did thus complain of a corrupt state who was so holy who else but hath cause much more to complain For this death which my Text speaketh of hath passed over all Men for as much as all Men have finned in Adam And this Apostle which speaketh but of himself in this case in my Text speaketh generally elsewhere That by nature we are the Children of wrath as well as others Eph. 2.3 Secondly This may be learned from these words That our state by nature is not a safe state to be rested in That our state as we come into this World is not such as we should be contented with but a state much to be complain'd of by the best and much cryed out upon and much strugled under to be freed from O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. Flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdome of God They which rest in their state as they come into this World and think that they attain to be moral and civil just and righteous to men and little or nothing complain of that which the Apostle doth here in my Text a Body of Death do not know their own danger Thirdly We may here learn That the best are not so good as they should be That the best in this World are much burdened and much endangered with natural corruption The Apostle Paul though regenerated found much of the rebellion of an evil nature of which he knew not how to get rid carrying him Captive to what he would not and so exposing him continually to the displeasure of God I know that in me that is in my Flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I finde not for the good I would I do not but the evil I would not that I do Corrupt nature as it easily besets us so it as easily overcomes us for any strength that we have of our own Such as so feelingly complain as Paul here doth will not easily be brought to drink in the Popish Doctrin of Perfection Fourthly We may here learn That our state in this World at best is but a wretched state for though a little grace be given unto us it is so over-matched with a great body of sin that we rather undo than do any thing that is good Is it not a wretched state to be so hampered with an ill Inmate Night and Day that when one pulls one way 'tother pulls stronger still the wrong way To see two Dogs coupled a little one and a great one What a woful condition is the little one in how he is pulled and haled up and down this way and that way not which way he would go but which way the great one will go or else he grins his teeth on the little one and bites him and abuseth him much just so is the condition of the most regenerate in this World And therefore he that is best and hath best in this World can say no better of it than he findes and daily feels that his condition is but a wretched condition O wretched man that I am c. The Point which I would stand on Doct. is this That we all ought to be deeply sensible of natural corruption Or we all ought much to lay to heart our fallen state by nature The Apostle Paul was a holy Man yet very sensible of much unholiness a body of it of which he was
matter Thus we are by nature of no more reason than a wilde Ass and yet as unturnable as that Creature The old Man is proud and wilful yea presumptuous yea of enmity and despight if resisted as Lions and Dragons are spitting their some and poison as Cats in the face of all that contradict 'T is said of Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he became head-long Act. 1.18 He was so in his life for he would on in his work of betraying Christ though convinced by Christ's own preaching and told to his Face that he should betray him And so are the ways of corrupt nature carried head-long He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the froward are carried head-long Joh. 5.13 And all this continually as the Blackamore that cannot change his skin No place better sets out the bad property of natural corruption then that Gen. 6.5 God saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil and only evil and that continually For such a visible as well as audible Sermon as Noah preached of 120 Years long would surely have turned them from their sins had they not been desperately obstinate and so continually of which God was sensible and complain'd and was grieved at his heart that he made man And shall God so much lay to heart the depraved state of a man and man himself not lay it to heart at all Fourthly We should be deeply sensible of natural corruption in the consequence of it It is a body of death a body of this death that is it disposeth us to all the wrath of God both in this World and in the World to come And therefore doth the Apostle cry out here in my Text as one utterly loft O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me c. And they likewise who were prickt at heart by the Apostle Peter's preaching with the sense of their sinful state Cryed out Men and Brethren What shall we do to be saved Which are Scriptures of purpose to shew that we should be deeply sensible of the evil consequence of corrupt nature as it will destroy Soul and Body Judas is called a Childe of Perdition and so are we called Children of wrath by nature that is such as are not under mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not pitied as the expression is rightly rendered in the Queens translation 1 Pet. 2.10 Now how are Malefactors affected with the consequence of their evil way when they are going to the Gallows especially when they have no hope of mercy when they be not under talk of mercy and pardon Now our natural state is death without all mercy that is the sentence pronounced upon it if the state so abide a carnal state it is death without all mercy and every carnal man should speak of himself as the Apostle Peter doth as one not under mercy or as one that hath not yet obtained mercy but lies lyable as a Prisoner condemned every hour to Execution I take it that their attonement day spokeâ— of Levit. 23.27 Wherein they were to afflict their Souls upon pain of death had principal reference to their state of sin by nature that body of sin which they brought into the World with them which exposed them and us all unto death and all misery in this World and that to come and if it be so then you have the Point in hand proved and the reason of it why we should be deeply sensible of corrupt nature as well as of all that flowes from it because God commands it and commands it upon great penalty We die for it else unless we afflict our Souls under the sense of our fallen state and Gods displeasure belonging thereunto that Soul which doth not so well die for it their afflicting day was a day to go to the Root and to cast salt and brine upon the springs of wickedness which if they did not the wrath of God seized on their Roots Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade Men saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.11 We perswade Men. To what Answ To look well about them that they be not found in their carnal state when Christ cometh to Judgment So that the deepest sense of this thing should be upon us that can possibly be as if we were now going before the Judgment of quick and dead and all in our sins or as if we were going to the Wedding of a great Prince and had not one rag on our backs to cover our nakedness Vse I Learn from hence that if we should be sensible of natural corruption then of all actual transgressions which are but as streams from this Fountain If we should mourn over the evil Womb then over all the evils which this VVomb brings forth And yet what twins and what tens and what great man-sins and provocations doth this evil VVomb bring forth every where at this day and yet who lays to heart either Mother or Children I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no Man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done every one turns to his course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel Jer. 8.6 Vse 2 Woe and alas how much are the most liberal reproved who are past feeling as to both natural corruption and all actual transgressions yea even the fowlest and greatest Giving themselves over to lasciviousness to work all iniquity with greediness and drink in all abominations as the Fish doth Water So far from sense of all sin either in the heart or in the life that all such frame of spirit is scoffed at If a man do but cast the least discountenance on the greatest sin What you are a Phanatick and ready as Swine to turn and tear and rent such as cast such Pearls before them as wholesome and seasonable reproofs and are as the wilde Ass that snuffeth up the wind and in the heat of her lust cannot be turned away Febris accedit the mad Feavour will and must have its course though Heaven or Hell bear upon breaking off or going on They say in the pride and stoutness of their hearts to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant To talk of a body of death Lord what strange language would this be now adays and if a Man should chance to sigh as the Apostle O wretcheà man that I am What will become of me that Hellish cordial I doubt would be readily administred God dam-me thou wilt do well enough Never was it such a God-daring time for wickedness If it be such a God-damning time as persons pâ—ay Hell will be full of Souls indâ—ed for many Ages surely as this Men have made their hearts as an Adamant that they may not repent and seared their Consciences with a hot Iron that they may be sin-proof and not fall before the greatest wickedness nor the greatest judgment of God That capital curse I fear is inflicted
