Right to seek satisfaction to our selves in any State without a subordination and subserviency to his Glory He that giveth and preserveth Life may dispose of it at his Pleasure and our Life so continually preserved by him ought to be devoted to him 3. When he preserveth it in any eminent Danger 't is twice given I say in such Preservations our life is ' twice received from God in our Birth and as spared in the Danger And therefore in all Justice it ought to be dedicated to his service 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we 〈◊〉 that he will yet deliver us Many times there is but a step between us and death as if God were putting the old Bond in suit and executing the sentence of the Law upon us Deliverance in such a Case is called a Pardon and Remission and even in the Case of the Wicked and Impenitent Psal. 78. 38. He being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not 'T was but properly a Reprieve for the time a forbearance of the Temporal Judgment not executing the Sentence or not destroying the Sinner presently much more to a Godly Man Isa. 38. 17. Loved my soul from the Grave To be loved out of a danger and loved out of a sickness that is a blessed thing a great Obligation upon us 4. We must surrender our Life to him again and therefore while we have it we must employ it for him Luk. 19. 23. into his hands we must resign our spirits every one must give an account of himself to God what Honour he hath by our Lives 5. We shall never glorifie him in Heaven unless we glorifie God on Earth first or carefully serve him Ioh. 17. 4 5. I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do And now O Father glorifie me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the world was Here is our Trial our present service Saints Above are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That 's our Reward to Glorifie God in Heaven II. That we may desire Life upon these Ends. As Psal. 39. 12. O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more A little time of Relaxation to serve and glorifie thee e're I dye 1. Long Life is in it self a Blessing taken into the Promises though more frequently in the Old Testament than in the New Of this see more at large Verse the 17. 2. 'T is well sought when this is our Scope for then the Request is Lawful both for Matter and End Iam. 4. 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your Lusts. Life should not be loved but for further glorifying of God for all our Natural Interests must be subordinate to our great End Well then We may Lawfully pray for long Life with submission to the Will of God and that Death may not come upon us suddenly but according to the ordinary Course of Nature But How will this stand with the desires of Dissolution and willingness to Depart and to be with Christ Which certainly all Christians that believe Eternity should cherish in their Hearts To this I Answer I. By Concession II. By Correction I. By Concession 'T is True We are to train up our selves in an expectation of our Dissolution c. See Verse the 17th more fully But II. By Correction Though it be expedient to desire Death yet we are not anxiously to long after it till the time come For First They do not simply desire Death for its self but as a means to enjoy those better things which follow after Death Phil. 1. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better 'T is not our Duty to love Death as Death No so 't is an Evil which we must patiently bear and may holily deprecate it but because of the Good beyond it 'T is our Duty to love God to long after Communion with him and to be perfected in Holiness had it not been an evil to be avoided and dreaded Christ had never prayed against it And 2 Cor. 5. 4. For we that are in this Tabernable do groan being burthened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of Life It were an unnatural desire to desire Death as Death A Creature cannot desire its own dedestruction Jesus Christ before he manifested his submission did first manifest the innocent desires of Nature Father let the Cup pass The separation of the soul from the Body and the Bodies remaining under Corruption is in it self Evil and the fruit of sin Rom. 5. 12 And so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Grace is not given to Reconcile us to Corruption or to make Death as Death desirable or to cross the inclinations of innocent Nature But 2. Upon these Terms Death is sweetned to them and they readily submit to it Though it be not to be desired as it is Death yet Heaven and Eternal Happiness beyond it is still matter of Desire to us Death is Gods Threatning and we are not Threatned with Benefits but Evils and Evils of Punishment are not to be desired but chearfully submitted unto for an higher End Nature abhorreth and feareth Death but yet Grace desireth Glory The soul is loth to part with the body but yet 't is far lother to miss Christ and be without him A man is loth to lose a Leg or an Arm yet to preserve the whole Body he is contented to part with it In short the soul is bound to the body with a double band the one Natural the other Voluntary by Love and Affection desiring and seeking its welfare The Voluntary bond is governed and ordered by Religion till the Natural bond be loosed either in the ordinary Course of Nature or at the Will of God 3. There are certain Circumstances in Death which do invite us to ask longer Life in order to this End As 1. Gods Children would not have the occasion of well-doing or self-denying Obedience taken from them too soon so great is their love and desire of Gratitude to God that they would yet longer Praise God in this self-denying way Death would shut their mouths 2. They would not be taken away in a Cloud or before they see the issue of some present Trials on the Church or them they have no Will to dye till the sense of Wrath be removed Psal. 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living 3. They may have some design afoot for God and therefore are desirous of a little more time to attain this design therefore pray
he might dye and he said It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am not better than my fathers 3. From the peevishness of fond and doting love 2 Sam. 18. 33. And the King was much moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept as he went thus he said O Absolom my son would God I had dyed for thee O Absolom my son my son like the Wives of the East-Indians that burn themselves to follow their dead husbands 4. From distrust and despair when the evil is too hard to be resisted or endured Job 7. 15. My soul chuseth strangling and death rather than my life In all these cases it is but a shameful retreat from the conflict and burden of the present life from carnal irksomness under the calamity or a distrust of Gods help There may be murder in a rash wish if it proceed from a vexed heart These are but froward thoughts not a sanctified resolution 2. Such desires of death and dissolution as are lawful and must be cherished come from a good ground from a heart crucified and deadned to the world and set on things above Col. 3. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God From a competent assurance of grace Rom. 8. 23. Even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body From some blessed experience of heavenly comforts having tasted the fruits clusters of Canaan they desire to be there So Simeon Luk. 2. 29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation The eyes of his faith as well as the eyes of his body Now Lord I do but wait as a Merchant-man richly laden desireth to be at his Port. A great love to Christ excites desires to be with him Phil. 1. 23. I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Phil. 3. 19 20. For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. They long to see and be where he is heart and head should be together Weariness of sin and a great zeal for Gods glory are powerful incentives in the Saints Rom. 7. 23. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death They would be in heaven that they may sin no more 3. You must look to the end not have a blind notion of Heaven and look for a Turkish Paradise full of ease and plenty a carnal heaven as the Iews looked for a carnal Messiah but for a state of perfect union and communion with the blessed and holy God 4. The manner must be regarded it must be done with submission Phil. 1. 24. otherwise we encroach upon Gods right and would deprive him of a servant without his leave A Christian will dye and live as the Lord willeth if it be the Lords pleasure a believer is satisfied with long life Psal. 91. 16. With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation he will wait till the change come when God shall give him a discharge by his own immediate hand or by enemies God knoweth how to chuse the fittest time otherwise we know not what we ask 2. Now let me speak of the scope of our lives David simply doth not desire life but in order to service The Point is That if we desire long life we should desire it to glorifie God by obedience to his word Let me give you some Instances then Reasons 1. Instances Psal. 118. 17. I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord. This was David's hope in the prolongation of life that he should have farther opportunity to honour God and this argument he urgeth to God when he prayeth for life Psal. 6. 5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks It would be better for him to be with God but then the life is worth the having when the extolling of Christ is the main scope at which we aim So Paul Phil. 1. 20. According to my earnest expectation and my 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 by death c. Paul was in some hesitation which he should chuse life or death and he determineth of both as God might be magnified by either of them and so was at a point of indifference if God should give him his option or wish he would give the case back again to God to determine as it might be most for his service and glory He was not swayed by any low and base motives of contentment in the world or any low and creature-enjoyments these are contemptible things to come into the ballance with everlasting glory it was only his service in the Gospel and the publick good of the Church that made the case doubtful Reas. 1. This is the perfection of our lives and that which maketh it to be life indeed Communion with God is the vitality of it without which we are rather dead than alive Life natural we have in common with the Beasts and Plants but in keeping the word we live the life of God Eph. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God To natural men it is a gloomy thing but to believers this is the life of life and that which is the joy of their hearts To encrease in stature and to grow bulky that is the life of Plants The greatest and biggest of the kind are most perfect To live and enjoy pleasures without remorse that 's the perfection and life of Beasts that have no conscience that shall not be called to an account To gratifie present Interests and to be able to turn and wind worldly affairs that 's the life of carnal men that have no sense of eternity But the perfection of the life of man as a reasonable creature is to measure our actions by Gods word and to refer them to his glory 2. 'T is the end of our lives That God may be served All things are by him and through him and to him Rom. 11. 36. Angels Men Beasts Inanimate creatures He expects more from men than from beasts and from Saints than from men and therefore life by them is not to be desired and loved but for this end Rom. 14. 6 7 8. He that regardeth a day regardeth it unto the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it He that eateth eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks and he that eateth not to the Lord eateth not and giveth God thanks for none of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the
sheweth that we are all Strangers here for if here we do not live for ever and yet we have Souls that will live for ever there must be some other place to which we are tending The Body is dust in its Composition and Resolution Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall the Body return to the Earth as it was Nature may teach us so much but Faith that assureth us of the Resurrection of the Dead doth more bind this Consideration upon us We are Mortal and all things about us are liable to their Mortality and therefore here we must be still passing to another Place 2. Here we have no Rest Micah 2. 10. Arise and depart hence for this is not your Rest that is hereafter Heb. 4. 9. There remaineth therefore a Rest for the People of God Our Home we count the place of our Repose Now there is no Rest and Content in this World which is a place of Vanity Misery and Discomfort Yea to the Children of God there are stronger Motives than Crosses to drive them from the World daily Temptations and our often falling by them Crosses are grievous to all but Sin is more grievous to the Godly and nothing makes them more weary of the World then the constant indwelling and frequent outbreaking of Corruption and Sin Rom. 7. 24. Oh miserable Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death The Apostle was exercised with many Crosses but this doth make him complain in the bitterness of his Soul not of his Misery but of his Corruption which he found continually rebelling against God Many complain of their Crosses that complain not of Sin to loath the World for Crosses alone is neither the Mark nor Work of Grace a Beast can forsake the place where he findeth neither Meat nor Rest but because we are sinning here whilst others are glorifying God this is the trouble of the Saints 3. They believe and look for a better Estate after this life is over 2 Cor. 5. 1. We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens No Man can be a right Sojourner on Earth who doth not look for an abode in Heaven for that which doth most effectually draw off the heart of Man from this World is the Expectation of a far better State in the World to come 2 Cor. 4. 18. While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Heathens could call the World an Inn but they had onely glimmering Conceptions of another World A Christian that believeth it and looketh for it on God's Assurance he is onely the joyfull Stranger and the Pilgrim Common Sense will teach us the necessity of leaving this World but Faith can onely assure us of another they are Believers and Expectants of Heaven 4. They do not onely look for it but seek after it We reade of both looking and seeking Heb. 11. 14. They declare plainly that they seek a Country Heb. 13. 14. Here we have no continuing City but we seek one to come Seeking implyeth Diligence in the Use of Means all the Life of a Christian is nothing but the seeking after another Country every day advancing a step nearer to Heaven and therefore their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Conversation is said to be in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. This is their great business upon Earth to doe all to eternal Ends all other Works and Labours are but upon the bie and subordinate to this Their main care is to obtain this blessed Condition therefore they use Word Sacraments that they may grow in Grace Faith Repentance New obedience Every degree in Grace is another step towards Heaven Psal. 84. 4. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose hearts are the ways of them vers 6. They goe from strength to strength every one of them in Zion appeareth before God Some of the Sains are in Patria others in Via still bending homeward 5. Because they are so the Children of God are dealt with as Strangers Difference of scope and drift will procure alienation of Affection 1 Pet. 4. 4. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of Riot speaking evil of you And Iohn 15. 19. If ye were of the world the world would love its own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Other cannot be expected but that the Servants of the Lord should be ill-rewarded and treated here not onely out of the Worlds Ignorance they know not our birth breeding expectations hope 1 Iohn 3. 2. Beloved now are we the Sons of God but 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 but Enmity as the different Carriage of the one puts a disgrace upon the course of Life which the other do affect the one fixeth their home here the other looketh for it elsewhere and the World is sensible this is an Excellency and therefore those that are at the bottom of the Hill envy and malign those that are a-top Use. Are we thus minded There are two sorts of men in the World the one is of the Devil and the other is of God for all men seek their Rest and Happiness on Earth or Rest in Heaven Naturally Men were all of the first Number for the Rational Soul without Grace accommodateth it self to the Interests of the Body but when sublimated and transformed by Grace the World cannot satisfy it and it can find nothing there which may finally quiet its desires for the new Life infused hath other aimes and tendencies As Saints are new born from Heaven so for Heaven and therefore the new Nature cannot satisfy it self in the injoyment of the Creature with the absence of God The Apostle saith while at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 6 7. In this Life we are not capable of the glorious Presence of God it is not consistent with our Mortality And our being present with him in the Spirit is but a Tast that doth provoke rather then cloy the Appetite Rom. 8. 23. Our selves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body These Tasts do but make us long for more they are sent down from Heaven to draw us up to that place of our Rest where this Glory and Blessedness is in fullness Now which sort are you of the City of God or under the Dominion of Sathan and the power of worldly Lusts 1. There are some that take up here and never consider whence they are nor whither they are
's the reality Matth. 22. 7. They which were invited to the Wedding varnished their denial over with an excuse Delay is a denial for if they were willing there would be no excuse To be ridd of importunate and troublesome Creditors we promise them payment another time and we know our Estate will be more wasted by that time it is but to put them off So this delay and putting off God is but a shift Here 's the misery God always comes unseasonably to a carnal heart It was the Devils that said Matth. 8. 29. Art thou come to torment us before our time Good things are a torment to a carnal heart and they always come out of time Certainly that 's the best time when the word is prest upon the heart with evidence light and power and when God treats with thee about thine eternal peace Reason 6. There are very urgent reasons to quicken us to make hasâ—…e 1. The state wherein we are at present is so bad and dangerous that we can never soon enough come out of it The state of a man in his Carnal condition is compared in Scripture to a Prison Rom. 11. 32. God hath concluded or shut them all up in unbelief And mark it is a Prison that is all on fire Oh when poor Captives are bolted and shut up in a flaming Prison how will they run hither and thither to get out So should we run and strive to get out of this flaming Prison You cannot be too soon out of the power of the Devil or from under the curse of the Law the danger of hell fire and the dominion of sin Matth. 3. 7. Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come He doth not say to goe nor to run but to flee Fleeing from wrath to come that 's the truest motion And so Heb. 6. 18. They which had the avenger of blood at their heels fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before them If there be poyson in our Bowels we think we can never soon enough cast it out If fire hath taken hold of a building we do not say we will quench it hereafter the next week or next moneth but think we can never soon enough quench it Or if there be a wound in the Body we do not let it alone till it 〈◊〉 and rankle Christians you may apply all this to the present case here the danger is greater There is no Poyson so deadly as Sin which hath infected all Man-kind no wound so dangerous for that will be the death of Body and Soul no fire so dreadfull as the wrath of God therefore we cannot soon enough come out of this condition 2. We cannot be happy soon enough for the state we make after is the arms of God the bosome of Iesus the hopes of Eternal Life we cannot soon enough get within the compass of such priviledges Oh shall Christ lie by as a dead Commodity or breaded ware It shews we know not the gift of God Iohn 4. If we had a due sense and value of his Excellency we would take the morning Market and let not Christ Iesus with all his benefits lie by as a Commodity that may be had at the last at any time of the day we would look upon him as the quickest ware in the Market and flock to him as Doves to the windows Isa. 6. You would force your way that you might get into his heart you would count all things but dross and dung that you might gain him It will be sweet to be incircled in the embraces of Iesus Christ to have his left hand under your head and his right hand to embrace you Cant. 2. 6. and will you delay when he stands offering himself and stretching out his hands all the day long to receive you SERMON LXVIII PSAL. CXIX 60. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments I Come now to the Application Use 1. Is to reprove the dallying with God which we are conscious to in the work of Conversion which is so common and natural to us We are apt to put off God from time to time from Child-hood to Youth from Youth to Mans-age from Mans-age to Old-age from Old-age to Death-bed and so the Devil steals away one hour after another till all time be past I shall 1 speak of the causes of this delay 2 represent the hainousness of it that you may not stroke this sin with a gentle censure and think lightly of the matter I. Of the causes of this delay 1. Unbelief or want of a due sense or sight of things to come If men were perswaded of Eternal Life and Eternal Death they would not stand hovering so long between Heaven and Hell but presently engage their hearts to draw nigh to God But we cannot see afar off 2 Pet. 1. 9. Nature is purblind to carnal hearts there 's a mist upon Eternity they have no prospective whereby to look into another World therefore it hath no influence upon them to quicken them to more speed and earnestness If we had a due sense of Eternal Death surely we would be sleeing from wrath to come no motion should be earnest and swift enough to get from such a danger If we had a due sense of Eternal Life we would be running to take hold of the hope that is before us Heb. 6. 18. 2. Security If men have a cold belief of Heaven and Hell if they take up the currant opinions of the Country yet they do not take it into their serious thoughts they put far away the evil day Amos 6. 3. Things at a distance do not startle us as a clap of Thunder afar off doth not fright us so much as when it is just over our heads in our own Zenith We look upon these things as to come so put off the thought of them Next to a want of a sound belief the want of a serious consideration is the cause why men dally with God If we had the same thoughts living and dying our motions would be more earnest and ready When Death and Eternity is near we are otherwise affected than when we look upon it as afar off One said of a zealous Preacher he Preacheth as if Death were at my back Oh could we look upon Death as at our back or heels if men did but consider that within a few dayes they must go to Heaven or Hell that there is but the slender thread of a frail Life upon which they depend that is soon fretted asunder they would not venture any longer to be out of a state of Grace nor dally with God But we think we may live long and time enough to repent by leisure we put far off the day of our change and so are undone by our own security 3. Aversness of heart from God That which makes us desirous to stay longer in a way of Sin doth indeed make us loth to turn at all and what 's that Obstinacy and unsubjection
nor forsake thee And 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able to bear but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it To the eye of sense we are lost and gone and have no helper but God is never wholly gone Hagar set herself over against the Lad would not go too far from him God seems to throw us away but he keeps himself within sight he will not totally or finally forsake us 6. That God's usual way is by Contraries The Gospel-way to save is to lose Ioh. 16. 25. Mat. 16. 25. He that will save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it Ioseph was made a Slave that he may be made Governor of Egypt His Brethren sell him that they may worship him And he is cast into Prison that he may be preferred at Court Thus God by Shame bringeth to Honour by Misery to Happiness by Sorrow to Comfort and by Death to Life to teach us to hope against hope Rom. 4. 18. and to trust in him though he kill us Job 13. 15. For Death is ours as well as other things If Calamities shorten our lives they hasten our glory Persecution is the nearest way to Heaven in the eye of Faith and the Sword of the Enemy is but the Key to open the Prison doors and let out the Soul which hath long desired to be with Christ. 7. That 't is better to suffer than to sin In suffering the offence is done to us in sinning 't is done to God The evil of suffering is but for a moment the evil of sin for ever In suffering we lose the favor of men in sinning we hazard the favor of God Suffering bringeth inconveniency upon the Body but sinning upon the Soul The sinful estate is far worse than the afflicted Heb. 12. 28. The evil of Sufferings for the present the evil of Sin for afterwards 8. That Holiness Faith Meekness and Patience are better Treasures than any the world can take from us Certainly a Christian is to reckon himself by the inward man if he hath an healthy Soul he may the better dispense with a sickly Body 3d Epist. Iohn 2. If the inward man be renewed 2 Cor. 4. 16. If sore Troubles discover reality of Grace Sound and saving Faith discovered to the Soul is better worth than the worlds best gold 1 Pet. 1. 9. If carnal sense were not quickest and greatest we would judge so and not look to the sharpness of the affliction but to the improvement of it If the bitter water be made sweet if you be more godly wise and religious 't is enough Heb. 12. 11. No affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby If the loss of worldly comforts make us apply our selves to heavenly consolations if being disburdened of worldly incumbrances we go on in our way of serving God with more liberty and delight and when our dangers are greatest we draw near to God and adhere to him most closely and being persuaded of his love vigilancy and power with these and such kind of thoughts will a man be stocked who is with seriousness and delight conversant in the Scriptures and so will go on undisturbed in the course of his obedience 2 These things must be improved by meditation so saith David I will meditate on thy precepts 1. Sleepy Reason is unuseful to us and Truths lie hid in the heart without any efficacy or power till improved by deep serious and pressing thoughts Non-attendency is the bane of the world Mat. 13. 19. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart Those invited to the Wedding Mat. 22. 5. made light of it Men will not suffer their minds so long to dwell upon holy things as to procure a good esteem of them then in seeing they see not and in hearing hear not as when you tell a man of a business whose mind is taken up about other things A sudden carrying a Candle thorough a Room giveth us not so full a survey of the Object as when you stand awhile beholding it A steady contemplation is a great advantage Attending is the cause of believing when we grow serious Acts 16. 14. Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended to the things spoken by Paul Acts 17. 11. And these were more noble than they of Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind If People would often return to cosinder they would not be hardned in sin Psal. 4. 4. Commune with your own heart upon your beds Hagg. 1. 5. Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways God's complaint was They would not consider his ways Job 34. 27. Isa. 1. 3. My people doth not consider Running thoughts never work upon us nor leave any durable impression like the glance of a Sun-beam or a Wave When the Soul is besieged by a constant battery of Truths it yieldeth but a mind scattered upon impertinent Vanities groweth not up to any considerable strength of faith or joy or comfort or holiness 2. God will not be served by the bie and at hap-hazard David taketh a resolution to study his duty The more deliberate our resolutions are the better Psal. 119. 59. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies We shall never stumble upon a good course by chance Isa. 56. 4. And choose the things that please me Not take them upon some sudden motion but after mature and serious deliberation 3. To divert the mind from other things Afflictions and Troubles stir up a multitude of thoughts in us Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts Sometimes self-oppressing thoughts carking thoughts envious thoughts and repining at God's Providence the object of our trouble is ever before us Now there is no way to get rid of these but by exercising them upon better things Troubles make us concerned about matters of weight they employ our minds usefully which before were scattered to impertinent vanities Psal. 39. 3. My heart was hot within me whilest I was musing the fire burned That our minds may not be a prey to inordinate passions we pore upon the trouble and the heart is heated like an Oven stopped up and therefore keep the mind well employed 4. Frequent meditation keepeth our principles in view and memory We are apt to forget in our sorrows Heb. 12. 5. And ye have forgotten the consolation 'T is not ready at hand to support us in the time of Trouble A seasonable remembrance of Truths is a great relief to the Soul 't is the Spirit 's office 3 That Afflictions and Molestations have a great tendency and subserviency to promote and advance these
they are unable to sanctifie themselves and look after a better and spiritual estate But let us not grieve the spirit of God by our unteachableness in so plain a point when we are told of the frailty and slipperiness of worldly comforts we shake our heads and confess it to be true but improve it not at best conceive some weak and faint resolutions but they soon vanish and we are as wor'dly and carnal as ever we were and therefore pray as David Psal. 90. 12. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom You have seen the first part of the text here is perfection all perfection then all perfection hath an end and this is to be seen 't is liable to sense and it should be improved by grace if all creature perfection hath an end Use 1. Let it moderate our desires for who would court a flying shadow especially when these pursuits hinder us from looking after better and eternal things Ionah 2. 8. They that seek lying vanities forsake their own mercies That is they might have been their own if they had chosen them Within a while the world will be but a stale jest and the laughing fit is over and then our sorrow cometh the feast will be at an end and then we begin to feel the gripes of a surfeit Use 2. Let it moderate our sorrows and fears Our sorrows when these things befall us 't is no strange thing 1 Pet. 4. 12. 't is no more strange than to see the night succeed the day or to see a shower to come after Sun-shine 't is no wonder to see a light thing move upward nor a heavy thing to move downward So our fears when the power and strength of the world is turned upon us there will be an end of all our evils but not of the word of God We shall everlastingly find the effects of his truth and promise though our enemies excel in worldly pomp and seem to be grounded upon an immutable foundation but as powerful as they seem to be they shall at length come to an end Iob 5. 3. I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation when the foolish that is the wicked seem'd to get rooting then I cursed not by way of imprecation but by way of prediction Use 3. It serves to moderate our delights No day so pleasant but the night puts an end to it no summer so fruitful but a barren winter overtaketh it The Philistines were sporting on their holy day but their banqueting house became their grave and place of Burial And Ionah's Gourd was soon withered and dryed up Worldly riches serve men as long as they live and after death do some service in conveying their bodies to the grave by a pompous funeral but there it leaves them But the word of God supports us against all temptations while we live and conveyeth us to death with comfort and the fruit of it abideth with us after we are dissolved the soul immediately hath benefit by it and afterwards at the resurrection the body We do not hold worldly things durante vita during our life nor quam diu bene se gesserint as long as we shall behave our selves well in our places but only durante beneplacito as long as God pleaseth How often is the most shining glory burnt into a snuff turned into Ignominy and honour into contempt and our fulness into the want of all things A Cobweb that has been long a spinning is soon swept down Yea the time will come when the lust of these things shall be gone 1 Iohn 2. 17. and the time will come when we shall take no pleasure in them as soon we have the Creatures many times we are weary of them 2 Sam. 13. 8. as Amnon hated Tamar when he had satisfyed his lusts And David longed for the waters of Bethlehem and when he had it he would not drink it when we come to consider these things the imperfections that before lay hid are discovered by fruition Secondly let us now come to the Antithesis but thy commandments are exceeding Broad Before I come to discuss the words in particular I observe first that the stability of the word of God is often opposed to the vanity of the Creature Isa. 46. 8. The flower fadeth and the grass â—…ithereth but the word of God abideth for ever So 1 Pet. 1. 25. All flesh is grass and the glory of man is as the flower of grass but the word of God liveth and abideth for ever And 1 John 2. 17. The world passeth away and the lusts thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever So Luk. 10. 2 last verses Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen the good part which shall never be taken away from her Now what doth this teach us but that when we see the vanity of earthly things we should be informed what better things to set our hearts upon The hearts of men cannot be idle their oblectation must be upon something when pleasures and riches and honours are found vain and perishing there is a more enduring substance to be looked after Secondly That these better things are discovered by the word of God now life and immortality is brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. and he that doth the will of God shall increase his knowledge he that doth the will of God shall know what doctrine is of God This doth direct us in making our choice the independent heart of man will choose some thing to adhere to Now in the word of God we have direction what to choose The use of all things present is temporal but the use and benefit of the word is everlasting this will do us good another day all things visible have their own perfection in their kind and do extend some of them to one temporal use and some to another But the word of God extendeth in its kind to all uses as godliness is profitable to all things it bringeth blessedness in this life and in the world to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. A man may satisfie himself in the contemplation of any truth and virtue that is visible But here are unsearchable riches such deep wisdom such rich comforts perfect directions that we cannnot see to the bottom of them every perfect thing in the world hath an end but the word endureth for ever Secondly more particularly in this Antithesis I observe 1. The subject or thing spoken of Thy Commandment that is the whole Word of God 2. The Predicate or Attribute what is said of it 'T is broad 3. The Amplification of this Attribute 'T is exceeding broad you cannot easily understand the use and benefit of it 1. The subject or thing spoken of Thy Commandment is exceeding broad This breadth must be spoken of with respect to the former clause 't is broad for its use and
as others but they have a being in the world to come and therefore the Word of God is called the Word of eternal life John 6. 68. that is the end and use of it it maketh them capable of eternal life that obey it So 1 Pet. 1. 25. The Word of God abideth and continueth for ever 'T is the seed and principle of eternal life 't is the Charter of their everlasting priviledges they shall enjoy in the world to come But how doth the Word endure for ever 'T is not meant subjectively but effectively because it assures us of eternal life upon obeying it and threatens eternal death to all that reject it Use 1. Oh then let us be much in hearing reading studying and obeying this Word that makes us everlastingly happy if the commandment be so exceeding broad why do we make no more use of it 1. Let our hearts be more taken up about it that should be our main care wherein to busie our selves day and night Psal. 1. 1. Our delight should not be in vain Books and empty Histories but in the Law of God we should often look into the Charter of our great hopes 2. Be directed by the Word of God 't will direct you in every business Psal. 119. 105. Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path Here is direction for you in prosperity and adversity 3. Study it that you may be sanctified by it Iohn 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy truth thy Word is truth This is the great benefit that we have by the Word 't is the instrument of sanctification 4. Be much in the study of the Word that you may be assured by it that you may make out your own qualification to the Kingdom of Heaven Acts 13. 46. Since you put away the Word of God from you you judge your selves unworthy of eternal life When you let God's Book lie by neglected and never hear it nor read it nor mediate on it the thing is past all question you judge your selves unworthy of eternal life Use 2. Let this commend the Word of God to us that eternal life is in it other writings and discourses may tickle the ears with some pleasing eloquence but that is vanishing like a Musician's voice other writings may represent some petty and momentary advantage but how soon shall an end be put to all that so that within a little time the advantage of all these Books shall be gone The Statutes and Laws of Kings and Parliaments can reach no farther than some temporal reward or punishment their highest pain is killing of the body their highest reward is some vanishing and fading honour or perishing riches but God's Word concerning our everlasting estate our eternal well or ill being eternal life and death is wrapt up in these Laws and Commandments these are rewards and punishments suitable to the Eternal Majesty of the Lawgiver Here is life and immortality brought to light and offered to them who have so miserably lost it and involved their souls in an eternal death therefore let us have a precious esteem of the Scripture which shews us the way of escaping that misery into which we have plunged our selves and a way of obtaining eternal blessedness Do not then go to a wrong Guide and Rule nothing more necessary to be known than what our End is and the way that leadeth to that End The most part of men walk at random and run an uncertain Race they have neither a certain scope nor a sure way Mens particular inclinations and humors are an ill ill Guide for they incline us to please the flesh and so we shall miss of everlasting blessedness and wander in a bie-path that leadeth to destruction Naturally Man is more addicted to temporal things than spiritual and to worldly vanities than to spiritual enjoyments and it is in vain to persuade Men to look after better things till the carnal affections be mortified and one way and great means to mortifie carnal affections and inclinations is to consider the vanity of the Creature and when our affections are weaned from the world we must look after some better things to set our hearts upon That good which satisfieth all the desires and capacities of Man had need to be an infinite and an eternal good Now these better things are only discovered in the Word of God the Word of God discovers that there is such an estate as everlasting glory and blessedness The Word telleth us plainly and peremptorily who shall go to Heaven and who to Hell well then if you would have this comfort you must see whether you have embraced it with that reverence faith and obedience which the importance of it doth require SERMON CI. PSAL. CXIX VER 97. O how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day IN this Psalm you have a perfect character of a Regenerate Man what he is and what he ought to be in his Meditations his Exercises his Affections and all this recommended to us from the frame of David's heart and example and course of his way Men of spiritual experience can best judge of these affections for as face answereth face in a glass so doth the heart of one Believer to another In these words you have 1 His love asserted 2 Demonstrated from the effect 1. His love asserted O how love I thy Law 2. Demonstrated from the effect of it It is my meditation all the day This is an effect for we are wont to muse upon what we love therefore David loving the Law of God is always thinking of it First For the Assertion Observe the matter asserted and the vehemency of the Assertion The matter asserted is love to the Law The vehemency of the Assertion O how I love thy Law It is an Admiration with an Exclamation David is not contented with a naked affirmation I love thy Law but useth a pathetical protestation of it How love I thy Law The Interrogation expresseth wonder How I love thy Law And the Exclamation O how that gives vent to strong affection as if he had said It is more than I am able to express The Law is taken for the whole Scripture as often in this Psalm Secondly For the demonstration of this affection It is my meditation all the day that is I do often meditate thereof and can spend whole days therein The words may signifie frequency of such thoughts they were not such as did come now and then but all the day his heart was working on holy things as the blessed Man is described Psal. 1. 2. that is every day he is working something out of the Word of God Or 't is my meditation all the day it may note the depth and ponderousness of these thoughts his mind did not run out upon the Law with slighty sallies but he had such thoughts as were solid and serious and did abide with him The Points from hence are two 1. That God's People have a great love to his
