merry heart for God accepteth his works Eccles. 9.7 He rejoyceth in them because he hath them with God's allowance with his favour they are sanctified to him by the word of God and prayer and thereby they are good to him 1 Tim. 4.4 5. otherwise they would be unclean to him Tit. 1.15 All things are good to the Godly with the light of God's Countenance if they can have them with his acceptance and use them for his Glory God is the principal thing in which a renewed Nature delights all other things are pleasant as they come from him and tend to him as they signify to us his good will towards us and as they are occasions of shewing our love to him Trahit sua quemque voluptas As carnall hearts have carnall delights so a spirituall person delights in the things of the Spirit of God Rom. 8.5 A Sow will feed on filth a Sheep on tender sweet grass So profane and ungodly men can be merry in a Tavern in Swearing Cursing Singing obscene Songs and Invectives against Piety praising of God hearing his Word but a Holy heart is weary of such Company it is a Hell to him to associate with such Woe is me saith David Psal 120.5 that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar but saith he Psal 122.1 2. I was glad when they said unto me Let us goe into the House of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy Gates O Jerusalem for there God is praised there is an Assembly of them that love God and delight in his Worship Truly saith S. John 1 John 1.3 our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ As it is the greatest Grievance for an Epicure a swinish brutish voluptuous luxurious man to be restrained from his Cups wanton and sensuall Company and Delights so it is the greatest Grievance to good men to be withheld from the Communion and Society of Saints from the enjoyment of holy Ordinances and imployment in holy Exercises whereby they may honour and injoy Communion with God because they delight in God and count all other delight as insipid without relish while they want that Intercourse with God which makes all things savoury and pleasant to them 2. The End of a Godly man's life is to honour God and to promote the Service and Kingdome of Jesus Christ None of us saith the Apostle Rom. 14.7 8. liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord 's Without God a Godly man's Life is not Vita vitalis a lively Life but rather a Dream then a Life He doth sensim mori he doth but linger and die a lingering death This saith the Apostle Phil. 1.20 21. is my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or death For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain That is the whole gain of his life or death was Christ and therefore so he might glorify him and enjoy him he was indifferent whether he did live or die He was affected so to Christ and his love to him that in his farewell speech to the Ephesian Elders Act. 20.22 23 24. he saith And now behold I goe bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospell of the grace of God It is the property of Love not to seek its own things 1 Cor. 13.5 but the pleasing and serving him whom he loves and accordingly to that he loves he regards nothing so much as the gratifying of his beloved is willing to part with any thing which may be inconsistent therewith imploys his faculties to the utmost acts ad extremum virium to the uttermost on his behalf Love is Affect us Vnionis an Affection of Union the Soul of a Lover is ubi amat non ubi animat not where he breaths but where he loves which makes him long after his beloved as David did Psal 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God And for the same reason he is not content in Exile or Sickness when he cannot have opportunity to glorify God As on the other side it is well with him when he can injoy God and doe his work though it be with shipwreck of all his other Commodities he willingly parts with all and freely relinquisheth them for this end as knowing that of our Saviour to be a necessary Lesson to be learned by him He that loveth Father or Mother more then me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son or Daughter more then me is not worthy of me Matth. 10.37 and again Luk. 14.26 If any man come unto me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brothers and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple Excellent and worthy was the resolution of S. Paul Act. 21.13 When he was besought not to goe up to Jerusalem because of Agabus his Prophecy of his being bound at Jerusalem and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles he thus repells the motion of his most loving Friends What mean ye to weep and break my heart for I am ready not to be bound onely but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus But far more excellent was the Objurgation of Christ to S. Peter to whom when he dissuaded him from going up to Jerusalem to suffer death there with indignation he turns himself with this Thunder-clap Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men Matth. 16.23 And indeed though in a far inferiour degree such is the mind of all that truly love God and the Lord Jesus Christ They are magnanimously resolved to encounter with all Difficulties for Their honour as Luther who would goe to Wormes to witness his Doctrine before the Emperour though he should meet with as many Devils there as there were Tiles on the houses of that City and are well contented when they part with the greatest outward Advantages for it As those Martyrs that went to the Stake joyfully and that Marquess that left the Emperour's Court and Preferment there his Wife and Children to injoy the Gospell in a Protestant City And they think their Life not to be
harden themselves against Reproof hate him that deals plainly with them because he shews them the Sin which they will not leave are Enemies to him that tells them the Truth hate him that rebuketh in the Gate and abhorre him that speaks uprightly Amos 5.10 Such men are so far from obtaining Pardon that they fall into Judas his Curse of adding Iniquity to Iniquity and never come into God's Righteousness Psal 69.27 4. That Sin may be forgiven the chiefest Qualification of all must not be omitted Faith in the Lord Jesus who though he knew no Sin yet was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 This is the tenour of the Gospel as Christ himself instructed his Apostles that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations Luk. 24.47 And accordingly S. Peter saith to Cornelius Act. 10.43 To Christ give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins And S. Paul Act. 13.38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this Man is preached unto you the Forgiveness of Sin And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses He was delivered for our Offences and raised for our Justification Rom. 4.25 Christ died for our Sins according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15.3 He was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities the Chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we are healed All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquity of us all Isa 53.5 6. His own self bare our Sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 These and many more places in Holy Scripture do evince that it is by the Death of Christ that our Sins are remitted And the Apostle Heb. 10.12 tells us that after he had offered one Sacrifice for Sins he sate down for ever at the right hand of God and Heb. 9.24 that he is entred into heaven with his bloud to appear for us in the presence of God and Heb. 10.14 that by one Offering he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified And therefore they that reject that Sacrifice and stick to the Law and its Priesthood miss of Forgiveness of Sins It is impossible now without Faith in Christ his Death Resurrection and Intercession at God's right Hand to be free from Condemnation and to obtain Forgiveness But Faith is sufficient without the Figment of the unbloudy Propitiatory Sacrifice offered by a Priest in the Mass to expiate Sin and to obtain Remission Whosoever therefore believes not that Christ is he that was to come that doth not believe and trust to his Bloud and Intercession for Forgiveness with God that trusts in the Sacrifice of the Mass the Milk of the Virgin Mary the Mediation of Saints or any other thing besides Christ's Death and Intercession that man forfeits his interest in God's Pardoning Grace 5. That Sin may be forgiven there must be a Turning to the Lord. Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon saith the Prophet Isa 55.7 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sins saith Jeremy Lament 3.39 and directs him the best course Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord vers 40. And that is to be done 1. By humble Supplication Ibid. v. 41. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens by Praying for it Matth. 6.12 by justifying God condemning our selves taking Shame to our selves and acquitting God from all blame deprecating his Severity imploring his Mercy for his Son's sake whom God sending in the likeness of sinfull flesh hath condemned Sin in the flesh and therefore there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 3. 2. But then must be added the second thing wherein we turn to God to wit Newness of life There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Wash ye make ye clean put away the Evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to doe evil learn to doe well seek Judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widows and then saith God Come now and let us reason together Though your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wooll Isa 1.16 17 18. It is not the plea of Innocency that prevails with God but the earnest Supplication for Mercy not the Tale of a vain-glorious Pharisee but the feeling Prayer of a broken-hearted Publican that obtains Forgiveness Nor will he that hath escaped the Pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ be safe if with the Dog he return to his vomit and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire He that sins again sins more dangerously as he that falls into a Relapse is more desperately sick New Obedience is necessary to assure the Forgiveness of old Sins 6. There is yet another Qualification necessary to the Forgiveness of our own Sins that we forgive other mens Sins against our selves Our Saviour puts it into the Lord's Prayer that we should profess to God our Forgiveness of them that are indebted to us as a Reason why we expect Forgiveness of him when we pray him to forgive us Yea he allows us not to ask Forgiveness of God but according as we forgive others If you forgive men their Trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their Trespasses neither will your Father forgive your Trespasses Matth. 6.14 15. Yea in the close of that Parable Matth. 18.35 he tells us that our heavenly Father will exact our Debts cast us into Prison deliver us to the Tormentours if we from our hearts forgive not every one his Brother their Trespasses He that bears a Grudge that reserves a purpose of Revenge in his breast that saies he will forgive but not forget that passeth not an Act of Indemnity and Oblivion of his Brother's Injuries doth but delude God play the Hypocrite with him when he prays the Lord's Prayer shews himself to be unlike to God of a venomous Toad-like Viper-like nature malicious like Satan and so doth the more provoke and enrage God against him as being an unthankfull virulent Devillish Wretch that deals so unworthily with him and abuseth him to his face And this ushers in the last thing I am to consider to wit IV. Why there is Forgiveness with God Of many Reasons I shall name one or two besides that in my Text. 1. From
me in mine Integrity and settest me before thy face for ever Faith in God's sustaining Grace is the onely sure Preservative against falling into Sin and thereby into Misery Thou wilt keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee saith the Prophet Isa 26.3 He that trusteth in his own Heart is a fool but whoso walketh wisely shall be delivered saith Solomon Prov. 28.26 He that leaneth on his own Free will his own good Purposes his own Reason his own good Merits shall be sure to fall S. Peter when he was confident of his own Strength that he should die rather then deny his Master and was so venturous thereupon as to go into the High Priest's Palace was so affrighted with the words of a Maid that he not onely denied him but forswore him Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness attained not to the Law of Righteousness Wherefore Because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law for they stumbled at the Stumbling-stone saith the Apostle Rom. 9.31 32. We are like little Children we love to be on our Feet not knowing our own Weakness and then we venture without God to guide and stay us and so we fall and wound our selves Our safest way is to distrust our selves to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling as knowing that it is God that worketh in us to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. And accordingly to betake our selves to him as David did here that he may keep our Feet from falling having the same designed End that he had that we may walk before him in the light of the living Which leads me to the Third Part of my Text David's Aim in his Commemoration and Postulation but time will not now permit the handling of it Onely an Application of what hath been already spoken remains to be added APPLICATION What you have heard David did it concerns you to doe You that are here now alive may say God hath delivered your Souls from Death I wish I might say truly that God hath delivered your Souls from the Death of Sin that God hath given you Repentance unto Life that you were none of you such as should die in your Sins but by believing in Christ should see the light of Life I wish that he were to you the Resurrection and the Life so that though you were dead yet you might live that living and believing in him you might never die as our Saviour said to Martha Joh. 11.25 26. I hope the best of you However while you are yet alive especially you that have been in danger by reason of the Contagion of late endeavour to walk in the steps of David Remember what your Prayers were in your Perils what Vows and Promises you made when you expected Death what Perplexity and Anxiety seized on you when the Remembrance of your Sins filled you with Horrour when you looked for Death to attack you and cast your Body into the Grave and perhaps your Soul into Hell when you expected a Summons to the Bar of God's Judgment there to be tried and to have your Doom passed on you Call to mind I beseech you what secret Meditations what Purposes you had what pass'd between God and your Souls in those Streights you were in And then resolve as David did here to address your selves to God as he did saying Thy Vows are upon me O God I will render Praises unto thee for thou hast delivered my Soul from Death O remember what God hath done for you in giving you your Lives in bringing you back from the depth of the Earth again When thousands have fallen on your right hand and on your left hand yet the Evil hath not come nigh you If it have entred into your Houses lighted on your Persons yet it hath not taken away your Breath so that though the Lord hath chastened you sore yet he hath not given you over unto Death Chiefly if God have awakened you that slept that you might stand up from the dead and Christ might give you light O then rejoyce in God's Goodness to you let the Remembrance of it make the Thoughts of God delightfull to you quicken you to run the ways of his Commandments mind you to perform the great Duties of Reformation of your Lives and new Obedience to God that preserved you according to all the Vows Resolutions and Engagements which were upon you when you were in Trouble Yea if you were then insensible of your Condition and thought not on the accursed estate which would have befallen you if you had died in your Sins now at least begin to lay it to heart Sure though you have escaped out of the hands of Death now yet it will overtake you at last All the means you can use all the Advantages all the Privileges you have cannot avoid it or exempt you from going the way of all flesh Oh then that you would now become in your Life-time what you would willingly be found to be at the hour of Death If you would not be found of Death Swearing Lying Deceiving or engaged in any ungodly and unrighteous way then be not so now If you would then be found Praying Meditating on God's Word Praising God inure your selves to such Exercises now It will not be easie to doe it then if you be not accustomed to it now You will then have the Comfort of a happy Death if you be acquainted with the practice of a holy Life now If your Remembrance of God's Goodness towards you puts you on such Resolutions the Remembrance that you have tasted how gracious the Lord is how he hath redeemed your Souls from the nethermost Hell by the Bloud of his Son which you are to remember with the greatest Thankfulness when you come to receive the Holy Communion and preserves you from the second Death you will then be animated to expect of God that he will keep your Feet from falling Take heed that you stumble not at the Prosperity of the wicked so as to approve and chuse their ways Take heed that Christ be not a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offence to you that you stumble not at the Word disbelieving the Gospel being disobedient to the Precepts of the Word lest ye be appointed unto Wrath and not to obtain Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ Take heed of ordering your Steps by your own Reason by the imagined Light within you which is for the most part an Ignis fatuus a dangerous Meteor that will bring you into Pits and Bogs Take heed of trusting to your own Free will your own good Purposes they will prove but a broken Reed which when you lean on them will run into your hands and pierce them Get your Feet shod with the Shoes of the Preparation or as it may be well read the Pavement of the Gospel of Peace as firm ground upon which you may