Fountain open for sin and for uncleanness is very precious to that Leper which indeed and from his heart cryeth out unclean Vse 4 The last Use of this Doctrin is for Exhortation Be at this practise with this Apostle of panting and groaning under the Body of Death when the poor Woman with the Bloody Issue saw that she was not hid she came trembling to Christ Luk. 8.47 and confessed her condition and how long it had been so with her and what ineffectual means she had used and yet wasted all on them Though your corrupt nature be hid from the eyes of men and from your own eyes much to much yet not in the least hid from the eyes of Christ and therefore come trembling to him and confess all your vileness to him as far as you are able but alas what a hard task do I mention 〈◊〉 and how long you have layne in this forlorne state and do as Beggars by the High-ways sides pull off all Plaisters from every soar and take heed of hiding any sin with Fig-leaves as your Father Adam let the great Physician see and know all every putrefied soar that is not bound up nor mollified with oyntment and who knoweth but his eye may move his heart towards you to pity you and to play the good Samaritan and to dress your filthy souls and soars and to anoint them and mollifie them This I think is the meaning of the Prophet Isa 42.18 Hear ye deaf and look ye blinde that ye may see This is a proper work for every sinner to be at to bleed and mourn inwardly for the Fountain of sin that is in him and to bewail the many springs of wickedness which boil up bad matters Night and Day in his Soul to the grieving of the Holy Spirit Hearken to me ye that follow after righteousness ye that seek the Lord look to the roots whence ye were hewen Isa 51.1 to the hole of the Pit whence ye are digged meaning Abraham who was an Idolater and dead in trespasses and sins as well as others The Body of Death is the hole of the Pit out of which cometh all the Frogs and Locusts which crawle and swarm in your lives Many Professors not bewailing this well and throughly as they should build a brave House to look on but on the Sand which with storms falleth and the fall thereof is great The time of loss is to be lookt into and considered Damni dati tempus inspicitur And how old is our loss of God's Image How inveterate is our wound How old is the old Man as old as Methusalah The old man came into the World with you and a Miracle it is that it had not with its great weight like a Mill-stone about your Necks pressed you to your place long ago yea the old man came into the World with this world that now is and with the other world that is drowned and it will bring this to the Fire at last and from burning to burning it is very proper work to be casting tears upon such sparks as will burn to the lowest Hill Secondly 'T is needful work this to know every Man the Plague of his own heart To know it that is to sigh and groan under it as here the Apostle Paul doth When Daniel had received that sad Vision of Nebuchadnezar's ruin the lopping down of that tall Tree which reached to Heaven and the sad condition of a beast which he was to be cast into Daniel remained speechless for one hour and his thoughts troubled him and he was not able to say a word to the King but sighed and lookt sad Dan. 4.19 And an hour more it may be he would have stood sad and sighing before the King and silent if the King had not forced matter from him And this carriage was very needful to set home things upon the King's heart and to make him look about him well And would I could so preach to all you this Day and in this place who are in your natural condition If I were silent now for one hour more and did only sigh over all you carnal and unregenerate Men and Women and look sad and sometimes mourn would it not be very needful as hearts are now heardened well and deeply to affect you Certainly it would so make you look about you well before the great Lopper death come 'T is very needful work for you and me to be at this oft-bewailing our fallen state and the body of this death because we are become as Nebuchadnezar by his fall Beasts that perish even we that were in honour in higher honour than Nebuchadnezar was before his fall We are become as Beasts in some respects and much worse than Beasts in other respects We are in this state without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the World which he calls upon every one to remember Ephes 2.11 12. Wherefore remember that ye in times past were thus and thus c. Thirdly This is to go to the Root of our Disease to lay an Axe to the Root The Apostle was wise when he fell upon the main body of wickedness in him Son of man cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and say Thus saith the Lord God unto all Jerusalem thy Birth and thy Nativity is of the Land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother an Hittite and thy Navel was not cut nor salted c. Ezek. 16.2 3. You cannot know your abominations as you should that is be affected with them as you should unless you look to the Root from whence they all spring and fix your eyes and your hearts there well according to this wholesome instruction of the Lord. We are by nature Amorites and Hittites as wilde as any Children of wrath as well as others and in us i.e. In our nature dwelleth no good but the seeds of all wickedness and until we thus go to the bottom we do in our humiliations but skin over soares and not search and cleanse them well This this Apostle calleth for 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven what a deal a-do there was to search out leaven and to get totally rid of it among the Jews much is said of it the Apostle would have us as industrious about corrupt nature which he calleth old leaven in all our humiliations wherein there should be soul-examinations that we should fall close upon our evil hearts and state within and smite upon them and cry out much upon them Damni dans causam damnum ipsum dedisse videtur The old leaven is the cause of all the sins and miseries we daily fall into This this therefore we should especially bewail and labour about to pluck up the root of bitterness Fourthly There is no dealing with any actual sin without effectual dealing with the body of sin To go to lave a Pool and not first to deal with the
Spring as it is foolish so it is an endless work How can a clean thing come out of an unclean If the heart remain still filthy How is it possible to make the life holy Hence it is that the heart is so much called for to be cleansed and that sinck to be well lookt after because there is the seat of natural pravity and the very Core of all corruption Cut off branches as you would lop a Tree cut them off all and leave the roots through the sent of mud they will grow as Job saith every occasion and temptation so long as the nature remains unrenewed and unlookt to will make sin break out afresh and the Dog will return to his own vomit The Queens Daughter is therefore called upon to forget her Father's House or else she would be hankering to be there again They which came out of Egypt in body and did not come out spiritually as to their souls how unsteadfast were they and their righteousness as the morning dew and in their hearts went back again to Egypt If any Israelite having taken in War a Heathen Woman and beautiful that he had a desire to marry he was first to bring her home to his House and shave her Head and pare her Nails and was to put off the raiment of her captivity and then she was to bewail her Father and her Mother a full Moneth c. That is her Heathenish state wherein born and bred she was to bewail and taught by this paring of her Nails and changing the Raiment of her Captivity to look after deliverance from her inward captivity and for a new state a new Father and Mother and all new her hands yea her very Nails and all this but little enough to make her forget her Father's House and to forsake old haunts and customs and ways Who knoweth not but that Nails and Hairs and such excrements are most apt and ready to grow again and yet not more apt and ready than sin is though pared and shaved if it be not dealt throughly with in the heart and in the root Finally Without this deep sense of our natural condition Christ will not be precious to us nor indeed desirable who is the only Physician for this great cure We shall be righteous in our own eyes as the Pharisee and not care for any righteousness else but our own though we may talk of faith and of the righteousness of Christ as many Christians do We shall be as Country-people which are whole as a Fish and laught at all Physicians Till the Apostle Paul was smitten down from Heaven and his eyes opened to see this body of death of which he complains in my Text he was alive and brisk and who but he for a holy and a happy man But when the Commandement came in Authority upon him which he thought he had perfectly kept sin revived and he died 'T is the poor and blind and wretched and naked that Christ counsels to come and buy of him Eye-salve and Garments to cover their nakedness Rev. 3.17 18. As we are Proselites i.e. Comers to Christ so we are cured of our spiritual Leprosie and such Proselites we will never be but as we see and feel our lost state by nature and our great necessity of him Who looks after the things which they do not need Ho he that thirsteth c. and such will prise Milk and Water I cannot get a House in this Town wherein to leave drink-silver in my Masters name saith Mr Rutherford There is no sale for Christ in the north meaning at Aberdeen he is like to lie long on my hand ere any accept him Thus it is with all unsensible and unheart-broken sinners though at the brink of Hell yet will not come unto Christ that they may be saved from their sins and from the wrath of God FINIS THE REMEDIE OF NATURAL Corruption Being A SERMON ON Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. vii xxv I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. THese words are an Answer to a sad Question the Question is in the words foregoing Who shall deliver me from the body of this death v. 24. That is from natural corruption the guilt and the dominion and Power of it This Apostle was at an utter loss in himself and as to all others and then God revealed an able Physician to him as these words of my Text tell us I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is revealed to Sinners which dispair of all help in themselves or in any other Creature Such will thank God for him as here this wretched Man doth Mr. Rutherford speaketh of a sorrow that hath no eyes This Apostle's sorrow was such for a time Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death He knew not of any deliveâ—er and then God became eyes to the blind and helped the sorrowful sinner and the blind sinner to eyes to see a Saviour and an All-sufficient one I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When Isaac was at a loss for an offering and Abraham also when the sorrow of both had no eyes God was sight and help to them both Here is the wood but where is the Sacrifice i. e. One to die My Son God will provide And he did so Donatum non petitum gratius est saith the Civilian A gift not asked is the most free So did God provide that offering for Isaac and so did he provide this offering for this Apostle and wretched Man and so he doth for every wretched Man which hath the benefit of him he is Donatum non petitum to every fallen Son of Adam that is raised by him He was found of him that asked not after him Secondly This may be further observed in these words That God doth not barely shew us the means of our good the proper means of our Souls good but enable us to make effectual use of them to that end If I should paraphrase upon this Text it would be to this effect Wretched man I am burdened much with a body of sin and death which is so heavy that I think oft it will one time or other sink me to the lowest Hell and I am as helpless as to all â—thers as impotent and miserable in my self O doubly wretched man that I am and am like to be who will who can deliver me Yet I have some help shewed to me I thank God but no body else he hath in my blinde and wretched conditiâ—n shewed me an able Physician by name Jesus Christ our Lord anointed and allowed under his own hand to help all such wretched Creatures as I am and he doth enable me to make use of him to my burdened Souls ease and rest This Scripture and such like shew that there is full and effectual relief for all burdened sinners who are ready to sink under the burden of their sin and misery Doct. The Doctrin