refuse to run hazard vvith Christ's Sheep shall be cast into Hell-fire for evermore If vve are so tender of suffering vvhat vvill it be to suffer Hell-fire 3. All that we can lose is abundantly made up in the other World Heb. 11. 35. it is said They would not accept deliverance having obtained a better Resurrection There is a Resurrection from death to life when we come out upon ill terms by accepting the Enemies deliverance Ay but there 's a better Resurrection when we come out upon God's terms a Resurrection to life and glory hereafter Violence doth but open the Prison door and let out the Soul that long hath desir'd to be with Christ and therefore we should endure as expecting this better Resurrection 4. Consider upon what slight terms men will put their Lives in their hands for other things and shall we not run hazards for Christ Many venture their Lives for an humor a little vaâ—…n glory to shew a greatness of spirit or they venture their Lives upon Revenges upon 〈◊〉 Punctilio of Honour some will venture their Lives in the Wars for one shilling a day and shall we not carry our Lives in our hands for Christ Scipio boasted of his Souldiers that they lov'd him so as to venture their Lives for him to leap into the Sea and cast themselves down a steep Rock There are none of these but if I spake the word shall go upon a Tower and throw himself down into the Sea if I bid him So Fulgentius his story of those that would obey their Chief whom they call'd Vetus the Old Man of the Mountains if he bid them fall down a steep Rock to shew their Obedience and shall not we venture our Lives for Christ Doct. 2. That when our Souls are continually in our hands no kind of danger should make us warp and turn aside from the direction of God's Word Why 1. A Christian should be above all Temporal Accidents Above carnal grief carnal joy worldly hope worldly fear he should be dead to the World or else he is not throughly acquainted with the virtue of Christ's Cross Gal. 6. 14. 2. God can so restrain the malice of wicked men that though we carry our Lives in our hands we shall be safe enough for all that Prov. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him Mark the Lord he can secure you against men when a man pleaseth the Lord but when a man pleaseth men they cannot secure you against the Lord they cannot save you harmless from the wrath of God or answer for you to the Almighty nor give you safety from the terrors of conscience But on the other side many a man by pleasing God finds more safety and comfort in opposing their lusts and the humors of men than in complying with them God's Providence is wonderfully at work for his children when they are reduc'd to these Extremities either he can allay their fury turn in convictions upon their consciences of the righteousness of those whom they molest and trouble as when Saul hunted for David 1 Sam. 24. 17. Thou art more righteous than I. God puts conviction upon him nay sometimes such a fear and reverence that they dare not Mark 6. 20. Herod feared Iohn because he was a strict man Or some check or bridle some contrary interest that God can set up that their hands are wither'd when they are stretched out against them as was Ieroboam's hand and therefore a Christian though his life be in his hand he should not warp why for God can mightily provide for him as to his temporal safety 1 Pet. 3. 13. Who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good It is an indefinite Proposition sometimes it will be true let a man follow that which is good who dares harm him there is an awe and he is kept safe though not always 3. We renounced all at our first coming to Christ. Estate Credit Liberty Life it was all laid at Christ's feet if our hearts were really upright with him A man must lay down Self whatever it be else he cannot be Christ's Disciple Mat. 16. 24 Luke 14. 26. This was done in Vow in a time of Peace therefore it must be actually done and made good in a time of Trouble your interests are God's and are only given back to God again your Estate Life and Liberty and Credit all given up why that you may have something of value to esteem as nothing for Christ. 4. Our Sufferings shall be abundantly recompenc'd and made up in the World to come Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed For a man to stand comparing his interest or sufferings here in this World with the glory reveal'd is as foolish a thing as if a man should set a thousand pound weight with a feather So 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction c. We are often saying If we lose this and that what will become of us what shall we have Mat. 19. 27 28 29. We have left All. A great All they had left for Christ it may be a Net a Fisher boat a Cottage yet he speaks magnificently of it and what shall we have have you shall have enough in the Regeneration you shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel 5. You should not warp though you carry your Lives in your hands because constancy is necessary how necessary for our credit and good name as we are men Do I use lightness saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 17. Men lose their authority and esteem they are not accounted grave serious and weighty when they shift and change and appear with a various face to the World and certainly it is for our comfort for our right to everlasting blessedness is most sensibly clear by constancy in God's cause Phil. 1. 28. I was nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God O! What would a man give for to clear this that he is an Heir of God this is an evident token And it is necessary for the credit of the truth which we profess when we shift turn and wind we bring a dishonor upon it but saith the Apostle Phil. 1. 14. They waxed confident by my bonds this puts heart and courage And it is for the honour of God 1 Pet. 4. 14. On your part he is glorified And John 21. 19. Signifying by what death he should glorifie God Since constancy is so necessary either we should not take up Principles or suffer for them if call'd thereunto Use. Caution to the People of God Take heed you do not forget the Word when you carry your Lives in your hand many of God's People may do so sometimes as when we deny the truth Mat. 26. 72. Peter denied
but a slight and superfâ—…cial hope that grows upon us we know not how a fruit of ignorance and incogitancy when they are serious they begin to feel it a foolish kind of presumption upon which no account can be given 1 Pet. 3. 15. How can they give a reason of their hope But gracious souls the more they consider their warrant and the promise of God the more their hope is encreased Thirdly It is a dead and a cold hope not a lively hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. They have no taste no groans no ravishing thoughts about the happiness which they expect no strong desires after the thing hoped for Rom. 12. 12. Rejoyce in hope saith the Apostle they have but cold apprehensions of such great things And the hope that we expect is so excellent that it should stir up the greatest longings the greatest waiting and put us upon earnest expectation Fourthly It 's a weak inconstant hope a loose fond conjecture a guess rather than a certain expectation 1 Cor. 9. 26. I therefore so run not as uncertainly not at randome but upon sure and solid grounds A Child of God hath a due sense of the difficulty yet withal an assurance of the possibility and of the certainty of it and therefore it continues he presseth on if it be possible he may attain to his great hopes the resurrection of the dead Fifthly It 's a lazy loytering hope Carnal men would have Heaven and happiness but they make no haste towards it they give no diligence to make sure of it it is but a devout sloth Whereas he that hath a true hope is pressing forward Phil. 3. 13. and hastening and looking for the coming of Christ 2 Pet. 3. 12. But then there is a true hope in God both for final deliverance present support and present mercy that will never leave us ashamed Psal. 22. 5. They that hope in thee are not confounded and Psal. 25. 2 3. Let none that wait on thee be ashamed O my God I trust in thee let me not be ashamed What is a true Christian hope It may be discovered by the grounds of discouragement but most sensibly by the effects 1. By it the heart is drawn from Earth to Heaven earthly desires and hopes abated Phil. 3. 20. For our conversation is in Heaven whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ they live as those that within a few days expect to be with God Christ in Heaven hath a Magnetick Virtue to draw up the hearts of Believers thither as a man that hath looked stedfastly upon the Sun can for a great while see nothing else 2. By it the heart is enlivened in Duty and quickened with diligence in the business of salvation Hope apprehends the difficulty as well as the excellency and possibility of salvation therefore what a man truly hopes for in this kind he make it his business to get it and look after it Phil. 3. 13. This one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those which are before they mind it seriously and not superficially by the bye 3. It engageth the heart against sin 2 Pet. 3. 11. We that look for these things What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness holiness implies purity and godliness dedication to God Now a false hope is consistent with the reign of sin suffers a man to be vile carnal careless neglectful of God full of malice envy pride but without any serious and solid ground it is but a lying presumption Now this hope that is thus fixed upon God will never disappoint us For First The fruition will ever be more than the expectation God doth for us above what we can ask or think Ephes. 3. 20. When the Prodigal Son came and said Make me as an hired servant the Father brought forth the fatted Calf and put a Ring on his Fâ—…nger c. Solomon asked wisdom and God gave him riches honour and great abundance But much more in the World to come will the fruition be above expectation for Prophecy is but in part we are not now capable to know what we shall then enjoy we have but childish thoughts of things to come as a Child comes short of the apprehensions of a man 1 Cor. 13. 9 10 11. Secondly This hope cannot be abated with the greatest evil To a worldly man Death is the King of terrours and to a godly man 't is his last end though it vanquish his Body it doth not vanquish his Soul Prov. 14. 32. The wicked is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death When other mens hopes vanish his hopes go down with him to the Grave Psal. 16. 9. as in a Bed of ease they shall sleep until the waking time Use. O be not deceived with false promises we must expect Blessing according to the tenour of the Covenant only things promised and no otherwise than they are promised temporal things with a limitation as good for us and with the exception of the Cross spiritual blessings their essence rather than degree of Grace And take heed of false hope that is groundless and fruitless Groundless the warrant of true hope is the Word of God I hope in thy word Psal. 130. 5. Hope that is without a warrant will be without effect when men please themselves they shall do well enough contrary to the Word of God Deut. 29. 19. And it 's fruitless it doth not fill the heart with gladness and quicken to holiness and stir up to walk with God And take heed of false experiences that is building upon temporal blessings and bare deliverances out of trouble Men are not so much preserved as reserved to further trouble many are spared but for a time it is but a reprieve I proceed to the 117th Verse Hold thou me up and I shall be safe and I will have respect unto thy Statutes continually Here observe 1. A repetition of his request for sustaining Grace 2. A renewing of the promise of obedience conceived before Verse 115. 1. A repetition of his request for sustaining Grace Hold thou me up and I shall be safe Where observe The request Hold thou me up and The fruit and effect promised to himself I shall be safe First The Blessing asked Hold thou me up a Metaphor taken from those that faint or those that slide and are ready to fall Secondly The fruit of it I shall be safe Before he had said Uphold me according unto thy word that I may live now he promiseth himself more from the Divine assistance safety By safety he means either the safety of the outward or inward man Why not both I shall be safe from those warpings and apostasie and all dangers and mischiefs that do attend it Turning aside from our duty doth not procure our fafety but perseverance in our duty Gods Children when they have failed have run themselves into much temporal inconveniencies as
Action A Rebellion or an act of disloyalty against God yea there is not only a vertual hatred in Sin but a formal hatred not only implyed but exprest they wish there were not a God to punish them and call them to an account such a Law to forbid such Practices as they affect or that such things were not sin VVell then 't is not some kind of pleasure in the study of the VVord will shew our love to the VVord but an Impartial Intire and Uniform Obedience strictly abstaining from such things as if forbiddeth and carefully practising what it requireth at our hands 2. That our hatred of Sin must flow from such a Principle a man may hate sin upon forreign and accidental reasons and so that obstaining from sin is not a true hatred but a Casual dislike as when we forbare some sins but retain others that sute better with our Condition Callings Employment Temper or because of some difficulty in compassing shame in Practising or repugnant to our natural Temper No it must be out of a principle of Love to God Psal. 97. 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil So Psal. 119. 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy law do I love An hatred of Sin arising from love to God and his VVord is the only true hatred that 's hatred of sin as sin as 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Iohn 3. 4. A transgression of the Law as 't is ingratitude to God contrary to our Obligations to him not only as destructive to our selves not principally timore poenae but amore virtutis The VVord of God furnisheth us with divers Reasons and Arguments to move us to hate sin they all have their place but some are more Noble and Excellent than others As when a Man hateth sin because God hath forbidden it True hatred cometh from a love of the contrary therefore he that hath a vehement love to the Law hateth all things which are contrary to it Matth. 6. 20. He will hate the one and love the other There is no serving two Masters love to the one inforceth hatred of the other To love the Good and hate the Evil are inseparable 3. The more we hate Sin the more prepared we are to love the Law A carnal Heart hateth the Law Ioh. 3. 20. He that doth evil hateth the light And Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law He that doth not hate sin hateth the word of God VVe cannot delight in it till our Affections be purified and sanctified Mens evil practices and dispositions cause them to hate the Light 't is a reproving light can sore Eyes delight to look upon the Sun or an unsound heart delight in that which will so ransack and search the Conscience 4. According to the degree of Love so will the degree of our Hatred be they that have the highest love of the Law will have most hatred of Sin they hate every lesser contrariety a vain Thought Psal. 119. 113. They do not only hate open and scandalous sins but sin carried on in a more close and cleanly manner yea they groan under the Relicks of Corruption and feel it an heavy burden Rom. 7. 22 23 24. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members And then Oh wretched man that I am Next to the Object of our affection the principle or spring of it must be regarded and next to the spring and rise of it the degree must be looked after that we love the good and hate the evil proportionably that is to say that our Hatred must be proportionable to the evil of the thing hated and our love to the good of the thing loved and indeed where the one is the other will be where a great love a great hatred where a little love a little hatred Psal. 119. 127 128. I love thy commandments above gold yea above fine gold therefore I esteem thy precepts in all things to be right and hate every false way Use. Well then if we would shew our love to the Word we must truly sincerely and constantly turn from all known sin with Detestation and Abhorrence for hatred of sin is an infallible evidence of love to the Word Now hatred of sin if it be right 1. 'T is Universal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the whole kind as Haman thought scorn to lay hands upon Mordecai alone but sought to destroy the whole Race of the Iews Ester 3. 6. one sin is as inconsistent with the love of God as another there may be as much Contempt of Gods Authority in a sin of Thought as in a sin of Practice in a small sin as in a greater There may be much crookedness in a small line and in some Cases the Die is more than the Stuff I hate every false way 't is twice repeated in this Psalm in the 104. verse and verse 128. To hate what God hateth Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil 2. 'T is Implacable it aimeth at the utter Extirpation and Expulsion of Sin they seek to remove the guilt to weaken the inclination they groan sorely under the very Being of sin that any thing of sin is left O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of death Rom. 7. 24. 3. 'T is still growing at first 't is a dubious Case men that are Convinced have some Mind to let sin go or a wish that Christ would save them from it but 't is with such Reserves that they have rather a mind to keep it than let it go As Pharaoh had no mind to dismiss Israel and therefore stood hucking with God or as David when he sent out Forces against Absalom yet be tender of the young Man Pleasing Lusts we have but a remiss Will against them our love to it is greater than our dislike of it therefore so unstable Iam. 1. 8. but when the soul is Converted the soul is armed with a resolution 1 Pet. 4. 1. Then the love of sin is weakned in their hearts and the strength and vigour of it abated the soul is armed with a serious purpose to give it up and shake off this servitude in the confidence of that Grace which is purchased for them by Christs Death there is a Godly Inclination and bent of soul to live unto God Again as our Communion with God and sense of his Love is increased in us so our hatred of sin groweth more keen and fierce when God had told what he would do for Ephraim what have I any more to do with Idols Hosea 14. 8. I have had too much to do already what any more In what proportion there is a sense of Gods Love in the same proportion an hatred of Evil. Moses when he had talked with God in the Mount at his return
answerable to your hope 1 Thes. 2. 12. On the other side Hope study Promises Rom. 15. 4. The God of hope fill you with joy in believing he is not only the Object but the Author of it SERMON CLXXXII PSALM CXIX VER 167. My soul hath kept thy Testimonies and I love them exceedingly THE Man of God goeth on in his plea in the former verse he had spoken of the influence of his hope upon obedience Now of the influence of his Love and so more expresly and directly maketh out this Qualification or Title to the Promise mentioned verse 165. Before we go on let me Answer a Question or two First How can a gracious Heart speak so much of it self and insist so much upon the plea of Obedience Is not this contrary to our Saviours Doctrine who in the Parable of the Pharisee and Publican that went up to pray Luk. 18. Teach us to make use of the plea of Mercy not of Works 1. I Answer As to that part of the scruple which concerneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cannot be imagined to be faulty in David who was a Prophet and therefore to instruct the World propoundeth his own instance and setteth forth himself as a pattern of obtaining comfort in the way of Godliness 2. As to the plea of works they may be produced by way of Evidence not by way of Merit as they prove our interest in the Promises not as the ground of self-confidence The Pharisee he came not to beg an Alms but to receive a debt and therefore went away without any mark and testimony of the Divine favour and approbation But Holy Men plead this to God as expecting Mercy and Favour at his hands not in regard of any merit in themselves or of reward deservedly for the same done to them for they acknowledge all that they do or can do to be but duty and due debt But in regard of his Gracious Promise freely made unto them in an humble and modest manner they dare appeal to God himself for the sincerity and integrity of their hearts for their serious care and sedulous endeavours to please him and approve themselves to him Secondly But why is this plea reiterated for three verses together Answer Too much care cannot be used in making out an interest in so sweet a Promise and teacheth us this Iesson that we had need examine again and again before we can put in our claim Jesus Christ puts Peter to the question thrice Iohn 21. 15 16 17. Peter lovest thou me So here 't was Davids plea thrice repeated for the more assurance I have done thy Commandments my soul hath kept thy Testimonies and again I have kept thy Commandments and thy Precepts after a believer hath found marks of saving grace in himself it is Wisdom for him to examine them over and over again that he may be sure they are in him in Deed and in Truth the heart is deceitful our self-love is great our infirmities many and our graces so weak that we should not easily trust the search Truly such an holy Jealousie doth well become the best of Gods Children and doth only weaken the security of the Flesh not their rejoycing in the Lord. In the Words you have the Testimony of Davids Conscience concerning the sincerity of his Heart evidenced by two Notes I. The Sincerity of his Obedience my soul hath kept my Testimonies II. His exceeding love to the Word I Love them exceedingly or if you will by the manner of his Obedience and the principle of it I. The Spirituality of his Obedience my soul hath kept thy Testimonies mark the notion by which the act of Duty is expressed is varied in the former verse it 's I have done thy Commandments here it is I have kept thy Testimonies done more exexpressely noteth his sedulity and deligence kept his Constancy and diligence perseverance notwithstanding Temptations to the contrary And how kept them Saith he my soul hath kept them not with outward observance only but with inward and hearty respect My Soul that is my self a part for the whole and the better part I with my soul and so it sheweth his sincerity 't is an usual expression among the Hebrews when they would express their vehement affection to any thing to say they do it with their souls as Psal. 103. 1. Bless the Lord O my Soul and Luke 1. 45. My soul doth magnifie the Lord. As on the contrary vehemency of hatred Isa. 1. 14. Your New Moons and appointed Feasts my soul hateth that is I hate them with my heart The note is Doctrine God must be served with our Souls as well as our Bodies David saith My soul hath kept thy Testimonies 1. Because he hath a right to both as he made both and therefore hath required that both should serve him he that organized the body and framed it out of the dust of the ground did also breath into us the breath of Life and framed the spirit of man within him therefore since God may challenge all 't is fit he should have the best my son give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. Look upon it whose Image and superscription doth it bear Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods he hath redeemed both 1 Cor. 6. 20. Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God both in your body and spirits which are Gods Shall we rob God of his purchase so dearly bought We would not rob a man of his Goods and will you rob God He challengeth a peculiar right in Souls all Souls are mine and therefore they should be used and exercised for his glory If we use them for our selves only and not according to his direction we do as Reuben did that went up into his Fathers bed To withhold the Heart from God is Robbery nay Sacriledge which is the worst kind of Robbery For Gods right in Redemption is confirmed and owned by our Personal dedication in Baptism Once more God hath right to the Service of both body and soul because he offereth to Glorifie both and Reward both in the Heavenly Inheritance the Body and the Soul are Sisters and Co-heirs as Tertullian speaketh If we expect wages for both we must do work with both if God should make such a division at Death as men do all their Life to him can they be happy if any part of them be excluded Heaven If the Body and lifeless trunck were taken into Heaven and the Soul left in Torments what were you the better But that cannot be God will have all or no part therefore your whole Spirit and Soul and Body must be kept blameless unto the coming of the Lord Iesus Christ 1 Thess. 5. 23. Otherwise your souls cannot be joyned to God in Heaven if they be divided from him on Earth 2. Because this is service suitable to his nature when we serve him and obey him with our souls God is an All-seeing Spirit and
One hundred and Ninety SERMONS ON THE Hundred and Nineteenth PSALM PREACHED by the Late REVEREND and LEARNED Thomas Manton D. D. With a Perfect ALPHABETICAL TABLE Directing to the PRINCIPAL MATTERS Contained therein LUK. XXIV 44. All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me Hic Psalmus est tanto praestantior quanto prolixior Muis. LONDON Printed for T. P. c. and are to be Sold by Michael Hide Bookseller in Exon 1681. Thomas Manton D. D. R White sculpsit To the READER 'T IS the Honour of the Evangelical Ministry that it was principally instituted for the service of God not as he is the Governour of the Earth but the Lord of Heaven and to prepare men by holiness for his eternal Kingdom And 't is an excellent favour of God to his Ministers when their labours are eminently useful for this blessed end This singular grace and priviledge God was pleased to confer upon his faithful Servant Dr. Manton whose life was spent in the most precious work of converting souls to Christ and preparing them for the Coelestial Paradise and since his retiring from the world by death his soul now enjoying the blessed rest above yet he remains with us in what was most valuable of him his excellent Sermons the productions of his holy mind and heart and the Pen having a larger extent than the Tongue in communicating them may be more beneficial to the Church than before The following Sermons were preacht by him in his usual course of three times a week which I do not mention to lessen their worth but to shew how diligent and exact he was in the performance of his duty Indeed his ordinary Sermons considering the substantial matter clear order and vigorous full expressions may well pass for extraordinary I cannot but admire the foecundity and variety of his thoughts that the same things so often occurring in the verses of this Psalm yet by a judicious observing the different arguments and motives whereby the Psalmist enforces the same requests or some other circumstances every Sermon contains new conceptions and proper to the Text. Some few Verses were not handled by him I earnestly pray that those who shall read these Sermons may taste the sweetness of the Divine Truths open'd in them and may be transform'd into the spirit of David by an inward feeling of the affections and verifying in their own breasts the words of the Holy Prophet W. BATES Christian Reader IT is somewhat difficult not to applaud that excellency which has first approved it self to our judgment Hence is it that though this work needs it not I will so far gratifie my own affections and comply with obtaining custom as to acquaint thee that if thou hadst my eyes and taste thou must admire its beauty and confess its sweetness much more when thou shalt use thy own more discerning eye and judicious palate The Matter of these Sermons is Spiritual and speaks the Author one intimately acquainted with the secrets of wisdom He writes like one that knew the Psalmists heart and felt in his own the sanctifying power of what he wrote Their design is practice beginning with the understanding dealing with the affections but still driving on the advancement of Practical Holiness They come home and close to the Conscience first presenting us a glass wherein we may view the spots of our souls and then directing us to that fountain wherein we may wash them away They are of an Evangelical complexion abasing proud corrupt nature and advancing free and efficacious grace in the conversion of Sinners The Exhortations are powerful admirably suited to treat with Reasonable Creatures yet still supposing them to be the vehicle of the holy Spirit through which he communicates life and power to obey them The manner of handling is not inferiour to the dignity of the Matter so plain as to accommodate the most sublime Truths to the meanest spiritual capacity and yet so elevated as to approve it self to the most refined understanding He knew how to be succinct without obscurity and where the weight of the Argument required it to enlarge without nauseous prolixity He studied more to profit than please and yet an honest heart will then be best pleased when most profited He chose rather to speak appositely than elegantly and yet the judicious do account propriety the choicest elegancy He laboured more industriously to conceal his learning than some others to ostentate theirs and yet when he would most veil it the discernnig Reader cannot but discover it and rejoice to find such a mass such a treasure of useful learning couched under a well-studied and artificial plainness But let the Reader take a taste of let him concoct and digest these spiritual Discourses and he shall say with the Sabaean Queen It was a true report I heard in my own land but behold the one half was not told me Or with the men of Sychar Now we believe not because of thy saying but because we our selves have proved and experienced their delicacies As one taste of honey will more effectually commend its sweetness than the most elaborate Oratory Those Ancients that had seen the first Temple wept bitterly when they saw the foundation of the second laid And perhaps some pious souls who have sate with great delight under the Authors Ministerial shadow and have found his fruit sweet to their taste may secretly shed a tear that though they here meet with the same Divine Truths the same spiritual matter yet they want the living voice the grateful elocution the natural eloquence in which that heavenly matter dropt or rather flowed from his gracious lips but let the same consideration which quieted the spirits of those Jews of old satisfie theirs God can fill this house also with his Glory And though the second Edition of the Temple fall short of the former in the beauty and symmetry of the structure yet can the Spirit flow from the Press as well as the Pulpit with this advantage that they may here in safety read what with great danger they formerly heard I have admired and must recommend to the observation of the Reader the fruitfulness of the Authors holy invention accompanied with solid judgment in that whereas the coincidence of the matter in this Psalm might have superseded his labours in very many Verses yet without force or offering violence to the Sacred Text he has either from the connexion of one Verse with its predecessor or the harmony between the parts of the same Verse found out new matter to entertain his own meditation and his Readers expectation nor do I observe more than twelve Verses in this large Psalm wholly omitted if at least they may be said to be omitted whose subject matter is elsewhere copiously handled Had the Reverend Author design'd these Papers for publick view he could not have flattered himself in a cavilling age that he should escape
men 3. When we search out our defects and are ever bewailing them with kindly remorse Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 4. When we run by faith to Christ Jesus and sue out our pardon and peace in Christs name until we come to be compleat in him Col. 1. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledg of God SERMON IV. PSAL. CXIX 3. They also do no iniquity they walk in his ways STILL the Psalmist continues the description of a blessed man In the two first Verses Holiness which is the way to and evidence of Blessedness is considered with respect to the Subject and the Object of it the Life and the Heart of man The Life of man Blessed are the undefiled in the way The Heart of man They seek him with the whole heart Now Holiness is considered in the parts of it Negatively and Positively The two parts of Holiness are an eschewing of sin and studying to please God You have both in this Verse They also do no iniquity they walk in his ways First You have the blessed man described negatively They do no iniquity Upon hearing the words presently there occurs a doubt How then can any man be blessed for there is not a man that liveth and sinneth not Eccles. 7. 20. and Jam. 3. 2. In many things we offend all To deny it is a flat lye against the truth and against our own experience If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 Joh. 1. 8. The expression may be abused on the one side to establish the impeccability and perfection of the Saints on the other side it may be abused by persons of a weak and tender conscience to the hinderance of their comfort and rejoycing in God When they shall hear this is the character of a blessed man they do no iniquity they are very apt to conclude against their own regeneration because of their daily failings To avoid these difficulties I shall enquire 1. What it is to do iniquity 2. Who are the persons among the sons of men that may be said to do no iniquity First What it is to do iniquity If we make it our trade and practice to continue in wilful disobedience To sin is one thing but to make sin our work is another 1 Joh. 3. 9. He that is born of God doth not commit sin he doth not work sin And Matt. 7. 23. Depart from me ye that work iniquity That 's the Character of the Reprobate workers of iniquity So Joh. 8. 34. Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin Sin is their constant trade Psal. 139. 24. See if there be any wicked way in me None are absolutely freed from sin but it is not their trade their way their work When a man makes it his study and business to carry on a course of sin then he is said to do iniquity Secondly Who are those that are said to do no iniquity in Gods account though they fail often thorough weakness of the flesh and violence of temptation Answer 1. All such as are renewed by grace and reconciled to God by Christ Jesus to these God imputeth no sin to condemnation and in his account they do no iniquity Notable is that 1 King 14. 8. it is said of David He kept my Commandments and followed me with all his heart and did that only which was right in mine eyes How can that be We may trace David by his failings they are upon record every where in the word yet here a Veil is drawn upon them God laid them not to his charge There is a double reason why their failings are not laid to their charge partly because of their general state they are in Christ taken into favour through him and there 's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. therefore particular errors and escapes do not alter their condition Which is not to be understood as if a man should not be humbled and ask God pardon for his infirmities no for then they prove iniquities they will lye upon record against us It was a gross fancy of the Valentinians that held they were not defiled with sin whatsoever they committed though base and obscene persons yet still they were as gold in the dirt No no we are to recover our selves by repentance to sue out the favour of God When David humbled himself and had repented then saith Nathan 2 Sam. 12. 13. The Lord hath put away thy sin Partly too because their bent and habitual inclination is to do otherwise They set themselves to comply with Gods will to seek and serve the Lord though they are clogged with many infirmities A wicked man sinneth with deliberation and delight his bent is to do evil he makes provision for lusts Rom. 13. 12. and serves them by a voluntary subjection Tit. 3. 3. But those that are renewed by grace are not debtors to the flesh they have taken another debt and obligation upon them which is to serve the Lord Rom. 8. 12. Partly too because their general course and way is to do otherwise Unumquodque operatur secundum suam formam Every thing works according to its form the constant actions of Nature are according to the kind So the new creature his constant operations are according to grace A man is known by his custom and the course of his endeavours what is his business If a man be constantly easily frequently carried away to sin it discovers a habit of soul and the temper of his heart Meadows may be overflown but marish ground is drowned with the return of every Tide A child of God may be carried away and act contrary to the bent and inclination of the new nature but when men are drown'd and overcome with the return of every temptation and carried away it argues a habit of sin And partly because sin never carries it away clearly but with some dislikes and resistances of the new nature The children of God make it their business to avoid all sin by watching praying mortifying Psal. 39. 1. I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue And then there is a resistance of the sin God hath planted graces in their hearts the fear of his Majesty that works a resistance and therefore there is not a full allowance of what they do This resistance sometimes is more strong then the temptation is overcome How can I do this wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39. Sometimes it is more weak and then sin carries it though against the will of a holy man Rom. 7. 15 18. The evil which I hate that do I. It is the evil which they hate they protest against it they are like men which are opprest by the power of the enemy And then there 's a remorse after the sin David's heart
so they have their particular corruptions which are more suitable to their temper and course of life Peter seems to be inclin'd to Tergiversation and to shrinking in a time of trouble We find him often triping in that kind in the denial of his Master again Gal. 2. 12. it is said he dissembled and complied with the Iews therefore Paul withstood him to his face for he was to be blamed It is evident by experience there are particular corruptions to which the children of God are more inclinable this appears by the great power and sway they bear in commanding other evils to be committed by their falling into them out of inward propensity when outward temptations are few or weak or none at all and when resistance is made yet they are more pestered and haunted with them than with other temptations which is a constant matter of exercise and humiliation to them Secondly Wherein doth grace now discover it self where 's the difference 1. In that they cannot fall into those iniquities wherein there is an absolute contrariety to grace as hatred of God total Apostasie so they cannot sin the sin unto death 1 Joh. 5. 16. 2. In that they do not sin with the whole heart Psal. 119. 176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek thy servant for I do not forget thy commandments There was somewhat of God in the heart when he was conscious to himself of strayings and wandrings and David saith elsewhere I have not departed wickedly from thy precepts When they sin it is with the dislike and reluctancy of the new nature it is rather a rape than a consent Bernard saith A child of God suffers sin rather than acts it and his hearts protest is against it 3. It is not their course not constant easie and frequent Relapses into gross sins they argue an habitual aversion from God for a habit is determined by the constancy and uniformity of acts therefore it is but now and then under some great temptation There is sin and there is a way of sin Psal. 139. 24. Search me and see if there be any way of wickedness in me as Chrysostome glosseth 4. When they fall they do not rest in sin Shall they fall and shall they not arise Jer. 8. 4. They may fall into the dirt but they do not lye and wallow there like swine in the mire A fountain may be mudded but it works it self clean again The needle that hath been touched with the load-stone may be jogged and discomposed but it never leaves till it turn towards the Pole again Gods children have their failings but they sue out their pardon run to their Advocate 1 Ioh. 3. 1. humble themselves before God 5. Their falls are sanctified When they have smarted under sin they grow more watchful and more circumspect A child of God may have the worse in praelio in the battel but not in bello in the war Sometimes the carnal part may get the victory and they may fall foul but see the issue Psal. 51. 6. In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom David had sinned against the Lord but I have learned wisdom never to trust a naughty heart more but to look to my self better 6. Grace discovers it self by the constant endeavours which they make against sin What 's the constant course a Christian takes They groan under the reliques of sin it is their burden that they have such an evil nature Rom. 7. 24. They fly to Gods grace in Christ for daily pardon 1 Ioh. 1. 9. They are ever washing their garments in the Lambs blood Rev. 7. and every day are cleansing themselves from the filthiness and defilement they contract by sin Ioh. 13. 10. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet An allusion to a man that hath been a journey in those Countries where they went bare foot when he came home he must wash his feet So a man that is reconciled to God though he hath been in the Bath in the fountain which God hath opened for uncleanness yet every day he must be washing his feet cleansing himself by the blood of Christ more and more because he contracts new defilement Then by using all endeavours against it Col. 3. 5. as prayer striving watching cutting off the provisions of the flesh improving the death of Christ. They do not voluntarily and without opposition live under sin and the slavish tyranny of it Their bent and habitual inclination is to do otherwise therefore they are said to do no iniquity whereas those that are wretchless and careless of their souls sin and never lay it to heart they are the workers of iniquity Use 2. If this be the character of a blessed man To make it our business to avoid sin Then here 's caution to God's people 1. To beware of all sin 2. To be very cautious against gross sins committed against the light of conscience 3. To beware of continuance in sin First To beware of all sin The more you have the mark of a blessed man 1 Joh. 2. 1. These things I write unto you that you sin not Though you have a pardon and cleansing by the blood of Christ though you have an Advocate yet sin not Now the motives to set on this Caution are taken from God from our selves from the nature of sin 1. From God Sin not why because it is an offence to God Consider how contrary sin is to all the persons in the Trinity To God the Father as a Lawgiver being a contempt of his Authority 1 Ioh. 3. 4. Sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law that is an act of disloyalty and rebellion against the Crown of Heaven Open sin doth as it were proclaim rebellion and war against God and privy sin is conspiracy against him All creatures have a Law Psal. 148. 6. Thou hast set to them a Decree beyond which they cannot pass And they are less exorbitant in their motions than we are It is a greater violation to the Law of Nature for man to sin than for the Sea to break its bounds The Creatures have not sense and reason yet they do not pass beyond the Law which God hath set them This should prevail with the new creature especially whose hearts God hath suited to the Law so that they offer a violence to their own conscience Take heed of entring into the lists with God of despising his Authority Every sin that is committed slights the Law which forbids it 2 Sam. 12. 9. Wherefore despisest thou his commandments God stands much upon his Law one tittle shall not pass away and you despise it go about to make it void when you give way to sin Nay it is an abuse of his Love 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath shewed us you are children and sons of God and will you slight his love Your sins are like Absoloms treason against his Father The Rechabites are commended for