and not another though my Reins be consumed within me And thus joyntly of the Head and Members Christ and every Believer is my Text verified and rightly understood and accordingly I shall apply it Therein is declared the Assurance which Christ had and every Believer together with him and by reason of his Union with him hath of three things 1. That God will shew them the Path of Life 2. That in his Presence there remains to them the Fulness of Joys 3. That at his right hand they shall have Pleasures for evermore Of these in their order with what Utterance the Almighty shall vouchsafe me though the Argument be such as neither the Minds of Men or Angels can comprehend nor their Tongues express I. OBSERVATION That Christ and Believers are assured of having the Path of Life made known to them For the distinct handling hereof we are to consider 1. What Life it is the Path of which both are assured of having made known to them 2. What is the Path of this Life or what are the Ways of this Life 3. How God hath and will make them known or shew them 4. Why he did assure Christ and why he doth assure Believers thereof I. What Life it is the Path of which they are assured shall be made known to them Life is the manner of Living things existing and is the Excellency of their Beings whereby things animate differ from things inanimate Of Life there are sundry degrees or kinds made by Philosophers 1. Vegetative in Plants and things which being rooted in the Earth suck their Nourishment from it and so grow thereby and yield Fruit and Seed to propagate their Kind 2. Sensitive in those living things that move and have Sense more or less though they perceive onely such things as concern their Sustenance and Self-preservation but can neither discern Spiritualls or Universalls nor reflect on their own Actions nor discourse as Man though some of them have admirable Sagacity as Experience hath shewed in Elephants and divers other Animals 3. Rationall in a Man whereby he is enabled not onely to know what concerns his Food and Necessaries to uphold his Corporall Being but is also capable of Counsell and Instruction in things pertaining to his Obedience to his Creatour and Peace with him and Comfort in his well-doing 4. There is yet an higher Life to wit that of Angels who need no Food to sustain their Being nor Members to move them but are of a subtile active and intelligent Nature yet much short of the Father of Spirits with whom is the Fountain of Life as it is said Psal 36.9 who hath all Fulness of Life in him not capable either of diminution or privation and is the universall Cause of all Life in other Beings which he imparts to all living things in that way and measure as he thinks best to appertain to them Now the Life of Men or Angels may note the bare Duration or Existence of their Being and so the Devils live and the Souls of the Damned have Life and the uncleanest Sodomites while they walk up and down on Earth have Life though in a morall sense they are dead while alive they have also in some things a bene esse or well-being to wit in respect of such things as pertain to Nature or outward Condition among men as Abraham said to the Rich man in Hell Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things Luk. 16.25 But this is not the Life the Path which Christ and his Members assure themselves God would make known to them though it be not excluded for doubtless David assured himself and therein rejoyced that God would uphold his Soul in Life deliver his Soul from Death his Eyes from Tears and his Feet from Falling that he should walk before the Lord in the Land of the living as he speaks Psal 116.8 9. And Christ understood by the Life which he expected from his Father that he would bring his Soul and Body together again and restore that Life he lost by Death And the Saints believe and expect the Resurrection of their Bodies from the Grave and in the expectation and assurance hereof they endure the greatest Tortures that Tyrants can inflict on them as it is said Heb. 11.35 Women received their dead raised to life again and others were tortured not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection But this Resurrection to Life is not the mere Conjunction of Soul and Body together for that may be onely the Resurrection of Damnation as our Saviour speaks Joh. 5.29 which befalls them that have done Evil and is there opposed to the Resurrection of Life which they onely that have done Good shall be partakers of The Resurrection of Damnation though it be with Restitution of the Being those Wretches had before they died so as that they shall come out of the Graves hear the voice of the Son of man and in a sort live stand before the Tribunal of Christ and hear their Sentence and so continue in their Being everlastingly yet it is not termed Life but Death or the Second Death it being to a Copartnership with the Devil and his Angels with whom they are sentenced to be in Torments as they were guided and ruled by them while they conversed with men on Earth But the Life which the Scripture vouchsafes to term Life indeed as being the onely Vita vitalis the lively Life is that which is with God and according to God termed therefore the Life of God Ephes 4.18 God being their God therefore they live to God who is the God of the living as our Saviour's expression is Luk. 20.38 they live and reign with Christ as it is Revel 20.4 It is an holy and happy Life and therefore simply termed Life by way of excellency in opposition to Hell-fire Mark 9.45 If thy Foot offend thee cut it off it is better for thee to enter into Life halting then having two feet to be cast into Hell into the sire that never shall be quenched Vers 47. it is termed the Kingdom of God And if thine Eye offend thee pluck it out it is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one Eye then having two Eyes to be cast into Hell-fire It is by our Saviour often called Eternall Life of which the Regenerate Believers have the beginning here they have it inchoate with a Right to it Verily verily I say unto you saith our Saviour Joh. 5.24 He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death to Life 1 Joh. 3.14 We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren he that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death 1 Joh. 5.11 12. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal Life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that
XXXI SERMONS Preached to the PARISHIONERS of Stanford-Rivers in Essex Upon several Subjects and Occasions BY CHARLES GIBBES D. D. Rectour of that Church and Prebendary of Saint Peter's at Westminster Never before made publick QVI SEQVITUR ME NON AMBULAT IN TENEBRIS LOâ—â—â—â— Printed by E. Flesher 〈…〉 most Sacred MAJESâ—◠〈…〉 To the well-beloved the PARISHIONERS Of Stanford-Rivers in the County of Essex Grace and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied IN this Age and Nation abounding with Learned Men and Books of all sorts especially in Points of Sacred Theology I should not have thought any thing of Mine worth the Press being conscious to my self of mine own Unfitness for that Employment by reason of Age and other Imperfections had not your Importunity extorted these Papers from me which I now exhibit to you But that I might not be wanting in what I am able for your Edification in the Doctrine of Christ I have yielded to adventure an Impression of them whereunto I have been induced by a like Consideration with that of Saint Peter 2 Epist ch 1. vers 12 13 14. where his writing is declared to be out of an apprehension of his approaching Dissolution that after his Decease there might be that extant which might keep in their Remembrance that which he had taught them and wherein they were established It is part of my Rejoycing that I have had so much Ability as to hold forth the Word of God to you in any measure and that it hath found so ready Reception with you It is that which I pray for and earnestly exhort you to that you will never forget the Saving Truths you have been taught though I be buried in oblivion nor backslide to Errour or Profaneness But that you be still constant in the true Faith of Christ and the right Worship of God in publick and in your private Families seeking the Divine Benediction on your selves and Families and living in mutual Love and Helpfulness towards all as knowing that the saving Grace of God hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for that blessed Hope and the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of Good works Whereunto if this Writing or any Labour of mine may conduce I have my Desire who recommending both you and this Work to the Almighty's Blessing do yet remain Your truly loving and faithfull Servant in Christ CHARLES GIBBES A TABLE of the several TEXTS discoursed upon PSAL. VI. 6. I Am weary of my Groaning every night wash I my Bed and water my Couch with my Tears Three Sermons pag. 1 19 37. PSAL. LI. 1 2. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy Loving-kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions Wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my Sin 57. PSAL. LI. 3. I acknowledge my Transgression and my Sin is ever before me 75. PSAL. LI. 11. Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me Two Sermons 87 99. PROV XVIII 14. The Spirit of a man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear Two Sermons 111 121. PSAL. CXXX 4. But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared 131. PSAL. LXXIX 8. O remember not against us former Iniquities let thy tender Mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low 153. HEBR. IV. 7. To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts 173. ROM VI. 1. and part of 2. What shall we say then shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid 185. LAMENT III. 22. It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed because his Compassions fail not 197. PSAL. LVI 13. For thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not deliver my Feet from Falling that I may walk before God in the Light of the living Two Sermons 217 235. PSAL. CXIX 15. I will meditate in thy Precepts and have respect unto thy Ways 251. PSAL. CXXII 1. I was glad when they said unto me Let us goe into the House of the Lord. 263. PSAL. XXXVII 4. Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee thy Heart's desire 275. 1 PET. III. 13. And who is he that will harm you if ye be Followers of that which is Good 287. PSAL. XVI 11. Thou wilt shew me the Path of life In thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore Two Sermons 305 325. PSAL. LXXIII 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterwards receive me to Glory 345. PSAL. XL. 8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in Safety 357. 1 JOHN III. 1. Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 371. PSAL. CXIX 34. Give me Vnderstanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole Heart 383. PROV XIV 2. He that walketh in his Vprightness feareth the Lord but he that is perverse in his Ways despiseth him Two Sermons 399 411. REVEL VII 15. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them 421. JOHN VIII 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad 435. GEN. XII 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham Get thee out of thy Country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a Land that I shall shew thee 449. Imprimatur Febr. 27. 1676 7. Guil. Sill R. P. D. Henr. Episc Lond. à Sacris Domesticis DAVID's GROANS Part I. The First SERMON PSALM vi 6. I am weary of my Groaning every night wash I my Bed and water my Couch with my Tears THIS Psalm is intituled to David and is styled by many One or the First of his Penitentiall Psalms And it is true it expresseth his Agony and dolour of mind for his Sickness undoubtedly for his Sins as the Cause of it in likelihood and so for both as in a Psalm parallel to this he complains Psal 38.4 which two make a heavy Burthen too heavy for any man to bear The Burthen of one onely to wit of Sin though not his own made the Mighty One the Mighty God to stoop under it when he bare the Sins of Men in his own body on the Tree insomuch that as in the Garden he told his Disciples Matth. 26.38 My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull unto death so on the Cross he cried out in the Anguish of his spirit Matth. 27.46 O God my God why hast thou forsaken me No marvel then that
holy David though a man after God's own heart and one that was of so bold and magnanimous a spirit as to encounter with a Lion and a Bear that with the most gallant Courage a man shall likely meet with could slight the proud Vaunts and Menaces of the great Goliah of Gath and be no more affrighted by him then as if he had been to encounter with a Child while by faith he saw God for him yet when he saw God against him calling his Sin to remembrance laying Affliction on his loyns consuming him with the blow of his hand that he I say should shrink under the burthen his spirit slag his heart faint and he roar and cry out like a Child as in the words of my Text I am weary of my Groaning c. Which words express the sad plight of David under some heavy Pressure which drew from him 1. Groaning the dolefull sound of the Inwards Lungs and other of the Bowels upon the feeling of some oppressing Burthen Grief or Pain or the apprehension of some expected approaching Evil. And this Groaning of David is with weariness so excessive as that it did even break his Heart 2. It drew from him Tears which are the emanations of watery moisture from the eyes drawn out sometimes by excessive Joy but most commonly by sad afflicting Griefs which do not stupefy but affect the Heart These Tears of David are described 1. By the abundance of them They made his Bed to swim they watered his Couch Beds and Couches are Utensills made for Rest and Ease the one in the Night the other in the Day when either labour sickness or other malady makes us to betake our selves to them for repose and refreshing So said Job in his Calamity My Bed shall comfort me my Couch shall ease my complaint Job 7.13 Now to have the Bed to swim with Tears to have the Couch watered with his own Tears is a sign of no Rest nor Ease by them and therefore of extreme remediless Grief 2. His Weeping is aggravated by the incessantness of it in the Night made for Rest and that every Night yea all the Night And in the Day too for that is the time of using the Couch So that as elsewhere he expresseth himself he went mourning all the day long and day and night God's hand was heavy upon him and his moisture was turned into the drought of Summer But may it not be said Ad quid perditio haec Wherefore was this waste what was the cause of this excessive Groaning and Weeping Scire est per Causam scire We never well understand a thing till we know the Reason of it Weeping and Groaning are sometimes voluntary and of choice when a person sets himself to weep and groan as when S. Peter remembring Christ's words went out and wept bitterly Matth. 26.75 Sometimes they are involuntary as when the Christians Act. 20.37 38. parted with S. Paul they wept sore sorrowing most of all for the word which he spake that they should see his face no more Sometimes because of Calamity sometimes because of Sin and sometimes for both Sometimes to express Compassion Tenderness and Love as when S. Paul by the space of three years ceased not to warn the Arians night and day with Tears Act. 20.31 Sometimes for their own Sins and Calamities sometimes for the Sins or Calamities or both of others Christ when he perceived the Pharisees infidelity and hardness of heart sighed deeply in his spirit Mark 8.12 when he beheld Jerusalem he wept over it Luk. 19.41 when he saw Mary weep Christ groaned in the spirit and was troubled and wept upon Lazarus his buriall Joh. 11.33 35. Jeremiah the Prophet wisheth Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people Jer. 9.1 And Chap. 13.17 he tells them If ye will not hear it my Soul shall weep in secret places for your Pride and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's Flock is carried away captive Which he did abundantly perform when he made his Book of Lamentations David Psal 119.136 saith of himself Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law And these indeed were charitable Tears for others But the Groaning and Weeping in my Text was for himself partly naturall and involuntary because of his weakness the vexing of his bones partly voluntary and of choice 1. Because his Affliction whether Sickness or other Distress was likely to bereave him of Life and thereby deprive him of the opportunity of praising God among the living in which he so much delighted as to count his life a burthen to him when he could not come to the Tabernacle to praise God Psal 42.1 2. and 48.1 2 3. Which is gathered from his plea why God should save him from his present Malady For saith he vers 5. next before my Text in Death there is no remembrance of thee in the Grave who shall give thee thanks It seems he had some Sickness or other Danger which he apprehended to be mortall which is not related in the Books of Samuel and that put him upon this sad Complaint in my Text. As in like manner Hezekiah complained in his Sickness Isa 38.10 11. I said in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the Grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world vers 18. For the Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy truth This then was the Grievance which made their other Malady so disquieting to them that it would put an end to their praising God on Earth I do not question whether the Patriarchs looked onely for Temporall Blessings whether they believed the Immortality of the Soul the Beatificall vision immediately after Death the Resurrection of the body sith Heb. 11. it is resolved that Abraham looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker as God vers 10. that they confessed they were Strangers and Pilgrims upon Earth vers 13. that they sought and desired a better Country to wit an Heavenly vers 14 16. that they accepted not deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection vers 35. As our Lord Christ Luk. 23.46 and S. Stephen Act. 7.59 commended their Spirits into God's hands so David Psal 31.5 Into thine hand I commit my Spirit thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth Yet certain it is whether by reason of their great affection to the solemn Worship of God on Earth their expectations and apprehensions of God's Promises or their imperfect umbratile Twilight-knowledge of the Mysteries of Christ they seem not to be alike apprehensive of the Happiness of the Soul after death