which I observe to prosecute from these words is this That Christ is the proper remedy of natural corruption I thank God through Jesus Christ c. He whom God the Father hath sealed sanctified and sent into this World for this end to Cure natural corrupâ—ion is Jesus Christ our Lord as the Apostle here calls him The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty unto the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound Isa 61.1 By Captives and such as are in Prison is meant sinners in their unregenerated condition who are under the power and slavery of sin and carried Captive by the evil one at his will and by broken hearted and poor he means such as are deeply affected and afflicted with the body of death natural corruption in the guilt and pollution of it these is Christ anointed with the Spirit of the Lord to relieve and help to bind them up and all their wounds and putrified soares and to heal them and to preach liberty to them and to bring them into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God and such as are shut up under the power of sin and Satan as in a Prison to break down these strong holds and to open the everlasting Doors to himself the King of Glory to make a Prison a Palace a Slave a Son and Heir with him of all with this compare Isa 32.2 And a man shall be a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as Rivers of Water in a dry place as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land and the eyes of them that see shall not be dim and the eares of them that hear shall hearken the heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge and the Tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak plainly Men in their natural condition may be in a calm as long as the strong Man ruleth all is at peace but these will be in a tempest and a terrible one first or last when their Consciences come to be convinced as the Apostles here was And then who is able and who is appointed to allay these storms To this the Prophet answers A man shall be a hiding place and a covert from wind and rain but so a Man that he is also God or else he could do nothing at these winds and storms That these things are thus spiritually to be understood appears by the next words v. 3 4. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim c. So that it means heart-storms and tempest and heart-help and Christ God-Man that is to be the helper and the great Covert in these storms and tempests and the great Rock for shade where the poor Soul is so scorched with the heat of God's wrath that he is ready to faint and die Blindness and deafness and rashness they all speak one thing the ill state we are in by nature blind deaf dumb and yet rash and mad and confident enough and the Man Christ Jesus who is called Emanuel God with us he is the appointed curer of all these Maladies This is a proof of the Point in hand in general I will descend to particulars of our fallen state and shew you that Christ is the appointed and proper remedy of all the diseases of our Souls There are three things complain'd of and supposed in the Apostles complaint in my Text one is a body of death that is our natural depraved state which is the filth of sin Secondly He complains of the Body of this Death that is the obligation of sin to the wrath of God temporal and eternal which we call the guilt of sin These two are expressed in his complaint Now there is a third thing supposed in these complaints of a bad state which is that he would fain have a better or else he would not have complained of this no more than other unregenerated Sinners do Now as to all these three Christ is the proper and appointed remedy and relief of miserable and wretched Man First As to the Body of Death i e. as to the fiâ—th of sin the depravation of our nature of which I spake in the other Sermon Christ is the remedy of this root and branch see Isa 51.9 10 11. Awake awake put on strength O Arm of the Lord Awake as in the ancient days in the Generations of old Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon Art thou not it which hast dryed up the Sea and the Waters of the great deep that hast made the depths of the Sea a way for the ransomed to pass over Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head and they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away Now put all these borrowed words into plain English and what deep must this mean the drying up of which maketh the way to Zion where everlasting joy is obtained This deep must necessarily mean the bottomless Gulf of natural corruption shadowed fitly by the deep that hath in many parts no bottom and as Christ was he that went before our Fathers and dryed up that deep Sea and made it a way to go through to Zion and to the holy Land So it is he that dryeth up the deep Sea of sin in our nature and so maketh way to the holy state and the holy Church the true Zion in which is everlasting joy Now forasmuch as corrupt nature puts forth under some chief head and grand lust which is as King to all the Châ—ldren of pride as Pharaoh and his Princes to all the Body of Egypt Who fighteth against these Ans Christ He is remedy for root and branch of the Body of Death Art not thou it which hath cut Rahab and wounded the head of the Dragon The Prophet speaketh still in allusion to Pharaoh and his Princes which he calls Crokâ—dile or Dragon that is a Sea-Dragon wherewith Egypt abounded This Sea of natural corruption hath some Sea-Dragons great Soul-devouring Monsters swimming and playing in it And who deals with these Ans He that dries up the deep that is Christ Art not thou he that hath cut Rahab and wounded the head of the Dragon This Text leadeth us by the hand to that first promise made to Adam The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head which means our state of sin as headed and organised by Satan through any particular prevailing lust whatsoever our state of sin is there spoken of as headed by Satan who organiseth the old man as Christ doth the new And this surely is that great slaughter and the Towers falling which the Prophet especially pointeth at upon the fall of which the light of the Moon becometh as the light of the Sun and the light of
the Sun as seven days Isa 30.26 For the saith they shall be truly penitent and cast away their Idols i.e. their dearest lusts as a menstruous cloath saying Get ye hence vers 22. And the slaughters of all our Idols and the Mould wherein they are cast to wit our corrupt nature these are the great slaughters and high imaginations and proud affections boiling over yet subdued these are the high Towers and strong Holds falling It was Christ that said to Man and Woman Let them have dominion over-the Fish in the Sea and Fowls in the Heavens and over all the Works of God's hands So it is Christ that saith to fallen man let him have dominion over sin and Satan that leads it let it be by what cunning strong temptation soever let him rule over the Devil and all the works of his hands and let him put all under his Feet Secondly As to the body of this death i.e. as to the guilt of sin that whereby as a Transgressor of God's will Man stands bound over to the Judgment of the great Day to Eternal wrath and condemnation Christ is the proper remedy as to this also to cancil every bond and hand-writing of the Law and Conscience against us and to make us stand spotless before the Throne of the great and most Holy God See Zech. 13.1 In that Day there shall be a Fountain opened to the House of David and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness By sin is meant guilt which Christ taketh away by his blood and uncleanness means the filth of our corrupt nature which Christ purgeth by his Spirit which is a Spirit of Judgment and Burning Of this I have spoken in the last head I was upon I have now only to shew you that Christ cureth the body of this death that is the guilt which we continually contract by our corrupt state and the obligation which this maketh to the wrath of God both in this World and in the World to come and setteth us in favour above That Christ doth this for fallen Man see Dan. 9.24 Seventy weekâ— are determined upon thy People and upon thy holy City to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the Vision and the Prophesie c. And to anoint the most Holy c By the Transgression here mentioned is meant the Jews killing of Christ and wishing his blood upon them and by sealing up the Vision and the Prophesie means the accomplishing of what God had shewed this Prophet and other Prophets concerning the Incarnation and death of Christ At such a time he shall come in Man's nature and at such a time he shall die and by his death make an end of wickedness that is as to the reigning power of it and as to the obliging power of it For as if this Prophet had said He shall by his death satisfie the Justice of God and dying as such a spotless Lamb and Sacrifice as one that hath fulfilled all God's wills as one indeed after his own heart he shall impute all this as theirs who shall believe on him and so procure their pardon the favour of God and an everlasting righteousness and well-pleasingness before God and so make an end of guilt utterly that if it be sought for it shall no where be found The Apostle Peter also confirmeth this that Christ cureth the body of this death i. e the guilt of fin For Christ suffered once for sin the Just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.12 That he might bring us to God that is That he might reconcile us to and bring us into favour with God Thirdly It is supposed by the complaint of this wretched state that the Apostle would have a better His complaint of sin and depravation and the loss of God's Image supposeth that he would have holiness and God's Image lost restored now as to this also Christ is the proper remedy as to destroy the old Man so to restore the new as it is he that binde the strong man and spoileth all his goods so it is he that creates the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2.11 He it is that sanctifieth and we are they which are sanctified and all this is of one by the same Blood and Spirit by which as such an undertaker of our sin he sanctified himself by the merit and efficacy of the same he sanctifieth us who are not sinners meerly by imputation and deputation as he was but inherently Christ's Blood and Spirit is the Laver of regeneration and the Fullers Soap that maketh us white and changeth our black-more skin The Earth was without form and voâ—d tohu bohu and the Spirit of Christ fluttered upon it and brought it in a little time to such a glorious new thing than what it was in its first Creation So it is the same Spirit of Christ that fluttereth upon our Souls which by nature are anoâ—her Chaos and maketh them a new Creation To this I think the Apostle pointeth 2 Cor. 4.6 From whom I borrow this Metaphor But God who causes the light to shine out of darkness c. It was to Christ that the Father spake Come let us make Man in our Image and it is he and the Father that work hitherto by the Holy Ghost that speak one to another Come let us quicken this dead Soul and make him stand up from the dead and bear our Name in his Forehead our similitude and likeness When the Prophet Ezekiel had said that David should be their Prince for ever meaning Christ he further saith in the Person of this David to wit Christ The Heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctifie Israel when my Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever more Ezek. 37.25.28 compared It is this Zerubbabel's hand that laid the Foundation and it is his hand that finisheth it and therefore the charge is that none despise the little small beginings of it though never so small As Christ can remove guilt and filth in one day which is much rubbish indeed So he can make a new Creature as soon if he please He made the Thief a new man quickly and carried him to Heaven with Him that Day He made Him and finished Him and Housed Him and all in a Day He made but a Days work nay but a few Houres work to finish Grace and Glory These things of the new state doth Christ and so as not to be undone He shall not fail or be discouraged till he have set Judgment in the Earth and the Iles shall wait for his Law Isa 42 4. There be many discouraging things in the removal of natural corruption as in any work I know enough