as long as he sits still feels not the lameness of his joints but upon exercise 't is sensible Now these prayers are a profession of weakness upon a trial Rom. 7. 18. For to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not That presupposeth a search Not I cannot but I find not and then we run to prayer Every prayer is an acknowledgment of our weakness and dependance Who would ask that of another which he thinketh to be in his own power 3. That the Creature may express his readiness God will have us will though we cannot do It is true he giveth both Phil. 2. 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure But the one by preventing the other by assisting grace Rom. 7. 18. Though we are unable to do what we should yet it is the desire of our hearts Prayer is the expression of our desire When we heartily beg grace it is a sign the Commandment is not grievous but our lusts It much discovereth a mans heart what he counteth to be his bondage and the yoke 1 Ioh. 5. 3. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous Which do we groan under the burden of the Law or the body of death That is best seen by our heartiness in prayer 4. To bring us to lye at his feet God will be owned not only as a Law-giver but as a fountain of Grace The precept cometh from God to drive us to God his Soveraignty maketh way for his grace He calleth upon us for obedience that we may call upon him for help First he giveth us a Law that he may afterwards give us an heart Gods end is to bring us upon our knees As hard Providences conduce to bring God and us together so do hard Commandments Till we be reduced to a distress we never think seriously of dealing with God Use. It teacheth us what to do when we meet with any thing that is difficult and impossible to us as to repent believe to renounce a bewitching lust or perform a spiritual duty Two ways we are apt to miscarry in such a case either by murmuring against God as if he were harsh and austere and had reaped where he hath not sown and gathered where he hath not strewed or by casting off all out of a foolish despondency Cut at heart or else wax faint These are the two evils I shall never get rid of this naughty heart Or else we fret against God Prov. 19. 3. The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord. Now to prevent these evils spread the case before the Lord in this manner 1 Acknowledg the debt God will keep up the sense of his Authority his command must be the reason of our care as well as his promise the ground of our hope 2 Confess your Impotency 2 Cor. 3. 5. Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God This is to empty the bucket before we go to the fountain When we are full of self there is no room for grace 3 Own Gods power Mat. 19. 26. But Iesus beheld them and saith unto them With men this is impossible but with God all things are possible The difficulties that we meet with in the way to Heaven should serve only to make us despair of our own strength and abilities not of Gods with whom nothing is impossible It is a relief to consider of the Divine power from whence we fetch all our supplies necessary to life and godliness 4 Deal with God earnestly about help The Command sheweth how pleasing such requests are to God and you own God not only as a Law-giver but Author of Grac. Do not come in a lukewarm careless fashion but Oh that my heart were directed Sluggish wishes will do no good you bespeak your own denial when you ask grace as a thing of course Ier. 31. 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God 2. The next thing that we may note is the serious desire that is in Gods people after Holiness Mark it is not a velleity but a volition Oh that noteth the vehemency and heartiness 'T is his first desire David had hitherto spoken assertively when he cometh to speak Supplications his first and chief request to God is Oh that my ways were directed c. Mark again It is not a desire of happiness but holiness not Oh that I were blessed but Oh that my ways were directed A mind to know a will to obey and a memory to keep in mind Gods precepts It is Practical holiness O that my ways God hath his ways They walk in his ways vers 3. And we have our ways Oh that my ways were directed That is all my thoughts counsels inclinations speeches actions were directed by thy statutes Every Commandment is a Royal Edict a statute which God hath made for the governing of the World Now the Saints have this desire of Holiness 1. From the new Nature that is in them The Appetite followeth the Nature Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Desires being the vigorous bent of the soul discover the temper of it The carnal nature puts forth its self in lustings so doth the new nature The main thing we have by grace is a new heart that is new loves new desires and new delights Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit 2. Out of love to God which implieth subjection and conformity to him Love to God is testified by a desire of subjection for his love is a love of bounty ours a love of duty 1 Ioh. 5. 3. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous It is the great desire of their souls that they may be subject to God As he that loveth would not offend the party loved so it is their desire to please God in all things And as Holiness implieth a conformity to God they study to be like him It is their hope their desire their care their hope 1 Iohn 3. 2. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is It is their desire and care in every Ordinance 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And it
is their constant endeavour 1 Pet. 1. 15. But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation 3. Out of experience of the ways of God of that goodness and enlargement of heart that is to be found in them They have tasted and seen how good his laws are They can answer Gods appeal Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly Yea doubtless it is good Psal. 19. 10 11. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward The spiritual life is interlined and refreshed with many sweet experiences The USE Here is first a note of discovery for men are judged by their desires rather than their practices as being freest from constraint And this is humbly represented by the children of God to incline his favour and compassion to them Nehem. 1. 11. Let thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name They come short in many things but they desire to fear God Isa. 26. 8. The desires of our soul are to thy name and to the remembrance of thee They could speak little of what they had done for God Paul was better at willing than performing till freed from this body of death Rom. 7. 18. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not This will be our best evidence to the last Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes But may not wicked men have good desires Ans. They may have a loose inclination to good things but not a full resolution for God Wicked men have an enlightned conscience but no renewed wills This enlightned conscience may carry them so far as to some general approbation of the things of God which may produce a wish that they were so and so but this doth no good to the heart Sparks do not kindle the fire but coals a spark is enough to set us on fire in carnal matters but not in spiritual More distinctly 1. Wicked men may desire their own happiness though not upon Gods terms Numb 23. 10. O that I might dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his At oportnit sic vixisse John 6. 34. Evermore give us of this bread of life Every man would be blessed and go to Heaven if it were left to his option and choice they like the end but not the means There was not a murmuring Israelite but would count Canaan a good Land but the Giants and sons of Anak were there 2. They may have some languid and vanishing motions towards the means as well as the end being convinced of the necessity of Holiness yea they may draw out their wishes into a cold prayer that God would make them better as lazy persons sometimes express their desires Would I were at such a place and never travel would I had written such a task and never put pen to paper Vellent sed nolunt When it cometh to trial they do not set themselves in good earnest to get that grace they wish for What 's the difference between a volition and a velleity 1. Such desires as are not waving but resolute and fixed Aquinas saith Velleitas est voluntas incompleta an half will They have a months mind to that which is good but not a thorow resolution as Agrippa almost perswaded but not altogether Such a desire as will bear up against a strong tyde of opposition it is called the setting of the heart 1 Chron. 22. 19. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God Whatever cometh of it they must and will have grace Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple 2. Such desires as are absolute and do not stand upon terms There is an Hypothetical and conditional will We would but with such conditions I would have Christ if it did not cost me so dear to deny lusts interests friends relations much waiting praying watching striving So Mat. 22. 5. they would come to the Supper but house oxen farm merchandize there was something in the way that hindred them there was no full and perfect will A Chapman no doubt would have the wares that he liketh but will not come to the price I will have Heaven whatever it cost me is the voice of a desiring Saint 3. Such desires as are active and industrious not a remiss will Prov. 13. 4. The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat Cold raw wishes are unuseful and fruitless we must work as well as wish Poor languid unactive desires come to nothing when men do not put forth their endeavours and apply themselves to the prosecution of what is desired Faint and sluggish velleities do hurt Prov. 21. 25. The desires of the slothful killeth him for his hands refuseth labour Whatever a man doth seriously desire to have he will use proper means to procure it Wishes are but the fruits of a speculative fancy rather than an industrious affection 4. Such desires as are constant and not easily controuled by other desires Idle lazy wishes uneffectual glances sudden motions while their hearts are detained in the speculation of holiness are like childrens desires soon put out of the humour There may be vehement and sudden lustings in an unregenerated person free-will hath its pangs of devotion But the Apostle declares Rom. 7. 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not 'T is a constant habitual will not a volatile devotion that cometh upon us now and then but such a will as is present as sin is present He had said before When I would do good evil is present with me Whithersoever you go you carry a sinning nature about with you 'T is present urging the heart to vanity folly lust so should this will be present with you urging the heart to good 5. Such desires are joined with serious groans and sorrow for our defects He cannot be so good as he would but desireth and complaineth therefore God accepteth of the will for the deed Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Though an unrenewed man seem to desire grace yet he feeleth no grief in the want of grace it never troubleth him his desires do not break out into groans and bitter complaints because of indwelling corruption Now by these things may you try your hearts 3. The third
to the sutableness and proportion which it carrieth to our necessities and desires The Cock in the Fable preferred a Barley-corn before a Jewel the Barley-corn is more sutable to its natural appetite So believers have not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God 2 Cor. 2. 12. therefore the way of Gods Testimonies is more sutable and proportionable to that nature which they have Their wealth and worldly things they indeed sute with the sensitive nature but that is kept under therefore the prevalent inclination is to the word more than to the world 2. There is nothing in the enjoyment of worldly things but they have it more amply in the exactest and sincerest way of enjoyment by the word and walking in the way of its precepts Satans baits whereby he leads men to sin are Pleasure and Profit when bonum honestum the good of Honesty and Duty is declined there remains nothing but bonum utile and jucundum the good of Pleasure and Profit If we be moved with these things it is good to look there where we may have them at the highest rate and in the most sincere manner Now it is the word of God believed and obeyed which yieldeth us the greatest profit and the greatest You have both in one Verse Psal. 19. 10. More to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold sweeter also than the honey and the honey-comb Because of the Profit it is compared to Gold and because of the Sweetness and Pleasure we have by it 't is compared to Honey 1. The word of God will truly enrich a man and make us happy The difference between Gods people and others doth not lye in this that the one seeketh after Riches the other not they both seek to enrich themselves only the one seeketh after false and the other true riches as they are called Luk. 16. 11. and so differ from one another as we and the Indians do who reckon their wealth by their Wampenpeage or shells of fishes as we do ours by Gold and Silver the one hath little worth but what their Fancies put upon it the other hath a value in nature or to speak in a more home comparison Counters glass Beads and painted Toys please Children more than Jewels and things of greater price yea than Land of Inheritance or whatever when we come to mans estate we value and is of use to us for the supply of present necessities So worldly men preferring their kind of wealth before holiness and the influences of Grace they do but cry up Bawbles before Jewels To evidence this and that we may beat the world with their own notions and so the better defeat the temptation let us consider what is the true Riches 1. What is indeed true Riches 2. Why these are the true Riches I. What is indeed Riches 1. Gracious Experiences or Testimonies of the Favour of God He is a rich man indeed that hath many of these So it is said Rom. 10. 12. God is rich to all that call upon him it is meant actively not passively it only noteth that God doth give out plentiful experiences of his grace 2. Knowledge Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom Col. 3. 16. And the Apostle mentions the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2. 2. this is a treasure indeed that cannot be valued and he is a very poor soul that wants it 3. Faith Jam 2. 5. Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith He is a rich man that is emptied of himself that he may be filled with God 4. Good works 1 Tim. 6. 10. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded c. but rich in good works Oh miserable man that hath nothing to reckon upon but his Money and his Bags so much by the year and makes it all his business to live plentifully in the world laying up nothing for Heaven and is not rich in gracious Experiences Knowledg Faith and Good works which are a Christians Riches II. Why are these the true Riches 1. That is true Riches which maketh the man more valuable which gives an intrinsick worth to him which Wealth doth not that is without us we would not judg of an Horse by the richness of his Saddle and the gawdiness of his Trappings and is man a reasonable creature to be esteemed by his Moneys and Lands or by his Graces and Moral perfections 2. That is Riches which puts an esteem upon us in the eyes of God and the holy Angels who are best able to judg One barbarous Indian may esteem another the more he hath of his shells and trisles but you would count him never the richer that should bring home a whole Ships lading of these things Luk. 12. 20. Such a fool is he that heapeth up treasure to himself and is not rich towards God that hath not of that sort of Riches which God esteemeth We are bound for a Countrey where Riches are of no value Grace only goeth currant in the other world 3. That is Riches which steads us in our greatest extremities When we come to dye the Riches of this world prove false comforts for they forsake a man when he hath most need of comfort In the hour of death when the poor shiftless naked soul is stripped of all and we can carry away nothing in our hands Grace lyeth near the heart to comfort us 'T is said by a voice from Heaven of those that dye in the Lord their works follow them their wealth doth not Our Graces continue with us to all Eternity 4. That is the true Riches which will supply all our necessities and bear our expences to Heaven Wealth doth not this but Grace Mar. 6. 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Heaven and earth are laid at the feet of Godliness 5. That is true Riches which will give us a title to the best Inheritance The word of God is able to inrich a man more than all the Riches of the World because it is able to bring a man to an everlasting Kingdom All this is spoken because there is an evil desire that possesseth the whole world they are vehemently carried after riches and as they are encreased so are they delighted but saith David My delight is to encrease in knowledg and grace if I get more life more victory over lusts more readiness for Gods service this comforts me to the heart Now how do you measure your thriving by worldly or spiritual encrease 2. Here is the true delight Spiritual delight in spiritual objects far exceedeth all the joy that we can take in worldly
24. 5. given to the children of men Psal. 115. 16. Here God will shew his bounty to all his creatures to beasts and all kind of men 't is sometimes the Slaughter-house and Shambles of the Saints They are slain upon earth Rev. 18. 24. a receptacle for elect and reprobate therefore here they have not their blessing our inheritance lyes elsewhere 3. There are all our kindred Ubi pater ibi patria where our father is there our Countrey is Now when we pray we say to him Our Father which art in heaven There are we strangers where we are absent from God Christ and glorified Saints and while we are here upon earth we have not such enjoyment of God There 's our Father it is his house Heaven is called our Fathers house and there 's our elder brother Col. 3. 1. Set your hearts upon things above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God And there 's the best of our kindred and Family They shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob Mat. 8. 20. Well then the children of God they count themselves to be strangers here because their kindred are elsewhere 4. There they abide longest That we account our home where we abide An Inn cannot be called our home where we come but for a night and away but now there we are for ever with the Lord. Here we are in motion there is rest The world must be surely left If we had a certain term of years fixed yet it would be very short in comparison of Eternity All the time we spend here it is but a night but a moment in comparison of Eternity We live longest in the other world and therefore there 's our home Mic. 2. 10. Arise depart hence this is not your rest God speaks it of the Land of Canaan when they had polluted it with sin It is true of all the world Sin hath brought in death and there must be a riddance it is but a passage from danger Israel dwelt first in a wandring Camp before they came to dwell in Cities and walled Towns and the Apostle alludes to that Here we have no abiding City we look for one to come As the Israelites did look for walled Towns and Cities of the Amorites to be possest by them so here we have but a wandring Camp we look for a City And mark as it was with them in their outward estate so in the mysteries of their Religion they were first seated in a Tabernacle and then in a Temple in a Tabernacle which was a figure of the Church then in a Temple which was a figure of Heaven for you know as in the Temple there were three partitions the outward Court the Holy place and the Holy of holies so there are three Heavens the third heaven Paul speaks of the heaven of heavens and there 's the Starry heaven and the Airy heaven the outward Court This life being so frail so fickle we cannot call our abode here our home What is your life saith the Apostle it is but as a vapor Jam. 4. 14. a little warm breath turn'd in and out by the nostrils Job 7. 1. Is there not an appointed time for man upon earth his days are as the days of an hireling A hired servant you do not intend should live with you for ever you hire him for a day or two and when he hath ended his work he receives his wages and is gone so all our days are but a little while we do our service and then we must be gone Actors when they have finished their parts are seen no more they go within the Curtain so when we have fulfilled our course God furnisheth the world with a new Scene of Acts and Actors 5. The necessary exercise of their graces doth make them count their lives here but a pilgrimage and themselves but strangers upon earth viz. Faith Love Hope 1. Faith shews the truth and the worth of things to come Faith will make them strangers Heb. 11. 13. They saw these things and were perswaded of them and they counted themselves pilgrims and strangers O! were we perswaded of things to come we would be hastning towards them We cry home home we talk of heaven and eternity but we do not believe them Sense and reason cannot out-see time nor look above the clouds and mists of the lower world afar off in the Apostles phrase 2 Pet. 1. 9. but Faith shews the truth of things to come We that are here upon earth when we look to heaven the Stars seem to us but so many spangles O! but when we get into heaven and look downward the world then will seem but as a mole-hill that which now to sense seems such a glorious thing will be as nothing 2. The Love of Christ which is in the Saints makes them to account themselves as strangers A child of God cannot be satisfied with things here below because his love is set upon God Two things the heart looks after as soon as it is awakened by grace and Love puts us upon them both viz. a perfect enjoyment of God and a perfect obedience to God 1. That they may be with God and Christ. The Saints have heard much of Christ read much of him tasted and felt much of him they would fain see him and be with him Phil. 1. 23. If they had the choicest contentment the world could afford this will not satisfie them so much as to be there where Christ is and to behold his glory The Apostle thinks this to be motive enough to a gracious heart to seek things above for there Christ is at the right hand of God Love will catch hold of that Col. 3. 1. The place is lovely for Christs sake Love will not suffer them to count this to be their home Though Christ is present with them now spiritually while they are here yet the presence and nearness is but distance but a kind of absence being compared with what is to come and therefore this very presence doth not quench their desires but kindle them and sets them a longing for more All the presence the communion the sight of Christ they get now it is but mediate through the glass of the Ordinance 1 Cor. 13. 12. and it is frequently interrupted his face is many times hidden Psal. 30. 7. and it is not full as it shall be there Psal. 16. 11. But now in Heaven there it will be immediate God will be all in all and there it will be constant they shall be ever with the Lord and there they shall be satisfied with his likeness Psal. 17. 15. then they enjoy his presence indeed So that Love upon these considerations sets them a longing and groaning 2. As Love makes them desire the company of Christ so intire subjection to God they would have perfect grace and freedom from sin therefore are ever groaning O when shall we be rid of this body of death Rom. 7. 23. There is a final perfect estate
when you have them in their frame and see how one suits with the other and what a sweet harmony there is between all the parts of Religion then they are very good 3. More experimental that you may taste the sweetness and power of the Truths that you know Phil. 3. 10. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death When we feel what we know that is a mighty confirmation The senses give the best demonstration It is a disparagement to know Christ and be never the better for him to have a knowledg of all the Excellency of Christ and how suitable he is to the soul yet to feel nothing of comfort and quickning in our consciences 4. More Practical 1 Joh. 2. 3 4. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments He that faith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him Otherwise it is but a talking by rote a man savingly knoweth no more than he practiseth He that doth but speak after others it is a rehearsal rather than a knowledg What is practical light It is directive and perswasive 1. It is directive A man grows more prudent and more able to guide his course according to the rules of Religion Faith is opposed not only to ignorance but to folly O ye fools and flow of heart to believe A man may be a knowing man yet a very fool in Spirituals if he hath not a knowledg how to guide him to trust in God fear God love God and serve God Hosea 14. 7. 2. That is practical knowledg when it is perswasive when it hath a lively force and efficacy upon the heart 2. Point Those whom God maketh to understand the way of his precepts see wondrous things therein Psal. 119. 18. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law VVonders are such things as do transcend our capacity so all things about God are above the sphere of men as the things of men are above the capacity of Beasts Now the more understanding and insight we have in these things the more we wonder Wonder usually is the fruit of ignorance how then can knowledg breed wonder The word discovers the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so but the manner how it is and the wisdom of the contrivance is that which begets reverence and admiration in a gracious soul as Nazianzen saith of the eternal generation of Christ Let the eternal generation of God be adored in silence It is a marvellous thing to know that there are Three in One The Son from Eternity begotten before all the World c. So when we look into these things our knowledg doth only shew that they are but what they are and how great they are that exceeds our capacity and therefore we wonder 1. The Doctrines of the Scripture are wonderful concerning God and his Works The nature of God is a depth which we cannot fathom no more than a Nutshel can empty the Ocean Psal. 139. 6. Such knowledg is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain unto it It is above our capacity for a finite thing cannot comprehend an Infinite The Creation of all things out of nothing we believe it upon the testimony of the Word but it is too wonderful for us to search it to the bottom yea the framing of the body in the Womb so many different things out of the same Seed as flesh and bones and muscles and in such an order and proportion Psal. 139. 14. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well If the commonness did not abate our observation we would wonder at it So his Providence in governing every creature to their proper ends especially his care over us and conduct of us Many O Lord are thy wondrous works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred Psal. 40. 5. But especially the redemption of mankind is wonderful 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory The mysteries of the Gospel every time we think of them should strike admiration into our hearts It could not sink into the head of any creature how to satisfie Justice and to make up the breach between God and us That a Virgin should conceive the Word be made flesh That Justice and Mercy should so sweetly be brought together and conspire in the salvation of a lost sinner all these are wonders and when we come to believe them indeed to draw forth comfort from them these are wonderful to us The Law of God is wonderful Look to the Precept or the Sanction Look to the Precept A wonderful purity there I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Law is exceeding bread Ver. 96. of this Psalm When a child of God sees how the Law reacheth every thought every motion every operation of his soul What wonderful purity is here So a marvellous Equity The law is holy just and good and the commandment is good Rom. 7. 4. God hath given us such a Law if a man were free yet to ennoble his nature and live happily he would chuse such a Rule Then to see such wise precepts so ordered that in Ten words God should comprise the whole duty of man Deut. 4. 6. Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the Nations First God hath provided in his Law respects to himself First The Law provides for God then for the Creature In the first Commandment Thou shalt have no other Gods before me there 's the Object of Worship In the second Thou shalt not make to thy self a graven Image c. the means of Worship Then the manner of Worship in the third Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain Then the time of Worship in the fourth Remember to keep holy the Sabbath-day See how the Lord hath built up his Law Then as to men see first God provides for those Vice-Roys that do represent the great God as our Parents natural and civil Honour thy father and thy mother c. then our ordinary Neighbour and there first for his life and then for his relations Thou shalt not kill shalt not commit adultery then for his goods Thou shalt not steal then for his good name When a man sees the Law of God in all its explications when he considers the harmony and correspondence that is between all the parts of the Law then he will cry out O wonderful Come to the Sanction by
The Law is an enemy to them that count it an enemy and a friend to them that count it a friend 'T is a rule of life to them that delight in it and count it a great mercy to know it and to be subdued to the practice of it But it is a Covenant of Works to them that withdraw the shoulder count it an heavy burden not to be born Well then which do you complain of the Law or your Corruptions What are you troubled with light or lusts A gracious heart groaneth not under the strictness of the Law but under the body of death not because God hath required so much but because they can do no more Doct. 3. That the Law is granted to us or written upon our hearts out of Gods meer grace Grant it graciously saith David I will do it saith God and God will do it upon his own reasons The Conditions of the Covenant are conditions in the Covenant and the Articles that bind us are also promises wherein God is bound to bestow so great a benefit upon poor creatures which doth encourage us to wait for this work with the more confidence We are sensible we have not the law so intimately so closely applied as we should have Lord grant it graciously It is his work to give us a greater sense and care of it SERMON XXXI PSAL. CXIX 30. I have chosen the way of truth thy judgments have I laid before me DAVID asserts his sincerity here in two things 1. In the rightness of his choice I have chosen the way of thy truth 2. In the accurateness of his prosecution Thy judgments have I laid before me First For his choice I have chosen the way of thy truth God having granted him his Law he did reject all false ways of Religion and continued in the profession of the truth of God and the strict observance thereof There are many controversies and doubtful thoughts among the sons of men about Religion all being varnisht with specious pretences so that a man knows not which way to chuse till by the Spirit he be enabled to take the direction of the Word that resolveth all his scruples and makes him sit down in the way which God hath pointed for him Thus David as an effect of Gods grace avoucheth his own chusing the way of truth By the way of truth is meant true Religion as 2 Pet. 2. 2. By whom the way of truth is evil spoken of It is elsewhere called the good way wherein we should walk 1 King 8. 36. and the way of God Psal. 27. 11. and the way of understanding Prov. 9. 6. and the way of holiness Isa. 55. 8. and the way of righteousness 2 Pet. 2. 21. Better they had not known the way of righteousness that is never to have known the Gospel which is called the way of righteousness It is called also the way of life Prov. 6. 23. And reproofs of instruction are the way of life and the way of salvation as Acts 16. 17. the Pythoness gave this testimony to the Apostles These are the servants of God which shew unto us the way of salvation Now all these expressions have their use and significancy for the way of truth or the true way to happiness is a good way shewed us by God who can only discover it and therefore called the way of the Lord or the way of God in the place before quoted And Act. 28. 25 26. it is manifested by God and leadeth us to God The Christian Doctrine was that way of Truth revealed by him who is prima Veritas the first Truth The ways wherein God cometh to us are his Mercy and Truth and the ways wherein we come to God is the way of True Religion prescribed by him it is the way of understanding because it maketh us wise as to the great affairs of our souls and unto the end of our lives and beings and the way of holiness and righteousness as directing us in all duties to God and man and the way of life and salvation because it brings us to everlasting happiness This way David chose by the direction of God's Word and Spirit Secondly There follows the evidence of his sincerity the accurate prosecution of his choice Thy judgments have I laid before me The Sept. read it I have not forgotten thy judgments By judgments is meant God's word according to the sentence of which every man shall receive his doom He that walketh in a way condemned by the word shall not prosper for God's word is Judgment and Execution shall surely follow and by this word David got his direction how to chuse this way of Truth and this he laid before him as his line his desire was to follow what was right and true not only as to his general course and way of profession but in all his actions and so it noteth his fixed purpose to live according to this blessed Rule which God hath given him To have a holy Rule and an unholy life is unconsonant inconsistent A Christian should be a lively transcript of that Religion he doth profess If the way be a way of Truth he must always set it before him and walk exactly The Points are two 1. That there being many crooked paths in the world it concerns us to chuse the way of truth 2. That when we have chosen the way of truth or taken up the profession of the true Religion the Rules and Institutions of it should ever be before us There are two great faults of men one in point of choice the other in point of pursuit Either they do not chuse right or they do not live up according to the Rules of their profession both are prevented by these points Doct. 1. That there being many crooked paths in the world it concerns us to chuse the way of Truth I shall give you the sense of it in these Eight Propositions or Considerations Prop. 1. The Lord in his holy Providence hath so permitted it that there ever have been and are and for ought we can see will be controversies about the way of truth and right worship There was such a disease introduced into the World by the full that most of the remedies which men chuse do but shew the strength and malignâ—… of the disease they chuse out false ways of coming to God and returning to him Micah 4. 5. All people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever Mark there is his God and our God and then all people noting their common agreement in error all people will every man noting their diversity as to the particular false way of Religion and worship which they take up to themselves when they turn their back upon the true God and the knowledge of him then they are endless in seeking out false Gods Jonah 1. 5. They cryed every man to his God Among Pagans even in one Ship there
a greater portion of worldly things and that sets you upon carking and if you have not this you cannot see how you and yours can be provided for Cure this how by Gods Promises 1 Pet. 5. 7. Cast all your care upon him for he careth for you Cannot you trust God upon security of a Promise Cannot you go on in well doing when the Lord hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Cure it by observing the usual course of Gods Providence God provides for the young Ravens he clothes the Lillies It is Christs argument will he be more kind to a Raven than a child Will he take more care of a flower than of a Son one that is in Covenant with him Cure it by holy maxims and considerations Remember all dependeth upon Gods blessing Luk. 12. 15. Take heed and beware of covetousness How should we do so For a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth Alas all is in Gods hand both being and well-being life and estate and all things else God can soon blast abundance and can relieve us in the deepest wants He can give you a sufficiency in your deep poverty 2 Cor. 8. 2. If you should go on carking and caring and feathering your nests God may take you off or set your nests on fire A little serves the turn to bring us to Heaven And when our desires are moderate God will not fail Prov. 16. 8. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right 2. For discontent with your portion that you may not always be craving more meditate upon the baseness and vanity of worldly things They do but deceive us with a vain shew they cannot give us any true joy of heart or peace of Conscience or security against future evil they cannot give you health of body nor add one cubit to your stature nor one day to your lives now should we disquiet our selves for a vain shew shall there be such toil in getting such fear of losing when they are of no more use to us in the hour of death When you need strength and comfort most all these things will leave you shiftless helpless if they continue with you so long Nay reason thus the more estate the more danger the greater charge lyeth upon you Larger gates do but open to larger cares There is more duty more danger more snares more temptations When you have more you will be more difficultly saved It is a truth pronounced by the Lord of Truth That it is a hard matter for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It will be more hard to keep the flesh in order to guide our spirits aright in the ways of God If you must needs be coveting labouring and carking you are called to better things Ioh. 6. 27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life Covet the best gifts 1 Cor. 12. 31. Be as passionate for grace as others are for the world If once you were acquainted with these better things it would be so with you you would never leave the fair and fresh pastures of grace for the barren heath of the world If you did once tast the sweet of Heavenly things then let dogs scramble for bones and scraps you have hidden Manna to feed upon the sense of Gods love to look after hopes of everlasting glory wherewith to solace your souls If once you did tast of these everlasting riches you would do so 1 Tim. 6. 10 11. There are many that through the love of mony have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows But thou O man of God flee these things and follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness Let the men of the world whose portion and happiness lyeth here scramble for these things but you that profess your selves Children of God follow after all the gifts and graces of the Spirit let that be your holy covetousness to increase in these things SERMON XLII PSAL. CXIX Vers. 37. Turn thou away mine Eyes from beholding Vanity and quicken thou me in thy way DAvid still continueth his requests to God for Grace and intituleth him to the whole Work He had prayed before that God would incline his Heart Now that he would Turn away his Eyes from beholding worldly Vanities In this Prayer there are two Branches the one concerneth Mortification the other Vivification 1. Turn away Then Quicken c. The first request is for the removing the Impediments of obedience the other for Addition of new degrees of Grace These two are fitly joyned for they have a natural Influence upon one another unless we turn away our Eyes from Vanity we shall soon contract a deadness of Heart Nothing causeth it so much as an inordinate liberty in carnal Vanities when our affections are alive to other things they are dead to God therefore the less we let loose our Hearts to these things the more lively and Chearful in the work of Obedience On the other side the more the Vigour of Grace is renewed and the Habits of it quickned into actual exercise the more is Sin mortified and Subdued Sin dieth and our Senses are restored to their proper use These two requests are fitly joyned Let us consider them asunder 1. Turn away mine Eyes from beholding Vanity There observe 1. The Object Vanity 2. The Faculty mine Eyes 3. The Act of Grace desired The removing of this Faculty from this Object 1. The Object Vanity Thereby is meant carnal and worldly Things worldly Pleasures worldly Honour worldly Profits all these are called Vanity because they have no solid happiness in them and do so easily fade and Perish Thus 't is said Prov. 31. 30. Favour is deceitful and Beauty is Vain The same is true of any other Transporting Object Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity Eccle. 1. 2. and Iob. 15. 31. Let not him that is deceived trust in Vanity for Vanity shall be his recompence Rom. 8. 20. The Creature is made Vanity By vanity there is understood the vain things of the World which do so often deceive us as to the happiness they promise 2. The Faculty is mentioned the Eye t is Imployed and commanded by the Heart But this inkindleth new Flames there and as it is set a work by it so it sets the Heart a work again It is the Instrument of increasing Sin in us 3. The act Turn away Our evil delight is too apt to fix it and become a Snare to us till God cureth both Heart and Sense by Grace He prayeth not from beholding it altogether but from beholding as a Snare Doct. It concerneth those that would walk with God to have their Eyes turned away from worldly things I shall give you the meaning in these Propositions 1. He that would be quickned carried out with Life and Vigour in the ways of God must first be Mortified dye unto Sin The