Ashes on our heads creep to a Cross whip our selves naked go on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem to weep at Christ's Sepulchre this would make but a palliated Cure our Wound would not be healed at the bottom but it would fester and break out again and gangrene and become mortall And therefore VI. PROPOSITION The Penitent pious person in the sense of his Sin and Misery bemoaneth himself to God confesseth and bewaileth his Sin humbleth himself before him deprecateth his Wrath and earnestly seeketh by Prayer and Supplication for Forgiveness of Sin Healing and Peace from God which is the last Conclusion deduced from the Vocality of David's Weeping vers 8. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping There was a Prayer in David's Tears and that God heard And we may see how effectual this course is by the example of Manasseh King of Judah who did evil in the sight of the Lord like unto the Abominations of the Heathen whom the Lord cast out before the Children of Israel yea he made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to erre and to doe worse then the Heathen And the Lord spake unto Manasseh and to his people but they would not hearken And the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the hoast of the King of Assyria which took Manasseh amongst the thorns and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon And when he was in Affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was intreated of him and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God 2 Chron. 33.2 9 10 11 12 13. By which Instance we may perceive what is the right course to be taken by any one whom God afflicts for Sin he is to seek the Lord to humble himself greatly and to make his Supplication also how efficacious a way this is to remove the greatest Evils from the greatest Transgressours Nor is this Case of Manasseh a singular Case but such as other passages of Holy Scripture warrant us to make a common Rule of both for Duty and for Success For Duty thus saith Jeremiah Lament 3.39 40 41 42. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again unto the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens We have transgressed and rebelled and thou hast not pardoned For Success thus speaks Elihu Job 33.27 28. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not He will deliver his Soul from going into the Pit and his life shall see the light For both the Prophet Joel speaks thus 2.12 13. Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn you even unto me with all your heart and with fasting and weeping and with mourning And rend your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. Whence may be gathered 1. That Complaints of our Punishments without Complaint of our Sins are vain and fruitless It was to no purpose for living men to complain of the Evils they felt while they were insensible of the Evils they did for in so doing they justified not God in his Judgments on them nor shewed any hatred of their own evil ways but either were insensible of their Afflictions as from God's hand and so gave him not the Glory of his Avenging act or being sensible hated God as an Enemy dealing unrighteously with them as not deserving it and fretting against the Lord in heart or blaspheming his Name because of their Plagues as those mentioned Revel 16.11 2. That the wisest and most successfull course that any can take in the time of God's Scourge upon them is to search and try their ways that is to find out their Sins which till they be discovered will be like Achan's Theft which caused Israel to fall before the Canaanites For if God set our Sins before him and we do not set them before our selves his Anger will burn us like fire and we know not where to cast water to quench it I confess there are some Errours that we cannot find out Psal 19.12 Who can understand his Errours And for those though we understand them not we may escape Vengeance if we know them in general are sensible that we have a vicious or imperfect Nature ignorant and heedless of what we should know and doe Yet those we should not be ignorant of nor slight them as Peccadillo's Venial sins in their own nature S. Paul doubtless cried out of these even the first motions of Concupiscence without Consent his very Lustings which he hated The Evil he would not doe that he did the Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind as a body of Death which made him wretched and of which he enquires Who shall deliver me from it When David speaks of his Sins as exceeding the hairs of his head doubtless he comprehends his Omissions his imperfect Performances of Duties Praying with distraction Praising God with coldness Hearing without attention of mind giving Alms with self-respect the Mixtures of Evil with what was Good his Vanity of thoughts his Ignorance Incogitancy Excess in words Jests Merriments and thousands of such Failings which though each of them be little yet the Multitude of them made them too heavy a Burthen for him Though Sand be but a small thing yet Heaps of it may sink a Ship So though Sins of Errour be but small yet being many they are to be known at least in the general though we be ignorant of each particular And accordingly David when he had said Who can understand his Errours adds Cleanse thou me from secret Faults These the Penitent must crave Pardon for and therefore take notice that he is guilty of them though he cannot make a particular Confession of them S. Austin often urgeth against the Pelagians that no man in this life is perfect without Sin because Christ teacheth us to pray as for our daily Bread each day so for Forgiveness of Sins each day thereby intimating that in the best who call God Father there are Peccata quotidianae incursationis Sins of daily incursion as Tertullian called them which have need of Pardon and that this must be begg'd of God Pelagian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sinlesness Popish Merit and keeping of the Law Monkish works of Supererogation Quakers imagined Perfection are all proud and arrogant Dotages contrary to Christ and his Gospel We are to charge our selves with Sin in our daily Actions yea to count all our Righteousness as an Unclean thing yet that which we should especially consider should be our open and scandalous Sins as bringing most Dishonour to God and being most pernicious
which God himself used in his most blessed Declaration of himself when he proclaimed of himself Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin To which it is very likely he had an eye and that he made that Proclamation the rise of his Hope That though his Sins were great yet they were not any other then God had proclaimed of old he did forgive and after in his New Covenant he more fully assured the Condonation of them Jer. 31.34 Heb. 8.12 2. The thing David requesteth of God and that is full Remission expressed in three terms 1. Of Blotting out his Transgressions a phrase used by the Prophet Isa 43.25 and 44.22 And it intimates that his Sins were written by God in his Remembrance as in a Book of Records in the sense that Job said 13.26 and 14.17 God did write bitter things against him and sealed up his Iniquity And the blotting it out is the putting it out of his Remembrance so as not to charge it upon him nor condemn him for it as it is explained Isa 43.25 2. Of Washing him throughly from his Iniquity a term noting frequent or abundant washing that is Absolution meant by Ablution 1 Cor. 6.11 where it comprehends Justification as well as Sanctification And so it is said Revel 1.5 Christ hath washed us from our Sins in his own bloud alluding 't is likely to the cleansing of men from their Leprosy and other Legall Pollutions in the Mosaicall Law 3. The third term is Cleanse me from my Sin by Emundation meaning Emendation purifying his Heart from the love of his Sin and his Life from the practice of it any more as it is expressed Isa 1.16 17. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to doe evil learn to doe well 3. The Third thing considerable in David's Petition which is indeed the Hindge on which all turns is the Loving-kindness or Benignity of God the Multitude of his tender Mercies such as are in the Womb or Bowells of a tender Mother towards her Child And this Loving-kindness and Multitude of tender Mercies is urged by David as the Motive the impulsive Cause or sole Reason of granting his Request of blotting out his Transgressions washing him throughly from his Iniquity and cleansing him from his Sin In the same manner as Moses pleaded with God for Israel Num. 14.17 18 19. after whose Copy this Petition seems to be framed and is an exact Pattern according to which a Penitent Supplicant is to address himself to God for Ease from under the pressure of his Sins teaching us these Points 1. That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner David complains not of other Evils incident to him and his but his own Sin 2. That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but setteth it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress 3. That the Blotting out of our Transgressions the Washing throughly from our Iniquity the cleansing from our Sin is to be sought from God 4. That we are to beg earnestly not onely for Blotting out our Transgressions but also for through Washing and Cleansing from Iniquity and Sin not onely by Condonation of them but also by Emendation and Amendment of life 5. That it is Loving-kindness and multitude of tender Mercies which is the Motive whereupon God blotteth out Transgressions washeth throughly the guilty Sinner from Iniquity and cleanseth him from his Sin 6. That the onely way to obtain these things is to beg them of God upon this consideration and no other You see a large field and copious matter is before us in which I might exspatiate far and prosecute a long time but I will endeavour to abbreviate and end with the time I. OBSERVATION That the Remembrance of his Sin is the greatest Grievance to a Penitent Sinner This is evident from their penitential Complaints In the many mournfull Elegies of David the great Pressure of his spirit lay in the Remembrance of his Sin Psal 38.3 4 5. There is no rest in my bones because of my Sin For mine Iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me My Wounds stink and are corrupt because of my Foolishness And again Psal 40.12 Innumerable Evils have compassed me about mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me It is true Afflictions are hard to be born Poverty and Disgrace and Imprisonment and Pains of body are very heavy upon many persons Discontents and Fears of trouble Griefs and Sorrows for loss of Friends Wife Children do often quench mens spirits and sink them into the Grave Nor is it to be denied but that many times they cause men to prefer death before life and to chuse strangling before breathing Job 7.15 But upon the sense of Sin when the Conscience feels the weight of it when God shoots his Arrows into a man and haeret lateri lethalis Arundo the deadly Arrow sticks in his side then the Venome thereof drinks up his spirit is as the stinging of a Scorpion or fiery flying Serpent it tortures like Hell and is more bitter and terrible then Death it self The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity saith Solomon Prov. 18.14 but a wounded spirit who can bear In other Afflictions there is some Remedy from Reason or Faith if not to comfort yet to quiet the Soul but in the sense of Sin committed till Pardon thereof be apprehended no Argument can be fastned but will be rejected Men in these Wounds of Conscience doe like persons in extreme Anguish who tear off their Plaisters that should ease or cure them so do wounded Consciences reject all Allegations of Scripture brought to allay their Anguish as if they belong'd not to them as Spira and others have done And that which is the Sting of Sin that most of all makes it deadly poisonous is the apprehension of God as angry as an Enemy unappeasable till it be acknowledged to be what it is an evil and bitter thing that we have sinned against the Lord and that his fear is not in us as the Prophet speaks Jer. 2.19 Which leads me to the II. OBSERVATION That a Penitent Sinner doth not mince or lessen his Sin but sets it out or confesseth it to God in its greatest Aggravations in variety of odious Appellations when he betakes himself to God for Redress So David besides the variety of terms he here paints out the Deformity of his Sins by adds also vers 3 4. I acknowledge my Transgressions and my Sin is ever before me Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done this Evil in thy sight