his bosom then Christ doth the helping of poor wretched burdened sinners the binding up and mollifying their maladies Some are bound fast enough to a business by their word but not at all by their affection and these though they keep their word yet it is in such a rough churlish way as is much discouraging but it is not so with Christ because he is under the bond of his bowels and affections as well as under the bond of his word and therefore trust in him that your case shall be helped and very carefully and compassionately helped Finally Confider the danger of not believing in this able One. You become debtors to the Law to fulfill it and debtors to your own desperate wretched condition as not self murderers to deliver your selves from the body of death in which you are and from the wrath of God to which this obligeth you You frustrate the Ordinance of God which he hath anointed and appointed for your good You cast your selves under the Covenant of works as that young Man which said to Christ What shall I do to be saved As if he could have saved himself and so made himself a debtor to fulfill the Law and Christ put him upon it seeing he would that way be saved and so he will serve you and them Confider whether you be able to keep the Law in every point and so restore your own state some are at the Doctrin of Perfection but they make void the Gospel and Christ and will as the young Man miâ—s perfection in one thing at least one thing will be wanting and he that fails in one Point is guilty of all and will bring the curse of the breach of the whole Law upon him Confider that by nature you are the Children of wrath and Transgressors from the Womb and how soon may the curse of this state be executed Wherefore I conclude all with the repetition of the promise again to you Isa 25.6 7 8. And I beseech you heed it well and take hold of it for your good And in this Mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make a Feast to all People a Feast of fat things a Feast of Wine on the Lees of fat things full of marrow and he will destroy in this Mountain the face of the covering cast over all People and the Vail that is spread over all Nations and he will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe all teares from all Faces and the rebuke of his People shall he take from all the Earth for the Lord hath spoken it and let me add his heart and soul is in it Jer. 3â— 41 What is the Vail that covereth all Nations Ans The Vail of natural corruption the Body of Death as the Apostle here calleth it and as this Prophet in this place calls it Death and saith it shall be swallowed up in victory yea he hath engaged to wipe all teares from all Mourners eyes who sigh and take on as this Apostle because of their wretched condition and to give them victory over the body of this death and the triumphs of this great victory in this World or in the World to come Comfort your selves all ye that groan under the Body of Death with these words FINIS SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS OF DEATH Being A SERMON ON Isaiah 57.1 The righteous Man perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and merciful Men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Isaiah 57.1 The righteous Man perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and merciful Men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come THe general Mortality of Man-kind and the Holy Use that should be made thereof by all the living are the two principal things of this verse Death takes away the wicked and doubtless the wicked and others too should lay this to heart for Death is no partial Visitor if it fetch off one wicked Man and send him to his place it will fetch down another nothing is more naturally the wages of wickedness than death and yet no worse enemy to any wicked Man than death therefore one wicked Man should be startled much at the death of another But Death sometimes taketh away all Men and then all Men bad and good should be much moved then all should lay to heart this i.e. should be sensible of their sin and the displeasure of God and speedily make peace with him by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that so present evils and also future presaged by present strokes may be turned away which thing this People could not be stirred up unto which was the reason of the complaint of this Prophet he preached the Funerals of the dead the best dead to the living good and bad but no man laid it to heart that is not held themselves deeply concerned to look about them to search their Souls to set House and Heart in order to die but kept on every one in his wonted pace of sin and wickedness and formality in Religion and so fell most of them in the common calamity The Doctrines which may be observed in these words are these First That God sometimes by common calamity taketh away the good as well as the bad Moses and Aaron as well as the mixed Multitude which murmured Did the Lord take off and would not let them come in to the good Land The righteous Man perisheth as if the Prophet had said the Lord strikes more mortally than any one is well aware he plucks up the stakes in the Hedg he pulls down the Pillars of the whole Nation and yet Men do not fear that all will fall about their Ears Hence it is that another Prophet calls upon the best People to look about them and to labour to be much better yet gives them but a may be for their safety Seek meekness all ye meek of the Earth ye which have wrought his judgments seek meekness seek righteousness it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's wrath As if the Prophet had said I cannot ensure the life of the best Man because God sometimes destroyeth the righteous with the wicked for ends best known to himself This should make us all fear and tremble much in this dying Day and to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure and to be getting Oyl into our Lamps yea and to keep them trim'd and to stand guirt and ready to go in with the Bride-groom if call'd at Mid-night by the destroying Angel that is now abroad A Second Doctrin that may be observed in these words is this That gracious Men and merciful are the likeliest to scape best in times of common calamity The Prophet seems to note it in these words of my Text as very severe Justice that gracious and merciful Men should not be distinguished from others in the Day of evil The righteous Man perisheth and
meet to take the Childrens bread and to give it to Dogs By which words Christ would insinuate more particularly to her what the state of us Gentiles is by nature as Dogs most fierce against Sheep oppoâ—â—â— to all good and inclined as Dogs to all ill and mischievous qualities and ways By which words it is evident that Christ would have this Woman well acquainted with the being of her natural condition that there is such a great mischief befallen us that we are by nature rather Dogs and Bears and Wolves and Tygars than Men than holy Men as we were created and that this poor Woman did make this use of Christ's Doctrin appears by her reply And she said truth Lord yet the Dogs eat off the Crumbs which fall from their Masters Table Mat. 15.24 25 26 27. Truth Lord I am more like a Dog or any Brute than what I should be and by my sin become as the Beast which perisheth 1. Ignorant darkned in my cogitations profane alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in me Add to this Rev. 3.17 Where we find great blame is cast upon the Church of Laodicea that she said She was rich and increased in goods and needed nothing and knew not that she was poor and blind and wretched which is the word of my Text. and naked Did not know this and that 1. Did not deeply lay to heart that by nature they were corrupt and in a wretched condition and destitute of what-ever should make them truly blessed truly rich and truly wise and truly happy they were vainly puffed up it seems with some few gifts and parts and not aware of the pravity of all and of the whole that Man is by nature and therefore proud as otherwise could not choose but be as a Peacock of his Feathers whil'st he looketh only on his Tail and not on his Legs Secondly We should be deeply sensible of natural corruption in the vastness of its Beeing as it is a whole Body a great and large corporation of all wickedness defiling and destroying all so was Paul Who shall deliver me from this Body c. If thine eye be evil the whole Body shall be filled with darkness That is saith the margent If thy affections be corrupt and given to this World If a sinners affections be naught Set upon this World and any of the lusts of it he is under the weight and slavery of the whole body of corruption Mat. 6.23 And this doth Christ preach to make sinners sensible of the extensive beeing of natural corruption that it is a little leaven which hath leavened the whole lump The Apostle was sensible of natural corruption as in the beeing of it so in the extensiveness of its beeing he was sensible of concupiscence that Fire which is in the nature to evil and he was sensible of the extensiveness of this evil All manner of concupiscence Rom. 7.7 8. I had not known lust saith the margent concupiscence that is I had not been prickt at heart for it and deeply sensible of it but that the convincing power of the Lord helped on this work But sin taking occasion by the commandment stirred and irritated this lust and set all on fire wrought in me all manner of concupiscence that is wicked lusts and heart-burnings Angels appeared in white to shew the purity of their nature say the Dutch on Act. 1.10 And we should be always in black in mourning to shew the impurity of our nature in the vastness of it for from the crown of the Head to the sole of the Foot we are nothing but bruises and putrifying sores which are not dressed at all nor bound up but all open and running and stinking in every ones Nosthrils of which in bodily matters we are deeply sensible All these metaphors are made into an allegory on purpose to make fallen man sensible of the