being hard to come by unless Desires be strongly fixed men are soon put out of the Humour and so nothing would be done to any purpose in the World Surely Holiness that is so difficult and distasteful to Flesh and Blood would be but little looked after if there were not strength of Desires to keep it up Therefore is this affection that we may encounter Difficulties and Oppositions As Nehe. 4. 6. When there were Difficulties and Straits it is said They built the Wall for the People had a mind to work that is their Hearts were set upon it So if we had a mind to any Excellent thing it is this mind that keeps us up in the midst of all Difficulties and Labours All excellent Things are hard to come by it is so in Earthly matters much more in Spiritual The Lord will have it so to make us Prize them more for things soon got are little esteemed As riotous Heirs which know not how to get an Estate lavishly spend it A man is chary of what is hardly gotten Iacob prized Rachel the more because he was forced to serve for her so long So we shall prize Heavenly things the more when they cost us a great deal of Diligence and Labour to get them Now sluggish Desires soon fail but Vehement longings keep the Heart a work 5. Consider the issue of these Desires As they come from a good Cause which is the new Nature and a new Life for Appetite follows Life so they tend to a good Effect are sure of a good Accomplishment and Satisfaction God is wont to give Spiritual things to those that desire them there the Rule is Ask and have It is not so in carnal Things many that seek and hunt after them with all the Strength and Labour of their Souls at length are miserably disappointed But all the Promises run for Satisfaction to a Hungry Thirsty Earnest and Longing Soul 5. Math. 6. Those that are hungry and have a strong Desire upon them he will fill 1. Luke 51. And open thy Mouthwide and I will fill it 81. Psal. 10. They that open unto him as the thirsty Land for the Rain God that gives Velle to Will will give Posse to Do First the Desire and then the Satisfaction and therefore where there is this strength of Desire though there may be some failing in other things in our Endeavours and Performances yet the Lord will accept it 6. It argues some nearness to compleat Fruition or to full Satisfaction in Heaven when we begin to be more earnest after Holiness than we were before and after more of God and his Grace and Image to be set up in our Souls The more we desire Holiness the more ripe for Heaven This is a Rule The nearer we are to any good thing our Hearts are set upon the more impatient in the want of it as natural Motions are swifter in the end than in the beginning though violent Motions are swifter in the beginning while the impression of the stone lasts it is swift but afterwards it abates So when the Soul beats so strongly after God and Holiness and larger measures of Grace 't is a sign we are Ripening apace for Heaven Paul when he was grown aged in Christianity then he saith Rom. 7. 24. Who shall deliver me from this Body of Death As what we translate in the Psalms O that Salvation were come out of Sion It is in the Hebrew Who shall give Salvation So here it is an Hebreisme Who shall that is O that I were delivered He had many afflictions he was in Perills often Scourged Whipped Persecuted but he doth not say O that I could get rid of this troublesome Life of affliction but it was the Body of Death the remainders of Corruption was most burdensome to him The Children of God their Pulses beat strongly when they are upon the Confines of Eternity and their full and final Consummation These men begin to Ripen for their Heavenly State into which God will translate them Use 1. For Conviction of several sorts of Persons that are sar from this Temper and frame of Heart To begin with the most Notorious 1. Some desire Sin with a passionate Earnestness Iob 15. 16. He drinketh iniquity like Water As a thirsty Beast in those hot Countries would drink in water so did they drink in Sin Most wicked men are mad when their Lusts are set a working and there are some whose constant frame of Heart it is who make hast who march furiously as if they were afraid of coming to Hell too late bear down Conscience Word and all before them that set themselves to do Evil with both hands earnestly that have a strong desire after Sin and are carried out with as impatient longing after Sin as the Children of God such Eminent ones of God after Holiness 2. Some have no desire to the ways of God at all Iob 21. 14. They say unto God depart from us For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways the Hearts of many say so though their Tongues do not They are those which shut out the Light that cannot endure a searching Ministry lest it should trouble their Lusts disturb the Devils Kingdom that banish the thoughts of God out of their Hearts lest it revive the Sense of their Obligation to duty that set Conscience a challenging Gods right in their Souls that keep off from the Light 3. There are some that are insatiable in worldly things but have no Savour of these Heavenly and Holy things they are Thirsty for the Earth But God is not in all their thoughts Psal. 10. 4. a little Grace will serve their turn and think there is more ado than needs about Heaven and Heavenly things Alass the very contrary is true a little of the World will serve their turn here below If men had not a mind to increase their Temptations and Snares about a frail and temporal Life why do they make so much ado When many times they are taken away before they have Roasted what they have got in Hunting God takes them away but their Eternal estate is little looked after Riches qualifie us not but Holiness doth qualifie us for Heaven and it is our Ornament before God and his holy Angels And woe be to us if our poor Souls be thrust out Naked and Uncloathed in the other World Can we hunger and hanker after these lying Vanities and have no Hungering and Thirsting after Grace a little time will wear out the distinction of Rich and Poor High and Low but the distinction of Holy and Good will continue to Eternity Think of that time when not only the World but the Lust will pass away The lust of the World may be gone before we are out of the World as in Sickness and Pains but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever When we are Sick and Dying we have some kind of Notions and Apprehensions of these things then we can long and wish
Apostle of our Profession The Christian Religion is a Confession not a thing to be smothered and kept in secret or confined to the Heart but to be openly brought forth and avowed in Word and Deed to the Glory of Christ If a man should content himself to own God in his heart what would become of the Church of God and all his Ordinances and the Assemblies of his People among whom we make this open Confession 1. This Confession is necessary as well as the inward Belief because God hath required it by an express Law which Law is confirmed by a Sanction of great weight and moment the greatest Promises on the one hand and the greatest Penalties and Threatnings on the other That there is an express Law for Confession besides what hath been said already see 1 Pet. 3. 15. Sanctifie the Lord God of Hosts in your Hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh you a Reason of the Hope that is in you with meekness and fear where they are required not only to revere God in their Hearts but to be ready to own him with their mouths and to give a Testimony of him when it should be demanded Yea that sanctifying God in their Hearts is required in order to the Testimony given with their Mouths that having due and awful thoughts of God they may not be ashamed to own him before men Now this is backt with the greatest Promises and on the other side with the severest Threatnings God hath promised no less than Salvation to those that confess him Matth. 10. 33. Whosoever will confess me before Men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven Father this is one of mine he will do them more honour than possibly they can do him and Rom. 10. 10. With the Mouth Confession is made to Salvation Salvi esse non possumus saith Austin nisi ad salutem proximorum etiam ore profiteamur Fidem We cannot be Saved unless we profess the Faith that we have On the other side the neglect of Profession either out of Shame or Fear is threatned with the greatest penalties Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my Words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with his Glorious Angels Then when all shadows flee away and we would crouch for a little favour that Christ should be ashamed of us these were Christians but cowardly and dastardly ones I cannot own them to be of my Flock and Kingdom Oh how will our faces gather blackness the same is Luke 9. 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my Words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own Glory and in his Fathers and of the holy Angels So for Fear 2 Tim. 2. 11. If we suffer we shall also Reign with him if we deny him he will deny us So that you see it is not a matter of small moment whether we confess or no but a thing expresly enjoyned by God and that upon Terms of Life and Death 2. This Confession is of great use as conducing much to the Glory of God and the good of others 1. The Glory of God which should be the great scope and end of our Lives and Actions is much concerned in our confessing or not confessing what we believe When we boldly avow the truth it is a sign we are not ashamed of our Master Phil. 1. 20. According to 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 by Death Ministry or Martyrdom he calls this a magnifying of Christ whereas flinching concealing halfing the Truth denying Confession it is called a being ashamed of Christ Luke 9. 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words as if his Name were a thing base unworthy not to be owned 2. The Good of others and their Edification is concerned in our confessing or not confessing No man is born for himself and therefore is not only to work out his own salvation but as much as in him lieth to procure the salvation of others and to bring God and his Truth into request with them therefore not only to believe with the heart that concerneth himself but to confess with the mouth that concerneth the good of others when we own the Truth though it cost us dear that tendeth to the furtherance of the Gospel Phil. 1. 12. 13. For I would ye should understand Brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel so that my Bonds in Christ are manifest in all the Palace and in all other places c. But when we dissemble that is a scandal and a stumbling block to others whom we justifie and harden in a false way as Peter fearing them of the Circumcision dissembled and the Iews dissembled with him insomuch that Barnabas was carried away with their Dissimulation Gal. 2. 12 13. Men of publick Fame and Favour when they are not men of courage and of self-denying Spirits their temporizing may do a great deal of hurt and like a Torrent or Stream carry others with them Oh! let us beware of this Zuinglius saith Ad aras Iovis Veneris adorare sub Antichristo fidem occultare idem est As well worship before the Altars of Jupiter and Venus as hide our Faith under Antichrist Fear and weakness excuseth not the Fearful and Unbelieving are put with Murderers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and sent together to the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone Revel 21. 8. Use 1. To reprove them that think it to be enough to own the Truth in their Hearts without confessing it with their Mouths This Libertinism prevailed at Corinth where they thought they might be present at Idols Feasts as long as in their Consciences they knew that an Idol was nothing The Apostle argueth against them 2 Cor. 6. and concludes his Argument thus 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having therefore these Promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit To pretend to serve God in my heart whosoever thinks so mocketh God and deceiveth himself he that warreth with the Enemies of his Prince and is as forward in Battel as any of the rest can he say I reserve the King my Heart and Affections Or when a woman prostituteth her Body to another will the Husband be content with such an Excuse that she reserveth her Heart for him God is not a God of half of a man he made the whole Body and Soul and will be served with both he bought both 1 Cor. 6. 20. Ye are bought with a price therefore Glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirits which are Gods Therefore you should not only
they were created Corruption is an imperious Master it will not suffer us to hear good things to be there where good things are spoken to accompany them that are good it hath them in so strait a custody they hate the means of their recovery They have many Masters Quot habet Dominos qui unum habere non vult Tit. 3. 3. For we our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures And Iames 4. 1. Whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members One Lust draweth one way another another way Covetousness Voluptuousness Ambition Uncleanness as when two Seas meet We have little reason to envy them for their free Life pity them rather How do their bruitish Affections hurry them What pains Aches in the Body wounds in the Conscience how many secret gripes and scourges No such Subjection no Slave so subject to the Will of his Lord as a Man to his Lusts and sinful Desires will speak think nothing but what Sin commands It is a besotting Slavery wicked Men remain in this Bondage with a kind of pleasure Gally-slaves would sain be free wish for Liberty Israel was in bondage in Egypt but they groaned under it The cry of the children of Israel is come up to me Here Men loath to come out of their Slavery and are enemies to those that would help them out Their Work is hard and oppressive loss of Name Health Estate They tire their Spirits rack their Brains and after all their drudging are cast into Hell Use 2. Do we walk at liberty 1. There was a time when we served Sin but being converted we change Masters Rom. 6. 18. Being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness If there be such a change it will discover it self 1. You will do as little Service for Sin as formerly for Righteousness Rom. 6. 20. When ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness Righteousness had no share in your time thoughts cares you made no conscience of doing good took no care of it so now you do as little for Sin 2. Positively do as much for Grace as formerly for Sin ver 19. As you yielded your members servants unto uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity so now yield your members servants unto righteousness unto holiness as watchful as earnest as industrious to perfect Holiness as formerly to commit Sin It is but equal He that hath been Servant unto an hard and cruel Master is thereby fitted to be diligent and faithful in the service of a loving gentle and bountiful Master You can judge what a Tyrant Sin was shall not Grace have as much power over you now and will you not do as much for God as for your Lusts 2. What do you complain of as the Task and Yoke the strictness of the Law or the reliques of Corruption Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be compared with 1 Iohn 5. 3. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous What is a Bondage Sin or Duty Is the Commandment grievous or in-dwelling Sin The Apostle was complaining but of what the Purity of the Law No but the power of in-dwelling Corruption the Body of Death Rom. 7. 24. Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Which do your hearts rise against 3. What Freedom Luke 1. 74 75. That you being delivered out of the hands of your enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of your lives If you are enslaved to any one Lust you cannot walk at large Are your Gives and Fetters knocked off Have you that free Spirit Psal. 51. 11 12. Cast me not away from thy presence take not thy holy spirit from me restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me by thy free spirit SERMON LII PSAL. CXIX 46. I will speak of thy Testimonies also before Kings and will not be ashamed THE Man of God had prayed ver 43. That God would not take the word of truth utterly out of his mouth that is deny him the Liberty or the Grace the Opportunity or the Heart to make an open Profession of his Faith and Respect to God and his Ways This Suit he backeth with sundry Arguments 1. From his Hope ver 23. For I have hoped in thy judgments He had placed all his confidence in them and therefore would openly profess what Rule he lived by and what Expectations he had from God 2. His Resolution to persist in this course whatever befel him ver 44. So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever it would engage him to constancy to the end of his Life 3. From the alacrity and readiness of his Obedience as well as the constancy ver 45. And I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts Then we have true liberty 4. That no worldly Splendor or Terror should take him off from making this Confession if God would give him liberty and opportunity Two things hinder a free Confession of God's Truth Carnal Fear and Carnal Shame Both are obviated by the Resolution of the Man of God he would neither be afraid nor ashamed to recommend the ways of God to the greatest Princes of the World 1. The Terror of Kings or Men in Power may be supposed to be an hinderance to the free Confession of God's Truth therefore he saith I will speak of thy testimonies also before Kings 2. Carnal Shame may breed a lothness to own God's despised ways therefore he addeth I will not be ashamed David would neither be afraid nor ashamed if called thereto to make this open Confession to own God and his Truth 1. His Resolution against Fear deserveth a little opening I will speak of thy testimonies also before Kings The words may be looked upon as a Direction for them who are called to speak before Kings 〈◊〉 Men may be supposed to be called 1. Either by the Duty of their Office to speak to them in a way of Instruction Or 2. As convented before them in a Judiciary way to give an account of their Faith 1. In the first sense those who are called to instruct Kings ought with the greatest confidence to recommend the ways of God to them as that which will enhaunse their Crowns and Dignity and make it more glorious and comfortable to them and their Subjects than any thing else And so David's Resolution sheweth what Faithfulness becometh them who live in the Courts of Princes It concerneth Princes to be instructed Psal. 2. 10. Be wise now therefore ye Kings be instructed ye Iudges of the earth Few speak plainly and sincerely to them as Nathan to David 2 Sam. 12. 7. Thou art the man and God to David 2 Sam. 24. 13. Shall seven years
our greatest Distresses Sorrow worketh Death but Joy is the Life of the Soul Now when dead in all sense and seeling the just shall live by faith Hab. 2. 4. and the Hope wrought in us by the Scriptures is a lively hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. Other things skin the Wound but our Sore breaketh out again and runneth Faith penetrateth into the Inwards of a Man doth us good to the Heart and the Soul reviveth by waiting upon God and gets Life and Strength 2. The Provision which the Word hath made for our Comfort It might be referred to four Heads 1. Its Commands 1. Provisionally and by way of anticipation The whole Scripture is framed so that it still carrieth on its great End of making Man subject to God and comfortable in himself Our first Lesson in the School of Christ is Self-denial Mat. 16. 24. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Now this seemeth to be grievous but provideth for Comfort For Self-denial plucketh up all Trouble by the Root the Cross will not be very grievous to a self-denying Spirit Epictetus summed up all the Wisdom that he could learn by the Light of Nature in these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bear and forbear to which answereth the Apostle's Temperance patience 2 Pet. 1. 6. Certainly were we more mortified and weaned from the World and could we deny our selves in things grateful to Sense we should not lie open to the stroke of Troubles so often as we do The greatness of our Affections causeth the greatness of our Afflictions Did we possess Earthly things with less Love we should lose them with less Grief Had we more intirely resigned our selves to God and did love Carnal Self less we should less be troubled when we are lessened in the World Thus Provisionally and by way of anticipation doth the Word of God provide against our Sorrows The Wheels of a Watch do one protrude and thrust forward another so one part of Christian Doctrine doth help another Take any piece asunder and then it is hard to be practised Patience is hard if there be no thorow Resignation to God no Temperance and command of our Affections But Christianity is all of a piece one part well received and digested befriendeth another 2. Directly and by way of express Charge the Scripture requireth us to moderate our Sorrow to cast all our Care upon God to look above Temporal things and hath expresly forbidden distracting Cares and Doubts and inordinate Sorrows 1 Pet. 5. 7. Cast all your care upon God for he careth for you and Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing We have a Religion that maketh it unlawful to be sad and miserable and to grieve our selves inordinately Care Fear and Anguish of Mind are forbidden and no Sorrow allowed us but what tendeth to our Joy Isa. 35. 4. Say to them that are of fearful hearts Be strong fear not Isa. 41. 10. Fear not I am with thee be not dismayed I am thy God To fear the Rage and Power and Violence of Enemies is cotrary to the Religion which we do profess Fear not them which can kill the body Mat. 10. 26 28. Now surely the Word which is full fraught with Precepts of this nature must needs comfort and stay the Heart 2. The Doctrines of the Word do quicken and comfort us in our greatest Distresses all of them concerning Justification and Salvation by Christ they serve to deaden the Heart to present things and lift it up to better and so to beget a kind of dedolency and insensibility of this Worlds Crosses But especially four Doctrines we have in the Word of God that are very comforting 1. The Doctrine concerning particular Providence That nothing falleth out without God's Appointment and that he looketh after every individual Person as if none else to care for This is a mighty ground of comfort for nothing can befal me but what my Father wills and he is mindful of me in the condition wherein I am knoweth what things I stand in need of and nothing is exempted from his care ordering and disposal This is a ground both of Patience and Comfort Psal. 39. 8. I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it So Hezekiah Isa. 38. 15. What shall I say he hath both spoken unto me and himself hath done it It is time to cease or say no more why should we contend with the Lord Is it a Sickness or grievous Bodily Pain What difference is there between a Man that owneth it as a Chance or natural Accident and one that seeth God's Hand in it We storm if we look no further than second Causes but one that looketh on it as an immediate stroke of God's Providence hath nothing to reply by way of murmuring and expostulation So in loss of good Children how do we rave against Instruments if we look no further but if we consider the Providence of God Iob 1. 23. not Dominus dedit Diabolus abstulit but The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. So for Contumely and Reproches if God let loose a barking Shimei upon us 2 Sam. 16. 11. The Lord bid him curse To resist a lower Officer is to resist the Authority with which he is armed So in all other cases it is a ground of Patience and Comfort to see God in the Providence 2. His Fatherly Care over his People He hath taken them into his Family and all his doings with them are Paternal and Fatherly It allayeth our Cares Mat. 6. 32. Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things Our Sorrows in Affliction are lessened by considering they come from our Father Heb. 12. 5 6 7. Ye have forgotten the exhortation that speaketh unto you as unto children My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is that whom the Father chasteneth not but if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons and so those whom God doth love tenderly he doth correct severely 3. His unchangeable Love to his People God remaineth unchangeably the same When our outward Condition doth vary and alter we have the same Blessed God as a Rock to stand upon and to derive our Comforts from that we had before he is the God of the Valleys as well as of the Hills Christ in his Desertion saith My God My God Matt. 27. 46. surely we deserve that the Creature should be taken from us if we cannot find Comfort in God Hab. 3. 18. Although the Fig-tree should not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vine c. yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Nothing can
Poverty with a Promise Captivity with a Promise is better then Health Riches Liberty without one yea Death with a Promise is better then Life What you possess without a Promise you may lose when most secure Luk. 12. 19 20. I will say to my Soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry But God said unto him Thou fool this night shall thy Soul be required of thee then whose shall those things be that thou hast provided But in the eye of Faith that which we hope for is more then that which we possess for we have God's Word it is set before us Use 1. Is for Information 1. How likely it is that the Children of God will be excercised with Afflictions because God in his Word hath laid in so many Comforts before-hand a full third of the Scriptures would be lost and be as Bladders given to a man that stands on dry Land and never meaneath to goe into deep Waters Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward Job 5. 7. Many think they come into the World not to bear Crosses but to spend their dayes in Pleasure but alas how soon do they find themselves mistaken and confuted by Experience If Life be any thing lengthened out it is vexed with the remembrance of what is past or trouble of â—…at is present or fear of what is to come The first part of our Life we know not our 〈◊〉 in the middle we are filled with Cares and Sorrows our last burdened with Weakness and Age. But now the godly are more appointed to troubles because God will try their Faith perfect their Patience train them up for a better World they are now hated by the World 2 Tim. 3. 12. Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer Persecution Acts 14. 22. We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God He that would not be exempted from the Hopes of Christians he must not look to be exempted from the Troubles of Christians 2. The Excellency of the Word of God and the Religion it establisheth it containeth store of sure Comforts and when all other Comforts can do us no good then the Word of God affordeth us Relief and Support Bare humane Reason cannot find out such grounds of Comfort in all their Philosophy it doth not penetrate to the inwards of a Man it will tell us it is in vain to trouble our selves about what we cannot help Ier. 10. 19. it is an evil and I must bear it that we are not without fellows others suffer as much as we doe c. But the Word of God giveth us other Consolations the Pardon of Sin the Promises of a better Life that if we lose Temporal things we shall have Eternal that we would not fear the Threatnings of Men having the Promises of God c. nor Death which hath Life at the back of it these are Comforts indeed When David was even dead in the Nest the Word that was not so clear then in these Points as now revived him what would he have said if he had known the Gospel so fully as we doe how should we be affected that live in so much Light Use 2. Is for Reproof 1. To those that seek other Comforts 1. In the Vanities of the World this is too slight a Plaster to cure Man's Sore or heale his Wound the Comforts of this World appear and vanish in a moment Every blast of a Temptation scattereth them it must be the Hope and Injoyment of some solid satisfaction that can foâ—…y the heart and breed any solid and lasting Comfort and this the World cannot give unto us But in the Word we have it Alas what is a dream of Honour or the good Will and Word of a Mortal man Everlasting Glory is as much above all these as the Treasures of a Kingdom before a Child's Toyes Maygames vain Pleasures are gone before we well feel that we have them 2. Or in Philosophy that cannot give a true ground of Comfort That was it the Wise men of the World aimed at to fortify the Soul against Troubles but as they never understood the true ground of Misery which is Sin so they never understood the true ground or way of Comfort which is Christ. That which Man offereth cannot come with such Authority and Power as that which God offereth The Light of Reason cannot have such an Efficacy as Divine Testimony This is a poor Moon-light that rotteth before it ripeneth any thing In short They were never acquainted with Christ who is the Foundation of Comfort nor the Promise of Heaven which is the true Matter of Comfort nor Faith which is the Instrument to receive Comfort so that you leave the Fountain of Living water for the Dead puddle of a filthy Ditch if you think the Writings of the Heathens will comfort you and revive you and neglect the Word of God that brings rest for the Soul 3. Those are to be râ—…oved that are under a Spiritual Institution and profess to keep to it and do so little honour it either by their Patience or Comfort or Hope under Troubles Wherefore were the great Mysteries of Godliness made known to us and the Promises of the World to come and all the Directions concerning the subjection of the Soul to God and those blessed Priviledges we enjoy by Christ if they all be not able to satisfie and stay your Heart and compose it to a quiet submission to God when it is his pleasure to take away your Comforts from you What Is there no balm in Gilead is there no physician there Will not all the Word of God yield you a Cordial or a Cure Oh consider what a disparagement you put upon the Provision Christ hath made for us as if the Scripture were a weaker thing than the Institutions of Philosophy or the vain Delights of the World But what may be the Reasons of such an obstinacy of Grief 1. Sometimes Ignorance They do not study the Grounds of Comfort or do not remember them for Oblivion is an Ignorance for the time Heb. 12. 4. Have ye forgotten the exhortation that speaketh to you as children They are like Hagar had a well of comfort nigh and yet ready to die for thirst The Scripture hath Breasts of Comfort so full as a Breast ready to discharge it self and yet they are not comforted 2. They indulge and give way to the present Malady hug the Distemper and do not consider the evil of it As Rachel refused to be comforted Ier. 31. 15. 3. They do not chide themselves ask the Soul the Reason cite it â—…fore the tribunal of Conscience which is one way to allay Passions Psal. 42. 5. Why arâ—… 〈◊〉 so disquieted O my soul They look to the Grievance not to the Comfort as that which is of no use They aggravate the Grievance and lessen the Love of God Are the consolations of God so small with thee Iob 15.
11. It is spoken to them who have high thoughts of their Troubles low thoughts of God's Comforts 4. Uncertainty in Religion Principles must be fixed before they can be improved and we can feel their influence and Power But People will be making Essays and try this and try that God's grounds of Comfort are immutably fixed God will not change his Gospel-Laws for thy sake and therefore unless we would have a Mountebanks Cure we must stand to them Ier. 6. 16. Thus saith the Lord Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls When we have tried all we must come home at length to these things and our uncertainty in Religion will be none of the meanest causes of our Troubles 5. They look to Means and their natural Operation and neglect God And God onely will be known to be the God of all Comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3 4. Blessed be God even the father of our Lord Iesus Christ the father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforteth us in all our tribulation Use 3. Is to exhort us 1. To prize and esteem the Scriptures and consult with them often There you have the Knowledge of God who is best worth our knowing and the way how we may come to enjoy him wherein our Happiness lieth It is a petty Wisdom to be able to gather Riches manage your Business in the World ordinary Learning is a good Ornament but this is the excellent deep and profound Learning to know how to be saved What is it I press you to know the Course of the Heavens to number the Orbs and the Stars in them to measure their Circumference and reckon their Motions and not to know him that sits in the Circle of them nor know how to inhabit and dwell there Oh how should this commend the Word of God to us where Eternal Life is discovered and the way how to get it Other Writings and Discourses may tickle the Fancy with pleasing Eloquence but that Delight is vanishing like a Musicians voice Other Writings may represent some petty and momentany advantage but time will put an end to that so that within a little while the advantage of all the Books in the World will be gone but the Scriptures that tell us of Eternal Life and Death their Effects will abide for ever Psal. 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandments are exceeding broad When Heaven and Earth pass away this will not pass that is the Effects will abide in Heaven and Hell Know ye not that your Souls were created for Eternity and that they will eternally survive all these present things and shall your Thoughts Projects and Designs be confined within the narrow bounds of Time Oh no let your Affections be to that Book that will teach you to live well for ever in comparison of which all Earthly Felicity is lighter than Vanity 2. Be diligent in the Hearing Reading Meditating on those things that are contained there The Earth is the fruitful Mother of all Herbs and Plants but yet it must be tilled ploughed harrowed and dressed or else it bringeth forth little Fruit. The Scripture containeth all the grounds of Hope Comfort and Happiness the onely Remedy of Sin and Misery our Rule to walk by till our Blessedness be perfected but we have little benefit by it unless it be improved by diligent Meditation Psal. 1. 2. His delight is in the law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate day and night This must be your chief Delight and you must be versed therein upon all Occasions Psal. 119. 97. Oh how love I thy Law it is my meditation all the day when we love it and prize it it will be so for our Thoughts cannot be kept off from what we love and delight in 3. Reader hear meditate with a Spirit of Application and an aime of Profit Iob 5. 27. Hear it and know thou it for thy good as the Rule of your Actions and the Charter of your Hopes Rom. 8. 31. What shall we then say to these things That you may grow better and wiser and may have more advantages in your Heavenly progress take home your Portion of the Bread of Life and turn it into the Seed of your Life It is not enough to seek Truth in the Scriptures but you must seek Life in the Scriptures it is not an Object onely to satisfy your Understandings with the Contemplation of Truth but your Hearts with the enjoyment of Life and therefore you must not onely bring your Judgment to find the light of Truth but your Affections to embrace the goodness of Life offered Think not ye have found all when you have found Truth and learned it No except you find Life there you have missed the best Treasure you must bring your Understandings and Affections to them and not depart till both return full SERMON LVII PSAL. CXIX 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision yet have I not declined from thy law IN these Words are 1. David's Temptation 2. His Constancy and Perseverance in his Duty notwithstanding that Temptation 1. In the Temptation observe 1. The Persons from whom the Temptation did arise the Proud The wicked are called so for two Reasons 1. Because either they despise God and contemn his Wayes which is the greatest Pride that can fall upon the heart of a Reasonable Creature Rom. 1. 30. haters of God despitefull proud 2. Or else because they are drunk with worldly Felicity In the general Scoffing cometh from Pride What is Prov. 3. 34. He scorneth the scorners and giveth grace to the lowly is Iam. 4. 6. He resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble 2. Observe the Kind or Nature of the Temptation he was had in derision This may be supposed either for Dependance on God's Promises or for Obedience to his Precepts Atheistical Men that wholly look to the pleasing of the Flesh and the Interest of the present World make a mock of both We have instances of both in Scripture 1. They make a mock of relyance upon God when we are in distress think it ridiculous to talk of relief from Heaven when Earthly Power faileth Psal. 22. 7 8. They laugh me to scorn saying He trusted in the Lord. The great Promise of Christ's coming is flouted at by those Mockers 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. There shall come in the last days mockers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the Creation Such Scoffers are in all Ages but now they overflow These latter times are the dregs of Christianity in which such kind of Men are more rife then the serious Worshippers of Christ. At the first Promulgation of the Gospel while Truths were new and the Exercises of Christian Religion lively and serious
or a serious searching and inquiring in what Condition we are before God This is necessary to Conversion and turning to the Lord Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our ways and turn unto the Lord. There needeth a serious calling our selves to an account or a strict view and survey of our former Courses if we would amend what is amiss in them and still as we renew our Repentance this Course must we take 2. As it relateth to present Actions or the Ways wherein we are to walk so it implieth prudent Consideration before we doe any thing let us see our Warrant that we may doe nothing but what is agreeable to God's Word Prov. 4. 26 27. Ponder the paths of thy Feet and let all thy Ways be established Turn not to the right hand or to the left remove thy foot from evil We have a narrow Line to walk by but a foot of Ground to go upon and therefore we should not walk at hap-hazzard but with much exactness Eph. 5. 15. See that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise therefore we need to weigh all our Actions in the ballance of the Sanctuary that if any thing displease God we may avoide it The Conscience of our weakness and the strictness of our Rule should make us take the better heed to our selves 3. With respect to the Tendency and Issues of things and so it noteth Fore consideration or Deliberation in order to Choice God biddeth his People stand upon the ways and see and enquire after the old paths which is the good way and walk therein Jer. 6. 16. As Travellers when they are at a loss or in doubt of their way seeing divers paths before them are carefull to informe themselves aright that they may take the next readiest and best way for their Journeys end An awakened Conscience is like Hercules in Bivio there are two ways present themselves the way of Sin and Flesh-pleasing and the way of God's Commandments or as it is Matth. 7. 13 14. the broad way and the narrow way the broad way of Sin seemeth pleasant and inticing but it leadeth to death the narrow way is rough and craggy troublesome to Flesh and Bloud but the end is Life and Peace Now the Soul debateth upon the Choice which of these is better by weighing the loss and gain on either side and the final Issue and Tendency of both these ways or rather the awakened Soul â—…s in the case of a Man that is yet to choose or like a Man that is out of the way and wants his usual marks he bethinketh himself if I go on in this broad beaten roade of Corruption I am sure to go down to the Chambers of Death and perish evermore Oh but let me make a stop it is better to take God's Direction than the way of mine own Heart it is a way that will undoe me for ever hitherto I have gone awry how shall I doe to get into the right way I would be happy and this Course will never make me so surely it is better to take God's Counsel than to please the Flesh. No Course will satisfy Conscience no Course will make you happy but a Life led according to the Word of God Thus you see it implieth 1. An examination of our past Course or a looking into our own Estate 2. A carefull watch over future Actions 3. A consideration of the issue and event of things I have viewed my life past I have been wrong and I see it will be bitterness in the issue therefore I purpose to give up my self to a course of Obedience and therefore to consider well of my Actions for the future Now this is a Work that is not once to be done but always As often as we look to our selves we shall finde something that needeth amendment and therefore we need to press the Heart with new and pregnant thoughts to minde our Duty and to use constant Caution and taking heed to our ways that we may not goe wrong Psal. 39. 1. Thus did David to keep his Heart right I thought on my ways 2. The Objects of this consideration or the things that must be considered that may be gathered out of the former discourse But 1. Who made thee Eccl. 12. 1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth It is a great advantage to call to mind whose Creatures we are for this will shame us that we have done no more than we have done for Him from whom we have all that we have and this in Youth when the effects of this creating bounty are most fresh upon our Senses in good earnest consider who was it that made thee a reasonable Creature Not a Stone and without Life nor a Plant and without Sense nor a Beast and without Reason but a Man with Reason and Understanding and Will and Affections that thou mayst know him and love him and enjoy him And hast thou never thought of the God that made thee Art thou of those Hair-brain'd Fools that goe on rashly in a course of Sin and God is not in all their thoughts Psalm 10. 4. How canst thou look upon the Body without thoughts of him whose workmanship it is or think of thy Soul without thinking of God whose Image and Superscription it bears and without whom thou canst not so much as think shall it be troublesome to thee to have frequent thoughts of God when thou canst go musing of Vanity all the day long shall every trifle find a room in thy Heart when God findeth no room there He is not far from every one of us Acts 17. 27. but we are far from him He is before thee behind thee round about thee yea within thee or else thou couldst not keep thy Breath in thy Body for a moment and wilt thou not then take some time to season thy Heart with thoughts of God the first miscarriage of Men came from this Rom. 1. 28. They liked not to retain God in their Knowledge thoughts of God and right opinions of God were a burthen to them and therefore they gave up themselves to an ungodly Course and evil State of Mind And wilt thou put such a scorn and contempt upon thy Creatour as never seriously to think of him yea when thoughts of God rush in upon thy Mind to turn them out as unwelcome Guests this is to degenerate into the State of Devils a part of whose torment it is to think of God they believe and tremble the more explicite thoughts they have of the Name of God the more is their Horrour increased Oh then let thy Meditations of God be sweet and serious Psalm 104. 34. Every thing that passeth before thine eyes proclaim an invisible God an Infinite and Eternal Power that made thee and all things else shall the Heavens above the Earth beneath thee say Remember God and every Creature every pile of Grass thou treadest upon call to thee Remember God and wilt thou be so