man's Heart did entertain his Motions embrace his Suggestions Sin could not be engendred by them So that in vain doth the corrupt spirit of a man accuse things or persons without himself as the Authours or Causes of his sinfull Evils the Judge of Heaven will lay it at his own door and endite him as guilty of the Crime And so do all wise and holy persons We all do fade as a leaf and our Iniquities like the wind have taken us away Behold thou art wroth for we have sinned Isa 64.5 6. Nor do they lessen the Fault but aggravate it as David doth here which was the Second thing observable in an humble Penitent II. OBSERVATION The Penitent Sinner makes not a light matter of his Sin but acknowledgeth the Grievousness of it This is manifest by all the Examples of humble Penitents in the Scripture We have sinned saith holy Daniel Dan. 9.5 and have committed Iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy Precepts and from thy Judgments And holy Ezra 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our Iniquities are increased over our heads and our Trespass is grown up unto the Heavens Thus when the justified Publican prays he dares not lift up his eyes to Heaven but smites on his breast saying God be mercifull to me a Sinner And S. Paul censures himself as the chief of Sinners for those Sins he committed in Ignorance and Unbelief He knows that God sees more evil in his Sins then he himself can discern that Sins are not to be censured according to mens estimation but God's most pure Law and righteous Judgment that God is of purer eyes then to behold Evil and that he cannot look on Iniquity with the least approbation or connivence that what is highly prized in mens eyes or made a venial Sin by men is counted a foul Abomination with God that the least Sin is against an Infinite Majesty and cost no less then the Bloud of the Son of God to expiate it that there is no Venial Sin in its own nature to say Raca Thou fool to our Brother makes a man liable to Hell-fire that every Sin is of the Devil who sinned from the beginning that the wages of Sin every Sin is Death even that Death which is opposite to everlasting Life Hence it is that David makes not a small matter of the Sins of his youth but prays God not to remember them and Job complaineth that God wrote bitter things against him and made him to possess the Sins of his youth And Christ makes idle words such as that for them men are to be accountable at the day of Judgment Popish Doctrine of Venial Sins Resolutions of Cases of Conscience after Popish Casuists Dictates are not found in the expressions of Scripture-Penitents much less Pharisaicall Vauntings of Self-righteousness or Monkish Ostentation of their own Merits or Quakers Opinions of Innocency and Perfection but Acknowledgment of their Transgressions and Sins with the hainous Degree and Circumstances of them Which was David's profession here and is an instance of an humble Penitent's practice III. OBSERVATION He freely confesseth and acknowledgeth his Sin at least to God and sometimes to men Though David often professeth his Innocency in respect of the Criminations which were cast upon him in Saul's Court as if he had conspired against him though he alledge his Integrity before God as being upright in heart in promoting God's Worship not going after any other gods but in the choice of his Soul preferring the Observance of God's Laws before any Ends of his own yet he still acknowledgeth his Sins to God without any arrogant vaunting of Perfection or opinion of unspotted Holiness I acknowledge my Sin unto thee and mine Iniquity have I not hid saith he Psalm 32.5 And holy Job although he could not be beaten out of his hold the conscience of his Integrity before God and his Innocence from any Oppression of men with which his Antagonists charged him yet disclaims the Covering of his Transgressions as Adam by hiding his Iniquity in his bosome Job 31.33 And Chap. 7.20 he bespeaks God thus I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee O thou Preserver of men And again Chap. 40.4 Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth All Holy persons do subscribe to that of Bildad Job 25.4 5 6. that in comparison of God in his sight no man living can be justified How can he be clean that is born of a woman They know that God searcheth the Heart discerns the windings and turnings of their deceitfull Hearts that they have secret Sins which neither other men nor themselves perceive S. Paul once conceived himself touching the Righteousness of the Law blameless while he was ignorant of its Spirituality he observed not how the Law forbade Coveting the very first Motions of Lust But when he knew how holy and perfect the Law was how imperfect he was when he found a Law in his Members rebelling against the Law of his Mind and leading him into captivity to the Law of Sin which was in his Members he then cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7. Such is the Affection of the most inlightned Saints who have been best acquainted with God's Purity the Perfection of his Law their own Impurity and the Defect in their ways that they have always cried out of themselves as the Lepers in the Law We are unclean we are unclean In their Supplications to God they have bemoaned their sinfull Thoughts their most hidden Transgressions yea in their Transgressions against men when doing right to them and giving glory to God hath required it they have not stuck in full Congregations to confess their Errours and to bewail their Transgressions Which thing hath been always necessary 1. To justifie God in his Sentence and Judgments that he might be justified in his sayings and be clear when he is judged as it is in the next verse to my Text. 2. To abase Man that he may lie prostrate at his feet and not proudly lift up his head before God Both which Ends are discernible in that humble Confession of Daniel and his speech to God Dan. 9.7 O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us Confusion of faces because of our Trespass committed against thee For which Ends as God sets our Iniquities before us so the humble Penitent always sets his Sins before his face as David did here IV. OBSERVATION He makes not this a short transient Action but his Sins are ever before him There is indeed a setting our Iniquities before our faces which is pernicious when we look upon our Sins as of so horrid a Guilt that they are unpardonable as when Cain told God Gen. 4.13 My Punishment is greater then I can bear or Mine Iniquity is greater then that it may be
that they might bring forth fruit unto God serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter For though the Letter of the Law killeth being the ministration of Condemnation yet the Spirit giveth Life being the ministration of Righteousness which exceeds in glory And consequently they have liberty by the Spirit of God are beautified by it so as that Christ is formed in them They live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit The mind of the Spirit is to them life and peace They have access by one Spirit unto the Father The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father The Spirit it self beareth witness with their spirit that they are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ that suffering with him they may be glorified together They are led by the Spirit sow to the Spirit and of the Spirit reap life everlasting through the Spirit wait for the hope of Righteousness which is by Faith In a word that Life that Holiness that Beauty that Liberty that Joy that Hope that Fruit which a Christian hath from Christ is communicated by the Spirit and that Glory of Soul and Body which is expected hereafter that Quietness and Rest in life and death which is desirable is from the Spirit of God If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Christ's But if Christ be in us the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in us Rom. 8.9 10 11. So that I may safely infer from this enumeration of Benefits even the most precious Riches that a Spirit is capable of that the Gift of God's Spirit to a man is the greatest Commodity the Jewel of Heaven What Solomon saith of Wisedom is true of God's Spirit It is a Gift more precious then Rubies and all the things we can desire are not to be compared to it And therefore the Loss of it is the greatest Loss Which brings me to the Enquiry what endangers the Privation of it and that was asserted in the Second Proposition to be great Transgressions II. OBSERVATION That great Transgressions endanger the Loss of God's Spirit This is manifest from David's Petition in that by reason of his Sins he was afraid of its Loss and therefore begs the Continuance of it notwithstanding his foul Trespasses It is I confess a great Dispute Whether a person once regenerated by the Spirit washed sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God can totally and finally lose its Continuance with him I will not meddle with that Point But this is out of question That some Gifts of the Spirit may be lost else the Apostle 1 Thess 5.19 would not have premonished the Thessalonians that they should not quench the Spirit Such Gifts of the Spirit as are for others good to which the Salvation of a person is not promised may undoubtedly be totally lost by great Transgressions So Saul lost the Royal Magnanimity and other Princely Endowments which he had before by sparing Agag and by usurping the Priestly Office in offering Sacrifice Judas lost the Gift of Healing which he had with the rest of the Apostles and other Abilities to preach the Gospell by his traitourous Selling of his Master he fell from the Apostleship and Ministry by his Transgression Nor is it denied but that some who were once enlightned and had tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and had tasted of the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come might fall away and not be renewed again by Repentance that they might crucifie the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame that they might tread under foot the Son of God and count the Bloud of the Covernant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing and doe despite to the Spirit of grace Heb. 6.4 5 6. and 10.29 Yea those of whom God gave testimony that they did that which was right in the eyes of God as did David yet even they fell so foully as that they lost the Fruits and Comforts of the Spirit so as not to regain them in that degree they once had them Of Asa it is said that his Heart was perfect with the Lord all his days 1 King 15.14 and yet he put the Seer in prison being in a rage with him for reproving his Relying on the King of Syria 2 Chron. 16.7 10. and even in his Disease he sought not to the Lord but to the physicians vers 12. And Hezekiah though he walked before God in truth and with a perfect Heart and did that which was good in his sight yet when God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his Heart he rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for his Heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32.25 31. Certain it is by David's and other Holy mens example that God doth sometimes leave men to themselves for a time so as to fall into such Sins as deprive them of the Joy of God's Salvation and the establishing virtue of God's Spirit so as not to be so active and constant in the exercise of Godliness as formerly at least for a time else why doth David pray in the next verse to my Text Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit And however the event be yet there is great danger of an utter Loss of the Spirit of God not onely in respect of its Comforts and Motions but also of its inexistence and quickening virtue when men are so overcome by Lust as Solomon and David or Fear as Peter or other Temptations to sin so foully as they did The Reason whereof is because such Sins do grieve and vex the Holy Spirit For though the Spirit of God be not subject to humane Passions yet the Holy Scripture as it ascribes Repentance and some other Affections of men to God so doth it attribute Grief to the Holy Spirit Eph. 4.30 where it minds us that we grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption in respect of the effect that Grief hath in man which makes him withdraw from that which grieves him And so saith the Book intituled the Wisedom of Solomon Chap. 1.4 5. For into a malicious Soul Wisedom shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject to Sin For the holy Spirit of discipline will fly deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding and will not abide where Vnrighteousness cometh in Contraria se invicem expellunt There is a Contrariety between God's Spirit of Holiness and man's spirit that
thou recover me and make me to live Behold for Peace I had great Bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy back Thus he creates the fruit of the lips Peace Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near and heals them Isa 57.19 Men sin and then God scourgeth they cry and God sends his Messenger to teach them they are humbled for Sin and fly to the Bloud of Christ for Peace Believing in him they obtain Reconciliation being reconciled the Spirit of Christ as the Comforter is given them to make known the things that are freely given by God hence comes Joy in believing and Hope of the Inheritance of life by which they are supported which I was to demonstrate APPLICATION And now this belongs to you that so many of you as have by proof found the truth of this may be thankfull so many as do or shall need these directions may wisely make use of them You are all of you yet in the Body and this Body you bear about you is a Body of Sin and Death and perhaps you have been affected as S. Paul was when he cried out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver men from the Body of this death Rom. 7.24 If you have not found it already you may expect such a sense of your Infirmities as may perhaps make you tremble and quake bemoan God's Absence from you and from the words of your Roaring you may find Wounds in your Spirit and Breach in your Bones Conscience of Sin sense of God's Rod on your backs may make you cry out in the bitterness of your Soul for Ease and Help If any of you have already found your selves in this Case you are able to tell how weak your Spirit hath been either to avoid or bear the Blows of God's Hand Onely they are happy in such a case who can truly say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sure all others are Physicians of no value It is in vain to imagine any solid Comfort to your Spirit by a Pope's Pardon or a Priest's Absolution or any other Remedy which either your own Mind or others Wit can minister to you for your Ease or Recovery It is onely the Balm of the Gospell the Physician of Heaven that can make a perfect Cure Without these some Mountebanks may make a palliated Cure but the Sore will break out again Oh then be sure to take home with you this Receipt write upon it Probatum est No Medicine like God's Favour obtained by sound Humiliation true Repentance unfeigned Faith in the Bloud of Christ to heal your Plagues whether from God's Judgments or your own Fears Keep this as the onely Plague-water make use of it toties quoties as oft as you find need in life and death And when you have found Refreshing in your Spirits by it forget not to lift up your eyes to the Father of Spirits both by acknowledgment of what Support you have had and by seeking such farther Comfort from him as you may need I shall dismiss you with S. Paul's prayer 2 Thes 2.16 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting Consolation and good Hope through Grace comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work To whom with the Blessed Spirit be ascribed c. Amen LAVS DEO PIETY THE DESIGN of PARDON The Tenth SERMON PSALM cxxx 4. But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared THIS Psalm is one of the Fifteen which are intituled Songs of Degrees For what reason they are so called is variously conjectured but not certainly determined It is also one of the Seven termed Penitentiall Psalms The matter of it is Supplication with a declaration of the Psalmist's Resolution or Practice v. 5 6. and an Exhortation to wait and hope in God as he did with assurance of God's Graciousness and Mercifull intention to Israel vers 7 8. The Supplication expresseth the state he was in De profundis Out of the Depths that is deep Mire or Waters by which are signified great Calamities Psal 69.2 14 15. such as those are in that are put into a Dungeon as Jeremiah was Jer. 38.6 or that are cast into a deep River Sea or Lake in which they are like to be overwhelmed It notes some great Affliction whether inward or outward private or publick is not certain though the words in vers 3 4. seem to intimate it to have been inward out of the sense of Sin and terrour of Soul by reason of it In this condition he saith he called or cried to God and his Cry was 1. In generall for Audience Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my Supplications vers 2. 2. With Confession of his Guiltiness vers 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities 3. With imploring and confident application of Forgiveness in my Text But there is Mercy or Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Whether the word be read Mercy or Forgiveness it is not much material saving that this latter is more agreeable to the words and to the Coherence with vers 3. and better expresseth the particular Mercy meant here The Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thee is Propitiation or Appeasing which is either the same with Forgiveness or connexed with it Nor is it of any moment whether we reade For or But save that this latter is more apposite to the matter And it is all to one purpose whether we reade with thee or from thee the Hebrew particle signifying both save that this latter is more expressive of the sense And the meaning is the same with that in Daniel 9.9 To the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness though we have rebelled against him The latter part of the verse is otherwise read by the Greek and Vulgar Latin upon mistakes which Learned men in their Annotations take notice of Doctour Hammond on this place But the reading according to the Originall is for thy fear which is all one with our Translation that thou maist be feared that is reverenced worshipped and obeyed which are usually comprehended under the Fear of God The Truths included in this passage are 1. That there is Forgiveness with or from God 2. That this Forgiveness engageth or encourageth men to fear him Of these in their order I. OBSERVATION That there is Forgiveness with or from God That God is a pardoning God is the Assertion of God himself in that Proclamation in which he told Moses he would make all his Goodness to pass before him which was thus delivered Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Conformable whereunto in that Prayer of Nehemiah 9.17