extensiveness of his misery by his Fall that he is bruised all over in his Head in his Breast in his Legs from top to bottom no part sound and incorrupt The Scripture speaketh of being born in sin and of being altogether born in sin the one speaketh the being of our fallen state of which we should be sensible and the other speaketh of the vastness and extensiveness of the being of which also we should be sensible Thou art altogether born in sin Joh. 9.34 They spake truth though they did it not to a good end Yet the words in themselves are true and have a good scope that we might be made sensible of our fallen state and how great it is how great our fall is how it hath bruised and putrified and spoiled all Thirdly We should be deeply sensible of natural corruption in all the properties of it As First The aversness of it to all good If natural corruption were a meer impotency to all good it were not so evil But it is an aversation that a body can never go to meal with a stomack how sensible is any one of this as a great misery This is our case spiritual we can never go to pray to hear to meditate to any holy duty but our hearts hang off and hang this way and that way that we goÌ„ to Heaven as if we were going to Hell Should we not be deeply sensible of this that we are still a silly Dove without heart to all that is heavenly The poor Marriners were very sensible that they found one in their Ship which untrimmed it Jon. 1. This Man though a good man yet when the Ship and he tossed and like all to be drowned he was so drowsie that he could not hold open his eyes like the Disciples of Christ when their Master was ready to be leized on yet were drowsie and could not watch and pray Should not such an indisposedness to good if the body of death had no other bad property deeply be bewailed I have heard some complain and indeed it should be for a lamentation that sometimes even in this duty of hearing have not been able to hold open their eyes and yet at all common business as well awake as can be The Church was called upon to this and that Divine duty and she had put off her Coat and knew not how to put it on natural corruption hath this ill property never ready nor dressed and fitted to any good and yet at the same time ready and dressed to any thing that is evil as wise to this as foolish to any thing that is good The natural man or animal man is a Soul too low still for any matter divine which thing alone if there were no other evil property in natural corruption should be deeply laid to heart A Second property of natural corruption is perversness Vain Man would be wise though he be born as the wilde Ass-colt Job 11.12 This Zophar spake of Job as seeing him perverse as he thought but he was right enough as to the thing though not as to Job in this
on many of judicial hardness of heart Isa 6.10 11 12. Make the heart of this People fat and their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed Then I said Lord how long and he answered till the Cities be wasted without Inhabitants and the Houses without Men and the Land be utterly desolate and the Lord have removed Men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the Land This will be a strong reproof indeed if this should be the reproof upon us and yet very pleasing Vse 3 Try your selves by this Doctrine Are you deeply sensible of natural corruption If so then it is your only burden Of all perils and distresses though Paul had many did the Apostle complain as here of the Body of Death Do you any where read him say O wretched man that I am I am poor I am in Prison Who shall deliver me out of these sad conditions Alas he made nothing of hunger of nakedness of stripes of deaths oft but gloried in them But the body of this death that made him fetch deep sighs O wretched man that I am he never called himself so for any bodily evil whatsoever The Israelites were enjoyn'd when they came with their first fruits to make a solemn confession of their great unworthiness of God's great bounty and goodness A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few Deut. 26.5 If you be deeply sensible then this is the allay in all your glory still in all your mirth this is the qualm that comes over your heart that makes it sad what a wretch ready to perish came I into this holy and good Land And why should such a dead Dog as I be treated thus with grace which abuse all that is bestowed on me Thus you look back to the hole of the Pit out of which digged daily and sigh if deeply sensible Secondly If you be deeply sensible of natural corruption then are you very vile in your own eyes I am more vile saith Agar than any man David calls himself a Beast and the Cananitish Woman owns her self to be a Dog and if Christ had called her a Viper a Toad a Monster no doubt she would have owned it If I wash me with Snow water and make me never so clean yet shall thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own cloaths shall abhor me Job 9.31 If ye be indeed sensible of your naughty state by nature ye are Persons of low eyes ye think the Cloaths ye wear too good for you because ye defile them the Meat you eat too good for you because to the unclean all things are unclean and the Earth too good to bear you because you are such a great load of filth such a going Dunghill If ye be indeed sensible of natural corruption ye are poor in Spirit unworthy that Christ or any good thing should come under your root This Apostle means all this when he calls himself a wretch labouring under a Body of Death The Leper under the Law and the Person with a Running Issue how low and loathsome were they in their own eyes loath and ashamed to come neer nay to come in fight of any one Thirdly If ye be deeply sensible of natural corruption then ye are as this Apostle in my Text at an utter loss in your selves what to do for deliverance from the guilt and power of it O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me I am utterly to seek to save my self so is all the Creation I cannot deliver my self and who of all the Creatures of God in Heaven or in Earth that can deliver me To which of the Saints or Angels shall I turn So the Prophet Isaiah saw himself at an utter loss upon the sense of his vile condition Then said I woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips Isa 6.5 He saw no way but one with him I am cut off So is the reading in the Margent I am gone and lost utterly now the holy God hath seen what an unholy wretch I am he hath got a view of me and a sent of me and surely he will think on it for ever what an ugly sight he saw and what a filthy smell he smelt Do you feel your selves undone by sin by reason of this Running Issue and that in your nature Are ye a burden to your selves because a burden and grief to the Holy Spirit of God Or are you not clean and pure in your own eyes and cock-sure ye shall go to Heaven when you die you have lived so well amongst all your neighbours and have done so much good and every one speaks so well of you Can such a state do amiss Our Saviour saith the whole need no Physician and that he came to save lost ones such who are so deeply possessed with the signe and sense of their sinful state by nature and life and conversation that they cry out Who will deliver me wretched me most sinful and forlorne me Isaac was at a loss for an Offering and doubtless thought at last that he must be burnt Fourthly If ye be deeply sensible of the body of death then ye prise deliverance from it above all this World Naaman the Syrian how he prised any Person or means that could cure his Leprosie And the Man-slayer how he prized and pursued the City of refuge And what would not one of those pursued Man-slayers have given for but one Foot within the Gate of the City of refuge To them that are under the deep sense of sin the Redeemer that is come from Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob is very precious O how precious was Christ to this Apostle which my Text mentioneth as you read in the next Verse O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me I thank God through Jesus Christ As a Man almost drowned having some one that can swim leaping in and taking hold of him O how doth he thank God for this friend I The Apostle Paeul being deeply sensible of his wretched state by nature did so esteem Christ that the truth is he esteem'd all else in comparison but as dung and dross Nebuchadnezar which was brought as a Beast from grass from creeping upon all four O how he magnified the true God for a while So doth that sinner magnifie and extoll Christ Dan. 4.34 that is brought from crawling like a Toad upon all four in the filth and poison of his natural corrupt on The black crabbed Tree of the Cross hath made Christ and my Soul very entire saith Mr. Rutherford He is my Song in the Night So I say the black Crab-stock of natural corruption maketh Christ and that sinner very dear and entire and his Song in dark Night who is in the pains and travels of natural corruption The
Christ which hath an Arm like God Omnipotent By the which he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 It is a very strong Prison and very filthy in which we are by nature and who can go into this Prison to preach there but Christ The Doors are all Iron and Iron-bars and Bolts upon them If any one could go into these Prisons and preach 't would have spoken the state the less deplorable but for as much as none can but Christ himself it speaks the Prison in which man is by nature very strong and terrible 'T is a great heap of filth and a very great Dung-hill indeed which all the Carts in the World imployed about at once could not carry away no none but an Infinite strength Then was a fiery Sword turning every way to keep out Adam from the Garden and from communion with God and from eating of the Tree of Life the Seal thereof and surely this misery of Man is great upon him and this fiery Sword terrible that none can sheath it and take it away and bring Man into Paradise again and communion with God but the Omnipotent Power of Christ If any could have taken away that brandished Sword or if an Angel from Heaven could have done it and have taken Adam by the hand and have brought him into the Garden of delights i.e. of communion with God the misery had not been so great They are great and fearful diseases which none in this World can cure no nor none in that World above though much more populous than this but one even Christ himself Let the Inhabitants of the Rock sing let them shout from the top of the Mountains Isa 42.11 This is spoken of them that lived in the Wilderness of Arabia among Stones and Rocks Ishmael's Posterity where nothing but wild Beasts and Devils haunt the Inhabitants were like the Country they dwelt in their Hearts Rocks and Mountains and Legions of Devils and cursed Spirits haunting them Now O how mighty must he be that drives a Wilderness How mighty must he be that bids or commands the Inhabitants of these hard Rocks to sing and melt with joy Secondly Learn that we are much obliged to Christ and God for laying the help of such desperate Diseases on one so mighty The Apostle John wept that