little longer No it is demanded now he doth not give it up but it is taken away from him Reason with thy self as Isaac Gen. 27. 2. I allude to it Behold now I am old I know not the day of my death make me savoury meats that my Soul may bless thee before I die So reason I have spent so much time in the world and I know not the day of my dissolution when God will call me home Oh let me go to God that he may bless me before I die 2. You know not whether the means of Graâ—… shall be continued to you or no and such affectionate offers and melting entreaties Acts 13. 46. Since you put away the word of God from you you judge your selves unworthy of everlasting Life God will not always wait upon a lingring Sinner but will take the denial and be gone They judge themselves unworthy of that Grace they pass Sentence upon themselves 2 Cor. 6. 1 2. Now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation we beseech you receive not the Grace of God in vain God hath his seasons and when these are past will not treat with us in such a mild affectionate manner The means of Grace are removed from a people by strange Providences when they have slighted the offers of Grace Luke 13. 7. These three years I came seeking fruit on this Fig-tree and finde none cut it down why cumbreth it the ground In that Text there 's first God 's righteous expectation These three years I came seeking Fruit. He was the dresser of the Vineyard they were the three years of his Ministry as by a serious harmonizing the Evangeliâ—…ts will appear that he was just now entring upon his last half year they had his Ministry among them 2 Their unthankfull frustration I find none nothing answerable to what means they enjoyed 3 God's terrible denunciation Cut it down why cumbreth it the ground God will root up a people or remove the means and therefore will ye leave it upon such uncertainties 3. There 's an uncertainty of Grace 2 Tim. 2. 25. If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth It is a meer hazard it may be he will it may be not It is uncertain whether the Spirit of God will ever put in your Heart a thought of turning to God again Gen. 6. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive with man The Spirit of God strives for a long while follows a Sinner casts in many an anxious Thought troubles and shakes him out of his carnal quiet and security but this will not always last Ah Christians there are certain Seasons if we had the skill to take hold of them there is an appointed fixed time when God is nearer to us then at another time and we shall never have our Hearts at such an advantage Isa. 55. 6. Call upon him while he is near and while he may be found There are certain Seasons which are times of finding Some are of opinion that there are certain Seasons when a Man may be rich if he will when God offereth him an opportunity for an Estate in the World if he knew the time and how to take hold of it Certainly to those that live under the means of Grace there 's a time of finding when God is nearer to them than at another time and therefore will you slip that and leave it upon such great uncertainties 4. There 's an uncertainty in this we are not certain of having the use of our natural Faculties we may lose our Understandings by a stupid Disease and God may bring a Judgment upon those that dally with him in the work of Repentance It is an usual Judgment upon them that while they were alive did forget God when they come to die to forget themselves and have not the free use of their Reason but invaded with some stupid Disease die in their Sins and so pass into another World Reason 4. The Fourth Reason is the great mischief of delay 1. The longer we delay the greater indisposition is there upon us to embrace the Ways of God Oh Christians when we press you to Holy things to turn your selves to the Lord you begin to make some Essay and then are discouraged and find it is hard and tedious to Flesh and Bloud and so you give over Now mark if it be hard to day it will be harder the next so the third onward for it is hardness of heart that makes the Work of God hard Now the more we provoke God the more we resist his Call the more hard the Heart is the impulsions of his Grace are not so strong as before and the Heart every day is more hardned As a Path weareth the harder by frequent treading so the Heart is more hard the Mind more blind the Will more obstinate the Affections more engaged and rooted in a course of Sin Ier. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots then may ye also doe good that are accustomed to doe evil O to break off an inveterate Custom is hard A Plant newly set is more easily taken up than a Plant that hath taken root When we grow old and rotten in the way of Sin it will be much harder for us than now it is the longer we lie soaking here in Sin the farther off from God 2. We provide the more discomfort for our selves Always the proportion of our Sorrow is according to the measure of our Sins Whether it be godly Sorrow the sorrow of Repentance or desparing Sorrow those Horrours which are imprest upon us as a Punishment of our Rebellion and Impenitency in both sences you still increase your Sorrow the more you sin For the sorrow of Repentance it is clear that Sorrow must carry proportion with our Offences She that had much forgiven wept much Certainly it will cost you the more Tears a greater humbling before God the longer you continue in a course of Sin against him And for the sorrow of Punishment you are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 5. your Burthen will be greater and more increased upon you It is too heavy for your Shoulders already to bear why should we adde to the weight of it Either our sorrow of Repentance will be greater or the anxious sense of our Punishment for in both God observes and God requires a proportion 3. Consider how unfit we shall be for God's service if we delay a little longer when our strength is spent and vigour of youth exhausted when our Ears grow deaf Eyes dim Understanding dull Affections spent Memory lost is this a time to begin with God and to look after the business of our Souls Certainly he that made all that was our Creatour deserves the flowr of our strength Eccles. 12. 1. when the tackling is spoil'd and Ship rotten is that a time to put to Sea or rather when the Ship is new built Shall the Devil feast upon
some renewed evidences of God's favour ask him then is it good to be afflicted Oh yes I had else been vain neglectfull of God wanted such an experience of the Lord's Grace Faith should determine the case when we feel it not Secondly That according to these Measures you will find it Good to be Afflicted 1. 'T is Good as 't is Minus Malum it keepeth us from greater evils Afflictions to the Righteous are either cures of or preservatives from spiritual Evils which would occasion greater Troubles and Crosses They prevent sin 2 Cor. 12. 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of Revelation there was given me a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure They purge out Sin Isa. 27. 9. By this shall the Iniquity of Iacob be purged out We are apt to abuse prosperity to Self-confidence Psalm 30. 6 7. In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved Lord by thy Favour thou hast made my Mountain to stand strong And Luxury Deut. 32. 15. But Iesurun waxed fat and kicked thou art waxen fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness then he forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his Salvation The Godly have evil Natures as well as others which cannot be beaten down but by Afflictions We are froward in our Relations Hagar was proud in Abraham's house Gen. 16. 4. her Mistriss was despised in her Eyes but very humble in the Desart Gen. 21. 16. David's heart was tender and smote him when he cut off the lap of Saul's garment 1 Sam. 24. 5. but how stupid and senseless was he when he lived at ease in Ierusalem 2 Sam. 12. His Conscience was benum'd till Nathan roused him Before we are chastened we are Rebellious Frail Fickle Mutable apt to degenerate without this continual discipline we are very negligent and drowsy till the Rod awakeneth us God's Children have strange failings and negligences and sometimes are guilty of more hainous sins 'T is a great Curse for a man to be left to his own ways Hos. 4. 17. Let him alone So Psalm 81. 12. I gave them up to their own hearts Lust Men must needs perish when left to their selves without this wholesome profitable discipline of the Cross. 2. 'T is Good because the Evil in it is counterpoised by a more abundant Good 't is Evil as it doth deprive us of our natural comforts Pleasure Gain Honour but 't is Good as these may be recompensed with better Pleasures richer Gain and greater Honour There is more Pleasure in Holiness than there can be Pain and Trouble in Affliction Heb. 12. 11. No Affliction for the present seemeth Ioyous but Grievous but afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness more gain than Affliction can bring loss Heb. 12 10. But he for our profit that we might be partakers of his Holiness more honour than Affliction can bring shame surely then 't is good There is a threefold Profit we get by Affliction 1. The time of Affliction is a serious thinking time Eccles. 7. 14. In the day of Adversity consider 1 Kings 8. 47. Yet if they bethink themselves in the Land whither they are carried Captive We have more liberty to retire into our selves being freed from the attractive allurements of Worldly vanities and the delights of the Flesh. Adversity maketh men serious the Prodigal came to himself when he began to be in want Luke 15. 17. Sad objects make a deep impression upon our Souls they help us to consider our own ways and God's righteous dealings that we may behave our selves wisely and suitably to the dispensation Micah 6. 9. The man of wisdome will hear the Rod. 2. 'T is a special hearing time in the Text That I might learn thy statutes and 't is said of Christ Heb. 5. 8. that He learned obedience from the things that he suffered he did experimentally understand what obedience was in hard and difficult cases and so could the better pitty poor Sinners in Affliction we have an experimental knowledge of that of which we had but a notional knowledge before We come by experience to see how false and changeable the World is how comfortable an interest in God is what a burden Sin is what sweetness there is in the Promises what a reality in the Word Luther said qui tribulantur c. The Afflicted see more in the Scripture than others do the secure and fortunate read them as they do Ovid's Verses Certainly when the Soul is humble and when we are refined and raised above the degrees of Sense we are more tractable and teachable our understandings are clearer our Affections more melting our spiritual learning is a blessing that cannot be valued if God write his law upon our Hearts by his stripes on our backs so light a trouble should not be grudged at 3. 'T is an awakening quickening time 1. Some are awakened out of the sleep of Death and are first wrought upon by Afflictions this is one powerfull means to bring in Souls to God and to open their Ears to Discipline God began with them in their Afflictions and the time of their Sorrows was the time of Loves The hot Furnace is Christ's Workhouse the most excellent Vessels of honour and praise have been formed there Isa. 48. 10. I have chosen thee in the Furnace of Affliction Manasses Paul the Jaylor were all chosen in the Fire God puts them into the furnace and chuseth them there melts them and stamps them with the Image of Christ. The Hogs Trough was a good School to the Prodigal Well then doth God do you any harm by Affliction when he saves you by it If we use violence to a man that is ready to be drowned and in pulling him out of the waters should break an Arm or a Leg would he not be thankfull it you have broken my Arm you have saved my life So God's Children 't is good that I had such an Affliction felt the sharpness of such a Cross. Oh Blessed Providence I had been a witless Fool and gone on still in a course of Sin and Vanity if God had not awakened me 2. It quickeneth others to be more carefull of their Duty more watchfull against Sin and doth exercise and improve us in heavenly Vertues and Graces of the Spirit which lay dormant in us through neglect since pleasing Objects which deaden the Heart are removed Even God's best Children when they have gotten a carnal Pillow under their Heads are apt to sleep their Prayers are dead Thoughts of Heaven cold or none little Zeal for God or delight in him Isa. 26. 16. Lord in trouble they have visited thee they pour out a Prayer when thy Chastening is upon them Hosea 5. 15. In their Afflictions they will seek me early Because they do not stir up themselves God stirreth them up by a smart Rod. The Husbandman pruneth the Vine left it run
sharpness of apprehension in carnal Things but dull slow and blind in spiritual and heavenly Things Thoughts are spent freely and unweariedly about the one but there is a tediousness and barrenness about the other a Will backward to what is good but a strange bent and urging to what is evil in that which is good we need a Spur in evil a Bridle these things persevere with us but how fickle and changable in any holy Resolution the Memory slippery in what is good but firm and strong in what is evil the Affections quick easily stirred like Tinder catch fire at every spark but as to that which is good they are like fire in green Wood hardly kept in with much blowing Again our delight is soon moved by things pleasing to Sense a carnal gust and savour is very natural to us and rise with us Rom. 8. 5. but averse from the chiefest good and every thing that leadeth to it Surely then we have need to goe to God and complain of Corruption sometimes under the notion of a blind and dark Mind begging the illumination of the Spirit sometimes under the notion of a dead hard Heart or an unperswadable Will begging his inclining as well as inlightning Grace Surely they are strangely hardened that do not see a need of a spiritual Understanding Nay God's Children after Grace received though sanctified betimes yet halt of the old Maim dull in Spirituals alive and active in carnal Matters Carnal and worldly Men act more uniformly and suitably to their Principles than the Children of God to theirs Luke 16. 8. The Children of this world are wiser in their generation than the Children of light that is more dexterous in the course of their Affairs Grace for the present worketh but a partial Cure we have the advantage in matter of Motive we have better and higher things to mind but they have the advantage in matter of Principle their Principles are unbroken but the Principles of the best are mixed we cannot doe what we would in heavenly things there is the back-bias of Corruption that turns us away and therefore they need to be instant with God to heal their Souls sometimes a blind Mind and sometimes a distempered Heart 5. We must be new made and born again before we can be apt or able to know or doe the Will of God as Christ inferreth the necessity of Regeneration from the corruption of Nature he had been discoursing with Nicodemus You cannot enter into the Kingdome of God For that which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3. 5 6. Our Souls naturally accommodate themselves to the Flesh and seek the good of the Flesh and all our Thoughts and Care and Life and Love runs that way now what was lost in Adam can onely be recovered in Christ 't is not enough that God's hands have once made us and fashioned us but there is a necessity of being made and fashioned anew of becoming his workmanship in Christ Iesus Eph. 2. 10. and so the words of the Text may be interpreted in this sense Thou hast made me once Lord new make me thy hands made me O Lord give me a new Heart that I may obey thee In the first Birth God gave us a natural Understanding in the second a spiritual Understanding that we may learn his Commandments First that we may be good and then doe good The first Birth gave us the natural Faculty the second the Grace or those divine Qualities which were lost by Adam's Sin better never been born unless born again better be a Beast than a Man if the Lord give us not the knowledge of himself in Christ. The Beasts when they die their Misery and Happiness dieth with them Death puts an end to their Pain and Pleasure but we that have Reason and Conscience to foresee the end and know the way enter into perfect Happiness or Misery at death unless the Lord sanctify this Reason and give us an heart to know him in Christ and choose that which is good Man is but a higher kind of Beast a wiser sort of Beast Psalm 49. 12. for his Soul is onely employed to cater for the Body and his Reason is prostituted to Sense the Beast rides the Man We are not distinguished from the Bruits by our Senses but our Understanding and our Reason but in a carnal Man the Soul is a kind of Sense 't is wholly imployed about the animal Life There is not a more brutish Creature in the World than a worldly wicked Man Well then David had need to pray Lord thou hast given me Reason give me the knowledge of thy self and thy blessed Will 6. When we seek this Grace or any degree of it 't is a proper Argument to urge that we are God's Creatures so doth David here I am now come to my very Business and therefore I shall a little shew how far Creation is pleadable and may any way incourage us to ask spiritual Understanding and renewing Grace 1. In the general I shall lay down this 'T is a good way of reasoning with God to ask another Gift because we have received one already 'T is not a good way of reasoning with Man because he wastes by giving but a good way with God and that upon a double account Partly because in some cases Deus donando debet God by giving doth in effect bind himself to give more as by giving Life to give Food by giving a Body to give Rayment Matth. 6. 25. God by sending such a Creature into the World chargeth his Providence to maintain him as long as he will use him for his glory God loveth to crown his own Gifts Zech. 3. 2. Is not this a brand plucked out of the burnings The thing pleaded there is was not this a Brand plucked out of the fire one Mercy is pleaded to obtain another Mercy So God bindeth himself to give perseverance 2 Cor. 1. 10. but this is not the case here for by giving common Benefits he doth not bind himself to give saving Graces And partly too because he doth not waste by giving his mercy endureth for ever The same reason is given for all those Mercies Psalm 136. Why the Lord chose a Church maintaineth his Church giveth daily bread his mercy endureth for ever God is where he was at first he giveth liberally and upbraideth not James 1. 5. he doth not say I have given already Now a former common Mercy sheweth God's readiness and freeness to give the Inclination to doe good still abideth with him he is as ready and as free to give still daily Bread his mercy endureth for ever spiritual Wisdome his mercy endureth for ever indeed the giving of daily Bread doth not necessarily bind God to give spiritual Wisdome but that which is not a sure ground to expect may be a probable incouragement to ask and learn this that though nothing can satisfy Unbelief yet Faith can pick Arguments out of any thing and make use of
observing what God will do by them 2 Sam. 16. 11. Let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him God hath work for them to do to mortifie our wantonness to break our stubborn humors 2dly Because God's salvation will come in the best time and in the best way Psal. 62. 1. Truly my soul waiteth upon God from him cometh my salvation Isa. 30. 18. God is a God of judgment Blessed are they that wait for him God doth all things with wisdom and in the best manner USE How afflicted soever we be let us not seek to be delivered in a way not allowed by God nor take any sinister Courses or use any base Shifts to rid our selves out of danger This is to distrust God and to intangle our selves the more and to miscarry in a long Voyage after we are about to enter into the Port. See the Story of Saul's sacrificing in 1 Sam. 13. from the 8th verse to the 15th If he had tarried a little longer all had been well before the day was quite over Saul would sacrifice and then Samuel cometh and telleth him God had rent the Kingdom from him for his distrust and disobedience So many will forestal the Blessing IV. DOCT. Hope keepeth us alive in the midst of Faintings My soul fainteth But I hope 1. Observe here That though the Faith of God's Children seem to faint yet it doth not dye nor wholly fail Some seem greedily to catch at Promises at first but their ardor is soon spent and when it is a troublesom business to wait upon God they give it over This is the faith and hope of Temporaries but the good ground bringeth forth fruit with patienâ—…e Luke 8. 15. God's Children tarry his leisure and though now and then they are ready to faint yet they recover Their Faith Hope and Patience seemeth to be almost spent yet it is not utterly put out As David here was not broken with long and tedious difficulties though he saw no end of his miseries yet he would still depend upon God There is an abiding seed 1 Iohn 3. 8. Their state is secured by God's Covenant that there shall be no total rupture nor utter deficiency Perseverance is a condition of the New Covenant not only required but given as all conditions of the New Covenant are There is Donum Perseverantiae not only a power to persevere but Perseverance itself 2. That which keepeth our Faith from dying and sustaineth the Soul of the Faithful and keepeth life in them is the resuscitation of our hopes What doth hope to the supporting of a fainting Soul First It draweth off the mind from things present to things future and diversion is one way to cure Trouble while we pore only on our grievous Troubles they prove a temptation to us but Hope lifts up the head and looketh above these things That poring on the Affliction and Trouble causes fainting See Lament 3. 18 19 20. but remembring God's mercies and promises reviveth us The remembring the great depth of Affliction and Extremity overwhelmeth us I have them in mind continually and so am dejected but when I begin to call to mind God's infinite mercies I conceive some hope of recovery That which was remembred is in the 22 23 24 25 26 verses 2dly Hope representeth the excellency and certainty of these future things and so causeth earnestness and patience 1. The Excellency 'T is a question among Divines What is the difference between Faith and Hope because they are much of a like nature One difference is Faith looks to the truth of the Promise Hope to the goodness of the thing promised For Faith respects the person giving his fidelity and Hope the persons receiving their benefit and exciteth them to look for it 'T is something worth the looking and waiting for and such as will recompence present Troubles 2 Cor. 5. 17 18. 2. The Certainty For though it mainly comforts its self with the goodness of the thing promised yet it causeth patience in waiting because of the sureness It seeth things that cannot be seen and perceived by sense Rom. 8. 25. If we hope for that which we see not then do we with patience wait for it 'T is good and 't will not sail therefore we may and must tarry God's leisure 3. The most noble and principal object of Hope is the great Promise of Eternal Salvation This must in chief be hoped for partly because temporal salvation is not so surely promised but under sundry cautions and reservations As If it be for our good if God's glory will permit it and the beauty of his work and the many things God hath to do before the deliverance be brought about especially if it be a common salvation wherein others are concerned as well as we as if their hearts be prepared c. Partly because Christians are to be at a point of greater indifferency about outward things than the Believers of the Old Testament now life and immortality is brought to light 2 Tim. 1. 10. They were trained up by sensible things both in their worship and promises The Cross is one of our conditions Mat. 16. 24. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me We must look for Afflictions and those not ordinary Afflictions but the loss of all or else we do not count the charges aright we must refer all to God's Will Christ may let some slip through at a cheaper and easier rate but all must resolve on it Partly because this is propounded as the great comfort Luke 12. 32. Fear not little flock it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom and accordingly used by the Saints David in his disappointments Psal. 39. 7. And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee He meaneth the hope of immortality opposite to that vain shew and false appearance which is in worldly things This was that Iob comforted himself with that ancient Believer Job 19. 26. Though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God And the Maccabees Heb. 11. 35. They were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection Partly because that which God hath promised in the world to come is only satisfactory and able to quiet a man's mind and make him patiently wait upon God in all his troubles Here is enough to countervail all difficulties to support us under them to recompence us for them 't is not long e're it will come in hand it cannot enough be desired it may be hoped for by the righteous in their greatest extremities Prov. 14. 32. The righteous hath hope in his death USE For Instruction When your Souls are apt to faint let Hope look out for better times or better things 1. For better Times God will not always chide Psal. 103. 9. He will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever Nor shall the Rod of the wicked always rest
any thing for something cannot come out of nothing therefore we must stop in some first Cause and Eternal Being 3. That Eternity belongeth to God is to be seen in all his Attributes for if God be Eternal his Wisdom Power and Goodness are Eternal also First His Wisdom is Eternal for all things are present to the knowledge of God Things come to our knowledge successively some before and some after We see and know things according to their duration and existence We compute by days and years yesterday to morrow last year and next year one Generation passeth and another cometh but in God's understanding there is no succession of before and after Known to God are all his works from the beginning Acts 15. 18. God that doth all things in time knew them all before time otherwise his knowledge was not infinite and eternal they are all present to his understanding Hence is that expression 2 Pet. 3. 8. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day All those differences of Duration which to the Creatures are longer or shorter are all alike to God for all things are constantly present to God and under his view and prospect Indeed the Lord is pleased to condescend to our shallow capacities and to give us leave to express his Duration in our own terms whil'st he calleth himself yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. And Rev. 1. 4. From him which is which was and which is to come Yet in proper speaking God always is I am is his Name and all things to him are present either past present or to come Time hath no succession to him he beholdeth at once what is not at once but at several times there is nothing past to him to come to him but all present He knoweth the end of all things before he giveth them a beginning 2dly His Power is Eternal Therefore 't is said Rom. 1. 20. that his Eternal Power and Godhead is clearly understood from the Creation of the world and seen in the things that are made how could else so many things be educed out of nothing and still kept from returning into their original nothing if there were not an infinite and eternal power then and still at work So Isa. 26. 4. Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Iehovah is everlasting strength We may depend upon him for his Arm is never dried up nor doth his Strength fail there is no wrinkle upon the Brow of Eternity God is where he was at first he continueth for ever a God of infinite power able to save those that trust in him 3dly His Goodness and Mercy they are Eternal Psal. 136. 't is often repeated For the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever 'T is true à parte antè his mercy did not begin of late but was towards us before we or the world were from all Eternity we were thought upon that he might do us good himself 'T is said With an everlasting love have I loved thee and therefore with loving kindness I have drawn thee Jer. 31. 3. Whomsoever God draweth to himself in time he loved them before all time and à parte post it holdeth good his love and affection continueth the same and shall do for ever he is not weary of doing good nor is his mercy spent you have both Psal. 103. 17. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him The mercy was decreed and prepared before the beginning of the world and we shall have the fruits and effects of it when the world shall be no more 'T was from everlasting for God foreseeing the Fall of Adam provided us a remedy in Christ and having all lapsed Mankind in his prospect and view did out of his free love chuse some whil'st others are passed by to life and salvation by Christ. That God did from Eternity decree and purpose this is manifest because he doth in time effect it otherwise he should not work all things according to the counsel of his will Ephes. 1. 11. or else his Will would be mutable willing that in time which he willed not from Eternity whereas in him there is no variableness or shadow of turning And that his mercy is to everlasting appeareth because he doth in time convert and sanctifie them and so brings them to glory and blessedness for the eternal God will make his people eternally happy with himself 4. That God sheweth himself as an Eternal Being both as a Governor and Benefactor First As a Governor His Eternity is seen in his Government in threatning eternal misery to the wicked and appointing eternal happiness to the godly Mat. 25. 46. These shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life everlasting The joys of the blessed are everlasting there shall never be a change of nor an interruption in their happiness but after millions of years they are to continue in this life as if it were the first moment Thy Crown will be thy Crown for ever Thy Kingdom thy Kingdom for ever This Glory will be thy Glory for ever Thy God will be thy God and thy Christ for ever We affect the continuance of this life though it be a life of pain and misery Skin for skin and all a man hath he will give for his life Oh! how much more valuable should this eternal life be which is a life of uninterrupted joy and felicity On the other side the punishment is everlasting the loss is eternal the wicked are everlastingly deprived of the favor of God The Disciples wept when Paul said Ye shall see my face no more Oh! how much more terrible will it be to be banished everlastingly out of God's presence Mat. 25. 41. Besides the pain will be eternal as well as the loss This worm never dieth this fire shall never be quenched Mark 9. 44. Neither Heaven nor Hell hath any period or end either of them are eternal Now this way God ruleth and governeth the creature as becoming his infinite and eternal Majesty The Laws of Kings and Parliaments can reach no further than some temporal punishment their highest pain is the killing of the Body their highest Reward is some vanishing and fading Honour or perishing Riches but God's Law concerneth our everlasting estate our eternal well or ill being eternal life or eternal death is wrap'd up in these Commandments These are Rewards sutable to the Eternal Majesty of the Law-giver And if thou do evil there is an eternal loss of Heaven and an eternal sense of the wrath of God If you believe and obey the Gospel there is eternal salvation provided for you for Christ is the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. 2dly As a Benefactor he sheweth himself also an Eternal Being There is a double beneficial goodness of God common and special His common goodness runneth in the channel of Creation and common
them under sadness and horror Iudas threw away his 30 pieces of Silver when his guilt star'd him in the face I have sinned in betraying innocent blood Mat. 27. 4. When God is angry the creatures cannot pacifie him and make you Friends as when a man is going to Execution with a drooping and heavy heart bring him a Posie of Flowers bid him smell of them and comfort himself with them he will think you upbraid his misery so in troubles of Conscience what good will it be to tell a man of Riches and Honours the remedy must be according to the grief so that if outward things could satisfie the heart they cannot satisfie the Conscience our sore will run among all the creatures and there 's no salve for it Secondly They will not stead us at the hour of Death when a Man must launch out into Eternity and set Sail for an unknown World Can a Man comfort himself then with outward things that a Man is great rich and honourable beautiful or strong or that he hath wallowed in all manner of sensualities If Men would look to the end of things they would sooner discern their mistake Deut. 32. 29. Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end So Ier. 17. 9. At his latter end he shall be a fool He was a Fool before all his life-long but now he is so in the account of his own heart So Iob 27. 8. What hope hath the hypocrite though he hath gained when God cometh to take away his soul The poor Man would fain keep his soul a little longer no but God will take it now and he doth not resign it but God takes it by force And 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin The dolors and horrors of a guilty Conscience are revived by death and then the weakness of worldly things doth best appear our wealth and honour and pleasure will leave us in the dirt when the soul is to be turned out of doors our vain conceits are blown away and we begin to be sensible of our ill choice if Conscience did not do its office before death will undeceive them When a man dyeth he shall carry nothing away with him his glory shall not descend after him Psal. 49. 17. He shall be eaten out by Worms as others are when he cometh to go the way of all the Earth then for one Evidence for Heaven one dram of the favor of God as Severus the Emperor cryed out I have been all things but now it profits me nothing 4. 'T is of no use to you in the world to come Gold and Silver the great Instruments of Commerce in this world are of no value there all civil distinctions last but to the Grave some are high and others low some are rich and others poor these distinctions will last but awhile but the distinction of good and bad lasts for ever their works follow them but not their wealth outward things cannot save your souls or bring you to Heaven 5. In this World it will not prevent a Sickness or remove it The honorable and the rich have their diseases as well as the poor yea more they are bred upon them by their intemperance All your Houses and Lands and Honors and Estates cannot ease you of a Fit of the Gout or Stone nor an aking Tooth nor keep off Judgments when they are Epidemical There were Frogs in Pharaoh's Bed chamber as well as among the meaner Egyptians and all the King's Guard could not keep them out Well then all these things shew 't is of a limited use indeed they serve to make our Pilgrimage comfortable and to support us during our service that 's the best use we can put them to but the use the most put them to is to satisfie a sensual appetite or please a fleshly mind Psal. 17. 14. The utmost that these things can procure is a back well cloathed and a belly well filled This is but a sorry happiness to feed a little better than others to provide a richer Feast for the Worms yea a Prey for Hell Take all created perfections not as subordinate to grace but separate from it it serveth but to please the appetite or the fancy make the most or best of it Secondly By their time and period as to continuance All these things perish in the using like Flowers they wither in our hands while we smell to them The fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. And whosoever liveth here for awhile must look for changes and reckon to act several parts in the World Whatsoever was wonderful in former Ages 't is lost and past with age things that now are are not what they once were Psal. 102. 26 28. They shall perish but thou shalt endure for ever saith the Psalmist speaking to God Yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years have no end Christ he hath no end but Men will soon see the end of all perfection The World and all things were made ea lege ut aliquando pereant that they might at length fail and come to an end That which you now have you cannot say it shall be yours this time twelve month or it may be a month hence we hold all things by an uncertain tenure God may take away these things from us for Man is compared to Grass and the glory of Man to the flower of Grass 1 Pet. 1. 24. What is the glory of Man Riches Wisdom Strength Beauty Credit all these things are called the Flower now the Flower fadeth before the Grass and withers the neglected stalk remaineth when the leaves of the Flower are shed you may be gone and they gone if they continue with you till death then you must take your final farewell of all your comforts Thus you see all perfection will have an end Fourthly Here is the confirmation from Sense I have seen Consider it 1. As 't is matter of sense or experience 2. As 't is an observation upon experience First The vanity of the Creature is matter of sense and plain experience We have seen and others have seen all outward things come to their final period goodly Cities levied with the Earth mighty Empires destroyed worldly Glory blasted Honours vanished Credit and Esteem shrunk into nothing Beauty shrivelled with Age or defaced by Sickness yea all manner of greatness laid in the dust We trample upon the Graves of others and within a little while others will do the same over ours All things have their times and turns their rise and ruine there 's no man that converseth with the world but he will soon see the vanity of it David found it not only by clear reason but by his own experience I have seen saith he and so will you say too within awhile these things will fail when you have most need
But what is this hatred of Sin 1. It implies an universal repugnancy in every part of a Man against Sin not only in his Reason and Conscience but Will and Affections There is not a wicked man but in many cases his Conscience bids him do otherwise Ay but a renewed man his heart inclines him to do otherwise his heart is set against Sin and taken up with the things of God Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the law of God according to the inner man It is in the whole inward man which consists of many parts and faculties Briefly then it notes the opposition not from enlightned Conscience only but from the bent of the renewed heart Reason and Conscience will take God's part and quarrel with Sins else wicked men could not be self-condemned 2. Hatred it is a fixed rooted enmity Many a man may fall out with Sin upon some occasion but he hath not an irreconcileable enmity against it The transient motions of the soul are things quite distinct from a permanent principle that abides in a renewed heart he hath that same seed of God remaining in him 1 John 3. 9. An habit notes an habitual aversation A brabble many times falls out between us and Sin upon several occasions when it hath sensibly done us wrong destroyed our peace blasted our names or brought temporal inconvenience upon us In time of judgment and fears and present troubles and dangers men think of bewailing their Sins and returning to God but they fall out and fall in again this is anger not hatred like the rising of the heart against a drawn Sword when it is flasht in our faces whereas afterwards we can take it up without any such commotion of spirit 3. Hatred 't is an active enmity warring upon Sin by serious and constant endeavors manifested by watching striving groaning Watching before the temptation comes resisting in the temptation groaning under it and bemoaning our selves after the temptation hath prevailed over us 1 There 's a constant jealousie and watchfulness before the temptation comes They that hate Sin will keep at a distance from whatever is displeasing unto God Prov. 28. 14. Happy is the man that feareth alway A hard heart that knows not the evil of Sin rusheth on to things according to the present inclination Ay but a man that hath a hatred against Sin that hath felt the evil of it in his Conscience that hath been scorched in the flames of a true conviction will not come near the fire A broken heart is shy and fearful therefore he weighs his thoughts words and actions and takes notice of the first appearance of any temptation they know Sin is always present soon stir'd and therefore live in a holy jealousie Certainly they that walk up and down heedlesly in the midst of so many snares and temptations wherewith we are way-laid in our passage to Heaven they have not this active enmity against Sin and therefore hatred is seen by watching 2 It is seen by striving or serious resistance in the temptation A Christian is not always to be measured by the success but by conflict he fights it out Rom 7. 15. The evil which I hate that do I. Though they be foiled by Sin yet they hate it An Enemy may be overcome yet he retains his spite and malice Sin doth not freely carry it in the heart neither is the act completely willing Gal. 5. 17. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh for saith he the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would that is you cannot sin with such proneness and full consent and bent of heart as others they have a principle of opposition a rooted enmity in their souls against Sin 3 By a bitter grief after the temptation as Peter when he had fallen fouly he went out and wept bitterly Mat. 26. 75. They do not lie in Sin but recover themselves by a kindly remorse it is the grief of their souls that they are fallen into God's displeasure grieved his Spirit and hazarded their communion with him O Sin is grievous to a gracious heart and this makes them groan and complain to God O wretched man c. 4. 'T is such an enmity against sin as aims at the utter extermination and expulsion of it that endeavoureth to destroy it both root and branch Hatred it 's all for mischief Annilation that 's that which Hatred aims at Anger it worketh trouble but Hatred mischief it is an implacable affection that continues to the death that will not be appeased till the thing which we hate be abolished So where there is this hatred of Sin it follows Sin close till it hath gotten the life of it As by the grace of Justification they have obtained such favor with God that ne damnat it shall not damn by the grace of Sanctification ne regnat Sin shall not reign and still they are aspiring and looking after the grace of Glorification ne fit that Sin may no longer be therefore they are longing and groaning under the reliques of corruption Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man c. Many scratch the face of Sin but they do not seek to root it up to destroy the body of death it is their constant grief that any thing of Sin is left in the heart as Enemies are not satisfied till they have the blood of each other Where there is hatred 't is not enough to stop the spreading weaken the power of Sin but labouring to destroy the being of Sin As David said of his Enemies I pursued them till they were destroyed so when we set against Sin with an aim not to give over till we have the life of it or as God said concerning the Canaanites Deut. 7. 23. I will destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed So doth a renewed heart war against Sin that he may leave neither root nor fruit within them Use. If this be to hate Sin how few can say with David I hate every false way how few are of David's temper some love Sin with all their heart that hide it as a sweet morsel under their tongue Iob 20. 12. The love of Sin that 's the life of it it dies when it begins to be hated but when you have a love to it it lives in the soul and prevails over us And as they testifie their love of Sin so they misplace their hatred what do they hate not Sin but the Word that discovers it They hate the light because their deeds are evil John 3. 20. They do not hate Sin but God's Messengers that plead against it 1 Kings 22. 8. I hate him saith Ahab concerning Micaiah for he doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil They hate the faithful Brother that reproves them he is hated because he will not hate his Brother to see Sin upon him