all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul And in a word He uses all the ways he can to demonstrate his sense of God's Goodness to him to keep a Memorial of his Loving-kindnesses to affect others with his Experiments that both he and all others as much as in him lay might be moved to pray unto to trust in to praise and obey God as one that delivereth from death The like Instance we have Isa 38. concerning Hezekiah A Message was brought to him that he should die He betakes himself to Prayer turns his face towards the Wall and weeps God hears his Prayer sees his Tears adds to his days fifteen years Being recovered he writes an Hymn of Praise sets out his Danger and Deliverance with his Resolution to praise God all his days in the most solemn manner he was able Even the Light of Nature taught the same to the Mariners Jonah 1.16 All people whatsoever that have acknowledged a God have still ascribed their Deliverances from Death to their God and have still performed their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Thank-offerings to their Deities upon their Preservation Nor was this done by them without great and just Reasons 1. For first Death is the chief of all Evils it deprives of all Good Omnia appetunt Bonum saith the Philosopher in the beginning of his Ethicks It 's natural to all to desire their own Good Beasts will struggle much with the Slayer before they will die Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his Life The most sickly needy person would fain preserve his Life Death is most resisted as the most terrible Nature apprehends it as the Privation of all Good Even our Lord Christ would fain have had this Cup pass from him and therefore in the days of his Flesh he offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong Crying and Tears unto him that was able to save him from Death Heb. 5.7 Though he had no Sin of his own to gall his Conscience yet he had a natural sense of the Evil of Death and earnestly desired Deliverance from it The Being he had as a Man he so prized that if his Father's Will had not engaged him to it he would never have parted with it Life is sweet it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun but there is Bitterness in Death as the King of the Amalekites speaks 1 Sam. 15.32 Many Circumstances make it indeed more bitter to some then others yet to all it hath its exceeding Bitterness O Death saith the Son of Sirach how bitter is the Remembrance of thee to the man that liveth at rest in his possessions unto the man that hath nothing to vex him and that hath Prosperity in all things yea unto him that is yet able to receive meat Ecclus. 41.1 I deny not but some to avoid the fury of Tyrants have killed themselves yet not without fretting and indignation Some to gain an immortal Name and others by Satanical Delusions or Philosophicall Charms have of themselves embraced Death but I cannot say they have done it without any Reluctancy at all though to avoid a worse Evil or obtain a better Good as they conceived they have parted with their Lives There were some Circumstances which might have made Death more bitter at this time to David then it was to him when he fell asleep and was gathered to his Fathers To be killed in the Land of the Philistines by the hands of the Uncircumcised when he fled from Saul out of some distrust of God's Preservation in his own Country to have died with the Disappointment of his hopes of being King of Israel to which he was anointed by Samuel and had God's Promise for it had been a greater Grievance then to die in his Bed full of days and in a good old age Violent Deaths and dying by pestilential Diseases are the more terrible in regard a person is then deprived of all Help Society Conference with others all shun him even his nearest Relations as an instrument of Death when dying he kills others with his Breath his Plague-sore takes away the Life of his Child whose Life he prizeth above his own the Life of his Friend yea his Wife that is as his own Soul These and many other such Concomitants of Death do make it more dreadfull to a man But there is yet something besides that makes it most terrible The Consideration that Death is the Wages of Sin adds greater weight to the pressure of Death for then Death becomes not onely the Burthen of the Body but also of the Spirit While the Back is whole it will bear much but when the Skin is flayed off or the Shoulder-blade broken then to have a Load laid on the Back is intolerable So it is in the case of Death When there is Peace of Conscience it is not so heavy news but that Faith and a good Conscience can bear the tidings of it but when Death is presented as the Fruit not onely of the first Sin of Man but also of our own particular Sins so as Conscience tells a man My Excess in Drinking hath shortened my Life I have hastened my Death by my Riot and Intemperance by my Quarrelling my Disloyalty my Eagerness to get Wealth by my Wilfulness and Rashness in venturing into infected houses by a pragmatick humour in meddling with that which did not concern me by these and such like practices Oh then how doth Death bite as a Serpent and sting as an Adder The Sting of Death is Sin when it lies on the Conscience it kills as a Scorpion tortures as well as kills makes a Fire in the bones kindles Hell-fire in the Soul Especially when the Soul remembers how Sin hath been committed presumptuously with an high hand against Instructions of Parents Warnings of Friends Admonitions of Preachers Offers of Grace Invitations to Repentance that all these have been slighted and even the Gospel of Christ hath been neglected that the Sin remains unpardoned that after the first Death the second Death is expected after Death Judgment follows which ushers in Wrath and Vengeance When the Conscience of Unmercifulness Neglect of the poor Members of Christ wasting our Estate in Luxury spending our precious Time in vanities which should have been employed in Prayer and other holy Exercises and Meditations and in Self-examination flies in our Faces frights us like the sight of Furies when the thought of Christ's Coming to Judgment of that dreadfull Sentence Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels still runs in our mind then is Death the King of Terrours The man not onely sings Adrian's Ditty Animula vagula blandula Hospes Comésque Corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca but he roars out for the Disquietness of his Soul and cries out with Cain My Punishment or Iniquity is greater then I can bear Then will he wish the Mountains and Rocks to fall on
so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death That which is said by David but most truly verified of our Lord Christ is true of all that delight in the Lord Psal 40.8 I delight to doe thy Will O my God yea thy Law is within my Heart And this their Desire God always grants so that however he that delights in the Lord be assaulted with Temptations be benighted in his Apprehensions of God's Favour though Heaviness may endure for a night Joy shall come in the morning though he miss of his Way yet he shall find his Errour and return into it again The Steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand Psal 37.23 34. Next unto these ultimate and supreme Ends the Desire of his Soul who delights in the Lord is to see God How earnestly did Moses beg the sight of God's Face How often doth David bemoan his Absence from God's Worship at his Temple As the Hart saith he panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Psal 42.1 2. And in the next Psalm vers 3. O send out thy Light and thy Truth let them lead me let them bring me unto thy holy Hill and to thy Tabernacles So Saint Paul Phil. 1.23 I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is best of all And this Desire God will give them at last who delight in him Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matth. 5.8 Now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 Manutenentia Divina God's supporting Grace here and Visio beatifica the Fruition of God hereafter are two grand Desires of Souls that delight in God these they petition for and he will grant them both There are other Desires which they have as the Prosperity of God's Church the Downfall of their Enemies which the Lord will also at last accomplish though not without much Contention and long Waiting They shall overcome the Powers of darkness and the World they shall see the people of God above their Enemies by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimony though they lay down their Lives for it Other Desires of outward Blessings God grants not always in the kind but often in some Equivalent He repairs that which they lose for Christ and his Gospell by inward Comfort and Spirituall Strength Though they be in Want or under Persecution yet they know how to abound in that they have learned in whatsoever estate therewith to be content They can doe all things through Christ that strengtheneth them If they have a Thorn in the Flesh a Messenger of Satan to buffet them and it still molest them yet the Grace of God is not denied them and it is sufficient for them his Strength is perfected in their Weakness Many Desires of particular Blessings are granted them and this one comprehensive Privilege belongs to them that all things work together for good to them who love God Rom. 8.28 APPLICATION It remains then that we learn this way of Thriving by delighting our selves in the Lord. Self-love is naturall every man desires his own Good but all take not the right way to attain it God made Man upright or simple but he hath sought out many Inventions Many ways are devised by men for the attaining their Ends and many Ends propounded by them The Desires of men are almost as various as their Faces and their Designs and Courses are almost as manifold as their Heads So many Men so many Minds Among you who are my present Auditours though you meet here about the same Business the Serving of God yet how few in truth do desire to know him aright or to serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind Even in this very Action how few mind God's Glory How many observe onely the Custom in coming to Church or perhaps some worser Motives bring them hither and sinfull Thoughts possess them here And no marvell then if they grow not in Knowledge and holy Obedience are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth yea grow worse and worse because they delight not themselves in the Lord but aim onely at the feeding their Eyes or the tickling their Ears or some other sinister Ends of their own As these mens Hearts are not towards God so neither is God's towards them they have no Pleasure in God nor God in them How many of you are there of whom those things are verified which we reade Isa 58.2 They seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinance of their God they ask for the Ordinances of Justice they take Delight in approaching to God and yet for want of reall Delighting in God it may be your lot at last to hear Christ say to you I know you not depart from me you workers of Iniquity Is it not true of you which the Prophet said of his Hearers that they came and sate before the Prophet as God s People and they heard his words but they would not doe them for with their Mouth they shewed much Love but their Hearts went after their Covetousness The Prophet was unto them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an Instrument for they heard his words but did them not Ezek. 33.31 32. A Sermon is to most but as an Oration in Schools the Delivery the Composure is observed and perhaps censured but the Matter is not learned their Hearts not bettered their Ways not amended God not glorified After Dismission yet neither the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ nor the Love of God nor the Communion of the Holy Spirit remains in them but worldly Projects earthly Designs carnall Practices are still prosecuted Yea their Hearts are more hardened more estranged from God and the Life that is in him and their Wisedom remains earthly sensuall and devillish No marvell if such find no Incomes of Grace no Consolation in Christ no spirituall growth in Godliness Oh that you would ask your selves whether this Guilt lie not on you and that you would now at last apply your selves throughly to delight your selves in God especially in these great Duties of Prayer and Hearing his Word lest when you would have your great Desire of seeing God's Face in the great Day of Christ's appearing ye be shut out of his Presence and be cast into outer Darkness where is nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Delight in the Lord now that he
and the pleasing of him as our End Insomuch that if we can acquit our selves so as to have his Favour and good Liking of us we must not care what we lose or what Obloquy Censure or Disgrace we incurro from men Our Righteousness and Holiness should not be in shew but in truth Eph. 4.24 4. In Following of that which is Good we should doe it zealously with our Minds our Affections and our Studies We should give all diligence and study that we may abound in Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly love Charity 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. We should follow Peace with all men and Holiness Heb. 12.14 pursue after it as Hunters after a Prey or Enemies after Enemies This one thing I doe saith the Apostle Phil. 3.13 14. forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things that are before I press or pursue towards the Mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus A lazy slack Following of Good is ineffectual such a Seeking as the old Saints are said to have used is that which is required of them that will inherit the Promises Heb. 6.11 12. 5. Yea we should not onely follow that which is Good our selves but animate others to follow it too He loves not God nor his Brother that seeing him in Want doth not relieve him when it is in his power so neither doth he follow God that seeing his Brother erre doth not as he hath opportunity endeavour to convert him from the Errour of his ways that doth not lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12.12 that doth not avoid giving such Offence as may cause the Lame to fall in the way or to turn out of it that doth not encourage others in that which is Good comfort and heal the sorrowfull Spirit and lead others by Example Instruction and Prayer Such as are of God doe good even as he doeth who benefits all invites all is Bonum universale an universal communicative Good 6. Our following of Good must be with Constancy We must always be zealous in a good thing Gal. 4.18 all our days in youth and age in all Companies in all Estates on all Occasions not by sits and starts We must cleave to that which is good Rom. 12.9 as a Wife adheres to her Husband as Ruth did to her Mother-in-law We should be stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord as knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 Which brings me to the other Particulars propounded to be considered in which I shall be very brief III. The Harm that they who are zealous Followers of that which is Good are secured from This is indeed all sorts of Evils the chief whereof are the Wounds of Conscience and the Wrath of God While men follow that which is Good they are not obnoxious to those Lashes of a guilty Conscience which are consequent upon the remembrance of lewd Pranks in youth Deceits and Covetous practices in age cruel Murthers horrid Perjuries unjust Bribes Purloining Stealing and such other Evils as do vastare Conscientiam violently torture the Mind and are as scorching Heat in a man's Bones Gall and Wormwood in his Belly as when God wrote bitter things against Job and made him possess the Sins of his youth These Tortures were resembled in the Poets by the Affrightments of Furies and are Forerunners of Hell-Torments Nor shall those who follow what is Good be liable to the Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish which God inflicts on them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness Rom. 2.8 9. These are indeed the grand Harms that are like the stinging of a Scorpion but my Text intends likewise all Afflictions incident to us from mens Injuriousness and Malignity such as are Reproaches Derision Slanders privation of Liberty Livelihood Life which though they be but Flea-bitings in comparison of the other yet are they very harmfull as being extreme trouble-some and grievous Yet by Following of that which is Good there is Security from them if not altogether at least in a great measure if not from the Feeling of them yet from the Oppression of them if not from the Buzzing and Disquieting of them as of Flies yet from the Sting of them as of Scorpions if not from the Molestation of them yet from the Deadliness of them which will be better discerned if we consider our next Particular IV. Who they are from whose Harming they are secured They are either Men or Devils neither of whom can mortally and eternally wound us Fear not them saith our Lord that can kill the Body and when they have done that can doe no more but fear him that can cast both Soul and Body into Hell-sire Matth. 10.28 Luk. 12.4 Men and Devils may interrupt our Peace but cannot damn our Souls Neither Tribulation nor Distress nor Persecution nor Famine nor Nakedness nor Peril nor Sword neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature can separate them that follow that which is Good from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But in all these things they are more then Conquerours through him that hath loved them as S. Paul saith of himself Rom. 8.35 37 38 39. Yet are they sorely assaulted by both these Enemies insomuch that the Apostle tells us there vers 36. for God's sake they are killed all the day long and are counted as Sheep for the slaughter They are as Sheep among Wolves who are ready to worry them Satan casts some into Prison ten days that they may be tried Rev. 12.10 He goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 There is a spitefull Spirit in all that are of the Wicked one yet sometimes God restrains the remainder of their Wrath. He cuts off the spirit of Princes he is terrible to the Kings of the earth Psal 76.10 12. He rebukes an Abimelech in a Dream so as that he dares not touch them Gen. 20.6 He suffers no man to doe them wrong he reproves Kings for their sake saying Touch not mine Anointed and doe my Prophets no harm Psal 105.14 15. When a man's ways please the Lord he maketh even his Enemies to be at peace with him Prov. 16.7 Sometimes the Luster of a Good life doth either attract the favourable Aspect or dazzle the Eyes of those with whom they live Sometimes the benefit of Laws and Government secures their Peace they are Ministers to them for good Rom. 13.4 By these and many more means are they that follow that which is Good indemnified whenas his own Iniquities take the Wicked himself and he is holden with the Chords of his Sins Prov. 5.22 V. When it is that they are secured But then this is not perpetually so it falleth out sometimes otherwise When