there was none found worthy to open the Book nor to read it nor to look thereon and he wept much and when one was found out how the tone is changed They that wept much rejoyced much and sung a new Song saying Thou are worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God with thy Blood out of every Tongue and Kindred and hast made us to our God Kings and Priests Rev. 5.4.9 The opening not only of one Book but of all the Scriptures and the heart too much weeping there is among sinners about this and none is found worthy that is anointed and accepted of God to this service but Christ and he hath bought his skill dear with his own heart blood he was slain to get this art and ability Worthy art thou to receive Power c. for thou wast slain And being thus how much are we bound to this Physician for our eyes and for his eye-salve as to the light of the Scriptures and the way to any good which we have I will bring the blind by a way that they know not I will lead them in Paths which they have not known I will make darkness light and crooked things straight this will I do and not forsake them And who this is by whom God will do this see Isa 42.6.16 compared namely Christ To lead a blind Body from place to place and to do so all Day long all the Year long yea all the Life long and never to be weary how wonderfully is Man obliged to Christ and to God that hath given him to such a work Who is not tier'd to lead a blind Body a Day Thirdly Learn that it is dangerous to reject Christ because he is the appointed and proper remedy of our fallen state There is no other Name given under Heaven whereby we can be saved but by the Name of Christ As there is but one Faith one Baptisme so there is but one Lord Ephes 3.5 There being no more Doors to go out from our filthy state we had need to take heed that we do not neglect it the shame of our nakedness will by such a course appear The marshy places will not be drained or healed Ezeh 47.11 i.e. we shall remain unhealed and die in our sinful state our sin will remain Ye are come to Mount Zion not to Mount Zina and to Jesus the Mediator of the New-Testament and to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel See then that ye refuse not Him that spake Moses was a Mediator of the old Covenant and could do little Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant and can do all the Services of our fallen state and fulfill the great and precious promises of the New-Testament to us He that rejected that Mediator which spake on Earth died for it Heb. 12.25 How much more will they who reject this Mediator which now speaketh from Heaven to us If Christ be only he which blesseth us and turneth Jew and Gentile from their sins and God hath only raised him from the dead for this end to bring Salvation from afar and we reject all it cannot be taken well either by God the Father or by Christ his Son Vnto you first God having raised up his Son hath sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from his iniquity Act. 3.26 As if the Apostle had said God hath been at great cost and pains to part with his only Son to die and then to raise him from the dead and all for this end to bless you Jews and to turn you first and then the Gentiles from their sins and so to make them and you eternally happy If you shall reject all this love of God and love of his Son it will fall heavy he will conster it that you have no mind to be turned from your sins but to continue in them and so you shall for ever and die and perish in them He that is filthy shall be filthy still Vse 2 Try your selves Is Christ become actually yet a remedy to you Hath he delivered you from the body of this death Then as you have long groaned under the want of it so you are much taken with the mercy in any measure obtained with the freeness of it that the Waters which cleanse you should come to you through such a golden Pipe as the Blood and Wounds of Christ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle is much taken with this that the Pipes of his cleansing should be laid through the sides of Jesus Christ so costly a conveyance
both as to God and as to his Son but of none as to him I thank God all is in a good way of cure now through Jesus Christ Donatum ob causam non est donatum sed potius permutatio A gift given for some cause is not a gift but rather an exchange of one thing for another but when very costly in it self and yet of no cost to us then it sparkles in the eyes of the receiver such a gift is Christ in this great work of the cure of our carnal state And doth the freeness of this love sparkle in your eyes and lay bonds upon you and make you go bound with holy affection and admiration No man that was ever cured of a desperate disease wherein he gave himself up for death but it was much obliging to him as to the instruments used for his Cure Naaman the Syrian thought himself bound to choose the God of Israel for his God that had cured him of his Leprosie If you be cured of your filthy Leprosie which is Christ's Priestly work and Kingly work too your Cure is between them both Do you choose him and own him for your Jesus and Lord as the Apostle here doth I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ by kindness conquers as Jeptha did If I do thus and thus for you slay your Enemies deliver you from slavery Shall I be your King And will ye chuse me to rule over you and they consented willingly If Christ hath cured your Soul diseases then are you under the Law of this great kindness and willing that he should be your Lord and to Rule you in all things according to his Word Secondly The Apostle was taken as with the love of Christ so with the love of the Father in this matter I thank God he hath found out a way to do me good a new and living way through his Son So the Apostle Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 He saw an abundant mercy in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as in the Son our Lord Jesus Christ That having no more Sons should part with him out of his Bosom in Heaven to lodge Him in a Manger yea worse to lodg Him in Hell nay in a Place worse than that the filthy heart of the fallen Sons of Adam So the Apostle Paul again writing to the Ephesians saith But God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin and trespasses hath he quickned us together with Christ that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes 2.4 5 6. He saw rich mercy and great love exceeding riches of grace in God that by his own Son and not by any lower hand he should quicken Men dead in trespasses and sins And surely some thing of this is where this great Work is wrought a confessing that Jesus is the Lord To the glory of God the Father Vse 3 The last Use is for Exhortation seeing Christ is the proper remedy of our fallen state let this draw us to him to attend his Word and Ordinances and to attend the Angels stirring of these Waters Christ doth open Prison doors and deliver Captives but he doth it according to his Commission Now well observe the termes of his Commission Is 61 The Lord God hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek To which agrees 1 Pet. 3.19 By the which also he went to preach to the Spirits in Prison which were disobedient in the Days of Noah Preaching how lightly soever esteemed and how much soever opposed and suppressed is the great Ordinance by which Christ frees Captives and Prisoners and therefore this Ordinance which is the most general Ordinance to convince and convert should carefully and tremblingly be attended upon They that make light of preaching make light of their own depraved state of their Captivity to sin and Satan these groan not with this Apostle under the body of death Christ did create every day orderly by his Word he could have done it without but he did all as his Father appointed him and did not Movere per saltum make hast and pursue his own will or his own infinite and absolute Power so he doth in the new Creation and therefore wait upon wisdomes Posts Whoso is simple let him turn in hither where he will have Line upon Line now a little and then a little to touch and turn his heart Presently after the Creation was finished the Creator takes to himself the Title of Jehova Gen. 2.4 These are the Generations of the Heaven and of the Earth when they were created in the Day that Jehova Eloim made the Heaven and the Earth When you do approach to the Preaching of the Word Remember this Name of Christ that he is Jehova and able to give Being to his Word That what he bids you to be that he makes you to be Be exhorted when you attend Ordinances to pant for this thing that Christ as Jehova would Preach to you as one giving Being in your heart to every Word which he speaketh in your Ear That Christ would so speak that you might hear and believe all that he saâ—th as they at Iconium Act. 14.1 Take an Harp go about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet melody sing many Songs that thou mayest be remembred Isa 23.16 This spake the Lord to Tyrus a filthy sinful City and their punishment fore-told and the time for Seventy Years and then counselled to bemoan her self that she might be remembred and it is observable how holy bemoaning our selves is called and holy panting for deliverance from the slavery of sin and wrath it is called sweet melody and singing many Songs So indeed is such panting under the body of death and to be delivered from it as here the Apostle doth The mourning Doves note under the sense of our wretched state with a panting after Christ to cure it no Musick is such melody in the Ears of God to make him to remember us Thus crie and be ye all pained to be delivered Thirdly Take to you words and tell your great Physician how it is with you And if you want words help your selves with those Ephes 4.18 This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of your minds having your understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling c. Take up these words and apply them to your own depraved condition saying O wretched man that I am what a vain mind I have and how I walk in the vanity