is understanding So much as we hate sin so much of spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding Certainly to hate sin is wisdom I prove it from the nature of sin All disobedience is the greatest folly that can be in the world and therefore if to sin be to do foolishly â—…o hate sin is to be wise and not to have understanding certainly is a fruit of solly for a man to do that which will condemn himself if ever he comes to himself Now when a man comes to himself as when he dies or repents Oh how will his heart condemn and reproach him for the vanity of his worldly course when he is fill'd with his own ways especially Repentance that 's a coming to our selves As a man when he hath slept out his drunkenness and excess and begins to look back upon his follies committed under that distemper such is Repentance it is an after-wisdom and therefore it argues that there was an imprudence and inconsideration of the things we repent of and therefore we condemn our selves That is folly which gratifies those that are our utter enemies now sin it gratifies the Devil which seeks our ruine He goes about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5. 8. You please him that seeks your utter destruction and will you grieve God and please the Devil That is Folly which brings no disadvantage upon him whom you disobey but upon you it brings the greatest mischief imaginable God is not hurt by your sins he is above our injury Iob 9. 12. If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self but if thou scornest thou alone shalt bear it There is no hurt done to God all the hurt is to our own souls Prov. 8. 36. He that sinneth against me wrongs his own soul and he that hateth me loveth death Every sinner is his own Murderer and his own Destroyer All those Arrows we shoot up against Heaven they fall down with more violence upon our own heads That is folly for a man to hazard a Jewel for a Trifle to stake his Soul and Heaven and Eternal Happiness against a little flesh-pleasing and carnal satisfaction Ionah 2. 8. They that observe lying vanities for sake their own mercies Poor fugacious comforts lying vanities to follow after and forsake their own mercy that is all that happiness which might have been their own A Sinner is a mad Gamesâ—…er that throws away the Kingdom of Heaven at every Cast for a little momentany short delight and vain contentment That is folly to break with him upon whom our All depends our Life Being Comfort Happiness so doth sin make â—…s break with God Isa. 59. 2. Tour iniquities have separated between you and your God Well then if sin be to do foolishly to depart from sin this is wisdom this is understanding Certainly he that provides against the greatest mischief doth escape the greatest danger he is the wise man and not he that provides against temporal inconveniences only as poverty and disgrace He that escapes sin escapes hell the wrath of God the extremest misery that can light upon a poor creature Prov. 15. 24. The way of the wise is above to avoid hell beneath and therefore 't is a high point of wisdom to hate sin 2 As it is a high point of understanding so it is a fruit and effect of understanding According to the degree of understanding that we have so will our hatred of sin be for he saith Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way To prove this by two Reasons 1. Our affections follow our apprehensions There is no way to come to the heart but by the mind by the understanding Look as there is no way to come to the bowels to purge out distempers that are there but by the mouth stomach and other passages that lead to the bowels so there is no way to come to the heart and affections but by the understanding knowledge that begets all other affections those which belong to choice and pursuit or those that belong to slight or aversation Those that belong to choice and pursuit desire delight There is no desire of that which is unknown so in those things that belong to slight and aversation those affections be it grief or shame for sin already committed or fear or hatred that sin may not be committed Grief or shame Ier. 31. 19. After I was instâ—…ucted I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth It is light which humbles and the soul is affected according to the sight it hath of things or go to those affections which serve to prevent the commission of sin as hatred and fear Hatred in the Text a good understanding goes before a through hatred will follow 2. Reason that when the mind is fraught with truths and gotten a good stock of knowledge by God's precepts then it will be checking and urging the soul to caution against sin and therefore the more understanding you get by God's precepts the more are you warned and put in mind of things Psal. 119. 11. I have hid thy Word in mine heart that I might not sin against thee When the Word hath laid up in the heart a good stock of knowledge there will be one thought or other that will be rising up and defying all temptations wherewith you are assaulted Eph. 6. 17. Take unto you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God In the spiritual conflict we need weapons not only desensive but offensive not only the shield of Faith but the sword of the Spirit that we may destroy and slay sin and withstand temptation and chase away Satan from us what 's this sword of the Spirit the Word of God the more seasonable relief the more fresh thoughts you have to withstand temptations which are apt to come in upon you Pr. 6. 21 22. Bind them upon thine heart when thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee This will always be urging him to duty and warning him of his danger A word of Use. 1 Get understanding 2 Never count your selves to understand any thing but as you increase in hatred of sin 1. Get understanding Partly 1 because there are many false ways you will never discern without much understanding There are many false ways that are palliated and represented under the shew of good and we are easily ensnared unless we have light to chuse our way 1 Cor. 2. 8. Had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory A man will be carried on with a great deal of life and activity in a way contrary to God Acts 26. 9. I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Iesus of Nazareth O the tyranny and madness of an erring Conscience and an ignorant Zealot what a ready
if we have any faith in him faith will work by love Gal. 5. 6. The soul may reason and discourse thus with itself Do I believe Christ Jesus did thus willingly give himself for my soul how can I be backward in God's service and hang off from him O let me live to Christ who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. What shall I be more backward to do for God than Christ was to die for me To go to the Throne of Grace than Christ Jesus was to go the Cross Can I hang off from such pleasing Noble Service when Jesus Christ my Lord refus'd not the hard work of my Redemption If his Will was in it certainly so should be yours Doct. 3. The third Point That these free-will-offerings are accepted with God They shall come with Rams speaking of the conversion of the Gentiles in terms proper to the old legal dispensation and they shall come with acceptance Isa. 6. 7. And Mal. 3. 4. Then shall the offering of Iudah and Ierusalem be pleasant unto the Lord. Upon what grounds and what way our acceptance with God is brought about our works in themselves cannot please God they are accepted not as merits but as testimonies of thankfulness 1. Our persons are by Christ reconciled to God and in worship he delights This is the proper importance of laying the Peace-offering upon the top of the Burnt offering Lev. 3. 10. 2. Our infirmities are cover'd with his Righteousness for Christ is the Propitiation the Mercy-seat that interposeth between the Law and God's gracious Audience We come to the Throne of Grace when we come to God in and by him Heb. 4. 16. 3. By his intercession our duties are commended to God As Aaron was to stand before the Lord with his Plate upon his forehead wherein was writ Holiness to the Lord why That he might bear the iniquity of the people that they might be accepted of the Lord. All our acceptance comes from Christ's intercession and alas our Prayers and Praises are unsavoury Eruptations Belches of the Flesh as they come from us a great deal of infirmity we mingle with them we mingle Brimstone with our Incense and Sweet Spices therefore provoke the Lord to abhor and despise us but there 's an Angel stands by the Altar that perfumes all our Prayers and Praises How should this encourage us against the slightings of the world and discouragements of our own hearts and look after the testimony of our acceptance with God Doct. 4. The fourth Point That this gracious acceptance must be sought and valu'd as a great blessing Psal 19. 14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord. And it must be valu'd as a great blessing if we consider either who the Lord is or what we are or what it is we go to him for If we consider who the Lord is God all sufficient that standeth in no need of what we can do that cannot be profited by us he is of so great a Majesty that his honour is rather lessned than greatned by any thing we can do the great-Author of all blessings all our offerings come from himself first of thine own have we given thee And if we consider what we are poor impotent sinful Creatures will God take an offering at our hands And if we consider what we do nothing but imperfection there is more of us in it of our fleshly part in any thing we do yet that these things should be accepted with God SERMON CXIX PSAL. CXIX VER 109. My soul is continually in my hand yet do I not forget thy law IN this Verse and the next David asserts his Integrity against two sorts of Temptations and ways of Assault the Violence and Craft of his Enemies Their Violence in this Verse My soul is in my hand And their Craft in the next Verse They laid snares for me And yet still his heart is upright with God In this Verse observe 1 David's condition My soul is continually in my hand 2 His constancy and perseverance notwithstanding that condition Yet do I not forget thy law First Let me speak of the condition he was now in in that Expression My soul is continually in my hand The soul in the hand is a Phrase often us'd in Scripture it is said of Iephthah Judg. 12. 13. I put my life in my hands and passed over against the children of Ammon So Job 13. 14. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand And when David went to encounter Goliah 1 Sam. 17. 5. it is said He put his life in his hand and slew the Philistines In exposing our selves to any hazard and dangers in any great attempt it is call'd the putting our life in our hand And the Witch of Endor when she ventur'd against a Law to please Saul and so had exposed her life this form of speech is used concerning her 1 Sam. 28. 21. I have put my life in my hand Briefly then By Soul is meant Life and this is said to be in his hand I go in danger of my life day by day as if he should say I have my Soul ready divorc'd when God calls for it it not only notes liableness to danger but resolution and courage to encounter it In a sense we always carry our Souls in our hands our life hangs by a single thread which is soon fretted asunder and therefore we should every day be praying that it may not be taken from us as the Souls of wicked men are Iob 27. 8. Luke 12. 20. but yielded up and resign'd to God But more especially is the Expression verifi'd when we walk in the midst of dangers and in a thousand deaths my soul is in my hand that is I am expos'd to dangers that threaten my life every day Secondly Here 's his Affection to God's Word notwithstanding this condition Yet do I not forget thy law There is a twofold remembrance of things Notional and Affective and so there 's a twofold forgetfulness 1 Notional We forget the Word when the notion of things written therein are either wholly or in part vanish'd out of our minds 2 Affectively We are said to forget the Word of God when though we still retain the Notion yet we are not answerably affected do not act according thereunto and this is that which is understood here I do not forget thy Law Law is taken generally for any part of the Word of God and implies the Word of Promise as well as the Word of Command As for instance 1. If we interpret it of the Promise the sense will be this I do not forget thy Law that is I take no discouragements from my dangers to let fall my trust as if there were no Providence no God to take care of those that walk closely with him Heb. 12. 5. when they fainted they are said to have forgotten the consolation which spake unto
them as unto children 2. If we interpret this word Law of the Commandments and directions of the Word and so I do not forget it that is either by way of omission I do not slacken my diligence in thy service for all this or by way of commission I do not act contrary to conscience and the effect of the whole Verse is this Though I walk in the midst of dangers and a thousand deaths continually yet at such a time when a man would think he should not stand upon nice Points yet even then he should keep up a dear and tender respect to God's Law And he doth the rather express himself thus I do not forget it because great temptations blind and divert the mind from the thought of our duty Our minds are so surpriz'd with the dangers before us that God's Law is quite forgotten as a thing out of mind and we act as if we had no such comfort and direction given us The Points are two 1. That such things may befal God's children that they may carry their Lives in their hands from day to day 2. When we carry our Lives in our hands no kind of danger should make us warp and turn aside from the direction of God's Word Doct. 1. That such things may befal God's Children that they may carry their Lives in their hands from day to day That this is often the lot of God's People we may prove 1 Cor. 15. 31. I protest by our rejoicing which I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I die daily How can that be I die daily since we die but once The meaning is I go still in danger of my life Such times may come when we run hazards for Christ every day so that in the morning we do not know what may fall out before night 2 Cor. 11. 23. In deaths often that is in danger of death So 1 Pet. 4. 19. Let those that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator Let them commit their Souls that is their Lives the Soul is sometimes put for Life for Life spiritual or Life eternal but there it is put for Life natural so let them commit their Souls to God that is in times of danger and hazard let them go on in well-doing chearfully and though there be no visible means of safety and defence let them commit their Lives to God in well-doing when they carry their Lives in their own hands let them be careful to put them into the hands of God let God do what he pleaseth for he is a faithful Creator that is as once he created them out of nothing so he is able to preserve them when there is nothing visible nothing to trust to often this may be the case of God's People that they carry their Lives in their hands from day to day That you may take the force of the expression consider when the People of God are in the midst of their Enemies then they carry their Lives in their hands Mat. 10. 16. Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves When they are among men no better affected to them than Wolves to Sheep and when men have them in their power and there is no outward restraint of Laws and Government for whatever Enmity they have or act against them Laws and Government are a great restraint As Gen. 27. 41. The days of mourning for my father are at hand then will I slay my brother Iacob Till Isaac was dead there was a check upon him but sometimes it is in the power of their hands to do them mischief Micah 2. 1. They practise iniquity because it is in the power of their hand When men are ill affected no restraint upon them no impediment in their way yea when they begin to persecute and rage against the servants of God and we know not when our turn comes then we are said to have our Lives in our hand As Rom. 8. 36. For thy sake are we killed all the day long That is some of that body killed now one pick'd up then another in these cases they are said to carry their Lives in their hands when they are in the power of men that have no principle of tenderness to us no restraint upon them these begin to vex molest and trouble the Church For the Reasons why God permits it so that his People should carry their Lives in their hands 1. God doth it to check security to which we are very subject We are apt to forget changes if we have but a little breathing from trouble we promise our selves perpetual exemption therefrom As Psal. 30. 6. My mountain stands strong I shall never be moved When we have got a carnal Pillow under our heads to rest upon it is hard to keep from sleep and dreaming of temporal felicity to be perpetuated to us then we forget by whom we live and by whose goodness we subsist yea this may be when trials are very near the Disciples slept when their Master was ready to be surpriz'd and they scatter'd Matth. 26. 40. When we are in the greatest dangers and matters which most concern us are at hand now to prevent this security God draws away this Pillow from under our heads and suffers us to be way-laid with dangers and troubles everywhere that we might carry our Lives in our hands for this makes us sensible of our present condition in the world and that we subsist upon God's Goodness and Providence every moment 2. To wean us from creature confidences and carnal dependences 2 Cor. 1. 9. We received the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead Paul that went up and down everywhere to hunt the Devil out of his Territories and to alarm the carnal sleepy world this Paul was very prone to trust in himself a man that was whip'd imprison'd stoned oppos'd everywhere by unreasonable men what had he to trust to but God's Providence And yet he needs to be brought to this to take his life in his hands that he might learn to trust in God that raiseth from the dead The best are prone to trust in themselves and to lean to a temporal visible interest we would faâ—…n have it by any means therefore sometimes we take a sinful course to get it Well now God to cure his people of this distemper breaks every prop and stay which they are apt to lean upon breaks down the hedge the fence is remov'd and lays them open to dangers continually so that from day to day they are forc'd to seek their preservation from him 3. To check their worldliness We are very apt to dote upon present things and to dream of honours and great places in the world and seek great things for our selves when we should be preparing for bitter sufferings As the two sons of Zebedee employ'd their mother to speak to Christ
him but when his heart was upheld in the ways of God So Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God They had a life visible as other men had but your life that which you chiefly esteem and indeed count to be your life is a hidden thing Here I shall enquire 1. What is this spiritual life 2. Shew that there is a spiritual life distinct from the natural 3. The excellency of the one above the other 4. When this spiritual life is in good plight 1. What is meant by spiritual life 'T is threefold a life of justification and sanctification and glorification First The life of justification We are all dead by the merit of sin When a man is cast at law we say he is a dead man Through one mans offence all were dead Rom. 5. 5. We are sensible of it when the Law cometh in with power Rom. 7. 9. we begin to awaken out of our dead sleep Gods first work is to awaken him and open his eyes that he may see he is a Child of wrath a condemned person undone without a pardon when the Law came sin revived and I died before he thought himself a living man in as good an estate as the best but when he was enlightned to see the true meaning of the Law he found himself no better than a dead man Now when justified the sinner is translated from a sentence of death to a sentence of life passed in his favour and therefore it is called justification of life Rom. 5. 18. and Ioh. 5. 29. He that believeth shall not enter into condemnation but hath passed from death to life that is is acquitted from the sentence of death and condemnation passed on him by the Law Secondly The life of sanctification which lyes in a Conjunction of the soul with the spirit of God even as the natural life is a Conjunction of the body with the soul. Adam though his body was organized and formed was but a dead lump till God breathed the soul into him so till our union with Christ by the communion of his spirit we are dead and unable to every good work But the Holy Ghost puts us into a living condition Ephes. 2. 4 5. We were dead in trespasses and sins yet now hath he quickned us There is a new manner of being which we have upon the receiving of Grace Thirdly Life eternal or the life of Glory which is the final result and consummation of both the former For justification and sanctification are but the beginnings of our happy estate justification is the cause and foundation and sanctification is an introduction or entrance into that life that we shall ever live with God 2. Now this life is distinct from life natural for it hath a distinct principle which is the spirit of God the other a reasonable soul 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first man Adam was made a living soul the last Adam was made a quickning spirit Parents are but instruments of Gods Providence to unite body and soul together but here we live by the spirit or by Christ Gal. 2. 20. God and we are united together Then we live when joined to God as the fountain of life whence the soul is quickned by the spirit of Grace This is to live indeed 'T is called the life of God Ephes. 4. 18. not by common influence of his Providence but by special influences of his Grace Secondly It is distinct in its operations Unumquodque operatur secundum suam formam as things that move upward and downward according to their form so the new Nature carrieth men out to their own natural motion and tendency Walking as men 1 Cor. 3. 3. and walking as Christians are two distinct things The natural and humane life is nothing else but the orderly use of sense and reason but the Divine and spiritual life is the acting of Grace in order to communion with God as if another Soul dwelt in the same Body Ego non sum ego Old lusts old acquaintance old temptations knock at the same door but there is another Inhabitant Thirdly Distinct in supports Hidden Manna Meat indeed Drink indeed Ioh. 6. 55. There is an outward man and an inward man the inward man hath its life as well as the outward And as life so taste omnis vita gustu ducitur The hidden man must be fed with hidden Manna meat and drink that the world knows not of its comforts are never higher than in decays of the body 1 Cor. 4. 16. A man is as his delight and pleasure is it must have something agreeable Fourthly Distinct in ends The aim and tendency of the new Nature is to God 't is from God and therefore to him Gal. 2. 19. 'T is a life whereby a man is enabled to move and act towards God as his utmost end to glorifie him or to enjoy him A carnal man's personal contentment is his highest aim water riseth not beyond its fountain But a gracious man doth all to please God Col. 1. 11. to glorifie God 1 Cor. 10. 31. And this not only from his obligations Rom. 14. 7 8. but from his being that principle of life that is within him Ephes. 1. 12. A man that hath a new principle cannot live without God his great purpose and desire is to enjoy more of him 3. The excellency of the one above the other There is life carnal life natural and life spiritual Life carnal as much as it glittereth and maketh a noise in the world 't is but a death in comparison of the life of Grace 1 Tim. 5. 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead whilst she liveth and let the dead bury their dead Luke 9. 60. and dead in trespasses and sins None seem to make so much of their lives as they yet dead as to any true life and sincere comfort So life natural 't is but a vapour a wind and a little puff of wind that is soon gone take it in the best Nature is but a continued sickness our food is a constant medicine to remedy the decays of Nature most men use it so alimenta sunt medicamenta But more particularly First Life natural is a common thing to Devils Reprobates Beasts Worms Trees and Plants but this is the peculiar priviledge of the Children of God 1 Iohn 4. 13. Therefore Gods Children think they have no life unless they have this life If we think we have a life because we see and hear so do the Worms and smallest Flyes if we think we are alive because we eat drink and sleep so do the Beasts and Cattel if we think we live because we reason and conferr so do the Heathens and Men that shall never see God if we think we have life because we grow well and wax strong proceeding to Old Age so do the Plants and Trees of the Field Nay we have not only this in common with them but in this kind of life other Creatures excel Man The Trees excel us for
spirit Be careful for the Soul that you may keep up a lively faith and a constant sense of blessedness to come and so rejoyce in God Oh how much time and pains do men waste in decking and trimming the Body when in the mean time they neglect their Souls We may all fall a weeping when we consider how little we look after this inner life to keep that in heart and vigour SERMON CXXVIII PSAL. CXIX VER 116 117. And let me not be ashamed of my hope Hold thou me up and I shall be safe and I will have respect unto thy Statutes continually IN the former Verse I observed David begs two things Confirmation in waiting and the full and final accomplishment of his hopes Something remains upon the 116th Verse Let me not be ashamed of my hope Hope follows faith and nourisheth it Faith assures there is a promise hope looks out for the accomplishment of it Now David having fixed his hope upon the mercies of God begs Let me not be ashamed that is that hope may not be disappointed for hope disappointed brings shame Man is conscious of the folly and rashness in conceiving such a hope Iob 6. 20. They were confounded because they had hoped they came thither and were ashamed They looked for water from the Brooks of Tema but when they were dried up they were confounded and ashamed That breeds shame when we are frustrated in our expectations There is a hope that will leave us ashamed and there is another hope that will not leave us ashamed for David goes to God and desires him to accomplish his hope There is a Christian hope that is founded upon the mercies and promises of God and encouraged by experience of God that will never deceive us I shall speak of that hope that will bring shame and confusion and that is twofold worldly hope and carnal security 1. Worldly hopes such as are built upon worldly men and worldly things Upon worldly men they are mutable and so may deceive us sometimes their minds may change the favour of man is a deceitful thing As Cardinal Wolsey said in his distress If I had served God as diligently as I have done the King he would not have given me over in my grey hairs but it 's a just reward for my study to do him service not regarding the service of God to do him pleasure Let God be true and every man a Liar A man makes way for shame that humours the lusts of others and wrongs his Conscience and first or last they will find it is better to put confidence in God than the greatest Potentates in the World Psal. 118. 8. and therefore it should be our chief care to apply our selves to God and study his pleasure rather than to please men and conform our selves to their uncertain minds and interests To attend God daily and be at his beck is a stable happiness the other is a poor thing to build upon Mens affections are mutable and so is their condition too Psal. 62. 9. Surely men of high degree are a lye and men of low degree are vanity Whoever trusts in men high or low are sure to be deceived in their expectations And therefore we should think of it beforehand lest we be left in the dirt when we think they should bear us out 1 Kings 1. 21. When my Lord the King shall sleep with his Fathers I and my Son Solomon shall be counted offenders When the Scene is shifted and new Actors come upon the Stage none so liable to be hated as those that promised to themselves a perpetual happiness by the favour of men This is a hope that will leave us ashamed And then worldly things they that hope in these for their happiness will be ashamed There are two remarkable Seasons when this hope leaves us ashamed in the time of distress of conscience and in the day of death In time of distress of conscience Psal. 39. 11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a Moth. When sin finds us out and Conscience goes to work upon the sense of its own guilt O then what will all the plenty of worldly Comforts do us good The Creatures then have spent their allowance and can help us no more What good will an Estate do And all the pomp and bravery of the World will be of no more use to us than a rich shoo to a gouty foot Prov. 18. 14. A wounded spirit who can bear But now he that hath chosen God for his portion in all distress and calamities can revive his hopes So also in the hour of death Iob 27. 8. What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God shall take away his soul When God puts the Bond in suit though man hath gained where 's his hope when God delivers him over to the Executioner to Chains of darkness 2. Carnal security will leave us ashamed Men living in their sins hope they shall do well enough and expect mercy to bear all and pardon all though they be not so strict and nice as others yet they shall do as well as they This hope is compared to a Spiders Web Iob 8. 12. a poor slight thing that is gone with the blast of every temptation when the Besome comes both Spider and Web are swept away And it is said Iob 11. 20. The hope of the wicked is like the giving up of the Ghost and these in a moment take an everlasting farewel of their hopes So their hopes fail in the greatest extremity This carnal and secure hope in God presumption of his mercy it is but a waking dream as a dream fills men with vain delusions and phantasms It is notably set out by the Prophet Isai. 29. 8. They shall even be as when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty There will an awakening time come and then the Dream of a hungry man torments him more Carnal men are like Dreamers that lose all as soon as they are awake though they dream of enjoying Scepters and Crowns yet they are in the midst of Bonds and Irons Vain elūsions do they please themselves with that make way for eternal sorrow and shame Let us see how this false hope of the wicked differs from the true hope of Gods Children First This hope is not indeed built upon God God hath the name but indeed they trust upon other things as those women the Prophet speaks of Isai. 4. 1. We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach So they call their hope ◅fter Gods name but their hearts are born up with other things as appears because when outward things fail they are at a loss and begin to awake out of their dream especially in adistressed case when it pincheth hard Secondly It is not a serious and advised trust
from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek Iudgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the Widow This is particularly insisted upon as the proper fruit of their Change So Dan. 4. 27. Break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor Repentance is a breaking off the former course of sin the King an open Oppressour Daniel preacheth righteousness and mercy to him They that continue their former unjust Courses never yet truly repented Zech. 8. 16 17. These are the things that ye shall do Speak ye every man truth to his neighbour execute the judgment of truth and peace in your Gates and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour and love no false Oath for all these are things that I hate saith the Lord. He would have their repentance thus expressed Fifthly Because it is so lovely and venerable in the eyes of the world A Christian if he had no other engagement upon him yet for the honour of God and the credit of Religion he should do those things that are lovely and comely in themselves and so esteemed by the world for he is to glorifie God 1 Pet. 2. 12. and adorn Religion Tit. 2. 10. to represent his profession with advantage to the Consciences of men God is dishonoured by nothing so much as injustice which is so odious and hateful to men and wicked men are hardned the hopeful discouraged Atheism prevaileth Neh. 5. 9. Also I said it is not good that ye do ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the Heathen our enemies On the contrary when we give every one their due we bring honour to God and credit to Religion you can the better hold up the profession of it against contradiction hold up head before God and man Now Justice is so lovely partly as 't is a stricture of the Image of God as before in which respect 't is said Prov. 12. 26. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour Men are convinced that he is a more perfect man fitter to be trusted as being one that will deal faithfully And partly because the welfare of humane Society is promoted by such things Tit. 3. 8. These things are good and profitable for men Sixthly And indeed that is my last reason it conduceth so much to the good of humane Society A Christian is a Member of a double Community of the Church and of the world the one in order to eternal life the other in order to the present life as a man and as a Christian. Without justice what would the world be but a Den of thieves Remove Iustitiam c. saith St. Augustin The world cannot subsist without Justice The Kings Throne is established by righteousness Prov. 16. 10. The Nation gets honour and reputation by it abroad Prov. 13. 34. Righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is a reproach to any people Never did the people of the Jews nor any other Nation whose History is come to our ears flourish so much as when they were careful and exact in maintaining righteousness And as to persons all Commerce between man and man is kept up by Justice And if this be a truth that God and not the Devil doth govern the World and distribute rewards and the blessings of this life surely then Justice which is a compliance with Gods will is the way to be exalted and to live well in the World and not lying cozening and dissembling 2. 'T is very comfortable to us to be just The comfort of righteousness is often spoken of in Scripture Prov. 29. 6. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare but the righteous doth sing and rejoice Whatever befalleth him good or evil much or little in life or death Good or evil if good he hath comfort in his portion because what he hath hâ—… hath by the fair leave and allowance of Gods Providence Prov. 13. 25. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul he hath enough because he hath what God seeth fit for him he hath enough to supply his wants enough to satisfie his desires sometimes 't is much sometimes 't is little 'T is much sometimes for they are under the blessing of the promise Deut. 16. 20. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow that thou mayst live and inherit the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Justice shalt thou follow if you will take care for that God will take care to bless you If it be little that little is better than more gotten by fraud and injustice Prov. 16. 8. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right Prov. 15. 16 17. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith Though it be but a Dinner of Herbs Psal. 37. 16. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the treasures of many wicked The comfort if they will stand to the Scriptures lyeth not in abundance but in Gods blessing There is more satisfaction in their small provisions than in the greatest plenty Suppose their condition be evil whatsoever evil a just man suffers he shall get some good by it living or dying and so still hath ground of comfort if scorned or neglected he hath the comfort of his innocent dealing to bear him out As Samuel when he and his house was laid aside 1 Sam. 12. 2 3. he appeals to them Whose Oxe have I taken or whose Ass have I taken or whom have I defranded whom have I oppressed or from whose hands have I received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith and I will restore it If you are opposed and maligned you may plead against your enemies as Moses did Numb 16. 15. Respect not their offerings I have not taken an Ass from them neither have I hurt one of them You may plead thus when you are sure you have not wronged them If you are oppressed as David in the Text you may appeal to the God of your righteousness In life in death they have the comfort of their righteousness In life Deut. 16. 20. as before In death Prov. 14. 32. The righteous man hath hope in his death Isai. 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee that I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight When he is going the way of all the Earth this will be a comfort to him that he hath done no wrong but served God faithfully and lived with men without guile and deceit Oh for comforts for a dying hour Now this Comfort ariseth partly from a good Conscience and partly from the many promises of God that are made to righteousness First From peace of Conscience We are told Prov. 15. 15. That a good Conscience is a continual feast Ahasuerus made a magnificent Feast that lasted an hundred and eighty days
himself and intrust us with a stock of Grace but after he hath done that we 〈◊〉 are faulting and sinning Rom. 8. 1. Yet now there is no condemnation to them that are 〈◊〉 Christ notwithstanding the reliques of corruption and its breaking out 4. From the temper of the Saints their humility None have such a sight and sense of sin as they have because their eyes are anointed with spiritual eye-salve They have a clearer insight into the Law Ier. 31. 19. After I was instructed I smote upon my thigh They are enlightened by Gods Spirit the least Mote is espied in a Glass of clear Water None are so acquainted with their own hearts and ways as they who often commune with their own hearts and use self-reflection Others that live carelesly do not mind their offences but they that set themselves do more consider their ways none have a more tender sense of the heinousness of sin She loved much wept much because much was forgiven her Luke 7. Some are of a more delicate constitution the back of a Slave is not so sensible of stripes as they that have been more tenderly brought up The Beams of the Sun shining into a house we see the Dust and Motes in the Sun-Beams which we saw not before They profess as Iacob I am not worthy of all the mercy and truth thou hast shewed me They groan as Saint Paul Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Use 1. Is information We learn hence that we should not be discouraged when our hearts are touched with a deep remorse and sense of our failings and are desirous to break off our sins by repentance that mercy which is freely vouchsafed in the Covenant which all Gods servants have so often experienced which the best make their only plea and ground of hope will find out a remedy for us If you have an heart to give up your selves to Gods service and so to get an interest in the promises and blessings of the Covenant you may come and sue out this mercy for God desireth to exalt his Grace God saith Return to the Lord your God and I will heal your backslidings and love you freely Hos. 14. 'T is the delight of Grace to do good notwithstanding unworthiness The worst of sins do not hinder Gods help are not above his cure There is hope for such as are convinced and see no worth in themselves why God should do them any good God needs not will not be hired by the Creatures to do it Use 2. How inexcusable those are that reject the offers of Grace If they have any liking to the blessings of the Covenant they have no ground to quarrel and differ with God about the price Isai. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth let him come to the Waters and drink freely without money and without price You have no cloak for your sin if you will not deal with God upon these terms Nothing keepeth you from him but your own perverse will Use 3. What reason there is the best of Gods servants should carry it thankfully all their days From first to last the mercy of God is your only plea and claim No flesh hath cause to glory in his presence there being no meritorious cause in the Covenant of Grace no moving and inducing cause no co-ordinate working cause Not for your sakes do I this Ezek. 36. 32. And in the 1 Cor. 7. 4. 't is said Who maketh thee to differ We paid nothing for Gods love nothing for Christ the Son of his love nothing for his Spirit the fruit of his love nothing for sanctifying Grace and Faith the effects of his Spirit dwelling and working in our hearts nothing for pardon we have all freely nothing for daily bread protection maintenance and shall pay nothing for Glory when we come to receive it Iude 21. Looking for the mercy of God unto eternal life 'T is all without our merit and against merit we should regard this especially when we are apt to say in our hearts This is for our righteousness as Haman thought none so fit for honour and preferment as himself Esth. 6. 6. Haman thought so in his heart So proud-hearted self-conceited Sinners say in their hearts God seeth more in them than in others Alas you are not only unworthy of Christ the Spirit Grace and Glory but the Air you breathe in and the Ground you tread upon What did the Lord see in you to judge you meet for such an Estate Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and all thy truth Did not you slight Grace neglect Christ as well as others and doth not sin break out and make a forfeiture every day Use 4. That we should carry it humbly as well as thankfully The best of Gods Children should most admire Grace and glorifie Mercy set the Crown on Mercies head Consider First What was the first rise of all Gods love what set all a stirring in Gods bosom Iohn 3. 16. There was no cause beyond this In other things we may rise higher from his Power and Wisdom to his Love but why did he love us There is no other cause to be given he loved us because he loved us 'T was love first moved the business in the ancient counsel of Gods will Gods love is the measure of its self Secondly When he came to apply it he found us in our blood 'T was a great mercy that God would take us into his service with all our faults We were his Creatures but quite marr'd not as he made us We are not what we were when first his as we came out of his hands we were pure and holy but since the Fall quite spoiled Ier. 2. 21. I had planted thee a noble Vine wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me Strangely changed and altered If a Servant run from his Master and is become altogether blind deformed and diseased will his Master look after him or care for him or take him again This was our case Thirdly What is spoken already is common to others you your selves knew what you were Tit. 3. 3. Every man is soundly affected more sensible of his own case seeth particular reasons why God should refuse him yet you are as brands plucked out of the burning who did resist such powerful means such fair advantages you dallied with God You know the case of others by ghess your own by feeling You lay not only in the common polluted Mass but had your particular offences Fourthly When taken in a fault that God will pity our weakness and infirmities in his service Mal. 3. 17. I will spare them as a man spareth his Son that serveth him that is he will continue his favour and good-will to them that serve him So surely they that have a Conscience and are privy to their manifold infirmities and failings will admire this Fifthly