hath not the Son of God hath not Life Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him But Jus in re or the Consummation and full Possession of this Life is after the Resurrection in the World to come which therefore Christ by way of Excellency terms eternall Life Mark 10.30 And this is that Life in the assurance whereof Christ laid down his Life with so much quietness when he commended his Spirit into the hands of his Father Luk. 23.46 And upon the promise of Life which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 1.1 not onely of the Life that now is but also of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 S. Paul did both labour and suffer Reproach vers 10. In hope of this eternall Life Tit. 1.2 he exposed himself to daily danger of Death which he terms dying daily 1 Cor. 15.31 as being sensible as he saith vers 19. if in this life onely he and other Christians had hope in Christ they were of all men most miserable Now in hope and assurance of this Life Christ duram serviit Servitutem underwent the hardest Service that ever was undertaken he emptied himself took upon him the form of a Servant was made in the likeness of Men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2.7 8. Though the Cup he was to drink of were a very bitter Cup a Cup of deadly Wine such as had in it the Dregs of God's Anger and was mingled with the Sins of men for whom God made him Sin or a Sacrifice for Sin yet he drank it off yielding to his Father's Will as knowing it to be true which he himself taught the two Disciples that Christ must suffer these things and rise from the dead the third day and so enter into his Glory Luk. 24.26 46. And the Promise of this Life animated all the Holy Apostles Martyrs and Saints in their severall Generations to give all diligence to deny themselves to take up their Cross and so to follow Christ even to Death not counting their own Lives dear to them but being zealous to doe and suffer for Christ though with the Loss of all as having learned that whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his Life for Christ's sake shall find it Matth. 16.25 What things were gain to me saith S. Paul Phil. 3.7 8 9 10 11. those I have counted Loss for Christ Yea doubtless and I do count all things but Loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord for whom I have suffered the Loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him that I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable unto his Death if by any means I might attain unto the Resurrection of the dead Which occasions them to seek the Path of this Life which is the next thing enquired into and is now to be considered II. What is the Path or what the Ways of this Life The Ways or Path of Life is a Metaphor taken from Travellers who have a certain Track in which they are to tread and by going in which they are guided to the place to which their Journey tends and by its direction are ascertained of coming thither if they hold on their Motion Here in this passage it can be taken for no other then the Means of assurance of their attaining this Life Which in respect of Christ are 1. On God's part the Engagement of his Father to him Isa 53.10 11. that when he should make his Soul an Offering for Sin he should see his Seed he should prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand He should see of the travail of his Soul and be satisfied Christ undertook the great Business of doing his Father's Will which was written in the volume of his Book by offering that Body which his Father had prepared him upon a Contract between them when he came into the world as it is described Heb. 10.5 7 8. And this was that he should so lay down his Life as to take it up again as Christ himself declareth Joh. 10.18 I have power to lay down my Life and to take it up again this Commandment have I received of my Father Which thing made it impossible that he should be holden of the pains of death Act. 2.24 And therefore it is said He foresaw the Lord always before his face as being on his right hand that he should not be moved with the fear of Death vers 25. being firmly assured by his Father's Covenant upon which he put himself on that great Expedition of Coming into the world to save Sinners by the offering of himself that he should not lose by his Adventure but should after his Sufferings enter into his Glory To which is to be adjoyned the Love that his Father bare to him for this reason as he expresseth it Joh. 10.15 17 18. As the Father knoweth me even so I know the Father and I lay down my Life for the Sheep Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my Life that I might take it up again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self This unparallel'd Dutifulness of Christ to his Father in yielding so freely to his Self-exinanition and Humiliation unto Death did obtain a singular Love from his Father to him and engage his Truth and Power to revive and superexalt him 2. On Christ's part his ready Obedience to his Father's Will was the Path to Life which therefore he allegeth in that Prayer of his wherein he opened his Bosome to his Father Joh. 17.4 5. I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work thou gavest me to doe And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was In respect of Believers the Path of Life to them is 1. On God's part the free Love of God in chusing them to Life termed the writing their Names in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world Rev. 17.8 which because they are given to Christ is said to be the Lamb's Book of life Rev. 21.27 and our Saviour tells them their names are written in Heaven Luk. 10.20 Hereby is Christ engaged to give Life to them as he himself testifieth Joh. 6.39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day And accordingly he saith Joh. 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall Life to as many as thou hast given him Hereby it is that Christ is
become the Path of Life to them as at several times he declares Joh. 14.6 Jesus saith unto Thomas I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh to the Father but by me Joh. 11.25 Jesus said unto Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life And indeed Christ is the Way of Life 1. As he is the Exemplary Cause of it All whom his Father hath foreknown being predestinated to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many Brethren Rom. 8.29 Wherefore Christ told his Disciples Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also The Life of Christ which he recovered by his Resurrection is the efficacious Pattern or Copy according to which God hath contrived our Life He is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that sleep For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.20 21 22. Hence the Apostle tells us Col. 3.3 that we are dead and our Life is hid with Christ in God it is deposited as a Treasure in Christ's hand who is the Trustee to whom our Life is conveyed ad opus usum nostrum for our use and behoof as the Lawyers use to speak he hath Livery and Seisin given of Life on our behalf and so his Life is the Pledge and Path of our Life 2. As Christ is the Way of our Life as he is our Pattern Depositary and Pledge so is he the Way of our Life as the procuring Cause thereof He is the Prince of Life Act. 3.15 the Cause or Authour of eternall Salvation Heb. 5.9 and that many ways First by his Preaching which moved S. Peter to say Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternall Life Joh. 6.68 The words saith Christ that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life vers 63. The Preaching of the Law was but the Ministration of Death of the Letter that killed 2 Cor. 3.6 7. but the word of the Gospel is the word of Life Phil. 2.16 Secondly by his Death for so he tells us Joh. 6.51 I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread which I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the world And indeed it was for this very cause that as the Children were partakers of flesh and bloud so he also took part of the same that by Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death to wit the Devill and deliver them that through fear of Death were all their Life subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 15. As by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one better rendred by one Righteous deed to wit his Obedience unto Death the free Gift came upon all men unto Sanctification of life That as Sin hath reigned unto Death so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto eternall Life by Jesus Christ our Lord as the Apostle saith Rom. 5.18 21. His Death procures our Life both removendo Prohibens by taking away the Sting of Death Sin disarming Satan of his Power and by meritoriously purchasing our Life by paying a Price for us Thirdly by his Resurrection whereby he becomes as the First-fruits that sanctifies the rest of the Lump and so obtains Resurrection and Life for those that are Christ's As also he is impowered to give Life upon his Resurrection as himself saith All Power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Matth. 28.18 As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickeneth whom he will Joh. 5.21 Hereupon the Apostle argues thus Rom. 5.10 For if when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Fourthly by his Ascension whereby he is become an High Priest not on Earth but such as is set down on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8.1 He is not as the Priests of the Law who were not suffered to continue by reason of death but continueth for ever and hath an unchangeable Priesthood or a Priesthood that passeth not from one to another being made not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless or indissoluble Life and therefore he is able to save them to the uttermost or evermore that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them Heb. 7.16 23 24 25. Fifthly He is the Prince of Life or Cause of our Life by shedding forth his Spirit after his being glorified which was as Rivers of living water as his own words import Joh. 7.38 39. This Gift of the Spirit of Christ is that whereby we are born again to a Spiritual Life That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit saith Christ Joh. 3.6 It is the Spirit that quickeneth the Flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 6.63 Neither indeed had Christ's Preaching or his Dying availed to bring us to Life had he not given us of his Spirit And therefore herein was the Prerogative of the Gospel above the Law that whereas that gave the Command but could not give the Spirit being a dead Letter by the Ministration of the Spirit or the Law of the Spirit of life Rom. 8.2 Christians are made alive 2 Cor. 3.6 The Gospel is become the Ministration of Righteousness vers 9. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8.10 11. Sixthly Christ's Appearing shall consummate the Life of a Believer Though he now be dead in Appearance to the World to their Rites Practices Hopes Injoyments and his Life is now onely hid with Christ in God yet when Christ who is his Life shall appear then shall he also appear with him in Glory as the Apostle speaks most comfortably Col. 3.3 4. 2. On our part the Path of Life is 1. In our Union to Christ which is by Faith whereby he is our Head and we are his Members and therefore partakers of his Life I live saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life that I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Joh. 11.25 26. He that believeth on me although he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die The Life of a Christian is conjoyned with Christ's as that of a Child with the Mother's 2. In our Conformity to
propounded to you will sweeten all Death it self though the King of Terrours is to them that are in Christ as a Serpent without a Sting which you may handle without Danger without Fear it will but as the Poets feign of Medea's Medicaments let out your old Bloud and beget new Life When I consider the voluptuous and worldly Life of most it pities me to think that Men made to live like Angels should chuse to live more Pecudum a Life not higher then the Life of Beasts that those who are made for God for Christ for Heaven to live there should terminate their Thoughts Affections Endeavours on things on Earth on Money gay Cloathing Mirth Riot Pomp State Favour of men Vain-glory and such like momentany things which must pass away and likely lead men to Hell and end in a Life with Devils Oh follow Christ I beseech you If you value your Souls cast them not away on Trifles Learn the Path that Christ chose to Life follow him and you shall live with him Let I beseech you the serious Warning of Christ Matth. 7.13 14. take impression on you Enter ye in at the streight Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the Way that leadeth to Destruction and many there be which goe in thereat But streight is the Gate and narrow is the Way which leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it Let your drowzy spirits heed S. Paul's monitory Alarm Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Life Amen LAVS DEO GOD's PRESENCE Fulness of Joy Part II. The Twenty-second SERMON PSAL. xvi 11. In thy Presence is fulness of Joy and at thy right hand there are Pleasures for evermore THIS Psalm is a Golden Psalm of David and the words which I have read to you make the Close of it which whether they are meant of Christ or of David or both and so are applicable to Christ and his Members hath been formerly considered In reference to both the First Proposition in them hath been already handled and therein the Encouragement which Christ had and all Believers have in their Sufferings by God's shewing them the way of Life hath though much short of what so precious an Argument deserved been somewhat unfolded to you That which is yet farther to be insisted on is the latter part of the Verse in which I told you are contained two more Observations 2. That in God's Presence there is Fulness of Joy or Satiety of Joys before his Face to Christ and all Believers 3. That at his right hand they shall have Pleasures for evermore or Pleasures at his right hand to perpetuity This latter S. Peter omits in his Citation of this Scripture Act. 2.25 c. Yet it is not improbable but he alludes to it vers 33. where he useth these words Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and that the Holy Ghost intended it for a Prediction of Christ's Ascension and Sitting at the right hand of God and so it is applicable both to Christ's Exaltation and our sitting together with Christ in heavenly places of which S. Paul speaks Eph. 2.6 But the former is expresly mentioned with some little difference in the Reading Thou shalt fill replenish or make me full of Joy or Gladness with thy Countenance Face or Presence And it is alleged as being the Cordial that strengthned and restored the Spirits of Christ in his Agony at his Death which is intimated in that speech of the Authour to the Hebrews 12.2 Looking unto Jesus the Authour and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God which shews that both in the Garden and on the Cross our Saviour had his Eye on the Joy that was set before him as the Prop and Basis that did support him in those extreme Passions and heavy Burthens which no other Shoulders but his could bear so as not to sink under their pressure And S. Peter tells us 1 Epist 1.11 That the Prophets searched what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow or the Glories after them Which shews that the Prophets did testifie before-hand together with the Sufferings of Christ the Glories after them which no doubt was done in Isa 53. Psal 22. and in many other places of which number I question not but these words of my Text are by S. Peter's alleging them Act. 2.28 My II. OBSERVATION I shall consider in these Four Propositions 1. That there are Joys in God's Presence or with his Face or Countenance 2. That there is a Fulness in these Joys 3. That these Joys in their Plenitude or Fulness belong to Christ and those who believe on him to eternal Life 4. That the Assurance and Expectation of these Joys was the grand Encouragement and Support of Christ in his Obedience active and passive and is so still to all the Holy Saints who doe and suffer according to the Will of God I. PROPOSITION That there are Joys in God's Presence or with his Face or Countenance The same is in other words taught us Psal 36.9 For with thee is the Fountain of Life in thy Light that is in the Light of thy Countenance we shall see Light that is Joy and Gladness according as it is explicated Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in heart To like purpose is that passage Psal 30.5 In his Favour is Life Weeping may endure for a night or in the evening but Joy cometh in the morning Though in the Night-time or Evening when the black Veil of Death covers their Faces there is Sadness and Weeping even to the Righteous yet Joy comes in the Morning of the Resurrection when the Sun of Righteousness shall appear with Healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 and they shall see the Face of God The better to conceive this we must consider 1. What Joy is 2. What Joys are in the Presence of God 3. And from what Cause or Motive they come I. What Joy is Joy is that Affection of the Soul whereby it embraceth some present or future Good For there is a Rejoycing in Hope as the Apostle speaks Rom. 12.12 Abraham rejoyced to see Christ's day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8.56 Now of all Affections this is the sweetest to a man's self as Love is the sweetest to others Joy is that which chears the Spirits enlargeth the Heart which is shrivell'd up and contracted like a Purse by Grief and Fear It makes the Countenance lightsome the Feet and other Members lively and nimble furthers the Concoction of our Meat makes our Sleep which refresheth the body sweet to us And therefore Joy is most sutable to the Will of man and if the Mind be in its