merciful Men are taken away As if the Prophet had said now the Lord is very angry indeed that he will not spare such as these which are so precious in his eye if any be Noah a righteous Man was preserved from the Flood And Lot a righteous Man preserved and plucked out of Sodom and had there been Ten righteous more the Cities might have been saved for their sake as the Ship full of Passengers for Paul's sake And Ebedmelech the Black more a merciful Man was saved from the destructions which destroyed Jerusalem and so was Jeremiah This should incite all People as they love their lives in this dying day to labour after grace and to be merciful Men and Women yea bountiful in this day of want for such as are ready to yield themselves thus to the Scepter of Christ and to follow him fully with all they have and are will certainly scape best such as yield all to the Lord will save all if any do You that become of prophane righteous and holy Men you take the likeliest way I know to escape well in this mortal time If you get not your lives you will get your Souls for a Prey no Plague shall come nigh that thus are you lodged safe in the Promise as soon as you become gracious and break off from your wicked ways by repentance And you that are gracious and godly think on 't as you love your lives in this day of mortality shew your Faith by your Works abound in this gift also of mercifulness many that are able and carry the Bag are abroad and I fear have carrâ—ed the Bag with them you that are here had need be the more merciful Man's poor will starve else Surely such as are ready to preserve the lives of others God will preserve their lives A Third Doctrin that may be observed in these words is this That times of general security under present lesser punishments are of very evil presage If when God's Judgments are in the Earth righteous Men and merciful be taken away and none lay these drops of the storms to heart it fore-rells surely that the Storm will come and fall hard and Thunder and Hall much Surely some great Evils are at Door when little ones are made light of though I cannot call the taking away of one righteous Man in this day nor the taking away of one merciful Man or Woman in this day a little punishment Dictum cum vulgo I speak after you if lesser Rods make no Body feel great ones surely are a making Righteous Men are taken away and none consider that they are taken from great Evil to come Sometimes with a foolish Virgins slumber the good become bad in this that they lay not GOD's dealings to heart as they should but let Death like a Moth stilly take away one and then another and make no noise in Heaven about it good People are much in a hurry with this World one about his Farm and another about his Merchandise and whilst running here and there hither and thither the King of Syria is gone the matters which should have been close kept to the heart are slipt away out of the mind and made no use of And such a temper among the Lord's People as well as others is a sure fore-runner of some roufing Judgment at Door that may well awaken every Body the Storm begins to come in among you Citizens now I hope you will be awake anon the Plague hath kept in the out-parts a good while O that we in the in-parts within these Walls had been well awake then and laid matters to heart then as we should The Doctrin which I would stand on is this That general Mortality should be generally laid to heart Mortal strokes upon all good as well as bad should much affect all good and bad The Strokes of God in this Prophet's time when he spake the words of my Text began to be general God spared not righteous nor wicked and God thus promiscuously smiting the Prophet was troubled that Men were no more affected as well he might From whence I observe That general Mortality should be generally laid to heart No Man high or low good or bad but should much lay to heart all the strokes of God which bring death that great blow to Man's Beeing Mortality by Plague Sword Famine or any other way or by any other Disease should be well considered and well made use of especially if it reach the righteous as well as others The Lion hath roared who will not fear The Lord God hath spoken who can but Prophesie Amos 3.8 Nature teacheth this in all Creatures that when such Creatures of prey are abroad which they know they are in danger of to be preyed upon to dread and tremble and to take all care they can to shun them and to save themselves The Prophet Mica who Prophesied in the same time with Isaiah which so complained in my Text complaineth just like him and almost in the same words Mica 7.2 The good Man is perished out of the Earth and there is none upright among Men they all lie in wait for blood they hunt every Man his brother with a Net c. As if the Prophet had said Good men perish out of the Earth and this is so far from being laid to heart and lookt upon as any judgment that all violences are used to take away the rest every one lieth in wait for blood yea the blood of his Brother as Cain lay in wait for his Brothers blood And where will this end And by this grief of this Prophet I gather that general Mortality the perishing of good Men and the perishing of others by violences and murders and such like ought much to affect the living and not the lives of all sorts to be taken away and made no more of than of Dogs or Hogs by the death of which there is an advantage By this Prophet Isaiah we may see this Doctrin again confirmed that general strokes should generally affect Isa 64 9 10 11. Be not wrath very soon O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold we bessech thee we are all thy People Thy holy Cities are a Wilderness Zion is a Wilderness Jerusalem a desolation the holy and beautiful House our Fathers worshipped thee is burnt with Fire and all our pleasant things laid wast The Prophet â—n these words speaketh prophetically and beholdeth and representeth that which was to be as done namely the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem and that state Persons and things one and all and how doth he speak of this general Mortality of Persons and things good and bad high and low Doth he speak of it slightly O no but with much complaint and strong cry and bemoans to God Be not wrath very sore O Lord be not angry for ever Zion is a Desolation Jerusalem a Wilderness c. In these Desolations as you know by the Scripture there was Death by Plague Sword and
Famine then I conclude that general Mortality should be generally laid to heart for the Prophet did thus complain to God to affect all Men that they might so complain to God as he did how sadly matters went amongst them Take one Scripture more Lam. 1.6 And from the Daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed her Princes are become like Harts that can finde no pasture and they are gone without strength before the Pursuer This Prophet layeth to heart particularly the distresses of Princes and great Men and alass what are all these to the distresses and death of the righteous and holy and merciful Men which proves that we should lay to heart the common strokes of God as the Sword and Pestilence take away one as well as another bad and good high and low I will prove this Point more particularly and distinctly to you First We are to lay to heart Mortality by the Pestilence I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Aegypt your Horses have I taken away and have made the stink of your Camps to come up into your Nosthrils and so killed you with Plagues and Diseases attending the Sword and yet ye have not returned to me Amos 4.10 that is you have not laid things to heart throughly to be ashamed of your evil ways and to turn from them The death of Men nay the death of Horses as such deaths not long since were amongst them we are to lay to heart and so to lay to heart as to prepare to meet God then the death of good Men by the Pestilence we are surely to lay to heart From above hath he sent a Fire into my Bones and it prevailed against them he hath made me desolate and faint all the day Lam. 1.13 The Prophet in these words as in all the rest personateth the state of the People generally and much laid to heart GOD's immediate strokes upon the Persons of Men by many mortal fierce Diseases without sparing any From above hath he sent Fire into my Bones and it hath prevailed c. Secondly Mortality by Famine is to be laid to heart The Prophet Joel speaketh of this stroke which indeed is great The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness and nothing shall escape them speaking of Vermin so devouring all Man's Provision Joel 2.3 at the 12th vers of this Chapter the Prophet telleth us what effect this should have Therefore now also saith the Lord turn ye to me with all your heart and with fasting weeping and with mourning rent your hearts and not your Garments for he is gracious who knoweth if he will return and repent By which of these strokes either Pestilence or Famine the godly were taken away no Man can say for by Pestilence Famine and Sword did the Lord contend with that People That he contended with them by Famine the Prophet Joel and also the Prophet Jeremiah testifieth They have sowen Wheat and shall reap Thorns they have put themselves to pain but shall not profit thus doth the Prophet poscere aciem bid battel and ye shall be ashamed of your revenue because of the fierce anger of the Lord Jer. 12. 13. But most plain in Ezek. c. 4. 5. Where the Prophet is commanded to make Bread with Beans and Fitches and to eat this by weight and to mix dung with it And must this be laid to heart Yes much How can any do otherwise Thus saith the Lord smite with the Hand and stamp with the Foot and say alass for all the evil abominations of the House of Israel for they shall fall by the Sword by the Famine and by the Pestilence Ezek. 6.11 Then they fell by all these and then it is probable that the righteous fell by all these as others then we should lay to heart Mortality by all these we should smite with the Hand and stamp with the Foot and say alass What great abom nations have caused all these great Judgments God's temporal strokes and judgments which kill and slaughter all sorts should much be laid to heart by all sorts But you will say Q. What is it to lay to heart the mortal strokes of GOD in a Nation I answer A. It is to be deeply sensible of the cause as it may be in our selves or in the Nation wherein we live Observe how the Lord counselleth Ezekiel to carry it in the day of their dreadful misery Thus saith the Lord smite with thine Hand and stamp with thy Foot and say alass for all the evil abominations of the Land of Israel He doth not barely bid him to say alass for all the evil punishments of the Land as Sword Pestilence and Famine but alass for all the wickedness of the Land which hath caused these He that is far off shall fall by the Pestilence and he that is neer shall fall by the Sword and he that remains and is besieged shall die by Famine Ezek. 6.11.12 So that to lay to heart mortal strokes in a Nation is to be deeply affected with the cause of them in our selves or in others If you ask me further where we have found out causes in our selves and in others quos accidam as Salust saith To whom shall I turn and prostrate my self and say I have sinn'd Q. and done this evil abomination Answ To God in the Name of Christ A. Therefore thus saith the Lord turn you even unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning Joel 2.12 And to do this forth-with presently without all delay or else to be sure it is not turning to the Lord with all the heart To lay to heart God's willing Discipline is to be full of deep sorrow for sin in our selves and others as the proper causes of all sorts of deaths and deaths of all sorts of Persons good and bad and to turn from these to the Lord and to believe on Christ that the Lord for his sake will be pacified and turn away all his displeasure and not make us a reproach unto the Heathen as it is in that Chapter Joel 2.17 Having thus proved and opened the Doctrin I will shew you in the next Place Vses what Use may be made of it First This Point is profitable to teach If we are to be deeply sensible of temporal strokes such as refer to the death of our bodies then much more are we to be sensible of spiritual strokes and eternal strokes which refer to the death of our Souls I will send a Famine not of Bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord. And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not finde it Amos 8.11 12. How diligently we get the Bills of Mortality now and being come up to Thousands O how we lift up our hands but who brings in Weekly Bills of