other Branch And I hate every false way Where we have The Act Hate the Object False way the Extent Every Whatsoever is contrary to the purity of Gods Word Doctr. That 't is a good note of a renewed and obedient heart to hate every false way This will appear from 1. The sorts and kinds of hatred 2. The causes 3. The effects or the comparison of hatred with anger 1. From the sorts and kinds of hatred which are reckoned up to be two First Odium abominationis Secondly Odium inimicitiae First Odium abominationis an hatred of flight and aversation called by some Odiuni offensionis the hatred of offence 'T is defined by Aquinas to be Dissonantia quaedam appetitûs ad id quod apprehenditur ut repugnans c. 'T is a repugnancy of the appetite to what is apprehended as contrary and prejudicial to it Such there is in the will of the regenerate for they apprehend sin as repugnant and contrary to their renewed will to the unregenerate 't is agreeable and suitable as Draff to the appetite of a Swine or Grass and Hay to a Bullock or Horse Now this hatred is a good sign that cannot be found in another that is not born of God The mortification of sin standeth principally in the hatred of it Sin dyeth when it dyeth in the affections When we look upon it as an offence to us destructive to our happiness and as it is truly grieved for and hated by us The unregenerate may hate sin materially considered that is the thing which is a sin but they cannot hate it formally considered as sin under the notion of a sin for then they would hate all sin à quatenus ad omne valet consequentia As for instance thus A covetous man hateth prodigal and riotous Courses not as they are sinful and contrary to Gods Law but as contrary to his humour and covetous will Secondly Odium inimicitiae or the hatred of enmity This enmity is nothing else but a willing of evil or mischief to the thing or person hated and that out of mere displicency dislike or distaste of the person hated This is a sure note the regenerate hate their sins in that they would have them arraigned crucified mortified they would fain see the heart-blood of sin let out therefore they oppose watch against and resist it as their mortal deadly enemy When a man pursues sin would have the life of it this enmity cannot be quiet 't is an active enmity diligent in praying mourning watching striving using all holy means to get it out of our hearts wishing groaning waiting complaining that we may get rid of it Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death They follow their work hard 2. The Causes of this hatred There are three causes of it First Spiritual knowledge and illumination that is one cause of hatred Psal. 119. 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way When the heart is thick set and well fraughted with Divine knowledge a man cannot sin freely Those that are exercised in the word of God find some consideration or other to quicken to the hatred of sin The Word is a proper instrument to destroy sin Psal. 119. 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee Ephes. 6. 13. Our affections follow our apprehensions We come to the heart by the mind Ier. 31. 19. After I was instructed I smote upon my thigh In the word of God are the most proper Reasons and Arguments to kill sin Secondly The love of God Psas. 97. 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil He doth not say forbear it but hate it The cause of hatred is the love of that good unto which the thing or person hated is contrary and repugnant Love to the chiefest good is accompanied with hatred of sin which is the chiefest evil The one is as natural to Grace as the other The new Nature hath its flight and aversation as well as its choice and prosecution to things that are hurtful to it as well as good and profitable Thirnly A filial fear of God Prov. 8. 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate Certainly this is to fear God to hate what God hateth and as God hateth and because God hateth Now God hateth all sin pride and arrogancy that is sins of thought which put us upon vain and foolish musings And then the sins of the tongue are expressed by froward mouth Nothing so natural to us as filthy and evil speaking And then the sins of practice the evil way They that fear God will hate all these sins These Graces are Strangers to unrenewed hearts It argueth a Divine Nature when we hate when what and as and because God hates it Eadem velle nolle est summa amicitia 3. A third Argument is from the comparison of hatred with anger Unregenerate men may be angry with sin because anger is consistent with love One may be angry with his Wife Children Friends where yet he tenderly affects First Anger is a sudden and short hatred a lasting and durable passion Anger is furor brevis curable by time hatred incurable by the greatest tract of time The Unregenerate are displeased with their sins for a spurt but the regenerate constantly disaffected towards them There is 1 Iohn 3. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a constant principle of resistance in the renewed heart passion is a casual dislike but the new Nature a rooted enmity an habitual aversation to what is evil Secondly Anger is only against singulars but hatred is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the whole kind Thus we hate every Wolf and every Serpent every Thief and every Calumniator So is this universal it respects sin as sin and hateth all sin though never so profitable and pleasant Not upon foreign and accidental reasons as Esther 3. 16. Haman thought scorn to lay hands upon Mordecai alone but sought the destruction of all the Jews The same reasons that encline us to hate one sin encline us to hate all sin The violation of Gods Law is a contempt of Gods Authority a breach of spiritual friendship one grieveth the spirit of God as well as the other Every sin is hateful to God so 't is to those that are made partakers of the Divine Nature Thirdly Anger may be pacified or appeased with the sufferings of the thing or person with which we are angry but hatred is implacable nothing can content and satisfie it but the ruine or not being of the thing and party hated David was angry with Absolom but loth to have him destroyed only corrected and reduced when he sent out Forces against him Deal gently with the young man So many deal with their sins we reason pray strive complain but 't is but an angry fit we are displeased with
found out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a first mover and a first cause but when and how the world was made they were left in uncertainties which was first the Egg or the Hen the Oak or the Acorn Heb. 11. 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things that do appear A child is taught more than they could find out by their profound researches So concerning the Fall of Man Conscience will inform us of a distinction between good and evil and Heathens by the light of Nature could speak of Vertue and Vice as moral perfection and a deordination but nothing of sin and righteousness relating to a Covenant and whence this mischief began they knew not They complained of Nature as of a Step-mother observed an inclination to evil more than to good that vices are learned without a Teacher that man is born into the world crying beginneth his life with a punishment but the first spring and rise of evil was a secret to them but clearly discovered to us Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Mans restitution and redemption by Christ is wonderful indeed 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory This could not be found by man how could they know the free purposes of Gods Grace unless God revealed them This is the Mystery of Mysteries which Angels desire to pry into 1 Pet. 1. 12. So excellent and ravishing a Mystery is this plot of salvation of lost sinners by Christ incarnate that the very Angels cannot enough exercise themselves in the contemplation of it So union with Christ and communion with him a Mystery that Nature could never have thought of Gods keeping a familiar correspondence with his Creatures Gods dwelling in us our dwelling in God 1 Iohn 4. 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit Words we should not dare to have used if God had not used them before us it would have lookd like blasphemy to speak so if we had not the warrant of Scripture So the resurrection of the body and life eternal they are all wonders 2 Tim. 1. 10. But is now made manifest by the appearance of our Saviour Iesus Christ who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel Heathens might dream of a life after death but could never understand it distinctly It is brought to light Their wise men saw it like the blind man who saw Men walking like Trees or a Spire at a distance no clearness no certainty Lord thy testimonies are wonderful Thirdly It is wonderful for purity and perfection The Decalogue in ten words compriseth the whole Duty of man and reacheth to the very soul and all the motions of the heart All the precepts of morality are advanced to the highest perfection Those fragments and sorry remainders of the light of Nature that have escaped out of the ruines of the Fall will shew us the necessity of a good life But the word of God calleth for a good heart a regeneration as well as a reformation not only abstaining from acts of sin but lusts 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims that ye abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Not only the outward work but the spirit that is weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary Prov. 16. 2. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes but the Lord weigheth the spirits It mightily establisheth faith fear and love to God as the essential Graces When we consider Duty in the lump we have no admiting thoughts but when we look abroad into all the parts and branches of obedience whereunto the Law diffuseth it self then the holiliness which the Law requireth is admirable then we see it no easie matter to serve this holy and jealous God it is no easie matter to go to the bottom of this perfection Fourthly It is wonderful for the harmony and consent of all the parts All Religion is of a piece and one part doth not interfere with another but conspireth to promote the great end of subjection of the Creature to God The Law hath a mighty subserviency to the Gospel and the first Covenant shutteth up the sinner immediately under the curse that mercy may open the door to him The Gospel is first darkly revealed and still it groweth as the light doth till noon-day At first an obscure intimation The seed of the woman to Abraham In thy seed which after was repeated to Isaac to cut off Ishmael then to Iacob to cut off Esau yet not what Tribe Gen. 49. 10. The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor the Lawgiver from between his feet till Shilo come yet not what Family of Iudah to David 2 Sam. 7. 13. I will establish the Throne of his Kingdom for ever then Isai. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and call his name Immanuel then Iohn the Baptist Iohn 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world points with a finger to Christ. This while in short the Scriptures do so set forth the mercy of God as that the duty of the Creature is not abolished so offers Grace as not to exclude our care and use of means Justification and Sanctification promote one another all is ordered with good advice 2 Sam. 23. 5. Although my house be not so with God he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure Thus the wonderful harmony order and consent of all the parts with respect to the great end which was the glorifying of God and the subjection of the Creature demonstrate the wonderfulness of Gods testimonies The glorifying of Gods Grace and Mercy in those that are saved and his Justice in those that are damned With respect to this God made man upright furnished with abilities to do his will but mutable and in case of a Fall to begin with a new Covenant He will have his mercy honoured without prejudice to his justice the comfort of the Creature established so as Duty not abolished not all of commands nor all of promises but these interwoven that they may serve one another A Promise at the back of a Command to make it effectual Command besides a Promise to cause humbling neither looseness nor rigour If the Covenant had been left to our ordering it had been a confused business Now it is wonderfully suited God keepeth up his Dominion and Sovereignty notwithstanding his Grace and condescension Justice hath full satisfaction yet Grace glorified Fifthly Wonderful for the
God values his happiness by Gods friendship not by his worldly prosperity and is miserable by Gods absence and by the causes thereof his sin and offence done to God Nay his loving kindness is not only life but better than life A man may be weary of life it self but never of the love of God Many have complained of life as a burthen and wished for the day of death but none have complained of the love of God as a burthen All the world without this cannot make a man happy What will it profit us if the whole world smile upon us and God frown and be angry with us All the Candles in the World cannot make it Day nay all the Stars shining together cannot dispel the darkness of the Night nor make it Day unless the Sun shines so whatever comforts we have of a higher or lower nature they cannot make it day with a gracious heart unless Gods face shine upon us for he can blast all in an instant A Prisoner is never the more secure though his Fellows and Companions applaud him and tell him his Cause is good and that he shall escape when he that is Judge condemns him Though we have the good word of all the world yet if the Lord speak not peace to our Souls and shine not upon our Consciences what will the good word of the world do 2 Cor. 10. 18. He is approved whom the Lord commendeth A sense of Gods love in Christ is the sweetest thing that ever we felt and is able to sweeten the bitterest Cup that ever Believer drank of Rom. 5. 3. We glory in tribulation It will be a blessed thing when we cannot only bear tribulations but rejoyce in them but how come we to rejoyce in them Why because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us so he goes on If we would know the value of things the best way is to know what is our greatest comfort and our greatest trouble in distress For when we are drunk with worldly prosperity and happiness we are incompetent Judges of the worth of things but when God rebukes a man for sin what 's our greatest trouble then That we may take heed of providing sorrow to our selves another time then we find sin and transgression the greatest burthen when any notable affliction is upon us Iob 36. 9. and what will be your greatest comfort then for then your comforts are put to the proof One evidence of an interest in Christ a little sense of the love of God how precious is it Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. His thoughts were intangled and interwoven one with another as Branches of a crooked Tree for so the word signifies there when his thoughts were thus intricate and perplext then thy comforts delight my soul. O then what should we labour for but to be most clear in this that God loves us This will be our greatest comfort and rejoycing in all conditions 'T is good for us in prosperity then our comforts are sweet and in adversity and deep affliction to see God is not angry with us Though we feel some smart of his afflicting hand yet his heart is with us 2. They deal with God as worldly men do with sensible things for as others live by sense so they by faith Now worldly men are cheered with the good will of men and troubled with the displeasure of men upon whom they depend The down-look of Ahasuerus confounded Haman and put him to great trouble He was afraid Esth. 7. 8. Absolom professes 'twere better for him to be banished than to live in Ierusalem and not see the Kings face 2 Sam. 14. 32. Surely it is death to Gods Children to want his face and favour upon whom they depend Their business lies mainly with God and their dependance and hope and comfort is in God they live by faith Poor Worldings walk by sense therefore their souls run out upon other comforts in the smiling face of some great Potentate or some friend of the World this is their life peace and joy But they that live by faith see him that is invisible and value their happiness by his favour and misery by his displeasure 3. The Children of God have tasted the sweetness of it therefore they know it by experience The best demonstration of any thing is from sense Description cannot give me such a demonstration as when I taste and feel it my self 1 Pet. 2. 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious They have an experimental feeling of that which others know only by guess and hear-say Carnal men know no other good but that of the Creature The Spouse did so languish after her Beloved being sick of love when her desires were disappointed it made her faint Cant. 5. 6. They that have not seen and known him know not what to make of those spiritual and lively affections that carry us out after the favour of God with such earnestness and importunity but they that have tasted and know what their Beloved is their hearts are more excited and stirred up towards him Iohn 4. 10. If thou knewest the gift of God c. You would more admire the favour of God if you knew it especially by experience you would find it is a better good than ever you have yet tasted Use. Is this our temper and frame of our hearts Can we live contentedly and satisfiedly with the light of his Countenance A Child of God may be without the light of his Countenance but cannot live contentedly without it Are we troubled about it ever seeking after it Surely this is the disposition of the Children of God they are ever seeking after the favour of God I shall press to this by this Argument 1. God bespeaks it from you Psal. 27. 8. Thou saidest Seek ye my face There 's a Dialogue between God and a gracious heart The Lord saith Seek he saith it in his Word and speaks by the injection of holy thoughts by the inspiration of his Grace and the renewed heart like a quick Echo takes hold of this Lord thy face will I seek Psal. 106. 4. You should ever be seeking after God in his Ordinances seek his favour and face 2. The new Nature enclines and carries the soul to God it came from God and carries the soul to God again The Spirit of the World doth wholly encline us to the World They that are after the Flesh do mind the things of the Flesh and the Spirit of God doth encline us to God and therefore the people of God will value his favour above all things else David speaks in his own name and in the name of all that were like-minded with himself he speaks of all the Children of God in opposition to the many the brutish ones that were for sensual satisfaction Psal. 4. 6. Many say Who will shew us any good But
and God is too Fatherly to deny it to his Children You may deny an Apple to a wanton Child but you will not deny Bread to a fainting Child The bowels of a Father will not permit you to do that you may deny them superfluities in wisdom but your love will not permit you to deny them necessaries Meat is not so necessary to revive and refresh the Body as Grace for the Soul and his Holy Inspirations to act and guide you And will God deny these requests 7. Know when you have received Quickning Many Christians look for rapt and extatick Motions and so do not own the work of God when it hath passed upon them they under-rate their own Experiences and so cannot take notice of Gods Faithfulness Sense Appetite and Activity are the fruits of life and quickning 1. We have the more sense of indwelling Sin as an heavy Burthen Rom. 7. 24. None groan so sorely as those that are made partakers of a new Life Elementa non gravitant in suis locis a delicate Constitution is more sensible of pain Wicked Men scarce feel deep wounds given to their Conscience nor have any remorse for gross sins Gods Children their hearts smite them for the smallest disorders and irregularities 2. Appetite after Christ his Graces and Comforts 1 Pet. 2. 2. the more life any have the more craving of Food to maintain it in being they are always hungering and thirsting after God Matth. 5. 6. our Appetite will be after the things that conduce to the maintaining and preserving that being which they have If a man lose his Appetite the body pineth and languisheth and strength decayeth desire prepareth the soul to take in its supplies Your Life is in good plight when that is desired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't will be a means of Spiritual growth a kindly appetite after this Milk They are under a great decay who have lost their Appetite after the Gospel 3. Activity in Duties That we may honour Christ 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. To whom coming as a living stone ye also as lively stones are built up into a spiritual House Christ liveth and we live by him as the stones in the building carry a proportion with the corner-stone So Christians as the body with the Head It must needs be so because of Gods Spirit dwelling in us Ezek. 36. 27. Ioh. 7. 37. and because of the Graces in a Christian Faith and Love Faith working by Love is the great evidence of the new Creature If Faith and Love be strong it will quicken us to do much for God the apprehension of Faith doth enliven our notions of God Christ Heaven and Hell Faith puts Life into our thoughts of him Love is a notable pleader and urger 2 Cor. 5. 14. The Love of Christ constraineth us c. Secondly The Reasons why c. 1. They that have so much to do with God do see a need of it for he is a living God and will be served in a lively manner Rom. 12. 11. Not slothful in business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. They that serve the Lord Negatively must not be slothful in business Affirmatively fervent in spirit God will not be served negligently coldly but with Life and earnestness The twelve Tribes served God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instantly Act. 26. 7. Instantly serving God with the uttermost of their strength He that hath a Right to our all must have our best surely he will not be put off with every slight thing Now the Children of God that are sensible of this are earnest for quickning that they may serve God in such a way as becometh him with Life and Power and Zeal for the manner in every Duty is to be regarded as well as the matter A man may do many things that are good but there is no Life in what he doth He prayeth but without any life in Prayer dead in Prayer Heareth but no Life in Hearing dull of Hearing All things in a Christian may be counterfeited but Life cannot be counterfeited that cannot be painted 2. They are acquainted with themselves and observe the frame and posture of their own spirits Now they that know themselves will see a need of Quickning 1 Because of the instability and changeable frame of mans Heart it hardly stayeth long in the same state now 't is up and anon 't is down as the constant experience of the Saints witness Sometimes they have a forwardness and strong propension of Heart to that which is good at other times a lothness and dulness or unfitness to perform any spiritual service when their Will is more remiss and their Affections unbent 'T is not indeed the constant frame of their Hearts yet it is a disease incident to the Saints even good men may feel a slowness of Heart to comply with the will of God and some hanging off from Duty Spontancae lassitudines sunt signa imminentis morbi so is this laziness and backwardness of spirit a sign of some great spiritual distemper Sometimes they are carried with great largeness of Heart and full sail of Affections at other times they are in bonds and streights that they cannot pour out their Hearts before God Psal. 77. 4. I am sore troubled that I cannot speak sometimes they have great Life and Vigour at other times no such lively stirrings but are flat and cold and dead when with Sampson they think to go forth and shake themselves as at other times Iudges 16. 20. by sad Experience they find that their Locks are gone that their Understandings are lean sapless and their Affections cold and their Delight and Vigour lost Man is a sinful weak inconstant Creature his heart is as unstable as water and much of this levity and instability remaineth with us after Grace as is seen in the various postures of spirit that we are under 2 Because of the constant opposition of the Flesh. There is an opposite Principle in our Hearts Gal. 5. 17. The body of Death that dwelleth in us doth always resist the life of the Spirit in us and therefore God must renew the influences of his Grace to preserve Life There are desires against desires and delights against delights this must needs abate our Vigour The Spirit draweth one way the Flesh another 'T is drawing Iam. 1. 14. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed 'T is depressing Heb. 12. 1. Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a Cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us Carnal Affections hang as a weight retarding us in our Heavenly flight and motions 'T is warring Rom. 7. 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin And therefore the Lord had need to cherish the new Creature and good seed which cannot but be weakned with this opposition 3 Because our outward condition doth
purpose Acts 11. 23. if thy purposes were more full and strong and throughly bent against sin they would sooner succeed Is it the fixed decree and determination of thy Will When you are firmly resolved your Affections will be sincere and stedfast you will pursue this work close not be off and on hot and cold unstable in all your wayes your full purpose or the habitual bent of your hearts are known by your drift and scope Or it may be this purpose may be extorted not the effect of thy Judgment and Will but only thy Conscience awakened by some present fear Many are by some pangs and qualmes of Conscience frighted into some Religiousness but this humour lasts not long Psal. 78. 35 36 37. And they remembered that God was their rock and the most high their redeemer Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and they lyed to him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant In their dangers they remembered God but their hearts were not right with him Ahab in his fears had some relentings So had Pharaoh The Israelites turned to the Lord in their distress but they turned as fast from him afterwards Resolves not of love but fear So are these resolutions wrested from you by some present Terrours which when they cease no wonder that they are where they were before Violent things never hold long they will hold as long as the principle of their violence lasteth Or it may be you rest in the strength of your own Resolutions now God will be owned as the Author of all Grace who reneweth and quickeneth every Affection in us still we must have a sense of our own insufficiency and resolve more in the strength and power of God and relie upon the Grace of Jesus Christ by his Spirit mortifying the deeds of the Body as knowing that without him you can do nothing neither continue nor perform our Resolutions Men fall again as often as they think to stand by their own power there is much Guile and Falshood in our own hearts we cannot trust them the Saints still resolve God assisting Psal. 119. 8. I will keep thy precepts O forsake me not utterly Verse 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart They beg God to keep up their Inclination and Bent against Sin Verse 36. Incline my heart to thy Testimonies and not to Covetousnâ—…ss 2. As to Sriving let us examine that a little if it be so serious so diligent so circumspect as it should be Certainly that is no effectual striving when you are disheartned with every difficulty for Difficulties do but influence a resolved Spirit as stirring doth the fire No question but it will be hard to enter in at the streight Gate or walk in the narrow way God hath made the way to Heaven so narrow and streight that we may the more strive to enter in thereat Luk. 13. 24. Now shall we sit down and complain when we succeed not upon every faint attempt Who then can be saved This is to cry out with the Sluggard There is a Lion in the way Should a Mariner as soon as the Waves arise and strong gusts of Wind blow give over all guiding of the Ship No he is resolved upon his Voyage To give out upon every difficulty is against all the experience and wont of Mankind Again this striving and opposing is but slight not accompanied with that Watchfulness and Resolution which is necessary Many pretend to watch against sin yet abstain not from all occasions of sin if we play about the Cockatrice hole no wonder we are bitten Never think to turn from thy sin if thou dost not turn from the occasion of them Prov. 4. 15. Go not in the way of evil men avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away This is a practice becoming the hatred of sin Evil Company is a Snare if thou hast not strength to avoid the occasion which is less how canst thou avoid the sin which is greater He that resolveth not to be burnt in the Fire must not come near the Flames Iob made a Covenant with his Eyes Iob 31. 1. Our Saviour taught us to pray lead us not into temptation he doth not say into sin Temptation openeth the gate to it Certainly it argueth an hanckering of mind when we dally with Temptations as the Raven when he is driven from the Carrion loveth to abide within the sent of it so they have an inclination to sin when they forbear the the practice of it 3. For Praying we oftener pray from our Memories than from our Consciences and from our Consciences Enlightened than Hearts Renewed by Grace Prayer as it is the fruit of Memory and Invention is but a few slight and formal Words said of Course a Body without a Soul As dictated by Conscience it may be retracted by the Will at noli modo Austin when he prayed against his Youthful Lusts timeâ—… ne me excluderet Deus was afraid left he should be heard too soon at best but half desires faint wishes like Balaams wish to die the death of the Righteous The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing God never made Promise that lazy wishes should be satisfied if you pray against sin with your whole heart he will hear you The great fault is the want of this thorough hatred of Sin Use. Take heed of two things 1. A secret Love to your Sins 2. A remiss Hatred against them 1. A secret Love to Sin Iob speaketh of some that hid sin as a sweet Morsel under their Tongues Iob 20. 12. loth to let a Lust go And David of regarding iniquity in our heart Psal. 66. 18. First there is a secret liking of sin which in time will prove baneful to the Soul some Lust is spared and continueth unmortified It doth not remain so much as it is reserved and there keepeth Possession for Satan This will in time eat out all our other Vertues and bring a stain upon those good properties wherewith God hath indowed us Sin was never heartily cast out therefore they are in time insnared again and drawn away by some sensitive Lure 2. A remiss Hatred of sin no there must be a Total and full Aversion Hatred and Indignation is the souls expulsive Faculty it cannot be kept in good plight without it 'T is the lively and active principle which sets the soul awork in avoiding what is hurtful to the spiritual Life it concerneth us to keep it up in strength and vigour The Reason why even Believers do so often sin through weakness is because the Will doth not so strongly dissent as it should though we do not deliberately give our assent it should more potently awaken our displeasure but certainly the reason of wilful sin is want of a strong hatred Though Convinced of Evil yet we go on like a fool to the Correction of the Stocks Prov.
them more 5. 'T is a sure Word Psal. 19. 7. The testimonies of the Lord are sure making wise the simple These Directions may be safely relyed upon and will not disappoint us for they are not the guesses of deceived men nor the Collections only of the most observing and wisest Men or the result of their Infallible experiences but Inspiration of the Infallible God and therefore a sensible heart that knoweth what 't is to live in a troublesome World and hath been exercised with Doubts knoweth the Comfort of a sure Rule and sure Promises Oh what a Comfort is this in the midst of the uncertainties of the present Life III. Reason There is no keeping the Law without loving the Law there is a keeping the Commandments by way of Defence and by way of Obedience a keeping of them by way of Preservation when we will not suffer them to be violated or wrested from us by others and a keeping of them by way of Observation when we are mindful of them are careful to observe them our selves This latter is the meaning of the Scripture notion of keeping the Law Now this cannot be without Love nothing can hold the heart to it but love what bonds will you cast upon your selves but if a Temptation come you will break them all as Sampson did the Cords wherewith he was bound 'T is not your Promises Vows Covenants Resolutions not your former Experiences of Comfort when put to no Tryal all is nothing to love To Evidence this to you three things are needful Labour Valour and Self-denial 1. To keep the Commandments is a Laborious thing and requireth great Diligence now Love is that disposition that maketh us Laborious and Diligent If any thing keep a man to his work 't is love Labour and Love are often put together Heb. 6. 10. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love 1 Thes. 1. 3. Your work of faith and labour of love 'T is not a sloathful and idle Affection but will make a man take any pains and endure any toil nescit amor molimina love never sindeth Difficulties The reason why they object Difficulties is because they love not The Church of Ephesus when she lost her first love she left her first Works Rev. 2. 4. Our Lord Jesus when he had work for Peter to do Gageth his heart upon this Point Ioh. 21. 15. Simon Peter lovest thou me feed my sheep feed my lambes No man can endure the Toil of the Ministry and the many Troubles and Difficulties he meeteth with in the discharge of it without love to Christ 't is love sets all the wheels in the Soul a going 2. To keep the Commandments requireth Spirit and Courage not only the labour of an Ox but the Animosity and Courage of a Lion for we are not only to work but Fight and Contend for our Duty against the Enemies of our Salvation Now the most Valorous and Couragious Affection is Love a Cowardly Lover is a Monster one that hath all Liver and no Heart The Poets in their Fictions ascribe the Valor of the person whom they would represent as Noble and Heroical to the strength of their Love Certainly the Heroick Acts of the Martyrs came all from love Others will not be at the charge of keeping the Commandments of God that lye cross to their profits and pleasures but love will cause us to do the Will of God whatever it cost us Yea 't is loth to serve God with that which cost nothing Cant. 8. 6 7. Love is as strong as death many waters cannot quench love Death conquereth the stoutest but cannot conquer love They loved not their lives to the death Rev. 12. 11. The waters of Affliction cannot quench it no Threatnings no Promises can quench it Love will not be bribed from Christ nor frighted from Christ you will be assaulted on both sides with Hopes and Fears but nothing shall fright or allure the Soul from Christ. 3. To keep the Commandments there needeth much Self-denial and Submission that he may have an heart to stoop to the least intimation of the Will of God though it be against your own will and against your own carnal sense and Inclination and Interest A man can never keep the Commandments till he thus deny himself therefore the World wondereth what 's the Reason that men do so submit against their humour and Interest And say If this be to be Vile I will be more Vile as Holy David said nothing can do this but love When a man loveth you you have the Keys of his Heart you can open and shut it when you please Sampson like a Child submitted to Dalilah because of his love to her So Gen. 34. Hamer and Sechem submitted to any Terms to be Circumcised because of the delight the young man had to Dinah the Father loved the Son and the Son loveth Dinah and therefore both submitted to that hatefulâ—… painful Ceremony Iacobs service for Rachel seemed but a few years because of his love to her Gen. 29. 20. So if we love the Law of God we will submit to the Duties of it against the hair and bent of our hearts Use. I. Is Examination 1. Do we receive the Truth of God in the love thereof Do we imbrace the offers of Jesus Christ heartily Acts 2. 41. They received the word gladly Do you keep up your relish of the Gospel Delight to hear of Christ to read of Christ to meditate of Christ and the Doctrine of Salvation not one part but all Psal. 1. 2. His delight is in the law of God the whole Law Ungodly men will catch at Promises seem to shew a love to these but Grudge at the Mandatory part of the Word Do you delight when 't is pressed upon you when you are warned of your Danger know most of your Duty and the way how to attain your blessedness Do you love it most when you feel the Tragical effects of it as the Apostle saith the Commandment came and sin revived and I â—…d 2. Do you heartily take Christs Yoke upon you and frame your selves to practise what he hath required of you They that love the Law cannot rest in meer speculations and be careless in the Duties required of them love cannot be hidden but it will break forth into action if it be in your hearts it will break out in your lives Psal. 40. 8. The law of God is in my heart You will make Conscience of Duty 1 Ioh. 2. 4. Love is found to be solid and real when we are tender of Christs Laws in vain else do we talk of the new Birth of the Work of Grace or having an Interest in Christ and the like unless we keep his Law 3. Do you practise it willingly and without Grudging 1 Ioh. 5. 3. His Commandments are not grievous they that love the law will not count the Work tedious God doth not look to the Work Praying Hearing strict observing his Ordinances or
Lords Day but minds the Will for the Deed not the Deed for the Will whether Willingly or Unwillingly God dealeth with us as rational Creatures if your Ox draw your Plough and your Ass carry his Burden you care not much whether it be done willingly or unwillingly but God dealeth with us as obliged and looketh that love should constrain us and influence our actions and God dealeth with us as renewed Creatures that have a suitableness to their Work Heb. 8. 10. Psal. 40. 2. When rather from him than with him he delights greatly in Gods Commandments Psal. 112. 1. Delights to know believe and obey Gods Word and God expects it from us because of the pleasures that do accompany well-doing Prov. 3. 17. The speculation of a worthy Truth affects the Mind but Practice doth more as more intimately acquainted with it Use. II. It shews 1. How far they are from the Temper of Gods People that dispute away Duties rather than practise them Cavil at their Work rather than readily accept it 2. They do not love the law that are alwayes full of Excuses and pretend occasions to neglect the service of God excuses are always a sign of a naughty heart the sinners non vacat is indeed non placet Luk. 14. 18. They all began to make excuses If we did not want a heart we should not want an occasion to manifest our respects to God 3. It shews how far they are from the Temper of Gods People that are easily discouraged with difficulties love will make us break thorough all 2 Cor. 5. 14. Love hath a constraining force counts nothing too dear to be parted with for Gods sake they that are weary of well-doing they are out of their Element as they in Malachy enquired When will the Sabbath be over They that brought but a sorry Lamb cryed out Oh what a weariness Again they that love the law are not troubled about the strictness of the law but the unsuitableness of their own hearts Gods Children are grieved for that weariness and uncomfortableness they find in Gods service Glad of any inlargement of Heart Lust is grievous but not the Commandement Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me not from the law but from the body of this death But others when the Truth shineth round about them they receive it not in the love thereof Doctrine II. Those that love the law shall have great peace let me prove this First They shall have Peace Secondly Great Peace First They shall have Peace I. Because the God of Peace is their God they are assured of his love and favourable Acceptance tranquillus deus tranquillat omnia If God be with us who can be against us If he smileth on us 't is enough though all the World should be against us for 't is Gods Wrath that maketh us Miserable and Gods love that maketh us Happy II. Jesus Christ who is the Prince of Peace is their Saviour Isa. 9. 6. He hath made Articles of Peace between God the Father and Us and drawn them into a Covenant of Grace called the Covenant of his Peace Isa. 54. 10. And this founded upon his Bloud which is the price given to purchase our Peace and to set all things at rights between God and Us. Col. 1. 20. Isa. 53. 5. Having made Peace between God and Us No less would serve the turn compleatly to satisfie the Justice of God for our wrong and to purchase his Favour for us III. The Spirit who is a Spirit of Peace Gal. 5. 22. 't is one of his fruits he worketh it in us as a Sanctifier and as a Comforter 1. As a Spirit of Sanctification he doth dispossess Satan and subdueth that Rebellious Disposition that is naturally in us against God and maketh us accept the offer of Friendship and Reconciliation with God and to yield up our selves servants to righteousness unto holiness and then accordingly to walk as People that are at amity with God 1. Your first Resignation in Faith and Repentance is a ground of Peace and wrought in us by the Spirit Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of peace fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Together with our Faith and in and by our Faith the Holy Ghost worketh this Joy and Peace When we come to sue out our Pardon in his Name to receive the Attonement and to resign up our selves to Gods use then is the Foundation laid Give the hand to the Lord 2 Chron. 30. 8. 2. This Peace is confirmed by holy walking in the Spirit or perfecting Holiness through the power of the Holy Ghost Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this rule peace and mercy be upon them Ier. 6. 16. Ask for the good old way and walk therein and you shall find peace to your souls Keep close to God and you will have peace otherwise not Peace with God and thine own Conscience is a very tender thing you had need be chary of it if you grieve the Spirit you will find it to your bitter Cost when sinful dispositions are indulged and nourished our peace is beclouded and hangeth on uncertain terms 2. As a Comforter whose office it is to give us a sense of Gods Love and to help Conscience to judge of our state and actions The Spirit representeth God as a Father and sheweth us what things are given us of God and dissipateth and scattereth all the black thoughts that are in the Soul Isa. 57. 19. I create the fruit of the lips to be peace Peace is a Sovereign Plaister God maketh it stick and then all the World cannot deprive them of this peace Creation and Annihilation belong to the same power the World can never give nor take 't is Gods work and he will maintain it Secondly It shall be great Peace as to the Nature and Degree of it as was before explained 1. For the Nature of it 't is not an ordinary peace but of an higher Nature Ioh. 14. 27. My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you Let not your hearts be troubled Wherein doth it differ from the Worlds peace The Worlds peace is oftentimes in sin a concord in Evil a Lethargy portending sadder Troubles but this is an holy peace Prov. 3. 17. That 's a crasy peace that is soon broken and distorted depending on the uncertainty of present affaires and the mutable Affections of men the more secure they are the sadder trouble at hand but this is an everlasting peace which we have now in the way and shall have in death and then for ever The Worlds peace is outward 't is but at best a freedom from outward troubles when they are at enmity with God but this is a peace with God himself Prov. 16. 7. The Worlds peace pleaseth the outward man but this is a solid Soul-satisfying peace a