right wits is always desired Now Joys are of several sorts according to the variety of the Objects Motives and Means of Rejoycing There are Objects of Joy within us and without us matters carnal or spiritual temporal or eternal present or future from faith or sight hoping or feeling natural and acquired longer or shorter in duration which make our Joys either more pure or mixed greater or lesser with great difference in degrees upon variation of Circumstances different apprehensions of the Object and the Good that accrues by it either comparatively with the precedent Evil felt or feared or absolutely as the thing is good in it self and its own nature or in respect of our Interest in it good to us Should I here make a Philosophical discourse of this Affection and exhibit to you a Scheme of the several kinds degrees properties and effects of this one Affection I might spend more then an hour upon this Subject But I pass to the next Head II. What Joys are in the Presence of God Those Joys are the best which spring from the embracing of the best and most lasting Good with least Defectiveness and greatest Latitude And such are the Joys that are in the Presence of God or with his Face and Countenance For therein there is 1. a perfect Freedom from all Evil 2. an entire Enjoyment of all Good in its Purity and Resplendency 1. The Evils a man is delivered from do much enhaunse his Joys He that is delivered from Dangers and Fears doth rejoyce and the Joy is the more if the Dangers were great and apparent the Fears of Evil imminent and oppressing still more when the Evils have been felt and that with much Anguish and long Continuance How do men rejoyce when they have overthrown their Adversary in a Law-suit in which if they had been cast they had been undone in their Estates How do men rejoyce when they have overcome their Enemies in Battel to whom if they had been Captives they had been led into Exile from their own Country How do Slaves rejoyce when they are redeemed from Turkish Bondage and in stead of rowing in their Gallies are returned to live with their own Masters in their own Families How do Prisoners condemned to the Gallows rejoyce when the King sends them a Pardon and they escape the hands of the Executioner These Deliverances do cause much Joy and Exultation in men and sometimes much Glorying though perhaps they be not long free from the Fear and Danger of their Evils but in the Change of Fortune fall into the same or greater Mischiess or if they escape them yet their Victory Pardon or Redemption though it bring them Liberty perhaps reduces them to Poverty and a low estate And which is worst although they overcome their Adversary on Earth yet the Devil their Adversary prevails against them though they get the Victory against their other Enemies yet they are led captive by their own Lusts which sight against their Souls though they be without Wounds by a Sword in their Bodies yet they have sore Wounds in their Consciences by their Sins though they be pardoned by the King yet they are condemned by the King of Kings though they are redeemed from Turks yet not from Hell And sure a Holy heart that prospers in the one and not in the other finds his Joys damped so as that he can scarce think those Deliverances worth the rejoycing in A Holy heart rejoyceth indeed with hearty Joy when he prevails against his Adversary the Devil and his Temptations when he is cured of the Wounds of his Spirit when he hath gotten power over that Body of death that makes him cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from it They are the Desertions of God the Domineering of his Corruption the Absence of God's Spirit his Decay in Prayer his Doubts of his Interest in God's Grace his Backslidings Inconstancy in good and such like Spiritual Evils that do most annoy him eclipse his Joys beget in him Lipothymies Fainting fits cold Sweats Trembling of Heart Fearfulness and Dejection of Spirit These break his Bones envenome his Spirits make him loathsome to himself as a man whose Wounds stink and are corrupt And therefore there is no Joy to such an one till he have the Joy of Salvation from God till in the multitude of the thoughts of his Heart the Comforts of God refresh his Soul till he finds the Presence of God accepting him till he sfinds that God prepares his Heart to Prayer and then inclines his Ear to hear till God speaks Peace to him sprinkles the Bloud of Christ on his Conscience and frees him from his Fear of God's Wrath and Condemnation till there be a Messenger an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto him his Righteousness till God be gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a ransome till he pray unto God and he be favourable unto him and he see his Face with Joy as Elihu speaks Job 33.23 24 26. He is not till then free from Anguish of Spirit and Anxiety of Soul In the day of my Trouble saith Asaph Psal 77.2 3 7 8 9. I sought the Lord my Sore ran in the night and ceased not my Soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my Spirit was overwhelmed Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his Mercy clean gone for ever doth his Promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender Mercies Thus mournfully also speaks Heman the Ezrahite Psal 88.3 6 7. My Soul is full of Troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the Grave Thou hast laid me in the lowest Pit in darkness in the deeps Thy Wrath lieth hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves And then expostulates vers 14 c. Lord why castest thou off my Soul why hidest thou thy face from me I am afflicted and ready to die while I suffer thy Terrours I am distracted Thy fierce Wrath goeth over me thy Terrours have cut me off They come round about me daily like water they compassed me about together Such Complaints are frequent in the Psalms Job and Hezekiah's Song In the Penitentials of Holy men in the Relation of the Lives of Godly persons of tender Consciences Men and Women of former and later days we meet with such Apprehensions of their Sins dangers of Temptations want of God's Spirit hiding of his Face as benight their Souls take away their Joys fill them with Pensiveness Horrour and Fear of Divine Vengeance of Hell-sire of Apparitions of Devils that they can neither feed pleasantly in the day nor rest quietly in the night but look ghastly with dejected Countenances and goe mourning in the bitterness of their Spirit all their days But when these Clouds are seattered this Darkness taken away so as that
is the grand Expectation of the Saints That God will not fail to lead them in his Paths for his Name 's sake and so to order their Steps in his Word that no Iniquity get dominion over them that the Spirit of God will so quicken them as they may run the way of his Commandments that he will enable them to live by Faith in Christ and thereby preserve them to his heavenly Kingdom It is that exceeding and enduring weight of Glory which is wrought by Afflictions and the Guidance of Divine Teachings and Providences that causeth them to look not at the things which may be seen which are but temporall but the things which are unseen and eternall 2 Cor. 4.17 18. For which reason the same Apostle tells the Thessalonians 2 Thess 2.13 14. We are bound to give thanks always to God for you because God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth Whereunto he called you by our Gospell to the obtaining of the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ APPLICATION For Application hereof If the Apostle had cause to be thankfull for the Thessalonians because of God's calling them to the obtaining of the Glory of our Lord Christ much more hath each believing Christian cause to be thankfull to God to rejoyce and take Comfort in this so blessed a Condition of God's Guidance by his Counsell so as to bring him to Glory And since the leaving a man to his own Counsell is the Forerunner of Perdition how ought he to dread as a direfull Omen of the most execrable Condition the being given over to follow his own Counsell to be carried away by his own Lusts as being a certain sign of God's Desertion and exposing of him as a Prey to the Devill Wherefore it highly concerns every one who desires his own Salvation to follow that Admonition Psal 2.11 to serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling or as it is Phil. 2.12 to work out his Salvation with fear and trembling When we consider our own Ignorance in the Way which leads to eternall Life our Folly and Unskilfulness in finding it out our Negligence in inquiring after it our Inadvertency to that Teaching and direction which might guide us in it when we ponder the vanity of humane Reason our Frailty and Easiness in hearkening to Deceivers the incessant Diligence and Vigilancy of the old Serpent in perverting us the impossibility of our attaining to Salvation by our own Wisedom and Strength and the extreme perill of Erring so as to perish eternally if we have not God's Guidance we shall see great cause to fear our selves find great reason to seek the Guidance of God's Counsell and to walk always by it to follow that Light which he hath held forth before us in his Word of Truth especially by his Son the Light of the world the Way the Truth and the Life by whom alone we can goe to the Father without whom we walk in darkness and know not whither we goe Without this Guidance we can doe nothing as we ought but as men driven by our Lusts or seduced by Satan we are hurried violently or tamely drawn into those By-paths which lead down to the Chambers of eternall Death Alas our Temptations which are many and with so much Wiliness laid to insnare us our Insufficiency to think any thing of our selves as of our selves the sad Experience we have of the Falls of many most precious Saints the frequent Complaints of the most mortified Christians who bemoan their Wretchedness by reason of that Body of Death which still depresseth them our Childishness in affecting what is most pleasing to Sense and our little apprehension of our own Necessities our undervaluing of spirituall Blessings in heavenly things in Christ the Prevalency of the Carnall mind in us which is too often as the Biass that turns us that inclines our Free will to Earthly things but is Enmity against God being not subject to God's Law neither indeed can it be All these things I say should make us suspect our selves and examine our Thoughts and Ways whether they be according to God's Counsell or not they should make us consider what Spirit we are of even in our Religious Duties how we are acted not onely in Secular affairs but also in our exercise of Godliness even in our Prayers and most zealous Service of God Solomon's Counsell is very necessary to be followed Prov. 3.5 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own Vnderstanding In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths This is the great Stay and Comfort of a self-knowing Christian that observes himself his own Weakness but yet is possessed with the taste of God's Grace That though he be weak and foolish yet he is guided by God's Spirit that he orders the Motions of his life by the Rule of Christ and still seeks to Heaven for Light from thence to lead him that God will guide him with his Counsell and then bring him to his Glory Amen LAVS DEO A BELIEVER'S SAFETY PEACE REST. The Twenty-fourth SERMON PSAL. xl 8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in Safety WHAT was the Occasion of composing this Psalm is uncertain Whether it were after or before his Entrance into his Kingdom before or after his Victory over Absalom sure it is it was made by David when he was in an holy frame of Spirit And in it he first bespeaks God as a Supplicant v. 1. then expostulates with his insolent Adversaries for their Malignity towards him vers 2. declares his Assurance of Divine Election and Tuition vers 3. admonishes them how to rectifie themselves vers 4 5. mentions the Study of the generality of men with his Request for himself vers 6. acknowledges the meliority of his Choice vers 7. and thereupon infers this Resolution which I have read I will both lay me down in peace and sleep c. There is no difficulty about the Reading or Meaning of the words whether we reade together in id ipsum as the Vulgar Latin or both as our Translation whether we reade Thou Lord onely referring to his single Help or Thou Lord makest me alone though I have no other with me dwell in Safety Hope Confidence or Security This Passage shews his settled Acquiescence in the Tuition of the Almighty grounded upon his experience and knowledge of his Love and Favour without any such anxious Thoughtfulness enfeebling Fears distracting Perplexities as others in the like Distresses and Destitutions to those he was in were wont to be oppressed with It is likely David when he speaks of his laying himself down in peace and sleeping meant it onely of his natural Sleep and his addressing himself thereto To which sense those words lead us Psal 3.5 where he saith I laid me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained
was accompanied with much inward Regret at their Sufferings Indignation against the Tyranny of them that oppressed them Vexation at their hard Destiny yea with Alacrity and Joyfulness of heart laid themselves down to sleep even in the midst of the Fire as if it had been in a Bed of Roses triumphing over the most extreme Cruelties of their violent Persecutours that were mad with Rage against the Sheep of Christ who herein followed their Shepherd who was led as a Sheep to the slaughter and like a Lamb dumb before the Shearers so opened he not his mouth Act. 8.32 This excellent Temper of spirit in Holy Believers ariseth from the Conscience of their Integrity and the vigour of their Faith A good Cause and an upright Heart are very prevalent to allay all inward Fluctuations of mind and to arm the Heart against outward though stormy Occurrences The Righteous saith Solomon Prov. 28.1 are bold as a Lion They that fear God need not fear Men or Devils Such as know the Uprightness of their Heart the Justice of their Cause especially when their Danger is for Righteousness sake for God can appeal to God with Confidence can mind God as Hezekiah did Lord remember that I have walked before thee with an upright Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Isa 38.3 It was our Lord's Argument in that his Soliloquy with his Father that Bosome-prayer wherein he did expectorate himself open his Heart to his Father Joh. 17.4 5. I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work thou gavest me to doe And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was This was his Plea when he was to be betrayed and crucified It is so in like manner with all that doe the Will of God They know the work of Righteousness is Peace and the effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever Isa 32.17 They know that God will keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on him because he trusteth in him Isa 26.3 Faith doth assure them that he that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep that as it is true Diabolus non dormit the Devil sleepeth not but goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour so Dominus non dormit the Lord sleeps not but his Eyes are open upon the Righteous He is that most vigilant Shepherd that keeps his Sheep night and day They know that if God be with them none either Tyrant or Devil can be against them That the Prince of Life hath by Death destroyed him that had the power of Death to wit the Devil and delivered them that through fear of Death were all their life-time subject to Bondage That they may take up their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Triumph-song their Io Paean O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory That he that gave his own Son for them will with him freely give them all things That he is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City which hath Foundations made and built by himself in a heavenly Country where no Nero's or Domitians or Diocletians no bloudy Bonner's or Spanish Inquisitours shall come where no Infernall Spirits nor Sons of Belial shall approach to hurt None shall be able to lay any thing to their charge they have God to justifie them Christ to intercede for them And therefore neither Height nor Depth nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor any Creature shall be able to separate them from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hereby they have that Peace of God which passeth all understanding which keeps as a Garrison their Hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus And therefore they can rest in their Beds without fear of humane Tortures or haunting Ghosts They can sleep in the dust of the Earth with expectation of a better Resurrection and after David's Example here they can resolve to lie down and sleep for that the Lord maketh them dwell in Safety and this with hope of Rising again to Life and of having Dominion over their Enemies in that Morning in which the Sun of Righteousness shall appear again from Heaven with Healing in his Wings APPLICATION And now I beseech you learn to discern between the Righteous and the Wicked How fearfull are the Minds of them that are troubled with an evil Conscience that are not armed with Faith in God! Every Report of an invading Enemy of a walking Ghost any ghastly Apparition any unusuall Noise terrifies them and takes away their Sleep Solitariness is a Terrour to them specially in the Night Cain gets him from the Presence of the Lord into the Land of Nod Caligula runs under a Bed at a Clap of thunder Adrian whines in his mournfull Ditty when he is to part with his Soul from his Body Sickness appalls others The message of Death makes a Saul fall all along on the Earth a churlish Nabal's Heart die within him as a Stone On the contrary Holy David sleeps quietly in a Cave though Saul's Army be near him he dies quietly though Adonijah go about to take his Crown from off his Head Job can trust God though he kill him S. Paul can trust in him that raiseth from the dead when he receives the Sentence of death in himself Oh then that you would consider these things to purpose Time may come wherein you may have the Name of Magor-missabib Terrour round about armed Souldiers may break into your Houses the Arrow of God may be shot into your Bodies Pestilence may enter in at your Windows sooner or later Sickness and Death will surprize you and seise on you If at that hour thy Spirit be wounded also and God call thy Sins to Remembrance if when the Decree goes forth This night shall they fetch away thy Soul from thee thou hast nothing but thy full Barns thy high Honours and Dignities the Favour of Princes to secure thee Oh how wilt thou be like Belshazzar when he saw the Hand-writing on the Wall Thy Knees will dash one against another thy Sleep will be gone thy Terrours will rush in upon thee like an armed man thou wilt feel Hell-Torments while thou art yet on Earth On the other side if thou hast Hezekiah's Uprightness and David's Faith thou wilt sleep in Peace and die with Comfort God's Grace will support thee here and advance thee hereafter He will guide thee with his Counsell and after receive thee to Glory Oh be wise then I beseech you Take heed of Sin which will defile you it will make your Bed as uneasie as if you lay on Flints or Thorns breed a Worm in your Conscience which will gnaw on you to Eternity kindle a Fire in your Bowells which will never be quenched but burn for ever produce the Sting of a fiery Scorpion which will never be cured Get
there be any After-dutifulness which might be accounted a fit and just Compensation on our part for such Love Who is there that gives any thing to God first Rom. 11.35 Surely when we bring forth any Fruit to God it is but what is of his own Culture Christ is the Vine his Father is the Husbandman and we are God's Husbandry 1 Cor. 3.9 he it is that purgeth the Branches in Christ that they may bring forth more Fruit Joh. 15.1 2. Neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3.7 Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive saith the same Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 Yea were it imagined to suppose an Impossibility that we could of our selves by our own Free will by the Light of Nature so ingratiate ourselves with God as to procure his Favour that we could obtain Arte propriâ by our own Skill or Marte proprio by our own Ability our Filiation our Regeneration our Adoption to be God's Sons yet were not God ingaged by any Worth of our Actions to yield it us this were no Purchace no Exchange of quid pro quo no advantaging God that he might benefit us Rightly saith Elihu Job 35.7 8. If thou be Righteous when givest thou to him or what receiveth he of thy hand Thy Wickedness may hurt a man as thou art and thy Righteousness may profit the son of man But alas all that in such a case we could doe all that Adam himself in his Innocency and Integrity could have done could not have given us such a Claim as that we could have challenged our Adoption as due to us according to distributive Justice in an Arithmetical or Geometrical proportion between our Actings and God's Adoption but that still it must be taken as the free Gift liberrimi Agentis of the most free Agent as the effect of the purest and most immense Love And therefore well said the Apostle Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us of free Gift that we should be called the Sons of God Which is the next thing to be considered IV. The effect of this Love of God that we should be called c. The Sons of God are of many sorts The Magistrates are so by Office Psal 82.6 the Angells by Dignity Job 1.6 Adam by Creation Luk. 3.38 and so all other men Act. 17.29 the Posterity of Seth as it is conceived Gen. 6.2 by Profession our Lord Christ is his own Son by peculiar and eternal Generation Rom. 8.32 All Believers are his Sons by Regeneration As many as received him to them he gave power to be the Sons of God even to as many as believe in his name which were born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.12 13. By Adoption God having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will to the praise of the glory of his Grace Eph. 1.5 6. Regeneration is by a Change of us inwardly whereby we are renewed in the Spirit of our minds and put on the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness of truth Eph. 4.23 24. Adoption is an Act which alters the outward Estate whereby a person becomes as a Son to another as Moses was to Pharaoh's Daughter Heb. 11.24 It is Naturae similitudo ut Filium quis habere possit quem non generaverit Gaius Inst l. tit 5. an Imitation of Nature whereby a person may have another man's Child as if he were his own Son so that he is his Child by a Legal Right though not by naturall Birth and is to own his Adopter as his Father and he the adopted as his Child And it is this that S. John here means Behold what manner of Love the Father hath given us that we should be called by reason of our Regeneration and Adoption the Sons of God And not onely that we should be so called as if it imported a meer Title Appellation or nudum inane Nomen a bare and empty Name Sure this Adoption as it is by the best highest richest Father so it is to the best greatest and most ample Benefits He that is thus the Son of God by Faith in Christ Jesus hath the Name the Dignity the Honour of a Son of God hath the Spirit of his Son crying Abba Father Gal. 4.6 hath the Apparel of a Son of God the white Linen which is the Righteousness of Saints hath the Provision Protection Attendance of a Child of God the Angells are ministring Spirits to him Heb. 1.14 The Spirit of God is his he is a Member of Christ's Body the Promises are his He hath the Society of Saints on Earth and is come to the Church of the first-born that are written in Heaven All things are his Paul Apollos Cephas Life Death things present things to come and he is Christ's and Christ God's 1 Cor. 3.22 23. If he be a Son then an Heir an Heir of God a Joynt-heir with Christ Rom. 8.17 And can more Favour be desired or imagined to be done by the most Holy and High God to such Beggars Malefactours Rebells condemned Prisoners such base contemptible Wretches as we are We may here cry out with the Apostle O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisedome and Knowledge I may adde and Love of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 With the greatest reason then doth S. John call upon us to behold this which is the last thing to be considered V. The Adverb of demonstration inviting us to consider this Love Behold what manner c. And this may also serve for the APPLICATION This is then the Use to be made of what hath been said and did time permit might be more amply declared of the Love of God in our Adoption that we are to behold it not so much with the Eye of our Body as with the Eye of our Mind Sure the Apostle S. Paul thought this to be of so great consequence that he ceased not to make mention of the Ephesian Believers in his Prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory might give them the Spirit of wisedom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ that the eyes of their Vnderstanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of his Calling and what the riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward who believe Eph. 1.16 17 18 19. This of all things is most worthy our Contemplation our most full constant accurate Meditation We should behold it in all the Effects of it in us and towards us Every Motion of his Spirit every Providence in escaping Temptations every Gospel-Sermon every Prayer we make invite us to this
I. OBSERVATION That Afflictions Persecutions yea Death do not extinguish the Being of Saints who wash their Robes and make them clean in the Bloud of the Lamb. It is the saying of our Lord to Martha Joh. 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die It is true that believing Lazarus her Brother was then in the Grave and had been dead to her apprehension four days insomuch that she made no other account of him but as of a putrefied stinking Carkase yet even then Christ avoucheth him to have been alive And in like manner he judged Abraham and Isaac and Jacob though buried many Ages before yet even then when he conversed on Earth to be alive and so to continue for ever God being their God and he not being a God of the dead but of the living they must by consequence live unto him Luk. 20.38 Be the Dissolution of the Bodies from the Souls of the Saints never so violent their Flesh and Bones never so much consumed by the most vehement Flames torn and devoured by the most greedy and ravenous Beasts be they never so much putrefied and wasted with Sickness yet in their Dust and Ashes there is a Seed of Life It is with their Reliques as it is with Seed that is sown which though it be buried under the clods of the Earth and in appearance to men annihilated yet hath it a seminal Life which shall spring up again and flourish This Job was assured of when he said Job 19.26 27. Though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold and not another though my Reins be consumed within me But this is not all The Spirits of men even when their Bodies have onely a seminal Life have an actual Life they have a Life of Sense and Understanding they neither have their Life extinguished nor laid asleep without Feeling or Cogitation Though the Dust return to the Earth as it was yet the Spirit returns to God that gave it The Spirits that were sometimes disobedient when once the Long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was preparing were in prison when S. Peter wrote 1 Epist 3.19 20. And it is the saying of the Authour to the Hebrews Chap. 12.23 Ye are come to the Spirits of Just men made perfect When Lazarus was raised from the Grave he had not a new Soul created which was not existent before but the same Soul brought back into his Body Neither at the Resurrection are other Souls joyned to the Bodies then those that before had lived in them For otherwise not the same Soul which had done good or evil should be rewarded but another When Act. 7.59 S. Stephen called upon God and said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit he being full of the Holy Ghost was assured that though his Body were buried yet his Spirit should be with Christ And when the Apostle Paul expressed his willingness to be absent from the Body yet his expectation was to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 It was his choice and option to depart and to be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1.23 He had learned that Christ was in Death Life that he that believeth on him hath everlasting Life that his Life was hid with Christ in God that the Spirit of God that dwelt in him was Life because of Righteousness and therefore he counted not himself to live but Christ in him And as Christ did commend his Spirit into the hands of his Father when he gave up the ghost being assured he should be in Paradise so doe all the Saints that have the Spirit of Christ even when they lie down in their beds of Earth they yield up their Spirits into the hands of their Father as assured to be with Christ who is the Way to the Father And this brings in the II. OBSERVATION That when Saints are removed from Men below they are placed before the Throne of God Though God be a Spirit dwelling in that Light unto which no man can approach whom no man hath seen nor can see yet the Holy Scriptures express him to us under the Similitude of a glorious King suppose a Solomon in all his Glory sitting on a Throne or Seat of Royal Majesty and that in the Heaven of Heavens where his Son termed the Lamb in this Chap. vers 9 10. hath his Throne also at the right hand of God for being ascended into the Most holy place as an high Priest he is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Heb. 8.1 There the Angels who are ministring Spirits unto him and the Elders all the Apostles Prophets Martyrs Confessours as Kings and Priests unto God stand round about the Throne attending upon and beholding the King of Glory the number of whom is said Revel 5.11 to be ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands Now this place is by Christ termed Paradise Luk. 23.43 and by S. Paul 2 Cor. 12.2 4. said to be the third Heaven where is a place of Rest an Abraham's Bosome into which Lazarus is said to be carried by the Angels Luk. 16.22 Now though that were a great Happiness for a Beggar that lately lay at the Rich man's gate full of Sores and empty of Bread glad to have been fed with the crums which fell from the rich man's Table as the Dogs were who had more Compassion then the rich man for they licked his Sores when the rich man disdained to look on him or to pay for his Cure And though it be to all that undergoe sore Travail great Wants and Persecutions a very great part of their Blessedness that there remains a Rest for the people of God Heb. 4.9 and to the Saints which keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus after their patient Sufferings that a Voice from Heaven is heard saying Write Blessed are the dead which die in or for the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours Yet that is not the total Summe which completes their Felicity there is more in that which follows that their Works follow them so as to be approved in Heaven Their Persons are welcomed and entertained with Triumph over their Enemies they have the Crown of Righteousness conferred on them by the Righteous Judge of all the World their good Fight of Faith is applauded with an Io-Triumph as an Heroical act of the most gallant Fortitude by the Acclamation of the Celestial Quire of Angels and blessed Spirits they are cloathed with white Linen the Righteousness of Saints they are arrayed with the most sumptuous Apparel feasted with the Light of God's Countenance reign with Christ on his Throne are designed to be solemnly married to Christ and to be Judges of the World as Co-assessours with Christ at his Coming in the expectation of which they most delightfully see God