Dart cometh so I believe will the Flood of these last times surprise and come as a Dart as a Wall swelling out to use the Scripture expression Actus morientium non possunt esse in suspenso 'T is the speech of them that study Nature Death when once it begins to knock beats down all apace and cannot be stayed Learn what need we have to beg that God would not lead us into temptation Extremities are terrible charges When Jona was beat upon with all God's billows and likewise Job how they both broke out and cursed the day wherein they were born and how David in like plunge fained himself mad and drivel'd at Gath. A tempted Soul with all temptations will have much adoe to bite in blasphemy I said in my hast all Men are lyars yea even Samuel which from the Lord had told him that he should be King Some dead Mens bodies putrified turn into Serpents See holy Ainsw in Gen. 3.19 Truly the better we are when overborn with temptations we become much the worse what Serpents and Scorpions some have become by these things in these times more fiery and worse than others who yet knows what may be in their hearts as to the main we know not How earnestly Christ desired that the Cup might pass and yet was not in danger of sin as we are how much more should we so desire who have not a body to bear being so crackt by sin but much less not such a Soul to bear trials as Christ being so wholly defiled and immersed with sin This on which I am now makes me think of David's speech to Jonathan who as you know he loved dearly If there be iniquity in me slay me thy self 1 Sam. 20.8 as if he had said let me dye by the hand of one that loveth me and then I shall dye but one death but if I dye by the hand of such as hate me I know not how many deaths I shall die There is a kindness in the Hang-man nor how many sins I may commit under such cruelties and inhumanities If the Cup may not pass ye◠beg that you may be deliver'd from the evil I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the World saith Christ but that thou shouldst deliver them from the evil Upon this insist that you may have the benefit of Christ's intercession that no Wave may over-whelm any Grace or hide the face and favour of God a moment from you Peccatum tametsi non bonum tamen in bonum c. saith Augustin Sin though it be not good yet it may be ordered to good So afflictions though in themselves not good nor joyous yet God can order them to work about the peaceable fruit of holiness and so to make them very good and very joyous Learn from hence what great cause we have to be full of pitty and tender-heartedness one to another and what Monsters of Man-kind they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are hard-hearted close fisted without Man-friendship such as you read of Psal 69.26 They persecute him which thou hast smitten and talk to the grief of him whom thou hast wounded they gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink Job's friends sate down by him Seven Days and said nothing to him for they saw that his grief was great and when they did speak it had been better much they had held their peace they did so talk to the grief of him whom God had wounded A sore evil we are apt unto when all God's billows pass over any to have many hard things to say against them but very few merciful deeds to do for them May not their case become yours May not you whole become sick and you rich become poor and you Londoners may not you be driven here and there as well as they in the Country See therefore and take notice of all the lurking places of David and see where he hideth himself and come tell me saith Saul to the Ziphits 1 Sam. 23.23 You Londoners have been some lurking places for the Lord 's hunted ones long May not some Ziphits discover these lurking places and make you run and lurk for it too where you may And would not you then be glad when such billows beat over you to be pittied and shelter'd then think how much it becomes you to shew pitty to wounded souls and distressed bodies and to pour out your spirits and Purses to them whilst ye can A storm fulfils its course in a round and then bursts with its own violence saith Seneca and indeed the storm which hath been in divers parts of the Country will I believe fulfill its course in a round in which Circle this City will have its share and therefore take heed that that be not true of you which David complains of some when in his Cave Psal 142.4 I look on my right hand and behold but there was no man that would know me refuge fail'd me and none cared for my Soul Several bleed in soul and I doubt but few of you care for these bleeding sinking Souls to support them with your experiences and with your prayers Many flee to Caves and Dens to hide here and there and have not to put bread in the heads of them nor theirs and few I doubt visit David in his Cave Learn from hence that we should not sentence our Eternal condition by our temporal All God's Waves may pass over the best Man in this World Christ was exercised with all trials and miseries in this World was poor was hated was murthered was inwardly tormented his Soul was heavy to death and in a great Agony and so was Job and therefore were judged hypocrites and deceivers and accursed of God Paul when the Vipers was on his hand they judged him a Murtherer and when he threw it off and had no hurt then they would have worshipped him for a God There is no judgment of God's love or hatred by the things of prosperity or adversity but rather by our carriage in them Many will say who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance and thou shalt put more joy into my heart c. Many can make no other estimate of Mans eternal felicity but as he is so and so prosperous in this World Crowns which begirt the Sun or the Moon last not long saith the Philosopher All the Crowns and adventitious Raies of riches and honours which begirt the Saints in this World to give light and conduct to it by Day and by Night they last not long some tempest or other blows them away and then when those painted Crowns are vanished away to judg and censure that therefore their Eternal Crown and Glory is gone too is to judg amiss of the Generation of the righteous Discord in the matter of exhalations maketh storms and tempests so discords in the matters of God's dispensations make storms not discover'd in his
and maintaining of a godly life By R. â—llin Heaven on Earth or the best Friend in the worst times to which is added a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Thomas Mosley Apothecary By James Janeway A token for Children being an exact account of the conversation holy and exemplary lives joyful deaths of several young Children By James Janeway Justification only upon a satisfaction By Rob Ferguson The Christians great Interest or the tryal of a savâ—ng interest in Christ with the way how to attain it By William Guthry late Minister in Scotland The vertue vigour and efficacy of the Promises dâ—splayed in their strength and glory By Tho. Herderson The History of Moderation or the Life Death and Resurrection of Moderation together with her Nativity Country Pedigree Kindred and Character Friend and also her Enemies A Gâ—ide to the true Religion or a Discourse directing to make a wise choise of that Religion Men venture their Salvation upon By I. Clappam Rebukes for sin by God's burning anger by the burning of London by the burning of the World and by the burning of the wicked in Hell-fire to which is added a Discourse of Heart fixedness By T. Doolittle Four Select Sermons upon several Texts of Scripture wherein the Will-worship and Idolatry of the Church of Rome is laid open and confuted By William Fenner The Life and Death of Dr. James Vsher Arch-bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland A most comfortable and Christian Dialogue between the Lord and the Soul by William Cooper Bishop of Galloway The Câ—nons and Institutions of the Quakers agreed upon at their General Assembly at their new Theatre in Grace-church street A Synopsis of Quakerism or a Collection of the Fundamental Errors of the Quakers By Tho. Danson Blood for Blood being a true Narrative of that late horrid murther committed by Mary Cook upon her Child By Nath. Partridge with a Sermon on the same occasion by The welcome Communicant Six several Treatises by Nicho. Lockieâ— Minister of the Gospel FINIS Books Sold by Dorman Newman THe present State of Russia in a Letter to a Friend at London written by an eminent Person residing at the Great Tzars Court at Mosco for the space of IX Years Illustrated with many Copper Plates Misterium Pietatis or the mistery of godliness wherein the misteries contained in the Incarnation Circumcision wise Men Passion Resurrection Assention of the Son of God and coming of the Holy Ghost are unfolded and applyed By W. Annand Fellowship with God or 28. Sermons on the 1st Epist of Iohn chap. 1st 2d By Hugh Binning late Minister in Scotland The mystery of Faith open'd or some Sermons concerning Faith By Andrew Gray late Minister in Glasgow Lazarus Redivivus or a discovery of the Trials and Triumphs that accompany the work of God in and about his people with an Essay tending to clear up those mistakes men have about it Laid open in several Sermons By Nicholas Blakit Minister of the Gospel A Token for Children being an exact account of the conversion holy and exemplary lives and joyful deaths of several young Children By James Janeway ERRATA PAge 2. 3. for that read if p. 6. that f. if p. 9. Lord f. law p. 18. most liberal f. most to be p. 19. Root f. roof p. 22. sign f. sight p. 24. roots f. rock p. 26. hill f. hell p. 27. so f. to c. their 's f. others p. 37. threw f. throwes p. 64. with f. wise p. 74. soon f. soare p. 81. willing f. killing p. 81. our f. them p. 104. wonder f. words p. 104. word f. Lord p. 105. of f. if p. 120. Teolin f. Leolin p. 126. man f. more p. 126. best f. left p. 130. our f. the. p. 138. man f. mammon p. 140. fetcheth f. setteth p. 146. 147. Haman f. Heman p. 148. Sidom f. Sodom p. 153. To ammi f. Le ammi p. 153. so f. lo. p. 154. best f. but. p. 157. afflictions f. affections p. 158. bitten f. bitters p. 159. flat f. flote p. 160. discovered f. discord p. 168. preferred f. preserved p. 178. willing f. rebelling p. 180. Book f. Brook p. 187. rain f. men p. 187. ever f. even p. 190. Pethakia f. Pethakiah p. 190. occasions f. accusations p. 195. Saviour f. savour p. 207. Joh f. John p. 213. hill f. hell p. 215. ex anima f. ex animo Then for there and when for where are frequently and mutually mistaken by the Printer which the Reader iâ— desired to rectify as he meets it