light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal He that hopeth for nothing from God will soon fall off from him and yield to fainting discouragements their hearts are turned off and perverted but when we hope we do with Patience submit to the Cross What troubles will not they undergo that expect undoubtedly their speedy ending in everlasting and endless Bliss and Happiness If God hideth his Face that raiseth a storm Psal. 43. 5. Why art thou so disquieted O my Soul still hope in God Casting Anchor upon the Rock as the crying Child falls asleep with the Teat in his mouth or when God delayeth the performance of what is promised Prov. 13. 12. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick Expectation is a tedious thing as smoak to the eyes and vinegar to the teeth an ordinary messenger sent on a trifling Errand Now Rom. 8. 15. If we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it 1 Thes. 1. 3. And patience of hope in our Lord Iesus Christ. Is a Title nothing before Possession 'T is not a matter of debt Or is it the fear of approaching death which is the King of Terrors Prov. 14. 32. The wicked shall be driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death The Wicked being arrested by Death is hurried away into Hell but the Righteous dismisseth his Soul into his Redeemers hands Never more chearful than when our confidence in Gods Mercy is most put to Trial. Secondly Here is the Profession of his Obedience I have done thy Commandments Here is I. The Object thy Commandments II. The Act of Duty done I. The Object thy Commandments quia tua therefore kept them because they are thine things thou hast given in charge Men were ready to perswade or threaten him out of his Duty II. The Act of Duty done thy Commandements The Act of Duty to Do noteth the substance of the Act or Omission The doing things Commanded by eschewing things Fordidden 3. The Manner of doing out of knowledge of Gods Command and Conscience of obeying it to his Glory and our Salvation Now saith David I have done it Implyeth I have not only Care and Conscience but Strength and Ability in some measure to do thy Will But is not this Plea a proud Word for a Creature to say I have done thy Commandments Who can thus say and aver it to the face of God Ans. There is a Twofold keeping or doing of the Commandments Legal and Evangelical 1. Legal When we do them so exactly as is answerable to the Rigor of the Law and the Rule of strict Justice doth require which exactness is when our Obedience is Universal in every Point when every thing Commanded by God is done by us without failing in one point Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them 1. In all things and that 2. Continually in respect of time from the first minute of our birth till our dissoution one failing in thought at any time casteth off our Plea 3. Full and Compleat in respect of the degrees and measure of Obedience with the utmost Intention and Affection of the heart which the Scripture expresseth by all the Heart and all the Soul In this sense never man was able to keep the Law save only the first Adam in innocency and the second Adam Jesus Christ and therefore according to this Rigor there is no hope for us one sin once committed would undo us for ever as it did the Apostate Angels 2. Evangelical according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and moderation of the Gospel that is when we do the Commandments according to those terms of Grace which God offereth to us in Christ that doth as to Obedience mitigate the Rigor of the Law in two things 1. It granteth a Pardon of Course to some kind of sins 2. Accepteth of Repentance after any the most hainous sin committed 1. It granteth a Pardon of Course to some kind of sins as sins of infirmity either of Ignorance which if we had known we would not have committed or sins of suddain surreption which escape without our observing of them or sins of violent Temptation which by sudden assault sway against the right Rule before we have time to weigh both it and our selves or in cool Bloud to think what we are a-doing Such as do not arise out of any evil purpose of the Mind but out of humane Frailty and from which we shall never be free as long as we live in this Body of Corruption Rom. 7. 24. Paul groaneth under these relicks when what we have done is not out of deliberate consent giving way to the growth and reign of Sin Rom. 6. 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you non dixit non sit sed non regnet inest peccatum cum perpetras regnat cum consenseris saith Austin When we give Obedience to it freely willingly yield up our selves to be Servants of it then Sin Reigns Therefore he doth not say let not Sin be in you or Tempt you or please you but let it not Reign in you 'T is a misery to be Tempted a snare to be delighted and a forfeiture or renouncing the Grace of the Covenant to give up our selves to the full sway of it 2. The Gospel doth herein moderate the Rigor of the Law because it leaveth a Sinner a way and means of Recovery Namely by Repentance and Faith in Jesus Christ and upon Repentance giveth him a Pardon Matth. 9. 13. Remission or Forgiveness is a Priviledge of the New Covenant the Law knoweth no such matter Ezekiel 18. 21. 22. But if the wicked shall turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surâ—…ly â—…ive and not die all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him Well then this is to be understood in the Gospel sense 't is the Plea of a Man Justified freely by Gods Grace and one that is Sincere and Upright for the Main One that had received Grace to be Faithful though not without his Infirmities and did not make a practice to live in any known sin against Conscience Secondly We now come to shew the Connexion between these two I. None can and do rightly hope for Salvation but they that keep the Commandments II. None do and can keep the Commandments but they that hope for Salvation I. None can and do rightly hope for Salvation but they that keep the Commandments that will appear to you 1. Partly Because God hath by a wise Ordination conjoined Means and End and offered the
Pressures 1. The Suitableness they are suited to this happiness wrought for this very thing 2 Cor. 5. 5. Every thing hath a propension to the place for which God framed it 't is the Wisdom of God to put all things in their proper places as every Creature is placed in that element which is suitable and answerable to its Composition and Frame as Fishes in Water Fowles in the Air. Gods Children are framed for this very thing therefore have an inclination and a tendency thither As Heaven is prepared for them so in some measure they for it Rom. 9. 24. aforehand prepared unto Glory And Col. 1. 12. Made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light They grow more dead every day to the Interests and Concernments of the Animal Life and have a greater agreeableness to this happiness 2. Experience Rom. 8. 23. We that have the first fruits of the Spirit groan wit hin our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our body A Christian here is unsatisfied and longeth for a better and purer state of Bliss and Immortality Light Life Peace Joy one dram of Grace is more precious than all the World but yet it setteth them a longing for more the first fruits sheweth us what the Harvest will be and a tast what the Feast will prove here we get a little knowledge of God a sight of him in the Ordinances a Twi-light discovery of Christ a Look through the Lattice Cant. 2. 9. a little Glance of his Face when neither doth he let the Believers in to him nor doth he come out to them this Glance maketh them long for more So that in effect they send up the same Message to Christ which his Mother and Brethren did because of the press thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to see thee Tell him thou standest here without but desirest to see him So for the Communion we have with Christ 't is but a tast 1 Pet. 2. 3. If so be ye have tasted the Lord is gracious but that tast is very ravishing and delightful Here we get a little from him in an Ordinance but that little is as much as we can hold but there he is all in all here our holiness is not perfect the seed of God remaineth in us but there it groweth up to perfection as every spark of Fire tendeth to the Element of Fire 3. Our Pressures and the Miseries of the present Life 2 Cor. 5. 4. Being burdened we groan We are pressed under an heavy weight burdened both with Sin and Misery and both set us a groaning and a longing as men in a Tempest would fain be set ashoar as soon as they can 1. Sin to a waking Conscience and a tender Gracious Heart is one of the greatest burdens that can be felt Rom. 7. 24. Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death If any had cause to complain of Afflictions Paul much more he was Whipped Imprisoned Stoned in perils by Land and Sea but Afflictions did not sit so close to him as sins the body of Death was his greatest burden and therefore did he long for Deliverance If others go away silently under their load the Children of God cannot as light and love increaseth so sin groweth a greater burden to us They cannot get rid of this cursed inmate and therefore are longing for their final Estate when sin shall gaspe its last they long for the parting day when by putting off the Flesh they shall put off sin and dwell with God 2. Miseries the Children of God have not divested themselves of the feelings of Nature are not grown sensless as stocks and stones The Apostle telleth us Rom. 8. 20 21 22. that the whole Creation groaneth because 't is under Misery and Vanity 'T is a groaning World and Gods Children bear a part of the Consort they groan and desire earnestly their full Deliverance Few and evil are the days of the years of my Pilgrimage said holy Iacob Gen. 47. 9. Our dayes are Evil therefore 't is well they are but few that in this Shipwrack of mans Felicity we can see Banks and Shores and a landing place where we may be safe here is our Travail but there is our repose we would sleep too much here and take up our rest if sometimes we did not meet with Thorns in our bed III. Reason The End and Use of this Longing and Desiring 1. 'T is an earnest Desire it maketh us industrious and stirreth up and keepeth up our endeavours after another World Phil. 3. 20 21. But our Conversation is in heaven from whence we look for a Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Where there is a lively expectation there men drive on a Trade for another Country Desire is the Vigorous bent of the Soul and so beareth us out under all the difficulties of Obedience If we do not desire we will not labour nor seek it in the first place and if our desires be weak and feeble they are controled by every Lust abated upon every difficulty whatever gets your heart that will command your endeavours for as a mans desire is so is he 2. To make us Constant notwithstanding Troubles Reproaches Persecutions Matth 11. 12. The violent take it by force They will have no nay they must have it whatever it cost them though sore Troubles and Persecutions yet if we may get Heaven and Glory at last 't is enough but where a thing is coldly and carelesly desired every thing puts us out of the humour IV. The State and Condition of the present World 't is called Gal. 1. 4. The present World The Pleasures of it are meer dreams and shadows and the Evils of it are many and real Gods Children are Pilgrimes here and hardly get leave to pass thorough as Israel could not get leave to pass through Edom Sometimes they meet with such bitter and grievous Persecutions which make them weary of their lives as Elijah requested for himself that he might die 1 King 9. 4. or as the Spirits of the Israelites were filled with Anguish because of their hard task Masters God will give his People Rest hereafter but before the Rest cometh they are sorely Troubled 1 Thes. 1. 6 7. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much Affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia Nay the Company that we go with to Heaven are apt to fall out by the way and to deal perversly one with another Unministering Unchurching Unchristianing one another Impaling inclosing the Common Salvation and justleing one another out of the way to Heaven so that the Church which should be Terrible like an Army with Banners Marching to
my Soul live and it shall praise thee and let thy Iudgments help me THis Verse containeth three things I. Davids Petition for Life Let my soul live II. His Argument from the End and it shall praise thee III. The ground of his Hope and Confidence And let thy Iudgments help me I. Davids Petition for Life Let my soul live My soul that is my self the soul is put for the whole Man The contrary Iudges 16. 30. Let me dye with the Philistines said Sampson Heb. Marg. Let my soul dye His Life was sought after by the cruelty of his Enemies and he desireth God to keep him alive II. His Argument from the End And it shall praise thee The Glorifying of God was his Aim The fruit of all Gods Benefits is to profit us and praise God Now David professeth that all the days of his Life he should live in the sense and acknowledgement of such a Benefit III. The ground of his Hope and Confidence in the last Chuse And let thy Iudgments help me Our hopes of Help are grounded on Gods Judgment whereby is meant his Word There are Judgments Decreed and Judgments Executed Doctrinal Judgments and Providential Judgments That place intimateth the Distinction Eccl. 8. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil There is sententia lata dilata Here Gods Judgments are put for the sentence pronounced and chiefly for one part of them the Promises of Grace As also Psal. 119. 43. I hope in thy Iudgmens Promises are the Objects of Hope The Points are Two Doctrine I. That we may beg the Continuation of Life for the honouring of God Doctrine II. That Gods Iudgments are a great help and relief to his People who desire to praise him even when they are in danger of their lives For the First That we may beg the Continuation of Life for the honouring of God This Point must be divided into two Parts I. That the Principal End for which a Man should Live and desire Life is to Praise and Glorifie God II. That we may desire Life upon these Ends. I. That the Principal End for which a Man should Live and desire Life is to Praise and Glorifie God This appeareth 1. By direct Scriptures Rom. 14. 7 8. For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth unto himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords And Phil. 1. 20 21. According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as alwayes 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 dye is gain 2. By the Prayers of the Saints as Psal. 119. 17. Deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live c. And Psal. 118. 17. I shall not dye but live and declare the works of the Lord. This was Davids Hope in the Prolongation of Life that he should have farther opportunities to Honour God But of this more at large Verse the 17 of this Psalm 3. By the Arguments urged in Prayer Psal. 6. 5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks And Psal. 30. 9. What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the Pit shall the dust praise thee shall it declare thy Truth Psal. 88. 11 12 13. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee Selah shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction shall thy wonders be known in the dark and thy Righteousness in the land of forgetfulness c. And Isa. 38. 18 19. For the grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy Truth The living the living he shall praise thee c. A man may Praise God in Heaven but from their Bodies no service is performed for along while in the other World there is no such service there as here As reducing the stray instructing the ignorant propagating Godliness to others who want it by our Counsels and Example 4. By Reasons 1. Life is given us by God at first Acts 17. 25. He giveth to all life and breath and all things And Verse 28. In him we live and move and have our being Now all things that come from God must be used for him Rom. 11. 36. For of him and through him and to him are all things c. Angels Men Beasts inanimate Creatures he expecteth more from Men than from Beasts and from Saints than from Men Life was given for this End and therefore not to be desired and loved but for this End even Gods Glory How grievous a thing is it to go out of the World er'e we know why we came into the World We live not barely to eat and drink as brute Beasts live we live not to live as Heathens The End of our Life is service and Obedience to God yea and 't is the Life of our Lives the perfection of them Well then since we live by God we must live to him 2. 'T is Preserved by him 'T is Gods Prerogative to kill and make alive to wound and to heal Deut. 32. 39. Our Life dependeth wholly of him 'T is said Iob 12. 10. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind God hath a Dominion over all his Creatures over every living thing and man in especial to dispose of them according to his Pleasure not an hair of our heads can fall to the ground without him Matth. 10. 29 30. Our Life is wholly in his hands we cannot add one Cubit to our Stature make one hair white or black at our pleasure Life cannot be taken away without him how Casual so ever the stroke is Exod. 21. 13. If a man lye not in wait for his brother but God delivereth him into his hand c. Well then in all Reason we should serve and glorifie him who by his Providential influence continueth Life to us every Moment Deut. 30. 20. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and obey his Voice and cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days 'T is a Charge against Belshazzar Dan. 5. 23. God in whose hand thy Breath is and whose are all thy wayes hast that not glorified We must not look upon our selves as made for our selves but for God he gave us life and keepeth it that we may wholly be at his disposing while we have it we must have it for God that he may be Glorified in the use of it and when he cometh to take it away he may be Glorified by our submitting to his Dominion 'T is a Presumption and incroachment on Gods
them p. 185 Augustus Caesar his way to prevent hasty and rash judgment p. 410 Avoiding evil company not enough except we chuse good p. 777 Authority of God the Reason of our Obedience p. 23 24 Authority of God to be eyed in our Obedience and why p. 24 25. God urges his authority p. 26. 35 Authority and Power might and right in God p. 584 Authority of God speaking in his word p. 939-940 Awakening of holy desires means to obtain it p. 309 310 Awakening of Prayer by suspending mercy p 548. Awakening of God by Prayer p. 860 Awe standing in awe of Gods word a mark of Gods Children p. 997. VVhat is it to stand in awe VVhy we must stand in awe of Gods VVord p. 997 998 Awe of Gods word twofold p. 998 999. Reasons p. 1008 B. BAck-sliding Causes of it 1. From without 1. Errors 2. Persecutions 3. Scandals 2. From within 1. Ungrounded assent 2. Ungrounded Profession 3. Unmortifyed Lusts. 4. Easiness of temper 5. Self-confidence p. 343 Baites and Snares in all Conditions p. 780 Baptism the answer of a good Conscience p. 45 Begin with God early p. 763 Beginnings of sin to be suppressed p. 344 Begging grace to Obey a sign that the Commandement is not greivous but our lust p. 29 Behold A note 1. Of admiration 1. Demonstration p. 302 Beleivers only take Gods Testimonies for their heritage p. 743 Beleivers are Princes in disguise p. 743. They are Heirs of the World ibid. They have a Covenant right to all their outward mercies ibid. Beleiving with the whole heart what it is p. 15 Beleiving falls under a Command p. 24 Beleiving gives us hold of God p 544 Benefactor God is so 1. To all 2. To his own p. 569 Benefits of God are all for our profit and Gods glory p. 1093 Bent of the Heart p. 122. Vid. frame of the Heart Blamelessness required in those that reprove others p. 855 Blessed man his Characters 1. Keeping Gods Testimonys 2. Seeking God with the whole heart p 8 Blessed or Cursed whom Christ pronounces such in the last day p. 10 Blessedness the Aim of all rational Creatures Pagans Christians good men evil men p. 1. 224 Blessedness a true notion of it necessary to be got by all men p. 1. We may be right in the Doctrine when we are erroneous in the Practise of blessedness p. 3. Sincere Constant Uniform Obedience the way to blessedness p. 3 Blessedness lies in the enjoyment of God p. 69. Gods blessedness is in himself what it is p. 69 Blessedness in this life annext to sincere Obedience p. 7 Blessings spiritual flow from special love p. 42 Blessings to be expected according to the Tenor of the Covenant p. 788. 317 Blessings Temporal not absolutely to be expected p 317 Blessing God respects his benefits to us p. 42 Blessing God for mercy the way to have more p. 422 Blindness spiritual is natural to every man p. 110 It is worse then natural blindness ibid. It is our great misery p. 852 Blind obedience of Papists to their Superiours p 26 Blood and VVater how they bear Witness p. 9 Body God must be served with the soul as well as with the body Reasons p. 1043 1044 Boldness grounded in innocency p. 36. Boldness in Duties Distresses Death p. 36 Boldness in Confessing and Professing Gods ways an excellent gift of God p. 309. Causes of it p. 310 1. Faith 2. Love to God 3. Fear of God 4. A sense of the other World ibid Bond upon man to God threefold 1. Natural 2. Voluntary 3. Sacramental p. 701 Born again Vid. Regeneration Bountifulness of God to all his Creatures especially to his Saints p. 70 Bounty and Mercy of God a great encouragement to ask any spiritual gifts p. 437. How they differ ibid. Breast-plate of a Christian is Righteousness p. 818 Brethren love of the Brethren a duty p. 1032 Broken heart in confession of sin argues one right in the main p. 1106 Building on the Righteousness of Gods Word what p. 832 Reproof to them that do not build on Gods faithfulness p. 833 Business They that would be blessed must make it their business sincerely to seek after God p. 11 Business discovers the man p. 18. They are blessed that make it their business to avoid all sin ibid. Mark of one that makes Religion his business ibid In all business God must be sought to 1. For his leave 2. His Counsel 3. His blessing p. 58 Prayer is made our Business 1. When it is secret 2. Early 3. Vehement and earnest p. 921 C. CAll of God to be observed p. 412 Calling general and particular they help one another p. 847 Calumniatory discourses forbidden p. 1064 Calumnies against Religion will not long prevail with Rational men p. 339 Comforts against them p. 301 Cares of the World drive out duty p. 32 Carriage we must glorify God before others by it p. 1086 Carelessness in Prayer The Reasons of it p 900 901 Care ess walking Cured by Reproach p. 296 Casc of Conscience p 603. Two great Cases p. 222 Cases of Conscience about Confessing lesser Truths p. 1011 Case how its lawful to rejoyce in Gods Judgements p. 347 Carnal pleasures nothing to Spiritual p. 313 Carnal and spiritual sorrow their difference p. 177 Carnal love to spiritual things p. 863 Carnal Principles what they are p. 235 Carnal and spiritual hearts argue contrarily from one and the same principle p. 757 576 577 Carnal walking cured by Reproach p. 139 Carnal Compliance p. 542. 713. 774 Carnal fear and Carnal Policy p. 644 645 Carnal affections are heady and hasty p. 836 Cause A good Cause well managed may expect Gods protection p. 813. 818. Causeless persecution p. 996 Cause that comes in debate threefold 1. Inter hominem hominem 2. Inter hominem diabolum 3. Inter hominem Deum p. 972. 973. Caution to Magistrates p. 146 Cautions about speedy setting upon duty p. 411 412 Caution against murmuring under affliction p. 485 Against carnal fear and carnal policy p. 644 Caution needful that we be not carried away by example p. 866 Censures of the Church separate the dross from the Gold p. 804 Censuring cured by Reproach p. 139. 297 Censure of mens persons under Gods judgments evil p. 796 Change of exercise good not change of affection p. 95 Change of State may be without change of affection p. 156 Changes 1. In Mens affections 2. In Gods dispensations are ballanced by the Comforts of Gods unchangable Word p. 892 Changes are to be expected in our lives p. 3 Chastening whether in anger or no p. 486 Chearful service to God What it is p. 753 Charity to be maintained toward those that differ from us in lesser matters p. 200 Child of God known by two marks p. 870 Children of God such as fear God and hope in his Word p. 501 Vid. Heirs of Promise Children Why threatned in the second Commandment p. 852 Children desire things passionately and
p. 539 Constancy in Obedience will turn to good account at lastp 375 376 377. Vid. Perseverance Constant endeavours against Sin a sign of Grace p. 20 Constant Obedience from a new Principle p. 753 Constancy the glory of Obedience p. 339 Constant Zeal for God p. 855 Constant Obedience against all Temptations p. 668 Contempt of Gods Word two Reasons of it p. 1005 338 339. Must not drive from Duty p. 339 340 Contemptuous wanderers from Gods Precepts God will pull down p. 793 Contention with Equals a fruit of Pride p. 520 Contentment in trouble from the Faith of Gods Protection p. 768 We should be Content with what measures of grace God alloweth p. 905 Continuance in sin exceeding dangerous p. 21 Continuance in Obedience the same Reason to continue it that there was to begin it and more p. 341 Contraries subserve Gods designs p. 525 Conversation of a Christian should be a Hymn to God p. 1096 Converse with God delightful p. 952 Converse with Saints comfortable p. 504 505 Conversion occasioned by Afflictions p. 464 Conversion may be observed and known p. 603 Conversion Gods method in it 1. In Conviction of sin 2. Compunction for sin p. 603 604 626 1. By humbling for sin 2. Cleansing the heart 3. Binding up the broken heart p. 626 Conviction in various degrees p. 604 Convictions stiâ—…led harden the heart more p. 400 412 Convictions their saving effects p. 605 Conviction 1. By way of prevention 2. Humiliation p. 688 Corruptions always ready to break out upon us p. 790 A cause of Apostasie p. 803 Corrupt communication 1. Obscene 2. Calumniating 3. Proud 4. Passionate Discourses c. p. 1064. its evil p. 1065 Cost and charge in the service of God an Argument of true Zeal p. 853 A priviledge of the Covenant to be taught Gods Statutes p. 845 Covenant of works leaves no room for Repentance-p 838 Arguments to enter into Covenant with God and keep it p. 707 708 909. Covenant Right the priviledge of them that walk with God p. 7. Covenant of Grace in the form of Precepts and Promises p. 28 It differs from all other Covenants p. 941 Covenant between God and man is mutual p. 608 821 Difference and agreement between the two Covenants p. 906 907 908 Covenant not to â—…e modelled by our fancies p. 578 Covenant Relation to God implies an entire surrender of the whole Soul to him p. 683 It ought to be often renewed and why p. 706 when p. 706 707 Covetousness a great Enemy to Righteousness p. 818 and to obedience what it is p. 254. Reasons p. 257 Counsel Wisdom Understanding how they differ-p 737 Counsels of God are Commands p. 24. Counsel of God in his Word sufficient for all our necessities p. 153 Counsellors Gods Testimonies the best Counsellors p. 148 152 Evil Counsellors Envy Covetousness Pride Revenge p. 829 Courage Christian what it is difference between it and Military Valour p. 723. Objections answered p. 734 Courage for God A Christian must not only be Laborious as an Oxe but Valiant as a Lion p. 851 852 Court of Gods Iudgment p. 942 Creation discovers the Author to be God p. 9. End of Creation to make us seek God the Creator p. 13 397 448 It discovers God to be Merciful p. 437 Creation gives God a right to the whole heart and our whole Obedience p. 16 Creatures serve man man his Creator p. 589 498 Creatures when spoken of as eternal it must be understood of a Communicated and dependant et cruity p. 570 Creatures utmost perfection is Vanity p. 613 614 It is of a perishing Nature p. 615 Credit God stands upon the Credit of his Word p. 831 Cross hath done its work when it hath purged away our sins p. 868. We never more advance in Christianity then under the Cross p. 147 Cross serves to awake the drowzy Conscience p. 464 465 Crosses must 1. be looked for 2. prepared for 3. borne with patience when laid on us p. 966 Crown of Glory to be set against the Cross p. 592 Under the Cross to have good thoughts of God glorisies him p. 511 Crown of Glory forfeited by Apostacy p. 342 Crying to God in Prayer opposed to lifeless formality p. 898. We may cry we must cry to God and why so what it is to cry to God p 898 899 Reasons why men do not cry to God 1. They want a right sense of their necessities 2. They are tongue-tyed through guilt 3. They have no spiritual Desires 4. Nor Reverence of God 5. They want Faith p. 900 901 Cure of Sin two ways 1. by abating the inward Lust. 2. Removing the outward bait p. 867 Curiosity and Conscience p. 689 Curse of God the Nature of it p. 132 133 Curse of God lies upon every man by Nature p. 133 How to know we are not under the Curse p. 134. Custom no safe Rule to walk by p. 4 Custom in sin makes sin stronger p. 56. It it a second Nature p. 303 Customariness and Complement in praying make no business of that great Duty p. 920 D. DAY of Iudgment An account of thoughts words and actions to be given in that Day p. 39. the necessity of that Day p. 457 The Triumph of Gods Justice will be glorious at the last day p. 937 Daily grace to be sought as well as daily bread p. 789 Why God permits his Children to be in daily danger of their lives p. 74 728 Danger sense of it puts an edge on Prayer p. 916 917 Danger may be nigh to gods People p. 943. Reasons p. 943 944 Deadness of heart in the Children of God whence 1. From some sin committed 2. Some good omitted 3. Unthankfulness 4. Pride of gifts 5. Great outward Troubles 6. Carnal liberty indulged to themselves p. 597 598 Helps against deadness p. 601 602 Deadness of heart towards that which is good caution'd against p. 777 Deadness in prayer reproved whence it comes p. 890 900 Death to the Soul to be without sense of Gods Love p. 516 Death how far it may be desired and how not p. 104 1095 Ministers should Preach and People hear as if Death were at their backs p. 408 Death it self should not make us warp from the Word p. 732 Death not desirable for it self p. 1095 Deceitfulness of sin in two particulars p. 679 680. Decay first decays of the soul to be observed p. 344 Deceived wicked men are Deceived in their Trust p. 798 Deceivings of the Heretick the superstitious and the seeming Religious Person p. 799 Declame A man may declame against other mens sins and yet never mourn for them in secret p. 932 Declaring our Case before God argues sincerity p. 164 165 Defection of others should make us more esteem Gods Word why p. 871 Vid. Apostacy Degenerated man the worst of all Creatures p. 897 Degeneracy of Man and Mankind p. 496 1100 Degrees of Holiness p. 18 Degrees of love to the Word p. 867 868 Delays in turning to God dangerous
Prayers should be mingled with a thankful sense and acknowledgment of his mercies Psal. 4. 6. In every thing let your requests and supplications be made known with thanksgiving Do not come onely in a complaining way Col. 4. 2. Continue in Prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving They are not holy requests unless we acknowledge what he hath done for us as well as desire him to do more Nothing more usual than to come in our necessities to seek help but we do not return when we have received help and relief to give thanks When our turn is served we neglect God Wants urge us more than Blessings our Interest swayeth us more than Duty As a dog swalloweth every bit that is cast to him and still looketh for more We swallow whatever the bounty of God casteth out to us without thanks and when we need again we would have more and though warm in Petitions yet cold rare unfrequent in gratulations It is not onely against Scripture but against Nature Ethnicks abhor the ungrateful that were still receiving but forgetting to give thanks It is against justice to seek help of God and when we have it to make no more mention of God than if we had it from our selves It is against Truth we make many promises in our affliction but forget all when well at ease 3. God either takes away or blasts the Mercies which we are not thankful for Sometimes he taketh them from us Hos. 2. 8 9. I will take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof and I will recover my Wool and Flax why She doth not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl and gave her Silver and Gold Where his kindness is not taken notice of nor his hand seen and acknowledged he will take his benefits to himself again We know not the value of Mercies so much by their worth as by their want 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A thing too near the eye cannot be seen God must set things at a distance to make us value them If he take them not away yet many times he blasts them as to their natural use Mal. 2. 2. And if you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord of Hâ—…sts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart The Creature is a deaf-nut when we come to crack it we have not the natural blessing as to health strength and chearfulness Acts 14. 17. or if Food yet not gladness of heart with it Or we have not the sanctified use it is not a mercy that leadeth us to God A thing is sanctified when it is à bono in bonum if it cometh from God and leadeth us to God 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours for you are Christs and Christ is Gods You have a covenant right an holy use 4. Bless him for favours received and you shall have more Thanksgiving is the kindly way of Petitioning and the more thankful for Mercies the more they are increased upon us Vapours drawn up from the Earth return in showrs to the Earth again The Sea poureth out its fulness into the Rivers and all Rivers return into the Sea from whence they came Psal. 67. 5 6. Let the People praise thee O God yea let all the People praise thee Then shall the Earth yield her increase and God even our own God shall bless us When Springs lye low we pour a little water into the Pump not to enrich the Fountain but to bring up more for our selves It is not onely true of outward increase but of Spiritual also Col. 2. 7. Be ye rooted in the Faith and abound therein with thanksgiving If we give thanks for so much Grace as we have already received it is the way to increase our store We thrive no more get no more victory over our corruptions because we do no more give thanks 5. When God's common Mercies are well observed or well improved it fits us for acts of more special kindness In the story of the Lepers Luke 17. 19. thy Faith hath made thee whole he met not onely with a bodily cure but a Soul cure Luke 16. 11. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon who will commit to your trust the true riches When we suspect a vessel leaketh we try it with Water before we fill it with Wine You are upon your tryal be thankful for less God will give you more Means or Directions 1. Heighten all the Mercies you have by all the circumstances necessary to be considered by the nature and kind of them spiritual Eternal Blessings first the greatest Mercies deserve greatest acknowledgment Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Christs Spirit Pardon of sins Heaven the way of Salvation known accepted and the things of the World as subordinate helps Luke 10. 20. Notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject to you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Then consider your sense in the want of Mercies what high thoughts had you then of them The Mercies are the same when you have them and when you want them onely your apprehensions are greater if affectionately begg'd they must be affectionately acknowledged else you are a Hypocrite either in the supplication or gratulation Consider the Person giving God so high and glorious A small remembrance from a great Prince no way obliged no way needing me to whom I can be no way profitable a small kindness melts us a gift of a few pounds a little parcel of land Do I court him and observe him There is less reason why God should abase himself to look upon us or concern himself in us Psal. 113. 6. He humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the Earth We have all things from him Consider the Person receiving so unworthy Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant 2 Sam. 7. 19. Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto Consider the season in our greatest extremity is Gods opportunity Gen. 22. 14. In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen when the knife was at the throat of his Son 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. We had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Consider the end and
fruit of his mercy it is to manifest his special love to us and engage our hearts to himself Isa. 38. 17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption or thou hast loved me from the grave otherwise God may give things in anger Consider the means by which he brought them about when unlikely unexpected in themselves weak insufficient The greatest matters of Providence hang many times upon small wires a lye brought Ioseph into prison and a dream fetched him out and he was advanced and Iacobs Family fed Consider the number of his mercies Psal. 139. 17. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the summ of them The many failings pardoned comforts received dangers prevented deliverances vouchsafed How he began with us before all time conducted us in time and hath been preparing for us an happiness which we shall injoy when time shall be no more 2. Satisfie your selves with no praise and thanksgiving but what leaveth the impression of real effects upon the Soul For God is not slattered with empty praises and a little verbal commendation There is a twofold praising of God by expressive declaration or by objective impression now neither expression nor impression must be excluded Some Platonical Divines explode and scoff at the verbal praise more than becometh their Reverence to the word of God Psal. 50. 23. He that offereth praise glorifieth me But then the impression must be looked after too that we be like that God whom we commend and extoll that we depend on him more love him more fervently serve him more chearfully 2 Doct. That God's Providence rightly considered we shall find in the worst times much more cause to give thanks than to complain I observe this because David was now under Affliction he had in the former Verse complained that the bands of the wicked had robbed him yet even then would he give thanks to God 1. Observe here the matter of his Thanksgiving was God's Providence according to his Word seen in executing Threatnings on the Wicked and performing his Promises to the Godly God's Word is one of the chiefest Benefits bestowed on Man and therefore should be a subject of our Praises Now when this is verified in his Providence and we see a faithfull performance of those things in Mercy to his Servants and in Justice to his Enemies and the benefits and advantages of his Law to them that are obedient and the just Punishment of the disobedient and can discern not onely a vein of Righteousness but of Truth in all God's dealings this is a double benefit which must be taken notice of and acknowledged to God's praise Oh Christians how sweet is it to reade his Works by the light of the Sanctuary and to learn the Interpretation of his Providence from his Spirit by his Word Psalm 73. 17. I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end by consulting the Scriptures he saw the end and close of them that walk not according to God's Direction his Word and Works do mutually explain one another The Sanctuary is the place where God's People meet where his Word is taught where we may have satisfaction concerning all his dealings 2. That when any divine Dispensation goeth cross to our Affections yea our Prayers and Expectations yet even then can Faith bring meat out of the eater and find many occasions of Praise and Thanksgiving to God for nothing falleth out so cross but we may see the hand of God in it working for good 1. Though we have not the blessing we seek and pray for yet we give thanks because God hath been sometimes intreated he hath shewed himself a God hearing Prayer and is onely delaying now untill a more fit time wherein he may give us that which is sought Psalm 43. 5. Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Now we are mourning but he is our God and we are not left without hope of a blessed issue God that hath been gracious will be gracious again He is our gracious Father when we are under his sharpest Corrections a Father when he striketh or frowneth therefore we are not without hope that he will give us opportunities again of glorifying his Name 2. We bless God for continuing so long the Mercies which he hath taken from us Former experiences must not be forgotten Eben-ezer Hitherto the Lord hath helped us if he shall afflict us afterward yet hitherto he hath helped us 1 Sam. 7. 12. If he take away Life it is a mercy that he spared it so long for his own service and glory if Liberty that we had such a time of rest and intermission 3. God is yet worthy of Praise and Thanksgiving for choicer Mercies yet continued notwithstanding all the afflictions laid upon us That we have his Spirit supporting us under our Tryals and inabling us to bear them 1 Pet. 4. 13 14. Rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's Sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy For if ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth on you And that we have any Peace of Conscience Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. That the hope of eternal Life is not diminished but increased by our Afflictions Rom. 5. 4 5. We glory in Tribulation knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us That many of our natural Comforts are yet left and God will supply us by ways best known to himself 4. That Evils and Afflictions which light upon us for the Gospels sake or Righteousness sake and Christ's Name sake are to be reckoned among our Priviledges and deserve Praise rather then Complaint Phil. 1. 29. To you it is given in the behalf of Christ not onely to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake if it be a gift it is matter of Praise 5. Take these Evils in the worst notion they are less then we have deserved Ezra 9. 13. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast punished us less then our Inquities deserve Babylon is not Hell and still that should be acknowledged 6. That no Evil hath befallen us but such as God can bring good out of them Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God All things that befall a Christian are either good or shall turn to good either to good natural Gen. 50. 20. Ye thought evil but God meant it for good or good spiritual Psal. 119. 75. I know O Lord that thy Iudgments are